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Woman Wednesday: Natalie

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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

Connect with me.

Insta

Facebook

Thank you for reading!

I’d love to connect with you! 🙂

Comment below!

Woman Wednesday: Stephanie

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Q and A with Stephanie, Washington, U.S.

“I always find myself coaching and connecting with truly exceptional people–people who have challenged society’s expectations of them, have risen to the call they hear deep within, and are committed to creating their own story.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I’m passionate about self confidence and self trust…that each woman can have a safe and supportive space inside her own head. A big part of my work is helping my clients discover and release the expectations that were placed on them by society that no longer serves their dreams and goals. I believe very strongly that this foundation must be laid first, before goal setting and accountability come into play. That’s why my coaching offer starts with self talk before going on to clarity, accountability, and self-coaching, which are the other pillars of my program. By the end of my 12-week program, my clients get to experience that supportive space in their heads, know what they actually want out of life, and are moving toward that next big goal, and finally have the self-coaching skills to independently get themselves through the places that they get stuck mentally or emotionally. It all has to start with changing the inner dialogue to create the internal confidence and framework for success. To find out more about my coaching offer, or to connect with a community on your growth journey join my Facebook group here: facebook.com/groups/createyourpower. This is the only way to to experience a coaching call for free as well.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I had a very interesting childhood to say the least. Until I was nine, I grew up on a farm, homeschooled. I spent my days frolicking in the fields with the goats and making mud pies. Suddenly, our family moved to Tbilisi, Georgia, half way across the world, to a city of 2 million people. That was hard, but reentry to the United States was equally hard, as we didn’t move back “home,” but instead moved to a small village in Alaska. This left me with the experience of being an ‘outsider’ in multiple different life circumstances. It was messy, but I became an observer of the cultural framework that many people see as ‘the only way,’ and I stood apart from it, noticing the beauty as well as the pain that the particular framework brings with it. At the same time, I had to learn to see my own biases for what they were and continually grow to a more expansive understanding of the world around me. These experiences laid the foundation for the coaching work I do today–standing outside a person’s experience, observing it, but also empathizing with it.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: If there was one thing I’d love for people to learn from my story, it would be to notice that the assumptions you have that might sound like fact may actually be just one way of seeing the world. For example, maybe you learned that if a person is late, it’s because they don’t respect your time. Ask yourself, “What if I actually had something really beautiful to learn about time from someone who is perpetually late? What if they are honoring me in a way I never even considered?” Before I began my career in life coaching, I was a Salvation Army Officer, which gave me the opportunity to manage a local service for social services and spiritual development. This included leading the teams that provided weekly community meals, funding assistance, youth and women’s programs, day camps, and assistance for the unhoused. What I loved about being in leadership was the one-on-one connections and the opportunity to hear people’s stories and walk with them in their journeys. In the same day, I might find myself walking alongside an unhoused single mother, as well as the CEO of a company or a representative of local government. Every person’s story is sacred, and I always find myself coaching and connecting with truly exceptional people–people who have challenged society’s expectations of them, have risen to the call they hear deep within, and are committed to creating their own story. If this is you, I’d LOVE to hear your story. Email me at stephanigalindocoaching@gmail.com.

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: For me, pragmatic feminism can be seen in how I raise my boys–to recognize injustice, to embrace the nurturing side of themselves, and to understand consent. As they get older, I will continue to learn new ways to teach equity, so that they can be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.

Also, I’m a boy mama, and my boys are currently seven and four years old. I have raised them with a deep acceptance of emotions and a value for gentleness.

Thank you for reading! Connect with me here:

Facebook group here: facebook.com/groups/createyourpower

Email me at stephanigalindocoaching@gmail.com

I’d love to connect with you! 🙂

Thoughts, questions, or comments?

Woman Wednesday: Jacquelynn

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Q and A with Jacquelynn, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

“Life is so short and so beautiful.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: My first love, outside of being a mother, is music. Ever since I was a little girl, I vividly remember singing my little heart out. My first performance was with my grandmother, Peggy Sue, singing gospel at my baptism, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Which is super interesting to me because I’m an introvert at heart. I’m not passionate about just one thing though. As I mentioned, I love being a mama. But when it comes to work outside of motherhood, I genuinely enjoy helping and pouring into other women. It lights me up! I’m into breastfeeding awareness, embracing your weirdness, helping mamas figure out how to turn their passions into income, creating courses, cooking, writing and singing my own songs, big fan of naps, and all the little things in life. But above all, being a mama and wife is my favorite, and they’re the very reason for all the creating I do. They motivate me. I want to make them proud. I want to set a good example and show them how something can be made from absolutely nothing. Like my children’s book, I Think I Need Glasses. It started with one little idea and evolved once it hit paper. The eBook is my most recently finished project. It’s about a little girl who has an imagination out of this world. She tells of her adventures and life experiences from her point of view, but her older brother pokes fun with her and tells her throughout the story that he thinks she needs glasses. It’s a playful and magical transitional story for children who wear glasses. It’s available for download on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/I-Think-Need-Glasses-ebook/dp/B099V1WH56/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=i+think+i+need+glasses&qid=1627277487&sprefix=i+think+i+need+glass&sr=8-3

My next upcoming appearance/teaching is a super powerful onetime workshop called “Monetize Your Passion” on Thursday, August 5 @ 6pm CST / 7pm EST. The workshop is for creative and passionate aspiring or “stuck” female entrepreneurs. I’ll go over getting clearer with what your passion is and how to turn it into not one, but multiple offers. All the details are on the registration page. It’s going to be pretty epic. I’m so excited! You can also catch my podcast “Just Women Talking Sh!t” just about anywhere you get your podcast. I’m always looking for women to interview, so if you give it a listen and send your story in for an interview, you so should! And last, but certainly not least, I have a free online community for growing and unapologetic women. It’s called Female, Fearless, & Bad-Ass. That’s about all I have going on at the moment!

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: This is a tough one to talk about. Because I truly believe that my childhood and younger years, as an adult, have everything to do with the woman I am today. Fun fact about me: I am the oldest of my mother’s six children. Yes, six. How badass is that? She’s such a fierce and strong woman! Shoutout to my Ma in case she reads this. [She laughs.] Anyway, she did the whole single mom thing up until I was about 13 years old. I vividly remember having a baby on each hip, making lunches, doing dishes, playing house at a young age. Everyone called me a little mama, but it’s all I knew. I remember wanting to buy something but always knew how hard my mama worked to take care of us, so I set up my own lemonade stand. Okay, I’ll be honest. It was a Kool-Aid stand. (Southerners know what I’m talking about.) [She laughs.]

In one day’s work, I made $40. I remember dividing the money up among my sister, cousin, and me. We walked down the road to a florist and I bought my mama some silver dangly ball earrings. She wore those suckers out. I was so proud. I’ve had the entrepreneur bug ever since. I am one of the few in my family to graduate from high school. I did attend college but found myself stuck in this viscous cycle of changing my mind on what I wanted to do with my life over and over again. It became tiring, frustrating, and a total waste of money. I’ve honestly done it all trying to find my place in this big and crazy world. I cleaned houses and babysat as a young teenager, got my first big girl job at a Joyce Leslie women’s retail store, went on to have multiple jobs throughout high school, bartended at 18, cashiered at Goodburger on Chestnut in Center City Philly, became a nanny when I was let go abruptly, continued nanny work for the next several years up until my first child was born, wrote for a local newspaper, freelanced at marketing events, was a personal assistant, cleaned houses yet again as a young mom, waited tables as a single mom, made my way into a daycare where I taught and later worked in the office, was introduced to network marketing and multi-level business models, tried those out and did okay, found myself obsessed with finding the next big thing, failed over and over again, finally went back to corporate America after my first marriage went to crap, worked my tail off, never saw my daughter, ran myself and health into the ground, was scouted by one company, hired just to be fired a week before Thanksgiving of 2019. I told myself I would never allow someone to have such a hold over me. My health was crap, my mood fluctuated, I was so burnt out I couldn’t enjoy the money I did make. Even though it was scary as hell being let go that day and I had no idea what I was going to do, I knew it was all going to be okay because, well, it just had to be. This was yet another test. Fast forward to now—I’m a mother for a second time. I’m creating like I’ve never created before. I’m living authentically and really smelling the roses like I’ve never smelled them before. Because life is so beautiful. I don’t think people stop and think about that enough. We are all here as a result of millions of tiny things that all had to go right for us to even be here. Think about that and don’t take one second for granted. Life is so short and so beautiful.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: You have all of the tools to do something great in your lifetime all within you. It all starts with you. I don’t think this is talked about enough. You are so powerful. Your life experiences, wisdom, story, downfalls, triumphs, testimony, all of it. It’s so powerful. I just want to see everyone around me happy, healthy, successful, and wealthy—whatever that may look like for them. And I think that happiness starts at the core. It starts with you. So, take good care of yourself so that you can excel in all the things. Self-love takes priority so that everything else runs like a well-oiled machine. I think several women with past traumas and insecurities tend to seek validation from others. Sometimes, it comes in the form of a romantic partner because maybe she grew up without a father present in her life. (That was me.) Sometimes, it comes in the form of being stuck in a career that makes her unhappy to the core because she was taught that the only way to make it in life is to work her tail off and put her time in like everyone else until retirement, but what she really wants is to somehow find a way to monetize her passion. (That was also me.) All in all, I just want women to realize that they don’t have to settle for someone else’s idea of what life should be like is all. I’ve been there and done that, so if me sharing my story helps others navigate through life and/or business journeys easier, well I’m all in. Just know you can literally do anything you set your mind to!

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: When I think of feminism, I think of how far women’s rights have come in general. It goes to show just how powerful women are. I mean really think about how far we have come in such a little amount of time. And now? I bet if I was to ask any of your readers to name an inspiring woman who makes multiple six figures or more a year…someone would instantly come to mind, no? It isn’t about proving I’m better than or equal to a man. It’s about celebrating the power that’s within us all and shows in the growth and impact we each have in this world. It’s about the growth and impact the women before us had in this world and then the ones before them and so on. The world is so big and so vast, yet we can create such impact that is on a level so deep it changes lives. Like how cool is that? That’s the ultimate girl power if I’ve ever seen it.

MORE FROM JACQUELYNN: I was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I primarily lived in a small town called Dixie, but I moved away to New York when I was 16. I graduated high school in the Poconos, attended college in Philadelphia, PA, for a year, and moved back down south when I was 22 or so. My roots are firmly planted back in Mississippi with my beautiful family.

Thank you for reading! Connect with me here:

“Monetize Your Passion”

“I Think I Need Glasses”

Podcast

Facebook Group

I’d love to connect with you! 🙂

Thoughts, questions, or comments?

Woman Wednesday: Lisa

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Q and A with Lisa, Mackay, Queensland, Australia

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: My interests are sailing, writing, and drawing. I get my inspiration from my two beautiful children, Bridgette and Nicholas, who encourage me to follow my dream and passion to become a famous author. My inspiration also comes from the ocean and sea creatures in the wild. It also comes with being at one with nature and the sea, when I go sailing all my cares and worries go away. I’m currently working on a [story about a] walrus called Wally who is supposed to live in Antarctica. He somehow has managed to hitch a ride on an iceberg 2,500 miles away causing havoc along the way.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: My younger years were lived in the south island of New Zealand in Picton. My father was a boat builder and chief editor at the local newspaper. As a child, our family would go sailing in the Marlborough sounds every weekend. This was where my passion for the sea started.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: If you can dream it, you can do it. Follow your passion, never give up. Follow your dreams and your heart, and listen to your gut.

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: Feminism to me is equality in both sexes—social, economic, and political.

MORE FROM LISA:

I’m a “Kiwi” living in Australia.





Thank you for reading!

I’d love to connect with you! 🙂

Thoughts, questions, or comments?

Woman Wednesday: Valentine

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Q and A with Valentine from Kenya, Africa

“Be the driver, but let passion be the drive.”


Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I am passionate about helping aspiring service-based entrepreneurs who are stuck and confused to stop going round in circles, gain clarity, formulate a strategy whilst leveraging digital marketing to continuously generate leads, and create a wildly successful business while they live the life they choose. Over the years, I have always been interested in marketing, and at the time, I didn’t know much about digital marketing. I started my job as a waitress in Dubai in 2012, whilst learning online about marketing. It took a lot of hustle, tears, hard work, rejections, training, and a huge mindset shift for me to finally land my first job in a marketing department in one of the fastest-growing cities (Dubai) and grow to become a marketing manager. Once I started, there was no stopping me; I read many books, learned everything I could, attended so many webinars. I worked successfully in the marketing field up to when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and we had to stay at home. At this point, I realized there was a lot digitally that I had already accomplished and a lot more that I needed to learn. So, once again, I decided to use quarantine time to study. That is how my journey with digital marketing started. It was quite easy because I had already had the basics, so it was more of just advancing my knowledge and thinking bigger.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I grew up in a small village in Kenya, Africa. I lost my mum when I was 5. Honestly, I don’t know much about my background as I didn’t get to know my father to date. I grew up with my loving grandparents. There isn’t much to say about my background, except that I also had this fire within me that made me feel like I wasn’t extraordinary. I tried to fit in; I always wondered why I was different. Most of my skills are self-taught as I didn’t get a chance to study anything I wanted in college. I have always had a huge affection for orphans, which led me to start my foundation called TOF(Talented Orphans Family), which is geared towards developing orphans’ talents to make them independent and also teaching them skills that can make them dependable in society. This was the most fulfilling thing I had ever done, but as I was the sole financier, it came to a stop as I had an accident that caused a fracture that disrupted my earning and functioning capabilities. This would just be a tip on the iceberg to what I have endured over the years and also achieved. Everything has led me to my destiny. I am strong now, unstoppable, and ready to conquer then change the world. My experience has taught me to overcome any situation, to understand people’s situations, and to relate easily to them. I believe that this is the right time for me to make an impact.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: When you are at the saddest and lowest, most painful level you can be, that is where you get sharpened. That is the time you can become reborn. That pain is what, when used the right way, can turn you into someone very powerful. We all have this greatest strength buried deep inside each one of us; only a few people get the chance to fully experience this strength. The feeling of being unstoppable. When you have lost it all and there is nothing else to live for, you have a choice to give up or to dig deeper than ever before for your hidden strength. It’s more like a superpower. Digging and tapping into that inner strength will change you and make you as strong as steel. You will then be ready to become anything you set your mind to and there is nothing that can put you down because you already know how to get back up.

Q: What does feminism mean to you? 

A: When I talk about feminism, this comes to me on a personal level, coming from a background where women are known to stay in the kitchen and learn to be wife material. I do not want to be put in a box of what I am supposed to become or who I am supposed to be as a woman. Being a woman is just my gender; I should be judged by my capabilities, my skills, and my intelligence. When I am talking to fellow entrepreneurs, I need them to understand that being a woman or a man has nothing to do with how intelligent one is. If I succeed in something, it’s because I am just that good, not because of favors or because I am a woman.

MORE FROM VALENTINE: Something I have learned and would like to share: You do not need to make it perfect; just start and keep learning, keep improving. If you keep going, you will keep getting better.





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