What people say about Career Leverage's Coaching Services:

I believe that the “Now What?” Career Coaching program Nancy uses is a process everyone should go through regardless of where they are in their career. I believe it’s like career therapy, and as holds true with therapy in general, if you are looking to better yourself academically, professionally, and/or socially, the “Now What?” process digs deep into helping you find who you are, what drives you, and what people and resources you should surround yourself with for optimal success.

Nancy has been an incredible mentor to me. The way she structures the program really pushes you to deconstruct and define what makes you “you” while providing a new framework for creating success in your career and life.

Specifically, two assessment exercises that had a profound impact on me include “Reframing Limiting Beliefs into New Possibilities” and “Analyzing Your Life Story to Provide Clues for Identifying Your New Direction.” These tools helped me analyze data points about my unique strengths, innate talents and how to remove those barriers standing in my way. I viewed the methodology as a science. Using all this information and evidence helped me build invaluable resources—such as my two-minute pitches and STAR success stories—which I leverage during the networking and interview process.

As a result of this work, I’ve pivoted to a new career path and joined Morgan Stanley as a Wealth Management Associate.

I started working with Nancy in April, 2021, during a very challenging transition for me.  I graduated from Law School the year before, in May 2020.  Like many of my classmates, I’d had a post-grad job lined up two years in advance.  I was looking forward to a lucrative job at a top-tier “Big Law” firm, where I assumed I’d follow the usual path of grinding it out as a junior associate for a few years until I figured out what I “really” wanted to do.

The pandemic had other plans.  My law firm pushed back our class’s start date by many months, which gave me a lot of free time to reflect: was this job really something I wanted?  Following some mental health challenges and a lot of soul-searching, I realized the answer was NO.  I’d have to figure out what I really wanted to do several years earlier than I’d originally planned, with a resume lacking that prestigious job and a one-year-and-growing gap I’d have to explain.

I immediately responded to Nancy’s strengths-focused approach of Discovering “Y.O.U.” – Your Own Uniqueness. She modelled that herself from our first session. She astutely  recognized that helping me succeed would require not just her skills as a career and life coach, but also a therapist who could help me through my mental health challenges and my ADHD.  She recommended an excellent psychologist (who I still see regularly) and we all worked collaboratively to help me grow holistically.

With Nancy’s coaching, I was able to take the wrench the pandemic had thrown at me and use it as a tool to re-calibrate my life trajectory.  Working through the “Now What” process she uses for clients at a crossroads, I bolstered my toolbox.  After a year without the structure of work or school, digging deep into the exercises of the “Now What” program gave me a sense of purpose and focus. Nancy held me accountable to get back into a productive routine, define my past successes and aspirations and rebuild my confidence in my top skills and abilities.

While we were still in the early stages of our work together, I received a job offer through my personal networks for part-time work at mid-sized law firm.  The exercises we’d done through the Now What program —identifying satisfiers and dissatisfiers from past jobs, experiences where I was operating at peak performance, and my core values at work — helped me decide with Nancy’s counsel that I should pursue this opportunity.  After a few months working at the firm, the partners made me an offer to join as a full-time associate.  Nancy helped me negotiate that offer, and after I accepted, she provided on-the-job coaching to help me succeed.

Our continued coaching illuminated the limiting beliefs that held me back from identifying new possibilities. After defining my purpose through my life story, I leveraged these themes and strengths to focus my search and networking opportunities beyond the traditional law firm.  I reached out to a former Harvard professor and an opportunity presented itself to collaborate with him on an interesting new business venture. Nancy helped me craft a hypothetical role into a concrete job that was tailor made for my strengths and interests.

I’m currently two months in to my yearlong clerkship with a federal judge.  Once that comes to an end, I know I’ll have the skills and self-knowledge to find something new that’s a great fit for me.

About four years ago as a senior in college, I decided that the real estate and construction field seemed like a very interesting career path. However, I did not have the experience, but since graduating Nancy has given me the tools to market myself and most importantly, confidence. After two years as an associate project manager at a small general contractor, I felt I had the experience to move-on and apply to my “dream job” at JLL. Nancy took the time to realize my goals and offered insights into what she believed I was capable of achieving. Nancy helped me present all aspects of my background (career, academic, and athletic) and achievements in a cohesive way. Going into my interviews, I felt empowered, and I still feel empowered and worthy of where I am!

Nancy helped me better understand myself as a professional, bringing my whole self into the equation. She first captured which strengths best defined my value add as an employee, then guided me to convert those strengths into a more cohesive vision for the next steps in my career. She was observant and challenged me to think differently during our exploratory career management coaching work together. This process resulted in identifying a new career path within my current organization and an internal job offer which I accepted. My new management role will advance my career goals and contributions within my company. I’ve obtained a heightened level of confidence in how I’m approaching my professional development as a manager of a new area and leader moving forward.

My work with Nancy Friedberg has quite possibly been one of the most exciting avenues of my life.  While my career so far has been as a musician and artist, I wanted to enhance my existing work and develop a new business consulting others on presentation skills and personal insight. However, I lacked critical business skills to initiate my vision and Nancy was essential in helping me realize and execute my ideas in a highly professional and innovative fashion that has enabled me to launch my new company, Opus 8 Consulting which offers training in Executive Presence, Presentation Skills and Developing Your Honest Voice.  Through our work and her encouragement, I have also realized the importance of my presence and training on a global scale.  Leveraging my own skill set and status as a performer, I am now working with a wide variety of clients from corporate to celebrity status.  And I have fulfilled my own dream of buying a second home which was a part of the focus in our work.

Through the “Now What?” Coaching Program, Nancy Friedberg took me on a voyage of self-discovery which enabled me to authentically own my own power and to move toward the new direction.  The program is precise, and covers so many key areas, that it gave me the confidence to proceed without fear of failure. Her attention to the psychological development of her clients is critical to the work. I whole heartedly support and recommend her to anyone who is considering a career change, pivot or personal crisis in their work. The excavation of your talents revealed as a result of her work are astounding and essential to successfully moving forward in your own life and career.

I began my work with Nancy soon after leaving a job that had damaged my confidence and left me confused about my life’s path. Nancy’s guidance through the Now What? Program not only restored my confidence in my own skills and experiences, but gave me practical tools to restore my sense of adventure and creativity as I began to explore a new career. Through analyzing my favorite personal and professional achievements, brainstorming my purpose, and naming my key values and motivators, I rediscovered how to define myself in my own terms as opposed to what I had been told in the past. Nancy is a highly empathetic coach who acknowledged my whole personhood and consistently challenged me to go deeper and lean on my support networks for sustainable success. Thanks to her help, I was admitted to the MSW Program at Columbia University. Now, two years later, I am a MSW graduate and am newly employed as a full  time psychotherapist in a private practice. I loved my Master’s Program and am finding fulfillment and pride in my work for the first time. I often still think of my work with Nancy and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her. I highly recommend working with Nancy to make meaningful change feel possible.

“Over the past 20 years, I have worked with Nancy on separate occasions, all for different reasons.  Five years after starting a consulting business, the work became stagnant, and I was struggling with the lack of growth.  Working with her for a few months, she coached and guided me on how to hire an assistant who is still with me 22 years later.  Hiring my Assistant made a dramatic impact as this move freed me up to be fully present and even more able to pay attention to servicing my clients’ needs.  Within the year of meeting Nancy, my income tripled. 

Most recently, I called upon Nancy again last year when life and work threw me off center.   Now approaching the end of my career, thinking about retirement and moving onto the next adventures life has to offer, we worked to put a year succession plan in place that I am comfortable with. I have begun to execute on this plan and the process is going better than I had imagined.

In addition to wanting to make a dramatic life change after a successful career, Nancy also helped me overcome some personal issues that were standing in the way of moving forward with my life in the way I want to lead it.  I’m making time for myself to do the creative work I love and all the things that bring me pleasure.

Things don’t happen overnight and sometimes the work was hard, but the process was steady and sure.  The integrity Nancy has employed in her work with me, her “having my back”, her interest and encouragement in having me do the work that leads to success, and her brutal supportive honesty, only made me trust her, and the process, completely.  We both did the hard work to see things through.   I look forward to the next time. “

“My experience working with Nancy on the Now What? program was life-changing. With her guidance, what started as a career shift ultimately turned into a lifestyle transformation which has brought me a greater sense of purpose, fulfillment and all around happiness. When I started working with Nancy, her process helped me recognize my energy levels hit a wall and I needed to pause and give myself a break to get back to being my creative, excited and fun self which had gotten lost in the daily grind. With her encouragement, I asked my employer for an approved 3-month sabbatical, which I was granted. This marked the beginning of my personal development journey that brought me where I am now, living a full and balanced life. Because of the lifestyle changes I’ve designed with Nancy’s coaching, I am now a fresher version of myself- happier, more focused and productive professionally and have found more time and energy to allocate towards my personal passions. I went from feeling burned out in my stable agency job to rediscovering the joy in my professional work by starting my own business as a marketing/experiential consultant specializing in Health and Wellness, with more time for fun and self care. Nancy constantly pushed me to dig deep which ultimately helped me discover my true purpose in life. This purpose drove me to make these changes and get the energy boost I so desperately needed. In our work together, Nancy also provided useful guidance in other areas of my transition including finding outlets to develop my untapped potential (I took improv classes and joined Toastmasters which I love and am currently obtaining certification to be an indoor cycle instructor), building presentations for potential clients, and networking and defining my competitive fair market value for the worth I bring to my clients. Working with Nancy means committing to make an investment in yourself. For me, this investment was one of the best I’ve made, yielding high results which has allowed me to thrive in all areas of my life!”

“Nancy is an outstanding Executive Coach who has added tremendous value and plenty of ideas to both my business and personal life. I had the pleasure of working with her as my Executive Coach for nearly a year and was amazed by the positive impact she had on my professional success. Nancy performed a detailed analysis of my personality, leadership style, and my emotional intelligence (EQ), which enabled her to tailor the coaching program to my specific needs. With her help, I was able to build on my strengths and improve in areas I had conveniently neglected in recent years. While I strictly believe that one should never expect anyone but themselves to become a better person, I can honestly say that Nancy enabled me to grow as a leader and an individual. She is a great listener and always incorporated challenges I was facing at the time into her coaching program. Any organization that engages her services will be making a smart investment in retaining and growing its executive leadership. I highly recommend Nancy and look forward to working with her over the course of my career – as my own coach and someone I hire to work with my most valuable employees.”

“It is my pleasure to recommend Nancy Friedberg. I met with Nancy when I was a sophomore in college and was considering entry-level career paths. My major was Psychology, and I was interested in the field of human resource management.  Nancy helped me to assess good fits with my abilities. I took several tests that she recommended, and we reviewed the results together. We considered how my particular abilities could be harnessed to support a viable career path. Together we determined that the test results confirmed that it would make sense to pursue my interests in human resource management. Subsequently, with Nancy’s support and feedback, I found an internship in the field. That experience reinforced my interest in HR and provided a strong foundation for me to enter the field upon graduation from college.”

Nancy Friedberg has been incredibly helpful to me throughout my entire job search. Whether it’s been brainstorming ideas, highlighting my skill sets, streamlining my search or honing my interview skills, Nancy has been thoughtful and professional. She truly cares about the people she is working with and thinks about her clients and how to best help them achieve their goals. I highly recommend Nancy to anyone looking to change careers or advance in a current career.

Nancy is phenomenal coach and counselor. She brings a very disciplined, personalized approach and deep insights to her clients. She helped me identify important themes in my career and to focus my energy in areas that would provide the most satisfaction and payoff. Since completing my coaching with Nancy, I’ve expanded and elevated my design thinking and leadership skills in guiding organizations and individuals to innovate and reinvent. In further leveraging my unique talents, my work has produced a positive impact by integrating strategic business analysis, written and visual communication, and an ability to lead creative teams using a sound and successful financial process. I also learned from my assessment process with Nancy how much I enjoy educating and mentoring others. I’ve applied this passion and expertise by securing three adjunct faculty positions at NYU, FIT and Glasgow Caledonian New York College where I teach courses on Supply Chain and Production Management, Strategic Decision Making, and Business Strategy and Ethics in Human Capital Management.

She’s able to find the sweet spot of creating stretch challenges without being overwhelming. There are very few people in the world who I would say “I couldn’t have done it without you,” but Nancy has been one of those people. She has a gift of providing a structure to set direction, an approach to pursue it, the encouragement and expectation that I take responsible action toward that direction, and the persistence and follow through to make sure that it became a new habit. I don’t think I would ever have been able to get to that understanding without her insight and approach. I’d highly recommend Nancy Friedberg and look forward to working with her more in the future.

When I first came to Nancy, I was dissatisfied with the lack of recognition I was receiving in terms of advancement. I put in extensive hours at the office and knew the quality of my work was outstanding but something was missing. I decided to hire Nancy to help me overcome this roadblock. We developed a stakeholder plan of all the “influencers” that had the decision making power to steer me in a new direction. I gained the visibility required to showcase my talents to other senior members in my group. By the following year I was promoted to VP of Marketing and Digital Services at Time Inc. A few years later, I wanted to develop another strategy for planning my retirement from the company on my terms. Still feeling a lack of balance in my life, I envisioned my last act working in semi – retirement in a job that was less stressful while still enjoying learning something new. However, I wasn’t sure what that would be. I called Nancy and re- engaged her coaching services again. Through our career assessment work together, I decided I wanted to move into the information services industry leveraging my advertising expertise. No stranger to hard work, I kept my full time job, while earning my master’s degree in library science in the evenings.  I knew this was manageable as long as I had a few years to slowly get it done! Within 5 years time, I retired from Time Inc. and met all the financial and career goals I had set for myself. With Nancy’s coaching, I landed a job as a Research Manager at ASK Research Service, an association of national advertisers and enjoyed a better quality of life. 

Nancy’s approach is PURPOSE – not just career oriented. She gets you to dig deep to excavate your “Now What?” when you are at a crossroads. And until you do, she offers shrewd and savvy insights for navigating the present. She possesses an extraordinary level of commitment, integrity, care and skill to help you achieve your goals. 

As leader of the Peak Performance Mastermind Group for Women, Nancy is a skilled, compassionate and inspiring motivator. She has pushed all of the women in the group to make and meet new goals and strive to achieve new heights in their professional and personal lives. With effortless grace, she manages to bring out the best in people. Her encouragement and support know no bounds and she shows tremendous faith in those she mentors. This support makes the hard work and tough decisions seem a bit easier to bear. Through her leadership and council I have found success on a number of levels and I would recommend Nancy and her services with unreserved enthusiasm.

My company hired Nancy as my Executive Coach. She was very helpful and insightful in guiding me to improve my work with colleagues and clients. She is astute and sensitive, able to address difficult subjects supportively with clear steps to overcome challenges. She gave me useful perspectives that helped me see things differently and provided concrete actions and approaches to help me solve difficult problems. I found her work so valuable that after we completed the work for my company, I engaged her myself for further guidance and advice.

Nancy Friedberg is a terrific executive coach. I was recognized as a high potential performer at my company and was provided with the investment dollars to work with Nancy on a six month executive coaching assignment. During that time, we developed an action plan that heightened my visibility within the organization and increased my executive presence. I am delighted by the swift results and really feel that Nancy has helped me take my career to the next level.