You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 118.
We all know that nagging feeling inside of us when we're
just like,
man, like we're meant for something more.
Hi, this is John Lee,
Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
and you're listening to gift to biz unwrapped.
And now it's time to light it up.
Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific
insights and advice to develop and grow your business.
And now here's your host,
Sue Mona height.
Before we get into the show,
I have a question for you.
Do you know that you should be out networking,
but you just can't get yourself to do it because it's
scary. Are you afraid that you might walk into the room
and not know anybody or that you're going to freeze?
When you get up to do that infamous elevator speech,
where you talk about yourself and your business,
while I'm here to tell you that it doesn't need to
be scary.
If you know what to do to help you with this,
I would like to offer you a coffee chat for the
price of buying me a cup of coffee.
We can sit down through an online video and I'll tell
you everything that I know about networking and how I have
personally built two multi-six figure businesses,
primarily through networking.
You'll walk away with a solid understanding about how networking can
truly grow your business.
And you're going to have new found confidence because I'm going
to give you 10 fill in the blank template that you
can use for your introduction message.
To learn more about this opportunity.
Just go over to Bitly forward slash network Ninja.
That's B I T dot L Y forward slash network Ninja.
And now let's move on to the show.
Hi there it's Sue and welcome to the gift biz on
wrapped podcast,
whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or
are just getting started,
you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
business. And today I have joining us,
Nicole Walters of Nicole Walters TV.
Nicole is an income strategist who works with everyday entrepreneurs by
applying corporate strategies to help build their businesses.
She's worked as a client facing business executive for fortune 500
companies in both sales and marketing for over 10 years.
Everyone from stay at home.
Parents to small business owners can access for affordable and entertaining
webinars and private monetization coaching.
She calls her fan base,
rich friends,
and today We all get to be part of that TRIBE.
So with that,
Nicole, welcome to the show.
Hi, I'm so excited to be here,
listen to your energy.
I love that sort of thing.
I can't even tell you it's exciting because I actually visualize
myself in front of all these people like,
Hey, let's do this that's right.
Well, and when I saw you live,
well, I'm not even gonna go there because we're going to
talk about the shore,
but our colors,
jive. And I'm like,
okay, I already loved you just seeing you online.
And then in person,
you're the same everywhere you go.
So I know our listeners here are in for a treat
hearing you chatting today.
Oh, socks thing I like to get started by having you
describe yourself in a creative way over and above the intro
that we just did.
So if you were to create your own motivational candle,
that totally gives us insight into you,
what color would it be and what would be a quote
or a saying that would be on the candle?
So I got to say first and foremost,
I have never had this question before.
I didn't even know motivational candles existed.
So this is the thing I need.
Some, you know,
whatever is foremost,
all right.
Then I love that.
So if anyone out there is looking for business ideas,
like that's solid,
but my candle would be yellow.
It would be yellow because that's my absolute favorite color.
Cause I feel like it's the only color that matches how
I feel inside.
So it's like bright and it's fun and it stands out
and it just makes you feel good.
And you know,
if I could be a color,
it would be yellow.
You were all yellow.
I am all Yellow.
And then of course,
motivational quotes.
So I am actually a woman of faith because I believe
in God and I'm saved.
My quote actually comes from the Bible.
It's first,
Peter four 10.
And this is a driving inspiration behind my business.
That quote is each of you should use whatever gift you
have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace
in its various forms.
And my interpretation of it from the Bible is that I've
been gifted,
specific and unique skills from God.
And that's my blessing their mind to have and to use.
But they're only really beneficial if I'm using them to serve
other people.
And that is the best way for me to glorify the
fact that I've been given this gift.
So that kind of gets me up out of my seat
every single day,
because as a woman of faith,
I want to make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to
do and that serving people I love.
Yeah. And that's obviously what you're all about.
I think there's something else to look at in that quote
too. And that is so many people when they start off,
they see someone who is successful and they want to be
just like them and that's not necessarily their gift.
Oh no,
not at all.
You're totally right.
Really. You have to identify your own gift and what comes
natural to you and what really resonates in jives with you
and present that to the world.
Absolutely. I think one of the phrases that I like to
use in my community all the time is be a disruptor,
not a duplicator.
There's nothing wrong with taking,
what's been tried and true and applying it to allow you
to sort of skip past mistakes.
That's why it's important to learn from the experts,
but always put your own spin on it.
Because if not,
you're depriving the world of the one thing that you're here
to do,
which is to create,
change and inspire,
and you already have the tools to do that.
So yeah.
Do your own thing.
Beautiful. Perfect.
All right.
So now let's talk about your thing,
but let's go back a little bit,
talk with us because you have such an interesting story about
what happened with you from the transition from corporate on,
but go back a little bit as,
as you think you need to start and share with everybody
your journey.
Sure, absolutely.
So I always like to start from the very beginning,
which is that I am the American story if you will.
So I am the daughter of two African immigrants that fought
and worked very hard to get here,
do the paperwork and line everything up so that they could
take advantage of the American dream and really contribute to this
country. And so they raised me to believe and to work
towards, you know,
earning everything that I have and what that meant was riding
around with my dad and his taxi cab every single day
and not always having ends meet,
but knowing that the value of education was there.
You know,
I really had the choice of either growing up to clean
a building or growing up to put my name on the
side of one,
but that was all going to be determined by the work
ethic I put out.
So from day one,
I worked very,
very hard to make sure that wherever I had an opportunity,
I capitalized on it.
And that led me to the corporate world where I became
very successful very quickly.
And by 28 I had a six-figure job and I was
senior executive within a fortune 500 company.
And I'm working business a business.
I mean,
I truly thought I added all it.
And I mean,
if you'd spoken to my dad,
my dad,
of course,
as a taxi driver and African-American,
he's like my daughter,
you are doing so well,
you have business cards,
you have office,
he sounds adorable mobile,
you know,
but it's also like you,
no doubt are trying to explain this thing to you.
And it's called entrepreneurship and I feel a little unfulfilled and
I know I have more to offer and he's kind of
like what you have office.
And it was really tough because I knew that.
And I think we all know that nagging feeling inside of
us when we're just like,
man, like we're meant for something more.
And I can't quite put my finger on it,
but what I do know is I have to chase after
that thing and I need to start building because if I
don't start building,
it's not going away.
And that's what happened.
I started building while I was working my nine to five
job, I started building the foundations,
taking from what I knew from corporate and making sure that
my business was financially stable,
making sure that the structures were right and making sure that
it was monetized from day one.
So I wasn't rushing on the backend to take a bunch
of followers and convince them to pay me in doing that.
I got a live streaming and I think that's might be
where you met Sue in live streaming initially I think on
Periscope. Yes.
Yeah. I'm Periscope.
I was on there every single day getting on live,
you know,
and I still am just sharing my story and saying guys,
I'm in corporate and it's killing me.
And you know,
I have these skills and did you guys know you could
monetize this way?
And I was teaching and people were just like,
Oh my gosh,
you're so good at this.
Do you have more info?
And so I'm creating products and getting them out to people
and applying what I know.
And it got to the point where I was like,
you know,
I think it's time for me to quit.
And I figured I'd taken everyone on the journey that far,
so why not keep them with me?
And I actually quit my job live on Periscope in front
of 10,000
people. I kept it classy.
Cause you know,
And that was not the plan as I understand the story,
that was not what you were going to do.
Well. Yeah.
And it was not the plan at all.
I was planning on quitting and I told everyone I was
going to do that.
But ultimately the way that I did it was getting on
the phone.
I was like,
guys, I'll come back,
live afterwards to tell you how it went.
But everyone like,
no, keep us on the line.
And so I was like,
well, all right,
that was brave.
I will be completely honest.
It was super scary because I knew that my boss would
miss me and all that.
But I was like,
what if he's like good riddance,
you know,
in front of everybody,
you know,
like, I didn't know how he would take it or what
if he got upset and especially because where my business was,
I mean,
I had like interviews and things like that lined up the
following day.
I mean,
I just really wasn't in a position where I was even
going to be able to do a two week notice.
And people typically do two week notices,
not just to give their boss time to transition.
And I did help my boss transition over the coming weeks.
But it wasn't like your standard.
Like I'm not going to still be able to take client
meetings. Like I'm actually like done.
It was really difficult to know that that was gonna be
the case.
And he was just like,
my boss was awesome.
And he lives in Illinois.
I don't know if his wife listens to this podcast or
not, or no,
but who knows?
I might know him.
You never know him.
I'll talk about that later.
I can only tell you right now if anyone could see
me, I'm like blushing.
I like so like,
Oh my gosh,
it just occurred to me.
Oh my gosh.
But in any case he was awesome about it.
He was just like,
yeah. You know,
if you're making money and you are happy and doing what
you love,
then why are you still here?
Like I burst into tears because it was like a light
switch went on,
you know,
where it was just like,
it's so simple,
but it's so right.
And I quit my job there.
And then within 18 months I'd built a seven figure business,
serving people and helping them put those business.
Foundationals in place with a specific focus on income generation,
not just on making a pretty brand or a creative brand
or a brand that just serves,
but also brand that earns you revenue that allows you to
keep working on your purpose.
And I get to do that every single day.
And I couldn't be happier.
That is such a great story.
I'm so glad we started there because it is such a
journey and so different and listening to what your dad was
saying, I'm sure because he wanted the best for you was
like, no,
you need the office.
You need the cars.
Yeah. I can't do it.
And so you're And against someone that you highly respect,
and I could see other people who are feeling like they
want to make that kind of a change to having people
in their life very close,
who are,
you know,
saying, no,
what are you thinking?
Are you crazy?
Do that?
Do you remember that live broadcast?
People were on there real time.
I had 10,000
people who are on that broadcast,
but I think about a thousand or 1500 were actually able
to get it in time to comment.
And I mean,
real time I am on the phone with my boss and
I've got people out there who are like,
what are you doing?
This is dumb.
Like, why are you broadcasting this?
Why are you quitting your job?
This is insane.
And I had like friends and family texting me,
like, so like,
while that's happening,
I'm getting notification.
Like maybe you don't want to do this or are you
serious right now?
You don't like,
and I've also got people on the other side who are
like, where did it go?
You got this girl,
you know,
God's favor.
Like, you know,
and I'm over here.
Like, well,
I'm already in it.
Got to push there.
No, this is perfect because this is something we would never
have gotten into yet.
So you had people on both sides.
What were you pulling from yourself?
And this is for our listeners who are thinking that they
want to start their business or might want to be quitting,
their job,
that type of thing.
We'll go into that a little more detail later,
but what was it that made,
you know,
this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go forward with this.
I'm going to do it.
Sure. I'd be well.
What started was the pull of knowing the people that had
served and that I'd already served.
So harking back to my quote that I had earlier,
if you've already started putting your products in front of people,
and if you've already started providing solutions and the feedback you're
getting is,
you know,
things like,
I mean,
these are literally sentences.
You can look for to let you know that this is
something that you may need to start making moves towards.
Is your product changed my life or your product was exactly
what I needed,
or I love this so much and approach so much joy
into my world.
Or I can't imagine not having this product.
When I started hearing feedback like that from people saying I
have started earning revenue where I didn't earn it before I
was able to pay my child's school fees.
I paid my electricity bill and had something left over.
I was able to pay,
to send my entire family to Disneyland for vacation.
I mean,
when I heard that and realize that each one of those
stories and the fact that I made choices to,
you know,
make the time to apply my skills to this person,
allowed someone of their dreams to come to fruition and brought
them a solution.
All I realized was,
Hey, this whole planet,
we've got six,
7 billion people out here.
How many people are waiting on me to make the call,
to bring them the thing they need to reach their own
greatness. And that gets me up every single day,
because there are people that need to be served.
And I just can't be so selfish as to knock it
out there and provide that solution Well said.
And really you were looking outside of yourself,
not inside,
not what it was going to do for you.
It was what are you going to provide to the world?
How much benefit and how much reward and satisfaction can you
give other people based on skills that you have and knowledge
that you have A hundred percent just also,
because once you start working in your purpose,
the making the money part,
it feels hard in the beginning,
but it's not always going to be hard.
And once you're in the place where you're making enough money,
you better be motivated by something bigger than yourself because otherwise
you're not going to get up every day.
Yeah. So give biz listeners for you.
This might look like if you're doing a craft show and
you're selling product and your product is very different,
maybe have a product that's different.
Hasn't been on the market before,
but people are attracted to it.
They're using it.
They're coming back to other shows because you have something that
they want.
So it might look like that.
It might look like if you're making scarves or you're doing
cupcakes, friends are starting to ask you,
will you do this?
I have a friend birthday coming up.
Will you make a scar for me?
Or I have an event coming,
would you do those great cupcakes?
Things like that.
People who are being attracted and are coming to you for
your product,
even if you haven't quite started your business.
These as Nicole is talking about could be signs.
Now it's not enough to sustain you yet to stop your
job if that's the sole income,
but it's something to pique your interest and say,
Hey, maybe I really have something here.
Would you say intuition as well?
Certainly faith for you played a role.
Oh yeah.
I mean,
for me,
faith was,
you know,
90 of it because let's be completely honest.
You can build the systems,
you can build the process,
you can do all that.
But I can't tell you how many people I've worked with.
Who've done all that,
but they just don't have the belief in themselves.
And if you find that you've done all the work and
you've got all those things going,
that's the part where you just it's about time to leak.
You know?
And I think that one of the biggest misconceptions in business
building is that the last step is finishing your funnel or
completing products or getting clients.
And it's not.
The last step is launching.
If that's how you actually make yourself better,
that's how you actually make sure your product is what people
really need.
So if you don't put yourself out there,
you'll never actually find out if you're meant to do it.
Exactly. And another year will go by and another year will
go by and you'll keep talking about wanting to do it.
And this is a big issue with a lot of people
that, you know,
they're going to do it.
They're going to write that book.
They're going to open their shop.
They're going to start selling their product and they just don't
get started.
That's right.
The gun is looking at you.
The gun is well.
Gotcha. Absolutely.
So I encourage any of you out there who are on
the fence right now.
Just start thinking of a mindset of yes,
I am going to get started.
So let's go back just for a second,
because again,
I think this will help everybody.
Let's put you back in corporate just for a minute.
Okay. Just for a minute,
I'll go back just for a minute,
but not too long.
One more,
a couple of minutes,
First steps that you started doing,
just something tangible.
Well, I'll be completely honest.
And I think that this is something that a lot of
people might benefit from.
I didn't start off doing business consulting.
I think that,
you know,
some of us are very resistant to the fact that our
business may need to change,
but business is a dynamic living,
breathing, moving,
changing organism.
So whatever it is that you're doing now,
if you're feeling the call like this business,
isn't quite right.
Or I may be making jams.
What I really want to do is like hand painted hand
lettered signs.
It may be time for you to change your business.
So I actually started out as a beauty blogger,
doing what I do now for corporate and on the side,
I was like,
but I really love being on the internet.
And I love how I have so much more exposure to
everyday people.
So I was living out a portion of my purpose by
providing a solution,
but the solution I was providing,
wasn't where I could help people the most,
but it allowed me to sort of sample and see that
world. And so that's where I started.
And I had a lot of traction and I had a
monetized brand that was making me money on the side while
working my nine to five.
And I actually translated a lot of the funds from that
startup brand,
into the foundation to build my next brand and business,
which is what I have now.
And it's my consulting firm,
you know,
monetize myself.
And I absolutely love it.
And it's where I'm supposed to be.
But I also am not so shortsighted to think that my
business isn't going to grow and change in as little as
three to five years.
And it's in that refinement that we help the most people.
Beautiful. Perfect.
So you already had side income and money that you were
putting through,
et cetera.
And your business change just like mine has.
I've told this story before.
So a lot of people who are listening already know that
whole story,
this is another elephant in the room,
if you will,
because people might know,
yes. I feel it.
There are people who are interested,
but they don't have money to start.
You are the income strategist.
What advice do you have for somebody there?
Absolutely. So I think that one of the biggest misconceptions when
it comes to the startup cost of business is that phrase
that goes around,
you have to spend money to make money.
And it's true.
You do.
But what you actually have to do is be mindful of
your overhead and your expense.
So yes,
you have to invest a hundred percent.
I mean,
that's part of it,
but you plan for that investment.
You put things aside,
you start off where you are.
So for me,
that meant that I had to put in extra time and
hours to build my own first website,
because I couldn't afford to pay someone $6,000
for that website.
But what I did to let that happen was I removed
the fear if you will,
and perfectionism around it,
being the perfect website,
because I am not a web developer,
but I needed it to be functional,
not fancy.
And I think that's one of the hardest things whenever you're
creative and you're really invested in what you're doing,
it's just like,
man, like I can't have my branding colors,
not be what they're supposed to be,
but understand that it's more important to get that purpose out
there and you know,
and investing in where your money should really be spent is
with experts.
I mean,
a hundred percent experts because what you can't afford is to
make mistakes.
So you want to spend the money to learn from people
who are going to help you make the right steps.
But when it comes to execution and creating,
you can do that yourself.
That is the elbow grease that you have to apply.
And if you are a crafter and you're creative and you're
a maker,
you have an endless supply of that.
You are rare and able to build on your own.
What you need to do is just get the,
outline, the structure,
the sewing pattern to make it happen.
Perfect. So just to summarize what Nicole is talking about here,
make an investment into experts who have been there,
or know the steps that you should be taking.
And boy was I guilty of this because I was going
to be one of those.
I'm going to do it all myself type people until I
learned real.
Why in the world would you do that?
When there are people out there and when we're talking about
experts, it doesn't always mean a lot of money either.
We're not necessarily talking thousands.
There's lots of good information available online.
When you find somebody that you feel comfortable with you trust,
like they really know what they're talking about because they've done
it just like Nicole is talking about,
you know,
she's done what she now teaches,
right? And she's done it now for a lot of people.
So you want to be really cautious of that,
that you're following and listening to someone who really does know.
And only you can say,
if that's the right person,
there are a lot of people out there,
99.9% of people mean,
well, it's not that they're trying to pull the wool over
your eyes or something,
but you want to make sure that you feel confident that
this is someone that you want to trust.
So that's the first thing.
And the second thing is I really like what you talk
about, just get it out there,
whether it's a website or you're going to your first trade
show or craft fair,
maybe your display isn't as beautiful as you would love it
to be,
but get it out there.
This is customer and market research that you're after too.
Absolutely. You can always upgrade later.
Absolutely. A hundred percent.
No, I think that that's great feedback.
One of tools that I love to put into people's hands
is on my website,
the system swap.com.
It's simply just a swapping out of systems.
So if you're using like a fancy pants,
email server that would to collect emails that was recommended to
you, I just have a list of cheaper alternatives.
And it was the type of thing that I wish I
had in the very beginning because I was spending thousands every
month on the systems that I thought I needed.
When in reality,
those thousands,
every month could have been spent on an expert to show
me how to use these systems.
And if you go to the system,
swamp.com, you can actually get a list where you're able to
switch out your systems.
And I mean,
people are saving thousands every month by just switching to either
a free platform,
like a free website creator or a free landing page creator,
or if email is creator something simple versus paying a ton
of money for things.
But yeah,
all those little pennies count and you really want to get
the help from the right people.
I'm going to connect that link up in the show notes
for sure.
Awesome. Thank you.
And the whole thing is no,
the strategy,
you don't have to buy the systems yet.
You can buy something that's more free as you're getting started.
All right.
Now you've helped.
So-so so many people in the short time that you've been
in business,
what 18 months or so.
Right. I'm hitting on two years.
It took me about 18 months to hit seven figures.
But now moments at the two year Mark,
which is crazy.
Well, that's still in the scheme of things a really short
time, right?
Short time.
But you know what?
I was a blogger for five years.
I worked in corporate for 10.
So I think that that's something that I always want to
put in a perspective.
Once I was closely aligned with my purpose,
the funds came in quickly,
but it took me almost 10 years to get aligned with
my purpose,
Because you knew it was there and you didn't take action
or you didn't recognize it yet.
Well, I was taking action.
It just took a while for me to get properly aligned.
Meaning like I was always finding,
I was always beating around the Bush,
but when I finally leaped and said,
I'm going all in and I will not quit until I
hit this thing because I cannot continue to live a life
of just sort of sampling this world,
crafting it's like,
it can't just be Saturdays at the farmer's market anymore.
You know,
like the only way this is going to happen is if
I put in the more time,
that's how I'm going to make more revenue.
That's how I'm going to get more exposure.
I mean,
it just,
I was at that pusher shop place.
And once I finally said,
I'm going to do it because I've given 10 years to
corporate, can I give myself six months?
Can I give myself a year?
I deserve that.
Right. Just to see it,
if it fails,
I can always go back.
You know?
So let me go ahead and try.
And once I did,
I mean,
it just took off.
So I always try to tell people,
yeah, it's about doing,
And I'll make a comment here too,
that I think is important is yes,
you can always go back.
There's not much in life here that you do decisions that
you can't in one way or another reversed.
And if you need to,
that's just a learning that you've had knowledge that you had
doesn't mean that you're a bad person.
Like you decided that you were going to stop and you
quit your job.
You went in full-time,
let's say,
and it wasn't working.
It, you weren't making money first off.
You're not a bad person.
Second of all,
it might just be your product.
Isn't connect with the audience.
It has nothing to do with you as a person.
Maybe it's just not that product.
Maybe it has to be something else.
You were just listening to Nicole talking about how has switched
from being more of a blogger into her consulting that she's
doing now.
Right? So the point is you got to take action or
you're never going to know,
Nailed it.
So it's more discovery than anything else.
It really is.
And you're better for it.
Like, Oh my gosh,
think of how much you learn along the way.
Right? So it's like,
I just think about it.
And it's like,
man, people could say,
Oh, your blogger business failed.
But it didn't.
I mean,
I ended it because it didn't make sense anymore.
You know?
And all of those five years of knowledge are the reason
why I could be a seven figure business owner in 18
months. And it's because I,
if I hadn't done those five years,
it never would've happened.
Absolutely. And also one more point before we move on here,
anyone who is working a nine to five job now,
what skills or knowledge do you need to have that you
think as you're moving forward,
that you could be getting exposure to right where you are
right now?
Oh my gosh,
everyone who is listening,
you always should listen to this podcast because no one ever
asks you that question.
And it's such a good question.
Like Sue is so on this.
So yeah,
if you're still in your nine to five,
the things that I paid close attention to close to quit
day was interpersonal relationships.
Meaning how did my company acquire new business?
Like what were they doing,
right. And what were they doing wrong in their consumer interaction?
And this is something you can pay attention to all the
way from,
if you are just a customer service cashier,
all the way up to senior management,
if you are looking at,
are they customer and client driven,
do they follow up with their clients?
Are they consistently engaged?
Are they put the client needs before themselves?
Are they refining their product based on feedback?
These are all things that I paid close attention to because
I was working for a fortune 500 company.
And I see myself now as a fortune 500 company,
I just haven't put in the number of years that my
company did.
So because of that,
I was like,
what can I extract?
I use my company almost like an another expert or another
mentor I was learning and taking notes and saying,
this is what I would do.
Right. And this is what I would do differently in order
to get myself there faster,
better and further.
So there are things to learn right now.
Absolutely. And maybe there's an initiative that they're doing that you
want to raise your hand for and be part of because
you'll learn something and it's not,
even though,
you know,
you're going to be doing something later or you're trying to
capture some more information and some more experience,
it doesn't mean that you are not still serving your company
because you're there,
you have the skills you're doing it for them,
but it's also helping you on the other side.
So don't,
don't think,
you know,
I hate to think of people who are not excited to
jump out of bed.
Like you're talking about Nicole and you know,
or because they have to go into their corporate job or
whatever, they're doing nine to five,
but you can reap benefits of that.
And look,
you're not going to get your day back.
So you might as well make it the best that it
possibly can be as you're moving forward.
Something to think about for everybody there,
Nicole, with your current client base,
that you have all your rich friends,
right. Is there some challenge that you're seeing over and over
that we haven't talked about yet?
Some hurdle that people just are having trouble jumping over to
get started on their own?
Yeah, absolutely.
So I,
that one of the biggest hurdles again,
is the failure to launch and the launch fear of really
putting yourself out there.
There's just so much to overcome in believing whether or not
we can do it.
And I think that part of that really has to come
from aligning ourselves with one,
you know,
we're serving people,
so it's not about us.
And then to also remembering that your business is just one
part of you and it,
isn't the thing that defines you.
It isn't all that you are.
And if you are finding that you are measuring yourself by
your success in your business.
And it is important to take some time to reflect on
why you're doing it.
And what's most important.
And oftentimes I tell people,
you know,
yes, entrepreneurship is not for everybody,
but there's nothing wrong with taking time out to determine if
it aligns.
And if you find that you're in a situation where you're
like, Oh my gosh,
this is not working.
And I'm stressed out,
take that time and reflect and make it work because you
will come back refresh and burnout is a real thing.
So when you're first getting into it,
if you find that you're like hitting the wall over and
over and over again,
the answer isn't pushed through necessarily.
Sometimes the answer is let go and let go,
slow down,
stop and come back to it.
I wish someone had told me that because I lost whole
months to trying to push through problems.
When what I needed to do was take a week off
and come back refreshed.
Very good point.
When I first started,
I felt like there's going to be a point in my
career development where emotionally and psychologically,
I'm going to know that I've made it,
I've gotten there,
but I know I still suffer from imposter syndrome.
I still get anxious.
Sometimes when I click my Facebook live button to go live
like, are people going to be there?
Are they going to appreciate or find value in things that
I say?
I think it's always a process.
And as an entrepreneur,
you were saying,
Nicole, that you may be an entrepreneur.
You may not,
but you might as well try it.
But even if you are an entrepreneur,
some of that unknown and uncomfortableness and question,
and if you can be better in all of that,
never goes away.
You have to start being comfortable with the fact that that's
just always going to exist.
Do you agree?
Oh my gosh,
Sue, I'm still learning that.
It's the craziest thing.
Because in the beginning you look at life almost in the
way that it's been measured before,
because entrepreneurship is not like anything you've ever done before in
the work world.
It's always a project and the project has a deadline,
or it's always a common goal that kind of has an
end. Or it's always a shift that's over at five.
If you're in school,
it's always,
you know,
four years.
And then you get your degree.
I mean,
there's always this finish line that we're all racing to.
And that we're always able to measure in our brain and
say, if I can only get here,
I'll be done.
Or I'll if I can label myself as success,
entrepreneurship is literally never like that.
Especially if you are a driven overachiever,
perfectionist, which most of us are.
We're also a little bit crazy because this again is like,
I mean,
you are permanently challenging yourself.
Like, why would you put yourself through that?
You know,
you're so right.
You have to be a little bit longer than the brain,
you know?
So in entrepreneurship it's different because the way it works,
you get in there and yes,
you might have like a launch deadline or a production deadline,
or, you know,
a wholesaling agreement.
But once you do that,
if you are truly challenged and driven,
what'll happen is you're excited.
You'll celebrate.
Hopefully you'll celebrate.
You have to start reminding yourself to do that.
But then you'll move that finish line.
You'll redefine what excellence means to you.
You'll strive to be more and recognizing something that's going to
constantly happen will allow you to be a lot easier on
yourself when you get there.
And you might say to yourself,
well, that was kind of easy,
which it wasn't easy.
It was hard,
but like,
I'm here.
I got here.
That was faster than I thought.
Yes, I got to do other things.
So, and that's what happened.
I thought hitting seven figures would be a lot harder because
I did five years of beauty blogging and I didn't hit
seven figures in that business,
but I was also doing it part time,
obviously. So once all the other things came up and I
hit that,
I was like,
okay, well,
now that I've done that now what,
you know what I mean?
Like what's next and you constantly worry,
okay, well now,
you know,
will I have the people show up?
And what's that going to look like?
And you rise to the occasion and believe it or not,
all the things that got you to that point that hit
that finish line are the very same tools that will get
you to that next frontier.
And you just have to have faith that that's possible.
Great. And I think it's probably a trait of a successful
entrepreneur is you get there and it's more the striving and
the journey to get to the next,
you know,
make a new goal and get to the next finish line
then just to be at one finish line and be done.
I don't think that's in our natures at all At all,
which is good.
You know,
that's how greatness happens.
I mean,
if Steve jobs released the first phone and was like,
well, I did it,
we'd all still be talking on this like huge brick of
an iPhone.
You know what I mean?
That barely did anything and didn't have cool apps.
So, yeah,
Exactly. Right.
Okay. So Nicole,
you've grown.
I know that you're the back of the shop for you.
You have a lot of people now helping because you need
to, what types of tools or any suggestions for someone who,
again, is in this development stage that you found were really
helpful for you,
that you even use today or that you were using earlier?
Sure. Well,
especially for creative types,
if you find that you absolutely hate to do it,
like make a list,
you know,
if you hate to do it,
if you dread it,
if doing this thing is keeping you from getting other things
done because of how much you don't like to do it,
it probably needs to be outsourced and it's not worth creating
a bottleneck in your business at you because there,
especially because you have such important other things that you need
to offer your business,
like your innovation and your creativity and your consumer engagement and
your love and passion.
So for me,
you know,
what that looks like is I hate tech.
Like I work in the web world,
I get my clients from the world wide world.
So it's important that my tech works,
but I don't like it.
It takes me hours to figure something out and I just
get so frustrated.
And it was just very clear to me early on that
that was one of the first things I needed to delegate.
And that actually drove me to be better at what I
did, because I was like,
I got to pay somebody to do this stuff or else
I'll never get anything done.
There's that.
And I also,
my volume of emails.
So I get a lot of fan and consumer and client
engagement. I get anywhere from 150 to 350 emails a day.
And so I hired an admin pretty quickly to just sort
my inbox so that I'm seeing what counts and that,
you know,
login and things of that sort or handled separately,
you know,
and just having those two roles covered,
completely changed my life.
And I know that it's easier to speak about that luxury
of having help with the revenue to have it,
but help can also be on a project basis.
So I love talking about resources like Fiverr and upwork.com,
where you're able to hire someone on a project basis for
as little as $5 or $40 to just solve a problem.
And then you can facilitate it from there.
And that's where I started before I was able to hire
two with lamb.
People will go back and say exactly what you said.
I wish I would have hired out sooner.
Oh yeah,
definitely. That's usually money for her.
I think.
Well, I mean,
I don't want to project,
but I know for me it was money peer.
It was kind of like,
Oh my gosh,
like I'm supposed to,
you know,
pay this money to hire someone.
Like, what if I can't afford it?
And the pressure of like,
now I'm paying your salary.
I'm responsible for you.
That money fears kind of scary.
And, and I still have that like with as much money
as I make now,
my business,
I just hired my first full-time employee,
our second full-time employee,
two of them this past two months where they are 40
hours a week W2,
full tax,
like all that fancy pants stuff.
And I paid them a proper good American salary.
You know,
it's like,
I look at that and I'm like,
I am responsible for their lives.
They are counting on me every single day from nine to
five to pay their rent.
And it's definitely scary.
But what I learned very quickly in the beginning when I
hired that first person to do a project for me for
$45, was that the return on investment that you make from
putting out that money in either experts in mentorship or getting
help to do your business is tenfold.
So it hurts to like open your fist and let go
of that $50.
But then your hands are wide open to collect the multiplied
effort of revenue that comes back because you invested in getting
help Hundred percent agree.
And your point about doing projects,
you, instead of having to hire,
if you're not there,
the opportunity to just get a few projects done is gold.
Yeah. Like you're waiting to start a podcast,
pay intern in college to do the whole setup for you
so that all you have to do is just start recording.
Come on.
No, we were talking about this with podcasts a little bit
earlier. I just meaning like six weeks ago now hired a
VA to help edit my shows.
No, what Nicole,
I have saved five or six hours per episode.
So I look,
if you could see me,
right, I'd be like,
Hey girl,
Hey, not that to yourself.
I cannot believe that over a hundred episodes were edited by
you. That is crazy,
man. It was nuts.
And you know,
it was just,
I wasn't putting in the system.
It's just,
I didn't do it.
I didn't,
you know,
we all,
you know,
we can all talk things and sometimes you have to turn
the mirror back on yourself and say,
are you listening?
No, I think guilty,
super guilty.
I totally get it.
But Hey Sue,
what's it like to have your life back?
How did that feel Seriously?
And you know what I'm doing with it?
Amazing. I'm actually talking more with customer.
Like how about that?
You know,
and getting a pedicure and some coffee And guess what?
Sometimes I stay home on Sundays.
Yes. You deserve it.
Like I don't come into the office.
That is awesome.
So, but yeah.
Excellent point and love,
love, love that you talked projects.
Okay. So you have so much information.
No. So much.
Where else do you go to continue learning?
God, it's so funny.
It's crazy because I am really blessed in the space.
I'm in to get to work with a lot of experts.
I've been blessed to have a lot of keynote speaking engagements
In your yellow dress,
Just cause it makes me feel good.
So it's like I put on yellow in the morning and
I'm like,
how could I not look in the mirror and not feel
good? So when I saw you at Kim,
Garson that yellow dress.
I'm like,
okay, I already loved her,
but now I love her even more.
But no,
it's true.
And so I'm really good friends with like Kim GARS and
Shaleen Johnson is actually like a personal like family friend.
Like my kids call her Angela and we just love,
love, love her.
And I'm friends with like Pat Flynn and Amy Porterfield and
Dave Ramsey.
And so I have this amazing network of people in this
industry where,
you know,
God bless them,
they'll answer my questions.
You know?
So it's like,
what's great is I have really good friends.
But again,
like where I am in my businesses,
I've learned that a lot of the logistics,
the technical things like how to set up a funnel or
how to set up a webinar,
an email list,
like all those things are really readily accessible online.
If you want that training,
it's getting the support of people who are several steps ahead
of you,
you know,
in whatever respective field to be able to say,
Hey, this is what the vision looks like.
This is what the future looks like.
And this is what's possible.
And you know,
Hey, this entrepreneurship,
emotional thing,
you know,
like Pat,
Flynn's been doing this for a decade now,
you know,
and talking to him,
he's like,
you know,
I've been at this for a while.
Like some days of the grind.
And sometimes just seeing the fact that he's like starting over
in other areas and trying new things.
That's where I go for my inspiration is I just go
to the experts and I stay tapped in to their journey
so that I can continue to succeed on my own.
Beautiful. I think there's something else there with this too,
is you want to make sure that what the life looks
like, that you think you're going for is something you really
want. Oh yes.
Oh my gosh.
Sue her reach.
Okay. Because I said that,
you know,
you were just saying earlier in this chat about how it's
so important to make sure that the person you're following has
done the things right.
Well, it's also important to make sure that they're living the
life you want.
One of the things that I run into all the time
with my coaching clients is,
you know,
I'll get students who have built businesses kind of following the
formula, if you will.
And they're like,
yeah, I make six figures easily,
but I hate my life.
You know,
my coach never told me that I would take five consulting
calls a day.
And I feel like I spent all my time on the
phone and I hate everything right now,
you know?
And it's just like,
wow, like,
you know,
you, weren't taught about diversified income streams.
You weren't taught about building the passive streams that allow you
to live in their purpose.
So let's kind of get you lined up.
But for me,
all of my mentors that I follow everybody,
all my good friends that are in my network,
you know,
all the people I mentioned here,
they put family first.
And for me,
that's a huge priority.
I adopted three girls from foster care and my three girls
are, you know,
17, 15 and five.
And they're the light of my world.
And I'm a new mom,
but you better believe that.
I am like,
so all in that,
they're the number one place I want to be.
And they were a part of why I quit my job
because I was just like,
are you kidding me?
Like, I can't be in a meeting.
I've got a five-year-old this is crazy.
You know?
So with that,
you got to make sure the advice that I get,
I know is always considering family because the people that I
listened to and the people I talked to,
my friends,
they a priority for them.
So I can trust that.
They're not going to tell me,
Oh yeah,
girl, if you're not making income,
or if you feel like you want to boost your revenue,
all you have to do is put in an 80 hour
week and don't put dinner on the table and miss the
graduation party.
They'll never say that,
you know,
that's not how they live.
So I think that,
yeah, you nailed it.
Like make sure that the people that you're listening to a
hundred percent have a life that you want to live too.
Because I look at some people like,
and I'll just I'll throw out names.
Cause I keep it all the way real.
But like Gary Vaynerchuk,
love, love,
love him.
Guy is brilliant,
right? Smart.
And you know,
a straight shooter and knows his stuff.
My goodness,
his hustle is not the way I want my hustle to
look like.
I just,
I want to hustle and I want to have that success
and that impact in that drive.
But I can tell you right out the gate that I
am not inspired to have a life where it's like,
I'm on the go,
go, go all the time.
So it's like,
I'll listen to his advice and extract what I need,
but there are other elements of it that just don't align
with me.
And so I always have to fact check that against my
own internal radar,
by faith radar and then my family and,
you know,
mentor support radar.
And I think everybody should be doing that in their business.
Totally agree with you.
And those of you who don't know what we're talking about
Gary, Monday through Friday,
I don't know,
5:00 AM to 2:00 AM works.
Like he might sleep three hours.
Now he does take weekends for his family,
but like I would be in bed sleeping The whole weekend
and those hours,
you and me both.
And also can I just say,
like, I don't just love my family.
I like my family.
They're my favorite people.
So it's like I,
a weekend would not be enough.
I miss them during the day.
I could not imagine not seeing my family at the end
of every day and at the top of every morning and
sometimes at lunch.
So totally Brings up another point.
I just want to slip in here as we're winding down
is that your life will also change the stages of your
kids also change.
So if you have younger kids,
maybe you don't want to be starting a business full-time if
it fits in on the side,
because you're valuing the time with the kids or you keep
it downsized a little bit.
There's plenty of time later when they're out of the house
when they're away at college.
So businesses specially when you're in business for yourself can flux
based on the life stage that you're in too.
Oh my gosh.
So yes,
that's gold.
Everybody write that down.
Circle it exclamation marks who is telling you today accurate like
a hundred percent.
Well, thank you.
So Nicole,
at this point,
I'd like invite you to dare To dream.
I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
What is inside your virtual box?
Inside of my virtual box is the platform to reach an
unlimited amount of people.
And I mean,
not just people who have access to the internet,
not just people who have access TV,
but I mean the little child in,
you know,
South Africa who is running around on the street with no
vision of what his future could look like and no understanding
that going through the sands between his success is time and
resources and a little bit of prayer and faith.
And in that box is that platform to wide my territory,
because I truly believe that as a change catalyst that I
can show up and show out when given the opportunity and
that I have a gift to bless and inspire the world
to believe and in the tools and resources to create change
for themselves.
So that's what it is in the box.
Whatever that magic tool is that gets you in front of
the right people to share this inspiring message that's what's in
there. And it would be the greatest gift of all time.
And I'm going to keep working until I can open that
box. There you go.
I got to say with technology the way it is and
what we're able to do in places we're able to access
now and your passion and beauty and excitement and everything,
yellow personality,
people are attracted to you already.
So you have that,
you have the channel technology's only going to get better,
right? And we're seeing technology even in third world countries.
I mean,
everyone is getting connected.
Yeah. And I do believe that it's something that I definitely
hold close to me that there's no mistake that I was
born during this time.
And I am grateful for the ability to take advantage of
all the resources that have been presented.
So all in good time that gives me love it.
Where could people find out more about you,
Nicole? Yes.
Well, everything all about me and my life and my stuff
is at Nicole Walters dot T V.
So you can find out everything at Nicole Walters at TB.
And if you want to know more about how to swap
out your systems,
when you're just getting started and keeping your costs low,
head over to the system,
swap.com and you can actually grab a quick cheat sheet list
for absolutely nothing where it'll just help you save a couple
extra bucks because you're probably spending too much,
you know,
here or there and every little bit counts.
Thank you so much for that show notes.
You guys will be there with all the links as always
Nicole. I so appreciate your showing up today with all of
this great information,
your vibe,
your spirit.
If anybody who has been listening has been thinking about jumping
into this crazy little world of entrepreneurialship.
I think that we've got them going now.
It's because of a lot of what you're talking about.
It doesn't have to be scary.
You can start planning and guess what?
Just like Nicole was talking about where she was doing it
within her while she was still working,
you guys can all get started right now today to put
yourself on that path.
So think about that.
Okay, Nicole,
again, love that you were here.
So appreciate your time.
All of your energy,
all of your wisdom.
I'm hoping you'll pick up like a million fans,
either on Periscope live or something because this vibe will continue.
This is how you show up every day.
And Nicole made that motivational candle of yours continue to burn
bright. Thank you.
Where are you in your business building journey,
whether you're just starting out or already running a business and
you want to know your setup for success,
find out why taking the gift biz quiz,
access the quiz from your computer at Vic dot L Y
slash a gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting
gift biz quiz to four four two,
two, two.
Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
next episode.
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