Nicole Roberts Jones is uniquely gifted at one thing – drawing out what’s best in YOU and helping you take your Brilliance to The Bank. A veteran of the entertainment industry, Nicole worked in Talent Management and Casting before shifting her talents to help others Bankroll Their Brilliance through her Brilliance Mastery Academy.
She now works with entrepreneurs to create multiple streams of income from what they already know in order to build an empire from their expertise. Her clients have included the Steve Harvey World Group, Dell EMC, McDonald's, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Lisa Nichols and Motivating the Masses, Coach Diversity Institute and the BOSS Network to name a few.
Nicole is also a nationally recognized transformational speaker, bankroll your brilliance expert and best-selling author of four books, the most recent being Find Your Fierce. She lives with her husband in a suburb of Boston, MA, consulting, writing and creating breakthroughs for her clients.
As a Bankrolling Your Brilliance Expert, you have reached a successful level where you are helping people create multiple streams of income in their business. How do you do this, and how did you reach a level where you can teach people how to create multiple streams of income?
My success in my business was birthed in the midst of me being a complete failure. Now from the outside, I looked very successful.
This was back in 2010, 17 years after I started my business. Back then, I had a nonprofit working with African American teenage girls, and I had a for-profit working with women to start and grow their purpose-focused businesses. At that time in my nonprofit, I had 10 chapters in 10 cities throughout the country, and we were growing by leaps and bounds. In my for-profit, coaching women, I had a 100% full coaching client roster, meaning I couldn't take another client. I thought, since I can’t take on any more clients, I’ll write a book that way I can still give my principles to women, and that can also be a fundraiser for my nonprofit. Well, when my book came out, I started getting invitations to speak all over the country.
So there I was! Doing the very thing that I had dreamed of when I started my business in 1993. I was doing it. I loved every single minute of it. But I was only making $13,000 a year in my business. $13,000! So, I had a really great job that felt more like community service. And, yes, I had a daytime job to pay for my nighttime calling.
And I remember my breakthrough like it was yesterday. It was November 7, 2010, a Sunday evening after I had just gotten home from another speaking weekend and my daytime job; by the way, I was an adjunct professor at Boston University at the time. And I remember sitting on my couch, exhausted, and realizing that the classes I taught were on Monday at 8 am, and I haven't looked at my syllabus. I didn't know what I'm supposed to teach in the morning. I have no lecture notes. I was exhausted, tired, and ready to quit!!!. I was done! I was thinking to myself, "I can't do this anymore."
But as I said those words to myself, I started to feel in conflict because I knew this was my purpose. It was a thing I was born to do, but doing it like this just was not working! So I hired a coach. By the way, that coach cost me $30,000. I told you I was only making 13,000 in my business, but I was willing to risk it all to gain it all, and that's exactly what I did.
On that first coaching call with my coach, she asked me, "Nicole, didn't you tell me you're an adjunct professor that you taught at USC for four or five years? And now you teach at Boston University and what you teach is program development?" And then she asked me, "And didn't you used to have a consulting practice when you lived in LA? You work with heads of state. You work with celebrities. You work with nonprofit CEOs. You work with small business owners. And what you did was you went into their businesses, and you develop programs." I'm thinking, "Yeah, look at my coach. She did her research."
Now, the next thing she said didn't just change my business. It changed my life. She said, "Nicole, you don't have any programs in your own business." Duh. That one conversation gave me such clarity! I begin to see two things that I had been overlooking my brilliance, and I also began to see how my brilliance could bring in revenue. So, I created a blueprint from my brilliance that night. The same blueprint I had used as a professor for years, the same blueprint I used in my consulting practice. I began to use that in my own business, and within six months, my revenue grew from $13,000 to over $200,000.
You’re also a world-class transformational speaker and a best-selling author of four books. Why have people been so eager to hire you as a speaker and reading your books?
I believe my greatest gift is that I am transparent. I am more than words on paper, but I show people a living, breathing example of what is possible for them.
To be able to create multiple streams of income, what are your 3-5 best tips for someone who desires this?
1. Stop Giving Away Your Intellectual Property for Free.
Intellectual property is the unique factor that sets you apart. It is your expertise, your brilliance where your talents, passions, personality, and experiences collide. It’s that genius that flows from you effortlessly and the thing that everyone seeks you out for. Not only that, sharing this knowledge you’ve acquired is like second nature to you. So, when people ask you if they can pick your brain or tease something out with you, they are tapping into your intellectual property.
2. Build Your Business with a Blueprint
Let’s look at building a house, for example. When you build a house, you have a vision of your dream home. But what you don’t know at that moment is all the steps you need to take, all the materials you need, the permits you have to apply for, and most importantly, whether you’ve surveyed the land.
You have a rough idea of what’s required, so you jot all of these things down on paper and decided to just build by instinct. Fast forward to the completion of your house, and everything is in working order until the first big rain of the year comes and completely floods your entire home. How and why did this happen? Your ideas were great, and your vision was clear, but your execution is where you failed. Without a proper blueprint, you failed to remember that you were building your dream home in a flood zone. Your house is ruined!
The same concept applies to your business. Just like every sturdily built home, you must begin with a well-thought-out blueprint. This begins with developing the step-by-step method that clearly defines what you do and how you will do it.
3. Move beyond Marketing & Build Your Know, Like & Trust Factor
So many entrepreneurs focus on being what I call Facebook Famous, and just because people see you on Facebook or you know the latest marketing tools and tips, it does not mean doing all of that will lead to a sale. So instead, I suggest you build your know, like, and trust factor. I call this dating before you put a ring on it. For example, if my husband came to our first date and brought a ring with him, I would have thought that he was crazy! Instead, we dated for a while. He got to know me, I got to know him, and only after us seeing the value, we both came to bring into the relationship did he then propose marriage. This is the same thing you have to do to your business. So if you are going to generate real revenue, you need to date your clients for a while before you lead them to sales and build your know like and trust factor by giving them value as you allow your brilliance to be seen and experienced.
4. You Should Have Multiple Streams of Income & One Should Include Making Money While You Sleep.
What most billions won’t tell you is that they have multiple streams of income. And is business, most people focus on a 1 to 1 model vs. a 1 to many models. So if you are going to really grow your business, you have to make sure that those multiple streams include both a 1 to many models and ways that you make money while you sleep. Meaning packaging ways to serve people DO NOT include you being present.
5. Be Willing to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
This a quote by A.R. Bernard that says, “The Tools You Used On This Level Are Not Sufficient For The Next Level!” For many women that I meet who set out to start your business or grow it, your current success is in your way;
That Director in the front of your title
That MS or MA or Ph.D. behind your name is in the way
Those big plagues on your wall or certificates of recognition you have obtained in your career over the years.
And what you have to understand is embarking on being a successful entrepreneur is like nothing you have done before, and so it means you MUST be willing to go beyond what you currently know to do it. The way you have been operating in your career or how you have been doing business will not work for your next level! If you want something different, you MUST do something different. And it is the different way of doing business that is uncomfortable.
What would you say are the most common things people reach out to you and ask for help with?
Many women that reach out to me suffer from OPP = other people’s perceptions. They have this huge rumble in their belly to start a business or grow a business, but their current success can hinder them. I believe they reach out to me because I teach them strategies to start a business alongside their 9 to 5 so that they do not have to let go of their lifestyle in the newness of starting a business.
We know your clients have said some great things about you. What are the results they have been getting from working with you?
The biggest aha moment my clients get from working with me is realizing that they can make money while they sleep. In other words, teaching them ways to generate revenue where they DO NOT have to be present.
So, what’s the next big goal or project for Nicole Roberts Jones? What do you have in front of you?
I am working on my 5th book. I am beyond excited about this one as it really is a culmination of the work I have done to date and will give readers the tools to not only bankroll their brilliance but really to get in alignment with their God-given assignment.
