Why Reese Sabatini-Blake Is the Executive Coach Who Sees Both Sides and Drives Results
The best leaders are rarely looking for a coach who only offers tidy advice. They are looking for someone who can hear what is said, notice what is avoided, and help them make clear choices when the stakes feel personal.
That is where Reese Sabatini-Blake stands apart.
Reese brings more than coaching tools to the conversation. She brings lived experience that many leaders will never find in a standard coaching relationship. As a two-spirit individual who has transitioned from living as male to female, she understands identity, perception, power, communication, and belonging from a rare vantage point.
That does not mean she claims to speak for every man or every woman. No one can. It means she has personally moved through different social expectations, different assumptions, and different ways people respond to confidence, vulnerability, authority, and change. For leaders who feel misunderstood, stuck between roles, or under pressure to perform while staying human, that perspective can be deeply useful.
Reese’s work is persuasive because it is not built on theory alone. It is grounded in empathy, courage, and practical reflection. She helps clients see patterns they may have missed, face decisions they have been delaying, and lead with more honesty.
Reese brings a rare understanding of how people are seen
Leadership is never only about skill. It is also about how people read you.
A leader can say the same sentence and receive a different reaction depending on their gender, voice, age, identity, tone, body language, or past reputation. Some are called decisive. Others are called difficult. Some are praised for being calm. Others are ignored until they become forceful. These patterns show up in boardrooms, team conversations, family businesses, health care settings, non-profits, creative work, and community leadership.
Reese understands this because she has lived through a profound shift in how the world responds to a person.
Transitioning from male to female can change how others interact with you in subtle and obvious ways. People may interrupt differently. They may offer help differently. They may question competence differently. They may respond to emotion, authority, silence, or directness through a new lens.
For an executive coach, that kind of lived insight matters.
Reese can help clients examine questions such as:
Why does this conversation keep breaking down?
What am I projecting without realizing it?
Where am I overcompensating?
What part of my leadership style is authentic, and what part is armour?
How are gender expectations shaping how I lead or how others respond to me?
Where do I need firmer boundaries?
Where do I need more openness?
Many coaches can teach communication models. Reese can help a client feel the human reality underneath those models.
That is a different kind of support.
Seeing both sides does not mean staying neutral
The phrase “sees both sides” can sound passive, as if Reese simply listens politely and avoids hard truths. That is not the advantage.
Her strength is that she can understand more than one viewpoint without losing clarity.
A leader may enter a session frustrated with a direct report, a colleague, a partner, or a team. Reese can listen to the leader’s experience while also helping them see what the other person may be hearing. She can name when a leader is being unfair. She can also name when the leader is carrying too much emotional labour, staying quiet for too long, or confusing compassion with avoidance.
That balance is powerful.
Some clients need to soften their delivery. Others need to stop apologizing for having standards. Some need to become more transparent. Others need to protect their energy. Reese does not use one template for everyone.
Her perspective as a Two-Spirit woman who has lived across gendered expectations gives her a broad emotional vocabulary. She can recognize patterns often coded as masculine, such as control, separation, performance, and pressure. She can also recognize patterns often coded as feminine, such as care, relational awareness, intuition, and emotional responsibility.
The point is not to trap people in gender categories. The point is to help leaders become more whole.
A strong leader can be decisive and kind. A strong leader can be direct and emotionally aware. A strong leader can hold boundaries and still build trust. Reese helps clients stop treating those qualities as opposites.
Her lived experience creates trust faster
Executive coaching often works best when the client can be honest quickly. That does not happen when a coach feels distant, scripted, or hard to relate to.
Reese’s story can make honesty feel safer.
A person who has transitioned understands reinvention at a level that goes beyond motivational language. She knows what it can mean to let go of an old identity, face other people’s projections, and keep choosing truth. She knows that growth can be freeing and uncomfortable at the same time. She knows that courage is not always loud. Sometimes it is simply refusing to abandon yourself.
That matters for leaders because many leadership challenges are identity challenges in disguise.
A founder may struggle to stop being involved in every detail because control has become part of who they are. A senior manager may avoid conflict because they built their career by being agreeable. An executive may feel isolated because everyone expects them to have the answer. A high performer may be exhausted because they have confused being needed with being valued.
In these moments, a coach needs more than technical skill. They need the capacity to sit with complexity without rushing to fix it.
Reese offers that kind of presence.
Her approach naturally connects two-spirit, lgbt, executive wellness, employee wellness, and holistic healing in a grounded way. This is not about vague feel-good language. It is about treating leadership as something that happens through the whole person, not just through a job title.
Reese helps leaders turn self-awareness into better decisions
Self-awareness is useful only when it changes behaviour.
A coach can help a client name a pattern, but Reese’s deeper value is in helping that client do something with it. Her coaching can support leaders as they move from insight into action, one conversation, choice, and habit at a time.
That may look like:
Preparing for a difficult conversation without rehearsing defensiveness
Recognizing when stress is driving avoidance
Rebuilding trust after a communication failure
Setting boundaries without guilt
Making decisions that match personal values
Handling visibility, criticism, and pressure with more steadiness
Improving how they listen before they respond
Creating space for team members to speak honestly
The best executive coaching does not turn people into polished versions of someone else. It helps them become more honest, clear, and effective as themselves.
Reese’s clients may come to her because they want better leadership results. They may stay because they realize the work also changes how they relate to themselves.
That inner shift can be practical. A leader who understands their triggers reacts less. A leader who knows their values decides faster. A leader who accepts their full identity leads with less strain. A leader who can hear both the spoken and unspoken parts of a conversation builds stronger relationships.
Results do not always arrive as dramatic breakthroughs. Often, they show up in quieter ways:
A tense conversation stays respectful.
A hard decision becomes clear.
A team member feels heard before a problem grows.
A leader stops losing sleep over the same issue.
A pattern that once felt automatic becomes a choice.
Those changes matter because leadership is built through repeated moments.
Her coaching success shows up in real-life shifts
Coaching is private by nature. The most meaningful work often happens in confidential conversations, not public case studies.
To protect privacy, the examples below are anonymized composites. They reflect common types of coaching outcomes without exposing any client’s personal story or presenting private details as public testimonials.
A founder learned to lead without carrying everything
One founder came to coaching feeling responsible for every decision. The business had grown, but their leadership style had not caught up. They were tired, reactive, and frustrated that people kept waiting for direction.
Through coaching, the founder began to see that their desire to protect the business had become a habit of control. Reese helped them separate care from over-functioning. Together, they worked on clearer communication, better delegation, and a more honest relationship with trust.
A composite reflection from this kind of client might sound like this:
“I thought I needed help managing other people. Reese helped me see where I was managing my own fear. Once I understood that, my decisions became cleaner.”
The result was not a personality overhaul. It was a more grounded leader who could give others room to grow.
A senior leader found her voice without becoming harder
Another client was respected but often overlooked in group settings. She had learned to be careful, polished, and agreeable. That approach helped her succeed for years, but it also kept her from speaking with the authority she had earned.
Reese helped her explore the cost of constant self-editing. They worked on direct language, body awareness, and the difference between being collaborative and disappearing.
A composite reflection could read:
“Reese did not tell me to become louder. She helped me become clearer. That changed how I showed up.”
The shift was practical. The leader began naming risks earlier, asking for what she needed, and holding her point without overexplaining.
A people leader rebuilt trust after conflict
A manager came to coaching after a team conflict left everyone cautious. The manager felt misunderstood and defensive. The team felt unheard.
Reese helped the leader slow down and examine the impact of their communication, not only their intent. They looked at tone, timing, assumptions, and emotional residue. The leader learned how to repair without performing guilt and how to listen without collapsing into self-blame.
A composite reflection from this kind of situation might be:
“Reese helped me stop preparing my rebuttal and start hearing what was actually being said. That changed the next conversation.”
The outcome was a more honest path forward. Not perfect. Better. More respectful. More human.
The advantage of a coach who understands transition
Transition is not only a gender experience. It is also a leadership experience.
Leaders transition all the time. They move from expert to manager, from founder to CEO, from employee to entrepreneur, from public success to private doubt, from survival mode to a new way of working. These transitions can shake a person’s identity.
Reese’s own life gives her a rare appreciation for what transition asks of a person.
It asks for truth. It asks for grief. It asks for courage. It asks for patience with people who may not understand. It asks for the ability to stay steady while others adjust their image of you.
Many leaders face a version of that.
A new executive may have to stop proving and start guiding. A business owner may have to outgrow the role that first made them successful. A high achiever may have to admit that the old pace is no longer sustainable. A person stepping into greater visibility may have to face criticism, envy, or projection.
Reese can support these transitions because she understands that growth is not only strategic. It is emotional, relational, and embodied.
That is why her coaching can feel different. She can meet the practical question and the deeper question at the same time.
The practical question may be, “How do I have this conversation?”
The deeper question may be, “Who am I becoming if I stop hiding?”
Both matter.
Reese challenges without shaming
A relatable coach should not be a coach who only agrees.
Reese’s gift is not just warmth. It is the ability to challenge clients in a way they can actually receive.
Shame shuts people down. Defensiveness blocks growth. A coach who attacks a client’s blind spots may get compliance, but not lasting change. Reese’s lived experience can help her challenge with care because she knows what it means to be judged, misunderstood, and reduced to a label.
That does not make her soft on avoidance. It makes her precise.
She can ask the question that cuts through the noise:
What are you afraid will happen if you tell the truth?
Where are you asking others to change while protecting your own pattern?
Whose approval are you still trying to earn?
What would this decision look like if you trusted yourself?
Are you being kind, or are you avoiding discomfort?
Are you being strong, or are you refusing support?
These questions are not abstract. They help a leader see the behaviour underneath the story.
Reese’s coaching style can be especially valuable for people who are thoughtful, sensitive, ambitious, values-driven, or tired of pretending they have it all figured out. She offers room for emotion without letting emotion become the only focus. She supports reflection while still guiding clients toward movement.
That balance is where results often begin.
Her perspective supports more inclusive leadership
Many leaders want to create healthier workplaces, but they are unsure how to do that without sounding performative or making mistakes. Reese can help because inclusion is not just a topic for her. It is lived reality.
She understands what it feels like when people make assumptions. She understands the pressure of being visible. She understands the emotional labour that can come with explaining identity. She also understands that most people are learning and that growth requires honest conversation.
This can help leaders build better habits around inclusion, communication, and belonging.
For example, Reese may help a leader notice when they:
Reward only the loudest voices
Confuse confidence with competence
Ask underrepresented people to educate everyone else
Avoid hard conversations because they fear saying the wrong thing
Treat wellness as a perk instead of a leadership responsibility
Miss how stress and identity shape participation
Inclusive leadership is not about memorizing the right phrases. It is about paying attention to impact, asking better questions, and creating conditions where more people can contribute honestly.
Reese’s perspective can help leaders move past fear and into responsibility.
The right coach helps the whole person lead
Some coaching stays at the surface. It focuses on calendars, goals, talking points, and performance habits. Those things can help, but they rarely address the full picture.
Reese works with the person behind the role.
That matters because leadership pressure does not stay neatly contained. It affects sleep, relationships, self-worth, patience, creativity, and health. A leader may come to a session with a business problem and discover that the real issue is exhaustion, fear, grief, loneliness, or a need for clearer boundaries.
This does not mean coaching replaces therapy, medical care, or legal advice. It means Reese recognizes that people do not lead in fragments. The emotional, practical, relational, and spiritual parts of life often touch each other.
A holistic approach can help clients ask fuller questions:
What does success cost me right now?
What am I tolerating that I no longer need to tolerate?
What part of me is trying to keep everyone comfortable?
What would a more honest version of leadership look like this month?
How do I want people to feel after working with me?
What do I need to stop carrying alone?
Those questions can lead to meaningful change because they reach beyond surface behaviour.
Reese is a strong fit for leaders who want depth and results
Reese may be a strong coaching fit for people who want more than a checklist.
Her approach can support:
Executives navigating pressure, visibility, or transition
Founders who need to grow beyond old survival habits
Managers learning to lead with both clarity and care
Professionals who feel boxed in by identity or expectation
Queer and trans leaders seeking a coach who does not need basic explanations
Women leaders who want to strengthen their voice without losing themselves
Men who want to build emotional honesty without shame
Values-driven leaders who want their work and life to feel more aligned
The common thread is not job title. It is readiness.
Reese’s clients are often people who sense that something deeper needs attention. They may be successful by many outer measures, but they want more truth, steadiness, and meaning in how they lead.
That kind of work takes courage. It also takes the right guide.
What to expect when working with Reese
Working with Reese is likely to feel honest, grounded, and personal. While every coaching relationship is different, a strong session usually includes a mix of listening, reflection, direct questions, and practical next steps.
A client may bring a specific issue, such as a difficult conversation or decision. Reese may help them unpack the visible facts, then look at the emotional pattern underneath. From there, the work can move into language, boundaries, values, and action.
The session may be calm, but not passive. Supportive, but not vague.
A useful coaching conversation with Reese may help a client leave with:
A clearer understanding of the real issue
Language for a conversation they have been avoiding
Awareness of a pattern that keeps repeating
A more grounded decision
Permission to stop performing a version of leadership that does not fit
A practical next step they can use right away
That is the kind of change that can build over time.
Small shifts in self-awareness can change how a person enters a room, receives feedback, names a boundary, hires, delegates, apologizes, rests, and acts under pressure.
FAQ
Is Reese Sabatini-Blake only a coach for LGBTQ+ clients?
No. Reese’s lived experience may feel especially meaningful for LGBTQ+ clients, trans clients, Two-Spirit clients, and people exploring identity, but her coaching can support anyone who wants clearer leadership, better communication, and deeper self-awareness.
Does choosing a Two-Spirit executive coach change the coaching process?
It can change the depth of perspective. Reese brings lived understanding of identity, transition, belonging, and how people are treated through different social lenses. That can help clients explore leadership challenges with more nuance and honesty.
Can Reese help with workplace communication and conflict?
Yes. Coaching can support better communication, conflict repair, boundary-setting, and decision-making. Reese’s approach helps clients look at both intent and impact, which is often where workplace tension begins to shift.
Is coaching with Reese a replacement for therapy?
No. Coaching is not a replacement for therapy, medical care, or crisis support. It can be a powerful space for growth, reflection, and leadership development, but clinical mental health concerns should be addressed with a qualified health professional.
How do I know if Reese is the right coach for me?
Reese may be a strong fit if you want a coach who is direct, compassionate, identity-aware, and able to connect practical leadership with personal truth. The best way to know is to book a session and experience the fit for yourself.
Choose the coach who can see the whole picture
The right coach does more than help solve the issue in front of you. The right coach helps you see yourself more clearly inside the issue.
Reese Sabatini-Blake brings insight that cannot be copied from a leadership book. Her experience as a Two-Spirit woman who transitioned from male to female gives her a rare understanding of how identity, perception, and power shape human connection. She can see more than one side because she has lived through more than one side of how the world responds.
That perspective makes her relatable. Her honesty makes her effective. Her grounded approach helps clients turn self-awareness into better decisions, stronger conversations, and more authentic leadership.
If you are ready for coaching that meets both the leader and the person behind the title, book a session with Reese Sabatini-Blake.
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