Nicolina is a super smart woman and consultant firm business owner. She is a woman who isn't afraid of doing the hard work and over the course of her life so far, that mindset has paid off. After majoring in finance with a full ride scholarship, after being told she wasn't smart enough for college, and having some really solid mentoring in her career path, Nicolina decided to open her own consulting firm to design instructional resources for organizations. Her decision to enter into an industry that would always need help was a wise one. Today she works with City and Corporations to create Learning and Development Programs. Her company is called Bee Smart. She is currently digitizing all of the current instructional classes for multiple city programs that she is involved in with The City of New York as well as creating instructional courses for private companies. Nicolina is originally from Bolivia and because of this, she doesn't take her opportunities or becoming an American lightly. Nicolina is really good at expressing how grateful she is to be able to work in this country. She is a reminder to anyone who is American, to be grateful for the freedom that we have to create businesses and thrive here, unlike many other places on the planet. 

Mel & Nicolina discuss the actual industry of creating learning and development programs as a profession, the importance of hard work, the struggles as a Latina woman in business and just being a woman in general in the work place, and the many ways these two girls have bonded over their friendship. Nicolina lives by the saying Be Curious, Get Motivated, & Work Hard and it hasn't let her down yet. 

Nicolina recommends reading The Lean Startup, The 6 Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning, and The Art of Learning. Try using Overdrive to read for free. All you need is a library card which you can get for free! Write down and download all the book recommendations in this podcast for continued listening and exploration of this topic and expansion.