Advice from the Heart

Curtis emphasized the importance of prioritizing family over career pursuits. She shared, “The best advice is they can all wait. Your children can’t.” With her youngest son Harper, 9, and her first child Ethan, 26, she realized the value of being present during their childhood.

During the early days of shooting the show, Curtis was focused on financial stability. She admitted, “I was chasing the money hard because I wanted a better life for us. There were moments when I definitely thought maybe this would have been better if I was still cleaning houses as I sacrificed quality time with my family in those early years.”

Lessons from Grandfather

A conversation with her late grandfather changed her mindset. He said, “Nicky, as soon as you make enough to where you don’t need that money, don’t chase it anymore. You don’t need it. Why are you chasing it?” This lesson has stayed with her.

Now, Curtis is firm in her stance. She said, “I don’t care what it is. You cannot put a check in front of me that is going to take time away from my family. So I think that’s absolutely the thing I would tell my younger self is that, you know what – you’ll figure it out. You’ll figure it out. And I did.”

Balancing Work and Family

Curtis founded her own production company three years ago to find a better balance between work and family life. She explained, “As the years progressed, I’m in this position where I ran my show. I directed my show. I bought the properties. I designed the properties. I hired the crews and I worked with them. And I did all this and still having to share that space with another production company – it really got to be where, ‘Why do I want to do this anymore?’”

She added, “So now I’m going to do all the heavy lifting and we’re going to run it the way that I need it to run so that it works properly for my life and my family.”

Proving Herself as a Producer

After making a name as a TV host, Curtis had to prove herself as a producer to network executives. She said, “I think a lot of people have this misconception because I’m a known brand – I’m a known entity – that I can just walk into any network and be like, ‘Hey, I want to sell you a new show today.’ They didn’t see me as a producer. They saw me as an on-air talent, and it took three years of really putting my money where my mouth was to be like, ‘No, I’m more producer than talent.’ And honestly, I’d prefer to be that. I don’t really enjoy on-camera.”

Self-Funding and the Journey

The process of making her TV comeback through her own production has been challenging. Curtis noted, “Making television shows is not a cheap process. And that’s why I joke on my social media that you swing and if you don’t make it, these are some really expensive home movies for our family. But I think that’s the hardest one for me. I haven’t sweated like this in a long time.”

She continued, “When you’re filming, and you don’t know where this is going to get sold, it’s a lot. Just like my houses, I don’t finance anything. You know, it’s all cash money. So I think that’s been the hardest thing for me is that I’m like, ‘Oh, wow, I’m in this position again.’ But struggle is nothing new for me.”

Building from the Ground Up

Curtis started her business as a house cleaner in the suburbs of Detroit. She took every dime she made and put it into real estate. Now, as she runs her own production company and works on her renovation projects, she feels a sense of ownership and satisfaction.

She said, “I was an up-and-coming house cleaner in the suburbs of Detroit. That’s where I built my business and I had a little house cleaning business. And I took every dime I made and I put it into real estate. So it was kind of like a refresher course on what it used to be. And I get to tell you, the feeling is amazing to be on my sites and know that everything is 100% mine. You can’t put a price tag on that.”

Teasing the New Episodes

Curtis teased what her fans can look forward to when she debuts her self-produced episodes. She said, “I just decided to throw caution to the wind. If I was going to start a new production company – I did something crazy. I bought a house in a little city that I’ve never been to, never seen. And it was just always on this bucket list of mine.”

She continued, “And I’m a real estate person in the morning and evening and in the nighttime I dream it. And I kept looking at these listings for this tiny little town. And I was just in a mood one day and I really did say, ‘F— it, I’m just buying this house.’ And I did it. I was in Paris and I flew from Paris to New York to Salt Lake City, drove to the house and was like, ‘Well, here we are. We’re just going to do this house.’ And that’s what I felt for these episodes. And it’s been one of those moments where I’m like, I can’t believe I did that. But damn, that was fun.”