Welcome back to Vision Pros. I'm so excited because
today we get to talk again with Nicole Daher
from Success on the Spectrum. She is, this is
so refreshing. You know how most businesses are
kind of in freak out mode? This is kind of probably
going to be a very, very refreshing change. And
I can't wait for you to hear about everything
that she's up to. And we've got some good questions
to ask today as well. Nicole, welcome to the
show. Would you just kind of reintroduce yourself
a little bit for those who might not remember
the first episode that we recorded with you?
Sure. My name is Nicole Daher, and I started
off as an autism mom looking for services for
my child. And as I stumbled through finding care
for her, I created the very first autism treatment
franchise in the country. I love it. And almost
kind of by accident, like you were just trying
to help your own child. Oopsies. Oopsies. Built
an empire. Tell a little bit more about like
how many, like share the size and spectrum of
this. We just celebrated a huge milestone. So
we have awarded over 100 territories. And of
those, 177 are already open and running. That's
amazing. So you had this dream to help your own
child. And now 77, like how many? Do you have
any concept of how many students are in all of
these? I know it kind of varies probably and
it's fluid. It's so difficult to count, but at
our last estimation, it's definitely over 4 ,000
families that our clinics have served. And, you
know, it's not, when you help a child with autism
gain independence, it's never just about the
kid. It really does. And we say families because
it affects the whole family unit. If a mother
who could previously not work because their child
couldn't feed themselves, wasn't potty trained
and five years old, they can now go to restaurants
and they can enroll their kid in school perhaps.
And so they get a semblance of their lives back
and it really improves the quality of life for
everyone around them. That's so beautiful. All
right. Well, this question is going to seem silly
in the light of that, but why do you care? Let
me just preface. You could have just helped your
own daughter. You could have made great strides
with her, gone on about a happy life. Starting
a business is no small feat. There are sleepless
nights no matter how wonderfully it is now. I'm
sure it wasn't always like that. Why did you
care enough to do this? I think I have my father
to thank for that. I was always raised to know
that children Animals and old people need to
be protected. They can't speak for themselves.
They don't have their own voice or they're not
able to advocate for themselves. And so you have
to protect them. And when my own daughter needed
help, I, of course, was angry at the world and
I had this problem to fix and I was going to
do this and nobody was going to stop me. But
when I saw other moms just as desperate as I
was, but... not as able as I was to start a business
or not as knowledgeable to start their own business
or the fear of the unknown was preventing them
from doing something. I just felt like there
was this huge injustice in the world and I was
going to tackle this thing, not just for me,
but for everybody. I didn't feel like it was
just mine. All kids deserve the same thing and
it felt just as good. helping other kids as it
did my own and you kind of relive all those awesome
moments when your daughter had their first words
or made her first friend you relive that with
these clients so it's very self -motivating to
do and it's very easy to love what you do because
it's so positive and rewarding all of the time
and a lot of businesses don't have that you know
if you own a pizza place you don't get that warm
fuzzy feeling um from serving food to people
but this is it changes your life and it changes
your perspective and it makes you appreciate
what you have and you seek giving that to others
that's so cool it sounds like you know how a
lot of people will say start with your why there's
a whole book start with why you know and and
why i think it can be really motivating you had
a huge why but you really had a huge who Which
do you feel like drives you more, the why or
the who? Probably the who. I have to say my daughters
changed my life in ways I could have never anticipated.
They say becoming a mother makes you a different
person. Oh, no. I mean, I had a perfectly good
career in nuclear medicine. Wait, wait, wait.
That's incredible. That's a lot. It sounds a
lot fancier than it is. But, you know, I have
all these, you know, you make a plan for your
life and you get this degree and you hang these
fancy certificates on the wall and you're like,
here I am. And now they're just in a closet.
What am I going to do with them now? I'm not
going back. So it's kind of life has a funny
way of you don't get to decide where you're going.
Your destiny is going to be over here. You're
just kind of going with the current. And I feel
like that's what I did. I saw something needed
to be done and I did it. And after you get there,
there's the next mountain you have to climb.
You're like, well, let's go over there. And then
you just keep going. And by the time you're done,
you turn around and look back and you see this
empire that you've built and you've helped so
many people. And it becomes, it's now bigger
than me. And that's what I'm most proud of. Honestly,
it's not just me helping my own daughter or me
running one clinic. it's 70 other people doing
the same thing as me. We're replicating the Nicole
and reaching way further than I could have ever
done by myself. So amazing. I love to hear that.
That is so cool. Now that you've, you know, like
we say, you know, essentially built an empire
and you've got all these different, you've got
team of all kinds. You've got the franchisees.
You've got, this is a lot of people to lead.
Coming from nuclear medicine, I have no idea
whether they teach any sort of leadership skills
or anything. I would doubt it. Talk a little
bit about what has been your best leadership
experience ever. So when you start something
from nothing, especially on a tight budget, you
wear a lot of hats. And I was the receptionist.
I was the CEO. I was the janitor. I'm still the
janitor and the maintenance man. Let's be real.
I was the IT support. I was HR. And you do a
little bit of everything to make the business
run because you can't open a business tomorrow
and pay one person to run your website and one
person to do payroll and one person. You can't
do that. So you wear a lot of hats. And as you
get bigger, and I've heard this from a lot of
business. uh talks that i i've been through or
leadership strategy books that i've read you
have to learn to let go because you can't scale
you can't do everything by yourself there's only
one of you and you can't scale if you don't let
that go and that was really hard for me i'm a
little bit of a control freak i'm a little bit
okay i'm a lot of it of type a and nobody can
do it better than i can and so i had to hire
a team that i trusted a team of people that had
the same mission and desires and goals that I
had. And I had to trust that they were going
to do their job well and not hover over them
and micromanage and try to stick my nose in everybody's
business. And once you empower the right people
to take over a job for you, it truly. allows
your brand to scale and your business to grow.
And it's difficult to let go. But it's the only
way that you can move forward and get bigger.
That's for sure. You're only one person. You
can't do it all. That's great. On the flip side,
what would you say has been your worst leadership
experience ever? And it's almost the exact opposite.
In the beginning, I was too nice, I think. And
what I impressed on earlier was you need the
right people to trust to take over those jobs
for you. I had a few scenarios where I trusted
the wrong person. And when you see that they're
messing up and you're giving them corrective
feedback and they're fighting you. every step
of the way because they don't have the same goals
in mind it is not trainable some people are not
trainable and that was a really hard hard lesson
and weak moments that I had where I picked the
wrong people I trusted them I gave them too much
power too quickly and they did a lot of bad things
and it ended up in this blow up or these confrontations
I had one staff member that I promoted as trainer
because I thought she was just so good with the
kids. And she was, she was great with the kids.
But when it came to authority, she had a problem.
And it became this huge confrontation where we
actually had to call the police. And it was like
things flying around the room and people shouting
and us getting the kids out of the way. And these
like, looking back, those are your worst moments.
That would never happen to me. I'd never put
up with that. As soon as they do this, I fire
them. But back then. firing someone would just
devastate me. I would be broken over. This was
their livelihood. This was their job. It was
my fault. I should have taught them better. And
I just have to recognize that leadership skill
is also knowing who is trainable, who can have
actionable change after corrective feedback,
and who you just need to get out. And the faster
they get out, the better. Yeah. Those are words
of life right there. Let's ask about this then.
Are there any is there a powerful lesson that
you would like to pass along to other visionaries
from your experience? Absolutely. Last year,
I was awarded the Houston Humanitarian Award
by the mayor in this beautiful ceremony in this
ballroom with my fancy gown. And several other
people won awards that night and someone on that
stage. And I wish I could remember who. But they
said the wisest thing that no one has ever said
to me before. And it was, when you serve others,
it's your own family that suffers the most. You're
giving a piece of yourself away. And as this
business got larger, I was spending less time
being a mother and more time being a CEO. And
you're motivated. By helping these other children
and then sometimes yours get pushed further and
further back or less prioritized. I just wrote
a book about all of the loss that I experienced
while gaining everything with the business. And
I lost my first marriage. And it was hard. And,
you know, I think in the end it worked out for
the best. But you can't. gain everything without
losing something so it's important to be ready
mentally and emotionally to sacrifice the things
or make decisions on what you were sacrificing
what your end goal needs to be that's that's
advice and the statement that they made to you
the person on the stage made to you I've never
heard that either that's really good and it's
you know you don't learn it until you're looking
back and it's I wish someone had told me sooner.
And if they did, I don't know if I would have
believed them. Right. No, he has my back and
my family's fine and they love what I'm doing
and they're proud of what I'm doing. And sometimes
that isn't true and you don't realize it. Yeah.
Oh, that's, that's amazing. That's so good. Thank
you so much for sharing your wisdom for doing
the work that you're doing. The change that you're
creating in the world and for these families
and the ripple effect that comes out from that
for generations is just huge. It's hard to even
conceive of how powerful this is that you're
doing. I do have imposter syndrome quite often.
Like, did I really do this to me? Me? I'm just
over here in my little podcast studio here. Like,
I'm not doing that much. There are so many people
that get touched and the kids deserve it. And
my, again, my vision is that all the kids that
need help one day will have access to it. And
it's a shame that right now there are not enough
clinics in existence to provide the care for
all the kids that need it. And I'm out to fix
this. And if other people want to jump in and
help me paddle this boat, let's all jump in and
let's rescue. Let's send an SOS to all the...
Children that need help. And as a community,
together, we can be very powerful. So good. Where
can people find you if they are interested in
helping? If you are an aspiring entrepreneur
that is looking to open an autism treatment clinic,
you can visit our website, SOSFranchising .com.
And you can learn more information about it there
on the website. There's contact us buttons that
will actually set up a video call with me. to
answer all of your questions. And as a special
gift, just for the guests of Visionary Pros,
I do have an offer that if you mentioned you
heard about us on this podcast, we will buy you
one round trip domestic flight on Southwest Airlines
to fly to Houston, visit our corporate headquarters,
and spend a day with me. Get a tour of everything.
Look around. Ask your questions. See what it's
like on the inside. Imagine what it would be
to own your own autism clinic and it'll help
you make better decisions. OK, thank you so much.
We appreciate everything that you're doing. Of
course. Thank you so much for having me and helping
spread the word of the good work we have yet
to do. Thank you for being here today. I'm really
happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward. This
is going to get more and more fun. We'll have
more and more engagement as well. We'll invite
people to participate in the show. And thank
you for giving us your time and attention. Have
an excellent time building out your vision and
becoming a vision pro yourself.