Grow A Small Business Podcast After 12 years as an ESL teacher, went to film school and pursued a career in entrepreneurship. Co-Founded 2 companies, one hitting 1 million ARR in USD and giving notes to small-medium business owners with their startups. (Nicole Baldinu)
In this episode, I interview Nicole Baldinu, an entrepreneur and Co-Founder of WebinarNinja & The $100 MBA. She's based in Sydney, Australia. Nicole was an ESL teacher for 12 years, went to film school, and then pursued a career in entrepreneurship.
After working as an ESL teacher, Nicole decided to co-develop an idea, which is The $100 MBA that was launched in 2013; later on, WebinarNinja, which was established in 2014, earned 1 million ARR in USD in 2021.
According to Nicole, the approach that small-medium business owners should develop and maintain is having an optimal state of mind because that's where your productivity depends. She said, "So the ability to call yourself out, when you recognize you're actually not in an optimal state of mind… realizing that hang on and making an emotional decision."
This Cast Covers:
- How Troy found Nicole Baldinu.
- Webinars and Podcasts.
- Nicole's journey before heading out as an entrepreneur.
- Alpha and Beta stages of The $100 MBA and WebinarNinja.
- What is The $100 MBA?
- What is WebinarNinja?
- How both companies are funded.
- Having a healthy peer system, mentors, and coaches.
- Keeping an optimal state of mind.
- The importance of resiliency.
Links:
Additional Resources:
- The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Free Time by Jenny Blake
- Deploy Empathy by Michele Hansen
Quotes:
"Never to promise an exact date. Those early second estimates, then you double it." —Nicole Baldinu
"You're part of this creation of something that didn't exist until you decide to make it happen. And then you see other people using that thing. That's an incredible feeling." —Nicole Baldinu
"When leading a team; you have certain standards, you have certain beliefs in the way that you want things to be in the way you think they should be." —Nicole Baldinu
"It's the creative process; nothing in business is fixed or permanent. You're constantly in flux, you're constantly in change. And that's exciting." —Nicole Baldinu
"Focus on the work." —Nicole Baldinu
Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com. License: CC by http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0