My Story—Well, Part of It

I never had a five-year plan. I had movement. Restlessness. A deep curiosity for people, systems, life, and the forces that shape us.

I was born into a world that no longer exists. A country, a system, a structure that collapsed in real time. As a child of the German Democratic Republic, I watched it fall apart. Too young to fully understand what had led to that moment, but old enough to feel the shift—the undercurrents, the forces pushing beneath the surface. Maybe that’s why I have this instinct for transitions. For sensing when something is reaching its limits and when something new is demanding to emerge.

For years, I moved between worlds—business, leadership, social work, psychology, economy, advocacy—always drawn to what isn’t being said but moves everything. I grew up in spaces of power, watching the bigwigs navigate influence. I learned early that what’s spoken aloud is rarely the whole story. The real decisions happen between the words, in the pauses, in what is carefully left unsaid. I learned to read between the lines, to hear the truth beneath the performance, to sense what was actually shaping the room.

Somewhere along the way, that became my work.

Losing Myself to Find Myself Again

For a while, I did everything to fit in. I followed the rules, took the path that made sense. I worked as a social worker. A lobbyist. Became a CEO. Ran a mid-sized company. Led teams. Built businesses. And then, one day, I realized I couldn’t feel myself anymore. I had done everything I was supposed to do. So why did I feel so lost?

I was efficient. Successful. Highly functional. But I wasn’t fully alive. I felt more like a machine than a human being. And the biggest revelation of all: I was never meant to fit in this paradigm of “keep the system running”

So I left—everything that meant stability and certainty to me.

Sitting in the Unknown

I didn’t leave with a plan. I left because I couldn’t stay.

For the first time in my life, I allowed myself to not have the answers. I let the uncertainty be there. I let myself unravel.

I started working with leaders, visionaries, and investors—not from a strategy perspective, but from a place of deep inquiry. Why do we build the things we build? What’s driving us? What’s underneath our decisions?

And what I saw, again and again, was that people didn’t need more tools, more frameworks, more strategy. They needed a place to sit with what they already knew but hadn’t yet named. They needed someone who could listen—not just to their words, but to what was underneath. They needed space for the conversations that don’t fit neatly into business plans or leadership handbooks. And without fully planning it, this became my work.

The Thread That Runs Through Everything

If there’s a common thread in my life, it’s this: I am always drawn to what’s beneath the surface and transformation.

As a CEO, I wasn’t interested in just running a company—I wanted to understand what made it come alive. As a consultant, I wasn’t satisfied with helping others solve problems—I wanted to know why they existed in the first place. As a coach, I never believed in just giving advice or leading through—I wanted to hold space for people to hear and feel themselves more clearly. As a researcher, I didn’t just study systems—I looked for the invisible forces and patterns that move them.

Everything I do now is a continuation of that.

I work with people who stand at thresholds. People who know something is shifting but don’t yet have the language for it. I challenge them, their thinking and assumptions, I listen, I reflect back on what is already there.

Somewhere in the conversation, something clicks. And from that point on, they can’t unsee it. Once you learn about your truth you cannot make it un-happen again. That’s the moment that changes everything.

Why I Know What I’m Doing

I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to do this. I’ve spent decades studying, working, unlearning, and refining my own understanding of transformation. Let me sum up some of my background to make it an easier read for you:

• I have a university degree in Social Affairs, Social Work, and an MBA in Change Management and Consultancy.

• I was profoundly trained in Systemic Constellation Work, Hypnotherapeutic Communication, Solution-Focused Work, Organizational Development, Living Systems Approach, and Economy (all for almost three decades now).

• I spent years in executive roles and non-executives roles (currently as a member of the business advisory board for 1. FC Lok Leipzig, one of the oldest soccer clubs in Germany), running businesses, leading teams, navigating complexity from the inside, and building the next iterations (all in different industries: profit, non-profit, NGOs, etc).

• I have worked with founders, investors, CEOs, creatives, change-makers, and socio-economic fabric weavers across industries, cultures, and countries.

• I founded three companies and now share my experience as a mentor at Spinlab Accelerator and coach at HHL Management School.

But more than anything, I have lived it.

I know what it feels like to lose yourself in a role that doesn’t fit anymore.
I know what it means to walk away from certainty and sit in the unknown.
I know how hard it is to trust what you feel when there’s no proof yet.

I don’t just understand transition and transformation. I have walked through it, again and again. You might enjoy my TEDx Talk on The Beauty of Transition which I gave in 2022.

The Bigger Picture

I don’t believe in singularity. Everything is connected.

Economy is human. Power is relational. Change is inevitable.

We like to think of money, leadership, and impact as separate things. They’re not. They are expressions of the same underlying patterns.

The work I do is about helping people see those patterns more clearly. About holding space for the conversations that shift things at their root. About creating movements instead of just solutions.

That’s why I founded CO-LAB for Future Economics—to work with investors who want to expand their understanding of capital and evolve their investment before reality catches up.
That’s why I founded and built the What Matters Initiative —to connect people who are reclaiming humanity in the economy and are dedicated to co-creating a more regenerative economy.

Because the world doesn’t change when we fix the surface. It changes when we shift what’s underneath.

Why I’m Writing This

I don’t believe in elevator pitches. Neither is this a brand statement. It’s my story—one part of it, at least. I’m writing it because I know I’m not the only one who has felt these things. Because maybe you’ve stood at a threshold too, knowing something needed to change but not knowing how. Because maybe you’ve felt the pull of something bigger but didn’t yet have the words for it.

If you have, you are not alone.

I don’t have all the answers. But I know the power of asking the right questions. I know what happens when we stop trying to solve everything and start listening to what’s already there. And I know that some of the most important conversations we will ever have start in the spaces we don’t usually make time for.

So here’s to making time. For what is real. For what is next. For what actually matters to you, me, and all of us.

With love, beauty, and joy
Nicole