Your Year of Impossible Freedom
Starts Now.
Break free from the Middle Zone and take back your time, energy, and joy—so you can drive business growth and create a deeply rewarding life, at the same time.
Ascend to Freedom is here.
with Nadine & Derek Nicholson
Founders, Ascend Leadership Co.
You can’t solve a busy-ness problem by working harder or more.
Powerhouse, we see you.
You’ve already proven you can create incredible results in business. You’re more successful than most, and you know how to make money. But that success has come at a cost.
Your calendar is slammed, work demands are relentless, you’re not totally present with family, your health is stretched thin, and you’ve lost touch with how to truly enjoy the little free time you do have.
On top of that, there’s a nagging feeling that your personal life is being compromised and the guilt that comes with it. You wonder, “I’ve built a great business, but is this all there is? What’s it all for?”
You’ve reached a plateau in your business we call the Middle Zone. Business is like climbing a mountain, and it’s harder in the Middle Zone.
It’s a sign of success—because it took something to get here! It’s also a call for change.
Many entrepreneurs feel stuck in this place and often settle because they think it's all there is. The strategies that got you here won’t take you higher. Working harder doesn’t solve the problem. You end up working harder to stay here.
Despite your success, it feels impossible to grow your business and create a fulfilling life—at the same time. If this is you, you’re not alone. We see this all the time.
But you can’t stay in the Middle Zone forever. No one can.
You can’t keep going at this pace forever. Your family needs you, you’re not getting any younger, and at the end of the day, you want to know that your life mattered—to your loved ones, friends, community, and mostly to you.
Simply put: You want business growth and a rewarding life—without sacrificing one for the other.
You want what we call Impossible Freedom—
—an amount of flexibility and possibility in your schedule that is so spacious, and so freeing that it almost seems “impossible.” (But, it’s not).
—a feeling of being wildly accomplished both inside and outside of business—that it almost seems “impossible.” (But, it’s not).
Still, you can’t create Impossible Freedom if you’re spending most of your time working.
You’re getting really tired of seeing your time being eaten up by your business—in distractions, obligations, responsibilities, and making money.
You don’t feel like you can keep up, especially when it’s hard to feel a sense of accomplishment when you’re constantly sidelined by interruptions and distractions.
And, you’re starting to resent your business entirely with all the time that is being lost to work—time that could be spent on your health, self-expression, adventure, joy, family, relationships, play, and strategically working on the business rather than “in it” all the time.
The sad truth is—you’re right, the time is being lost. And you won’t get it back.
The good news? It doesn’t have to stay that way.
You don’t want to be working at the laptop while your family hangs out without you, today, tomorrow or any day. You don’t want to wish for time that you can’t get back. You want more time for yourself and your loved ones, and you want it NOW.
You’re ready to make a change. Today. Immediately. ASAP.
That’s where we, and Ascend to Freedom, come in.
Ascend to Freedom is a 12-month experience for high-performing, high-earning entrepreneurs and founders who run $1MM+ businesses. We personally show you how to break free from the Middle Zone and take back your time, energy, and joy to create Impossible Freedom. You learn how to drive business growth and create a fulfilling life, at the same time.
Hi, we’re Nadine and Derek Nicholson…
The co-founders of Ascend Leadership Co., creators of the Five Forces of Ascended Leadership, and your guides to creating Impossible Freedom.
You get two dedicated partners and world-class leadership coaches dedicated to helping you maximize your business potential while also making room for more LIFE.
Most other coaches don't have tangible business expertise, significantly limit how much you can access their support, and rely heavily on energetically-draining asynchronous communication.
We’re the kind of leaders who bring out the best in you, guiding you to make every decision from a place of inner alignment, staying true to your core values without compromise.
Our combined 60+ years of expertise in business, leadership, sales, operations, change management, communications, psychology, and PR in organizations of 100,000+ employees will help you turn what feels “impossible” into simple, practical, and do-able steps.
We’re in the trenches at your side, ensuring the inner shifts you make become your new, sustainable way of being and leading.
We walk our talk and stand firmly by our values, empowering you to become an Ascended Leader and completely shift how you lead yourself, your time, and your team. This is self-leadership, and it’s our genius.
Business Ascension that makes room for more LIFE.
We understand your true time leaks.
There are usually three reasons why entrepreneurs feel time-strapped.
Do these sound familiar?
Time Guilt
You find yourself feeling GUILTY about how you’re spending your time no matter what you’re doing.
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As a result, you’re left with no time or energy for the things that truly matter to you.
This is a symptom of not being radically intentional with your time. When you work with us, we’ll craft a unique time system for you so you can kiss the time guilt goodbye.
Overworking
You find yourself overworking, “hiding out” in the business, and operating out of fear – fear that the business might fall apart without you holding it all together.
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If you’re taking care of your health and well-being, you feel guilty you’re not spending time with your family. If you’re spending time with your family, you feel guilty you’re not working and answering emails. If you’re working and answering emails, you feel guilty you’re not getting some exercise, and so on.
This is a symptom of the Say/Do Gap™.
The Say/Do Gap™ is the space between what you SAY you value and what you actually DO with your time.
For example, if you say your health is important but it’s on the backburner, you may overcompensate by working harder instead of facing the lack of alignment between your SAY (values) and your DO (choices). Our work will help close your Say/Do Gaps™ so you’re living in alignment.
Overthinking
You’re expending excess energy by overthinking work situations, struggling to find the “right” decisions, and worrying about what other people are thinking about you.
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When you’re working, you tend to exhaust yourself doing tasks that drain you, or you avoid them altogether but use energy worrying about them!
This is a symptom of not leading from your inner wisdom: you’re making up meaning, stories, and assumptions and wasting time overanalyzing. Together, we’ll help you find your inner, unwavering truth and take action from there. This will help you move forward with more clarity, more confidence and less stress.
Your calendar says everything about what you’re actually choosing to value.
Because in a year from now, your life can look wildly different.
You can be an Ascended Leader where you take back your time, energy, and joy so that you can drive business and build a deeply rewarding life—without sacrificing one for the other.
And, after working with hundreds of clients to help them actually create sustainable Impossible Freedom, we know it’s possible for you too.
Everything seems “impossible,” until it’s real.
Here’s what our clients typically accomplish as a result of working with us, and you can too –
Radically reduce your working hours and confidently step away to unplug, recharge, and live your life without guilt.
Build a high-performing team who autonomously acts as the wind beneath your ambitious, impact-driven wings.
Rewire your mind to make decisions from self-trust and deliver challenging conversations with confidence.
Reclaim your calendar and spend your time wisely, in ways that keep you feeling lit up and in your genius zone.
Hit new levels of growth, revenue and results with 10X more ease than it took to get you here.
Negotiate higher-value services and build dream client relationships and more warm referrals.
You’ll have time to enjoy the activities that give you energy and make you feel fully alive, like…
✔ Guilt-free, unplugged vacations
✔ Work-free weekends to spend with friends and family
✔ Being outside in nature
✔ Hiking, walking, biking, skiing and golfing
✔ Exercise, athletics and adventure
✔ Listening to live music
✔ Creative self-expression
✔ Journaling, meditation, yoga, cooking, painting, and more…
AND, not only that, but we believe that it’s really important that what’s happening in your business really lights you up. So the personal things that you discover you love can and will be integrated into your “work life” too.
feel fully alive…
Wondering how our process works?
We’ll help you master our Five Forces of Ascended Leadership:
Step 1. Wild Wisdom: Tap into unwavering clarity on your highest truth, deepest desires, and “someday” dreams.
Step 2. Time Mastery: Create radical, brave integrity between what you say matters most and what you do with your time.
Step 3. United Team: Build and lead a cohesive, high-performing support system that frees up your time, instead of demanding more of it.
Step 4. Courageous Conversations: Sincere relationship-building, impeccable follow-up, and clear communication that develops invaluable relationships.
Step 5. Brave Action: Make confident decisions and take consistent action from self-trust and possibility as you realize your vision.
Program Features
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Time Mastery Assessment
Once you’re onboarded and we’ve covered all the essential logistics, you’ll do an eye-opening assessment of your time, life, and business to identify priorities for growth. You’ll gain clarity on the unwavering principles that will make even your toughest decisions feel easier moving forward. And you’ll flesh out what you truly want to make the next year and decade your best yet, pinpointing exactly what you and us will focus on creating.
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Time Mastery Intensive
In your first month of coaching, you'll experience a 5-hour immersive retreat where we’ll dive deep into what’s working, spotlight areas for improvement, and identify quick wins. You’ll uncover your most costly leaks in time, energy, and money, and make confident decisions to free up time for what you love, what you’re best at, and what drives more revenue. We’ll work together to create a custom Entrepreneurial Time Rhythm that keeps you energized, balanced, and focused—bringing harmony between your business and life while increasing revenue with more joy and ease. We’ll also assess your team to uncover immediate opportunities for growth. Finally, you’ll leave with clear and focused takeaways, commitments, and priorities.
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Biweekly Coaching Meetings
Every second week, you’ll get coached at the highest level you’ve ever experienced by master-level coaches. We help you navigate opportunities and challenges with precision and confidence. We’ll coach you on your mindset, team leadership, selling and contract negotiations, operational decisions, hiring, change management, communications, and time mastery. You’ll walk away from each meeting motivated and inspired a clear two-week accountability plan so you know exactly what to focus on to move your business and life forward.
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Unlimited Ad Hoc Coaching
You have ongoing access to unlimited “real-time” coaching calls for time-sensitive opportunities and issues in between your scheduled coaching meetings. You can talk as much or as little as you want. We’re literally in your back pocket! When you want a laser call, you’ll email or text us during our work hours, and we’ll hop on the phone with you within 24 hours.
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Empowered Selling & Critical Conversation Support
We’ll help you attract higher quality clients, build more reciprocity with potential clients, and increase your close rate. When you get a new lead, we’ll have a strategy call first and then debrief afterwards. You can even record your contract negotiations and we’ll give you constructive feedback on how to improve. We also will help you successfully prepare for any courageous conversations like a difficult conversation with an employee or contractor, making a key job offer, working out a client challenge, etc.
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Say/Do Gap Eradicator & Ridgewalk Decision-Making System
Your Say/Do Gaps — where you are sacrificing the wrong things — are the true source of time stress and guilt. It’s not your busy calendar or to-do list. You’ll learn our proprietary system to close the costly gaps between what matters and how you spend your time, so you step into fierce integrity with what truly matters to you, and feel more lit up and fully alive. We will also teach you how to rewire your mind away from the learned conditioning of fear, scarcity and “not enoughness” and learn how to make confident decisions with precision, self-trust and abundance.
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Defy “Can’t” Intensive
Midway through the year, we’ll facilitate a powerful and inspiring deep-dive to celebrate your progress, identify areas for growth, and recalibrate your priorities for the next six months. We'll help you move past the stubborn "can'ts" and into unstoppable momentum to finish strong in your Year of Impossible Freedom and realize the vision we set out to accomplish together.
After our time together, you will –
Reclaim your calendar, free up your time, and confidently step away to unplug and recharge without guilt.
Confidently build and lead a united team who are engaged in your vision and drive your vision forward.
Hit new levels of sales, revenue and results with 10X more ease than it took to get you here.
This is the power of The Five Forces of Ascended Leadership.
In a year, you’ll be the true leader of yourself, your time, and your team—present and enjoying every moment—with plenty of space away from work, while experiencing accelerated growth in your business.
This is not for you if…
✔ Overworking is working for you and you want to hang onto to this way of living and running your business
✔ You love the IDEA of changing, but you don’t really want to do the uncomfortable “work” required to make it happen
✔ It feels safer to keep doing what you’re doing, versus explore and create a new way of thinking and being
✔ You are not an action taker and don’t really want to follow through on what you say you want
✔ You’re focused on “going it alone” and not ready to let yourself be supported by expert coaches or a reliable team
✔ You’re addicted to living in a state of stress, filling your workday with disruptions, being on a treadmill, and having no free time
This is for you if…
✔ You’re a high-performing, high-earning entrepreneur who’s ready to have more time off WHILE growing your revenue
✔ You KNOW it’s time to change – what you’re doing is not working and you can’t continue what you're doing
✔ You’re ready, motivated and willing to make the changes required to achieve your goals
✔ You love working in a personalized, high-end way, getting lots of direct support, insights, and feedback
✔ You want to be challenged to really step into the life and leadership you dream of – to work smarter, not harder
✔ You want to be supported by two human beings who will be 100% devoted to YOU, your values, your needs
Unlike many other programs out there, we are not on a pedestal teaching from a distance—we are IN THE TRENCHES with you.
We’ll be there to help you make decisions that are true for you, in real time. This isn’t a formulaic, cookie-cutter process because your experience of becoming a Time Leader is uniquely yours. You won’t feel like you’re being taught, measured, and judged—instead you’ll be supported and championed
– like you finally have partners who understand you, and are there to help you fiercely manage your time and take a stand for what matters most to you.
Why we created Ascend to Freedom.
We’ve seen too many high-achieving entrepreneurs and founders run themselves into the ground, sacrificing their well-being and personal life for their business. We’ve watched them compromise what matters most in the name of success.
We believe you don’t have to choose between business growth and a rewarding life.
But uncovering your current habits with time, identifying the changes to make (both in yourself and in your business), and implementing all of the changes –
It can be another overwhelming task on your to-do list… or…
It can be an exciting, productive adventure where you’re fully supported, championed, and held to the fire for what matters MOST to you in the most helpful ways.
If you’re ready to partner with us, we’ll get in the trenches to help you finally create Impossible Freedom and we’ll never waver.
We do this work to eradicate the Say/Do Gap in the lives of successful people, especially women.
Nadine Nicholson is a Master Certified Coach and Time Expert, but around here we call her the Chief Possibility Officer and Time Architect.
The world’s leading expert in Time Mastery and powerful visionary behind the Five Forces of Ascended Leadership, Nadine brings 30 years of experience as an executive in corporate communications (where she ran teams of 100+) and as an entrepreneur building her $1MM+ leadership coaching business. As a Master Certified Coach with double degrees in PR and psychology and an Accredited Business Communicator, Nadine is a force of nature who calls clients up to their highest potential and helps them make clear, confident decisions at the speed of light. She’s a straight shooting truth teller with a deep connection to nature, particularly the Bow River, which she visits regularly. Nadine speaks on Time Mastery, breaking through the Middle Zone, and overcoming the trap of the Say/Do Gap—inspiring entrepreneurs all over the world to live in complete integrity between what they SAY matters most and what they actually DO with their time. Nadine is a 100 Women to KNOW, recognized as one of the top female leaders across North America. She is an alumni of Harvard Business School and member of the Women Presidents Organization, a global collective for women presidents of privately held, multi-million dollar companies.
Nadine
Areas of Expertise: Time Mastery. Truth Telling. Inspired Action. Brave Communication. Mindset. Relationship-based Selling. Creating Possibility!
Derek
Derek Nicholson is an Internationally trained Leadership Coach and Team & Operations Expert, but we love to call him the Chief Simplicity Officer and Team Architect.
Truly the “secret weapon” behind the The Five Forces of Ascended Leadership, Derek brings 30 years of diverse business experience and a successful track record of managing complex operations, leading highly effective teams, and delivering solid business strategy. His experience spans service-based healthcare, energy firms, and entrepreneurial firms, supporting these businesses in building and motivating more efficient teams. Derek is certified in Change Management and Facilitation and has an analytical mind with a gift for simplifying the complex. Don’t be surprised by his calm wisdom and heart-centered nature, Derek is the stabilizing rock for many of Ascend’s clients. He’ll create a clear path through the confusion with doable, tactical solutions for building an empowered team that will take more off of your plate, so you can reclaim your time.