Inspiring Female Founder Spotlight: Niyc Pidgeon

Niyc Pidgeon – Multi Award Winning Positive Psychologist MSc BSc IPPA, Business Mentor, Triple Certified High Performance Coach, Motivational Speaker, Best Selling Hay House Author recently celebrated by Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Unstoppable Success® & The Positive Psychology Coach Academy Certification®. 

Niyc is one of the most sought-after online business mentors in the world. She has helped her clients to make tens of millions of dollars over the last years, and now spends her time mentoring and speaking on stages around the world. Named a ‘Legendary Entrepreneur’ in Forbes, Niyc’s story is one of triumph over adversity and gives hope to many. She was so severely bullied at school she attempted to take her own life at just 12 years old, before losing 3 of her close friends to suicide. As a result, Niyc was inspired to pursue her career in positive psychology, making it her life’s mission to help people live more joyfully and create Unstoppable Success in themselves and their businesses, with a bigger mission of reducing and preventing suicide too.

Can you tell us a little about your background and the company? How did the idea come to you for the company?

My mission is to help millions of humans change their lives through entrepreneurship, coaching, and positive psychology, and to trail blaze a way to show what’s possible when you find your strength through struggle – and realise you too can go on to be happier, more successful, and perform better than ever before.

But it’s taken time to get here. I really struggled growing up. Although I live in Los Angeles now, I was born in Newcastle, UK, and suffered severe bullying at school, to the point where I tried to take my own life aged just 12. The prevention of suicide is actually a huge motivation for me, after my own experience I actually went on to lose 3 close friends to suicide over the next few years which was heartbreaking and also motivating for me to help make a change for the world.

I was inspired to pursue my career in positive psychology (the science of happiness), and to make it my life’s mission to help people live more joyfully and create Unstoppable Success in themselves and their businesses, with a bigger mission of raising awareness of the risks, and helping empower suicide prevention. 

I’ve spent many years training and becoming highly qualified in this field, and furthering my skills to become a leading business mentor. Now we run the multi-million dollar training empire, Unstoppable Success® to help online businesses grow and scale, and have created the Positive Psychology Coach Academy Certification®, where we help people to become fully certified positive psychology coaches to spread the power of positive psychology and create a ripple effect of change and joy throughout the world.

These companies and what we do within them are at the heart of all that I do, and what gets me out of bed in the morning. Doing this bigger work to help millions of people create limitless success as well as a happier way of being, living and working is the greatest gift and legacy I can create.

I have more than a decade of experience in business, coaching, and psychology, and have mentored tens of thousands of coaches to create massive breakthroughs, lasting positive change, and Unstoppable Success in their lives & businesses.

In the last few years alone, I’ve helped online entrepreneurs make tens of millions of dollars with my no-nonsense, strategic and simple approach to helping you do impactful business you truly love.

How did you achieve awareness?

I remember when I first started out in business I was so scared of what people would think of me. I would post online about my products and offers but it was half hearted because I was worried I would be bothering people. This changed when I shifted my mindset to remind myself that the work I do is always in service and helping people – so if I don’t raise awareness of the results I help create then I can’t help people. This was a big shift for me and made me more confident in sharing my story and taking my community on the journey with me. The more I shared about my life and the behind the scenes, the more people loved to follow along. It made me more relatable and created a sense of intimacy within my online marketing which meant I was able to build real relationships as well as make more sales.

As well as sharing my story via social media, I also featured in magazines, on the radio, and in other publications to celebrate the work I was doing. Each time I experienced a win I would celebrate it online and continue to strengthen my brand. In 2016 I started to lean more into paid advertising and launched my first really successful Facebook ads campaign which saw us break through the $100,000 per month mark in sales.

How have you been able to gain funding and grow?

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Start Up Loans initiative was the first place I started back in 2012 – I was awarded an £8,500 loan which I invested into growing my business. I really learned to put one foot in front of the other after that and kept reinvesting into the business and myself to keep the brand and company growing. I invested into things like growing a high performing team, continuing my own education and mentorship, and supporting growth through paid online marketing. I was able to go back to Richard and share that I’d made more than ten million dollars ROI from that initial loan investment, and helped dozens of other women make millions too.

What are the key successes?

I’m so lucky to have had some incredible, life-changing experiences and moments, including speaking on stages around the world to rooms of thousands, being awarded an extraordinary ability visa to work in America, interviewing Elon Musk, and investing time masterminding with fantastic business women on Necker Island.

Two of my proudest moments have to include being championed by Sir Richard Branson, who wrote a personal blog about my story of success and highlighted my work empowering women as part of Global Entrepreneurs Week in 2022. As well as this I am proud of being able to bring together groups of our students and their families around the world in places like Barbados and Dubai at our in person transformational retreat experiences. They really are pinch me moments.

I’m also so phenomenally proud of my first book, Now Is Your Chance, which is a 30-day positive psychology guide with micro-steps to massive joy, dubbed ‘the bible for happiness’. The fact that it was published by my dream publisher, Hay House, and has become an international best-seller which I got to see in airports and book stores around the world is something I dreamt of. I love that it is out there helping people across the world right now to live more joyfully and shift their mindset to one of happiness.

What were/are the challenges and how have you overcome these?

Being an entrepreneur is continually challenging and invites you to face hard things you didn’t even know existed – which is why most people don’t choose entrepreneurship as the path. It’s also the most fulfilling opportunity for personal growth and creating an impact in the world which makes every twist and turn more than worth it.

Personally, I’ve experienced being bullied, raped, and lost three close friends to suicide which has helped me always put things in perspective.

From a business standpoint I really had to overcome my limiting money mindset before I could start making money and experience success. I was always told “money doesn’t grow on trees” and that success had to be hard. So it took some serious work to reprogram my thinking so I could begin to break through the glass ceiling I previously believed was there.

At every phase of business there’s a new challenge and a new opportunity to grow. Running a multi million dollar company continually invites you to operate at your edge and keeps you on your toes with hiring and firing team, moving quickly with marketing trends online, and making sure we are living on purpose and in alignment with our values every day. It’s a ride!

What are your plans now/for the future?

I’m writing another book about positive psychology for suicide prevention, and am growing my positive psychology coach academy so we can certify more coaches and help more people around the world. As well as this I’m committed to deepening and investing into my relationships and enjoying every single day.

What would you like to share with others to encourage them to start their own entrepreneurship journey?

Start now. There’s never been a better time in history to be an entrepreneur. It’s very common to think it’s too late, but we are really only at the very beginning of what’s possible for humanity with entrepreneurial spirit at the helm. You don’t have to get it perfect and you’re going to make mistakes and learn from them, but if you want to create success you have to be in it to win it, and that means you have to start.

Can you share your top tips for entrepreneurial success?

• Choose something you love, something you’re good at, and something that solves a problem for other people and helps them create a result.
• Commit to never quit. The only way you can actually fail is if you quit. You might need to re-commit multiple times per day even, but when you know you’re always going to keep on going you know you’ll always be successful.
• Stay in your lane and keep moving forward fast. I see so many people get caught up in what others are doing and become distracted or disheartened. Keep focused on your path and you’ll reap the rewards.
• Look after your health and well-being. You won’t have a business if you don’t have your health and many people get this backwards, run themselves into the ground, and experience burnout. We run a well-being first company and are so much more productive and effective because of it.
• Enjoy the journey along the way. Celebrate, practice gratitude, and look for the lesson in everything, even if it seems tough at the time. Success, just like happiness, is about the process. When you realise it’s the process that is actually the reward you’ll find so much more joy and fulfilment in every day.

Who are the 5 people who inspire you the most and why?

I’m inspired by life’s experience and the people I meet every day. We can learn so much by raising our awareness, getting present, and finding perspective from the people we meet.

Richard Branson’s graceful character and heart inspire me, and I appreciate both his relentless drive towards world peace, his willingness to fulfil his word, and his commitment to adventure and having fun! I’ve loved investing time in person together over these years and look forward to meeting again.

Elon Musk inspires me for his mind and ability to continually break barriers

What are your favourite inspirational /motivational quotes?

“If it’s to be it’s up to me”

“How good can I feel, how easy can it be”

“Help others find their greatness and you will find greatness too”

“When you recognize the process is the reward you’ll realise you’re living your next level right now”

What are your Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn social handles and also website links so our readers can connect with you?  

https://www.instagram.com/niycpidge/

https://www.facebook.com/niycpidgeon

https://www.linkedin.com/in/niycpidgeon/