Meet Nicole Areu

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Areu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nicole, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience is something I didn’t exactly choose — it was chosen for me. I’m a single mom of two autistic kids, and quitting isn’t an option. My kids needed, and still need, stability. Every day, I had to get back up, make things work, and keep pushing forward — not just for them, but to be a role model of the strength I wanted them to carry into their own lives.

For a long time before that, I struggled with confidence. I second-guessed myself constantly. Growing up I was told I was “overreacting” a lot. That made me ignore my gut, rush into choices from anxiety, or go along with things that didn’t feel right. Looking back, those moments of hesitation weren’t weakness — they were my intuition trying to protect me.

When I had to start over completely — no job, no references, no roadmap, no support and no village — I realized that resilience isn’t just about bouncing back. It’s about trusting your instincts and refusing to be swallowed up by setbacks. That mindset is what drives me in life and in business. It’s what I pass on to my kids, too: no matter how tough things get, you always have the power to get back up stronger.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

As someone who had a background in retail and ecommerce, I started the company Green Vegan Bags that merged my work experience with my passion. I felt that this was a very much needed store where people could confidently shop the best vegan handbags, wallets, and belts that are sustainable and high quality yet affordable. This has been an exciting adventure, as it has led me to numerous opportunities like being a gifting partner at the Latin GRAMMY® Gift Lounge with PETA last year in Miami.

Beyond this, I work with small business owners who feel stuck or stretched thin by trying to do it all. Although I have been working with small business owners for years, I’m preparing to officially and publicly launch my site very soon. My focus is to guide entrepreneurs to clarity and give fractional support around ecommerce, digital marketing, and operation streamlining so that they can focus in their zone of genius and grow.

At the core of it all is support in removing a struggle. Whether it’s making it easy to look incredible with vegan handbags that save animals and the planet, or helping women entrepreneurs streamline the chaos so they can thrive.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

There are three skills that I think have been the most impactful in my life. The good news is that I don’t believe that these are inherited, I think that they are skills that can be practiced by anyone that really wants to make a change in their lives.

Consistency is the cornerstone of success. You can’t rely on feeling inspired — you have to build habits and systems that keep you moving even when you’d rather quit or give up. It’s not about waiting for the feeling or for inspiration to strike — it’s about showing up, day after day, even when you have no motivation and it feels uncomfortable. If you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl but just keep moving forward consistently because that daily effort compounds. What most people call “overnight success” is really years of consistent effort stacking up until the results finally show.

Then there is resilience. Resilience taught me to get back up no matter how hard life knocked me down — and there were times when it knocked me down hard. I really believe that success isn’t the product of success, it is built on failure and the ability to keep going and adjusting accordingly. Resilience sparks my curiosity to learn from setbacks instead of being defeated by them.

And finally, what I deem to be a crucial life skill — customer service. I was lucky to develop this skill early on and have carried throughout my life. From my first string of retail jobs, I learned to read people quickly, and de-escalate tense situations — and as anyone that has worked with the public can tell you, it can get pretty tense sometimes! It also showed me how listening and caring can turn an initially bad experience into a great one and turn upset customers or clients into lifelong supporters. It’s a life skill that applies everywhere, not just in business.

My advice? Don’t worry about being perfect or waiting for the perfect timing. Focus on bouncing back quickly, treating people like they matter — because they do — and finding a structure and stick to it day after day. Those three qualities will carry you far.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I believe it’s much more effective to lean into your strengths than to pour all your energy into fixing your weaknesses. Our natural strengths usually point to our purpose — and when we honor them, life feels more authentic and joyful. If we’re constantly chasing what we’re not good at, it’s like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

I used to always try to make fun, shaped vegan baked goods for my kids, like my mom did. I think that I thought that this is what moms were supposed to do so I kept trying for years. But every attempt was a Pinterest fail. One Easter, I baked a bunny cake in a bunny shaped pan, and it came out looking like the Easter Bunny of death. It tasted great but it was a huge mess, cost a lot for the pan and decorations. Plus I really don’t enjoy cooking much, to me its a huge chore like laundry, so why keep going through this? I can bake a decent cake shaped cake, and that’s what everybody’s going to get. That moment taught me that forcing yourself into weaknesses that you don’t really enjoy just wastes time, money, and creates frustration. Focusing on your strengths is where joy and success really come from.

That same philosophy guided me in business. One of the reasons I started Green Vegan Bags was because e-commerce and digital marketing are what I know and love. By pairing that expertise with my passion for animals and sustainability, I created a business that feels aligned with both my skills and my values.

That doesn’t mean you never work on weak areas — sometimes it’s necessary or deeply meaningful to you. But don’t do it because someone else says you “should.” Build around your strengths, and tackle weaknesses when they add value to your life.

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