Nate Hebbert on Turning Personal Struggles into a Business Vision

Nate Hebbert's journey from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur began with a personal crisis that reshaped his path. As the founder of SelfWare Consulting, he tackles tech industry burnout with innovative strategies that don't require hitting pause on life. In this Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, Nate reveals how his own burnout ignited a mission to help others feel seen and valued. By mastering energy management, he transformed his struggle into a thriving business that promotes lasting change. Nate’s story is a testament to the power of prioritizing what truly energizes you to fuel both personal and professional growth.

Hi, Nate! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

My company is SelfWare Consulting, and we help tech companies to beat burnout without pressing pause. Beating burnout without quitting your job may sound like a tall order, but I believe it’s not only possible, sometimes it’s the only option.

We’re committed to a lot more than teaching a few skills because we want to enable changes that last. So we provide clients with in-depth trainings, data, personalized advice, and resources to help them transform the way they work.

And what’s the result of all this? Well, reduced turnover, higher productivity, better quality, increased reliability… I could go on like that for a while, but my deepest goal is a bit more profound.

Countless individuals feel undervalued, rejected, or even forgotten. I want to change that. I want to help create a world where people feel seen and loved.

When I’m not burned out, I love showing up for people. In contrast, when I experienced burnout in 2023, it felt impossible to show up for friends and family. I didn’t even have the energy to show up for myself.

But more on that in a bit…

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

Some people plan their major life changes far in advance. Some don’t have that luxury. I went from being a wantrepreneur to an entrepreneur because I burned out so severely I had to quit my job.

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

I had an interest in entrepreneurship for a long time, but I expected I would work traditionally as a software engineer for 12-15 years before I made the leap into my own business. After working as a developer for over a year, I thought, “Maybe another 8-10 years”. After two years working full-time, I figured I would make the transition in five to seven years. And then right around my three-year mark, I quit my job.

I just couldn’t keep going. For months I struggled, often I would sit in front of my computer for hours without accomplishing anything. I couldn’t focus, I was getting sick more frequently, I took lots of “mental health” days off work, and I felt disengaged. Me, the one who was once literally jumping up and down with excitement during a company presentation, was feeling disengaged with my work.

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

After quitting my job and hitting an all-time low in my life at age 29, I finally discovered how to regain control of my life.

At first, I thought entrepreneurship would be the solution. The problem I immediately ran into is that I was still too burned out to even work on my own business.

So I reprioritized. I dedicated myself to learning and applying the principles I now teach. I had been reading books on personal development for 10+ years, but had been missing an essential concept—energy management.

Energy management became a thread that wove together everything I had learned from dozens of books, mentors, and personal experience. Within days, I noticed a major difference in how I felt, and within months I was able to consistently work on my company.

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

Burning out was a pivot point for my business. Not only did I make the entrepreneurial leap, but it also changed my vision of what I wanted to create. I didn’t start with a focus on burnout, but when I realized that burnout had been the cause of my struggle—and after seeing the principles I had learned could help others besides myself—I had no doubt about what I wanted to do.

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

You're probably curious to hear more about “energy management” and how to apply it. I'm not going to go into a lot of depth here (Check out my YouTube channel!), but I will share one of the unconventional strategies I used to help myself through burnout.

The strategy I used is what I refer to as the burnout paradox. It’s interesting that often the solution is not to do less, but to do more of what energizes and relaxes you. When people become busy, they often stop reading, painting, playing an instrument, going to the gym, hanging out with friends, etc.

If you’re feeling burned out, I’d love to ask, what helps you relax or feel energized? And when was the last time you did that consistently? 

My solution was adventure, story, language study, puzzles, fantasy, humor, honing my skills, and reconnecting with my childhood. I brought all of that back into my life with two changes.

First, I bought a video game that I loved as a child, and I bought it in Japanese so I could practice the language while I played. It was an adventure game with a story, puzzles, and challenges that tested my skills. The second thing I did was to start listening to humorous fantasy novels.

Those small changes made a massive impact on my health and happiness. Reconnecting with those parts of myself that I had abandoned—coupled with some other important changes—began healing me over time. I started feeling hope and even happiness again.

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

If there’s one thing I could share with aspiring or new entrepreneurs, it would be to reevaluate what is important in your life. A lot of people would say that video games are a waste of time, but for me, playing that game was the most important thing I could do in that phase of my life.

Video games and fantasy novels are NOT more important to me than my family and my work—but I stay connected to what energizes me because I know I can show up best for my family and company when I’m feeling alive and refreshed.

Entrepreneurs are notorious hustlers, and that’s fine if you can manage your energy and maintain a healthy lifestyle. But don’t expect to escape serious negative side effects if you’re working at breakneck speeds for months on end. Many of you started (or want to start) your own business because you were tired of feeling burned out at work. Where will you go if your entrepreneurial dreams burn out too? Good news—they don’t have to.

Re-evaluate what is important to you and make those things a non-negotiable in your life.

Want to dive deeper into Nate's work? Check out the links below!

• Visit Selfware Consulting's website: selfwareconsulting.com
• Subscribe to Selfware Consulting on Youtube: @SelfWareConsulting
• Connect with Nate Hebbert on LinkedIn: Nathaniel Hebbert