My Personal Journey…
I never imagined I would be an author and a facilitator.
Immigrating to Australia at the impressionable age of 12 soon amplified my anxieties and dimmed my self confidence. My personal journey and the challenges from those tricky teenage years did not prepare me with the appropriate personal and professional skills I needed as I entered the workforce.
Then everything changed.
In a courageous step I enrolled myself in a program in order to find my self confidence, self worth and happiness (happiness is a skill we can learn!). I found it! I also found my first passion – helping others. This was realised in 1986 when I became the youngest female instructor in Australia for Dale Carnegie’s Effective Speaking & Human Relations course (whoa how did that happen!).
I now have a mantra I live and breathe – courage and giving are the key to a satisfying and rewarding life and conversations are the way to achieve this. For three decades I’ve been working with organisations and individuals who seek smart, quick, easy principles to boost courage, position themselves as confident communicators, establish their credibility and engage a healthy and positive mindset – both at home and in the workplace. My one-to-one interactions with others because fondly known “Conversations with Natalie” to help them create lasting change – always aiming toward doing one thing differently because in my opinion “well done is better than well said”.
Fast forward a few years and I encounter new challenges, learnings and another passion – parenthood. An ”aha” moment appeared … there is no separation between home and the workplace because the whole person lives in both. With each year my girls introduce me to new learnings and challenges. Both now at the impressionable ages of 11 and 13 my most important role as parent and role model is hard at work.
I researched, studies, read and learned, along the way I discovered a positive parenting process that gave us astonishing results in their younger years. I was grateful and impressed, I studied the process and became an accredited trainer of the Goulding SleepTalk® Process.
During my ‘mid life crisis’ I returned to courage and it paid off. I wrote my first book 10 Seconds of Courage – smart, quick, easy tips to presenting.
I’m in the process of writing my second book to be coauthored with my teenager Isabella. An offering of our stories, challenges, learnings and the things that are working (and not working) for us. It’s always work in progress and progress is the key. We are here on this planet to help one another.
Today I bring together my two passions – family and personal development.
Driven by my personal journey, enthusiastic and genuine interest in helping those who choose courage to make decisions and reach their imagined goals, I am proud to be described as “someone who has earned the right to speak on her chosen topics”.