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Welcome back to Cheers with Nat – the podcast dedicated to cheering on women in drinks.
Today's guest is Michelle Brampton, CEO of WSET, the world's leading provider of drinks education.
Michelle shares how she first 'fell into' the drinks industry two decades ago, all thanks to a 6-month contract as a finance analyst in wine company. After working her way up to finance director then managing director there, she was ready for her next chapter and, as you'll hear, it sounds like she manifested her ideal role… with WSET!
Michelle tells us what her day-to-day as CEO looks like, how she learned to do the job, and how she learned to believe that she could – all thanks to the transformational power of coaching.
Now a trained coach herself, Michelle lets us in on the limiting beliefs that once held her back, the skills she's still developing, the importance of finding courage, learning by doing, and a whole lot more.
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I should mention that Michelle and I do know each other outside of this conversation, as I also work at WSET (in my day job as a beer educator), but any views shared on the Cheers with Nat podcast are my own.
And any mess ups are mine to own, too. Unfortunately, Michelle's audio is a bit quieter than it should be, as I didn't quite get the mic set up right on this occasion. The conversation is still well worth a listen though, so please do bear with.
What stuck with me from this conversation:On how to progress in your career: "…you won't progress if you can't let go. You can't do every job in the company before you do the MD role, it just doesn't work like that."
On the importance of courage: "So often women are talked about not being confident enough, and it's not confidence, it's just finding some courage. Women are never really encouraged to find courage. For men, you get on with stuff. You feel the fear and do it anyway..."
On the value of coaching: "It helped in me doing the role, but it helped me believe I could do the role, as well. That I didn't need to come in knowing all the answers, it was ok to come in and ask a lot of questions and just go from there."
On empowerment: "If you like people and you want them to do great work and you want to create an environment where they can just be themselves and do their best work – that just kind of becomes self-fulfilling as well. People rise to the occasion, if you just give them the space to go figure it."
On the importance of learning by doing: "The fastest way to learn is to act. If you don't do anything, you won't learn anything."
Links & things:
What we're drinking:
Where Michelle works:
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More on WSET's recent brand refresh (featuring Michelle on The Drinks Business podcast)
Coaching training:
Book recc:
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The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni
TV recc:
Recording info:
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July 2026 in London
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