Noelle Mykolenko

I help organizations advance their mission and achieve their goals by being relentlessly client-focused.

I am passionate about growth—for people and businesses—and have experienced first-hand how trusted relationships are a force multiplier on both fronts. For three years, I led a multi-level learning program from inside a global IT company. We taught over 750 consultants how to be trusted advisors to our clients. It was one of the most rewarding roles I’ve ever been in for two reasons: (1) because we saw an undeniable improvement in client satisfaction and account expansion, and (2) because we helped hundreds of people be personally more successful and more satisfied in their careers.

I am passionate about growth—for people and businesses—and have experienced first-hand how trusted relationships are a force multiplier on both fronts.

As a consultant for more than 20 years, I have sold, managed and delivered complex business solutions in a variety of industries, including the US federal government, manufacturing, telecommunications and IT, and financial services. For one Fortune 200 company, I held director roles in business development, marketing and client development. One of my biggest takeaways from those roles, as the person being “sold to”? How not to sell.

In 2014, I left the corporate world for a “seabbatical” in the Caribbean, which fundamentally and permanently altered my perspective of what’s important in life. Instead of returning to a conventional sales or consulting role, my focus now is to help other people in those roles transform how they sell to and serve their customers.

I have a BS in Business Administration, a BA in French, and an MBA. I also have certifications in executive leadership and digital marketing. In addition to leading programs for The Get Real Project, I consult independently on sales enablement and account growth.

When I’m not working, you can find me relaxing at the beach in Delaware or sailing and scuba diving in the Caribbean.

My Get Real Services

I specialize in leading our immersion workshops and mastery workshops, focusing on two of our signature offerings: Being a Trusted Advisor and Trust-Based Selling (sometimes known as Trust-Based Business Development).

My Trust Temperament™

The Professor

Who I’m Reading/Following

My Get Real Story

My first project manager role came on suddenly when a colleague left the company, and I got a field promotion. I was thrilled at the chance to show that I was ready to take on more responsibility.

I quickly stepped into the role, working the consultants hard to find new and exciting ways to wow the client, with an eager eye toward selling the next project. We were all working long, difficult hours, but that’s what it takes to be a successful consultant, right?

Then an email arrived from our accounting team at 5:30pm on a Friday with this news: while we were only halfway through the project, we had spent 75% of the budget. The options were to cut hours, get more funding from the client, or take a loss on the project. Bottom line: My first project was in big trouble.

I didn’t know what to do and was truly afraid I was going to be fired.

The collaboration I had been insisting on was the first thing to go. I spent the weekend alone, feverishly trying to find ways to cut out work, thinking of excuses to ask the client for more money, and otherwise looking for the perfect solution. By Monday morning, I was physically ill from anxiety and lack of sleep, and still without an answer. I reluctantly called my supervisor on the drive in to the office and told him what had happened.

When I got to work, my supervisor called a meeting with our Division VP, Jim. I could barely breathe, expecting the worst. Then Jim looked at me and said, simply, “Why didn’t you call us when you got the email? It sounds like you spent the whole weekend worrying about this on your own, when we could have been working together to find the solution.”

In that instant, I saw how my own personal drive to succeed—or perhaps more honestly, to avoid failure—had blinded me to the real goal: to work together to serve the client, in a way that was profitable for my company. I wanted to prove I could do it all on my own. And when I got into trouble, my instinct was to find the solution, not to ask for help. As a result, I missed out on a big opportunity to create trust with my team, with my supervisors, and even with my client.

Collaboration, one of the four trust principles, sounds so simple. It is simple. It’s just not always easy. And it requires large doses of self-awareness and self-management to do well. An indelible lesson from that fateful weekend.

Getting a Little More Personal

Words people often use to describe me

Determined, mindful, supportive.

What inspires me

People who fearlessly take personal risks

What brings me joy

Seeing someone grab hold of a new idea.

What anchors me

Creating things, whether its arts-and-crafts, gardening, or improvements to my century-old house: bringing something new and beautiful into existence feeds my soul.

What drives me nuts

Closed-mindedness. Senseless destruction. Sloppy language and punctuation.

My guilty pleasure

Jigsaw puzzles—the bigger, the better.

A favorite quote

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life”—Socrates

What I can’t do without

My husband; making things better; sea and sand.

My secret ambition

To inspire others to be better versions of themselves.

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