Discover the science backed discipline behind energy, presence, and results for leaders, teams, and cultures that thrive under pressure.
Nicole Van Valen is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SCP), and a trusted strategist to Fortune 500 leaders navigating stress, performance pressure, and rapid change.
Nicole has trained more than 10,000 leaders across global corporations, hospital systems, government agencies, and national associations.
With two decades of experience across corporate, clinical, and leadership development settings, she helps teams and executives unlock Human Intelligence (HI) as their competitive edge in a tech saturated world.
She’s known for helping leaders stay steady under pressure, emotionally agile during change, and deeply present when it matters most.
Build systems that promote trust, focus, and meaningful progress.
Lead decisively with stamina, strategy, and team alignment.
Research backed keynotes and hands on workshops that protect capacity, deepen trust, and drive sustainable performance.
In most organizations joy isn’t even on the dashboard, and its absence quietly drains capacity, decision quality, and engagement. Nicole Van Valen makes a different case: joy is a performance discipline that creates a repeatable way to restore energy, clarity, and presence under pressure.
A licensed therapist and SHRM SCP who led healthcare teams by day and performed as a professional NBA Miami Heat dancer by night, Nicole bridges science and stage to help leaders and individuals recover forward, not just grind harder. Through her Ready–Set–Go® model and Sphere of Resilience®, she equips everyone with a practical Joy Tool: 60 second resets, a personal Joy Menu®, and simple environment designs that protect capacity and elevate results. Audiences leave energized and equipped to regulate themselves, stabilize the room, and deliver with joy as their competitive advantage.
An energizing, evidence informed keynote that turns joy into a performance discipline—equipping any audience with simple, repeatable tools to recover forward under pressure, steady the room, and deliver better decisions and results the very next day.
AI is accelerating work—but it can’t replace emotional agility, self regulation, or presence under pressure. Nicole equips future ready leaders with a performance driven human playbook—so they can recover faster, connect deeper, and make clear, confident decisions in a world ruled by complexity and code.
Lead the organization’s nervous system. Nicole equips senior leaders with a repeatable operating ritual that steadies the room, sharpens decisions, and signals a culture that performs without burning out its people.
Managers set the tone. This session turns “joy” into team level behaviors—how to open meetings, regulate pressure, and move groups from positions to problems so work moves faster (and better).
Don’t inherit a burnout playbook. Nicole gives rising leaders a personal operating system self regulation, boundary design, and momentum habits—so they scale impact without losing themselves.
Real stories. Tangible results. Lasting change.
