Last week, I spoke to a group of nearly 100 university students and recent graduates about leadership. I started with a few points about how my degree in music education – though it isn’t my current profession – shaped the leader I am today. But what seemed to really resonate with the students was this idea of bold decision-making steering me to the most incredible opportunities. 

To open the session, each of the speakers introduced ourselves, giving a bit of background and a synopsis of our careers. And then we split up into groups, each group led by one of us city leader who would speak for a few minutes then open the floor to a Q&A. Every 30 minutes, the groups would rotate.

I remember our introductions at the beginning of the session. I said my name and then something like, “I’m the marketing and strategy director for a large company. I’m originally from Indianapolis, Indiana in the states and moved here just over two years ago. My degree is in music education, but my career path took a different turn. I did public and media relations for a professional racing driver who drove in the Indianapolis 500 and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Following that, I opened my own business in personal branding and interview and communications coaching. Then two years ago, my husband and I decided to move here for a career opportunity for him and I had to start again in a new place. I began at my current company as an account manager and worked my way up to the position that I’m in today. I’m also a singer, a blogger, and I serve on the committee for my local chamber of commerce.”

When you hear someone’s career wrapped up with a nice little bow, it doesn’t show the difficulty and the teamwork that it took to get there.

The other speakers gave similar intros, sprinkled with accomplishments and a bit of background. And that all sounded lovely! But I think when you hear someone’s career wrapped up with a nice little bow, it doesn’t show the difficulty and the teamwork that it took to get there. Everyone’s intros were really impressive, but as I said my own aloud, I thought, “This is all true, but it doesn’t accurately tell the story.” It was as if we were all saying “And they all lived happily ever after” without the tales of escaping the wicked witch and getting lost in the woods and outrunning the wolves.

This is the kind of language that I think leads to imposter syndrome (more on that in a future blog). So often, we see the sparkly diamond of someone’s life and don’t know the pressure it took to create. 

That’s why I was so glad to that we all got the chance to expand on our leadership journeys, and the students got to ask us some really tough questions. It opened the floor to honest discussions and an exploration of how we accomplished the highlights that made it to our bios. My goal was to give the students solid takeaways to apply to their own careers and leadership styles. And I wanted to share some of those with you here in case it resonates with you too.

Just Say Yes

Lots of questions from the students revolved around how I got from A to Z. “Okay so you started in teaching and now you’re here?” 

Looking at each of my career jumps, so few of them make logical sense at first glance. Music education degree to non-profit spokesperson to racing driver public relations to interview and communications business owner to print company marketing director – now that’s a strange path! And to do it all in 10 years, really.

But they all came as a result of saying “yes” to the opportunities that people gave me.

You know that little tingle feeling in your gut when you start to feel uncomfortable? That you might not be ready for what’s coming your way? That is where the magic happens. 

You know that little tingle feeling in your gut when you start to feel uncomfortable? That’s where the magic happens.

And please believe me when I say I used to not be a risk taker. 

My life after I graduated was planned out to a T, really. I’d spent my whole life to that point preparing to be a choral music educator. And after a year to serve my state as Miss Indiana, I was actively interviewing for music education jobs when Martin (yes, that Martin) asked if I’d be interested in coming on board his team full-time to do public and media relations and some marketing.

It was the opportunity of a lifetime – to travel at age 23 and experience something completely different from what I was used to. But I knew that I was choosing between my predetermined path and this new and unexpected job.

I was torn. Do this thing I knew I could do and was fully prepared for…or do this thing I was pretty sure I could do but hadn’t really been trained in?

Spoiler alert: I said yes. I said yes to something new. And then years later I said yes to the first contestant who asked for interview help, before I even had a business. And then I said yes to my heart when it said, “You could make a real business out of this.” And I said yes to Martin’s new contract in the UK. And yes to a steady job in a new country. And yes to new projects and speaking opportunities and committees and coffee dates and meetings.

And each of those things led to the next amazing opportunity. And I think – truly think – that saying that first difficult “yes” changed who I am. I became a risk-taker (within reason; I call myself a “calculated risk-taker”). And I learned to just figure it out. I’m more creative, I go with the flow more, and I tackle life head-on. 

When you learn to say “yes,” the world opens up a wealth of opportunities for you. 

THAT F word.

“I get what you’re saying about being bold and saying yes. But when you did it, did you worry what if you failed?”

Um, YES. Like a resounding, full-hearted yes. I still worry if I’m going to fail (I’m working on it!). 

It’s easy to say no because of fear of failure. I was afraid I would fail at each of those “yeses” because I didn’t fully believe that I was ready. But you can start before you’re ready.

Until I owned a business, I’d never owned a business. “Okay, Nicole. That’s super obvious.” Right, but how do you know you’re ready to start a business until you do it? You don’t. You just do it. And you figure it out. That’s what Google and mentors are for. 

When I was doing public relations for Martin early on, we were definitely just figuring it out. I started from scratch with my contacts in the racing industry, but I was a decent writer with a few local news contacts. I was still learning motorsport and website editing and email lists. And for the first press release that went out, we got no coverage. None. Zero, zip, nada. I mean, that’s probably the definition of failure.

But I quickly learned to introduce myself to journalists, either in person at the track or via email. I learned what they wanted to write about, what their publication’s angle was. And soon we were picked up in Martin’s hometown paper. Win! Well, sort of. We were aiming a bit bigger than that. 

Slowly, we worked on his image and his selling points and personalized the press releases. We gave individual story angles to different journalists. We gave opportunity to every single budding journalist out there – those that were writing for their own small sites or their college papers. And eventually it grew. 

When you learn from those moments where you fall flat on your face, and you change your behaviour or strategy to suit, that’s when you get success. 

He partnered with Men’s Health Magazine for an electric car project. And his charity event was featured for two years as the kick off event to the month of May in Indianapolis. And those budding journalists we gave unbridled access to? They now write for some of the biggest motorsports publications in the world. 

I hate the cliché “failure is just a springboard to success” because it’s not always true. But when you learn from those moments where you fall flat on your face, and you change your behavior or strategy to suit, that’s when you get those instances of success. 

Failure hurts, and I’m not going to be the person to tell you to embrace failure or learn to appreciate it. But I will tell you to learn from it and make yourself better. Failing is inevitable, and the quicker you learn to pick yourself up and try again a different way, the better off you’ll be.

Transferrable Skills

My favourite question of the afternoon came from someone who asked, “I don’t understand how your jobs are all connected. Like, wouldn’t that look weird to the person hiring you?”

Absolutely. But only if you don’t take full advantage of the opportunity to explain how they’re related – which is through transferrable skills.

I was at a leadership round table just this past week where a woman was discussing her company’s recruitment strategy of hiring ex-athletes. She worked for a professional services company where the actual job required specialized training and usually a degree in a related field. But her company took the stance that they were more interested in character than experience. She said, “We can teach you how to do your day-to-day job. We can’t teach you not to be a jerk.” #lovethis

“We can teach you how to do your day-to-day job. We can’t teach you not to be a jerk.”

The reason their human resources department went after ex-athletes is because they were usually extremely intrinsically motivated, worked well in teams, often were inspirational team leaders, were optimistic, and were creative in their problem-solving – all transferrable skills from their time as professional athletes.

Personally, I know that I was hired for each subsequent job because of the transferable skills given to me by all my previous jobs or activities.

As a teacher, my job was to stand in front of people and speak all day, teaching them something interesting and motivating them to do a certain behavior. Which is exactly what my job was as a non-profit spokesperson for Miss Indiana, Children’s Miracle Network, and ANAD. (And yes, you know I told the judges that in my interview.)

And these skills kept building. As a business owner, I learned the skills needed to now direct the strategy of my current company. As a public relations manager, I developed personal branding, worked with him on messaging for interviews, and taught non-verbal communication – exactly what I did in my communications business. And as a teacher and spokesperson, I learned the presentation skills necessary to represent my current company at conferences, networking events, and business seminars.

You have the opportunity on your LinkedIn (in the “About” section) or on your CV (under “objective” or “personal profile”) or in a cover letter to explain how seemingly unrelated jobs or activities are the foundation for the best argument they have for hiring you.

Long distance runner? You have the mental tenacity needed to see the company’s big project through. Coach for your son’s baseball team? You’re a motivational leader and can guide even the most disorganized groups. Trained in psychology? What a perfect skill for understanding the motivations behind people’s actions, and perfectly transferred to a marketing career.

Understand what skills you have from the jobs you’ve had or activities you’ve done, and know how they can be applied to the job you’re going for or the career pivot you’re looking to do.

Yes, when you switch paths, you’re going to have to add to your skill base – no doubt about it. But when you’re saying “yes” to something new, know you already have the foundation for success. And the rest can be learned. 

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What you’ll quickly find when you start being bold is that being bold leads to more opportunities. Like a choose-your-own-adventure book, say no enough times and the book will end. Say yes, and you open yourself up to a whole world you didn’t even know existed.