January 13, 2026 • 33 mins
Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi made her name in reality television. More than a decade later she's still filming while building a business that includes multiple locations of The Snooki Shop, the Messy Mawma wine brand, and maybe pickles in 2026! She talks career reinvention, working motherhood, and laundry.
In the intro, Laura and Sarah discuss their favorite Jersey shore towns.
In the Q&A, a listener wonders about handling breaks when kids attend schools with different schedules.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician,
writer and course creator. We are two working parents who
love our careers and our families.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
We want you to get the most out of life.
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
episode is airing in January of twenty twenty six. I
(00:47):
am excited to welcome Nicole Paulizzi to the show. People
may remember her she first made her name as Snooky
on the Jersey Shore, but I think there's a far
more interesting story here about her career in the Spotlight.
You know, she made her name very young and then
pivoted from that to build a lifestyle brand with some
(01:08):
serious longevity. It's been fifteen plus years in the Spotlight
for her. Now she is running a business while raising
three young kids with her husband, Gianny Level. I am
very excited about this conversation. I know Sarah is going
to be looking forward to listening to it as well.
But in the meantime, so in cases anyone is wondering,
we are not going to be talking that much about
(01:30):
the Jersey Shore in this interview. And so because of that,
since Sarah and I are now living for me in
the greater Philadelphia region and Sarah certainly grew up here,
going to the actual New Jersey Shore was a big
part of our lives at very quart So, Sarah, which
Jersey shoretown did you go to? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I also just want to note that I am not
starstruck by very many of our guests, but this one,
let me tell you this one, I'm wow. Like, I'm
glad I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I would be nervous.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
We went to Ocean City when I was a younger child,
and then I spent a couple of summers going with
a friend to Kate May And actually those are most
of where my memories come from because I was a teen.
I think I've talked about it on the show. We
were very independent. We like went out to dinner and
shopping in to the beach by ourselves all day. It
was amazing free range parenting right there. And lived to
tell the tale and have some wonderful memories from that.
(02:23):
And also on a more Jersey Shore esque note, I
was at a live taping of MTV's Total Request Live
with Carson Dailey in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Remember that
day vividly. I got to have a line on the show.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
What was your line?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It was so who did Pacey get some from?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Next?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And I was asking, like the creator of Dawson's Creek.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Okay, well that was Sarah's early clave to frame there.
I love it, okay, me is so beautiful. I love
that you were. So you're riding your bike around the
area there.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yes, I love that area. Oh my gosh, so like
I don't know, it's probably like pinkwashed by my memories,
but you guys have a different city memory of Jersey
Shore though.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well yeah, well we go the northern part of it,
so Ocean Grove, which is this really cute Victorian town.
It is just south of Asbury Park. So you know,
given that we have a long beach coastline, the towns
are kind of running down north through south and you
have obviously long bred, long long branch whatever the yes
and anyway, so it's toward the northern part of it,
(03:29):
just south of Asbury Park, and it is so cute,
it is adorable. We've gone there almost every summer for
fifteen years at this point. We started going. The first
summer we went there was in two thousand and six,
and it was sort of patchwork here and there until
you know, about ten years ago when we started going
almost every year. But this is the weird thing about
(03:52):
beaches in the East Coast. So the northern New Jersey
beaches are probably nine minutes from New York City, if
even that, depending on the traffic. The Hamptons are also
ninety minutes, except for traffic, which could make it be
like four hours if you're trying to get to the
Hamptons from New York City. I have no idea why
(04:16):
the northern New Jersey beaches have not gentrified nearly as
much as the Hamptons. Every time I go to Ocean Grove,
I am struck by the fact that about one and
a half miles from the beach there is some sort
of less gentrified commerce stuff or like it would be
an auto shop, a vape shop, like some random independent grocery,
(04:40):
like a drug store that's not a chain, like you know,
it's it's definitely not built up in that way, whereas
if you're a mile and a half from the beach
in the Hamptons, you are in the middle of multimillion
dollar mansions. So what is with that? Like, I don't
get it, Like it would be just as easy to
get to the northern New Jersey beaches. Is there it's
a tax code or zoning answer for that. I mean,
(05:02):
I think the texts are probably worse in New York.
So I don't get it. I mean, I guess it's
that people have gone there, and so then it's known
as the place where you go if you want to ritzy,
you know, New York beach experience, and then that's becomes
the place. But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But it's good because otherwise your rental would cost ten
times as much.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, exactly, So for my frugal soul, I am happy
that it hasn't become that. But on the other hand,
it is just sort of one of these strange things
that I don't necessarily understand. But we go for about
two weeks every summer I work remotely for a big
chunk of that. My husband does some remote work and
(05:43):
goes in and out and yeah, but it's a good time.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I bet there's an urban planner listening to this that's
like I have the answer, so let us know answer.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, I guess it's maybe that some parts of northern
New Jersey had crime issues in the past, but not
usually right on the beach. So I'm not sure anyway
we can ponder that. But we're excited to hear this episode,
which is all about building a lifestyle brand, career pivoting.
We're excited to hear from Nicole, so let's hear what
(06:14):
she has to say. So Sarah and I are delighted
to welcome Nicole Palizzi to the show. So Nicole, thanks
for being here.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Thanks for having me. Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So why don't you tell our listeners a little bit
about yourself?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So you might know me from Jersey Shore. They call
me Snookie. But yeah I am. I'm a busy mama. Now.
I just turned thirty eight, so yeah, I wanted to
get back in the gym. So I did my thing
of losing twenty pounds and I'm getting myself together. But yeah,
I have three kids thirteen, eleven, and six, and I
(06:51):
have a dog. So I have four children. I'm married.
My eleventh anniversary just happened, and I'm busy running the
snookie shops. I have my own stores. I have four locations.
So that's my life.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That's your life. Wow, the oldest is a teenager. Now
that's nice on us. Yeah, so you've had an incredibly
varied career, as you've mentioned, I'm curious when you weren't
growing up, what did you envision your career looking like?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Well, growing up, I mean, I always wanted to try reality,
but I didn't think that was going to be like
my life or my career because growing up, I wanted
to be a vet tech. And I was in school
going to be a vet tech. And I had one
semester until I could graduate and take my license, and
I just wanted to save animals. I loved animals more
than people. I still do no offense, so I wanted
(07:42):
to save animals and just be around animals all day.
So that was the plan. And then yeah, I tried
out for Jersey Shore, went on there, and then the
rest is history.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Absolutely, the rest is history. Well, with that, you got
famous pretty young. Was there a point in there as
you realized like, hey, I'm basically how old name I
want to take this and make a longer term career
out of it. Like, was that a thought you remember
having at some point in there?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, I feel like in the first season we literally
just went I well, I literally just went to like
try reality TV because I always wanted to try it
and I was a huge fan of it. So I
was thinking more like a Real World. But they didn't
pick me, So this was the perfect show for me.
So yeah, I just thought I was going to experience it,
(08:29):
have fifteen minutes, and then go back to my life.
So I wasn't planning on this to be like my
full career. And also when the show first came out,
they were supposedly doing like a rotating cast every season,
so I was just like, all right, I'm going to
do the first season, have the best time, and enjoy
what comes with it, and you know, go back to
my life. So I had no idea that this was
(08:51):
going to be my life.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, but at some point in there, you realize, like
I could make a career out of this.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I would think. I think probably like see in three,
I was like, all right, let me do something besides
like the show. So then I had my tanning deal,
which I had my own channing lotions, I did a
perfume deal. I was starting to do books and everything,
so a lot of things were coming to me. So
(09:17):
I was like, all right, I feel like, you know,
I can do other things other than the show. And
then once everything died down, and then once everything died down,
one of my goals and my dream was to have
my own stores and do all that. So I eventually
open up my own line store and then did the
(09:39):
brick and mortar thing. So yeah, there was always goals,
but I didn't think I could actually achieve it.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah. Well, I'm curious if you would give advice to
somebody who is trying to pivot from you know, you
have something that's a big breakthrough and you would like
to still be making a living fifteen twenty years Hence, like,
what advice would you give to someone in that situation.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
To save what you can save all the money, because
obviously things cost money and it's not cheap and it's
not easy. So thank God for my parents because I
was so young, twenty one years old, getting all this
money for doing the show, like I wanted to spend it.
I wanted to travel. I wanted to buy things. I
wanted to go crazy, and my parents were like, Nick,
(10:21):
we got to save. We got to save, Like, think
of your future. You want to get married, you want
to have kids, You got to think of your future.
So thank God for my parents that they help me save.
So yeah, just save and make sure it's the right time. Like,
you don't want to be too busy where you're not
totally focused on it. And that's why I waited so
long to actually do the brick and mortar because that
(10:43):
was like a dream. But I had the Snookie shop
online for I think like ten years before I actually
opened it. So you can start small, start somewhere where
you can like manage it with your time. But when
you really have the time, make sure you have the
money and you have the time to do it.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, you got to build that up over time. I'm curious.
I mean, you could probably put your name on a
ton of things, and you've mentioned your different deals that
you did over the time and culminating in the store
that you have now and other things. But how do
you choose what projects to pursue or what business lines
you want to be in.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah, so I've gotten crazy offers to do like a
million things throughout my career on TV, and I always
picked things that were true to me and things that
I would actually that actually makes sense to me and
I would actually use and I would actually endorse. Like
I'm not just going to say yes to everything just
to make a book, even though that would be great, because.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I always tempting.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I'm sure definitely tempting, but I was like, this just
doesn't make sense to me, and then you're going to
be watered down by like promoting all these things that
nobody's going to care anymore. So I always picked things
that were true to me, that made sense to me,
that I truly loved. Dude, there's a lot of things
that I turned down.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
But I kind of things are a flat no from you.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Well, there was a lot of like alcohol deals that
I was like no, because in my head I wanted
to have my own wine label eventually, which I do know,
messy mama. So I was like, I can't do all
this cheap vodka and then down the line, I'm gonna
be like, oh, I have this wine. Like I wanted
to do alcohol just once. And there was a lot
(12:19):
of clothing things that I said no to because I
wanted to do my own clothing. So just like things
that I knew were gonna compete with what I wanted
to do. Well.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
It's interesting you talk about like managing your time toward
doing all these things because time is limited. And with
with your store as well, you've sort of had this
sustainable pace of opening, right you have like three in
the East Coast and then slowly have moved to other places.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah. So I mean the main goal, honestly was just
to open one. I was like, I just want to
have one store, and I want to like play house
and like go into the store and like play boutique
and be like, oh, this is my store. And I
was just always upsessed like fashion and clothes and accessories
and all the things. So I just wanted to have
that experience. But then like once I opened my store,
my first door was in Madison, which is like so
(13:06):
close to me, I can go every single day. I
was just like, this is so much fun and we're
doing great, We're very successful. Why not open another one?
So then I open another one and I was like,
these are doing great, I have the time, Let's open
another and I do things in four. Four is my
lucky number. It's my angel number. I always wanted four kids.
I kind of have four kids now my dog, So
(13:27):
four is like my thing. So I was like, if
I do stores, I'm going to have four stores. So yeah,
I now have four stores and everything's working out, thank God.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Excellent. We're going to take a quick ad break and
then I'll be back with more from Nicole polisy Well,
I am back talking with Nicole Policy, who has a
(13:58):
varied career, starting out in reality TV but now has
pivoted to all sorts of other ventures as well. So
you built your career in acting and then now you
are managing a lot of things. I'm curious how that
pivot worked to suddenly be in charge of a lot
of people.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I just feel like this was always a goal of
mine to open my own stores, have my own business,
work for myself, because I said from day one on
the show, I was like, I don't like working like
I don't like working for other people. Obviously I've done
it like growing up and like I worked for this
business and just being told what to do. I'm just
(14:38):
I'm not that person. I want to run things. I
want to do it myself, and I want my own rules,
and you know, I want to lost people around, but
I want my own team to where I can you know,
they do what I want for a business. So I
was never good under somebody else, and I knew I
was going to do something to where I can work
for myself and ma that and take care of my
(15:02):
family and that would be my career. So the ski
shop just made sense to you know, I had it online,
it was doing great, but then like I wanted to
take over for myself because I was working with another
company to help me do like the orders and everything,
and I was like, I want to take this over myself.
So that's when I did the brick and mortar in
twenty nineteen. And yeah, ever since then, it's just been
(15:24):
me and my team that I hired, and it's just
so fun. It feels amazing to be able to say
that you have your own business and it's successful and
you literally just did it by yourself with your team,
and I don't know, I'm just very proud of myself.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Well you should be. That sounds good. Well, clearly you've
got a lot of moving parts here, and you know,
we always like to hear about how people organize their
lives on this show, which is our listeners are all
working moms, So I'm curious what your planning process looks like,
Like how do you plan your life?
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Honestly, I'm very spontaneous when it comes to things. I'm sad,
so what I want to do something drastic, I don't
think about it. I just do it. I'm like, I'm
not going to stress myself out about it. I'm not
going to overthink it. I'm just going to go and
I'm going to do it. So that's what I did
with my store. And when I got my boobs done
for the first time after my children, I was like,
I really want to get it done. I've never done
surgery before, so let me just go and do it.
(16:19):
So I literally booked it and I just went and
did it, and I was terrified, but I didn't let
myself get terrified. So I kind of felt the same
way with opening my store. I was like, I'm terrified.
I know it's going to be a lot of work.
I never run a business before. I just didn't have
any experience and I literally did it all on my
own in the beginning. So yeah, I don't think about things,
(16:40):
and I'm like if I really want to do this,
let's just jump in head first and then we'll deal
with it later and see what happened. So I know
that doesn't work for everyone, but if I have the
time and I have the money and I can do it,
I'm just going to go and do it and see
what happened. So I guess I'm a risk taker. But
so far everything has worked out.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I'm sure that does, you know, for big picture of things,
But how about just like the daily matters of life.
I mean, I doubt that you are living in complete
chaos and you oh yeah, three kids, so how many
organize day to day life?
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Then day to day life, well, I'm very busy at
home with the kids, so yeah, thirteen, eleven and six
year old. So every day it's just like getting them
up for school. Obviously, they're in school till like three o'clock,
so I have literally all day to figure out what
I'm going to do, which is nice. And I don't
have a nine to five obviously, but I do run
the stores every single day. So usually my day to
(17:35):
day is go to Starbucks, I get my macha drink,
get my macha drink. I'll do my errands in the
morning because you know, the stores aren't packed then and
I don't like to wait in line, So if I
have to go to Target, Trader Joe's, I'll get that done.
And then the afternoon is spent just in my office,
like going over my inventory, doing bills, just making sure
(17:56):
like my house is in order, laundry like all the things.
So yeah, I guess I do. You have a schedule
when it comes to my day to day. So it's
errands in the morning, like getting my work done, Bill's
house cleaning before I pick up the kids, and then
pick up the kids, and then you do you know,
you do the sports, or you do the cooking quick,
you do the quick dinners, and then you go to sports,
(18:18):
running around carpool. It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
It is always a lot. And the more kids there are,
the more moving parts there are. I'm curious what your
mornings look like. Then getting everyone out the door. Is
it a you know, is it a well oiled machine.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
It's not as chaotic as it used to be. I
would say when the kids were younger. It was very chaotic.
When my two were in middle school or I went
to school, and then I had a little baby that
was freaking chaos. Ough it made me want to drink
wine at like tenay am. So now I feel like
it's more easier because my son goes to school earlier,
(18:54):
so I'm up with him early, and I let my
two sleep in for a little bit. And my daughter's
in fifth grade and my littles and kindo, so they
go to school together. So it's nice to be able
to wake up early, chow for a little bit, get
my oldest to middle school, and then I come back
and then I get them ready. So I feel like
it's more less chaotic. But I mean it's still not easy.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, it never is. Yeah, I'm curiously has time changed
and how you spend time changed as your kids have
gotten older? Like I know when my littlest guy turned five,
it felt like time started opening up. There was more
space for everything.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I feel like it just gets more busy because when
they're little, you're staying at home and you have a
routine at home. But like once they go to school
and you have the sports and all the things, it
just gets more busier.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I feel, yeah, well there's something to that. What sports
are they doing?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So my daughter is competitive cheer, so she has practiced
three days a week, and I do carpool with like
three other moms because it's like thirty minutes away, so
always busy with cheer, driving there and driving back. Then
my son does wrestling and fo ball, so busy going
to his matches and games. And then my little he
doesn't do anything yet because I feel like he'll be
(20:07):
crazy with it, so we're waiting another year. But yeah,
just a football, cheer and.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Wrestling excellent, excellent. We're going to take one more quick
ad break and then I will be back with more
from Nicole Polisy. Well, I am back talking with Nicole Polisy.
(20:33):
So busy working mom of three. I'm curious if you've
had any sort of like mom victories lately, like anything
that you managed to pull off with the kids in
life that's been cool.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I mean, I was just recently celebrating that I was
managed to be on a camp sign up like right
when it opens, so my kid got the camp he wanted.
And I'm like, whoa victory, said alarm? Yes, I did
set an alarm.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I sat an alarm.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yeah, I don't know, and this is probably so stupid.
But I'm always behind in the laundry. Like I just
feel like every day I'm just doing laundry, whether it
be towels or I'm washing five people in this house,
so every day it's just laundry. And like all my
neighbors like they have this laundry service, but I'm like,
I'm not paying all this money for laundry service to
(21:25):
come to my laundry when I could just do it myself.
I'm home like whatever. So I would say the other
day I had time, like I finally wasn't filming, I
wasn't like doing anything. I just had a day to
myself to like clean the house and do the laundry.
I did everyone's laundry and I folded it and put
it away in one day. I felt like a champion.
I was like, look at me go. So I think
(21:46):
just getting the laundry and being on top of it,
like really, it just makes me relieved that I'm like
not stressed looking at piles of laundry every single day.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
When the mountain of laundry is gone, it is a good.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Moment that you're like I can do anything.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I can do anything. I totally can. It's gonna happen.
So I'm curious, how do you see your career evolving,
like over the next ten years or so. I feel
like with building a personal brand, it's got to be
this constant evolution.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, I mean, I just feel like, obviously my number
one thing in my career is reality TV and doing
the shows and everything. So I would love to continue
Jersey Shore until we're like eighty because we're good at
it and that's what we do and I love it.
That's like my main job. But I do see myself
(22:39):
doing other reality shows, Like I just I'm starting to
film another reality show in Canada next month and it's
a paranormal show and I love like all the ghosties
and aliens and I am a paranormal check. So I'm
excited to do something different from Jersey Shore, which is that.
So I'm excited to do different shows that people would
(23:00):
know that I would do different opportunities. But also, like
my second major thing is the Sookie Shop, so I
would love to open more locations. I would love to
be a bigger brand. I know it takes years, but
I mean the one person that I looked up to
when it comes to like branding and clothing and shoes
(23:21):
and everything is Jessica Simpson. So she is like my
main she's my goal, she's everything. She is my queen,
so I would do. I'm working really hard to try
to level up to her, and I know it's going
to take time because I'm definitely smaller than her, but
I mean, I would just love to be a bigger brand.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Well, she's had a lot of staying power, which is amazing.
I mean it's a distracted world, so when people can
keep something going for a while, it's it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, and it's very hard, honestly in the retail business
to like keep your stores open. Like a lot of
small businesses are closing and it's so sad to see.
So if you got and I know, people are like,
you're not a small business, like you're snooky, but I'm like, no,
I really am. Like I'm a small business. I'm literally
with everybody else and I do everything my own, you know,
(24:10):
I literally run the entire thing obviously with my team,
So we consider ourselves a small business. So if you
guys are ever shopping in town you see small businesses,
go to them because it means the world.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Amen. Well, and you opened your first brick and mortar
right before the pandemic hit though, right, I mean, was
who you thought, like this is not going to work.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, so I opened. So I opened in a smaller
I think it was like nine hundred square feet. It
wasn't that big, but that was like my first spot
that I opened in twenty nineteen where I was like spontaneous,
like I literally just signed it and I was like,
all right, let's go. And I was trying to like
hire a team and I literally just went in there.
I had my dad put up all the racks, like,
(24:55):
I had my dad working, and I was buying all
my things and I was literally tagging everything, hanging everything,
like doing it all on my own, even when I
had the staff, and my staff was like you don't
need to do this, you hired us to do this.
I'm like okay. So it was definitely like one hundred
percent like doing everything. So now I'm just like take
it away, like you know what you gotta do. But yeah,
(25:16):
I started in a smaller space and then a bigger
space opened, so we moved down the block and right
when we got in there ready to open, do all
the things. Yeah, pandemic, Well you pivot.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I mean when you have to.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yes, yeah. So I mean obviously, like everyone still wanted
to come and like shop and everything. So thank god
for like online and social media and everything. Because we
were showing our new arrivals and I was like, Okay,
I know it's the pandemic and you know it's really
hard for small businesses right now, but this is what
we're going to do. So we ended up showing all
the things online that they can buy, and they bought
(25:51):
it online and I was like, if you want to
see me and get it picked up, you can schedule
a pickup and then you can just pull up to
the store. Make sure you have your mask on. I'll
have my mask on. And I was literally delivering all
their goodies to them through the car. So I mean
we made it work. What I mean, Yeah, it was.
It was rough.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
It was rough. I am sure. Well with this episode
is going to air right around New Year's so I
am curious, do you have any goals for the New Year.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I always have goals. I literally manifest my entire life,
So goals, I mean this year obviously still killing it
with the Snoky Shops. I would love to open another location,
keep going with that and like building up my followers
and my customers. I would love to have my own
pickles Pickles, Yes, I've been shopping it, so I would
(26:44):
love to have my own pickle brand. I would love
to get my wine in stores. My wine is called
Messy Mama. You can only get it online. We have
a red blend, a Rosette, and a white, so my
goal is to get it in stores eventually. I'm sure
there's a ton more, but like obviously doing more reality
and being the best mom that I can and my
(27:05):
kids thriving and yeah, all the positive things.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And it sounds like you're hitting the gym regularly already,
so you don't even need to resolve to do that.
Right you did that?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah, Yeah, I'm definitely hitting the gym. So yeah, that
makes me feel better about myself.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Awesome, Awesome, Well, Nicole, we always end each episode with
a love of the week, so this is something that
you're just enjoying right now. Since this it's right before
the holidays, I got to say, I am loving gingerbread
cookies because they're like sweet but not too sweet, and
there's something about that that's just a perfect combination. What
are you loving right now.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Honestly, and I know this is such an alcoholic of me,
but I've been dying to make my own dirty martinis
because I'm trying to stay away from like wine all
the time because there's a lot of calories, and I
love dirty martini's going out, but like when you make
it at home, it's just not the same. So I
ended up finding an olive brand. Is that what It's
called olive bran. It's like an all of juice mix.
(28:01):
It's called filthy. Literally, you pour it this so there's ingredients.
You pour that in with your choice of okrrigin. It
tastes just like the restaurants and I've been trying to
nail that for so long. So yeah, I would say
my dirty Marchini mix at home.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
You're liking that. It could be even a goal in
the new year to continue to nail that one.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Well, Nicole, thank you so much for joining us. Where
can people find you?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
So you can follow me on Instagram and TikTok at
the Spookie Shop, but also my personal one is at
Snookie and I would love for you guys to check
out my source thesnooki shop dot com and then Yeah,
I have a messy mama wine. If you guys want
to try it for the holidays.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yeah, cheers, raise a glass to that Nicle, thanks so
much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Well we are back. That was a great episode with
Nicole Polissi and all about her life, how she has
built her business, working, motherhood with her three kids and
all those good things. So, Sarah, this question comes from
a listener who says, what do you do if one
kid has a day off school and the others don't.
(29:07):
What about situations where they have entirely different longer breaks.
How do you handle this? So, my kids are all
in the same school system, so this doesn't happen. So
but Sarah has a different situation.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, so we are in this situation, and I don't
have one singular policy for dealing with this. I really
take it on a very case by case basis. But
I will say things that I have done in the
past are one of three options. Number One, it can
be a natural mommy day. So if Genevieve doesn't have
school and the other two have school, then that might be.
If I'm looking for a day where I want to
(29:40):
spend someone on one time with a kid could be
a really great day. Sometimes a week day can be
better than a weekend because various things are less crowded,
so you can take advantage of that. The second option
would be pulling somebody out of school. So this year,
for February break, which I know is not a thing everywhere,
also known as Ski week in places, which I realize
(30:01):
is slightly ridiculous. Anyway, my older kids are off, Genevieve
is not off. We are planning to pull her from
school for that week. I've already discussed with her teachers.
Thankfully she goes to school where they're quite comfortable with that.
So again, kind of controversial. Please don't come at me
for this one, and it wouldn't be something I would say, Oh,
this is what you should always do, but on a
(30:21):
case by case basis for us this year, it made sense,
so looking forward to visiting family during that week when
my other older two kids are off. And then finally,
the third option is that it's just like you know,
any other day off of school. If I have to work,
then our nanny comes and she takes care of whoever
is not going to school. So one of those three things,
(30:42):
and I would not say that there's like, yeah, a
singular policy. It depends on the day, the time of year,
and other circumstances.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, I mean, I think we sometimes do get singular
days just because of the difference of conference schedules or
things like that. Or sometimes the high school will be
open in the they've opened late some days because they
were doing finals or something. It happens. But the older
kids can manage themselves. They just like sleep in and
it's kind of nice if you are working from home,
(31:09):
maybe have lunch together. Maybe they don't even make it
up for lunch, who knows. But with younger kids, if
it works to do like a mommy day, that could
be a natural opportunity. But people don't get infinite amounts
of PTO, so there probably are break camps in these circumstances,
or hiring a sitter for the day is a good
(31:31):
idea for a whole week. Yeah, And if you can't
pull your kid out for the whole week, which i
especially if they get.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Older, totally like the other way around would never work.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, it would never work to take your older kids
out for a week and then to match your younger
child's break. But you might be able to pull like
the older kids out for a day or two and
a younger one out for three days if their breaks
are next to each other or something, and then you
get kind of the middle of those two weeks to
be your family vacation and sort of orient that based
(32:04):
on who could miss more days, which again tends to
be the older kids can't, the younger kids can. But
this may just be something that you have to build
into your life that you don't really travel during those times,
those breaks because they are different for your family, and
you may need to just seize the opportunities over the
(32:25):
winter holidays in summer when they are all off, and
you know, that's just sometimes the way it works. Yep, yep.
Life is not always infinitely efficient, and if you want
it to be, then you do need to put your
kids all in the same school district. But yeah, well
this has been best of both worlds. Talking with Nicole Polisi,
I will be back. Sarah will be back next week
(32:47):
with more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore shoe Box on Instagram,
and you.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This
has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join
us next time for more on making work and life
work together.
Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician,
writer and course creator. We are two working parents who
love our careers and our families.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
We want you to get the most out of life.
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
episode is airing in January of twenty twenty six. I
(00:47):
am excited to welcome Nicole Paulizzi to the show. People
may remember her she first made her name as Snooky
on the Jersey Shore, but I think there's a far
more interesting story here about her career in the Spotlight.
You know, she made her name very young and then
pivoted from that to build a lifestyle brand with some
(01:08):
serious longevity. It's been fifteen plus years in the Spotlight
for her. Now she is running a business while raising
three young kids with her husband, Gianny Level. I am
very excited about this conversation. I know Sarah is going
to be looking forward to listening to it as well.
But in the meantime, so in cases anyone is wondering,
we are not going to be talking that much about
(01:30):
the Jersey Shore in this interview. And so because of that,
since Sarah and I are now living for me in
the greater Philadelphia region and Sarah certainly grew up here,
going to the actual New Jersey Shore was a big
part of our lives at very quart So, Sarah, which
Jersey shoretown did you go to? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I also just want to note that I am not
starstruck by very many of our guests, but this one,
let me tell you this one, I'm wow. Like, I'm
glad I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I would be nervous.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
We went to Ocean City when I was a younger child,
and then I spent a couple of summers going with
a friend to Kate May And actually those are most
of where my memories come from because I was a teen.
I think I've talked about it on the show. We
were very independent. We like went out to dinner and
shopping in to the beach by ourselves all day. It
was amazing free range parenting right there. And lived to
tell the tale and have some wonderful memories from that.
(02:23):
And also on a more Jersey Shore esque note, I
was at a live taping of MTV's Total Request Live
with Carson Dailey in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Remember that
day vividly. I got to have a line on the show.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
What was your line?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It was so who did Pacey get some from?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Next?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And I was asking, like the creator of Dawson's Creek.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Okay, well that was Sarah's early clave to frame there.
I love it, okay, me is so beautiful. I love
that you were. So you're riding your bike around the
area there.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yes, I love that area. Oh my gosh, so like
I don't know, it's probably like pinkwashed by my memories,
but you guys have a different city memory of Jersey
Shore though.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well yeah, well we go the northern part of it,
so Ocean Grove, which is this really cute Victorian town.
It is just south of Asbury Park. So you know,
given that we have a long beach coastline, the towns
are kind of running down north through south and you
have obviously long bred, long long branch whatever the yes
and anyway, so it's toward the northern part of it,
(03:29):
just south of Asbury Park, and it is so cute,
it is adorable. We've gone there almost every summer for
fifteen years at this point. We started going. The first
summer we went there was in two thousand and six,
and it was sort of patchwork here and there until
you know, about ten years ago when we started going
almost every year. But this is the weird thing about
(03:52):
beaches in the East Coast. So the northern New Jersey
beaches are probably nine minutes from New York City, if
even that, depending on the traffic. The Hamptons are also
ninety minutes, except for traffic, which could make it be
like four hours if you're trying to get to the
Hamptons from New York City. I have no idea why
(04:16):
the northern New Jersey beaches have not gentrified nearly as
much as the Hamptons. Every time I go to Ocean Grove,
I am struck by the fact that about one and
a half miles from the beach there is some sort
of less gentrified commerce stuff or like it would be
an auto shop, a vape shop, like some random independent grocery,
(04:40):
like a drug store that's not a chain, like you know,
it's it's definitely not built up in that way, whereas
if you're a mile and a half from the beach
in the Hamptons, you are in the middle of multimillion
dollar mansions. So what is with that? Like, I don't
get it, Like it would be just as easy to
get to the northern New Jersey beaches. Is there it's
a tax code or zoning answer for that. I mean,
(05:02):
I think the texts are probably worse in New York.
So I don't get it. I mean, I guess it's
that people have gone there, and so then it's known
as the place where you go if you want to ritzy,
you know, New York beach experience, and then that's becomes
the place. But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But it's good because otherwise your rental would cost ten
times as much.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, exactly, So for my frugal soul, I am happy
that it hasn't become that. But on the other hand,
it is just sort of one of these strange things
that I don't necessarily understand. But we go for about
two weeks every summer I work remotely for a big
chunk of that. My husband does some remote work and
(05:43):
goes in and out and yeah, but it's a good time.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I bet there's an urban planner listening to this that's
like I have the answer, so let us know answer.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, I guess it's maybe that some parts of northern
New Jersey had crime issues in the past, but not
usually right on the beach. So I'm not sure anyway
we can ponder that. But we're excited to hear this episode,
which is all about building a lifestyle brand, career pivoting.
We're excited to hear from Nicole, so let's hear what
(06:14):
she has to say. So Sarah and I are delighted
to welcome Nicole Palizzi to the show. So Nicole, thanks
for being here.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Thanks for having me. Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So why don't you tell our listeners a little bit
about yourself?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So you might know me from Jersey Shore. They call
me Snookie. But yeah I am. I'm a busy mama. Now.
I just turned thirty eight, so yeah, I wanted to
get back in the gym. So I did my thing
of losing twenty pounds and I'm getting myself together. But yeah,
I have three kids thirteen, eleven, and six, and I
(06:51):
have a dog. So I have four children. I'm married.
My eleventh anniversary just happened, and I'm busy running the
snookie shops. I have my own stores. I have four locations.
So that's my life.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That's your life. Wow, the oldest is a teenager. Now
that's nice on us. Yeah, so you've had an incredibly
varied career, as you've mentioned, I'm curious when you weren't
growing up, what did you envision your career looking like?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Well, growing up, I mean, I always wanted to try reality,
but I didn't think that was going to be like
my life or my career because growing up, I wanted
to be a vet tech. And I was in school
going to be a vet tech. And I had one
semester until I could graduate and take my license, and
I just wanted to save animals. I loved animals more
than people. I still do no offense, so I wanted
(07:42):
to save animals and just be around animals all day.
So that was the plan. And then yeah, I tried
out for Jersey Shore, went on there, and then the
rest is history.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Absolutely, the rest is history. Well, with that, you got
famous pretty young. Was there a point in there as
you realized like, hey, I'm basically how old name I
want to take this and make a longer term career
out of it. Like, was that a thought you remember
having at some point in there?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, I feel like in the first season we literally
just went I well, I literally just went to like
try reality TV because I always wanted to try it
and I was a huge fan of it. So I
was thinking more like a Real World. But they didn't
pick me, So this was the perfect show for me.
So yeah, I just thought I was going to experience it,
(08:29):
have fifteen minutes, and then go back to my life.
So I wasn't planning on this to be like my
full career. And also when the show first came out,
they were supposedly doing like a rotating cast every season,
so I was just like, all right, I'm going to
do the first season, have the best time, and enjoy
what comes with it, and you know, go back to
my life. So I had no idea that this was
(08:51):
going to be my life.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, but at some point in there, you realize, like
I could make a career out of this.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I would think. I think probably like see in three,
I was like, all right, let me do something besides
like the show. So then I had my tanning deal,
which I had my own channing lotions, I did a
perfume deal. I was starting to do books and everything,
so a lot of things were coming to me. So
(09:17):
I was like, all right, I feel like, you know,
I can do other things other than the show. And
then once everything died down, and then once everything died down,
one of my goals and my dream was to have
my own stores and do all that. So I eventually
open up my own line store and then did the
(09:39):
brick and mortar thing. So yeah, there was always goals,
but I didn't think I could actually achieve it.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah. Well, I'm curious if you would give advice to
somebody who is trying to pivot from you know, you
have something that's a big breakthrough and you would like
to still be making a living fifteen twenty years Hence, like,
what advice would you give to someone in that situation.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
To save what you can save all the money, because
obviously things cost money and it's not cheap and it's
not easy. So thank God for my parents because I
was so young, twenty one years old, getting all this
money for doing the show, like I wanted to spend it.
I wanted to travel. I wanted to buy things. I
wanted to go crazy, and my parents were like, Nick,
(10:21):
we got to save. We got to save, Like, think
of your future. You want to get married, you want
to have kids, You got to think of your future.
So thank God for my parents that they help me save.
So yeah, just save and make sure it's the right time. Like,
you don't want to be too busy where you're not
totally focused on it. And that's why I waited so
long to actually do the brick and mortar because that
(10:43):
was like a dream. But I had the Snookie shop
online for I think like ten years before I actually
opened it. So you can start small, start somewhere where
you can like manage it with your time. But when
you really have the time, make sure you have the
money and you have the time to do it.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, you got to build that up over time. I'm curious.
I mean, you could probably put your name on a
ton of things, and you've mentioned your different deals that
you did over the time and culminating in the store
that you have now and other things. But how do
you choose what projects to pursue or what business lines
you want to be in.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah, so I've gotten crazy offers to do like a
million things throughout my career on TV, and I always
picked things that were true to me and things that
I would actually that actually makes sense to me and
I would actually use and I would actually endorse. Like
I'm not just going to say yes to everything just
to make a book, even though that would be great, because.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I always tempting.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I'm sure definitely tempting, but I was like, this just
doesn't make sense to me, and then you're going to
be watered down by like promoting all these things that
nobody's going to care anymore. So I always picked things
that were true to me, that made sense to me,
that I truly loved. Dude, there's a lot of things
that I turned down.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
But I kind of things are a flat no from you.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Well, there was a lot of like alcohol deals that
I was like no, because in my head I wanted
to have my own wine label eventually, which I do know,
messy mama. So I was like, I can't do all
this cheap vodka and then down the line, I'm gonna
be like, oh, I have this wine. Like I wanted
to do alcohol just once. And there was a lot
(12:19):
of clothing things that I said no to because I
wanted to do my own clothing. So just like things
that I knew were gonna compete with what I wanted
to do. Well.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
It's interesting you talk about like managing your time toward
doing all these things because time is limited. And with
with your store as well, you've sort of had this
sustainable pace of opening, right you have like three in
the East Coast and then slowly have moved to other places.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah. So I mean the main goal, honestly was just
to open one. I was like, I just want to
have one store, and I want to like play house
and like go into the store and like play boutique
and be like, oh, this is my store. And I
was just always upsessed like fashion and clothes and accessories
and all the things. So I just wanted to have
that experience. But then like once I opened my store,
my first door was in Madison, which is like so
(13:06):
close to me, I can go every single day. I
was just like, this is so much fun and we're
doing great, We're very successful. Why not open another one?
So then I open another one and I was like,
these are doing great, I have the time, Let's open
another and I do things in four. Four is my
lucky number. It's my angel number. I always wanted four kids.
I kind of have four kids now my dog, So
(13:27):
four is like my thing. So I was like, if
I do stores, I'm going to have four stores. So yeah,
I now have four stores and everything's working out, thank God.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Excellent. We're going to take a quick ad break and
then I'll be back with more from Nicole polisy Well,
I am back talking with Nicole Policy, who has a
(13:58):
varied career, starting out in reality TV but now has
pivoted to all sorts of other ventures as well. So
you built your career in acting and then now you
are managing a lot of things. I'm curious how that
pivot worked to suddenly be in charge of a lot
of people.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I just feel like this was always a goal of
mine to open my own stores, have my own business,
work for myself, because I said from day one on
the show, I was like, I don't like working like
I don't like working for other people. Obviously I've done
it like growing up and like I worked for this
business and just being told what to do. I'm just
(14:38):
I'm not that person. I want to run things. I
want to do it myself, and I want my own rules,
and you know, I want to lost people around, but
I want my own team to where I can you know,
they do what I want for a business. So I
was never good under somebody else, and I knew I
was going to do something to where I can work
for myself and ma that and take care of my
(15:02):
family and that would be my career. So the ski
shop just made sense to you know, I had it online,
it was doing great, but then like I wanted to
take over for myself because I was working with another
company to help me do like the orders and everything,
and I was like, I want to take this over myself.
So that's when I did the brick and mortar in
twenty nineteen. And yeah, ever since then, it's just been
(15:24):
me and my team that I hired, and it's just
so fun. It feels amazing to be able to say
that you have your own business and it's successful and
you literally just did it by yourself with your team,
and I don't know, I'm just very proud of myself.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Well you should be. That sounds good. Well, clearly you've
got a lot of moving parts here, and you know,
we always like to hear about how people organize their
lives on this show, which is our listeners are all
working moms, So I'm curious what your planning process looks like,
Like how do you plan your life?
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Honestly, I'm very spontaneous when it comes to things. I'm sad,
so what I want to do something drastic, I don't
think about it. I just do it. I'm like, I'm
not going to stress myself out about it. I'm not
going to overthink it. I'm just going to go and
I'm going to do it. So that's what I did
with my store. And when I got my boobs done
for the first time after my children, I was like,
I really want to get it done. I've never done
surgery before, so let me just go and do it.
(16:19):
So I literally booked it and I just went and
did it, and I was terrified, but I didn't let
myself get terrified. So I kind of felt the same
way with opening my store. I was like, I'm terrified.
I know it's going to be a lot of work.
I never run a business before. I just didn't have
any experience and I literally did it all on my
own in the beginning. So yeah, I don't think about things,
(16:40):
and I'm like if I really want to do this,
let's just jump in head first and then we'll deal
with it later and see what happened. So I know
that doesn't work for everyone, but if I have the
time and I have the money and I can do it,
I'm just going to go and do it and see
what happened. So I guess I'm a risk taker. But
so far everything has worked out.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I'm sure that does, you know, for big picture of things,
But how about just like the daily matters of life.
I mean, I doubt that you are living in complete
chaos and you oh yeah, three kids, so how many
organize day to day life?
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Then day to day life, well, I'm very busy at
home with the kids, so yeah, thirteen, eleven and six
year old. So every day it's just like getting them
up for school. Obviously, they're in school till like three o'clock,
so I have literally all day to figure out what
I'm going to do, which is nice. And I don't
have a nine to five obviously, but I do run
the stores every single day. So usually my day to
(17:35):
day is go to Starbucks, I get my macha drink,
get my macha drink. I'll do my errands in the
morning because you know, the stores aren't packed then and
I don't like to wait in line, So if I
have to go to Target, Trader Joe's, I'll get that done.
And then the afternoon is spent just in my office,
like going over my inventory, doing bills, just making sure
(17:56):
like my house is in order, laundry like all the things.
So yeah, I guess I do. You have a schedule
when it comes to my day to day. So it's
errands in the morning, like getting my work done, Bill's
house cleaning before I pick up the kids, and then
pick up the kids, and then you do you know,
you do the sports, or you do the cooking quick,
you do the quick dinners, and then you go to sports,
(18:18):
running around carpool. It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
It is always a lot. And the more kids there are,
the more moving parts there are. I'm curious what your
mornings look like. Then getting everyone out the door. Is
it a you know, is it a well oiled machine.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
It's not as chaotic as it used to be. I
would say when the kids were younger. It was very chaotic.
When my two were in middle school or I went
to school, and then I had a little baby that
was freaking chaos. Ough it made me want to drink
wine at like tenay am. So now I feel like
it's more easier because my son goes to school earlier,
(18:54):
so I'm up with him early, and I let my
two sleep in for a little bit. And my daughter's
in fifth grade and my littles and kindo, so they
go to school together. So it's nice to be able
to wake up early, chow for a little bit, get
my oldest to middle school, and then I come back
and then I get them ready. So I feel like
it's more less chaotic. But I mean it's still not easy.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, it never is. Yeah, I'm curiously has time changed
and how you spend time changed as your kids have
gotten older? Like I know when my littlest guy turned five,
it felt like time started opening up. There was more
space for everything.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I feel like it just gets more busy because when
they're little, you're staying at home and you have a
routine at home. But like once they go to school
and you have the sports and all the things, it
just gets more busier.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I feel, yeah, well there's something to that. What sports
are they doing?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So my daughter is competitive cheer, so she has practiced
three days a week, and I do carpool with like
three other moms because it's like thirty minutes away, so
always busy with cheer, driving there and driving back. Then
my son does wrestling and fo ball, so busy going
to his matches and games. And then my little he
doesn't do anything yet because I feel like he'll be
(20:07):
crazy with it, so we're waiting another year. But yeah,
just a football, cheer and.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Wrestling excellent, excellent. We're going to take one more quick
ad break and then I will be back with more
from Nicole Polisy. Well, I am back talking with Nicole Polisy.
(20:33):
So busy working mom of three. I'm curious if you've
had any sort of like mom victories lately, like anything
that you managed to pull off with the kids in
life that's been cool.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I mean, I was just recently celebrating that I was
managed to be on a camp sign up like right
when it opens, so my kid got the camp he wanted.
And I'm like, whoa victory, said alarm? Yes, I did
set an alarm.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I sat an alarm.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yeah, I don't know, and this is probably so stupid.
But I'm always behind in the laundry. Like I just
feel like every day I'm just doing laundry, whether it
be towels or I'm washing five people in this house,
so every day it's just laundry. And like all my
neighbors like they have this laundry service, but I'm like,
I'm not paying all this money for laundry service to
(21:25):
come to my laundry when I could just do it myself.
I'm home like whatever. So I would say the other
day I had time, like I finally wasn't filming, I
wasn't like doing anything. I just had a day to
myself to like clean the house and do the laundry.
I did everyone's laundry and I folded it and put
it away in one day. I felt like a champion.
I was like, look at me go. So I think
(21:46):
just getting the laundry and being on top of it,
like really, it just makes me relieved that I'm like
not stressed looking at piles of laundry every single day.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
When the mountain of laundry is gone, it is a good.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Moment that you're like I can do anything.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I can do anything. I totally can. It's gonna happen.
So I'm curious, how do you see your career evolving,
like over the next ten years or so. I feel
like with building a personal brand, it's got to be
this constant evolution.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, I mean, I just feel like, obviously my number
one thing in my career is reality TV and doing
the shows and everything. So I would love to continue
Jersey Shore until we're like eighty because we're good at
it and that's what we do and I love it.
That's like my main job. But I do see myself
(22:39):
doing other reality shows, Like I just I'm starting to
film another reality show in Canada next month and it's
a paranormal show and I love like all the ghosties
and aliens and I am a paranormal check. So I'm
excited to do something different from Jersey Shore, which is that.
So I'm excited to do different shows that people would
(23:00):
know that I would do different opportunities. But also, like
my second major thing is the Sookie Shop, so I
would love to open more locations. I would love to
be a bigger brand. I know it takes years, but
I mean the one person that I looked up to
when it comes to like branding and clothing and shoes
(23:21):
and everything is Jessica Simpson. So she is like my
main she's my goal, she's everything. She is my queen,
so I would do. I'm working really hard to try
to level up to her, and I know it's going
to take time because I'm definitely smaller than her, but
I mean, I would just love to be a bigger brand.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Well, she's had a lot of staying power, which is amazing.
I mean it's a distracted world, so when people can
keep something going for a while, it's it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, and it's very hard, honestly in the retail business
to like keep your stores open. Like a lot of
small businesses are closing and it's so sad to see.
So if you got and I know, people are like,
you're not a small business, like you're snooky, but I'm like, no,
I really am. Like I'm a small business. I'm literally
with everybody else and I do everything my own, you know,
(24:10):
I literally run the entire thing obviously with my team,
So we consider ourselves a small business. So if you
guys are ever shopping in town you see small businesses,
go to them because it means the world.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Amen. Well, and you opened your first brick and mortar
right before the pandemic hit though, right, I mean, was
who you thought, like this is not going to work.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, so I opened. So I opened in a smaller
I think it was like nine hundred square feet. It
wasn't that big, but that was like my first spot
that I opened in twenty nineteen where I was like spontaneous,
like I literally just signed it and I was like,
all right, let's go. And I was trying to like
hire a team and I literally just went in there.
I had my dad put up all the racks, like,
(24:55):
I had my dad working, and I was buying all
my things and I was literally tagging everything, hanging everything,
like doing it all on my own, even when I
had the staff, and my staff was like you don't
need to do this, you hired us to do this.
I'm like okay. So it was definitely like one hundred
percent like doing everything. So now I'm just like take
it away, like you know what you gotta do. But yeah,
(25:16):
I started in a smaller space and then a bigger
space opened, so we moved down the block and right
when we got in there ready to open, do all
the things. Yeah, pandemic, Well you pivot.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I mean when you have to.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yes, yeah. So I mean obviously, like everyone still wanted
to come and like shop and everything. So thank god
for like online and social media and everything. Because we
were showing our new arrivals and I was like, Okay,
I know it's the pandemic and you know it's really
hard for small businesses right now, but this is what
we're going to do. So we ended up showing all
the things online that they can buy, and they bought
(25:51):
it online and I was like, if you want to
see me and get it picked up, you can schedule
a pickup and then you can just pull up to
the store. Make sure you have your mask on. I'll
have my mask on. And I was literally delivering all
their goodies to them through the car. So I mean
we made it work. What I mean, Yeah, it was.
It was rough.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
It was rough. I am sure. Well with this episode
is going to air right around New Year's so I
am curious, do you have any goals for the New Year.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I always have goals. I literally manifest my entire life,
So goals, I mean this year obviously still killing it
with the Snoky Shops. I would love to open another location,
keep going with that and like building up my followers
and my customers. I would love to have my own
pickles Pickles, Yes, I've been shopping it, so I would
(26:44):
love to have my own pickle brand. I would love
to get my wine in stores. My wine is called
Messy Mama. You can only get it online. We have
a red blend, a Rosette, and a white, so my
goal is to get it in stores eventually. I'm sure
there's a ton more, but like obviously doing more reality
and being the best mom that I can and my
(27:05):
kids thriving and yeah, all the positive things.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And it sounds like you're hitting the gym regularly already,
so you don't even need to resolve to do that.
Right you did that?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah, Yeah, I'm definitely hitting the gym. So yeah, that
makes me feel better about myself.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Awesome, Awesome, Well, Nicole, we always end each episode with
a love of the week, so this is something that
you're just enjoying right now. Since this it's right before
the holidays, I got to say, I am loving gingerbread
cookies because they're like sweet but not too sweet, and
there's something about that that's just a perfect combination. What
are you loving right now.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Honestly, and I know this is such an alcoholic of me,
but I've been dying to make my own dirty martinis
because I'm trying to stay away from like wine all
the time because there's a lot of calories, and I
love dirty martini's going out, but like when you make
it at home, it's just not the same. So I
ended up finding an olive brand. Is that what It's
called olive bran. It's like an all of juice mix.
(28:01):
It's called filthy. Literally, you pour it this so there's ingredients.
You pour that in with your choice of okrrigin. It
tastes just like the restaurants and I've been trying to
nail that for so long. So yeah, I would say
my dirty Marchini mix at home.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
You're liking that. It could be even a goal in
the new year to continue to nail that one.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Well, Nicole, thank you so much for joining us. Where
can people find you?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
So you can follow me on Instagram and TikTok at
the Spookie Shop, but also my personal one is at
Snookie and I would love for you guys to check
out my source thesnooki shop dot com and then Yeah,
I have a messy mama wine. If you guys want
to try it for the holidays.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yeah, cheers, raise a glass to that Nicle, thanks so
much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Well we are back. That was a great episode with
Nicole Polissi and all about her life, how she has
built her business, working, motherhood with her three kids and
all those good things. So, Sarah, this question comes from
a listener who says, what do you do if one
kid has a day off school and the others don't.
(29:07):
What about situations where they have entirely different longer breaks.
How do you handle this? So, my kids are all
in the same school system, so this doesn't happen. So
but Sarah has a different situation.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, so we are in this situation, and I don't
have one singular policy for dealing with this. I really
take it on a very case by case basis. But
I will say things that I have done in the
past are one of three options. Number One, it can
be a natural mommy day. So if Genevieve doesn't have
school and the other two have school, then that might be.
If I'm looking for a day where I want to
(29:40):
spend someone on one time with a kid could be
a really great day. Sometimes a week day can be
better than a weekend because various things are less crowded,
so you can take advantage of that. The second option
would be pulling somebody out of school. So this year,
for February break, which I know is not a thing everywhere,
also known as Ski week in places, which I realize
(30:01):
is slightly ridiculous. Anyway, my older kids are off, Genevieve
is not off. We are planning to pull her from
school for that week. I've already discussed with her teachers.
Thankfully she goes to school where they're quite comfortable with that.
So again, kind of controversial. Please don't come at me
for this one, and it wouldn't be something I would say, Oh,
this is what you should always do, but on a
(30:21):
case by case basis for us this year, it made sense,
so looking forward to visiting family during that week when
my other older two kids are off. And then finally,
the third option is that it's just like you know,
any other day off of school. If I have to work,
then our nanny comes and she takes care of whoever
is not going to school. So one of those three things,
(30:42):
and I would not say that there's like, yeah, a
singular policy. It depends on the day, the time of year,
and other circumstances.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, I mean, I think we sometimes do get singular
days just because of the difference of conference schedules or
things like that. Or sometimes the high school will be
open in the they've opened late some days because they
were doing finals or something. It happens. But the older
kids can manage themselves. They just like sleep in and
it's kind of nice if you are working from home,
(31:09):
maybe have lunch together. Maybe they don't even make it
up for lunch, who knows. But with younger kids, if
it works to do like a mommy day, that could
be a natural opportunity. But people don't get infinite amounts
of PTO, so there probably are break camps in these circumstances,
or hiring a sitter for the day is a good
(31:31):
idea for a whole week. Yeah, And if you can't
pull your kid out for the whole week, which i
especially if they get.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Older, totally like the other way around would never work.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, it would never work to take your older kids
out for a week and then to match your younger
child's break. But you might be able to pull like
the older kids out for a day or two and
a younger one out for three days if their breaks
are next to each other or something, and then you
get kind of the middle of those two weeks to
be your family vacation and sort of orient that based
(32:04):
on who could miss more days, which again tends to
be the older kids can't, the younger kids can. But
this may just be something that you have to build
into your life that you don't really travel during those times,
those breaks because they are different for your family, and
you may need to just seize the opportunities over the
(32:25):
winter holidays in summer when they are all off, and
you know, that's just sometimes the way it works. Yep, yep.
Life is not always infinitely efficient, and if you want
it to be, then you do need to put your
kids all in the same school district. But yeah, well
this has been best of both worlds. Talking with Nicole Polisi,
I will be back. Sarah will be back next week
(32:47):
with more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore shoe Box on Instagram,
and you.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This
has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join
us next time for more on making work and life
work together.
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