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Nella Wilkins
The Loop Co
We got the chance to speak with Nella Wilkins of The Loop Co on what it's like to be a female founder, what she's learned, her struggles along the way and what she wants to share with others.
We'd love to learn about your business and what you do. Can you share more?
I build and optimize online communities for creators, podcasters, and entrepreneurs who want more than just an audience and I also teach moms how they can do the same.
Honestly, I got into this work from a really personal place. Growing up, I never truly felt like I had a space where I fully belonged. I was always the in-between person; connected to people, but never fully feeling like, “These are my people. This is my place.” That feeling stuck with me for a long time, and I made a quiet decision that if I ever had the ability to create spaces, I wanted to make sure other people never had to carry that kind of loneliness.
What started as me naturally bringing people together; hosting conversations, building group chats, creating safe spaces, and even social media strategy eventually turned into the work I do today through my company, The Loop Co. Now I help creators and entrepreneurs build intentional communities that go beyond followers and actually create connection.
I primarily work with creators, coaches, and podcasters who have an audience but are craving depth. They’ve built visibility, but they want something more meaningful; real connection, retention, and spaces where people feel seen, not just counted.
My offerings include community strategy, architecture, and full build-outs. I design onboarding systems, engagement rhythms, and member journeys that help people turn scattered audiences into thriving ecosystems. I also speak and create content around community-building because I truly believe this is where the future of brand-building is headed.
What I love most about this work is watching people find their place. Seeing someone walk into a community and say, “I finally feel like I belong here,” never stops being powerful to me. That moment is personal every single time.
At the end of the day, I don’t just help people build communities, I help them build rooms where people feel like they finally found their people.
Achieving a balance between personal life and business demands is a hot topic. What strategies have you found effective for maintaining harmony in your life?
Honestly, I don’t really believe in the idea of perfect balance. I think balance can sometimes be misleading because when you’re deeply focused on one area, something else will naturally get less of your attention. That’s just real life. But I do believe you can get really good at juggling in a way that feels intentional instead of chaotic.
What’s worked best for me is designing my life with the same level of intention that I design my business. I’m very big on rhythms; ideal days, ideal weeks, and regularly reevaluating what season I’m in. One of the biggest shifts for me was including my family in the vision. My husband and daughter are part of the goal-setting process, so it doesn’t feel like I’m building a business over here and trying to “fit” them in. We’re building a life together.
I also run my home with structure, not rigidity. I joke that I have a CEO binder for my house the same way I have SOPs in my business. It helps everything run smoother and removes a lot of the mental load because we’re not constantly reinventing the wheel in our day-to-day life.
Batching has also been huge for me. It allows me to be fully present in each role instead of feeling scattered across all of them.
And at the center of everything is my faith. Including God in my planning has honestly been my cheat code. It brings clarity, peace, and perspective, especially in seasons that feel full. When my life is spiritually aligned, everything else tends to flow better.
For me, harmony isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about being intentional with my time, honoring the season I’m in, and making sure the people and values that matter most are always built into the plan.
How do you leverage community and collaboration in your business strategy? We're keen to explore how female entrepreneurs are strengthening ties and creating synergies with other businesses and community members.
Community isn’t just part of my business strategy... it is the strategy...it's the whole business.
Everything I build is rooted in the belief that people grow faster and stronger in rooms, not silos. So instead of focusing only on audience growth, I focus on ecosystem building. That means creating spaces where relationships can naturally form, ideas can cross-pollinate, and collaboration doesn’t feel forced, it feels inevitable.
I leverage community in a few ways. First, I build environments where my audience can connect with each other, not just with me. When people feel ownership in a space, they begin to collaborate organically, and that’s where real synergy happens.
Second, I’m very intentional about proximity. I collaborate with women and entrepreneurs who have strong values and complementary strengths, not just similar audiences. Whether it’s co-hosting conversations, sharing platforms, or building experiences together, I look for alignment over convenience.
I also believe deeply in collaborative visibility. Some of the most powerful growth I’ve seen — both personally and for the women I work with, has come from shared rooms. Panels, pop-ups, co-created spaces, and even informal conversations have opened doors that traditional marketing never could.
Beyond business, I see community as a support system. Entrepreneurship, motherhood, seasons in marriage even your personal journey in faith can feel isolating; especially for women balancing multiple roles. So I’m always thinking about how to create spaces where collaboration isn’t just strategic, it’s also supportive and life-giving.
At the end of the day, I don’t just use community to grow a business. I build communities that help women grow together. And when that happens, the collaborations, partnerships, and opportunities tend to follow naturally.
Failure is often seen as a taboo subject, but it can be a powerful teacher. Could you share an experience where you faced failure and how you turned it into a learning opportunity?
This might sound a little unconventional, but I’ve learned not to fear failure...and I’m actually wary of people who’ve never experienced it. Failure has been one of my greatest teachers, both in business and in life.
One of the most defining seasons for me was building before I had clarity. Early on, I poured time and energy into things that looked good on the outside but weren’t deeply aligned. I said yes to opportunities that stretched me thin, built systems too fast, and tried to carry more than I was meant to in that season. From the outside, it didn’t look like failure; but internally, I knew I was operating from pressure instead of purpose.
Eventually, that pace caught up with me. I felt exhausted, disconnected, and honestly a little lost in the noise of trying to “do it right.” That season forced me to slow down and ask deeper questions: Why am I building this? Who is this really for? And what kind of life do I actually want on the other side of success?
What I learned is that failure isn’t always loud. Sometimes it looks like misalignment, burnout, or building something that no longer fits who you’re becoming. But that experience reshaped how I lead and build today. I became more intentional, more values-driven, and more willing to release things that weren’t aligned.
It also gave me a deeper level of empathy. Now when I work with entrepreneurs, I’m not just helping them build strategies; I’m helping them build sustainably and honestly. I understand the weight that comes with leadership, and that perspective only came through lived experience.
If anything, that season taught me that failure isn’t the opposite of success, it’s often the doorway to clarity. And I’m grateful for it because it made me a more grounded founder, a better collaborator, and a more compassionate leader.
Every entrepreneur faces hurdles along the way. Can you talk about a significant obstacle you've overcome and what you learned from it?
One of the biggest obstacles I’ve had to overcome wasn’t external, it was internal. There was a season where I deeply wanted to be seen as an authority.
Not in an ego-driven way, but in a way that felt tied to validation. I wanted the credentials, the recognition, the rooms that confirmed, “You belong here.” And because of that, I found myself overperforming. Over-explaining. Trying to prove my value instead of simply walking in it.
The pressure to be seen as credible made me move faster than I needed to and carry weight that wasn’t mine. I thought authority came from being acknowledged, when in reality, it comes from alignment and consistency.
What shifted for me was realizing that authority isn’t something you chase, it’s something you grow into. The more I focused on serving people well, building meaningful work, and staying rooted in who I am, the more that recognition started happening naturally.
I also had to redefine what authority meant to me. It stopped being about titles or external validation and became about trust. Do people feel safe learning from me? Do they feel clearer after conversations with me? Is the work actually helping someone move forward? That reframing changed everything.
That season taught me to build from identity instead of insecurity. Now I lead with a lot more peace. I don’t feel the need to rush visibility or force positioning. I focus on impact, and I let authority be the byproduct.
If anything, that obstacle made me a more grounded entrepreneur. It taught me that confidence built in quiet seasons is far more sustainable than confidence built on applause.
What advice or tips would you have for other female founders starting their businesses?
If I could give one piece of advice to female founders starting out, it would be this: build slower than your ambition, but deeper than your fear.
It’s so easy in the beginning to feel like you have to rush; rush to be visible, rush to monetize, rush to prove that this is “real.” But depth will always outlast speed. Take the time to understand who you are, who you’re called to serve, and what kind of life you actually want your business to support.
I’d also say don’t build in isolation. Find or create rooms where you can be honest about the highs and the hard parts. Entrepreneurship can feel incredibly lonely if you’re only surrounded by highlight reels. Community isn’t just a growth strategy, it’s a sustainability strategy.
Another thing I’ve learned is to let your identity lead your strategy. You don’t have to become someone else to be successful. The more aligned you are with who you truly are, the more sustainable your business will be. Trends will come and go, but alignment creates longevity.
And finally, give yourself permission to evolve. The woman who starts the business will not be the same woman who leads it a few years later. You will grow, stretch, and outgrow things; and that’s not failure, that’s expansion.
And to the moms building businesses while holding everything together behind the scenes, I see you. I know the quiet weight you carry, the mental load no one claps for, and the tension of wanting to build something meaningful while still being fully present at home. You are not behind. You are not doing it wrong. You are building with depth most people will never understand, and that kind of foundation creates a different kind of legacy.
If you stay rooted in your values, surround yourself with the right people, and move with intention instead of pressure, you’ll build something that doesn’t just look good from the outside, it will actually feel good to live inside of.
Find Nella on Instagram at @alwaysnella
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