Meet NickiHer passion is empowering leaders to challenge and expand their thinking to increase performance, well-being, and joy in their lives. She is a life and executive coach with over 10 years of experience helping individuals and organizations achieve remarkable results. Nicki will help you achieve your power, live your purpose and create the freedom to live the life that you want. She loves delicious food traveling and adventures with her husband, Michael, and dog Pico de gallo.
So what do you recommend to others who struggle with finding out what it is that they want to do?Yeah, I hear this. Often, I think, you know, most people can relate to that when they're fresh out of college or even earlier now, I was in a conversation with one of my nieces who's only 14. And she's already grappling with what she wants to be when she grows up. So whether it's, you know, trying to figure it out, what do I want to be, or people that are already established in careers, whether it's five years 10, 15 or 20 years or more and, but want to explore whether they want to do something different or not. I'm a career changer, myself, I made a decision that I needed my career to be something I'm passionate about. And I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do. My background is in politics and government, I was Deputy Press Secretary for a state official when I lived in Pennsylvania. And it was an amazing experience and education and you know, to see how the government works and be a part of it. But I was deeply sad because I didn't have that fulfillment that I knew I wanted. And not everyone needs to have that fulfillment or passion throughout their career. But I knew that I wanted that. So I hired a coach to help me figure out, you know what I wanted to do. And after much exploration, I fell in love with coaching, because I experienced and felt the exercises and tools and got the massive impact it had on me in my life. And there were a few things I had to take look at a really hard look in the mirror.
Lori: Wow, yeah, I agree. And I can relate to a lot of what you're saying, and just my journey and a lot of different buckets, I don't even know where to start with some of that. But one of the things I think you'll find this quite entertaining, you're talking about, like this negative talk that goes in our head. And through some of the coaching that I've gone through, you learn to kind of give it a name and tell it to shut up. I call mine a drunken monkey you're drunk go home.  But learning in that process to just realize that I am in control of the situation. And I am in control of you know, creating my destiny has allowed me to be who I am today and where I am today and build the path that I want to be in and you know, take take the long road or the fast path, you know, whatever route I want to go based on the experiences that I want in life and that's what I find brings me the most joy is having new experiences. I think that's what makes me bolder and stronger and gives me greater power. perspective. But it took me a long time to realize that.
 
What advice do you have to offer on the balance between work and life?Yeah, this is a hot client issue. I mean, not even just with my clients, it's everywhere. And I think everyone's trying to crack the nut and figure it out. So I do see it in all fields and industries. I think if you're an entrepreneur, the irony is most likely that you chose to do that to be your boss and have that autonomy. And then most of us, at some point, fall into that black hole of being a workaholic, which is the lesson that I learned, which I'm no longer by the way. But if you know, the same thing with an executive leadership role, time and time again, I just hear people say, Yeah, I took a role or took a promotion or want to do it. But my health and my family time, and my personal life is suffering. So it's a widespread issue. And I would say the first step is that balance, like what that means to you,