MEET NICOLE MARINO
Certified Lifestyle Coach, Nationally published photographer, and Interview Host
“What began as my own exploration to live with more peace and purpose has grown into helping others to get off their own hamster wheel and build their dream life.”
People’s ears perk up when they hear about my life as a nationally-published photographer who spends her days relaxing in Napa Valley, has also interviewed top celebs like…
James Marsden, Olivia Wilde, and Kevin Bacon and whose work plus articles have appeared in publications like Vogue, Thrive Global, and on the cover of South Shore Living; however, They’d never guess that years ago….
… I was meek, self-conscious, and utterly immobilized by second-guessing everything. On the outside, looking in, most would never have guessed I felt under a microscope and like I was playing small. No one would ever know, based on all my achievements today, that I had trouble overcoming the naysaying and had let others’ influences completely overshadow my own. On the outside, I looked strong and behaved strong-willed but little did they know it was leaving me with minimal self-belief and doubting myself. I was listening to what others thought was best for me versus really listening to myself. It wasn’t till later that I learned I always knew what was best for myself because I could see the life that was intended for me when others could not. At the time, I felt like everything out there that was grander was meant for others due to my upbringing, and I was feeling silenced and believing the life I craved wasn’t possible for little old me to accomplish. I ultimately let others’ viewpoints on my life and others’ fears seep into me.
All of this manifested into digestion issues, brain fog, mental exhaustion, and physical pains in my throat when I tried to speak my opinions or suggestions to take a stance on matters. I didn’t like confrontation. Let’s just say although I was dreaming big, I listened to who was in my life as the guidelines as to what was actually possible. I later learned this was not true, and I could reinvent my life.
Aspects of my life were accomplished; I worked a high-level marketing job but knew deep down it was draining me and wasn’t the right fit for me. I had chosen to do what I was brought up learning which was to do what society and those closest to me thought was responsible—to take a 9-5 job, play it safe, and make money to keep afloat. I was going through the motions just to get through the day, not performing well in each of my jobs as best I could, but deep down, I saw something more for myself. I went back and forth, not quite trusting the dreams I had were possible. I was an empathetic, gentle soul and felt I was constantly trying to live up to everyone else’s views. I worried about messing up or doing something wrong.
(And as you may know, this feeling isn’t just ‘uncomfortable’. It immobilizes you and keeps you stuck in a jail you have allowed for yourself.)
The truth of the matter is, I dreamed of making a lasting impact on this planet and living from the soul, doing things that lit me up instead of sucking the life from me. I wished to be out in nature rather than living an unfulfilling life, chained to a desk in a job that felt confining. I envisioned making my “passion side hustle” in photography a more elaborate part of my life —something I started seeing evidence of at the early age of 7 years old when I used to line up my dolls to photograph them (seriously).
I wanted to make my OWN dream life and to make it a reality. I wanted to build the life I knew I was destined to live and felt deep within my soul on my best days.
Then one day, I realized I had a choice.
I witnessed a glimpse of a new reality during a visit to Napa Valley. I conducted life differently there. I was still living my life, but it looked different. It was as if no previous experiences affected me. No preconceived obstacles existed prior to this new life I was inventing. I knew if I could fathom a different life, I could choose to live differently moving forward any way I desired.
I could have continued to feel I was sacrificing myself, stressed, and anxious, living according to the expectations of others… allowing what they thought was best for me to be more important than what I thought about myself... or I could start taking steps to create a lifestyle to trust what was calling to me which resonated from my soul.
So I decided to pursue photography projects outside of my comfort zone and true know-how. Over time it just naturally unfolded into my own media company. I had aspirations of capturing others’ stories. I loved people and couldn’t just stop at capturing still images of them. I started listening to my inner voice more and more. I let go of everything that didn’t feel aligned even if the money was there however the passion was not. I said “NO” to it on most occasions. Eventually, I packed my bags in Boston and headed towards an easier “more aligned-with-my-soul” way of living in California. It ultimately led to capturing the stories of others on camera through hosting interview segments along with written articles. I refined my own life on my own terms. Now, my inner compass is strengthened and louder than ever. When someone gives their feedback or insight that doesn’t align with me, I know it full-heartedly and I don’t doubt my inner knowing or strength in my own abilities to reach for what I desire.
(By the way, you don’t have to make a big move like I did. You might just want to allow yourself to dream bigger and put boundaries in place to start living life the way YOU want to.)
Among the tools I’ve felt led to are my deep guided visualizations, positive affirmation gifts, 1:1 coaching plans, and an online self-study platform. You’ll rediscover how to live fully and at ease, as you revive and reinvent your life on every level (in your physical surroundings, your mindset, and your daily life habits).
I know how easy it is to lose sight of what you truly desire for your life, and have it overshadowed by tribulations. It can be incredibly overwhelming and deflating. My own journey from ‘meek and second guessing’ to ‘fully tuned into my inner voice’ unfolded by trusting my own deeply intuitive callings guided from above, and obsession with living a high on life feeling that guided me… and this helped me map out a clear path for others to follow!
Now that I’ve done this work for myself, I can’t wait to show you how to do it, too.
TIMELINE
Here’s a snapshot of what my own journey looks like:
2001 - Unfulfilling marketing career with small side photography clients
2003 - Started having my photos appear in national publications such as Vogue and many others while still living in Boston
2007 - Left corporate without securing any backing, but trusted in my photography side hustle
2008 - Started overlaying my photos with motivational quotes and crated prints for friends and family.
2009 - Moved to CA and got into social media marketing, photography, and interviews despite others opposing my decision who couldn’t see my vision for what I was called to do
2011 - The creation of my media company was underway. Started being highlighted by my local press within Napa for my talents as a photographer, storyteller, and interviewer. Interview host of celebrities and locals inspiring stories for my television show, ‘Bigshot in Wine country’
2013 - Started guiding friends and family in reinventing their lifestyle, and surroundings, and holding deep guided visualizations in order to allow them to step into and carrying out self-belief purpose.
2016 - Crafted another powerful tool in her calendar for coaching which honored local winemakers and vintners through stylized lifestyle portraits in a calendar designed by Nicole used for goal setting, motivational affirmations, honoring truest life purpose. Two consecutive years calendars were sold to area wineries and shops throughout Boston and Wine country and benefited the local Veterans Home.
2019 - The online platform, THE REVIVAL Platform for well-being and self-development was underway and completed for coaching clients for personal development.
2020 - Facebook Live webinars were held and the All Intensive Revival into Future Self program was launched for successful support to individuals on mindset and lifestyle reviving.
2020 - 2021 - Nicole spends her time guiding clients and entrepreneurs in their soul’s calling as an ‘Empowerment Wellness & Lifestyle Coach’ through 1:1 coaching, her online program, The REVIVAL Platform, Deep Guided Visualizations, and with the use of her products offering accountability to bettering clients lives such as affirmation art prints, accountability worksheets, and through season programs offered.
2022 - Nicole received her certificate as an official Wellness and Lifestyle Coach to further advance her knowledge connecting body, mind, and lifestyle for overall wellness. *After board certification, she is able to accept most Insurance plans for clients wishing to pay through their own insurance vs. out of pocket costs.
*All her hosted interview segments she captures of others are now geared towards highlighting those making a difference in the world. Still photography work is taken on based of desire and a soul calling.
The words I lived by, guide me and my CLIENTS
My Grandfather shared this with me at an early age…
Start believing in that desire now which life pushed by the waist side…
(Pictured here, Nicole with her Grandfather)
Having faith as small as a mustard seed is key for so many aspects of our life. If you set your mind to it growing it will grow but first you must give it the attention it needs. As we know, where we set our attention is what grows. That’s true for anything in our life. If we set the right attention on a relationship, it grows. You must find the right accountability to water that that thing which you desire to grow. It starts with having faith and believing that anything is possible, trusting that anything you can set your mind to.
There’s a life that you know you deserve deep down. You may be craving more of a system where you don’t have to work harder but rather smarter.
Life can often get in the way and we find ourselves in survival mode just doing much of the same old habits vs. really having the energy to make traction of our deepest truest desires. Shifting a few things around in our lifestyle can allow for this. Believe me when I tell you it can all turn around rather quickly as you had hoped. I am proof of this. There’s work to be done and I help my clients with this so they do not take the burden or brunt of it.
Reinvent your own inner reality so you can claim what you’ve been desiring with my help.
My clients vary and age and it doesn’t matter what age you are, it is NEVER too late to live your truest desires (whether small or large).
In order to believe my own far-fetched desires, I had to start overcoming obstacles, trust my own inner wisdom over others viewpoints of what was thought to be best for me. I had the inner knowing they did not. That is the same for you. You are born with your own set of roadmaps. Trust that others haven’t been prevued to a vision about your life that only you have.
Inspired traditions carried on from my Grandmother and Grandfather raised my own happiness level and shifted my energy to believe in what was possible.
Think back about a vacation you were on when problems seemed far away. Your reality in that time of being just eased despite what might be waiting for you back at home. This is a reality you will find you can have every single day if you let it. Since all looked shiny and euphoric on that trip you were on, you might have noticed more good being magnetized into your life. That similar method is what creates much of my offerings.
With my accountability tools and life coaching, we can make it an everyday reality. Together we will plant the seeds for a future by tapping into your all-knowing future self to allow so much to be made possible for your life.
TRANSFORMation STARTED…
Learn how I overcame obstacles that fed me with a lack of belief for what I desired and how it led to calling up a deeper side of myself to create the life I now live…
I started my career off in Business Communications and was feeling exhausted in every marketing position and I was disinterested. It lacked luster for me. Every day my body showed me evidence of this. If you are feeling your body speak to you with anxiety, exhaustion, fear, or illness is revealing something that is not right for you.
I chose not to waste my life feeling stuck in an unfulfilling career and lifestyle and when I noticed I was feeling physically drained, I made a change.
I wasn’t living my passions because my body felt anxious and I felt ill doing so.
That’s when I started to live more from what my soul was calling towards. I knew I loved capturing photos of nature scenes. It spoke to my soul on every level and I was feeling euphoria when I did so. I was faced with having to overcome the fear of not trusting I could do this with little photography education and surpass the words of fear from loved ones thinking I could not make a living on this income or may lose the photos of a client etc. etc. The list went on. Just because others are in unchartered territories and don’t know how to succeed in something, doesn’t mean you can’t. Their fear is not yours to take on.
I moved from Boston, MA to Napa, CA at 30 back in 2009 and started new without knowing anyone in this new area. I started carrying out jobs that I felt made me happiest. If I sensed an unfit personality type of an oppressive burdensome person or in an environment that was not conducive to my health, I left. In often cases money is what holds many back from leaving an unsatisfying job or relationship. Trust in a plan you make for yourself to get you slowly in a new wave link and way of thinking till you can get yourself out.
Imagine if we all lived from only a place of pure enjoyment and peace. What would that mean for our world?
When I got back to nature and was not tied to a desk I noticed I was living life fully. I recalled back living a life free as I did when I was a kid. You start to get to a new state of relaxation and being. All is well in the world again when you are at one with what you do in your day and in your career. I often hear those from those who retire. They can’t imagine having stayed in that one job any longer. When do we succumb to such hardship and oppression? Anything is possible. Getting out of that life you don’t love is possible.
I knew I had to make it my priority to mesh work and play in order to make a difference in the world. Everything speaking to me with each job and each project I took led me to know this on the deepest level possible. For me, it was capturing still images grew on-camera hosting of interview segments, then written articles for area newspapers and magazines telling the stories of inspiring people living their truest life passion.
Through each phase of reinvention of life and career, I needed to step up my belief game. I needed to convince myself I was on the right path and that my goals and desires were in fact possible no matter how big they were. The biggest example was having the confidence and drive to go for an interview with celebrities like Kevin Bacon. Once I was in interview mode, I was on and it just came from the heart.
Through it all I need to keep myself accountable and reset my goals. I laid out the tasks I would need to keep organized and on point to get there to where I wanted to be. It was like a game of checking off boxes. Most importantly it became a priority to have down time “playing” in life in conjunction with getting work done (no matter how fun that worked felt at the time). Down time was key for my own creative juices to flow.
That’s where the offerings I would soon build came in. I built everything I provide my clients for my own needs first because I knew I needed it at the time. It was innate. I knew if it was possible for me to live my the standards I set to reach outlandish goals, then so could others. No matter how far-fetched or what they were up against (as I had been), I knew anyone could succeed by using the stages of offerings and coaching programs I developed.
I can honestly say it’s my lifelong passion project to see others succeed at living what feels fulfilling to their life and to be doing that at a pace that feels they’re operating out of joy.
It’s from this place of being, that I live my own life now as I currently craft this and the others that come from my soul.
FEATURED PRESS
NATIONALLY PUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPHS IN
ABOUT ME
for years I have been growing my business and in doing that soon realized there were certain habits I needed maintaining in order to remain RESILIENT, focused, and propelled in order for life to feel fulfilling, and focused on my own unique life purpose. I literally stepped into my “future me” by shifting the key habits making my life of fulfillment, exactly as I wanted it to be not by others standards, and Up-LEVELED where I live, what PERTAINed to my career. i shifted what I fed my mindset and what & who I surrounded myself with; reviving myself fully into a new side of me. I pushed past boundaries of what I was ACCUSTOMED to growing up in order to make my own way…reaching for the stars and then I got just that, the stars (interviewing CELEBRITIES). Propelled in my own new beliefs, breaking barriers, trusting my gut, giving others a reason to trust in their own belief in self, truest desires being possible, and pushing beyond what they were once told or guided towards. That’s when, I started creating offerings that could fuel the average person to dream beyond the ordinary with positive affirmations, deep guided visualizations, my program called “The REVIVAL” built with accountability tools and self care tips, and 1 on 1 coaching plans.
READ
published articles & PRESS
I am tuned in and dedicated at bringing out others trust in their own inner strengths
Be guided by your inner wisdom to start making better changes for your life.
The Nicole M. Co Calendar/Journal in 2017 was created in reminding others of their strengths along with necessary selfceare reminders.
Press on the calendar can be found below. It was created with the mission honor the ladies in winecountry and included in It, was a special section with positive quotes and reminders of ways to stay renewed in order to be strengthened in life.
Today Nicole’s vision came full circle in a brand that highlights and draws on others strengths. Reminders to reset and revive with daily practices in the Nicole M. Co “Living Revived” Offerings have guided many clients in profound ways.
In 2012 Nicole is Featured as One Of Napa Valley’s Most Intriguing People
By Napa Valley Life Magazine. Article highlights her success and move to make her lifestyle and dreams a reality.
Over the past two decades, I’ve been blessed to work with so many beautiful clients who were looking to make a change and living under such stress and overwhelm. They wanted less but yet something more for their life. They had enough trying to make a go of it alone and struggling through the pressures of the hamster wheel life.
Through my programs and offerings, they’ve lifted that burden completely and found a new system for getting it all done and finding time for the life they actually love deep down.
You might ask where did this all start…I was living according to others’ rules, needs, and direction for too long, and I finally wanted to align with the life my soul was calling to me.
That is why I was dedicated to creating this space where I house all the tools I built for life that had gotten me stepped into the belief that all was possible and able to carry out dream goals while balancing life differently.
I was living according to the naysayer and playing small before. These tools and programs I’ve built from personal self-development will help you steer closer and closer to your dreams and beliefs you may have pushed down for a while now.
My online self-study program, The Revival Platform, and all the spokes of this are a place to call to the surface the truest you. You’ll find an online self-discovery retreat, programs, downloadables, useful tools, 1:1 coaching, and many freebies.
Are you ready to honor your needs and call to the surface awareness and action on your desires that may have been suppressed? Learn tools to let go of what’s not serving you so you can live the fulfilling life of your choice. If you put your mind to anything, anything is possible with the right practices, regardless of where you’ve come from, what you’ve been through, or where you are now.