Build Your Brave Career

Stress Less – Work Less – Earn More

Stressed out. Overworked. Underpaid. Passed over (again… and again… and again).

That’s just how it is as a woman in tech, right?

Nope. Not around here.

Here we build the skill of bravery to stress less, work less, and then earn more.

Together.

Does this sound familiar?

"I'm stressed out."

Monday starts with a rush and you never slow down. You slump on Wednesday, brain-tired from overthinking while rushing from topic to topic, always somehow behind. By Friday, your body and your brain are tired, done from the anxiety while you worry about getting called out, caught out, or even just cut. Saturday is packed with all the stuff you can’t get done during the week, and maybe a little recovery…if you can somehow manage to stop thinking about work. By Sunday night at the latest it all starts over again. The curiosity and creativity you once brought to work is gone. Now it’s just survival. You are stressed.

"I'm overworked."

Your to-do list never shrinks because your job keeps growing while your title and salary don’t. You are great at your job, the go-to person, and you pay for it with your free time, your hobbies, and perhaps even your sleep. Your laptop is always on, even on vacation. If, on the rare occasion your laptop isn’t with you, your mobile phone has all your work apps and is always on the ready. When you manage to show up for friends and family, you’re still available for work…even after you’ve promised yourself you won’t be. It is all way too much. You are overworked.

"I’m underpaid."

Even though you’re doing more complex, visible, and sophisticated work, you aren’t getting the promotions or the pay bumps. In fact, in the last few years you’ve barely kept up with inflation while your work and visibility keep growing. The biggest rub is watching other people with less skill, grit, commitment, and experience leapfrog ahead of you in pay and title. You’ve got the skills and results but not the pay or seniority. You are underpaid.

If you see yourself in any of these statements, it is time for change.

It is time to reject the tired stereotype that women in the tech industry
have to be stressed out, overworked, and underpaid.

It is time to build the skill of bravery.

Bravery is so much more than you’ve been taught. You’ve been taught that being brave is exclusively power-driven, life-or-death actions like running into burning buildings, leaping towards battle, crushing the competition, or even saving the world like some sort of superhero.

But that version of brave isn’t the only — or even the best — form of brave. That form of brave may be great for movies (and very important for true emergencies) but it is ruinous for your peace of mind, lifespan, relationships, health, and career. 

That form of brave keeps you stressed, constantly pursuing perfectionism, assuming danger is just around the corner, and pushing yourself for more. Always more.

It forces you to overwork, because rest is for the weak and you have to do it all, all by yourself. I mean, if you aren’t saving the universe every day what are you really doing?!?!

That form holds you back, pretending to be okay, grateful for the fleeting praise, while you stay underpaid, overlooked, and passed over, grinding towards a version of success you don’t even like. 

The type of bravery you’ve been taught keeps you stress out, overworked, and underpaid.

You need a new type of bravery, one that elevates your skill, experiences, impact, and career.

You need the bravery to release the self-doubt and anxiety that keep you confused and anxious because you have built your mindset, your ability to feel your feelings, and strengthened your self-confidence and self-belief.

The bravery to focus on doing your job exceptionally well as you grow your career opportunities because you stopped overproducing and doing other people’s jobs with simple boundaries and clear communication. 

The bravery to habitually leave work on time, closing down your laptop and all the mobile work apps, because you hold your boundaries and enjoy a life full of experiences and people that matter to you. 

The bravery to grow your salary by clearly tracking your results and impact, effectively driving forward the important conversations, and confidentially facing your challenging decisions with clarity because you refuse to be underappreciated or underpaid.

The bravery to build a career that interests and energizes you, at a company and with a manager that support you, because you became the leader of your career, making bold decisions for your future. 

The bravery to rest, relax, and invest in yourself because you made small, consistent steps over time to craft a career and life that you actually enjoy and no longer need to recover from.

Bravery is the most powerful skill for you to stress less, work less, and earn more.

And I can help.

Meet Your Coach

Heya! I’m Nicole Trick Steinbach.

First things, first: I am not naturally brave. I taught myself how to be brave, growing my career from an assistant in the computer science department of an American university to a Global Senior Director at a Fortune 500 global technology company, traveling and working in over 25 countries. 

I know what it is like to be successful on the outside and miserable on the inside. I get it because I lived it. 

Over the course of my career, as I learned to manage my stress, hold my working boundaries, and increase my title and salary, I realized three brave truths: 

  1. Bravery is a skill, not a personality trait. 
  2. You are already brave. 
  3. You can build the skill of bravery. 

Now I coach women in and around the tech industry just like you how to build your brave so that you stress less, work less, and earn more. 

Read More Of My Story Here

Since 2019 my clients have built their brave to create powerful career results so that they also

stress less, work less, and then earn more.

%

reached their main goal, including getting that promotion, shifting industries, relocating globally and nationally, and starting a profitable business.

%

reduced their stress, including making decisions faster and with more ease, communicating with less anxiety, and enjoying more focus.

%

reduced their working hours, the most commonly reported reduction was between three and five hours a week.

%

increased their income, including salary, benefits, and supportive structure to ensure their ongoing success.

Some of my clients' unique, exceptional results have included:

Stopped working weekends consistently for over one year as a tech consultant

Nearly doubled their income by shifting from education to tech

Increased their overall income by over $100,000 in tech sales

Realized they were working multiple full-time roles and built and hired a team to resolve the overwork

Created a new role at the same company, increasing their salary by 20%, ending travel requirements

Transformed a lay-off into a 13% pay increase at a value-matched start-up

Increased their global leadership trust score over 3 points at a Fortune 100 company

Enjoyed six months maternity leave in a country with 16 weeks standardized leave

Massively reduced debt and increased savings by tens of thousands of dollars in nine months

Embraced a nomadic lifestyle, traveling while thriving professionally at a mid-sized company

Relocated globally between two regions within the same company, and then accepted a promotion to leadership

What Clients Say

Mariana Pavia

Then I worked with you, and it was incredibly helpful. And now I’ve since landed a role, and I’m still working on those confidence issues and trying to make sure that what I was saying before, I’m a steady ship, even with a storm.

Listen to More Here

Maartje Bakker

That’s why I wanted to work with you as a one on one coach. I didn’t want someone to tell me how to do things. I was done following other people’s recipes. I want to have that strong voice of my own and not be an echo. We did that.

Listen to More Here

Nisha Shrestha

I learned how to trust myself to know that I am good enough and that who I am is my biggest strength. I believe in myself, fully. This is my starting place and I know my career will make an improvement in the world. 

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Sac-Nicte Yescas

Working with Nicole was fun and enriching, on professional and personal levels. She helped me do a full assessment of my career. Then helped me tap into my full potential. We identified areas of growth and strengths to create a structured and realistic plan to reach my goal in a short period of time. She is very empathetic, understanding, and straightforward. She is willing to tell you what others aren’t: where you need to grow and the harder things.

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Nicole Vafadari

When I started working with Nicole, I already believed in myself. I surprised us both when I decided to change my coaching goal while we were working together. Nicole helps you answer your own big questions so that you can make bold, unexpected decisions. Now I’m more informed, more at peace with my life, and even more proud of what I am doing.

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Ashley Willumitis

The conversation with Nicole actually is the thing that helped me to realize that I needed to quit my job.

I did my consult with you Nicole and a few other coaches. And I’ve always joked with my friends that you cracked me like an egg.

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Ginny Walters

I think life events and also the pandemic have changed how I view feelings and how I feel feelings. And you know coaching has helped me do that a lot.

So I feel like I am living a life that is driven by my personal mission, not the mission of my employer or my job.

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Dora Szasz

I got promoted more than ever, with career coaching from you. And I’m now stepping into leadership positions and creating new groups and being involved in many leadership roles.

I finally sleep seven, eight hours a night and enjoy what I do.

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Nupur Verma

Working with Nicole, we set the goal more for the internal work. And as a coach, you have really helped me with that.

The good part about working with you is that you don’t provide the solutions. You just ask the questions. And all your models through those discussions over the weeks, I find my own solutions.

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Amanda Burma

Since starting to work with Nicole, there’s been a nice impact. I’ve financially grown as well as grown in my approaches within my career.

I almost want to cry thinking of just the clarity it’s given me. Helping me understand what questions to ask and helped me have confidence in people

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Jackie Podoll

Coaching really helped me calm my nerves and stop second-guessing. I could embrace the authenticity of who I am and what I want.

Now I know I can still be professional while being authentic and confident, without worrying that one is taking away from the other.

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Caroline Santinelli

Your coaching gave me the perspective on my life that I lacked and desperately needed. My view of my personal world and professional world was myopic. Working with you helped to remind me that the lenses I had were not the only way to see my career—or my life!

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Chelsea Olson

I didn’t know if I was strong enough or brave enough or courageous enough to keep going. I didn’t know if it was worth it anymore. I’m glad that I’ve been working with you and I’ve stuck with it. I set out with a goal for five years and I achieved it in 18 months.

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Erin O’Leary

I don’t know how I would have gotten through the last six months of growth and working less without you. I am now curating my career and personal life, putting myself as the priority.

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Susanne Mueller

Coaching helped me liberate myself from what others think about me and focus on what I think and what I believe about me. When I decided to be accountable to me, changing my entire life became so much easier. Now I’m living my dream, traveling the entire world.

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Learn More About My Clients Here

Ready to build your brave career?

Below are three ways we can work together to Build Your Brave Career, depending on your goal.

Want more details? Click here to get them all, including pricing for each package

Ready to Build Your Brave Career?

Schedule your consultation here.

Coaching is a skilled, supportive relationship that best thrives with professional and personal fit. When we work together, I become an extension of your career goal and growth. To ensure that working together is a good next step, we start with a complimentary consultation.