Micheal Pacheco 0:00
I speak fluent Japanese. I can pronounce this. Alright everybody. Hello, and welcome to another episode of their marketing coach podcast. I’m your host Michael Pacheco. And with me today I have Nicole Simone and Nicole is an ace, professional today’s personal trainer, Ace health coach TEDx speaker, host of shaping up over 40 podcasts, author of The No fuss, no mess, shape it up cookbook, founder of shaping up LLC, licensed physical therapist assistant, and former professional ballet dancer, that’s cool. has been featured in Rachael Ray and season, bicycle magazine. Real simple. And MSN. Since 2006. Nicole has been helping women lose weight for the last time before welcome to the podcast. Hi, Michael,
Nicole Simonin 0:51
thank you so much for having me on.
Micheal Pacheco 0:54
So yeah, thank you for joining us. And I like to kind of just open up the podcast by inviting guests to tell us a little more about yourself and what got you into coaching?
Nicole Simonin 1:04
Sure, how far back do you want me to go? I feel like everything has led up to this moment. Born, right? When I was four. Now, um, yeah, I feel like every journey I’ve gone through, like every chapter in my life has really led me to this point. You know, as a professional ballet dancer, love physical therapy, got into personal training, actually, while I was dancing professionally, because one of my friends was a personal trainer. I was like, Oh my gosh, that is the coolest job ever. And so when I was working in the physical therapy realm, I was also doing personal training, because they had a PT side. And they also had a gym side. And they were like, do you want to just run the gym, it was a new company, I was like, Sure. And I loved it so much. Then I got married, got pregnant, and I did not want to go back to work. So shape it up was born, along with my two kids. And I’ve been doing it since 2006. And you know, any business that’s been around that long, they’re evolutions you know, and changes and everything. And COVID actually was a blessing in my favor. As far as like, I really shifted everything to online, I brought in some more mindset coaching. And honestly, I, I keep telling everybody, I’m like, this is the best job ever. And if there’s every job I’ve had, I’m like, This is great. This is great. And this is I absolutely love what I do. And if there’s something after this, I cannot wait to see what it is because it’s gonna blow my mind.
Micheal Pacheco 2:35
Awesome. Why why coaching specifically?
Nicole Simonin 2:40
You know, I, again, when I started in 2006, I was a personal trainer, and I had the nutrition certifications and all that and it was like, here’s the meal plan. Here’s the food log that you have to do. Here’s the exact calorie count, you know, and all that. And here’s the grueling workout, and it works. But as I’ve transitioned to my own life, I’m going to be 49 in the summer, and when you hit 40, some things changed for women. So as I was going through that process, I was kind of understanding and unpacking a lot of what I had learned in the ballet world. I’m still unpacking things from the ballet world and kind of understanding why I do the things that I do. And I do have a new mindset. The biggest book that changed my life, actually, every year is Jensen, Cheerios, you are a badass pivotal in my life. And I was like, What is this mindset stuff? And I, you know, read I read that book, I don’t know how many times 30 times at least. And then I started finding, you know, how they say when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Well, different things started coming to me. And I was like, Ooh, okay, that makes more sense. And now I understand more about the book and more about the mindset. So I started adding it to my own personal journey. And I found that it was so much easier to kind of to lose weight, keep it off all that and I didn’t have to do the grueling workouts. I didn’t have to do the food logging and all the micromanaging. And I started putting it on my clients, and they were getting the results. So the people I worked with in the beginning of my career, they lost the weight, but they hadn’t kept it off. Because it was that dieters mentality and the people that I’m working with now, you know, I do the three pillars is fitness, you know, fuel your body, manage your mind. And the third one is escaping me as we’re talking. What’s the third one are your body move your body, move your body feel your body and manage. Um, and once I started implementing that with clients, they were losing weight and keeping it off. And really who wants to like keep rehashing the whole. Here we go again, gained weight now I gotta lose it again. All that I really teach a very simple and doable way on how to keep the weight off for good. And it’s all mindset really
Micheal Pacheco 4:52
well you look amazing for 48 years old.
Nicole Simonin 4:55
Something is working. I am not unicorn, I promise.
Micheal Pacheco 5:02
So you’ve got your kind of three pillars? What is like, what’s the secret sauce inside those pillars that really makes it work for like, the last time?
Nicole Simonin 5:15
It’s really the mindset piece. It’s like, because you you’re still moving your body, you’re still fueling your body like you’re still eating, I have a rule, no foods are off limits.
Micheal Pacheco 5:28
I like that rule.
Nicole Simonin 5:29
I know everybody loves them? And they don’t believe me. I’m like, Yes, you literally can eat whatever you want. So, but it’s understanding why you want to grab the Oreos like we’re not stupid people. We know that apples are better for us than Oreos, right? But we still want the Oreos. And it’s okay to want the Oreos, but just understanding why you’re either emotionally eating, why you’re overeating while you’re under eating. Like, we’re so complex. Because, you know, we have these, like limiting beliefs, these default thoughts that we think compounded with, you know, societal standards, what we were taught as kids, you know, and all that. And so it’s like an onion, we keep kind of enhancing all the things. So it’s like, once you understand the way your brain works, and how you think it’s so much easier to be like, Oh, I understand why I want to eat that entire sleeve of Oreo cookies.
Micheal Pacheco 6:27
Because they’re delicious.
Nicole Simonin 6:29
There is that side, you know, our food is very far from food now, you know, and there’s that is that chemical component as far as like sugar has a dopamine hit. But understanding like, you know, and a lot of women that I work with, they’re like, oh, what’s my hormones? I’m like, let’s see if it’s really between your ears first. And then let’s go Yeah, yeah.
Micheal Pacheco 6:51
Nice. Do you have do so do you make you have like recommendations for like, alternative foods to the sleeve of Oreos? Like maybe like a, like a dates, bar or something like.
Nicole Simonin 7:05
I don’t know. Yeah, well, this is where the mindset comes in. It’s like, so if you want an Oreo cookie, it doesn’t mean you can’t have an Oreo cookie. It’s like, why do you want the Oreo cookie? Yeah, if you want the Oreo cookie, like if you’re not hungry, and you’re like, I could really just down a bag of Oreo cookies. Like it’s like, what are you not facing? What emotion are you trying to cover up? Because that’s really what it over eating and emotional eating is you are basically snuffing out that emotion or that feeling that you just don’t feel.
Micheal Pacheco 7:35
I love this. So I was I was a guest on a podcast, not two hours ago. And I was saying basically the same thing in different words. And I was asked, you know, what is your what is one piece of advice you would give young Michael that you would give to or business owners. This was the topic of this podcast. And basically what I said is, you know, know thyself, pay attention to what triggers you to want to walk away from the computer, when there’s something important to do to what to walk away from the important stuff. Pay attention to what triggers you to, you know, want to go upstairs and flip on the TV, or play video games. And then pay attention to the things that you’re doing whatever it is for you. So like for our conversation, right? It’s eating a sleeve of Oreos, and then make those associations and just, you know, be be aware of it, because that’s the first step to kind of that self empowerment, right? It’s kind of I think, the direction you’re taking this would be my guess.
Nicole Simonin 8:39
Yeah. Yeah, you definitely awareness is key. Because once you start understanding, like, so a lot of times when I’m working with women, and if they’re somebody who constantly is over eating, you kind of check out a little bit while you’re over eating, like you zone out, and then you’re like, Oh, crap, I just ate 20 Oreos, you know, and you don’t know where that time went. It’s like a time warp almost like you’re just it’s shoveling it in. But here’s the thing, like, a lot of the mindset pieces our brain like our primitive brain, that subconscious brain, it wants instant gratification. So we’re wired to want the Oreos. And we can absolutely have the Oreos, but again, it’s like, you got to distinguish between Are you eating the Oreos because you’re hungry? Or are you eating the Oreos? Because you want to procrastinate and not do work? Or, you know, whatever it is or?
Micheal Pacheco 9:33
Or because you’re in some other area of your life? Yeah,
Nicole Simonin 9:35
right. Right. Right. Yeah, I actually was just talking to a client and they were saying they had a job where they weren’t really satisfied, right? And they found that they were over eating because they weren’t satisfied with the food and they kept over eating and now they have a job where they’re satisfied and they noticed that satisfaction factor of the food has gone away. I love that it’s fascinating because Yeah, cuz all interconnects like, you know, I, we talked about weight loss a lot of times when I coach clients, but we’re also talking about like business, we’re talking about relationships, because how we do one thing in our life is really how we do everything. And if you can fix that one piece, you can kind of plug and play and put it into other areas of your life.
Micheal Pacheco 10:18
Yeah, it’s weird the the connections that our minds will make, somehow without us even realizing it. I used to be a an avid nail biter just come. And then I quit my job and went into business for myself. And my nails have been beautiful ever since.
Nicole Simonin 10:40
Yeah, our brain is like a computer. And it wants easy. It wants like the simplest path ever, when we have to do a complicated series of steps that requires energy. And our body is constantly trying to reserve energy for that, like a mountain lion. That’s going to get us at any moment, right? Because again, that’s that primitive brain is always like, on guard. But yeah, so and that’s where people kind of get into like habits and patterns of what they’re doing. And you know, there’s a lot of talk about, like replacing habits and things like that. And I say, you got to step back, like two steps back before that replacing the habit because it’s what you’re thinking, in order to replace a habit like you can’t swap one habit for another. So meaning, say somebody wants to quit smoking, and instead they chew gum. And now they have this gum issue because they swept Now granted, it’s better than smoking. Do you know what I mean? Like you haven’t figured out Oh, why am I? Why am I smoking? Or why am I grabbing the sleeve of Oreos or whatever?
Micheal Pacheco 11:43
You’re addressing the symptom at that point, right. And what you’re you’re looking for is to like dig in to the disease. It’s not a perfect metaphor. But yeah,
Nicole Simonin 11:52
I equate it to like, if you’re bleeding, like if you’re you’re gushing, and you’re trying to put this little butterfly bandaid on it, it’s not it doesn’t work. You gotta get to the root of what is going on. But yeah, this ease. I mean, it’s it’s the same thing. It’s like, you know, don’t just give me a drug to make it go away. What’s really going on? And a lot of times it’s up here. Yeah, with food and nutrition and
Micheal Pacheco 12:15
more about your clients. Who is your, your ideal client.
Nicole Simonin 12:20
I work with women over 40 Generally, or they’re very close to 40. I always joke saying when people are like in their 30s, I’m like, Don’t worry, you’ll be 41 day. Mostly. With that said, it’s
Micheal Pacheco 12:33
coming for you. It’s common. Be prepared.
Nicole Simonin 12:35
Yeah, definitely women over 40. A lot of them are CEOs or lawyers, engineers, most type a women. But then I have the other side who are not. So it really just varies on who wants help, you know, when he was ready to really dive into the mindset because a lot of people just want Oh, just give me a workout. Just give me a food plan. And I’m like, No, you I’m really on a mission to squash like the dieters mentality between that and like generational cycles of dieters mentality, because, you know, even as women and guys, I don’t know if it’s as much maybe it is, but you know, my generation was taught to eat like a rabbit and do tons of cardio. And now we’ve passed that on to our little girls or little boys, and then they’re gonna pass it on. And it’s just keeps perpetuating, right, that cycle. And I really, that is like, one of my missions is like, let’s get rid of that. Because it is not necessary. It creates a lot of shame and judgment. As you get older, you know, I mean, imagine a teenage girl who’s shamed for eating a piece of cake or something like that, because you know, you’re gonna be fat. No, you’re not, you’re not gonna be fat if you eat a piece of cake. So, yeah, definitely want to end that for sure.
Micheal Pacheco 13:52
Yeah, I love it. I love it. That’s a good rays and data. I want to pivot a little bit and talk about let’s learn more about you. So at one point, doctors told you that you wouldn’t be able to walk again and that you would be blind. Can you tell us more? A little bit about that?
Nicole Simonin 14:10
Yeah. I was 17. And I remember, again, I was in the ballet world. So we were getting ready to go to New York City for costumes to get designed for the piece that we were doing. And I remember waking up and I literally could not move like I just felt like a cement brick was on me. And this was back in the day when there was no cell phones. Like we actually had to reach over and grab a phone. There was actually one next to me. I couldn’t even like dial like it was a push button. I couldn’t even dial it was so bad. Yeah, I couldn’t squeeze toothpaste out to brush my teeth. I was hospitalized. They didn’t know what was going on with me. So I think in an effort to kind of like be like, we don’t know what’s going on, but this is the worst case scenario. That’s what they told us. I couldn’t do anything I needed help getting to the bathroom. I mean, think about like, a very active child. And all of a sudden, they’re bedridden and can’t do really anything. Though looking back, I do have almost fond memories of because I remember being home and I was reading a book reading. And I was running my hand over the page of the book, and my mom came in and she’s like, What are you doing? And I was like, well, if I’m going to be blind, I might as well learn how to read Braille. But it was a regular book. So it’s like,
Micheal Pacheco 15:29
a little hard to practice it.
Nicole Simonin 15:31
Just practicing. Yeah. Yeah, so I was sick for a while. And then I had one more symptom. And they it’s juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. It was flared. So apparently, it’s a gene in me, and it flared up. Because I had had mono that year, I was like, rundown, it was a lot of like, ballet stuff, I was just fatigued. And it triggered it and but in what nine months, I was I graduated, barely, if I’d miss one more day of school I wouldn’t ever be. But um, I went on to dance. And I was dancing at Radford University on scholarship. And I honestly, I haven’t had too many issues, since they said, you know, pretty much that I should be good. I might have some, like joint stuff here and there. But that’s also been my driving force. As far as like, fueling my body, you know, I want to make sure that I’m eating foods that are going to help me not have writer’s it’s called writer syndrome. And they call it something different out. But rheumatory arthritis, you know, as I get older? Yeah.
Micheal Pacheco 16:35
So let’s talk a little bit more about that. How has, how has that, you know, diagnosis and experience played into what you’re doing today, and your passion for helping helping women today, you know, not only lose weight and keep it off, but also fuel themselves? Well,
Nicole Simonin 16:55
yeah, I think that ties in to with the physical therapy aspect, because I’ve always, like I plan on living to be in at least 100. Right. That’s my goal anyway, so I gotta like at least 52 more years. So I want to be one of those nine year old women that are doing five K’s that are being active, I don’t want to have to ask somebody helped to open up a spaghetti jar, or you know, bodily function stuff, like this is part of the physical therapy. When I when I saw working in that, you know, like, I don’t want to be dependent on anybody, I want to be as independent as I possibly can. So taking care of yourself, you know, have the Oreo, but also have some apples and chicken and healthy, you know, fueling your body what makes you feel good after you eat, and strength training, strength training for my generation. I know it’s shifted a little bit, and I think this next generation coming up, especially women are more open to it. But um, yeah, my generation thinks one and two pound weights are, that’s like it for them. I’m like, you can lift much more, but it’s bone structure, you know, osteoporosis, or something called Wolf’s law, that the more pressure basically you put on a bone, the stronger it is. And if you can start, you know, today, lifting weights in a safe manner, if you’re over 40, and really building that strength, you’re going to hopefully offset some of the osteo process. If you’re so inclined, you know, to that.
Micheal Pacheco 18:26
Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. I couldn’t agree more. I think, you know, women getting under a squat bar, doing deadlifts, all that stuff is nothing but good for this is what they prescribe to astronauts when they come down from outer space when they’ve lost bone density in zero or low gravity situations. You’ve come back down to earth, you know, if you weigh 30 pounds less because your body’s
Nicole Simonin 18:51
got any more muscle. You’ve atrophied. Yeah,
Micheal Pacheco 18:55
yeah. So I think yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s great. My wife, incidentally, is director of an outpatient PT clinic. So she’s also a physical therapist. So I, I’m lucky one, I’m looking to be exposed to it as well.
Nicole Simonin 19:09
Yeah, yeah. It’s interesting, because I think, you know, I think a lot of women are scared of lifting heavy, like, they have this preconceived notion that they’re gonna like turn into Shira. And I’m like, no, yeah. Yeah. And that’s not the case. I so hard for women to gin. Like genetically speaking to build that kind of muscle, you have to be so deliberate and specific. That and the beauty I always tell my clients is if you do for some reason, gain a lot of muscle and you’re not happy muscle. It’s so easy to lose. It’s literally like, so easy to lose. So don’t worry about that for sure.
Micheal Pacheco 19:49
I love that. I mean, it’s even hard for men, honestly, to get big. You have to do very specific training regimens, diet regimens, all that stuff. So yeah, well But when you first started coaching, what sort of things did you did you struggle with? And how did you overcome those struggles?
Nicole Simonin 20:06
I think it was a lot of like my own mind drama of like, you know, can I help them with coaching? Like that kind of thing? And like, is this really? Is this working? Or is this just like me, I’m able to do it to myself, but not have other people be successful. But yeah, but once I started getting into it, I’m not to like toot my own horn, but I feel like it’s, it’s almost like a natural thing. I’m very good at like, reading between the lines, you know, hearing what they’re saying and what they want, and really kind of getting in between there and being like, Okay, I hear you saying this. This is what’s going on. And it’s fascinating, because the more I dive into the psychology and the mindset piece, I love watching, like listening to people, because I’m like, Oh, that’s interesting, the way you think. It’s interesting, the way you’re, you know, coming across to however you’re presenting yourself. It’s just as fascinating because I’ve never, like as a ballet dancer. I don’t even think mindset was, it was not even on my radar. You know, like, yeah,
Micheal Pacheco 21:18
yeah, hearing so you’re in your superpower, you know, hearing what, what they’re saying, but also knowing what’s actually going on? Do you? How much of that do you attribute to you having? Having been there? Right? If you haven’t gone through some of that?
Nicole Simonin 21:32
Yeah, I am definitely my first client. Always. So like anything that I especially if you listen to the podcast of mine, you know that stuff that I’ve gone through? I’ve been in those places. Have I been over 100? pounds? No, but I always relate it to like, it doesn’t matter if you’re 10 pounds or 100 pounds overweight, if you’re not comfortable in your body. There’s some mindset stuff going on there. There’s a disconnect somewhere in your thought process of like, why you’re not achieving what it is that you say that you want?
Micheal Pacheco 22:06
Yeah. What is? What is the typical engagement with you look like?
Nicole Simonin 22:14
As the client comes in, or?
Micheal Pacheco 22:17
Yeah, a client. So if you’re working with a client, what is that engagement look like? Like, for example? You know, do you work with someone on a monthly retainer basis? Do you have like a three month program? Is it is it a group course.
Nicole Simonin 22:31
So I have two programs right now, one is a VIP, which is a one on one coaching. And we do weekly zoom calls, they get customized workouts that I designed for them. And that varies depending on the person because I have clients that are doing like five minute workouts three times a week. And then I have people that are doing like 30 minute workouts, you know, a couple times a week. So it really depends on what goals they want, what they’re going after, or that kind of thing. Nutrition, I don’t really nutrition I’m finding is more mindset stuff. Because again, we know that an apples better for us than a donut or whatever. So yeah, it’s mostly the coaching, I do have a program in both of my programs called mastermind to change your body. It’s an on demand video access, it’s really my foundational work from 2006. To today, and you can go in there on demand and just watch whatever, there’s worksheets and things like that. So the one on one coaching is that version, and then I just launched my group program, which the doors are closed at the time of this recording, but they will be open in June. I give them a workout that they can do. We have weekly group coaching calls, and they also get mastermind change your body. Both of the programs have my stress free eating guy, there’s all kinds of fun bonuses that I have put in there. But what I really find is the mindset piece is that weekly coaching calls, because those are where we dive into whatever’s going on, you know, and finding out what what is holding you back from getting what you say you want.
Micheal Pacheco 24:04
How often do you do you run this program? So you mentioned that the you know, we’re recording this in early May. And it’s going to be open in June? How often does this program kind of circulate through?
Nicole Simonin 24:18
So the group program is once you’re in, you’re in its lifetime access? Okay, so yeah, once you get in you and there’s a 90 day money back guarantee on all my both my programs. So as we go through the 90 days because I’m in the weight loss, right industry, the diet in the fitness industry, there are a lot of like hesitations of like, Is this legit? What’s going on, you know, because there’s unfortunately a lot of scammy things out there. So I want to make sure that everybody’s comfortable coming in and know that they can, you know, check it out and dive in because once you’re in you’re not going to want to go but um, and the one on one program is six months long.
Micheal Pacheco 24:54
Okay, nice. Like let’s keep rolling. Let’s keep rolling on that. Tell us about some big wins that some of your clients have had in those programs.
Nicole Simonin 25:03
So I’ve had clients that have lost 20 pounds, 40 pounds, 90 pounds, I’ve had people not lose so much and lose a bunch of inches or their dress sizes come down. But you know, everybody wants, they want to look at that. But like, the biggest things are like the mindset shifts. Like, I don’t know how many clients have said to me, like, I feel so comfortable. In my body. I if you had told me when I came in that I would feel so great in my body. There were like, I wouldn’t have believed you, for sure. But yeah, it’s all those mindset things. It’s like sitting down to have food, like all your favorite foods in front of you, and you’re totally comfortable with what to do, like you know exactly what to do you know how your brain operates, you know, exactly how to keep the weight off, you know, especially after you’ve lost it. I think that’s a big point that most of those quick fix diets or workouts miss. Because most people again, that instant gratification that our brain wants, we just want to get to that lean body that you have in this mind, but then you can’t hold it, you haven’t learned what you needed to learn in order to hold on to that. And that is what I do through both of my programs is really take everybody through that process of like, you know, as we’re losing it, I’m teaching you this is how you’re going to maintain it.
Micheal Pacheco 26:23
And what are so what is totally all that tracks that makes sense? What is the big like, what is the mindset shift? That that you’re you’re teaching? Is this, like self worth? Is it discipline? Is it a combination of different things?
Nicole Simonin 26:41
It’s really figuring out, like, how to weld I guess the bottom line really is like, what do you think about you? Because that comes forward in the choices that you’re making. If you’re not good with you, you’re gonna make choices that support that. Right. So like, wherever you currently are, those, whatever body you have, you have thoughts and feelings and decisions that you have made that created where you are, if you want to go somewhere else, you can’t think and feel the same way. Like it’s a you have to become a new person, you have to hopefully level up, right. We’re not aiming for leveling down with anybody, but you have to become this new version of you. And it’s not that you’re not the same person. It’s just you operate differently, like you still everybody has their same core values, you know, things like that, but it’s really understanding, like, if you want to be this new person, like, what does she think? What does she feel? How does she operate through the day, and a lot of those action steps that we’re taking may be the same in the sense of like you’re eating a certain whatever food or you’re doing the workout, but it’s how you think about it now. So you know, a lot of people are like, I hate working on like, me too, sometimes I do. But it’s like, what do you want out of all this? And it’s not discipline because discipline is like like I I really, again from the ballet world. very disciplined perfection. You know, you have high high standards. Sure. When we put that on ourselves when it comes to our waiting or body it backfires. Like you can force yourself to work out for probably about two weeks and you’re out anymore. But again, that’s uncovering and every so different. So I can’t really like say this is the one thing because it might be a different combination for different people.
Micheal Pacheco 28:43
Yeah, yeah. So so people going through your programs are essentially getting a decent amount of they’re they’re getting a lot of one on one attention as you’re helping them through the the mindset that’s going to keep them
Nicole Simonin 28:58
there. Yeah, yeah, especially in the one on one coaching. I mean, that is clearly just that’s private coaching. So it’s just one on one but even in the group, I’ll be honest with you because I just launched the group in the fall and I only let so many people in and I shut it down. I just opened up a soft launch. Because I’m still kind of I’m not testing like I know it works but I haven’t like the next one is going to be the big launch so if you are interested in that group I say get in now because it is like there you know there’s not a lot of people in there so it is almost like one on one coaching in that weekly call because you know not everybody shows up or whatever. So they’re definitely getting a good taste of it. So get in we’re all the masses come in
Micheal Pacheco 29:40
here to hear first people so I want to know, how do you how do you market for that? So I think I think you make a really good point that you know the some of your some of your big results. Some of your big wins are losing 20 pounds, 40 pounds, 90 pounds. That’s huge. But that’s not really the big win. Right? That’s kind of the results, but it’s not. It’s not it. If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. How do you, Nicole, how do you market for that? Yeah,
Nicole Simonin 30:13
um, I have some. What’s the word? I have some thoughts about when I say lose weight for the last time, right? Because I don’t want to say weight. Like, I really don’t even like there’s a lot of my clients who we don’t I don’t even weigh them. You know, because this is what people are looking for it right? Women are looking to lose weight. So I kind of have to use that as an SEO you know, search engine optimization type.
Micheal Pacheco 30:44
But describing your programs as weight loss alone is underselling it.
Nicole Simonin 30:49
Right. So I might need to tweak my marketing just a smidge. But anybody that follows me whether it’s on my podcast, Facebook, I’m going to be jumping into Pinterest soon. They understand that I am like, it’s not about the weight loss per se, because that’s what people come to me. They’re like, I want to weigh this number. I’m like, No, you really don’t. Because say you want to weigh 120. And we get you down to 130. And you’re ecstatic. You don’t care about that number, you want to feel something, feel this way. You want to feel whatever 120 represents to you. That is what you’re looking for. You don’t the number is arbitrary, it doesn’t mean anything. Right. But when women are getting on line, that’s what they’re searching for weight loss coach weight loss, this weight loss that. So that’s why it’s in my tagline, who knows, it might change as things go on, I don’t know. But as far as marketing, definitely my podcast, shaping up over 40 has been hitting the charts. It still amazes me how much like I, you know, go on and look at my, wherever it’s ranking. And I know right now, it’s been in Hong Kong for like, three, almost four months now teetering between like 151 65, which is pretty good in my industry for the fitness category, because there’s a lot of fitness podcasts out there. And now just Hong Kong, you know, it’s gotten into the US Top, it was ranked by Feedspot as number 50 for the must follow Fitness podcast of 2022. So the podcast is reaching all across the world, which again, as you a podcaster I, I can assume you’re the same way. I’m just like, it blows my mind that like people in Croatia and Thailand and Hong Kong and Australia and all over the globe are like listening to me just get on a microphone and share my ideas with the world. So that is definitely a big marketing piece. I do social media. I’m doing some I have some fun things coming up that I can’t share yet, so you’ll have to check in with me later. But I have a TEDx talk that’s coming up. So any kind of speaking engagements that I can do you know, guesting on other podcasts? It’s really how I get my message out?
Micheal Pacheco 33:09
I think. Yeah, I mean, I as a marketing strategist, myself, I think that makes a lot of sense. Because what, what you’re selling? You know, I said weight loss, just under undervalues what you do, and but you got to give them what they want in order to give them what they need. And doing it through something as as organic and for lack of a better word pure as a podcast, right? It’s just you raw talking to microphone. I mean, that’s a great way to to clearly state your message over the course of time, right? So so given that timeframe, you can, your message can be as complex as your program is because you can talk about the different aspects of it, and so forth. build that trust with people, it’s a lot easier, you know, arguably takes more work, because it’s more content. But I think you can you can more clearly communicate your message that way, right? Then you can in a headline on a blog post,
Nicole Simonin 34:11
right, right. Because I also think people tend to read things, how they hear it in their head. So like, when you’re verbally you know, audible talking, or even seeing me on a video, you’re gonna get a different perspective, rather than reading it in a blog post. But I will say to for my podcast, I really approach it, like, I want them to walk away with some sort of win by the end of the podcast. So like, you could probably follow my podcast and lose a bunch of weight. Just following those tips, if you want to take it further than work with me. But those podcasts, I mean, they just kind of like just binge listened to all of them because each one’s going to build on the other and, you know, that’s that’s my, I know not everybody’s going to work with me. So I want to have something that’s out there that can help people.
Micheal Pacheco 34:57
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I love it. Okay, so we talked about your big wins, let’s talk about your failures, where have you tell us about a story about a time when you have maybe royally screwed up? And you learned a lot from it?
Nicole Simonin 35:12
Okay, which time? is more than what? Yeah, let’s see, I think when I started my business, I was just like, let’s just start a business, you know, like, No, there’s no planning. It was just like, let’s just jump in and figure it out. And, um, I started doing actually, I did online training back in 2006, originally, and the technology was absolutely horrible, horrible. So like, I went to mommy boot camps where we did stuff in the park. And I’m gonna say the biggest probably fall on my face was I had a studio for a while. did great. I had a bunch of people in there. And it was a, it was really doing well. But the balance between having two young kids and a husband that also had a full time job, I was driving so much back and forth. Because if you’re familiar with the trainer’s schedule, it’s 5am. To what 910. And then like, I would come back and pick the kids up and then go back. So I was driving back and forth to the studio, you know, and then late hours, it just got to a point where it was like, a family or business and it was really hard to maintain. And I was very upset, I closed the studio, and I was like, I was really in a funk. And that’s actually when I found Jensen churros, you’re a badass book. But yeah, that was probably the biggest fail in the sense of like, I didn’t have I don’t have a business degree. I didn’t have I had a marketing company that I had signed up that with that was purposely with trainers. But looking back, they were just like, here’s the to do list, write, check, check, check, check, check. And now that I know now, it’s the mindset piece that was missing from that you need to have confidence you need to have whatever is driving that. And back then it was like, I’m just going to run myself on the ground and check those off. And some of it worked. And some of it didn’t. So I would say that’s probably the biggest fail. Like when I close a studio I was I was in a funk, big, bad funk. And I was like, I actually went and got an insurance license, which is no offense to anybody who does insurance. But I’d rather stab myself with a pencil. Not for everybody. I’m not a desk person. I am not like, yeah, so yeah, but then, you know, it really made me question, is this something I want to do? This was back in, I think 2010, maybe? Somewhere in there. And it really made me question, is this the direction that I want to go in? Or do I want to go back to physical therapy? What did I want to do? And I think it was like six months of me being in a funk and really listening to that viewer about us over and over and over and over again and letting it marinate in my brain where I was like, Yeah, I want to do this. I want to help women really just understand what’s going on to be healthy. And you know, I kept moving forward.
Micheal Pacheco 38:28
Thanks. How did you? How did you find the book? Was it recommended to you by someone?
Nicole Simonin 38:33
Good question. I don’t remember I think, at the time I had subscribed to audible.com. The first book I got was some hunger game version. And I hated I couldn’t stand that couldn’t stand whoever was reading it. Sorry, whoever’s out there if you listen to this, but I think it must have popped up on Audible because that was where I first listened to it over and over again.
Micheal Pacheco 39:00
Nice, I did that. I’ve done that with a couple of books. The latest one, I think that I’ve listened to multiple times was you’ve got it here somewhere. This guy,
Nicole Simonin 39:15
oh, I have not read that sole source
Micheal Pacheco 39:17
source entrepreneur by Christine Kane. It’s kind of it’s really kind of written for women. But my wife and I listened to it in the car as we were driving around. And I ended up listening to it two or three times and obviously bought the book after that. Yeah, it’s just it’s for what it’s worth. Just throw that out there.
Nicole Simonin 39:42
Yeah, I have to check it out. That’s the same thing with Jensen chair like I listened to the the URL battles for years. And then I finally was like, see now here, somebody can take this idea and run with it. Somebody needs to create an audible, a hardcopy and a PDF or ebook, whatever you want to call it, bro. version and be able to buy that all in one chunk. Like that would make me super happy. Because I go from one thing to another, you know, and it’s like, if you have it on Audible, then I can’t like visually see it, I have to go buy the book, you know. So this might make sense.
Micheal Pacheco 40:18
There’s a study that was done at some point, I don’t remember. I’m trying to remember details. But there was a study peer reviewed, where if you listen to an audio book while you’re reading the book, you will, because you’re because you’re learning it right in multiple ways at the same time, so you’ll take in more, and you’ll actually remember more.
Nicole Simonin 40:38
Yeah, I think anytime you can incorporate all your senses, even reading it out loud while listening to it. I think that Yeah, cuz it’s like, yeah,
Micheal Pacheco 40:47
you could somehow get to, that’d be great. Experience.
Awesome. Let’s see. Nicole, is there anything else that we haven’t touched on? That you would like to chat about? Before we kind of wrap things up?
Nicole Simonin 41:06
I don’t know. I feel like I feel like we’ve covered everything. I don’t know. Anything pop in your mind. Anything you want to know about me? Secrets?
Micheal Pacheco 41:19
deep, dark secrets? Wow, you really are opening the Pandora’s box. Where do I begin?
Nicole Simonin 41:23
I didn’t say I would answer it. But you can ask all you want.
Micheal Pacheco 41:29
Gosh, I don’t know. I wonder well, actually, you know, one thing. I wonder how much as a professional athlete, and specifically in ballet, I wonder how much kind of dysfunction around weight and food you saw in that that may have, you know, led you somehow or another over the years into what you’re doing now?
Nicole Simonin 41:55
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I’m still like uncovering things that have happened that I was not. So it’s interesting, I kind of relate this to, we all wear we live right in our house, we all have a smell. And when we live here, we can’t smell it because it’s our smell. But if we like if I came over to your house, I would probably your smell. And I could recognize that as a different smell than my smell. I am going getting somewhere with us. So like growing up. Going into growing up in the ballet world, like that was just what I was taught and exposed to I didn’t know any different. So like, as I’m older and kind of investigating more of the mindset piece, I’m realizing a lot of the things that happened to me were were trauma based. And to know that, it’s kind of weird, because it’s like, well, wait a minute, I grew up in that environment. I don’t know any different. So it’s almost like I don’t recognize the different smell. So, so yeah, there were I would say I was never anorexic or bulimic or anything like that, but uh, definitely disorganized eating. But it’s interesting. This was pointed out to me actually, not too long ago is like, you know, in the ballet world, you have to be very lean, right? I’m five, two on a good day. And in my prime dancing, I was like 98 pounds, right? And I, they were like, You look fabulous. I’m like, looking back, I look like a skeleton. But you know that reinforcement of you have to be lean, and they didn’t care how you got down to there. And then you get reinforced by getting lead roles, getting the accolades and stuff. So it’s reinforcing this negative behavior. And, you know, that is that’s toxic. You know, if you’re not healthy, if you’re not eating, or whatever you’re doing, like, for me, it was like, donate anything, as as little as possible and then have like, a whole box of cameo cookies. Right? Like, so, there was this ebb and flow of like, okay, I have to eat barely little, and then I’m going to overeat on the weekends. And, you know, that’s, that’s not, that’s not healthy for you. That’s not and the whole mindset piece of like, why you’re doing that. So yeah, there was a lot of things I’ve seen, unfortunately, some dancers who have passed away at a young age because they’re anorexic. You know, and that’s the ugly side of ballet. There are other sports, gymnastics, ice dancing, ice skating, you know, wrestling, there’s a lot of sports that do focus on that weight and how you look and, you know, I get it from an athletic perspective in the sense of like, yes, you need to be lean, because you’re standing on your toes. You’re easier to lift, but at the same time, there’s got to be a healthy balance. There’s got to be some line that says, and I think it’s getting better, I’m kind of out of touch with the ballet world. But I think the next generation that’s coming up, like if you ever watched, so you think you could dance, there are different body types, instead of like the stick figure for ballet, so it is a little bit more open, and hopefully they’re getting healthy advice. I did not get healthy advice growing up in the ballet world. So yeah, and definitely Fast forward to now, you know, knowing what I know. And this ties into like that generational cycle of dieting, you know, being shamed for having a piece of cake, or, you know, a lot of people hide food, and they go eat it, you know, there’s all those things that like, we need to kind of bring it out into the open and be like, it’s okay to eat whatever you want. Right? And just understand the parameters. I teach what I call the golden rule in my, in my programs, and it teaches you a simple way to be like, know where your kind of boundaries are, I guess is a good way to put it.
Micheal Pacheco 46:05
Yeah. Are you would you be willing to share that golden rule with us on the podcast? Yeah. Fair enough.
Nicole Simonin 46:15
Doesn’t hurt to ask. But
Micheal Pacheco 46:19
Nicole, you have a discovery call you’d like to offer to our viewers and listeners? Can you tell us?
Nicole Simonin 46:26
Yeah, absolutely. It’s a 60 minute call with me, you and I are gonna jump on a zoom call, and we’re gonna find out what’s going on? Like, why are you stuck, you will definitely get some value out of just the call itself. We are going to talk about like, you know, what do we like to work together, and then you get to decide whether you want to continue working together or not. So there’s no pressure in the call, I’m here to help you, and to guide you to what you want. So you can definitely get that call at shapeitupfitness.com call ca ll at the end.
Micheal Pacheco 46:58
Awesome. We’ll add that URL to the show notes. And where else can our listeners and viewers connect with you online?
Nicole Simonin 47:06
I am mainly on Facebook, you can just friend me that Nicole Simone and I do have a business page. But if you really want to connect, it’s definitely through my personal page. And then I like I said I do have a Pinterest page. And that will be juiced up in the next actually when this comes out or will probably be rolling. So you can definitely get information there as well.
Micheal Pacheco 47:26
I love it. I think there’s I think Pinterest is such a great platform for coaches and so many of them don’t even think about it. So I’m glad to hear you taking advantage that right, Nicole Simone and thank you so much. Coach podcast. It’s been a pleasure.
Nicole Simonin 47:48
Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a joy and you nailed the last name now many people get that so it’s all good.
Micheal Pacheco 47:55
Thank you to our listeners and our viewers for sticking around and hanging out. We’ll see you guys next time. Cheers.
