In 2014, Nikki Taylor spent a week in hospital attached to a morphine drip due to severe stomach pains. The culprit? A highly stressful lifestyle as a result of working 12-hour days as an investment banker. She was wiped out.
“I felt like there was something missing in my life, and it was actually having a life!" says Nikki. "I wanted to find true love and create a totally different lifestyle for myself. I always had a fascination with Italy. It seemed like the best move, and I have never looked back since.”
That same year, Nikki packed up her bags in her hometown in Australia and made the move to Italy.
Shortly after moving, Nikki meet the love of her life and now has two boys under the age of 5. Nikki felt so grateful having made such a leap that she decided to take her love of Italy one step further and start her business, Italy Property Consulting, which helps foreigners search for their dream homes in Italy. Her first son Lorenzo, just a year old at the time, was her inspiration.
“I was really nervous when I decided to start my business," admits Nikki. "What if it didn't work out? How would I show the world what I was capable of? I had severe imposter syndrome and it nearly stopped me from taking that first step. My son Lorenzo was my inspiration to take action. He was just over a year old when I started my business and I wanted to be able to create a beautiful future for my family. My family has always been and will always be my biggest why. They give me the strength to keep going even when times get tough.”
It's not easy, as Nikki reveals.
She is raising two boys under the age of 5 in a country not originally her own, while running a business. But she has found a way to balance everything.
“My day typically starts with getting the boys ready for nursery," says Nikki. "I am not the type of mother who gets dressed up for the school run. Most of the time I am in my PJs with a jacket over the top — thank goodness for leggings!”
Nikki makes the most of the time her boys are in school by responding to emails, taking client meetings, and other work tasks. But because most of her clients are Americans in a different time zone, she usually does most of her work at night, when her boys are in bed.
Nikki is also lucky to have a partner who supports her every step of the way.
“I love being with my clients on property viewings, the most recent one was up in Tuscany, and I was away for two days," says Nikki. "I am super lucky that my partner is so supportive of my business, and he was able to look after the kids whilst I was away working.”
As any working mom can tell you, it can sometimes be a mess, with Zoom calls interrupted by screaming children. But that’s reality for many a working mom these days, especially due to working remotely due to the pandemic.
"It can be a juggle working with children, I am not going to lie," says Nikki.
"There have been many times I’m on a Zoom call with important clients and my children will start screaming or crying or want to be present on the call," she adds. "At the end of the day, you've just gotta roll with it and I think it’s better to be totally authentic about my life rather than pretend otherwise!”
Nikki’s job is to help foreigners search for homes in Italy. When the pandemic hit, that put her business, which was still relatively new at the time, in a difficult position.
"When the pandemic first hit, my clients were not able to travel and there was a lot of fear around making commitments like buying property," she says.
"It was exactly during that time where I had an idea to create a bespoke property newsletter to send to my clients," she adds. "The aim was, if they couldn't come to Italy to view properties themselves, I would deliver the best properties in Italy to their inbox on a weekly basis to keep their dream alive.”
Nikki went one step further in making her clients happy. Through her network of experts in the industry, she was able to show her clients properties, offer drone footage so they could see the surroundings, and guide them throughout the process.
“So many of my clients were frustrated with not being able to travel and come to Italy so we were helping them through the process all remotely!" she says. "It is such a rewarding feeling knowing that you've been able to help someone achieve their Italian dream.”
Nikki feels so grateful to live out her dream life that she is now taking her dreams one step further in hopes to give someone else a shot at their dreams.
"As we all know, Italy was the first country to really take a hit from COVID and I wanted to create a passion project to help create a ripple effect of positivity on a global scale for Italy. For this reason, I started the 'Love Letters to Italy' campaign through my business Italy Property Consulting," she says. "This involves people writing a handwritten note as to why they love Italy and one lucky person's note will get chosen from an independent panel of judges and they will win a beautiful property located in Ostuni, one of the most desirable towns in Puglia, Italy.”
Nikki is a believer in giving back and wanted to be able to gift someone their Italian dream. “Seeing everyone's beautiful notes of love for Italy is just such a rewarding project," she says. "I truly love what I do, and I love Italy, so it has been incredible to be able to give back.”