Lifestyle

Serving Up Success: How Ex-Tennis Pro Kasia Siwosz Became a Powerhouse in Life Coaching

Published

1 year ago

September 24, 2024

Michelle Langton

Photo credit: Kasia Siwosz

By: Mae Cornes

Kasia Siwosz’s journey from professional tennis to elite life coaching is a story of resilience and adaptability. Born in Poland, Siwosz discovered tennis at age six, quickly turning it into her life’s passion. By 18, she had bootstrapped her way to the top 400 in doubles and 700 in singles on the WTA tour.

However, the financial realities of professional tennis forced a pivot. “I knew it would take another 3-5 years and serious money to reach the top 100 – money I simply didn’t have,” Siwosz recalls. This crossroads led her to pursue education in the United States, ultimately landing a full scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Transition: From Athlete to Investment Banker

After graduating from Berkeley, Siwosz faced the competitive world of investment banking. Her persistence paid off after six months of networking and interviews, as she secured a position in London. The transition wasn’t easy, as she found herself in a high-pressure environment reminiscent of her athletic career.

“It was tough, yet strangely familiar. It reminded me of my days as a professional tennis player, except this time I was competing in the banking game,” she notes. The long hours and intense competition in banking provided valuable insights that would later inform her coaching methodology.

Entrepreneurial Ventures and Lessons Learned

Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, Siwosz left banking to start a restaurant business in London. This venture ultimately did not succeed, but it offered crucial lessons in resilience and adaptability. The experience humbled her and provided firsthand knowledge of the challenges entrepreneurs face.

Following the restaurant closure, her unique combination of banking and entrepreneurial experience led her to venture capital. She worked with high-profile startups, assisting in capital raising and operational efficiencies. However, the pandemic’s impact on the VC fund led to another career reassessment.

The Birth of a Coaching Career

During this period of reflection, Siwosz discovered her calling in life coaching. Drawing from her diverse background, she developed a coaching program tailored for high-achieving individuals.

“With a wealth of both successes and failures, I can deeply connect with my clients and help them tap into their true purpose,” Siwosz explains. C-suite executives, top-tier professionals, and elite athletes – individuals operating at levels where marginal gains can make significant differences – are included in her client base.

A Unique Coaching Methodology

People describe Siwosz’s coaching program as intensive and focused on achieving rapid results. Unlike traditional coaching or therapy, her technique aims to eliminate challenges rather than just provide tools or advice.

While she does not disclose specific metrics on client numbers and success rates, Siwosz emphasizes the transformative nature of her program. She focuses on helping clients bridge the gap between their current state and desired outcomes, addressing hidden blocks that may sabotage wealth, health, and happiness.

Global Reach and Future Aspirations

Currently based in London, Siwosz’s influence extends beyond the U.K. She has coached clients from various global hubs, including the United States, Monaco, Dubai, Luxembourg, Milan, and Paris. She has made these international connections through LinkedIn, social media, and referrals.

Looking ahead, Siwosz aims to establish herself as a leading life coach in London while remaining open to global opportunities. Her immediate goal is to build a robust client base in the U.K. capital, focusing on quality over quantity in her coaching relationships.

The high-end sector of the life coaching industry remains competitive, with coaches differentiating themselves through unique value propositions. Siwosz’s diverse background across professional tennis, investment banking, entrepreneurship, and venture capital allows her to connect deeply with the multifaceted challenges her high-achieving clients face. This unique blend of experiences sets her apart, offering clients a personalized and transformative coaching approach that addresses their specific needs.

However, the industry needs standardized metrics for success, making it challenging to objectively quantify the impact of coaching services. Because universal benchmarks are absent, coaches like Siwosz rely heavily on client testimonials and word-of-mouth referrals to build their reputation.

The life coaching industry continues to grow, with the International Coach Federation reporting a 33% increase in members from 2015 to 2019. As the field evolves, coaches like Siwosz must adapt to changing client needs and industry trends while maintaining the personal touch that defines their practice.

Kasia Siwosz’s journey from the tennis courts of Poland to the coaching rooms of London exemplifies the diverse paths that can lead to a career in life coaching. Her story underscores the value of varied life experiences in shaping a coaching philosophy that resonates with high-achieving clients across multiple industries.

Lifestyle

Wanda Knight on Blending Culture, Style, and Leadership Through Travel

Published

5 mins ago

December 24, 2025

Michelle Langton

The best lessons in leadership do not always come from a classroom or a boardroom. Sometimes they come from a crowded market in a foreign city, a train ride through unfamiliar landscapes, or a quiet conversation with someone whose life looks very different from your own.

Wanda Knight has built her career in enterprise sales and leadership for more than three decades, working with some of the world’s largest companies and guiding teams through constant change. But ask her what shaped her most, and she will point not just to her professional milestones but to the way travel has expanded her perspective. With 38 countries visited and more on the horizon, her worldview has been formed as much by her passport as by her resume.

Travel entered her life early. Her parents valued exploration, and before she began college, she had already lived in Italy. That experience, stepping into a different culture at such a young age, left a lasting impression. It showed her that the world was much bigger than the environment she grew up in and that adaptability was not just useful, it was necessary. Those early lessons of curiosity and openness would later shape the way she led in business.

Sales, at its core, is about connection. Numbers matter, but relationships determine long-term success. Wanda’s time abroad taught her how to connect across differences. Navigating unfamiliar places and adjusting to environments that operated on different expectations gave her the patience and awareness to understand people first, and business second. That approach carried over into leadership, where she built a reputation for giving her teams the space to take ownership while standing firmly behind them when it mattered most.

The link between travel and leadership becomes even clearer in moments of challenge. Unfamiliar settings require flexibility, quick decision-making, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. The same skills are critical in enterprise sales, where strategies shift quickly and no deal is ever guaranteed. Knight learned that success comes from being willing to step into the unknown, whether that means exploring a new country or taking on a leadership role she had not originally planned to pursue.

Her travels have also influenced her eye for style and her creative pursuits. Fashion, for Wanda, is more than clothing; it is a reflection of culture, history, and identity. Experiencing how different communities express themselves, from the craftsmanship of Italian textiles to the energy of street style in cities around the world, has deepened her appreciation for aesthetics as a form of storytelling. Rather than keeping her professional and personal worlds separate, she has learned to blend them, carrying the discipline and strategy of her sales career into her creative interests and vice versa.

None of this has been about starting over. It has been about adding layers, expanding her perspective without erasing the experiences that came before. Wanda’s story is not one of leaving a career behind but of integrating all the parts of who she is: a leader shaped by high-stakes business, a traveler shaped by global culture, and a creative voice learning to merge both worlds.

What stands out most is how she continues to approach both leadership and life with the same curiosity that first took her beyond her comfort zone. Each new country is an opportunity to learn, just as each new role has been a chance to grow. For those looking at her path, the lesson is clear: leadership is not about staying in one lane; it is about collecting experiences that teach you how to see, how to adapt, and how to connect.

As she looks to the future, Wanda Knight’s compass still points outward. She will keep adding stamps to her passport, finding inspiration in new cultures, and carrying those insights back into the rooms where strategy is shaped and decisions are made. Her legacy will not be measured only by deals closed or positions held but by the perspective she brought, and the way she showed that leading with a global view can change the story for everyone around you.