View Transcript for this Episode

[00:00:00] Natalie: Hi everyone. It's Natalie, you know, we're talking about change today and maybe that changed for you as a job, a relationship.

[00:00:06] It could be a friendship. We all get stuck in sometimes face fear. When it comes to the thought of change. I had the privilege of talking about this recently on a friend's podcast, Terry Cardella from talking with Terry. She asked me to come onto her show to talk about my recent big life change. We're starting this podcast in today's episode, you're going to hear that discussion about how I started my TV career.

[00:00:29] Also then went on to have kids got married. First, had kids worked the morning show and then conquered change and fear. I want to thank Terry for inviting me onto her show and love being a guest on other shows. However, I have to admit. I'm used to being the one, asking the questions, not answering them for more on Terry's podcast.

[00:00:51] See my show notes. Let's dive in and let me know what you think of this episode and how it has you thinking about making a change. [00:01:00] And by the way, I want to remind you. It's never too late. Let's get started.

[00:01:04]

[00:01:07] Teri: And welcome back to talking with Terry when we have powerful conversations to transform your life and your business.

[00:01:13] And our guest today is the one and only Natalie Tisdale, journalists and podcast hosts. She has received many accolades over the years for her work, including Emmy awards associated, press awards, the Gracie Allen award. After leaving her 28 years as a TV anchor, she has now turned on her own camera and decided to create the business of her dreams by bringing the stories that matter.

[00:01:34] The most welcome Natalie to the shelf, Terry, so good to see you.

[00:01:38] Natalie: And thanks for having

[00:01:40] Teri: me. I know I'm excited. I don't know if you remember this, but when you were on the everyday show, I was actually a guest almost. 11 years ago, I was telling my husband the other day, I was like, when we, after we had a conversation, I was like, you know, it's been, I was pregnant with my daughter.

[00:01:56] Natalie: Um, Michelle was two, 11 years ago. I [00:02:00] made interest, had my son. Who's about to turn

[00:02:01] Teri: 12. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So anyways, but it's great to have you I would love to have you bring up us up to speed for those folks that don't know you yet. But get quite the treat to, to, to dive in and learn more about you today.

[00:02:14] So tell us how you got to be, where you're at. Oh,

[00:02:17] Natalie: total life transformation. And I know that's what you like to talk about, and I want to encourage people. You can do that any time in your life. It actually took a lot for me to make the decision to change things I spent, as you mentioned, 2018. As a TV journalist, I started as a photographer or videographer when I was in college, I thought I wanted to be a videographer.

[00:02:40] I love doing video and photography. But then found myself working in the depth of the newsroom as a producer, and then became a reporter. And you just kind of move through the cycle there as a journalist and made my way as a reporter to then being a TV anchor in various markets around the country, kind of work your way [00:03:00] up and.

[00:03:00] I worked in Nebraska where I went to school and then took a job in Idaho, moved down to Alabama, was married then to Texas and then to Colorado, most of my career I've spent in Colorado. And for most of my television career did morning news, which I loved because it allowed me to be a mom in the afternoon, but that started to take a toll on the health when you're getting up in the middle of the night, two 30 in the morning.

[00:03:25] Seemed like a great idea when I could be home with my kids. And so I thought as a mom, we sacrifice, right? So I'm just going to sacrifice a little bit of sleep. Get up early, be home by noon. And then I get to be a mom all day, pick the kids up from school, do the cookies, all that. But I started to realize just how taxing that was on my body.

[00:03:46] And I didn't want to work the evening news, which is another good shift when you have a baby, but then you're not there when the kids are done with school to do homework and games and all of that. So say over the last three or four years, I [00:04:00] started to question, why am I doing this? Am I doing it because it's what I studied or am I doing it because.

[00:04:07] I think it's what everybody else thinks is a good job, because people would always say you have a dream job. Oh my goodness. You're on television. And I'd say okay. But I had to really reevaluate why I was doing it. I love being a journalist. I love asking questions. I love getting to the truth of the story, but do I need to do that for a TV station?

[00:04:29] And during the pandemic, I realized as I was broadcasting from my basement as many journalists where I don't have to work for someone. I can do this myself. So the light bulb went off. I started my own podcast and my own website and there we go. That was my transformation. I'm no longer working for another journalistic.

[00:04:49] Corporate. Yeah.

[00:04:51] Teri: So what has been your biggest, I guess, challenge or barrier or block that you've had to overcome to get to where you're at today with making that [00:05:00] choice? Because I know that that's not an easy choice to make

[00:05:02] Natalie: sure. And I think for a lot of people, when you're in a secure position, you think, oh my goodness, going out on my own, that's overwhelmed.

[00:05:11] Certainly was for me. I mean, I went in, did my job, came home, did my research. I kind of had the checklist and I knew it. I could almost do it in my sleep. And I say sometimes I think I did my sleep. So I think that the biggest thing I had to overcome was the fear of doing something else and doing it for myself and starting over.

[00:05:33] And it is scary. I, I encourage people to try, but. I remember early in my career when I was about to make a transition from evenings to mornings. And I was moving from a prime position at an NBC affiliate that I just loved on the Gulf coast to move. And I was secure and I was happy. And I remember giving myself three things to think about before.

[00:05:57] I made a transition and I just, [00:06:00] I don't remember where I heard this or I came up with it, but I have referred back to it over 20, 30 years as making a transition in how to do that. And those three things. Am I proud of what I'm doing. Am I proud of the organization I'm working for? Do I walk in and walk home and talk about it and feel just proud of it?

[00:06:19] And then the second thing is, am I challenged by what I'm doing? Because if we're not challenged for board and that challenge doesn't need to be challenges with personalities and or personnel, but am I just challenged every day? I want to feel like I'm working towards something. And then the third thing.

[00:06:38] Am I happy do I wake up in the morning? Just happy to go to work, happy about what I'm doing. So proud, challenged, and happy. And I, I thought back at that reading through an old journal, which I encourage people to do as hard as it is to take the time to do it. And I remember in my job last year thinking, [00:07:00] oh, okay, let me go through those things.

[00:07:02] I'm challenged, but not like I want to be challenged. I'm not always proud and sad to say of journalism today. And that's a whole nother podcast. I wasn't always proud of the product and I wasn't very happy mostly because my health and the time that I did have with my family, I wasn't quality because I was tired.

[00:07:24] So I really had to reevaluate and then say, it's time as hard as that is it's time. And so I took the.

[00:07:32] Teri: Wow. And I think there's a lot of people that are afraid of taking that leap because especially when we have, and I think a lot of folks, including myself, like I was working as a therapist and in a very great Company and I really enjoyed it, but there was something like you are saying, you know, without even me really realizing it, I kind of had gone through kind of a similar checklist of like, am I happy here?

[00:07:53] Am I, am I really doing what I, what I've called to be? And you know, that taking that leap when it's something that's [00:08:00] secure, Benefits there's pay time off. There's vacant, you know, like all these other things that make it worse. Yeah. I check it's a consistent paycheck. Right. And so when you're, when you're thinking about that and you're, if you have a family or if you're married or in a relationship, like there's some, there's other people that's, you know, that's reliant on, you know, the paycheck that you bring home.

[00:08:21] And so I think, yeah, I think it's incredible. And what I remember asking my husband, I told him, like, I got to the point where. I was being challenged by being asked to do something unethical. And I was asked to do this like six months prior, but I said, no, I'm not going to do that. This is why, you know, blah, blah, blah.

[00:08:40] Well, then they came back six months later and they said, you are going to do this. And I said, that's unethical for me in, in. And I, and I just drew the line and I said, thank you. And I just knew in my heart right then and there that I'm giving my notice tomorrow. And so And it was one of those things.

[00:08:55] It's like, okay, here it is. But we figure it out. And my, I [00:09:00] remember my husband saying to me, he's like, what's the worst that can happen. And he's like, you fall on your face and you go get another job. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. Like, that's the worst that can happen. Like I fall on my face and I go get another job.

[00:09:12] And so that was 20. Five years ago. And I have not had to go get another job. But I think there's a lot of folks that you know, it is terrifying and I think, you know, what is the worst case scenario? And are you willing to live with that? You know, and you know, going through like, like you said, like, I love your checklist of really evaluating and reviewing.

[00:09:35] What is it for us? That's really making us happy because are we just staying in a job because. of these other reasons that may not be relevant to what is happening in your life now. Yeah,

[00:09:47] Natalie: and I think a lot of people, you know, the paycheck obviously is a big deal. We can all make that decision, but what you can do is dabble in something else and start planning and then [00:10:00] take the leap.

[00:10:00] So to take a leap with no plan, well, maybe that's not such a good idea, but I knew. For the year I signed a contract and I knew that full year, I was like, okay, I know what I'm doing. I know I'm leaving. And I almost needed that year to really confirm because I was more tired that year than ever before, just knowing, because I was dabbling, I was starting, I was planning while I had that.

[00:10:25] So have a plan. Map it out, know what it is. So you give yourself that confidence before you make the transition. But the worst thing you can do is stay somewhere where you're not happy. You're not proud and you're not challenged because that's not good for anybody and including your own mental.

[00:10:42] Teri: Yeah. And I think for ego, ego wants to be safe and it wants to be secure.

[00:10:46] And so absolutely what you said is like, if we can dabble and you know, create like a little side hustle and that side hustle, I always tell people, like, try to do at least 50% of your income. In the [00:11:00] side hustle before you take a leap, because that will give ego a little bit of like, okay, at least it's

[00:11:05] Natalie: 50%.

[00:11:06] I can do this, I can

[00:11:08] Teri: do this. And, and as soon as we, and I, I'm not a huge fan. And some of the people that have heard me talk on my Facebook lives have heard me say this before is like having two things going on with. Yeah. Because what happens with energetically, we put in energy over here and we put on the gas and then when we hop over here, we're putting on the brake over here.

[00:11:27] We're putting the gas on over here and energetically, we can never be a hundred percent, but if we have an end. goal in mind with like, okay, for the next six months, we're going to do this. That is different in the sense of like, we're going to, we're going to now. Oh my goodness. I don't know why that just popped in my head, but if anyone has ever learned how to solve them ski, usually we'll just start with two cities and then you, you learn how to drop on.

[00:11:51] Right. And it's kinda like that. It's like, Having to write and then dropping one and focusing on the other one, I don't know where that came from. Homes [00:12:00] ever used that metaphor, but it's like letting in the, and it's like, okay, now it's time to let go for great, let go of the attachments that we've had with the other piece.

[00:12:09] And let's fully 100% invest in dive in, you know, to what we're doing now, because that is really. Giving us the winning edge. Because if we've always tried to plan, you know, I was talking about this the other day is, you know, if we have a plan B in place, right. Let's just, I was, I was saying the other day, like why having planned beads are a terrible idea because, you know, we, we didn't, you know, Spread our energy.

[00:12:35] But if we commit to that plan a there's in my experience when, when people have committed to plan a yes or there's bumps along the way, but plan a typically works out, like we've figured it

[00:12:47] Natalie: out. Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't agree more and you just really have to commit to it and, and know that there's a timeline because there are busy seasons in our life where, you know, [00:13:00] looking three months, I can do this for me.

[00:13:02] It ended up being that. But as soon as I knew, I had made the decision to leave the TV station. That year became more difficult. Like you said, my energy was over here with the new thing. So finishing out that contract was like pulling teeth every day. Cause I was so excited about this new thing, but I knew there was an end date in sight and I also want to encourage people because.

[00:13:26] I have several people who come to me over the years, it asked for a job reference and they, they ask if I'll, if I'll call the new employer when they're looking for a job. And, and I told a young woman, the other day said, don't be afraid to leave. You're you're not where you were five, 10 years ago. When you were first looking for a job, you've built up all of that experience.

[00:13:47] You have all of that now. So even if this job doesn't work out and I know you're scared, whatever that new thing might be, you've still got that. That will never leave that you can take to whatever that next thing is. [00:14:00] And that next thing we'll be there have confidence and that's hard for people, but

[00:14:05] Teri: yeah.

[00:14:06] Yeah. And that's about like, trusting that that's trusting ourself, that's trusting and having faith in like, okay, I'm not sure how, or what this is going to look like, but I just trust that this is going to work out. And when we have. You know, belief. I always tell people that things get created twice, right.

[00:14:23] Twice, once in our imagination. Right. Once in our thoughts and then once in reality. And so, you know, having that faith and having that trust and saying, okay, this is going to work out right.

[00:14:33] Natalie: A hundred percent. Yeah. I agree.

[00:14:35] Teri: What has been some of your lessons over this journey for yourself? Like what have been some of the life lessons for you?

[00:14:42] Natalie: You know, so many through the years and me being a journalist is such a, such an awesome career. And I'm teaching now as well, which has been another new thing when the podcast was what I was excited to do to create this new brand, to really focus on the things over my years, as a journalist that I [00:15:00] felt like.

[00:15:00] We're changing people's lives, not the everyday breaking news, that's fires and crime and politics, but things that really change people's lives. Things like better health, improving your family life. Finding ways to be inspired, positive mindset. Those were the things I really wanted to focus on. So that's what my podcast is.

[00:15:19] Is family mindset, all topics related to that. But what I think I learned. I've learned as being a journalist that I've been able to bring to now my students teaching journalism and my podcast is like we said a second ago, not to be afraid to jump in, to always ask good questions and to just to have that faith in yourself I've had to have every day as I went in as a journalist, it was like, I learned something new every day, one day it might be on real estate the next day.

[00:15:53] It might be on politics the next day. And every day was learning something new and to not be afraid at any stage of your [00:16:00] life to learn.

[00:16:02] Teri: Yeah, I love that. And I think those that stay curious, those that, you know, become lifelong learners. I mean, it is, it just brings such value to our lives. And I think it gives us an opportunity when we get to that state to, you know, not only.

[00:16:21] SP Medford by other people, but also us to mentor others. Right. And we allow, you know, we kind of build as we climb and we help support others, you know, in this journey, you know, the thing called knife, right. So it's beautiful. It's a way of way of serving. It's a way of helping. And I think more than ever before in our lifetime, we.

[00:16:43] It is a, it's no longer a option. I think it's a requirement now that we start to shift and look at, you know, how do we be inspired? How do we, you know, take that next step of creating the lives that we love. [00:17:00] Right. Because I think. It has changed even the last two years for a lot of people. And we need this right now,

[00:17:07] Natalie: more than ever before.

[00:17:08] Goodness, do we ever, you just reminded me. I was taking my son who's 12, as we just talked about I was taking him to basketball practice last night and he had just come off of a golf practice and we kind of, his stuff all falls on the same day and it just happens that way. And he was so tired because he had walked the nine holes and he was going into basketball and he said, this is just really.

[00:17:29] And I stopped and it was such a good teachable moment. And I think from 12 year old to us later in life, you know what you were made to do hard bang. Like God made you to do hard things. And if you ever stop doing hard things, you're going to get bored. Like, remember that when you walk in and you go, this is hard, go, oh, good.

[00:17:50] This is hard. Okay. Do this. Like, and I try to tell myself when I, you know, learning the technology. To podcast and broadcast [00:18:00] and social media and all of that. I've always been kind of good at that, but I had to step that up big time, creating their own company after working for another company. But I knew like I can do hard things.

[00:18:10] That's okay. I was made to do hard things and taking my daughter to college, my oldest and you know, walking away from her. Oh, I'll fill up with tears right now, leaving her halfway across the country and saying, okay, I can do this. I can do hard things and telling her that, like, I know this is stretching you and I know I'm going to miss you, but you were made to do hard things.

[00:18:33] You can do this. And so I continually remind my kids and myself that when I'm challenged, because I don't want to be born.

[00:18:41] Teri: Yeah, I think that's brilliant. I think that's a powerful message to say, you know what? We can do hard things. And these are the hard things that make us, right. This is what makes it, this is what grows us.

[00:18:51] This is what, you know, allows us to go to the next level. And so that's a beautiful message and a great takeaway for people to just to remember [00:19:00] that, you know, that message. Yeah. And not

[00:19:02] Natalie: only, I just want to reiterate, not only can you, you were made. Yeah. That's how we were designed. And so to tell yourself like, oh yeah, I am made, I'm going to do this.

[00:19:13] I'm going to, yeah, you do it.

[00:19:15] Teri: I will share a lot of times with people and say, you don't, we're never given more than what we can handle. That's right. We can, you know, we, we are, we are, we are given what we can handle and then I just trust and know that. Okay. Okay. This is. You know, this might be a, feel like a gut punch right now, but I was like, okay, there is something in this for me.

[00:19:34] And there's usually such a life lesson a profound, you know, like you said, earlier, transformation that comes out of that. And I'm like, okay. So sometimes I have, my, my mantra is like, this is happening for me. Not to me. This is how people relate to me and I may be rocking. Okay. And saying this. Not to go crazy, but I'm like, okay, like it is here for us to serve us in some greater capacity that we may not even know.

[00:19:58] And I just had a [00:20:00] conversation earlier this morning about, you know, sometimes we are given, you know, these, these experiences that, you know, we don't even know how is it going to impact us years from now? You know? Yes, 2020 is always better when we look back. But you know, we look back and we're like, oh my goodness.

[00:20:14] And there, there is a time and a place. I do believe that when we are forced to do the hard things in any aspect of our lives, That at some point we can look back and say, okay, yes, I get it. I get why

[00:20:27] Natalie: it was showing you. You know, we never know it during those hard times, but my I'll give you another example though.

[00:20:33] My, my oldest daughter, whom I talked about, who goes to school in Florida, she's a college. Liar. And, you know, you're just going to go through sports and anything, but let's use sports through ups and downs. We never grow on the peak. Right. There's nowhere left to go. And so when she was having a hard time and I just continually remind her too, we learned so much the parenting right about that.

[00:20:55] We're only going to grow in our bad. So we are going to, you know, the pandemic was [00:21:00] valley, but boy did a lot of us grow in different ways. So when you're feeling that that depth of hurt, whatever it is, go, okay, this is where I'm going to grow. I'm in the valley. I gotta work my way back up to the.

[00:21:14] Teri: That's beautiful.

[00:21:15] What a way, what a powerful way to end our call today. I would love for people to check you out, check out your podcasts, check out what you're doing, because you know, you are sharing stories that matter. And it's profound. Like we need more of you in this world. So where can people find

[00:21:33] Natalie: you? Well, as I mentioned, my podcast, my website, my blog, everything I do on my YouTube channel.

[00:21:40] All focused on health, family, and mindset, lots of topics around that. They're never ending. And you can find me@natalietwostole.com from a YouTube channel under anti-Israel all my social media under Natalie to

[00:21:53] Teri: escalate. Awesome. We will be putting all that information in the show notes. And thank you so much for being the light.

[00:21:59] Thank you for having [00:22:00] the courage and also being a role model, not only to your kids, but to everybody else that you come in contact with. It is very honor to have you on our show today. And thank you so much for what you do, same to you. Thanks.