Meet Natalie Pace

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Natalie Pace. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Natalie, so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?

When I first began attending economic conferences back in 2002, I was one of only a few women in a room of mostly white men in suits. When we are the odd one in the room, people will approach us for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they want to challenge us. Sometimes they think that we might attract a unique audience to their product. They might be interested in us personally.

Being unique can be an asset, but only if we know how to get beyond the approach. When we are in a room of successful professionals, the only way to take the conversation into something more meaningful is to be an expert, to have previously put in the 10,000+ hours, so that we can hit the ball across the net with anyone in the room. Having our achievements verified by an independent source can also be very helpful.

In 2005 (three years after launching my business), I was ranked the #1 stock picker, above 835 other A-list pundits, by an independent ranking agency, Tips Traders. I was frequently asked by some of the seasoned bankers in economics conferences whether or not I attributed my success to women’s intuition. I responded by saying that, in my view, intuition is actually complicated pattern recognition. I created a Stock Report Card and my 4 Questions for Picking a Leader to provide a structure for analyzing data. Both help me identify superstars and red flags. (In 2007, I used Google and General Motors as examples in my book Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is. It was easy to see even then that Google, now Alphabet Inc., would become a mega success. GM looked to be headed for a bankruptcy restructuring, which happened in 2009.) Answering their questions, and maybe even doubt, with a response that made mathematical sense improved their opinion of my abilities, and opened up the conversation for even more engaging topics, such as, “What companies excite you today,” or “Do the economic forecasts concern or excite you?” Engaging conversations, where both parties feel that they are exchanging wisdom, knowledge or value, make for strong professional relationships.

At the end of the day, whether we’re making delicious donuts, or helping people achieve financial freedom, it comes down to how good we are at our job. So I work hard to make financial freedom easy to understand and implement, and make sure that the strategies work well in any business cycle, whether it’s up or down. Those conversations with colleagues have always been integral to that process and my success. Many of the relationships are now forged with decades of trust.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

The team at NataliePace.com has been adding a splash of green to Wall Street and transforming lives on Main Street since 1999. Our easy-as-a-pie-chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the Dot Com and Great Recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. Our strategies teach everyone how to pay themselves first, compound gains, save thousands annually, and live a richer life, all while protecting our wealth from the volatility of the general economy. Learning inflation-proof adulting skills and how to earn money while we sleep is like building a solid financial home that protects us from any economic storm that might turn up. It’s the life math that we all should have received in high school, and is enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker. We feature quarterly financial freedom training events, which are a complete money makeover. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more.

Our Earth Gratitude project features inspiring sustainability projects from around the world. If you’re interested in going green, improving our community, reducing waste and pollution, and promoting harmony with the natural world, check out the free docuseries and ebooks at EarthGratitude.org. Our docuseries covers Food & Health, Kids, Animals & Conservation, Everyday Sustainability and The Power of Gratitude. Contributors include H.M. King Charles III (when he was The Prince of Wales), H.M. Queen Diambi of DRC, the Gangsta Gardener Ron Finley, Compton Community Gardens, eco-champions Edd Moore and Isla Lester, the Pachamama Alliance, WildlifeDirect, Sia, Ed Begley Jr., the Edible Schoolyard Project, and many more green organizations, VIPs and everyday heroes.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Natural Talent
Passion
Community

Natural Talent
Hard work is a given, and is the foundation of success. As Thomas Edison was fond of saying, “Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” However, without natural talent, hard work won’t be effective. Some people just can’t sing. When we tap into whatever it is that we are naturally good at, that’s where the magic lies.

Sometimes it takes a while to discover what it is that we are truly meant to do. My degree is in English Literature. It wasn’t until life forced me to become better at life math that I discovered essential budgeting tools that just weren’t being taught in the personal finance books. I was forced to live my way into the answers, and once those innovative workarounds transformed my life, people around me noticed, and asked me to teach them how to tap into the magic.

Passion
Getting to the top of our game and ahead of the competition requires a lot of dedication and work. If we love what we do, it doesn’t feel like working. Passion is the fuel that kicks in just when we need it most. It takes us from the early sprint, and through the marathon endurance that is required for business success.

Community
Whenever I’m overwhelmed, I know it’s time to call in help. If we need tech help, we call in our tech team. How many of us should be calling in a sales expert, or reaching out to some of the many free C-level executive platforms, like SCORE.org, to help us survive today’s inflation challenges? Do we need a mentor and a refresh on the strategy, or do we need more help in the trenches? At NataliePace.com, we have a community of volunteers who not only support our financial freedom Main Street initiative, but also have quarterly Brain Trust meetings to learn how they can support one another with their individual projects. We have a similar approach at EarthGratitude.org, where we feature great, effective projects around the globe, where individuals are transforming their communities to live in greater harmony with our home planet. It takes a community to make a successful project.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When we’re overwhelmed, our mind can be so trapped with the problem that we just endlessly swirl in that noise. It’s difficult to see the right answer or a way forward, especially when all of the things we think we’re doing right just aren’t working. To see the right road to travel on, we must start by clearing our vision and our head of all the things that are distressing us. So hard to do! In the evening and early morning, before sleeping and getting up, I meditate on how I might be of service to the highest good. My goal is to let synchronicity, epiphanies and fresh thoughts enter my head, not necessarily to have my personal wish list magically granted, but to make sure that I’m living my soul’s true calling. I assume that there is a divine intelligence much more omniscient than my rather small mortal brain.

Many times the problem is so acute that we need to grow in order to solve it. We need to learn something that we don’t know yet. In 2009, my business was cash negative and something had to be done. I couldn’t see any solutions because the workload each day was crushing. We were headed for a crash, if things weren’t revamped quickly.

During our slow season, I decided to give myself a break, in the hopes that might help me see some solutions. I took a month in Rome, with a determination to distract my worried and weary self, who had not taken a vacation in over a decade, with the wonder of an ancient culture. I didn’t speak the language. Monuments that were erected 2000+ years ago offer so many profound insights. It reminded me of how important it is for people to work together to achieve great things.

With a new perspective and a fortified spirit, I returned home. I streamlined our operations, found ways to better serve and engage our customers, expanded our product offering, set up our volunteer team, and placed emphasis on national television appearances to broaden our reach. I also renewed my commitment to my passion project, sustainability, which laid the foundation for the Earth Gratitude project – a place where great organizations and individuals from around the world contribute and inspire us to be the change our planet needs to heal.

Great epiphanies can break through the concrete of our habits when we take 21 days in a lifestyle that is foreign to us, where everything is out of step with our normal routine.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Natalie Pace with book. Photo by: Brian McLernon
TV photos. no photo credit.
Other photos. Photo by: Marie Commiskey

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