Speaker 1: Calm Down with Aaron and Chrissa is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Welcome everybody to the cart. In a
Speaker 1: bad mood, it's already in a bad move. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's just get right into it. Why are we in
Speaker 1: a bad mood because your WiFi is cutting in and out.
Speaker 1: I was supposed to be working on my anxiety. I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to be at ease. We are just moved into
Speaker 1: our new house. And you know, I told the group
Speaker 1: that was doing our WiFi I wanted it to be
Speaker 1: so strong my face would radiate off. And we're already
Speaker 1: having difficulties. This is my issue. My doctor says, go
Speaker 1: to Montana. Don't be stressed out, be chill. And I'm
Speaker 1: fucking stressed out. And you want to know what doesn't
Speaker 1: help this situation? Bed sheets? I need to talk to you.
Speaker 1: How do you do this crap for a living? I'm
Speaker 1: I'm angry, I'm rattled. It ruined my day to day.
Speaker 1: Let's break it all down. First of all, your chandelier
Speaker 1: looks fantastic. So that's the good news. Okay, so we
Speaker 1: know that's working even if the WiFi comes in and out.
Speaker 1: You have WiFi issues in Montana and I have WiFi
Speaker 1: issues in Los Angeles where it should be the easiest
Speaker 1: place ever to get WiFi. So just we'll take a
Speaker 1: breather there, grab some olive jews. Why I answer some
Speaker 1: questions for you? What's the conundrum with the sheets? The
Speaker 1: thread count? So no, it's not the thread count. My
Speaker 1: girlfriends who did our house and made a lovely job
Speaker 1: on the interior design Ashley Phipps design you heard. Normally
Speaker 1: I would be offended, but we love Ashley and Sam,
Speaker 1: so it's totally fine. They're not competition. We love them,
Speaker 1: and this would have been a master pain in the
Speaker 1: ask for you. Honestly, it's better for somebody who works
Speaker 1: and deals with this club to like understand. So we'll
Speaker 1: get into that part later. So any who, they give
Speaker 1: me a list, like a master list of all the
Speaker 1: things I need to buy, right, like the betting all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, Chris, I buy it. I don't
Speaker 1: know what comes in a set a missing Duva's. I
Speaker 1: order eight shams. I don't know what a fuck a
Speaker 1: sham is like what they tell me to get a standard?
Speaker 1: A standard? What a standard sham? A standard? Pillow? I sat?
Speaker 1: I have nothing here that works out. It's a mess,
Speaker 1: and I get it, it's bougie, stupid ass problems. But
Speaker 1: what was a problem was the fact I had so
Speaker 1: much fucking anxiety doing this today. I looked at you
Speaker 1: and I said, you know what the doctor said, go
Speaker 1: to Montana and relax. You know what I'm not doing relaxing.
Speaker 1: You know what I can do. Figure out a football field.
Speaker 1: I can figure out anything about it. I know what's
Speaker 1: going on. I may not always know what the call
Speaker 1: is going to be from the official, but I can
Speaker 1: fucking figure it out. The shams, the betting, the due cover,
Speaker 1: the betting set, the dream set. I got no idea.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you do this for a living.
Speaker 1: I'm worked out. Okay, I'm here to help all your problems. Okay,
Speaker 1: are you ready for this? Just like when we started
Speaker 1: covering hockey, we got hockey for dummies and then we
Speaker 1: figured it out. Here's interior design for dummies. A standard
Speaker 1: pillow case is just your regular pillow case. A king
Speaker 1: pillow case is bigger, makes sense. A euro am is
Speaker 1: the square. It's all you need to know. Next time
Speaker 1: you have an issue like this, please call me. I'm
Speaker 1: here to lower your anxiety. In any capacity, whether it's WiFi, sheets,
Speaker 1: all of the above. Speaking of Bougie, my issue is
Speaker 1: that I sat for an hour in the nail chair,
Speaker 1: which is hard for me to sit anywhere and do
Speaker 1: anything for an hour, and I chipped my nail. Chip
Speaker 1: Kelly on the right thumb thumbs down. Now I gotta
Speaker 1: go back. So that's my high class problem over here.
Speaker 1: You know what else you can appreciate this? Hi, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to the Calm Down Podcast. We have an amazing
Speaker 1: podcast for you. Welcome. Um. You know what, We have
Speaker 1: a wonderful guest on the show who is probably going
Speaker 1: to like laugh at all of our nonsense to start
Speaker 1: this podcast because she deals with real life problems. Nicole Lin,
Speaker 1: president of football Operations at Clutch Sports. She is a
Speaker 1: badass in every facet, just as like woman to woman,
Speaker 1: like what her daily issues are, whether it's bedsheets or
Speaker 1: WiFi or nails chipping. Because guess what, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: you can have issues like this and still be good
Speaker 1: at your job. Are we on? Is this live? We're on?
Speaker 1: And and the other thing I feel I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: feeling bad for myself. I'm not gonna lie I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go meditate after this because this is not good. But
Speaker 1: I'm frustrated because I literally said, you know, the only
Speaker 1: thing I'm good at now is football. That's the only
Speaker 1: thing I'm good at. I can't put a bed together.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to order bed sheets. You know.
Speaker 1: I asked these people if I can have good WiFi.
Speaker 1: They don't give me good WiFi. Like, I don't know
Speaker 1: what else to do. You Okay, I'm gonna want to
Speaker 1: interrupt you. You're actually great at a lot of things,
Speaker 1: including storytelling. Something I've learned from you on this podcast
Speaker 1: is you're an exceptional storyteller. Like you and sound bites
Speaker 1: is unbelievable. Like I always told you, like how funny
Speaker 1: you are, but when I just whenever this podcast happens,
Speaker 1: and like Scott, who is our wonderful guy, who was
Speaker 1: all our socials together, Like take snippets that snippet of
Speaker 1: Jarrett last week where you're like, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: be sensitive and then you're like, that's fucking lie. I
Speaker 1: was seeing my parents. For those of you guys don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. You guys need to go
Speaker 1: back and listen to last week's episode. It was all
Speaker 1: the travel stories, which, by the way, thank you to
Speaker 1: our loyal listeners who gave us a lot of feedback
Speaker 1: about their own travel stories, which were very un all right, girlfriends,
Speaker 1: since we're going to lower your blood pressure because you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be relaxing, you're in your happy place that
Speaker 1: is Montana. Give me your high because we'll just count
Speaker 1: your WiFi issue as a low. What's your high this week?
Speaker 1: The alta Ji is just the altitude. Your hair always
Speaker 1: looks good here. Jared's hair is on fire, like he
Speaker 1: looks great. Um no, just seeing we have so many
Speaker 1: great friends out here, and we have such a good
Speaker 1: group and we were all together the other night at
Speaker 1: a barbecue and we were just saying, like, you know,
Speaker 1: none of us can get together because of our busy
Speaker 1: schedules in the fall, but this is such a cool
Speaker 1: time because we can all come together in the summer
Speaker 1: and it's great. It's just the time, and you know,
Speaker 1: everybody comes from different places in different backgrounds and it's
Speaker 1: really fun. A couple of comments on my podcast from
Speaker 1: the crew up fans out there, they were like, listening
Speaker 1: to it, sounds like we're just listening to you right here,
Speaker 1: and I was like, where those people are or or
Speaker 1: is it? Um? Did we signed n d as out
Speaker 1: in Montana? A Kellerman. We have a couple of n
Speaker 1: d A s. I'd never, I'd never. You know what
Speaker 1: am I looking for? What's the word violate? Um? Cindy Wagner,
Speaker 1: big Fan, Cindy Wagner lover, Ashley Phipps Ashley Fips designed
Speaker 1: a couple others um My low besides the bed sheets,
Speaker 1: and I mean, that's just stupid. The flies are insane
Speaker 1: out here. I got bit by a horse fly. I've
Speaker 1: been putting it on the old Calm Down podcast Instagram.
Speaker 1: You gotta follow it. It's not getting any better. And
Speaker 1: I had this woman right us on the podcast. I
Speaker 1: got bit on the horse actually like a horse fly,
Speaker 1: like big old monster fly that sits on horse. They're huge, okay,
Speaker 1: and right now it's like a bird. They're birds like
Speaker 1: buzzing everywhere. These are add the horse flights are bad.
Speaker 1: So we took how we out to the football field
Speaker 1: out here, and uh, I was working on my my
Speaker 1: quarterback skills and how he was going after the ball,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden I just felt some on
Speaker 1: my top of my foot and I was like oh,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, that sucks mosquito. Three hours later,
Speaker 1: this puppy had blown up. And then this is so disgusting.
Speaker 1: I went to shave my legs. Yellow pus was coming
Speaker 1: out of the pores, like the hair follicles, and it's
Speaker 1: like getting hard and crusty. It's really really nice. Where's
Speaker 1: Dr p a little better? Um? This is this is worse.
Speaker 1: But then people started writing into me on the Calm
Speaker 1: Down podcast. I g saying if it gets any worse,
Speaker 1: I would go get a doctor to look at this
Speaker 1: is what killed people in the eight hundreds. You can't again.
Speaker 1: Dr Mars told me, I'm supposed to be relaxing. So
Speaker 1: when you you've been in Montana for less than a week, okay,
Speaker 1: and we have WiFi issues, the betting, you've gotten bit
Speaker 1: by a horse fly, you have malayrea in small pox.
Speaker 1: This is not going well for you. But at least
Speaker 1: you're I'm gonna see Darius record tomorrow Night Sexy. So
Speaker 1: this will end up airing on Thursday. Um, but before
Speaker 1: that we have had the fourth of July. So it's
Speaker 1: Monday right now. I just flew back from Iowa, went
Speaker 1: and saw Kyle's family for his dad's seventieth birthday. You
Speaker 1: celebrated the America's birthday in Montana. Where their fireworks? What
Speaker 1: were we doing to celebrate? No fireworks? We had a
Speaker 1: place all to ourselves and our friends were there. Great time,
Speaker 1: great compos or was a band right next door that
Speaker 1: was super fun. We're all kind of dancing around. And
Speaker 1: the great thing about our group here is there's a
Speaker 1: ton of little kids and it was just so funny
Speaker 1: to see them, like running around, being in the mosh
Speaker 1: pit and stuff like that. It was a time. Um
Speaker 1: when I was at the airport, I'm hurting a little
Speaker 1: bit today. Are you good for you? I didn't drink
Speaker 1: at all. I've really been on this like sober kick,
Speaker 1: which is very weird for me, I know, and I
Speaker 1: feel really good. I feel like I want to keep
Speaker 1: it going for a little while. I don't know a
Speaker 1: little while, I mean like twenty four hours more, maybe
Speaker 1: like two days. I don't know. I just feel good.
Speaker 1: But it was really nice getting on a plane with
Speaker 1: a connection this morning through Salt Lake, Omahaw drive from
Speaker 1: South Dakota through Iowa through Nebraska, fly out of Omaha
Speaker 1: into Salt Lake City to l a X, got off
Speaker 1: the plane, went for a run. Now I'm here. Look
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm a hero. Okay, I'm not. I'm
Speaker 1: just letting you know what my morning was like. So
Speaker 1: that's what I've been up to. But this is today's Monday.
Speaker 1: So the match between Tom Brady for those of you
Speaker 1: that don't know, and Aaron Rodgers. They compete in a
Speaker 1: gulf or do do not? They do nine or eighteen holes?
Speaker 1: I'd ask Jarrett, but he's sleeping. I think they do
Speaker 1: eighteens because he's been practicing. Um, he actually went and
Speaker 1: practiced with um Tom and yeah, it's just like forty
Speaker 1: minutes away from where we stay out here. And yeah,
Speaker 1: he said the course is absolutely gorgeous. They're expecting when
Speaker 1: the match airs on Tuesday for the site of the
Speaker 1: golf course to actually, um what am I thinking? Uh fail,
Speaker 1: Like it's going to crash because so many people are
Speaker 1: going to say, this is so beautiful. Where is this place?
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm excited. I'm not going to go. I
Speaker 1: guess they're being really really strict about like you can't
Speaker 1: follow the guys around. You have to stay in the
Speaker 1: hospitality area. I'm fine with that. I mean, sorry, I'm
Speaker 1: following them around, you know, that's what I do for
Speaker 1: So I'm not staying in the hospitality. Yeah no, So
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna stay here with my girlfriends and watch it.
Speaker 1: Ryan are wonderful producer just told us that it's eighteen holes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gorgeous, absolutely beautiful. So it's so much fun. And
Speaker 1: then so TNT puts on the production. Um so Charles,
Speaker 1: your good buddy Barkeley will also be there. What a dream.
Speaker 1: So that'll be fun. So that's on Thursday, right, Thursday, No,
Speaker 1: it's tomorrow. Wow, Wow, Tuesday. Let's start over. Let's pick
Speaker 1: any day, but the day it's actually happening. Okay, so
Speaker 1: it's happening on Tuesday. Can I wager on this? Because
Speaker 1: you know I'll be more into it if I can
Speaker 1: do know, if that's an option, Fox, bet you have
Speaker 1: to be able to wager on this. Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do that. Um, all right, so that's what you're gonna
Speaker 1: go with. Who are you gonna go with? I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do a scouting report. I'm gonna see what the players
Speaker 1: look like right up until tea time. Um, that's what
Speaker 1: I do with the masters. Okay, in any major during
Speaker 1: because guess what, one could pull a hamstring? No knocking
Speaker 1: on the table, but something could happen prior to game time,
Speaker 1: so it's a game time decision. Um okay, well that's exciting.
Speaker 1: So are we gonna be able to turn that frown
Speaker 1: upside down? Are we going to be able to swim?
Speaker 1: Get on the treadmill after I talk to you. I'm
Speaker 1: upset about my WiFi. You know what it is. I've
Speaker 1: found this out about myself. Well, I know this about myself.
Speaker 1: I don't like when ship doesn't work. I don't have
Speaker 1: time for it, like, just get it done, figure it out,
Speaker 1: like I don't like the WiFi problems. Also, as I
Speaker 1: told Jared, there's another problem with our house. I have
Speaker 1: to discuss with you offline. I'm not good with home
Speaker 1: things and fixing them. Again, it's not my forte Like,
Speaker 1: I don't excel with that. If you need me to
Speaker 1: talk to you about New Orleans and what is going
Speaker 1: to be wrong with their offense this year, I got it.
Speaker 1: In fact, I'll call Sean Payton. We can talk to him.
Speaker 1: But is finding baskets to put my shoes in? And
Speaker 1: like having them look cool and the dimensions and the way.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to do it. Call me. I
Speaker 1: am here for you know, I am here for you.
Speaker 1: Lean on me. We What was I gonna say to
Speaker 1: you before that? Oh, I have to get this in
Speaker 1: before we welcome in our guests. Who's awesome? Full disclosure,
Speaker 1: we actually interviewed her earlier this week. Um, and she's awesome,
Speaker 1: So I'd love to try to pretend that like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm teasing the interview. No, she's incredible and she's a badass,
Speaker 1: and we talked about a lot of stuff. So I know,
Speaker 1: I tried to pretend at the beginning of this podcast
Speaker 1: that we haven't talked to her, But you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't want to lie to the audience. I don't
Speaker 1: feel like that's creating a good relationship with our name
Speaker 1: by lying. Also, just got a miscall from Colin Coward
Speaker 1: and a text message that is hysterical. Anybody out there
Speaker 1: listen to Colin Coward? I hope so, because this guy
Speaker 1: is the funniest text her, But we I want to
Speaker 1: get this in real quick. My A d D is
Speaker 1: kicking in. We have awesome, awesome listeners on our Calm
Speaker 1: Down Podcast. So thank you guys so much. I know
Speaker 1: that we go on tangents and sometimes we're annoying. Aaron
Speaker 1: tells incredible stories, so we're here for all of that.
Speaker 1: But we have an incredible listener. Her name is Maggie,
Speaker 1: and she reached out to us and sent us the kindest,
Speaker 1: sweetest message. So that's my high of the week. I
Speaker 1: was messaging her yesterday and the day before and we
Speaker 1: were talking and I just she's going through stuff and
Speaker 1: she just is a bright light and I just want
Speaker 1: to give a shout out to her. And she's UM. Aaron, like,
Speaker 1: you know, we the message that she said, and we
Speaker 1: just want to let you know that we are thinking
Speaker 1: of you and we are here for you like a
Speaker 1: girlfriend if you want us to be UM. But she's
Speaker 1: my high of the week, and I just it puts
Speaker 1: it all in perspective of WiFi and bed sheets and everything.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Maggie. We love you and appreciate
Speaker 1: your support, and we're here to give you that in return.
Speaker 1: This is the community community, and we're welcoming in Nicolelin
Speaker 1: into our cool group after the break. She is the
Speaker 1: president of football Operations over at clutch sports, which is badass,
Speaker 1: and she does a lot of stuff, so you will
Speaker 1: enjoy listening to that. Aaron is gonna go get on
Speaker 1: the treadmill. It's gonna be amazing. And she's gonna listen
Speaker 1: to the Nicole interview. And I am just gonna be
Speaker 1: here when you're done doing that to help you with
Speaker 1: your pillows and baskets, Dorothy and your little dog too.
Speaker 1: Where it's lightning. Oh yes, Stanley Cup game tonight, girl.
Speaker 1: Lots of things to be happy about. Okay, scale of
Speaker 1: one to ten, are you one of the things. Are
Speaker 1: you in a better mood now? Not yet? Okay? Well,
Speaker 1: be right. I have to go sweat. It's the only
Speaker 1: thing that's gonna help me. Well, I'll be here on
Speaker 1: the other end if your wife works too soon. Thank you, guys,
Speaker 1: you love you. As Aaron mentioned, if you don't follow
Speaker 1: the Calm Down podcast long on, log on and then
Speaker 1: follow Aaron's smallpox you know diagnosis that she has. I
Speaker 1: hope you gets better, so do all right? So ugly hilarious.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more after this. Calm Down, Aaron,
Speaker 1: Calm Down. Well, I know Aaron and I share our
Speaker 1: sentiment of enthusiasm for our next guest. We just talked
Speaker 1: all about how excited we were to talk to her, Nicole,
Speaker 1: and ladies and gentlemen, is with us senior agent and
Speaker 1: president of football operations at Clutched Sports, and so many
Speaker 1: other things. How are you? Thank you for being here
Speaker 1: with us. I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: How does it feel to have somebody ask you before
Speaker 1: you do a podcast interview or any sort of interview,
Speaker 1: how do you want to be introduced? Because you wear
Speaker 1: like Chris likes to say, a lot of hats I do.
Speaker 1: I do? You know? You are a boss. And the
Speaker 1: reason why I asked how you wanted to be introduced
Speaker 1: is because there's a plethora of ways we can introduce.
Speaker 1: You became the first black woman in league history to
Speaker 1: represent a top three draft pick back in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nineteen. You have done so many things, Nicole. When
Speaker 1: I say back in two thousand nineteen, does that even
Speaker 1: seem like a long time ago now? I mean it
Speaker 1: feels like yesterday. You know. I just feel like I
Speaker 1: can still remember recruiting that specific player and going through
Speaker 1: the draft, and yeah, I mean it's also still very surreal.
Speaker 1: I love this story. I read this story where you
Speaker 1: were looking for something to wear. You didn't, did Chris.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw this. I was. I
Speaker 1: was looking up stuff today and first of all, I
Speaker 1: die for that, because what I'm doing right now is
Speaker 1: trying to find a tank top for the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame game, and you're trying to find an appropriate one
Speaker 1: and what you chose was amazing and you looked hot.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we shouldn't even care about that.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Do you want me to
Speaker 1: pound my chest right now? But I died that that's
Speaker 1: what you were trying to do in two thousand nineteen
Speaker 1: for your draft pick that went third overall, right, you did.
Speaker 1: It's just it's so funny. I told my husband, I'm like,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest challenges in my day to day
Speaker 1: as a sports agent is figure out figuring out what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work. I'm that kidding. I mean it's everything
Speaker 1: from like are my jeans too tight? Red lipstick? Is
Speaker 1: that too sexy? My hair? I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: daily struggle and the draft. You know, I liked my dress,
Speaker 1: but even in the moment when I sat down, I
Speaker 1: was like, never again. I'm wearing a suit next time.
Speaker 1: Like I regretted it immediately. I was like, this is
Speaker 1: not the freaking Grammy's nicole. Just for comfort level or why,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, it's just you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't know what else. I googled, like NFL Agents green room,
Speaker 1: and there's not a lot of pictures. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: i'll do do address. It's like red carpet event. But
Speaker 1: even sitting there, I was like, oh my god, they're
Speaker 1: gonna think of a girlfriend, Like you know, your girls
Speaker 1: are too cute right now? You take it too far?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love you. A couple of things
Speaker 1: about that. That's bullshit that we even have to think
Speaker 1: to be honest, the fact that we think like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can't wear a dress and still might do my job,
Speaker 1: I mean on Sunday or red lipsticks. Like I sit
Speaker 1: there sometimes with like a tankless dress or whatever, like
Speaker 1: a sleeveless dress on Sundays, and it's like you should
Speaker 1: act more professional. But then if I wear a suit,
Speaker 1: then I'm manly. So it's like, well, which one is it?
Speaker 1: So it's a bunch of bullshit. But you just said
Speaker 1: something and you're like It's like, a, U, you were
Speaker 1: the girlfriend. Weren't you also accused of being a player's
Speaker 1: girlfriend when you were in the hotel? No? Yes, kicked
Speaker 1: out of a hotel. Yeah, I mean just crazy. Like
Speaker 1: early on in my agent I went to visit a
Speaker 1: player before the game, like you can see them on Saturday.
Speaker 1: And I will not name the team, but the security
Speaker 1: guard kicked me out because he thought I was a
Speaker 1: girlfriend trying to sneak in hand. I could not believe it,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, I promise that. At this point,
Speaker 1: I didn't have any big name clients. I'm a nobody,
Speaker 1: and so he's like, I don't know, I've never heard
Speaker 1: of you. Oh my god, I'm an agent. It's incredible,
Speaker 1: so many stories clearly that you can tell. Um. But
Speaker 1: bringing it back for a second of call, you're not
Speaker 1: only represent athletes but entertainment. Can you take us back
Speaker 1: to the beginning. How did this all start for you?
Speaker 1: Did you always want to be an agent? Um? You've
Speaker 1: got an incredible upbringing, specifically your childhood in but right now, UM,
Speaker 1: focusing on when you knew you wanted to do this
Speaker 1: as a profession. You know, it's funny because one thing
Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people know about me
Speaker 1: is that I'm not a big football fan. I did
Speaker 1: not grow up watching football. I didn't. I'm not a
Speaker 1: huge sports fan. I like sports. It's fine, not like
Speaker 1: die Hard, you know. I don't know if I watched
Speaker 1: football ever growing up. So it was never about the game.
Speaker 1: It was never about the game. I got to college
Speaker 1: at eighteen years old, and I met football players that
Speaker 1: grew up kind of in my hometown. I grew up
Speaker 1: in what we called the hood and you know, under
Speaker 1: the poverty line, really tough circumstances. So these were guys
Speaker 1: that I knew really well, but they made it out.
Speaker 1: They made it out through sports. And then some of
Speaker 1: those same guys but go to the league and then
Speaker 1: you know, stay to three years, which is like the average,
Speaker 1: and then end up being broke again. And it was
Speaker 1: just this weird cycle that I couldn't understand. I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: you made it out, how are you back? And so
Speaker 1: it was a goal of how can I help the
Speaker 1: human It was not It was never about sports. And
Speaker 1: you'll see that every person I represent, whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: a rapper or an influencer or whatever, it's it's the
Speaker 1: same kind of person. It's someone that maybe had circumstances
Speaker 1: that they couldn't control, or they have this story they're
Speaker 1: they're trying to get out, or they need direction or mentorship.
Speaker 1: It's the same person over and over and over. It's
Speaker 1: not it's not the sport, it's it's the human. Wow,
Speaker 1: I have eight thousand questions. Okay, so how can I
Speaker 1: help the humans? So? Or how what was your eight
Speaker 1: thousand questions in my head? Right now? Come on here
Speaker 1: and do your job. What was your first big step?
Speaker 1: What was this step that it was like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is how I'm going to help the human What wasn't well,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously I had to become an agent, So
Speaker 1: before doing so, I took a lot of time in
Speaker 1: learning the game because I didn't grow up loving football.
Speaker 1: And so my husband's a college coach. We've been married
Speaker 1: together for like eleven years, but so he helped a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, we're like getting kids twenty one. Watching film,
Speaker 1: breaking down film, I knew that I had to be
Speaker 1: great and I could not get caught slipping. So step
Speaker 1: one for me before even recruiting, before doing anything, was
Speaker 1: can I be the best at this because when I'm
Speaker 1: in meetings, even now after I've been an agent and
Speaker 1: been in the business for a while, I still get
Speaker 1: questioned by clearers and dads, do you know the game?
Speaker 1: Do you know this defense? And so I just made
Speaker 1: it my mission to never be in a situation where
Speaker 1: I didn't know something. So I worked on that before
Speaker 1: I even get certified. How like, how do you work
Speaker 1: on being great? Like what do you do? Because I
Speaker 1: know me, like, I feel like I have to read
Speaker 1: every little thing that comes my way about the game,
Speaker 1: and I'm like crazy about it, But what do you do?
Speaker 1: I mean similar? So my first thing was learning the game.
Speaker 1: But I think there's two parts. There's the game and
Speaker 1: there's the business. So for me, it wasn't it was
Speaker 1: like I need to learn the game, and so I
Speaker 1: would break it down, Like for a year, I just
Speaker 1: focused on defense. And my husband was a football player
Speaker 1: who played corner, and so we would just talk about
Speaker 1: defense and it's like, okay, let's talk about dbs for
Speaker 1: four months and breaking down a dB, understanding what players
Speaker 1: fit in that position and why they're good, not just
Speaker 1: the game that the player, and then like you said,
Speaker 1: reading books, watching videos, and then I had agents, and
Speaker 1: I had a couple agents I had met along the way,
Speaker 1: and so I asked him questions, just really, any of
Speaker 1: my free time football all in football. Once I learned
Speaker 1: the game, that I moved to the business. And it's
Speaker 1: it's funny because I don't think you have to know
Speaker 1: the game to be agent. Like really, well, I don't
Speaker 1: think you have to understand the difference between a four
Speaker 1: three and three four detents. So when you're a black
Speaker 1: woman and you're twenty six, I'm told I wasn't I
Speaker 1: signed my first client, you better know everything. Unfortunately, you
Speaker 1: better know everything I didn't have. I didn't get that.
Speaker 1: You know, FREEB card? Yeah, I think Aaron and I
Speaker 1: can understand that. Where I I still to this day,
Speaker 1: thirteen years into this gig, I get asked, do you
Speaker 1: even like football? Do you write your own stuff? Come on? Man? Like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, all right, here we go amateur hour
Speaker 1: for them, um, but whatever. So we can all share
Speaker 1: that same sentiment of having to prove ourselves. But like
Speaker 1: I say, I don't know how you feel. But when
Speaker 1: people say, like, oh, what's it like being a woman
Speaker 1: in this industry? I feel like being a woman got
Speaker 1: me through the door because there are less of us
Speaker 1: that want to do this job or your job, Nicole.
Speaker 1: But you stay there if you know what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: and that door closes a lot quicker if you don't
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. So for you, you know,
Speaker 1: your story is incredible, from childhood poverty to a Wall
Speaker 1: Street executive to this incredible sports agent. Can you take
Speaker 1: us back to the very beginning of how you grew up,
Speaker 1: as you like to say, in the hood and what
Speaker 1: was it about that experience that now gives you that
Speaker 1: perspective on the other side to help your current clients. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's just the way that I grew up.
Speaker 1: I'm able to relate on a different level than many agents,
Speaker 1: you know. I'm I have a lot of stories and
Speaker 1: circumstances from my childhood that most people wouldn't believe if
Speaker 1: I told them, And funny enough, many of my clients
Speaker 1: have the same ones, and so I can recognize some
Speaker 1: of the challenges that a lot of my clients have,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, a family dynamic or you know,
Speaker 1: you know, having to send money back to extended family
Speaker 1: or whatever that may look like. I also, personally, I
Speaker 1: like to represent players that love the game right, really
Speaker 1: love the game, that will give a hundred and in
Speaker 1: anything they do, because that's similar to me. Right, when
Speaker 1: you grow up with nothing, you have a different level
Speaker 1: of grit. It's like you can't fail. There's no plan
Speaker 1: B for me, and I love representing guys that still
Speaker 1: the exact same way. There's no plan B. I've got
Speaker 1: to make it. I'm going to give every single thing
Speaker 1: that I can. I love that because I We've said
Speaker 1: this many times. There was no plan B for me.
Speaker 1: I just this is what I was going to do,
Speaker 1: and everybody always said, well, what were you going to
Speaker 1: do if this didn't work out? I was like, no, no,
Speaker 1: this was going to work out. Like I just I
Speaker 1: had no other you know choice, so and not not
Speaker 1: that it was I didn't have any other mindset. So
Speaker 1: we talked about the hurdles in terms of what am
Speaker 1: I wearing? People think you're a girlfriend, the red lipstick debate, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, guys side note, why the fund do
Speaker 1: we care? Like? But who is telling us this stuff?
Speaker 1: Why do we care so much? Give us some of
Speaker 1: your biggest hurdles besides obviously what we can relate to
Speaker 1: UM along the way that you look back maybe now
Speaker 1: and go give me a break, you know, I wish
Speaker 1: I could look back on some of them. Some of
Speaker 1: them are still hurtles now, like one. In order to
Speaker 1: be a good agent, you've got to have relationships with
Speaker 1: general managers. That's who we do deals with. And typically
Speaker 1: the way you do that is you take them out
Speaker 1: to drinks at the combine, take them out to dinner,
Speaker 1: you're up late at night at the bar, a very
Speaker 1: specific bar that all the agents go to. I can't
Speaker 1: do a lot of that, right, and so I had
Speaker 1: to create my own rules, and so I have my
Speaker 1: own little rules as an agent. It's like I do coffee.
Speaker 1: It's always a coffee. It's always at a Starbucks. It's
Speaker 1: always at certain tables. Because perception is everything. My pure
Speaker 1: agents that are men, they don't have to think about
Speaker 1: even my text messages, like phone calls. It's all got
Speaker 1: to be really careful, and it sucks. I mean it's
Speaker 1: getting a bit easier as I now have a reputation
Speaker 1: and I tell women, I'm like, your reputation, build it,
Speaker 1: make sure it's strong, because you want it to procede,
Speaker 1: you right, You want people to know before you walk
Speaker 1: in the room who you are and what you're about,
Speaker 1: and so I think I have finally built that up.
Speaker 1: But early on it was tough who helped you, Nicole
Speaker 1: along the way, because you had this amazing quote on
Speaker 1: your Instagram, like how just a couple of days ago
Speaker 1: about look back and help the people that are looking
Speaker 1: up to you, because at one point that was you,
Speaker 1: and make sure that we don't forget those individuals that
Speaker 1: want to walk, especially for you, as being whenever you're
Speaker 1: the first to do something, there's a responsibility that comes
Speaker 1: with that. There is who helped you. I had a mentor.
Speaker 1: It was actually a man, So it wasn't you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a woman because there's not It's not because
Speaker 1: there wasn't one that wanted to help me. But there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of options, and the few women can't
Speaker 1: mentor everybody. That's what I say. Now that I'm in
Speaker 1: this role, it's like, oh, there's such a it feels
Speaker 1: like a requirement that you have to mentor every woman
Speaker 1: under you. And that's tough, right, that's a big burden
Speaker 1: to carry. But it was a man named Ken Sarnov,
Speaker 1: who's actually still an agent. Really phenomenal agent was a
Speaker 1: mentor for me before I got certified up until you know,
Speaker 1: even now, if I already anything, I still reach out
Speaker 1: to him. And you know, I talk about mentorship and
Speaker 1: sponsors and my new book. The big thing is adding value.
Speaker 1: So I still added value to him, right, I had
Speaker 1: connections to players, and so it was an equal exchange,
Speaker 1: you know. And so a lot of times people feel
Speaker 1: like mentors to do it out of the kindness of
Speaker 1: their hearts. We wish that that's how the world worked,
Speaker 1: but it's not. It's not always like that. And so
Speaker 1: I made sure to always think how can I add
Speaker 1: value to his life so that you know, and we're
Speaker 1: way past that now he'd do anything for me, but
Speaker 1: early on he doesn't know me, So what can I
Speaker 1: do for him? What was the first moment, I mean
Speaker 1: everybody kind of we were talking to our dads about
Speaker 1: this for Father's Day. What was the moment that I
Speaker 1: was like, ship, this is happening. I mean, we we
Speaker 1: knew what was going to happen. I think all three
Speaker 1: of us knew what was going to happen, But like
Speaker 1: the moment that you're like, it's happenings, What was the
Speaker 1: moment that you're like, it's happening. You know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: This is a very weird moment. It was like the
Speaker 1: first time I flew first class. I'm gonna keep it
Speaker 1: Realiyah in first class right now, Like there was so
Speaker 1: much impostor syndrome because I kind of felt like people
Speaker 1: were looking like, does she get upgraded? You know, I
Speaker 1: didn't get upgraded. So I've had big moments being at
Speaker 1: the NFL draft, being on the red carpet of sps,
Speaker 1: but something about flying first class, it's just really I'm
Speaker 1: obsessed with the fact that you just said that because
Speaker 1: two things. The first ever time my Rockies job, I
Speaker 1: worked to the Colorado Rockies and I got an itinerary
Speaker 1: from the station and they sent it to me in
Speaker 1: my email and I was like, oh my god, I've
Speaker 1: got a flight itinerary. Like I was so I mean
Speaker 1: this when I was still in thirty four B but
Speaker 1: I was so happy to have a slide itinerary. And
Speaker 1: the other one was when I didn't have to put
Speaker 1: my credit card down but for incidentals, I was like,
Speaker 1: it's on the company and I didn't have to pay
Speaker 1: for them. I was so excited, so it's it's funny
Speaker 1: how like those little things stand out. But um, you
Speaker 1: mentioned your book first of all, huge congratulations I made.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I mean buys a picture book, yours
Speaker 1: is a real book called Agent. You show up, do
Speaker 1: the work, and succeed on your own terms. I I
Speaker 1: try to live by all of those rules every single day.
Speaker 1: I love this title. Where did it come from? And
Speaker 1: how does it encapsulate who you are and what you're
Speaker 1: doing for your clients? You know, agent? You being your
Speaker 1: own agent? You know. I talked about this in the book,
Speaker 1: and I tell the reader, imagine if you had someone
Speaker 1: like me, someone that is trained to negotiate deals, to
Speaker 1: advocate for my players, someone doing that for you in
Speaker 1: your day to day life, and then envisioned now that
Speaker 1: that person is you. And so I tried to instill,
Speaker 1: you know, that level of grid and just confidence into
Speaker 1: the reader. And you look at the subtitle and that
Speaker 1: last part, you know, succeed on your own terms. For me,
Speaker 1: it was so important when I got into this business
Speaker 1: that I did not blend in right, that I was
Speaker 1: able to be successful and comfortable in my own skin,
Speaker 1: be my authentic self. There's so many different ways to
Speaker 1: be successful, and I didn't want to follow kind of
Speaker 1: the normal trajectory. And so it's important, you know, it's
Speaker 1: important to finding your own definition of success and then
Speaker 1: achieving and what makes sense for you. It's so interesting
Speaker 1: because I Chris and knows I write it all down,
Speaker 1: but I don't blend in. And I think the three
Speaker 1: of us obviously for certain reasons, we don't blend in.
Speaker 1: But yet if we want to have an open moment,
Speaker 1: we are worried about it as well, you know. I
Speaker 1: mean I I go downstairs when we go to a
Speaker 1: game fifteen minutes early before we're supposed to be down
Speaker 1: there to beat Joe and Troy, so I'm not late,
Speaker 1: and they don't say, oh, she's probably doing her hair,
Speaker 1: which they would never say, by the way, but I
Speaker 1: just ingrained in my head. I don't want to. I
Speaker 1: don't let the boys carry my suitcase because you know what,
Speaker 1: it is heavy, because I have ten outfits in there,
Speaker 1: because I don't know what the weather is going to
Speaker 1: be or if my BRA's gonna look right with the top,
Speaker 1: so you know what, there's a lot in there. But
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear, oh, she's got a lot
Speaker 1: of outfits. But it's so funny. Don't blend in. But
Speaker 1: a lot of times we want to blend in because
Speaker 1: we don't want to make a rock kiss. But like,
Speaker 1: let's make a second book Nicole, and fine, well we'll
Speaker 1: contribute to why do we want to blend in? But
Speaker 1: we don't go, oh my gosh, I mean that is
Speaker 1: so good. I mean, I'm fighting with myself right now.
Speaker 1: It's a daily exactly who I am. You're not going
Speaker 1: to tell me what to do, and the next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like, not the red lipstick, right, So
Speaker 1: you're right, You're totally right. I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the hard part I think with our industry is
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of people that look like us,
Speaker 1: and so you're less comfortable because you only want they're
Speaker 1: with the heels on at the red lipstick. The more
Speaker 1: people that look like us, the more women that are
Speaker 1: in the room, it becomes natural, you know, we can
Speaker 1: become more comfortable because we're not in the minority. Or
Speaker 1: there are times that we just say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't care what you write about me in a newspaper,
Speaker 1: Like you're just angry with your life right now, Like
Speaker 1: so what this is just the way it is. Um,
Speaker 1: Constance Marini Schwartz, Hello, Um always kind of says with
Speaker 1: her and straight hand, let's be disruptors. And I kind
Speaker 1: of love that to go along with your book. My
Speaker 1: dad and I were talking today about agents. UM, don't
Speaker 1: be afraid if you wrot me. We were just talking.
Speaker 1: My dad was saying, no one is as worried about
Speaker 1: your career as you are in terms of like you've
Speaker 1: got to look out for yourself. And I can't wait
Speaker 1: to read your book because I feel like you'll probably
Speaker 1: you know, representing yourself. Are there some cliff notes that
Speaker 1: you could give about the things that you talk about
Speaker 1: about representing yourself or maybe some keys for people? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: I mean one of the big things I talked about
Speaker 1: in the book is how to build out your own brand.
Speaker 1: You know, I think people attribute brands to influencers or
Speaker 1: big companies, but I believe every single human as a brand,
Speaker 1: a lawyer, a doctorate agent, whatever that may look like.
Speaker 1: And how to do that, what does that look like?
Speaker 1: It's deciding the pillars of your brand and making sure
Speaker 1: that every single thing you do aligns with those pillars.
Speaker 1: You know. I also talk about in the book getting
Speaker 1: Comfortable with losing. I lose so much in my agent career.
Speaker 1: You know, I may every year recruit thirty players and
Speaker 1: get to and I had to very early on get
Speaker 1: comfortable with losing, knowing it's going to happen, and learning
Speaker 1: how to deal with it, like preparing my mind it's happening.
Speaker 1: It's going to happen every year, every time, and so
Speaker 1: how am I gonna bounce back from that? And then
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of lastly, and there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of other topics in the book, but the impostor syndrome,
Speaker 1: I mean, it is just so tough. I deal with
Speaker 1: it every single day still to this day. No matter
Speaker 1: the level of success that I have, there's still this
Speaker 1: little voice in the back of my head that's like,
Speaker 1: are you really good enough? You know? Are they are
Speaker 1: they going to respect you? I mean, it's sad and
Speaker 1: so just how to be overcome that imposter syndrome. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's good though, that you still have that, because it
Speaker 1: keeps making you want to work harder. I know that
Speaker 1: I feel a little bit of that, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: that's that's the part of you that's still that Brady
Speaker 1: mentality like, hey, I got two more fingers without rings
Speaker 1: on them. I'm gonna go ahead and get those because
Speaker 1: I want every You know I I I think that
Speaker 1: there's some motivation in that. But Nicole, I know that
Speaker 1: Aaron and I get asked this question. You want a
Speaker 1: completely different level, in a completely different position. How does
Speaker 1: someone get started if they want to be the next
Speaker 1: Nicole Lyn? How do they start? I think choose a
Speaker 1: sport number one. So if you're going to be an agent,
Speaker 1: you want to specialize in the sport, at least at
Speaker 1: the beginning. You don't see a lot of agents that
Speaker 1: are doing multiple sports, so get all in with one sport.
Speaker 1: If you want to be an NFL agent, you've got
Speaker 1: to have a postgraduate degree. Figure out what that's going
Speaker 1: to be. You have to have that, so it's a
Speaker 1: master's or it's a law degree. Make that decision early on.
Speaker 1: Then you have to sit for the agent exam. It's
Speaker 1: only offered once a year. Don't miss the deadline. I
Speaker 1: think the deadlines like in January, but the test isn't
Speaker 1: until July. Don't miss the deadline. Find players right, Find
Speaker 1: players that you believe in that other agents don't see
Speaker 1: D three players, D two players, somebody that can make
Speaker 1: a team that maybe a big time agent has missed
Speaker 1: out on. And build your your clientele that way. Slow build.
Speaker 1: I mean, I had so many undrafted guys in the
Speaker 1: beginning of my career, and that's okay. You know, every
Speaker 1: guy you represent a first rounder, so that's kind of
Speaker 1: the first steps. And then build out your brand. Make
Speaker 1: connections if you're a junior agent, make connections with scouts.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about gams. Those scouts eventually will be general managers.
Speaker 1: Make authentic connections with people that are at your level
Speaker 1: in the s work, and then grow together. Now I'm
Speaker 1: at the point where I've got people they're becoming directors
Speaker 1: and general managers that they were low level scouts. When
Speaker 1: I started, I was just thinking of I mean, this
Speaker 1: is probably horrible because this is the industry working. But
Speaker 1: I was like, if I'm a mom right now and
Speaker 1: I'm sitting with you, I'm not. I'm obsessed with Nick Saban,
Speaker 1: even though I went to the University of Florida and
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a note he wrote me, fine, humble
Speaker 1: brag you know, uh, daddy wrote me, and I was
Speaker 1: thinking about when he goes into living rooms and charming
Speaker 1: mamas and daddy's and all that and being like, come
Speaker 1: raise my kid even though I'm gonna give him my
Speaker 1: firstborn whenever that may happen. If I'm a mom and
Speaker 1: you're sitting in our living room, I'm like, take my child.
Speaker 1: Because there are so many slimy agents. I'll just say it.
Speaker 1: I mean, why am I thinking of Jerry McGuire, But like,
Speaker 1: if I'm a mom, I'm giving you my kid, I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: that's how you're signing, Like I'm dying to what the
Speaker 1: moms are saying when you're in there. I mean, moms
Speaker 1: are very I just I think moms. I think women
Speaker 1: generally like mom's sisters on so many of them have
Speaker 1: given me a seat at the table on behalf of
Speaker 1: their son or their brother that where maybe I wouldn't have.
Speaker 1: And so moms are amazing. But it's more than them
Speaker 1: just connecting with me but giving me a shot, you know,
Speaker 1: I tell aunt. At the time, I'm like, oh, thank
Speaker 1: you for even thinking of me. And so yeah, I
Speaker 1: connect great with moms. I'm amazing with moms. If you're
Speaker 1: listening to your mom, so I probably like I want
Speaker 1: you to take care my son. And I say this
Speaker 1: lovingly because my husband is an agent, so I can
Speaker 1: say this. Sometimes you don't want to send your young
Speaker 1: child off with a grown man because who knows what
Speaker 1: they're gonna get, So they want your supervision as a
Speaker 1: strong woman. Again, I say this because my husband's an agent.
Speaker 1: It takes a strong individual to be on the other
Speaker 1: side of us. Jared Aaron's husbands a very strong man.
Speaker 1: Your husband has to be a strong man because I
Speaker 1: know that phone has some phone numbers in there that
Speaker 1: any other man would be very intimidated of. How does
Speaker 1: that dynamic work in your household? And how do you
Speaker 1: make it work? Yeah? Tell us what is the secret?
Speaker 1: So my husband's in sports. He's a college coach, college
Speaker 1: football coach, and so we've done sports together forever. You know,
Speaker 1: people always say, like, what's the biggest piece of advice
Speaker 1: you can give me? If I could pick one piece
Speaker 1: of advice, it's marry the right person. I would not
Speaker 1: be where I am at all without my husband. And
Speaker 1: it's not just about you know, support, but it's understanding
Speaker 1: the industry that you talk about phone numbers. Forget that
Speaker 1: dinner with multimillionaire yeah, or and so it's just like
Speaker 1: someone that's confident, but someone that gets it. Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: not a successful one if I married the engineer or
Speaker 1: the accountant and so I got lucky and we've got
Speaker 1: married very early on, before I ever had a client.
Speaker 1: You know, he taught me everything I know about football,
Speaker 1: so I owe him my life's critical, Like, don't let
Speaker 1: me get anything wrong, chill. I didn't play like I
Speaker 1: can know what the best piece of advice maybe he's
Speaker 1: given you, not only as your husband, but obviously somebody
Speaker 1: with a sports background. Um. I mean, one thing he'll
Speaker 1: always tell me is like not to talk about things
Speaker 1: I don't know. So sometimes early on I would try
Speaker 1: to like throw out certain terms because it sounded like
Speaker 1: I knew football more before I really knew. And he's like,
Speaker 1: stop doing that. You're gonna get Don't throw out terms
Speaker 1: you don't know. Say the normal. You know, if you're
Speaker 1: talking about cornerbacks, say corner. You don't have to say
Speaker 1: lump and run corners to try to sound cool. If
Speaker 1: you don't know what bump and run is, I don't
Speaker 1: say it. So he would always get on to me,
Speaker 1: and I remember early on, I'd be like what can
Speaker 1: I text this guy to like show him my note,
Speaker 1: give me some like one liners. And he's like no,
Speaker 1: because if you get caught in the meeting me, you
Speaker 1: don't know what you're talking about. Now I know, but
Speaker 1: early on I didn't, and I'd be reading Okay, got it,
Speaker 1: got it, Okay, that's amazing. I actually remember when girlfriends
Speaker 1: used to be on dates and they're like, text me
Speaker 1: some fun facts about like sports so I can sound cooler,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, the Big Three And at the
Speaker 1: time I was talking about the Celtics Big Three, and
Speaker 1: then she said Lebron. I'm like, no, that's a different
Speaker 1: big that was two sets. Anyways, I grew up in
Speaker 1: you know, the sports household. There's a lot of women
Speaker 1: men that had the family that watched every Sunday and
Speaker 1: you knew it your whole life. That was not me.
Speaker 1: So I was learning from scratch. If you could go
Speaker 1: back and tell Nicole the you know you're you're getting
Speaker 1: your law degree the the younger mid twenties, Nicole, I mean,
Speaker 1: you signed your first clime when you were red twenties,
Speaker 1: So let's go back even further, because you're the exception
Speaker 1: to the rule. Let's say twenty one year old Nicole,
Speaker 1: what are you telling yourself that there's a difference between
Speaker 1: hard work and overworking yourself? Like working hard and overwork.
Speaker 1: And I've so many years conflated that. You know, I
Speaker 1: appreciate that I'm a hard worker, but I think that
Speaker 1: there were boundaries that I really I should have been
Speaker 1: better at. Yeah, you know, just self care generally. I
Speaker 1: know that that's like the hot topic, but for me,
Speaker 1: it was completely non existent. You know, I worked two
Speaker 1: jobs for six years. I was a full time civil
Speaker 1: litigator at UM the number three sized law firm in
Speaker 1: the world up until six weeks ago, while also being
Speaker 1: an NFL agent. Those jobs never they were they were
Speaker 1: never the same thing. They did, had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with each other. Ones like securities for out litigation and
Speaker 1: the NFL agent. And I did that forever, you know,
Speaker 1: and it was terrible. It took a toll on my health,
Speaker 1: my mental health. Like I just I remember literally almost
Speaker 1: having like a nervous breakdown and being like I am not,
Speaker 1: like why am I doing this? And so I wish
Speaker 1: I could have early on been like I'm going to
Speaker 1: protect my peace, I'm going to protect myself. You know,
Speaker 1: I just give, give, give, and never thought about me,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm about to have a breakdown and
Speaker 1: then no one's gonna have agent Nicolin. Are you listening
Speaker 1: Aaron Andrews down there? Well, I was just gonna say
Speaker 1: I am because I literally needed to hear that. I
Speaker 1: just had like pretty much a breakdown last month, and
Speaker 1: I've been very vocal about it and I but you
Speaker 1: know what, I it's because not only that I I
Speaker 1: have overworked myself, but I'm grateful for my life, my job,
Speaker 1: but I never handled my feelings about things the way
Speaker 1: I should have. I refused to cry. I've been on
Speaker 1: a trial stand and broke out in a heat rash
Speaker 1: because I refused to show it on my face. But yeah,
Speaker 1: now I'm learning you have to take care of yourself
Speaker 1: because if you don't, it's just you are going to
Speaker 1: have a nervous breakdown. I'm so glad you realized it
Speaker 1: at this age that you are, because I know I'm
Speaker 1: a lot older, but that's amazing. So what are you reading?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? Who are you meditating? To tell
Speaker 1: me everything? I want? The skin care? Yeah, it's so
Speaker 1: weird because like I've only been six weeks not practicing law,
Speaker 1: and it's I'm like, what do I do with my
Speaker 1: free time right now? I guess I could watch new shows.
Speaker 1: And I'm reading Michelle William's book Checking in which happens
Speaker 1: to do. She's from Bessie's Child, talks about depression and anxiety,
Speaker 1: and so that's been great. I'm listening to Beyonce because clearly,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't I just moved into a new house, so
Speaker 1: packing and live in that life. But I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what does a system look like, like a
Speaker 1: morning routine, Like that's my goals, Like what does my
Speaker 1: routine look like? What is what is something I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do every single day? And I'm not a morning person,
Speaker 1: but I'm trying to become one. I'll let you know
Speaker 1: how that goes. Can I tell you guys something before coffee?
Speaker 1: What I'm doing now besides a little shot of olive
Speaker 1: oil because that's a whole part of my healer that
Speaker 1: I saw. Yeah, it's it helps cut down like cholesterol.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be great for your insides. Like obviously,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. I'll send you a whole thing about it.
Speaker 1: But um, my other thing is whether it's nighttime when
Speaker 1: I'm trying to calm down or when I'm waking up
Speaker 1: in the morning, I am trying to do a ten
Speaker 1: minute meditation. Yes, I do find myself, you know, sitting
Speaker 1: there goings crisy back from Mexico. Yet crap, when am
Speaker 1: I packing for Montana? There are But you have to
Speaker 1: say to yourself, Okay, that needs to leave my thought
Speaker 1: process now, because this is the time that I have
Speaker 1: to settle in. On the day. I did a happiness
Speaker 1: one yesterday, I'm going to do a piece one tonight
Speaker 1: because you guys, the way the three of us are wired,
Speaker 1: it's like, holy crap, who's playing today? I've got to
Speaker 1: catch up on that game last night? How did he
Speaker 1: do last week in the game? You know, I am
Speaker 1: I supposed to meet him this week for coffee. You know,
Speaker 1: let's get John Lynch on the line to talk about
Speaker 1: a new deal. By the way, I hope he's a
Speaker 1: dream to work with because he's our former colleague and
Speaker 1: we amazing the best anyway, Just guys, meditations, I feel
Speaker 1: like it's the thing not to get all Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: on everyone. But I do think I think my even
Speaker 1: with like self care or meditation. It's like I almost
Speaker 1: have this guilt, so like if I'm getting a massage
Speaker 1: or something, I have a guilt of wasting time. And
Speaker 1: so honestly, actually, in my book, I talk about a
Speaker 1: concept that I created of just this process of existing,
Speaker 1: teaching myself to be comfortable with existing, which is pretty
Speaker 1: much me being able to sit for five minutes. And
Speaker 1: I think Bernick Brown calls it white space, and some
Speaker 1: other people call it time. How great is she, by
Speaker 1: the way, like literally life changing? Her Ted Talk like
Speaker 1: changed my entire world. I'm gonna send it to Renee
Speaker 1: Brown's Ted Talk. I mean I have yeah, back off, guys,
Speaker 1: I have. She was meditating while we were watching the
Speaker 1: Ted Talk. We'll switch places next time. Our vulnerability read
Speaker 1: that books so good. I could have saved so much
Speaker 1: money in therapy by that. This is the whole Ted
Speaker 1: Talk for six hours. It's phenomenal, it's life changing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: Renee Brown is everything, like your book is everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's called agent. You show up, do the work, and
Speaker 1: succeed on your own terms. There's so much good stuff
Speaker 1: that everyone can extrapolate from that. Nicole, thank you. I
Speaker 1: know Aaron has another question before I let you go,
Speaker 1: but just in some rate from my last question would
Speaker 1: be this. My father has this expression. Those who failed
Speaker 1: to reach their goals failed to set them. Do you
Speaker 1: have goals of what you want to do next? And
Speaker 1: if they're personal, you don't have to share it, But
Speaker 1: do you have that wish list for yourself the same
Speaker 1: way that you would for your client to get to
Speaker 1: this level, to win m v P, to get this endorsement?
Speaker 1: Do you have your own wish list? My wish list
Speaker 1: is to be able to show women that you can
Speaker 1: have it all. I don't have kids, have been married
Speaker 1: for nine years. That's my choice. And it's like one
Speaker 1: of those things where I haven't seen any I don't
Speaker 1: know a single woman agent with kids. That they're probably
Speaker 1: out there, but I don't know any. I don't see
Speaker 1: what it looks like, and I think I have built
Speaker 1: this vision in my head that it's not possible. You
Speaker 1: can't have the family, you can't be the amazing wife
Speaker 1: and the bomb supports agent and the lawyer. My goal
Speaker 1: is how can I have it all? What does that
Speaker 1: balance look like? And then I want to be able
Speaker 1: to show the world show women behind me. If that's
Speaker 1: what you want, you can do it. So that's my
Speaker 1: next couple of years goal. My immediate goal is to
Speaker 1: start the Keto diet next week. I'm not mad at that.
Speaker 1: So that you can't have it all, Yes, you can,
Speaker 1: as long as it's keto. You can have it all.
Speaker 1: And I love the women that tell you that you can.
Speaker 1: Candice Nelson's told me that. I feel like I've read
Speaker 1: from Bobby Brown, you can have it all. The one
Speaker 1: thing I want to have from you, and it's our
Speaker 1: final thing before we let you go. We like to
Speaker 1: do a calm Down Award, or we make our guests
Speaker 1: give out a calm Down Award. I think one of
Speaker 1: our best ones were Kevin Hart just telling everybody to
Speaker 1: chill out, not take things so serious. Brian bum Garner
Speaker 1: telling people on flights to sit the hell down and
Speaker 1: tell their row it was so good. Do you just
Speaker 1: in general have a calm Down Award to people or
Speaker 1: someone you want to give it to? Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I wish I would have thought about this in advance.
Speaker 1: The plain one is so good, so good, so good,
Speaker 1: it's so true. I was on a flight from Mexico
Speaker 1: the other day and this woman, she like people are
Speaker 1: standing in the row. She took down like the compartment
Speaker 1: and took her suitcase out and had it on somebody's
Speaker 1: shoulder and she's like excuse me, and I'm like, wait
Speaker 1: till that person moves you, asshole. What are you thinking? Like,
Speaker 1: where are you going? Where? Where are you going? I
Speaker 1: think mine? I mean, it's stupid, but it's like, calm down.
Speaker 1: To the people that speed up to the red light,
Speaker 1: it's like, you have to stop. So there's no point,
Speaker 1: including my husband, you don't need to hang up. There's
Speaker 1: a red light in front of us. Slow the heck
Speaker 1: down because you're not going to go any faster than
Speaker 1: anybody else. Okay, I actually love you just I was
Speaker 1: just thinking about that, that the people that like honk
Speaker 1: because you're not going fast enough, but like, there's nowhere
Speaker 1: to go. There's a red light. That's amazing. It's so good.
Speaker 1: There are no red lights for you now on a
Speaker 1: full go until you say stop. You're in control of
Speaker 1: your life. You've done an incredible job and what an
Speaker 1: amazing path you have blazed for the women that will
Speaker 1: come after you. Like I said before, being the first
Speaker 1: at anything is a huge responsibility and you make it
Speaker 1: look easy. Thank you so much, Nicole, and make sure
Speaker 1: you guys get her book agent you. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your time. We appreciate it. And she's our new best friend.
Speaker 1: So there's that, like, this has been the best interview.
Speaker 1: I have to come back, like, please do it again.
Speaker 1: Let's go on the road together. Let's bring us on
Speaker 1: the road and charge people going on. Use some updates.
Speaker 1: Next time you see me, I'm gonna be very fit.
Speaker 1: You already are topping. You look amazing. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: thank you. Calm Down with Aaron and Carissa is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast