She followed her heart and it led her to youth. Nicole Braun’s spirit name is Yellow Hummingbird Woman and she was born in Thompson, Manitoba. She was raised in Wabowden, Manitoba, and then moved to The Pas as a teen. She went to Brandon University before moving to Winnipeg and staying there. She has lived all over Manitoba. 

When it comes to hobbies, she loves gardening. As far as work goes, she has her own business. She took a course from the Indigenous Friends Association and learned online skills so she could become a freelancer and start her own business. 

Her first job when she was just fifteen was coordinator for a summer camp for young people. She really loved that job. From there, she worked at The Pas Action Centre, a drop in centre for kids and youth who come from low income families. She worked there for a couple years but as she moved around, her jobs got tougher with bigger challenges. Braun has always worked with youth. One of her favourite jobs was working as a youth facilitator for the Strengthening Families program. That job taught her important things like, “I want to teach youth. I want to be a mentor.” 

Braun also realized she wanted to teach in a way youth could understand because a lot of the lessons weren’t set up in a way that kids could learn from based on their learning styles. In the end, kids would leave without remembering the lessons. That’s what she wanted to see change. 

From there, Braun became a chaperone and sponsorship manager for a youth choir. They travelled across the country, living in a giant bus and staying in billet homes, over 172 in 6 months. She became the MC, introducing the choir and getting good at talking to crowds. It was hard at first but she got used to it. 

When the pandemic hit, Braun had worked her way up and she was working as a support worker for Child and Family Services. She was almost a social worker and her goal was to help parents get their kids back, helping them find apartments, jobs, whatever they needed. She ended up burnt out, and wanting to do more because she didn’t feel like she was making a difference. She was also feeling cooped up inside her apartment. 

Braun started growing plants inside her apartments and experimenting. She even grew corn at one point. She wanted to start a business that brought the things she loved together. Many times she had ideas but people said it was too complicated. She had an idea for a business with different types of programs like a YMCA. She’s still creating the website, social media and things she needs to launch it.

For her schooling, Braun’s high school principal helped her fill out her university and student loan applications with her. She thought she should do the applied disaster and emergency studies program, a program to help with things like wildfires and earthquakes. She did one year of the program but she didn’t love it as much as she did working with young people. 

A few years later, Braun took a human rights program to become an officer or lawyer, hoping to work with the United Nations. A year later, she got Honour level grades in the program, and became a mom. She didn’t finish the degree, instead she got free training from different agencies. Later, she decided to start her own business and she takes classes online through MasterClass. “I would say I'm kind of obsessed with learning and kind of addicted to it. I never stopped. I don't have a degree, but I do have a lot of training,” she explains. 

Her biggest obstacles have been deciding things like what to name her business and setting up a business plan. Braun’s found many business plans for product based business plans are easier but hers is more complex because it’s service based. She’s done courses and asked for help but it’s a complex process. 

Her advice to young people who want to start their own business is, “follow your heart, because if I had listened to everybody around me, I would probably be really miserable right now.” Her family wanted her to be a nurse or a social worker, working a nine to five job and it's not what she wanted. It’s advice Braun hears often from other business owners, too. 

To take care of her mental health, Braun has more options than ever. She used to just go hiking, spending time in nature. It’s something she always suggests to Indigenous youth. Lately, she has added on breathwork, affirmations, tapping, listening to music and gardening. 

Looking five years down the road, Braun hopes her business has taken off and she has a lot of staff. She hopes to create a community online, maybe have an app where youth can get help if they need it using action therapy. She also wants to be able to connect Indigenous people from around the world to share their ideas. She wants to create gardens, too, with the help of youth and grow food in them.  “It's really crazy, but I just, I want to inspire and empower as many youth as I can in every way that I can,” she shares with excitement. 

Her final message is one she wishes someone told her sooner, “In order to really, truly succeed in life, you have to find a way to love yourself through it all, you have to find a way to put yourself first. There's going to be people around you, friends and family, who are not going to be happy for you… If you want to succeed, you have to love yourself, and you have to believe in yourself and if you have to say goodbye to some people, you just have to do what you gotta do, if you do have an ambition to be successful and happy? That's what you gotta do.” 

She worked many different jobs in her career but in the end, Nicole Braun followed her heart and it led her to youth and plants. She tried the programs other people thought she would do well at but she had to do what made her happy. Working with youth and growing plants made her most joyful. She could have gone for a 9-5 but instead she went for what made her feel alive.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.