Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Embracing Your "Villain Era" Can Help Your Career - Just Ask Reality TV Villain Corinne Olympios

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

You’ve probably seen your favorite Instagram celebrity talk about entering their “villain era," which feels like it’s probably only good for reality TV villains. But channeling your inner villain can actually help you at work. Just ask an actual reality TV villain, Corinne Olympios (House of Villains, The Bachelor). Corinne tells Nicole why she thinks being a villain is actually a good thing, the money trail of The Bachelor and gives advice all of us can use next time we need to advocate for ourselves.

One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that

I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details.

I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your

reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. You've probably seen your favorite Instagram celebrity talk about entering their villain era,

and that feels like it's probably only for reality TV villains. But channeling your inner villain can actually help you at work. Just ask actual reality TV villain Corinne Olympios. Corinne first recognized her amazing knack for being reality TV gold when she was the villain of Nick Vile's season of The Bachelor. Now she is doubling down on the reality TV show House of Villains. Or at least she was. Corinne was eliminated yesterday. We talk about the money trail of The Bachelor because, of course, I will never not be stumped or get over the fact that Bachelor or Bachelorette contestants make no money, zero dollars whatsoever. But Corinne also gives me some pretty solid advice on a work situation that I have recently been struggling with. And so now I'm thinking, is it time for me to enter my villain era? TBD. But for now, here's Corinne. Corinne Olympios, welcome to Money

Rehab. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here. I'm very excited to talk about your latest project. It is House of Villains. Can you explain the concept for anyone who hasn't seen the show? So House of Villains is a house of 10 controversial reality TV stars in one house doing silly fun challenges to win 200 grand and you can be eliminated and you can sabotage and you can help other people. It's, it's really fun. It's, it was the most fun show I've ever done. 200 grand is such an interesting number. I agree. Like why not 100 or 1 million? That feels just like a round number. I don't know. I don't know. All right. To be continued on that one. How does it though make

you feel to be called a villain? In the beginning, I was not really understanding that villains can be many things. Being a villain is for me, being confident and following your heart and speaking your mind and being strong and being who you are and not hiding it. I don't think being a villain necessarily means you have to be mean to other people or put other people down. So do you think that there are good villains and bad villains like the good witch and the bad witch from The Wizard of Oz? I do. If you could add another TV reality villain to the cast, who do you think it would be? I'm not sure.

I don't really watch a lot of reality TV just because I know how it works and what goes on behind the scenes. And I just really love this cast. I know it's probably because I did the show and I was in the cast, but like, I just can't imagine it with anyone else in the cast. There was this good overall juju and chemistry. Yes. I had Kara Allaway on the show. She was the villain of her season of Real Housewives of Toronto. She made the point that when you think of mean girls, the first person you think of is Regina George and not Katie. So do you think there are benefits to being a TV or a movie villain or a villain IRL? I definitely think that they're the most iconic. They always say the nice guy finishes last. Do you believe that? I think that truly mean people do finish last. I feel like if you're

just confident in who you are and you're using your own strategy and you're not hurting other people, I think that you will finish first. But if you're going after people and you're saying hurtful things and you're doing things to deliberately hurt somebody, you will finish last. Okay. So in the finish line, it would be like the evil people who just don't mean well, then the nice people who have no spine. And then it sounds like you.

I mean, I guess. This week I am eliminated, but it is not the last you'll see of me on House of Villains. And I do have a major role in the rest of the casts who is left. I have a role in their fate on the show. So it's really fun when I come back, but that's all I can give away on that. It doesn't mean I'm gone for good. Okay. Has being typecast as a villain come with challenges so far? No, not really. Because I think people who watch me know that I'm just like not a bad person.

So I think it's more of like an entertaining fun thing rather than like a like, oh, she's a bitch thing. Listen, I wrote the book called Rich Bitch and Boss Bitch. I like the term bitch. I think it can be taken back and used as an empowering term. And it sounds like that's how you feel about the word villain. Correct. And I love that. Totally agree with that. I mean, look, my motto is life is long, the world is small. Don't be an asshole. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of how I view it. But I'm curious how you think of this in a corporate setting. A lot of our listeners have a nine to five, you know, they're working likely in a corporate job or have a side hustle or both. Do you think there's any benefit to

leaning into your villain era at work or in the workplace? Absolutely. You need to be confident, stand up for yourself, do what you think is right. I think in any situation in life, people will always be trying to come for you or steal your job or steal your bag or try to just get in the way of you being successful. And I think everyone needs to have a little bit of villain in them to protect what is theirs and what they believe in. And I think that bringing that to work is just shows how strong you are. So maybe I'm not cool enough to know this, but steal your bag means like steal money, not like your actual purse. Okay. Money rehab does not believe anyone should steal your bag.

Yeah. You protect your money. Protect the bag at all costs. Yes. Do you think that you should channel your inner villain when trying to protect your bag, so to speak, at work negotiating contracts? Absolutely. I think you should stand up for what you think that your worth is. And if you feel like you're being underpaid or you're being undervalued, I mean, I worked with a brand and I had some words with them because I felt that I wasn't being appreciated. I know that I was giving them good content and putting out good content and they were arguing with me about paying me and I had some words with them about it. Like you guys don't appreciate my content. I know my worth and I know what my fans like to see. And like my photos are beautiful.

I hire a professional to take my photos for all of my content for you guys. And I just feel like you guys don't appreciate it at all. And I don't want to work with you anymore. How'd that go? I got what I wanted. And I was really proud of myself for sticking to what I believe in and standing up for the work that I put out for brands that trust me enough to hire me to promote them. And I was like, you're not going to do that.

My content is great. And I see the things that I post are selling out. So no. No. No, absolutely not. Not today, honey. Not today, ma'am. Do you help your friends negotiate their contracts?

There are some girls that are friends of mine and we do work with some of the same brands and we'll ask each other how much this brand is paying and this and that. And there was one time where I was like being super low balled and I was like, hey, how much is this brand paying you? And you know, we're always honest with each other,

which is cool. I think that's important. I think there's enough brand dollars in this case to go around. And it's important to understand what the comp is out there. It's like pricing your house without knowing the comp of the neighborhood. It's hard to do that. And so it's very cool that you do that. I'm a big advocate. So can we do a little villain role play, Corinne? Sure. All right. So this is a true story. There's somebody in my life that I have been friendly with for a long time and I was going to do a business deal with them. And we had a verbal

agreement on a contract. We even had like an email confirmation. So I started making some investments of my own money and my own time to get everything for our work set up. And then this person backed out of the deal over email. Is this a place where I should channel my inner villain? How should I handle this situation? I do not like people that back out on deals. I think that you absolutely need to channel your inner villain. And I think you need to stand up for yourself and point out that you had an agreement and that you've made personal investments and that if they don't want to do this deal, they need to pay you back for your investments that you made. That's exactly how I was thinking. Yeah. I don't think that's cool at all. That's

not how a good business person does business. It's terrible business. How much of that would you say? I would say all of that. I'm just trying to think, does that help me to say all of that? Or could I say something like, totally understand here attached is the invoice of the expenses so far and my wire information. I mean, I have a lot of drafts going. For me, I have a lot of my email drafts are like my villain. I would definitely take a nice route, but a stern route, making your point that you're not just going to leave me hanging on this and think it's all okay. You're going to at least do the right thing and make sure I get paid back for what I paid out of pocket so far for this.

Okay. Let's talk about dating. In your villain era, are you looking for a fellow villain? No, I'm looking for the complete opposite. I am looking for a guy that puts me on a pedestal, cares about me, cares about my work, is there for me, is supportive, has his own shit together, someone I don't have to worry about, someone I don't need to feel like I have to be with 24 seven to know what they're doing. I can go to sleep at night knowing I don't need to worry about this person doing anything to ruin my relationship or break my heart or anything like that. I really want someone who is just loyal and caring and fun, but has his own things that I can support him on. It's a two-way street.

And I feel like I really just need to find someone like that. And is there somebody like that on the roster? Not at the moment. No, I'm single as a Pringle right now and I'm loving it. And how do you think that your person would embrace your inner villain or the person you're portraying on this show? That's a great question because I only go to a place when I need to stick up for myself. And I've been in a relationship where the guy is not having my back and I need someone to at least have my back when I'm upset about something and I'm speaking my mind about something. Like I would expect the person that I'm with to have my back no matter what. Boys bother me. You're single as a pringle for a reason, it sounds like.

Yeah. I mean, I'm like a relationship girl. And for years, I've just had boyfriend after boyfriend after boyfriend, like serious relationships. I've even lived with two of them. And I'm not jumping in and doing that this time. I just turned 32. It was my birthday on Saturday. I am taking this time to find the person that is my person. I'm not just jumping into something. This is the longest I've been single in a really long time. And I feel like this is good for me because I always jump right into the next one and get really excited. And then it just like, isn't good in the end. And I don't want that this time. I want to find my person this time. How long have you been single? This is the longest time we are coming up on 11 months. So almost a year. I think the longest before this,

I was single was like two and a half months. I'm sure it will go by in a flash. Every time I'm single, I watched the movie how to be single. And I feel really inspired because I'm like, really like embrace this time because no doubt there will be another relationship. And you'll look back and be like, I wish I just leaned into that. Yeah. Like I have days where I really want someone to love me, but I'm like, no, this is good. I'm throwing myself into my career. I love what I do and I love business.

My dad's a big businessman. I grew up just really appreciating making something of yourself. And I'm like, you know what? I'm going to use this time to get back in action because the past relationships I've had really limited me on doing the things for my career that I wanted to do. And now I'm back and I'm just loving it and I'm excited and I don't have to answer to anyone. And the next person I date will be very supportive of what I do and the space that I'm in. And I am not going to rush into anything until I find that person. Cool. Well, you're in the right place today. This, of course, is money rehab. We focus on

the money trail and we focus on business. I want to talk to you about the money trail of reality TV. Hold on to your wallets. Money rehab will be right back. One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early

with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress.

Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Booths are available I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash. But I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start, or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full-time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high-quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can

take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host.

And now for some more money rehab. We had Ben Higgins on the show from The Bachelor. I had no idea that Bachelor contestants weren't paid while they were on the show. That is in-freaking-sane. I know. I know. You have to be in a really good place to be able to leave for weeks at a time to go and film a reality show because you don't know if you're going to have the money flow after or not. It hits for some people. It doesn't hit for some people. So you have to be in a good place to even go on the show initially. So in the time you were on the show, you weren't making any money? Well, I was lucky enough to be working with my family at the time. So I didn't

really have to worry about that. I don't know how it is for other people. And I do know that other people were struggling with that. So I can't speak for them. But like I was lucky enough to be in the family business and not really have to worry about that. But no, I didn't make money from doing The Bachelor. No. And a lot of people are surprised to hear that. You do get paid, however, to go on Paradise. As a contestant. Yes. Good money. Okay. Okay, money. So if a contestant you think has a job before going on the show, do they just ask for six weeks of vacation time? Like how does that work? Did you have this conversation with your family? Me and my dad are super close, so I kind of just told him I was doing it. I think some people might have had to quit their job.

I'm very blessed and thankful that I was able to do that without worrying about that. But yeah, I think for some people it is. And I'm not sure why they don't pay the contestants at least like something. It's like we are the show. Right. I agree. Again, I was totally shook when Ben told me this. Yeah. A lot of people are shocked by this. I mean, I hope you're getting paid on House of Villains. Of course. Okay. No, no, no, no. I would never.

You're like, honey. I would never do a show that I'm not being paid for. Absolutely not. Wild to me that the contestants from The Bachelor aren't paid. But I suppose at that point, you don't really have a platform at all. And the thought process behind it is that you do that without pay, you build your platform, and then you get paid for others. That is the problem with The Bachelor now. Exactly what you just said, because it's not about finding love anymore. It's becoming the next influencer. And that is why the show sucks now. It is completely different than it was back in the day. It is who wants to be the next Instagram model. And it is not about finding

your person. And I stand by that. And I think it sucks. Were you on the show for love? I went on the show to find love. I didn't even know about this whole Instagram thing. I think it was like right when all that had just started. And I didn't even think about that. I remember waking up the next day after the first episode aired and I was like, what? I was like, what is going on with my Instagram? I was so shocked by it. And what do you think is happening now with the contestants? They're going on, they're not getting paid. They're not getting the same following it sounds like or brand deals. So is the ROI not there? I guess either for love or money. I just think people are going on, they're expecting to become famous and make a lot of money and become an Instagram famous person. And I just think that they don't realize that

it's just not like that anymore. So yeah, you might get some Instagram followers, but it's not going to be the same as it was from before. Honestly, it might be able to go back to being a show where that people go on for love because it's just not the same outcome as it was for a few years. Do you think it's over? Well, I do like what they did with the Golden Bachelor. I'm just like feeling excited for my fellow old people. I love that. Yeah, no, I think it's really cool

that they took the show in a different direction. It's sad the way none of the couples really last anymore because you're not going on there for love. You're going on there to make money and be famous after. Well, you did that. So you did make money from the platform. I didn't go on there to do that. For sure. I remember being really shocked by all of it. I was like, what? A brand wants to pay me to post on my Instagram? I was so confused. I woke up one morning.

I was like, I guess I don't work for the family company anymore, dad. It was just this weird thing. But of course, I'm thankful and feel blessed. But it was definitely not expected at all. What did your dad think of it? My parents were so supportive of everything. At first, when I told them, they're like, you're not doing that. Like, what are you talking about?

And then I got home and I was telling them, like, what are you talking about? No one watches that show. And then they got super into it. We're so supportive, loved watching the show. We had watch parties every Monday. It was really cool. Yes. What a supportive Olympia's family.

What business are they in? My dad has a industrial flooring company. So he does epoxy for the army and the Navy, airports, factories, warehouses, stadiums, industrial floor that you can drive planes over and forklifts and Zambonis, things like that. Okay. So I guess if all else fails, which I'm sure it will, you can always go back to a pop floor garage, honey. What's next for you after house of villains, if not flooring, I will be doing another really fun reality show, which I'm not sure if I can talk about yet, but I filmed half in the summer and I'm filming the other half of it because we did get shut down from some of the stripes. So we filming the other half of it because we did get shut

down from some of the stripes. So we got a little cut short, but we're finishing in March and it should be out by the summer. So I'm super excited for that one. We end our episodes, Corinne, by asking guests for one tip that listeners can take straight to the bank. It can be anything. It can be a piece of advice on saving money, budgeting, negotiating contracts, investing, dealing with financial anxiety, dealing with parents and money, anything. My villain tip is going to be always, always say what you feel and trust your gut. You will regret

not saying your piece in the end if you keep it in. My financial advice, when I first started making a lot of money, I very quickly realized that having more money in the bank feels much better than having a Chanel bag in my closet. And I went a little crazy when I started making my own money and I was buying everything left and right. And I now I'm in a place where I have a healthy balance, but it feels really good to have money in your bank and you need to know when you can splurge and when you should save. Amen. Amen.

It sounds like you needed money rehab and you got it. Yes. And you're on the other side. I am and I feel really great. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. I am, and I feel really great. moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at moneynews and TikTok at moneynewsnetwork for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.