Stepping into the Mentor Role as Young Women President | A How I Lead Interview with Natalie Cox

Originally from Los Angeles, California, Natalie Cox currently
lives in Gilbert, Arizona. She is the mother of five kids ages 10,
14, 16, 18, and 19, and a new missionary mom. Her son left for the
Columbus Ohio mission last month and her daughter will leave for
the Scotland Ireland mission next month. She is an entrepreneur at
heart and has started a few businesses over the years. In 2019 she
launched Māedn Bags and running that keeps her pretty busy during
the week. At church, Natalie has served in many capacities in
Primary, as the first counselor in stake Primary and then as the
stake Primary president. She is currently serving as ward Young
Women president and considers it an honor to work with the young
women. She loves the youth and spending time with them on
Wednesdays and Sundays is the highlight of her week. Links There is
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Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library Highlights 02:15 Kurt
introduces Natalie and her background. 03:40 Getting called as
Young Women president in her ward. Natalie felt very strongly that
she needed to serve in Young Women even though she was the stake
Primary president. She discussed it with her bishop. 09:20 Natalie
started her calling terrified and unsure what to even say to the
girls. 12:10 Establishing a relationship with the young women.
Natalie describes what it looked like for her as she tried to build
these relationships with each girl. 15:50 Silent ministering. No
one knows who is ministering to whom. Not everyone had a silent
minister but some girls that were struggling did. None of them knew
the term silent minister because then they would question if it was
authentic or not. 21:45 While it’s not allowed, Natalie personally
believes in texting individuals. She says that there is nothing
more powerful for her relationship with them. She sends
encouragement, that she misses them, and asks them how school is
going. 23:40 Should we always stick with the rules? What if we feel
inspired to go against the rules? 26:00 Natalie takes some of the
girls on one-on-ones. It started because a mother reached out to
her and asked her to take her daughter on one. It’s an incredible
way to get to know them, tell them why they matter, tell them what
you see in them. 28:20 The positive development of any young person
requires three additional adult influences other than their
parents. 29:10 There are rules and we want to keep everyone safe
but the things Natalie is trying to do are for the benefit of the
youth and are deepening the relationships there. Maybe the best way
is for leaders to always ask parent permission. 32:10 Natalie’s
ward has a lot of girls. There have been 28 girls in just the
oldest class (31 next January) and it’s nearly impossible to
connect with all of them without taking extra steps. 33:10 Leaders
are terrified of teenage girls. Just remember that it’s not about
you and it’s all about them. 35:40 Some youth are so hard to reach.
Natalie shares an experience she had with a girl in her young
women. Natalie kept reaching out to her but never got a response
until six months later. The girl sent her a heartfelt message
thanking her. The moral of the story is that you might not be
getting a lot of feedback but what you are doing matters. 38:30
Working together as Young Women and Young Men organizations 43:00
Natalie really wanted the young women to be greeters and help them
have purpose and interact with the adults. The bishop said no but
the feeling kept nagging her. She gave it some time and the bishop
finally agreed. Remember that impressions can be different for each
leader and to give it time. 46:45 Natalie explains how they involve
the young women in ministering. They call it ministering bread.
49:00 Natalie shares her final thoughts on leadership and how
serving has blessed her. The Leading Saints Podcast is one of the
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