In this six‑question, seven‑minute interview on the Winning at Business and Life podcast, host Professor Pete Alexander talks with Nigel Smith, founder of Next Step Communications, an integrated marketing agency serving healthcare, technology, regulated, and direct‑to‑consumer clients. Nigel describes his firm’s mission as a noble effort to connect patients to reliable health information, citing the pitfalls of “Dr. Google.” He advises small‑business owners to focus on the knowledge gaps that become critical during economic stress—particularly understanding PPP loans, forecasting, and financial planning. Transparency with employees, especially around payroll and economic conditions, is highlighted as a key trust‑building practice that has helped his flat, remote organization stay cohesive. Drawing on mentorship, Nigel emphasizes giving team members maximum responsibility early on to foster creativity and ownership. He recommends fellow leader Brian Packard, CEO of Celio, for his timely launch of a home air‑purification product. Nigel also shares a memorable first job digging graves, illustrating humble beginnings. The episode concludes with contact information for Next Step Communications (nextstepcomms.com) and Nigel’s LinkedIn profile.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
I'm Nigel Smith. I'm the founder of Next Step Communications, uh, just south of Boston in Dedham, Massachusetts. We're an integrated marketing firm that focuses on healthcare companies and the technology, regulated, and DTC space.
Nigel, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2, what's the best thing about working in your industry?
I believe healthcare marketing is a noble, noble cause. I feel like the things that we do help patients who, and other sort of people ask, are interested in healthcare, find answers when they hit Dr. Google. I think it is just so important to connect people to the right information that might help them find a treatment or something that's going to improve their lives.
Oh, I love that. And your reference to Dr. Google's great because who knows where that's just going to take you.
That's right. Yeah. So I remember someone telling me, if you search for shingles, you could be looking for a roofer or someone for an inflammatory disease. So I've never forgot sort of what can happen with Dr. Google.
Perfect example. Question number 3: I have a book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
So, uh, as an entrepreneur, small business, I, I would say that I just had this conversation with someone from CNBC, um, talking about what kind of content would be useful. And I said to them, you know, most small business owners— I mean, and I've got 5 or 6 employees, um, are really good at what they know, and that's why they dig deep and start their business. But recently, and during these unbelievably stressful days, what is glaring is what you don't know. And I have never had to lean on— my family are all MBAs in finance, and I'm the liberal arts guy. And, you know, trying to understand how you use your PPP, if you can get it, or how to really forecast and like things that when things are good, you don't spend too much time thinking about because your QuickBooks and your accountant sort of has you on autopilot. But when things get a little rocky, you know, you circle the wagons around what you know, but I would go right to the chapter that, you know, when I look at the table of contents, the things that I don't understand, that's where I would go and try and gain as much knowledge. So maybe that's the chapter for me to start and admit and seek out what you don't know because it's clear you already know what you know. But that's the chapter I go.
I think that's great advice, thank you. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
So I think there's something about transparency. You know, I worry, first thing I worry about with Next Step Communications are my people. I feel a real sense of obligation to hit payroll, you know, twice a month. And to me, that is, that is by far the most success that I'm finding, especially during bad times and good times, is sharing how the business is doing, sharing how the economic environment's making an impact. You know, I feel like the team is more vested and they understand. They're all working remotely. I haven't seen them in 2 months at this point, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna see them in person until '21. But they built a, I mean, they all like each other, and at least they pretend to like each other, but I do believe they care about each other. And I think they care about each other's work. And you're seeing a willingness to sort of get the job done. We're all in this. We've sort of turned into a very flat organization. And, you know, we're an agency, so, you know, you gotta dig deep and help out your colleagues and get the work done. And I think transparency and being honest with them has been something that when we started the business in 2014, that was important, but it's really paying off in terms of building confidence in the group and hopefully them feeling the same in us.
And I would think also, in addition to the confidence, there's a higher level of trust when you're transparent with them.
I hope so. I, we, you know, I, from a previous mentor, you know, providing maximum responsibility at the earliest time is the name of the game. There's no blueprints, there's no rigid forms on how you do professional services. It takes creativity, and you have to give people trust and give them some, some, some leeway to do things. And most of the time they take it seriously. And I think that's all part of it.
Mm-hmm. I agree. I agree. Very insightful. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Brian Packard, CEO of Celio. Amazing company in their sense of timing. A company that is launching a home small environment air purification technology. They have been working on this for several years and had April 2020 as the, as the launch date. And talk about timing for launching a product talking about quality of air.
Yeah, couldn't have been better than that. Well, I'll reach out to Brian. Thank you for that referral. And question number 6: Please tell me about your first job.
So my first job by a few weeks was bagging groceries. But a few weeks after that, a friend of mine said, do you want to help dig graves? So I worked in a cemetery helping with the backhoe and digging graves. And after the services, we would fill the graves and tidy up. So it wasn't stable work. It wasn't enough for a high school kid, but it was a part-time job that I have thought about and I will never forget. And it's always an interesting thing to share with people. So I've dug grapes.
Wow, that's a, that's an interesting one, a story in itself. Thank you for sharing that. So Nigel, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
So Next Step Communications, nextstepcomms.com. So N-E-X-T-S-T-E-P-C-O-M-M-S.com. Com. It's a mouthful, but you can also find me obviously on LinkedIn, as you will see. I'm sure Pete will link me to it. So I would welcome the opportunity to talk to someone and network or talk PR, integrated marketing, healthcare marketing, anything like that.
That's fantastic. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
