Meet Nicole Martin, an author who wrote ‘7 Presence Principles’ that inspired and assisted many aspiring leaders on their path to success. She has founded her remarkable venture, HRBoost®, and has been serving as Chief Empowerment Officer and Culture Coach ever since. Her unique ideologies and innovative methods have acted as the torque that drives the growth of her company. Under her guidance, HRBoost has been able to attain a spectacular stature that sets the benchmark for many to achieve. She has published several books, among which she highly speaks of her personal story, ‘The Power of Joy and Purpose.’ She has included in her book every facet of her professional career and the hurdles she overcame to reach the pinnacle of success.
This interview emphasizes her understanding of the business and how she approaches the various company-related processes decisively. In her own words, she has put forth her views that hopefully will motivate many young female leaders across many industries.
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Aspioneer and Nicole:
Aspioneer (A): Take us through your journey to building such a successful company.
Nicole (N): “I love what I do, and I do it remarkably well. I’m an accidental entrepreneur. I looked back after starting my own business and said, I started a business. Whoa! I did not set out to create HRBoost®. I simply followed my passion to help clients understand the importance human resources can play in developing a strong business. Currently, I am a successful entrepreneur and an HR industry innovator who is dedicated to helping small to midsize businesses realize their potential through their employees. I, a self-professed country girl in disguise, grew up in Montana, where everyone knows you and greets you on the street. I was also lucky to have a great mentor early in life: my mom. My mother is highly spiritual, and she raised me with the philosophy of being happy. She always believed that you are a special person—she ingrained that in me—and that you are capable of anything. When I was 18 years old, I was ready to start proving my mom right. I left Montana and moved in with my godmother in Libertyville, Illinois. Right out of high school, I got a job as a receptionist at a pre-Y2K firm, where I found my passion quite by accident. They were hiring all these computer experts from overseas, but when they arrived, the company just put them in the reception area because they didn’t know what to do with them. It was just inhumane. At the same time, I was working on a training program for a college human resources class. I wanted to help these guys out in the hallway, so I just marched into the director’s office and asked him if he wanted to see the training program I created for school. When I was finished with my presentation, the director created a human resources department for the site, hired a manager, and moved 18-year-old Nicole from reception to human resources. I have been building HR departments from the ground up ever since. My approaches are so unique that I began with the business’ vision and created HR programs that are completely integrated with that vision. From the hiring process to annual reviews, the programs I create are designed to further the business, boost productivity, and help employees understand why and how their contributions are meaningful.”
(A): How long have you been in business since you established HRBoost®, LLC?
(N): “HRBoost®, LLC. is a Human Resources Shared Services firm with highly qualified, credentialed, and experienced human resource professionals ready to meet the middle market at their pace and budget. HRBoost offers considerable experience and expertise in advising on human resources matters. Every dedicated team comes on day one with a minimum of 40 years of experience. Our mission at HRBoost, LLC, is to provide value-added human resource services to individuals and businesses alike. To achieve this mission, we feel we must:
Provide professional, timely, competitive, and cost-effective services that will support a positive climate and encourage success in all areas of your business.
Provide support and collaboration in the achievement of business goals and/or solutions while embracing participative management, where feedback is both asked for and valued.
Encourage partnership between client and consultant to integrate the interdependent and complementary functions of our endeavors to result in excellent service.
Maintain trustworthiness through ethical and honest conduct, by keeping commitments, and by respecting the confidential nature of human resources.
Indeed, we have been able to increase our geographic footprint through our investment in SEO and retargeting. Once we thought we never got business from our website, but now we proudly have over 1200 new visitors a month, and the average time a visitor spends on our website is 8 minutes. We are proud to solidify our online presence as a go-to resource for professionals across the USA. In the coming year, our next initiative is to franchise HRBoost, and we look forward to expanding across the top five regions seeking us online this past year.”
"Every generation has played a part in today’s tapestry, but one thing every generation can get behind is purpose and shared values."
(A): What separates HRBoost® from your competitors?
(N): “At HRBoost®, we celebrate individual uniqueness in a way that recognizes every person brings something to strengthen our team bench strength. Our team lives our core values, and they have the ability, through our programs, to recognize peer excellence in real time. We also employ shared team performance awards, all of which are tied to our strategic objectives. We remain client-centric, and our team is truly excited to have been recently recognized for our commitment to diversity excellence by the Daily Herald, but most recently in 2023, Crain’s recognized HRBoost as a Best Place to Work in Chicago. It is praise like this that keeps us believing in the hands-on contributions every person on our team brings. Boosters know everyone can lead from where they stand, and the traditional hierarchy need not be upheld at HRBoost®. It is our vision at HRBoost® to bring JOY and PURPOSE to PEOPLE through their Work. It is how we serve our clients and the people who choose to join in on their visions. We live it at HRBoost®.
HRBoost® recently engaged a partner to be the HR Expert on Demand, and this truly brings bench strength to small businesses across the country via virtual platforms. While they prefer in-person, like everyone these days, we have gone digital. Thus, our borders are expanding too. We hire from other states, and our clients in Chicago have taken us nationally long before COVID-19. We have specialized experience in providing value to small and middle-sized companies, who, unlike their large-company counterparts, can often lack the time and resources to build infrastructure and processes that are beyond core business objectives. But every business needs to have a competitive edge in today’s economy. Both small and large companies need to attract, develop, and retain the best talent for their organizations while complying with the ever-changing maze of state and federal regulations. All companies need to be concerned with issues related to compensation, benefits, training, employee retention, talent attraction, and generational agility. HRBoost® has built its reputation on partnering with business leaders to achieve corporate goals while maintaining integrity and delivering outstanding results. We serve businesses spanning multiple sectors; these include professional services, non-profit organizations, high-tech, manufacturing, staffing firms, hospitality, and healthcare. Our clients are typically high-growth businesses with 10–250 employees. Our model is to meet the clients wherever they are; thus, we provide full-service embedded HR support, project-to-project support, culture design and management training, employee programs and assessments, virtual support, and phone support. I am honored to lead a high-performance team of HR leaders who partner with our business clients to meet them wherever they are on their journey to being the best place to work. That’s why we aim to create something sustainable in our client’s company, not just ours. We have experienced tremendous growth, and proudly, nearly every client has been sourced through word of mouth. Our appeal and success are due to our personal dedication to each other.”
(A): What is generational agility, and why, in your opinion, is it necessary in business?
(N): “Generational agility was a skill I coined back in 2018, and honestly, it is more needed than ever before. Many are living and working longer, and despite their retirement dreams, they have businesses. They need to keep one foot in the door. Legacy builders are Boomers, and they surely have much tacit knowledge that younger generations can extrapolate with short ‘how to’ videos that bridge to younger workers who won’t get the same luxury of years climbing the corporate ladder. The lattice approach to learning and developing talent is the new way forward. Every generation has played a part in today’s tapestry, but one thing every generation can get behind is purpose and shared values. Shared values are what align core values with company service ideals. When this is done well, a person can identify with the values and bring their values to work. This enables a stronger commitment to unity and a shared vision. I have published several books that really speak to women, though men have let me know they enjoy them equally as well. All are featured and available via http://www.nicolemartin.live. This is my personal story, and I share my ‘7 Presence Principles’ as I get asked nearly every day, How do I do it all so joyfully? How do I mother, lead, write books, etc.? Well, I don’t do it alone. I also co-authored a book with John Tinghitella last year. We named it ‘NO FEAR Negotiation for Women’, a book where we set forth a process that women can add to their list of abilities and for the greater benefit of our country. Men are about results, and women are about effort. We need both in business. With over 2.2 million women who have left the participating talent pool these past 12 months, everyone should be finding ways to support families more holistically. Flexibility and trust are critical to building a team of women. I know! My business happens to be all women, and many are in their child-rearing years. Thankfully, I look back at how I built an intellectual playground for myself as a new mother back in 2010. Now my business serves many more who are like I once was, and they too deserve to do the work they have become skilled at and not stop earning just because they want to be mothers and/or grandmothers too.”
