Nicole Whitaker is a transformational Burnout, Wellbeing and Leadership Coach and the founder of Lead Up Health. She helps ambitious women end the constant pressure and mental load, reclaim their energy and time, and redefine success so they can finally breathe again and live with more ease.
Drawing from a background in leadership development, psychology, adult learning, holistic health, and organizational strategy, Nicole works with mid-career women—especially those in leadership roles who care deeply about their impact — who are ready to move out of survival mode and the constant “tug of war” between work and life, and into a more sustainable and deeply fulfilling way of living and leading, utilizing her proprietary HERS™ Method.
Nicole is also a certified Integrative Health Coach and yoga instructor, with additional training in nervous system regulation, heart-brain coherence, and leadership development. She brings over 20 years of experience leading teams, coaching leaders, and driving initiatives across complex organizations, including leading initiatives across a national organization spanning 52 schools – blending high-performance leadership with sustainable, human-centered practices.
Her work is rooted not only in her professional background, but in her own experience with burnout, identity loss, and rebuilding her health and life from the inside out after reaching a breaking point while navigating leadership, the intensity of early motherhood with three children under the age of two, and an identity she had outgrown. That experience became the foundation of her work today.
Nicole’s approach is both practical and transformative. She integrates evidence-based wellness and leadership practices, adult learning principles, somatics, and deep inner work to help her clients not only feel better, but lead, live, and make decisions from a place of clarity and alignment, so they can be fully present with their families, do meaningful work that actually matters, and stop feeling like they’re constantly being pulled in multiple directions.
Her work has supported women in stepping into more senior leadership roles while navigating motherhood without sacrificing their wellbeing or sanity. She’s been described as a healer and “a magical visionary who will change your life.”
At the core of her work is a deep belief that when women reconnect with their innate potential and purpose, they create more fulfilling, impactful lives—for themselves and the people they lead
Nicole is also the host of the Burn Beautiful™ Podcast, where she shares insights, strategies, and conversations designed to help women move out of survival mode and into more ease, presence, vitality, and purpose.
When she’s not coaching or speaking, you can find her spending time with her 3 daughters and husband, enjoying sunshine among the trees and by the water, meditating, exercising, tending to her vegetable garden, cry-laughing with close friends, experimenting with health concoctions in the kitchen, or dreaming up travel adventures.