IAM243- Speaker and School Psychologist Serves the Youth to Motivate Them

Nicole Thompson is a speaker and professional development specialist. Her childhood experiences drove her to educate teachers on how to better connect with urban students.

• CEO Hack: Routine to ground me that day such as reading a daily devotion
• CEO Nugget: When you have the ideas, execute them immediately
• CEO Defined: Evolution as a person

Website: http://theurbanschoolpsychologist.com/

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/TheUrbanSchoolPsychologist?_rdc=1&_rdr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theurbanschoolpsychologist/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/chicxpressions

This was a live recording done at Beyond The Papers Conference

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nicole Thompson, of the Urban School Psychologist, and Nicole is awesome to have you on the show.

Nicole Thompson 0:37

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:38

No problem. I'm super excited to meet you at the conference. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about like what brought you here?

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Nicole Thompson 0:44

So actually, what brought me to the conferences, I'm friends with one of the speakers Suresh. And he asked me to come out to support them. So I did.

Gresham Harkless 0:50

Okay, absolutely. How do you like it?

Nicole Thompson 0:51

It has been awesome. I've had many points where I've taken notes. I didn't know what to expect. But everything has been great. There have been encouraging words. And many of the words I found that I needed. So I'm here for a reason.

Gresham Harkless 1:04

Yeah, I always love that. It always seems like you hear what you're supposed to hear at the perfect time. And when that happens is amazing.

Nicole Thompson 1:10

Exactly. The thing with the clarity. I think I need it most because I'm literally at a standstill right now. Waiting until things get clear to move forward.

Gresham Harkless 1:18

Okay, what was the clarity back? Could you speak a little bit more?

Nicole Thompson 1:20

I forget exactly what it was. But it was during that time when she said the prayer. She said you may need prayer for clarity or the different things that she said, But clarity stuck out for me.

Gresham Harkless 1:30

Okay, yeah, absolutely. Well, awesome. Well, I know you have a business. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and ask you for what I call your CEO story. So this is what you feel is your story background and what led you to start your business.

Nicole Thompson 1:41

Okay, so I'm a school psychologist, and I've been a school psychologist for the last five years in a large, urban comprehensive high school. What led me here is kind of like, when I was a child, I'd experienced adverse childhood experiences of my own, my mom passing not sure if she committed suicide or not. And I was actually there during all that, and I woke up next to her dead body. So that pushed me to serve children like myself because I grew up in an urban area. And when I was working in the high school, I heard more and more horrific stories, similar to mine, some even worse than what I went through as a child.

That made me really go for what I'm doing right now to serve youth just like myself because I know if you have the right people if you have the right mentors and guides, you can get over whatever, you know, difficult situations you have in your life. I left the High School in June, and I've just started my own. I don't want to call it practice. I just started my own business. I speak at different conferences. I was honored to speak at Harvard School Mental Health Conference in January. Thank you. And I also speak at other mental health conferences as well. And I do professional development inside schools.

Gresham Harkless 2:51

That's awesome. And it's definitely something that's very much so needed, I feel like you would definitely be able to correct me if I'm wrong. Like I feel like a lot of times the traumas and things that a lot of times kids go through, there's not really like shine on it or opportunity for them to even express themselves or do whatever that often it has bubbled into sometimes traumatic events. So it was great that you've dedicated your time and your passion and your gifts to being able to do that.

Nicole Thompson 3:15

Thank you. Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 3:16

You're welcome. You're welcome. And so I know you touched on it a little bit. Was there anything deeper you wanted to touch on? And like what you do inside the schools or to help out people, you do speaking anything else?

Nicole Thompson 3:24

Yes. So my main goal for the urban school psychologist is to educate teachers on how to better connect with urban students, especially when those urban students have been through so many different traumas. Because a lot of times the teachers just want to in its human nature, just assume that this kid is acting this way because they're bad or whatever. And it's really trauma that underlies it. And if you approach the students in a different manner, they'll open up to you and the relationships that you have with them will allow them to learn better, and give them better learning outcomes.

Gresham Harkless 3:55

Right now, that makes sense. Now, I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you or your organization, where do you feel kind of sets you apart, it makes you unique?

Nicole Thompson 4:03

I'm black. I'm from an urban area, I had the aces that adverse childhood experiences happened to me. So I'm speaking from a place of, hey, this is what happened to me. I know what got me out of it. This is what you need to do to help these kids get out of it.

Gresham Harkless 4:18

I absolutely love that. Because a lot of times I'm guessing that's not the case. A lot of times the kids, who don't have somebody that has been through the experience or feel, also look like them sometimes, does that happen?

Nicole Thompson 4:29

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. And the students are they relate to me so well because I open up to them. And I'm just myself around them. They see that, hey, Miss Thompson went through this. I can open up more to her, and maybe she could give me feedback.

Gresham Harkless 4:42

Yeah. And I feel that too and even I heard it touched on in this conference with that a lot of times you don't realize something can actually happen until you see somebody that's done it. So them going through a difficult time. Sometimes you can get down, especially for kids, you know, it's like you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. There's another way but the fact that you've been able to do it and you're helping out a lot. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call an SEO hack. And this might be an app, book, or habit that you have, but it makes you more effective and efficient.

Nicole Thompson 5:11

Okay, so it's a combination of things. I have like a routine that I go through daily. And the time depends on how much time I need. I could usually tell from just like my intuition, I like to read a daily devotion. The daily devotion differs. It may be even like a horoscope or something, but just something to ground me for that day. And I listen to music, I like to say that I brainwash myself, because depending on the mood that I'm feeling, if I'm feeling discouraged if I'm feeling like I'm not confident, I'll find a song, and just keep playing it over and over. And I meditate during that time.

So because the entrepreneurship journey is tough, it challenges. This is my first step at it. So everything that's coming to me is completely and totally new. That can be overwhelming and in order to really just continue to push forward, you have to find self-time for yourself and you have to go in a lot to get answers.

Gresham Harkless 6:08

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's kind of like that in the hacks. Because it's because you know, yourself, you know what works for you like music is really big for me as well, too, you're able to kind of put yourself in a certain mind frame by being able to listen to that song when you're going through difficult times. So that kind of helps out a lot. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget and this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice if you can happen to a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Nicole Thompson 6:34

My younger business self, so when you have ideas, execute them immediately. Because you know, sometimes, when you first have the idea, it'll come out, and you'll be so passionate about it. But then maybe if you start to share it, people will make you feel like it's not gonna work, or whatever the case. So when you have that idea, execute it. And although you don't think that you're able to do it again, God gave you that dream for the reason you're able to do it, and you have to believe in yourself.

Gresham Harkless 7:00

Absolutely. Yeah. Do not ignore it. And definitely, you know, take action, because like you said, it was put on you for a reason. So definitely make sure to move forward with that. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, “CEOs” on this show. But I wanted to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Nicole Thompson 7:16

Evolution. I think that sums it up because the whole journey to CEO is you evolving as a person, figuring out what your strengths are figuring out what your weaknesses are, where you need help, and how to delegate. So it's an evolutionary process.

Gresham Harkless 7:33

I love that. I love that definition. Because it's always about, you know, moving on and getting better, but also the vision of what you have and executing on that as you move on and evolve. So I appreciate that, Nicole, appreciate your time. I wanted to pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know and then how best they can get ahold of you.

Nicole Thompson 7:50

Well, I do have a book. I have a book called, it's an anthology, we were just talking about anthologies and the last session is about 16 authors were all therapists is called “Black therapists rock: a glimpse through the Eyes of Experts”. And that's where I go into detail about telling my story of what happened to me in childhood and what brought me to where I am right now. I can be reached at www.theurbanschoolpsychologist.com. And I'm also on social media as theurbanschoolpsychologist on Instagram and Facebook, and I'm on LinkedIn as Nicole Thompson.

Gresham Harkless 8:23

Awesome, awesome, awesome. We will make sure to have those links in the show notes and your book is available on Amazon.

Nicole Thompson 8:27

My book is available on www.theurbanschoolpsychologist.com/btrbook

Gresham Harkless 8:33

Okay, so we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes so that somebody can get a copy of your book too. But I appreciate you for your time and also for all the awesome things that you're doing to help out the world that definitely needs it and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Nicole Thompson 8:44

Thank you.

Intro 8:45

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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