Natalie Dau: Keeping Fitness Real
Can exercise and fitness really be your friend? Natalie Dau believes so.
The athlete, media personality, content creator, brand ambassador, health and wellness speaker and social media influencer believes in making fitness accessible to everyone.
“Positive change starts with small steps,” encourages Natalie. “Go for that walk, one less sugary drink, a healthy breakfast, in bed an hour earlier, less screen time. Just pick one and take that step.”
“Exercise and fitness should be about doing something you enjoy doing, want to get better at, and are maybe even passionate about. Life is too short to be forcing yourself to try and love something that just isn’t you. So go out and find that fitness love – you may have to try a lot of things to work out what it is, but it’s out there waiting for you!”
“People put too hard much pressure on themselves when it comes to health and fitness. I want to bring it back to some simple steps,” continues Natalie.
It was this philosophy that encouraged me to seek an interview with Natalie who could seem intimidating if you just see photos of her in action. But you get a flavour of her light-hearted, self-deprecating, practical, positive personality when you read the captions that accompany her photos on her Instagram account @rockstararms, and you listen to her candid conversation over a cup of coffee:
“I’m a big believer in giving free content because people have to relate to you and like you and like your programmes first and foremost. So ‘try before you buy’ is super important.”
“I’m a much nicer person when I’ve had my run in the morning, when I’ve de-stressed and I’ve started my day well. It’s just a habit and it’s just who I am.”
“In any of my programmes, it’s small steps, achievable steps. I love that someone can have small wins even if it’s just with one workout.”
It was a corporate job that took Natalie to Singapore 18 years ago, landing on the island-city from Australia. Within six months of arriving, she knew she wanted to stay. In her last corporate job, Natalie ran global marketing operations for Avanade, a Microsoft-Accenture joint venture, for eight years. But the travel, time zone changes and long hours took a toll.
“I got tired of going on a plane to the US or UK every couple of weeks,” recalls Natalie. “Getting on a plane within a week of starting back at work when your baby is four months old was pretty hard. I had a fantastic female boss who had left, it wasn’t what it used to be. I decided to resign. The next day I went on a five-day detox/cleanse in Ubud [Bali] not knowing what I wanted to do.”
“I have always been passionate about health and wellness and realised that there was not a lot of content that was local to Asia. There was not a lot about the Asian diet or anything relatable. I saw this gap in the market. I thought maybe I could start a website and start publishing content.”
Were you always very fit? I asked. “Yes, I was this person who would fly into Seattle or Chicago, get up at 5AM and go for a run before a day of meetings but it was more for maintenance, just to stay healthy. I started doing a couple of smaller races back then, but nothing serious,” she admits.
Along with the website, Natalie started a private Facebook group that shared health tips. It went from zero to 5,000 people in three months. When Natalie saw that she could monetise her new projects, she realised there was a market.
“I started my social media account and started to get more serious about training and going to the gym. I started winning some races, going to world championships and getting sponsored. It happened organically but at the same time.”
“It wasn’t about the money. When starting a business you can’t expect to make money immediately and luckily I have a lovely, supportive husband. I just thought ‘let’s build this and see where it goes.’ Being open, you meet so many contacts.”
Natalie’s background in marketing served her well. She had her own advertising agency in her 20s. Her roles in Deloitte, Gartner and Accenture brought insight and skills that she uses daily.
“When working with a brand, I find myself saying, ‘these are the messages that you want, these are the deliverables, this is when I can send the work to you…’ The marketing plan gets formed. Best background ever.”
Natalie’s trajectory started after she launched an app – Rockstar Fit – five years ago. “Even when I was in corporate I had my PT [personal training] qualifications but I had never trained anyone. People would ask me to train them; it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. I did some [instructional] trials online to test the market and they did really well. No one had his/her own app back then. The app was free to download with free content. People can see if they like me before they commit to pay for anything. It is still that way today. One to many vs one to one. Australia, the US and the UK are the biggest markets for the app.” The app works like Natalie’s credentials, her calling card.
Natalie is also recognised from her online engagements.
“Keeping It Real” which Natalie produced and hosts is a Facebook lifestyle series that received 30 million viewers. It took in three people who wanted to change their life for the better. Each person was offered a personal trainer, a dietician, a mind coach, and they were filmed twice a week. The programme followed them throughout their journey, going behind the scenes to create an authentic narrative.
Natalie also hosted “No Limits”, a travel series by Business Insider and Singapore Tourism that featured crazy things you could do in Singapore.
When Covid broke out, many of Natalie’s projects disappeared. Suddenly the Internet was overloaded with workout videos. “I didn’t want to do another workout video; I’d rather tell stories!” claims Natalie.
Luckily, Sport Singapore wanted to create more health and fitness content for people at home. Natalie produced and hosted Zero to Hero, a 12-part reality fitness series that took three ordinary people, who each picked a sport. Running, cycling and swimming were featured in the launch series. They were each given a full time coach, a dietician and a national athlete as mentors. The participants started by doing their scans and the programme followed them for six weeks. The show is completely honest, you don’t know if the people will make it. It has garnered fantastic feedback and there is a potential for season 2 that could feature other sports.
With the cast of Zero to Hero
Natalie is very light-hearted about her success. With 430,000 followers on Instagram, her daughter’s friends notice that she has the official blue tick. Her handle @rockstararms “was a bad joke that just stuck. It was not meant to be a serious name. I thought about changing it several times but friends say, ‘No, people remember you!’”
“The other day I had breakfast with a girlfriend. As my friend got into her Grab car, the driver asked, ‘Was that Natalie Dau? I follow her and listen to her on the radio!’ My friend just laughed.”
But do you mind about your privacy? I ask. “I realise that I am in a privileged position. With that comes responsibility.” Her husband Matt France doesn’t mind the attention either. “He has no interest. He understands it’s my work.” And her 13-year-old daughter Liliana is more fascinated with TikTok. “But one morning she asked me to please wave at this boy on the bus. ‘He knows who you are’ she said.”
With daughter Liliana and husband Matt
On a night out
With girlfriends
We know that brand marketing is about consistency. “I post every day,” says Natalie. “I do question myself, like is someone really reading this? It seems a bit self-indulgent sometimes.”
“I put content out there, it doesn’t have to be perfect. 70-80% is good enough. My daughter takes most of my photos. I try to keep it real.”
Each of Natalie’s engagement with brands is detailed in a 12-month contract. “We are in a relationship. It’s not about the money or free stuff, it’s about how can we create content together that uplifts. For a brand like ASICS [as a sponsored athlete and brand ambassador] I’m doing commentary around the world, or running International Women’s Day. These interest me more than posting myself wearing a new shoe.”
Representing ASICS…
Traveloka…
Soneva…
Vitruvian…
Natalie has always been focused and determined. It seems to run in the family. She intimated that her 75-year-old father has cancer but is going for his double black belt in karate. Her mother volunteers three times week at a hospital. Her daughter would probably describe her as the disciplinarian in the family. But Natalie declares, “I never take myself too seriously.”
Guilt-free frozen yoghurt Yole…
She is also generous with her wisdom. I was definitely inspired and learned a lot from meeting and following Natalie on social media.
“The foundation for a healthy lifestyle is Sleep. It’s the number one thing. If you’re not getting eight hours of sleep per night, your body is not repairing. You’re never going to be performing your best. So sleep and hydration, if you do nothing else, these are the two things that everyone should think about.”
“It’s 90% diet, 10% exercise. For anyone who wants to get great abs or arms, abs are made in the kitchen! This is not a throwaway statement. What’s important is what goes into your body.”
“I believe that 1/3 of my runs will be fantastic, 1/3 just okay, 1/3 really bad. If it’s a bad day then I know that tomorrow will be a better day.”
“What’s the best — motivation or habit? Motivation is great to get you started. It can be the reason or the drive for why you do something. But it’s habit and discipline that remain constant – the practice, the rigor, the work that you just do to move forward and be better. You don’t need to pick… choose both!”
And my favourite : “Finish lines aren’t crossed overnight. One small step at a time.”
Roxanne | ws
Images: @rockstararms
Contact: media@nataliedau.com | www.nataliedau.com | @rockstararms | linked in: nataliedau | app: rockstar fit