Nancy Kay
Age: 50
Are you married?
I was married for 21 years, until the marriage ended in divorce in 2008. During the marriage, I supported my husband’s corporate career by relocating seven times all over the country every two to three years and handling the parenting duties since his job required that he travel three weeks each month the entire time we were married. I currently live in Columbus, Ohio.
Kids?
Three, ages 16, 21 and 26.
Where did you grow up and what did your parents do?
I grew up in Denver, Colorado. My mom was an at-home mom and my dad is an oil geologist who is still working at age 85!
What did you do before becoming a coach?
My first career was as a TV news reporter and writer. I then took on full-time parenting duties while also teaching preschool. During my divorce, I completed a law school paralegal program and then worked as a paralegal in family and bankruptcy law.
I want to empower women to take the steps they need to navigate through the storm of divorce with a greater understanding of how to work more effectively with their attorneys to get their best outcome.
Why did you become a coach?
I was blindsided by having to deal with divorce when I discovered that my husband of 20 years had a complicated secret life and was making plans to leave me and our children, with as little financial support as possible, while he pursued another woman.
I felt devastated. I had moved all over the United States for my husband to further his career and improve our family’s finances and then discovered the reason he insisted we start our own business that particular year was so he could claim his income wasn’t needed for my support.
During his corporate career, my husband had worked his way up to earning a six figure salary, with bonuses. Since he was planning to divorce me, but I didn’t know it yet, he refused to look for another corporate position when he was let go from his job.
He had severance pay for a year so during that time he insisted that we should take a large amount of cash out of our retirement to pay for the start-up costs for a water damage cleanup franchise in Columbus and that he and I would run it for the 20-year contract duration. We both signed the agreement, set up joint business checking accounts and visited the franchise headquarters in Florida.
He knew that by starting a business, his income would be minimal for spousal and child support calculations.
During my divorce I discovered just how much “Knowledge is Power” and spent a great deal of time researching and reading about infidelity, spousal support, custody factors and co-parenting while learning strategies about how to get the best possible outcome during the legal process.
Our attorneys said that I would have to continue to work with him every day in the franchise during our divorce or else sign papers to turn it all over to him, which is what I did. Continuing would have subjected me to more intense emotional and verbal abuse.
While working as a family law and bankruptcy paralegal, I saw first-hand just how much women can benefit from strategic guidance and support during such a challenging time when emotions can easily influence their ability to make sound decisions and negotiate from a position of strength.
What kind of FaboverFifty woman can most benefit from coaching?
A woman who is considering divorce or is currently going through separation or divorce and wants to put together a plan of action to start taking control of her life. I encourage a woman to realize that the decisions she makes right now during separation and divorce are truly critical to her future because divorce is the biggest business deal of her life.
Divorce is especially stressful to deal with because it cuts across every part of a woman’s life- her physical and emotional well-being, work life, family life, finances and spiritual life are all impacted by the changes that come along with the chaos.
What is your mission?
I want to empower women to take the steps they need to navigate through the storm of divorce with a greater understanding of how to work more effectively with their attorneys to get their best outcome.
I also want to enable women to set healthy boundaries to protect themselves as they deal with situations that involve infidelity, financial scheming, abusive behaviors and co-parenting disagreements.
I offer referrals to divorce professionals and one-on-one confidential coaching for women throughout the U.S. by phone or Skype.
Tell us about a typical client.
My clients are usually women in their 40s or beyond who realize that they are in an unhealthy marriage and not sure whether to leave their marriage or have decided to leave and need support and a plan of action to move forward with more focus and less fear and uncertainty.
Favorite quote?
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”–Soren Kierkegaard