IAM1938 – Wellness Coach Helps Clients Struggling with Emotional Eating

Transcription:

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Nicole Malone Teaser 00:00

Whenever I say diet, I literally mean how you eat. It's important to recognize how you're feeling or your emotions too, because then you'll start to notice a pattern and triggers.

If you're stressed, you tend to eat cookies or these types of foods, and then we can start that behavior change and habit change and replacing the food with something else.

Intro 00:22

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 Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely what you need precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:49

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics, or as I like to call them, the business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners and what I like to call CB Nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month, we are focusing on finishing it out, fighting the good fight and closing out the job. I think just as important as it is to start something, it's even more important in how you conclude it or finish it out. So if you think of the different things that you can finish out, it'd be everything from a project, it could be from a day, it could also be from a business in and of itself and it can also of course be for the year.

So when you think of finishing out, I want you to really think of these episodes, because what we're going to really focus on is the last question that we really ask, which is defining what it means to be a CEO. All the creative, innovative, and I think truly insightful questions that we received from this question is really what we want to highlight during the show. But of course, we want you to enjoy the entire episode and think about how you're going to finish things out and how you're going to finish things out strongly.

So sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I AM CEO podcast. Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nicole Malone of Dark Horse Nutrition.

Nicole, super excited to have you on the show.

Nicole Malone 02:22

Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm super excited.

Gresham Harkless 02:24

Yes, absolutely excited to hear about all the awesome things that you're doing and drill down a little bit more. But before we do this, of course, I wanted to read a little bit more about Nicole to hear about some of those awesome things.

Nicole is a certified nutrition and wellness coach and owner of Dark Horse Nutrition LLC. Nicole has a passion to help individuals struggling with emotional eating to create healthier habits and alternatives to food.

Since Nicole has struggled with emotional eating and needing to lose 50 pounds herself just a few short years ago, Nicole can not only empathize with her client's struggles, but also has education and the knowledge she gained through her own journey to help clients lose weight and keep it off while still enjoying the foods they love.

Nicole, super excited again to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community.

Nicole Malone 03:08

I'm ready.

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Gresham Harkless 03:09

Let's make it happen then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started. What I call your CEO story.

Nicole Malone 03:16

Yeah, absolutely. As you mentioned in my bio, I went through my own weight loss journey as many in my field do through personal experience. So to make a super long story short, on my wedding day in 2015, I'm five feet short and I was pushing 200 pounds. I was the heaviest I've ever been in my entire life. It did take a few years, but I did go to therapy for my mental and emotional health. It was through that experience that I realized no matter what you do in the kitchen, no matter what you do in the gym, you are not going to make lasting change until you really get to the root cause of your unhealthy behaviors.

It was for that reason that I decided to dive into nutrition and get certified. It was more so to help me on my journey. But as I started losing weight I realized that the industry is lacking going beyond the numbers as far as calories and macros and just making it super stressful. So, I wanted to help others in my previous situation come out on the other side and not feel restricted, deprived, and really make lasting change and stop the yo yo dieting.

I figured since I've been there, I would be the perfect person to help others do the same.

Gresham Harkless 04:30

Yeah. I appreciate you so much in sharing your story. Because I think so many times we forget that by going through our experiences, through our journey, through our stories it empowers us to be a superhero, so to speak, so that we can help out so many other people in the same way.

It sounds like you have had that experience.

Nicole Malone 04:45

Yeah. I'm certified exercise nutritionist as well. But I feel like the people like the previous me that were underserved because it's more complicated and there's more baggage, if you will than working with the typical athlete. Unless you have been overweight yourself, then I'm of the belief that you really don't have the empathy you think you do, but you really don't have the empathy to help those types of clients.

So that's why I figured I would help them because they need more help. So many people in the industry who are helping those clientele, if they didn't go through the transformation themselves, I feel like they're not giving them 100% of what they could be getting.

Gresham Harkless 05:31

Yeah, I love that. And just as you said, I think you're speaking directly to that idea. Like you said, it's all about the numbers of the micros and this, that, and the third. You forget to sit down and just have that conversation and get to know somebody and really drill down and have that human to human interaction.

That connection that I think so many times it's so many different industries and definitely in fitness, you find that happens so much.

Nicole Malone 05:51

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, like you said, the business industry as a whole, I've had business coaches and all that. So many coaches just get stuck in the hamster wheel and give cookie cutter advice or things to do tasks, but it might not necessarily be what fits that business.

So I think just slowing down and taking the time to really get to know your client rather than trying to rush doing and move on to the next, I think that's a huge gap as a whole, like not only nutrition, but just as a whole and in the industry business.

Gresham Harkless 06:26

Yeah, absolutely. I hope, it seems like that's becoming a little bit more at the forefront of people being able to have those discussions and that understanding, but it doesn't matter, like you mentioned. Whether we're talking about dieting or we're talking about executing a business plan, you can have all the steps and all the steps of success and know exactly what to do.

But if you hadn't got to that root problem that you said so well, you might start to create roadblocks when you're starting to see success and just all those things and not understanding why, which is why it's so important to really drill down and treat the true cause and that true root of whatever's happening.

Nicole Malone 06:58

Yeah, absolutely. It can apply to any aspect of your life, not just nutrition and wellness. So there's this thing called cognitive behavioral therapy, and that's actually what I went through. It's like putting your thoughts on trials. So it doesn't have to be like the negative self-talk.

You could use that for anything, any aspect, and I find it very, very powerful. It's a very powerful tool. If you use that in your business as a CEO because so often we work on our business, not in our business, so if you use that, just that one tool and just changing your mindset, it's powerful.

Gresham Harkless 07:34

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I wanted to drill down a little bit more on how you work with your clients. Could you take us a little more through how you serve your clients and how you're creating that impact?

Nicole Malone 07:44

Yeah, so, I typically meet them where they are. So often people are quick to prescribe nutrition protocols or wellness plans right out of the gate. I fell into that trap and did that at first. But as I've matured as a business owner and a coach I realized that it's important to meet them where they are. In order to do that, you need to understand where they are. So I actually wait a week and I take a back seat the first week and just let them journal and make their comments. I'm like a ghost watching fly on the wall. Then it's after that first week I get a sense of, I know it's only a week, but I get a sense of how they eat on a typical, especially work week.

Then that's where I really dive in and create a plan. I keep notes that they cannot see of everything I want to work on, but I piecemeal the plan, right? You don't want to overwhelm them and say, these are all the things that we need to work on. So I make that list for myself. Then when I create their initial plan, I break it down into where I want to start take one or two things and then slowly start chipping away. I don't believe in restriction deprivation. I don't put them on any particular diet plan, if you will. I literally just take what they're eating and modify it to make it better.

Oftentimes, I'm modifying it to add more volume because they're under eating, but in a healthy way water, protein and fiber are my weight loss trifectas because all 3 of them keep you satisfied longer, keep you full longer, lower in calories. So I truly just focus on those 3 areas and making modifications to how they currently eat and just starting from there so I don't turn their lives upside down. I also start them on movement plans. So, while I'm not a personal trainer, I can still say, hey, go for a walk. So, the easiest thing to do is go for a walk. So, I do prescribe some exercises, basic exercises. Again, I'm working with folks that need to lose 50 to 100 plus pounds so, I'm not going to be giving them hit stuff in the gym anyway.

So, yes, that's pretty much how I operate. I just believe in meeting them where they are, still allowing them to enjoy the foods they love in moderation and just modifying how they currently eat. If that answers your question, a diet literally means the way you eat. It's just been misconstrued to this weight loss term. So, whenever I say diet, I literally mean how you eat. Yeah so it's important to recognize how you're feeling or your emotions because then you'll start to notice a pattern and triggers. If you're stressed, you tend to eat cookies or these types of foods, and then we can start that behavior change and habit change and replacing the food with something else.

Gresham Harkless 10:44

So I want to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself, the business or a combination of both. You might have already touched on this, but what do you feel sets your part and makes unique?

Nicole Malone 10:53

Yeah, I think just the things I mentioned not only do I go on the journey, I meet the clients where they are and really focus on the root cause behavior change and lifestyle change. I think the industry is slowly moving towards that and away from the macros and calories like new, is a good one. I tried to actually knock down and I actually went through their site and it's actually a good 1, right?

Because they do the psychology and they do get to the root cause and the behavior and I think that's so important. So, and a lot of people in my industry still focus on the numbers. So I would say, yeah, my transformation journey, and just focusing on the root.

Gresham Harkless 11:33

Yeah, absolutely. Because I think it becomes digging a little bit deeper.

I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So it could be like an app, book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Nicole Malone 11:45

I would say two things. So the first is I use Asana. I don't know if you've heard of Asana. So, I use it for both project management and planning and that's helped me immensely. Just log all my tasks and I get alerts when something's overdue or whatever. So that's definitely helped me not deviate because I have a squirrel mentality sometimes. So Asana helps me keep on track and not using my phone for the first two or three hours when I wake up.

One more thing I will add is I also recently started closing out the tabs I'm not working on. So I will have Facebook, LinkedIn, like, all these things open and then whenever I get a notification, my scoring goes.  I'm like, oh, what's that? And then I'll click and rather than working on my blog post or whatever I'm working on. So I try to only have just my email, Asana, my coaching platform and then whatever I'm working on at the time and that's it.

All my social media, like all that stuff, I try to not have up while I'm actually working on something, I'll close everything down.

Gresham Harkless 12:53

Awesome. I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something, if you were to hop into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.

Nicole Malone 13:03

So I would say to lay the foundation of your business first. So when you're first starting out, it's natural to say, oh, my God, I need a client. How do I get my client? How do I get my client? So you put the cart before the horse and then you get your client and then you're like, how do I onboard them? You have no processes or systems in place. You just immediately go to selling and marketing.

So, yeah, if I can go back in time, I would totally start laying the foundation first and not be in such a rush to get that client. Do the grunt work and the lay the foundation first, then when you start getting clients, it'll just be that much easier and smoother. You'll know who you want to work with, your ideal client and all that. So yeah, definitely laying all that groundwork first, rather than coming out of the gate hot and trying to make all the money.

Gresham Harkless 13:56

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I was asking now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on this show.

So Nicole, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Nicole Malone 14:07

Oh, man. I would say making an impact on people's lives. Whether it's in your company or the client to serve. It all starts from you, the owner of the company or CEO. So, yeah, I'd say making a positive impact on people's lives.

Gresham Harkless 14:24

Nicole truly appreciate that definition. Of course, appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get ahold of you find about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Nicole Malone 14:39

Yeah, absolutely. I will say stay away from the fad diets. Please do your research before starting anything new, especially when it comes to your health and talk to your doctor, of course.

But yeah, if you have any questions or wanna learn more about me and Dark Horse Nutrition, I can be found at www.darkhorsenutrition.com and dark Horse Nutrition LLC on Facebook and LinkedIn as well.

Gresham Harkless 15:04

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And then make it even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes too, so that everybody can follow up with you and find out about all those awesome things you're doing and of course the impact that you're having. But I truly appreciate that last point, I think related to diet of trying to go for the fast things, the quick things, the things that can get me where I want to be.

And, 60 seconds or less sometimes doesn't allow us to build the foundation that we need. As that came up a lot where we're talking about business, we're talking about nutrition or education, whatever, it's usually that reminder of good things taking time and really being able to treat and make sure that we are building that foundation in the right way is so important.

So appreciate you for reminding us of that, of course, doing that for your clients and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Nicole Malone 15:46

All right. Thanks. Take care. Thank you for having me.

Outro 15:48

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by CB nation and 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 Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcasts, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five star rating.

This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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