To find new ideas—and perhaps even transcendence—humans have long traveled great distances to mysterious locales: to rumored vortices on high mesas in Arizona, gatherings in the arid deserts of Nevada and sacred temples in ancient cities across the globe. But for entrepreneur Gaby Natale, she just needs to step into her tree-lined Texas backyard.
“There’s a place in my backyard that I call ‘the vortex,’ because it’s a place where ideas come,” she says.
While she calls it a vortex, it may really be more of a gold mine. After all, Natale argues that vision is the most valuable asset you can have in today’s economy.
“Now, more than ever, the ability to pioneer, the ability to have a vision and to see… opportunities before it becomes obvious to your competitor, before it becomes obvious to the world—it’s the biggest opportunity that we have right now,” she says.
It was here, for example, among the dragonflies, where Natale first envisioned the philosophy that would become the foundation for her book, The Virtuous Circle: Restore Your Confidence, Bounce Back, and Emerge Stronger, published in 2021.
In it, she not only explores how famous super achievers and pioneers have found success, but she also outlines a unique framework called “the virtuous circle,” in which she details seven archetypes of successful people: the dreamer, the architect, the maker, the apprentice, the warrior, the champion and the leader.
“You can use the virtuous circle both as a roadmap, like a step-by-step, or as a self-assessment tool,” Natale says. “For me, the warrior comes very easy to me. Persevering is something that I’m used to…. The one that is sometimes the most difficult for me is the dreamer, the one about visualizing. Because when things don’t go my way, I tend to disconnect. I’m a dreamer, but I’m self-aware. And that’s why it’s so important to have these tools.”
Building SuperLatina: From Carpet Warehouse to Three Emmys
But long before Natale named these archetypes, she had already been living them—first by interviewing high achievers and, earlier still, by navigating her own unlikely path through media.
Natale had spent the previous 15 years interviewing thought leaders on her show, SuperLatina, which would earn her three back-to-back daytime Emmy awards. She started the show on her own, in an old carpet warehouse, following a career in television that left her feeling boxed in.
“When I was working as [a] news anchor in a local market, I felt they usually pigeonhole women. So you can be either the serious reporter who is assigned to news or the other one, the sexy one who is assigned to entertainment and weather. And I’m a multidimensional woman,” she says. “It was so obvious at the time that the local news industry only allowed women to have one media persona.”
She realized she wanted to simply be herself. So she quit her job as a news anchor and began producing content independently. “And one thing led to another,” she says. “The content led to the Emmys. The Emmys led to the opportunity to have a book. Then the book opened the opportunity to be a global speaker.”
A Career of Firsts
Natale delivers her keynote at the Ambition 2024 conference.
Today, she addresses audiences around the world, from the United Nations to Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Google. and Estée Lauder. Many of her speeches center on the idea of pioneering, of seeing opportunities where others might not. It’s something she has plenty of experience with.
At the age of 24, Natale became the first person from her family to immigrate from Argentina to America. When she earned her master’s degree in journalism in December 2001, Argentina was entering what many consider to be its worst political, economic and financial crisis in history.
For two years, Natale applied to jobs “day and night” with little luck, she says. Until one day, in what Natale recalls as “a little bit of destiny,” a friend asked her to help with an international conference. The work didn’t require a master’s degree in journalism—it was handing out flyers, welcoming guests, moving chairs.
“In the moment, I felt that was the irrefutable proof that I was a total failure, that I have a master’s degree, but I was waving at people in the front,” she says. “And many people who graduated with me or the people that I knew, they were attending with a badge.”
And yet, at her mother’s encouragement, Natale agreed to pitch in.
“She said, ‘Gaby, this is what you’re going to do tomorrow. Tomorrow you’re going to wake up, you’re going to put [on] your best clothes, you’re going to put [on] your best attitude, your red lipstick, and you’re going to go there with a smile like they are paying you $1 million for the day, even if you are not being paid at all,’—which was the case. ‘And you know why? Because you never know when opportunity will knock on your door,’”
Opportunity did, in fact, knock, when a translator canceled at the last minute. “I dropped the chairs, I dropped the flyers and I started translating,” she says.
The professors attending the conference were so impressed they began using Natale’s services remotely, sending her various projects for translation. A year later, one of the professors needed a full-time bilingual employee at his PR firm.
“Guess who was first to get that opportunity, and was offered the opportunity because of that day working for free—[who] didn’t give up and followed her mom’s advice against her own judgment?”
Natale moved to Washington, D.C., then Mexico, to open an office for the same company. While in Mexico, she began reporting on the border as a freelancer and, later, Univision offered her a position as a reporter and anchor, bringing her back to the United States.
All along, a willingness to try something new led her to the next step, one first after another. The first in her family to immigrate. The first Latina to win three back-to-back daytime Emmys. The first Latina author published by the leadership division of HarperCollins.
“The story of my life is a lot of firsts. It’s a lot of thinking that something that never had happened or at least that never had happened for someone like you is possible,” she says. “And I always say that we have to innovate and to pioneer. Sometimes we have to be borderline delusional… because to innovate, you need to have that audacity of believing in your vision even before you have the results to validate it.”
Launching Mena: A Bilingual AI Menopause App
In 2024, in addition to being a global speaker, author, bilingual emcee and moderator, Natale received a new title: breast cancer survivor. Natale underwent a bilateral lumpectomy, radiation and chemotherapy, and was eventually declared cancer-free. The experience opened up a whole new world for her. It also sent her into early menopause.
Unsure of what to expect, Natale looked around and found very few resources for support—even fewer in Spanish.
“So I said, ‘If I am a trained journalist, this is what I’ve been trained for, and I’m bilingual and I cannot find the information that I’m looking for, there have to be millions of women that are looking for this information,’” she says.
Her solution? Another first: an artificial intelligence-powered mobile app called Mena Menopause Navigator.
Inspired by her own experience working with a professional “navigator” during her cancer treatment, her new app is a bilingual “one-stop shop” for menopause support, she says.
“We’re the first generation who is going through perimenopause and menopause [with] internet and social media,” Natale says. “My mother didn’t have it, my grandmother didn’t have it, so we have to make the most out of technology.”
Within the app, users will find science-based bilingual articles, a community forum and the “menoshop,” which offers everything from supplements to cooling textiles. But perhaps most importantly, they’ll be able to converse with “Mena,” the AI personality dedicated to helping women find answers and support.
“We decided that Mena is going to be like a bestie; [she] is going to be somebody that you can talk to a lot and that has a big personality,” Natale says.
Women already have doctors and specialists, but what she is building is something different. Something, once again, new. “We are creating a whole different category,” she adds.
“Technology is changing so fast,” she says. “There’s so much opportunity…. For people who have an idea, who are entrepreneurs, it’s an incredible moment to be able to put this idea in the world.”
Images provided courtesy of Gaby Natale.
