Hollywood Hustle: Nikki Stanzione Tells All | Updated Rerun!

🔁 RERUN ALERT: Our very first Gurus & Game Changers episode!

Join us for an electrifying conversation with the unstoppable Nikki Stanzione, a true icon in entertainment. In this barely-edited (cringey for Stacey at least) rerun, Nikki shares her journey from college grad to LA dream chaser, featuring:

• Behind-the-scenes stories from "Friends" and almost landing an Oscar-winning film
• Her experiences on "Young and the Restless" and "All My Children"
• Almost being a host on American Idol!
• Hilarious encounters with soap legend Susan Lucci & Johnny Depp
• Navigating Hollywood's ups and downs while staying authentic

Discover Nikki's secrets to self-motivation, flexible routines, and staying true to yourself. This inspiring chat is packed with humor, heart, and valuable life lessons you won't want to miss!

#NikkiStanzione #EntertainmentIndustry #CareerInspiration #HollywoodStories

➡️ Chapters
(00:01) - Nikki Stanzione
(06:20) - Navigating Hollywood
(14:08) - Meeting Johnny Depp and Friends
(18:16) - Acting Regrets and Ethical Decisions
(28:47) - Pursuing Dreams
(40:53) - Prioritizing Family and Happiness
(45:25) - Morning Routine and Self-Motivation
(56:28) - Celebrity Crushes and Life Lessons

➡️ Highlights
(06:10 - 07:07) Journey to LA Entertainment Industry (57 Seconds)
(10:20 - 11:55) Early Career Challenges in Hollywood (95 Seconds)
(14:46 - 15:32) Unusual Audition Experience With Johnny Depp (46 Seconds)
(15:45 to 17:30)The incident involving Ryan Seacrest
(18:17 - 28:48) Matthew Perry and a suspicious audition in Las Vegas
(21:08 - 22:07) Casting Regrets and Red Flags (59 Seconds)
(28:47 - 29:18) Passion for Current Career (31 Seconds)
(33:49 - 34:54) Pop Culture Show With Industry Connections (65 Seconds)
(37:46 - 38:51) Game Show Hosting Experience" (65 Seconds)
(43:19 - 44:28) Shifting Priorities in Career and Life (69 Seconds)

⭐️ SUBSCRIBE TO The Gurus And Game Changers Podcast ⭐️
https://www.youtube.com/@GurusAndGameChangers
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Connect with our Hosts:
Stacey: https://www.instagram.com/staceymgrant/
Mark: https://www.instagram.com/mark_lubragge_onair/

➡️ More about the guest: Nikki Stanzione, TV Host, Broadcaster, Spokesperson
The Blog: https://nikkistanzione.com/index-4.html
The Website: https://nikkistanzione.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikstanz/

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*THE OPINIONS OF OUR GUESTS ARE NOT OURS* 
The Gurus & Game Changers Video Podcast  follows the paths of influential leaders from humble beginnings and/or seemingly insurmountable obstacles to where they are now.

💌 𝗟𝗘𝗧'𝗦 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗬 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗖𝗛 💌
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Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7HIA2sSNKIflt5KU8zfz9g?si=3f6e5ca2495e490a
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gurus-game-changers-podcast/id1705702934

➡️ Thanks for watching:
Nikki Stanzione, Entertainment Industry, Hollywood, Acting, Career, Television, Theater, Home Shopping Networks, Friends, Young and the Restless, All My Children, Audition, Resilience, Passion, Authenticity, Family, Personal Happiness, COVID-19, Prioritizing, Morning Routine, Self-Motivation, Celebrity Crushes, Life Lessons

Transcript

00:01 - Mark (Host)
Well, this was a fun one. 

00:03 - Stacey (Host)
Wow, she is so vivacious. Energy, that's the word that I think about for Nikki. 

00:07 - Mark (Host)
Just nonstop laughing and smiling. 

00:09 - Stacey (Host)
So fun. 

00:11 - Mark (Host)
And she's had a great ride. 

00:12 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah. 

00:12 - Mark (Host)
I mean, this is look, this is audience, this is your. Hey, I'm going to graduate college, get on a bus, go to LA and try to make it as a star. And, decades later, a whole collection of incredible stories that you're going to from, oh gosh, from the set of Friends to American Idol, to I can't even remember Fearlessness. Yeah, friends. 

00:35 - Stacey (Host)
Well then there was, of course, the stories after Friends, where she talked to some of the Friends cast members and sort of assorted things happened. And then there was the Johnny Depp story, which is my favorite. 

00:46 - Mark (Host)
And turning down an audition because she thought it would be sorted and she missed a big opportunity. 

00:51 - Stacey (Host)
It turned out to be an Academy Award winning film. 

00:54 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, look, we all make those decisions, but she stays true to who she is, don't you? 

00:58 - Stacey (Host)
love it too, how strong she was mentally, so even though someone would throw something at her, she always thought it through like if it were me back in the day. 

01:10 - Mark (Host)
I'd be like, yeah, exactly, even it's such a young age, yeah, right, and that's. I admire that about her and I'm the same way like I look back at my 20s and like I probably would have made poor decisions, especially in LA, especially when you want to be something yeah, right, and you feel like you need to say yes to everything. 

01:23 - Stacey (Host)
She jumped into stuff, she just did it. She was strong, she was resilient, that's what I love about her and I don't know. 

01:30 - Mark (Host)
I loved her. This is a fun one, you guys it is. She's a great storyteller. You're going to enjoy it. So enjoy, miss Nikki Stanzione. 

01:40 - Stacey (Host)
Hi, I'm Stacey. 

01:41 - Mark (Host)
And I am Mark, and this is the Gurus and Game Changers podcast. Hi, I'm Stacey and I am Mark, and this is the Gurus and Game Changers podcast. Today on Gurus and Game Changers podcast, the one and only Nikki Stanzion. What's up, nikki? 

01:53 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Hi guys, Thank you for having me. Oh, I love the bump shot. And I haven't even made you laugh yet. 

01:59 - Mark (Host)
That was really good, oh you will. We've talked to Nikki for some time. You will absolutely make us laugh. 

02:04 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I'm so honored to be here, because you know you haven't been doing this a long time, so I really appreciate that you had me on today. This is exciting. 

02:12 - Mark (Host)
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, the game changer, the overcoming obstacles, the being successful, no matter what comes in your way. 

02:26
It's yeah, you're not, you're 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 in 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, herbroadway 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 uh, of regret and remorse, you still find success. So we want to go back right, you made me. 

02:59 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
You made me feel really good about myself. I have those days I'm like oh, what's going on with my life? So thank you for that. Yeah, but that's true. 

03:05 - Mark (Host)
Like you, I have those days I'm like, oh, what's going on with my life? So thank you for that. But that's true. Like you, we all have those days right when we're saying what are we, what are we doing, how are we even successful? Or what's next? It's so true. 

03:13 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Right. 

03:14 - Mark (Host)
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 in it? What do you oh? 

03:22 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
my gosh, I've had the. I mean as long as I can remember, literally. I don't think there was ever a time in my life that I wasn't on stage or wanting to be on a 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 love of all for everybody at dinner on mommy's birthday. You're gonna take this part and I'm gonna take that part and I'm gonna go upstairs and dress like whitney. So I mean, I've been doing that my whole life. 

03:56 - Stacey (Host)
Oh my god, 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 Olivia Newton-John. Yeah, yeah, it was always. 

04:07 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Sandy. I love it well and 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 arts 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, you know, 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. 

04:59
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, 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. 

05:19
That's amazing it was fun because I think I always I 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. 

05:28 - Mark (Host)
It was the beginning. You knew what you wanted to do way back then. 

05:31 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
So I hosted the West Orange 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. 

05:53
I was going to say it's a little stalkerish, but that's okay, it's super creepy now, so I would never say that ever again. 

06:00 - Mark (Host)
I wanted you to end the show with that today. No, no, we won't do that. That's funny, though that means they're watching you. They know your tagline. I try, so you're seeing an impact right in what you're saying. 

06:08 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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. 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. 

06:34 - Stacey (Host)
Did you save money or did? How did you get out there Like what? No, not really. 

06:39 - Mark (Host)
You just got off the bus? Did you sleep on couches? Everyone else looked around. 

06:43 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Okay, so I DJed all through college on weekends. I was a DJ for, 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 free to audition. So I got a job right away at an entertainment company when I got to LA and I worked there for eight years at an entertainment company when I got to LA and I worked there for eight years. 

07:07 - Stacey (Host)
It really became my life. Wow, that's such a success story. That's amazing, it's funny. So, along the way, like, 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? 

07:21 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
or I would say I was very fortunate because my family was always supportive. I think they were, oh, they. Even to this day they'll say your business, like with that kind of voice, like, oh gosh, that business right. 

07:31 - Stacey (Host)
Because it has such a stigma. 

07:33 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
That is 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 and, um 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 Cause. Then you never came back. 

08:01 - Mark (Host)
True Italian grandmother fashion. 

08:03 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
She's the Jewish side. 

08:04 - Mark (Host)
She's the Jewish side. Don't even get me started. Yes. 

08:07 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Well, she's actually long story short, I won't waste all the time on that, but 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. 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. 

08:36
Hopefully it's love first, then food. Yeah, love is always food first. Well, and I'll tell you, my mother did. Food is always 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. 

09:05
But then she says but you got to work now, like now, it's on you right, yeah, 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 does. 

09:20 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, it's rare what was it like to be on like young and the restless, and you know those. What was the other one? Um all my children, all my children. 

09:27 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
So while I was in, right after I 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. 

09:36 - Stacey (Host)
So is that what's under five for the listeners out there? 

09:39 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I'm so sorry, Under five means you have under five lines but you're more than just an extra because you talk. 

09:47 - Mark (Host)
I thought that was a featured extra. 

09:48 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
No, featured extra means you're seen and maybe you're on more regularly got it, but you're not a role got it. Okay, so that was that, but uh, yeah, that was exciting. I actually remember, because the first day I went there I went into the restroom and washed my hands and Susan Lucci came out of the stall. 

10:06 - Stacey (Host)
I was like this is so cool, she's like an icon. She was so nice. She was so nice. I met her as well over at QVC. 

10:12 - Mark (Host)
What a nice woman, right, yeah. And so humble, good energy yeah, the whole thing about her. 

10:17 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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. 

10:25 - Mark (Host)
Wow, that's a major success for anybody who just says I'm going to go out to Hollywood, I'm going to get on a bus, I'm going to go out there and start a career. Did you have like any guardian angel along the way? 

10:37 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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, so I thought how? Ironic that my first job was my mom's favorite show and the main character is my name, right? So that was kind of like a fun synergistic. Did she name you after that character? 

11:04
well my sister's name is mandy and she's a massive barry fan, so, okay, anything's possible, yeah that's awesome 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, 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, it was very short lived. And then one after the other things would start to happen and I'd get really close to a job audition callback, second callback, and then it would go to a celebrity or a bigger name, right, yeah. 

11:57 - Mark (Host)
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 the output is you. So when somebody says I don't like it, they're saying I don't like you. 

12:12 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
yes they say don't take it personal, it's impossible. No, it's so personal. 

12:17 - Stacey (Host)
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. 

12:27 - Mark (Host)
You feel bad. Hate that I know you feel so bad. I love each one because I always wonder on the outside you really do 90 of the time you feel bad, 10 you're like oh my god, why did this person walk in the? 

12:37 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
door. Well, you know you, there's that challenge and I went. I went to acting school and when I was in, 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, Amen. 

12:57
And if you can't have that thick skin to recognize, yes, we say it's not personal, it is. 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. 

13:09
Personal can mean you wear the same perfume as somebody's biggest enemy whatever, it is right so, yeah, you, you take it personally, but at the same time you have to have the thick skin to recognize it. Not, it's not necessarily something about you, it's just something that is not what they want, right, right, yeah, and you have to kind of separate yourself from that rejection to not let it get you down. 

13:31 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, that's really good advice. Did you ever have, like um a weird experience with a director or casting agent or something like that? 

13:40 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
You don't have to talk about it or we can cut it out, but like I had a couple weird thing actually not weird, not weird, cool, but then also kind of weird. So I would say the cool, the really cool one was I had an audition for Lou DiGiama who, um, 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 deal. 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. 

14:17
Johnny Depp is doing a movie. This is crazy, and you would play his younger sister I believe it was something like that and she's, you know, a rebel. It was basically everything. I'm not and I had to really dive into this like thought process of who is that person. And so I said, well, I need the sides. Which sides are the script, right, the copy? And they said there is no sides, it's all improvised. You're going to be improvising with Johnny, with Johnny Depp. 

14:46 - Stacey (Host)
Now, usually on an audition, you go in no pressure, no pressure, right, you meet with the casting. 

14:50 - Mark (Host)
Right. 

14:51 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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 with. This was the first audition, oh my gosh. So Johnny Depp was sitting in there. 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. 

15:15 - Mark (Host)
So then I thought red flag creepy, but not Johnny. 

15:18 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Depp. 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, a hundred 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 a hundred percent. 

15:31 - Stacey (Host)
Profesh, all profesh. 

15:33 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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. 

15:43 - Stacey (Host)
I remember that. What Like a chachi bandana, chachi the chachi word on the leg oh no, I know, Happy days, listeners, happy days. Have you ever seen it? It's the best. 

15:51 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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 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 I was. I mean, I don't even know what I did, I couldn't even. 

16:22 - Mark (Host)
I mean, I was 22. 

16:23 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I don't even. I just I don't even remember I was. I couldn't even I can't remember I mean I was 22. I don't even remember I was a kid and 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 that I probably just lived in the moment, your main character yeah, that's amazing, and then nothing ever happened with it because they shelved the movie. 

16:43
So, and then nothing ever happened with it because they shelved the movie, so it never got to the next level. But the weirdest one, which to your earlier question, I was an extra on Friends, which was one of my other early jobs. 

16:54 - Mark (Host)
That's cool. 

16:56 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
And that was super cool Audience approval. 

17:06 - Mark (Host)
So I did extra work and I was like everyone's like, oh my God, you I was like let's not get carried, I'm an extra. 

17:10 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Okay, 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. 

17:27 - Stacey (Host)
But that show was so huge. I mean even just being an extra. 

17:31 - Mark (Host)
You know that's actually Just being on set, with everybody being on set Like the couch is now like on us. 

17:35 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Yeah, up for auction, I think it is Thanks, yeah, yeah, it was the heyday, yeah, and I was like, oh my gosh, there's 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? 

18:01 - Stacey (Host)
It was Rachel. 

18:03 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
That's great good, I don't know. You know what I don't know? She's always doing that stuff. I don't know, that's awesome so that was but no, but I had. And it was actually fun because when I watched back the show I saw myself. So I was like, okay, I wasn't just so. Was it like? 

18:17 - Stacey (Host)
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? 

18:24 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
it was a big episode. It was the episode where monica and tom selleck a doctor, uh, what was his name? Peter, was it dr? 

18:31 - Stacey (Host)
no idea magnum pi, that's yes. Well, it was yeah so, uh, they were. 

18:36 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
They went to this wedding with rachel and ross because rachel's ex-husband, ex-fiance, 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 totally remember that one. And then Rachel sang Copacabana 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, that's awesome. 

19:06 - Mark (Host)
It was a beautiful wedding, it was beautiful. 

19:08 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
And Joey did ask. Well, joey Matthew. 

19:11 - Mark (Host)
LeBlanc, I love that you're referring to them in character. 

19:13 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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, I'm like did he actually? Did you give him your number? I did he never called. He never called, of course not. Uh, 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 yeah, fool's Rush in. 

19:41
Salma 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, I'm like gosh, that was so stupid because they flew me to las vegas, they got me a hotel and then the audit he asked me to come and audition. He says, yeah, they're all wearing bathing suits for the audition. And while 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 in a bikini, blah, blah, blah, it wasn't Matthew Perry's assistant, quote unquote. 

20:26
And so I said you know what? 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. 

20:43 - Mark (Host)
Wow. Do you know now why they asked for the audition? 

20:46 - Stacey (Host)
Were there any women in bathing suits in Fool's Russian? 

20:49 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
No, I think it was just a ploy to get me to his room in a bathing suit. 

20:52 - Mark (Host)
But they flew you in as a ploy to get you into a star's hotel room. 

20:59 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Are you kidding me? I don't know. It's just now that you know what. 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. 

21:18 - Stacey (Host)
That was the red flag that I was like oh, how old were you? You really had a head on your shoulders, I think early twenties. I would've been like okay, I would've been like okay, I did that but then. I want the job Okay. 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. 

21:50 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
That's what I'm thinking because that was really the only uncomfortable casting experience I ever had and it was good. Yeah, I mean that was kudos to you, yeah, 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 because I 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, it's a top 10 fee. I mean I've only seen it 16 times. Very good, I love it. Love dirk digler. So, and I love the music in them because I'm a disc and marky mark come on, don't you love a mark? 

22:23 - Mark (Host)
it's. I thought you were talking about marky mark, marky mark people have called me that so I just assumed you were talking about your marky mark, and we're the funky bunch. I love it. We're good vibrations. That works. Oh, look, it all fits together. Where's the applause come? 

22:35 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
on, come on, come on. We're having a concert break out here sorry, so, uh, that was actually very good singing break. 

22:43 - Stacey (Host)
It's a high note uh he. 

22:45 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
So I knew that mark rohlberg was attached, but the only thing I I think the only thing he had been in at that point that I knew was fear with uh, reese witherspoon. 

22:54
Oh, 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 on the up and up? Is it even a real movie? Or is this like in the valley? Because that's where it was being shot in the valley? 

23:24
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 pornography. 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 Graham. 

24:16 - Stacey (Host)
Julianne Moore Great movie. Was it up for any Oscars? Yeah? It was up for Oscars. 

24:21 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Yes, and that's my favorite scene, when they're all at the pool at Burt Reynolds' house. 

24:26 - Stacey (Host)
That was Burt Reynolds' house in the movie. 

24:28 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Okay, that's why so they wanted it to look like Reseda. It was Reseda, but 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 a little chicken, but I was. 

24:49 - Stacey (Host)
But who was your guru at that point that told you, was it yourself? I think it was you. 

24:55 - Mark (Host)
Like who's the voice in your head? Who's the voice in your head? Your parents? Oh yeah, it's always your parents, no matter how old you get. 

25:01 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
My dad would be like I'm sorry what you're doing, what yeah? 

25:05 - Stacey (Host)
So you're like thinking as you walk up, like is my father going to watch this? I thought all of it, I had all those thoughts going through my head and I knew this is not the path I'm looking to. And I also had to prove to them that going to LA was a good idea and I did not want it to go down. Then they'd be like see, I told you oh wow, that's amazing, it's crazy, that's funny, it's in in. 

25:28 - Mark (Host)
In business ethics there's this thing called the mother test. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. 

25:32 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
No. 

25:32 - Mark (Host)
But it's. 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 would my would. I want my mom to know that I'm about to do this. 

25:42 - Stacey (Host)
It's the same exact thing, right yeah? 

25:43 - Mark (Host)
Just go to check your morality. 

25:55 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Like nope, mom would be very unhappy with wooden spoon. 

25:56 - Mark (Host)
Right, did you get hit by the wooden spoon? 

25:57 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
no, I, I got the grab, the arm grab, like with the nails like right here, my mom never hit me, but she'd grab and I'd say ow, she'd go. 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. 

26:04
I was. I was kind of a good kid. For the most part I didn't get a lot. I was a little bit of a goody 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. 

26:24 - Stacey (Host)
Oh my gosh. So that's like one of the questions you were thinking of earlier, mark. Like, so, like if you're your own guru. So what are those conversations that you're having in your head, like now, so fast forward, to like from that person, to like what's happening now in your life. Do you still have those conversations? Do you still say no to things that you know maybe you regret saying no to, or that don't feel right and you're happy that you said no to that? 

26:49 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
You know what I actually? I don't feel like I've changed. Ethically and morally. I don't think I've changed at all. I still think Iically and morally I don't think I've changed at all. I still think I, I have the voice, I have the gut feelings, I follow those things still. 

27:02
But I do look back and sometimes, sometimes I wish that I pursued one. So cause, 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 of 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. 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 right, so why did you think LA instead of New York? 

27:51 - Stacey (Host)
like what was that? 

27:52 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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, you know, had probably good generic accent. I had that whole New Yorker thing going for me, if you will. 

28:05
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 LA. Yeah, so that was really that was the catalyst, and and I did do theater growing up but you don't make money in theater. 

28:20 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah. 

28:21 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
And I knew that. 

28:23 - Mark (Host)
Hey guys, thanks for listening. If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review, give us a follow, subscribe, subscribe all those things, all those things. We love it because we read each and every comment and it helps shape the show, so we would appreciate it. 

28:36 - Stacey (Host)
Please, and back to the show. 

28:39 - Mark (Host)
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? 

28:56 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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 that, 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. 

29:18 - Mark (Host)
That's amazing. 

29:19 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Well, and you know, I'm sure, I'm sure it wasn't I mean for my family. I know it was my best interest, but other people, who knows they? Just you never know how many people want to see you fail too. 

29:27
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 gonna go to naysayers yeah, the naysayers I had to say, ha see. 

29:46
So even when I wasn't doing well, I kept thinking how do I, how do I navigate to a different direction so I can get in a place where I am succeeding? And that's kind of what guided me into the hosting world. 

29:59 - Stacey (Host)
that's, that's game changing, so like it's perfect transition, so I was going to talk about you being a game changer, how the game has changed for you. But you're you're saying it right there. So like what? How did you what was like one huge time, I guess, in your life where the game changed and what? What happened? I? 

30:16 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
would say 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 insofar 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 an audition for a Lifetime movie to play the best friend of somebody it was 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 happens, 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 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, 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. 

31:33
I love impersonation, I love all that that's, 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 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. 

32:16 - Stacey (Host)
Awesome, Changed your own. You're 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? 

32:30 - Mark (Host)
Like well going broke. 

32:31 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Yeah, that's a motivator. 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 cause he was a newer agent at the time. 

32:53 - Mark (Host)
Now he's huge but he was. 

32:55 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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 and celebrities right, big names and at the time Ryan was, he was a radio personnel 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 and 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 a chance for me to kind of hone my craft. 

33:43 - Mark (Host)
Actually, Because you were being you. You were being your more authentic self, because you were playing you. 

33:49 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Yes, and, and I booked a couple of pilots, like little things you know, on something like a scrapbook show on HGTV. Never ended up going anywhere, little things like that. And then my best friend and I he and I both have a very um, 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. 

34:17
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 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 resumes, our experience, and then a lot of people started seeing it and we started. 

34:54
We actually got on a show TV Guide was looking for like the best dynamic duo. Ooh, 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. 

35:10
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? 

35:23 - Stacey (Host)
Yes, I'm ready. Are you ready? 

35:25 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Let me brace myself here they told me to talk a lot 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 so they said we've already. 

35:56
We already secured ryan seacrest as one, but we're looking for the second host, so go on. I had the copy like that said this is american idol like oh man I had that script and I had to go in and say, you know, do the whole thing, whole. Thing. And it went really well and I got a call back. 

36:15 - Stacey (Host)
Okay, okay. 

36:16 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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. 

36:21
I listened to him on the radio every day. This is so crazy. So I go to the callback. 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 callback. 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. And I'm glad it worked out that way, because Ryan is so good and he's perfect. 

36:47 - Stacey (Host)
Whoever would have been with Ryan probably would have gotten fired. Yeah, he's very good. 

36:51 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
He's so good, especially on that show. Oh my gosh, he's a perfect host. He was a pro. 

36:55 - Mark (Host)
I never knew that. That's how that played out. That's incredible. Yep, that's how they decided to go with another male host. 

37:04 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
And so I could have been the co-host of American Idol. Can you imagine what my life would have? 

37:06 - Mark (Host)
turned out to be, we probably would not be speaking to her. No, you definitely would not. Risen game changer podcast. 

37:09 - Stacey (Host)
That is a game changer. So at that point I realized that being in. 

37:18 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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 I 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 my boyfriend at the time didn't want to get married or anything yet. So I thought, okay, 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. Okay, and that's when I got the game show. Oh, interesting, what game show. So I hosted a game show called my games fever and it was on. It was on all the Fox. 

38:05
Oh noes, I think it was maybe UPN here, my game what was it my games fever, my game 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 20th century television and the murdochs were 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 we need a clip. 

38:32 - Stacey (Host)
Was that the most? 

38:33 - Mark (Host)
fun you had ever with all of your work. What was the most fun? The game show. 

38:38 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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. I could be creative Awesome. 

38:51 - Mark (Host)
It's a great trifecta right there. Of course it was your favorite, what do you think? 

38:54 - Stacey (Host)
So I gave away money to people. 

38:56 - Mark (Host)
Oh, that's beautiful. 

38:57 - Stacey (Host)
That was the best part. That's great. 

38:58 - Mark (Host)
They like you more. Yeah, sure. 

39:00 - Stacey (Host)
All you're doing is giving away money. 

39:10 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
When somebody, when you say to somebody you just won $ so and you're saying yourself I can't believe. I talk about changing someone's life and not even coming out of your own pocket. 

39:18 - Stacey (Host)
That's beautiful, that was a great place to be. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, so what does success look for you? Look like for you now, nikki, like what, what are you doing now? And what's the next place you're going to go? And it's a great question. It is actually a good question. 

39:36 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
So ago and it's a great question. It is actually a good question so, because all of those, 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 um, a morning show in New Mexico on Fox and that was. That was that's almost tied with the game show, cause that was a lifestyle show. I had, you know, 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 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. 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's just happens to be on TV and you get to befriend people through a camera so they see it. You know, in a certain way that maybe is a little more glamorous than it actually is, but it did allow me to have you know the real people, job things like the benefits. 

40:53
And then I made a really difficult decision this fall when I I started talking to Mark about that. You know 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 want to miss any more years with her growing up. 

41:20
At that stage. I didn't want to 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, that's awesome, and so is that. 

41:54 - Stacey (Host)
That's success to you, what you're doing now. Success is with family success with your job, your, the role you're in now. You know where you want to go, you know you love being a host and being yourself. And then now are you going to take that and expand on that. Are you fine and comfy with the way things are now, or like what are you thinking? 

42:13 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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. 

42:25
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 you know 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, you know it's. 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 be near the people you love, because after COVID I mean I w 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, yeah, yeah. 

43:17 - Mark (Host)
It's funny, cause it, it, 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 want to be closer to the people I love. So it's like the game changed around you. 

43:36 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah. 

43:36 - Mark (Host)
Right, and then you just adjust because 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 you know half a year or a year come to this realization that I want to be home. 

43:58
That's really what it is you want to be home 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. 

44:09 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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 eh if, 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. 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. 

44:45 - Mark (Host)
The less I tried, and it doesn't mean that. 

44:47 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I wasn't proactive or committed or prepared, but the less I tried or put so much pressure, so much emphasis. 

44:54 - Mark (Host)
Well, 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. 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. 

45:13
So like then, then when you. What does nikki think now when she wakes up in the morning? That's different to be to win that day oh's well. 

45:25 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
First of all, I have to be self-motivated, which I didn't have to be as much before because I had job motivation. 

45:32
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. 

46:12
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 paycheck, I'm just motivated by the, the fact that I have to get to that, that net, you know, whatever that, is Motivated by the sweatpants we were we were talking about that earlier too Like what's your routine. 

46:29 - Stacey (Host)
So, like Mark, you get, you gotta, you gotta say your routine. I'll say my routines are important, right, and, like I, 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, um, but it kind of changes 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. 

46:57 - Mark (Host)
That's important Cause I don't, I'm terrible. 

46:59 - Stacey (Host)
I almost feel like routine is like a prison like that makes me. I don't want to do this the same. 

47:04 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I don't like driving the same place. Maybe that's why we're in this business, right, because we don't want to do the same thing every single day. 

47:10 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah. 

47:11 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
But then there's the side of me going well, would that be so bad? Maybe I'd have all these crazy hours? Yeah, true, but then again I also kind of like the freedom of change every now and then too, you got to have some change? 

47:24 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, but like, go ahead, mark, talk about your routine. Yeah, I want to hear your routine. 

47:30 - Mark (Host)
It's funny, you said it. So the routine versus the. I don't know what's going to happen today right, oh, you have two different ones. 

47:36 - Stacey (Host)
Well, no, no. 

47:37 - Mark (Host)
So it's funny because I was forced into that. I had routine my entire career. I was corporate. 

47:42 - Stacey (Host)
Right, qvc is like every 10 minutes, you'd have something that you needed. Right, you get last minute calls too, yeah. 

47:47 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, I mean, it was nonstop. And prior to QVC I was a marketing director. You know just good old corporate America. Yeah, right out of college into corporate America and different 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 late comer to this. I love having the flexibility. 

48:07 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Right. 

48:07 - Mark (Host)
Then, it's funny, my wife said to me yesterday she said I still think actually I'm sorry it was this morning and we weren't 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, wow, it really is, you know, for our son and all that kind of stuff. But, um, but no, uh, the brief story of my, of my, abridged version the abridged version. 

48:31
Yeah is um, I get up very early. I mean, a lot of people get up very early. I get up, like, specifically at 341 whoa, very good number. 

48:38 - Stacey (Host)
That's about when I go to bed that's why I get up. 

48:41 - Mark (Host)
I don't go to bed past like 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock. Yeah, I go to bed around 3.42 actually. Really, you're built different. That's all it is. I'm a night owl, yeah, what time do you get up? 

48:51 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
It depends. 

49:00 - Mark (Host)
If I have to go somewhere, I'll get up early, but if I don't, 10. 

49:02 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Oh my God, because I stay up, that gives me anxiety here. 

49:04 - Mark (Host)
I get so much done at work. You know what I mean, but what do you do between midnight and three? 

49:08 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
There's probably not a whole lot of productivity happening, 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 at. I like to stay up as late as possible so I could see what the most updated current breaking stories are, so that when I go in in the morning I'm ready so here's what I do. 

49:28 - Mark (Host)
Okay, 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. 

49:37
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 the right frame of mind 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 by 4am I'm ready to either sit down quietly I don't even want to call it meditate, I just want to sit down quietly, 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 eight 30. Thank you, Thank you, and then at my desk by nine and this is my every day. 

50:27
But if my morning doesn't start that way, yeah, I do not, I am not successful for the next 12 hours but you are. 

50:31 - Stacey (Host)
It didn't start that way today, but you're being very successful well, you guys are pulling it out of me. 

50:36 - Mark (Host)
You're right, I did not get up this early, that early today, but that's my mind, but that's the thing is. That works for me and I've honed that, believe me. I used to get a bit 350, a 342, like I put a lot of attention why 341? Well, it was 342 until I wanted to add that one minute of dedicated gratitude incredible right and at 358 because at 458. 

50:56
I'd be in front of the gym at 558, my son would. I'd be at my son's bed waking him up at At 6.58,. I'd be at the next gym at 7.58. 

51:03 - Stacey (Host)
Why isn't it like an even number, like at 6 am? You do this Because they open. 

51:06 - Mark (Host)
I want to be there before they open. 

51:07 - Stacey (Host)
Sometimes they open at 10 of you got to get there early. 

51:10 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
So now, what time do you go to sleep? To get up at 3.41? I'm never awake past bed. It's not too bad going to bed. No, it's like six hours. Yeah, that's not terrible. It's not bad at all. 

51:22 - Mark (Host)
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 business, you know if I have, I wake up like when I it's a weekend or what. 

51:35 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Yeah, then I'll wake up at like 10 o'clock. But on the I'll do it. 

51:38 - Mark (Host)
I'll get up at 8 or 9. It just made different. 

51:40 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
But even when 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 5. And getting up at that hour was literally torture for me because no matter how tired I was or how much you know 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. 

52:18 - Stacey (Host)
Were you a napper, because that was exactly how I was. My sister and I would be sent upstairs for naps and I would sit there on the bed and stare at her while she slept. No, that's not creepy Stacey. 

52:29 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I don't nap because I don't want to go through that whole wake up thing again. 

52:32 - Stacey (Host)
It's the worst. 

52:34 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I only have to go through that once a day, but in home shopping and direct response television. 

52:38 - Mark (Host)
Your schedule is not your own. You could go. I know the heyday I went 72 hours without sleeping, I'm sure you can identify with that 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 and you have people talking in your in 

52:53 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
your. 

52:53 - Mark (Host)
We have to talk about that a little and it's live, it's interesting, right there's no, no, no leeway for mistakes and all that right, but but at the same time, you you don't even think about the fact that you're tired or you don't know, I say that to my son all the time. He used to come on air with me over covid. He was on air in our house, yeah, 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 gonna even think about your stomach yeah it's, I'm tired. 

53:15
You're not gonna be tired, it's fine, so I don't. You know how much sleep you get. It's a whole different animal. We're going down a different path, but it's still. You're dedicated. 

53:25 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Yeah. 

53:25 - Mark (Host)
You know the goal, you know you have to do, you're driven and you take care of business. 

53:28 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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 have a different schedule it does throw me. 

53:44 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah. 

53:44 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
So I think I'm just so, I'm so used to spending the last however many years working mostly late at night? 

53:50 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, but where did you get your work ethic? 

53:53 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Oh, my dad, 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 started, he met my mother, he worked in the car business and he was the number one Cadillac salesman in America. When they, when they met For real. That's amazing yeah. 

54:12
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 forties he had a shift and said I, I'm too smart for what I'm doing, I know I can do something more. And he educated himself, he got his math. 

54:30 - Mark (Host)
He got his. 

54:30 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
PhD. I mean, he's done this. 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. 

54:46 - Stacey (Host)
I could never learn. That's amazing. 

54:48 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
And he's always. But he works so hard and so whenever I say to my mom I'm so tired of work, she goes. I don't want to hear it. 

54:53 - Stacey (Host)
I don't want to hear it. 

54:54 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Daddy's a lot older than you and he's doing a lot more. 

54:57 - Mark (Host)
Okay, oh my God and my mom's a hustler. I love that. My mom's a hustler. 

55:00 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
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 too. And raising a daughter, that's great. 

55:12 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, I'm a very hard worker. 

55:13 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
My family gave me a great work ethic. 

55:15 - Stacey (Host)
This is where that voice comes from in your brain, 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 on my own. 

55:25 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
You're working hard at it, yeah. 

55:26 - Stacey (Host)
Oh yeah, why is that the worst? 

55:29 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Well, because, well, you know what I shouldn't say? That? It's just that they're more in the structural box of like this is what you should do. 

55:36 - Stacey (Host)
Corporate yeah. 

55:37 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
And I more, and even though they all kind of work for themselves and do their own thing, they still have that work ethic, whereas 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 no-transcript pops into your head, that's the answer. 

56:14 - Stacey (Host)
Um and then, and then we're going to, we're going to close it out. 

56:17 - Mark (Host)
So um, you want to go first. Yeah, you want me to go first Sure Ask any question. 

56:21 - Stacey (Host)
Here's a question. Okay, favorite childhood TV show. 

56:25 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
There's so many, but I'll go with Happy Days. 

56:28 - Mark (Host)
I was going to ask you who your first celebrity crush was. 

56:30 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
That is so easy. Who, danny Zuko? It's John Travolta. 

56:34 - Stacey (Host)
Oh my God, johnny Travolta From Greece. 

56:43 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Danny Zuko. 

56:44 - Mark (Host)
Zucco, which was your sister, right? Yeah, my sister was Danny Zucco in all of our plays at home, vinnie Barberino. I forgot I had to meet her, vinnie. 

56:45 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Barberino, tony Manero and Bud from Urban Cowboy. 

56:48 - Mark (Host)
Bud from Urban Cowboy. Yeah, that's a callback. 

56:51 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I will forever, forever be madly in love with that man. 

56:55 - Mark (Host)
If you could not the classic, if you could go back and give yourself a piece of advice. 

56:58 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Let's just say you're going to. 

56:59 - Mark (Host)
I know how much you love your niece. Yes, you're going to go whisper, she's 10. Go whisper in her 10 year old ear. 

57:04 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Very impressionable. 

57:06 - Mark (Host)
What advice would you give her in this world today? 

57:11 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I think the best advice that anybody can have is to stay true to yourself, because it's always going to come back. 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 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. 

57:39
I might not be there anymore. 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 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 okay. You can always try again. 

57:57 - Mark (Host)
I think it's perfect advice coming from you, because you did stay true to yourself. The stories you've told us you pretty much that's what you did. You stayed 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. 

58:08 - Stacey (Host)
Beautiful, and it makes my next question seem so silly because that's so deep and so cool. And I think, and I think that I probably know the answer to this question, but have you? Have you ever slapped anybody in the face? 

58:26 - Mark (Host)
no, are you about to I? 

58:28 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
have I'm trying to think, maybe in an acting class like a fake one, but I don't think I've ever slapped. I did one time, um, 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, slipper, slipper. 

58:41 - Mark (Host)
A slipper like a soft furry slipper. 

58:43 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I think that was about it. That was the most violent you've ever been. 

58:46 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, I don't think I've ever, I can't, I've never hit anybody. I don't see you have any kind of temper at all. 

58:49 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
No, I don't, I don't have it. I actually I do not really temperamental. I'm sensitive, but I wouldn't say temperamental. 

59:02 - Stacey (Host)
When's your? 

59:03 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
birthday. What's your sign? I'm such a Sagittarian. 

59:06 - Stacey (Host)
Me too. 

59:07 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I knew it. I knew it too. 

59:08 - Stacey (Host)
Oh, my God, I knew it. 

59:09 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Say your birthday One, two, three November 26th. I don't know, what either one of you said, so 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? 

59:24 - Stacey (Host)
I think it already happened. And you're such a Sag, I'm a Sag. 

59:29 - Mark (Host)
All the way Through, and through. 

59:30 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Yeah, I knew it. 

59:32 - Stacey (Host)
Oh, this has been so fabulous. This is great. I don't want to end this, I know I know this is great. 

59:37 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I appreciate you letting me talk so much because, yeah, I haven't done. 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. 

59:49 - Stacey (Host)
Well, you definitely were a natural and thank you for being our very first. 

59:52 - Mark (Host)
Very first, thank you so much, very memorable. 

59:54 - Stacey (Host)
Podcast guest. You were fantastic oh thank you both. 

59:58 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
I hope this goes so well for you guys. I think you're going to be so successful with it. 

01:00:01 - Stacey (Host)
Do you want to ring us out with your famous statement, your catchphrase. That catchphrase that you used to say, I should say listening instead of watching right. 

01:00:10 - Nikki Stanzione (Guest)
Instead of keep watching us because we're watching you, keep listening to us because we're listening to you. Thank you, nikki, love you. Thank you, nikki, love you, love you guys. 

01:00:27 - Stacey (Host)
You're still here. You're still listening. Thanks for listening to the Gurus and Game Changers podcast While you're here. If you enjoyed it, please take a minute to rate this episode and leave us a quick review. We want to know what you thought of the show and what you took from it and how it might have helped you. We read and appreciate every comment. Thanks, See you next week.