We recently connected with Nickola Magnolia and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nickola, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I developed my confidence through a lot of practice and patience with myself. I’ve always marched to the beat of my own drum which meant I stuck out, and was bullied. I had to learn to not look for outside approval to find happiness with myself. It took many years and a lot practice of kindness with myself along the way of learning to like myself to develop confidence. Once you realize most people are wrapped up in their own lives to pay attention to yours, it can be really freeing.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a tattoo artist and musician. I write and sing country music and that’s my main focus at the moment. I spent the past year touring my first album Broken Lonesome which you can find on iTunes & Spotify and I am currently recording new music that will be coming out this fall. After playing bars and making people dance all year long, my first single is a Honky Tonk about just that. I’m really excited to be releasing new music that I think shows another side of me.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The best advice I was given was really simple, but easy to forget: Have fun! Sometimes we can get so determined and hyper focused on a goal that it’s easy to forget to enjoy the process. So I try to periodically remind myself in times of stress or difficulties to still have fun with all this.
In terms of skills that have been helpful I’d say number 1 is my work ethic is pretty intense, being raised by an immigrant and seeing that kind of work ethic has has a huge impact on me.
I’d say second would be my knowledge of running a business, as a tattooer I’ve worked for myself and owned a shop for years in a male dominated industry, so I developed the business knowledge. Third is focus, despite whatever goals I have for my music, I’ve remained focused on creating good music that will stand the test of time, and I try to ignore outside influences when it comes to the integrity of the writing.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The biggest challenge I’m facing now is patience. Because I’m recording and don’t have new music to tour quite yet, I feel as though I’m in a limbo, and I need to work on grant writing to fund touring in the fall. Sometimes it feels like I’m not doing enough, but I have to remind myself that new things are coming soon and it’s always worth the wait.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nickolamagnolia.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/nickolamagnolia?igshid=MjEwN2IyYWYwYw==
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@nickolamagnolia
Image Credits
Ian Patterson
