Nikki Pope Guest Interview

Nikki Pope is the founder of 'The Modern Launch Club' and the force behind 'Mainstage LIVE' and 'The Solopreneur Awards'. 
A performer-turned-business mentor, Nikki found that after years in the entertainment industry, the same skills that move an audience - storytelling, presence, emotion and confidence - are the ones that build magnetic brands and sell offers. 
Through 'The Modern Launch Club' and her live events, Nikki is creating powerful spaces for women to rise together, be celebrated, and take centre stage in their industries

@themodernlaunchclub

Today I chat with Nikki who has launched The infamous Solopreneur Awards. Her work in recognising women's achievements is much needed and listening to her 'why', was so inspiring.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to another episode of Success Starts Within. Today I've got the gorgeous Nikki Pope with me, who is the founder of the Modern Launch Club and the force behind Mainstage Live and also, as we all well know, the Solopreneur Awards. She is a performer turned business mentor who found that after years in the entertainment industry, the same skills that move an audience, such as storytelling, presence, emotion, and confidence, are also the ones that build magnetic brands and sell offers. So through the Modern Launch Club and her live events, Nikki is creating powerful spaces for women to rise together, be celebrated, and take centre stage in their industries. So hello Nikki and welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Hello, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

No worries. Thank you so much for coming. So I've been very excited to talk to you today because the Solopreneur Awards are something that I feel like popped up overnight, but has just got huge. So I want to talk to you obviously about that. But firstly, you have flipped from one industry, which is the performance industry, entertainment, into business coaching. And I would really love your take on what it's been like to flip into a completely different industry, but more focused on what you have to, what inner work did you have to do? What mindset blocks did you have to work through?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Such a great question. I feel like do you know it was such um as horrific as it was, I felt like COVID was the biggest permission slip for me, right? I always wanted to live this big, beautiful life, and I know that more money in my hands will bless more people, right? And so it was just not going to happen the way I wanted it to happen, to have control over it within the you know entertainment industry, right? It's a much, much it's hard in either industry, right? But I feel like this was sort of like it was my permission slip to try something new. I'd been a performer my entire life, you know, from when I was walking and talking, and so that identity shift, I actually found that really difficult, and I um yeah, it was a really emotional time. It was like we'd been given this new lease of life, this opportunity to sit at our sit at our desks and learn this new skill of making money online, and so I guess I was like really slowly coming out of the industry at that point, in terms of I built two businesses. So um the unsigned artist, which was predominantly teaching musicians how to market themselves online, so it was like this ease out of of that space and just sort of adapting it to another. Because I think once you're a performer, you're always a performer, right? It's always in you, and so I always yeah, like I I wanted to find a way that I could blend my love for both so that you know I think um and there's like I said in in the you know, in in sort of your entrance here of thank you very much, is is talking about like the skills that I learned as a performer um have definitely contributed to my success over here, and I think um we're starting to move into this space now where we're gonna start teaching performance skills to build your business, and I think the identity shift piece, yeah, I find it really difficult, and I had my first ever coach, and I remember um Shauna Bray, she was wonderful, she was my first coach into the industry, and um and I remember her having a guest on, and I got a little bit teary because it was like I'd only ever been known as a performer, and would I be seen as a failure by leaving the industry or shifting for a while out of the industry, and you know, all of these thoughts and processes, and also the imposter syndrome of well, I'd never I'd managed myself as a bit as a business in as a performer, right? But never actually sort of built a business, and I think I learnt a lot in that process and that sort of time gap before the modern launch club came because um I was able to really start to adapt what I was learning, but with performance, and I just think it was just a really tough time because I really felt like I was um I felt shame and guilt, you know, a lot of guilt, you know. You think of all of the people that had helped me get to where I was in performance, and then I'm sort of going, see in a bit, and there was just a lot of things, so I guess that was really difficult. But now I think coming into this space, it's definitely I'm giving myself the permission slip to go. Actually, we get to we get it's uh it's and or both, right? We get to be a performer, but also be a business owner that's successful and that's teaching other women to rise and find their own sort of main character energy and all of this stuff that so it's it's now that I'm really starting to feel like I'm finding my place in this industry and in myself because I get to be both, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah, you do get to be both. What you said there is so industry uh interesting and very validating for me. So I have been a sign language interpreter for 24 years, and when I was transitioning into coaching, I felt guilty as well for the exact same reasons that you said. So I love that you said that because there must be people listening who are feeling the same. It is that guilt for me. It was like I have been working with this certain community for so many years, and I know that it's a community that needs support. I suppose you know, the same with like the performance industry, and they need that support, and yet exactly as you say, I'm going, Bye-bye, I feel like I've got something better now. But and I had to do a lot of work on myself to release that guilt. And I remember speaking to a coach, and she said to me, She was like, It's not your responsibility to carry those people. And I thought, it's actually true, but being a people pleaser, being somebody who is very empathetic, being somebody who always puts other people's needs before her own, I couldn't do that. But she was so right, it's it's not my responsibility to carry them, and ultimately, you know, if I was interpreting for somebody and they didn't like me and they wanted to get somebody else's, they would just replace me. So why am I kind of like keeping myself in there and and you know, I'm feeling bad for leaving? And that's what we do, don't we? When we're trying to shift into something else, it's like it is that guilt, but also as you said, it's our identity. We have been this particular person, you know. My name's Kirsty, I'm a Silanker interpreter. You know, my name's Nikki, I'm working in the entertainment industry. It's like because we talk about ourselves in that way, that label is really hard to peel off. And so when we go and do something different, it is that real like push and pull of consciously, I want to be doing something different, but subconsciously, this is where I belong, this is what I know is safe for me, and and I I don't and I should stay there. But that's where we become unhappy, is when we just feel that we have to stay where is comfortable and we don't go and we don't start branching out and trying something new.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah, it's that thing of like, what will people think of me? I mean, I don't feel as heavily around that anymore because I think as we're that's the other thing about this industry, right? Like we we are thrusted into self-awareness and growth and mindset work, and you know, and I think um I think that that's such a piece of this puzzle, which I goodness me, like if I'd have had that as a performer, that mindset element, that growth piece, it I would have done even more work in that space, but we would just never in the in the the music industry, the performing arts, like it's so riddled with the insecurities and imposter syndrome and all the things that if people just learnt these tools would feel so much better about what gifts they've got to give to the world, and it's same, it's the same with you know women coming into this space and wanting to build a business online and create a legacy and create impact. And I think that that is such a piece of the puzzle, and that identity piece that you're talking about is oh, it's key, right? And I I do think like as we come through this world and this journey and we evolve and we become bigger and better business owners, that you know that gets to that changes, right? So it's about having that capacity to allow that, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah, no, that makes sense completely. It's um it is very tricky working on the identity because I find, as you said, once we once coming into the coaching space, it I spotlighted insecurities that I didn't even know that I had, and it even heavily spotlighted the ones that I knew that I had, and it it was really hard to have to work through them because when you want to be doing the work that we do, where we have to be visible, we have to be out there meeting people, and we want to be. Um we're building a business in a completely different way than we were because uh I think the way that we kind of built our businesses before were quite similar, but you have to get out there, and then you'll, as you say, you're then putting yourself forward for like that fear of judgment from other people, and the imposter syndrome kicks in, and it's a lot to have to work through. So, what what were I would say, what are the top two or three limiting beliefs or narratives that you would tell yourself when you were transitioning into like this new space that was kind of holding you back from really just going for it and executing all these ideas, as I say, executing the ideas that are stuck in your notebook?

SPEAKER_00 10:59

I top two or three limiting beliefs of coming into into this space or into solo? Which one are we?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Well, just when you transitioned away from like the entertainment industry and kind of doing like the you know, going into the new type of business.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Uh I guess a lot, like in terms of like perfection paralysis, that stopped me for a long time. You know, my goodness, I'd be I'd be the first one to be there building a six-month programme before it's even got one person in because of the just you know, just to oh gosh, I can't be behind. Um very quickly that that that was punched out of me because it's just just not feasible. Like um imposter syndrome for sure, because that was um I feel like if if someone says they haven't got it, they're lying at any level, right? Like even coming into solo now, and I think um we I think I always knew that that was going to be big. I think I always you know when it's just like oh, I'm really on to something here because this is really something that needs a light shining, and I I feel like I'm the one to do it. I don't think what I was prepared for was the almost instant recognition, and so I which sounds wonderful, but you know when you're how do I explain it? When you um the imposter syndrome is real, right? I have some of the biggest names in my DMs, and I'm like I have to, you know, I have to really sit there and and and and I do believe that solo is a big, big deal and will continue to grow and become this staple in our calendars moving forward, and I think because I know that it's helped me to sort of be like, I am worthy to have these people in my DMs, and you know, but I feel like at any any stage in business, next level new devil, right? And it's true, yeah, yeah, very true.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

It's that fear as well, like it's the fear of success. People can fear success, and when things are getting so big, you can start sabotage yourself as well. A lot of people think you know, you sabotage yourself on the end of like right at the beginning stages, but actually, as you said, it's blown up so big that that is where people do also sabotage as well, because it's like I can't actually my nervous system can't keep up with this amount of success and all these big names coming into my DMs. So I'm gonna stop posting, or I'm gonna stop showing up so much, I'm gonna stop doing all these things, and you're like, shit, actually, no, I want this, so it's working through that level as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's um for sure. I think that that is such a big piece of the puzzle. I think it's just holding holding yourself through it, right? It's it's nervous system work, it's everything that needs to happen to know that you can lead the lead lead the beast, right? In in that way, and I think um yeah, I'm I'm really proud of it, and I think that when when that's it's just those moments that sort of go, oh, okay, we're on the right track, yeah. You know, and I think that's um yeah, so I think we're all we all have our limiting beliefs. I think one of the things that I don't struggle with is the bigger picture, because I'm not afraid to go for it either, and I think that's such a big piece of of building a business as well, and it's just no guts, no glory, and that's sort of my attitude in life, anyway. So um, but it'll be the it'll be the smaller things that are not small at all, but will you know sort of drop in, and I think that's just good to be aware of, right? And then be able to move through it and know that it's just part of riding the entrepreneurial entrepreneurial dragon, that's what we call it.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

It is so true. So, talk about the solopreneur awards for those that um don't know. You've got a problem, you need to go and find out. It is absolutely amazing. So, Nikki set up the solopreneur awards because she wants to recognize the amazingness of women, and we don't have anything really like that as entrepreneurs, you know. You obviously get the award ceremonies and things like that when you work in corporate, but as an entrepreneur, you're on your own all the time. You don't know whether you're doing a good job or not, you know, and it's just to have somebody to recognize and for you to be nominated, like winning whatever, but just to be nominated, to be like, I'm being nominated for this category because and being recognized for your work and all of your the hours that you've put into doing it, I just think it's amazing. So tell us a bit more about the awards and what was the driving force behind you uh creating it.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Um, and I I love that as well, like that what you just said, because I think um for me as well, I feel like it it starts even earlier, right? From the there's so many people. I actually didn't realise that this was such a big issue, but we get so many people in our DMs daily that are like, oh, I'm not I'm not ready, I don't even want to put myself forward, and we're like, whoa, no, like that's not what this, and and we're such a different type of awards ceremony around like I I do care about growth and results, of course, but for me, what stands above anything is the heart and the heart behind it, the mission, the get up and go. You know, we've got we had people that had you know built their business three weeks before they came to Solo, and we had seven-figure coaches there, so it was such a big like melting pot of different stages of business and what that looked like. And I think even to just apply from what I'm picking up is such a big deal. Like the journey starts there, even if you're even if you're you don't become a finalist, like it's it's such a it's just that stake in the ground to be like, no, I I believe in what I'm building because if we don't believe in what we're building, nobody else will. And I think that's such a first point of call. And so, um, yeah, so like application, um, into obviously the awards themselves. So the what was the question?

SPEAKER_01 18:25

What what was the driving force uh for you to set up the solopreneur awards?

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Um I feel like I owe a lot to the women online that cheered very loudly for me when my family and friends didn't understand what I was doing, sometimes when I didn't I didn't understand what I was doing, and I feel like I owe this space to those women that were there for me. I could get emotional talking about that were there for me in those early days because they are the ones that shouted loudest, and I feel like the sisterhoods in business is everything, and I think that we can get so run down with the day-to-day and the loneliness that we can experience, as we both can attest to, I'm sure, like sitting in our offices and just trying to move the needle day by day by day by day, and to then have this experience at the end of the year that will have you seen, celebrated, recognized for the work that you're doing. Everybody in that room is celebrated, whether they're up for an award or not. There are people that sh that buy tickets just to be in the in that room because proximity is power, right? I think that's one of the biggest things that I learned, especially in this last year, is it's not what you know, it is who you know, and it's rooms like this. You know, when you're Googling, like where do I find my people? Yeah, solo is it.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Get in the solo printer awards, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Literally, get in that room because that is where the next level of yourself is, you're gonna meet her. And I think that that is the driving force behind it for me. And if I can my goal is to create the the Oscars and the Grammys of the online space, basically, and I think that um yeah, the more that we can romanticize our lives and live in luxury and build you know, bring everything that we have in our heads out into reality, that's important to me. It's important to me that people don't play small. I played small for far too long in in my life, and I think um, especially sort of in the last sort of nine or ten years, and I think that it's such a love letter to yourself to be in that room, whether you apply or not, even more so if you apply. But I think, yeah, that's that's don't know if I went around and about.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

No, no, it's nice to hear, you know, like the background and and why. And I love the fact that you because you were given that recognition and that support and people shouting for you, you felt called to give that back. And it it is lovely that you have set the awards up because as I said, we don't get recognized as like individuals, and we don't know when we're up working from a home, we you know, whether it's moving moving the needle needle forward or not, you know, because you don't have that. You don't always have your cheerleaders, you have like your friends or you know, your uh Biz Besties, but actually to actually go to somewhere and say that you've been recognized as something, but not only that, we're having to get dressed up, like it's really bougie. You know, it's it's all sorts. You had dancers and people like with all their big feather tails, and it was just gorgeous, it was really love to see, and it was at the Wardorf Hotel. So, like you say, it's just that luxury, it's just stepping into, as I call it, the main character, like that next level version of you who experiences that wealth, that support, that luxury, and yeah, you get a taste for it, and you're like, I want more of this.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Exactly. That's it, and I think that was also my um, I think that was also my sort of thinking behind the venue. I thought that if we can create or host our award our awards at this luxury venue that's going to have people feel like they're truly stepping into this then yeah, this next level version of themselves, the one that's wealthy and healthy. And I I am sorry, I need a um next level version of themselves that is wealthy and healthy, and I think that if we can do that, then we're sort of almost there, right? Like it's it becomes so much stronger to be able to then sorry to become so much stronger to then be able to do you know the kind of work that we want to create for ourselves, right? Yes, yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

No, it's been so lovely to talk to you. Thank you, Until we're getting towards the end. But I just wanted to ask one question. If somebody is thinking about doing somebody has an idea, like you have the solo pneuro, and they want to just go for it, but they are telling themselves that they can't. What is one small step that they can take to start working towards this project? Because I think sometimes, as you said, like you're very good at looking at the bigger vision, and a lot of people they struggle with that, they see the bigger vision, but they're like, There's absolutely no way I can get there. What is one small step you'd advise that they could do?

SPEAKER_00 24:24

I first and foremost, it is this like piece around permission, right? Giving yourself permission to dream bigger, like that's the first port of call. And I think that I also think if you've got the vision for something big, it's in you for a reason, right? It's there for a reason. And I do think that oh, it's just really important to just take it step by step. I couldn't do it without my team, I couldn't do it without the support from family and friends as well. So I think as long as but again, that kind of comes from getting in rooms like this and being able to build that support system around you. But I do think um doing the work around nervous system, I did a lot of that in 2024, and that expansion there, I think you need that to be able to execute on something really big and something bold. And I actually do believe that's obviously so. Obviously, on my bio it says live event strat uh strategist, and I do believe that whether it's an event or not, to make a lot of money and to make a lot of impact in your space, you have to have something that puts your name on the map. Yes, yeah, it's like it's an which I say with caution, right? Because I don't want anyone to feel like like it's not possible to do that, but it is this piece around what makes you stand out, and whether it's creating a magazine, whether it's starting a podcast, whether it's doing a YouTube channel, but like doing something big with it, it's not just about sort of sitting on your ideas because that's how that's a quick slippery slope, um, you know, down to not that we regret anything, but I do think that that just go for it in the nicest way possible. I feel like a lot of my success has come from saying yes before I'm ready every single time.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

And that's identity work, it's taking the action before you're ready. You're not gonna find the confidence to take the action, but once you've taken the action, the confidence will come.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and you figure it out, right? Like even if I think it's um it's funny, like me and my COO, she's um she's she's somebody that that is someone that will scout all the problems before they're here, so that she's she has a plan for it. Whereas I'm just like la la la, let's go. And she's like, wait, but I think there has to be this version of the two that makes it possible. But I do think I personally believe again, no guts, no glory, and you have to go do the thing, you know. I even when solo came around and the idea of solo came around just as a sort of trans all transparency, I was not making a lot of money, you know, I was barely covering my mortgage, and I wouldn't that's not um that's not me giving advice to people to move financially before they're wet ready, but I do believe, you know, if it wasn't for solo, we wouldn't be in the financial position that we are now. So it's about taking calculated risks.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Yes, but and you knew it was gonna you knew it was gonna be it was gonna it was gonna blow up and you're right, you followed your guts, and here you are like with this lovely successful business and the solopreneur awards that people are like biting your hand off to to be a part of now. So it's lovely. But thank you so much for talking to me today. I've loved it. I've loved that we've covered so much ground, but just to finish off, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Um we're a lot of places on Instagram. Why don't we start with um the Modern Launch Club? And then we've also got the Solopreneur Awards, it's all in the bio of the Modern Launch Club, and that's where we're most active. So um I would say head that way and come say hi. We're always in the DMs and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Thank you, and thank you so much for joining me today. And I hope you have a good rest of your day. Bye. Bye bye.