How Holistic Coaching Helps Students Win Admissions And Wellbeing with Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi (USA)

Prestige without purpose burns people out. That’s why we sat down with education consultant Nicole Olany to unpack how ambitious students can earn offers from top universities while protecting their mental health and honouring their cultural identity. Nicole’s story moves from high achievement and missionary life to Princeton, where self worth theory reshaped how she defines success—and how she coaches teens to do the same.

We get practical fast. Nicole breaks down her TALL framework—theme, academics, leadership, legacy—and shows how a quiet, research-driven student can lead by solving a real problem and scaling the impact. She explains why goals can start with “Harvard” and mature into a better fit as teens try projects, find mentors, and learn what environments truly help them thrive. We also dive into the new admissions reality after the affirmative action ban and what it means for Black and diaspora families: differentiation through authentic interests, concrete community impact, and a clear narrative that admissions teams can’t ignore.

Money matters as much as mission, so we go deep on funding strategy. Learn how to expand a college list beyond brand names, target universities that meet full need, and leverage competing offers to reduce the bill. We talk timelines, why summers are for building, and how weekly group coaching creates trust so students open up about stress before it derails progress. Whether your teen loves pre-med and classical dance or wants to mix engineering with law and history, this conversation gives you the tools to turn scattered passions into a compelling, sustainable path.

If this resonates, follow and subscribe for more grounded conversations on education, wellbeing, and building a life that lasts. Share this with a parent or student who needs a strategy reset, and leave a review with the one insight you’re taking into your next application season.

Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King

Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....

Transcript

Dr Ariel R King 0:41

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Business of Life with Dr. King. Today we have a very special guest, Miss Nicole Olany. Welcome.

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 0:50

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Dr Ariel R King 0:53

It's wonderful to have you. Would you please introduce yourself to our to our audience?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 0:57

Yes. So I'm Nicole. I serve as CEO for an education consulting firm where we help students get into colleges in the U.S.

Dr Ariel R King 1:06

Thank you so much. And can you tell us a little bit more about your um journey about doing that and the and your company?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 1:15

Of course. Um my journey really started as a high achieving student myself. Um my dad was a Wall Street executive turned pastor. And so I found myself watching the tension between high achievement, high performance, and corporate spaces, but still watching my parents really wrestle with what does it look like to pursue purpose. My dad went to an extreme of leaving his finance career and becoming a pastor. Uh, we spent some time as missionaries in South Africa. But long story short, throughout my middle and high school journey, I knew I wanted to get into a top school for all the reasons that a lot of students in the US want to go to Ivy League institutions. But at the same time, I wrestled personally with depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. And so the work that we do now is really supporting students and bridging that gap between holistic wellness and high achievement.

Dr Ariel R King 1:59

That's absolutely fantastic. I love the fact that you've you've gone through something yourself as a teenager and bridging between the high achieving parents and what's expected of you, what you expect of yourself. And then also that international flavor. And with all of that, the the difficulty that you had just going through your teenagers and the fact that you've turned that into a passion now to help other young people, that's fabulous. Could you please tell us more about that?

Self Worth Theory At Princeton

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 2:27

Yeah, sure. So I think did a lot of consulting work at Princeton. The one job I worked outside of working for myself as an entrepreneur and starting my own company was at Princeton. And I worked as a, we call it academic life and learning consultation. And so we were trained in self-worth theory, which the director of the department, he really worked on helping high-achieving students at Princeton specifically define their own understandings of success. A lot of students come to Princeton and other Ivy League institutions with kind of wanting to go into consulting or top med school and kind of like very traditional paths. And, you know, a lot of students will keep that path when they get to Princeton. But what we find for a lot, what we found for a lot of students, including myself, is that you have you have to be driven by something more than just the next goal, uh achievement goal. And so defining success in terms of your social life, in terms of how much sleep you're getting, your connection to self, right? All these kind of intangibles that don't necessarily, we don't directly correlate to career success, but have a huge influence on our career and sustainability long term.

Dr Ariel R King 3:31

I've I find that so interesting. So can you tell us more about how you tried to figure out with a young person how they take that path of trying to figure out what is success for them?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 3:43

Yeah, so I think for us, we take a very realist approach. And what I mean by that is we're not in the business of telling students that they shouldn't shoot for Ivy League schools or top colleges like Harvard, Princeton, kind of all the big names. We're all for supporting our students in their goals. And sometimes that ambition is really as superficial as they saw a movie with Princeton in the background. But even with that, right, um, helping students really think critically about, okay, how are they going to achieve that goal? And what are the values that they want to allow to drive that process and that goal? So if they value family, if they value belonging, creating spaces of belonging, right? How are how can we connect those values that you were raised with that are really strong? A lot of our students are coming from very successful families with really strong cultural backgrounds. And so recognizing that those goals don't have to be in contradiction. And just naming that, we find for a lot of students just helps really normalize the conversation around those two things that can sometimes often feel like they contradict, but don't have to if we're just intentional about creating plans that incorporate both.

Dr Ariel R King 4:46

I find that so interesting that there seems to be sometimes a push and pull or what we could see, but a conflict, but it's a whole person. So can you tell us more about what you do, you know, with these young people and helping to not just promote for them to develop their whole person in this process?

Holistic Admissions For Diaspora Families

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 5:05

Yes. So we're an education consulting company, which means parents are coming to us because we produce great results around college admissions. Our students get into top colleges in the country, they receive really great financial aid, merit aid, which basically just means they get paid to go to school, right? So that's why parents are attracted to us. But we believe that mental health and emotional wellness is not an add-on. It really is foundational. And especially working with, we work with a lot of second-generation immigrant families and then African and African American families. So across the African diaspora as well, uh, and you know, that are that have immigrated to the United States. And so with that, we're really intentional to name the cultural background of that student, really help them connect who they are culturally to the college admissions process. A lot of times the process can is in traditional consulting can be very checklist, checkbox, kind of like these are the things you need to do to get in. And we take a much more holistic approach and really identifying like who is the student, who do they want to be on campus. So really starting with identity, and then obviously taking what we know about what it takes for a student to get in and making plans that are actually reasonable and realistic for a student to implement during their time in high school.

Dr Ariel R King 6:12

And may I ask, I mean, I know that many parents, of course, and and young people want to get into the quote unquote what's considered the type, the the top universities for their future, I would think. Does the conversation start with looking at what university you want to get in, or does it actually start with who are you, what do you think you want, and which path would you think you'd like to go on?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 6:35

The conversation will start with the school. It'll start with the school, but it'll evolve. So a parent family might come in, like this happens a lot. We have kids that come in in eighth and ninth grade and they say, I want to go to Harvard. Over time, that that changes. You know, a huge part of what we do is helping them build their college list. So we actually look at what do they want to accomplish in the world, who do they want to be. And that that also changes over their time in high school. But all that to be said, what we find for students is they realize Harvard is not the best school for me to go to. Like Harvard is not the best at everything. They are a very great school. But depending on what the students' goals are, the best, the types of environments that they thrive in, they just find that Harvard is really not where they want, not where they want to go as they're learning who they are. So we do start with the goal, but we create a process that allows for the evolution of that goal setting that's more realistic and aligned to who they are.

Dr Ariel R King 7:26

Could you tell us more about that process? I find it fascinating.

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 7:31

Um, yeah. So it's not kind of like a cookie-cutter process in that sense. We use our tall framework. So it stands for theme, academics, leadership, and legacy. And so we have kind of those four pillars that we're walking our students through. So the theme really has to do with their identity, their narrative of who they want to present to colleges, who they want to show up on the campus. Academics is, you know, everyone knows you have to have a great GPA and great test course. So doing those, those are those are boxes that we will always have to check. And then leadership. So a lot of individuals, even parents, will come to us thinking that leadership is just about being charismatic and extroverted. Uh, we have students that are really interested in certain like very niche research, they're pre-med, they're very shy. So leadership is really more about identifying a specific social problem and thinking about how your skills and your strengths apply to that problem. So we help our students, you know, think critically about what that looks like, help them design projects and plans that align with that. And then legacy has to do with the scalable impact of it. So, how are you gonna share this with people beyond just your friend group and your family? And so, as we're walking our students through those pillars, what we find is that they're able to start owning that journey as they kind of understand the levers, right? Um, they're able to pull them how they want to pull them. And of course, the parents are a critical part of that process as well.

Dr Ariel R King 8:46

I was I'm so curious about how this works. So ninth grade is usually about 15 years old. I mean, most of you're gonna start with teenagers. And what do you do with them? Or are they put in groups and so? And how many years do you work with them to get them towards their goal?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 9:04

Yeah, so we'll actually start with the student as early as sixth and seventh grade. So they can be 11, 12 years old. Our students are high achieving, specifically for the program that we, the programs that we run. There are students that are already doing well in school, they have a disparate sense of interest. We don't expect any student to come in knowing exactly what career they want to pursue. A minority of our students are like that, but practically we have a curriculum with a series of exercises and assignments that they're working through, and then we coach them weekly in a group setting so they're actually able to learn from other students. And then we also provide that coaching for parents as well, so they actually know what's happening and they're able to be a critical and core part of that process.

Dr Ariel R King 9:42

So when you say they're the the um skills that they're learning, is it something that you have developed as a proprietary as part of your business, or what does that look like? I mean, it it sounds absolutely fascinating, and I would just like to learn more about that.

A Student Case: Integrating Interests

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 9:58

Yeah, so it's it's we work with a few students a year. So it pretty is extremely hands-on. So I'll give you an example of one student. They came in eighth grade. Mom was trying to was wrestling between private school and public school as it related to what would look best on the college application. So we consulted them through that process. Ultimately, they decided to go with public school route. And then practically in eighth grade, we built out the entire high school plan for his academics, his his AP classes, which are just more rigorous high school classes. So we did that. Uh, and then what the core part of what we do is helping them figure out what that scalable leadership project is going to look like. So we, and then he also, I'll say he had very disparate interests. So he's interested in engineering, law, and history. His mom was really stressed out. She was like, I don't know how all these to go together. She went to U Chicago law school. She was like, I don't know, like if he just needs to pick one. And so we were able to essentially package a theme and narrative for him that intersected all of those interests because there's actually like no kids or very few kids interested in all three. So we helped him figure out, okay, you we helped him see what values were actually core to his interest in all three. And so then he launched, he's launching a school club right now that intersects at all those three things. So they actually look at engineering and innovations from the past and they remake them in their club. So yeah, so he's, you know, he's engaging other students to be a part of that. So that's a very like one example, but it really just depends on the students' interests and where they are and their kind of understanding of who they are.

Dr Ariel R King 11:26

I my goodness, I love that. And so how many young people are you able to take in a year? And does it start, for example, in June, or does it start at a particular time, or is it uh rolling that uh young people come in at any time?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 11:43

It's rolling admission. It does depend. So we get a lot of students from very elite private schools where they have required extracurriculars after school, which essentially just means like they don't have a lot of time to do stuff during the school year. So we get the bulk of our students coming in the summer, but we do a rolling admission during the school year. And we're just we're just really realistic of what we can accomplish in the school year. Like there's probably just not as much building happening. Most of the building is happening in the summer, and then we're just kind of doing maintenance during the school year.

Trust, Rapport, And Mental Health

Dr Ariel R King 12:11

Makes a big difference when you're doing this type of work with young people. May I ask from your own experience as being, you know, a young teenager that was very bright and literally gone to various parts of the world, but at the same time struggling with mental health, or you know, how how do you integrate what you've gone through in order to help these young people also and actually start this conversation to normalize the idea of you know mental health and taking care of yourself is a really important part of meeting your goals.

Authenticity And Advisor Proximity

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 12:44

Yeah, so I think first for me, it's because the work is very personal, sometimes like every time I meet we do student interviews before a student can like a family can come on, I get very invested. But I will say I get very excited. I'm like, oh, these are all things we could do because the possibilities really are limitless. But we I personally for me, and even for my husband who's also principal consultant for the work, we have to not project our experience onto our students. So, you know, we kind of we have all these theories, we understand what the statistics are around mental health for for black youth for second-generation immigrant students. Uh, but you know, a lot of students are not coming in, even if they have depression or anxiety, they're not naming that, right? They're not calling it that. And so for us, the work really is meeting them where they are, and the foundation of that is relational rapport and trust. So we work really hard, and that's part of why we have the weekly coaching, even if we're not necessarily making huge project uh progress on the projects themselves. She really just asks, how is the how is the week going? How's school going? How's family going? And it's those like smaller conversations that don't hourly push the needle, but they're building trust. So when we have students that have been working with us now for two, three years, you know, when when things do happen, when grades are dipping, when parents involve that, they involve us in that conversation around mental health. And then we're able to really be a source of mentorship, really beyond just the consulting side of admissions.

Dr Ariel R King 14:03

I I think that's probably what makes what you do so much more interesting is the fact that you really do look at the whole person and also the family and the environment and who are they culturally? Where do they come from, and how can they use that in a positive way for where they want to go? And I think that makes a big difference for the way you consult. Do you think that that's the case?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 14:26

Yes, wholeheartedly. And I think also we always get parents say that they usually choose us over other firms because we're younger. So I'm 25, my husband's 26. We're not, I'm not too far out of college, and I think it just creates to overall more rapport. There's just automatically more trust there. Um, my brother says I'm ancient, he's he's 18, but I'm definitely not. So that helps a lot.

Dr Ariel R King 14:50

I love that. Yeah, 25 is ancient if he's 18. That makes a very, very big difference. Can you give us maybe one or two more examples of young people that you've worked with that have interests that are not necessarily common interests and you know, like an intersection of interests, and how you were able to bring them along in a way that actually let them see that it was actually very positive?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 15:14

I was like most of our students have come in with kind of an idea of what they want to do. So we do get a lot of pre-med students, right? There's a lot of pressure for those families, especially with med school and how expensive it is. They want to optimize their undergrad opportunities. We have had students like that are interested in like dance. We have like some Indian students that are interested in like very specific types of cultural dance. And so sometimes we'll get questions from parents that are like, do we need to let go of dance? Do we need to get rid of this? Because they think, like, oh, that's not, you know, connected to their pre-med goal. And so we really, you know, emphasize to them that that's actually a huge part of what makes them authentic and individual. And I remember my freshman year at Princeton, Princeton, you would be surprised, like a place like Princeton, they actually have a lot of different dance groups, a lot of different dance groups, very like subcultures and and like students that they literally could have, some of them got into Julia Art or like, you know, top schools like for their art artistry, but they, you know, still have the goal to do pre-med. And so a lot of what we do is normalize the fact that you can have disparate interests, in fact, like that makes you more authentically you, and you don't have to sacrifice the things that you love in order to uh achieve the success that you want to achieve professionally. So just helping students really bridge that. And it does look very different for each student. Sometimes it could mean they actually incorporate dance as like a core part, like for just dance examples, a core part of their theme or narrative, or in other cases, it is something that's just more separate that they do on the side and they just present it that way. Uh, it just really just depends on overall, like what their career goal is and yeah, how how they want to how they want to package themselves essentially to the college.

Dr Ariel R King 16:50

You know, with some of these universities and the cost is so prohibitive. I mean, the costs are so high. I can understand why parents want to do everything they can to make sure that that it's successful and also they choose the quote unquote correct school for what they want to do. But can you actually tell us more about the processes that the schools are taking and what are they looking for now? Has it changed in any way? And how does your company then meet meet that those requirements or helping the student to meet those requirements?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 17:23

So when I first started the consulting practice, we took all ethnicities, all races, and we still do today, uh, but in the last year or two since affirmative action was banned. So essentially, affirmative action, there were diversity quotas for these schools, and they got rid of that. The Supreme Court banned that for a lot of these top colleges in 2023. So that fundamentally changed how black students particularly showed up. So we actually made a program in response to that specifically, because a lot of Black families, whether middle class, upper class, lower class, were just wrestling with what do we do with that. A lot of families just went more into HBCUs. So we saw a rise in historically black college and university, a rise in HBCU attendance. And then for other families where they did want their students to attend these top colleges, it was kind of just like a we don't know what to do. Black students, the black and brown students, that's the only declining population at these top colleges. Everyone else, they're increasing in attendance, we're decreasing in attendance. Uh so what we have work to do, ultimately, what we the strategy applies to all ethnicities and all races, but a lot of what we found, a lot of black families were, I'm not, I'm not saying that I got into printing because I was black, but they relied on the fact that we were black and spoke Chinese. Like I took French and Latin. Like there's not a lot of black kids taking French and Latin. So it was really easy to differentiate myself from other high-achieving black kids. But once you take away race, me taking French and Latin is no longer impressive, right? So a lot of what we do is really helping our families redefine their understanding of what does it mean to look impressive. It's not oppressive to other black kids. Like you just have to be holistically oppressive across other kids competing, you're competing with in China. So that's a lot of the work that we do, just like helping families understand that shift, because a lot of families don't realize, you know, how much is changed in admissions. And colleges are looking at different ways to measure diversity. And a huge part of that diversity is diversity of interest. So we really help our students identify what is the specific social problem you want to solve. So when colleges are looking at who they are and what they did, they're like, oh, we don't have any other kids doing the intersection of engineering, law, and history, like the previous example I mentioned.

Expanding College Lists And Aid Strategy

Dr Ariel R King 19:33

I think that makes such a big difference, and that's that's so interesting now. And I know also with some of the well, HBCUs is historically black colleges, right? And universities, HBCUs for people that are not necessarily from America. And I I know that I was a professor at one time at Spelman, and the the competition was incredible, and the facilities were outstanding. Some of the best research facilities I've ever seen, even after working as a researcher. So when they come to you with a one or two colleges, is there a way to actually expand the possibilities of which colleges that they apply to? And how how does that work? And how do you work with the young person and the family to try to expand some of the colleges and the reach? Of course, excellence is always there. Excellence is never an issue. You don't have excellence, you you you can't get in, right? But just to expand their reach of the various possibilities and how that actually can help their particular young person. That it's It's a campus and a way that meets them where they are and the way that they want to learn and to live.

What College Really Costs

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 20:43

Yeah. So I this is part of what I did personally, and we have our families do. So I applied to 24 colleges and universities a lot. And that's how I ended up receiving eight full ride offers. And it was strategic because at the time we were low income. And so what that meant was I targeted schools that would provide 100% need-based aid. That's not every school. So I only applied to schools that did that. And that's how I was able to get those offers. So it starts with really we really have a conversation with the parent around the financial goals. College is extremely expensive, even for upper middle class, upper class families, is high-income families, it's still outrageously expensive. A lot of the financing for college is very rigged to optimize the so essentially they get the most money out of you. And so knowing that, we work really hard to uh create strategies that minimize the financial cost, whether they're high income or low income. It doesn't matter. We're trying to make sure you spend your the least amount of money possible. Um so is we start with that, and then we so because of that strategy, a lot of students will apply to schools that they didn't necessarily ever hear of before and they might never go to, but one of the things you can do with financial aid is you can actually leverage other financial aid offers. And so you can say, well, this school gave me this much. So if you want me to go, you need to give me this much. This doesn't normally work for Ivy's, but it does work for like other top colleges. Uh and so that's a huge part of what we do. It's a financial game, it's a financial conversation. So we're really not for brand name out, you know, just for brand name. I think a lot of these schools are very overhyped. And so that there's that. And then we have our students apply to at least, you know, eight to ten schools. And so what that means is they are going to end up considering schools that they did not once originally consider. And so, even for myself, what I did, and we have our families do is they won't necessarily visit all these schools before they apply, but after they get in, and then you know, parents see how much money these schools are offering, they go visit the school. And a lot of times the college will pay for these visits so that they can really, you know, see what their options are. And that can often be that moment where students uh students' eyes open to what is what is possible that they didn't want to see, you know, pre-the-application process.

Dr Ariel R King 22:41

That's truly amazing. And may I ask, what is the range of tuition now that we're looking at for colleges and universities within America? The range of tuition.

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 22:51

It really, really varies. So if you're like, if you're looking at like community college, and then if you're in state, right, that can change. So college can get, you know, it could be about $8,000 a year, it can be upwards of $100,000, $120,000 a year. So it really does depend. The IVs are gonna be the most expensive. Like technically, my biggest financial aid offer was from Princeton, but that's because their tuition is like the most. So yeah, it can really vary. And then depending on a family's goals, right? You know, they might have planned in their 529, so their college savings to pay a huge amount of that because they recognize that they're not necessarily going to get a lot of aid from these top colleges.

Dr Ariel R King 23:28

Thank you. So, and some of these top colleges, what's the range? And is it per year or per nine months, or for many people that are, you know, from all over the world, they don't know how that works. So, how long is that? And is it per year or for the entire four years of the college?

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 23:44

So for your bachelor's degree, you're looking at four years, and you're looking at upwards of eighty thousand, a hundred thousand dollars a year when you consider tuition in room and board. And a lot of these schools require that you room and board. So you you have to pay that too. It's not an option.

Dr Ariel R King 23:58

So it's like it's basically like buying a house within four years. Yes.

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 24:02

Like my prince degree was, I think, just under half a million dollars when you add it up all four years and all the study abroad that they paid for.

Final Advice And How To Reach Nicole

Dr Ariel R King 24:10

Thank you. That's amazing. So e even with what we call upper middle class or those that that do well, that's still a prohibitive amount of money to so I can I can actually see why your why your consulting is so important, not just for the school, but also for aligning the student with the parent, with the school, that gives them the best optimal uh possibility of who they are and what they want. Can I say a lot of variables? Thank you so much. Can I ask, would you like to just say any last words to our audience about what you do, how they can get in touch with you, which I think is really important. And if if they can't if they can't hire you because you have too many people, what can they do? How how can they get some of what you offer if you're not able to offer it to them? Thank you.

Nicole Elizabeth Olaniyi 24:59

Yes, thank you for the opportunity to share. So we have our website, Lionheart Coaching, so LionheartCoaching.academy. Uh, you can visit that for we have three different programs that we offer and just schedule a call with us. We're constantly meeting with families and we love just offering free advice. You know, as a low, I was a low-income student because my dad, you know, left his career to become a pastor. So we're really passionate about just democratizing access to consulting. It is a very predominantly white space, it is a very wealthy space. And so we're really intentional to make sure we're giving back, partnering with low-income schools, nonprofits, things like that. So, all that to say, don't let finances be a barrier to talking to us, because at minimum, we can give you some free strategy that you can take away and apply to your family.

Dr Ariel R King 25:41

I want to thank you so much for speaking with us today. It was so helpful and so informative, especially as someone who has been out of university forever. And it has changed, and we really need to have that conversation. So thank you so much. And to our audience, I want to thank you for being with us today. And remember, if I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, then when? That was by the great philosopher Hillel. And I've added, if not me, then who? Thank you so much for joining us.