Building a Life You Never Want to Retire From with Natalie Michael

What if the most important person in your life handed you their most powerful peer group and said "yes you can" when you were certain you couldn't?

In this episode, Natalie Michael, executive coach and CEO Forum Chair with 20 years of experience guiding leaders through transitions, shares her journey from psychology studies and consciousness research to becoming the person who holds space for some of the most powerful entrepreneurs in Canada. After riding the .com boom from 2 million to 30 million in four years with no outside venture capital, Natalie learned what she loved and what exhausted her about the entrepreneurial journey, forcing her to dig deep into who she was and what she wanted.

From her first CEO client (who shocked her by saying yes) to the moment the founder of McKay Forums handed her a peer group filled with billion-dollar CEOs and told her "yes you can" when she was certain she couldn't, Natalie's story reveals the power of someone seeing your potential before you do. Through her work as a Tiger 21 chair and coaching founders through exits worth hundreds of millions, she's witnessed that the people who get there with their spirit intact aren't driven by money, but by contribution, challenge, and a deep understanding of what really matters.

Natalie shares why "the money is the outcome" but the journey is everything, how one entrepreneur taught her that "home is where my wife is," and why she's learning to build a life she never wants to retire from through silent weekends and putting her needs on the calendar first.

 

[00:04:35] The Journey: From Psychology to CEO Transitions

• Studied psychology with deep interest in consciousness studies, mindset, brain, spirituality, and how they all intersect

• Through that process realized what she loved and what exhausted her about entrepreneurial journey

• Had to do soul searching to figure out what was more important than her options plan

• A lot of the journey exhausted her

• Had to dig deep: who am I, what do I want, how do I want this journey to look for me?

[00:07:20] Witnessing the Journey: Money as Outcome, Not Driver

• Has ringside seat to the journey through clients she serves

• Number of clients have had hundred million dollar exits

• People who get there with their spirit intact are driven not by money

• They're driven by sense of contribution and challenge, and often a restlessness

• Didn't understand this earlier but witnesses it the higher up she gets in entrepreneurial space

[00:08:18] What Natalie Does: Supporting CEOs at Crossroads

• Supports founders and CEOs to figure out what's next

• Looking at how the CEO role does or doesn't fit into that

• How founder or CEO needs to support that process

• All the nuances, politics, and emotions that go along with it

[00:09:21] The Arc: Moving Up, In, or Out of the C-Suite

• Works with people trying to become a CEO (moving up into C-suite)

• With demographics right now, a lot of people thinking about moving out

• One client was so stressed about his business he sold off locations in almost a fire sale because he couldn't deal anymore

[00:11:04] Results That Matter: The Art of Each Client

• Doesn't associate results with being proud

• More about the acknowledgment the client provides as they move through the experience

• When you get to this level with people, you're in each other's circle of trust

• Like a deep friend from high school: might not talk every day, but when you do, you pick up where you left off

[00:12:43] The Timeline: 15 Years of Building This Work

• Doing this work in various forms for about 15 years

• Real focus and commitment to CEO transitions as the focus and CEO Next Chapter has been about seven years

[00:15:52] The Relationship That Changed Everything: "Yes You Can"

• Looked at the bios: one running a billion dollar company, one running huge Crown Corporation, one was top entrepreneur

• "I cannot do this. No way"

• Founder looked at her and said: "Yes you can. No one's better than you. I totally have faith. You can do this"

• Combined founder's faith in her with her own personal development around holding space for powerful people

• That's what her whole career's been built on

[00:19:58] The Entrepreneur Who Taught Her What Matters

• Through that experience, been exposed to people who continue to inspire her

• Fortunate in her forum to have a man who on paper is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Canada

• Built multiple businesses, highly successful, has a foundation

• So rooted in his family and his love of a challenge as being his driver

• When you see someone like that behave like that, it gives you permission to put that stuff first

[00:24:45] The Tiger 21 Reality: Life After the Exit

• Work as Tiger 21 chair is "life after the exit or when you're thinking about what's next"

• A lot of people think those conversations are about squeezing a percentage point on investments

• Rented a house on an island by herself, meditated, walked in the woods every day, just found herself again

• Said it was really hard because she was so addicted to feeding her restless energy with action

• Created a clearing that allowed her to step into what was new from a new identity

[00:31:15] Building a Life You Never Want to Retire From

• "That's kind of the thing that I hold for my clients. It's like, how do you build a life you never wanna retire from?"

• Reading a book called The 100 Year Life

• Purpose, relationships, money, and health are all catalysts for being fulfilled

• For Natalie: if she puts her stuff in her calendar first (things she needs to nourish herself and be healthy and engaged), that goes in first

[00:33:39] Silence Weekends: Decompressing the Chatter

• Started playing with silence weekends, new thing in last couple years

• Already planning for next one

• Three days where she goes into the forest, has a bit of a back country experience, does it by herself

• Very important part of how she wants to serve and lead in the world

[00:35:24] Where to Find Natalie & CEO Next Chapter

• Website: ceonextchapter.com (very easy to remember)

• "That's essentially the essence of what we do in the world"

• Thanks Kevin for doing his work in the world and inviting her

• Inspiring to her, both the question he asked and the choice he made in his own work to focus on relationships

 

KEY QUOTES

"I had value. I add value, I'm adding value, I'm adding value. Listen to add value, listen to add value." - Natalie Michael's mantra

"The money is the outcome... but oftentimes the people who get there with their spirit intact, they're driven not by the money. They're driven by a sense of contribution and challenge, and often restlessness." - Natalie Michael

"Each time I get a client, it's like a little piece of art. It's my art. And so it's more about the relationship we have as we go through it. That is what is deeply gratifying." - Natalie Michael

CONNECT WITH NATALIE MICHAEL 

🌐 Website: https://www.ceonextchapter.com 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-michael-01a7361

 

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