I’m self-made as I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I was fortunate to be born in London to Jamaican parents with an expectation that I would be successful. My early sales and marketing lessons were learned in the inner city. I think that you are more likely to succeed in sales and marketing if you have certain personality traits, for example, being extrovert, assertive and it also helps to be emotionally stable to tolerate rejection.

This week I have been leading a Focus Group for a new womenswear brand, XIII.dk. I’ve always enjoyed selling straight to the consumer as there are more customers and you are directly in front of the decision maker. There’s a fast feedback loop when you sell direct-to-consumer (DtC), and you receive true comments without filter which enables you to learn very quickly and intuitively. This week was a wonderful reminder that selling DtC is way less stressful and more rewarding because you are changing the individual lives with the high quality clothing.