This week we sat down with Nonie Taul of Naturally Strong Nonie located in Fairhope, Alabama. Take a listen to this week's episode to hear her story.
Transcript:
Nonie Taul:
I am Nonie Taul, owner of Naturally Strong Nonie.
Marcus Neto:
Yay. Well, it's good to have you here, Nonie. Yeah.
Nonie Taul:
Thank you so much.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. And I mean, we're just meeting. So I'm discovering you just like everybody else is on the podcast today, right?
Nonie Taul:
That's right.
Marcus Neto:
So to get started, why don't you tell us the story of Nonie? Where are you from? Where'd you go to high school? Did you go to college? And also, because I know you're in fitness, maybe if you have any other accreditations or any other experiences that are educational that you want to talk about. Married, any of that stuff. Just give us some backstory of who you are and where you've come from.
Nonie Taul:
Awesome. Grew up, born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. Went to Mary Austin, then UMS. Graduated there, and got really involved in all kinds of things. Anything. I had a lot of energy. I've always had a lot of energy. So the more things I was involved in, the better.
Marcus Neto:
I'm not getting that from you. I mean, you've been so docile while we've been sitting here talking, so-
Nonie Taul:
I think I'm a little bit ADHD. It's fine. It's fine.
Marcus Neto:
It's cool.
Nonie Taul:
Which works out great for what I'm doing. But anyway, so soccer and diving and swimming, dance, all the things. So really enjoyed being active. Then went to the University of Alabama. I was going to be a dance major. Really enjoyed dancing. Hurt my back, so it kind of was a hard situation for me. But I ended up going to PR and marketing, which I know you're fond of. And ended up graduating with a marketing PR degree, with a dance minor. And I think that's really been an awesome-
Marcus Neto:
Kind of a mix.
Nonie Taul:
Yeah, for sure, for me, for what I do now. Then we moved to Charleston. Didn't do too much, but have fun up there. And then got married and moved back to Mobile. We have three girls, and we moved to Daphne, Alabama. Started teaching some fitness classes and really kind of grew from there. And my community kind of got bigger and bigger. Started a social media, Facebook page. And that's where really I started really enjoying the whole marketing process of my business. So not only was I teaching classes, but I was doing videos and kind of just starting that whole lifestyle and kind of promoting my lifestyle.
Nonie Taul:
And then shortly after my daughter, who was five then, started to have these awful stomach problems. And she lost 10 pounds when she was five. And we didn't know what was going on. We couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Couldn't figure it out. She was laying on the couch all day. And it was so hard because we could never figure out what it was. Finally after many trips to the doctor and the endoscope, we figured out it was celiac disease. So basically with celiac disease, your body is attacking yourself. And so basically, you're allergic to gluten. So with kids, if your kid has an allergy, you kind of are super sensitive. So I would go up and down the aisles of the grocery store looking at all the products and reading all the ingredients. And it just kind of was a big eye-opener for me seeing all the ingredients and the things that I was feeding my children that I thought were healthy, or find that-
Marcus Neto:
Or just part of everyday lives for kids. Yeah.
Nonie Taul:
Absolutely. Goldfish, Cheez-It's, things.
Marcus Neto:
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Nonie Taul:
Absolutely. Yes. All that was kind of off the table. And it was kind of a scary thing because you didn't want to feed your child something that was going to attack their system. So ultimately, we kind of finally figured out gluten-free, and it really wasn't that bad. So our whole family started eating gluten-free. And you will be amazed the pictures of me before and after just from cutting out gluten. And I know everybody talks about gluten-free, gluten-free. But it's been just a really eye-opening experience. Not only doing gluten-free, but going kind of anti-inflammatory.
Nonie Taul:
So once my clients kind of picked up on what I was doing, they wanted to know, "What are you eating? What'd you have for lunch? What'd you have for dinner?" So that kind of created recipes. I was like, "Okay, well I'll send you some recipes." And then that kind of turned into meal plans. So not only do my clients get the fitness classes, they also get meal plans, recipes, gluten-free, dairy-free meals that they can cook for their family.
Marcus Neto:
And we're going to get more into that in just a minute, but I'm very curious about people when they come on the podcast as to whether they would have considered themselves good students when they were in high school and college.
Nonie Taul:
Oh, good question.
Marcus Neto:
When you look back, do you find that you were... And here's the reason why I ask this question. So we have an audience that is mostly either people that are small business owners and entrepreneurs, or want to be. Or they just find this stuff interesting, right? And so I feel like, or at least it was my own thinking that in order to be a business owner or an entrepreneur, you had to have this, this, this, and this.
Marcus Neto:
But what I found, because we've done damn near, what, over 200 episodes of this thing by now, after talking to over 200 people, that some people don't go to high school, a lot of people don't go to college. Some people do go to college, but are definitely not in anything that they studied. Some of them definitely weren't good students. Some of them were amazing students, and have used every bit of the education that they... So there's really no rhyme or reason to any of this. It really just comes down to something intrinsically that drives us. We find something that we find really interesting, and we just run with it, right? But tell me, were you good student?
Nonie Taul:
Yeah. I was a pretty good student. I had to work real hard. I've always been a real, real hard worker and a leader from day one. And I think maybe some of it, I have two older brothers, and so that kind of has helped me with my confidence. Kind of got to get out there and get it myself kind of deal. And I don't really like to be told what to do. I don't like having a boss. So I think that is really kind of what helps drive somebody. I'm an Aries so I'm real passionate and out there. So I think that helps to be a leader. And I'm a people person, similar to you. Just like to be with people. And I think when you combine being a leader, being passionate, and a hard worker, and kind of not taking no for an answer, and then have the courage to do it. Once you put all that together, you can do anything.
Nonie Taul:
But like you said, it is hard. It's interesting to see some people, what they do, and it's a hard thing for people to figure out what is your passion? I started off in marketing, then I did real estate. Then I started teaching classes. So it's just kind of a crazy way how you get to where you are. 10 years ago when I was waiting tables in Charleston, I couldn't imagine that I was-
Marcus Neto:
That you would be doing this.
Nonie Taul:
... a fitness instructor, doing meal plans, I was waiting tables at the Kickin Chicken. So it's kind of interesting how everybody gets to where they're supposed to get.
Marcus Neto:
That is life, is it not?
Nonie Taul:
Exactly.
Marcus Neto:
So oftentimes I think people think that there's an end goal. And I recently posted there is no finish line. There's no, oh, I'm done with my education or, oh, I'm done with what I'm going to do in this world, or, oh, I'm done with whatever it is. You have to constantly be seeking out and be curious about life, and go after it, and make it happen. And that's when you don't let go of that feeling of wanting to know and understand yourself better in the world that you operate in better, that's when you start to really kind of find what it is that you're passionate about, and you can kind of go on from there.
Nonie Taul:
For sure.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. Now go back. Not your first marketing job, not the waitressing job that you had after college. Go way, way, way back in the time machine to your very first job. And do you remember anything from that very first job that was a lesson that you still kind of carry with you to this day?
Nonie Taul:
That's a great question. I think one of the first jobs I had was-
Marcus Neto:
No, not one of the first.
Nonie Taul:
Oh, you went the first, first.
Marcus Neto:
I'm talking flipping burgers.
Nonie Taul:
Oh my gosh. Well, I used to-
Marcus Neto:
Cutting lawns.
Nonie Taul:
Oh my God, It was a long... How old am I? Well, I think the very first one was helping a coach teach diving, coach diving. And I really enjoyed being with kids and kind of teaching them and helping them and coaching them. And seeing how he kind of, I think patience with the kids and patience with people was kind of really eye opening for me to see if somebody did something wrong. Because being a coach is hard with kids. Couldn't imagine because I'm coaching adults and it's hard.
Marcus Neto:
I was going to say, you're doing that [crosstalk].
Nonie Taul:
I'm doing that, but with kids, you got to be kind of their leader. You got to be an example. You've got to make sure they're careful and make sure they're not running away everywhere. But I think that was just a really eye-opening experience for me to not only is this person having to teach them something, but they have to coach them and be patient and work with them from the beginning from the ground up. And also seeing how rewarding that is. To see people, they didn't know how to do a four dive, and now they're doing a double somersault two and a half, or whatever. And seeing people grow. I really kind of started feeling that early on, and that was really exciting for me.
Marcus Neto:
No, that's cool. Now let's get into what you actually do now. So talk to us about that startup process. And maybe kind of were there any hiccups, or were there anything that you learned from that beginning process as well?
Nonie Taul:
For sure. When I started, I think the greatest thing too nowadays with social media is that it's free. You can start your business and promote it as much as you want for free. Of course you can add on, but I think that it was an easy thing for me to start. But it's so hard at the same time because it's easy thing to create a Facebook page, but it's so hard to put yourself out there. You have to have the confidence, and that's hard. I mean, you're putting yourself out in front of all your friends, all your teachers, all your people that you've known forever. You're kind of opening yourself up for judgment. It's hard. You have to really kind of just put all your eggs in a basket and say, I'm doing it. Click, send, let's go.
Nonie Taul:
So that was a big step for me. So I was teaching classes. Teaching was one thing, but then to really amp it up and to make myself my own business, my own brand, that was hard. That was really hard for me to kind of just say, okay, I'm doing. I'm freaking doing it. Send, let's go. And then you got to invite the friends. So it was a big hiccup for me. Once you got over that, rip the band-aid off, it was just, let's get going. Let's do this.
Marcus Neto:
It's interesting to me because so oftentimes this is talked about amongst people that have started businesses, that one of the things that is most difficult is exposing the desire to start a business to friends and family. And I was in this coaching group for a little bit. And one of the things that this particular coach suggested, or actually he kind of required it, but he wanted everybody that went through his program, when they started, he wanted them to post a video every day for a week.
Nonie Taul:
That's so hard.
Marcus Neto:
And yeah. And it wasn't necessarily that, he knew that you weren't going to get a lot of views. He knew that it wasn't going to be groundbreaking. It was really just to get you out of the mentality of, oh my gosh, I can't believe that I'm posting this. Because there is so much that comes from that. It's overcoming the fear of, okay, I'm shooting video, and I'm actually going to post this somewhere. But it's also overcoming that fear of what are my friends and family are going to say. And so oftentimes they're the first ones to kind of tear you down. I didn't have that. Well, I kind of did. Anyway, we don't need to go there.
Marcus Neto:
But I think the thing that I tell people, because we oftentimes talk about this through the Blue Fish Channel is start now because you don't have an audience. But by the time you get to where you actually have an audience, you will have gotten it down. You'll figure it out. You'll be better in front of a camera. You'll know what to talk about. All that stuff.
Marcus Neto:
Because when I look back, we do a weekly vlog called Marketing Madness, when we do the Marketing Madness things now, when I go to record them, it's one take or two takes at best. And it's 10 minutes or so and we're done. Whereas before, when we first started, there was no mics, there was no real lighting. There was no nothing. And it would take me an hour or so to record one.
Nonie Taul:
But you had to start somewhere.
Marcus Neto:
But you have to start somewhere.
Nonie Taul:
Absolutely.
Marcus Neto:
But yeah. No, it's good. Do you remember the first client, and I can envision this so I'm going to kind of guide you in the direction, but maybe the first client that you had a real impact on where you thought, okay, yeah, there might be something to this?
Nonie Taul:
Absolutely. I have two clients that really, I don't know, they've made more of an impact on me, and they kind of helped me propel my business into a real business. So one of them, she came to me and said, "I want you to start teaching classes by yourself at the Pier." And so for her to give me that confidence, she said, "I want to do it early morning. I'll get a group of girls. Let's do it." And so that was kind of a, wow, thank you. All right. I think I can do this. And so she, thankfully for her, I had the confidence like, "All right, let's do this. Let's meet at the Pier Tuesdays and Thursdays." And we just built from there.
Nonie Taul:
And then another friend, it's interesting, when I was starting with the recipes, I sent her a recipe. She said, "You know what? I want you to really dumb it down for me. I don't want you to send me all these recipes. I want you to put it all in one page. I want you to make it super easy for me. I've got two kids, I'm divorced. I don't have time. I got a full-time job. Make it simple, easy."
Marcus Neto:
Otherwise, I'll never stick to it.
Nonie Taul:
Absolutely. "Make it as easy as you can make it for me." And so I was like, wow, okay. Okay, I can do this. So I did, I simplified everything and sent to her. And then a couple of weeks later, she said, "If you're sending it to me, why don't you send it to a lot of people?" I was like, wow. Kind of a light bulb. That's a great idea. Would have probably not a thought that unless you said, "If you're making one, why don't you just send it to a whole bunch of people?" I was like, "Okay, great." And again, that kind of catapulted me into having a bigger community and more widespread.
Nonie Taul:
But going back to what you were saying about just go ahead and doing it, go ahead and go. If you don't do it, somebody else is going to. And I have that, and maybe it's a lot of my drive is fitness industry is very competitive. And so if I don't do it, somebody down the street's going to do it. And I'm going to say, you should of, would of, could have.
Marcus Neto:
I will also add this. Even if somebody else does it, still do it because people are buying into not just the information, they're buying into who's actually communicating the information. They may resonate more with how you communicate than they would with someone else. And the other thing too is, we talked about this in the last podcast because we batch record these folks. So this is the third podcast that I recorded today. So the one that we just recorded was... Was it him, or was it... No, actually it was the first one that we recorded, which was Murphy. And so as part of that podcast, we were talking about ideas are cheap. Execution is the expensive part. Because so many people have the idea, but so many people don't execute. And so it's the execution that's key. That's what gets you to where you want to be.
Nonie Taul:
For sure. And I think we're kind of so lucky. And I think being a woman and a mom, I think we're really lucky in this time that we don't have to be forced to be somewhere 9:00 to 5:00. We do it at home, we can do it while the kids are asleep. I can sneak out of the house and do my classes at 5:00 in the morning. I can post, I can do the classes virtual. I think it's just a great time to do. If your passion is kind of a side hustle, you can do it. You can do-
Marcus Neto:
Make it work around your 9:00 to 5:00.
Nonie Taul:
That's right. You can do your side hustle, and hopefully, make it into your 9:00 to 5:00.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. So just to expand a little bit on what you do. So obviously you teach classes here locally, but the meal prep stuff and all this other, is that mostly in an online community that you've built up?
Nonie Taul:
It really is it's that I have fitness classes, 5:00 AM, 8:00, 9:00, and then some afternoon classes in Fairhope, but I also have virtual classes. So I livestream them, and I have a Facebook page. So I've got clients all over the nation doing the classes with us, which is super cool. And then my clients locally get the meal plan, regardless if they want it or not. They get the meal plan sent to their inbox. And then I have people all over the nation that do my meal plans, and just get them through... I've got a cute girl, Amy in Indiana, doing the meal plans and she's lost 20 pounds. So it's just amazing that I can reach so many people doing virtual classes and sending meal plans in the emails.
Marcus Neto:
So I mean just for grins, how does a person in Indiana find out about you? Are they finding out about you on social media and Instagram, or something?
Nonie Taul:
That's right. Social media. She lived here, and then it's kind of spread throughout her little community. So she's got her friends doing it. I've got a cute friend Rebecca, I knew her in college. She started doing the virtual classes. She's a teacher so now all of her teacher friends are doing the workouts together after class, after school. So that's super cool.
Marcus Neto:
Oh yeah. That's awesome. Because the technology has come to the point now where even something as simple as processing credit cards and stuff like that is fairly easy to do.
Nonie Taul:
Venmo's great.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. And then if you want to, you can set up these private groups on Facebook. And then if people have purchased a membership or a monthly subscription or whatever, you allow them into the group. They get access to all the assets there. If they don't want to be part of the group anymore, then you just remove them. It used to be you'd have to spend a ton of money in order to get-
Nonie Taul:
Right. And time.
Marcus Neto:
... this kind of thing set up.
Nonie Taul:
Right. Nowadays, I can set up a Facebook group in, what, two seconds.
Marcus Neto:
Two minutes. Yeah. Now, if you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business, what's the one bit of wisdom that you would impart to them?
Nonie Taul:
I think the greatest thing you could do is find a, I guess not really a teammate and not even a-
Marcus Neto:
Like a partner.
Nonie Taul:
... mentor, but somebody, I've got a friend that I can just bounce any ideas off of her. And she gives me the best advice. I think it's just somebody that gives you really great... It might be your mom, it might be your husband or somebody. Find that person that can be real with you, and say that it's a great idea, or no, maybe you shouldn't do it like that, or you know what, what if you did do meal plans to lots of people? I think if you find that one person, sit down, take them to lunch, pick their brain, and really take their words to heart. And I struggle with this too. But criticism, take that criticism to heart and not be upset about it, but go for it, go with it.
Marcus Neto:
As long as it's constructive.
Nonie Taul:
Oh, for sure.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. I mean, if their criticism is, don't do it, that's a stupid idea, there may be a time and place where you listen to that. So I mean, check it. But at the same time, oftentimes you'll hear that from people, like, "Oh, it's so hard. Why would you ever want to do that?" And well, yeah, it's hard. Nothing easy is-
Nonie Taul:
Absolutely.
Marcus Neto:
Anyway. So just going back to that whole idea that sometimes the hardest people to-
Nonie Taul:
Please.
Marcus Neto:
... please or get on your team are those that are closest to you. Is there anything that you can talk about that you're currently working on in the business?
Nonie Taul:
Right now, I'm really trying to get an online community, an app. That would be my next step. If I could really get that, I think it'd be awesome. I could have meal plans there. I could have workouts there. I haven't gotten there yet. And also a cookbook. I would love to have a cookbook.
Marcus Neto:
Published like a real, real-
Nonie Taul:
Like a real cookbook. Yeah. With pictures and things.
Marcus Neto:
Oh my gosh. Yeah. No listen, cool. Man, I collect books. I'm just going to admit it. I collect books. I don't actually read them. People that listen to this podcast know. I just don't have time anymore to sit down and read unless we're maybe at the beach, or at the pool, or something like that. I might do something there. But one of the things that I just picked up was Snoop Dogg has a cookbook-
Nonie Taul:
With Martha Stewart.
Marcus Neto:
... with Martha Stewart. And it's actually really funny. I mean, it's pretty obvious that he-
Nonie Taul:
I need to get that one.
Marcus Neto:
... I mean, come on, he didn't write this cookbook.
Nonie Taul:
He probably thinks everything tastes really good.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah, exactly. But the recipes are pretty good, and they're normal stuff. So it's like mac and cheese and stuff like that.
Nonie Taul:
Easy to make.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. So it's not crazy. Anyway. But who's one person from the business world that motivates you, and elevate this to a national level, or maybe even somebody in the fitness industry, is there anybody that kind of resonates with you?
Nonie Taul:
For sure. I really love Jillian Michaels. She's tougher than me. And she's kind of this abrasive personality, which I don't really. But I love that she obviously has the fitness thing going for her, but she's really into educating her clients and anyone about food and about how to fuel your body. I think that's so cool. And the way she talks about it, she kind of simplifies it but also explains things. I don't know if you've ever seen her page, but I love because they're kind of short, but she goes deep enough where you feel like you've gotten the main gist of it. She'll talk about all these fads are going on, and she's like, those are stupid basically. It's kind of she says it that way.
Marcus Neto:
Yes, calls a spade a spade.
Nonie Taul:
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. She's honest, but she's really, really smart. So I love that about her. She, the other day, was talking, everybody, all these fads and keto, and fat burning foods, and how do you lose weight the fastest? She's like, "Really the best thing is CICO." And I was like, I never heard of that. I mean, I've never heard of the word CICO.
Marcus Neto:
Calories in, calories out.
Nonie Taul:
Calories in, calories out. She's like, "You can do whatever, you can eat whenever you want. But bottom line is calories in calories out." She's like, "I've studied, I've seen all the research." She's like, "I saw somebody eat a cheeseburger every day." And it was, however, 1,000 calories. "And he still lost weight because he worked out 1,200 calories." So it was just, she's really eye-opening for me. And I respect her a lot for that.
Marcus Neto:
I don't know. I'm a fitness nut.
Nonie Taul:
I can tell.
Marcus Neto:
And so we can dive down into this, and talk about insulin response, and she would agree with all that stuff. And also somebody who has celiac disease, obviously they're going to retain a lot of additional water weight, and all kinds of other stuff are going to happen to their body because of the inflammatory response.
Nonie Taul:
Absolutely.
Marcus Neto:
So barring all of that, yes. And also, this is just a small little thing that I'll put out there for people that might be listening to this, as you get into your late 30s, into your 40s, whether you're male or female, looking at hormones-
Nonie Taul:
It all changes.
Marcus Neto:
... because your hormones, testosterone specifically, starts to diminish in your 30s. And everybody always thinks of testosterone as something that only really men need. But the truth is women absolutely need it too. And testosterone is not just something that drives men for, whatever it is, like aggression. It's really it has a lot of other uses in the body. And so if you're working out and eating right and all that stuff, and you're still not losing weight, you might want to have a hormone panel done because I did, and finding out what was going on there was life-changing.
Nonie Taul:
Did it change the way you ate, and changed the way you-
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. Because I can eat whatever the hell I want now, and I can't gain any weight.
Nonie Taul:
Really?
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. But now, granted, I've changed how I eat. So I've disconnected time from food. So I'll still go to lunch during the week around noon-
Nonie Taul:
Right. So you're fasting a little bit.
Marcus Neto:
No, I don't fast. I eat a very big breakfast. I have usually an egg and a half or two eggs, depending on if I'm splitting. I'll have some fruit, and I'll have a cinnamon roll or something sweet to go along with it in the morning. And then I'll have a reasonably sized lunch. Like this afternoon, I went to lunch with my girlfriend Chrissy, and I had half a chicken salad sandwich and some French fries and drank water. And this evening I'll have... I don't know what I'll have because I haven't decided what-
Nonie Taul:
You need my meal plan.
Marcus Neto:
No. I did the whole meal plan. But she gives me crap because I eat half a pint of ice cream every night. And so-
Nonie Taul:
Real? The dairy full kind? Not even the Halo Top?
Marcus Neto:
Ben and Jerry's Brownie Core.
Nonie Taul:
I would be mad at you too.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah, I get that a lot. But I think what has happened is that I've figured out what I can do, and I ride that line. The funny thing is that's during the week. But on the weekends, if I wake up late, we may have brunch, and that might be the meal that I eat that day, just depending on what we're doing. And I may end up fasting for 12 hours, or something like that because we're just busy doing things around the house or, whatever. And I don't miss food. Whereas it used to be because I was-
Nonie Taul:
Kind of starving yourself and restricting.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. I was doing so many things. I was doing too much in some respects. I was working out six days a week for almost an hour and a half or more every day. And the intensity of the workouts, which is really what's important, not how long, but the intensity of the workouts was ridiculous too. And so disconnecting myself from that, and also that whole idea of, well, I have to eat at 8:00, I have to eat at noon, I have to eat at 6:00, doing away with that. If I'm not hungry at lunch-
Nonie Taul:
Listening to your body.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah. If I'm not hungry at lunch, then I'm just going to have-
Nonie Taul:
Yeah, don't eat.
Marcus Neto:
... a quick bite, and may go back, or may just grab a handful of nuts or something like that and keep going. And then the other thing too is just not drinking your calories. If you go to Starbucks, do it every once in a while, but if you get a Frappuccino or Caramel Machiatto, okay, well you just drank 1,000 calories. What are you going to do with the other 500 calories that you have-
Nonie Taul:
Right. You don't even realize it. Right.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah, it's just we lose sight of those things. So I'd much rather have the ice cream at 10:00 at night, than the Frappuccino at 3:00.
Nonie Taul:
I think you bring up a great point. And I've seen this a lot of my clients is you got to do what works best for you. My one friend, what works for her is intermittent fasting. So she only-
Marcus Neto:
That's excellent.
Nonie Taul:
... eats... It's works great for her. She eats at 12:00, and 12:00 to 6:00 works great for her. She's seen great results. For me, it's not going to work because I'm waking up at 3:55 AM, working out at 5:00. I can't fast.
Marcus Neto:
But you're also burning way more calories than most people.
Nonie Taul:
Right. So for me, gluten-free and dairy-free is just easy for me. Like you say, it's just easy. I don't have to think about it. And then I like to have my wine at night, like your ice cream. I think too people, everybody has to find their vices. If it's your ice cream or my wine.
Marcus Neto:
I rarely, that was the other thing for me is I think I had some sort of, I don't know if it was an allergic reaction or my body just doesn't process alcohol the way that most people-
Nonie Taul:
Was it red wine?
Marcus Neto:
No, it wasn't just red wine. If I had a beer, I would always feel super bloated and just nasty. And if I had two beers, I'd wake up with a hangover the next day. I mean, it was just-
Nonie Taul:
Not worth it.
Marcus Neto:
Like you said, listen to your body, and use some of the information that you're hearing from folks. Do I believe in calorie in, calorie out? Yes. Do I believe in paleo? Yes. Do I believe in eating whole foods?
Nonie Taul:
Keto.
Marcus Neto:
Keto, things like that? Yes. But do I think that any one of those is the one? No, because I think people have to find what it is that works for them.
Nonie Taul:
Absolutely. I think for my clients gluten-free and dairy-free, it's a baby step. It's the easiest thing to do and it's still delicious food, but you're not cutting out all the carbs, but you're cutting out some. So I think that's just kind of a-
Marcus Neto:
No, you need carbs.
Nonie Taul:
... starting point. You do need carbs, stuff like sweet potatoes and quinoa. It's kind of an easy way to kind of say, all right, the husband or whoever can still have a stake, you can still have your sweet potato. So it's kind of not too restricting at first. And then I think once people get on that board, kind of clean out their pantry and clean out the fridge. And then once they kind of get going with that, they can really say, all right, now I'm really ready to cut back.
Nonie Taul:
Like she said, okay, now I'm going to do gluten-free, dairy-free, but I'm just only going to eat from 12:00 to 6:00, or I'm not going to eat as much. I'm going to cut down my portions. So I think just kind of baby steps. I think people just get so wrapped up, and they're like, I'm just going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to not eat anything for 12 hours. And then the easy part of a diet, if you want to call that, is starting it. But the hardest thing is you've got to continue to stick with it. And so I think if you find that works for you, I've got what works for me Because I've stuck with it. That's where you find success.
Marcus Neto:
Right. No, absolutely. It's got to be life changes, not a diet.
Nonie Taul:
Right absolutely.
Marcus Neto:
Are there any books, podcasts, people, or organizations that you've not yet mentioned that have been helpful in moving you forward?
Nonie Taul:
Gosh, I should probably read more also.
Marcus Neto:
You and me both.
Nonie Taul:
Oh my gosh. I know. I'm big into Instagram, and that's basically what I do. I'm like flooded with Instagram and following people on Instagram. And kind of just, not copying, but going like, oh gosh, I love how they did run their business. DanceBody is a fitness studio in New York City. And the way they have handled their whole social media has been just so cool to watch and grow. And seeing them go from a small little business to huge worldwide business with the app and everything. So I've been really loving seeing how they grow. And how they've started off doing live videos and showing their awesome, cool workouts, and then going now to virtual classes. So it's just so cool to see a business grow from small startup to now worldwide. So I enjoy seeing those kinds of businesses, and really studying, seeing how they find success.
Marcus Neto:
I can imagine that you all in the fitness industry have seen some very, very drastic things happen in the last year with COVID. And mean, we initially thought, well for two weeks or maybe a month, and then here we are almost a year later. And in some areas, gyms still aren't open. How do you keep people motivated to still work out when they're having to do it at home by themselves instead of going someplace, and lack of equipment and all this other... I mean, I don't know. Kudos to you.
Nonie Taul:
Thank you. It's been a super tough year. But thankfully, and like you said, you got to start off first because something bad might happen. And thankfully I started a few years ago, and I grew this great community, loyal community, that stuck with me through all this mess. And I talked to some of my clients. And I would get up and I'd go to the studio by myself and do a live video workout, and people would wake up and do it with me. And as sad as it is to say, it was kind of our therapy. I mean, it was during that kind of a weird, dark time of kind of not being with anybody, it was really was our therapy. I was so grateful to have people working out with me virtually. And then you had to go home and do basically nothing.
Nonie Taul:
So it was just so nice to have that time for yourself. And that community has been really so helpful. And I speak for other fitness studios. When you start it, you think, oh, these are my clients, but then they kind of turn into friends. And you spend, what, an hour a day with them every day. Really is starts to become like a little second family. I hate to say the word, because I say it all the time, but it is a community that we've created, and really proud of that. That's a super cool thing to say, you know what, look at this community that I've started. I would think that that's really my proudest thing that I've created.
Marcus Neto:
That's cool. Yeah. How do you like to unwind?
Nonie Taul:
Probably a glass of wine. Did I already say that? Shoot.
Marcus Neto:
Yeah, exactly.
Nonie Taul:
I got three kids.
Marcus Neto:
This lady's got a problem.
Nonie Taul:
I wait until at least 5:00.
Marcus Neto:
No, that's totally... I mean, I get it. Tell people where they can find more information about you and some of the services that you offer.
Nonie Taul:
Sure. I've a got a website naturallystrongnonie.com. Got two Instagram accounts, Naturally Strong Nonie, which is all fitness-related, and then Naturally Strong Nonie Approved Kitchen, which is meals and recipes.
Marcus Neto:
Very cool. Facebook, you said Instagram, the website. Okay. I just wanted to make sure we covered all of them.
Nonie Taul:
Thank you. Yes, I do have a Facebook page. But it is kind of interesting, that was my kind of home, my Facebook page, but now we've kind of-
Marcus Neto:
Migrated to Instagram?
Nonie Taul:
Yeah. Which is what it is.
Marcus Neto:
That'll be interesting to see if Instagram adds some of the same functionality that Facebook has-
Nonie Taul:
I'm ready.
Marcus Neto:
... and how they would do it.
Nonie Taul:
I'm ready for it.
Marcus Neto:
How do you add groups? They've already kind of got pages, if you will, because you can have a business page on Instagram and promote and get additional analytics and stuff like that. But anyway, it's a side note. I want to thank you for coming on the podcast.
Nonie Taul:
Thank you so much.
Marcus Neto:
Wrap up, any final thoughts or comments, or anything?
Nonie Taul:
Really enjoyed being here and love businesses supporting other businesses, especially in this time. Love supporting other restaurants and women owned small businesses. It's really important to me, so appreciate that.
Marcus Neto:
Well Nonie, I appreciate your willingness to sit with me and share your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur. It's been great talking to you.
Nonie Taul:
Awesome. Thanks so much.
