Welcome to the Rich Coach Club, the podcast that teaches you how to build your dream coaching practice and how to significantly increase your income. If you're a coach and you're determined to start making more money, this show is for you. I'm master certified life coach Susan Hyatt, and I'm psyched for you to join me on this journey. You're listening to episode 16, here we go.
Hey, listeners. Later in this episode, you’ll hear a conversation between me and a woman named Nicole Walters. Nicole is the creator of a program called 1K1Day; where she shows small business owners how to generate a thousand bucks in a single day. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur herself, she spent most of her career doing business development for Fortune 500 companies. Oh, and she got to attend the White House United States of Women Summit, which I obviously want to discuss because, basically, she’s brilliant at showing people how to make more money.
I was perusing Nicole’s blog and I noticed that she calls her blog readers her Rich Friends. She starts off lots of blog posts by saying, “Hey, Rich Friends…” and this made me smile. And it inspired the topic of today’s episode; rich friends.
What’s a rich friend? In my opinion, it’s a friend who supports you, who cheers for you, who hears your ambitious ideas and says hell yes. It’s also a friend who’s living a life that you admire. You feel inspired just being in their presence. This friend might be a billionaire, a millionaire, a thousandaire. Their income isn’t really the point; it’s how they make you feel.
When you’re near them, you feel like you’re becoming the best version of yourself. So who are your rich friends? Do you have one or two or more or none? Today, we’re going to talk about how to find rich friends if you don’t have any, and how to deepen your friendships with the rich friends you’ve already got. So let’s begin with your Two-Minute Pep-Talk.
Here’s your Two-Minute Pep-Talk of the week. This is the part of the show where I share some encouragement and inspiration to get your week started off right, and I try to keep things to 120 seconds or less.
Story time – way back in the day when I first started my coaching practice, I used to complain constantly about my city. I live in Evansville, Indiana, because this is where my husband’s from and he loves it here and his real estate business is heavily rooted here. But to be honest, sorry, Evansville listeners, I’ve never really loved it.
I mean, it’s fine. It’s not Paris, it’s not Manhattan, it’s Evansville. And he reminds me all the time that 21 years ago, I’m the one who decided to move here because I wanted our kids to grow up near cousins and family and yadda yadda.
Well, we’ve got a Super Target and we’ve got a Walmart and we’ve got a couple of decent restaurants. Anyway, I used to whine to myself all the time about how all the cool inspiring women lived in other cities like LA and Chicago and New York. And I would moan about how other ladies were always having amazing dinner parties and going to cool events.
And I’d see posts on social media and think, “Man, Evansville is so boring and uninspiring.” And, gradually, thanks to studying life coaching, I realized I needed to change my attitude. I started questioning my thinking using tools I learned from people like Dr. Martha Beck and Byron Katie.
So for instance, if I notice myself thinking, “Evansville is so boring…” I would question that thought by asking something like, is that actually true? I started a new conversation inside my head questioning each of my thoughts. “There’s nothing to do here in Evansville…” is that true? “There aren’t any ambitious inspiring women here…” is that true? “I don’t have any deep friendships here…” is that true?
If it is true, then what could I do to change that? How could I create what I craved? So I began to realize that I can have amazing female friendships in Evansville and Paris and London and Savannah; in any city. It’s not about where I’m living. It’s about my attitude and my willingness to reach out and connect with people.
This was a big shift for me. I started behaving differently. I made an effort to schedule regular dates with local friends, like my long-time BFF, Francis, who became my daily running buddy. And I started hosting parties at my house in my backyard, which I call Girlfriends Gone Wild parties. And we had food and drinks and we wrote down our wild goals and dreams; so fun.
Eventually, I started hosting those parties in other cities too. And also, I started reaching out and connecting with inspiring women online and my circle of friends just grew and grew. And today, I have the most amazing tribe of female friends who live here and elsewhere; women who inspire me to reach higher and achieve excellence in my industry, women who inspire me to be philanthropic, give back, women who inspire me to speak up boldly.
My squad is amazing, but my squad didn’t just materialize out of nowhere. I had to build it and cultivate it. And you can build one too. The moral of the story is, if you’re not happy with your current circle of friends, if you want new friends, if you want deeper friendships with people that you already know, well, it’s up to you to create what you want.
With friendships, just like anything else in life, you can create what you crave. So, for starters, write down the names of three women you would love to know, or three women you’d like to know better; just three. And then do something small. Send a text, send an email, send a link to a video you think she might love, send an invitation to a brunch or dinner at your place. Do something.
Don’t just complain; do something to reach out and nurture this relationship, and then keep going. Next week, do it again. These little efforts accumulate and lead to amazing friendships. So no matter where you live and no matter what your current business or income circumstances may be, you can find rich friends. You want to meet them. Trust that they want to meet you too. Pep-Talk, complete.
Now we’re moving to the part of the show where I give shout-outs to you; shout-outs to listeners, clients, all the wonderful people in my business community. And today, I want to give a shout-out to Dr. Missy Bird.
So Dr. Bird, she posted on my Facebook and said, “Seriously, y’all, this podcast is pure gold, especially this episode with Michelle Barry Franco.” I think that was last episode, so y’all can just scroll back one and listen to that one. “If you teach, if you speak to others, if you have any communication with people in the workplace, do not miss this phenomenal episode. It is pure mic-drop magic.”
Thank you so much, Missy. Alright, that’s my shout-out for today. And hey, if you have something to say about the show, please send an email to my team or post a five-star iTunes review about the show or post something on social media like Dr. Bird did, and you might hear your name on a future episode. I love giving shout-outs to folks in my community, so holla at me. Thank you for the love and I love you guys right back.
So, it’s time for an interview. And this week, I’m so excited to be chatting with Nicole Walters. Nicole is an incredible woman who loves showing business owners how to make more money; yes. And she’s the creator of a program called 1K1Day. She loves teaching women how to monetize their lives.
We’re going to talk all about that. I also want to ask Nicole about her experience at the White House United States of Women Summit. She attended that event in 2016 and she got to be in the same room as Oprah, Michelle Obama, Gloria Steinem, Vice President Biden, President Obama, OMG, I have so many questions.
And, of course, I want to chat with Nicole about the importance of finding your rich friends; the friends who upgrade your life and your confidence and your income too. Lots to discuss, so let’s do this.
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Susan: Welcome to the podcast, rich friend, Nicole Walters.
Nicole: I’m so excited to be here, Susan.
Susan: I’m so excited to be here too because I have followed you since you quit your job on Periscope.
Nicole: Oh my gosh, it’s weird because it feels like that’s really far away. But when I look at it, I’m like, “Wow, it’s been like three years.” That really was around the corner. It was such a big moment.
Susan: It really was. And I think that, for those of you who don’t know, we’ll link it in the show notes, but Nicole was a very successful employee in corporate America. She quit her job live in front of, at the time, you had 10,000 followers.
Nicole: Yeah, I actually had 10,000 viewers of just that broadcast alone, like in the moment live, and then it went to 100,000 viewers before the end of the day. It was crazy.
Susan: It really was. It was circling all over other social media platform. And I think what struck a chord with so many people – first of all, you strike a chord with so many people because you are so full of positivity and personality and you’re exactly who you are. But what you did in that moment was say to people – which is one of my favorite Beyoncé quotes is, “If I’m going to gamble, I’m going to gamble on myself.” And that’s what you did in that moment. You’re like, “You know what? Peace out, I’m going to go do my own thing.”
Nicole: That’s totally true. And I showed people, look, you can quit your job and not spontaneously combust. The world didn’t come to an end. I did it and survived and now I’m actually thriving.
Susan: You are more than thriving. So let’s talk a little bit about when you quit live on Periscope and then you went to – you were already building your business.
Nicole: That’s correct. So I had a blog that was all about African American beauty and hair care for about five years. And I did that on the side, taking events, working with friends, while working my corporate job, just sort of testing out some of my theories and making a little extra side-hustle coin. And then, when I finally said I was going to go all in, it was after helping several bloggers as clients apply corporate strategies to grow their business. And I recognized that gap existed and I said, “You know what – I’m just going to open my own consulting firm because this is what I do in corporate America anyways. Let me bring these skills from the boardroom to the everyday entrepreneur. And I did it, I quit my job and I made, I think, $11,000 in the first three weeks before my quit day. So I was like, this thing has some legs; I’m going to quit.
Susan: That’s so awesome. And so, I love that you – because we’re friends on social media and I love – I think we have a lot of the same attitudes about business which is, you have to treat this like a real thing.
Nicole: Oh yeah.
Susan: You can’t, like, sit on the beach with your laptop and pretend that clients are just going to find you, stumble across your sandcastle and find you.
Nicole: Absolutely, you’re totally right. having worked in corporate for over a decade, building Fortune 500s, I just had one way to approach my own business, and that was being totally official. So anybody who’s worked with me knows that I love the concept of laptop lifestyle, but the reality is, if you’re on a beach somewhere, you should be beaching. You shouldn’t have your laptop on your knee. You should be relaxing and getting that tan on. So whenever I am working with someone, I let them know, look, you need to do the work if you want to be a Walmart or a Coca Cola or a massive business, you have to do those steps too. You need an LLC, you need a business bank account, you need to understand contracts. And what’s great is I can help people build those foundations so that they start the business from the right place.
Susan: What do you think is the most surprising thing, when you’re working with a new entrepreneur, what are they most surprised about with the advice that you give?
Nicole: I think that a lot of them are surprised that there are so many overlaps in building a corporation and building their own business, because a lot of us think, when I quit and I go into the entrepreneur world, I’m kind of chucking this world aside. I don’t want to do anything formulaically and there are so many people who are like, “I want a heart-centered divine alignment driven positive intuitively driven business.” And what’s great is you get to bring all of that with you, but you can’t leave behind some core business concepts. You need to understand not spending more than you make. You need to understand paying yourself payroll. You need to understand how to pay your taxes. I mean, these are real business concepts that once you start taking a dollar in this greater ecosystem of money, you’ve got to understand. And what’s great is, when they sit down with me, they’re like, “I get it, you make it fun, you make it easy, and now I know I’m positioned to make more money.”
Susan: I love it because it’s true. I recently – I can’t remember if I wrote a blog or if it was just a Facebook rant about it, but I was talking about, okay, all of y’all who want to have this seven-figure business, there are things that millionaires do that are things like paying taxes and investing and, you know, like it’s less about – although you and I share a love of shopping, it’s less about the Louis Vuitton’s and it’s more about, what are you doing behind the scenes that no one sees that are the attitudes of somebody that is having a successful business and lifestyle versus just fronting on social media?
Nicole: You nailed it. I think that it’s so common now for people to leverage their Lamborghinis in order to get more sales. But the reality is that the thing that I’m doing on a regular basis is talking to my bookkeeper, my two accountants, and reviewing my profit and loss statement every single month to find out where every dime is going, to make sure that I am meeting my margins and truly running a profitable business. So I’m teaching people to do the exact same. So I think that you’re completely dead on. A real millionaire isn’t just flexing their coins on the internet. They are investing in their business and cutting those six-figure checks for taxes every single year.
Susan: Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting how often I see entrepreneurs get themselves in trouble, because like you’re saying, they’re not doing the foundational stuff like having – I saw somebody the other day post on social media, someone who’s been in business for a while, that they just set up a business account.
Nicole: Oh yeah, I mean, you’d be surprised. Some of the people who come to me – which the thing about it is, and for all your listeners who may be six or seven-figure earners, it’s completely normal to just start by doing what you can with what you’ve got and making it up as you go. That is literally the definition of entrepreneurship. However, it doesn’t have to be your existence, especially after you make a certain amount of money. So people come to me, I mean, like, you’d be surprised the caliber of entrepreneur I work with that will say, “I have never made my business an LLC, so I’m doing everything under my own name and all my monies are going into a PayPal account.”
And these are just simple things that they just were like, I just didn’t know and the money came in so fast, because it’s like the Wild West out there right now. It’s like, I just didn’t even know and I just was excited and I was just paying for things as they want along and I just realized that part of growing and scaling and actually getting from, you know, multi six figures to multi seven figures or seven figures is actually being a good steward of this money and understanding where to put it and how to use it well and what to pay my team and all these logistics that I help large corporations do every single day. So it’s my joy to help with that. And you’re right, people are on the internet kind of living their lives, so it’s my joy to kind of help them get a little reality in there.
Susan: So good. Okay, so let’s talk about your trajectory. So, you started your biz on the side, then you went fulltime with it. How has it evolved over the past three years to where it is today?
Nicole: Oh my goodness, so when I went fulltime, my first launch brought in $53,000. So that is not, by most scales, a small launch. But compared to the launches I do now, it’s the smallest I’ve ever had. But it was amazing. I did it by myself and I spent time serving my community and I answered every email. I mean, I was really in there elbow-deep trying to create a product that was strong and an experience and customer service relationship that I knew would be referral-worthy. And in doing that, I was able to scale. And I have a double negative on purpose; I haven’t not had a six-figure launch since then, or multiple six-figure launch. And so what’s been great is after that point, in 18 months, I scaled the business to seven-figures. Like, we just crossed the million-dollar mark. And then in two years, we got to – I think we were at 1.8. And then in two and a half, two years seven months, we hit the two million-plus mark. So now, we’re running a multi seven-figure business, and by next year, we’re hoping to hit eight figures, which I’m pretty sure we’ll do by July, based on our projections.
Susan: So good, I love eight figures so much.
Nicole: Yeah, like it’s crazy because it doesn’t feel real. And frankly, it’s great because it just means that I’m doing the things that I did in corporate for companies for myself and I’m serving the right number of people and I’m helping bring the right solutions. But it also is something where it’s hard to believe, whenever I speak to other people in this space who are – and a lot of my fellow millionaire friends are not in this industry. They’re either in media or they run product lines and things like that. And they’re like, “Do you know how hard it is to make million dollars, girl?” And I’m sitting here saying to them, like, yes and no, because working in corporate first, I mean, a million dollars was like my budget for dinners to wine and dine massive companies, you know what I mean?
Susan: Right.
Nicole: And that was just like slush-fund because I was working in insurance. They were bringing in billions of dollars a quarter. But in your own life, you put your head down and you forget to celebrate and you’re charging towards it and you’re being money-minded and service-minded and responsible, and then you look up and you’re like, “Holy cow, I built this thing and the local plumber down the street who’s been in business for 30 years is barely crossing $200,000 a year for his business.” And that really means something, and then I’m inspired even more to help other people get to this point as well, because it’s possible and I know how. It’s kind of crazy.
Susan: Well, and this is what I love about this interview and what you stand for is – one of the things I love to say is, “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.”
Nicole: That’s right.
Susan: And so women are constantly fed messages about tone it down and don’t brag and don’t toot your horn. And you and I don’t have a problem doing that. and one of the reasons I love that you exist in the world is that people need to see and hear what you’re doing and creating so that they can understand what’s possible for them. And not just the possibility, but that you can teach them how to do it.
Nicole: Girl, yes. We are loud about it, loud and proud. We’re out here like, you can be what you want to be. And it’s true because coming from very humble beginnings, my dad was a cab driver and my mom was a secretary and I slept on a couch until I was 12. So it wasn’t a situation where I ever saw this sort of life in my own home or my parents didn’t have peers who had this sort of life. What happened was, I went to elite private schools in DC on scholarship. And so when I was in these schools, I would have play-dates at millionaire mansions with government officials and go to birthday parties with Al Gore Jr. and I would come home and wonder what’s for dinner and go to bed on a couch. And I just knew there was a disparity, but the blessing I believe that I really had was that I got to see it.
I got to see what it looked like and when I got older, I started asking questions and I started paying attention and taking notes and finding mentors and doing everything I could to figure out what is this formula for success. And the biggest thing that I can tell everyone is that it’s work ethic. It’s are you willing to show up when the other guy isn’t and are you willing to ask questions and humble yourself if you don’t know anything. Because if you have the benefit – I mean, I’ve been stuck in elevators with people like Seth Godin. And when I was in that elevator, I opened my mouth and I talked to him. I didn’t just let the moment be awkward. I cracked jokes with him and I asked him questions and built a relationship and now a friendship. And these are the type of things that people don’t recognize. If you have that opportunity, speak up and go for it because that’s the thing that’s going to unlock your future.
Susan: So good. Make a scene, as I like to say.
Nicole: Yes.
Susan: Which I need to know – talk to me about going to the White House for the Women’s Summit.
Nicole: Yes, it was so, so fun. So if you want to talk about how I got in – because I know that some people are probably like, “Oh my gosh, how did that even happen? So it was the first United States of Women Summit and Oprah was a speaker, Michelle Obama was a speaker and Barack Obama was a speaker. I mean, it was crazy this event, it was so massive. And I found out about it the week it was happening. And I lived in DC at the time. I currently live in Atlanta. And when I heard about it, I was like, how did I not get invited? Because that’s how my brain operates.
My brain’s ridiculous. If Oprah has a cookout, I’m like, she must have meant to text me. Like, in my head, that’s what happened there. It’s just a gap, you know. So in any case, I’m like, I need to go to this thing. There’s no way I can’t be in this room. I have to be in this room. So I get online and I’m like, okay, great, it was an invite-only thing. There weren’t even tickets to purchase. It was a, you know, we sent out invitations through teachers unions and people had to be nominated. It was this whole thing. And obviously, we’re talking a week out, so I was like, how am I going to get in the door? Then I was like, you know what – I’m going to pitch myself for a press-pass. If I can pitch myself to get in the door as press covering this for my blog, for my followers, whatever, this could work. So I went ahead and I pitched that I had a platform for women entrepreneurs and I ran this business and here’s my followership on social and all that stuff and can I get in the door. Sure enough, within 24 hours, my White House press-pass credentials were approved and now I have White House press-pass credentials.
Susan: I cannot with you.
Nicole: So I ended up being able to go to this event. And sure enough, that day – because I’m totally janky, right, I take all my photos on my phone, I went out and got a Cannon T3I and I was like, “I should probably wear a camera around my neck like I’m official.” And so I go there and I show up and I got to be at this amazing event and it literally happened because I spoke up. And I’m telling you the story of my life, like I don’t just sit there and let things happen to other people. I make a seat for myself at the table if I haven’t been invited.
Susan: This has got to be one of the best stories ever, I’m going to be telling it forever and ever because this is so core to what I try to teach all y’all listening; you have to open your mouth. You have to create your seat. You have to make a scene. Pitched yourself as press – I love this so much. I want to, like, roll around in this story for the rest of the day. This is the best. So good, and a testament to how you’ve been able to create the success that you have, that you’re not just waiting around to get chosen or nominated.
Nicole: That’s right, closed mouths don’t get fed. Be bold.
Susan: So good – so obviously I could talk to you all day long. I want to let the peoples know where they can best hang out with you online.
Nicole: Well if anyone wants to connect with me online, the place to go is nicolewalters.com.
Susan: Awesome, nicolewalters.com – we’re going to have all the links to all the things in the show notes. But as a parting question, you call your peeps Rich Friends which, of course, I love. And you have rich friendships in your real life. What makes you feel obviously, you have the coin to call yourself rich, but what is something that costs nothing that makes you feel uber-wealthy?
Nicole: My family, oh my gosh, I’m so blessed. My family is amazing. I adopted three beautiful girls, ages 19, 16, and seven, and I’ve been a mom for four years now and I’m married to the most amazing man in the entire world. And I’m telling you, that is my wealth. I am abundantly blessed. I could lose every single dollar, every single item, and I would still be the richest person on earth. So that is where the true wealth lies, in family all day every day.
Susan: Such a beautiful way to end this interview. Thank you so much for your time today, Nicole.
Nicole: Thank you. This was a blast.
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Okay, I bet you’re officially obsessed with Nicole, like me. To wrap up today’s episode, I want to leave you with a classic piece of advice; to get a friend, be a friend. Have you ever heard that old saying? It’s just so true. The best way to get a friend or deepen a friendship is to be a great friend. It starts with you. So right now, see if you can think of one way that you could be an even better friend.
Maybe you know someone who’s been impacted by a wildfire or a hurricane or some other crisis. Reach out and check on them and see if they’re okay, and send a care package in the mail. Or maybe you know someone who runs a business and works so hard. Nominate that person for a local small business award.
Maybe you know someone who’s working hard to launch a podcast. Invite them over for a co-working date at your house or at a coffee shop. Work on your goals together. There are so many ways to be a great friend. Choose something and do it. Your actions will enrich their life and your life and you’ll both feel so much richer.
Thank you for listening to today’s episode. Your homework for this week is to make a list of three people you’d like to become friends with, or three friendships that you’d like to deepen even more; three people who feel like rich friends to you, people you admire, people who inspire you, people who make you feel like the best version of yourself.
And then, take action to build those friendships. Be a friend, reach out, invite that person to join you for a walk, a work session, a yoga class, a dinner date. Pour some effort and energy towards cultivating each friendship, and this will lead to great things for you personally as well as professionally and financially. Rich friends lead to a rich life.
Alright, thank you so much listening to Susan Hyatt's Rich Coach Club. If you enjoyed today's show, please head over to shyattagency.wpengine.com/rich where you'll find a free worksheet with audio called Three Things You Can Do Right Now to Get More Clients. You can download the worksheet and the audio, print it out, there's a fun checklist for you to check off. Just three things to do. Check, check, checkidy-check.
This worksheet makes finding clients feel so much simpler and not so scary. So head to shyattagency.wpengine.com/rich to get that worksheet. Over there, you're also going to find a free Facebook you can join especially for coaches. Bring your coaching practice and your income to the next level at shyattagency.wpengine.com. See you next week.
