When your personal brand is built from who you're becoming, not who you've been, everything changes. Because no matter the strategy, the power was always in you.
YOU HAVE TO GO FIRST
SHOW OTHERS WHAT'S POSSIBLE
YOU HAVE TO GO FIRST
SHOW OTHERS WHAT'S POSSIBLE.
When your personal brand is built from who you're becoming, not who you've been, everything changes. Because no matter the strategy, the power was always in you.
I never set out to be an entrepreneur. It wasn’t the dream, it wasn’t the plan, it was never really on my radar. Until I understood what it actually gave me. Freedom. Choice. A different way of living. And once I saw that… there was no going back.
Almost 10 years in, and I still feel like I’m just getting started. But this story didn’t begin there... I've often described my childhood up to the age of about 19, maybe even longer as a series of unfortunate events. But like most entrepreneurs, I've kinda found gratitude for them, because they've made me the woman I am today.
I grew up seeing what happens when you don’t choose differently. I could have let everything I’d been through, the violent alcoholic father, the addictive habits of my siblings, the sexual abuse outside my own home and not being believed or the responsibility of being the one who had to hold everything together, define what came next.
But I didn’t. Because one question my Gran asked me changed everything "so what is it, Nicola? You're at a crossroads... What do you choose for your life?" And in that moment, I realised something I've carried with me ever since... You always have a choice. I could continue the pattern, or I could decide it ended with me. Someone had to go first and I decided why couldn't that be me? So I made a decision... That I would never live like that again. That something different was available to me, a different, happier life was possible. And that I was allowed to take it.
HAVING SOMEONE BELIEVE IN ME FIRST HELPED ME DECIDE THAT anything was possible. AND THAT’S HOW I BECAME the girl of firsts.
It became almost addictive to know I could show others what was possible, even from a young age. I was always the one who went first, who raised the bar, who tried to achieve above what was expected, who refused to live inside a script she didn’t write. And naturally, I became the person who showed others they could do the same. That didn’t change when I became an entrepreneur. If anything, it intensified.
And what I've continuously had to work on as a business owner is the identity of a young girl, that's always been told to be better and then also been put back in her box when she got just a little bit too big her entire life.
So yer, it hasn’t always been linear. I’ve chased things with intensity that turned into pressure, built success that looked incredible on the outside, but felt completely misaligned underneath. I've told myself I'm not enough more times than I'd care to admit. And I created the version of success the online space tells you to want. And I was deeply unhappy, because it wasn’t mine.
I've always known deep down somewhere, that I’m not made like everyone else, that I see things differently. I've never been interested in helping people fit into industries. I've always been fascinated by the people who change them. I've always seen what others miss. In people, in their personal brands, in the space between where they are and who they’re becoming. Yes, there are things that work in business, but if they cost you your truth, your energy, your joy… They’re not success. And I learned that the hard way.
I'M NOT MADE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE
AND THAT’S EXACTLY THE POINT.
From burnout, following everything I “should” do to raising the bar doing it my way. That’s where 'Do Different, Differently' was born.
Not as rebellion but as an ownership of what actually matters. Individuality. Truth. And the understanding that there is always another way.
You don’t have to sacrifice yourself to scale. You don’t have to build something impressive and lose yourself in the process. You get to build something iconic and still like who you are in the quiet moments. Because the inner work and the external work? They were never separate. They are the work. And expansion only counts when it’s embodied.
So the gratitude is huge for the woman who met me at a crossroads in one of the hardest seasons of my life and showed me I was always in control of my own story. Because without that moment, none of this exists. Not the life that once felt impossible. Not the personal brand I’ve built. Not the work I now do with some of the most powerful leaders in this space.
I’ve gone from overworked, overwhelmed and exhausted, building something that felt more like a job… To creating a business and brand that actually works for me. One that changed my life. And proved, without a doubt, there is more than one way to be successful.
I had to unlearn everything this space rewards. The hustle. The pressure. The constant output. Because I stopped trying to build like everyone else and started scaling in a way that actually fits me.
IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT’S POSSIBLE, GO FIRST.
I used to say if I helped one person change their life, that would be enough. Now, I help leaders change industries. But the intention hasn’t changed, because when I go first, others see what’s possible. When I raise the bar, others realise they can too. That’s the work.
The moment it clicks for someone never gets old. When they see it. Not just logically… but fully. When they realise they’re not who they once were and they can feel exactly who they’re becoming. That moment? That’s everything.
And it's the power of this work, that's made my life unrecognisable now, full of moments that Little Nicki would never have thought possible. Freedom, experiences, abundance, gratitude, wild travel, walks in nature, daily feelings of flow and standing on big stages - I chose all of this. And I built a personal brand that made it possible.
WELCOME TO MY WORLD
Global Personal Brand Strategist and Creative Director to the biggest names. Speaker. Author. Founder of The Haus Of Founders. Creator of The Big Brand Theory. And fierce champion of individuality.
But that’s me in the spotlight. I’m also the one who cries at love stories, believes the trees are whispering, eats Cheesestrings for fun, never says no to a cheeky Nando’s and will absolutely win a Spice Girls karaoke battle or get caught dancing around like no-one is watching. I love deeply, care fiercely and sometimes, that means remembering to turn that back towards myself.
It matters to me that you see this, because you don’t just need a personal brand for the spotlight. You need one that holds you in the afterglow too.
So whether I’m sipping coffee in bed with Coco and Rob looking at the view I once prayed for, knowing this is safe, this is home, or stepping onto another stage… I chose this. And I’ll forever be grateful that I did.
IF YOU’RE AT A CROSSROADS BETWEEN WHO YOU WERE AND WHO YOU’RE BECOMING… ASK YOURSELF:
WHAT DO you CHOOSE?
AND IF THE ANSWER IS BIGGER, BOLDER, TRUER... DON’T WAIT FOR PERMISSION. MOVE LIKE IT’S ALREADY DONE.