Dave Lorenzo (00:00):
60 shows. Can you believe it? We've done 60 shows together, Nicki, g and I, and we're going to share the three things that we've learned. So combine, it's six things we've learned through 60 shows. Join us for this episode of the Inside BS Show. Hey, now Nicki G, congratulations on 60 shows. We've learned some stuff and we're going to share it with the audience today. I could not be more excited, I could not be more happy, I could not be more thrilled to have done 60 shows with you. It went just like that.

Nicola Gelormino (00:37):
It did

Dave Lorenzo (00:37):
Because we're just having so much fun while I'm speaking for myself. I'm having a great time. So Nicki G, who wants to go first? Do you want me to go first? Do you want you to go first? Who wants to share the first thing that we've learned in doing 60 shows together so far?

Nicola Gelormino (00:53):
First of all, congratulations to you as well. I cannot believe that we hit 60 shows. I sat down to tally this up the other day thinking we should be approaching 50 soon, which is still a lot and was surprised to find out that we actually missed that mark because we blew past it. We're having so much fun, we didn't even realize it. So it's been so much there really has. So even picking just three was very difficult for me, as you can imagine, because I want a toil over to think, well, what are the best three? So let me dive in. I can see Dave already getting frustrated with how long this is taking to get to the meat of this.

Dave Lorenzo (01:28):
No, that's not frustration. I know. Know you've got something important to say, so I'm willing to listen to what you have to say. Let's hear it. What's the first one?

Nicola Gelormino (01:39):
The first one is to stop worrying about what other people think. When we released that first episode into the world, I will tell you I knew it got released. It was live, and I didn't want to look at anything. I didn't want to look at social media. I didn't want to hear what anyone had to say because it is brave, especially for people who are private. I'm a very private person, and releasing my personal interview out into the world was not easy. And I'm sharing this with you, audience, being vulnerable because in the end it doesn't matter. I think you finally get to a point in your life where you're like, you know what? I don't care what people are going to think. And I had that. It took me a few hours that day and I was like, you know what? Who cares? There's going to be people out there who say, this is terrible.

(02:21):
I could do so much better. And guess what? They don't have a podcast. Or people are going to say, gosh, I can't believe you made this point. I disagree with it. You know what? Who cares? Not everyone's going to like you. It doesn't matter. But man, it's so freeing to be able to do something that you really want to do, something you're passionate about. And when you finally take that step to do so, don't think about what other people are going to say because you are advancing your own professional and personal. And it is an amazing feeling to do it, especially if you're someone who's being held back by something like that where it's personal for you or you're just afraid to take that next step. You're afraid to give something go. That is the only way to be able to change and to make progress towards a new goal is just to do it.

Dave Lorenzo (03:07):
I like that. I like it a lot. You are an incredibly private person. I didn't realize how private you were until we started doing these shows together and we started thinking about things we could talk about, and I started to realize how much you valued and you guarded your privacy. So the first thing that I've learned from the last 60 shows that I want to share with the audience today is actually about you. And that's you can learn anything. I am freaking amazed at how great you've become at not only doing this, but about some of the subject matter that we've talked about covering some things that you've had absolutely no experience in that you are able to immerse yourself in and become conversant in very quickly. I mean, look, I had worked with you for a year before we started doing this, so I knew you were smart and I knew that you were somebody who would ask good questions and knew how to do a decent amount of research to delve into specific topics.

(04:16):
But it's one thing to be able to do research. It's another thing to be able to assimilate that information, internalize it, and be able to have good conversations about subjects that you had no knowledge of prior. So the first thing that I want to share with the audience that I learned is that you can pretty much learn anything. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to teach you how to diffuse bombs. We're going to teach you how to fly small aircraft. We're going to teach you all kinds of complex stuff to see what the boundaries of your knowledge mastery and assimilation are because it's very impressive. And that's the one thing that I learned about you was that you can pretty much learn anything on the fly and assimilate information and be able to become conversant in any subject really quickly. And I think it would be really interesting if as we move forward you would share some tips on stuff like that with the audience because that's a great skill to have. And if people can get to 50% or 40% of your capability in that area, they'd be able to really be able to connect with their clients on a much deeper level more quickly. So that's the first thing that I learned. What's the second thing you learned

Nicola Gelormino (05:25):
About? Well, first of all, lemme just say I really appreciate that. And that actually was more or less my number two, which was that you can learn any type of new subject matter with ease. And so let me at least give you a few tips out there for our audience. You can do this by immersing yourself in the subject. And even if you're someone, maybe it comes a little more natural to you or it doesn't matter. You've just got to be able to set aside the time, immerse yourself in the subject, and you will start picking up the material. And you've got to make sure too that you've got, you don't got the right intentions. If you want to go out and you want to sell something new or you branch into a different area of professional services, or you're a lawyer, you want to start a new practice area, you have to make sure you're doing this for the right reasons.

(06:04):
So we talk about purity of intent on the show. That's what it is. Make sure that you've got the right intentions about what you're doing and it will come across as authentic. And so in my personal experience, it was about learning subject matter that I was interested in immersing myself in it and making sure I had the right intentions and being able to convey it to an audience where I felt that I would be providing something that's valuable to them. And in doing so, it's kind of easy and I think that you'll find it to be easy, but you've got to just make sure you're following those guide points.

Dave Lorenzo (06:35):
That's great. I think you're spot on about that, and I love that you gave us a little bit of a description of that too. So the second thing that I think is incredibly valuable that I've learned is that frequency of communication develops relationships. And I'm going to give you an A and AB to this. So I think about the frequency of communication between you and I, forcing ourselves to get together for two hours, sometimes even longer every week to do these shows. I've learned a lot about you and I already had great admiration for you, but my admiration for you has grown even deeper. The more we've spent time communicating and brainstorming and talking to the people who are in our ideal audience mix to discover what they want to hear about the communication between us has made us closer and has deepened our relationship.

(07:28):
And that's certainly one of the ways that I think frequency of communication develops relationships. But the B aspect of this, I said there was an A and AB, and the B aspect of this is as people listen to the show or watch the show on video and we do interviews and then they meet us afterwards, it's amazing how they feel close to us. You and I experienced this locally when we do the local breakfasts that we do, but we were just at a national convention a couple of weeks ago and it was amazing how many people came up to us and are hugging us and talking to us out of the blue about stuff that we've talked about here as if they know us. And all of that came from the frequency of doing the show every day. And them maybe they batch listen to four or five at a time, maybe they listen every day, but they feel like they have a relationship with us. And I know that I've experienced this over the years by writing articles and pushing them out via email to an audience over and over again. But having that taken to the next level and seeing people and their reaction to us together, it was surprising to me. I guess it shouldn't have been, but it was surprising to me how that frequency of communication develops the relationship between us and the audience as well as between you and me. So that's the second thing that I learned.

Nicola Gelormino (09:01):
Yeah, I've been so surprised at the responses that we've received from doing this show together. It's been a really great feeling to know that we're impacting people's lives by being thoughtful about what we're providing. And the dynamic together just excites people. So I really love that. And I love the audience appreciates what we're providing and the people take the time to recognize that. It really means a lot to us because as you know, we're doing the show without sponsorships right now. I love to say that one day we will have sponsors for this show. Until then we continue to deliver value.

Dave Lorenzo (09:33):
And I think there's something else too. I think there's something else too. Part of the thing that allows us to connect with people is we are two sides of the same coin in that we're both entrepreneurial. We get along really well. We clearly like each other. You're a very private person. Everything about my life is an open book, and it's just freaking out there. So I think for people who listen on a regular basis, they see the continuity between us, but they also see some of the, I'm going to call it tension, but it's good tension in that you got this guy who's not afraid to say anything. And then you have this woman who's very measured and careful in everything she says, and you just don't know what's going to happen at any given moment. And it makes for a compelling thing to listen to.

(10:28):
People come up to us and they're constantly saying things like, I know Dave that you want to do this, but Nicola is not going to let you or Nicola, I don't know how you handle all of this craziness. In fact, one of my very good friends when I introduced you to them said, it's really nice to meet the person who keeps Dave in check. I was like, I wasn't aware that I was being kept in check. So we have a great dynamic, but there's a nice tension there between people who are more reserved. Half of our audience can relate to that and people who just let it fly. And half of our audience, I think, can relate to that. So I think that communication style is really good. Alright, Nicki G, what was number two for you?

Nicola Gelormino (11:14):
I agree so well, I've created a new one since we overlapped. Life is too short to not work in the professional space with people that you really get along with. Well, you get to pick people you work with and you shouldn't be afraid to do that because look how much fun we're having. But beyond just having fun together and complimenting one another so that we know we can build something great in a business, being able to work with someone that you get along with really well is not just important because you're having fun while you're doing business, but making sure you have complimentary skill sets is incredibly important. And I think that in the 60 episodes of the one thing that really stands out to me is that you really helped kind of push me to do this. Something that I wanted to do, didn't know that I was capable of doing.

(12:02):
And once the lights on and the camera's rolling, I realized I really like this. And I walked off the stage the other day and I said, do I really like this? But you need the right partner who's going to say, you can definitely do this. Recognize that is, it's not about not having confidence in myself because I am very confident speaking and what I do. I love speaking. That's really what drew me into being a trial lawyer was those moments in the courtroom, which unfortunately are far fewer than the moment sitting at your desk working through legal work. But having somebody to recognize the skillset that can be applicable to other areas is invaluable. And you were able to do that. And that's something that I really appreciate that I think I recognized through doing these episodes together. And what has led us to now go into business together beyond the podcast.

Dave Lorenzo (12:51):
First of all, it's very nice. Thank you for saying that. And I think we bring out the best in each other. I've said to you on more than one occasion that you have the unique ability to bring out the best in other people. And I mean, I see that you do it in me for sure, but to be able to recognize that in someone else and have that person bring it out in you, and I'm talking about you bringing it out in me is really kind of cool. And I recognized that when we worked on the stupid little project that we worked on together. And I thought to myself, we did something that other people hadn't been able to do because either they didn't focus on it or they didn't have the right combination of talent and people at the same time. But the fact that we did it together said to me, maybe there's other things that would be more valuable in life and in business that we could do together.

(13:46):
And now that I see that it's possible, I totally get it. And every time I try to put that to the test, we pass the test as a team with flying colors every single time when we try to do something that, I mean we just did it. We had this speaking engagement that we did together the other day. It was an unusual way to do the speaking engagement. Hadn't been done that way before, wasn't done at the conference the way we did it, and we crushed it. We absolutely knocked it out of the park because we used both of our talents, both of our unique abilities to make it work. So I think we bring out the best in each other, which it's kind of a cool thing and it was fate that we connected. But now that we know this, how we leverage it moving forward and how we clear away all the other crap that is not part of our unique ability by bringing people around us, surrounding ourselves with people who can do the other stuff, that's going to really, that's going to be the thing that either propels us forward rapidly or holds us back depending on how we clear away all the other stuff that is not within yours or my unique ability in order to move our business forward.

(15:08):
We have complimentary strengths in that you're focused on details, you're very organized, you're very structured. I'm focused on big picture. I'm much more intuitive and much more feeling. And I don't want to say seat of my pants because everything I do is, but it's led by emotion and then followed up with the logic and everything behind it, the rational elements behind it. But there are a lot of administrative things that if you and I get bogged down in those, it will slow us down. So the next step for us, and this is something that I'm just starting to learn now, the next step for us is how we manage the things that are not in either one of our core areas of strength and how we delegate those to other people and still manage to make sure they work effectively. I think that is what the next step is going to be in order to make sure that our relationship and our business can advance to the next level.

(16:14):
And my number three, my third thing is sort of similar to what you said, and that's that doing something fun, doing something that you enjoy, doing something with someone that you enjoy doing things with, it makes work easy. It really does make work easy. So in our business, I've been doing a lot of the kind of nitty gritty, crappy administrative setup stuff behind the scenes. Typically, that's not something that I would have a passion for doing, but particularly the way things broke down, let's say before the last two weeks, the six weeks before that, because you were so immersed in a legal case and we only would talk maybe once a day if you had time available. The fact that I was working behind the scenes and keeping track of everything that was going on so that I felt like I could report out to you as to what I was doing that made that work easier to do because I felt like I wasn't just doing it for the good of myself or just doing it for the good of the business.

(17:17):
I was doing it for the good of the business and to tell Nico Nicola what I had done that day. So it was a real motivating factor that I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to let you down and I was going to have a productive day to at least advance the business forward a little bit by the end of that day. Now, contrast that with the last two weeks where I think we've made progress in leaps and bounds because we've spent so much time together really focusing on this. I mean, that feels like a lot more fun, but it still is. Even when you had to be out of the business still having you there was incredibly powerful to keep things moving forward. So working with somebody else, particularly somebody who you care about what they think and how they feel about what's happening in the business, it makes it fun and it makes you work that much harder.

(18:13):
Look, I need to work to put food on the table. I got two kids I got to put through college, and I have a whole bunch of personal goals and mission that I want to fulfill, so I need to work for that purpose. But having something separate and apart from that is also really valuable. And the element of fun that it adds is great too, because it's just one of those things where just like I look forward to recording this podcast. I look forward to connecting with you and talking about the things that we're going to do to take the business to the next level and then executing them with you and whatever happens, success or failure, at least we're going to have a good time doing it. So that's the way I look at it. That's the third thing I learned. Having not been in this situation before on the show or in a business, I didn't realize that that element of fun could really be something that could be a motivating factor.

Nicola Gelormino (19:11):
I really think it's another motivational source, being able to have someone you're working with and you're working towards common objectives for us, yes, but it's different when you have someone else. It's motivating you in a very unique way because you not only want to make sure you're not failing yourself at being an entrepreneur, but now there's somebody else that you want to consider and be thoughtful about and make sure, you know what, I don't want to feel like I'm failing that person who is invested in me as a business partner. So I think that puts you in a different circumstance and gives you a different perspective on what you're doing when you have somebody else involved. So my number three is to be more conversational and not always so polished professional that I think the podcast has really shown me that. And working with you has definitely shown me that because you are someone who,

Dave Lorenzo (20:07):
Yeah, because I'm the least professional person on the face

Nicola Gelormino (20:10):
Of the earth, earth, that is not what I was going to say. You are someone who is very conversational and very vulnerable even in your speaking, and that makes you more relatable to an audience. And I think that also comes from the space that I worked in. I'm so used to presenting in front of big companies that are clients, very sophisticated clients presenting in court, especially in federal court. It's a very different decorum. So having spent so many years in that space, you become the polished professional everywhere. And sometimes it's hard to take that down and just be a conversationalist, which yes, you've seen that. You know that I'm not always the polished professional that you see at speaking events. So I think this has really helped me utilize my skill sets in a way where I don't have to always feel so concerned about what I'm saying.

(20:58):
Do I still do it? Sometimes? Absolutely. Especially when we're talking about legal subject matter. I have to be. But I think this has really allowed me to be more conversational, and I think our audiences is recognizing it based upon the feedback we're receiving from them. So I appreciate you audience allowing me to go through this transformational process of being a little bit more vulnerable, a little bit more conversational, and we're still working on it. But let me tell you, there have been some major steps forward in that regard, and I'm really enjoying this. I really think that the show is, if you listen to the episodes now, it's 60. And compare that to the first few we did. It was a little rough in my view because it just seemed very forced and more like a presentation than a conversation. And I think we've really now hidden new stride with our 60th show.

Dave Lorenzo (21:51):
It's a metamorphosis. No,

Nicola Gelormino (21:57):
I mean, we're not a Caterpillar though.

Dave Lorenzo (21:59):
I'll tell you, I had a conversation. I was interviewing somebody and I told you this story already. I was interviewing somebody, I didn't tell the audience. I was interviewing somebody for exit success lab for our business, somebody who's going to be a subject matter expert with us. And she said to me independently unsolicited, she said how much she enjoyed listening to the podcast. And she said, if working with you guys on this venture is anything like what you do on the show, it's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to have a good time and we're going to deliver some valuable information to a lot of people. And of course, I always drop in because I just love it so much. I said, you should see how much fun we have when we're not recording between episodes. And she said to me, oh, I can just imagine because I've seen you stray into unprofessionalism on the show. And I thought to myself, stray into unprofessionalism. You have no idea. You have absolutely no idea just how down and dirty we can get. Folks, you think Nicki G is this sweet innocent creature. You have no idea. She's behind the scenes. She's a fricking savage. So

Nicola Gelormino (23:20):
This is you what stay with us for a hundredth plus episode, and we may be in a whole different ballpark by then in terms of vulnerability and emotion.

Dave Lorenzo (23:31):
Oh yeah, this has been, it's been 60 great episodes. Thank you all for hanging in there with us while we started to figure it out. And who knows what the next 60 episodes will bring. I'm sure that you'll get something great out of each of them, whether it's a new piece of learning or a deeper understanding of you and yourself as an entrepreneur and how to run your business or just have a good time. Maybe get a few laughs out of this. I mean, listen, you can't hide in the bathroom your whole damn life. Come out of the bathroom and join us for each of these episodes. We're here every day and we're so glad that you've been here with us. See Inside BS Show. My name is Dave Lorenzo. I'm the godfather of growth, and my partner for the last 60 episodes has been

Nicola Gelormino (24:17):
Nicki G.

Dave Lorenzo (24:18):
We'll see you back. You had to think about it for a minute.

(24:20):
We'll see you back here tomorrow,

Nicola Gelormino (24:21):
Folks. I did not have to think about it

Dave Lorenzo (24:23):
To be clear. We'll see you back here tomorrow, folks. Thanks for 60 great episodes. Until then, here's hoping you make a great living and live a great life.