077: Want to Leave a Legacy? Getting Clear on it with Nicole Walters

Kate Kordsmeier 0:04

You're listening to the Success with Soul podcast with Kate Kordsmeier; journalist-turned-CEO of a multi six figure blog in online business. But it wasn't that long ago that Kate was a struggling entrepreneur who lacked confidence, clarity and, let's be honest, money. But all those failures, experiments and lessons learned helped Kate create a thriving business that impacts 1000s and brings freedom, flexibility and fulfillment to her life. If you're ready to do the same and make something happen with holistic, soulful, step-by-step strategies from Kate and other experts, you're in the right place. Here's your host, writer, educator, mom, recovering perfectionist, bookworm and sushi connoisseur, Kate Kordsmeier. Oh, my goodness, y'all. Welcome back to the Success with Soul podcast. I'm your host, Kate Kordsmeier. And today we are chatting with Nicole Walters, you may be familiar with Nicole's work because she's kind of everywhere right now. She has her own show on the USA Network called She's the Boss. Best name. And she's an entrepreneur, business strategist and CEO of NapNic. So she's actually been featured in a million places, including Forbes, Good Morning America, the Today Show, as well as a top 10 podcast in the world. She has become a fixture in the media and business-expert space. She has a forthcoming book coming out. The woman is super impressive. One of the biggest takeaways I had from our interview is something that I've talked about before, but it bears repeating. And Nicole gives us a whole fresh perspective on it. But the gist is you have to go out and get what you want. And so if you want to figure out how to ask for what you want, this is the episode for you. Nicole, welcome to Success with Soul.

Nicole Walters 2:01

Thank you so much for having me. Oh my gosh, Kate, I'm so excited.

Kate Kordsmeier 2:04

I'm so excited too. It's always fun to have another Georgia peach on the podcast. And we've just been talking off-recording all about living in a lot of similar places - DC and California and Atlanta. And so yeah, it's fun. There's a nice little, actually like, Atlanta entrepreneur community kind of budding up. So that's been cool.

Nicole Walters 2:24

Yeah it really is a pretty entrepreneurial city, not just with like small business, but you've got like media and the Hollywood circuit and, and you know, and they're all entrepreneurs in their own right.

Kate Kordsmeier 2:35

Yeah, for sure. Very cool. So I just love your story. And for anybody who is not familiar with it. I mean, there's a note on your website that says that you started in corporate America and worked for a fortune 500 company and you quit in front of 10,000 people. Yeah.

Nicole Walters 2:56

Yeah, no, I It sounds crazier than it is. And and I always try to throw out the caveat that I'm not an advocate for just like blowing up your life. You know, what happened was I started building my business on the side, you know, while I was in corporate, so I had been doing that for several years at the time, but I knew it was time for me to go full time. So it was less that I quit my job and more like, I hired myself, you know. So I started ramping up and yeah, I've been sharing the journey online. And the time came for me to quit my job. And so people were like, hey, it'd be pretty authentic for you to share that as well. And so I did. I live online in front of 10,000 people. It went viral to over 100,000 people after that, and the rest is history.

Kate Kordsmeier 3:39

Ah, okay. I was like, Where did these 10,000 people come in? Were you live online?

Nicole Walters 3:44

Yeah, live on the internet. It was actually before live streaming, like there was no Instagram Live. There was no Facebook Live. Yeah, this was on Periscope, which is now gone. You know, which is so crazy to think that like the entire life cycle, you know. Periscope happened, you know, in the early days of my entrepreneurship. But yeah, I quit live online and it was crazy. But it kicked off some of the best years of my life. It's been amazing.

Kate Kordsmeier 4:08

Yeah. And it's cool because I think there's you know, value in these social platforms and things, but it's also a good lesson. Like, don't build your whole thing on one place because what if everything you had was just Periscope and now Periscope is gone?

Nicole Walters 4:23

Yeah, I can't tell you how much I emphasize that ,you know. Coming as a corporate girl you know, you can't walk in and say, "guys we're gonna build a whole strategy - it's just around Instagram" like they'll laugh you out of the room you know. Because the marketing team is like Facebook got big without Facebook you know, Instagram got big without Instagram, so you need to know how to build a foundation of a successful and profitable business sustainably without the utilization of social media.

Kate Kordsmeier 4:49

That's a really cool way to think of it - Facebook got big without Facebook.

Nicole Walters 4:54

Right, right. So when I hear people say they spend like 50k in ads a month I'm like, oh, yikes. What do your margins look like? What's your overhead like? But too, I'm really hoping you know how to build a business otherwise, because you don't control the levers, around that money. And so if that's your only solution - to dump more money into it - there's likely going to be some issues down the line.

Kate Kordsmeier 5:18

100% yes. I feel the same way that I'm always talking about having diverse revenue streams is also like diverse traffic streams. Because if you put all your eggs in one basket, like Facebook ads may be working like gangbusters for you today, but what if something changes and you have no control over it? So it's good to have at least you know, a couple other complimentary things to be bringing people into your business. Okay, let's back up, though. For anybody listening who is not familiar with Nicole, can you give us sort of the quick and dirty version of your story, how you got to doing what you're doing today? And what are you doing today?

Nicole Walters 5:57

Sure, sure. So I am a mom, and I'm a wife, and I'm an entrepreneur. And I'm the CEO and founder of Inherent Learning Company. We're a business education firm. We're based here in Atlanta, Georgia. I've got 20 employees full time with full benefits. And we're a multi million dollar company that's been featured in Forbes as one of the Top 1000 to Watch entrepreneurial businesses. And we're totally debt free, which is something I'm really proud of, you know, and we have zero investors. And we are wholly women and minority owned. So we provide education solutions for everyday entrepreneurs, based in true corporate leanings and teachings that are sustainable.

Kate Kordsmeier 6:39

Yeah, that's so impressive. Congratulations.

Nicole Walters 6:42

Thanks.

Kate Kordsmeier 6:45

Yeah. And what I think is really interesting, too, about your story, is that a lot of people come from corporate and leave their jobs to start something else. But they want to leave everything about the corporate grind. That wasn't me. Right? So tell us a little bit more about like, what things from corporate did you bring? And why?

Nicole Walters 7:03

Oh yeah. So what's great about what I do is I do exactly what I did incorporate. It wasn't the issue of what I was doing so much as where I was doing it. For whom - there's a whole segment, you know, kind of when you talk blue ocean of people, that are not able to be served by traditional corporate consulting firms. Just getting into major companies like McKinsey or a center, or you know, Northrop Grumman or Bain, you know, all these consulting firms that come into companies, whenever they want to start a new product, or they're having issues with their marketing, or they want to expand in scale. I mean, these companies are charging a quarter million a month to work with them. And it was great working in those types of companies. But I also knew that there were solutions that needed to be provided to the everyday entrepreneur, the person on Main Street, and they deserve the same knowledge around how to grow and how to scale and how to be sustainable, and how to mind your margins and pay attention to your books. And when I started seeing a lot of my blogger friends, and just on social media, people really focused on the front end of the business, how to make it look pretty how to get people in how to do social media, I realized that there was just a massive and very serious gap in backend organization. And you can't skip steps no matter what. It will catch up to you. And it's not just about how do I get people in the fold and build traffic, if you don't know what to do with the dollar that you make, there's no way you're going to know how to keep it. And there's definitely no way you're going to know how to grow it. And I'm good at that. And I'm excited because I get to provide that solution for people every single day. And what I left behind in corporate is doing it without heart, without compassion, without gratitude, and without consideration for your personal values, you know. So it's nice because I get to provide real corporate solutions with real everyday people.

Kate Kordsmeier 8:53

Amazing. So cool. Beautiful. And you mentioned you had a blog in the beginning. How did that play a role? I was just looking at Natural Nicole.

Nicole Walters 9:02

Yes. Yes. So I had a blog in the beginning. And it actually started when I decided I wanted to grow my hair and without any chemicals. So you know how like, we're getting perms, we're using shampoos. We're, you know, scraping our head. We're doing all these things to our hair all the time. And I just noticed like there was damage in texture. Just like all sorts of stuff. So I actually shaved all my hair off. And wow, yeah, I actually started growing it back without any chemicals, just using all natural solutions and just trying different texture, mixtures of things and all that. So I decided to track that journey online, you know, going natural, you know, as Nicole, and tracking that journey. I very quickly, unfortunately, drew a lot of attention for not just my writing, but for the journey itself. Not just from a fan base. We're from, you know, different brands that we're now branching into saying we want more natural products and we want to use less chemicals and we want to do all these things. So what was cool was I came from corporate. So I already knew how to work with brands. And I already knew what that looked like. So when they would come to me and say, "Hey, we just want to send you some shampoo, can you like promote us?" Or, "Can you just tell us your opinion of this product?" you know, which in the very beginning, that's what it was. It was just can you give us feedback on this. I already knew that that's, you know, something called a focus group. And that's something called advertising. And, you know, these are all things to pay for. That's something people pay for, you know. So I also knew, though, in addition to that, that if someone pays for it, there are deliverables that you need to provide as a, you know, hired talent, to the client when you're done, you know. So that was something I did, well, they kept me booked, because I knew how to pitch myself, I knew how to provide the product they were looking for. And then I also provided things like reporting numbers and analysis on the back end, and they were not getting that from anyone, you know - they just people didn't understand. They just thought it was like reviews and a tag, you know that right? So I really stood out even though I had next to no followers, you know, I wasn't like super popular, I didn't have an email list. I didn't have any of that. But I was making around $35,000 a year back when nobody was making money on blogs. So I had friends with huge followings making no money. And that's kind of how it all started my blogger friends who were far more popular than I am doing all the right things like SEO and all these, you know, doing all the things, and they're just like, "What the heck, Nicole?" "How are you making money?" And I was like, oh, because I understand the companies. And I understand business. You know, I understand both. I'm not just a good blogger. I'm not just a good writer. I'm also a great business woman, so I can lend that talent to you. And that was how my consulting company was born.

Kate Kordsmeier 11:43

So cool. I can relate to that a lot. I mean, my journey into online entrepreneurship, at least started with my blog, Root+Revel, also a very like natural lifestyle blog, I didn't shave my head for it. So. And, you know, sponsored content, it was a big part of what we did in the beginning. And I felt the exact same way that was like, this is a business. And so I had campaign reports at the end of every campaign that was like, here's what happened, here's what we did, here are the results. Here's where I think we could improve for next time. And, you know, things like that. And now that's part of what we also teach in my courses, Six Figure Blog Academy. So definitely cut from the same cloth there. I also read that in your first three weeks, you made $11,000. Was that your three weeks of blogging or of consluting?

Nicole Walters 12:32

Yeah. So when I opened up, saying, hey, sure, you know, I'm open for business who needs help, you know, just in a very organic way. No email, no major launch, no crazy product. Just simply telling people where they can pay me. And you know, I'm available book here, you know. I booked out 11 grand, and I literally had to quit my job, because I didn't have capacity to continue to work.

Kate Kordsmeier 12:55

But it's just a lesson in just like, you put it out there, hey, here's where you can pay me if you don't tell people that they cannot pay you.

Nicole Walters 13:02

I cannot pay you to help tell people to pay you, you know. And if you don't act like a business, you're not going to get paid like one. And that is the lesson I think a lot of times, you know how things sort of peak and then they come back down. I think that all the gimmicks and the hacks and the tricks and the all that stuff, I think we're kind of coming down the other side of it, where people have seen everything. And they're starting to realize that at the end of the day, if you offer a great product, you have a great service, you do what you say you will do as like a moral value, and you provide great customer service and follow up. And then of course, just tell people about it, you'll get clients, you know. Like it isn't about always having like a six figure launch. What you'd rather have is six figures consistently right? You know, and wouldn't you rather have 10k a month, knowing that it's coming in every single month, then worry about having a 10k launch and that feast or famine cycle? And so I've always had my clients leaning in that way; building around that sustainable imprint. It's just nice to see the industry as a whole striving towards that because they're realizing, oh, this is what's more realistic. So yeah, that's kind of where I was.

Kate Kordsmeier 14:03

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Kate Kordsmeier 15:35

So, in the beginning, when you first started, you said you didn't have you know, a million followers and you didn't have like this huge email list. So how did you approach brands? I know you said you're good at pitching yourself. And I think that's another skill people don't realize they need in order to be successful in this. So how did you do that?

Nicole Walters 15:52

Well, that's the biggest part. I think a lot of people think that, and frankly, you know, blame the internet for it. You know, where it's all about, make yourself attractive, create a world of content, sit there and they will come. You know, like, or you can't start until you have this many followers and it just isn't true. Like, the truth is go out and get what you want. It's like applying for a job. You can't just sit there and be the best candidate with all the degrees and hope someone comes to you. That's not how that works. Yeah, it isn't. You have to go out there and get what you want. And then furthermore, you know, when it comes to the lesson of like, defining your brand? Well, a big part of that is you want to work with the right people. So for me, I have you know, I'm a Christian. I have like values, and I'm a family girl, you know, and so it does matter to me to not - I don't work with certain brands, you know what I mean? Like, and it's not, because they're bad, or whatever, they just aren't in alignment, you know, with who I am. And so that means that I have to sometimes go out and get what I want. I don't want every deal that comes out, you know, and I think that that's really important. As you're building out your brand to think about those sorts of things is going out and getting opportunities. But yeah, for me, it definitely was about when it came to the blog, I pitched, I literally would pitch also the thing that no one talks about is the counter pitch. So if somebody comes to me with a pitch, you better believe that I don't have to accept what they've said, or how they've structured it. Or if the brand is interested, terrific. I'm going to counter pitch what I actually want to do you know, and that has served me so so well. Because anytime you can make a marketing team look good to their people by giving them something better, they're going to love you. So I counter pitch left and right. And it has served me incredibly, incredibly well. So yeah, that was my main entry, but outside of that just knowing my numbers and think your initial question about the followers was just the 1000 true fan concept. I don't need everyone, I just need the right people. And the right people aren't like, what do they say online, you want the people who shop at Louis Vuitton like, I've always categorically disagreed with that. It's not just about a high ticket experience. Because how many people have 15 Louis Vuitton bags? But how many of us go into Target and also leave with an ottoman? You know, like what you want is target. Yeah, yeah. Cuz they will keep coming back and they will spend a sizable amount of money. Target has hit that number just right, you know. So I'm very okay being Target all day. There's no shame, you know, high low all day.

Kate Kordsmeier 18:13

Yeah, I love it. And I just want to like, repeat what you said, because I feel like it is so important. And I just kind of need to like beat people over the head with the concept of you have to ask for what you want. And especially, I mean, always, but especially in the beginning, when you're just starting out and you don't have you know, this established brand and business and name for yourself. People always ask me all the time, oh, my God, how did you get to work with so and so how did you get featured in this? How did you do this? And the answer is always. I literally just ask them. Yeah, like, people just didn't know where did you get Nicole Walters to come on your podcast? And yes, I sent her an email and I asked her to come on. Yeah, that's it. I literally

Nicole Walters 18:55

Like and it's crazy because people don't realize like I walk around with the attitude of I'm the best thing you've never heard of yesterday, man, like, and boy, what a gift when you get to meet me. Because I am fun. I do great work. And everyone I always try to tell people like be encouraged because what you do know about yourself is you're going to give your best, right? You know that you're not going to come up short, you know that you're going to try really hard, you know, you're going to deliver a great product. If you know this about yourself, then why wouldn't you approach the opportunity that you want? Because odds are they've been looking for you and they're going to find someone else who might do lesser work than you so go out there and be the person that you know, they actually need. So yeah, no, I love it. I'm like, oh, man, these people can't wait to meet me. I'm gonna improve their lives. You're gonna, she's so gracious. So much energy. So nice. You know? Let's go make people happy today, you know?

Kate Kordsmeier 19:43

So now is that confidence just natural for you? Or is this a muscle you've had to build and flex in practice over time?

Nicole Walters 19:50

Well make no mistake. It's not that I'm not doing it with pit stains. It's not that. Can you see pit stains through Blazers like right before TV interviews? Like no, I'm doing both things, I am both crying and excited.

Kate Kordsmeier 20:04

Both of it.

Nicole Walters 20:07

There is some confidence there, I think the confidence is just knowing that, like I'm a good person with good intentions, and I am going to do my best. That is something I can control, right? Like no one people worry about like, well, there's so many people and what's my differentiator and like there's, you know, the thing is saturated and all that. My differentiator isn't that I'm teaching something new. This has been taught forever, everywhere, like you can learn about accounting and margins and LLCs. anywhere that's not new. What I do know that I do differently is my work ethic. No one's gonna outwork me, no one. Like I like to challenge people to try to outwork me or deliver better than I do, you know, and if there is a script that I need to study, I'm going to study, I'm going to double down and make sure I nail it better than the person next to me and like, that's something I can be confident in is that I'm going to go in there, and I'm going to leave it all on the floor. And so that's the thing that I think anyone can hold on to is, if you know that you're going to give it your all and you're able to give it your all, that's enough for you to be more than good enough to get out there and pitch for what you want.

Kate Kordsmeier 21:05

Love it. So good. Now, one of the other things that you talk a lot about, and this is something I've been exploring myself over the last few years, is legacy. So how do we get clear on the legacy that we want to leave?

Nicole Walters 21:18

So I think that one of the things that at least for me, legacy wise, is that I recognize that the work that I do isn't so much about helping people make lots of money, right, you know, like that is my magic mojo that is my God-gifting is that money is not complicated to me, I can I understand it, I understand how it works. And I can teach people about it very, very well. But it's that I'm not a ballet dancer, or I can't wrap a gift great, or I am not a mom of 10 Trying to balance it all. But what I can do is use my gifting to help those people be excellent where they are. And that is part of my legacy, you know, knowing that I'm able to help kids go to private school, you know, and I'm able to help moms be home more, you know, and be where they're supposed to be. So that was a big, you know, deciding factor for me around like staying where I am, you know, I've been a full time entrepreneur now for six years and an entrepreneur for over 10 and building this business. But then it's also looking at sort of the long term give back. So my charity of choice is City of Refuge in Atlanta, Georgia. And I absolutely, my heart is there and I don't just donate sizably to them, but I also use my hands and go down there and serve. I was selling Christmas trees for them last year like slinging trees, you know, and, and that's part of it is I always tell everyone, like it's never too late to attach yourself to a local charity. And simply just ask, what are your needs? And how can I help? I think so often, a lot of us that are in this entrepreneurial world, we all want to be part of a nonprofit, or start our own nonprofit or start a foundation. And it's so easy to actually attach yourself to something that's existing, but very digital friendly, well like Pencils of Promise, or Charity Water, or it's something local, you know, like literally going down to your local church and saying, do you guys do a food bank every Thursday? Would it help if I gave if I was able to donate consistently $500 from every launch, or 150, from whatever, and you would be surprised at how tremendous your impact can be in what seems like a small scale, you know, that extra 150 a month, you know, ends up being 1000 in a year that they never would have seen. And stomachs filled because of you. So yeah, that's what legacy looks like. It's finding a way to make a difference in many different ways every single day.

Kate Kordsmeier 23:29

Now, it sounds like you probably didn't have this mindset block that you needed to kind of move past but I know a lot of people listening do and this reminds me of it because I think it is about legacy and giving back and that the more money you make, the more good you can do in the world. And I think so many people feel guilty about wanting to make money. And kind of like it's a self fulfilling prophecy. If you don't actually want to have money because you have this negative connotation or, you know, you think money is the root of all evil or something. Did you have to deal with any of that, especially as you were heading, you know, higher and higher levels of revenue?

Nicole Walters 24:05

Yeah, yeah. So I what I will tell you is people try to put that junk on me all the time. You know, like so, when you're someone who's making money, they love to say like, it's always a good sign for me like, especially as a Christian, like - oh, you must be turning towards God even more because the enemy sending people in your direction, saying things that are going to like, that are trying to trigger you, you know, they mean like stuff like, oh, all you care about is money. I don't, I don't. Money to me, just to be very clear, money is an earthly tool that I use to do heavenly good, you know, so it's something that for me, ebbs and flows, it's already out there. Whether or not it is in my hands, it's still circulating. So the idea that having more or less of it means anything about who I am at my core is nonsensical. What I do know is that money is very good with me, and I won't let anyone ever tell me otherwise. Money in my hands is a very good thing, because there's tons of money in other people's hands that are not good people that are not going to use it for good and that are not considerate of others. So for me to be able to, to be on this planet and have the gifting ability, desire and opportunity to collect as much money as possible that's out there to utilize it in the good way that I know how is a blessing, an obligation a right and something that I'm excited about? Because I have the opportunity to tip the scales for godly good, why wouldn't I do it? You know, I just why wouldn't I do it? So, I mean, yes, there's sort of the faith element part of it, where it's like, you know, I just, I just the money is not that serious to me, man, like, it's just, it's out there. Like Jeff Bezos has so many billions of dollars, literally, like he is - without taking from a single other person on this planet, if I only targeted Jeff Bezos bank account, right, aying I'm going to get him to give me my billion dollars and holding on to I become a billionaire without ever taking $1 from another person. So you know, he's holding my billion dollars right now, why wouldn't I go out there and get it? So yeah, so no, people absolutely should go out there and get, especially if you know, you're a good person at your core. Right? If you know, you're a good person, who if you had all this is my good person question I always ask, which is this - If you had all the money in the world, would you just sit on the couch all day and just eat chips and never ever work and never do anything? Odds are, if I said that to you, and the first thing that came to your mind was, no, I probably like spend more time with my kids or, you know, do some charity work, or donate or so go to work everyday, but just not feel the pressure and be like a generally happier person. If you don't think you deserve to have the money to be able to do those things, you're bananas, because that helps the world. You know what I mean? Like, I'm super, you know, make it like eight, I get fired up. I'm fired up about this just because it's like, I need good people to go out there and get the money out there, you know, so that we can like, I can't do it by myself, guys. I can't get all the money myself. So I got to get out there and do it. So yeah, and it's worth it. And you should and you also need the money to fund your endeavors. Like Beyonce can't make it you know, her voice is supposed to be heard by everyone. That's her God gifting. Right? She's supposed to share it with others. So if she only sings in the shower, is she doing what she's supposed to do now, if she has to fly commercial and sit next to a fan and talk to them for eight hours on her way to Shanghai? Does that help her sing? Well, when she gets there? No, she should probably fly private, so that she can practice and be well rested. So she can use her best gifting to change the life of someone in that audience who's impacted by her voice. She can't do this stuff for free. So like get paid so that you can do the thing you're supposed to do. It's a must.

Kate Kordsmeier 27:53

Yeah, I just got chills. That was good. It's a real thing.

Nicole Walters 27:56

It's a real real thing.

Kate Kordsmeier 28:04

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Kate Kordsmeier 30:23

So on the subject of mindset, I know you have this thing called the One Day mindset that you talk about, can you explain what that is? And how people can break free from it?

Nicole Walters 30:33

Sure. Oh, the one day is like basically where people have a tendency and an inclination to say one day, like, one day, I'll do this, or one day, I'll do that, or someday I'll do this. And it's funny because we don't realize it because it just sounds like regular conversation like, oh, yeah, one day, I'll do this or one day, you know, and we're actually raised with this. So like, my kids will say, one day, I'll be a firefighter, or one day, I'll have a dog or one day, I'll do this. And we don't realize that we are always talking to people about the context of planning for the future, without then encouraging them to say, Okay, well, how? And so it's critically important that if you're going to say, one day, I'm going to do this thing that you also are matching that by saying, How am I going to do it? What am I doing today, to make sure I can get to my one day? And so that's what I do with my kids. So if my kids come to me, and they say something like, oh, yeah, one day, I'll have a car like that. Okay, so what are we doing today to make sure that happens? Hmm. Yeah. You know, because what we're not going to do is just talk about an eventual, you know, this constant cycle of walking through life without any targeted, intentional goals, like intentionality is critical for success.

Kate Kordsmeier 31:45

Yes, I love that. Now, do you ever find that kind of breaking free from that, then I sometimes have the like, the backlash problem that happens where then everything feels like an emergency, or like, everything feels urgent? Because it's like, well, I don't want to be that one day person. So I have to do it today. And now I have a to do list. It's too long for today.

Nicole Walters 32:05

Sure, sure. Well, I mean, obviously, grace is important, right? grace upon grace, we have to grant it to ourselves, we have to grant it to others. We have to be an example of that so that our kids see it, you know, you aren't supposed to be all the things all the time to all the people. Right. But what I will say is that I think the issue is that we started thinking that today means done today. And that's what is the one little thing you're doing today, to to propel yourself towards that goal. So when I can say, well, what's the one thing you're doing today to get that cool car that you just saw? Well, I don't know. Well, do you know the name of the car? No? Well then you should find out. Yeah, it can be a one thing you do. If you know the name of it and who makes it you are one step closer to actually getting the thing you want, right? And then it's like, Well, do you know how much it costs? No, find out because then you can reverse engineer what you're going to do to make that money to get it done. But right, every little tiny step still is a step towards your goal. And the biggest thing that I run into without a doubt with every client that I ever have, for my one to one clients that I work with, like sparingly, is that they'll come to me and say, I'd like to open up a music studio one day or a cafe or a boutique, or what have you. And I'll say, Well, what did you do? What have you done so far towards that goal? Well, I've been working my job my nine to five. Okay, great. You know, that's wonderful. The towards what? And then they'll say, well, until I make enough money to open well, how much money are you going to need to open? Oh, I don't know. It's a lot. So then how do you know when you're ready to stop working? Right, like, so what we need to do in a simple sense is we need to look up the lease, and we need to look up how much it costs. And we need to find out the vendors and you can do all that stuff for free right now. And it is worthy, valid, intentional, honorable work. It's so the idea that you're not doing that stuff today means that you must not be taking your one day dream that seriously, right?

Kate Kordsmeier 33:53

Yes. So good. So I think this will be our last question too, even though I could ask you like 5000 more. Sure. But I think this just reminded me like a lot of people listening are still working a nine to five job or a corporate job. And whether they truly hate it and are totally miserable, or they're just like, I feel like I'm meant for something more. Maybe there's something better than this. What are some of your step by step tips for moving out of that job? Like, what are the first couple of steps you have to take? If you're like, No, I actually want to leave this job. What can we start doing today?

Nicole Walters 34:30

Well, I love it because as the girl who quit corporate and opened up corporate, you know, like, I always like to say that, you know, there's no shame whatsoever and entrepreneurship not being a thing you want to do full time. I always like to throw that caveat out there because I don't think it's said enough, you know that wanting PTO having a nine to five or liking your work, especially if you're like, you know, a teacher or a doctor or whatever, like, that's okay. You know, it's okay. And if you feel like you're meant for something more, you can pursue that without giving up the thing you're doing right now. In terms of step by step, it's as simple as a lot of the things that I talked about in the one day, you know, research and development is where every single major corporation starts with any idea. They don't say, oh, we want to launch a new burger in the southeast region. So let's, you know, ship that burger out and then start. No, they do research and development, they do testing, they do focus groups, they sample, they look things up. Now, it's important to not get caught up in nothing but research and development, you still got to get to market. But you know, getting yourself educated, signing up for courses, looking at mentors that have done what you've done, or something close to it, and learning how they got there. All of that is honorable work. I want us hopefully, collectively, as a society to get away from the language of pursuing your purpose. Like, you've got to find your purpose, living your purpose, be alignment with their purpose, because it's filled with so much pressure. And the implication is one that if we are not in our purpose, we're out of purpose. And that just isn't true. Life is not spent out of purpose. The true purpose of life is the pursuit. And the pursuit of purpose is honorable. And that is what we should be doing on the day to day if we're in our nine to five, if you're pursuing a more purposeful life, that in and of itself is meaningful, and it's intentional. So that's what they should do. That's the first step start that pursuit.

Kate Kordsmeier 36:17

Yeah, thank you for that. It's a good reminder. And it's funny you say that, because it's been coming up in one of my mastermind groups a lot, the last couple of weeks, and one of the mentors, Mariah cause is talking about the same. I love this. Mariah is awesome. And she was talking about how it's not that you can't get any joy or passion or purpose from your business. But the same way that we can't expect like our spouse to be all things to us, like, we still need friends, we still need other family members, like your business can't be the only thing in your life that is giving you purpose.

Nicole Walters 36:54

Yeah, diverse fulfillment, like that. Diverse life fulfillment, you know, right.

Kate Kordsmeier 36:59

Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's tough because we are, there are so many messages right now about like, find your purpose and purpose build businesses and stuff. And it's not that you can't have that some, but I agree, like, there's so much pressure that then if you don't feel 100%, fulfilled every day of your work, then you think you're doing it wrong. And it's like, no, or you're out of alignment or whatever.

Kate Kordsmeier 37:21

I frankly, like that ends up just being a marketing tool to sell you more junk, you know, there's like, it just, it just isn't true. Like, I've found I've had clients, you know, who are making multi million dollars with full teams, full staff doing retail warehouses, and they've come from nothing. I mean, literally being like, backpacks and no housing, and they're now in this extreme place. And they look at me and they're like, what's next? You know, and I'm like, I don't want you to think that it means your business isn't any good. I'm now going to ask you what was last time you painted, because for sure is reflective of your painting. And when was the last time you creatively just created? Just because you're it's not that you're out of alignment. It's that you forgot where who you were, you know, get back to basic. So yeah, that's also things you think you like if you're feeling burned out, or you're feeling bored by your business or less fulfilled, go get a hobby. Like a hobby, literally get a hobby, get a hobby, go do kickboxing. You know what I mean? Like whatever it is, find something new. It came up for me in a podcast interview, maybe about four months ago, someone asked me, "So what do you do for fun, like outside of work? And like the family stuff? Like what do you do for fun?" And we had to edit it because I couldn't answer the question. I like and, you know, it was in that I began this sort of journey that I'm on that I'll talk about more in my book, you know, and other things. But I really realized that as much as I love my work and everything I realized, I don't know what I like that I got lost in being a mother, a wife and a business owner. And I realized, like, the phrasing that I like to use is we talk about being family first, but we forget that we are family too so like, as a mom, I am family. So if family is first why am I not including myself as part of that? And what does that mean about how I'm caring for me? You know, and what does that mean about you know, as much as I buy and cook and prepare everyone else's favorite things? What am I doing for me as family, you know? So I'm on a journey right now, you know, exploration as I figured that out, and I'm excited to share more about that in different ways. But yeah, entrepreneurship is a ride, but it's making me better every single day.

Kate Kordsmeier 39:25

Yeah, for sure.

Nicole Walters 39:26

So like crash course in personal development. Don't talk about like, oh, you're gonna have to work a lot on yourself if you want to be an entrepreneur. Yeah, half the time. It's not like a new tool, a new coach, a new group, a new class. It's you. Yeah, it's like a therapist and all the things, you know, because I figured out that it was me. So you need both but it always comes down to you.

Kate Kordsmeier 40:03

Yeah, yeah. Well, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for your time. And for being here. I'm so grateful. Let everybody know where they can find you and follow along. And what's next for you?

Nicole Walters 40:15

Of course, Kate, thanks so much for having me. You can learn more at nicolewalters.com. That's the best way to patch into all my things. And Nicole Walters all over social media look for the blue checkmark to make sure it's the right one. And then aside from that, I have a TV show on USA Network. Season one is streaming right now. It's called She's the Boss. So you can watch that on usanetwork.com. And then I have a book that was recently announced. That is coming out on Simon and Schuster element imprint and really excited about, you know, releasing that book very soon. But it'll touch on all the things we talked about here. So look out for that book in the near future.

Kate Kordsmeier 40:53

Congrats. That is so exciting. book deals are a big deal. And I know yours definitely was. So congrats. Thanks again for being here.

Nicole Walters 41:02

Thank you so much for having me.

Kate Kordsmeier 41:09

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