We recently connected with Nicole Fournié (Smolinski) and have shared our conversation below.
Nicole, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
During my undergraduate studies, I came into my schooling with a clearcut path for myself – become a veterinarian, hang out with animals all day, and be revered for becoming a doctor. But as I learned more about myself over the years, as a result of the maturation that comes with the college experience and as a result of asking deeper questions about who I’ve become and why, I realized I didn’t really see myself in the vet field. Turns out I just love animals but don’t necessarily want to build an entire career around them – have pets will suffice! Despite some doubt and pushback from people around me who’d gotten used to my original plan, I took a risk and switched to a psychology degree with just one quarter of school to go. Once I sat in on my first psychology class, I was enamored. I knew I’d made the right decision. Fast forward to years later, I received my master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and saw clients for a few years as an associate mental health clinician. Though I enjoyed many parts of the job, and certainly loved getting to witness my clients take healthy risks of their own, I felt a continuous pull to allow the creative parts of me more space in my life. After months of wrestling with the decision, I took the leap and started my own business. This would surely feel incredulous to the version of me that existed 10 years ago; business ownership at that time felt far off, too complicated, and way too much responsibility for someone like me. What I know now is I just didn’t trust myself yet, or know much of who I was yet. So somehow, as a result of trusting my instincts in small but important ways over the years, my self-confidence grew and so did my capabilities. Thus, a business was born: as I spent time with my therapy clients, I began dreaming up ways where the principles I’ve guided people through in therapy could be brought outside of the therapy room and into our communities. My wellness events and product offerings were born out of a vision where well-being is accessible, connective and non-intimidating for the everyday person. The more I trust the process, the more things expand. Over the years, I have taught myself much of what I know now, asked questions when I needed help, and allowed my past experiences to inform the ways I do business, form partnerships, and lead others.
From the outside, I suppose it may look like taking completely different directions every few years or so. But inside myself, I feel like it’s quite the contrary. My path has been a series of small steps forward, and being brave enough to make subtle course corrections as I go. When I listen to myself, these course corrections are more smooth and seamlessly integrated into my daily life. Though inevitable for anyone, when I allow doubt to creep in too much – from people not in my inner circle or from my own fear taking the reigns – these course corrections happen less often and are more drastic by the time I’m listening to myself again.
All of that to say, I wouldn’t be where I am today without taking seemingly small, consistent risks to tune out the outside noise and listen to myself. We are a collection of course corrections; we evolve along the way, rather than set a rigid path for ourselves at 12 years old and follow it blindly without ever checking in with ourselves to see if we actually feel fulfilled. I am excited and intrigued to see where the next tiny-big risk takes me. So long as I am listening, I know it’ll take me somewhere impactful and beautiful.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Sometimes conversations surrounding mental wellness can feel too trendy, too taboo, or too inaccessible. Nicole Smolinski LLC exists to make wellness, mental health awareness, & self-reflection more approachable, connective, and enjoyable!
At its core, the heart behind my business is helping others experience emotional freedom and growing in their sense of self. Many of my early childhood experiences were inundated with control and fear, leading me to grow up without any real sense of who I was, what I liked, what I wasn’t comfortable with, and what type of person, partner, friend I wanted to become. A journal was the first place I could home to myself – to be honest with my feelings without feeling like they were a threat to myself or others. By hosting the journaling spaces I do now, I get to provide a space where others can come home to themselves, too, and try a new tool amongst a community who is safe, supportive, nonjudgmental and oftentimes battling similar things. Basically, after feeling stifled emotionally for a very long time, I’m still learning how to come alive and to come home to myself, and I’m hoping to just create a space for others to do the same along the way.
Since you might also be curious about my background and how I got here, here’s a more formal, all-encompassing introduction:
The founder, Nicole, is a writer, Tedx speaker, creative strategist & journaling event facilitator who holds her master’s in clinical psychology. As she spent time with her therapy clients as an associate mental health clinician, she began dreaming up ways where the principles she’s guided people through in therapy could be brought outside of the therapy room and into our communities. Her wellness events and product offerings were born out of a vision where well-being is accessible and connective for the everyday person. As someone who’s consistently found art and creation to be cathartic, she enjoys exploring the intersection between psychology & creativity; while there is an extremely valuable place for therapy in our world, Nicole aims to forge a path where well-being is explored creatively, and conscious conversations are accessible, connective, and non-intimidating for the everyday person. She does this by curating and hosting her own wellness and guided journaling events, creating intentional stationery products to help people self-reflect on their own, and by aiding in the creative direction of other businesses’ events, content and strategy when called upon so that they, too, can provide their offerings in intentional, meaningful and connective ways. Over the years, as Nicole has built her business, others have asked for guidance on how to make their business decisions in events and content output more meaningful and intentional, a beautiful pivoting away from overdone, mindless and soul-less branding, marketing and community building; she has been honored to help these businesses navigate ways to infuse emotion and human-centered stories back into their daily doings.
A writer herself, Nicole has authored two of Amazon’s #1 new releases, Finding My Way Back: Poems on Coming Alive, Healing and Self-Discovery and Oh, My Goodness: Reclaiming Ourselves As Whole Rather Than Good, in categories like Inspirational Poetry.
Nicole received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Davis in 2017 where she competed on the DI women’s soccer team for four years. After her undergraduate play, Nicole went on to compete with the Polish national team recruits for a short time before deciding to complete her M.S. in Clinical Psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California.
All around, Nicole is a human doing her best to make sense of the world by exploring the intersections between well-being, creativity and expression. Nicole is fueled by living authentically and intentionally. She hopes to continue building a life where she writes and speaks regularly about wellness, emotional freedom and living as genuinely as possible (even if it’s not necessarily pretty or put-together). When not writing, leading workshops or designing new stationery products, Nicole enjoys sitting at local coffee shops, eating delicious food with loved ones, and spending time outdoors.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I believe time, consistency, integrity and authenticity have helped build my reputation most within the market. Though it’s far more nuanced than this, humans are a beautiful balance between logic and emotion. We cannot simply follow growth or sales strategies blindly without tapping into our own emotions. Humans are natural storytellers, and we connect best to people’s stories and the emotion behind those stories. I believe as business owners it’s our responsibility to not only tap into our own emotional world in order to move our business forward, but to also hold others’ emotions with care and respect; a sleezy, manipulative sales tactic might cause someone to buy from you once out of fear, but they will probably feel so terrible the entire time and may not want to return. Is that really worth it? Are we handling that person’s story with care? Instead of following ‘the guide book’ of what’s ‘effective’ can we rewrite the business narrative by moving with kindness, inclusivity, and ethicality? I truly believe that by checking in with myself as a human first, I have built my reputation within the market and within my community as someone reputable and trustworthy and someone who’s not always perfect but is committed to openness and growth.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Though there are countless resources I’ve leaned on over the years, my first thoughts come to: any work by Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity, Gabor Maté on trauma and depth work, and Simon Sinek and Brené Brown on leadership and authenticity has helped mold my mindset as a human-centered business owner. Powerful words by people like Mary Oliver, Maya Angelou and Audre Lorde have helped me realign to myself during inevitable times of stress, pressure and self-doubt. Certifications like B Corp have additionally pushed me in empowering ways a body to look up to when it comes to utilizing our businesses as a force for good, and to be continuously learning how to do just that. There is no finish line. Equally as important, making time to read, listen and learn from cultures, races, ethnicities and social groups that are different than mine have been crucial to aligning the day-to-day realities of my business to the dream that I aspire it to be: a place where people can come to themselves, and a place where everyone can recognize parts of themselves. People’s stories matter, and we can learn an immense amount by simply paying attention and actively tuning into to people’s experiences that are not the same as ours. This can only come from doing my own work as a person and as a business-minded individual, and from imperfectly but continuously making this a priority for myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: nicolesmolinski.com
- Instagram: @nicolesmolinski
- Facebook: @NicoleSmolinskiLLC
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-fourni%C3%A9-smolinski-ms-psych-50a472b3
Image Credits
2023 Tedx UC Irvine Team Photographers, Mariah Brink, Nicole Smolinski