The Most Common Questions About Brave Career Coaching Are Answered Below

Coaching with me is for you when:

• You want to grow your career in your own Brave way, elevating your life, and are committed to longer-term growth over immediate, overnight, quick fixes because you know that transformation and growth take time and commitment
• You are done stressing yourself out, overthinking, running multiple scenarios in your mind before taking action, and are ready to feel more at ease
• You are currently working more than you want and are ready to figure out how to find your balanced approach to life and work
• You know or believe you are underpaid and are ready to increase your income without burning yourself out
• You have at least five years of professional experience and are now ready for your next level of growth

Here are two podcast episodes that may help you identify if coaching may be a good choice for you: 

• E141 – Brave Careers: How Career Coaching Creates Career Growth, What is a Career Coach? When Do You Need One?
• E142 – Identifying the Need for Career Coaching: Personal Stories from 11 Professional Women from Diverse Industries and Roles 

Coaching with me is not right for you when:

• You want a standard career template with quick-fix results
• You want me to give you answers rather than exploring and creating your own
• You are managing active burnout or trauma without therapeutic support
• You aren’t open to and ready to address systems of power, including white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, and more

We meet 1:1. You schedule each of your sessions with a unique scheduling link.

Each session lasts between 45 and 60 minutes, based upon your needs. We meet on zoom and you decide if you want the camera on or not.

I suggest the following framework for each session:

1. Celebrate
   Practicing the skill of appreciation and joy is part of being ever more brave in a world that wants women to be humble and ignored.
2. Repeat goal
   This helps deepen your commitment to your goal and also help identify if/when your goal begins to shift so that we can also shift the strategy, mindset, or action plan.
3. Topic/question
   Bring a topic or question that we spend the majority of our time exploring and answering together. This is the meat of the coaching session and where you gain the most insight.
4. Next steps/homework
   Either of us can suggest optional next steps and homework. I do not create mandatory homework and I don’t control if or how you do it.

Yes. I am really your coach.

One of my key principles is actively supporting my clients. We have live engagement during our sessions and I also offer asynchronous engagement. For all clients, I am available Monday-Friday, between 9am and 3pm in the MT timezone. You schedule your sessions based on your availability and according to our agreement.

For clients of my Build Your Brave Career coaching package, I offer two additional ways to get support from me and my Build Your Brave community.

• You gain access to the Build Your Brave Career space on a private, secured platform called Circle with my other clients. You retain access after our package is complete. In this space, you can send me audio message, ask the full communities for insight and support, and expand your networking with my other clients. 
• You have on-Demand access to all of the learning materials, frameworks, videos, and templates for the Build Your Brave Framework.
• You also join Brave Group calls at least once a month for exchange, live coaching, and guest expert experiences. 

Please note: there are no life-threatening emergencies in coaching. If a situation is life-threatening, I am not the right professional. Please call your local/national emergency number.

The coaching experience with me is bespoke to you and your goal, so each of my clients’ answers to this is unique. The most common response appears to be a range between five and ten hours a month, including: 

• Implementing the new skills, framework, and mindset for your strategy and action plan
• Optional homework

Additionally for clients with the Build Your Brave Career Coaching package:

• Monthly Brave Group Call
• Build Your Brave Career Community
• Brave Coffee Calls / 1:1 networking calls with other clients

Here some a messy, brave answer: yes and no.

Do I guarantee that I will support you to the best of my ability and towards your own personal growth in your unique way? Yes. 100%

Do I guarantee a specific result in a specific amount of time? No.

Our coaching relationship and your results are the outcome of countless situations, experiences, and responses. Many of those are completely out of our control, like, for example the 2020 pandemic and the wild market shifts each year since then.

So promising you something that I can’t actually promise is … well, sorta manipulative and not very brave.

Instead, I offer the results of my last client survey as of Q1 2024:

• 76% of my clients from the past two years report they reached their unique goal.
• 100% of my clients report they stress less as a result of working with me.
• 68% report working less.
• 57% report earning more.

No. You need to know how to craft your career collateral. Rather than providing you a final version from a black box, we collaborate on your materials over time.

You draft the materials and then I give you written and live feedback, teaching you how to craft your own approach that supports your unique goal, career path, and style. You put it into action, in the way that best supports you and your goal.

Most of my clients benefit from an ongoing, iterative process to continuously improve their career collateral (resume, cover letter, professional story, LinkedIn, blog, etc)

Most of my clients continue to work with me. Since 2019 about 60% of my clients renewed with me at least at once. Some of my clients have worked with me on-and-off over several years. That is open for you as well.

For clients with the Build Your Brave Career package, they continue to:

• Be invited to the Monthly Brave Group Call
• Have access to the Build Your Brave Career community space

First, we explore working together through a mandatory consultation. I do not accept new clients without a consultation. We have to know if we are a good fit and both feel confident about working together.

After we’ve agreed to work together, you sign an agreement and make your first payment. The agreement is simple and designed to protect you.

Then, you receive your unique scheduling link to start scheduling sessions as agreed. Maybe clients start a month or two after signing up to ensure their full calendars are ready for the commitment to coaching. 

If you are a Build Your Brave Career client, you also immediately get access to the online community and group calls.

If you are a Build Your Brave Career client: yes, through the on-demand community space on Circle.

I encourage you to set up coffee chats with my other clients for any reason, including practicing your interest interviews and building your network.

I currently accept up to 10 clients for 1:1 coaching to ensure that you get the attention and response you need and that serves your goals, within my own boundaries.

I accept all credit and debit card payments. You can also choose to use paypall and ACH transfers.
Once we agree upon working together, you will receive a secure link for payments.

If I become the wrong fit for you, or a situation arises out of our control that impacts your ability to continue coaching, I am open to a conversation about ending your engagement and pro-rating your payments. 

Here is one of my core principles: personal investment should *never* create significant financial anxiety. If it does, something has gone wrong and needs to be addressed. There is a line between growth/stretch/discomfort and pressure/anxiety/pain. This is equally true emotionally and financially. When you are over the line — and only you know where that line is specifically for you! — we will work together to support you back towards growth. 

Please share your concern with me through the channel of your choice. We will work it out together. 

No. Coaching with me is a bespoke, focused partnership between you and I towards your goal.

You bring your authority, goal, and unique needs and experiences. I bring a wide range of frameworks from three coaching certification programs, years of coaching experience with clients all over the world, as well as my own professional experience to support you and your goals.

We collaborate on a strategy, mindset, and action plan unique to and for your goal.

Clients in the longer programs also have access to the Build Your Brave OnDemand learning and exchange space for additional information, insight, and inspiration.

For specific questions about your own situation: I highly recommend scheduling a consultation here. Your experience, skills, goals, and current experience are all unique to you. Working with me is a tailored experience and most of the answers to your detailed situation will be too.

You can also reach out to me at nicole @ tricksteinbach.com.