You Are The Magic

From Politics to Podcasting: Nicole Ng Yuen on Following Your Inner Calling

• Christine DeHerrera • Episode 8

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Have you ever felt like you “should” be happy with your life on paper—but your soul whispers that something’s missing? This week on You Are The Magic, Christine welcomes the luminous Nicole Ng Yuen: a former political staffer turned international lawyer, podcast host, and self-development advocate who has mastered the art of the pivot. Nicole’s journey from Parliament Hill in Canada to the halls of Cambridge and the media boardrooms of London is a testament to what’s possible when you follow your inner calling—even when it doesn’t make sense on paper.

Nicole shares her powerful 8-step Pivot Framework, walks us through her free EnvisionAir Life Audit, and reminds us that it's never too late to reinvent your life. Her story is rich with synchronicity, spiritual insight, and strategic wisdom—perfect for anyone feeling stuck or called to something more. Whether you’re navigating a career shift, questioning your path, or simply craving deeper alignment, this episode will reignite your belief in what’s possible.

🎧 Listen now and download Nicole’s free EnvisionAir Life Audit tool here:
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Thank you for listening and just remember, you are the magic!

Christine DeHerrera: 0:04

I'm so excited to welcome Nicole Nang-Yuen to the you Are the Magic podcast. She's a former political staffer turned lawyer, and now she's the podcast host of the Envision Air podcast, a self-development podcast about envisioning your best life by exploring everyday topics related to health, wealth and community. You are just going to absolutely fall in love with her, just like I have, and she has so many beautiful things to say. Let's get started. Welcome, nicole, to the you Are the Magic podcast.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 0:38

Oh, thank you so much, christine, for having me on. I'm super excited to be here and thank you so much again to the listeners. And, yeah, I'm just super excited to be here on your podcast. What a pleasure.

Christine DeHerrera: 0:49

Well, I'm so excited that you're here. We've gotten to know each other over these last few months. I always think it's really interesting the journeys we all take to find each other, and you and I took journeys kind of far. I came from Colorado, you came from the UK to Kathy Heller's Her Turn to Podcast Summit in LA and just happened to sit next to each other during one of the sessions.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 1:14

Isn't that so wild? And then we went for lunch at this amazing, beautiful little market and it was just so magical. It was your podcast.

Christine DeHerrera: 1:26

It was. It was really magical and it mean, in an environment like that, it's easy, we have something in common. You know we're all podcasters and want to be podcasters and everything, but still, like there has to be that click that makes you like follow up with each other and all of that. So, yeah, that was such a fun week. I was going to say weekend, but it was during the week.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 1:47

Yeah, it's so true. But yeah, on that I feel like you and I just instantly clicked, but not only that, because there were so many amazing souls there, but I feel like you and I have really carried it forward and I'm so grateful to the universe that you're in my life and I get to call you a friend as well.

Christine DeHerrera: 2:03

So, yeah, really excited Me too, and it's really fun being on just any kind of path where you're trying to work on yourself and achieve and I know we're going to talk about that, so I should not get too far down that road but how the universe just opens things up for you if you are receptive and are following the things you love to do I 100% agree and I love that and yeah, I just, I mean, kathy brings together just such like minded, you know, beautiful souls that are so open and, yeah, amazing, I'm just really, really pleased Me too.

Christine DeHerrera: 2:39

Well, we have so much to dig into, I want to just get right to it. So tell me more about where you grew up and like something from your childhood that's helped you become this amazing adult human that you are.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 2:54

That is so sweet. I'm you know what I feel like. I'm really good at giving compliments because I just genuinely like, genuinely love giving compliments, but getting compliments makes me a little bit shy. Anyway, thank you very much. I will receive that. And do you know what? So I grew up in Canada.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 3:09

So, even though I live in the UK right now which is that was definitely a journey to get here I grew up in Canada, in Toronto and a little suburb in Toronto from parents that came from Trinidad and Tobago immigrated to Canada. You know, really, with that, they instilled a really strong ethic of getting good education. It's the way you know towards, you know being out of poverty and everything. And so I really had that very strong sense of you have to work hard, you have to study hard, etc. I would say one of the things that really impacted my current view of the world.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 3:42

I will definitely have to give credit to my mom. She was such she's like. I call her my kind of like, my life guide, if you will almost like a life coach, but I almost want to say life guide, because she always used to tell me when I was a little girl you can do anything. You put your mind to it, if you put your mind to it and I feel like having that instilled in your brain, that you can actually do something, that sense of belief that you get from someone who you love so much they're your world to get that constantly enforced. That is why I'm so optimistic and that is why I'm so constantly pushing myself and growing. And so I have to give her credit yeah, it was amazing.

Christine DeHerrera: 4:19

I love that. I mean your mom being so supportive and really saying you can do anything, because you are doing so many things that we're going to talk about just a few of them. It's so exciting all the things. Tell us a little bit about your career journey, because it's pretty interesting.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 5:18

Yeah, it's a colorful one for those listening. It's non-conventional and I kind of like it, I'm kind of embracing that. So I like to call myself now a multi-hyphenate and I learned about this word recently, just this year, and it's basically someone who has various different sides to them and passions and or interests, and I really do think that a lot of people are multi-hyphenates and multifaceted. But I think, sadly, at some point in our lives we're just told to stay in our lane and that's it. And then we tend to get, like you know, these kind of just, we're very like narrow minded, one track and we don't think that we can do other things. I guess I'm sharing that because I started in a very traditional sort of.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 6:03

I worked as a political staffer in Canadian politics, which was such an amazing career. I'm so grateful. That was like my first big career when I graduated university and I studied political science and I had the opportunity to intern at the Parliament Hill Buildings for a member of parliament, which is essentially like a congressman in the US anyone listening to US and I had an amazing career. I worked my way up as an intern and then worked my way up all the way to chief of staff. Before I left and while I was working in politics, especially towards the end of my career I was there for about 10 years I started thinking that there was more to life than just this. And I will say a lot of political staffers. They tend to get to a fork in the road and I would say like half continue on down this you know political staffer political journey, which is amazing and great, and the other half tend to leave and do something else and then sometimes they come back into politics, often writing as a political official. Anyway, I fell into the latter track because I was feeling the sense of like feeling stuck and I was feeling like there is definitely much more. I couldn't shake this feeling for probably about six months or almost a year and even though I had, like you know, essentially in the traditional sense, I'd made it, I was like chief of staff working for a very senior political official. It was awesome. But you know I and I've shared this with you before like there was moments where I was feeling dread going into this building that is so revered and so many people would have, like you know, they would have blown their mind to be able to have that opportunity, and I was walking with dread and anxiety and stress and I was like what is happening? This is so weird.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 7:45

So I decided to do and we can talk about this a bit more but I did what I do as a life audit and I took stock of my life and made some big decisions. I pivoted my life and my career, basically decided to study law and I had the opportunity to study at the University of Cambridge, which was amazing in the UK. Yes, and again, that is a story. I will share that afterwards, but I just am giving you a highlight. And then I came to the UK, not even having been to the UK before, okay, and I just kind of just went with it. And so I studied law for three years here and then I did my professional qualification, got a training contract which is essentially an articling position at a big law firm kind of big law and I then qualified as a corporate commercial lawyer, did that for a few years, worked in private practice for about four years.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 8:39

Then I did a little mini pivot. I'm still a lawyer, but I now work in a media company, which is great, really, a lot more creative and a little more, you know, energizing in that in that way and and, yeah, and I started, and I have a podcast and I also have started, you know, another little side thing, which is about dating and matchmaking. So I just feel I'm sharing all of this. It's very, it's very long journey, but this is exactly to show you you can do anything if you put your mind to it. Everyone can, and we just need the right support, we need the right systems and anyone can do anything, and that is really the message I feel like I want to share with everyone you can do anything you want, just put your mind to it.

Christine DeHerrera: 9:20

I love that so much because I agree with you. That's part of the message here on this podcast as well Do the things that you want, be the person that you want, and it's probably going to change over your life. I mean, there are some folks that manage to find one thing and stick with it, but a lot of us have a lot of interests and we change and evolve over the course of our life and both paths are awesome. So I love this message so much. I want to back up for one second. How did you pick Cambridge out of all the law schools in the world you could go to and like had you been to the UK before? Or tell me, tell me about this.

Christine DeHerrera: 10:00

I love it so much.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 10:01

Well, christine, I'm so glad that you mentioned this because I really I love it so much. Well, christine, I'm so glad that you mentioned this because I really I share this story with so many people who are either pivoting and or looking for that sort of reassurance, like what if I fail? And this is something I really want to share, because I actually applied to McGill University, which is a university in Montreal, canada, and I really genuinely, hand on heart, thought I'm going to get in, this is the university for me. My dad had gone there. So when he was in Trinidad, he had got a scholarship to Montreal, to McGill in Montreal. So that's how we, you know, he he came, as you know, a young student to Canada and then eventually had, you know, my sister and I there. This is like, oh, it's meant to be. My dad went to McGill and the program was so specific with what I wanted to do and I was like, oh yes, like I know best, this is the university for me. Well, guess what? The universe had something very different in mind. Okay, and of course it did. Right, of course it did. And so I applied to McGill, being like I'm a shoo-in, of course you know. And, and my old boss. He was also represented a constituency in Montreal. So I was like, oh yeah, I'm a shoe-in, I'm a shoe-in right. And lo and behold, I get wait-listed right, which is essentially like you're not coming in.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 11:14

And then eventually I was holding onto hope Even the week of law school starting. I was like, oh, maybe I'll go. Anyway, didn't get in. So basically I got rejected. But here's the thing. I am so like one door closes, another one opens. This is a great way, because then, like a month later, I was really defeated. Obviously I was like, oh my gosh, what to do. But I said, you know what, I'm just going to reapply. So I picked myself up.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 11:39

But then I was speaking to a friend and he was studying law in the UK and he was a former political staffer with me and we were friends and I just mentioned it in passing. Oh, you know, I didn't get in. And the girl and he was like, why aren't you applying to Oxbridge? And I was like, what is Oxbridge? I'd never heard of this term. And basically Oxbridge means Oxford or Cambridge in the UK. And I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. Nobody in my family had ever gone to Ivy League. This was not. I was like that's so far-fetched, like I can't even imagine it. And he was like, honestly, I think you should apply, you have a really interesting background and I think they would really like you.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 12:19

So I did my whole like that was part of the sort of pivoting and what I do. I talk about a methodology which I think is really easy to do. But I went into like research mode and planning and then I basically did what I did and I actually said you know what, maybe I could go to Cambridge? And so I decided I applied and I applied to other universities, some in Toronto. I reapplied to McGill, I applied to other ones in Canada and guess what I got in?

Nicole Ng Yuen: 12:45

The first university I got into was the University of Cambridge and honestly, that for me was like a sign from the universe that this is where I'm meant to be and it really was an amazing journey. It's been 10 years since I've been in the UK, so I really want to share that because I want people to know that, yeah, it is scary because you're putting yourself out there. Whenever you're making a big pivot in life, or even a small one, you're still putting yourself out there and you might fail, but that's okay, because you fail and then another, even better door opens. Do you see what I'm saying?

Christine DeHerrera: 13:15

Oh my God, I love that. That's just an amazing example of that, because it would have been really easy to say, oh darn, I didn't get into this law school, maybe I'm not meant to be a lawyer, maybe I'm just supposed to stick it out as a political staffer. I can always go back to that and instead it's like no, you did the exact opposite of that. You doubled down and sought advice from other people who had done something similar. And what a beautiful synchronicity with your parents to like, leave your home country and go find new amazing things in another country. I mean that I've got like goosebumps all over just thinking about like, how, how amazing that is. And when you got that acceptance, what was your first thought? I mean, I know it's 10 years ago, but like, well, I remember like what?

Nicole Ng Yuen: 14:07

Yeah, I remember opening it and I was like, wow, okay, it was kind of almost like unbelievable, but I was like, looks like I'm going to the UK. It almost felt like, okay, this is, I'm being directed by something bigger, because, again, it was just so far-fetched, like I cannot even tell you, I never, ever, ever, thought about the idea Like it's not. Like. You know, some people are like, oh, I've dreamed of going to Cambridge since I'm like five years old. I was like I didn't even understand what Oxbridge was until I was like a year before you know anyway. So it's truly like, yeah, I really do feel like it's a mix of you know, there's this, I love this saying by Oprah, and she says there's no such thing as luck.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 14:47

It's opportunity, meeting, preparation, and I think that is so true because you have to do the work. These sorts of opportunities they don't well, I mean, sometimes they come out of nowhere in some ways. But I really think being prepared and doing the research is also really important. You know, also heard, sorry, can I say one more quote, which?

Nicole Ng Yuen: 15:06

I learned about last week which and I saw it twice, which is so recently I learned about it from my mentor who was visiting me, actually from Canada. My professor from first year university was visiting me from Canada and she told me something. And then I saw the same quote like two days ago. And so, okay, this quote says what does it say? Maybe you know it, like two days ago. And so okay, this quote says what does it say, Maybe you know it Pray like it's up to God and act like it's up to you, or something.

Christine DeHerrera: 15:36

Oh, that's good, that's really good.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 15:42

That's really good. It's like the sense that you've got to leave it in the universe's hands, but you've got to put the work in.

Christine DeHerrera: 15:45

Absolutely yeah, I think it really is both. You have to know you're part of something bigger that is way wiser and so powerful beyond even anything we can imagine. And we have to take action. It's amazing. People are like I'm going to manifest and they're watching TV for 10 hours a day. It's like what? Maybe I mean anything's possible, but it sure helps if you do the work.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 16:10

A hundred percent. Yeah, agreed, agreed, love it.

Christine DeHerrera: 16:13

I do too. I want to talk more about this pivoting. So you go to Cambridge, you become a lawyer, you're thriving in law, obviously, and yet you still have more things that you want to do beyond that. Tell me about your book that you're writing and a little bit more about your pivoting methodology, because you have pivoted successfully multiple times. So, like, I would definitely call you the pivot expert among the many expert things that you do, but tell me more about that.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 16:44

Okay. So the book is called it's Never Too Late to Pivot your Life and again, it's this ethos that I tell my. I've told myself. It's my story. But I've also shared with so many people and I've had a lot of people ask me, like, how did you do what you did? And I started really thinking about like, well, what did I do? Like this framework and it's actually quite easy. So I've put together like a. It's like an eight step process, which seems like a lot, but it's actually very, very simple, because some of the latter stages are really more about remaining consistent and, you know, kind of leaving things to the universe. So I'll just, if it's helpful, I can run through the steps.

Christine DeHerrera: 17:21

Absolutely, absolutely. We got lots of pivoters here listening, for sure. Oh yeah, I love it.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 17:27

Amazing.

Christine DeHerrera: 17:27

My people, Christine's people, yeah exactly I was going to say that's because I'm a pivoter too, I mean I would love to. Okay, I'm going to put a pin in that I'll come back. We'll just say I love to pivot too. Go for it, Tell us the framework.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 17:41

Well, I love your story too. I mean you have had such an amazing, colorful career and you also successfully pivot, so I mean we should be comparing notes at this point, but okay, so basically it's like an eight step process and it's it's going to be detailed in the book, but anyway, first step is I use an analysis of my life and I've used this tool called a life audit, and it's such an amazing tool because it helps you reflect on your three big categories of our lives, which is health, wealth and community. Health is like your physical, mental, spiritual health. Wealth is like your business or career investments, budgeting, like how are you doing financially right? And then the third one is community, and this is all encompassing. It means your interpersonal relationships, your family, friends, but it also can mean things like your philanthropy, giving back, because those are things that are really important to me.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 18:36

So I give myself, I have these like subcategories and I give myself a score at one to five and I really see where I'm like winning in life and where I'm not. So like. Five being like I'm killing it. One being like oh, you need to, you need to take some time out and work on this area.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 18:53

And and that's really interesting because I tend that is an indication of where I need to work on, because sometimes I don't know about other people, but I have felt like these dips, low, lows, like in terms of and that's what I felt like when I was in working in politics. It was like I'm successful in like the on paper, but like why do I feel so low, why am I feeling stressed, anxiety, et cetera. So it's like I score myself and in those under those little buckets, those three buckets, and then I can really pinpoint oh, this is the area I need to work on, this is what I need to do better, anyway. So that's step one is the life audit, which is such a great tool that I love using and I do that. Yeah, go ahead.

Christine DeHerrera: 19:31

Sorry, no, I was just going to say doing a life audit regularly would be very helpful, I think, because sometimes we're so caught up in our day to day that we might not even realize how we're feeling about things if you're not really taking time regularly to listen to yourself and be in silence and be in stillness. So taking this life audit on a regular basis, I think, would be amazing to draw attention to. Oh my, it is time for me to look at. I'm not in my community anymore because I'm too busy worrying about my job or whatever the case may be. So I love that. I love the bringing awareness to these areas of our life regularly. And then now what? Okay, now we know we're messed up.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 20:24

Well, and this is the thing. So you're absolutely right, and that's exactly what I was going to say. I do my life audit about once a year, normally towards the end of the year fresh new year. I want to know what I'm working on, what I'm focusing on Right. So for me, the life audit is essential as a tool.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 20:38

And then step two basically, once you've identified the areas that you need to improve, I really, I well, I like to then move on to, okay, goal setting. Okay, so we have an issue. Well, first of all, I will say this I give myself a pat on the back and I say good job for the areas that I'm winning, you know like, well, well done, right, if you get a massage, or anyway. And then and then, where the areas that are like okay, you know what, this isn't really great, I need to do better I say, okay, this is a new goal, this is a goal area. And so then that's when it gets exciting for me, because I love diving into goals and goal setting. And so it obviously depends on the area that you're pivoting your life in, because, for example, if it's a career, sometimes you can't just quit your job because you have a mortgage, you have children, you have different responsibilities, so you can't just say, oh, I'm not happy with my job, so like bye. Well, you could, but I wouldn't because I take calculated risks, but and so. So, basically, I like to set out and say, okay, let's talk about the school and let's talk about some qualitative and quantitative aspects of the school. That's not just about, like I want to change careers or I want to change my job. In the next six months or a year, I will have changed this job, or I would have, you know, I want to have met this goal. So I break it down into like smaller, more attainable goals that relate to that bigger goal, and then a qualitative element might be like, if it's again changing careers, it might be like you know, I want to feel satisfied, I want to feel excited again, I want to feel, you know. So it's more. I think qualitative is more about feelings. It's very subjective, whereas quantitative is like benchmarks this is proper Like these are the metrics I need to meet, and so I love that because I am, even though I'm very emotional, like feely, I feel I'm also quite analytical, and so I like both. I like having a practical, you know, little list. So anyway. So that's step two.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 22:29

Then step three. We get into like, ooh, okay, now we have these goals, like how am I actually going to meet them? And this is where the planning comes in. Planning it's easy. So now we start brainstorming how can we actually meet those goals so easy? We start thinking about what are the courses I need to take? Do I need to retrain? Who do I need to meet? Setting up coffees, setting up informal chats, connecting with people on LinkedIn, et cetera and this is really an exciting part because it's about information gathering. It's being curious what would I need to do to get to those goals? So that's really exciting For me. I like step three.

Christine DeHerrera: 23:04

I was going to say, step three is the best, it sounds like, because you get to investigate what fun things you can do and new people to meet and places to go. And so, yes, I think that sounds like it could easily trip you up and just you stay in that zone forever.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 23:24

Well, and I feel like, okay, yes, I am definitely extroverted in some ways, more so I'm more of an extrovert than I am an introvert. However, I think if people may identify more as an introvert, it can be a little bit scary because I have to reach out to people Like that's really scary, but, honestly, there are ways that you can do it that are less scary in your face. You know what I mean, and so we, yeah, but anyway, we can move on now. So step four is for those introverts you can reach out to me and ask me exactly how I suggest. But anyway, there's that's another podcast topic.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 23:57

Step four is visualization. So that is, I love visualization. I am so into visualization, like, what a powerful tool, what a powerful tool. So this is when I start going to like the guided meditations and I start really utilizing that. I wish I had enough time every day and discipline to do guided meditations, cause I genuinely think that that is the next iteration of how we co-create in this world. But yeah, so I I do guided meditations. I constantly am thinking about my goals, especially when now I'm learning a lot more about like brainwaves and being in a theta state and really utilizing that, and so I really try and do and, for anyone listening, that is obviously when there's different brainwaves that we have and what I'm learning is that certain brainwaves, particularly like when you get up first thing or when you go to bed, you're, I believe it's theta, and that is when you're most like almost like in a hypnosis state and that is when you can actually program things in your brain and it's fascinating and I think when I didn't know that I was doing this, but like I would always either journal right before bed, which is I didn't realize that that's a great way to do that and to kind of reprogram your brain into anyway, and also, I think, like visualization like is a vision board or something visual to look at, really great way to do that.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 25:16

Anyway, step five is then moving into, like, the support system. So this is like you really need to surround yourself intentionally with people who are going to be helping you, because, especially if it's a big, a big pivot, you know, and you need to make sure that your network and the people around you are, like cheering you on wholeheartedly, because, and if you have to distance yourself from certain people, like, this is the time to do it. You know those memes that say like, disappear for six months and then like come back, like genuinely, because you need to the people. You're the, you know the sum total of the five people around you. So if everyone's telling you you can't do it, well, you need to find a new group of people, anyway. So we talk about, yeah, so that's your support system, that's your network.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 25:59

And then step six is about just consistency, like constantly going forward. And I use the example of McGill University, not getting into law school there. You know, if I had said oh yeah, like you said oh well, I guess that's it Too bad, then that would have been it. I would not be where I am and I'm really grateful. The reason I say that is because I also met my husband when I came over here. So I'm very appreciative and grateful because that sort of journey is where I met my husband in my law firm.

Christine DeHerrera: 26:26

He's also a lawyer, so anyway, we're going to circle back around to that too, because that's so magical.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 26:34

That's the juicy bit. And then, yeah, and then step seven is just, I think I always think keeping open to all opportunities because, again, if I had heard what my friend said and just dismissed it, I would not have followed through. So always I think my dad used to say this to me. So my mom's like my life guide, my dad, I would not have followed through. So always I think my dad used to say this to me. So my mom's, like my life guide, my dad, I feel like he passed, but I still feel him sometimes with me and he's like almost my I want to say like my spiritual teacher, and he used to tell me a lot of things like, and one thing that stuck with me is God speaks to us using different vessels, and so I do feel like maybe that was God speaking through me, or the universe, whatever you want to call it was guiding me through my friend, and I feel like we always have to be open to these sorts of opportunities and or people that come into our lives and telling us things you know and if it aligns with you, follow through with that.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 27:26

So just being open, and then the final step is just to continue to pivot throughout your life, because that is what it is all about. This is what life is. We're supposed to be iterating and growing and, yeah, so that's the eight step plan and it's all going to be detailed in my book and, yes, I'm really excited. I'm glad I could share that with you guys.

Christine DeHerrera: 27:56

Oh, I love that so much. Every single one of those steps is so powerful and having it laid out in a framework like that is so helpful, because in my own business I had a really magical start to my business, which I've talked about. Quite a lot of opportunities appearing to me from me following the things that I love to do, and that is awesome, and I still, running a business, ran into situations where things were difficult and needing to make changes and this framework would have been so helpful back then. I mean, I figured it out, obviously, but as having like a go-to framework of follow these steps I think is so valuable. And you mentioned about, you know, both needing like systems and and plans as well as allowing for the magical things to happen.

Christine DeHerrera: 28:42

So, like the creativity and the systems and, as a creative person, systems are so helpful for me because if I get things very organized and have a plan, then that's when, honestly, the magic can happen, not just being off in creativity land, and so, again, I just think this is such a valuable framework and thank you for sharing it with all of us, because I think people will really find that helpful and they might even recognize where they are, you know in that, like, are they stuck in the? I'm just going to keep taking courses because I'm afraid to move forward, or gosh, I am still letting my best friend from seventh grade drag me down, or you know whoever it is that doesn't believe you can change. And so, looking into you know, disappearing if you need to like, whatever that takes. So then you met your husband and it was that your first law firm you worked at. Yeah, oh my gosh.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 29:41

It was like suits, basically, you know, I love it, it wasn't, it was. Well, I will. Yeah, I know it wasn't, it wasn't that salacious.

Christine DeHerrera: 29:55

I'm just thinking about Mike and like you know, that wouldn't be great from Suze Like cute and all, but in real life Mike being fraud maybe wasn't the greatest thing. Fraud maybe wasn't the greatest thing. Sorry, I'm just thinking. I love that show. It's so good, so good. If you have not watched it, folks, you should listen and go see it immediately. Yeah.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 30:19

Oh yeah, well, I was watching it while I was studying at Cambridge and when I was doing law school and I literally was like, oh, this is what it's going to be, like I can't wait, and it's far less glamorous than what that was. And they always like thought, would like at the last minute, would like save the you know last minute, like come in with, like the final argument, and like that also does not happen. It is so much more meticulous and planned, pre-planned. Nobody does that sort of last minute saving of the day, with the final fact that they anyway, but it is, it's a good show.

Christine DeHerrera: 30:50

It's a good show. Oh, that's too bad, cause, like we all just want to think that that's how lawyering and the courts work. No, not really. We don't want that. We want meticulous and planned in real life when it comes to things like that. Oh my gosh, oh my goodness, all right. So we've talked a lot about pivoting, which you've done. You've got this book that'll be coming out. If somebody is afraid to pivot, though, like, what like, how would you encourage them, or what's the? I mean, we went through the steps, but if they're just genuinely even too afraid to feel, like I could, like, what would you say to somebody that's scared?

Nicole Ng Yuen: 31:34

Yeah Well, I think it all boils down to that there's someone, there's some inner critic, something at some point in your life has told you don't do that, or if you do, something bad could happen. So I really feel like the first step is just recognizing that. Like that is an external voice, something, someone, some external experience has told you to be scared. So that's really important to recognize. So it's not actually in you, it's something external. And because it's external, you can move it away. And maybe if you obviously need to talk to a good friend and talk that through because sometimes it's just about identifying that little voice and where it comes from and what happened and then all of a sudden you can move past that and you can let go. But I would say, like there's, I really do think that there's nothing to lose, like I mean, things are always working in your favor and really I genuinely feel that way. And there's been so many like that.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 32:45

I've gone through, I'm sure you have too. I don't know I'm making assumptions, christine, but like I've gone through, I'm sure you have too. I don't know I'm making assumptions, christine, but like I've gone through heartbreak, I've gone through. You know various different. You know losses and and different, you know different traumas, if you will, at different points in my life. And I really do feel I can look back now and say everything happened for a reason and really trusting in that sort of higher being and trusting that the universe, everything is working for me and I really do think that if you can just hold on to that, that idea, that ethos, that like things are working for me, and I really got to trust the process, you will thrive, you will do it and there's nothing for you to lose. You know, because you don't want to be like 90 years old and regretting that I did not try to do that. You know what I mean.

Christine DeHerrera: 33:32

Exactly. I mean, it's a little bit the idea of okay, I know what I'm uncomfortable, I know I need to change, but I'm afraid to change and knowing that of course it's going to be scary, but we have to shed these old identities to step into the next version of ourselves and trusting that these dark nights of the soul that we all go through will be followed by something that is beautiful and amazing if we're willing to go all the way through them. And I think that is such a critical piece of this pivot is like you've got to go all the way through, Like you didn't just apply to law school and then give up, you didn't just settle for the first law firm, you ended up changing into a different kind of law firm. And that brings us to, besides the book and all this other stuff, the podcast. How did that come out for you? How did that happen? And you're balancing all of these things lawyering and podcasting and writing and it's absolutely beautiful to watch and witness. But how did the podcast start?

Nicole Ng Yuen: 34:45

Yeah, well, that was Okay. So this idea of this sort of dark night of the soul and so on, I I'm reminded when you said that. I remember that I heard jim rohn say on a number of times, but also recently, very recently I was listening to me came on my something audio and he said, like you know, day follows night. That is that is this unit. Like day follows night, that is that is this unit. Like day follows night. It has to. That is a universal law. There are seasons in life Like that just happens. So I really think, like that is the most important thing to remember. Like things flow, this is life We've chosen. Like well, we've chosen. I have this thing. I have this idea that, like We've chosen, like well, we've chosen, I have this thing. I have this idea that, like it's a borrowed philosophy that I've heard that we're just human beings, we're spiritual beings having a human experience. So if that, if you ascribe to that or that, resonates with you, I really hope it does, because for me it does. And I think to myself oh well, I've chosen, I've chosen this Like I want to experience all the human stuff. I want to experience all the human stuff. I want to experience this. So why not fully embrace it and and try to experience as much as I can, you know? And so, getting onto that same, this is a nice probably segue into how the podcast evolved.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 36:01

Well, essentially it was I was feeling even though I was grateful that I had, like, qualified as a lawyer and I'd become a lawyer, there was a really I was still feeling this sense of like. There's really something. I felt like I was swimming upstream and and it was really I was in a toxic work environment. And so I, but I knew I said, well, I just I've given up so much to come to like and should I am, I like, and I started having all this imposter syndrome, like maybe, maybe I'm not meant to be a lawyer, maybe I'm not a good lawyer, maybe, you know, maybe I'm not meant to be in London and working as a lawyer, maybe I'm this, maybe I'm that and it's all about me, right? Like I just felt very othered and like I didn't belong in that because of the it's toxic work environment. And so I did my life audit and I pinpointed the fact that I was missing.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 36:50

Community was a big part, as well as maybe the area I was specializing in law and that kind of helped me to do a little mini pivot move from a commercial corporate lawyer into commercial litigation and that was pretty. That was a very positive step that I did. So I didn't have to leave law per se, if that makes sense. So I didn't have to leave law per se, if that makes sense. But also what I realized I was I was missing the sort of real deep community connection, human connection element. Because when I qualified as a lawyer, what I realized is that, especially in corporate and commercial law in a law firm, it was all about you know billing, billable hours and you know getting work done, you know head down getting, you know churning out contracts and different things.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 37:35

And I just was like whoa, there's a big part of my soul that is not connecting. Because for me human connection is so important, I wasn't getting that. Obviously I had my, I had my husband or my. At the time we were, you know, were boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever living together. But I was missing that element of just human connection on a day-to-day outside of my husband. So I decided I was like what? There's something missing.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 38:00

So I did my life audit, pinpointed that, and then I was like, okay, well, what can I do? Because I don't want to leave my profession as a lawyer, but what can I do to supplement this? And narrowed it down. Narrowed it down there and then finally was like podcast, that's an interesting one. Never thought about that. And then, yeah, and so basically the podcast came about and and I started cause I started, I knew I wanted to be something positive and I wanted to be something where people can grow and learn together, and cause that's what I'm all about self-development and growth. And so the Envisionaire podcast was born and yeah, it's, it's so great. And so now it's been I don't know a couple of years now and we've, we've grown and it's really exciting.

Christine DeHerrera: 38:45

So, yeah, so anyway, I love that so much and that's actually one of the reasons I wanted to do a podcast also, like I love listening to podcasts, I love learning, and so there's that piece of it for sure. But it's having the interesting conversations with people and getting to connect with people that you otherwise wouldn't get to connect with. When I was writing magazine articles, like back in my late 20s, that ended up leading to this, my business that I have I that was one of the things I loved most is I got to go interview all kinds of interesting people, and so this is like the new version of that, and I don't know that I really made that connection 100% until now that, oh, that's what I'm doing again, because I mean you have an excuse. Like I am a bit of an introvert, I'm an extroverted introvert, right, but like I have a reason to talk to people and and I mean invite people onto the show and and I also love to research, so go research, you know all of their cool things, and so all of this together and put that connection piece, because for me, the pandemic is what really did me in.

Christine DeHerrera: 39:52

I have been really lucky to work from home in my business for 20 plus years. I was doing it way before. It was cool. Like you know, back in the day I was like, oh my gosh, I don't have like a fancy, swanky office, but now that's how almost everybody is, is from home. But being at home so much during those couple of years in the pandemic really like I felt super isolated, even though I was still on tons of Zoom calls and everything. And so, yeah, getting out and talking to people. That was why I wanted to go to the podcast summit where we met and just having great excuses to talk and meet new people. So yeah, I love that.

Christine DeHerrera: 40:32

Well, I think this has been a really amazing conversation. I think I'm so excited you shared your framework for pivoting, because, I mean, I just think it's so powerful, so tell people how they can find the life audit that you offer for them.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 40:46

Yeah, yeah. Well, the life audit is free, so everyone likes a good free thing and it's just. It's basically downloadable off of my website. So that's wwwnicoleningyuancom, and I'm sure, hopefully, I'll share the links and, christine, you can hopefully put it in the show notes.

Christine DeHerrera: 41:05

We'll put all that in the show notes. Tell them any other places they can find you that you want to when they want to connect with you.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 41:11

Yeah, well, I would recommend. I mean, I'm on socials. So on Instagram, great way to connect is at Nicole and then underscore N-G, underscore Y-U-E -N. So that's my last name, it's a little bit of a mouthful. And then also on LinkedIn is a great way, because I'm constantly checking LinkedIn. So just my name, nicole. At Ningyuan Well, I think it's Nicole Samara Ningyuan, but anyway, you should see it. It should say lawyer, podcaster. But yeah, just drop me a line. I'm always happy to connect and I'm always really excited to you know, just hear people's stories and if there's any questions anyone has about you know, pivoting, I'm always available for a chat.

Christine DeHerrera: 41:53

So, yeah, I love that. Thank you again, and I think we'll have to have you back once the book is out and got a few other things up your sleeve that we want to talk about as well. Always, always.

Nicole Ng Yuen: 42:08

We'll see you again soon, for sure. Oh, thanks so much, christine, sending lots of love from the UK. Thank you.