As a former health journalist and certified Health Coach, Nancy Kalish knew she should only eat healthy food. Nancy turned her Brooklyn kitchen into a mad cooking laboratory. Her objective was to make the most incredibly tasting healthy treats ever. One year and a lot of dirty pans later, she succeeded with Pure Genius! *Note: Pure Genius recently changed their name to Rule Breaker!
Nancy jumped in not knowing ANYTHING about the food industry. She joined Expo East and went down without even any products and was a big hit.
It took a lot of trial and error to get the recipe right AND to make sure her products lasted on the shelf without molding.
Small food companies work had to bring you quality products without artificial ingredients.
Entrepreneurs have highs and lows! Nancy’s first Whole Foods order arrived spoiled and she had to go to each store and pull the product from the shelves.
Stand up for your brand and your business.
Check your trademarks before you build a business!
Pure Genius won an award in Sept 2016 for best new sweet at Expo East!
Nancy has figured out what works for her right now in her life…like giving up cooking elaborate dinners!
Rule Breaker is really committed to not only healthy stuff, but healthy stuff that tastes great!
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2017-01-23 09:49:232017-08-30 15:11:42Figure Out What Works for You in Your Life with Nancy Kalish, Pure Genius
Daina Trout is the CEO of Health-Ade Kombucha which she co-founded in 2012 alongside her husband Justin Trout and best friend Vanessa Dew. Daina’s enthusiasm to make a difference speaks to the importance of the company’s tagline “Follow your Gut.” The story of Health-Ade is owed to the belief that following your gut is integral in one’s journey to happiness and health.
In this episode you’ll learn:
How she started HealthAdeThe importance of following your gut (and a good tag-line!)
Tell us a little bit about you, Daina Trout, and what you do.
Health-Ade was started by my husband, my best friend, and I in 2012 out of our tiny apartment in Los Angeles where we had a very tiny credit card, but a big dream. We wanted to make a better tasting and higher quality kombucha. We wanted to find ways to make this product without compromising quality, and we felt there wasn’t anything in the market like that. Out of our closet was born this company, Health-Ade. We started in the farmer’s market. It’s a real old school American start-up story with crazy fast growth ever since. Passion, tenacity, and hunger has gotten us through. None of us had a big background in business. None of us had a lot of money. We started the company with $600. Four years later, we’re nationally distributed, in all states, and have about 65 employees. We just completed a 50,000 square foot brewery. We’ve done all of this without ever having to compromise quality. We make kombucha the real way, and that’s really important to me. My background is in nutrition so I’ve always cared a lot about real food.
Can you tell us what sets Health-Ade apart?
We committed ourselves from day one to one thing. We aim to be the best tasting and highest quality kombucha you can buy. We make kombucha the old school way, the way you make it at home. We do things like ferment 100% in glass to prevent plastic and metal leaching. We’re the only glass brewer. Everyone else brews in either plastic or metal. Kombucha is an extremely active and acidic process so it can really interact with the vessel it’s fermented in. We ferment in small batches. We flavor with the highest quality ingredients. We don’t use fake fermentation agents or engineered probiotics. We let the kombucha completely brew naturally. We call ourselves, simply put, real kombucha. That’s the difference.
Tell us a little bit about your company’s tagline, “Follow your Gut.”
“Follow your Gut” was initially a quick tagline that we came up with in a couple hours. The three of us were sitting around, and we decided to sell my kombucha at the farmer’s market. We thought, “Follow your Gut” was great because the probiotics. You follow your gut to kombucha, probiotics are good for your gut. It made sense. I had no idea then when we made that tagline in a couple of hours how important it would become. We’re the fastest growing brand in the category. I’ve never been here before. I don’t have a background in business. A lot of my decision making has been fueled by my instincts, my passion, my ethics or, a lot of people call that altogether your gut. I learned that following your gut is the best business practice I could adopt. I didn’t know when I created the tagline that it would literally be the thing that made me successful.
What would you say to bloggers about getting out in the community and doing outreach?
I would say nothing should get in your way. Being in front of the consumer is one of the most important things you can do.
How do you stay balanced?
It is really hard to stay balanced. One of the things I’ve had to do is manage my expectations. You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. I learned that I just have to tweak my expectations a bit. I’m a mom. I’m a wife. I’ve got this business going like crazy. I have a body that needs to be taken care of. I have friends. I have family. When I took my standard and focused it a little bit more, I started to feel a lot better. Maybe on Monday I’m the best mom, but I didn’t get a chance to work out. Tuesday I got to work out, and maybe I missed out on an hour of time with my son. Wednesday, I was the best CEO you could even imagine. At the end of the week I tasted success in every department that was important to me. I feel like that’s the way I’ve been able to balance. It’s just managing the expectations of being the best all the time at everything. Just be good at one thing at a time and allow yourself to congratulate yourself for that. You didn’t fail at seven things, you succeeded at one. That has been a real shift for me this year.
Daina Trout is the CEO of Health-Ade Kombucha which she co-founded in 2012. Daina’s enthusiasm to make a difference speaks to the importance of the company’s tagline “Follow your Gut.” Her company aims to be the best tasting and highest quality kombucha. The story of Health-Ade is owed to the belief that following your gut is integral in one’s journey to happiness and health.
You Foodies in particular will love the meal planning features and nutrition and fitness add-ons . Kitlife has these unique daily tracker stickers you can use to customize your day. There’s even a social media sticker that can help you manage your efforts to build your brand. For photos, reviews and more information check out kitlife.net and become a #kitgirl today!
And as a special promo for Blissful Bites Podcast listeners if you enter my name – Nicole Culver in the comments section at check-out Team KIT will add in a set of adorable snail –mail postcards just for fun. This variety pack of 10 postcards are so cute – and they are themed for the holidays too – so you can send some love to friends and family near or far!
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-11-21 06:00:232017-08-30 15:15:14Nothing Should Get in Your Way with Daina Trout, Health-Ade
Danielle Joseph is a brand stylist, coach, and designer at her company Function Creative Company. What she really does though is helps her clients create crazy effective communications that connect them more deeply with their audience. Danielle is also a Hatha and yin yoga instructor and is in her glory when she can blend her two worlds by working with yoga and wellness business owners. She’s focused on serving these heart centered entrepreneurs by helping them work towards sustainability in their businesses.
Tell us a little bit about you, Danielle Joseph, and what you do.
The idea behind Function and my design company is really to help my clients work through the process of, yes, getting things looking really great and bringing their brand to life and bringing their website to life, but I really try and balance that with a better approach towards functionality and of being effective. I really work deeply with my clients to get the idea about their foundation, audience, and market. We work together to make sure that it looks good, but also that it functions. I took my teacher training almost a year and a half for yoga and since I started getting in the yoga world, I noticed a lot of people coming to me after we finished our program together, asking, “Where do I go from here? What’s next?” They knew that I had a design company, so they knew I had a business idea or an idea about being an entrepreneur. They felt a little bit lost. Those questions stemmed growth around a yoga teacher community where I support teachers growing their brand and building up their business.
What action items would you recommend for entrepreneurs starting out to help them move forward with figuring out their brand and purpose?
The best piece of advice that I can give is to just start super simple. If you do not have a solid idea or foundation yet, investing in a brand stylist or a designer can be a little bit off, maybe out of reach right away. I definitely think that there are ways that you can start to figure out who your audience is. Start listening to the conversations that are happening around you. Be mindful about what people are talking about, what they are struggling with, or what you can offer to help them. Figuring out your audience is a really good place to start. For visuals, start really simple. Start with a simple wordmark.
How do you suggest listeners make the switch to finding out where their clients are instead of just people who are supporting them?
I think it is a big personal journey. Tune in and see what is going to make you happy. Find a brand or business that offers something to people and seek out who is going to benefit. The people we surround ourselves with are often not our ideal clients. Figure out what the purpose of your messaging is for you and your brand. Think about the kind of person that needs that help or that needs the guidance that you can offer. It comes back to listening to people and seeing people.
One of the biggest ways that I found my ideal audience is through Facebook groups. Seek out a couple solid Facebook groups and observe. See what people are struggling with. It can be a really good place to start noticing certain patterns in your ideal audience.
Why do you think it is important to have great design and design that aligns with your brand?
We are in this world that is bombarded by simulation everywhere. Visually we’ve got so much to look at. We’ve got so much to take in and digest. We have so many avenues of content. It can be overwhelming if you are tuning to it all the time. When it comes to design, having something to communicate your brand in a more effective way that moment that captures or captivates an audience is so important. Design is the face that you put out in front of your business and up to your audience. It is what intrigues people to go further, go deeper, click the next page, like something, or comment. Those actions we want our audience to be taking starts with good design. Good design starts with really nice looking things, but also functionality.
How do you suggest people get started with functional visuals?
Start with simple word marking. Use a typeface logo, just letters. Pinterest is an awesome place for this. You can browse great fonts that have personality. Find a combination of fonts. There are tons of resources available online like Creative Market. Canva has great inherent design setup templates. I use all of the Adobe creative suite programs. They have free trials. You just need something that is going to be able to communicate and reference to your brand.
If the listeners can get advice how to develop their brand visuals, what do you think they should go start right now?
Get a good idea. Create a board with pieces that are inspirational and what resonates with you for your brand. A dream board or mood board is really good place to start. Sit down and ask yourself key questions. What is your why for your brand? Why are you doing this? Why is it important to you. Start free flowing writing. The more consistency your audience sees, the easier it will be for them to remember you, think about you, and digest that in a deeper way.
Danielle Joseph is a brand stylist, coach, and designer at her company Function Creative Company. She helps her clients create effective communications that connect them more deeply with their audience. She is focused on serving these heart centered entrepreneurs by helping them work towards sustainability in their businesses.
You Foodies in particular will love the meal planning features and nutrition and fitness add-ons . Kitlife has these unique daily tracker stickers you can use to customize your day. There’s even a social media sticker that can help you manage your efforts to build your brand. For photos, reviews and more information check out kitlife.net and become a #kitgirl today!
And as a special promo for Blissful Bites Podcast listeners if you enter my name – Nicole Culver in the comments section at check-out Team KIT will add in a set of adorable snail –mail postcards just for fun. This variety pack of 10 postcards are so cute – and they are themed for the holidays too – so you can send some love to friends and family near or far!
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-11-16 06:00:432017-08-30 15:15:41The Importance of Good Design with Danielle Joseph
Kindal Boyle is a personal trainer and an RKC kettle bell coach in Charleston where she owns two fit strength studios for women with her husband. She also shares a passion for living your fitness at her blog, Lifting Revolution.
In this episode you’ll learn:
why you need to work with your local community first
how she works daily with her husband
how she navigates her free verse paid content
Tell us a little bit about you, Kindal Boyle, and what you do.
I live in Charleston where I have 2 fitness studios. We cater to women with passion for fitness and strength. We offer weight lifting, kettle bell, and body weight style boot camp classes. It’s not your traditional walk-in gym. My husband and I started that fitness about 8 years ago. I started the business, and he came on full time with me about 5-6 years ago. We have a blog Lifting Revolution, and we own an online studio as well called Fit Woman’s Weekly there are videos so people can work out right there with me. I have a workout partner, so I know how beneficial that is. My passion is helping push other women to be their inspiration and their workout partners any time that they need it.
Did your in-person strength studios come first or did your online businesses come first?
A little bit of both.
Do you think entrepreneurs should be getting out in their community?
I cannot stress enough how important it is that you need to get out there and do something in your own local community first.
How have you really separated your free stuff on your blog from your paid for programs?
As far as the free stuff, we’re really smart about it. We are big believers about giving away short-term free products. Years ago on my blog people would always comment, “Thank you. You’re so real.” I’ve used that to my advantage and say, “I am your real trainer. I am here for you, I’m going to tell it like it is. I’m going to tell you my struggle which I have always done, and that’s one of the great things that sets me apart.
Is there one particular flop you had in your business?
My biggest flop is trying to be in control of everything and in charge of everything.
Is there one lesson that you’ve learned in the past few months that you wish you knew when you were starting out with your businesses?
One thing I wish I knew and would go back and change would be outsourcing. I would have started it from the get go. I think that it would made things super easy. The biggest thing is taking small actions every single day to move forward.
Kindal Boyle is a personal trainer and RKC kettle bell coach in Charleston. She owns two fit strength studios for women and shares a passion for living your fitness at her blog, Lifting Revolution. Her passion is helping push other women to be their inspiration and their workout partners any time that they need it.
You Foodies in particular will love the meal planning features and nutrition and fitness add-ons . Kitlife has these unique daily tracker stickers you can use to customize your day. There’s even a social media sticker that can help you manage your efforts to build your brand. For photos, reviews and more information check out kitlife.net and become a #kitgirl today!
And as a special promo for Blissful Bites Podcast listeners if you enter my name – Nicole Culver in the comments section at check-out Team KIT will add in a set of adorable snail –mail postcards just for fun. This variety pack of 10 postcards are so cute – and they are themed for the holidays too – so you can send some love to friends and family near or far!
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-11-14 06:00:222017-08-30 15:16:21Do Something with Your Local Community First with Kindal Boyle
Rachel Rouhana is a photographer who helps women entrepreneurs create visually stunning brands to attract their ideal clients. She founded the Haute Chocolate Style stocked library to make it easy for boss ladies to create gorgeous graphics that get more sales.
In this episode you’ll learn:
How Rachel got the idea to start a stock photography membership site
How she went from a few sales to 6 figures
Photography tips to improve your pictures
Tell us a little bit about you, Rachel Rouhana, and what you do.
I’m a self-taught photographer and I create styled stock photos for women entrepreneurs and bloggers. I started the style stocked library in March 2015 because I really saw a need for having beautiful, stylish, chic, feminine photos available, and I couldn’t really find what I was looking for. I decided to start a membership site so that women could have access to a variety of photos to create their visual content. I’ve been doing that for about a year and a half. Before I started Haute Chocolate I had a graphic design business where I created invitations and party printables. I’m definitely not new to the entrepreneurship world, but my business has taken some different paths based on needs that I saw in the market.
How did you get the idea to start a membership site instead of a more traditional pay per picture stock site?
There were a few different considerations. The main thing was that I was trying to create a sales page and I kept having to buy individual stock photos but very few kind of fit the aesthetic that I wanted. The cost was adding up really quickly. I just thought, there is going to be a better way. Online entrepreneurs have to create so many visuals with blog posts and social media posts. I wanted to create a styled stock photography membership site where I upload new photos every month so there is always fresh content and there is no limit to how many images you can download.
How did you launch your site? Did you go to your current design clients or did you start in a different way?
I actually started brand new because my previous clients were not business owners. They were individuals who needed party invitations and party decorations. I did not have a base of business owners who were looking for any kind of help with graphics or photos. I started completely fresh with zero. I had no people on my mailing list. I launched to a couple of different Facebook groups, and then I just kind of put it out there like, “I’m starting this new thing.” I knew a lot of people wanted stock photos and were interested in it. I knew there was going to be a market for it and so I just basically was like, “Hi! I’m ready to… This is what I’m doing if you’re interested you can find out for my mailing list and get two free stock photos.”
Did you have a 6-figure launch the first time you put yourself out there?
Heck no.
Why would people want to use stock photography?
Stock photos used to be really stuffy and corporate. We’re seeing a big shift now. People really want to use stock photos because they want to elevate their branding and maybe they don’t have the funds yet to hire photographers and get custom photos created. They still want professional, really great looking photos to use. Another reason is just the sheer amount of visual content that we have to create these days. Pretty much every piece of content that you post requires some kind of image to go with it because it’s going to get more interaction. As someone who is not a professional photographer, how do you do that? How do you create visuals if you don’t have the photos? The other thing to is that the industry is changing as peoples’ taste changes as well. I try to stay current with what people want. We have to listen to our communities, hear what they are saying, and really give them what they’re looking for. Stock photography has gotten way better in the last year or so for women entrepreneurs and I think that people can really just elevate their brands really quickly by using professional, high quality photos.
How can people make your stock photos fit their brands?
I think a lot of people don’t want to use stock photos because they think, “Everybody else is using these. How can I make it look like something that works for me?” There’s a few ways you can easily do it. I love using Canva. It’s one of the best online editing tools available right now. There’s a lot that you can do easily to make it your own. A few things are just infusing it with your own brand fonts. You can change your fonts to your own brand colors. You can add color overlays. You want to add your own URL. You can crop them in a lot of different ways. My main advice is to add your own specific brand fonts, find a way to incorporate your brand colors, and add your own type of like graphics for your brand. By overlaying some of these different elements of your brand, you’re creating a custom image that’s going to be recognizable to you.
Rachel Rouhana is the founder & creative director of Haute Chocolate. She’s a self-taught graphic designer and photo stylist. She has been running a successful graphic design and branding business since 2011 and have worked with thousands of customers & clients from around the world.
You Foodies in particular will love the meal planning features and nutrition and fitness add-ons . Kitlife has these unique daily tracker stickers you can use to customize your day. There’s even a social media sticker that can help you manage your efforts to build your brand. For photos, reviews and more information check out kitlife.net and become a #kitgirl today!
And as a special promo for Blissful Bites Podcast listeners if you enter my name – Nicole Culver in the comments section at check-out Team KIT will add in a set of adorable snail –mail postcards just for fun. This variety pack of 10 postcards are so cute – and they are themed for the holidays too – so you can send some love to friends and family near or far!
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-11-09 06:00:532017-08-30 15:16:43Tips for Better Photography and Pictures with Rachel Rouhana
Luci Petlack is everything California, raised and born in Northern California. She now lives in sunny Los Angeles with her husband. You can usually find her in jeans sipping iced coffee, dreaming of a recipe to be made, and a trip to be planned. After earning her PhD in History in 2013, she moved on to a more creative and social career, her blog, Luci’s Morsels. Her style can be described as comfortably chic, her taste deliciously healthy, a homebody at heart who loves day trips and overnight treks to nearby cities. She’s had her passport practically since birth and is always ready to wander across the globe.
Tell us a little bit about you, Luci Petlack, and what you do.
I just turned 30, and I feel like I’ve kind of had to re-evaluate my life for who I am. I’m a fashion and food blogger, and basically it’s an avenue for me to share everything that I’m interested in. I talk about the clothes that I’m wearing or the recipes that I’ve been making or the travels that I’ve been doing, and that’s a recent addition to the blog. I recently started teaching blogging and social media which has been fun. On a more personal side I am more of a homebody. My husband and I look for fun ways to hang out whether it’s just coffee shop or day trip or whatever. I think that there is a lot of joy in small things and it goes unappreciated.
How did you figure out what your niche was? Did you start writing about food and then it transformed into writing about different areas or did you start writing about everything?
I started my blog when I was in my fourth year of grad school. I returned from the last of my research trips, and I was emotionally and mentally worn out. I woke up really early one morning and just decided that my only therapy was baking. I needed to bake far more than my husband and I could eat. I created this business at 5:00 am on my phone under the covers so I wouldn’t wake my husband up. I called it Luci’s Morsels, and I was going to sell baked goods to friends, family, and colleagues. As part of my business plan I decided I would create a blog and talk about the desserts. Also, before this is I had lost at least 30 pounds, and I was on my way to losing 40 pounds. I quickly discovered that talking about dessert everyday wasn’t feasible for me. By the end of the first week I wrote a blog post and said, Luci’s Morsels is more than just about food. A morsel is anything that brings you just a little bit of joy in your life. I wrote primarily about fashion and food. In January of this year when I added travel on a much more consistent and intentional basis.
Can you talk a little bit about that transition from getting your PhD in History, being a teacher, and then now?
I think its interesting people say, “Your life must be so different.” There are a lot of things from grad school that have help me a lot. I’m good at working at home by myself which is something people underestimate when you work for yourself. I’m organized. I can maintain a schedule. I’m really good at setting my own deadlines. I went from working at home by myself staring at a word document, to working at home by myself staring at the blogger platform. There are a lot of similarities.
It’s been struggle breaking into networking for me because when you work at home by yourself there’s no network around you. You have to go out and put yourself out there. Frankly I want to be home at night with my husband hanging out. I love being around others, but it’s completely different thing from being in academia in a whole new way.
Can you talk a little bit about how you got into teaching about blogging and social media?
Teaching started because of a relationship. I joined the food bloggers of LA group a few years ago. One of the women who heads up the group works in PR. One of her contacts asked her if she’ll be interested in teaching a blogging course. She wasn’t interested, but because she knew me and she could speak to my abilities and my degree, she referred her friend to me. The last time I taught a class I hated it, and I dreaded going. I said yes and as it turns out I loved it. I love teaching. I love talking about what I do everyday.
Do you have any tips on how to build relationships to get more long term partnerships?
I think one of them is being honest and grateful. If I’ve agreed to work with a company, I email that representative when the post goes live. Keep that line of communication open. I max out communication during a campaign just so they know who I am, they know that I’m professional, they know I’m dependable. If an opportunity comes up again I don’t want them saying, “She is okay to work with.” I want them saying, “She’s fantastic to work with. She’s really professional. She’s always on time. No issues.” I’m huge about following up.
Any last advice for bloggers who are really starting to get on their game and take this seriously on how they can really grow?
Identify your strength and go to town.
Luci Petlack is the blogger behind Luci’s Morsels where she shares all things food, fashion, and travel. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband. You can usually find her in jeans sipping iced coffee, dreaming of a recipe to be made, and a trip to be planned.
You Foodies in particular will love the meal planning features and nutrition and fitness add-ons . Kitlife has these unique daily tracker stickers you can use to customize your day. There’s even a social media sticker that can help you manage your efforts to build your brand. For photos, reviews and more information check out kitlife.net and become a #kitgirl today!
And as a special promo for Blissful Bites Podcast listeners if you enter my name – Nicole Culver in the comments section at check-out Team KIT will add in a set of adorable snail –mail postcards just for fun. This variety pack of 10 postcards are so cute – and they are themed for the Holidays too – so you can send some love to friends and family near or far!
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-11-07 06:00:072017-08-30 15:17:05Put Yourself to the Test with Luci Petlack
Marissa Vicario is an award-winning, board certified integrative health and nutrition coach, blogger, and women’s health and lifestyle expert. She is the founder of Marissa’s Well-being and Health. She is passionate about teaching women to trust themselves to make nutritious, slimming, and energizing choices without resorting to fad diets and all juice cleanses. Her tips, recipes, and expertise have been featured on the Dr. Oz Show, New York Times Entrepreneur magazine, Glamour, and Next Generation TV among many other women’s lifestyle publications.
In this episode you’ll learn how Marissa self published her book instead of going through the typical publishing model! She gives tips on how you can do the same!
Tell us a little bit about you, Marissa Vicario, and what you do.
I am a certified integrative health and nutrition coach, and I coach women. I have a private practice where I coach women both one-on-one and help them navigate the world of nutrition and change their relationship with food. I also have group programs that I run. On top of that I am a women’s health and lifestyle expert so I do a lot of media around advice and tips and tricks. I do some writing on nutrition and wellness topics and do corporate lectures. Recently, there is a big uptake in companies wanting to offer wellness programming for their employees. Many of these companies hire me. I come in and give a talk whether it’s at a conference or a lunch. I help with some workshops and events locally around the city, different retailers like Lululemon, and other locations that share my vision.
How did you get your start?
I have been always interested in fitness. I have been exercising since I was 17 years old. As I got older, I started to make the connection between nutrition and fitness. I wanted to learn more about how I could support my active lifestyle with a healthier diet. I started talking to people about the foods that I was eating. People were interested and I loved talking about it. I decided that I wanted to pursue that passion and decided to go back to school and get certified as a health coach. From there I started my business.
How did you get your start your business?
I started by going to corporate health fairs. I met a chiropractor who was putting on corporate health fairs and that’s how I got my entrance into some businesses who were interested in bringing on speakers. As I got more experience doing that, people found me on LinkedIn. I was invited to speak, and I pro-actively reached out to different companies and offered my services.
Can you tell us a little bit what made you want to write a book?
A couple years ago I received an email from a publisher that was doing a writing workshop in Florida. If you attended the workshop, you had 6 months to submit your book proposal. There was a contest with 3 winners. The first place winner would get a publishing deal from this publisher. I thought, “I have to go there.” I went to the conference. I wrote my proposal, and I sent it into this contest. I didn’t win, and I was a little bit devastated. As I was preparing to get an agent, I got another opportunity to be a part of a course that would help me self-publish.
How did you figure out how to self-publish?
I used a course on self-publishing that help walked me through the steps. I had no idea where to start except to actually write the manuscript. The process was laid out in this course, and that was super helpful.
Who your ideal reader and how did you figure it out?
First of all, I looked at myself ten years ago, and said, “That’s her.” My ideal reader is an urban professional, has done the partying thing, been out and about, it’s starting to wear on her, and she realizes there is something more out there. There is something out there and I want better for myself. I want to treat my body better. I don’t want to eat this way and drink this way anymore. My reader is someone who has tried every diet and workout but still isn’t seeing the results. Somebody who wants to sort of go back to basics and reset and take a gentler approach. New moms are coming to me all the time saying, “I want to set an example for my family. Now that I have kids, I really want to be healthier and set an example for my kids that we can have a healthy relationship with food and this is how we eat in our family.”
Marissa Vicario is an award-winning, board certified integrative health and nutrition coach, blogger, and women’s health and lifestyle expert. She is the founder of Marissa’s Well-being and Health. She wants to help womenlive a healthier, more balanced lifestyle free of dieting, deprivation, and calorie-counting.
You Foodies in particular will love the meal planning features and nutrition and fitness add-ons . Kitlife has these unique daily tracker stickers you can use to customize your day. There’s even a social media sticker that can help you manage your efforts to build your brand. For photos, reviews and more information check out kitlife.net and become a #kitgirl today!
And as a special promo for Blissful Bites Podcast listeners if you enter my name – Nicole Culver in the comments section at check-out Team KIT will add in a set of adorable snail –mail postcards just for fun. This variety pack of 10 postcards are so cute – and they are themed for the Holidays too – so you can send some love to friends and family near or far!
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-11-04 06:48:302017-08-30 15:17:29How to Self Publish a Book with Marissa Vicario
Megan Roosevelt is a registered dietitian-nutritionist, the founder and CEO of Healthy Grocery Girl, and the number one, family-friendly dietitian on Youtube with over a million total views. She is an internationally published author, host, producer as well as a nutrition expert for television and magazines. Her work has been featured on ABC, CBS, Hallmark Channel, Shape, Health, Prevention, Real Simple, the Huffington Post, and Origin Magazine just to name a few.
Tell us a little bit about you, Megan Roosevelt, and what you do.
Professionally, I’m a registered dietitian-nutritionist. My husband and I run our company, Healthy Grocery Girl. We have a wellness website, a membership based website where we offer meal plans, educational videos, grocery shopping guides, and cooking guides. Basically, lots of great resources to help people eat and live healthy. We also do a lot of videos. We have a Youtube channel where we share videos that are free for people to watch every week. We do videos for a range of our other clients and we’re just all over social media sharing lots of healthy tips. We’re trying to help people live a healthier life in a really fun and realistic way.
How did you get started with Healthy Grocery Girl?
I went to school to be a registered dietitian. I was looking for typical RD jobs, and I was just wasn’t getting anything. It was really discouraging. I had an”Aha!” moment pretty early on where I realized I really want to love what I do. I’ve always have an entrepreneurial spirit. I think all the closed doors were kind of a blessing in disguise. I decided I I don’t need to wait for someone else to hire me. I have lots of skills so I can just start promoting myself. Originally, our business started as personal nutrition coaching, but it’s evolved from there to become the digital company that we are today.
Do you have any advice on how to pick 2-3 things that you really want to focus on?
It needs to be something you’re really passionate. That means that you’ll work on it all the time no matter if there’s ups or downs because you just love it. It also needs to be scalable or it’s not going to make you a lot of money.
How did you decide to go the membership route as opposed to just income of sponsored posts?
I love business so I’m always reading about things. I remember learning really early on that multiple income streams is really important and so we do have those. We work with sponsors which are very appreciative for videos and such, but we also have our membership site because it’s really important that we have that in our community. We do videos for our clients for their brand, for their website, whatever kind of video work they want. We basically have a few things that we’re passionate about and it kind of helps, overall, make our business successful.
Do you think that the in-person piece was key to building your online audience?
Totally. I think especially when you are starting out and even today you have to be willing to just do work. I did so many workshops, demos, speaking engagements at grocery stores or wellness communities for free just to get in front of people and get my name out there. When you are just getting started, just say yes and do as many things as you can to get in front of people. As you grow, you get busier, and can be more selective about what you do for free. Being with people, real people, one-on -one, helps you really understand the needs of your clients.
What was your biggest piece of advice to someone who is just starting out in business?
Be patient. Just hustle.
Megan Roosevelt is is a registered dietitian-nutritionist, the founder and CEO of Healthy Grocery Girl, and the number one, family-friendly dietitian on Youtube with over a million total views. She is an internationally published author, host, producer as well as a nutrition expert for television and magazines.
You Foodies in particular will love the meal planning features and nutrition and fitness add-ons . Kitlife has these unique daily tracker stickers you can use to customize your day. There’s even a social media sticker that can help you manage your efforts to build your brand. For photos, reviews and more information check out kitlife.net and become a #kitgirl today!
And as a special promo for Blissful Bites Podcast listeners if you enter my name – Nicole Culver in the comments section at check-out Team KIT will add in a set of adorable snail –mail postcards just for fun. This variety pack of 10 postcards are so cute – and they are themed for the Holidays too – so you can send some love to friends and family near or far!
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-10-31 06:00:042017-08-30 15:17:41The Surprising Key to Building Your Online Audience with Megan Roosevelt
Mariah McCullough is a full-time working mom who’s using her weight loss of 100 pounds to build her own business by helping women gain confidence, lose weight, and start living their lives again by creating their own transformation. In June she created a free 10-day low carb challenge and grew her email list from 180 to 3,800 in 30 days and started making money online. She has a thriving Facebook community filled with former challengers who are begging her for more.
Tell us a little bit about you, Mariah McCullough, and what you do.
I’m a 36 year old mother of an 8-year old son. I currently work a full-time corporate job which keeps me very busy. I lost over 100 pounds and kept it off and so I started a business because so many people kept asking me, “Will you coach?” “Can you coach me how to lose weight?” “Can you do this?” I said no for the longest time, and I finally decided let me just do this. Let me test this out. I really found that not only did it inspire and motivate me, but I was able to help a lot of people who are stuck in places where I had been stuck. I started with 1-on-1 coaching and it’s kind of evolved to more of a low carb challenge program, other products, and coaching services.
Why did you decide to run an online challenge with your Facebook community?
I was doing one-on-one coaching. I have a full time corporate job that keeps me very busy, and I travel all the time. I realized that I was really limited on the number of clients I could work with. I also realized that continuing with that path, my business was never really going to be more than just a side passion. I was making some money, but I would never make it to grow beyond what it was because I didn’t have enough time. I decided that I was going to run a challenge. I never really participated in a challenge but I thought, “There is something to these challenges.” So many people are doing challenges. People in my industry get stuck a lot at the beginning because they need a little extra hand holding. They need a little more specifics on the rules. I decided instead of continuing to tell everybody one-on-one about my eating plan, why not I put together a challenge that walks them through their first 10 days.
How did your challenge affect your business?
My list was under 200, and it had been for 9-10 months. I was frustrated. I wondered how I was ever going to grow this business because I can’t even give people to want something from me for free. Taking this challenge to the Facebook group, honestly, I feel like that was the start of my business. I have about 1,400 people in my closed group. They’re talking to me all the time. I have sent feedback surveys with great response. I really just feel like I intimately know who is attracted to me, and I know how I can help them. After doing that challenge, I have the confidence that I can help people and people are hungry for what I can offer them. I did a second challenge. The last day of the challenge I wrote a low-carb companion guide because I still hadn’t figured out what I was going to do. I wrote a low-carb companion guide and sold it for $27. I made $3,500 from a $27 e-book which is crazy to me. It just shows me how hungry people are and they wanted more. The challenges have jump started my community. They built my list. They continue to build my list. I really feel like that was the catalyst to actually having a business that’s making money and that can grow instead of just the one-on-one coaching.
How did you find people for the challenge?
I utilized Facebook ads.
Where do you think entrepreneurs should start if they are thinking about doing a challenge?
The first thing is pick a topic. I asked, “What’s the number one thing that people ask me all the time?” It drives me crazy that I asked about it so much. Find something you get asked about a lot, and then try to figure out how you can create something, a challenge, where participants can get a transformation in that amount of time. but they will get a transformation.
How do you go from a challenge with the free information to a sale without feeling too salesy?
I started seeding information. I kind of struggle with that too because I didn’t want to feel that way. I also didn’t want them to think that like this is just a volunteer service. I added something simple that I learned from Simple Green Smoothies. I watched how they did their challenge, and I think it’s pretty smart. They just added the bottom of their challenge e-mails, “Don’t want to wait for the challenge materials? Grab it here for $5.” $5 isn’t going to make you a millionaire, but it suddenly plants the seed that everything isn’t free and this is going to be available for purchase, maybe something else will be.
Mariah McCullough is a nutrition and health coach with a B.A. in Sports Management. She helps women gain confidence, lose weight, and start living their lives again by creating their own transformation. In June she created a free 10-day low carb challenge and grew her email list from 180 to 3,800 in 30 days. She has a thriving Facebook community filled with former challengers who are begging her for more.
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-10-26 08:00:002017-08-30 15:17:57How to Start an Online Challenge with Mariah McCullough
Makenzie Marzluff a social entrepreneur, nutritionist, and founder of Delighted by Hummus. She believes business challenges are an opportunity to develop yourself personally and spiritually. Makenzie’s role is to provide a foundation for people to fly and fulfill their soul purpose to their greatest extent.
In this episode you’ll learn:
How Makenzie started her company after other failed businesses.
Why she believes everyone should be happy.
Her biggest flop with her food company that resulted in pulling product off the shelf.
Tell us a little bit about you, Makenzie Marzluff, and what you do.
I’m a social entrepreneur and that’s really taking on a new meaning for me. I’m a conscious entrepreneur because I feel as though different than all my other ventures than Delighted By, the separate entity that has come through me. I’ve decided to be a channel and it came through me. “She’s a girl and I’m her guardian.” I am her foundation to fly out in the world. The product gets to a certain place, it gets to be consumed by our consumers, and I’m responsible for the messaging that gets delivered along the way. I’m also responsible for our team and how empowered they are as they helped deliver her message. Delighted By is home of the original dessert hummus. It’s a dip made from chickpeas, but in sweet flavors and of course, really healthy. My background is in nutrition. It’s all vegan and gluten-free, all natural, no preservatives. It’s very clean. That’s super important to us. The mission of Delighted By is to inspire people to spread their glitter, to be their light. Whatever it is that gets them up in the morning and gets them excited is their glitter that they need to be spreading. It is literally going to uplift the consciousness of humanity and so we want Delighted By to be this walking, talking example that when you do that, even when it’s risky, even when it’s uncomfortable, that it will be so worth it.
How did you push past that scariness and say, “I am doing this and I’m going to share it out along the way”?
I was not okay with being unhappy in my work. Work is what we do everyday for the majority day. I tried to work for people, and it wouldn’t last very long. That was a huge motivating factor. I said no to the universe. I am not okay with doing something I’m unhappy doing. You have to take some responsibility for yourself in a way. I decided to love myself enough to say, “No. I refuse to be unhappy.” When I said that and believed it and claimed it, the universe was like, “Here you go. Here’s an idea. Now, I’m going to test you.” The universe is saying, “Are you going to act on it? I’m going to throw you all these other obstacles. Are you going to act on it? Are you going to push through?” I think what the quality of an entrepreneur is that you have to actually have a sense of delusion. You have to be completely delusional to believe that these things can happen. I heard Jim Carrey say this the other day on Youtube, “You have to believe that something’s going to happen that’s never happened before.” You come back to those beliefs over and over again. Focusing on what it is that I want to create even though people say it’s impossible.
What do you think is the first step for the listeners if they’re struggling with that self love and happy peace?
Just ask. It’s so simple. Ask your higher self where you need to go in order to practice self love. For some people it could be a relationship, a good one or a tumultuous one. For some people it could be a direct modality like mirror therapy. I can’t answer that for anyone, but what happens is that people just don’t ask.
How did you decide to make such a strong mission? How do you live that every single day?
In 2014 I had a very rough year personally. At the end of 2014, I was determined to get myself back here. I wanted to wake up with a desire to live and be happy. I went on that journey of healing myself physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I discovered a lot of things in that time. This big question I came with in February 2015 was, What is my purpose? I want to know why am I here? Why do I matter? What do I do with that information? I got this really clear message, Your purpose is to just spread your glitter. It sounds so simple and that’s just my way of saying be the light. No matter what I do, no matter where I go, that I just bring me, that I just bring my energy to that room, person or environment and that’s all I have to do. It gave me this tremendous peace. It gave me this tremendous knowing that no matter what I do, I’m going to be fully supported, provided for, and fully happy. If I resonate with that purpose, if I always re-align with it, I’m going to be happy.
What has been a successful marketing technique for Delighted By?
We don’t do marketing. We’ve gone to trade shows. That’s been great. At the end of the day I’ve loved seeing how Delighted By, in her pure intention, has attracted other people that want to share her message.
Makenzie Marzluff is a social entrepreneur, nutritionist, and founder of Delighted by Hummus. She believes business challenges are an opportunity to develop yourself personally and spiritually. Mackenzie believes her that my purpose is to spread her glitter. She desires to bring her presence, her light, to the world.
https://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blissful-Eats-Podcast-Image.png800800Nicole Chttps://nicoleculver.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nicole-Culver-Logo.pngNicole C2016-10-24 06:00:062017-08-30 15:18:43Why You Deserve to Be Happy with Makenzie Marzluff
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