Motivation N'at

NC Bulger Solutions
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Motivation N’at is hosted by Natalie Bulger and features guests from all walks of life — each bringing their own stories, experiences, and insights to the table. Together, we dive into everything from relationships and sobriety to mental health challenges and the lasting impact of growing up too soon. On Motivation N’at, we take on life’s tougher conversations and explore how the lessons we’ve learned can shape what comes next — all in the spirit of turning life’s hot mess moments into high potential.

  1. 6d ago

    What Is SEO and Who Can You Trust to Do It? | Guest - Megan Pritts

    Megan Pritts has been doing search engine optimization since 2012. She got into it because a former boss sold SEO to a client before anyone at the company knew how to deliver it, then handed her the project and told her to figure it out. We start with what SEO actually covers, since most people are nodding along to a word they can't define. Megan explains the difference between the technical side and the content side, why the website and the SEO are two separate jobs, and how AI has changed what search systems look for. Then we get to how you tell whether the person you're paying knows anything, and what an honest consultant will talk you out of. She also thinks you should get a therapist before you start a business. She has reasons. What we get into 🔹 What SEO covers, and how the technical side differs from the content side🔹 Why a good-looking website doesn't get found on its own🔹 Why AI gives bad SEO advice, and what happens when you act on it🔹 What breaks when the traffic actually shows up: bandwidth, fulfillment, and orders you can't fill🔹 Leaving an agency after private equity changed what the work was for🔹 Building a client base through relationships instead of cold outreach About Megan Pritts Megan Pritts is the founder of Ducks In Rows, where she helps growing businesses, nonprofits, and startups improve their online visibility through SEO, search advertising, and strategic marketing. Known for her clear, practical approach, Megan works closely with clients to develop and implement strategies that drive measurable growth aligned with each organization's unique goals and priorities. Her work combines data analysis, creative strategy, and hands-on execution to help organizations build stronger brands and long-term results. Website: ducksinrows.comEmail: megan@ducksinrows.comInstagram: @ducks_in_rowsFacebook: @ducksinrowsLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/megan-pritts-08a41722 Other episodes you may find interesting https://youtu.be/jQoQgpRaNtQhttps://youtu.be/EDRWKnQnnpE

    What Is SEO and Who Can You Trust to Do It? | Guest - Megan Pritts

  2. Sep 6

    365 Days of Painting: Grief, Faith, and What Came After | Guest - Preston Zeller

    Preston Zeller's brother died of a fentanyl overdose. A week later he was back at work, still broken, and the people around him didn't know what to say. So he wrote one sentence in a journal: paint every day for a year, make a documentary about it. He had no idea how he'd do either. He did both. When I asked how we're supposed to support each other through this, he didn't soften it: don't compare your grief to somebody else's. It's disrespectful, and it's a losing race. We get into what those 365 days actually looked like, including the stretches where he sat down to paint and wondered whether it was doing anything at all, and what he found when he went back to scripture afterward. He'd read those passages his whole life and never once noticed how much of it is grief. His documentary, The Art of Grieving, has reached audiences in 40 countries, won multiple festival awards, and is used as educational curriculum. What we cover: 🔹 Why he went back to painting the year before his brother died, wanting a medium with no undo button 🔹 The day before the loss, a merger that doubled his company overnight. The day after, none of it mattered. 🔹 Bereavement policies that send you back to work before you can function, and coworkers who go quiet when you tell them the truth 🔹 What the year of painting actually surfaced, starting with anger 🔹 Editing a documentary about your own brother, and breaking down in the middle of it 🔹 How much of scripture is grief once you have a reason to look for it 🔹 The grief Olympics, and why comparison is a losing race 🔹 Building Psalmlog without letting it hand people easy answers or replace a pastor 🔹 Why the church adopts technology slowly, and where AI actually belongs in ministry 🔹 Journaling when you're bad at journaling, and why nobody rereads their old journals 🔹 His closing note, for anyone who's decided they aren't creative 🌐 Connect with PrestonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonzeller/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prestonzeller/ 🎬 The filmThe Art of Grieving: https://theartofgrievingfilm.com/filmStreaming on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube TV, and Tubi 📱 Psalmloghttps://psalmlog.com Free to try 🎨 Also referencedLindsay Lederman, the art therapist featured in the documentary: https://lindsaylederman.com/about-lindsay About Preston ZellerPreston Zeller is the founder of Psalmlog, an AI-powered biblical guidance app for scripture-based wisdom in real life situations. He spent 15 years scaling high-growth tech companies including A Cloud Guru and ZoomInfo, and now works on responsible AI in ministry. He's also an award-winning documentary filmmaker. The Art of Grieving chronicles his year of 365 paintings following his brother's death, and is held in international libraries alongside its festival run. Motivation N'atHot Mess to High Potential®Hosted by Natalie Bulger.https://www.ncbulgersolutions.com

    365 Days of Painting: Grief, Faith, and What Came After | Guest - Preston Zeller

  3. Aug 30

    When the Pivot Pivots: Change Never Stops, Why Should We? | Guests - Chloe Drew & Jennica Giroux of Mother Earth Farm

    Twin sisters Chloe Drew and Jennica Giroux run Mother Earth Farm in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Neither of them set out to farm. Jennica has a degree in math and economics and spent about a decade in financial services before leaving for good in 2023. Chloe trained as an elementary educator at IUP, never took the classroom job, and founded the Indiana Outdoor School instead. We get into why the farm has been three different businesses since 2013, what happened when a wet spring flooded their best growing plot and took most of a season with it, and why they both point back to volunteering as the thing that started everything. Chloe is pushing outdoor education into public schools at the cheapest field trip rate in the county. Jennica figures they'll change the plan again next year, and the year after that. What we cover:🔹 Leaving a finance career in stages, over most of a decade🔹 Training to teach and building a school in the woods instead🔹 Three business models since 2013 and why none of them was a failure🔹 What volatile weather does to a farm too small to plant a second plot🔹 Volunteering as a zero-risk way to find out what you actually want🔹 Eating local without shaming people who can't afford to🔹 Why kids who grow kale eat kale🔹 The proposed Homer City data center and what residents can ask of their county commissioners 🌐 Connect with Chloe and JennicaMother Earth Farm: https://www.motherearthfarmpa.comIndiana Outdoor School: https://indianaoutdoorschool.weebly.comUpcoming events: https://www.motherearthfarmpa.com/eventsOrders and questions: motherearthfarmpa@gmail.com 📅 Coming up at the farmNature Escape, an outdoor education day for women 18 and over, in September. Fall field trips, plus a few remaining homeschool, preschool, and kindergarten spots at the Outdoor School. Mentioned in this episodeChevy Chase Community Center in Indiana, which takes fresh produce donations - https://chevychasecenter.org/Indiana County Farmers Market, Saturdays through October - https://indianafarmmarket.org/Pennsylvania Women's Agricultural Network (PA-WAgN) - https://agsci.psu.edu/wagnSoil Sisters, the book Chloe credits with the idea of farming alongside other women 📣 On the data centerConcerned Residents of Western PA: https://www.concernedresidentsofwesternpa.com About Chloe Drew and Jennica GirouxChloe started Mother Earth Farm in 2013 after volunteering as youth garden educator at the Indiana Community Gardens and building the website for the Indiana County Farmers Market. She founded the Indiana Outdoor School, which runs entirely outdoors with no set schedule and no agenda, taking public school field trips, homeschool groups, cyber school students, and summer campers. She is a mother of three. Jennica got her start in farming in St. Petersburg, Florida, volunteering at community gardens and urban school garden programs while working in financial services. She moved back to Pennsylvania in 2017 to join her sister and left finance entirely in 2023. Motivation N'atHot Mess to High Potential®Hosted by Natalie Bulger

    When the Pivot Pivots: Change Never Stops, Why Should We? | Guests - Chloe Drew & Jennica Giroux of Mother Earth Farm

  4. Aug 23

    AI Is a Mirror, Not a Bestie: Train It to Be Your Critic | Guest - Dr. Kelly Monahan

    Dr. Kelly Monahan has spent twenty years researching the future of work, first as the lead future of work researcher at Deloitte, then at Meta, then running the Upwork Research Institute. When I admitted that my AI usually tells me I did a great job, she stopped me: AI is not your bestie. It's a mirror. And if you're already flattering yourself, it will help you do it. We get into where AI actually came from (1955, not 2022), and what happens to a profession when the entry-level work disappears. Kelly also walks through what she found when she set out to study the people getting the most out of AI and discovered they trust it more than they trust their own coworkers. Her book Reclaim the Plot: How Leaders Rewrite the Story When AI Rewrites Work is out September 29. What we cover: 🔹 AI has been around since 1955. The panic about it replacing us is nearly as old. 🔹 Three kinds of AI, and only one of them can do parts of your job 🔹 How accurate does a machine have to be before we trust it, and who takes the blame when it's wrong 🔹 The mirror problem: AI amplifies whatever bias you bring to it 🔹 Ads are coming to AI. Kelly explains what that does to a tool acting like it's on your side. 🔹 How to prompt for actual critique 🔹 What happens to a profession when nobody does the junior work anymore 🔹Data centers, energy costs, and the communities that absorb them 🌐 Connect with KellyBeyond the Desk: https://www.beyondthedesk.com/Speaking and keynotes: https://www.drkellymonahan.com/ Kelly's books📚 Reclaim the Plot (out September 29): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1394426178Sneak peek: https://www.reclaimtheplotbook.com 📚Essential, with Christie Smith (Wiley, 2025), a USA Today bestseller: https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Distributed-Generative-Human-Powered-Leadership-ebook/dp/B0DT4XY29R 🖥️ Watch her TEDxFuture of Work: Hiding in Plain Sight, TEDxHartford, 2019https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_monahan_future_of_work_hiding_in_plain_sight Research referenced in this episode 📘 From Tools to Teammates, Upwork Research Institute, July 2025, by Kelly Monahan and Gabby Burlacu: https://www.upwork.com/research/navigating-human-ai-relationships 📘 Work AI Index, Glean Work AI Institute, with Rebecca Hines https://www.glean.com/work-ai-institute/reports/work-ai-index Two notes on the episode Herbert Simon, whose prediction about AI replacing human work comes up early on, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978, not the Peace Prize. Kelly flags on air that she'd want to check the date. Kelly mentions a follow-up study on AI users and loneliness. A December 2025 BMJ feature by Susan Shelmerdine and Matthew Nour is a close match, though it may not be the exact study she meant. About Kelly Monahan Dr. Kelly Monahan co-founded Beyond the Desk with organizational psychologist Kim Fazio. She was the lead future of work researcher at Deloitte, Principal Director of Global Talent Research at Accenture, Director of Future of Work at Meta, and Managing Director of the Upwork Research Institute. Her work has been published in MIT Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, and Strategic Management Journal, and she's appeared on Bloomberg, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. About Motivation N'at Hot Mess to High Potential® Hosted by Natalie Bulger.https://www.ncbulgersolutions.com

    AI Is a Mirror, Not a Bestie: Train It to Be Your Critic | Guest - Dr. Kelly Monahan

  5. Aug 16

    Healing Yourself and Your Marriage: How Complex PTSD Gets in the Way | Guest - Kayla Licari

    Complex PTSD isn't a recognized DSM diagnosis. That doesn't mean it isn't shaping your marriage, your parenting, or your health. This week Natalie talks with Kayla Licari, a former physician assistant who left a six-figure career after fifteen years once she realized what it was costing her body, her marriage, and her kids. They get into what complex PTSD actually looks like day to day, why it shows up as anxiety, people-pleasing, and chronic pain instead of the flashbacks most people picture, and how it forms long before anyone's old enough to remember it happening. Kayla and Natalie also talk about what it took to rebuild trust in her marriage once she and her husband realized they were speaking two completely different emotional languages, how their kids have responded to watching them mess up and repair it in real time, and the small daily habits, like learning to actually say no, that ended up mattering more than any single therapy session. Resources mentioned: 🔹 Somatic exercises playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWdxbsYN5kBDoKA3WUOZM5WvhDBtTeGBR&si=zXJmKoMdplNiwZRC 🔹 Bilateral beats playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ROcdCaBQ9EqR4WYOAEeOM?si=KmvxPzTKSf-oa3qZdPOjYg&pi=wXmd2S4jTcqmp 🔹 Be Magnetic (code KAYLA4434 for 15% off): https://tobemagnetic.com/whats-the-pathway 🔹 "When the Body Says No" by Dr. Gabor Maté: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470923350?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback 🔹 Kayla on Instagram: @kayla.licari

    Healing Yourself and Your Marriage: How Complex PTSD Gets in the Way | Guest - Kayla Licari

  6. Aug 9

    Reclaiming Who I Was: My Path Through Shame, Survival, and Self-Love | Guest - Stef Vachon

    Stef Vachon spent decades performing a version of himself just to survive. A former international figure skater who came up through relentless homophobic abuse, he walked away from the sport as a teenager, and it took him years, and a total breakdown, before he found his way back to who he actually was. In this conversation, Stef and Natalie talk about what it costs to hide who you are, what it takes to finally ask for help, and what it means to reclaim your identity instead of reinventing it. Stef is now a husband, an adoptive father, a competitive adult figure skater again, and the host of the Together Moving Forward podcast, a platform for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community built on healing and self-respect. In this episode: 🔹 Growing up in survival mode — how constant abuse as a young skater shaped Stef's relationship with his own talent and identity🔹 The therapist who saved his life — what changed when Stef finally asked for help in his early thirties🔹 Reclaiming, not reinventing — why Stef rejects the idea of becoming someone new and instead talks about returning to who he was🔹 Back on the ice — Stef's return to competitive figure skating in his fifties, and what it's taught him about safety and self-trust🔹 Building chosen family — marriage, fatherhood, and what it means to finally feel safe being fully himself Listen. Like. Share. That's all I ask. 🎧 Together Moving Forward Podcast: togethermovingforwardpodcast.com📺 YouTube: youtube.com/@TogetherMovingForwardPodcast📘 Facebook: facebook.com/togethermovingforwardpodcast🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@togethermovingforward📷 Instagram: @stef_vachon @stefvachonspeaker @togethermovingforwardpodcast

    Reclaiming Who I Was: My Path Through Shame, Survival, and Self-Love | Guest - Stef Vachon

  7. Aug 2

    Escaping a Cult: Faith After Spiritual Abuse and Isolation

    Peter Young spent almost twenty years surviving a cult inside his own family, and he didn't know it was happening until it was almost too late. Peter Young is the author of Stop the Tall Man, Save the Tiger, and he joins the pod to talk about the man his family called Uncle Robert, and how one person slowly took control of a marriage, a family, and twenty years of his life. We get into: 🔹 How a family gets pulled into a cult without ever "joining" one🔹 The guilt and shame cult leaders use to keep control🔹 What it actually took to get out🔹 Rebuilding faith and reclaiming a family afterward If you've ever wondered how something like this could happen to someone without them realizing, or you're trying to make sense of something similar in your own life, this conversation might give you a starting point, and, more importantly, hope. MOTIVATION N'AT — Hot Mess to High Potential® The podcast where real life gets talked about, hosted by Natalie Bulger. New episodes every Sunday. RESOURCES 📖 Stop the Tall Man, Save the Tiger: https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Tall-Man-Save-Tiger/dp/B0BW384Q2W/📩 Connect with Peter Young: authorpeteryoung@gmail.com🌐 Peter's website: https://www.authorpeteryoung.com/ 📲 Follow Peter:Instagram: @peterbyoungYouTube: @authorpeteryoung 📲 Follow Natalie:Instagram: @Sincerely__NatalieYouTube: @motivation-nat-pod

    Escaping a Cult: Faith After Spiritual Abuse and Isolation

  8. Jul 26

    Members of the Dead Dads Club - Reflecting on 20 Years of Grief | Guest - Caroline Degnan

    Grief after losing a parent doesn't follow a timeline, and it definitely doesn't come with a manual. Caroline Degnan is a licensed professional counselor in the Pittsburgh area specializing in grief and bereavement, and she lost her own father at eighteen, the exact same age I lost mine. This conversation is a reflection on what that loss taught us both, and how Caroline turned hers into the career and calling she has today. We get into: What it means to lose a parent at eighteen and rebuild a life around itWhy the five stages of grief aren't actually meant for the grievingWhat intentional grief looks like in practice, and how to build itGrief camps for kids who've lost a parent or siblingStaying connected to someone after death through signs and memory If you've been carrying grief quietly because you don't know how to talk about it, this conversation might be the permission you didn't know you needed. RESOURCES 📖 Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynn Jackson 📖 The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk 📩 Connect with Caroline: caroline.iamasiam@gmail.com 🌐 I Am As I Am Counseling: https://www.iamasiamcounseling.com/counselors 🌐 Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us 🌐 Experience Camps: https://experiencecamps.org 🌐 Hospice Nurse Julie: https://www.hospicenursejulie.com 📲 Follow Natalie: Instagram: @Sincerely__Natalie YouTube: @motivation-nat-pod MOTIVATION N'AT — Hot Mess to High Potential® The podcast where real life gets talked about, hosted by Natalie Bulger. New episodes every Sunday.

    Members of the Dead Dads Club - Reflecting on 20 Years of Grief | Guest - Caroline Degnan
See All (64)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Motivation N’at is hosted by Natalie Bulger and features guests from all walks of life — each bringing their own stories, experiences, and insights to the table. Together, we dive into everything from relationships and sobriety to mental health challenges and the lasting impact of growing up too soon. On Motivation N’at, we take on life’s tougher conversations and explore how the lessons we’ve learned can shape what comes next — all in the spirit of turning life’s hot mess moments into high potential.

Information

  • Creator
    NC Bulger Solutions
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    64
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © NC Bulger Solutions
  • Show Website
    Motivation N'at

You Might Also Like