97 – Focused Growth Investments, Google Premier Partner SADA’s Pioneering Alliance Program

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For the 97th episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering, I welcomed Nikki Harley, Director of Strategic Alliance at SADA, a global leader in business and technology consulting services, and a Google Cloud Premier Partner. In this episode, Nikki and I discuss the focused growth investments by Google Premier Partner, SADA, pioneering its own Alliance Program.

In her role, Nikki oversees technology partnerships across North America and is responsible for steering strategic initiatives that advance enterprise transformation through innovative cloud-based solutions. Prior to joining SADA, Nikki led channel partnerships and technology alliances for a B2B SaaS company, focused on document management and business processes in the cloud. 

I was excited to have Nikki as a guest as I worked very closely with SADA while at Microsoft and recognize their leadership as a partner that “got it right” working with tech giants like Microsoft and Google. SADA has become a preeminent partner and trailblazer in the Google Ecosystem and recently focused on growth through investment in its own Alliances Program to drive increased client value and market differentiation.

In this episode, you’ll learn more about SADA as a top Google partner, how Nikki’s team is building out its own Alliances and Partner Strategy, why Saas Companies and ISV’s choose Google, Nikki’s Personal and Professional Journey thus far, and why SADA is a great place to work.

Please join me in welcoming Nikki Harley to Ultimate Guide to Partnering.

Other Episodes with Google and SADA:

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This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Ultimate Partnerships. Ultimate Partnerships helps you get the most results from your partnerships. Get Partnerships Right – Optimize for Success – Deliver Results – Ultimate Partnerships.

Transcription By Otter.AI – Please Pardon Typos Below

Vince Menzione  0:30 

Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host and for this episode of the podcast, I was delighted to welcome Nikki Harley, the Director of Strategic Alliances at SADA I’ve gotten to know SADA through my friendship with its founders going back to my early days at Microsoft, and in full disclosure, my son is an employee at SADA. In this episode you’ll learn more about SADA is a top Google partner how Nikki’s team is building out their own alliances and partner strategy, and why SADA is a great place to work. I hope you enjoy this informative interview. As much as I enjoyed getting to know Nikki Harley, Nikki, welcome to the podcast. Hey, Vince,

Nikki Harley  1:12 

Hey, Vince, thanks for having me. Very excited to be here.

Vince Menzione  1:15 

Well, I’m excited to have you as well. And welcome to Ultimate Guide to Partnering. You’re the Director of Strategic Alliances for SADA, one of Google’s preeminent partners. So I’m delighted to have you today to discuss working with Google SADA success, and how you’re continuing to iterate to drive growth through partnerships.

Nikki Harley  1:35 

Yes, thank you. Thank you. I’m very excited to be here.

Vince Menzione  1:38 

Well, I’m no stranger to SADA. So I was really excited to have you as a guest. As you know, your leader, Tony Safoian, is a friend. And he’s been a three-time guest on Ultimate Guide to Partnering we go way back to the days when I was working at Microsoft. And we got to collaborate quite a bit together. But for our listeners that maybe missed those episodes, can you briefly tell us about SADA

Nikki Harley  2:00 

Absolutely. You know, it sounds like you and Tony obviously got connected back when we had our Microsoft practice, we actually divested that a few years back. And so we’re now 100% focused on Google Cloud. So we’re Google’s number one partner two years in a row, going for a three-peat here, hopefully, you know, we’re focused on helping customers get the most out of Google Cloud and their investment in GCP. So you know, whether that’s from technical account management and cost optimization, you know, your typical stuff like infrastructure modernization, app development, and some new programs that I’m excited to talk about a little bit later, like our SAAS Alliance program, I

Vince Menzione  2:34 

can’t wait to dive in. I mean, to time partner The year is quite a big honor. And what really excites me is what you’re doing now to drive critical growth within the business. Can you share with our listeners? Why your role, alliances, and why that’s a critical factor in your continued growth of SADA?

Nikki Harley  2:56 

Yeah, no, absolutely. So yeah, I head up our Alliances here at SADA and joined in in the fall of last year. So it’s an entirely new roll new business unit for SADA, but it’s such a big focus for us going into you know, 2021. And, and beyond, you know, and kind of a for a few different reasons. When you think of ISVs and sass companies and digital natives, it’s kind of a vertical in and of itself. So, you know, it’s a large focus for us. It’s a large focus for Google Cloud. And then when you think about the solutions that these ISVs and SaaS companies are providing, most often, they’re providing, you know, very valuable solutions for B2B, our customer base, and so being able to provide them with those solutions, that’s, you know, for existing customers is also super important. So my role here I’m focused on managing the relationships with all of these third-party solutions. And really, that means everything outside of Google Cloud itself, right because that’s, that’s obviously very well managed by everybody here at SADA. So you know, I head up a small team here that are focused on you know, whole partner lifecycle, right like the recruitment, the vetting the go-to-market Cosell co-marketing, and ensuring that these alliances that we enter into are are mutually successful in the long run.

Vince Menzione  4:09 

You know, the work you do you know, I’ve had several guests on this podcast from the channel experts. I call them people like Jay McBain from Forrester and others. And we talk about this what I call partner play that’s happening, right, because the decisions are being made across a there are several different points solutions that we’re trying to integrate. There are people getting several people that are involved in the decision process. And partnering with other organizations is just a key accelerant to growth, wouldn’t you say?

Nikki Harley  4:40 

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I think obviously, especially when you’re looking at enterprises, right? Like their tech stack is so complex, and you know, it all varies based on where they’re at in their business. But there’s certainly no like a solution that is one size fits all and solves every problem. So finding the right type of solutions to partner with and to go to Mars. Get with is so, so crucial and important for longevity and success of all of our joint customers. So it’s such an important area. And I’m so glad that we’re investing in this area going forward.

Vince Menzione  5:12 

So what do you look for in a great partner? Like? What’s the value for them partnering with your organization?

Nikki Harley  5:18 

Yeah, I mean, what we look for in our partners, right is kind of First and foremost, what we were just speaking to right, like solutions that help solve valuable problems for our customers. So like, what gaps do they solve? Do they have a very clear value proposition? Like, do they know where they fit in the market solutions that are built on GCP? Obviously, being 100% focused on Google, that’s, you know, a pretty important factor, or if they’re not built on GCP? Do they help drive GCP consumption for our customers, and then ones that are, you know, open to revenue, share models and opportunities for service revenue, and things like that. Because all of these things are so incredibly important from being able to solve problems for our customers, being able to jointly help our largest most strategic partner being Google Cloud, and then also having an additional revenue-generating business unit here at SADAin the form of these Alliance partnerships. And then in terms of what’s the value, right, kind of two-part question, their value is, you know, we’re, like we talked about before, very closely aligned with Google Cloud. And so a lot of these ISVs and sass companies that are looking to grow and scale in the Google ecosystem, of course, I would argue that SADA is the best partner to help them do that. So that in addition to what we’re doing, in terms of investing in these types of solutions, and we can kind of talk about that more in a bit. But our new SAS Alliance program that we announced earlier this year, is such a huge differentiator for SADAand something we’re really, really proud of, and, hopefully, you know, that’s bringing a lot of value to these, these ISVs. And hopefully, they see that,

Vince Menzione  6:47 

you know, would you mind peeling back on that a little bit? Like, do you want to talk to us a little bit more about that new program that you have?

Nikki Harley  6:52 

Yeah, so you know, when when you think about ways that you can partner with these types of solutions, right? Like typically, you’re just looking at the rev share models, right? Like you’re looking at certain margins and rebates and that kind of thing. We’re kind of taking a guess that is important, but in a different approach to this, in the sense of our SaaS Alliance program very literally allows us to reinvest these ISVs and sass companies investment in GCP, into the partner program to allow us to fund things like joint go to market and co-selling. So, you know, when you think about what SADA does at its core, right, like, at the end of the day, we’re a Google Google Cloud reseller. And so the money that we’re making off of those deals where we’re profiting, typically that goes into other areas of the business, whatever finance and accounting do with that, who knows, but in this very unique scenario, when they are a sort of customer that is an ISV, or SaaS company, and one that we see the value in and, you know, we realize that will help solve problems for our customers, we’re actually taking the profits that we make off of that off of reselling their GCP and apply that very literally, to the partnership to allow us to have essentially a pool of funds to do things like, you know, joint webinars, getting them on our cloud and clear podcasts, doing some co-selling and co-marketing, but in some scenarios, even having like dedicated sales headcounts, and then, of course, Alliance management, which is so incredibly important. Having that go-to point of contact to be the internal champion for these solutions internally at SADA and within Google,

Vince Menzione  8:23 

you know, I find that refreshing because I work with a lot of organizations, and some of them struggle with partnering, and seems like you’re doing some things here specifically to optimize the partnerships, you’re investing in resources go to market, it’s so important to get down to what I call the rubber meets the road. Right? You can say we have a great Alliance. But then what does that mean? It sounds like you’ve invested in headcount as well.

Nikki Harley  8:45 

Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that’s very important, right? Like we need to have somebody who’s there and focused on making these partnerships successful, right? Like, obviously, we have everybody here at SADA focused on on the Google partnership, but we need to have people who are focused on the partnership with these other third parties and ISVs, to make sure that they’re successful, because throwing out a joint blog and saying, we’re partners doesn’t necessarily always mean we’re going to see some joint success. There definitely is a lot of legwork involved in getting a partnership off the ground. And so having the resources in terms of funding and headcount, I think is so important. And we’re already starting to see some great success from this program that we just, we kind of soft-launched it in Q4 of last year, and officially launched publicly here in q1 of 2021. And we’re already seeing so much great success in terms of collaborating on co-marketing and driving pipeline, and actually one of our alliance sales reps close their, their first deal yesterday. So we’re very excited about that. And I think you actually know that person, but

Vince Menzione  9:47 

I don’t know I do. I know anybody gets on. Well, for full disclosure, my son is an employee of SADA. Thank you for mentioning his big wins.

Nikki Harley  10:00 

Yes, I was so so happy about that. So yeah, I’m in a great job.

Vince Menzione  10:04 

But it is, you know, and I independent from that conversation it does, it is so important to drive that level of specificity and focus at the account level. And a lot of organizations miss this. So I’m really calling this out for all organizations to get it right when they build their partner-to-partner place that you really need to make the right investments and resources to drive that success. And I love the work that you’re doing there. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  10:26 

thank you.

Vince Menzione  10:27 

So what about partners that struggle working with you and your team? Like, what would you tell them? Now, if you could I’ve, we’ve all had these, right, where we had the Kumbaya meeting, and we’re, we think we’re off to a great start. And then nothing happens. Like, what is your been your experiences there?

Nikki Harley  10:43 

Yeah. I mean, I think it’s a few different things. Right. And I think they’re, they’re all things that will, that can be ironed out in time. But a lot of times when we’re having these conversations, and to your point, like having this Kumbaya meeting of, Oh, this is so great, the alignments there, you know, absolutely, let’s get after it, and go, and then we look back after the quarter, and it’s like, well, what happened? Again, it’s not, I think, goes back to not having that level of investment into the partnership. And when we’re able to apply that investment, then then we’re really able to hit the ground running and go. But another really big way that we’re trying to solve these problems, right, like in terms of being able to partner with more solutions, and a lot of times these, these companies are, are bigger than us like when you look at SADA, we’re only what, like 350 people right now. So you know, we’re Google’s Partner of the Year, two years in a row. But we’re, we’re certainly not the size of Accenture, or Deloitte or Atos. And so they’re coming to us and into these meetings and saying, great, let’s a partner and do all these great things. But oh, here’s, here’s our partner program. And it requires 100 engineers to get trained and certified on our solution. Yeah. And it’s like, shoot, we haven’t even had a win yet. So we don’t even have 100 engineers that are able to be taken off of these projects, we can’t staff enough for the Google projects that we have, we certainly don’t have them sitting around waiting to be able to do these nonbillable projects and certifications. So it kind of puts us in a tough spot when you know, we want to partner we see that we see the value, we see the long term vision, but we’re just not there yet in terms of size because they’re used to the Deloitte, Accenture, and ATOS of the world. And that’s how they built out their programs. And it doesn’t always meet in terms of scale. You know,

Vince Menzione  12:23 

you mentioned a point here, I love the fact you know, you, I believe that SADA punches above its own weight, right, in terms of the size of your organization, yet, you are the top partner within the google sphere, it says quite a bit about doing the right things versus trying to do everything

Nikki Harley  12:41 

100%, like, you can’t be the expert in everything, you just can’t. And we pride ourselves on being the experts in Google Cloud. And so if we try to do everything, we’re gonna end up failing and a lot of things, right, we want to be really good at a few things. And I think that’s so important from a partner perspective, and also an ISV perspective and SAS perspective, when they don’t have a clear value proposition. And there, they’re trying to be thought of everything. It’s like, oh, here, we can help in all of these different use cases that, you know, span across all of these different verticals. And across SMB and enterprise. It’s like, well, shoot, you’ve just named everything. How do we know when to when to work with you and when to call you? So having very clear, very clear definitions of where you’re experts and where you’re not? I think it’s so important on both sides.

Vince Menzione  13:28 

Yeah, I think that is so true. You’ll make investments in some areas that just don’t reap the same level of rewards.

Nikki Harley  13:34 

Yep, absolutely. And I think, you know, one other point in terms of like, how we can better partner and ways that we can make sure that we don’t have this Kumbaya meeting, and it doesn’t just flounder, right is making sure that all of the incentives are aligned to drive the desired outcomes. A lot of times, we talk about co-selling together, right, and bringing our teams together to work on accounts to try to get it off the ground. I think that’s, you know, a really easy way to get a partnership going. But if the incentives aren’t there, then it doesn’t work. So when comp neutrality is great, we hear that word a lot, right? And I’m all for it, if they are not comping neutral, then you know, I definitely see it having a slower start than ones that are, but take it a step further than that, right, like make it partner first, not just neutral, make it partner first. So that way, we are incentivized to bring you in as much as possible, you are incentivized to bring us in as much as possible. And we can both sides can see that level of investment. And I can tell you, you know, firsthand from being thought of the ones that have been partner first, versus the ones who aren’t, they’re the ones that are partner first or taking off and going and the pipeline, they’re so much greater than it is in other areas. And so I can’t harp on that enough, making sure that whatever we’re talking about in terms of CO selling and co-marketing, like let’s make sure that all the incentives are there to drive that outcome. And it not just be you know, words that we’re actually putting those words into action.

Vince Menzione  14:59 

I am so You on this point, right? The level of investment in the partnership is just so critical to success. And to your point, it’s okay to be cost neutral doesn’t mean anything to me, like, what motivates me is my paycheck. If I’m a seller, and you’re right, sometimes you have to it has to be a forcing function at times to jumpstart the partnership.

Nikki Harley  15:19 

Absolutely, you have to invest a lot of times on the front end.

Vince Menzione  15:22 

Absolutely. And, you know, I love to peel back, you know, I do spend a lot of time self admittedly, in the Microsoft ecosystem, a lot of the podcasts that you see so far have been in Microsoft, I’m very intrigued by what Google is doing, candidly, and the work that Saad is doing, because I do believe that Google is in a fast track to success. Talk to our listeners a little bit about what it’s like to be in the Google ecosystem. And why do you think more ISVs? And sass companies are choosing Google Cloud?

Nikki Harley  15:51 

Yeah, so I mean, two-part question. First, in terms of what it’s like to be in the Google ecosystem, it’s really all I know, right? Like, I got my start in tech, completely diving headfirst into the Google Cloud ecosystem. And obviously, I’m still here, I absolutely love it. I can’t imagine entering into any other ecosystem, right? Like, it’s definitely growing very, very quickly. And from what I hear from, from others, who are very familiar in, you know, the Microsoft and AWS world, we still have a ways to go, right, like we were kind of last to the party. And so maybe we’re experiencing some growing pains that other cloud providers went through, however, many years ago, but it’s growing and scaling so quickly. And, you know, I think they really get the partner aspect, right. Right. Like they’re not, they’re not looking at these solutions, like vendors, they’re, they’re looking at them as true partners, and the level that they are investing in these ISVs to on the front end is, you know, is really incredible. So, you know, I can’t imagine being in any other ecosystem. And I think it’s really going to take off here soon, in terms of like, you know, why more of these, you know, SAS companies, ISVs, digital natives are choosing Google Cloud is, I think, at the end of the day comes down to the kind of three different things right, like just talked about the partnership aspect, right. And the level of investment that Google is making in these types of businesses is incredible. They have so many different, you know, startup programs, and digital native programs, and all of these things to kind of help get things started in terms of credits and go to market and all sorts of great stuff, the commercial aspect, right? Like the cost optimization of all this. And then thirdly, and a lot of scenarios, kind of the deciding factor is is the tech like, this is something where we’re seeing more and more a lot of the CTOs and engineers being the ones who are driving the decision making and if they’re in the room, and they’re making the decisions here, they’re going to choose GCP all day. So AWS, I think was probably the go-to back when a lot of these were starting right, and we’re starting to see more and more of that Move over. It’s interesting to see still kind of being somewhat new to these different ecosystems. I can’t imagine working in any other ecosystem. And I have no doubt that it’s going to take off.

Vince Menzione  17:57 

Yeah, you know, as, as you were discussing this, I was thinking a little bit about the three hyper scalars. And each of them came from a different aspect of the business, right, Microsoft came from the enterprise, you know, the operating system world. AWS came at it from a swipe a credit card, take shares of our, our platform, because we’re a big retailer, we got a lot of data centers, and then Google obviously came at it from search. And I remember having Eric Rosencrantz as a guest way back early days of the podcast, talking about the engineering effort, the Google engineering is outstanding. And some of the technological advances have come right out of Google, right? I think about Kubernetes as an example that

Nikki Harley  18:33 

Yep, no, absolutely. I mean, I am certainly not technical by nature. So it’s always funny how I end up in a lot of these conversations and, and I look over to miles, and he’s just nerding out with it with a lot of these conversations, for lack of a better word. It’s really cool. I’ve learned so much just on that side of it, right? Like when I first joined the Google ecosystem, I remember hearing all these crazy words Kubernetes to do all this stuff. I’m like, what world and I like Did I just enter into but you know, that’s definitely the day to day now. So it’s fun been learning about the side of it, for sure. Well, you

Vince Menzione  19:06 

mentioned miles, I was thinking about two things. I was thinking about the fact that Google has made a lot of investments and resources to build out their enterprise business. And I think you’ve seen that some people from Microsoft, some friends of ours are over Google Now. And then also you’ve made investments as well. You talked about Myles I think he was a key hire for your organization or you continue to invest in really up-leveling the talent at sodic. Can you talk to our listeners just a little bit about that?

Nikki Harley  19:32 

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, that’s something like especially the culture here at SADAright like people with everything, very important to start making some really heavy investments and heavy hitters from these different areas. Right. So Myles Ward, our CTO, formerly with Google prior to that was with AWS, especially on the tech side, right like with our solutions architecture team, that’s a brand new team that started around the time I joined last fall, headed up by Kyle who also former Googler Now that team is, gosh, I don’t even want to guess now like 14 strong. So it’s just crazy the level of work of investment we’re making, especially on the technology side, right? And then in terms of customer success, that’s another huge initiative for us here, right? We hired John Campbell, who previously was at Rackspace. And he’s our head of customer success, and has, you know, several different teams reporting up to him from our customer success team from workspace, our technical account management team for Google Cloud, and then our client, partner executive team that’s focused on the success of a lot of our large strategic customers. So he’s building out a great team and a great organization. So hiring from within, absolutely, but you know, sometimes it makes sense to go and find these subject matter experts from other areas and bring them over and invest in that talent.

Vince Menzione  20:46 

And then when you have the talent there, it’s also you know, and I want to dive in on this, because I do know, in fact, it’s odd, it is known as a great place to work. Can you talk about what you do to retain that top talent?

Nikki Harley  20:58 

You know, I think there’s definitely something to be said, for companies who make very heavy investments in culture and the people, it’s something that goes beyond pay, yes, everyone wants to be paid fairly and pay well, which sadly absolutely does. But it takes it a step further. And they really invest in the culture, one of the best companies, if not the best company I’ve ever worked for, right. And I previously was in sports. And so it’s like, sometimes it’s hard to compare sports culture too, you know, just your average corporate America. Right, it’s a little unfair, but they do so much in terms of investing for their people, you know, they, every week, do some sort of like mindfulness session where you know, helping kind of folk helping us focus and stay grounded and stay mindful and you know, kind of get our minds off of work for a little bit. They do all sorts of fun stuff in terms of like, sending us stuff in the mail, like for International Women’s Day and month, in February, they sent us these like snack boxes from women-owned businesses, and in terms of like investments with certifications, and all sorts of stuff. So I can’t say enough amazing things about the culture here at SADA, they absolutely invest in their people and help us grow and scale. And I will say in the nine months that I’ve been here, I have grown so so tremendously, and it has everything to do with the fact that leadership really puts value in their people and gives them those opportunities to grow. And let you know, says yes to some things that some crazy ideas, right that maybe leadership at other companies wouldn’t be so keen to do. So I can’t say enough great things about working here and just the culture that they’ve been able to build, especially in a remote COVID world.

Vince Menzione  22:37 

Well, you bring up a really good point, I was thinking about this as well, it’s like, you know, we have all had to learn to work very differently. You and I were talking about this before we got started today. And working remote requires a different level of focus and attention to the people in your organization than it did back in the day. It sounds like you’re doing some really innovative things around this. And it has been a time like no other for all of us. It’s been over a year now since this all started. What else are you seeing now that you didn’t expect to see since this time began?

Nikki Harley  23:07 

You know, I’ll say specifically and kind of my role in my day to day, something that’s really, really interesting is the ability to build and develop new partnerships in this, you know, remote world, it’s something had you asked me, you know, a year and a half ago, can you build out a partner program from scratch and scale it without being able to travel or, you know, meet people in person? Have these types of get-to-know-you conversations that I would have said no, absolutely not. And when you think about how you’re meeting these people face to face on calls, like now people’s calendars are booked up, back to back to back to back. And so there is really no small talk, it’s always like you get on the call, and it’s right to the business. And so it’s kind of hard to develop relationships, being able to see the partnership side of the organization, not only within SADA but within, you know, some of these other, you know, companies that we’re working with is kind of amazing. I read an article, I think it was last week that talked about 50% of partner professionals and 2020 got a raise or for promotion, and partner organizations grew by 1/3, like 36%, it’s really interesting. Like, I wouldn’t have thought that going into this pandemic, I would have thought that the strategic alliances and partnerships and all of that stuff would have slowed due to it. But it’s actually increasing. And I think for good reason. Like we’re realizing that maybe we need to leverage other relationships that we don’t have and think about how we work in a different way. And that’s really been interesting to see.

Vince Menzione  24:36 

It’s really great to hear you say that, in fact, I haven’t seen that study, I would love to see it and maybe share it with our listeners, because I’ve been saying all along since this started that partnerships will be a key accelerant to growth and ultimately survival. Right? Because this our times are so different than they were before.

Nikki Harley  24:51 

Mm-hmm. No, absolutely. I think it’s so important. And you know, as I said before, I’m just so glad that that thought I’ve decided to invest in this area and has you given me the opportunity to head this up and, and get things going because I think once this does get going, it’s like a rocket ship to the moon.

Vince Menzione  25:07 

I love that analogy. I love that analogy. So I want to pivot here for a little bit Nikki is, as you might know, I’m always fascinated with how people got to a particular spot in their life in their career. What was the spark that got you to this spot at SADA?

Nikki Harley  25:23 

You know, it’s funny. Like I was saying before, I feel like I always end up in, situations that I would have never expected. And I always seem to be living very far outside of my comfort zone, I look back, you know, growing up, and I grew up with a single mom and two sisters never watching a week of sports in my life growing up until I, you know, went to college and got into college football, and you know, all the great things there, but somehow landed a job at the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA and worked there for several years. And, you know, I knew nothing about basketball wasn’t necessarily passionate about it, right? So it’s kind of funny where you end up and then the same thing here. Like, I’m certainly not very technical by nature. And so the fact that I’m working in tech and having a lot of these conversations on a day-to-day, it’s just so funny, but I think to like, to my core, I’m just, you know, always wanting to challenge myself and get outside of my comfort zone and learn something new. There’s something about I don’t know, the chaos that I guess I kind of thrive in, in some scenarios. And so when I made the jump into tech, from sports, I wasn’t necessarily sure about it, but a turned out to be the absolute best decision of my life. And you know, they have fun saying in Atlanta sports that if you can sell sports in Atlanta, you can sell anything, anywhere. one of those things, where who, know where we’re all end up next. But I, I find that in this industry specifically, there’s always a new challenge. There’s always something new to learn. And, and that’s what I really love about it. So

Vince Menzione  26:50 

So talk to me about you talked about being raised by a single mom, what about was there a spark that got you like, was there something that sets you off in a direction? You obviously were a very motivated individual? And I was just kind of curious about that, you know,

Nikki Harley  27:04 

I don’t know, I don’t know, if there was necessarily Spark, I think it just boils down to, you know, being totally honest, I kind of had to be a hard worker, right, like single mom like working multiple jobs to make ends meet and a lot of scenarios, and so went off to college, and I worked two jobs, my entire time through college. So really three jobs when you think about school plus, plus work. And so I’ve always just really lived in kind of the grind mode. And so anytime where I have downtime, and like, relaxing time, I’m like, What is this? But you know, I think there’s something about building something from scratch and creating something that’s that you’ve kind of left a stamp on. And I’m, I always talk about my Enneagram. And I don’t know if you know what that is, but it’s kind of like a personality test. And they, it’s different, because they ask you questions based on how you’re motivated. Right? And, and I’m an Enneagram Three, which basically means that I’m a really hard worker, and I, I do things to not only motivate myself, but also to kind of please others, in a sense, not necessarily that I’m a people pleaser, but that I really enjoy making people proud. Like, I get so much satisfaction out of that, right. And so that’s just kind of how I live my life every day. It’s not only to make myself proud but to make my mom proud to make my husband proud to make my family proud. And so it’s just it’s I don’t know, there’s just this constant, constant grind, I guess, within me that has just been instilled from a young age and probably no shaking that.

Vince Menzione  28:33 

I love your motivation. I just think it’s wonderful, actually. But what about advice? Was there any best piece of advice that you received along this journey? I mean, working two jobs in school starting out in the sports business? Was there anything that you received along the way that kind of got you on the right track,

Nikki Harley  28:52 

I will say hands down, probably the best professional advice that I’ve ever received. I remember the conversation very vividly, I was working at the Atlanta Hawks at the time, and I was still working another job on the weekends. And so with sports, there are obviously games on the weekend, and you’re having to work outside of the typical nine to five and I had to essentially get somebody to cover my shift at the Hawk, so I could go work my weekend job. And my boss sat me down the next Monday and was like, you know, I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it in the game. You know, I know that you got your position covered if you will, but how long are you going to do this for and just kind of talk to him about being responsible for myself and my bills and my student loans and you know, just being a little scared to kind of let go of the second income. And he was like, You know what, Nikki, at some point, like, you just have to bet on yourself. And that was the best advice. Like, he was like, you know, go out, take a walk, like, figure it out, figure out what you want, but he was like, I know you and if you bet on yourself, you will find a way to make this work. And so quit my weekend job and went all in and at the job at the Hawks and of course I He was right. I absolutely did amazing. And, you know, I look back on that conversation and it’s like, I just, I bet on myself now in every scenario if there’s ever a question of, can I do this? Or should I do this? And will this work out? It’s, you know, if I’m putting all of my, my effort into it, I know, it’ll work out, I’m gonna bet on myself. And I know that, that I can make anything happen if I put my mind to it.

Vince Menzione  30:20 

I love that bet on yourself. And, you know, I had a Dr. Michael Gervais, who’s just an amazing sports psychologist, and he his frame is, all we need is within us already. Right? We tend to doubt ourselves so so often.

Nikki Harley  30:33 

Yeah. And that and that doubt, you know, I’m sure is there for a reason, right? But being able to look past it, and push forward and just give it your all, you know, the worst that can happen is that you fail, and then you learn from that. Absolutely.

Vince Menzione  30:47 

Great learnings. So if you had a billboard, that, you know, we could expose out on, what is it 85? What’s the big interstate highway and the 85? Yeah, yeah. So we could post this big billboard, and it’s going to be in the high traffic zone if it’ll help. I know, Atlanta has a lot of traffic firsthand. What would this billboard that you had that you wanted to project out to the world? What would it say on

Nikki Harley  31:11 

you know, I think I listen, you know, obviously, to a few of your podcasts. And I think somebody alluded to this common phrase a few episodes ago, but you know, it’s work hard and be nice to people. And, and I think there’s, there’s something to be said, for people who, who put in their, their effort, and they work hard. And there, you know, proud of what they do. And continue to stay humble and kind and approach everything with grace, because you truly don’t know people’s struggles. And until you’ve kind of learned about them and, and what they’ve gone through making assumptions. And you know, pointing fingers obviously isn’t, isn’t the kind of person that I would ever want to be. And so just reminding people that, that everybody’s going through their own struggle, and if we all just work hard, and, you know, take everything with a little bit of grace, I think we’ll be in good shape.

Vince Menzione  31:57 

I really liked that Billboard. and work hard and be nice to people. I love it. And you’re right about people’s struggles. We don’t know. We don’t know what other people are going through in this so insightful. So, Nikki, you are having a dinner party and we have vaccinated this point, let’s hope and maybe when we’re socially distancing or whatever, we’re wearing masks if we need to, but you’re having this wonderful dinner party or you’re planning it, and you can invite any three guests from the present or the past to the dinner party? Whom would you invite, and why?

Nikki Harley  32:29 

So I have to ask you if you want my like, very honest, but complicated, probably require some explanation answer or if you want my answer that everybody would understand without much explanation.

Vince Menzione  32:41 

I think the explanations Okay, is it? Well, you take me through it, you take me through it?

Nikki Harley  32:47 

Well, you know, so I was thinking about this, this question I like, I don’t know why I struggle with this question so much. But I was like, you know, what, like, stop thinking about some brilliant answer, like, what is the honest answer? And the honest answer is kind of, it’s about family. And so to make a somewhat long story short, me and my husband found out very quickly after dating that our families kind of had at migration and very similar paths. And so we found out that his grandfather and my grandmother went to the same high school in a small town in Pennsylvania, and knew each other. And ironically, both families ended up moving down to South Florida, where then my mother and his parents went to rival high schools in the same County. And then both moved up to Georgia and ended up in a small suburb of Atlanta. And of course, me and my husband didn’t meet until college. But when we first started dating, I met his grandfather, and we got to talking. And you know, that’s when we found out that our parents, our grandparents were from the same small town in Pennsylvania. And he was like, oh, Betty, Yes, I remember her. I remember her really well. But she worked at the BiLo I had such a crush on her. Yeah, all these things. And my grandmother had passed at that point. And then my husband’s grandfather passed shortly after that. So you know, he didn’t see us dating for seven years, and then get married and, and all this stuff. So I just, if I could have a dinner party and pluck anybody from the past, I would, I would bring my grandma, my grandmother, my husband’s grandfather, and my husband because I think that would be such an interesting conversation.

Vince Menzione  34:19 

That’s so cool. That is so cool.

Nikki Harley  34:21 

Family is so important. And so you know, it’s we all get tied up with work and kind of the crazy in the day today. And so that’s the honest answers outside of you know, any other people that I could have met that that would I’m sure I would learn so much from, but at the end of the day, I think family is everything and I just think that would be I think that would be so fun.

Vince Menzione  34:40 

That is such a great answer. Nikki, I have to tell you, you have been an amazing guest. I just am so delighted that we got to spend some time here today. Do you have any parting comments for our listeners on how they might optimize for their success this year?

Nikki Harley  34:55 

Yeah, I mean, I think kind of going back to the approach everything with a little bit of grace. And, you know, give it you’re all. I truly think that coming out of this pandemic and this craziness, everybody’s kind of seeing a little insight into everybody’s personal lives, right. And so I think this will be much easier. And probably more people will be thinking about this kind of stuff when the world goes back to normal a little bit, but just kind of retaining some of what we learned and, and trying to see the positives out of this craziness. And that’s everybody’s kind of going through their own struggles. And, you know, just again, approaching everything with grace and working hard and working together. And when all those things are combined, I think we’ll be able to do great things I’m looking forward to this year and things going back to somewhat normal and just taking some of the lessons that we learned over this past year and applying it for the future.

Vince Menzione  35:48 

Thank you for sharing with our listeners. Nikki, thank you so much for being a guest on Ultimate Guide to Partnering.

Nikki Harley  35:52 

Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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