In celebration of Women's History Month, we had the pleasure of chatting with Nanxi Liu. She is Co-CEO & Co-Founder at Blaze and former CEO and Co-founder at Enplug (acquired). She serves on the Board of Directors for CarParts.com (NASDAQ: PRTS) and is one of the youngest women on a public company board. Nanxi also holds a spot on Forbes's 30 Under 30 list of innovative young tech leaders.

Although Nanxi is part of class 2012, it wasn't until 2020 that she graduated after completing the American Cultures course during the pandemic. Her early exposure to entrepreneurship and founding her own businesses became her priority, and those experiences made her the leader she is today. 

In this episode, Nanxi also talked about the different companies she founded, how she built up the confidence and skills to become an amazing CEO at such a young age, and why she didn't let imposter syndrome bring her down.

Listen until the end to hear Nanxi's advice for female leaders, why it is important to be surrounded by other successful women, and how to prevent CEO burnout.

Episode Quotes:

The role of providing and accepting feedback in becoming a great CEO

“I don't know if I was a very good CEO in the early days. I definitely think I got better. My Co-founders made me a better CEO. They were always very honest and transparent; gave me a lot of feedback. I think feedback from people and being willing to accept feedback definitely helps. From a young age, I was involved in a lot of activities where you constantly had feedback, and you constantly knew if you were doing well or not.

Feedback and interactions with different people help me recognize strengths and weaknesses that I have and easily identify other people's strengths and weaknesses and how to bring them together.”

Thoughts on imposter syndrome when building a company

“I didn't really think about it. I always just focused on my strengths and advantages that I could bring to the table whenever I went into a meeting, either with somebody I was trying to hire or an investor or a potential customer. I was never afraid to make the ask. When it comes to building a company, making the ask, not being shy about it, showing what you're capable of and what your strengths are will help a lot.”

Advice to female leaders 

“As women leaders, I'm super grateful for always supporting one another and having a group of awesome other women who are rallying around you, and you're rallying around them. It makes it so much easier. And so, I'm grateful that I am always surrounded by amazing other women. It's important to find that support system.

And I think the way to do that is always stepping up to wanting to help somebody. Whenever I meet somebody new, I just want to see how I can help them be more successful and achieve what they want to do and have zero expectations from there. That approach has really helped me a lot and has been really helpful in introducing me to people that I otherwise wouldn't meet.

And so, the big piece is to find that community. And if that community is just one other awesome woman, founder, or leader, or maybe it's a whole tribe of them, it makes a huge difference and makes a lot more fun in the journey.”

How to avoid feeling burned out when giving so much of yourself in building a company and helping people

“A big part of it is not feeling guilty when you just need to take time off. I actually have a really good work-life balance. I was always like, if I need to take a day just to play piano, read, go running, go hiking, I just do it. In the early days, I felt really guilty about it, but overall, it made me much more efficient, happy, and productive. 

And even now, I do a bunch of trips, I go to places, even though I'm launching this new company. I understand the rigor of starting a new company, but at the same time, I also know if I'm not taking care of myself, it's going to hurt overall. That's how I approach it when it comes to giving and helping, not burning out. I think it's all connected to how we treat our life, time, health, and body.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Blaze
• Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
• Almanack of Naval Ravikant
• What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

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