FOLK TALES with Colin Lambert

NICKY KING The Art of Selling

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elling oneself takes many forms. From birth we acquire skills to satisfy our basic needs: a baby screaming for food, attention and comfort, or an adult seeking customers, clients and profit. It’s all about survival and growth. Some people are employed and some, myself included, work for themselves. However, running your own business requires time, effort and persistence. Ask any self-employed person the number of hours they work in a week and the answer will shock you. They work odd hours, strange shifts and, in Nicky’s case, are ‘on call’ 24 hours a day, six days a week. I first met Nicky perched at a long table in Oliver’s coffee shop in April 2016; we were fellow executive members of Sherborne Chamber of Commerce. We were both selling ourselves and our wares. I next met Nicky in the council chambers (I almost got married there – that’s for later) when we were both fellow committee members of Sherborne Tourism Forum. Nicky has an amazing smile and I couldn’t help thinking how cool and relaxed she appeared. I discovered we share the same personal trainer (Craig Hardaker, see Folk Tales, October 2016), we both love sailing, skiing, walking along the Corton Ridge (see Folk Tales, Bill Brown, October 2017) and we both realise life never stands still! 120 | Sherborne Times | March 2018

Back in time. Nigeria, June 1963. Nicky is three months old and it is very hot, as was Sierra Leone which followed. Aged 3, when Dad’s job changed, Nicky moved to Paris and primary school. Not surprisingly, she is fluent in French. Between the ages of 6 and 12, Tokyo was home. No Japanese to learn, just the boredom of a walled ex-pat compound. Aged 12, you guessed it, Dad moves again, and Chislehurst, Kent becomes home. Nicky’s daily commute required a walk through woods, the no. 161 bus to Eltham, followed by a train to Blackheath High School for Girls. Stability at last? No, Dad gets another job in New York, followed by Houston, Texas. Nicky stays put, this time at a boarding school in Croydon. ‘A’ levels beckon, but Nicky has discovered boys and the joys of commuting between New York, Houston and Croydon. Unsurprisingly she didn’t get the grades and did an extra year before embarking on a three-year degree course in Hospitality Management at Brighton Poly. Graduation, Japan, Australia, Bali and the rest followed before finally landing (literally given Nicky’s air miles) an assistant manager’s job in a Folkstone hotel. London soon called, running a YTS (Youth Training Scheme – City & Guilds) in hospitality management. London is fun. A love of the theatre blossoms. A man