Interview- Real Life Entrepreneur: Marilyn O’Neill of Nautilus Environmental

What is Nautilus Environmental?

I like to say that Nautilus is a feisty little environmental company. We’re an environmental consulting and testing firm that specializes in toxicology, biology, and ecology and integrating our understanding of those areas with chemistry and hydrology to answer questions with a science-based approach.

Our most successful projects and best client relationships nearly always involve a verb – someone wants to answer, build, sell, understand, prevent,… something. We pride ourselves on being thoughtful and creative and seeing things from broader, multi-disciplinary perspectives and think that approach strengthens our science, adds value, and moves our field forward.

Nautilus is also a place, I hope, that people wake up every day and want to come be part of. It was always my personal threshold that I wouldn’t want to continue to work somewhere if I woke up and dreaded the thought of going in so I wouldn’t want us to be that for our staff.

It was my intention from the very beginning to create a company that would be an important and positive part of its employees lives and communities and be a good partner in all of our relationships – with staff, clients, teaming partners, vendors, and so forth. Honoring our relationships is part of our company values which we use as a touchstone for decision making, reviews, and as a general framework for the firm – they are: Curiosity, Integrity, Connectivity, Flexibility, and Performance.

Nautilus is a place where someone can lead themselves and others to create what they want, but it’s not handed to them. It’s a performance-based culture. And, not unimportantly, often fun and full of humor.

Describe how you started…

My undergraduate degree is in ecology from UCSD, I was an impatient kid (still am) and jumped in school so started there on scholarships at 16, very shy and not really ready for the social aspects.

I started out as a double major in music and biology but would have been there for ages, so ultimately focused on biology. After graduating, I took a job as an entry level lab technician with ERC Environmental.

I was working as a part-time administrative assistant in a law office at the time and remember taking a pay cut because I wanted to be a biologist and that got me closer. While working my way up there, I looked for new things to learn and took on any opportunity to try something new and I worked really hard – much harder than I do now as CEO in many ways. I also pursued a graduate degree in statistics during that time, although I never completed it.

ERC was bought by Ogden just after I started, we were a mid-sized firm of about 2000 people. Ogden had a very entrepreneurial culture and gave us a lot of freedom to create the kind of group we wanted.

I also had terrific mentors, many of them high ranking women, who taught me a ton in those years in many technical and non-technical areas, and several of whom remain my closest friends today. It was a wonderful group of smart, committed people who created a wonderful environment and I often look to that time as I guide my firm.

In 2000, we were bought by a much larger firm with less taste for risk and a more ‘command and control’ culture. By this time, I had 10 years of experience and saw this large new playing field as a chance to build our practice internally but it was a struggle to operate with less freedom than we were used to despite enjoying so many of the people there.

Then a few magical intervening events happened as they do. In late 2003, I started dating an amazing guy (now my amazing husband) who was one of the first people to be critical of how hard and how much I was working – usually it was treated as a badge of honor but he felt my lack of balance wasn’t healthy. In early 2004, he gave me the choice between softening my crazy work schedule and dating him and, being a little testy about being cornered, I stubbornly chose the job demands I didn’t even enjoy so much anymore.

During this same time, I was feeling pretty awful physically and ultimately had to take 6 weeks off for a hysterectomy to resolve some medical problems. This, as difficult times often are in retrospect, was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me time away from day-to-day demands to reflect on what I was doing and why, what I liked/didn’t, what was working/not working, and gave me some time with friends and mentors to kick around alternatives – this is how Nautilus was born. Health issues also made me reconsider the schedule and not-so-balanced life I’d created and gave me pause to think about my recent relationship.

I came back from this absence in April 2004 and made an offer to purchase my whole department. Since a laboratory business is very facility and labor intensive, I couldn’t have hung out a shingle and started as a sole proprietor in this business. I started out with about 20 of us which was a big leap into leadership and logistically complex to start from day one with so many employees in multiple states. In any event, we negotiated beginning in April or May of 2004, the ensuing months were very stressful but worth every anxious moment and we closed the deal effective 31 July 2004 – this date is now an official holiday at Nautilus.

Notably, in September, I think, I called my ex-boyfriend and said something to the effect of ‘good news, you were right, sounds crazy but I’ve started my own company and will have more time now’. We were married in September 2005 and I really do work fewer hours (and probably more effectively) than when I met him and am incalculably happier.

What prepared you for entrepreneurship?

I’m not sure anything truly prepares you, and some of what prepares you isn’t learned, like risk tolerance. The years I spent at Ogden learning about areas beyond my scientific training – such as legal, accounting, contracts, human resources, health & safety, strategic planning, have turned out to be invaluable and have saved me many mistakes I expect I’d otherwise have made.

The other significant one that leaps to mind is a general philosophy of openness and adaptation – I never, ever forget there are plenty of things I don’t know I don’t know; I try to keep that concept present for myself and not get too cocky. This is one of my leadership challenges.

What motivates you in your everyday work?

I feel a huge responsibility around the fact that we are supporting careers and livelihoods for quite a few people now. It’s an enormous obligation to make decisions that protect the company as a whole. And I want to feel proud of us every day; that motivates me.

I also want to challenge people to move forward every day. I’m impatient by nature and probably push pretty hard at times but it motivates me to see people progress – it’s also ultimately how I can maintain balance in my own life so a big motivator for me in multiple ways.

It’s another challenge for me to remember that change is hard for people and learning about yourself and applying that knowledge can be a slow, difficult process so it can frustrate them when I’m nudgy.

As a woman in the business world, do you ever encounter roadblocks?

I think a bit of this comes down to perspective. In the very large firm we worked with before I formed Nautilus, I was one of just a tiny handful of senior women. At times it was a roadblock, but it also gave me tremendous exposure and opportunity. No one forgets you when you’re the only girl in the room.

The most difficult instances were the “don’t worry your pretty little head about it” moments, which are hard not to react to in a less than gracious way. Even my initial offer to buy out my group was met with that sort of response.

But I believe you always have the choice so the onus becomes your own to demand to be taken seriously while still honoring who you are as a woman. Now, as owner and CEO of my own firm, I find that my own style dictates how I handle those roadblocks. A sense of humor in concert with knowing who you are goes a long way.

What advice can you give to women who might be thinking about starting their own business?

• Be open to learning everything you can about your business and business itself – not just the technical part of what you do, but the many supporting elements you must understand to be successful and maintain that success.
• Be open to learning about yourself, you have no idea what you are capable of. Spend time in reflection to fully understand what it is you want, not just what you think you should want.
  
• And have a friend or mentor or two to use as a sounding board to explore and refine your ideas.
  
• Invite challenges to your thinking – it makes your thinking clearer and stronger, and your decisions more robust.
• Be very conservative in the financial planning and preparation you do in anticipation of striking out on your own – optimism is critical to your success, but this isn’t the place for it.
  
• And lastly, sign all your own checks and review the back-up for each one – understand where your money is going.

How do you define success and what makes you successful?

• I define success as the freedom to choose your path.
  
• I feel most successful when my thoughts and decisions are in sync with my intentions; at that point my whole life feels fully integrated. It gives me a great sense of joy to accomplish something I’ve set out to do personally or professionally– whether that is winning an important proposal or making coq au vin because I’ve always wanted to try it.
• The magnitude isn’t the critical factor. I also feel successful when I see others, especially those I’ve supported on their journey, have those moments of accomplishment and creation.
  
• And I get a great sense of success from my marriage and knowing my husband and dogs are happy.

Share some secrets to success in the business world.

• Treat people well irrespective of their position relative to you; people remember your kindnesses (they also remember your petty moments, I have a tendency toward sarcasm and can do some damage speaking before thinking).
  
• Demonstrate your abilities – start to do the next job you want to learn without expectations.
• Thank the people who have helped and guided you and generously congratulate others on their accomplishments when you can be sincere. I still have cards of congratulations and encouragement people wrote to me when I started Nautilus; they mean a lot to me.
  
• Be fair.
  
• Learn who you are and be that person (both are an ongoing process). Try to see change as an opportunity and operate from intention toward your wishes instead of from the fear or avoidance of uncertainty.
  
• Learn about leadership (start with you – lead yourself) and try to operate from that space no matter your level.

What have you learned from difficult experience that you can share with other women?

• I’ve learned that challenge is required for growth. It comes in different forms but it always comes.
  
• Comfort is a bit dangerous and can lure you into settling so be cautious of being too comfortable much of the time. Comfort isn’t the same as happiness or congruence.
  
• Also, reflection is critical to development. It was forced upon me the first time by my body, but was absolutely requisite to figuring out the next step. I am so grateful for the illness that forced some of this knowledge on me.
  
• Another difficult lesson for me has been that choosing one goal usually means not choosing another and it can be hard to let go. Possibilities are endless so must be narrowed somehow.

Share any shocking or “ah-ha” moments you had in the working world or running your own business.

• I’m stunned regularly by how few people realize they get to choose.
  
• It’s also a shocker when you learn that cash flow and making money are barely related
  
• The growth you thought you wanted can put you out of business faster than anything else!

What characteristics define an Entrepreneur Goddess?

She knows herself and defines her own path with intention. She honors her own values and helps others along the way. She is a leader in the full expression of the word. And she knows how lucky she is!

Is there a quote/personal philosophy/tag line you live by?

A couple. Question everything, especially your own assumptions. And I believe to my core that you can choose to create any possibility.

Any final thoughts to share…
It’s not a zero sum game – others need not lose for you to gain. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunities I’ve had. I was adopted by parents who went to great lengths to give me access to learn as much as I wanted and came from other places so also gifted me a broad world view. Women in the US should appreciate where they have been born and the onus and opportunity that accompany that to fully take a place of leadership in the world; they are in among the best positions to do so.

Thanks Marilyn for all your wonderful, truthful, and inspiring insight! To learn more about Nautilus Environmental, please visit their website.