Women In Wellness: Nathalie Botros of The Bon-Vivant girl on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
LET GO — Sometimes holding on to things can be more harmful than letting it go. I was so scared to LET GO that I got stuck in some points of my business. Letting go of a business partner or a project doesn’t mean failure but a small reboot to function better.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nathalie Botros.
Nathalie Botros is the Founder of “The Bon-Vivant girl”, a lifestyle brand that helps women find Happiness without conditioning it on anything or anyone; and teaches women to love and accept themselves while enjoying every aspect of their life. She is also the author of “If You Are What You Eat, Should I Eat A Skinny Girl”, an anti-diet book that helps readers lose weight without losing their joy for life.
Nathalie is a self-proclaimed Happiness Fairy, spreading her Happiness Dust and Bon-Vivant girl Lifestyle through her publications, online courses, and her podcast.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
All of my life I was told that I needed to be skinny in order to be happy and healthy. I started my first diet at the age of 12 while attending boarding school in Switzerland, not because I was fat, but because everyone else was doing it. It was only the beginning of my serial dieter phase. In between diets, I was enjoying life — and during those sparkle periods of my life is when I would gain weight, which then led to the dark periods of my life — where I would start the latest fashionable diet and feel punished and miserable. The pattern got worse when I first moved to New York 15 years ago, and I gained 40 pounds in less than a year. I became obsessed with weight-loss and sadly didn’t lose any weight but instead, lost my appetite and joy for life.
After hitting rock bottom, I decided that I needed to change this harmful pattern and take charge of my life.
Instead of focusing on my food intake, I started by first grieving my old figure, while learning to love and accept myself with my current figure. It worked, and once I was at peace with my body shape, I started to shed all the weight.
The funny part is, today I gained some of that weight back, but guess what? I am Ok with it and actually look even better. Why? Because I have spent these last few years learning to love every inch of my body and to cherish all of my flaws, body, and personality — even turning them into qualities.
My rock bottom was the day that The Bon-Vivant girl was born with the sole purpose of helping others to understand that we should never attach our happiness to something or someone, but to ourselves: “Things and people will come and go, the only thing that stays is ourselves.”
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I have several but this story makes me smile and proves that the happy, positive, and confident energy that we emit is particularly important.
Before launching The Bon-Vivant girl, I decided to do a photoshoot to have some good quality pictures for my brand and book. I hired a fashion photographer. He took great photos, told me that I was photogenic, but I couldn’t get any other compliment out of him. You know when someone says that you are photogenic but doesn’t say that you are beautiful, you’re not sure if it’s a compliment or not.
When I hired him again last summer for a new photoshoot, his attitude was completely different. He spent the day talking about my positive energy and how beautiful I was.
The main difference between the two photoshoots were 4 years, 30 pounds, and a lot of practice of what I am preaching: Self-Love and Acceptance.
This story shows that your age and weight are just a number, your energy is what makes you look beautiful, powerful, and successful.
You can see by yourself with these two photos.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first started to write my book, I attended a book writing class and they kept asking the question: Why do you want to write this book? What is the purpose? I didn’t have a specific answer, I just wanted to write a book, share my story, and help people lose weight.
Once I wrote the book and published it, I understood what they meant with their questions, because I had no idea what my next step was. Should I become a coach, an author, a public figure — I genuinely had no idea.
It took 6 months along with consultant and public relations fees to finally discover what I really wanted, and what the purpose of my book was. My book wasn’t about weight loss after all, it was about seeking happiness via my story of having a love/hate relationship with my body.
I wish I had defined my purpose prior so I could have saved all of that time and money.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I don’t have one person, but two: my mother and my sister.
They are my biggest supporters but also keep me grounded every step of the way. I don’t think I would be where I am today without them. I had a lot of doubts while I was building my brand, but their support made things easier.
I can have a great team behind me, but their opinion is the most important one, as they know my limits and my capabilities.
I will always be grateful for them.
Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
The purpose of my work is to spread happiness and put a smile on everyone’s face. It can be through multiple channels, such as private coaching, my book, my online course, my publications and even my social media platforms.
The Bon-Vivant girl is a brand with the sole purpose of spreading Happiness Dust all over people and teaching them how to live fully without limitations!
The biggest reward is when I receive messages from my clients or followers telling me that I was the nudge that they needed in that moment to find Happiness or that I helped them to find their own self-love and confidence.
Every smile I put on someone’s face is a step towards a bigger impact, because I know that person will now put a smile on someone else’s face too.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would ask people to help put a smile on at least one person’s face every day. It is a small and simple action that leaves a big impact.
You can do it by helping them, giving them some of your time, or even giving them a compliment.
This will create a ripple effect as that person can now pay it forward or “SMILE IT FORWARD”.
The process would make you and the other person happy.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
One — DEFINE
Whatever you decide to do, you need to DEFINE the outcome. I made that mistake with my book, and even my brand. You need to know what your target is, don’t start a business just to start something.
Two — MUTE
You are going to have a lot of opinions around you. Everybody is going to tell you what your brand should be. I made the mistake of listening to them at the beginning and got confused. Today, I still have all of those “suggestions”, and I know it comes from a good place, but I just MUTE them now.
Three — FAIL
I know right? How to succeed if we must fail first? You have to FAIL at least once in order to be able to learn from the mistakes and never do them again. I was so scared of failing that I never took any risks in the beginning. The important part is not failing or falling, it is how to rise up afterward.
Four — TAKE RISKS
Which comes to my fourth thing. You should TAKE RISKS, staying in your comfort zone will not bring you success. Today I keep taking risk, sometimes I am successful, and sometimes I fail but it makes me a better coach and businessperson.
Five — LET GO
Sometimes holding on to things can be more harmful than letting it go. I was so scared to LET GO that I got stuck in some points of my business. Letting go of a business partner or a project doesn’t mean failure but a small reboot to function better.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Definitely mental health is the dearest to me because it seems that everyone is eager to take care of their physical health but dismisses taking care of their mental health.
Maybe it is due to the fact that the physical issues show up faster. I agree that the mental issues take longer to show up over time, but the damage could be deeper, and the consequences could be bigger.
Some people think that when we talk about mental health, we are only referring to mental illness, but it goes beyond that. It includes the way we cope with our daily life. It is our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects our daily life more than anything else.
In the past talking about our mental health was considered taboo, but today we don’t have any excuses.
So why is it natural to go see your physician for a yearly check-up, but you disregard doing the same for your mental health?
Similar to a computer, if it has a problem with the hard drive, you can try to download an antivirus or cleaning software, but it won’t resolve the problem. The only way to fix the hard drive is to send it back to the factory.
The hard drive of a computer is similar to your mental health, it is the way that you function, your inner programming. You can buy all of the makeup and outfits that you want to decorate the outside, but it won’t resolve the inner issues. And being a human, sending you back to the factory is out of the question. Therefore, if you want to function properly, be in sync with your mental health and make it a priority.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
Check out my website The Bon-Vivant girl where you can find many tools to enhance your happiness, and also please check out my Instagram and YouTube Channel where I share weekly Happiness Tips.
Women In Wellness: Nathalie Botros of The Bon-Vivant girl on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.