Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Natalie Alz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Natalie, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?
I started my business in 2020, a minute before a pandemic hit the globe, and decided to go and explore the freelance world, back then I wouldn’t call it a small business. However, I knew I was heading that way and that was my intention, whoever in my mind it was a different story. one of the reasons I trust my inside intuition. Fast forward to 2022 after realizing that a crisis is an opportunity and I might have missed my chance by dragging myself into it, instead of raising and doing the work. found myself looking at things differently it’s been to years since I opened my business and still didn’t have any plan, I have the vision, missing the money, and most importantly the confidence. In every business the first year is cruel, most will probably give up, changing the state of mind isn’t easy yet essential, and the minute we do that we are on the right path. Nobody promised us that it’s going to be easy, when I was younger I used to be able to focus on what I wanted, give the surrounding respect, and not take with me, the more I grow up the more I walked away from the younger version of myself, the one I needed to make this happen. so ya most definitely I should have started younger, yet I might find that everything happens at the right time and there’s no way we can rash things. it will happen when it was meant for it, meanwhile, life was preparing me for it.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
You know the saying “you grow up every time you face your fears and dreams”? well, that’s who I am. I have faith that guides me in times, and hunger to make me keep going. My story maybe starts with me applying for a job I wasn’t fully qualified for, yet my boss Keren managed to see the future, after me being persuasive in the interview. you see not always you going to fit 100% into the criteria, but to the one that matter, I was perfect for it, and my career in digital marketing started and I realize that yes I can do it, all I need is to set my mind have faith, and it was 4 great years during this period I discovered my other passion and love for traveling, my job was flexible at times which guarantee me abelity to travel and visit all places I’ve been dreaming on, starting from Australia ending up with Scandinavia and it was a blast, my Instagram page grow (put some attention and work to it) and I realized I want to travel more and decided it’s time. went out there to the world as independent with no plan just said will figure it out than COVID hit and everything changed for good? yes, because I started working with an international company for a short period of time, learned a lot about myself my weakness and strength, and just in 2021 I realized I’m not in the front and decided to help more women to do so since we like doing it all behind the scenes, and when we are in the spotlight we tend to shrink, doubt ourselves and I’m not saying men are not facing or struggling, however, we as women tend to second guess it or say it’s luck.so I decided I will do that in any way possible. Now life had a different path for me, in order for me to get stronger, and summoned me an opportunity to get out there by writing in the Haaretz project Haaretz 21, which gave people from Palestinian Arab Israeli citizens, cuz after all it was a program for israeli citizens. An opportunity to learn how to write as journalists, so now I have the opportunity to learn a new skill, in the meanwhile I gain more confidence to stand in front of a camera and little by little started changing my approach and had a yoga course at AYA, and I realized that it was all meant to be. and there more I practiced yoga, and writing and gave workshops in yoga and in marketing started spreading myself and being out there bit by bit. still, work to do, but that’s me I’m disciplined,d and we go all and beyond for ya.
Have you ever had to pivot?
(taking a breath) It was that time that I knew it would change my perspective while living it. The news had already spread everywhere, and I remember hearing it and not believing it happened, she was so young, young people are not supposed to die from some sort of illness, at the time I used to think that being young is being immortal, not sure where it came from, but I had in my mind and all the sudden it blows up because someone younger than me has died now, she’s gone, her dream her everything and that left me shocked for a second while my mind did at that point was simulated as if it was me, that when my mind shifted and started thinking “we are not going to live forever, and for sure not going to be young forever. you must change something” at that point I had no idea what is needed to be done, I knew that what happened so far is ok but I want something else, I don’t want to be like everyone. Fast forward it took me more than 10 years to understand that I have a weakness that I appreciate more than my strength – started wondering why? and during that life took another shift, and got fired for the first time after I was promoted (they decided to make some cuts), I just happened to be in the wrong possible option at work so it strengthened all the thoughts I had, to look different at life, that anyone can send me off for any reason, how will I be ready for that, I must say it takes time until the wheels of your mind start working, and your life adapt to the changes it builds up for a long time and in the right moment, it hits as if God planned for all that time. All there’s to say is thank you God الحمدالله
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
It’s an ongoing job, the first step is to put yourself out there. some will tell you, you must have a plan and strategy and so on and it’s all important, however, I found more important is to be out there to build your confidence, and while doing that be persistent and keep delivering. assuming you made the hard part of knowing your own niche and you know the value you bring to your customers/ followers all you need now is to be consistent, disciplined and build content that is valuable to others and for yourself, and while doing that be aware that not everything goes smoothly, and not everybody will jump after you therefor it’s not necessarily the big numbers that will bring you the most valuable customers it’s the engagement and reaction, also be aware that social media platforms are changing all the time which says you must be on top of things all the time, keep being updated and growing. make sure you build yourself outside the social media too, since it could be shut down anytime and it’s important to be out there, I knew it’s the old ways but those work too. Also, good to look to be viral it may hold and look good; however, it doesn’t guarantee you get a client it just says you’re awesome on social media, and if that is what you’re looking for, great if not consistent is your friend even in dark days when you feel it’s not going well. The struggle might be there too, and that’s when the plans you wrote at the beginning are needed. Keep it simple, in order to stay for a long time, it’s not a sprint it’s a marathon and ongoing thing, have goals for every 5-7 months and level up or look for the right angle, considering your skills, ability and how long will it take to learn new skills and collaborate with others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nataliealz.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/nataliealz
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/nataliealz
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-alz-03411119/
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/@natalie_alz
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgk9KkY3I4c6c49PqhWEtg
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@nataliealz2?_t=8WCT2BkiBJR&_r=1
Image Credits
Maayan Aharon Natalie Alz