Pulling Back the Curtain

This is probably up there with my top 3 favorite podcasts I’ve ever recorded.  If you haven’t listened to any of my podcasts, I hope you’ll check out this one!  It’s good!Questions I get asked often:“What do you do when you don’t want to keep going with your fitness goals?”“Natalie, how do I even get started with this business idea I have?”“I’m feeling paralyzed by perfection.”In this podcast, I fill you in on the new projects I’m working on right now (like our mountain retreat!), my exact step-by-step process of how I pull the ideas out of my head, get them on paper, and create an actual product.  It’s the exact same process I go through when I’m feeling stuck with my weight loss and fitness goals.Action creates momentum.  Remind yourself of this over and over if you have to.  Write it on a sticky note and tape it to the wall if you need to.Imperfect action is better than no action at all. My top three tips (which I explain in more detail in the podcast) are:1) Just get started.  Don’t be that person who always is waiting to “start on Monday”.  Start right now with what you have. I explain my “brain dump” process which is what you see in this photo.2) Find a mentor and/or surround yourself with a tribe of people who have similar goals.  I am a very influenceable person (which can be good or bad) and I know that if I surround myself with people doing the same types of things I want to be doing….I will have much better success.3) Be realistic.  Do a social media cleanse if you are following anyone who makes you feel “less than” or “not enough”. Remember that you have to have a 1.0 version before you can ever get a 2.0 or a 10.0 version.  Everyone begins somewhere.Hope you’ll listen and I hope you love it <3 So much love,Natalie

Nicholas Bayerle is a man who understands what it means to struggle.

He understands how to take the pain of your past and use that pain to create a life you want.

Nicholas (and his wife Amanda) are friends of mine and he has an amazing story of struggle and success that will bring you to tears and inspire you to begin believing in yourself and how to begin taking action when you are doubting yourself.We go over topics like:-How to help encourage your kids to grow up with confidence and believe in themselves-How he overcame depression and near suicide-How he and his wife work together to run their business-How he learned to eat healthy and begin exercising -His top secrets for getting motivated and getting started

If you’ve ever felt doubt, crippling anxiety, or asked the question, “Who am I to do this?” Then you will love this episode with my friend Nicholas.

This is one of the top questions I get asked!!  People DM me and say, “Natalie...I love all your outdoors pictures, and I want to do something like that but I’m afraid to go alone!”  So, I recorded a podcast talking about everything I know about backpacking and how I overcame my fear too. In this podcast I go over:-How I had never backpacked before in my life, showed up at REI one day, bought everything I thought I would need, and hiked 150 miles on the Appalachian trail all my myself (3 years ago).-How to figure out where to go, and the best places to find what trails to hike (books to buy, apps to download, people to talk to, etc)-What to pack and my top 3 items I never leave without

-If you want to carry a gun, I talk about the pros/cons and what kind of handgun I have -How I sometimes feel that I have kind of a wild spirit to me, and spending time alone in nature helps me keep that in check.

And so much more!  I share a bunch of crazy stories, but I hope you like this one, I had a ton of fun recording it.“Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear.  Such people become crazy, or they become legends.” - One Stab Xo - Natalie

Narcissism is a term I had NEVER heard of in my entire life until this past year.  I sat down with two of my closest girlfriends, Rikki and Mandy in today’s episode. We continue our podcast on Narcissism, this is part 2 where we talk about how to move on if you’ve been in a toxic relationship with a narcissist.  This was one of my most popular podcasts so far, I’m excited to share Part 2 with you guys! Things we go over:-What you need to do to emotionally get over the feeling of being alone after removing a narcissist from your life -What type of inner work you need to do to get over a toxic relationship with a narcissist-How you can help a friend who is in a narcissistic relationship-How to go no-contact and also how to deal with a narcissistic in your life you can’t remove (parent, sibling, co-parent, etc)Hope you guys love it!  Link in my bio. XoNatalie

“A narcissist will burn down your house to warm up their hands.”I had never heard about the term “narcissism” until last year when two of my closest girlfriends introduced me to what narcissism is, how to recognize it, and how to heal from it.  Someone who has a complete lack of empathy for others, who thinks very highly of oneself, needing admiration and believing others are inferior.

We had so much fun recording this podcast!Things we cover in this podcast:-What is Narcissism-How you can tell if you are in a relationship with a narcissist

-The difference between being a narcissist or just having narcissistic tendencies -What terms like: love bombing, gaslighting, and future faking mean-Our own stories of having narcissistic family members, narcissistic best friends, and narcissistic ex-boyfriends

-A narcissist’s cycle of overvalue, devalue and discardSo many of you guys say that listening to my podcast makes you feel like you are sitting around having a glass of wine with a girlfriend...so that’s what we did here!  We sat around a table, shared our stories and experiences, and what we have learned through those experiences. We talked for a long time so turned this into a Part 1 and a Part 2 series, I hope you love it!So much love,Natalie

Today’s podcast is a little bit of a confessional...if you haven’t listened to my last podcast about #75Hard you should listen to that one first.  But, long story short I slipped up on #75Hard, and on this program when you mess up you go back to Day 1. I give all the details of what happened, what I learned from it, and how I’m going to work through it all on today’s podcast.  My main takeaways: -My body DOES feel better when I’m getting my steps in, outdoor walking, and drinking a gallon of water a day. -Doing hard things are important, but I also believe in the importance of habit stacking, being realistic with your goal setting, and not changing too many things all at once.-The way you speak to yourself matters, and at the end I touch on my top tips for learning to speak kindly to yourself even if you aren’t exactly where you want to be with your physique. -It’s ok to show yourself grace when you mess up.  The most important part when you screw up is to dust your knees off, stand back up, and make sure the story you tell yourself isn’t “I’m a failure” but the story you tell yourself is, “I got in the arena, I tried, I stumbled, how can I re-adjust to make this a win for me next time?”Hope you guys enjoy this one! Love you guys!  

Xo - Natalie

This podcast style was a little different!  I just recorded an “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” style podcast where I took your guys’ questions and answered them in more detail than I can provide anywhere else.  Questions like:

-Would you ever consider having more kids?  

-Tips on feeling worthy to have major success whether it’s business, personal, etc?  

-What was one moment that changed your view on your own self confidence?

-Any advice on long distance relationships?  

-Are you still doing #75hard and if so what diet are you following?  

-What do you eat for breakfast when you don’t have time to cook?  

-How do you feel about keto?  

-Update on your health and the weird rash you had?

-What is the best way to prepare elk meat?

-How do you handle a spouse who isn’t supportive for an online business?

-Do you ever do fasting and if so do you workout while fasting?  And more!  Hope you guys love it!xo - Natalie

Have you ever heard me joke (but I’m not really joking) that I’m a secret prepper?  Like….a doomsday type-prepper lol. Even though I don’t actually think there are any big conspiracies out there or anything like that, I DO see a ton of value in having the skills necessary to take care of yourself if something crazy were to happen.  For example, what if you didn’t have a grocery store you could just run to and get your food? Would you know how to cook things if you didn’t have electricity for a week? Even though the chances are slim of something like that happening, I love learning and having the knowledge and skills that make me feel prepared.In today’s podcast, I share some fun stories about growing up that helped me lean towards this lifestyle, the benefits of growing your own food, what kinds of things you can grow to (for example) reduce fever, get rid of toothache, or how to build a backyard brick oven with bricks if you had no electricity, and then I share my best tips on how to get started if you are interested also.  

I could give you a whole bag of excuses why, but none of them really matter. The past five-ish months I just haven’t been super consistent with my workouts.  Truthfully, it’s kind of annoyed me because I tend to identify as someone who...when I say I am going to do something, I typically do it. So, I decided to commit to an extreme #75hard challenge that I saw @andyfrisella start.  It’s tough and it’s intense, and it isn’t a physical transformation challenge but rather a mental transformation challenge.  I was amped up when I listened to his podcast, and intrigued by the idea of using this challenge to create mental toughness. In today’s podcast, I share a little bit more insight into why I decided to do this.  Then I tell you guys my three secrets….the things that you MUST do if you want to make a big change in your life.I hope you love it! - Natalie

Have you ever put yourself out there, or shared something really personal and then instantly felt exposed, and regretful, and maybe even a little sick?  Yeah….that’s called a Vulnerability Hangover. And even though I share my stories often….I still go through this nearly every time I share.

The irony of being vulnerable, is that when YOU are the one being vulnerable it makes you feel small, and scared….but vulnerability serves a purpose.  Brene Brown (if you haven’t watched her Tedx talk yet go do it right now. Her work changed my life in so many positive ways) says, “vulnerability is our most accurate measure of courage.”

I one time heard Roman Krznaric say, “We live in a culture where making yourself vulnerable – exposing your fears and uncertainties, taking emotional risks – is considered a form of weakness, and something most of us want to run away from. But Brené’s research reveals the hugely positive outcomes that emerge from stepping into the arena of vulnerability. It is precisely when we expose ourselves – perhaps in a relationship or at work – that ‘we have experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives’.”

In last week’s podcast about my mom, I shared a lot of things I haven’t really talked about publicly before.  I still kept parts of the story out that I felt like weren’t necessarily my story to tell, but I shared my experience of how I grew up through my own lens.  As soon as the podcast went live, I started almost instantly feeling like I was standing naked on stage. Like my story was out there for everyone to see and judge.  I handled some of it well, and some of it...not so well. I talk about the aftermath of sharing in today’s podcast, and give a few tips for how to handle a vulnerability hangover when you go through it too.

At the end of the day, I am glad I shared.  Just like Brene Brown says, “when you own your story, that story no longer has power over you.”  I’ll probably never quit sharing my stories. It’s just a part of who I am. The less shame I have around my stories and my past, the more I have been able to live wholeheartedly, and frankly just be a happier person.   xo - Natalie