Strategist. Scientist.
Maker. Human.
Co-founder of Covation Center · AI tools educator · recovering geoscientist · triathlete · obsessive knitter
I'm Stephanie Desaulniers — a maker business strategist and AI tools educator who has spent over a decade helping creative solopreneurs and small businesses build the systems, strategy, and confidence to grow. I'm also the co-founder and Executive Director of Covation Center, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit coworking and entrepreneurial development organization. And yes, before all of this, I spent a decade as an environmental scientist and five years teaching earth science at the collegiate level. Turns out, building systems to understand complex problems translates pretty well to building businesses.
From field samples to business strategy — the through-line is systems.
I spent over a decade as an environmental scientist and geoscientist — collecting field data, running analyses, building models, and teaching undergraduate earth science students how to make sense of complex systems. I was genuinely good at it. And deeply restless.
When I started building my own product business on the side, I quickly discovered that running a small business is basically applied systems thinking with worse documentation. Pricing, customer behavior, marketing funnels, operational workflows — all of it responds to the same kind of structured analysis I'd spent years training for. I just had to translate it.
That translation work became BBD — Business by Dezign — and over the past decade I've used it to coach hundreds of makers, crafters, and creative solopreneurs through the messy, exciting, often overwhelming process of turning what they make into what they do for a living.
In 2017, I co-founded Covation Center — a nonprofit coworking and small business development organization in Central Pennsylvania. What started as a shared workspace has grown into a full entrepreneurial ecosystem: programming, coaching, grant-funded initiatives, and a community of builders who show up for each other.
Running Covation as Associate Director while building BBD has given me something most business coaches don't have: daily, ground-level exposure to what actually works for small businesses at every stage. Not theory. Real data, real results, real people.
I don't teach tactics.
I help you build the engine.
Most business advice is a list of things to do. I'm more interested in building the system that makes the doing sustainable.
Systems before tactics
Before we talk about what to post or what to charge, we look at the whole picture — pricing structure, customer flow, operational capacity. Fix the system and the tactics start to work.
AI as a tool, not a trend
I use AI tools in my own businesses every day — not as a gimmick, but as genuine leverage. I teach exactly what I use, why I use it, and how to apply it to a product business without losing your voice.
Real results, not theory
I run two active organizations and coach clients across the country. Everything I teach comes from current, real-world experience — not a course I built five years ago that I'm still selling.
Doing work that
gets noticed.
I'm proud of these — not because they're on a wall somewhere, but because they represent the community I've built and the work I've shown up to do consistently in Central Pennsylvania and beyond.
There's a whole person behind the strategy.
I believe the best business owners are interesting humans first. Here's what keeps me interesting.
Obsessive knitter
I knit constantly — on planes, in waiting rooms, during calls when I can get away with it. There is something about the rhythm of it that quiets my brain in a way nothing else does. I also have a YouTube channel about it, because of course I do.
Triathlete
I swim, bike, and run — not because I'm fast (I'm not), but because the training structure appeals to the same part of my brain that loves building systems. Also it's a great excuse to be outside and alone with my thoughts for several hours at a time.
National park obsessive
The geologist in me never fully left. I'm working through visiting all 63 national parks and documenting the journey through Trailmarked, my family travel brand. The Appalachians feel like home, but I'll go anywhere there's good geology and bad cell service.
Herbalist & forager
I grow herbs, forage when I can, and am slowly building what I'm calling a homestead-adjacent lifestyle in Central PA. It started with scientific curiosity — plants as systems — and turned into something I genuinely love.
Colored-pencil artist
Detailed, slow, meditative work. Colored pencil requires patience and layering — which, now that I think about it, describes most things I care about. I draw mostly botanical subjects and things I find outside.
Mom of three (plus a dog & 18 chickens)
I have three kids, a dog, and 18 chickens. Yes, 18. The chickens were supposed to be a small backyard flock. They were not. Managing a household this chaotic while running two organizations has made me exceptionally good at systems, prioritization, and knowing when to just let things be imperfect.
Let's figure out what your
business actually needs.
No pitch. No pressure. Just a real conversation about where you are and where you want to go.