Meet Nicole Victoria | CEO, Investor, Money Coach, Self Made Millionaire

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicole Victoria and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Being an entrepreneur was always something that I wanted to do – I knew I wanted to own something and help people, but I just wasn’t sure exactly how I would do that.

I grew up in a family without a lot of money, and school never taught me anything useful when it came to managing my finances – everything I learned I had to go out and seek myself. When I started immersing myself into the world of personal finance, psychology, behaviors and investing, I realized so much of what was “normal” was actually leading us astray.

The traditional path we’re taught to take doesn’t equate to the success (or money) we’re promised, and what worked for our parents unfortunately won’t work for us.

Student debt is at all time highs, housing prices have skyrocketed, and pensions seem to be something only taught in history books.

I had always gotten questions from friends and family asking me to help them with their finances and investing, but it wasn’t until the pandemic started where I realized just how many people were struggling and didn’t have access to this kind of education.

The advice that worked for our parents doesn’t work for us. Times have changed. The average person in their 20s has racked up $23,872 in debt, and this number jumps to $62,658 in their 30s. And it gets worse:

79% who budget fail
54% live from paycheck-to-paycheck
80% of Americans are in debt
40% could not handle a $400 unexpected expense
64% don’t have enough money to retire

Most of us were not taught about money, and what we were taught doesn’t actually help us.

I knew that my strategies worked – because they worked for me (they helped me go from $40k debt to a millionaire at 30) and they worked for the friends and family I had helped, so I started wondering if they could work on a larger scale (and if people were even interested in what I had to say).

I started a social media account in May 2020 offering financial education, and we blew up.

I started taking on 1:1 clients and testing my methodologies, and was getting my students incredible life changing results. The demand started to outpace what I could do with a single student, so I opened up group programs and those quickly sold out, too.

I think we grew so quickly for a few reasons:

1. I always made sure to provide massive value, whether that was through my free trainings, my socials, or my paid classes
2. I provided resources for different people in different situations
3. I pushed through the BS advice we’re given (like budgeting) that just doesn’t work, and offered tangible steps for my community to start changing their lives
4. I truly care

I was scouted and wrote a book about my methodologies, called: More Money Now: A Millennial’s Guide to Financial Freedom and Security and it quickly made it to the top of Amazon’s best sellers lists.

Now No Budget Babe has served over 160,000 students, and has changed countless lives.

We’ve helped our students:

– Pay off their student loans in full
– Buy their first homes
– Start investing and locking in their millionaire status
– Change the way they think about money
– Set themselves up to work part time
– Create streams of passive income and thriving side hustles
– Take 3-4 month long vacations
– Buy their first rental property
– Negotiate HUGE raises (think 10,20, or even 30% more – some students have even DOUBLED their salary)
– And feel comfortable and confident about their financial future

I’m so lucky to be able to run a thriving business that has the ability to help so many people build their dream lives!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Nicole is a Certified Negotiations Expert, published author, CEO, Money Coach, and financial literacy advocate. While Nicole was not always an expert at handling her own money, she was determined from a young age to take her finances into her own hands. In the beginning, Nicole believed that the answer to her problems was not in managing money, it was in MAKING money – so she focused on ways to increase her income. With that in mind, Nicole got her first job at 12 years old, and went on to study business in university. Like many others, she believed that money meant status, power, and social capital when in reality, she discovered that money is the key to buying your life back.

Nicole finished her 4 year bachelor of commerce degree in 2 years, saving herself over $100,000 in hard and opportunity costs. The goal of her degree was to get the coveted corporate job to make more money and FINALLY MAKE IT.

As Nicole’s career progressed, she fell into the frequent trap of upping her lifestyle as her pay increased. Although she was living larger, she certainly was not living smarter.

And then…
In an epiphany, she realized that although she was making more money, she still had nothing to show for it. This “great salary” was supposed to buy her happiness, but she wasn’t any happier. The most logical plan seemed to be: “Maybe I need a promotion, so I can get more money… then I can be happy”.

The next rude awakening? Nicole realized that the people who had these jobs she “wanted” weren’t happy either. They weren’t achieving their dreams and many of them were crippled with debt that funded a picturesque lifestyle.

Nicole then decided it was time to go back to the basics and dove headfirst into learning everything she could about personal finance. Nicole was pleasantly surprised that she already knew a lot of the tactic: which accounts to use, how to save money and the best ways to pay off debt. Nicole’s next challenge? To determine why even though we know what we’re supposed to do, why don’t we do it? This question triggered a quarter life/existential crisis. Nicole found herself asking: “Who am I, why am I here, what is the purpose of anything?”.

The next part of Nicole’s financial freedom journey led her to researching philosophy, psychology and personal development. Through this research, Nicole learned that money was a tool and that each dollar she made had the opportunity to help her work towards her ultimate goals in life. That being good with money didn’t mean depriving herself, and that saving money was not enough to be financially successful.

Through all of these learnings in university, self development, research, becoming a real estate broker (which required helping people make the largest financial decisions of their lives), and becoming a certified Negotiations Expert, Nicole was able to refine her financial literacy and expertise. Nicole applied the financial principles that changed her own life (which required extensive trials and errors) to create The Makin Money Moves Method. This five step signature program has now changed the lives of over 160,000 women.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We just moved out to Alberta, and although I’m not an expert yet I absolutely love it.

Alberta is known for the mountains, and I haven’t had a chance to get out yet (we’re a couple hours away), I know that places like Banff or Jasper are definitely the spots to go.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shoutout to my husband, best friend, and biggest supporter, Justin.

We’ve been together since I was 16, and we are always challenging each other to grow.

If it wasn’t for his support I wouldn’t be able to devote the time I have into starting this business and writing my book – we have two beautiful children, and our lives are BUSY, but he is always in my corner making sure I get what I need to go out there and change lives.

Website: https://no-budget-babe.mykajabi.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nobudgetbabe/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/no-budget-babe/?originalSubdomain=ca

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nobudgetbabe?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nobudgetbabe/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHjXG6kM0pQSGm4gBmgJwNQ

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@nobudgetbabe?lang=en