EP. 12: Why you need a Virtual Assistant with Danielle Kaufman

Show Notes

In this episode, I chat with Danielle Kaufman, founder of The Dietitian Assistant, about the benefits of virtual assistants in business and private practice.

Danielle addresses common challenges like burnout, lack of time, and those tasks we all hate (but she loves!).

We discuss all of the software she uses and recommends for your business to run smoothly.

We also discuss Danielle's journey as a virtual assistant and how she has worked with 35+ registered dietitians while managing her part-time private practice.

Her services include blog post creation, handouts, social media management, networking, meal plan creation, and more!

Danielle talks about what to consider when hiring a virtual assistant and she also touches on training needs for less experienced virtual assistants.

Tune in for valuable insights and practical tips on how virtual assistants can transform your business!

 

This episode is sponsored by Notion:  https://go.decletdesigns.com/notion

 

FOLLOW DANIELLE: https://www.instagram.com/the.dietitian.assistant/

 

WORK WITH DANIELLE: https://bio.site/dietitian.assistant

 

WORK WITH COURTNEY: https://decletdesigns.com/

 

FOLLOW COURTNEY: https://www.instagram.com/decletdesigns/

 

FREE BRANDING WORKSHOP: https://decletdesigns.com/free-website-and-branding-resources-for-private-practice/

 

 

 

What is Tech Savvy Dietitian: Websites, Local SEO & Marketing for Dietitians in Private Practice?

Websites, local SEO, and marketing strategy for dietitians in private practice. Hosted by Courtney Vickery, web designer and dietitian, helping you build a site and online presence that actually gets you clients.

In each episode, we'll tackle the practical side of private practice: websites that actually convert, tech tools that don't give you headaches, and strategies to streamline your workflow. Whether you're drowning in admin tasks or just starting your practice, we're here to help you spend less time managing your business and more time doing what you love - helping your clients.

Join us as we chat with successful dietitians and practice management experts who've figured out how to make technology work for them, not against them. We'll share real solutions for real practices, focusing on what actually works in the world of weight-inclusive care.

From fixing your scheduling nightmares to making your website work harder for you, Tech Savvy Dietitian: Websites, Local SEO & Marketing for Dietitians in Private Practice brings you practical strategies you can implement right away. Because your time is better spent helping clients, not fighting with tech.

 This episode of the Dietitian Turn Designer Podcast is sponsored by Notion. I love notion. It's a game changer when it comes to productivity and organization. Whether you're a student, a professional, or just looking to streamline your life, notion has got you covered. One of the reasons I love it is because it has so much versatility.

It lets me customize. Literally everything to fit my needs. If it's a personal project or professional one, it always adapts to my workflow seamlessly, and it's very intuitive. With this interface. It makes it effortless to create a whole new page database. Task list. You name it, it has it. And the best part is you don't need any coding skills because Notion brings simplicity to the forefront.

It helps you to integrate various tools and have all of your information in one space so you can bring your documents, your spreadsheets, your to-do lists, and you can even embed media like videos and files. It's a virtual hub that eliminates the need for juggling so many different applications and software.

So definitely check out Notion. And of course if you have any questions about Notion and wanna learn how to use it better, I'm happy to answer those questions as well. If you're ready to check out Notion, you can use my link at Go, which is go dot Declet designs.com. Back slash notion, and I'm excited for you to hear today's episode.

I'm chatting with Danielle Kaufman from the dietitian assistant, and she's talking all about the reasons that you need a virtual assistant in your business to help make your life so much easier.

Hi everyone, and welcome back to this week's episode of dietitian turned Designer. I'm excited because I have Danielle Kaufman, who is also a dietitian, but has started her own business as a VA for other dietitians. Welcome, Danielle.

Thank you so much for having me, Courtney. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah.

So tell us a little bit about your journey and how you went from being a dietitian and then starting to be a VA for other

dietitians. Yeah, so I started my virtual assisting stuff about five years ago during undergrad and my graduate years of college, studying to be a dietitian. A dietitian who had her own private practice actually came to this, the college that I was at, and after her presentation.

I went up to her and just asked her if she needed help with anything, and that I would like to do it for free because I really wanted to have, like, my goal in college was to have my own private practice, so I just really wanted to learn the business side of dietetics. So she agreed and I worked with her for a couple of months doing a lot of things, virtual assisting, like sending emails, creating graphics on Canva.

Messaging her clients for her, things like that. So I really, that was like my first experience with virtual assisting and I thought it was really cool and such a great opportunity. And then a couple months later, she actually hired me, to. You know, get paid while doing this. And I was like, wait, what?

That's crazy. So yeah, I was so excited, because I love doing it. Thought it was really cool. Interesting. I'm learning about different topics and dietetics by creating the handouts, like it's such a great opportunity and. So yeah, that's where I really fell in love with virtual assisting. And you know, that summer, instead of going back to Panera Bread, where I was working, where I was working, I decided to really kind of take this more seriously and reach out to.

I think I reached out to over 50 dietitians on Instagram that summer in like two days. So a handful reached out saying, yeah, I would love to have help in my business, and I was just over the moon. Super excited. So yeah, I would them work for a bunch of dietitians during my undergraduate and graduate years of college.

Again, starting to be a dietitian. And then I recently graduated with my master's degree and got my RD credential last August. So I'm still kind of a new dietitian. And right after I got the RD credential, I was like, all right, what do I wanna do? You know, we all have that, we all have that post-grad, mindset, like, where is my mind at?

So I've always loved private practice, like I said, always. In school, just wanted my own business. My thing was just being an entrepreneur. I've always loved that, making my own hours, everything about it. So I just decided to do this. Seriously, more serious than I ever have. And I opened up the dietitian assistant, last October.

So it's still a fairly new business and I'm so happy I made that decision and decided to do this full-time. It was, you know, it took a little bit of courage to really do that full-time because there's always that mindset of, wait, what if this doesn't work out the way I wanted it to, but, I think now was the best time to do it and at least take that risk and try it out.

And again, I'm so happy I did because I discovered that not too many dietitians are also virtual assistants and that, you know, my knowledge can really benefit their business and, you know, especially when it comes to like creating evidence-based blog posts or handouts for the dietitians. So currently I've had the pleasure of working for over.

35 registered dietitians Probably more because I, I kinda lost track. And right now I currently work for eight dietitians. And I also do. Part-time, private practice. I work in a group, private practice, counseling, people with eating disorders and disordered eating. So it's really great to have that, both the virtual assisting and the private practice, experience as well.

And yeah, that's kind of how it started.

Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing. So I wonder. I mean, this is what I have experienced as being a dietitian and then also being a designer, is that the dietitians tend to kind of trust us more because we know what they're doing because we've done it ourselves.

Have you found that to be true for yourself?

Oh, totally. Yes, definitely. The dietitians definitely have a lot of trust in me too. Because I'm a dietitian as well and like all of that experience behind my belt, those five plus years. So yeah, definitely.

Yeah, no. Awesome. So can you kind of tell us what are some of the common challenges or pain points that dietitians in private practice face and how you help them with those

challenges?

Yeah. So I would say number one right off the bat is burnout. So a lot of the time when dietitians come to me, they're pretty much at their breaking point. They have. A million tabs open in their brain. They have, their plate is overflowing with tasks that they need to do. So yeah, they experience this burnout, which is, you know, just feeling like you need to be on all the time.

Working every weekend, not having any breaks. And honestly, you dread the work that you're doing that you once really had a passion for and a light for, because of all of these stressors about owning a private practice, as you know, there's probably so many, and so many little tasks that need to be done in order to run the business efficiently.

So, Definitely burnout, I would say is the number one challenge and pain point that I see with my clients. Pain point number two would probably be not having enough time to do certain tasks or, you know, not having their ideas come to light. So I often work with dietitians who have a million amazing ideas in their business, but.

If you don't have enough time to work on them, because you're doing a little, I mean, a million little different tasks. The reality is like, it's not gonna come to light, unfortunately. You know, it's gonna, even if you are working on it, it's gonna take much longer to create that product or service. Rather than if you like, reached out to a virtual assistant, got the help, then you could solely focus on what that dream product of yours is.

So that's pain point number two that I see a lot. And number three would be that you're spending a lot of time on the tasks that you don't care to do or hate to do. There are some tasks that dietitians you, you might hate, a couple of tasks that you have to do. But these can really get to you and you're really like, hurt your mindset.

And you know, whether that be like sending emails, like networking, creating social media graphics and posts, you know, scheduling those out. Those little tasks really add up and take a lot of your time that you could be spending with your clients. And you know, that's the main goal if you're counseling, is just focusing that energy towards your clients.

So yeah, I would say those are the three main pain points that I see.

So I actually had a consultation with someone this morning and we talked a lot about how all those little tasks add up because they reached out to me to talk about like automation and outsourcing some of the things that they needed help with.

Mm-hmm. And actually talked to them about you cuz I was like, you know, there are VAs out there that can help you with these things that. You don't have time to do because they seem small, but they add up.

Yep. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Every time you

have to pull up that spreadsheet and put in that thing manually again or post that thing on social media again, it's just time and it, and it adds up and it, and it kind of like you said it, it'll kind of crush your spirit a little bit every time.

Yeah. Hated.

Yes, exactly. I had one client of mine that absolutely hated creating Instagram graphics and the captions. I was like, you know, I could easily do this for you, right? And she goes, you can. I was like, yes. So I think part of it is too, that they don't know that like help is available to them. And that people can, you could train them to do whatever tasks that you don't like doing.

But yeah, that, I think part of that is just like the lack of knowledge maybe that virtual assistants can do certain tasks. Yeah.

Yeah, and I think, like you said, a lot of people, you know, either they don't know that you can do that task or they don't know about your services in general because they're, you know, even though with Covid, a lot of things are virtual.

I think our virtual assistants are relatively newer. Idea in the past few years, I would say, or at least more popular now. Yeah. So yeah, definitely letting people, you know, know that that service is available. They would probably be very relieved to Yeah. Off those tasks.

Yeah, definitely. And like I said, I.

I've, you know, when I first started, I didn't know how to do any of these things, so the dietitians really took the time to train me to learn how to do these things. So, you know, always just know that you could train your virtual assistants with no problem. And you know, most of the time virtual assistants are really quick learners, so mm-hmm.

Definitely know that. Definitely.

So you mentioned, scheduling Instagram posts and things. What are some other tasks and services that you help dietitians

with?

Yeah, so I have a whole list. I n I didn't really niche down to specific services. Like my packages are more like hourly, like three hours a week, five hours a week, 10 hours a week.

Because I noticed that dietitians really need a lot of different things and that. Each business is different. So I feel like most of the time I saw personally that dietitians needed someone that can do like multiple different things. So I quickly began to learn how to do those little things. So just the main ones that I see among dietitian business owners is email marketing for sure.

So I create weekly emails to their mass emailing lists on whatever topics that they want me to talk about. You know, email sequences. So if you have like a new product or service you wanna launch, these are just automated. Emails, like probably like three to five emails, that are automated that they will get leading up to the launch of the product or service.

So that's been really helpful, especially when like generating sales. And the sidebar, I definitely recommend anyone listening to get an emailing list if you don't have one Huge, huge thing that I feel like you need in your business, because like. You own that. You own that, and your social media, your Instagram account, you don't own that, right?

Instagram owns it and the reality is like it could be gone tomorrow, and if it is and all your eggs are in that basket, kinda screwed, I'm not gonna lie. So it is very important to have an emailing list. But that's my sidebar. So social media content creation is another huge one. So, Definitely learning.

Canva Pro, I would say is like the main form of creating social media graphics right now. So yeah, I create their social media posts, their captions, you know, putting in relevant hashtags, doing engagement for them as well. So like leaving genuine comments, genuine messages, and the dms. Interacting with their posts, liking their stories, you know, all of these things over time create genuine connection.

And that's the goal here with Instagram especially, is that genuine connection. I say all the time, but you could have like 50,000 followers. But if you don't, if you aren't making that genuine connection, You're, you might struggle to get clients. Like I've seen that happen personally with a lot of my clients who have like a lot of followers, you know, followers don't really equal clients and I feel like someone listening just needs to hear that right now.

And I've seen clients that are dietitians of mine have less than a thousand followers and are really doing great with their clients. So it just kind of goes to show that numbers don't mean everything. So, You know, just a little switch in mindset there. I keep doing different sidebars back to the,

go for it.

So social media management. So again, like managing Facebook groups, memberships, Pinterest management, Instagram management. So just like scheduling out mainly different posts, creating that engagement. And just managing those different platforms. Another service would be networking, so pitching, different providers.

You know, to possibly generate referrals to the dietitians that I work for. I also have a couple of dietitians that I work for that I reach out to podcast hosts on their behalf and just kind of pitch them, you know, I create media kits for them to make, you know, every, all the information in one place, which is easy for them to just get to know you in a short amount of time.

So that's been really helpful. Definitely exposure on podcasts is huge for. Generating leads and potential clients. Even pitching local gyms I've done for dietitians that do like free workshops, and that's like also a really great genuine way to form those connections. So that's, I found really helpful for my clients.

Another big one would be blog writing and scheduling out the blogs. Learning more about seo, which I think is like really interesting. But yeah, evidence-based, blog posts on whatever topic that they want, me to write about. And creating meal plans is a big one as well. Like using that Clean life or living plate rx, just for different dietitians that, you know, I might be working for renal dietitian.

There's a lot of restrictions in a renal diet. So yeah, I, I would say those are the main ones that I see right now among dietitian business owners for sure. So you do it all, it

sounds like.

Yes, exactly.

So, this is just me always nerding out about software stuff. Which software systems do you find yourself using the most of other than like, obviously Canva.

Yeah, so a big new one is chat, G P T. I see that one coming up a lot, and if you don't know it, definitely familiarize yourself with it. I feel like this is a software that's, Here to stay for a while and it's only gonna get better. And I feel like right now is the time to really dive in and get to know how to work it to benefit you and your business and just make everything more efficient.

For people that don't know what Chat G B T is, it's an AI tool that helps you with literally anything. You give it prompts into this word bar and then it spits out relevant information. But just a note, you need to be careful about the information that it provides because it's not always accurate.

So of course, just taking it with a grain of salt and not using everything in particular, unless you know it's evidence-based. But yeah, I use that for blog outlines when I write blogs for my clients. I find that really helpful. Creating eye catching blog titles or like email titles for my clients as well.

And just giving me content ideas for the social media posts that I'm making my clients. So I found that super, super helpful. Other softwares, I use Voxer for my clients for communication. I always recommend that you have some sort of communication, software like Slack or even Zoom. For project management, I use, click up for my virtual assistant.

I have my own virtual assistant as well. That's okay. Yeah, so I love click up. I use that to manage the tasks that I give my virtual assistant. It even allows her to track her time on there as well, which I found really useful in like, you know, getting her hours, but, Time tracking is also a big one for especially virtual assistants to be accurate in your, you know, invoicing.

I use Toggle for that. Mm-hmm. And it's really helpful cuz I have eight different clients so it could be overwhelming, but it highlights each client, so it's very, very nice for keeping your time. Management together. And yes, simply just like an invoicing software, I use Stripe. I found that to be really seamless and easy for like, invoicing my clients, creating like monthly subscriptions so I don't have to worry about it.

It's like automated. So yeah, those are like the main softwares that I use in my business. So do you use Click

up as like your c r m basically, like where you kind of keep all your client information or do you use something else?

So click up is just mainly for. My virtual assistant, so I like list her out tasks.

Mm-hmm. I'm old school when it comes to my clients, I write it all down for each client each week. Oh, no, no. I don't recommend that. I, I absolutely don't recommend that at all. Definitely I need to get more prepared in that aspect. But yeah, right now click ups mainly for my virtual assistant.

Gotcha.

Yeah, I use click up for all my, I did a and a whole episode on it cuz again, I could talk about software all day. But I use click up for just task management and like tracking KPIs. And then I use Notion as like my brain basically. Yeah. Way I describe it because. It's like where all my documents are and relevant links and right now I'm using it to make like a client hub for my each client project.

Oh. They have like their timeline and their task and we chat in there and stuff. So.

Cool. Yeah, the private practice that I work under uses Notion. I like that a lot. It's, yeah, really helpful.

I love the aesthetics of notion.

Same. Oh my gosh. So cool. My boss. Yeah. My boss's notion account is so cool. Yeah,

there's so look inside you can, there's so much stuff you can do in it that I haven't even touched the surface of.

Yeah. I feel like I use it pretty basically. Yeah. And I was talking to someone yesterday and they're like, why don't you use it for your, your tasks? Because I get overwhelmed. Like if I go in there and I'm like, Ooh, shiny. I need to do that. I need to do that. It doesn't give me like, Courtney, just do this today.

Yeah, I think that's my issue too. I feel like that would make me overwhelmed as well. So that's why I tend to like be old school about my, you know, different tasks that I do.

Well, if you want any ideas on different CRMs to use, I have looked at them all, so, okay, great. Happy to chat about that.

Okay, great.

Yeah, I definitely need you. . So you

mentioned networking earlier in collaboration with the community. Can you talk a little bit more about other ways that you do that?

You mentioned reaching out to the gym owners and reaching out to podcasts and engagement on Instagram. What do you feel like has been the most successful type of networking for these dietitians?

Hmm. I would say podcasts, reaching out to podcast hosts has definitely, I feel like been the most helpful. Obviously there's gyms, but podcasts live forever on the platform.

Well, I assume so. I don't want podcasts. I dunno if it lived forever, but yeah. Yeah. I feel like exposure via podcasting for my clients have been the best, especially, Podcasts that are very well known. I see a lot of, like my client got five clients from just being a guest on one really popular podcast.

So that's, I feel like is the number one way to do it, for sure. Yeah. And also, You know, reaching out to providers I feel like is also really helpful, because she meets with them on Zoom, like for 30 minutes. But I just like schedule it for her and that really is nice to form that connection with a provider that might need someone to refer their clients to, like therapists or doctors or dentist eat even cuz we do eating disorders.

Yep. So yeah, definitely.

Yeah. No, I. Feel like I tell people all the time when it comes to like SEO too, I'm like, have you been on any podcasts? Yeah. Like, that's such an easy way. And there's actually a Facebook group or you're probably in it, but like the podcasts collaboration group and there's like thousands of people in there.

Yeah. And people are always asking for guests. Or you can post like your little media sheet and say like, this is things I can talk about. Would you like for me to be on your show? Yeah. And then people are like, yes. And that's how I've been on so many different ones. And. Then I finally was like, I'm just gonna start my own, because I would much prefer to do this than have to write another blog post.

And maybe I need to hire you to write

some blog posts for that. I know podcasting is way better, right? Yeah. I feel like you either like blogging or podcasting. Yeah, I know. And

some people are like, I don't wanna do a podcast episode cause I'm nervous about it. But I kind of just look at them as conversations and networking too, because I've been on several that you would think like, how does that even relate to what you do?

But. You can find a way.

Yeah, no, for sure. You can. You can figure out how to swing it and make it perfect. Definitely. Yeah. And definitely just like building that genuine connection on podcasting, I think is huge as well. Mm-hmm. Which you can't really do from a blog post, you know?

Right. Yes. And it's interesting too, because.

I listen to a lot of, well, I listen to the same podcast a lot. I don't wanna say I listen to a lot of different ones cause I don't, but I listen to the ones I listen to religiously. Mm-hmm. And, but at the same time, I. When I'm on the internet, I don't like watching the videos of things I like. Video is key now, and we actually talked about that before we got on about how I'm probably gonna start using my videos for my podcast interviews as YouTube videos just for the search engine capability.

But at the same time, I, if I go to a blog post and they have a video, I'm like, I'm not watching that.

That's weird because I think I'm opposite. Yeah. I'm like people and it, both people. Yes.

I just like to read. I think it's like an audio thing for me, like yeah, just wanna read it and be very visual with it.

Yeah. Makes sense. Is there any specific success story that you wanna share from the clients

that you've worked with? Yeah, so I had. Well, I feel like all the stories are the same. Like these dietitians are really busy, right? And then I come in and like, I'm gonna save the day, do my own horn.

But there was this one particular dietitian, that came to me right at burnout. She again, had a million things on her plate, felt super overwhelmed with all the tasks that she had to do, especially those little tedious ones that she hated to do. She was also working full-time at a hospital, with two kids at home.

So her plate was overflowing. Yeah. To say the least. So she really needed help and she was like, you know, in the first steps of like starting her business, you know, she's still in the first initial steps, so she really needed someone that would just like take the rein that she didn't have to like train that.

You know, no ho No, no. Like handholding. You know? So she really wanted me to do her social media for her. Creating those Instagram graphics, like captions, networking to, providers so that she can generate more referrals. Like setting up an emailing list, creating those client handouts that she felt like her clients would need soon.

All of those little things. So I'm happy to say that I've helped her a lot and took a good chunk of that stress and anxiety offer plate an offer to-do list. She accepted, was able to accept more one-to-one clients because she didn't have to worry about all of these little things, which in turn increased her income and she was happier.

She had more time for her kids. She was able to work less at the hospital. So instead of full-time, she went to part-time. So I feel like I really made a huge impact in her stress levels and anxiety and yeah, just help her to get more clients and. Yeah. It's really rewarding this work for sure.

Yeah.

That's awesome. As someone with two kids, I can understand being overwhelmed and having too many things to do. Yeah. Do you think that there are any situations where maybe you haven't experienced it, but you can give an example of what you think this would be like where someone thought they were ready to hire a va but then it turned out like they weren't quite there yet or they weren't?

Cuz I think about some of my clients that think that they're ready to do the full on brand strategy or mm-hmm strategy and identity experience, but they're not sure. What they wanna be when they grow up.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I would say definitely it wouldn't be a good time to hire a virtual assistant if you don't know what to give the virtual assistant.

Right. I have some clients come to me and we do the discovery call and the, and I'm like, okay, like how can I help you in your business? And. Kind of take a pause and like, wait, I have to think about this. I was like, yeah, you know, definitely sit down and think about it. Make a list of all of the things that you would like to outsource.

Maybe a list of the tasks you hate doing. Just creating that list, being prepared, getting detailed on what exactly you want this virtual assistant to do for you. Like getting very specific. So instead of saying, Creating social media content, like I want five posts, Instagram graphics created five captions.

I want you to schedule them out once a week and just like very, very specific so that it can give you a good idea on how. You know, many hours you need them per week. And so that they're, they'll be able to be on the same page and let you know if they have experience doing those things. And if they don't, then they say, Hey, I'll need you to teach me how to do those things.

So yeah, definitely. If you're not prepared, I would say that it wouldn't be a good, good time to hire one. Yeah, no, that's

very good point because like I said, you know, it's hard to make a brand strategy when you aren't sure what services you wanna offer, right? Who you wanna work with. And again, I've said this a million times on here, but I don't do avatars.

Like Susie Q works at the job nine to five and shops at Kroger. You know, like I don't do that. I focus on the problem that they're solving. But if you either don't know what problem you're wanting to solve, Or if you wanna solve every problem there is. Mm. I don't know where to do with that. Yeah, definitely I will try my best, but, it's gonna make your infinitely harder.

Right, right. No, that makes sense.

So, and in addition to that, what are some advice or tips that you would give a dietitian who's considering hiring a va?

Yeah, so, I've come to notice that like virtual assistants have varying level of experience. They know how to do certain tasks, you know, other tasks they don't know how to do.

So just being really prepared to ask that and your discovery call with them, assuming you have one. Just like really questioning their experience just because, you know, I don't. There might be virtual assistants out there that say they can do something and really they can't let, just being honest, I've seen that.

So very, just questioning their knowledge during that discovery call I think is a really good step, to do. And just like being aware that. You know, the lower price range of virtual assistants often don't really have much experience rather than the virtual assistants that charge a higher amount. So the lower range, you might have to do a lot of training and it's all depending on how much time you have, right?

If you have the time to train them, you have the time to teach them everything, then yeah, that would be a good option. If you, your plate's already full to the max, you want someone that knows their stuff. Can do it with ease without any handholding, then that's when you're gonna see like the higher price range for sure.

So just being aware of that. Also, I definitely recommend doing a trial run. So even if it's like two weeks just having a trial, seeing if they can do good, like the, the things that you want them to do, seeing if it's just a good fit. Like some personalities don't mesh together well and that's fine.

So. It's definitely recommending, to propose that trial, whether it's two weeks, it could be a month, two months, even however long that you want to do it for. Also where to find virtual assistants. There, there are some websites like Upwork, but I. I found most dietitians going in Facebook groups to find virtual assistants.

Like there is this one that, it's called virtual assistants for dietitians, Facebook group where you can just put a post in and you'll probably have 10 inquiries in five minutes. But it's really a good place to, you know, find virtual assistants, especially that our dietetic students maybe, or even dietitians themselves.

I would definitely recommend looking there first. I actually think

I'm in that group too, so that's, yeah. A good thing to note. I was just mostly thinking, it sounds like you get what you pay for as most things are in life.

Yeah, definitely.

I'm wondering, do you have, I know we talked about like how you do things hourly and it's really varied on what you do, but do you have like a list of software that you're like, this is the thing that I work in and feel comfortable working in? Because I'm just thinking of where I've had clients or potential clients reach out and thinking of one in particular who really wanted to build a really large membership.

Site. Mm-hmm. And of course I could learn that and figure it out, no doubt. Mm-hmm. But I didn't have the time or the capacity to do that, so I referred them to another designer who probably doesn't know. I referred them and they were shocked that I would do that. They're like, I can't believe, like, that's so nice of you.

Like that you would actually send work to someone else away from yourself. And I was like, well, I want you to get the, you know, what you need and the amount of time that you need it. And I don't have the time right now to learn that and the time that you wanna get it done. Right. So I guess my question is, do you ever have that situation where someone reaches out to you and you're like, I can tell that I'm not the

best fit for you?

Yeah, so anything like website related, I first started, I will not help anyone really with website because I am, that's not my area. So every, anytime I know from the second it leaves their mouth like that's not a good fit. I need to tell them. And you know, I do. And, and. In the case of certain software platforms, I think I would think of email marketing platforms, which I grown to learn five different email marketing platforms.

But I would just let the dietitian know , Hey, I don't have experience with this email marketing program, but if you know you wanna continue working for me, I'm more than happy to teach myself how to do it. Obviously. You know, I personally don't charge them for my learning because I think that's a skill that you know is.

It's gonna be a skill for me in the future. So I will go ahead and teach it myself. I will look up YouTube videos about how to do it, and just research myself on how to get familiar with it. And then we'll see if it's a good fit After that, if it's not what they were expecting or they were expecting someone with, you know, to specific things for that program, then it's not a good fit, you know, so just like knowing that that's okay too.

Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like that's the theme this week in my own life is talking to, like I was talking to my therapist today, just about work in general and like being a private practice clinician and how, you know, sometimes it's okay for people to talk about, you know, that they're not with the best fit for them, and that doesn't mean anything about the clinician.

Like it just means, yeah. This isn't the best fit and that's okay. And we want what is best for the client. And so for them to go and find someone that is a better fit for them is what is important. So yeah, totally. Yeah, I

look at it kind of like that. Yeah, definitely. I love that. So true.

Were there any other things that you wanted to share with everybody listening today as far as any tips or tricks or suggestions?

I think if you are. A dietitian or dietetic student and you are kind of interested on the fence of doing virtual assisting, I would definitely say to just jump in and even if you don't have that much experience, you know, having, letting your dietitian know that, that you're gonna work for, and you know, just not being hesitant because I feel like a lot of.

Dietetics students or like dietitians, this is something that they wanna try out as like a side gig or like maybe a full-time thing. And they are hesitant because they fear that I don't, well, I don't know anything. I felt like that too when I like first started, and that's totally normal to feel that way.

But the trick is to just do it and. Let the person know that you'll need training, and most of the time they don't really care that much and they'll be willing to train you and then you'll have that skill forever. And then you just keep growing on different skills. And that's kind of how it snowballs for me over time.

So just don't let that fear hold you back on starting your virtual system business. Awesome.

Well thank you so much for being here today and can you tell us where everyone can find you?

Yes, you can find me. I hang out mostly on Instagram, at the period dietitian period assistant, to, can mainly find me there.

That's where I'm hanging out most of these, most of these days. Awesome.

All right, well thank you everyone for listening and we'll see you next week.

Thank you.

Are you tired of DIYing your website and brand, but maybe you're afraid to let someone who doesn't quite understand what you do, do it for you? Well, as someone who has experience in both the health and design industries, I'm uniquely qualified to help weight inclusive private practices and businesses create beautiful brands and websites that showcase their talents and vision while staying true to their values.

You can reach out today to chat about my services. Or you can check out my free resources on my website and you can also get the link in my show notes. And don't forget, you can always come hang out with me on Instagram where I share tips and tricks, and of course a few cat photos and memes as well.

Thanks for tuning in to the dietitian Turn Designer podcast. As your host, I'm passionate about providing valuable insights and actionable tips to help entrepreneurs, designers, and help professionals build weight inclusive businesses that prioritize authenticity, compassion, and inclusivity. We've had some amazing conversations with industry experts about topics from weight inclusive design to web development.

Marketing and more, and we're not stopping there. We've got even more great content coming your way. So thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, we hope you'll feel inspired to use your designs and marketing as tools for positive change in the world of health and wellness.