{"id":1408,"date":"2020-06-03T17:36:05","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T17:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/?page_id=1408"},"modified":"2024-12-06T20:26:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T20:26:09","slug":"nikki-rich-usc-upstate-alum","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/nikki-rich-usc-upstate-alum\/","title":{"rendered":"No Limitations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nUp Magazine<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Nicole Richardson '04 loves many things and isn't afraid to do them all.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
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Radio and TV show host and producer. Influencer. Oprah Winfrey Network ambassador. Fashion model. Writer. Former special education teacher. Kidney disease survivor.<\/p>\n

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Nicole Richardson '04 interviews Cedric the Entertainer at a red carpet event in Los Angeles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nicole Richardson \u201904 wears her many identities with pride. While her primary role is host, producer and creator of the Nikki Rich Show<\/a>, which airs on cable TV in the Los Angeles area, she has embraced both the challenges and opportunities that have come her way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just an old country girl from Seneca, South Carolina, who has reached so many heights,\u201d Richardson says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Online radio provided the foundation for her current career, but Richardson never aspired to work in media. Her first experience with broadcasting was doing announcements for her parents\u2019 radio ministry when she was growing up in Seneca. She didn\u2019t particularly like waking up early to go on the show with her brother, but the seeds of her future had been planted.<\/p>\n

When Richardson graduated from USC Upstate with a degree in criminal justice, her immediate focus was on teaching. She had taken multiple education courses at Upstate, and became a special needs teacher in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, working with children with autism in grades K through five. She also instructed inmates in state prisons.<\/p>\n

During her eight years as a teacher, she earned a master\u2019s in business administration through the University of Phoenix. Then layoffs began affecting the district. After losing her job in the third round of cuts, Richardson was determined to become her own boss. \u201cI didn\u2019t want anybody to tell me there will no longer be a job,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Richardson decided to try her hand at online radio. She plunged into learning everything she could, researching what platforms to use and acquiring the equipment she\u2019d need. Finally, on April 11, 2011, she was ready to go.<\/p>\n

Her first episode of the Nikki Rich Show was her introduction of herself to her audience. She didn\u2019t have a particular theme in mind for her show, she says, she just wanted it to have a positive message. To help spread the word, she posted a link on her social media accounts. \u201cI think it was a Wednesday, and I got emails from a publicist and had a celebrity guest by that Friday,\u201d Richardson recalls. \u201cIt was nerve wracking, but I did amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson entered the world of online radio when audio blog posts, or podcasts, were still relatively new. People weren\u2019t entirely sure what to make of the medium, Richardson notes. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t take those of us doing strictly online that seriously,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019d have guests reach out and then say, \u2018Oh, no, we want to be on real radio.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But the skepticism just made Richardson work harder. Like others in the field at the time, \u201cwe knew the time would come,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had the vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Richardson wtih Serena Williams.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Richardson continued to grow the audience for her two-hour show, producing multiple episodes a week on BlogTalkRadio and promoting them all on her social channels<\/a>. She also spent six months in New York working on a doctorate in business administration. While she eventually gave up the pursuit to focus full time on her show, the stay proved fruitful for booking noteworthy guests, including broadcaster Barbara Walters.<\/p>\n

Richardson also decided it was time to pursue her dream of moving to Los Angeles. The entertainment industry provided no shortage of celebrities for her to interview, as publicists were eager for outlets to promote new movies and streaming shows. But Richardson also mixed in small business owners and local companies to help them build their brands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s hardly any light shining on those hard-working everyday people, and I definitely wanted their voices to be heard,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to bridge that connection between everyday individuals and the ones who are entertainers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since being invited to produce her show for UVerse and Spectrum cable channels in Pasadena, Richardson has been able to focus exclusively on a weekly television program. That doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s any less busy, however. She conducts virtual interviews during the week, which she posts to her YouTube channel<\/a>, and often attends charity events to interview celebrity guests in person. On weekends she tapes the live interviews that will air Monday on cable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like a lot, but it\u2019s really not,\u201d Richardson says.<\/p>\n

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Richardson with comedian and actor Billy Crystal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even illness hasn\u2019t slowed her down. For more than five years she battled kidney disease, undergoing daily dialysis treatments while awaiting a transplant. She also underwent brain surgery in 2021 when the disease caused a blood clot. \u201cNothing stopped me,\u201d she says. \u201cNo matter what you go through, you\u2019ve gotta keep pushing. You gotta keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson\u2019s deep faith has also sustained her. \u201cI put God first in everything I do,\u201d she says. \u201cEven today, I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s all working, but he\u2019s been guiding.\u201d In October, she celebrated the one-year anniversary of her kidney transplant \u2013 an event she shared with viewers in a short reel from her hospital bed right before surgery.<\/p>\n

In the many years she\u2019s done the show, Rich can name numerous highlights: interviewing Riley Keough, Elvis Presley\u2019s granddaughter, who was promoting her Amazon show \u201cDaisy Jones and the Six\u201d; catching up with rapper Flavor Flav after the Olympics; talking to actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry, an idol of hers. But one of her most treasured moments was becoming an ambassador for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).<\/p>\n

Winfrey launched the network not long before Richardson started her show, and Richardson was an early fan. She identified with the challenges of building something from scratch, and used her social channels to support Winfrey and live tweet about OWN shows. The network noticed, and selected her as one of its ambassadors, social media influencers who help promote OWN to their audiences.<\/p>\n

Not only did Richardson get to interview cast members of OWN shows, but she also got to accompany Winfrey on tours to promote her appearances. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to have a relationship with the people who inspire you,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another recent achievement for Richardson was being one of the more than 200 credentialed content creators at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. A strong proponent of voting, Richardson was happy to use her platform to encourage engagement in the political process. As soon as the convention wrapped, she was off to Paris, where she walked the runway for Fashion Week in the Therese Marie Collection.<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s accomplished so much in building her brand and reach, Richardson isn\u2019t interested in sitting back and coasting. \u201cI\u2019m doing what I love, but I want to elevate the show to be on a higher scale,\u201d she says. That includes using her platform to raise awareness of organizations like the National Kidney Foundation and groups that assist survivors of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

Richardson says there are no limits to what she might do next. \u201cI\u2019m going to do everything I like to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Nicole Richardson ’04 loves many things and isn’t afraid to do them all. Radio and TV show host and producer. Influencer. Oprah Winfrey Network ambassador. Fashion model. Writer. Former special education teacher. Kidney disease survivor. Nicole Richardson \u201904 wears her many identities with pride. While her primary role is host, producer and creator of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1408","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}