IRL - Nicola Miller
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Innovative Revenue Leader Podcast. I'm your host, Seth Mars. Join me as we deliver practical insights to help B2B CROs Find new and innovative ways to grow in this fast changing environment. The Innovative Revenue Leader is sponsored by Sandler, a triad company, empowering sales professionals and leaders to master the craft of selling at all levels.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Welcome back, everybody. This is someone that I'm really happy to bring on the show, a friend, someone that I've worked on some really challenging problems with. She's a revenue operations strategist, go-to-market execution leader, and sales-led growth operator. She's helped B2B SaaS organizations close the gap between growth strategy and frontline execution, and turns complex revenue challenges into clear systems, accountability, and measurable business outcomes.
I've watched her do this in practice. She builds go-to-market operating models, planning cadences, and cross-functional programs that include-- that, that improve [00:01:00] forecast accuracy, conversion, and sales productivity, and has led global sales and channel operations at Dropbox, supporting direct partner and expansion motions across two hundred, uh, two, two hundred and twenty-five person organization, and is now bringing her execution playbook to scale an even larger organization.
Her current position is senior sales program manager. Nicola Miller, great to have you on the show.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Hi, Seth. Happy to
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Hey. looking forward to this discussion. So first question, the question I ask everybody is: what's the most innovative thing that you've seen in B2B right now?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: I think whenever I look at holistically how everyone's kind of swirling around the problem or the challenges around,
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Oh,
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: side of that is how do you operate around that on the back end. And what I've seen is that there's been this shift from how people look at their expected growth, how they're doing static forecasting into something that's a little bit more signal-based forecasting. So, um, that shift is really [00:02:00] resulting in the move away from more like seller opinions when you're looking at where we think growth is gonna come from, how predictably do we think we can rely on it coming in to be recognized towards more real buying signals. Um, I, I think that historically forecasts were dependent on what a rep would input into tools or systems, and now we're seeing a lot of organizations combine not only that CRM data, with the engagement signals in like conversation intelligence tools, um, ob-observations and buying activity, and then also pipeline movement and patterns. And it's all creating just a more objective view of deal health.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: interesting. So I mean, like it used to be seller is the answer, and then the manager would manipulate it, but now it sounds like what you're saying is, what you're seeing is the seller is just another signal in the overarching set of signals that you're gonna use to forecast.
Ah, interesting. Very cool. So you and I have been working together to build a maturity map for [00:03:00] sales leaders around forecasting and, and, and I mean, forecasting is a huge part of it.
Like, so can you talk through a little bit around what forecasting maturity looks like for you from like least... What's like the least mature that you've seen all the way up to, like, as you, as you've built this out into the most mature? How does that look? So people who are thinking about their organization and where they stand in terms of best practice, like how they-- how would they think about that?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Yeah. Well, for me, forecasting, what it comes down to is really it's just about predictability. So can the business reliably understand what's happening early enough to be able to make decisions and adjust? Um, accurate forecasting doesn't come from just the spreadsheets alone. I think it's gonna end up being more of a reflection of management discipline and the operational consistency around that.
So, um, I effectively think about forecasting less as maybe a reporting exercise, and it's more as a management system. So on the kind of maturity scale, uh, you-- I [00:04:00] can break it down into four different stages. So at its lowest level, forecasting is mostly gonna be anecdotal. So forecasts can be driven by rep opinion. Uh, your sales stages and definitions likely could be inconsistent. leadership is spending a lot of times more chasing updates for an upcoming forecast, and there's frequently a lot of surprises or reacting to surprises later in quarter. So there's usually very little consistency in how deals are inspected or qualified, and that represents in the forecast. Uh, second stage, so you start to see organizations building processes, um, that are a little bit more disciplined. So you're gonna see standardized sa- uh, sales stages and definitions, really clear forecast categories into what you are going to be committing into your forecast. and then they're behind that.
They're more consistent manager inspection routines. So forecasting at this point is more repeatable even there's still a degree of reactive nature to it, [00:05:00] but it's, it's gearing towards more predictable and repeatable. Uh, the third stage is where forecasting is gonna become a lot more operationally Um, so what I mean by this is organizations start actually looking beyond just what's our pipeline coverage to hit our goal, and they're focusing on pipeline quality. They're looking at the velocity of deals at which they move through the funnel. Um, they're looking at conversion trends of deals through the full funnel, and then they're focusing on the actual deal pro-progression and the signals that inform and validate that a deal is actually moving towards purchase.
And so at this point, you see forecasting becomes less, um, subjective, a little less emotional, and it's more grounded in more observable patterns and performance data. Um, the fourth stage, and so this would say this is our highest level of maturity [00:06:00] is gonna become much more signal driven and it's proactive.
So this is where you have your companies integrating CRM data with your engage-- customer engagement signals, conversation intelligence tools, activity pattern across the broader account team. And, uh, you know, we even see some companies begin to layer in AI supported insights that are actually identifying risk earlier.
So that focus, um, in forecasting a shift from just simply predicting outcomes that we think might be true at the end of the quarter to actually ending outcomes before it's even too late.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: So they can respond, so you can respond to it within the quarter? Ah, okay.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: the most, I would say, mature organizations that are doing forecasting really well is that it's a proactive practice instead of reactive, to your point.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yep.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: And the biggest difference between immature and mature forecasting, it's often, more often than not, it's not the technology, it's the management [00:07:00] consistency that kind of feeds and powers it.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: So interesting, like, the, the, like, the three and four you're talking about, the level up isn't necessarily the tech, it's the-- it's how the managers are actually engaging with it and using it appropriately to turn it into a predictive approach rather than a reactive what's your number, what's your number type thing.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: That's right. You're going from pattern recognition in that third stage around understanding what are the-- what's the, what's the right velocity that we should be looking at for deals depending on the motion or the segment. You understand the conversion trends, and you can start to identify risk. That fourth, that fourth stage is where you can inform those patterns to say, what are the signals for early risk detech-detection? Um, how do we automate some of those signals for notification for an inspect action loop? And then what are some AI supported insights that we can use to help, help us look around the corner?
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Now, the, the first question we talked about, you had mentioned that, like, signals base is starting to become a lot more-- You're seeing [00:08:00] that a lot more. Are you seeing that-- And that's like, you, you talked about that in both. Is that people moving from two to three or three to four? Like, as you're, like, in the progression, like, how do you see that?
Mm-hmm. good question. I mean, more practically, probably going from three to four, because that's when you have that application of it, that you're moving from theory of this, these are the def-definitions that we have, this is what right looks like, to modeling it to where you're not kind of brute force to help manage through forecast to ensure predictability.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: You have more automated signals behind it to help power it.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Gotcha. Got it. So the, the level up and that move to proactive is happening and happening a lot quicker.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Mm-hmm. Very interesting. So you've done a lot of-- You've done forecasting at Dell, you've done forecasting at Dropbox. You do-- Uh, so you, you, you're very experienced in doing this. Te-tell me a little bit about your philosophy around forecasting and how you ensure...
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: How do you ensure it's accurate? Like, how, how do you make sure [00:09:00] that these things are accurate? You've done it in multiple different types of buying mo-motions.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: it's really hard. It's It is, yeah.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: That's... hard because it's-- I, I don't think anyone can come in and say, "This is exactly how you forecast," because there's gonna be a lot of variables. Um, but one thing I find to be the most consistent variable in any situation are, um, the management processes that are behind the forecasting, not necessarily the exercise in ensuring you have visibility of the right data. so if forecasting tells you only what happened in the end of quarter, you're already gonna be too late. So That's...
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: why I do feel like it comes down to leaders first or second line to make sure that the decision, that they have the ability to make decisions early enough in the quarter to change that outcome.
So, um, underscoring all of that, I think some of the things that are really important to land are consistency across a, a few set of things. So one is having the right [00:10:00] language, so common definitions across sales stages, like I mentioned earlier. Um, if you are referencing a certain deal in any stage of its life cycle, um, and you agree with someone on what that is and what the next steps are, if you don't think the stages are the right or the same things, then you're effectively solving for two different problems.
And it's just, it, it just, it creates a lot of inconsistency.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Mm-hmm.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: having the right consistent manager inspection routines behind that, um, where they are not only reviewing deals and opportunities to ensure that they have the right criteria and they're looking at the right, um, kind of buyer evidence as it progresses through a sales cycle, but they're understanding the quality of that pipeline,
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Mm-hmm.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: in addition to under-- making sure they have the right coverage and volume to get to their number. Um, in my experience, the actual, the, the strongest forecasting cultures that I've seen are really built at that frontline manager level.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Th-that's always gonna be [00:11:00] hard to get the number. Like, uh, to, to be accurate in the number, 'cause there's a lot of variables that can go with it. But it sounds like what you-- I mean, what you've see... Like philosophically, if I have the right cadences, I have the right structure, I have the right language, and I'm talking about it in that way, that gives you the best chance to have the most accurate and most consistent predictions.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: I mean, are we inspecting deals? Are we coaching risk early enough to influence or change the outcome? Um, and more importantly, are we creating accountability around how those opportunities are qualified and progressed?
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah. 'Cause I mean, uh, the reality is you're predicting the future, so it's not guaranteed all right. So what's the biggest challenge that when, when you're implementing a new forecasting approach that you typically run into?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: So in my experience, I think the hardest part of improving forecasting or really improving insert any business function here, it's not gonna be the process design or the technology that you're using. It's really just the core set of behaviors that you're trying to [00:12:00] drive across a broader team. That's fundamentally, Seth, a really hard thing to do.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: most organizations can implement any kind of new forecast, uh, structure or tool pretty quickly. Um, the hard part is creating consistency in how people are inspecting the deals, qualifying those opportunities, coaching and communicating risk, um, and ensuring that the right updates are being, um, shared with the business around that. And once you're doing that well, the next thing that is really an important nuance is that forecasting effectively is gonna just create tension, um, in the business because at the end of the day, it's just exposing reality, which is, which can be really challenging. You're creating visibility into how deals are progressing, how healthy a pipeline is, um, managers coaching on deals, um, and just how predictable the business is actually [00:13:00] operating.
That level of transparency is uncomfortable experience, um, especially where or where forecasting maybe has been more subjective. So
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: you, you kind of knowingly open yourself up to that, and so it's, it's, it's something to consider and manage as you're trying to train sellers, um, to not only just manage deals, um, of just managing optics, because sometimes you trade one for the other.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: I mean, if you think about it, in all but probably a small five to ten percent of companies, your forecast is likely called down to the number that you have as a goal for the year.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Mm-hmm.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Like, it's almost always a call down. You see. So I mean, it's not a particularly pleasant conversation that you have to have But it's balancing, I've got to be accurate to what reality is with I'm gonna mi-- I'm not gonna meet the expectations.
And you run across some leaders that are, that think they could just talk or [00:14:00] will their way into you hitting the number by talking to you on a forecasting call. And it, yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Yeah. Or
it's or management realize that confidence is actually what's recorded-- uh, rewarded more than accuracy. So maybe it's safer to hold onto that upside than to surface risk early. it basically just boils down to you're defending numbers Um, more than you are understanding the actual health of the business.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: It's better to be a hero, right? So hold it close to your vest, because if I don't get it, I could always say that I missed it. But if I do get it, then I'm the hero at the end of the day.
Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Think culturally, I don't know, and maybe you've seen some of this too in, in the conversations and, and with the, with the folks that you've worked with. But I think there's just a big cultural element to, to that. I mean, and that's with
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: True.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: And change in how you wanna operate as a business.
But it's that shift from maybe historically you have this feeling of forecast is inspection equals punishment, um, for not having, [00:15:00] you know, line of sight to the full end-to-end e- element of my business. And I don't think the goal is necessarily to police
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: to feel like they're-- you're setting them up to be caught in mistakes. It should be from a more supportive, proactive approach where you're trying to identify risk early enough, coach to resolution, and help, you know, respond constructively to opportunities that might impact the forecast. Trust
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: An awful lot there.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Now, how have you seen-- Like, the, the, the thing that I've seen put in place is, is every, every... Typically, people are much happier if you over. Like, you over, you hit your number by, uh, you mi- you, you overachieve by 10%, companies are happy with that. But like the most rigorous ones are kind of just as pissed off when you're 10% over your number as they are-- when it comes to forecasting rigor, as they are under your number.
You are just as out of a control sales leader because you were over by 10%, 20%, 30% as you would be if you were under, so it's a fail for you. [00:16:00] Like, have you seen that?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: I think I would rather be dealing with, uh, over-performing to-- over-performing a forecast call than under.
but at the end of the day, the rule of thumb that we would try and stick to is up five, down five within percentage of your forecast call. Um, and that depends on the business, on your, how your deal size is and, you know, sometimes you have a quarter where the back of your quarter is built off a couple big deals. Um, but you should have line of sight to how predictable you think each one of those deals are and being able to call risk where needed. Um, and that's why also going back to the forecast categories, how you actually identify different elements of potential revenue that could book that quarter. Um, it's really important to have that because then you have that common language and understanding around here's an objective assessment of what predictably could come in.
Here's the upside, here's the risk. Um, and it just reflects just a deep understanding of the makeup of your revenue number.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Gotcha. Now, I wanna [00:17:00] double-click into something. You said call risk, 'cause you do this, y- this is something. So can you explain to the, to, to those who would be listening around calling risk? Because, and you talked about it in specifically around big deals because it's, it, it's a variance to the number, right?
Like I'm calling an, a, a plus minus based on variance. So when you're calling risk, it's, it's pretty descriptive around it in, in how you're setting expectations. So it could be within 5 or 10%, but you could be calling risk between 20, 30% depending on how big the deal is that could push.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: yeah, so I mean, it-- that matters. So if you missed by 20% but you said your variance was 20% on the risk side, then you kinda didn't, right? You, you, you knew that big deal was gonna e- either blow your number away or make you miss huge.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: feels kind of like a hard situation to win.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah, but I mean, the, the, the, it... I mean, is it fair to say like if you're saying it that way and you're communicating, it goes back [00:18:00] to what you were talking about before. Yeah, I may miss by 20% or hit by 20 per- or, or hit by 20%, or I may miss by 20% or be right on the number. But if I-- it's because I have this one deal that's 20% of my number.
If everyone's aligned on that, then you, and you miss, you've done your job. So it may not look right in the numbers, but you've done your job.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Yeah.
if you can account for all the dollars of revenue that you are responsible for delivering, whether they close or not, I think that's the key to
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Forecasting or not. It's like, do you know-- can, can you account for every dollar?
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: So what, w- what's the biggest challenge that, that you run across when you're implementing a new forecasting process?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: I mean, I'll, I'll stay with the, you know, the behavior change there. I mean, I think there needs to be a shift from tops down and bottoms up because you are shifting a culture from,
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: [00:19:00] Very.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: To saying, if I'm a first-line lead or a second-line lead, and I'm looking for updates on a deal because my CRM hygiene isn't up to date, I know that there's more information on where this deal is at. it creates this environment of you're reacting, it's high stress, instead of feeling like you have high trust in the information and ability to manage a deal to closure. and building, I think, that trust and cadence and creating the space for people to, one, acknowledge where they could be, where they could have better line of sight, and then making sure that they are get the coach and coaching and support to be able to make sure that that doesn't happen again. I just, I think that once people can trust the process around what a forecast is expected to do, how it's expected to run, what you're responsible for as it's, that forecast number is built, the quality will [00:20:00] continue to improve just because those conversations become more objective. There's more transparency in how the number is built, the forecast number is built for what's being called. Um, and it's just a little bit just with that rigor and more operation re- kind of minded behind it, you, you do find that the trust increases there. And so the likeliness, uh, or likelihood of people being honest and transparent in their updates from bottoms up or from the call that they're, Um. rolling up or judging from their leads is gonna continue to increase there too.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Um. So you, if you work the foundation and hold to that, it'll kind of blossom. You just have to-- It's not something that you put it in place and magic happens, and the next month you're just the greatest and it, and, and it, forecasting challenges go away. It's kind of you build the foundation and you stick to it, and then over time, you, you progressively get better and better and better as your teams get more accustomed to integrating and working in that rigorous environment.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: [00:21:00] Yeah.
I mean, it's change, right? I
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: change in any capacity, I think, in how anyone works is, is hard. You're trying to-- you have to focus on behaviors and try and coach to the different out- outcomes that you think those behaviors should help
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Makes sense. So we talked earlier at the beginning around signals kind of taking over the forecasting side and the seller becoming kind of a signal. With AI and agents and all this stuff, what do you think the role of the seller is in forecasting in the future? Like, are they... Like, how are they going to-- What role will they play?
Will they even have a forecasting call in the future?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: sorry to say for any sellers listening, yes, I do believe that there will be a forecasting call, but I do think that the role of the seller is gonna shift pretty meaningfully over the next couple of years, uh, especially when it comes to how sellers are forecasting and we're managing pipeline. Um, you know, historically, if you look back, forecasting has been really dependent [00:22:00] on sellers manually updating all their CRM fields,
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: giving subjective deal assessments based off of sentiment or suspicions that you have based off of the relationships that you have or things that you might know to be true.
Um, you're spending a lot of time preparing status updates for managers for that forecast call. A lot of energy go today. A lot of energy goes into the administrative work required, um, to produce a forecast call instead of actually focusing on the deal strategy. Um, I think what we're gonna see change Is that we're gonna have much more visibility into customers' buying behaviors through
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Mm-hmm.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: collection of things.
So engagement signals, conversation intelligence, uh, activity patterns, uh, stakeholder involvement. So do we have the right buying centers? Do we have the right stakeholders from the customer involved? and understanding that historical deal data as well. So where [00:23:00] we're gonna see the, the increased visibility is when we are able to leverage either automation or AI tools that can either incre-- uh, summarize these meetings, um, flag any potential risks, gaps in how a deal is progressing if we don't feel like the right steps are being, um, are taking place, um, where you can surface any stall op- opportunity, opportunities, and then even flag when those deal behaviors aren't aligning up with the category. I think that, uh, w- what we're gonna see is just more visibility into not only just like the customer behavior, but how the deal is being managed as well. Creates more of a predictive loop. Um, so but as a result, the good thing is sellers hopefully get to this point where they're spending a lot less time acting as more just like a human data entry system.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Mm-hmm.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: sales heroics, and it's really more time you're interpreting these signals as opposed to just inputting them. So, um, you [00:24:00] are able to hopefully use this to navigate more complex buying cycles or buying groups, um, and leverage that against how you progress the deal to closure. But, um, n- no, I, I don't think the AI's gonna replace those core human elements of selling, at least not anytime soon.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: So it's, it's almost to a certain extent, it-- those conversations are gonna move from kind of predicting the news, let technology do that, let technology capture all the things and do the analysis, 'cause it does it better than a seller, let's be honest. Like, they're not very good at that to begin with But turn into an acceleration exercise where the forecasting becomes your meeting to unlock deals rather than your meeting to say when a deal's gonna close.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: That's right. I mean, as a seller, you-- think of the core, the fundamental skills that make someone a really, really good seller. Ideally you're in a space now where you can cultivate those skills with a little bit more frequency. So that's leveraging your judgment, you're building [00:25:00] relationships, you're injecting or creating, your negotiation strategy, ensuring you have executive alignment. These are all the things that sellers are going to be hired to do. AI can't do that. Automation can't do that. Um, they can just inform that judgment, or they can help inform where we should build relationships or help weigh the best options for what the negotian- ne- negotiation strategy should be.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yep.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: I think it helps to inform, um, and, and we're-- we can just rely on the judgment of, you know, professional sellers that have been cultivating these skills their entire career.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Makes sense.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Mm-hmm.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Let's talk a little bit about you. Um, growing up, if I would've said you're g- y- y- the term chief of staff or strategy, would that, like, would you have known what that was at the time?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Oh gosh, no. And I feel like even now, anyone who talks-- who, who asks about becoming a chief of staff or what's it like, the... it's hard to even [00:26:00] say that what, what a potential chief of staff role could look like because they all look different.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah. Well, well there, by design, right? Like you're, you're basically there to figure stuff out.
Like, figure it out. Like, we've gotta find a way to get this stuff done in this o- in this organization.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Mm-hmm.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Think, like, knowing what this role is that, that you're-- like when you were a kid, you would've thought it was cool or no, boring?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: I don't know. I- as someone 20 years into their career, I feel like there's a lot of stuff now that I feel like 10-year-old Nicola would be ashamed about. She'd just call me a monster. Like: "I can't believe this is where you're getting your energy from." But for me, truly, I, I could-- I love the, love the role, and I love the, um, the support that it, it provides to a broader organization.
Like it's just-- it's it's really rewarding, I find, whenever you can help activate and enable a broad set of people to just do really great things.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah, and the part that I've, I've been-- having [00:27:00] watched you work around this stuff is just you have to be able to see into an organization and find the gaps and fill the gaps proactively. There's no playbook. It's, it's I'm working alongside the business trying to figure out how do we get to our number, and I'm looking for the gaps here and there, and then I just gotta figure it out, and you figure it out.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: connecting the dots, triaging where you can, um, and rolling up your sleeves and doing the work yourself in a lot of the cases as well.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah. So i-if I were to go back to you just graduating college, one piece of advice you'd give yourself?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: I don't know. I, I feel like I would probably say that don't worry so much about what you think your career's gonna look like, because it-- they tend to make a lot more sense looking backwards than they do looking forward.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: God, so true.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: I think, um, having the Expect-- or putting the expectation on yourself that You...
need to have this perfectly linear plan, um, I, I, I don't really subscribe to that.
I haven't for a long [00:28:00] time. But I find that, um, you know, at the start of a career, I think that's a logical way to think about it. But what I've found is that the most value-valuable parts of my career and my experiences has really come from saying yes to any opportunity that I felt like was gonna stretch me before I felt fully ready. Um, there would always be... If you didn't have that, um, the, that kind of oh shit moment when you get into a new role of like, "Oh man," like, "Was this okay?" Like, I think that's a great signal. That's a good sign. It means you're growing. It means you're gonna be stretched. Um, and you know, you wouldn't be in an opportunity if you weren't able to be perfectly capable of excelling in it.
So, um, know, don't confuse... I mean, to that point, don't confuse confidence with competence. I think
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Yeah.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: my experience with some really amazing leaders, um, I've found that they tend to be the most curious people in the room.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Mm-hmm.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: Um, so I, I think for me it's always I, I find it better to have more questions than answers, [00:29:00] but really that just comes from being curious.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: thank you so much, Nicola. Where can people find you if they wanna, if they wanna reach out or, or learn a little bit more about you?
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: you can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm usually there.
seth-marrs_1_05-11-2026_164245: Great. Fantastic. Thank you so much for, for joining.
nicola-miller_1_05-11-2026_154245: was great, Seth. Thanks so much.
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