More ABOUT
ME
How Life Coaching Found Me
Thank you for taking the time to grow with me today. My name is Nico! I want everyone to know a little about my background to get a better understanding of who I am and why I chose to be a Life Coach.
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I grew up in Texas and am the son of a Colombian and an Irishmen, crazy combo huh? When I was 5yrs old I started playing soccer and played goalie until I was 11. I played on a travel squad in Texas and was consistently one of the top goalies in my age group. Our team played all the time and we even had one event where we played 3 games in 1 day! During those years I experienced several amazing moments when my parents took me on hiking trips, trips to Colombia, and the occasional fancy restaurant. My parents also gave me a solid foundation by taking me to church almost every Sunday and having me join the churches youth group.
While I experienced all these amazing moments through sports and church, I was also the subject of bullying for years. Looking back I’m not sure if it was the fact that I played in the school band, if I was overweight, or if I made good grades, but it happened nonetheless. Thankfully, all the bullying stopped when I started to play football. I guess they stopped when they saw how hard I compete… At the end of middle school I was planning on playing golf and football in high school, that is until we moved to Tennessee. In Texas, there’s fall AND spring golf, but not here in the volunteer state, so I had to pick a sport and I chose football.
Football became my life over the course of the high school and I went on to play almost every position. I also got to experience the joys of winning a state championship and the pain of losing one. After years of practice and training I was recruited by a few small schools and eventually ended up at Tusculum College where I played just one semester of football. While my time at TC was short, our team won our division and we went on to the 2nd round of the national tournament, effectively making us one of the top 10 teams in the country that year. I love that Football taught me to look at things from a team perspective and how a group of people with a common goal can achieve anything.
While my time playing Football was done once I transferred away from TC, I never stopped playing the sport I had started playing since I was just two years old… Golf. I think my love for Golf started in middle school when my mom would drop me off at the local golf course in the morning and pick me up in the afternoon. I had all day to play on the range and try out different shots both on the course and off. Once Football was no longer my main focus I began to work harder at Golf. Since then I’ve moved down to a low single digit handicap and am constantly look at ways that I can improve my game. I also won a Golf Channel AM Tour event in 2018! Even though my love of Golf may never fade, that is only one of many reasons I decided to be a life coach.
To shoot the best scores in Golf one must not only have the physical capabilities to swing and control the ball at will, but the player must also have a clear mind. As I’ve grown, I began to read more about the sport of Golf and how professionals approach the game mentally. This part of the game is its biggest gift to the players that pursue it. Having a peaceful, clear mind has not only helped many top tier Golfers win big tournaments, but it also helps the person have a different approach and perspective on life.
I truly believe that all of these events, and those that have yet to pass, have lead me to Life Coaching. However, I didn’t realize that Life Coaching was even a possibility until I had put about 5 years into roles in corporate America.
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Growing up and moving through College I felt that working in the corporate world was what I needed to do in life. Both of my parents had worked in business positions all their lives and had done well with their careers. Because of their influence I learned so much about how businesses operate and began to form my own concept of what a great career (and a great company) would look like.
Towards the end of College, I chose to drop out from what would have been a degree in Spanish from the University of Tennessee to take a sales job in New Jersey and finish my degree online. After less than a year, I obtained a Business degree, but not after moving back to Tennessee. My first post college job didn’t quite fit the idea of ‘great career’ I had been searching for.
Shortly after I moved back to Tennessee to finish my degree, I was offered a job at Mars Petcare. This was an exciting moment for me as it gave me the opportunity to work in the same company as my dad. He had been there for around 9 years and I had heard so many stories about how great of a company it was to work for. Soon after I began to work there I started to notice what it was like to work for a great company and it was GREAT!
After I spent a little over 2 years with Mars, I had gotten the chance to experience multiple facets of the company and was looking to see what the next step could be for me in my career. Ever since I started working at Mars I knew I wanted to be a manager, but I didn’t know how I could best do that within the company. A few failed attempts at moving to another department or position went by and I was getting frustrated with the politics of it all. It seemed like a simple decision to me as I was qualified and exhibited a high level of work ethic. Looking back I can see now how those days were much more complex than they seemed to me at the time... and how everything happens for a reason. Once I realized I was caught up in some corporate politics I began to feel trapped. Shortly thereafter I set a date to begin sending out resumes to different companies within a few weeks time. A week before that date had come, I was recruited and eventually offered a job at Quotient Technologies working on-site at Dollar General where I’d be working as a Marketing Coordinator.
This was the best thing that could have happened to me at the time. I was always interested in the field of marketing ever since High School and to be able to learn about Digital Marketing specifically was so exciting! In the 9 months that I spent at Quotient I learned about how major companies manage their marketing plans for the coming years and how some of the newest marketing tactics in the industry were being created. Even with the world at my fingertips, in an industry that was rapidly growing and evolving, I wasn’t fulfilled. I began to think about how I was impacting others… not only within the companies that I worked for but also the consumers at the end of the sales chain, and even in my personal life.
Once I started to think about how I could lead a life of greater fulfillment, I began to notice Life Coaching more in my life. In 2015, on a request from my mom, I attended a Tony Robbins event called Unleash the Power Within. If you have ever been to one of these events, you’ll know that they are long days of high energy seminars that are designed to thrust you into thinking about life in a whole new way.
The best way I can say it is… that event changed my life. Since then, Life Coaching has been something that I’ve felt a strong pull towards as it aligns so well with my personal goals and values. My inner fire was stoked to figure out how to make this dream a reality. After some short planning during a rough week at work, I decided to quit my job and embark on a journey to become a life coach. Before my last day with Quotient, I had paid for the classes in full.
All of my decisions in life lead me to this point. I chose to be someone who can listen and help others in need. I can’t wait to learn more about you, empower those I connect with, and guide each person towards the level of life they’re searching for.