Nikki Spoelstra: Entrepreneur & Philanthropist

two one nicky thank you so much for joining me um I've been excited about this conversation for quite some time now, but first of all, how are you? Oh my goodness, thank you so much for having me on the show, I mean, this has been a long time coming, you know, I feel like I've really been waiting for this and there were a lot of bumps in the road, but it's finally happening and I couldn't be more excited, I'm doing very well, I'm very happy to be able to do it. I'll be there, thank you very much for inviting me.

I definitely know it. The last time we talked to your little boy he was a little sick, but I hope he's better. Yes, it's better now. You just know it never ends when you have little kids like it just never ends, damn it never ends, you have kids, I don't even know, you have kids, no, I'm engaged so I'm getting married in South Florida in about 38 days, something like that, we got married, yeah, we got married in Coconut Grove, so you probably know the area, yeah, but with you I wanted to start from the beginning and talk about what your childhood was like and growing up in Florida, so first question, how was your childhood?

Oh my God, Sam, how I am. a proud Miami girl like I love I love my city I love being from here the melting pot as well as all the different cultures I was exposed to growing up my mom was Puerto Rican and my dad is American and I grew up in a city called Kendall, which which, A-Rod, was crazy yesterday. A-Rod went to whatever interview he was in and said, Yeah, I grew up in the hood and it's a town called Kendall and everyone in Kendall rolls their eyes. It's not the neighborhood, it's definitely like a Miami suburb, but it's so funny to hear someone say that, but I love representing Kendall and specifically Wes Kendall.

I went to public school my whole life and I was in a relationship, you know, man. There is the duality of life in most things, so I had a really beautiful childhood in many ways, but there were also a lot of traumas and a lot of really difficult experiences that happened that I can recognize in retrospect. and seeing them as they were, I think when we were kids, you know, it's very important for adults and parents to have a sense of alertness and awakening that we can see the environments that we're creating because I think it's difficult. to do in the moment and now, as an adult, I look back and I can see that okay, that wasn't normal, but us kids a lot of times we just roll with the punches, we're so resilient, kids are so resilient and you see. your circumstances and this is all you've ever known about life, so that's what's normal for you, so chaos and trauma and abuse for what it's worth, because that's what it was, it was very real and I always want to make it very clear that you may have had or I mean, I really like talking in the eyes, but I think in general, you can have had some really traumatic childhood experiences and also say that yes, there was some beauty in it, There was some love in it, you know?

We are like plants, how you find sunlight, no matter what happened in your childhood. Do you remember feeling anxious or having anxiety like a cat when I was a child? I do. I had a lot of anxiety growing up. I think, like you know my dad. He was a firefighter and a paramedic and he's an incredible human being, but the reality is that he worked 24 hours at the fire station and then he had 48 hours off, so like he wasn't there for 24 hours, you know, and there are a lot, especially father figures in the home who are away from home more often.

I think that's changing a little bit now, but you know, for what it's worth, my dad, my dad was gone for 24 hours, so I had to learn. I say okay, dad goes and he comes back and dad goes and comes back and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it was how I adjusted to life. I don't have any brothers or sisters, so there were a lot of times where it was just me and my mom and the first four years of my life, you know, it's weird because I don't think people don't think, I don't think a lot of people can remember things. before the age of four. but how I do it, it's so crazy like I remember being very happy and I remember a different period in my life where things started to change and it was when I was four years old and knowing what I know now I know that my mom, who is recently passed away. , she passed away on February 18th and now it's March, so it's been a little over a month, and I did my article with her, so I feel very comfortable talking about all this stuff, but like that.

At one point in my mother's life, when I was about four, she lost her job and I think she lost her sense of self at that time and things started to change. I think she got depressed and didn't really know it. who she was and then there was a lot of that that started falling on me directly and indirectly and you know life is like that man life goes by so fast sam like you're on the train and you just keep going and it's really like one thing just happens after other good and bad things, it's like you're putting one foot in front of the other and I think one thing I know as a parent now is that we're all doing our best like there's no parenting manual, there are a million books you can read well, sure, whatever and there's data for days, but when it comes down to it, when you're in the middle of parenting, it's like it's the first time we're doing this. like there's no real manual on how to do it right because every person is unique, every child is unique and so I think I really believe that even on our worst days, we're all doing the best we can and it's hard It's not easy and I think that it takes a great level of awareness to be able to sit down and reflect on yourself and you don't know, I think you know I was born in '87 and it's just as crazy as 20 year olds are now.

It's like they were born in the year 2000, yeah I think where I was born in '88 I'm with you, but it's like I thought to myself as people we like our generation of parents who weren't totally awake to these things like they did it. how their parents did things and that was the way and you didn't really question it and there wasn't a lot of dialogue there wasn't a lot of self-reflection there wasn't a lot of questions wait wait how are you doing for the most part? We are still in a world where children are to be seen and not heard.

And I'm not saying that they silenced me because I think well. I don't think that as a child I gave what I gave. Someone would like to silence me as a child, I was very expressive from the beginning of my life and later, if you want, we can talk about how I found that expression, but the days between my mom and I became really very toxic for a little bit and It was very difficult to deal with, you know, there were a couple of things that happened, I dealt with some sexual abuse and then you know, my mom was in a space where she was, I think she got so lost that her drinking got completely out of control. and there was a lot of verbal and emotional abuse there too, so your mom and dad were together for most of your childhood.

Yes, my parents were together until I was 18. And throughout those years, as I would. Let's say from 4 to 18 years old, like the alcohol consumption had gotten progressively worse over the years, to the point that, like me, I would take care of my house, you know, when my father was away and I try to talk to him. about this sometimes he doesn't love it because you know, I think everyone has their own subjective reality and like he's doing the best he can, like he has to keep us like he's not maliciously at home, he's legitimately working with you.

I knew it so he could take care of us, but the reality is he wasn't there, so a lot of my childhood became housekeeping, locking the house, making sure the alarm was on, making sure the dog went outside. and I came back and, like most of the time, I swaddled my mom, not the other way around, and as a parent now and someone who has been through years and years of therapy, I know that's not a child's responsibility any more than it should ever be. "No child should have those responsibilities in which he assumes the role of father again as if he did not have siblings.

I didn't like it. I didn't like talking about these friends. If I talk to my friends now they are." It's like I had no idea this was happening, yes, sure every family has their own thing, but it's like no, I don't know, I became so fiercely independent and that served me well in so many ways over time. I'm walking into my adolescence, early adulthood and now into my life and who I feel like I am today, you know, yeah, and you said something that kind of reminded me of my mom and she said it, uh, a couple of months ago and we were talking about my son, my group of friends who have kids and you know, a group of young people running around and I asked her, like you know, what's some great advice for young parents and she said give yourself the grace to realize that you are doing well. the best you can, everything is unique to your experience, so if you can, give yourself a little break, give yourself a little grace, that will help you a lot, but you know it's not an experience I've had, but I'm betting on you.

It's probably a lot harder to do it than to say it, um, yeah, I actually like to get to a place where I was so resentful growing up like so resentful like I had a resentment on my shoulder. I've had a grudge on my shoulder for as long as I can remember. Honestly, soon it's like I really love you, you know, and I've had a hard time working through that as a grown woman today, but I was so angry as a kid and I heard, I had legitimate reasons to be angry, as I know I am today too.

I didn't have proper coping mechanisms, like I didn't know how to deal with my anger or my feelings, you know, thank God, I found a path into dance and painting and fashion design, you know, and that became my outlet where I could express myself. Oh my goodness, music helped me through my teenage years and it's a gift. Sometimes I think I was able to connect with music that way because it helped me, it was like my ability to attach my body to the sound and be able to bring it out in any way possible, you know, I had a fair amount of similar experimentation when I was a teenager and it wasn't like by no means an easy teenager, um, but I got over it and I stayed, you know, I think it's okay, I think what we do As human beings as people, we find a way to deal with the situation no matter what's right, so even if We don't have healthy coping strategies, we develop strategies whether they are healthy or not, and even unhealthy things serve us because they protect us in some way.

The right ability for me was my ability to forget some of the things that happened, like I would literally like to disconnect my brain from some of the things that happened because that was my brain saying you can't live in this emotion for that long because it's poison to you, so my brain was like let's just put it to the side, we're not going to process it, but it was always there, yeah, and it was probably building up, oh my gosh. definitely, when you're not talking about it and you made a great comment about the music, I mean, I remember, you know, when on my darkest days, right, and we all still have bad days, I mean, even to this day, I would use music as a mood.

Booster or do you just want to get me out of that funk or that feeling put on one of my favorite songs and just sing along and it makes you feel so much better What was your first love in the arts? Was it the dance? Was it fashion? music, remember? I think it was music and music was like my gateway to dancing. Who was your favorite artist when you were a child? Oh, I loved the well to this day. I love Red Hot Chili Peppers. um, I think it was like by the way. album and the californication album so, by the way, that album was like the gateway to californication and the sexual magic of blood sugar and then that created a lifelong love for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I mean, I liked a lot of the old stuff.

I liked the Beetles, I listened to the Beatles, I listened to Leonard Skynyrd, I listened to Pearl Jam, Def Leppard, like all this rock and roll, Aerosmith took me a lot and I got to Sierra Smith and the concert, which is really cool and, in reality, of course, but. like those aren't even like oh and elton john but I like those aren't even like any dance music like that it's not dance music but it was what made me feel something that really tapped into my feelings and then you I know I was a kid, that I was in middle school and high school and I listened to popular music and then I did what kids do, but I found a way to dance.

I was a competitive cheerleader, which is what it is. like a cult of competitive cheerleaders, I don't know how much you know about this, but I was on a show called Topka on All Stars and they are the best of the best to this day, and what that taught me was teamwork. and being a part of something bigger than myself and that really became like a family to me, like I was the first person at the gym after school and the last person out at night, to the point where they're like close the garage doors. because it's in a big warehouse and they tell me okay, you have to go home, you know, but they always let me come early and they always let me stay late and aloneyou were doing that right at that moment, very difficult at the time to absolutely recognize it at that moment, I was like I'm a mom, I'm alone, my husband travels for work.

I'm alone, I can't leave the house, so I did it. I put the kids to bed and I deserve a glass of wine. You know, that glass of wine eventually turned into two, three and four a bottle, plus, you know, that meant I was waking up reluctantly wanting to wake up like it was like I don't want to wake up I don't want to pick up the kid like my son I don't want you to know and I would and I would be like numb and just not present and very irritable and impatient. I'm not yourself, probably not, but the sad thing and the crazy thing is that this was making me myself. right, that was becoming, the more you do something, the more you become this thing that's crazy to think about, like you've had a hard time, like drinking or taking prescription drugs, and you look at it like you can't.

I think I was in that state of mind, but at the time it was like you said you were on a treadmill and you wake up every day and you accept it and you never do it. I recognize the extent of what you're doing with that on a daily basis and I didn't realize it until after I had my second child. I was going to ask you with that what the time was or what happened. so you decide to get help or get treatment, so I went through both of my pregnancies and I never drank during my pregnancies, I mean I could have had something like you, they say it's safe to have a glass of wine once in a while. at one time maybe I had two during my entire pregnancy like half a glass of wine and that was torture that was torture like I remember thinking like I remember being pregnant and being like I hate this I hate this I just want to drink I hate this and then, so As soon as I had the baby and I was past my breastfeeding stage where I was no longer giving my breast milk to the baby, I went to the races and invited my friends because I wasn't.

I didn't go out and just invite friends who could drink like me because I needed a partner to do this right and I was lucky enough, you know, it's a blessing and a curse, like me, ultimately, it's a blessing like us. At that time we had 24/7 child care for the baby and in a way I guess that might have allowed me a little bit, but also thank God, thank God I had someone to help me with my children, right? Say I was being negligent as if that wasn't the case at all, you know, like you hear these horror stories, I definitely wasn't negligent, I was doing this to me, as if nothing, nothing bad was happening in my external life.

Now I know I work in a recovery program and I now know that everyone hits a different kind of bottom from the outside, like I have a high bottom. I didn't lose my job. I didn't lose my marriage. I didn't like it, I didn't lose my kids, I wasn't doing anything that would compromise anyone's safety, you know, but I hated myself and that's pretty significant, yeah, there was a time when someone came up to confront you. . about this or was it something you discovered on your own, you know, I think for so many years, like you know, my husband and I would be like we fight when we drink you, so we're just not going to like it, maybe we need to put a limit, we do argue when we drink and a lot of times it was a small thing so I watched my drinking because I always wanted the night to go well, I never really thought that.

I had a problem and I didn't, I certainly didn't think he had a problem, to this day I don't think he has a drinking problem at all, in any capacity, I don't believe that, but um. like it came up like that, you know, nothing, nothing crazy, I was also like a highly functioning drinker and I could hide it really well and I could go a day or two without drinking like it wasn't like I was drinking when I woke up. I stood up as if I had never been that person. I'm not saying that my alcoholism is superior to anyone else's alcoholism, but I am saying that my journey was not one of waking up and having a drink.

I didn't like drinking all day. All day I just wish at night I felt so uncomfortable in my own skin as a human being and I needed the pain to stop so I would just drink until I could fall asleep, you know? Do you think you ever tried to do it? deal with your anxiety by drinking, that's why I drank a lot because I was feeling very anxious and I felt like crawling by the skin from whatever was going on so I used. I had a problem with xanax, which was, you know, a very extreme anti. -anxiety medicine and that was my solution which was what cured my anxiety at the time, although it ended up creating more anxiety, yes, but then I got sober on xanax, but I was still drinking and one of my therapists told me one day that drinking is very similar to xanax but it takes eight drinks to get a feel for what a xanax was and that's what clicked for me now I'm instead of dealing with xanax I'm just dealing with eight drinks instead of you.

I know the peeling pill that made me decide like you know I was going through treatment and therapy and all that kind of stuff too, but that's when I understood like, oh my God, I just transitioned to a new drug and alcohol to face it. my anxiety, so I think the root of a lot of my addiction was anxiety. I didn't know if maybe I was similar to you. I think I've always struggled with anxiety my whole life and I had gone through different phases of like being on medication to help me with my anxiety, um and periods of time where I wasn't and I was like in a better space and the goal.

The bottom line for me is that I would love to get to a place in my life where I don't need any medication at all, but my current reality is that I suffer from legitimate anxiety and it is best for me, even as a sober woman, to follow my prescription, like tea , sure I take twice a day, unfortunately, like me. For some reason the way my brain is wired is like I don't have an addiction to my anxiety meds like I don't like it it's not like that it's a very structured thing for me my thing was alcohol like that was the main one, it's like there was, it was like it was a disease of the mind and body like it really is for me, that's how I know, so me and I mentioned something before Sam about how when during my Los Pregnancies were like torture, not drinking since I was sober and on April 18, God willing, I will have my two years of sobriety, you know, one day at a time, that's good, but I don't suffer like that anymore.

I'm not constantly like, How am I going to drink? How can I hide that I'm drinking? Where am I going to drink? I'm going to have 20 minutes on hand so I don't smell like I'm drinking like I don't struggle with it, I don't even think, thank God, I don't even think about alcohol, yeah, but I look at my years from the years I spent pregnant suffering because I don't I was sober, I was dry. I didn't drink, but I wasn't sober in my heart, I wasn't emotionally sober, I didn't like working on a program where I was connected to God and I liked my understanding and I didn't like dealing with my resentments. and with my personal character flaws like I wasn't looking at any of those things it was all everyone else's fault yeah what do you do now as a coping mechanism or your wellness routine?

Something like, um, I write a lot, I write. I talk to the therapist a lot, my therapist is like my man, my lifesaver, you know, and luckily I also learned that okay, I hate, I hate that I even said that as a lifesaver, it's just because I think my lifesaver is my relationship with God, you know more than any outside person. I think God is my lifeline now, but I see a therapist regularly where I can talk and evaluate my feelings and why I feel them. Dbt therapy was really very helpful for me. is that dialectical behavioral therapy and it really gives you tools like I remember getting so tired of talk therapy sometimes I think I can, okay, I already talked about it, and now, what do I need a strategy?

I need you to tell me. . it taught me what to do so dbt therapy taught me so many great tools and it was actually then and it was like between my two pregnancies that I thought you have to fill out a form every day about what your anger level was. It was anxiety, happiness, all these things, like what was your range of feelings, what level were they at today, how did you cope and it gives you all these similar things that you can do to cope, there are all these strategies, methods that you can do. . stop action as reverse reaction like all these methods that were very useful for me um but I was wondering if you drank alcohol today and I was lying on paper that was like the first time I realized oh I'm lying my drink because I know somewhere place inside that is a problem, yeah, and they're probably hiding it too, you know, so I was going to my therapist in the morning and I was like two, two drinks last night, but it was a lie, yeah, I was. lie in a way that really opened my eyes like putting that on paper, but I still take a lot of those tools.

I don't do gpt therapy anymore, but I still carry a lot of those tools with me and I apply them in my daily life and I adopted a meditation practice and you know, the most important thing that helps me is, honestly, it's my podcast, it's like having something I feel like in some way helps someone else, and for anyone familiar with the 12 steps. program as the pillar is to serve another person who is sick and suffering well and since I don't do it my way and my way it's like I want to empower real and authentic conversations with people, yes, and I hope that's the case by doing it well and , hopefully, we're doing it right now, you know, someone's ears perk up and they're like, wow, I'm not alone, yeah, in this, that's why my podcast starts this business, oh my gosh, I've been in for almost a year.

I need to write these things down because then I forget, but I've been doing it for almost a year and I think this makes me feel really good, you know? And it makes me very happy, my children. I walk into my office and they say mommy, are you having a meeting? And I'm always in meetings, like all kinds of meetings, I go to all kinds of meetings, um, but they like to come and play with my microphone and ask questions. I am working and it makes me feel good to be seen doing something that means a lot to me.

Was there a moment from your support system like how Eric did it? How did your husband support you when you? I decided to get sober as a couple, that was really hard. Most people were shocked by the fact that he was identifying me as an alcoholic because I hid it so well, like I really beat him up so well, so it was like something I talked about. Being alone before it was like it was a very lonely time for me to come out about my alcoholism because my dad was like, "I don't think you're an alcoholic, I think you drink from time to time.

I'm right because I'm lying to you like you're not here in my body and you don't see what I'm doing, like the reality is that my husband was traveling for work, you know? like when I was alone like he wasn't there to see that and that was really a disaster for me because I'm like, oh my God, that's what my mom did right that's what my mom did my dad was at the station. firefighter my mom drank like that yeah and she hid it well and pretended like everything was fine you know and I really started to like putting two and two together where I was like oh my God my God this is the same thing that's happening so I think at the same time At first he was frustrated.

I think you know I hate speaking for him, but I think at first it was very frustrating for him because I think he didn't know enough about. in that moment you know that a lot of people are not well, that we all have this idea and here is one of the things that I want to touch on is that I am open about my sobriety because and I think that, first of all, I want to say that anonymity is the basis spiritual for a lot of people as they seek their sobriety and I think that's really important and I know from the beginning, I struggled because my anonymity was compromised against my will, you know, like people in meetings and things would come together and I They were asking questions and I felt like my anonymity was compromised in that way and it wasn't until I made the decision to talk about my sobriety and my alcoholism that I thought, "Okay, I'm going to deal with this because I know for sure if I hadn't seen to other women who looked like me and who had the things that I had who or who I had what they had what I wanted, like other women with small children like women who I simply have respect in the community if I had never found out that they were living sober, I don't think I would have gotten help, yeah, my dad wrote me a letter in treatment and I still tell people that when I talk to people who are thinking about getting sober, they reached out because they want to get sober, they're going through for treatment, but my dad wrote me a letter and at the time he mentioned Michael Phelps and I mentioned Robert Downey Jr. and I mentioned Elton John and me.

I mentioned all these amazing people that I've been admiring who are living sober and still want to achieve whatever they want in their life and for me that was a big moment and going oh my god, like I'm like Elton John or I'm like Michael Phelps, you know, that was a greatmoment for me, but like you said, you see these people who are sober in life and you know every time I think about that during the Super Bowl and there were all of those. artists on stage I think almost half of those artists were sober which was really cool for me I think it was Mary J.

Blige and eminem and it was cool for me too yeah so you know little things like that , it's like opening your eyes to people who might not totally recognize you and the thing is, sometimes those people are so far away, just like I can totally see myself in my drinking days thinking okay, well, I'm not Mary J Blige and I don't have all the resources that Mary J Blige has, so maybe I'm really unattainable, but I would like to see another woman who was normal and regular. she's a normal woman and I think it was amazing to say that she was an addict and now she's been sober now that she's 15 years sober I'm like I want that like I have that like it's realistic for me this is relatable like she got over this , I can get through it too, so for me, you know, deciding to go public with my sobriety was also a thing for me, my husband, you know, and you asked me how he dealt with it, you know, he got along well. on board, he definitely got on board, you know, at first it was, it was complicated because he doesn't have a drinking problem, he's not addicted to alcohol, he can have a drink and stop and make everything normal without it. , like my fiancé.

Yeah, similar face, right, so at first it was very stimulating for me because we were looking at how to share the space in a way that felt safe and respectful and also didn't feel like he was in trouble for drinking, you know, and we came to Es really good, we got into a good rhythm about how we were going to approach it and there are moments where I'm like, hey, you know, I'm in a good mood right now and I'm feeling really activated and are you comfortable? like not having wine with your dinner or something and I can ask him that and he can see it for what it is and he totally says because guess what he doesn't need wine to get through the situation, yeah, you know, how can he be like no, I'm fine, yeah, totally like I don't need to drink this glass of wine.

I think he started drinking less. I don't think he drank much to begin with, but I think he started drinking less. because like it's not something that we do in the house anymore, yeah, you know, and I think from my experience, my fiancé learned that we learned how toxic alcohol is to the body, which is another thing, it's really horrible. for you. and it is a poison to your body, so not only are you affecting your mood that day, but you are also destroying your body from the inside out, so once we have more understanding and more education about it, even my friends and family members, I think that is like it extends a bit as an educational piece because in reality there is not much in-depth education about how bad it is that it is so social, like in our environment in our daily life, there are so many businesses at the expense of the restaurants of alcoholic beverages. as are livelihoods, but now I tell people that I think if alcohol were invented today it would be illegal, yeah right, which is a little crazy, but I mean, it's so accepted in everything we do and anywhere from sports. parties entertainment is just part of what people do um I wanted to talk to you a little bit about miami learning experience center I think you play games or enjoy working with them so what exactly do they do there?

It goes back to my teaching days, I met one of my colleagues at the school I taught at, she volunteered at the Miami Learning Experience school and basically got my dance team to volunteer with them, that's how I got in in this, I would like to take my dance team and we would take them, so Miami Learning Experience school is a school for children and adults with special needs, all types of special needs, so the children and adults part is important because they don't just take young children, but they actually train adults with Down syndrome and a variety of other, you know, special needs to work toward living individually when possible.

In fact, the Miami Learning Experience school placed the first person with Down syndrome in a job in the state. from florida and that was with publix, which is our shopping center, our big shopping center, grocery shopping center, and that's why they are doing a great job like they have a full kitchen, they have like a simulated apartment where the children and adults with special needs they learn to do things like sort materials, bag items like making a bed, they are very basic things and they start at four years old, I think it's four, but I got in because they had a cheer team at school at experience school Miami Learning Center.

So my dance team would go and teach them little routines and we would make the girls and boys that were on the cheer team really come to life and most of them love it. Many of these children love to dance, they love music. I have amazing personalities so I just volunteered with them in that capacity and then I thought, man, what makes me so happy like being around the community, the special needs community brings me a lot of joy because it's like pure energy and innocence, they say . what they think, they're not caught up in what other people think, they just want to be happy and they just want to be in your presence and it feels really good, so I started volunteering in a specific class when the kids were around. like five or six and now they're like teenagers and they still know who I am, you know, they ask about my husband, they ask about my kids, they know my kids' names and I got to a point where I bought into it. everything with them and I became co-chair of a campaign that they were doing and I worked with another woman who I respect a lot, Janelle Perez, who is now running for the senate in the state of Florida and we worked together to raise this money so that they could build a new wing of their school and you know, I think they're doing great things for the special needs community.

They have very attentive teachers. A really positive environment. And I leave there feeling that they served me. You know that's how it was. something beautiful as if it were a gift, it's like a reciprocal gift and I think it's a very big message about life in general because I feel like when I serve another person it comes back to me, you know, that's not the intention. That's not why I don't think we have to be aware of that, like why, why we're doing something, like we're not doing something just to receive the right thing, I'm not going to go to school like that.

I can receive, I am giving purely and intentionally and the default is that I end up receiving. Yes, it really is amazing the way it makes you feel. I work closely with a special needs school here in Greenville called the Meyers Center and it's mainly because I think probably around three or four years old to high school age, so they're not adults, but I tell people that if Do they ever ask what it is, I tell them come take a tour with me and then they'll be sold, which is a big part of this, if people want to help, can they donate or how would they like to get involved?

Yes, their website is mleschool.org and there are volunteer positions and they also continue to raise money for their campaign. where can you donate really like for my wedding we turn down gifts and also for my kids birthdays we turn down gifts for our family and we usually pick about three charities we are passionate about and ask people to donate to which one feels better for them within this group of charities that we selected and that's why we've been able to raise good money for myself and also for Lauren's children, which is very important to me and what Lauren Book is doing and she is from Florida.

Senator, you are now raising awareness and providing education on child sexual abuse and that is a very close issue to me so I love what you are doing and we also work closely with the big brothers, the big sisters of Miami, very cool and , okay, you have been very kind and generous. with your time, I have a listener question segment, we have three questions, okay, so it's a little more fun and the first question is what is your favorite brand, if you have one, what kind of brands, like brand of fashion, clothing brand, clothing brand, mine would be Nike. okay give me some perspective it's really hard to say I shop local like my favorite store to shop in Miami is called showroom and it sells all kinds of really cool products under the biggest brands but under the radar so it's like Brands is called the big um indifferent, you know, and then I like that, like the heavy hitters, too, like I'm a fan of high fashion just because I grew up loving and admiring fashion so much, so I'll always love it. luxury brands all luxury brands are super cool to me because I feel like they carry works of art, but in my day to day life I'm super relaxed, sweatpants, hoodies, you know, I really like free people, very cool, what's it called? of the store is called showroom miami okay perfect ok the second one the owner Marilyn is amazing so yeah my sister owns a women's boutique here in my hometown she's great I love it , but the second question, favorite food or restaurant in Miami, okay, this is. these are loaded questions man um my favorite I'm going to give you I have a couple of favorite foods I'm not like my son my son I'm like what's your favorite color he's like all the colors all the colors change what's your favorite superhero he It's like all heroes I'm like I don't have a favorite but my favorite foods are like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches croquettes do you know what they are like? yeah, okay, yeah, I love it.

They love it and I like pasta and pizza and you know, I force myself to eat the salads, but I really love a good salad, I really love a good salad, my favorite restaurant, I don't actually have one right now because I don't go out much, I'm not really well, that's fair, although you have a lot of food there, so the last question is a place you haven't traveled to and want to go with you and your husband or family. I wanna go. to Greece I'm going to go to Greece and I want to go to Australia and actually we were planning to go to Paris I've been to Paris before we each eat individually but we haven't been together so I hope we can go to Paris soon.

I find it very romantic. Yes, I was talking to my fiancé this morning. We want to go to Paris for our first anniversary. Oh no, our first anniversary. Oh, sweet, well, Nikki, thank you very much. for joining me, this has been an amazing conversation, hopefully an inspiring conversation or where someone can hear it and it might be the right thing they need to hear at that moment. Thank you so much for having me, Sam, awesome and we may do it again. Oh and your podcast has to scream your podcast okay so my podcast is called know with

nikki

spo it's available on spotify apple podcast google podcast wherever you listen your podcast is there it's also streaming on youtube it's the no with

nikki

spo and Basically I am talking to women who are finding and celebrating their deepest inner knowing.

We're having real-life conversations about real-life topics. Some of them are heavy, some of them are light and fun, but the goal is to let them feel empowered to continue. Go ahead and create the life of your dreams and more so that you deserve to do that. It's very true, that's my podcast. You can find me on Instagram at nikkisappspo and then nikkiespo. I'm going to put all those links, of course, in the show notes, it'll be out on all podcasting platforms, including YouTube, so thanks again, it's been an amazing conversation and thank you, thank you Sam, perfect.