Stories of Acting Wins and Fails | Ep 001

From performing for her family at an early age to rubbing shoulders with Hollywood A-listers, Nikki Stanzione has seen it all. This seasoned actress and television host sat down with us to give an inside look into the ups and downs of the entertainment industry. Nikki regaled us with tales of auditioning with Johnny Depp, her time as an extra on Friends, and the resilience needed to survive in Hollywood. 

Nikki's journey took a fascinating turn from acting to television hosting. The transition wasn't without challenges. Nikki had to face big names like Ryan Seacrest head-on, and she didn't back down. Her tenacity and determination led her to carve out a niche for herself. The conversation also delved into her decision to prioritize family over career, her self-motivation journey in the freelancing world, and the importance of a well-mapped plan and a strong work ethic.

We couldn't wrap up our chat without discussing the importance of routine and flexibility, especially in the face of career transitions. Nikki shared how her family played a significant role in helping her establish a routine and how she strikes a balance between the need for a routine and the desire for change. Nikki's story is a testament to the power of determination and resilience, making this episode a must-listen for anyone looking for a firsthand look into the world of entertainment.

About Gurus and Game Changers: 

The Gurus and Game Changers Podcast  focuses on individuals with unique insights and solutions based on their life experiences. 
Listen and you will find:

1. Life insights
2. Overcoming obstacles
3. Unconventional success
4. Personal growth stories
5. Unique life journeys
6. Self-discovery
7. Inspirational life lessons
8. Authentic success
9. Niche expertise
10. Non-traditional success stories

Inspirational journeys abound when you listen to some of our guests as they describe their personal transformation with unconventional wisdom with real-life stories. Their
empowering narratives and life-changing experiences showcase triumph over adversity, resilience and perseverance.

At Gurus and Game Changers we thrive on authentic storytelling and non-traditional paths to success described with empowering voices. These motivational insights
laden with turning points, lessons learned and a testament to inner growth will lead to your own journey to self-discovery.

These inspirational role models or 'Wild Ducks' as they've been described always come with a positive mindset in describing transformative experiences and evolving perspectives.


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Transcript

0:00:02 - Mark

Hi, I'm Stacy and I am Mark, and this is the Guru's a Game Changers podcast Today on Guru's and Game Changers podcast, the one and only Nikki Stanzion. What's up, nikki? 

0:00:15 - Nikki

Hi guys, thank you for having me. Oh, I love the bump shot And I haven't even made you laugh yet. 

0:00:21 - Mark

That was really good, Oh you will. We've talked to Nikki for some time. You will absolutely make us laugh. 

0:00:27 - Nikki

So honored to be here, because you know you haven't been doing this a long time, So I really appreciate that you have me on today. This is exciting. 

0:00:34 - Mark

Yeah, we're excited to have you because you do personify what this podcast is about And we're going to get into all of that. The Guru or the Game Changer, the overcoming obstacles, the being successful no matter what comes in your way, it's you're not like oh yeah, i've done that. So, but for those who don't know Nikki, if you turn on your television, you're probably going to see her. She's been on, even the most recently over a decade, on home shopping networks, all the major ones, for over a decade. That's only the most recent of her film career, her television career, her news experience, her off Broadway theater, her game show hosting I mean, you name it. Wow, nikki seems to have done it and you've done it well. In an industry that can eat people up and set up a whole lot of regret and remorse, you still find success. So we want to go back, right. 

0:01:21 - Nikki

You made me feel really good about my days. I have those days I'm like oh, what's going on with my life? So thank you for that. 

0:01:27 - Mark

But that's true. Like you, we all have those days right Where we're saying what are we, what are we doing, how are we even successful, Or what's next? It's so true. 

0:01:36 - Nikki

So true. 

0:01:37 - Mark

Right. But you look back. somebody can look at your resume and say, wow, you're pretty darn accomplished, thank you. So let's go back to the beginning. How did it all start? Where did you get that bug? 

0:01:44 - Nikki

Oh, my gosh I've had. I mean as long as I can remember clearly. 

I don't think there was ever a time in my life that I wasn't on stage or wanting to be on camera or something. Something related to this industry on some level or another, even if it was just singing at dinners with my family. So I've always been that way. My poor sister is not as much into this industry And even when she was little we would have I would say today we're planning to do this song, we're doing the greatest level of all for everybody at dinner on mommy's birthday. You're going to take this part and I'm going to take that part And I'm going to go upstairs and dress like Whitney. So I mean, i've been doing that my whole life. Oh my God. 

0:02:20 - Stacey

I did the same exact thing with my sister, but I always made her play the boy So we would do grease. But she had shorter hair So I would always be a Livy Newton John You got to be Sandy. Yeah, yeah, it was always Sandy. 

0:02:31 - Nikki

I love it. Well, and right away in my life, as soon as my mom recognized that that was of interest to me and that it was something I could kind of flourish with, she put me into dancing school. I went to a performing art school. Actually, i had regular school. I didn't go to fame school, i went to regular school. But my after school was singing, dancing, acting, improv, all of that. And then I started doing local musical theater And so I kind of grew up that way. And then in high school I got the hosting bug, because I had always done acting and performing but I loved the presenter idea of it Just being in front of a camera and giving people information. So in high school this is actually interesting. So in high school everybody said you have to try out for the school show because we have a cable news show, and I was very excited about it until I heard you had to be a senior to be on that show as the anchor. 

You could do a little reporting and just walk around the school and interview people. But I wanted to be the anchor, so I auditioned. I guess it was my sophomore year. I auditioned and they said you're not a senior, but we can probably find a place for you. And then they came back to me and said you know what? Forget it, we're changing the rules. You're the anchor. So I'm very I'm very fortunate. 

0:03:42 - Stacey

That's amazing. 

0:03:43 - Nikki

It was because I think I always had the training and a lot of people just wanted to do it for fun, but it was really it meant more to you. It was like the beginning of my career. 

0:03:50 - Mark

It was the beginning. You knew what you wanted to do way back then. 

0:03:53 - Nikki

So I hosted the West Arant High School TV news for three years and I had my catchphrase which at the end of every show because we talked about everything in the community the end of the show I always used to say keep watching us because we're watching you. And so if I would go to Blockbuster video or anywhere, people would be like we're watching you. And then I thought, as I got older, that would always be my slogan until I realized how creepy that sounds. 

0:04:16 - Stacey

I was going to say it's a little stalkerish, but that's okay, super creepy now. 

0:04:19 - Nikki

So I would never say that ever again. 

0:04:22 - Mark

I wanted you to end the show with that today. No, no, we won't do that. That's funny that it means you, they're watching you, they know your tagline, so you're seeing an impact, right? 

0:04:30 - Nikki

You're saying I did, and I guess you know it's interesting. You said that I never thought of it that way, but that might have been kind of the impetus to get me to say you know what? there's something to this. People actually are paying attention. So then I went to school at Rutgers and I I majored in communication and broadcast journalism And then I also did more performing things on the side, and as soon as I graduated I went right to LA. Oh my gosh, i was like that's it, i'm going to LA, that's where I'm going to be now? 

0:04:56 - Stacey

Did you save money or did? how did you get out there Like what? No, not really. 

0:05:01 - Mark

You just got off the bus? Did you sleep on couches? Everyone else looked around. 

0:05:05 - Nikki

Well, okay, so I DJed all through college on weekends. I was a DJ for not, not clubs, I was like a mobile DJ, So I would do weddings and bar mitzvahs and corporate events And I knew that if I went to LA I could definitely do that job on weekends and have my weekdays freedom audition. So I got a job right away at an entertainment company when I got to LA and I worked there for eight years It really became my life Wow. 

0:05:29 - Stacey

That's such a success story. That's amazing, it's funny. Was there anyone so like in the whole guru schematic of what we're talking about, was there anyone who sort of was your Sherpa and guided you along and, like, helped you through? or was there more than one person? 

0:05:43 - Nikki

or I would say I was very fortunate because my family was always supportive. I think they were even to this day. They'll say your business like with that kind of voice, like, oh gosh, that business right. 

0:05:54 - Stacey

Because it has such a stigma. That is. 

0:05:56 - Nikki

And they didn't want me to ever have to want for anything And they felt like I was too intellectual to take a career path that was so uncertain. But I knew that was what I wanted and they knew it was what I wanted, so they were very supportive. My grandmother was probably my biggest fan. She was my best friend. I love that And yeah. So she was definitely a huge, huge supporter of me. But she later would say I regret that We ever sent you to LA, because then you never came back. Oh, because I was gone. 

0:06:24 - Mark

True Italian grandmother, fashion She's the Jewish side, she's the Jewish side. 

0:06:28 - Nikki

Don't even get me started. 

Yes, Well, she's actually a long story short, i won't waste all the time on that, but her great, her grandmother, was founded in a Catholic orphanage, but then she married my grandpa, who was Jewish, so we don't know what her original origins were. We should look that up one day. But yeah, so I have a lot of my family Jewish and Italian and I have guilt. I have a lot of food and I have a lot of love, but there's also a lot of guilt, maybe not in that order, like maybe it's love. 

0:06:57 - Stacey

Hopefully it's love first. Love is always first, then food. 

0:07:00 - Nikki

Yeah, love is always first. 

0:07:01 - Stacey

Or food first. 

0:07:03 - Nikki

Well, and I'll tell you, my mother did. Food is always first. 

My mother took me to LA when I first moved out. She brought me there and she helped me get set up and she said listen, you're on your own, but we're going to help you get here. We're going to help you with that first step. You're here now. We don't want you to feel lost and scared and you know no money. So she did help me when I first came, went out there, but then she says but you got to work now, like now it's on you Yeah, right, so you're off the payroll baby. 

Yeah, so I was very, very fortunate to have that support early on. But then I realized I got very fortunate early with my career. But then I realized, oh, that's beginner. Maybe that's beginner's luck, because it's not as easy as everybody thinks. 

0:07:43 - Mark

It's rare. 

0:07:44 - Stacey

What was it like to be on like Young and the Restless, and you know those. What was the other one? All my children, All my children, Yeah. 

0:07:52 - Nikki

I was graduated I moved later that year to LA, but right in between I got extra work on all my children and then I got an under five job on all my children. 

0:07:59 - Stacey

So as that was under five for the listeners out there. 

0:08:01 - Nikki

Oh, I'm so sorry, for under five means you have under five lines, but you're more than just an extra, because you talk. 

0:08:09 - Mark

I thought that was a featured extra. 

0:08:10 - Nikki

No, Featured extra means you're seen and maybe you're on regularly but you're not a role. 

0:08:17 - Mark

Got it. 

0:08:18 - Nikki

Okay, so that was that. But yeah, that was exciting. I remember, cause the first day I went there I went into the restroom and washed my hands and Susan Lucci came out of the stall. 

0:08:29 - Stacey

She's like an icon. She was so nice, she was so nice. 

0:08:33 - Nikki

I met her as well over at QVC. What a nice woman, right, and so humble, good energy Yeah. 

0:08:39 - Mark

The whole thing about her. 

0:08:39 - Nikki

So down to earth Really. So that was exciting And then, yeah, so my first job in LA actually was Young and the Restless was my first one. 

0:08:48 - Mark

Wow, That's a major success for anybody who just says I'm going to do it. I'm going to go out to Hollywood, i'm going to get on a bus and I'm going to go out there and start a career. Did you have, like any guardian angel along the way, that sort of? 

0:09:00 - Nikki

maybe my grandpa, but I will say that. So my mother grew up with. I grew up with my mother watching Young and the Restless obsessively She still does. It was her favorite show and her favorite character was Nikki. 

0:09:14 - Mark

So I thought how? 

0:09:15 - Nikki

ironic that my first job was my mom's favorite show and the main character is my name, right, and she's kind of like a fun synergistic. Did she name you after that character? She may have Well my sister's name is Mandy and she's a massive Barry fan, so anything's possible, yeah. 

0:09:33 - Mark

That's awesome. That's too funny. 

0:09:34 - Nikki

So yeah, so that was, and it was a recurring role and it was really exciting to me and I, you know, i didn't have a major character, but I was on enough that I was getting the acting bugs, you know, fulfilled on some level and I kept saying to people it's not so bad Like everybody says, it's so hard to get work. And then I bit my words because I realized, after they changed the actress who played the character my character was really good friends with and they kind of changed the direction of her storyline, and all of a sudden I wasn't getting called to come in and I realized, oh, it's not so easy after all, that was very short lived. And then one after the other, things, would you know, start to happen and I'd get really close to, you know, to a job audition call back, second call back, and then it would go to a celebrity or a better name, a bigger name. 

0:10:18 - Mark

Yeah, That that's how that. I always said that about the entertainment industry. Like any other job, it's your output. You can judge the output. I made this thing, I wrote this copy, I built this website, But the output is you. So when somebody says I don't like it, they're saying I don't like you. 

0:10:34 - Nikki

They say, don't take it personal, it's impossible. 

0:10:37 - Stacey

No, it's so personal, the whole audition process has to be so almost demoralizing because we, you know, we cast people and we'd had them in for auditions and every time I'm like Oh they're so good, like I hate that You feel bad. 

0:10:51 - Mark

I know you feel so bad. I love each one Because I always wonder You really do. 90% of the time you feel bad, 10% are like Oh my God, why did this person walk into the? 

0:10:59 - Nikki

earth. Well, you know, there's that challenge And I went. I went to acting school and when I was in LA I did study and work with some of the best acting coaches And I felt like I learned a lot And one of the things that I thought was really important that I learned, which I would share with all of the listeners because this is so important Number one you will be rejected a lot more than you won't, yeah, and if you can't have that thick skin to recognize, yes, it's, we say it's not personal, it is personal. But personal can mean you look like the casting director's ex-girlfriend. Personal can mean you wear the same perfume as somebody's biggest enemy whatever it is. 

So yeah, you take it personally, but at the same time you have to have the thick skin to recognize It's not necessarily something about you. It's just something that is not what they want, right? Yeah, and you have to kind of separate yourself from that rejection to not let it get you down. 

0:11:54 - Stacey

Yeah, that's really good advice. Did you ever have like a weird experience with a director or casting agent or something like you don't? 

0:12:03 - Nikki

have to talk about it or we can cut it out, But like I had a couple of weird things actually not weird cool, but then also kind of weird, i would say the cool. The really cool one was I had an audition for Lou DiGiama who was, i believe, the director of Donnie Brasco, if I'm not mistaken, and he worked a lot with Johnny Depp. And again now I sound like oh, i'm such a big deal. I was. I was literally doing a recurring character on Young and the Restless and then nothing. So I was just DJing on weekends, hoping to get work, auditioning and not getting the jobs. Then I get a call from my agent at the time and said there's an audition, johnny Depp is doing a movie. This is crazy. And they you would play his younger sister I believe it was something like that And she's, you know, a rebel. And it was basically everything. I'm not And I had to really dive into this like thought process of who. 

Who is that person. And so I said, well, i need the size. Which sides are the script right, the copy? And they said there is no, there's no size, it's all improvised. You're going to be improvising with Johnny, with Johnny Depp Now, usually on an audition. 

0:13:10 - Mark

You go No pressure, You know no pressure. Right, You meet with the cast, See right. 

0:13:14 - Nikki

And then maybe you go to a callback and then you meet some more people on the production And then, if you get to the screen test situation, then you get to meet the actor you'd be working with. This was the first audition. 

0:13:24 - Stacey

Oh my gosh. 

0:13:26 - Nikki

So Johnny Depp was sitting in there in the room I'm still thinking about this makes me like get the chills. What was crazy about it was that I get the notification that it's going to be at this hotel, in this hotel room. 

0:13:37 - Mark

So then I thought Red flag Right, but not Johnny Depp. 

0:13:40 - Nikki

Right. I thought this is not good. This is not So. then I had my agent check it out and they said no, this is definitely on the up and up 100 percent. The casting director is going to be in the room with him. It's not just the two of you alone It's very like 100 percent. 

0:13:53 - Stacey

Okay, it's very professional. 

0:13:55 - Nikki

Yes, so sure enough, i did go on that audition and then I met him and he was wearing He was wearing a red bandana. I remember that What It's like, a chachi bandana, the chachi word on the leg. 

0:14:09 - Stacey

He Oh no, I know. Happy days, Listeners. Happy days. You ever seen it? It's the best. 

0:14:13 - Nikki

We'll talk about that. Yeah, so, yes. So he was super kind and we just improvised And it was the weirdest experience because to this day, i can't believe that actually happened. I so rarely have talked about that because it seemed so Unreal and unbelievable that I'm in a room auditioning and I'm a nobody at this point in my mind, right, and so I was very fortunate. It was an amazing experience. Were you nervous? Like of course? 

0:14:40 - Stacey

I was. 

0:14:40 - Nikki

I mean, i don't even know what I did, i couldn't remember You blacked out. 

0:14:44 - Mark

I was 22. 

0:14:45 - Nikki

I don't need, i just I don't even remember I was a kid and I just I just know that it was so exciting to me that I probably did a good audition, because I was so out of my own head, because it was so unreal. 

0:14:59 - Mark

Right. 

0:14:59 - Nikki

That I probably just lived in the moment In character. 

0:15:01 - Stacey

Yeah, that's amazing. 

0:15:02 - Nikki

And then nothing ever happened with it, because they shelf the movie, so it never got to the next level. So, but the weirdest one which, to your earlier question, i was an extra on friends, which was one of my other early school, that's cool And that was super. Audio approval So I did extra work and I was like everyone's like, oh my God, you're on friends. I was like let's not get carried. 

0:15:29 - Mark

I'm an extra. 

0:15:30 - Nikki

OK, and it's funny because to people that knew what I wanted to do and people that were outside of that world it sounded like so big and impressive. But to me I knew I was. I mean, i almost felt guilty when people would get impressed because I was like I'm just an extra. you guys, i'm not even talking, like I'm just there. 

0:15:50 - Stacey

But that show is so huge, i mean even just being an extra, you know that's actually an on set. 

0:15:55 - Mark

with everything being on set, the couch is now like on a fraction. 

0:15:59 - Stacey

I think it is Yeah. 

0:16:00 - Nikki

Yeah, and late 90s, yeah, you know. So it was the heyday, yeah, and I was like, oh my gosh, jennifer, oh my gosh, there's Courtney And I watched Courtney on Family Ties so I was very excited about her and all of them And I got to meet all of them and they were all very nice, jennifer, you know, oh God, so good to meet you. Oh, welcome to the show, monica Is that your first impression. 

0:16:24 - Stacey

It was Rachel, that's good. 

0:16:27 - Nikki

Oh, you know what I don't? She's always doing that stuff. I don't know, that's awesome. 

0:16:33 - Stacey

So that was good. 

0:16:33 - Nikki

But no, but I had. and it was actually fun, because when I watched back the show I saw myself. So I was like, ok, i wasn't just So, was it? 

0:16:39 - Stacey

like in like where were you Like? what was? I want the story, the full story. So where were you sitting and where was the scene and what was the, what was the episode? 

0:16:46 - Nikki

It was a big episode. It was the episode where Monica and Tom Selleck, a doctor of what was his name? Peter? was it doctor? No, I don't know. 

0:16:54 - Stacey

Magnum PI. It's all Yeah. 

0:16:56 - Nikki

So they were. They went to this wedding with Rachel and Ross because Rachel's ex husband, ex fiancee, barry, was getting married, and so Rachel went. They went to the wedding and it was the season finale that year, and so there was this huge kind of cliffhanger of Monica and her boyfriend talking about they might have to break up because she wants kids and he was older and didn't. I tell you remember that one. And then Rachel sang Copa Cabana with the band at the wedding. Yes, so I got to be a guest at the wedding. You were a guest at the wedding. It was amazing. 

0:17:29 - Mark

That was a beautiful wedding. It was beautiful And Joey did ask Joey. I love the referring to them in character. 

0:17:35 - Nikki

Matthew LeBlanc actually his, i guess, his personal assistant, whatever was like oh, matt, would love to have a way to contact you. And I was like, come on. And when I think about this story again it doesn't even sound real. Because when I think about it I'm like did he actually? did you give him your number? I did, he never called. He never called, of course not. But then Matthew Perry, his assistant, asked me would I want to audition for this new movie he was doing, which was called Fool's Rush? I believe it was. 

0:18:02 - Stacey

Fool's Rush. Yeah, Fool's Rush in. 

0:18:04 - Nikki

Selma Hayek, right, yeah, and they were doing that in Las Vegas. And he said would you like to audition? And I was so naive and now looking back, oh my gosh, that was so stupid, because they flew me to Las Vegas, they got me a hotel And then he asked me to come and audition. He says, yeah, they're all wearing bathing suits for the audition. And I was there And I said you know, I don't feel like I have no script And I don't feel like any character. 

Based on what I've read about the movie, i don't understand why I'd be in a bathing suit. And he said, well, i mean, that's what everybody's auditioning in, so if you can just come into Bikini, blah, blah, blah, it wasn't Matthew Perry, it's his assistant, quote unquote. And so I said you know what? I'm not feeling very good. I don't feel what. I'm so sorry you flew me out here, but I don't feel what. I don't think I'll give a good audition. And then I went home and I look back and I said like I don't know how I had the head on my shoulders to even do that. But I shouldn't have gone in the first place, could have gone in a bad direction. But now that I think about it. I remember saying I wouldn't audition because he asked for the bathing suit. 

0:19:05 - Mark

Wow. Do you know now why they asked for the audition? 

0:19:08 - Stacey

Yeah, were there any women in bathing suits in Fool's Russian? 

0:19:12 - Nikki

No, I think it was just a ploy to get me to his room in a bathing suit. 

0:19:15 - Mark

But they flew you in as a ploy to get you into a star's I don't know, it's just now that I, you know what. 

0:19:24 - Nikki

I haven't talked about this in like over 20 years, because it's so. It's just not. It wasn't a big part of my life, but it was just one incident where I remember getting flown there. I remember having the hotel. I remember being excited And as soon as he said what I needed to wear and didn't give me any script to read, Yeah. That's. 

0:19:41 - Stacey

That was the red flag that I was like how old were you? You really had a head in your shoulders, i think early 20s. I would have been like okay. 

0:19:49 - Nikki

I would have been like okay, I did that, but that's okay. 

0:19:53 - Stacey

I want the job Okay. 

0:19:55 - Mark

I would love to interview somebody who went to that audition to hear what it was like, and there might not have been an audition. Oh, that's true. 

0:20:01 - Stacey

That's what I'm thinking. 

0:20:02 - Nikki

Different type of casting call That's what I'm thinking Cause that was really the only uncomfortable casting experience I ever had, And it was yeah, I mean, that was I could do those to you. 

It was not bad, but something that was real that I regret. I really regret this one. So when I was still doing extra work cause I had had that you know fame, so so called fame doing young and the restless, and then still nothing was happening. So I got cast to do featured extra work on Boogie Nights. Now at the time, I love that movie, It's my favorite, It's a top 10 fee. I mean, I've only seen it 16 times. Very good, I love it. Love Dirk Diggler So, and I love the music in them because I'm a disney And Markey Mark, he's the behemoth. 

0:20:43 - Stacey

Come on, you love him, mark. 

0:20:46 - Mark

I thought you were talking about Markey Mark. 

0:20:48 - Stacey

Markey. 

0:20:48 - Nikki

Mark, markey, mark People have called me that. I just assumed you were talking about your marky Mark and where's funky bunch? We're good vibrations, that works. 

0:20:55 - Mark

Oh, look how it all fits together. Where's the applause? 

0:20:57 - Nikki

Come on, come on, come on, come on Come on A concert. 

0:21:01 - Mark

break out here. 

0:21:02 - Nikki

Sorry. So, uh, that was actually very good singing break, i know, Uh, he, so I knew that Mark Wahlberg was attached, but the only thing I think the only thing he had been in at that point that I knew was fear with Reese Witherspoon. 

Oh, wow, he was frightening in that movie. He was so good. So I hear about this movie, Boogie Nights. Now I get this, I get like all the details of it and it says it's about the porn industry, It's about drugs, It's about just awful things, And I thought, oh no, like what is this movie Like? what am I getting myself into, Right? Is this? is this on the up and up? Is it even a real movie? Or is this like in the valley? Cause that's where it was being shot in the valley? So I got, I went to the fitting, got the fitting, and then they give me the directions to the house where the actual shoot was going to be for that day. And it is one of those houses And I knew that neighborhood because I used to DJ. The company I DJed for the office was around there and my friend who worked there said Oh, I know that that's the neighborhood where they do actually shoot all the whole porn pornography industry shoots there Listeners. 

0:22:13 - Stacey

The valley is famous for shooting pornography Recita particularly Recita And that's where it was. 

0:22:19 - Nikki

So I pull up and I see all these girls and I see bathing suits and I I just got this really bad feeling and I got scared And I thought I hope I'm not walking into something. That is really that I will look back and say why did I? why did I do that? That was such a bad move. Well, now flash. So I didn't do it. I called my agent. I said I'm not doing this. I don't know what this is, but I don't think this is right. First of all, heather Grimm, julia and more Great movie. 

0:22:48 - Stacey

I mean, wasn't it? was it up for any Oscars? I think, yeah, it was up for Oscars. 

0:22:52 - Nikki

And I and that's my favorite scene when they're all at the pool at Bert Reynolds' house. 

0:22:56 - Stacey

That was Bert Reynolds' house in the movie. Okay, that's why. So they wanted it to look like. 

0:23:01 - Nikki

Recita. It was Recita, but it was. it was probably a house where they did shoot those types of movies, Absolutely. Anyway, that's a big regret because it became one of my favorite movies. I would have been in an iconic scene of one of my favorite movies with some of my favorite stars if I had not been in a little chicken, but I was. 

0:23:19 - Stacey

Well so, but like, who was your guru at that point, like that told you, like, was it yourself? I think it was you. 

0:23:25 - Mark

Like who? Who's the voice in your head? Who's the voice in your head? Your parents? Oh yeah, i'm like. I'm like It's always your parents, no matter how old you get. 

0:23:31 - Nikki

My dad would be like I'm sorry what you're doing, what Yeah? 

0:23:36 - Stacey

I was, like, do you want to walk up? like, is my father going to watch this? I thought of all of that, yeah. 

0:23:39 - Nikki

I thought of all of it. I had all those thoughts going through my head and I knew this is not the path I'm looking to. I also had a prove to them that going to LA was a good idea and I did not want it to go down Right. 

0:23:51 - Stacey

Then they'd be like see, i told you Yes, oh, wow, yeah, that's amazing, it's crazy, that's funny, it's in in business ethics there's this thing called the mother test. 

0:24:01 - Mark

I don't know if you've ever heard of it. 

0:24:02 - Nikki

No. 

0:24:03 - Mark

If you're about to take an action in business and if you have to decide if it's an ethical action or not, you put it through the mother test, like what I want my mom to know that I'm about to do this it's the same exact thing, right. Just go to check your morality, Like nope, mom would be very unhappy with me. 

0:24:17 - Nikki

I do that a lot. 

0:24:18 - Mark

And she, out would come the wooden spoon right. Did you get hit by the? 

0:24:21 - Nikki

wooden spoon. No, I got grabbed. 

0:24:24 - Mark

I got grabbed. 

0:24:25 - Nikki

Like with the nails, like right here. 

0:24:26 - Mark

My mom never hit me, but she'd grab and I'd say, ow, she go. 

0:24:29 - Nikki

oh God, please, ow, she's like come on you're telling me So funny Yeah. 

I didn't get in a lot of trouble. I was kind of a good kid for the most part I didn't get in a lot. I was a little bit of a goodie-goody. It's kind of funny because all through my growing up I wanted to stay close to home. I went to college close to home. I never drank. I was really good. I always had a boyfriend. And then flash forward, i'm the one that goes to LA, travels like the whole country to work for the last 20 something years of my life and still single. 

0:24:54 - Stacey

Oh my gosh. So that's like one of the questions you were thinking of really remarkably So, like if you're your own guru. So what are those conversations that you're having in your head now, so fast forward to, from that person, to what's happening now in your life? Do you still have those conversations? Do you still say no to things that maybe you regret saying no to or that don't feel right and you're happy that you said no to that? 

0:25:18 - Nikki

You know what? I don't feel like I've changed Ethically and morally. I don't think I've changed at all. I still think I have the voice, i have the gut feelings. I follow those things still. 

But I do look back and sometimes I wish that I pursued one. So because as my story goes on I kind of went in different avenues. I kind of wish I stayed on just maybe one specific path and really just refined that and really went hard on that specific. Because looking back, i've always been very I don't like to say spread myself thin, but I've always done a lot of things to have versatility and to have opportunity. And maybe at this stage in my life maybe I would have moved home sooner and been mad, who knows, maybe things would have been different. But I always have to believe things happened for a reason. So as far as regrets go, i kind of regret that I didn't maybe wait to go to LA a little longer and stayed home and sort of tried my way in New York first. But then again, that's the one time in your life you do it. 

0:26:19 - Stacey

Why did you think LA instead of New York? Like what was that? 

0:26:22 - Nikki

I was told number one. I look like everybody and talk like everybody in New York. I have a better shot in LA, where everybody's more all-American, looking more blonde had a generic accent. I had that whole New Yorker thing going for me, if you will. So, they thought you have a leg up because you have something different, whereas here kind of like everybody else. And if you want theater, stay in New York. If you want TV and film, go to. 

0:26:45 - Stacey

LA. 

0:26:45 - Nikki

So that was really, that was the catalyst, and I did do theater growing up, but you don't make money in theater And I knew that. 

0:26:53 - Mark

But how, in that world, like of going to LA, the ups and downs, the ups and downs, you have to stay resilient. Because you get no all the time. You miss opportunities all the time. What is it about you that you think fed that resiliency to keep fighting, keep going in an industry where everybody's like I'm out? 

0:27:10 - Nikki

I think that's a good question. I think there's two things. Number one was I love it so much that I can't imagine myself doing something else. And the second was because everybody who believed in me kept saying you're definitely going to do this, I know you'll make it, doing that or whatever, And all of those voices kind of pushed me All those gurus All those support gurus, you had a bunch of gurus. 

0:27:33 - Mark

That's amazing. 

0:27:34 - Nikki

Well, and I'm sure it wasn't, i mean for my family. I know it was my best interest, but other people who knows? You never know how many people want to see you fail too. So there was also that kind of fire of I have to prove myself. So I think there was. I want to prove myself so that my parents and my grandma and my sister and everybody who's believed in me knows that I made the right choice. And then for people who might be like, hmm, yeah right, she's going to go down the road. 

The naysayers Yeah, the naysayers. I had to say, ha see. So even when I wasn't doing well, i kept thinking how do I navigate to a different direction so I can get in a place where I am succeeding? 

0:28:11 - Stacey

And that's kind of what guided me into the hosting world, that's game changing, so it's perfect transition, so it's going to talk about you being a game changer, how the game has changed for you. But you're saying it right there. So how did you? what was one huge time, I guess, in your life where the game changed, and what happened I? 

0:28:31 - Nikki

would say reporting something, all the acting auditions I started noticing that a lot of the people that were going out for the same type of roles were either much more experienced and so far as they had a name, or they were related to a name, or they had an in that I didn't have, And that's just the way this business really does work. So I started to realize I know, for my own mental positivity and my own state of mind and my own peace of mind, if I keep getting rejected on this level at something I know I'm good at, maybe there's something that I should look at doing differently, right? So I think it was. I'm trying to remember if it was this. I had a I know I did it for a lifetime movie to play the best friend of somebody or something like that, and I was told that I got it. I got to the final callback and then they ended up giving it to somebody who was a name, whatever. It happened all the time And I was like you know what? do I even really want to do this as much? I'd have to memorize lines. I have to. I found this okay, i have a better answer now because, as I'm saying it, it's really coming to me. 

I found that in the process of all of the things I'm saying, your question is really relevant, because what shifted the game for me was every audition I was being someone else, right, and I'm very comfortable playing characters. I love impersonation, i love all that. That's the performer in me. But authentically, what makes me feel fulfilled is being able to be myself and do something with what I have the capability of as me, and I recognize that. So I don't. I guess that was kind of the point where I was like, okay, i love acting, but do I love it enough to go through this and not even know where my next job is? Or maybe I kind of shift back to what I started with in high school, which was hosting and presenting and being in that role, because I already know I can be successful in that role and I don't have to be someone else. And that was when I knew I am going to go full force in the hosting world And that was the change, awesome. 

0:30:31 - Stacey

Changed your own, your own guru, and you changed your own game. Was there anything, any obstacles that were thrown at you along the way that made you change your game? Like well going broke? 

0:30:43 - Nikki

Well, that's definitely important, that's a motivator. 

0:30:45 - Mark

Yeah, that's a motivator. 

0:30:46 - Nikki

I remember I called my parents. I was like I'm not doing very well financially. I mean, i'm DJing and I'm teaching dance to kids and doing all of that, but it's not going as well as I wanted to. But I know that there's something I can be doing And so at that time I started working with an agent who I was basically hip pocketed by William Morris, which, because he was a newer agent at the time, Now he's huge Yeah. 

But he was. He was really supportive of my career and said I know we can try to get you in on some things And I was losing auditions to people like Ryan Seacrest and celebrities right Big names. And at the time Ryan was, he was a radio personality in LA And I actually met with him to work for him as an assistant until we both realized we would be conflict of interest because we were going out for the same jobs. But he, he was so nice actually. But I had this feeling in my gut like I have to get something with hosting right. So I went on some of these auditions and it really built my confidence because I knew I was doing it. I knew it was. You know, when you walk out of an audition you're like, oh God, what did I just do? But every time I did a hosting audition I felt it felt right, even if I didn't get the job, and so I felt like it was like a chance for me to kind of home my craft actually Because you were being you. 

You were being more authentic self because you were playing you, yes, and I booked a couple of pilots, like little things you know on some, like a scrapbook show on each whatever TV Never ended up going anywhere, little things like that. And then my best friend and I he and I both have a very, i would say, and I don't know. I'm trying to think how to put this a very unusual level of love for pop culture to the point where we know too much, like we know everything about pop culture. I'm with you on that It's a problem. 

It's a little bit of an obsession. And he and I both had a lot of industry connections and contacts and worked in the business and knew people and we thought what if we create a show of our own? So we knew we weren't getting paid at the time, we knew that maybe nobody would see it, but it gave us a chance to interview celebrities on red carpets And then we took it and we started. We kind of started developing something with it and it was exciting but it never really went anywhere big. But we we got to go to the Oscars and we got to go to a lot of the different award shows and do all of these red carpet interviews that built up our reels, built up our you know, resumes, our experience. And then a lot of people started seeing it and we started. 

We actually got on a show TV guide was looking for like the best dynamic duo. Oh, that's cool. And so remember when the TV guide channel would run on your TV and you'd see like a show in the corner and it would run the shows on the bottom. I remember that. 

So, we were on that show, which was exciting. So we felt like our show was called Starstruck. We felt like Starstruck kind of gave us that opportunity. And then, you know, I was doing auditions and then this was this is the best one ever. You ready? 

0:33:37 - Stacey

Yes, I'm ready. Are you ready? Hold on. 

0:33:43 - Nikki

They told me to talk a lot. There's that theme song that I just hummed. Yes, that's the American Idol theme song. 

0:33:52 - Mark

Yes, okay, were you an American Idol. No. 

0:33:54 - Nikki

No Better. Okay. So at the time the agent I was working with he calls me and he says there's a show in the UK It's called Pop Idol and it's huge and they're bringing it to America And I believe it was Simon Fuller was bringing it to America And it's going to be a big show on Fox. They're doing it kind of like a trial this summer and they're looking for two hosts, because on Pop Idol they have two hosts. Oh my God, you don't even know. 

0:34:25 - Mark

You don't even know. 

0:34:26 - Nikki

So when I think about this story it makes me want to cry. So they said we've already secured Ryan Seacrest as one, but we're looking for the second host. So I had the copy that said this is American Idol. Oh man, i had that script and I had to go in and say do the whole thing. And it went really well and I got a call back. 

0:34:49 - Stacey

Okay, okay. 

0:34:50 - Nikki

Oh my gosh, i'm going to host the show with that guy who I went to interview with to be his assistant. How fun. 

And I listened to him on the radio every day. That's all Ryan was at that time. To anybody, he was the radio drive home guy. You listen to him on the afternoon drive. So this is so crazy. So I go to the call back. Everything goes really well And then we find out, because Pop Idol were two male hosts, they changed their mind and they're basically dumping the final girls that they had at the call back. All girls are out. They're going to go for Brian Dunkelman, who ended up being the co-host and got fired after the first season. 

0:35:24 - Mark

Yeah, ryan's better. 

0:35:26 - Nikki

And I'm glad it worked out that way, because Ryan is so good and he's perfect. 

0:35:29 - Stacey

Whoever would have been with Ryan probably would have gotten fired. He's very good. 

0:35:32 - Nikki

He's so good, especially on that show. Oh my gosh, he's a perfect host. He was a pro. 

0:35:37 - Mark

I never knew that. That's how that played out. That's incredible. 

0:35:40 - Nikki

That's how they decided to go with another male host. And so I could have been the co-host of. American Idol. Can you imagine what my life would have been? 

0:35:48 - Mark

We probably would not be speaking to her. No, he definitely would not be here at the. 

0:35:50 - Stacey

Gurus and Game Changers podcast. He never knows. 

0:35:53 - Mark

That is a Game. 

0:35:54 - Stacey

Changer. 

0:35:54 - Mark

That would have been a big Game Changer, holy moly. 

0:35:57 - Nikki

So at that point I realized that being in Hollywood it's not so easy And my grandmother gave me the option. She says you know, if you want to move to Florida, there's a lot going on in Miami, and my grandma lived there half a year. So she said I know it's getting expensive, i know it's getting tough. And at that point in my relationship my boyfriend at the time didn't want to get married or anything yet. So I said well then I need to pursue whatever I need to pursue to earn money right now. And so I decided I'll move to Miami see what happens. And I got a job at this dinner theater doing a dinner theater show where I got to perform and it was super fun. But I was auditioning for hosting jobs And that's when I got the game show. 

0:36:37 - Mark

Interesting. 

0:36:38 - Nikki

What game show. So I hosted a game show called My Game's Fever And it was on all the Fox O and O's. I think it was maybe UPN here, my game. 

What was it My Game's Fever, my Game's Fever, and it was based it was from the UK as well And then they brought it to America. It was on for about six months maybe, and it was on network TV. I mean, it was about 20th century television and the Murdoch Elizabeth Murdoch was a co-producer, actually. Wow, so it was. It was a big deal And the show was zany and wild and kooky and We need a clip. 

0:37:13 - Stacey

We need a clip. 

0:37:14 - Mark

Was that the most fun you had ever, with all of your work? What was the most fun? The game show. The game show. 

0:37:19 - Nikki

Probably because well, yes, i definitely got to be silly, which is easy for me, but it was the least amount of work for the most amount of money and the most amount of creative fun I could have. That's creative, awesome. 

0:37:32 - Mark

It's a great trifecta right there. 

0:37:34 - Nikki

Of course it was your favorite. What do? 

0:37:35 - Stacey

you think, and I give away money to people. 

0:37:37 - Mark

Oh, that's beautiful. 

0:37:38 - Stacey

That was the best part. That's great. They like you more, that's for sure All you're doing is giving away money. 

0:37:43 - Nikki

When somebody, when you say to somebody, you just won $10,000, and they say to you I have doctor bills, i have this, i have that. I never knew where I'd get the money to pay for anything, thank you, And you're saying to yourself I can't believe. I talk about changing someone's life And not even coming out of your own pocket. That's beautiful. 

0:38:00 - Stacey

That was a great place to be. That was a fun job. Yeah, I love that. So what does success look like for you now, Nikki? What are you doing now and what's the next place you're going to go? It's a great question. 

0:38:14 - Nikki

It is actually a good question Because all of those things kind of fueled the fire of all the things I always wanted to do. And then I got back into news with AccuWeather for a while and then I moved back to LA temporarily. Then I got a morning show in New Mexico on Fox And that was that's almost tied with the game show, because that was a lifestyle show. I had celebrities on every morning, we did cooking segments, i interviewed every. It was in the Breaking Bad days and I was in New Mexico So I got to have that cast on all the time. That was incredibly exciting. But then there was the whole shift into home shopping. So that's really where I've devoted the last several years of my life And that has been probably the most stable that I've been in my life financially, because it was like I always say to people yeah, it's television, but it's really, i'm just a salesperson that happens to be on TV. So when people think it's so glamorous and you're so rich and you're like, no, that's not how it works exactly. It's a real job. It just happens to be on TV and you get to befriend people through a camera, so they see it in a certain way that maybe is a little more glamorous than it actually is, but it did allow me to have the real people job things like the benefits. 

And then I made a really difficult decision this fall when I started talking to Mark about that. 

It was really tough because I've lived away from home since I left for college, except for when I came home to do the show in New York, and it has been an amazing journey. But I'm seeing everybody getting older. I have a niece who's 10, who's my whole life, and I don't have kids of my own. She's the closest I'll ever get, so I didn't wanna miss any more years with her growing up at that stage. I didn't wanna miss my parents as they're getting older, and I just wanted to be in a familiar place that was home again. So I've always made the decisions since that last job in Miami. From that point forward, every job I've taken has been because I got a job somewhere and moved for the job. So this was the first time since then that I moved where I wanted to live, in hopes that then the job will come after. So it's a risk, but I've been fortunate to be able to freelance and still go back to some home shopping work and also do the news on a freelance basis as well. 

0:40:33 - Stacey

That's awesome, and so is that success to you. What you're doing now. Success is with family success with your job, your role you're in now, you know where you wanna go. You love being a host and being yourself, and then now are you gonna take that and expand on that? Are you fine and comfy with the way things are now, or what are you thinking? 

0:40:54 - Nikki

I'm very comfortable with where I'm living And I know I've had opportunities offered to me to be other places which would give me the guarantees that you don't get often in this business, which that's something to note and understand. 

If you are making this decision to be in this world of TV, film, radio, whatever anything in this business, you have to know there are very few guarantees, and I guess that's kind of true for anything, but particularly in this field it's very uncertain And so when you have that kind of certainty and that offer or that contract or that opportunity, it's very difficult to say no to it because you don't know when the next one will come. But my gut and my I don't know. It's weird because I've always been like go with the safe decision, right, except for when I first moved to LA. But that safer choice And this time it wasn't necessarily the safest choice but it's the one that sat safest in my gut which was being near the people you love, because after COVID I mean I didn't see anybody I loved for years because I had to get on an airplane to see them And I didn't want to have to get on an airplane to see people I love anymore. 

0:41:58 - Mark

Yeah, it's funny because it you look at it as what is the grounding part of your decision before it was the opportunity, it was the money, it was to build your career. And you get to a point where what's grounding you determines how you determine success. Right, and the grounding is I'm gonna be closer to the people I love. So it's like the game changed around you And then you just adjust, cause everything's the same. You can still go out and you can go. You can go move to Iowa tomorrow And I know you have opportunities in other states. You can go to tomorrow and live there and rekindle that old you that took you down that path. But now and I've watched you over the course of half a year or a year come to this realization that I want to be home. 

0:42:39 - Nikki

That's really what it is. You want to be home. 

0:42:41 - Mark

And I know how much your niece means to you, so I know like the rest can wait at this point because, the success is being with the family, being with the people you love. 

0:42:51 - Nikki

Isn't that interesting how you shift your priorities as you get older? And it doesn't mean that I don't still want to do what I love. 

And obviously we have to all make a living and make money. But even I even thought to myself if I'm not making what I was making, but I'm doing what I love and being around the people I love and all the things you just said, then I still feel successful right Now, and also just like sometimes when you let go. I mean, this is what I'm trying to learn. I sound like. I don't want to be a hypocrite because I'm not doing so well at it, but I try. Sometimes, when you let go of putting that pressure on yourself, things just start to happen, and that's what's always happened, for me at least. Totally agree. 

0:43:26 - Stacey

The less I tried, and it doesn't mean that. 

0:43:28 - Nikki

I wasn't proactive or committed or prepared, but the less I tried or put so much pressure or so much emphasis. 

0:43:35 - Mark

You're focused on the outcome. Right, everybody always says don't focus on the outcome, but you're still driven. You still have a great work ethic. You still have the hopes and dreams of doing the things that you love to do, but you have the family on the pedestal right. You have the connection that you lost, that you didn't have I shouldn't say you lost it, that you didn't have. It means so much to you. I absolutely love that. So, like then when you, what does Nikki think now when she wakes up in the morning? that's different to be to win that day. 

0:44:04 - Nikki

Oh gosh, There's mm. Well, first of all, I have to be self motivated, which I didn't have to be as much before because I had job motivation. 

In other words, i knew I had to be somewhere at a certain time every day, and that was with the talk show, that was with the game show, that was with the weather, that was with the new, that's with everything and home shopping, obviously. So now, because I freelance, it's more like, okay, on this day I have that and on that day I have this, but on the other days, how do I motivate myself to not just wake up and watch TV? because I can get easily distracted by that and I love television, so I love watching it as much as I love being on it. So, yeah, that's probably my biggest. 

I would say that not necessarily a struggle, but that's the thing I have to focus on is okay, i have to make a plan for what I'm doing, because if I don't, i won't get anything done. Yeah, and that can be really tough when you don't have anything coming in, like knowing that if I don't work that day, i'm not motivated by the paycheck, i'm just motivated by the fact that I have to get to that, that net you know wherever that is Right, motivated by the sweatpants We were talking about that earlier too like what's your routine. 

0:45:11 - Stacey

So, like Mark, you gotta, you gotta say your routine. 

0:45:14 - Mark

I'll say my routine, okay, and five minutes. 

0:45:17 - Stacey

He's changed in five minutes. But yeah, so I mean like routines are important, right, and like I just became freelance, so like I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my life, but trying to make myself, you know, slot into some kind of routine, exactly, but I kind of change his daily. Now I'm trying to really kind of do something habitual. Eric, my husband, is very, very habitual, very routine oriented. So he's kind of helped me. 

0:45:43 - Nikki

That's important, because I don't, I'm terrible. 

0:45:45 - Stacey

I almost feel like routine is like a prison like that makes me. I don't want to do this the same I don't like driving the same place. 

0:45:52 - Nikki

Maybe that's why we're in this business, right, because we don't want to do the same thing every single day. 

0:45:56 - Stacey

Yeah. 

0:45:57 - Nikki

But then there's the side of me going well, would that be so bad? Maybe I'd have holidays and weekends and nights to myself, you know, because all these other jobs, you work, all these crazy hours. True, But then again, i also kind of like the freedom of change every, every now and then too. 

0:46:10 - Stacey

Gotta have some change, yeah, but like go ahead, mark, talk about your routine. I'm going to hear your routine. 

0:46:15 - Mark

So it's funny, you said it. So the, the, the routine versus the. I don't know what's going to happen today right, oh, you have two different ones. 

0:46:23 - Stacey

Well, no, no, no. 

0:46:23 - Mark

So it's funny because I was forced into that. I had routine my entire career. I was corporate. 

0:46:28 - Stacey

Right, qvc is like every 10 minutes. You have something that you needed, right? I got last minute calls too, yeah. 

0:46:33 - Mark

Yeah, i mean it was nonstop and in prior to QVC I was a marketing director. You know, just a good old corporate America Right out of college into corporate America and different journeys in that career, journeys along the way but laid off, like so many thousands of people being laid off at 50 years old. It's like I'm a latecomer to this. I love having the flexibility. 

0:46:53 - Stacey

Right. 

0:46:54 - Mark

Then, it's funny, my wife said to me yesterday she said I still think actually I'm sorry it was this morning We weren't even talking about it She just said I still think that you getting let go from that job is the best thing that ever happened to this family. And it it really is. It really is, you know, for our son and all that kind of stuff. But but no, the brief story of my, of my, bridged version the abridged version. 

Yeah, is I get up very early? I mean, a lot of people get up very early. I get up specifically at 341. 

0:47:24 - Stacey

Very good number. That's why I get up, i don't go to bed at potentially nine o'clock. 

0:47:30 - Mark

Yeah, i go to bed around 342 actually. You're built different. That's all. I'm a night owl. Yeah, what time do you get? 

0:47:36 - Nikki

up. It depends. If I have to go somewhere, I'll get up early, But if I don't, if I can just sleep whenever my normal time more like 10. 

0:47:44 - Mark

Oh, my God, because I stay up. That gives me anxiety. Here I get worked on at night. 

0:47:49 - Nikki

I get so much done at night She makes it work. 

0:47:50 - Mark

You know what I mean. 

0:47:51 - Stacey

But what do? 

0:47:51 - Mark

you do between midnight and three, there's probably not a whole lot of productivity happening. 

0:47:55 - Nikki

Lots of binge watching. But also, but also, i do like make my list, make my notes. Sometimes I'll go on, you know, and look at what jobs and things are going on. If I'm doing the news the next day, i'll look at. I like to stay up as late as possible so I can see what the most updated current breaking stories are, so that when I go in in the morning I'm ready. 

0:48:14 - Mark

So here's what I do. Like I said, i get up at 341. For the first minute, this is the truth Every day. for the first minute, i just think about what I'm grateful for, and not I'm grateful for the sun and I'm grateful for the, i'm grateful for my house and all that, but my family, the love and support of my family, my physical health, like all those things. to put myself in a right frame of mind, Right. 

To then get out of bed. And then I know I have 18 minutes until it's four o'clock so I can get up and you know, put in my contacts, i'm very familiar by 4am I'm ready to either sit down quietly I don't even want to call it meditate, this was done quietly. I think about my day and maybe gratitude a little bit more, or I start going. I'm on my email, i'm getting my son's breakfast ready off to the gym. I'm there by five. Back home He's up by quarter to six. I'm out the door again at quarter to seven to go to my second gym, which we could talk about. That's a separate thing. Back home by 830. Thank you, thank you. And then at my desk by nine, and this is my every day. But if my morning doesn't start that way, i do not. I am not successful for the next 12 hours. 

0:49:16 - Stacey

But you are. It didn't start that way today, but you're being very successful. 

0:49:21 - Mark

Well, you guys are pulling it out of me. You're right, i did not get up this early, that early today, but that's my but. that's the thing is. that works for me And I've honed that, believe me. I used to get up at 3.50. Yeah, 3.42. Like, i put a lot of attention. 

0:49:32 - Stacey

Why 3.41? 

0:49:34 - Mark

Well, it was 3.42 until I wanted to add that one minute of dedicated gratitude Incredible. 

0:49:39 - Nikki

Right And at 3.58 because at 4.58,. 

0:49:42 - Mark

I'd be in front of the gym at 5.58. My son would. I'd be at my son's bed, waking him up at 6.58. I'd be at the next gym at 7.58. 

0:49:49 - Stacey

Why isn't it like an even number, like at 6? am you do this They? 

0:49:52 - Mark

open. I'm going to be there before they open. 

0:49:54 - Stacey

Sometimes they open at 10. 

0:49:55 - Nikki

Oh, you got to get there early, so how do you go to sleep to get up at 3.41? 

0:50:00 - Mark

I'm never awake past 10 pm. 

0:50:02 - Stacey

Okay. 

0:50:03 - Mark

Almost never. 

0:50:04 - Nikki

I'm often going to bed. It's not too bad going to bed. No, it's like six hours. 

0:50:07 - Mark

Yeah, that's not bad at all, I mean. that's why I don't think it's that unusual for people to get up early, like get up early and take care of yourself, You know, if I have. 

0:50:16 - Nikki

I wake up, like when it's a weekend or yeah, then I'll wake up at like 10 o'clock, but on the day where I know I have things to do, i'll get up earlier. but it's not easy for me. 

0:50:24 - Mark

I'll do it. I'll get up at 8 or 9. It just made different. 

0:50:26 - Nikki

But even when I was doing I was doing that talk show in New Mexico my show started live at 8. That was the time the show started, so I had to be in studio by 6.30 ish and I did my own hair and makeup for that show. So I started getting ready by five and getting up at. Oh gosh, getting up at that hour was literally torture for me because, no matter how tired I was or how dedicated and I was not late for one show ever, but I will tell you, i still went to bed never before 12, never, and I was. Even when I was so tired I was like I'll miss. I felt like I would always miss something. You know how you feel like if you don't get up early enough you're missing something. 

0:51:05 - Stacey

Were you a napper, because that was exactly how I was. My sister. And I would be sent upstairs for napps and I would sit there on the bed and stare at her while she slapped him. I never napped. There's something. No, that's not creepy. You know what? I don't nap, Stacy. 

0:51:16 - Nikki

I don't nap because I don't want to go through that whole wake up thing again, it's terrible, it's horrifying, it's the worst. So I'm like I only have to go through that once a day. I'm not napping. 

0:51:23 - Mark

But in home shopping, in direct response to television, your schedule is not your own. 

0:51:26 - Nikki

Never. 

0:51:26 - Mark

You know you could go. I know the heyday. I went 72 hours without sleeping, i'm sure you can identify that? 

0:51:31 - Stacey

Oh my God. 

0:51:32 - Mark

You're on, and you're on again, and you're on again, and it's all live and you have to be there and you have to be on, exactly. 

0:51:37 - Nikki

And you have people talking in your in your. We have to talk about that a little bit, and it's live. It's interesting, right? 

0:51:42 - Mark

There's no, no, no leeway for mistakes and all that Right, but but at the same time you don't even think about the fact that you're tired. I said that to my son all the time He used to come on air with me over COVID. He was on air in our house. 

0:51:54 - Stacey

Yeah. 

0:51:55 - Mark

And he'd be like dad, my stomach hurts. I'm like, don't worry, in 12 seconds, when we go live, you're not going to even think about your stomach. 

0:52:00 - Nikki

Yeah. 

0:52:01 - Mark

I'm tired. You're not going to be tired, it's fine, so I don't. you know how much sleep you get. it's a whole different animal going down a different path, but it's still. you're dedicated. Yeah, you know the goal, you know you have to do your driven and you take care of business. 

0:52:15 - Nikki

Yeah, i mean, and most of my jobs when I did weather, my shift was four to midnight When I've done, except for that morning show, almost everything I've ever done. I've done nights So I'm so used to being up so late. So when I when I have a different schedule, it does throw me. 

0:52:30 - Stacey

Yeah. 

0:52:30 - Nikki

So I think I'm just so. I'm so used to spending the last however many years working mostly late at night. 

0:52:36 - Mark

Yeah, but where did you get, where did you get your work ethic? 

0:52:39 - Nikki

Where did you get your parent, your dad, my dad works And I'm not just saying this because he's my dad. I've never seen a human work as much as my dad He's. He works in the financial industry, but he, he met my mother. He worked in the car business. He was the number one Cadillac salesman in America. Wow, when they, when they for real, that's amazing, yeah, he's fantastic. 

He's a sales guy, right So? and he's so smart, he's been a principal of a school, He's had a travel agency, he worked in the car business And then in his 40s he had a shift and said I, i'm too smart for what I'm doing. I know I can do something more. I love this. And he educated himself. He got his master's he got his. 

PhD. I mean he's done this. Wow, let me tell you he is. He never stops learning. Every now he's doing stocks, he's doing trading with Wall Street. He does. He does so much because he's got such capability and intellect that he's able to retain information. 

0:53:32 - Stacey

I could never learn. That's amazing. 

0:53:34 - Nikki

And he's always. But he's, he works so hard. And so whenever I say to my mom I'm so tired, i worked, she goes. I don't want to hear it. 

0:53:40 - Mark

I don't want to hear it. 

0:53:40 - Nikki

Daddy's a lot older than you and he's doing a lot more. Oh my. 

0:53:43 - Mark

God, okay, and my mom's a hustler. I love that, my mom's a hustler. 

0:53:46 - Nikki

She's always been in the fashion and makeup industry And she was a personal shopper, and so she's also a hard worker, and my sisters have always been a very hard worker And raising a daughter, so that's great. 

0:53:58 - Stacey

Yeah, that's awesome. 

0:54:00 - Nikki

My family gave me a great work. ethic. 

0:54:01 - Stacey

This is where that voice comes from in your brain. All your family, your father, your mother, but I'm the worst out of all of them to be honest, because I'm doing what I really love and I do it around. 

0:54:11 - Nikki

You're working hard at it. 

0:54:12 - Stacey

Yeah, oh yeah. Why is that the worst? 

0:54:15 - Nikki

Well, because, well, you know what I shouldn't say that? 

0:54:18 - Stacey

It's just that they're, they're more in the structural blocks of like this is what you should be corporate. 

0:54:23 - Nikki

Yeah, and I'm more, and even though they all kind of work for themselves and do their own thing they still have that work ethic worse for me. 

I'm like all right, well, if I don't work this week, that's fine, i'll use that time to do this And then when I do work I'm going to go. I don't care if I have to work 12 hours and I get home at three in the morning And, like I just have a weird different type of schedule, my body works on a different clock. So sometimes that may seem like what are you doing? Are you working Like who works at two in the morning? But I do. 

0:54:52 - Stacey

Right. 

0:54:52 - Nikki

So it's. It's just a matter of what you're used to, i think. 

0:54:55 - Stacey

So we're just going to ask you questions and then, whatever top of mind pops into your head, that's the answer, and then, and then we're going to, we're going to close it out. 

0:55:04 - Mark

You want to go first? Yeah, you want me to go first. Sure, ask any question, okay. 

0:55:07 - Stacey

Here's a question. Okay, favorite childhood TV show. 

0:55:12 - Nikki

There's so many, but I'll go with Happy Days. 

0:55:14 - Mark

I was going to ask you who your first celebrity crush was Like, is it? 

0:55:17 - Nikki

so easy. Who, danny Zuko? It's John Travolta. 

0:55:21 - Stacey

Oh, my God, Johnny And I'm from Greece. 

0:55:23 - Nikki

Dan Danny. 

0:55:24 - Stacey

Zuko. 

0:55:25 - Mark

Which was your sister? 

0:55:26 - Stacey

Yeah, my sister was Danny Zuko in all of our plays Vinny Barbour. I forgot I had me Vinny Barbourino, vinny. 

0:55:30 - Nikki

Barbourino Tony Monero And Bud from Irving Calvoy. 

0:55:35 - Mark

Bud from Irving Calvoy. 

0:55:36 - Nikki

Yeah, that's it, that's OK I will forever, forever be madly in love with Batman. 

0:55:41 - Mark

If you could not, not the classic if you could go back and give yourself a piece of advice. 

0:55:44 - Nikki

Let's just say you're going to I know how much you love your niece. 

0:55:46 - Mark

Yes, you're going to go whisper, she's 10. Go whisper in her 10 year old ear. 

0:55:50 - Nikki

Very impressionable. 

0:55:53 - Mark

What advice would you give her in this world today? 

0:55:58 - Nikki

I think the best advice that anybody can have is just stay true to yourself, because it's always going to come. If you don't stay true to yourself and you do something that doesn't feel right in your gut or that just kind of sways you off that path that you were, that you were focused on, that's where you'll have the regrets I'd rather have. It's like when I sell things on home shopping. I always say I'd rather have buyer's remorse than non buyer's remorse, Because buyer's remorse I can return it, But non buyer's remorse there's nothing I can do. It's over, I didn't get it. 

0:56:25 - Mark

When I might not be there anymore. 

0:56:27 - Nikki

That's deep. I like that. So it's kind of the same idea of life. You know, if you don't stay true to yourself or do the things that really speak to you or that are in your heart, you might not ever be able to change that. But if you make a couple of mistakes along the way because you were yourself, that's OK. You can always try again. 

0:56:43 - Mark

I think it's perfect advice coming from, because you did stay true to yourself. The stories you've told us you pretty much that's what you did. You stay true to who you were and what you wanted in that moment. Yeah, So that's great advice to give to the next generation for sure Beautiful. 

0:56:55 - Stacey

And it makes my next question seem so silly Because that's so deep and so cool. 

0:57:00 - Mark

We could stop there. 

0:57:02 - Stacey

And I think that I probably know the answer to this question. but Oh, have you ever slapped anybody in the face? 

0:57:13 - Mark

No, are you about to? I'm trying to think, maybe in an acting class like a fake one, But I don't think I've ever slapped. 

0:57:20 - Nikki

I did one time when I was in a fight with my ex many years ago. I think I did throw a slipper at him when I was mad at something. 

0:57:27 - Stacey

Slipper like a soft furry slipper. 

0:57:29 - Nikki

I think that was the. That was about it. That was the most violent you've ever. 

0:57:32 - Stacey

Yeah, i don't think I've ever, i've never hit any. You have any kind of temper at all? 

0:57:35 - Nikki

No, i don't, I don't have it. I actually I do not have a temper. It's interesting you said that because I don't, i don't have a temper. I can get loud, i can get angry, but I don't, i'm not really temperamental. I'm sensitive, but I wouldn't say temperamental. 

0:57:49 - Stacey

When's your birthday? 

0:57:50 - Nikki

What's your sign? I'm such a Sagittarius. 

0:57:52 - Stacey

Me too. 

0:57:53 - Nikki

I knew, i knew it too. Oh, my God, I knew it, they have a birthday, one, two, three, november 26. I don't know what either one of you said My grandma was the 29th and I get along so well with people that were born that week of the end of November. I'm December 17th. Can we be best friends please? I think it already happened. 

0:58:12 - Stacey

And you're such a Sag, i'm a Sag all the way through and through. 

0:58:17 - Mark

Yeah, I knew it. 

0:58:18 - Stacey

Oh, this has been so fabulous. This is great. 

0:58:20 - Mark

I don't want to end this. I know this is great Yeah. 

0:58:24 - Nikki

I appreciate you letting me talk so much because, yeah, i haven't done it. I haven't done a three hour TV show in a while where I didn't have commercial breaks, which is what I usually do, so this feels very at home for me. 

0:58:35 - Stacey

Well, you definitely were natural And thank you for being our very first. 

0:58:38 - Mark

Very first, thank you so much, very memorable. 

0:58:40 - Stacey

Podcast guests. you were fantastic Oh thank you both. 

0:58:44 - Nikki

I hope this goes so well for you guys. You think you're going to be so successful with it, do you want? 

0:58:48 - Stacey

to ring us out with your famous statement. Your catchphrase, catchphrase that you used to say. 

0:58:53 - Nikki

I should say listening instead of watching right. Instead of keep watching us because we're watching you, keep listening to us because we're listening to you. 

0:59:08 - Stacey

Thank you, nikki, love you. Thank you guys.