392 - Keep it simple sista: Tom interviews Nikki Nash - Screw The Commute

392 – Keep it simple sista: Tom interviews Nikki Nash

Nikki Nash is a Hay House author. She's a podcast host and a business advisor who equips entrepreneurs with the support and resources they need to share and profit from their message. She's a recognized expert in marketing and business strategy, and her insights have been featured in Business Insider. Forbes and BossBabe. She is a boss for sure, and she's been in lots of other media outlets.

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Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 392

How To Automate Your Businesshttps://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/

entrepreneurship distance learning school, home based business, lifestyle business

Internet Marketing Training Centerhttps://imtcva.org/

Higher Education Webinarhttps://screwthecommute.com/webinars

[04:33] Tom's introduction to Nikki Nash

[08:11] The value of very specific revenue goals

[09:44] KISS principle: Keep It Simple Sista

[11:00] Marketing is like dating

[15:09] The method for a personal brand business

[17:37] Yes (and no) from an entrepreneurial family

[19:45] Did the high school and college “thing”

[22:22] Long career marketing Fortune 100 brands

[29:05] Sponsor message

[31:58] A typical day for Nikki and how she stays motivated

Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast

Higher Education Webinarhttps://screwthecommute.com/webinars

Screw The Commutehttps://screwthecommute.com/

entrepreneurship distance learning school, home based business, lifestyle business

Screw The Commute Podcast Apphttps://screwthecommute.com/app/

College Ripoff Quizhttps://imtcva.org/quiz

Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! – orders@antion.com

Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there!https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel

How To Automate Your Businesshttps://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/

Internet Marketing Retreat and Joint Venture Programhttps://greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/

Free Marketing Bootcamphttp://freemarketingbootcamp.com

Nikki's websitehttp://nikkinash.co/

Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/nikkinashofficial/

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/NikkiNashOfficial/

Twitterhttps://twitter.com/nikkinashco

LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkinash/

Clubhouse – @nikkinash

Internet Marketing Training Centerhttps://imtcva.org/

Related Episodes

Clubhouse – https://screwthecommute.com/391/

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entrepreneurship distance learning school, home based business, lifestyle business

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Episode 392 – Nikki Nash
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody is Tom here with episode three hundred ninety two, Screw the Commute podcast. I'm here with Nikki Nash. Her mission at Market Genius is to help a thousand women build a million dollar business by 2030. Now, if you're a female entrepreneur and you want to get off the revenue rollercoaster, keep it simple, sista. She's going to tell you about that in a moment. Hope you didn't miss Episode 391 on that episode. I broke my own rules not only once, but twice. And I was talking about a relatively new social media outlet called Clubhouse. And Nikki and I and a bunch of other our friends are going to be hosting a room there. And so do what you can, listen to that episode, do whatever you can to get on there, because it's really up and comer. And how would you like to hear your own voice here on screen, the commute? Well, the show's helped you out at all in your business or giving you ideas to help you start a business. We want to hear about it. Visit screwthecommute.com, look for a little blue sidebar that says send voicemail, click on it, talk into your phone or computer. Tell me how the show has helped you. And hey, put your website in there so you can get a big shout out in your own voice on a future episode of Screw the Commute. Now pick up a copy of our Automation eBook. This book, we actually estimated it a couple of years ago that just one of the tips in this book has saved me seven and a half million keystrokes.

[00:01:54] I know Nikki's into automation, too. She puts me to shame, but a lot of the things that I use have helped me steal customers ethically from other people because they're too darn slow to get back to people and it'll save tons of your workload. So pick that up at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app where you can put it on your cell phone and tablet. Take us with you on the road. We have videos on how to use it. You know how people give you an app and you're supposed to figure it out. You know, us old farts can't do it. So we give you videos and screen capture so you can really use all the cool features on the road. All right. Now, I know people are freaking out because of this pandemic. Still with schools and the kids, you know, trying to learn on Zoom and the parents either quitting their job or don't have a job while my students and myself don't think in those terms because we can sell from home. I've been doing it since the commercial Internet started in 1994 and I've been teaching it for over twenty two years. And it's the skills that you have here can open up the entire world for you because you're not stuck going to an office all day.

[00:03:17] So whatever happens in the world, you can still sell stuff. Now, about 13 years ago, I formalized this training in the form of a school. It's the only licensed, dedicated Internet marketing school in the country, probably the world. It's IMTCVA.org and it's certified to operate by SCHEV, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia. It's a distance learning. And what cracks me up is all these universities that are that are bloated and and, you know, trying to grab more money off. The kids are throwing distance learning. Oh, we're a distance learning now. Yeah, well, I've been doing it since the beginning and mine is good. Theirs isn't. And also you go into deep debt with the four year traditional college and then you get out with an MBA and you're competing for jobs at Starbucks. So we don't like that. So check it out at IMTCVA.org. And a little later, if you're in my mentor program, you get a scholarship to the school, which you can either use yourself or gift to someone. And it's the best legacy gift you could ever give someone in your life, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, because they won't be coming home and living in your basement. So I have actually a career that somebody wants.

[00:04:33] All right. Let's get to the main event. Nikki Nash is a Hay House author, and that is a big deal, folks. She's a podcast host and a business advisor who equips entrepreneurs with the support and resources they need to share and profit from their message. She's a recognized expert in marketing and business strategy, and her insights have been featured in Business Insider, Forbes, this is what gets me, BossBabe. And and I got to tell you, one of her pictures she sent. He was she's sitting on a block of wood, and I'll tell you what, I wouldn't mess with this lady. She is a boss for sure, and she's been in lots of other media outlets. So let's bring her on. Nikki, are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:05:19] I can do all day.

[00:05:21] Oh, you're one of those. Great.

[00:05:25] I know I can mess with you, Tom. I really feel like we can do all sorts of.

[00:05:29] I'm quite messable, that's for sure. So tell everybody what you're doing now, then we'll take you back and see how you came up through the ranks, because I know you had that dreaded job for a long time and you got out of that mess. So. So tell me what you're doing and then we'll take you back.

[00:05:45] Yeah.

[00:05:45] So right now I have a membership site that's my business model, where I help entrepreneurs turn their experiences, their expertise into a profitable business and walk them through my processes, frameworks, all that just help them, you know, stop thinking or dreaming about building a business or to stop being stuck for a lot of folks that have already gotten started and really just move forward. And so I do that through the membership side. I also will do events and private coaching and consulting and just wrote a book that comes out in August. So I'm super excited about that.

[00:06:24] What's the title?

[00:06:25] It's called Market Your Genius. Simple to remember.

[00:06:30] Keep it simple. Yeah. So that's one thing I noticed about you when I was looking over all your stuff. You're into keeping it simple, including one thing you were suggesting to to the entrepreneurs you help is to focus on one product. And it's kind of foreign to me because I have about 400 products and I focus on one at a time, but I do have multiple products. But you want people to focus on one and really get good at it, right?

[00:06:57] Yeah, especially at the beginning. And it's more for my entrepreneurs. Usually when I'm working with them, they haven't quite hit the six figure mark and they have dreams of being, you know, multimillionaires. And I'm listening to them and they have five billion ideas and they're trying to do all of them at once. And I'm like, focus on one. Like, you've got one product and I want you to focus on it for a year. And when you have system structures, profitability, magic happening, then you can work on the next one and the next one, and then you can have multiple and again, focus on one at a time. But for so many people, it's having the idea of focusing on one at a time when none of them have been proven to work doesn't work either.

[00:07:37] Right. And then you've seen both sides of the coin because you worked in big companies. And, yeah, they have the resources that do do a lot of things at once. And people want to emulate that.

[00:07:47] But that's a kiss, the kiss of death instead of the keep it simple sister in a small company.

[00:07:54] Yeah, absolutely. And I joke and I'm pretty sure I put this in my book, but I said, you know, trying to do with the big companies do is like me trying to run a race against an Olympic athlete, you know, like.

[00:08:05] Yeah. You know, track and field gold medalist. Let's run this race. Yes, I do. It's a terrible idea.

[00:08:11] So one of the tips that I gleaned from looking through your stuff is that you like people to have very specific revenue goals, not just I want to be a multimillionaire, right?

[00:08:23] Yeah, because I think for so many people and I've been there and I've been this person that goes, OK, you know what? I want to write a book someday or I want to be a multimillionaire. I want, you know, to speak on stages. And it's just when it's not super specific, it almost becomes in the land of this will happen someday. But when you have a very specific goal, whether it's a revenue goal or, you know, I want to write a book and get a traditional published or self publish or start a podcast, when you have a specific goal and you even set timing around it, then you can start working backwards and figure out, OK, what's the stuff I need to take now? And you can ask yourself, are the actions I'm taking in alignment with this goal? And it puts more focus on it as opposed to saying, you know, I want to be a multimillionaire. OK, what does that mean? Like, there are varying degrees of being a multimillionaire. And also, do you mean personally? Do you mean your business or are we talking profit? We're talking revenue. So I really encourage people to get as specific as possible so that they know where it is that they're going.

[00:09:25] That must be what I messed up because I wanted to be an international playboy and I just didn't do the steps properly, I guess.

[00:09:33] Or maybe it's I'm just ugly, baby. I'm not sure, though.

[00:09:38] I mean, I don't know. Hugh Hefner wasn't, you know, all that and a bag of chips.

[00:09:41] Yeah, that's that's true. That's true. So going deeper on the your kiss principle, your grandmother, even the. You doing this, right?

[00:09:50] Yeah, my grandmother lived with my family and I growing up and she used to say kiss. And I'd be like, what does that mean Grandma?

[00:09:58] And she'd be like, keep it simple, stupid, because I just as a kid would overcomplicate things. So in my business, I tell people, you know, I'm a little bit more, I guess, lovey dovey than my grandmother, who I mean, I'm still sarcastic, but she's very sarcastic.

[00:10:14] And so I tell people to keep it simple, sister, so that I can still tell them to kiss. But it's like just sister, keep it simple. You are overcomplicating things, are trying to do too many things and that's why you're not moving forward.

[00:10:26] Yeah. Now you are concentrating on female entrepreneurs. Right.

[00:10:30] It's funny. It's I would say yes and no.

[00:10:32] I work with men so I know that's how it always comes out. Yeah.

[00:10:35] Yeah. No I absolutely do. It's just I, I would say that the majority of my audience tend to be female and so I just like, hey, let me just, you know, say it to them and then I change it to keep it simple.

[00:10:50] Sir, nobody calls me sir. I'll tell you that they could they would go revert to stupid. Yeah.

[00:10:59] So so I've heard you say marketing is like dating.

[00:11:05] Yes, it's like me to tell you a little bit about that. That's why I brought it up.

[00:11:12] I figured Tom I think, you know, one of the things that pisses me off, for lack of a better word in the marketing world is that I feel like some people are so for lack of a better way of describing it like desperate or enthusiastic for clients and customers, that they forget that their clients and customers are people. And so I will get these have these experiences. And I feel like other people have had them.

[00:11:39] Whether you're on Facebook and somebody sent you a friend request and you're like, I don't know who the heck they are, but they seem cool and we have friends in common. So you accept them. And then next thing you know, they're like, hi, join my Facebook group or hi, I looked I looked you up and I feel as though I can help you with my services.

[00:11:57] I'm gonna help you get to six figures and I'll be seven figures. I'm like, clearly you don't know me because you would know that I've hit those milestones and maybe we could be, I don't know, friends or collaborate.

[00:12:06] But like, I feel like people are just so hey, I need this. You're a person or somebody who may be able to pay me. So I'm just going to kind of go out and say, hey, buy my stuff or take this action.

[00:12:19] And I'm like, that's the equivalent of going up to somebody in the bar and saying, hey, we want to get married. And you've never seen before in your life. Right. And so to me, I use this analogy when I used to teach digital marketing classes and it's just like think of your marketing and even to a certain degree, your sales, your marketing and sales strategy as if you were dating someone.

[00:12:40] And when I was dating, especially in my early 20s, we would I lived in New York City at the time and we would this was, you know, online dating was a thing, but not really as big of a thing.

[00:12:50] And we would go out and we'd go to a bar or a club or wherever the heck we were going or a house party, and we would get all dolled up.

[00:12:59] And we choose a specific place that we believed that our ideal mate or partner would be, and we'd go there and be all dolled up and try to capture somebody's attention. And, you know, I always laugh when I think back on it because despite the fact that I have no problem being visible, I was a very shy person and I have like, shy tendencies.

[00:13:22] Oh, is that right? Yeah, at least I believe. Yeah, right.

[00:13:26] I'm like, ask my best friend because I, we would go into a bar and I would just be like, that guy's cute and my best friend would be like, go up and talk to him and I'd be like, I can't, I can't do it.

[00:13:35] So she's like, well crap.

[00:13:36] So she would just go up there and then start a conversation and then drag me along or something like that. Or I would, you know, accidentally bump into something like, oh, excuse me, that was not an accident, but I'm going to pretend, you know, just to spark a conversation.

[00:13:50] And so when you're building a business, you need to be where your people are and then do something. If you're online, you need to stop them from scrolling. So you need something, whether it's a headline or a photo or something that's going to capture their attention or if you're in person and you're speaking on stage or you're a networking event, you need to, you know, capture some of these attention, spark that conversation, ideally get digits, you know, like exchange that contact information and then you go on dates. And that's the same thing with marketing. It's like you got to show up. You got to capture somebody's attention. You got to get their contact information if they are interested in continuing to talk to you and then you essentially date them until as my grandmother used to say, they're ready and you're ready to piss or get off the pot.

[00:14:32] You know, like you either you're like, all right, are we going to do the thing? Are we going to work together or are you going to buy my product or service? Are you not?

[00:14:40] Dating should be the equivalent of giving the potential client or customer everything that they need to say yes or no to your offer. And so I'm like, if you just think of it as dating, it humanizes the experience a little bit more.

[00:14:55] You realize, OK, oh, did I actually build a relationship with this person before I ask them for, you know, ten grand or something? Did I just walk up to them and go, Hi, nice to meet you. Can I have your credit card, please? Yeah.

[00:15:08] So so you know, when they ask when they come up to me and say I can help you reach six figures, I'm thinking they're you talking about my waist or what.

[00:15:19] Ok, I'm already on my way. Leave me alone. But your method sounds to me like, quote, the genius method. Yeah. You ever hear of that? I have.

[00:15:30] I have heard of that. And it's funny because this is it's I called this dating. It's my just like dating method.

[00:15:37] And then it's a method within a method because as marketers, what I realized going to an event and I went to a marketing event, this guy was speaking on stage and I whipped out my notebook. So I'm like, I'm going to get so much magic out of this. And I'm like writing and writing everything this guy was saying. And I didn't really listen, like I was listening, but I wasn't really listening. I was too busy taking notes.

[00:15:59] And I go back and look at the notes and I realized, oh, I know all this stuff. He just packaged it in a really cool way or in a. Right. And so the genius method is my packaged way of saying, hey, there are, you know, kind of five P's for lack of a better word, like five things that you need to properly build a business from your experiences, your expertise, make it profitable and, you know, become, you know, the next best thing since sliced bread. And so it's really about, you know, having that clear purpose and vision for your business really being clear on your positioning in the marketplace so that you can differentiate yourself, you can stand out. People know the problem you solve, like people get who you are and how you can help them. You have a plan for how you're going to profit from this. And I really like to use profit because so many people focus on revenue. And I'm like, cool, that's great that you made six figures or seven figures, but you spent six or seven figures. So you're actually broke, you know, so profitability platform, which is like audience building and or community building and then performance and really figuring out like, how am I? How is everything that I'm doing performing, how can I optimize, how can I automate, how can I scale? Like, what are the things I can do to increase our performance that we're growing year over year over year?

[00:17:24] See, that's that's the KISS principle. I'm going to boil this down for our listeners. You just take one piece at a time.

[00:17:33] Exactly. Yeah, exactly right. All right. Let me take you back. Were you an entrepreneurial little girl or were you from an entrepreneurial family or what?

[00:17:45] So it's funny. Both my parents are doctors and dad worked for a hospital and my mom was in private practice and she never considered herself an entrepreneur. But I'm like, but you had a business, right?

[00:17:55] Exactly right.

[00:17:58] And so I would say, like, yes.

[00:18:00] But I don't think my parents ever considered themselves entrepreneurs. And in terms of was I into this stuff as a kid. Yes. But I was never successful. And I don't think I mean, I didn't realize. Being entrepreneurial, so when I was in middle school, I distinctly remember I used to volunteer at a oh my goodness, what's the nice way of saying old people's home?

[00:18:27] What are they called?

[00:18:28] Old farts home.

[00:18:29] Ok, yeah, one of those I was like where two people said, that's where I live.

[00:18:35] Yes. So Tom house. Yeah.

[00:18:38] So I was, you know, volunteering at Tom house and. No, seriously, I was I was volunteering and there was this elderly woman who had all of these little boxes and she just like to buy little like they were probably cardboard, like little boxes, jewelry boxes.

[00:18:54] And she would paint these really beautiful paintings or pictures on them. And I thought they were so cool. And I said, she's like, I have so many. I don't know what I'm going to do with them. And I said, I'm going to sell them for you. Right. And I went out into the world thinking that who could resist a little kid selling pretty boxes for an elderly woman?

[00:19:11] And it's like apparently a lot of you could resist the urge because I didn't sell them if they were Girl Scout cookies. Right. Because the cookies, I would have been fine.

[00:19:21] I was a Girl Scout, so I did at some point sell Girl Scout cookies. But it's just one of those things where I'm like, oh, OK.

[00:19:28] I didn't really realize at the time that I needed to maybe, you know, figure out what's the market need and demand American money.

[00:19:37] And the poor lady died in despair, you know, crushed me. Tom just frustrating.

[00:19:46] All right. So did you go to traditional school or out, you know, high school, college work?

[00:19:52] What did you come through?

[00:19:54] Yes, I did. The high school, college thing and college. It's funny. My first year I changed my major all the time until I landed on English.

[00:20:03] But before that, I think at one point I was premed and my parents told my middle school science teacher, who literally said, Nikki, if your child is premed, the one who did her science experiment on nail polish, I was like, yeah, but I was only premed for like a hot minute. It was I think I changed my major to premed over the summer to something else also over the summer.

[00:20:26] Didn't last long, but I was an English major. I wanted to be a journalist. I've always loved writing. I used to write poetry as a kid.

[00:20:33] And at one point I had the desire to be an actress. I think that's always been within me, but I was really one part shy about it and two really self-conscious about it. So I never went for it. All mindset's stuff.

[00:20:46] But I've said, you know, we've got over that. You got over that.

[00:20:49] Oh, I see so many videos where you were advising people that were shy about going live, like on Facebook to just put lipstick on and stick your finger in a light socket or something for your hair and you're good, good, good, good enough.

[00:21:07] That was that was exactly what I said, though. Executive sacrifice. I'm so glad you got that as the takeaway. No, but it's like just doing it. And over and over and over again you get comfortable.

[00:21:19] And I got comfortable maybe later than I wanted to because I thought I was going to be a journalist, worked at a news station and all that jazz. And then when I graduated, even thought I was going to go to Berkeley for grad school for journalism, like spoke to admissions, asked how I could get in. And they suggested since I was in the New York area to do a summer program that both NYU and Columbia had at the time on book and magazine publishing to really get into the get training. They had experts come in.

[00:21:51] And what ended up happening is I met all the editorial people, I met all the marketing people and all the marketing people seemed really fine.

[00:21:58] And next thing I knew, I was working at InStyle magazine in the marketing department and not working.

[00:22:06] Which magazine was journalist and style.

[00:22:08] Oh, she said in which is a really derogatory name for a guy who did not know that. Yeah, not that magazine and style fashion fashion magazine. Okay. All right.

[00:22:23] But you had a long career marketing tech companies, so I mean you didn't nothing. You've said that to this point says tech at all.

[00:22:32] Yeah, it's interesting how I got there.

[00:22:34] And I think for me, you know, I was out in style. It was a post. It was an internship after a paid internship after I graduated. So I was there for maybe like six months. And then one of their sister publications had an open job and opening a job opening that I was recommended for.

[00:22:52] And I hated it. Like I quit after six months.

[00:22:56] And I remember the publisher pulling me in and telling me that's what's wrong with millennials because like so say like I was like, you want to know what's wrong with your company like me. I was like, I may be quitting, but I had like three bosses in a six month period. Like it was just a dysfunctional place.

[00:23:12] I was like, goodbye. And so I left.

[00:23:16] Ended up an advertising working on Kraft Foods account and working ridiculous hours, and I'm like, I'm not saving lives here, I'm placing ads. But there were times I was on call in case, like the client had an emergency when we were on launch. And so I talked to my clients and they their life seemed a little bit better. So I asked them what to do and they all suggested I go back to school, get my MBA and then use that as a pathway into client side. So I went back to school, got my MBA, thought I was going to work at Consumer Product Goods. So I. To Starbucks.

[00:23:48] Yeah, exactly. Or Starbucks.

[00:23:50] And I took an internship at Coca-Cola between my first and second year of grad school and don't drink soda. And I was just like and it just was not a fit. And no offense to Atlanta, but I wasn't down with Atlanta.

[00:24:02] And so all this stuff, you must be 90 years old by now.

[00:24:06] No, I was only going to say no, I was twenty. How old was I? I was going to be twenty. Six, all this stuff by that night, twenty six, wow, I was 25 when I went into grad school.

[00:24:21] Yeah, I was twenty five when I went into grad school, graduated at twenty, like, right before my twenty seventh birthday, I think.

[00:24:29] Took a job and this is what ended up happening, I knew I didn't want to work in consumer product goods, so I just applied to a bunch of jobs and still offered me a digital marketing job, which I was really excited about, because to that time I had only worked on print.

[00:24:43] I only worked magazines.

[00:24:44] And we can see how popular, you know, it's going right now. So that's a good move. So I did digital marketing at Intel. I was there for a number of years doing social media marketing for them, digital marketing for them, influencer marketing for them.

[00:24:59] And I got to work on a lot of really cool stuff for a while. And I left primarily because I found out that ovarian cancer ran in my family and my aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. My grandma and this is my mom's sister, my my mom's mom had passed away from ovarian Cancer. So we're like we got to do some testing here.

[00:25:24] And then we found out my aunt had what's called the to Gene. And I don't know if people remember, but and I think it was 2011 now it must have been 2013 around twenty thirteen, I believe it was.

[00:25:36] Angelina Jolie wrote an op ed for The New York Times. Yeah. Say so. In her family, she had tested for the Brocco one gene, which means you're at high risk for breast cancer and then the gene means you're at high risk for ovarian cancer. And when that article came out, I was going to be tested because my mom tested positive.

[00:25:54] My aunt tested positive. So my sister and I had to get tested. We both tested negative, which is good.

[00:26:01] But at the end of the day, I was like, you know what? Life is too short and I don't want to spend it in a cubicle. So I quit without a plan, went to Mexico for a couple of weeks and and while I was in Mexico, had a panic attack because I was making six figures for a number of years at this point.

[00:26:17] And I was like, what the heck am I going to do for money? And I ended up taking a job at a tech startup for as head of marketing for less than two years. I didn't make it two years and I was just like, what the hell am I doing? I know I want to work for myself. And then I officially screwed the commute and I was like, I'm out.

[00:26:34] Wow, wow. What a way to keep it simple.

[00:26:40] That's why I tell people to keep it up like I did too many complicated things. So.

[00:26:46] All right. So did you have money saved up or were you broke at the time when you transitioned to your own business or how did you make the transition? Was it keep the job and start the transition or just cold turkey, stop and start the business or what?

[00:26:59] Yeah, I was a bit cold turkey. So when I left until I saved my place, I knew I was leaving when you left.

[00:27:07] I know.

[00:27:07] I kind of remember their stock really took a dive.

[00:27:10] Yeah, it did. When I left their stock, I actually did take a dive. I had left and I had all the stock and I was like, maybe I should sell my stock. And so I actually had I had a lot of stock with them.

[00:27:19] I had saved a lot of my money. I had moved into a cheaper apartment, saved money and was planning on leaving. I knew I was leaving. Where was it? I was living in Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon.

[00:27:32] Yeah, I moved around a lot, so I was living in Portland, Oregon. I was ready to leave and I ended up giving them, I think, like three months notice or something. I was going to move, wasn't going to tell them that far in advance. But my boss is trying to get me to go on this trip. And I was like, that's going to be like two weeks before my plans last day. And that's not I was like, I can't have them. One I didn't want to go into.

[00:27:53] I didn't want them to pay for it and then get mad. They are doing it. So it's like send this other person because I'm leaving. Yeah. Wow.

[00:28:01] And it wasn't them. It was just me. It was like I knew in my core that I wasn't meant for that life.

[00:28:08] And so I had money then. And then when I left the tech startup, I had I had money set aside. But I also was at that point, I had a side hustle from that gig where I was teaching digital marketing courses for a company called General Assembly.

[00:28:23] And so I was making maybe like an extra 20 grand a year doing that, maybe even more that I was just saving.

[00:28:34] So by the time I quit my job, I had like decent money saved up. But I also got clients really quickly because I had made relationships with people.

[00:28:44] At this point, I was living in Boston because, you know, I move around a lot. So I was living in Boston and I made a lot of connections with the Boston startup folks.

[00:28:55] And so I was able to get clients pretty quickly when I left my job.

[00:28:58] Wow, wow. What a what a what a path to get there.

[00:29:03] But so we got to take a brief sponsor break and come back. We're going to ask Nikki what a typical day looks like for her, how she stays motivated. And she's probably got some stuff to give you so, so about, let's say. Twenty two years ago, I kind of turned the Internet marketing guru world on its head.

[00:29:23] And the guys like me were charging 50 or 100 grand up front to teach this. After small business people and I knew a lot of these people, you give them 50, 100 grand up front, they'd be, I don't know, hide not in Boston and Portland in New York like Nikki. So they never help you. So I said this is not right for small business. I'm going to charge an entry fee and then I'm going to tie myself to their success. So for me to make my 50 grand, they had to make 200 grand. And boy, did they like this. And seventeen hundred plus students later in 22 years still going strong. And it's the longest running, most unique, most successful mentor program in the field of Internet marketing ever. And then you say, well, how could you say that? You know, well, I've triple dog dared people for years to put their program up against mine and nobody will do it because they'll crawl away under a rock because of all the unique features of mine, one of which is a unique immersion visit at the retreat center here in Virginia Beach. It's a big multimillion dollar facility's, got his own TV studio. And you actually stay in the house here with me for an immersion weekend. Then all our training is one on one. So I don't like group training because if you're in with an advance, if I'm talking to the advance people, the the the new people are lost.

[00:30:47] And if I'm talking to the new people, the advance people are bored. So it's just not efficient for us to get to our financial goals. And then you have the everything is like I says, one on one, not only with me, but all my staff that will make appointments with you, take your computer over, show you where to click. And it's all one on one at your level. Wherever you are, we can take you to the next level and then you have the scholarship to the school. We had one guy spend 80 grand on his daughter's crappy education and she's working a crappy job. And the last time I talked to her, I don't know, about a month ago, she's up to 6000 dollars a month as a side hustle with, you know, a couple of months left in the school. Yet she's not even graduate. So so it's very unique. Nobody can put their put a program up next to mine. So check it out at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com and give me a call. I'm very accessible. That's another thing is like nobody at my level even talk to you teach anything. So. So give me a call. We'll talk about your future online and what we can do for your kids, grandchildren and nieces and nephews in our school.

[00:31:59] All right. Let's get back to the main event. Nikki Nash is here. She is a superstar Dynamo Hey House author, podcast hosts and business advisor. And she moves around a lot. So I'm hoping she's still here after the break so that I could find her to ask her the rest of the questions. So, Nikki, what's a typical day look like for you?

[00:32:21] Oh, so a typical day, and it took me some time to get here. So if you ever want to know what my dad used to look like, I'm more than happy to share. But today I mainly spend my time and probably three core areas, and that's a lot of content creation, so.

[00:32:38] Being a guest on podcast, doing my own podcast, writing books, writing articles, going live videos, things like that, like I just I feel like at my core I'm a content creator, creating, you know, trainings for my members and my membership site, all that jazz. And then the other area would be client time. So I have private clients. I have people in the membership or in like a higher level group program sort of thing. So client time with them.

[00:33:04] And then the other part of my day is usually either a team management, like making sure my team is set up square to go if they have any questions.

[00:33:13] And I like to also throw in a decent amount of white space where I can just think and like get my life together. So that's what my days typically look like, is like a combination of those sort of activities.

[00:33:27] You get up early, you work out, you have any kind of routine, you know, and a master mind that we're in where you talk about morning routines, which I don't have and I would never keep up with if I did. But do you have one?

[00:33:40] Yeah. So I am I'm a morning person and I'm really curious to figure out if I'm a morning person because I'm just naturally a morning person or if because my mom would wake me up in the morning all the time because I'm the oldest to tell me a list of things.

[00:33:52] When she was leaving for work and I was like, yo, it's like 6:00 in the morning. What are you doing to me? So I tend to wake up early.

[00:34:00] I go to the gym.

[00:34:01] I used to kind of pre covid would go to the gym at 5:00 in the morning post covid. It's nice. I go at seven. So it's a little bit, a little bit of a yeah.

[00:34:11] I go to the gym most days and then kind of come home, shower, eat breakfast, meditate a little bit.

[00:34:19] And I like to start my day with the most important thing. So first thing, if when I start working I have my top three, like what are the three things I have to get done today or sometimes what's the one thing you absolutely have to get done today? And I knock that out first, that I don't get distracted or derailed or anything.

[00:34:39] Wow. So so you're working from home and you have been in environments with massive people around all the time and these big companies. But so how do you keep yourself motivated?

[00:34:51] Oh, my goodness. Well, let's start with the fact that I actually love being. Oh yeah, I do too. I'm like I was the person at the office who would purposely put on headphones even if I wasn't listening to anything, hoping that people wouldn't talk to me. I always want to talk to me and I'm like, oh my gosh, I just want to be by myself and do some stuff. Like, I know the feeling.

[00:35:11] I mean, 11000 square feet here by myself with two dogs and thrilled to death about it.

[00:35:17] Yeah. So I love I love being alone.

[00:35:22] No offense to people. I love people. But, you know, I'm, I think I get energy. It rejuvenated myself and then I could go out and be with the people. But to stay motivated, it's a couple of things. It's it's I tend to really spend time visualizing where I want to go and getting clear on that. And I'll either write it a bunch of times or I will read it over and over again because I just feel like a naturally creative person and I constantly have ideas. And so I always like to kind of refocus and remember, like, what is it that you actually want? Where is it that you're actually going? Is any of this in alignment with that or is it a distraction? And so that helps me a lot. I try to celebrate wins as often as I can. And then when I make mistakes or we have losses or we don't hit goals, which happens all the time, it's inevitable. I really try to figure out why, like what went wrong. And so, like Six Sigma has like us five wise. I know Deogratias has seven wise. So I just like asked myself, why do I think this happened? Why do I think that happened over and over and over again until I get at the root cause of why I think things went wrong and that motivates me and makes me feel better, because whenever, you know, I don't when at something like I do, something doesn't go right. It can be a little bit do motive.

[00:36:42] Like I just like demoralising isn't the right word. It could be demotivating.

[00:36:49] And so I try to kind of get at the core of why so that I can go, OK, well that's why. And now I can be better next time.

[00:36:55] So those things help me and to stay focused during the day, I, I feel silly, but it works for me.

[00:37:02] I have, I set timers so I go, Nikki, you have to do the same, but you only have 30 minutes or you only have forty five minutes or you only have an hour and I'll set a timer and usually I get done like I usually get like 80 to 90 percent of the way there and the time that I've given myself. But then I only need like an extra five, ten minutes.

[00:37:20] And that is way better than if I'm just like, do these things today. Next thing you know, I'm like, what did I do today? I haven't done anything.

[00:37:28] Well, great attitude on keeping yourself motivated. So tell them how to get a hold of you think you have something for.

[00:37:37] Yes. So I have a free marketing boot camp that I do. I do it regularly live. But then if it's not live right away, you can always watch the latest recording and it's super easy. It's at freemarketingbootcamp.com. So you can check that out there and you can always connect with me on the Market Your genius podcast.

[00:37:57] Awesome. Yeah. So you have all that in show notes for everybody. This is episode 392. And of course to get the episodes you go to screwthecommute.com/ and then the episode number 392, Nikki Nash and she says, Keep it simple sista. So thanks so much for coming on and telling your story is very inspiring for a lot of people out there.

[00:38:19] Thank you so much for having me. This was a lot of fun, Tom.

[00:38:22] All right, everybody, we'll catch you all in the next episode. See ya later.

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