Nicole Belanger

Blogger, Change Agent, Entrepreneur, Event planner, Social entrepreneur, Writer/Editor

Nicole Belanger is a writer and speaker, and the owner of Nicole Belanger Media. She is a proud feminist and a self-described recovering overachiever. Her latest project, Conversations With Her, is a profile series highlighting the lived experiences of women from diverse walks of life. She graduated from Carleton University with a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management in 2012, intent on pursuing a career in Aboriginal law. However, career opportunities in the nonprofit sector took her down a different path after graduation. Nicole spent nearly three years at the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health in Ottawa, Canada, working on a $15 million capital campaign to fund the first-ever National Centre of Excellence in Aboriginal Health. Through her work with the Wabano Centre, Nicole became acquainted with the social enterprise movement and concept of entrepreneurship as a gateway to economic empowerment for women. Eager to support such efforts, Nicole immersed herself in local and national entrepreneurship and startup initiatives. Through her involvement in the startup community, Nicole gained a personal awareness of the lack of gender diversity in the tech and business community, and began seeking out ways to address this issues in her own community. In November 2012, Nicole founded the Ottawa Chapter of Ladies Learning Code, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting digital literacy among women and youth through beginner-friendly tech education. In less than two years, Nicole grew the community to include hundreds of participants and dozens of volunteers and expanded the local programming to include workshops for girls. In September 2013, Nicole joined the core Ladies Learning Code team as the Manager of National Sponsorships and Partnerships. During her time on the national team, Nicole raised over $150,000 for the organization and developed key partnerships with funders including Google Canada, as well as with organizations like Big Brothers and Big Sisters who support Ladies Learning Code’s outreach efforts in under-served communities. In March of 2014, Nicole’s career took another turn when she was invited to participate in TEDxElgin Street. (This was her second TEDx talk, having participated in TEDxSandy Hill Women in December 2011, though the videos were never released.) In her talk, titled Owning Your Version of Success, Nicole shared the story of how her journey with grief and depression following her mother’s death was the gateway to profound personal transformation. Overwhelmed by the response and the requests for speaking, writing and consulting engagements, Nicole left Ladies Learning Code to start her own business, Nicole Belanger Media. Nicole’s non-fiction writing has been featured in a wide range of publications, including Urban Native Magazine, Huffington Post Women, Huffington Post Canada, Modern Loss, and Women 2.0. She also has an essay on death and spirituality in a forthcoming anthology from Sumeru Press (2015). She recently convened a panel of women who write on the topic of death and loss for BinderCon, a conference for women and gender non-conforming writers. In addition to her work, Nicole is a proud volunteer. She currently sits on the board of directors of Volunteer Ottawa, an organization dedicated to supporting the nonprofit and charitable sector with education, training, and volunteer connections. Nicole has also served on the United Way Ottawa NextGen Leaders Cabinet and as an organizer for Startup Weekend Ottawa.

The transformative power of women's stories. I believe that when a woman speaks the truth of her multi-dimensional, complex existence, she becomes pure possibility for those around her.

It's time to change the dominant (western) cultural narrative about grief. We default to thinking of grief as a traumatic, painful, difficult experience which often involves railing against an unwelcome change that is thrust open us. What if we instead spoke of grief as a transformative experience? Using language of "transformation" allows for multiple experiences of grief and ways of being in that grief -- transformation can still be hard and painful, but it an also be beautiful and grace-filled and positive. Adopting a new narrative about what it means to grieve, one that does not default to negative language or notions of trauma, might make people less afraid to experience grief, rather than avoiding it or 'numbing out'.

Event organizing, Grief and Loss, Social Entrepreneurship, Speaking - Motivational, Strategy / Board of director, Women & Leadership, women & mindfulness, Wriiting - Blogs, articles, and mainly personal, writing - creative nonfiction

On March 29th, 2014, I walked out on to the TEDx Elgin Street stage barefoot and told a story. I didn't know it at the time, but when I walked off that stage 11 minutes later, the course of my life had already shifted. I got up on that stage and told the story of my journey with grief after my mother's death (breakdown and depression included) and how it forced me to completely reevaluate my definitions of success. I had never felt so exposed in my life as I did on that stage, but I had never felt so seen, either. That talk was the jumping off point for countless conversations -- some with complete strangers halfway around the world -- about grief, death, and the private fears we harbour about living life to the fullest. Conversations that I don't believe would have taken place if TEDx hadn't offered me the platform and the opportunity to tell my truth -- something for which I will always be tremendously grateful.

Memorizing lines! Credit goes to the 10 years of theatre lessons I had growing up.