pod bites: Wild Nutrition with Chris Heskett

“You can learn anything you want through podcasts, it's free information.”

Our featured podcast host in this episode is Chris Heskett, host of the Wild Nutrition podcast.

Chris is a fitness instructor who turned to podcasts as a way to learn more when he had snatches of downtime.

Through his podcast he’s been able to interview people who have in turn influenced the way he coachese his clients.

He also shares how being interviewed yourself helps position yourself as an authority figure.

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Chris’s links

The podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wild-nutrition/id1653001967 

The instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris_pwc/ 

Chris’s podcast picks: 

Joe Rogan Experience: https://www.joerogan.com/

Mossy Oak Gamekepper: https://mossyoakgamekeeper.com/podcasts/ 

Hunt Lift Eat: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hunt-lift-eat-podcast/id1547756711

Prefer to read? Read the transcript below.

Got a show you’d love to hear on my podcast? Tell me about it!

Alison: [00:00:00] Welcome to pod bites where we go behind the scenes with podcasters. My name is Alison Fraser and today's guest is Chris Heskett, host of the Wild Nutrition podcast. So welcome to the show, 

Chris: Chris. Thank you. Thank you for having me on 

Alison: Can you please tell me what your podcast Wild Nutrition is all about? 

Chris: Yeah. So I started my online coaching company working with a lot of people who want to improve their health and lose weight. But also love the outdoors. So that's kind of what and that's my passions as well. So that's kind of what I've done with my podcast is it's mostly nutrition and health based.

However, there's also stuff like dealing with the outdoors that we occasionally like sprinkle in. So I love podcast as just a little bit of everything for my podcast. So if you tune in, you might, most of the time it'll be nutrition based. And then every like once or twice a month, there might be something that's like more outdoors based with, uh, some of my hobbies there, like.[00:01:00] 

Next week's episode is like a hunting episode with me and one of my buddies that randomly right in the middle of like all the other like nutrition podcasts, 

Alison: A mix of the wild and a mix of the nutrition.

Chris: Hence the name. 

Alison: Yeah. How did your podcast come about? Like, what was it that got you started? 

Chris: Um, I love podcasts. So when I was working as a personal trainer in the gym, one of the best ways for me to like do my continuing education was to listen to my commute. I had like a 25 minute commute, so I would do audio books and I would do podcasts. I can't sit down and read all the time. Anyone who's worked as personal trainer know your hours are terrible, but I have this, you know, 50 minutes or sometimes if it was split day, almost two hours out of the day where I can listen to something and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on all the different audio books.

So I would listen to a ton of podcasts and a lot of times I found the audio books [00:02:00] I want to get from the podcast. I listen to authors and stuff. So that's kind of why I wanted to start a podcast. Like I love listening to podcasts. I love bringing guests on and listening to interesting people.

Like I wish I could have those conversations. So I started mine to have those interesting conversations with people. 

Alison: What kind of interesting conversations then have you ended up having that you never really expected to? 

Chris: One of my best episodes was one where he's a health fitness coach like myself, but he deals a lot with like your inner self talk and self sabotage and almost therapy is not a licensed therapist, but almost like therapy.

Um, it was a fantastic episode where I personally learned a lot about, um, psychology and stuff when it comes to. Um, why people don't reach their results. And so I've actually taken stuff from that conversation and applied it to my [00:03:00] clients. And we've started seeing better results after taking that just from that one episode, like it was a one hour thing.

Um, the episode that actually came out today, the day we're recording this episode, um, it was a sleep expert. And he was explaining like chronotypes and how to optimize your health and your sleep based off the, you know, your internal clock and trying to make that work with modern society. I was like, that ended up being like almost a 90 minute episode.

I try to keep them under an hour. Um, but it's one of those things like, Oh, wow. Like this is actually a thing. Um, I never knew like chronotypes were a real thing. I just thought it was like, you're a morning person or evening person. It's like, no, there's like five different like types of people and you can optimise your health through that.

It's like, this is really cool. I'm going to send this all to my clients. 

Alison: That is actually really cool. Um, I love that you said you ended up speaking for so much longer than what you expected because the topic was interesting to you yourself. And, and as you were saying before, like when [00:04:00] you are podcasting, you get to, you do get to have an audience with the people that are interesting to yourself and, and you know that you, they've got something that's gonna be of benefit to the people in your world around you. 

Chris: Yeah, a lot of times I'll reach out to people just 'cause I, like, I would want to get you on the call and like, talk to you and pick your brain for an hour and then, you know, on their end they get a platform to reach out to hundreds, thousands of people.

Like it's gonna live out there forever. And people view podcasts as almost like you're an author, or you're interviewed by like a newspaper, a news station, like, Oh, you were interviewed on a podcast. Oh, you're an authority figure. So it, it looks really good. And a lot of people, like if someone reaches out to me and they're like, I'd love to have you on podcast.

I'm like, cool. Send me a link. I will schedule. I like, I will find time out and get on your podcast. Um, a lot of people I have on my, you would never think like massive followings. They're like, yeah, you have a podcast. [00:05:00] Absolutely. I'll be on there. And we can like talk about things and hopefully help your audience.

Alison: Do you think that there's a bit of a myth out there that to be on a podcast, you have got to be someone who is already super 

Chris: famous? If you have some sort of area of expertise, um, I've had people with like next, no following and they're experts in their field. They just like, don't play the social media game. Like there's plenty of experts out there where they just don't play the social media game.

They have hardly any following, but they're. Very successful. Um, they just don't like to be on the internet. So what we view as famous or successful, like not always the case. And some people they'll come on and, you know, they have massive followings and you're like, huh, that episode was like average.

Alison: Yeah. It's about what the message is, isn't it? Rather than the person behind it. 

Chris: I mean, the person behind it, yeah, it might get your audience excited. It might be cool, but I'd rather have like quality people on. And then it's like, wait, who's this person? And then like, I [00:06:00] know he has a listener. I'm like, who is this person?

I've never heard of them. And then it's like, you're going to go find them, follow them on all their social media channels. That's the weird thing. I like. Like, where did these followers come from? And they're like, Oh, I listened to your podcast. I'm like, that's really weird. Like you listened to me for an hour talk, but, but it's a thing.

Like, it's definitely like that's podcasting.  

Alison: What feedback have you had from listeners? 

Chris: Um, they liked the way I communicate. And so usually I'm on talking about Health and fitness. And they like my messaging where it's like more applicable to the average mom and dad. So clients I work with 35 to 55, they have kids, they work full time.

So how can we make improvements in our health, fitness, weight loss to those people, which is a lot of times, like I say, it's the boring crowd. Like it's the most people, but as a coach, no offense, if this is you. It's me now. [00:07:00] Um, as a dad, it's really boring because it's very simple stuff. And most coaches and most like fitness influencers want to deal with like the fancy stuff of like the bodybuilders and the power lifters and the CrossFit athletes where you have to like be super Technical and get really intricate with the diet.

It's like that also consumes your entire life. And as a mom, you might just want to lose 10 pounds and then spend, have more energy to spend time with your kids. Like that's what people like it. Like, Oh, like I actually listened to your stuff. I could apply that to my. Life instantly, rather than like, okay, great.

I listened to this person and they talked about like red light therapy and cold baths for an hour. And I have no time to do that. So how am I going to apply that to my life? You're not that, that doesn't help you at all. 

Alison: Yeah, I can relate. I have an 11 year old son and work full time and try to fit in a lot of things into my life.

So small wins.

Chris: It is [00:08:00] small wins and it's, you know, simplifying things rather than everyone wants to complicate things. Um, so like big perpetrator of this and I love his podcast, but the Huberman podcast goes very, very sciencey, you know, very detail oriented for the average person, you can get lost in all the weeds of everything of what he's saying.

And then it might not apply to you and where you are with your health journey. I like to say a lot of the stuff that he is talking about is the top like 25% of people like you've gone 75% of your results as like that last little bit the last quarter. That's where that stuff's going to come into play.

But this before you get there like you have to do all the other things kind of like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you kind of do all the other things first. So if you listen to all of his stuff, you're going to be absolutely lost. You're like, what supplements should I be taking? Should I do ice baths?

Right? Light therapy. Should I be doing some sort of like hour long morning routines? No, you should just go for a walk and drink more water [00:09:00] to start. Oh, that makes sense. But maybe I should do that. 

Alison: That does sound like a much more achievable thing. That's going for a walk and listen to a podcast at the same time.

Chris: Yeah. And you can listen to a podcast at the same time. I listened to a podcast with my workouts. That's my education time now is like, okay, when can I work? Cause I work out of my home now. When can I like actually learn something? A lot of times it's like only time without a kid is like either I'm going for a walk or I'm working out.

Okay. Like I'm going to throw it on the Bluetooth speaker while I'm working out. 

Alison: What's um, podcasts is on your playlist right now. Well, one podcast or even two. 

Chris: I'll do two because the one is like the standard. So I like certain guests from the Joe Rogan podcast. Um, so that's the standard. Like if I can't find anything, I'll go and look at like, who's like an interesting person, like Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Cool. I'll listen to that one. I don't listen to all of them. Like, I don't like his comedy ones, [00:10:00] but like, like what, who's this? Like the beekeeper podcast. I was like amazed. So I'll find like interesting guests there. And then what I do is then I find like their social media accounts, um, and start following them.

Um, the other one I like, uh, I do like the Huberman podcast, but not all the time. Um, what's the other one I've been listening to recently? I'm totally blanking now that you put me on the spot. Um, Mossy Oaks Gamekeeper, because I'm a huge hunter. I do like that podcast. 

I have podcasts for everything. If you go down the list, I like have like one, like, I'm sure I have like some random podcast where I've like listened to like two episodes. I'm still a subscriber and every once in a while, like I might listen to something. I have like a running list of what do I feel in the mood for, like, it might be relationship advice.

Like my wife and I are having some struggles like let's pull up a podcast on that. And like, they'll just be streaming like the episodes. And like, if it's not relatable, I won't listen to that. [00:11:00] And as soon as something's relatable, I'm like, Oh yeah. I've subscribed to them. 

Alison: So that tells me though, that there's a podcast for pretty much any situation that anyone is in.

Chris: You can learn anything you want through podcasts, like it's free information. And it's one of those things, like some people would use to ask me like how I have time to like constantly learn. And I would just find the free time, like your commute to work, like instead of listening to the same freaking five songs ever, I'll play on repeat on the pop station.

Even if you took half, like if that gets you excited for work for the day, great, but take half that time for your commute and listen to something that will like educate you and help move you forward towards your goals in life. Like maybe that's weight loss. Great. I know we're a good podcaster. Um, but maybe it's like how, how to start your own business.

There's a podcast for that. How to start an online business. There is a podcast for that. So you can find [00:12:00] everything you want for free other than like paying for your phone and you're like the, the service for it, but it's essentially free. Like once you have access to it, you don't have to pay for books or services or anything else.

You can learn that stuff. Yeah, you're not going to probably get everything out of a podcast because the experts can't give you everything in like one hour. But once you find like an expert you really jive with, you can then go and maybe it's like you buy their book or their coaching service or their whatever other like product is that you're like, no, this is the thing I've been looking for.

Alison: What tip would you give to someone who's thinking about starting a podcast? 

Chris: Um, it's way easier than you think, and your first like 50 episodes, you're gonna be terrible. So just press the record button and start because you're not going to get any better not recording yourself. I listened back to my first couple episodes.

I think Russell Brunson goes over this, um, [00:13:00] which his podcast is also good. Um, if you're looking for a business podcast, this is great. Um, so it's like your first like hundred episodes are going to be probably pretty terrible. And then after that, you kind of find your voice. Definitely like the first 50 are pretty awful.

So like, I listened back and mine are terrible, but guess what? Some of them still did really well and people still listened and subscribed. And in the future, nobody's going to judge you on those. Like it's, you're going to see your progression. Like, wow. You started here and moved now. Like, Oh my God, did you listen to episode three?

I was so bad. You're like, where are the episode? Like 250. Like, yeah. Episodes. Threes. Bad. Like it was me pressing a record on a crappy mic. And now we have like a full podcast setup so the one barrier I would say for some people might be buying that first mic, but I think my mic was like 80 bucks. Like I did not get the most expensive. You don't need. The most expensive mic, you just need to get a half decent one to get started because you can always upgrade in the future.[00:14:00] 

Alison: Some really good tips there and it's a lot like starting out in your fitness journey. Just get started 

Chris: and then you're going to adjust things along the way. Like editing, I've rarely edited any of my stuff. And then it's like, now I'm starting to edit a little bit more. Like the first couple, just like get started, get it, your subscriber base, see if you like doing it.

And then if you do then you can get, you know, more intricate and it takes up more time. Like my friend who also has a podcast, now it's taking up a little bit more time, but also her subscribers are starting to build up and stuff. So start simple and work up just. Get started and don't over, overcomplicate it.

Um, other thing is don't, um, I started off with just doing one episode per week. Now I do two episodes per week. Make sure you find a cadence you can be consistent with. Cause I know for me, if I'm a subscriber, I hate when there's inconsistency with like a posting schedule. If you want to post, and have an episode come out every Monday.[00:15:00] 

Make sure you can do that and be consistent with it 90% of the time, like obviously like holidays and stuff, maybe that doesn't happen, but 90% of the time you can be consistent with that very strict schedule. So for me, it's Mondays and Fridays, I have new episodes come out and that's it. I am not doing any more podcast episodes until I can afford a team to do all the editing and everything else for me.

In the meantime, it's just me and that's what I can handle. I can do Mondays are more edited and Fridays are specifically raw, unfiltered, no editing allowed type podcast. So it's really easy. I just press the record button and go. 

Alison: There's some really good tips there. So thanks for sharing those Chris.

Of course. Um, it's been awesome having you on to hear more about Wild Nutrition and I'm sure there are some people out there who'd be interested in, in hooking up to your podcasts and finding out more from you. So, thank you so much. 

Chris: Awesome. Thank you for having me on.

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