Hannah Holzum: You can think of, you know, athletes, athletes have specialized nutrition plans, right? Because they want to perform at a certain level.

If you’re a business owner and you are looking for ways to be a little bit more productive, you really got to think about the fuel that you’re putting in your tank.

Welcome to the business edit podcast, a podcast about redefining productivity for the modern woman in business and finding ways to work smarter, not harder in business and life. I’m your host, Jade Boyd, an MBA business minimalist and productivity coach. I help overwhelmed business owners simplify and scale their service based businesses by doing less but better.

I help my clients create business minimalist strategies and systems that allow them to pursue ambitious goals while working at a human pace. On this podcast, podcast. We’ll explore simple ways to grow your business with a life first approach. If you’re ready to scale your business, bring order to chaos, ditch the busy work and spend more time living your life than managing your life, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to the [00:01:00] business edit podcast.

Jade Boyd: Welcome to the show, Hannah.

Hannah Holzum: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here with you today.

Jade Boyd: I’m super excited to have you. And we talk a lot about productivity on the podcast. And generally it’s from the standpoint of, you know, specific strategies for getting things done or time management methods and stuff like that. But I’m a big proponent and looking at productivity holistically. And it’s super exciting to have you here to talk about how eating and food affects us and our productivity, because Every little thing in our lives does affect our ability to get things done.

And so we haven’t talked about this before on the podcast and I’m really excited. I’ve learned a lot about nutrition over the past couple of years, but would still consider myself a novice. So extra, extra excited to dive in with you today.

Hannah Holzum: Me too. And you know, Jade, I found you from your podcast. That’s how I found you initially. And so it’s really exciting to get to be here with you on your podcast to share some of [00:02:00] my, my knowledge and my side of things.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. Full circle moment. And we will talk about that. But Hannah has been one of my clients in the past in the quarterly reset. And so it’s really fun to have you as a guest on the podcast. It’s something that I’m probably going to do more this year with some of my other past clients too. But diving right in, would you tell people who haven’t met you yet who you are and what you do?

Hannah Holzum: Yes. So my name is Hannah Holzem. I live in Columbia, Missouri. I live with my husband. We’ve got three daughters. So they are 14, 11 and eight. So we are in the thick of being, you know, mom taxi and taking them all over the place. Um, I am a registered dietitian. So I’ve been a registered dietitian for about 15 years, done a little bit of everything, worked with everybody all across the board, from premature little one pound babies in the NICU, uh, kids, pregnant women, athletes, older people, all kinds of things.

Um, and that’s, what’s really cool about nutrition is there is a whole [00:03:00] wide variety of topics and people to help. But about four and a half years ago, I decided to start my own business and I started Wholesome Nutrition Co. Um, yeah, it was about four and a half years ago in the thick of the pandemic. And I primarily coach women with their nutrition kind of on their fat loss journey.

But I really. feel that it’s important to make sure that we’re teaching in a way that will really impact the entire family. So I have kids, I’m a mom, so I live this, but also working with kids over the years, it really just, and becoming a mom and further on in my mom journey really made me realize what an impact Us moms and us parents have on our kids.

Like we are their teachers. We are their mentors. We are who they look to. And so I really tried to coach and teach in that way to where, you know, moms. can eat the same things that their families are [00:04:00] eating and still get results and the kids are still being well nourished as well. A big part of what I do in my business too, I actually created a meal planning app.

So this was nothing I was planning to do when I started my business, but I was having several moms that I was coaching say, Hannah, I don’t know what to make. for dinner. What should I make to, you know, help me meet my fat loss goals, but also be able to feed my picky kids. I feel like I’m making three different meals.

And so my meal app was born out of that. And, uh, so that’s a big part of my business. I do meal planning, mostly dinner planning for, uh, families and it’s really cool. It’s been my baby, but yeah, that’s a little bit of what I do.

Jade Boyd: We’re going to have to dig into that a little bit later on like the business side of things, what it takes to build an app and scale that way, since a lot of our episodes are talking about scaling. I really am curious, but first let’s talk about nutrition and I love what you said about making nutrition work, not only for your clients, for women, but also for their entire families.

And that’s something my [00:05:00] daughter is only six months old, but already she’s starting to eat solids. And that’s already something that’s becoming. An issue for us of like, it would be so much easier if we could just feed her exactly what we’re eating instead of trying to buy, you know, purees and stuff like that, where she eats a tablespoon at this point, and it’s really frustrating and expensive.

And so what tips do you have for parents who are either. making their own meals because they feel like they have to eat more healthy than the rest of their family is or making something for like picky eaters like you said what are your best tips for making just one meal for the whole family what are like the tips and tricks you have for making that a simple thing and not over complicating it

Hannah Holzum: Yeah, I think that’s what we all want. Right? If you think about what do I want as a parent, I want my kids to make the food, eat the food that I make. I want them to all eat well. I want to eat well. Like, we have this picture in our minds of what we want that to look like, but when it comes down to the day to day, It.

Sometimes it can feel really hard to put that into action. [00:06:00] I think one really big thing is that I see this happen a lot. A lot of parents will think, okay, this is a traditional kid, food, hot dogs, the Kraft Mac and cheese, the chicken nuggets, all of these things. Now, I’m not saying those aren’t things that you should ever, ever feed your kid, but I think we get into that.

Mindset that they just eat something different or that they’re not going to eat what I’m eating. And I think that it’s really interesting. And I’m sure you’ll see this with your own daughter. You know, we introduced these foods and I remember when my girls were babies and I would introduce, I’d make their foods and I’d introduce things and they would love everything I would make.

Right. And then they go into this toddler hood stage and then suddenly they love, used to love peas and now we hate peas. Like we don’t like any vegetables and you know, kids go through phases where they like something and then they don’t like something. So I always. Would giggle a little when mom’s like, oh my, my baby’s a really great eater.

Cause I’d be like, wait till I hit toddlerhood. It might all change for you, you know? So, um, I think the, [00:07:00] the key is, is that we really need to continue to reintroduce foods. And this goes for adults too. If you’re an adult listening and you don’t have kids, this goes for you too. If you find that you’re a picky eater, we really need to be reintroducing foods constantly.

So the kids really need to know that when you cook a meal, this is what we’re having. And you can pick. So one thing I like to do is if I am making something that I think maybe my kids won’t eat. So maybe it’s something like, I love buffalo sauce. I like a little spice on my food, but I know my kids, one of my kids will eat it, but the other two don’t.

So I will leave the buffalo sauce off of theirs, of the ones who don’t like it. And then I’ll put the buffalo sauce on for the rest of us who do like it. So you can keep things separate by making one whole meal, just. Try to separate some things out that you think maybe a picky kid may not like, or maybe they’re not old enough to really like all the spice.

Um, or you could even ask them, you know, get everyone’s opinions and say, what would you like for a side and let them [00:08:00] pick a side. And then that way, you know, okay, there was something on that plate that they will eat. But I’m not making a separate meal, you know, and that gives them a little ownership as well with the food.

So I would just really encourage anybody listening, if you have kids, just think about, you don’t, you don’t need to make a separate meal. Like it’s really beneficial to have one meal for the family. Um, if you can try to find a side item or something, even I’ve done where I’ve served fruit or some, you know, some fruit that I know the kids will like, I’ll put it out on the table along with the food, because I know if they’re not going to eat that casserole I made.

they’ll at least eat some of the fruit too. And, and it gives them a little ownership. It lets them decide how much of each food they’re going to eat and really just starts to develop some good eating habits for those kids early.

Jade Boyd: And so when you are planning meals that work for the entire family and looking at, looking at it through a lens of nutrition and fueling, especially when we’re talking about productivity, what are the, some of the things that you prioritize when you are picking out meals or foods? Mm

Hannah Holzum: Yes. So we’re a [00:09:00] lot, if we’re talking from a productivity standpoint, and this really aligns with the way we all should be eating, but I want to speak especially to people looking for productivity here too, because this is also great. You can think about this kind of, kind of bridging the two things together.

We were talking about how to get kids to eat the same things you’re eating. This goes for kids, too, as they’re out the door to school. They need to be eating the same foods for productivity and brain power and those things, too. So if you are really thinking about your productivity, you really want to make sure that you are thinking about your food like fuel.

We hear that all the time, but truly, I would encourage you to think about that. And, uh, how the things that you eat will impact how you feel, how you will perform. You can think of, you know, athletes, athletes have specialized nutrition plans, right? Because they want to perform at a certain level.

If you’re a business owner and you are looking for ways to be a little bit more productive, you really got to think about the fuel that you’re putting in your tank. So starting off with making sure you’re eating breakfast every day. [00:10:00] Um, A lot of people say, Oh, but I like to have my coffee in the morning.

I don’t want to eat first thing. And I say, that’s fine. I like to have my coffee in the morning too, but you really do want to try to put some, some energy, some food in your body. I would say within about two hours of waking up, you just want to make sure that you’ve got some good protein going in. So this could be anything from maybe it’s Greek yogurt.

You could do scrambled eggs. Um, you can do, Uh, like a Canadian bacon or some sort of meat if you’d like to. Um, you also want to have a good source of carbohydrates. So there’s different kinds of carbohydrates, right? We think, a lot of people think carbs and they think, oh, carbs are bad. That’s not true. But there is a difference in all the different kinds of carbs.

There’s lots of different kinds of carbs. So think about You want carbs for energy. Carbohydrates, that’s the number one fuel that your brain likes to use. That is its preferred fuel. So, you want to think about foods that occur naturally. So, [00:11:00] fruit is great. Whole grains, oats, those are all great sources of carbohydrate.

So, if you’re putting those two things together, Maybe you’re going to do a Greek yogurt. Maybe you’ll have a little granola with some oats in it and some berries on top. That’s a great breakfast for productivity. You’ve got good protein. You’ve got good whole foods, carbohydrates. You could even do a lot of times for me, I’ll do scrambled eggs.

I put a little cottage cheese in it. I’ll do a serving of fruit on the side. And then normally I’ll do like a small little kind bar that’s got some, some oats and some grains and things like that in there too. So thinking about breakfast initially to help you with your productivity is huge. That really, again, gets that fuel in the tank, helps you focus clearly.

A lot of people think it’s the coffee, the coffee will fuel me, but you all know we will crash out eventually when the coffee wears out. So you can have your coffee, but you also want to make sure you’re you’re fueling well, too. And then after breakfast, you know, same thing goes. You want to make sure you’re fueling throughout your day as well.

So not skipping [00:12:00] meals, um, having snacks if you need snacks. You know, really thinking about that and making sure you’re drinking water, water, your brain has to have some water in there to, to be able to think clearly and function. So, yeah, just really, I will encourage all of you listening, think about your, your productivity and think about the foods and the water that you’re eating for that, kind of that productivity boost.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. And I love what you said about thinking about food for fuel, because I do think women especially really struggle with thinking about food as fuel, and I think part of it is our relationship with food, right? And there’s so much. And so much unhealthy, like toxic mindsets with women and what we eat and body image and all of that, but also on the other side of things, I do think that we become somewhat disconnected from our bodies and forget that, like, our body is literally building things based on what we put in it.

It literally is fuel. And for me, My mindset shifted when I became pregnant where it’s like, okay, that’s [00:13:00] very clear that my body is building something based on what I’m eating, and it needs certain nutrients, but that’s true of any person in any stage of life, you need nutrients to actually build things, whether that’s brain cells or new blood or skin, you know, and It is so hard.

It seems like such a simple thing to eat real food and not process food. That’s filled with like garbage. That’s not fuel, but it’s actually really hard to make that shift. Um, and make it consistently because it feels like a lot of extra work. And so I’m curious to hear your perspective on. Even just eating real food, and from a productivity standpoint, it can feel really convenient to pick up foods that are convenient or packaged and often highly processed.

And so, what are your tips for eating real foods, but in a way that’s actually convenient and realistic? Yes.

Hannah Holzum: Yes. Yeah. And I think that’s one thing about me is I, you know, I think if we think in a perfect world, [00:14:00] yes, we would all eat whole foods all the time. We would be so healthy and all the things and then life happens. And so I’m very realistic when it comes to that. Trying to have things that will actually work for you, but then also think about ways to try to do it in a better way.

So yes, it is hard to eat whole foods. I think the other challenge for me, and especially as my kids have gotten older, is I will even buy a ton of produce and they’re little fruit monsters. Like they will crush the entire box of strawberries while I’m washing them, you know? And so sometimes I feel like it’s easy to run out.

Um, one thing that I think is really helpful is you have to make a plan. You have to make sure you’ve got the things in your house. And so, so, We can have all these hopes and dreams of eating all these great things, but if they’re not in the house, we’re not going to eat them, right? We’re going to DoorDash or we’re going to drive through somewhere.

So I think that step one is just if you’re not in the habit of buying those things, or you’re not in the habit of making grocery trips, you know, every week, try to get into that habit, make your list and try to have those things stocked. The other thing, too, [00:15:00] is getting when you get home from the store, making sure to have them washed and chopped up and stored in a clear container to the front of your fridge, not to go die in the produce drawer where they will grow mold and you’ll never see them again.

Right? Um, and so that’s a really big thing. I know you’ve probably seen that tip before, but it really does work. If you look in your fridge and you see a box of strawberries in there that haven’t been washed, they haven’t been cut, right? The odds of you grabbing those over something else that’s super, super easy, probably slim.

So that’s a really helpful tip. I would say the other thing too is just think about anywhere in your diet where maybe you use more processed things and how could you change that a little bit. So maybe that’s getting chicken breast and cooking all the chicken breast up rather than using canned chicken.

Or maybe that’s, um, you know, grabbing some fresh produce and having that. as part of your snack rather than just eating, you know, a bag of potato chips or something like that. Um, and then one other tool that [00:16:00] I find really helpful is, a lot of times I think we think about making a grocery trip once a week.

A lot of, a lot of people shop that way. They do one weekly grocery trip. And so I find that doing an additional one, I call it like a little mini trip on a Thursday or a Friday as you head into the weekend, assuming most people probably shop on Sunday, um, is a really great idea because you can replenish all your produce.

You can replenish all your protein. And then when the weekend comes, you’ve got all these good options too. And. It really does make a difference because I think a lot of times we hit the weekend and there’s nothing left in our house and then we’d start eating junk over the weekend. And yeah, we’re not working those days.

We’re thinking, okay, well, we’re not working. We don’t need that productivity, but it pours into Monday, right? Like we get to Monday and we put all this junk in our bodies. And so I’m trying to make an extra. Grocery trip can be really helpful, too. So just think about areas of your life, maybe, where you have more processed things, and just [00:17:00] pick one meal to focus on.

Okay, how could I make this a little bit better? Or one, you know, one piece of the, of the puzzle here. Maybe I’m going to have more fresh vegetables rather than canned, or maybe I’m going to try, you know, things like that. Just pick one thing to focus on, and um, once you get really good at that, you can start pouring into other sections of life.

Jade Boyd: Mm hmm. I love the tip of going twice a week, because I feel like even when I do try to do grocery shopping once a week, there’s always something that, like, doesn’t get delivered. We do grocery delivery, so there’s always, like, that one thing that you have to go to the store for anyway, or then you get invited somewhere where you have to bring a side, you know, things change, and you have to go back to the grocery store anyway.

But to pre plan to go twice a week or to order groceries twice a week, especially for fresh produce, like you mentioned, super smart. And I’m curious, what is your weekly meal planning rhythm for your own family, obviously, because you have three kids to feed, but also you’re planning meals in your app for many, many women.

So I’m curious, what is like the cadence or routine that you fall into to make that a simple process and not feel like you’re constantly [00:18:00] thinking about what you need to buy at the grocery store?

Hannah Holzum: Yes. Planning is everything. I’ll say it time and time again, and I know Jade will too, but uh, yes. So for me personally and my family, I typically on Sunday, I will, I usually write this, I am a paper planner girly. So I always have my paper planner. I have my phone planner too. I just love all the planners, but I will get into my planner.

I will look at the week ahead. Okay. Well, who’s got what practices on what night, what activities do we have? What, what do we have going on? And then I will pick. What are we going to have each night for dinner? I always start with the dinners because I feel like that’s the, that’s the big one, right? So I start with that.

I will even get my entire family to all put in some votes on what sounds good because then it takes a little bit of pressure off of you. So I’ll say, Hey, what sounds good? And one might say white chicken chili. Oh, I want, you know, uh, one of my daughters loves this chicken salad I make and all this stuff.

And so everyone kind of puts their, their two cents in and then I help. Use that to help me [00:19:00] guide my dinners. So I’ll plan my dinners out. Then I will see, okay, what dinners will I probably have leftovers for lunch? Think about that. How many meals do I need for lunch? And then my breakfast, typically, I can eat the same thing every day for breakfast.

Can’t do it for lunch or dinner, but breakfast every day, I can eat the same thing. And then really kind of going through to think about what is everybody else taking for lunch? Because all of my kids take their lunch every day. And so that’s really what I do. I do that on set. Sundays. Now I will say sometimes I might only plan out through Wednesday because as my kids get older the weekends get a little harder.

They have their own social lives now so they’ll go do things and so sometimes maybe I’ll just plan through Wednesday or Thursday and then on Thursday I’ll plan out the rest of the week or the weekend. So that’s another tip too if meal planning overwhelms you, break it down. Just do a couple days at a time and start there but set a reminder to yourself that you got to plan for the rest of the week if you do it that way.

So that’s really my strategy as far as meal planning goes. Um, if I know we’ve got [00:20:00] a really busy night one night, I’ll try to do a crockpot meal because I’ll know, okay, it’ll stay warm. So, you know, when all three of them are coming home from practice at a different time, it’s in the crockpot, it’s warm, everybody can just, you Um, and then for my meal app, actually, I, so I create dinners.

I do dinners only, and I send these out every Thursday. So I really, when I’m planning meals for everyone else, I’m thinking about, okay, um, you know, red meat, I’m not going to plan red meat meals every single week. I usually try to include a vegetarian option or a meatless option for those who like to do, you know, one meatless meal a week, um, then I’ll do usually one red meat meal a week, maybe two sometimes, and then the rest of the times I really try to incorporate some of the more lean proteins and things like that, make sure we’ve got good fiber, make sure the nutrients are balanced, I’m not doing all the same meal and really trying to get a good variety in meals too.

Jade Boyd: So I’m curious applying this to women who are [00:21:00] business owners, I think it’s stereotypical for business owners to be like, oh, I’m just gonna like work through lunch, or, I don’t eat lunch because I don’t have time. And we already talked about the importance of breakfast and planning to eat within two hours of waking up.

But I would love to know your tips for not only like what to eat during lunch, but also how that affects your productivity throughout the day.

Hannah Holzum: Yeah, lunch, and I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know about you, I hate lunch. It is the worst meal It’s the worst meal of the day. I like to eat lunch. I hate thinking about what I’m going to have. Like, and it’s just, you know, you get rolling in your work day, and you’re on a roll, and you don’t want to stop.

It’s, it would be really easy to just keep working through lunch. But, I think it’s really important for lots of reasons, not just your nutrition, but to step away from your computer, go for a little walk. Go have some, some lunch. So same thing goes for lunch as breakfast. You know, you still have the other half of your day.

You have to make it through. And so commonly I will see many business women crash [00:22:00] around 2 30. They hit, kind of hit this wall and they’re like, I’m really tired or all I want is carbs at that time. And that to me is typically a sign that you’re under fueled for the day. So you really want to try to have a good lean protein with your lunch, get some good carbohydrates, some good fruits and vegetables in, make sure you’re drinking plenty of water too.

I think water can make you really tired, uh, or really, really, really tired. Lack of water can make you really tired. So you want to make sure that you’re getting plenty of water to drink for me. I think leftovers are really easy for lunch because you just heat it up and go. And I like a hot lunch, but some people are okay making sandwiches or having a salad.

Um, I would say if you can try to eat from home, whether that is, or maybe you’re at home working, you, uh, if you can eat, Something that was prepared at home, that you’re putting together at home rather than going out to eat, really helpful. A lot of restaurants have some good options, but if you’re doing that all the time, restaurants just come packed with [00:23:00] you don’t even know what.

A lot of times they’re They’re very calorically dense. They might not be super nutritious. Um, and they might leave you feeling a little sluggish too. So more whole foods, if you can try to get a fruit or vegetable on your plate with your lunch, that’s wonderful too. But really just think about color, good variety.

And, uh, again, think about that fuel, like what’s going to help get me through the afternoon. Well, a big old, you know, Bag of chips to it. Probably not.

Jade Boyd: Yep. Yep. For sure. And I love how, what you’re, what you’re speaking about. There’s so many tiny tips in here. And for somebody who’s listening, who’s overwhelmed, I feel like my journey with this is like, okay, I learned a ton about nutrition really, really quickly and quickly became overwhelmed of like, let me just revamp my entire lifestyle tomorrow.

And it didn’t actually work like that. And even now I feel like it’s taken me a few years, even to find the recipes that are like, okay, it’s all real food. And also it’s easy to make and also I look forward to eating it and it’s delicious. Like it’s taken lots and lots of experimenting to [00:24:00] find those like core few meals that we do go back to again and again.

And for anybody listening to this who is feeling overwhelmed, I just want to like reiterate that you can make tiny changes in this direction over time. And it doesn’t have to be like, all right, next week, Sunday, Thursday, meal planning. And here’s my whole list of things.

Hannah Holzum: I’m so glad you said that too. I actually have a client right now who we, we, she was just, she came to me and she’s like, I’m overwhelmed. This is overwhelming. And I’m like, okay, well, let’s pick one thing. She’s like, yeah, I think I’ll do good with one thing. So we literally for a week or two, I said, all I want you to do is think about.

Breakfast, you know, she didn’t eat breakfast and she’s a business woman. And I said, eat breakfast, let’s just focus on breakfast. I want you to do protein and I want you to do maybe a serving of fruit and focus on that. That’s all she did. And then she got really good at it. And she said, I feel a lot better.

You’re right. Okay. Now here I am a week or two later, I’m ready to add another thing. And so I’m so glad you mentioned that because it can feel so overwhelming, all of these things and things [00:25:00] you see online, or maybe you’re even listening to me and you’re like, Whoa, this is a lot. One thing, like if you can just pick one thing to focus on and then build on that, you will be doing great.

Jade Boyd: Yes, 100%. And any one change, it’s like, oh, that’s like tiny. What difference could that tiny change really make? But it adds up, like you said, really quickly. And even just eating breakfast or drinking more water, like, it does make a huge difference. And that’s something that I have to remind myself of all the time.

And also, I’m, like, just in the stage where I’m hungry. All of the time. And so any one small change I make to the quality of food I’m eating can make a huge difference. So I love all of this. I think it’s so, so important for business owners not only to think about productivity from, uh, like, how much can I get done in the limited time that I have, but also how are we being just real humans and recognizing our humanity and that we need to take care of ourselves too while we’re working.

So you’ve given so many practical small shift tips that I really, really love. Um, on a, on a time [00:26:00] management perspective though, you mentioned some time blocking tips for actually making time to do things like exercise and nutrition throughout your week. And I would love to hear your tips for how do we practically make time for these in our schedules when we are so busy.

Hannah Holzum: Yeah. I love, I love time blocking. I love just scheduling out my day only because I think as, as business owners, we, we have to do that to be productive. Otherwise we can spend a lot of time on one task and not get to other things. And so I love time blocking and planning for. All of it. Meal planning. I really have to do it for my exercise.

I typically do something active every day that might not be super intense every day, but something, whether it’s a walk or even whether it’s a, you know, a lift heavy lifting session, I mean something every day. And so for me, I really use. Time blocking to make sure that that happens. I think it’s important to move our bodies.

We’re stuck behind computers often as entrepreneurs. We’re stuck behind our computers often. And so it’s really [00:27:00] important to get up and move. So for me, I actually am not someone that works out at the same exact time every day. Some people do, and they do really well with that. I actually like to just look at my schedule because sometimes I might have client calls at certain times and the next week I might not.

And so I like to just look at my schedule from week to week and then I will get right in there. exercise, you know, and I’ll put in and I usually even sometimes I’ll say what I’m going to do or what I’m planning to do. But, you know, and you can always just remember, you can always shift that if you need to, if you get to that day and you’re like, Oh, shoot, I forgot about this.

You can shift it to a different time. But I think time blocking, you know, not only for your business, but for your health, whether it’s meal planning, exercising, that has helped me a ton to be able to get it all done. And it’s not beautiful. I’ve had nights where I’m going on walks after dinner because it didn’t happen.

So remember, we’re not perfect, right? We’re just working on getting a little bit better. Um, but I do think that time blocking, writing it out, it really does make a big difference.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, and there’s a lot of research behind [00:28:00] actually setting a time and a date to do something if it’s a habit you do every day like exercising or if it’s a habit you do every week like meal planning, but really any task if you say this is specifically when I’m going to do it, your chances of actually doing it increase.

I can’t remember. It’s by a lot, but there’s so much science behind that. So the weekly planning process, not only with meal planning, but on when you’re going to make the meals and when you’re going to show up and work out or even blocking time for lunch to make sure you’re reminding yourself, Hey, I’m going to eat today.

So, so helpful.

Hannah Holzum: Yeah, totally. It really will make a huge difference in your life. Guarantee it.

Jade Boyd: Yes. So switching gears a little bit to the business side of things. I’m really curious to hear the backstory of how you transitioned into building your own app, because that is a leap for a lot of service providers. That’s like, Oh man, I could never do that. That’s way too complicated and hard. And so I’m curious what your journey looked like and practically [00:29:00] what that has meant for your business as you’ve grown and scaled.

Hannah Holzum: Yeah, so my, the app has been a dream. It was such a dream when I started my meal planning service. So I actually started my meal planning service about a year after I started my coaching business. And I, wanted an app and I was overwhelmed and I was looking into it, asking around and it was going to be really expensive.

And so being a year in business, I was like, I’m not doing that. So I initially started my plan off by I was in a weekly email. So all my meals would come through an email and it was great and it worked and people loved it, but it wasn’t. My vision, it wasn’t what I wanted. I really, really wanted this app.

And so I actually, this year found a company who, They have, it’s actually a, I believe it’s a WPA, I’m wanting to say. I should know this, Jade. I think it’s

Jade Boyd: We can link it in the show notes. We can look it up

Hannah Holzum: okay, okay. So it’s not technically an app that you’ll buy in the app [00:30:00] store, but there’s a company that essentially will make your own app. So when you sign up for the service, it’s a membership, so you sign up for the service and they will, once the person signs up, they will get this link where you download it onto your phone.

Basically on your home screen. So it shows up like an app. It’s in the little icon. It’s a square little icon, just like an app from the app store would show up, but you don’t actually go into the app store to buy it. So for me, this was really, really nice because I would essentially just pay this person a monthly fee to build out this app for me.

It’s a beautiful app. It’s so user friendly. It’s so easy. It really has brought my whole vision. And, uh, and it’s worked great for me. So I feel like What really helps me understand a little bit more about this is that you might not have to build out a full blown app. Like, there might be companies like this, depending on what fields you’re in, that create these same [00:31:00] types of, apps, whatever you would call them.

And, uh, and so really just looking around and I found, I found this company just from literally searching how to make a meal planning app and they popped up. And so really, I, I’ve, I’ve loved it. It’s been great. And just really looking to continue to build it out because all my customers have really liked the, the change from the email system to this app system.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. Have you felt like it’s made a big difference in your client experience or in, , like your ability to price your membership too?

Hannah Holzum: Yes, so definitely I increased the price for sure because it’s just so much more robust. So the cool thing about this app for me is I can very, very easily upload meals. So all of the recipes are in there. You can search them. If you have, let’s say you have a plethora of some quinoa and you want to use up your You can type quinoa on the search bar.

It will pull up every recipe that I have with quinoa. , it will send it to Instacart, [00:32:00] which is crazy. , I can load videos on the homepage. So I can, I can upload videos all the time. I can do prep videos. , there’s a pantry section as well. So there’s additional, , nutrition education I can share. So right now I’ve got like high protein food lists and restaurant guides and things like that.

So it really just has, helped my user experience a ton. I feel like the clients that use it are obsessed with it. and I’m really excited to keep building it out. It’s still fairly new for me, you know, within the last five months, I believe. And so I’m still, yeah, still just loading stuff out, but I’ve got, you know, over 200 recipes in there and looking to keep expanding it and trying to, , shift it to, you can do like gluten free recipes or vegetarian recipes, which is really cool too for clients who maybe have those, , dietary restrictions.

Yeah.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. That’s super exciting. And I love what you said about having that idea initially, but starting small and what you could do was send an email. And so that’s how you started and how you built it from there when you did find the right opportunity to open it up. And I [00:33:00] think a lot of business owners.

think, and this goes for nutrition too. We think about this for everything. It’s like all or nothing, right? Either I’m going to build this perfect offer with the perfect app, or I can’t do it instead of just starting with what you can do or shifting your meal planning system a little bit to be a little bit more organized and forward thinking.

And so it’s really helpful. I will definitely link that because I’m sure a lot of other business owners are thinking along the same lines of like, man, I wish I had my own custom app, but it’s crazy expensive to hire a software developer. And even me, my husband is a software developer and it’s still building an app is very, very complicated.

It takes a lot of thought to actually think through all the functionality and what you want it to look like.

Hannah Holzum: Yeah. And I think for me too, I like what you said about just doing it because I remember when I started the email service, I’m like, this isn’t what I exactly what I wanted, but a lot of people didn’t really care. Like they were just excited to get the, they were excited to get the recipes. It helped build up the community and it just, it really was good.

I learned so much from [00:34:00] it. And so honestly, I wouldn’t change the experience. I wouldn’t change the fact that I did it by email for almost three years, pretty much three years by email. Um, I wouldn’t change it because I learned so much. And I’m sure I’ll learn a lot from the app, and honestly, there’s pros and cons of both.

The email system’s way cheaper than the app system, but the app system’s really cool because I feel like I can really scale that because it’s super valuable.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Well, thanks for sharing that. And I also wanted to ask you one last question before we hop off. Because like I mentioned, you were a client in the quarterly reset, and you recently discovered me through the podcast, which I didn’t know. But we worked together last year, and I would love to hear how the quarterly reset process has impacted your business since we worked together.

Like you said, you’re a planner girly, and I feel like a lot of people who work with me end up being people who love planning. And so, to join a planning esque offer, I’m curious to hear how that’s affected your business since.

Hannah Holzum: I loved the quarterly reset so much. Like, [00:35:00] I’m not just saying this because I’m on the podcast. It really was so beneficial for me. And I have access to all the things we talked about and still I’m like, I’m probably gonna do it. I’ll probably do it again. I’d love to do it again with you. , no, it was super helpful for me because, you know, I’m a dietitian.

I went to school to become a dietitian. I had to really learn a lot on the business side of things, but there’s like, you kind of think of entrepreneurship in these different buckets. It’s like, okay, the knowledge of what you actually need to coach and help the people that you’re helping. I’m like, yeah, check done.

I’m great on that business side, you know, trying to run a business and do it efficiently and have a good plan that the quarterly reset helped me a ton. I think just breaking everything down and thinking about it in quarters, I love doing it that way. I feel like it can be really overwhelming to think in a full year at a time.

It can be really overwhelming to think that because you might have some shifts in your business over the course of the year, but to think about it in quarters, It’s really helpful. And so when [00:36:00] we, you know, each day we would go through and we would break, break it down a little bit and think about what’s coming up and, and really just helped with my planning process.

It really helped me think more too about my, you know, my net income. What am I actually bringing in? Like, yeah, gross income’s cool, but we also need to look at how we’re running the business. And so for me, it was just huge. I feel like it helped give me clarity. I think. You know, you talked about having a CEO day.

We talked about that a little bit within the quarterly reset and having a CEO day every month. Ever since I did the quarterly reset last March, I do a CEO day every single month. I use all the same strategies. I do. I’m telling you, I’ve got a tab, like you are in my bookmark spots, like my CEO day, um, the, Oh, and the, Oh, what is that called?

The metric system that you made as well. Like the

Jade Boyd: The financial metrics spreadsheet?

Hannah Holzum: Yes. Oh my gosh. I used that. I adjusted my taxes. It helped [00:37:00] me a ton. I mean, saved hours of time by using that. I’m not kidding. Like I’m such a huge fan. I need to be a walking billboard for you because I really,

Jade Boyd: Well, now you are.

Hannah Holzum: Yeah, now I am.

So listen, if you’re listening, you really should check it out. It really made a big difference. And I’ve done, I’m sorry I’m rambling, but I’ve done , you know, different business coaching and some things along the way. And this really, like if you really wanna get your business. Very organized and you want to run it like a business the quarterly reset.

I feel like no brainer for me.

Jade Boyd: It’s so funny hearing your feedback because I think originally when I started, um, like crafting the quarterly reset and even crafting the business at it, my assumption was like, I’m going to help the business owners who are not organized get organized. And what I’ve discovered along the way, like I said, I’m attracting the planner girlies, the people who are already really good at planning, but don’t know how to apply that skillset to business where it does look so different.

And it is grounded in knowing the strategies and knowing the numbers. It is a different skill set, even if you’re really, really great at planning. And [00:38:00] so it’s, it’s funny to hear that reiterated by you, but also has been so fun to connect with more business owners like you who aren’t ready or not, you know, able to do something like the, the business editor, it’s not the right fit for them to be able to work with business owners like you in a shorter timeframe has been super, super fun.

And I think about you anytime we eat pizza, actually, because I think it was one on, pizza On one of your podcast episodes, you talked about serving cottage cheese for protein with pizza. And I think about you every single time I, I eat pizza now. And so for those who are interested in learning more from you and kind of getting in your space, where’s the best place to find you online?

Hannah Holzum: So I hang out on Instagram a lot. That, that’s an easy place to catch me. So I’m at Wholesome Nutrition Co. on Instagram. Uh, you can also go to my website, WholesomeNutritionCo. com. You’ll find all the info there that you need if you’re looking for nutrition coaching or my meal app or I have a podcast as well if you want to listen in on my podcast.

, there’s also some good freebies, a blog and, you know, all, all the things. So yeah, you could find me [00:39:00] on my website as well.

one last thing too. I would love to give a discount to any of your listeners. If they want to try the meal app, uh, give them a discount for a 10 off their first month, if they want to try it too. So maybe you can link that for me.

But, uh, yeah, I, and feel free to message me. I love hearing from people.

Jade Boyd: Well, thank you so much, Hannah. Again, we will have all those things linked in the show notes and really do go follow Hannah. You are a joy to follow and obviously just such a great person. And it’s so it’s been so fun to catch up with you.

Hannah Holzum: Yeah, you too.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the business edit podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d be so grateful if you take a screenshot and share it on Instagram, tagging me at jadeboyd. co. I’m on a mission to empower a new generation of women to become the type of Of wives, moms, and business owners that they’ve always wanted to be because empowered women change their families and communities for the better, and this is how we’ll change the world.

Sharing your takeaways from this episode on Instagram will help more [00:40:00] women in business discover helpful episodes and level up in life and business each week. Don’t forget to check out the show notes for the tools and resources mentioned in today’s episode because good ideas don’t grow businesses.

Action does. I’ll see you next time on The Business Edit podcast.