Turning Beauty into Business: A Conversation with Nick Stenson

22:16You don't know, do I have 30 days to live? Am I going to be able to beat this? What are my options? You know, it's all kind of a blur in the very beginning. I was very blessed and fortunate. I have a lot of friends that are doctors or in oncology or in philanthropy in the medical industry that have helped guide me and find me the right care team to really take care of me. And I was very, very privileged for that and grateful. But it doesn't. It knocks you on your side and makes you really stop. The whole world stops in front of you. And you start to go, okay, now how am I going to approach this?

22:49And for me, I'm going to be very transparent. My immediate thought was I have to make sure I'm okay for my parents. And I have to make sure I'm okay for everyone around me. because I may play the role of everyone else's go-to person in my life. And everybody comes to me with their things and everybody, you know, I'm their sounding board and maybe their strength in a lot of ways. And this was a moment where the role was reversed. And now I had to be vulnerable and tell somebody that, and tell everybody around me that I'm going to go through something really hard and challenging and I'm going to need your help.

23:24And I don't ask for help very often, but I'm going to need it now, even though I don't know what that looks like. but I'm going to get through it. So I took the approach of, okay, you have two ways to deal with this. You could feel sorry for yourself and kind of succumb to it. Or you could say, how am I going to get through this? And how am I going to be a bright spot in maybe other people's lives? And I never took for granted that I have a platform where people follow and listen and I give advice and I share my life and hopefully that inspires people. And I thought, wow, I need to do this now.

23:59I need to be an inspiration to people now because I had a lot of people help me. Many people don't have people to help them and don't know where to turn. So I wanted to make sure that I came on, whether it was online or on a podcast or on a call or whatever it was, to let them know that it's okay to be scared. It's okay to not know what the future is going to be, but know that there are other people that are going through it and can be a sounding board for you. And when I went public with it on social media, I spent days laying in bed answering DMs from people that were going through it and scared or telling me what they did to get through it or telling them that me sharing my story helped them share their story and things like that.

24:41And that gave me strength and gave me confidence. And it was really funny because when I was diagnosed and I was told I was going to go through surgery and then all these cancer treatments and everything with chemotherapy. I thought to my, and they're like, you're going to be home a lot and you're going to sleep a lot and you're not going to have energy and all this kind of stuff. So I thought, you know what? I don't have a lot of comfortable clothes. Like I'm always dressed up and going out and I'm, you know, I'm on the move. I'm going to have to go buy like a bunch of like warmup outfits or like comfy clothes.

25:10So I go out and buy all these outfits and I never wore any of them because I was like, that's not me. At the end of the day, I'm not a lay around person. Yes. When I was going through chemo, it knocked me completely on my side and I had to stop and I had to sleep and I had to rest. But then when I felt better, it was important to me to get dressed and to go out and to be part of society and to work hard. And that helped me get through that journey. And it was funny because I would show up for chemo and people would be like, where are you going? You're all dressed up for chemotherapy. Like most people come in here in pajamas.

25:45And I'm like, no, why? I wouldn't do that in my normal life. Why am I going to do that now? And I felt that if I can get up, get myself ready, feel good about the way that I look, it might make me feel just a little bit better going through chemotherapy. And it did. And it helped. And I think that that between the combination of that and picking myself up and making sure I had purpose every day and surrounding myself with the right people every single day, that's another thing. You're going to have people come out of the woodwork to want to help you, right? Well, you don't necessarily want everyone's help or everyone's opinion.

26:18You have to be careful too, right? About how many people you surround yourself with. So I kept my circle tight and small and made sure that I was around people that on the days when I didn't have the strength or didn't have the excitement or pep in my step, that I had people around me that did to help me make sure that I can get out of that funk for that day and progress to the next day. And that really helped me on my journey. And I would say to anybody out there that's going through a cancer journey of their own, your team, your circle, your network is really important to make sure you're surrounding yourself with the right people because you want the people that are going to lift you up, not the people that are going to sit there and allow you to wallow in your pity of your sadness for that moment.

27:02You want people to say, okay, we're done. You're sad for a minute. You're entitled to that, but let's move on. It's time to move on because that strength and that confidence is going to be what gets you through the hard days.

27:15Nick Stenson:But before we continue, I want to speak directly to those of you who are listening and thinking, I know I'm capable of more, but I need structure. I need some help. Because here's what I've actually learned after, gosh, more than three decades in business. You know, ambition without clarity creates frustration and motivation without structure, it really does fade very, very fast. So that's exactly why we created Rise Academy. You know, and Rise Academy, it's not theory. It isn't fluffy motivation, although you will be motivated. And it certainly isn't another online course that you never finish.

28:00Nick Stenson:It's actually a fully structured growth environment for ambitious entrepreneurs, leaders and founders who absolutely are ready to do all of these things, sharpen their strategy, elevate their leadership, increase revenue with intention and build businesses that actually support the life that they want. And inside Rise Academy, we focus on the foundations most people skip, leading yourself, leading your teams and leading the business. It's about clarity, standards, decision making, commercial intelligence and execution. Because scaling, it really isn't about doing more. It's actually about doing the right things and doing the things right consistently.

28:47Nick Stenson:So if you're serious about stepping up into your next level of your leadership, your business life, and not just consuming content, but actually implementing it, then Rise Academy was absolutely built for you. So you can find all the details on our website. Go to www.brave-bold-brilliant.com. And now let's get back to the show.

29:14Nick Stenson:And how long was this whole process then for you, Nick? From end to end, it was about eight months. It was eight months. I went through chemo. So I had surgery and then I had chemotherapy for six and a half months and then all the testing in between and doctor's appointments and everything that goes with that. So it was about an eight-month journey. And I'm six weeks since my last chemo treatment. And right now I'm extremely focused on getting strong. I'm in the gym almost every single day in some capacity. I went on my very first run this week, about three days ago, and I made it one mile without stopping, which was actually a really big deal for me.

29:52I know that sounds pathetic, but it was actually a big deal for me because the one thing the doctors told me is like, yeah, you can go to the gym and it's probably a good idea that you move your body and keep it as strong as possible. But running isn't going to be something you won't have the lung capacity to do it. You're not going to have the energy or the strength. So now that I got through that miles and then the second mile, I kind of ran and walked and ran and walked. So I got through about two and a half miles of, you know, being on my feet. And I remember texting my trainer when I finished and I said, oh, this was an epic fail.

30:21I only got through a little over two miles. And the second mile I walked and ran. And he said, congratulations. The first one's done. Way to go. Huge success. And you got to change the narrative. You have to celebrate the wins, even the small ones. And it's hard to do. And I'm one that's always looking at big picture. And how can we crush the big goal? But if you don't celebrate the little ones along the way, you can't get to the big ones. Because you forget about all the little ones. And when you celebrate the little ones, and this goes in business and personal life and cancer and whatever, when you celebrate those little milestones, you now build yourself more confident and you now give yourself more strength to be able to attack the bigger ones.

31:01And I would say that that's something that I was taught early in life. And I think that that's so important, especially in business, is to celebrate the wins along the way and make sure your team knows that you're celebrating with them along the way.

31:12Nick Stenson:yeah god 100 well i'm absolutely delighted that you're through the other side and you know you're building up next time i speak to you nick you might have done 10 miles or something who knows who knows who knows but you're right so to run a mile after all you've been through that in itself is a huge huge huge achievement and um yeah definitely important to celebrate and i'm so glad that your trainer said yay way to go that's amazing uh because it is it is really amazing so That's right. And it just gives you that that courage, doesn't it, to keep going. And maybe next time it might be one point one miles that you managed to run.

31:46Nick Stenson:But gradually, gradually you get you get yourself get yourself strong again. And that's fantastic. So, Nick, all during this time, were you running the business as normal or did you end up having to sort of take a little bit of a backseat at certain times? No, I never missed any meetings, but I was strategic. So I always knew the day of chemotherapy was going to be really good in the morning. I was going to be strong in the morning. And then by the afternoon, I was going to have no energy and I was going to be in bed. So I would literally take meetings from the chemo chair, chemotherapy chair while I was having my infusion done.

32:19I was like, Hey guys, I'm just sitting here for the next six hours doing nothing. So pack me with meetings and let's get through it because the other side of this day, I'm going to be in bed. And so I knew that was going to be the way. And then the next two days after chemotherapy, I kept it very light, maybe one or two meetings. That was it. And then I would jump back into business by like Friday of that week and really hit it strong. And then the following week, I didn't have any chemotherapy. And I loaded myself with meetings and everything I needed to do to run the business in a really big way.

32:47And I had longer days the second week because then I knew it would start back up the following week. So it was really being strategic with my time and making sure that I knew when I was not going to have the strength or capacity to be present and to be strategic. and then knowing when I can pass the baton to my team to say, okay, while I'm out recovering, this can keep going and I don't want to be the roadblock to success for any of us. So I would say life is all about a strategy and really building it, whether it's your personal life, in business, and understanding that you need a strategy in business and your personal life.

33:23A lot of people are really good at building a strategy for business, but have zero strategy on their personal life. And when I realized, and I would say this was maybe within the last 10 years, that I have to have just as much of a strategy on my personal life and I have to schedule my meetings for myself, whether that's going to a doctor appointment or going to the gym or going to the grocery store or meeting with friends and family. Schedule it like you do meetings because you'll ensure it will happen and you can make sure that you'll find some sort of balance in it all by being strategic with your whole entire life and making sure that your calendarize your life so that you can do it all.

34:01Because at the end of the day, you can do it all. Can you do it all at 100 miles an hour? No. But can you figure out how to ebb and flow through it to where you can find the balance of making your family and friends happy at the same time you're making your company and your colleagues and your team happy? there's ways of doing it but you have to be very strategic along the way yeah no it's about

34:20Nick Stenson:prioritization isn't it and you know and obviously you you had an extreme situation to deal with where you it forced you to have that discipline and that focus but the same principle applies in in whatever we do isn't it we can we can sometimes be very busy fools where we you know we're running around we feel we're being productive but actually when we look at it we go was that the best use of my time could I have delegated that actually to someone else actually is my energy at this point of time in the right place to be making these big decisions or to be doing the deep thinking work that you need to do as a business leader.

34:54Nick Stenson:And I think all of this, you know, as well as obviously, you know, you sharing a very personal story here. There's so much great advice as well in general about how to run your life, how to approach your business, et cetera, and everything that you've shared. So, so many lessons for everyone listening. And Nick, you know, from your point of view, when you were talking about confidence and the beauty industry and the confidence that you help people unlock, have you worked with individuals or clients where maybe they've come to you and they've not been in a great place? And it might be. I know you've worked a lot of celebrities as well, mind, who, you know, they seem to have the perfect lifestyle on the outside, but maybe behind, probably maybe not so much, right?

35:39Nick Stenson:Have you had clients that, you know, where they've come to you and they've just not really been in a good place and then through you helping them, making them feel good about themselves and giving them the tools to find that inside themselves and you've seen them blossom and change while they become clients of yours. Does that happen? One hundred percent. Many times along the way in very different capacities, as a matter of fact. I will tell you, like when I think about my early days as a hairdresser, I ironically, and this is so ironic how life comes full circle, I inadvertently turned into the hairdresser that people would come to when they had to have their head shaved and had to be put into a wig going through chemotherapy.

36:19So early in my career, I was literally, I would close down my salon. I'll never forget this. I would close down my salon early. I would have them come in. I would open a bottle of wine. We would laugh. We would cry. I would shave his or her hair. And most of the time it was women that I would shave their head and then I would fit them for a wig and I would cut and color it to get them to feel as much like themselves as possible. and I just turned into the guy that everybody would refer to to go for their cancer journey. So it's wild to me that fast forward all these years later, then I ended up with cancer.

36:56And ironically, my cousin was one of the people that was going through ovarian cancer and I shaved her head. And fast forward, when I was diagnosed with cancer, they told me by my second treatment, and I was going to lose all my hair. And I called her and I said, listen, it's 20 years later. And now I want you to be the one to shave my head when the time comes. Now, funny enough, I didn't lose all my hair. I lost a lot of my hair, but I didn't lose it all. So I never shaved my head. But talk about coming full circle. And that's just in the cancer realm. But when I think about in business too, I have, I think one of the greatest gifts I've been given in life is that I've seen people come on and off my team throughout different points in my career, whether I was running a Fortune 500 company or a small business who never had the confidence in themselves, but I seen what they were capable of doing.

37:51And I would just help them craft that and help them see what I would see in them and help them morph into the person that they can be and the leader that they can be. And my greatest accomplishment in life was seeing people grow in leadership through the years and surpass me and go on to do bigger and better things and have such fruitful and exciting and prosperous careers. And the only thing that I did was open their eyes to see, to help them see what I was seeing. I didn't actually teach them anything. I taught them to see what I see in the mirror. And that was something that I've done time and time again.

38:26And there's so many success stories I could think of, of people who have really taken the time to say, oh my God, well, if he believes in me and he thinks that I can do it, maybe I should give myself a shot and really invest in myself and the time and the energy. And so, yeah, it's happened in many different times in my career and in my life where people have come to me at low points in their life. And I have played a small role in hopefully their own success. But it's been fun being on the sidelines, watching them become successful. I think that's been the greatest gift.

38:58Nick Stenson:Yeah, what a beautiful thing that you do. So what starts off as us having a little bit of a conversation around the superficiality, potentially, of the beauty industry, which it can be, to actually the depth and the emotional connection of beauty and what it really means to enlighten people's souls, make them feel better about themselves. I mean, that's really deep. That's deep. Not the complete opposite of the spectrum, isn't it, from what you could perceive. And I love that. And this symmetry, this symmetry, Nick, with your cousin, I mean, that's crazy. Isn't that wild? And you know what's so funny?

39:39I actually went through it myself. You know, I love fashion. I love clothes. And I was buying all kinds of clothes all the time to try and be the most confident I could be. And one day I finally realized that I don't need another Tom Ford suit or another Giorgio Armani piece of wardrobe, I needed to fix my own skin. And that's when I really started to look in the mirror and go, I'm basically buying all of this clothes to make me feel confident because I'm not confident in my own skin. So why don't I fix the skin that I'm in before investing all this money into clothing? So that's when I invested in getting a trainer, getting a nutritionist, getting very serious, getting a life coach, an executive coach, all those things that I did to invest in myself at the time.

40:25And when I did that and started to change the way that I feel about myself, it's amazing how much more successful you become. Because now, inadvertently, that's always been something in the back of your mind. Like for me, it was always, I was always fighting being overweight or not having the body that I want and all those types of things. And I was covering it with all this expensive clothing and never really fixing the root of the problem. And when I finally got to the root of the problem and invested in myself and surrounded myself with the right people to help me do that. Because that's the other thing.

40:56You can't do it all on your own. You think you can. You think you have the power and the strength. But you actually need people that are smarter than you or who have experienced it more than you or have walked a different path than you and can show you a different path to walk. Because we look at the path that we're walking, we think it's the only path. But when you surround yourself with successful people in different ways that can widen your spectrum of thought to really understand that there's so many paths that you could walk down. It's which one you want to choose to walk down. And when you choose one for yourself and you take control of it for yourself, everything changes.

41:30And I think that's something that I did for myself just within the last five years of my life. But then how I now talk to other people about that, and it has to start with you. And it's so important to really invest in yourself in so many ways. And I know I've said that a few different times, but that's been my biggest lesson in life is investing in yourself.

41:49Nick Stenson:Yeah, 100%. And like it's when I went over to the Tony Robbins, you know, date with destiny, it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. You know, I do, I have invested in myself for many years, but actually I thought, no, I want to do something different. I want, I need it. I need something new and fresh for me right now. And it's, and I think the best investment you'll ever make is in yourself always, always. And you will 10x, 100x that investment. And actually, it's not just about the financial gain. I think it's who you become as a person on the journey, isn't it? It really is. It really is.

42:23And you change. Each part of your journey, you change. And allow yourself to change. Don't do the same thing over and over again and think you're going to get different expectations and results. I mean, we can't. We have to evolve. Just like we want our teams to evolve and we want our companies to evolve. Well, we as leaders need to evolve as well. Or else if we don't, you're going to have a stale business model. And let's look around at the world that we live in right now. Things are changing at the speed of light. And I don't care what industry you're in, it's changing. And if you're in an industry where you think it's not changing, you're wrong.

42:55It's changing. And you have to adapt to it. And you want to be on the front side of that, not the back side of it. So don't be afraid of change. And don't be afraid to lean into what's uncomfortable. I had a leader once tell me that if you get up every day and you're just happy and you go to work every day and it becomes easy, then you're not actually growing. You're not challenging yourself. You're not pushing yourself to grow. If you live in this place of little butterflies in your stomach and kind of on edge and I don't know if I'm doing this right or am I doing it wrong? Is this right? Is it good?

43:25Is it bad? Then you're actually breaking through and you're actually moving yourself to the next level, which will then move your company and your team to the next level. So don't be afraid of change and don't be afraid of being uncomfortable because that's when real change happens.

43:39Nick Stenson:Yeah, 100%. And it's actually linked to your approach to failure as well, I think. We can have such a negative connotation around, oh, don't want to fail or be embarrassed or people come from a place of loss, what they're going to lose, not what they're going to gain. And I think there's a big cultural difference as well, Nick, between the European culture, the British culture and the American culture. I think in the US, you embrace failure a lot more and kind of use it as a lesson to learn. Whereas, you know, our culture tends to be a little bit more negative and, you know, a little bit more less open to that.

44:16Nick Stenson:But I think that's right. That's where the growth comes. If you're not failing, you're not trying. You're in your comfort zone, right? We've got to fail. That's where we learn, right? Yes. And Nick, how big is the business now? Because obviously you've had a real success with everything that you've done and you've got some great products, some amazing clients, you know, from starting it as a founder, where are you now on that kind of, you know, scale of the business and the maturity that you've got in the organization now? Yes. So I made the decision about a year ago to leave corporate America to become full-time CEO of the company.

44:52So it's just been over a year now. It's been about 13 months, actually. And it's been exciting, nerve wracking, fun, wild. We have a lot of growth happening. I'm opening new distribution channels every single day. We're going to be going international this year, which I'm really excited about. The brand has 12 different products in the portfolio right now. We're going to be expanding that. I can't give too much away, but later in the year, we're going to be expanding that in a very, very big and bold way. So I'm really excited about that. So I would say I'm at the point of climbing the ladder of growth in the company.

45:27We're trying a lot of things. Like you said, you know, I'm a firm believer of like hire slow and fail fast, right? So, you know, take the time to really make sure you're hiring the right people around you. And that goes for agencies as well. And make sure you have the right network around you. And if not, like fail fast and move on. Like it's okay. And same thing with strategy. You know, I'm putting all kinds of strategies in place. Some things are working brilliantly and some things aren't. So you got to pivot quickly so that you can adapt to the change that's happening and make sure that you're paying attention to what the consumer sentiment and demand is.

46:00So, you know, beauty is a crowded space. There's a lot of people in it. And really being able to cut through and make the consumer understand why this is different and why they need it is something that I'm spending a lot of time on right now. And, you know, if I'm being very honest, as a founder-led brand with, you know, being the face of the brand and having my name on the bottle, I haven't been as front facing as I should be. And now the last several months, I'm putting myself very front and forward, whether that's in conversation or actually showing how the products work or getting people excited about it, or really getting my hands wet in the lab with, you know, the chemist.

46:37It's really important for me to be completely hands-on, but also be very, very visible in the process. And, you know, the cancer journey and everything that I was going through, I didn't have the desire to be so front facing, you know, being in beauty. I was like, I remember when I was talking to the doctor, I said, so let me get this straight. I'm going to lose all my hair by the second treatment, my facial hair, my eyebrows, my hair and everything. And I'm the founder and the face of a hair care company. Are you kidding me right now? He looked at me, he goes, I know, but it's going to be okay.

47:06So now that that's over and I'm building my own confidence, you know, I look, even looking right now, I'm like, oh, my hair's so thin still, but whatever, you know, it's part, it's part of it and it'll grow back and it'll be fine. But embracing that process too, and being okay with being on the journey of self-growth and reinvention. I'm in a reinvention of my own self. And then, you know, taking the company to the next level is really important to me. So really diving deep into that. And it's exciting.

47:34Nick Stenson:Yeah, very exciting. So you're very much in that scale-up mode. And the international piece is fantastic. Will you be coming over to the UK, Nick, with this internationalization plan? I will be. I will be, yes. Excellent. Time needs to be determined, but I am. It's definitely on the short list of places I will be expanding to. Fantastic. Well, we should meet up. I have a home in London, so we should definitely meet up. I'm sure you'll be in London for sure. I will be. That would be great. No, I'm absolutely excited for you. And, you know, if someone was listening to this right now thinking, I want to make a change.

48:11Nick Stenson:I really want to do something different with my life, with my career, with my business. but they're feeling a little bit stuck, you know, because we can get stuck, can't we? Any advice that you would offer to someone that's sort of in that stage of maybe in their comfort zone or a bit fearful of taking a move to make a difference in or a change? It could be in their personal life as well, mind you. Sometimes we sit in relationships too long and we should really get out sooner. Of course. Any advice for someone that's feeling stuck but really deep down they know they want to do something different?

48:43Nick Stenson:What would you advise them? You know, there was two pieces of advice that I've really learned and paid attention to in my life. And that is that, number one, successful people do all the things unsuccessful people are not willing to do. So you have to do the work and you have to look inward first. And that goes to the second point. And that is one of my mentors taught me that as you grow in the ladder of success, you'll realize that it's lonely at the top. And I never understood in the beginning. I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. The more successful you become, the more people that you'll have around you and the more excitement you'll have around you.

49:20But what he meant by that was, no, you'll have to look inward and you'll have to actually close down your circle. Because there'll be a lot of people around you that have opinions on what you should be doing and shouldn't be doing and how you should be doing it and when you should be doing it. And it's very easy to take everybody's advice and then all of a sudden look in the mirror and go, I've taken so much advice that I actually now am nowhere. Right? And you really have to make sure that the company that you keep and the circle you choose to keep tight are the people that you aspire to be more alike.

49:52So it's really important to me that my circle is surrounded with people that I love and admire deeply as human beings. but then that I also admire for what they've done in their footprint that they've left on this earth and that they bring something that I don't to my table that helps me think differently about what I should be doing and how I should be doing it. So for anybody who's out there who's stuck, look around your circle and make sure you have the right circle around you because let's face it, a lot of us don't. And a lot of us have energy suckers around us, people that just want to take, take, take, take, and they don't put a deposit back into the bank.

50:27And you can't be around that and be successful. You have to have the right people around you and you have to have the right network around you. And it's great to give to others, but you have to have the people that also give to you. So it's a give and take and a push and pull. And you have to have the quiet time to think and look inward and really close out all the noise in the world. Social media is such an amazing thing and also such an awful thing, right? Because we look at it and we benchmark our lives off of it and it's not real, right? It's the best part of what that person wants you to see.

51:00It's not the full picture. So stop doom scrolling, put the phone down and look inward and really spend time journaling and writing down and understanding like what's working and what's not in your life. Do a pros and cons of your life, literally a left and right side on a piece of paper, very basic with a pencil and write what's working and what's not. What makes me excited? what makes me not, what gets me up in the morning and gets me going and what doesn't, and what do I want to be doing that I'm not doing and why? And when you just look at that piece of paper and you write it over and over and over again, and you reread it and you fine tune it, the answers are right there.

51:36You don't need anybody else to tell you. It's going to be on the piece of paper.

51:40Nick Stenson:Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, so you're giving us some great advice that you've received, which has helped you, Nick, and then paying it forward, right, to anyone that is in that sort of stuck space themselves. So thank you for that. That's amazing. And Nick, I mean, it's been a hell of a journey that you're on. And I can't wait. I feel like you've only just begun. Honestly, I can't wait. I can't wait to see what happens next. I'm so excited for you. But if you were to describe this year in one word, and I know it's hard picking a word, but could you pick a word that would describe the year for you, the last 12 months?

52:15Wild. It's been a wild ride, both in my professional life, you know, leaving Fortune 500 to go be CEO of your own startup company and then get hit with cancer and then navigate through that and then come out on the other end and reinvent yourself. It's been wild. It's really been wild. And I'm sitting here now and I'm excited. I'm excited for the wild journey that it has been and the learnings that I'm going to have along this path. And every day is a learning and every day you wake up and there's some new obstacle that you have to overcome. And now I look at it as a place of excitement rather than fear.

52:55And I think that's so important, too, is embracing whether it's adversity or change or, you know, the ebbs and flows of what happens in, you know, running a company. Every day is different and new challenges arise every single day, but it's how you approach it. And it's coming from a mindset of we're going to win and we're going to figure this out and we have the right people around us and the right strategies and tactics in place to do so. And if we don't, we're going to pivot and we're going to figure that out. And when you do that, you start to see things start to fall in place. And if you hold on so tightly to something because you're so afraid of losing it, then you're not spending enough time opening the possibilities of what can happen and allowing yourself to let in what is meant for you to then put back out into the world around you.

53:39And I think that's really important.

53:41Nick Stenson:Yeah, that whole growth mindset piece is absolutely critical, isn't it? But I think in order to get there, we have to clear some space, right? You said about spending time in silence. And sometimes people don't. They don't sit in silence. And it can be a little bit confronting. It's a bit strange. I'm used to having lots of incoming and all of a sudden I'm just sitting in silence. But you'd be amazed what comes to you when you get into that whole rhythm of just clearing stuff out to allow new thoughts, new ideas, new energy to come, isn't it, really? so it's like a re like a rebirth almost which i think is wonderful and so i'm so i'm so pleased for you nick honestly it's going to be such a great a great road ahead and nick we have a fabulous playlist on brave bold brilliant on spotify what song are we going to add to the playlist from yourself and who's the artist the song is titanium i'm trying to think who the artist is.

54:36I think it might be David Guetta. I'll get back to you on that artist. But if you hear the song, it's been around for a long time, and it talks about being bulletproof because life comes at you and you have to be bulletproof and you have to have that strength to get back up when you get knocked down. And it's more about what happens on the rise back up than it is about what happens at the top, right? And how we bounce back from adversity is so important. And I don't care who out there you follow on social media or celebrity you see, or, you know, person you hear a podcast from, everyone is fighting some form of adversity.

55:17And everybody's had struggles and everybody's had failures. And if they tell you they haven't, then don't believe them. Because everyone walks through dark times. But it's how you get through the on the other side is so important. And that song Titanium is It's one that I listen to often to remind myself that I am bulletproof. And even when I get knocked down, you got to get back up.

55:36Nick Stenson:Absolutely. Well, what a power track to add to the playlist, Nick. I love it. And I know the song. So yeah, brilliant. Brilliant. Sort of kind of energized, dance around the kitchen vibe. 100%. Get you going in the morning. Absolutely. Love it. Love it. And we've not had it. So that's a great one to add. So wonderful. So Nick, final question. Brave, bold, brilliant. when you hear that what does that mean to you you have to be brave in order to be bold and when you do that brilliance happens and I think that's so important it takes bravery to do important things in life and you know I remind myself all the time that if it was easy everyone would do it so if it's difficult it's because you're doing something that's brave and bold and when you do something that's brave and bold and you follow your gut and you follow it and you give 1000 % of yourself to it, in the end, it's going to be brilliant.

56:30It just has to be.

56:32Nick Stenson:100 % agree with that. What a great way to end, Nick. Thank you so much. I've really enjoyed our conversation and I can't wait to meet you in London. This is going to be exciting. I know. I look forward to that. Drinks on me for sure. Excellent. You heard it here, everyone. Nick's buying the drinks. That's right. That's for sure. I look forward to it. Fantastic. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Janet. So good to see you. I really hope you've enjoyed this episode of Brave Bold Brilliant. Remember, check out our new website, www.brave-bold-brilliant.com. You're going to find loads of resources on there that's going to help you with your leadership journey and with the businesses that you're trying to scale up and grow.

57:13Nick Stenson:So take care, everyone. And remember, there are no limits to your growth, but it is by being brave and bold that you're going to unlock your brilliant.

57:26Thank you.