Ep.84 Nikki Chaplin on Finding Your Purpose and Making Brave Moves

Ready is a mirage; alignment is real. This week I sit down with author and coach Nikki Chaplin to unpack what it takes to play bigger, live authentically, and design a life that feels like play without torching the practicalities that keep your world turning. After 25 years in corporate banking, Nikki didn’t just pivot—she layered writing, speaking, and coaching until a new identity took shape. Along the way she learned to swap perfection for progress, fear for curiosity, and titles for the inner compass of values.

We dig into the moments that shaped her: the mentor who believed before she did, the three words from Les Brown—“Why don’t you?”—that launched her first book, and the jolt of a merger that pushed her out of a safe role and into the work her soul had been asking for. Nikki shares a simple L and I framework: learn the basics, then invest in yourself through communities, mentors, and practice. We get practical on the difference between scattered work and intentional action, how to use journaling to name what you truly want, and why purpose isn’t a single path but many doorways you can walk through with confidence.

If you’re stuck in a job that pays the bills while your heart whispers “more,” this conversation offers a bridge. You’ll hear how to honour financial realities while building creative momentum, how to test whether you love a new path before betting the farm, and how a tribe of peers can turn scary leaps into smart steps. Expect honest stories, useful advice and a warm nudge to choose the next brave move—because impact starts when you do.

Connect with Nikki on Substack, LinkedIn or Instagram 

https://thinkbrave.net

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening The Doorways Of Life
• 0:15 Welcome & Mission Of The Show
• 1:27 Meet Nikki Chaplin
• 2:28 Play Bigger, Live Authentically
• 5:45 Finding Centre And Intention
• 6:39 Early Career Fear And Mentorship
• 9:15 Investing In Yourself: L and I
• 10:17 Parallel Paths: Banking, Writing, Coaching
• 12:35 Organic Route Into Coaching
• 15:14 Readiness Is A Myth
• 16:38 Purpose, Values And Paying Bills
• 19:12 Build Your Tribe, Expand Your Lens
• 21:24 Sponsor: Mischief Movement Merch
• 22:10 Books, Les Brown, And “Why Don’t You?”
• 24:00 Many Doorways Versus One Path
• 25:02 Scattered Work Vs Intentional Work
• 28:20 Journal Your Way To Clarity
• 30:20 Stuck At Work, Soul On Fire
• 33:10 Bridge Income And Calling
• 36:02 Love As A Guide, Testing Fit
• 38:16 Mentors, Therapy, And Growth
• 41:24 Being Pushed Out And Choosing Purpose
• 47:09 Where To Find Nikki & Close

Transcript

Nikki Chaplin: 0:00

There are many other doorways that we can open ourselves to. And why not? We have this one big, beautiful life. Why not live it? Live it to the fullest, right? And if there are other doorways for us to enter, let's go through it and see what's there.

Zoe Greenhalf: 0:14

Hey there. Welcome or welcome back to the Mischief Movement Podcast. I'm Zoe, your guide on this journey to shake up the status quo and design a life that truly makes you feel alive. If you've ever felt disconnected, stuck on autopilot, or trapped in a life that feels more like a treadmill than an adventure, you're in the right place. I know that change can feel scary, so let's turn down the fear and crank up the fears as we transform your life from the inside out. Whether it's solo episodes, packed with actionable advice, or interviews with some absolute ballast human beings who dare to defy the norm by living life their way, we're here to inspire, activate, empower and challenge you each week. My mission is simple: to help you reawaken your rebel spirit, break free from mediocrity, and design a life that's anything but dull. You only get one wild life. So what are you planning to do with yours? If you're ready to stop settling, start living boldly and create a positive impact along the way. Let's dive in and stir up some mischief together. Now buckle up and let's go. This week I'm joined by Nikki Chaplin, author, certified personal development coach and former corporate powerhouse who traded titles for true fulfilment. After spending over 25 years climbing the corporate ladder, Nikki realized that success without purpose felt empty. Now she helps ambitious humans break free from the nine to five and reconnect with who they really are so they can design a life that lights them up from the inside out. In this episode, we chat about what it really means to find your purpose, how she turned her lessons into two inspiring books with a third on the way, and what it takes to really take that leap into something of your own. So if you've ever felt the pull to do something bigger, but the fear or the shoulds are holding you back, this conversation is your sign to start. Nikki, can I ask you what your mischief is, please?

Nikki Chaplin: 2:32

Oh, good morning, Zoe, or whatever time it is for you.

Zoe Greenhalf: 2:35

I'm not sure. Yeah, there's a bit of a time difference, isn't there?

Nikki Chaplin: 2:38

Yeah, there is a bit of a time difference. What is my mischief? My teeth mischief. Actually, you know, my mischief has really evolved over time. However, where it is right now, I want to play bigger, and I want to play more authentic, and I want to play in the tribe of individuals who also have that same mission. So that is my mischief right now. Play bigger, play full out, play full on, and just enjoy the adventure.

Zoe Greenhalf: 3:10

I love it. What does that look like for you then, especially when in terms of playing bigger and when you talk about authenticity as well, living authentically?

Nikki Chaplin: 3:21

Yes, that is such a brilliant question. In terms of playing bigger, when I think about playing bigger, here's what comes to mind for me. There are so many things, especially in the earlier part of my career that I wanted to do, but I just kept myself kind of trapped in. And the fear of messing it up, mucking it up, keeps you playing smaller than you really want to be.

Zoe Greenhalf: 3:47

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 3:47

It's only at this stage in my career where I've come to realize: wait a minute, I can dip into many different things here and there. I can dip into writing, which really gets into the deepest part of my soul, right? I can dip into the podcast as we're doing now and have conversations with interesting people. And that is part of my mission of being authentic, of really playing into my full self, playing all the parts of me that want to come out and in the earlier part of my life was kind of like put on the back burner. And you realize later on, though, that there is a way, not to say that you want to get scattered and do all kinds of different things. In my case, though, they all sort of come together. The writing, the talking to interesting people, the conversations, the coaching, it all comes together. And that's what I mean when I say play bigger. You know, play, play your full self, not hide parts of it or shrink parts of it just because, just because you want to take care of the traditional things that you have to take care of. You can actually find a way just to put them together. However, what I find is that you really have to be intentional about it.

Zoe Greenhalf: 5:06

Yeah, absolutely agree. Intention is such a game-changing word, isn't it?

Nikki Chaplin: 5:11

Yes, it absolutely is. And every once in a while, you really have to come back to the idea of what is my soul calling me to do? What is it that I really, really want to do? Aside from the fact that yes, you do need to attend to the routine of life, you do need to attend to the basics, right?

Speaker 02: 5:30

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 5:30

I think every once in a while, and as I said before, there's so many things that I've learned now that I didn't know earlier on, you do have to come back to that center. It takes time though to kind of figure out what your center is. However, it is vital that you figure it out. And if there's one thing that I would tell anyone listening to us right now, it's it is so important that you figure it out.

Zoe Greenhalf: 5:58

Okay. Well, it sounds like you've you've been on quite a personal journey. Um, I'd love to know more about how you've come from a place of um feeling like you had to play small in your career to this sense of actually I can and I will play bigger than I've been allowing myself to. I'd love to know more about it.

Nikki Chaplin: 6:23

Oh my gosh. When I started my career, let me just take you back a little bit earlier. I jumped out of college because that's what you do. You go to college and you learn and you get the basics down. So I jumped right out and I jumped out into the workforce. Once I got there, the fear of not being in your right place, not knowing what you're doing, I think that so paralyzed me that I narrowed myself down into making sure or trying to make sure that I fit in and that I did the best that I could.

Speaker 02: 6:59

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 6:59

Not realizing that, you know, making a mistake is just the way you learn. Right? It's not the end of the world. When I started my career, though, it was as if you messed us up, you're messing up your life. Yes. Yeah. Right? Yeah, I know that feeling.

Zoe Greenhalf: 7:17

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 7:17

Yes, your whole life feels like it depends on it. And so therefore, even though there are other things that you won't might want to do, at least for myself, I didn't want to risk it. Lucky for me, at some point, I think it was maybe, I'd say maybe three, four years down the road, I lucked into a manager who turned out to be a great mentor at for me at that time in record my my uh journey. So that was extremely helpful.

Zoe Greenhalf: 7:48

Amazing. Would you say that the arrival of this person as a kind of mentor figure helped to sort of change the direction slightly? Did this person get you thinking in a different way? How what was the sort of influence like?

Nikki Chaplin: 8:03

Yes. One thing that I realized looking back now that you're asking that question, I realized that she believed in me more, even more than I believed in myself. She would drag me along to different meetings. She would give me projects that at the time I thought was way outside my comfort zone. Looking back, I realized that I hitchhiked a ride onto the belief that she had in me that you can do this. It's not that, you know, it's not that difficult. You can figure it out, and together we can figure it out. So I think always a person or something comes along in your life that really helps to boost you, boost your career, boost your own self-confidence, and also boost your assertiveness.

Zoe Greenhalf: 8:52

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 8:53

So you can stand on their belief even if you don't have it totally. That was extremely helpful for me. And then I was going to also say something about that part. That was when I realized that you have to invest in your own self. College can give you the basics, but that's learning. When you get out there in the world of work, whether or not you have your own business as you do, and most of us do now, it's the investment that so there's a learning side and there's the investment side, the L and I. When you get out there, it's that you have to be intentional about investing yourself, whether it means finding a tribe that is doing the same things that you want to do, or finding a mentor that can help, you know, propel you along. That investment that you now decide and you become intentional about diving into that is a game changer.

Zoe Greenhalf: 9:54

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 9:54

That is a game changer, yeah.

Zoe Greenhalf: 9:56

So where did your career go after that pivotal moment? Was it at that point that you went, actually, maybe I need to start thinking about things a bit differently? Or did you stay in that career for a bit longer? And like how did it, how did it pan out?

Nikki Chaplin: 10:15

So here's how it panned out for me. At the time I was in banking, right? Okay. I started out as a junior analyst in the bank that I worked in at the time. And then once I realized that, wait a minute, you really need to to to take responsibility for your own career life here, it propelled me then to get promotions and really, really move up the ladder. But what it also did for me, it helped me in getting just outside my comfort zone a little bit to start my writing career and start my coaching career and to get into that side of my life a little bit more. And that's what I mean about playing bigger, because not necessarily just in a financial sense, but in the sense of what your soul wants to do. Your soul doesn't just always want to do one thing, it might all be related and it might all have different legs, and it might all feel different at the time that you're doing it, but when you look back on the tapestry of it, you can see the connections. Right? Yeah.

Zoe Greenhalf: 11:28

So how did that how did that look then? Were you moving through your career but but feeling like there was something else that you were meant to do, or feeling like there were other things you wanted to experiment with? How did that feel?

Nikki Chaplin: 11:44

Absolutely. I felt as though there were parts of me that wanted to come through, right? So there was the the side of the the nine to five where you're basically working on various projects, and you even if you're doing well at them, you feel like there's more that you can do, right? And so that's how that part of it, you know. I I star I wrote my first book while I I still had my nine to five job, right? Teaching. So that was another part that came through. Then I started to give speeches, motivational speeches. So that's another side that came through. When I look back, you can see it all fitting together because one fed the other one. Although they were kind of different, but they were each feeding each other. And in the meantime, it was feeding my soul. Yes. And then you feel like you're growing, you feel like you're doing what it is that you want to do. You know, it's not just one linear thing, right?

Zoe Greenhalf: 12:46

Yeah. And did you feel sort of pulled into the coaching space, as it were, or was it a very gradual organic process? You were just focusing on at the moment I want to write, I think I want to speak. Were you just happy to kind of see how see which was sort of wherever you went where you felt called to, or did you have at that point an idea, I think I'm going to end up in the coaching space or or or in personal development?

Nikki Chaplin: 13:15

You know, at the time I didn't know that I would end up in personal development. Having said that, though, once you're working in corporate and you're working as a manager, you're constantly coaching. It's not so much the doings at that point, right? It's getting the job done. And to get the job done, you definitely have to coach the people that work with you. You have to coach your team, you have to coach yourself. So, no, I didn't think at the time that it would lead me into personal development. However, I knew in my soul that I like that part of it. I like the fact that you're working with a team and you can see the team grow. You can see people blossom in different ways, even though they leave the team and they take on different jobs, right? In a way, it gives it gives you so much personal satisfaction that you know that you just know within your heart this is what I like. I really enjoy the fact that this one moved on and he's doing XYZ now, and she moved on and she's doing XYZ now. Or for what we did as a team, that it had an impact on the company. So, yes, there was that part of it, I just didn't know how it would pan out. So I think for me it happened organically, yeah. And isn't that the way most careers work anyway, right? It kind of you find your way there, sort of.

Zoe Greenhalf: 14:40

Yes, yeah. Um I was just thinking about the fact that you you took responsibility and as we talked about at the beginning, this sense of being intentional about what you were doing. It takes some people a really short time to arrive at that point, and it takes some people a really a really long time because they're kind of stuck in this place of well, I know I don't want this thing, but I don't know what I do want. Um and if you can only work out some of that, then you can kind of figure out, even if you don't know exactly where you're going, you can kind of figure out maybe the next step. And it feels to me like maybe you are saying, I'm I'm not sure where this is gonna go, but writing feels good to me right now, so let's go that way, and speaking feels good to me, so let's go that way. Um and now now everything's kind of come together in a way that you can see much more clearly the things you enjoy, that where your skills fit in, and and would it be right to say that you've kind of found more alignment later on in your in your career, in your life?

Nikki Chaplin: 15:55

Oh, definitely. I I I know for a fact that this is the sweet spot. I for me, I know this is what I want to do. And I right and if if people can figure it out or individuals could only figure it out earlier, think of all the things that you could do. Think about the contributions that you could make to others who are or feeling the same struggle, right? Wouldn't it be awesome if we had help earlier on so we could get to it rather than sort of stumble to it? That's what I'm thinking.

Zoe Greenhalf: 16:34

It would absolutely would, and it would save us years of stumbling, some of us. Then we could help so many other people. I know. So we can what were some what were some of the, you know, maybe the mistakes that you made or the challenges that you faced um along your journey out of corporate? And I don't know. Have you come across some obstacles that a lot of other people face in in trying to find their their purpose or what it is they're aiming for?

Nikki Chaplin: 17:07

Yes, in terms of mistakes, I don't know how much time we have because I can't I can tell you that I made dozens and dozens of mistakes, but I'll just pick a few of them and and you know we can touch on a couple of them. In the early part of my career, when I had a chance to go after, let's say, a promotion or something, I would hold myself back because my thinking is, I'm not ready, I need to do some more, I need to prove myself more. First of all, that is a mistake because you'll never ever be totally ready. What you need to do is to ready your heart and your soul and your mind to you can figure it out to figuring it out. As someone says, everything is figure out ebble, right?

Zoe Greenhalf: 17:50

You if that's a word, I don't think it's a word, but No, but I think Marie Folio coined it, didn't she?

Nikki Chaplin: 17:56

Right? So if we could only say to ourselves, we don't know exactly right now, but we can figure it out when we get there, right? And we can get help. So that's one mistake, and it took me a long time to come around to that.

Zoe Greenhalf: 18:10

Oh, I think that affects so many people though, doesn't it? It's the whole self-trust thing. It's like I don't trust myself enough to know to be able to figure it out.

Nikki Chaplin: 18:19

Yes, but you will figure it out. You will if if you have the desire to do that particular thing, you will figure it out. You will make yourself figure it out. So that's one big mistake. The other one that I wrestled with earlier on is this idea of finding your purpose. It's not just one thing, it's not just a linear thing, right? As long as you know what your values are to begin with, number one, what what it what is it that you value? Do you value freedom? Do you value creativity? What are the things that you value? Now, those things that you hold dearest to you and you value so much, they may not be the thing that pays your bill. Right? It may not be the thing that pays your rent or pays your car note. It might not be. So once you figure out, well, I am going to pursue something that will pay my bills, you go ahead and you pursue that. You might find that if your purpose lies along that path. You might also find that it has nothing to do with that, that over here, this is what you do to pay your bills, but your purpose is something else over on the other side. And that's perfectly okay. It is perfectly okay. And I go back also to the thought of you do have to remember that there's the learning part of your life, which you do earlier on, the foundational part. And then the second part is a fun part where you get to decide what is it that you want to invest your life in. That is a really fun part. Right?

Zoe Greenhalf: 19:55

I love that because yeah, there's too much talk about life being over by the time you've got to 40. You've you've you should have done all the things by then, you should know where you're going. Um, so I much prefer this perspective of you're that's you're still in the learning phase then, and you can decide afterwards where you're going and what you want to do.

Nikki Chaplin: 20:15

Exactly, exactly. And then what when you get to the point of investing your time in finding the tribe that is is doing the things that you want to do and then joining that tribe. Isn't that so much fun? It is the most fun you can ever have because not only do you learn from them, but they challenge you as well. Not in a comparative sense, but in the sense that it broadens your whole perspective. Now you have a tribe of people doing different things in exciting ways, and wow, it just opens up your your whole lens to which you which you can view your own life. So that to me is a fun part of it. And now you're not in in the you know the traditional learning anymore. You're in a diff you're in a different phase. As someone said to me the other day, he said he spent a lot of money investing in his own education. So I said to him, Well, you're talking about college. He says, No, no, no, I'm not talking about college, I'm talking about after college, right? Yeah. And that was the fun part. That's the part that can really, really help grow.

Zoe Greenhalf: 21:24

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Nikki Chaplin: 22:25

That kind of evolved. I'll tell you how I came about, and I'll have to start off how I came about writing my first book. I remember and this goes back to investing in myself. I had gone to a seminar by with Les Brown, right? One of his seminars. And you know, he's very animated, and you get all excited, and and you you just know that maybe I'm onto something here. So after he gave his lecture, somehow I happened to bump into him later on, and we had this conversation. I don't remember exactly the details of the conversation, but I remember three words. I remember saying, you know, I would love to write a book, and he said three words to me. Why don't you? Why don't you? I will always remember those three words.

unknown: 23:16

I love that.

Nikki Chaplin: 23:17

And that led me to go back to square one and really sit down and write my first book, which was Dare to Live Your Dreams, right? Then I wrote a second book. And now, based on all the things that I've done with personal development and knowing that yes, I can write the book, right? And I can help people, I came to the realization that there is a different way for us to go about finding our purpose in the traditional path that we've been led to believe. You go to school, you learn, you take a job, and you become quote unquote responsible. And maybe if you're lucky, you might find the thing that you really love.

Speaker 02: 24:00

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 24:00

I firmly believe there's another doorway we can, not another, not an elevator, but I firmly believe that there are many other doorways that we can open ourselves to. And why not? We have this one big, beautiful life. Why not live it? Live it to the fullest, right? And if there are other doorways for us to enter, let's go through it and see what's there. Obviously, as as again, I I underscore we're not talking about doing scattered work here. We're talking about intentional work. We're talking about throwing yourself into the things that you value, into the things that are important to you, into the things that make you want to jump out of bed in the morning and say, I cannot wait to get to doing XYZ.

Zoe Greenhalf: 24:42

Yeah. Maybe we could just clarify then, like how would you describe what's the difference between this scattered work and this focus work? Because I know that, you know, in terms of trying to find your purpose, you feel compelled maybe to try loads of things, right? Um so how do we navigate this idea that there's like scattered, scatteredness? I'm just gonna throw myself at everything and see what sticks. And then there's this idea of focused work.

Nikki Chaplin: 25:14

I feel that when you're scattered and you're doing scattered work, you somehow know it. The reason we keep doing scattered work, or at least I did that in the early part of my career, was the fear that I don't know how this is going to work out, right? I I just don't know. But you know within yourself when you're saying, well, this job pays X much dollars more than I'm making right now, so I am going to jump over there and see if it works. Or my friend works in XYZ industry and they seem to be growing. I'm gonna throw myself over there and see if it works. Intentional work begins with you really looking at what do you want to become? Okay, what do I want to become? Over the next 20 years, if I look back and I didn't do what my soul wanted to do, will I feel a sense of regret? And you really have to be serious in giving yourself that answer and gifting yourself the time to figure it out because it won't just happen that you wake up tomorrow morning and it hits you. Yes, this is what I want to become over the next 20 years. For me, I I had to journal, journal, journal, journal, journal. What do I want to become in the next 10-15 years? And then chunk it down to Am I doing the things, am I doing the daily habits that will get me to becoming this person down the road? So to answer you, I don't know if that and clarifies, however, the the main part of it is that when you're being scattered, you know that you have not developed your values to the point where you know this is my value, this is what I value. I don't care what happens, I value my creative freedom, right? I value being able to write. For me, that's a that's non-negotiable, no matter where I am or what I'm doing. I want to be able to write. I always have a notebook with me, right?

Zoe Greenhalf: 27:25

Do you? Yeah. So like an artist. An artist always has a sketchbook in their bag, don't they?

Nikki Chaplin: 27:32

Yes, they do. Yes. And one thing I would also say that don't be afraid to ask for help. Don't be afraid to say to your mentor or if there's someone around you that you can trust that, you know, I'm really not sure what's going on here. Um I feel like I'm just wading through murky waters and I'm not seeing clearly. Don't be afraid to put it out there and to ask for help. And of course, you have to be discerning who it is that you're asking for help. But make it your intention if you can't figure it out on your own to ask for help. However, once you get that nudge in your soul and it keeps bigger and gets getting bigger and bigger, that you're really not on you're not being intentional, you're not being on track, or you want to do something different, then follow it and and uh try to work it out.

Zoe Greenhalf: 28:29

Yeah. I feel like the the part about the values, um they really act like a bit of a compass for you, don't they? And so you can almost use that to kind of measure different things against and and be like, okay, this job that on paper looks brilliant, but does it actually allow me to to be the person with these values or to do the things that I value not so much, in which case then it becomes easy to make a decision, doesn't it? If you start with the values, the decision making itself gets easier. So you can kind of start to start to steer yourself, I suppose.

Nikki Chaplin: 29:12

Absolutely. It will definitely point you in the right direction. Yeah. It may not be overnight. I was thinking also just going back to earlier days of my coaching, and I would hear the the comment, well, I'm doing this job because it pays the bills. And by default, I'm saying to myself or the person saying, I know I deserve better, but I can't really work out how to get to that better. Right? Yeah. And it's almost giving up on yourself. And and it's it's not an easy road when you say, Well, I'm doing this job just to pay the it's not an easy road. It's a difficult decision to move from there to doing what you want to do. The one thing I Would remind myself is that it can be done. You might not know how to do it at the moment, but start off with the idea that it can be done, whether it takes time for you to journal about what it is that you really want to do and how you balance those two things between yes, this job pays my bill, but my soul really wants to do that. Maybe you have to do both of them. And if it turns out that's how it's you have to work it out, then see if you can find peace with that. Some people only find peace doing what it is that they want to do. And you mentioned artists before. I know a lot of artists, and that's how they think about it. They can only be at peace when they're working on their artwork.

Speaker 02: 30:45

Yeah. Right?

Nikki Chaplin: 30:46

They can only be at peace, and it doesn't matter if if the house falls apart or the car falls apart, they are at peace.

Zoe Greenhalf: 30:55

Yeah. I think I think there'll be a lot of people listening to this who are in that position actually of feeling stuck. We use that word so often, but it's just that sense of I'm trapped because I'm in this job that's not really the thing I want to be doing. But how do I make that leap? And it feels like a leap often, from this thing where I'm getting the regular money and I need that money and I can't really turn it down, to moving sideways or forwards um and doing a thing that actually sets my soul on fire.

Nikki Chaplin: 31:30

Yeah. It it I I really I know that I've been there before, so I know that feeling. I know that feeling where you you just constantly take a deep breath and you go back to the default position that just remember that this is a job that pay that gives you income, right? You just fall back on that. So I know that feeling. One of the suggestions that I would give is you really have to start with if I'm if I weren't doing this, what would I be doing? If I weren't doing this job, what it is that I would be doing instead? And then would it supply me the income that I need for the life or the lifestyle that I need? Right? Then you have to really be serious and answer that question. And if it doesn't, what is it my soul needs? And what my soul needs, will it provide me the income for the life and the lifestyle that I need? Right. Then it takes a while for you to journal through all of that and to gradually see if there's a way that you can merge the two or do both of them separately. For example, let's go back to the idea of the artist. In many cases, we hear about the starving artist, right? And one of the ways to get around not starving as an artist is to find an agent or find someone who can sell your work for you. Because many artists, they the idea of doing the business part of it does not appeal, right? It does not appeal to them in one way or the other. But it takes time for them to work out that there is a way for me to earn substantial income, although I don't like doing the business part of it. But I want to wake up at 3 a.m. in the morning and paint and paint and paint until 3 p.m. in the afternoon, right? So you can work it out that way. Let's say you're you're a nurse and you wanted to do something different. First of all, you have to figure out what is it in your soul that is calling you to do that something different, right? And it takes time, it's not gonna happen overnight, but start with journaling, start with maybe just dreaming about it. And also ask yourself, what is it that I really, really, really love to do? There is a reason that love is the most powerful soap, uh powerful thing in the universe. There's a reason for that. What is it that my soul loves to do? Is it helping people in this format or is it helping people in a different format? I am a nurse, but I don't know that I want to do this for you know, for a long time I want to do something different, or I want to move up, but I don't know how to do it. You really have to ask yourself, what is it that my soul longs to do? And will I fall in love with it? Sometimes you might think that you want to do XYZ, and you might find out when you get around to doing it, you haven't fallen in love with it. That's another truck. Oh, it's tricky. It is a tricky thing. And I go back to saying, you know, let's start with something that we can do that's very easy to do, and that's just journaling. Waking up early, 5 a.m., 5 30, or 6 a.m. before the day starts, and just maybe write a few notes here and there and not censor yourself. Right, not censor yourself, not try to figure out, am I writing down the right thing? Because it's only between you and the piece of paper that you're writing on.

Speaker 02: 35:15

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 35:16

That's one of the things that I have found most powerful. And then just ask yourself, what is it that I love to do? Do I really uh for example, for me in my case, I love to write. Right. And it doesn't matter if someone disagrees or agrees or or has a different difference of opinion. I know that it feeds my soul and I really love it. So those are a couple of things that I think a couple of doorways that I think that you can get to it without making yourself crazy. Because let's face it, we have responsibilities in life. We all do, right? And we have to attend to them. I was just going to add at the same time, we have this one this one adventure that we want to enjoy.

Speaker 02: 35:58

Yeah.

Zoe Greenhalf: 35:59

Yeah, absolutely. Um, that's what I'm here for. The adventure. I don't want the run of the mill. You know what? I strive to to achieve and another one of my friends shares this. So we talk often about this sense of you know that space where work is so much fun that you feel like you're playing and you're just maybe to other people it even looks that way as well. But but that space where you're like, is it work or is it play? Because it just feels so good. That's where I want to get to. Yes. That's like that's my my dream. Um I was just reminded of that when you were talking about the big adventure of life. Um, in terms of like writing and stuff, how many books have you written up until now? And what kind of writing do you do?

Nikki Chaplin: 36:49

So far, I have published two books, and there is one that is yet to be published. It's it will be published very soon. And of course, you guessed it, it has to do with how to intentionally find your purpose, right?

unknown: 37:00

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 37:01

My first book had to do with Dear to Live Your Dreams. And now that I'm thinking about it, now that you're asked that question, I'm thinking it was at that point that my career really veered off into the direction that it is now. Really? Yes. Now that I'm thinking about it, it was that point that it veered off into more personal development. So this is my third book, and um, it should be out very soon, and I'm really looking forward to it. Yes.

Zoe Greenhalf: 37:29

Um, and what happened in that moment then when you f when you wrote your first book? Did you just have all of these ideas in your head and you just think, I've just got to get them out? How does it how how does a person go from their corporate career to go, actually I want to write a book? That's that's where I'm going.

Nikki Chaplin: 37:50

The answer is I want to write a book, and then someone says to me, Well, why don't you? And then you have to face it. Then you just you just made it happen. Right, then you have to face yourself in the mirror. And then because there there really is no reason for for you not to do what you want to do. The only person stopping you is you, because right? Because at that point I had not put my mind to it, and but however, I had enough material in the back, right? Having coached a lot of people, I had enough material there, but I also had I'm always curious, right? I had questions that needed answers, and so both of they kind of came together, right? Okay. The material from my work, plus my curiosity as to how did other other people do this thing? Because there are many successful people who they did not figure it out from day one. They figured it out as they went along, right? Yeah, right. So that fed my curiosity. How did Maya Angelo, for example, figure out that she wanted to be a singer, an actress, a writer, a poet, right? I mean, I'm sure she didn't w wake up when she was two or when she was four and and suddenly it dawned on her that this is the path, this is where I'm gonna go, right? It happened as she went along. And you can look back into famous people. Mother Teresa didn't become Mother Teresa until she went to Calcutta, right? I don't think when she was nine or ten or eleven, she would have thought that she would have been in the slums of Calcutta, but that's where she ended up, right? Now, I would say also that some people know from the start that this is what they want to do. I don't know that there are many of them. Yeah. And because I didn't happen to be one of them, I knew I had to figure it out. And so, and so that's what I did. And so those are the kinds of people that I think I I want to, you know, corral and be part of, the ones who have not really been born with the silver spoon. I mean, some people are, and it's easier for you to go that way. But for me, I wasn't born that I was not born that lucky. I mean, I was born in a very humble family, and so books were my refuge, and I read and read and read, and you know, it's my happy place. And so that helped me. So I I know I took the conversation in a different way, but yeah, but you can see how all those pieces came together later on, because somewhere in my soul, I knew that there were questions that I needed answers for, and maybe the first book answered some of those questions for me, but it also gave me an opportunity to give back some of the information that I or some of the knowledge that I had gained through micro relax.

Zoe Greenhalf: 40:49

Yeah. So here's a question for you then. Do you feel like in writing your first book, you were writing it for yourself, or were you writing it to help others, or did it end up being a mixture of the two?

Nikki Chaplin: 41:03

I think it started out by me writing it for myself. I found out later, though, one person who I heard from who had bought the book, she was in the hospital at the time, and she bought the book and she said, This book helped me get through my hospital stay, and that was enough for me. That was enough to tell me where you did the right thing. If you could just help one person, you did the right thing. So I think in writing it for myself to answer all the questions that kept bubbling up and the thoughts that kept bubbling up to me, I think it ended up helping many people. Well, as many people who bought the book and learned from it, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, you were asking earlier on about mistakes that that that I've made, and I've made so many of them I can't even, I cannot even I I stopped counting.

Zoe Greenhalf: 42:00

Stop counting. It's a life, isn't it?

Nikki Chaplin: 42:06

But had I known then what I now know, I would have probably done it earlier. So, you know, I'm thinking, well, a mistake really isn't a mistake unless you don't learn from it, right?

Speaker 02: 42:16

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 42:17

It is data that we can use to help us move forward. But now I know not to hold back so much, not to wait for perfect timing or wait for perfect readiness. Because what's perfect anyway? Perfect is when you decide to stop, right?

Zoe Greenhalf: 42:35

But how did how did you get over those kind of mental blocks? Is it something that has just grown with experience, or has it been working with mentors or other coaches that have helped you to get past those? Because they can they can keep us in playing in the same loop for years.

Nikki Chaplin: 42:56

I mean they just paralyze you, no? Yeah. For me, I think that aside from having mentors who really sort of mirrored a different way to me, mentors are are extremely are extremely helpful. However, for me, what I find helped me get beyond that is the is that just the journaling in a day when things don't go the way I want it or planned it uh to go, just to journal. What did I learn from that? You know, and how can I address it? How can I how can I fix that in a better way? And the thing about learning and getting over your mental blocks is that you're always growing. It always helps you to grow, right? And whether you find a mentor that helps you move past that, or in some people in some cases, you know, people might want to do therapy or something more serious than just having a mentor. However, once you get to the point that you value a certain way of becoming, and you get on that road, there is nothing that will stop you. There is nothing that will stop you because that's what that is what you want. That is what your soul cries out for. And like we like I said earlier on, we want the adventure. Granted, it's you know, you're gonna have rockiness here and there, but I want to play full out, I want to play bigger, I want to have fun that I'm here to to experience, and I also want is want to help others who want to be helped, right?

Speaker 02: 44:34

Yeah.

Nikki Chaplin: 44:35

Is there anything more fulfilling than helping someone and seeing them blossom? I don't know. No, right? It's it's one of the greatest feelings in the world when you hear from someone and they s tell you something that you said to them or help them figure out, and they call you and you say, Oh, but and they say, by the way, here's what happened. To me, it's one of the most fulfilling things ever.

Zoe Greenhalf: 45:00

Yeah, I 100% agree with that. Um absolutely warms my heart when I get messages and comments about these episodes as well, because for the same reason, I just think listening to this one conversation has changed something for somebody else. And at the end of the day, like what's better than that? I can't think of anything.

Nikki Chaplin: 45:26

Yeah, so yeah, you really have to be intentional about it. But once you decide this is what I value, this is what's really important to me, and you set your mind, and it just it just puts you at peace. You know, you just feel so much more peaceful doing it rather than going about the helter skeletal way where you're not sure and you're just going through the motions. Like nobody wants that.

Zoe Greenhalf: 45:49

Yeah, I think just one last question that I I'd like to ask on a on a kind of practical level. Um, how did you move out of the corporate world in the end and find a space to then dedicate to these other things that you enjoy so much?

Nikki Chaplin: 46:12

Oh my goodness.

Zoe Greenhalf: 46:14

Have I opened a can of worms there? Sorry.

Nikki Chaplin: 46:18

This one brings up a lot of stuff.

Zoe Greenhalf: 46:21

Oh can I tell you? We can skip that if you want, I don't mind. Can I tell you how it happened for me? Absolutely.

Nikki Chaplin: 46:30

Okay, how did I move out, aside from the fact that I had been working on it side by side?

Zoe Greenhalf: 46:35

Well, I tried to ask it really carefully because for all I know, you're still doing it side by side, which is fine. I'm just interested because I'm nosy and I'm curious, and I'm like, how do other people manage it?

Nikki Chaplin: 46:47

Well, you know, your podcast is about being open and honest. So I'm going to just throw it all out there. I was thrown out. Okay. I was pushed out. And how did that happen for me? And I and I now I'm at peace with it because I can see where it was all leading to. But what happened for me, we had been through so many different mergers, and to tell you the truth, I had been one working on many of them myself. So the final straw was when the last company that I worked for merged with another major company and the music stopped for me, right? So, in other words, there was not a position there for me any longer. So when I say that I was pushed out, I mean I was I was um given my walking paper. So that was not fun. And this is one of the reasons why I love personal development so much, because it helps to prepare a person for what could possibly happen, regardless of how you're doing your job, whether you're doing it well or you're not doing it well. Yeah. Right? In my case, I would not have come to where I am right now had that not happened, or it might have taken me a longer time. But I say all that to say that sometimes, and you know, talk about stumbling into your purpose. We talked about that before. Sometimes it happens because you're pushed into it, sometimes it happens because you stumble into it. In my case, I was pushed in into it, and then I had to face reality. Are you going to answer what your soul wants you to do, or are you going to go back into your traditional corporate way of doing things? So thank you for asking that question. Because at the time that it happened, it was like, oh my God, after all, this time my world has fallen apart. But you're you realize later on that your world doesn't really fall apart. It just changes and it's asking you or telling you. It's for it's it's foreshadowing the change that you need to make and what you need to address and how you're gonna address it.

Zoe Greenhalf: 48:51

Yeah, it's a it's all it's all about turning it, you know, turning it into an opportunity, isn't it?

Nikki Chaplin: 48:57

Yes. Yeah. So thank you for asking that question.

Zoe Greenhalf: 49:00

Oh, you're welcome.

Nikki Chaplin: 49:03

The universe has a way of saying, ready or not, here I come. Are you gonna do this or not?

Zoe Greenhalf: 49:09

Sure. Nikki, it's been wonderful talking to you. Where can people find out more about you or or work with you and have you coach them?

Nikki Chaplin: 49:19

Oh, absolutely. You can reach me on Instagram, Nikki Chaplin1, or you can also reach me on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from you, or you can go to my website, nikkichaplin.com. Really love to connect.

Zoe Greenhalf: 49:32

Amazing. And look forward to hearing more about the new book when it comes out.

Nikki Chaplin: 49:37

Awesome, awesome. Can't wait. Thanks, Nikki. Thank you so much. It's been amazing. Love chatting.

Zoe Greenhalf: 49:46

That's a wrap on another episode of the Mischief Movement Podcast. If today's content stirred something in you, let's keep in touch on Instagram or connect with me on LinkedIn. You can even click the link in the show notes to sign up to my Mischief Mail newsletter, where you'll get exclusive insights on upcoming episodes and your chance to submit questions to future guests. But shh, don't tell anyone, it's our secret. For more info on ways to work with me and some fun free resources, check out the website themischiefmovement.com. Until next time, stay bold, stay rebellious, and of course, keep making mischief.