You need to hear this:
The conventional belief that happiness leads to success is backward.
Happiness is what fuels success …
Success does not fuel Happiness.
HI THERE!
I’m Stephanie Strozak
My purpose is happiness, and my passion lies in teaching, coaching, and empowering ambitious women to experience more happiness, less stress, and more purpose in work & life.
Now that’s what I call success!
I used to believe that success would lead to my happiness.
I set happiness goals as a young adult: a successful career, a big high-earning job, a loving partner, and a beautiful home. I thought happiness came from the outside, and I’d feel it once I achieved those goals.
So, I chased it. I refer to this as my external chase for happiness.
When I got these things, I experienced happiness — but it was fleeting and wavered as circumstances changed. I would ride this emotional rollercoaster for decades until I finally learned how to achieve internal happiness: being happy from the inside out.
How things started . . .
People – humans – are my passion.
I always had an intense desire to understand people and what motivates them. My curiosity led to me getting my undergraduate degree in Psychology and a graduate degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology.
Helping people and organizations grow is part of my soul’s purpose.
I always wanted to create corporate environments and cultures where humans could learn, grow, and flourish.
My passion to help people drew me to a career in Human Resource Management. I earned two prestigious human resource credentials and am a senior certified professional with SHRM.
Corporate America = not very human.
My corporate career was soul-busting: 10–14 hour days, demand to produce results, hide my emotions, THINK not feel. I sacrificed my sleep and health (physical and mental).
I felt like a machine.
I became a machine.
I could push through anything to get a job done.
For the longest time, I lived by the idea that promotions + more money = success. I convinced myself that the grind was worth the pain and sacrifice as long as I kept ascending on my path to the top. I didn’t realize until much later in life how much I lost along the way.
My overachieving and perfectionist tendencies, coupled with the demand to constantly produce, robbed me of a lot of creativity, joy, and happiness — personally and professionally.
The relentless drive to do things perfectly created more stress and overwhelm, and eventually led to burnout and exhaustion.
After decades of what I now call suffering, it became clear to me that the external things I thought would bring joy didn’t guarantee happiness.
I figured out that the key to true happiness and success involved a new perspective, anew approach. Rather than continue to look outside of myself, I looked within.
My Happiness Journey
The awakening
Seven years ago my happiness journey began.
I took a year off to work on myself – the Self-Work is what I call it. I focused on positive psychology and developed an unexpected passion for metaphysics and yogic philosophy. In my yoga teacher training, I learned how to quiet my mind, meditate, and trust in the Universe. The more I incorporated these new practices into my life, the happier I became.
I continued to explore and go deeper. I discovered energy work and Reiki. I learned how to open my heart to love, forgiveness, gratitude, and compassion for myself and others.
A pivotal influence on my journey has been working with an executive coach, life-changing self-development that continues today. I laugh about this when I think about it now — my goal was “to become more of a transformational leader,” but little did I know it was going to be a personal transformation for me!
The experience inspired me to become a trained and Certified Executive Empowerment Coach with Certified Coaches Alliance (CCA) to empower ambitious women to find more happiness, less stress, and more purpose in life.
My calling.
The overachieving and merciless drive for external gratification to be successful is not unique to me.
In my career, I saw an unsettling pattern among the Executive Leadership teams I worked with: they struggled to find purpose, satisfaction, happiness, and balance. Their people, organizations, and results suffered because of it.
When I first embarked on my Happiness Journey, my goal was to become a happier individual. Along the way, I started to think about how I could incorporate happiness into my work. Over time, it came to me – my external chase for happiness, my extensive experience as pioneer in human resource management and organizational development, unhappy employees, toxic cultures, and underdeveloped leaders. It all made sense. I saw that my path to make big changes in the world was rooted in workplace happiness.
Getting this message out is part of my calling.
Happy on the inside.
Seven years ago, I founded Strategic Human Resource Solutions, a consulting, training, and coaching company focused on human resources, building relationships, and helping people and organizations grow. While proud of the impact I was making, something was missing.
Over time, the pieces of my personal and professional journey came together! I’ve seen too many unhappy employees, toxic cultures, and underdeveloped leaders.
I saw that my path to make big changes in the world was rooted in workplace happiness and employee well-being.
In 2024 my brand evolved into the Stephanie Strozak Co. Happiness On Purpose
The Stephanie Strozak Co. focuses on organizations with bold visions to bring about positive change in the world.
We educate and empower employees to take responsibility for creating their own workplace happiness and develop leaders to build cultures where employee happiness and well-being are valued and prioritized.
Happiness In the Workplace is our mission (and obsession!).
Our two signature programs:
YOU are not here to play small. You’re here for BIG things.
Isn’t that why you set out on this journey in the first place?
My philosophy is to be courageous and look within with a willingness to be vulnerable. Being vulnerable takes courage, and it means showing up with an open heart and mind.
As Brene Brown says, “You can’t get to courage without rumbling with vulnerability.”
I energize my clients to open their hearts and minds to the countless possibilities within their reach.
If you’ve got a big mission in the world, and your work is deeply personal to you, you’ve got to keep following your fulfillment wherever it leads you. Be courageous!
From my heart to yours.
My wish is for all beings to be happy in life and in the work they do. We have everything we need inside of us to be happy, live a purpose-filled life, and achieve success.
Trust me! If I can do it, you can do it!
I get it, I’ve been there. I’ve struggled too, thinking life had to be hard, thinking that my work required effort, strain, and sacrifice.
I valued achieving and perfection over my own well-being. This cost me. But I knew (like you) that there was a better way.
You do not have to live by default. You can design a happy life aligned with your passion and purpose. Through years of study and dedication to my personal growth, I’ve found my authentic, lasting happiness stride, and I now help others to do the same.
Cindy Krosky
President
Achieving Corporate Excellence
"Stephanie is committed to learning and helping individuals and businesses grow. She understands that building a work culture that is inspired by happiness at the core, sets business up for success and sustainability. Stephanie's work is research based and a collaborative approach to enhancing well-being, improving employee satisfaction, morale, retention, and engagement."
Vernon Fuller
Board President
Homes in Partnership
"We selected Stephanie to assist us in hiring our new Executive Director, because she knows the importance of creating a healthy culture and a leadership team. Stephanie celebrates and embraces the people, who are at the core of making a business a success. Stephanie helped us to understand that when employees are valued, appreciated, the collaboration and enthusiasm ignites the productivity needed for success.
For Stephanie, it is more than creating a productive business, it is about investing in the people, who will make the business successful."
Gloria Nelson
Executive Director
Homes In Partnership, Inc
"Stephanie’s unwavering focus on people has been transformative, showing that when employees are happy, they perform better, and our organizational outcomes improve as a result. Her guidance has been instrumental in balancing compliance and productivity while deeply prioritizing employee well-being. Through her coaching, HIP has seen firsthand how a happier workplace culture based on trust and purpose, directly contributes to our success. Stephanie’s dedication to fostering an environment where people truly come first is what sets her apart and makes her work invaluable. Her impact continues to be felt one person at a time."
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