IAM1502 – Full-time Model Turned Health Coach, Personal Trainer and Chef

Jill de Jong was born in Holland, and her successful modeling career brought her to the US. She was based in New York for many years, explored Miami for a few years, and then fell in love with Los Angeles, where she currently resides; a great place to pursue her passion for health and wellness. She made the career shift from full-time modeling to a health coach, personal trainer, and chef, and has never looked back.

When Jill is not working, you can find her in the kitchen cooking or outside in Malibu running, biking, surfing, or stretching in a yoga class. She recharges by spending time with her boyfriend and friends. Meaningful conversations and delicious food make her heart sing. To stay motivated to exercise, she signs up for triathlons and Spartan races.

• CEO Story: Jill’s entrepreneurial journey started when she wasn’t well, her immune system was weak, and she has been traveling a lot for several years. She had a poor diet when she was modeling, it made her sick and she was looking for answers and needed help. A visit to a nutritionist awakened her. It motivated her to cook, study, and share her passion with other people.
• Business Service: Coaching. Personal Trainer.
• Secret Sauce: Personal approach – emotional support. To listen and ask good questions to come up with good solutions.
• CEO Hack: Pebbles (little things that don't make an impact) and the rock (most resistance). Do the rocks first.
• CEO Nugget: (1) Connect with other entrepreneurs. (2) Outsource things that aren't going to get done. (3) Understand what advertising works best
• CEO Defined: Take the lead. Do things that you are scared of doing. Align with your purpose and push the envelope.

Website: www.jilldejong.com

Instagram: modelsdoeat
Additional links: www.modelsdoeat.com

Jill's Book: Models Do Eat: More Than 100 Recipes for Eating Your Way to a Beautiful, Healthy You: More Than 100 Recipes for Eating Your Way to a Beautiful, Healthy You

Episode Link: https://iamceo.co/2018/12/04/iam121-full-time-model-turned-health-coach-personal-trainer-and-chef/

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today! 

Please Note: Our team is using the AI CEO Hacks: Exemplary AI and Otter.ai to support our podcast transcription. While we know it's improving there may be some inaccuracies, we are updating and improving them. Please contact us if you notice any issues, you can also test out Exemplary AI here.

00:23 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:49 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jill DeYoung of jilldeyoung.com. Jill, it is awesome to have you on the show.

00:59 – Jill de Jongker

Thanks for having me, Gresh.

01:01 – Gresham Harkless

Pleasure. It's a pleasure to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Jill so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's been able to do and she is doing now. So Jill was born in Holland and her successful modeling career brought her to the United States. She was based in New York for many years, explored Miami for a few years, and then fell in love with Los Angeles where she currently resides because it's a great place to pursue her passion for health and wellness.

She made the career shift from full-time modeling to health coach, personal trainer, and chef, and has never looked back. When Jill is not working, you can find her in the kitchen cooking or outside in Malibu, running, biking, surfing, or stretching in a yoga class. She recharges by spending time with her boyfriend and friends. Meaningful conversations and delicious food make her heart sing. To stay motivated to exercise, she signs up for triathlons and Spartan races. Jill, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

01:55 – Jill de Jongker

What a great introduction. Thank you. Made me smile.

01:59 – Gresham Harkless

There you go. If anything, food always makes my heart sing as well. So we definitely have that in common. But what I wanted to do is just hear, I guess, a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

02:10 – Jill de Jongker

Yeah. Well, it's always a great question because I think a lot of people look at CEOs thinking, oh, they got lucky or, you know, like they, you know, they form in my modeling career too, like, oh, she won the gene lottery, but it's so much work, you know, to actually have like a successful career. And there are so many obstacles to overcome, and you have to have a lot of patience, right? So my modeling career led me to do what I do now. My modeling career got me my visa to the US because it's hard for people in other countries to permanently live in the state. So that was my ticket in, let's say.

And my health and wellness journey started actually when I wasn't well and my immune system was weak. I had been traveling for several years, I mean, like, about 10 years internationally, and had not really… I actually had a pretty poor diet because I was introduced to calorie counting when I started modeling. And at the time, I didn't even know what a calorie was. And I thought it was part of my profession to count them and make sure I didn't eat more than necessary. But I was like, well, this is really not fun. You know, this is most of the food that I want to eat is definitely high in calories. And I'm going to go on the diet train. I'm going to go on that diet food, low calories, artificial sweetener. But you know, like years of years of doing that really made me sick. I felt foggy. I had cold sores several times a year. I was permanently sleep-deprived.

I also had to do with the jet lags. But I was just really feeling off and I didn't know what to do. And I was looking for answers. I needed help. And so a visit with a nutritionist really awakened me. It was such an eye-opener to understand how food can affect your mood, how food, everything you put in your mouth has an effect on how you feel and even your thoughts. So I was super motivated to get better, to feel better because it was just not, I was not happy and I was feeling weak and I really needed to change.

So that was really motivating for me to start cooking because I did not cook, I didn't know how to. So I started studying, thinking I was only going to, you know, get the certification and then eventually get the book out.

But I fell in love with the course and I fell in love with helping others because they really make you go out and talk about your passion and business and like help you set up a business. And that was such a great year that really changed things around for me because when I started going from the modeling industry where it's more about me and me paying my bills and me traveling, it's more about that, your own unity instead of now sharing your knowledge and light and passion with others and being of service that really changed my perception of life. And I just felt this renewed energy and I was like, this is what I want to do with my life.

04:58 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.  Well, I definitely, you know, I always tell myself and always hear people say that, you know, any type of rejection kind of is not a rejection, it's a redirection. So it puts you down a path you should have always been. It seems like it redirected you right towards you being, you know, finding and loving the passion for what you have or helping out others and then also being able to kind of do everything you need to do to hopefully have built and created that book as well.

05:21 – Jill de Jongker

Exactly. It's incredible. And that's the, it's a beautiful word, redirecting. And I was being redirected. I needed to have more experience. I needed to have more expertise. And that book, you know, like it's coming out actually. It's now, you know, coming out in February 2019. And it's called Models Do Eat. It's about improving your relationship with food. It's a collection of women. It's not just me anymore. It's all about collaboration. I wrote, I'm the main author of the book and I invited 9 other models who are also certified health coaches, nutritionists, personal trainers, and some bestselling authors.

05:55 – Gresham Harkless

Well, that's awesome. And I absolutely love the brand and the name, you know, the models do eat because like you said, sometimes there's that perception out there that, you know, you don't, you know, you don't eat anything, you don't exercise, you only do these things. You're living the actual absolutely perfect lifestyle. But it's awesome that you've been able to kind of tell your story. And then by telling your story, it sounds like you've been able to attract other people that have similar stories and want to actually do the same things. And that's kind of like what has come out for the book.

06:21 – Jill de Jongker

Yeah. And it's much more fun to do this together than doing things by yourself. Because as a CEO, it can be it can feel a little bit lonely, you know, to work from home or, you know, like or to work in an, you know, like an office. But you don't mind. I have a lot of employees yet or you have the employees. But, you know, you're like, you know, this is your first time you're doing this, so how are you going to give them direction? It's really good to hang out with people who are in a similar situation or have done things that are actually better than you or have more experience.

And that's what I found, like, on so much support in the group of women, because some of them had already published books and others had never. So, you know, we can all support each other on the journey. I think that's also the message of the book where, you know, like models are thought are in the press, I should say, you know, like people think that models are catty and very competitive. And, and this is the other side of it. Like, hey, you know what? We're so much better to like when we unite our forces. And it's, it's a great example for, you know, like also young women to not like look at their Instagram pages as competition, but to say, you know what, what do we have in common and go from there?

07:26 – Gresham Harkless

What I wanted to ask you is here a little bit more, and you might have already touched on it, like how you help support and serve the clients and what would you kind of clarify as maybe like your secret sauce?

07:35 – Jill de Jongker

Well, the secret sauce is I think the personal approach because everyone is different. Like we have different personalities and different lifestyles, we might have kids or no kids. I think the personal approach is most important because the people who want to stay in shape and exercise, have the best intentions, but a lot of diets, a lot of exercise programs are so intense and are so restricting or so demanding that it's hard to keep up with.

And the personal approach is where I really dive deep. I go, I really ask and see where I can help emotionally too. So the personal approach is like emotional support and understanding where my clients are lacking and need more support. And sometimes they really just need to be listened to. A lot of my, big part of my job is to listen and ask good questions so they can come up with their own solutions. And so the psychology of eating well and exercising, I think that might be the secret sauce.

08:34 – Gresham Harkless

So now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be an app or a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient.

08:44 – Jill de Jongker

Ooh, Well, I think that might be pebbles and the rock. Have you ever heard of the pebbles and the rock lists?

08:51 – Gresham Harkless

I don't think so.

08:52 – Jill de Jongker

Well, so I don't quite remember where I heard that. It might have been the Institute of Innovative Nutrition, but it's about prioritizing. It's about feeling productive at the end of the day. I love being, you know, feeling productive every day. So what they say is the rocks are your priorities. Like, are the ones that actually the rocks are the things that you feel most resistance to? The things that you kind of want to put up, things that you don't really feel like doing right now, but maybe later.

So, you know, the pebbles are the little things that really don't, it doesn't really matter if it gets done today or not. But when we felt resistance to, let's say the rocks, we started doing pebbles. It's kind of like going to the park door if you have to like, you know, vacuum clean your house. And you're like, the park door really doesn't, you know, make a difference. So, but the house would, right? And so when you start doing the rocks first, like as a rule, like the things that you don't like to do, the most resistance to it makes the whole day feel lighter.

And so if you can make it a habit to do that first thing in the morning, you're going to feel like a winner all day. And those pebbles are going to go quickly too. And then you actually have more time for the rest of your day and more head space to conquer the rest.

10:06 – Gresham Harkless

I love that, and I love that kind of metaphor. And I can definitely visualize it, seeing the pebble and the rock, because we all have rocks that we don't really want to look at, and we definitely don't want to move. So definitely make sure you move those so you're not focusing on the pebbles that aren't really making as much of an impact as the rock would.

10:21 – Jill de Jongker

Yeah, it's, you know, we, it's, you know, all human after all, right? We gotta have some hats and just push ourselves to do the things that we're either not good at or not, you know, don't necessarily love to do, but you know, there's a certain sense of pride and accomplishment and confidence that comes out of doing box first.

10:37 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Being able to identify them and to move them along. I definitely agree with that. So I love that CEO hack. And now I wanted to ask you for a CEO nugget. This is a word of wisdom or piece of advice you might give to entrepreneurs and business owners or something you might tell your younger business self.

10:51 – Jill de Jongker 

Yeah, well, there's a few things. I mean, I already kind of touched down on the first one, connecting with other entrepreneurs because, you know, it can be lonely. And sometimes you just need to hear from someone else how they did something or, you know, like feel connected to feel the love and support and what you do. Because sometimes, you know, like you, I feel like as a, as a coach, I also need to be coached at times.

So, I might listen to a great audiobook or like a personal trainer. I even have a personal trainer. So I feel like, you know, you gotta look for people that inspire you, motivate you, because you motivate all day, coach all day, you know, you're leading the way, but you also need to have some key people in your life to connect with that can, so you can get the energy back to.

So that's number one for me. Number 2, I would say outsource things that you're really not good at or really feel that much resistance to, like those big bucks, that never get done. Outsource it, pay someone, you know, like something for what you really don't want to do because it's going to wait. You're wasting your time.

You're most likely not going to do a good job doing it. And there are so many great and cheap resources these days like Fiverr. I use that a lot for when I need graphs or things for websites and you pay them a small fee for publishing rights if they designed something for you so it's really great.

Outsourcing social media the backside of it you know like so you don't have to be online the whole time you just provide the pictures if that's not you know your your favorite thing to do so like outsource things if you want an assistant we can pay someone full time there's so many websites that offer you know hourly service or assistance for hourly rates. So I think that's, that's a great one.

And then the last one, really understanding what type of advertisement works best for your product, what the consumer, and what your clients really feel drawn to. For example, I had advertised in a local magazine because I wanted more local clients. So it was the Malibu magazine. The advertisement had 0 interaction. I did not get an email. I did not get a call.

And I was like, wow, that's kind of crazy. It was half a page. It was very visible. It was a 3-month issue. And then I actually was like, let's see, 6 months later, I was interviewed for the magazine and it was a 4-page interview. And from that interview, I have got so many calls, so many new clients and they keep coming. It's just because that magazine has been lying around on coffee tables. It's not something that people throw out really quickly. And I got to say like that, so I understood that you know, I don't need to waste money on like advertisements for the local things.

I might have to do that for Facebook and it's not, you know, you won't ever waste money on advertisement, of course, like you always learn from it. But I really learned that personal connection is really important for the clients who work with me and the interview really made a personal connection. It made them trust me. I gave free advice. I shared my story and I think that's what people are looking for.

13:47 – Gresham Harkless

Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is kind of like the definition for what it means to be a CEO. And I know you touched on it a little bit, and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So what do you think being a CEO means to you?

13:59 – Jill de Jongker

A CEO means to me to take the lead, to do things that you're scared of doing, to really align with your purpose push the envelope, and motivate others to help you with it.

14:09 – Gresham Harkless

I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, awesome, Jill. I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how they can get a hold of you. And of course, get a copy of your book when it comes out.

14:23 – Jill de Jongker

Thank you. My book is coming out in February 2019. We're going to launch Fashion Week New York and it's already on on Amazon. So if you want to buy a copy already, you know, will be delivered to you in February, but you know, it's make sure you can get it signed. If you want it signed, just let me know. So my Instagram name is underscore Models to Eat and my website is jilldeong.com. I'm looking forward to connecting. So anyone who wants some advice or you know wanted to connect personally, Instagram, a direct message, or emails work fine.

15:02 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Jill, you are awesome. I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. We'll make sure to have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can follow up. But you're rocking and rolling and I appreciate you. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

15:13 – Jill de Jongker

Thank you, Gresh. Thanks so much for making this available for everyone who's listening and for all of us to share on your platform. It's a wonderful thing to do and this is your gift and I appreciate you sharing it with the world.

15:26 – 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.

[/restrict]