Selling With Heart and Authenticity. Nikki Rausch

[00:00:30] Bob Wheeler: Welcome to another episode of Money You Should Ask, where everyone has something they can teach you. I’m your host, Bob Wheeler.

[00:00:38] Our next guest is Nikki Rausch, who is the CEO of Sales Maven, an organization dedicated to authentic selling. Nikki has the unique ability to transform the misunderstood process of selling. With 25+ years of experience selling to such prestigious organizations as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett Packard, and NASA, Nikki shattered sales records in many industries, receiving multiple top producer awards along the way.

[00:01:03] As a speaker and facilitator, Nikki shares the secrets of her sales success through illuminating keynote addresses and business changing workshops. Her robust Sales Maven Society ignites game changing outcomes for clients. Her three popular books, including The Selling Staircase, are all available on Amazon, and her podcast, Sales Maven, can be found on your favorite podcast platform.

[00:01:50] Nikki, I’m super excited to see you today.

[00:01:53] Nikki Rausch: I am very, very excited to be here with you. So thank you for having me.

[00:01:57] Bob Wheeler: So I’ve just got to jump in because you do sales, and I’ve got to ask this off the top. And it’s sort of cheeky. Are women better salesmen than men?

[00:02:08] Nikki Rausch: Hmm. My initial response is I want to say, not traditionally, not traditionally are they.

[00:02:17] I think they’re getting better because I think the landscape around sales and how people want to be sold to has changed. And I think it more fits a little bit of a softer approach. And so sometimes that is a strength of women, that collaborative experience that I think, not all women, but many women feel very drawn to.

[00:02:40] “I want to have a collaborative experience. I want to have real conversations with people and I want it to feel good to the person that I’m interacting with.”

[00:02:50] Bob Wheeler: So my sense was, women tend to be more relational and maybe not so, “we’ve got to close the door, got to close the sale, gotta make it happen.” And so that there might just naturally organically be a little bit more of a soft sell.

[00:03:05] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. The reason I do what I do, the reason I teach selling skills and primarily to women, is because they hold themselves back so much because they think that in order to be good at sales, you have to be aggressive. You got to go out, you got to close that deal, and that doesn’t feel good to them. And so they really shy away from it.

[00:03:26] And by shying away from it, they’re missing out on working with their ideal clients. And more importantly, the ideal client is missing out on what that person, that woman is going to bring into their life or into their business. So that’s really why I do what I do is to teach them how to be authentic, how to be yourself and show up as yourself and be strategic in the conversation.

[00:03:48] Bob Wheeler: That’s awesome. And so I’m wondering, how does and did, gender play a role for you in your journey to where you are? As a woman, you certainly get a different perspective and you may have awarenesses that I’m certainly not aware of. So can you just share a little bit of how gender does play a role in your journey?

[00:04:08] Nikki Rausch: Absolutely. So I was raised by my dad. I have three brothers. And my dad . And my grandfather owned a tool store when I grew up. And I started working in the tool store, that was really kind of my first experience in sales. So I’ve been surrounded by men most of my life. And when I started in my first professional sales job, it was a very male dominated industry.

[00:04:31] And when I moved my way up and went to the manufacturer side, I come from a background in technology. And when I was working at the manufacturer level, the last 10 years of my sales career, there was only ever one other female on a sales team with me for less than 12 months. The rest of the time, it was all men and I was the only female on the sales team.

[00:04:55] So I’m used to that very male “go out and hunt the big game,” you know, “tell that person they’re an idiot,” like that, that kind of very “dude-bro” kind of sales environment. I come from that. So I was very familiar with it and found a way that it does not fit my personality.

[00:05:15] I will say, I can keep up with the guys for sure. I’ve had to learn how to do that. And yet I realized pretty early on that in order to be successful, it wasn’t going to work for me to try to sell like the guys on the team. I had to figure out, how could I sell in a way that felt good to me? And that’s really when I got super interested and started honing my skills around relationship building.

[00:05:40] Bob Wheeler: And do you think that there’ve been times where somebody didn’t close the deal because it was a woman, or maybe we need to talk to her boss that might know a little bit more?

[00:05:53] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been out on calls where I am the boss in the room and the people are talking to essentially my subordinates as if they’re my boss.

[00:06:05] Like so many examples of times where, you know, you have to put your ego in check because, are you going to keep the relationship with the client? Whereas you want to be like, “Hey, look it, I’m over here. I’m in charge. Like, I’m actually the person who knows the answers to your questions.” So you got to keep your ego in check around that.

[00:06:23] But yeah, I have so many, so many times of being in a room where I’m sitting there with somebody who is learning from me or who has just started out and, well, actually I worked for a Japanese company for many, many years. I was their top producing sales rep in North America. And when we would go to Japan, I got to go to Japan.

[00:06:43] I was expected to sit back in the room, not speak up. And I watched the women there, would be the ones that would have to go and like refill waters and coffees. And I just remember being like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe I worked for this one company for five years. And it wasn’t until about my fourth year that the people who would come over from Japan would even want to ask me questions. And I was their top producing sales rep.

[00:07:09] Bob Wheeler: Wow. You got to have to have some thick skin and a real determination to keep moving forward, because some folks might just say I’m out.

[00:07:17] Nikki Rausch: Well, you know, one of the reasons I left one of the companies I worked for at one point, is I had sat down with my vice president and said, okay, I’m interested in like, what’s next for me?

[00:07:28] I’m ready to take on some more responsibility. I’d like to move up in the organization. And he said, very candidly to me, and I’m super grateful for this, is he said, “Look, you’ll never be promoted.” And I said, “Well, why?” He said, “You’re a woman.” Said, “Okay. Point taken.” And I went and found a new job.

[00:07:47] Bob Wheeler: Wow. At least he was honest.

[00:07:48] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. I’m so grateful. He wasn’t being a jerk or anything. He was actually just really trying to give me advice that I needed. I needed to know that because in my mind, I still really believed that this company would promote me.

[00:08:04] Bob Wheeler: Well, that’s such an important thing to know. I have an acquaintance who’s Indian and wanted to be the CEO of a Fortune 500.

[00:08:12] And he was told, “You’re not a white male, six foot tall, the chances are pretty slim.” And so he went out and created his own company, sold it, it became a top 500, and that’s how he got in. Because the traditional way wasn’t going to work for him. So, know what you’re working with, know what you’re up against and then work around it.

[00:08:34] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. I mean, I think those are some of the best life lessons, right? Like, I don’t know if you know, it’s a line from a Bruno Mars song where he says, “Don’t believe me, just watch.” I don’t know if you know that. Anyway, I feel like that has kind of been my life a little bit of people saying, like, I don’t think you can do that. Or, and I was like, “Don’t believe me, just watch, let me show you.”

[00:08:53] But being able to have that information, right? For somebody to say to him, like you’re not a white male, you’re not going to be the CEO. And so he goes out and creates his own company, sells it for however much money, like, okay. Guess what? That was probably a much better decision, life decision for you right? Then to try to be working in a company where they’re trying to convince you that if you’re not a tall white dude, you’re not going to make it.

[00:09:17] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely. Now, let me ask you this. So you grew up with three brothers and a dad and a grandfather, working tools, right?

[00:09:24] Nikki Rausch: Yes.

[00:09:25] Bob Wheeler: What was the message around money growing up? Were you taught to save? Were you taught to, what were the things said and unsaid?

[00:09:33] Nikki Rausch: Well, luckily my grandfather loved money and he talked about money. He touched money a lot in front of me. He touched it mostly because he had very little eyesight. So he was always having to hold it up. But there was something about like this physical touch to money.

[00:09:49] And he also taught me that you put money away, like in a drawer. And you save for things and if you can’t pay cash for it, you can’t afford it.

[00:10:00] So I did this for many years, like all probably through my twenties, and it really wasn’t until I got into my late twenties that I started making some real money. But prior to that, when I wanted to buy something, I’ve worked since I was very young, and I would put $10 in my top drawer. And then I would add a 5 to it when I could and a 20 if I could.

[00:10:21] And, and then when I had the, whatever the amount was for whatever I was going to go buy, then I could go purchase it because I had the cash. So my grandfather taught me that valuable lesson. And even to this day, I pretty much pay my credit card statement every month, like I just pay it off. Like, it’s just a convenience factor because I hear my grandfather being like, you can’t afford it if you got to put it on credit.

[00:10:47] Bob Wheeler: That’s awesome. And do you think that because you worked with your family in the business, that’s what took you into sales? Or were you determined to go off and be an opera singer, or were you determined to, I don’t know, do something else? What was the journey to, I want to be a top producing salesperson?

[00:11:06] Nikki Rausch: Well, I always thought I wanted to be a lawyer, well I really wanted to be a dancer. And then I wanted to be a lawyer through high school. I got married very young and I moved to a state where I didn’t know anybody. And I actually had never even been there before. Like we got married on a Saturday, drove on a Sunday.

[00:11:22] And I married somebody who was in the Navy. So within like two months, maybe it was a couple of weeks. He was gone for six months, like on a, so I had to get a job. And I got this, it was right before the holiday season, and they were starting to put those kiosks in the mall, you know, where they have like just for the holiday season.

[00:11:40] So there was a job posting for this kiosk that sold leather goods in the mall. And it was a minimum wage job, but they offered a commission for sales. For however many hours you worked, you had to sell a certain amount, but anything over that, you started getting commission. And that was the first time I ever started doubling and tripling my hourly wage.

[00:12:04] And I was like, I kinda like this commission piece because I can control my money. And so when I went into sales and started getting paid real, like not just for the belt or the purse that I sold, but like, you know, I was selling $5,000 pieces of equipment and you start getting paid commission on that. Whew.

[00:12:24] Things got so much better for me. So I love that commission side. So that’s really the long answer.

[00:12:30] Bob Wheeler: Well, that’s awesome. Did you ever work for a company where you started doing really well, and they said, well you’re sort of making too much commission, we need to restructure for you?

[00:12:38] Nikki Rausch: Every year. Every year, companies restructure for the, at least in the industry that I was in. They pretty much restructured every year, your commission plan. So you always are trying to figure out like, okay. So how do you make the most out of what is being offered here?

[00:12:55] And I actually got really frustrated with a company one time, because there was an opportunity for me to make some more money, and they’re like, we can’t have her making that kind of money. That was kind of one of the answers that my boss gave was like, you know, this is going to basically make your coworkers mad.

[00:13:12] But I’m like, but it’s a commission sales job and I’m bringing in revenue. So I don’t get that. But yeah, for sure. Companies restructure with the commission fees.

[00:13:22] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, I see that happen and I never understand it. You know? Cause some of the top folks that are in executive management are making four, five, $600,000. But wait a minute, you’re making too much money because we’re going to decide what everybody gets to make, and you’re doing so well that it’s too good.

[00:13:41] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. Well, I will say I came up in an industry kind of in the, there was some like, heyday stuff. Right? When I moved to the manufacturer level, we used to spiff our products that I would sell to the distributors and the dealers. And we actually have a guy who put a sign on the front of his house that he built. And he said “house built by the company I was working with,” because he built his whole house on spiffs that we paid out.

[00:14:08] Bob Wheeler: Wow.

[00:14:08] Nikki Rausch: I had another one of my sales reps who sold our product that was like my person to manage. I bought him a boat. So I can understand where companies are like, wow, these people are making all kinds of money, but the thing is, is this person was making money for everybody. And I’m making money for everybody too, right?

[00:14:26] Cause I’m selling to him, he’s selling this stuff to somebody else, and we’re all making money. So yeah, it’s always interesting with that mindset of like, I personally don’t think you should try to turn off the tap when your salespeople are producing. I think it’s a mistake.

[00:14:42] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. And where do you think that mindset for you came from to have the awareness of, “hey, this guy is producing money, and I’m making money. And let me reward him instead of, ‘wait, how can I keep more?'” So some people would tend to like, “let me hoard every penny.” And I don’t like, “that’s $5 less than my pocket if I buy the boat.” And how did you cultivate that?

[00:15:03] Nikki Rausch: Okay. So I talked about growing up with my dad and my grandfather, but I will say I grew up in Boise, Idaho.

[00:15:10] So I know this might be offensive to some people, but I’m only speaking of myself when I say this, is we considered ourself white trash.

[00:15:16] Bob Wheeler: Okay.

[00:15:16] Nikki Rausch: Like we could barely, there were times where we were going for the last can that was in the cupboard. And that’s what we were eating, because that was the only thing that was available to eat.

[00:15:27] So I did grow up in an environment where I never went hungry, but there was never excess. There wasn’t excess for a lot of things. So I think this idea of, that once you start to see that there is plenty to go around and you don’t have to hoard anything, and this expansive thing, I think it comes from my childhood of always maybe worrying that there wouldn’t be enough.

[00:15:52] So then when there started to be an abundance, of just going like, wow, what is possible? You know, when I could go into a store and buy anything I wanted. I don’t have to worry about somebody else also being able to buy anything they want. Right? So I think it’s a little bit of, I don’t know if that’s the right answer, but that’s how I feel like it comes out.

[00:16:15] Bob Wheeler: Well, let me ask you this, because I’m curious now. There wasn’t always an abundance. There certainly wasn’t extra. But it sounds like, and I’m guessing here, but there was maybe love or there was connection. There was something there, because what I don’t hear is anger and blame. I don’t hear, “I had the worst childhood ever.” And maybe you’re just being really polite.

[00:16:38] Nikki Rausch: I’m being polite. I am being polite. Yeah. I would say I didn’t have a happy childhood.

[00:16:44] Bob Wheeler: Okay.

[00:16:44] Nikki Rausch: But there were pieces of it. There was some happiness, right? My grandfather took a real interest in me, very young. And in our family, he was considered, like his intellect level, he scored almost genius level.

[00:16:59] So he was a very intelligent person. And so having a really intelligent person think that I had some smarts or that I had value in some way really elevated me. And so I always kind of felt like no matter what the circumstances are, how hard things were, I at least had somebody who thought something of me.

[00:17:21] And I also had a grandmother who was the only person, I will say, that I felt unconditionally loved from. And she loved me like, oh, you just can’t even imagine. It was the best kind of experience. So I will say I had these two people that influenced my life at a very young age.

[00:17:40] And then as I got older, I started realizing how important it was to seek out mentors.

[00:17:46] Bob Wheeler: Yeah.

[00:17:47] Nikki Rausch: People who did kind of encourage you and think you were worth something and see something in you that sometimes you didn’t see in yourself. So I’ve been very, very blessed with mentors in my life.

[00:17:57] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, I think that’s so important. And I appreciate you sharing that piece and going a little bit beyond the politeness part, because I think it’s important for people out there to know that you may not have had the greatest childhood. Or you may not have had all of the things, but a little anchor just here or there, or a little angel on the side, that’s just helping pull you along.

[00:18:20] Because I feel like I had a lot of angels, sort of, people that came in and saw something and pulled me along as well. And had it not been for those people, it not been for a teacher or a family friend that’s like, “no, we’re going to make this happen for you. And I’m going to help you.” And those are gems that we don’t know necessarily as we’re growing.

[00:18:44] Nikki Rausch: Right.

[00:18:45] Bob Wheeler: At least I didn’t. I had no idea. And then later on, I’m like, oh my goodness, I didn’t get here on my own. I had a whole lot of people that had a whole lot of faith in me, even when I didn’t.

[00:18:55] Nikki Rausch: Yeah, I totally agree with that. That’s very much me as well. And I think sometimes people are always like, how do you have these conversations with people to become mentors to you?

[00:19:04] And, and I always say like, I’ve never had a conversation with anybody going like, “Will you be my mentor?” It’s more of, I’ve always shown an interest in people and by showing an interest and being open to feedback and being open to somebody who’s elevated or further ahead in some area of their life than I am, to being willing to ask questions and be curious and, and be kind.

[00:19:30] They have kind of taken me under their wing and been like, here’s somebody who could use a little, you know, who could use some advice or could use a helping hand or, yeah. So I think it’s important to also realize that you have to take some action. You can’t sit there and go like, nobody likes me. And I’m just going to wait for somebody to show up, to make me feel valued.

[00:19:50] Like you have to put yourself in situations I think also to find those people.

[00:19:57] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. Absolutely. And what would you say was the impetus to, we talked about it a little bit, but what was the impetus that you said, “you know what, I want to help women. I want to be that mentor. I want to be a beacon of light.” Where did that come from?

[00:20:14] Nikki Rausch: Well, so I grew up in this household, mostly it’s primarily surrounded by males. And then when I went into the industry that I was in, it was very male dominated. When I decided to leave the industry, I went to go help somebody grow their business, and it was the first time I started networking. And the very first networking meeting I ever went to was a hundred women in a room.

[00:20:36] And I’m not joking when I say this, I don’t think I’d ever been in a room with a hundred women that were all kind of focused on business, and it felt very unusual to me. So I was kind of in awe, frankly. And these were entrepreneurial women, they were doing things, and they were confident, and I just wanted to be around them.

[00:21:01] I just thought, I want to, it was almost like I want to rub up against them and hope like some of that rubs off on me. Look at these women. Now, as I started to get to know some of them, and as I networked more and more, I recognized that quite a few of them were struggling to make money in their business. And if you don’t make money in a business, you have a hobby, you don’t have a business.

[00:21:23] Bob Wheeler: That’s right.

[00:21:23] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. And so the thing that they often struggled with was the sales conversation, because they’d only heard that sales is about being pushy or aggressive, or, you know, you got to meet somebody and go right in for that sale. Well, that’s not how I sold and I had had a lot of success with it, so I just started, really just meeting a couple of cool women, wanting to spend time around them and asking if they were open to some suggestions on how to sell better.

[00:21:50] And they were, and my business was really born out of these women coming back. And one in particular who had some amazing results going, like, why are you not teaching people this?

[00:22:01] And my instant response was, “Who would ever pay me to tell people about sales?” The stuff that I teach, it seems so common. And it seems so like, obvious. And she’s like, “It’s not, and people will pay you.” And really my business was born out of that.

[00:22:17] And so the more I get to spend time with women. And teach them how to have these effective sales conversations, I see their confidence grow. But I also will say, there’s a part of me that, I love the kind of impact that women make when they make money. They make an impact in their family, and then they also make an impact in their community. And that feels super satisfying to me.

[00:22:41] Bob Wheeler: That’s so awesome. And I think to your point about, “Why would people pay me to do this? It’s so obvious.” I cannot stress enough that the obvious is not always obvious. My background is accounting, and an audit, if you didn’t count the inventory, you still had to say, “I didn’t count the inventory.” And I remember thinking, well, “I didn’t put anything because I didn’t count the inventory. You should’ve known.”

[00:23:05] Everybody’s like, why would we know? And oh, you have, oh yes, I did this. No, I didn’t do this. And I think what happens is, whether it’s sales or life lessons, we think that because we know it, that it’s obvious and there’s lots of people saying, yeah, it’s not obvious to me, help me out, help me out.

[00:23:24] So I think that’s awesome that you’re restating what may come easy to you or what may have been obvious to you, that’s not obvious to everybody else and you’re offering that out so that people can empower themselves and empower the people around them.

[00:23:39] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. I also have a pretty extensive background in neuro linguistic programming. I don’t know if you know that term.

[00:23:44] Bob Wheeler: I do, NLP, love it.

[00:23:45] Nikki Rausch: Okay. Yeah. So I love NLP too. And I have a pretty, like I said, extensive background in it. And maybe you’ve heard this comment before, but they say NLP is a comment on the obvious that isn’t obvious until it’s commented on. Have you heard that before?

[00:24:00] Bob Wheeler: I haven’t, but it makes complete sense to me.

[00:24:02] Nikki Rausch: Okay. And I feel like everything I teach is kind of an example of that.

[00:24:08] Because as a matter of fact, I just had somebody, a client say to me the other day in a session, she was like, “Every time you talk, Nikki, I hear it and I go. ‘Of course, yes, duh.'” And I’m like, that’s what I specialize in, is commenting on sometimes the things that seem obvious, but they’re really not obvious until somebody helps point it out or give you some direction or give you some structure to it.

[00:24:32] And . Then you’re going like, yes. But I love that because by being able to do that, that also, I think is an example, that I teach really simple skills that everybody or anybody can implement and then get results. Because I’m not asking you to jump over, you know, three buildings and have 8,000 conversations that get a bunch of nos, right? I’m not playing that game.

[00:24:57] Bob Wheeler: That’s awesome. I love stating the obvious because it’s not obvious.

[00:25:02] Nikki Rausch: Yeah.

[00:25:03] Bob Wheeler: That is wonderful. Well, we are at the Fast Five, so we are going to shift the energy just a little bit. And I’m going to ask just these questions and just, whatever flows.

[00:25:12] Nikki Rausch: Okay.

[00:25:13] Bob Wheeler: How would you explain financial success to a first grader?

[00:25:15] Nikki Rausch: Oh, wow. How would I explain financial success to a first grader? I would say, imagine the things that bring you the most joy, and then imagine that you could have those things when you want them without having to ask anybody’s permission. Okay, good.

[00:25:37] Bob Wheeler: Oh my gosh. I love it. I love it. I love it. Beautiful. Would you consider yourself a saver or spender?

[00:25:44] Nikki Rausch: I’m going to say, the period of my life that I’m in right now is I am more of a saver. Yeah.

[00:25:51] Bob Wheeler: Cool.

[00:25:52] Nikki Rausch: I would say I’ve gone through different points in my life where I could be either, but I think right now I’m a little bit more of a saver.

[00:25:58] Bob Wheeler: Okay. Perfect. Aside from monthly bills, what is your least favorite thing to spend money on?

[00:26:04] Nikki Rausch: Oh, okay. Cause I’ve mentioned this earlier. Traffic tickets, like any kind of a ticket. That would probably be my least.

[00:26:14] Bob Wheeler: They just hand those things out. It’s so rude.

[00:26:16] Nikki Rausch: It’s so rude! So rude. Oh, that feels painful to let go of money for that.

[00:26:22] Bob Wheeler: That is painful. I can tell you, even when I get an expensive speeding ticket, it’s still very hard to train my foot to connect the penalty to the pressure I put on the pedal.

[00:26:33] Nikki Rausch: Yeah, I’ve gotten better. Like I’ve slowed down and I try to be a little bit more careful, but yeah. Cause it’s like, but I’m so good, and then this one time I get caught. Yeah. So I get it.

[00:26:45] Bob Wheeler: This is one time! What’s a valuable life lesson you’re learning right now?

[00:26:51] Nikki Rausch: To not have my identity attached to other people in any way. That my identity needs to be completely separate. Who I am, what my values are, cannot be wrapped up in what I am to anybody else, but myself and God.

[00:27:06] Bob Wheeler: Awesome. If you could undo one financial decision you made in the past year, what would it be?

[00:27:10] Nikki Rausch: Ooh. In the past year? Spending money on Facebook ads. Seriously.

[00:27:20] Bob Wheeler: They keep changing the algorithms, and oh my goodness.

[00:27:24] Nikki Rausch: Yeah, I will say, so that’s going to be my second answer to the traffic ticket. It’s like every time I send money to Facebook, I feel like…

[00:27:32] Bob Wheeler: I know, I know.

[00:27:34] Nikki Rausch: I could have flushed it down the toilet and probably felt more satisfied.

[00:27:38] Bob Wheeler: Exactly. Well we’re at our Money and Motivation, our M & M, our Sweet Spot. Do you have a piece of practical advice or some wealth wisdom that you can share with our listeners, that’s something that you have found to help you?

[00:27:52] Nikki Rausch: Well, I kind of mentioned this earlier about like my grandfather saying we had to pay cash for things. So I don’t actually put money in my top drawer anymore, but I do open different accounts and I funnel money in there for certain things.

[00:28:05] You know, expenses like when I bought a new house a year and a half ago or, and putting all that money and have it, like, this is my house fund and this is my fund for this piece of my business, like for my new website, or, so I’m pretty good about moving money into different areas. And I know what that money is for. It’s earmarked for something.

[00:28:26] Bob Wheeler: That’s awesome. I also have multiple accounts, but mainly so that I forget about them. I only have one account that’s my main account. And then I have a bunch of other accounts, but I have to pretend like I don’t.

[00:28:37] Cause if it’s all together, I go, oh, I spend it. Maybe this is true for other people. But for me, when I separated my personal from my business, I really actually nurtured my business accounts more than I nurtured my personal. And I was able to say, no, no, no, I have to protect this. I advocated more for my business than I did for my personal.

[00:28:57] Nikki Rausch: Yeah, I will say I can be guilty of that too. My business is my baby.

[00:29:02] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely. Wanna treat it with lots of love and kindness. One of the things that I really have heard and it wasn’t spoken, but this really sense of gratitude or a sense of blessed, in that I don’t hear all these stories of how your life was terrible.

[00:29:21] I don’t hear these victim stories or mindset. I really hear the place where there was curiosity. “Wow. Look at this group of women. I want to rub up against them and get some of that.” Or taking that information at a job where you’re not going to get promoted. You’re a woman. “Cool. Thanks for the information. I’m going to move over here.”

[00:29:40] So I don’t hear a lot of, “oh, woe is me,” but more of, “well, how do I keep stepping into my power? How do I keep showing up? And how do I pass on the people that anchored me so that I can help anchor and pay it forward?”

[00:29:56] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. And I will say that I did have a very tough childhood and there was a lot of trauma attached to it. And I remember at some point being like, this is either going to break me or it’s going to make me. And I chose, I made a conscious decision that I was gonna have it make me.

[00:30:14] And so because of that, I think, you can ask family members and people were like, oh, she is going to be pregnant at 16 or, oh, she’s going to be into drugs or she’s going to, you know, and, and I just always made that choice of, I’m not going to be what other people are saying, “because of this upbringing you’ve had, this is the kind of person you’ll be.”

[00:30:33] I was always going to decide for myself and yeah. And so being really grateful for lessons. Hard, hard lessons. And in the moment when you’re in it, it’s so hard to be grateful for it, but when you can look back and go, if that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be who I am today. So, yeah. Gratitude and curiosity.

[00:30:55] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. I think that’s so important. For me it’s vigilant self-care and you deciding who you get to be, and that for people out there that have experienced trauma, and there are a lot of folks out there that have experienced extreme trauma, it doesn’t always feel like it, but you do have the choice to say, I’m going to get up and I’m going to push through this and I’m going to create the life that I want to have and deserve to have.

[00:31:23] And it’s a choice. We can choose to have gratitude. We can choose to be happy, even when it feels insurmountable. All is possible.

[00:31:33] Nikki Rausch: Yeah. And also, I won’t tell the story, but there’s a riddle of, what makes a happy man sad and a sad man happy. Have you heard this one?

[00:31:40] Bob Wheeler: No, I love it.

[00:31:41] Nikki Rausch: Okay. So what makes a happy man sad and a sad man happy? And the answer is, “This too shall pass.” And I have to remind myself all the time of that. This too shall pass.

[00:31:52] Bob Wheeler: Love that.

[00:31:53] Nikki Rausch: The best of times, it will pass. And the worst of times, when you’re in it, it also will pass.

[00:31:59] Bob Wheeler: That’s beautiful.

[00:32:00] Nikki Rausch: Thank you.

[00:32:00] Bob Wheeler: I love that. Thank you. Thank you. That is awesome. Where can people find you online or on social media?

[00:32:06] Nikki Rausch: Well, the easiest way to find me and be connected to me, is I’m going to wrap it around a gift for your listener if that’s okay.

[00:32:12] Bob Wheeler: Yes!

[00:32:12] Nikki Rausch: Which is my eBook called Closing The Sale, where I talk through some of the steps of the selling staircase. And you can get that by going to my website, which is YourSalesMaven.com/Ask.

[00:32:25] So that’s just for your listener. So YourSalesMaven.com/Ask. And then I also hang out on LinkedIn and on Instagram. And you can find me under Nikki Rausch or Sales Maven.

[00:32:35] Bob Wheeler: That is awesome. We will be sure to post all that information in the notes. We will encourage everybody to get all of your books, all three of them.

[00:32:43] Nikki Rausch: Thank you.

[00:32:43] Bob Wheeler: Not just the freebie, but go and buy a couple of books, and learn how to be more authentic, and learn about stating the obvious, learning that you can have everything you want.

[00:32:52] Nikki Rausch: Yeah.

[00:32:52] Bob Wheeler: If you want it.

[00:32:55] I so appreciate it, Nikki. And I want to say to our listeners out there, please don’t forget to share the love. Like, follow, and share on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Search for MoneyYouShouldAsk, all one word. You can follow this podcast on your favorite podcast player. Search for Money You Should Ask or click on the link in the description.

[00:33:11] If you’re watching this episode on YouTube, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe. For more tips, tools, or to learn how to have a healthy relationship with money, visit themoneynerve.com. That’s nerve, not nerd. I’m the nerd.

[00:33:23] Nikki, such a pleasure. Thank you so much for sharing your story.

[00:33:26] Nikki Rausch: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.