Pascale Revell shares her experiences from the Women in Innovation Coaching Programme

“As a new founder having this time was key and proved extremely effective in enabling me to grow.”

Pascale Revell writes:

I was fortunate to be selected as a participant for coaching offered as part of KTN’s Women in Innovation programme.

As the co-founder and chief product officer of Autier, my mission is to combine cutting edge beauty technology with natural ethically sourced topical products.

I have spent my life immersed in the haircare industry, working as an international session stylist on editorial shoots, runway shows and academy education. I identified a gap in the market to provide women with a long-term solution to create and maintain healthy, beautiful hair.

Through the coaching programme, I was introduced to Nicola Willcocks, a highly experienced leadership coach, who is not only proficient in her present field of coaching but is well rounded in her expertise. This is due to her career history within a multitude of fields and her accumulated academic success.

The coaching came at the perfect time for me personally and professionally. I was in a key stage of transition and was taking my knowledge and skill set after 15 years in haircare and session styling, and applying that to another sector; the industry of beauty tech innovation.

Setting your goals

Start-up founders have many strengths. The first is that they have discovered and created a vision; an idea that they want to share and deliver to others. While it takes resilience and ambition to do so, it also encompasses many responsibilities.

Coaching offers a space to help you to identify, set and reach your goals. The sessions were personalised and tailored to me. I felt very comfortable sharing my weaknesses and vulnerabilities with Nicola, and they were met with support and guidance.

She challenged me to proactively address my areas of concern and provided me with the practical exercises and tools to do so. These practices are something that I will maintain and will return to in order to optimise my self-productivity and that of my business.

Cultivating strengths

When I began, my main challenges were my self-confidence and the ability to lead my team. My vision for the business and the products themselves was very clear; however, that still comes with its own challenges.

I needed to find the right subcontractors and partners to help bring my concept and vision to life. I also needed to build a small team of individuals who share that vision and can contribute to that growth, all while on a limited budget.

As a founder, the workload and responsibility to perform can be overwhelming. Having the support from Nicola helped me tap into and cultivate my strengths and creativity, which was paramount at the early stage of my journey.

Investing in the process

In order to get the best out of the sessions you have to invest in the process. Being open and honest as you enter is key to the productivity of your growth.

We arranged our sessions to run monthly, as this enabled me enough time to put into practice the exercises and tools Nicola provided from the session before. Prior to each session, I completed a questionnaire that helped me to self-reflect on all the challenges and positives of that month and to identify what I hoped to get out of the commencing session.

It’s very rare that we have the time or the opportunity to reflect on our professional performance or goals. In a lot of cases, these are only addressed in work reviews or team building days. As a new founder having this time was key and proved extremely effective in enabling me to grow.

Guiding growth

Prior to our final session, I revisited my answers from the questionnaires I completed each month. Looking back at the concerns I had from the first session, and the solutions I had discovered with the support of Nicola, was a great way to recap on how much I had gained from the coaching.

Nicola has the ability to guide that growth by helping me to tap into my thoughts and discover the answers, as opposed to just giving me another viewpoint. Sometimes it’s simply having someone to talk to who can evaluate different options, who can be objective and help you to brainstorm all your ideas and conclude with solutions.

Nicola believed in me and my ability and that was very much felt during our sessions. Having that positivity and boost is an important component of the process.

I am someone who moves at 100mph and that leaves little time to reflect and regroup. The sessions provided me with the time and the space to do so. It helped me to slow down, and by doing so, I have been able to observe and take far more from my experiences. I have become more patient with myself and my goals for the business.

Network of women

Becoming a member of the Women In Innovation programme has been a fantastic experience.

KTN offers a great network of women from all areas of innovative industries, and women across all nationalities, who share a common goal to support and grow collectively.

Due to the success of the pilot programme, the coaching team have agreed to an ongoing special coaching package of 33% off their normal rates for a limited number of women within the Women in Innovation community. Find out more here.