In this live motivational talk, Val Nichols shares her personal journey from a chaotic, painful upbringing to becoming a successful entrepreneur and public speaker. She frames mental toughness as a muscle that can be trained incrementally, emphasizing that past failures and trauma do not have to define one’s future. Nichols recounts how, despite early belief that she was destined for chaos, she built a marketing business from a few thousand dollars, struggled with self‑sabotage, and eventually learned to embrace her own greatness. She identifies two core pillars for sustained success: mastering one’s money mindset and becoming comfortable with personal greatness. Nichols stresses that true confidence arises from taking action—speaking one’s story publicly—rather than waiting for confidence to appear first. She urges listeners to move from intellectual knowledge to heartfelt embodiment, trusting in themselves, their faith, and the process. The talk concludes with a call to share the message, encouraging others to step into their truth, build mental toughness, and use their past as a platform for inspiring others.
Chapters
Hey guys, Val Nichols here, and I am coming at you live today to talk with you about the mental toughness it takes in order to succeed in life, in business, in whatever obstacle it is that you're facing. And you know, for those of you who know my story, for those of you who don't, if you're new to me, say hi so I can say hello. I would love to get to know you. And if you are a regular watcher, Then I hope you would say hi because we're friends and all of the good things. I love you. We are yes. So I hopefully you will say hi so that I can get to know you as well. So I just want to pop on here and talk to you guys about the mental toughness it takes in order to succeed. And you know, for those of you who know my story, you know that I grew up in a lot of chaos, a lot of craziness. And see, the thing that I really got from that was that. You know, a lot of times I really believed that in order for things to happen, it was up to me. You know, there was always this sense of control that I was chasing after. I was chasing after some sort of predictability. I knew very well, I knew the chaos, I knew the hurt, I knew the pain, I knew the secrets. I knew all of these things that I had been, you know, deeply ingrained in growing up. And, you know, there was even a point in my life in my 20s where I just kind of conceded to the fact that I was going to be like this forever. Like my life was going to be chaos forever. There was going to be secrets. There was going to be pain. There was going to be heartache. And I kind of conceded to that fact. And in a way, I gave up, you know, that, that mental toughness. And I truly believe that the, the mental toughness that it takes in order for you to really succeed in life, it's kind of like a muscle, you know, like just like you work out your muscles. Maybe you start out with 5 pounds. Maybe you start off with 10 pounds and you work your way up and you create this momentum. And it's never like like you just give up or something happens. Like, you're always gaining this momentum, you're gaining this mental toughness. So, you know, there was a point in my life where I had conceded. I conceded to the pain, I conceded to the chaos, to the, the struggle. You know, like, the struggle was real. I truly believed that. And in my mind, like, that's what I lived out. So, you know, what ended up happening is when I got to the point where I started to build out my business and I was seeing success. You know, this was back in 2014. I had already been super successful in a marketing business that I owned and, um, in the corporate world too. Like, I was super successful in the corporate world. And then in 2014, when I started to see the success that I had— I built out this business, I had a strong determination. I literally probably had like $3,000 in my bank account when I started my business. It was not enough money. I had no idea what I was doing. And, um, I started to see some success. I started to see, you know, the clients were coming, the things were happening. I was building upon what I thought was a legacy. But the thing was, I knew the chaos, I knew the pain, I knew the struggle, but I didn't know my greatness. I was not friends with my greatness. I didn't know the greatness. It was really hard for me to allow the greatness that I was building up to come in. Because all of my life I had grown up believing that I was less than, or, you know, at points I thought I was better than. I was never just one among many. And, you know, there was times in my life where I was always just striving and trying to achieve and trying to build up these things because I really truly thought that if I could put all this look good on, if I could live in the right neighborhood, the right gated community, carry the right bag, drive the right car, have the right title, have the right status, then what I truly believed was you guys would think I I was okay if I was praised on the outside. If I was praised on the outside, it would make up for the feeling of lack that I felt on the inside. So here I found myself building some success, and I was, I was okay with thinking that I would always be a failure, or thinking that, you know, these things in my past needed to define me— the abuse, the chaos, the all the calamity that was in my past. I thought that you know, growing up in that, I understood it. It was, it was comfortable in a way, but what I didn't understand was how to embrace my greatness. I didn't understand how to step out and to be okay with that, to all of a sudden have eyes on me, to have expectations, to have all of these things where people were expecting me to succeed. And I really thought that I was never going to live up to this persona, this image I was putting out there of what people thought I was. So what ended up happening is I started to self-destruct. I started to self-sabotage one thing at a time. And you know what I didn't know then but I actually know now is there was a point inside of me, there was this peace inside of me that was so hungry to be an inspiration. I just wanted to be able to stand on stages and, you know, do what I do now, be able to inspire somebody, inspire someone to know that no matter what their past is, no matter what their failure was, 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 5 minutes ago, it doesn't have to define their choices and their decisions that they make right now in this moment. I wanted to inspire others. I wanted to know that every single thing I had gone through, every single thing in my life, my past, my decisions, my failures, my struggle with alcohol, whatever it was, I wanted to know that what I went through could be used to help someone else. I was so hungry to make a difference in the world, to make a difference in someone else's life, and to leave a legacy that I could stand on. I could stand on a platform and share my message. Thank you so much for whoever that was. I'm sorry, Facebook is not telling me who's popping on, so I apologize if I'm not saying hi. So say hi when you jump on so I know you're here and I can say hello. So, you know, what I realized was that I knew the chaos, I knew the heartache, I knew the pain. But when I got on this platform and I started getting attention and I started having expectations and I started building all these things, what I know today is I needed to master my money mindset, for one. For two, I need— I got to master being okay with my greatness. And I know someone out there right now needs to hear this message. Learn to master how to be okay with your greatness because you are more powerful than you know. Your story will absolutely make a difference in someone else's life. And if you're wondering like, well, how do I start? Where do I start out? Like honestly, people always want to like have the confidence. Like I'll get on stage when I have the confidence. I will open up that program when I have the confidence. I will start that business when I have the money. I will do this. I will do this when, when, when, when, when, when. Win, win, win, win. And you know what I know today is I got to master the mental toughness of of succeeding. I got to master the mental toughness of following through and having the maturity and having the dedication to follow through with what I started. And I know there's someone out there that I know you know this up here, but you know the the biggest journey you will ever go on as an entrepreneur, as a woman in business, as an influencer, as a leader. The biggest journey you will ever go on is the journey of knowing in here and knowing in here. Because we can have all the head knowledge, we can have all the head knowledge we have, but if we don't master it in our hearts, if we don't experience these things in our hearts and then live them out in our life, then what's going to happen is we're going to stay stuck. We're going to stay just completely stuck in that place where we're defined by our past, we're defined by our mistakes, we're defined by the things and the stories that we believe are true. Defined by the people and the places and, and the things that have been spoken over us. But you know what I know today is when you can master your mental toughness, when you can master your money story, when you can say regardless of the decisions of the past, the mistakes— because you guys believe me, I have things that I look back on today and I'm like, oh my gosh, was I really that type of person? Was I really the person that caused people heartache, that caused, you know, destruction, that caused like pain for others? And you know, the thing I can stand on today is like, I've learned to master the mental toughness it takes to succeed. And how that starts is no matter where you're at, whether if you can lift 1 pound, 2 pounds, 3 pounds, 5 pounds, whatever it is that you can do today, just, you know, like step out. Because here's the secret, you don't get the confidence and then you go on stage. You go on stage, you start speaking your story to whatever platform you can, whoever will listen. You start speaking your story, you start speaking your story boldly, and then what happens is then you get the confidence. The confidence comes from doing, the confidence comes from being, the confidence comes from standing in your truth and being okay with your greatness. And once you can master that There's nothing that will stop you from this moment on. Once you learn that you can trust in yourself, you can trust in God, you can trust in, you know, in your success, you can trust in the fact that no matter what you're given, you will be able to handle it in the moment that it arrives. And that every single thing in your life has led up to this moment where you can stand confidently and you can do these things. You can start that program, you can start that business, you can step out, you can start telling your truth one little moment at a time. You can start doing these things and In that, you start being, you become, you can step fully in that, and that is exactly what it takes for you to gain the mental toughness to take that journey from knowing to being, to knowing in your hearts. That is where the success begins, and that is where the trail, the journey, everything steps out. You can step boldly into who you are where you're not just doing but you're being. And when you can do that, there's nothing that will stop you. I love you guys so much. Hello, Yolanda! Hi, hi, hi! Sorry I didn't say hi earlier. Facebook is not telling me who's popping on, but I am so excited to see you here, my beautiful friends. Love you, love you, love you so much. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see— I don't know if you've done it yet. I can't wait to see what your hair looks like, what color you chose for your birthday. So I don't know if you've done it yet or not, but I'm gonna totally check out your page. So I love you guys so much. Thank you for watching. If you're watching this and you're like, oh my gosh, I know someone that needs to hear this, feel free to share it out. This is on my public page, so feel free to share it out. I would love to share this message with whoever you feel might need to hear it because, um, you know, my mission today— my mission today is regardless of if I'm doing it on a platform with 2,000 people, 200 people, or there's 2 people watching on a Facebook Live, I want to just share my message with the the world. I want to inspire. I want to bring hope because today I get to do that. Today, regardless of the past, regardless of the mistakes I've made in the past, today I get to do that because that's what God has called me to do. So I love you guys so much. I would appreciate you so much if you share it. Let me know so I can thank you personally. Got some copper hair, girl! Yes, I can't wait to see it. Oh my goodness, you know, you guys all know I love the, the reds and the coppers. So love it, love it, love it. You're gonna look beautiful no matter what. I love you guys, and I will see you soon. Bye!
