Social Entrepreneur Nicka Johnson Driven to Create Legacy for Her Family and Community
by Leo Adam Biga
Black Women Business Owners Installment II
The old adage goes, there’s no substitute for experience
The old adage goes there’s no substitute for experience. The same could be said for resilience. Budget to Success owner-founder Nicka Johnson, a North Omaha native, possesses an abundance of both.
The financial literacy and credit repair coach has learned to use challenges as catalysts for goal setting and achievement. Raised in a single-parent home with a cycle of teenage pregnancy, a biological father who chose not to be in her life and a brother lost to the streets, she’s moved forward rather than remain stuck.
“I wouldn’t be the woman I am today and have the strength that I have if I didn’t endure that. It’s easy for us to look at the negative side of things, but I look at the lessons out of situations and learn to view things from a more positive aspect.”
“I wouldn’t be the woman I am today and have the strength that I have if I didn’t endure that. It's easy for us to look at the negative side of things, but I look at the lessons out of situations and learn to view things from a more positive aspect,” said Johnson, who at 16 began working in the Jackson Hewitt office her mother, Danita Lynn, managed. “I started as a receptionist and worked my way up to tax preparer. I did that until I left for college. So I was always financially savvy and around business. My mom was an entrepreneur. She was a stylist, a cosmetologist. She had her own salon. Growing up in poverty, we learned how to budget off of food stamps.”
“I saw managing money was very key to success and to breaking those barriers.”
As a young adult, Johnson took it upon herself to model positive choices for her extended family. “Unfortunately I was forced to grow up quicker than I wanted. I had to learn how to be responsible, care for myself and those around me. I had to be that person in my family that was dependable. I only had one child. I lived within my means. I’m the one they would borrow money from.” At Northwest High School she was in the college preparatory program Upward Bound, where she met her husband Aaron. The couple are parents to a daughter, Amira. Aaron is a machine operator for Kellogg’s.
“I knew what it was like having to stand in line as a child at the Salvation Army watching my mom have to show proof of dependence to get food supplies.”
Nicka Johnson
“I learned the importance of continuous education to overcome obstacles,” Johnson said. “I knew what it was like having to stand in line as a child at the Salvation Army watching my mom have to show proof of dependence to get food supplies. I knew what it was like when she signed up for a family to adopt us for Christmas. I remember shut-off notices and we went without. I remember when we shopped for hand-me-downs. My success, my drive, my resilience, my tenacity comes from my childhood. I always knew I wanted more. I just got tired of struggling. I hated that. I learned that while my family dynamics may shape who I am, they won’t determine who I become. I knew if I didn’t want to be a product of my environment, I needed to work hard.”
She applied herself in school and made good grades, earning multiple scholarships, including the prestigious Buffett Scholar and Dell Scholar awards. She majored in business administration with a minor in communication studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her academic emphasis was strategic, she said, noting, “Everything is around business and a streamline of communication in any business is vital for growth.” Her success is paying it forward for others.
“I was the first generation in my family to pursue post-secondary education. My mother ended up going back to school. She now has two master’s degrees. I was the change that started for my family, but it’s no longer about me, it’s about everybody else around me and providing them that opportunity to have more.” Her UNL experience was a mixed bag. She said some white students “glamourized the life of the ghetto and assumed all Black fathers are absent.” “Not a lot of students of color stayed. They transferred. It wasn’t very diverse. I had a huge presence on campus as a pregnant Black woman. I helped change some things – to create rooms for mothers like myself who were breastfeeding.” As a Buffett and Dell Scholar, she cultivated many relationships. As a Teammates mentee, she got close with her mentor Janet Miller. “She thinks of me as her daughter.” Johnson funds a Teammates scholarship in honor of her own daughter. Teammates honored Johnson last year during its virtual gala featuring founder Tom Osborne, donor Warren Buffett and special guest, Bill Murray.
From Working for Others to Working for Herself
“I’m very old school. When I’m scheduled to work, I show up no matter what. I was the first one to come in and the first one to leave…I spoke my mind and I didn’t kiss ass.”
-Nicka Johnson
Consistent with her business focus, she worked in the credit department at Cabela’s and completed an internship at the financial services company, Ameritas. She is nothing if not intentional. Shortly after graduating college, she realized a dream of working in corporate America when she got hired by Union Pacific Railroad as a critical crew dispatcher in its Harriman Dispatch Center downtown. The reality didn’t match the ideal. “It was a union shop, I was very young and didn’t get that level of respect. It made me very uncomfortable. I worked a lot of hours and I cried a lot behind the scenes.” She then worked as an electronic loan officer for Centris Federal Credit Union, where she said she was a “top producer” with “perfect attendance.”
Nicka and Aaron
But by the time the pandemic hit, she saw another career path based on the value she placed on herself and her potential. “The life I want I can’t have at a 9-to-5 job. You work so hard and you only get a pay increase once a year and it’s less than five percent. I’m worth so much more than that. Before the pandemic, I was already working my exit strategy to transition from being an employee to an employer. You’re either going to work for somebody else’s dream or work for yours. I loved what I was doing but felt confined by rules and regulations. I asked myself what is my purpose, what makes me happy.”
“The life I want I can’t have at a 9-to-5 job. You work so hard and you only get a pay increase once a year and it’s less than five percent. I’m worth so much more than that.”
Her first venture in following her heart became Snomaha, a seasonal food business featuring scoops of flavored shaved ice she opened in 2016. On the advice of Julian Young in a 2017 Start Center entrepreneurship class to use social media to talk about what she’s passionate about and can teach others about, she formalized her side hustle of financial coaching. Aware that many people struggled saving money and paying off debt, she took to social media to share her own financial freedom journey. How she and Aaron saved to fund their $15,000 wedding out of their own pockets. How they paid off a four-year debt consolidation loan in one year. How they became homeowners in their 20s. How they plan international travel adventures. She preached “having actionable goals to reach long term goals” and turning “I can’t” into “I can.” Her personal. pull-no-punches tips developed a following. She took on clients, often meeting them at the 30th and Ames Scooters owned by her Start Center mentor, Julian Young. Inspired by stories of thriving Black women on Instagram and in podcasts, she decided to leave her 9-to-5 and make her side hustle her livelihood. She gave her notice to Centris on September 1 and launched Budget to Success on September 3, confident in taking that leap of faith as a social entrepreneur. “I want to be the change in living my purpose and life authentically.”
Changing Clients’ Relationship with Money
Budget to Success client Camarra Washington with the new car she was able to purchase after getting her finances in order thanks to coaching from Nicka Johnson
At the core of her business, she said, is “teaching people to change their relationship with money.” We offer one-on-one financial coaching to create functional budgets. A lot of people don’t know how to budget. They just think it’s their bills. But it’s being intentional in making sure you can account and allocate every dollar. You should be able to know where your money is going. You want to control your money and not let it control you.” Money woes abound in a vacuum of savings and investments.
“Within my community, I see a lot of people mishandling money. Doing partial payments on bills and then getting their hair and nails done, Not having priorities in order. You’re not saving for today, you’re saving for tomorrow. It’s preparing for the unexpected. So many people focus on now, but they need to look long-term to beat generational curses and build generational wealth.” She sees too many folks living beyond their means. “They want to look good, feel good and appear like they have money, but they’re drowning in debt. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, it’s about managing the money you do make.” She continues using her own life as an example of what’s possible.
“My husband and I were fortunate when the pandemic hit that we had over six months of savings. We were able to purchase our first rental property in the middle of a pandemic. We’re on track to purchase another one this summer. We’re building a real estate portfolio as an extra revenue stream and as a wealth creation source to be our safety net.” Bad credit can limit economic freedom, She offers credit repair services that Improve client credit scores. She also teaches clients how to use credit as leverage. “When you have A-plus credit you have buying power,” she said. “My husband bought a brand new 2020 truck and they tried to give him a six percent interest rate. I was able to negotiate it down to three percent. You can do that when you have A-plus credit.” Creating debt reduction strategies is another service. “You don’t want to be a slave to debt,” Johnson said. “Some Black women grew up claiming stuff like that and it’s breaking that mindset. Don’t be a slave to poverty either. You don’t have the choice of being born in poverty, but you have a choice to stay there or not.” She knows money matters are the last thing most people want to discuss, but, she said, “I want to start normalizing talking about finances.”
Success Calls is an affirmations-based service she offers that provides new clients “motivation and inspiration to define their own level of success.” “It gives them space to vent, too.” Mental health tools are also covered since money troubles are triggers for addictions and act-outs. “I’m very vocal about my journey of therapy and self-healing. I do require my coaching clients to work in identifying their triggers. It’s a holistic picture of finances.” Johnson has used therapy to deal with the loss of a close friend she regarded as a brother, Kyle W. LeFlore Sr., a U.S. Army sergeant shot and killed in 2018 while on leave in Omaha. “He was the big brother I needed while my older brother was always incarcerated. His death changed me and fueled my fire. I learned how to cope with grief and then I identified my childhood traumas. It also focused me on living my life with a purpose.”
She dedicated an excursion to Thailand in memory of LeFlore. “He always wanted to visit Thailand, so I went in honor of him. The trip taught me so much about myself. To remain humble, learn not to take simple things for granted like clean water, to be in the moment, and to not work so hard with nothing to show for it. Traveling is so important to me to create new experiences and memories and to live life without regret.” Just as she’s learned to “live in the moment and to remember what type of impact I am making in this world,” she impresses upon clients the need to be mindful about their finances in order to maximize their lives. When clients start with her, she said, “It’s about investing in themselves and keeping a promise to reach the goals they want to achieve.”
Black Women in Business Revolution
To prepare herself to best serve clients she draws on her experience in the financial services industry. She’s also taken training from star credit repair industry veterans. “We grow by learning from one another.” She’s gleaned information about branding, marketing, IT, and customer relations.
Lesson learned thus far in her first eight months in business:
•Be honest and transparent
•Set realistic expectations
•Set boundaries
“I focus on building the foundation of my company. I set up SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), make sure everything I do is documented. I do quarterly goals. I’m very into business analytics.” To grow and scale her company, she knows being able to delegate will be key. She currently employs a virtual assistant and is looking to hire a second staffer later this year. “My biggest thing is communication and providing excellent customer service. I want to make sure everybody feels valued.” That’s especially important in her field. “Typically when clients come to us we are their last resort. They’ve lost hope, they feel inferior because they have bad credit or have filed bankruptcy or live check by check.” Straight talk is her M.O. “It’s having that conversation to say, ‘Hey, bad things happen to good people and ‘bad credit does not have to be a life sentence.”
Clients mainly find her business via social media. Its webpage aggregated 1,500-plus Likes and dozens of Google Reviews after only a couple of months. She notes the synergy of Black women business owners here and elsewhere. “I think we’re taking the opportunity to believe in ourselves. As Black women, we have to work twice as hard as our counterparts just to be seen or recognized. The way our grandparents came up, they were homemakers. But now we are independent and understand our gifts, the value we bring, and the changes we can help make within the world. In any movement, there’s going to be a Black woman behind it.” She’s glad to be part of a movement in which Black women don’t settle for disparities.
“So often we didn’t have a seat at the table, so we had to create our own table. We didn’t fit in. Too Black, too loud. Okay, so if we don’t fit with you, we’re going to create our own space for people who look like us – to empower and support each other. Collaboration is more important than competition.” She’s happy to intersect with fellow Black women entrepreneurs. “I network with a lot of people. I’m all about support. Whether giving a like or share or attending a pop-up, I try to show up and show out. If I see people doing certain things in business, I’ll message or call to say I recommend doing it another way, this is how you can excel.” Johnson appreciates it when Sister Entrepreneurs show her and her business some love, too. But at the end of the day, she knows an entrepreneur makes it on her own initiative. Grit is a must. “Anything I have set out to achieve I have done,” she said. “I don’t take no for an answer. I’m going to find a solution to a problem and I’m going to make it happen. If someone tells me no or doubts me, it gives me even more motivation to do it.”
Nicka Johnson with Budget to Success client Racquel Henderson of Brilliant & Resilient
Bigger Than Herself and More Than Today
Nicka, Aaron and their daughter
At the end of the day, she takes satisfaction in helping clients find a path for sustained success. It’s all measured in results, whether an improved credit score or resolved debt or the creation of a savings nest egg or someone becoming a first-time homeowner “My clients fill me. To hear I am teaching them things their parents did not teach them lets me know I’m making a difference. I love my clients. They are my family. I would not be who I am without them.” Though her business is less than a year old and she’s still only 29, she long ago made her rep as a financial guru. She appreciates the props. “Sometimes it’s surreal because so many people look up to me and I’m just a young girl from 24th Street. All I did was believe in myself and believe in my dreams. I have to pinch myself.”
If she ever needs reminding why she keeps her eye on the prize, she need only look at her daughter. “It’s all about giving her access and opportunity I did not have, making sure I’m present, being an active parent. I’m in PTA. I have her in schools with the best test scores. I’m doing whatever I can to make sure she’s raised in an environment she doesn’t have to heal from.” And make no mistake about it, as far as Nicka Johnson is concerned, she’s just only getting started creating that legacy for her family and making a difference in her community “I will be a multi-millionaire. I will be the real people’s champ. I won’t leave my community behind. It is each one to teach one, and it starts from within.”
Budget to Sucess support@budgettosuccess.net (800) 340-9442