Meet Nikki Lubing

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nikki Lubing. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Nikki, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

This is a great question because resilience is one of the best life skills someone can have in their toolbox. My resilience comes from various childhood experiences ranging from the loss of a parent at a young age to overcoming my mindset on what it meant to be a successful Spanish student. My resilience also came from something as simple as walking to and from school.

I was one of the kids that lived too close to be included in the bus route. I had to walk around a mile each way. At the time, it felt much longer, especially during the frigid Illinois winters. However, weathering those walks with a heavy backpack established an attitude of enduring the long-game, which goes hand-in-hand with resilience.

Learning Spanish as a second language represents another experience with resilience because there were many times I thought fluency was out of reach. I nearly quit Spanish my sophomore year of high school. I didn’t do well the first half of the quarter and thought I was going to get a D in the class, but I’m pretty sure I ended up with a B (never trust pesky thoughts). I didn’t get perfect grades in Spanish, but I still became fluent because I loved the language and the idea of communicating with people all around the world. That’s the real win!

If you’re interested in learning another language, you have to be open to a lot of failure. You’re going to make mistakes incessantly. Luckily, the year I almost quit, my mom reminded me of why I wanted to learn Spanish and how much value it would bring to my life, so I stuck with it. And look what happened! I ended up creating Skillabration, my own foreign language school!

When it comes to resilience, just remember to stay determined and seek wise counsel. That’s what’s worked for me.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m a teacher turned entrepreneur. I taught in the public school system as a Spanish and English as a second language (ESL) teacher from 2005-2016. I resigned in 2016 because I wanted more freedom and creativity in my work, however, I still loved teaching so I continued to provide English lessons to the Chinese online. I found the opportunity on Indeed. Little did I know, it would lead to a thriving business.

From 2016-2019 I was self-employed and did a lot of contract work, ranging from interpreting and tutoring, to teaching online. Teaching English online to the Chinese got the most traction. I took advantage of the gig-economy and learned the ins and outs of online marketing. I was able to recruit other teachers and earn a bonus with each teacher I recruited. Eventually, I created a coaching program guiding other teachers in the industry to establish their own online teaching business. That’s what led me to forming my LLC.

I was thriving from 2018-2020. When Covid hit, things changed. The entire industry in China shut down by 2021. Luckily, I had the foresight to predict that something was changing and I started teaching Spanish 1 for Middle School on the side, primarily to homeschool students and after-school students. That course was highly successful, so I knew it was something I could scale. In 2023, I founded Skillabration, an online foreign language school that takes students’ skills from 0 to fuego (fire).

Skillabration now offers Spanish, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Portuguese and American Sign Language. We have a team of 10+ teachers. I named the school Skillabration because skills are a celebration and I knew I would eventually want to add other real-world skills like financial literacy, entrepreneurship, STEM, and soft skills to our platform. We have a financial literacy course in the beta phase right now that teaches personal finance to middle and high school students. All of our lessons are online via Zoom or LessonSpace.

On top of live lessons, we also create curriculum. We have a year-long Spanish 1 curriculum, we’re developing a comprehensible input Spanish curriculum (immersion style), and we’re adding a financial literacy curriculum as well. As we grow, we’ll offer more foreign language curriculums and other skill-based resources.

My inspiration for Skillabration came from my students when I taught English as a second language at the middle school I taught at the last four years of my career as a public school teacher. My students were extremely hard working and vibrant. At that time, I knew we weren’t able to teach them the real-world skills they deserved to learn because the current system was created for factory workers, not for people in business or STEM. My long-term vision is for Skillabration to fill the gap between graduation and the workforce, where graduates step into the workforce confident and prepared with all the skills they need to thrive.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Stepping into entrepreneurship as a teacher was a huge learning curve. Essentially, I used the main skill I already had; teaching languages. From there, I educated myself by reading, watching videos, hiring coaches and taking on-demand courses to learn business skills. I have a strong desire for autonomy, which is one of my core values, and a love of learning. The combination of those two traits is what has led me to where I am today. Sharing knowledge, creating content, and making a positive impact on the world are also driving factors in what I do.

If you’re curious about the secret sauce to a successful business, just know that it has to be something you deeply desire combined with the right strategies. Some of the most impactful strategies I’ve implemented are focusing on the tasks that generate income, honing the skills I’m best at in business and delegating the ones that aren’t my strengths. For me, I’m great at marketing, but I need someone else to do sales. I’m great at HR, but I need someone else to do my bookkeeping. I understand some aspects of updating my website, but I contract someone else to get it done faster.

You have to be good at making decisions and strategizing; take the lead in your business.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Feeling overwhelmed as a business owner is par for the course. I’m the type of person that likes a feeling of completion, but after several years of pushing myself past my limits, I realized the work is never done when you own a business. I heard from another entrepreneur that if the work is done, your business is done. That resonated with me. From that point on, I told myself I would never work a Saturday again in my life, because I was working 7 days a week for at least 4 years straight. I’m sure I took time off here and there, but I wasn’t working strategically and it took a toll on me. That one day off is a necessity for me to function well the rest of the week. I stuck to my promise and haven’t worked a Saturday for years.

Next, if you’re overwhelmed by your task-list, ask yourself which thing needs to be done today? Focus on that one thing. Then, the next day, prioritize the next thing. Sometimes you’ll end up getting 2 or 3 tasks done because you chose to just focus on one. Trick your brain! It works every time. Also, remove the shiny object that isn’t going to make an immediate impact on your business. For example, if you feel like your website absolutely must be updated today, you’re probably wrong (unless you’re a food blogger or someone that gets a ton of traffic). Use the logical facts. How many website visitors do you have? When is the last time you got a client from your website? Always go back to the main product that is generating growth in your business. How are you actually earning money? Prioritize the tasks that earn you a living. Rinse and repeat. Delegate the rest as you grow your business.

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