Nexa’s friends helping our business succeed: Judy Salmon

Rachel Barnes, Marketing & Onboarding Manager

Estimated read time: 4 Minutes

Nexa’s friends helping our business succeed: Judy Salmon

At Nexa we are very lucky to work with some fantastic suppliers who help us every day to run our business in the most effective way. It’s no exaggeration to say, we couldn’t do it without them!

In the latest of this series we talk to Judy Salmon, Business Coach and Personal Development Consultant about her work supporting Nexa and its consultant lawyers.  Here’s what she had to say:

How long have you worked with Nexa, and how did you hear about us? 

I have worked with Nexa since the height of the first lockdown in 2020. I was lucky to meet Nexa Director, Nigel Clark in a webinar that he was co-facilitating and we realised that there was a connection, so we set up a zoom chat – and the rest is history!!!

Where did you train/work before Nexa?

Prior to working with Nexa, I was already running my own business, Judy Salmon Business Coach and Training Consultant, working with anyone who will have me!!! I have now run this business for over 20 years. Amongst my varied selection of clients, I work with a lot of law firms, including a magic circle firm. I like lawyers!!! My career began with 8 years in the Army, and my first civilian job was helping to set up The Pegasus Scholarship for The Inner Temple, so my relationship with those in the legal sector began then.  I subsequently worked for two other training firms and held an in-house job, setting up management and leadership training for James Capel, the stockbrokers. In 1996 I saw the show Riverdance, and it made me realise that I wanted a career break!!! I went off on an expedition to Africa with Operation Raleigh and lead a project which involved completing the building of a school out in the bush. When I returned to the UK, I set up my business.

Can you tell us a little about how your support Nexa?

My business concentrates on four pillars that everyone needs to operate, confidence, communications, self-awareness and behaviour and I focus on how each of those impact on ourselves as individuals, and others. With Nexa, I have had the privilege of coaching some interns and permanent staff, looking at how they were settling in to Nexa and how to enhance their confidence and personal impact. Once a month I run a webinar for the entire Nexa team, which can vary from me interviewing an expert in something that will help personal development, to running a session on a particular subject, or a “think tank” involving sharing ideas, observations and useful current thinking on a range of personal development/ morale -raising subjects!  I have also interviewed key members of the Nexa Executive Board.  I would like to believe my sessions offer a safe space for open discussion about non-technical issues and provide the opportunity to meet fellow consultants in an informal environment.  It can feel very lonely being self-employed, and setting up a new business is daunting. I aim to offer solutions to some of the issues that challenge us all.

What do you enjoy about your work?

I love the delivery part of my job. I love connecting with people from all walks of life and enabling them to see that they are better than they think they are and enabling them to take on ideas and skills that will really enhance their lives. I find it a huge privilege to coach someone and the fact that they will share their strengths and vulnerability with me. I absolutely believe that we all have blockages sometimes, which prevent us from performing as well as we can, or they affect our energy and morale.  Change can feel threatening, but with the support of a good coach, change can happen, and the result is renewed motivation. Ernest Spinelli said “To describe something changes that which is being described.  Changing any part of the human being, changes the whole“. It is one of the things that I have in common with the Nexa Consultants – we all want to bring about positive change for our clients.

What do you enjoy about working with Nexa?

Nexa, for me, provides a sense of belonging to something. The ‘something’ is a group of professionals who, like me, have chosen to march to their own drum beat and to step away from working for a large corporation. Yet there is a sense of belonging and the consultants can lean into what Nexa offers as much as they want to. Every Consultant I have had the pleasure of talking to is always so positive, open to helping me and keen to help me deliver some really useful sessions. There is a real power in getting to know each other – and the opportunity for referrals increases!!