We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Nicole Roberts Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Nicole below.

Dr. Nicole, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I started in this journey of entrepreneurship back in 1993 when I had the dream job, the job I had always wanted since I was 7 years old. Actually, I had the job in Hollywood that many people wish for.

At the time I worked for Viacom’s largest cable network, we had an outreach to over 89 million homes on a weekly basis. From there I was elevated into a casting position for the #1 TV show on Fox. And then from there I worked with a production group and together what we produced generated over 12.6 billion dollars a year. I was doing all of that plus I was going to all the hot Hollywood parties. I was bumping elbows with people that you’ve looked at on TV and have seen on films. Stars that many people wish to meet. I was doing it all!! I was living the dream!! But in the dark of the night when I am by myself, I began to be tormented by what I was doing because I felt like something was missing. And I felt puzzled by this because I was living out my dreams and I loved my job! On top of that, I started thinking what would everyone else think if I told them how I was feeling. Matter of fact as I shared what I was feeling with my girlfriends everyone started saying “are you crazy,” as they too knew that I was living out my dreams. As this feeling of something was missing tormented me more and more, I realized every morning when I got up a little part of me died in order to live the dream because this disconnect was becoming my nightmare.

And then one day I got sick and tired of being sick and tired and living by what everyone else thought I should do and be and it was that night that one of my girlfriend asked me to volunteer at a youth program at our church. And that night as I worked with young women in my church that night something in my belly jumped and I found myself confronted. Confronted with everything I was and everything I had not done yet! I knew in that moment that THIS is EXACTLY what I was meant to do and yet I felt in conflict. I felt in conflict because this thing that I was doing with young women that night did not come with a big paycheck and this was not at all like my glamourous Hollywood job and I did not even know what to call this thing I was doing that night. We now we call it coaching but back in 1993 I did not know what a coach was and so no one was fighting to break down any doors to do this work but yet for the first time in my life my soul was alive! So I had a decision to make.

And in that moment, knees knocking, teeth chattering I decided to leave my Hollywood dream and pursue this thing and to really stand in the full power of the gift inside of me and when I did it fundamentally changed the trajectory of my life. See that night I began to transition from just producing or casting in Hollywood and helping to cast for purpose on purpose as I began the work I am doing now to help other highly skilled professional to create multiple streams of revenue from their God given purpose as a entrepreneur or to align their purpose with their paycheck in their 9 to 5.

Dr. Nicole, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In 1993, while still working in the entertainment industry, I founded & developed a youth, faith-based mentorship program. This program quickly became a national nonprofit with 10 chapters, in 10 churches in 10 cities throughout the country. It was this early work that not only shifted my life but really allowed me to see my gift of moving people’s passion & purpose into profit. From it, I developed a system that allows others to understand their DNA (distinct, natural ability) as I teach them how to use it to make a difference in the world and make money as they do it.

From my days in the entertainment industry working in Talent Management and Casting, coupled with my groundbreaking work creating faith-based programming, I now works with highly skilled professionals to create income with impact! I work with entrepreneurs to generate multiple revenue streams and a greater bandwidth to serve their clients without being present to do it. To help them create automated systems that take their brilliance to the bank. Additionally, I work with corporations to develop high-performing employees who excel at work because they are aligning their purpose with their paycheck. To help them create greater momentum individually while increasing performance & productivity for the company. Her clients have included: the Steve Harvey World Group, Dell/EMC, McDonalds, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Coach Diversity Institute, the BOSS Network and Working Mother Magazine. She has also been featured on CNBC, Entrepreneur Magazine, Essence Magazine, the Bay State Banner, iHeart Radio and Sister Circle TV to name a few.

I have won numerous awards for my work in the last 25 + years including being the recipient of Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, in 2021 was named one of the Top 30 Business Coaches by VIP Global Magazine and the Recipient of the BRAINZ CREA Global Award and named Best of You Honoree by Glamour Magazine in 2007. She currently serves on the Women’s Business League Advisory Board and has served on the Forbes Coaches Council, as a coach for Babson College Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL) as a Founding Member of the Faith Based Collaborative Council, a partnership between the California Council of Churches and the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services as well as an adjunct professor at USC and Boston University where she taught courses on program development.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I learned the biggest lesson about having a purpose focused business which came in the midst of me being a complete failure. Now I have to tell you from the outside, I looked very 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 your purpose driven businesses. And at that time in 2010, in my nonprofit, we had 10 chapters in 10 states and we were growing by leaps and bounds. In my for profit, coaching women, I had an 100% full coaching client roster, meaning I couldn’t take another client.

I thought, since I can’t take on anymore 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 want you to get this. I was only making $13,000 a year in my business. $13,000! That’s not a typo. 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. But here is the thing, I started my business so that I could get paid to do what I love!

And I remember this moment like it was yesterday. It was November 7, 2010. It was on 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.

I remember sitting on my couch, exhausted and realizing that one the classes I taught was on Monday morning at 9am and I haven’t looked at my syllabus. I don’t know what I’m supposed to teach tomorrow. I haven’t read the chapters in any of the books I’ve told my students to read. I have no lecture notes. I am 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 thing I was born to do, but doing it like this just was not working!

And so I said, “Lord, if this is really my purpose, you better show me something.”

I realized in that moment when I was exhausted. I realized I had taken myself as far as I could take myself. Soon after I prayed that prayer, I remember in that moment hearing about this webinar and on that webinar they invited us to an event. I paid to go to that event. That event cost me $500. I registered $500. I bought my plane ticket because the event was in California, I live in Boston. That was another $500. And then I spent at least $1,500 on my hotel room because I went by myself. I couldn’t afford it, but I couldn’t afford not to do it. And at that conference, at that event, I began to see all the things that I didn’t know and all the things I needed to add in my business. But I also knew I needed support to coach me through adding it the right way. I didn’t have another 17 years. I wanted it to happen in 17 months. And so I hired a coach. I realized I would have to invest at the level to which I wanted to see the return. Up until that point in my business, I had been putting in sweat equity, so you can put in sweat equity or cash equity.

So, what do I mean by sweat equity? I kept thinking, “Okay, I’m going to work more hours.” First, I started with four hours on Saturday. Then I moved it to all day Saturday because, keep in mind, I had a full time job and my bonus children were little. So, I only had so many hours in my day that I could spare to do my business. So, I worked the extra hour at night. Then I moved it to Saturdays. Then I moved it to a couple of hours on Sunday. And no matter how many hours I added, nothing shifted. Matter of fact, the definition of insanity in the dictionary is doing the same thing, expecting a different result. So, all I was doing was more of the same thing. I don’t know how I thought something was going to be different.

By the way, that coach I hired that I met at that event cost me $30,000. I told you I was only making 13,000 in my business, but again, I was willing to risk it all to gain it all and that’s exactly what I did. And so on that first coaching call with my coach, what she did was she showed me, me. She said, “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 how my brilliance could bring in revenue. So, I built a blueprint from my brilliance that night. The same blueprint I had used as a professor, 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.

That’s why I’m excited about what I now teach and coach highly skilled professionals about aligning their purpose with their paycheck . There were things I learned in that moment of clarity that nobody tells you as set out to focus on your purpose whether that is to start a business or shift in your career. So, here I was with a master’s degree, an adjunct professor, thinking to myself, “I should know this,” but I didn’t. And no matter how many places I went to try to figure it out, I couldn’t. And so I was committed in that moment. I committed to God that I would hold the space for others to be able to bankroll their brilliance and be a light on their path just like my coach was a light on mine.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

++Gave details above**

Contact Info:

• Website: www.NicoleRobertsJones.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nrobertsjones/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NRJEnterpriseswithNicoleRobertsJones
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolerobertsjones/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NRobertsJones
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NicoleRobertsJonesNetwork