323 Get Fit and Become an Entrepreneur at 40 with Natalie Jill

"Excuses or solutions - you decide." - Natalie Jill If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/323 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 323 with Natalie Jill.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 1:16Lewis Howes?

  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. 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

• 1:57Lewis Howes?

  online brand and online business, all of 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 Seven Day Jump. Start 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/323. Lewis house.com/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.

• 2:37Speaker 01

  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, my hobby.

• 2:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  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

• 3:08Speaker 01

  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, it was going away. It was going away. So

• 3:32Lewis Howes?

  And what was this? What year?

• 3:33Speaker 01

  Gosh, this was, my daughter was, this is probably eight years ago. Eight years ago, right before my daughter was born and it was

• 3:43Lewis Howes?

  You were living in San Diego then?

• 3:44Speaker 01

  I was living in San Diego. I was going through a divorce and I remember, I remember so clearly walking with my dogs thinking, anyone that saw me right now, I 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 gonna put gas in my car. It was that bad. So I had this big paycheck, but no, I couldn't, I had no money because I was so behind on mortgage and everything else happening.

• 4:08Lewis Howes?

  Cars or whatever.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  Everything. I was just, I completely

• 4:10Lewis Howes?

  You're overextending your money.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  So overextended.

• 4:12Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  So, and it wasn't just because I was being lazy and overextending. I, 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 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 gained a lot of weight. I was a new mom. I wasn't sleeping. 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 gonna be? You know, this overweight, depressed person who can't afford to pay my bills? That's, do I accept that?

• 4:58Lewis Howes?

  And when you say overweight, what do you mean by what's that?

• 5:00Speaker 01

  Well, I was sixty-five pounds heavier than I am now. And I'm only five-two. So that's, that's a lot for me.

• 5:06Lewis Howes?

  Like a marshmallow.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  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 find. 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 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, I literally just felt like a loser. That's how, that's how I felt. And I was depressed. And I think the only thing that kept me going right then was my daughter, knowing I was a new mom.

• 5:50Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  And when I finally hit that full rock bottom, literally, like, I remember I couldn't put gas in my car. Everything was declined. I had nothing. That's when I-

• 6:01Lewis Howes?

  The divorce was final at this time?

• 6:02Speaker 01

  The divorce was in, on the way to being final. It was filed and on the way. I remember sitting there and thinking, okay, this was not who I used to be. And what did I use 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 gonna 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 up of this dream life I thought I might wanna 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.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  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 gonna 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.

• 7:24Lewis Howes?

  Back in 2009?

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Yes. This was so, gosh, I'm terrible with math, so I gotta think backwards. But yeah, it was so this was all seven, 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.

• 7:42Lewis Howes?

  What's a BlackBerry?

• 7:43Speaker 01

  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.

• 8:08Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  That's how everything started to change is from that point on.

• 8:14Lewis Howes?

  And were you still working? Did you find another job in between this because your fitness business didn't really take off?

• 8:20Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 8:20Lewis Howes?

  Until really last few years, right?

• 8:21Speaker 01

  So my, 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.

• 8:39Lewis Howes?

  More passionate for you, right?

• 8:39Speaker 01

  Yes. So I started taking 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 I, 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 to fully, I need to go for this. I decided that I was going to sell my recipes as a recipe book ebook.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  And for my BlackBerry photos.

• 9:25Lewis Howes?

  What you were doing just to transform your.

• 9:29Speaker 01

  Just to transform my own stuff. People were asking for recipes. I thought, you know what? I'm gonna put through their little ebook. I didn't even know what an ebook 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.

• 9:45Lewis Howes?

  Few hundred people, few hundred thousand.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  Few hundred people initially, few hundred people, but people were buying my $12 recipe book. And it would be $40 here, you know.

• 9:54Lewis Howes?

  A little change here and there.

• 9:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, for my sushi dinner, whatever. It was just, we started paying for things. And I thought, gosh, I'm on to 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. And that's in a weekend, 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.

• 10:27Lewis Howes?

  If someone was, so this is for someone who's trying to, they're not happy with their weight and they want to get it.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  Someone who was like me. They were stuck. They felt down. They had a lot of weight to lose.

• 10:37Lewis Howes?

  And you're like, there's a seven day plan to get started.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Plan to get started.

• 10:40Lewis Howes?

  And then if you can keep it up, you know, you'll start getting results.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  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.

• 10:49Lewis Howes?

  It's like a whole transformation. It's not just, here's some recipes.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  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.

• 11:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow, interesting.

• 11:27Speaker 01

  Because it was just growing from my rock bottom sharing, yep.

• 11:31Lewis Howes?

  Now, I'm curious, it sounds like testimonials are the most important thing for your growth then? Because the more, 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 testimonials are now?

• 11:46Speaker 01

  Yes, I know. I think it starts a little bit earlier than that because it's, what I learned from that was if you truly are yourself and you're sharing something valuable to others 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 gonna spiral. It has to. There's no way, and it wasn't about me saying, you know what? I'm gonna come up with a diet plan and then I'm gonna market it here and I'm gonna 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.

• 12:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  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 gonna listen to what they're asking for and create it from there. You know, when we sat down, you asked me, you saw I do hard DVDs and you said, do 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.

• 12:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I don't even have a DVD player anymore. That's what 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 CD in here. It's my last computer. So it's like.

• 12:58Speaker 01

  But you create what your audience is gonna ask for.

• 13:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, if they want it though, then you gotta give it to them. That's amazing.

• 13:01Speaker 01

  You gotta give it to them.

• 13:03Lewis Howes?

  This is really cool. So when did you start to see that like traction was happening online? You know, a couple hundred people to?

• 13:09Speaker 01

  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 a friend limit at the time. There was the, there wasn't followers or subscribers yet. Went up to that and then, 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.

• 13:34Lewis Howes?

  And now you're over a million fans.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  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.

• 13:49Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. What um, 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?

• 14:01Speaker 01

  So I started very much building on nutrition and it was always food and nutrition tips. And what happened was when we launched Seven Day Jump Start and it was, 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 I, so my whole page pretty much changed.

• 14:26Lewis Howes?

  So you weren't a workout person at first, you were just nutrition?

• 14:28Speaker 01

  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 wanted that. Now they're asking, hey, can you, can you create a DVD? Can you create this? So I did that. And so I've, 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.

• 14:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I love, I mean, this is fascinating to me. So what uh, with the book, the Jump Start book, it was nutrition. You started doing videos. Did you realize, because I feel like when I think about you, I think of your abs. You have this amazing six pack abs. Do you think there, 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?

• 15:19Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 15:19Lewis Howes?

  Why you and why paid for it?

• 15:20Speaker 01

  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, um, I, and I, 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.

• 15:58Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 15:59Speaker 01

  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.

• 16:15Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. Now, there's so many different workout plans and diets and information out 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?

• 16:33Speaker 01

  No, 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.

• 16:41Lewis Howes?

  If you're not ready, you're not going to do the work.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  Nobody's going to do it for you. No one's going to motivate you. You know, people, I get emails all the time. I wish you could be my trainer. I'm, that wouldn't matter. It wouldn't matter. You have to, once you decide you're ready, you're going to change. Period. No matter what plan you choose.

• 16:55Lewis Howes?

  Once there's enough, what is it? A pain? Is it, what really gets people to decide?

• 16:59Speaker 01

  You know, 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 someone to believe in them, you know? And I think that's missing from a lot of people. We all, we put it on everybody else like, oh, you, you need to fix this. But you need some type of support system and someone else to believe you can do it too. And once you have that. Well, it's not hard to find. You can connect with other like-minded people or you could find people online. Now with the power of the internet, my gosh, you could always find somebody to believe in your mission or believe in you.

• 17:28Lewis Howes?

  Let's say, you know, I mean, what if, 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?

• 17:42Speaker 01

  I don't feel you can convince somebody to be ready. I really, I don't. And gosh, my motto is excuses or 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. Jim Walters, he's a friend of mine now. He was, if you had looked at him before, 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 50s. He's shredded, bald. 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

• 18:27Speaker 01

  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.

• 18:39Lewis Howes?

  Why did he decide? I mean, what was the determining factor?

• 18:41Speaker 01

  He had just had enough with himself. And, you know, 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 could never do it.

• 19:08Lewis Howes?

  How can someone work on that, then? What are some exercises, some practices?

• 19:12Speaker 01

  It's, 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. You know, what is that? And that goes back to where I start in the jump start. You know, you got to create a vision. If you could have the ideal life, what would that look like? And, and what's your why for doing that? Digging to yourself, you know, 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.

• 19:53Lewis Howes?

  What if they don't know what their why is? What if they're like, 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?

• 20:01Speaker 01

  I think there's some people that enjoy being in that spot, to be honest with you, that they're getting some kind of reward from being in the miserable, I suck spot. There's just, there's a reward something there. And you've got to figure out what that is because some people are just happy being that way.

• 20:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  And that's, I can't, you can't, I can't unfortunately take on that and worry about that. Like, 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 that would have changed that. I had to decide on my own. So if somebody's 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've decided, you can be open to anything.

• 20:47Lewis Howes?

  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 like, the advice you need. But just show me this first. Like, what is that criteria?

• 20:58Speaker 01

  I want to, I will help anybody that wants to help themselves first. Either that's, that's the first and foremost.

• 21:02Lewis Howes?

  What do you have to see? They're like, okay, I just worked out today. Like, I'm ready. Or are you like, no, work out for two weeks every day. This and then we can talk or what?

• 21:10Speaker 01

  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're, they have a transformation and they share with me what they've done. Like, hey, like the best compliment that 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.

• 21:29Lewis Howes?

  You want to promote them? You want to talk about them? Yeah.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  But who I don't want to help is someone who downloads a program from 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.

• 21:42Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 21:43Speaker 01

  You know, that's not somebody who's really making a decision to try.

• 21:46Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think it's important for everyone to live a healthy lifestyle?

• 21:52Speaker 01

  It's because, first of all, I can't decide what's important for everybody. So that has to be important to them. So, and everyone defines health different. To me, I want to be able to enjoy my life as long as I can. Meaning I'm gonna 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. Like, that's, to me, how I define health. So I think every day, what can I add into my life that's gonna keep me in that spot? And I want others to feel that way. Because I'm forty-four years old and I meet lots of other forty-four-year-olds that some, really, they look like they're seventy. They're acting like they're seventy. And I meet some that have the energy of a twenty-year-old. It just, what, what do they define? For me, I want to feel all of those good things.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  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.

• 22:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, or doesn't have it as good as you, or doesn't have the opportunities.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:53Lewis Howes?

  So with the business side of things, you know, when did you finally leave the corporate world then? What year was this?

• 22:59Speaker 01

  Sure. So I left, I officially left four years ago. And it was the, probably the scariest thing I ever did. I was leaving that security. But I, I'll never regret it. Because again, it goes back to that deciding. I decided failure wasn't gonna be an option. I was gonna make this work. And our business was profitable from day one. We, we never-

• 23:16Lewis Howes?

  Were you working on your own? Did you have a partner at the time?

• 23:18Speaker 01

  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.

• 23:30Lewis Howes?

  Were you guys dating at the time, or no?

• 23:31Speaker 01

  We were dating, yeah. And, 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 gonna 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, 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.

• 23:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, okay.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  So it worked out. It was a really nice compliment.

• 24:00Lewis Howes?

  Did he say, listen, you could do this on your own? Or we could do this together? You should leave your job?

• 24:04Speaker 01

  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. You know, even though, 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.

• 24:26Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. Is it more powerful when someone else believes in you or when you believe in yourself?

• 24:30Speaker 01

  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 just, 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.

• 24:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, okay. I'll talk about emotional fitness for a minute because I feel like our level of emotional health can affect our physical health.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:59Lewis Howes?

  You know, I'm sure some of the emotional weight you were carrying is part of the reason why, you know, you weren't taking care of your health as much physically five, six, seven years ago.

• 25:11Lewis Howes?

  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 like 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.

• 25:26Speaker 01

  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. It's, we start thinking, oh, I need sugar, I need this.

• 25:43Lewis Howes?

  Depriving myself, yeah.

• 25:45Speaker 01

  So the more room, 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 could 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, you know, it's, that's too tempting then. But if you say, you know what, I'm going to listen to some positive podcasts 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.

• 26:25Lewis Howes?

  I'm going to call my girlfriends or girlfriends and like have a positive conversation.

• 26:29Speaker 01

  Exactly. That creates it. So on my phone, for instance, I, 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, sometimes I take people off, that 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, 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 gonna help me. Those are people I will do anything for because they do that for me too. And I, I make it a point to have those names present. I also, I have podcasts I subscribe to. Yours is top on that

• 27:09Speaker 01

  list. But knowing, I listen 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.

• 27:21Lewis Howes?

  So true. I love the way you approach this because you know, the idle time where we're just like 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 gonna 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, 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,

• 28:03Lewis Howes?

  I'm taking this away because I didn't know any other way to like get rid of it. And that worked for me.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  But that's an addition still. You were adding a challenge to your life that you were excited about. So as long as it's a positive.

• 28:12Lewis Howes?

  Yes, yes. But then I was also drinking a green juice every day. But I like 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 emotional health.

• 28:27Speaker 01

  And that's the approach I've always taken with everything, especially with the, all my plans with nutrition, fitness. It's all about addition. Because I mean, of course, there's things you gotta watch, but it's about adding more of the good.

• 28:37Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 28:43Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 28:44Lewis Howes?

  Both emotionally and physically.

• 28:45Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 28:46Lewis Howes?

  I think that's brilliant. Wow, that's a great strategy. For some reason, it's so simple, but it's so brilliant to me.

• 28:53Lewis Howes?

  So tell me more about this seven day jumpstart. You got the book coming out.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:56Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 29:11Speaker 01

  First and foremost, I always listen to my audience. I mean, that's who I serve. You know, and I, and I know that I've changed the lives of a lot of people and it makes me feel good that I've played a small role in that. And they're asking for that.

• 29:23Lewis Howes?

  They're asking for a book.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  People want a hard copy book with newer, with more stuff. So I thought, okay, I, this is a goal of mine. Two, I want to serve a lot of people with what I, what I share. I share, I share 95% of what I share is for free. It is. I just, I put so much out there and there's only, 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.

• 29:52Speaker 01

  I know I'm going to be able to reach and help a lot more people.

• 29:54Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 29:54Speaker 01

  For doing this. And it's what my audience has asked for. So it's something I wanted to do.

• 29:59Lewis Howes?

  But it's probably a lot more work than creating the.

• 30:01Speaker 01

  It's a lot more work.

• 30:02Lewis Howes?

  You spent a weekend creating a seven day guide that sold 40 or 50,000 copies now, made you a lot of money. And you've spent how long doing this?

• 30:11Speaker 01

  Oh my gosh, this is, it's crazy what it's taken. It's a, it's a different experience.

• 30:16Lewis Howes?

  Why do we torture ourselves?

• 30:18Speaker 01

  You know, there's, there's something to be said too, though. I, I do like people to become their best thems 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. Great. Anyone can do an ebook. Anyone can do it. 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, the big reason is I do want to get this out to more people.

• 30:50Lewis Howes?

  What do you want to be known for? Like in the next couple of years?

• 30:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:53Lewis Howes?

  As you've evolved from this, you know? A woman that's transformed her health and her life to having the things that really mean that mean a lot to you as opposed to the 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?

• 31:11Speaker 01

  I want to, 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 to. 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, like, 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

• 31:53Speaker 01

  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 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, that's how I would.

• 32:12Lewis Howes?

  How long do you think you'll be in the the fitness health world? I mean, is it something, I mean, do you see yourself being passionate about this for the next decade as well? Or is it kind of?

• 32:21Speaker 01

  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 my, the book that's being published, Seven Day Jumps are Unprocessed Your Diet. It's, it's really about unprocessing your whole life and just really, it's a bigger picture.

• 32:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, the unprocessed diet.

• 32:37Speaker 01

  It's a, it's a bigger picture. And it all goes together. That emotional health, your, everything, how you run your life, your fitness, nutrition, it all goes together. It's not just an isolated thing.

• 32:50Lewis Howes?

  It's a holistic approach to your whole life. I love that.

• 32:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:52Lewis Howes?

  But you're doing a lot more in business, teaching as well.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, my path, my, I feel I'm actually the strongest was 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 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.

• 33:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What do you think's, uh, 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 you think in terms of getting traffic and building your audience, do you think it's?

• 33:42Speaker 01

  There is, 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, on social media, it changes so frequently and you cannot, you can't, 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.

• 33:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  So it's just being open and listening and being able to shift gears and constantly listening to what people are asking for.

• 34:07Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. And what about working with your husband? How is that when you're trying to have?

• 34:12Speaker 01

  I could have a whole reality show.

• 34:15Lewis Howes?

  I mean, can you have, uh, you know, 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?

• 34:24Speaker 01

  Yes and no. Yes, we, I could say.

• 34:26Lewis Howes?

  How do you manage that?

• 34:27Speaker 01

  Depends on when you've asked us if that's, there's the, what has really saved us is we do very separate parts in our business now.

• 34:33Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 34:33Speaker 01

  We cannot, um, you know, 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. Um, we, 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, if that makes sense in separate.

• 34:50Lewis Howes?

  And do you ever disconnect from the business so you can?

• 34:52Speaker 01

  We have now, but it took work. It took work. We were both a 20, I was especially, you know, the ready, fire, aim all the time, constantly have an idea, like constantly this and I've had to work.

• 35:01Lewis Howes?

  Do it, do it, execute, execute, put it together.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  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? Um, a business or a happy relationship? And you don't have to choose, but you can, you can work to find that balance.

• 35:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:20Speaker 01

  And we've definitely had to work to do that.

• 35:21Lewis Howes?

  I mean, you guys are so 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 want to, I think about it constantly. So, you know, 10 o'clock at night after dinner, are you guys able to just talk about whatever, like random stuff?

• 35:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:44Lewis Howes?

  Are you constantly like?

• 35:45Speaker 01

  We can now, 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, I'm not ashamed to, I mean, we went to counseling about it. We went, we've, 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 you know, it's not perfect. There's definitely nights where Brooks really just wants to hang out and.

• 36:11Lewis Howes?

  Watch a movie.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I've got ideas I want to talk about, but I think we've, we've started to balance each other out and we definitely can shut it off now. But it did, did take work.

• 36:19Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 36:28Speaker 01

  Drink a lot of wine. I'm just kidding.

• 36:32Speaker 01

  God, 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, you know, 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.

• 36:52Lewis Howes?

  Why do you have the drive?

• 36:53Speaker 01

  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.

• 37:10Speaker 01

  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, 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.

• 37:55Lewis Howes?

  If you could go back to the five, six, seven year old Natalie, and do you feel like now you've achieved the dreams you had then? Like it's, you know, all the dreams you ever thought of?

• 38:06Speaker 01

  It's funny, I told my daughter who's eight now, I told her the other day, you can achieve every and anything you want to achieve if it's your goal. Every possible thing is 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. If I didn't do it, it's because it wasn't something I wanted to do.

• 38:28Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  And I believe wholeheartedly that anyone can do that if they want too bad enough, and they decide they're going to do it.

• 38:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, okay. It's all about deciding. That's the theme that I'm getting from deciding today. You've got to decide if you wanted that bad enough. I've got a couple of questions left for you. Where can we, before that, where should we go and connect with you online? And where can we get the book?

• 38:50Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 38:50Lewis Howes?

  And all those things.

• 38:51Speaker 01

  Well, on my website, nataliejillfitness.com, I'll always have everything listed there. So you can connect with me that way, all my social, my, all my current stuff. And then my book will be everywhere in May. But, and I'll of course have that on the homepage of my website, so people know exactly where to go for that.

• 39:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, cool, okay. What's something you're proud of that most people don't know about?

• 39:13Speaker 01

  I'm proud. Okay, here's, I guess this is one. I, you know, I was that kid whose father kind of did everything for you. Like, 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 know, I went from believing I had to have my dad's approval, or, you know, 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 just, it taught me that really you can change and become a different,

• 39:58Speaker 01

  you can become, you don't have to be stuck in that, I'm naive, or I'm dumb, or I'm this.

• 40:03Lewis Howes?

  You need someone else to make decisions for me.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  Yes. You can become an independent person at any time.

• 40:06Lewis Howes?

  So you decided that, though?

• 40:07Speaker 01

  It goes back to my deciding.

• 40:09Lewis Howes?

  That's great. I love that. So there's no excuses, there's nothing...

• 40:11Speaker 01

  Well, I say excuses are solutions. You decide. Just like that, because that's what I believe.

• 40:16Lewis Howes?

  Love it, love it. Final two questions. This is the three truths question.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 40:22Lewis Howes?

  Have you heard this one?

• 40:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 40:24Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 40:35Speaker 01

  My gosh. The first one would be that it's no one else's fault, because that's, 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 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, surprise, deciding comes first. That you could, you could be anything or become anything if you decide that's your, what you want. And...

• 41:06Speaker 01

  The third thing is that when it's all gone, 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, my, the most important people in my world are my daughter and my husband.

• 41:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  So I feel and that they come first always. And I, 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 no one, those are the people that you touch. So.

• 41:46Lewis Howes?

  I love it. Yeah. Well, I want to acknowledge you Natalie for for coming on and sharing your 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 were 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 can also acknowledge you for your ability to figure everything out.

• 42:22Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 42:22Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 42:29Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 42:30Lewis Howes?

  So I acknowledge all of that about you. And the final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 42:35Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. My definition of greatness would have to be, it comes down to a feeling. So people never remember what you, you sold them or what you said to them, but they're gonna remember how they feel when you were around, they're around you.

• 42:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:49Speaker 01

  So my definition of greatness is, is if people, if people have a feeling of encouragement and positivity with anything that I give, that 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.

• 43:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  So somebody that could, greatness to me is that feeling that makes others feel empowered.

• 43:19Lewis Howes?

  Natalie Jo, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it.

• 43:25Lewis Howes?

  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, LewisHowes.com/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 today, how you can get access to Natalie's book, and also share it online with your friends, your friends who you might think enjoyed 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 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."

• 44:10Lewis Howes?

  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 guest, 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.