September 11, 2025 • 41 mins
What does it really take to let the truest version of you lead?
In this powerful episode of Your Next Success, host Dr. Caroline Sangal sits down with Natalie Siston—keynote speaker, author of Let Her Out, and the Lead Global Presenter at Positive Intelligence®—to explore how to navigate career shifts with clarity, authenticity, and internal permission.
Natalie opens up about her early corporate career, the unexpected transitions that reshaped her path, and how motherhood, creativity, and mental fitness helped her reconnect to what matters most. She shares how she built a speaking and coaching business rooted in deep service—and how the idea for her book Let Her Out came from decades of unspoken insights finally ready to be shared.
This conversation is for anyone wondering what’s next—especially if you’ve been carrying big dreams for a long time and are finally ready to take the next step.
In This Episode:
- Natalie’s career journey from corporate leadership to creative entrepreneurship
- The story behind Let Her Out—and how journaling became a transformational act
- How Positive Intelligence (PQ) helped her reframe her inner critic
- Navigating transitions with courage, especially after motherhood
- How to define success for yourself—and stay grounded in what matters
Connect with Natalie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliesiston
Website: https://www.nataliesiston.com
Instagram: @NatalieSiston
Let Her Out: https://letherout.com/
Let Her Out information: You haven’t lost yourself. You’ve just buried HER under everyone else’s expectations. Let Her Out is your invitation to reconnect with the version of yourself you were always meant to be. Through stories, coaching prompts, and real-life insights, this bestselling book will help you reignite your passions, release what no longer serves you, and reclaim your identity with confidence.
Subscribe to Your Next Success so you never miss an episode.
Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/
Learn more about Next Success www.nextsuccesscareers.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
What if the thing you've beencalled to build has been quietly
revealing itself through yourwhole career?
Today I'm joined by someone whobrings energy, strategy and
heart into everything she does,Natalie Siston.
Caroline (00:22):
This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I'm your
host, Dr.
Caroline Sangal.
I'm a life first career coachand strategist on a mission to
normalize questioning yourcareer because I believe each of
us is made on purpose for apurpose only we can fulfill.
The longer we live out ofalignment with who we are, what
(00:43):
we do best, and why we're here,the more we miss out.
And the more the world missesout on what only we can give.
The Your Next Success Podcast iswhere we explore how to build a
career that truly fuels yourlife.
We talk about self-discovery,smart job, search strategies,
(01:04):
professional growth, and you'llhear stories from people who've
navigated big career transitionsthemselves so you can see what
it's really like to make boldchanges and feel inspired to
create your own version ofauthentic success, one that is
aligned, meaningful, and trulyyours.
(01:26):
Natalie is a leadership expert,keynote speaker, certified
coach, and the lead globalpresenter for Positive
Intelligence.
She's also the author of thebestselling book, Let Her Out
Reclaim Who You've Always Been.
Her career spans highereducation, Fortune 100
leadership, coaching, contentcreation, and her story is a
(01:50):
beautiful example of howcuriosity, clarity, and small
decisions can lead to powerfultransformations over time.
In this conversation, Natalieand I talk about how growing up
in a town of 600 people shapedher leadership style, the
breadcrumbs that led her frompsychology to coaching, to
(02:12):
entrepreneurship.
What it was like to walk awayfrom a stable corporate job to
pursue her vision, how PositiveIntelligence transformed her
life and helped her step fullyinto her mission.
The origin of her book Let HerOut and why Permission Granted
is her next calling.
(02:33):
This episode is for anyone who'squietly been building something
and is ready to give themselvesfull permission to go all in.
Welcome, Natalie, to Your NextSuccess.
I am so thrilled and excited forthis conversation that I'm
getting to have with you in thismoment.
So thank you for being here.
Natalie Siston (02:53):
I'm very excited.
I think we're gonna have a veryenergetic and information filled
and hopefully very inspirationalconversation for your listeners.
Caroline (03:01):
As you know, part of my desire for this podcast is to
help people understand the storybehind the story of people's
careers and their journeys.
So I'd love to kind ofunderstand from you, tell us how
your journey began.
Where did you grow up?
What were you interested in?
What did you think you wanted todo?
Natalie Siston (03:22):
Oh my gosh.
I think this is gonna come upthroughout because I think we're
all dropping breadcrumbs ourentire lives and it almost takes
you being in a career for 20 or25 years to zoom back and be
like, okay, I see it and we'lltalk a bit about my book.
And that was really theinflection point for me to look
back at all the breadcrumbs I'vecollected.
(03:42):
But I think where I grew up isextremely important to the story
of my life.
I grew up in a town calledRepublic, Ohio, USA for those
who may be listeninginternationally, and that is a
town of 600 people, Caroline.
It is the place where everybodyknows everybody and everybody's
business, and I learned from anearly age that there are
(04:03):
typically two types of peoplegrowing up in that type of town.
They hate it because they don'twant people all up in their
stuff and knowing their businessand being told on, and tattled
on'cause this is back in the daywhen you had a party line phones
and no, you know, no digitaldevice or wifi.
And quite frankly, where I grewup, like only recently got like
high speed internet becausethat's how rural it tends to be.
(04:26):
But at any rate, I was on theopposite spectrum of that.
I really appreciated growing upin a small town.
I appreciated knowing people.
I appreciated people knowing whoI was, who my family was, what
was happening.
And I've carried that with methroughout my life and my career
like so much so, I live in abrand new neighborhood.
My husband and I built a housetwo years ago, and they're still
building around us.
(04:47):
And a family moved in down thestreet a couple months ago,
Caroline and I have not yetintroduced myself to them, and I
feel horrible.
Every time I go by, and it'slike, I feel like our world has
turned to this place.
Like, oh, I don't wanna imposewhen I know for sure that those
people are probably, wouldgladly, you know, open the door
of their home.
And so I've made it my goal,like this month I will make sure
I do that, because it'simportant for people to know
(05:09):
they're welcomed.
But that's where I grew up andit's created a lot of who I am.
It took me living in a lot ofdifferent places, different
sizes of cities, geographies,working with different people to
really appreciate it.
Caroline (05:22):
Fun fact, I grew up in Danville, Ohio, at least from
first through sixth grade, sothat was, I think right around a
thousand people.
But I appreciated that smalltown environment.
For me, they were verywelcoming.
I also learned very quickly youhad to be careful of who you
decided to maybe complain aboutbecause it's somebody's cousin,
(05:46):
like everybody's somebody'scousin.
They're all related.
You have to be very positive,upbeat all the time, and deal
with any conflict internally.
Natalie Siston (05:55):
Or just be ready for the backlash if you indeed
stepped on the toe of the townsheriff or something like that.
You know?
Caroline (06:02):
Absolutely.
So that's cool.
And so when you were growing up,what kinds of activities, what
kinds of things did you do?
Or did you have a thought thatwhen I grow up, I want to X, Y,
Z?
Natalie Siston (06:15):
Yeah.
So let's start dropping thebreadcrumbs for your audience
'cause we'll get through the,the path as we have our
conversation today.
I was always interested in humanbehavior from the time I was a
little kid.
And what I also learned growingup in a small town is when you
don't see something you don'tknow it's possible.
So growing up.
I thought that I would be ateacher, or I thought I would be
(06:37):
a lawyer, or I thought I wouldbe a newspaper writer.
These are all things that Iwrote for my local paper growing
up.
I shadowed an attorney.
so I saw people doing this thingand I thought, okay, these are
the boxes I need to go into.
So going into college, I thoughtI was gonna be pre-law with a
journalism major and politicalscience.
That was my, like, I was gonnado this and.
(06:59):
It didn't take me long torealize that I didn't wanna be
an attorney.
I worked in the state governmentin Ohio for a while and realized
things move really, reallyslowly there and I don't want to
live a slow life.
and so I pivoted and I put adouble major in psychology into
place because back to yourquestion about growing up, did I
know?
I did science projects everyyear and that was a big deal
(07:22):
growing up.
Like your science project wasthe whole thing and you had to
come up with what yourhypothesis was and what your
study is gonna look like.
And then you presented in theschool gym and if you do well
enough, you get to go onto thedistrict science fair.
And I, aside from the oneproject I did about composting,
which I think my parents hated'cause I had little boxes of
composting around our entirehouse.
(07:43):
I started doing human behaviorprojects.
I did things like siblingpsychology.
Does the number of siblings youhave affect your whatever and
fill in the blank?
And then color psychology.
does the color you're aware thecolor you're studying or sitting
under have an effect.
I did something on age andpsychology, it's funny to me
looking back like, well, didn'tyou, I should have known
(08:04):
obviously that I would major inpsychology from the work I did
as a kid.
'cause no science teacher wassaying, Hey, do these psychology
based projects, they.
Caroline (08:14):
I didn't even know, honestly, I was probably in my
thirties before I realized thatthere were things that were
science beyond the hard sciencesthat I chose.
Literally, I did not know.
I think I had such an aversionto maybe dealing with some of
the things that I had kind ofblocked.
(08:35):
I never took psychology, I nevertook any of that.
you know, I thought genuinely,because that's kind of in the
environment that I grow up with,that anybody who had maybe
mental challenges werechallenged people.
Not that every person has thisthing.
So the fact that you also grewup in small town Ohio, science
(08:56):
was pretty, It was imparted onme, at least in mine, that, you
know, this is something girlscan do.
This is something girls would beable to do.
Recognize that for a long from ayoung age, but I didn't know.
I didn't know that softersciences are still science and
it's all just one bigexperiment.
Natalie Siston (09:12):
It is, we are all living one giant experiment
is how I like to think of daysthat feel particularly hard.
Maybe that's my copingmechanisms, like this big
experiment and what variable arewe gonna test today, right?
Caroline (09:23):
Yeah.
Natalie Siston (09:24):
What I also appreciated about growing up, I
have one older sister and I havetwo parents working full time
when I grew up.
And we always had dinnertogether in the moments we
could.
'cause, you know, as we gotolder and busier, it didn't
always happen.
But my parents always talkedabout their work and I was a
geek like
Caroline (09:42):
they do?
Natalie Siston (09:43):
my mom was, she started off as like a secretary
and admin at a bank and thenmoved on to support our churches
regional office, and then herultimate career, she spent her
last 20 years at the localpublic library.
Where she started in a, like afiscal administrative position
and she ended up, I call it theCOO position for, it's like,
(10:04):
that was, it wasn't her title,but that's what she did.
And so it was really cool to seemy mom, you know, with a two
year college education, do thatkind of work.
And then my dad, always workedin like factories.
you know, assembly based work?
And my dad was in and out ofwork growing up and that I
didn't realize until I got olderabout how much of an effect that
had on me.
(10:24):
because I learned a lot aboutwhat's hard about work from my
dad's stories.
We can come back to him a littlebit in our conversation today,
but I just, I was alwaysinterested and intrigued about
the colleagues and therelationships.
And so when I took my firstorganizational behavioral
psychology class in college, Iwas staying after one day to, I
don't know, like just use thedesk to write notes.
(10:46):
And the teacher stayed and he'slike, you know, you're really
intuitive about this.
You really get this stuff.
And I wish, Caroline, so ifthere are moments, so for all
your listeners of like, they'rethe moments where people are
like, okay, that's.
The day she decided she wasgonna do this, I didn't.
I ignored him.
I just took the compliment and Iput my head down because I'm
like, who am I to receive thistype of feedback?
(11:08):
I was scared, I think, because Ididn't know what that meant,
because what he was suggestingwas not on my path.
I was a senior in college.
I was engaged to be married.
I was preparing to move acrossthe country, and I was like, I
can't have a variable thrown inright now.
I have so much.
And so I just took that for whatit was and got a great grade in
his class.
(11:29):
Really enjoyed it.
And then, you know, a less thana year later, married my college
sweetheart.
He was in grad school atStanford.
So I am 22 years old, movingacross the country in 2002.
So this is post whateverrecession that is into Silicon
Valley with not a tech degree.
So I sat on the couch for abouteight weeks after I moved there,
(11:53):
not eight, yeah, maybe eightweeks waiting for one of the
many, many jobs I applied for tocome to fruition and I
ultimately ended up getting areally cool job at Stanford's
Alumni Association.
So I'm the type of person where,my parents didn't graduate from
four year colleges, so my sisterand I are first generation
college grads and I like, lovedher, watching her experience at
(12:14):
a very small liberal arts schoolin Ohio called Baldwin Wallace.
I went to The Ohio StateUniversity, so at the time, the
largest campus in the country totalk about opposite worlds from
small town to the biggestcollege.
so I'm, you know, going acrosscountry as a 22-year-old, no
job, brand new husband.
We were actually living in hisadvisor's house, house sitting,
(12:34):
so we didn't even have our ownplace.
I'm like, oh my gosh, what'shappening?
Caroline (12:38):
How amazing is that though, because that's a lot
better furnishings than you
Natalie Siston (12:42):
True.
True True.
true, Yeah.
Yeah And then when I got thejob, we then quickly started to
go furniture shopping and likeuse their front room to like
store things in.
Yeah.
We laugh a lot'cause I considermyself to be very successful and
very fortunate.
Same with him.
And we've joked with our kids alot.
We're like, you know, when we,when we got married, we had two
things.
We had love and debt.
(13:02):
You know, so we're like,everything we have built around
us, we have, we've built andwe're really like proud of that.
And so at any rate, I ended upworking, at the Stanford's
Alumni Association while myhusband finished his degree.
And I had an amazing time.
I mean, if I could go back andrelive a job, that would be it.
Just because of the people I wassurrounded the fun work, it was
(13:24):
always intellectuallystimulating.
So that's, that's what I did formy, the beginning of my, my
career.
Caroline (13:31):
It's amazing.
And then how did that transitionleaving the Stanford position
and or how long were you thereand then what'd you do?
Natalie Siston (13:41):
Yeah.
And once again, good questionsto ask and for people seeking
mentorship and such.
So because college was socrucial to where I feel like I
ended up in my life, I thoughtit was just natural that I work
in higher education.
So at this point I thought,well, my husband will always
work in higher education as aprofessor, so I should, I'll
naturally just always work atthe college where he is.
And so this was just what Ithought.
(14:01):
I was planning to go get amasters in higher education.
And I was talking to one of mymentors from undergrad, Felix,
and he said to me, he's like,just time out.
He said, I would actuallyencourage you to get a different
kind of master's degree.
And I said, oh, well say more'cause you have that degree.
What?
And I, it's funny to hear yousay, he is like, I would
recommend you get an MBA.
(14:22):
And I said, oh, okay.
Tell me why.
He's like, well, you can alwayswork in higher education with an
MBA, but you can't always gowork in business with a master's
in higher education.
And I'm like, okay.
And at the same time, the CEO ofStanford, the president of
Stanford's Alumni Association,he said to me.
You know, have you thought aboutgetting your MBA?
(14:42):
And I had not.
That was never, nothing ever onmy list of thinking about
getting an MBA and so Iactually, started applying to
MBA programs as my husband wasgetting ready to graduate with
his PhD and ended up gettinginto my alma mater Ohio State on
a full fellowship and then starsaligned and he actually got a
faculty job at Ohio State, whichis where he still is.
(15:02):
And this is very unusual.
Most people do not go back totheir alma mater to teach.
And so we're we just, we havepinch me moments quite a bit.
Caroline (15:11):
What does he teach?
What is his, his area?
Natalie Siston (15:13):
He's the chair of the mechanical and aerospace
engineering department.
Caroline (15:18):
So cool,
Natalie Siston (15:19):
Yeah.
Caroline (15:20):
So cool.
Okay, so you're at Stanford.
You get these seeds planted thatmaybe you do wanna go back to
school.
Stars align.
You get to come back to the areathat you know and love.
You go to grad school to getyour MBA.
He starts a faculty position andlife is amazing.
(15:40):
Then what?
Natalie Siston (15:42):
So then I jumped right back into almost where
that conversation left off withthat professor who said, you
know, you're really good at thisstuff.
And so I really jumped back intothe organizational behavior.
I thought I would go into HR.
I thought I would go into sometype of people ops role, and
here's what I learned in my MBAprogram.
(16:02):
No one hires interns for that.
And if they do, they either payvery little or pay nothing.
And once again, remember ourconversation.
My husband still, and I had loveand debt and I'm like, this is,
this is ridiculous.
My classmates are getting$10,000a month internship offers.
And I'm being told, oh, you go,we'd be happy to have you, but
(16:22):
we can't pay you.
And I'm, and I still, to thisday, it drives me crazy.
I want people to earn theirworth.
You should not be doing freework unless it's for a very
specific reason.
So I ended up taking a marketinginternship over the summer for a
big brand, and I was so good atit, Caroline, so good at it, and
(16:43):
I hated it.
I hated it.
I mean, they were like.
Caroline (16:47):
You can be successful by all external measures and
still not be happy that orfulfilled and when you hated it,
help me understand like, whatdid that feel like?
What did that look like, and didyou listen?
Natalie Siston (17:02):
Oh yes, I, well, thankfully I did listen and I'll
tell you where I ended up andwhy that was a great decision.
I knew, I hate, and it's hard tosay'cause if anyone who I worked
with at that period of time,like lovely humans, they were
working.
I don't know, 12, 14 hour days,and I don't know what it was.
It's always something about mehas been I need work life
balance.
(17:23):
And I know we throw that termaround a lot, but to me that
means I am not chaining myselfto a desk for 12 hours.
I'll happily go home, get backonline if I need that type of
thing.
But I saw people in the officewhen I came in.
Still there and sending emailstwo hours later.
I'm like, hmm, that's red flagnumber one.
Because I was also, my husbandand I were planning to start a
family soon, and we knew thatthat would be hard.
(17:44):
And then just the, like, thework, I didn't enjoy the work.
There wasn't a calling there.
Caroline (17:48):
Okay.
Natalie Siston (17:49):
Yeah, so at any rate, I got a great offer.
They were like, we love you.
Will you come work for us fulltime?
And that's the dream, right?
That's why you do an internshipin an MBA program is to get a
great job offer so you can justenjoy the heck outta your second
year of the program.
Caroline (18:02):
Yes.
Natalie Siston (18:03):
And I sat on the offer because I knew it wasn't
right.
And then a financial servicescompany in Columbus was starting
a rotational program that yearcalled in a group of people to
interview and I was like, youknow, I have nothing to lose.
And so I went in to interviewand because I knew I had nothing
to lose, I already had a greatoffer, even if it was doing work
I didn't wanna do.
(18:24):
So I went and interviewed and Iwas my full self.
I just, I was authentic.
I didn't...
Caroline (18:29):
amazing.
Natalie Siston (18:31):
right.
Caroline (18:32):
and you're 20 something and you decided
already to go ahead and just beyour full self.
Natalie Siston (18:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, this didn't alwayshappen.
Like I was, yeah, I was 28 whenI graduated with my MBA, and so
I ended up taking that positionand I worked at that company for
12 years and I honestly couldstill see myself working at that
company if it were not forcoming across the work I'm doing
now in coaching, in speaking, injust helping other people find
(18:58):
their best and highest self.
Caroline (19:02):
So what was it that made you leave?
Natalie Siston (19:08):
Yeah.
Caroline (19:09):
established place that you'd been for 10 years
Natalie Siston (19:11):
Yeah.
Caroline (19:12):
What was going on and then.
How did you make the decision todo that
Natalie Siston (19:16):
Yeah.
Caroline (19:17):
next step from there?
Natalie Siston (19:18):
I get this question a lot because I think a
lot of people outside looking inare like, oh, Natalie, I wanna
live the life like you live.
I wanna know how did you makethe leap?
Right?
How did you make that decision?
And so for me, it wasn't amagical wand moment.
It wasn't an overnight knee-jerkthing.
What happened for me and I thinkit's worth kind of explaining a
few different steps in thisprocess is I attended an event
(19:42):
for high potentials at mycompany, and it was, I was
almost 35 and I was sitting byour facilitator at lunch and she
had this way about her who justmade me feel like I could share
anything with her.
And she's like, Hey, you know,tell me more about yourself.
What's going on?
Like, yeah, I'm just like, meh,you know, meh.
And she's like, I know.
(20:02):
She's like, actually, when I'mnot facilitating, I'm a coach
and I help people get throughtheir meh.
Do you wanna talk about this?
And I had never heard of thisthing.
And so I had a call with her andnervously, nervously, I went to
my manager and said, Hey, I metthis person.
And I had a very good closerelationship with my manager.
We were very transparent withher about stuff.
(20:23):
I said, would you sponsorcoaching with this person, and
she said, yes, I will do that.
So step number one, knowing Iwas at a good company, they were
willing to invest in mydevelopment, but I had to ask.
So if anyone listening here islike, oh my gosh, I would really
like to do this, but I don'tknow that I can afford it.
Ask your manager.
You never know what they'regonna say.
Just please ask.
(20:43):
And then from there, I had anamazing transformative
experience and she said to me,she's like, what were things you
enjoyed doing as a kid that youdon't do anymore?
And I said, well, as a kid, Iwas always writing and speaking.
I grew up as a lifelong 4Hmember and other kids raised
cows, and I did public speaking.
(21:04):
I've been doing public speakingsince I was eight years old.
She said, okay, well then gostart doing that.
And so our coaching ended upbeing a plan to map out what do
those, what does it look like todo that?
How do I actually take the stepsand feel confident to do that?
this was 2016, so I said I wannaspeak external to my job every
quarter.
And I did that, like easily gotthose slots filled up, just
(21:27):
coming up with topics that I wasexcited about and going to the
local chamber of commerce or thewomen's group in my town.
They were always happy to havesomeone come in and do that
speaking and a little bit pastthis experience, I was talking
to a a colleague at my companyand he said, well, you seem like
someone who would be a greatcoach yourself.
Have you thought about doingcoaching school?
(21:48):
And I said, no.
Like, no, like once again, thisdisbelief.
So other, you know, signs herelike this, this is like the
third time in my life.
I'm like, what?
Who, who am I to?
Right?
So I always like to just walk,you know, hold people by the
shoulders through the screen andsay, who am I to?
"You are, you're made for this."And he said, we have found a way
for the company to cover thetuition of this coaching
(22:10):
program.
And this coaching program is notinexpensive, like it was a five
figure investment.
And it was time.
It was time away from my family.
It was time to study.
It was time to practice, and soI went for it and I got my
coaching certification in 2017.
Started coaching clients.
The day after I got done with mycoach training, someone reached
(22:30):
out and I was like, I can coachyou.
And so I just started building acoaching practice and I started
getting paid for my speakingwhile I was working full time.
And I always was verytransparent with all of my
leaders about what I was doing.
It was never in conflict withwhat my day job was there
because I loved my jobs at thetime too.
I was doing relationshipmanagement, business development
(22:51):
work.
and my last role at the companywas as director of sales
coaching and development.
So talk about nothing would'veever happened if I hadn't
followed these breadcrumbs.
And so what, what ultimately,like where I took the leap and
made the the pivot.
happened in 2020.
I like to tell people I quit mycorporate job with a pension
before it was the cool thing todo in the pandemic.
(23:12):
I had been building my businessso much.
I had set a date late 2019 thatmy quit date was gonna be March
13th and that my last day wasgonna be April 4th.
I had this,
Caroline (23:23):
Wow.
Natalie Siston (23:24):
Written down, I think like at the time, I
changed all my passwords to likeApril 4th.
'cause I wanted that to bereinforced to me every day.
And then on the morning of March13th, I was in our home gym with
my husband and he said, do youthink today's the day to do
this?
And I said, I've been working sohard, I can't keep doing all the
things.
He's like, no, no.
I mean like, you're gonna dothis, but today, like the day
(23:46):
our governor is gonna shut ourstate down, like is today that
I'm like, oh, I see what you'resaying.
I said, okay.
Maybe not today.
So I held out for a couple moremonths, and I'm glad I did
because this is where PositiveIntelligence came into my life.
Caroline (24:01):
Oh, do tell.
How did that...
Natalie Siston (24:03):
for anyone who has not listened to Caroline's
episode on Mental Fitness, pauseright now.
Come back to this, listen tothat episode and come back.
'cause then you'll understandyou'll fill the gap for
yourself.
But in January of 2020, I wasinvited to take the Positive
Intelligence app guided mentalfitness program with one of my
coaches that I was working withat the time.
He interviewed Positiveintelligence's CEO.
(24:25):
Shirzad Chamine on his podcast.
Shirzad so gracious.
He always is like, Hey, havepeople experienced this work?
And I said, well, I think thisfeels like I, you know, it's
something I can do for my job'cause it's coaching.
So yeah, let's do this.
And Caroline, if I can tell youwithin two weeks, like I felt
different as a human would be anunderstatement.
I just felt an immediatetransformation.
(24:47):
I mean, I listened to yoursfolks.
I'm just gonna give you thepunchline.
Caroline's like blood pressurewent down 20 points after doing
this.
Caroline (24:54):
Yes.
Yes.
Natalie Siston (24:55):
does that?
Caroline (24:56):
and I did it because I was transitioning from stable
established career into takingthis leap that I felt like I was
made for, and that, you know,gosh, God, why?
Why didn't you make somebody whocould support candidates all
throughout their careers?
Why didn't you do that?
And it was like, ha ha habecause I made you.
And I was getting that messagevery clearly.
(25:18):
And then I saw thisadvertisement for coaches and a
coaching grant.
And I was like, grant?
yes.
Sign me up for this grant.
Why not?
And I'm thinking, I'm just gonnatake a couple month program and
have some more, you know,accolades of things that I could
pull from.
And it changed my lifeprofoundly.
(25:41):
So much so that I thought.
This is the missing link.
This is the thing.
And I had had such an aversionto mental anything aside from
using my mind to do things.
And my head had beendisconnected my connected, yet
disconnected.
And then this was finallyintegrating more.
(26:03):
So I had done some therapy andthings for years, but I didn't
have as much of you know,recognizing there was something
you wanted to change logicallyknowing that you could, you
know, could change something,but then actually having the
practical tools to do it makenew neural pathways in your
brain.
Wait, what?
(26:25):
that alone, not medicinechanges, not anything else.
My top number of my bloodpressure had gone down 20
points.
And of course then, know the thebeautiful thing about having a
grant and allowing coaches toexperience this is then they do
want to sign on and have all,all their people to do it too.
(27:30):
Okay, so you do this program,you realize it's amazing.
How did you then become part ofthat program?
Natalie Siston (27:39):
Oh my gosh, just luck meet meeting opportunity,
right?
In the early days of thepandemic, well, I was doing
weekly videos, so part of mywhole like path toward my own
self-employment was I was amassive content creator, because
that's what I could do in myfringe hours, working a
full-time job and so.
One of the content I did was Idid a weekly video and my weekly
video at the end of March, 2020was What's Getting Me Through
(28:02):
the Pandemic?
And I said like, oh, takingmidday walks with my kids,
watching slapstick guinea pigvideos on YouTube.
And I held up the PositiveIntelligence book and I said, in
doing this work,'cause it's notreading the book, let's be
clear, doing the.
Not the work doing the work isthe work.
You and I know what the work is.
It's not hard work, it's justyou gotta do it.
And so I said I notice on dayswhen I'm doing the work, I feel
(28:24):
better when days I don't.
And I tagged Shirzad andPositive Intelligence in the
post.
And at this point, the company'sstill really young and the
coaching grant program had juststarted.
And you know, I'm the leader ofa coaching department at a big
Fortune 100 company, so theyreached out to me just to be
like, Hey, can we talk aboutyour experience and I formed a
(28:45):
really amazing relationship withBill Carmody, the Chief Coaching
Officer, and he allowed me tohave my coaches that I led at
the time experience the programand then.
I kept telling him like, Hey,listen, you know, try not, I
don't want you guys to thinkyou're the into this company
because I'm planning to leave.
It's just this pandemic has kindof put the brakes on it.
He said, well, why don't youcome work for us?
(29:07):
He's like, I know you'rebuilding and you're creating on
your side.
Just come work for us part-time.
We really need help.
And I said, okay, well what doyou need help with?
And what would that look like?
And he's like, really?
Anything.
So.
Amazing
Caroline (29:19):
Is that?
Natalie Siston (29:20):
And so what I ended up doing is over the past
five years, I have touched aboutevery single area of the
company.
I came in and I helped thembuild out their coaching program
and on the back end of that,hired a coaching operations
leader, and then in 2021, Istepped in to help build out
their B2B part of their businessand led client success.
And have done, I mean, just tonsof things.
(29:42):
So I see, I tell people, I'mlike, I was there when the Zoom
screen had four people on itwith like the leadership team
meeting.
And now when we have an allhands meeting, you know, it's
anywhere from 50 to 70 peopledepending on who can come live
because we have a global team.
And so I have been working withthem in different capacities for
the past five years and thisyear I stepped into my dream
(30:03):
role for them, which is theirlead global presenter.
So I have literally goneinternationally to present on
the behalf of PositiveIntelligence for companies,
organizations, conferences, whowanna hear this message, and
then hopefully from there havetheir members or their team
experience the work, thePositive Intelligence work.
(30:24):
So I'm doing that in combinationwith all of the work that I
started on my own in 2020, whichmuch like you is coaching.
So I do, you know, I have a, Ihold a small coaching portfolio
and then in 2020 I also wrote abook.
So I had written the book.
The book was, the draft was donewhen I started working for and
with Positive Intelligence.
And so I kind of lived theselike parallel lives over the
(30:45):
past five years.
It's been this work that I'vedone to help build mental
fitness'cause it's so compellingand so important and it's so
intrinsically connected to mybody of work which is the book I
wrote is called Let Her Out: Reclaim Who You've Always Been (30:56):
undefined
and even listening.
Yay.
Caroline (31:01):
Here's the book.
Natalie Siston (31:02):
Oh, and even listening to you, Caroline, on
some of your podcast episodes,it's so tightly connected to the
work you're doing because at theend of the day, and it goes back
to where you said, you know,what did you do as a child?
What did you know?
How did you.
How did you know who you reallywere?
And I think so many of us in thegrind of the day to day in the
desire to provide for ourfamilies in the, you know, was
(31:26):
living up to other people'sexpectations versus our own.
We typically lose that person.
And that's where the idea forthis book came from.
It was actually a failed TEDxtalk.
I presented it to be at a TEDxconference and it was rejected.
So I said, okay, I'll see yourTEDx rejection.
I submitted to otherconferences, got accepted.
(31:46):
All those events were canceledbecause of COVID.
I said, okay, well I see youcanceled conferences.
I'll just write a book.
Caroline (31:52):
It's gift an opportunity.
Every circumstance you canaccept it or convert it.
So you, because you had maybebeen doing this thing.
Was that part of the resilience,or you just had always been
resilient?
You tell me.
No, I'm gonna find a way.
Yes.
Natalie Siston (32:09):
I think I inherently, I've always been
resilient, but I think there wasalways this part of me that
needed a little more externalvalidation.
And I think in 2020 is when Idecided to let that go.
Caroline (32:21):
Okay.
Natalie Siston (32:21):
I think that was really where I said, because it,
you, you know, you've done the,you've done the work it to let
go of a very secure job and Idon't know what job is secure,
right?
Like.
I'm
Caroline (32:33):
Yeah.
Natalie Siston (32:33):
inclined to believe that more and more, but
I feel like I was in a placethat I could have made a 30 year
career.
But there was just the pool andthe call and it came from no one
else's validation except my ownto say, I know this is possible.
I see a vision for myself andfor the work that I'm doing.
That's, that can't happen inparallel with working a
(32:55):
full-time job.
I have been able to make thathappen.
And so it's just really, reallycool to see the work of both
Positive Intelligence and LetHer Out almost five years later
be in this really blossomingstate where I would not look
back five years ago and thinkthis is what has happened now.
(33:15):
There's so many things that havehappened in the last five years
that there's no way any crystalball I would've ever looked into
would've displayed these things.
Caroline (33:24):
And so now from this vantage point, what do you want
your future to look like?
Like where do you go from here?
You're already, you've gotamazing clients position,
bestselling book, super helpful,impacting so many lives, helping
with Positive Intelligence.
Like what else is on yourhorizon of thinking what you'd
(33:44):
love your life to be like andhow your career can fuel it.
Natalie Siston (33:47):
Oh, that's a great question.
I feel like I'm being coachedright now, Caroline.
No, it's great.
It's great.
This is 2025 has been a pivotyear for me, and I'm not sure if
this is something I'm intendingto do every five years because
that's.
Sort of when I was 35 is when Ihired the coach.
2020, when I turned 40 is when Ileft the corporate world and did
all this.
And now I'm 45 and 2025.
So who knows if I'm an everyfive year person, but I decided
(34:10):
intentionally that 2020 wasgonna be another, not a pivot
year.
Another level, as I call it, mylevel up year.
I actually have my, I'm lookingat it, my level up one week, one
day at a time plan in front ofme.
But this year I hired support.
So I brought on an amazingonline business manager.
She's more than a virtualassistant.
She's amazing and I have a veryamazing coach who I work with.
(34:35):
I firmly believe all coachesshould be coached themselves,
and I've just decided that, youknow, okay, I have.
I've proven what's possible.
I've also gotten myself out ofall the administrative,
managerial, operational tasks ofboth my own work and that of
Positive Intelligence and thathas taken a while because when
you're building all of thesethings, you need to be in it.
(34:55):
You need to see how things workto then train up and hire behind
you.
But I've done that for my ownbusiness and so you will see a
huge new rebrand coming thissummer and a new keynote coming
out in September and otherprograms and offers being put
out into the world for peoplewho are like, Hey, I wanna kind
of experiment on my own.
(35:15):
So it's a fun, I'm back increation mode, Caroline.
And that's what's exciting forme because I've been in the
grind again over the past coupleof years.
That's where I've needed to be.
And now 2025 is all about backin creation and above all
things.
It's about being of service andbeing in collaboration, whether
that's speaking to somebody likeyou and making sure this gets
(35:37):
out into the world, or justhaving those conversations about
what could it look like to fillin the blank.
I've been very open to thatdialogue with so many different
people this year.
Caroline (35:49):
Can you tease, is your company name changing or what is
the...
Natalie Siston (35:53):
Yeah, I, well, so I'm actually going to who I
am.
I, when I started my business in2016, I called it Small Town
Leadership, and it comes, goesright back to where we started
this conversation.
Everything I learned to besuccessful as a leader came from
growing up in a town of 600people and I, that platform was
so great for me for the last 10years.
It created so much blog content,connections with people, really
(36:15):
reaffirming who I am as a personand a leader.
And now I've quite frankly,outgrown that.
I don't want my identity to beabout small town anymore.
And so I am just gonna be atNatalieSiston.com
Caroline (36:28):
Nice.
Yeah.
You are the brand.
That's what so many people say,like you are the brand.
So NatalieSiston.com So whoworks with you?
How do they work with you?
Help us understand that andwhere can they find you?
Natalie Siston (36:41):
Yeah.
There are two main audiences Iwork.
One is anyone who's planning anevent where my speaking services
could be of value, and so I workwith a lot of women's
associations, women'sconferences.
I'll come in and keynote orworkshop about Let Her Out.
Of course, I'm delivering mentalfitness keynotes and webinars
and workshops on behalf ofPositive Intelligence and then.
(37:02):
Okay.
I'll just say what my newkeynote's gonna be here.
Caroline, I haven't shared thiswith anybody yet but,
Caroline (37:07):
we are so lucky.
Natalie Siston (37:09):
it's, but my new keynote is called Permission
Granted.
Caroline (37:13):
Oh, I love it.
Natalie Siston (37:14):
And it will flex to the audience that it needs to
flex to because it could be asales team saying, Hey, I want
our sales team to really feellike they've got full permission
to go be creative in how theyexplore our market, how they
explore new markets.
It could be a career developmentday where it's, how do I really
know that I have, I am the onlyperson who has to give my
(37:34):
permission about my career.
So I'm very excited because whatI found over the past several
months and definitely, but eventhe past couple years, so many
people either come to me as acoaching client seeking
permission, and they don't needmy, no one needs my permission.
You don't need my permission.
But inherently, many of us havewired ourselves because of our
(37:56):
saboteurs, our negative mentalthinking patterns that we need
to have that permission.
And so I want this to be a bodyof work that will really unleash
to people to say, You are theonly person who needs to give
yourself permission.
So the plan is for this to turninto also my second book and
other types of fun.
I've got a lot of, I have a highrestless saboteur.
(38:17):
So for those of you who arelike, what are these words
you're talking about?
Go listen to the other episode.
But it means that I can be a bitof a swirling dervish, but it
also means when channeled right.
My capacity and creativity arejust on fire, and so I'm so
excited about PermissionGranted, it was a light bulb
moment that happened when I wasworking with a branding coach,
and it was just like electricityhappened in the room and we
(38:39):
said, this is it.
Caroline (38:40):
Oh, that's so amazing.
This has been such an exciting,wonderful conversation.
I've learned so much more aboutyou and, and even more depth
behind the story.
So I definitely appreciate that.
Natalie Siston (38:56):
Yeah.
Caroline (38:56):
I'm big on authentic success and authentic success, I
believe is however you define itto be.
how do you define authenticsuccess in this moment?
Natalie Siston (39:08):
Authentic success is when you can show up
to whatever space it is thatyou're occupying, whether that
be your professional space oryour personal space, and you are
completely who you are.
There's no false front.
There's no shaking your head yeswhen inside your screaming no.
it's, you are aligned.
There's no inconsistencies.
(39:29):
It's like if we were to put alitmus paper in your body, it
would just be white.
There would be no red or bluehappening.
It's like, okay, you areneutralized across yourself
'cause you're not pretending tobe somebody who you're not.
Caroline (39:42):
Oh,
Natalie Siston (39:42):
I
Caroline (39:42):
love it.
Natalie Siston (39:43):
cool.
Caroline (39:43):
You've Let Her Out.
Natalie Siston (39:45):
Exactly.
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
And for people who areinterested in like, how can I
work?
How can I do that?
Grab the book, grab the audiobook.
It's a four step process to helpyou Let Her Out.
and if that's not your cup oftea, you know, Caroline's your
person, like she's got anamazing roadmap and process for
you to do this as well.
Caroline (40:07):
I appreciate you so much.
Thank you, Natalie, for all ofyour time, all of the wisdom,
and the links will be in theshow notes everyone.
So be sure to check outNatalie's work, get her book and
look for her next PermissionGranted work.
So thank you so much, Natalie.
Natalie Siston (40:22):
I appreciate you.
Thanks, Caroline.
Caroline (40:24):
Thank you.
Natalie's story is a reminderthat transformation doesn't
require a dramatic break.
It can unfold through consistentaction, clear intention, and a
deep trust in what's possible.
You can explore her work atNatalieSiston.com.
Get her book Let Her Out, and beon the lookout for an upcoming
(40:46):
keynote and her second book.
The links are in the show notes.
If this episode spoke tosomething in you, if you are
standing at your own edge,wondering what might be next,
download the Free NavigatingCareer Transitions workbook at
Nextsuccesscareers.com.
It's designed to help youclarify what matters and take
the next aligned step.
(41:08):
Thanks for listening.
Until next time.
You already have the experience,the insight, and the creativity
to build What's next?
Your next success is waiting tounfold.
Thanks for listening to YourNext Success with Dr.
Caroline Sangal.
Remember, authentic success isyours to define and includes
(41:29):
aligning your career to supportthe life you want.
What if the thing you've beencalled to build has been quietly
revealing itself through yourwhole career?
Today I'm joined by someone whobrings energy, strategy and
heart into everything she does,Natalie Siston.
Caroline (00:22):
This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I'm your
host, Dr.
Caroline Sangal.
I'm a life first career coachand strategist on a mission to
normalize questioning yourcareer because I believe each of
us is made on purpose for apurpose only we can fulfill.
The longer we live out ofalignment with who we are, what
(00:43):
we do best, and why we're here,the more we miss out.
And the more the world missesout on what only we can give.
The Your Next Success Podcast iswhere we explore how to build a
career that truly fuels yourlife.
We talk about self-discovery,smart job, search strategies,
(01:04):
professional growth, and you'llhear stories from people who've
navigated big career transitionsthemselves so you can see what
it's really like to make boldchanges and feel inspired to
create your own version ofauthentic success, one that is
aligned, meaningful, and trulyyours.
(01:26):
Natalie is a leadership expert,keynote speaker, certified
coach, and the lead globalpresenter for Positive
Intelligence.
She's also the author of thebestselling book, Let Her Out
Reclaim Who You've Always Been.
Her career spans highereducation, Fortune 100
leadership, coaching, contentcreation, and her story is a
(01:50):
beautiful example of howcuriosity, clarity, and small
decisions can lead to powerfultransformations over time.
In this conversation, Natalieand I talk about how growing up
in a town of 600 people shapedher leadership style, the
breadcrumbs that led her frompsychology to coaching, to
(02:12):
entrepreneurship.
What it was like to walk awayfrom a stable corporate job to
pursue her vision, how PositiveIntelligence transformed her
life and helped her step fullyinto her mission.
The origin of her book Let HerOut and why Permission Granted
is her next calling.
(02:33):
This episode is for anyone who'squietly been building something
and is ready to give themselvesfull permission to go all in.
Welcome, Natalie, to Your NextSuccess.
I am so thrilled and excited forthis conversation that I'm
getting to have with you in thismoment.
So thank you for being here.
Natalie Siston (02:53):
I'm very excited.
I think we're gonna have a veryenergetic and information filled
and hopefully very inspirationalconversation for your listeners.
Caroline (03:01):
As you know, part of my desire for this podcast is to
help people understand the storybehind the story of people's
careers and their journeys.
So I'd love to kind ofunderstand from you, tell us how
your journey began.
Where did you grow up?
What were you interested in?
What did you think you wanted todo?
Natalie Siston (03:22):
Oh my gosh.
I think this is gonna come upthroughout because I think we're
all dropping breadcrumbs ourentire lives and it almost takes
you being in a career for 20 or25 years to zoom back and be
like, okay, I see it and we'lltalk a bit about my book.
And that was really theinflection point for me to look
back at all the breadcrumbs I'vecollected.
(03:42):
But I think where I grew up isextremely important to the story
of my life.
I grew up in a town calledRepublic, Ohio, USA for those
who may be listeninginternationally, and that is a
town of 600 people, Caroline.
It is the place where everybodyknows everybody and everybody's
business, and I learned from anearly age that there are
(04:03):
typically two types of peoplegrowing up in that type of town.
They hate it because they don'twant people all up in their
stuff and knowing their businessand being told on, and tattled
on'cause this is back in the daywhen you had a party line phones
and no, you know, no digitaldevice or wifi.
And quite frankly, where I grewup, like only recently got like
high speed internet becausethat's how rural it tends to be.
(04:26):
But at any rate, I was on theopposite spectrum of that.
I really appreciated growing upin a small town.
I appreciated knowing people.
I appreciated people knowing whoI was, who my family was, what
was happening.
And I've carried that with methroughout my life and my career
like so much so, I live in abrand new neighborhood.
My husband and I built a housetwo years ago, and they're still
building around us.
(04:47):
And a family moved in down thestreet a couple months ago,
Caroline and I have not yetintroduced myself to them, and I
feel horrible.
Every time I go by, and it'slike, I feel like our world has
turned to this place.
Like, oh, I don't wanna imposewhen I know for sure that those
people are probably, wouldgladly, you know, open the door
of their home.
And so I've made it my goal,like this month I will make sure
I do that, because it'simportant for people to know
(05:09):
they're welcomed.
But that's where I grew up andit's created a lot of who I am.
It took me living in a lot ofdifferent places, different
sizes of cities, geographies,working with different people to
really appreciate it.
Caroline (05:22):
Fun fact, I grew up in Danville, Ohio, at least from
first through sixth grade, sothat was, I think right around a
thousand people.
But I appreciated that smalltown environment.
For me, they were verywelcoming.
I also learned very quickly youhad to be careful of who you
decided to maybe complain aboutbecause it's somebody's cousin,
(05:46):
like everybody's somebody'scousin.
They're all related.
You have to be very positive,upbeat all the time, and deal
with any conflict internally.
Natalie Siston (05:55):
Or just be ready for the backlash if you indeed
stepped on the toe of the townsheriff or something like that.
You know?
Caroline (06:02):
Absolutely.
So that's cool.
And so when you were growing up,what kinds of activities, what
kinds of things did you do?
Or did you have a thought thatwhen I grow up, I want to X, Y,
Z?
Natalie Siston (06:15):
Yeah.
So let's start dropping thebreadcrumbs for your audience
'cause we'll get through the,the path as we have our
conversation today.
I was always interested in humanbehavior from the time I was a
little kid.
And what I also learned growingup in a small town is when you
don't see something you don'tknow it's possible.
So growing up.
I thought that I would be ateacher, or I thought I would be
(06:37):
a lawyer, or I thought I wouldbe a newspaper writer.
These are all things that Iwrote for my local paper growing
up.
I shadowed an attorney.
so I saw people doing this thingand I thought, okay, these are
the boxes I need to go into.
So going into college, I thoughtI was gonna be pre-law with a
journalism major and politicalscience.
That was my, like, I was gonnado this and.
(06:59):
It didn't take me long torealize that I didn't wanna be
an attorney.
I worked in the state governmentin Ohio for a while and realized
things move really, reallyslowly there and I don't want to
live a slow life.
and so I pivoted and I put adouble major in psychology into
place because back to yourquestion about growing up, did I
know?
I did science projects everyyear and that was a big deal
(07:22):
growing up.
Like your science project wasthe whole thing and you had to
come up with what yourhypothesis was and what your
study is gonna look like.
And then you presented in theschool gym and if you do well
enough, you get to go onto thedistrict science fair.
And I, aside from the oneproject I did about composting,
which I think my parents hated'cause I had little boxes of
composting around our entirehouse.
(07:43):
I started doing human behaviorprojects.
I did things like siblingpsychology.
Does the number of siblings youhave affect your whatever and
fill in the blank?
And then color psychology.
does the color you're aware thecolor you're studying or sitting
under have an effect.
I did something on age andpsychology, it's funny to me
looking back like, well, didn'tyou, I should have known
(08:04):
obviously that I would major inpsychology from the work I did
as a kid.
'cause no science teacher wassaying, Hey, do these psychology
based projects, they.
Caroline (08:14):
I didn't even know, honestly, I was probably in my
thirties before I realized thatthere were things that were
science beyond the hard sciencesthat I chose.
Literally, I did not know.
I think I had such an aversionto maybe dealing with some of
the things that I had kind ofblocked.
(08:35):
I never took psychology, I nevertook any of that.
you know, I thought genuinely,because that's kind of in the
environment that I grow up with,that anybody who had maybe
mental challenges werechallenged people.
Not that every person has thisthing.
So the fact that you also grewup in small town Ohio, science
(08:56):
was pretty, It was imparted onme, at least in mine, that, you
know, this is something girlscan do.
This is something girls would beable to do.
Recognize that for a long from ayoung age, but I didn't know.
I didn't know that softersciences are still science and
it's all just one bigexperiment.
Natalie Siston (09:12):
It is, we are all living one giant experiment
is how I like to think of daysthat feel particularly hard.
Maybe that's my copingmechanisms, like this big
experiment and what variable arewe gonna test today, right?
Caroline (09:23):
Yeah.
Natalie Siston (09:24):
What I also appreciated about growing up, I
have one older sister and I havetwo parents working full time
when I grew up.
And we always had dinnertogether in the moments we
could.
'cause, you know, as we gotolder and busier, it didn't
always happen.
But my parents always talkedabout their work and I was a
geek like
Caroline (09:42):
they do?
Natalie Siston (09:43):
my mom was, she started off as like a secretary
and admin at a bank and thenmoved on to support our churches
regional office, and then herultimate career, she spent her
last 20 years at the localpublic library.
Where she started in a, like afiscal administrative position
and she ended up, I call it theCOO position for, it's like,
(10:04):
that was, it wasn't her title,but that's what she did.
And so it was really cool to seemy mom, you know, with a two
year college education, do thatkind of work.
And then my dad, always workedin like factories.
you know, assembly based work?
And my dad was in and out ofwork growing up and that I
didn't realize until I got olderabout how much of an effect that
had on me.
(10:24):
because I learned a lot aboutwhat's hard about work from my
dad's stories.
We can come back to him a littlebit in our conversation today,
but I just, I was alwaysinterested and intrigued about
the colleagues and therelationships.
And so when I took my firstorganizational behavioral
psychology class in college, Iwas staying after one day to, I
don't know, like just use thedesk to write notes.
(10:46):
And the teacher stayed and he'slike, you know, you're really
intuitive about this.
You really get this stuff.
And I wish, Caroline, so ifthere are moments, so for all
your listeners of like, they'rethe moments where people are
like, okay, that's.
The day she decided she wasgonna do this, I didn't.
I ignored him.
I just took the compliment and Iput my head down because I'm
like, who am I to receive thistype of feedback?
(11:08):
I was scared, I think, because Ididn't know what that meant,
because what he was suggestingwas not on my path.
I was a senior in college.
I was engaged to be married.
I was preparing to move acrossthe country, and I was like, I
can't have a variable thrown inright now.
I have so much.
And so I just took that for whatit was and got a great grade in
his class.
(11:29):
Really enjoyed it.
And then, you know, a less thana year later, married my college
sweetheart.
He was in grad school atStanford.
So I am 22 years old, movingacross the country in 2002.
So this is post whateverrecession that is into Silicon
Valley with not a tech degree.
So I sat on the couch for abouteight weeks after I moved there,
(11:53):
not eight, yeah, maybe eightweeks waiting for one of the
many, many jobs I applied for tocome to fruition and I
ultimately ended up getting areally cool job at Stanford's
Alumni Association.
So I'm the type of person where,my parents didn't graduate from
four year colleges, so my sisterand I are first generation
college grads and I like, lovedher, watching her experience at
(12:14):
a very small liberal arts schoolin Ohio called Baldwin Wallace.
I went to The Ohio StateUniversity, so at the time, the
largest campus in the country totalk about opposite worlds from
small town to the biggestcollege.
so I'm, you know, going acrosscountry as a 22-year-old, no
job, brand new husband.
We were actually living in hisadvisor's house, house sitting,
(12:34):
so we didn't even have our ownplace.
I'm like, oh my gosh, what'shappening?
Caroline (12:38):
How amazing is that though, because that's a lot
better furnishings than you
Natalie Siston (12:42):
True.
True True.
true, Yeah.
Yeah And then when I got thejob, we then quickly started to
go furniture shopping and likeuse their front room to like
store things in.
Yeah.
We laugh a lot'cause I considermyself to be very successful and
very fortunate.
Same with him.
And we've joked with our kids alot.
We're like, you know, when we,when we got married, we had two
things.
We had love and debt.
(13:02):
You know, so we're like,everything we have built around
us, we have, we've built andwe're really like proud of that.
And so at any rate, I ended upworking, at the Stanford's
Alumni Association while myhusband finished his degree.
And I had an amazing time.
I mean, if I could go back andrelive a job, that would be it.
Just because of the people I wassurrounded the fun work, it was
(13:24):
always intellectuallystimulating.
So that's, that's what I did formy, the beginning of my, my
career.
Caroline (13:31):
It's amazing.
And then how did that transitionleaving the Stanford position
and or how long were you thereand then what'd you do?
Natalie Siston (13:41):
Yeah.
And once again, good questionsto ask and for people seeking
mentorship and such.
So because college was socrucial to where I feel like I
ended up in my life, I thoughtit was just natural that I work
in higher education.
So at this point I thought,well, my husband will always
work in higher education as aprofessor, so I should, I'll
naturally just always work atthe college where he is.
And so this was just what Ithought.
(14:01):
I was planning to go get amasters in higher education.
And I was talking to one of mymentors from undergrad, Felix,
and he said to me, he's like,just time out.
He said, I would actuallyencourage you to get a different
kind of master's degree.
And I said, oh, well say more'cause you have that degree.
What?
And I, it's funny to hear yousay, he is like, I would
recommend you get an MBA.
(14:22):
And I said, oh, okay.
Tell me why.
He's like, well, you can alwayswork in higher education with an
MBA, but you can't always gowork in business with a master's
in higher education.
And I'm like, okay.
And at the same time, the CEO ofStanford, the president of
Stanford's Alumni Association,he said to me.
You know, have you thought aboutgetting your MBA?
(14:42):
And I had not.
That was never, nothing ever onmy list of thinking about
getting an MBA and so Iactually, started applying to
MBA programs as my husband wasgetting ready to graduate with
his PhD and ended up gettinginto my alma mater Ohio State on
a full fellowship and then starsaligned and he actually got a
faculty job at Ohio State, whichis where he still is.
(15:02):
And this is very unusual.
Most people do not go back totheir alma mater to teach.
And so we're we just, we havepinch me moments quite a bit.
Caroline (15:11):
What does he teach?
What is his, his area?
Natalie Siston (15:13):
He's the chair of the mechanical and aerospace
engineering department.
Caroline (15:18):
So cool,
Natalie Siston (15:19):
Yeah.
Caroline (15:20):
So cool.
Okay, so you're at Stanford.
You get these seeds planted thatmaybe you do wanna go back to
school.
Stars align.
You get to come back to the areathat you know and love.
You go to grad school to getyour MBA.
He starts a faculty position andlife is amazing.
(15:40):
Then what?
Natalie Siston (15:42):
So then I jumped right back into almost where
that conversation left off withthat professor who said, you
know, you're really good at thisstuff.
And so I really jumped back intothe organizational behavior.
I thought I would go into HR.
I thought I would go into sometype of people ops role, and
here's what I learned in my MBAprogram.
(16:02):
No one hires interns for that.
And if they do, they either payvery little or pay nothing.
And once again, remember ourconversation.
My husband still, and I had loveand debt and I'm like, this is,
this is ridiculous.
My classmates are getting$10,000a month internship offers.
And I'm being told, oh, you go,we'd be happy to have you, but
(16:22):
we can't pay you.
And I'm, and I still, to thisday, it drives me crazy.
I want people to earn theirworth.
You should not be doing freework unless it's for a very
specific reason.
So I ended up taking a marketinginternship over the summer for a
big brand, and I was so good atit, Caroline, so good at it, and
(16:43):
I hated it.
I hated it.
I mean, they were like.
Caroline (16:47):
You can be successful by all external measures and
still not be happy that orfulfilled and when you hated it,
help me understand like, whatdid that feel like?
What did that look like, and didyou listen?
Natalie Siston (17:02):
Oh yes, I, well, thankfully I did listen and I'll
tell you where I ended up andwhy that was a great decision.
I knew, I hate, and it's hard tosay'cause if anyone who I worked
with at that period of time,like lovely humans, they were
working.
I don't know, 12, 14 hour days,and I don't know what it was.
It's always something about mehas been I need work life
balance.
(17:23):
And I know we throw that termaround a lot, but to me that
means I am not chaining myselfto a desk for 12 hours.
I'll happily go home, get backonline if I need that type of
thing.
But I saw people in the officewhen I came in.
Still there and sending emailstwo hours later.
I'm like, hmm, that's red flagnumber one.
Because I was also, my husbandand I were planning to start a
family soon, and we knew thatthat would be hard.
(17:44):
And then just the, like, thework, I didn't enjoy the work.
There wasn't a calling there.
Caroline (17:48):
Okay.
Natalie Siston (17:49):
Yeah, so at any rate, I got a great offer.
They were like, we love you.
Will you come work for us fulltime?
And that's the dream, right?
That's why you do an internshipin an MBA program is to get a
great job offer so you can justenjoy the heck outta your second
year of the program.
Caroline (18:02):
Yes.
Natalie Siston (18:03):
And I sat on the offer because I knew it wasn't
right.
And then a financial servicescompany in Columbus was starting
a rotational program that yearcalled in a group of people to
interview and I was like, youknow, I have nothing to lose.
And so I went in to interviewand because I knew I had nothing
to lose, I already had a greatoffer, even if it was doing work
I didn't wanna do.
(18:24):
So I went and interviewed and Iwas my full self.
I just, I was authentic.
I didn't...
Caroline (18:29):
amazing.
Natalie Siston (18:31):
right.
Caroline (18:32):
and you're 20 something and you decided
already to go ahead and just beyour full self.
Natalie Siston (18:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, this didn't alwayshappen.
Like I was, yeah, I was 28 whenI graduated with my MBA, and so
I ended up taking that positionand I worked at that company for
12 years and I honestly couldstill see myself working at that
company if it were not forcoming across the work I'm doing
now in coaching, in speaking, injust helping other people find
(18:58):
their best and highest self.
Caroline (19:02):
So what was it that made you leave?
Natalie Siston (19:08):
Yeah.
Caroline (19:09):
established place that you'd been for 10 years
Natalie Siston (19:11):
Yeah.
Caroline (19:12):
What was going on and then.
How did you make the decision todo that
Natalie Siston (19:16):
Yeah.
Caroline (19:17):
next step from there?
Natalie Siston (19:18):
I get this question a lot because I think a
lot of people outside looking inare like, oh, Natalie, I wanna
live the life like you live.
I wanna know how did you makethe leap?
Right?
How did you make that decision?
And so for me, it wasn't amagical wand moment.
It wasn't an overnight knee-jerkthing.
What happened for me and I thinkit's worth kind of explaining a
few different steps in thisprocess is I attended an event
(19:42):
for high potentials at mycompany, and it was, I was
almost 35 and I was sitting byour facilitator at lunch and she
had this way about her who justmade me feel like I could share
anything with her.
And she's like, Hey, you know,tell me more about yourself.
What's going on?
Like, yeah, I'm just like, meh,you know, meh.
And she's like, I know.
(20:02):
She's like, actually, when I'mnot facilitating, I'm a coach
and I help people get throughtheir meh.
Do you wanna talk about this?
And I had never heard of thisthing.
And so I had a call with her andnervously, nervously, I went to
my manager and said, Hey, I metthis person.
And I had a very good closerelationship with my manager.
We were very transparent withher about stuff.
(20:23):
I said, would you sponsorcoaching with this person, and
she said, yes, I will do that.
So step number one, knowing Iwas at a good company, they were
willing to invest in mydevelopment, but I had to ask.
So if anyone listening here islike, oh my gosh, I would really
like to do this, but I don'tknow that I can afford it.
Ask your manager.
You never know what they'regonna say.
Just please ask.
(20:43):
And then from there, I had anamazing transformative
experience and she said to me,she's like, what were things you
enjoyed doing as a kid that youdon't do anymore?
And I said, well, as a kid, Iwas always writing and speaking.
I grew up as a lifelong 4Hmember and other kids raised
cows, and I did public speaking.
(21:04):
I've been doing public speakingsince I was eight years old.
She said, okay, well then gostart doing that.
And so our coaching ended upbeing a plan to map out what do
those, what does it look like todo that?
How do I actually take the stepsand feel confident to do that?
this was 2016, so I said I wannaspeak external to my job every
quarter.
And I did that, like easily gotthose slots filled up, just
(21:27):
coming up with topics that I wasexcited about and going to the
local chamber of commerce or thewomen's group in my town.
They were always happy to havesomeone come in and do that
speaking and a little bit pastthis experience, I was talking
to a a colleague at my companyand he said, well, you seem like
someone who would be a greatcoach yourself.
Have you thought about doingcoaching school?
(21:48):
And I said, no.
Like, no, like once again, thisdisbelief.
So other, you know, signs herelike this, this is like the
third time in my life.
I'm like, what?
Who, who am I to?
Right?
So I always like to just walk,you know, hold people by the
shoulders through the screen andsay, who am I to?
"You are, you're made for this."And he said, we have found a way
for the company to cover thetuition of this coaching
(22:10):
program.
And this coaching program is notinexpensive, like it was a five
figure investment.
And it was time.
It was time away from my family.
It was time to study.
It was time to practice, and soI went for it and I got my
coaching certification in 2017.
Started coaching clients.
The day after I got done with mycoach training, someone reached
(22:30):
out and I was like, I can coachyou.
And so I just started building acoaching practice and I started
getting paid for my speakingwhile I was working full time.
And I always was verytransparent with all of my
leaders about what I was doing.
It was never in conflict withwhat my day job was there
because I loved my jobs at thetime too.
I was doing relationshipmanagement, business development
(22:51):
work.
and my last role at the companywas as director of sales
coaching and development.
So talk about nothing would'veever happened if I hadn't
followed these breadcrumbs.
And so what, what ultimately,like where I took the leap and
made the the pivot.
happened in 2020.
I like to tell people I quit mycorporate job with a pension
before it was the cool thing todo in the pandemic.
(23:12):
I had been building my businessso much.
I had set a date late 2019 thatmy quit date was gonna be March
13th and that my last day wasgonna be April 4th.
I had this,
Caroline (23:23):
Wow.
Natalie Siston (23:24):
Written down, I think like at the time, I
changed all my passwords to likeApril 4th.
'cause I wanted that to bereinforced to me every day.
And then on the morning of March13th, I was in our home gym with
my husband and he said, do youthink today's the day to do
this?
And I said, I've been working sohard, I can't keep doing all the
things.
He's like, no, no.
I mean like, you're gonna dothis, but today, like the day
(23:46):
our governor is gonna shut ourstate down, like is today that
I'm like, oh, I see what you'resaying.
I said, okay.
Maybe not today.
So I held out for a couple moremonths, and I'm glad I did
because this is where PositiveIntelligence came into my life.
Caroline (24:01):
Oh, do tell.
How did that...
Natalie Siston (24:03):
for anyone who has not listened to Caroline's
episode on Mental Fitness, pauseright now.
Come back to this, listen tothat episode and come back.
'cause then you'll understandyou'll fill the gap for
yourself.
But in January of 2020, I wasinvited to take the Positive
Intelligence app guided mentalfitness program with one of my
coaches that I was working withat the time.
He interviewed Positiveintelligence's CEO.
(24:25):
Shirzad Chamine on his podcast.
Shirzad so gracious.
He always is like, Hey, havepeople experienced this work?
And I said, well, I think thisfeels like I, you know, it's
something I can do for my job'cause it's coaching.
So yeah, let's do this.
And Caroline, if I can tell youwithin two weeks, like I felt
different as a human would be anunderstatement.
I just felt an immediatetransformation.
(24:47):
I mean, I listened to yoursfolks.
I'm just gonna give you thepunchline.
Caroline's like blood pressurewent down 20 points after doing
this.
Caroline (24:54):
Yes.
Yes.
Natalie Siston (24:55):
does that?
Caroline (24:56):
and I did it because I was transitioning from stable
established career into takingthis leap that I felt like I was
made for, and that, you know,gosh, God, why?
Why didn't you make somebody whocould support candidates all
throughout their careers?
Why didn't you do that?
And it was like, ha ha habecause I made you.
And I was getting that messagevery clearly.
(25:18):
And then I saw thisadvertisement for coaches and a
coaching grant.
And I was like, grant?
yes.
Sign me up for this grant.
Why not?
And I'm thinking, I'm just gonnatake a couple month program and
have some more, you know,accolades of things that I could
pull from.
And it changed my lifeprofoundly.
(25:41):
So much so that I thought.
This is the missing link.
This is the thing.
And I had had such an aversionto mental anything aside from
using my mind to do things.
And my head had beendisconnected my connected, yet
disconnected.
And then this was finallyintegrating more.
(26:03):
So I had done some therapy andthings for years, but I didn't
have as much of you know,recognizing there was something
you wanted to change logicallyknowing that you could, you
know, could change something,but then actually having the
practical tools to do it makenew neural pathways in your
brain.
Wait, what?
(26:25):
that alone, not medicinechanges, not anything else.
My top number of my bloodpressure had gone down 20
points.
And of course then, know the thebeautiful thing about having a
grant and allowing coaches toexperience this is then they do
want to sign on and have all,all their people to do it too.
(27:30):
Okay, so you do this program,you realize it's amazing.
How did you then become part ofthat program?
Natalie Siston (27:39):
Oh my gosh, just luck meet meeting opportunity,
right?
In the early days of thepandemic, well, I was doing
weekly videos, so part of mywhole like path toward my own
self-employment was I was amassive content creator, because
that's what I could do in myfringe hours, working a
full-time job and so.
One of the content I did was Idid a weekly video and my weekly
video at the end of March, 2020was What's Getting Me Through
(28:02):
the Pandemic?
And I said like, oh, takingmidday walks with my kids,
watching slapstick guinea pigvideos on YouTube.
And I held up the PositiveIntelligence book and I said, in
doing this work,'cause it's notreading the book, let's be
clear, doing the.
Not the work doing the work isthe work.
You and I know what the work is.
It's not hard work, it's justyou gotta do it.
And so I said I notice on dayswhen I'm doing the work, I feel
(28:24):
better when days I don't.
And I tagged Shirzad andPositive Intelligence in the
post.
And at this point, the company'sstill really young and the
coaching grant program had juststarted.
And you know, I'm the leader ofa coaching department at a big
Fortune 100 company, so theyreached out to me just to be
like, Hey, can we talk aboutyour experience and I formed a
(28:45):
really amazing relationship withBill Carmody, the Chief Coaching
Officer, and he allowed me tohave my coaches that I led at
the time experience the programand then.
I kept telling him like, Hey,listen, you know, try not, I
don't want you guys to thinkyou're the into this company
because I'm planning to leave.
It's just this pandemic has kindof put the brakes on it.
He said, well, why don't youcome work for us?
(29:07):
He's like, I know you'rebuilding and you're creating on
your side.
Just come work for us part-time.
We really need help.
And I said, okay, well what doyou need help with?
And what would that look like?
And he's like, really?
Anything.
So.
Amazing
Caroline (29:19):
Is that?
Natalie Siston (29:20):
And so what I ended up doing is over the past
five years, I have touched aboutevery single area of the
company.
I came in and I helped thembuild out their coaching program
and on the back end of that,hired a coaching operations
leader, and then in 2021, Istepped in to help build out
their B2B part of their businessand led client success.
And have done, I mean, just tonsof things.
(29:42):
So I see, I tell people, I'mlike, I was there when the Zoom
screen had four people on itwith like the leadership team
meeting.
And now when we have an allhands meeting, you know, it's
anywhere from 50 to 70 peopledepending on who can come live
because we have a global team.
And so I have been working withthem in different capacities for
the past five years and thisyear I stepped into my dream
(30:03):
role for them, which is theirlead global presenter.
So I have literally goneinternationally to present on
the behalf of PositiveIntelligence for companies,
organizations, conferences, whowanna hear this message, and
then hopefully from there havetheir members or their team
experience the work, thePositive Intelligence work.
(30:24):
So I'm doing that in combinationwith all of the work that I
started on my own in 2020, whichmuch like you is coaching.
So I do, you know, I have a, Ihold a small coaching portfolio
and then in 2020 I also wrote abook.
So I had written the book.
The book was, the draft was donewhen I started working for and
with Positive Intelligence.
And so I kind of lived theselike parallel lives over the
(30:45):
past five years.
It's been this work that I'vedone to help build mental
fitness'cause it's so compellingand so important and it's so
intrinsically connected to mybody of work which is the book I
wrote is called Let Her Out: Reclaim Who You've Always Been (30:56):
undefined
and even listening.
Yay.
Caroline (31:01):
Here's the book.
Natalie Siston (31:02):
Oh, and even listening to you, Caroline, on
some of your podcast episodes,it's so tightly connected to the
work you're doing because at theend of the day, and it goes back
to where you said, you know,what did you do as a child?
What did you know?
How did you.
How did you know who you reallywere?
And I think so many of us in thegrind of the day to day in the
desire to provide for ourfamilies in the, you know, was
(31:26):
living up to other people'sexpectations versus our own.
We typically lose that person.
And that's where the idea forthis book came from.
It was actually a failed TEDxtalk.
I presented it to be at a TEDxconference and it was rejected.
So I said, okay, I'll see yourTEDx rejection.
I submitted to otherconferences, got accepted.
(31:46):
All those events were canceledbecause of COVID.
I said, okay, well I see youcanceled conferences.
I'll just write a book.
Caroline (31:52):
It's gift an opportunity.
Every circumstance you canaccept it or convert it.
So you, because you had maybebeen doing this thing.
Was that part of the resilience,or you just had always been
resilient?
You tell me.
No, I'm gonna find a way.
Yes.
Natalie Siston (32:09):
I think I inherently, I've always been
resilient, but I think there wasalways this part of me that
needed a little more externalvalidation.
And I think in 2020 is when Idecided to let that go.
Caroline (32:21):
Okay.
Natalie Siston (32:21):
I think that was really where I said, because it,
you, you know, you've done the,you've done the work it to let
go of a very secure job and Idon't know what job is secure,
right?
Like.
I'm
Caroline (32:33):
Yeah.
Natalie Siston (32:33):
inclined to believe that more and more, but
I feel like I was in a placethat I could have made a 30 year
career.
But there was just the pool andthe call and it came from no one
else's validation except my ownto say, I know this is possible.
I see a vision for myself andfor the work that I'm doing.
That's, that can't happen inparallel with working a
(32:55):
full-time job.
I have been able to make thathappen.
And so it's just really, reallycool to see the work of both
Positive Intelligence and LetHer Out almost five years later
be in this really blossomingstate where I would not look
back five years ago and thinkthis is what has happened now.
(33:15):
There's so many things that havehappened in the last five years
that there's no way any crystalball I would've ever looked into
would've displayed these things.
Caroline (33:24):
And so now from this vantage point, what do you want
your future to look like?
Like where do you go from here?
You're already, you've gotamazing clients position,
bestselling book, super helpful,impacting so many lives, helping
with Positive Intelligence.
Like what else is on yourhorizon of thinking what you'd
(33:44):
love your life to be like andhow your career can fuel it.
Natalie Siston (33:47):
Oh, that's a great question.
I feel like I'm being coachedright now, Caroline.
No, it's great.
It's great.
This is 2025 has been a pivotyear for me, and I'm not sure if
this is something I'm intendingto do every five years because
that's.
Sort of when I was 35 is when Ihired the coach.
2020, when I turned 40 is when Ileft the corporate world and did
all this.
And now I'm 45 and 2025.
So who knows if I'm an everyfive year person, but I decided
(34:10):
intentionally that 2020 wasgonna be another, not a pivot
year.
Another level, as I call it, mylevel up year.
I actually have my, I'm lookingat it, my level up one week, one
day at a time plan in front ofme.
But this year I hired support.
So I brought on an amazingonline business manager.
She's more than a virtualassistant.
She's amazing and I have a veryamazing coach who I work with.
(34:35):
I firmly believe all coachesshould be coached themselves,
and I've just decided that, youknow, okay, I have.
I've proven what's possible.
I've also gotten myself out ofall the administrative,
managerial, operational tasks ofboth my own work and that of
Positive Intelligence and thathas taken a while because when
you're building all of thesethings, you need to be in it.
(34:55):
You need to see how things workto then train up and hire behind
you.
But I've done that for my ownbusiness and so you will see a
huge new rebrand coming thissummer and a new keynote coming
out in September and otherprograms and offers being put
out into the world for peoplewho are like, Hey, I wanna kind
of experiment on my own.
(35:15):
So it's a fun, I'm back increation mode, Caroline.
And that's what's exciting forme because I've been in the
grind again over the past coupleof years.
That's where I've needed to be.
And now 2025 is all about backin creation and above all
things.
It's about being of service andbeing in collaboration, whether
that's speaking to somebody likeyou and making sure this gets
(35:37):
out into the world, or justhaving those conversations about
what could it look like to fillin the blank.
I've been very open to thatdialogue with so many different
people this year.
Caroline (35:49):
Can you tease, is your company name changing or what is
the...
Natalie Siston (35:53):
Yeah, I, well, so I'm actually going to who I
am.
I, when I started my business in2016, I called it Small Town
Leadership, and it comes, goesright back to where we started
this conversation.
Everything I learned to besuccessful as a leader came from
growing up in a town of 600people and I, that platform was
so great for me for the last 10years.
It created so much blog content,connections with people, really
(36:15):
reaffirming who I am as a personand a leader.
And now I've quite frankly,outgrown that.
I don't want my identity to beabout small town anymore.
And so I am just gonna be atNatalieSiston.com
Caroline (36:28):
Nice.
Yeah.
You are the brand.
That's what so many people say,like you are the brand.
So NatalieSiston.com So whoworks with you?
How do they work with you?
Help us understand that andwhere can they find you?
Natalie Siston (36:41):
Yeah.
There are two main audiences Iwork.
One is anyone who's planning anevent where my speaking services
could be of value, and so I workwith a lot of women's
associations, women'sconferences.
I'll come in and keynote orworkshop about Let Her Out.
Of course, I'm delivering mentalfitness keynotes and webinars
and workshops on behalf ofPositive Intelligence and then.
(37:02):
Okay.
I'll just say what my newkeynote's gonna be here.
Caroline, I haven't shared thiswith anybody yet but,
Caroline (37:07):
we are so lucky.
Natalie Siston (37:09):
it's, but my new keynote is called Permission
Granted.
Caroline (37:13):
Oh, I love it.
Natalie Siston (37:14):
And it will flex to the audience that it needs to
flex to because it could be asales team saying, Hey, I want
our sales team to really feellike they've got full permission
to go be creative in how theyexplore our market, how they
explore new markets.
It could be a career developmentday where it's, how do I really
know that I have, I am the onlyperson who has to give my
(37:34):
permission about my career.
So I'm very excited because whatI found over the past several
months and definitely, but eventhe past couple years, so many
people either come to me as acoaching client seeking
permission, and they don't needmy, no one needs my permission.
You don't need my permission.
But inherently, many of us havewired ourselves because of our
(37:56):
saboteurs, our negative mentalthinking patterns that we need
to have that permission.
And so I want this to be a bodyof work that will really unleash
to people to say, You are theonly person who needs to give
yourself permission.
So the plan is for this to turninto also my second book and
other types of fun.
I've got a lot of, I have a highrestless saboteur.
(38:17):
So for those of you who arelike, what are these words
you're talking about?
Go listen to the other episode.
But it means that I can be a bitof a swirling dervish, but it
also means when channeled right.
My capacity and creativity arejust on fire, and so I'm so
excited about PermissionGranted, it was a light bulb
moment that happened when I wasworking with a branding coach,
and it was just like electricityhappened in the room and we
(38:39):
said, this is it.
Caroline (38:40):
Oh, that's so amazing.
This has been such an exciting,wonderful conversation.
I've learned so much more aboutyou and, and even more depth
behind the story.
So I definitely appreciate that.
Natalie Siston (38:56):
Yeah.
Caroline (38:56):
I'm big on authentic success and authentic success, I
believe is however you define itto be.
how do you define authenticsuccess in this moment?
Natalie Siston (39:08):
Authentic success is when you can show up
to whatever space it is thatyou're occupying, whether that
be your professional space oryour personal space, and you are
completely who you are.
There's no false front.
There's no shaking your head yeswhen inside your screaming no.
it's, you are aligned.
There's no inconsistencies.
(39:29):
It's like if we were to put alitmus paper in your body, it
would just be white.
There would be no red or bluehappening.
It's like, okay, you areneutralized across yourself
'cause you're not pretending tobe somebody who you're not.
Caroline (39:42):
Oh,
Natalie Siston (39:42):
I
Caroline (39:42):
love it.
Natalie Siston (39:43):
cool.
Caroline (39:43):
You've Let Her Out.
Natalie Siston (39:45):
Exactly.
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
And for people who areinterested in like, how can I
work?
How can I do that?
Grab the book, grab the audiobook.
It's a four step process to helpyou Let Her Out.
and if that's not your cup oftea, you know, Caroline's your
person, like she's got anamazing roadmap and process for
you to do this as well.
Caroline (40:07):
I appreciate you so much.
Thank you, Natalie, for all ofyour time, all of the wisdom,
and the links will be in theshow notes everyone.
So be sure to check outNatalie's work, get her book and
look for her next PermissionGranted work.
So thank you so much, Natalie.
Natalie Siston (40:22):
I appreciate you.
Thanks, Caroline.
Caroline (40:24):
Thank you.
Natalie's story is a reminderthat transformation doesn't
require a dramatic break.
It can unfold through consistentaction, clear intention, and a
deep trust in what's possible.
You can explore her work atNatalieSiston.com.
Get her book Let Her Out, and beon the lookout for an upcoming
(40:46):
keynote and her second book.
The links are in the show notes.
If this episode spoke tosomething in you, if you are
standing at your own edge,wondering what might be next,
download the Free NavigatingCareer Transitions workbook at
Nextsuccesscareers.com.
It's designed to help youclarify what matters and take
the next aligned step.
(41:08):
Thanks for listening.
Until next time.
You already have the experience,the insight, and the creativity
to build What's next?
Your next success is waiting tounfold.
Thanks for listening to YourNext Success with Dr.
Caroline Sangal.
Remember, authentic success isyours to define and includes
(41:29):
aligning your career to supportthe life you want.
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