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1. Life Comes First With Nicole Ross
20 Plays2 years ago
It turned out her authentic self was only 1,500 miles and one business away.
Nicole Ross, Founder of Creative Quarterback and Co-Founder of Business Unbound, shares her story of professional and personal rebirth. After a decade of corporate life, and chronic panic attacks, she stopped wasting her 'energy thimble' pretending to be fine—and pivoted to actually being happy.
It meant quitting her job, starting a virtual creative agency, and moving to middle-of-nowhere Montana. It meant redefining success, creating community, and prioritizing her mental and physical wellbeing. It meant "Life Comes First."
Now, eight years into entrepreneurship, Nicole reflects on the experience of rebuilding life from the ground up—and why it was so important to do it her way. For more inspiration, subscribe to Unbound Turnarounds on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Unbound Turnarounds'
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Unbound Turnarounds, a podcast all about the challenges women business owners think about constantly, but rarely voice. We're Nicole and Mallory, entrepreneurs, friends, and co-founders of Business Unbound, a community helping women alleviate the headaches, heartaches, and backaches so work actually works for life. This is your safe space for the ups, downs, and the turnarounds.
Nicole's Journey from Corporate to Entrepreneur
00:00:31
Speaker
Hey, it's Mallory from Business Unbound. And on our kickoff episode, our guest today is actually the other co-founder, Nicole Ross.
00:00:42
Speaker
So today I talked to Nicole about her decision to end her decade-long corporate marketing career, move across the country to Montana, and start a virtual marketing agency that would let her put her mental health and life first. So Nicole, welcome. We are here. We are. We are together in Whitefish, Montana, which is almost exactly halfway between where we live. So I live in Bozeman and you live in Calgary, Canada.
00:01:10
Speaker
So for a special treat, we're doing actually some things physically together this week, which is awesome. So, so far, let's see what we've done.
Staying Connected and Weekly Highlights
00:01:19
Speaker
We are recording our first couple episodes of this podcast. We had a super fun photo shoot with Jen, white fish photographer.
00:01:29
Speaker
We set up some systems for our online course library coming soon. Yes. And we've done a lot of planning. We've done some videos, things that we can only do together. So when we are not together, how do we stay connected? Well, this is a little bit new this year, but I'm loving it. We started leaving each other voice memos and I am living for it.
00:01:55
Speaker
probably every day, right? Wouldn't you say by now? Yeah, every day to every other day. Yeah. I love hearing your voice. It makes me way happier than texting you. I love being able to just like be in the car and hit a little record and tell you about my day. Sometimes it's a little screamy. Sometimes it's a little weepy.
00:02:14
Speaker
And most of the time it's pretty good. So that's what we've been doing this year and I'm loving it. Okay, logistically, if people wanted to start voice memoing with their business bestie, tell people how we're doing, what system we're using. So we used to just be using like the text, you know, voice recorder.
00:02:33
Speaker
Sometimes it would disappear or sometimes our messages would disappear and then we would have panic attacks about it. You didn't like it. So then you were like, I have an app we can use. And what was that called? I have an app for that. It is Boxer, the one you know and love if you don't love it. If you do not know and love it, Boxer.
00:02:52
Speaker
And what I like about it is that I actually use it for work. So you may be able to use it with your clients or colleagues as well, but it doesn't disappear when you don't have to hit a little button to say, keep like on the iPhones. You can also listen while you're like, I can tell if you're recording and I can listen there real time. Like you're just talking to me and it stays up if you're doing other things on your phone, unlike the iPhone.
00:03:19
Speaker
And really, do you think it has improved our ability to feel like we stay connected? I feel like I know so much more about your daily life, which is what I am here for. So before we dig into your entrepreneur origin story, because as people get to know you, as one of the co-founders, they're going to wonder, who is this lady? What is her backstory? Why does she have all these things to tell me? We're going to dive into that.
Nicole's Early Career and Academic Background
00:03:47
Speaker
But can we do a high and low for the week first? Yes. Let's do high lows. Okay. Well, Nicole, why don't you go first low for the last week? Yep. Low for the last week. So my low, I'm going to do something business related for this one. I had an opportunity to potentially sell one of my businesses. So I have a website that is about horse riding because that's something I'm very into.
00:04:13
Speaker
And after putting probably a week and a half, two weeks into the most beautiful pitch deck in the world and reminding myself that this business is awesome once I see it on paper, I just got like a really curt response. It was kind of like, yeah, we decided not to purchase it right now. Keep up the good work. And I was like, I don't love it.
00:04:36
Speaker
I don't love it. So that was a low for me. The benefit being, I think I'm a little bit more resilient than I once was. So I gave myself a whole evening to wallow. And then the next day I was like, fine, I'll keep all the money for myself. So I'm proud. I had a quick recovery, but that also sucked.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's a fair low. Okay. So on the flip side, give us the good. What's the high? Yeah. So a high would be, I'm going to do a personal one for the high because it's something that I just thought about in the moment, how I wouldn't have been able to do it previously with my old day job. So last week we put the horses in the trailer and my best friend here and I hauled up to
00:05:16
Speaker
town of Helena and we rode around for the day and we had a picnic lunch and we had hard ciders. It's my jam and we took the dogs and it was beautiful. It was just like the middle of a Thursday and I just remember thinking I would never have been able to do this if I had stayed in corporate life and I'm so grateful that I can now. So
00:05:39
Speaker
There's lots of ups and downs and we'll get into that this whole series. But for me, those are the kinds of days where I think this is definitely worth it. That's awesome. I'm so glad you guys had such beautiful weather and you had such a fun day. What about you? I want to hear your highs and lows. So I'm going to go in the opposite order because they kind of tie into each other. So my high was last weekend.
00:06:03
Speaker
I went on a mama's retreat. And this was with a friend of mine that I'd known for a while now, but I haven't seen because she moved and I moved. And just so it just happened to work out. It was in Denver. I went, I met 18 other mamas. We spent just a Friday afternoon through Sunday morning together.
00:06:26
Speaker
just in community, sharing stories, witnessing each other. And the timing of that right before coming to see you was so good because it was, you know, like I was surrounded by women thinking, okay,
00:06:42
Speaker
I have this group of women energetically pouring into my goals of like now stepping into my sovereignty, my power, like into this new role of us developing because it's unbound, which is also all about community with women. So it just tied beautifully together and it really lifted my spirit. I really had a great time.
00:07:00
Speaker
And I know that you guys can't see Mallory's face in this audio medium, but when she talks about community, you guys, she is just like lit up from the inside. And that is how she came back from this trip. She was like, these are our people. This is going to be great. I'm tearing up. I really do. I love being in companionship with women. So I will be all in for Business Unbounce community. I can't wait. Love it.
00:07:24
Speaker
But the lowest side to that is you heard me say I was in Denver last weekend and now I'm in Whitefish this weekend and I joke, oh, I need a break from the kids or whatnot. But really, you know, I miss them. I do. I, you know, I came home for three days in between and it's hard with the transition. So.
00:07:43
Speaker
I will be excited to get back. So it's a low, but it won't be a long low. Well, the best I can do is let you raise me during these three days together. And I think that's a full time job. So you're still going to feel like a mama bear and you are most welcome.
00:07:58
Speaker
Okay. Awesome. Those are some good highs and lows to take us into the interview. So this is our first season of Unbound Turnarounds. And throughout the course of this podcast, we are going to be talking about some real challenges.
00:08:15
Speaker
with entrepreneurship and specifically some things that maybe women face that aren't necessarily the same for men. But we really wanted to start out the first season with the whys. Don't you always hear that advice? Yes. So it gives you something to come back to when you forget why in the world you were doing this.
00:08:35
Speaker
So, our first season is the why. We're highlighting the whys behind women who choose to work for themselves. Okay, so we all have our own reasons for picking this lifestyle and our personal entrepreneurship journeys are going to look pretty different, even though we may have started out with the same vision of why.
00:08:57
Speaker
but let's get into the deeper why. So for you Nicole, let's go back all the way to 2005. And that was when you landed your first job out of college. So what was that Nicole like? That was such a little baby Nicole, baby 2005 Nicole. I had just graduated from top 10 business school, like the nerd that I am. I'm also kind of that,
00:09:26
Speaker
Type A, perfectionist, that's kind of my vibe. And so for me, from childhood on, it was just accomplishments and what can we tackle next? And I want all the A's and I want to impress people and do a great job. And that's like my identity. So I stayed that way right on through college.
00:09:53
Speaker
Went to a good business school, even though didn't care about business at all. Not interesting to me. I had one class I liked and that was my creativity and marketing class. Probably not ironically. It was about fonts and colors. And I was like, oh my gosh, my people, here we are. And all of my like accounting friends were just dying inside, right? And just could not fathom why we would spend any time on this.
00:10:20
Speaker
So for me, I graduated and immediately applied for an entrepreneurial fellowship and it was pretty new. It was in Indianapolis, Indiana, and it was only a couple of years old, I think at that time. And it was a way to be able to interview with a bunch of startups at once.
00:10:42
Speaker
Was there like an inkling inside saying, I think I want this entrepreneur journey, but I know some of your story, you don't go right into entrepreneurship right away. So do you think that somewhere deep down you actually knew? I wonder about that. I think I definitely wanted a smaller company. So I interviewed with some really big companies like the P&Gs of the world to be in an internship program or things like that right out of college. And I was just like, I can't.
00:11:11
Speaker
do it. Like I can't, I cannot do it. So for me, the fellowship seemed more like I could end up in a small company where I would be a little bit, this makes me sound well, like exactly who I am. More of a big fish in a small pond. That's what drives me. So I don't know that I really thought about starting my own company at that point, because I didn't know anyone who had, but I did like the idea of not being in a giant company.
00:11:38
Speaker
Okay, so then what happens after the fellowship?
00:11:42
Speaker
So I got accepted in the fellowship and then we did what was called a finalist night and I interviewed with a bunch of places.
Panic Attacks and Self-Rediscovery
00:11:48
Speaker
And I remember just thinking one of them felt like the right fit and nothing else did. And I thought, well, I'm just going to tell this woman who is interviewing me that I want to work for her. I'm just going to say it just like that. Not beating around the bush, nothing. I was just like, listen, you're the one for me. I want to work here.
00:12:09
Speaker
And she felt the same way, so we were just a really good match. And I ended up in a small marketing team with just a couple of people at an email marketing company that had maybe 200 people at that point. And I just became a catch-all. So that was kind of how it started.
00:12:27
Speaker
So being a catch-all is maybe good in the beginning because you're honing your skills, which by the way, let's back up for one second. That was very brave of you. Right out of school. Yeah. You don't even have this confidence built up yet. So kudos to young Nicole. So you're doing all the things, but maybe being a catch-all really gives you some foundation and some lessons learned and some experience that you needed to then maybe take too.
00:12:52
Speaker
The next thing? I think that's true. So I look back now and there was probably within that first year I owned the website. I had never done anything on a website before. I mean, it was 2005, but I was not trained in this. They just gave me projects and let me figure it out, which I think is pretty unusual. And I'm very grateful that I had that opportunity. I did a lot of copywriting, did a lot of design. I made a lot of ugly stuff.
00:13:21
Speaker
That's for sure. But at the time, it was better than everything they'd had. So it was great. I got to learn the ropes and figure it out as I went. I got to work on events. I got to do just kind of soup to nuts everything marketing. OK, so that was 2005. You stay with them for like two years. But in that time, that little voice
00:13:49
Speaker
that you mentioned before about being a good girl, doing all the things right, starts hollering a little bit again. So what do you decide to do?
00:13:57
Speaker
Yeah, so I stayed in the same role for probably two years, I think. And then I just felt like I needed to do something a little bit different to keep my brain alive. That's basically what happens to me every two years for my entire life. And so I created a different job where I was a bit more focused on sales, supporting different like enterprise level sales with creative materials.
00:14:26
Speaker
But at the same time, I decided that's not really enough. Is it working all the time? No, that's not enough. I should also go to grad school. That's what I should do. I come from a family of academics. That is the right thing. My father would be able to die happy one day knowing that I have a master's degree.
00:14:45
Speaker
So I went to the CFO and I was like, hey, I'm thinking about going to grad school, not for anything related to my job, but I was just wondering, would you guys pay for it? Which they'd never had anyone ask before because it was a startup. And she goes, sure, yeah, I think we can do that. So then I went to grad school after work at night and I thought I could do it all.
00:15:11
Speaker
Well, I mean, that is a lot. So a couple things come up for me when you say that. It comes back to the, you know, wanting to get the gold stars because did you really want to go to grad school? No, that's my question. No, I sure did not. You just felt like you should. Oh, yes. I felt like you should. And it should. Women.
00:15:36
Speaker
I know people will be nodding their heads and understanding this because we have this, is it a cultural thing where we're just brought up to feel like we need to do more. We need to get the cool stars. We need to be the good girl. We need all these things for success. But really, if we listen to what we actually wanted or needed at the time, it may not always align with what we think we should be doing. That's exactly right. But I don't think I'd learn that.
00:16:00
Speaker
No, not yet. Right? Like, I've always just been praised for doing more and praised for doing better. And I would get positive feedback the more and longer I stay to work. Right? Which was a company of young people my age, primarily. And they were all my friends. All my friends were at work. And so we would work all the time. And we just thought that was the way to be.
00:16:26
Speaker
And I thought I should be doing more though, right? I'm in a town with a big university and wouldn't that be a nice thing to put on my resume? So no, I didn't want to go to grad school and guess what? I didn't want to be there when I was there. But did I quit, Mallory?
00:16:45
Speaker
No, of course not. Because also quitting is a whole another thing. A sin you cannot possibly quit once you realize you don't want something you started. Right. No, of course not. But these are old versions of ourselves. We know now. We know now.
00:17:06
Speaker
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00:17:26
Speaker
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00:17:56
Speaker
So moving on, we have the made up job, you're going to school.
00:18:00
Speaker
Now what? So this is when I would say we're probably in like the 2008, nine range now.
Transition to Creative Agency
00:18:08
Speaker
And I start working on some really big sales deals. So pitching to companies like Disney and red box and Oakley and supporting the salespeople who are making those deals. So the hatches feeds my neuroses about working more and doing better. And I love.
00:18:29
Speaker
helping people, right? So the more the sales team would say, Oh my gosh, like this is making such a difference. My little heart would swell and I'd be running around to FedEx at all hours of the day, making sure they got what they needed. And there was nothing I wouldn't do for it. Right? Because I just got so much positive feedback for it. I felt like I was uniquely positioned to do that job because I had made it up, which was another good lesson.
00:19:00
Speaker
perfectly happy making up my jobs for the rest of my life. But it was, it was a lot, right? I just started working more if that was even possible. So you're working more and you got your first taste of working from home from this job too, right? I did. Okay. I did. So that was another thing that was a little different. Nobody worked from home back then. It was not like now. Nope. This is 2009 software company. Everyone's in the office. And I just thought,
00:19:29
Speaker
I'd rather not be all the time. And what if I just asked to not be? And so I went to my boss and I said, hey, you know, I recently started kickboxing because why not? That's a badass thing to do.
00:19:45
Speaker
And I want to take a lesson during the day. So can I work from home one day a week and go kickboxing? And she was like, no one's ever asked, but sure. So I just started working from home one day a week. So young Nicole has already
00:20:01
Speaker
made up a job that she wanted, asked to go to grad school, basically asked for the person to hire her that she wanted to work for and asked to work from home. Work from home. Yeah, I mean, she was bossy. She was, she was so brave. Yeah. So there are pieces of her that still exist, but they were definitely wrapped up with this version of needing to be more and do more all the time. Yeah. That was her, right? That was something I thought I could do in my twenties.
00:20:29
Speaker
How did that work out for you? It wasn't great, Mallory. It was not great. Thank you for asking. Surprise, surprise. Okay. Yeah. So what happens? You're going to grad school. You've now like, I think doubled your course load. You're doing all the full-time work. You're working with all these big brands, representing them. What happens in like 2009, 2010? Yeah.
00:20:51
Speaker
At the time, I really didn't know what was happening. I showed up one morning downtown and I was gonna go on a road trip by bus, was gonna go from India to Chicago and spend the day with three of my guy friends from work. And I showed up at this coffee shop early in the morning and I had the first panic attack of my life. I had no language for it. This is not something that was talked about. I just thought it was literally just dying.
00:21:20
Speaker
in a coffee shop downtown. Mistakes were made, i.e. I got on the bus. What? Never would Nicole now do that. But baby Nicole was like, you do not quit. You do what you said you were going to do. You are fine. I was not fine. No. And literally from like that day forward, I started having panic attacks every day, multiple times a day. And it became debilitating.
00:21:50
Speaker
It was terrible. It sounds extremely
00:21:56
Speaker
I mean, it's terrifying. It's terrifying. Because like you said, I think other people can relate to this, that it isn't necessarily something you've grown up speaking about. No. Mental health and wellness. And so like you said, you didn't have language around it. So you didn't know if something was really wrong. And I know when something physically is wrong with your body or if you think something's wrong, that it consumes you. It does.
00:22:23
Speaker
And so you're still working and you're trying to do all these things while this is happening, right? Okay. So then you keep kickboxing because that was helping at least physical activity or no, you can't quit. Okay. All right. That would not be the A plus student thing to do until you aren't sleeping anymore and you can't eat anymore. And you are so tired that you really can't do anything.
00:22:51
Speaker
Except you have to put all your energy into pretending to be fine. Right. So, so then you also decide at this time that a smart thing too would be go to Europe on a trip. Nicole was not always very smart. She's very brave, but also goes to Europe. What happens in Europe?
00:23:13
Speaker
I get sick again, of course. And I think what I remember most was having like the five most beautiful days after this dark and depressing year. And I remember in the moment being like, I am having the best time. I feel happiness again.
00:23:34
Speaker
Oh my God, what if this goes away? What if I start to pay? Well, guess what? That was enough to send me into another anxiety sickness spiral in the middle of Eastern Europe. And I couldn't get off this trip. I'm in a tour, we're moving every day.
00:23:54
Speaker
And that was when I was just like, okay, you can't do things anymore. You're done doing things. That was the last time I've been to Europe 13 years ago. I'm gonna go this fall. It's gonna be fine, guys. I'm not nervous. But it was a real turning point where I was just like, oh, you can't do things. You're done being a person who does things. The only thing that you can do is quit kickboxing, quit traveling,
00:24:21
Speaker
You have to just put on the face, go to grad school, go to work. That's it. Okay. So this is what you try, which is so boring and sad and not probably an uncommon thing. People just do the bare minimum to get by when they're having these struggles. And we are going to talk in a future episode. We have a lot of content we want to talk about and a lot of people's stories to share about the self care and the physical wellness.
00:24:46
Speaker
that we're a working woman and it can happen in entrepreneurship too if you don't have the boundaries. So we're going to dive into that because you are not alone. You're not alone. But then you did something that I think is unique that maybe not many people would think to do. So what comes right after this? Yes. So this has been after
00:25:08
Speaker
Probably a year at this point of just survival and that was it. I didn't really have anyone to talk to about it. I didn't really know what to do about it. So I just stopped doing things, right? And I became so uninterested in my own life because there wasn't anything to it. I was just working and surviving and that was it. There's one thing I can't stand. It's just being boring. That's like the worst offense of my life.
00:25:35
Speaker
So one day I just thought, you know what, this is not acceptable. And I got a group of five of my friends at work, of course, cause that's where all my friends were together. And I said, I want you to form this committee and I want you to give me a monthly challenge every month for a year and I will do all of them.
00:25:56
Speaker
Every single one. And this is how I'm going to get my life back. And I just put my life in their hands because at least that would be interesting. And I called it the year of exploration. And so that was around 2011. Which is cool and amazing. And you got to use your creativity. It got you out of that downward spiral, kind of a creative way to, to focus on your recovery. So then.
00:26:23
Speaker
We're getting close. We're getting close to when you and I met here. So yes, we are actually. So let's see what happens then. So I did a year of this. I still had anxiety attacks all over the place. However, by this point, I was blogging about it and I was talking about it. And my goal was make this thing that brings me the most shame, which is feeling like a failure because suddenly I'm this anxious butterfly and I hate it.
00:26:53
Speaker
by talking about it and putting it all out there, it just became less of a stigma for myself. So people would ask me about it at work and they would read the blog and I would have these things to not necessarily look forward to. I did not like all the challenges, but I would have these milestones that I was like, this is what I'm doing.
00:27:13
Speaker
So I made it through the year at the end of that year. I've been writing kind of a memoir about the whole experience and we did a live reading of that as a culmination. And then it was shortly after that one of my friends, Sarah reached out and was like, Hey, do you want to go to Costa Rica? I'm going on my friend's yoga retreat. Can you imagine who led that retreat now?
00:27:39
Speaker
So that was the fall of 2011, which is funny because I had lived in Indianapolis. Yes, but I never met you, but we did not know each other. But we knew Sarah, joint friends. So I knew Sarah for my time in Indy. So I will get into my story in another episode, but I am hosting this yogurtry in Costa Rica and this
00:28:02
Speaker
just beaten down version of Nicole goes up. And I mean, she was very skinny. She was very skinny and just her energy was low. I think it was good for you though. I think there was some soul nourishing that happened and some takeaways that carried into the next chapter for you. So where are we at now? We're about 2011. We meet, this is where we meet.
00:28:29
Speaker
And I immediately remember thinking, I would never have said yes to this retreat without the year of exploration because I didn't do yoga. And the last time I'd been overseas was a dumpster fire. Well, it wasn't exactly see overseas. Yeah. And I would never have said yes to it. And then it turned out to be the best experience.
00:28:53
Speaker
I just remember thinking immediately that you were so warm and so welcoming and it was something outside of work where I didn't know any of the other people and they didn't know me and I didn't have to bring all this baggage with me and it was healthy and the food was amazing.
00:29:13
Speaker
I touched sloths. There's no downside here. And that was a really transformative trip for me because I just felt like it was the first thing that I had done on my own since being kind of sick. And I was like, this was cool. And you started, you rode horses. And I rode horses again, which I had not done in probably a decade, but grew up doing.
00:29:40
Speaker
Right. And I, yeah. And I rode horses with your mother on the beach. They, of course, once they heard that I had ridden a horse before, we're like, this one's fast. You're going to like it. And I was like, Oh, Lordy. Okay. That was a little dangerous. We all made it. It's okay. You're scalping. Um, but it was, it was like, Oh, this was the first inkling that I had of my old self.
00:30:06
Speaker
You know, a very small detail became something really important as we continue on. Okay. So we finished grad school. Yay. Okay. That's five years later.
00:30:19
Speaker
And then you are back into the corporate world, but now you're with a different company, right? I am with the same company. I just keep switching jobs the whole time. Yep. I keep switching jobs and I keep making up all of my jobs. That's the theme of my work life. But hey, basically what you do in entrepreneurship too. That's right. I don't want someone else to tell me what my job is.
00:30:45
Speaker
also, which is probably why I'm an entrepreneur. But yeah, I ended up staying for another, I stayed there for a decade, all in. And I moved the last like 2012 to 2015. I moved the marketing team to the HR team. And I loved it.
00:31:04
Speaker
Because that was my version of community that was taking care of employees. And that was making an internal team that typically didn't have any creative resources look and sound amazing. And I just loved doing it. I loved that job. And I loved it until the minute we got acquired.
00:31:25
Speaker
So the small software company gets acquired by the big software company. And I hate it. There's some feelings. There were feelings. Yes, I had some feelings about it. I immediately didn't want to work there anymore. And it wasn't because all the people that I liked weren't still there. They were, but the culture changed. And there was nothing about working for a big San Francisco company that felt like me.
00:31:53
Speaker
And I didn't like the energy and I didn't, I was just so tired. You know, it'd been eight years by that point. I made it another year, but yeah, I was just so tired. I just couldn't do it. So you're so tired that you decided to take a vacation. And this vacation changes the entire course of your life. So where do you go on this vacation?
00:32:20
Speaker
I was sitting about it and I was just googling yoga retreats because I went on your retreat. And I was like, that was the best thing I've done in years.
00:32:30
Speaker
Maybe there are others, right? I literally didn't know. And I wasn't because I was having my first baby at the time, so I wasn't doing them. Yeah, a different baby. And so I found a yoga and horse riding retreat in Montana. Never been to Montana, but it just sounded so dreamy that I was like, yeah, I'm going to go. I'm going to go by myself.
00:32:54
Speaker
I'm going to run a car. I'm going to drive after the retreat. I'm going to drive all the way through Idaho. I'm going to drive to Jackson hole. I'm going to like, take this time to be by myself and figure out what the hell I'm doing with my life. And so that was 2013.
00:33:13
Speaker
And that was the first time I did like a horse riding and yoga retreat. It was not the last spoiler. Okay. So who do you meet? Oh my goodness. Who do you meet when you're on this Montana adventure?
00:33:28
Speaker
So something I noticed like right off the bat was I need more friends that are not at my job. I need friends that are not based on the work version of me. And I ended up meeting a ton of women on this retreat who felt exactly the same way. Like I was, it was wild. We all were sitting around this table. I mean, everyone was crying. I'm not a crier.
00:33:53
Speaker
The Kleenex is flowing. Everyone is, I hate my job. I want to quit. Why can't I quit? Why can't I go do something else? And I was just like blown away because for a decade I'd been in this place where everyone was like, this is amazing. What we're doing is amazing. We're doing it together. We're doing it all the time. And here is a group of women that were just like, I am so tired and exhausted and unfulfilled by my life.
00:34:22
Speaker
And I was just like, oh my gosh, there's more. There's more of us. I mean, yeah, so I am still, it's been 10 years of our friendship now, friends with one of the women I met on that very first retreat. And it was just such a pivotal moment for me because not even did I fall in love with Montana, like head over heels in love with it. I fell in love with this idea of like, you know what?
00:34:48
Speaker
I'm quitting. I'm not gonna do it anymore. I'm too tired. It is not worth it. I am doing something else. I'm telling you magic happens when you're in community with women.
Expanding Ventures and Pandemic Challenges
00:35:00
Speaker
It's just the magic doing its thing. Okay, so you decide on this retreat.
00:35:05
Speaker
You are quitting your corporate job. Okay. My parents were not wild about this idea. Well, they were not wild about it. It made them very nervous. Didn't make you nervous.
00:35:19
Speaker
It really didn't. I think it made me more nervous to think about staying and what my life would look like. Yes. I was like, the alternative, it's not going to be good. I can't stay. So I wrote a letter of resignation and I dated it a year out and I put it on the corner of my desk at home.
00:35:42
Speaker
And I was like, that's the date. That's the date I'm quitting. I'm gonna figure out something between now and then to pay for my life and pay for this move and I'm leaving. Okay. And you're also leaving. I'm leaving. So you're quitting your job and you're moving. Yes. Okay. But it takes me a year. It takes your year. Okay. Because even that I have to do responsibly because that is who I am.
00:36:10
Speaker
Well, think about those emotions. What's going through your head? I mean, you are your own income. You're the only income. So there's probably some other emotions going on here besides like necessity of quitting. What else is jarring inside? Well, I'm a big security person.
00:36:28
Speaker
Right? I want financial security and work security and all of that, which there's none of when you leave a corporate job with a paycheck and you're like, I'm just not going to do paychecks anymore. That's kind of old news is getting paid business.
00:36:43
Speaker
So I was just thinking about all the things I could do and I ended up forming a virtual creative agency because I thought I could do that from anywhere. And if I do it right now, everyone who's leaving my company after acquisition will be my clients. And that's exactly how it worked out.
00:37:02
Speaker
And so enter entrepreneur Nicole. Yes. Okay. So this is what's the company. So I started a company called Creative Quarterback and it was made of at the time about 20 freelancers that I knew designers, writers, web folks, photographers, videographers, copywriters, event planners. It was everything I'd been doing at my job except everyone was freelance. And I felt like I was supporting
00:37:32
Speaker
People who had left corporate life and I really loved that. So started doing that. I took every single project as you do. So it was not an easy year, but I did support myself and I thought, yep, this idea is going to work and it's going to take me to Montana.
00:37:55
Speaker
Okay. So you're doing that, you building this after hours working your corporate job. So then you get to the year ahead, you're able to quit and you move to Montana. Yeah. So I told my parents, I was going and I did a trial summer the summer before just to make sure I loved the town. And then my parents came through to visit on a big road trip as they were retiring. And they were like, Oh, this is nice. It's really pretty here.
00:38:25
Speaker
And then they decided to move as well. But not right away. Not right away. So they moved shortly after I moved to Bozeman and I remember distinctly the drive out
00:38:38
Speaker
All I had was in my car. I didn't take anything else. I get rid of all my stuff. I had a beagle who hated being in the car, who screamed the entire way to Montana from Indiana. And I was going through like this implosion of trying to figure out my finances for the business. We'll talk about it in the money dumpster fires. It was bad. And I was so stressed the whole time
00:39:04
Speaker
driving out, but I was never so stressed that I was like, this is worse than staying. Yes. Okay. So we have several, or at least one season of money stuff. So that's what Nicole is saying. We will be talking about that in future episodes, but okay. So you're driving out, you're freaking out about money. You've got your loud, your loud pup, all of your possessions, the one car. You're super stressed because it's scary. It's scary. I knew one person.
00:39:33
Speaker
It's in Bozeman. That was it. Again, but we know young Nicole's brave. It should have been like this relief and like, Oh my God, I'm doing the dream. I'm doing the thing. This is amazing. But like it was a reality that can't be right because there's these real fears, real stress. I didn't know anyone who had their own business. No, completely by myself figuring this out. You don't. A lot of times even nowadays where there's more and more, I think,
00:39:59
Speaker
until you realize there's a community out there or get into it yourself, you don't realize that. Those people are doing it by themselves and they're just trying to figure it out and it's isolating. But it was still better because I could work from my house that energy thimble is what I say that I have because I don't have much. I could save it.
00:40:21
Speaker
I didn't have to spend it on water cooler talk and elevator talk and meetings and calls and all of that. Like I just didn't have to waste it that way because I was working from home and I could just like be rested and
00:40:37
Speaker
eat when I need to eat and take a walk and all of that and so like I could decide how I spent my time and I didn't report to anyone and I had no interviews and if I wanted more money I could sell more and get more money I was not asking anyone for a raise
00:40:56
Speaker
I was totally and completely like in control of my own future, which is somewhat stressful in some ways, but honestly still better. So you're, I mean, you have all these terrifying emotions and fears and yet you are also acknowledging that it was still better, which is a huge testament to this type of work. So fast forward now. Okay. You're moved. You're there. You're in your business. You're doing the things you have to live there.
00:41:22
Speaker
probably a couple of years to be able to buy a house and whatnot. So how's the agency going? The entrepreneurship start. It's going pretty well. Like I said, I took every single project. I felt like I always had to be selling. Like there was never a day where I wasn't like, I need to be out there.
00:41:42
Speaker
getting new clients, getting new projects, right? Because I needed to make this work. And I also wanted to give work to every one of my team. They were freelancers. They also need more work and selling with my job. So that was a lot, right? Like those first couple of years, I was all about growing the business,
00:42:03
Speaker
fumbling my way through everything else, right? The finances and the time management and taxes. Like I just had no idea, right? And I went to business school. How much of that helped me? None of it. Like it's not, if you feel like you're flailing, it's not because you didn't go to business school. I went to business school. I flailed the entire time, but it grew, right? We did good work.
00:42:29
Speaker
The agency grew. I started making more than I had made at my old job, which was really pivotal and a good boost for kind of my confidence of being able to keep doing it. So that was a big deal. It was a big deal for me.
00:42:42
Speaker
So key takeaways then, as you're growing the agency, tell me about what supports you put in place. Yeah. So very early on that very first year, I had a good friend at my old job and she wanted to leave around the same time, go start her family back in Indiana. And I was like, come work with me.
00:43:05
Speaker
I can't be the only one doing this. And she has been with me for the entire time. So her name is Abby. She has been my right hand for eight years. She now owns all of our client relationships. And that was the best thing that I could have done for my mental health, for our clients.
00:43:27
Speaker
knowing the things that I'm not good at, that she's good at. I was like, you need to be in this role. I need to not be in this role. Right. And so hiring support was a huge lesson for you, a game changer, really. And you've never regretted it.
00:43:43
Speaker
You've paid money for her. She doesn't do it for free. No. Isn't that weird? You're investing in her and it's a massive return on your time though, a massive return on your investment. And we're going to talk about that. We have a whole season and several courses about support because that's just one piece of it. So that helps you be able to kind of have some longevity there. Okay. So then I think this is kind of natural.
00:44:09
Speaker
You build the thing, the things going well, you've got your support in place. And then, oh, that wasn't where I thought you were going to go. Okay. So then you bought a horse, right? That was around the same time. Yeah. Well, I will say though, that around that time, right? I had Abby, I had a team. I learned a lot of lessons, but I realized like my energy symbol was going so much further.
00:44:35
Speaker
I had time for friends. I had time for hobbies. Like this was just not an option before. And so I was like, you know what? I've always wanted a horse. My dad always said once I was an adult, I could go ahead and get one for myself. And I was like, is that now? Am I an adult now? Is that what that means? And so I just bought one and it's been the best. I just love it. It's who I am. It's what I do. It's where the majority of my friends come from now.
00:45:05
Speaker
And it was the best. Like that was just, again, not an option before. No. And it's like the step into entrepreneurship allowed you this freedom. Like if you looked back, if Nicole in the corporate world is looking back, looking at this life that she couldn't possibly even imagine it would be a thing because there was just no capacity for it. It was no capacity. But by making that choice to step into entrepreneurship, you chose yourself and your life. Yes.
00:45:33
Speaker
And because of that, you got this great reward of being able to have a horse, which is like a lifelong dream. The year before I moved, I put this sticky note on the bottom of my computer screen that said, Bozeman or bust, life comes first. I was not living that for that year.
00:45:50
Speaker
But like, that was where my mind was, right? That was the focus. It was the only time in a decade I had like put myself first. And sure enough, I get out here, I decided to run my own thing, and I'm able to have a life that I love, which just never would have happened. But you had to do it for yourself.
00:46:13
Speaker
Okay. So you do that and it's going well. So you decide to do it again. Okay. So listen, what happened was like I said, every couple of years, my brain starts atrophy. So yet again, I had this agency. It's going pretty well. I'm happy with it. I got a good team. We're doing the things I hired Mallory. We'll talk about it. Life changing.
00:46:39
Speaker
life changing. And suddenly I was like, well, now things are working. I got these amazing two women helping me and not everything's on fire anymore. Like it used to be. What do I do with all this brain space?
00:46:55
Speaker
And so I listened to a podcast, love podcasts, about a guy who did affiliate marketing websites. And I thought, that's interesting. I know nothing about this. I know nothing about search engine optimization, which is the whole foundation of it. I know nothing about really making websites. And I think I'm going to do it. I think I'm just going to do it.
00:47:19
Speaker
That'll keep your brain busy. Yeah. Yeah. So again, my parents were like, what are you doing? What is it? What are you doing now? Yeah. What are you doing now? And so it was like the end of 2018, I believe.
00:47:37
Speaker
I jumped into this new project. I bought this guy on the podcast of beer. I picked his brain, took an online class, and then I just learned. I just learned all the time. And I launched this website in I think November of 2018. The next month it made a whopping $14 and I rejoiced.
00:47:59
Speaker
I was like, oh my gosh, it's working. It's working. Oh my gosh. Yes. I was like, well, this just proves it. This is going to work. Like I had no doubt about it.
00:48:11
Speaker
Yeah. I did not imagine where it would have gone. It's now five years old and it basically replaces my old income, which is insane. But again, it was just like, I don't know, their brain's kind of bored. I think I'll just do something new and it kind of works out. And it was a good thing you did because what happens not too many years after that, everybody knows 20 happens.
00:48:36
Speaker
Which, I'm on the team now with Creative Quarterback. We took a hit as did a lot of people. Yes, because our main business by that point was doing direct mail campaigns for companies. And where do you mail direct mail campaigns if the people aren't in the office? No idea, no one knows. We don't know where anyway. We don't know their addresses. I can do it.
00:49:03
Speaker
So that dries up a little bit. Yes, it did. And I did not have the capacity mentally to sell. I felt so shocked by the whole situation. I felt like I was trying to keep my parents alive every day. I mean, I was. And just the weight of all of it, the politics, the health crisis, all the supply chain stuff, everything frightens me.
00:49:30
Speaker
And I just descended into anxiety again.
00:49:34
Speaker
And I thought I was healed. I thought it was fixed. Well, you know, a global pandemic might do that for you. Yeah, I mean, maybe I gave myself a pass on it, but I was just like so down. And I didn't have the capacity to sell anymore. And I haven't really been outselling since. But the website has been making the money. So you didn't have to have the fears of that. And we kept our biggest client, which was huge. And they are still around, bless them.
00:50:04
Speaker
And I ended up getting a writing retainer with another kind of horse riding apparel company. And I just added it to my suite of ways that I make money, which is five or six things at this point. And that's okay. That's, that's comfortable for me. We have identified that you thrive in that market. We have identified that you do not thrive in that way. So some people out there might be going, Oh my God, that's causing me anxiety right there if I'm there and that is me. So you are on my team. Yes.
00:50:32
Speaker
All the people are like, yeah, that sounds super interesting. And I'm doing different stuff every channel. You are on Nicole. Okay. As you will learn about us, we are very different and almost every West. It's not the important stuff. Yes. Okay. So agency, it's still around. We still have a client. It's like, is it eight plus years now? Eight plus years.
00:50:54
Speaker
Horse websites, now five years. It's making money. You have your monthly retainer. You bought more horses.
Reflections and Future Plans
00:51:01
Speaker
Two and a half horses. One of them is a mini. I don't count it as a full. Bought a house. I don't have kids. I don't have a husband. Everything that I spend, I make. And that's just how that is. But at this point, I'm so comfortable not getting a paycheck.
00:51:18
Speaker
That's okay with me. What is the biggest takeaway of all this journey into entrepreneurship, like the biggest one-liner? I mean, I think for me, it was realizing that I was not trapped when I thought I was. There was so much that I got from that first job. All of those years, like so much I learned, developed all my skills, but I allowed myself to feel trapped in it. And it turns out that was just,
00:51:45
Speaker
a mirage, like I wasn't trapped in that. I just felt like I was. You can feel that way though. I know many of us can relate to that. You know, it was like, well, where would I get health insurance? Guess what? You can figure it out. There's options for that. What do I do without a paycheck? You go out and sell, or you create a new business, or you learn something new, or there's lots of options, right? But without someone reminding you of that, if you're sitting, you know, especially if you're single,
00:52:14
Speaker
and you're sitting at home by yourself, there's no one to remind you of that. And you have to do it yourself. And so that's definitely the most valuable thing I think that I learned was that there's always like an option C and everything that seems black and white is not.
00:52:29
Speaker
Yeah. And I think this community is hoping to do that for each other a little bit. Yes. Because you do feel isolated and alone. Oh, absolutely. And you don't always think there is a way out, even if you're already in entrepreneurship. Oh, absolutely.
00:52:45
Speaker
And you can't see always, you know, you're just doing the things and because that's how you learn and how you've always been doing it, that there is this other option and this other way. And maybe a fresh perspective can help you, but maybe your circle doesn't have that. Right. I didn't know anyone. So if we can do that for each other and just say, well, think about it from this perspective, but only if you ask for advice, ask where you need and then be open to receiving
00:53:12
Speaker
You know, it was the same. We'll talk about it in your story next episode, but you came to me for that exact reason.
00:53:19
Speaker
when you were gonna leave, you called me and you were like, I know we don't stay in touch that much at that point, but like we met on this retreat and I remember that you're doing your own thing. What do you think about me doing my own thing? And I was like, oh my gosh, if I can save you from any of the mistakes that I made, like that would make me so happy. You were the only person I knew. But how smart of you to be like, I am gonna ask someone for help. I didn't have anyone to ask.
00:53:48
Speaker
And so that's another reason that I love this business idea is if we can save people some tears, some money, some anxiety, you don't have to do all that by yourself and you're not the only one going through it. But if you don't have that community, you feel like you are. Yes, absolutely. And so this is how we got here. This is how we got to the new, the additional bullet point that you're taking on because
00:54:17
Speaker
we do think we can support in that role.
00:54:22
Speaker
That was a lot. I feel like I've sweated through my clothes. Even just remembering all the ups and downs of that story. Didn't even get into most of them. No. Another time you did it. Thank you for sharing. I mean, those are some lessons you had to, and it's vulnerable to have to say like, this was horrible. This was a horrible part of my life, but you're on the other end of it. So thank you for sharing. I love being able to share it.
00:54:49
Speaker
So I really do appreciate getting to share part of my journey. What I'm most excited about is the next episode where we get to change places. And I'm going to ask you all about how you came to be an entrepreneur, because as you said, like we're incredibly different people.
00:55:08
Speaker
Our lifestyles are different. Our family situations are different. Our wives are very different, but I just feel like so connected to you because you are also on this journey and I can't wait for people to hear your story. So tune in for episode two to hear all about how Mal started her own business. Thanks for being here, you guys. Thanks, Nicole. And we will see you on the next episode.
00:55:34
Speaker
Thanks for listening. Hop over to UnboundBoss.com to join our community and leave us a voice memo. We absolutely love hearing from you. If you like the podcast, please subscribe, leave us an Apple review, and share your favorite episodes with other women entrepreneurs. Talk to you soon.