The Real Reel

Episode 171: Did you know that, on average, people spend about three hours per day on their phones?! Three hours! Natalie is hopping on the mic solo this week because she can relate and has some tips and tools to share that have helped her turn mindless scrolling into mindful living. She discusses the pressure she feels as a content creator to constantly be posting and how she is able to unplug even with all the expectations. So, if your two-minute bathroom break turns into a 20-minute TikTok scroll, then it may be time to join Natalie and break up with your phone.  Today’s episode dives into:   Tips to help you break a technology addiction   Ways to refresh your morning routine phone-free  Tools to avoid mindless scrolling  How you can live in the moment more often    Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast.   Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel BINTO – Head to mybinto.com, take the quiz and use promo code REAL for 20% off your first month.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 170: We know that The Real Reel listeners are big into skincare, so today’s guest is here to give the "glow down" (pun intended) on her top brands, go-to ingredients, and daily routine. Natalie is joined on the mic by skincare extraordinaire and founder of Ammu Beauty, Zareefa Arije. Zareefa is a master of blending eastern traditions and ingredients with western skincare to create products for all skin types that preserve everyone's natural beauty. On today’s episode, she shares some of the generational wisdom passed down by her late mother, and what it was like to launch a skincare brand during a pandemic. Her story is nothing short of inspiring. So, open up your Sephora app and get ready to "add to cart."  Today’s episode dives into:   How she launched a skincare business and the challenges she faced along the way  Holistic, eastern practices and ingredients that westerners should adopt   Products and ingredients to steer clear of   Her go-to foods to eat for glowing, healthy skin    Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast. Follow Zareefa @zeearije and Ammu Beauty @ammubeautybrand.  Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel BINTO – Head to mybinto.com, take the quiz and use promo code REAL for 20% off your first month.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 169: Today’s episode is inspiration overload! Natalie is joined by the founder of Softwear, Sabrina Zohar, for a motivating and moving conversation about her journey to entrepreneurship. The year 2017 changed everything for Sabrina, and her life-altering story will give you chills while filling your inspirational cup. Natalie and Sabrina share their experiences with imposter syndrome and why a business plan may be mentally holding you back. Sabrina is the definition of a hustler who believed in and invested in her vision, pounding the pavement every day to get her line of athleisure wear into stores. Take this episode as your sign to start whatever you’ve been putting off, because it is better to start than to stall.  Today’s episode dives into:   Real, honest advice to breakthrough in the fashion industry  The pros and cons of working with a business partner   Stress coping mechanisms when you are a solopreneur  Tips for new founders to stop stalling and start doing   Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu. Follow Sabrina @sabrina.zohar and Softwear @wearsoftwear.  Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel BINTO – Head to mybinto.com, take the quiz and use promo code REAL for 20% off your first month.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 168: With all the doom and gloom circulating about a potential recession , people are on high alert when it comes to their finances. But we have some good news! Crissi Cole, the founder of Penny Finance, is here to debunk all those recession and money myths that may be keeping you up at night. As a veteran of Wall Street and total financial whiz, Crissi offers advice in a relatable way to people no matter the size of their bank account. Natalie and Crissi discuss the importance of making financial resources available to women and how communities like Penny Finance can help bridge the gender gap in finances. Tune in to learn how to protect your wealth and gain financial freedom.  Today’s episode dives into:   Mindful spending and a new take on budgeting  How to prepare for a potential recession    Investing tips and steps to jump into the stock market   How to close the wealth gap and become financially free   Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast. Follow Crissi @citycrissi and Penny Finance @startwithapenny.  Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: Penny Finance - Head to penny-finance.com and use the code REALREEL50 for 50% off of one month or an annual subscription. TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel BINTO – Head to mybinto.com, take the quiz and use promo code REAL for 20% off your first month.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 167: Natalie was feeling chatty, so she decided to jump back on the mic for another solo episode to fill you in on her trip to London and answer a few listener-submitted life advice questions. She shares her London highlights and lowlights, and a few tips to make traveling stress-free. The Real Reel listeners showed up with some fantastic questions, and Natalie offers friendly advice about moving out for the first time, networking, making new friends, immersing yourself in a new company, and Murphy’s law. Make sure to join Natalie’s Geneva group to chat more about life and meet like-minded friends!   Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast.   Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 166: For ambitious and career-oriented people, starting one's own business is often the ultimate goal. But today's guest Ashley Merrill, founder of Lunya Sleepwear, chats with Natalie about how this can be a detriment to many people's happiness and success. Ashley started Lunya 10 years ago and has built the company to its now $25M per year revenue, numerous accolades, and countless super fans, but she explains why being a founder should not be anyone's automatic goal, and instead why we should all look deeper on what brings us joy in our work and our lives.   Today's episode dives into:  Finding balance over the course of your life instead of in a moment - there are seasons for work and seasons for play  The misconceptions of what a CEO actually does  Why the timing of a business is everything when it comes to approach and strategy   The resilience and determination needed to get started as an entrepreneur   Why you shouldn't necessarily want to be a founder and how to find the best path for your own life and happiness  Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast. Follow Ashley @ashley__merrill  Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 165:  Natalie is on the mic solo this week for a very real and vulnerable episode about entrepreneurship, trying different things, how to bounce back from failure, and imposter syndrome. She shares how she’s been in an energy rut lately and how failure is her biggest fear. Natalie also gets vulnerable and talks about lack of success and how to get over this to be a better entrepreneur. Perhaps this episode will make you realize that you are the only person standing in your way of taking the next step towards your great next idea. The worst thing that can happen from not trying is staying exactly where you are. Let’s keep each other motivated and make sure to send us how you’re taking baby steps towards your idea of success!  Check out the Late Bloomers book HERE!  Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast. Follow   Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 164:  Today’s guest is the brand whisperer herself, Dulma Altan. She is the founder and CEO of Makelane, and although she calls herself an accidental TikTok creator, her content continues to go viral time and time again. Natalie gets the lowdown on how she built and continues to grow her social platform and why certain videos perform better than others. The two also discuss her decision to leave Google to start her own business and what she learned about herself after posting one video a day for one hundred straight days (yes, you read that right!). Dulma lives and breathes e-commerce, so Natalies gets her expert opinion on the top brands of 2022 and why some celebrity-owned brands keep missing the mark. Today’s episode dives into:   The importance of storytelling when creating and running a business   Advice for providing value on Tiktok in an authentic way   What she did to go viral on TikTok and how she plans content    Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast.  Follow Dulma @iamdulma and learn more about Makelane at makelane.com  Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 163: When you know, you know. On today’s episode, Natalie is joined by multi-business owner and marketing expert, Whitney Eckis, to share her entrepreneurial origin story. Her path to founding Eckis Marketing and Get Supr wasn’t linear, but once she started working for herself, she never looked back. Natalie and Whitney discuss how to shift your mindset from scarcity to abundance, the importance of getting crystal clear on your business vision, and how humanizing conversations could land you your next big client. Whitney also shares her recipe for a successful sales pitch and how a shift in perception can change everything.  Today’s episode dives into:   How to leap into entrepreneurship and the importance of passion when creating a business  Tips to show up with confidence to meetings  Ways to give off positive energy virtually    Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast. Follow Whitney @whitneyeckis  Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 162: Community can be defined as "a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals." Today’s episode embodies this definition perfectly as Natalie welcomes Kim Johnson, Head of Community at Geneva, to discuss the power of online communities and how influencers, brands, and small businesses can build a network that will last the long term. Natalie and Kim discuss ways to create an authentic community that is both fun and a great marketing tool, and how evolution and innovation play a key role in successful online communities. Kim shares her views about the web-like nature of digital communities and how not every brand needs one (and that’s OK!). She also provides insight into which brands are doing it right and why. For your own benefit, we encourage you to NOT take a shot every time the word "community" is said!  Today’s episode dives into:   The how and why of community  Tips for brands and small businesses to build and nurture community  How to differentiate between a large following and a tight knit community   How to scale up as an influencer and set yourself apart in an online community   Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast. Follow Kim kimjohnson._ and Geneva @geneva.  Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you: TAILOR BRANDS - Get 40% off when you go to tailorbrands.com/realreel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices