.png)
Career Coaching Case Study: From Self-Doubt to Startup Success
- Vicky Pike
- Oct 20, 2025
- 5 min read
This coaching case study explores a six-month engagement with a senior woman in technology and data who went on to launch and secure seed funding for her own startup. It illustrates how executive and life coaching can help female leaders clarify values, challenge self-limiting beliefs, build resilience, and step into quiet confidence. All identifying details have been anonymised to respect confidentiality.
The client is referred to as "Emma."
Founder background: Women in Tech leadership
When I first met Emma in early 2025, she was standing at a crossroads.
She had a strong track record in technology and data, but was uncertain about her next career move: should she go all-in on her business, hold out for the perfect job, or compromise on a stepping-stone role? The options left her feeling overwhelmed, resulting in inaction.
Emma had been exploring ideas for a business but was second-guessing herself, often being hard on herself and doubting whether she had what it takes.
Emma was also struggling with feedback and criticism, often absorbing it passively rather than engaging with it constructively. She knew she wanted to grow as a leader, but old narratives about not being "good enough" were holding her back.
Challenges: Confidence and self-doubt in leadership
Emma faced several interconnected challenges at the start of her coaching journey:
Uncertainty of direction: She was unsure which career path to pursue and lacked clarity on her long-term goals.
Self-limiting beliefs: Emma had developed narratives that minimised her achievements and left her deferring to others in important situations.
Emotional avoidance: Feedback and difficult conversations often triggered strong emotions, which she tried to suppress rather than process.
Negativity bias: She had a tendency to focus on the negative aspects of her experiences, overlooking her successes and strengths.
Confidence gap: Despite being able to perform with ease in other situations, such as through her musical achievements, she felt anxious presenting to potential investors or senior stakeholders.
Coaching strategy
The coaching engagement focused on increasing Emma's clarity, confidence, and emotional resilience through practical reflection and mindset reframing.
Uncertainty of direction: clarifying values and goals
We began by exploring Emma's core values and long-term aspirations. Through powerful questioning and reflective silence, she uncovered what truly mattered to her. When I asked Emma about her ideal future state, she articulated it with surprising clarity; it had been there all along, just obscured by doubt.
We anchored this clarity through a values-based grounding exercise, which became a compass for her decisions. From this point, Emma began to trust her own direction and take purposeful steps towards it.
“Vicky gave me the space and tools to explore what really mattered.”
Reframing self-limiting beliefs
Emma often overlooked her own achievements. I reflected these back to her in our sessions, helping her to recognise the tangible impact she had already made. Hearing her successes read aloud gave her perspective, connecting her to her strengths and rebalancing her self-image.
As her coach, I helped her develop a firm belief in her potential, and that belief became catalytic. Emma began to reframe her self-perception from hesitation to confidence.
Building emotional resilience
As we worked on reframing, it also became clear that emotional acceptance was equally vital. Emma learned to sit with emotions rather than avoid them. After one particularly challenging investor presentation, I asked:
"Where do you want to put this emotion?"
"What is this emotion trying to tell you?"
"What would it take to be friends with this emotion?"
“One of the biggest shifts was learning to sit with difficult emotions rather than avoid them...that changed how I handle feedback and pressure.”
These questions helped her reinterpret emotions as signals to be understood rather than threats. Over time, she grew more resilient and more able to engage with feedback calmly and selectively.
Recognising patterns and biases
Emma appreciated having her patterns and tendencies mirrored back to her. We explored her tendency to focus on the negative and to defer to others. By consciously countering these tendencies, she began to claim her voice and celebrate her wins.
A breakthrough moment came when we discussed her comfort performing music publicly versus her anxiety presenting to investors. Reframing pitching as another form of "performance"; one that allowed her to connect with purpose and authenticity, and transformed how she approached visibility and influence.
Coaching results
Increased resilience
Emma moved from self-doubt and harsh self-judgment to a calmer, more grounded confidence. She learned to engage with feedback from a place of discernment, taking what served her and letting go of the rest. This shift gave her greater energy and presence in leadership situations.
Greater confidence and self-belief
As Emma connected more deeply to her achievements, her confidence grew naturally. She began using her voice more assertively, expressing her ideas with authority and clarity.
Professional breakthroughs
During our six months together, Emma moved from uncertainty to action, successfully launching her startup, raising a seed funding round, and growing her team to five people. Her professional milestones were underpinned by her personal transformation: greater clarity, emotional balance, and a renewed sense of agency.
Sustainable change
Sustainable change in coaching is rarely about erasing old patterns completely. Instead, it comes from developing the awareness and tools to catch those patterns when they reappear.
Emma may still find her old tendencies resurfacing at times, like focusing on the negative or doubting her voice. However, the difference now is that she can name them, challenge them, and choose a different response.
This awareness gives her greater control and ensures that the progress she made is not temporary but part of an ongoing journey of growth.
Coaching Testimonial
Emma reflected on her coaching experience in her own words:
"Working with Vicky was genuinely transformational. At a time when I was making big career decisions, she gave me the space and tools to explore what really mattered. Her belief in my potential helped me challenge self-limiting beliefs and build healthier narratives about myself. One of the biggest shifts was learning to sit with difficult emotions rather than avoid them changing the way I handle feedback and pressure.
During our time together, I went from uncertainty to launching my startup, raising a seed round, and employing five people.
Vicky combines empathy, insight, and accountability in a way that's incredibly powerful. She genuinely cares about your growth — and she'll make you shine"
Conclusion - how coaching empowers women in tech
Emma's journey highlights the power of coaching to transform not just careers, but the confidence and resilience behind them. By clarifying her values, reframing self-limiting beliefs, sitting with emotions, and recognising her patterns, she became a leader ready to take bold steps forward.
Her story illustrates what so many women in technology experience: the challenges of self-doubt, criticism, and visibility in male-dominated spaces — and the breakthroughs possible when they invest in themselves.
“Vicky combines empathy, insight, and accountability in a way that’s incredibly powerful.”
Ready to explore what coaching could do for you?
If Emma’s story resonated with you, imagine what might be possible with focused space and support of your own.
I offer a small number of free Coaching Experience Calls each month. Genuine 45-minute sessions designed to help you slow down, think clearly, and uncover what’s next for your career or leadership.
No pressure. No sales pitch. Just space to reflect, refocus, and rediscover direction.
Read more about my [career coaching packages]
“ Working with Vicky was genuinely transformational.”
