Sole Provider Fills Her Practice In the First Six Months!
Meet Nicole. Back in 2016, she discovered she had Multiple Sclerosis at the same time that her husband needed to step down from his job.
Without any income for her family, she decided to get trained as a coach and simultaneously start an academic coaching practice. Recently, she was navigating not just the logistics of building a business, but the emotional weight of needing that business to work—quickly.
Within six months, she was supporting her family well, and she has stayed connected to the Anti-Boring Learning Lab community ever since. Today, she is part of the network of trained Anti-Boring coaches supporting students and families through executive function coaching and academic coaching for neurodiverse learners. You can learn more about coaches trained through this work here: https://antiboringlearninglab.com/trained-coaches
I’ve never seen anyone start a private practice for educators so quickly or effectively. I think part of it was necessity—she didn’t have the luxury of waiting to see if it might work someday. She needed it to work now, and she approached the process with that clarity.
In the video above, Nicole shares how she got her business up and running so fast, what helped her make confident decisions early on, and why she’s found it meaningful to stay connected to an aligned professional community over time. She talks candidly about building an academic coaching business while managing health uncertainty, family responsibility, and the steep learning curve that comes with entrepreneurship for educators.
Her story often resonates with educators who are curious about executive function coaching, who are considering a shift into 1:1 work, or who are exploring whether a coaching-based model could support both students and sustainable income. It’s also a reminder that there isn’t one “right” pace or path—there’s only the one that fits your life, your capacity, and your reasons for starting.
If Nicole’s experience sparks questions for you about what academic coaching can look like, how training fits into building a practice, or how educators translate their skills into a different format, I invite you to explore the free learning resources in the Visitor’s Center of the Anti-Boring Learning Lab: https://antiboringlearninglab.com/resources
That collection is designed to help educators think clearly about next steps—whether you’re just curious, actively planning, or somewhere in between.
Gretchen Wegner
Founder, Anti-Boring Learning Lab
A version of the following article was originally published here on May 31st, 2022.