Meet Nicole Trick Steinbach

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Trick Steinbach a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nicole, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

First, I think about imposter syndrome in an unexpected way: imposter syndrome is a symptom of success.
Therefore right when you think you need to overcome it, I say, “Congrats! You reached a place that wasn’t designed for you. Of course, you feel like you don’t belong. You don’t. Yet, you are so skilled, brave, resilient, and impactful, that you made it into a space that wasn’t designed with you in mind. In fact, you may be in a place that was designed to keep you out. So CONGRATS!”
Then I suggest allowing yourself to feel the discomfort and the joy of being an imposter until you realize that you are actually in a position to be a generational change-maker.
You are now in a space that you can alter, creating more space and opportunity for other people who have been kept out.

I wish I had this perspective when I first built my career in the tech industry. It would have saved me a lot of time, discomfort, pretending, and overworking. Tech wasn’t built for women like me, so I often felt like an imposter. Now, it is a joy to be a woman who is making tech better for all the people who the industry was designed to exclude.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am now the International Bravery Coach and host of the Build Your Brave Career podcast. I help women build the skill of bravery so that they stress less, work less, and then earn more.
I spent nearly 20 years working in corporate tech, ending my corporate career with the super fancy and super long title: Global Senior Director of Change and Communications. I lived in Germany for 13 years, traveling the world, and leading global teams across all functional areas in over 25 different countries.
A significant moment of growth was when I learned that even though I was exhausted, unhappy, and lonely, doing everything I thought was required to be successful in corporate tech by copying the men surrounding me, I was perceived as being difficult to work with and was about to get fired. Thankfully I worked for a manager and a company that chose to have a difficult conversation with me, create new expectations, and invest in me through one-on-one coaching.
Through coaching, I discovered how my relentless pursuit of an ever-changing definition of “success”, and copying aggressive leaders, was pushing away my support network, deflating my confidence, and driving me into burnout.
It was a career-defining phase. Over the next ten years, I was able to build my own unique, gorgeous, wonderfully fulfilling life, full of connection and appreciation, rest and joy, safety and wealth. The key was realizing that bravery is a skill that I could intentionally develop and practice.
Now I coach and consult women all over the world to build their own bravery. My framework helps my clients set goals, craft an action plan that balances action and emotion, and builds accountability that crafts their legacy with less stress.
When I’m not serving my clients, you can find me reading books, listening to podcasts, enjoying the outdoors with my two kiddos, and learning with others on my podcast Build Your Brave Career.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

These days the three most important qualities for my personal and professional growth are: bravery, resilience, and kindness.
For example, I am not a naturally brave person, I learned to be brave. Choosing to be brave and build the skill of bravery is the core of how I built a global career, traveled wildly, became financially well-off, and even became a parent (the scariest choice ever).
My key advice to build the skill of bravery is this:
1. decided that bravery is a skill, not a personality trait.
2. embrace that you are already brave.
3. choose to build the skill of bravery.
Allowing myself to feel discomfort, insecurity, and fear so that I can then choose bravery makes my life and career far more productive and enjoyable.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

My clients are women in the tech industry who are done accepting the status quo that normalizes highly educated, experienced women being stressed out, passed over, overworked, and underpaid. They identify with being ambitious, intelligent, and brave-curious. They have over five years of professional experience, have navigated career setbacks and failures, and are ready to partner with a trusted coach for deep personal transformation and sustainable career satisfaction.
Most of my clients are questioning what they have been taught and are ready to define their unique, brave career goals and then design their own pathway forward. My clients balance who they want to become and what they want to do. This means, they more frequently choose the temporary discomfort of growth over the agony of long-term dissatisfaction.
My client then become more brave, in their own unique way, to stress less, work less, and earn more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.TrickSteinbach.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoletricksteinbach/
• Other: Podcast: Build Your Brave Career

Image Credits

Natalie Morrow of Good Morrow Photography