Hi, I’m Nataly, and even though we may not know each other, I want you to know that I GET IT.
I spent most of my life and two decades of my career as a business executive, entrepreneur, and leader believing that struggle was an inevitable part of doing anything challenging or meaningful.
Even though on the outside I was incredibly successful and appeared positive and confident, I was often overwhelmed with self-doubt, pushed myself to the limit of exhaustion daily, and over-focused on everything that was wrong or negative -- in myself, at work, in the teams I led.
But I didn’t think that how I felt had any impact on my ability to do my work or to positively impact other people. I adopted a martyr mentality and believed that as long as I cared about my team and doing great work together, my own emotional health -- or lack thereof -- didn't matter.
I took pride in never taking care of myself: Things like self-care or emotional well-being were for the “weak” and I was a tough cookie, who could struggle through any challenge!
Until one day I completely burned out.
This was the scariest time in my life. I faced losing everything that was meaningful to me — my health, my family, my team, the company I worked so hard to build, my future.
It’s been six years and I still can’t talk about this painful experience without tears in my eyes.
When I look back, I realize that I had been experiencing daily burnout regularly for decades. But I didn’t have the courage to admit it to myself nor the skills to know how to break free from it. The thing is, burnout isn't just about overworking (which I was). It's also caused by not having a supportive relationship with yourself and assumptions about what others expect from you (in my case, I thought everyone expected me to always be positive and confident.)
With a lot of inner work, research, trial and error, and doing things I never ever thought I would do -- things like acknowledging my difficult feelings and sharing them with others, treating myself with compassion, and learning how to talk back to my brain when it caused me to struggle -- I found a new way to work and live.
I learned how to struggle less and had more energy to bring to the work and people I cared so much about.
I made my emotional fitness and mental health my non-negotiable priorities and saw the quality of my work, impact, and relationships soar.
I began to lead with more authenticity and vulnerability and was blown away by how much closer, committed, and stronger my teams became.
I went from daily burnout and overwhelm to feeling confident that I could lead through any challenge or crisis.
This is what's possible for you.
This is why I created Leading Through Adversity, after sharing what I've learned with tens of thousands of leaders and teams: To help you make yourself a priority, as a leader and a human, so you can break free from burnout (or near burnout), struggle less, and bring your full awesome capacity to your work and the people you care about. (Yes, during a pandemic.)
I think you know deep down that you don't want to just "tough it out" or "make it through". You want to do more than that but without having to push harder, become tougher, or feel more overwhelmed.
I would love to show you the way and hope you will join me for Leading Through Adversity.
With gratitude,
Nataly