Episode Description:

As women entrepreneurs, we are often told that scaling a business requires personal sacrifice—that success comes at the cost of our well-being, time, and relationships. But what if that wasn’t true? What if personal fulfillment and business success could go hand in hand?

What You'll Gain By Listening In:

In this powerful episode of the #WisdomOfWomen Show, host Coco Sellman—5x founder, impact investor, and creator of the Force for Good System™—sits down with Nadine Nicholson, master certified coach and founder of Ascend Leadership, to uncover how visionary women founders can achieve what Nadine calls "Impossible Freedom."

Nadine shares the personal wake-up call that transformed her approach to business and life, how she helps high-performing women entrepreneurs reclaim their time, and the Five Forces of Ascended Leadership—a framework for scaling a business without burning out. If you’re ready to grow your company and your freedom, this episode is for you!

Chapters:

00:37 Introducing Our Inspirational Guest

04:15 Nadine's Transformational Journey

18:04 Breaking Free from the Middle Zone

38:27 Building Trust and Courageous Conversations

43:37 Launching the Roundtable: A New Opportunity for Entrepreneurs

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of amplifying women's voices in leadership roles.
• Nadine Nicholson discusses her transformation from corporate life to founding Ascend Leadership after a personal crisis.
• The concept of 'impossible freedom' is explored, highlighting the balance between business success and personal fulfillment.
• Listeners are encouraged to embrace vulnerability as a strength in leadership, drawing from Brene Brown's work.
• Nadine's five forces of ascended leadership include time mastery and creating united teams for sustainable success.
• Coco and Nadine advocate for self-trust and brave actions as essential for achieving one's goals.

Burning Questions Answered:

1.How can women founders escape the cycle of exhaustion while still scaling their businesses?

• Many entrepreneurs believe they must sacrifice their personal well-being to achieve business success. Nadine challenges this myth and introduces the concept of Impossible Freedom.
• Learn why overworking isn’t the cause of exhaustion—and what truly is.

2.What are the Five Forces of Ascended Leadership, and how can they help entrepreneurs grow with ease?

• Nadine introduces her Five Forces of Ascended Leadership, including Time Mastery, United Team, Wild Wisdom, Brave Action, and Courageous Conversations.
• Discover how aligning your calendar with your values creates more energy, focus, and business acceleration.

3.What is "Wild Wisdom," and why is it essential for confident leadership?

• Nadine reveals how tapping into your inner wisdom—without fear, external validation, or over-analysis—can revolutionize decision-making.
• Learn why self-trust is the key to unlocking your highest leadership potential.

4.How do you shift from leading with fear and doubt to leading with confidence and clarity?

• Most women founders make 80% of their decisions from a place of fear. Nadine shares how to flip this, so 80% of decisions come from self-trust and wisdom instead.
• Hear how even multi-million-dollar founders struggle with self-doubt—and how they overcome it.

5.Why do so many women founders get "stuck in the middle zone"—and how do you break free?

• Nadine describes the Middle Zone of Success, where entrepreneurs feel they’ve come too far to quit but know their current pace isn’t sustainable.
• Discover the strategies to "lift off the plateau" and move into sustainable exponential growth.

6.How can courageous conversations help you scale your business?

• Whether it’s negotiating big deals, restructuring teams, or setting boundaries, clear and bold communication is essential.
• Learn why fear-based decision-making keeps businesses stuck and how courageous conversations unlock the next level of success.

Favorite Quotes:

🔹 "Working harder isn’t what’s making you exhausted. It’s the lack of alignment between your time and your values." – Nadine Nicholson

🔹 "Women founders don’t have to choose between business growth and personal fulfillment. They can have both—if they lead with intention." – Coco Sellman

🔹 "Self-trust doesn’t come first. You build it one courageous decision at a time." – Nadine Nicholson

🔹 "The world is made better by women-led businesses. But only if we build them in a way that is sustainable—for ourselves, our teams, and our vision." – Coco Sellman

Closing Thoughts:

This episode is a must-listen for visionary women founders who are scaling their businesses but refuse to accept burnout as the price of success. Nadine Nicholson's Five Forces of Ascended Leadership provide a powerful roadmap for reclaiming time, building a thriving team, and stepping into true leadership.

Want to take the first step toward your own Impossible Freedom? Join Nadine’s exclusive Ascend Leadership Roundtable—a free, no-pitch, high-impact event where women founders connect, learn, and grow together. Reserve your spot at ascendleadership.com/roundtable.

And if this episode resonated with you, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave a review for the #WisdomOfWomen Show. Let’s continue amplifying the voices of trailblazing women founders, investors, and growth experts—because together, we make the world a better place.

💡 Next step: Take the Force for Good Growth Readiness Quiz at www.aforceforgood.biz to uncover the next breakthrough for your business.

🚀 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts! 🎙️💫

Offers & Contact Information:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinenicholson/  

LinkedIn – Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascend-leadership-co 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AscendLeadershipCo 

Website: https://www.ascendleadership.com/ 

Email:  support@ascendleadership.com

Follow the #WisdomOfWomen show for more inspiring stories and insights from trailblazing women founders, investors, and experts in growth and prosperity.

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/yja3w7nh

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4tak8ajk 

Amazon Prime: https://tinyurl.com/366syddj 

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdhananz 

RSS Feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/womengetfunded/ 

Coco Sellman, the host of #WisdomOfWomen, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

Learn more about A Force for Good:

Website: https://aforceforgood.biz/ 

Are Your GROWING or PLATEAUING? https://aforceforgood.biz/quiz/

1-Day Growth Plan: https://aforceforgood.biz/free-plan/ 

FFG Tool of the Week: https://aforceforgood.biz/weekly-tool/ 

The Book:  https://aforceforgood.biz/book/ 

Growth Accelerator: https://aforceforgood.biz/accelerator/

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women show.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voice of women in a new model of leadership is emerging and we are here to amplify the voices of women leading the way.

I am your host, Coco Selman Vodka, founder, impact investor and creator of the Force for Good system.

Thank you so much for joining us as we illuminate the path to unlocking opportunities, opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises by amplifying the voice and wisdom of women.

So today we have with us a absolutely inspirational and heart grounded woman who I met a few months ago at a no Women event.

K N O W the no Women event here in New York City.

And we sat next to each other and just became instant friends.

And so today we have Nadine Nicholson, Master certified Coach founder of Ascend Leadership.

And she has devoted three decades to learning and teaching time and personal mastery, helping high performing entrepreneurs and founders with over a million dollars in business achieve what she calls impossible freedom.

This is the art of driving significant business growth while leading a fulfilling personal life without compromise.

This epiphany prompted her to leave her high powered corporate role to establish Ascend Leadership where she leverages her extensive experience to teach others how to balance professional success with personal well being through her innovative five forces of ascended leadership.

And yes, that too, Nadine provides visionary women founders with the tools to reclaim their time, lead with confidence and skill, scale their businesses efficiently.

Her approach not only redefines success, but also empowers women leaders to live in complete integrity with their values, creating more freedom, more impact, more purpose in their lives and work.

Welcome Nadine.

So happy to have you.

Thank you Coco for the invitation.

It's such a sincere pleasure to be here with you and be back together.

You're just a treat to have here.

So tell us Nadine, what is one book written by a woman that has significantly influenced your life?

Well, the first person that came to mind when you asked that question just now is Brene Brown.

And the impact that she's had on humanity, I feel.

And the first book I remember reading of hers is the Gifts of Imperfection and it was so impactful because I remember the feeling like she's naming things that I feel and she's normalizing what I didn't know how to bring into words.

I really remember the impact that it had to help me understand myself.

Oh, Matt, you know those books that can help you understand yourself?

That's profound, right?

Brene Brown is truly transformative.

We're going to remember her.

She's going to be remembered throughout time for her work and helping bring out the value and perfection and vulnerability and how important that is in business.

And I think in many ways it's a.

It's, it's.

It's an attribute being able to talk about our vulnerability.

Something that women really can do and can do really well.

And it's important as leaders.

So tell us, Nadine.

I wanted to hear more about the moment that led you to Birth Ascend leadership.

Sure.

I'd love to share it.

I feel like I can share it now, years later, without completely breaking down in tears.

It is still emotional because it's very personal.

I was working at the time, still in corporate and working really long hours, 60, 70 more hours a week.

I had a young child.

I was married already by then, and my son was just over a year old, almost 18 months old.

And essentially my dad passed away quite suddenly.

He was diagnosed with cancer, and three weeks later he passed away.

He had stomach cancer, stage four when he was diagnosed.

There are signs, as we look back, that he was ill for at least six months.

When he passed away, he was in palliative care.

My family was there, my mom, my sisters, and my husband Derek was in the room with us.

Because my mom appreciated my husband's medical background.

He worked in the medical industry, primarily in sales, but he understood and was a real advocate for us and our family.

She felt very safe to have him there.

And when my dad passed and took his last breath, you know, I was, we're hugging.

My mom and I and my sisters were hugging.

And it was sad, really horrible.

It was heartbreaking.

Then I had this calling within myself, this pull to go back over to him.

And I looked over him and everybody else was kind of away from the bed by that point.

And I looked over at him and I put my face over his face, and I noticed the color was leaving his face.

And I could see like his face was becoming like this pearl color.

And this was only 15, 20 minutes after he passed.

Then I felt this breath of air, a little light wind come up into my face.

I really feel it right now in this moment.

I'm reliving it, you know, and I'm really intuitive and always have been.

And I was working so much and disconnected from my spirit and inner knowing at the time because I was so focused on growth and climbing the ladder and business success.

This moment, this breath that came, I really believe it was his spirit coming to me.

I heard a message and the message said, nadine, you have new life.

You have new life.

It was very clear, strong and confident.

And I mean, at the time I was really sacrificing my life.

I.

I was sacrificing my health, my relationships, my dreams.

Really, they were on the back burner in order to grow business.

And I took that to mean that here he passed away and he passed on an opportunity to have new life and wake up.

It was my wake up call to say, hey, wait a minute how I'm living my life.

This is not what I thought when I tried wanting to have a child.

Like the miracle of a child.

I wasn't gonna think I was only gonna see him a half an hour or 45 minutes a day.

So that was the wake up call.

And then I took some steps to really reflect and redesign everything and took some steps to reinvent myself and start my business.

That's extraordinary.

And I believe in hearing the voice within.

Right.

I really do feel like that's the answer for all of us all the time.

To really be still and to be able to listen.

And sometimes when we're running hard, we don't hear the voice as much.

It's like all this other noise and static that's driving our lives.

And when we get these moments where we really hear a voice that sends, hey, Dane, you have delight.

What a gift and how profound that you listened right.

To me, it was a choiceless choice.

And I see that not from a victim mindset or thinking I didn't have a choice.

It was the choice that I looked at and I thought, here he just passed away.

From the time he was diagnosed to the time we had his funeral, it was 21 days.

It was such a wake up call that I knew I couldn't keep going the way that I was because I knew that it wouldn't be in integrity with what I said mattered to me.

And I said what mattered to me was with my family, my health, my relationships, I was compromising them.

They were on the back burner.

And so I knew inside of me with that wake up call that it wasn't.

I wasn't willing to be out of integrity anymore.

And it wasn't like I was waking up every day thinking I'm going to be out of integrity today and, and my life and my family and my relationships and my elk on the back burner and compromise all that this was not intentional.

I was asleep to it essentially.

But I realized with the wake up call that I was doing it and I needed to take responsibility to get into integrity and align my values and what I said mattered with what I was doing with my time.

So how have you bridged this into the work you do?

This learning and your past experience really working with corporate executives and being an executive?

How has all this shaped your approach to working with powerhouse entrepreneurs today?

One of my challenges has been even when I'm in the midst of growing a company, I.

I can't even hear my wants or needs for something else, right.

To have the wellness.

It just, everything gets forfeited.

So I, I imagine you work with a lot of executives who are tired, but at the same time it's hard to let go and even imagine a different future.

Tell me about your experience and how you help women entrepreneurs, founders, an executive, make that and keep transformation.

Sure.

Thank you.

So I had almost 20 years in corporate communications as a senior executive and before becoming a professional coach for senior like executives, founders, entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial world.

And so my background, I've been working with the most senior executives since I was very young.

I was thinking back today to my first position in the corporate world in oil and gas.

I live in Calgary, Alberta.

It's an oil and gas city.

I was working for the CEO of the company when I.

Of a $3 billion company when I was 21 years old, right out of university.

From that moment till the point that I started my own company, I was an advisor, a mentor, a coach.

And my responsibility of what I was advising them on grew throughout my career.

But really it was all about helping them communicate effectively to their internal and external stakeholders.

So internal being employees, investors, layers of management, external being media community, government.

You can think of various examples of internal and external stakeholders.

When the beginning of my career, I worked a lot in media relations, crisis communications.

I was a media spokesperson.

I coached senior executives on how to do media interviews when we had crisis situations like earthquakes and flooding.

I created all the communication strategies and messaging and coach people to coached all the executives and managers to be able to deliver those messages and really, you know, help stakeholders really understand what was happening and keep them safe.

Safe in many cases when there were crises.

And then that evolved into becoming an advisor and working within a business unit.

Being an advisor to senior executives on all types of communications, like being more of a generalist.

And all of that was about helping them like, be seen, be understood, be confident, communicate effectively and successfully so they could grow their businesses and have people on board too with what it is that they're doing.

So that background of being very comfortable working with people in senior roles, executives responsible for a lot of responsibility, running big budgets and huge goals and having huge influence, I've been doing that for a very long time.

So I'm very comfortable with that.

So where that shaped me going forward.

Cause that's kind of the second part of your question.

Right.

And how would you like me to focus on next?

Yeah, how, how do you, how do you now be, you know, really understand where a woman founder is.

Yeah.

And her and her dilemmas.

Right.

Of trying to not be exhausted, still scale her company, feel connected to her values and imagine the idea that she might have some time for herself.

So, you know, it's because I understand it.

Not just that I was advised, you know, I've been advising senior executives and supporting them throughout my whole career.

It's also because I am one.

I'm leading an organization and I get it.

Our son is almost 17 now.

So I've been managing my family life and my own health.

I can help and relate because I'm in the trenches, because I had that transformative experience.

I am able now to be able to understand and be in the trenches with, with these entrepreneurs and understand where they're at, understand their world and also how I'm a wake up call for them because of what I've experienced.

So I get to take a stand to help them focus their time on what truly matters most to them.

That is being unintentionally compromised and that is creating the burnout and exhaustion.

I think that that's an important point we need to say here is that working harder and working more is not creating exhaustion.

That's not healthy.

It's really when you're in it, you just convince yourself that's what you need to do.

Right.

The only way forward is to run harder, harder, harder.

When you're in, it's perpetuating the exhaustion and also the lack of growth.

It's not allowing you to see the freedom and possibility.

So we've talked before and you've, you've, you know, graced me with this idea of impossible freedom.

And I just love for you to share what that is.

Sure.

And how women who are running businesses and totally high achieving can have that and not let go of their success.

Okay, great.

Impossible freedom is the outcome, it's the result of working with us.

When I say us, I mean myself and my business partner, husband, Derek Nicholson.

Impossible freedom is what most business owners, entrepreneurs, founders, business, think is impossible.

To have this level of freedom, we're having fun with that.

It's that idea where business and life feel like a zero sum game.

In order to grow the business, I need to sacrifice something.

I don't have time for my health, I gotta focus on this business growth.

It can be intentionally or unintentionally.

So there's a feeling like I've gotta sacrifice my life in order to grow the business.

And if I focus on my life, then I'm gonna sacrifice all my hard earned success in the business.

Where that comes from is being stuck in the middle zone.

And impossible freedom is actually not a zero sum game.

It's a yes.

And essentially, it's where your success in your business feeds your success in your personal life.

Your success in your personal life feeds your success in your business.

They're not in conflict anymore.

We're lifting both up.

We're lifting your health, your relationships and your business up simultaneously.

Now let's talk about the middle zone, because this is really important.

Most entrepreneurs and founders, where they're at, and you, you described it a couple minutes ago in different words, is they're stuck in the middle zone.

I call it the middle zone of success.

You think about climbing a mountain and you get to a certain point and you look down and you think, wow, I've come so far.

You know, this is something.

But then we look up and we think, this is unsustainable.

I can't keep going like this.

So the middle zone is a place where an entrepreneur knows it's unsustainable to stay because they're working harder to stay there.

So what we've got to do is figuratively, metaphorically, pluck them off that plateau and like, get them some perspective so they can get some breathing room and take the next leg of the mountain in a sustainable way.

Yeah.

And that is what creates possible freedom.

That's what allows them to grow their business without sacrificing their success.

They're focusing on their health, their relationships that the center of their calendar, their designing their business around what matters most to them.

Their business accelerates and grows exponentially because they're in alignment, because they're being true, because they're in integrity with what they know is deeply important.

So that is really the path for impossible freedom.

It's about breaking out of the middle zone of success, taking Back your time, your energy, redesigning your calendar, and being able to successfully achieve impossible freedom.

And that's what we do with our clients.

It's amazing.

I know that you have the five forces of ascended leadership, so perhaps that's what creates the impossible freedom.

Is that how it works?

That's the how.

So great.

So could you maybe talk to us a little a bit about it and maybe walk us through, like, so each of us can have a tiny taste for ourselves, like how we can do this?

Sure, of course.

Okay.

So really, there are five forces of ascended leadership, and two are the.

The lead actors, let's just say.

Okay, so time mastery and united team.

So really what we really do to send leadership is we help our clients break free from the middle zone of success and leverage their time and their team in order to successfully create impossible freedom.

They grow their business without sacrificing their life.

In fact, they have a more deeply rewarding life and grow their business simultaneously and at a more elevated rate.

Time mastery is a key leadership skill that we start with.

Time mastery is a lot of people think of time management.

Time management is all about doing more and less time.

Time mastery is something that we invented here, and it's evolved.

It's not just getting more done in less time.

It's about making choices about your time that free up your time, making choices about your time that help you be rejuvenated and prioritized and allow you to be true to your values.

So time mastery is where you use your most important values to drive your decisions about your time.

And that creates integrity inside.

It's about mastering your time.

And what a gift that is, right.

If you're actually doing things that you feel finally in integrity with in your life, you really do feel that sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, power, empowerment.

When you know you're doing what you really want to be doing, what you.

Feel is right and identifying.

Also connected to that, Coco is being able to see, because we all are doing a lot of things.

You know, the clients that we work with, their calendars are slammed.

When they first work with us, start working with us, they're full.

And a lot of what they're doing is not in their natural genius zone.

Their natural genius zone would be, you know, what they're best at, what that gives them joy, inspires them, fulfills them passion, and what drives the highest level of revenue in their company.

Most entrepreneurs, when we first start working with them, and these are entrepreneurs at 7, 8, 9 figure range, they're maybe 20% in their natural genius and of what's going to drive the revenue in the company.

It's because we start out doing everything and it's hard to give up those things.

You think if I stop doing this, then we're not going to keep growing?

Even though inside your mind you know it's not sustainable.

You can't possibly keep doing all the things you're doing if that's what's keeping you growing.

You don't have any more time.

You can't run any harder or any faster.

So I love this idea.

Choices that free up your time and replenish your energy.

So the next one you said is the united team.

United Team.

So we start with time, then we go to team and it's the leveraging time, leveraging team.

Now team is all about your united team.

It's not just your employees.

Because a lot of people think, oh, team.

It would be, well, who I hire, it's who on my.

Who's on my team.

We see United team as your clients, family members, friends.

This is about building and leading a united team that is cohesive around your vision.

These two are intricately connected because it's about uniting and creating cohesiveness so that it frees up your time and it puts people on your team in their unique abilities too, in their natural genius areas too.

Beautiful.

So we've just covered time, time mastery and united team.

What's the third course in ascended leadership?

Sure.

Think of this like an equation, right?

Time times team, plus these next three.

These three are more supporting skills that allow entrepreneurs to leverage their time and team to successfully create impossible freedom.

The first one is wild wisdom.

Our business is very focused on tapping into nature as a shortcut to a person's inner truth.

Wild wisdom is like your inner knowing, your inner wisdom.

We call it wild because the fastest way to access it is getting your feet on the ground in nature, going for a walk, getting into the forest, seeing the sky, getting out of a building.

Wild wisdom is really tapping into the unwavering clarity of your highest truth, of your deepest desires, of your someday dreams.

This is really confident clarity coming from within.

A lot of people have conditioning to think I should do that.

I'm obligated to do that.

If I don't do that, what are people gonna think of me?

That's all fear based thinking.

What I'm talking about is tapping into the truth inside of you.

And it's really hard to see yourself because you're sowing the weeds yourself.

And so we help you.

Beautiful.

Cultivating this wild wisdom.

It's it's an intentional thing.

You, it doesn't just happen when you're sitting and working on a spreadsheet.

Right.

It's when you allow it to come and you find your ways of hearing it, whether it's paddleboarding or hiking or walking or painting even.

Right.

Whatever it is that allows you to connect with that.

I love what you said.

I had a business coach once tell me that all of our clients really more than anything are buying our confidence.

When we feel a sense of empowered confidence, we're unstoppable.

And here it is.

It's in this reservoir within.

And what you said, it gives you that inner knowing, that unwavering clarity of your highest self, that confident clarity.

Wow.

What a worthwhile activity.

We work with clients that have $30 million businesses, $55 million businesses, bigger even and smaller too.

And it doesn't matter how many zeros are in the number.

Yeah, they are.

Often when we first start working with them, doubting their decisions, getting paralyzed in indecision and decision fatigue.

They're not taking action on the things that they know they need to do in order to get out of that middle zone.

And why are they doing that?

Because of the voices, because of worrying about what other people are going to think, worrying about disappointing others, worrying about making a wrong decision, worrying that it won't work out or that that perfect person isn't available to be hired because they maybe don't even exist.

And it's a huge time waster.

And it, what it does is it erodes their confidence.

And these are women leading multimillion dollar businesses.

They, it's hard to be vulnerable.

Like they're not just going to go on Facebook or LinkedIn and say, hey, doubting every decision I'm making and I'm getting stuck and paralyzed.

So they need to have a trusted non judgmental place.

Let's say, hey, this is what's going on and I'm stuck.

And it's beautiful.

Shifting people out of that takes those kinds of challenges.

Feeling paralyzed, not knowing that they need to implement something that would make a massive difference in their company.

These are things that are solved in 30 minutes with the proper support and.

Coaching and you know, reminding oneself how to get back to that wild wisdom, getting out of those, that's it.

Right out of those habits that are just perpetuating the fear and the voice sense of us not knowing.

Exactly.

So we have time.

Master United Team Wild wisdom.

What's forced force and ascended leadership?

The fourth is brave action.

So once that like think of this Wild wisdom, brave action, and then the next one, create, which is courageous conversations.

I'll just let it out.

Those three skills are really.

These are the skills that leverage time and team.

These are the day to day skills.

So wild wisdom is that clarity that um, really getting that truth and that inner knowing and fending off all that conditioning and fear and really tapping into the truth and help and feeling confident about that.

Brave action is making a decision about that.

Actually making a decision about what to do about that.

So it's really about identifying what is the decision, what is the action that is coming from.

The wild wisdom, which is really wild wisdom is self trust and confidence.

Yes.

Brave action is taking.

Making confident decisions and taking consistent brave action from that energy, from that place of self trust and possibility to implement a vision to, to get to where they want to go, which is all impossible.

Freedom is what they refer to.

Yeah, makes so much sense to me, Nadine, because.

And, and the other thing I'll say is that self trust is something that I've worked on a lot.

And, and, and the.

It's not like you're just going to trust yourself just like you're not going to trust anybody else.

It takes time and it, so it's like you.

So the more we can be in the practice of listening to our wisdom and not just letting it sit there in our heads, but actually doing so, following the wisdom, taking the brave action, that's when we get self trust.

That's the moment you can't have it before you do it.

And then what happens is you do these things that come out of your wild wisdom and then you're, and you're amazed, right?

It's like, holy cow, what this, this is my power.

And then you can start to trust yourself more.

And then, and then that wild wisdom acting in the wild wisdom becomes so virtuous, right?

Because you just start to go, well, nothing works better than this.

But it takes courage to do that from the start, right?

And then you're wild wisdom starts to get even more and more profound, right?

That's my experience.

But we named it when this, like you said it is the way you're describing it, you're so in tune with this because it's what this, this becomes, this happens one decision at a time.

So remember I said earlier in the conversation that when we first start working with a client, these are clients that are running already running successful businesses.

These people, these entrepreneurs have had a lot of success in their careers and a lot of them have had a lot of leadership development Also, some haven't.

Some, some haven't had coaching or done coaching before.

Some have.

On average, about 20% of their decisions are coming from wild wisdom.

And about 80% are coming from fear, scarcity, self doubt, not enoughness.

What are people gonna think when those decisions and actions are coming from 80% of the time, at least, right.

Are coming from that place.

What they're doing, of course is they're attracting more of it, they're attracting more self doubt, indecision, fear.

What are people gonna think?

And it is debilitating.

It is absolutely debilitating.

It's exhausting.

It is, it's hard to be in place now over time of working with us.

Our goal, Derek and I is to build this skill set within them so that we are literally leading them in a way to grow in these self leadership skills so that they are inside of them and sustainable.

And then by the time we know we're done complete with someone we know that they're making about on average at least 80% of their decisions are coming from self trust, inner knowing, wild wisdom, confidence.

And what they do is they just multiplies.

But they're growing in confidence, not from, oh, I'm so successful, look at me, I'm so good, I've done all these, I have all these accolades.

They're growing in confidence from the inside, from that inner conviction.

And they have peace within themselves.

So they're making decisions from.

In brave action.

And how do we get, how do we flip the 80, 20?

We flip it one decision and action at a time.

Brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant.

So then courageous conversations bring us to this, this fifth, this fifth force.

Okay, so this is the third kind of supporting skill of the time.

And the team really to bring time and team alive and bring impossible freedom to life alive.

Courageous conversations is all about sincere relationship building, impeccable follow up, clear communication that develops in invaluable reciprocal relationships.

So this is where a big part of my background in sales comes in.

And this is where.

Or in, sorry in corporate communications and also sales because this is about negotiations.

Sometimes courageous communication is about negotiating big contracts.

And this is where for my husband, he has over 25 years in helping also senior leaders and communicate effectively, have hard conversations.

And his biggest background is sales and negotiations.

So think of these three in a row, right?

You've got wild wisdom, inner truth, inner knowing, knowing, knowing what the person's truth is about a situation.

Then the next step is getting clear on what the decision and action is related to that clarity.

And then the final step is communicating it and having courageous conversations with people who are impacted by that decision and that action.

This is about getting internal and external stakeholders on board and engaged and understanding.

And what that does is it multiplies the person's success in implementing that decision in action.

It makes so much sense to me, Nadine, because so often I know when you're starting a company and you're growing it and your team grows with you at the beginning, you're doing so many things on your own and so everything is stuck up here in your head.

And then as you start to grow your team, if you don't keep communicating over and over again the narrative of what really, you know, the purpose of the company is, the vision of the company, what's important, you know, where we're going, how we're getting there, right.

If we don't completely and if we don't have it written down for ourselves and if we don't have it out there, then the team can't align and begin to grow and bring their brilliance.

Right?

Find their wild wisdom, take brave action and have more courageous conversations.

And so you're stuck being the only one doing all the hard steps, right?

But when you enroll your team, then now you, you can really start to set that and it can take on a whole other life of its own.

Right?

And that's, that's really awesome.

They want to contribute.

And so like building on what you're saying, Coco, is that a lot of times again, our, the entrepreneurs we work with, the founders that we coach, they are telling us we've built so much trust with them because we have got, we like.

It is imperative that we build this level of trust with them so that we can help them trust themselves and really be able to at a whole nother level.

Right.

And totally what's happening is often is they know there's something that they need to do, they know there's something they need to deal with.

Maybe it's like a challenging HR director or finance lead or a sales manager, that it's not, it's just not working out and it's causing challenges throughout the organization.

They know they need to deal with it or they know they need to hire an operations director or vp.

But what happens is they get that, right, that self doubt comes up or that overthinking comes up.

They get stuck.

Then time goes on and it kind of gets more difficult and then it's like, okay, well, it's like it's become harder now.

It multiplies in difficulty because it's been so long and then what happens is they get paralyzed in it and it's very stressful.

So just that process of being able to get that clarity, make that decision, communicate courageously.

Oh, I can't tell you how many times a client of ours has come back and said, oh my gosh, like you said earlier in the conversation, like, they'll say, why did I wait so long?

I've wasted, you know, so much time and energy worrying about this.

I just wish I would have done this so much sooner because it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Right, right.

It's.

And just having that support.

So tell us about how you work with clients.

Sure.

Your services and programs.

Sure.

So we, we primarily, Derek and I, we work as a team, so we coach our clients privately.

We don't run a big group program or have a big online program that people need to watch all these recordings, the art.

Clients don't have time for that and they don't have time to be on big group programs where the discussion is about other people's stuff.

Now I'm not saying there isn't some value in that.

In.

Right.

And getting in, getting, learning from other people.

There is.

What our clients really want, our ideal client is they want, they want personalized private coaching on their business, on their life, on their issues.

So that's what we do.

We, we call our coaching ascend to freedom.

Ascend to freedom to impossible freedom.

And we call it really, it's, it's really about where primarily we work with clients for about 12 months typically.

Sometimes if a person is already far along in terms of working on some of the things that, similar to what we do, it could be shorter, it could be longer.

But what we do is we have a.

We invite them to.

Usually I meet people at conferences, I go to conferences, and I, I meet potential clients very organically because it's all about focusing on the relationship and nurturing it.

And then I have a coffee date with them, get to know them.

What I'm really understanding is where are they?

How motivated are they to.

For change?

Have they had a wake up call that really is compelling them to make this better for themselves?

I'm looking at their coachability, how really what is their motivation?

And I know what we do and how we work and what we specialize in.

So I'm really looking, okay, is there some chemistry here?

And is, is what we do?

You know, are we, are we meant to work on what they've got?

Can we really help them?

Then I invite them to meet Derek, because if someone decides to work with us.

They are working with both of us and they're gaining our skills, both of our skills.

And then we do a discovery call and really go in and do a gap analysis.

Where are they now?

Where do they really want to be?

Where do they need to be?

And then I know right then and there whether or not we're the best fit for them to help.

And if we are, I'm not shy about recommending us.

And if we're not, I make a different recommendation on what would serve them in a different way.

Brilliant.

Brilliant.

And so I know that our listeners are going to want to figure out and be able to have more access to you.

So I know you're starting up or you stop started a round table.

Yes.

And I'm excited about that.

I'm planning to attend your roundtable.

Tell us about what that is and how people can get into it.

Oh, I'm so excited about this.

So yeah, I'm just in the process of launching this.

The first one's next week.

So maybe by the time some people listen to this we'll already have a few under our belts.

Who knows.

So you can go to the the URL is Ascend Leadership.

So as C E N D leadership.com forward/roundtable is, is once a month.

I'm doing this, I'm leading, I'm personally leading this 60 minute call.

There are eight spots there is no cost to attend and this is for eight entrepreneurs, founders who really want to connect with others and learn.

And there's no selling.

What I mean by that is I'm not going to sell.

I'm not going to go out there and sell, you know, online program or anything like that or with any kind of sense of urgency or fast track, fast action bonuses.

None of that is going to happen.

What's going to happen?

And nobody else can sell either.

What's going to happen is we'll have a topic, we have a topic for each call and I will facilitate an opportunity for everybody to get to know like to meet each other and you know, know where they, what they do and create some connections because there's going to be some really good relationships built.

It's a networking opportunity and, and in addition it's a learning opportunity because I'll have a topic.

So some of the topics, I think maybe people would like to know some of the topics here.

Here are five.

Okay.

How to free up time for more strategic money making work.

We have a client who is like just started working with us and she has been really Getting, you know, so focused on some operational issues that she hasn't been working on an acquisition and buying a building that she needs to needs and wants to do.

These are the kinds of things, strategic money making work.

That's one example.

How to leverage your team to free up your time so that you as a team can bring in more revenue into the company.

Don't we all want that?

How to have conversations with your team about hard things and changes.

Right.

How to, how to communicate changes and decisions that you're making.

How to make confident decisions without falling into self doubt and indecision.

Don't we all want that?

Right.

Just to be able to hear what that is.

Go and do it and then yeah, be unapologetic.

Unapologetic.

Right.

With yourself in the world.

So if you're listening, I hope you go and check this out.

I really do think this is going to be a powerful experience.

I'm going to participate.

I can't wait.

I can't wait to meet the other visionary women who will be there.

Ascendleadership.com Roundtable.

I will also include it in the description below.

And so this is just wonderful and I'm so honored that we got to spend spend this time together.

I thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for inviting me.

It is, it is such an honor to share these stories and to you're bringing out this from me.

This is a big year.

Derek and I are writing a book on Impossible Freedom and I can't wait to you know I've been loving being part of your team and encouraging you and because your book needs to be seen and I'm really looking forward to tapping into some of your wins and your lessons that you've had from this book launch and bringing them into the experience in about nine months or so.

So so thank you for leading the way.

Oh goodness.

And I can't wait.

I was, I was going to ask you if you were given a book on the way.

So this is wonderful.

Impossible freedom.

I'm all about learning, growing into that.

And for everyone listening, thank you so much for joining us today and if you enjoyed our time together, of course you did.

Please be sure to follow like and share the wisdom of women show on whatever your favorite listening or maybe viewing platform is and be sure to infuse more of your wisdom into your business.

And a great way to do that is to take the growth readiness quiz out of forceforgood biz quiz cover where your is most needed.

The world is made better by women like so let's all go make the world a better place.

Thank you.

Thanks so much everybody for listening.

I hope to connect with with you soon.

If you feel with what we talked about, I hope you have a rest of your week.