Nicole Soames shares some of her top tips for launching your own business, with insights into her greatest strengths, fears and inspirations in business.
Tell us what you do
I am a highly qualified coach and EQ practitioner with extensive commercial experience gained from twelve years leveraging large sales teams for Unilever and United Biscuits, followed by thirteen years developing and delivering training programmes across the globe. In 2009, I founded Diadem Performance – a leading commercial skills training and coaching company. We help people become commercial athletes in negotiation, selling, marketing, presenting, leadership and management.
What motivated and inspired you to start your career in this industry?
I learnt early in life that if you don’t ask you don’t get and was taught to always speak my mind.
These lessons helped me land a big sales role very early on in my career and I suddenly found myself working for Unilever managing multi-million pound relationships with the large supermarkets. It felt a little bit like a lamb to the slaughter. We were sent on training courses but they were very theoretical. The trainers were either theorists or explainers who hadn’t actually experienced what it was like to sit at the negotiation table with supermarkets so I had to rely on “on the job training.” As I became more senior, I found myself spending more and more of my time helping my team develop their selling and negotiation skills and that was when I had my first eureka moment – I discovered I loved giving people the tools and techniques to have confident commercial conversations.
What were the first few steps you took?
In 2004 I decided to change track. I left my sales role at United Biscuits, qualified as a coach and started running training workshops as a freelancer. Then in 2009, I decide to take the plunge and put a stamp on how I felt training and coaching should be done by starting my own company – Diadem Performance. Step by step I designed a suite of training and coaching programmes that I wished I’d had access to when I was climbing the career ladder in my 20s and 30s.
What was your big breakthrough?
My second eureka moment came when I discovered the concept of Emotional Intelligence and I started to understand that the key to success in commerce, after a basic level of technical intelligence, is actually the soft people skills. Not that there is anything soft about these skills – they are by far the hardest skills to master! By showing people how to combine EQ with traditional commercial skills development, I could help people make a seismic difference to their commercial performance and relationships.
What has been your biggest challenge so far?
If setting up a training and coaching company at the beginning of a worldwide recession wasn’t enough, at the end of last year I set myself the challenge of writing a book. As you can imagine this took some juggling – I was managing a team of 18 people, delivering a portfolio of programmes to 85 clients in 15 countries as well as being a mum to 2 teenage daughters, walking the dogs, trying my best to stay fit etc – but I was determined to put pen to paper and write a book to help more people. It was always on the bucket list, but by saying it out loud and carving out the time in my diary – I am very proud to say that I am now the author of The Negotiation Book – published by LID and available from 19th October from all good book stores!
How do you overcome challenges?
My strategy for overcoming challenges is to practise what I preach. The glass is always half full for me – I stay optimistic, take the learnings from setbacks and move on. I know that I can’t always win or please all of the people all of the time – but I firmly believe that if you are passionate about what you do – then you can literally achieve the impossible. You have to put in the blood sweat and tears and remain resilient at all times, no matter what.
What do you love most about your job?
I simply love helping people be the best that they can be in the commercial setting. I am so fortunate to work with a world-class team and we seem to attract clients with a winning mind-set. Working with people who have a growth mind-set is both energising and inspiring. I am lucky to be able to say I do the sort of work where you learn something new every day.
How do you stay motivated through difficult times?
We all have bad days. I truly believe a problem shared is a problem solved so I surround myself with people who support me whether that’s a friend, a coach, one of my team or people in my network. Then I put my solution-orientated head on and write an action plan. Baby steps and quick wins help me get back on track quickly.
Do you have a work philosophy?
There are 3 main philosophises I live by – work hard play hard, love your network and they will love you, and practise what you preach! There are many more but these three run deep.
What advice would you give to your fellow colleagues?
Life is short, so if you want to be happy – spend your work life doing what you are good at and what you enjoy, know yourself, be yourself and above all if you don’t ask you don’t get.
How I did it…
Being cheeky, brave, ambitious, working hard, humble, curious and never being satisfied with the status quo.
When I face a big challenge I…
Phone a friend! They make great sounding boards and they help me order my thoughts.
My greatest fear is…
When a company has invested in a one of our group training workshops and one of their employees uses it as an opportunity to derail the good intentions of the training. The fear is that toxic behaviour can bring everyone down. Keeping a cool head and dealing with this in a way that works for everyone takes experience, emotional intelligence and confidence. It can be tough but I never take it personally and remind myself that attack is often the best form of defence and they are likely to be protecting themselves from something else.
If I could go back in time to when I was 20 I would tell myself…
You don’t know everything yet! Be flexible, be open and keep stretching yourself.
I believe…
People are an organisation’s greatest asset. Ever seen the quote from the CFO who says: “Why are we spending money on training people – they might leave,” the wise CEO says what happens if we don’t train people and they stay!
We should all set aside funds for personal and professional development each year so we continue to grow.
The biggest lesson I have ever learned is...
You get what you pay for in life and work. You have to compromise of course, but if it’s the cheaper or cheapest option it will probably “cost” you more in the long. Make discerning and wise choices, be disciplined and if a job is worth doing then it’s worth doing properly whether you are investing time or money. After all, time is money.
My favourite business tool or resource is…
The world of sport – I am fascinated and inspired by the dedication and hard work sports men and women put into being at the top of their game. I constantly reflect on how athletes would handle the challenges we face in the commercial world – this thinking provides me with endless food for thought.
For more information about Nicole visit www.diademperformance.com, follow her on Twitter @nicolesoames.
“The Negotiation Book” by Nicole Soames is available to buy here, or visit www.thenegotiationbook.com for more further information.
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