“You can’t lead others until you can lead yourself.”
An interview with Nex.Day co-founder Piret Vahter. With a background in marketing, communications, and strategic leadership across the tech, telco and higher-education sectors, Piret brings both sharp business acumen and a deep interest in human-centered leadership. After earning her MBA and leading teams from an early age, she stepped back to focus on self-management, returning with a clear purpose: to lead differently. Nex Day is her latest leap, built to equip leaders with real tools to challenge outdated systems and create teams that thrive on trust, ownership, and purpose.
What shaped you into the leader you are today?
I became a student union manager at 21, and by 24 I was heading a marketing department. On paper, it looked like progress. But in reality, I was too young to understand myself and definitely too inexperienced to truly understand the people I was leading. I was caught in the trap of traditional leadership: setting goals, giving orders, pushing hard, and hoping it would all somehow work.
After that experience, I made a deliberate decision: I wouldn’t take on another formal leadership role until I’d done the work of learning how to manage myself. That kicked off years of reading, questioning, observing, and most importantly — unlearning.
When I stepped back into leadership, I brought a different mindset. I focused on leading by example, giving people space instead of pressure, and staying far away from micromanagement. I’ve found that trust moves things faster than control ever will.
My current style? Talk less, listen better. Hire people smarter than you. Make decisions, and don’t be afraid to change your mind. I’m also a huge fan of leadership podcasts — hours on the road for work have turned into hours of constant learning. That hunger for better ways of leading never really stopped.
What’s a leadership moment you’re most proud of — and why?
There isn’t one flashy keynote moment, but a quieter one that stuck with me: watching my team solve something big, without me. Not needing my sign-off, my supervision, or my presence. Just trust in each other and the clarity of shared ownership.
It was one of those “this is how it’s supposed to work” moments. When leadership becomes invisible, and the system works because people actually care — that’s when I know I’ve done something right.
Why are you willing to invest your time and energy into building Nex Day?
Because leadership today needs a serious reset. The world has changed — our teams, our tech, our expectations, and yet most leadership models are still stuck in the last decade.
It’s been over 11 years since my MBA, and while that gave me a strong foundation, it didn’t prepare me for what leadership feels like today. It didn’t teach how to lead in a world where people want more autonomy, more meaning, and fewer layers of nonsense.
Nex Day is something I wish had existed when I was struggling to lead in a way that felt right. It’s bold, practical, and built for the kind of leaders who want to do the work — not just talk about it. As someone who’s spent years learning, it just makes sense to give back and help build a space where others can grow faster, together.
What does “leadership done differently” mean to you, personally?
To me, it means replacing control with clarity, replacing ego with support, and redefining the leader’s role from boss to enabler. It means being the person who clears the path, not commands the journey.
It also means building a kind of leadership culture where people don’t have to split themselves in two. I want to live in a world where women can show up fully — as professionals, as mothers, as thinkers, as themselves — without pretending at work that they don’t have kids, or pretending at home that they’re not ambitious.
The old “leave your personal life at the door” model is done. “It takes a village” shouldn’t just apply to families — it should apply to teams, and it starts with how we lead.
What do you hope another leader walks away with after Nex Day?
I hope they walk out of Nex.Day feeling a little shaken, a lot clearer, and deeply supported.
I hope they leave with practical tools they can try out the next morning — frameworks, exercises, and new language for leading better. But even more than that, I hope they find their people. Those other brave, curious leaders who are done with performance-based leadership and ready to build something real.
Because the work is easier — and a lot more fun — when you’re not the only one pushing for change.