Maria:
ABOUT THE PODCAST:
ABOUT THE GUEST:
Today we have a very close and dear guest to me. I would like to introduce you to Natalya Shulga, who is
Maria: Hello, dear friends! My name is Maria Azarenok, and I am glad to welcome you to my author’s podcast “Be a Brand”.
ABOUT THE PODCAST:
In this podcast we meet interesting people who are becoming brands, who have already become brands and are actively working in this niche. These people can help you with their recommendations, advice, techniques, methods that will allow you to quickly reveal your uniqueness, package it correctly and become popular in the niche that interests you.
ABOUT THE GUEST:
Today we have a very close and dear guest to me. I would like to introduce you to Natalia Shulga, who is a certified nutritionist practitioner and developer of educational programs on nutrition and fitness. In fact, you could list Natalia’s credentials for a very long time, but I’d rather ask her questions that will help you get to know her and get to know her much better. Natasha, hello!
Natalia: Hi Masha! Hello, dear listeners, I am glad to welcome you all!
Maria: Natasha, let's start with the main thing. When I look at your credentials along with the projects you created and the years of your work, I can read all this for a very long time, but let me ask you a simple question:
Natalia: A good question that I answer regularly, every six months to a year. If you look at my professional activities over the past 8 years, then, of course, I am engaged in a healthy lifestyle. This was the first step when I decided that this niche was interesting to me. I am involved in projects in the field of healthy lifestyle.
The second point that I determined for myself is that these are, after all, projects - flowing, voluminous systems and processes, short-term and long-term, but having their own beginning and end and including people. That is, I am a healthy lifestyle designer, speaking in a narrower sense.
Thirdly, you need to take into account that the sphere of healthy lifestyle is very large. The nutritional market is evolving and we are seeing many nutritional products entering the market and immersing us in the fitness industry. Again, the fitness industry programs themselves are developing so quickly that you don’t have time to change clothes from one brand to another, join one system, switch to another - everything is very flexible and flexible. And here it became clear to me that I am a person who works with food, draws up nutrition programs, that is, a person who works with physiology and understands it from all sides. To turn on physiology, you need to teach a person to move correctly, at the right time and with the right impact, and also teach him to eat correctly. In other words, I am a healthy lifestyle designer who works with human physiology - an even narrower area.
Next, you need to understand who is nearby in this area, who you can learn from, who you can work with, who you can immerse. And here I understand that I am no longer closer to girls who want to lose weight, although it was with them that I started and they were my first audience. Now I am closer to athletes who want to constantly maintain themselves at a competitive weight, to feel and manage their physiology literally “by the hour,” and to those athletes who want to achieve specific results from season to season. This is already the narrowest area of what I do. Recently it has been sports nutritionology. Therefore, answering the question “who are you?”, I will most likely answer that I am a sports nutritionist. But I understand that this is my area of interest, and the audience is much larger. And here I have a question for you, Masha:
How can I make my perception of myself, my competencies, read by the audience and really be in demand? Not everyone is used to the word nutritionology, but here sports nutritionology also appears.
ABOUT THE TREND IN THE FIELD OF HEALTHY LIFE:
Maria: Come on, before we get to your question, I want to dig a little into the past. I'll explain why. There are a lot of people who work or want to work in the topic of healthy lifestyle. Do you agree that this is a trend?
Natalia: Yes, sure. @shulgarussia is working.
Maria: That is, the trend now is to be in shape, exercise, run, swim, jump, crossfit. At the same time, many, having come into contact with this, want to make money from it, want to be someone in this industry, do you agree?
Natalia: Well, of course. I will give a specific example. Eight years ago there was a project called “Run After Me.” It still exists, but eight years ago it was not popular and no one was running on the streets. When I went out for a run in the winter morning, I looked like a city madman. Two years passed - everyone came running. Now we see how popular the Moscow marathons are, and, moreover, the “I love running” team, a well-known project, took all the technology from the “Run with Me” project and made a commercial out of it. “Run After Me” worked with government programs, while “I love running” caught the situation in time and packaged itself as a commercial product. Great fellows.
ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE BRAND:
Maria: Yes, I was at one of their festivals - a very interesting diverse audience. It is clear that this is a close-knit, cool team. The question is:
Did you start making the all-Russian project “Run After Me” in 2010?
Natalia: Yes, approximately.
Maria: After that, you held as many as 4 sports forums, each of which was attended by more than 3,000 people; you gathered on Seliger. How did it happen that such a huge project “Run with Me” was born and grew from simple running? How did you manage to gather many thousands of people who united around you within the framework of this project, and even so that within the framework of the state project “Seliger” you began to hold shifts and popularize running among young people?
Natalia: Good question. I knew who to go to. I come from the political sphere, and I proposed a sports project. They gave me six months and said: “Well, show me how many people you will have.” And I, plus ten more people, began to go out from the Taganskaya Koltsevaya metro station to St. Basil's Cathedral, and along this embankment we walked 5 km at a fast pace, because my first audience was not a jogger. We walked around, and there were people there with a lot of weight. Every Saturday at 8 am we gathered in full force near the Taganskaya metro station. After 2 months, 300 people came out with me, because everyone who liked it, with whom we talked, with whom we communicated, they joined the project.
Maria: So you arrive at the metro, and there are 300 people there?
Natalia: No. Of course, it was serious work. At first there were 10 people on the first Saturday. On the second Saturday, each of these ten brought two more people, then two more people, and so in 2-3 months we reached the number of 300 people. Three hundred people walked without any uniform, as is customary now when everyone dresses very nicely. We were all walking so differently, and the police didn’t understand what was happening.
Maria: So I just wanted to ask how the law enforcement officers reacted to this rally?
Natalia: They didn’t react at all. No symbolism - no complaints. Quietly, peacefully, with music speakers on our shoulders, we arrived.
Then the investors with whom I started saw that this was not a whim, and that fitness, in principle, could be massively popular, and asked to give it a name. I realized that “Run After Me” is a good title, invented on my own, with an assessment of the situation from beginning to end. Packaging in purple and light green colors is still very popular in those regions that are developing this project, and in a couple of years we have more than eighty regions. That is, now the project can truly be called all-Russian.
Maria: More than 80 regions were united with your simple desire to run, popularize it and make a project out of it?
Natalia: Yes. But I had to try. Then investors saw this strength, that 300 people is serious, especially to get that many people out of Moscow. This is not Tambov, where you can just leave because there is nothing to do, but in Moscow, where there is so much entertainment and temptation.
We were allocated a good office of 1500 sq. m. m., and there it was necessary to think about how to occupy people so that they would justify such a big friendly gesture, and how to occupy these square meters. This is how the model of a fitness studio was born, where, on the one hand, cooking master classes were held, on the other hand, people trained in different areas. The model of our studio spread to Seliger, where those same 300 people came. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin saw us in random and very happy circumstances. After that, he proposed reviving the GTO throughout the country, and after this funny coincidence, such studios opened, for example, in Vladimir. Even if it was a budget option, at a university, but, nevertheless, the project went to the masses. There are these studios in Vladimir, Cheboksary, and Grozny where you can come and learn how to comply with all the standards.
Maria: Yes, I remember, I saw on Instagram that you periodically went on business trips, you conducted training, and so on.
Natalia: For myself, I call it charity. Since I was given this office then, I have to give something back now and throughout the development of all my projects in the field of healthy lifestyle. Of course, it didn’t end with “Run After Me.” This is a very clear, simple ideology - why run, why run, where to run. Then, of course, I want to grow.
How to make sure you can run for a long time, without illnesses, sores and injuries, how to make running popular among young people? When I started, I came across grandfathers in the morning with such elongated sweatpants, we greeted each other, and it was a lot of fun. Now you look, good cool guys are running around in the morning.
Maria: We are sitting now, there is a park next to us, and every hour someone is running there.
Natalia: Yes, if you come to New York, all the streets there are full of people. Everything is so cool! We are, in fact, already arriving at this. Soon the Moscow marathon will consist of cool people - not sick, with good physiology, who finish and continue to run with pleasure.
Maria: Well, now it’s very nice. I ran the Moscow half marathon, and the audience was very cool, very different industries.
Natalia: Do you agree that people have become different?
Maria: And I don’t know what they were. I myself started running a year ago thanks to your influence. Do you remember the first time I came to you for instruction with the question: “Where to run?” You said: “Run there to the embankment and back, and you’ll have enough to get started.”
Natalia: I remember. It was cool! I gave you the task of completing assessment training.
Maria: Yes, and I ran. And then 9 months later I ran a half marathon. I ran out for a little over two hours.
Natalia: You're cool, well done! This was probably the answer why “Run After Me” became successful. There is a goal. It's very easy to set goals. Run, and that’s it – you’re great.
ABOUT #FAT FUEL AND “IDEOLOGICAL IMMORTALITY”:
Maria: There's also the benefit of nutritional consultations, as I understand it? What did you come up with next?
Natalia: Yes.
Maria: I'm just seeing where you started. In fact, your starting career was not in healthy lifestyle at all, because today you are a brand in healthy lifestyle. And when you started, you started by working in political parties.
Natalia: Not in parties, but in youth projects.
Maria: Yes, right. Tell me, what if a person does not have such a background that he can approach investors with a project or contact some political resources? What should a person who is simply passionate about his healthy lifestyle idea do? How can he grow up?
Natalia: They'll notice anyway. We need to act. Now social networks in a second can turn an absolutely zero person, I mean an unknown person, if he has content (unique content) into a mega-popular one, with a multimillion-dollar audience. In fact, into a star. The Internet gives us what I call “ideological immortality” if you give a postulate, for example, the hashtag #fattop. No one will remember who invented it. I came up with it, but everyone uses it. I love it.
Maria: Did you come up with the hashtag #fattop?
Natalia: Certainly! If you scroll down the feed, where you get to the very first mention, there are only my posts.
Maria: Great! How much of this tag has already spread there?
Natalia: More than 20,000 for sure.
Maria: Fine, yes. By the way, in September I looked at the hashtag #Moscowmarathon, there were also a little more than 20,000, just like #fattop. Great!
ABOUT GOOD TONE AND TINA KANDELAKI:
Natalia: Yes, very interesting. If “Run After Me” started now with such use of hashtags, then, of course, everything would happen much faster. Therefore, it seems to me that turning to investors now is bad form. It’s good form to offer unique content, then people will definitely read it.
I remember this transition, when I switched to Instagram and just started posting my workouts with some stupid collages at that time. It was very funny, but the first tags #abs #abl, mention of muscles and so on, such clear localization and specifics immediately brought me my first subscribers. Very cool!
Then, I remember, I corresponded for a long time on Instagram with Tina Kandelaki. She switched to functional training. Then and now I consider functional training the most relevant and healthiest direction in fitness on the verge of sports. It was very good to build a dialogue with Tina Kandelaki, and from her the second wave of subscribers came to me. And then I realized that this is interesting to me, and it’s interesting to others, and I can do this for a long time, endlessly.
Maria: This, what is this?
Natalia: Healthy lifestyle I don’t like this abbreviation - it’s terrible and stupid, but I can’t find an analogue.
ABOUT MONEY AND MONETIZATION:
Maria: Yes, this is a very thick word, there is a lot behind it. Let's now look at the commercial component of this whole story. How do you make money?
Natalia: There are several streams, and since I have a project activity, they, of course, change - they come here, then they come here. It’s easier for women to arrange this when you linearly manage several projects at the same time. This is absolutely not annoying, but on the contrary, when moving from one project to another, you switch, and it turns out very harmoniously. You cannot concentrate and aim at one point, otherwise you will go into a stupor and the end will come.
Maria: So you think that multitasking and multiprojecting is good for women?
Natalia: Very good. And the more diverse the directions, the more you will strengthen other lines. But, of course, you definitely need to succeed in one line. If you reach the TOP in something: in the family, in cooking, in any business, then all other areas will be pulled to the TOP. That's for sure.
Maria: In what area do you consider yourself to be in the TOP?
Natalia: Of course, I'm a food specialist. I know what to eat, when to eat and how to make a person feel good and get out as quickly and as safely as possible on a dry body composite.
Maria: Fine. There are different areas of projects. What is monetization based on?
Natalia: The first is clients. Clients are the medium through which you understand whether you are successful or not, whether there is a result or not. We need a primary result.
Maria: That is, it is important to feel the market through the client. When working with a specific person, do you understand whether your technology works?
Natalia: Certainly. At the same time, there should not be many clients to keep them in focus. I keep no more than five on my balance. I had a period when I had 20-21 clients per month. It's very difficult, it's normal not to work. Accordingly, here you already understand how much money there is. The question always arises, what price to set for yourself, and how much time do you invest in taking care of a person. How to build a professional dialogue in general - WhatsApp chat, Skype calls or evaluating food from photographs and so on.
Maria: Do you have clients all over Russia?
Natalia: Yes, sure. Moreover, we are now going on tour to Germany. I specifically visit two of my clients there. They are waiting for me, we will have a joint training session. This is very serious energy. Five clients are enough for me to exchange energy and understand that I am working, there is something to do and you can feel the physiology.
Maria: Since I quite often communicate in one of the profiles of my activity with people from the field of healthy lifestyle, there is a problem that when a person trains, his income is limited by man-hours. That is, there is a certain number of clients that he can take on per day, and there is a number of working days. Let's say we need more. What to do next in such a situation? Raise?
Natalia: No. There is a very limited resource here, it is needed for you to understand physiology and healthy lifestyle. You need clients who are close to you. When you feel whether he has gone beyond the required amount of basal metabolism or has not eaten enough. This physiology, its subtleties, the feeling of one’s mastery are very important to me personally.
ABOUT TOP CLIENTS:
Natalia: The second way is a broader one, how to make money and how to build the positioning itself. I work with large state corporations. Orders are not frequent, but 4-5 times a year I attend serious marathons for employees and TOP managers of companies such as VAZ, Rosneft, Dell, etc. Such large orders should also not be frequent, but they ask me all the time. There is a very fine line here, good presentation and working with senior management, because they do not let everyone in.
Maria: And how did you manage to receive such orders and such clients?
Natalia: I have a partner with whom we launched an educational platform on the healthcourse.ru portal, where we accept clients and teach nutritional science. We don't have such a system. Since my partner works with the Labor Research Institute, he has access to companies, and once I settled there and conducted a couple of seminars, the TOPs noticed me, invited me and continue to invite me. We are friends. With Rosneft, this whole thing has grown into a running club.
Maria: Yes, every Wednesday I see photos of you rocking out on the embankments.
Natalia: We're rocking it, yes. This is a very good direction.
In the first case, you need to feel the skill, the craft and check how well you get, because everything changes - today you need sports nutrition, tomorrow you don’t need it, veganism or meat-eating, here you need to understand what you are working with.
The second circle is access to large brands, through which you form and design yourself as a brand, as a name.
The third wave, which I definitely work with, is seminars for a mass audience, where you can have a good chat. Here I have a complete outlet when you sit people in front of you, it doesn’t matter if it’s 15 or 100 people, with whom you can chat about what’s relevant, because trends in both food and fitness are very flexible and change. Every month something new happens. Such seminars can already be sold well, switch them to webinars and take up as much space as possible here. This is such a targeted recommendation.
Maria: By the way, I often tell my students that the quality of the content, what you create, should be so good that if they come into contact with you once, they stay with you. So you are now confirming the thesis that if you go out and speak to an audience, then orders automatically follow?
Natalia: Yes. This is straight to the point.
Maria: I just noticed that this often happens when you perform somewhere, not necessarily for money, then you receive feedback in the form of a flow of people for your service.
Natalia: Yes, it works very well. These are, in fact, three areas through which I feed myself and those around me.
ABOUT COOPERATION WITH FAMOUS BRANDS:
Maria: Wait, there is still a fourth direction, which I also see on your Instagram. I see that you are still working with commercial brands that choose you as an ambassador, as a friend, as a speaker, right?
Natalia: This is the laziest job you can have, it's so enjoyable!
Maria: I mean, when I put on my cool sneakers and ran?
Natalia: Yes, it is very nice when large commercial brands invite you as a unique character. For example, a press tour with Adidas to present their first Ultra-Boost sneakers.
Maria: This was your experience, right?
Natalia: Yes. Twice they released the Ultra-Boost and twice in New York with the sprinters, Yohan Blake and I sat and tried these shoes, tested them, ran.
Maria: So Adidas took you to New York?
Natalia: Certainly! Twice.
Maria: Wow! I guess I wasn’t subscribed to you yet, I didn’t know about it.
Natalia: Masha, turn the page and you will see a selfie with Yohan Blake.
Maria: Listen, how cool!
Natalia: Yohan Blake, in case our listeners don't know, is the second fastest runner after Bolt. He is the second, but he and Bolt are very friends, they also correspond on Instagram. It's funny to watch them, they're cool.
Maria: Now I’ll ask a very important question that many people have been interested in. How to get contracts with commercial brands? To be dressed, given water, sports nutrition, drinks and everything else? You have sponsors in different categories. How can a person from a healthy lifestyle get such contracts? And even money, so that they can also take you to New York to be there at presentations everywhere? How?
Natalia: Again, the answer is unique content. I will now explain what I mean. For example, I suddenly became a vegan five months ago. This is what I call a person who does not eat animal protein at all. Vegetarian, vegan, that's probably more accurate.
I gave up animal protein for selfish reasons. I had a client with athletic status who asked me to calculate a diet without animal protein. Of course, I know and understand everything in numbers, but it feels very dangerous. My training cycles and hers are approximately the same and their builds are the same. I switched to giving up meat products, animal protein: eggs, dairy products, etc. I switched over, got involved, and liked it.
Here somehow on Instagram, I need to publish this in my personal diary, what’s happening to me. I wrote that I am a vegetarian, vegan. Of course, there are a lot of questions, but a few days later I am invited to an event organized by Iberogast - a presentation of a certain new product on the market.
Maria: Yes I remember. Completely herbal ingredients. For them, vegetarianism was just an important criterion. You acted as a moderator there and gave the topic.
Natalia: Yes, I acted as a moderator and gave a topic, but they noticed me simply through Instagram.
Maria: That is, through a hashtag?
Natalia: Yes, through a hashtag. Second example: we are currently running the Fstatica challenge, you can look at it by hashtags. You get into a pose, fixate it and describe what kind of pose it is, why it is needed, how it all happens. As soon as I put the name of the pose with a hashtag, the yoga community immediately found me and started writing comments. Everyone is monitoring. And as much as I communicate with commercial companies, everyone needs their own narrow audience and access to it.
That’s how Adidas found me. I didn’t have many subscribers at that time – 5,000 people, but Adidas reached out to me because I was doing “Run for Me” and put this hashtag. They were looking for an ambassador in running. No one was running when they entered the market.
Vegans, understandable and not confused, who can understand the diet in simple words, again, with a narrow focus, are also being sought.
If we talk about a completely confusing topic - sports nutrition, I am sure that several months will pass and the Professional Sports Federation will contact me, because there are no professionals. I spoke at the Federation in front of biathletes, I was invited by the Biathlon Federation in St. Petersburg to speak in front of current athletes and tell them how to prepare a diet. The people there seem to be preparing for medals, but they have only just learned to eat fresh food and support themselves.
Maria: What does fresh food mean?
Natalia: Fresh means unspoiled.
Maria: Did they eat spoiled food?
Natalia: Yes, they could simply not notice and eat everything. I ask the athlete: “What do you eat for breakfast?”, and he lists sausages, white bread with butter, everything in a row.
Maria: Is this a professional athlete?
Natalia: Yes, biathlete. That’s why we have such results in sports – sometimes positive, sometimes negative. And how our roll and sashimi fighters dry and lose weight. They smear Dolobene all over their skin, line up on a treadmill, remove the water for two days and limit themselves in everything. You can do it differently, smarter.
Maria: Are you saying that there is a less traumatic process to achieve such a result?
Natalia: Certainly! Moreover, our physiology is so predictable that if you put it into the system, then in three-day increments you can understand exactly what state you will be in and where your body will be. So you need to accurately formulate your specialization.
By the way, here on Instagram they accused me of taking pictures in front of the mirror too often and showing off my six-pack abs, and that I shouldn’t do that.
Maria: Why?
Natalia: Because this is a massive trend, and they began to perceive me as a “bikini girl,” but we need to maintain the uniqueness of the content.
Maria: So you need to take pictures with glasses, with abs and glasses!
Natalia: Of course, with a medal.
Maria: Listen, but a shoemaker should wear boots, what do you think?
Natalia: Agree. There is a subtle point here. Apparently, some very precisely selected background is needed so that the audience perceives abs as a sports result and the result of physiological control, and not posing.
Maria: It's clear. So posing is not suitable for your brand?
Natalia: Doesn't fit.
Maria: That is, people directly write that Natalya...?
Natalia: Yeah, it sucks.
Maria: But I see that you have discussions under all sorts of meaningful posts, and the events to which you are invited turn out to be intellectual sports.
Natalia: Oh, I love that, yes. Don't feed me bread - let me chat.
Maria: When I announced our meeting with you for my students, I was filled with questions that they wanted to ask, and 90% of the questions were about nutrition, about training, and so on.
Natalia: So I'm doing everything right.
Maria: But I won’t ask these questions today.
Natalia: And thank God! Send me to a seminar.
Maria: Yes, because the answers to all these questions can be found in your course, on your Instagram, at your webinars, at your marathons, and so on.
ABOUT UNIQUE KNOWLEDGE:
Natalia: Such an accurate recommendation now: I am not afraid to share unique knowledge. If I read knowledge somewhere in an expensive sports nutrition course, I can easily post it on Instagram. Anyone who is interested will understand, take it and use it. I know that many people achieve results simply by following my page.
Maria: So, just following you for free?
Natalia: Yes, a person changes. If you share information well, the audience will be grateful and there will be growth, for sure.
ABOUT HOW A PHOTO WITH THE PRESIDENT INFLUENCES THE NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS:
Maria: This is a very cool recommendation. I also agree with this 100%, and I also notice on my Instagram that this is true. Okay, another interesting question. I know firsthand that you have a contract with a network company and you are a friend of the company, right?
Natalia: Yes.
Maria: Functional nutrition, NL International, Energy Diet. I want to ask you, were you afraid to start such a partnership? Because we all know what people in Russia think about network companies. There are opinions for, there are opinions against. We will not discuss this now, whether we are for or against, and what we generally think about this. You can easily understand from my page what I think about it, and I think about it well.
However, weren’t you afraid that when starting such a partnership, starting to talk about some product, despite the fact that you were not a manager and did not build a business, but became a partner of the company as a friend, that you might lose part of your audience ?
Natalia: Maybe I lost part of the audience, but I write what I think. Since I know how to work with nutrition, I need to talk about it. In fact, the product is unique in that in one jar it is possible to collect in proportion everything that a person needs; for those who do not understand at all, this is a very elegant and ingenious solution.
If a lot of people come and ask: “how can I lose weight?”, the first filter is a jar, try it. The second filter - you already begin to figure out how many proteins, fats, carbohydrates per kilogram of dry mass, how to combine it all, how to build it. There is a simple way, and why not talk about it.
Maria: Roughly speaking, this was not a problem for you, because you understood the product. It doesn’t matter what the company was called, we’ve already said that, but the point is that it could have been another company with the same product.
Natalia: There could be another one.
Maria: That is, the quality that you tested on yourself was fundamentally important to you?
Natalia: Yes. I tried it, and suggested and prescribed my own programs. But in general, I was interested in how a nutritionist could sort it all out and tell him again what kind of product it is, and why clients should use it at all. In general, it is a very exciting process when you actually take on the ideology of a company created without you.
This is an interesting point because it's hard to love Adidas sneakers when they don't fit you. And if suddenly the sole doesn’t work, of course you won’t run. Let me tell you calmly, I discussed this with Adidas when we signed the contract. Before the Ultra-Boost, the sneakers didn't fit me. I broke my feet, I had serious problems after the first marathon, but the release of Ultra-Boost completely cleared everything up. It's just like a magic wand. I fell asleep wondering why I needed this contract, and in the morning you wake up and they’re already calling you for a fitting. Here you need, of course, not to be disingenuous, to be honest with yourself and understand what you are promoting. And I, of course, wanted to feel myself as a nutritionist, because this is such a hassle, calculating all this would break the devil’s leg.
I’ll give a very funny example to the question of whether I was afraid of losing my audience while working with the NL company. It would seem that my photograph with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin should bring wild popularity and a bunch of orders. No. Everything is completely the opposite. It’s Vladimir Vladimirovich’s birthday, and once a year I had this tradition of posting a congratulation on Instagram with the necessary hashtags and a photo of us together. As soon as I make this post, it would seem, only once a year, while I do not tell how good Putin is, I do not say how much he has done for the country. I just post a photo and write: “Happy Birthday, Vladimir Vladimirovich!” Minus 100-200 subscribers immediately, in the first hour, then I don’t follow anymore. Curious, but true. This didn’t happen even with NL International, you know? Funny?
Maria: Yes, we touched on an interesting topic.
Natalia: That's why I don't engage in politics. This is not a popular thing on Instagram.
Maria: Yes, there is such a rule that you can’t talk about politics, religion, or anything else out loud?
Natalia: I think that we can’t talk about nutrition out loud now. If you are a vegan, you need to hide it and not embarrass anyone.
Maria: Natasha, in principle, we have sorted out commercial issues and directions with you. For me, by the way, an activated personal brand is when offers find you on their own. You have already implemented this, and we see how cool it works.
Finally, I have a few questions for you that I plan to ask all our guests. They are specifically related to a personal brand.
THE TOPIC “BE A BRAND” AND A BLITZ OF FIVE QUESTIONS:
Maria: Who are you?
Natalia: I'm a healthy lifestyle person.
Maria: You're a healthy lifestyle person, great. What is a personal brand?
Natalia: This is a good packaging of your name.
Maria: Where do you think a brand starts?
Natalia: A brand starts with a name. @shulgarussia is a brand.
Maria: How to become a brand?
Natalia: You need to understand what you are talking about and pack unique knowledge into points (1, 2, 3).
Maria: What is your basic principle for success?
Natalia: Be honest with yourself and with everyone who listens to you.
Maria: Great. Thank you.
Natalia: Mash, I heard that there were questions that were not related to the brand, but related to nutrition and training programs.
Maria: We cannot discuss these issues today; this is not on our topic.
ABOUT GIFTS:
Natalia: Yes, and since I am an honest person and understand that there is an audience that is waiting for a return, there is an offer. Firstly, I give all listeners our calendar of events for 2017. You can use it just like that, hanging it on the wall, or you can join it in any activity or event: from fitness training to a yachting trip - whatever you like. Whatever a person is interested in, we are waiting for him everywhere and we will teach him how to eat wisely and exercise. And second: as a gift to this calendar, so that it is clear why, the first week of training according to our system - fun, at home, without any equipment. You can do this at any time with nutritional support.
Natalia: Certainly. If you want to be a leader, you need to take care of your health in order to be competitive and not get sick, at a minimum.
Maria: 100%. Well, with your recommendations it will be simple, comfortable and environmentally friendly. Well, I thank you for making time for us. I think that you and I will see each other again many times, and I’m planning on one of your super regattas, which we didn’t even have time to talk about today, neither about the community, nor about the regattas, nor about the movements. But today we are talking about the brand.
Natalia: Invite me, I will come here with pleasure.
Maria: Thank you for honestly speaking today about the commercial aspects for healthy lifestyles, because healthy lifestyles have such a request. Subscribe to Natasha on social networks. All links will be in the cover letter, receive gifts, and thank you too for your attention to us today. Listen to our podcasts every week and Be a Brand!
A morning jog is what you need to wake up and recharge your energy. Everyone knows this, but 80% always skillfully find excuses not to get out from under the blanket: it’s going to rain, it’s cold, I don’t feel like it, and, finally, “that I’m going to run around alone like a fool.” Running is much more popular than you think - follow the tags on social networks#Run after me And#fatty , and you will see more than 20 thousand bright and positive photographs: jogging, festivals and competitions, cooking master classes and healthy dishes, lectures and seminars - all on a voluntary basis and absolutely free. More than 70 thousand like-minded people in 78 cities of Russia organize weekly races, learn how to train and eat properly as part of the all-Russian youth project “Run for Me.” Thanks to the author’s project of Natalya Shulga, a nutritionist and practicing consultant on balanced nutrition and weight correction, the fashion for a healthy lifestyle is gaining momentum. Natalya told us when and how to run to lose weight, explained why snacks are needed, and why functional nutrition will beat regular food.
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Natalya, how did the idea for the “Run After Me” project come about?
When my son was born, I realized that I didn’t want to do anything else except my health and family. I realized that I was tired of working for my boss, tired of the glass ceiling. From that moment I decided that I needed to put my thoughts, feelings, and body in order, and went out for a run.
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Why running and not swimming, for example, or fitness?
Running is easy. I got up an hour earlier than my child and my husband, put on my sneakers and ran. Everything came from the desire to somehow switch and simply move your legs: when you jog, your body goes into some kind of trance, problems become solvable, and you come to an agreement with the world and with yourself. Running is the first step on the path to yourself. During this wonderful morning ritual, everything falls into place, I understand where I am, who I am, what I want and what I don’t want... For me, running is living in the present. I started with 20 minutes of jogging for fun, and six months later I started doing 10 kilometers of gentle daily running.
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But such athletic performance cannot appear out of nowhere: were you probably an athlete as a child?
At school I skipped all physical education lessons, received exemptions with a certificate...
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You?!
I mowed be healthy! I really disliked running. At the age of 14, my teenage search for myself began, I decided to take up athletics, and at the very first lesson I was forced to run the 100-meter dash. I almost died while I was running, and the coach looked sadly: “This is no good.” In general, all the memories from school and college about sports are just terrifying :)
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How then was your sudden passion for running perceived by those around you: friends, acquaintances?
Seeing that my life was changing, my friends began to ask: “What are you doing?” Having learned about running, they, of course, were surprised at first: no one perceived me as a runner six or seven years ago at all. But it so happened that in the past these guys also became disillusioned with glass ceilings, with the system of working for a boss, they wanted to find themselves... And they also decided to try. At some point, there were 30 of us: every Saturday at 9 am we met near the Taganskaya metro station and ran to Vorobyovy Gory and back. An investor noticed our group, wanted to invest in us, offered to launch a full-fledged project, I came up with the name “Run After Me.” While running, we gathered a large audience - the largest group that ran with me on Saturdays at the initial stage was 350 people. It turned out that running is interesting not only to me :)
– Natalya, when is the best time to go for a run?
If you consider running as an activity for yourself, for the soul, for communication with nature and the universe, you can run whenever you want. If the task is to get your body in order, you need to approach exercise wisely. At first, the body runs on glycogen: the muscles burn the “sugar” that you received throughout the day from carbohydrate foods. You've probably noticed that moment of "slipping" when at first you don't want to run for a minute or two, you move your legs through "I can't", and then it becomes easy, energy appears, a second wind opens - just at this moment fats begin to be burned. So: to start lipid metabolism in the morning, just run 20-30 minutes before breakfast. And in the evening, when you have already eaten a lot, for the “fat burn” you will have to run for 1.5–2 hours - and not just jog, but with acceleration or uphill. Running at a steady pace during the day or evening is practically useless: it will jump-start your metabolism 2-3 hours in advance, but will not help you get in shape quickly.
– Usually, after just 5 minutes of running, an unprepared person begins to feel a stabbing pain in the side. But running for an hour and a half without stopping is hardly possible for everyone... What to do when it seems that you can’t do it anymore?
Running for an hour and a half is, of course, already a semi-professional sport. There is no need to bring yourself to the point of exhaustion. You need to run only at a pace that is comfortable. When you push yourself, you overload the heart muscle, although it does not need to be specially trained: the heart always works at its maximum, but the vascular system and valves wear out. So choose only an easy pace. Or go for a brisk walk with a heart rate of 120-130 per minute - this will be as effective as jogging, and at the same time you will reduce the impact on your joints. Sport should bring joy, there is no need to accumulate fatigue from activity to activity and go to training thinking: “Oooh, I’m going to die!”
– Natalya, can you suggest a universal jogging option that will suit both beginners and professionals, will be effective and enjoyable?
In the morning you go out, first jog - you wake up, let your body enter the system: your heart beats, your muscles begin to work, you feel your body. Now do 2-3 boosts to kick-start your metabolism. The accelerations are very short: 3–5 seconds, no longer. After speeding up, take a quick walk to allow your body to recover, walk for 2-3 minutes or gradually switch to jogging, and then speed up again. To reduce stress on your joints and improve efficiency, accelerate uphill and walk back down at a brisk pace. Only twenty minutes will be enough for such a workout, from the tenth minute running will no longer seem like torture to you, you will not notice either rain or snow - endorphins will enter the blood, and you will feel like a happy person :) Plus, when you come back from a run, thanks to intervals In this approach, your abs will be defined and your legs will be toned.
– Is it better to run outside or in the gym?
In the fresh air, the body receives more oxygen, oxygen warms up the blood faster, and the blood activates cellular metabolism, including the fat burning process, which will start faster. You will feel good and get quick results.
– So, to get in shape, just running is enough? Or do you need to do something else?
Running is a shock load on all joints, feet, knees, ligaments - hard tissues. They take six months longer to form than muscle ones. For example, if you start training a month before a serious race, you will have time to grow your muscles, they will become strong, strong, elastic, but you will damage all the hard tissues during the race. I myself went through a phase of running without the correct technique, this led to overtraining of the body, and I realized that the body needs to be supported from the inside. Therefore, we began to teach children to run correctly, instill a running culture, and most importantly, we added functional training: they strengthen joint tissue, key muscles of the back and core that support all our internal organs. Such sets of exercises prevent many health problems 20–30 years before their possible appearance, help to achieve full physical fitness and be ready to pass any standards.
– Natalya, the topic of standards is very interesting. Since September, the All-Russian physical education complex “Ready for Labor and Defense” (GTO) has been approved for the physical education of the population from 6 to 70 years and older. As far as we know, you acted as an expert in the development of new standards. But you say that as a child you didn’t like all these 100-meter races. Why are you supporting now?
I would like standards to stop being perceived as a nightmare and an opportunity to receive a sufficient portion of humiliation - as it was probably not only for me at school and at university. I want it to be exciting and prestigious: I calmly pass and receive my badge. I believe that GTO can become an additional filter for a person’s success. For example, according to the standards, a thirty-year-old woman should run 100 meters in a maximum of 15 seconds, and 1 kilometer in no more than 4 minutes 40 seconds. These aren't superpowers, they're just proof that she's strong, flexible, and in good shape. And in just a month, functional training will help anyone prepare to pass all the standards of the All-Russian Physical Education Complex GTO.
– Let's return to the conversation about how to run correctly: before breakfast, with acceleration, at a comfortable pace, additionally strengthening the body with functional training. What else is important?
Of course, in order to run fast and without injury, you need to feed yourself well from the inside. Even at the very beginning of the project, I was faced with the fact that not everyone understands how and what to eat. Just imagine: 300 people come running to the office after a run - hungry, what to do with them? We began to come up with culinary master classes, organize lectures with nutritionists, and teach people about nutritional culture.
– Natalia, what is the essence of proper nutrition, in your opinion?
The formula is simple: you need to eat often, in small portions, 4–5 times a day: start your metabolism with food, but do not overfeed yourself, portions should be strictly limited. It is necessary to consume a sufficient amount of liquid, because water is the source of all metabolic processes in the body. You should always drink water whenever you want, plus before each meal I advise you to drink half a glass of water so as not to confuse hunger with thirst. It is also important to maintain a balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates - nutrients.
– You have to constantly monitor what you eat, keep calculations...
The main thing is to understand the basic principles. If you don’t eat carbohydrates in the morning (the best option is uncooked porridge), then after four o’clock in the afternoon you will experience symptoms of hypoglycemia: drowsiness, dizziness, cravings for sweets. Many girls say that they cannot live without chocolate, so if you eat enough complex carbohydrates in the morning, your addiction to sweets will go away. And if you dine on carbohydrates - for example, pasta - the body will not digest it overnight, and in the morning, before breakfast, you will have to “run off” this pasta - otherwise it will be deposited in the fat “depot”. All human physiology is aimed at accumulating fats, proteins and carbohydrates for future use: what if there is war?! And under no circumstances should you go hungry! Many people think that if you want to lose weight, you need to not eat - this is wrong. This slows down your metabolism, so snacking is a must.
– What's the best thing to have a snack?
Of course, the simplest snack is an apple or nuts, half a banana, a handful of almonds, 30 grams of coconut or meal replacements. In general, I am a supporter of functional nutrition, and I have a calm attitude towards it: it is convenient, the composition is balanced, and there is a clear portion - the snack should be no more than 200 grams in order to slightly muffle hunger, and then return to regular food. By the way, you need to be careful with fruits: they provoke hunger. If you don't add protein to the fruit, you run the risk of overeating during your main meal. Even snacks need to be approached wisely.
– Energy Diet – suitable as a snack?
In my opinion, this is the perfect snack before lunch or an evening workout.
Interviewed by: Maria Vasilchenko
Material preparation: Tatyana Vozhakova
Natalya is a nutritionist, consultant on balanced nutrition and weight management (and a vegan) and one of the founders of the Academy of Health Industry Specialists.
According to tradition, tell us about your body in the usual measurement indicators
Height – 165, weight – 55, chest – 86, waist – 65, butt – 90.
Where did you study, what do you do?
I studied at the Vladimir Pedagogical University (psychology, English teacher - two diplomas. I work in the field of healthy lifestyle.
How did it happen that you started training?
Previously, I worked as an ideologist and organizer of mass actions in youth politics. All federal actions of the “Ours” movement, project work in the Year of Youth, creation of project activities for Rosmolodezh. After all these actions and projects, I decided to restore my psycho-emotional state, started playing sports and watching my diet. I realized that the experience was interesting to many people - I started writing my own blog.
What pushed you to the field of healthy lifestyle?
The first subscribers pushed me - the area of functional training and TRX immediately became interesting.
What did you do in the gym during the first months?
Only functional training, body weight. Such a start gives very rapid growth.
I immediately became friends with coach Anna Mukhina (we found each other in the gym of a famous fitness network and did not part for 3 years), and with her I began to do the first sports project “Run after me.”
Are you currently working out with a trainer or on your own?
I was trained in Miami and with Russian practitioners, I myself became the author of hundreds of training programs, and brought dozens of clients to results (still together). The training system has grown into a system of teaching functional loads and development in all areas - I became one of the founders of the Academy of Health Industry Specialists, organized with the support of the First Moscow State Medical University named after I.M. Sechenov. There we teach online the profession of Health Coach - health and well-being consultant.
Now I train myself, including within the framework of the F.Community project (#functionalists), the leader of which is my partner Vladimir Kobylenko. There we prepare for various competitions and organize fitness tours.
Natalia's partner - Vladimir Kobylenko
What do you usually eat?
I've been vegan for a little over six months now. The experiment for the client turned into personal experience and personal goals. I really like the energy and new strength inside. Cereals, root vegetables, vegetables, fruits and dried fruits, nuts and tofu - that’s what I eat.
Do you use any sports nutrition supplements?
Previously, I tried and drank everything, now only pure, non-freeze-dried products.
What brands of sportswear and shoes do you prefer?
Salming - for the street, Reebok - for crossfit complexes, New Balance - for the city and street running while traveling.
Your current training program - by exercise / by day.
Here is a screenshot of my training plan:
Your fitness goals
Triathlon/races/swimming and marathons – all run and swim (win races!)
What inspires you?
Music and books from the best practitioners. Last year I was very inspired by the book “Transcend. Nine steps on the path to eternal life" from futurologist Ray Kurzweil and leading American doctor Terry Grossman.
Your reference points/idols?
Crossfit athletes.
What music do you train to?
Metallica's latest album.
Your advice to those who want to start
Start by walking 20 minutes outside. Then start running. Then go out for functional training. Then try the complexes for a while. Next, set sporting goals and go to mass starts, you will love it!
We presented the point of view of a nutritionist and the owner of a sports nutrition store. Now we met with a sports nutritionist and listened to her point of view.
Meet Natalya Shulga. This slender and charming girl is also a multifunctional athlete. Her list of activities includes swimming, triathlon, athletics, crossfit and even obstacle racing. We met at the Lybid stadium, where Natalya trains.
So, sports nutrition again... Some people confuse dietary supplements with doping. According to the nutritionist, doping is an artificial stimulation of the body to do something that it is not capable of without taking special stimulants. But dietary supplements are about improving the functioning of the body’s cells.
As you know, in order for training to be more effective, you need nutrients. Unfortunately, we cannot always get them from food. Then sports nutrition comes to the rescue.
“When we come for cardio training, the heart learns to pump more blood,” says Natalya. – Cells and capillaries learn to accept this volume and return decay products back. If the capillary network is weak, this process does not start well. When the heart valves do not have time to take in and release blood, high or low blood pressure appears.
Sport equalizes blood pressure. Strength training raises, and cardio load lowers. We become healthier and feel better. Dietary supplements, of course, work on this energy system. Then we consume oxygen faster and remove breakdown products faster.
And now the essential information. We previously wrote that an important part of sports nutrition are essential amino acids - BCAA. They certainly help build muscle. However, if you look not only at aesthetics, but at the functionality of the body as a whole, all amino acids are important.
– If you don’t feel well in the morning, have trouble getting up with an alarm clock, you need to include taurine in your diet and look at other amino acids. L-carnitine, which is sold as a fat burner, is actually a non-essential amino acid found in our body. It is produced as soon as you start moving.
We went outside at a brisk pace - look, the pulse rose to 120. This means L-carnitine is definitely in the blood. If you drink it additionally before cardio training, energy intake from fats will go faster.
However, you need to know when you are exactly running on fats, and not on glycogen accumulated from food. To approach sports nutrition, you need to know exactly what you are missing.
There are dietary supplements that Natalya advises to take not only for professional athletes, but for children and even pregnant women.
– The first is Omega-complexes 3, 6, 9. Saturated fatty acids that cleanse blood vessels from the inside. Cholesterol leaves the body with good fats. For example, visceral fat can only be corrected with proper nutrition with a large intake of omegas.
There is a Q10 complex. It is impossible to maintain a good pulse without clean blood vessels. A clean vessel is connective tissue without cholesterol plaques, a fiber that allows serious blood flow. An elite athlete pumps 40 liters per minute on a treadmill. A good amount of drinking and clean vessels are 30% to the success of sports achievements.
Let's start from food additives, amino acids and talk about healthy eating in general. Natalya tells what every athlete can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- In the morning - be sure to have uncooked porridge - buckwheat, oatmeal. Be sure to eat easily digestible protein. You can have natural yogurt, light omelette. The serving size is two of your palms. You should leave the table slightly hungry, knowing that in half an hour you will definitely eat.
The next meal is a snack. Eat an apple, a handful of almonds. If you are going to workout, you can add protein to the same meal.
Lunch should start not with soup, but with a portion of green salad, not with mayonnaise, but with olive oil. Carbohydrate side dish - corn, again buckwheat porridge, heat-treated vegetables, baked potatoes, beets, carrots.
As protein you can use: fish, beef, chicken without antibiotics. Three hours later, second snack. You can repeat the morning one or focus on protein - eat cottage cheese. For dinner, a portion of salad and again protein food. Carbohydrates are no longer needed because at night we need to sleep and rest.
There are athletes who build muscle using hormones. There are many ways. For example, you can administer an injection after training. Hormones are well absorbed in a warm body. But we remember from a previous interview with a nutritionist that playing with hormones can be dangerous.
And then, an artificially “grown” bodybuilder is just an aesthetic appearance. Such a guy is definitely not ready for serious sports tests. Let's not forget that the main goal of any workout is to improve your health and only then - your external appearance.
