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The Power of Business Connections
Tell us about yourself?
Hi, my name is Natalie and I am passionate about helping people be successful in business. I am an award winning coach and mentor with previous experience of over 18 years leading teams and operations in a top FTSE 100 retailer. My experience and tenacity created opportunities to lead programmes in mentoring female future leaders, mentoring circle, diversity and inclusion and wellbeing programmes.
What led you to where you are today?
I thrive in leading teams and empowering people to be clear on what they want in life and commit to implementing and taking action everyday. I am driven by the idea that we can create a wonderful life and business opportunities by serving others, living life aligned to our values and connecting through our stories.
What does a typical day look like for you?
With over 87K coaches in the UK, I believe you have to know what you stand for and invested in your own development in order to achieve some audacious goals. A typical day starts with my health and being active by giving time to exercise as a priority. I invest time in sales, coaching and mentoring clients, time with my own coaches and mentors, building my coaches community and finally time to reflect on where I am at and what I am grateful for. Being grateful for what you have is paramount to feeling fulfilled and keeping us on track. I also commit to planning my priorities for the week ahead on a Sunday and the top priority to downtime - time to switch off! I wonder when yours is?
Advice to your younger self?
Coaches often ask the question
“What would you tell your younger self?”
My advice would be: to give back more. I noticed a huge shift in my life and business when I changed the narrative and perspective about how I show up as a coach. My job is to serve - let’s not overthink this… when we give our time, effort and attention to others, our lives become better so I commit to volunteering in my own time. In the last two years I have been a volunteer for Shout Crisis support and am currently a mentor at The Diana Award and The Coaching Academy. Money cannot buy these opportunities and learnings like communities and networks as we know with Black Valley can.
If you could invite anyone to join the Black Valley community, who and why?
Leon Francis - he is a retail Operations Manager at Sainsbury’s - he has a wealth of knowledge and experience leading teams but also he is fully invested into diversity and inclusion programmes as a role model. I see him as an inspirational and humble man.
Final thoughts?...
Far too often we focus on:
- What am I not great at? Not: What am I great at?
- What do I not have yet? Not: What do I have?
- What we don’t want? Not: What do I want?
Change the way you see things…
ASK for more - for help, advice, connections, collaborations, feedback, guidance, coaching, mentoring. It has the power to change everything for you.
