Women In Wellness: Nicole D Vick On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Be careful who you hire, take advice from, and look up to. There are a lot of people that are out there with the sole purpose of taking advantage of new business owners. They often promise unbelievable results in exchange for your hard-earned money. Check references, do your research, and ask lots of questions. Ultimately, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nicole D. Vick.
Nicole D. Vick is an author, public health advocate, educator, community connector, and fashion and beauty maven. She’s leveraged her lived experience, academic training, and professional expertise to engage and inspire future leaders of public health in a variety of settings. She is the author of two books. Her latest, “Push Through: 52 Week of Light in Tough Times” is a guided journal for women who want better for themselves and their communities.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I am a native of South Los Angeles. I grew up with my parents and younger brother and had the privilege of spending quite a bit of time with my maternal great grandparents, grandparents, and aunt. I learned a lot from them. They really shaped me into who I am today by exposing me to remnants of Black history. There were tons of old Ebony and Jet magazines in their homes, old photos of them in various settings, awards, books, newspaper clippings, and ceremonial garments. I learned from them that we were so much more than what mass media portrayed us to be. As I got older, I learned that they were Black history. My grandfather was a firefighter and integrated the fire station at Los Angeles International Airport. He’s even featured in a museum.
Professionally I have spent close to 20 years doing public health work at the local level. I love public health so much I also teach it to undergraduate students and have been for the last 14 years.
On top of all of that, I’m a mother of an adult child, an author, a public speaker, creator and host of two video podcasts, a real estate investor, a pop-up shop host, and community activist. I also have a love of nail polish and nail art that has been a source of self-care and mental wellness for me that I am working to share with others.
Someone once called me a multi-hyphenate, and after I Googled the word to learn what it meant, I decided that it was an accurate description of who I am. I have my hands in many different things, but all of it is tied to wellness. My professional work focuses on community wellness and everything else I do is focused on self-care and self-esteem. I feel led to do this work because of my family history and my lived experience.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
When I first began my freelance career, I watched what other people did and followed their lead. I gave myself a catchy name, joined influencer groups, and followed all the trends. In some instances, following someone else’s lead isn’t a bad thing at all, but in my case, I ended up pigeon-holing myself. It took a while to break from the box that I had put myself in, but I realized it was very important to be myself and not what I thought people wanted me to be. In this era, authenticity is very important to customers.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the biggest mistakes I made early on was worrying about what other people were doing and lamenting that I wasn’t as popular or successful as they were. The biggest mistake any business owner can make is focusing on what other people are doing. I paid too much attention to how many followers they had and how many products they sold and wondered why I didn’t have their level of success. I had to learn to focus on carving my own niche and doing the work to improve my business. Worrying about what others were doing was a waste of time.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I never thought I’d be able to share my hobby of polishing my nails with the world in a way that could touch on my professional expertise as a public health practitioner. The concepts of self-care and wellness have become so watered down and commercialized, rendering them meaningless. Everyone talks about self-care, but no one really understands what it means to stop and take the time to create a self-care strategy for themselves. Also, for many people, the ideal self-care strategy is a spa day or a trip to a tropical destination, which is unattainable for so many people. Because of this, people don’t even bother integrating self-care into their lives because they feel like they don’t have the money or the time to do so. Not having a self-care strategy in place sets people up for failure because there’s nowhere to place the stress and anxiety that comes with navigating daily life.
I began polishing my nails and sharing my creations on social media back in 2016. At that time, it was just something that I enjoyed doing. There was no larger purpose or goal back then. I come from a family of fashion and beauty experts, and I’m certain my love for nail polish is an extension of that. My great-grandmother was a licensed cosmetologist and co-owned a beauty salon in South Central Los Angeles back in the 1930s. My aunt had an amazing sense of style and had her own indie makeup brand for a short time. My daughter just finished esthetician school. I see the art that I create with nail polish as an extension of my family.
I recently learned that what I am doing has a deeper meaning and the potential for greater impact. I came across two journal articles that focus on self-care for Black women written by Drs. Paris B. Adkins-Jackson, Jocelyn Turner-Musa, and Charlene Chester. They did a study on 223 black women and found that the role of stress on their health can be reduced by self-care strategies. Self-care for Black women can be the difference between life and death, and if I can play some part in helping women learn to take time for themselves, I believe I will be fulfilling my life’s mission.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
- Put yourself first. The most important relationship you will ever have is the one you have with yourself. You are no good to anyone else if your mental and physical health are subpar.
- Rest. We have all subscribed to the grind culture. The idea that you always have to be busy in order to be productive was the prevailing thought of the day. I’m so glad we have moved past that way of thinking and have embraced the importance of rest as a self-care strategy.
- Allow others to help you. The same grind culture that had us working ourselves to death also made us feel bad if we needed help. We were supposed to be self-sufficient, independent silos. To ask for help was to admit failure. It’s hard to shift from that way of thinking but it’s very important to have a circle of trustworthy friends and family that you can call on for assistance when needed. It’s also good practice to be willing and ready to help others when needed as well so that you’re not always taking from others.
- Do the best you can with what you’ve got. Women have an innate ability to make miracles happen with very little resources and time.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Since I’m a firm believer of social justice and public health principles, the biggest movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most people, would be to lift people out of poverty. The biggest predictor of poor health is poverty; programs like universal basic income, free health care, and a livable wage would do a lot in helping people have a higher standard of living and be happier and healthier.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- There will be times when you have no idea what you’re doing and that’s okay because no one else knows either. When I started, I had to create my own website and edit my own videos because I didn’t have money to pay someone. The upside is that I acquired new skills which is always a good thing. As I got more funding, I was able to pay experts to take of those things for me.
- Don’t worry about logos or catchy business names, make sure your plan is solid first. I spent a lot of time picking a name for my brand and years later ended up using my own name as my brand. Logos and catchy names should come after your plan is solid and you have the funding to hire experts to create them for you.
- Your brand doesn’t have to be one thing. You are the brand and the force that brings everything together. I have so many business interests: public health, social justice, plus size fashion, nail art and nail care, and economic development. They are very different, but if you notice, all are focused on wellness.
- Be careful who you hire, take advice from, and look up to. There are a lot of people that are out there with the sole purpose of taking advantage of new business owners. They often promise unbelievable results in exchange for your hard-earned money. Check references, do your research, and ask lots of questions. Ultimately, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Your friends and family are not your customers, don’t get upset when they don’t buy what you’re selling. Find the people that love your brand and focus on them.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
I’m a vegan and quite passionate about it, but I would say that environmental changes are of most concern to me, particularly because of environmental racism. Issues of climate change, pollution, the global movement of goods, and other environmental issues will be shouldered by communities that are most vulnerable and with less power.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
My website is www.nicoledvick.com but I’m most active on Instagram. My main page is @nicoledvick and my nail polish page is @nailedbystylevicksen
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Nicole D Vick On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.