Natalie (Corporate Natalie)

So...where do I sign?

“Do not leave the airport. We need to get you out of there.” This was the text I received from my manager last Wednesday after I had touched down in Los Angeles. I flew to Los Angeles for a commercial shoot (that I was shocked was still happening), and kept turning off my news alerts and lying to myself that everything was going to be okay. As we got closer to landing, outside of my plane window, I could see smoke and flames. It was apocalyptic. Right as I touched down and got cell service, I received word from the crew that the Hollywood Hills fire had just started, and the shoot had to be cancelled. Within minutes my hotel was in an evacuation zone, and my team was looking for the first flight out because it wasn’t safe to be there.

While this experience was absolutely nothing compared to the devastation happening across LA, I felt called to action to do something. It felt unfair that while I was able to book a flight home, back to safety, hundreds of people didn’t even have a place to call home anymore. As a California native, LA holds a special place in my heart, as I know it does for so many around me in the Bay Area. It sounds cliché, but moments like these—when uncontrollable wildfires erupt and devastating losses occur—remind us that our jobs are far from the most important things about us. I called Annie and said we had to pause work. I posted on my story asking if people knew about any donation centers or initiatives happening in the Bay Area to provide relief to LA.

Within hours, a fellow SF creator, Jessi Caparella, reached out to me to team up and try to make something happen. We reached out to Roadway Moving to get a 26ft truck to a parking lot in Emeryville, and Jessi and I posted on our Instagram stories informing people to show up with donations, if they had them, on Sunday. Within an hour, traffic was gridlocked down to the highway, we had enough donations to fill the truck, and we had to shut down the drive (a great problem to have!).

Together, we gathered new and gently used items from the Bay Area, packed them up, and coordinated with the Roadway team to deliver them to a team on the ground in Los Angeles, currently set to receive them today. To say I was overwhelmed by the turnout would be an understatement. People got out of their cars, rolled their sleeves up, and helped for hours. I feel grateful for this community—the people who went shopping for brand new toiletries, showed up, waited in line to give their donations, and got out of their cars to help. I felt love, strength, and support in every hug I received and every smile I saw. I may or may not have burst into tears when I got home from the drive…and then promptly crashed at 7 PM.

I guess to add my LinkedIn “takeaway” to this, if you feel called to act or help your community in any way, do it. It can easily get lost in the shuffle of the work grind, but don’t let it. Thank you to everyone who continues to care and show up for each other during difficult times!

Hello from Asia! That’s right, Corporate Natalie is OOO! I’m taking two weeks off to travel to Bali and Tokyo, and it’s been exactly the reset I’ve been craving. Not only do I want to encourage you to take time off to improve your well-being, avoid burnout, and promote long-term productivity, but I also want to share how I’ve been allowing myself space to unwind this week.

No-phone challenge: I don’t know about you, but when it comes to my phone, I’m absolutely addicted. This week in Bali, I’m challenging myself to take two full days away from my phone. I’m embarrassed to admit, I’ve never done a phone cleanse - it’s just not something I’ve thought about, but now more than ever I’m realizing I need this. My job not only demands that I create on social media platforms daily, but I personally scroll constantly as a means to find new trends, keep up with platform by platform changes, and yes, get a bit of a serotonin boost. I’m ready to embrace living in the moment with the people I love in a new city. If humans were able to survive every day without their phones before technology existed, so can I? I’ll be sure to report back with an update next week.

Unrestricted sleep: Of course I allow myself to sleep in on light days/weekends, but I very rarely wake up naturally without a blaring alarm signaling to me that it’s time to start my day. It’s so rare that I’m able to get consecutive nights of quality sleep, so I’m determined to use this time away to make sure I get at least eight hours of sleep each night. I’ve been reading about the importance of sleep and how it transfers to overall happiness in all areas of your life, so I’m attempting to not use an alarm this trip to let my body recover.

Catching up on work before returning to work: This is one of my pro tips when it comes to taking time off. I used to get so stressed out when I was OOO because I’d anticipate all of the work I’d have to ultimately catch up on upon my return. Now, whenever I book a trip, I make sure that I get home at least 1-2 days before my OOO ends so that I can get myself situated with work and make that Monday back just that much easier.

Also, here are some photos from my recent travels!

I know what you’re thinking: 'Natalie…don’t you usually post corporate videos? How did you end up on stage at a fashion conference? What’s that weird silver rock on your neck? Why are you wearing so much makeup?” All great questions. You’ll have to ask my stylist about the rock necklace, and as for the makeup, they do things a little differently in Dallas (and I’m absolutely here for it💄). Regardless, I'm beyond grateful to the team at LTK for allowing me to emcee their annual conference, LTKCon.

For those of you interested in the inside scoop on the influencer world, this conference was INSANE. I’m not talking about free lanyards and backpacks branded with a random tech company logo. We’re talking branded ‘LTK’ decals on every mirror in your hotel room (how’d they get into all those rooms?), free Beis bags full of LTK swag (why make content in the hotel robe when you can have one custom made for the conference?), Aritzia gift bags around every corner (not to brag, but Annie and I did get free Super Puff jackets), and “Scan this QR code for $100 credit to [INSERT ANY BRAND YOU CAN THINK OF].” I’m not kidding…it was crazy (major shoutout to Aritzia, EVEREVE, Dynamite Clothing Spanx, adidas, and many more). If I woke up with the LTK logo tattooed on my arm I wouldn’t have been surprised. Now that’s a conference I can get behind.

If you’ve gotten this far in the post and you still don’t know what LTK is, my bad for making you wait this long. Whenever you see your favorite influencer link their outfit, they’re likely doing it through LTK. It allows creators to get commission by linking their favorite brands and allows followers to shop the looks of the creators they follow. Not only did I walk away from this conference with a huge smile and a bag full of goodies, but I’m also feeling fired up to post more on my LTK. For any women following me wondering what to wear to the office, feel free to follow me at the link in my comments (I had to sell you on something, right?).

So, LTK… same time next year?

Oh no we don't have to go to the escape room? Ross Pomerantz

Leave your go-to password below! JK. Thank you to Okta for hosting me at Oktane 2024 to discuss the future of Identity security!

#OktaPartner #conference #rapidfire #okta #oktane24

WHERE MY WALKING PAD WORKERS AT?!?! I won't lie, this is actually me sometimes...also the trip was real (oops!)

BIG UPDATE🚨: I hired my second full-time employee! The inevitable hit me and Annie V. late last year: we surrendered to the fact that we couldn’t do everything ourselves. For any small business owner, hiring is insanely stressful. You think, “I’ve been doing everything myself for so long - how am I supposed to trust someone with my vision, and trust that they’ll execute?” For me, take that, and add in the fact that my company’s primary method of income is tied directly to my face (brand deals, speaking engagements, creator relationships, organic social posting, podcasting, consulting etc.). The pressure of selecting the right person felt SCARY.

Back in December, Annie and I stared blankly at each other over Zoom wondering how we’d find someone. If we posted the application to two million+ people, we would never find the time to sift through them. How do we screen for the type of person we want without having to take hundreds of intro calls? Enter Colleen Pelly, co-founder of The Linchpin Co., who—along with Samantha Gibson and their incredible team—took our chaos and turned it into a calm, thoughtful hiring process. They helped us clarify our goals, defined our dream candidate, vetted hundreds of individuals, and created a customized case study to test for exactly what we were looking for. They handled it all so we could focus on everything else that keeps Corporate Natalie LLC running. After just twenty-seven days, they screened thirty three candidates, set up interviews for seven incredible individuals, moved four to the final interview round, and extended an offer to our new Content Specialist. This is literally NOT an ad, but if you’re a small business looking to grow your team, you’d be missing out if you didn’t work with The Linchpin Co.

We’re so excited to officially welcome our new Content Specialist to the team! As challenging as growing can be, taking this step allows our small (but mighty) team to collaborate more effectively, produce higher-quality work, and take on projects we never thoughts imaginable.

And just like that—there were three.

I had such an incredible time at Duolingo Creator Day last week. Being able to talk with like-minded creators across different social media verticals about the ups and downs of content creation was both beneficial to my creative process and eye opening to learn about different approaches to content/trends/personal branding. Content creation can get lonely sitting in your room filming yourself all day, so being able to dedicate a day to collaboration and creativity was an awesome experience - the Duo-branded converse were a nice touch too ;)

Thank you to Zaria Parvez for putting on this event!