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In this episode of Dietitian Turned Designer, I have the pleasure of chatting with Laura Jean, a talented dietitian who helps other health professionals integrate values-based approaches into their businesses. We discuss the importance of building genuine client relationships, avoiding manipulative marketing, and embracing trauma-informed practices. Join us as we explore how to align business practices with our values and create a thriving, inclusive practice. Don't miss out on valuable insights and advice in this episode!
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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.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to dietitian turned designer. I'm excited this week. Cause I have Laura Jean all the way from Australia. Welcome Laura. Thanks for having me, Courtney. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about what you do and how you help other dietitians hold space in business. So, yeah, so I, , am a dietitian based in Australia and my work now, my background is like in weight inclusive, , non diet approach to, you know, supporting people around food.
And now what I work with is, or who I work with, , other dietitians and health professionals who are. In business or, you know, dipping their toe into entrepreneurship or have been in there for a while, maybe doing private practice and they want to do things a bit differently or there's like, you know, when we, I think when we come to like the non diet approach or that weight inclusive approach, it's really driven by our values.
We see that values disconnect in how dietetics traditionally is. Is shown to be, you know, held up and then, , how we want to be. And what I try and do in the business side of things is hold space for dietitians who can see that same disconnect in business. And so help you to bring the values you practice by into how you do business.
Yes. And I love that because as soon as you said that before we started recording, I got so excited because I just see that so much when people are talking about business and marketing. And I see so many dietitians trying to do what is considered traditional marketing and they're like, this just doesn't feel right.
And it shows when it doesn't feel right. , I call that like bro marketing. And I feel like it just. It's not authentic to who they are and their values. So, you know, once they can kind of figure out how to represent themselves and not feel kind of like they're selling all the time or that, you know, I always say marketing is more about having a relationship anyways.
And if you start just having conversations, it won't feel like you're selling or like even you're working sometimes. Absolutely agree. Yeah. It's all built on that relating and relationships. And that's what we do, like when we work with humans in front of us, right? As clinicians, we build relationship, we build rapport, and we use that as a foundation for supporting change, , or supporting somebody to get where they want to go.
And in business, , because of the way traditional business is taught or conceptualized, it's more about getting people to do what you want them to do, or like, you know, which is buy, right? Like that's the, it's because for a lot of business stuff, that's it, like particularly product based services, what you're trying to do is get somebody to buy the thing.
But as clinicians, , at the heart of our businesses, even if we're doing things, you know, maybe writing, or like we might not be doing that one on one face to face work, we're really wanting to support somebody to build a better life, right? To, to, to improve their health, to, to go after their dreams and their goals.
And so it's so different, and. When we can remember that and when we can get ground and embed our business in those same values, it makes a huge difference for us as clinicians, the satisfaction we get, the reduction in burnout and those kind of pieces, but also for the humans we're working with, because it creates a space where they can actually do those things when they're being sold to or feel like they're being manipulated.
then that doesn't really start us off on the kind of footing that we want to create a space to relate and support them for change. So, and a lot of dietitians that I've talked to over my kind of career is, I often hear, well, I couldn't go, I couldn't do that. I couldn't do business. I couldn't do private practice because it just doesn't align with who I am as a clinician.
And I really want to open dietitians and clinicians up to the possibility that actually we can, we can do both. We can bring our values. And we need clinicians with those really deep, you know, rooted values, you know, rooted in their integrity and values in the business and entrepreneurial space. Because if we're not there.
The other, like people who maybe don't operate in that way are there. And so we just see the same thing perpetuated the same cycle, the same thing, , you know, when a lot of us are dietitians and nutritionist clinicians, because we want to show people they can take care of their health in a different way.
You know, it doesn't have to be, you know, you talk about the bro marketing, it doesn't have to be the bro, the gym bro, kind of like, you know, that kind of culture around food and nutrition either. And that's why we're there for, and we can do the same thing in business. We can show people that. Well, what I want to show people is that we can do business in a different way and we don't have to leave parts of ourself behind.
We don't have to compromise our values and we don't have to burn ourselves out to create space where we can show up and do the work that we're passionate about doing. Yes. No, I love that. And you also mentioned, you know, the trauma piece, like trauma informed business. And there's, I think a lot about copywriting, because I, I do copy editing and I don't like saying I'm a copywriter.
Cause I feel like that's such a skill. But I can do some, and I take a lot of courses and follow a lot of copywriters and there's some that focus on that trauma informed copywriting. And it's just, Such a breath of fresh air, because some of the stuff that I've tried to learn from didn't fit with what I was trying to say, because it wasn't, you know, it wasn't the type of marketing like we're talking about that is more values based.
So have you seen that too? Like how do you kind of approach when people are trying to figure out like their voice and how they want to put that into words? Yeah, absolutely. And I noticed that myself too, like I've been, I had my first business in 2007, so I've been on the business entrepreneur journey for a long time showing my vintage here with my dates.
And I dived into the world of online business back in 2010, early 2011, like figuring, you know, Yeah. Binding all of that stuff. And I really loved it, but what I didn't love was, yeah, that manipulation, the stuff that really was a big rub against my values. And so over time, what I've done is, is kind of like, Oh, okay, well, I'll take this, I'll take this, I'll try this.
And I tried different things and it just felt gross. And we know that feeling, right? Like if you're, if you're somebody in private practice or in business and you've tried those things and they feel gross, I see a real big parallel between. That and what we see for our clients we work with around food, right, that they feel like diets.
They've, they've failed the diet. We feel like as clinicians, we failed the marketing. We failed the business thing. We're just not cut out for this, right? But really, it's the strategies. It's the diet. It's the marketing plan. It's the copy and paste stuff. It's the manipulative way that we're being asked to, use language and words because words are powerful.
We know that, right? Copy, it can, Persuade people, we can use that to support people. We can use that in a trauma informed way, or we can not, which is often what we see and often what we're asked to do. And so for anyone who ever feels that disconnect, I think the first thing to know is that it's not you, it's not a you problem.
Our business or the business culture is founded on the exact same values of the wider culture and society around us, which is the same values of diet culture. Right? So when we see those disconnects, the opportunity is for us to really like, I suppose, chuck on our science critical analysis hats and realize like, you know, get really curious about what's going on and look for those possibilities of how to do it differently.
Now, I for really, I suppose it's just like one of my, you know, they call it the zone of genius in that, I wouldn't say I'm a genius, but like that kind of concept to me, it just comes, that's the next step in my head. That's how my brain works. Like I see it, I go, not for me and I can go to that next step and not everyone can write.
It can feel really stuck. You can feel really stuck in that spot of like, I can't do that. Now what? Like if I can't, and again, same parallels with that, with the humans we work with, if I'm not dieting, then how, how do I relate to food? How do I interact? And what do people need in that spot? They need someone to support them or a different way to look at it.
So if you are in that stuck point, or if you do feel that, I would just say, remember, it's not you. Or remind yourself, it's not you, or use that as a little affirmation for yourself, if you like those kinds of things, and then look for support. It can be somebody like me, of course, but I'm not here to sell you my services.
I'm here to let you know they're there, but. It can be other things, you know, look outside, even just the business industry, think about how you can bring the concepts and principles of trauma informed care into business, how you can bring the concepts of how you practice into how you do your business and how you market.
Starting with your values, you know, getting really clear on those so that when something comes up, you can use your values like a filter and you can disconnect it again. It's another great way to kind of, I suppose, disconnect it from that idea that there's something wrong with me. We can look again, look instead that, Oh, that doesn't align with my values.
Yeah, that might work for somebody else and it's not good or bad. We don't have to judge things or judge ourselves or judge other people for what they do. We can just go, Hmm, not for me, not aligned with my values and we can use our values as a filter. So we can know it's not us. We can look for more support and information and we can really get clear on our values and grounding our values so that we can use those as a filter to take what we need and what serves us in business and leave what we don't and not make that mean anything about us as a human.
Yeah, exactly. And that's such an important part of the brand strategy piece I do with clients. And again, like I said, I've said this before, and I keep saying it to people, but basically, whenever someone does that process with me, they're always shocked because they're like, wow, I didn't realize it.
Included all of this, or, you know, this was so like all encompassing and all the things we discussed. It's not just a mission and just, just values. That's the foundation of it. But then it builds on that because you, if you don't have that mission and that vision and those values, then how are we going to figure out what your personality is when your brand, you do using your brand tone or your brand, voice, like how can you write copy?
If you don't know what this foundation is and what you want to convey. Who you're talking to, you know, I just tell people all the time, like stop worrying so much about what everyone around you is saying, and maybe even what your inner voice is saying in some ways, and think about what your client wants to hear.
Like picture them reading what's on your website. Is that going to speak to them? You know, is it going to be like, wow, this feels like, right. This is the space I want to be in with this person. This is who I want to work with. And you can't get there if you don't know the foundation of that. If you can't just.
Create something out of nothing, basically, if you don't know who you are. Absolutely. And I think having that values foundation, obviously I'm biased as what I took, but like, you know, I imagine when somebody comes to you to do design, to redesign a website, that when somebody has that clarity around their values, that process just kind of falls out when we don't have that it's, it's.
It's hard. Like, and if anyone listening has ever tried to DIY their own copy, all the website stuff, it feels hard. It feels tricky sometimes. Like what words should I use? Where should I go? When you have your values, while it doesn't come like, you know, it's not automatic, there's a, there's a level of ease that comes when you know that foundation, because you can come back to them.
They're such a tangible tool. I think some of us probably have been burnt around values, being part of organizations where they have these values on their websites and it's Lipspeak, we know that. The employees don't get treated with those values. We know that decisions aren't made in the business because of values.
And as solopreneurs or people managing small practices or large practices and businesses, whoever's listening around, you can do it differently, right? You can really actually have your values be a touch point. And actually, a decision making guide, like they don't just have to be these fluffy words that, that sit on a website somewhere, they can literally use them as a filter for decisions.
So like you said, you know, when you're looking at even things like brand colors, which, you know, often people think brands is the colors and the logo and stuff, you know, you can really use your values. Like, does that align with the message I want to say? Like you said, when you're writing your copy, it's like, what do the humans I want to work with?
Want to hear like, and the humans who are aligned with my values. Because again, sometimes we can have, you know, what we'd call like somebody who's not necessarily a good fit client for us. When we talk in our values, when we're grounded in that, I've had, you know, the people that I support work with, like, just talk about how different it is, the humans that, that, that come into their ecosystem that are attracted to their business are really aligned because.
They have that opportunity to see themselves in the words you use to see themselves in your brand. When you know your values, you're actually portraying you as opposed to what you think you should or what you see other people doing. And I think when people are really clear on their values and you can see the difference in brands and in businesses where they are, rather than being just a little.
Cookie cutter copy of somebody else's brand or somebody else's colors or feel it really is that person coming through. And so, yeah, anyone I imagine for you, yeah, like they almost go really hand in hand having that foundation, you know, makes that whole process of branding, but also for people in their own businesses, it just makes it more easeful.
I think is the word I would use. Yeah. And when we're talking about attracting people, I always tell people, you also want to repel the people that aren't your people. And it's not like you're saying, you know, go away. I don't want to work with you, but it's just going to naturally happen because they're going to see it and think that's not what I'm looking for.
And that's okay. And it's okay to repel people that aren't your ideal client. And I think that's kind of hard to. Think about sometimes because we want everybody to like us. And most of the people that dietitians I know are people pleasers or type a, and they're like, everything has to be so so. But you know, everybody doesn't have to like us.
That's okay. We want to work with the people that we genuinely enjoy working with, and we want them to enjoy working with us. So try not to work with You know, if you're speaking to everyone, you're speaking to no one kind of idea. So it's okay to repel people too. Absolutely. Like where, you know, everyone out there is the dietician that somebody is looking for and many somebodies, and by, yeah, leading with those values, the people that you do want to work with, they have the opportunity to say yes, to see themselves and to see that alignment in what you do.
So like, for instance, for me, one of the things I talk a lot about. And show a lot about in my brand and my business, not as a tool, but just because it is who I am. And it's my life is my garden, right? I'm really into gardening. I'm into permaculture. I just dropped an email to my email list yesterday using like a permaculture principle of like tree guards, like guarding, like, you know, putting little shelters around your tree, you know, as a business kind of lesson, I suppose.
And that comes through. And so the people. Who that's their thing as well. Not everyone, not everyone in my ecosystem is a gardener either. But it, but it resonates for them. It talks to them. It speaks in a way to them that they can hear that message versus say, if I gave a car rally sport analogy, right.
That's a different group of humans. And if that was who I was, then that's great to use. And so when we have our values, we have that opportunity for that. We give people something to say yes to, but we can also give people something to say no to. So the people who are. Yeah, inter car, like I'll just use that as a very.
random example, it just popped into my head, then they're probably not going to resonate with my brand. And that's okay because we probably won't be a fit. And we probably though they will be so much more supported by somebody that is aligned with their values. We don't have to be exactly the same, but having that like valued, approach can make a big difference for the humans we want to work with to.
Create an opportunity for them to get the support they need, but for us, for our fulfillment, for our passion and purpose to be, you know, taking care of throughout business, because our businesses are tools, tools to meet our needs, tools to put our purpose and passion out in the world, tools to make a better world, you know, to, to build the world we want to be part of.
And we have the opportunity to do that with people who are like valued. It doesn't mean that people who aren't well. Bugger off, go figure out your own thing. It just gives them the opportunity to say, not for me. And to go and look for somebody else that is when we don't like when we're like, you know, what, what people call it, you know, a vanilla brand, you know, and, and you can scroll on Instagram and see, and, and no shade and no shame.
When we're first starting out, when we're finding our voice and finding that, yeah, sometimes it's easy to just see what somebody else is doing. Start there. Start somewhere. It's better to start. I think you don't have to let this and yeah, I should add this like a really big caveat. Don't let this Idea or what we're talking about, be something that gets in the way of starting, you don't have to know it.
Values change us as humans change. And so you can create a business that has space for that. So yes, sure. Start with something that you like the colors of, and maybe it is just a bit more vanilla. And give yourself the space to get curious about yourself to, to kind of like, to, to see what fits and to listen to your body and to listen to your values and to see what fits and what doesn't.
And over time you can shape your brand and shape your business into you and into you and bringing your values in there. So the both end of having your values makes your brand more powerful. And sometimes it takes time to figure that out. You can still start. You don't have to wait until you've got that like a hundred percent.
I know, sorry, my perfectionist type is out there. I know you want to wait till it's perfect and everything's ducks in a row and you were waiting forever. But like a lot of this stuff evolves. You know, I'm someone who's done a lot of values work and they've always been a big part. The values that I hold now.
Have shifted and changed. I haven't done like a full one 80 and there have been some shifts and changes. So the same in your business, as well. So, yeah, I think that's just something really to hold there that the both end of yes, get clear on your values. Cause it makes your brand more powerful and don't let it get in the way of starting somewhere.
Yeah, exactly. So whenever I talk to someone about doing their brand strategy, it's interesting because I, again, not wanting to say I'm not going to do it for you, but I do prefer to work with people that have been in business for like two to three years when they are doing like the full on custom.
Brand strategy and really investing in that. Cause it's, you know, it's an investment for sure. And that's why I offer like a starter brands for people that, you know, they're literally just starting and they just need a word mark in some colors and the fonts and always tell them nothing's permanent. With the website, with the brand, you know, you're going to evolve.
You're going to change. I can't tell you how many times I changed my color, my own colors and everything, on my private practice in this business. And I finally, like, once I got settled in around that two to three year mark was when I was like, this is who this brand is, and you don't know that until you kind of do some trial and error and figure that out along the way.
Yeah. No, even like, I think things like, you know, branding and niching and all of those pieces or niching in your part of the world, we, we don't always know, like, it's not, it's not set in stone. You might start out, the other day, or actually no, it was nearly a year ago now. I got some new business cards cause I was going to an in person event for the first time in like forever.
anyway, I whipped out my business card holder and in there was like, You know, the previous iterations. And it was so cool to actually look at it and look at how things evolve and just remember that we change. But to also be proud of like where we start. So I love that, that, that how you work there, like knowing that for some people having the colors and, and, you know, having something at the start is really helpful, like a little security blanket, to put stuff out there.
And it's like, right, I'm ready. I can do this. I'm, I'm a proper business owner now. But the really big stuff to give ourselves space and grace to. kind of find our voice to find, to really figure out how we want to show up in this season of our lives and in this moment and still hold in space that it will change.
That it will shift and evolve. But yeah, the values are so. Helpful as a starting point for that, I think, yeah, but I think to just, yeah, getting started putting things out there and giving yourself the space to, to really just experiment and play in your business and to, you know, to not feel like changing and pivoting or things is some sort of sign of failure.
And again, sorry, perfectionist, I know you want to have it all sorted out and you want to be like, right, well, what am I going to do? I don't want to start until I know what I'm going to do forever. But like playing and figuring stuff out one, it's fun, but also it just allows us to experiment in our businesses and try different things and find the fit for us.
We don't have to copy. The model of what other people doing the other day, I saw somebody just talking about, you know, we often see those conversations around dietetics and people feeling like maybe unfulfilled or not sure where they want to go. And someone's like, I don't want to be in private practice.
And I was like, Oh, that's really interesting because for me, private practice. It's like a million different opportunities, a million different jobs. Like, I'm like, I mean, you know, what we often see as private practice is the dietician sitting in the clinic or these days sitting on the other side of a zoom screen and just seeing clients like that.
That's this picture. And that's one way to have a private practice. And that's very fulfilling for some people. And not for everyone. And you've got a private practice as a dietitian doing marketing and brands. I've got a private practice as a dietitian or a business entrepreneur, whichever word you want to use.
And I support other dietitians. There's people out there who are full time writers. There's people doing food related stuff, sports related, like this. A million, there's as many ways to be a dietitian in business as there are dietitians out there. And you can find your own way and your values, I think, give you a starting point for that, but bringing a sense of play and fun and experimentation to your business, and sometimes saying yes to things, unless it's like, you know, a deep gut, no, definitely don't do that.
But like you're saying yes to things, trying things out and. Yeah. I know when I've started my very first business back in 2007, back in the day, pre social media, everybody, yes, you can build a business for that social media. Then I, I just said yes to heaps of things. I did heaps of things and I found my nose, absolutely.
And I found my yeses. I found the things that really lit me up. And, and every time, every iteration of doing business, cause I've done it. Business in different ways over the many years I've been a dietitian. I've pulled the bits that worked for me to get to the point that now. Cultivated and created a way of doing business that is one aligned with her values, but just really works for me as a human, you know, the hours, the way I work and.
I just, yeah, I suppose plan a seed for people out there that you can find that too. It might just take time and it might take a bit of experimenting, but there is ways that you can do it that really work for you, that light you up. Are there still things that we have to do as business owners yet that are less than fun?
Sure. I'm not going to pretend it's, you know, thrills and spills every moment. And you can find a way that, yeah, to do business that just doesn't suck your soul out or burn you out, or leave you questioning. One, why am I doing this or am I even cut out for it? So I like to open people up to the possibilities of one being a dietitian, but also being a dietitian in business, that there's as many ways to do it as there are dietitians who want to.
Yeah, no, I like that. And I teach, an undergrad class at the university of Georgia, and that's one of my favorite parts of it is showing them. You don't have to fit in this box of what you think a dietitian does. And, I also have practicum students that I take on every, most, mostly every semester with my private practice.
And it's not a traditional practicum where they like sit and watch me do counseling or anything like that. They do a project where they. Each week have a piece of building a private practice so that the at the end they can have a mock private practice and a lot of them actually want to do their own business so they take what they did in this project with me and like take that with them and actually use it in the real world.
But it's been fun to see like all the different ways that they have thought about creating their private practice it's not just one on one work, you know, one of them. And I think she's actually doing this now is working on creating like a meal service for, we know moms that are trying to, you know, get pregnant and fertility issues, but it's focused on the meal delivery piece of that.
And it's just, there's so many different ways you can do it. It doesn't have to be this one way. And I think as dietitians, you know, being a lot of us are type a and perfectionist that we think it has to be done this way. And it definitely doesn't. You can dream it. You can do it. Right. Absolutely. I think there's that big piece of like, we, we, we see the one, that one way and think it has to be.
And also, even if we have that little seed, that little fire inside us that is saying, do it differently, do it differently. As, as, you know, generalized humans who have been socialized as, as girls, women, and women, we, we're, we're also socialized to question ourselves to say, Oh, No, that's not for me.
And so I think there's both of those pieces coming. One, the fact that yeah, we're, we're certain personality is drawn to this profession. And we like the rules. We like to know what's feel safe and what feels certain. And we see other people doing it a certain way and being quote unquote successful.
And so we think, right there, well, that's the safe way. That's the certain way. So there's that piece. And then there's, even when we have that kind of thought, I could do this differently, we question ourselves. We, you know, we have that social programming. Again, this is like, you know, again, I'm, I'm biased, but this is where our values are really helpful because it allows us to, to really see, are we making those choices around how we run our business, around how we show up because of what we want, what our values, what are grounded in our values or because what we think we should do, what the cultural sort of narrative message has been for us that we're kind of playing it out.
Or even just the professional values. So as dietitians, we have values at a profession, like. As a profession, there's a sort of set of values that, that kind of drives our profession. If they're not all, if they're not your values, then running a business or creating a business built in those values or in the cultural social values, they're not going to get you where you want to go.
So I think that's another, another plug for values. But also, you know, that opportunity for people to just, Again, to just notice, you know, if are you, are you quashing your own dreams because of what you see out there? And that's where, yeah, I think getting clear on your values or getting support from somebody who can, you know, I love that project that you, that you do with the, with the practicum students of just really an opportunity to dream into what they want.
And so if you're out there, like, And you're wondering, dream into it, you know, dream. Imagine if there was no rules cause there aren't, and there was no one way to do it cause there isn't, what would you do? What would you build? What would you create? What's the dream you have? And this is a. An exercise, I do a six month program, called radical where we go through like, yeah, sort of that foundations for business, people who are new, but also, you know, I've had people in there who've been in business for 20 years, but no, they want to do it differently.
So one thing I get people to do is to dream into. So what's your big picture dream for your life? For your business and for the humans you work with, because I think sometimes as clinicians, we more easily can dream into what we want for the humans we work with. And that can be a really nice launch pad into, well, how would I do that through my business?
And then you can dream into business. Sometimes we're not so great at thinking about our needs and our wants and our dreams and putting them out. So I think sometimes starting with. What's the dream I have for the humans I want to work with can be a nice little in to figure out, well, then how would I make that happen through a business?
Is sitting in a private practice clinic working with clients one on one going to, going to bring that dream to reality. And if it's not, you know, like that student, you just gave that brief example. Obviously they had a dream of how they wanted those mums to feel so all. You know, to be mums, to feel supported.
And it wasn't going to happen by them just telling them what to do and making and asking, expecting them to go to do it. They could see that difference, that disconnect. So if you've got dreams and you want to dream into doing something differently, but you find it kind of a bit tricky to give yourself permission, start with your dream for the humans you want to support, the community you want to work with, the world you want to see.
And then. Then bring it into, well, what would that look like if I was to do, how would I do that through a business? And you might find you out of that can fall a dream for a business and doing business in a different way. Yeah, no. Today I had a consultation with a dietitian who wanted help thinking of their business name and it was really fun because I actually haven't done, I've, I've helped people in the branding process, kind of like the side, but I haven't had a consultation where that's all we did was figure out your business name.
And the biggest part of it was, I kind of like leaned on my, yoga training some, because I do that with my nutrition clients too. But I was like, just. Close your eyes for a minute and let's take all the logistics out of it, all of the rational thought out of it. And what do you feel like speaks to you?
What do you feel like your clients want to see from you? Because we were kind of going back and forth between like a punny, like fun name and like a more serious name. And I was like, those are, you know, when I showed visual examples too, because I'm obviously very visual. And I was like, when you see these, what do you think your client is going to feel?
And is that how you want them to feel? So I mean, even just in a brand name, there's just so many different directions you can go in. But also having that out of, even if I named my LLC or my business, this, if I changed my mind later, I can do that. And I can do a doing business as, or a DBA in us, like you can change your mind and that's okay.
But like you said earlier, just starting. And seeing what works, I know, I think it was, Jennifer the other day on a call, like talking about like just throwing and seeing if the spaghetti sticks on the wall, like just seeing what works. Because sometimes you can research something forever, but you won't know until you try.
Absolutely. And doing it while it works until it, until it doesn't. So like, yeah, you know, we can throw spaghetti on the wall till it sticks, till we find something that sticks or until we just get really annoyed at the mess. And then we're like, okay, well let's try a different way. You know, I think, as, as moms or as if anyone, you know, has been through that experience, you know, some, there's some things you do while they work.
And then when they don't, then you can find something different and find something new, you know, maybe like I know for me, like with some of my babies, yeah. You know, co slipped at different times because it worked and then it didn't anymore. And so then I figured it out. Whereas often we think, you know, well, how am I going to solve that later?
Like, well, how am I going to stop that? How am I going to fix it? Well, if you start that, then, then you've got to solve that later. But it's like. We, we rush ahead and who knows, maybe it works. And some people, you know, to use the co sleeping example, some people do that for their whole kiddo's childhood. So I think sometimes don't let, don't let the thought of, of, of the later, like what's going to happen later to stop you from getting started now in the way that works for now.
Do it now. Do it scrappy if you need to do it in a way you don't have to have the big system set up because when you have hundreds of, of, of clients, it's, you know, doing, doing, setting your own appointments is, isn't going to work. Yeah, it probably won't. And deal with it then. Start in a way that makes that, that is easeful for now, for this season of your life.
And then you can change it. But yeah, I really appreciate that. Yeah. That, that, that example that you shared of like, yeah, getting somebody just to connect to their body, to close their eyes, to dream into it. Cause I don't think we dream enough. We don't dream enough. We don't play enough. We don't have that allowing ourselves to put those things to the side, to put the constraints, the restrictions, the cultural values, the shoulds, all those things just to the side, we don't have to burn it down and just go, well, I'm just going to do it my way or, you know, whatever.
But like. we can just kind of pop it to the, we can hold it. We can hold it there and we can know it's there, but we don't have to let it get in the way of dreaming and playing. Until we need to, like, you know, until we, yeah, maybe there does come a point where we're like, okay, well now I've got to look at how I'm going to put this in place practically.
Okay. We'll bring that stuff back in. But we can, we don't let it, we don't have to let it get in the way, of that first bit dreaming and figuring out what we want to do. Cause inside that and particularly inside The wisdom in our bodies, like around how we feel about things, what feels like a yes in our body, like that's really powerful stuff and powerful information.
And again, as people who work with humans around their relationship and eating, we know, we know how powerful that is in that sphere. And. And we want, you know, as, as kind of like a bit, I suppose, left of center, it sounds, you know, your business, you are relating to your business, you're in a relationship with yourself in your business and with your business, and you want that to be one that's nourishing for you and nourishing for the humans who come into connection with your business.
If you're not, if you're in a relationship with your business that doesn't take care of you, that where you don't feel nourished, where you have a business where you don't Feel nourished and taken care of one. You're not going to feel great, but also how you show up in that business, how you show up for the humans that you want to work with is not going to be nourishing and create the environment that I'm sure you're setting out to do with your business anyway.
So sometimes we kind of think, Oh, but I've just got to get started. I've just got to do it this way. And I'll, I'll do that later, you know, once I've got this once I've got that, but. You know, when you are, you know, we, it's as trite as it is, we only have this moment. So in our businesses, you know, do what works for now, do what nourishes you for now, do what fills you up for now, do what, you know, brings your dream into the world for now.
And yeah, change it when you need to, but also I suppose don't hold off, on doing things the way you want to do them for some kind of later date until you get to X kind of revenue or X number of clients or those external markers. Almost like external permission slips to do what you want to do in business.
You can, you can make that choice. Yeah. No, I love that. So I'm curious, are there any other entrepreneurs in your family or is this like something new that you just knew you wanted to do? In a way, but you wouldn't necessarily call them entrepreneurs. So my dad's a farmer, so, you know, that is in some ways, and he's always just done his own businesses with his brothers and that, but not in the sense of.
Yeah, like, like, you know what we might say, but yes. They are. It's always something that I've really been interested in when we were at uni, my uni that I went to, we could choose electives, as part of our core structure and the ones I did were marketing and, well, the two I wanted to do either psychology or marketing.
I went with marketing and, business management because that really interested me. I always wanted to do it because I always had a dream to do business differently, like to do, to be a dietitian in a way that I didn't see modeled in care. Acute clinical care was not for me. I enjoyed some outpatient stuff.
I love primary prevention and public health at its true core, not what we see unfortunately now, the kind of bastardized version of it, which is why I'm not in there. But yeah, I, I always wanted to, I had this dream of having like a little private practice in a house and having, yeah, some clinic stuff, but also having classes and doing cooking.
I came to dietetics through my love of food. I always wanted to be a chef. And so I, I kind of knew I wanted to weave that in. So yeah. I've always wanted to do my own thing and I've always liked it. And just the possibilities that you can open up to yourself, through, through business and through entrepreneurship.
But not strictly, but yeah, there's definitely, it's probably more scrappy entrepreneurship in my family and in my kind of things of just like, well, there's no opportunity, so I'll just make it for myself or there's no job. So I'll just go do my own thing as opposed to kind of. Yeah. You know, which is entrepreneurship.
But yeah, that kind of example for sure. Yeah. No, I was just, I'm always curious, you know, when I talk to other entrepreneurs, like if there's any history there on the family side of, you know, them seeing their parents or other family members doing it. Cause I've mentioned before my parents own their own business.
My dad actually owns multiple businesses and then my aunts and uncles all have their own businesses. So I just kind of grew up. Seeing that. And it's funny because you would think , well, why didn't you just go that path to begin with?
But I just kind of felt like I was doing something different because I didn't do that because I went and like, went to university and, you know, got a job and like moved away from home was the different thing to do. And then it still ended up opening my own business and being an entrepreneur anyways.
Yeah, I think those seeds get planted, right, to do things a bit differently, or there's just that you can, even if you're not consciously going, Oh, I noticed that. My dad can kind of set his own timetable with his work or whatever, like that can kind of come through. And then I suppose for some people it's like the, the rebellion against that, right?
Like, so yeah, it's interesting to see what kind of either pushes us or pulls us in certain directions. And yeah, those seeds that get planted that we don't always notice. And often though too, like the values, I suppose, like there's those, the values that. I put that encourage somebody or that kind of make somebody more predisposed to, to go into those are around us and we're swimming in them, even if we're not really conscious of them.
So if there were, you know, two to three takeaways you'd want people to take from this episode, what would they be?
Well, I would say to people, firstly, it's not a you problem. If you're having a problem, it's probably not a you problem. If there's a rub point or a stick point, yeah, get, get curious, get, you know, pop on your critical, your scientific critical analysis hat, and just, you know, look for that opportunity to disconnect the problem or the thing, the rub point from, from you as a human and you as an individual and look for the, look for the, Opportunity then, second point, to do things a way that works for you.
So while often when things don't go well, it's not necessarily an individual you problem. There can be other things. When we're creating our businesses and, and wanting them to work for us, find ways that work for you. Play, experiment, dream, and do things differently. There's this, and you know, there's as many ways to be a dietitian in business as there are dietitians in business.
So. Use that as a little affirmation, repeat it to yourself often. And, and, you know, then from that, let fall out the question, how do I want to do it? What works for me? What dream do I have for the world, for my business and for my life? And go out there and get after it. No, those are great takeaways. So everyone listen and take heed.
And I give the support you need, sorry, cut you off there, you know, get the support you need. Doesn't necessarily have to be me like a coach. I'm not saying that to try and tell you that, but like, we're not meant to do this alone. Get community, find people, find your people, your life values, people, you know, and get the support so that you don't not out there feeling like you're taking crazy pills.
If you know the movies, you lender. That you actually can be grounded in your values, but grounded, you know, just having that is so powerful. So do things differently and surround yourself with people who get it and people who hype you up and people who support you and people who remind you who you are.
Because that's so important in business. Yes. And that is why I love doing this podcast. Cause I get to talk to people like you and I have so many friends now in Australia. It's so funny how I don't know. That's just my favorite part of doing all this and being virtual is that I get to talk to so many different people from literally anywhere.
Absolutely. Well, you'll have to come to visit. Yeah, I always found as a dietitian, like, you know, I always called myself a bit of a weirdo dietitian, right? I was a little bit different than, than the dietitians around me. And I think the power of social media, if we want to use it in that way, is that we can connect to all the other weirdo dietitians all around the world.
There might only be one weirdo dietitian in your, your You know, your region, but there's many of us out here, right. And with the power to actually connect, with other weirdo dietitians, around the world. And to remember to remind ourselves that when we aren't alone, you know, that there are other people out here thinking differently, doing things differently, taking chances, dreaming, playing, and, um.
Bringing into reality the world that we want to be part of. So find your people, Yand, whether they be in Australia or all over the world. And yeah, if you need somewhere to start, I would invite people, connect, like, and not from a, come slide into my GMs and work with me. But like, literally, I love.
I love talking about this, Courtney will know like that's, we just started chatting in our DMs and I just like to connect to people about this kind of stuff and, and for myself to know I'm not alone, but also to, to, yeah, give people that little seed, plant that seed as well. Yes. And she's being serious.
So message her because I have never felt like you were selling to me or pressuring or anything. You've always just, you know, built that relationship through conversation. I've appreciated it. I love humans. I love connected. It's one of the reasons I became a dietitian. I really do. And having these conversations, it lights me up for sure.
Yeah. So where can they find you? Oh, so I hang out on Instagram. If you like to hang out on Instagram at dietitian values, and I don't need to spell that to this audience. But also I have a podcast dietitian values podcast. If you like to lurk a little and get a bit of a feel for somebody. Disclaimer. I do sometimes swear on there, and also have a website, dietitianvalues.
com. You can, you can send me a good old email if that's more your style or if you're not on socials. Well, I appreciate your time and I love chatting with you. Thanks so much for having me and for everyone who listened along in our conversation. Thanks for being here. Yeah. Thank you.