Natalie Workman — Co-founder of two nine-figure businesses, Cardone Ventures (a management-consulting and investment firm) and 10X Health, who has worked with over 15,000 business owners on scaling their organizations.
The gist
Steven Bartlett interviews Natalie, co-founder of Cardone Ventures and 10X Health, about why most people work hard yet never build wealth. She lays out her core frameworks: PPF (personal, professional, financial) goal-setting across one, three and five year horizons; VCE (vision, commitment, execution) for communication and process documentation; and the four M's (model, mimic, master, multiply) for delegating and scaling a business. The conversation ranges over hiring, character, calendar management, choosing high-respect over being liked, and why founders should master their own business before hiring people 'smarter than them.' It closes on the women's wealth transfer, financial literacy, and her belief that the only durable skill in an AI world is the ability to learn and adapt.
Big reveals
- Reveals she fired two employees on the spot after learning they were cheating on their partners, calling cheaters a 'liability to the environment.'
- Contends founders should NOT hire people smarter than themselves until the business hits $30 million in revenue.
- Walks back her old advice against saying 'I think,' admitting it 'might be outdated' and that admitting uncertainty builds trust.
- Says do not even think about passive income until you have $1 million in the bank.
- Pushes back on Elon Musk's AI 'supersonic tsunami' framing, saying real-world AI is 'further away than people think.'
- Admits she once fumbled a 'what do you do?' question so badly she spent a year rebuilding herself to be taken seriously.
- Confesses an early-20s panic attack mid-presentation left her unable to speak to groups larger than four or five for about four years.
Things worth remembering
- Frames goals around your future age: 'In 5 years from now, for certain, I will be 37 years old.'
- Quotes Grant Cardone: 'You're not a candle. You can't burn out.'
- The four M's of scaling: model, mimic, master, multiply.
- Cites that 97% of businesses fail within 10 years.
- Of 35 million US businesses, fewer than 200,000 make more than $1 million in revenue, on an average 8.5% margin.
- Until the 1980s, US women could not open bank accounts without a husband or father.
- A study cited claims there is 12x as much 'manifestation' content from women creators as investing/equity content, and 70% of women feel more overwhelmed after consuming financial content.
- The total generational wealth transfer over the next 20 years is estimated at about $124 trillion.
- References the study that men apply to jobs at 60% of qualifications while women wait until 100%.
- Grant Cardone's selling maxim: 'To the extent you are sold, you will sell.'