How Natalee Shimerdla Broke Free From the Style Rules
- emsteinbrink
- Jul 30
- 25 min read
From the outside, Natalee Shimerdla always looked polished and professional. People took her seriously in her corporate job and her business. Yet, behind the scenes, she felt disengaged with her style.
After spending years dressing the “right way” and never feeling like herself in the process, Natalee came to me. Working together, she learned how to give herself permission and power to dress for herself instead of her environment.
In this episode of The Visibility Shift, you’ll hear how Natalee went from following the hidden style rules to using style as a tool to express her authentic self. She shares what it was like dressing under those rules, what happened when she embraced the bold patterns and colorful style that matched her energy, and how this process has impacted her confidence both professionally and personally.
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2:18 – How Natalee previously felt about her style and showing up as CEO vs. corporate
8:37 – What it felt like for Natalee to allow the real version of herself to start coming out
12:58 – How Natalee overcame the moments she felt most scared to embrace her true self
16:49 – How this process of working together cleared up mental fog for Natalee
20:19 – What surprised Natalee most about our initial meetings
23:48 – The necessary shift Natalee leaned into to fully transform into her authentic self
27:43 – The photo shoot experience that made it all click and come together for Natalee
34:57 – Natalee’s advice to anyone holding themselves back to be taken seriously or level up in position
39:15 – Powerful reflections on the conversation with Natalee
Mentioned In How Natalee Shimerdla Broke Free From the Style Rules
Full Transcript
Ellie Steinbrink: Welcome to The Visibility Shift, the podcast where style becomes your most powerful strategy for being seen, standing out, and leading boldly. I'm Ellie Steinbrink, stylist and personal brand coach, and if you've ever thought, "My style just isn't working anymore," take this as your sign. You're ready for your next level. And instead of launching into a panicked shopping spree, what you really need is a strategy. A style strategy that reflects where you're headed, not who you used to be or who you think you need to be to fit in.
Because when your style aligns with your brand and your vision, everything shifts. You lead with more presence, you attract the right opportunities and clients, and you fully step into the woman you're becoming. Because showing up as yourself, that's the most strategic thing you can do. Now let's get visible.
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Visibility Shift. Today, I have a really big treat for you in that I'm bringing on a guest who is a client of mine. Her name is Natalee Shimerdla, and she's the owner of NGSD Services, which stands for "Natalee Gets [Bleep] Done."
In her business, what she does is she's an operations strategist, and she helps businesses scale with more ease. What you're going to hear in this conversation is what a powerful transformation can happen in your personal life and in the success in your business when you fully align the transformation that's happening inside of you into the exterior, the outward appearance.
What you'll hear from Natalee is just how powerful this experience has been for her when she thought it was just going to be a makeover. Like, you think back to Stacy and Clinton and What Not to Wear, she kind of thought it was going to be like, “This stuff is in and that stuff is out.” But what she really got was a permission slip to show up more fully as herself in all aspects of her life.
Enjoy our conversation. Natalee, welcome to The Visibility Shift. I'm so glad you're here today.
Natalee Shimerdla: Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here, Ellie.
Ellie Steinbrink: All right, so I want to bring us back to the time right before we started working together. If you can rewind yourself to that point in your life, I know that at that point you had already left corporate and you were running your own business and really excelling and propelling yourself forward.
So take me back to that time. Tell me a little bit about your style and where you were at with your style at that point in your life right before we started working together.
Natalee Shimerdla: Yeah, so as you mentioned, I had just left corporate and I had this almost identity crisis because it was full-time working from home. Most of my clients were remote in nature, and so as I was working with them, I really fell into the mullet trap, where I had cute tops, my hair was done, my makeup was on, had some earrings in, then the bottom was sweatpants, shorts, depending on weather. I was starting to get some in-person clientele for strategic planning days or what have you. I didn't know how to show up as Natalee, business owner, CEO, versus Natalee in corporate. So that's really where I was like, “I need help. Where do I go from here?”
Ellie Steinbrink: Yeah. I think what you're explaining, Natalee, is such a common experience of women who really have come out of the pandemic and are struggling with how to transition back into real-life meetings and show up.
So you were not only experiencing that transition, but then also your own personal transition of moving away from corporate. Tell me a little bit about what felt different in terms of how you were showing up when you think about yourself in the corporate version of yourself versus how you were wanting to show up as a business owner running your own thing.
Natalee Shimerdla: Yeah. In corporate, always felt like I had to maybe subdue a lot of my personality, my boldness. And the whole reason I started my business—and the reason for the naming of my business—was just to be super authentically Natalee.
My business has a bold name. NGSD stands for Natalee Gets [Bleep] Done. So I was having this juxtaposition in my head around, “I want to be me. I want to be naturally myself and authentic in the way that I show up,” but I'm also not working in Fortune 500 companies all the time. I'm not working with big, multi-thousand-employee corporations anymore.
So I want these business owners to feel like they have confidence in me, but I also don't want to be the stuffy, corporate black-gray kind of look. So that's really where I was stuck. I didn't know how to show up as myself.
Ellie Steinbrink: Yeah, and I love that you shared that because I remember so distinctly in some of our introductory foundational work where we were talking about how you get dressed when you're going to the in-person meetings. I remember you saying that even if you put on a really fun, colorful top—like what you're wearing today—you always felt like you had to ground it with something black. Like that was the stability piece in your outfit.
So, where do you think that was coming from? Tell me a little bit more about where did this rule come from in your mind?
Natalee Shimerdla: I do feel like it was a little bit ingrained in my head from corporate. As I was going through my career, I obviously was looking up at upper-echelon leaders and things like that and seeing what they were wearing. They were very subdued tones, colors, even patterns. A pinstripe was about all that they would go out and do.
But I also feel like when I started my career, I was in my 20s, I was super young, obviously super vibrant, and I did not give a hoot about what people thought about me at that point in time. So I just was naturally wearing what I wanted to wear.
I remember distinctly having someone tell me, “You probably need to reassess your wardrobe if you think that you're going to want to get to the higher levels.” It was a female. So even hearing that from her, I was like, “Okay, well, what do you mean?”
She said, “Less patterns, less distraction,” all of those things. So that just was kind of my marching orders from that point forward. If I was going to be serious about moving forward in my career, I needed to be taken seriously.
So I always kind of battled with, “But I'm still Natalee. I'm still a bold, bubbly personality.” So I'm not taking myself completely away, but I just have to tone her down a little bit.
Ellie Steinbrink: Yeah. Wow. What a powerful statement that someone shared with you that then really impacted so many of your decisions about how you were to show up, and what was acceptable and not acceptable, what would lead to success, what would lead to failure, perhaps, if we could go that far.
I just got to say, Natalee, your experience is so similar to what I hear. It's often just a comment—or sometimes not even a comment—but just us observing. Like you said, observing those at the upper levels who have already achieved the “success.” Without even realizing it, we subconsciously just think, “That is the way to go.”
So I want to ask you about when we started to talk about letting Natalee come out. Because it was clear from the start of working together that there was this bubbly, bright, magnetic, bold personality in you, and I could see flavors of it in what you were showing me in terms of the style vision.
What did it feel like to you to start to embrace the true version of Natalee, and having all these stories still in your head? Did it feel uncomfortable? Or did it feel like freedom, or a little bit of both?
Natalee Shimerdla: Initially, it was very much one of those situations where it was like, “I want to, but is it going to be okay too?” I think I even remember having a conversation with you that I said when we were doing our try-on, “I'm just looking for validation.”
I'm just looking for confirmation. It was like, I just needed your opinion—an outsider's opinion—someone to validate and say, “Yes, this is good. Yes, you can still be yourself. Yes, you can wear that leopard with that blazer. It's okay.” So that's kind of how it was.
Then after, I think we went through that conversation. Now I'm just like, if I love it and I feel comfortable in it, then it is what I'm going to wear out that day, or that week, or for that event, or what have you.
I feel like I have also put those style rules away for a while. I'm sure she'll creep back in from time to time, but for now, I'm just having fun again. I'm having less worry about all the things. I've happily donated probably 15 pairs of black, gray, or navy pants to local career closets. So that is also freeing in and of itself as well.
Ellie Steinbrink: I just have to pause and give you credit for what an incredible leap you made, because it was a very bold leap—and courageous, honestly—and a vulnerable act you did. While I know you were kind of seeking out validation, like “Are you sure this is okay?” I think there is just something to be said for the fact that you trusted that this felt right.
So outside of me giving you validation, what else was giving you courage or motivation to just step into this new version and let your clients see you in all your glory? Was there something else happening inside, outside of the validation you were getting from me?
Natalee Shimerdla: You know, I think business success is obviously going to be a validation for any entrepreneur. So when people are coming to you, when they're signing on with you as a client or buying from you or whatever that looks like for your business, that's a validation, right? That people are hiring me or people are buying products from me or what have you.
So that was probably always in the back of my head, that people were still coming to me, they were still wanting to work with me, and I was getting that validation. So the internal side, that was really what was in my head. The external validation kind of mirrored what I needed or thought I needed at the time.
Then it was just this gut feeling that I knew that if I was going to move forward in my business and continue to be successful, I didn't want to continue having to fake it or show up as someone else. I just wanted it to be free and easy.
I'm a very girly person. I love all the flowers, I love all the pearls, I love all the prints. That's just how I am. So if my business doesn't feel easy, if my outer appearance doesn't feel easy, then this probably isn't going to be the right scaling point for my business to move forward.
Ellie Steinbrink: Yeah. Well, what a great reflection on your part, to notice that there is an ease that comes with being yourself as opposed to performing.
Did you ever—kind of the before and after of us working together—did you ever feel that constriction or that constraint where you weren't really letting yourself out? Because I think I remember one of our conversations where it felt like, in particular, the bigger or more important the meeting, or maybe if it was a client who was a little bit more traditional or corporate in nature, I think I remember, at least from our conversations—you can correct me if I'm wrong—but I remember that it felt like the pressure was definitely up. And those were the moments where you felt most scared to let your true self out.
Do you have any reflections on how maybe you felt in those settings where you were holding yourself back versus now where you're really just not worrying about that stuff?
Natalee Shimerdla: After all of those interactions or conversations or what have you, it was like, “Duh. They don't care what you're wearing. They're not talking to your blazer. They don't care what stripe is on your skirt,” right?
That was the whole thing with me. I just finally got to the point where I realized, nine times out of ten, they are talking to the box on the screen. When I am showing up in person, it is absolutely important for me to look clean and professional and things of that nature.
But if my blazer has a floral print versus a pinstripe, they don't care. Half the time I was getting compliments from women on the floor that I was meeting with or what have you. So it was kind of that like, “Ah, nobody really cares. Nobody really cares.”
They're not hiring your outfit. They're hiring me for my experience and my expertise and the skill sets that I'm bringing to the table. So why wouldn't I show up the way that I want to show up, and comfortable?
Ellie Steinbrink: Yeah. I think that says it right there, Natalee. I suspect maybe there was an energy shift. Did you feel an energy shift?
Natalee Shimerdla: 100%. And I should also caveat all of this by saying I'm also at that stage in my life where I'm becoming an empty nester. So I was having this evolution of life in general. You know, for 22 years, I've had babies in my home and they've needed me.
Now my youngest just graduated high school and is about to leave home for college. So I've been in this whole shift of “Who is Natalee as an entrepreneur, as an empty nester?” and all of that.
So the shift has really been in—that's one less thing that I have to worry about. Just showing up and arriving as Natalee and being comfortable in me gives me more energy to put with the clients and gives me more energy to be creative.
That shift really has probably been most fulfilling for me in the last, I would say, six to nine months, just realizing that I'm showing up as me.
Ellie Steinbrink: I can almost just feel the weight come off of your shoulders as you're speaking about this. There is like an assuredness that I hear in you. Whereas, well, I've always thought you were confident—even confident in your business and your skills—there was a little bit more of a worried air about it.
Like, “I'm not sure,” you know? This tightness that kind of comes up when we're really worried about what others might perceive of us.
I remember in a conversation we had not that long ago, I had said, “What was this experience like for you?” and you said, “It really cleared a fog for me.”
Do you remember that conversation? Can you share a little bit about what you mean about this process clearing a fog for you?
Natalee Shimerdla: Yeah, absolutely. So, super transformational portion of my life, right? Personally, professionally, all of these things just were all happening at once. And it was this convergence of “How do I show up? What do I present on the outside to all of the people that I'm interacting with?”
What I loved about working with you, Ellie, was that it was literally like this fog was lifted. Like, I got the validation again.
As an Enneagram 3, there's a whole lot around your vices and masking and all of this sort of thing. So it kind of fills a narrative very well. But the fog really came in as I was trying to settle into, “Okay, we're really going into this full-time as an entrepreneur. You are going to have to be the face of your company and you are going to have to show up.” And it's really on me now to make sure that I am being successful.
As we would meet and as we would talk and work through my style words and my different looks that I was comfortable in, not comfortable in, and that sort of thing, it just was this clearing of, “This isn't that hard.” I was worried that I was going into a calculus or a physics class, because there were these algorithms and these formulas, and then it was, “Oh, Natalee just has to show up as Natalee.”
Natalee can like what she likes, and that's okay. Here are some tips and some tools on how you can show up most optimally and feel a little more put together on certain dates or for certain events. “Here’s a good profile or silhouette that you could look for,” and that sort of thing. It was like, “Oh, I've got this. This isn't that hard.” So that's really where that fog lifted. It was just like, “Oh, it's easy.”
The formula to put Natalee together every morning, it is always there. So that kind of cleared out and made it feel so effortless.
Ellie Steinbrink: What I'm hearing you say is the formula is trusting yourself.
Natalee Shimerdla: Yeah.
Ellie Steinbrink: You know, for once, not that you haven't trusted yourself in the past, but it's such a common story I hear with thinking others know better. In the case of maybe that manager or leader that told you to tone it down, believing that was the right way when inside it didn't feel like the right way.
I just think that's so important to note here that what you're talking about is self-trust. You're leading yourself in your style now as opposed to all that weight of the people-pleasing and trying to get things just right.
I also remember one of the things when we were right after we got done working, we always kind of recap and say, “What did you think about the process?” I asked you about that because this whole first month of us working together is really this mindset and giving yourself permission to start showing up in a different way and working through removing some of those rules that we've been talking about here all along. Letting those go, so that we can get a little bit more peace and be in a place to just show up as our true selves.
I remember asking you about that. I said, “What did you think of that initial process and what did you expect this experience to be like, and what did it actually feel like?”
I remember you saying, "I thought it was just going to be kind of 'What Not to Wear' make over." Can you talk a little bit more about what maybe surprised you in those initial first meetings we had?
Natalee Shimerdla: Yeah. And that is probably, especially with Stacy and Clinton coming back with their show right now, it's slow timing. You would watch the 30-minute episode and you would hear about this person and then they would take their wardrobe into the studio and then they would throw it on the trash can and then they would walk out with 10 looks or what have you.
I was totally expecting just the style portion of engaging with you, I was expecting us to go through what was on my hangers and my closet and then you say, “In, out, no, yes,” whatever. What I didn’t expect is that, much like everything that I’m doing in my business and the kind of clients that I want to look for, it is a whole-body experience. It is a whole-person experience.
And I want that for my clients too. I want my clients to know that with me as their partner in their business, they can trust me, and they have the ability to go on vacation or let things be for a weekend so that they can do family things and that sort of thing.
So that experience for me was transformational again, because I had not stopped to think about what Natalee wanted to show up as every day. And again, super pivotal time in my life, all of the things. And what better way to kind of kick off this next chapter of my life than like, “Hey, it was like a strategic plan,” right? A strategic plan for how Natalee and her clothing are going to exist in this new chapter of her life.
So that’s really where it was like, “Oh yeah, I get it now.” The whole perspective is really important. Because otherwise you're just putting me in a suit or a dress or a pair of pants and a shirt, and I'm just showing up. And that’s not me.
So it's important to have that whole understanding of: Who is my personality? What are my colors? How do I feel most comfortable? What do I want to be? What don’t I want to be? In order to be comfortable and authentic and real.
Ellie Steinbrink: What do you think you needed to possess—mindset—someone who’s listening is like, “Am I ready for this work or am I not ready for this work?” What do you think you had to lean into in order to fully make this transformation?
Because I think what I want to say about this is it's maybe not for everyone depending on what they're working through in their life. I think it's something where you want to dig in a little bit. You want to ask the really hard questions and be ready to face, “Oh, maybe what I’ve been doing isn’t getting me to where I want to go.”
Is there anything that comes to mind for you? Because like you said, you were in a pivotal moment in your life. You had started a business, which—if you’re a business owner—you know how much that calls on you in terms of your own personal development.
Are there any qualities or mindset you needed to embrace as you went through this, do you think, that made it more successful? Because like I said, you really did jump into this and say, “I’m all in.” While I think there was, “Oh, I’m not sure,” it was still like, “I’m willing to try,” is what the energy I got from you.
Natalee Shimerdla: Yeah, absolutely. So first and foremost, I would say when I jumped into my business, the first six months it was kind of there and things were happening for me. But where I really started to see growth in my business is when I stopped caring about what other people thought about what I was doing now.
As you and I were working together, I realized that worked for me from a business perspective, it's got to work for me in all of the areas of my life as well, right? If I'm okay with Natalee, then I'm going to be Natalee.
So first and most, I would say it was definitely that, giving up caring or understanding what other people might be thinking of me. Because they're probably not looking at me in that way. You know what I'm saying? That perception in my head, people don't have time to worry about that for everybody. I mean, it is what it is. So that was, I think, the first thing.
And the second thing was permission. I needed to give myself permission to pause, reflect, and almost define the Natalee that I wanted to show up as.
Again, that definition had probably not been in existence, I mean, for who knows how long. I was a dancer, so I was always in that look. I was always the corporate girl, so I was always in that look. Then it was like, “I'm a mom,” and I never had really given myself permission to say who I am.
Ellie Steinbrink: Yeah. I think what you're talking about too is the energetic shift that you were experiencing prior to us working together, and then what we did in terms of your style and giving yourself permission that just capitalized on the work you were already doing and reinforced it, is what I'm hearing.
I often will talk about the difference between just going and putting on an outfit and maybe you're not quite energetically there to embody that outfit. Then when you are at a moment where that confidence comes from within, the outfit is like the icing, the cherry on top.
In your specific situation, after we had done that initial work, we went on ahead and styled you for a photo shoot. Can you talk about how you felt then, after going through that process, wearing the outfits and standing in front of a camera, which is very vulnerable and in a place where you really want to feel like your most authentic self and you want to feel very magnetic and alive? What was that like for you to have done the work and then show up in the outfit?
Natalee Shimerdla: I should also say I have been on this journey for probably three or four years. To your point, doing that internal work of “What was my future going to be like post-corporate? Was I going to continue to climb the corporate ladder and go that route? Was I going to be an entrepreneur?” So that life coaching and career coaching work had already been started. I think that that was helpful.
But I do think that if I had not done that work with you, my permission to be vulnerable with you just would have been a little bit deeper at that point in time. So I think that that is there. But really getting from “Who is Natalee? What does Natalee like? What are her preferences,” all of that work into actually putting the clothes on.
So one of the pieces that I was able to wear in my shoot, I had purchased maybe a year or so prior. I told you, I wear it with a black top or an ivory top, a pair of black pants, a pair of jeans, like, super basic, right?
Ellie Steinbrink: We gotta stop and we gotta describe this thing because this garment that Natalee is talking about is this beautiful coat that is long. It goes down to about her calf. It is this gorgeous vintage kind of looking floral jacket. It is the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
So she brought it into the conversation and said, “I'd love to wear this,” so go on. But yes, you were kind of pairing it with neutrals, black, because it probably felt very big and bold to you, right?
So there's often a tendency when I work with women where if there's something really big and bold in their outfit, they want to kinda tone it down, which, that is a strategy in and of itself. But go on. I just wanted to paint the picture for the listeners about how amazing this coat is.
Natalee Shimerdla: Yes, yes. So I found this coat, I'm madly in love with this coat. Again, beautiful. I should have worn it today. A beautiful almost suede trench-style long coat, beautiful floral print, peaches and reds. I didn’t even really know all the colors that were in the coat until we started working together.
So I was expecting—when Ellie showed me my style board—for it to be paired with, you know, a pant and a blouse and something again very neutral-based: ivory, blacks, what have you. And she brought to me this gorgeous periwinkle-colored dress, and I literally stopped and said, “I don’t think that these two go together. But we’ll try it anyway.”
And we put it on and I felt like a million dollars. I can just feel my body feeling how I felt in that moment, and I know I never would have paired those two pieces together.
But again, it was the permission I was giving myself to try new things. But those new things were comfortable. They weren’t completely out of the box. I wasn’t wearing a corset and whatever. It was just comfortable. It was just easy.
It came with realistic looks that I could retry with other pieces in my closet. So again, the realization that you weren’t really throwing me into something completely foreign was just comforting.
I felt my clothes finally fit me for the first time in a long time. I felt that they not just fit me from a personality perspective, but my measurements.
I’ve never taken my measurements other than wedding dresses or bridesmaid dresses, like, dance costumes throughout my dance career. I had no idea what my measurements were.
So for Ellie to say, “Oh, this pair of pants is going to fit you like a glove,” and then I go get them and they fit me like a glove, again, it's not rocket science. But it’s just, “Oh yeah, here’s a tool that you can use when you're shopping online or when you’re in-person or what have you, that will really help you feel just more you as you’re moving through this.”
Ellie Steinbrink: Yeah. I think you captured that so beautifully. And to your point of “rules” when you're talking about What Not to Wear, “This is in and that’s out,” I like to call them guardrails.
And what she's referring to is when I work with my clients, we talk about your body type. We get measurements, which is always like, “Ugh, I don’t want to give my measurements.” But I always like to think of them as data.
Being the daughter of an artist, I often think about balance, because I watched my mom for years create balance and proportion on her canvases. Or think about it as interior design, it’s really no different with your body.
A lot of women struggle with finding the right silhouettes, and I think when we started talking about, “These silhouettes will naturally compliment what you have. You don’t need to change anything about your body, we just need to find the right silhouettes that are naturally going to complement what you have.” And it is, it’s like a lightbulb moment.
Like, “Wow, I feel like I look in the mirror and I’m not so frustrated like I used to be.”
I think what was really fun—I remember distinctly when you were trying on the periwinkle dress with the floral jacket—I think you even did a little happy dance. Because it was probably the most fun moment I’ve had with a client because I could feel your excitement.
That is what I think is so powerful about this. I thought, “Okay, we’ve done it. We’ve gotten to the point where it is changing her.” This clearly feels so good to you that it is just like a level of excitement that you couldn’t even contain. So thank you for sharing that. I want to ask you one more question.
Natalee Shimerdla: Sure.
Ellie Steinbrink: I want you to speak to a woman who’s listening right now and maybe feeling like she needs to mute herself in order to be taken seriously or to get to her next level. What would you say to her?
Natalee Shimerdla: That is a great question, Ellie. My advice to anyone who is really holding themselves back, my business thrived and grew after I found the way to authentically show up as Natalee. And I would offer that anyone who is holding themself back or reserving the way that they look or what have you is, who is that benefiting?
You are holding yourself back. People aren’t getting to see your shine. People aren’t getting to see the real you and what makes you important to this world.
What the world needs more of are people who are authentic, because we have all of the fake on the TVs and the movies and the socials and all of this kind of stuff. But when people are going to hire you, when people are going to interact with you, and people are going to fall in love with you, they’re falling in love with you for who you are.
So if you are holding yourself back and you’re not truly shining as yourself and letting yourself be out in this great, vast, wonderful universe, then you may miss out on the opportunity to really experience success, a role, a client, an opportunity that you might not otherwise because you’re holding yourself back.
So it’s okay. People aren’t necessarily watching or listening to you that closely because they have their own things that they are worried about, and they have their own stuff that they are working through. So just be you. Just be you, however you are. Let the world see you.
Ellie Steinbrink: Man, you just took us to church, Natalee. I especially love—I just want to put a pin on something you said, and I want everyone to hear it again, you said, "Who is that benefiting?" I just want to reiterate that you said it, and because I’ve worked with a number of clients, it’s not benefiting you to perform, to fit into a nice little neat box that we’ve been told is the way to success.
So that is a great question to end on, Natalee. You did a fantastic job of giving the audience something to think about, but "Who is that benefiting?" I really want you guys to reflect on that.
Is there anything else you’d like to say about this experience or anything else you’d like the audience to hear before we close, Natalee?
Natalee Shimerdla: I would encourage anyone to connect with Ellie. Number one, she’s an amazing person. I know that I have been transformed as a result of being able to work with her.
My business has benefited from that. I even think showing up in my own personal life has benefited because I’ve just let go of a lot of things that weren’t serving me in the moment.
Ellie, it’s just been an absolute pleasure to get to know you and connect with you. I cannot thank you enough for just truly the transformation that you’ve helped me get through in these last six months. So I appreciate you.
Ellie Steinbrink: You’re so welcome, Natalee. Again, I want to take in all of that goodness you just shared with me. I also just want to underscore that you were a huge part in your own transformation. So kudos to you for doing the work and allowing your bubbly, beautiful self to come out and allow to shine. So thanks so much, Natalee, for joining us.
Natalee Shimerdla: Thank you.
Ellie Steinbrink: Wow. I just want to take a moment to reflect on that conversation.
What a powerful story that Natalee shared. What’s really coming up for me is thinking about all the rules that she had built up for herself over the years, rules about her body, rules about what it meant to be a credible woman running a business, rules about success, what it meant to look successful, what it meant to look serious in a business environment.
And also, I think there was sort of a rule in there that she didn’t fully express, that it’s maybe not okay to just be your full self, like that’s too much. When she was talking about wearing too much pattern or color in the corporate environment that she had been in, there’s an underlying message that says, “That’s too much. That is not going to work for you if you want to be successful.”
I’m floored by the number of times I hear rules like this that women have acquired over the years, and just how unconsciously it is working to keep us small, keep us safe, keep us from the very thing that will actually lead to greater success.
You heard it from Natalee. She had already been doing work internally to be more herself, be more in alignment with who she is, letting her true personality shine.
What I see so commonly in my clients and other women is they’ve been doing that work—they’re cultivating that courage on the inside—but style is often the last piece that then is reflected in that transformation.
So if you’re listening and you’re feeling like you’re ready, you’re ready to courageously step into a new version of yourself, you’re ready to let that version of yourself be reflected in your business, you’re ready to let someone see you, this is the container I want you to join.
I want you to apply to be here. This is exclusive because I want women like you who are ready for that next level, who are ready to make that transformation, who are ready to start looking at the difficult pieces that will ultimately lead to your success.
So I would invite you to apply. Be a part of this. Don’t miss it. This is going to be a transformative experience that you will never forget.
Thanks for joining me on The Visibility Shift. If something in today's episode made you pause, rethink, or gave you permission to stop playing small, it would mean so much to me if you'd leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/visibilityshift.
If you're ready to stop second-guessing and start showing up as the leader you are from the inside out, The Visibility Edit is where that shift begins. Head to elliesteinbrink.com to learn more and join the next round. Because the next version of you, she's not waiting for permission. She's waiting for you. Let's make it visible.
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