Wealth Is Your Birthright! Claiming Your Worth with Natalie Bullen

Episode 27 Description

Natalie Bullen is a full-time entrepreneur who helps women have confidence in their value, rewrite money narratives, and demand the compensation they are actually worth. Her coaching and consulting firm, Unapologetic Wealth, supports women, especially women of color, to capture the wealth they deserve and desire. In this passionate episode of the We Rise Podcast, Natalie empowers each of us to claim our wealth unapologetically!

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Episode 27 Show Notes

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Key takeaways

The journey to Unapologetic Wealth

Natalie is a self-described rule follower. She had good grades in school, went to college and attained her MBA, had good credit, and worked two jobs. Despite all of her efforts, she was waitressing and living in poverty. When she was hit with the struggles of life, from a break up, to a health scare and job loss, Natalie had to file for bankruptcy.

It was the culmination of these situations that led Natalie to reevaluate and ask the important questions. Is this really how the story should go? How absurd was it that Natalie could show up for herself so fully, and still be struggling financially?

She began working at a bank as a loan officer and personal banker. As she encouraged and advised customers, she was accosted for caring too much, investing too much time, and providing too much support. Reevaluating, she switched to wealth management and earned a license from FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) to sell securities.

Natalie was then surrounded by an older, white, male demographic. As a millennial Black woman, she began to recognize how the system had been set against her and so many others all along.

Natalie notes that we are told that if we only had a better financial budget, we would be able to attain all the wealth we desire, but is that really the truth? Natalie took this experience as an opportunity to both claim the money she knew she was worth earning, and to have a positive impact on others. It was this decision that ultimately inspired the creation of her business, Unapologetic Wealth.

It’s okay to take up space! As women, we are constantly shrinking ourselves and apologizing for situations that are completely beyond our control. Instead, claim a stance of power: 

How can you turn an unnecessary apology into gratitude? 

How can you take up MORE space today than you did yesterday? 

Natalie helps women take charge of their lives, change their beliefs, and claim their worth.

Communities of momentum and a grand vision

To complete her undergraduate degree, Natalie needed to receive a C in Calculus. She failed five times, signing up for the sixth time only to appease her family. Expecting to fail again, she didn’t apply for graduation. With a turn of events, her semester concluded and Natalie passed with a C.

To her great surprise, her dear friend, Tequila, had gone to the registrar’s office posing as Natalie. She filled out the intent to graduate application and submitted the $50 fee. After this discovery, Natalie asked Tequila “why?” Her friend simply knew Natalie would pass. Tequila believed in Natalie even when she didn’t believe in herself. 

Surrounding yourself with a community of women who are already on the path of growth, who believe in your success, know your abilities and go to bat for you, make all the difference in the achievement of your goals.

Who do you surround yourself with? 

Are they doing the hard work and showing up for themselves? Surround yourself with people who live the success you desire. You will feel empowered and inspired in the pursuit of your own success!

Where do you start when it comes to going after what you want? According to Natalie, you start with vision.

Ask yourself: What’s my dream home? Dream car? Dream job? Dream vacation? Lay it all out. No reservations, no qualifiers. Dream the fullest, highest vision you have!

Now that you have it in view, remind yourself of the why. What is it that drives you toward having this life? What impact do you want to have? What happens if you don’t do it?

Know your legacy and then dream bigger

Before working with Natalie, there are some simple steps you can take to gain control of your money. First and foremost, you need to know what your financial situation is. Open your bills, look at your debt, assess your credit score, your investments, all of it. Get an honest and full picture of your financial situation.

Beyond having clarity on your finances, you also need to have drive toward your vision. You need to be willing to become an expert at what you want. If you aren’t an expert yet, really look at what it takes to get there.

The last key filter for Natalie is whether a potential client is willing to put in the time. Doing the work means having the time and bandwidth to fully show up and put in the hours it takes to be successful. If you don’t have the ability to invest the hours, it just may not be the right time. That’s okay. You don’t need to force something that’s not meant to be. It’s a powerful thing to know your limits.

Natalie not only holds her clients to these standards, but is actively living them out herself. She reminds herself that there are people who need her and the work that she does. There are women that need her representation. 

What legacy will you leave? 

What could you have for good? 

Deep down you have this sense that you have a great purpose, that you were meant for more. Take that “more” and imagine what could happen if it were amplified! You can have that “more”, and Natalie’s heart is in helping you get there.

As for Natalie’s final piece of advice to our listeners? “Dream bigger!”

notable quotes from Natalie

“I realized the finance space that we’re in is rooted in scarcity and fear and shame and guilt and how bad you are, and how stupid you are, and how little you know, and how much further ahead you should be. I don’t know anyone who would thrive in that circumstance, so I decided I was gonna change it.” 

“I don’t allow women to apologize, especially for things that aren’t their fault.”

“Find communities of momentum. Find places where people are already moving, and it’ll be easy for you to get moving with them. And when you fall behind, it’ll be obvious. Use peer pressure and group things to your advantage. Peer pressure can work in a good way.”

“That gnawing, we’ve all had it, that there’s gotta be something more. I just make their ‘more’ bigger, I amplify their ‘more.’”

“There is revenue in your rest.”

“We talk about money like it’s bad. We talk about all the bad things people do, the drugs and the strippers and the gambling… What about the good stuff? There’s good you can do with money too… Imagine giving away 20% of a billion dollars. You cannot change the impact of that.”

“Wealth is your birthright. The sooner you accept that, the easier your life will be.”