24th November, 2020
Natalie Workman is a leader and expert in developing teams and people. She has interviewed, hired, trained, and managed hundreds of employees, giving her extensive knowledge on how to build and scale teams. Now, she hopes to share her business tips with aspiring entrepreneurs as Vice President of Cardone Ventures and host of her own podcast, WorkWoman.
Natalie has identified the three most common obstacles you will encounter during a business’ inception.
“Belief, operational effectiveness, and leadership are the biggest challenges when starting a business–as well as in growing and scaling a business,” she explains.
“Owners and employees alike must have a high belief in themselves and the organization, they must refine operational effectiveness through intentional mimicking and process refinement, and they must lead themselves before they lead others.”
Natalie suggests that aspiring business owners begin with introspection before taking the leap into entrepreneurship. In doing so, it is much easier to set goals for your business, and gain a deeper understanding of the clearest path to success.
“My biggest advice for those trying to start their own business is self-reflection on past self, present self, and future self,” Natalie says.
“Self-reflection is important because anything worth doing begins with knowing what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and then how you’re going to make it happen. Self-reflection is a humbling yet powerful technique that can help improve your performance, your leadership,and build your self-confidence throughout the process of starting a business.”
As Natalie committed herself to this practice early in her career, she realized that she struggled greatly with Imposter Syndrome; feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. To overcome this obstacle, she turned to people and resources that she felt could help her in the areas where she felt the least confident.
She recalls, “John Maxwell, the number one leadership guru in the world, states in his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, that leadership is influence.
He says, ‘The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be.’ Anyone can be a business leader…it’s not a position, a title, or a corner office. It’s all about how someone positively influences others, influencing them to achieve at a higher level. John’s Law of the Lid tells us that an individual’s belief lid, which is their maximum ability to influence, will determine their potential to influence others. If an owner is unable to have a high belief life, they will be unable to start and to lead a business.”
Looking to the future, Natalie hopes to continue to share her story with aspiring women and men in business, incorporating the lessons she has learned along the way.
“My next project is 10X People Skills, a new Facebook Group (free!) that dives deep into developing and leading the people on business teams,” she says.
“This group is a great place to interact directly with business owners and answer their questions. Linked to 10X People Skills is a new series of People Essentials Workshops. These workshops are focused on bringing business owners together to discover people development and alignment concepts such as hiring and onboarding, goals alignment, and performance management.”