Nicolas: I am prepared.

John: Yes. Nicolas is an author, a columnist for Inc. Magazine, entrepreneur, and a ghost writer. He is a top writer on Quora, and his work has been featured in Time, Forbes, Fortune, The Huffington Post, Business Insider Entrepreneur, and many others. And he is best known for writing about self development. Nicolas, take a minute and fill in some gaps from that intro, and give us just a little glimpse of your personal life.

Nicolas: Yeah, so, you know, a quick nutshell, actually when I was a teenager, I was one of the highest ranked World of Warcraft players in the nation. And I went to school for creative writing. And my big project when I was in college is I wanted to write a book about my experiences as a gamer, as a hardcore gamer, because I felt like no one had really spoken up for that community. And when I got out of college, I started working at a digital advertising agency.

And that really introduced me to; I always say first and foremost I'm an artist. I'm a writer, but second that really taught me about marketing and the world of entrepreneurship. And how do you get work in front of the right people? And so over the past four years, I've really dove into this world of personal branding. And that's kind of what led to my writing on Quora, and eventually getting a column in Inc., and getting featured in a lot of other publications for my writing.

And learning this intersection between how do you share your own unique voice with the world, and how do you get in front of the right people? And I just recently actually published that book called Confessions of a Teenage Gamer, which is about that experience as a teenager, as a pro gamer.

John: Now question, being one of the top ranked gamers in the World of Warcraft, were you ever able to monetize or generate revenue from that?

Nicolas: Yeah, so actually, as a teenager, this was back in 2007, way before anyone thought that blogging would ever be a thing. I had one of the first e-famous gaming blogs, specifically in the World of Warcraft niche. And what I would write about was both high end game play, but also it was really that first step into, without me even really knowing what I was doing, building a personal brand. I wrote a lot about kind of creating myself to be this, the character, the voice of what's it like being the insecure teenager at school, but online you're like a God.

And like that duality, like it attracted a lot of people. I had about 10,000 people reading my blog every day. And that was what open doors. I started writing feature articles for other gaming sites, getting paid like $25.00, $50.00 an article as a teenager. And you have to think like, you know, working at – I also had a part time job at an ice cream store. And me working 20 hours a week serving ice cream, I made more writing online about World of Warcraft, then I did working 20 hours a week at this part time job.

So that was really my first step in, okay content writing is a thing, maybe I can do something with my writing online, that was kind of the foundation.

John: Yeah, and that's real money at that age. Up to 22 years old, I survived on less than $50 a week. So if you can bring in some scratch like that from a couple articles you're writing, things can start rolling and snowballing.

Nicolas: Oh, yeah.

John: And look where he’s come to this day, Fire Nation. I mean, really interesting stuff. So what would you consider you area of expertise, Nicolas? Like, if you could really breakdown where you currently thrive, within the self development niche? And then give us one tip, one tool, one tactic, something that we probably don't know, but that you do because you're an expert in this niche, and you’ve uncovered it during your research?

Nicolas: Yeah, so the thing that I really try to reinforce with people is I'm not that digital marketer that tries to convince you that I know everything about digital marketing. My whole thing is that I practice what I preach first. So everything that I know and I work with people on is very much in this domain of personal branding.

So if someone has been in their industry for even two years, all the way up to 50 years, and they know something that’s valuable and they want to build an audience around it, and they want to share it with people, how do they attract the right sort of audience, how do they gain credibility for themselves, and how do they build their own personal brand? The reason that I feel like I know this very well, and how I've been able to work with very high profile people is that I did it for myself.

And I always say I'm a 26-year-old writing in the space of self development. Like, I might be smart, but really who am i? You know, there are people out there that are much smarter than I am. And so if I've been able to do it for me, how is it that someone who’s been in this domain or another domain for 20 or 30 years, how is it that they're struggling to share their expertise with the world? And what really taught me this was Quora. That's where I got started writing.

That's how I learned how to cater my content to what people were asking. And so the tip that a lot of people don’t know, and this domain that I play in is, okay there's a strategy for building a personal brand, but there's also very tactical things that you can do in order to start building an audience around your content. For me specifically, I hone in on written content because that's my skill set. And then where to write in places that people don’t even know these major publications are sourcing a lot of content from.

So for example, before I even got my column in Inc., I had work featured in every single major publication on the internet from Quora. I would write answers on Quora, and I would cater them, I would write them in a way, where I already knew that certain publications were looking for them, either organized in a list, or the tone that they were written in, or the perspective. And it was from Quora that I got work originally featured in Forbes, and Time, and Fortune, and Huffington Post, Business Insider.

I mean literally racked up 20 of the top publications. And a lot of people don’t know that. And even more so that it’s not just Quora, it's Medium, it's LinkedIn, it's these places where you can write for free. And if you know how to write it in a way that provides people real value, and you can really hone in on who you're talking to, and not just like, I want someone to write about me, but actually teaching people what you know, these big publications, they survive off of content.

They're always looking for more content. So if you're writing in places that are free, that's also where they're looking. And they're going to republish your stuff if it's good and if it's what they're looking for. And I got to a point where I literally had work featured from Quora, every single week in a major publication for six months straight. There's not a PR agency in the world that could do that. And not only – it wasn’t just like a press release, right. Like, hey, this person is really cool, and then it fizzles out and that's it.

I was the author. I was the one who was sharing the valuable information. So as a result, what start to happen, people would see my content published by a major publication. They would go wow, I really vibe with the person that wrote that. And then they would email me and be like I just read your article on digital marketing, do you do that? And then all of a sudden I started getting all these inbound leads from people saying is that something that you work with people on?

Do you do coaching? Do you do ghost writing? Do you do this? I mean, that was the snowball effect, where I realized that it is a 100 times more valuable for you to be the thought leader and the author, and the one actually teaching people, opposed to going and hiring a PR agency and getting them some other columnist to write about you, that just sounds like a press release. Does that make sense?

John: Fire Nation, every single day I get emails from you, entrepreneurs, who say John, how do I interview the best entrepreneurs in the world, the Tim Ferriss, the Gary Vanderchucks? How do I write for Inc., for Fast Company, for Forbes? And my response is you don’t. You don’t start doing that. You start by building your foundation, by getting your chops, by writing for free, by writing for Quora, by interviewing not the Tim Ferriss’ of the world, but the Jim Bariss’ of the world, who nobody has heard of yet, but who has an interesting story, and you can get better as an interviewer, as a writer, by doing those things. You get your chops. You build a foundation one step at a time.

Nicolas: Yep.

John: Now Nicolas, you're not super old. You're in your late 20s right now, but the reality is this, like you’ve been around for awhile. So you’ve had the ups, you’ve had the downs. What would you consider your worst entrepreneurial moment to date? Take us to that moment, tell success that story.

Nicolas: You know, I think this is something that I felt very much all along the way, but it wasn’t really understood until actually very recently. You're right, like I really have paid my dues in this domain. I've written over 600 answers on Quora, each of which is like a full article. You know, it’s not like a three line quick little answer. I've written over 200 columns for Inc. I've written who knows how many as ghost pieces for other people. And because of all of this I've actually been fortunate.

I left my 9:00 to 5:00 job about six months ago, and now this is what I do fulltime. I'm a fulltime writer, ghost writer, and I help people with their digital marketing and personal branding. About a month after I took the leap, I remember right before I had done all of this, my mentor who was the creative director at this agency, right before he kind of let me spread my wings and was like go out into the world, best of luck. He was like just remember when the storm hits, stay calm.

And it was one of those things where it was kind of like you don’t really know what that means until you get in it, right? And after I had taken the leap, me and a buddy, we decided to go in on a couple different projects. And of course you walk into it, workplace when you're a young entrepreneur; you kind of think everything’s just going to go exactly as I imagined it.

There’s going to be no hiccups, it's all going to go fine, and it doesn’t. It never goes that way. And very quickly that storm hit. And I realized that it takes a lot longer than you ever want to think.

John: What was the storm?

Nicolas: It was the fact that I wanted to work on this next book project. And we were kind of planning out all of these different things that we were going to market it with, and reaching out to people. And Just everything at once, like putting all of a sudden real dollars behind things. And like you're investing in flights, and you're investing in video equipment, and you're investing in all of these different things.

And you start to realize, like you have money saved up, you have your leap fund, but it gets real, fast. And you start to really realize, like you either have to figure out how you're going to make this work long term, or you're going to be right back looking for your next job.

John: So Nicolas, looking back on that, like what would you say your biggest lesson learned from that moment, from that storm that hit that you can share with our listeners?

Nicolas: So me and this buddy, we went and got tacos. And we walked in there kind of all like solemn one day. And we were like man, how are we going to do this? And it wasn’t even so much about the money. It was more about like understanding really what was the long term goal that we were driving towards? You know, not just like the immediate project. And we sat there talking for like two hours, just going in circles.

And then all of a sudden, you kind of like talk through it all, and you get to the end and you're like: you know what; this is that moment that I think every entrepreneur can attest to. And it’s never just one, it just happens over and over again. And I can see how many I've had of like there are those moments of severe self doubt. And I think a lot of people like to pretend that those don’t happen, or when they do they're like: no, no, it's like whatever.

They don't want to acknowledge it, but sometimes it is important to acknowledge that for a second and be like okay, I feel the way that I feel. I got it. Let’s work through it, this is part of the probably, what can we learn, and just keep moving forward.

John: Writing for Quora, I think was one of your greatest ideas that you’ve had. I mean, that kind of propelled you into a lot of the things that you do today, but what would you pinpoint as one of your greatest ideas to date? And take us to the moment you had that idea Nicolas, like what were the circumstances surrounding the creation, the ah-ha moment of that idea, and how do you turn it into a success?

Nicolas: The big lesson that I learned from Quora, after I've been writing there for about three years now, almost every day. And what I noticed when I first started writing there was I studied a lot of the other people that had already done well. That's part of just what I do. I like to study what other people do well, so then I don’t make the same mistakes. And what I noticed is that all of the thought leaders on that platform combined answering people’s questions and providing value with also sharing their own personal story and entertaining them.

So for example, if someone asked the question on Quora, what's it like to be an entrepreneur? The top answer wasn’t this formal definition of what entrepreneurship was, the top answer would be written by a serial entrepreneur that started with, you know, when I was 25 years old I launched my first app and I made a million dollars, six months later I was broke and sleeping on my best friend’s couch. And there's something about that story element that that's what draws people in, that's that emotional connection.

And so when I started to realize that early on, I thought okay, even though I'm young, I've experienced things that I think could provide context for other larger lessons that I could share with people. So when I would write on Quora, I really focused on this intersection of how can I answer the question and teach someone a lesson, but also weave in my own personal story. And I've really realized that that golden intersection is what actually builds a personal brand.

And so that big success moment was about three or four months in. I answered this question called, you know, like have you ever changed so much that you no longer recognize yourself? And at the time I had really gotten into body building, it was a hobby of mine. I posted this before and after picture of me in high school, where I was very sick. I didn't know I had celiac disease until I was 18, so I grew up really sick.

And so on the left was this skinny kid, and on the right was me knee deep in body building, 170 pounds shredded in the gym, and it went viral. It went front page of Reddit. My answer basically explained like yeah, you know what, you can change so much that you no longer recognize yourself, and in a way that's actually a really cool thing. And that answer got over a million views. And that weekend, my inbox flooded with people going what's your workout routine?

What's your nutrition? How did you do it? What was your mindset? And that day, I remember it was a Friday. I came home. I built a quick Squarespace site. I wrote two fitness e-books, and by Sunday I launched the whole thing. And I made $3,000 my first weekend. And that taught me so much about providing value, teaching people something, but also sharing your own personal story, where they go, I emotionally connect with you, I vibe with you as a person.

John: Wow. I mean, Fire Nation, there's a bunch of things I want you to take away from this. Number one, we're all standing on the shoulders of giants, so don't freak out when you are looking people that you admire, or who have done that. And you say, you know, I want to do things like them. But this is the reality, don’t just copy, bring you into the equation, your stories. And that's what Nicolas did very well, he learned from others, who had been there, who had done that, who were having success, but he didn't just copy and paste.

He said okay, I want to take that knowledge and those strategies and that content and make it mine, make it personal, bring in my story, my name, whatever I can bring to the table that's me, that's unique, that's how I'm going to do it. And that's what you can do as well. So Nicolas, in just one sentence, what do you want to make sure our listeners get from your ah-ha moment?

Nicolas: Don’t be afraid to share your personal story.

John: What are you most fired up about today, Nicolas? A lot of things going on, what's the one thing?

Nicolas: For me selfishly, I'm every day very thankful for kind of this road that I've discovered of my own content. The fact that now I'm at a position where I kind of am on some of the biggest stages on the internet. And I can provide value to people. And for me, my dream was I just wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write books and I wanted to share my voice with the world. But also from a teaching perspective, I know that what I've discovered isn't just one of those things, where like yeah, alright, it works only for me, but it doesn’t work for anyone else.

Like, this recipe, and this is what I just put together in a whole online course, this recipe, I've given to other people and they’ve done the exact same thing. I just worked with a life coach, and case in point, within six months, I was like start writing on Quora. Focus on these topics, hone in on delivering value, tell your personal story, within six months a million views on Quora. Laddered that up and got featured in three or four major publications, laddered that up, now he has his own column in Inc.

He followed the same recipe. And it's like I've always been a believer in walk the walk first. You know, like prove that you can do it yourself. And then once you’ve learned how to do it, go teach it to other people, so that they can succeed, too. And for me what greater value than getting to help other people share their story as well.

John: There's a recipe to success, Fire Nation. And that's why you're listening to this podcast right now, so that you can see the clues that successful people are leaving, or like Nicolas just simply shouting from the rooftops. Now we're going to be dropping some value bombs in the lightning round, as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. Nicolas, are you ready to rock the lightning round?

Nicolas: I'm ready.

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

Nicolas: Self doubt. Can I really do it? Can I go out on my own? But at the same time, I think, along the way, you know, after I graduated from college, and I worked at that digital agency, I knew what I didn't know yet. And I really was okay with spending time at that agency learning, and being mentored, and understanding the things that I knew I didn't know. And so as much as I want to say there were things holding me back, I think I was also very aware, like you know what, I'm not quite ready yet in a way. Like, this is worth my time to invest in learning and investing in myself.

John: Patience, Fire Nation, patience. What's the best advice you’ve ever received?

Nicolas: You can't steer a stationary ship. Meaning like you can't, seriously like you can't sit at your desk and be like I'm going to plan it all out, and then I'm going to get started. Like, even when I got ready to leave my 9:00 to 5:00, I had some of it figured out, like I kind of knew what direction I was going to go in, but a lot of it was just, it was more about do you believe in yourself to be able to figure it out, more so than do you already have it figured it out.

John: Nicolas, I love that. I've actually never heard of it being put that way. You know, I've always heard of things like you can't see around the corner until you drive up to it. You can't see the top of the staircase until you take the first step. The lights will never all be green. But that one, I'm going to steal from you. I'm going to give you credit twice, the next two times I use it, I'll give you credit, but then it's mine, sound good?

Nicolas: I stole that from the Chief Creative Officer of Digitas, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world, Mark Beaching. And he was working with my mentor, I was just in the room listening. And I think we all steal from each other, but –

John: Well, I'm sure he stole it from somebody too, so we're just going to give credit to everybody in the world.

Nicolas: For sure. But it's a good one, right?

John: You cannot steer a stationary ship. Is that the correct phrase?

Nicolas: Yep.

John: I love it. What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success?

Nicolas: I'm a really firm believer in anything that allows you to practice discipline. You know, for me, I really found that in the gym. It's like a personal habit of mine. I find that it doesn’t really matter what your thing is, but there's extreme value in getting yourself to do it every day. Because, I think people tend to think about the thing a lot more than the habit, but you don’t realize that in every single thing that you do, you're practicing two things at once, right?

You’re practicing the skill in front of you, whether it's going to the gym, or making music, or whatever, but you're also practicing the habit of sitting down and doing that thing every single day. So whatever it is that you enjoy doing, go ahead and do it, but realize that what's even more important than mastering the craft or the skill, is mastering the habit of discipline, of being able to get yourself to do something every day.

John: Share an internet resource like Evernote with Fire Nation?

Nicolas: Lately I've been using, again this is specific to me as a write, but BuzzSumo for looking up content ideas and keywords. You know, for someone like me, I write – I probably write a book every two weeks with the amount of content that I put out. And I'm a daily columnist for Inc., so I'm always looking for new ideas, or things that are topics that could be popular, that people would resonate with. If you're anywhere in that domain I would suggest checking out BuzzSumo.

John: If you could recommend one book, what would it be and why?

Nicolas: Mastery by Robert Green. Again, going back to the discipline thing, I'm really fascinated by people that are masters of their craft. And reading that book left a very strong impression on me, in terms of just what it takes, and the commitment that you have to have to yourself and to your craft. So whether you're looking for motivation, or you're equally as interested in that topic, I would highly suggest reading that book.

John: Let’s end today on fire with a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say goodbye?

Nicolas: Realizing, this is the recipe, like I want it to give it to you. You can write for free in these various platforms. This is where the big publications are looking. You can ladder that up. That's how you can start building credibility for yourself and attracting a very large audience. But it's the fact that anyone can do it. Again, like I point at myself, I'm not some uber successful serial entrepreneur now going back and telling my story. Like, I was just sharing things with people as I learned them, as I went along.

So if I can do it, so can the next person, and so can the person who has been in their industry for 30 years. I want people to know that this isn't like some it only works for me, like there is a method to the madness and that you can do it, too.

John: And how can we connect with you?

Nicolas: My website is nicolascole.com. And that's probably the best, that's where I do recaps of all the writing that I do. And then all my social is NicolasCole77.

John: Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and you have been hanging out with NC and JLD today. So keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com, just type Nicolas, that's N-I-C-O-L-A-S, in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about today. These are the best show notes in the biz, time stamps, links galore.

Of course, head over to nicolascole.com for recaps of all of Nicolas’ writing. And Nicolas, thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we’ll catch you on the flipside.

Nicolas: Thanks for having me.

[End of Audio]

Duration: 24 minutes
Nicolas: I am prepared.

John: Yes. Nicolas is an author, a columnist for Inc. Magazine, entrepreneur, and a ghost writer. He is a top writer on Quora, and his work has been featured in Time, Forbes, Fortune, The Huffington Post, Business Insider Entrepreneur, and many others. And he is best known for writing about self development. Nicolas, take a minute and fill in some gaps from that intro, and give us just a little glimpse of your personal life.

Nicolas: Yeah, so, you know, a quick nutshell, actually when I was a teenager, I was one of the highest ranked World of Warcraft players in the nation. And I went to school for creative writing. And my big project when I was in college is I wanted to write a book about my experiences as a gamer, as a hardcore gamer, because I felt like no one had really spoken up for that community. And when I got out of college, I started working at a digital advertising agency.

And that really introduced me to; I always say first and foremost I'm an artist. I'm a writer, but second that really taught me about marketing and the world of entrepreneurship. And how do you get work in front of the right people? And so over the past four years, I've really dove into this world of personal branding. And that's kind of what led to my writing on Quora, and eventually getting a column in Inc., and getting featured in a lot of other publications for my writing.

And learning this intersection between how do you share your own unique voice with the world, and how do you get in front of the right people? And I just recently actually published that book called Confessions of a Teenage Gamer, which is about that experience as a teenager, as a pro gamer.

John: Now question, being one of the top ranked gamers in the World of Warcraft, were you ever able to monetize or generate revenue from that?

Nicolas: Yeah, so actually, as a teenager, this was back in 2007, way before anyone thought that blogging would ever be a thing. I had one of the first e-famous gaming blogs, specifically in the World of Warcraft niche. And what I would write about was both high end game play, but also it was really that first step into, without me even really knowing what I was doing, building a personal brand. I wrote a lot about kind of creating myself to be this, the character, the voice of what's it like being the insecure teenager at school, but online you're like a God.

And like that duality, like it attracted a lot of people. I had about 10,000 people reading my blog every day. And that was what open doors. I started writing feature articles for other gaming sites, getting paid like $25.00, $50.00 an article as a teenager. And you have to think like, you know, working at – I also had a part time job at an ice cream store. And me working 20 hours a week serving ice cream, I made more writing online about World of Warcraft, then I did working 20 hours a week at this part time job.

So that was really my first step in, okay content writing is a thing, maybe I can do something with my writing online, that was kind of the foundation.

John: Yeah, and that's real money at that age. Up to 22 years old, I survived on less than $50 a week. So if you can bring in some scratch like that from a couple articles you're writing, things can start rolling and snowballing.

Nicolas: Oh, yeah.

John: And look where he’s come to this day, Fire Nation. I mean, really interesting stuff. So what would you consider you area of expertise, Nicolas? Like, if you could really breakdown where you currently thrive, within the self development niche? And then give us one tip, one tool, one tactic, something that we probably don't know, but that you do because you're an expert in this niche, and you’ve uncovered it during your research?

Nicolas: Yeah, so the thing that I really try to reinforce with people is I'm not that digital marketer that tries to convince you that I know everything about digital marketing. My whole thing is that I practice what I preach first. So everything that I know and I work with people on is very much in this domain of personal branding.

So if someone has been in their industry for even two years, all the way up to 50 years, and they know something that’s valuable and they want to build an audience around it, and they want to share it with people, how do they attract the right sort of audience, how do they gain credibility for themselves, and how do they build their own personal brand? The reason that I feel like I know this very well, and how I've been able to work with very high profile people is that I did it for myself.

And I always say I'm a 26-year-old writing in the space of self development. Like, I might be smart, but really who am i? You know, there are people out there that are much smarter than I am. And so if I've been able to do it for me, how is it that someone who’s been in this domain or another domain for 20 or 30 years, how is it that they're struggling to share their expertise with the world? And what really taught me this was Quora. That's where I got started writing.

That's how I learned how to cater my content to what people were asking. And so the tip that a lot of people don’t know, and this domain that I play in is, okay there's a strategy for building a personal brand, but there's also very tactical things that you can do in order to start building an audience around your content. For me specifically, I hone in on written content because that's my skill set. And then where to write in places that people don’t even know these major publications are sourcing a lot of content from.

So for example, before I even got my column in Inc., I had work featured in every single major publication on the internet from Quora. I would write answers on Quora, and I would cater them, I would write them in a way, where I already knew that certain publications were looking for them, either organized in a list, or the tone that they were written in, or the perspective. And it was from Quora that I got work originally featured in Forbes, and Time, and Fortune, and Huffington Post, Business Insider.

I mean literally racked up 20 of the top publications. And a lot of people don’t know that. And even more so that it’s not just Quora, it's Medium, it's LinkedIn, it's these places where you can write for free. And if you know how to write it in a way that provides people real value, and you can really hone in on who you're talking to, and not just like, I want someone to write about me, but actually teaching people what you know, these big publications, they survive off of content.

They're always looking for more content. So if you're writing in places that are free, that's also where they're looking. And they're going to republish your stuff if it's good and if it's what they're looking for. And I got to a point where I literally had work featured from Quora, every single week in a major publication for six months straight. There's not a PR agency in the world that could do that. And not only – it wasn’t just like a press release, right. Like, hey, this person is really cool, and then it fizzles out and that's it.

I was the author. I was the one who was sharing the valuable information. So as a result, what start to happen, people would see my content published by a major publication. They would go wow, I really vibe with the person that wrote that. And then they would email me and be like I just read your article on digital marketing, do you do that? And then all of a sudden I started getting all these inbound leads from people saying is that something that you work with people on?

Do you do coaching? Do you do ghost writing? Do you do this? I mean, that was the snowball effect, where I realized that it is a 100 times more valuable for you to be the thought leader and the author, and the one actually teaching people, opposed to going and hiring a PR agency and getting them some other columnist to write about you, that just sounds like a press release. Does that make sense?

John: Fire Nation, every single day I get emails from you, entrepreneurs, who say John, how do I interview the best entrepreneurs in the world, the Tim Ferriss, the Gary Vanderchucks? How do I write for Inc., for Fast Company, for Forbes? And my response is you don’t. You don’t start doing that. You start by building your foundation, by getting your chops, by writing for free, by writing for Quora, by interviewing not the Tim Ferriss’ of the world, but the Jim Bariss’ of the world, who nobody has heard of yet, but who has an interesting story, and you can get better as an interviewer, as a writer, by doing those things. You get your chops. You build a foundation one step at a time.

Nicolas: Yep.

John: Now Nicolas, you're not super old. You're in your late 20s right now, but the reality is this, like you’ve been around for awhile. So you’ve had the ups, you’ve had the downs. What would you consider your worst entrepreneurial moment to date? Take us to that moment, tell success that story.

Nicolas: You know, I think this is something that I felt very much all along the way, but it wasn’t really understood until actually very recently. You're right, like I really have paid my dues in this domain. I've written over 600 answers on Quora, each of which is like a full article. You know, it’s not like a three line quick little answer. I've written over 200 columns for Inc. I've written who knows how many as ghost pieces for other people. And because of all of this I've actually been fortunate.

I left my 9:00 to 5:00 job about six months ago, and now this is what I do fulltime. I'm a fulltime writer, ghost writer, and I help people with their digital marketing and personal branding. About a month after I took the leap, I remember right before I had done all of this, my mentor who was the creative director at this agency, right before he kind of let me spread my wings and was like go out into the world, best of luck. He was like just remember when the storm hits, stay calm.

And it was one of those things where it was kind of like you don’t really know what that means until you get in it, right? And after I had taken the leap, me and a buddy, we decided to go in on a couple different projects. And of course you walk into it, workplace when you're a young entrepreneur; you kind of think everything’s just going to go exactly as I imagined it.

There’s going to be no hiccups, it's all going to go fine, and it doesn’t. It never goes that way. And very quickly that storm hit. And I realized that it takes a lot longer than you ever want to think.

John: What was the storm?

Nicolas: It was the fact that I wanted to work on this next book project. And we were kind of planning out all of these different things that we were going to market it with, and reaching out to people. And Just everything at once, like putting all of a sudden real dollars behind things. And like you're investing in flights, and you're investing in video equipment, and you're investing in all of these different things.

And you start to realize, like you have money saved up, you have your leap fund, but it gets real, fast. And you start to really realize, like you either have to figure out how you're going to make this work long term, or you're going to be right back looking for your next job.

John: So Nicolas, looking back on that, like what would you say your biggest lesson learned from that moment, from that storm that hit that you can share with our listeners?

Nicolas: So me and this buddy, we went and got tacos. And we walked in there kind of all like solemn one day. And we were like man, how are we going to do this? And it wasn’t even so much about the money. It was more about like understanding really what was the long term goal that we were driving towards? You know, not just like the immediate project. And we sat there talking for like two hours, just going in circles.

And then all of a sudden, you kind of like talk through it all, and you get to the end and you're like: you know what; this is that moment that I think every entrepreneur can attest to. And it’s never just one, it just happens over and over again. And I can see how many I've had of like there are those moments of severe self doubt. And I think a lot of people like to pretend that those don’t happen, or when they do they're like: no, no, it's like whatever.

They don't want to acknowledge it, but sometimes it is important to acknowledge that for a second and be like okay, I feel the way that I feel. I got it. Let’s work through it, this is part of the probably, what can we learn, and just keep moving forward.

John: Writing for Quora, I think was one of your greatest ideas that you’ve had. I mean, that kind of propelled you into a lot of the things that you do today, but what would you pinpoint as one of your greatest ideas to date? And take us to the moment you had that idea Nicolas, like what were the circumstances surrounding the creation, the ah-ha moment of that idea, and how do you turn it into a success?

Nicolas: The big lesson that I learned from Quora, after I've been writing there for about three years now, almost every day. And what I noticed when I first started writing there was I studied a lot of the other people that had already done well. That's part of just what I do. I like to study what other people do well, so then I don’t make the same mistakes. And what I noticed is that all of the thought leaders on that platform combined answering people’s questions and providing value with also sharing their own personal story and entertaining them.

So for example, if someone asked the question on Quora, what's it like to be an entrepreneur? The top answer wasn’t this formal definition of what entrepreneurship was, the top answer would be written by a serial entrepreneur that started with, you know, when I was 25 years old I launched my first app and I made a million dollars, six months later I was broke and sleeping on my best friend’s couch. And there's something about that story element that that's what draws people in, that's that emotional connection.

And so when I started to realize that early on, I thought okay, even though I'm young, I've experienced things that I think could provide context for other larger lessons that I could share with people. So when I would write on Quora, I really focused on this intersection of how can I answer the question and teach someone a lesson, but also weave in my own personal story. And I've really realized that that golden intersection is what actually builds a personal brand.

And so that big success moment was about three or four months in. I answered this question called, you know, like have you ever changed so much that you no longer recognize yourself? And at the time I had really gotten into body building, it was a hobby of mine. I posted this before and after picture of me in high school, where I was very sick. I didn't know I had celiac disease until I was 18, so I grew up really sick.

And so on the left was this skinny kid, and on the right was me knee deep in body building, 170 pounds shredded in the gym, and it went viral. It went front page of Reddit. My answer basically explained like yeah, you know what, you can change so much that you no longer recognize yourself, and in a way that's actually a really cool thing. And that answer got over a million views. And that weekend, my inbox flooded with people going what's your workout routine?

What's your nutrition? How did you do it? What was your mindset? And that day, I remember it was a Friday. I came home. I built a quick Squarespace site. I wrote two fitness e-books, and by Sunday I launched the whole thing. And I made $3,000 my first weekend. And that taught me so much about providing value, teaching people something, but also sharing your own personal story, where they go, I emotionally connect with you, I vibe with you as a person.

John: Wow. I mean, Fire Nation, there's a bunch of things I want you to take away from this. Number one, we're all standing on the shoulders of giants, so don't freak out when you are looking people that you admire, or who have done that. And you say, you know, I want to do things like them. But this is the reality, don’t just copy, bring you into the equation, your stories. And that's what Nicolas did very well, he learned from others, who had been there, who had done that, who were having success, but he didn't just copy and paste.

He said okay, I want to take that knowledge and those strategies and that content and make it mine, make it personal, bring in my story, my name, whatever I can bring to the table that's me, that's unique, that's how I'm going to do it. And that's what you can do as well. So Nicolas, in just one sentence, what do you want to make sure our listeners get from your ah-ha moment?

Nicolas: Don’t be afraid to share your personal story.

John: What are you most fired up about today, Nicolas? A lot of things going on, what's the one thing?

Nicolas: For me selfishly, I'm every day very thankful for kind of this road that I've discovered of my own content. The fact that now I'm at a position where I kind of am on some of the biggest stages on the internet. And I can provide value to people. And for me, my dream was I just wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write books and I wanted to share my voice with the world. But also from a teaching perspective, I know that what I've discovered isn't just one of those things, where like yeah, alright, it works only for me, but it doesn’t work for anyone else.

Like, this recipe, and this is what I just put together in a whole online course, this recipe, I've given to other people and they’ve done the exact same thing. I just worked with a life coach, and case in point, within six months, I was like start writing on Quora. Focus on these topics, hone in on delivering value, tell your personal story, within six months a million views on Quora. Laddered that up and got featured in three or four major publications, laddered that up, now he has his own column in Inc.

He followed the same recipe. And it's like I've always been a believer in walk the walk first. You know, like prove that you can do it yourself. And then once you’ve learned how to do it, go teach it to other people, so that they can succeed, too. And for me what greater value than getting to help other people share their story as well.

John: There's a recipe to success, Fire Nation. And that's why you're listening to this podcast right now, so that you can see the clues that successful people are leaving, or like Nicolas just simply shouting from the rooftops. Now we're going to be dropping some value bombs in the lightning round, as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. Nicolas, are you ready to rock the lightning round?

Nicolas: I'm ready.

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

Nicolas: Self doubt. Can I really do it? Can I go out on my own? But at the same time, I think, along the way, you know, after I graduated from college, and I worked at that digital agency, I knew what I didn't know yet. And I really was okay with spending time at that agency learning, and being mentored, and understanding the things that I knew I didn't know. And so as much as I want to say there were things holding me back, I think I was also very aware, like you know what, I'm not quite ready yet in a way. Like, this is worth my time to invest in learning and investing in myself.

John: Patience, Fire Nation, patience. What's the best advice you’ve ever received?

Nicolas: You can't steer a stationary ship. Meaning like you can't, seriously like you can't sit at your desk and be like I'm going to plan it all out, and then I'm going to get started. Like, even when I got ready to leave my 9:00 to 5:00, I had some of it figured out, like I kind of knew what direction I was going to go in, but a lot of it was just, it was more about do you believe in yourself to be able to figure it out, more so than do you already have it figured it out.

John: Nicolas, I love that. I've actually never heard of it being put that way. You know, I've always heard of things like you can't see around the corner until you drive up to it. You can't see the top of the staircase until you take the first step. The lights will never all be green. But that one, I'm going to steal from you. I'm going to give you credit twice, the next two times I use it, I'll give you credit, but then it's mine, sound good?

Nicolas: I stole that from the Chief Creative Officer of Digitas, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world, Mark Beaching. And he was working with my mentor, I was just in the room listening. And I think we all steal from each other, but –

John: Well, I'm sure he stole it from somebody too, so we're just going to give credit to everybody in the world.

Nicolas: For sure. But it's a good one, right?

John: You cannot steer a stationary ship. Is that the correct phrase?

Nicolas: Yep.

John: I love it. What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success?

Nicolas: I'm a really firm believer in anything that allows you to practice discipline. You know, for me, I really found that in the gym. It's like a personal habit of mine. I find that it doesn’t really matter what your thing is, but there's extreme value in getting yourself to do it every day. Because, I think people tend to think about the thing a lot more than the habit, but you don’t realize that in every single thing that you do, you're practicing two things at once, right?

You’re practicing the skill in front of you, whether it's going to the gym, or making music, or whatever, but you're also practicing the habit of sitting down and doing that thing every single day. So whatever it is that you enjoy doing, go ahead and do it, but realize that what's even more important than mastering the craft or the skill, is mastering the habit of discipline, of being able to get yourself to do something every day.

John: Share an internet resource like Evernote with Fire Nation?

Nicolas: Lately I've been using, again this is specific to me as a write, but BuzzSumo for looking up content ideas and keywords. You know, for someone like me, I write – I probably write a book every two weeks with the amount of content that I put out. And I'm a daily columnist for Inc., so I'm always looking for new ideas, or things that are topics that could be popular, that people would resonate with. If you're anywhere in that domain I would suggest checking out BuzzSumo.

John: If you could recommend one book, what would it be and why?

Nicolas: Mastery by Robert Green. Again, going back to the discipline thing, I'm really fascinated by people that are masters of their craft. And reading that book left a very strong impression on me, in terms of just what it takes, and the commitment that you have to have to yourself and to your craft. So whether you're looking for motivation, or you're equally as interested in that topic, I would highly suggest reading that book.

John: Let’s end today on fire with a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say goodbye?

Nicolas: Realizing, this is the recipe, like I want it to give it to you. You can write for free in these various platforms. This is where the big publications are looking. You can ladder that up. That's how you can start building credibility for yourself and attracting a very large audience. But it's the fact that anyone can do it. Again, like I point at myself, I'm not some uber successful serial entrepreneur now going back and telling my story. Like, I was just sharing things with people as I learned them, as I went along.

So if I can do it, so can the next person, and so can the person who has been in their industry for 30 years. I want people to know that this isn't like some it only works for me, like there is a method to the madness and that you can do it, too.

John: And how can we connect with you?

Nicolas: My website is nicolascole.com. And that's probably the best, that's where I do recaps of all the writing that I do. And then all my social is NicolasCole77.

John: Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and you have been hanging out with NC and JLD today. So keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com, just type Nicolas, that's N-I-C-O-L-A-S, in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about today. These are the best show notes in the biz, time stamps, links galore.

Of course, head over to nicolascole.com for recaps of all of Nicolas’ writing. And Nicolas, thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we’ll catch you on the flipside.

Nicolas: Thanks for having me.