Q and A with Natalie, Melbourne, Australia
“When things become stressful, it’s your values that will drive you.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I’ve been fortunate to take my interests and passions into the work that I do through creating different businesses in which I get to share those passions with the world. My first business was a travel company, which I had for 15 years. My current businesses are all about sharing my love of wellness, bubbles (champagne and sparkling wine), and business through speaking, writing, and mentoring.
In my wellness business, I brought together my passion and understanding of how important wellness is for a happy life as well as my experience as a former fitness instructor to create Wellness on Time—an online wellness program to help people easily integrate wellness activities into their day. This was before the explosion of online wellness activities that has occurred since the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a niche that I knew would help and benefit people.
My bubbly business—The Bubbles Review. This one really is a passion project—it is a blog, website, and events and tours on champagne and sparkling wine. The idea came from a few different areas, including my love of champagne and sparkling wine.
One of my favorite things to do is to help others succeed through my mentoring, writing, and speaking work. A big shift for me in the past few months has been taking my consulting and mentoring business—Natalie Pickett Mentor—to global markets. By bringing more of what I do online, I get to share my insights to help even more people. It has opened up so many opportunities for me to work with business owners all around the world. Amazing things are happening, including being a coauthor in the international best-selling book ‘Becoming an Unstoppable Woman’ and being featured in great blogs like this one!
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I’ve always loved business. Even as a young girl, I used to convince my friends at elementary school to play ‘business’ with me. I’d be the head of some corporation or I’d convince my siblings to play ‘shops’ with me and I would work out each item’s profit margin. People think that a business mind is different to a creative mind, but when you can create something where there was nothing, that’s creative. Turning an idea into something bigger, such as a business that benefits everyone who buys from you, is undeniably creative.
I am a child of divorced parents, and my ability to not take things personally, while also realizing that some things are outside of my control, was honed during those early years. My mother was a bit of a ‘hippie’ and my dad was quite conservative, so it was about navigating both worlds. I think that has helped me to be open to listen to new ideas and be able to adapt to changing situations quickly in order to find the best solutions to move forward.
I’m from Melbourne, Australia, but have spent time living in other parts of the world. In my 20s, I worked and travelled the east coast of Australia, then the USA, the UK, and Europe. I returned to Melbourne after seven years, and at age 28, I established an inbound travel company, bringing visitors from all over the world to visit Australia. Almost 30 years on, I have a few different businesses. I still live in Melbourne with my daughter, who is now 19 years old. I think travel is one of life’s best educators; you learn a lot about yourself as well as have a better understanding of others. Experiencing other cultures, language, foods and customs opens up the world to you. Travel (when not in restrictions) remains a big part of my life.
I am a serial entrepreneur, and I have founded multiple businesses with 6- and 7-figure success stories. I’ve certainly had my share of triumphs and so-called ‘failures.’ After closing my travel company during the GFC, I founded a successful consulting business. You learn a lot in starting and growing a business, and you learn so much more when you need to close one. There is a procedural aspect to this understanding, as well as personal growth through that adversity. It gives you the perspective to assess what you really want in life. It is actually an opportunity to restart everything in a new way and make the life you truly want. Utilizing my networks created from my travel company, almost overnight my consulting business became a 6-figure success, and I achieved this by only working part-time hours. This business includes successful speaking and mentoring work where I share my knowledge and real-life experiences to help people take their business and daily lives from surviving to thriving.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Our businesses should work for us, not the other way around. The keys to success with each of my businesses is that they all come from my passion, my core values, and my desire to contribute and share my knowledge with others. When things become stressful, it’s your values that will drive you.
Life (and business) is supposed to be fun! My movement is ‘Living the Dream.’ People think they need to wait until they ‘achieve’ to start enjoying life. I’ve discovered that Living the Dream is less about working hard and more about following your joy. When you operate from a place of joy, that is what you share with others and lots of joyous people makes for a better world.
It is possible to define your own version of success and easily take the steps you need to achieve your goals. It is possible for you to not just Dream the Dream, but Live the Dream. I’m passionate about sharing this with the world, and share that in my writing, my courses, and speaking engagements.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: I think everyone should be a feminist! When women do well, so does everyone else. Families thrive, relationships are mutually supportive. We are very fortunate in this current day to have had strong women come before us; the Suffragettes fought in a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the early part of the 20th century. And the strong women of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s did as well. We get to enjoy the freedoms of those advances that were won for women worldwide. Some may still feel like they are battling inequality, while some may feel they have everything they need and no longer need to fight for it. I don’t see feminism as a battle of the sexes. To me, it is simply about everyone thriving and being supported to do so. It really is something we can all support.
MORE FROM NATALIE:
I’ve recently been featured in some major US media publications, and I share a lot of free advice through my articles and on my social media. I have a free course, which includes me sharing business stories as well as paid opportunities to work with me. You can find the links you need to follow me on the Linktree here: https://linktr.ee/natalie_pickett_mentor
Thank you for reading!
I’d love to connect with you! 🙂
Comment below!
The Woman Wednesday Blog 