Permission to Be Hated
Leadership talk — on stage
Nathan Aherne
Judgement where the cost of being wrong is enormous.
Business operator, strategist and advisor — 25+ years building, restructuring and operating in high-consequence environments.
Australian by origin. International by practice.
In 2003, I was watching the Second Gulf War on TV, freezing in a townhouse in London, sick of eating the same spaghetti bolognese. They were using drones — like they had in the first Gulf War — and somewhere in that cold, tired moment, I had a thought that felt almost stupid: imagine if a drone could deliver a pizza.
I couldn’t shake it. Not the pizza — the idea underneath it. That robotics were about to be everywhere, and almost nobody around me believed it yet.
So I started building. A VTOL drone with a fixed wing and ducted fans in the wings — something that didn’t really exist as a category yet, because nothing in 2003 was built for consumer drones. Every part of it was a fight. I’d spend $4,000 and four weeks building something, and lose it in an hour of testing. In Portugal, mid-flight, the GPS reset and the drone dived straight into the ground as hard as it could go, trying to get back to where it thought it was supposed to be.
Eight years. About $100,000. I came close to quitting most days.
Today, anyone can buy a drone for $50. I saw it coming a decade before almost anyone else did, and I put real money and years into making it real.
Judgement where the cost of being wrong is enormous.
Track record
Twenty-five years redesigning businesses, institutions, and industries — mining, professional sport, technology, manufacturing, finance. Some became billion-dollar companies. Some were built where there was no playbook.
Trusted by People Making Important Decisions
My work is often confidential. Where clients have given permission, I’ve included a selection of their reflections. Other engagements remain private.
If he can’t find and solve it, no one can.
If something is going wrong in one of our businesses and we cannot work out where it is, Nathan is the person I call. If he can’t find and solve it, no one can.
One of only three people I’ve seen consistently produce exceptional results.
Over the years I’ve worked with thousands of consultants, coaches and advisors. Nathan is one of only three people I’ve seen consistently produce exceptional results.
I hired Nathan because I wanted to build a successful business. What gives me confidence is knowing that when things become difficult, he’s able to solve problems that very few people can.
It’s like he can see around corners.
Working with Nathan, it’s like he can see around corners.
Nathan is the smartest guy I have ever met.
The people I work with don’t hire me because they need more information. They hire me because they need judgement where the cost of being wrong is enormous.
Watch & Listen
Hear Nathan think — speaking, interviews and recorded conversations. Free. Listen before you decide whether you want to work with him.
Ways to work with Nathan
Business advisory and Bare Metal are different dimensions of the same work — not a linear path, and not pricing tiers. People enter wherever fits: public content, the Group, a private Conversation, or direct advisory.
Business & strategic outcomes
Business, strategy and consequential decisions
Private Advisory
Bespoke
For owners, founders and leaders dealing with consequential decisions, difficult problems and significant opportunities.
Bring Nathan into the room when the stakes are significant — strategy, decisions, opportunities, problems, people and power. Bespoke, not a standard consulting package.
Experience how Nathan thinks
Bare Metal is the methodology Nathan developed from decades of operating, building and advising — not a theory he started with and then tried to sell.
Private work with Nathan
Bare Metal Conversation
US$10,000
A private, intensive experience for people who want to work directly with Nathan and examine the identity, assumptions and limitations that shape how they think and act.
Privacy, depth and individual application — for people who don’t just want to hear Nathan talk about these things, but want him working directly with them.
Live exposure to Nathan’s thinking
Bare Metal Group
US$50/week
Five live sessions each week where participants experience the Bare Metal methodology, hear how Nathan approaches problems and ideas, and participate in conversations with other people who want to become exceptional.
Regular exposure to Nathan’s thinking, questions and observations — not a content library, not generic coaching.
Every engagement begins with a conversation.