IAM1022- Dietician Simplifying Sports Nutrition Information

Natalie Rizzo, MS, RD is a NYC-based media Dietitian, food and nutrition writer, national spokesperson, and owner of Greenletes, a successful plant-based sports nutrition blog. Natalie has bylines in many national publications, such as NBC News, SHAPE, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Diabetic Living and Prevention. In her work as a nutrition spokesperson, she frequently appears in television segments and is quoted as the nutrition expert in top-tier national publications. Natalie is passionate about simplifying complicated sports nutrition information for everyday athletes, and she’s dedicated to teaching them how to eat more plants.

• CEO Hack: Hard-written to-do list and iPhone notes
• CEO Nugget: Evolve over time
• CEO Defined: Doing what I love and flexibility

Website: https://greenletes.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/greenletes

Podcast: https://greenletes.com/podcast/

Transcription

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00:28 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:55 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Natalie Rizzo of Green Leats. Natalie, it's awesome having you on the show.

01:04 – Natalie Rizzo

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely super excited to have you on as well. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read about all the awesome work that Natalie is doing. Natalie is an MS in RD and is a NYC-based media dietitian, food nutrition writer, and national spokesperson and owner of Green Leats, a successful plant-based sports nutrition blog. Natalie has bylines in many national publications such as NBC News, Shape Runner's World, Bicycle Diabetic Living, and Prevention. In her work as a nutrition spokesperson, she frequently appears in television segments and is quoted as the nutrition expert in top-tier national publications. Natalie is passionate about simplifying complicated sports nutrition information for everyday athletes and she's dedicated to teaching them how to eat more plants. Natalie, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:53 – Natalie Rizzo

I'm so ready.

01:54 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, there's nothing that we can do but do it, so let's jump into the interview then. And I want to hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I like to call your CEO story when you started with your business.

02:05 – Natalie Rizzo

Sure, I actually changed careers to become a dietitian. I used to work in advertising and I was in my mid-20s and decided that I needed a change. I didn't like what I was doing. So I essentially took my passions and my hobbies and turned them into a career. I loved to cook, I loved to exercise. I kind of looked into what I could do. I went back to school to study nutrition all along the way knowing that I wanted to work for myself. And I had that goal in mind.

I was in my 30s by the time I graduated with my second degree, which was a master's in nutrition and exercise physiology. And I took a job right out of school, but in doing so I also had a side hustle of doing my own writing, creating my own blog, counseling some clients until it became large enough that I could do that full-time. So that's essentially what I do now I do a lot of media work and then I see some clients and I just made my hobby my job.

03:02 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And I think some so many people may be listening to this and figuring out how to get from A to B. So I appreciate you talking about that process. I think so many times we think that we snap our fingers and then everything's created, but you having it as a passion, of course, transitioning from what it is you were doing before with your position and then starting to build it and grow it from a side house to all the awesome work that you're doing now is definitely phenomenal.

03:26 – Natalie Rizzo

Yeah, it actually took me 5 years to become a dietitian, so it definitely is not a snap of the fingers. There's a lot of schooling and yeah, a lot of I was babysitting on the side when I was, you know, 29 years old. So it's definitely not something that happens overnight. And I think that that's great. You point that out because people always ask me like, how do you do that? And they think it is something that you just stumbled into.

03:48 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it speaks to also, especially when I read your bio, what really spoke to me is about the simplicity that you bring to what it is that you do. Because I almost, I think there's even a quote that says, people that become experts and truly achieve mastery are people that are able to simplify because they have kind of become an expert at it. They understand the complexities enough that they can simply state it and talk about all the awesome things that people can do. But I really think that as you said, that is not a snap-of-the-finger type thing is definitely a process and a change that it takes to get there.

04:20 – Natalie Rizzo

Absolutely. I've sat through enough science classes to know that the people who could explain science in a basic way are the people that I was going to learn from.

04:28 – Gresham Harkless

There you go. There you go. And So I know you touched a little bit upon what you're doing at Greenleaf. Can you take us through a little bit more about that and how you serve and work with the clients you have?

04:37 – Natalie Rizzo

Sure. The majority of what I do is actually media-based. I started a blog when I was in grad school. Once again, it was just a hobby. I just wanted to share recipes with friends. And this was back in probably 2014 when blogging was kind of bigger. And since then I've just maintained it and I share recipes but it's also grown to be something that's bigger. And I get a lot of page views per month and I get people who come to me and want counseling.

So I see them as individual clients. And then I also sell digital products on my site, like eBooks and courses. So, and then I also have some freelance work that I do on the side, like in my bio you read, I write for different publications and that also allows me to do spokesperson work with some brands that I like. So it's a little bit of piecing a bunch of stuff together, but that's what I like. I don't like to do the same thing every day.

05:27 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I feel like that's definitely something, you know, if you're an entrepreneur, especially during this time where there's been so much disruption, I almost feel like the people in the organizations that are most successful are able to understand kind of like the whole, I guess it's all aligned, but there are different ways that they connect with people, which is what I think is like the reality of, you know, the world that we live in today.

05:46 – Natalie Rizzo

For sure. And you have to diversify your income as well, right? Because you just never know. Especially, I think we all learned that in 2020. You never know what's coming at you. So you have to have different things that you have your hands in.

05:57 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, absolutely. And so I want to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

06:08 – Natalie Rizzo

I think kind of what we already said, I do take, I have a tendency to take kind of complicated topics and break them down into almost sound bites. I think that I want everyone to kind of understand what I understand about nutrition, which I have a master's in, but I want people to understand it in a way that makes it easy for them so that they can apply it to their everyday life because I think it's very confusing all the information that's out there. So I try to take, I read the research studies so you don't have to. So I try to make everything that I do kind of digestible and practical and realistic, but also easy to understand.

06:46 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I definitely appreciate you for, you know, talking about that and of course, doing it as well too because you mentioned the word confusing but I imagine it's probably intimidating as well to try to understand what these things mean and it probably stops people before they even get started because it seems so complex it seems like it's so hard So I appreciate you being able to, lack of a better term, translate that information so that people can basically live their healthier lives.

07:10 – Natalie Rizzo

Absolutely. And there's so much information out there. I hear from people all the time that they're overwhelmed and that's obviously nothing that I can change because there's always going to be people sharing information. But at least I know that the information I put out there is science-based, it's practical, it's based on studies. So I can feel good about that.

07:28 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I definitely imagine that your readers and the clients that you work with all definitely experienced that too and are super happy for all the work that you do for them to be able to not have to translate all of that themselves. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

07:51 – Natalie Rizzo

Oh my gosh. I, this is kind of a funny question because III feel like I'm living in the Stone Age, but I use a handwritten to-do list And I do it every day of the week. I'll write out daily tasks. And on this to-do list, I actually have shared this with clients recently because I have clients put certain nutrition tasks on their to-do list, like meal prep and things like that because I put that stuff on my to-do list too. I don't just do work stuff. I also do what my workout is for the day, and what I'm going to cook that day. I write down everything because I'm one of those type-A people who like to check things off. I also use iPhone notes too when I'm not near something I could write down, but I just like to have to-do lists, which probably means that I was born to be an entrepreneur.

08:40 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like that's definitely a pretty reservoir of her starting your business and having multiple things going on. But I love that hack just because I think so many times that sometimes you always figure like, how can I break through the noise? I almost feel like because so many things have gone digital, sometimes it's doing those quote-unquote basic things that are more, for lack of a better term, analog or more written down that allows you to kind of not get sucked into the trap of sometimes when we open up our phones, you know, we get distracted by what it is that we're doing. Sometimes it's doing those things that actually pull us out and allow us to focus on the things that we need to do to move the needle forward.

09:15 – Natalie Rizzo

Yeah. I also like doing it daily because if you have a big task at hand, which can be overwhelming, sometimes you can break it down into I'm going to do this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and by the end of the week, you can see how much you've done. And it's actually more than you thought you could possibly do that week. So for me, that's very rewarding to look at that at the end of the week. And I actually, learned this tip back when I was in my first job ever. Someone taught me rather than crossing things off, you should highlight them because then afterward you can see all the tasks that you did and they're not crossed off. So I still use that tip now.

09:48 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I absolutely, love that. You know, so funny because, I saw somebody or somebody told me that you should basically keep track of everything you complete. Cause I think so many times, especially type people like myself, as well, we can sometimes always get so focused on the next task that we forget to celebrate the things we've accomplished and the wins. So to be able to highlight those things, and especially at the end of the week or the end of the year, however, that looks and say, I did all those things. I think that's also something that, you know, we can appreciate and celebrate those wins.

10:17 – Natalie Rizzo

Definitely. I look back at my to-do list from like 3 years ago and I'm kind of like, you see how far you've come. It's really nice.

10:24 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, definitely get to see the journey. So I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something if you hopped into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.

10:38 – Natalie Rizzo

I think continuing to evolve with the times, especially for what I do is media-based. So for instance, even doing this podcast was something that no one was asking me to do 5 years ago. I tick tock is new. I'm not even on tick-tock. But that's a new thing that's blown up. There are just so many things that it can be overwhelming to have to stay on top of all of them. But I think having an open mind that you need to evolve with the new changing mediums that come out. So like I said, I started a blog, I didn't know what I was doing. It was just fun. And then over time, I've included Instagram, I've included e-courses, I've included e-books. I even actually have my own podcast now about sports nutrition, because you just have to evolve with what people are listening to, reading, do it, whatever, however you can reach people. So I think that's, that's something I've learned over time.

11:29 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I think that's absolutely huge. I believe definitely as we talk about pre-resequence, but I think it's almost necessary to continue to kind of, you know, be ahead of the curve and maybe even succeed is to be open to that evolutionary process that we're going on in our lives and in our businesses. So do you feel like that is, I guess that curiosity is something that you developed or something that you always had and it's just been able to kind of set you up very, very well in your business?

11:55 – Natalie Rizzo

It's funny because I've always been the type of person that if I don't know how to do something, I will take to Google and I will figure it out. I also love YouTube videos. For instance, my blog was set up by me. I watched YouTube videos about how to use WordPress. I didn't know what I was doing, but you just learn over time. So I think I maybe have a natural curiosity for figuring out certain things. Of course, there are certain things that I'm never, I don't know how to code. I'm never going to know how to code. I know to hire someone to do that for me. So I know that I'm out of my depth. But I do have that kind of natural curiosity to try to figure things out. And I guess I don't get overwhelmed easily either.

12:32 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. It's so funny. I always say that some of my, favorite schooling have come from Google University or YouTube College because there's so much information that's there. But I think you, you bring up a really far on point as being able to kind of balance between knowing when too far, like not necessarily going to try to learn how to code, but I feel like if you have, you know, these, some of your feet wet, so to speak, then it allows you to be able to know when to hire somebody and who to hire because it's not just like you're completely blind to it. You have some type of knowledge or information about it.

13:02 – Natalie Rizzo

I also think going back to what we said earlier, I think those things, learning these things along the way, and although they take a while to learn, are useful and valuable to you as a business owner because you need to go through these steps, right? You need to start high school before you can get to college before you can get to your master's. Like, yeah, that's kind of how it works. Unfortunately, no one steps into an amazing CEO position from the beginning. You have to learn the baby steps before.

13:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. You have to crawl before you walk. So I absolutely appreciate that. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping that different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Natalie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:44 – Natalie Rizzo

For me, It just means doing what I love and flexibility. I just, I wanna work the hours I wanna work. I want to do what I wanna do. I luckily don't have to answer to other people, although I'm constantly taking in feedback from people who I counsel or who read my content or things like that. But yeah, it's just being able to do what I do on a daily basis loving what I do, and having the flexibility to do it whenever I want and for how, as long as I want.

14:19 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I definitely appreciate that. I always think, you know, of the, the quote-unquote CEO, entrepreneur, a business owner is kind of like the artists and you have like a blank canvas and you get to decide, like you said, when you want to work, how you want to work, what you're passionate about, and you get to use those colors and paint those shapes according to what you decide that you do. And I think that's incredibly freeing and extremely powerful to be able to do that. So I love that definition.

14:42 – Natalie Rizzo

Yeah. I used to work in the corporate world. So I know that There are people who have to work 9 to 5. And I actually have interns now and I always tell them that they can set their own hours because some people are better at 7 to 3. Some people are better than 12 to 7. I think that that should be allowed. You should be able to figure it out based on your skill set and what works best for you. So that's how I run my business.

15:05 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, and I think that's setting it up as we start to, I guess, understand more about, I guess, us as humans and understand that we all aren't in a box, so to speak, and some of us work better, like you said, earlier in the morning or later on in the day. And I think the organizations that are going to be ahead are those that are going to be aware of that and evolve with that understanding to be able to make sure that, you know, we're being as optimal as we can be as individuals, but also as organizations.

15:30 – Natalie Rizzo

For sure. I think so. I mean, I don't plan on working for any of them.

15:35 – Gresham Harkless

You don't have to work for them. You started one. So that's definitely perfect. So Natalie, truly appreciate that. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, Just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know, of course, how best they can get out of you. Subscribe to your podcast and hear about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:53 – Natalie Rizzo
Sure. You can find me everywhere at Greenleats. So that's on Instagram. My website is greenleats.com. My podcast is Greenleats. So if you're interested in sports nutrition for everyday endurance athletes or plant-based nutrition, you can look me up and I'd be happy to connect with everyone.

16:13 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And to make it even easier, We'll have the links and information in the show notes too, so that everybody can follow up with you. But truly appreciate you for taking some time out and the work you do today, Natalie, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:24 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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