An interview with Kate Mercer

It’s taken me a lifetime to work out who I really am – and what I actually have to offer.

I grew up in 1950s Cheltenham, surrounded by the usual messages drilled into girls like me:

• Don’t rock the boat.
• Never show off.
• What will people think?
• Keep your head down, work hard, and whatever you do – don’t stand out.
• Follow the rules, don’t question your betters, and be grateful.

And most of all: Don’t ask questions – it’s rude and intrusive. Oh boy, did I outgrow that one!

If you’d met me in my 20s, fresh out of York University, you’d have seen someone with no idea where she was heading. Two years of safe, conformist jobs left me bored rigid – tearing my hair out and desperate for something to actually challenge me.
So I ditched the safe salaried job with a pension (to my mother’s horror) and took an hourly-paid role teaching EFL in London – with zero training. A couple of years of daily stage fright gave me an unexpected taste for learning and development, which led me to a Lecturer role in Further Education.

This time I had a proper salary, a pension plan, and training on the job. I was cock-a-hoop. My mother, less so. Her reaction: “Oh no, not teaching…” In those days, FE colleges had a simple policy: if you were warm and breathing, you got the hardest classes. My training constantly raced to catch up, but despite the anxiety, I loved watching people grow and thrive from what I could pass on. By my early 30s, I’d landed a role as Training and Development Manager with Johnson & Johnson.

If I thought I’d been on a steep learning curve before, I was about to find out what “steep” really meant.

J & J were good employers. On the day of my interview, my manager said: “Don’t bother telling me you aspire to promotion here – I’m going nowhere. But what we will offer you is leading-edge training and experience, second to none. And when you leave us, which you will, in three or four years’ time, you’ll have a CV to be proud of – and we’ll be proud of you.”

I was hooked – and I’ve never forgotten those words.

Four years later, I left to start my own L&D consultancy with my then-partner (now husband). Over thirty years on, I see no reason to “retire.”

I worked alongside my husband for 20 years, then with my good friend and business partner Amanda, until she stepped away two years ago. And here’s what I’ve discovered, even at my great age: the learning never ends.

Both Gil and Amanda had the gift of effortless business development. So how hard could it be? (Ha!)

Like I say, it’s taken me a lifetime to work out who I really am and what I have to give. I’ve no desire to “retire” – which means I still need to crack the secret of ‘effortless’ business development.

So come and listen to my interview. If I’ve cracked it by then, I’ll tell you. If not, you’ll hear how I manage the constant anxiety of always being just half a step behind my own learning curve.