In this episode, I chat with Natalie Nagele, co-founder and CEO of Wildbit, a company which puts people at the forefront of businesses. 

With 20 years running the company, has a wealth of experience in starting things and learning along the way. She and Wldbit are shifting the focus in business: Prioritising people and developing a business culture to support individuals and promote healthy work habits. 

Living as a CEO - It’s not the same for everyone and every business

With imposter syndrome (the feeling that you are a fraud and someone will find out and expose you one day) as a constant threat as a young CEO, Natalie has learned to accept that she won’t know everything because knowing everything isn’t the point. Instead, there’s a laser focus on figuring out what the role should entail and leaning into what the company needs, rather than what the world seems to think is important for the position. As she noted, feeling like an imposter never seems to fade, but gaining confidence in the authority of her decisions is an important shift in focus:

“I had to really work in understanding that, while it’s a title that’s well-regarded and well understood, the actual role varies from company to company. And I think it was a journey of figuring out what Wildbit needs from a CEO. It took a really long time to lean into that confidence in the things that I say; knowing that they’re right and that they deserve the space. That was probably the hardest part I realised that I don’t have to be this brilliant, all-knowing and all-experienced person.”

Imposter Phenomenon: Imposter Syndrome’s optimistic younger brother

As curious people, there’s a common thread in founders, entrepreneurs and people who start things - they often want to learn as much as possible even if it’s completely arbitrary. Going from knowing nothing to the confidence in well-established knowledge can be an incredible way to challenge yourself to learn consistently. But it also might feel like you’re living at the forefront of incompetence, which ties closely in with the imposter syndrome that Natalie feels because there’s a constant worry that the incompetence might be revealed. 

However, on the flip side of the imposter syndrome is the need and craving to consistently learn. And in this space lives the imposter phenomenon. When most people feel like they don’t know what they’re doing, they buckle and give up but when the obsessively curious starters face the fraudulent feeling, they focus on combatting it by learning more and improving on the knowledge and gaining confidence in areas where they might feel lacking.

The (surprising) way a business network can instil confidence 

Natalie opted to avoid corporate networking for several years, thinking that it was ‘just for the suits’. When she and her husband Chris started connecting with other entrepreneurs though, she realised that there was a lot of confidence to be gained from being in the same space as other entrepreneurs - not because of their experience, but because of their inexperience. When she started connecting with other founders, she learnt that she wasn’t the only one constantly trying to figure things out. She realised that businesses might look like they’re doing great from the outside, but inside things are a mess.

“On the outside, you think that every business is doing so well, but then you get inside and you realise we’re all just dumpster fires. And I think that’s where a lot of my confidence was building. When I realised that it’s all just shit everywhere.”

On top of this, having a supportive business network helps to just talk things through and bounce off ideas. Either to see whether something might be feasible or to validate an exciting concept and finding a way to make it happen well. As she said, decision-making without the knowledge of others means you’re making them in a bit of a vacuum. Even if there’s inherent trust in your instinct and your own understanding of business, there’s an important balance that needs to be found to check something against someone.

To entrepreneurs: Don’t offer advice. Offer experience

Entrepreneurs aren’t fantastic at receiving advice in general. Natalie knows it. I know it. Anyone who has started a business knows it. Whether it’s a stubbornness to accept guidance or just the drive to figure something out, it seems to be difficult to take advice off the bat without figuring just ignoring it and making the mistakes anyway.

Instead of giving or asking for advice, Natalie has found that asking about a personal experience is far more effective. It’s a shift from “how would you do this?” to “how did you solve this?” or “what did you do about this problem?”

Giving advice through experienced insight is also a great way to help someone starting is not only confidence-building, but it also offers a space to learn in its own right. Having someone to learn from, someone to practice with and someone to teach is a fantastic way to become an expert at anything.

To imitate or innovate

When it comes to starting something new, Natalie pointed out that reinventing the wheel isn’t a fantastic use of time. Rather, it’s been amazing to pick a system that’s already been developed, integrating it and tweaking it to fit the culture or the vision of the company. It makes it easier to build something and dive into execution with systems that already exist rather than innovating everything and wasting excitement on something that wouldn’t have worked out in time anyway.

It’s a question of asking: What does it mean to reinvent and what can I piggyback off?

“Realising that you should be innovating on things that make you special and just borrowing the things that don’t.”

If you want to get in touch with Natalie or find out more about Wildbit’s new brand which has a tremendous amount of content about starting a business, on Twitter, or head to Wildbit’s website.