Building A Fractional and Consulting Business Post-Chief of Staff Role with Natalie Trotta

**David Nebinski** (0:05)
Hey, friend, it's David Nebinski here in Brooklyn, here at the Portfolio Career Podcast, where we take ownership of your career and design a life that you want to live. This conversation is with Natalie Trotta. I wanted to chat with her because she has built a fractional consulting business after her Chief of Staff role.
As a reminder, I host events for Chiefs of Staff here in New York. You can learn more about my Chief of Staff events at achiefofstaffpodcast.com, which as you can imagine, that is also a podcast called Achief of Staff. That's another podcast that I have, so check that out if you're interested in all things Chiefs of Staff. You can learn more about this podcast and my learnings on my newsletter that I send out every Sunday at davidnebinski.com/newsletter.
So excited for you to build and grow your portfolio career. Here we go with Natalie. What do you love about Fractional Achief of Staff for consulting work? What is it?

**Natalie Trotta** (1:02)
Oh my gosh.
I love so many different pieces of it. First of all, it's so fun to be able to exercise my brain in so many different ways working with different clients, that it forces me to be really on top of it, in terms of learning what's new tech, learning different industries. I love that piece. I also love just working with really cool, really smart people. I mean, I think ultimately that's such a big driver for me, and at the base of it, I love solving problems and I love helping people get closer to their goals. I feel like I said love seven different times.

**David Nebinski** (1:38)
And I responded by saying love, yeah.

**Natalie Trotta** (1:41)
But I think that's ultimately it.

**David Nebinski** (1:43)
And so like I said, this consulting slash fractional chief of staff. So you used to be a chief of staff.

**Natalie Trotta** (1:52)
I did.

**David Nebinski** (1:53)
And that ended maybe...

**Natalie Trotta** (1:57)
Yeah, 2023, I guess. Like a full-time corporate chief of staff role.

**David Nebinski** (2:04)
And then now full-time...

**Natalie Trotta** (2:06)
Full-time, it started off as fractional chief of staff. I feel like this was back in 2023, 2024 This is when fractional was...
Some people knew it. It was kind of a new term. It was very helpful to package almost like all the different projects I was working on that way. And when I would be in conversation with people, that seemed to be the thing, that phrase fractional chief of staff seemed to be what people lit up or knew what I was talking about the most. That was back in like 2023, 2024
Now, I think we see that term a lot in a lot of different roles. And so I think it describes a lot of that well. But as I was growing in my business, I found that it didn't always reflect the breath and the leadership that I was bringing to my work. And I...

**David Nebinski** (2:57)
Hell yeah. That's amazing.

**Natalie Trotta** (2:59)
But I mean, because in corporate roles, a lot of times, not all the time, but a chief of staff is kind of like a two to three year long role. And then you move into a different position within the company. I mean, that path is talked about frequently online, I think. But I think now, I kind of think of it as I work with business owners and founders to help them get closer to their goal and to figure out what is at the root of what's not letting them get there or what they're trying to solve for. But they still have this goal, like a six to 12 month goal. And we talk about it. I think what's fun about being in a chief of staff role is that most people had to connect strategy to execution. So it's not just a purely strategic role.
You're also doing things. So you know how to put plans into action and seeing something through into fruition. And so that's really satisfying.

**David Nebinski** (3:54)
So the chief of staff experience is helpful for what you're doing now? 100%.

**Natalie Trotta** (3:59)
That's such a good way of summing it up, because every time I talk to people about what I do now, I'm very clear that I would be in a different position had I not been in chief of staff roles or working in a large organization for someone else for almost for like 10 years prior to doing this.

**David Nebinski** (4:18)
And so, okay, so the language fractional chief of staff kind of resonated before. You knew that you wanted to offer that?