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What if I told you that NO SCRIPTS is the key to exploding your social media growth?

My guest today started as the only applicant for a 5-hour graphics job and accidentally built a social media agency by following one rule: never script anything.

In this episode, Nikki May from Social Blueprint shares how she shoots all her client content without scripts, why she tells clients to never read their comments, and the Friday series strategy that built 5,000 followers in just 6 weeks.

Key Takeaways

• The no-script content strategy that creates authentic engagement—why Nikki never scripts client videos and how this authenticity-first approach built her entire agency.

• The Friday series formula that gets 10,000 views every week—how sitting in the same spot, wearing the same two shirts, and posting the same format creates explosive growth and predictable leads.

• Why authentic content is the ONLY way to grow—the Tesla mention strategy, how to predict comments before posting, and why lurkers buy even when engagement drops to 1-2%

Connect with Nikki May

Instagram: @socialblueprintllc

Website: https://socialblueprintllc.com

 ____________________________________

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh: In today’s episode, I was joined with Nikki May with the social blueprint and oh my gosh, you guys, this might have been one of my favorite podcast episodes.

Nikki May: My first hire was a social media manager to run my own account, so I know that you’re not doing it for your own business. It’s too much work in your clients come first.

Emily Hirsh: It is filled with so much good, juicy, tangible advice.

Nikki May: You should be creating consistent content, not to necessarily get more sales, not to get more brand awareness. It’s because every time you do it, you get better controversial, all the way that is the way to skyrocket your account.

Emily Hirsh: You guys are going to love this conversation.

Embodied CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way they lead from within. Move by purpose, unshaken by noise. When you are the source, you do not need permission. All right, we are live. Welcome. I am so excited. 

Nikki May: Me too. Hi, Emily. 

Emily Hirsh: Hi. Yeah, yeah, we just did a business strategy. Now we’re diving into podcast. I can’t wait.

Yeah, it’s gonna be good. I’m excited. Let’s tell everyone a little bit about you your business, what you do, and wherever you feel relevant to kind of start with how you started.

Nikki May: Sure. So I’m Nikki. I own Social Blueprint. It is a social media agency, and I kind of fell into it by accident. This is not what I thought I was going to be doing with my life.

I always knew I would own a business because when I was an elementary school, I glued little puff balls together and I put googly eyes on ’em, and I sold ’em for, I don’t know, 25 cents or something. And then I started making magnets. And I would draw these weird little creatures on them and sell them. And I thought, you know, this is fun just creating and selling whatever you’re making.

So I knew that I would have my own business from that weird little moment in history. But I didn’t know it would be social media. So I worked in operations direct, well, I guess I should say I worked in operations. I was an operations director for a childcare business. And I quit that when I married my husband because he was a travel nurse at the time.

And my job wouldn’t let me work remote and I wasn’t not gonna be with him, you know? So I decided to quit that job. And the only job I could find, because at that time, working remote wasn’t this huge thing like it is now was in social media and somebody reached out and said that they needed somebody five hours a week to make graphics for their social media.

And I said, well, I could probably figure it out. And I applied and I was the only one who applied. So I, I got the job, which thank God it was a huge blessing because that grew into something completely different than I ever thought. I started in graphics and. They were terrible. They were so bad because I didn’t know what I was doing, but they were better than what the owner of the company was doing.

That’s all that mattered, and I figured it out. I started an influencing account because I was so nervous about messing up this businesses account that I thought I’m just gonna mess everything up on my own and figure it out. That account ended up blowing up and doing really well and I started working with brands and different companies and like Airbnbs and stuff like that.

And then I got good enough that I felt like I could finally start my own business and do this. And fun fact, I wanted to just coach people on how to do it, and every single person I talked to said, I just want someone to do it for me. So I said, I guess I will do it for you. And that’s how we got here.

Emily Hirsh: I love it so much similarities to To my story.

Yeah. And starting the agency and yeah, I just think it’s like so important for people to see. You didn’t have, like, I’m starting this social media agency and here’s all the steps. Right. But you followed like, I’m gonna figure it out. Okay. I’m good at that. Okay. I figured it out. Mm-hmm. People are asking for this and that’s, that’s such key contributing factors to creating a business, especially in the beginning.

Yeah. So how long ago was it when you started the, like going, okay, I’m doing social media?

Nikki May: Like when I first, well, my first job was like five hours. The graphics?

Emily Hirsh: Yeah.

Nikki May: That was in 2020. Okay. So we all know what happens there. My husband and I already had our wedding planned and we did it and it was tiny and at a house.

And yeah. Then jobs started getting a little bit remote and that was really cool. And so when I got this job in 2020, the owner didn’t care where I was because they weren’t asking people to come into work anyway. And so it all just lined up in a very weird but very cool way.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah. How do you feel like you’re really good at specifically, I feel like creativity.

Mm-hmm. I mean, taking that account that you blew up was through really creative content and kind of learning what people responded to and you know, what, how, I mean you taught yourself, but through experience you taught yourself, taught, what strengths do you feel like that highlighted that you already had in you to be able to leverage?

Because you may not have had the plan for the business, but you definitely leveraged your strengths along the way.

Nikki May: Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I think that I am really headstrong and I really like to be the best, very competitive, and I think that. I wasn’t gonna stop. I was, I was just going to figure it out.

And it took me a long time to realize that the missing piece that was happening specific honestly, with both the accounts, with my, what turned into an influencer account unknowingly and the business that I was managing was that there was no authenticity. So I was managing her account. Like I saw all these other businesses manage their accounts, which was terrible by the way.

And then from my account, I thought that I had to be like everyone else I saw who was also traveling, who’s living this crazy, luxurious lifestyle, which was just not my experience. And the second that I started sharing about my experience, that’s when my account blew up. And it was also through storytelling.

And I thought, well, that’s interesting. So then I tried another reel after I had one blow up. And fun fact also, it blew up three weeks after I posted it. It did terrible when I first did it and I was like, oh, that’s fine. You know, I thought my same a thousand followers were gonna see it. And then it went viral and it was based on a story and overcoming an obstacle.

And so I tried it again and again and again and again. And then I started doing it on the business account and I realized, oh, people don’t necessarily care about your product or your service. They wanna know if they can trust you and what makes you different and are you being authentic to yourself? And so I found out that whether you’re a business or an influencer or whatever you are, that’s the missing piece.

Yeah. Authenticity and

Emily Hirsh: storytelling.

Nikki May: Yeah. Are

Emily Hirsh: like the two core pillars of what you would say you do with the content creation.

Nikki May: Yeah, definitely. And that’s, I think it helps me also find out who I was. ’cause you’d ask kind of about what it revealed in me. A lot of it was like my content for myself on that account was very, very like cheesy and romantic.

It was a couple accounts, it was me and my husband. And my husband is crazy cheesy and romantic, and that is who he is, but it is not who I am. And so the second I started honestly being more headstrong and just going for it and not always making it look like, you know, through the rosy glasses or whatever you say, that’s when it took off.

Because I think it’s far more relatable than like a perfect relationship, which I would say mine’s pretty close, but it’s, you know, it’s not perfect. And yeah, same with all the businesses I work with is if you’re just putting on this fake lens of this is what I think I should be like,

Emily Hirsh: it won’t work. So how do you help clients do that?

Like I know that for you it’s become a natural way to be authentic and. I dunno. I feel like people throw around the word authentic all the time and then there’s almost like this swing where it’s like now you’re trying so hard to be quote authentic and you’re no longer authentic. And I totally agree though.

It’s like, especially in today’s current climate, people just want real on social media. Like the more organic, imperfect and and real you can be in social media, in ads, in your content in general, like across the board in your brand creates connection which creates trust, which creates buyers, people who don’t know.

I know you, we’ve had this conversation, like clients will be like, what? How? How do I be authentic? Like how do I say what I think? I don’t know what I think. I think that’s what it comes down to is like they don’t know Right. What that looks like in themselves. So how do you help pull that out of someone?

It’s

Nikki May: really hard. Not gonna lie, but I can tell. So I shoot. All of my client’s content except for one. And when I go to a shoot, if I have them talking to the camera, I never script it because I think that’s where the robot comes in. And you feel like you have to nail every single line perfectly. And for my clients, when they’re first starting to work with me, it’s really nerve wracking for them because they’ll say, oh, I wish I could just read a script.

And I say, no, it’s not authentic. It’s not you. And so I’ll say, you know, here’s your two hook options, and then I just want you to tell me your story. The camera trips people up so bad, we can be having a great conversation. You can tell me your story. And then I pull out a phone and it’s like everything leaves your head.

And so. I think that it really helps when I’m there and just saying, just talk to me. Just pretend you’re talking to me. That’s what authentic is, I think, at least, and I think that it helps my clients and gradually they get more and more comfortable. But I can also see, you know, maybe talking to the camera is just not them.

Maybe they are more shy. It’s not what they wanna do. We’re going to change their content to be authentically them. Is it just that we film what they’re doing that day, or is it that we film their customers? You know, maybe it’s not their face necessarily that’s on their social media all the time. I have a huge onboarding form that I send.

I’m like, what are you comfortable doing? And a lot of people think they can do anything in front of the camera until it’s there. And so I think the authenticity rolls into, well, what are you comfortable doing? So for me, I will not dance in front of a camera, which I think also if you know me, seems wrong because I love to dance.

It is my true passion, dance and travel. But I won’t do it in front of a camera because I, I tense. I’m so uncomfortable. It’s not authentic. I feel so awkward. And I think if you feel that, that’s the sign that you’re not being authentically you and you need to switch.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, you’re forcing it. I love that you record without having people use a script.

’cause I totally agree. Like I will have clients want like a word for word webinar script, and that’s such a presentation where you’re building trust and you’re expressing, you know, like you’ve gotta, by the time you get to the pitch and you’re talking about your offer, there has to be so much trust for you.

And if you’re talking like I would talk, right? It’s not gonna, it’s not gonna come through. And so I give people examples, but I always say like, never, you know, read a script that I wrote or that I gave you. So I love that. So would your recommendation for someone who’s like, I wanna record more videos.

Yeah. It makes me uncomfortable, but I wanna get better at it. Mm-hmm. It would be, don’t use a script.

Nikki May: Yeah. And

Emily Hirsh: like use guidelines?

Nikki May: Yes, use guidelines. And so for me, obviously I don’t script my videos, but I will have talking points that I wanna hit, and then I just say whatever I wanna say. And so when my social media manager comes over and I feel like I’m just dropping fun facts everywhere today.

My first hire was a social media manager to run my own accounts. I am literally a social media manager. And I would not do it for my own business. I wouldn’t do it. So I know that you’re not doing it for your own business. It’s too much work. And your clients come first. I totally get it. But she would come over and basically just say, okay, now you’re gonna talk about this.

And I would say, all right, start the camera and we’ll see what comes out. And now my clients that I’ve worked with the longest, that’s almost word for word what they say. And I’m like, do you wanna practice? Do you wanna tell me your story? And we can kind of, you know, workshop it. And they’ll always be like, nah, just record and we’ll see what happens.

And I love that because it’s very authentically them.

Emily Hirsh: Right. Because who you are is who you are, right? Whether there’s a camera there or not. Right. And it is a skill. Like you get better at it for sure. I mean, I’ve been creating content now for like, probably about eight years. When I first started my business, I didn’t really create a lot of content, but eight years of that, and I can go back to like when Facebook Live was a thing and I started doing Facebook Live.

I mean, if I watch them today, they’re absolutely horrible. Like, I was so nervous, you know? And now I, I record this podcast and I can’t tell you how many people are like, we don’t have a script. Like we, we don’t have questions that you’re gonna ask me. Like, no, because I just, I can, we can be natural. And I think, I think it’s something, I don’t know if you would agree, but I think for most people, even if you’re uncomfortable practicing that skill on a regular basis, because the only way to get better at it is to do it.

And just your brain starts to figure out how to do it and get over the fact that a camera’s there and pretend like it’s not. Yeah. And I also think people who really know their content. For me, if you gave me a script, I would actually sound way worse. Right? Because I’m like trying to think about the script when it’s just like it’s embodied in me, what I know and what I’m gonna say.

It’s just, it’s there. And so I, I think that we’re gonna go into a season of content too, with like ai, where you’ve gotta take that embodied knowledge and be able to get it out without a script. And because AI can copy a script, but AI can’t be you, right? With a soul and a heart in front of a camera.

Nikki May: Right? And that’s one thing. ’cause you know, a common misconception is that you can use just AI to come up with all your ideas and oh my gosh, I have tried, I have tried. And trust me, I do train my little chat. Okay. I don’t just like throw in, send me 30 content ideas. It’s a crazy prompt. They’re so bad.

They’re so bad. But the problem, I think is because, yeah, it can shoot out stuff and say, talk about what book you’re reading. Sure, but you’re missing that storytelling aspect. And that’s why it’s so bad, because it can tell you to talk about facts all day long. But you know, facts tell, story sell. That’s a great way to think of it.

And the more you tell your story, the better. And I actually went back and was curious about your podcast when you first started. So I went back to the oldest one. No way. The difference. Oh my God. No, I did. Was it so bad? No, no. It wasn’t bad. But the difference was insane. And I can tell, I’m sure. Yeah.

Because I know you I can tell that like the auth, the authenticity was lacking in that moment. And you were trying to be who you thought you should be. You went to like the first one. The first of the first. Oh my gosh. And the second and the third. I just had to

Emily Hirsh: see. I had to know. Yeah. That’s so funny.

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I think like, I, I always. Tried to be authentic, but it’s like the first time you do things. Right. Right. And, and I’m telling you, the only way you get better at it is doing it. Yeah. Like I’ve recorded, I don’t even know what number this will be, 750 something podcast episodes. And very rarely do you meet entrepreneurs willing to do that.

Like I talk about this all the time. Like the consistency. The consistency in content creation, because it’s just like, with so many things in life, the only way you get better at it is by doing it in like the embodied experience of it. Yep. So start where you’re at today. I think there’s so much comparison of like, oh, you know, this person, I can’t create content to that level.

I could even do that today. Like there’s people I follow, Alex Ram Moey, Dan Marel. I don’t create content a level that they do. I don’t have the team, I don’t have the infra infrastructure. Mm-hmm. But it’s like I just wanna keep showing up. Right. And improving and upleveling. And I just said, today I’m gonna get a bigger podcast studio.

Like we’re gonna do more of this. And that’s, that’s the journey.

Nikki May: I think that’s great. And I have, you know, a common question of can you come up with faceless content ideas? I just got somebody who commented that on my TikTok video. ’cause you know, every Friday I say, here’s what you’re gonna post next week, and I just give it away for free.

And somebody asked for faceless ideas and I said, no. Like, people connect to people. And I completely understand the fear because if you went back six years before I started working in social media, my husband literally has an album on his phone that he titled hand in Face. Because every time he would try to take a picture or a video of me, I would hold up my hands to the camera because I was so nervous, like I didn’t wanna be in front of it.

So I, I get the fear. A hundred percent, but the only way to get over it’s to do it. You just have to do it and it’s gonna suck and it’s gonna be terrible. And that’s okay. Yeah. Then you get better uncomfortable.

Emily Hirsh: Mm-hmm. How did you, so for you, did you just decide like, okay, I gotta do this, I gotta start creating content with my face, so I’m gonna force myself kind of in the beginning?

Nikki May: Yeah. I forced myself and so I think maybe this is kind of where there’s a battle between, is it authentic versus like, are you just growing? ’cause there is, you know, the nerves when you’re growing. I never felt really like I was faking it because it just started off with me taking pictures in all the cool locations.

I was in that didn’t feel as forced. I didn’t know what to do with my hands. So like they look awkward, you know? But it didn’t feel really forced. I was just like, ah, you know, I’ll get over it. ’cause it’s not about me. It’s about really the background of where we are. And then I got more and more comfortable and I kind of branched into video and I felt like the video was really where I was more authentically me than like this perfectly posed photo.

I can’t even tell you how many fights my husband and I would get into because I was like, it has to be perfect. And we would retake the photo over and over and he was like, I just wanna hike. You know? So then video where I was like, let me just blog, let me just show you. Realistically what in the world we’re doing out here, sleeping in the back of our car, you know, in the middle of the desert.

That’s when it, you know, it took off because it felt more me. And I think you just have to go through a period of, well, let me try this and let me try this and let me try this until you find Yes, this is it.

Emily Hirsh: Well, you’re constantly building, right? Like you’re, like, it starts with the photos with me. Then the vlogging announce the face to camera videos.

Mm-hmm. And I mean, the, the building never really stops, like mm-hmm. Like I was just saying, you constantly kind of improve your game. But I think there’s a lot of people who are, like, they look at the big players out there and they’re, they wanna go straight to that, but they know they can’t and so they don’t really do much at all.

And then it becomes this like huge block. And I mean, I personally feel like consistency is the number one. Like game. Right? Because even if your content at first sucks, at least you’re showing up. Right? Right. And then it’s like it’s gonna get better. Yes. And, and I mean that not just in like creating social media posts, that’s a piece of it.

Mm-hmm. But just content in general, whether it’s a podcast, YouTube emailing your list, like that consistency of building the brand.

Nikki May: Right. And I had just talked about this in a video and I had said, you know, posting every day is great. Like you should be doing this. And a lot of social media managers, and again, I don’t do much content outside of this, so I can only share what I know about social media, but a lot of them will talk about burnout.

And it’s so real because just marketing in general never stops. There’s not an end point. Right? You can always do better competitive and saturated. Right? And so it’s just a tricky thing. But I like to say that you should be creating consistent content. Not to necessarily get more sales, not to get more brand awareness, although that will just happen.

Right. That’s the whole point of it. It’s because every time you do it, you get better. And like I said, it’s gonna be hard when you start out, but you can’t compare yourselves to the people who have been doing this for years who have a whole team. Especially if it’s just you. Like you have to know that you’re not gonna get there, but your authenticity is gonna shine in a different way.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, yeah. The consistency and learning through that experience. Mm-hmm. Let’s talk about the burnout, because that is a huge thing, like with marketing in general, but content specifically. It’s like I will, I meet people a lot that are like they are, they have this idea of if I just post more, they’ll come.

Like, I’ll grow my business. Right. And then they go in this experience where they, they create a bunch of content. It usually doesn’t last very long because they get exhausted very quickly. Right. Maybe it’s two weeks, maybe it’s 30 days. They go hard. They create all this content and it doesn’t really do very much.

And so then they’re exhausted. It’s not working. They don’t have the leads, they don’t have the sales. So I talk a lot about, you’re way better than me at social media. Like you actually can use it in your business to grow your business. For me, it’s very much a nurture, sure. Strategy. There’s a little bit of growth, but I’d say it’s like less than 5% of my like leads.

Mm-hmm. It’s more like, come in my world now, watch my story, see my content. It’s just that extra touch point. So I often tell people like, that’s why I love ads, because they can speed that up. Obviously. They take the investment and I talk about like, you’ve either got time or money. Organic is time ads is money.

So that, that burnout, like somebody, how do you look at social media? Like is it like. ’cause we may disagree on this. Like, is it like you’re, you know, this is a huge growth strategy and every business should be doing it. Or is it more a nurture strategy? And you should have consistency, but

Nikki May: consistency within where you’re at.

Social media, hands down is a nurture strategy. Absolutely. If you can figure out how to make money from it, power to you. But it’s rare. That’s great. Like, you definitely can, it’s, it definitely can. And honestly what I see from social media is we can get you leads, we can get you so much brand awareness and the leads to come to you.

But what people really lack is honestly the back end of their sales or marketing funnels. Like, yeah, someone goes to your website but it’s terrible and it was made 10 years ago and they can’t figure out how to buy from you. That’s the problem. That’s not a social media problem. Right. But a lot of people think that, well, if I’m gonna pay a social media manager, I better be making a ton of money.

It’s different. It’s a nurture. So. My recommendation is do social media if you can. I don’t think it’s a must to have all these different platforms, but what I do recommend is having an Instagram. What we’ve seen is that Instagram is kind of like your living room, like you were saying. Like, come on in, see what my life is like.

It’s that nurture, get to know me kind of thing. And you are really messing it up. If you’re only posting salesy content, that’s not what Instagram is for. Please don’t do that. So show people your life, show people the behind the scenes of what they’re doing. You don’t have to be anywhere else, but Instagram is a great place to start.

And it’s gonna help build your social proof if you have a big enough following. And I know that that can be scary to some people, but I do recommend try, you know, try to get 10,000 followers, which I know is a big number, but it does have an impact on how people view your business. They think you’re more legit if 10,000 other people also with following.

I agree with that. I mean,

Emily Hirsh: I call it vanity metrics, but I do agree with that. But it matters. Yeah,

Nikki May: people do look at that, right? And so that’s one thing I think that sets our agency apart too, is we don’t discount your vanity metrics. They’re important. They probably shouldn’t be as important as they are.

But instead of fighting human psychology, we work with it and we say, if we know that you need 10,000 followers, maybe instead of posting salesy content, we’re posting really funny or really relatable or really emotional content to get you to 10,000. And then we can push a lot more salesy stuff. We definitely still push sales content.

People can’t buy from you if they don’t know what you’re selling. We obviously talk about that, but that’s not the main point of social.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah. This is so important because understanding the, if you, if you understand the purpose behind social is nurture with, yeah. You’re gonna grow, like if you post regularly and also if you run ads, you will grow on your profile.

Yes, you’re gonna grow. But if you put the intention behind it as nurture, it takes this pressure off of like, I posted this post and it didn’t make me a sale.

Nikki May: Right.

Emily Hirsh: And. To me and like how I look at social media is like, it’s one, you know, iron in the fire. Yes. Like you need, you need all these irons in the fire and you need a full cohesive brand.

And social media and content is a piece to that. Mm-hmm. But it’s not the end all be all. And you can’t measure it by saying, I posted two sales posts this week and got zero sales. So social media must not be working.

Nikki May: Yes. And I think a huge point is trust is declining. Right. Just across the board, people wanna know, if I buy from you, am I actually gonna get what you’re talking about?

Right. So the more you can build that trust, the better. But also we see that people need more touch points nowadays before they even buy from you. Especially if you have an item that’s more than a hundred dollars. Right. They need to see this item, or they need to see your face if you’re the face of your brand.

Seven times, 35 times, sometimes more than a hundred times if you have a high ticket item. Social media is a way that you can keep showing up, that you can keep hitting those touch points because you have your stories and you can post a photo, and then you can post a video. And yes, it’s very time consuming, but I think honestly it’s that nurture point that can speed up the sales.

Because with our clients, yes, we have people who come and say, we heard about you because of Instagram or because of TikTok, and that’s awesome if they just buy from you right there. But normally if we go back, that person didn’t just follow and buy. They followed months ago, if not a year ago, and then they kept seeing your content and kept seeing it, and you kept building that trust and then they bought from you.

And now what we’ve also seen specifically for clients that have more memberships is that those people stick around longer because they trust you. They got that before they even bought.

Emily Hirsh: So, so true. And I, I think for people, because we’re almost like spoiled with the level of metrics that we can have.

Mm-hmm. It’s like, well I can’t directly track it, but you never know what someone saw before they buy. Like that’s impossible to track that. And think about like OG marketing of like radio and billboard. What was the purpose behind it? Nurture. Yeah. See it touch points. Yeah. And there’s no way you’re gonna be able to track it.

We’re spoiled with the level of data that we actually do have today. Right. And even then it’s impossible to track an entire customer journey including that. Which is why, coming back to consistency being the goal, right? Because you never know who’s seen it and not engaging with it. Like how many times do you see a post that you’re like, that was cool and you didn’t like it, you didn’t comment on it.

Like all the time, do I do that? Yeah. So you never know. And, and that’s why I’m like with content consistency is the goal. Like mm-hmm. I think at your level you’re looking at metrics, but for some of my clients, I’m. I don’t even care about the metrics. Just making it consistency first. Yes. Like your goal is once a week, twice a week, whatever it

Nikki May: is.

Right. And one thing, I think I made a post about this a while ago and I was like, guys, lurkers buy two, like engagement is down across every single platform people use saying for 10%, we’re looking at like one to 2% now. Okay. But just because someone didn’t like your post doesn’t mean they’re not gonna buy from you down the road.

Like that’s not why you’re posting It is for the likes. That’s cool. It makes you look good. We love that. But like my husband never likes anything. Never. He just scrolls and he might watch it five times and then he scrolls again. I’m like, why didn’t, why didn’t you like it? He goes, I don’t know. You know, like it’s just, it doesn’t even cross his mind.

And so you can’t be dependent on that in that engagement and think, oh, social media is not working for me just because I only got 10 likes.

Emily Hirsh: Totally. So. I love this. This is such a good conversation. So there’s a few points that we’ve made around strategy with social media of like authenticity. Mm-hmm.

Storytelling. Is there anything else that you would wanna tell people as like, this is what’s working today? Oh my gosh,

Nikki May: yes. The main way to grow, and you can take this so you can leave it, is to be controversial. And I think this is really hard for businesses because they don’t want to offend anybody. But when I say controversial, I don’t mean you have to offend somebody.

You might, but you don’t have to. Take for example, just Tesla has a lot of controversy around it. You don’t even have to take a side. You can just mention Tesla in your video and you can let people in the comments go off. Right. And I just started managing someone’s account who is going towards more of the influencer route than business.

Not once on her page has she. Said anything bad about men, as she said, like a blanket statement about all men. But she has just talked about how happy she is to be single. And that apparently is controversial and she is skyrocketing right now because she’s telling her story. But people are viewing this as controversial.

And so we’re leaning into it and we say the more controversial, the better. We’re not making blanket statements, we’re not accusing anybody, but we are just saying something because we are basing it on growth and comments. And one thing we’ve done with her content and actually learned this from Adley, who’s wonderful is she says, I imagine what the comments are gonna say, and then I make the video.

We’ve done that now we’ve said, you know, we want the comments to say X, Y, and Z. So this is what has to happen. And it works so controversial all the way, if you are comfortable doing it, that is the way to skyrocket your account.

Emily Hirsh: Totally agree. The, the disruptive content, the controversial content. And I also say that to my clients in their marketing and messaging in general.

Like, if you wanna be authentic, right? You’ve gotta have that and you have it. Everyone has it in you, like you, right? If you don’t have beliefs and values that other people may not share, like you’re like a, shell love a person, you know, like everyone has that. And I get the same reaction sometimes of like, well, I don’t wanna offend people.

I don’t wanna be mean, I, you know, I don’t wanna offend a competitor who I’m friends with. And I say back to that, what if you had to state your belief or state your, your statement of what you think is, is true based on your experience, based on your knowledge from a place of love. Right? You could do that, right?

People’s reaction from there is all on them. Exactly. Like it’s all on them. And so agree. Like the accounts that do really well and the content that, because that’s how you stand out, is you have a different opinion, a different thought, a different you know, point of view mm-hmm. Than other people, right.

And then you stand out. I was at an event and there was a speaker who said, everybody wants to be a thought leader today, but nobody has an original thought. And I was like, that’s so true. It’s like everybody wants to be this thought influencer, thought leader and create this incredible content, but they’re just regurgitating, right.

Everything they’ve heard to afraid. I think you’ve gotta put yourself in a room with no electronics and figure out like, what are my original thoughts? Like, I love that. What do I really think about these things? Then you can use ai, then you can take it to that. But like, AI can’t create those things for you.

And I think we’re, we’re headed into a season where people try to use AI to create their original thoughts and. Everybody’s gonna be saying the same thing. So it’s like everybody’s gonna go right and do that. You go left. Mm-hmm. And this guy who was speaking was like, yeah, I literally, like, I sit in my office, I lock myself in there, I have a whiteboard, and I just sit there and I have like a question or something I’m thinking about, and I ask myself like, what do I think?

Mm. And he is like, I torture myself. I sit there for hours until I get to like the root of what I think, and then I take those original thoughts and he’s like a world like renowned speaker. Yeah. I take those thoughts and that becomes my presentations and that becomes my content.

Nikki May: That’s, that’s pretty amazing.

I love that. I think you’re so right. And I’d say, you know, controversial content is great and having your own thoughts and being a thought leader is great if you know what they are. And another piece of advice that I would have is you have to have, well, there’s two things. You need to have a series.

Your series can be whatever you want. It can be that you vlog every day, every week, every other day, whatever, about what you’re doing in your life. Your series can be like what we did for a client where we made their office into a reality TV series and we created fake drama, right? Just, but it’s based around their personality, so it still feels authentic to them.

Or your series can just be, you know, my journey, part one, my journey part two. Because if you think about when you’re watching a show, right? If you came back every week and one week this guy was a lawyer, and the next week he worked in a bank, and then the next week he worked at a paper office, you would say, what am I doing?

What am I watching? It’s too sporadic, it’s chaotic. It doesn’t make sense if I go to your feed and it’s sporadic and it’s chaotic and it doesn’t make sense, and there’s not a purpose. And like your content’s not repetitive, which is my second point, that your content needs to be repetitive. It’s harder to build your brand and your followers.

And so. I, you know, I lean heavy into analytics and metrics, and if something goes viral, I basically say, how can we redo this over and over and over until a different piece of your story? That’s really what it’s, that’s really how you do it. As a business owner, as an influencer, as a UGC creator, whatever is, find what works for your audience and just redo it over and over and over and over so people know exactly what to expect when they come to your

Emily Hirsh: page.

So good. I’ve been seeing those series more on Instagram and sometimes they’re like now a little bit longer. Videos. Yeah. So are you seeing that work again? Yeah, and

Nikki May: I love that because. When you’ve started building a series, like I have my series that I post every Friday, nothing to do with my personal life, but it’s the same thing that goes out every Friday, and it’s why people are sticking around.

It’s a minimum of a minute long, but sometimes I’ll talk for a minute and a half and those are my videos that always hit about 10,000 views and get me leads and get me a ton of followers. So since I started that series, and that was probably five or six weeks ago, my account has grown 5,000 followers, so about like a thousand a week because of the series.

And I remember having a conversation with my team, and we do this for all of our clients. We sit down, we look at metrics, and we say, what’s working? What’s not? What do we change? What can we test? Right? For everybody and for me, they had come and said, your talking heads aren’t working. I said, well, too bad because that’s what I wanna do.

I said, we’re gonna figure out how to make them work. So there’s kind of two ways you can go is they looked at my account and said, you know, your B-roll videos with text on the screen and a trending audio, do the best. And I said, that doesn’t feel like me. I want to be somebody that people think they know when they meet in person, because I am constantly talking to them.

And I said, let’s figure out how to make it work. My first video in this series didn’t do that. That great. You know, did pretty terribly. Did. Exactly. And they’re like, see, see, it’s not gonna work. And I said, let’s try it again. Let’s try it in a slightly different way. Let’s edit it slightly differently. Now.

Every time I post it, it’s edited exactly the same. I sit in the same spot, I wear one of two shirts, like I know exactly what I’m doing. And we do it every single week because that’s what works. And so when people come to my account, yeah, they might not like that picture that I posted about what I did over the weekend to fill my cup, because running a business is just crazy and draining.

But they’re gonna stick around because they know that that series comes out every single week. This is so good. You’re so smart. You dunno how smart

Emily Hirsh: you’re so would you say like, okay, if you’re gonna create a series, it’s the same day of the week. Like that type of series? Or is it like, I’m gonna do a part series and then they’re gonna come out over time?

’cause yours is like every Friday. Mm-hmm. The same kind of theme. You’re giving a piece of, you’re giving value. Mm-hmm. Or like if someone wanted to start a series, or, I’m even thinking like, I don’t do that, but I’ve been seeing this more. How do you come up with the strategy? This is where your authenticity

Nikki May: really shines

Emily Hirsh: to us.

Like, what do you

Nikki May: wanna do? What feels authentic to you? What do you wanna do? Do you wanna talk to the camera? Do you want to talk about your past? Do you wanna share your journey of how you got here? I actually have a list. I’m gonna try to remember off the top of my head. But when clients say that they, you know, wanna do a series, I basically say, you know, where on this list do you feel like you naturally fall?

So is it a transformation series? So this is huge with weight loss. Obviously that’s just the thing that pops into my head, right? But you could start a series and say, every single week I’m going to upload just a photo. It doesn’t even have to be a video of what I look like and I’m gonna do it every single week and I need you to hold me accountable.

You know? That’s a great way to do it. So this can be transformation for anything. The growth in your business, you launching a new location, anything like that. For me, I wanted to talk to the camera and I wanted to give actionable tips. That’s what I wanted. I said, I wanna be your social media bestie that when you come to my account, you say, I know exactly what to do next week.

And that’s what I do for my series. We’ve actually been talking about rolling out a second series for mine, which will be fun. And I thought more of vlog style ’cause that’s what I like to do when I traveled. And I don’t know if people wanna see the behind the scenes of my business, but I figure.

Maybe they do, you know? And so a lot of the times it’s trial and error and maybe you start something and you think, eh, I don’t love it. Just be a little bit cautious. If it blows up, you’re gonna have to kind of continue that series and slowly shift into a new one if you decide to do that. But it needs to be something that you can do for a while, right?

Like what I do every single Friday and vlogging about what’s happening in my life, that’s never ending. That’s always gonna be something I can do. If you’re coming up with a reality show, right where you’re kind of faking some drama and doing dramatic editing, sure that’s something that you can keep doing.

Do you have the creative brain space for that? So it’s really your authenticity of, you know, what feels right, what’s gonna help people feel closer to you. ’cause we talked about social media being a nurture avenue. So really what’s gonna help build that trust in your series?

Emily Hirsh: So good. I love how you align with like, this is what I wanna do.

What feels natural, what feels authentic. And even in your example, you had data that said it didn’t do well, and you said instead of saying we won’t do any talking camera videos. Mm-hmm. We’ll change how we do them. Mm-hmm. Until it does well. Yep. Which I think is really unique. Most people would be like, oh, just stick to the carousels or stick to this.

Right. But you can also say, no, I wanna do that. How do we make it better? And what are the levers that we can pull to improve that in our strategy? Right.

Nikki May: And I had kind of talked to you about this earlier this week, but I have one of my long-term clients, she’s wonderful. Her content is very funny, very humorous.

And we had our, you know, monthly strategy call and she said, I want to start sharing more about the abuse that I endured and why I started this business. And I love that because it’s very personal and it was something that she was not ready. To talk about until then, you know, or we probably would’ve rolled it into her content earlier, but the fact that she came out and she’s like, I wanna do interview style, where I sit down and I talk about this, and of course the first thought in my mind is, oh man, like this is a drastic shift.

I know exactly what works on her account. I know exactly. Like when I post a story with a link, I know that it’s getting minimum 40 leads for her. That’s crazy. From just one story, you know? And we’re making this dramatic shift in her content because it’s authentic to her and it’s what she wants to do.

And it’s her social media, you know, I’m just managing it. I’m just filming the stuff. So I, whatever works for you. And like, that’s the series that she wants to talk about is behind the scenes. And maybe this is more like, if you think of Netflix, a limited series, right? Maybe she can’t talk about this forever, but she can probably talk about it once a week for two to three months because of how, how much it impacted her.

Emily Hirsh: And then you’re tying in like someone’s purpose, like why they started the business. Right. And the bigger thing. And I think for anyone creating content, that’s how you bring in like the heart. You know, when I create content from the heart and you can’t force that, like the inspiration’s there or it’s not right, but it always does the best.

It, it just has a different frequency literally to it.

Nikki May: Right. And that’s like my first video that ever went viral. It was, it was a moment right? Core memory. I remember I edited it together and it took me. Probably two hours, which I would never spend that much time on a video anymore ’cause I’m so much faster.

But I just started and I was doing it on my phone. It took me so long and I thought, I don’t know if I really wanna post this. Because it was very personal and I showed it to my husband who was next to me, and I said, should I post this? Like, are you okay if I post it? Because it was personal about the both of us.

And I don’t wanna gate keep, I mean, it wasn’t like that crazy. It was just my dad told my husband no, when he asked to marry me. That was literally it. It was like, but we did it anyway. And then it showed just clips of us, like traveling the world which I look back and I’m like, this is not that great.

But it blew up at the time. And it was years ago and Instagram was a really different platform than, but I almost was scared to post it. And turns out I, the gut feeling was correct because then three weeks later it went viral and people were so mean. So mean, and it took a toll on my mental health for a while ’cause I didn’t expect it.

And then the fact that people were so offended by my own story, I didn’t take any stance. I just said, this is what happened to me. And they really took it personal. Which kind of going off on a tangent here, but typically when I manage my client’s accounts, I tell them not to look at their comments anymore.

I say, I deal with your comments, not you.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, because it can impact the way you create content because then you start thinking about like, oh, that’s happened to me. Like if I say this, I know that this is the judgment I’m gonna get, this is the criticism I’m gonna get and I don’t know if I can handle that.

And that is just kind of like a byproduct of if you wanna have a big platform and you want to impact, I mean people are cra people are crazy. So that’s a good advice. Like don’t look at your comments and have someone else managing them. Yeah. Do not look at your comments unless, is that hard for people? I feel like I might have a hard time.

Like just

Nikki May: on

Emily Hirsh: a peak.

Nikki May: I mean, it’s totally up to them.

Emily Hirsh: It’s their account.

Nikki May: They can do whatever they want, you know how well you

Emily Hirsh: can handle it or not be, you know.

Nikki May: Yeah. You, you know yourself. I now am at the point where you could say just about anything to me in my comments and nothing. Face it. Not face.

How’d you get there? Face me

Emily Hirsh: from, from the first time of it taking a toll on your mental health to that.

Nikki May: Well, I decided that I wanted to. Go viral many times instead of just once. So I played with that format, you know, of like obstacle, overcoming obstacle, overcoming obstacle, overcoming in a lot of different content.

’cause I said, well, it kind of worked here, let me try it here. And same thing. And people just kind of bash you over and over again. And I think it’s kind of like immersion therapy in the weirdest way possible. But it also kind of showed me that they don’t have any idea, right? You realize like how ridiculous it is.

It’s ridiculous. And part of me thinks like. It can’t be real. Like you cannot care about my story, which was two seconds long of he said no, but we got married anyway. That much, that’s insane. And then I started realizing that I just, you know, if I, like you said, if I wanted to have a big platform, I knew that this was going to happen, but now I can kind of prep other people for it.

And I also am somebody who believes that out of bad, good things happen. You know, it doesn’t make. What happened worth it by any means. But you can learn a lot through it. And I think I learned a lot about myself and I learned that I didn’t want to be somebody who a stranger could just say a random thing about, and that it would just wreck my day.

I decided I just didn’t wanna be that person anymore. I mean, it took a while. There was months where I was very upset and I was fighting with people in the comments. I also learned that once you get to that point, though, other people will fight on your behalf that also don’t know you, so then you don’t even really have to, it’s a wild, wild place.

It’s wild out there. Yeah. So just, you know, if you start getting big, don’t look at your comments. That’s,

Emily Hirsh: yeah. I mean, and in a way it’s really cool because it, it, as entrepreneurship does, but it pushed you into growing yourself. Yeah. Like you became more secure in yourself. I’m sure like even outside of Instagram, you can probably handle criticism better.

Oh my God. Yeah. Because you’re secure in who you are and like criticism only impacts us when we allow it to go. There’s truth to it, and I’m triggered by that. Right. So you became more secure in yourself and grew that confidence, which is cool because then ultimately yeah, you learn more about yourself, but also you grew and changed as a person through it.

Nikki May: Yeah, for sure. It was, it was very interesting. And I mean, what really hit me the hardest was people who attacked my husband because my, my poor little husband, you’re like, you don’t even know him. I know. I was like, he’s just like the sweetest, the sweetest man ever, you know? And I was like, oh, I’m like, don’t come at him.

Emily Hirsh: But they, yeah, assigned a bunch of, just based on that one. Like they don’t even know the story of your dad. Right. But they assigned their own story to it and then their own judgments and opinions.

Nikki May: And it’s just very funny because in that caption, I was so afraid of being judged that I wrote out exactly what happened, which literally is that my dad just thought it was too soon.

He didn’t have anything against John. And then my dad still walked me down the aisle at the wedding and hugged John and said, but people don’t even read that. This is what you chose. Okay. You know, like, that’s my dad. Yeah. He’s not mad. He’s just like, all right. Like, it’s just, it’s part of the story, but it’s not nearly as dramatic as everyone made it out to be.

But nobody reads the caption. Yeah. And so then, yeah, they’d come and they’d attack me or my dad or my husband. I was like, what is happening right now? This is crazy. But yeah, now there’s just about nothing you could say. ’cause I got all the personal attacks out of the way, and, you know, now I feel like the meanest comment I’ve gotten on my business account is just like, you have a lisp.

I’m like, okay, thanks. Yeah,

Emily Hirsh: that’s, that’s great that you’ve built that up because I think that is another reason that people don’t put themselves out there. Right. Especially on video. It’s like, I’m afraid that someone’s gonna judge the way I look or mm-hmm. What I say, how I say it. And ultimately. You’ve gotta feel good with how you show up.

Right. And we’re our hardest critics on ourself too. When you’re secure in that, you know, you build the confidence. But it’s the same thing we’re talking about in the beginning. It’s a muscle of doing it, getting more comfortable, getting more confident in it.

Nikki May: Yeah. And I think one thing that I can say, I know that I’m much more confident is the fact that I’ll show up on social media with no makeup on.

Now, that never would’ve happened years ago. And then I finally did it for the first time, probably two years after starting in social media. And I showed up without any makeup on. And I remember just it being like the most weirdly liberating feeling like I, this is just what I looked like in the moment and I don’t care.

And I started working with brands and I also wasn’t wearing makeup in the videos for them. And like, I have makeup on now. I love it. It’s great. But I’m a 50 50 kind of girl. Like sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don’t. And I feel like it’s very authentic to just. Show up in whatever I look like.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah. I love the way your brain works.

I love it so much. I wanna have a little time to talk about your entrepreneur journey. Okay. So I would love to just hear about that. Like, you didn’t plan to have, you wanted a business, you didn’t plan this business. And I know with that comes like figuring out team and, you know Yeah. Work. And we haven’t said, but you went to Costa Rica.

Yes. And I know then it was like kind of you had built success to a level and then it was like, all right, the next level we have to streamline, take care of your wellbeing ’cause you were working so much and so hard and like create that harmony.

Nikki May: Yes. I remember every time, well, maybe at least 99% of the time when you would ask how I was feeling in Costa Rica, I would say I’m very anxious because I was, and I still struggle with that, but.

Costa Rica was honestly life changing in so many ways. I have talked about your retreats with everybody. I’m like, if you don’t do it, you are so missing out. But yeah, really life changing because the anxiety was intense because I didn’t know what to expect, and it was the exact opposite of what I could have expected, which I

Emily Hirsh: needed.

I just didn’t know I needed. Yeah. And you came in anxious partly because it was one of the first times that you took time away from your business. Right. And like really kind of unplugged. I didn’t know I was taking time away. I know the first night I’m like, to get the most out of this retreat, I want you to not open your laptop.

And

Nikki May: Nikki’s like,

What? When I just flew in Mallory’s, the first person I met, she was at the airport and. One of the first things she tells me is how you told her to take her email off her phone. And I literally stuck my hand in her face. That was so rude. And I was like, ah, no. I was like, absolutely not.

I could never but what by like day three or something, I had done it, which is cra and now I’m like, yeah, what was the big deal? But at the time it felt like this huge obstacle that I could just never do.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah. I mean, you came in and it’s so typical. It’s like you were doing everything yourself, figuring it out, like mm-hmm.

It’s just a normal story in building the business. And I feel like you’d go through that like bootstrapping kind of hustle phase and then at a point it’s like, we can’t continue this way. Right. Like it’s, it’s literally and physically not gonna be possible to continue that way, but it’s really scary making the switch because it’s what got you to that level of success.

So it feels almost like counterintuitive of like, right, but this created success for me. I can’t do it this

Nikki May: way. Yeah. And it’s insane looking back because. When was coast? It was not that long ago. Yeah, it wasn’t long. It was April. So April. So only a few months ago. But I was making significantly less money in my business.

And probably personally too, I don’t think I like actually upped what I was paying myself until probably a month after I got back. But looking back, I was working so hard, I wasn’t sleeping, I was literally working until three in the morning. And you know, my husband had kind of given me a wake up call and he said, you know, this feels like you’re back at your first operations director role where you’re crying a lot and I feel like your job is more important than me.

And I thought, well that’s just ridiculous. You know, I got defensive. But he was right. He is like, you’re just so anxious all the time that like it, you know, I just wanna have fun with you again. And that was kind of the shift that I needed of Okay, I probably need support and. I just remember you saying over and over again that, you know, the key to success is not just working more hours and it took so long to sink in, but then what, I worked eight hours total maybe when I was in Costa Rica and signed two new clients.

And it was just minds blowing. Minds blowing, because I have been in this hustle state forever. Forever. I don’t think I’ve ever been in my adult years

Emily Hirsh: without it. Yeah. And it creates a level of success, right. And I think, you know, there’s a lot of people today who kind of shit on the hustle. And my, my view of it is like the beginning, it is the hustle.

You gotta, and you have to earn the right not to hustle. So I in no way am shitting on the hustle, right. And like I had my share of working till midnight, exhausted. But then if you continue that way, it actually will stop your business from growing. ’cause your business is a reflection of how you show up.

And if you’re, if you show up for a long period of time in that way, you are gonna hit a capa, a ceiling. It’s like, we can’t keep going. And that’s kind of where you were. It’s like you created the initial success, you proved your skills in, in social media and what you were good at. And then, and it had been put together in a way of like, now we gotta streamline the packages.

Right. Streamline the operations. And we’re still doing that. Now you’re in the mastermind and we’re still doing that. It’s an ever evolving process. But I think that’s like the biggest thing is the, is the perspective shift. Like when you have those perspective shifts, you can’t go back to how you were like, there was no way you were gonna leave Costa Rica and not make a change.

Right. Because you had proven to yourself that there is a different way that you could do it moving forward.

Nikki May: Yeah, and I think I came back, I hired Lauren who is a social media manager on my team, and it has been night and day, night and day because I still am, you know, caught in client work. I haven’t quite figured out how to necessarily get out of that.

But thinking back about how I used to be doing what I’m doing right now and what Lauren is doing full-time, like, no wonder I was a hot mess. No wonder I was constantly anxious. I mean, Lauren and I were talking the other day and she had even said, she’s like, I don’t know how you survived doing both, because it is like both of us are working full-time.

So I was doing two jobs which. Was fine for the moment, like you said, I think you have to go through that and you do have to earn the right to not, but it’s even weird for me now to take breaks and to not be working and like that’s something that I constantly have to work to, because if I don’t fall asleep within five minutes of getting in bed, I feel like I’m wasting my time and I might as well just get up and work.

Like, I literally have to force myself to just stay in bed until I fall asleep. It’s crazy. But Costa Rica really helped me with that actually, of just, you could be working, but like, is that really what you should be doing? Like, is that the best use

Emily Hirsh: mm-hmm. Of

Nikki May: your time? And a lot of the times it’s not particularly when my husband comes home and he wants to spend time with me and I’m like, well, I just need to get this landing page done, or I just need to post this for a client, you know, actually.

Scratch that last part because I always post from my clients and I never don’t do that for real. But anything like that, you know, and I have to force myself to realize that yes, this job is so important to me and I think the stress of supporting other people’s lives is not talked about enough because holy smokes the stress that I’m like, if this company were to just lose half of its clients and I would have to lay people off, and I am literally the reason they can buy food is so intense.

But I also have to remember that like, I also need a break.

Emily Hirsh: Mm.

Nikki May: A hard balancing act, I think.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah. And we’re gonna continue to, to unravel this in the, in the Mastermind because what I’ll say to that is. When you and you and you, we don’t realize we’re doing this, but when we operate from the place of the what if, which is anxiety, right?

Which is like trying to constantly predict the future. What if this happens? What if this happens? I need to take action today to protect myself from that future. Then one, it’s not reality ’cause it hasn’t happened yet, but two, we’re actually like creating that energy more of right? Of bringing that to life versus what if I would no matter what, be able to take care of my employees and my clients no matter what’s thrown at me, because I trust myself.

’cause I’ve never proven myself wrong otherwise. So let me put my energy into who I’m becoming. Because we do like our, that’s what our brain does. Our brain is constantly like, here’s what happened in the past. Let me analyze it. Let me think about what could, all of the things that could happen in the future so I can keep myself alive.

Mm-hmm. And I’m gonna be thinking about those things and coming up with scenarios for those things. And it’s like, neither are reality or realities right now in this room. Right. And right now in this room, you can pay your employees, your business is growing, you’re crushing it. You’re on a podcast. You know, it’s like, that’s the reality.

So it’s bringing back to the present moment. But our system, your system is so used to that being its norm. Mm-hmm. And so you have to work with it and teach it otherwise.

Nikki May: Yeah. And that is a whole journey. But I will say that hiring Lauren really helped because. She moved here from Hawaii for this job, which is still incredible.

Like when I think about that, that’s one would uproot. She was planning on moving anyway guys, but the fact that she chose to leave, to leave there for here she said, I’ll move to Texas if you give me this job. And I said, you’re hired. Has been awesome because I dance now every single week at least once up to three times a week.

And Lauren literally comes with me. She’s helped me with so much work life balance because she’s also like, I already worked for eight hours today. I’m going dancing. I’m like, that’s a great idea. Love, I love that. So it’s been just helpful all around and I have been. Consistently praying because, you know, I’ve reached a point in this business where I’m like, I cannot do this on my own.

Like, I need the help. And I’ve just been praying that, you know, if a client’s not supposed to be with me anymore, that they leave. And if a client is supposed to be with me, that they come and you know, I’ve made the mistake, I’m sure everyone does, of signing a client that I knew I should not have signed.

It was a rough, rough time. Wonderful people, like that’s not the problem. But the business infrastructure wasn’t in place to support social media. And I knew that from the start and I shouldn’t have. But basically started praying then. So they were on their way out. We lost another one. And then we just signed two more this morning that I was ecstatic about after I talked to, and I told you this before, you know, the podcast, but I was like, I want to work with them.

I want to and that was a huge shift. And I feel like that’s what you’re talking about of I haven’t proven myself. Any other way like, this has been working, right? And when one client leaves a great one comes, or two great ones come in. So focusing on that, but like you said, it’s just a weird little, like your mind is kind of wired to think, okay, let’s think about survival’s a worst case scenario.

And so that’s shift is really tricky.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah. And then it’s our brain’s job. And so it’s like we have to recognize that’s our brain, not you. Right. And, and yeah, you’ve proven over and over that you can create abundance and I mean entrepreneurship and life is just such a dance of surrender and trust. Yes,

Nikki May: yes.

Emily Hirsh: Surrender and trust and do the best I can, and then surrender and trust. It’s exactly what’s supposed to happen.

Nikki May: Yes.

Emily Hirsh: But I, I think that I, I really wanna highlight, because one thing about you that most aren’t willing to do is you. Are able to say, okay, you know, here’s where I’m going. And in order to do that, I have to be uncomfortable, like Right.

I know that when I told you like, take your email off, you were like, no, like, like that is not a good idea. You don’t know my business. You don’t know me. Right. But you did it. Yeah. Like, and you trusted me. And so we’ve been through, even investing in the mastermind was a big, I mean, investing in the mastermind, but also the retreat.

Yeah. Back in Costa Rica is a big investment and you trusted that and you showed up and it, there was discomfort and there was new and there was all these things. And like it’s hiring all these decisions that you’ve made, like from making the decision to come to Costa Rica since Costa Rica to now, and I feel that is key.

It’s like you, even if you’re afraid and you’ve got the pressure, I think it’s really important that you acknowledge in yourself that you still make the decision. That the future you would make or wanna make and you take the action even though it’s scary and uncomfortable and that’s how you’ve grown so much in the, you know, since Costa Rica, because you’re not the same.

You’re not making the same decisions, you’re not the same Nikki.

Nikki May: Right. And

Emily Hirsh: you won’t be by the end of the mastermind either. But like there’s that element of you are willing to do the uncomfortable and to take the quote risk because it may

Nikki May: feel like a risk. Yeah. And it’s very interesting because if I had to describe myself, I would say that I’m very risk averse.

But now that I kind of look back, I’m thinking maybe that’s not so true. ’cause I remember texting with you about Costa Rica and you had basically said, you know, do you have this investment to make? And I said something along the lines of, no, but I’ll figure it out. I was like, I’ll find the money. It’s somewhere out there.

I love her. Yeah. And. Then lo and behold the money showed up. And the same thing with the Mastermind where I feel like I am kind of the one that holds myself back. And I, you know, obviously run everything by my husband because he’s just so supportive. There’s basically nothing. I’m like, I wanna try this.

And he’s like, no, absolutely not. He basically says, if you think it’s a good idea, go for it. But I think I just kinda, I like that little push. But I ran the Mastermind by him and he basically was like, well if Costa Rica was that life changing, like, why wouldn’t you find the money for this? And then the money appeared and it was kind of just a sign that, yeah, this is the right thing.

And it is difficult, I think, to kind of pull the trigger and do something. But like you said, I think I’ve learned that you have to be a little bit uncomfortable. ’cause if you just stick with only what you know, like how can you, how can you go it all, you’re gonna be in the same place, right? You’re gonna keep doing the same things.

Right? And I don’t want that. I want a really big life, which means that I really have to risk it for the biscuit, as I like to say.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah. And I mean that, that’s exactly the, it’s like you, you have a level of intuition too, and trust that you do, whether you see it or not. You, you allow that to help you make decisions.

And then once you know, it’s like, yeah, I need that. You make it happen. Yeah. And I mean, that’s a formula right there of success. And like most people stop at the fear. They’re like, too scary, too big of an investment. What if it doesn’t, you know, pay off whatever. I’m just gonna stay in the same

Nikki May: place. That is so interesting because I feel like my mom primed me for that in a way where she would always tell me whether it was true or not.

She’s like, you have this gift of discernment. You know, when you see something, if it’s right or it’s wrong, or you should do it or you shouldn’t. And I basically, my whole childhood, I got in trouble twice, both in self-defense or defending my brother. Okay. So like one self-defense, one defending my brother, but like all legitimate reasons to get in trouble.

And the rest of my time I just like only did what I knew I needed to do because I didn’t have the money to pay for college. So I got through college as fast as I could by taking like the specific courses in high school that I needed to like, right. I could see this future. And I think my mom. My mom’s weird little, like, you have this gift, and it’s like, do I really, or did she just kinda like impart this into me?

I don’t know, but like I believe it, and I’ve said that with multiple people where I’m like, it is an intuition. It is a gut feeling. Like I can tell when I interview somebody if they’re gonna be a good fit for the team or they’re not pretty quickly. I don’t always make the right decision. Sometimes I second guess myself.

But it’s the same with clients. I can tell, I talk to them and I say, this is gonna be fun. Like this is it. This is the client for me. And I think it was the same with Costa Rica, which was insane because I thought every girl there was gonna be like me where we didn’t know each other, we were just all showing up.

And I got there and everyone is like in this little inner circle. It’s like, what is happening? Like how did I end up here with all these girls who are far more successful than me, which I love. I love to be the least successful in a room because I just always wanna be learning. I feel like so many times I would just sit with the girls and be like, can I just ask you a million questions?

Like how did you do it? And it was amazing and I loved that feeling. And I think same thing with the mastermind. This podcast. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, this is it. This is the right thing.

Emily Hirsh: I, I love that. I think everyone has that discernment and that intuition. It’s whether mm-hmm or not, they have the ability to listen to it.

And, and that’s so much of my work is the remembering. Like that you, you already know. I got hats that say that. Right. And yeah, I have a group who just keep coming. You’re now one of them. You’ll be at all the retreats. Like that’s how good the retreats are. They just keep coming. And I knew that first day you were like, this is not what I was expecting.

But I knew, I knew it would go fast. Like, and it was amazing. And now in the mastermind you are, you are leading some of the, like, you are able to jump in and give advice. Mm-hmm. Because even just the progress you’ve made from Costa Rica to now of changing the way you run your business, the team like people, you don’t realize it, but people look up.

You are now that business that people look up to. That’s And. I want to just say this on here, like even this conversation, I’m like, holy shit, Nikki, like you are so intelligent. I love the way your brain works and I felt this in Costa Rica, but, and Mallory said it in Costa Rica. I’m just like, I can’t wait to watch everything unfold for you because this is just the beginning.

Like truly, this is just the beginning.

Nikki May: Oh my gosh. I think it was Kylie who had said in the car we were going somewhere. She’s like, I’m just here for the evolution of Nikki.

Emily Hirsh: Same. And it’s already, I mean already if we just look at the last five months, but it, you just embrace in so much that you know, so many people struggle with of growing yourself, building your business, caring so much.

That’s one thing, like caring so much about your clients and the work that you do, which I think has massively contributed to your success and now it’s bringing that into the team and. You are just an example of like, you can build anything that, that you want and showing people that you’re, how old are you?

You’re younger than me, right? I’m pretty sure I’m 27. Yeah. You don’t remember. I don’t remember. Yeah. You’re younger than me. You’re crushing it so much. And I, I just, I can’t wait to watch like the next six months in the mastermind the next year. I’m so honored that you trusted me to fly all the way to Costa Rica and start this relationship.

Nikki May: Yeah. I remember coming up to you in San Diego. I kind of wanna know what you thought about that conversation. I feel like it was so awkward thinking back on it, but like I had heard you on the podcast with Michael Stelzner and I thought. That you were just like one of the best guest speakers I learned.

So I had to like pull my car over while I was listening to it and take notes. It was just crazy. And then when I saw you were speaking at that conference, I was like, oh my gosh, well I have like, I have to go meet her. I’d already signed up for Costa Rica and I remember just being like, is this gonna be covered?

Because I wanna hear everything. Like I just wanna learn. And I feel like it was just the weirdest first interaction.

Emily Hirsh: No, no, not at all. I was like, oh my gosh, you’re here. We’re gonna be together in Costa Rica next week. And I think the impression I got is that you like just love to learn. Because you were like, I wanna go to all these sessions.

Like, yeah. Am I gonna miss your thing? And I’m like, don’t worry, it’ll be covered in Costa Rica.

Nikki May: Yeah. Which ended up being great because then in Costa Rica we talked about what you had discussed on stage and you had said like, I don’t, that’s not the right move for your business. And I thought, well, thank goodness.

Emily Hirsh: Yeah.

Nikki May: You know, I don’t even, I think I went to like a tiny offer thing, which is kind of what we were discussing. Oh. Probably

Emily Hirsh: with my friend Ally before. Oh my gosh, that’s so good.

Nikki May: Yeah, she’s great.

Emily Hirsh: So good. That’s so funny. I wanna say, you heard me as a good guest speaker. Mm-hmm. And you’re now on my podcast crushing it.

So like how cool is life that, that’s how you met me, had that thought on the social media marketing or Examiner podcast and now here we are.

Nikki May: It’s insane. I just posted a story this morning and I liter, I mentioned that I was gonna be on this podcast and I said, you know, as a text on the screen, I said, what is life like?

What is this? What is happening right now? This is insane.

Emily Hirsh: Well, you deserve every moment of it. And I’m so honored to be a part of the journey. Where can everyone go to hire you? Because guys, oh boy. I’m like gonna talk to you about it after this. 

Nikki May: Okay, well my biggest platform, I’m always on it and you DM it.

I am gonna get back to is Instagram. So, but you can find me anywhere honestly, because my username I work in social media is the same every single place. YouTube, TikTok, whatever. If you go somewhere and you put in Social Blueprint LLC, I’m gonna popup. Made sure of that from the start. So yeah, you can find me on Instagram, you can talk to me if you have any questions.

I share what you should be posting next week. And side note, I say next week because those trends will be dead. If you wait more than a week, he got a week to hop on him, which is why I share ’em every week. Anyway, but yeah, you can connect with me there and then if you wanna schedule a call or hire our team, then you know, I have links everywhere on my social medias and it’ll take you exactly where you need to go.

Emily Hirsh: Awesome. We will link to that. Highly recommend you follow her. You are the, you are the best in social media like you are. You bring the authenticity, truly what works so much care and heart, and I think that just comes through in the results. So this was an amazing conversation. Thank you so much. 

Nikki May:Thank you for having me. This was fun.