← Nicole & Casey
Casey and Nicole walking hand in hand through Times Square

Nicole & Casey

Our Story

Neither of us has lived a conventional life.

Like many of the people we work with, we've experienced major transitions, unexpected challenges, and moments when the path ahead wasn't clear. Between us, we've navigated divorce, blended family dynamics, neurodiversity, career changes, financial obstacles, long-distance love, and the ongoing process of redefining what a meaningful life looks like.

Those experiences taught us something important:

The greatest transformations don't come from trying to become someone else. They come from understanding who you truly are and building a life that reflects it.

Long before we met, we were each drawn to that work in our own way.

Nicole spent years exploring personal growth, fitness, human behavior, relationships, spirituality, and the question at the heart of so many people's struggles: "What do I actually want?" Her work helps people uncover the desires, values, strengths, and dreams that often get buried beneath expectations, obligations, and old conditioning.

Casey's path led him toward systems, problem-solving, communication, neurodiversity, financial coaching, and helping people navigate life's practical challenges with greater clarity and confidence. He brings a grounded perspective that turns insight into action.

They met in a Facebook group called Divorced, Single, and Loving It. The last place either of them expected to meet the one.

Nicole caught Casey's eye early. He never reached out privately, because he did not want to be a creep about it.

Then Nicole and a few others in the group organized a virtual wellness event for single parents. Casey signed up, not knowing she was one of the organizers. She messaged him to send the Zoom information, and that was their first private conversation.

He kept talking to her after that, and it turned out they had the same thing at the center of their lives: traveling with their kids and personal growth. She helped him plan his first road trip with the boys and gave him every single parent travel tip she had.

He sent her pictures afterward and told her what a great time they'd had. She could see he was serious about it, so she offered her apartment if he ever wanted to bring them to New York.

There were no intentions of romance in it. Just a friendly offer. But they hit it off.

Even then, a long distance relationship seemed like a bad idea, and neither of them intended for it to become one. They kept coming back to each other anyway, like magnets, and 8 months after meeting in person they were in a relationship whether it made sense or not.

The kids got there first. At different points, separately, they told Casey and Nicole they should marry each other. This was before any of them knew their parents were dating.

After several more family trips and a few romantic getaways, Casey proposed at Christmas Eve dinner in 2025.

What we learned along the way is that our approaches complement each other.

One of us naturally starts with meaning, purpose, and self-discovery. The other naturally starts with structure, strategy, and implementation.

Together, we help bridge the gap between inner transformation and real-world change.

Because insight alone isn't enough. And action without self-understanding often leads people toward goals they don't truly want.

Whether we're supporting someone through a relationship challenge, a major life transition, personal growth, neurodiversity, financial decisions, or simply the feeling that life could be more aligned, our philosophy remains the same:

You don't need to become someone new. You need to better understand who you are, what matters most to you, and how to build a life that reflects it.

We're still on that journey ourselves. And that's part of what makes this work meaningful. Not because we have all the answers, but because we've spent years asking the questions that matter.

We Believe

Our story

How we got here

A few years, two states, and four kids.

Casey and Nicole on a ferry, the first photo they took together
March 2023

The first picture we ever took together.

Night view of the city from a hotel room window
That night

Forty-nine floors up, two walls of glass, the Brooklyn Bridge sitting in the right-hand window. It was our first real date. We barely photographed that night because we were too far inside it to think about a camera. This is one of the few.

Nicole at brunch the morning after their first date
The next morning

Brunch at a place that looks like 1920, with a jazz band playing. We sat down not knowing if they would even seat us and stayed five hours, one plate after another. Every time I looked up she was smiling like this.

At the aquarium on the first New York trip with the kids
July 2023

Our first trip with all four kids, and we were not a couple yet. It was the first time we saw what we were like as a group instead of as two people on the phone.

Casey, Nicole and the four children together at the Bronx Zoo
July 4, 2023

The Bronx Zoo, taken at the map by the gate before we started walking.

Casey and Nicole hiking outside Albuquerque Casey and Nicole on the same Albuquerque hike
Albuquerque

Nicole flew two thousand miles to my side of the country.

At the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, December 2023
December 2023

Christmas morning the kids unwrapped a book that a pair of elves had supposedly spent a month planning. Then we got on a plane and drove to Williamsburg, VA.

Casey, Nicole and all four children piled together on the steps in Washington DC
December 2024

All six of us in one frame. Nobody arranged, nobody told to smile. Two years from a first picture on a ferry to this.

Casey and Nicole kissing beside the Christmas tree, her engagement ring on his shoulder
Christmas Eve, 2025

She said yes.

Casey, Nicole and all four children holding out their hands to show matching rings
The same night

Six of us, six rings. Casey did not only ask Nicole. Every kid got one, because the thing being proposed was all of it.

None of this was smooth. We built it across two states, two households, four kids, and two people who had both been through a divorce and had every reason to be careful. This is what it has actually looked like: not a clean break from the past, but a long run of ordinary days where we chose differently than we were taught to, in front of children who were watching.

Cover of Why You Keep Choosing the Same Pain by Casey Connell

Learn more about our story in Casey's book,
Why You Keep Choosing the Same Pain: A Memoir About Toxic Relationship Patterns and Breaking the Cycle

Buy it on Amazon