A business founded from grit and determination, with Nicola Elliott, founder of Neom Organics

Conversations of Inspiration

Holly Tucker MBE

Education, Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Business, Personal Journals

5.0 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2022

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you build a disruptive brand in a new sector, whilst keeping it accessible for all?

In this episode, Nicola Elliot shares her lessons as she recounts her story building the cult status, well-being brand Neom Organics.

Growing up in Yorkshire, a self declared naughty child, Nicola carved out a glittering career in advertising in her twenties before burn out forced her to refocus her energies in a different direction.

Nicola recounts the early days of Neom, the risks, the setbacks, and challenges she faced, as well as the early green shoots of success that followed, catapulting the business to iconic status.

Neom is a brand that in Nicola’s words has been built brick by brick, and ignited the movement for natural, environmentally friendly well-being products. Nicola explains that Neom’s products are for those that are “just trying to do their best” – for ourselves, and the environment.

Nicola’s success story is a result of pure determination, and she shares with Holly how in her opinion, it is our responsibility as parents to teach our children to have strength and grit as a form of protection.

It’s a conversation that prompts all of us to remember that building a brand is so much more than a final destination, and that how we get there is every bit as important.

If you enjoyed this episode, head on over to hear Holly’s talk with Chrissie Rucker, founder of The White Company, which we think you’ll love too.

Plus for more unfiltered insight, subscribe to Holly’s weekly newsletters on our website, where she shares small business inspiration of all kinds, exclusive nuggets of wisdom from her and her guests, plus offers, creative ideas and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, that was fun, speaking to Nicola Elliott, who's the co-founder of Neom organics, and I was an
0:07.4	early adopter of their fabulous candles, the happy candle. I don't know if you remember that, but still in existence.
0:14.6	And Nicola really made me think about the journey that us founders go on.
0:19.4	We actually started our businesses roughly at the same time and was in publishing and not at the same place,
0:26.1	but we have had a world that has sort of collided with each other and rubbed up against each other,
0:32.1	and it was just brilliant to share those thoughts and lessons that we have both experienced.
0:38.8	And what a wonderful woman she is, so open, so honest, and actually completely and utterly hilarious.
0:46.8	I'd love you to listen to this and think of your business dream as a love affair as you climb Everest,
0:53.6	myself and Nicola talk about, are walking shoes, and it will all make sense as you listen. Enjoy!
1:12.6	I'm Holly Tucker, and welcome to Conversations of Inspiration. Back in 2006, I founded Not on the High Street
1:20.6	on my kitchen table, and since then I've gone on to launch Holly and Co.
1:25.6	I'm the UK ambassador of creative small businesses, and I believe that having a business doing what you love is the key to a happy fulfilled life.
1:34.6	My dream is to help everybody start theirs. I'm here to offer advice, inspiration, wisdom, and encouragement.
1:42.6	And in my view, the best way to do this is by sharing stories.
1:47.6	So I've reached out to my favourite small businesses, entrepreneurs, and those who simply inspire me and ask them to share theirs.
1:56.6	With thanks to Adobe, who've helped bring this podcast to life? Here are my Conversations of Inspiration.
2:05.6	Hi Nicola, welcome to Conversations of Inspiration. I am really thrilled to be talking to you, because I mentioned this to you when I asked you to join me,
2:15.6	that your candle, your neon candle, the happy candle, was the first sort of proper candle that I ever bought.
2:26.6	And I then remember buying it absolutely for everybody, because it was this beautiful thing that said happy, and we're going to talk about this.
2:34.6	Did it make you happy? That's the most important question.
2:37.6	It really, truly did. It really, truly did. And I can't actually, we're going to get into all of this, but I can't believe how long you've been running, Neom.
2:48.6	I know. And this is going back some time, and there's only a few of us female entrepreneurs out there that's been doing it for this long.
	...

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