Artist and Nurse, Nicole Cromwell

[00:01] Michelle: In my interview with Nicole Cromwell, we didn't talk a lot about the specifics of nursing, though. Nicole has a long history of practicing in some of the most high-intensity, high-stress areas, including oncology intensive care, COVID, ICU, and flight nursing. The cumulative stress took a toll on her in the form of burnout. After losing a young patient in the ICU, an artist, Nicole discovered art as a healing modality and the ultimate form of self-care. What she didn't expect was that people who experience her art feel the same emotions as she does while creating it:  peace, serenity, and a renewal of their spirits. There's a huge body of research that cite the benefits of creating art in any form. Decreased stress and anxiety, increased endorphins, and easier access to emotions, just to name a few. Nicole wants nurses and all healthcare professionals to reap the benefits for themselves in the five-minute snippet. This is my kind of girl's night out. Here is Nicole Cromwell.  Well, good morning, Nicole. Welcome to the podcast.
[01:36] Nicole: Good morning. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
[01:40] Michelle: Well, you are welcome, and I'm excited to have you here as well since I came upon you through Instagram. And I was mentioning the other day that Instagram gets kind of a bad rap for all of its algorithms and everything, but I think that Instagram is really good at bringing people together and it's definitely expanded my network. And I'm just really happy that I met you there and that you're here today because we're going to talk about nursing and being an artist, which you are both.
[02:15] Nicole: Yes.
[02:17] Michelle: So let's start just by telling us about kind of how you got into nursing and what your career has been to this point.
[02:26] Nicole: So, I got into nursing about 25 years ago, and I don't have this real inspirational story about how I became a nurse. I just sort of fell into it and it seemed like a good idea. And I have never looked back. I started in oncology for about a year and thought, there's no way. I went home crying every day. It was too sad and too hard. And I knew that I wanted to be a critical care nurse, so I was able to find a job at a local ER.  And they trained me and I loved it. It was one of my favorite jobs. Then I knew I wanted to be a flight nurse. I needed to get a job at a bigger hospital. So I picked up everything and got a job at Stanford and worked in the ICU for a couple of years, got a little bit of experience, and joined the flight team at Stanford and flew with them for two years and absolutely loved it. It was definitely my favorite job in nursing, but I had to work a lot of night shifts, and I am just not a night shift person, and I just don't think as well at night. And so with that job, you especially need to be able to have all engines firing because it's just too important of a job to not. So I ended up leaving that position, going back to the ICU, and worked there for about three years and then got a job with the critical care response team. So it's the rapid response team. We went to all the emergencies in the hospital, the traumas, all the strokes, all the rapid responses. We were the resource for the nurses on the floors. And I absolutely loved the job. We had a great time, and it was fun teaching all the nurses. I loved that. But then I was helping out in the ICU one day, and we had a confused patient, and I was sort of just help not restraining him, but just helping the team. And he reached up and just punched me right between the eyes.
[04:38] Michelle: Oh, my gosh.
[04:39] Nicole: Yeah. Physically I was okay, but mentally it kind of really threw me. It was just really hard to recover from. And I just kind of thought, I need to reevaluate everything and tried some therapy, just tried to figure out what to do and ended up leaving the response team and getting a job in our radiology department, and that was right as COVID hit. And so I kind of hung out in the basement for a year and started IVs and helped people get MRIs and helped with minor procedures and recovered a bit, but then decided, I'm not done with critical care. So I found a position back in the ICU. It was actually the COVID ICU where I could work a part-time position two days a week. And I thought, okay, I can do this. And I've been there two years now and just sort of trying to figure out what's next in my nursing journey. And I think Art probably will be my next thing to do.
[05:53] Michelle: Yeah, that's a lot to unpack, for sure.
[05:56] Nicole: It really is.
[05:58] Michelle: Yeah. I love how you started out, saying, I didn't get into nursing for any grand reasons, and I've talked to so many nurses that say the same thing that they either got into it by mistake I think it's so counter what everybody thinks when they're a nurse.
[06:22] Nicole: Everybody wants the great story. Yeah. Sometimes there's just not. But the interesting thing, now that I think about it, I started in oncology, and that was just too sad and too depressing. But now that I've been through this whole career, I am so ready to do either palliative care or hospice. I absolutely love those two specialties, and so that's probably where I'm going.
[06:48] Michelle: Well, I talked to a pediatric palliative care nurse and an adult hospice nurse, and those were some of the most interesting and just awe-inspiring interviews.
[07:05] Nicole: Yes.
[07:06] Michelle: And both of those nurses kind of got into it just by accident. Somebody, either a fellow nurse that was working in that specialty said, I think you would be a really good hospice nurse. And they said, okay, I'll try it, and ended up being, like, the love of their life.
[07:26] Nicole: Right. I know. And I'm just scared. I've been at Stanford for 21 years, and I am just scared to make the move.
[07:35] Michelle: That's hard.
[07:36] Nicole: It is hard. That's a long time.
[07:39] Michelle: Oh, my gosh, yes. Well, and you were talking about flight nursing, too, and night shift, and I thought of my sister. My sister has been a longtime flight nurse and ICU nurse like yourself, and now she's a director in the company and shared some of the very same stories and reasons for getting into it and love of it. And she's a night shift person.
[08:07] Nicole: Right.
[08:07] Michelle: Me? Never been. No, I did two years, barely, and I felt sick all the time. Yeah. So I share that with you. But I went to your website, which is beautiful, by the way, and that's Nicolecromwellart.
[08:29] Nicole: Yes, it's Nicolecromwellart.com.
[08:32] Michelle: Okay. And I'll be sure and link that in the show notes, too. But some of the things that you said on there just really resonated with me. And one of the things that you said is, as a nurse, I've spent my career caring for patients. So a natural evolution occurred when I began painting as a way to find balance in my life. And this brought up for me,  identity. And nurses have a very solid identity, and I think we can really become wrapped up in that identity, which can make it hard for us to see ourselves as anything else.
[09:12] Nicole: Right.
[09:12] Michelle: So how can becoming an artist change that?
[09:17] Nicole: Yeah, that's so interesting. Whenever I tell people, oh, I'm an ICU nurse, oh, wow. It's part of who I am. And now it's shifting into I don't say that as much. I say I'm an artist and a nurse. I've managed to do that shift. But, yeah, it's interesting. Can we talk about how I got into painting?
[09:42] Michelle: Oh, absolutely.
[09:43] Nicole: Okay. I was working in the ICU, and I was caring for a patient named Amy, and I have permission from her family to use her name. And Amy was battling cancer and was intubated, so we got to know her by way of her family. They told me that she was an artist, and I thought, oh, wow, that's really cool. I don't know any artists, but you should bring her artwork in. Let's decorate her room. She's in this special room, so she's not going to be moved anytime soon. And it was a private room, and the next day they just brought in all of her artwork, and the walls were just plastered with this amazing work. And it changed the way we cared for not the way we cared for her, but everybody came in and wanted to know more about her. And she wasn't just this patient in the bed anymore. She was a person. She was this person with talents and friends and a home life and we just we all looked at her differently. And I always try and do that at work because I think we, you know, we can get so caught up in this is the patient with cancer or liver failure or this is a human with a family and a history and friends. And so I always try to please write a little note on the wall. Please call me what their preferred name is and what I'm looking forward to when I get home. These are my hobbies. We all got to know Amy by way of her art. And when she lost her battle, a lot of us were really struggling with it and we wanted to honor her memory. So I arranged a group of 14 nurses, her caregivers at the hospital, and my manager, and we just did this creative night at this little art studio in San Jose. And we made bracelets and we painted and keychains all this random creative stuff, made cards, and it was just so much fun. And I thought, wow, that was really cool. I really enjoyed that. And I have never painted. I was not the child who painted her whole life. I didn't go to art school, none of that. And I thought, well, I really enjoyed that. I want to paint more, but I don't have any talent. But I just knew I enjoyed it. So I started doing the paint and sip nights because I could drink wine and paint and do that with friends. Who doesn't want to do that?
[12:21] Michelle: That's a win-win.
[12:22] Nicole: Yeah, right? And so I started doing those and I found myself like, they always give you a project to paint and I just thought, well, this is fun, but I want to paint something for myself. I don't want to just recreate what they're telling me to do. So just started taking classes and then workshops and then just found that I absolutely loved it and started buying supplies and turned this little section of my living room into a little art studio. And then probably about three years into that, someone challenged me and said, hey, there's a little art show in a local city. You should put your art in that. And I thought, no, that's crazy, I'm not going to do that. But I did it, and right away, like, three pieces sold. I just thought what? I can sell these things. I still didn't believe my talent. And it was a friend that bought it, a nursing colleague, and I just thought, oh, people are just buying my art because they like me and they're being nice.
[13:24] Michelle: Imposter syndrome, right?
[13:25] Nicole: Totally. There's so many artists who struggle with that. But then I remember being down in Big Sur at this art workshop and making these really making hearts, and they were really pretty. But a lady at the workshop said, I want to buy that. And I was like, somebody I don't know wants to buy my artwork. Like, I've made it. So that was super exciting. And then just opportunities started opening up, and I had my first solo show, and all my friends came down, and then that led to another show. And then I got my art studio, and it's in a church in Carmel by the Sea, and I've got an ocean view, and it's been amazing the whole journey. And now I'm in a gallery in Carmel and I've won awards. It's just been an incredible journey. Like I said, it's helped me heal through these 25 years of being a nurse. I got to the point where in my critical care response job, I didn't want to go to any of the major traumas anymore. My cup was full of that. I didn't want to see another person hit by a car. I didn't want to see any of those things anymore. And I had some healing to do. And I remember the best advice, and I always want to give this to nurses. I had gone to a retreat somewhere up in Northern California, and it came with a therapy session. And I was like, I don't need therapy. I'm fine. And they're like, no, you have to go. This is required. And I'm like, fine. Kicking and screaming. And he's like, what are you struggling with? And I was like, nothing. I'm fine. And he finally got it out of me. And I said, I have a hard time with like, we see so much tragedy and death and dying, and it is hard to take all of that on and not go home crying every day or just not internalizing all of that sadness. And he just said to me, he was like, that's not your grief to hold. That belongs to those families. This is not your family member. And they're grieving enough for themselves, and they don't need you to grieve for them too. And you can still grieve, but you don't need to take all of that on. And I just thought, wow, that's just such amazing advice, because I would just get so sad in those moments. Yeah, that was kind of a real breakthrough for me. But with my art, I could go on about grief all day long. But with my art, I try to paint all these I paint what I'm feeling. So if I've had a rough couple of shifts at work, I'll go in and I'll paint the ocean and just get completely lost in it. And it's meditative you're so mindful in the moment, and it just takes away all of those and just helps you heal through all of those feelings you're feeling.
[16:46] Michelle: I noticed that you paint a lot of seascapes and there's something about the ocean. People travel thousands of miles to go to the ocean, and we're so lucky that it's really close.
[17:02] Nicole: Yes.
[17:03] Michelle: And what's going through your mind when you're painting, whether it's the ocean or flowers, what is happening inside of Nicole?
[17:16] Nicole: It's finding this peaceful place, because the ocean is just so beautiful and vast, and you can just completely get lost in it. And that's what I completely focus on mixing the colors and just creating something beautiful. I don't know. You get lost in it, and I absolutely love it. And then if I'm just having a joyful, love-filled day, I'll paint flowers, and if I'm just feeling super happy that day, that's what I paint. But a lot of times, the ocean and landscapes and people have told me that it feels healing, what they're seeing, and that is, like, the ultimate goal for me. If I can share my healing energy with somebody else that may need it, that's just such a win for me.
[18:11] Michelle: Yeah, I think that's something that could benefit nurses and other health professionals so much.
[18:18] Nicole: Absolutely.
[18:18] Michelle: I was looking at some statistics talking about suicide by registered nurses, and these are 2018 statistics. 729 American nurses died by suicide in 2018, which at that time was the highest reported number on record, and they expected that to increase post-COVID. And you've experienced it. You've worked in a very high acuity, high-stress, tragedy-laden specialty, ICU, flight nursing, and oncology. Those are all heavy, heavy things.
[19:01] Nicole: Right.
[19:02] Michelle: And with nurses being 18% more likely to die from suicide than the general population, you would think that we would be more involved in things that would decrease our stress and help us heal from burnout. And how can we get the word out on the healing properties of art? How can we bring more nurses and other health professionals over to this side?
[19:36] Nicole: Well, yeah, you touched on the suicide. Like, we had a nurse that I worked with who left one morning at 04:00 a.m., never to be seen, and we all looked for him, and he had gone out and committed suicide. And it was just so tragic for all of everyone involved. But his friends have done such an incredible job with advocacy, and I don't know if you've heard of them. It's called? The organization is called Don't Clock Out, because Michael didn't clock out. He just left. Michael loved Skittles, and so every year, I bring Skittles to the hospital because I don't want us to ever forget him and his, you know, his struggle. And, you know, this is important.
[20:24] Michelle: Yeah. And we, you know, by you, by profession, we don't really talk about it. We're the ones that are always caring for people and can be really easy to just kind of step away from our self-care.
[20:40] Nicole: Right.
[20:41] Michelle: I was looking at the National Plan for Health Workforce well being, and it's 107 pages, and I read all 107 pages and sadly there was no mention of the arts. And this is a national plan for how we're supposed to be well as healthcare workers, right?
[21:05] Nicole: Well, yeah, it's interesting. I'm building an art course for nurses and healthcare professionals. Anybody can take it. But I'm currently getting approval from the state of Florida to offer nursing CEs for burnout. And I've got a whole module all about burnout. And it was interesting because California, I applied to California, but they won't approve burnout to qualify for nursing CEs. And I just thought, oh, you're missing the boat.
[21:37] Michelle: Oh yeah, let's just stick our heads in the sand a little bit deeper, right? Burnout?
[21:44] Nicole: But Florida does. So that's pending.
[21:50] Michelle: That's your Brave Beginner course?
[21:52] Nicole: It is, and I'm so excited because I've teamed up with another with a PA and we're putting this together and it's going to be incredible. We've got somebody speaking on mindfulness and it's just going to be so good because there's so many health benefits for not only painting but just being creative. There's all this research coming out right now, all these brain benefits. The word is escaping me. But it's just incredible how good it is for you. It reduces your stress and anxiety. It lowers your cortisol level, and increases endorphins. There's all this research out there and I know it's worked for me. And so I hope that I can share that with as many nurses as I can.
[22:54] Michelle: That will be something really valuable. And that's on your website, right?
[23:01] Nicole: Yes. The sign up for the waitlist. Yes.
[23:04] Michelle: Okay, awesome. So again, I'll put your website in there. That's a lot.
[23:10] Nicole: It's a lot to unpack, but it helps with the health benefits. I just keep researching and finding out more and more. But it improves your communication skills, your teamwork skills, it stimulates your brain, it helps with your problem-solving skills. There's just so many things. It helps you express yourself and tap into your emotions. Like I can have a million things going on in my head. But if I go into my studio and just start even if I'm just coloring I had to entered an art contest the other day and I had to color something and it just releases all of the,  you stop worrying about everything else and you just completely focus on what's in front of you. And everything else kind of goes by the wayside just for that little bit of time and then you can go back in and it's amazing. You find answers to other problems you've been dealing with just by giving your brain a break and doing something creative.
[24:16] Michelle: I think that practicing art, any kind of art. Like you said, coloring, for me, it's been sewing, and stitchery.
[24:27] Nicole: Yeah.
[24:28] Michelle: I just recently got into card making.
[24:32] Nicole: Yeah.
[24:32] Michelle: It's just so funny because you meet people that say, oh, you have this whole craft room and you have all these supplies that you've spent all this money on, and you can go buy a card for $3. And I'm like, yeah, but you don't get to experience the steps that you take when you make a card. You design it. You pick the colors, you use watercolors, you use markers, you cut things out, you glue. Like all those little steps, they take your brain offline from your regular life, right? And they just put you in this space. And you said it exactly like you can solve problems without even trying, right? And it's like going on a meditative walk. Walking is one of the best ways to find solutions for things if you sat down with a piece of paper and said, I'm going to find a solution for this, there's no way, because your brain goes in all those different directions, right? But when you just leave it and you do something with your hands and your heart and your eyes, it's like you find the solution, right?
[26:00] Nicole: Absolutely.
[26:03] Michelle: It's wonderful.
[26:04] Nicole: And for the people, because the number one thing I hear is, oh, I can't even draw a stick figure. I'm not creative. And you know what? I can only draw a stick figure, too. People ask me all the time, oh, can you paint my dog? Or can you paint the scene of my backyard? I'm like, no, absolutely not. You don't want me doing that. It's going to look horrible because that's not my jam. That's not what I want to do. But it's not even about creating a masterpiece. It's the process. Art is so diverse. There's so many different things you can do. And part of my course is showing why I think everyone can become an artist. There's a gazillion artists out there that there's an audience for everybody, is what I'm saying. And again, it's not about creating a masterpiece. It's doing that self-expression and just being creative. And there's no one right way to create art. Everybody brings their unique perspective and style into their work, and it's interpreted in different ways by different people. And I just get so excited about it.
[27:28] Michelle: I can tell I'm excited too, I want to get on the waitlist for that. One of the things that I have wanted to do for a long time is watercolor. And I love looking at watercolor, but when I try it, I'm way too what's the word? Like, I don't let the water just move. I try to be, I try to control it. I've done some watercolors where and this is another thing, my daughter always laughs at me because she's like, you don't know when to leave things alone. Have you experienced that? It's like, oh, yeah, you just keep fiddling with something and then ruin what was really nice in the first place.
[28:21] Nicole: Yes. That's like every day in my studio, my mentor tells me, you know, Nicole, there's 100 different paintings, finished paintings, under every one of these paintings that you do. And she's so right. Like, I'll paint something, and then I'll take a photo of that, and then, oh, that's not right. So I'll paint over it. I'm like, why did I do that? That was there's sometimes 100 layers under my finished pieces, but it's the process, and there's no mistakes in painting. I think every one of those layers contributes to the final one, and I learn things through every you know, I learn something through every one of those layers, and so whether I sand something down or a little bit of peeks through at some point or I use that technique later, it's part of the whole therapy.
[29:17] Michelle: Yeah, that's so true. And I think nurses, by nature, are perfectionists, and I think practicing art in whatever form can really help us with some of those perfectionistic tendencies. I mean, when you as a flight nurse, as an ICU nurse, you have to be perfect at what you do. These lives are counting on you.
[29:46] Nicole: Right.
[29:47] Michelle: And there's a lot of pressure, and we take that perfectionism with us into our regular lives as just people, and it can overflow into some of those areas, like art, and drive us really crazy. So I think being able to teach nurses how to loosen up their grip on perfectionism absolutely so valuable.
[30:14] Nicole: Right. And that's why all of my work is abstract. There is no way I could paint a perfect flower or portrait, anything like that. I have no interest in doing that.
[30:29] Michelle: And your work is so beautiful. And what I love about abstract art is that it's kind of like beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
[30:40] Nicole: Totally.
[30:41] Michelle: Yeah. It's like you look at one of your paintings, and I just absolutely love your seascapes because I'm such an ocean person, but it just evokes so much, like, the different colors that you use when you look at the ocean. Sometimes it's really blue, sometimes it's greenish blue, sometimes it's, like, black. And by using those different colors, it just excites certain things in us and can really transport us back to certain memories and experiences and smells. It's like when I look at your paintings, all of a sudden I just smell the ocean.
[31:24] Nicole: I love that.
[31:25] Michelle: It's just amazing how specifically, like, abstract art can do that because that can be an ocean anywhere. It can be in the Gulf of Mexico. It can be in the French Riviera. It's just like you can see that wherever you are, wherever you've been, it's really amazing what you do. So I'm really excited for your course.
[31:55] Nicole: Oh, thank you. I'm too. It's been probably almost a year in the making just because it's so funny because my tagline is when the tech is really throwing me for a loop.
[32:08] Michelle: Oh, God. Yeah.
[32:10] Nicole: And every time I get on a call with the people at some of these platforms that are helping me, I'm like, okay, look, I can save your life 100 different ways but I cannot figure out how to do this, this, or this.
[32:22] Michelle: And they're like, I know.
[32:24] Nicole: They're like, okay, we can help you.
[32:25] Michelle: Again, for nurses, that's so frustrating because we know how to do so many things, but then when something's out of our wheelhouse, it's like, oh, man, frustration just takes over.
[32:36] Nicole: Totally. Yeah. So it's been a long time in the making and nothing's perfect. Of course, I want it to be perfect, but nothing is perfect. It's going to be great, though. And I'm really excited about getting it out there into the world.
[32:53] Michelle: Well, I'm excited too, for you and for everybody that's going to participate. Thank you for this episode, getting out and spreading the news on how beneficial art can be for healing from burnout, from grief, and from any of those things that healthcare providers experience on a daily basis.
[33:19] Nicole: Yeah. And it's funny, once you do get into something creative or if someone does start painting, it's amazing. Like the friendships that you start forming too. You get a whole new community. And I absolutely love my nurse family. We've been through everything together. But it's also nice to have a community. If you find another artist and you start talking to them, the world just opens up.
[33:50] Michelle: Yeah. And again, going back to Instagram, it's like you've probably experienced that just with having your Instagram, like, so many people contacting you and wanting to know your story and fellow nurses, and it just really opens up the world to you.
[34:09] Nicole: Right? Yeah. And I love having my nurse friends over to my art studio. It's like my worlds are colliding and they have so much fun. We get their hands full of paint and we finger paint.
[34:23] Michelle: Yeah. We see each other in a different way, right?
[34:27] Nicole: Exactly.
[34:28] Michelle: Yeah. That's so cool. And oh my gosh, girl, your studio is so beautiful.
[34:35] Nicole: I know. I pinch myself every single time I go in there.
[34:38] Michelle: Oh, my God.
[34:39] Nicole: And I open the door and I just take a deep breath because the smell of the paint and the light and just the air in there, everything.
[34:49] Michelle: Just like sensory overload on all the best sensory things.
[34:55] Nicole: Right? All the great things. Yeah.
[34:57] Michelle: Your studio is like what I want to be when I grow up.
[35:01] Nicole: It is a dream studio. I don't know how I got it. I got so lucky.
[35:05] Michelle: It's so gorgeous.
[35:07] Nicole: I told them I'm never leaving.
[35:08] Michelle: That's right. Well, before we close, what else do you want to say about art and nursing?
[35:22] Nicole: That's a lot, yeah. We kind of touched on grief earlier, and I think this is so important for all these new nurses out there. And this was just something that I figured. I was watching one of the Don't Clock Out videos and they talked about grief and I thought, well, I'm fine with my grief. I can deal with it. I've seen all these things happen and I handle it just fine. And I can move on. Right. And you sort of learn to do that in our profession. Like, somebody dies at the hospital and you do what you have to do and you clean them up and you spend time with the family, and then,
[36:04] Michelle: You get another really sick patient.
[36:07] Nicole: Yeah, you move on to your next room because you've got work to do, especially in the emergency department, but in the ICU, too. And I realized about last year when my grandmother died, that when she died, I was like, okay, well, it was really sad for a day. And then I kind of moved on and I thought, whoa, that's not healthy. I've developed some really unhealthy coping mechanisms over the years, but that's what we have to do. And gosh, if anybody out there can benefit from just realizing that that's not normal, it's what we have to do at work, but then eventually it spills over into your personal life, and it's a lot to unpack, and I'm still trying to figure it out. I just don't think that that's a really healthy way to be in the world.
[37:06] Michelle: I mean, I have to agree with that. And we don't see it. Probably people listening to this would not recognize themselves until you spoke about that.
[37:17] Nicole: Yeah, I didn't realize it until gosh, it wasn't even when my grandmother died. It was this year that I figured it out. I'm like, Wait, because I could see my family all still grieving, and I just thought, why am I not feeling more about that, feeling more sad about all this? Because I've developed these coping mechanisms and I was going to take this great grief workshop down in Big Sur, and then we had the storms and the landslide, so that's kind of been put on hold. But I think awareness is sort of the first step in figuring it all out. But I really hope that maybe someone else can identify with that and a light can go on and I don't know the answer to how to better deal with that, but at least being aware.
[38:08] Michelle: I think I think that's such a great message. Yeah, just being aware and just hearing you talk about it, it made me think about it in a different way as well.
[38:24] Nicole: That advice and take care of your back are my two biggest three biggest, that one.
[38:28] Michelle: And then I love that. Take care of your back.
[38:33] Nicole: We have all these new nurses that are like, I just need a boost to help me. And I'm like, no, use the equipment. We're lucky enough to have equipment. Use it.
[38:40] Michelle: Yes, I love that. I love your messages to new nurses and seasoned nurses and just really all health professionals.
[38:49] Nicole: Right. It's not only nurses, it's all the firefighters and the paramedics, doctors.
[38:57] Michelle: We're all in it together, and we have to take care of ourselves and each other.
[39:02] Nicole: Exactly.
[39:03] Michelle: I think that's a great message to end on, yeah. Well, I will link all those sites. People can get in contact with you, and at the end, we do the five-minute snippet.
[39:17] Nicole: Yes.
[39:17] Michelle: Okay. So this is just a fun way for people to kind of get to know the off-duty side of Nicole. And you gave us a good off-duty side today, being an artist. That's awesome. So we will just get started. Okay. It's a lot of fun.
**Hey, friends, before we get into the five-minute snippet, I just want to clarify something. I am such a nerd. During the five-minute snippet, I asked Nicole, what's your kryptonite thinking Kryptonite is a superpower or a strength. Well, Nicole had it right when she asked me, isn't that a weakness? And I said, no, it's a strength. In actuality, it's an alien material from the fictional planet Krypton, and it robs you of your superpower like it did Superman. So Nicole was definitely right on this one, and I left the question in because I really liked her response to it. So let's take a listen and enjoy the five-minute snippet.**
All right. Do you have a favorite thing that you do for a girl's night out?
[40:40] Nicole: Yes. I am very fortunate. Where I live, there's a lot of wine tasting, and so a lot of times, my friends will come to visit me because I'm in a tourist town. And we'll start just by taking a walk around the little village of Carmel by the Sea, and we'll go to, like, a tasting room, then go to a nice dinner because there's just so many great places to go around here.
[41:04] Michelle: That sounds like a beautiful evening. And I have been to your little sleepy town by the sea, and it's just magical.
[41:13] Nicole: It really is.
[41:14] Michelle: Yeah. It's just like when you go there, you're just transported to another place.
[41:19] Nicole: Absolutely.
[41:20] Michelle: Have you ever been kicked out of anything? And if so, what?
[41:29] Nicole: Yes.
[41:32] Michelle: Care to share or no?
[41:35] Nicole: I did home care for *******, and he fired me.
[41:41] Michelle: Oh, my goodness.
[41:43] Nicole: I thanked him, and I left.
[41:46] Michelle: Wow.
[41:46] Nicole: Yeah. He was very particular, and I'm an ICU nurse. I'm used to having all my toys and my equipment at my fingertips, so it was just awkward being in somebody's home and not knowing where everything was.
[42:00] Michelle: I couldn't do it.
[42:01] Nicole: Yeah. And he told me, I'm sure you're very good at your job. This is what you said. And I said, thank you, and they called me back, like, five minutes later. He wants you to come back. Please come back. And I was like, absolutely not. That was when I was kicked out.
[42:15] Michelle: Oh, my gosh.
[42:17] Nicole: Okay.
[42:17] Michelle: This is a would you rather. WYR have a bad spray tan or a bad hair dye job?
[42:24] Nicole: Oh, my gosh. I currently have both. No, we're going to Hawaii next week, and I bought this spray tan stuff, and yeah, you're supposed to wear gloves.
[42:37] Michelle: Oh, no.
[42:39] Nicole: My hands are brown. My hairdresser didn't do a good job, but I think the spray can because it doesn't last as long as bad hair.
[42:48] Michelle: Yes, exactly. You can get rid of it quicker.
[42:51] Nicole: Yeah.
[42:51] Michelle: That's great. What's your Kryptonite?
[43:00] Nicole: My biggest weakness?
[43:02] Michelle: No, your biggest strength, like Kryptonite to Superman.
[43:05] Nicole: Yeah. Okay. So my biggest strength, I think, is just being, like, an empathetic person and always trying to remember that everybody's got a story, and you don't know what someone's dealing with on a day-to-day basis behind the scenes, and just trying to be kind.
[43:28] Michelle: Gosh be kind. If we could all do that right. Wouldn't our lives be so much better?
[43:33] Nicole: There's so many I work with a lot of residents, and when they snap at me or they're kind of saucy or rude or whatever, it's just you know what? This is coming from not because of me. This is coming from you're probably just super stressed, and I try to remember that. And inside the hospital and outside, if somebody's mean or cuts me off, maybe they're in a hurry to go somewhere and not my deal and not my issue, and I just try to remember that.
[44:04] Michelle: That's a great attitude to have.
[44:06] Nicole: Yeah.
[44:07] Michelle: WYR spend the day cleaning fish or peeling potatoes?
[44:13] Nicole: Peeling potatoes. Fish are stinky.
[44:19] Michelle: I agree. WYR have to ride a horse or a unicycle to work every day for a week?
[44:26] Nicole: Oh, a horse. They're such, like, soulful animals. And just to be able to connect with an animal like that, that would be really cool.
[44:35] Michelle: Pretty cool.
[44:37] Nicole: Yeah, that'd be amazing.
[44:38] Michelle: Okay, we got a few seconds left. Electronic or paper book?
[44:45] Nicole: Oh, paper.
[44:46] Michelle: 100% hands down, right?
[44:49] Nicole: Yes.
[44:50] Michelle: Smell and the tactile.
[44:53] Nicole: I know. Even, like, my Audible account. I keep signing up for it and then never using it.
[44:58] Michelle: Oh, my gosh.
[45:00] Nicole: Yeah.
[45:00] Michelle: Well, that has been so great. Nicole, thank you so much. I love your laugh. I love your artwork. I love your attitude. I love your message.
[45:11] Nicole: Thank you. And I love what you're doing too. This is great.
[45:14] Michelle: Thank you, Nicole. I appreciate that.
[45:15] Nicole: Yeah.
[45:17] Michelle: All right, well, you have a great day.
[45:20] Nicole: Thank you, you too.