Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Nikisha welcome to the brand disruptors. Podcast how are you today?
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I am well, I love hanging out with you. So I'm extra excited today.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): I know we just we just broadcasted my podcast interview that I had with you a couple of months ago. And now we're we're having yours.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes, which is so much fun to be in the other seat and get all the questions. I love it like this is so joyful for me.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): It is. It is fun to be interviewed right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes. Yeah.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): It is so, why don't? Why don't we talk to the guests and let the guests know like, how do you help
Mia LaMotte (she/her): women become iconic?
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Ceos.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I love that even the ring of iconic.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): I know I just feel so good.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): It does. And the reason I love that word is because, as entrepreneurs, we usually are struggling, we're on the struggle bus of being alone, figuring out everything alone. And if my market, who is like me, a type, a perfectionist.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): when we say we want to figure out on our own, we feel good about that.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): But what we do is we elongate the process. We literally take a long time, because if you don't know something you can't figure it out.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): But it's when we actually take time to invest in ourself, invest in our knowledge that we speed up that process and make it shorter. And that is what I learned in my process of being an entrepreneur for 16 years.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and that is exactly what I want to bring to my market. To my women, Ceos, who want to go from being an amateur to iconic. But they don't want to do that in 20 years, because they actually want to make money, you know. So
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): what we do is we have a masterclass. And in this masterclass we are literally teaching our community and we invite everyone. Everyone's invited non like, if it's a male non-binary. Whoever wants to come, because if you can grab the information in that masterclass, we tell you to take it. I love pouring value. So we do a framework called a 5 star scale system.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and the scale is an acronym. So S is our. We teach people, our signature, client experience. And that's important, because when we treat people really good, our clients, our leads, our leads. We convert them to our clients. Our clients refer us so that we create a referral system. Our C is to help them build confidence, driven bookings.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Everyone hates the sales consultation, but it's what's required as entrepreneurs. In order for us to make money, we have to show up.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So we teach them how to show up. We teach them those small little techniques that's gonna help them turn a lead into a client. And then we have a for automation and delegation. So we teach them how to create systems that like literally hold their leads hand in converting them and building the like, know and trust factor
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): through automation. Because everyone think automation is robotic. It's not personal. It's cold, it is, if you keep thinking that way, but we show them a different way, and we want that we want people to feel handheld through the process. Hand holding doesn't mean having a call at 3 am. Or texting at 3 am. So please don't.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): And put those.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Together, correct.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Hi.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And then we have L, that they leverage their systems and automations. So how to use that for their benefits. And I'm gonna actually go back to my, a, my, A was actually authority and price mastery.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): That's what a is for. Sorry about that mishap. So we teach people how to price, how to create their service pricing? What does that look like? What does it include?
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): How to make it so easy and saying it that people get it right away. A lot of us get really stuck on pricing, but it's not pricing. It's who you're speaking to who is valuing the offer and ready to jump in on that.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and then L is our leverage, our systems and automation. Like I said before sharing how to make your automation personal handholding, helping your lead, know, like and trust you. So they become your client, and ensuring that that system is helping you increase your capacity without burning out.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And last, but not least is our evergreen testimonial engine.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So this is where we teach people how to create those testimonials of their clients.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): verbally saying how much they love them verbally. Telling the world like this is the person you want to work with, and then, having that evergreen content to put on your social media to send in your emails like, we teach you this 5 star. Get it. 5 star scale system. It's like a 5 star resort, you know, a 5 star, Michelin. I don't even know if they go that they go 3 stars. They don't even do 5 stars.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Right, right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right? So it's that elevated framework of getting someone from burnout
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): from being an amateur. And when I say amateur, not new, but just like always in a startup stage.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yes.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right to becoming this iconic women. CEO,
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): where you now have more leadership, role, visionary role.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yes.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Control right? Why not cause as a woman who been through it for 16 years?
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): If I learned how to get my business here, why would I not want to give this to someone else?
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Well, and that's what I want to know more about like. Tell me more about like what?
Mia LaMotte (she/her): What kind of pain were you in that you came to this, this whole formula that you created because I I know, like for myself, like typically these amazing things that we build come out of some, some lack of knowledge or some pain that we had ourselves. And we're like, Oh, my God, this is amazing! Let me go teach it to other people right? So what was going on that made you decide you know what I need to. I need to be able to help others
Mia LaMotte (she/her): scale their businesses. And
Mia LaMotte (she/her): I want you to talk to us about like what scaling actually is, because a lot of us might believe it's buying a building or getting an investor or having this big team. But what? What actually is scaling? And then tell us a little bit about how you got to this point where you were like. I'm I'm done with the burnout. Let me go and figure this out, and.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So scaling in our world doesn't mean a bigger building, a bigger team.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): But what it does it means more capacity.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): but not capacity to the point where you can't function or live your life.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So when I think about scaling for all the entrepreneurs I work with.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): they might be able at a break even or a capacity level, have maybe 10 to 15 clients they can manage at one time.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): but usually when they don't have a good system. A lot of things go wrong because they forget a lot of things because it lives in their head.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): They may have a Google sheet. They may have 5 to 7 applications.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): but none of them speak to each other. They always have to go in one to find another information, another to get another piece of information to put the whole story together, to keep the project in production on task.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): In doing that, that checklist that they create every morning never gets done, never gets done at the end of the day, because there's too many things to do, and they're one person with no team, no Va, no support.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Sure there's lots of lots of folks out there who can relate to that right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes, and at the end of the day they always feel like crap, because their to do list have so much still pending, and they go to sleep, and they can't sleep, because all of it's running in their head of what they have to do. The next day.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So scaling means actually having some form of a Crm client relationship manager
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): automations in place to help like lift the burden, lift half of it lift 75% of it. And we determine that based on their company.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And when you use automation, it can get people to come into your world a lead. It can give that lead an email to do the next step. It could speak to them, it could nurture them. It could get them to convert and scheduling a call, you get on the call, and then it can convert them to a paying client.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and that does not take a lot of energy from you.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Therefore, when you're working on production, you could be fully in your production and not worry on the front end and get everything you need. So we believe scaling allows you to increase your capacity instead of 15 clients at Max to 30, 40, 50.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And here's the best part about becoming an iconic women. CEO, is that when you increase now you get more money, you can hire a team member. And now your team member helps you with production, because your system is doing the 1st part of it. So you're not hiring them to do the work you don't really want to do like answer emails. They can. But your automation is helping with that.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): But now you can use them to leverage making more money, because now they're helping you with production. Now you can split yourself. You could train them and split yourself.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And that's how businesses grow. We grow through systems.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): You know what I mean. People keep thinking. A system is a last part, and I go. No, it's the structure to help you become a iconic women, CEO and I don't think any of us start a business just to burn out
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): right. I don't believe you did. I don't believe I did, but we're choosing it subconsciously.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right. So I'm gonna go into why and how I came up with the 5 Star skill system.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Okay.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): The 1st 10 years of my business. I am a type, a I am a perfectionist. I want to do it on my own. I want to figure it out on my own. Therefore I'm going to feel the pain of that. So the 1st 10 years of my business I literally had no plan.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I was constantly trying everything that I saw my competitor doing, thinking. That was the way my competitors were my teacher.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I wanted, like an e-commerce store because I was in invitations. By the way, guys, I did wedding invitations. And and when I didn't do wedding I was doing trying to do other types of invitations.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I wanted to build the e-commerce store and back. Then, in 2,009 to 2019, there was a company called Magento.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I hired a company to build my website e-commerce, with no plan, no market, nothing. And I spent over $20,000 doing something and had to close it at the end of the day because it needed more money.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and there was there was none coming in. Because who was I presenting this to how was I going to market it? There was no marketing plan.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): so in those moments what I was doing on my own, without any advisory, any consultant, any knowledge.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I was failing, but failing through experience, and in those moments it hurt like hell. But the hindsight was, I was learning how to build a website because I was very involved in that process.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): But it hurt and it hurt like hell.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): It sure does.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes, because when you're spending money and you're not getting a return on that investment, there's nothing coming in from it. It makes you. It depletes you physically, and it's like in your mind. You come up with a story that you are not really good at what you're doing. You start to really beat upon yourself.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So that was the 1st part of my experience.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And in that experience I had 2 kids, so I couldn't really show up as much in my business. There's moments I had to take off.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I was staying home with my kids, and from 13 to 31 I worked every day like I worked. So when you come a stay home, mom become a stay home. Mom, you start to lose your identity.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And when you're trying to start a business, and you're not even finding identity in that.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): You start feeling like a failure.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And that's where those voices on the inside starts to beat you up.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right. So that was the 1st part of it. And in 2019 I was on a Facebook community group, and I got an invite to come into this other group, and they were doing a weekend seminar on Saturday and Sunday.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and this person was another invitation designer, and what she was going to show us in this seminar was, how she does her quotes her prices, and of course every entrepreneur wants to know how the hell do you price something. What do I do? This?
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I got really excited. I think it was a $1,500 investment, and at that point of not making money. It felt heavy and big, like every entrepreneur can experience. We always think that payment is a lot because we're not making money, but the reason we're not making money is because we're not investing ourselves to learn how to make the money.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Say less, say less.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): That cycle is death. Alright, bye.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I signed up, put it on my credit card, because that's what they're there for my my business credit card. That's how I use it, and I go. And the 1st day on Saturday she was doing mindset work. She was teaching us how to become a lighthouse where you stand still, and you're the guiding light for people to come to. You.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Hmm.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Rather than a tugboat
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): that goes out to the ocean and try to tug all the boats in and have.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Love, that I love, that analogy.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yeah. It's a good one.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): so she was teaching us that. And in that moment I didn't know about mindset work. I didn't know about scarcity, abundance, no clue about growth mindset.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I'm like I'm like looking forward to. Of course, the pricing, which is Sunday very clever, and how she presents.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): End.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So Saturday. She's doing mindset work. She's teaching us these tools and teaching us how to reverse engineer. How much money you want to make for the year.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and what that would look like in converting leads into clients.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I was like, All right, this is good. So Sunday I come back, and we go into pricing. And this is when my mind is blown.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Sure.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I'm gonna 1st tell you. When I was doing my business I was charging a thousand dollars for wedding invitations for a hundred of them.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and they might be a pocket. They might be this they might be that. So, in order for me to charge that price, I have to get a cheap printing company.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): or do in house printing back in the days that sound like it was fabulous in house printing. That was hell in every way. I don't care what no one tells me.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah, I'm not a printing company, so I don't have a fax.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So when I had to print on my printer and my printers eating my paper, my inventory, my assets, and I have to pay more money for that, and I'm jacking things up that's called waste.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): But you guys don't know that yet, because in that moment in house printing was like the Fab, but it was called being scarce.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right. So I used a printing company that was also lower, but they caused so much pain, because every time I got an order my hands. My fingers were crossed. I was praying that they did not make a mistake.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and 80% of the time they did, and every time I called they would give it for free, and I go. I don't want free. I just want I want my thing the way I want it the 1st time I get it.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yes, yes.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Because I have to call you. Take time away from what I'm doing.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and now you have to reprint it and send it so that delays my delivery moment. Get it. So it's not pretty. So I was charging a thousand dollars for a hundred invites and going to wedding showcases and getting people to come in, and when you go to showcases, a lot of people are there to shop. So they want budget, you know. Some were elevated, some were not so. It's not always the case, but on Sunday she's teaching her pricing. And this beautiful human being
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): she does save the dates, not just wedding invitations save the dates, wedding invitations and day of, and she charges around $10,000.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Okay? And I'm like what here's the part, not even the money.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I, Nikisha, would be at my computer on Illustrator designing 3 different concepts.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): The 1st one I would hate, the second one would be medium, and the 3rd one would be my favorite cause. That's how it works. Your brain gets better and better as it keeps going.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And I don't know why I would show them 3, all 3 of them, because they would choose number one. The one I'm like this is crappy. But why you even giving them if you didn't like it right? But I.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Exactly.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right, and I'm here doing in house printing, of course. Yes, printing all the envelopes, mail merging, doing all of it.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Look, you're making me cringe with that whole mail merge. Oh, I'm having flash backs over here.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Good.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Okay.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): This beautiful human being does none of that. She has a company who does all of it on her behalf.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): sends it to her in the mail, in the envelopes. She seals the envelope, put postage on it, take it to the mail, the post office, and mail it on behalf of her clients.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I'm here up at midnight, 2 in the morning, family sleeping, missing out on my kids, doing in house, printing.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah, stressed out, yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): For a thousand dollars. Okay.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): You weren't even making a thousand dollars, though.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): No, no, because all of it went.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): You probably wouldn't even make. You probably didn't even make any money.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Exactly breaking even right your expense.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah, yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Gone!
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So when I saw this, the end of that Sunday.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): my whole insides were on fire, and I could feel the heat.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I'm going to be honest with you. This woman is a non-person of color. She's a white, beautiful woman.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I thought she can do this because she's in Manhattan, and I can't.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): 1st thought came to me. You know where that thought comes from. That thought comes from my past. It comes from the history it comes from my past of slavery. It comes from us not being able to get things and not have privilege. And
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and it I'm I'm grateful. It lasted a second.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): because that was my mom, my mom came into mind the things that my parents do, my mom and my dad, and how much they put into us to become. I have a Master's degree.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I have, like 2 of them, I have my undergrad.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): so it only lasted a second because of the experience and knowledge I've gained in my life.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And then, automatically, my brain was like Nikisha, you know better. That has her color. Skin has nothing to do with it. Oh, what she showed you today! You could go and do. She showed it to you. Let's go.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): And you paid her to show it to you.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I surely did, and I'm grateful I did. That was the 1st thing I that's the 1st time I ever paid into anything.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And it got me from point A. To Point P. Faster than the 10 years I was trying to do it on my own.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Nope, thank you for pointing that out. Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And I came home on fire ignited.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And I started. They they mentioned Craigslist and finding a rental space, and I wanted one, and that was like a mind light bulb went off. I came home, and I found one in an affluent neighborhood right next door to me
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): a nice space that was like 4, 30 a month.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): which was so good, and it was a nice space I went. I got it for 2 years. That was, remember, Covid was 2020, but the people who were running it and managing it. They worked with me in such a way, and I had the space to go to, and I felt really good going to the space.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): But with her education
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I started to shift from thinking about working with clients and meeting them in the office because they're local.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I shifted now because Zoom came into play.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And I shifted to national working with anyone anywhere a planner, and I wanted to do that. So I started to revamp my company, and in that moment the 1st thing that kept coming to me is like Kaizen, how to get better, how to improve little by little.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and had read that book, too. And I was like systems.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I got really because I wanted I wanted. I want people to come into my experience, and I wanted them to feel loved.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): respected, valued.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I wanted them to feel really good. So my brain was focused on that to the point where
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I just started doing things and testing things, but I also kept investing in myself.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I joined a community, a first, st a community in the wedding industry, where they teach you how to change your mindset
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): scarcity from cheap to 1 million dollar concepts.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And when I was in there, of course, they rocked my world because these were 3 white women. I was listening to.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And in moments they were good, and they all had 3 different personalities. They were very interesting, because one was very much timid. Second one was like medium. 3rd one was like money hungry. It was very interesting to see their personalities. So you you got to cling to the person you kinda liked.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Right, absolutely. Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I cling to the person in the center, and I did well, and they showed us and taught us how to have better, like qualifying forms. So I was learning and understand. When you're learning. Now, you have tools you can use in your business to help others, because I believe in helping other people rise.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Absolutely.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So in that group it was good, but there was a moment. They're all planners in the event industry where one of them mentioned as a planner, we get to say Jump!
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And as a vendor you get to say how high.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Oh!
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): That was a trigger for me as a black woman. I'm not.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): I'm sure I'm sure.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): That was a trigger for me, cause that sounds more like suppression, and you think you're better than me, and I'm like what that is not how this works.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah, okay, can you also realize like, that's not how I want to do business.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): No, I like partnership. I don't like that. I'm better. I don't like I'm higher than you. I do partnership and team. Yeah. So I kinda let that go because it was no longer serving me. The information was no longer serving me. I hired, or I went into a sales community, and that was another conversion, right? How to sell, how to sell value, not your features.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right? Cause. I didn't know how to sell paper because paper was paper, so my clients will always say, I don't wanna spend this much. It's just paper. And I was buying into that that story.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Of course.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): but I wanted to make an elevated experience, so I had to learn how to sell the value of my service, not the paper, but the value. So I was like, Okay, and I got into that community and I would show up to the calls I would give. I would. I was. I loved it
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): because it made me better. It made me see what I was able to contribute the value I bring, because I would do the work, and I would shift that from my knowledge, and I would practice and listen. You could buy into anything. But if you're not doing the work, that's where you lose the return on your investment.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I was doing all of that. And then that went really well. And then, after that, I wanted to be really good with systems. So I got a system coach, but we did one to one.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): So that one to one work is amazing.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): It is, it was the best. It it also led me to the path of becoming a certified coach right? Because when I started I was in a seminar in person.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I went online Facebook, community, Facebook community, right where you still have community. But you work by yourself.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yep.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And then I was like, I'm hungry for one on one. So I could work on specifically what I want.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right. So I got into that, and all 3 of them serve you well because you can. You have positive. So I love one to many, because as a business owner, that's what we focus on. But at the same time we do add the vip one to ones, because people do need it. So I got that with my coach system coach for 9 months. She gave me such clarity.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Everything cause they ask questions, and you answer questions, and you learn about yourself, and you learn what you can do. And I was like, oh, so good. I remember
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): January 2022. In working with her.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I made over $60,000 in my 1st quarter.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): because I got people to say yes.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes, yeah, yes. And they were saying, yes, at like 5,000 8,000.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Okay, I was like, not not 1,000 5,000. Sometimes it was just 1st one specific thing day of it wasn't all 3. All 3 brought me to like 15,000.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Save the date invite and day of. So
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): that's when I realized about scaling, and I wasn't burning out, because the same company that 1st woman showed me that she worked with. It's the same company I went to, and now they were printing my jobs and they were stellar.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): They would do all of it, they would sketch it out for me, and I didn't do 3 sketches now I did one.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and every time I did one my clients was like, I love it. I was like, let's go because.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): 3.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): And and you were making so so here, here's a lesson that I'm here and I want, and I want you to talk a little bit more about this. But what
Mia LaMotte (she/her): what I'm hearing is that once you shift it.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): your mindset the right people showed up, and you actually started to work, less for more money.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yay, yes, goosebumps, goosebumps. Yes, that is what scaling is.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yeah, that is the definition of scaling.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Okay, yes.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): When I shifted my energy when I stepped into growth mindset, when I chose to invest in my growth.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): that is, when I was attracting people who believed in me because I believed in me.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I attracted people who wanted to work with me because they loved the energy
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and the value I was bringing, and it was no longer about paper. They trusted me. They knew I could deliver, and I would deliver beyond what they can even dream of.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): That's how good it became.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And with that I got a company to do all the work for me
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): because I was in growth mindset. They sketched it for me, they revised it for me. They delivered it to me. I so I didn't have to sell the design because I sold it before I sold it right. The client's mine gave the client an update about it. Do this through zoom videos. I'm not calling you. Every 5 seconds.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Client signs off on the approval, put it into print. They print it, assemble it, send it to me.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I put it in an envelope with postage, and I mail it out.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Clients loved it.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Loved it
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): right, and I'm still the Creator, because I have to come up with the concept. I put the concept together, and then I have a team that fulfills that for me.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): And that's what. And that's what I'd like to talk about. People are paying for that
Mia LaMotte (she/her): people are paying for your genius. People are paying for your your many years of knowledge. You're not paying for your hourly rate.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Next.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Right.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): So that's that's the other mindset shift that you had to have, too. Right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): And your clients about that right?
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): No, they don't. Because when I used to sell at a thousand, I was doing 100 invites per 1,000. So $10 per invite right? That's how people were cutting it down at $15,000. You can't do no per price. That's like over a hundred no one's. We don't do our prices no more. We just go. This is all included at this price.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): That's how it is.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): There is no per. There's no hourly. There's no I'm I'm doing 60 h of work 50 HI don't sell time.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I sell the value. I sell my genius. I sell my skills.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And that's what I do, the skills of me and my team.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And we literally take you through that process. We make it so easy for you.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and that's it. There's no extra brain work. We don't do a lot of brain work here, because if I have to exercise your brain. That means you're not going to like it because it's not survival. Brain doesn't like to do work that has nothing to do with survival eating, living. It doesn't want to do work. Hence the reason entrepreneurs struggle so much
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): so. That is exactly what I did.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I did it through my 5 star skill system. I got really good at it. I do evergreen testimonials. I have all my testimonials like everything, and these are clients I work with over the years.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah, of course.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And such a it's such a gift to know that one you're actually serving on a higher level.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): People are choosing you, not about money, but about value.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and to know that I made it from 0 to like 15,000 per sale.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah, I mean. And without the struggle.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Oh!
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Without the struggle is not required.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): It isn't a lot of people don't realize it. And I'm gonna say this, when I started
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I had to make a decision. I would go through this
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): down stage to make a decision. Indecision creates a lot of emotional cycles.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Sure, yeah, yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And sometimes we're addicted to the emotional cycle. It's like, we need to feel that because that.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Have you seen the drama? Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yeah, it's like we need the drama to feel like the decision is, gonna have more power.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So today, when I make decisions, I don't go through the drama, and I don't require it. It's not my addiction. What really is my addiction. I don't even the decision. I know the outcome. That's what I'm addicted to. I'm like, I know it's coming. And I'm like high on like, let's do it.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yes.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And that's that's what has gotten me so far, because I had to do that when I invested in my coaching, which was $21,000 investing myself, so no longer was I at 1,500, at 1,800, at 4,000. Now I'm doing 21,000 in myself, and that got me even elevated more. Now I became a sales coach.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yeah.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Let's talk. And you mentioned earlier you talked about as a mother. You realize, like you were in the struggle with being a mom trying to be an entrepreneur, trying to do all the things. What was like your breaking point in there where you were like. You know what something has to change?
Mia LaMotte (she/her): And was it was it that 1st investment, or was it something else that made you say, you know what this is not gonna work? And I'm still gonna make this happen. What was it.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I love that. You asked me that because what it was was before 2019,
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I got married in 2,008 had wife, 1st daughter, 2011, second, 2014. We were in Brooklyn. We moved 2015 to Jersey, and when we moved it was a new place.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and it was a new place, and I wanted a new life.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I had new demands, new demands meant my community would know what I do. They wouldn't know me.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and in that moment my husband and I, we were living, but not living with intention.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): We were living to survive.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Living to survive, for your family is the worst position to ever be in.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): There's there's a lack of love, there's a lack of value, and and especially in in a partnership.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So what I mean by that is, I am a type, A, and my husband isn't.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and if he is, he's in his own way. I don't know which way that is.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): What that means is when I did something. If I wash the dishes, and I just do it because we didn't have a process. Then
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): why, you can't do it when you see the dishes in the sink. Why, I have to be the one that always do it. Why can't you just get up and throw out the garbage? Why, I have to complain about throwing out the garbage. Why can't you do everything like me because I'm great.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah, yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): A lot of people might be like, Oh, my gosh! She's like speaking my truth. That.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): 4 months. Yeah, yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So there was a if anyone know Lisa Nichols, she has a coaching like a coaching company
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and motivating the masses, and we had a call with one of her coaches, Danita.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): It was 2018. No, I'm lying. It was around 20. Yeah, it might have been 2018, because it was a year before I invested in my business coaching. This was personal coaching. This was the 1st time I was exposed to a coach.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Okay.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And on the phone. She was, of course, telling me. But it doesn't feel that way. It's just conversation.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And she asked me like in my heart like, what is it I want to do?
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And my purpose in my heart is always to help women and young girls grow, and I remember when it hit me so hard because I teared up on that call, and I invested in coaching.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and what we worked on for, I think 3 months was me. Stop asking my husband to be like me and focus on me. Focus on what I want
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and what I want to do.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): That's pretty big, though.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): It is.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Right, not ex like letting go of those expectations of other people.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah, yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes. So one
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): in those calls. I wanted something more. I wanted a real relationship that grows together that loves together like I wanted that.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I had to make that choice in those moments, and I had to do the hard work.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So what I did was I stopped complaining, and I just did things.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and then we came up with a plan. I would do dishes Monday through Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. He will do them
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): right. We, as our kids got older they started loading, I mean unloading, and we'll load right?
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And and I say, low dishwashers, just in case anyone doesn't know we have a dishwasher. And
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): then I started to develop myself reading more books. Favorite book is called Happy Pocket, full of money, took me from my scarcity to my growth mindset.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And I started to improve Nikisha. That's why I went to the 2019 event.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I started to improve her from inside out.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Okay, the decision that I'm the decision I made to hire Danita was because I wanted to be better. I love improvement. I love growth.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I was hungry, for it didn't know how she was, the how
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): she was the initial part of the how.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): When I discovered that I kept working on it. I never went back to the old way, and if I did I was able to see it now, I wasn't subconscious anymore. So if I'm asking for something, seeing something, I can hear me and I'm going. Wait a minute. Hold up. I can self correct.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Before. I couldn't, because I didn't know the difference, because my mom did that right. I didn't know the difference, and
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I love improving myself, because I don't. I don't find joy in blaming everything outside of me as having power over me.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I don't look at a recession and say, that's why my company is not making money.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I don't look at someone else and go because of you. I can't do this. That is giving away power that I don't like giving to anything outside of me. Nikisha has all the power within.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): so I can figure out how to do things differently.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): so that I can have a different outcome.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Absolutely.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): He's up.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): You have a masterclass coming up.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yes, I do. I actually do them quarterly. I'm gonna have one. I have one. In the month of March
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I might have my next one in the month of either May.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and that's will be next one. You'll have a link in the show notes, so people will have access to that they could sign up for free, or by that moment depending on all the greatness that comes from it, it might have a nominal fee.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): That nominal fee come with benefits?
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Absolutely. Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So you know we have. Go ahead.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): We talked about today like giving value, and sometimes you have to pay for the value people.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): You do
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): because you can walk away with gold nuggets because I teach you my 5 star scale system. I'm actually educating you on that
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): right, and I love teaching people. I do it through my Instagram, where they could find me at Nkbiz. BIZ Guru.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I am a business lover. I started as a creative entrepreneur in production. But now I love teaching creative women entrepreneur how to scale their business and become this beautiful, iconic women, CEO, because I believe in it because I am it so. I teach from a place of experience. I teach from a place of love, but I also teach from a place of action.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right? I understand manifestation, but you still require action to get what you desire, and you have to do it differently and out of your comfort zone. So people who work with me are not normally okay. Staying in the comfort zone. They want to be stretched. They want to excel.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): They want to grow. They really want to have a company where, if they go away with their family, they don't feel like they have to sit at a laptop at the deck of the pool or on the beach.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): or they have to stay in the cabin while their family go hiking without them because they have to
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): like, communicate with this client who's very demanding of their time. Right? We teach people how to prime your market. Your clients
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): understand the guidelines and respect your time because you're gonna show up for them. But you show for them on the time you allocate for that, and that outside of that right. We also have to teach our our clients to be amazing.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): but they need help with that, because not everyone manages a company like you.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Right. So that is the stuff that I love. And I'm really good at it, like I'm really good at it. I would always tell people I know what my purpose is. I'm very clear
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): there's no confusion here. So I'm really good at what I do. And there's other things that I'm learning because I also do real estate. But I'm okay, learning that because that's not my passion. I know my passion. I love women, and I love women entrepreneurs. I will help you succeed, but you have to want it.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Gotta watch, and you have to believe that it's possible for you.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): That is true. Sometimes they have a little bit of belief in our call.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and then I let them borrow my belief.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and when they borrow my belief. That's when they get that I'm going to take action. And then when they come into my world.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): they start to see the that
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): mia, I think that's the best part. They come in with a small glimpse of belief they buy into it.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): And in our 6 months
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): oh, my God! I don't even know what to tell you. These people are transforming in front of me. They're like out here getting in publications going to network before that they would call themselves an introvert.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Now I have them out in the world, and they doing Instagram lives, and I'm like, who are you?
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Right.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Always just a creative, a beautiful human being. But you just needed to get out of your shell. You needed the story you've been telling yourself
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): to be broken. Yes, so I love that because I'm also I just I'm a disruptive coach. I'm going to disrupt you.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Absolutely.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Tell my clients be ready, but I don't do it in a I'm not gonna break you. There's no no, but I'm gonna ignite you. I'm gonna get you fired up like the day I got fired up.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): I love that. Yeah.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Yeah.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Any last words for the audience.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): I want to tell everyone who's listening. Thank you. Thank you for your ears. Thank you for your time.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): One and 1st and foremost, mia, and I truly believe in you. We know what you're capable of, and there are days you may not feel like you're capable or have capacity.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and the reason we get to show up and share our stories with you is because we want you to know that you're not alone.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): We want you to know that we're here for you.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and we want you to know whenever you're ready you have the access, but don't let that go.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Use it.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Get in touch, reach out. Do the thing that's uncomfortable for you, because when you actually take that 1st step
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): it will be your step to many successful days.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and you have to understand. Failing is not failing. It's part of the experience, but do it faster, because the slower you do. It is very painful.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): The quicker you do it. The further you get faster
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): and I love to fail fast.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): So I usually am doing stuff that is so uncomfortable.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): But the more I do it. I get really good at it. And that's how I got where I am today. I did not need to get here in 16 years. I could have got here quicker if I stopped dragging my feet. So that is my last words to you, and thank you for being here. Thank you, mia, for having me. I appreciate it.
Mia LaMotte (she/her): Absolutely thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing your light and your love and your knowledge. Thank you.
Nikisha | Sales & Systems Coach (@nkbizguru): Thank you.
