Nicole Laino
Hi, and welcome to the limitless entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host, Nicole Laino. And I am here with my friend and very special guest, Miss Nikki Nash. Nikki Nash is an author, a speaker, a marketing mentor, she has a fabulous podcast herself called the market, your genius podcast, which is also now going to be a published book. So Nikki, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here. Tell the audience a little bit about you.

Nikki Nash
Oh, Nicole, thank you so much for having me. And you know, I love chatting with you. So it’s almost like we’re recording a podcast episode. But we also get to riff of it and have more fun conversations. So I truly appreciate it. And I am really excited to speak to your community. And for you listening, I feel like my path, whether it’s exactly like yours or similar, there are going to be things that you might have thought felt or been there. And so tell you a little bit about me, I thought at a young age that I wanted to move up the corporate ladder, because that seems like what people did. And I was ambitious, and I wanted to be successful. But I at my core, I wanted to do something that made a difference in the world. And that’s always been a part of who I am. And I distinctly remember, in my first job I was six months in, and it probably happened earlier than six months. And when I had this conversation with my dad, but I quit six months in. And I remember saying to my father that I wanted a job that was fulfilling. And I just felt like I was spending all of these hours at work selling small ad space in the back of a magazine. And while I thought it was a great magazine, I’m like, What am I doing? You know, like, I don’t know that I care about this. And my dad said, you know, well, you can have opportunities to make an impact in the world outside of work. And I heard that and you know, when when parents say something to you, you either believe them wholeheartedly, or sometimes you rebel. When you’re just like, I don’t know. And I believed him wholeheartedly. But at the same time, he was a doctor, both my parents were doctors, I’m like, but your ma your lives have literally been dedicated to saving lives, or my mom’s an OB GYN or like bringing life into the world. So I’m having a hard time with you telling me there are other things I can do to make a difference. And long story short, I just kept going from job to job. And I think the longest I stayed anywhere was short, just short of three years, trying to find the thing that was going to be fulfilling. And long story short, I found out that ovarian cancer ran in my family, I found out that after genetic testing, my sister and I do not have the gene mutation that makes us high risk for ovarian cancer. But through that whole process, I said to myself, do I want to spend the rest of my life in a cubicle. And I had been making six figures since I was 26. I had been moving up and, and working hard and kicking butt and taking names or whatever, but I just wasn’t happy. And I decided I was going to start a business. And if anybody has said I want to start a business and freaked out and got afraid I was there too. So I ended up getting another job as Head of Marketing at a tech startup before I ultimately left that and started my own business. And that kind of brings me to where I am today where I help primarily folks that identify as being women take their experiences and expertise and their stories and their magic and share it out in the world and turn it into a profitable business so that they are doing something that they love turning it into not just a career, but their CEO or visionary or, you know, the spokesperson of a vision that they have. And they’re able to do it in a way that is not only fulfilling, but flexible for the lifestyle that they truly desire.

Nicole Laino
The life by design, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that you share your story so openly and honestly, because I think there’s a lot of that there’s a hesitation for a lot of people to share the fact that they didn’t have this like perfect trajectory that just kept moving up, moving up, moving up and everything just almost like that they were preordained to end up where they are. And and you know, the fact that you talk about the fact that like I did a lot of things that didn’t work, and I had to figure it out, and now I am where I am, so it makes it all worth it. But I’m curious if that ever and this is just my own curiosity. Have you did you ever not have faith in yourself or feel like you had to kind of disowned parts of your past in order to be like fully in where you are now. Meaning like you look back on it and you’re like, oh, that doesn’t belong in like me being this entrepreneur.

Nikki Nash
You know, It’s interesting, because I think for me, I have always believed in intuition. And I’ve always made decisions based off of my gut. And so when things didn’t work out, or if I went down a path, and I was like, Ooh, that doesn’t feel good, or I don’t really like that. I usually just went, well, that probably happened for a reason. And had I not gone through that it wouldn’t have led me here, you know, and I choose to believe that everything happens for a reason, because I do believe that it’s a choice. I mean, you it may not be true, but it’s okay. Because I choose to believe it. And in choosing to believe that everything happens for a reason, every mistake that I make every seemingly wrong turn, there’s value in that. And so I don’t know that I’ve, I’m sure there are times I’m sure there are times where I’ve lost faith and, and things. Because I remember periods where I was at a job and miserable that I had gained, like 60 pounds, I was like miserable, like was terrible. It felt like, but I also believe that had I not gone through those experiences, I wouldn’t be so driven to help people find fulfilling careers and I, whether particularly through entrepreneurship, but I believe that everybody on the planet can create a life they’re madly in love with. And had I not been miserable, for lack of a better word, or I tell people was like a soulless zombie walking around, which is sometimes hard for people to imagine because I’m just so energetic and bubbly, but my best friend, she’s like, what’s wrong with you, for lack of a better word, because I had moved, I was in a different city, I was living in Boston, all of my peeps, or my close friends are in New Jersey, New York, and they were like, You okay? So not so much less faith in in or look back and go, that piece doesn’t belong there. Because I, I choose to believe that everything happens for a reason.

Nicole Laino
Well, and sometimes the the extreme misery is just sort of the point that had to get to, for us to make a change. Absolutely. And it’s the catalyst for the push, because you might have taken like, and I think about that, from like, my corporate struggle, like, you know, I was at corporate for six years. So you did six months, and you’re like, I gotta, I gotta think about this. I did

Nikki Nash
it for 10 years, I just did six months at my first job. It was like peace. But I did 10 years working for other people.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, and like I did six years on Wall Street. And it was like, I would say, three to many, maybe four. I learned a lot like I totally, it’s why I can do what I do now. But I remember that, like I went into like a severe depression. While I worked there, like where I was diagnosed, clinically depressed, I didn’t go on medication or anything, because I knew it was something like situational, I knew that I was like, there are messages I need to receive, I don’t need to numb this, I need to analyze this and figure out what my next move is and tune into myself. And I don’t think I would have made the extreme change that I made, to leave it all together. If it hadn’t gotten so bad. I think if it had gotten like, you know, just, I’m just not happy here, I might have convinced myself that going from one bank to another might have been the move that I needed, like so many people I know that like, I’ll just get another I’ll get a job at that bank. The grass will be greener over in Midtown. And, and that’s not at all the case. Like I can’t imagine my life now if I hadn’t made that hard, right. Yeah.

Nikki Nash
And I’m with you, I think usually. And what I found, as I job hopped, looking for the one that was going to be the job that I’d love, it wasn’t the jobs, there was nothing wrong with those jobs, somebody else on the planet, took my job and was very happy and his love and life. It just wasn’t in alignment with who I was and what I wanted. And so I think so often, for me, especially but I see other people have this experience where you think it’s the the job or something external and so you keep trying to change the situation, but you’re still going to that new situation with yourself and your misalignment. So the same things gonna happen.

Nicole Laino
Absolutely. And and that kind of brings us into you brought up intuition before that you had always trusted your intuition that you kind of always had that, you know, you always believed in it. And I’m curious what role that plays in the how you work with your clients, and what you teach them to do and how you see it as being an entrepreneur how your intuition guides you, you know, your your book, your podcast is market your genius. So how does your intuition play in marketing your genius? Yeah, I think

Nikki Nash
for me, intuition and gut feelings are a part of who I am and I distinctly I remember being in a leadership coach, it was really more of a coaching program. And they were challenging the idea of intuition. Because it’s, it’s something that could that they’re like, how do you know that that exists almost. AND, and OR I would say, I didn’t want to do something or something didn’t feel right. And their belief more specifically was that, you know, your feelings are just feelings, that doesn’t mean you should act on them, which is similar to thoughts like every thought you have, isn’t real, actually, most of the thoughts we have aren’t real. In reality, they’re real to us. But they’re not like, I had this thought, I’m terrible with money used to be one of my beliefs or thoughts. That didn’t, that wasn’t actually true. In reality, but it was true in my reality, right. And so I think, when I come when I came into contact with people that were challenging my belief of intuition and feeling, I always go back to you know what, it may not be right or real in your reality, but it’s real for me. And so when you are marketing your genius, or when you are working with clients, you have to do and feel and be who you are. So if you are intuitive, and you believe in intuition, then go for it. If you’re like, oh, manifest, and manifest destiny, manifestation is BS, and I believe in hard numbers. And that’s what you truly believe. And that’s who you are, then be you do you boo, you know, you were put on this planet, to share your message with someone right? And your experiences. And so I’m very much a believer of when you are marketing yourself or being yourself, it’s, you have to show up as your entire whole complete magical self. And that is a huge part of what your genius is, it’s because nobody else is you. Nobody else has the same experience as you, nobody else just plopped into this earth away you did with all of your, I don’t even know, unique qualities, I would say. So for me, part of it is intuition. And when I work with clients, especially when I used to do one on one, I just would sometimes intuitively know what I needed to say to them for there to be a shift. And it’s not like I had a script or a bunch of questions that I would constantly go through in order to say if I ask these questions, it will transform their life. It’s just, you know, I just felt it and said it. And almost, I felt that way with my book. I know what’s in my book, I wrote my book, but sometimes I reread the book and I’m like, damn, was I channeling this or something like was like my intuition. Was my somebody else writing this book while I was writing it, because this is

Nicole Laino
what a great feeling to have, like I am achieved. Yes. Amazing. I know. And everybody should have that experience where you read something back to yourself and that you wrote that you created and you’re like, This is good.

Nikki Nash
I mean, there were definitely times where I read something. And I’m like, what that heck was that? And I really, you know, edited it. But I think I like to focus on the genius. Magical focusing on that is more empowering for me.

Nicole Laino
Oh, for sure. So So a question for you then is do you believe that everybody has is a genius at something that they have some genius within them? Yeah, I,

Nikki Nash
I do believe that everyone has a genius within them, or is a genius at something I think what is interesting is first folks have to define genius. And so I think sometimes when people define genius, it it means that they are you know, they are I don’t even know how I want to say this. It’s like they’re Albert Einstein of something right? And growing up my younger sister. She’s five and a half years younger than me. I think a perfect score on her SATs, when most people weren’t even at her age weren’t even taking the PSAT is like she’s just like, and I think it was a perfect score in math or something like she’s just that good. She got it. She got a letter from Harvard, I’m pretty sure that was like weed, basically alluding to the fact that they’d accept her if she would complete her application. Like can you please finish this? She’s just sound Boston, or sound like a Bostonian wicked smart, right? But I realized growing up and like that’s just not my genius. Like, that’s just not who I am. I have probably more what people would consider soft skills and a high I have a high IQ or no EQ. I don’t even know what I have. I have high EQ, and I’m very intuitive and I have an energy about me that seems to connect with certain communities of people and and I think that those are all gifts that are for a reason and I can love reach them and lean into them in order to help other people through my business or just through friendship, or whatever it is that I’m doing. And so I truly believe that everybody has gifts, and has genius. I just believe that not everybody is aligned with their gifts and their genius. And sometimes I can speak for myself when I was miserable. I was not aligned with my gifts, my genius, it would maybe pop out in moments, but I was often too out of alignment with who I truly was to even realize my gifts, my magic and then let alone use them.

Nicole Laino
Because often, when we’re when we’re not aligned, you know, you’re, it’s normally kind of a mind if, you know, you’re sort of messing with yourself all the time, because you’re trying to do something that’s just not in your zone of genius. And so you kind of beat yourself up every day. Like why don’t I like this? Why aren’t I good at this? Why, right? And that becomes just this vicious, vicious, vicious cycle, where you know that that head trash just never stops, because it’s what you’re doing every day. So how does somebody has somebody know how to get into alignment? Yeah,

Nikki Nash
I think when it comes to getting into alignment with, you know, what your genius is, and who you truly are, it’s honestly just being present and aware, I did this exercise the other day, as I’m looking at my business, and I just looked at my calendar, for example, and I looked through everything that I did, and I wrote down everything that brought me immense joy, everything where I felt like, Wow, if I could do that all day, I would be the happiest person in the world. And I think people can do that looking at their life. And honestly, just paying attention day by day and going, ooh, that feels really good. I love that, oh, that does not feel good. I do not like that. And I think that when you can bring that to every aspect of your life and your business, meaning I’m going to see how I want what is my dream lifestyle look like? I thought I knew what my dream lifestyle looked like because it was marketed to me and I wanted initially I thought that laptop lifestyle life. And I was like, Why is everybody in Bali without me. And then I realized, when I tried that I was exhausted. I was like I love traveling. But I realized that I’m the traveler that likes to have a home. Like ideally, I’m like, I realized that I just want to go somewhere and stay there. And then maybe do you know weekend trips or a week long trips from there, but basically have a separate home base, like I want, like, I want a European home. And then I could travel Europe when I feel like it. But I’m living in Europe, like three or six months out of the year, right? I realized I’m that person not that I want to be at a new town and new city every other week doing a new thing with new people. I that exhausted me, but that’s exciting for other folks. So I think it’s living and realizing what works. We should

Nicole Laino
split a place in Spain because that’s exactly my jam. My jam is like, I just want to go and park myself in Europe someplace and then and have like little branch trips off of that one big thing. So I’m totally with you there. I hear you there. Yeah, the vision has to be yours. It has to be what like is coming from inside of you and not what other people are doing, what other people are, what their thing is and what their vision is for their life. Like, you know, like you said, you do you boo. But But kind of taking that same same feeling of like, don’t make somebody else’s dreams, your dream? How about applying that to like a marketing strategy to stepping out and marketing yourself and putting yourself out there? Like, I know, you’ve said before that you know someone else’s marketing plan isn’t going to work for you. Why is that?

Nikki Nash
Yeah, I think that there are so many messages out there in terms of how to grow your business. And strategically from a marketing standpoint, it makes sense that somebody is going to say, oh, you should do webinars and another person is going to say webinars don’t work. Here’s exactly why webinar webinars won’t work for you. And then another person is gonna say, grow your Facebook group and another person is gonna say Facebook groups won’t work for you. But you know, there’s gonna be a ton of messages out there. And when you are looking externally for the answer in terms of I just want somebody to tell me the marketing things that I need to do specifically that will grow my business. Why that usually doesn’t work is because somebody may tell you something that doesn’t feel good to you and doesn’t feel right for your audience and you’re trying to push it uphill, with like, no shoes in the snow for like 20 miles or something, you know, being melodramatic, especially as it’s snowing here in New Jersey. But you’re like efforting and the efforting is not going anywhere. It’s like if you try to push a boulder uphill by yourself, it’s not going to be too great but if you You let go of the boulder and you watch it roll down the hill, it’s going to move faster and get to, you know, a place, maybe it’s the place you were actually trying to get to. And so I say that because when you want to think about your marketing and growing your business, it’s equally as important. As getting clearer, getting clear on your vision and where you want your business and your life to look like is equally as important as to being in alignment with how you want to get there. Because if you come from the standpoint of instead of what is the thing that’s going to work for me, and you pivot that question, or switch it up a little bit and say, any of any marketing tactic or strategy out there will work for me, which is the one that would be most fun for me, which is the one that feels more in alignment with who I am and what I want to accomplish, then we’re talking something magical here. And there’s really when you can come from that standpoint, I tell people marketing is just like dating. And when you look at it at the highest level, it’s like, oh, okay, I’m just dating these folks. And then, like, you know, proposing, asking if they want to put a ring on it asking if they want to buy. And so when you can let go of I need the right way, and you can focus on what’s the most fun way. It opens up a lot.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, and I wonder if we could take that concept and apply it to just some specifics for just a minute, because I love what you said. And I think that I think a lot of people, you know, because like, immediately my mind goes to platforms, people are like, should I be on this? Or should I be on that? Should I be on Instagram, this person says that the in everybody’s buying courses and things to for the tactic, because we’re going for it, we’re attacking, and going after the tactic, the webinar or the Facebook groups, and we buy all of these things and all these courses and follow all these gurus that say this is the way and I’m I’m curious what your take it and so now we have clubhouse now we have Instagram, YouTube, podcasting, there’s all of these different things out there. And the truth is, is that they all work. They all work for someone like they they’re all valid. But But what what would you do? Like how do you determine where you belong? And how do you advise your clients on that?

Nikki Nash
Yeah. So the first thing that I will say is that your I’m so aligned with you in terms of any of these platforms could work for someone because they are working for someone, which is why there’s somebody marketing to use that platform. So the question then becomes, well, if the platform doesn’t matter, then what should I be focusing my time on figuring out and understanding? Because so often people are focused on platforms, which, to me, I look at that as a symptom as opposed to the core problem. You know, like, I, I always thought I had tight hamstrings, I saw a chiropractor who works on strengthening, he doesn’t do adjustments. But the point of the story is, is I thought I had tight hamstrings and that because of my tight hamstrings my back hurt. So I kept trying to stretch out my hamstrings. But it didn’t do anything like no matter how much I stretched my hamstrings, they didn’t feel looser. And he goes, Oh, actually, it’s not a hamstring problem is actually a core problem. And when we started doing different things, I’m like, Oh, my goodness, the pain in my back went away. And my hamstrings are apparently very flexible, which is why no amount of yoga or pilates or straight up stretching made me feel any more stretched out and my hamstrings. And I say that because when you focusing on a platform is similar to me focusing on like yoga and pilates to try to fix the hamstring problem. But it’s actually not a hamstring problem, which is why if you focus on a platform, you may not see your business actually grow, it may not actually do anything for you. Because what you need to do is focus on the core, the core piece, which for what I teach my clients is something I call just like dating, it’s the just like dating method, which is really looking at your marketing plan and strategy exactly as you would a dating situation, right? And so for me in my early 20s, when my friends and I would go out, we’d start by going, where do we want to go out? And we’d make that decision by where are the eligible people that we’re trying to meet hanging out, like where is our ideal person likely spending their time. And then on top of that, once we knew where they were likely spending their time, we asked, Well, where do we actually want to go? Because if for example, if you know, the people we wanted to meet, we’re at a I’m trying to think of something I wouldn’t really enjoy. But probably from where I am now a nightclub, like if the if they were, you know, dancing, it was dark and it was smoky. Though I don’t think they smoke in clubs anymore. But if like that was the experience, I’d be like heck no, I do not want to go there. But if they told me they were going to be I don’t know watching a football game at a certain bar. I would be all into it or going to this, you know, wine tasting or something I’d be like yes. And so it’s it’s is not only figuring out where your people are, it’s figuring out where you will show up as your best self. And so if you know your folks are on Instagram and clubhouse and Twitter, and LinkedIn and Pinterest and all the places, then all you need to do is ask yourself, Where is the one place that you can show up as your best self? consistently? And that’s how I make that decision. Not just ooh, this is hot. This is everybody’s talking about this. Maybe I should move over there.

Nicole Laino
Right? Yeah, I love that. And I and I love that you like, I always take social media in particular, but I try to create I’m, I make those analogies of like, to real life experiences, because I think it illustrates points. So the you calling it just like dating, I think is makes it very easy for people to understand that, like, we’ve all been there when like, where do we want to go? Where are we going tonight? Like, I don’t know, we’re, where are the dudes going to be? We’re not going on line dancing, because that’s not where I’m going to meet my guy. And that’s not where I want to. And you know what, I’m not into it. But you know, it’s what party do you want to be at? Like? Where are your people? And where will you have the most fun? And I think that like, like with clubhouse, people ask me, Should I be on clubhouse? And I looked at it and it’s like, Well, do you? What do you feel? Is your strength? Long Form talking conversations, then then yes, that’s the place that you should be. I think that it’s just an amazing platform for that reason. It’s stages, if you ever wanted to be a speaker, if it’s part of your vision to be a speaker, then that’s a great place to go test out your you know, and work your speaking muscles. But if you are terrified of that, and that has nothing to do with, you know, if you’re a hairdresser, and you just want to put pictures of your work up, then clubhouse is not the right place for you. You’re going to try to fit yourself into that like that square peg into the round hole.

Nikki Nash
For sure. And, and that’s why I’m right there with you, you have to figure out, how am I going to show up best? Because once you figure that out, then when you think about dating, it’s okay, well, then how am I going to now speak to the person? Like if you see your person? How do you speak to them? How are you going to connect with them? How are you going to capture their attention and spark a conversation? And you know, in dating, when I was in my early 20s, believe it or not, I was very shy. So my best friend would usually go and speak to like a group of guys. And then I’d come over or she’d be like, come over or, you know, I’d accidentally bumped into somebody or I tried to sit at the bar by myself and hope somebody would come talk to me, it’s, I was so nervous and shy about it. And so when you’re doing this online, you have to figure out okay, well what’s gonna stop, if it’s a social media platform or something like that? What’s going to stop my person from scrolling? Like, how do I get them to stop their infinite scroll, and pay attention to something that I put out there, and, and then engage with it such that they’re inspired to spark a conversation by liking it, or commenting or doing something and we can kind of open up that dialogue. And so it’s, it’s figuring out where you want to show up and how you show up best, but then it’s also figuring out well, when I get there, what the heck am I going to say or do such that the person that I would like to become my client or customer pays attention to me sees me is excited by me. And, and I can give an example of how this particularly looks in, in my business, but or even with some of my clients. But once you kind of have that engagement, and you’ve sparked that conversation, then you want to get to the point where you metaphorically get their digits. So you’re like, Okay, they’ve seen me, we’ve been in the spot, we’ve connected, we’ve chatted up a little bit, and now it’s like, okay, how do I exchange digits. And for some people that could be you know, getting somebody’s email address DMing them on a platform like Instagram, or Facebook or LinkedIn, it could be literally getting their phone number, it depends or a business card, depending on you know, if that’s even a thing for people anymore. But you want to figure out how can I get your contact information so that we’re staying in contact. And the whole point of that is so that you can reach the dating phase where you just go on dates. And the whole point of dating is to go, how can I provide them with everything that they need? So that and that everything that they need? It’s two parts, everything that they need to decide if they want to work with me or not? And how can I figure out everything I need to figure out from them to figure out if I want to work with them or not. And then from there, when you guys are aligned, and you’re like, hey, at least on your end, I would like to work with that person or I’d like to have them be my client or customer then you know, if you like it, then you better put a ring on it as Beyonce sings. And and you just make the offer and you say hey, why don’t I have this thing? I think it would be amazing for you. Here’s why I’ve obliterated all of your fears and doubts and limiting beliefs that we’ve I’ve given you ever thing you need to carefully choose if this is something you want to do and now I’m just gonna make that offer to you and and see where it goes. And some people will be a heck yes, some people will be a heck no. And it’s okay. Either way, at least you have put yourself out there.

Nicole Laino
Yeah. And I like when I kept hearing there was like you’re evaluating the whole time and they’re evaluating you and you’re giving the information that they need to evaluate you, you’re putting your best foot forward and being like, This is who I am, this is what I offer. If you’re looking for XYZ, this is how I can help. And the whole time that they’re talking and they’re, you know, you’re getting to know them, you’re qualifying and figuring out, do they fit into who I want to work with? Do they fit into the people that I can help and to my community into my world? Will this be a successful relationship?

Nikki Nash
Yeah, absolutely. That’s a beautiful way of putting it, it’s they’re evaluating you, and you’re qualifying them. Yeah. And once you are aligned with Okay, they’ve, they’ve passed my qualification tests, or whatnot, then you can make that offer. And all of this only works if you show up as your truer organic self. Because if you’ve ever been on a date, or dated someone for a little bit, and then they did like a Jekyll and Hyde on you or something, and they were one person during the dating phase and another person later on, or when you’ve met at the bar, or you know, not line dancing for Nicole, but we met somewhere. And then you were like, hey, what, who the heck is this person. And that’s happened to me in dating, I distinctly remember meeting someone, it seemed great. We went on a couple of dates. And then I was in grad school, and they wanted to meet up and I said, I couldn’t because I had exams the next day, and I was studying with a friend, and they went cray cray. On me, I’m like, What is wrong with this person? I’m like, Who are you? What is wrong with you? And I was like, Okay, this isn’t gonna work. And so if you can, if you copy somebody else’s messaging or way of being, it may seem initially and I’ve done it before, you know, like, not verbatim, but you know, I’ve gone, oh, let me see their structure and try to reverse engineer it. And there may be some helpful information in the reverse engineering structure. But when you’re too close to using the same words of someone else, that aren’t the way you would say things or, or aren’t, in alignment with who you are, it’s just not going to be well received. Or even if it is for a little bit, sooner or later, who you truly are, is going to come out and people are gonna go, Who the heck is this person and that, and usually, that happens before you make the offer anyway. So you might as well just be yourself and go with, you know, the law of frequency, which is essentially it’s like, Hey, I’m on, I’m on my frequency. And if you are on my frequency, too, you’re gonna hear what I have to say. And that’s why it’s so important for you to be yourself, because otherwise you won’t attract the people that you want to attract, right, the people that are here to hear your message that are tuning into your metaphorical radio station.

Nicole Laino
I couldn’t agree more. And I’m actually just just while you were saying that all I could thinking of was the the two biggest complaints or two of the biggest problems that that I hear entrepreneurs complaining about griping about, you know, asking for help about our help with impostor syndrome. And they can’t be consistent. Yeah, and those two things are rooted in you. If you’re copying somebody else’s message, first of all, is gonna be a whole lot harder, because you’re gonna go and you’re gonna go back and you’re going to try to study, every time you want to write a piece of content, every time you want to come out with something, you’re always looking at what somebody else does, and you’re trying to fit your round peg into the square hole. Again, you’re you’re over engineering all of it, because you’re trying to do it, right. Instead of trying to do it authentically and as yourself. It’s like when you if you’re if you tell a lot of lies, you always have to be thinking about, you know, do you have your story straight, it’s almost the same way. And then the imposter syndrome part that feeling like I’m not good enough, you know, who am I to do this? Well, that’s going to come from you not having your authentic message and not speaking at that’s kind of, to me, that’s sort of your soul, saying, you’re not putting us out there, you’re doing somebody else’s thing. impostor syndrome is not a validation that you aren’t good enough. That feeling is not true, but it is guiding you to something and telling you that you’re not doing it wholeheartedly your way. And you should listen to that.

Nikki Nash
I am. I like to tell people that if before they kind of go out into the world and get on a sales call or write a message or do something along those lines, is to write what I call the FA the effing fabulous lists. And it’s just write down a list of all the reasons why you’re effing fabulous and read that because I think too often we forget and and, you know, everybody makes mistakes. Everybody fails. I pretty much I should or I’m pretty sure I fail at something every day, you know, I make a mistake. I probably stuttered a bunch on this episode alone or something, you know, it just happens. But when you can start with why am I freaking amazing? And why do I need to share myself who is who needs to hear my message, who needs to experience me, to empower them to transform something for them to just hear that they’re not alone, whatever the case may be, when you can come from that place, then everything else any other disempowering beliefs or thoughts that may come up for you, because they’re going to come up for you at whatever level you’re at. But it makes you go, you know what, I’m doing this for something bigger than myself. So even though I may not feel good enough, right now, in this moment, here’s a whole list of reasons why I am amazing. And not only that, here are people who need my amazingness. And I am doing a disservice to them. If I listened to my disempowering thoughts over and over and over again, at some point, you just and they’re gonna come up all the time. It’s just going, okay, how can I put this aside a little bit and take action anyway? How can I show up anyway? How can I be consistent anyway? Because not being consistent. It’s actually about you, when the whole point of consistently marketing or consistently doing anything is for somebody else. So it’s, it’s realizing, oh, who? I’m catering to myself right now, instead of all the people that I promised impact? Yeah, no,

Nicole Laino
absolutely. I love I effing love the effing fabulous list. Because I do love you have to fortify yourself with something good. Before you step out into the big bad world. And you know, you start second guessing yourself, like, really stand on something strong, center yourself in something positive and in the truth of who you are. Because we all do have a genius. I think that that’s kind of the the theme of this is that we all do have our innate genius, and tap into that regularly before you go out and try to market yourself. Center yourself on the fact that like, this is what makes me awesome. This is my this is my North Star, this is my compass that’s going to lead me in the right direction. And then go forth and conquer.

Nikki Nash
Absolutely, absolutely.

Nicole Laino
I love it. Well, Nikki, this has been so fun it has been so i i love this conversation, because we’ve covered so many things. But we really did break it down into like, you know, I love just kind of how you broke this down. I’m just gonna recap real quickly for that for the listeners at home so that they kind of they’re taking notes they can start feverishly writing right now that defining your genius is is something that we we should start with, and then leaning into our gifts and leaning into that making your effing fabulous list how important that is to to center yourself and make that a cornerstone of who you are and how you market yourself. And then figure out where do you belong? Where are your people, and where are you going to have the most fun, if you’re doing those core things, you are going to feel infinitely better about your business. And it’s going to be a whole lot more fun. When you’re having fun. Some of my acting teacher used to say like whenever we’d go out on stage before we went out, he would say, remember, if you’re having fun, they’re having fun, that that should be your whole thing out there. Like when in doubt, just have some fun. And so you could screw up, you could trip over your line, you could mess it up. But if you’re having fun, the audience will too they will be there with you. And so do it. So you’re having fun step out and you will have a whole lot more fun and they will have more fun with you, you’ll start attracting people to you, the more free you are with it. But where can everybody stay in touch with you? How can they get more of your genius?

Nikki Nash
Yeah, so the best way to stay connected with me and to find me online is to head to free marketing bootcamp.com It’s it’ll take you to free Marketing Bootcamp that I have, where we can really work with you on fleshing out your just like dating strategy. But also it’ll it’ll provide you with all the links to connect with me anywhere so whatever platform I shouldn’t say anywhere whichever platform that I know I show up best at or the platforms that I’m on. But I will say that I’m on probably more than that but know that my entire background initially was in social media marketing so some of these accounts I’ve had since I was working for Fortune 100 companies helping them build theirs but But yeah, if you just go to free marketing boot camp.com You’ll get the training and or the masterclass and you’ll also have that ability to connect with me if you have a question there. There are ways to contact me I am great at Voice Memo ng so if the platform has a Voice Memo option, then that’s where you’ll find me.

Nicole Laino
Rock on. So that’s the hub. So free marketing bootcamp.com is where they can go, they can get your trainings, they can get links out to whatever their platform of choice is they can choose to reach out to you.

Nikki Nash
Yes, yes. So if we’re being real, my favorite is going to be something like an Instagram where I can leave a voice memo real quick and it’s on my phone. I don’t have all platforms on my phone, but free Marketing Bootcamp will get you my account and all all that jazz. All right,

Nicole Laino
well, everybody you heard her go to free marketing boot camp.com You can get some free training you can stay in touch with Nikki and you have a book coming out as well. Right? Yes, just be on the lookout for that. One is that when does that drop,

Nikki Nash
the book drops August 24 2021. It’s been on my calendar for for what feels like forever but I’m so excited.

Nicole Laino
I’m excited for you and that is coming out that is being published by Hay House. So you want to take you want you guys want to mark your calendars and get that on pre order when it drops not even when it drops right before it you should be looking for that book and get on the waiting list for that and stay in touch with Nicki. I know that her podcast is also amazing. So you want to be you want to keep keep keep getting her genius from all of these channels. Oh, thank you so much, Nicole. Thank you and everybody. Thank you so much for sticking with us. Thank you for listening to this podcast to the end. Remember, you are only limited limited by the limitations that you accept. And when you stop accepting those limitations. That is when you become limitless. So thank you so much, guys. We will see you on the next episode.