IAM247- Podcaster Brings Together Analytics and Podcasting to Help People Make Big Decisions

Michelle Nipko is the Chief Marketing Officer for the Austin Theatre Alliance (ATA), the organization that runs the Paramount and Stateside Theatres in Austin, Texas. She brings over 20 years of experience to this role leveraging her deep knowledge in the science of marketing analytics. In her previous roles she has served as a Senior Economist for American Express, a Product Manager for Financial Optimization Solutions for SAP, and a Vice President for Marketing Analytics at Bank of America. In addition to this varied industry experience, Michelle is also an entrepreneur at heart. Shortly after moving to Austin, she leveraged her expertise in social media and digital marketing optimization to form a company focused on lead generation in real estate. Most recently, she founded the podcast she hosts: ‘That One Big Decision’.

• CEO Hack: Testing, trying and doing
• CEO Nugget: It's okay not to be perfect or not to know,  own up to it and learn
• CEO Defined: Creating that structure, setting and executing the vision

Website: https://thatonebigdecision.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatonebigdecision/

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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 0:26

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Michelle Nipko of That One Big Decision Podcast. Michelle, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Michelle Nipko 0:37

Thanks. I'm so happy to be here, Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

No problem, super excited to have you on and what I want to do, which is read a little bit more about Michelle so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Michelle Nipko is the Chief Marketing Officer for the Austin Theatre Alliance, the organization that runs the Paramount and Stateside Theatres in Austin, Texas. She brings over 20 years of experience to this role leveraging her deep knowledge in the science of marketing analysis, analytics, I am sorry.

In her previous roles, she has served as a Senior Economist for American Express, a Product Manager for Financial Optimization Solutions for SAP, and a Vice President for Marketing Analytics at Bank of America. In addition to this varied industry experience, Michelle is also an entrepreneur at heart. Shortly after moving to Austin, she leveraged her experience and expertise in social media and digital marketing optimization to form a company focused on lead generation in real estate. Most recently, she founded the podcast she hosts: ‘That One Big Decision’. Michelle, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Michelle Nipko 1:35

Yes, I'm excited to

Gresham Harkless 1:36

Awesome, let's do it. So the first question I had was the here a little bit more about what I call your co story and what led you to start your business?

Michelle Nipko 1:43

Sure. And first I'd like to I know this is going to be aired later by others like to give a shout out that it's International Women's Day. And I'm so excited. And I'm so thrilled to be on a podcast like yours. I am CEO as a woman on International Women's Day. So just wanted to shout that out a little bit.

Gresham Harkless 2:01

Shout out all the women as well, too, that might be listening. So I appriciate you bringing that forward.

Michelle Nipko 2:05

Yeah, absolutely. So you know, I really am loving doing my podcast, because it's bringing together sort of everything, like you just read everything that I've done in my life through analytics, right for big companies now working for a nonprofit, where we're working with humans and people and we're working with, I don't know, there's more emotion to it. So one thing I really love about my podcast is sort of bringing that all together, where when you have a big decision in your life, you can look at it from an analytics perspective.

And we hear that and I represent what that is, then we also like to hear people's real stories, right? Because it's not just analytical, it's how are we feeling? Right? There's a subjective and objective that goes into any decision. So it's really interesting. I think it's really interesting to hear all that put together in people's real stories and the real outcome.

And then also, I think we can all really learn from each other because we're all on similar journeys in life. And so if you can hear if you're in a point in your life, where you're making a big decision, and you can hear somebody else's story, maybe can give you some more information to help you make your decision. So it's really bringing all that together.

Gresham Harkless 3:12

Yeah, absolutely. And that's what I you know, when we talked offline, I loved about your podcasts and everything that you rebuild and growing, because I'm a big sports, you know, junkie. And I'm always hearing, you know, more and more these last couple years about analytics and how important analytics are, and they are important, but I love the fact that you have kind of brought together the two and brought light to that where the stories are, there's a emotional aspect, but you're also kind of looking and take into account those analytics in order to make those decisions or people because we all have big decisions that we need to make.

Michelle Nipko 3:39

Absolutely. Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 3:40

You're welcome. You're welcome. And I know you touched a little bit on it. But I wanted to hear a little bit more about your podcast and some of the things that you're kind of talking about and discuss.

Michelle Nipko 3:47

You know, it's so many different things, because I'm talking to so many different types of people. I talked to a PhD physicist who working was working as a head data scientist, what was his biggest decision? And how did he get there? I talked to a professional tennis player, I talked to a functional medicine doctor, how did you decide to become a doctor? What did he see that was wrong with health care?

And how do you decide to go out on his own to do functional care like activity that was so interesting, because we so many of us are on the other side of healthcare and going to see doctors so to get the doctors perspective, and for people that for 22 year olds out there, they're thinking, Hey, maybe I want to be a doctor just to hear all those decisions that went into that and the implications.

So just a lot of different things. I'm also excited to recently to start being on podcasts. I was just on a We Are Austin Podcast talking about it being the CMO at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas. So I think that's been something fun to do is hear other people's stories and journeys, but also to share my story and journey as well.

Gresham Harkless 4:49

Yeah, absolutely. And as you touched on earlier, like I think that correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of times when you tell your story or even you hear people's stories, you're like, I felt like I was the only person going through that Did you hear that somebody else was, you know, going through a difficult decision? Or how they methodically thought about it and did all those things? And you find that were a lot more light than sometimes it sometimes seems, I guess.

Michelle Nipko 5:09

Totally, and I really feel like I'm on social media. And when you see people on Facebook or Instagram, and you just see the end product, right in the success, you're like, Oh, I'm here. Yay, wow, everybody's successful. But I think this is great. It's kind of going back in time. And seeing those those points with that weren't so easy where it was, there was some uncertainty there. Because we're not showing that publicly. Right? We're not and we're not seeing it and other people publicly.

So it's kind of going back in time to look at those those points in the road that we can we can all learn from hearing from each other kind of making a reel, I guess, right? Because sometimes social media doesn't feel quite it's not reality, right? It's sort of that endpoint more than the why point.

Gresham Harkless 5:50

Exactly, exactly. It's kind of like that, that microwave aspect, you get the final thing that you get out of the microwave, but you don't really see anything about the process. And you know, the steps that it took to do that the difficulty sometimes and making these decisions, because I think anytime I've had to make difficult decisions, I always have to remember it's kind of like in order for you to choose this one thing, you can't do something else. So that's sometimes easier said than done.

Michelle Nipko 6:11

Yes, you're right. The opportunity cost is always there, right? Oh, absolutely. I think that's a great analogy. Grasham is microwaving something, right? You don't show that part. You just show the end product. So that's a fantastic analogy.

Gresham Harkless 6:26

Exactly, exactly. And now I want to ask you for what I call like your secret sauce. You might have already touched on this. But what do you feel kind of distinguishes you or your podcast and organization? What do you think helps you stand out?

Michelle Nipko 6:35

I think that I'm always looking and trying and seeing different things, right. And so I feel like just the different types of people that I'm talking to. I also would like to talk to people like kids, what is their decision? I would like to talk to an homeless person out on the street, right? What is their decision? And so I think the way I approach life, and everything I do is trying in different things.

And so I think as I evolve this podcast, it's I'm going to be experimenting. Now, sometimes my experiments might fail, be awful. But sometimes there might some be something very interesting and something that really shines. So I think if people can stick with me, as I'm, like I said, progressing through this podcast and learning and adjusting that people can kind of learn with me and go through the journey.

Gresham Harkless 7:22

Absolutely, absolutely. And I think that anytime you're starting something or creating something, you have to do those, you know, I call them, you know, hacks or changes or things that you do, but it's kind of like you're putting together a masterpiece, but it doesn't necessarily like we talked about happening overnight. You're tweaking things here and there, you're testing, you're testing out different things.

And I think that that's part of the beauty, at least from our perspective, is that it is a process, you can see part of the process, and we're all kind of somewhat of an unfinished product. And we're always whether it be a podcast or a business or whatever, you're always kind of tweaking that.

Michelle Nipko 7:50

Absolutely. I really enjoy the Tweak. Tweaking. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, it's really fun. You know, I think it's, I think I would I have a hard time being Alright, you're doing the exact same cookie cutter thing every single time. Right? I really enjoy that. Oh, let's try this. And oh, that would be cool. So

Gresham Harkless 8:12

Exactly. I feel like it might be a marketing thing. I don't know

Michelle Nipko 8:14

Maybe.

Gresham Harkless 8:16

About everything. So I feel like that. I wonder where that pulls her up. So

Michelle Nipko 8:20

Totally. Love it

Gresham Harkless 8:21

There is always something new as well.

Michelle Nipko 8:22

Yeah. Yeah. It's so fun, especially with all the like, I love playing with all the new social media tools like Instagrams coming out with all these new things all the time. And like, Oh, let me try this. Oh, let me try that. Yeah, it's kind of a little playground for people, I guess. Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 8:35

Exactly, exactly. No, I definitely would agree with that. And I feel like I'm too it's been me starting to understand that. That's also how a lot of the big opportunities come about, because like you said, I think sometimes when people try things, you know, you automatically assume, you know, could you see somebody's picture on Instagram, that they tried something and it was successful, and they didn't have any failures, they didn't have any things that didn't, you know, go according to plan. But a lot of times for even the most successful people in the world, they've had some losses, they've had some wins. And that's part of the process to getting to where you want to be.

Michelle Nipko 9:07

You have to, right, you have to, I think fail big and learn and pivot and grow. Right. I mean, we don't see that. I don't put that on Facebook or Instagram. But yeah, you have to, to go big or go home, and sometimes it doesn't work. So yeah, I think that's a key to the secret sauce you're talking about.

Gresham Harkless 9:27

Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Michelle Nipko 9:39

That's a great question and I just kind of back to the habit of always testing and trying and doing but I think from an efficiency perspective, when I'm testing and trying and doing like because I do all my sound mixing and mastering and all my own recording. And so you know when I first started it took me a little longer i You know, testing and trying and doing but now that I've tested I try to do and I'm really good at it.

I'm very efficient and very fast. So I think it's, you know, I really like having that self reliance of figuring it out. Sometimes it takes a little time at the beginning. But once you figured it out, I don't have to wait on some other some other person to edit my sound right? I can just do it, I do it quick. I do my compression, my EQ, right, I make everything sound how I want it to to make it the nice masterpiece. So I think that that's a recommendation that I have is maybe take the time if you have it to learn something, because it can make you a more efficient person, because you can you don't have a reliance on somebody else.

Gresham Harkless 10:32

Absolutely, absolutely. And understanding that there is like we talked about, you know, the process to do that. So just because you know, you have to put in your quote, unquote, 10,000 hours, in order to make that happen, where it doesn't just happen overnight, you don't just you know, open up, I guess, the podcast or whatever. And it's automatically edited, and you don't have to do anything. There's a process to learn how to do that. And you have to enjoy that process and embrace it.

Michelle Nipko 10:56

Absolutely. And some of these things, especially now, and I love so much that you can learn so much through like YouTube, like yours, and GarageBand is free, right? I mean, I use the Blue Yeti microphone, it's like 120 bucks.

Gresham Harkless 11:11

So do I.

Michelle Nipko 11:12

Right? Right, aren't they, they're fantastic microphones. So to get there is a lot cheaper than it used to be. And the videos, you just gotta find the right ones. And test try and do so. And what may have used to been 10,000 hours maybe is a couple 100 hours, given everything that's accessible to us now. So just to having said that, at some time, maybe if you it's not your forte, because you really got to be a computer geek to really like I think that if you're not a computer geek, you can do it live during that, that maybe do out, you know, outsource it. I guess that's part of it, too, is knowing your strengths and weaknesses as well.

Gresham Harkless 11:49

Yeah, absolutely. knowing thyself. And it's funny, I was going to ask you actually ask you that. And I'm glad you spoke to that. Because understanding like who you are, and like if you're not a computer geek, if you don't know how to you know, open up, you know, Microsoft Word, then maybe podcasts editing might be a little bit advanced, but you can find people that you know, will be able to that is their forte, and you can, you know, leverage their 10,000 hours in order to your 10 hours so that you can have a masterpiece

Michelle Nipko 12:15

Totally, totally. And you know, I am terrible at artwork, anything art related, I am terrible. And so I know that I embrace that, like the artwork piece. I outsource all that. And so I think that's a great, great point is sort of knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are and knowing what to get to know leverage and knowing what to outsource.

Gresham Harkless 12:37

Absolutely, absolutely. And so now let me ask you, you might have already touched on this for a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Michelle Nipko 12:48

I think it goes back to International Women's Day in that. And we hear this a lot that it's okay to not be perfect. It's okay to not know Right? And that's I really embrace that now and I get compliments from people on that is if I don't know I say it. I'm right up front is I don't know what you're talking about. Can you explain that? I'm new here? Or I don't know about that. The so.

So can you explain it to me. And I think oftentimes, you'll see people pretend that they know or they just don't really admit they don't know, right? Because it's a little bit embarrassing. But if you can, you know, if you own up to it, it's very authentic. I think people really appreciate that. And then and then you learn right? And pretty soon then you become the expert. So I think that's that's a really big piece is admit and very openly admit when you don't know something and ask a lot of questions. And I think to be vulnerable is is, is okay.

Gresham Harkless 13:42

And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a quote unquote, CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So Michelle, want to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Michelle Nipko 13:53

Being a CEO means setting the vision and executing the vision. Because I think that when we're in school, right, when you're young things were very set, right? They that, okay, here's what you need to learn, if you learn it, here's the grades, right? It is very structured. Out in life, when you're having your own company, there is no structure, right? You got to go out and figure it out and create that structure. And so to me, that's what being a CEO is, is creating that structure, setting the vision, and then figuring out how to execute it in the best way possible. Maybe that's longer than you want it, but…

Gresham Harkless 14:30

That is perfect, actually, because I love that definition. I love that perspective. Because a lot of times, you know, again, we forget, you know, all those different pieces or those parts of it, but being you know, CEOs being able to have that vision, like you said, and definitely you know, make sure to bring it to light and to execute on that. So I think that's phenomenal definition. So thanks for sharing.

Michelle Nipko 14:48

Oh, sure.

Gresham Harkless 14:49

Well awesome. Michelle. Well, I appreciate your time. What I want to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and our listeners know and then of course how they can find out about you and again unsubscribe to your podcasts.

Michelle Nipko 15:01

Just that didn't one message I have is just go for it, try it be might suck, you might fail, but you're gonna learn. That's, that's that's my message to everybody. If you'd like to reach me or find me, my website is thatonebigdecision.com. I also have a great Instagram page. It's @thatonebigdecision would love to hear from you out there. And those are the main places you can find me.

Gresham Harkless 15:25

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well, too. So I appreciate you, Michelle, and thank you for the reminder as well too often you will suck the very first time you do it so well.

Michelle Nipko 15:26

You will, you will suck.

Gresham Harkless 15:35

Have you heard ever heard that thing where they said the little kid no one tells a little kid when they fall down the very first time they walk that you're not good at walking. So just you know. You fall down, get back up and do it over again.

Michelle Nipko 15:53

Exactly, exactly. The first time you tried to walk you sucked. Your parents are not gonna tell you that. Well, you did. That's the point. So I just think knowing that and accepting that then that it makes it all good.

Gresham Harkless 16:08

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. I appreciate you. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Michelle Nipko 16:13

Thanks, you too. Gresham.

Outro 16:15

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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