Chief Change Officer
#275 Change Management Without the Migraine: Nellie Wartoft’s Global Fix — Part One
Sat, 5 Apr 2025
While most people treat change like an unwanted software update, Nellie Wartoft builds the system that makes it work. As the founder of Tiger Hall, she’s on a global mission to turn resistance into results. From Europe to Asia to the U.S., Nellie’s seen it all—and she’s here to share why change isn’t the enemy, but badly handled change definitely is. Part One of this international wisdom drop starts now.Key Highlights of Our InterviewMore Cows Than People: The Swedish Small-Town Origin Story“Growing up in a small village in southern Sweden—population: lots of cows, not many humans—instilled an early drive to explore bigger horizons. For professional and cultural reasons, leaving was a must.”The McDonald’s Effect: Discovering Professional Passions“The guest credits their time flipping burgers at McDonald’s as a pivotal moment in shaping their career. It was there they discovered their love for three key elements: a high-paced environment, the thrill of commercial success, and the art of leadership. These ‘professional addictions’ would become the foundation of every role they pursued.”Resilience and Identity: Anchoring Yourself Beyond Titles“Basing your identity on external factors like job titles or status is a risky game—what happens if they’re taken away? Instead, ground your sense of self in unshakable traits: hard work, learning, good intentions, or resilience. These are constants, no matter what life throws your way.”Life of Adventure vs. Life of Leisure“Challenging societal norms, the guest recounts a thought-provoking quote: ‘A life of leisure is hell, and a life of adventure and purpose is heaven.’ From childhood, we’re often told to seek rest and relaxation, but the guest argues that purpose and adventure are what truly give life meaning.”_________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Nellie Wartoft --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Nellie Wartoft and what is her journey?
Before we dive into those experiences and insights, Nellie, let's start with your story. Not the typical job interview introduction, but a deeper dive into your journey. Where are you originally from? What brought you to Asia? How did those experiences lead you to move to LA and take on the work you are doing now? Let's begin there.
Absolutely. Yes, I grew up in Sweden in a small village in southern Sweden. I usually say more cows than people. It's hard to describe that small town. And I wanted to get out as quickly as I could for professional reasons and cultural reasons. And I decided to move to Asia.
Chapter 2: What inspired Nellie's move to Asia?
On my 18th birthday, I went to singapore.com, booked a one-way flight, packed everything I had in an ice hockey trunk and moved across. And I've been very obsessed with Asia since a very young age. I started studying English when I was around 11, 12 years old. I thought the education system was way too slow in how it taught English. It was like, Thomas is one pear, Mark is one apple.
And I was like, I want to work in this language. I need to pick it up quicker. So I started reading more international media. And that's when I discovered there's a whole continent out there called Asia. And there is China and India and Japan. And I was just like so fascinated.
So I did every single school project on Asia and Singapore and Hong Kong, where you are, and just was super, super fascinated by this part of the world. So I decided when I was about 14, 15, that I want to live in the capital of Asia. And that's when I decided it's probably Singapore. And that's why I moved to Singapore when I was 18. So I landed in Singapore.
Before that, back in Sweden, I started working very early. I started McDonald's when I was 14. Before that, I was supporting stroke patients with their physical exercise. I've been working since around age 12 and continued that throughout my time in Sweden and in Singapore, and then spent a bit of time in London, South Korea.
I was in headhunting for a good part of my corporate career and thereafter started a couple of companies, which ended up being Tiger Hall, which is the business that I'm running now. And that is what ultimately took me to LA. So that's a very quick, brief overview and happy to dive into any of those details that you might find more interesting. Would you call yourself adventurous?
I think a risk taker, like risk addicted or excitement addicted. Yeah, I need to have constantly new things happening. I'm not very good with standard, just daily routines. That's not the kind of person I am. I need adventure and I need risk taking. I think that's a big part of my personality.
Two weeks ago, I interviewed a guest who described himself as a change addict. That phrase stuck with me. When you mentioned being a risk taker and not following a standard playbook, choosing to carve your own path, it reminded me of that mindset. It also explains why you do what you do now, which we'll dive into shortly. You and I are not the type to settle in a comfort zone
When everything seems calm and everyone around us says, why change? Everything is just fine. For us, it's not about comfort. It's about growth, progress, and doing things differently, better. While others may not fully understand, we see opportunities where they don't. and we create our own paths forward. That's why I come up with the term called growth progressive.
I call my show a space designed for growth progressives. People stay in their comfort zones, still seek growth, but they follow a traditional framework, extended playbook. Those I call growth conventionalists. But people like us, we push boundaries. We explore the uncharted, take risks and figure things out as we go. That's what being a growth progressive is all about.
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Chapter 3: What professional passions did Nellie discover at McDonald's?
Chapter 4: How does Nellie define growth progressives?
Two weeks ago, I interviewed a guest who described himself as a change addict. That phrase stuck with me. When you mentioned being a risk taker and not following a standard playbook, choosing to carve your own path, it reminded me of that mindset. It also explains why you do what you do now, which we'll dive into shortly. You and I are not the type to settle in a comfort zone
When everything seems calm and everyone around us says, why change? Everything is just fine. For us, it's not about comfort. It's about growth, progress, and doing things differently, better. While others may not fully understand, we see opportunities where they don't. and we create our own paths forward. That's why I come up with the term called growth progressive.
I call my show a space designed for growth progressives. People stay in their comfort zones, still seek growth, but they follow a traditional framework, extended playbook. Those I call growth conventionalists. But people like us, we push boundaries. We explore the uncharted, take risks and figure things out as we go. That's what being a growth progressive is all about.
Would you see yourself that way?
I agree with that. I think the comfort zone is the most boring because nothing ever happens in the comfort zone. So you always need to be outside of your comfort zone for things to progress. When I read a good quote on this, it was just this week, earlier this week on LinkedIn, I think, there was someone that said, A life of leisure is hell and a life of adventure and purpose is heaven.
But the problem is that since we're children, we're taught that it should be the other way around. That we should aim for leisure and aim for free time and aim for rest. But actually, that's not the purpose of life. Sure, you need rest from time to time, but it's not the purpose of life to just be lying on your couch and scrolling TikTok, right?
A life of purpose and adventure, that's really what is heaven. unless sure is not.
You describe yourselves as adventurous, rustic, gross, progressive, someone who doesn't follow the standard playbook. Before starting Tiger Hall, you worked in headhunting. Can you tell us more about your experience in that world?
Were there any pivotal moments, maybe a major change, a bold transition, or a risk you took that shaped your journey or influenced your decision to build something entirely your own?
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Chapter 5: How did Nellie's experience in headhunting lead to founding Tiger Hall?
And the fourth side, I would say, which wasn't as big in McDonald's, but that became very big at Michael Page, was the independence and how much I love running my own business and being in charge of my own destiny and driving my own results and having my own P&L and team and so on. So that's really what drove me to do recruitment and be in Michael Page.
And when I came in, I was obviously very low at the leaderboard, right? And I was like, I want to be number one. I want to win. I want to be the top biller, being competitive. And obviously the only thing I could do differently from the others, much more years of experience and network and skill sets. were that I could work harder.
So I started implementing my 7-11 shift, which means be at the office at 7 a.m. in the morning and don't leave before 11 p.m. at night. And this was obviously way before hybrid work and having a laptop at home and those kind of things. So that's what I did and became number one in the region the second year I was there. So that's something I really enjoyed as well.
And again, that fast pace and the high thrill of it. So yeah, overall, it was a great time. And it was also where I saw the needs that then led me to start Tiger Hall around knowledge sharing, communications, how change is driven, especially in large enterprises. And that was a very big source of inspiration for Tiger Hall.
You described the fast-paced nature of your work. Those 7 to 11 days filled with constant demands. I can feel the drive and dedication you had during that time. I can relate to that, having been in a similar environment during my corporate days at Standard & Poor's. Back then, covering the Asia region meant working 9 to 12th. Not kidding, even on weekends.
But like you, I found this fast pace and creative problem solving extremely fulfilling. It wasn't just hard work. It was engaging and rewarding. But with that level of immersion comes stress. sometimes the kind that can weigh you down. In today's world, resilience has become almost a necessity. In your case, how did you build resilience to stay focused and keep moving forward?
Whether in your personal or professional life, What approach or practice help you push through tough times and maintain balance?
So I think resilience is something that you can't really learn unless you're going through difficult times. And I think this is the both good and difficult part about resilience. But like having a bunch of workshops or trainings around resilience. Yeah, sure, you can teach mindset and you can teach like how to approach it when it comes.
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Chapter 6: How did Vince and Nellie handle high-pressure work environments?
But there is no such thing as building resilience without going through hard times. And I think that's what people sometimes don't understand, that you have to go through hard times in order to build that muscle. It's like, how are you going to build any abs or biceps if you're not doing push-ups or sit-ups, right? You have to work the muscle to build it.
And that goes the same for resilience as well. So whenever I faced hardship or setbacks or difficult times, you either win or you build resilience or character, as I tend to think about it nowadays.
And when things don't go my way, when I fail, when things are going sideways, I'm like, right now I'm building character, I'm building resilience, I'm learning and having that mindset when you're going through difficult times. When you're not going through difficult times, it's really hard to build resilience. So be grateful for those difficult times and see what you can learn out of it.
And also you need to see yourself coming out of it stronger, right? You need to go through those times and the difficult times to build resilience. So it really is like that muscle. So whenever you are going through hard times and difficult times, be grateful for it because that's actually the only thing that can help you build resilience. And then seeing yourself coming out of it, right?
So when you see yourself like, I was okay, I managed to do that, I succeeded, I got through it. That's what builds resilience slash confidence. And that is what builds your self-assurance that you can actually get through this and it's nothing impossible. Then I think the second thing is, and I talk about this quite a lot, is identity and your self-talk and how you identify internally.
So for me, for example, I identify as a resilient person. So when things happen and I need to be resilient, I'm like, this is who I am. This is what I was built for. And this is my identity to be resilient. So if you identify, if we take some examples, right, let's say you identify as the head of marketing at product X, like your title is your identity.
That's going to be really hard if you lose that job because then you lose your identity. And same if you identify as CEO.
something else that can be taken away from you right then anything that can be taken away from you and it does then you lose your entire identity so base your identity on something that cannot be taken away from you that is there regardless of external circumstances regardless of your job title which company you work for what
investors you have, who your friends are, like just everything that is external, take that out of your internal identification and just think about who are you without all of those things and then build your identity based on that. So for me, I've built it on resilience, on always learning, always trying my best, always working hard, always having good intentions.
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