The Liz Moody Podcast - McKel (Hill) Kooinega—Productivity Hacks To Beat Stress & Burnout, Manifesting A Husband (Really!) & Reverse Engineering Your Dream Life

Episode Date: August 7, 2019

I’m so excited about today’s guest, McKel Kooienga (née Hill), a registered dietitian who founded Nutrition Stripped, a brand that includes wellness coaching, healthy eating programs, a cookbook, and a ton more. While she has a thriving business, it’s also abundantly clear how much she’s driven by actually helping people, which is refreshing and more rare than I’d like it to be. I asked for your questions on Instagram (make sure you’re following @lizmoody to send in Qs for future guests), and you really wanted to know about how she’s built such an incredible business and life, so we talk about that a ton. McKel has amazing tips for combating burnout, minimizing stress, and still making a ton of money. We talk about her various revenue streams, what most people get wrong when they start their own company, what she credits with her phenomenal success, and more. We also talk about McKel’s own health issues, including how she beat the debilitating migraines she used to suffer from, and what she thinks are the easiest ways to make over your diet. Finally, we talk about the amazing story of how McKel manifested her husband. I’m a skeptic about manifestation, but this story GOT ME, and I’m so excited for you to hear it. To shop products McKel recommends in this episode, go to lizmoody.com/shop. For Chicago tour dates, go to lizmoody.com/events. Enjoy! PS: Healthier Together is officially a number one best-seller! You can get your copy right here or at lizmoody.com/cookbook. Please keep sending me your creations on Instagram—they make me so happy! This episode is sponsored by Simple Mills, one of my favorite grain free food brands. I’ve been using Simple Mills products for years, starting with their amazing cake mixes. They’ve since expanded the line, which now includes the original cake mixes, pizza dough mix, brownie mix, bread mix, pancake & waffle mix, ready made crackers and cookies, and more. Everything has only a few simple, largely organic ingredients, and there are no weird gums or emulsifiers. You can use the code “healthiertogether20” for 20% off any order on simplemills.com, and if you need product recommendations, don’t hesitate to ask me for them on Instagram (@lizmoody). This episode is also sponsored by Natural Cycles, the first hormone-free contraception app that’s FDA approved and CE marked in Europe. Natural Cycles has been shown to have effectiveness rate of 93% with typical use and 98% effective with perfect use—for reference, the efficacy of the pill is 91% with typical use. I’ve partnered with Natural Cycles to do a little mini-diary of my experience with it on the Healthier Together podcast. Every episode, I’ll give you an update of how it’s going and what I’m learning about my body and my cycle, as I explore the app in real time. Have questions you want answered? Hit me up @lizmoody on Instagram and I’ll share in future episodes. You can find out more info at NaturalCycles.com. Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the Healthy Together podcast. It actually feels so much cooler saying that now because I've gotten to meet so many of you guys in real life and my book tour and at all of my live podcast events over the past few weeks. So if we have hugged in person, extra high, I love you all. I don't know how I ended up with the coolest people on the planet in the H.T. fam, but I did. And I'm taking it. If we haven't met yet, I am Liz Moody. I'm a writer and cookbook author living in Brooklyn, but I'm currently touring the country for my latest cookbook, which is also. called Healthy Together, which I highly recommend if you like delicious food, delicious healthy food.

I promise I'm not biased at all, but it's a great, great cookbook. Right now, I am on a little break between tour steps. I'm hanging out with my husband, Zach's family, and Carmel, which is this gorgeous little town on the California coast. It's like right by where they film Big Little Lies, that HBO show. So it's like this moody, beautiful coastline. It's very relaxing, very wonderful. But I will be back on tour next week. So if you want to come hang out, I have my shikers. event coming up, definitely check out my website, lizmoody.com slash events. All right, I am so, so excited about today's guest, who is McHale Hill from Nutrition Stripped. I first met McHale a few years back at a wellness event. We were actually seated next to each other at dinner, and I was struck first.

Okay, actually, actually, I was struck first by her hair, which is very spun gold-esque and very hashtag hair goals. But then I was struck by her quiet intelligence. She has the this very keen sense of knowing exactly who she is and exactly what she's doing, but not being like in your face about it at all. And she also more than like a lot of people in this whole crazy wellness world really, really actually cares about helping people. Like way more than being famous or making a ton of money. She really wants to help the most people possible live their best lives. And I find that very rare and very refreshing. So if you don't know McHale, she's a registered dietitian and she's the founder of the whole nutrition stripped brand, which includes

wellness coaching, healthy eating programs, a cookbook, and a ton more. She's built this incredible thriving business. And when I asked you guys what you wanted us to talk about, I did that on Instagram. I always do that for guests. So if you want to ask questions of these people, definitely follow me on Instagram at Liz Moody so you can throw your questions in and I will ask all of my guests them in the future. But you guys all said that you definitely wanted her to talk about her business and how she's built this awesome business with all these employees and all of these different products and revenue streams. So we get into all of that, including where she started and all the way she actually makes her money. I think I make her make like a pie chart of her various

revenue streams. And we talk about the nitty gritty of all of that and how she would do it if she was starting today. So if you are thinking about starting a business or you want to do a side hustle or anything like that, there's a ton of relevant information in this podcast for you. We also talk about experiencing burnout, which I think is so relevant, whether you own your own business or not. I think everybody these days struggles with doing too much being on all the time. And she had some really genius ways that she dealt with that personally, that I am definitely stealing for my own life. One of them is batch tasking, which is essentially doing like similar tasks at once, which I've been doing since this conversation. And it has honestly

completely revolutionized both like my work life and my home life. I do all of my article writing on one day. And then I do all my cooking and my recipe development on another day. I do podcast stuff on another day. And it really saves my sanity because we live in this world where we're constantly switching our brain. You're like having a conversation and then you check Instagram and then you check your email. And we're literally weakening the neural path. that allow us to focus, which makes us feel crazy and scattered all the time. And it makes things way harder to get done. So McKell and I get into a lot of specific questions about how to make batch tasking work for you, but definitely try it if you have it yet. And then come to tell me on

Instagram how it went. I think it'll be like a complete game changer. It's honestly changed my life. I think you have to do it properly, which is why I asked so many specific questions about like exactly what you do and how you deal with FOMO and always being. worried that something's happening in your email that you should be attending to. But I think if you do it right, it's a complete game changer. And then, of course, because I have a registered dietitian on the show, obviously used the opportunity to pick McHale's brain about healthy eating. She used to suffer from really debilitating migraines that just like took up her time

and her energy and made her feel terrible for, I think she says like five to eight days a month, which is a lot. So we talk about the specific practices that helped her free herself from that as well as her thoughts on grains and meat and just a bunch of like healthy eating questions and more. Oh, and you must, must stay tuned until the end. Literally in the last five minutes, Mikkel shares the best story ever about how she manifested her husband. Yes, I said manifested her husband.

I'm sort of wary of manifestation in general, which the two of us definitely talk about in here, but man, this story, it is such a good one. So basically, listen to this episode. if you want to manifest a life partner, if you want to make a ton of money, if you want to be way more productive, if you want to eliminate stress, basically, Mikkel will help you live your best, best life. She's definitely helped me live my best, best life. And I'm very grateful to this conversation and to her in general. So you can find Mikal and info on all of her programs at nutritionstripped.com and on Instagram at Nutrition Stripped. I've also added the products that she mentioned in this episode to Liz Moody.com slash shop in case you want to check them out. And as always, I'm at Liz Moody on Instagram, and I cannot wait to hear what you think of the episode. I love when you all post what's resonating for you or what you're thinking about as you listen. So definitely tag me so that I can see and I can share and we can continue the conversation. All right. Without further ado, here's McElhill. Enjoy.

All right, Macal, welcome to the podcast. Welcome to my hotel room. Thank you for having me. Lovely set up here. Thank you. Thank you. I'm like sitting by the window. on one side of the, what is this called with the TV on it? Like a console. Oh, like this is a media console.

A media console. Zach just taught me that word. Yeah. Console. Because we have one in our house and he's always like, the keys are on the console. And I'm like, God. But I'm here in Nashville, which is where you're from. Are you from Nashville?

Like originally, originally? No, I am from Cincinnati, Ohio. And so I've lived in Nashville for going on seven years. How did that all happen? After graduate school, I moved back from, so I was at OSU in Columbus. Ohio State University. Sorry. Go bucks.

Buck guys. Buck guys. Oh, H. I-I-O. All right. So I moved back to Cincinnati after grad school and just took a mental health break for about four months because my graduate program was so intense. And this was to become a registered diet. Yeah, this was to become an RD.

And I knew I just wanted to go home and chill out. And then also during the job application process, I just wanted to kind of like have roots at home, start applying places, just get my foot in the door. And I had a group of friends here who lived in Nashville, visited a weekend and just fell in love with the community, like the vibe, the southern hospitality. And then also I just had nothing like holding me back. So I just really wanted to move somewhere. When you were growing up in Cincinnati, were you always thinking you weren't going to sort of make your home there long term? I think it hit after graduate school. Yeah, I wanted to do that whole, hey, I'm like early 20s. I want to spread my wings and do my own thing. Yeah. And I had been on my own since I've been like 17. So what do you mean on your own?

Like in terms of like college and just living by myself and supporting myself financially and doing all of that pretty much at 17. So I mean, that's just the way the cards were dealt. So I think, yeah, just coming back home, doing the whole job application process. And then just again, fell in love with Nashville and got my foot in the door, had a clinical job here. And hate is a strong word, so I won't use that. But it really, really, really drained me. What was draining about it? Just because I knew I wasn't utilizing my, I think, my unique gifts and passions and strengths, because it was really like sales oriented. It was

clinical based. So for me, I didn't feel like I was really making impact positively with people who were, again, like they were on the more reactive side. So, you know, you're talking to people who are in hospitals who are just grateful to be, you know, alive after a surgery or something, they don't really want to know how to take care of themselves when nutrition. It's not necessarily, for me, the best intervention right then and then and there. So I was at that position for about a year and that's actually when I started nutrition stripped as a creative outlet just to kind of get these, like, creative juices flowing, express them, express the knowledge that I had. And also like the way that I wanted to coach and share this philosophy that I had kind of.

brewing all along. And so that is really what made me stick to Nashville. Again, it was like the community component, nutrition stripped was starting up. And yeah. So we're going to get into all of the nitty gritty around nutrition strip because people had a ton of questions about how you built your business, which I'm also very impressed by it. And I have a million questions about as well. But let's roll back a little bit. Were you raised in a healthy family? Mm-hmm. Healthy as defined by what? As defined by you now. Like, did you, was, was that your health journey? Did it start when you were like a kid and your mom was like, I love kale? Or did you come to that from a different direction? Yeah, no, that's a great question. So I'm from Ohio, Midwest, pretty like standard working class diet, I guess you could say. Like there was a mix of Pringles and making my own dinner of like mac and cheese or, you know, but also my mom had a garden, like a really small garden in our backyard. And so there was, I think it was a good mix of like components of just straight up American diet, standard American diet and also just a touch of what my parents

were into. And they did enjoy cooking. They did enjoy gardening to a certain degree. But they also were just like trying their best working, both of them working full time. And like, my mom is and was a hairdresser at the time. And then my father builds homes. And so, yeah, always working. And then I have an older brother. So I think we had a pretty good balanced, like diet, if you will, again, like being in the Midwest and having some of those components. But yeah, I wouldn't say it was like we were we were raised on kale or anything, not like my husband's family, which is like so that. He was raised really healthy. Yeah. Okay. We're going to get into him again later. We're going to file that. We have two things filed. I will keep track for everybody. But so where were you,

when were you like, I need to be a registered dietitian? I want to make health and food. all of that a really big part of my life. Yeah, I didn't even, honestly, like, I had always enjoyed cooking, but I never thought of nutrition and what I was eating and the impact of my health. And when I was about 15, 14, 15, I was going through a lot of stress in life. And then also I had terrible migraines. And so, again, cut back to, like, that 14, 15 year old, McKell, I was like such an art nerd. Like, that's all I wanted to do when I grew up. I was like, I'm going to be an artist. I'm going to paint. And I'm just going to, you know, live this, like, free life.

And so having any type of, I would say, like, health issue or health condition, especially, like, migraines where it really just, like, knocks you off your feet. I'd have to, like, miss three days of school at a time. I was like, you know, just, I don't know. I kind of just thought, okay, this is how I am. This is, like, what I'm supposed to be doing and living. Like, I'm just going to live with these migraines and go through life like this. Okay, got it. Fast forward.

Were you doing anything? to treat the migraines in like a traditional medicine sense? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I went to doctors, neurologist. I tried like every migraine prescription medication. And yes, they did work. And actually I had some bad like adverse reactions to some.

But I mean, they work technically. Yes. They reduced migraine episodes. But I also felt really numbed out too. Like I just felt odd. Like I wasn't as creative. And again, like art was my life. And so I was, you know, eat, breathe, sleeping that.

And so I just felt, you know, starting to feel like really anxious and depressed, too, as like a young teenager going through this and not knowing really how to deal with it other than like, okay, I'm just going to accept it. It's totally fine. And that's what I did really for like three to four years before I went to college. Okay. So then you're in college. And was there a light bulb moment? Like there could be another way. Yeah.

So I went to in my senior year of high school, I had the realization, okay, maybe I can't do art full time. forever and ever. Like I had this like weird crippling like, I don't know, adult thing happened to where I was like, oh, can I make art happen for my entire life? Can I make this a living? And I had just all of these voices around me saying like, you know, no, like maybe you should go a different career route. And also I kind of like intuitively knew like maybe that's not my path, but I'll always keep it as a hobby. It's always going to be, you know, in everything I do. And it actually still is today, which is really beautiful. But I was always interested in as well and biology, which I think is kind of an interesting mix because I think textbook-wise,

you don't really find a lot of people who are incredibly creative on the art side or at least expressive in that, but also like really enjoy the science and the biology of things. But I did. I like just loved learning about human nature, sociology, what made people tick, behaviors, mental health, well-being. So psychology was just like that natural, I don't know, it just seemed fluid for me to go into. So that was technically my first major. I think like so many people change majors when they're in college. I changed mine like three times. So the first one was psychology and got really into it and said,

okay, I don't know if I could actually do this full time for real life. Like I don't, what's my career path after this? Like you didn't, the idea of having a private practice wasn't the idea. Yeah, the idea of being a psychiatrist or counselor, therapist, psychologist, full time all the time. And seemed really weighty on my shoulders. I think I'm very intuitive and emotional in terms of like, that's why I love coaching, but I think I also have to honor my emotional, energetic boundaries. And I just knew that that line of work would probably, I don't know, just hit home or not, not be able to shut it off, I think, as well.

So also, that was at like 18, 19 that I came up, that realization. Well, it's also, my dad's a psychologist and he, um, he, um, he, I think a lot of psychologists need to see psychologists to deal with how much you're taking on. And he hasn't found a good one, but I'm like always bugging him too because he comes home and he's, he just feels terrible. And he's just seen the most terrible parts of the world for hours and hours and hours, you know. Absolutely. It's a lot.

Yeah. Coaches need coaches too. Our healthcare providers need support more than anybody else if they're going to serve people. I wholeheartedly believe that. Yeah. So again, this is such a random, you know, career track, but after psychology, I had some friends who were really into fitness modeling and college athletics and working out. And so we had an amazing, like, state-of-the-art gym at Ohio State

University. So I was like going there all the time. Yeah, huge. Division one. Yeah, big 10. And so I really fell in love with just active, like an active lifestyle. And so that actually was my catalyst to getting into nutrition. So again, Backtracking a little bit. Psychology first up. Second major was actually marine biology, which is such a random sidebar. For some reason, I can see that. I can see you as like one of those like a seal studiers on like a sailboat in Hawaii or something. I can completely envision that. Well, I am, I am obsessed with animals. And animal welfare, well-being, that's a whole other, you know, that's a whole other conversation. But I was, I've always been drawn to like water,

animals and all that. Are you, what's your sign? I'm a cancer. Is that a water sign? It's a water sign. I love who I'm always like curious to know, but I don't know anything about it. I'm a water sign from astrology, which and then like I like saw an astrologist too because I'm so into all of that.

And I think like all of like so many of the moons or something or the planets are also in the water for me or in cancer. Anyway, very fascinating. Oh, I could get that vibe from you. In a good way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so went the marine biology route. And that only lasted me for like a year, which also gave me fantastic biology requirements to even getting into nutrition.

A lot of those were, you know, correlated with the psychology requirements and all of that stuff. So it really wasn't hopping around too much. But again, just had that one real moment where I was like, I don't see myself moving out of Ohio or living by the ocean. Like, what am I actually going to do? Again, this is also young. I'm like 19, 20, like just playing around. I'm just like figuring it out. No, I'm just figuring life out.

But again, sports nutrition was that catalyst that got me into nutrition because I just wanted to play. And I was so, I was just so fascinated with physically how nutrition could impact somebody's performance, how it could increase their stamina, it can increase their recovery time. Like, I just really thought that was really cool. And so. And you were just seeing this on yourself. Yeah, I was just seeing it on myself, but also my friends who were really, really into recreational athletics or they were applying to be in like, a college sport or fitness modeling. So it was really just like I was the tag along friend who was just like, oh, this is so cool.

And then I started cooking and making like meal plans and practicing with them. And then that was, again, that was like my introduction into nutrition. And really where I think there was a change in the way that I saw nutrition was throughout the studies and really learning more about how nutrition is practiced. it felt really cookie cutter and there's, you know, no negativity towards the academics and, you know, our program's incredible as dietitians. You really put through a lot of science and all of that knowledge. But there was something that, you know, while sitting in class, we were talking about heart healthy diets or something and that Jill, Joe, and Jane needed the same thing.

And I was like, well, what about their, like upbringing? What's their stress like? Like, why aren't we asking questions about their, I mean, just like their well-being? because that deeply matters. And for some reason, even again, just being so young and green and a little bit naive, I was just thinking, this doesn't make sense for us to really, like, give the same diet to everybody because we're all so different. Why aren't we honoring that? Why aren't we talking about that? And I always have just seen health in a bigger picture. Like, yes, nutrition, I love it. And it's truly what I believe is the catalyst to a lot of our health and our well-being. But there's so much more that we have to pay attention to and all of these pillars of health that.

are equally so important that we put all these puzzle pieces together. And what I think got me to that point, too, just out of intuition and being able to kind of like maybe step back and see a bigger picture was just, again, my health journey, because at this point too, in the background of while all this is happening, I started guinea picking all these diets on myself just to like, I don't know, that's just kind of my thing. I just try it out. And during that process, I really kind of came to the conclusion a lot of that my mind. migraines were really caused by stress, but also there were some food intolerances like dairy,

gluten just didn't agree with me, went through, you know, so many food elimination diets. And every once in a while, too, even to this day, I'll kind of put myself through one just to see like, hey, has anything changed? Because it's been a minute since all of that happened. Yeah, and still to this day, I'm kind of on the dairy-free, gluten-free track just for me personally. But it was a really interesting test just to see that in practice and be able to say, okay, well, in the future when I'm coaching clients, I have to honor the fact that everybody is so different, looking at all these health pillars and allowing them to get the tools and strategies they need to kind of

figure it out on their own or at least like work with somebody that can really help them. So did your migraines completely go away? Pretty much. Yeah. I mean, it was night and day. I had migraines. I would say, you know, four to sometimes eight days out of the month. Like it was a lot. And then, I would say, you know, right now in this moment, I'll get them every once in a while, but I have to be under tremendous stress, whether it's emotional or just overworking or physical stress or something. But I would say that's like far and few in between. And would you say, what would you say were like the key things for you in eliminating migraines for

all of the pillars, all of the health practices? I mean, I think it was really taking small steps. And nobody likes to hear that either, because I think we all want that instant gratification. It's just the society we live in. We want a magic pill. We want like, we want like a super food powder. We want just be like, hey, help me get rid of X, Y, Z. Yeah. I'm well aware of that from the writing inside because everybody like the postwords like the one thing for this always get the most traffic like by far. And it's it's okay. It's okay. You have to know that as somebody who might be going through a health condition. It's okay to think that just because you know, you want help, but also just know that it's not that sexy. You really have to put in a lot. of time. It's a lot of small daily practices every single day, every choice that you make. So for me, answering your question, so much of it was adding meditation to my daily life, like 10 minutes, if I can, 30 minutes amazing, first thing in the morning to help myself just really ground and be here, but also allows myself to kind of create the space for any emotions or anything that I hadn't worked out that is causing stress. And I might not even realize it like on a subconscious

level, but it's contributing to it. What kind of meditation do you do? I mean, honestly, I don't think it has a, has a name. I truly just kind of sit down. I have like a little spot that I'll go into our home and just, you know, some days I like to light Palo Santo and do a whole sage routine and kind of enter into like a mantra or a prayer to the universe, I guess you could call it. it. And then really just like sets the tone, setting the intention, essentially. And then do you say anything while you're meditating? Do you work in your breath? No, I typically, I'll typically, you know, every day is so different. Like some days I might have just so much on my mind and I try not to judge that. And I just say, okay, I'm just going to let this go. I'm just going to let this come up.

I recognize it. I'm going to observe that thought, whether it's like, shoot, I forgot to do X, Y, Z or I got to send this email. Like, I'll just let that be and try not to judge myself for that as much as possible, breathe through it and just allow it to go. So I think on those days, yeah, it's just about following the breath and saying like, okay, I see that and I'm going to, I'm going to stay still. But more often than not, I just try to, I don't know, I'm a big fan of visualization. I think it also comes with like that creative side. So I really like to like visualize things, whether it's something that I'm trying to manifest or even just, you know, it sounds, just like white light or just like a good peaceful, I don't know, a good peaceful energy and that helps.

Okay. So you have meditation and eliminating gluten and dairy. Was that for migraines to make those go away specifically? I mean, I think that also played a role in it. I wouldn't say right now if that, if I were to, you know, consume dairy and gluten, for example, migraines aren't necessarily the first sign that comes to me. It's actually more like digestive-wise or skin. Like I had a lot of acne as well when I was 16.

and so, or even towards, you know, 20. Like, I just kind of dealt with it, like back knee, if you will, and all of that. So that relieved itself as well. But yeah, I think kind of going back to that, I think it was a whole lifestyle approach. It was a practice. It was like practicing meditation every day. It was practicing setting boundaries. It was practicing, when I say that, like saying no, instead of saying like yes to every

opportunity or social event or whatever it is. And then also eating well, like doing my best, making the best choices possible. sleeping, having fun, like going out, having a community, having great relationships, finding support. Like, I think it's, that's what I was chatting about earlier. But I think it's just so, so many health pillars that you really have to practice to really get that long-term benefit. So everyone's different, but that's what worked for me.

And what does a healthy diet look like for you now? It was a huge thing I grappled with when I was writing my cookbook. They were like, what does healthy mean to you? And I was like, oh, my God. And I thought about it way too much. What does it mean to you? Yeah. I mean, you can.

You can think about it way too much. Yeah. And I also just think it's because it's like information overload too, you know, with health and wellness now. Yeah, that's a great question. A healthy diet for me personally means consuming. I really gravitate towards plant-based foods. Just, I don't know, intuitively, I just, my body feels great on it. I really enjoy cooking more plant-based.

And when I say plant-based, I just mean a diet that's really rich and abundant based in plants. So that includes plant-based proteins for my lifestyle, but also includes some animal proteins too. And, yeah, actually, I just wrote an article on Nutritionstrip.com for a guide to animal proteins. Because we were getting so many questions about people, you know, trying animal proteins in their diet, what they should be aware of. And that article just was so popular with our community, which was really surprising. But I really enjoy talking about, like, making sure you know where your food is coming from. So if you do consume animal proteins, like, first of all, you shouldn't be bullied about that because I think there's such a crazy, like, not I say, I don't mean the word crazy, but I think

there's such a passionate. Passionate or, and sometimes borderline, like, aggressive in communicating with people who choose to diet a different way. And there's so much dogma around that. But anyway, I think it's so important for all of us, no matter if you. you are consuming animal-based proteins or not, no matter what, to really ask about the source. Like, where was your food grown if you can, if you can kind of trace it as much as possible? Can you support your local farmers? Can you see, like, how the farmers were treated? Like,

what about the fair labor and how are the people treated? Like, there's so many steps that go into our food system, especially with animal welfare and just animal well-being, factory farming, which is just a mess. but just being more aware of that. And I think really asking yourself where the food comes from is so important. So I think for me, how I would define a healthy diet, it involves all of that. It's really trying to get to the source as much as possible. And obviously, like, we all live really busy lives and we can't spend hours researching where our food comes from. But if you at least have that inclination and that curiosity and, you know, the conscious choice about it, I think it's really important. Well, I think you can find a few, like, you can do that research initially,

and then you can find a few sources that you're like, oh, I trust this farmer who's going to always have his eggs at the farmer's market on Sunday, or I trust this online source that I order from, or you can kind of get your places. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's great. Okay, so it's, let's get a little bit more granular. So, and especially let's think like what you think a healthy diet is, but also when you're writing your cookbook and you're, you're not working with clients. You're sort of universally recommending things. What about grains? How do those fall? and gluten-free and with gluten. Absolutely, yeah.

I think if you don't have any, there's no reason to avoid food groups. Okay. If they don't cause, I mean, again, this is my personal and also professional recommendation, but I don't believe that you should avoid food groups just because there might be some trends or you think that you have to. I think really working with somebody one-on-one, like a dietitian, to really map out, like, do you actually need to be gluten-free? Do you actually need to be dairy-free or avoiding,

you know, all of all of these things that you see, like avoiding legumes and avoiding grains. I just, they're in our diet, you know, for a reason. And I think they are really nutritious. And again, if it works for you, then make that work for you. And if not, then don't consume them. I think it's pretty straightforward. And if you can't afford to spend that one-on-one time, what do you recommend people do? Yeah, absolutely.

It's a great question. I think the biggest thing is because health and wellness is becoming so saturated. with information. And, you know, I would like to think most of it is great, but there's a lot of confusing stuff too. And even just scrolling on social media, one picture will tell you, don't eat legumes. And then the next picture shows you eat legumes. They're great. And so, of course, people are going to get confused. And I think the biggest thing for consumers of health and wellness information is really to pick a handful of reputable, reliable sources that you know you can go on no matter what, whether it's websites or health professionals that you trust,

like check out their background, like see what they're up to, like, what's their education? Like, are they a quote expert at XYZ or can they really help support you in answering those questions? So I think the biggest thing is, yeah, just finding those sources that can help. I mean, that's why I created NutritionStrip.com back in the day because I really just was like, okay, I have a mission to really make it simple to understand and apply the nutrition, the science behind nutrition, but also practice this art of healthy living. Like, how do we do that?

I try to have the voice as unbiased as possible to sharing like, hey, this is what we know, this is what we don't know. And I think that's also like the beauty with science. So always looking for resources who will be okay to change and not be dogmatic because that's like science changes all the time. And as soon as you start to identify and put yourself in a box as whether like a media outlet or health professional or even anybody, you're not doing the benefit of really going with the flow and seeing what's new, what's changing, what's evolving.

And I think that's just really important. So walk me through creating nutrition strip.com. Okay. Yeah. So earlier I chatted about moving to Nashville, right, having that first clinical position. And so that was in 2013. And I started nutrition stripped as, I mean, just a creative outlet. I was like, oh, blogging? What's that? Social media, what's that? Like, literally knew nothing about it.

Instagram didn't. Instagram? Did it exist back then? Instagram did exist because I had a friend, like for whatever reason, right? Like, living in Cincinnati, like, nobody did Instagram. At least my, like, close group of friends. Like, we weren't on social media. But when I came to Nashville, it was like a whole thing. Like, everybody was on Instagram and I had friends that were like, oh, my God, let me create you an account. So I started the Instagram for nutrition. stripped in 2013 as well, I think. With like filters and like the frames. Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty sure if I'm not that anybody has the time. If you're really curious, scroll all the way back and you'll see how my photography is evolved, which is actually really cool.

But yeah, no, that was back in the day. So I created it as a creative outlet. And I probably had 50 readers, all of whom I could name, like family, friends. and was just sharing recipes once per week and then a health or nutrition article, like something I was really excited to talk about. And was your thought that you would sort of be a registered dietitian and do this job that maybe wasn't everything you wanted, but at least you'd have this thing on the side? Absolutely. That was literally what I thought.

But I always knew, like that was kind of my, hey, I have to pay my bills. Like I have to survive. That was my mentality. But I always knew, I think, in my core, that I would always have my own thing. I just like my father's an entrepreneur. And I don't know. I think it was just I can never see to this day and never did like see myself working for anybody else just because I felt like I had so much to give and do. And I don't know.

As a registered dietitian, are you working for somebody else? No. Just really quickly how to like if you're a traditional registered dietitian, you go around to like hospitals, but are you sort of employed by them? Are you employed by yourself? for today. You mean in this moment? Like what a norm? Yeah. No for you, but just like a normal registered dietitian. Yeah. Well, I think like the quote normal opportunities for a registered dietitian absolutely. Yeah. I mean, registered dietitians are incredible because so many of them are doing everybody's doing different things. So you'll have RDs who are really into

children's nutrition or pediatrics and they might be in a clinical setting or you have ones who want to care for the elderly and long-term care, sports nutrition at physical. facilities or corporate wellness, school nutrition. Like there's so much that you can do. And then, of course, private practice. So you were doing a private practice? So when I was employed by a company, I was doing a, it was like a medical service. So again, there was a component of sales there.

And then I did corporate wellness with employee wellness at HCA. So those were, yes, I was employed by those people. Do you like go to a corporation and like hang out there for a day or something? and people would come in and tell you their health woes, then you would, like, help them? There are some corporate wellness programs that are like that, where an RD will actually be, like, on site. Right. And they'll see employees, like they'll come, like the employees will come to their office and they'll do some type of coaching. And, of course, it's part of their wellness program as a company that offers that.

But in my experience, I actually did that remote. So I was seeing physicians, nurses, all these health care practitioners remotely. So I was coaching them virtually through this company. Interesting. Yeah. And it was a really great experience for me, like in terms of learning how to manage a caseload of I was there, I think, to technically employ there two to three years, two and a half years or something. And saw, I think, over like a thousand clients or more. Like it was just really fast-paced, follow-ups really quick.

And did you go to the office ever? Is it all work from home? It was all work from home. Okay. That's cool. That's like a nice element of it at least. Yeah. I think it's a union.

unique environment working from home. I think some people can really thrive in it. And I know for me, that was going to be so easy because I'm quite introverted. I love solitude. And I think I'm really crazy productive when it comes to having that alone time and just getting into my flow without any distractions. But it's also really important to like honor the fact that you're a human being and you need to socialize as well. So carving out time to go to a coffee shop or like hang out with friends or just, you know, pack your social calendar a little bit more to to compensate for. it. But yeah, it was a really wonderful experience. Okay, so you're doing the blog on the side. And then does it just start to grow? Was there a breakthrough moment? Yeah, I think everyone who

asks me this question, I always tried to, you know, to come up with an answer that is defining, but I don't think there was one aha moment that catapulted it or anything. I think it was consistency. It was a unique voice in terms of dietetics. Like I had no, I didn't have any, um, dietitians who were blogging to look up to at that time. Honestly, it was like pulling inspiration from really random businesses or voices on the internet, whether it was like mom bloggers or fashion bloggers or something just because there wasn't a lot of nutrition and health, or at least the ones that I was looking at and looking forward to. So yeah, I just, I don't know. It was like consistency, brand voice, sharing something that I think was exciting for people. And,

And it really caught up. Like women's health, fitness magazine, every major magazine started sharing about it, sharing about our Instagram. What was the first time that happened? Oh, I can't recall. I mean, I probably have it listed on our press page. And were you pitching them or did they literally just find you? I had no idea how to pitch.

I was literally still learning how to press publish on a blog. And so, yeah, I had to teach myself. Journalists contacting you and wanting to feature you? I had an email on my website. and I just had like weekly emails come in from magazines, from editorial interns or assistants. Did you ever ask how they found you? From the website. But like how did they find the website?

I have no idea. Like social media and website. I think early on when I was writing, because like I said, I didn't know how to blog or do anything. So I really had to take it upon myself to research it. And so I did. I mean, I was like a sponge researching marketing, researching SEO, researching how to photography like everything as I had because I was starting from scratch and so I think you know those practices really helped me because somehow everyone was finding me it wasn't like I was reaching

out and because I didn't even know how to reach out yeah but I think also it was a sense of timing it was like universal timing it was having that unique voice having um my background sharing kind of an interesting philosophy I think on food at the time and nutrition and wellness and health, having this be, you know, multiple pillars of health that we were paying attention to. And I was talking a lot about that. It wasn't just food. You're listening to the Healthier Together podcast. One of the most common requests I get is for more easy, quick, weeknight dinner ideas.

So I'm about to tell you about one of my personal go-toes. I keep a box of simple mills almond flour pizza crust on hand. When I finish work for the day, I make the crust, which takes about a minute, and then add whatever toppings I have laying around. a jar of tomato sauce, some pastured cheese, any leftover veggies I want to get rid of. In 15 minutes, I have dinner on the table, and it's actually craveworthy, delicious, and super healthy. Simple Mills is sponsoring today's episode, which basically means I get to tell you about a few ways I use their products, which have been in my life for years. I first fell in love with their cake mixes. Actually, my very first post to go viral back in the early days of Instagram was a lavender

cake I made by adding dried lavender to their vanilla cake mix. It was so pretty and it was so delicious. What I've always loved about Simple Mills is they're super simple ingredientless. Unlike almost every other product where you have to squint to find the teeny tiny writing, Simple Mills displays their ingredients in a bold font and large letters, which they can do because each product contains just a few simple ingredients. Their brownie mix has just eight ingredients. Their crackers have just eight ingredients as well. That piece. pizza mix I mentioned, eight ingredients. Everything is grain-free, but they don't use any gums or emulsifiers, which is super, super

hard to find. The texture is also incredibly good. The cakes are light and fluffy, and the pancakes come out perfectly every single time. Honestly, I've stopped even working on a pancake recipe because the Simple Mills mix is so good and easy to keep on hand. I like to use it as a base and add different flavors like berries or rose water or chocolate chips. I also love their frostings. They have a chocolate and a vanilla and honestly, they're the only frostings I've ever found that meet my standards for flavor and texture and nutrition

facts. They're my go-to for my annual gingerbread cookie decorating tradition, which I always do with my sisters at Christmas. I've been doing it for like my entire life. And now I've robed Zach's little nieces into it as well. And I also use them for the rest of the year to top cupcakes or cakes. and I keep a jar in my cabinet, so I can sneak a little spoonful whenever I need something sweet. I do that with a brownie mix too. I'll just whip up a tiny bit, and I will not apologize for it.

You can find Simple Mills that retailers nationwide are on their website, www.com. And I actually have a code for Simplemills.com. You can use the code healthier together 20, 20, like the number 20, healthier together like this podcast, healthier together to zero to get 20% off whatever you order. And if you want specific product recommendations or just to chat about my favorite cookie or Cracker flavors, hit me up on Instagram at Liz Moody or message them at Simple Mills. Everyone who works there is so nice.

So I'm sure they'll get back to you right away. I cannot wait to hear what you guys think. I've been obsessed with Simple Mills for years and I can't wait for you to try them. Now let's get back to the episode. You also have, and I think that this is something that stands out about your brand really strongly, is you have such a strong sense of design and aesthetic and your brand looks cool. And I think I discovered you maybe four or five years ago and it looked really cool even back then. Were you like cool from the beginning?

Was your branding really strong from the beginning? Yeah, that's a great question. I would say no. I think I had a sense of obviously art and creative direction and brand strategy is definitely part of my wheelhouse in business, and I really love that. But I think initially, no, I did develop our first website ever, which is so funny. Like I have screenshots of what our first website look like with the second one, third, fourth, and I think we're on our fifth now. And it has evolved and it's strengthened over time, absolutely. But I don't think, no, when I first started

in nutrition stripped, I wasn't like, hey, these are our brand colors. This is our font. I did pick the name and I knew that the subtle messaging I wanted to share around nutrition stripped with white or negative space was very intentional. It wasn't a trend and, you know, Instagram that you see or or anything like that. It was, okay, I really want to make it simple. I want to get back to basics. I want to have this like almost sense of like peace and calm and take away all the stress and the overwhelm. And so having negative space or white part of the photography or part of the photography or part of of even like the website design and layout and things like that. I thought about that very intentionally.

It wasn't, yeah, just because. And when did you make the decision to leave your full-time job and do nutrition to full-time? So I would like to think there are so many ways to do this, but I took the leap personally because I needed to feel like I had a little bit of security in the bank financially before I took that leap. I grew up in like, you know, working class, family, like living paycheck to paycheck. So that was always a mindset that I had to be aware of.

And I was like, okay, I know that I need to have, let's say my goal back then was like three months of living expenses or something. And I think that's how I started the company. It was probably less than, you know, maybe two grand in my bank account, potentially that I saved up for before I said buy to literally all of the part-time jobs I was working. because that corporate wellness job technically wasn't full-time. It was about 30 to 32 hours a week. So in addition to that, I was working two other part-time jobs.

Like one was a writing job with a friend who was doing sports nutrition. I was like a ghost writer for all of his programs and his materials. And then he hooked me up with somebody else who I was like kind of doing the same thing with. So it was a lot of work. And then all the while I was building NutritionShip.com. And I took that leap because I also started. to get a lot of inquiries outside of just the media and all that buzz, but I started to get a lot of inquiries from people who were like, hey, I see that you're a dietitian. Like, I really enjoy the

content that you're sharing. Like, can you coach me? Can you coach me? And I was like, oh my gosh, this is, this is amazing. This is like a dream come true. I would love to have a private practice. This is what I'm here for. This is what I've been waiting for. You know, so I had that aha moment to be like, okay, this is what I'm here to do. This is amazing. I'm going to do it. And I really just, you know, set my goal and reverse engineered it and said, okay, if I know that if I'm going to put all my energy, instead of spreading myself so thin with working three jobs, like literally working from eyes open to eyes shut, and trying to grow this thing that's called nutrition strip, which I don't know what it is yet.

But yeah, I just had to make that call for myself and took the leap. So I literally gave myself a date that I would quit all of those and I'd have to have to have, you know, X amount of money in the bank to start the company or to start, you know, just feet on the ground. And I did. And then that was probably technically after, let's say, the first blog post on Nutrition Strip, that was probably 12 to 18 months. And did you have a business plan? Were you like, I'm going to make this amount of money through advertising on my site? I'm going to make this amount of money through coaching clients. I think at first because I primarily had my radar on private practice as being the main revenue stream.

Because at that point, like, yeah, I was aware of, like, advertisements on sites, but I had nothing. And you had no knowledge about that. I hadn't worked with any brands at that point either. So, yeah, first up was really just coaching clients. And so what I, I mean, I just got very basic about it. I was like, okay, what do I need to live off of? And then how do I, like, maybe add in a little boost for just profit and then putting

it back into the business, whether it was like having, um, you know, my first email provider, like MailChimp or something, like all those little subscriptions that you kind of need. And I started really, really basic on that front. And yeah, that's kind of, that's how that started. So when did it evolve? You work with brands and you sort of, you are a public figure now. You have your book. Do you have another book coming up or? I mean, book too might be in the works. Might. Yeah, heard it here. How did that part evolve from just doing the private practice and the coaching and all of that. Yeah. So when you're in, so now we're at timestamp,

we're about 2014-ish that I'm talking about. So I'm coaching clients full-time, like what feels like seven days a week. I'm coaching clients like back-to-back, so many. And that was great. And then I was starting to feel like, man, I don't know, first of all, how scalable this is for my own energy, but also do I want to be coaching full-time all the time and nothing else? Because I love writing I love, again, having that soliditude to myself to reflect to kind of see things in a big picture way and hack a system about it, right? And I'm also sure, like when you're coaching, you really have to be full on. Full on. Absolutely. Full on. People deserve that and they need that. And, you know, you as a healthcare practitioner, like we were talking about earlier, have to set the boundary and call yourself out if you know that you need a break. And so I was doing that for a while.

And then with the blog and also, again, continuing to learn everything I possibly could about digital businesses and online businesses, I was like, oh, I could have ads on my site. Again, just to provide a little bit of income, maybe it'll break even with the amount of food that I'm doing or having to get for recipe testing. And so I started that. And that was just like an easy thing to do. And so many sites have ads on it. So I was like, okay, it's not going to be completely detrimental for right now.

And, you know, someday we'll get rid of them and just kind of went with that. And then after that, I think the next revenue stream actually before partnerships was e-books. And it was because, okay, I sat down with myself. Again, just to sidebar, you asked me earlier if I had a business plan from the start. And no, it was more of like trial and error every step that I went. I knew that I, again, wanted. it to be scalable so that I could, you know, use my energy wisely too. And e-books were kind of the next best thing because it was an easy, digestible education resource. It was really affordable

for people if they didn't want a coaching session. And it allowed a lot of passive income. So that helped a lot. And then I would say... How did you decide what was like a good topic to write an e-book about versus... Because you can get so much information for free online. Absolutely. Yeah. I think then, though, again, like thinking back to early nutrition strip.com days, there were, there were just, there was nothing out there. There was no like, I don't know. There were no other sites that I could look up to in the world of dietetics and health and nutrition that were doing what I wanted to do. And so it was really like pulling random inspiration from other websites. So I knew, again, from learning that people with

ebooks, you know, they want easy, digestible information, but it had to be a topic that they were asking me a lot about. So whether it was like through email or through Instagram, social media, like topics that were just becoming popular or trendy within the community, again, our small community. But still, I took note and made e-books out of those. And sometimes it was inspired by client conversations. Sometimes it was purely intuition out of like, hey, I think this is really going to resonate with people.

I think I want to put this out. And so it's a blend of, of course, listening to my own gut and then also kind of getting a sense of what the community needs and then also direct feedback. And then when did the community come in? The nutrition strip, you have like sort of a paid community that people can join. Yeah, that was actually much later on. So after e-books, then were partnerships. And, yeah, brand partnerships nowadays.

Oh my gosh, what, 2019? That's only been like four years, four or five years. Everyone does brand partnerships who has even, you know, like a quote, small following. Yeah, like $10,000 on Instagram. Yeah, it's great. I mean, it's smart for brands from like a marketing perspective. It's really smart. But I think that that's a huge shift that's happened in the last five years between going from just advertising on magazines and traditional forms of media.

And now it's people have huge budgets for influence marketing. Yeah, absolutely. And that was interesting to navigate at first as well because I knew too. Like I wanted to only partner with brands who I genuinely liked. Like I was I was on that train, you know, really in the beginning. like I'm not going to just take money just to have transactional thing about having multiple sources of income like I I get most of my money still through writing so I don't need to take on weird brand partnerships just to like pay my rent every month and you have like 80 source of income

as far as I can tell and so like you don't need to be like oh I'll teach you about this weird supplement you know absolutely and also I mean like if you think about the long game which again and I had always envisioned nutrition stripped as a company to be here for the long It's not like a quick company I wanted to just put up here. But, you know, brand, branding is everything and how you associate your brand too. So it's really important. And I also want to just support brands and partners who are doing great things or, you know, products that I actually use and that I would recommend. So I think that's so, so important from day one and still is today. So that also allowed a new revenue stream to blossom. And then there were online education

programs, which I launched, and then the membership, which is what we have today, which launched last year, technically. And could you do, like, a pie chart of your income now from all of the various sources? Oh, goodness. There's, like, a rough pie. I would say most of it is in our wellness coaching, and that's been pretty standard from day one. And then wellness coaching and online programs might be kind of tagged for top two.

Online programs being the- Our online programs, we have meal planning program, our master meal planning program. And then we have a stripped reset. And then we have some e-books that are like mini-DIY programs. Okay. And then I would say in a society membership, partnerships, I'm kind of like going through this pie chart in my head. But I would say the majority of it is our wellness coaching.

online programs. And that's, that's good for me as a company owner. That's, that's kind of where I want our energy to be, number one, but also our output to be. Like, I want to help people the most in wellness coaching and through education. And both of those income sources really reflect that it is doing that. Do you know what I mean? Because partnerships, like, yeah, those are, those can be really lucrative. But like, are they, how many people are they really impacting? And so, yeah, I'd like to think that our energy is put well on. those others. And how big is your team now? We have, so two people in Nashville now, full-time, and then we have about everyone's remote. So we are truly a digital company. Like, we have a

small office here in Nashville just to get away from home. But we have about six people. And are they full-time remote or part-time remote? Or are they project-based? Retainer-based. So mostly like hours per week or per month, depending on the role. So we have like a program manager who really helps support me with all of the programs. And this is just right now. Editorial. So we have a girl named Rachel who does editorial per month. And that's something that I'm looking to grow significantly over the next couple of years. And then Erica is our wellness coach out of Boston. We're definitely going to add to the team with that. Yeah. And then just like folks to help with website marketing and, you know, all that fun stuff. What's some advice? Like I feel like you,

You've attributed a lot to timing and stuff like that. But what's some concrete advice that if somebody wanted to start a business like yours right now, you would give somebody? This is a great question. I think the biggest thing is sitting with yourself, number one, on a personal level, and asking yourself why you want to have a business. Like straight up, it's a simple question when you hear it. but I think it's far more difficult to answer. Having a business is really difficult. There's so much

sacrifice and commitment and roller coaster rides that you have to go on and it's never like rainbows and unicorns that you might see on a highlight real social media. It's incredibly difficult. I also love that and thrive off of it. I think it's just because I don't know. I just, I'm resilient in that way and I think I can handle that. But it is very hard. So I would ask yourself, like why? Like, why is it that you want to do that? Is it? And it could be like, you know, as simple as like, hey, I just want to be my own boss. I want to have the flexible hours and all that stuff. But really make a list of all of those things because I think the next question is asking yourself how you're going to be solving a problem. Like, how are you helping others? I find too, like because

businesses in this like digital age feel like they're so easy to just like have online, we're really forgetting about the purpose behind it. Like, what's the intent and then purpose? And I think if you're starting a business, like, are you impacting the community or people or whatever it is, like your cause in a positive way? And I think that is the only thing that will really make it longstanding. Because if you get into a business, because you want to be like an influencer or, I don't know, like find fame or have it be personally attached to you, I think that. that's like a short play. So again, it's just my perspective, but I think like you really have to get nitty gritty about why you're creating a company and how are you helping people and really,

really try to make it about making the world a better place, even if it's small. And if you wanted to start a business and you're doing it right now and you have your why and all of that, where would you recommend people start? Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is getting really descriptive about your strengths and your weaknesses. So I'm a big fan of like journaling this all out. So like, hey, what are you good at? Like, what are you legitimately good at? Are you super organized? Do you love to write? Are you great with photography? Are you good with branding? Copy, all that stuff. Like, write it all down. And then also on the same piece of paper, write down what you're not great at and try to find at first because I think a lot of people, you know, like myself, didn't have any money.

Like it was literally they were just starting it from scratch. Like, call out. your friends, your family, like try to swap services with somebody, get in your community, go to like local entrepreneurial centers or workplace, like co-working spaces, like just get out there and ask for help for those things that are in your weaknesses column. And that can really help just like, again, help you frame up like what you're going to be doing actually from the day to day. If you're really organized or strategic that I say, yeah, go ahead and start a business plan. I think so much of it, though, is just trial and error. with any new business that you really just have to, you have to just start somewhere.

You can't focus on the perfection of it. You just have to kind of leap in and start. What do you think about all of there? There's so many of those like online things that are like you spend $300 to learn how to do Pinterest or you spend $300 to learn how to grow your email list. Do you think that kind of stuff is worth it to grow? I think, yeah, that's a great question. I think those resources can be great tools.

maybe at some point in somebody's journey. But I think a lot of it too. I mean, man, I just think back to the day, you know, 2013, 2014, I was getting all this information and learning so much of this online for free. Again, because I was being as resourceful and like budget friendly as possible that I learned so much for free. But also, it was so much of that putting it in. You just have to practice it. You just have to try it and see what works. Take the data, pivot, try it again. It's a lot of A, B, CD testing. And like being willing to waste your time. You have to be patient. That's what I'm saying. It's like it's such a long road. Like there's a lot of challenge. It's not just like plugging in a puzzle piece and you're good to go. There's so much behind

the scenes that creates one success or one, you know, quote success. So you don't think if you're like sitting there and you're like, oh, I have a great idea. You don't think that you need to necessarily like shell out a bunch of money to learn the different things. No, I don't think so. That's just from my personal perspective, though. So you did an Instagram post recently that I love that was about how you, how your schedule looks now and how you don't force yourself essentially to work an eight hour day every day just because that was what I don't, I don't even know where the eight hour work day came. I mean, probably from farmers back in the day. But like, I do think it's interesting that we're all just like, oh yeah, eight hours a day, five days a week. That's what we do. And nobody's like, why do we do that that way?

So can you walk me through a little bit the process of realizing you could change your schedule? You also have a great email response. It's like a canned email response. It's like I'm not going to be checking emails on these days. So I want to know what your schedule looks like and how you came to having it look like that. Yeah. This goes back to the whole trial and error thing, right? So I've definitely had, I have experienced burnout several times while having nutrition stripped as the company.

and my role in it. And I think a lot of it stem from just quite literally working like just wild hours, 12 hours a day or more like every day, just grinding. And it wasn't that I was excited or glorifying that whole concept of like hustle, like go get it, grind. Like that's just not my thing. I was just doing it because I, first of all, when you, I think when you're fueled by passion, it's really easy to like put on a lot of your.

your energy, but also when I started it, it was just like me. So I, you know, I sacrificed a lot with just like social, with relationships. Like I was putting all my energy into building the company and putting a lot of hours in. And so it was like the combination of just looking back at all of these things I did to create nutrition strip to where it is, quote, today. But also in honoring the fact that like I'm 31, my life is so beautifully different. I wouldn't change it to be. You know, any different. But it's so different than when I started the company at like 25. Like I'm married, I have, you know, a beautiful relationship that means the world to me. And there's so much more to life that's like life giving to me outside of work. And so honestly, so much of like my

overworking in the beginning was just because I was like, I love nutrition stripped. And it was kind of the only thing that was making me happy and feeling really productive and focused and like life. There was a lot of stuff there. But anyway, to answer your question more simply, I think it's smart to stay organized and like batch tasks. So me shortening my hours of day doesn't necessarily mean that I'm like getting less done. I think actually it's helping me be far more productive and focused because, number one, I feel like, okay, I have this allotted time to get XYZ done.

And I try to prioritize at the end of every single week the week after. And I'll try to list out, like, what are my top three, five things that are going to move us forward to our monthly goal, to our quarterly goal? Like, where are we at? Like, I'm always on track of like what we're doing. What, where's our strategy? Like, all of that. So I think every single week, reverse engineering that and breaking that down is really, really helpful. And are those goals financial?

Or are they what would like an example of some goals? I mean, all kinds. It could be, it could be metrics, finances. it could be impact social media growth, anything like that. For me, like, for example, like project, like, hey, I want this product to launch in September, then this is when I need to start working on it. So then it's easier for me to look at, okay, if I know that I'm going to launch it on this day, then I need to know every single week I have to accomplish XYZ.

So for me, that's really helpful. And then on top of that, breaking down those three to five things that are really high priority for the whole week, and then looking at every day that week and trying to batch those similar tasks. So for example, like I do all of our photography and editing and most of the design work. So there might be a day a week that I just just do that. Like I'm in that frame of mind. I'm in that flow. I don't touch emails.

I barely am on social media after like posting and maybe hopping on to comment or something for a bit. But I try to just like stay in that zone as much as possible. Maybe the next day I'm doing only writing. and I'm trying to write like four articles or whatever it is that's copy or marketing. So that is so helpful. Like so many people are asking me like, do you have a huge team or, you know, like, how do you do all of this? And I swear like that is the biggest thing because I still do a lot in terms of wearing a lot of hats. I think it's an amazing thing that we all can do.

Like regardless of, you know, having your own company or not batch tasking is so great. And so also on that note, too, like, I think I just thrive better on having an hour set to where I can kind of turn off. And again, like life has changed. If you would have asked me this question like two years ago or maybe even four years ago, it would have been completely different. So what is your day? Look, I know you're big on morning routines. Just like walk me through your day from when you wake up. So typically I'll wake up around six, like five.

or six, depending on this. Good for you. No, I've always been a morning person, always. So wake up then. I'll typically for like maybe 30, 40 minutes. Like I have coffee, drink a lot of water, play with Luna, who's our dog. Who is the cutest dog? Who is an angel.

She's like my therapy dog. She's like big and white and fluffy, and I just want to like squeeze her. Yeah, she's truly an angel. And, you know, I'll kind of just like cuddle with her. I'll do some like light stretching, just like waking up my body. And then I typically go to bar class, bar three class, which I absolutely adore. I've been going to that studio for years. And then I'll come home.

Sometimes to you when I'm reading coffee, I'll just like catch up on news, just like read some news stories or maybe some like new journals or something reading just for a little bit. And then go work out, come home. I'll typically have dinner or dinner. Breakfast maybe. I'll typically have breakfast. Yep. Getting excited. Typically have breakfast.

I do wake up thinking about all of the food I'm going to eat all day. That's like I wake up and I'm like, oh, I can get out of head because then I can eat this for breakfast, this for lunch, and this for dinner. Yeah. No, I typically make like a really quick breakfast smoothie because I'll take it on the go and then we'll walk to the office or if I'm working from home that day. I'll just chill and have that. But no, the morning routine.

Like getting my mind, my body, my spirit awake for the day is really, really important to me. So having that alone time to myself, but also the time to just, like I said, just be like open to what the day has to bring. And like be far less reactive to things that will inevitably come up because that is literally the nature of owning your own company or even just dealing with day to day stressors no matter who you are or what you do. Do you do your meditation in the morning? I do it in the morning. yes, after I come home and shower, after I shower, typically I'll do that. Yeah, I left that piece out. And I'll do that for, depending on the day, if I can get five minutes, awesome.

And sometimes I'll do like 20 minutes. It just depends on how I'm feeling that day and just allowing myself to be there. I love that because I feel I do 20 minutes. And sometimes I feel like if I don't have time for the 20 minutes, I like, it's like, oh, it's not worth doing. And I think giving myself the permission to do like five or 10 would be I do it so much more often. in my early 20s, I was doing meditation sessions for like easy 45 to 60 minutes. And I look back at that and I'm like, what was I doing? But also I was just like a student. So I didn't, it was a little different lifestyle. But I had that same mindset too because I took a break from meditation because I was putting a lot of pressure on myself

to sit in a certain spot or to have a certain routine and to have a certain time frame. And I was like, this is the polar opposite of what meditation is. And so, you know, know, even if you can't sit down to just a tip, because this is what really helped me kind of get back into a little routine and put the pressure off myself, was finding the little moments in your day, walking meditation, like being really, really fully present when you're washing the dishes, which sounds silly. But like those small moments that we can have that are just bringing a lot of present momentness can really just be very grounding and can kind of like subtle thoughts. You're listening to the Healthier Together podcast. I want to take a brief break from this episode to

talk about a special partnership I'm doing with a company that I am obsessed with, natural cycles. If you didn't hear on my earlier episode, I'm sharing a mini diary entry on each podcast about using the app is a non-hormonal way to prevent pregnancy. It has an efficacy of 93% with typical use and 98% with perfect use. Setting up the app was way easier than I expected. You just give your name and a few other details, including how long you've been on hormonal birth control. For me, it was over 15 years. A big part of how the app works is that you take your body's basal temperature every morning, first thing when you wake up before you grab your phone or get out of bed to go pee or any of that. It was a bit nervous about all of that because I tend to be very groggy in the morning and I realize

you actually don't need to record your temperature in the app when you take it. You can kind of grab for the thermometer, take your temp, then roll back over and cuddle your partner and your cat, if you're me, and then you record everything in your actual phone later. You do need to have a daily routine to use the app. They recommend measuring five times a week for best results, so you should wake up at roughly the same time on all five of those days. I also love that the app lets you record other salient details. I'm interested in not only avoiding pregnancy, but also getting to know my body's hormonal cycles better. You put in whether you're spotting on your period or any notes, which I absolutely love. I've been using my notes to mark my energy levels, my mood for the day, and anything else notable, so I can begin to see patterns at different times the month. You can look backward and forward on the calendar really easily, so you can go in and be like,

oh, I was also craving chocolate on this day of my cycle last month, or, oh, my sex drive was really high at this point in my cycle before. So there's tons of really, really cool info there. Because I'm doing this diary entry style, I can answer all of your questions about using natural cycles. So definitely hit me up on Instagram at Liz Moody and I'll give you my feedback on the next episode of the podcast. And in the meantime, definitely check out natural cycles.com for more information. They have a ton on there to explore. All right. Now let's get back to the episode. Because then you go to the office, you do your batch for the day. If you're doing like, I don't know,

a non-email thing all day, do you get nervous that stuff is happening that you should be addressing? Because I think that's the fear when any of us stay off social media or stay off email is that we're missing something. Yeah, like, FOMO. Yeah. Yeah. Either for good or for like your business, you're growing business. Like is there a opportunity you need to apply to immediately? Or, you know, I email you sometimes for quotes for stories.

And I'm like, I need this by this time, you know? So how do you deal with that? Yeah, it's a good question. I feel like I meet most of your deadlines too. Oh, you do. You do. So and the reason I, and. And how I do that is even if I'm not engaging in email, like there might be a, you know, a minute of the day where I just do a quick glance.

Is there anything truly important and urgent that I have to take care of, then I'm on it? I would say 99% of the time things might be important, but they're not important and urgent. Or they might just be urgent. And if they're not important and urgent, those urgencies can now, I'm great. to have actually my husband working for me or working for the company, I should say. And as my right hand, so filtering those to somebody who can support you. But even if you don't have anybody else supporting you, just really, again, prioritizing that urgency. Like, is this truly something that I, number one, need to engage in? Is this a yes or is this a no? I think so much of it, too, is like,

the whole FOMO concept, too, is like, oh, there are opportunities all the time. And there are so many like bright, shiny things. But if you just take a step back and create some more boundaries with it, I think it actually helps you tremendously to keep in mind like your North Star and your vision and what really is important and what opportunities are really resonating with you and that you need to say yes to or that you need to say no to. And so sometimes coming back into, for example, the inbox with fresh eyes on that allows you to just tackle it with just more mindfulness and and purpose, I think. And again, this is just my personal perspective, and it's worked really well for me.

And I've also taken that stance on social media because especially when, you know, like so many people spend hours on social media per day. And I was finding myself even a couple years ago last year a little bit, just on social media for like an hour or two a day. And I was like, this is so much time. For your business? work slash slash nothing. Yeah.

Yeah. For work slash like I'm scrolling and I'm not really, I'm not contributing and I'm not getting anything from this. And so I just had like a sit down moment with myself. Like this is, this is a waste of time. I'm not contributing to anybody else's conversation, nor am I feeling lit up or like fed by this, like nourished by this. And so for right now, what I typically do will, you know, like if I'm going to go on social media or if I like post something, I'm going to hang around and be intentional about, you know, first of all, like, commenting back, like everyone who's taking a few seconds to comment to me. Like, that's the least I can do. That's so incredible. But I also just try to be as intentional about it. So like if I'm going to be on

social media or Instagram, for example, commenting, then I'm going to be on there intentionally engaging in it. And outside of that, I just have to put it down because I'm just finding, and I have found it wastes my creativity. It, like, kind of, drains my own unique creativity because you're picking up on everybody else's stuff. And I think, yeah, it's just we kind of live in that, this world of so much information. And it can get really overwhelming. So I agree with that like a thousand percent. But then I have this little niggly voice in the back of my mind that's like, oh, but the way you grow your social media is by engaging with other accounts. And I mean, I think the whole way growing on social media is very confusing and

hard these days, but I think that's one of the things people tell you to do. So how do you deal with that? And what has grown your social media? You have, I think, almost 400,000 followers now. Yeah, I think you will always have people tell you that you need to do X, Y, Z. And honestly, I think what I do right now is that I don't care about the growth. I mean, just to put it bluntly. Like, if I'm going to be on, that's not necessarily a goal that I have right now, which sounds detrimental. You have so many. I mean, I think after you cross a certain. threshold, you're going to get all the brand opportunities. You're going to have the audience that, you know, somebody who's starting a business and has maybe five or 10 or 20,000 followers needs

to even get to that threshold, you know? Yeah, I absolutely hear where you're coming from. Even at, you know, again, we have around three, I think, 340K or something on Instagram, for example. Even in that world, though, it's never enough. Enough is never enough, right? You will work with everybody or you'll work with publishers. You'll work with, you know, media consultants or whoever, and it's never enough. So I think at that point, I've just had to be like, you know what, this is enough for us right now. It's not necessarily a primary goal.

So I'm going to kind of just engage when I genuinely want to engage with it. And also, I think I just needed to click a reset button for my own, like, mental health and well-being and how I wanted to engage with the community. So for me, that's kind of where I'm at right now. But also on that note, kind of answering your question about, like, people who do want to build it and who also want to. kind of be mindful of their time on it is just to maybe dedicate those blocks of time. So just like you, like I was sharing about batching, you know, if your intention is to grow your social media to

support your business and your marketing efforts and get more people to your to your stuff and to your work, that's awesome. So maybe just in that same light, like you're batch tasking all of your other items, like maybe writing or photo or social media planning or something to each day say, okay, for 30 minutes at this time, because I know that's when my audience is on, I'm going to be on. I'm going to be commenting to them. I'm going to be engaging with them. And then maybe later on when there's another peak of our community engagement, I'm going to hop on and chat with them and XYZ. So I think you can kind of reverse engineer it, if you will. But it also takes, like, a lot of dedication to do that because it's so easy to do the mindless scrolling. So I think that's

kind of a more strategic way that you could do it if your intention is to build it to. And then what was your other question on the tail end of that? Just if you saw anything that contributed to your social media growth, there's anything you did that really helped with that? I think the biggest thing was consistency. So consistency on branding visually, but also timing. Like when are you posting? Post when your community is there. Like look at stats and look at your analytics, like see when they hang out and then post when they are hanging out. My analytics are so annoying because it's literally like a straight line. It's like Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday. Like other than three in the morning where nobody's on, there's no different. Like, yeah, I can't tell any sort of difference between when people are. But sometimes I'll post in the morning and it'll get way less engagement than, so I cannot figure it out for the life. Also, like the algorithm changes have just been so all over the place over the past several years. But one thing, too, that, like, we have a huge demographic. Like, yeah, a lot of it is in U.S., but for us, too, like, London and Australia is huge for a nutrition strip community. And so sometimes I'll just play around with posting at different times that might be convenient for maybe, like, after somebody who's coming home from work in London for dinner or after, like, it might hit them. So it just depends.

That's been a huge thing for me is, like, not just looking at the numbers and see the numbers, but actually thinking about, like, the real life. scenario of when would somebody want to see this content? Yeah, like when would you hop on to scroll and to catch up, right? So I think, you know, like typically in the morning works pretty well for nutrition-stripped community because it's like early enough where people are kind of just waking up and might hit up their phone first thing in the morning or it might hit people who are later in the afternoon in other countries or something. So that typically has worked well for us, but everyone is so different. So you have to pay attention to your unique audience, your demographic, like, where do they live? What are their lifestyles like? Are you talking

to a bunch of college students? It's going to be so different if you're talking to a bunch of new moms or someone who is working nine to five or, you know what I mean? So you do have to kind place yourself in their shoes and see when they would be engaging. So going back to that, yeah, branding the consistency with time, consistency with time, excuse me, also with like how you're showing up for them too. Like, what are you doing? on social media. Like, what are you sharing? Is it just like, hey, like I'm popping in just to give you, you know, like a personal

filler post just to say what's up or something? Or is it that they're consistently looking towards your account for healthy recipes or like easy meal prep hacks or something, right? So I think just being consistent with your information as cute. What do you see your account as? I see our account as nutrition education first and foremost. So whether it is like uncovering an article that we wrote that's new on nutrition ship.com about a diet, about a trend. Also just straight up nutrition facts about certain types of foods or food groups, things like that people really enjoy and love to learn.

And then also on the health side of things or even like the mental health or the art of healthy living. So talking about stress, I pool a lot of what I talk about on social media from our website because I'm writing a lot of those articles. And that's like our first and foremost place of content. And so really it's just translating that into a more, I think, just a conversational tone. And that's pretty much what I share on nutrition strip. And then also recipes, of course. And you also pop in with sort of personal life stuff a little bit. How do you decide how much of your personal self to share?

Yeah. I do a little bit. And I think a combination of being a natural introvert. And also I've just never, I don't like to be the center of detention. I never set out to be like, like you said public figure earlier. And I almost like went like, oh my God. Like it's like I laugh because I'm like, it's just not my, that's not my thing. I don't see myself as that.

And it's not that I don't want to be a guide or a teacher or to be seen by the community. But I find that what I'm here to do or what I'm here to teach is like just so much bigger than myself. but I think adding in personal stuff when I do, it's just by intuition. It's just like random. There's no strategy behind it. It's literally when I just feel like I want to share something that I think would have either a positive impact or it would resonate with somebody or it might help shine a light on like a system or a, I don't know, something that I hacked or just like a tip.

And I think that that has always just been really well received. And, you know, like, I think there are so many amazing people out there who are incredibly open with their lifestyles. And I just knew from the get-go that would never be how I would want to share my life. I'm still pretty private to a degree. And, you know, I'm vulnerable with boundaries, I would like to say. What's something fun that people want to know about you? Oh, my gosh. I don't know.

I don't know. Like, what something, is there something that you and your husband love to do? do that you wouldn't, you know, have put out on social media yet. Are you, do you have like a secret weird hobby? Do you like reading erotica? No, although we do have some books at home. No, I don't know what I would. I mean, one thing that might be interesting or maybe fun, again, like we were talking about

astrology earlier, so I'm like a big fan of astrology. give me any personality test or human design or enneagram, all of that. Yeah, what's your enneagram? Are you well-versed in it? Could you guess mine? No, I'm not that well-versed. All right. Did you have you taken yours yet?

Yeah, I think I'm a three. Three? Ooh. Okay. I was going to guess that. I was going to guess you for a three or an eight. Also, these are just like fun. I feel like you can take them with a grain of salt.

I'm a one. What does that mean? It's the achiever or the, No, the achiever is number three. Number one is the reformer. What does that mean? Really detail-oriented, borderline perfectionist, which I could see some, again, grain of salt. I think I can see myself in that one.

And then I also have like a, it's called a wing, I think. Yeah. You get an eight wing. What is it? A nine as a peacemaker. So yeah, I can see, I can pool some things for sure that resonate with me. Do you know your pros and cons? Uh-uh.

I don't know that one. Oh, man, you have to do it. I know, I don't know that one that psychologists use. Oh, yeah, I don't. So I'm a... I've probably taken that like three times, but I have no idea when I am. It's one you're like ENFP or I NFP or I'm something like that. Okay, we'll have to figure that out for you.

And then you're a cancer? My cancer. And do you know you're rising in your moon? I always get them confused. I do too. Virgo and Libra are in there. Okay. I can't remember which one's which.

My, um, rising. So I'm a Leo, but my rising's a Capricorn, which always makes me so sad because I feel like I think of myself as like this like fun party Leo and then apparently I'm perceived as the world as like a kind of anal retentive bitch. Oh my God. I don't pick that up on you at all. But like I do say that like my friends who are in astrology is always like the Capricorn is like why you have gotten so much done in your life and you're not just like frolicking around being

needing attention constantly to fuel your day. But I it's just funny. I think the rising and the sun is funny because it's like how you see yourself versus how other people. I love that. Yeah. Okay. I'll have to figure that out. Yeah.

And we have to figure out your Myers-Briggs too. Yeah. Yeah. Did you take human design yet? No. Do you know what is your human design? I'm a projector like through and through totally. What does that mean?

It's like the guides and the t-shirts of the world and insanely intuitive. Yeah. Just I think that. Are you like a, can you pick up on people's like feel? Absolutely. Like one-on-one and also reading an entire room. And I just thought that was everybody's ability to do that. And I think that's just like a unique thing that I can do. But yeah, absolutely. I can read energy in a room and a heartbeat. Yeah. I find I read energy really well too, not in like a woo-away, but just like if my husband is mad or annoyed about something, like I always know it even before he knows it. And then I annoy him because I'm like something is clearly wrong. Like what's wrong? And he's like, can't I just feel shitty in peace? you know, and I think it's a blessing and a curse for sure. Okay, so I have a few questions that I ask everybody. What do you think in the name of being healthier,

is the best way to spend 20 minutes every day? Oh, I would say meditation. Yeah, and even if meditation seems abstract or doesn't resonate with people, even just spending 20 minutes alone in reflection, so maybe that's journaling or doing some deep breathing exercises or something. but I think it's so important that we just kind of shut out the world for a little bit and just pay attention to ourselves and have that like little bit of a quiet time, self-reflection, self-awareness, I think is so important to our health.

What's a purchase that you've made that's made you healthier or happier? Recently. Just don't say your Vitamix. Everybody says their vitamins. Oh, really? No, I've had a vitamin X for 12 years. Which I do love. Yeah, I love my vitamins, too, but I'm just like, let's shake it up.

Yeah, no, I'm a really big fan of air filters, water filters, making sure that your home is healthy. You know, we spend so much time indoors and air quality is so important. So I would say, yeah, an air filter. Are there brands you recommend? I really love Intellipure for air filters. And then I recently was sent a water filter by Aquatru. and it's like a reverse osmosis countertop model, and that has been pretty incredible.

Obviously, pros and cons to that. What's your take on that? We're going to share, we have like an in-depth article that I've been writing about this. Do you add mineral back in? I mean, that's the con, right? Because it takes out everything. But I think my general stance on it for right now,

while I'm in the middle of researching that and reading it, is like if you're eating a diet that is rich in whole foods, you're getting enough vitamins, minerals. You most likely won't have to supplement the water with it. But don't hold me to that just yet. The negative stuff I read about it is that it literally can like leach stuff from your body because it's so devoid of those things. You haven't? I haven't seen that just yet.

Yeah. I will read your full take on it when you put it. Because it's something I've been very curious about for a long time. It's interesting. Yeah. We were, we just been trying it for a couple of weeks. Just visually, it's really interesting too just to see the water difference and the taste is. So different.

Sure. Yeah. So different. So anyway, yeah, I'll come back on that with a full health report. Okay. But definitely air filter. Yeah, for sure. I love my air filter or my air purifier like 100%.

I also use it as white noise a night when I'm sleeping, which I love to. Is there a place in the world that you've been where you've been like these people really got it right in terms of living a good life? And if so, where was it? Not yet. I also haven't traveled tremendously. So I wouldn't say that I've encountered that. yet. Okay. No. What does success look like to you or mean to you? I think it means living, living on a path that you're truly happy and healthy and contributing. So really, you being on your path for your life's

purpose, which can sound really abstract and, you know, out there. But yeah, I think that's my definition of success. And do you think, does your trial and error philosophy extend to finding your life's purpose as well? Or is there any advice you would give people who felt really lost when finding their life's purpose? Yeah, I mean, I don't think I have it all figured out, you guys. So I think what helps me, though, is those quiet moments where I can just like have some reflection and sit and also, yeah, a ton of trial and error. What is one big mistake you've made and what's one thing you really got right? I think I've made so many mistakes. Life, is full of mistakes, right? And failures to get some successes. I don't know if I could call out

one big mistake. Maybe because we've talked so much about growing your business. Was there like a mistake you could highlight in growing your business? Absolutely. Yeah. I think the biggest mistake that I have made in the past with business is not listening to my own internal compass and guidance. I think for me, when I was in a phase where I was hiring people left and right to do X, Y, Z, I really just gave over the reins to a lot of people. And they were telling me like, oh, you need to do X, Y, Z to get successful. And I think at the end of the day, obviously, like, none of those people are still with me. But I think at the end of the day, it really came down to I wasn't voicing what I knew was good and authentic and right for us at that time. It's very, you know, abstract, but I think that is probably what it was.

And something you got, right? With life in general. Yeah, with anything. What's something you feel like you really nailed that? I mean, I think I really nailed calling my husband into my life. Yeah, our relationship. I think I really nailed that one. Wait, so you called him in?

As in, I mean, I would like to think it was like a part manifestation. Yeah. How do you manifest a husband? Actually, this is pretty crazy. Can I talk about this? This is completely a sidebar. Again, so I still have this piece of paper. I had been through so many just like kind of terrible relationships in my life. And I was in a really good spot with myself. I was like feeling it. Just like so happy, healthy. Like I did not want a relationship. I was just really good being by myself, right? Isn't that like when everyone says it happens? And, you know,

I was just, I wrote down on a piece of paper one night, again, because I like journaling. Obviously, we've been talking about this and meditation and all of that. And I wrote down all of these qualities that I wanted in a partner and a life partner. And I didn't want, like, I only wanted this person to come into my life when the time was right, when I could see him for that, for the partner that he was or when I was ready. And so I made this list. And I'm talking, this is crazy, but I'm talking to a T. Jesse was the man on that list. Like, I wrote down, first of all, like, visual stuff.

I was like tall, don't care. Yeah. Like, well, I'm sure. So everybody feels tall to me. But yeah. I have like 5-8. It's tallish. Dark hair.

Dark hair, tall. Like, I even put the word like Dutch because like Dutch guys are really tall. And I don't know. Like I was into that for a hot minute. Wait, is he Dutch? Mm-hmm. Hold on. And then I also put like, has, has like a spiritual openness about him because I'm like a very spiritual person. It's definitely in my veins and is of conversation of he and I all the time. Very communicative, honest, loyal. I mean, like really just solid qualities that I know that number one I deserved. Number one, I needed. I wanted. And someone, you know, who would show up for me, who would be a rock. Like, I mean, it was just a really beautiful list. And I was like, okay, universe. Like, show me. show me what you got because this is a hard one to pull out. So, you know, months went by.

I think after I wrote this list, I tucked it away in my journal. I maybe like visited it every once in a while. I dated a couple guys like went on dates. And I was like, okay, like I'm just, I'm okay. Like just being by myself, I'm good. And then one day I had a friend who text me and he was like, hey, I want to set you up with this guy. And literally right when he texted him, me, I was coming from like a therapy appointment because I was going through some stuff that I was still working out. And it was just a really beautiful like universal timing because he was like, hey, do you want to go see this guy? Like, what do you think about a blind date? And I was like, yeah, totally. Like, I'll say yes to it. Why not? And so anyway, we met and on a blind date.

And it was like within, it was really wild within the first. And again, it sounds so cliche because when you know, you know. But like within the first night, I literally left calling my best friend and was like, I am terrified because I just met, I just met like the one. I just met him. And I'm not, I don't want this. I'm not ready for it. And it happened in the same light for him too. And I mean, yeah, literally date two, date three. I was like, you know, I'm ready. I'm like, let's, let's do that. And he's, I assume tall, dark hair. Yes. Yes. All of those things. Amazing, loyal, sweet, supportive. of just an incredible human being. And I feel so lucky and grateful.

But that I did right. I think I did that right. Do you believe in manifestation generally? What are your thoughts on? I know you said you big on visualization and stuff like that. But like how does that play into your sort of hardline business sense and all of that? Yeah. I think there's a I would like to think I try to marry that because I am very analytical and like

detail oriented, goal oriented, all of that. But I think there has to be a good balance for me to make things happen and having that little bit of like that spiritual freedom and that side to where I can play around with things like journaling or manifesting and all that. I think there is some, I don't know, I think everybody uses tools differently. So for me, it works. It works because it's a visual thing. It also allows me to call out what I want, what I need to define it and also to kind of make

sure that I'm doing the work in myself to, like, my internal work, that I'm doing that to really bring those things into my life, right? Because you're not going to get it sitting on a couch journaling. You have to go out there and you have to do things. You have to take care of yourself or work through maybe internal emotional barriers or things like that. And I think it's a combination of all of those things that I think it works in a way. Well, and I think it's a process of clarification hugely. Like when you, after you wrote the list of the things you wanted and a husband. And then you go out on these other dates and they don't meet a lot of the things on the list. It can be like, oh, well, why am I wasting my time on this? This isn't what I want

my life partner to look like. And I think it can do that for business stuff too. You know, it just, it kind of helps you get clear on what you want. So you stop wasting your time and what you don't want, which would bring you closer to whatever your goal is. Absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah, call it manifestation, call it like, you know, goal setting or writing a vision down or something. I think everyone has a different label for it, but cool. Well, thank you so much, Macal. Thank you so much for having me. Such a great conversation. So much good information, right? I just think she's such a wealth of knowledge and she's so clearly living her best life and very much embodies my all-have-what-she's having philosophy and the type of guests I love to have on this podcast. So if you love this episode,

please make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss future episodes. And if you could, leave a rating or a you on iTunes or wherever you listen. It really helps other people find the podcast. And of course, tag me and Mikal in any thoughts you have on the episode or anything that really resonated with you. We would both love to hear. She's at Nutrition Stripped. I'm at Liz Moody.

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