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Tomorrow can be different from today.
Our lives often leave us feeling hopeless—like nothing will ever change. But perspective is everything. When you know where to look, hope can be found in the spaces and places you least expect.
Join Jason Gore (Lead Pastor of Hope Community Church) for a fresh perspective, practical steps, and weekly encouragement that hope really is possible… even in real life.
Resiliency is a big thing for our younger generation, is
that anytime they're encountering like an obstacle, um,
my suggestion is, you know, they kind of re retreat
and they're like, oh my God, this is too hard.
You know, like, I don't, I don't wanna do it.
But you gotta, you know, keep on pushing forward.
You know, where there's one door that closes,
there's gonna be another one that opens.
And just because that door closed in front
of you doesn't mean that there was something wrong with you.
It just meant that that wasn't the
opportunity that you needed.
Welcome to the Hope and Real Life Podcast with Jason Gore.
Our team is passionate
and committed to bringing you more hope in the everyday
real areas of your life.
If this conversation and content is valuable for you,
please do us a favor, like, subscribe, and even share.
You never know how valuable it could be
to share a little bit of hope with someone else.
Let's get the conversation started.
Well, welcome to this episode of Hope in Real Life.
I am here with a very special guest this week
and friend of mine, Ms.
Natalie Pulley. Please welcome to the show.
Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it.
Greetings inside your attentions. I'm happy to be here.
So thank you for having me. Hey,
This episode, we are talking, uh,
about a very important topic.
We're talking about empowering women in leadership.
And now listen. I know right outta the gate, we got a lot
of men that are listening to this and thinking,
Hey, maybe this isn't for me.
I'm telling you right now, stay right where you are.
Or we just had a pre-production meeting we talked through.
This is for everybody and you're gonna leave a better man
for sure after spending time in this conversation.
Well, Natalie, welcome, uh, to the podcast. Thank you.
Appreciate it. Uh, highlights.
I know wife, mom, assistant principal at Garner High School.
Yeah. But why don't you just tell our
listeners a little bit about yourself? Oh,
Gosh. So I don't like
to talk about myself,
but you know, if I'm, like I say that's
what you're here to do, say, right.
I'll say a little bit about me. Um, so, uh, I'm,
I'm fairly young in my dealings,
but I feel like I've done a, a, a whole lot.
Um, so I am a mom. Um, I am, my oldest is, gosh, is 22.
I don't feel like she's 22. Right.
But I have four children, wife, um,
I've been wife car's married over, over a decade,
almost 15 years now.
Um, am assistant principal. Love what I do.
In your words, what is leadership?
Oh, so leadership is really big, right?
So leadership can be a lot of different things.
I can be a leader in my home.
I can be a leader in my community, um, even in marriage.
Um, and so for me, leadership is taking charge of something
that you have a passion about
and that you're wanting to lead the charge to do.
So I'll take like myself, um, as a, as a leader,
I'm thinking about who am I empowering
in my managing people.
I'm managing processes.
You know, in my background I've been, um,
in financial industries.
I've been an investment banker, and now I'm in education.
And through all of that, um, I've taken a look at, you know,
what is the culture of the building that I'm in?
You know, leading a process is simply saying,
I can do 1, 2, 3, like leading people, you have to know like
who they are, what do they need, you know,
how do they feel, how do they think? Um,
And what motivates them? Are they looking for?
Totally. And,
and when you are a leader, people are looking at you
to say like, what can I get from you?
What can I gain from you?
And so some of that takes a look at like,
who you are as a person.
Like what do you have inside of you that you're wanting
to give to someone else?
Because sometimes you don't realize that you embody a lot
of principles
and a lot of, um, characteristics that someone else has.
And unless you share it,
you can't even connect with someone else.
Um, we can kind of be introverted as human beings sometimes
'cause we're afraid to share and we're afraid to like grow
and learn from other people.
But when you're in a leadership role, you know,
you're there to tell your story.
'cause sometimes your story is
1, 2, 3, 4 other people's stories.
And then it comes a domino effect, you know,
when you're talking one-on-one to somebody, you know.
Um, so leadership just encompasses, you know,
standing out in the forefront having a vision.
Um, and even if it's like writing it down,
having a vision board, you know, your,
what's your three year plan?
What's your five year plan, your 10 year plan, you know,
knowing what it is that you're wanting in life.
Um, it can, it can be something as simply as, uh, small
as doing a podcast, right?
Right. Yeah. Yeah. It can be something simple.
Um, but knowing that you're going
to be impactful in some kind of way, that's
what leadership is about.
Yeah. And what's, you know, I think a lot of people,
if they're not careful, if,
and especially if they haven't experienced healthy
leadership yet in their life, it, the temptation could be
to think it's about, Hey,
how do I get these people to do this thing?
Yeah. And what I hear you describing is, is hey,
that's a actually a small portion of it.
Mm-Hmm. It's actually,
how do I add value to these absolutely.
People's lives so that they can move
into their preferred future? Yeah,
Definitely. I mean,
when you, let's say for example,
in my professional life, right?
You, I'm leading students,
but I'm not just leading the students.
I'm leading the staff, I'm leading processes.
And you can have different types of leadership.
You have leaders that are managers
and leaders that are leaders of people, right?
You can be a leader of processes
and you can be a leader of people.
But when I walk in the building, I am someone
that is a resource for my staff, resources for parents.
Um, and sometimes you don't know
what those resources may be.
You know, I'll think about my week, just even this week,
where you have students that are suffering from,
uh, food insecurity.
You have parents
that are suffering from financial insecurity.
You have staff members that are doing the both same things
that are all struggling around trying
to figure out what the answer is.
And sometimes it's really just they're not looking for you
to solve it, but they need a place to vent, right?
They need a place to like execute that.
Um, and so sometimes you're just a offloading, um, piece
of their day to make them feel like, okay, it's not hopeless
and it's not, you know, over and I can't get through this.
And you're really empowering them as an individual to know
that this is just a small portion of who they are
and what their day's gonna look
like, and they can get through it.
Yeah.
Um, you just mentioned a little bit about challenges
that people might face.
Um, I'd love if you'd share just a little bit about
your leadership journey.
Yeah. And then specifically what type of barriers
or challenges have you faced along the way?
Oh, yeah. Um, so, so my journey into leadership, um,
really kinda started, um, at a younger age.
And I'll say like inspiration wise, there were people
that were in my life that I looked up to, um,
as a young child.
And I was always real big on like, watching TV
because in, you know, many years ago,
there were very few minority faces
that you could see as role models.
Um, and so I would look up to people like the Huxtables,
you know, cliff and Claire were like the ideal people,
and you always wanted to be like, be like them
'cause you like, one's a doctor and one's a lawyer.
Um, and then I had a, uh, kindergarten teacher,
and she was like the sweetest person whatsoever.
And I said, I wanna be like her when I grew up.
So I went through school, you know, got my bachelor's,
got my, you know, two master's degree.
And then I was like, well, what's next? Right? Yeah.
And so, um, I happened to be visiting one
of my sorority sisters and, um,
their next door neighbor came out and we talking
and he's like, Natalie, you know,
you'd be really good in leadership.
And I was like, oh my gosh, no, that's not my thing.
You know, I'm real humble, real quiet.
And I was like, no, I don't wanna do that.
Um, he was like, you should do it.
So I, um, came outta the classroom, kind
of jumped into it about, you know, three, four years ago.
Um, and I was like, what am I doing?
I was like, okay, what's my vision?
And my like, epitome moment was kind
of like that aha moment.
It was, someone asked me, what kinda leader do you wanna be?
And I like paused for a moment
and I was like, um, I don't know.
You know, like I, I didn't know. Right?
But that's a good thing though,
because it made me think deeper about the impact
that I wanted to have.
So from there, like the challenge was defining who I was,
defining who I needed to be.
And then I sat for a minute
and I was like writing my journal going, you know,
what am I gonna be as a leader?
And that leader said to me,
and it came to me like I was writing down and I said,
before I leave this earth, whatever that looks like,
you know, I wanted to be able to say that I
inspired someone, something that I said, something
that I did, something that I wrote, um,
something they heard me say, you know, even doing this,
this podcast right now, I wanted it to be like,
can somebody benefit from what I'm saying,
can I inspire someone that may be going through a challenge?
They may be saying like, you know, I don't, I don't know
what tomorrow's gonna bring.
I don't, I don't have enough gas to put in my car.
Like, what does that look like?
Um, I wanted it to be that I could influence someone
and know that there's someone else out there in that world
that's like me that has had the same challenges,
that may have had the same successes,
but Natalie did something, you know, that inspire him.
Um, the challenge came, you know, realizing that
when you get into leadership sometime,
it is a very lonely world.
Yeah. Being a business owner, you know,
doing so many different things.
Sometimes you realize there's competition.
Um, there's jealousy.
Sometimes there's, um, you know, sabotage. Yep.
And whatever you're doing. So you really have
to be resilient, you know, have to really think about like,
how am I gonna persevere through the challenges?
It may be starting your small business. Yep.
And you're like, well, how am I gonna pay for it?
And you're like, I gotta pay the bills.
I gotta pay the mortgage. I gotta pay all the car things.
But I still have this vision around, you know, I,
I wanna be a entrepreneur.
I wanna own my own brick
and mortar, you know, I wanna do these things,
but how do I get it done?
Um, so the challenge is really gonna be being resilient,
knowing like, I still wanna be motivated, keeping, you know,
keeping yourself inspired
and then looking for positive role models that you can, can,
um, get under and get that coaching and get that mentorship.
Yeah. Someone that you can connect with.
'cause it's kinda like having like that life coach, right?
Yeah. You gotta have that person that's gonna keep you going
when you're like, I just wanna give up.
'cause there's days that I'm like, I wanna give up. Right.
Hope in real life family.
I want to take a moment and let you know about a resource
that we have for you, for your own personal development,
spiritual enrichment, and really a way for you
to find a bit more hope in real life.
We have a tool for you called the Hope in Real Life app.
It offers things like parenting tips, financial resources,
marriage insights, uh, if you're looking for it,
there's even Bible reading plans in there.
And there's a community
where you can even share prayer requests
and know that someone is praying for you for whatever it is
that you have going on it, your life.
It's available right now in the Apple App
Store or in Google Play.
You can search hope in real life in both stores,
or you can use the download link that is in the show notes.
Remember, tomorrow can be better than today.
And hope is possible, even in real life, what you just said,
you, you hope that you say something that inspires people.
And again, going back to leadership is not this idea
of continually telling people what to do.
I've heard someone say
before, many people, most people won't remember
what you told them to do.
Mm-Hmm. They're going to remember how you, how
You treated them feel. Yeah. How you make them feel.
And you just said you wanna inspire people inside ly
for an aspiring leader.
Like recognizing, I mean, that comes from, like you said,
sharing your story, listening to other people's stories,
and then finding out how your story can actually
help them move forward.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, you never know.
Like, it's, it's a day to day situation.
You know, being, when you're in the forefront, no matter
what industry you're in, no matter what aspect
that you look at in leadership, um,
there's always gonna be somebody that you just don't know
that you've reached that day.
Yeah. You know, you may have simply been in passing
and they're like, they might have been listening.
Yeah. You know, and sometimes,
and that's the biggest thing when I, when I, um,
got into leadership as far as, um, my professional world,
they always tell you, you know,
you, you wanna get all the kids.
And I said, I'm not here to save all the kids. Right.
Because you can't necessarily do that.
You can't save the world. Right.
But I did say, if I can reach one child,
if I can make one impact, you know, if I can do
that in the world, if I can reach one person, no matter
what it was that I was doing, whether it's in my community,
whether it's with my church, whether it's my sorority,
I wanted to be able to do one good thing for one person,
for one, something that someone would remember me, me by.
Yeah. And for me, that made it all worth it.
Yeah. Okay. So we said we were gonna talk about, uh,
empowering women in leadership.
Yeah. I'd love to hear how,
how do you make a point in your life to actually develop
and invest in other women leaders?
Yeah, absolutely. So I think that comes with, um, for me,
uh, I always wanna make sure that I'm talking to someone
and saying like, what are your goals?
Asking questions. 'cause sometimes we are not always active
listeners, you know, we are active speakers.
And so listening is a big part of
what I do Whenever I have the opportunity to meet someone,
um, especially in, you know, the community.
You know, I listen to what they say.
'cause sometimes words are very impactful around like,
what people are telling you.
So as an active listener
and knowing that once I can kind of listen to
what they're saying, then, um, you know, I wanna sit down
and have a conversation on like, well,
how do you plan to reach that goal?
You know, getting someone to think critically about,
you know, what they're doing, what they're goal is,
and how they're going to achieve it.
Um, also to try
and inspire women by saying that you can do it,
it is possible to, you know,
society has not always been very welcoming
of women into leadership roles or into any capacities.
You know, which, if we can go back
to like the 1920s when you're talking about
women's suffrage Mm-Hmm.
Um, that hasn't always been a time
where a woman's voice was heard
or equal, like sitting here now that maybe
that wasn't a thing necessarily.
Right. You know, 30, 40 years ago or plus.
And we're still kind of in that same mentality today.
And so now we have to take other people
that are in our same genre or even not,
and give them the hope and give them the inspiration.
Give them the motivation
and encouragement to know that whatever
that challenge is you're going through,
and whatever your aspiration is, please do it.
Because you know what? We need someone like you.
'cause the world has to keep going.
We have to continue to, you know, have that cycle of life.
You know? So I want that
and that same type of mentality with someone else
that I can get to do and get them to build up.
So I have a 15-year-old daughter. Yeah. Okay.
And, and I'm one who is well aware of Mm-Hmm.
The challenges. Yeah. Well, the challenges, yes.
But let me say this, the strengths
that a women do bring to leadership.
I mean, even in the, our studio right now, um, we have Elena
and Hailey who are a huge driving force Yeah. In making,
And they're awesome too, by the way.
They are, they do a fantastic job in
making this podcast happen.
And so they leverage their, whether it's my wife who
who works, I mean, we have who works full time,
who also, I mean, I'm, yeah.
Juggling is juggling and is Yeah. Juggling a lot.
A primary one of, you know, a huge influence Mm-Hmm.
In our family and the life of our kids.
Um, I know what you do for our community.
Um, but, but I've got a 15-year-old daughter. Yeah.
And I would say that she shows leadership. Mm-Hmm.
I would say like the roots of leadership, you know, um,
in her life as strongly
as any other 15-year-old boy girl that I've ever seen.
Which brings with it some beautiful things. Yes.
And also some challenges for sure.
But what would you say to, uh, a young lady who is,
who has aspirations of, um,
using a leadership gift in the world?
Yeah. In the community, in the
workplace, wherever that would be.
First thing is don't give up. Right. Don't ever give up.
You know, no matter what you are encountering. Yeah.
Like stay positive, right. Stay goal oriented. Yeah.
You know, you have to be in the mentality that I am enough,
you know, I am everything that I need.
And also don't let the outside influences.
And, you know, we have social media. Oh my goodness.
Social media is like, it's a positive,
but it's also to a detriment.
Mm-Hmm. And so I know it's like,
you wanna be a TikTok sensation, and that's great, you know,
but after TikTok fade, you know, have gone away, you know,
what is your next thing from there
and how to be inspirational,
but, you know, just to be not giving up, staying motivated,
staying resilient, because you know, it's not gonna be easy.
You know, resiliency is a big thing
for our younger generation is
that anytime they're encountering like an obstacle, um,
my suggestion is, you know, they kind of re retreat
and they're like, oh my God, this is too hard.
You know, like, I don't, I don't wanna do it,
but you gotta, you know, keep on pushing forward.
You know, where there's one door that closes,
there's gonna be another one that opens.
And just because that door closed in front
of you doesn't mean that there was something wrong with you.
It just meant that that wasn't the
opportunity that you needed. So can
You, I, I don't wanna interrupt you.
Yeah. But I want you to say that I think
as the kids say one more time for the people in the back, in
The back, back, You, but you,
because I actually do think,
and you've said this word resilience a couple times.
Yeah. And, uh, and I just, I do have this belief,
and I think it's based on the fact
that we do have social media that we can Mm-Hmm.
Order things, Amazon Prime, we can get on Netflix
Right at your doorstep Right away.
We, so we expect things to happen right now overnight.
And so can you just, just say that one more time for,
for those that are like, Hey, I have aspirations of leaders,
but a door was shut or I don't dress a certain way.
Absolutely. Or I don't, absolutely don't speak a certain
way, but I do have these aspirations.
Yeah. I mean, you, you have to stay resilient
and keep pressing forward.
You know, I'll, I'll take me and my professional capacity,
before I got into leadership,
I probably went on a dozen plus interviews and that's okay.
But it built up my ability to know like,
okay, this is what I expect.
I learned something from it.
Each opportunity that I didn't get, say, said school. Right.
I was still able to learn something.
I was able to glean something from every
interview that I went on.
It helped me build up my capacity. Right.
And that's what is the, the, the big key when you are hit
with a door closing in your face, someone, you know,
maybe you wanted it to have that brick and mortar building,
or, you know, maybe you wanna be that YouTube sensation,
but you don't have enough followers.
You don't have enough subscribers, that's okay.
You learn from it, you analyze it.
You look at, okay, well what's the,
what's the competitive edge?
What's the comparative analysis to it?
You know, you have to really dig a little bit deeper into,
well, why, why didn't it work out for you?
Yeah. And that's okay.
When that door closes,
that may just not been the door for you right there.
Right. But you learn from that experience
and then you take from that and say, well,
what can I do on the next one?
So the next time you go
and say, Hey, listen, I got this, you know, proposal
for you, you know, would you mind being,
you know, a sponsor for it?
And they say, oh, not this time. That's okay.
Maybe you add a little bit more on your sponsor letter.
Maybe you do something a little bit different. Yeah.
So the next time you get ready to go up for
that opportunity, you'll be a better prepared.
And that resiliency is a big one.
You know, if we can get kids to, you know, be in that,
that, that Okay.
Right. With saying no, they'll be, they'll be much well off.
Yeah. But much better off hope
And real life family. We just
want to take a moment
and let you know about a resource that is available to you.
I know a lot of our listeners aren't necessarily active in a
church, might not even be a Christian.
We are still thankful that you're spending time with us.
However, we do get asked regularly,
how can we find out more about your church
or even just about this Jesus guy.
And so if that is you, I want you to know you can tune in
to get Hope tv.
We have live services on Saturday, 4:15 PM and 6:00 PM
or on Sunday at 9:30 AM
or 11:15 AM Those are Eastern standard times.
If you can't tune in during those times,
we will drop our YouTube link as well
as our podcast link down in the show notes.
We would love to have you join in with us.
Let's keep sharing some hope.
Thank you so much for taking the time to join
Us. Thank you for having me. Yeah,
absolutely. It's been fun.
Yeah. We will definitely have you back
For sure. I love to
come on back. Awesome.
Talk about, talk about all day long, so I love it.
I appreciate you To
Our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in.
Listen, uh, if you found this episode beneficial for you,
or maybe somebody came to your mind, uh,
that you knew would benefit from hearing, uh,
these thoughts on leadership
or what it means to bust through barriers
or to stay focused, to think critically about what it is
that they feel like they're called into
and to stay resilient through that,
please share this with them.
Uh, you never know, uh, how much benefit that can provide
to somebody who actually needs a bit of hope right
where they are in life.
We will see you guys on the next episode.
Natalie, thank you so much again.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It's been great.
Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Yep.
Love you guys. See you on the next episode.
Thanks for tuning into this episode
of The Hope in Real Life podcast.
If this content was valued
before you don't forget, like, subscribe, share.
You never know how important it could be
to bring a little hope into someone else's life.
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