Nicole Ashby always dreamed of being a teacher. In 2005, she obtained her Grad.Dip.Ed in Secondary Teaching and for the next 3 years worked in across 3 schools in WA.
In 2010, Nicole began working with a mentor who opened her eyes to the possibility of financial freedom and business.
At the time, Nicole's husband, Joe was working offshore on an oil rig working 28 days away and 28 days home, otherwise known as Fly-In-Fly-Out. The couple's three children were young, 6 months, 2 and 4 when Nicole decided she would start her first business, FIFO Families and began connecting, supporting and educating the 100,000 workers and families across the country who were living the FIFO lifestyle.
Nicole was a passionate advocate for FIFO families and a first mover in this space. Over a 5 year period, she participated in over 300 media interviews such as The Project, 7.30, Today, The Australian, 7, 9, 10 and SBS news, ABC and BBC radio to name a few.
Nicole sold FIFO Families in 2015 and started another business called High-Profit Media. Once again, Nicole leveraged her teaching skills and began teaching small business owners how to generate free media interviews across TV, radio, print, and podcasts.
A finalist in both the Telstra Business Awards and Telstra Business Woman awards, Nicole mentors business owners and shares her marketing skills focussing on copy and publicity.
To work with Nicole, email nicole@high-profitmedia.com, or visit high-profitmedia.com
Nicole Ashby always dreamed of being a teacher. In 2005, she obtained her Grad.Dip.Ed in Secondary Teaching and for the next 3 years worked in across 3 schools in WA.
In 2010, Nicole began working with a mentor who opened her eyes to the possibility of financial freedom and business.
At the time, Nicole's husband, Joe was working offshore on an oil rig working 28 days away and 28 days home, otherwise known as Fly-In-Fly-Out. The couple's three children were young, 6 months, 2 and 4 when Nicole decided she would start her first business, FIFO Families and began connecting, supporting and educating the 100,000 workers and families across the country who were living the FIFO lifestyle.
Nicole was a passionate advocate for FIFO families and a first mover in this space. Over a 5 year period, she participated in over 300 media interviews such as The Project, 7.30, Today, The Australian, 7, 9, 10 and SBS news, ABC and BBC radio to name a few.
Nicole sold FIFO Families in 2015 and started another business called High-Profit Media. Once again, Nicole leveraged her teaching skills and began teaching small business owners how to generate free media interviews across TV, radio, print, and podcasts.
A finalist in both the Telstra Business Awards and Telstra Business Woman awards, Nicole mentors business owners and shares her marketing skills focussing on copy and publicity.
To work with Nicole, email nicole@high-profitmedia.com, or visit high-profitmedia.com
Nicole Ashby: 0:01
Elizabeth Diacos: 0:39
Welcome to the Get out of Teaching podcast presented by Larksong Enterprises. I'm your host, Elizabeth Diacos. On the show, we'll look at the Who? What? Why? Where, When and How of moving out of your Education career and into a life you love. We'll meet ex teachers, delve into what we love about teaching and how to translate that into something new. We will talk to people who can support and inspire us as we make the transition and work on identifying the legacy we want to leave in the world. So come along for the ride as we get out of teaching . Episode 10. Hi, everyone and welcome to the show.... On today's episode, I'm very pleased to speak with ex teacher Nicole Ashby of High-profit Media. Welcome to the show, Nicole.
Elizabeth Diacos: 0:51
Thank you. Thanks Elizabeth, for having me
Elizabeth Diacos: 0:53
It's a pleasure! So, Nicole, tell us about your journey. What got you into teaching in the first place? And how long were you actually teaching? What was the context? Like what...Where were you teaching? What? What you level were you working with?
Nicole Ashby: 1:07
Sure. I always wanted to be a teacher when I was at secondary school and I actually wanted to work with... I envisaged myself teaching on remote aboriginal communities. And when I was in high school, I said to my then I think careers teacher who was shoved in there as...he was a metal work teacher and all of a sudden was dah-dah! careers teacher on and quite racistly, he said to me, "If you want to work with Aboriginals", he said, "Don't do teaching, do welfare".
Elizabeth Diacos: 0:00
Ooh, ouch!
Nicole Ashby: 1:35
Yeah, yeah, so instead I went and did a BA in Rural Social Welfare , thinking "Well, then I'll head up north, you know, as basically like a social worker."
Elizabeth Diacos: 1:46
So where were you living at the time?
Nicole Ashby: 1:48
So that was in Ballarat
Elizabeth Diacos: 1:50
Okay which is in ...
Nicole Ashby: 0:00
Victoria
Elizabeth Diacos: 1:53
...country town in Victoria, Australia.
Nicole Ashby: 1:56
Yeah, Regional city. ..Thank you!
Elizabeth Diacos: 0:00
Oh, sorry...country town...sorry Ballarat
Nicole Ashby: 1:59
Yeah, same years. May e was quite late to the profession. Yes, Yes. OK, go on.
Nicole Ashby: 0:00
Yeah, same years. May e was quite late to the profession. Yes, Yes. OK, go on.
Nicole Ashby: 3:06
0, 000 people! Yeah, so was in Ballarat finished my degree and then went to Perth. Couldn't get my foot in the door with anything indigenous related because they had a policy around promoting Aboriginal people into those roles, which is fantastic. So I ended up doing work with at risk adolescents in a residential setting, which was full on! I was only 21. The kids were 16. You know. And they had a lot of life experience than me. And so then I went into ...I left, I burnt out after about 21 months doing that work , went in and did... went into retail management and sales. And then thought...I must have been about 28... 29. Look, I really want to give this teaching thing a go. So was working full time. Did my Grad Dip Ed part time and graduated as a secondary teacher in 2005.
Elizabeth Diacos: 3:06
Yeah, same year as me! I was quite late to the profession. Yes, Yes. OK, go on.
Nicole Ashby: 3:07
Very late...and at the s...and I d got married...So did my final exam for teaching on a Wednesday, November 2004 ... Got Married on the Friday, was pregnant...and so the first year of teaching, I just did relief teaching on and off because I didn't major in history or geography because my major was in society and environment. But I didn't have that geography history under my belt because I did social welfare. At that, the year that I finished in 2005, I was in Perth there was 1200 teaching graduates and thwy had about 300 jobs.
Elizabeth Diacos: 3:45
Oh, no!
Nicole Ashby: 3:46
It was crazy. So I end up doing relief for the next 3 to 4 years in different... two main Secondary schools in Perth and Yeah, and had three babies in that time
Elizabeth Diacos: 4:00
Wow... so you're pretty busy.
Elizabeth Diacos: 4:03
Yeah. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos: 4:05
Look, you know, it's funny you mention that because I think from what I hear from the people in the Get out of Teaching Facebook group, that situation hasn't changed that much. There were still a lot of people trying to find a permanent position in Perth and a lot of people even struggling to get relief teaching work
Nicole Ashby: 4:23
Oh, really?
Elizabeth Diacos: 4:26
Oh, it's interesting that how long ago was that? You know, 15 years,
Nicole Ashby: 4:31
15 years, yep..
Elizabeth Diacos: 4:32
Nothing much has changed. Okay, so then... so you... You did that for four years. You were having babies all that time. Did you ever get into teaching full time?
Elizabeth Diacos: 4:43
No. No, I didn't.Because..it must have been when I was pregnant with my third child that somebody introduced me to this man called Paul Council and I started attending. This...yeah, I was was pregnant with my third.... started attending these once a month, a nightly seminar and then that turned into weekend workshops and then my brain suddenly went from. I don't know that I actually want to do teaching, but I like this idea of working the hours I want when I want around three kids. And that's when I thought maybeI could actually start a business and have a crack at this business thing,
Elizabeth Diacos: 5:21
Right? Okay, So then... so Then I guess...Was that your tipping point like just that realisation that that you wanted something more flexible, like, what was the catalyst for you actually making that decision?
Nicole Ashby: 5:38
It was really, I think, for me, about freedom. So knowing that I had three young kids and, then some of my friends who are also teachers, you know, weren't able to get time off to go to school assemblies when their kids were at school or the sports days and things like that and my husband worked... still does work... offshore on an oil rig. So it has what's called, FIFO, which is fly in fly out. So he goes away for 28 days. He comes home for 28 days, and knowing that I had to also have a lot of family supports to go and teach on the relief days... either have my kids in day care, which is tricky because you don't know when you're going to get called up to teach.
Elizabeth Diacos: 6:15
That's right, if you're paying for it and not actually earning....
Nicole Ashby: 6:19
Yeah, that's it. And I didn't have any of them in full Day care. I think at the most I might have had them one of them in two days a week. Middle child didn't do any ...any day care. So, yeah, it was just kind of that realisation. Well, I've got young kids. I want to be there for them. My husband's already away for six months of the year. What? What's going...what's going to suit me better. So that's when I thought, Let's get into this business world and really try and make a run of it.
Elizabeth Diacos: 6:48
OK? And so, as you began to, like, start your business, what was your biggest fear of making that transition?
Nicole Ashby: 6:59
That I wouldn't be successful... I'd never run a business before. I had no idea what I was doing. I come from a rural... like a social welfare, social work, background with a bit of management in teaching, and it was really unknown, uncharted territory for me. So my biggest fear was.. Shit! What if What if this doesn't work? You know what if I... Because we put $20,000 we drew down from the mortgage and put 20 k into the business, right? To get it really set up.
Elizabeth Diacos: 7:29
So your husband was obviously supportive of this venture, then?
Nicole Ashby: 7:32
Yeah. ...yeah, he was!
Elizabeth Diacos: 7:34
Okay, well, that makes a big difference. Not everyone's in that situation where they've got a backup, and so it sounds like you, actually, were in a good position to get started and that you had a bit of a plan in place. Like when I left...I had my long service leave money, but I didn't really use that to set up my business. I just kind of, you know, did an art project and hired a studio and had.. had some fun. But it got to the end and went Oh, okay. Now what? Yeah, it sounds like you were much more thoughtful about it. And as you got out. So Okay. So how did you ...you said that you're afraid that you wouldn't succeed? How did you manage to overcome that fear? Nicole
Nicole Ashby: 8:16
I...Good question. I had a mentor. So anybody who goes into business. I highly recommend that you have a mental or a coach who I guess can shine the light. But not just not just anyone. For me, it was really important to have somebody that had already achieve the results that I wanted. So my mentor, who I still work with 10 years later, has started four multimillion dollar businesses from scratch. He's an educator from heart. He just really wants to help empower people. So he was great because I would say right what I do... And he'd say, "Do this." So I go on, do it and go right. I've done that. Now what I do, he is OK, this is the next step. So each step that I went through, he was there because he'd been there before. So he could see what was coming that I couldn't see. He'd been in situations that I had been. I didn't know how to navigate. You know, go into boardrooms, pitching what I was doing, you know, writing copy about... for flyers or to go in newspapers, on the website. All those sorts of things that were really foreign to me, he had ,he had a grip on. So yeah, that was That was how I got through it.
Elizabeth Diacos: 9:27
Yeah, wow, okay, so really having some support made a big difference at there at that point in time and even still sounds like even still still really important.
Nicole Ashby: 9:37
Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
Elizabeth Diacos: 9:39
Okay. And so So what is the work that you ...What did you do as you left teaching? And then how did that sort of, transition into what you're doing now?
Nicole Ashby: 9:49
Okay, so the first, my first company were set up around that fly and fly out that was called FIFO families. And that was about, the basis of that was about supporting and creating community for other fly-in, fly-out families right around the country... so predominantly. ..Our biggest bases were in Western Australia and Queensland, but we had groups in every state and territory, except for Canberra. And it was really just to have little, little gatherings of families connecting, helping each other. Because if something was going to go wrong, like the car was going to break down all the washing machine or you know, something terrible, you'd have to go to hospital with the kid. It was always gonna happen when your partner was away and some... and I often talk about with my background in social welfare and a minor in psychology. I could see when I was starting to get really wobbly with my husband away. Three young kids in my care. 24 /7 for 28 days. I could see that. But there were other women out there whose husbands were doing four weeks on one week off and having multiple kids and maybe moving over from New South Wales to Perth with no family just going "Bah! What are we doing?" You know, so it was really to help them. And part of what I was doing through through that was tapping into my social work skills but also my teaching skills. Because I would come up with workshops on how to live a successful FIFO life, and I deliver them for companies like Shell and Rio Tinto in W.A, where we get fam...,get women and some of the men together and talk about "Well, you are doing this. Have you looked at this?" Are you asking your partner about what work they're doing on site? You know? Are you listening to each other? Are you communicating effectively are you starting to plan financially because this is not going to be there forever. So it was really interesting, to bring in all of my skills, particularly the teaching. And I sold that in the end of 201515 right?
Elizabeth Diacos: 11:47
Sorry. Can I just stop...How did you monetise that? Because that just sounds like a really lovely Facebook group.
Nicole Ashby: 11:53
A good question! Yes. So from the outset, it was a company. It was not a not for profit because I wanted to be able to control it and leave it the way I wanted to. So we had a couple of things. We had a membership that families would pay. We then went to the mining, oil and gas companies and said, We have this platform to support communities and, you know, your workers and their families around the country. So then we would sell the packages to the companies, and then they would pay us to help support their families. And then we also had advertisers. So Fly-in, Fly out is quite a high income sector of the community and Financial advisors wanted to tap into that and accountants and so forth so we would charge them accordingly, we'd have a fee structure, would get different advertisers who wanted to target those families and workers that were happy to advertise with us. So we had three clear revenue income streams, right?
Elizabeth Diacos: 12:50
Right...wow, fantastic. And so with the family's paying, what did they get in return for that?
Nicole Ashby: 12:58
So. We would do monthly face to face get togethers in their local area. And then, if they are in Perth or Queensland, would do bigger Christmas/ Easter events where you know, generally other families are with their family. But if you're a FIFO family, it felt quite isolating, particularly that Christmas New Year time. So we'd do big events, we'd get 50 60 70 people together to celebrate those occasions with the other FIFO families. We do webinars. As I said, the workshops and they also got a card which was similar to the entertainment book....
Elizabeth Diacos: 13:32
Oh, yes,
Nicole Ashby: 13:32
yes, but it was a FIFO families card with discounts and, yes, special offers through the entertainment book world. And then some of our advertisers,
Elizabeth Diacos: 13:42
Wow, ok, so quite a lot of innovation there, to get all that to actually get up and running. And to make it a valuable experience for the families. Yes.
Elizabeth Diacos: 13:54
Yeah, yeah, yeah ...Thanks for sharing that...I'm getting lots of great ideas here. I'm thinking "How can I..."
Nicole Ashby: 14:02
I knew that the most challenging thing was, because what we were doing was making such a significant impact in creating that support for for women, predominantly like someone would go into our forum and say, I've been in tears.... I'm so happy to find this. I was in such a dark place, I felt so lonely and isolated or other women would say "I've just dropped my husband off of the airport. I've cried all the way home", like, these are families under a lot of pressure by choice. So that was a what you call like.... what we were providing was an intangible....So it wasn't a, you know, Here's a book on Surviving FIFO, a lot of it was... might be support on messenger or connecting with those other families. So that was a bit of a struggle for us because it wasn't, a...you know, they'd get a welcome pack in the mail, but in terms of, you know, you've spent $55. What do I get physically for that? You know, the tangible. So that was something that when you run in business, you talk about perceived value that was a bit of a sticking point that we always had to work on.
Elizabeth Diacos: 15:06
Yeah, Yeah, I can understand that. Yeah, I feel like a lot of what you describe is similar, to the teachers in the Get out of Teaching Facebook group who are... often describe themselves that they're crying on the way home or their crying before they goto work. Or they're crying in a car park at work as they try to force themselves to get out of their cars. So there are similarities there.
Nicole Ashby: 15:27
Yeah...
Elizabeth Diacos: 15:27
...with that level of distress and maybe some shame around that as well, for feeling that way like that, they should be able to cope. But they can't.
Nicole Ashby: 15:35
Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure, definitely. And then when you're providing that support as well, some people would often say to me, "Well, why should I have to pay to meet a family, you know, at the park on a Sunday?", Or why should I have to pay for that access to the Facebook page? And I kind of think and sometimes say, Do you know how much work goes into getting you and four other families at this local park on a Sunday and sometimes with a volunteer who would run that event or even just, you know, getting people into that facebook page, it doesn't all just
Nicole Ashby: 16:09
Yeah,
Nicole Ashby: 16:10
...as you know, it takes a lot of time and efforts. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos: 16:13
Thank you for saying that, I hope everyone's listening to that!
Nicole Ashby: 16:17
It's a lot of work on the organiser's behalf...
Elizabeth Diacos: 16:19
Yeah. Okay, so So you mentioned that some of the skills you had as a teacher were brought to the new context. So, I imagine your presentation skills. What other things did you... were you able to transfer?
Elizabeth Diacos: 16:34
Yeah, I think the presentation...and then putting the workshops together and it was funny because when I would get up to present to a group of mums and dads or if I was getting up to talk to mining companies, or what have you put my teacher hat on? Just bang...immediately. Bump... right in front of the classroom. Everybody eyes up. Here we go. And sometimes I joke and say, Look, you know, if they're a bit chatty, Look, I'll have to put my teacher's voice on and separate you two, so, you know, just kind of joking around, but very much, for me, I was very clear. I'm in my teaching realm, and that was what gave me the confidence to stand up in front of people. So I think that's a really beneficial trait from teaching... that you can stand up in front of anyone. If you know if that's something that you struggle with, just put your teacher hat on and off you go so I was able to come up with workshops and then y'know also in my current business as well, as you know,..you know, I've got a media training workshops. So going through and reverse engineering my own media interviews with FIFO families, there was hundreds and hundreds, and then putting together a package around. "Well, how can I teach other people to get the same media success, or similar media to success to what I've had? ...Yeah!
Elizabeth Diacos: 17:48
Yeah. Okay, so So it sounds like a lot of the the things that you did and the things that you learned along the way were kind of organic. Did you do any particular study, or did you do any courses? To, learn how to do what you were doing?
Elizabeth Diacos: 18:06
No, I just worked really closely with my mentor. So he was running a course in Perth called Money Mastery, and that was one weekend a month, over 12 months. I did that twice, and that was really understanding how we've been conditioned. You know, the conventional wisdom I guess, and how we've bean talking conditions through... ironically, through schooling ...that you go to work...you to go to school from 9-3, you go to work nine till five. You have your breaks, you be productive, and we're ...it basically ingrains to be workers. But to be entrepreneurial and innovative, you've got really step out of that space and into something completely different. So I needed quite a bit of support to move from worker self to entrepreneurial self, If that makes sense,
Elizabeth Diacos: 18:50
yeah, yeah, it does make sense
Elizabeth Diacos: 18:52
It was hugely beneficial around watching different videos and reading books and having conversations and looking at a lot of research that has been done through. Who's some, like Edward Bernays and even Freud around the psychology and psychology of Selves and how that positions us and the hero's journey and being the victim and blah, blah, blah, blah...I could go on forever, but so no formal education, but very much a lot of learning and a lot of work on me, on myself in terms of confidence and behaving towards being an entrepreneur and stepping out of that worker self No formal stuff.
Elizabeth Diacos: 19:36
Right.. Okay.But sounds like there was still a lot of deep learning going on all the way through that. And still ongoing.
Nicole Ashby: 19:43
Absolutely, absolutely
Elizabeth Diacos: 19:45
So, if someone was in your position where they were about to contemplate leaving Education and they just felt stuck on and unsure of what to do first, what advice would you give to someone in that position?
Nicole Ashby: 21:03
I would say, have a conversation with somebody who has been there and done that, such as yourself, or me or somebody else out there who can sit down and you can have that conversation, a bit of a brainstorming session to unpack where they're at. And then what skills do they have? That they might be able to start their own business. Or, you know, is there something they can put up online such as a course? Because we know that the self education coaching business is something that is booming and is going to continue to boom. So, yeah, I would suggest just sitting down with people that have left the profession and have successfully set up businesses and and I guess leaning on them a bit then a bit to say, Well, this is what I want to do But I don't know how to get there I don't know what the first step is Yes, talking to someone who's done it
Nicole Ashby: 0:00
Nicole Ashby: 21:03
So that was FIFO families. Now you're doing the high profit media. So what's your actual service? And if someone wanted to use it, how would they get in touch with you?
Nicole Ashby: 21:03
Yes, so they can get in touch with me through my website, which is high-profitmedia.com. Ah, high profit media on Instagram and Facebook... but what actually do now is... it's a few things... I do media training and coaching so I can teach you how to write media releases and who to contact and went to contact different media so that you can get your story out there and start reaching your ideal client. I also do marketing services now as well. So I'm something that I'm upskilling this year is around writing copy so effective copy so that you're using words of influence that will influence your ideal customer so that when you're writing to your teachers or whoever it is, you're using words that captivate them and pull them in immediately and then I'm also just doing some videoing, putting videos together as well. So using that copy, images and music to you make really compelling videos that speak directly to your ideal customer. So the media training, coaching copywriting and a bit of the marketing and video stuff
Elizabeth Diacos: 22:06
Fantastic and I will put those links up on the show notes for this episode on the Buzzsprout platform and also on my website. So if people want to find out a bit more about you, Nicole, they can... by that method So, Nicole, what's life like for you now?
Nicole Ashby: 22:24
It's busy... (laughs) It's busy, so I'm back in Ballarat, I've been back here for about 16 months now... decided to come back closer to family. My husband's still away. Still got three kids, they're 10 12 and 14. So it's really for me at the moment about balancing getting that state of, being productive in my business and running my business and also being there as a primary carer for my kids so ...busy times, but happy... Good.
Elizabeth Diacos: 22:55
It sounds like it's pretty fulfilling at the same time
Nicole Ashby: 22:59
Yeah, it is , that's the word I'm looking for. Thank you!you. Yes, feeling it is.
Elizabeth Diacos: 23:03
Okay. So, Nicole, the question that I am ending every podcast with: "What's the legacy you want to leave in the world?"
Nicole Ashby: 23:12
Oooh, that's a great question. The legacy I think I would like to leave is "have a go". If there's something that you want to do, there's something that you want to try, back yourself and do it because you'll never you'll never know unless you try. And one of the biggest lessons I've learned is you must get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. And then once you could do that and you go, I'm safe. I'm not getting eaten by tigers. I'm actually doing this and the world wasn't falling apart. Okay, I could go on, do it again, so it would just be that have a go. Put yourself out there and have a go
Elizabeth Diacos: 23:52
fantastic Nicole Ashby. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today. It's been an absolute pleasure talking with you.
Nicole Ashby: 23:58
Thanks so much for the opportunity
Elizabeth Diacos: 24:01
You've been listening to the get out of teaching podcast presented by Larksong Enterprises with your host, Elizabeth Diacos, Do you know someone else who could benefit from hearing more stories of hope and transition from teachers all around the world? Please take a moment to share this and other episodes via your podcast app. Each share helps me reach listeners just like you, who can benefit from this content. The Get out of Teaching podcast is proud to be part of the Experts on Air Podcast network. For show notes and other resources, please visit larksong.com.au/podcast