Female Disruptors: Natalie Viglione is shaking up how we feel about being uncomfortable
…I focus on the up within “disrupt” because disruption will take us UP and out of where we’re stuck and help us to awaken, become more conscious, and allow us to understand our own innate, unique purpose. This is true for our personal lives, careers, as well as the companies we run. I’m focused on empowering people to be comfortable with being UNcomfortable as that’s when life gets really interesting and when awakening truly happens.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Natalie Viglione, creator of a visionary coaching program and podcast called Disrupt Now (say NO to status quo), and Founder of an award-winning Business Consulting firm called Team Gu (ideas made to stick). She’s focused on empowering budding entrepreneurs, leaders, and business owners to scale and grow based on the ethos that disrupting status quo will propel you to the ultimate vision you see in your mind’s eye. Her purpose is teaching individuals how to be OK with saying no to the status quo and how to seek out and embrace disruption moments along the journey to become bigger and better than before.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?
Looking back, I realize I’ve always been a cycle breaker and a truth seeker. I’ve always had to fully explore the truth as to why something has to be a certain way, and I’ve never been OK with just doing what everyone else does either. My path has been anything but “normal” and it all started at about seventeen years of age when I fled the small hometown in northern Nevada I grew up in to start making my own life happen.
Here I am twenty-three years older than my young 17-year old self, and I’ve been able to build an aggressive 17-year career in marketing, business development, and sales roles. I have worked for Fortune 500, mid-sized companies and smaller companies going from San Francisco to New York City before breaking off on my own. Even with the mix of success and failures (failures being growth opportunities) of my pre-entrepreneurial days, I realized I needed to detangle myself from what I call “the matrix.” The matrix being the grind of hustling without purpose. A few years ago, when I started my now award-winning Business Services firm called Team Gu, it was my initial breakthrough to start something bigger than me. I run this company with my (now) husband, Mark Viglione, and we focus on creating ideas made to stick offering companies select “gurus” (aka influential teachers) to help in niche services from sales team empowerment training, select marketing functions, to operational aspects surrounding these functions.
In January of 2017, I finalized training and got my certification as a Life, Professional and Business Coach. I realized coaching is a very strategic and important element when taking people (and their companies) through major change. It’s all about coaching and training to keep change as that’s the hardest part when undergoing consultative projects. But, in April of 2017, a lucid dream came to me that sparked the creation of of my visionary life and business coaching program called Disrupt Now, which is also a podcast. This program is allowing me to fully express my purpose, and allows me to use my coaching and business savviness to empower people to scale and grow in ways they didn’t think possible; I call this expansion through empowerment.
Why did you found your company?
I started my freelance consulting firm Team Gu initially because I was ready to go out on my own. I was able to take all the failures I saw many of the large (and small) companies that I had been working for and ensure that I do something very different. Not to say I haven’t had my own unique types of failures, of course, but I saw how much turnover and the rate in which client monies were burned through and knew that there could be a better way to do what I did best.
I also really needed to get out of what I call “the matrix” because I was stuck in that endless groundhog day for almost a decade in New York City working with ad and marketing agencies. While they allowed me to get a fat paycheck, to learn a lot, the way things were done and the way people operated started to detach me from my True Self. I was endlessly working for others that were focused on profit, not building a value-based business, and I would give up my life 9am-9pm so my soul was craving something more and seeking something else entirely. Starting Team Gu allowed me to make that initial break possible. But, what I am now more excited about now more than ever is bringing the Disrupt Now Program to life. This is my unique purpose I am bringing into the world, and I am in the very beginning stages. I am rolling out many exciting things over the next year!
What is it about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Besides the name, Disrupt Now (ironically!), my work is focused on helping people understand that disruption is good. We often have a negative connotation with that word. The “crazy” and “bad” that happens in our lives that causes major disruption we see as being horrible and can easily throw us down a victim path. Trials and tribulations can make us think we should stay on a traditional path and live in status quo so that we don’t rock the boat, so to speak. But, I challenge that, and I challenge the concept of living in “comfort bubbles” as well. These fear-based and victimized paths we get stuck in makes us live an endless loop that doesn’t allow us to reach the higher paths that our souls are meant for. My goal is to help humans to assess their lives in an intelligent and fully conscious way, and learn how to deal with times of change (I call them disrUPtion moments) and see that these “bad” or “horrible” things are totally the opposite. The moments that cause disrUption on our journeys are gifts because they allow us to get UP and out of being stuck and helps us to let go of our conditioning, rip off our masks, and reveal our true selves.
Learning how to embrace the disrUPtion moments that makes us face our own darkness, or rips the very fabric of what we know apart, are the most powerful, amazing moments for our souls. These times will allow us to dig deep and level up onto a higher vibrational path we probably didn’t know was possible. I focus on the up within “disrupt” because disruption will take us UP and out of where we’re stuck and help us to awaken, become more conscious, and allow us to understand our own innate, unique purpose. This is true for our personal lives, careers, as well as the companies we run. I’m focused on empowering people to be comfortable with being UNcomfortable as that’s when life gets really interesting and when awakening truly happens.
We all need a little help along the journey — who have been some of your mentors?
An early mentor was a woman named Shari who did my nails when I was in my early twenties, and she helped me through a very trying time. I was in a very bad relationship, and headed into a nasty divorce and this was all before I was even 25. She never even knew what a profound impact she had on me as I was never able to thank her. I know that she was placed there at that time in my life for a reason. While I never knew her again after that timeframe, she truly was instrumental in allowing me to begin to realize my full potential as a woman. She sparked the start of a spiritual awakening within me that made me dig within, and also made me realize that I needed to stop trying to find myself, and happiness, outside of me.
Another mentor of mine has been Kute Blackson. He was a mentor from afar and he didn’t even know he was a mentor of mine until I was able to get him on my podcast this past year. It was pretty amazing to be able to tell him how influential he has been for my personal growth in the last decade. Kute’s a global transformational teacher and had inspired me through his vlog and written content for quite a long time. I learned to profoundly shift the perception I had of myself, and he taught me that the uniqueness in me is exactly what the world needs to see. He taught me to not have fear but to trust in the universe once you take that step into the unknown. That was crucial to me starting my own entrepreneurial journey.
How are you going to shake things up next?
I have had a pretty interesting year. My husband and I moved from New York City to Charlotte, NC to get a reboot, which has been an interesting journey as moving a business is something I have never done before. About 6 months ago, I started to realize that something was very wrong with my body. I was diving into holistic, naturopathic health through nutrition and while doing some major research realized that I had every single symptom of Cushing’s Syndrome. After tests and finding a good naturopathic doctor, it was uncovered that I am in fact dealing with an entire adrenal-pituitary axis failure. Basically, I call it the “body snatcher syndrome” because no matter how awesome you are with working out and eating, it pumps cortisol into your body at such high levels that your body completely stops functioning. Weight moves to the center of your body and it starts eating protein from your bones and extremities (legs and arms). Luckily, I caught it “early” at about 4 years in, with symptoms being fully expressed through my body about 6 months ago. And, yes, I fell victim to the “why me” phase for a week or so, but snapped out of it very quickly. I am on a major supplement, nutraceutical and nutrition protocol and won’t be out of the weeds for another 9–10 months or so.
But, here is what this huge health scare/disrUPtion moment has done. It has made me realize that this is just yet another caterpillar-into-chrysalis moment for my evolution, and is giving me the ability to turn into butterfly. I’ve realized that this is meant for me so that I can express something that will change my life and the lives of others, and that Disrupt Now can be taken to all new heights. Here’s how that will happen, not only will I teach people at strategic points in their life how to seek and embrace disruption, but the next level is that I will help people become holistically healthy as they do so. I want to ensure people don’t get syndromes like I have, or prevent as much as possible, so I will be getting my nutrition certification, health & wellness coaching certification, and building a whole new side of Disrupt Now over the next year. This evolution is empowerment through disrUPtion moments, with the ability to have me help people build true health as they evolve. It’s essential for us to take care of our bodies and eat extremely healthy and exercise while we disrUPt and take ourselves higher and higher!
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
I love to follow humans that have dug deep and share their wisdom, and these are three amazing humans and three of my favorite quotes that have fueled me:
1) Ralph Waldo Emerson — “Always do what you are afraid to do.”
This quote helped me to feel OK about leaving that big fat corporate paycheck to start Team Gu, the sales/marketing consulting side of my work. Fear is the thing that stops most of us from doing what we want to do and makes us think we need to hold onto the safe side of life over and over and over again even it sucks our souls while doing so. But, being bold is essential and this quote will forever be in the back of my brain because the very thing you fear most is the very thing that you must conquer. Not tomorrow, but today!
2) Albert Einstein — “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
The internet isn’t sure if this is attributed to Einstein or not, but regardless of who said it, this is one of the best quotes ever. After about 20 years in working with people in varying sizes of companies and stages in life, I’ve realized how much of our lives are spent doing the same thing over and over and over again, but each and every time expecting this time to be different. It’s not possible to ever break free, to ever vibrate and break out onto a higher vibrational path for your life if you keep doing the same thing over and over again. Each time might have a different wrapper for the moment, but it won’t be anything different than the last. We have to break free from the looping patterns in our life to ever get out of where we’re stuck. This is another quote that is close to my heart and I analyze my life and my work against it all of the time to ensure I don’t make myself live in a loop ever again.
3) Maya Angelou — “Just do right. Right may not be expedient, it may not be profitable, but it will satisfy your soul.”
These are words taken from a masterclass she did, and I think about this quote all of the time and is also in the opening of my podcast. One reason I got out of the agency life in NYC to start something of my own is because of the inauthentic and untruthful ways that I saw so many people do business. This world needs more truth, it needs more truly authentic people, and it needs a whole lot more integrity. So, I vowed to always do what’s honest and what’s right. I believe that if I stay true to my soul, even if what I am creating may not be big overnight, it may not make me millions of dollars right this second, but I will be satisfying my soul and inspiring others to do the same. That is more important than focusing on profit, profit, profit and making money by any means necessary. There’s a middle ground in there and that’s the spot to live in.
What’s a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Share a story with us.
Creating my own podcast has been a labor of love, but has had an unbelievable impact helping me to dig deep and think big. It’s given me the opportunity to sit with some pretty amazing people, from healers to other coaches that have their own unique approach to teaching, awesome entrepreneurs that want to take on the world, etc. Every time I meet a new soul to bring on my podcast, it allows me go a level deeper.
For example, recently I did a “Conversations with Libations” episode where my guest and I have a drink virtually together and chat about a topic. We got into some profound conversation on the intersection of science and spirituality which made me start to question some big topics like human evolution, the connection of the mind, body and soul, and more. Through this deep dive I found some spectacular people that are exploring this sector as well. I found a man named Gregg Braden who has a series on Gaia called Missing Links and his goal has been bridging science with spirituality (not religion, but into one’s own soul) asking big human questions which have blown my mind! So building my Disrupt Now tribe has been a very important piece to making me fully explore things outside of my general career expertise and get into some major topics that can impact the future of humanity.
Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)
That’d be Jim Carrey. Not only has he been my favorite comedian since I was young (back to the days of Ace Ventura), but the “new” Jim Carrey of today is an awakened being. It’s a very different Jim than the one of the past and has become one of the most conscious humans in the entertainment world, in my opinion. I love the natural disruptor attitude he has now and would love to get into the esoteric with him. While his whole persona has changed, you can see the realization on his face of the finding of something bigger. I want to create this global circle around me of conscious, awake disruptors who can’t unknow the things they know now and are sitting outside that virtual box that so many humans get stuck in. That breakfast or lunch would be awesome!
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Instagram @disruptnowprogram https://www.instagram.com/disruptnowprogram/
Twitter @natviglione https://twitter.com/natviglione
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
