Ep. 45: Redefining Success, with Nicole Smith
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Just back from a week in Oahu, Hawaii, and let me tell you, I really needed that trip. We had perfect weather, plenty of time to relax on the beach, and we managed to go on a few hikes and do a bit of snorkeling. After 14 months of not leaving the state of Oregon, it was like this humungous exhale. Granted, there were many hoops to jump through to travel to Hawaii, including a carefully timed negative COVID test even for fully vaccinated travelers, and multiple pieces of documentation about where we’d be and the state of our health. I knew these hoops would be well worth the memories we’d make.
Speaking of making memories, a very special guest is joining the show today, a woman who left a Fortune 500 Company to build a business that has transformed how we capture memories when we travel.
Nicole Smith is the founder of Flytographer, an online platform connecting travelers with vetted local photographers in over 350 cities worldwide for fun, hassle-free photo shoots.
Flytographer is a global business with over 500 vetted photographers capturing over 3 million memories across six continents to date.
Today, Nicole is going to tell us all about what she built, why she built it, and what she’s learned along the way.
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Can you tell I really enjoyed this conversation with Nicole? She was speaking deep into my entrepreneurial soul. For me that was a heart-pounding conversation pulling back layers like imposter syndrome and some great advice about building a business you love, one that not only solves a problem, but also one people are willing to pay money for.
My key takeaways were:
1. Build a great customer experience into the DNA of your brand, from day one. I loved how Nicole described creating a system to not only get positive reviews, but to leverage them—ask for reviews, capture that information, and syndicate those stories. As Nicole points out, word of mouth marketing is a powerful channel.
2. Starting a new business takes time, and Nicole removed the financial stress that in her words, can be crippling to founders, by operating as a side-preneur while not giving up on her consulting job with Microsoft. After all, she's a single mom to two boys, so the ramen life wasn't going to cut it. She gave herself enough time to grow the business before diving in with two feet.
3. Success. The pandemic actually helped Nicole redefine what success means to her. As it turns out, that consulting work with Microsoft, that allowed her to define her own schedule, work, travel, and family life, really was the good life. Owning her own calendar, that's Nicole's definition of success. The pandemic allowed Nicole to get into that groove again, by taking her team digital, and closing the corporate downtown office in favor of a "nest" in her own home and a team that's now distributed across Canada and Mexico.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Flytographer website.
@flytographer on Instagram.
@flytographerlife on Instagram.
Kiso Valley travel guide.
