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Gaby Natale: Transforming Challenges into Emmy-Winning Success

• Courtney Twiss • Episode 28

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How did a young woman from Argentina go from economic turmoil to becoming a three-time Emmy Award winner in the United States? Meet Gaby Natale, whose journey is nothing short of extraordinary. She started by volunteering at a conference, which led to a teleworking position in Washington DC. From there, she unexpectedly found herself launching a TV show from a West Texas carpet warehouse. Gaby's story is not just about overcoming challenges but also about embracing your uniqueness to make a mark in the world. We dive into the grit, resilience, and unconventional paths that led her to become the first Latina to win three daytime Emmys and an acclaimed author.

In our exploration of mastering archetypes for success, Gaby, along with hosts Courtney and Michele, unravels seven key archetypes that help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. Discover how physical reminders like awards and jewelry can boost self-awareness and perseverance. Whether you’re a Dreamer visualizing goals or a Leader inspiring others, understanding and balancing these archetypes is crucial. Finally, we wrap up with heartfelt gratitude, reflecting on the importance of shared time and collaboration, and express our excitement to bring this inspiring episode to a wider audience. Tune in to uncover the secrets behind Gaby’s unstoppable journey and learn how to harness your own potential.

Connect with Gaby:
www.gabynatale.com
LinkedIn: @gabynatale

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https://www.youtube.com/@nowpodcastforreal

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Speaker 1:

So there's a high level of fear and uncertainty in our industry right now, and so your whole concept with being a pioneer and, you know, being okay with discomfort and having to like erupt, I love that. I think that will be so great for people to hear and just have that hope and like kind of fighter spirit, like let's go do this, this is an opportunity. Yes, I think that will resonate really well right now. Yeah, welcome to the now podcast making moves in real 28. Today we have the pleasure of welcoming a three-time Emmy Award winner, speaker, best-selling author, entrepreneur, somebody breaking barriers by becoming the first Latina author published by a HarperCollins leadership, also on the list 25 most influential Latinas by people in Espanol. Please welcome. Huge welcome, Gabby Natalia hey welcome, hello everyone.

Speaker 2:

Michelle, how are you so happy to be here with you today?

Speaker 1:

Oh, yes, oh yes, we are so thrilled to have you. I mean your background. It is so extensive. There is so much that Michelle could have fooled on you. Yes, but we want to capitalize on the time with you.

Speaker 2:

So tell us a little bit about your background, absolutely so. I'm originally from Argentina, if you're hearing this beautiful accent. That's why I came to the United States when I was around 23 years old and where I had no friends or family here. What was happening in my life is that I graduated with a master's degree in journalism in Argentina with just the worst timing. Timing is not my thing. So I graduated with one of the just in time to graduate with one of the biggest social, political and economic crises in Argentina. Just to give you some insights, we had five presidents in 10 days. Imagine this instability. We had 20% unemployment and a lot of inflation. So there I was, you know, I graduated and, just like any graduate, I wanted to take over the world, but the world had a very different plan for me. So I started exploring different opportunities, and out of a very random situation because sometimes when you're unemployed, you feel like you're the worst of the worst of the worst so I volunteered in a conference, an international conference, to just be a helper, because one of my friends was helping there and the translator canceled last minute. So I was transferred from moving chairs and waving at people and handing out flyers to translating to the keynote speakers. And what happened was that one of those keynote speakers was part of George Washington University and had a public relations firm in Washington DC and I started doing what is now called telework. And one year later he had an opening in his public relations firm and they needed somebody who was bilingual, so who was top of mind for that opportunity this lady from Argentina that was doing all the telework via email. And that's how I came to the United States.

Speaker 2:

Long story short I started working for him. Then I moved to Mexico. Then I came, came to the United States Long story short I started working for him. Then I moved to Mexico. Then I came back to the United States and started working as journalist, reporter, anchor and when my green card was approved, I started my own company and that's how my content grew. I won three daytime Emmys back to back, the first Latina. I became a published author with Harvard College leadership and a speaker. So that's a long story long, but I tried to make it the shortest as I could.

Speaker 1:

That's so impressive. I read too when you first so you started with your TV show in like a warehouse, yes, like a carpet warehouse. Do I have that right?

Speaker 2:

And then it grew into the three time Emmy winner, absolutely. So what happened was that when, when our green card was approved and I did long distance with my boyfriend at the time, who is now my husband, so I had to be. We had to learn to be very flexible, you know, because sometimes wonderful opportunities can package in unsexy packages. It's a great opportunity, but when you look at it from the outside it's like, oh, what's happening here, um, so um. We, our green cards were approved and uh, and we said, like, what do we really want to do right now? And what happened was that we really wanted to create content that was very authentic, that resonated with us, and so we started pitching this idea to different TV stations.

Speaker 2:

This was in West Texas, in a very small town. This was in West Texas, in a very small town, and they told us, yes, we can partner for this and you can create it. And they had a beautiful TV studio. But they said our TV studio is being used all the time. But here's the thing the owner of this TV station is also the owner of. You know, in small towns sometimes there's one owner for half the city, you know. So the owner of the TV station is also the owner of the mall and they have a carpet warehouse that is not being used. So would you consider recording your TV show out of the carpet warehouse? And we said yes, because even at that time and it's been more than 15 years even at that time we knew that having a project, a show, whatever that starts in a carpet warehouse is infinitely better than not having the project at all, and that starting small does not mean that you're thinking small.

Speaker 2:

And that's why, courtney and Michelle, that's what happened. We started growing. First we were local, then regional, then national, then we won three daytime Emmys and I became the first Latina to do so. And then many opportunities came my way the opportunity to become a published author. And what I realized is that now I spend 99% of my time speaking, traveling across the country and across the world as a professional speaker.

Speaker 2:

But everything happened because I was able to recalibrate my own belief system and embrace my uniqueness. Because when I interviewed these incredible leaders, super achievers, pioneers, and I realized that they embrace their own uniqueness, whatever that flavor looked like in their world. Whenever you do that and you embrace your uniqueness, you go from underestimated to unstoppable, and that's what I want to share with people, because too many times, we feel that what makes us unique is what makes us inadequate, and it's like we're throwing away a treasure. It's a treasure that you have, it's a gift, but instead of sharing that gift, you're throwing it in the garbage because you feel it's worthless, and that is yeah. It's the opposite. It's the foundation for everything wonderful that can happen in your life Feeling comfortable in your own skin and feeling deserving of wonderful things in your life.

Speaker 1:

That's all really impactful, I think, when you talk about, you know, receiving a package that's unsexy. There's nothing sexy about this NAR settlement and what real estate agents are up against right now. So what about that moment in time? If you were to tell those real estate, real estate agents you know in the industry, like, what about, what did you do in that moment? To like, harness to, to get over your discomfort and turn it into an opportunity?

Speaker 2:

yes, well I don't know the details of this industry specific challenge, but I what I would say in general is that the world is changing. It's changing fast. Many times we feel overwhelmed over things that we have no control over. So if you get angry and you cannot control it, you're just going to waste a lot of your energy. So my advice would be accept whatever is happening that you cannot control, instead of getting angry, and think about where are the white spaces, where are the white spaces and the opportunities that others in my industry have not been able to identify, but that I can fulfill. Sometimes we get so mad with industries or with organizations and we talk about the blind spots in leadership, and I always like to remind people that when you see a blind spot and you turn it, the other side of a blind spot is a white space. So I would say take a moment, calm down and see how you can use this change to your advantage to identify the white space that others are not seeing.

Speaker 1:

I like the calm down part. Everybody's hysterical, so I do like that. So, Emmy Award winner, at what point did you decide to write the book the Virtuous?

Speaker 2:

Circle as an outcome of interviewing for decades these super achievers and pioneers from all walks of life. So it could be an Olympic medalist, it could be a business CEO, a thought leader, a Grammy award winning musician. So all these people were all fascinating super achievers and they came from different walks of life. People were all fascinating super achievers and they came from different walks of life. So one day I asked myself a question, and the question was what do they all have in common? And I realized that there were commonalities, that they had like an invisible thread that united all of them, and those were what I call the virtue circle. And these are seven archetypes that I explained through a circle and you go from one to the other one in a sequence, in a step-by-step, replicable sequence that starts with a dreamer, and the dreamer the activity is to visualize, and the last one is the leader.

Speaker 2:

Leader, which is the one that inspires others. And you have other archetypes, like the warrior, when you have to persevere, and you have the maker, when you have to execute. And a lot of people say, oh, I'm really good at dreaming but I never execute. Or some people tell me you know what? The warrior in me is, the one that is failing because I give up too soon, prematurely, on my dreams.

Speaker 2:

So the virtual circle is a tool that you can use also for self-awareness, because you can identify inside of you which one of these seven archetypes is the one that is the strongest or the one that comes natural to you. So, for example, for me I'm a natural warrior and I am somebody because I persevere, you know, and I am a natural apprentice. I love to learn, I love to perfect my craft. But people don't realize that the one that is hard for me is the dreamer, because I disconnect from visualizing and from my dreams when things don't go my way. But I have this tool and when I start thinking that I have too many days of negative self-talk, I said wait, wait a minute. You have to reconnect to seeing the world from a place of possibilities and reconnect with your inner dreamer. But now I have the tools to identify that.

Speaker 1:

Wow. So it's not that you're looking to outsource or fill those blind spots with other people, necessarily, but it's more to identify and be more self-aware and how to tap into that yourself.

Speaker 2:

No, it's that after almost 20 years of interacting and interviewing people like that, you realize there's a whole group of traits I call them archetypes that they need you know, because if you want to go from A to B and you had a long run not every day is going to be a good day. Not every opportunity is going to come your way, not everybody's going to like what you're doing. So you have to nurture and develop all these seven archetypes. And that's how the idea of the virtual circle came in, because I saw these commonalities and I wanted to synthesize it in a way that is a step-by-step system that is reachable, approachable, simple for everyone who wants to follow it.

Speaker 1:

So how do you tap into your dreamer side? What do you do?

Speaker 2:

reminders, physical reminders of things that I have achieved or things that happened that were some kind, delusional, at the time where I started my journey. So, for example, instead of for those of you who are watching us in video, instead of having my Emmys, like in a fancy place with a display, etc. I have them here in my coffee table why? Oh, because I have. I have bad days, I have shitty days, like everyone else. So I want to have this reminder that you know what amazing things can happen. And I started here, down here, as an immigrant from Argentina with no connections, friends or family. I don't come for money. I didn't marry into money. I'm not a nipple baby, nipple wife, nipple spouse, nipple anything Real deal. So I want to remind myself, even in the lowest days, that I can achieve great things and that the wonderful things can be on my way, even if I cannot see them. So it's the same. You know it could be a ring. You know I have a ring um that reminds me of the first time that I made national television and I, you know, I have some earrings that remind me.

Speaker 2:

This year has been very challenging for me. So I have these earrings that remind me that I'm cancer free, because this year I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I'm and I'm healthy now. So those are my rings that are reminding me. You know, hey, you made it through this process. So for some people it's tattoos. They tattoo, you know, my kids, or this happy date. So it's a reminder because I know I disconnect from that and it's like, oh, I'm the first one to dismiss my own achievement sometimes. So I need those reminders there.

Speaker 1:

You think I do that. No, it sounds like me. It sounds more like you than me. I have plenty of dreamers. You have the tenacity and the kind of a lot of grit, a lot of grit, yeah A lot of people.

Speaker 2:

They think about the maker execution. I'm the one you know. People come to me and they tell me, like I'm the one who has all these notebooks filled with ideas, filled with things that I never execute, and that's as far as I go. I start with a dreamer, then the next step is the architect. That is the one that allows us to plan. So they have all the dreams, they have all the plans, but they don't tap into their inner maker, which is the one that allows them to execute.

Speaker 1:

Well, you're somebody that has every excuse in the world to not overcome and persevere. It's another word that you just said earlier. It's like. One of my favorite words, by the way, is perseverance. So that's something I feel like you either. I don't know like. Is it just something you in you, innate?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I agree, but people who listen to this podcast, if they are in the real estate industry. My experience because I keynoted for Latitude and for other conferences and I've been part of Century 21's Empowering Latina campaign what I found is people in this industry. They are very dynamic, they are go-getters and they have to wake up and write their own check. So they are very active and, of course, you're not going to close every deal. You're not going to close every home or commercial property, whatever you're doing. But it's also a numbers game and we to change. That's another thing. We have to change our relationship with rejection and if you work in sales, you know this uh the uh. The sooner we change our relationship with rejection, the sooner our life will expand. If you're only doing three calls, you have three chances. If you're doing 300 calls, you're gonna have 300 chances. But If you're doing 300 calls, you're going to have 300 chances. But it's on us to not take it as personal and if there's a lesson to learn and you can do it better, then go tap into your inner apprentice and learn from that experience.

Speaker 2:

Okay, this one, this is a deal that I closed. What happened here? That was a success. These ones didn't make that much sense. What can I learn from these ones that didn't close? So the apprentice in you is going to guide you as well. But this is a very dynamic industry. I've seen people go from homeless to millionaires literally by learning how to sell and sell homes. I've seen single moms who were paycheck to paycheck being able to become the first homeowners in their family, throw a beautiful pizanera for their daughters, all kinds of things. And that's the beauty of when you're good in sales that you wake up, you try your best, you stay there, you persevere and you're going to see progress. More progress, less progress. We cannot control every variable, but you're going to see progress.

Speaker 1:

Because discomfort is a calling card to be a pioneer, as you would say.

Speaker 2:

Yes, discomfort is our wake-up call to be pioneers. Discomfort is our wake-up call to be pioneers, and and and sometimes, as I said this, opportunities come packaged in a, in the form of a no, in an unsexy way. For me, it came at some point in the form of graduating in a place that didn't offer opportunities for me. And also another pivotal moment for me was when I started my TV show in a local market. It was the crisis of 2008. So all my local sponsors started canceling. So I had to expand because with only one market, we were going to go bankrupt. And that was like, yes, in hindsight it was a blessing in disguise, because it forced me to think outside this small market and see how I could survive selling in multiple markets, but in the moment it was not a joyful or smooth ride at all.

Speaker 1:

It was not in a sexy package. It was not sexy in general. No, not at all I think that you've given our listeners multiple nuggets. And calm down. Don't focus on the things you can't control. Persevere, yes, change.

Speaker 2:

Another thing that I want to, another thing that I want to tell them is don't jump to permanent conclusions based on temporary circumstances. Sometimes we're going through a tough time that is temporary and we are so. So you know fast to say I'm never going to get this opportunity, it's never going to happen for me, this is not within my reach, that when I graduated in Argentina, with all the crisis, I felt like I would never be able to work in media because there were no opportunities in media at the time in Argentina. So I was this close. I was 24 years old and I was this close to giving up on a dream. That time proved that it was within my reach. But I was this close to convincing myself it was never going to happen. But I was this close to convincing myself it was never going to happen for me and just changing paths.

Speaker 1:

So give it time, don't give up.

Speaker 2:

Yes, don't jump to permanent conclusions based on temporary circumstances.

Speaker 1:

Said way better than don't give up. So what else do you have going on besides the book? And you know YouTube and what. Yes, well, the book.

Speaker 2:

also, I'm very busy speaking in different stages around the United States and around the world because I've noticed that you know our uniqueness, our own flavor of uniqueness may be different, but the fact that too many of us assume that our uniqueness makes us inadequate, that's pretty universal. So I work with global corporations. I've been on stages for conferences from JP Morgan Chase, walmart, procter Gamble next month, ambit Energy this month and so many. I created a talent development platform for and I partner with different companies. The Estee Lauder companies is one of my clients as well in that area. So I've been very fortunate to have really great partners that are seeing a whole new wave of vibrant leaders who are met with narrow and outdated definitions of leadership, and that's why they hire me, because they know they have to tap into that talent to stay relevant not just in the future but also in the present, because the world is changing very fast.

Speaker 1:

Wow, well, sure it is Super fast. Oh, gabby, this has been so great. Where can everyone find you? What's the best platform?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Well, they can go to my website, gabbynatalecom, which is G-A-B-Y-N-A-T-A-L-Ecom, and I'm present in. Linkedin is one of the platforms where I'm most active, but also on Instagram, facebook, twitter. I'm not that great in TikTok, but I'm also there. We aren't either.

Speaker 1:

Well, I just want to also say congratulations on being it sounds like cancer free.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, and I'm thinking and I'm taking action also to see what campaigns and what things can come out of overcoming this, because I believe in leaving my message and we have to leave our messages. So we have to leave by example and, if you know, I am healthy and I'm well because of early detection and I've also been a caregiver for my mother, who is also healthy and well given early detection. So early detection really saves lives. So the more we can have women touching their breasts, doing their mammograms and everything, the more lives that will be saved. Amen to that Amen.

Speaker 1:

I actually do. Never mind, I just got the notice. Save Amen to that Amen. I actually do. I just got the notice.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so make your appointment, ladies.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I'm on mine, she's on it, she's on the phone. No need to remind me I'm a savage when it comes to health care. Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, Courtney and Michelle. It's been wonderful being here today with you. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

We appreciate your time, so thank you very much. It's a blessing Amen to you and we'll see you soon.

Speaker 2:

Thank you Absolutely. Let me know when the episode comes out and I'm happy to share it as well. Wonderful.

Speaker 1:

Thanks, gabby out, and I'm happy to share it as well. Wonderful Thanks, gabby. Thank you, bye, bye, thank you.