How did Rough Diamond come about?
I left Ogilvy after 17 years as founder of their London digital innovation lab. I was out with no personal brand or business card. I went to an invitation-only event, Summit at Sea, which is like TED meets DAVOS meets Burning Man – on a boat. There’s no wifi and no phones so you’re actually talking to other people.
I’m trying to think about my next steps, relaxing in a hot tub, and a guy asks me, “So, who are you and where are you from?” And I say, “I’m Nicole from… Nicole.” It was a moment of clarity. You don’t have that corporate cloak on; “I’m the founder of X at a large global organisation.” You are literally just yourself laid bare. I realised I needed to apply my intrapreneurship philosophies to my own life!
We talked for a long time and I told him my story. He said, “I’m a publisher and you have some incredible stories! You’re a woman in tech, a maverick; you’ve been pushing the boundaries for 20 years. They say no, but you do it anyway. You should get this down on paper, you should write a book.” And that’s how it started.
