Please note this transcript is generated by AI - apologies for any mistakes:

Pippa Goulden (00:43)
Nicola Pye, AKA the leadership coach and people person, works with founders and senior leaders of purposeful businesses who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or quietly lost in the weight of building and leading something that really matters.

After more than 20 years shaping leadership and culture at EY, Nicola now supports founders and CEOs to get clear on what they stand for, making better decisions and leading with purpose and values in a way that genuinely supports the business. Nicola did my one-to-one accelerator for six months and is now a member of my DIY PR membership. And in the time we've worked together, she has, wait for it, launched her own thought leadership initiative, The Purpose Papers.

done some keynote talks, had some amazing press coverage, dream podcast interviews, and so much more. So let's find out how she's done it. Welcome to PR Made Simple. Nicola, how are you?

Nicola (01:33)
Hello, Pippa. I'm good, thank you.

Pippa Goulden (01:35)
So I've introduced you, but tell us a bit more about your business journey and the work that you do, who you work with.

Nicola (01:41)
Okay, so yeah, as you said, I was at EY for over 20 years. I was almost certainly considered to be part of the furniture or life, I'd been doing sort of like culture, talent development, leadership development roles, and to be perfectly honest, was probably pretty happy to continue until I think maybe three and a half or so years ago, just this.

little itch that needed to be scratched started to form and I realised that I wanted to do something, something that just felt a little bit more connected to the real world, connected to stuff that really energised and lit me up. I've had kind of my own personal story with energy, I've had kind of chronic illness and all different things go on and it just felt like the right time to just go out and be sort of liberated and be

free to do what I wanted to do and kind of lead a business that I wanted to run. I already knew that I loved working with charities and I loved working with even at EY, the leaders who really stood for something and really were sort of clear about what they wanted to be. So I took that into the sort of big bold world and two and a half years ago set up as the leadership coach and people person. Since then I've been working with

I think the thread is there's always businesses or charities that really have a deep sense of purpose. So good people trying to do good stuff for the world really. And as I say, some of that is for-profit businesses and some of that's charities. I do a bit of one-to-one leadership coaching. I do a lot of work with the whole of a leadership team. And more recently I've been working kind of...

with more people like me, solo founders, people that have lost their way a little bit and are trying to get back to that energy, get back to that clarity of why this matters and why they were doing it in the first place.

Pippa Goulden (03:36)
Yeah, and you've had a mega year. Like if you look back do launch the purpose papers. We'll talk in more detail about that. Like Kevin said, you've done this keynote speaking opportunities. You've done the press. You've got some amazing clients on board and you won small business of the year award as well. So if you think about the kind of the work that you've done there, what has the impact been on your business?

Nicola (03:59)
So I think there's kind of two parts to this impact. The one that, maybe we'll start with the sort of personal impact on me, because I think that's probably the most profound and biggest impact, which is through that work that we've done, through the, I mean, I think it started even from the very first conversation we had where I sort of started telling you about the purpose papers and the stuff that I was thinking and doing and...

you said this is good stuff, this needs to be out in the world. And I was like, kind of went away with a little bit of a spring in my step. And I think that that spring in my step has just become a bit more of a leap and something bigger and bigger. And the reason for that, I think, is because once you start putting, it's quite brave and it's quite scary to put yourself out there and you don't get positive results from everything, but just that one.

that one, yes, I want you to be on my podcast or that one sort of thing that you do, gets you somewhere. Yeah, it just changes your mindset a little bit. And I think that is the thing that's been the most transformative for probably not the culmination, but the real big point for me in that was when, and again, something you helped me with was my VIP launch event. So.

I'd written the purpose papers, I'd published them on through social media and through my website, but I just had this idea that I wanted to get a great bunch of people to come together in a room and honestly, it almost felt like my wedding day, it was nuts because I just, like, was just all these lovely people who had come to be part of something special, had come to an event that, like, because it was my event.

and I just went out of that event flying high and some other things happened quite quickly after that and I just think it was partly because of just this confidence and this kind of vibe that I was putting out there. So that's probably mindset stuff that's had the impact and then I think in terms of more tangible stuff, each thing has kind of led probably to the next thing so.

the VIP event just put me out there. People started to sort of associate me then with having something to say, having like a point of view about stuff. And I got asked to speak at a couple of events. A couple of those events were free that I did. One was for charity conference. So of course I was gonna do that for free. And then I also started to get some paid speaking gigs.

And I think because of the order of things that happened, like with having done the purpose papers, having this like massive injection of confidence and then standing up on stage, I was, I sort of really felt like I've got something to say. And I, that felt good. I can't lie. And I think then the sort of, can't be so specific about the other business impact, but I just kind of feel like.

Pippa Goulden (06:51)
Yeah.

Nicola (07:01)
The work I've done on the PR side of my business has made, it has made clients kind of more certain that it's me that they want to work with. There's something about they, you know, get people's, you know, discovery calls where people feel like they already know me and they're making choices about whether or not they want to work with me before they've even spoken to me. So one, I think people have kind of come and they know what they're going to get and they've already sort of...

pretty much decided that unless that discovery call is a total car crash, they want to work with me. And I suspect, I don't have any hard evidence for this, but I suspect it also means that people who aren't into my vibe, who don't want to kind of explore their purpose and talk about their values, they want a different kind of coach, I suspect they're self-selecting out as well. So I've really found this year that the people that are coming to me,

are the right people and they're people that I'm really excited about working with. There was just a tiny caveat that I wanted to add because I think it's really important that we don't create like a bubble and a hype of just everything being success. This year has, I don't think I'm alone in saying this year has been really tough. Work has seemed harder to come by and it's taken longer to kind of convert people into saying yes to the work. ⁓

I'm sure things would have been harder if I hadn't done all the work on the PR side of things. And I also feel really, really proud of the fact that I took that sort of slightly quieter time. I took the opportunity to kind of build a foundation and build hopefully something that I can really springboard off in 2026. yeah, I didn't want to put down on things, but I do think it's really important that we don't create this, woohoo, everything's been so easy. It's all just fallen into place vibe.

Pippa Goulden (08:21)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

no, and I think that's really, it's really good to be open and honest about that, isn't it? Because like, there's no magic bullet, right? So yeah, you might be doing some amazing PR, you might be kind of nailing your ads or your whatever element of your marketing. But you know, it's all part of an ecosystem, isn't it? And there isn't one thing that you can turn on.

Nicola (09:01)
Mm.

Pippa Goulden (09:03)
And I think sometimes people think that there is the saviour to everything. And I think it's really important to have that discussion that, sometimes it doesn't always lead directly straight away to what you want it to. But I do think, like you've said, you've put those building blocks in place. And I think you've built a reputation very specifically around the key areas that you want to get known for. And that for you is key because that then aligns the clients. It brings people into your world more quickly. It's doing that job. So it's giving

you that kind of long-term piece rather than looking at turning a tap on and it all happening straight away which I don't think happens anyway to be honest.

Nicola (09:42)
Exactly, I think the other thing it's done, which it's really made me think hard about what I want to say and why I want to say it. And I think particularly where I am in my business journey, like I'm two and a half, nearly three years in, I think just almost kind of when you start doing PR for your business, you sort of have to look at yourself through an external lens.

it's impossible to completely be objective, but you do get a little bit more like, is this a good story to tell? How am I going to frame this story? And I think as a result of that, like if I think about the keynotes or even the work I do where I'm in a room with five or six or whatever leaders, it's just made me a bit more thoughtful about how I speak about my ideas, my work. And so I think it's added like,

this coherence, I think you could work with me in one way, you could work with me in another way, you could read my purpose papers and they all feel like they fit together and I do think that's because I had to think hard about what would a completely unknown to me stranger who just reads something that I'm pitching to try and be in the press or try and be on a podcast about.

Pippa Goulden (10:38)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I think that's what...

create the success when it comes to actually doing it and pitching yourself and putting yourself forward because you've spent time doing that positioning work. And that's what I'm seeing actually more and more than ever before with my one-to-one accelerator clients, especially when we do that deep work at the beginning before we start doing the pitching, before we even work out where to pitch to, it really helps across everything that they're doing in terms of yes, the pitching, yes, the PR opportunities,

also all the comms that link to that so your LinkedIn posts and your marketing and your website all of that stuff because it sews together and I think that's what you've done so beautifully you've embedded this work into your like the soul of your business and that's why it's so successful for you because it's it's impacting every element of your business it's not just like an add-on that's nice to have.

Nicola (11:25)
Mmm.

Yeah, thank you for saying that. It's weird because you don't always necessarily realise you're doing it at the time that you're doing it, but I can see what you're saying. As I look back, sort of, yes, it has become embedded. And I think that sort of speaks to the point I was just making, that I'm now conscious of it and I'm sort of now thinking almost like, would this make a good story? And that is really helpful because as you...

as you say, like some of that might be that it ultimately gets into the, gets you press coverage or it gets you invited to be on a podcast. But even if it just, even if it just flows through into your social media, I mean, like the reaction I got from hosting the VIP launch event, mean, no one picked, the press didn't pick that up or anything. Of course they weren't going to, it was 30 people in the Prosecco house. But it,

It was more that it just get, it almost allowed me to become my own PR machine and it gave me, I could like kind of PR the life out of it myself. And it just gave like this, this tangible thing. And I think like social media responded really, really well. It also says something like when you start doing your own PR, be doing your PR strategically, working with you. I think it also says something about like you back yourself and

Pippa Goulden (12:46)
Yeah.

Nicola (12:59)
I think that's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy but I do get the sense that sometimes my clients think that I'm almost more than I actually am. I'm a bigger machine than I am because I've done that work and I've thought about strategically about how to get my name and how to get my brand out there.

Pippa Goulden (13:22)
Yeah, and I think one of the things that's helped you kind of anchor that is the purpose paper. So let's talk a bit more about that because I think one thing you've really lent into that I've seen is this authority driving pieces. Like you do know what you're talking about. You have 20 years of experience at EY. Like you've got the substance behind you. And I think actually going into 2026, that is something that is going to be so important for clients, for high ticket clients looking to work with the right people.

authority. Tell us about the purpose papers in a bit more detail. What were they and how did you come up with the idea and what was the thinking behind them?

Nicola (14:02)
So the purpose papers effectively are, and I do not like the word, but they are effectively my thought leadership and, or as I like to say, me saying about stuff that I care about. And how it all started was I, I'd come into my business, not exactly, purpose was gonna always be a part of it, but I didn't know how big it was gonna be.

Pippa Goulden (14:08)
Ha ha ha!

Nicola (14:28)
And I came into it with more of like thinking about how can I help leaders to thrive and how can I help teams to kind of be the best versions of themselves and all of this stuff. And particularly with the sorts of clients I worked with, it all just came back to, it came back to like what people were calling purpose, but actually was, I realized it's something about what really energizes you.

what impact are you trying to have and what's unique about you? What are the skills, the values, the experience that you bring? And I had these kind of not fully formed ideas in my head and decided, I'm just gonna reach out to my network. I've got this amazing network of people. I'm gonna reach out to my network and just ask them if they'll be interviewed. And I'll be honest, I didn't know exactly where it was gonna go, but I did know that I was gonna have some amazing conversations and that...

if anything happened to that point was to go by, it was going to lead to something pretty insightful. So I started doing these interviews, I ended up doing about 40 interviews with leaders, as I say, predominantly just from my network of people or people who had kindly connected me. I had the interviews and when I started going through what content I had, I realised it was gold dust.

I thought, I can put it out there as like, know, dribs and drabs of social media content and stuff. And then I thought, no, and I guess I was of ruthlessly copying what I'd seen work so well at EY, which is a lot of thought leadership is produced. And I kind of just thought, well, if they can do it, then I can do it. So the idea was to just put some thinking, some ideas out there, which I did.

had them kind of copy edited, worked with a designer, of got them looking pro, got them looking sort of to the standard that I think, you know, it does match what the sorts of things you'd see a big corporate producing. And then just went on a big old social media campaign for the first one, launched that. And then that's when the idea came, okay, for the second one that we launch, I'm going to do a bit of an event and see if I can generate a bit more hype about this.

So as it stands, I've written three purpose papers. The first one is called The Power of Purpose. It's an introduction into my thinking around purpose, both from a personal level and an organisational business level. Then I've called the second one The DNA of a Purposeful Leader. And then the last one, which is the one that gets everyone all intrigued, is The Dark Side of Purpose. And that's the one where I unpack the...

the side of it, things that isn't the glamorous side, isn't the waking up and feeling completely energised side of being purpose driven and doing something that really matters. So that's kind of the short history. It was just putting some amazing conversations onto some paper and trying to share it with the world, really.

Pippa Goulden (17:21)
Yeah, and it's no big feat what you created. mean, that's and also I guess is you've got an evergreen piece of content there. They're still available to download now aren't they? So, you know, go download them if you if you're interested in this but ⁓ you know.

Nicola (17:29)
Yep. Yep.

Pippa Goulden (17:35)
It's no mean feat to create that like EY create them all the time because they've got a machine, you you've done that yourself. And then you hosted this amazing event. Let's talk about that in a bit more detail. Like how did that feel? Because it's a really scary thing, isn't it? Like owning something like that, putting yourself out there because you're basically...

Nicola (17:45)
Mmm.

Pippa Goulden (17:54)
you know, potentially failing in front of lots of people. And you know, and I've thought about this as well. I'm going to be doing more of this in 2026, but you know, it's a bit scary, isn't it?

Nicola (17:57)
Yeah.

It is actually bloody terrifying and I had the tiny bit of the fear and I could feel that rumbling along but not so much to stop me and it was almost kind of a little bit like I sort of take my own medicine because if you spout out about purpose being, know, what energises you, what impact you want to have, what's unique about your skills, your experience, well...

I was replicating some stuff that I'd already, you know, I was very comfortable, very used to facilitating events, running events free, why? So that was what kind of steadied me and kept me calm. And I have to say, and I think some of this is because I'm not great planner, I'm not always the best at being like really organized. So it probably was the day of the event that I just thought, holy shit, this like.

this isn't EY, this isn't somebody else's leadership team or somebody else's event. Everyone's got a badge on that says Nicola Pi. And so the nerves, they were intense on that day and I did feel, I felt really vulnerable and I felt very much like it was all on me. But you know what, I got to the event and I...

because I'm completely stupid I'd already also arranged to have some photos done because I thought ⁓ you know you've got to have some professional photos which I'm really pleased I did that was part of the event and I and people got to have their photo taken as well so I did the photo shoot almost thinking I was gonna be sick and then people started arriving and I suddenly just thought this this is friendly faces I'd invited about

I think I invited about 50 people with the hope of getting about 25 people to actually come. I ended up having 35 people accept to come and two people ended up not coming to the event. I thought that was an amazing turnout and that gave me huge amounts of confidence as well. It sort of just reinforced to me that yes, okay, it is my event. There are lots of people turning up to kind of hear me and hear what I've got to say.

but they're also people that, they're good people there, they're people that part of my story, part of my journey, and they really, they want you to succeed. And so I sort of, I stood up to speak to everyone and I looked around the room and there's all these faces that were familiar and there were some very kind of proud looking people that had been, you know, known me for 20 years or whatever. And I just thought, it's all gonna be fine.

And then I started speaking and I think again going back to because it was because it was like this sequential stages of I had the purpose I'd written the purpose papers then I did the event. I just knew that stuff so well like I had like I'd been reading that one o'clock in the morning proofreading the you know the third copy from the designer or whatever. So I knew the content so well and I think that really helped.

Oh, the other thing to say I did, which I think just took a little bit pressure off me, is one of the things I say a lot about purpose is it doesn't need to be a solo sport. And so I roped in my very long-standing and long-suffering client, Ant, who I've worked with since the beginning of my business, and I knew him way before that I set my business up as well. I roped him in to do a bit of a Q &A with me so that...

I just knew I had that little bit of release of pressure that there was going to be somebody else's voice, there's going to be somebody else's thinking coming into the little speech that I did. And that worked really nicely. I think it just made it all a bit less formal and it was really nice. People got to kind of see our chemistry and see our relationship as well.

Pippa Goulden (21:44)
And how did it feel after that event? How did you feel when you'd done it?

Nicola (21:48)
⁓ my goodness, it took me about two days to come down from, I was high as a kite and I won't lie, a tiny bit hung over the next day as well. Yeah, it comes back to that moment when I looked around the room and I saw people that I'd known for a month, people I'd known for 20 years, but all of those people like...

they were engaged, they were interested, they wanted to hear what I had to say and they were kind of impressed and they were like, they were lapping it up. That just felt amazing, it really did.

Pippa Goulden (22:21)
Yeah, and

I think it's really important that we talk about all of this stuff because I've seen this myself, I've experienced this myself, that the things that I've been most scared about doing not only have actually then had the biggest impact on the business, but they have also brought me the most joy. So it's almost like the amount of fear and trepidation that you have on the one side then gives you that back in equal measures, but in a really positive way. And I think if we don't...

Nicola (22:37)
in.

Pippa Goulden (22:49)
try these things and put ourselves in these really scary situations. You just won't ever experience that kind of level of high and excitement and you know the energy that you then take into so many other areas of the business as well.

Nicola (23:03)
I could not agree more. I've had for a long time actually a little bit of a... I've got loads of catchphrases but one of my catchphrases is the time that you stop feeling fear, stop doing it. Because I do think that that fear to that point, it's got to be manageable fear. It's not about kind of making yourself completely go way beyond your boundaries. But it does, it makes such a difference that...

I think you really, that fear means you really want it, you really believe in it, you're really passionate about it, you care about it and I think people, you know, in whatever format that you do that, whether it's in real life or whether it's, you know, social media, whatever, people still feel that, they feel that passion and I think they really, they respond to that as well.

Pippa Goulden (23:36)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And one thing I think you're brilliant at using, and you've shown this actually with the purpose papers, with creating them with the event, is using your network and your connections. So I talk about dancing on other people's dance floors. How do you approach that part of your PR when it is, you know, using the collaborations and that kind of thing? And how do you think that works for you in terms of building the business and getting you in front of the right people?

Nicola (24:17)
So I think a couple of things I'd say there. think the first thing is that like for those of us that are, you know, have left corporate or have left kind of long time careers and we're not reinventing ourselves, but we're, you know, going into our own businesses. That network that you've built in your previous life, your past life network, I really do think it's such gold dust. mean, a lot of those people in my network have become...

clients but they've also and that's been amazing of course you know it's absolutely wonderful to have people who kind of get back in touch with you and want to work with you but I've also a lot of people that I encountered in my my EY life they have become I call them like the super connectors they've connected me with people and just letting those conversations go where they go.

Pippa Goulden (25:01)
Hmm.

Nicola (25:08)
And I think again it comes back a little bit to how confidence building that is. When you just show up as yourself and you start talking about your stuff in that kind of authoritative way, but kind of human way and just letting your energy and your passion or whatever it is shine through.

people do respond so nicely to that and then when they go, you should speak to so and so, you should speak to so and so, that it really builds your confidence. And I think there's a kind of a parallel to that in the social media world. So for example, think it was when Soon After Me and You started working with each other, I'd read this book of an amazing author who I...

I really write in terms of her, the way she thinks about leadership, Philippa White. She was like the, she does a podcast and I really enjoy her podcast, the stuff she talks about. I'm like, yes, you get it, you get it. And because of that confidence building and I think because we'd had a few interactions on LinkedIn, I'd done a review of how much I liked her book.

It was all just really genuine and authentic. And then I, with your encouragement, pitched her to appear on her podcast. And that has happened and I got onto her podcast. So I think the network, I would say the network is gold dust, but go into it just with genuine human connection.

Pippa Goulden (26:15)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Nicola (26:37)
and go into it. I always think every conversation you have, you will learn something. And if that's what you get from it, it's still been an amazing success. Because I think people get put off if they feel like you're going into it to get on their podcast or to get... It doesn't need to be pushy, just kind of let yourself... mean, and that's how I...

Pippa Goulden (26:51)
Pushy, yeah.

Nicola (26:59)
hopefully an interview or a piece of journalism that's been written for a magazine. That's how about that came about when I popped myself into your PR set community and I think it was day one. There was a...

Pippa Goulden (27:10)
Day

one, literally you'd lined yourself up and interview with a national journalist. ⁓

Nicola (27:13)
Well, yeah,

yeah, yeah, just the little summary that you'd written of what the journalist was writing about, I just thought, I've got a point of view on that. And, but she wasn't looking necessarily for experts. I think it even said no experts needed. ⁓

Pippa Goulden (27:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think she,

I'd seen it on LinkedIn, so I put it into the community, which is what I do, find like the right media ops. And it was literally the day that you joined the membership and she'd said no experts, but I think I'd put it in because I knew that there might be some people that could help her out. And that is like you saying, it's something that is always good to do. And I think you got in touch with her, didn't you, to say.

Nicola (27:52)
Yeah, because

what she was writing about, I did have a point of view about, but I also knew that I probably had quite a few of my clients would have a point of view and she was looking specifically for business leaders and I thought, ⁓ I think I've got quite a few people that would be really more than happy to speak with her. So I sent her an email, again, just human to human. I'm more than happy to help you with this. I've got the...

these are my types of clients that I work with, I'd be more than happy to reach out and potentially connect you. Oh, and by the way, this is kind of the work I do, this is what my point of view on this is. And just gave her a very brief synopsis and I got a really quick response back and we ended up having an interview.

I haven't seen the article yet, I'm so excited about it, I cannot wait, it's meant to be coming out in January, so hopefully that's as good as I hope it is. But we had a great conversation and as you say, she's a national journalist, so again, I sort went into it with, if nothing happens, I've learnt from what it's like speaking to a national journalist. One of the main things I learnt was she was really nice human being, I really enjoyed having a chat with her, so.

All of that fear is now gone and if that's the best that came out of it, great, but I'm feeling pretty confident that that article is going somewhere and that I'm going to be featured in it.

Pippa Goulden (29:05)
Yes. Yeah.

Yeah.

⁓ so good. And I think actually something that I've seen with you is that everything that you do do in terms of, you know, the pitching yourself for the right...

podcast opportunities or the right press opportunities. It's always really aligned with you and I think this goes back to that positioning work that you did at the beginning. You're not wasting your time by trying to get in everything. You're being very considered and deliberate and I think that feels very you. It feels very aligned with who you are and how you work. Is that right?

Nicola (29:42)
Mm.

Yeah, mean, so I'm obviously gonna have to go momentarily into the whole world of purpose and values, but yes, that's very much like my values, one of my top values that I have is around congruence. So like, if I talk the talk, I have to walk the walk. And so, yeah, I'm just never gonna be kind of like trying to get to the opening of an envelope or anything like that. It just doesn't appeal to me.

Pippa Goulden (29:52)
Yeah.

Nicola (30:11)
I don't think I'm, I think I might shock a lot of people, even probably my mum would be like, yeah right. I don't, but I genuinely don't believe I'm in it just for the spotlight. I don't even always necessarily enjoy the spotlight, but I do enjoy the nodding heads or the kind of somebody writing a little note down of what I've said. And so again, I think that comes back to my values and I definitely, love kind of just

Pippa Goulden (30:32)
Hmm.

Nicola (30:37)
what I say, it could help people. It could genuinely get somebody thinking differently. It could get somebody who's in a right pickle with their business and kind of thinking, I'm going to, you know, jack it all in. It could help people. And I really like that. so that bit hasn't felt hard. think really knowing my purpose and have kind of done the work on myself, understood my values and then connecting that with the work that you and I did strategically around like...

Pippa Goulden (30:39)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Nicola (31:05)
Yeah, don't just scatter gun everything, be considered. And I think with your help, we really sort thought out the box. So we kind of almost knew that we were going to have to, we were going to have to find the right person that was open-minded to some of these things. We also knew there might be a moment that came up and I think there has been a couple of moments

Pippa Goulden (31:08)
Mm.

Hmm.

Nicola (31:28)
I think the depth that I've got, going back to your point about kind of just authority and I might add another word to it, I think it's authentic authority as well. Like don't be trying to pretend that you've got a point of view about something that you haven't. Don't be trying to pretend that you've done something that you haven't or you can do something you haven't because one, I think people see through it straight away but you just don't feel

Pippa Goulden (31:36)
Yeah.

Nicola (31:53)
you don't feel that sense of energy, you don't feel that sense of passion when you're talking about it and so it doesn't really get you anything anyway, it doesn't get any particular results to be like that.

Pippa Goulden (32:03)
Yeah,

yeah I love that authentic authority. I might have to steal that one from you Nicola. so what advice would you have to anyone who's thinking of doing this work, maybe a bit nervous about putting themselves out there or actually maybe feels like now is the time, like they are ready to jump off that cliff and you know get known for what they do. What would be your recommendation?

Nicola (32:07)
⁓ it's my gift,

Well, I might even say to anyone, anyone who is a solo founder like me is trying to build their business, particularly if they're trying to build a business based on something that really matters to them. They've won half the battle anyway, because if they care, if they're passionate, then they will have a point of view. There will be other people that are interested. So first of all, think whether you feel ready or you don't feel ready.

like just ask yourself a serious question about is this going to help you grow your business? Is this going to be an important part of your strategy? And I would question anyone who thinks it isn't important in 2026. It will be vital for everyone. And we've all got to be trying to stand out more than we've ever needed to stand out before. If somebody's feeling nervous about putting themselves

out there, the first thing I would say is like working with you, it does feel like you've got somebody's completely holding your hand and it feels like you're sort of being nudged quite hard, quite firmly, but in a very nice way with loads of encouragement and loads of lifting and I think perhaps the thing you maybe you don't appreciate about yourself is like the understanding that you have about

Pippa Goulden (33:26)
hahahaha

Nicola (33:41)
other founders businesses and the understanding that you almost reflect back to that person that is a huge opportunity in itself because you obviously get to see so many businesses and just getting your perspective is massively helpful so the whole process of putting yourself out there it feels gentle and it feels kind but it feels exciting and energizing at the same time and then

Yeah, as I say, anyone that's just kind of thinking now is the time, the advice I'd give to that person is it absolutely is the time. Don't worry if you don't know what you're going to say yet. Don't worry if you're still not quite sure because I think that's, again, perhaps something people don't realise about PR is it's not just about taking the finished product and kind of right in a press release about that.

What I experienced with my work with you on the accelerator is that you helped me refine and you kind of helped me turn into my ideas and turn my purpose papers into something that I could then PR the living daylights out of.

Pippa Goulden (34:47)
Yeah, and that's what I love doing. I love doing that pre-work to like be able to get that depth because that's what's so important and we'll, you know, got the word depth. I'm going to be talking about it a lot in 2026, but I think doing that work first gets you ready for all of it and it's so important to do it. So yeah, I loved the work that we did together. It was absolutely brilliant. And what's next for you? So what's 2026 going to bring Nicola?

Nicola (35:08)
Yeah, it's fun.

Well, so, I've got lots of different ideas. I try and sort of think about things in terms of what opportunities present themselves. You know, had you asked me this time last year if I would have put myself forward for the business awards, I would have gone, way, I'm never gonna do something like that. So, I'm keeping myself open to options, but...

One of the things that has happened probably as a result of the work that you and I have done is I've decided I want to do the next phase of the purpose papers. But my kind of now my like what's this story going to be, how I'm going to position this out to the external world. I'm sort of yeah I'm thinking how I can do that even phase two can be even better and so almost certainly kind of want to speak specifically to women to understand more about.

purpose and what it's like in the context of being a woman in business or leading their own businesses and also founders as well because I think when I did the previous interviews I ended up interviewing quite a lot of charity leaders but I'm realising founders and charity leaders are really quite similar because they absolutely know why.

They know why they've set this up. They know what impact they want to have. And so it's kind of quite exciting to sort of then explore, okay, well, what gets in the way of that? What are the things that really cause people problems or like how people really, really made that happen? I've already got my, speaking gig, a paid speaking gig lined up for May, speaking at a conference to...

financial planning businesses who are purposeful financial planning businesses so an example of where people are now sort starting to reach out to me and want me to speak so I've got that lined up hopefully there's this magazine you know Business Press magazine article coming out and I'm just going to keep on going with the PR keep on doing more and more on the

Pippa Goulden (36:59)
Yay! ⁓

Nicola (37:15)
Yeah, as you say, like being strategic about what point of view have I got? What am I trying to say to the world? And you already know this because you know what it was like working with me, but I tend to kind of, I don't necessarily do it as a daily habit or a weekly habit, but I have kind of like, this has happened and this really needs to, or I've got this new idea or, you know, a bit of work I've done with a client has prompted me to think differently about something.

and then I'll go through like a sort of little week of a massive flurry and see where I get to with that. That seems to be working quite well for me. I mean, I'm busy delivering for my clients and stuff as well, but just kind of having ⁓ almost like a once a month, like big flurry of activity, I'll keep on doing that. And I will keep on, yeah, just hopefully.

Pippa Goulden (37:47)
Yeah.

Nicola (38:02)
spreading the word about purpose, spreading the word about how amazing you feel when you're aligned with your values. I do want to do more work with founders because I think that's really, I think my whole career, also my whole business journey has reflected my personal experience and so it feels kind of quite natural and quite normal that I would work even more with people who founded businesses like I have.

Pippa Goulden (38:26)
⁓ amazing, well I am excited to see what you do in 2026. Thank you so much for sharing, it's been so insightful and yeah thank you so much.

Nicola (38:35)
⁓ no problem. Thank you, Pippa.