The way we lead our lives as entrepreneurs needs to
You know the trend: ambitious entrepreneurs sacrificing their health, sleep and family and life experiences in the name of business growth. They say they value freedom, health, family, and adventure.
But that’s not what their calendars say.
They compromise. They sacrifice. They tell themselves “someday” they’ll make up for all of this lost time. Meanwhile, deep down, they know they can’t really “make up” for lost time. Once that clock ticks, it’s gone forever.
We call this the Say/Do Gap.
It’s that rift of tension and guilt that occurs when your actions don’t align with what really matters to you. You SAY one thing, you DO another. It’s an epidemic among high-achieving people.
And we’re here to eradicate it.
To bring about the paradigm and perspective shift the world needs.
To help business leaders operate at a whole new level that creates room for more LIFE.
Not someday, now.
change.
We’re Nadine and Derek Nicholson.
Co-founders of Ascend Leadership Co. and the Five Forces of Ascended Leadership, and your guides to creating Impossible Freedom.
Our vision: a world where leaders are in fierce INTEGRITY with what deeply matters to them. Where they make the most of their one precious and vital life.
So we took our combined expertise and developed an engaging curriculum that translates beautifully into live engagements with audiences of all sizes.
We help high-performing, high-earning entrepreneurs and founders who run $1MM+ businesses to break free from the Middle Zone and take back their time, energy, and joy to create Impossible Freedom. They learn how to drive business growth and create a fulfilling life, at the same time.
We believe that…
Business is harder in the Middle Zone.
Staying stuck here (which many business leaders do) is the road to resentment, exhaustion, and burnout. You have to aim higher and ascend to the very top of the mountain to find the breathing room you crave.
The strategies that got you to the Middle Zone will only keep you there.
To get any higher, you need to shift how you are leading yourself, your time, your business, and your team. We call this Ascended Leadership.
Being lit up and fully alive isn’t the reward for business success…
it’s the key to achieving it sustainably in the first place. Success without radical integrity with what matters is the true source of burnout and time stress.
We Teach Ascended Leadership.
Ascended Leadership means completely shifting how you lead YOURSELF, your TIME, and your TEAM. It means unapologetically putting what matters most at the very center of your calendar and experiencing more wealth, growth, and impact because of it. It means defying “can’t”, staying in brave action, and making decisions in unwavering self-trust as you realize your “someday” dreams NOW.
All of our talks are centered around our signature Five Forces of Ascended Leadership.
Some of our most popular talks include:
02. ERADICATING THE SAY/DO GAP™ for greater freedom, wealth and joy both inside and outside of business
High-performing, high-earning entrepreneurs and founders, torn between family and business, want to feel present, truly enjoy life-fulfilling relationships and work – and eradicate the impossible feeling that their business is too busy to step away from. It’s time to revisit our locked-in vision of how the daily lives of successful people unfold, heed the wake up call for change, and uncover what really keeps us from the time freedom we crave. This talk debunks the notions of “getting ahead” or “catching up” to overcome the resistance that’s keeping you stuck and fearful of losing what you’ve built. We also explore the critical shift that will help you boldly remember what success actually looks like for you (and re-engineer your calendar to reflect it right now).
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How to quickly identify whether or not you’re in the Middle Zone.
Why you resist making the shifts that would take you a new level of business with breathing room.
What you can do TODAY that will make the biggest difference to make room for more LIFE without sacrificing an inch of your hard-earned success.
O1. CLIMBING OUT OF “THE MIDDLE ZONE”—how to do it as a high-performing, high-earning entrepreneur
It’s time for powerhouse entrepreneurs and founders to fiercely reclaim their lives and their time and break through the pattern of sacrifice they’ve accepted as the norm. This talk is a rally cry for change. You’ll discover the true source of time stress, what keeps you stuck, and how we can all break out of the time myths that are stealing our lives as ambitious business owners.
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The root cause of time stress and time guilt, and how to fix it for good.
Three of the biggest time leaks so you can seal them up immediately, reclaim your time and elevate your wealth.
The mindset shifts you need to intentionally design your time in a way that keeps you lit up and prioritized.
03. THE 3 HIDDEN TIME LEAKS NOBODY’S TALKING ABOUT – and how to fix them now
Entrepreneurs and founders are desperate for the path to more energy, less resentment, and more freedom to refill their tanks and resurface from the constant pressure they’re buried under. In this talk, we’ll shift you away from time management techniques that have failed you and share how to effectively seal up the leaks that are draining your time, energy and joy, and impacting your bank account.
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The true source of inner conflict, time guilt and indecisiveness.
A powerful reframe that makes it possible to be fully present for the people and things that matter
How to become a time leader, the one and only commander in chief of your most precious resource.
04. ROCK SOLID SUPPORT – The Team Building You Really Need to Reclaim Your Time and Play Bigger Than Ever Before
As time, team, and change management experts—as well as master leadership coaches—we’ve seen it all. Entrepreneurs who feel the need to take on more work than they can reasonably be responsible for. Entrepreneurs hitting a place in business where they can’t see how they’ll grow because they’re already at maximum capacity. Entrepreneurs wondering if they’ll EVER have a team that really supports THEM, instead of the other way around! And, we’re happy to report that it’s 100% possible to build a supportive, efficient, joyful team that helps your business grow (while you take time off). Rallying your team’s unwavering support around your vision and cultivating their own self-leadership is the key – and in this talk, we’ll show you how to do it.
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How to recognize and nurture the relationships that are key to your business and personal success.
How to make your vision clear and magnetic so that you can lead and lean on your team like never before.
How to build your team without growing your own to-do list
Do we sound like a potential fit for your audience?
Let’s start with a 30-minute call and we’ll go from there.
Ascend Leadership Co. is a premier leadership coaching company dedicated to helping high-performing, high-earning entrepreneurs and founders to become more powerful, productive, and present leaders of their business and life.
Using their signature Five Forces of Ascended Leadership, Nadine and Derek Nicholson help clients break free from the Middle Zone of time stress, guilt, and overworking, so they can drive business growth and create a deeply rewarding life at the same time, without sacrificing one for the other. They live in radical integrity with what matters and prime themselves for their best decade yet. Not someday, NOW.
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: Truth Telling. Time Mastery. Inspired Action. Brave Communication. Mindset. Relationship-Building. Creating Possibility!
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 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.
