185 | Brand YourSELF & Make Money No Matter What You Do with Nicole Walters

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Welcome to episode 185 of Profit Boss® Radio! In this episode, I’m sharing one of my favorite interviews with an incredibly smart and successful woman, and such a beautiful soul, the iconic Nicole Walters. 

Nicole’s story is amazing and her views and philosophies on money mindsets resonated with me from the very beginning. At one time, she was a top-selling executive for Fortune 500 companies and managing multi-billion dollar business relationships, but the corporate grind left her feeling unfulfilled. So she went out on her own to share what she learned in the corporate world and now teaches others how to monetize their lives with her Monetize Thy Self mindset.

Her energy and attitude is contagious, and the knowledge and experience that she brings to the show is top notch. She is living proof that you can do what you love without sacrificing financial freedom.

In today’s episode, you’ll learn how to move past your limiting beliefs, improve your relationship with wealth, change your mindset to achieve your personal and financial goals, and why everyone’s time is worth getting paid for.

Here’s what you’ll find out in this week’s episode of Profit Boss® Radio

  • How Nicole’s life changed course when she became a foster mother.
  • How Nicole was able to move past her money fears and limiting beliefs from her past.
  • Why you need a better understanding of margins in your business.
  • What Nicole focuses on in her business that leads to generating wealth. 
  • How to build true profitability in your business.
  • How Nicole realized that you can do what you are passionate about in life without sacrificing your financial freedom.

Resources and Related Profit Boss® Content

 

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Hilary Hendershott: Today, I am so excited to share with you an amazing episode from the Profit Boss Radio Archives. In this episode, the iconic Nicole Walters and I are talking about how to improve your relationship to wealth, how to stay committed to raising financially empowered kids, and her very contagious excitement about monetizing almost everything she does through personal branding and just really being committed that her time is worth money. It’s not the first time I’ve aired this episode so why am I sharing it with you today? Because what you’re going to hear is absolutely still relevant to helping you improve your relationship to money, achieve your financial goals, and grow and keep more of your profits. Here we go. 

[EPISODE INTRODUCTION]

Hilary Hendershott: Private bosses. I have an amazing episode for you today. Nicole Walters is our guest. She is hot on the scene. And you’re going to love her energy. You’re going to love her amazing philosophy on money and making money and you’re going to love her moniker, her trademark signature line, which is, “Monetize thyself.” 

All right. Let’s get right to it. I actually just finished interviewing Nicole. She is amazing. I heard her first on another podcast, and I could tell right away that her money mindset and you know, profit bosses, that I’m always looking for empowered money mindsets because that is from whence it all begins. You have to start with an empowered mindset and all of the results in life will flow from that. Let me tell you a little bit about Nicole. She’s a Baltimore, Maryland transplant. So, she lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and that’s where she was when we did our interview. She is a Washington, D.C. native and she has worked as a client-facing business exec for Fortune 500 companies and sales and marketing. She worked for more than ten years doing that. In her previous role in an international health care organization, she managed business relationships with multibillion-dollar corporations. This woman really knows her stuff when it comes to the technicals of money so reading P&L statements and understanding margin and understanding pricing. She’s really got her numbers story down. She brings her expertise in monetizing multibillion-dollar corporations to you, stay-at-home parents and small business owners. As a business development expert, she understands how to turn popularity into profits and she knows how to make something happen with limited resources. 

In her affordable and entertaining courses and private coaching sessions, Nicole teaches her students and clients the systems, processes, and metrics that are imperative for entrepreneurial success. Nicole, I’m going to tell you a little bit about her education in a second because it’s here in her bio but I’m going to hold off. Through her wildly popular 1K1Day Academy and her information-packed videos, Nicole will help you embrace the monetize thyself mindset, achieve your financial goals, and enjoy the journey. Profit bosses, in this episode, Nicole shares with you how taking in three foster daughters, shifted her priorities around money, and how she includes her foster daughters in the Walters Family Shareholder Meetings. Such a cool name for money dates. And you know, I talk about money dates on the show a lot and also in the profit boss community. Sidebar, if you haven’t joined us in the private Profit Boss Community, go to HilaryHendershott.com/ProfitBoss and that’s going to take you to a Facebook link. Click join or request to join and we will approve you. That is your online money mastermind. It’s a curated discussion, amazing supportive group, and we really go deeper with everything that gets shared on Profit Boss Radio. 

So, again, now getting back to Nicole, the Walters Family Shareholder Meetings is an amazing and incredibly creative name for her family’s money dates. And she teaches her foster daughters manage to goals, how to understand trade-offs, and how to dig into expenses. Nicole’s moniker is monetize thyself. And in this episode, she also shares with us what that means about money, priorities, and the counterintuitive truth about why focusing on money first actually means being able to think about it less. She also shares with us how, despite growing up without money, she was able to attend prestigious schools like the Johns Hopkins University and Sidwell Friends School, alongside the likes of Chelsea Clinton on full scholarship. She tells you the financial book that changed her life. What to do if you’re resigned about money and gives you her own unique twist on how to put together a mastermind that will propel you to the success that you want. All of this and she shares with us a newsworthy exclusive, an amazing announcement in her own business, and something that’s available to you if you wish to participate. Profit bosses, I can’t wait for you to hear this interview with Nicole. 

[INTERVIEW]

Hilary Hendershott: Nicole Walters, welcome to Profit Boss Radio. 

Nicole Walters: Hi, Hilary. Thank you so much for having me. 

Hilary Hendershott: Oh, you are so welcome. I’m so excited to talk with you. You know, we were chatting in the pre-interview, and I want you to know when I hear women speak in an empowered way about money, I get so excited and I know I need to get them on the show because so many women can learn from you. Let me start with this. Are you really a foster mom to three kids? 

Nicole Walters: I am. I have a 16-year-old, a 13-year-old, and a four-year-old. 

Hilary Hendershott: Oh, my goodness. 

Nicole Walters: Yes, busy household. 

Hilary Hendershott: I heard that you took that on fairly recently. Was it time sort of with your transition out of corporate America? 

Nicole Walters: So, no, actually, surprisingly enough. I would honestly say it was one of the things that spurred my transition out of corporate America. My girls have been with me for about a year and their situation is a bit unconventional. We don’t have them through a traditional foster program. So, I said she was someone in the neighborhood who required support, who was struggling and about to be incarcerated for a year. So, we said we’ll take the girls rather than have them go into the system. So, I was very aware of the fiscal responsibility tied with taking in three girls, two of which are teen-aged so they need everything. You know, once that came to mind, it was a pivotal point for me because I definitely said my six-figure corporate salary may not actually cut it when it comes to all the needs that these girls have between therapy and back medical care that they hadn’t received. So, at that point, I said, “How am I really going to do this? I need to come up with a solution.” 

Hilary Hendershott: Wow. That is so beautiful. I actually had the opportunity to foster a 17-year-old at one point. 

Nicole Walters: That’s awesome. Oh, my God. 

Hilary Hendershott: It was a beautiful experience. So, thank you for what you’re doing. Yeah. 

Nicole Walters: Of course. It’s awesome to me. 

Hilary Hendershott: Nicole, your website is The Monetized Life and the phrase I always see you associated with is, “Monetize yourself.” So, it isn’t love your life or do what you’re passionate about. It’s monetize thyself. So, why did you pick that and what does that mean to you? 

Nicole Walters: So, it’s funny because I think that people get really uncomfortable when you talk about money in your business. It makes them weirded out. They’re kind of like, “What are you all about?” and things of that sort. But the thing is a pivotal phrase that really means a lot to me is my provision resides in my purpose. So, I’m going to get paid as long as I’m working within my purpose. So, if you love what you’re doing and it’s making you happy, there’s no reason why you can’t find a way to monetize that. And you don’t have to sacrifice financial growth and your goals and being able to run a happy, functioning household with all the things you need in exchange for actually doing something that feels like it’s really just for the greater good. You can have both. They can exist together. 

Hilary Hendershott: I think people have an underlying foregone conclusion or mindset or superstition about money that it’s bad or it’s bad to take it. And so, they feel like if they’re doing good, they shouldn’t be exchanging money for that value but I don’t think you have that mindset at all. Did you have to defeat that mindset? 

Nicole Walters: I did. And it’s funny because it was almost it came at me from multiple ways. So, my parents are both from Ghana, West Africa. So, I was raised in an African household. And in their culture, it’s actually considered to be bad manners to really talk about money and it’s considered to be, which is very similar to the American culture and women. You know, it’s not really considered cool to say, “Look, I like my coins and I like not having nice things so much but being financially stable.” So, for me, yes, that was definitely something that I struggled with. But sort of where I changed my mindset was I said I want to impact a lot of people. That is the number that really matters to me, being able to say at the end of the year I impacted over 100,000 lives. Well, how am I going to be able to do that? I got to be able to fund this venture. So, in order to do that, I’ve got to be able to put a price tag on the services that I’m offering and just make sure that I am always over-delivering on that value. But I don’t have to do free. 

Hilary Hendershott: So, you say you have sales and monetization expertise. Is that only for people doing business online? 

Nicole Walters: No. Not at all, actually. So, my background, I worked in corporate America for over 10 years. So, it’s kind of funny. I know you’re a CFP. I worked for T. Rowe Price for a stint. 

Hilary Hendershott: Oh, very cool.

Nicole Walters: Right. So, I did the whole retirement fund thing so I’m definitely well-versed there. But after that, I was working as a senior executive with international corporate insurance for the largest healthcare provider in the United States. So, I only dealt with business-to-business funds and facilitating those transactions. They were multibillion-dollar transactions. So, I’m very well versed in navigating fiscal responsibility, pricing things accordingly, and negotiating contracts. And honestly, all this stuff is a lot easier to do for the everyday entrepreneur than it is with like PepsiCo. 

Hilary Hendershott: No kidding, right? There’s a lot of complexity we don’t have. 

Nicole Walters: Absolutely. 

Hilary Hendershott: And so, were you in sales or it sounds like maybe business development or M&A? 

Nicole Walters: Well, so I deal with both. So, I actually spent about five years working in the client development realm. So, all I did was business development. And then I spent another five years working strictly in sales. So, it was business-to-business only working with executives directly and that was it. 

Hilary Hendershott: And so, did you have a particular sales methodology? Did you study a mentor, a Zig Ziglar type? Do you have a sales process that you follow? 

Nicole Walters: So, that’s actually really funny. I want to say that I’m one of those people that was born into sales. I have the gift of gab. I wasn’t even aware of this sort of online world of personal development for years. I mean, I literally just learned within the organization. I made sure to always be well-versed on what I was doing and then also to make sure that the thing that comes naturally to me is consultative sales. I actually care about the products that I sell. So, whatever it is that I’m doing, whatever it is that I’m offering, I usually use it. I have a ton of integrity around it because it’s something that I’m truly passionate about and I always make sure to highlight the true value and what I think that it will do for someone’s life. So, it’s actually come really naturally to me. 

Hilary Hendershott: And then do you have a particular go-to phrase or phrases that when you make the ask or go for the close? 

Nicole Walters: Yeah. I mean, absolutely. So, with closing, for me, I think one of the things that’s really big as I am a very firm closer, which is something that’s very unusual for women. It’s something that I definitely had to acclimate myself to. I try not to leave any openings. So, whatever I’m going to close, I’m very firm. “Will you be putting this on a Visa or MasterCard? At one point in time can we meet? How’s Thursday at 3? This is fantastic. I’m so excited to see you enrolled in the course. How would you like me to send you payment, via PayPal or Stripe?” I mean, I’m very, very firm with my close and I don’t leave any opening for options. 

Hilary Hendershott: Wow. Yeah. I mean I bet just hearing that intimidates some people, but something to aspire to. So, you call your fans and followers kind of staying in this like you buck tradition. You are not interested in what’s taboo. You call your fans and followers rich friends. 

Nicole Walters: Everybody needs some. Who does not want a rich friend? Come on. 

Hilary Hendershott: But do you find that some people react to that? I mean, I think it’s, well, I love it. I think it’s a little un-PC. Do you find that people have a thing? 

Nicole Walters: Totally. Totally. I mean, some people are just like, “Really? Do I have to be rich to be one of your friends?” You know, I think that one of the things I always make very clear is that we’re all rich in our own way. It doesn’t just have to be financial. You know, I have friends who are rich in knowledge. It’s never a situation where they’re buying things for me or they’re paying for things. My mentor is actually Chalene Johnson, who is this amazing industry guru when it comes to online business and she’s a serial entrepreneur. And she’s definitely my richest friend but surely she’s not paying for anything for me. She’s rich in knowledge, and that’s the thing that she brings to my life. So, we all have something to offer and I just want my friends to be rich and well-developed, no matter what that is. 

Hilary Hendershott: Yeah. Chalene, I love her podcast. I had a hard time with her at first. It was a little bit too much but I started listening to it and now I feel like I know her. I look forward to every week when she launches a new episode. 

Nicole Walters: I mean, we’re all like that I think. People always tell me that I could be a lot in the beginning and sure, like when they meet me, I’m high energy. I can be totally overwhelming. Well, once you get to know me, I’m so like I really just care a lot and I really want people to like I’m excited about what I’m doing. Money gets me excited, people, success in their business, having people have quitting days, and chasing their passion. And it’s just really hard for me to keep that in check. It can be a lot. 

Hilary Hendershott: So, you’re always like this, but what’s underneath it is a good heart. 

Nicole Walters: I’d like to think so. I hope so.

Hilary Hendershott: Yeah. You can say that. That’s okay. 

Nicole Walters: My two teenagers may not agree. 

Hilary Hendershott: Oh, it’s that time.

Nicole Walters: It’s that time. 

Hilary Hendershott: And when you say quitting day, I am imagining that’s the day when someone quits her corporate gig. Is that right? 

Nicole Walters: Right. That’s right. So, I had my quitting day back in August and so it’s only been about six months, but it’s been a whirlwind ride. And I actually quit my job live online on a new app called Periscope. And I did it in front of about 10,000 people. I called my job and I kept it very classy, but I did make it clear that there wasn’t really anything else to be offered for me there in terms of upward mobility, the trajectory of my business where it was, or honestly, financially. I was already I think at that point I tripled my salary just within my own entrepreneurial venture so it just didn’t make sense anymore. So, I parted ways. 

Hilary Hendershott: So, you were on a webcam and you picked up the phone and called your boss. 

Nicole Walters: Correct. Yes. 

Hilary Hendershott: Okay. So, it was a one-sided, “I’m quitting. Take this job and shove it,” kind of a conversation?

Nicole Walters: Well, sans the shove it. Definitely wasn’t, “I’m quitting.” You know, “This is not going to work for me any longer.” And my boss actually was so kind. My boss was like, “If you don’t like it, don’t do it. If there’s a way that you’re making money outside of this that’s way more lucrative, that’s what you should be doing, especially if it makes you happy.” So, it was a really positive and uplifting call. And I would easily say that my boss was one of my very first fans because I quit right there with him. 

Hilary Hendershott: Of course. Well, it sounds like you do much of what you do in a very above-board classy way. And I bet that encourages people to stay in your fan club. 

Nicole Walters: I try to. The industry is small, right? You never know when you’re going to see someone again. 

Hilary Hendershott: The world is small, right? I remember the first time I was on my way to – this is when I was working in my family business and I’m pulling into the parking lot and someone in front of me is going two miles an hour and I’m feeling late and rushed. And I lay on the horn and I finally get parked in my parking spot. I go up to the office and they are the clients meeting us for a meeting. And I said, “Never again. Never again.” 

Nicole Walters: Oh, holy cow. 

Hilary Hendershott: I am nice to everyone.

Nicole Walters: Yes, you never know. I mean, honestly, when with the Internet now, I feel like it’s so much easier to cross paths. When I get on LinkedIn, I’m like, “Oh my goodness, I’m like one degree removed from Oprah. You never know.” You just have to be really, really careful.

Hilary Hendershott: But you call yourself the Scoprah, right? 

Nicole Walters: I don’t call myself that. I just want to see. My rich friends actually call me that because it’s a play on words with Periscope. So, I’m a scoper and they say that I’m Oprah-like so they call me Scoprah. 

Hilary Hendershott: And for those of you who don’t know what Periscope is, what you do on Periscope is called scoping but you live broadcast video from wherever you are, right? 

Nicole Walters: Yes. It’s just a live streaming app. Yep. 

Hilary Hendershott: Yeah. So, I mean, you have to know that you have a really different mindset about money than most women, I mean, even most people. So, where do you think that came from? 

Nicole Walters: So, I honestly think that it’s one of those things that was birth from humble beginnings. I just grew up without. It was a family of four. My parents were African immigrants, both hard working. My dad was a cab driver his whole life, and my mom was a secretary her whole life. And it was living a life where it was in juxtaposition with riches. So, I always had a view of what the potential could be, but I was never living it myself. And my life has always been about sort of finding and filling that gap. So, growing up in DC, I was living in inner-city DC in this one-bedroom apartment with my family of four but I was also attending elite private schools with the likes of Chelsea Clinton and Al Gore Jr. on scholarship. So, I would have great playdates and awesome birthday parties but go back to sleep on a couch until I was 12.

Hilary Hendershott: Are you kidding? 

Nicole Walters: Oh, no. I’m totally serious. 

Hilary Hendershott: You’re getting academic scholarships to go to school with Chelsea Clinton? 

Nicole Walters: Yeah, absolutely. I did. So, I went to Sidwell Friends then I went to National Cathedral School, and then eventually to Johns Hopkins University. So, I’ve always had a top-tier education. It’s just when the day was done, I went back home to my cab driver dad and my mom, who never finished high school. So, it was seeing both of those worlds and wondering what was different. Why was I permitted? Whether it’s fate, destiny, God, why was I permitted to see what this looks like? And it’s because I needed to figure out the roadmap that once I figured it out, I needed to share it. 

Hilary Hendershott: So, you didn’t start out with money and your parents didn’t teach you an empowered money mindset. 

Nicole Walters: Oh, they didn’t know it. 

Hilary Hendershott: Right. Then you’re in college and you’re on scholarship and you had the opportunity to go into debt. How did you become – what happened? What changed? 

Nicole Walters: Well, I think one of the things that was definitely impactful was when you don’t have a money mindset, you grow up poor. Money is at the forefront. I mean, how am I going to eat today? How am I going to pay for these textbooks? I have a full ride, but it doesn’t cover my textbooks. How am I going to pay for them? And because money was always at the forefront, I could never afford to put it on the backburner. I couldn’t even humble myself to say, “You know what, this would be embarrassing or people might judge me.” I don’t have a choice. I have to eat. So, money has to come to the forefront and I don’t have to compromise my goals and my purpose in order to do that. And that’s just how I’ve always run my business because particularly in corporate America, that’s how they run their business. You know, at the end of the day, they’re looking at those numbers. So, that’s how I built my business. But within that, it’s also allowed me the flexibility because money’s first in order to make sure I have the freedom to put my impact where I want it to be. 

Hilary Hendershott: And you shared with me that you had a specific moment where you realized you were in the driver’s seat. What happened there? 

Nicole Walters: Yeah. So, it was kind of crazy. I had been live streaming for a while and I was getting on there sharing these strategies. And in the meantime, I was sort of really unhappy within my corporate job. And I think that’s something that a lot of people share. You know, it was a six-figure corporate job. I was making plenty of money and money, truly, I could say at that point, was no longer an object. I could pay all my bills. But again, I had these three foster girls and they had so many needs and I said to myself, “If my corporate job were to say, ‘Enough is enough, go your separate ways,’ I’ve got a lot of mouths to feed around here. What is my backup plan?” And the book that I picked up was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And the way that I read that book, obviously, there are strategies in it. There are tools. It was the first personal development book I’d ever read or ever even known about. And I read this book and the thing that occurred to me was I said, “Wow. There’s a book about this because not everyone thinks this way. This is crazy. I need to tell everyone.” I need to tell everyone. 

Hilary Hendershott: So, Think and Grow Rich is written in really difficult to understand English. 

Nicole Walters: Right. Very difficult. 

Hilary Hendershott: Yeah. I mean, it’s like old English and it’s in a couple of metaphor and allegory and parable. So, what are the tangible things you took out of that book? 

Nicole Walters: So, one of it, I mean, obviously, you’re right. It’s like super old-fashioned. I mean, I was reading it and I was like, “What is this?” Even some of the examples, I was like, “I don’t even know what they’re talking about. Is this even a tool?” 

Hilary Hendershott: How long has it been since I had to refer to a dictionary while I read a book? 

Nicole Walters: Right. I mean, it’s super old-timey but what really struck home for me was just simple concepts around before you could do anything, you have to believe you can. And belief is free. You know what I mean? Belief is free. Before you can accomplish any goal, you need to get a good sense of what that goal looks like and find a mentor to guide you. Again, free. And I was like, “Oh, my goodness, I have all these resources that I’ve never even tapped before.” What would happen if using my knowledge that I have now, using my experience from corporate America, I just tapped into finding a mentor, really aligning things, and setting up a goal and saying, “Look, I need to have a business, a side hustle, if you will, and share these strategies with people.” And once I started doing that and sort of integrating and synthesizing things that I’ve learned in corporate America about making money and making them available to regular people the way they can understand, I mean, it all just came together. I realized I was in control and money didn’t have to be something I was scared of.  

Hilary Hendershott: So, oh my gosh, who wrote Think and Grow Rich? 

Nicole Walters: Napoleon Hill. 

Hilary Hendershott: Thank you. So, Napoleon Hill was one of your mentors. Chalene Johnson is your current mentor. Do you have other mentors that you followed? 

Nicole Walters: Absolutely. So, I mean, there are all sorts of mentors for different things. You know, I think that’s something that a lot of us don’t talk about. A lot of people are like, “Man, I just need to find the one perfect person who can do everything for me. That’s my go-to mentor.” And frankly, it’s important to have a money mentor. So, Suze Orman, I absolutely love and not everything she does. Let’s just be completely frank. Not every single thing she does I think it really applies to me but I love watching her to see how she has approached regular people and their spending and from a standpoint of debt management in addition to generating income. I tend to be a little bit more income-focused but a penny saved is a penny earned. So, I love watching her because she’s engaged and she talks about money in a way where she’s very matter-of-fact about it like this is what it is. You either do it or you don’t. And I was like, “Yes. Hey, girl, I hear that. I am right with you. Yes.” So, that’s one of my money mentors. And Chalene is kind of like my business, social media, interactivity, like life mentor, sort of navigating this entrepreneurial world because she’s been there and we’re similar in that sense. So, yeah, I mean, I think it’s really important that people find people who align with their message and their value and drill down and follow everything that you do because there’s big things to be gained from that. 

Hilary Hendershott: Talking about Suze Orman, I think somehow her brand has turned into a little bit of a bad rep but you’d be surprised how many really financially successful women that I talked to who say Suze kind of turned the tide for them. I loved her sessions that were like, “Can I afford this?” And she would be in these auditoriums and people would stand up and they would say, “Here’s my situation. I think I need to do this, but this is the reality.” And she would say something like, “Stand in your truth.” And they would look at her tears in their eyes and go, “I can’t afford it.” 

Nicole Walters: Yep. And I think that that is sort of the thing that I took from Suze is the fact that she’s another woman who’s here talking about money in a no holds barred way. Like I’m going to keep it all the way real with you. One of the elements that I bring into my business, I talk a lot about overhead and the fact that as much as we may love to have the really pretty box on our cupcake delivery with the awesome ribbon that’s premium because it conveys a sense of luxury, at the end of the day, if your cupcakes suck, you can’t afford that overhead and that’s the real. And so, because of that, I think Marcus Lemonis is like this as well too. 

Hilary Hendershott: I was just going to ask you about Marcus Lemonis and The Profit. I’m so glad you brought that up. Go ahead. 

Nicole Walters: Yes, I love him. I mean, I always talk about it. It’s a joke in our house. They’re like, “Are you going to The Profit someone today?” And I’m like, “I might. I might.” I just like I go in there and, I mean, the thing that I love about The Profit and Marcus is he talks about margins and it’s important to talk about these real things that really matter. And frankly, most people don’t even know about them because they’re corporate-related. And you need these tools even if you’re running the pancake house on the corner of Chicago. You got to know what margins are. So, having access to that information and knowing about things like going concern and just a P&L statement or profit-loss statement, people need to have these tools in order to run a successful business. And it’s exciting to hear people like Suze and Marcus talk about it unabashedly like this is just what you need. 

Hilary Hendershott: Yes. And everywhere in your financial life where it matters, you have margin. You have margin in your personal life. That’s income minus expenses. You have margin in your investment life, that’s returns minus expenses. And you have margin in your business life. And without margin, you’re sunk, right? 

Nicole Walters: You’re sunk. That’s it. You lose everything. 

Hilary Hendershott: And speaking of investments, I think Suze Orman has said publicly that her entire net worth is in bonds. So, she’s not necessarily a money mentor everywhere. And I love that show, The Profit. But what I wanted to ask you about because you were talking about, “Hey, look, we all love to have the pretty pink box with the bow,” and what you were saying is as an entrepreneur, we want to deliver top-quality stuff and that takes money. And I think you’re saying sometimes you have to bootstrap in the beginning, right? 

Nicole Walters: Absolutely. I mean, when I first built my business and what I teach a lot of the new entrepreneurs that come to me is it really isn’t about getting the prettiest website and making sure that your copy is so perfect. Focus on what your strengths are. Are you delivering value? Is the product that you’re delivering actually something that people are going to want? That’s where you really should be investing and tweaking because if the product isn’t correct, if it isn’t of substance, you’re never going to get ahead. All the other visual things, those can come afterwards. And you do beta testing, you get your analytics, and then you tweak the process. But at the end of the day, it’s really important that you’re delivering value to the people because that’s what’s going to keep them coming back. 

Hilary Hendershott: And so, what do you think about when you see markets go into a retail establishment and spend a half-million dollars so that it looks good from the storefront? 

Nicole Walters: Sure. So, what I love about Marcus is I’ve been watching his show for a while now, and he’s a smart, smart guy. He’s using The Profit as an opportunity to acquire businesses to round out his portfolio. So, whenever I watch the show, I remember that from the first season he acquired a signage company. So, while we might see him spending a half million, he’s using his own companies. He owns a contracting firm. So, I wish that they were a little bit more candid about all those elements because I… 

Hilary Hendershott: I know. I want to see Marcus’ books.

Nicole Walters: What? I can’t tell you every day I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, Marcus, if I could just look in your books.” So, I could pay him for that, you know, but you’re right. I mean, signage and all those things matter but, absolutely, when he goes in there, the very first thing he usually looks at is inventory and the margin. Those are the first two things you look at. If you don’t have a product to sell and that product isn’t top-notch, the sign does not matter because no one’s coming in. 

Hilary Hendershott: Product, people, and process, right? 

Nicole Walters: That’s right. Product, people, and process. Right.

Hilary Hendershott: All right. So, you offer a course called 1K1Day. What is that? What are the principles of that course? 

Nicole Walters: So, 1K1Day is kind of like a starter monetization course. A lot of people have built blogs, they built brands, they’ve done things online. Even if it’s just hobbyist things like I sell quilts or I sell jams, whatever. And the thing is they did focus on that process. They focus on building out the great product and having a wonderful website and they may have even grown a great audience, but what 1K1day does is it transcends the popularity and turns it into profitability. So, have you really created a way for people to interact with your brand on their website? Or have you frankly put a place for them to deposit their money? Are you offering a product that is sustainable and runs passively while you sleep? And a lot of people haven’t done this. And so, what I do is I go through and I use strategies and basically when I was in corporate America, we used lots of different tools like Salesforce, things of that sort. And I go online and I found much less expensive with lower overhead options and I showed people how to integrate these into their website. And then I teach them a little bit on how to pitch in online as well. 

Hilary Hendershott: Okay. Beautiful. And I saw you did a video called How Money Stress Will Jeopardize Your Purpose. I think maybe even the title of that series was The Urgency of Coin.

Nicole Walters: The Urgency of Coin. Yes. 

Hilary Hendershott: So, would you talk about how you avoid money stress yourself and why you think it’s so important? 

Nicole Walters: Sure, sure. Absolutely. So, that was the three-part series that I did on my live streaming channel. And it was about how if you’re focused solely on making the coin, you’re probably going to lose the focus. You’re probably going to lose the end goal. You’re going to have emotional stress. You’re going to lose focus on your purpose within your business because, obviously, your purpose should be to serve your audience because if you’re responsive to your audience, you’ll make a product that they’ll like and want to buy. And then I also talked about if you’re really focused on just, “I need to make money, I need to make money,” chances are you’re going to spend money in dumb places. You’re going to put the money where it doesn’t count and where you’re not really going to see a return. So, while, yes, I put money first in my business, meaning I pay attention to it, money and making money is not the ultimate goal. Every day we don’t wake up and say, “How am I going to make $10,000 today?” What I say is, “How am I going to build a sustainable business using smart business models that’s going to be profitable in the long run?” And so, when I put the consideration of income generation first to my business, that’s how you build your profitability. And I don’t let the urgency freak me out. 

Hilary Hendershott: Okay. So, thanks for clarifying that. So, if I had to say that back to you, I would say when it comes to money, you focus on what’s important, not what’s urgent. 

Nicole Walters: That’s right. Nailed it. 

Hilary Hendershott: Awesome. All right. Good to know. And that’s putting good processes in place, making sure you’ve tested the product, making sure it works, making sure there’s a good customer experience, and like that. 

Nicole Walters: And sales, sales, sales. I mean, I can’t tell you how many business owners don’t consider that they need to have an in-house sales team. And if you don’t have one, you need to be one. So, that is a huge part of what I teach in everything that I do. 

Hilary Hendershott: Yes. And so, where do you think a business person should be financially when they hire a salesperson? 

Nicole Walters: Well, I don’t know if there’s a magic number. I definitely think it’s more about the margins. I know that I’m not afraid to invest in my business. So, one of the first things I did was hire three account managers who worry about my backhouse. So, I definitely think that you should be at a place where you have that discretionary income that you can say to yourself, it’s really just about maximizing your profit, but it definitely can’t be something you put on the back burner. And it almost always is. People always put their sales team on the back burner and you won’t grow your business. They’ll just plateau, if not fail. 

Hilary Hendershott: Right. Well, that’s a tricky thing when you start your own business. I mean, you’re the CFO, the CEO, the VP of Sales, the CMO. It’s like, yeah.


Nicole Walters: Well, I don’t think sales, though, you know what I mean? They’ll just think, like, I’m the CFO, I’m the CEO, I just have to be able to talk about it, but I don’t need to actually sell it. And there is a strategy to that, and you’ve got to learn it.

Hilary Hendershott: Yeah, I have. I have time booked out of my calendar in two places every week, and that’s my selling time. And I don’t change it.

Nicole Walters: Love it, yes. And I think scheduling your day to see another tactic of well-to-do entrepreneurs. We put stuff on the calendar to make it happen.

Hilary Hendershott: That’s right. Because if you don’t schedule it, it isn’t real. So, it really is important to keep ourselves out of financial anxiety. I mean, I know, if it gets really bad, it can just kind of spin you out. And I’m teaching that all the time. And I make it my intention that my clients really do have the opportunity to achieve financial peace of mind because there’s so much we can’t do and won’t do when we’re stuck in fear. So, how are you investing for the future?

Nicole Walters: So, absolutely, we have a financial planner. And I think that what you just said about the fear, when you have a good grasp on what’s going on and you have a professional steering the ship and you have a plan, you don’t really feel scared because you know exactly what’s going to happen. I mean, there may be some variables here and there, but if I have someone trusted that the way all my planners, name is Karen, and she’s amazing and she is running the show, I check in with her weekly. And we’re invested, the girls all have savings funds. We make sure that everything is well balanced. So, my husband actually still works. He’s an attorney, but he’s also building out his side business, if you will, offering his private clients, his private firm. We’re diversifying our portfolio, make sure that we’re not just all in bonds. We’re making sure that whatever happens that things are sustainable down the line. And I’ve also had a 401(k)’s since I was like, I think 19, but that’s just the dorky side of me.

Hilary Hendershott: I don’t find that dorky. So, do you and your husband have a financial freedom number in mind? Is there something that you’re tracking too?

Nicole Walters: Yeah, so I mean, I think that everyone has like a magic number in mind. I definitely do like morning affirmations. I try to keep my mindset around things, but that number for me looks a lot more like the number of people I’d like to impact because I know that since I put the systems in place, I always make sure that finances are not on the back burner, that sales isn’t on the back burner within my business. I know that as long as I keep chasing this number of impacting 100,000 people this year and next year, impacting 500,000 and the year after that, impacting a million people, that financial freedom will come along with that. So, those are my real numbers, yeah.

Hilary Hendershott: I think that’s really great. I think when people are in resignation or out of action when it comes to money, that actually puts money in the forefront, it makes it so that money is always on your mind when you have the knowing and the confidence that you’ve put the systems in place. It isn’t money that you think about all day because it doesn’t worry you.

Nicole Walters: Absolutely. Systems are in place. I mean, systems are everything, and that’s the thing that I think a lot of us were afraid to talk about money or afraid to even look or examine our money situation. What it really comes down to is that’s a key indicator that you probably don’t have a plan in place.

Hilary Hendershott: Exactly.

Nicole Walters: And when you have a plan in place and you can always hire someone, you can delegate that, call up Hilary, so help you. If you have a plan in place, then you don’t have to worry about it anymore and you can really focus on doing the part of your business that you love, which is creating and helping others.

Hilary Hendershott: Yeah, just yesterday, I had a client in my office, and she’s so great. And she came and she said, “I just don’t know how I’m going to pay down. I have to pay this thing down while still saving.” And she said, “I feel so bad. I’ve been putting money in this little short-term savings account every month,” but then I take it back out and I say, “Girl, that’s not your problem. The problem is your overhead is too high.”

Nicole Walters: That’s right.

Hilary Hendershott: You can’t be disciplined when you have no flexibility, like it’s crazy, right? So, you have to just look at your money with distinctions and understand how to organize it and make sure those systems are working. What are some of the systems that you and your husband use?

Nicole Walters: So, I mean, in terms of actual software systems, we use QuickBooks, but that is…

Hilary Hendershott: For your business, right?

Nicole Walters: For my business, yes, we use QuickBooks.

Hilary Hendershott: How about on the personal side?

Nicole Walters: On the personal side, my financial manager utilizes that, and then what we do is we actually, here’s the biggest system that we use, we are constantly on track. So, we have what we like to call a Walters family shareholder meeting. And we do this once. It’s so dorky, I know, but we do this every two weeks and everybody comes together, including the children, because we think that it’s really important to instill strong financial values at an early age. I didn’t have them, and my husband actually grew up fairly wealthy, like fairly well-to-do, but his parents didn’t talk to him about how they got that way. So, it was kind of the reverse problem. So, the money was there, but he didn’t know how to be responsible with it.

So, we bring the kids together. We actually talk about where we are, what our goals are, what we want to spend on. Our eldest right now, our 16-year-old, has prom coming up. So, we’re like, okay, let’s talk about what the goal is, what those numbers look like, and we walk them through it. And my husband also regularly examines our bills quarterly to make sure that we aren’t– you have household overhead. How much are we paying for all these cell phones? And who’s texting the most? So, we’re definitely talking about those areas as well. So, I mean, those are our system is just to constantly examine it and confront your finances. Don’t be afraid of that because that’s the only way to really keep a handle on the situation.

Hilary Hendershott: Right. Really get real with it.

Nicole Walters: Absolutely.

Hilary Hendershott: And don’t make it wrong or right. It just is what it is.

Nicole Walters: It is what it is. And you can only change it if you really know what’s going on.

Hilary Hendershott: I often refer to Profit Boss Radio in my private Profit Boss group on Facebook as a woman’s mastermind. And we do have some enlightened men. And I know you have some specific archetypes that you yourself look for in a mastermind. Would you share those?

Nicole Walters: Absolutely. So, the biggest thing that I look for is diversity and personality. I definitely don’t want to be part of a group of yes people. So, I kind of have five people. I’ve broken them down. I call it my coin collective. So, I have a mastermind that I talk to specifically about my business, sort of like a board of directors. And we’re talking about profitability and things of that sort. And I also have a mastermind that’s about everything else, my life, parenting, children, entrepreneurship, but it’s a completely different group because when I sit down with these five women, I want to make sure that we’re focused on making sure that we’re profitable and reaching our goals financially. So, in terms of personality…

Hilary Hendershott: How many masterminds do you have?

Nicole Walters: I have two.

Hilary Hendershott: Go, girl.

Nicole Walters: Yeah, I have two. When I sit down to talk about money in my business, that’s what I want to talk about. Like we are strictly talking about business. That is our relationship. We’re all at a certain level. Everyone in that financial mastermind, they’re all millionaires, and we’re all aiming to be billionaires. So, that’s our focus. And we don’t talk about the kids. We talk about the business. And it works really well. It works really well because sometimes, these masterminds can get distracted. We’re all very busy people. We can’t spend time talking about how to optimize our grocery list because that’s not really a factor in our business at that point. So, yeah, the other personality types, yes.

So, we have a visionary. So, that’s the person who focuses primarily on the vision. What does it look like? Is it pretty? Well, we land there attractively, that customer experience, a data guru. So, we have someone who actually just really looks at the numbers, like we bring our P&Ls, we talk about the numbers. We have an example. So, it’s kind of a person who has done a lot of the things that we’re all aspiring to do, kind of the higher-level person within the group. We also have a taskmaster, and our taskmaster is the person who just really has the skill set to break things down into a list, to say first you need to do this, then you need to do this, then you need to do this. And then we have our pusher, and our pusher is kind of like the accountability person. That’s the person who pushes you through the tough times, really helps us keep perspective, and make sure that we actually attain our goals.

Hilary Hendershott: I love it. I love how you have such a deep philosophy about the rules that are important. And then you say, I don’t want a bunch of yes people.

Nicole Walters: Right.

Hilary Hendershott: So, can you give me an example of a conversation you had that was not a yes conversation?

Nicole Walters: Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. I get these all the time. And it’s funny because there’s nothing like entrepreneurship to remind you that you constantly need to grow. And I film a lot of content for my online academy. I do a lot of videos. And because of that, because my educational platform is filming, I will get on set, and sometimes, I’ll get into a headspace where I’m just not hitting the content. I’m not doing what I need to do or I wasn’t as well prepared. And one of the people in my mastermind will actually say to me, and she’s amazing, you need to stop playing around. Each of these modules costs you $6,000 to film, including editing. You do not have that money to waste. And it’s kind of like it’s jarring to my system at first, but it really does snap me back into it because time is money and sometimes you don’t see it. Sometimes, I’m like, oh, no, I just need to unwind, but in reality, I’m there to do the job and I got to get it done. And it really helps when someone’s able to smack you with those numbers and say, look, in real life, there’s a cost to this. So, yeah, no yes people.

Hilary Hendershott: Awesome.

Nicole Walters: Yeah, you can’t have people just saying, “Oh, no, it’s great, you’ll get it. Keep going.” Like, no, I have a production crew. You need to do this right now.

Hilary Hendershott: Right.

Nicole Walters: You need to be…

Hilary Hendershott:  I know, I find my own sense of self-confidence is so internalized, I often have the experience. You can either make me feel worse about myself or better. So, it doesn’t matter what you say about me personally. Don’t build me up. I don’t need, you’re great. You’re like this. I need to know what to do.

Nicole Walters: Absolutely. Yeah, logic, that’s the stuff. Like smack me in the face and say you’re not hitting on Mark and you’re not going to get it done.

Hilary Hendershott: So, you used some big numbers when you talked about your financial mastermind, your financial coin collective. You said we’re all millionaires, we want to be billionaires. What would you say to a woman who is just resigned about her ability? I mean, for example, Nicole, you and I both know it’s not enough these days for someone our age to aspire to be a millionaire. To retire a millionaire really isn’t sufficient. It’s not going to provide the kind of income that you probably want and need for a long period of time, but just saying that has some people just check out of the game, right? And so, you have a lot of people saying things like, well, it’s not possible about the cost of living these days. Government should handle it for me, things like this. What would you say to someone like that?

Nicole Walters: So, whenever I talk to someone like that, I usually think that it’s from a perspective of not understanding that it’s a strategy. The secrets to making money are nothing new and no one’s keeping them secret, they’re out there.

Hilary Hendershott: Yes.

Nicole Walters: And all you have to do is find someone to help support your dream. So, it’s really great when you can get like a financial planner. It’s really great when you can work with a wealth management team. If you have the funds, do it, but if you don’t, it can be your spouse. Outline your dream, say what it looks like, then go online, find a mentor, find a resource in your business, in your community. Understand that when you walk by a store, and this is something I really started doing when I walk by a store and that store is named the Fratelli Brothers, that’s an entrepreneur. That is someone who came and said, “I want to build something and how can I do it?” And go in there and ask them questions, say, “How did you do this? Is this your first business?” I’m like notorious for asking questions of people just randomly because…

Hilary Hendershott: Are you really this courageous?

Nicole Walters: Oh, yeah. I mean, like this, I talk to strangers in airports because you want to hear the truth about it, like a truth moment. I grew up really poor. I don’t know any rich people that are close to my family. So, if I was shy about asking questions, I would never get answers. So, I have to use what’s out there. I don’t have a choice. My parents don’t know rich people. So, I have to ask questions. Where do I get the opportunity? If you’re a CEO sitting next to me in first class, I’m going to pick your brain until you tell me to stop.

Hilary Hendershott: Until you open your laptop and start ignoring me.

Nicole Walters: That’s right, absolutely. Absolutely. Because it’s all an educational opportunity, and with that education, the answers are out there, you can have financial success. You just can’t be afraid to go get it.

Hilary Hendershott: It’s very inspiring. You make me want to go down to Peet’s Coffee and interview people. Thank you.

Nicole Walters: You never know who you’re going to get.

Hilary Hendershott: I’m just going to take this microphone off the stand and walk down the street right now because there is a lot of knowledge out there to be had.

Nicole Walters: There is. Oh, my gosh, Hilary, that would be hilarious.

Hilary Hendershott: Yeah, especially I have no makeup on and I haven’t combed my hair.

Nicole Walters: My god.

Hilary Hendershott: It would be hilarious.

Nicole Walters: It would be amazing. If you’re ever going to do that, you’ve got to let me live stream it because I think it’ll be worth it. It’ll be so worth it.

Hilary Hendershott: Nicole, that is the power of audio. I don’t have to put lipstick on.

Nicole Walters: Oh, my God. Oh, too funny, I mean, yes.

Hilary Hendershott: And before my morning interviews, I do my vocal warm-ups. I have a little warm liquid and I don’t worry about the fact that I’m still wearing slippers.

Nicole Walters: Absolutely. I think that that’s one of the best things about– I mean if there’s no other reason, if it’s not for the money, do it for the fuzzy slippers.

Hilary Hendershott: I do find there’s this huge activation energy required to actually get dressed these days, but I have my best days when I’m in my office with my clients. I love it. I love it. There is always that feeling like, oh, I got to actually do my hair.

Nicole Walters: I got to get dressed. No, I mean, I was like Amazon Prime’s biggest fan because I’m like, I’m not leaving the house for anything. Forget Target. Like, I don’t have to get dressed.

Hilary Hendershott: Amazon Prime, it really should pay for my kids’ college graduation. I mean, I’ve given that group so much money, and they’re beautiful. Doing business with them is just an impeccable experience. And speaking of Target, did I see a video where you didn’t have the right clothes at a video shoot and you walked into Target with your camcorder on and buy some clothes. And you were talking to the Target employee with her walkie-talkie in the red shirt and you were saying, “No, I want this color. That color makes me pop.”

Nicole Walters: Yes, that’s the power of live stream. Thank you for being with me every day. Yeah, I mean, honestly, that was another like, yes moment, like I’m surrounded by the right people. I went to go film content for my site. And sure enough, they were like, why are you wearing a turtleneck, like– and I thought turtlenecks are cool. I still do. Like, no, you’re not. They’re like, oh, you need to go. And I don’t have an assistant. I don’t have room for that overhead just yet. So, I was like, I’ll run to the Target. It’s right across the street. So, I ran over and I filmed the whole thing, and it was quite the excursion if you will.

Hilary Hendershott: I’m looking at this video. I’m going, she’s not really telling this woman what colors make her pop. Yes, she is. Yes, she is.

Nicole Walters: I have. I have. I have. I have. I want the best. I want the best customer experience right there, so.

Hilary Hendershott: Okay, and if they want to connect with you, how should they find you?

Nicole Walters: Yes, they can find me at The Monetized with the D, TheMonetizedLife.com.

Hilary Hendershott: TheMonetizedLife.com. Fantastic. And if you want to find that link in the show notes, just go to HilaryHendershott.com. Nicole, you are amazing. You talk faster than anyone I’ve ever interviewed. Your energy is contagious, and I wish I could put a little bit of your inspiration and energy in a pill and give it to some of the women I love and work with and who I just want to have an empowered mindset. So, I hope we’ve been able to do that for some of the Profit Boss Radio audience today.

Nicole Walters: Oh, thank you so much for having me, Hilary. This was amazing.

Hilary Hendershott: Thanks.

Disclaimer

Hendershott Wealth Management, LLC and Profit Boss® Radio do not make specific investment recommendations on Profit Boss® Radio or in any public media. Any specific mentions of funds or investments are strictly for illustrative purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice or acted upon by individual investors. The opinions expressed in this episode are those of Hilary Hendershott, CFP®, MBA.

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