“When you’re there I know everything is going to be perfect.”

-Executive, Fortune 100 Company

"As a consultant and trainer with a growing global business, I constantly struggle with how to continue to nurture my business but not let it consume my entire life.  Finding balance both eludes and stresses me.  I also struggle on occasion with how to manage specific client challenges and my role in the interventions.  Gretchen helps me stop, breathe and look at the stressor situation with different eyes, and to break it down into workable pieces and figure it out.  She coaches me with honest simplicity but doesn't ever let me have the easy way out. She calls me out on my "stuff", which I desperately need someone to do!  I've had two other executive coaches over the years but in the past several years of coaching by Gretchen, I've grown more personally and professionally than with any other coach.  She truly listens, engages me in a thoughtful dialogue and guides me to find my own solutions.  My business continues to grow, and I continue to have my stressors, but Gretchen makes me feel like I can tackle it all, no matter what comes flying at me.  I feel it is a gift to know her and learn from her."

-Entrepreneur, Female Owned Business

“She (Gretchen) brings tough-minded and tenderhearted wisdom to her coaching work – and she’s also smart as hell. I have been delighted to work with Gretchen, and would recommend her as your personal coach without hesitation.”

Dr. Martha Beck
Best-selling author of Steering by Starlight,
Finding Your Own North Star,
The Joy Diet, Expecting Adam,
Leaving the Saints, The 4 Day Win

“It's great to have a partner that not only helps to conceptualize an effective large event but can bring into compelling focus what happened there. Gretchen is a dream partner on any facilitation team."

Bliss Browne
Imagine Chicago

“Gretchen's gifts extend far beyond her skills as a graphic recorder. Her talent also manifests itself in her role as facilitator and coach. She has the unique ability to delve into the important details while also bringing into focus the bigger picture. I always walk away from our sessions energetic and with a clearer degree of purpose. She is an "artist" in so many ways.”

Laura Baliles
Prinicpal
Handcrafted Communications & Events

“Anyone partnering with Gretchen will be delighted by her extraordinary skills in the areas of impactful meeting design, value added data synthesis, and effective group dynamics. Her unflappable professional presence inspires confidence and trust in the teams she works with. As a strategic thinking partner, she is proactive and solution oriented; contributing to clients exceeding their desired outcomes. The value that Gretchen brings to clients, and to my life as my mentor and friend, is immeasurable."

Stephanie Crowley
Chrysalis Studios

“Neither words or hamburgers can fully convey my gratitude for a job very well done and service well beyond what we had any right to expect. It was not just the skillful work or the impossible hours, it was also the generosity and good spirit in which you worked. It made my work so much easier, and it contributed to a quality product for the Forum. Our walls…showed that someone cared about the meeting, and that helps convey a sense that this is a special occasion. Your work was an indispensable part of that, and we are all grateful to you as result.”

John Todd, Senior Partner
Corporate Strategy Group
The World Bank

“We have given many “tours” of the room to Bank staff, and the fact that the walls “speak” so loudly is testimony to the good work you did."

The World Bank

“I felt a tremendous degree of satisfaction each morning when I walked into the Grand Ballroom and admired your work. You make magic happen with paper and color. Thanks for the human touch."

Harry W. Christiansen

“Gretchen, we are very selective in who we ask to work with our clients. You are…an artist, a facilitator, and a consultant. It gives a great pleasure to have you on our team.”

Miwa Brinson
GDSS

“I can appreciate a person of your talents because let me tell you, when it comes to art, I couldn’t lead a group in silent prayer.”

Happy Client

"I've worked closely with Gretchen Pisano for the past decade in her roles as graphic facilitator, meeting designer, strategic dialogue host and systems thinker. She has been a key thinking partner and co-designer in large scale organizational strategy projects, as well as a critical resource in the conceptual development and visual representation of complex systemic interrelationships with long term implications for our mutual clients. Her capacity to synthesize masses of disparate information and input into coherent patterns of meaning and simple visual models is unique in my 35 years of strategy experience in both the corporate and non-profit sectors. Gretchen's wide range of professional skills and her lively intellect always bring new perspectives to my own life and work. "

Juanita Brown
President, Whole Systems Associates
Co-Founder, The World Cafe

“It’s great to have a partner that not only helps to conceptualize an effective large event but can bring into compelling focus what happened there.  Gretchen is a dream partner on any facilitation team.”

Bliss Browne, Imagine Chicago