Her Story
About Nicole
I've been in the beverage alcohol field for over 15 years, and I've only ever worked in this industry since graduating college. My journey started while I was finishing up at NC State, working for a group that opened restaurants and was part of the Pop the Cap group, which spearheaded the sale of alcohol over 6% in North Carolina. After graduation, I moved into management and spent years helping open craft beer bars and managing teams. I achieved two world records in 2014 when I was managing the largest craft beer bar, where I managed the most amount of beer taps in the world. For a while, I thought I might go into brewing and started part-time brewing and selling with a local brewery, but I fell in love with actually selling the product and being the face of the company to drive that momentum. Over the years, I've honed my skills and moved into leadership roles where I help drive strategy, relationships, and commercial performance with a company's most important customers. I've been selling beverage alcohol with startups for a little over 7 years now, and I've been with Happy Dad for a little over a year as a Regional Key Account Manager for the East Coast. In my role, I manage the overall business with key retailer partners, help drive new distribution within those retailers, and pitch programming to help increase our reach and drive new consumers to the category. Because chains account for such a large portion of the business, it's my job to lead the team with programming, planning this out with retailers sometimes 6 months in advance. A lot of that momentum drives the culture and overall morale of the team. I've worked my way up to a level where I'm now managing relationships with customers that could make or break the trajectory and success of a company.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nicole
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think for every company that I've worked for, there's always been a strong female mentor. I've made a point to surround myself and work for companies that have a strong culture for supporting women. Jennifer Hill was a big person who catapulted my career, and I would give her the biggest shout-out. Having these mentors and being part of organizations that value women has been instrumental in my success.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received is that it's not necessarily the hurdles that come, it's not the obstacles that we have to face - it's all about how we dig ourselves out of those holes, and how we overcome those obstacles and find the opportunity in those pitfalls that come our way.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice that I would give is that inherently, you will be seen as the underdog. But if you just know that there is a whole group of women in this industry, in groups that you can lean on, I think that there is a lot of opportunity for women to pave the way for future generations in this industry. It's all about definitely extending your network circle to keep a good level-headed mindset and interacting with support groups. There's a lot of opportunity for women to have a greater presence in the beverage alcohol industry.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think there is a big opportunity for more women to work at higher-level positions in the beverage alcohol industry. I can see the amount of women that I now work with day to day, how it's changed, even in the last 10 years. So I think there's definitely a lot of opportunity for women to have a greater presence in the beverage alcohol industry.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I value a good balance, because at the end of the day, how can you be successful and have a positive attitude if your foundation isn't solid? So having a good work-personal life balance is essential to me.
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