I'm Natalie.And in 2009, like many Americans, I was laid off. I went from having a nice full-time job getting paid on the 15th and 30th having full insurance to being laid off. I had only been working about 3-4 yrs since I graduated from college, so I really didn’t have a safety net to rely on.
At first, I had this millennial confidence and gave myself 30 days to land, not just a job, but the one I wanted from the many offers I would be receiving. Then 30 days turned into 60 and before you knew it, I was considered a "99 weeker." This was a different recession. It was a challenging place to be because I realized that I had invested a lot of money into educating myself, but there was nowhere to apply my education anymore. After weeks of submitting resumes online to faceless HR Departments (with no replies)...it hit me! I am really unemployed, with no work, no cash flow. Now, what am I going to do? We had just gone through the housing crisis and people were losing their jobs left and right. I clearly remember feeling like I was in a state of depression and I literally moved the mattress from my bedroom to my living room and watched TNT with a pack of double stuff Oreos from 8 am to probably 1 pm in the afternoon. I found myself in a really deep well and digging myself out would take a self-motivation to move forward, be productive, and find purpose that many of us found difficult to access during that time.
I think it is important to know that from the tender age of seventeen, I knew there were people making $10,000 or more a month. This knowledge and understanding of wealth came before all the coaches and guru's of Instagram chose that number as a benchmark. A letter in the mail that read “Stuff 10,000 envelopes and make $10,000 weekly” changed my entire perspective. Though we all know “envelope stuffing” is not a business, the idea that someone could potentially earn $10,000 a month was, for me, unheard of and it became an aspiration. That's the moment I knew I wanted to be an Entrepreneur. It's a dream I forgot for a while, this wanting to be my own boss. Fast-forward a few years and the universe provided a window of opportunity called the “2008 Recession.” A year later PRYCELESS was created. The journey continues to this day. |