80 - Authentic Leadership, Focus, and Grit to Light Up Great Field Partnerships

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Welcome to the 80th episode of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering™.

For this milestone episode, I was delighted to welcome a former colleague, Natalie Singh, the Enterprise Channel Director for the North East Region, State and Local Government, and Manufacturing in the One Commercial Partner organization at Microsoft.

Natalie has spent over 20 years in the technology industry, with Microsoft and Hewlett Packard. She is known as a visionary who has consistently taken an innovative approach to achieve objectives, manage, and motivate people while focusing on customer and partner satisfaction and financial results. Natalie is recognized as a progressive leader and has received numerous awards and commendations within her tenure at both HP and Microsoft including the Microsoft Circle of Excellence Founders Award in 2015.

Natalie graduated from Yale University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. Natalie also has Business Administration certification from Georgetown University and Advanced Business Certifications from The Wharton School of Business. She currently resides in Maryland and is actively involved in community service.

I invited Natalie as a guest to discuss her amazing career journey and to help Microsoft partners better understand how to engage in Co-selling with Microsoft.

In this episode Natalie and I discuss:

The role of her team as Enterprise Channel Managers (ECM’s) focused on the account teams.
Attributes of some of the best partners in her portfolio.
How she is leading her team and the amazing innovation they are seeing now from Partners.
Her perspective as a Multiracial and Black Woman in technology at Microsoft.
Her Career Journey.

WORK OF HER TEAM AND HOW PARTNERS CAN BE MOST EFFECTIVE

HER TEAMS FOCUS – Her team leads effective partner field integration between Microsoft sellers and partners. Partner field integration encompasses everything from lead sharing to co-selling events, integrated account planning, and fostering a deep trust-based and lasting relationship between our field sellers and our partners.
HOW THEY ENGAGE – Engagement includes building demand, from planning, sharing sales leads, accelerating partner to partner empowered selling, and delivering marketplace lead commerce for customer transformation.
THE BEST PARTNERSHIPS – A sense of urgency and purpose. This also includes Clarity, Preparation, Focus, and Perspective. In addition, these partners bring a level of enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and are invested in the partnership.
WHEN PARTNERSHIPS FAIL – They try to be all things versus playing to their strengths and not knowing where Microsoft plays a role and executing on it.

HER PERSPECTIVE ON THE BUSINESS DURING THIS TIME

PLATINUM LINING – “Despite the fatalities and struggles, there has also been good that has come out of this time. I’ve seen many acts of kindness where people help people out. We have each been blessed with perspective and a level of peripheral vision.”
LEADING WITH EMPATHY – “It’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to not have an immediate answer. It opens up to a level of really seeing people and hearing people and a level of empathy for the fact that everyone is going through something.”
TRANSFORMATION OPPORTUNITY FROM PARTNERS – “I see a feeling from our partners that we’re all feeling is that sense of we need to do something for our greater good to make sure that we are offering solutions that are propelling us forward and making sure that we are really focused on the needs of our customers, examples include specific COVID offers related to vaccine management or solutions to help small businesses in this economic environment.”
HAVING AUTHENTIC CONVERSATIONS – “It is not being afraid to have open and honest conversations. I’ve recognized and learned from some of the best leaders out there, who have been very open to vulnerability. And I think that takes a level of strength and intention to open up to having those conversations that might seem difficult, but at the end of the day, can be extremely healing, for people to talk through. And there’s no other way to share your story, then by being open and honest about your story.
SUPPORT THE GAP – BLACK, AFRICAN AMERICAN OWNED BUSINESS – “We are being very intentional to ensure these often smaller Black and African American Owned Partners get the support and attention they need and don’t get lost navigating Microsoft.”

HOW SHE GOT TO THIS SPOT IN HER CAREER

WHY YALE AND ENGINEERING – Why she chose a degree in engineering, her school choice, and the prestigious Watson Scholarship.
HER PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY – Live passionately, love completely, act authentically, with gratitude and joy.
ADVICE SHE GIVES OTHER – Stop, Pause, Think – stop for a moment of gratitude – pause to breathe – think about the connectedness in each of us and our commonalities that make us each human.

I hope you listen to this interview. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I enjoyed spending time with Natalie Singh.

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to Partnering™ and where they can find us.

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Ultimate Guide to Partnering™ is a rich compendium of what makes successful partnerships.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Ultimate Partnerships. Ultimate Partnerships helps you get the most results from your partnerships. Get Partnerships Right – Optimize for Success – Deliver Results – Ultimate Partnerships.

Transcription By Otter.AI – Please Pardon Typos Below.

Vince Menzione 0:30
Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host, and for this 80th and milestone episode of the podcast, I was delighted to welcome a former colleague from Microsoft, Natalie Singh, the enterprise channel director for the Northeast region, state and local government and manufacturing in Microsoft’s us one commercial partner organization. I invited Natalie as a guest to discuss her amazing career journey, and to help Microsoft partners better understand how to engage in CO selling. In this episode, we discuss the distinct role of her team as enterprise channel managers focused on the account teams, attributes of some of the best partners she works with, how she is leading, and the amazing innovation her team is seeing since COVID. And her perspective as a multiracial and black woman in technology. And at Microsoft. I hope you listen to this episode. And I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I enjoyed my time with Natalie Singh. Natalie, welcome to the podcast. So really great to have you join today.

Natalie Singh 1:47
Thanks, Ben’s it’s so awesome to be here.

Vince Menzione 1:49
Uh, one of the reasons I wanted to have you as a guest is because your team and function at Microsoft is truly where the rubber meets the road. It’s your organization that takes Microsoft partners and brings them and connects them to the field selling organization. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about your team and organization and Microsoft?

Natalie Singh 2:11
Absolutely. So my team is part of the sell with arm of one commercial partner. Our goal is to drive our customer business outcomes through align sales execution with our partners and grow share. We do that by driving co selling agement and effective partner field integration between Microsoft sellers and partners. And partner field integration encompasses everything from lead sharing to co Sal events, to integrated account planning, but really fostering a deep trust based and lasting relationship between our field sellers and our partner ecosystem.

Vince Menzione 2:54
You know, I find that partners often struggle here with had engaged with Microsoft and for listeners who may not be adept. Can you take them through what a successful Cosell engagement looks like for them?

Natalie Singh 3:07
Sure. And I think that engagement includes a vast spectrum, right from building demand, from signals planning, sharing sales leads, accelerating partner to partner empowered selling, and delivering marketplace lead commerce for customer transformation. So it’s not just one thing that equates to a successful Cosell engagement. It’s a spectrum of active and responsive engagement between Microsoft and our incredible partner.

Vince Menzione 3:45
So for those listeners who don’t know this, that Microsoft kind of splits up the one commercial partner organization, there’s a build with team and they have partnered development managers and technical resources that help partners build their practice, and kind of have overarching responsibility for the relationship. There’s the go to market team that helps fuel or put gas on the relationship with marketing, effective marketing campaigns and the like. And then your team comes in essentially to I call, call them pulling them into the accounts and playing them in with the, with the teams. So where does that happen? Like, what what exactly does that look like for a partner? Like if I wanted to engage with you in your organization, what would that look like?

Natalie Singh 4:27
So the enterprise channel managers are assigned to specific customer accounts. And so they have very close alignment with the field sellers and partners that we work with, identify the customers that they want to work with. And that’s how we align them to the specific enterprise channel manager.

Vince Menzione 4:54
And then where and when does that happen? Like I’m thinking at the beginning of the year, I’m sure the sales reps You’re saying, Okay, I got a quote I meet for the year, how do I go do that? What are the partners? I need to go do that what customers are new, what capabilities and so on? But then how does it happen from there on? Like, how did the teams then engage a partner like when do they know when to bring the right partner to the right account,

Natalie Singh 5:17
I see it as an ongoing engagement throughout the year. So it’s just like account planning, I don’t think is just at the beginning of the year, or just at the midpoint of the year. But it’s something that is continually evolving and growing, and engagement with our partners continues throughout the year, and it is void of the fiscal year boundaries. A lot of times we think that, okay, we have to stick within the fiscal year or the specific quarter. But when we really want to dig into lasting change and impact, it is about looking at what is that strategic opportunity that we have to work with. And so I don’t think that’s just at the beginning of the year, middle of the year or the end of the year. It’s something that the relationship justice relationships, have opportunities to continue to grow, develop and be enhanced is something that we have to we have to be intentional about with our partners too, and keeping that engagement going.

Vince Menzione 6:28
And what do you see from the best engagements with partners, like what attributes so

Natalie Singh 6:34
I think between clarity, preparation, focus, and perspective, that seems to be some of the attributes that really help partners get that level of specificity with our field teams. It’s also a level of enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and being focused on the partnership. And that means investing in your partner team. So making sure that you have folks that understand how to partner with Microsoft, the importance of building those relationships, and understanding our programs and our processes, and really investing in that overall partnership.

Vince Menzione 7:29
Yeah, you brought up some things that are near and dear to my heart, right? A lot of organizations struggle here with had engaged with Microsoft, it’s like, you know, it’s what they don’t teach, right? It’s about investing in the relationship, having the commitment to the relationship coming to the relationship with the right mindset. And then the focus, you mentioned, clarity and focus, which a lot of times partners lose focus, or they don’t come to they don’t share, I guess, a clarity around what their value proposition is. Right?

Natalie Singh 7:58
Exactly. Like I’ve had partners come and say, Oh, I want to work with Microsoft. But then when you dig into, well, what specific customers or what industry are, what is your primary area of play? Or what’s your solution? It falls short, in that level of clarity. And so making sure that you’re coming to the table with that clarity so that we can get to action and execution faster, is something that I’ve seen as an incredible accelerator to success.

Vince Menzione 8:35
Yeah, I’d like to say like, what’s the one thing? What’s the one thing you want to be known for with the Microsoft organization? Right? So we’ve been living in cheese a time like no other. I mean, we are, I guess, up to month nine. Now we’re in early December, I can’t believe it’s the end of the calendar year. And as you know, we’re all been leading and learning and dealing with this time. What are you seeing now differently with your partners Now, during this time,

Natalie Singh 9:05
I see a sense of urgency. And I see a sense of purpose, whether it’s some of our state and local government partners who, at the beginning of the pandemic, were coming to the table with specific COVID offers or even now from a vaccine management perspective, also solutions to help small businesses in this economic environment. And so I see a feeling from our partners that we’re all feeling is that sense of we need to do something for our greater good to make sure that we are offering solutions that are propelling us forward and making sure that we are really focused on the needs of our customers. And how to best align with our customers priorities.

Vince Menzione 10:06
That’s really exciting. You know, you brought up a few things around the pandemic and vaccines and the like, and you cover the state and local government is part of your portfolio. What can you share with us maybe a little bit more specifically around that area? It seems like states and local governments are gonna have to manage some of this process.

Natalie Singh 10:24
Oh, yeah. Well, you can’t help but turn on the news every single day and see what’s happening with the vaccines. Hopefully, we will have approval soon, the United Kingdom just approved vaccine, I believe yesterday. And we we have a an opportunity to help those state and local governments who are going to be in a incredible opportunity to get these vaccines out to their constituents as quickly as possible, and as safe as possible. And so we need to do everything we possibly can do to make sure that we’re we’re fulfilling that need.

Vince Menzione 11:11
Sounds exciting from the side of it. And really great to see the work that’s been going on with you and Microsoft, and the teams here and the partners here. What about leading your teams? Now, during this time? What are you doing differently to lead your team specifically here,

Natalie Singh 11:27
so I find myself leading more from a space of empathy during this time, in the past, it would be just about getting to the business right away. And you would ask people how you’re doing, even if you see them in public spaces in the office or out at conferences, how Hey, how you doing? Then they would respond? Oh, great, or fine. Or we would all end up being the meteorologist where we would extend what the weather report is for the day. And now I see a change to that where when people ask how are you doing? They’re really pausing for an answer and or an authentic answer. And it’s okay, I think I’ve shared more now with people than I’ve ever shared before, it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to not have the immediate answer as fine or doing well. And it opens up to a level of really seeing people and hearing people and a level of empathy for the fact that everyone is going through something. And we have an opportunity to go through it together and to really be there for our fellow human beings. Because at the end of the day, we’re all trying to be the best version of ourselves, every possible every day possible.

Vince Menzione 13:07
I see this as well. I mean, the empathy especially right, we used to always be concerned about being on calls and having the dog bark or the kids or whatever, distractions. And now there’s this, we’re okay with each other because we’re all working through this together, right? And so how are you feeling personally? How are you feeling during this time,

Natalie Singh 13:26
I’m actually feeling empowered. And the reason why I’m feeling empowered is because I’ve had the opportunity and I’ve, I’ve elevated the saying, from silver linings to Platinum linings,

Vince Menzione 13:43
platinum linings, I love that

Natalie Singh 13:47
feel like now with the opportunity that we’ve been given to see what’s happening and to to see people really struggling from an economic perspective, or all of the fatalities that have happened with this pandemic. And the racial and social and justices that have been happening this year, there’s also been the good there’s been those acts of kindness where people help people out. I was watching it the other day about you know, somebody who was in line and just paying for people’s groceries, that Hello, or being there to support and I’m so grateful for our health care workers and the sacrifice that they’re doing at this time. And that they’ve done over and over and over again, but now they’re getting the necessary and the so well deserved. Right? admission for all of the hard work and for all of the care that they provide. And, you know, I just I feel like there’s so much goodness that we can’t afford to miss out on or or not recognize, because then we’re not seeing the beauty of everything that this year has been able to give us this year started off with 2020 is the year for vision. And I think that 20 has also given us a level of perspective. And it’s given us a level of peripheral vision as well, so that we can see multiple sides if we choose to.

Vince Menzione 15:49
Yeah, well, you bring up some really great points here, we’re gonna we’re gonna peel back on a couple of those points a little bit later on in our discussion. But I had been saying, you know, this is an opportunity for we in the tech sector to lead, right, we have an opportunity and an obligation, I believe, because the technology is really going to drive and transform us, and lead us out of this time almost feel like it’s a, we’re at the precipice of a Renaissance. In fact, because we are going to lead into a new new normal, our world is never going to be quite the same. You specifically talked about a few areas here, and we’re going to unpack them specifically. But I did want to stay on the subject of partners for a second. And what you know, we talked about what they’re what you’re seeing now differently with partners. What about with the hand to hand combat with the field organization? What about partners that don’t get it right? Like, what coaching Do you give to partners that aren’t maybe showing up the way you and the team need them to show up working with you?

Natalie Singh 16:49
Well, I think for that, it goes back to what success looks like, right? So those that aren’t providing that level of focus, are not picking the plays and the customers that you know they want to go after, don’t have that level of clarity there, that’s where we have an opportunity to do something a little bit different. I mean, we we all know the old adage, don’t try to be everything to everyone. And sometimes, when we need to, we need to take that into a business aspect to know our strengths, know where we play a role, and then execute on that.

Vince Menzione 17:26
So I’d like to peel back a little bit here on your personal life. You’re a past recipient of Microsoft’s most coveted honor the Founders Award, can you share with our listeners how you achieve this honor? And what career advice would you give to your 23 year old self?

Natalie Singh 17:42
Well, it’s funny, I’m still trying to figure that out then. It was, it was a very humbling and amazing surprise for me. I remember that. That day, it was it was back when we could all get together in person. And the Founders Award was announced on stage. And I actually had the surprise of my life when when it was announced. And I’m not typically a person that that gets surprised, very easy. And so it’s an incredible honor to to be recognized and incredibly grateful for to Microsoft for it for that honor. What I would say to my younger self would be stop putting limitations on yourself. We can be our hardest and most, most ruthless critics at times. And there’s so much opportunity when we refuse to be the limiting factor on our abilities, capabilities, and success.

Vince Menzione 18:56
Wow. Because it doesn’t seem like you put any limits. I was going to bring up your educational background. And you know, you have a really storied background in education. I mean, you you attended Yale, you have a degree in electrical engineering from Yale University. Wow. I mean, that it’s that in itself, and He alone is is wow. But yeah, on top of that. And you know, I recently had Gabrielle Schuster on the podcast, we discussed gender equity. So what propelled you to consider and then pursue a stem degree from such a prestigious university?

Natalie Singh 19:33
Well, so I’ve got to give credit where credit is due on this. And my father believed that a degree in engineering was the strong foundation and a great building block for any career. He’s also an engineer,

Vince Menzione 19:52
of course.

Natalie Singh 19:54
So I enjoyed math. I enjoyed science and I figured out Well, if that’s going to be a great foundation of I’ll do engineering. And on the Yale side, I actually wanted to go to Cornell. And I got into both Cornell and Yale. And I went to the accepted student weekend, which was in springtime, for both of them. And I went to Cornell first, and it was in April and it snowed. And we went to Yale. And I had such an amazing and glorious and fun time.

Vince Menzione 21:13
You looked at both of these schools? And what did you make the decision based on the weather? What was the decision point here?

Natalie Singh 21:27
it was actually enjoying being at Yale and the prestige of the university. I also came back and the day that I got back from that weekend, I received in the mail my acceptance letter for the IBM Watson scholarship. And that was such a relief and an ability to comfortably say, I can do this I can go because it was this is something now that we can financially be able to, to manage. And it’s been one of the most grateful decisions to go there and to be able to learn from exceptional professors, and be amongst a set of people that were so extremely collaborative, and helpful, that it’s, it’s also some of the same things that I love about working for Microsoft is the collegial atmosphere. And that level of just everybody working together and trying to help each person become the best that they can be. So you get out of Yale with a degree any degree. What’s next for

Vince Menzione 22:46
Natalie.

Natalie Singh 22:47
So after I left the owl, then I started working for HP and HP, I spent 12 years at HP. HP was an awesome company to work for. And HP actually got me into the foray of sales. So moving from engineering to a sales position, because I actually did an internship with with hp, the my junior year in college, and it was with the sales team. It was with the at&t and Lucent sales team, who had been the top sales team at the time. And they had just come back from this cruise and I was like, Oh my god, this is what I want to do. I don’t know that I want to do any programming work. I think I want to get into sales.

Vince Menzione 23:42
I love it. So I want to peel back a little bit. You identify as multiracial, and I got interview your manager, your work for the amazing Lonny Phillips, I had to put amazing there because I do feel amazing individual. We had an authentic conversation. I was hoping that you and I can have one as well. Natalie, how have you been personally impacted not only by the events since George Floyd, but dealing with racial and social injustice both in society and in work,

Natalie Singh 24:09
I’ve given myself permission to feel it’s also opened a thirst for listening to people’s stories and the history that was never taught or that I didn’t personally speak out. And I ended up reading The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, a book that he wrote shortly after escaping from slavery and just being so inspired by his intellect, his resilience, his fortitude, and his ability to not get mired in the past, but move forward not just for the sake of himself, but also knowing that there is a greater future ahead. And the same thing. I’ve also gotten so educated, and I’m extremely enthralled with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, documentaries on both the African American experience he has documentaries on on African American experience, as well as African civilizations. And it’s been such a wonderful thing to spend some time and to create the space to learn about what has happened in our history, and some of what continues to get repeated from history and some of the causes to the systemic problems that we face. And using that to really understand and think through, how can I, how can we all be a solution for the good and move our society and our world forward where everyone’s story matters is heard and is appreciated.

Vince Menzione 26:30
So for those who don’t know, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. He is the host of a PBS series finding your roots, right? That’s one of that’s one of the things he’s most noted for is that when you were referring to the documentaries, we were referring to the series or other other documentaries,

Natalie Singh 26:46
there’s, there’s many documentaries that he has out there,

Vince Menzione 26:49
we are going to find some links, and we’re going to share those in our show notes. Because I think they’d be fascinating for our listeners.

Natalie Singh 26:55
Yeah. They’re awesome documentaries.

Vince Menzione 26:58
So we’ve talked about Microsoft, one amazing organization, as you know, with lonnis episode and also with Gabrielle his recent episode, we talked about how Microsoft has stepped up. Its work on equity, both gender equity, and racial equity, and the initiative and the commitment by Satya to increase the number of black and African American own partner businesses, by I believe 20% is the number in the next three years. Is there anything that your team is doing differently now to help lead through this time and work with partners differently?

Natalie Singh 27:35
Yeah, absolutely, we are looking at how we can be of service and representative for those those partners, how we can make sure that they are getting the right level of visibility and, and how we’re able to work with them. It’s sometimes as a smaller partner, you can get lost in the company as large as as Microsoft. And we are being very intentional about making sure that we are opening ourselves up and talking to those diverse set of partners within our ecosystem. Nice. And I know there’s a lot of additional work that’s going on here now also with the International Association of Microsoft channel partners and the like. So really great to see the progress is being made. What about when in terms of your teams and managing your team through this time?

Vince Menzione 28:41
Is there anything else that you can share there?

Natalie Singh 28:43
Yeah, I think it’s not being afraid to have open and honest conversations. I’ve always been very private person. And I’ve recognized and I’ve learned from some of the best leaders out there that I’ve seen, who have been very open to vulnerability. And I think that takes a level of strength and intention to open up to having those conversations that might seem difficult, but at the end of the day, can be extremely healing, for people to talk through. And there’s no other way to share your story, then by being open and honest about your story.

Vince Menzione 29:35
I love what you have to say here. It reminds me of some of the check ins that I was doing with friends right after the George Floyd time. And specifically, I think, you know, I think we never talked about these things. Right. I know, I think we know if we acknowledge our own racial identities. I mean, I’m a white guy, right? So for me it was coming to grips with being a white guy and the privilege of being white, but I think we’re all Learning, right? In terms of like being sensitive and understanding and empathetic, teach others what might be a struggle we don’t know about, what would you say exactly.

Natalie Singh 30:08
And getting out from behind this fear of saying the wrong thing. Sometimes we have felt like, Okay, if we just remain silent, then we won’t say the wrong thing. But being silent, can sometimes be even more hurtful. And so let’s stop fearing saying the wrong thing. And being open and vulnerable to having a conversation, learning from each other. And using a positive intention of being speaking from a space of kindness. And speaking from a space of humility, that we really just want to learn more about each other’s lived experience.

Vince Menzione 31:07
some really great advice, Natalie, thank you for sharing that. So you are not someone who has rested on her laurels. I mean, we talked about some of your, in the Founders Award, the Watson scholarship, you’ve gone on for advanced degrees as well. You’re known as an innovator, and you’ve continued to advance, you know, both your career and your education. What is it that propels or drives Natalie,

Natalie Singh 31:35
I would say, my faith, my family, and my desire to be the best version of myself that I can be, do you have a personal statement that you’d live your life by? I do, I actually had the opportunity to do high performance training with my girl at your base. And through that training, we have an opportunity to create a personal philosophy statement. And my personal philosophy is to live passionately, love completely and act authentically, with gratitude and joy.

Vince Menzione 32:22
Wow, I love that. Can you repeat it one more time for us?

Natalie Singh 32:25
Absolutely. It’s live passionately, love completely, act authentically, with gratitude and joy.

Vince Menzione 32:33
That’s beautiful. I love that. And you know, Michael Gervais is gonna be a guest here probably in about another week. So good timing. So what was the greatest piece of advice you received on this amazing journey of yours?

Natalie Singh 32:49
I would say it’s not advice as much as a declaration that provided my greatest shift and most emotional revelation. And that was when somebody said to me, You are enough.

Vince Menzione 33:09
Wow, you are enough? Yeah. And there’s a whole lot to unpack here. Was there a time in your life that you didn’t feel enough? I think

Natalie Singh 33:18
there’s times in everyone’s life where we don’t feel enough, and where we’re relying on something, someone to define our value. And it’s different when we live from a space of I am enough, versus just saying the words because then we can recognize that our value is based on the presence that we have, and our opportunity to live our best lives, not comparing ourselves or judging ourselves based on somebody else’s best life that they’re living, but how can we live our best lives with the understanding that with every breath that we have, and every breath that we take is a validation that we are meant to be here?

Vince Menzione 34:29
So did this come at a specific we call it a crisis point and inflection point, like when did this this conversation happen for you?

Natalie Singh 34:38
It actually happened at one of my favorite places on earth, which is a destination spot in Sedona, Arizona.

Vince Menzione 34:51
Sit down is known for that.

Natalie Singh 34:56
And it could have been the energy of the red rocks. It could have been the, the the space of self reflection, or it could have been so many other things. But it was just an amazing opportunity to take that breath. And take that pause to recognize we, you know, it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the the rates and lose sight of what the destination is, but recognizing that, yeah, that we are all each enough.

Vince Menzione 35:36
So Natalie, you’re having a dinner party. And you could ask any three guests to join from the present? Or the past? Whom would you invite to that dinner party? And why? Well,

Natalie Singh 35:48
the first one, without a doubt is Maya Angelou. I’ve felt a connection to Maya’s story, and her journey to discovering her voice. Ever since I was in high school and read, I know why a caged bird sings, the second would be Michelle Obama. And that is because I am inspired by her vulnerability and authenticity as such a public figure. And the third one is Nelson Mandela for his forgiveness, and for his resilience in the face of so much adversity, and just for his ability to transform his life after being in prison for so many years.

Vince Menzione 36:55
Yeah, that was a 27 years that he spent in jail. I mean, can you imagine the rage and anger? One might feel coming out after all that time? Right. What an amazing set of guests right? My Angelo, who’s Angelo, who’s, whose work is amazing. She, I mean, just all of her. Her poems and her work are stories of Michelle Obama, who I personally think is just a rock star, in my opinion, and Nelson Mandela. So Wow, I would love to be a guest at that dinner, or maybe sit in a stairwell. That’d be Wonderful. Wonderful. What a what a group. Natalie, you have been an amazing guest. I want to thank you for your time. I know how busy this time of year is getting to the end of the second half. And your teams are responsible for driving a lot of revenue with our partners. So really important for our partner discussions here. Do you have any closing comments and advice for our partner listeners?

Natalie Singh 37:52
Yeah, I always say that this is advice for everyone. And it’s stop, pause. And think, stop for a moment of gratitude, pause to breathe, and think about the connectedness in each of us and our commonalities that make us human

Vince Menzione 38:12
stop, pause and think. Yeah, I love that. I love that. I want to thank you, Natalie, this has been a really terrific conversation, you’re been an amazing guest. And I want to thank you for making the time to join us on the Ultimate Guide to partnering.

Natalie Singh 38:28
Thanks so much for having me on Vince.

Vince Menzione 38:32
As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please subscribe on your favorite platform, like comment, tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to partnering and where they can find us. And I’d love your feedback. Please like the podcast and provide comments or reach out to me at Vince Menzione on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also like and follow Ultimate Guide to partnering on our Facebook page, or drop me a line at Vince m at ultimate dash partnerships.com this episode of the podcast is sponsored by ultimate partnerships. Ultimate partnerships helps you get the most results from your partnerships, get partnerships right, optimize for success, deliver results. For more information, go to ultimate dash partnerships.com

Announcer 39:24
thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Ultimate Guide to partnering with your host Vince Menzione online at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com and facebook.com slash Ultimate Guide to partnering. We’ll catch you next time on The Ultimate Guide to partnering

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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