The School of Greatness - 323 Get Fit and Become an Entrepreneur at 40 with Natalie Jill

Episode Date: May 2, 2016

"Excuses or solutions - you decide." - Natalie Jill If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/323

This is episode number 32 time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to this special episode of the School of Greatness podcast with a dear friend of mine, Natalie Jill. Now for those who don't know who Natalie is, she's a licensed master sports nutritionist and functional fitness trainer. And she has leveraged the power of the Internet to be able to help hundreds of thousands of people worldwide get in shape and be their best selves. She left a very successful career in corporate America to follow her passion with health and fitness and also overcome some of her own health issues that she had while working in corporate America. And in the process, she has created a globally recognized brand with a couple million social media followers worldwide and created an online business that's generated over seven figures

in revenue. And she's just crushing it in the social media world. She's everywhere. And some of the things we cover in today's interview are what the key is to sustaining a fitness and diet plan when there's so much noise out there. Also, how you can be emotionally fit on a daily basis and how this affects your physical fitness. Why it's so important to listen to what your clients are asking for. The psychology of adding things into your diet versus removing things into your diet. of adding things into your diet versus removing things into your diet.

Also why Natalie Jill gives 95% of her content away for free and so much more. So we're talking about the health side of things here, business side of things, transitioning from corporate America to building your own online brand and online business. All that intertwined in this interview. I hope you guys enjoy this one. Natalie also has a new book out that I have that is awesome. It's called Natalie Jill's 7-Day Jumpstart, all about how to unprocess your diet with super easy recipes. Make sure to order it also. We'll have the link up at lewishouse.com slash 323, lewishouse.com slash 323.

Or you can just go right to Amazon and grab a copy as well there. So without further ado, let me introduce you to the one, the only, Natalie Jill. I really wasn't. I was in corporate America doing the grind. Sales, that was my thing and what I was passionate about. But I always loved fitness and nutrition. That was my thing and what I was passionate about, but I always loved fitness and nutrition. That was my, my hobby. And it wasn't until I hit my own personal rock bottom. And I say that because it was my personal rock bottom because I was that self-righteous person who had the successful job. I had the house with a picket fence. I was, I had what

looked like this perfect marriage and family. And I was at a point where everything was about to start crumbling down. So I looked on the outside like I had this perfect life. And this is right when the stock market crashed, the housing market crashed. I was getting a divorce. I had to take a voluntary job demotion because I was going to be a single mom. There was so much happening in my life that I was this person who was self-righteous about everything I had and now it was going away. Oh. It was going away. So-

When was this? What year? Gosh, this was, my daughter was, this is probably eight years ago. Okay. Eight years ago, right before my daughter was born. And it was- You were living in San Diego then? I was living in San Diego. I was going through a divorce and I remember so clearly walking with my dogs

thinking anyone that saw me right now would think I have this perfect life but I don't even know how I'm going to pay my mortgage this month. I don't even know how I'm going to put gas in my car. It was that bad. So I had this big paycheck but I had no money

because I was so behind on mortgage and everything else happening. Cars or whatever. Everything. I was just- You're overextending your money. So overextended. Gotcha.

And it wasn't just because I was being lazy and overextending. A lot of factors happened. I mean, it was the timing. A lot of people in that time lost money in the stock market and their house and just the financial hardship of going through a divorce, a bunch of things. But what happened was I was depressed, obviously, from going through that, and I had gained a lot of weight. And I was somebody who had never been overweight, and here I had gained a lot of weight. I was a new mom.

I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't taking care of myself. I wasn't taking care of myself. And I remember just having this moment of, gosh, everyone would think I should be so happy right now. And I'm so depressed and I don't recognize myself. And is this what my life is going to be? You know, this overweight, depressed person who can't afford to pay my bills. Do I accept that?

And when you say overweight, what do you mean by that? Well, I was 65 pounds heavier than I am now, and I'm only 5'2". So that's a lot for me. Yes. I was, my friend joked that I was a chiseled marshmallow. Like there was some definition somewhere in there possibly, but we couldn't, but I remember walking, um, walking and seeing a reflection of myself in those, the windows that look like mirrors. And I saw things hanging on me that I didn't recognize. And I just thought this is not who I am. And that was that whole, gosh, I don't even recognize myself anymore. And I saw things hanging on me that I didn't recognize. And I just thought, this is not who I am. And that was that whole, gosh, I don't even recognize myself anymore.

And I felt like I had this phony life that everyone thought I was supposed to be this one way or I was this one way. And I felt very fake that this is not who I am anymore because I'm not thin anymore and I'm not successful anymore. And I literally just felt like a loser. That's how I felt. And I was depressed. And I think the only thing that kept me going right then was my daughter and knowing I was a new mom. And when I finally hit that full rock bottom, literally, I remember I couldn't put gas in my car. Everything was declined. I had nothing. That's when I- The divorce was final at this time?

The divorce was on the way to being final. It was final and on the way. I remember sitting there and thinking, okay, this was not who I used to be. And what did I used to tell people when I was in that motivational role? How did I tell people to get past hurdles and depression and feeling stuck? And I thought, you know, it was as simple as telling them they had to decide first and they had to create a vision. They had to decide what it is they were going to be and what they wanted and they had to create a vision. So I thought, what do I have to lose right now? So I took out a vision board and I started cutting out pictures from magazines and printing stuff off of this dream life I thought I might want to have. And on that board, I put a house by the beach. I put money. I put a happy relationship.

And I put a lot of fitness stuff because I wanted to feel fit again and look a certain way and feel good about myself. And I put all this on this board. And I remember taping it up and just staring at it every day and thinking, okay, if I just every day do something to move me in that direction, I'm going to get there. And that was when that shift started. And I had always been interested in fitness and nutrition, but now I started really digging in. I started studying for it. I mean, so much so that I became a licensed master sports nutritionist, studying it and trying things on myself. And as I was doing it, I authentically started documenting it on Facebook at the time, sharing pictures of what I was eating.

This was back in 2009, 10, 11? Gosh, I'm terrible with math, so I got to think backwards. But yeah, so this was all seven to eight years ago in that timeframe where I started. And Facebook was just starting to be something at the point. And I remember putting pictures from my BlackBerry of my food on there. And just being real, I didn't care what anyone thought. I wasn't trying to impress anybody anymore. What's a BlackBerry?

I know, what's a BlackBerry? I would take pictures of food and put it and say, this is what I'm trying to do. And what happened was I learned a big lesson through this because I started to really connect with people at my true authentic self. I wasn't trying to be someone anymore. I wasn't trying to be this successful corporate person. I wasn't trying to be a powerful nutrition or fitness person. I was just sharing what I was eating and what I was doing. And I was being real with people about the struggles and people started to gravitate towards me. That's how everything started to change is from that point on.

And were you still working? Did you find another job in between this because your fitness business didn't really take off until really the last few years, right? So I still stayed working in corporate. And as I was realizing I had an interest going on here on Facebook, I never had this big marketing plan initially. But as I started seeing this, I started thinking this is my calling. I didn't know how. I just knew this is my calling to be in something with fitness and nutrition and motivating. It was more passionate for you, right? Yes.

So I started taking part-time things, doing other people's nutrition. I started training clients. I started doing part-time things, doing other people's nutrition. I started training clients. I started doing part-time work on the side. And what I found is my corporate job that was paying me well, I was all of a sudden very uninterested in. And I was getting really lazy with that. And I was putting a lot of time into the other stuff. So I did that for a while.

And it was one of those things where I would be paid and I think, okay, I really need to focus on my real job right now. But I just couldn't do it. I felt this calling towards the other stuff. So when I finally decided to take the full leap – and this was four and a half years ago that I decided to fully – I need to go for this. I decided that I was going to sell my recipes as a recipe book e-book for my Blackberry photos. What you were doing just to transform your own health. Just to transform my own self.

People were asking for recipes. I thought, you know what? I'm going to put together a little e-book. I don't even know what an e-book was. Someone told me about it. I remember Googling it. Okay, I'll make a PDF of my Blackberry photos. And I remember putting it online for $12 on my Facebook page.

And I didn't have a big following at the time. I had a few hundred. And they started selling. A few hundred people, a few thousand. A and they started selling. A few hundred people, a few hundred thousand. A few hundred people initially. A few hundred people. A few hundred people. But people were buying my $12 recipe book and it would be $40 here. A little change here and there. Yeah. Buy sushi dinner or whatever. We started paying for things. And I thought, gosh, I'm onto something here. Still not quite ready to quit my corporate job, but I was really investing more time into my blog and Facebook and all of this. And what happened was people started asking me how to put these recipes together.

So I sat down one weekend, and in a weekend, I wrote what's now my seven-day jumpstart program. In a weekend, you wrote something. I wrote it. I don't think I had anyone grammar check it. I just literally wrote my seven-day jumpstart, how I lost the weight. So this is for someone who's trying to – they're not happy with their weight and they want to get it. Someone who was like me. They were stuck.

They felt down. They had a lot of weight to lose. You were like, there's a seven-day plan to get started. There's a seven-day plan to get started. And then if you can keep it up, you'll start getting results. Exactly. So I wrote everything. I just talked about creating the vision board, the goals, how I figured out what

to eat, how I put it together. It's like a whole transformation. It's not just here's some recipes. Yeah. No, it was more than that. It was how to put those recipes together and how to change your life. And I wrote it in a weekend and I put that on Facebook also, and they started selling. And what really went right from there is as they were selling, they were also working and people loved it. So people would send me their story and say, oh my gosh, I followed your plan for seven days. Amazing. And I would screenshot it and post that and say who was next. And it just started spiraling. And that's what changed my entire business and following and gave me the confidence to then leave my corporate job.

Because it was just growing from my rock bottom sharing. Now, I'm curious. It sounds like testimonials are the most important thing for your growth then. Because if one person buys it and they share their story and you post that, that inspires three more people to buy. And then some of those people share their stories and you post their stories. Would you say those tests. I think that it starts a little bit earlier than that because it's what, what I learned from that was if you truly are yourself and you're sharing something valuable to others, um, and you have a solution for them, that's going to connect you with the right people because the right people are now seeing you. And if you're truly offering something that helps them, it's going to spiral. It has to. There's no way. And it wasn't about me saying,

you know what? I'm going to come up with a diet plan and then I'm going to market it here and I'm going to get all these testimonials because that wouldn't have been as authentic. But I was just answering questions and listening to my audience and creating what they were asking for. And then I was genuinely happy for them. And that's what made it grow. And I've never veered from that message, no matter how large we've gotten or what else we've created. I always go back to, I'm going to listen to what they're asking for and create it from there. When we sat down, you asked me, you saw I do hard DVDs and you said that people still buy hard copy DVDs. Yes, because I created it because my audience was asking for them. So

everything I create comes from listening to my audience and connecting with them and then creating what they're asking for. Yeah. I don't even have a DVD player anymore. That's why I'm curious. And I have like, I guess I have a slot somewhere in my, I don't even have a place to put in a CV in here. It's my last computer. So it's like. But you create what your audience is going to ask for. Yeah. If they want it though, then you got to give it to them. That's amazing. You got to give it to them. This is really cool. So when did you start to see that traction was happening online, a couple hundred people to- Yeah. So it started when we fully made that switch. And there was nothing, there was no trickery involved. My Facebook went up to about 5,000

people within that first, when we first were launching the jumpstart pretty quick, we got 5,000. It was our friend limit at the time. There wasn't followers or subscribers yet. Went up to that. And then they launched the subscriber thing and I started getting more of that. And then I converted it into a page, to a Facebook page. And then it started really growing from there. And now you're over a million fans, right? Now I'm, gosh, like 1.2 million just on Facebook. So it really took off from that. And I've never veered from that formula. It's never been about trickery or figuring out, oh, what's so-and-so doing? It's always been just listening to my audience and continuing with that. Amazing. When did you realize though, like what year was it? Was there something you were doing or was it just consistently posting videos, photos of yourself

working out with nutrition tips? So I started very much building on nutrition and it was always food and nutrition tips. And what happened was when we launched 7 Day Jumpstart and people were buying that and loving it, I thought, well, I don't want to put a lot of nutrition on here because then there's no, what are they going to get value with this? So I flipped it and I started doing workout stuff. But what I found was interesting.

The more free workout stuff I was doing, the more people wanted to buy workout stuff for me. So my whole page pretty much changed. So you weren't a workout person at first. No. You were just nutrition. I was doing, the more people wanted to buy workout stuff for me. So my whole page pretty much changed. So you weren't a workout person at first. No. You were just nutrition. I was doing nutrition. I did workouts, but that wasn't my big thing.

But as soon as I started posting then the workout stuff, same thing. I started connecting people who wanted that. Now they're asking, hey, can you create a DVD? Can you create this? So I did that. And so I've really learned that the more you share free of a topic, the more you're going to connect with more and there's people will buy what you're looking for. Yeah. I love it. I mean, this is fascinating to me. So what, uh, with the book, the jumpstart book was nutrition. You started doing videos. Did you realize? Cause I feel like

when I think about you, I think of your abs, you have this amazing six pack abs. Do you think they're, what's the differentiating factor for you? Is it that you were in corporate or is it that you're this mom who's got a six-pack? Or is it, what do you think makes people want to buy something from you where they could get for free online from you or free from some other expert? Why you and why pay for it? Because I think people, I would have to say that people want to buy from their friends. They want to buy and support

who they feel heard from. And I feel that people that follow me online, and I feel that they truly feel that we're friends and that we've connected because I do talk to my audience. I don't worry about impressing the masses or what my competition is doing. I'm talking and caring about the people

that I've attracted and I'm continuing to talk to. And that makes people want to purchase from me too because we're friends. We're talking to each other. And it really comes down to that. So I might have great abs. Great. But that's not what makes me stand out.

There's a lot of people that have great abs. There's a lot of people a lot younger than me. There's a lot of people with more creative exercises than me. There's nothing that I would say, you know, in sales we would always say feature benefit. It's not the feature and the benefit. It's really how people feel. I think people buy with their feelings and they feel heard with me and that I understand them. there. What is the key to living a healthy lifestyle? I've had a lot of health experts on, what do you think is the key to sustaining it? Is it a diet plan? Is it a, is it having a coach? Is it having these things? You have to, the number one thing with any, no matter what plan you choose or who you are, you have to decide first. You have to be ready for change and decide period. If you're not ready, you're not going to do the work. Nobody's going to do it for you. No one's

going to motivate you. Um, you know, people, I get emails all the time. I wish you could be my trainer. That wouldn't matter. It wouldn't matter. Once you decide you're ready, you're going to change. Period. No matter what plan you choose. Once there's enough. What is it? A pain? What really gets people to decide? They have to believe in themselves somehow or they need someone else to believe in them. I think that's a very powerful thing. I feel everyone needs have to believe in themselves somehow or they need someone else to believe in them. I think that's a very powerful thing. I feel everyone needs someone to believe in them. And I think that's missing from a lot of people. We put it on everybody else like, oh, you need to fix this.

But you need some type of support system and someone else to believe you can do it too. Really? What if you don't have that? Well, it's not hard to find. You can connect with other like-minded people or you could find people online. Not with the power of the internet. My gosh, you can always find somebody to believe in your mission or believe in you. Let's say, you know, I mean, what if I don't feel ready to go through the challenge, the

commitment, the time? How do I, I mean, if you can't convince someone to be ready, how do they become ready? I don't feel you can convince somebody to be ready. I really, I don't. And gosh, my motto is excuses are solutions. You decide, like you can try to convince me of your excuses all you want. It's not going to help you get results. So if you're ready to find a solution, I'm willing to work with you, but you have to decide that you're ready to do that. You know, I always, there's, I have this one transformation. I always talk about, um, Jim Walters. He's a friend of mine now. He was, if you had looked at him before I started working with him, he was extremely

overweight, out of shape. And he was somebody, if you had seen him, you would say genetically, he's just out of weight, you know, overweight. He would never be fit. Like you just look at him. You look at him now, he's completely shredded. This man's in his fifties. He's shredded.

And you would look at him and say, gosh, he's just genetically like that. It's like the same person, but you would just view him a different way. And Jim always told me, I was that person that doubted, thought I could never do it. I hated everybody else that did it. I was always finding something wrong, a reason I couldn't. But once he decided he was ready to change, nothing could stop him. Why did he decide? I mean, what was the determining factor? He had just had enough with himself. And to me, I've worked with so many transformations and there's so many people that they never have felt good about themselves. And that's a struggle right there because if they don't have something

to go back to of ever feeling that way, that makes it that much harder. So you have to do some serious work. If you were once really fit, an athlete, whatever, it's easier to go back to remember that. If you've never had that, you've got to work on getting past that because otherwise you're limiting yourself. You think I can never do it. How can someone work on that then? What are some exercises and practices? Gosh, it's a lot. And there is a lot of work involved, but it's not what you think. It's not just beating yourself up and making you do it. It's a lot of deep searching and learning about what's going to actually make you happy because sometimes people just want to lose weight, but they don't really know why. What is it? And that goes back to where

I start in the jumpstart. You got to create a vision. If you could have the ideal life, what would that look like? And what's your why for doing that? Digging to yourself, sitting there and writing. I want to be fit because why? Is it because you don't want people to make fun of you or is it because you want to live a long life to play with your kids? What is it? But you have to dig and do that work to find that first because nobody else can motivate you to do that. Yeah. What if they don't know what their why is? What if they don't have a vision that's powerful enough? Do you think if their vision isn't big enough for their life, they're probably not going to take care of their life?

I think there's some people that enjoy being in that spot, to be honest with you. They're getting some kind of reward from being in the miserable, I suck spot. There's a reward somewhere. And you've got to figure out what that is because some people are just happy being that way. And I can't, unfortunately, take on that and worry about that. I want to help those that want to help themselves first. So I've been there. I've been depressed. I've been miserable. I've been in that spot. And at that time, there's nothing, some, anyone could have said to me though, to change that I had to decide on my own. So if somebody is in that spot that I would say it's either professional help or talking to a friend or just some deep searching, but you've got to first decide that you're, you want something. Once you decided you can be open to anything.

What is the criteria for you working with someone say like, okay, I'll coach you or mentor you or support you or get on the phone and give you the advice you need to show me this first. What is that criteria? I want to, I will help anybody that wants to help themselves first. Either that's, that's the first thing. What do you have to see? They're like, okay, I just worked out today.

Like I'm ready. Are you like, no workout for two weeks every day and do this and then we can talk or what? The people that I probably talk to in my business now, because I don't do one-on-one coaching anymore, but the people that get my attention are the ones that go through my programs and they have a transformation and they share with me what they've done. Like, hey, the best compliment someone can give me is sending me a transformation and be like, I did this from your program. That makes me, I want to help them even more. Wow. You want to promote them? You want to talk about them? Yeah. But who I don't

want to help is someone who downloads a program for me and it sends an email five minutes later, this won't work for me. Well, they've decided it won't work for them. So I'm going to refund you because I, that's, I can't even go there with you. Right's not somebody who's really making a decision to try. Why do you think it's important for everyone to live a healthy lifestyle? It's because, first of all, I can't decide what's important for everybody. So that has to be important to them. And everyone defines health different. To me, I want to be able to enjoy my life as long as I can, meaning I'm going to want

to be pain-free. I want to have energy. I want to feel good about myself. I want to be able to be present with people. I want to be able to not be a burden on others. That's, to me, how I define health. So I think every day, what can I add into my life that's going to keep me in that spot? And I want others to feel that way because I'm 44 years old and I meet lots of other 44 year olds that some really, they look like they're 70. They're acting like they're 70. And I meet some that have the energy of a 20 year old. It just, what, what do they define for me? I want to feel all of those good things. And I, I feel that so many people get so trapped in convincing others of their excuses when with every single excuse there is,

there's somebody that overcame that same excuse. Yeah, or who doesn't have it as good as you or doesn't have the opportunities. Yeah. So with the business side of things, when did you finally leave the corporate world then? What year was this? Sure.

So I officially left four years ago and it was probably the scariest thing I ever did. Um, I was leaving that security. Um, but I, I'll never regret it because again, it goes back to that deciding. I decided failure wasn't going to be an option. I was going to make this work and our business was profitable from day one. We never, um, working on your own. Did you have a partner at the time?

I started with my now husband Brooks and he would say the same story. We started this business by accident. We really didn't know we were feeling it out. The recipe that he knew stuff about websites. So he could help me make my blog better. Were you guys dating at the time or no? We were dating. Yeah. And what was funny is I, well, when we officially started the business, yes, we were dating, not through my rock bottom. But what was funny is I would do things like I'm going to create the jumpstart in a weekend. And I was just, I didn't even think about how to deliver it to people. So, oh, somebody will buy it and I'll email it to them.

You know, Brooks was good at, okay, let's research how we can actually have it delivered to people. So it was a really good team. He was more technical than me, more detail oriented, where I just had the ideas. So it worked out. It was a really nice compliment. Did he say, listen, you could do this on your own or we could do this together. You should leave your job. He was that person that believed in me too and said, I believe that you could do this. So it was scary for me. But I think having somebody else say, you can do this too, even if he couldn't help, he could say, I believe that you can do this.

And that was everything. I think of every mentor I've ever had, bosses in my history, the commonality was they all believed in me. When someone believes that you could do something, it's just very powerful. Is it more powerful when someone else believes in you or when you believe in yourself? It's more powerful when you believe in yourself, but sometimes to get there, you need the validation from others. Sometimes. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. I've found it is a hurdle with a lot of people that don't get to their goals is they are constantly getting advice or encouragement from

the wrong people. So they're getting people talking them out of their goals versus finding people that say you can do it. Yeah. Okay. We'll talk about emotional fitness for a minute because I feel like our level of emotional health can affect our physical health. I'm sure some of the emotional weight you were carrying is part of the reason why you weren't taking care of your health as much physically five, six, seven years ago. How can all of us be emotionally fit on a daily basis? Is there exercise that you talk about? Is there a process? Is there something that we can do to make sure, oh, a lot of stress is coming in, but at least I know I'm doing this and taking care of my emotions.

So in fitness and nutrition, I would say the same thing as I would say in business or personal life and emotional fitness. I always say that it's better to add than to think about taking away. So I'm not a deprivation person. I don't like to say get these things out of your life because that's – as soon as we say get these things out, you can't have sugar. You can't have this. We start thinking, oh, I need sugar. I need this. Depriving myself.

I'm depriving. things out. You can't have sugar. You can't have this. We start thinking, oh, I need sugar. I need this. I'm depriving. So the more of the good you add to your life, the less room for the bad. So when you look at diet and nutrition, I'd say, can I add more fruits and vegetables? Can I add more water, add more proteins? What can I add to make less room for the bad? I'm going to say the same thing with emotional health. If you are weak on that, where can you add in more of the good to make less room for the bad? It's very hard to say, get this person out of your life or don't do this anymore or don't go on Instagram and look at – that's too tempting then. But if you say, you know what? I'm going to listen to some positive podcast every day. I'm going to make

sure I go walk every day outside. I'm going to make sure I do things that feel good. I'm going to call my girlfriends or girlfriends and have a positive conversation. Exactly. That creates it. So on my phone, for instance, in the notes section, it's nothing crazy advanced, but I have a list of names of people. And this evolves. I add to it. It's going to take people off. When I talk to them, they are that contagious energy that I like. They make me feel better about what I'm doing. I get in a better mood. I know I can always count on them to help lift me up. I have a list of those names of people that I know, just a text to them or a call them,

that's going to help me. Those are people I will do anything for because they do that for me too. And I make it a point to have those names present. I also, um, I have podcasts. I subscribe to yours is top on that list. Um, but knowing I listened to two podcasts a day, every single day I do it because that is good brain food. I'm surrounding myself with good information. It's less room to just scroll feeds on. So true. I love the way you approach this because you know, the idle time where we're just not thinking about anything or we have downtime, if we're going through a challenging

time in our lives where something is stressful or we're going through a breakup or something, that's just going to feed into negativity if we're not adding in positive things. I've been there. I'm sure a lot of people have been there as well. I love that approach to just adding more fruits and vegetables or whole foods as opposed to trying to take away sugar. Although when I was like, you know, 40 pounds heavier, I was so addicted to sugar. Like every day after every meal I had to have like cookies and ice cream. I was living in New York City and I just had to have it. And so for me, I gave myself a challenge like 30 days, I'm taking this away because I didn't know any other way to like get rid of it. And that worked for me. But that's an addition.

So you were adding a challenge to your life that you were excited about. So as long as it's a positive, yes, yes. Uh, but then I was also drinking a green juice every day, but I liked the idea of like, if you just fill your stomach up with positive foods, there's not much room left. You know, you'll have a little bit of room for dessert as opposed to like 80% room for dessert. I like that approach to the emotional health. And that's the approach I've always taken with there's not much room left. You know, you'll have a little bit of room for dessert as opposed to like 80% room for dessert. Exactly. I like that approach to the emotional health too. And that's the approach I've always taken with everything, especially with all my plans with nutrition, fitness.

It's all about addition. Because, I mean, of course there's things you've got to watch, but it's about adding more of the good. Because then you're still gaining something. It's not like you're losing something, but you're losing the bad by gaining the good. Exactly. Both emotionally and physically.

Exactly. Yeah, it's brilliant. Wow, that's a great strategy. For some reason, it's so simple, but it's so brilliant to me. So tell me more about this seven-day jumpstart. You've got the book coming out. Yeah. Why did you decide?

You've had this online business that's been blowing up. You and Brooks are crushing it. Millions of fans. Millions in sales. So many different products that you have online. It's working. Why go into a traditional book? First and foremost, I always listen to my audience.

I mean, that's who I serve. And I know that I've changed the lives of a lot of people. And it makes me feel good that I played a small role in that. And they're asking for that. They're asking for a book. People want a hard copy book with more stuff. So I thought, okay, this is a goal of mine. Two, I want to serve a lot of people with what I share. I share 95% of what I share is for free. It is. I put so much out there. And even with a big social

media following, fine, great. I can reach maybe 2 million people. There's a lot of people I can't reach right now. And to me, going into that mainstream market and getting my book out there, I know I'm going to be able to reach and help a lot more people for doing this. And it's what my audience has asked for. So it's something I wanted to do. But it's probably a lot more work than creating the – It's a lot more work. You spent a weekend creating a seven-day guide that sold 40,000 or 50,000 copies now. It made you a lot more work than creating the, you spent a weekend creating a seven day guide that sold 40 or 50,000 copies now made you a lot of money. Uh, and you've spent how long doing this? Oh my gosh, this is, it's crazy what it's taken. It's a, it's a different experience.

Why do we torture ourselves? You know, there's, there's something to be said to though. I, I do like people to become their best them as possible. And I do believe anyone can achieve any goal they want. And that's part of the evolution too. Like I, I want to accomplish my own goals too. And if, you know, if I, I don't want to just say, okay, I did an ebook, right? Anyone can do an ebook. Anyone can do it. Um, absolutely.

Can anyone publish a book and do it successful? I don't know. I don't know. So it's, I like the challenges on myself too. But I would say the big reason is I do want to get this out to more people. What do you want to be known for like in the next couple of years as you've evolved from this woman that's transformed her health and her life to having the things that really mean a lot to you as opposed to the corporate, the marriage that wasn't working. What do you want for the next couple of years after this book to be known as or for people

to think about when they hear you? I don't want to be known as anything special. I want to be known as the person that led the way to an example that they could do it too. Because I think it doesn't matter what someone's goal is. I think everybody should have an opportunity to go for their goals and become their best them. And I feel, and I've been told that I represent that average person because fine, somebody might look at me now and say, oh, she's fit. She looks good, whatever.

But I worked really hard to get there and I did not always look that way or I didn't always feel this way. And I love sharing my age. I love sharing struggles I've been through because I want others to know that it doesn't matter where you come from or what you're starting from. There is a way for you to improve and become your best you. And so I want to be known as that example that helped encourage others to do that same. So whether that's through – and I do believe that a lot of it starts with your health. So fitness and nutrition are always going to be there. But there's a lot with your mind.

I think people can always become their best them. And that's what I want to, I don't know if I answered that well or not, but that's how I would. How long do you think you'll be in the fitness health world? I mean, is it something you're, I mean, do you see yourself being passionate about this for the next decade as well? Or is it kind of- I don't know that I'll ever be not passionate about fitness and nutrition, but I think there's more to things than that. It's really a whole rounded package. I know in the book that's being published, Seven Day Jumpstart, Unprocess Your Diet, it's really about unprocessing your whole life and just really, it's a bigger picture. Yeah, the unprocessed diet. It's a bigger picture and it all goes together. That emotional health, everything, how you run your life, your fitness and nutrition, it all goes together. That emotional health, everything, how you run your life,

your fitness, nutrition, it all goes together. It's not just an isolated thing. It's a holistic approach to your whole life. I love that. But you're doing a lot more business teaching as well. Yeah. I feel I'm actually the strongest with my whole background

and that's the whole business development. I love talking to somebody about their goals and helping them figure out how they can monetize that or how they can make that happen. And so that, how did you do it, the business online? I can talk fitness and nutrition all day and night, but when you ask me about business and branding, I just light up. That's my, that's fun for me. So, so I'm, I'm interested in a lot of things, but the business development and how I did it, that would be my real goal is to be able to be known even more for that. Yeah. What do you think's really helped you in terms of the business side of

things online? Do you think it's the way you branded it? We talked about you just like sharing your story and being real and being unique, things like that. But do you think in terms of getting traffic and building your audience, do you think it's... It's listening to others. It's constantly listening. It's listening to my audience. It's listening to mentors. It's just constantly being open and not being attached to anything. Because as you know, in social media, it changes so frequently and you don't have it dialed in always. You can think one thing's working on Facebook and it's not working in a week. So it's just being open and listening and being able to shift gears and constantly listening

to what people are asking for. And what about working with your husband? How is that when you're trying to have- Gosh, I could have a whole reality show. I mean, can you stay healthy and fit in the relationship and for yourself and have a healthy business while you're with each other 24-7? Yes and no. Yes, I could say.

How do you manage that? It depends on when you've asked us if that's good. What has really saved us is we do very separate parts in our business now. We cannot, as I'm sitting here recording this with you, Brooks is not in the room here because we've learned that doesn't really work well. We balance each other off very well, but we have to let us each run our own side of the business our own way, if that makes sense. And do you ever disconnect from the business so you can connect? We have now, but it took work. It took work. I was especially the ready, fire, aim all

the time, constantly have an idea, constantly this. And I've had to work. Brooks, do it. Do it. Execute. Execute. Put it together. And it took us being able to really look at that and delegate out and make some serious boundaries. And it took a little bit of that pain of saying, okay, well, what's more important to me, a business or a happy relationship? And you don't have to choose, but you can work to find that balance. And we've definitely had to work to do that. I mean, you guys are both so passionate about it though. I mean, this is something you guys love. It's not just like you want to make money, but it's something you love doing to serve people and inspire people.

So you're both excited about it. And I know that I'm always excited about my business and I think about it constantly. So at 10 o'clock at night after dinner, are you guys able to just talk about whatever, like random stuff? Yes. Are you constantly like – We can now. You can.

But honestly, it took us – we've been together for four and a half years. It took us until recently to really be able to do that. It was a lot. I mean, I'm not ashamed. I mean, we went to counseling about it. We went. We've tried. We've done a lot.

It's been a lot of work to get to that point. Had some great mentors that are also couples. And we just had to recognize it and allow for that. But it's not perfect. There's definitely nights where Brooks really just wants to hang out and talk. Yeah. And I've got ideas I want to talk about. But I think we've started to balance each other out and we definitely can shut it off now. But it did take work. What would you say to someone who's in that type of relationship, who's excited they work together? What would you say is the first step they should do to having semi-balance every once in a while? Drink a lot

of wine. I'm just kidding. You have to just have that communication and talk about it and explain where it's coming from. I think when you know where people's personalities come from too, Brooks really understands why I have this drive in business and I really understand why he needs to disconnect. And I think once you have that understanding, it makes it a lot easier to honor it and, and, and change some structure there. Why do you have the drive? Gosh, why do I have the drive? Um, it really goes back to, um, as a child. I mean, I think everyone's story sort of goes back to as a child. And I can think of the only way I got that attention was being able to come up with solutions or show that I had an idea or could find a way out.

I also have, and I still do, it doesn't ever go away. I have really, really bad ADD. I mean, that's like a thing I've dealt with my whole life, which instead of treating it and being the kid that was medicated, I never did that. But I was, I got really good at, you know, figuring out a way, even if I had bad grades for the teacher to like me enough that I would pass or to get into the college, you know, I figured out a way all the time. And so I still have this like constant, I'm figuring out a way or I've, I've got to make this happen. And I got very, um, I, that, that's what drives me is finding those solutions and finding a way around. So that doesn't go away with me. That's there. If you could go back to the other five, six, seven year old Natalie, and did you feel like now you've achieved the dreams you had then?

Like if all the dreams you ever thought of, it's funny i told my daughter who's um eight now yeah um i i told her the other day you can achieve every and anything you want to achieve if it's your goal every possible thing it's your goal you can achieve and i can honestly say every single thing i've ever said i've wanted to do i've done but i had to decide i was going to do it and i found a way to do it um if i didn't do it it's because it wasn't something i wanted to do, I've done. But I had to decide I was going to do it and I found a way to do it. If I didn't do it, it's because it wasn't something I wanted to do. And I believe wholeheartedly that anyone can do that

if they want to bad enough and they decide they're going to do it. Yeah, yeah. Okay. It's all about deciding. That's the theme that I'm getting from deciding today. You got to decide if you wanted that bad enough. I've got a couple questions left for you.

Where can we, before that, where should we go and connect with you online? Where can we get the book and all those things? Well, on my website, nataliejillfitness.com, I'll always have everything listed there. So you can connect with me that way, all my social, all my current stuff. And then my book will be everywhere in May. Okay. But, and I'll of, have that on the homepage of my website so people know exactly where to go for that. Yeah. Cool. Okay. What's something you're

proud of that most people don't know about? I'm proud. Okay. I guess this is one. I was that kid whose father kind of did everything for you. I didn't know how to make a decision without my dad. And when he died, I became a completely different person. You know, my mom laughs that I became him. He died. I was 24 years old. And I became that naive, couldn't, didn't know how to make a decision without asking my dad to a very independent person that could accomplish anything. And I changed this whole belief. You belief. I went from believing I had to have my dad's approval or I had to ask him, he knew everything, to being able to decide and figure out things on my own. And it seems like such a minor little thing, but it taught me that really you can change and become a different. You can become,

you don't have to be stuck in that I'm naive or I'm dumb or I'm this. Get someone else to make decisions for me. You can become an independent person at any time. So you decided that though. It goes back to my deciding. That's great. I love that. So there's no excuses.

There's nothing. Well, I say excuses are solutions. You decide. Yeah. Just like that because that's what I believe. Love it. Love it. Final two questions.

This is the three truths question. Okay. Have you heard this one? Yes. Okay. So there's three things that you could leave behind, three truths that you know about your experiences and everything else was gone. So this is the only thing people had to know about you and what you thought, what would

be the three truths? Oh my gosh. The first one would be that it's no one else's fault because I'm a big believer of accountability and whether you're successful or a failure, it's you, it's all you and what you bring into your life. So, um, my first one would be to be accountable and accept that it's no one's ever, it's no one else's fault. And the second one would be surprised deciding comes first, that you could just, you could

be anything or become anything if you decide that's your, what you want. And, um, the third thing is that when it's all gone, um, you have to think about who in this world matters most to you. And while we're here and we have time to, to serve them first. And I know as much as I serve an audience and have a lot of people that I reach out to and inspire. The most important people in my world are my daughter and my husband. So I feel that they come first always. And it makes me sad when I see so many people put so many other things ahead of those people that are so important to them because that you don't take with you and it doesn't matter in the end.

And those are the people that you touch. I with you and it doesn't matter in the end. And no one, those are the people that you touch. So I love it. Yeah. Well, I acknowledge you Natalie for, for coming on and sharing their story. I really appreciate it.

I want to acknowledge you for you deciding to make a choice a few years ago when things weren't happy, things weren't healthy and you weren't living the life you imagined when you're a kid. It's scary because we can get caught in what's comfortable. We can get caught in what other people want us to do. We can get caught in feeling guilty for making decisions, for ending relationships,

or ending a career that we've been in for decades. So I acknowledge you for the courage you've had over the years. And I also acknowledge you for your ability to figure everything out. Thank you. Your ability to figure it out as you go and make mistakes along the way and still get awesome results for people and not have to be perfect. Thank you.

So I acknowledge all that about you. And the final question is, what's your definition of greatness? Oh my gosh. My definition of greatness would have to be, it comes down to a feeling. So people never remember what you sold them or what you said to them, but they remember how they feel when they're around you. So my definition of greatness is if people have a feeling of encouragement and positivity with anything that I give, that's greatness.

Anything that I give, that's greatness. So if I look at who I feel is great in this world and who's inspired me, it was a feeling that they gave me when I listened to their podcast or read their book or heard them speak. It's that feeling. So greatness to me is that feeling that makes others feel empowered. Now to Jill. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Thank you.

There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, make sure to share this over on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and let me know what you thought. Again, lewishouse.com slash 323. Just go to the show notes. You check out the full video interview with me and Natalie here in my greatness studio. Check out all the resources we talked about from the day, how you can get access to Natalie's book and also share it online with your friends,

your friends who you might think enjoy this episode as well. I appreciate the support. We're getting over 1.3 million downloads a month right now, and we couldn't do it without the support of all of you. I get so many emails and updates from a lot of you that are saying, you know, I've been, I've been listening to your show for years or I just found it six months ago and I listen to it every single day trying to get caught up.

So the movement is happening. We are growing and it's because of you. And I'm committed to creating incredible content, finding the best guests, making sure I always over deliver on the content and the guests. And I'm always looking to step it up in every area of this podcast. So thank you guys for your support. You make this incredible. I love you guys. And you know what time it is.

It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you. Outro Music