We recently connected with Nicole Spracale and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nicole thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

My parents were truly incredible people, and the older I get the more I’m able to reflect back and recognize all they taught me and the impact they made on those around them.

One of the greatest lessons they taught me was grit. They instilled in me a true spirit to fight for my dreams, and keep going even when it seemed like the chances of success we at their lowest. I can’t recall a single time when either of my parents said the word quit. Instead, when we hit a difficult challenge, and there were many along the road, they simply would say — Nicole, we will find a way to make it work. We have each other and that is all that really matters. That optimism has gotten me through my own personal “speed bumps” and helps me to keep pushing forward. As long as I have my family and friends, there will always be a way. It may look different than the original plan, but I am sure it will be a great place when I get there.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started my career in traditional, corporate environments on the People or HR side of the house – mostly focused on finding and developing our teams. I spent the last decade of that work as the SVP of People in the tech space where I deepened my understanding of how fast-growing companies could apply best practices around purpose and culture to further business objectives.

In 2013, I started down my own entrepreneurial path – and love it! Today, I spilt my time between working as a coach for early-stage founders and CEOs who face challenges as they scale and grow their businesses; and getting hands-on with a few select clients as a Fractional executive inside their company. I generally will join the team as either their COO or CMO to support them as they work toward specific initiatives and strategies in their growth plans. My clients are often in the tech or professional services industries, with aggressive growth goals in place.

What I believe makes me unique, and why many of my clients choose to work with me, is that my approach starts first with purpose and values alignment. We work together to create clarity on the why, and then work on alignment in the execution of the business strategy to that vision.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My career path or journey has definitely not been linear – and I couldn’t be more thankful for that today. It is all of those “hard lessons” that allow me to be a strong resource in my current role. One of the more painful learnings was when I went into business with a long-time colleague to launch a boutique bakery. Prior to our partnership, she was operating under cottage-law guidelines (meaning she could operate out of her home). However, we were getting traction with a major retailer for our baked goods and also wanted to start expanding our footprint with Farmer’s Markets.

We took the leap and signed a short-term contract with a commercial kitchen, and started the lease and build-out process for our own store-front. By this time we were also in 15 retail locations with limited distribution and had 3 part-time employees. The challenge was we didn’t understand our food costs as well as we should have and had poorly negotiated our lease. The cost for tenant improvements to move in was more than we could take on and after 18 months we decided we had to shutter the business. Worse still, I was the one who had to personally cover the lease break fees on the storefront.

It was a painful lesson in partnership terms, commercial real estate, food costs, and a host of other business items. And, it also helped me crystalize what I wanted to be doing and what I didn’t want to do. I sometimes think of it as an unofficial second MBA, as it had a true, real-world ROI for many years to come.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am a new idea junkie – give me books, articles, and podcasts and I will actively work to consume them. With that, I’m also always looking at how I can integrate new ideas on concepts into frameworks that are a foundational part of what I use every day. I like to see if a concept can spark a conversation or test an application with a client and keep a running list of going of what I want to read next. I have about 5 titles on deck to read right now!

There are also a few books or concepts that I take with me into every approach or project, and then I layer new learnings onto them from there. The “backbone” of everything I do is the 7-Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey); EOS – The Entrepreneurs Operating System (Gino Wikman); and a blank notebook where I can write gratitudes down every day.

Finally, I have an app that serves me devotionals each day, which I also use for reflection time before I go to sleep.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nicolespracale.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nspracale
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/NicoleSpracale
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/nspracale
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/nspracale

Image Credits
Karianne Munstedt