Mindful B2B Marketing | Business Growth and Social Impact (Former: Forward Launch Your SaaS)

S2E3: The Power of Volunteer Marketing Teams ft. Natalie Hogg, Founder of MethodQ

• Keirra Woodard • Season 2 • Episode 3

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Guest Bio:
Natalie Hogg is the founder and head marketer of Method Q. She has a background in communications and journalism and initially aspired to join international relations but later shifted to marketing. After a successful career in corporate marketing, she founded Method Q, where she can help businesses grow while giving back to her community.

Company Description:
Method Q is a full-service marketing agency that provides comprehensive marketing solutions for businesses, whether supporting existing in-house teams or acting as a complete outsourced marketing department. 

Contact Information:


Main Insight:
The power of creating volunteer marketing teams lies in aligning business goals with personal passions. By blending work and life purposefully, you can build a community of professionals who share your values, create meaningful impact through nonprofits, and help the next generation succeed.


Key Takeaways:

  1. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone:
    • Expand your network by attending events and engaging with new people.
    • Reach out to potential mentors and ask for introductions.
  2. Define Your Goals:
    • Write down your career and life goals to manifest them into reality.
    • Create a timeline of where you want to be, even if it's a rough outline.
  3. Build and Nurture Relationships:
    • Foster meaningful relationships within your network and community.
    • Leverage your network's skills and interests to make a positive impact.
  4. Incorporate Volunteering into Your Business:
    • Recruit your team to volunteer their skills for a nonprofit organization.
    • Start by offering small contributions, like managing social media or redesigning a website.
    • Encourage your team to take ownership and contribute their expertise.
  5. Practice Self-Care:
    • Maintain a healthy balance by prioritizing self-care.
    • Lead by example, showing your team the importance of taking care of themselves.

Give feedback on this episode by sending the host a text message.

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 Keirra Woodard: Alright. Today, I am sitting down with Natalie Hogge, and we are going to talk about the power of creating volunteer marketing teams. So Natalie is the founder and head marketer of method queue. So, Natalie, I'm super excited to chat with you today and dig into your background. Yeah. 

Natalie Hogg: Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah. 

Keirra Woodard: I love your podcast. 

Natalie Hogg: I love what you're doing, so I'm happy to support it as well. Thank you. 

Keirra Woodard: So if you don't mind telling me a little bit about how you got into marketing and how you got into founding your company? Yeah. I'd be happy to. 

Natalie Hogg: So You know, it's funny. I went to school for communications. I actually had a really hard time figuring out what I wanted to do. I'm looking like most people do if they don't fit into a specific box. They try to figure out what they are interested in. I went through several majors before I landed on communications and journalism. My goal was actually to go into politics and join the UN and do international relations. I'm really glad I didn't. I don't think I'd be very happy in that industry. So there was kind of a natural segue to communications, public relations, and then that led to marketing. So, I was a journalist for a while working on a publication and then ended up helping out with their marketing strategy And then joined another company running their content marketing, and then there was some overlap with, you know, if you're writing content, who was that getting in front of? So there's an, the advertising or demand generation on how are you getting the content in front of the people that you intend to get front of, and then how does that lead to leads for a company? So I ended up kinda taking over a much broader marketing umbrella pretty quickly. And then my dream was always kinda to open up my own business and to be able to help different businesses solve problems and to, be able to have control over giving back and doing what I wanted to do with my life with my purpose. And then COVID kinda expedited that. So there was a an opportunity to, actually, an opportunity. I was, my, my position was eliminated. I joined a startup and, kind of was left without a plan for the first time, and I'm a, I was a career perfection so that kinda came to me as a shock. But instead of rushing back in out of fear and defining a new job, I wanted to take my time. I found some consulting gigs with some people in my network that were very helpful and supportive and found that there was kind of a gap where a lot of companies end up cutting marketing and sales teams first when they need to, do budget cuts and then quickly realize, well, where's my pipeline, where's my new revenue, you know, people aren't aware of my business anymore and realize that they need marketing really quickly. And so I found myself consulting with companies in those positions where, they needed marketing and then they needed you know, marketing is very broad. So they needed a video editor. They needed, an ad creator. They needed another writer or someone to help with the website. And so I just kinda curated a team over time and ended up just fully committing to method q, which became more natalie consulting with businesses, but, like, a full grown marketing team. And so what we are today is, a a fully, full service marketing team that helps with companies to, you know, be their fractional marketing team for a period of time, and We also act as a traditional marketing agent agency at the same time. So with some clients, we are their marketing team. Whether supporting their existing in house team or their entire outsource marketing team. And in other scenarios, we are their dedicated SEO management team, for example. And so it's kinda turned into this community of professionals of people that I love working with and grateful that have joined the method q team. And here we are just over 2 years. And, We are. Ask me follow-up questions if I missed anything. But No. I think that's great. 

Keirra Woodard: Yeah, it must have been I must have been quite a challenge, like, going from, always just had this very consistent outreach out to, like, Oh, I guess I'm gonna start a business now. I wonder how that's gonna go. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's Fear. So I had to, like, launch it with face. 

Natalie Hogg: So fear is very easy when you're when you lose the job. And, you know, I did have the privilege of having a little bit of savings. It wasn't something I could live off of for, like, 6 months or a year, but it was enough to give me a cushion of, you know, I still could find a job if if I needed to, a full time job, but I'm getting paid with these consulting gigs even though it's not consistent, you know, it's not guaranteed like a salary is. Right? So you never know how so I had to kinda change my mindset of safety, a safety net to I just believe it's gonna work out every day telling myself that. And it was the hardest thing I've ever done because I am I I like to live in a safety net. I think we all kind of do that. Our survival mechanisms come out. But having faith that, okay, I'm following what I'm supposed to do. I'm having the right conversations, and I'm doing it out of a good place, not out of fear. So, therefore, I'm generating success and positivity. So, like, really almost tricking my mind into this reality, then I started living that reality. So I know it's easier said than done in different scenarios, but for me, It was the hardest time, but the best challenge I've ever had. And, you know, I think that that's just very grateful for that. Yeah. 

Keirra Woodard: So how does running method cue, like, compare to the jobs that you were doing before in marketing. Like, you said you're able to kind of I might be paraphrasing a like, live out your values now or, like, do things that you care about a little bit more? Like, can you elaborate on that? Yeah. So I think when you joined, I was in corporate America. 

Natalie Hogg: So there's there's a lot of different roles of marketing. From that side, I always always important to me to join a company that had values that they actually lived by. And so there are terms where, you know, you say something like, inclusivity or, you know, quality or whatever those values are. And, you know, some things are just words on a wall. And other companies, they actually live by those values by giving back or doing something that adds to their community or adds to their employees' lives outside of just the paycheck. And so that was always important to me, but now running a company, I get to decide where what we do and how we do it. So for me, you know, something that's really important to me is helping our future generation, helping, people that may not have the privilege, you know, of having everything, prepared for them in their lives or you know, having the the monetary means or the connections to get into the best college or, you know, especially monetary wise. Or, you know, the the investment in believing in yourself to get that scholarship that you might be able to have gotten. All the things in life that kinda help with success. I mean, there are definitely other ways other paths to success outside of those traditional going to college. Graduating high school, seeing a lot of scenarios where people haven't followed that path, but still have found a lot of success. But for me, it's what what is the biggest impact I can have in my life? For me, it's helping, you know, other people with what whatever I can give, I'm I don't have everything to give, but what I do have to give, let me give it to other people the way that I would have loved someone to give to me earlier. To get people to believe in themselves and to expedite the way that the potential that they have that they may not realize they have. And so for me, I I'm living that out through a nonprofit called stand up for kids. I'm on their board, now as of this year, And before that, I was their marketing chair. So on a on a committee, marketing board committee. So now I'm playing both of those roles and they their value is to help, in the cycle of youth homelessness. And so I think homelessness or of, at risk of being homeless is a side effect of some of those things that I was just mentioning, which is, you know, It could be a million different reasons. Right? Maybe maybe something bad happened with your family and you needed to feel safe and you had to leave your your household. Maybe you know, something happened where your family lost a job and you're all living homeless or living couch to couch or living in a hotel, you know, that pivotal time in a in a kid's life, and and Santa for kids works with kids between the ages of twelve and twenty four. You know, that could be trauma that could make or break you. And so stand up for kids, what I really like about them, and it aligns with my values is we are people that can that will care about you, that will check-in with you, it's not transactional. Of course, we help with, you know, if you need food on your plate or you need a place to stay, you know, those those things or how to get a job, how to build your resume, but it's also a mentorship of checking in. So all these stories of these kids that were either living on the streets or had that potential reality living on the streets now I hear stories where sitting up for kids. It's been around for, like, 30 years, you know, was someone to believe in the in in their lives. And, I went to a a Braves game recently. I'm in Atlanta. So, oh, great. And we got to invite some of our the kids that we were mentoring here in Atlanta. And, I talked to 4 kids, and 3 of them were going to college to become a lawyer and one was going to be an engineer. So these are huge goals and more ambitious than I was at 18, 19. And they might not have believed that they could do that without someone to check-in on them because not everyone has that in their lives, even if you have a family or parents. For me, it's just like getting getting more than just checking a box and, I mean, you need to check that box by giving away food or, you know, helping with hotels. But to me, these are the future leaders this is this is the only way to change the trajectory of our world is to invest in our younger generation and give them a reason to care more about themselves and to believe that they're potential is beyond what they think their potential is today. Wow. So I want I want a timeline here. 

Keirra Woodard: Like, When did you join stand up for kids, like, to be on their board, to start with? And then, like, before that, like, is that is joining what made you passionate about, like, this cause, or were you already kind of passionate about it, or one way or the other? That's a good question. Yeah. 

Natalie Hogg: So, you know, well, my mom owned a day care growing up, so I've always cared about kids. I was surrounded by screaming babies, my whole preteen and to teenage years. So, you know, in toddlers and then everything, but, for so that's that, history. But, in 2020, I was actually part of a leadership class. Had a mentor really invest in me, and I wrote a press release about, in the future when I'm retiring. So I had to think through what is my path? Like, if if I'm sixty five years old and I'm retiring, what did I do between now and 65? And that's really hard because you don't really think about it. You kinda have it in your brain, but you don't list it out. And so some of the people in the class like wrote a speech from their son or wrote a newspaper article. I wrote a a press release. And so what I wrote was I wanted to be a consultant, a trap of the world, that helped companies with their growth trajectory and invested in companies that gave back and was on the board of a nonprofit that helped, mentor youth. And then because I wrote that, I realized that I wanted to do it, and I actually reached I started doing research on what nonprofits I support and stand up for kids was one that I came across. I asked volunteer. I started doing, as a traditional volunteer, we did I trained to be a mentor and trained, candidates that may fall into this category, to actually help them right there. And then they've realized that my skill set was marketing. And I said, hey. Can I help you guys? Cause, you know, I see some room for improvement in your email campaigns and your social. And from there, I got an introduction to the national head of marketing at the time, and it kinda just all happened organically. So, truly, that around the same time was also when I started method q. And so I truly believe I manifested everything happening today, and I didn't realize my own potential at the time because I had written it as if I didn't start for another 15 years. And here I am, you know, now I have to rewrite my press release because I don't know what's gonna happen in the next 20 years because I'm already doing a lot of the things that I wanted to do. So you know, I think intentionality and spending that time with yourself is just is life changing and really important. And, again, I have a lot more to achieve and a lot more to do, but it was important to me. So now I ask kids, that I mentoring to write their own press release. And they find it very helpful on thinking about, well, how do I get to that next step? Because you write it, and it might not be everything you wanna do. You might change your mind in 3 months. Which is fine, but you started to write down manifest the things that you wanna do and the things that you wanna be, and they need to start thinking about, well, how do I actually start doing them? And then you start creating that reality where you're creating a path to actually achieve them instead of just hoping it happens. Right. Yeah. I'm I'm a little bit familiar with this technique because there's, the seven habits of highly effective people. 

Keirra Woodard: It's like, is the classic bestseller. They use they recommend this technique of, like, I think either imagining, like, people giving a toast at your 80th birthday party or, like, even what people will say at your eulogy after you die, which is a little bit morbid, but I think, I think the reason people do exercises like that is to, like, get themselves out of, like, well, what is my current life situation and, like, thinking broader into, like, what do I really care about creating? Like, what what what am I giving back to humanity or, like, you know, what is important to me beyond, like, a surface level? Cause I think people get, like, really, you know, hung up on details. Like, oh, I need this job in order to make money. And then I can use the money to do things that I care about. And, like, the things that I care about are the really vague things that are far away and, like, the job and the money are, like, the really the close things and the tasks on your to do list at work today are the closest, closest closest to your brain right now. So if you flip that, then you can, like, be start being more intentional and saying, oh, that's what I really care about. Now I can make better decisions stated day on, like, what's going to bring me towards that. So I personally found that really helpful. It's really cool that you're you're you're doing that for kids, especially, like, younger ages because, like, the teenage years, I mean, you check out, once you add things like, for home situations and things like that. That's that's just even worse. But teenage years are already, like, very, very confusing because that's adolescent psychology. That's when you're trying to figure out kind of what separates you from the rest of society and, like, who you are as an individual as opposed to, like, what your your parents and family have told you. And so, yeah, another thing I'm curious about is, like, what what what was the timeline exactly with, you know, joining stand up for kids? That was that was around 2020. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So I started as the just a volunteer. And then I guess organically, I got introduced to the marketing side. 

Natalie Hogg: I met so many there's so many great people that have been working for that organization for, like, 20 years. Some of them, it's it's it's great how dedicated they are. So I kinda just unintentionally worked my way up, so to say, and became the leader of the National Marketing Board at the beginning of this year, or was on the Marketing Board last year and then, took over leadership of it this year. And then from there, got invited to join the board, itself. And so Yeah. I mean, relationships. This is also how I grew method q. It's all about intentional relationships and being someone that someone can trust or grow with or someone that wants someone that wants to be in your realm. I think that's how you kinda create the reality, and that's how you do something that you wanna do with life. I and I what you said earlier was really good because it made me think I think we all get stuck in this trap of what's my career How much am I gonna get paid? You know, what house do I want? Am I gonna get married? Are I gonna have kids? Like, all the things that you're expected to do in society? And some of the things that you have to do in order to properly exist in society outside of those things. But at the end of the day, it's like, Our goal of life is to connect with each other and to to live this life and to live in the moment and to fully experience it. And I think A lot of people have religious and spiritual beliefs that support that. You know, but regardless, there is kind of a a goal where all of us are just trying to figure out our purpose. And so for me, that press release and then giving back and being able to create a company that I have been able to recruit so much amazing talent that also has that same feeling of wanting to give back the purpose your why, why do you do what you do? You happen I I happen to have writing skills, you know, and I happen to know people through my career or through friendships or through different communities, you know, those those connections have allowed me to get to where I am. So those are the connections that led to some of my first clients. Those are the connections that led me to think about what I wanted to be when I grew up that allowed me to reach out to Santa for kids. That, led to bringing in the right people for method cue that then, you know, when stand up for kids had a website that was about to break. I asked my team, hey, you know, all of us are are people that wanna get back. I'm not gonna force anyone to fall here. But if anyone wants to volunteer to help this nonprofit out of this scenario, you know, please let me know, and I had an overwhelming amount people volunteer. They're like, yeah. I wanna help. I wanna help. So I had, like, fourteen people say that they wanted to help, the organization in various marketing needs. And so that to me was, you know, I didn't think I had much influence when I was a kid. You know, I didn't grow up with very well means. I mean, I think better than others. Of course, there's always comparisons. But, you know, I didn't have a lot of belief that I would be in a position where I could make a difference and I I could. So I think anybody could. You know, you know people that know people. You have relationships with people. You'd be surprised what your network and your community can do for you when you ask something of them or when you initiate something and you inspire other people to follow that initiative. So give me a sense of, like, the scope and, like, the numbers here. Like, how big is stand up for kids as an organization? Like, how many kids do they they serve? 

Keirra Woodard: I don't know if I have the exact number of how many kids they serve today. They've been around for 30 years. There's about 16 chapters across the nation. 

Natalie Hogg: There are, I mean, hundreds of kids every year at least, in Atlanta, I think we had a 100% graduation rate this year of of high school. And there were, you know, maybe little under 50 of kids, reached out to. So, I mean, it's it's seasonal. Right? So every year, there's new groups Usually, we meet them through, like, the high schools. We partner with high schools and they let us know, like, hey. 

Keirra Woodard: This this kid might be in a situation. 

Natalie Hogg: You don't ever ask someone, hey, are you homeless? You you don't want there's a lot of fear around that, and you have to start with trust. So you start as mentorship and usually that's when you identify a scenario that someone's in, a situation that someone's in, and then we can help in that specific scenario, but then also just be a mentor outside of their teacher or their parents. So did that answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. That that definitely is this. So this is a this is a pretty large, like, organization that's obviously been around for a long time. 

Keirra Woodard: And then you know, you grew method q from what just you doing consulting work to, like, a bigger agency. So how many people are on your team now? We have 7 full time employees, but about 25 total people. So use a lot of contractors, because they have their own businesses so I can be assured them by having my clients that need their services. 

Natalie Hogg: So marketing is so broad. I mean, there's so many different talents that you need. So I feel like I created a community of people that I trust and people that are good at what they do. And some of those people I need every day for every client some of them we need every now and then for clients. So there's various degrees, but I feel like everyone that is part of the community So we have, like, a slack channel that, we all just kinda talk about things in marketing. You know, we post things of, you know, a campaign that we saw or, an an event going on. So it really truly is a community of people. It's not a hierarchy of, okay, Natalie's the CEO. We have the structure. I mean, it's a company. We have to have some structure. But for me, it was about getting people in their best light, giving them the freedom to be who they are and deliver their best work, because marketing is creative and analytical. So most of the time, I think there's a lot of overlap between, like, developers and marketing too, where Marketers tend to be introverts, surprisingly, because we're supposed to be, like, fluffy. Yeah. Most marketers are introverts in my experience. And so giving them the freedom, like, I don't force anyone to go into. I don't have an office. We're all virtual, but we get together and we're a community. 

Keirra Woodard: We trust is the most important thing you could possibly have. 

Natalie Hogg: And so I think of us as a community of experts in marketing, not so much as a corporation where there's specific rules. I mean, we need to prevent or we need to provide our customers with what they expect of us on time, that's important. But if you're doing it from the beach, as long as the work is good, I don't care. I just need you to be reliable. So that freedom, I think, allows people to be a better version of what they can give and what they can create because they're not stuck into a in a box of how to create it or when to create it 9 to 5. Even though, you know, some of our clients are still 9 to 5. So we tend to, you know, definitely agree with their we meet them where they are. But, yeah, I think community is everything. So every company is also a community. In my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. That that makes a ton of sense. 

Keirra Woodard: And I'm I'm trying to conceptualize how you balance, you know, being a a founder, you're you're in 2020, you're going this new agency, and it's like developing organically kind of out of your consulting work and, you know, kind of in line with your vision. But, you know, what? Why motivated you? Or mean, I guess you're motivated by your passion for kids, but, like, you know, how did you balance wanting to spend your time volunteering with running your, your company and your business. And how did you, put time together for both of those things? Like, how how do you think about making time for both of those things in your life? Yeah. I mean, that's hard. The hardest thing. Right? So a lot of this kinda snuck up on me. I want we were a multimillion dollar agency, and that surprises me every day because I don't even know how we got here. 

Natalie Hogg: So I'm incredibly I live in gratitude every day and also awareness that that is a responsibility and that I need to show up. And, for me, commitment is everything. And so when I commit to something, I am fully committed. And so I fully committed to stand up for kids, and I fully committed to running this business. And I think of myself as, you know, that, like, I have to be committed to both of those things, and I have to be a good leader with both of those things. So you know, I'm honestly, especially now that I've hit 2 years and we're going into year 3, self care is very important. So I'm taking that very serious moving forward. I didn't realize I was kinda neglecting it because, you know, you show up, you do what you gotta do. But now I'm very aware that I don't take care of myself, how can I be a good leader? Am I setting a good example for people? I know. Like, I have to be healthy. I have to show up. I have to make good decisions. And I have to be present and available to the commitments that I committed to no matter what happens in life. So for me, it's like an everyday. Take care of yourself. Be aware and mindful of yourself so that you can show up for other people. And then, yeah, just staying committed. I mean, things happen. Like, there are weeks where I can't do anything for Santa for Kids. And, you know, I try not to feel bad about it because I'm doing what I can when I can, and they are so understanding and completely, I think I give myself much harder time than they would ever give me, for, you know, it's a volunteer commitment. So paid needs do sometimes take over that. I think that's the challenge is the end of the day, you gotta get paid. We often make sure we have a house overhead. Those things are priority number 1 before you can give back. Otherwise, you're in a survival mode, and that's not a a good place to be. So finding that balance of are the bills paid? Does that retain care of? Okay. Now I have energy to give back, and I wanna maintain that so that we have both of those things at all times. But, you know, I also have to make sure that my team also has that. Yeah. 

Keirra Woodard: And so when you did this volunteering, you reached out to your your network in order to get them to potentially volunteer for stand up for kids. Like, what was you said their response was very enthusiastic. Like, what what specifically did they do for the organization? And, like, what was the what was the what would you say the benefits of doing this, kind of putting together this kind of volunteer marketing team is, like, in terms of, you know, society or just, like, the people doing it or your organization or all of the above. There's a lot going on in the world. There always is, but right now feels worse to us that are living in it right now than it might have been in the past, but you know, we didn't live in the past. 

Natalie Hogg: So you have to focus on what you can control and your influence that you can control. And so for me, that's method cue and stand up for kids. And that's not gonna change the entire world, but it's gonna change my surrounding community as much as I can have an influence of. And, I think that's just that's purpose. So when I asked when I when I started recruiting people to join method q, it was very organic. You know, I started with people I trusted, and they trusted me enough, some of them to quit their high paying jobs to take the risk of joining this new startup method q with the belief that we can do this together, and I wanna be part of something that means something. And I can't let people down because that, because they owe so many people surprise me with their willingness to take that risk. And so when the time came, everyone knew joining that I started, like, day 1, I said, I want this to be, like, the Warby Parker or the Tom's model of, you know, for every new client, we do something. We either we either mentor or we volunteer and we give back. So we always have a nonprofit or 2 on our roster. But I don't dictate or force anyone to part of that account. I will always be part of that account. So what I've asked is on the team, you know, hey, the person that has been volunteering to publish all of the social posts is leaving Santa for kids can method queue take over as anyone willing to do it? And I had multiple people say yes. I'm willing to help with the creative. I'm willing to help with the scheduling the post. That's time consuming work, and it's hard. I mean, they post we post, I don't know, ten times a month sometimes. I mean, the takes time. Social media is, is a struggle for marketing teams because it's timely and you have to be responsive and you have to be interactive and it's a lot of work. So we someone on my team is a volunteer to schedule all that and to help with all that content. At the same time, the organization, their website, Sanford for Kids' website was owned by an another marketing agency who had built it years ago, who was going out of business. And so Stanford Kids didn't actually have access to their own website to edit it. And so I, you know, was trying to think of ways to solve this problem? Should we raise money? Should we do this? And then I was like, well, let me just see if anyone and, you know, how hard this will be and I ask people on my team, is anyone interested in helping to basically make this website on a different back end where they can actually access it so that they don't lose access to the website. And I had four people volunteer to develop that website, and it turned out to be a lot harder than originally thought It was a very complex project, very stressful and time consuming. And, you know, there was a period of time where I was worried we weren't gonna complete it. But no one gave up. Everyone committed to it, even though it was volunteer. And there's other things and priorities that are always gonna get in the way. We we did it. And we were able to give the keys over to Santa for kids. I think it would have been a 30, $40,000 project. For any other agency, but I think it only costs $500 in tools for us to get it live. And it was a gift and kind to the organization from method q. And so I just think that's really powerful because if I hadn't asked, that would have never happened. And so that might not be life changing for everybody, but that's, I think, we all have a power of influence, a sphere of influence. We don't realize we have that in our community. And attracting people that wanna do things that impact the world. And so for this, Santa for Kids now has access to their website and they can raise awareness and they can, we wanna publish blogs that speak to kids. You know, kids are on their phone. So the majority of kids we run into have a phone. They might not have a house, but they they definitely have a phone even if they're replugging it up every, every week. With data. And so, we wanna be able to access them where they are. So I think the website was very important for that organization. Yeah. Yeah. 

Keirra Woodard: It sounds like you guys really made a difference that it would have been it probably takes a lot of effort and, like, money to try to get grants to pay for or cover something like that. So, I mean, it's awesome that you guys you know, stepped in and and fixed that. And so I would like to, like, shift a little bit, like, towards the practical, like, you know, I think there are other marketers and entrepreneurs who would like to align their lives or align their businesses more around, like, having and impact and, like, leverage their network, or leverage their own time in order to volunteer. So do you have any, like, like, a list of tips or, like, steps that you would give to somebody in that situation so that they can start incorporating, volunteering as part of their, their, their organization of their life, basically. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I don't I'm not gonna claim. I have all the answers. 

Natalie Hogg: I just figured something out and I'd, you know, I I will say what came to me is reaching out to people and asking a question. So I looked at I I wanted to get a mentor, and I found I looked at people's, LinkedIn profiles that I admired. And I I picked like 10, and then I asked I looked to see if we had any common connections, and I asked those common connections if I could get an intro That's vulnerable. That's hard. Can you introduce me to this random stranger to ask them if they wanna mentor me this random stranger. And someone said, yes. And and she was an a CEO of a large company. Like, I was surprised, and I'm very grateful. So, like, getting outside of your comfort zone as much as possible and then going that extra mile of vulnerability is the only way you're gonna unlock your existing reality. A, b, you know, I spent a lot of time, and I didn't necessarily wanna be spending my time at, but, like, going to events or networking, like, That's so important. It might not feel important. And you you can go to happy hour. You don't have to go there just to drink a bunch of drinks. You go there to create relationships. And so those paid off for me at the end of the day. So those times when I was, like, exhausted and they didn't feel like going somewhere, but I did you know, one relationship where I met someone one time has led to 2 or 3 new clients for me. And I had no expectation 4 years ago that I was ever gonna ask anything of this person. But because I made a good friend that night, you know, things happened, right? And so, and it turns out what's funny is the executive director of Santa for Kids knew my uncle, and I had no idea. Wow. And, you know, I have a name, a last name that stands out. And so, you know, if someone else has met, someone with my name that tends to be a door opener for me. People don't forget my name. 

Keirra Woodard: That's why I haven't changed it. I'm married, and I I didn't change it. 

Natalie Hogg: But, I think that you everyone getting outside of your own bubble and out of your comfort zone is the only way to move forward. And then I know that you said earlier, I listened to a something Simon Sinick said yesterday, last night, and I like I like him. I like others. But he said he didn't believe in work life balance because it's, I don't gotta misquote him, but it's because it's having, you know, you're you're working with balancing 2 opposing forces. That's not how life should be. So find a way to blend your life and to, like, the way that he phrased it was if it's 3 PM in the afternoon. You wanna go for a run. You don't have to wait till 5 to go for a run. I mean, and maybe some scenarios you do, depending on your job, you're very mindful of. But that metaphor of blend who you are with how you show up to work every day, because if you're not doing that, then you're not being your authentic self and you're you're kind of preventing you're to fulfill who you are entirely. And so when I started realizing that there was a lot. I I liked boundaries. I kept my personal life separate for a lot of reasons. When I started blending the 2, that's kinda where method cue kind of came. And the standard for kids came where I realized how do I show up to be my true self every day, no matter how I'm getting paid, and that took time It took probably, like, a a lot of years of, manifestation even before that press release to get comfortable doing that. But, yeah, those are Those are the things that I found work for me. And I love connection and relationship. I took a quiz, and I'm a connector and an advisor. So it makes perfect sense that I'm a consultant and that I'm, you know, found people to connect them to a nonprofit, you know, find your purpose, find what your strengths are, and then exploit them. Yeah. But I say that because anybody listening to this podcast, if you wanna reach out to me, I'm very open. 

Keirra Woodard: I'm open to you know, have a chat, hang out, whatever it takes, if if that's of interest to you, please reach out. 

Natalie Hogg: Oh, awesome. Awesome. I I love the way that you frame that. Like, it's not just it's not a skills that need to be balanced. 

Keirra Woodard: It's just your life is just your life and, like, there's work and there's, you know, other parts of it, but they're not, like, 2 step two things that need to be kept separate. And when you're when you're enthusiastic about what you're doing, like, I mean, I think I think I I I wanna wax poetic just a little bit hearing. I think the reason people think about working life, like, a personal life is 2 separate things is because they have been, like, socially conditioned to think of work as something that's, like, hard, difficult, unpleasant, something that you have to do for somebody else's benefit in order to get paid and then do things for your own benefit. But and so keeping and then then there's this idea of, like, putting boundaries on your working life so that other people's priorities don't take over the things that are important to you. But if you're running, like, your own business or, like, you're part of a company with the culture that cares about the same things that you care about, then there's not as much needed to, like, have that separation because you can blend those things together. Like, all the things that you're doing, you're already passionate about. So what is the need to, like, keep them separated? Like, keep somebody else who's encroaching with their priorities and their different values from encroaching on, you know, your life. So, yeah, it's it's a different it's a very different way of looking at it than I think, at least American culture has traditionally looked at work in life. And there there it actually touches on that a little bit. Not in seven habits of highly effective which I mentioned earlier, but another book from the Stephen Covey. That's the author, his catalog. Is called first things first. I read it, earlier this year, and it's like a very practical guide to like, looking at your different priorities and then aligning that with your day to day tasks. So that's That's a very general overview of it. Like, I got a lot of value out of that book. I thought it was even better than the 7 habits of highly effective people, which is a lot more well known. But, yeah, that was that was definitely one of the key ideas in there. So if we we're getting close to wrapping up, but I usually like to end on kind of like a step by step process that people could follow on, like, very, like, methodological I want, like, systems and processes and results. Like so if you had to summarize it in, like, 3 to 5 action steps of, like, you know, how to get started with creating a volunteering team or how to get started integrating volunteering into your life or business, then what are what are the steps you would give people? Yeah. 

Natalie Hogg: You know, I'm I'm, I've not written it down or scientifically defined it, but some things that stand out are, yeah, get outside of your comfort zone because you die in your own comfort comfort zone. You're stuck in your own bubble. And, I mean, boundaries are are are important, and that's different than balance, I think. But finding ways to get a little bit outside of your comfort zone is the only way to learn new things and to meet new people and to have new experiences. And so do a little bit of that. And then you'll see you open new realities, and you open your mind a little bit. So I think that's step 1. Whatever that takes, if if it's, you got invited to a party with much people you don't want, you don't know, like, you never know who you're gonna be. Secondly, start thinking about what you wanna be. Yeah. Write it down. Like, that's the step I took. And that was really hard because I'm more of a big picture thinker. I'm not a super process oriented person. Which is probably why I'm gonna struggle to answer this question on your end, but I'm doing my best. But, you know, forcing myself to write down my career progression, even if it wasn't right or perfect, was the beginning of thinking specifically on step by steps. So I think that's important. Like, if you're wherever situation you're in now, even if you don't know where you wanna be, just write down where you think you might wanna be, and then you can evolve from that. Then it starts to become real. Right now, if if it's just in your head, they're you're kinda keeping it from manifesting or keeping it from, you know, being something that you're committing yourself to. You're you're taking away accountability to yourself. So those two things were pivotal for me because then it made me think about trying new things and then that led me to reaching out to this mentor through a cold, you know, outreach and then reaching out to cold to a nonprofit saying, hey, I I really wanna get involved as my as a goal in my own leadership and how I wanna live my life. I wanna get involved in nonprofit, you know, I started with whatever they do traditionally, and I found this unique creative role a few years later, I mean, that would have never happened if I didn't go outside my conference zone or write that press release. So I think those are just two really important steps. And then also like, nurture your existing relationships and make new ones because that is the point of our life. Like, I don't know if you read the book try. I read it. I had it behind me somewhere. But it's our leaders eat last like, thinking about the chemical art, the brain our brain works with oxytocin, dopamine, we're all chasing those things, you know, whether it's a TikTok scroll or a Netflix thing, but the oxytocin is the chemical that comes when you start having good relationship where you start seeing results and something you've invested in. And that's really what is sustainable. That's like the difference between protein and calories when you're eating, or protein and carbohydrates. And so oxytocin is the thing that you start thinking about. Like, how are you how are you, feeling at home with the people around you, whether that's in work or at home, you know, we all are looking to be up to belong. And we're all looking for those reward mechanisms in our brain. So for me, when I started thinking about how do I get more oxytocin? I started thinking outside of the box because if you're only chasing dopamine, it's kinda temporary and it's not long lasting. You need both to survive. So those are the things that kinda got me out of my out of my box and to lead a life I didn't expect so far. K. Sounds cool. Sounds cool. Yeah. 

Keirra Woodard: What are some of the places that people can or should get in touch with you if they wanna follow-up with, you or method Q in general? Yeah. So themethodq.com is a place to you can book an appointment directly with me or someone on my team who will get touch with me, or LinkedIn. 

Natalie Hogg: So I think it's linkedin.com/nhogone. But I'm one of the only Natalie Hogs out there, and I'm wearing a green dress. So you'll you'll be able to find me. Or you can email me. I'll give my email away natalie@vmethodq.com. Anyways that you feel to reach out? Well, Natalie, I super appreciate this. This was a great conversation. Thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast. Thank you, Kiera. I really appreciate your time and what you put together. 

Keirra Woodard: And, I love the practice of being on a podcast. Thanks for giving me that that bat. You're welcome. 

Natalie Hogg: You're welcome.