THRIVE Series - Create A Thriving Business & SERVE The World - Val Nichols, of Val Nichols Coaching

Hey guys, welcome to the Thrive Show where we are talking all about creating a healthy lifestyle, a Thriving Business and a Life of Intention Even Amongst the COVID-19 Virus. So I just want to talk to you guys today about my favorite subject, that is business, because we are talking about creating a thriving business. So for those of you who don't know me, I've been your host throughout this entire series. My name is Val Nichols. I am the CEO and sole owner of Val Nichols Coaching. You can find me at www.valnickels.com. I am the creator of the Wild Tribe, which is women influencers, leaders, and dreamers. I also created the Wild Tribe Summits, and I am a business coach for entrepreneurs who are not just looking to make a quick buck, but for entrepreneurs that really want to make a difference in the world. They want to show up They want to create a legacy and they want to create something that's bigger than themselves. So I am just so excited to come on here and talk to you guys about, you know, creating that thriving business and that life of intention. Because with all of the craziness going on, with all of the information scarcity, all of these things that are happening to us in the world, there is a huge gap that I'm noticing. And the thing that I'm noticing is it's so easy to just pop on the TV and listen to the scarcity and get into that mindset and start really kicking into that, right? And that's why people are out there like grabbing all the toilet paper. They are, you know, acting out of fear. And maybe you're in this place, you know, maybe you're in that spot right now where you're recognizing that, yeah, you're operating out of some scarcity and that's okay. Like, I am not making you wrong, so don't hear that. What I'm saying is that, you know, this— it's very common for us to get into that scarcity mindset. And what's happening is just like if you squeeze a lemon and what's going to come out? The lemon juice, right? So if you squeeze a person and whatever is on the inside is going to come out. And so what ends up happening is because of of mindset, or maybe if you have like a money mindset story, then you're going to, you know, come out and like really react in this place of fear and scarcity. And this could be because of past trauma. This could be a broken money mindset. You know, for those of you who— I created a course, it's one of my top-selling courses called The Woman of Wealth and Worth, and it's all about money mindset. So we dive a lot into this, how, you know, because of previous things in your past, this could be, you know, if you're like, for me, I grew up with a parent that we didn't always have a lot of money. She was a single parent. She was working, you know, and we kind of like raised ourselves in a way, like, not, you know, like we were at home taking care of ourselves. And, you know, my parent was a single parent and she was always like working so that she could provide for us. So because of that, because times were hard at times, I'm not saying like I never knew we were broke. I never knew that we were struggling. Like we always had food on the table. We always had our basic needs, right? We weren't homeless, at least not in our childhood. We weren't homeless. And so like, this gave me this idea of a money mindset. This gave me a frame of reference. so to say, a frame of reference at which I would view the world. And I would view the world through such a way that was like, you know, a little bit of scarcity, like there wasn't enough. This also stems back to, you know, past childhood abuse where it would trigger me that I needed to take care of myself. I needed to look out for me. And, you know, this carried on well throughout my 20s. And what ended up happening was that, you know, I became very self-focused. You know, I was very self-focused. I was always like looking out for number one, like looking out for myself, thinking I needed to take care of myself. Because if I didn't take care of myself, who was going to, right? This is the story that I was creating in my mind. And what does this have to do with business? Well, this has everything to do with business and what's happening in the world. Because when we're operating from that place, it's like your amygdala, right? Like I'm saying, like the old, like reptilian brain, like your amygdala. What ends up happening is— I'm a total brain science nerd, you guys, so, so bear with me here. But what ends up happening when we're operating out of a place of fear and scarcity and anger and, you know, unknown and desperation is our cerebral cortex, like the big part of our brain up here is it's almost like tightening. And what happens is we end up not being able to operate or think out of our logical mind. So the amygdala is triggering our brain saying like, danger, danger, danger. And we go into that fight or flight mentality, right? We go into that fight or flight. And that's what you're seeing. People are either A, fighting this and saying, oh, there's nothing going on. I'm just going to go hang out at the beach. I'm not going to social distance. I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that. Or they're fighting, like they're— so they're fighting or they're flighting. And so you're seeing this like fight or flight mentality in fear and scarcity and hoarding all the toilet paper, right? Like, this is where we're seeing this come up. So I just want to let you know that, you know, regardless of what's going on in the economy, regardless of whether or not This is going to ride out for however long. We really— I mean, nobody knows at this point. I just heard that the UK extended theirs all the way through May, they're saying. Here in Oregon where I'm at, they have extended it through the end of April, which is just a couple of weeks. But again, we don't know. We don't know if like— there's speculation at this point that the curve is flattening, that it's plateauing, which is a great sign. However, we really don't know when things are going to go back into place. So what does this mean for you? If you are the type of person, maybe you have a business, maybe you're used to working a 9 to 5 job and you now find yourself so displaced working from home, which is a total and complete culture shock all on its own. For those of you who are at home, you have kids, you're trying to figure out like what's for dinner, Right? Much less how do I homeschool my kids? How do I cook for myself if that's something you're not used to doing? How do I survive in this new normal? And then you have this whole piece of like the technology side, right? Like so many of my clients in the past couple weeks, like that's all I've been doing is serving, serving, serving, serving. I created this show to serve you guys in a big way. But you know, the other thing I'm spending my energy on is my clients one-on-one, like— shifting their businesses into the online space. Like I have one client down in San Diego who she was completely like events-based. She had a massage therapy practice. And she also did yoga teaching, like she did yoga classes and then taught yoga trainers. So her entire business was based upon one-to-one contact. So as you can imagine, you know, California shut down quicker than we did. But California was on this like complete like shutdown. And here she was panicking, worrying, like, what do I do? My entire business is gone. She had to shut down her brick and mortar. She was no longer holding classes. She's no longer doing her massages or her teacher trainings. As a matter of fact, She had all of these things scheduled for April that she now has lost money on. So we had to learn how we had to like quickly rearrange her business and create this new structure, create a new structure for her to shift completely online. So, you know, this woman went from being like, not tech savvy at all, like nothing, no Facebook Lives, barely knew how to use Zoom, like could click the link and get on. But other than that, like doesn't really know, you know, can open email, like things like that, Easy stuff like that, right? But as far as technology goes, she knew nothing. So we shifted into overload, started getting her a new strategy, and completely shifted her online and created these beautiful online courses where now she's teaching couples how to do couples massages. Because right now, touch is so important, as you know, because we've had 2 massage therapists on this show already. Who've emphasized that touch is so important at this time, that right now in this time when we're distanced and we're separate from, we're far away, think about that word isolation. It means loneliness and alone and afraid and all these negative connotations, right? So she created these gorgeous courses online that we were able to put together and they're beautiful and edited and gorgeous and she didn't know how to do anything tech before this. The first day she released this, we, boom, she sold 29 of these courses the first day. And this is a woman who's never done anything online previous to this. I mean, besides like a Facebook post of what she's eating that day or maybe an occasional Instagram of like a cute workout. workout outfit or something like that, you know, so, but other than that, nothing, not tech savvy at all. And so, you know, my point in sharing this is that there's so much opportunity right now. There's so much opportunity in the online space. As a matter of fact, you know, I went through this before, I had a marketing agency in my 20s. And I went through 2008. You know, I went through the great 2007-2008 crisis. And at the time, I was selling insurance and doing amazing, like killing it in the insurance world. Like I was this cute young 20-year-old blonde, like I did great in the insurance world. And then everything crashed. Next thing you know, all of my clients are gone. So I got to shift and I got to pivot. And I took my marketing business and this was really before like the internet is what it is today. But I took my marketing business, reached out to people I knew, leveraged my time, leveraged my resources, and was able to get signed on to huge companies like Dr Pepper Cherry in 2008, 2009. Whenever they came out, they hired me to do a 6-month tour to unleash and unveil this product and get it into the hands of their consumers. And so like, you know, Lance Armstrong Foundation. At one point, I got to run VIP shows for Jewel, the singer. That was amazing. She's the same height as me. It was so fun to find that out. You know, and there's like, like these big companies like Susan Komen Foundation, the Livestrong Foundation, Kia, like when they released the Kia Souls. I worked for the Trail Blazers, for those of you who are familiar with Portland, Oregon, like Rip City. Like, yeah, like I remember standing next to Travis Outlaw and I was like up to his belly button, like You guys might not even know who Travis Outlaw is, but he was a basketball player here in Portland. But yeah, like there's, if you can leverage right now in the online space, like this was before the online space, right? So right now you can leverage things in such a huge way and create a thriving, beautiful, gorgeous business that you've truly desired. And if you're already in the online space, if you're already, you have a business and you're watching this, then, you know, there's so many ways you can shift and you can pivot. As a matter of fact, right now is we're like, as we're filming this, I will be releasing the Selling in Uncertainty. It's a free 3-day course I'm doing. I'll be releasing that. And then later on in the week, on the day that this releases, I will be having a— I've taken a media guy and I've taken a guy who does graphics And he has a, like, editing studio. And he's going to teach you, like, we're going to do a webinar on how to create beautiful online courses, videos, all of that. Like, we're going to be teaching that later on in a webinar. So I'll put that link below so you guys can jump in because it's going to be super fun. It's going to be beautiful. Amazing. I brought these guys into my company because they are talented as ever. They're amazing. So, you know, that's, that's the thing about online space. It can be utilized and we can connect, we can collaborate, we can serve one another. You know, that's totally my heart, as you guys may know, because we've been in this series now for like 14 days and we are like, we get to serve. That's the beauty about this time. Like, I was supposed to be on this big event here, like in a big event all like almost all of April. I had these events going on and that's not happening anymore, right? So I got to, I got to pivot. I got to pivot and realize that, you know, now today I get to serve in such a huge way and, you know, serving just to serve, giving just to give, and when you are in that space of generosity, that's where the magic happens. That's where you get the fulfillment the desire and the passion from your business, whatever it looks like, whatever it is, when you're able to give back, make a difference in the world. And I mean, some of the messages I get even from this show just warm my heart, right? So if you're in that place right now where you're working from home, maybe this is the first time you've ever done it. Maybe you're an essential worker, you know, maybe you're realizing that in this time, When we have so much free time. And honestly, like, I want you guys to hear this and really like hook on to this idea that right now there's so much opportunity. You know, one of the biggest things I would hear from people previous to this chaos was like, I don't have enough time. I don't have the time. I don't have the schedule for it. I don't have the space. I don't have the margin. But here's the thing. Now we have more time than ever. We're realizing that the traditional 9-to-5 job sitting in an office 9 to 5 isn't for everybody. It isn't for everyone. And we're realizing that this, this traditional 40-hour workweek might not even be possible. As a matter of fact, I know, I already know that there's a lot of people who after all of this happens, they're not even going to continue to, they're not going to go back to their regular jobs. whether if that's, you know, a forced thing, or if that's a real thing, like there's, you know, we're realizing that the traditional job structure really isn't working. And we already were like heading toward this gig economy, right? Like this is the age of the gig economy, where people are not just one thing, right? Like we have multi-passionate people out there who are embracing the facts That they're multi-passionate and that they can be a massage therapist and a yoga teacher and a yoga instructor and a gardener. Like, we can be all of these things, right? Like, how many of you guys— I'm sure that there's some of you out there— how many of you have ever heard you're too much? Or you can't do that, or, you know, you need to be realistic in your thinking. Well, I want to shift your mindset into the fact that if, you know, if you're multi-passionate, if you want to go out there and be an interior designer and a yoga teacher, why don't you go, you know, design custom yoga areas in people's homes? You know, there's people out there doing that. Plus, after this thing that's happening, I'm sure that people are going to be a lot more keen To opening up to the possibility of creating some of these things in their homes. So why can't you be multi-passionate? Who says that, you know, we have to— and this is a traditional old way of thinking in the business world— that we go to school, we be a good student, a good student, we get good grades, we graduate with a degree, we go get a job. and we're a good employee until we retire. And then it all works out, right? Like, this is a very, like, aged-out idea. Yes, it still works for some people. Absolutely. But here's the thing, like, traditional education isn't even as beneficial as it used to be. You know, a lot of people are shifting more toward experiential education, like someone who's been there, done that, who's going to give them real-life experience, as opposed to some textbook answer where they just get a piece of paper and then can't even get a job anyway. Right? Like, this is where the world is shifting. Traditional education is like— there's scientific trends behind it. It's aging out. It's fading out. You know, the new generation, the Gen Zers, I think they're calling them, like, they're more likely to go watch a YouTube video and learn how to do something than they are to take a class or to go to college. And, you know, whether that's right or wrong, I don't know. There's not enough data. I'm not here to like argue whether that's right or wrong. But the thing that I'm saying is like there's such a huge opportunity right now to not only learn the things you want to learn during this time, during this time when we're all at home, you have time on your hands. So why not use this time and space to sharpen your skills? Why not use this time and space to Be a better human being than you were a month ago or 2 weeks ago. Because here's the thing, here's the thing I really want you guys to think about. I really want you to take a moment and think about at the end of this deal, at the end of this crisis, whether it's 2 weeks from now, If it's 2 months from now, if it's 6 months from now, who is the human being that you want to be when you come out of this? Who's the person you want to be? Do you want to be an angry, bitter, resentful person that just kind of coasted their way through this, that just kind of like survived through it? Do you, or do you want to have a story of triumph? Where you took this time in this space and you went above and beyond anything that you could have ever imagined and desired. This could literally be the, the caveat. This could be the time and the place. This could be the space where you pivot from the rest of your life to create the best of your life. It is absolutely 100% possible because let me tell you, Success is just on the other side of your fear. Success is on the other side of that, whatever it is that's holding you back. So what is it that's holding you back from that? Fear? It could be uncertainty. It could be that you're sitting back waiting for the government or for someone to give you permission to go back to your normal life. And if you're just sitting back watching the news, eating up all of that negativity, eating up all that scarcity, like I'm not talking about being ignorant. Like, yes, absolutely stay up on current events, figure out what they're saying. What is the CDC advising? What is, you know, what is the common conception of what's happening? But what I'm talking about is you have a choice right now in this moment. You have a choice to consume. You know, right now Netflix is being consumed more than ever. So the fact that European nations are saying like, hey Americans, you're going to break the internet. Like people are sitting back and consuming trash and news and gossip and Netflix. Which, don't get me wrong, if you want to binge out on some Netflix, that's great, but just don't let it consume you. You have a choice. You can take this time that we've been gifted, because it's a gift. You can take this time that we've been gifted and you can make choices and decisions in your life that are going to propel you forward. And you can also take this time to just sit back, take a break, coast, survive. But if you're watching this, I know you're watching this because you want to thrive, even in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. So my invitation to you is really sit back. Think about that tonight. Who do you want to be at the end of this? Whether if it's 2 weeks from now, if it's 2 months from now, if it's 6 months from now, who do you want to be? Do you want to be a better person? Do you want to be more driven? Do you want to create that business you've always wanted to create? Do you want to go after some of these dreams that you've been too afraid to go after? Do you want to like dust the shelf, dust the book off the shelf Pull that book off and reopen that chapter that you've given up on so long ago because you think you're too young or you're too old or you're too ugly or you're too— you're not pretty enough or you're not smart enough, whatever it is. Like, I don't like— these are all excuses, right? Because it's never too late. You're never too old. You're never too far gone because if you're still— if you're upright right now, And you're not in a hospital bed on a ventilator or 6 feet underground, then your story is not done. Do you want to take this time to write the story of who you are and make the decision that you can be anything you put your heart to? Anything. So my encouragement to you is really like dive into that. Who do you want to be at the end of this? Who do you want to be? What kind of legacy do you want to leave when you look back at this time and, you know, your grandkids are asking you about it or, you know, however they're reading about you in a biography someday? What do you want to create in this time? What's holding you back? And are you ready? To let go of the excuses, to let go of whatever's holding you back? And are you ready to thrive? I hope you choose to thrive. I love you guys so much. So tomorrow will be the last day of the Thrive Series, and I have 2 very special guests that are going to be coming on. I'm so excited for— I'll put my links below. You guys can find me on Facebook, Instagram. TikTok, LinkedIn, um, at It's Val Nichols, and my website is valnickels.com. I would love to invite you to my webinar that we're going to be hosting, so, um, I'll drop the link below if you're interested in that. I would love to hear what are your takeaways, what are you hearing from this, can I support you in any way. Let me know how I can support you. Um, feel free to— you can book a call with me if you need some coaching around this. I would love to connect with you. Um, like I said, I have You know, a lot of time opened up in April that I'm serving and I'm giving. So I would love to connect with you if you'd like coaching around anything that we talked about, especially around business. I thrive in business. I'd love to talk to you about that. And I love you guys so much. I've just been so honored to be serving you in this time. I'm so excited. And I will connect with you guys tomorrow on day 15. Bye. Bye.