Gary Michels: Welcome to Let's Talk Legacy, and we're really excited about today's guest. Natalie Glebova, is a best selling author, inner beauty coach and the winner of Miss Universe 2005, so welcome to the show.
Natalie Glebova: For sure. Thanks so much for having me on, and I am in Phuket, Thailand, been living here for 20 years. In 2005 the Miss Universe pageant was held in Bangkok, Thailand, and I had traveled there for the very first time representing Canada. And little did I know that I wasn't going to go back to Canada, because I won that pageant. And well, I did go back eventually, but I ended up being flown to New York City after the pageant, after the win, and had to spend a year in New York. And then I came back to Thailand, because it's just it was such an amazing experience being there, and I think I got a really good connection with Thai people. And I thought, why not give it a shot? And I was gonna stay only for a year after passing on my title, but I ended up staying for 20.
Gary Michels: So growing up, you say that you were a very awkward teenager, so competing in the pageant world didn't exactly seem like a natural fit for you. So what was the spark that made you want to compete? And how did you first get involved in that industry?
Natalie Glebova: It actually is...there's a story behind that, because you're right. When I came to Canada, I felt really out of place. I was an immigrant, and going to a school in London, Ontario where we didn't have that many immigrants, I really felt like I stood out a lot for my Russian accent and Russian last name amidst all the Canadian born kids and being an awkward teenager. Yeah, I think I went through that awkward phase. Not, you know, not every beauty queen is born that beautiful. So I definitely had a bit of an awkward phase, glasses, braces, the whole thing. And I really felt very low self esteem at that point, not only because of my appearance, but also because of that stigma of being Russian in Canada and a couple of stereotypical things. And the comments that I keep, kept hearing was like, Oh, are you a communist or, you know, do you drink vodka? So I actually was very much a loner and an introvert, until one day I met somebody who's from Poland, and
he said, Oh, you're Russian. I love Russian women. I watch a lot of James Bond movies, and all the Russian women are so you know, like Bond girls, they're smart and intelligent and sophisticated and beautiful, and all of a sudden I had this choice to think of myself in this whole other way. And I realized that it is a choice how we view ourselves, if we can, if we can just change the vantage point, if we can find a different perspective on anything, we can always choose the one that suits us and serves us best. So I dropped that whole immigrant victim story, and I chose to be a Bond girl, and from then on, I went on to compete at Miss Universe.
Gary Michels: What was the experience like competing in Miss Universe, and how did it feel to win?
Natalie Glebova: It's been a while. Competing in the pageant was a dream come true, because I watched it for several years prior, and the glamor and the fact that it was so international really drew me to it. And my goal really was to just be able to walk across the stage wearing the Canada sash and be able to tell my grandkids that one day in the future to tell them that your grandmother competed at Miss universes, Miss Canada, and that was kind of like the dream that I had going into it, and that's what kept pushing me forward. And it's interesting to note as well that I am the first immigrant ever to win the title of this universe Canada. And the title of this universe because usually women had won were born in the country, but I was not born in Canada. I was born in Russia. And so for me, was a history making moment as well, to be crowned Miss Universe Canada and opened the door for all of these other women who came after me, who were immigrants. So that was a
really, really special moment. And winning that title really made me feel like I had made history, and I made an impact and left a legacy in a way. So it was one of those moments that really felt surreal, to be honest, and looking back at it, I think I might have thought I was dreaming, or I thought it was a joke or something, because I really didn't think it was real.
Gary Michels: When you were going through the process, was there a time when you said, Wait, I really have a chance of winning this? Was there like an a-ha moment?
Natalie Glebova: Well, I never really, truly believed that it was going to happen that way. Because, of course, I believed anything is possible, but I really just wanted to be there. I wanted to be. Have an impact on stage. I wanted to get to the final round so I can give my final statement and answer the final question. But it never really hit me until I won that it happened because prior to that, I was just there to have a good time and to to be the best that I can be. It was never really in my mind to win, necessarily.
Gary Michels: What happened to your life like right after, because you're Miss Universe for Canada, which is a huge deal, like to be the top of the coal country, right but now you're Miss Universe world.
Natalie Glebova: I think I quickly accepted it, but I don't think I've really changed as a person. I still, to this day, people are still telling me, the people who knew me back then, that, Oh, you're still the same Natalie that we know, which is a great compliment, because I truly believe that if we are staying true to our inner qualities, the ones that make us who we are, that's really important to retain and not change as a result of Success, or, you know, any kind of external accolades or anything like that. So it was shocking. It was a pleasant surprise, and it changed my life in more ways than I can imagine. I think it's, I always say that it's taking me in the most scenic route towards where I am right now.
Gary Michels: Yeah, I imagine, and so you you're crowned Miss Universe, and then you went to work, right? Because isn't there a lot of responsibility with that role?
Natalie Glebova: There is. And as Miss Universe, you get to basically be on call all the time, to get up and go and travel to any part of the world and attend all kinds of events. I also did volunteer work. Attended different charity auctions and galas in New York City, but also all around the world. So a lot of the times, I was just jet lagged and tired and missing home and lonely. It comes with its own fair share of difficulties as well.
Gary Michels: Was there a mission, like something that was kind of your goal in that year that you wanted to accomplish? And what did you feel like in the year that you accomplished?
Natalie Glebova: Well, in that particular year, actually, every Miss Universe has a platform in those years, each Miss Universe was taking on the role to be an advocate for HIV and AIDS awareness. And so we went and we traveled all over the world, to Africa, to India, to Russia, to Brazil, to many other countries where I worked with NGOs and different organizations that really tried to highlight the importance of getting tested and, you know, getting yourself and getting the stigma out of the way so that people would not be so scared to even go get tested. So I actually went and I did a public HIV test several times. So that was my mission, is to tell people that it's okay. You know, Miss Universe is doing it. So you can do it too. Every Miss Universe, moving forward, continues her mission, whether it's the platform that she had in her year or something else, and I definitely have continued on serving and bringing value and sharing my message.
Gary Michels: What did competing in contests that focused on outer beauty do for you and really thinking deeper about finding inner beauty?
Natalie Glebova: Yeah, that's a great question. That's exactly what I am doing right now. Is I'm coaching women, young women, to look at their inner beauty. Because the more I journey inwards and go into my spiritual journey of evolution, the more I realize how important that finding that inner beauty is. And I guess you can say that I have experienced the height of that world, right, the outer beauty, the material world. And I think it helped me, because the pendulum swung so far in one direction, it has helped me to also understand the dark side of the industry and the pitfalls of focusing on only the external factors, and because the pendulum swung so far in one direction, I really had to go through the dark night of the soul as well and face a lot of the realizations and awareness that outer beauty does not bring happiness, it does not bring fulfillment or any kind of external validation. It doesn't do that. And so what I started to discover more and more on my
spiritual journey was that external beauty, if it's only external, it's going to fade no matter what, because we're all heading in one direction, right times, is not kind to anybody. But if you focus on the qualities and the inner qualities that bring value to the world, if you focus on kindness, if you focus on generosity, compassion, forgiveness of yourself and others, and you go through these really difficult parts of yourself that makes you face your shadow as well. That. When you realize that the inner beauty can shine through if you just take off that mask of protection, that mask that we wear because we we're all insecure at the end of the day, we all have insecurities. So if we journey inwards and understand that our insecurities are there, but so is the inner beauty, we can truly shine to the world.
Gary Michels: Where did you get that realization, like, was there kind of a realization you had in your life about that inner beauty? Were you dealing with some of your friends or contestants and people you had been in the business with that saw that fade away, or what? What was it that compelled you to kind of go in this direction?
Natalie Glebova: I think just the fact that I have been coaching a lot of contestants for different pageants, and a lot of the times I see them struggling, because when they get into a pageant, they might be seem confident, and they might wear that mask really well, and they might say, Yes, I'm here because I want to share my message to the world. I want to serve others, but at the end of the day, it's very easy to see when somebody is hiding behind those insecurities and has ulterior motives and they only want to be there because they want to be crowned the most beautiful woman in the land and wear a beautiful crown. And so I kind of, I can relate to that, in a sense, because as a young woman, I've also chased that beauty, right? I also chased that validation, and I wanted to be considered beautiful, so I'm not judging anybody. I know what it's like, but I want their journeys to be easier than mine, because I had to go through it the hard way. I had to face my own
insecurities and my own self judgment, because I being in that industry after I had won, Miss Universe. I even felt compelled to do some plastic surgery, because I felt like I needed to be beautiful. I needed to be perfect. Even though I had already won, I still felt like I was not enough, because the industry kept demanding more beauty. You know, you have to be thinner, you have to have a certain kind of nose, or something like that. So I definitely felt the pressure, and I don't want anybody to go through that, because I don't think it's anything on the outside that defines you to be beautiful. It's not a perfect nose, it's not the number on a scale. It's something that shines from the inside.
Gary Michels: You know, I'm always wondering, how much of that do you think comes from the way we were raised in our childhood, and the way we're loved by our parents, and the way that that all developed, and how much of that is the pressures of society? Now, with social media?
Natalie Glebova: I think it's everything put together. It's everything put together for sure, but the major part, I mean, it depends on the person, because I happen to have wonderful parents who love me no matter what. But obviously not everyone's as lucky. But I think that in my case, it was the pressure of society, the social media, although when I was competing, we didn't have that much social media. But still, it's the pressure of of society, pressure of culture, and overall standards of beauty, whether for men or women. So I think it's majority of it. I feel like what really gets to us is that noise outside that keeps telling us you should be like this, you should be like that.
Gary Michels: Right. How do you work with a person to get them to look at it through a different view?
Natalie Glebova: First of all, reminding them of who they truly are in their essence, beyond the exterior. So when you take away everything that you can identify yourself with, are left with just the words I am. Who are you? So it's a bit philosophical, a bit spiritual teachings that I really try to get people to understand that who they are is nothing to do with what they can even describe themselves as. It's just a feeling of aliveness, feeling of beingness. And then, of course, it's a lot of work on a subconscious mind, rewiring the subconscious mind the beliefs that have been ingrained from a very young age a lot of the times. And it's not an easy job, as you can imagine. It's very, very difficult to rewire certain patterns of thinking, the behaviors and really the belief systems, especially if they have been entrenched since young age and through religion, through culture, through family, but I like to teach you by example, right? That's why everything
that I post on social media, I try to not just showcase how beautiful I am on the outside, but I try to show that true beauty comes from the way that you think, from the way that you speak, from the way that you relate to other people, and from your own relationship with yourself, the self love that you have. And hopefully my students see that.
Gary Michels: So you developed a three part, let's call it a secret formula...
Natalie Glebova: Not so secret, but yes.
Gary Michels: ...That you used in the Miss Universe, called Three Secrets to Win the Crown, which you kind of create for people to have a huge shift in their mindset. Could you share a little bit about how that that secrets helpful, and how you use it, and how you teach it?
Natalie Glebova: The three secrets, it's, it's really, mostly, it's about being yourself and being authentic and understanding who you are, which goes back to confidence and self love at the end of the day, if you don't have self awareness, if you don't know who you are, if you don't know what your purpose in life is, what experience has shaped you, what priorities you have in life, what values you have, or even qualities that you're proud of in yourself, you're not going to have that self awareness or self love. So I teach people to really discover themselves, through journaling, through introspection, through asking themselves, themselves questions, another part is really just about being prepared. Because when I was competing at Miss Universe, and I see every single student of mine who has won any national or international crowd, it has been about the level of preparation. You just leave no stone unturned. You have to make sure that you've covered all of your bases and
continuously work every single day. What can I do today to be that best version of myself, the one that I feel deserves to win, taking action consistently on a daily basis. And the last part is really just belief, but surrender. It's like it's kind of a paradox, but you believe that you can do it, but at the same time, you completely surrender, because the moment you start attaching yourself to any outcome, you're creating that resistance, and you're not in the flow with the universe, with the flow of life. And so I always say that you can set your the bar for what's possible very high, because anything is possible, any of your dreams, any of your goals, if you can imagine it, you can do it. So if you can set the bar for what's possible really, really high, but then keep your expectations really low and be pleasantly surprised, because that's what happened for me. You have to put in the hours, and that's what I always say to women who are just starting in modeling and
pageantry and they're nervous and say, well, you're scared because you're not prepared. And the moment you pass over, it's almost like you pass that hump of being a noob or a beginner to somebody who's just like, Oh, I got this, right. I can do it with my eyes closed. So it's the same kind of thing.
Gary Michels: It's huge. It's huge. So legacy, when I when I talk about the word legacy, okay, everybody has, like, a different thought about it. Some people think legacy is about leaving a financial legacy. Other people believe legacy is about leaving kind of a reminder in other people's minds and made it an impact in the world. Okay, what does legacy mean to you? I want to ask it in a couple different ways. What does legacy mean to you as far as Miss Universe, did that shape your life to leave a certain legacy for people?
Natalie Glebova: Of course, in fact, the organization itself is a legacy. It's 74 I believe, years now, of empowering women. And of course, the organization has changed so much over the years from the 50s to now, because back in the day, may perhaps it was more about women's looks that were being judged. But now we're judging everything. We're judging how a woman presents herself, how she speaks, what's her brand, her presence online, her career, her education, everything. So I am carrying that legacy of Miss Universe, which is a wonderful organization supporting and empowering women, no matter how you look at it. At the end of the day, if you even talk to any pageant contestant, you will see that there's so much deeper and so much more interesting than what you would normally see on TV. Because, of course, you watch the show and you see swimsuit competition and evening gowns and beauty and glamor, but dig a little bit deeper and see what the contestants
are doing to prepare. And it's really, really inspiring, because every single one of them has a message to share from her, from herself, which is unique to her. She is working in her community to create better life for people. She's raising money. She is speaking out on important causes, and most importantly, she's a role model for all the other young women that are watching her. So that is a legacy.
Gary Michels: That's awesome. How about you, just as a person, take Miss Universe out of it, that your family, your your friends. What kind of legacy do you desire to leave to people?
Natalie Glebova: Well, as a mom, I'm definitely leaving a legacy to my daughter, and that legacy would be the inner beauty. Of course, I want to teach her that how she looks and any material things don't really define her. And it's not just for my daughter. I think that I have done that through all of my books and through all of the messages that I put out on social media and of. Course, through Temple of Love, which is my latest book where I talk very much. It's a much more spiritual lesson, but the lesson is that we are in charge of creating our reality, and that is the most important thing that I want to leave for my daughter and for other young people.
Gary Michels: Wow, beautiful. So I was going to ask you about that new book, The Temple of Love. What's the main message in there?
Natalie Glebova: The main message of Temple of Love is that we really create our own reality with our minds. And I talk a lot about spiritual concepts like synchronicities and even Angel numbers and spirit guides and animals. It's almost like a spiritual fictional journey, almost like a mystical journey of healing yourself through your childhood traumas and rewiring your subconscious mind as well. But ultimately, the message is that we can use these synchronicities. We can use these symbols to make ourselves believe that we are divinely guided, protected and always heading in the right direction, if we stay in touch with our inner compass. But the true meaning here is that it's not the symbol itself. Like let's say you follow numerology and you like repeating number sequences, or you notice some kind of spirit animal that comes to you. It's not really the object itself that creates the magic. It's our minds that creates the magic, right? So if we believe that that talisman
that we wear or that tattoo that we get, or that object that we have on our altar, that's what brings us protection and healing and luck and prosperity. Then it's not actually the object itself. It's our minds that make it so. So that's how powerful we are.
Gary Michels: It's so true. How do people get in touch with you? If they want to be coached by you, or they want to learn from you or have you speak? How would they reach you?
Natalie Glebova: People can go on my website, NatalieGlebova.com They can find me on social media by my name, Natalie Glebova, so it's easy. I welcome everyone to get in touch.
Gary Michels: Absolutely. Well. Thank you so much. I grew up one of my very, very best friends. His mom was one of the leaders in the Miss America beauty pageant. So I grew up caring about pageants all the time and the stories and what the girls go through, and when I knew that you were going to speak with us today, I kind of know there's a lot more than just what we see on TV.
Natalie Glebova: God bless, thank you so much. I appreciate that, that sentiment, because it's a lot of the times you wouldn't believe how many times I hear oh, you're Miss Universe. So what is this? All about beauty? And they think, you know, it's shallow and that we don't have anything in our heads, but you know it's not true.
Gary Michels: Beautiful. Thank you so much for your time today.
Natalie Glebova: Well, it's a pleasure. I hope you have a wonderful day.