Nicole Cooper: Why Sixty Days With No Income Doesn’t Mean You’re Behind

A twenty-three-year-old girl is sitting up in a hotel lobby at three thirty in the morning, waiting for a woman she met two days earlier to get back from a long night out, because she and her little sister have nowhere to sleep until check-in on Saturday. She has been in Empower Network for sixty days. She hasn’t made a dollar. And she’s about ready to call the whole thing off. If you have ever measured your own effort by whether the check showed up yet, this is the story Nicole Cooper opens her session with, and it isn’t really about the girl in the lobby. It’s about you.

Nicole tells it plainly. She’s from South Central Los Angeles, not Beverly Hills, and her first instinct when a stranger’s sister needed a place to rest was suspicion. She handed over her room key anyway. Hours later, back from a night out with no money left between them, she found the girl still awake, waiting to talk. That conversation is the spine of the whole session.

What do you do when sixty days of effort still hasn’t produced a dollar?

The girl’s story came out in pieces. Raised herself since she was fourteen. Oldest of seven kids. Good at every job she’d ever taken, learning the work before anyone had to teach her, and restless because none of it had ever actually challenged her. She’d found Empower Network, felt something shift, and started meditating, smiling, noticing her own life differently for the first time. And she was still ready to walk away, because two months in, there was no income to point to.

Nicole’s answer wasn’t sympathy. It was a reframe. She pointed out that this twenty-three-year-old had spent her entire life in chaos, was finally being poured into by leaders who cared whether she grew, was experiencing a version of herself she’d never met before, and was about to quit over a metric that had nothing to do with any of that. As Nicole Cooper puts it, “riches is what you have, but wealth is who you are.” The girl wasn’t behind. She was in exactly the room she needed to be in, at exactly the moment she needed it, and the money was the last thing to show up, not the first.

Why does life run more like a scavenger hunt than a straight line to the finish?

Nicole ties this to a show she loves, the kind where a dozen teams race around the world chasing clues, and the team that hits a checkpoint first earns something called an express pass, a pass that lets them skip one obstacle later in the race. Most people treat their own goals like a road trip instead. Plug in the destination, follow the highway, arrive. Life doesn’t run that way, and neither does building something new. There are legs to the race. Clues you have to actually follow. Checkpoints you don’t get to skip just because you’re impatient to reach the one after it.

Here’s the part worth sitting with. People show up watching someone ten checkpoints ahead of them and want to be standing where that person stands, without having finished what’s sitting in front of them on leg one. Skip an instruction in an actual race and they send you back to finish it properly before you’re allowed to continue. Skip the unglamorous parts here, the discipline, the follow-through, the daily posts nobody’s watching yet, and you end up stuck on the same leg for months, wondering why nothing’s moving, when the truth is closer to a missing instruction than a missing opportunity.

What is the reward actually measuring?

Nicole names Empower Network itself as something close to an express pass, not because the work disappears, but because the mindset training and the direct coaching compress what would otherwise take years of trial and error into something you can move through fast, if you’ll actually do the work in front of you instead of the work you wish was in front of you.

your reward is not the money your reward is your development of your character your reward is connecting with your purpose your reward is building relationships with people that will change your life for the rest of your life

That line is the whole session compressed. Not because money doesn’t eventually arrive. It does, for the people who keep running the legs instead of stalling on the one they’re stuck on. But if the only thing you’re tracking is the number in your account, you’ll quit exactly when the girl in the lobby almost did, right before the leg you’re on turns into the one you needed all along. Nicole’s own path started in a much rougher place than a hotel lobby, and she’ll tell you the character built along the way mattered more than any single deposit.

This is the session to watch if you’ve been quietly deciding your own worth by a number that hasn’t shown up yet. Nicole walks through the rest of the girl’s story, the full scavenger hunt framework, and what she told a room full of people who’d just fought flight cancellations and lost luggage to be in that room at all. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

such an honor to be here to open up with you guys. Are you excited? I am so so happy to be here and you know what it's not if there's no such thing as coincidence. This is not ironic that on this past Monday night and power hour call 15 minutes before the call my good friend Tracy Walker and I get a text message saying hey girls want to host the call and I'm coming back from Target buying diapers.

I pulled over to the side of the road and I'm like called trying to call Tracy and she's not answering so I text Dave shot back I'm like yeah sure and I'm trying to get a hold of Tracy to say hey what are we gonna talk about and it never happened and we just hopped on the phone and we had a call with you guys and we had a conversation on that call. You guys how many of you were on that call on Monday night? And we encouraged you that no matter what you had to go through to get here to do what? Get here.

It's not ironic that we're in Chicago we get here on Tuesday and then there becomes this massive flood of rain right? How many of you went through canceled flights? Some of you had to take six planes, lose luggage, we had Arthur and Peter stuck in Costa Rica for 36 hours. Did you do what you had to do to get here?

Absolutely. You literally went through hell and high waters behind our hotel to get here and that says a lot and I want to talk to you guys about that tonight because I do believe in destiny. I don't believe that anything happens by chance and just when we got here you know it's amazing because you get these opportunities to get on a stage and of course a lot of us want to try to figure out what are we going to talk about and the first person I encountered when I got here set the stage for what I understood this weekend meant.

Tracy and I were standing in the lobby I guess it was like Wednesday morning and we had just come back from breakfast or doing something and a young lady walked up to Tracy and was like hi I just want to say hi and then Tracy was like well did you see Nicole and she was like oh yes yes hi Nicole hi how are you I emailed you and she started talking to me about a conversation we had and so we made some very effective calls and we had a lot of we started talking a little bit about her being here, and I always ask people, well, where did you come from?

And she shared with me where she came from, and I said, well, how did you get here? Because all the chaos was going on with the planes and everything, and she said, well, I took a train. I said, really, well, who did you come with? And she said, well, I brought my sister.

And it was a young little girl up there playing on the computer. And so I said, okay, awesome, so are you guys in this hotel? And she said, yes. And I said, well, are you going to check in?

And she said, well, honestly, we can't check in until Saturday. And so I said, well, what are you guys going to do until Saturday? It's Wednesday. And she said, oh, we're just going to sleep in the lobby.

Okay, I'm a mom of two girls, I mean, two kids, okay, five-year-old and a one-year-old. And I look up, and I see her little sister, and I'm thinking, uh-uh, this little seven-year-old needs to go rest. They just got off an Amtrak train for 15 hours. They need somewhere to sleep.

And I don't even remember her name. But what I did, I said, well, hey, we're on our way out. Take my key. Go up to the room and go rest.

And we'll talk when I get back. Now, I'm from L.A. I'm not from Beverly Hills. I'm from South Central.

Okay? So the hood side of me said, are you crazy? And then there's a little angel of God saying, Nicole, it's all about service and helping others. So I said, okay.

I went on ahead, and I'm not going to lie. I was thinking about, okay, what did I leave in a room that's valuable? Just in case, this was a little setup. And so we went out, and we actually didn't have any money.

We didn't get back until about 3.30 in the morning, and we were exhausted. And so I didn't even want to make conversation. I was just going to go to bed. I'll talk to you in the morning.

And I noticed she was sitting up waiting for me to arrive. And as I'm getting dressed, I'm just asking, what's your story? And she said, well, you know, I got in Empower 60 days ago, and I came here. I knew that I needed to come here because I need something.

And I just said, if I show up, I'll figure out if this is going to work or not. She said, I've been in 60 days. I haven't made any money. And this is going to be the determining factor of if this is what I'm going to do.

And so when I heard her say that, I was sleepy. And the hood side of me said, OK, we'll get together tomorrow. But the other angelic side of me said, sit down and listen and talk to her about her story. So we sat down, and we ended up talking for about an hour.

And I found out she's been raising herself since she was 14. She's been through a series of events, the oldest of seven kids, fighting her way through life, trying to find a chance. And she said, you know, I know I'm smart. She said, I know I have what it takes.

She said, I go on these jobs, and I get these jobs. I learn everything before they even have to teach me. I'm really good at what I do. She said, but it's not a challenge.

I want a challenge. But then she turned around and says, well, I don't know if I'm going to be able to stick in power out because I haven't made any money. I don't know what's going on. It's not working.

And so she started also telling me, but you know what? I'm meditating now. She was telling me she's meditating, and she's smiling all the time, and all these spiritual encounters she's had. And so I pointed out to her, I said, well, I see that you're trying to determine if your success.

OK. If you've accomplished anything in the past 60 days based on if you've made any money. But you've just sat here and told me that you're 23 years old. Every experience in your life until this moment has been chaos.

And you've been looking for change. And you're not being challenged. And in 60 days, since you've been in Empower with your amazing leader, she's on John Moroz's team, your amazing leaders have been pouring into you, teaching you things. You're now experiencing life like you've never experienced it before, but you're ready to quit because you haven't made your first dollar.

I said, I want you to understand that your success, and I gave her a quote that I learned a long time ago, that riches is what you have, but wealth is who you are. OK. Riches is what you have, but wealth is who you are. And I said, in you is a burning desire because you went through hell and high water to get here, willing to sleep on a couch for three nights because you knew you had to get something.

And this is the environment. OK. And this is the environment that has been cultivated in preparation for this moment for you to get exactly what you needed. And that's why you're here.

I said, so don't, I know you need to make money. Her situation is a little bleak and she's a little desperate in her situation. I said, but understand that this is exactly where you need to be to take you to the next level to get you what you need. I share that story with you because I was reminded of myself and my journey.

For those of you who don't really know me and don't know my story, like I said, from South Central, Los Angeles. And I grew up in an environment in the 80s, a lot of drugs, a lot of gangs, had a loving environment. But when you live in a certain community, there's just certain things that you succumb to. And I went through a period in my life at the age of 13 where I became very rebellious, drugs, alcohol, fighting, getting kicked out of five schools in a year, getting arrested for going back on those campuses, for doing different things.

And I spent the rest of my high school years trying to make up for all the failures that I made. But I was at a point where I didn't feel like I had a purpose in life. I didn't feel like there was anything designed for me to do because I thought I was dumb. Because I wasn't good in school.

I didn't fit in because I was weird. Well, something happened. I was in an abusive relationship and this guy basically told me, I'll take your life if you leave me. And he attempted to.

And I said, I got to do something to get out of this situation. And I started applying to colleges. And it just so happens, rejection letters I got, I got one letter that said, you've been cordially invited on academic probation to attend, it was Tuskegee University. Went to that school, ended up having a journey, and I'm standing on this stage today.

Why am I sharing that with you? Well, as she was sharing her story with me, I began to think about how many of us think about life. We think life is like a road trip. Anybody took a road trip here?

We have people who I know drove from Canada. People driving from all over. Some people drove up from Florida, California. But, you know, when you're planning a road trip, what you do is you sit down and you say, okay, I live in Los Angeles and I'm trying to get to Chicago.

And what do we do? We go to Google Maps or whatever directory we need and we get the directions and we get on the highway and we come here. And many of us feel like our life should be like a road trip. You have a destination that you want, you get the directions and you just get there.

But as I'm listening to her share her story, I realize that I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one. When I'm listening to her story, I started realizing that our life is similar to my most favorite show in the whole wide world.

Any Amazing Race fans in here? I'm a big fan of the Amazing Race. There's a trip all around the world and it gives you an opportunity to compete. And you have different …

it's like a scavenger hunt race. And what you basically do, I think it's like 10 or 12 teams and they start off … this year they start off at the … at LA, at the Griffith Observatory.

of what you need to do, they give you a certain amount of cash, and they tell you to go and get there. Whatever you have to do to get there, get there, and follow the clues that we give you. And then there's different processes in that race. There's certain times where you might leave a passport or things like that, and you end up having to go back.

There's things that happen in that process. But the way that the Amazing Race happens is there's different legs of the race, okay? I don't know how many it is. It's like 10 or 12 legs of the race.

And you're set up to have the first person that gets there, they always get a prize. Well, when you're going through the different legs of the race, they have these different things called express passes. But if you end up being the first person to the destination, they give you an express pass, and that lets you bypass one of the processes, one of the legs of the race, so that you can skip everyone else and get to the next level. And as I was listening to her story, I started thinking about that, and I said, you know what?

Our life is like the Amazing Race. See, many of us, we want to hurry up and get to that destination, and for most of you in here, you determine it by what? What's your destination for the most part? Money, right?

It's like, I want to make a whole lot of money. I get a lot of people, I only got the blog, but I want to make $10,000 in the next 30 days. What can I do? Well, the first thing you can do is get a calculator.

Do the math and tell me how many things you got, how many people, how many blog systems, sales that you have to make to get the 10 grand. And are you willing to work that? Or you can come all in, right? But we often get a lot of people who predict everything by money.

And in this business, we get started, we get excited, we see people here with the big checks, we write our first blog post, and we say, where's my check? You told me that I was going to be rich. I did five blog posts, post two things on Facebook, and I shot one video, and I haven't made 10 grand yet, right? You guys don't do that, though, right?

Not you. It's not the people that come to the event. It's the other people. But we have that idea that you start something and instantly you get those results.

Like a road trip, you'll drive a little bit, you'll do a couple of things, and you'll get to your destination. But the truth of the matter is, guys, is your life is like the Amazing Race. There's different legs of the race that you have to run. There's clues that you get, and there's rewards that you get when you get to the end of, to the check-in spot, whatever it's called.

Whenever you check in… you've done everything they told you to do you get an opportunity to go to the next leg and our lives are like that because there are certain things in our life that we have to address and go through these different legs before we can get to the ultimate destination and see some of you guys are coming in here and you're looking at people who are on the 10th leg of the race and you want to get to where they are at on the 10th leg of the race but you haven't completed everything on the first leg and when it comes down to getting to a point where you can actually get bypassed you can go to the next leg there's certain things you have to do I just recently saw an episode where they this guy got an express pass and he basically had to go find a surfboard or put it was something with a certain picture that he had to find and his ego was so huge about not using that express pass because he wanted to finish the course but see the truth is he had an express pass that he can use to get past that challenge that he was in and bypass everyone else and I was thinking about that message you know all of us are on different legs of the race some of you this is your first time in your first business some of you have been through different businesses before some of you have never really accomplished anything but you have a great desire to get to that end reward and so there's things that you have to come face to face with some of you need to learn work ethic some of you need to learn discipline some of you need lean to learn focus some of you need to learn commitment there's so many different things that you have to encounter in that process and in the amazing race if they give you certain things that you have to do and you skip any level of the instruction they send you back to finish the course before you can pass some of you keep getting stuck in the same leg over and over again you're trying to figure out why can't I move on but you're coming to us saying why I'm not making no money it's because it's instructions that you're missing that's not allowing you to finish the leg of the race so that you can be able to go through that process and you're not going to the next leg well I want to share something with you guys that I realized about where we are today because we're coming to a close and power network is your Express Pass and for the most part if there's 12 legs I've never seen anything like this before but most of you can go from the first leg to the to the at least the 11th leg pretty quickly okay and let me tell you why because you get mindset training here but if there's any challenges you face that have held you back we show you exactly what you need to confront to move on you get on the job training will you earn while you learn if you just take action and you get to make money doing it isn't that phenomenal but here's what I want you guys to understand before we close okay your reward is not the money your reward is your development of your character your reward is connecting with your purpose your reward is building relationships with people that will change your life for the rest of your life your reward is sitting down and doing every blog post your reward is sitting down and shooting those videos your reward is running that race no matter what happens and staying so focused on it that you find out that you're at the first leg of the race you're the first one to complete that leg of the race and next thing you know you'll look up and you'll be standing on this stage thank you so much guys folks obviously the income examples discussed in this video are extraordinary the income claims presented are intended to serve as a guarantee of income instead they're designed to give you an idea of what's possible success in this business requires leadership hard work and dedication since we want to help you make an informed decision we've gone above and beyond with our income disclosure document if you want to see the average earnings please visit the page at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income.php