Personal Rebranding: Natori Coleman of Pacific Gas & Electric | Episode 28 of Twist of Fate 

Natori Coleman is the Principal Program Manager at Pacific Gas & Electric, and her story is a little different than the ones often featured on Douglas Younger III’s Twist of Fate: A Small Business podcast. Instead of quitting her job to start her own company, she decided to climb the corporate ladder. While some cynics might read this as selling out, you might want to stick around to listen to the real story. Her inspirational intrapreneurial journey is a tale about how you can branch out and get ahead — even if that doesn’t mean opening your own business this second. 

The Cross-Sections 

Your life may sometimes seem like parallel worlds. At work, you wear one hat, and at home, you put on another. The host of Twist of Fate, Douglas Younger III, knows it’s not that simple. Of course, separation between personal and professional is important in your life, but there’s a way to bring about some sense of harmony and peace to your days. 

In a sense, this is what Natori Coleman was trying to figure out before she decided to move up in her job at Pacific Gas & Electric. She had, to some people, what looked like disparate interests. She was a horserider, she wanted to start her own business in the equestrian world, she wanted to ride dressage at the Olympics — all while working in the energy sector. She had her MBA from Cal State East Bay, and she wanted to step out of her HR role and into a more entrepreneurial role. She had recently gotten married. She wanted was a clearer path forward, one that didn’t discount her ambitions or her priorities. 

How She Mapped It Out 

Natori Coleman actually came to the host of the podcast, Douglas Younger, for help on how and where to go with her talents. This turned out to be a smart move, because it prompted Natori to sort through the tougher questions she had. For instance, was she willing to take a massive pay cut to move into the equestrian world (where it’s possible to make money, but not probable)? Turns out, she wasn’t. 

Once she crunched the numbers, she decided that it made more financial and professional sense to stay in the ever-growing field of energy. But Natori is a self-described rebel, so that didn’t mean toeing the company line and doing things the way it’s always been done. Natori loves animals and she fights on the side of the planet. She has no problem speaking up at PG&E and challenging the status quo. Her new promotion is a stepping stone for her, but it's also a chance for her to do more than make money. 

Personal Rebranding

3STEPS4WARD is a full-service marketing company and the sponsor of Twist of Fate. Personal rebranding is just one of many services the staff offers, and it’s truly a game-changer for people who take advantage of it. The gist is simple: 3STEPS4WARD asks what you want to become and then they help you figure out exactly how to get there. Throughout the course of several sessions, you walk through hopes, dreams, skills, talents, passions, goals, resources, availability, etc. This is a professional service, but it takes into account how your personal life impacts your career. At any given moment, the staff functions as life coach, therapist, drill sergeant — pretty much whatever you need to take that next step in your life. 

The momentum is undeniable. Natori Coleman actually got a promotion at PG&E just a few weeks into the sessions. Now, Coleman is clearly a go-getter, so you could argue that she would have gotten a promotion without personal rebranding. (Maybe she would have, we’ll never really know.) But it’s clear that just by signing up for a personal rebranding, she opened herself up to possibilities in her life. On the podcast, she goes into more detail about what that means and how everyone else can do it too. x

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