December 10, 2025 • 28 mins
Nikki Rausch joins me to share her remarkable journey from a shy introvert in a male-dominated sales industry to a dynamic sales expert and coach.
We dive into her early experiences, including her first job selling leather goods and how she stumbled into the world of sales. Nikki talks about the transformative power of neuro-linguistic programming and how it helped her find her voice and success in sales.
As we explore her transition to coaching, we discuss the importance of saying "yes" to opportunities, how visibility through speaking and podcasting has shaped her career, and the impact of her Sales Maven Society.
This conversation is packed with insights and inspiration for anyone looking to enhance their sales skills and grow their business.
Elevating your sales game requires more than just understanding your product; it necessitates mastering the art of conversation.
In our latest chat with Nikki Rausch, a true Sales Maven, we delve into her early career experiences that shaped her into the sales expert she is today. From her humble beginnings at a mall kiosk selling leather goods to becoming the national sales manager at a tech company, Nikki shares her journey with candor and humor.
She recounts how she stumbled into sales at just 20 years old, highlighting that her initial foray into commissioned sales was a game changer. It wasn't just about the money; it was about the empowerment that came with controlling her own income.
Nikki's story is a testament to the power of resilience, especially as she navigated a male-dominated industry while being an introvert. She emphasizes the importance of being a strong communicator and finding ways to be resilient, especially in challenging environments.
As we explored her transformation from a corporate sales role to becoming a coach and speaker, Nikki emphasizes the importance of saying 'yes' to opportunities, illustrating how this mindset has opened doors throughout her career.
Whether it's through her podcast or her role as a speaker, Nikki’s insights are invaluable for anyone looking to elevate their sales skills and boost their visibility in the business world.
Takeaways:
- Nikki Rausch's journey began with a holiday job at a mall kiosk selling leather goods.
- She discovered her passion for sales while working in a male-dominated industry as an introverted woman.
- The importance of asking intelligent questions to elevate sales conversations was emphasized during our chat.
- Nikki's experience with neuro-linguistic programming helped her become more comfortable in sales.
- Networking with women entrepreneurs inspired Nikki to become a sales coach and launch her own business.
- Saying yes to speaking opportunities led to unexpected connections and growth in her career.
Questions that close sales training:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Raise youeVisibility Online.
Join Louise Brogan, a LinkedInexpert, CEO and dynamic mum turned
YouTuber, as she dives intothe world of B2B companies and entrepreneurial
success.
Each episode bringsconversations with business owners
and industry experts wholeverage LinkedIn and video to attract
(00:23):
leads and scale their ventures.
Get ready for actionableinsights, real world strategies and
inspiring stories that willelevate your online presence and
help you grow your business.
(00:45):
Anyway.
Hello and welcome to today'sepisode of Raise youe Visibility
Online with me, Louise Broganand a very delightful guest today,
my friend, Nikki Re Nicky.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much, friend.
I'm happy to have this timewith you.
Well, you're a returning guestbut today we're not talking about
the normal stuff.
(01:06):
We are talking more about youand how you got to where you are.
I want to know about theyounger Nikki and her career path.
Are you happy to share thatwhat you hear now?
Yeah.
So the younger me career path?
Well, I will say I found myway into sales, so I'm a sales expert.
(01:30):
That's what I teach and do now.
I found my way into my veryfirst commissioned sales job.
I had moved to another state.
I was very young and I gotmarried very young and I just needed
a job.
How young?
20?
Yeah, I was 20.
I didn't know anybody.
I'd never even been to theplace where I moved.
(01:50):
And I married somebody who wasin the military.
We were together for likethree weeks and then he left for
months and going out to sea.
And so I was just by myself.
I needed a job.
I needed to figure out how Iwas going to get myself into college.
I got my first job and it wasa holiday job.
I was working in the mall andthey had one of those kiosks in the
(02:12):
middle of the mall and theywere selling leather goods and they
hired me.
I was making minimum wage andit was like, I can't remember exactly
but I think it was like 4, 25an hour and US dollars and.
But they had this commission component.
After you sold a certainamount, you would start getting commission
on your sales.
(02:32):
So I was doubling and triplingmy wage when I was working there.
That was the first taste of commission.
And I was like, oh, I like this.
I like being in control ofwhat I can make.
And then in college, as I wasfinishing college, I got a college
project where we had to gointo a company where we didn't know
(02:53):
anybody and interview all theheads of the departments of company,
like 80 to 90% of our gradewas based on this presentation.
We had gone to this local upand coming tech company and done
our whole college project forthis course on this company.
We went back and gave a presentation.
And one of the pieces of mypresentation was about their recruitment
(03:15):
and hiring.
And this was back in the late1900s where they used to put ads
in papers, newspapers to hire people.
I had taken this ad from theSunday paper that they were hiring
salespeople.
One of my classmates came upto me afterwards and said, hey, can
I have that ad because I'mgoing to apply.
(03:35):
He applied and got hired.
And then somebody else fromour class who was in sales working
at the mall selling shoes, hewent and applied.
And this guy, he used to justcheat off my papers.
And I was like, well, ifthey'll hire those two, those two
like dudes, maybe they'll hire me.
Yeah, I went and applied and Igot hired and that was my first professional
(03:58):
sales job.
Worked my way up there, becametheir national sales manager and
then eventually moved on tomuch larger manufacturers.
You know, was in my career, mysales career for many, many years.
17 years before I found my wayto neuro linguistic programming,
if that's a new term toanybody listening.
(04:18):
It's really the study of communication.
And I started studying in LPbecause I thought it'll make me more
comfortable in sales because Iam actually very shy and I am an
introvert.
I worked alongside a lot ofvery aggressive men, male, you know,
that like go out and hunt thebig game kind of mentality.
(04:41):
And that was not mine.
So I thought, well, I'll startstudying in LP and see if it gets
me more comfortable.
And it did.
I had a lot of success in mycareer in sales and then got to a
place where I was like, okay,I've hit this very high level.
I was the top producing rep inNorth America for one of the largest
manufacturers in the world atthe time and thought, okay, there
(05:05):
should be something else.
I was making good money.
I had on the outside.
Everybody's like, oh my gosh,you're traveling the world, you have
a company car, you're makingall this money, you've got the life.
And I was like, I do.
And I'm spending a lot of timeon airplanes, a lot of time in hotels,
a lot of time in bars and restaurants.
And I was kind of bored, so I left.
(05:29):
People thought I had lost my mind.
I left and I started helpingsomebody grow her business.
And that was really the firsttime I started hanging around women
entrepreneurs in the tech space.
I was Around a lot of it wasvery male dominated.
So I always worked with men,had men colleagues, men clients.
And I started hanging aroundentrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs.
(05:52):
And I was like, what is this world?
I didn't even know.
I went to a networkingbreakfast and there were a hundred
women at this breakfast.
I don't think I had ever beenin a room with a hundred women business
owners.
I was like, I just want to bearound these women.
I was so inspired by them.
As I got to know some of them,they really struggled with sales
(06:14):
conversation.
They didn't really understandhow to make money in their businesses
because they didn't understand sales.
So because I just wanted to bearound em, I was like, can I offer
you some advice?
Can I help you?
New sales, right?
I wasn't thinking about a business.
I just wanna be around thesereally inspiring women.
I started helping some of them.
One in particular had a ton ofsuccess with the things that I was
(06:37):
offering to her.
So much so that her CEO calledher and said, something's changed.
All of a sudden, numbers have changed.
What's happening?
And she said, oh.
I started working with a sales coach.
Her name's Nikki Rauch.
And I was like, I'm not asales coach.
I don't even have a business.
Like, what are you talking about?
She ended up having me meetsomebody from their company.
(06:59):
They hired me to be theirkeynote speaker that year at the
conference.
Sales maven was born fromsomebody willing to pay me money
to talk about sales.
I thought it was like thecraziest idea in the whole world.
And here I am, 12 years, stillteaching people how to have more
successful sales conversations.
My goodness, what a pathway.
(07:19):
I've scribbled down some bitsI want to ask you about.
Okay.
The very first, the tech.
Well, what I actually wasinterested in was the.
The male dominated spacebecause I have a family, Nikki.
And we were having thisconversation today at lunchtime about.
So one of my kids is workingin a subject area that is very male
and coming up against, youknow, that's a different space.
(07:44):
How did you manage yourself inthat space?
You said you're introverted,you did the nlp.
But like, I'm thinking ofNikki coming out of her college career
in her early 20s and ending upmaybe like in an office full of men.
How did you, how did you dealwith that?
Were there any other women there?
(08:04):
There were some women.
One of the companies I workedfor, the majority of the management
team were women, but it was amale company.
When I went to themanufacturer side, it was Almost
all men.
In the last eight years of mycareer, I only had one female counterpart
for less than a year on thesales team with me.
(08:24):
Otherwise, I always workedalongside men.
One of the advantages that Ihad is that I was raised by my dad
and I have three brothers andmy dad is a straight up misogynist.
Oh, a lot of very negativetalk about in our, in our homes,
in, in like everything.
It was always like he had abusiness and he was like, if I could
(08:46):
put a sign on a door that saidno women allowed in my business,
I would always raised from thethings that you hear about girls
of like, smile, be quiet, be pleasant.
And I wasn't.
That's not my norm, like personality.
But I learned to be pleasant.
I had an advantage going intothis very male dominated industry
(09:07):
and that I knew how to getalong because I was raised in an
environment where he had toget along.
The things that I was exposedto, they're not even legally allowed
in the workplace anymore.
So it's a very differentindustry or a very different kind
of society that we live in now.
Things that guys could say anddo to me in the industry when the
(09:29):
MeToo movement came out, I waslike, yeah, I've experienced all
of that multiple stories.
At the time, it was just accepted.
It was just, that's how.
And you had to figure out howto handle yourself.
So I feel like I don't have areally good answer because for young
people today, you don't haveto put up with it.
You don't have to, you don'thave to tolerate what I tolerated.
(09:51):
And I would never expectanybody to.
But I do think you have tokind of find a way to be resilient,
no matter the circumstancesthat you're in.
Resiliency is a reallyimportant key skill.
And learning how to be astrong communicator is a skill set
(10:14):
that will serve you in mostany kind of situation.
Because you can speak up foryourself and you also can do it sometimes
in a way that doesn't have tobe aggressive.
Yeah, sometimes it does.
And learning, like, when isthe time to like, ready to do it?
Yeah.
Really stand in a place oflike, this is a hard line.
(10:35):
And also when is the time tosay, hey, are you open to a conversation
about X, Y and Z versus, like,we're having a conversation?
Yes.
Oh, I'm so glad that you saidthat because that was literally where
our conversation kind of wentthen when we were having this conversation
at lunchtime today and I said,you're going to, you know, I think
what we need is some tools andthings to say when the situation
(10:58):
repeats itself so you don'tget frustrated and walk away.
And, and people you areworking with understand that is not
how to treat a person.
Excellent.
Nikki, I love that you went tothis breakfast and you were working
with this lady and she said,this is my sales coach.
And one of the first thingsyou did was speaking.
You and I are both speakers onstage and I get asked by people all
(11:21):
the time about this.
I'm currently runningalongside the work we do with corporates
where we do all our LinkedIncontent for them.
And I'm running small, smallgroup programs to help women who
want to get visible online.
And one of the things a lot ofthem want to do is get more workshops
booked for speaking.
(11:41):
So talk to me a little bitabout how your speaking career evolved.
You and I are both podcastersfor a start.
Nikki's podcast, Sales Maven podcast.
It is a gold mine of information.
Go and listen to it and subscribe.
Um, I have been a guest onyour podcast as well.
Yes, you have.
Talk to me about your routeinto speaking.
(12:04):
And do you know, is thatsomething like, do you like it because
you said you're introverted?
What do you think aboutspeaking for people?
And just tell me all thethings about speaking, how you got
started and those firstspeaking gigs and how you developed
it.
In my corporate career, I dida lot of presenting and I, I, I think
there, there's some, you know,correlation there about like giving
(12:26):
a presentation, a, ademonstration of your product in
front of a group of people.
I had some skillset aroundthat I was comfortable and frankly,
I'd rather be on stage than ina room where it's just networking
open.
Like, I would rather be theperson on stage.
Like, that's so much easier.
Takes the pressure off of me.
Even though no matter ifthere's hundreds of eyeballs on me,
(12:49):
like, I'd rather that.
So speaking was one of thethings I started to do.
And this is what I would sayfor anybody.
I think it's hard, this isgoing to be a hard thing to hear.
But I said yes to everythingbecause it helped me figure out what
I liked to do, what I was goodat, what I was not willing to do
again.
(13:10):
Right.
I think I always think ofthese two.
One is I one time had to givea presentation in a diner that had
music, like old time, 50s, 60smusic blaring.
I don't think the audiencecould hear me, you know, and I don't
think I even Got paid for that.
And at the end, I remembersomebody coming up to me saying,
like, man, I wish I could buyyour $10 book, but I just don't even
(13:30):
have that kind of money in mychecking account.
And I was like, I'm in thewrong room.
Like, this is bad.
I remember one time speakingat a Mexican restaurant where the
waitress came and stood nextto me and was calling out, who had
the enchiladas with chicken?
And I was like, oh, my gosh.
Right?
So I said yes to everything.
(13:51):
I had some stories about whereI've spoken.
Nikki, you beat them.
Definitely.
You know, it's just like yousay, I think you gotta say yes to
everything.
And that's really kind of howI found my way into podcasting, too,
is people are like, do youwant to come on my podcast?
Luckily, I was an avid.
Even at that point, which wasearly, I was an avid podcast listener.
So I was like, sure, I'mtotally comfortable with that.
(14:14):
So I just said yes to everything.
And I spoke everywhere, and Iwould speak for free and get paid.
That's still the case to this day.
Frankly, there are stillthings that I'll say yes to, because
I think about visibility.
This is how I think aboutsales and a lot of things in life.
But when it comes to sayingyes to speaking, I don't always think
(14:36):
about the ROI of it, which,you know, most of us know.
Roi return on investment.
I think about something Ilearned early in my career, which
was roo return on opportunity.
A lot of times, I will say yesto things, and I'll go and think
that probably wasn't the bestthing, and then some other thing
will come as a result of it.
Right?
Some other opportunity.
(14:58):
You know, the last conferencethat you and I spoke at came from
me saying yes to a podcastthat I normally wouldn't have said
yes to.
But somebody heard me on thepodcast and then asked me to come
on his podcast, then asked meto speak at the conference that you
and I spoke at, which resultedin some great business.
Right?
You just look for these opportunities.
That's how I think about a lotof things in life.
(15:20):
I'll say yes to things becauseI'll think, let's see what the return
on opportunity is.
Here we are.
We're so similar.
It's really funny.
Last week I spoke in.
I don't know if you saw this online.
I was booked to speak inDublin in Ireland, and I live in
Belfast.
That's about 2 RG trainjourney down and up.
So I was booked to speak thereand I was going to go down, do my
(15:40):
talk and then get the lasttrain home.
And then about a week before Igot an email asking would I come
to London and talk at an eventwith the Department of Business and
Trade, Small Business Britainand BT3 Big Small Business Britain
is not big but I'm veryattached to them.
The other two are massive.
(16:01):
The government, Department ofBusiness and BT who are the biggest
telecoms company in the UK orone of and they said could you come
Louise and talk about yourexport story?
And I thought oh no, I'mbooked to speak in Dublin on the
same day.
The Dublin thing wasn't paid.
It was like a what I call agive back thing.
It was for young marketers andI thought I can't pull out of the
(16:23):
Dublin thing because I'm theonly speaker at that and all these
young marketers have signed up.
So I thought right, I'm goingto do both.
So I got up yet 4, 4.30am.
Flew to London on the 6:30flight, got to London, took me an
hour to get to the gig, spokefor an hour and didn't even get to
(16:49):
network after that huge benefit.
They had a glam squad and Igot my hair and makeup done.
Never had that done before.
A game changer.
All the events please going forward.
Then I left there and I wentto London City Airport and it didn't
even go the right way so itwas quite stressful and flew to Dublin
(17:11):
and got to the Dublin gig with20 minutes to go before it started
and I thought people think Iam completely insane but it was amazing
and both gigs were sodifferent and you are right, return
on opportunity because one ofthe people who was volunteering in
the morning event works for avery well known financial services
(17:35):
company.
I reached out to her and Isaid I wonder, would you be interested
in potentially sponsoring myevent next year?
She has connected me withtheir events team in the afternoon
in the Dublin event it wasbeing hosted in a marketing agency's
offices.
I spoke to the managingdirector and said the same thing.
Both organizations areinterested in working with me next
(17:57):
year.
So say yes to things folks.
You never know what it willlead to.
You don't, you just don't.
And, and I have so manystories too where it's like I said
yes to something that otherpeople were like why would you say
yeah, why would you do it for that?
Like why would you get on aplane and not get paid?
Sometimes they were duds butother times it's like wow.
(18:20):
This resulted like I'M so gladI said yes to this.
And I'm not, I'm notadvocating that you just always say
yes and give away your stufffor free.
Yeah.
You know, be discerning aboutit, but at the same time, don't be
precious about it.
Like be willing to go, youknow, I'll get up at 4:30, I'll take
different plane rides and seewhat happens.
(18:41):
Let's see where it goes.
And the other thing that you are.
So there's podcasting andspeaking, but the other thing that
I think is really great for visibility.
Nikki is writing and you havewritten three books.
Three books, yeah.
So talk to us about your booksand how do they, how did, how does
that play into your visibilityas an expert, which is what you are?
(19:06):
It does elevate yourcredibility when you have written
a book.
When you've written multiplebooks, all of a sudden it raises
your credibility with thepeople who are thinking about hiring
you or looking at you as like,would you be a speaker for our event?
So there is that piece of it.
There's also, you know, Ithink before we started recording,
(19:26):
I was telling you, I just cameback a couple months ago from this
great conference where I spoke.
And you know, one of thethings that the organizer did is,
and I know I was the onlyspeaker, she had multiple speakers,
but I was the only speakerwhere she bought one of my books
for every single person in herconference that was 110.
(19:46):
There's just something about,oh, here's this speaker on our stage
and here's her book in ourswag bag.
Raises the.
It's hard work writing a bookthough, isn't it?
Yes.
You know, the first book thatI ever wrote was, it's called Six
Word Lessons on Influencingwith Grace.
It's essentially a hundredlessons of little nlp, like neuro
(20:10):
linguistic programming stuff.
And I wrote it before Istarted my business because I just
had this thing where Ithought, you know, I had turned 40
and I felt like I needed tomake an impact and I wasn't really
happy.
I had just left the industryand I thought I need to do something.
So I kind of just did it tosee if I could do it, which I did.
(20:32):
And I thought, well, okay, ifI did it once, I can do it again.
And then when I decided towrite the second book, I thought,
well, I already know how towrite a book if the second book is
so much harder to writebecause the first book I didn't ever
think about the reader.
I wasn't thinking like, peopleare Going to read this.
And the second book, Ithought, oh, my gosh, people know
(20:52):
me now and they're probablygoing to read this and be decent.
Right.
Like, I want it to be good,but at least decent that they're
not.
Like, I want my money back, Nikki.
I didn't want people showingup being like, can I have my money
back for this book I bought of yours?
And then the third book, Iworked with a really great team that
(21:13):
helped.
There's no easy thing aboutwriting a book.
I will say it's time consuming.
It stretches you in ways, atleast for me, that I couldn't even
imagine.
And I kind of consider myselfa decent writer.
I feel like I do have a skillset for writing, but, yeah, it's
not easy.
(21:33):
And I admire.
That's good to have a great editor.
Our friend Melina Palmeredited my second book for me.
She was doing editing at thetime, and that's how her and I became
friends.
Oh, what a superstar.
She has also multipleauthorship under her.
Oh, my gosh, she's a rock star.
So all of these things, Nikki,you do them to build your business,
(21:55):
right?
I mean, so how do they play into.
Tell us how you actually workwith people, and then how do all
of these things feed into them?
And I want to ask you, do youstill do your regular webinar to
get people into your network?
I'm gonna answer your lastquestion first because that's the
easiest one to answer.
I do it from time to time.
I go through periods whereI'll do it and then I'll do it until
(22:19):
it stops converting, and thenI'll stop.
I'll usually pick it back upwhen I feel like there's a new pool
of people.
Yeah.
On my list to pull from.
There's a new pool of, youknow, stuff going on on social media.
And then I'll test it againand see if it converts.
I'm not currently doing it atthis exact moment, but I usually
(22:40):
do it every couple years.
I'll do it, and I'll usuallydo it for anywhere from six months
to a year consistently, atleast once a month.
I love that I remember thatabout you when I worked with you
before, and I.
It's interesting what you'resaying about.
Is it converting?
Because I'm doing regularwebinars and some of them are converting
and some of them are not.
(23:01):
And sometimes the same peopleare showing up because they knew
I'll answer all their questions.
Yeah.
And then off they go.
Nikki Sunny, a bit more savvyabout that actually.
Okay, so all the other thingsthat you do, how do they feed into?
Well, first of all, how do youwork with people?
How does all this activityfeed into that?
I have a few ways that I workone on one with clients.
There's kind of two main ways.
(23:21):
I have a group coachingprogram called the Sales Maven Society
and private coaching.
Those are the two main ways asfar as the training aspect of my
business goes.
Training, slash speaking.
I get hired by companies to.
To go and do corporatetraining, sales trainings.
I get hired, you know, to goand speak at conferences and events.
(23:41):
And then from time to time, Iput on my own training events where
people can sign up.
It's a robust group of peoplefrom all around the world.
Those are the main ways thatpeople work with me.
Most of the people who findtheir way to me, especially the.
The private, like theentrepreneur client, tend to usually
(24:05):
find me from hearing me onsomebody else's podcast.
That is the number one source.
Sometimes they'll listen to meon multiple people's podcasts, and
then they'll listen to mypodcast for a while, and then they'll
decide to dip their toe in thewater and come work.
So podcasting has been thebiggest visibility builder, and still
to this day continues to be.
I will go and speak sometimeswith a podcaster.
(24:28):
They'll have a group coachingprogram, and then they'll have me
come in and speak to theirpain clients.
And that's another greatvisibility piece for me.
I actually love to do thatbecause those are the people who
have actually said, I'mwilling to invest in myself.
I love to go and speak tothose types of groups.
And I've gotten somephenomenal clients as a result of
(24:52):
doing that.
I will say I don't spend a tonof time promoting my books anymore.
The reason for that, and thisis very like Nikki's sales brain,
is I look to see where doesthe majority of my revenue in my
business come from?
What are those categories?
Right?
And so I'm always looking togrow those categories.
(25:13):
Books for me are just kind oflike a.
Like if somebody reads mybook, every once in a while, somebody's
like, I got your book onAmazon and I'm ready to work with
you.
I just had somebody the otherday show up on a discovery call with
me, and she said, I got thisat a thrift store, and she held up
the very first version of mysecond book.
It has a very different cover.
(25:33):
And, you know, she was like, Ifeel very OG because I know this
is not a Standard cover ofyour book.
She's like, I got this at athrift store.
I was like, I love it.
That's amazing.
So most of the time, there'ssome kind of visibility piece that
involves usually me speaking live.
People are actually hearing me.
(25:54):
Whether it's a podcast, in agroup, or at a conference.
That's usually the thing thatdrives people to say, I'm ready to
dip my toe in the water with you.
I love it.
And you obviously measurethese things.
Yes, I do pay attention.
I do believe, like, I alwaystrack back.
I want to know what was thefirst thing that got people kind
(26:15):
of engaged.
Me.
And I always say, look forthose places where there's multiple
of those types of clients.
And I always say, pourgasoline on that fire.
This is why, for me, I investquite a bit of money in podcast guesting
and time and energy into itbecause I can continually track back
that most people are like, Inever even heard of you until, you
(26:38):
know, I listened to so and so.
I listened to Louise podcastand I heard you on Louise's podcast
and started listening to yourpodcast, and now here I am, ready
to work with you.
Well, everybody, you heard ithere first.
Go and listen to Nikki'spodcast after this episode.
Or come work with me.
I'm ready.
(26:58):
I'm here for it.
How could you not be inspiredby that?
Nikki, this has been really valuable.
I loved hearing about yourearly career because we've never
really talked about that before.
I think it's really helpful tothe listeners to hear that there's
no linear path on this journey.
You and I are very similar inthat we both try different things.
I love guesting and podcastsas well.
(27:19):
I have to say, a lot ofclients come to me through that as
well.
So we've got quite similar stories.
But as always, Nikki,absolutely delightful to speak with
you.
Where can people go to findyou next?
Well, can I wrap it around agift for your listeners?
Oh, yes.
I like to give a gift when Iget to come and speak and, you know,
(27:41):
somebody's podcast.
So for the listener, if youare interested in sales and raising
your game around that, I havea training course called Seal the
Deal Questions that close sales.
I truly believe that questionsare the differentiator.
Asking smart questions thatplant seeds about your expertise
is better than shouting fromthe rooftop how great you are.
(28:03):
So this, this training setsyou up and teaches you how to do
that.
And you can get it by going toyour salesmaven.com forward/raise.
So this is specific for your audience.
Thank you so much.
We'll put that in the show notes.
Go and grab that free class, everybody.
Thank you so much for tuningin today and thank you to our lovely
guest, Nikki Rush.
Welcome to Raise youeVisibility Online.
Join Louise Brogan, a LinkedInexpert, CEO and dynamic mum turned
YouTuber, as she dives intothe world of B2B companies and entrepreneurial
success.
Each episode bringsconversations with business owners
and industry experts wholeverage LinkedIn and video to attract
(00:23):
leads and scale their ventures.
Get ready for actionableinsights, real world strategies and
inspiring stories that willelevate your online presence and
help you grow your business.
(00:45):
Anyway.
Hello and welcome to today'sepisode of Raise youe Visibility
Online with me, Louise Broganand a very delightful guest today,
my friend, Nikki Re Nicky.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much, friend.
I'm happy to have this timewith you.
Well, you're a returning guestbut today we're not talking about
the normal stuff.
(01:06):
We are talking more about youand how you got to where you are.
I want to know about theyounger Nikki and her career path.
Are you happy to share thatwhat you hear now?
Yeah.
So the younger me career path?
Well, I will say I found myway into sales, so I'm a sales expert.
(01:30):
That's what I teach and do now.
I found my way into my veryfirst commissioned sales job.
I had moved to another state.
I was very young and I gotmarried very young and I just needed
a job.
How young?
20?
Yeah, I was 20.
I didn't know anybody.
I'd never even been to theplace where I moved.
(01:50):
And I married somebody who wasin the military.
We were together for likethree weeks and then he left for
months and going out to sea.
And so I was just by myself.
I needed a job.
I needed to figure out how Iwas going to get myself into college.
I got my first job and it wasa holiday job.
I was working in the mall andthey had one of those kiosks in the
(02:12):
middle of the mall and theywere selling leather goods and they
hired me.
I was making minimum wage andit was like, I can't remember exactly
but I think it was like 4, 25an hour and US dollars and.
But they had this commission component.
After you sold a certainamount, you would start getting commission
on your sales.
(02:32):
So I was doubling and triplingmy wage when I was working there.
That was the first taste of commission.
And I was like, oh, I like this.
I like being in control ofwhat I can make.
And then in college, as I wasfinishing college, I got a college
project where we had to gointo a company where we didn't know
(02:53):
anybody and interview all theheads of the departments of company,
like 80 to 90% of our gradewas based on this presentation.
We had gone to this local upand coming tech company and done
our whole college project forthis course on this company.
We went back and gave a presentation.
And one of the pieces of mypresentation was about their recruitment
(03:15):
and hiring.
And this was back in the late1900s where they used to put ads
in papers, newspapers to hire people.
I had taken this ad from theSunday paper that they were hiring
salespeople.
One of my classmates came upto me afterwards and said, hey, can
I have that ad because I'mgoing to apply.
(03:35):
He applied and got hired.
And then somebody else fromour class who was in sales working
at the mall selling shoes, hewent and applied.
And this guy, he used to justcheat off my papers.
And I was like, well, ifthey'll hire those two, those two
like dudes, maybe they'll hire me.
Yeah, I went and applied and Igot hired and that was my first professional
(03:58):
sales job.
Worked my way up there, becametheir national sales manager and
then eventually moved on tomuch larger manufacturers.
You know, was in my career, mysales career for many, many years.
17 years before I found my wayto neuro linguistic programming,
if that's a new term toanybody listening.
(04:18):
It's really the study of communication.
And I started studying in LPbecause I thought it'll make me more
comfortable in sales because Iam actually very shy and I am an
introvert.
I worked alongside a lot ofvery aggressive men, male, you know,
that like go out and hunt thebig game kind of mentality.
(04:41):
And that was not mine.
So I thought, well, I'll startstudying in LP and see if it gets
me more comfortable.
And it did.
I had a lot of success in mycareer in sales and then got to a
place where I was like, okay,I've hit this very high level.
I was the top producing rep inNorth America for one of the largest
manufacturers in the world atthe time and thought, okay, there
(05:05):
should be something else.
I was making good money.
I had on the outside.
Everybody's like, oh my gosh,you're traveling the world, you have
a company car, you're makingall this money, you've got the life.
And I was like, I do.
And I'm spending a lot of timeon airplanes, a lot of time in hotels,
a lot of time in bars and restaurants.
And I was kind of bored, so I left.
(05:29):
People thought I had lost my mind.
I left and I started helpingsomebody grow her business.
And that was really the firsttime I started hanging around women
entrepreneurs in the tech space.
I was Around a lot of it wasvery male dominated.
So I always worked with men,had men colleagues, men clients.
And I started hanging aroundentrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs.
(05:52):
And I was like, what is this world?
I didn't even know.
I went to a networkingbreakfast and there were a hundred
women at this breakfast.
I don't think I had ever beenin a room with a hundred women business
owners.
I was like, I just want to bearound these women.
I was so inspired by them.
As I got to know some of them,they really struggled with sales
(06:14):
conversation.
They didn't really understandhow to make money in their businesses
because they didn't understand sales.
So because I just wanted to bearound em, I was like, can I offer
you some advice?
Can I help you?
New sales, right?
I wasn't thinking about a business.
I just wanna be around thesereally inspiring women.
I started helping some of them.
One in particular had a ton ofsuccess with the things that I was
(06:37):
offering to her.
So much so that her CEO calledher and said, something's changed.
All of a sudden, numbers have changed.
What's happening?
And she said, oh.
I started working with a sales coach.
Her name's Nikki Rauch.
And I was like, I'm not asales coach.
I don't even have a business.
Like, what are you talking about?
She ended up having me meetsomebody from their company.
(06:59):
They hired me to be theirkeynote speaker that year at the
conference.
Sales maven was born fromsomebody willing to pay me money
to talk about sales.
I thought it was like thecraziest idea in the whole world.
And here I am, 12 years, stillteaching people how to have more
successful sales conversations.
My goodness, what a pathway.
(07:19):
I've scribbled down some bitsI want to ask you about.
Okay.
The very first, the tech.
Well, what I actually wasinterested in was the.
The male dominated spacebecause I have a family, Nikki.
And we were having thisconversation today at lunchtime about.
So one of my kids is workingin a subject area that is very male
and coming up against, youknow, that's a different space.
(07:44):
How did you manage yourself inthat space?
You said you're introverted,you did the nlp.
But like, I'm thinking ofNikki coming out of her college career
in her early 20s and ending upmaybe like in an office full of men.
How did you, how did you dealwith that?
Were there any other women there?
(08:04):
There were some women.
One of the companies I workedfor, the majority of the management
team were women, but it was amale company.
When I went to themanufacturer side, it was Almost
all men.
In the last eight years of mycareer, I only had one female counterpart
for less than a year on thesales team with me.
(08:24):
Otherwise, I always workedalongside men.
One of the advantages that Ihad is that I was raised by my dad
and I have three brothers andmy dad is a straight up misogynist.
Oh, a lot of very negativetalk about in our, in our homes,
in, in like everything.
It was always like he had abusiness and he was like, if I could
(08:46):
put a sign on a door that saidno women allowed in my business,
I would always raised from thethings that you hear about girls
of like, smile, be quiet, be pleasant.
And I wasn't.
That's not my norm, like personality.
But I learned to be pleasant.
I had an advantage going intothis very male dominated industry
(09:07):
and that I knew how to getalong because I was raised in an
environment where he had toget along.
The things that I was exposedto, they're not even legally allowed
in the workplace anymore.
So it's a very differentindustry or a very different kind
of society that we live in now.
Things that guys could say anddo to me in the industry when the
(09:29):
MeToo movement came out, I waslike, yeah, I've experienced all
of that multiple stories.
At the time, it was just accepted.
It was just, that's how.
And you had to figure out howto handle yourself.
So I feel like I don't have areally good answer because for young
people today, you don't haveto put up with it.
You don't have to, you don'thave to tolerate what I tolerated.
(09:51):
And I would never expectanybody to.
But I do think you have tokind of find a way to be resilient,
no matter the circumstancesthat you're in.
Resiliency is a reallyimportant key skill.
And learning how to be astrong communicator is a skill set
(10:14):
that will serve you in mostany kind of situation.
Because you can speak up foryourself and you also can do it sometimes
in a way that doesn't have tobe aggressive.
Yeah, sometimes it does.
And learning, like, when isthe time to like, ready to do it?
Yeah.
Really stand in a place oflike, this is a hard line.
(10:35):
And also when is the time tosay, hey, are you open to a conversation
about X, Y and Z versus, like,we're having a conversation?
Yes.
Oh, I'm so glad that you saidthat because that was literally where
our conversation kind of wentthen when we were having this conversation
at lunchtime today and I said,you're going to, you know, I think
what we need is some tools andthings to say when the situation
(10:58):
repeats itself so you don'tget frustrated and walk away.
And, and people you areworking with understand that is not
how to treat a person.
Excellent.
Nikki, I love that you went tothis breakfast and you were working
with this lady and she said,this is my sales coach.
And one of the first thingsyou did was speaking.
You and I are both speakers onstage and I get asked by people all
(11:21):
the time about this.
I'm currently runningalongside the work we do with corporates
where we do all our LinkedIncontent for them.
And I'm running small, smallgroup programs to help women who
want to get visible online.
And one of the things a lot ofthem want to do is get more workshops
booked for speaking.
(11:41):
So talk to me a little bitabout how your speaking career evolved.
You and I are both podcastersfor a start.
Nikki's podcast, Sales Maven podcast.
It is a gold mine of information.
Go and listen to it and subscribe.
Um, I have been a guest onyour podcast as well.
Yes, you have.
Talk to me about your routeinto speaking.
(12:04):
And do you know, is thatsomething like, do you like it because
you said you're introverted?
What do you think aboutspeaking for people?
And just tell me all thethings about speaking, how you got
started and those firstspeaking gigs and how you developed
it.
In my corporate career, I dida lot of presenting and I, I, I think
there, there's some, you know,correlation there about like giving
(12:26):
a presentation, a, ademonstration of your product in
front of a group of people.
I had some skillset aroundthat I was comfortable and frankly,
I'd rather be on stage than ina room where it's just networking
open.
Like, I would rather be theperson on stage.
Like, that's so much easier.
Takes the pressure off of me.
Even though no matter ifthere's hundreds of eyeballs on me,
(12:49):
like, I'd rather that.
So speaking was one of thethings I started to do.
And this is what I would sayfor anybody.
I think it's hard, this isgoing to be a hard thing to hear.
But I said yes to everythingbecause it helped me figure out what
I liked to do, what I was goodat, what I was not willing to do
again.
(13:10):
Right.
I think I always think ofthese two.
One is I one time had to givea presentation in a diner that had
music, like old time, 50s, 60smusic blaring.
I don't think the audiencecould hear me, you know, and I don't
think I even Got paid for that.
And at the end, I remembersomebody coming up to me saying,
like, man, I wish I could buyyour $10 book, but I just don't even
(13:30):
have that kind of money in mychecking account.
And I was like, I'm in thewrong room.
Like, this is bad.
I remember one time speakingat a Mexican restaurant where the
waitress came and stood nextto me and was calling out, who had
the enchiladas with chicken?
And I was like, oh, my gosh.
Right?
So I said yes to everything.
(13:51):
I had some stories about whereI've spoken.
Nikki, you beat them.
Definitely.
You know, it's just like yousay, I think you gotta say yes to
everything.
And that's really kind of howI found my way into podcasting, too,
is people are like, do youwant to come on my podcast?
Luckily, I was an avid.
Even at that point, which wasearly, I was an avid podcast listener.
So I was like, sure, I'mtotally comfortable with that.
(14:14):
So I just said yes to everything.
And I spoke everywhere, and Iwould speak for free and get paid.
That's still the case to this day.
Frankly, there are stillthings that I'll say yes to, because
I think about visibility.
This is how I think aboutsales and a lot of things in life.
But when it comes to sayingyes to speaking, I don't always think
(14:36):
about the ROI of it, which,you know, most of us know.
Roi return on investment.
I think about something Ilearned early in my career, which
was roo return on opportunity.
A lot of times, I will say yesto things, and I'll go and think
that probably wasn't the bestthing, and then some other thing
will come as a result of it.
Right?
Some other opportunity.
(14:58):
You know, the last conferencethat you and I spoke at came from
me saying yes to a podcastthat I normally wouldn't have said
yes to.
But somebody heard me on thepodcast and then asked me to come
on his podcast, then asked meto speak at the conference that you
and I spoke at, which resultedin some great business.
Right?
You just look for these opportunities.
That's how I think about a lotof things in life.
(15:20):
I'll say yes to things becauseI'll think, let's see what the return
on opportunity is.
Here we are.
We're so similar.
It's really funny.
Last week I spoke in.
I don't know if you saw this online.
I was booked to speak inDublin in Ireland, and I live in
Belfast.
That's about 2 RG trainjourney down and up.
So I was booked to speak thereand I was going to go down, do my
(15:40):
talk and then get the lasttrain home.
And then about a week before Igot an email asking would I come
to London and talk at an eventwith the Department of Business and
Trade, Small Business Britainand BT3 Big Small Business Britain
is not big but I'm veryattached to them.
The other two are massive.
(16:01):
The government, Department ofBusiness and BT who are the biggest
telecoms company in the UK orone of and they said could you come
Louise and talk about yourexport story?
And I thought oh no, I'mbooked to speak in Dublin on the
same day.
The Dublin thing wasn't paid.
It was like a what I call agive back thing.
It was for young marketers andI thought I can't pull out of the
(16:23):
Dublin thing because I'm theonly speaker at that and all these
young marketers have signed up.
So I thought right, I'm goingto do both.
So I got up yet 4, 4.30am.
Flew to London on the 6:30flight, got to London, took me an
hour to get to the gig, spokefor an hour and didn't even get to
(16:49):
network after that huge benefit.
They had a glam squad and Igot my hair and makeup done.
Never had that done before.
A game changer.
All the events please going forward.
Then I left there and I wentto London City Airport and it didn't
even go the right way so itwas quite stressful and flew to Dublin
(17:11):
and got to the Dublin gig with20 minutes to go before it started
and I thought people think Iam completely insane but it was amazing
and both gigs were sodifferent and you are right, return
on opportunity because one ofthe people who was volunteering in
the morning event works for avery well known financial services
(17:35):
company.
I reached out to her and Isaid I wonder, would you be interested
in potentially sponsoring myevent next year?
She has connected me withtheir events team in the afternoon
in the Dublin event it wasbeing hosted in a marketing agency's
offices.
I spoke to the managingdirector and said the same thing.
Both organizations areinterested in working with me next
(17:57):
year.
So say yes to things folks.
You never know what it willlead to.
You don't, you just don't.
And, and I have so manystories too where it's like I said
yes to something that otherpeople were like why would you say
yeah, why would you do it for that?
Like why would you get on aplane and not get paid?
Sometimes they were duds butother times it's like wow.
(18:20):
This resulted like I'M so gladI said yes to this.
And I'm not, I'm notadvocating that you just always say
yes and give away your stufffor free.
Yeah.
You know, be discerning aboutit, but at the same time, don't be
precious about it.
Like be willing to go, youknow, I'll get up at 4:30, I'll take
different plane rides and seewhat happens.
(18:41):
Let's see where it goes.
And the other thing that you are.
So there's podcasting andspeaking, but the other thing that
I think is really great for visibility.
Nikki is writing and you havewritten three books.
Three books, yeah.
So talk to us about your booksand how do they, how did, how does
that play into your visibilityas an expert, which is what you are?
(19:06):
It does elevate yourcredibility when you have written
a book.
When you've written multiplebooks, all of a sudden it raises
your credibility with thepeople who are thinking about hiring
you or looking at you as like,would you be a speaker for our event?
So there is that piece of it.
There's also, you know, Ithink before we started recording,
(19:26):
I was telling you, I just cameback a couple months ago from this
great conference where I spoke.
And you know, one of thethings that the organizer did is,
and I know I was the onlyspeaker, she had multiple speakers,
but I was the only speakerwhere she bought one of my books
for every single person in herconference that was 110.
(19:46):
There's just something about,oh, here's this speaker on our stage
and here's her book in ourswag bag.
Raises the.
It's hard work writing a bookthough, isn't it?
Yes.
You know, the first book thatI ever wrote was, it's called Six
Word Lessons on Influencingwith Grace.
It's essentially a hundredlessons of little nlp, like neuro
(20:10):
linguistic programming stuff.
And I wrote it before Istarted my business because I just
had this thing where Ithought, you know, I had turned 40
and I felt like I needed tomake an impact and I wasn't really
happy.
I had just left the industryand I thought I need to do something.
So I kind of just did it tosee if I could do it, which I did.
(20:32):
And I thought, well, okay, ifI did it once, I can do it again.
And then when I decided towrite the second book, I thought,
well, I already know how towrite a book if the second book is
so much harder to writebecause the first book I didn't ever
think about the reader.
I wasn't thinking like, peopleare Going to read this.
And the second book, Ithought, oh, my gosh, people know
(20:52):
me now and they're probablygoing to read this and be decent.
Right.
Like, I want it to be good,but at least decent that they're
not.
Like, I want my money back, Nikki.
I didn't want people showingup being like, can I have my money
back for this book I bought of yours?
And then the third book, Iworked with a really great team that
(21:13):
helped.
There's no easy thing aboutwriting a book.
I will say it's time consuming.
It stretches you in ways, atleast for me, that I couldn't even
imagine.
And I kind of consider myselfa decent writer.
I feel like I do have a skillset for writing, but, yeah, it's
not easy.
(21:33):
And I admire.
That's good to have a great editor.
Our friend Melina Palmeredited my second book for me.
She was doing editing at thetime, and that's how her and I became
friends.
Oh, what a superstar.
She has also multipleauthorship under her.
Oh, my gosh, she's a rock star.
So all of these things, Nikki,you do them to build your business,
(21:55):
right?
I mean, so how do they play into.
Tell us how you actually workwith people, and then how do all
of these things feed into them?
And I want to ask you, do youstill do your regular webinar to
get people into your network?
I'm gonna answer your lastquestion first because that's the
easiest one to answer.
I do it from time to time.
I go through periods whereI'll do it and then I'll do it until
(22:19):
it stops converting, and thenI'll stop.
I'll usually pick it back upwhen I feel like there's a new pool
of people.
Yeah.
On my list to pull from.
There's a new pool of, youknow, stuff going on on social media.
And then I'll test it againand see if it converts.
I'm not currently doing it atthis exact moment, but I usually
(22:40):
do it every couple years.
I'll do it, and I'll usuallydo it for anywhere from six months
to a year consistently, atleast once a month.
I love that I remember thatabout you when I worked with you
before, and I.
It's interesting what you'resaying about.
Is it converting?
Because I'm doing regularwebinars and some of them are converting
and some of them are not.
(23:01):
And sometimes the same peopleare showing up because they knew
I'll answer all their questions.
Yeah.
And then off they go.
Nikki Sunny, a bit more savvyabout that actually.
Okay, so all the other thingsthat you do, how do they feed into?
Well, first of all, how do youwork with people?
How does all this activityfeed into that?
I have a few ways that I workone on one with clients.
There's kind of two main ways.
(23:21):
I have a group coachingprogram called the Sales Maven Society
and private coaching.
Those are the two main ways asfar as the training aspect of my
business goes.
Training, slash speaking.
I get hired by companies to.
To go and do corporatetraining, sales trainings.
I get hired, you know, to goand speak at conferences and events.
(23:41):
And then from time to time, Iput on my own training events where
people can sign up.
It's a robust group of peoplefrom all around the world.
Those are the main ways thatpeople work with me.
Most of the people who findtheir way to me, especially the.
The private, like theentrepreneur client, tend to usually
(24:05):
find me from hearing me onsomebody else's podcast.
That is the number one source.
Sometimes they'll listen to meon multiple people's podcasts, and
then they'll listen to mypodcast for a while, and then they'll
decide to dip their toe in thewater and come work.
So podcasting has been thebiggest visibility builder, and still
to this day continues to be.
I will go and speak sometimeswith a podcaster.
(24:28):
They'll have a group coachingprogram, and then they'll have me
come in and speak to theirpain clients.
And that's another greatvisibility piece for me.
I actually love to do thatbecause those are the people who
have actually said, I'mwilling to invest in myself.
I love to go and speak tothose types of groups.
And I've gotten somephenomenal clients as a result of
(24:52):
doing that.
I will say I don't spend a tonof time promoting my books anymore.
The reason for that, and thisis very like Nikki's sales brain,
is I look to see where doesthe majority of my revenue in my
business come from?
What are those categories?
Right?
And so I'm always looking togrow those categories.
(25:13):
Books for me are just kind oflike a.
Like if somebody reads mybook, every once in a while, somebody's
like, I got your book onAmazon and I'm ready to work with
you.
I just had somebody the otherday show up on a discovery call with
me, and she said, I got thisat a thrift store, and she held up
the very first version of mysecond book.
It has a very different cover.
(25:33):
And, you know, she was like, Ifeel very OG because I know this
is not a Standard cover ofyour book.
She's like, I got this at athrift store.
I was like, I love it.
That's amazing.
So most of the time, there'ssome kind of visibility piece that
involves usually me speaking live.
People are actually hearing me.
(25:54):
Whether it's a podcast, in agroup, or at a conference.
That's usually the thing thatdrives people to say, I'm ready to
dip my toe in the water with you.
I love it.
And you obviously measurethese things.
Yes, I do pay attention.
I do believe, like, I alwaystrack back.
I want to know what was thefirst thing that got people kind
(26:15):
of engaged.
Me.
And I always say, look forthose places where there's multiple
of those types of clients.
And I always say, pourgasoline on that fire.
This is why, for me, I investquite a bit of money in podcast guesting
and time and energy into itbecause I can continually track back
that most people are like, Inever even heard of you until, you
(26:38):
know, I listened to so and so.
I listened to Louise podcastand I heard you on Louise's podcast
and started listening to yourpodcast, and now here I am, ready
to work with you.
Well, everybody, you heard ithere first.
Go and listen to Nikki'spodcast after this episode.
Or come work with me.
I'm ready.
(26:58):
I'm here for it.
How could you not be inspiredby that?
Nikki, this has been really valuable.
I loved hearing about yourearly career because we've never
really talked about that before.
I think it's really helpful tothe listeners to hear that there's
no linear path on this journey.
You and I are very similar inthat we both try different things.
I love guesting and podcastsas well.
(27:19):
I have to say, a lot ofclients come to me through that as
well.
So we've got quite similar stories.
But as always, Nikki,absolutely delightful to speak with
you.
Where can people go to findyou next?
Well, can I wrap it around agift for your listeners?
Oh, yes.
I like to give a gift when Iget to come and speak and, you know,
(27:41):
somebody's podcast.
So for the listener, if youare interested in sales and raising
your game around that, I havea training course called Seal the
Deal Questions that close sales.
I truly believe that questionsare the differentiator.
Asking smart questions thatplant seeds about your expertise
is better than shouting fromthe rooftop how great you are.
(28:03):
So this, this training setsyou up and teaches you how to do
that.
And you can get it by going toyour salesmaven.com forward/raise.
So this is specific for your audience.
Thank you so much.
We'll put that in the show notes.
Go and grab that free class, everybody.
Thank you so much for tuningin today and thank you to our lovely
guest, Nikki Rush.
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