April 22, 2025 • 33 mins
What's up y'all! Today we’re joined by Nick Rizzo, a video marketer located in Wilmington, NC who helps local business owners get customers with Instagram!!
In this episode, Nick and I dive deep into the mental shifts required to take your business and life to the next level. Whether you're navigating burnout, struggling with imposter syndrome, or hitting a plateau in growth, Nick shares practical strategies and empowering insights to help you rewire your thinking, own your value, and unlock your full potential.
We explore how to:
- Get more comfortable on camera
- Break free from self-limiting beliefs
- Determine whether or not being an entrepreneur is your calling
- Balance mind, body, and soul to build a resilient, success-driven mindset
This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, creators, and professionals ready to level up with intention and confidence!! Tune in :)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
EmLed (00:24):
Alright everyone, welcome back to the Wrestling With Life Podcast.
I am your host, EM led on the mic,and I'm so excited because I am joined
by a very special guest today, Mr.
Nick Rizzo.
Let's go.
What's up Nick?
How are you Doing
Nick Rizzo (00:38):
great.
Happy to be here.
EmLed (00:39):
Good.
I'm so glad you're here and I'mso excited to talk with you today.
So Nick is a video marketer inWilmington, North Carolina and he helps
local business owners get customers.
With Instagram, and the reason that I evenknow who you are is because I haven't been
able to get you off my Instagram feed.
What's up with that?
You're welcome.
So that's your plan, right?
(01:00):
You're trying to show businesseswhat you can do for them by
doing what you do for them.
Nick Rizzo (01:05):
Pretty much you summed it up there.
Yeah, just getting in front ofcustomers in the same way that I
can help them market themselves.
EmLed (01:10):
Okay.
Super cool.
So I'm kicking off a brand new series onmy podcast, and the people who listen to
this are in their twenties and thirties,and a lot of them are wrestling with life.
They're struggling, they're feelingburnt out, they're questioning
their purpose, they're questioning.
Why do I have to go andwork every single day?
So they're feeling likethere's something more.
(01:31):
And I wanted to include you on thisbrand new series where I'm sitting
down with local entrepreneurs andasking them about what motivates them.
Like why do they do what they do?
How do they wake up and get outtabed every single morning and, you
know, show up the best that they can.
So the first question thatI'd like to ask you is.
What made you decide to start puttingyourself out there like you are?
(01:53):
Your face is all over Instagram.
You know, you're stepping out very boldly.
You're making a big splash in Wilmington.
So take us to take usback as far as you want.
Like what led you to this point?
Nick Rizzo (02:05):
Yeah, that's a really great question.
I would say what led me hereis realizing just the skillset.
I have, yeah.
That I can use to help other people,to help other business owners.
And a lot of it has todo with the mindset.
I feel like, and I know we'll talk aboutthis more as we get into the episode,
but for me, I wanna say it's about.
Knowing that I have that skillsetand, and I almost feel like if I
(02:26):
don't put myself in front of thesepeople that I know I can help, it's
like I'm doing a disservice to them.
Mm. Because again, likeI have the skillset.
I know how to do specific things,whether it comes to marketing or
business or videography and contentcreation and all those things.
So if I don't put myself in front ofthose people, then those people will
never get the help that they need.
Yeah.
Or they won't even realize thatit's a problem that they have.
(02:47):
So for me to advertise and, andlike you're saying, put myself
out there and, and try to showmy face as much as possible.
Yeah.
Believe it or not, it's not like a selfishthing of like, oh, I look at me guys,
like, I wanna just put myself out there.
It's more so the message behind it,like, Hey, look, I have a skillset
that I can help people with.
Yeah.
So I wanna show as many people as possiblethat I can help them with that in the
hopes that they will say, okay, perfect.
Like this is exactlywhat I was looking for.
(03:09):
Like I was, so many peopleI talk to will tell me.
Yeah.
Like I was looking for thisexact thing in Wilmington.
Then your ad popped up and itwas like perfect alignment there.
And that's really, I think, speaksto just the power of marketing
and putting yourself out there.
Absolutely.
Because there's always peopleout there that need help and need
something that you can provide.
It's just you need to putyourself in front of them.
Yeah.
And make sure you presentthat to them so that you can,
(03:30):
you can ultimately help them.
EmLed (03:32):
Absolutely.
No, that's a great answer.
So you have a very long backgroundof video marketing, correct?
Yes.
Could you explain thatfor people who Dunno?
You?
Yeah,
Nick Rizzo (03:40):
so, so back to the very beginning.
Yeah.
Like learning the skills and everything.
EmLed (03:42):
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
So
Nick Rizzo (03:43):
we talked before this in college was when I first
picked up a camera and learned I.
How to record videos.
It was very basic.
It was for a friend of mine, hehad a personal training business.
Yeah.
And he was getting into socialmedia and learning how to market
and put himself out there.
I was not at that stage yet.
I was just in the mindset of, oh,like I think cameras are cool.
I wanna film stuff.
And little did I know that wholetime I was filming him because he
(04:05):
was doing what I was doing Now,what I'm currently doing now, right.
Which is creating contentto market themself and get
in front of his customers.
Whereas that was me just developingthose skills of videography, learning
how to create cool content and filmand edit and do all those things.
And then over time wekind of worked together.
We would go and pitch the gymthat we, we were working out
at first, the gym owner there.
We would say, Hey look, canwe shoot you a video for your
(04:26):
website or for social media?
And then that turned into let'sgo to a couple local businesses.
So like car dealerships,restaurants, everywhere.
In our local town.
We were just going and pitching videosand content to any business we could.
Walk into and that kind of gaveus more and more experience
and more knowledge about.
How to navigate it.
Yeah.
Like what, what kind of content dobusinesses need and, and what's really
(04:47):
gonna market them in a way that'sgonna get them more customers and
get more people to know about them?
EmLed (04:51):
Yeah.
So
Nick Rizzo (04:52):
just over time, just learning that information and learning
the skills of, of how to shoot videoand edit it and do all those things.
And, and then once you establishthat skill, it was like,
okay, that's the baseline.
How can I take that further and actuallyget results from it or, or get customers
from the content that we're creating.
So that's when I started learningmarketing and learning sales.
Yeah.
And all these sorts of things.
And through combining all those skills.
(05:12):
Kind of led me to where I am now.
EmLed (05:14):
Very cool.
Nick Rizzo (05:15):
Yeah.
So
EmLed (05:15):
you look super comfortable on camera.
Have you always felt that wayor was that a learned thing?
Nick Rizzo (05:21):
That's so funny you say that, and I tell people all the time, if it
wasn't for me, again, having the skillsetand, and feeling the need to market and
put myself in front of people by default,I would not be in front of the camera.
And no one believes me when I say thatbecause I think it's grown to the point
where just forcing myself to do it enough
EmLed (05:38):
Mm.
Nick Rizzo (05:38):
Is like.
You kind of get comfortable, you kindof get numb, so to speak, with doing it.
Sure.
It's like, okay, it's not likethis shocking thing anymore.
It's just like a comfortable thing.
And then to take it a step further,it's like, okay, I'm, I don't wanna
say it's getting boring, but it'slike I need to keep it engaging.
I need to keep it fun.
So that's where I want to inject like mypersonality and actually have fun with it.
Absolutely.
And what I've realized through doingthat is that kind of resonates more
(05:59):
with people, like authentically,because they don't look at you as
like, oh, you're reading some scriptand you're just like, you just like
everybody else paring these same lines.
Percent.
Yeah.
So for me it's like.
Two, two positives of just having fun,being who I am on camera, authentic,
but also people can see that and theycan resonate it through the videos
and tell, okay, maybe this, there'ssomething more to what this guy's saying.
(06:19):
He, he stands out some way from everybodyelse, whether people perceive that or not.
At least that's, that's sortof the way I try to look at it.
EmLed (06:25):
I love that you say that because I, I feel the same way
when it comes to social mediaand even marketing in general.
There have been many studies and it's alsoproven in psychology as well, that being
authentic really is what resonates with.
People, there are a thousand milliontons of people doing exactly what we do.
Yep.
But what will make someone wannawork with you over somebody else is
(06:47):
your unique personality, your uniqueenergy, your vibe, like that unspoken
feeling when someone walks in aroom and you can feel their energy.
You can't attract those right peoplewho are gonna click with your energy
unless you're being like yourself.
Right.
I agree.
Unless you're truly being who you are.
So have you always just felt comfortablebeing all of yourself or you know, did you
(07:09):
have a period of life where you did someinner work, you did some soul searching?
Like is it just easy foryou to show up as you are?
Or did that take work to get there?
Nick Rizzo (07:17):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
(08:38):
So, early on growing up, I,I'm a middle child, same.
So I always had my older brotherand for me that relationship was.
I don't have to think too muchbecause I'll just do what he does.
Right.
I can follow him around.
I can like, whatever he does, I'll do it.
It's like it just took thethought out of it for me.
Mm. And growing up like that I think kindof kept me a little more reserved and,
and not able to like think for myself.
(09:00):
Yeah.
If I think about it now,like looking back on it.
But I would say, to answer your question,over time, it definitely had to develop.
Because as you know, you grow up and oh,your brother moves or goes somewhere else.
It's like, okay, well now what?
I don't have that person tolike fall around and kind
of mimic everything off of.
So at some point, that's when Isort of had to be like, okay, well.
I can do this just as easy as hewas, the one that was calling the
(09:20):
shots and kind of doing his thing.
It's like, well, I have thesame ability to do that myself.
EmLed (09:24):
Yeah.
So
Nick Rizzo (09:25):
I think through realizing that kind of empowers you a little
bit and shows you, wow, like thisthing I was scared of or didn't really
know what to do or know how to do.
Like once I just dove in and did it.
Yeah.
It kind of gave me some confidence andshowed me, yeah, I can do this too.
So over time I think it develops,and maybe for everybody that's on a
different timeline, but for me, I feellike growing up was a lot of just.
Following what other people do.
(09:45):
And then you get to the point whereit's like, well, I don't have anybody
in front of me to follow anymore.
So at some point I have to take that role.
EmLed (09:51):
Yeah, Are you and your brother still close now?
A
Nick Rizzo (09:54):
hundred percent.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah.
I feel like those relationshipshopefully never go away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What
EmLed (09:59):
does he do?
Nick Rizzo (09:59):
So he works in communications.
He works in like radio, TV production.
EmLed (10:03):
Okay, cool.
So it's in the family.
He lives in Virginia.
Nick Rizzo (10:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Right.
Okay,
EmLed (10:07):
nice.
So back to kind of what wewere talking about with like.
Being comfortable on camera.
I noticed that that's a big hurdlefor creators, people who are running
their own business and you know, weknow this better than anyone being
in the social media space, thatespecially now in 2025, you have to
get comfortable in front of the cameraif you want to market your business.
(10:28):
Be able to, um, get peopleto buy what you're selling.
So what tips do you have for people whojust don't feel comfortable on camera?
Like I'm thinking when you work withclients, probably a lot of what you're
doing is coaching them to appearas authentic as possible on camera.
Nick Rizzo (10:43):
Right.
So it really helps justlightening the mood.
Like when Bradley or videographercomes out here and helps out, it's,
it's, the dynamic is different.
We try to come in and again, justshow like it doesn't have to be.
Uptight or serious or all these things.
Like we try to have a lightheartedenvironment and I think that helps
a lot too with the actual filmingand the recording part of things.
Yeah.
But I always recommend to people too,is just to, first of all, try and
(11:05):
forget that the camera's even there.
Mm-hmm.
Like as hard as that sounds.
And when, when you are filming, Ialways try to think, I'm not talking to.
Everybody, which of course I am whenI'm filming, I just try to think like
I'm talking to one specific person.
Mm. Like if you're asking me aquestion and I'm answering it, I'm
just answering Emily, like, I'm notspeaking to a thousand hundred, whoever.
Many people are gonna see it.
I'm just trying to speakdirectly to one person.
(11:27):
I love that.
And that at least helps me get out of thatmindset of like, oh my gosh, who's gonna.
Listen to this or watch it or judgeme or all these things a hundred
percent and just focus on no, likeshe had a question and and she's
curious and she needs an answer.
So let me just give her that answer.
EmLed (11:39):
I love that.
So I
Nick Rizzo (11:39):
try not to overthink it and then also just think about even
like you're just talking to somebody onFaceTime or something like that, we could
hold our phones in front of our faceand talk to that and be perfectly fine.
But all of a sudden you, you.
Put a camera in front of you.
It just feels different,
EmLed (11:51):
doesn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've noticed that too.
I'm totally gonna use thattip because it's so funny.
I, as a person, I've always feltkind of comfortable in my own skin.
You know?
I can meet new people andbe myself, no problem does.
But when there's a camera in front of, infront of my face, like it just changes.
It does.
And I think it's probably what you'retalking about, like you're thinking about
the mass audience that's gonna see it, soyou're not keeping it personal anymore.
Nick Rizzo (12:14):
One more thing I'll add to that is just keep in mind the reason
why you're doing it in the first place.
Like again, for me, it'slike I have the skillset.
I know I can help people.
Yeah.
That's why I do it.
But if you don't have that strongreason why you're doing it, then
you're gonna come up with a thousandreasons why you can't do it a
EmLed (12:29):
hundred percent.
You're
Nick Rizzo (12:30):
gonna think of things that are gonna get in your way
and keep you from doing it.
Yeah.
Whereas when you have that purposethat is strong enough to drive you.
You're not gonna be nervous in front ofa camera facts and let that stop you.
You're gonna say no.
Like, this is soimportant to me like this.
Really, I need to do this to help people.
So this is just a partof what you have to do.
EmLed (12:46):
Facts say a lot for the people in the back, right?
Fear is normal and that's gonna comeup with anything that you do, right?
But choosing to let it stopyou, that's the only choice that
you have in the matter, right?
Yeah.
So.
I actually poll people on my Instagramsometimes, so people that listen to the
podcast and I was asking a lot of careerfocused questions as I was getting ready
for this series because I'm interestedto know how people are feeling out there.
(13:09):
You know, when I talk to my friends,I'm hearing a lot of people are feeling
very burnt out with corporate Americahaving to show up and work for someone
else and you know, I can relate to that.
It's, it's hard to.
Put in work knowing that it's notnecessarily for you and your family
and your legacy, it's for someone else.
But we all gotta pay the bills, right?
So I ask people, if yoursuccess was guaranteed?
(13:33):
Like, what would you do differently?
Like if there was no chance offailure, would you quit your job?
Would you ask for a raise?
Would you start your own business?
What would you do?
And 45% of those people, theirnumber one choice said if their
success was guaranteed, theywould start their own business.
Over anything else.
So that tells me, and I'm interested tohear what it tells you, that there's a lot
(13:53):
of people who have big dreams, but there'sa reason why they're not acting on it.
And part of it has todo with fear of failure.
What does that tell you?
What do you think?
Nick Rizzo (14:02):
Yeah, I think it's a very big thing, and you had a good
point there about how it's natural,like it's normal to fear, feel fear.
Yeah.
If we didn't have that, then we'd gowalk off a cliff or go jump in the jungle
with tigers and do all those things.
Point.
Yeah.
But I don't think it hasto stop you necessarily.
Mm-hmm.
If you can just identify it andsay, okay, I feel fearful right now.
Feel fearful and almostlook at it as a good thing.
Mm-hmm.
Like, okay, that means if I'mafraid to take this action or do
(14:25):
this thing or start this business.
I'm gonna take it serious, right?
Yeah.
Like I'm afraid of this.
There's something there, like if youcan look at it as a signal versus
like a stopping point for you andjust say, okay, like this is scary.
Like it means that it'sgonna demand a lot for me.
Yeah.
And it's gonna mean that I need to reallypay attention to what I'm doing here.
Then maybe you'll navigatemoving forward differently.
EmLed (14:44):
Yeah.
Nick Rizzo (14:44):
So I would just try to, again, try to change the way you look at it.
Right.
A hundred.
'cause some people see fear and they'regonna stop and go the other direction.
Whereas some people will see fearand say, oh yeah, this is normal.
It's completely a part of it.
Like, this is supposed to be here.
Like, if I didn't feel fear, Iwould be more concerned for you.
Mm. Like it's, it's, it's,you know, it's gonna be there.
EmLed (15:00):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Perspective is everything.
Nick Rizzo (15:03):
Yeah.
And I think through putting the repsin and just having enough time taking,
taking on risks and, and overcoming fearson different levels, you'll build up.
You're tolerant, so to speak, towards it.
Like as you take little steps, you'llrealize, okay, I was scared of this thing.
I took action instead and overcame it.
What's to say if I did it on the smallscale, if I applied the same thinking
to a bigger risk or a bigger fear?
Yeah.
(15:23):
I couldn't overcome itand do the same thing.
EmLed (15:25):
I love that.
Do you think everybody could be anentrepreneur if they wanted to be,
or do you think that there's likea certain type of person who's like
perfect for an entrepreneurial role?
Nick Rizzo (15:35):
That's another good question, and I think it's very interesting.
I, I think anybody could.
EmLed (15:40):
Mm-hmm.
Nick Rizzo (15:41):
Like even I look at myself, for example, like.
I don't wanna say I'm anything crazyspecial, like I'm just a guy, right?
And I just decided to pick up acamera and start talking to it
and, and doing different thingsand learning different skills.
Like if I can figure it out, I bel like,believe me, anybody can, can learn the
same skills and go through the sameprocess and be able to do that thing.
It just comes back to whetheror not they're gonna commit to
(16:03):
it or do it or follow throughor all these different things.
Like everybody can do it, buteverybody definitely will not do it
EmLed (16:09):
right.
Right.
Yeah.
Nor should everyone feellike they should have to.
Yeah.
Um, I think now with social media, weall know that it's hard not to compare
your timeline or your role becausewe're now inundated with so much
noise and so much information that.
20 years ago, we weren't, you know, likethis wasn't normal to be seeing the path
(16:29):
that everyone chooses to take in life.
And I think if we're not carefuland we don't keep it in check, we
can start to think like, oh, so andso is starting their own business.
And I'm not like, I don't, I don'thave what it takes, but I don't think
there's any shame in, in working a nineto five and working for someone else.
It provides a lot of security.
That's what I noticed when I was in thenine to five world is, you know, you get
(16:49):
a consistent paycheck, you get benefits.
Once you clock out, you're done forthe day, you know, you can check
out and running your own businessis a little bit different than that.
Nick Rizzo (16:58):
I agree.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I don't think there'sanything wrong with it too.
And, and I think you pointed out areally good point about how maybe
people feel pressure, like they haveto do it or it's like, just 'cause
they see other people doing it.
But I don't think there's anything wrongwith, with working under somebody else.
No.
Or even being a part of a companythat I don't think there's
anything wrong with that at all.
Well,
EmLed (17:16):
what made you ultimately decide that you didn't wanna do that
and you wanted to work for yourself?
Nick Rizzo (17:20):
Yeah, that's a good question.
For me, it was more so the freedomand just having the choice and
having options in terms of.
Where I can allocate my time and not beinglocked into like a geographical location.
Oh yeah.
In terms of having to go to thesame place every day at this
time for this amount of time.
Oh, that's having, havingthat sort of freedom,
EmLed (17:37):
yeah, in
Nick Rizzo (17:37):
terms of time, in terms of finance, in terms of
everything that comes along withit, is really the biggest motivator.
EmLed (17:42):
Yeah, and I think something we should touch on too is like to be that
motivated and to stay that organized.
I don't know how it is for you.
I can speak for myselfhere, mind, body, and soul.
All of those things come into play.
Like to show up the best that youcan each day, and to be able to be an
entrepreneur, even to a nine to five, butto be able to be a focused individual.
I know for myself, if I don't work out,my mental health goes in the gutter.
(18:06):
If I'm not eating right, if I'm notdrinking water, if I'm not taking care
of myself, then I can't show up thebest version of myself to my business.
So is it the same for you?
Is that a big part of your lifeis taking care of yourself?
Nick Rizzo (18:19):
I like that question a lot.
'cause fitness was like my foundation.
I actually worked as a personaltrainer before I was, I'm
doing what I'm doing now.
Yeah.
For six years.
And I went to school tostudy exercise science.
EmLed (18:29):
Cool.
Nick Rizzo (18:29):
So, luckily for me, like from an early age, developing that foundation
of fitness, it really taught me a lot.
I. Like it taught me how you canprogress and make progress and,
and see changes in your body.
Yeah.
Just by manipulating how muchfood you eat, how much sleep you
get, and how much exercise you do.
And that kind of empowers you toobecause you realize, wow, like there's
so many things that I actually cancontrol if I just take the time to.
(18:51):
Spend and learn and figure outhow to manipulate those things
that'll get me the results I want.
Yeah.
So fitness was like a huge foundation.
And I think along with that comeslike the mental aspect of things.
'cause you're pushing yourself,you're challenging yourself.
Uh, I realized through fitness andrunning specifically, like a lot
of those activities is just like,you can really push yourself a
lot harder than you think you can.
A hundred percent.
(19:11):
And not to say you always should dothat or need to, but just knowing that
you have that ability to do so mm-hmm.
Is very empowering too,because again, it's like.
It all comes back tolike, it's all up here.
It's all, it's all mental fear.
All of these things, likeyour biggest fears are just in
your head a hundred percent.
Like they're not real.
It's not actually in front of you.
It's not something youcan reach out and touch.
Yeah.
But I think whatever form or, or modalityor or hobbies you have that can allow
(19:35):
you to test yourself and, and test youon the mental level and spiritual and
physical and all these different things.
For me specifically, it wasfitness and working out and running
and, and that type of exercise.
Yeah.
But for other people, theycan get it in different ways.
So I don't want it to sound like,man, you gotta do this one thing.
If you wanna develop yourselfin this way, it's, it's, you
can get it in different forms.
It's
EmLed (19:54):
different for everyone.
For sure.
Yeah.
What type of runner are you?
Are we talking like half marathons,marathons, or you distance?
Yeah.
Nick Rizzo (20:01):
I, I guess you could call it distance.
EmLed (20:02):
Are you now I'm in
Nick Rizzo (20:03):
like a casual phase where it's like three to five miles just for fun.
Okay, cool.
And then maybe one long run a weekof like maybe 10 miles if, if we're
getting crazy but not crazy paces.
Okay.
So I went through a phasewhere I was doing races.
I stopped running for along time in high school.
I did sports and did track and ran.
Nothing too crazy there, but.
Afterwards I stopped for a longtime, just focused on the weights.
And then when I came back to runningfor like a year, I did every race
(20:26):
you could think of from like a5K to a eight K to a 10 mile.
Oh cool.
Half marathon.
All the way up to a full marathon.
You did?
Oh, nice.
And then I haven't done a race since then.
EmLed (20:33):
Wow.
Good for you.
I, you know, I know so many peoplewho are like, I just wanna do a
half or a full, like one time.
That does not appeal to me.
My max distance is like fivemiles and I don't actually think
I can keep running after that.
I think that's my cutoff.
Have you done the, uh, therun clubs here in Wilmington?
Nick Rizzo (20:49):
I've been
EmLed (20:50):
to
Nick Rizzo (20:50):
one, yeah.
I've been to one.
One, yeah.
It's a great time.
One you uh, they were at Drift Coffee.
I think the older, soyou're doing the Friday one?
Yeah, Friday one and the
EmLed (20:57):
morning one.
I've been going to theHighwire one on Mondays.
Nick Rizzo (21:01):
What's that?
EmLed (21:01):
Um, so they meet at Highwire Brewery and they run down Princess
and go downtown and they're on theriver walk and then do a loop back.
Nick Rizzo (21:08):
Nice
EmLed (21:08):
Monday nights.
But when I first moved to Wilmington,that's how I met everyone.
That's like where I made all ofmy friends was run Club Smart.
Yeah, like-minded
Nick Rizzo (21:17):
people, right?
Yeah.
EmLed (21:17):
You get it.
Nick Rizzo (21:18):
Yeah.
EmLed (21:19):
Yeah.
So fitness is huge for me too.
Like everything that you justsaid, I completely agree.
Like even if I don't work out for liketwo or three days, I don't move my body.
I feel it so quickly in my mental health,and it's crazy how quickly that trickles
into everything else that you do.
So that's something that I always tellpeople is like before you can think
about, you know, career aspirations,leveling up, even your relationships,
(21:40):
like it starts with you and howyou take care of yourself, right?
Nick Rizzo (21:43):
I don't think it's selfish.
Right.
For you to take time to do those things.
No, because if anything, it'sjust probably unselfish hundred.
'cause you know that if you do thosethings, then you're gonna show up in these
situations and be a hundred percent andbe the best version that you could be.
A
EmLed (21:55):
hundred percent.
Nick Rizzo (21:56):
Yeah.
EmLed (21:56):
Do you ever get overwhelmed balancing everything, running
your own business, taking care ofyourself, making time for friends?
Does it feel overwhelming?
Every, every single day.
Nick Rizzo (22:05):
Oh, every day.
Oh, cool.
I don't think that ever goes away.
Okay.
It's another one of those thingslike the fear that we talked about.
You learn, I don't wannasay you learn to accept it.
You learn how to, how to deal with it.
Yeah.
How to channel it into certain things andhow to, how to function sort of around it.
EmLed (22:20):
Okay.
Nick Rizzo (22:20):
Like, again, I see things as just like signals
is like fear is a signal.
Feeling overwhelmed is a signal.
So if I start to feel that overwhelmor that stress, I try to look back
at, okay, is there something I'mnot doing that's causing this?
Is there something I amdoing that's causing this?
Mm. And just find a way to kindof work through it, overcome it.
Mm. But I think that justcomes with the territory.
I. We signed up for, right?
Like we wanted to get the freedom,we wanted to have our time to
(22:42):
do these things as a trade off.
Well, there's gonna be somestress associated with it.
There's gonna be Right sometimes where you feel overwhelmed,
EmLed (22:49):
right?
Absolutely.
I love the way that you're explainingthat you look at things and it's, that's
kind of how I'm working to reorientyour mind, I think, in my past, and I
think the way that our world kind oftrains us is to be hard and to judge
ourselves for our human emotions.
So when I do feel scared or I dofeel overwhelmed, I, in the past,
(23:10):
and sometimes I catch myself doingit now too, would judge that and
be like, you're, you're weak.
Like, get it together.
You know, like get it together.
Like get, you know, but that's, it'struly like you're saying, it's your
perspective, like you're choosingto be like, oh, this is a signal.
Like I need to chill.
I need to take a break or I just need todo a better job taking care of myself.
(23:30):
And I think that's something huge that Iwant people to hear because I think a lot
of the battle, like you're saying, reallyis all mental and it's you versus you.
And when you can get out of your ownway and out of your own head, that just
presents so many more opportunitiesthen, you know, if you're constantly
battling with yourself every single day.
Nick Rizzo (23:48):
I agree, and I'll just say, I, I think it takes time to sort of realize
that, like for someone listening to thisthat maybe thinks like, oh, wow, these
people sound like they have it all figuredout and they just know all the answers.
LOL, it comes with time, right?
Like you have to kind of go throughthose low points for long enough
to realize, man, I keep endingup in the same place where I'm
stressed and I'm overwhelmed, like.
What's causing this?
Mm. Right.
(24:08):
Like you, you sort of, you don'tdevelop that the first time
It happens a hundred percent.
Yeah.
You, you don't have anyreason to think that way.
You think, oh, maybe I feel bad one day.
It'll go away tomorrow.
Yeah.
But then as you notice thesepatterns and see certain things
happen time and time again, you cankind of get in front of them and
say, okay, like if I do this thing.
I'll wake up the next morning andfeel stressed or feel overwhelmed,
or whatever it is, just for example.
(24:29):
Whereas when you can start to recognizethose patterns and say, oh, okay,
every time I do this, I get this out.
I get this outcome or this result.
So what if I change what I'mdoing back here and see if I get
a different result or a differentoutcome the next time I do it?
And it just comes with time.
Like you have to kind of recognizethose things as they keep popping up.
And I think.
That's what eventually leads you to changesomething or try something different.
(24:49):
So good.
EmLed (24:50):
Yeah.
That's so good.
Do you know Jay Shetty?
Are you familiar with him?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
So he just released a podcast episodeand he was talking about patterns,
like exactly what you just explained.
And he was saying that some of the mostsuccessful people out there are the
ones who just identify and recognizethose patterns and also come up with
new patterns that kind of go againstthe grain of traditional society.
(25:11):
And then they just start repeating.
They start doing the same thing and.
I think that is what will set successfulpeople, apart from non-successful people,
is literally just choosing to keep showingup the consistency of it, because so many
types of failures, roadblocks, doubt,setbacks, like that's all gonna come.
But choosing to keep goingand keep showing up, I really
(25:32):
think is the differentiator.
Nick Rizzo (25:34):
Yeah, that's huge.
The mindset, right.
If you can just tell yourselffrom the start that like, Hey,
look, I'm gonna do this thing.
I'm gonna follow through nomatter what, then yeah, you,
you'll find a way to do it.
EmLed (25:42):
Absolutely.
I'm curious, are you aspiritual person at all?
I.
Nick Rizzo (25:45):
Define spiritual.
EmLed (25:47):
Do you believe in like a higher power or like a creator
or, um, some people call it likethe universe, divine, like a power
that's greater outside of yourself.
Nick Rizzo (25:56):
100%.
I can't take credit for any of this.
EmLed (25:59):
Yeah.
Nick Rizzo (25:59):
I can't say me alone is responsible for this.
EmLed (26:01):
Yeah.
Nick Rizzo (26:02):
Yeah.
EmLed (26:02):
If you had to sum it up, like what, what is that to you?
Is it God?
Do you have like faith?
Are you practicing religious?
Anything like that?
Nick Rizzo (26:09):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I don't know if I would puta, a title or a term on it.
Yeah.
Specifically, but basically, like I justsaid, like I know it's bigger than me.
There's no way I can take credit for everysingle, for being born for like everything
that's happened to me up to this point.
There's no way that there'snot something else out there
that is influencing or, yeah.
Uh, you know, kind of shaping orguiding or helping in some sort of way.
(26:32):
Yeah.
Like I just, I, there's no worldthat I can think of where I am fully
responsible for every single thingthat's happened to me up to this point.
Like, I'm, I'm not that lucky.
There's no way.
Right.
Something else has to be out there.
That's, that's.
Doing something.
EmLed (26:45):
Yeah.
That posture of humility is reallyimportant to know that like we are
not as in control as we think we are.
Like, yes, we have free will.
Yes, we're in choice, in charge of ourday-to-day choices, but largely there's
something else out there behind thescenes that's pulling some strengths.
So do you pray at all or doyou have any type of spiritual
practice that you visit often?
Nick Rizzo (27:04):
Yeah, I don't know if I would call it praying.
I, I think everybody, again, likeputs terms and titles on certain
things, like maybe what I do, someoneelse would perceive as praying.
I would say more just, justbeing mindful and reflecting and,
and having thoughts that are I.
I guess praying would, wouldyou define praying as like
asking for something or just,
EmLed (27:24):
it could just be, I guess for me, like it looks different.
Like I feel like I just talk to myselfand I just like hope God's listening.
You know what I, we,I'm saying, there we go.
Like that would
Nick Rizzo (27:31):
be almost how I sum it up.
Like sort of talking to myself,like revising things in my head.
Yeah, just somethingthat gets me out of like.
Thinking about the future or thepast or whatever it is, right?
Yeah.
Like some sort of internalreflection, but I don't even know
if there's a term for that, really.
Yeah, right.
Well,
EmLed (27:45):
I think it's important, like you said, like there are so many definitions
that our world comes up with, and Ithink that leads to things being put in
a box and like we have to make sense ofeverything in order to participate in it.
But at least for me, like I just startedkind of growing in my faith a lot, maybe
like eight months ago, and I was raised ina very, um, strict loving Christian home.
(28:06):
But really had turned away from itbecause it's so hard to make sense of
God, and there are so many things aboutreligion and faith that if we're being
honest, it just doesn't add up, you know?
Mm-hmm.
So I came back to the Lord probablylike eight months ago, just
from a place of feeling reallylow and feeling burnout and.
I was trying to do everything by myself.
Like what you're explaining, tryingto, you know, feeling the weight of
(28:29):
the world on my shoulders, trying tofigure it out all by myself and when
I could step back and like you weresaying, have that posture of humility
where you realize like, nah, this isn'tall about me and I'm also not in charge
of all of my success or my failure.
Like there's more that goes into this.
That was a huge sigh of relief and Ithink a lot of us can get caught up in
the grind of the day to day, and we don'teven stop to reflect on that and we can
(28:53):
feel a lot of that pressure and yeah.
I just really love what yousaid about zooming out and just
realizing there's more at play.
Nick Rizzo (28:59):
I think it's important.
Yeah.
It's like you mentioned with mind, body,spirit, all these things play into it.
Yeah.
And maybe people think when they see likesomeone successful in business or someone
in really good shape, they've really justonly mastered maybe one sort of lane.
Mm. Like if you're in reallygood shape, like Yeah.
You figured out your fitnessand health and those things.
Yeah.
But.
Maybe you don't have a business or youaren't successful in your career, but
(29:20):
you are in really good shape, right?
When you can combine all of thosethings and, and, and have the mind,
the body, and the spirit all combine.
Mm. I think that's like thewinning formula for everything.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think there's, there,it's all necessary, right?
Like we're sitting here talking aboutbusiness and life and all these things,
but I think so much goes into it, right?
In order to be really like.
100% complete.
EmLed (29:38):
Absolutely.
You nailed that.
That's so well said.
Um, the final question that I wanna askyou is, what is the biggest piece of
advice that you have for people who arein their twenties or their thirties?
They're kind of whatwe've been talking about.
You know, they feel isolated,alone, maybe burnt out, overworked.
They just kind of feel like theweight of the world's on them.
(29:59):
What is the biggest piece ofadvice that you would give
them to help them get unstuck?
Nick Rizzo (30:03):
I love this question.
This is a really good question.
I would say with social media, like in2025 specifically, just stop watching
other people live their lives onsocial media and go live your life.
Mm yep.
Like get out there anddo things and try things.
And in your twenties andthirties specifically.
I don't think you should expect tohit a home run and, and have the
(30:24):
a hundred million dollar businessand all these crazy things.
Amen.
Like, this is your time to try things.
Experiment.
Yes.
Put yourself out there, seewhat works, what doesn't, and
just experiment and learn.
Yes.
And have realistic expectations.
So I'm, I'm 30 right now, and for me toeven speak on this is, is interesting
because every time I say 30, I have tostop and think like, wait a second, 30.
Like, this feels kind of old, which.
(30:44):
People in their fortieswould probably laugh at me.
Yeah.
But the biggest thing I couldsay to anybody in their twenties
is don't expect to have it allfigured out by the time you're 25.
EmLed (30:53):
Oh,
Nick Rizzo (30:53):
that's so well done.
Right.
Just try things.
Put yourself out there.
Experiment and, and learn.
Just learn as much as you can and thenby the time you're in your thirties
and forties, you should be able to.
Use all the information andall the knowledge and all
the failures and, and yeah.
You don't have to call'em failures, right?
Just learning lessons, right, yeah.
Of experience that you've accumulatedand then you can make better
informed decisions moving forward.
(31:13):
Yes.
But if you never go throughthat phase of taking the time to
try things and fail and learn.
You're gonna have to go throughthat eventually a hundred percent.
Whether you do it in your thirties oryour twenties or earlier or whatever
time you decide to start doing that,it's just a necessary part of, of
learning and growing, I wanna say.
Yeah.
EmLed (31:29):
Yeah.
Might as well get itoutta the way now, right?
True.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I love that.
That was so well said.
And um, I think.
What a banger note to end on.
Um, yeah, Nick, thank youso much for joining me.
No, you, you are.
And for all the wisdom that you shared,I really think people are going to
hear this and be encouraged because,you know, you should be so proud
of yourself for what you've built.
And, um, I think hearing you speak, it'svery evident that you've put a lot of
(31:53):
time and energy and thought into yourperspective and how you see the world.
You're very zen, very, very zen.
Likewise, I'm taking this,you made me feel relaxed
Nick Rizzo (32:00):
here.
Right?
Good.
I'm glad.
It's a great environment.
EmLed (32:02):
Good.
I'm glad.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for coming on andmaybe we'll have to do this again soon.
Let's do it.
All right, cool.
Bye, y'all
Killer.
Alright everyone, welcome back to the Wrestling With Life Podcast.
I am your host, EM led on the mic,and I'm so excited because I am joined
by a very special guest today, Mr.
Nick Rizzo.
Let's go.
What's up Nick?
How are you Doing
Nick Rizzo (00:38):
great.
Happy to be here.
EmLed (00:39):
Good.
I'm so glad you're here and I'mso excited to talk with you today.
So Nick is a video marketer inWilmington, North Carolina and he helps
local business owners get customers.
With Instagram, and the reason that I evenknow who you are is because I haven't been
able to get you off my Instagram feed.
What's up with that?
You're welcome.
So that's your plan, right?
(01:00):
You're trying to show businesseswhat you can do for them by
doing what you do for them.
Nick Rizzo (01:05):
Pretty much you summed it up there.
Yeah, just getting in front ofcustomers in the same way that I
can help them market themselves.
EmLed (01:10):
Okay.
Super cool.
So I'm kicking off a brand new series onmy podcast, and the people who listen to
this are in their twenties and thirties,and a lot of them are wrestling with life.
They're struggling, they're feelingburnt out, they're questioning
their purpose, they're questioning.
Why do I have to go andwork every single day?
So they're feeling likethere's something more.
(01:31):
And I wanted to include you on thisbrand new series where I'm sitting
down with local entrepreneurs andasking them about what motivates them.
Like why do they do what they do?
How do they wake up and get outtabed every single morning and, you
know, show up the best that they can.
So the first question thatI'd like to ask you is.
What made you decide to start puttingyourself out there like you are?
(01:53):
Your face is all over Instagram.
You know, you're stepping out very boldly.
You're making a big splash in Wilmington.
So take us to take usback as far as you want.
Like what led you to this point?
Nick Rizzo (02:05):
Yeah, that's a really great question.
I would say what led me hereis realizing just the skillset.
I have, yeah.
That I can use to help other people,to help other business owners.
And a lot of it has todo with the mindset.
I feel like, and I know we'll talk aboutthis more as we get into the episode,
but for me, I wanna say it's about.
Knowing that I have that skillsetand, and I almost feel like if I
(02:26):
don't put myself in front of thesepeople that I know I can help, it's
like I'm doing a disservice to them.
Mm. Because again, likeI have the skillset.
I know how to do specific things,whether it comes to marketing or
business or videography and contentcreation and all those things.
So if I don't put myself in front ofthose people, then those people will
never get the help that they need.
Yeah.
Or they won't even realize thatit's a problem that they have.
(02:47):
So for me to advertise and, andlike you're saying, put myself
out there and, and try to showmy face as much as possible.
Yeah.
Believe it or not, it's not like a selfishthing of like, oh, I look at me guys,
like, I wanna just put myself out there.
It's more so the message behind it,like, Hey, look, I have a skillset
that I can help people with.
Yeah.
So I wanna show as many people as possiblethat I can help them with that in the
hopes that they will say, okay, perfect.
Like this is exactlywhat I was looking for.
(03:09):
Like I was, so many peopleI talk to will tell me.
Yeah.
Like I was looking for thisexact thing in Wilmington.
Then your ad popped up and itwas like perfect alignment there.
And that's really, I think, speaksto just the power of marketing
and putting yourself out there.
Absolutely.
Because there's always peopleout there that need help and need
something that you can provide.
It's just you need to putyourself in front of them.
Yeah.
And make sure you presentthat to them so that you can,
(03:30):
you can ultimately help them.
EmLed (03:32):
Absolutely.
No, that's a great answer.
So you have a very long backgroundof video marketing, correct?
Yes.
Could you explain thatfor people who Dunno?
You?
Yeah,
Nick Rizzo (03:40):
so, so back to the very beginning.
Yeah.
Like learning the skills and everything.
EmLed (03:42):
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
So
Nick Rizzo (03:43):
we talked before this in college was when I first
picked up a camera and learned I.
How to record videos.
It was very basic.
It was for a friend of mine, hehad a personal training business.
Yeah.
And he was getting into socialmedia and learning how to market
and put himself out there.
I was not at that stage yet.
I was just in the mindset of, oh,like I think cameras are cool.
I wanna film stuff.
And little did I know that wholetime I was filming him because he
(04:05):
was doing what I was doing Now,what I'm currently doing now, right.
Which is creating contentto market themself and get
in front of his customers.
Whereas that was me just developingthose skills of videography, learning
how to create cool content and filmand edit and do all those things.
And then over time wekind of worked together.
We would go and pitch the gymthat we, we were working out
at first, the gym owner there.
We would say, Hey look, canwe shoot you a video for your
(04:26):
website or for social media?
And then that turned into let'sgo to a couple local businesses.
So like car dealerships,restaurants, everywhere.
In our local town.
We were just going and pitching videosand content to any business we could.
Walk into and that kind of gaveus more and more experience
and more knowledge about.
How to navigate it.
Yeah.
Like what, what kind of content dobusinesses need and, and what's really
(04:47):
gonna market them in a way that'sgonna get them more customers and
get more people to know about them?
EmLed (04:51):
Yeah.
So
Nick Rizzo (04:52):
just over time, just learning that information and learning
the skills of, of how to shoot videoand edit it and do all those things.
And, and then once you establishthat skill, it was like,
okay, that's the baseline.
How can I take that further and actuallyget results from it or, or get customers
from the content that we're creating.
So that's when I started learningmarketing and learning sales.
Yeah.
And all these sorts of things.
And through combining all those skills.
(05:12):
Kind of led me to where I am now.
EmLed (05:14):
Very cool.
Nick Rizzo (05:15):
Yeah.
So
EmLed (05:15):
you look super comfortable on camera.
Have you always felt that wayor was that a learned thing?
Nick Rizzo (05:21):
That's so funny you say that, and I tell people all the time, if it
wasn't for me, again, having the skillsetand, and feeling the need to market and
put myself in front of people by default,I would not be in front of the camera.
And no one believes me when I say thatbecause I think it's grown to the point
where just forcing myself to do it enough
EmLed (05:38):
Mm.
Nick Rizzo (05:38):
Is like.
You kind of get comfortable, you kindof get numb, so to speak, with doing it.
Sure.
It's like, okay, it's not likethis shocking thing anymore.
It's just like a comfortable thing.
And then to take it a step further,it's like, okay, I'm, I don't wanna
say it's getting boring, but it'slike I need to keep it engaging.
I need to keep it fun.
So that's where I want to inject like mypersonality and actually have fun with it.
Absolutely.
And what I've realized through doingthat is that kind of resonates more
(05:59):
with people, like authentically,because they don't look at you as
like, oh, you're reading some scriptand you're just like, you just like
everybody else paring these same lines.
Percent.
Yeah.
So for me it's like.
Two, two positives of just having fun,being who I am on camera, authentic,
but also people can see that and theycan resonate it through the videos
and tell, okay, maybe this, there'ssomething more to what this guy's saying.
(06:19):
He, he stands out some way from everybodyelse, whether people perceive that or not.
At least that's, that's sortof the way I try to look at it.
EmLed (06:25):
I love that you say that because I, I feel the same way
when it comes to social mediaand even marketing in general.
There have been many studies and it's alsoproven in psychology as well, that being
authentic really is what resonates with.
People, there are a thousand milliontons of people doing exactly what we do.
Yep.
But what will make someone wannawork with you over somebody else is
(06:47):
your unique personality, your uniqueenergy, your vibe, like that unspoken
feeling when someone walks in aroom and you can feel their energy.
You can't attract those right peoplewho are gonna click with your energy
unless you're being like yourself.
Right.
I agree.
Unless you're truly being who you are.
So have you always just felt comfortablebeing all of yourself or you know, did you
(07:09):
have a period of life where you did someinner work, you did some soul searching?
Like is it just easy foryou to show up as you are?
Or did that take work to get there?
Nick Rizzo (07:17):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
(08:38):
So, early on growing up, I,I'm a middle child, same.
So I always had my older brotherand for me that relationship was.
I don't have to think too muchbecause I'll just do what he does.
Right.
I can follow him around.
I can like, whatever he does, I'll do it.
It's like it just took thethought out of it for me.
Mm. And growing up like that I think kindof kept me a little more reserved and,
and not able to like think for myself.
(09:00):
Yeah.
If I think about it now,like looking back on it.
But I would say, to answer your question,over time, it definitely had to develop.
Because as you know, you grow up and oh,your brother moves or goes somewhere else.
It's like, okay, well now what?
I don't have that person tolike fall around and kind
of mimic everything off of.
So at some point, that's when Isort of had to be like, okay, well.
I can do this just as easy as hewas, the one that was calling the
(09:20):
shots and kind of doing his thing.
It's like, well, I have thesame ability to do that myself.
EmLed (09:24):
Yeah.
So
Nick Rizzo (09:25):
I think through realizing that kind of empowers you a little
bit and shows you, wow, like thisthing I was scared of or didn't really
know what to do or know how to do.
Like once I just dove in and did it.
Yeah.
It kind of gave me some confidence andshowed me, yeah, I can do this too.
So over time I think it develops,and maybe for everybody that's on a
different timeline, but for me, I feellike growing up was a lot of just.
Following what other people do.
(09:45):
And then you get to the point whereit's like, well, I don't have anybody
in front of me to follow anymore.
So at some point I have to take that role.
EmLed (09:51):
Yeah, Are you and your brother still close now?
A
Nick Rizzo (09:54):
hundred percent.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah.
I feel like those relationshipshopefully never go away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What
EmLed (09:59):
does he do?
Nick Rizzo (09:59):
So he works in communications.
He works in like radio, TV production.
EmLed (10:03):
Okay, cool.
So it's in the family.
He lives in Virginia.
Nick Rizzo (10:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Right.
Okay,
EmLed (10:07):
nice.
So back to kind of what wewere talking about with like.
Being comfortable on camera.
I noticed that that's a big hurdlefor creators, people who are running
their own business and you know, weknow this better than anyone being
in the social media space, thatespecially now in 2025, you have to
get comfortable in front of the cameraif you want to market your business.
(10:28):
Be able to, um, get peopleto buy what you're selling.
So what tips do you have for people whojust don't feel comfortable on camera?
Like I'm thinking when you work withclients, probably a lot of what you're
doing is coaching them to appearas authentic as possible on camera.
Nick Rizzo (10:43):
Right.
So it really helps justlightening the mood.
Like when Bradley or videographercomes out here and helps out, it's,
it's, the dynamic is different.
We try to come in and again, justshow like it doesn't have to be.
Uptight or serious or all these things.
Like we try to have a lightheartedenvironment and I think that helps
a lot too with the actual filmingand the recording part of things.
Yeah.
But I always recommend to people too,is just to, first of all, try and
(11:05):
forget that the camera's even there.
Mm-hmm.
Like as hard as that sounds.
And when, when you are filming, Ialways try to think, I'm not talking to.
Everybody, which of course I am whenI'm filming, I just try to think like
I'm talking to one specific person.
Mm. Like if you're asking me aquestion and I'm answering it, I'm
just answering Emily, like, I'm notspeaking to a thousand hundred, whoever.
Many people are gonna see it.
I'm just trying to speakdirectly to one person.
(11:27):
I love that.
And that at least helps me get out of thatmindset of like, oh my gosh, who's gonna.
Listen to this or watch it or judgeme or all these things a hundred
percent and just focus on no, likeshe had a question and and she's
curious and she needs an answer.
So let me just give her that answer.
EmLed (11:39):
I love that.
So I
Nick Rizzo (11:39):
try not to overthink it and then also just think about even
like you're just talking to somebody onFaceTime or something like that, we could
hold our phones in front of our faceand talk to that and be perfectly fine.
But all of a sudden you, you.
Put a camera in front of you.
It just feels different,
EmLed (11:51):
doesn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've noticed that too.
I'm totally gonna use thattip because it's so funny.
I, as a person, I've always feltkind of comfortable in my own skin.
You know?
I can meet new people andbe myself, no problem does.
But when there's a camera in front of, infront of my face, like it just changes.
It does.
And I think it's probably what you'retalking about, like you're thinking about
the mass audience that's gonna see it, soyou're not keeping it personal anymore.
Nick Rizzo (12:14):
One more thing I'll add to that is just keep in mind the reason
why you're doing it in the first place.
Like again, for me, it'slike I have the skillset.
I know I can help people.
Yeah.
That's why I do it.
But if you don't have that strongreason why you're doing it, then
you're gonna come up with a thousandreasons why you can't do it a
EmLed (12:29):
hundred percent.
You're
Nick Rizzo (12:30):
gonna think of things that are gonna get in your way
and keep you from doing it.
Yeah.
Whereas when you have that purposethat is strong enough to drive you.
You're not gonna be nervous in front ofa camera facts and let that stop you.
You're gonna say no.
Like, this is soimportant to me like this.
Really, I need to do this to help people.
So this is just a partof what you have to do.
EmLed (12:46):
Facts say a lot for the people in the back, right?
Fear is normal and that's gonna comeup with anything that you do, right?
But choosing to let it stopyou, that's the only choice that
you have in the matter, right?
Yeah.
So.
I actually poll people on my Instagramsometimes, so people that listen to the
podcast and I was asking a lot of careerfocused questions as I was getting ready
for this series because I'm interestedto know how people are feeling out there.
(13:09):
You know, when I talk to my friends,I'm hearing a lot of people are feeling
very burnt out with corporate Americahaving to show up and work for someone
else and you know, I can relate to that.
It's, it's hard to.
Put in work knowing that it's notnecessarily for you and your family
and your legacy, it's for someone else.
But we all gotta pay the bills, right?
So I ask people, if yoursuccess was guaranteed?
(13:33):
Like, what would you do differently?
Like if there was no chance offailure, would you quit your job?
Would you ask for a raise?
Would you start your own business?
What would you do?
And 45% of those people, theirnumber one choice said if their
success was guaranteed, theywould start their own business.
Over anything else.
So that tells me, and I'm interested tohear what it tells you, that there's a lot
(13:53):
of people who have big dreams, but there'sa reason why they're not acting on it.
And part of it has todo with fear of failure.
What does that tell you?
What do you think?
Nick Rizzo (14:02):
Yeah, I think it's a very big thing, and you had a good
point there about how it's natural,like it's normal to fear, feel fear.
Yeah.
If we didn't have that, then we'd gowalk off a cliff or go jump in the jungle
with tigers and do all those things.
Point.
Yeah.
But I don't think it hasto stop you necessarily.
Mm-hmm.
If you can just identify it andsay, okay, I feel fearful right now.
Feel fearful and almostlook at it as a good thing.
Mm-hmm.
Like, okay, that means if I'mafraid to take this action or do
(14:25):
this thing or start this business.
I'm gonna take it serious, right?
Yeah.
Like I'm afraid of this.
There's something there, like if youcan look at it as a signal versus
like a stopping point for you andjust say, okay, like this is scary.
Like it means that it'sgonna demand a lot for me.
Yeah.
And it's gonna mean that I need to reallypay attention to what I'm doing here.
Then maybe you'll navigatemoving forward differently.
EmLed (14:44):
Yeah.
Nick Rizzo (14:44):
So I would just try to, again, try to change the way you look at it.
Right.
A hundred.
'cause some people see fear and they'regonna stop and go the other direction.
Whereas some people will see fearand say, oh yeah, this is normal.
It's completely a part of it.
Like, this is supposed to be here.
Like, if I didn't feel fear, Iwould be more concerned for you.
Mm. Like it's, it's, it's,you know, it's gonna be there.
EmLed (15:00):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Perspective is everything.
Nick Rizzo (15:03):
Yeah.
And I think through putting the repsin and just having enough time taking,
taking on risks and, and overcoming fearson different levels, you'll build up.
You're tolerant, so to speak, towards it.
Like as you take little steps, you'llrealize, okay, I was scared of this thing.
I took action instead and overcame it.
What's to say if I did it on the smallscale, if I applied the same thinking
to a bigger risk or a bigger fear?
Yeah.
(15:23):
I couldn't overcome itand do the same thing.
EmLed (15:25):
I love that.
Do you think everybody could be anentrepreneur if they wanted to be,
or do you think that there's likea certain type of person who's like
perfect for an entrepreneurial role?
Nick Rizzo (15:35):
That's another good question, and I think it's very interesting.
I, I think anybody could.
EmLed (15:40):
Mm-hmm.
Nick Rizzo (15:41):
Like even I look at myself, for example, like.
I don't wanna say I'm anything crazyspecial, like I'm just a guy, right?
And I just decided to pick up acamera and start talking to it
and, and doing different thingsand learning different skills.
Like if I can figure it out, I bel like,believe me, anybody can, can learn the
same skills and go through the sameprocess and be able to do that thing.
It just comes back to whetheror not they're gonna commit to
(16:03):
it or do it or follow throughor all these different things.
Like everybody can do it, buteverybody definitely will not do it
EmLed (16:09):
right.
Right.
Yeah.
Nor should everyone feellike they should have to.
Yeah.
Um, I think now with social media, weall know that it's hard not to compare
your timeline or your role becausewe're now inundated with so much
noise and so much information that.
20 years ago, we weren't, you know, likethis wasn't normal to be seeing the path
(16:29):
that everyone chooses to take in life.
And I think if we're not carefuland we don't keep it in check, we
can start to think like, oh, so andso is starting their own business.
And I'm not like, I don't, I don'thave what it takes, but I don't think
there's any shame in, in working a nineto five and working for someone else.
It provides a lot of security.
That's what I noticed when I was in thenine to five world is, you know, you get
(16:49):
a consistent paycheck, you get benefits.
Once you clock out, you're done forthe day, you know, you can check
out and running your own businessis a little bit different than that.
Nick Rizzo (16:58):
I agree.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I don't think there'sanything wrong with it too.
And, and I think you pointed out areally good point about how maybe
people feel pressure, like they haveto do it or it's like, just 'cause
they see other people doing it.
But I don't think there's anything wrongwith, with working under somebody else.
No.
Or even being a part of a companythat I don't think there's
anything wrong with that at all.
Well,
EmLed (17:16):
what made you ultimately decide that you didn't wanna do that
and you wanted to work for yourself?
Nick Rizzo (17:20):
Yeah, that's a good question.
For me, it was more so the freedomand just having the choice and
having options in terms of.
Where I can allocate my time and not beinglocked into like a geographical location.
Oh yeah.
In terms of having to go to thesame place every day at this
time for this amount of time.
Oh, that's having, havingthat sort of freedom,
EmLed (17:37):
yeah, in
Nick Rizzo (17:37):
terms of time, in terms of finance, in terms of
everything that comes along withit, is really the biggest motivator.
EmLed (17:42):
Yeah, and I think something we should touch on too is like to be that
motivated and to stay that organized.
I don't know how it is for you.
I can speak for myselfhere, mind, body, and soul.
All of those things come into play.
Like to show up the best that youcan each day, and to be able to be an
entrepreneur, even to a nine to five, butto be able to be a focused individual.
I know for myself, if I don't work out,my mental health goes in the gutter.
(18:06):
If I'm not eating right, if I'm notdrinking water, if I'm not taking care
of myself, then I can't show up thebest version of myself to my business.
So is it the same for you?
Is that a big part of your lifeis taking care of yourself?
Nick Rizzo (18:19):
I like that question a lot.
'cause fitness was like my foundation.
I actually worked as a personaltrainer before I was, I'm
doing what I'm doing now.
Yeah.
For six years.
And I went to school tostudy exercise science.
EmLed (18:29):
Cool.
Nick Rizzo (18:29):
So, luckily for me, like from an early age, developing that foundation
of fitness, it really taught me a lot.
I. Like it taught me how you canprogress and make progress and,
and see changes in your body.
Yeah.
Just by manipulating how muchfood you eat, how much sleep you
get, and how much exercise you do.
And that kind of empowers you toobecause you realize, wow, like there's
so many things that I actually cancontrol if I just take the time to.
(18:51):
Spend and learn and figure outhow to manipulate those things
that'll get me the results I want.
Yeah.
So fitness was like a huge foundation.
And I think along with that comeslike the mental aspect of things.
'cause you're pushing yourself,you're challenging yourself.
Uh, I realized through fitness andrunning specifically, like a lot
of those activities is just like,you can really push yourself a
lot harder than you think you can.
A hundred percent.
(19:11):
And not to say you always should dothat or need to, but just knowing that
you have that ability to do so mm-hmm.
Is very empowering too,because again, it's like.
It all comes back tolike, it's all up here.
It's all, it's all mental fear.
All of these things, likeyour biggest fears are just in
your head a hundred percent.
Like they're not real.
It's not actually in front of you.
It's not something youcan reach out and touch.
Yeah.
But I think whatever form or, or modalityor or hobbies you have that can allow
(19:35):
you to test yourself and, and test youon the mental level and spiritual and
physical and all these different things.
For me specifically, it wasfitness and working out and running
and, and that type of exercise.
Yeah.
But for other people, theycan get it in different ways.
So I don't want it to sound like,man, you gotta do this one thing.
If you wanna develop yourselfin this way, it's, it's, you
can get it in different forms.
It's
EmLed (19:54):
different for everyone.
For sure.
Yeah.
What type of runner are you?
Are we talking like half marathons,marathons, or you distance?
Yeah.
Nick Rizzo (20:01):
I, I guess you could call it distance.
EmLed (20:02):
Are you now I'm in
Nick Rizzo (20:03):
like a casual phase where it's like three to five miles just for fun.
Okay, cool.
And then maybe one long run a weekof like maybe 10 miles if, if we're
getting crazy but not crazy paces.
Okay.
So I went through a phasewhere I was doing races.
I stopped running for along time in high school.
I did sports and did track and ran.
Nothing too crazy there, but.
Afterwards I stopped for a longtime, just focused on the weights.
And then when I came back to runningfor like a year, I did every race
(20:26):
you could think of from like a5K to a eight K to a 10 mile.
Oh cool.
Half marathon.
All the way up to a full marathon.
You did?
Oh, nice.
And then I haven't done a race since then.
EmLed (20:33):
Wow.
Good for you.
I, you know, I know so many peoplewho are like, I just wanna do a
half or a full, like one time.
That does not appeal to me.
My max distance is like fivemiles and I don't actually think
I can keep running after that.
I think that's my cutoff.
Have you done the, uh, therun clubs here in Wilmington?
Nick Rizzo (20:49):
I've been
EmLed (20:50):
to
Nick Rizzo (20:50):
one, yeah.
I've been to one.
One, yeah.
It's a great time.
One you uh, they were at Drift Coffee.
I think the older, soyou're doing the Friday one?
Yeah, Friday one and the
EmLed (20:57):
morning one.
I've been going to theHighwire one on Mondays.
Nick Rizzo (21:01):
What's that?
EmLed (21:01):
Um, so they meet at Highwire Brewery and they run down Princess
and go downtown and they're on theriver walk and then do a loop back.
Nick Rizzo (21:08):
Nice
EmLed (21:08):
Monday nights.
But when I first moved to Wilmington,that's how I met everyone.
That's like where I made all ofmy friends was run Club Smart.
Yeah, like-minded
Nick Rizzo (21:17):
people, right?
Yeah.
EmLed (21:17):
You get it.
Nick Rizzo (21:18):
Yeah.
EmLed (21:19):
Yeah.
So fitness is huge for me too.
Like everything that you justsaid, I completely agree.
Like even if I don't work out for liketwo or three days, I don't move my body.
I feel it so quickly in my mental health,and it's crazy how quickly that trickles
into everything else that you do.
So that's something that I always tellpeople is like before you can think
about, you know, career aspirations,leveling up, even your relationships,
(21:40):
like it starts with you and howyou take care of yourself, right?
Nick Rizzo (21:43):
I don't think it's selfish.
Right.
For you to take time to do those things.
No, because if anything, it'sjust probably unselfish hundred.
'cause you know that if you do thosethings, then you're gonna show up in these
situations and be a hundred percent andbe the best version that you could be.
A
EmLed (21:55):
hundred percent.
Nick Rizzo (21:56):
Yeah.
EmLed (21:56):
Do you ever get overwhelmed balancing everything, running
your own business, taking care ofyourself, making time for friends?
Does it feel overwhelming?
Every, every single day.
Nick Rizzo (22:05):
Oh, every day.
Oh, cool.
I don't think that ever goes away.
Okay.
It's another one of those thingslike the fear that we talked about.
You learn, I don't wannasay you learn to accept it.
You learn how to, how to deal with it.
Yeah.
How to channel it into certain things andhow to, how to function sort of around it.
EmLed (22:20):
Okay.
Nick Rizzo (22:20):
Like, again, I see things as just like signals
is like fear is a signal.
Feeling overwhelmed is a signal.
So if I start to feel that overwhelmor that stress, I try to look back
at, okay, is there something I'mnot doing that's causing this?
Is there something I amdoing that's causing this?
Mm. And just find a way to kindof work through it, overcome it.
Mm. But I think that justcomes with the territory.
I. We signed up for, right?
Like we wanted to get the freedom,we wanted to have our time to
(22:42):
do these things as a trade off.
Well, there's gonna be somestress associated with it.
There's gonna be Right sometimes where you feel overwhelmed,
EmLed (22:49):
right?
Absolutely.
I love the way that you're explainingthat you look at things and it's, that's
kind of how I'm working to reorientyour mind, I think, in my past, and I
think the way that our world kind oftrains us is to be hard and to judge
ourselves for our human emotions.
So when I do feel scared or I dofeel overwhelmed, I, in the past,
(23:10):
and sometimes I catch myself doingit now too, would judge that and
be like, you're, you're weak.
Like, get it together.
You know, like get it together.
Like get, you know, but that's, it'struly like you're saying, it's your
perspective, like you're choosingto be like, oh, this is a signal.
Like I need to chill.
I need to take a break or I just need todo a better job taking care of myself.
(23:30):
And I think that's something huge that Iwant people to hear because I think a lot
of the battle, like you're saying, reallyis all mental and it's you versus you.
And when you can get out of your ownway and out of your own head, that just
presents so many more opportunitiesthen, you know, if you're constantly
battling with yourself every single day.
Nick Rizzo (23:48):
I agree, and I'll just say, I, I think it takes time to sort of realize
that, like for someone listening to thisthat maybe thinks like, oh, wow, these
people sound like they have it all figuredout and they just know all the answers.
LOL, it comes with time, right?
Like you have to kind of go throughthose low points for long enough
to realize, man, I keep endingup in the same place where I'm
stressed and I'm overwhelmed, like.
What's causing this?
Mm. Right.
(24:08):
Like you, you sort of, you don'tdevelop that the first time
It happens a hundred percent.
Yeah.
You, you don't have anyreason to think that way.
You think, oh, maybe I feel bad one day.
It'll go away tomorrow.
Yeah.
But then as you notice thesepatterns and see certain things
happen time and time again, you cankind of get in front of them and
say, okay, like if I do this thing.
I'll wake up the next morning andfeel stressed or feel overwhelmed,
or whatever it is, just for example.
(24:29):
Whereas when you can start to recognizethose patterns and say, oh, okay,
every time I do this, I get this out.
I get this outcome or this result.
So what if I change what I'mdoing back here and see if I get
a different result or a differentoutcome the next time I do it?
And it just comes with time.
Like you have to kind of recognizethose things as they keep popping up.
And I think.
That's what eventually leads you to changesomething or try something different.
(24:49):
So good.
EmLed (24:50):
Yeah.
That's so good.
Do you know Jay Shetty?
Are you familiar with him?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
So he just released a podcast episodeand he was talking about patterns,
like exactly what you just explained.
And he was saying that some of the mostsuccessful people out there are the
ones who just identify and recognizethose patterns and also come up with
new patterns that kind of go againstthe grain of traditional society.
(25:11):
And then they just start repeating.
They start doing the same thing and.
I think that is what will set successfulpeople, apart from non-successful people,
is literally just choosing to keep showingup the consistency of it, because so many
types of failures, roadblocks, doubt,setbacks, like that's all gonna come.
But choosing to keep goingand keep showing up, I really
(25:32):
think is the differentiator.
Nick Rizzo (25:34):
Yeah, that's huge.
The mindset, right.
If you can just tell yourselffrom the start that like, Hey,
look, I'm gonna do this thing.
I'm gonna follow through nomatter what, then yeah, you,
you'll find a way to do it.
EmLed (25:42):
Absolutely.
I'm curious, are you aspiritual person at all?
I.
Nick Rizzo (25:45):
Define spiritual.
EmLed (25:47):
Do you believe in like a higher power or like a creator
or, um, some people call it likethe universe, divine, like a power
that's greater outside of yourself.
Nick Rizzo (25:56):
100%.
I can't take credit for any of this.
EmLed (25:59):
Yeah.
Nick Rizzo (25:59):
I can't say me alone is responsible for this.
EmLed (26:01):
Yeah.
Nick Rizzo (26:02):
Yeah.
EmLed (26:02):
If you had to sum it up, like what, what is that to you?
Is it God?
Do you have like faith?
Are you practicing religious?
Anything like that?
Nick Rizzo (26:09):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I don't know if I would puta, a title or a term on it.
Yeah.
Specifically, but basically, like I justsaid, like I know it's bigger than me.
There's no way I can take credit for everysingle, for being born for like everything
that's happened to me up to this point.
There's no way that there'snot something else out there
that is influencing or, yeah.
Uh, you know, kind of shaping orguiding or helping in some sort of way.
(26:32):
Yeah.
Like I just, I, there's no worldthat I can think of where I am fully
responsible for every single thingthat's happened to me up to this point.
Like, I'm, I'm not that lucky.
There's no way.
Right.
Something else has to be out there.
That's, that's.
Doing something.
EmLed (26:45):
Yeah.
That posture of humility is reallyimportant to know that like we are
not as in control as we think we are.
Like, yes, we have free will.
Yes, we're in choice, in charge of ourday-to-day choices, but largely there's
something else out there behind thescenes that's pulling some strengths.
So do you pray at all or doyou have any type of spiritual
practice that you visit often?
Nick Rizzo (27:04):
Yeah, I don't know if I would call it praying.
I, I think everybody, again, likeputs terms and titles on certain
things, like maybe what I do, someoneelse would perceive as praying.
I would say more just, justbeing mindful and reflecting and,
and having thoughts that are I.
I guess praying would, wouldyou define praying as like
asking for something or just,
EmLed (27:24):
it could just be, I guess for me, like it looks different.
Like I feel like I just talk to myselfand I just like hope God's listening.
You know what I, we,I'm saying, there we go.
Like that would
Nick Rizzo (27:31):
be almost how I sum it up.
Like sort of talking to myself,like revising things in my head.
Yeah, just somethingthat gets me out of like.
Thinking about the future or thepast or whatever it is, right?
Yeah.
Like some sort of internalreflection, but I don't even know
if there's a term for that, really.
Yeah, right.
Well,
EmLed (27:45):
I think it's important, like you said, like there are so many definitions
that our world comes up with, and Ithink that leads to things being put in
a box and like we have to make sense ofeverything in order to participate in it.
But at least for me, like I just startedkind of growing in my faith a lot, maybe
like eight months ago, and I was raised ina very, um, strict loving Christian home.
(28:06):
But really had turned away from itbecause it's so hard to make sense of
God, and there are so many things aboutreligion and faith that if we're being
honest, it just doesn't add up, you know?
Mm-hmm.
So I came back to the Lord probablylike eight months ago, just
from a place of feeling reallylow and feeling burnout and.
I was trying to do everything by myself.
Like what you're explaining, tryingto, you know, feeling the weight of
(28:29):
the world on my shoulders, trying tofigure it out all by myself and when
I could step back and like you weresaying, have that posture of humility
where you realize like, nah, this isn'tall about me and I'm also not in charge
of all of my success or my failure.
Like there's more that goes into this.
That was a huge sigh of relief and Ithink a lot of us can get caught up in
the grind of the day to day, and we don'teven stop to reflect on that and we can
(28:53):
feel a lot of that pressure and yeah.
I just really love what yousaid about zooming out and just
realizing there's more at play.
Nick Rizzo (28:59):
I think it's important.
Yeah.
It's like you mentioned with mind, body,spirit, all these things play into it.
Yeah.
And maybe people think when they see likesomeone successful in business or someone
in really good shape, they've really justonly mastered maybe one sort of lane.
Mm. Like if you're in reallygood shape, like Yeah.
You figured out your fitnessand health and those things.
Yeah.
But.
Maybe you don't have a business or youaren't successful in your career, but
(29:20):
you are in really good shape, right?
When you can combine all of thosethings and, and, and have the mind,
the body, and the spirit all combine.
Mm. I think that's like thewinning formula for everything.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think there's, there,it's all necessary, right?
Like we're sitting here talking aboutbusiness and life and all these things,
but I think so much goes into it, right?
In order to be really like.
100% complete.
EmLed (29:38):
Absolutely.
You nailed that.
That's so well said.
Um, the final question that I wanna askyou is, what is the biggest piece of
advice that you have for people who arein their twenties or their thirties?
They're kind of whatwe've been talking about.
You know, they feel isolated,alone, maybe burnt out, overworked.
They just kind of feel like theweight of the world's on them.
(29:59):
What is the biggest piece ofadvice that you would give
them to help them get unstuck?
Nick Rizzo (30:03):
I love this question.
This is a really good question.
I would say with social media, like in2025 specifically, just stop watching
other people live their lives onsocial media and go live your life.
Mm yep.
Like get out there anddo things and try things.
And in your twenties andthirties specifically.
I don't think you should expect tohit a home run and, and have the
(30:24):
a hundred million dollar businessand all these crazy things.
Amen.
Like, this is your time to try things.
Experiment.
Yes.
Put yourself out there, seewhat works, what doesn't, and
just experiment and learn.
Yes.
And have realistic expectations.
So I'm, I'm 30 right now, and for me toeven speak on this is, is interesting
because every time I say 30, I have tostop and think like, wait a second, 30.
Like, this feels kind of old, which.
(30:44):
People in their fortieswould probably laugh at me.
Yeah.
But the biggest thing I couldsay to anybody in their twenties
is don't expect to have it allfigured out by the time you're 25.
EmLed (30:53):
Oh,
Nick Rizzo (30:53):
that's so well done.
Right.
Just try things.
Put yourself out there.
Experiment and, and learn.
Just learn as much as you can and thenby the time you're in your thirties
and forties, you should be able to.
Use all the information andall the knowledge and all
the failures and, and yeah.
You don't have to call'em failures, right?
Just learning lessons, right, yeah.
Of experience that you've accumulatedand then you can make better
informed decisions moving forward.
(31:13):
Yes.
But if you never go throughthat phase of taking the time to
try things and fail and learn.
You're gonna have to go throughthat eventually a hundred percent.
Whether you do it in your thirties oryour twenties or earlier or whatever
time you decide to start doing that,it's just a necessary part of, of
learning and growing, I wanna say.
Yeah.
EmLed (31:29):
Yeah.
Might as well get itoutta the way now, right?
True.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I love that.
That was so well said.
And um, I think.
What a banger note to end on.
Um, yeah, Nick, thank youso much for joining me.
No, you, you are.
And for all the wisdom that you shared,I really think people are going to
hear this and be encouraged because,you know, you should be so proud
of yourself for what you've built.
And, um, I think hearing you speak, it'svery evident that you've put a lot of
(31:53):
time and energy and thought into yourperspective and how you see the world.
You're very zen, very, very zen.
Likewise, I'm taking this,you made me feel relaxed
Nick Rizzo (32:00):
here.
Right?
Good.
I'm glad.
It's a great environment.
EmLed (32:02):
Good.
I'm glad.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for coming on andmaybe we'll have to do this again soon.
Let's do it.
All right, cool.
Bye, y'all
Killer.
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