For Nicola Trotman, being a successful entrepreneur is about being creative and willing to go where other people won’t. It’s what she’s set out to achieve at the communications agency she co-founded in 2015, Greenpoint Media.
“In the early days of Greenpoint, I was really inspired by Seth Godin’s Purple Cow, where essentially, he says, ‘go big or go home’ and that safe ideas are not safe at all,” Trotman tells Women’s Agenda.
“This is a value that I’ve really lived by, and I’ve tried to instil that in our team as we’ve grown bigger. I always tell them that I want them to think the wildest and the most out-there idea, and then work backwards from that.
“Some of our most successful campaigns for Greenpoint have been just wild ideas that many thought were either really silly or just not possible.”
With a background in journalism and public relations, Trotman is now the Agency Director at Greenpoint Media, where she’s the driving force of the company’s creative campaigns.
As an entrepreneur, she’s found that along with being creative and dreaming big, hard work has been the key to her success.
“I do believe that anyone can start a business but growing and then maintaining a business really comes down to hard work,” she says.
“It’s not for the faint-hearted. You really need to put in the work. I’m a perfectionist – which obviously has its good and bad traits – but in the early days, delivering great work is essential, as it’s a reputation you’re forging for yourself.”
Word of mouth is powerful after all – and it’s ultimately what’s catapulted Greenpoint into becoming a namesake within the property industry, where the company does a lot of its PR work.
An “all-consuming force”
Trotman doesn’t sugar-coat the work that it takes to be a founder and keep a business running. The reality, Trotman says, is that it’s an “all-consuming force” and making sacrifices is part of the job.
“You need to be all in, and I don’t think I realised that early on,” she says.
“I think people go into business because they think it will create a lot more freedom. And it does in some instances, but in other instances you make a lot of sacrifices.
“For example, I had to work on my honeymoon, as we had a team member that unexpectedly quit while I was over there. And the day after I gave birth, I was back online because there was a crisis going down with one of our clients, and I had to jump in to help.”
For many years, Trotman says she felt “stretched” because the business was dependent on her skill set. But in the last two years, Greenpoint has invested heavily in its senior team, with Trotman describing it as the best team the company has had.
“It just makes so much difference,” Trotman says. “When I was away for a week [recently], I could switch off and I was barely online. It probably took, like eight, nine years to get there.”
“That’s probably something a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners, particularly small business owners, struggle with, is, how do they ever get time off or away from the business.”
Your team is make or break
Trotman says that having the right team by your side is key to delivering great work but it’s also one of the biggest challenges she faced as an entrepreneur.
“Someone might be a really talented writer or really talented publicist or creative, but if they’re not a good culture fit for the business, then they’re not the right person for the business,” Trotman explains.
“And I think it goes vice versa. So, we’ve had people who are an amazing culture fit, but then not necessarily a great skill set in other areas. If the quality of the work’s not there, then the business suffers as a result, and it impacts clients.”
As for being a business leader, Trotman says being nice to others is underrated. With a third of our life spent at work, making it an enjoyable experience should be a priority.
“We spend so much time working – why wouldn’t we want that time to be positive? I never really understood why people in business are rude to one another or try to put them down.
“It takes much less energy just to be kind and gratitude goes a really long way.”
Thanks to our partner CommBank. CommBank supports women in business and the community across all industries and sectors through its Women in Focus team. For more information head to WomeninFocus.com.au.