Nikki Elledge Brown: I am so ready to ignite. Thought you’d never ask.

John: Nikki’s known online as the communications stylist, and creator of A Course About Copy. She’s a proud military spouse, mom, former park ranger, and college professor, who built a multi six figure business in under 18 months by helping entrepreneurs communicate with clarity and confidence. All right Nikki, take a minute, fill in any gaps from that intro, and give us just a little glimpse into your personal life.

Nikki Elledge Brown: Okay, good deal. Well as we were just chatting about, I’ve been lucky enough to live in Honolulu for the past seven years. But I’m a Texas girl born and raised. I earned both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications studies from TCU, go Frogs, and I’ve just loved learning and teaching for as long as I can remember, so I’m a professional nerd in that regard. And then personally I love my guys. I married my eighth grade sweetheart, Jeremy, and our little man Bryson was born exactly 13 years to the day from when my husband asked me out in the middle school gym at the age of 13, and we’re currently expecting our second little man sometime in December, so life is good on this side of the rainbow.

John: Man, everything feels like it’s falling into place for you. I will say I was visiting your state just a little while back for Podcast Movement, and loved it. It was Fort Worth specifically, but 101 degrees. I don’t know, I can’t deal with that.

Nikki Elledge Brown: Yeah, that’s the main complaint, definitely. It’s hot.

John: Awesome. And of course we’re always super appreciative on Entrepreneur On Fire for those who are serving our country, and that is absolutely military spouses as well, so thank you for your husband’s service, for your service, it’s a very patriotic Entrepreneur On Fire episode here.

Nikki Elledge Brown: Yes, thank you. And thank you for your service. I didn’t realize until we were introduced that you were in the Army as well, so thank you for that.

John: Thanks Nikki. Well listen, what I want to talk about is, let’s just say you were at a military ball together. You and I are hanging out, we’re having some drinks, but someone just kind of walks up to you and says, “Hey Nikki, what do you do?” How do you respond to that in 10 seconds?

Nikki Elledge Brown: I help entrepreneurs build fun, profitable businesses by connecting with their dream clients and customers through smart, authentic communication.

John: That is military precision, Fire Nation. She just got it up there, nailed it out, and that’s what you need to do with your little pitch. So Nikki, let’s be honest. You built a multi six figure business in under 18 months. This puts you in the vast minority of people who are able to achieve such success so quickly. We’re going to dive into specific stories and tips, tools, and tactics in a little bit, but first and foremost, just tell us today, how are you currently generating revenue?

Nikki Elledge Brown: My main source of revenue at the moment is my signature move, my program, A Course About Copy that you mentioned earlier, and that was inspired by the hundreds of one on one sessions that I held in the first eight months of my business. So that’s how I started, generating revenue very quickly, and then it didn’t take me long to find the patterns in what people needed help with, and that’s why I created a course from it.

John: A Course About Copy. Now what I do love about this, because I’ve actually gone ahead and done my research too and went and signed up, and at least the initial part of it is free, and I haven’t actually been able to go through the course to see what it leads into, but for us, that was a game changer in Entrepreneur On Fire. When we started offering free podcast course and our free webinar course, people were like, “What are you doing?” But at the same time, we knew what we were doing. We were building up trust like repoire with the people that are going through these courses, and that’s never going to change for entrepreneurs, the need to build up that credibility and authority. So what’s your mindset there?

Nikki Elledge Brown: Exactly. Well, I learned early on that the most generous folks are the ones who can build trust quickly. I mean, I didn’t even have my website when I just started my business and I had over 90 clients signed up because I was in there, in Facebook groups, connecting with them and helping and supporting them, and so it was actually a huge relief when I did create the free video series, and it’s just a three video sequence before I offer the full course, but it’s a really representative sample of what they’ll get on the inside, and I’ve had so many of my customers who are like, “Yep, you had me at the about page recipe. That’s exactly what I wanted. That’s exactly what I needed. Imagining having that much guidance for every page of my site, where do I sign?” So it proves that it works, and then also for the people who aren’t at the point to invest or they’re fine with just those videos, I mean, there’s people who have gotten tremendous value and results just from the free videos without doing the course, and that could scare people and be like, “Oh, no, you want everyone to buy it,” but the reality of life is you’re going to have a certain percentage who go for it and a certain who don’t, so it all works out.

John: And a certain percentage who don’t now, because now might not be the right time, but you have now kind of planted your flag in their heart, in their soul, and they know that if and when the time is right for them down the road, you are going to be the person they’re going to go to for their copy needs. So I love that, so seriously the word that I love here on Fire Nation is generous. Be generous. Now, Nikki, you have had a pretty awesome life. I mean, you’re a military spouse, you married your childhood sweetheart, I mean, that whole 13 year thing of at 13 the first date, 13 your first child, another one is on the way, I mean, you really do have quite an awesome history to look back upon, but we’re not going to focus on the awesome things right now. We’re going to focus on what you, Nikki, consider your worst entrepreneurial moment. So take us to that moment in time and tell us that story.

Nikki Elledge Brown: I love that you ask this question, and it’s true, I have had a very charmed life, but in the last year in particular I’ve had some serious ups and downs, personally and professionally, so I have a little Texas sized story to share but feel free to interrupt whenever you need to. So earlier this year as part of the one year anniversary of A Course About Copy, I hosted my first solo webinar finally. I resisted it forever, and a year later I was like, “It’s time. Rip the Band-Aid.” I was so excited and I felt great, the slides were gorgeous, I already knew people loved the content, and I’m pretty good on my feet. I love connecting life, so I felt ready, and I had two laptops running, one for my screen sharing, one for questions and my inbox to welcome people as they joined while we were live. The problem is, as I wrapped up and I clicked over to my inbox, there were zero sales, like not one new member had joined, even though they were all freaking out in the comments, “Oh my gosh, this is amazing.” So it’s embarrassing to admit I even refreshed my inbox twice just to make sure it wasn’t just a slow connection, but sure enough I had genuinely made no sales while we were live, and I felt horrified, but in a very private way, like when you trip but nobody’s around to witness it, so do you tell anybody to make it less awkward?

So holding onto it just made me feel worse, so I instantly started texting my biz buddies, because they were all texting me from all around the world like, “How did it go? You’re going to do great.” I don’t even remember what I said, I just felt so embarrassed, so confused, like I had let people down in some way, because everyone had such high expectations for my first webinar, again, even the folks in the chat on the webinar, and I didn’t know how to process it, and this is where I’ve got to get personal for a minute. I’m known for my weird business and life analogies, and so this one is a prime example. So 99 percent of my customers are women. Many of them are fellow mommas, and we often talk about how the creative process is like pregnancy and labor and delivery. It’s exhilarating; it’s exhausting, scary, messy, and beautiful, all at the same time. And so to extend that analogy, this webinar that launched zero lives sales felt like a creative miscarriage in a way.

And please know, I lost two pregnancies last year, so I am not at all trying to compare a tough webinar to the emotional and physical pain that goes along with all of that. That’s definitely not the point of the analogy. It was just a jarring reminder and a very interesting parallel to me to realize that just like even when you’ve had a healthy pregnancy before, the next one isn’t guaranteed, and even when you’ve had successful launches before, the next one may be a flop, and it’s okay to be honest about that, and it doesn’t mean that you have to stop trying, because the end result is totally worth it, and that’s exactly why I decided to get back in the ring and host a second live webinar the next week.

John: I love that story. It’s pretty interesting. I actually was just keynoting at Podcast Movement a little while back when we were talking about Texas and it was a great conference, and when I got up on stage, one of the things that I was sharing was my webinar story, because a lot of people were like, “John we see you do webinars all the time and you seem to always be doing so well,” but my first webinar three people showed up, nobody bought. My second webinar the next week 10 people showed up, one person bought, 24 hours later they refunded, and I could have stopped there, you know. That’s where a lot of people would have stopped, but I kept learning a little bit and I was disappointed and I was embarrassed and I was all those things at the same time, but I kept doing 58 more live webinars in 2014, just that year. So the two fails plus getting a little bit better every time, and we brought in over $1.5 million in 2014 alone on live webinars alone, so that shares with you, Fire Nation, the power of keeping going even when you are embarrassed and you do have that failure. I mean, Nikki has gone through what I’ve gone through and that’s my biggest takeaway is look at those disasters at the time as awesome learning opportunities, and be honest and transparent about it.

I shared that story in front of 1,000 people in Texas, and now you’re sharing this in front of Fire Nation, Nikki, which is 100 X times the size of that. So it’s really awesome you can be transparent and honest about that, and that’s my biggest takeaway. Nikki, what do you want to make sure Fire Nation gets from that story?

Nikki Elledge Brown: Yeah, to wrap up the story real quick, I made three simple tweaks, which was to add real deadlines, to sprinkle in testimonials. I had just flat run out of time to add them to my slides, and then of course practice. So I had another round under my belt, and round two brought in over $20,000.00 life, with the same amount of people. Actually I think like 30 fewer people. There were like 270 on the first one with zero, and then we had 249 and over $20,000.00 while we were live, and I shared the lessons learned in a blog post with my audience because, as embarrassing as it was to admit, for that reason it was also a perfect opportunity to connect and relate to them in a meaningful way, and that’s what I’m all about with this whole smart, authentic communication, because they had seen the buzz around my first launch of A Course About Copy, which brought in over $50,000.00 right out of the gate in my first year of business, and then this six figure launch I had last fall, and I wanted to be very open about the fact that it’s not all rainbows and butterflies over here, and it turned out great. And they loved the post. By the end of the launch we had added over 75 new people to the Course About Copy family, which was amazing, but at the end of the day the biggest win of all was that I didn’t crawl into a hole and give up after round one.

So I would say the main takeaway is to know that you don’t have to fake it until you make it. The right people are more than happy to join you for the journey and cheer you on and learn from your mistakes as you do. And also if at first you don’t make a sale, tweak, and try try again.

John: Love it. Now quick question, because this is one thing that I found was really important to the success as I went forward, was real scarcity, like actually finding ways to put scarcity, again, in a real and honest and genuine way into the webinars that I was doing for Podcaster’s Paradise and Webinar on Fire. So did you end up finding ways to implement scarcity? Is that anything that you do with your webinars?

Nikki Elledge Brown: Yes, for that one I did. I ended up adding a live, like while we’re on the call bonus, and that was huge obviously for the 20 people who signed up. To me it was just like, “Oh, this is just a simple bonus. It’s a great one, sure,” but they were like, all about it, and some people were like, “That’s exactly what I needed.” And you have to realize it’s not manipulation. Again, if you’re being honest and you’re genuinely adding value, I need deadlines for myself. I know I need deadlines for anything, for laundry, for picking up my son at school; I will always leave just 10 minutes before. That’s just how I work. And so you have to look at it like, “This is human nature. I’m just going to help you hop off the fence either way, whichever way you want to go. There’s no pressure, it has to feel right for you for sure, but if I can help you realize if it is right for you, you can bet your booty I’m going to do it.”

John: Bet that booty, Fire Nation. So Nikki, let’s talk about another story. This one is going to be an aha moment. And you’ve had a ton of these, but I think you know Fire Nation pretty well by now. We are entrepreneurs, we are small business owners, take us to a story of one of your aha moments that you know is going to resonate with our listeners, and really tell us that story.

Nikki Elledge Brown: Okay, I love this one too because I love storytelling. That’s part of my aha moment.

John: I just think you love Entrepreneur on Fire.

Nikki Elledge Brown: I do. I do I do. Okay, my biggest aha moment came from choosing a word of the year for 2013, and the word was faith, because at the time I was working part time both as college faculty member online and as a park ranger at the Arizona Memorial. I like to say I was gratefully earning paychecks of the heart, which is code for not a comma in sight on your paycheck. And so my sister had shared an email with me that encouraged us to choose a word and not a resolution, that someone had sent her at her work, and I chose faith because I knew 2013 could be a challenging year for us because my husband was set to move across the country for several months of training, Bryson wasn’t even two years old yet, and I didn’t want to totally lose my marbles while holding down the forth. I wanted to store up my spiritual nets for winter, so to speak. So I chose faith, I started waking up before my guys every morning to take some quiet time to journal, do a daily devotional, and basically to greet the day before being jolted to consciousness by the sound of the baby monitor, and after the first week or so I really started to look forward to it.

I was inspired to wake up before the sun and before my son, and at that time I had been writing and sharing stories over on my personal blog for about a year and since the start of it, and it was called Stories From A Screensaver, it’s still up, and since the start of it I had received all kinds of encouraging Facebook posts and comments from friends and family, like, “I love everything you write. When are you going to write a book? You’ve really got a gift, Nik.” And I finally started to see those sweet notes of encouragement as divine breadcrumbs that were leading to a bigger path that I was always meant to take, I was just not really looking for it. So the aha moment was when I realized that throughout my entire life, my friends, my family, my professors, my colleagues had encouraged me to share my gift for communicating and connecting and storytelling in a bigger way, and while it was scary to admit, I realized that going big wasn’t an option anymore, it was an inevitability. Like God was literally knocking on my head saying, “Okay Nik, I gave you these gifts for a reason. Not everybody’s got them. It’s time to share.”

And I didn’t know if it was supposed to start with a book or a different blog or a business but I was committed to figuring it out.

John: Man, this is what I call OPA, Fire Nation, other people’s agendas, and unfortunately this is how most of us live our lives. We are woken up by a screaming baby and the next thing you know our entire day is reacting, reacting, reacting. When is it your time? When are you on your agenda, not other people’s agenda? This includes your email inboxes. It includes social media. Nikki got up first thing in the morning, she owned the day, she controlled the day, she got on her agenda, and was able to have the day unfold how she wanted to, and that is absolutely incredible. You’ve heard the great guest that we’ve had on, T. Harvecker, Hal Elrod of The Miracle Morning. They are all just about getting up, controlling that day, having your morning and starting it off, and that’s a game changer. I love the fact, Nikki, that being in the military I saw how real it was that quote that we get more stuff done in the Army before 9:00 a.m. than the rest of the world does all day. Like I always loved that quote because it’d be 9:00 a.m. and I’d be like, “I feel like I just lived three lives since I’ve woke up this morning, and I know that other people are just getting to work,” and I said, “How can I apply that to entrepreneurship?”

And it was just by doing that, by owning the day. So I love that. That’s my takeaway Nikki. What is yours?

Nikki Elledge Brown: The main takeaway, because what happened then, I read, I prayed, I Googled, I started learning more about setting up an online business, got clear on my first offer, and again, I didn’t have a website at that point, just a splash page, an opt in box, and some Texas sized enthusiasm, and that’s when I started connecting with people, which I know is your main recommendation to people too is like, “Just show up and be of service. Be visible and be a good person and help people get to know you,” and truly that’s when things went crazy, like, over 700 subscribers, 90 clients, $21,000.00 in sales, in less than four weeks. Crazy. So it was insane. I didn’t even have a website. Like I said, this was like my second month, so here’s the thing. People wake up early and give some room for divine downloads because you don’t know what you’re missing until you give yourself that space to let that inspiration come in. The answers are there. It’s all there, so just take note of those divine breadcrumbs. And then once you know your value, you know who needs it, and you learn to communicate your value to the people who need it in a smart, authentic way, I know somebody who can help you with that, then you’ll be off to the races.

John: That is some Texas sized advice for some Texas sized results, Fire Nation. I love that. And Nikki, let’s break it down. What is your biggest weakness?

Nikki Elledge Brown: Oh my gosh, my biggest weakness, systems and organization. I’m a total neat freak in my physical space. I love to plan. But when it comes to my business, I often fly by the seat of my brain pants, and it worked fine for the first couple of years, but I’m 30 now, so it’s time to grow up.

John: Oh, you’re so old Nikki. What’s your biggest strength?

Nikki Elledge Brown: Well it’s no surprise, but I would say my communication skills and my ability to connect. Whether I’m teaching it or modeling it, I just love the challenge of styling language to connect words and people in a clear, sincere way.

John: So you have a lot of things going on that, rightfully so, you’re fired up about, but what’s the one thing that has you most fired up today?

Nikki Elledge Brown: There’s nothing like the due date of a person to get you motivated, so right now I’m most fired up about babyproofing my business. And so at the time when this comes out, I’m doing my last live launch of A Course About Copy for the year, and we are speaking of authentic scarcity, going to be shutting it down for a little while because I want to be able to dedicate as much time as possible to my family, but the babyproofing piece comes in because I also want to create a whole lot of content so that I can be consistently delivering value to my audience even when I’m in and out of consciousness with my newborn and my little guy.

John: I love that. Babyproofing your business because one thing I talk about, Nikki, often, is the baby effect, that so many entrepreneurs, they didn’t have to succeed, so they just kind of drifted along, but then something big happened in their lives, and a lot of times it is that baby, and they look in that baby’s eyes and they say, “Man, nothing is going to stop me from succeeding now. There’s no phone call I won’t make, there’s no email I won’t write, to be a success.” And you had that happen with your first son I’m sure on some levels, but now the babyproofing, you’re down to business, girl. You’re on a timeline.

Nikki Elledge Brown: It’s game time. Momma’s got some big plans for 2016. We don’t have time to mess around.

John: Oh Fire Nation, don’t go anywhere, because we’re about to enter the lightning round, and what some would consider a Texas sized lightning round. But before we do, let’s take a minute to thank our sponsors. Nikki, are you prepared for the lightning rounds?

Nikki Elledge Brown: Let’s do it.

John: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Nikki Elledge Brown: I was blinded by limiting beliefs and I didn’t even realize it, because I didn’t even know what limiting beliefs were, but I had given up on the idea of ever really making good money. All the stories and excuses that I was telling myself were, “We’re in the military. What if we move? We live in Hawaii.” I finished my master’s in 2008, so 2008 was a rough time for anybody to find a job, or the fall of 2008 especially, but especially when you’re on a little island where there’s a whole lot of people and not so much good paying work. So I just had self-imposed tunnel vision and a glass ceiling that kept me from letting myself dream about the possibilities, and then once I started my business and had that really crazy wakeup call, bam, there’s your take home salary in six weeks, then it just blew the lid off of that, which is really exciting, also a little bit scary, but you just deal with it as they come.

John: Limiting beliefs, Fire Nation. You get rid of those best by surrounding yourselves by awesome people who don’t have limiting beliefs, or who have shed those in the past. Now what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Nikki Elledge Brown: I’ve got to give this one to my dad. When I was leaving my first full time job after a year of just sticking it out, he wrote this in an email and it stuck with me instantly, and he said, “Stay on the bright side, kiddo. Life is so much better that way.” And I just love it, because my parents and my dad, they have always instilled the importance of gratitude for the everyday stuff, like locking up in the memory bank, and my mom is one of the most welcoming, generous people I’ve ever known, so just that example of, “Yes, it’s good. Feel the feels. Bad stuff happens.” It’s not to ignore that, but there’s always a bright side. There’s always a silver lining. Things are always working out in your favor if you’re willing to look at it that way.

John: What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success?

Nikki Elledge Brown: Reaching out to my biz buddies, most of whom I have never met in real life, but my whole business people have asked, “Who’s your coach? Who’s your mentor?” And I consider myself to have a cabinet of friendtors that I have curated over the years, and I treasure them so much, so that’s definitely my best thing is not trying to do it all on my own or sort through everything on my own. I reach out to my buddies.

John: Now I see you like to TM things. Have you TMed friendtors? That’s pretty epic.

Nikki Elledge Brown: I know. I haven’t yet but I totally should because I think we could do something really magical like a superhero, what’s it called, one of those movies, The Incredibles. No, not The Incredibles. That’s my mom version.

John: The Magnificent Seven.

Nikki Elledge Brown: Yes, something like that. It would be really amazing to do a live event in Hawaii and I’d fly in all my friendtors, yes.

John: And people who have interviewed you on podcasts.

Nikki Elledge Brown: Yes, totally. You’re now a new friendtor, John.

John: Yes. Friendtors. So Nikki, let’s talk about an internet resource, like an Evernote, that you can share with our listeners.

Nikki Elledge Brown: It might be cheating because I don’t know that it counts as internet, but I love the voice memo app on my iPhone and now I’m spoiling it for anyone who may join A Course About Copy in the future and if we have a million people join maybe it’ll change, but I love surprising them with the welcome audio note. So all 300 plus folks that we have in the A Course About Copy family have received a personal welcome note from me, and I know, a surprise that you do similar to that as well, and I just love it. It’s like my favorite thing. If you’re ever down like, for example, with the bad webinar, the webinar gone wrong but, again, silver linings, one way to get yourself back in the zone is to really express gratitude to the people who are already on the inside instead of thinking about all the people you want to have join. Just love up on the ones that you’ve got, love the ones you’re with, and creating voice memos and emailing them straight to them is like my favorite thing to do.

John: Great stuff. And if you could recommend one book for our listeners, what would it be and why?

Nikki Elledge Brown: I want to say The Big Leap but I know, you’ve actually had Gay Hendricks on your show so it’s been covered, so I’m going to switch things up a bit and go with The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scohol Shin, and she wrote it in 1925, ahead of her time. It’s public domain now so I can send you a good link where you can actually download it and it’s free but to me, the reason why I love it, my friend Tiffany Montgomery told me about it, it’s kind of like the missing link for me between my faith and all the law of attraction stuff. So you might think it’s a little hokey pokey, but what I love about it is that it’s all about active faith. It’s all about get the hunch, do the work, dig the ditches, and that’s totally been my entire business philosophy to date.

John: Hey, I think if Fire Nation would have the kind of numbers that you had in your launch, they would do the hokey pokey and dance all around, because that’s what it’s all about. So Fire Nation, I know you love audio and I teamed up with audio books and if you haven’t already, you can get an amazing audio book for free at eofirebook.com, and Nikki would love if you did Skype over that link to The Game of Life and How We Play It, so we can get that free version up for Fire Nation on the show notes page. And this is the last question of the lightning round, but it is a doozy. Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning in a brand new world identical to Earth, but you knew no one. You still have all the experience and knowledge you currently have, your food and shelter is taken care of, but all you have is a laptop and $500.00. What would you do in the next seven days?

Nikki Elledge Brown: I love it because I didn’t have much money to start with when I had a really great successful month. So I would just repeat. So as long as I’ve got Wi-Fi, I’m all about those three steps. Know your value, know who needs it, and communicate your value to the people who need it. So I would hop on my laptop, find out where my dream clients and students are hanging out, and then start connecting with them to build relationships in free Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups or wherever they’re hanging out. I would spend, I think it’s $50.00 to set up a Time Trade account and I would actually offer a handful of free sessions first, because that’s what I did, to prove that I know my stuff, get my systems down, and get some great testimonials. I would find somebody fabulous to barter my services with for a nice looking splash page with a free mail chimp opt in box and then I would just go to town, connecting and delivering value wherever I could, and then for extra if I wanted to I could sign up to be an affiliate for stuff and then share that too but really, splash page with a free opt in box and a great message, as long as you know who you’re talking to, you can make magic happen with $500.00 or less.

John: Make magic happen. I love that and Fire Nation, there’s a great quote by Brad Feld, the founder of Wicominator, “Do things that don’t scale.” This is coming from the guy that’s Mr. Silicon Valley himself that you think would just be focused on scaling. Nikki did things that didn’t scale at first. She had those one on one conversations, she proved herself, she got credibility and authority by actually making things happen for people, and that is absolutely critical. That’s how it all begins. So I love that Nikki, so let’s end today on fire with you sharing just one parting piece of guidance. The best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say goodbye.

Nikki Elledge Brown: Okay, so my parting guidance and this will make a lot more sense once you’ve connected with me and checked out some of my actual practical tips and resources for communicating with your folks, but above all, please remember it doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be shared. Drop the mic.

John: Walk out the door, drop the mic.

Nikki Elledge Brown: The best way to connect with me, nikkielledgebrown.com, and I’m going to create a special page for you all that has the best of the best of my PDFs and the little workbooks with my tips and all that goodness, so it’ll be at nikkielledgebrown.com/fire.

John: Love it. And Fire Nation, I know that you know that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and you have been hanging out with NEB and JLD today, so keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com. Just type Nikki in the search bar. Her show notes page will pop right up with everything that we have been talking about today. Of course check her out at nikkielledgebrown.com. She has a gift for you waiting at nikkielledgebrown.com/fire. And Nikki, I just want to thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you, and we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Nikki Elledge Brown: Thanks John.