Meet Nicole Lance

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Lance.

Hi Nicole, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I always thought entrepreneurship would be “someday when I am retired.” I spent the first 15 years of my career working in the non-profit space for a few years and spending 12 years working in local government, eventually wrapping up my local government career as an Assistant City Manager. Along the way, I noticed I was really drawn to individual coaching of employees and also to things like strategic planning and team retreats to help build up the team dynamic.

I began doing strategic plans and team retreats for friends of mine who were local government managers who couldn’t afford a “real” facilitator. It was fun for me, helped them get what they need, and I figured it would be a great experience for some time far off in the distant future when I might want to do this full time after a long career in local government. It turns out life had other plans.

In 2017, I found out I was pregnant. Surprise! My husband and I didn’t think this was something that would be possible for us, and besides- my stepdaughter was just about to turn 18! We were one Senior year away from being empty-nesters. Starting over from scratch?!?! I’d never been so terrified.

Fast forward a year later, and I was sitting in a City Council meeting at 9:30 pm on my second day back from maternity leave. I had an hour commute ahead of me and a needy newborn who I would have to wake up at 5:30 am the next day to drive to the sitter so I could do it all again. I had this feeling inside me that went from unease to a full-blown knowing that I couldn’t do this anymore.

The next morning I told my husband, fully expecting him to help me reason my way back into staying. Instead, he got a huge grin on his face and said, “Let’s do this! You’ll be great!” I turned in my resignation a few weeks later and launched my consulting business full-time. It made zero sense on paper, made my family question my decision, made me question my own sanity of managing a newborn and trying to be a first-time entrepreneur, and it made my financial planner shake his head. Despite all that, I leaned on my network of supporters – something I call your “Army of Advocates,” and started drumming up business. I did a lot of little gigs, volunteered to speak at a lot of events for free, and really began to build my expertise through small engagements. I did some work in partnership with a good friend of mine whose business I had helped launch a few years before, and together we really built some major momentum.

That was three years ago, and today I’m proud to say that I have coaching clients in multiple countries, I speak internationally (hello, virtual world!), and I have expanded beyond municipal to having a strong clientele in the non-profit and private sectors. Oh, and that cute little baby that caused so much disruption in the first place has been my most welcome reason for the change and continues to be a cornerstone of why I want to do good work and build a life that we love.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha! Ummm…. no. The first morning I was home after resigning, my husband left for work (he’s a teacher, so he was out the door pretty early), and I took my daughter to the sitter for the day. I sat down on my couch, looked around, and was like, “Nicole, what the hell have you done?!?” I was so programmed to run on someone else’s schedule, to have a packed schedule of meetings other people set up, and to have an already-full agenda that it was incredibly disconcerting to have so much blank space on the calendar. Candidly, that feeling lasted about the first six months until I normalized a little bit more into some of the good parts about having so much freedom. It was really strange, and I had to do a lot of deprogramming.

I also had some important work to do early on to sort of mourn the letting-go of the career I thought I would have. For almost a decade and a half, I had a picture of one career achievement in my head, and now I had gone and disrupted that entirely. It was like shedding an identity, and while that seems exciting and fun, it was also painful to untether myself from that career I had pictured for so long and to allow myself to play in a new space of “What if…”

Early in 2020, I was looking at my bookings coming up and realized I was on track to double my revenue from 2019. I would be making more money than I had ever earned! Well, we all know the dumpster fire that started in March of 2020, and the bottom dropped out. In a 6-day period at the end of March, I watched 98% of my projected revenue disappear. It was the first time I ever turned off notifications on my phone from incoming business emails. My daughter’s school was closed, and my husband was trying to figure out how to teach from home. It all felt like a free-fall. However, there was a small part of me that was like, “Oh, thank goodness I don’t have to travel so much for a little while!” And that surprised me!

I started paying attention to what else felt good. The slower pace felt good, the not having to get up early and drive anywhere felt good, the not rushing my daughter felt good (I mean, seriously- you can’t *actually* RUSH a toddler- it doesn’t work), the cooking at home instead of going out to eat all the time felt good… but honestly, everything else felt terrible! I’ve never experienced that level of financial insecurity, and it shook me to my core. Long story short- it eventually turned around, but holy wow – that feeling of UNKNOWING brought up all my fears. And once those fears were laid out in plain sight for me, I had to deal with them. And that has been an adventure I’m still on, still grateful for, and still overwhelmed by!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started my business as Lance Strategies with a very specific emphasis on strategic planning and more linear approaches to executive coaching and team training. However, I’m about to launch a full re-brand with a renewed emphasis on individual transformation coaching. I’ll still do some of the team training, but the core focus will be working with under satisfied overachievers who are doing it all but feeling like there’s something more. I want to help them find the courage to make the bold changes needed to live the kind of life and have the kind of career they ACTUALLY want – not just the one everyone else is telling them they *should* have. I call that being “should on” (read that out loud).

This Fall, I’ll be certified as a life coach by the International Coach Federation and the Martha Beck Institute for Wayfinder Life Coach Training. I’m able to blend more traditional training and coaching approaches with some alternative methods (guided meditation, body intelligence, and dream analysis, for example) to help even the most dyed-in-the-wool high achievers learn to tap into the deeper inner knowledge that will really help them cultivate a satisfying and authentic life they truly want.

My brand promise is “I’m here for you.” Whether it’s an individual coaching client, an organization, or a speaking engagement, my promise is to bring my whole authentic self to the engagement with a level of care as if it were my own career, my own team, or my own event. This sets me apart because there’s no cookie-cutter aspect of any of my work. It’s all 100% responsive to what my client or the event needs, so it’s a complete no BS guarantee. The most common feedback I get from coaching clients, teams, and speaking engagements is, “We wish we had more time with you!” I like to have fun, and I consider myself to be a Chief Encouragement Officer, but I also don’t shy away from the hard work or the Courageous Conversations. I live for the moment I see a client or audience member have that aha moment that takes them to whatever their next best level is.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Whether it’s life coaching, executive coaching, a team dynamic that’s not functioning optimally, or even a speaking engagement where you’re looking for something a little different – it all takes courage. And having someone along the way which has been there truly knows what it feels like to be pushing for a more genuine experience that feels better and works better makes all the difference. When you say you’ve been waking up at 2 am, stressed out about the to-do list, I get it. When you talk about achieving levels of success you’ve always worked for but now you have a sneaking suspicion it’s not actually what you might want deep down inside, I get it. When you talk about that sticky personnel problem on your team and how it’s impacting the culture you’re trying to build at work, I get it. When you talk about being so damn exhausted from doing it all that there’s nothing left for yourself and you are finally ready to do something about it, I get it. And I’m here for you to help you make the transformation necessary to get a life where you want it to be.

Contact Info:

• Email: nicole@nicolelancestrategies.com
• Website: www.nicolelancestrategies.com
• Instagram: @nicolelancestrategies
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LanceStrategies
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXVfZLGPMnn2VPZJhyzS_og

Image Credits
Nonni Lee Photography