Twins Nichelle (red cardigan) and Nicole (blue cardigan) are beautiful and bubbly, and most important, brainy.
The Chicago natives attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where Nicole majored in criminal justice and Nichelle majored in psychology. “We’re motivated young women,” explains Nicole. “We really want to be on top and be young moguls at the end of the day.”
The dynamic duo behind the hot online glossy, Young Mogul Nation, YMNation.com, has one purpose: to tell the stories that inspire today’s mogul in the making.
The Nichols Twins visited rolling out recently and dished about the pros and cons of launching a business with an identical twin.
What was your vision for Young Mogul Nation?
Nichelle (red): YM Nation first started as a lifestyle Web publication. We wanted to give a showcase for young moguls, entrepreneurs, and people to tell their blueprint to success. My sister and I came together, it’s like a year in the making and we really wanted to tell the journey of how you become a mogul, like Russell Simmons and Oprah.
They just weren’t moguls overnight, they were young moguls before they were moguls, that’s why we developed YMNation.com, just to give a showcase, or platform for young people to come to, to show their fashions, to show their platform, and to entertain, to show a little gossip, but definitely to give the business side of being a young mogul and the struggles and sacrifices you have to [make] in order to get to the top to become the ultimate mogul.
Nicole (blue): We want to spread the word that even though you might be on hard times or your life didn’t come together as you thought it might, you can come up with that one idea, expand on it, and really have the life you were always looking to have.
Which one of you is the evil twin?
Nichelle: I am very fun loving, all day, every day, I am an enjoyable person to be around, but just when you push me over that little bit of an edge, then you see the other side. My sister has more patience than I do. For the most part, I’m a fun-loving person all day.
What are the pros and cons of working with your twin?
Nicole: You live together you work together, and with most people you can just slam the phone and say, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore,’ and just quit.
With your sister, it’s more of a bond, it’s more entrenched. You’re going to see her on the holiday; you’re going to see her at night, so you have to make it work. We’re closer than most sisters because we are twins. This is a bond beyond blood, this is something… we’re more than sisters, we’re best friends, we’re each other’s partners in everything. And it’s just hard because her opinion is not always my opinion, and people are just like, ‘oh, you have to have the same opinion because you’re twins.’ No you don’t.
Nicole: We’re both strong-minded individuals, so when we have our mind set on something, it’s hard to move one person from their feelings, emotions and their opinions on it, so it’s like you have to compromise and meet in the middle. So, if I gave in one time, it’s your turn to give in. Or, how can we meet in the middle to make this work, so that you’ll have a little bit of something, and I’ll have a little bit of something and we can agree on it together.
Nichelle: I would have to say the same thing, you’re always around one another, you really can’t get the break, we have the same friends, we live together, we’re always around each other, and having a business, and so, that’s the hard part about it. You cannot leave one another. You can have an argument and close the door, but it’s not like I can go a week without seeing her.
The best part of it, she knows what I’m feeling or thinking at the same time and we can just look at each other and say, “yes, that’s it!” Or, we’ll have an aha! moment at the same time, just have this intuitive feeling, so it just makes things a little bit easier when we’re working together.
The Nichols twins discuss conflict resolution.
