Hello and welcome to the Dietitian Boss Podcast. I'm coach Heather with team Dietitian Boss and today I am joined by one of our dietitian bosses Mariana Serback and she is going to share with us how she got into her area of her niche, how her story wound her up in dietitian boss and some of the things that she's been learning along the way, that might help some of you guys who are just getting started or thinking about getting started.
So welcome Mariana , thanks for coming. Hi, Heather, thank you so much for having me today. So before we get started, can you just share where people can find you? Yes, absolutely. So I am on Instagram and on Facebook, both at eat.guilt.free with periods between each word, awesome, thank you so much for sharing that.
And I hope that you get connected to some other Dietitian Boss listeners here. So can you share a little bit about how you got to your niche and share a little bit about what your niche is. Obviously your handle, makes it kind of clear at equal free, but can you share the magic behind the handle? Yeah, absolutely.
So growing up, I was a chronic dieter started my first diet in the fifth grade and over time that morphed into disordered eating and then an eating disorder. So through my own treat and experience, I wanted to be the help that I needed when I was younger. So I help people improve the relationship with food and eat guilt free while helping them fix their biggest problems which are binging emotional eating that I think is such a common experience for people to start dieting at a young age in those formative years, whether that's fifth grade or middle school or high school, I know on the cheer squad that was a common topic of conversation was diets and what we should be eating and those poor fliers that had to be like super skinny to literally stay on the top is was a real issue.
So I think so many people have had these experiences at such a young age. Oh, for sure a lot of it I think starts with like mom dieting or family members dieting and I think like my generation grew up with like slim fast, low fat, so it was all over everywhere. Yeah. And exercise video. Yeah, I mean, so diet culture is something that you are confronting in some ways.
Talk to us a little bit about your approach to talking about diet culture and what that means to your ideal client. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So diet culture is kind of the culture we live in where thin is glorified and fat is demonized. So I put this in my content and work with my clients by challenging their thoughts around it.
So around their body, thinking of fat body is bad is an opinion and challenging where those thoughts and feelings came from and I finding a lot with my clients that extend from family members, generational trauma and the media. So, trying to debunk what they currently think while offering them some evidence based tools like people who feel happier in their body, have a better life quality and have a better relationship with food despite their size. And is this what motivated you to get into dietetic or was there something else that got you into being a dietician and the food freedom, body positive, intuitive eating space opened up for you later.
So my family owned a restaurant growing up and dieting so young that food was all I knew, I never wanted to be like a rock star policeman or fighter fighter. I've always wanted to be a dietitian and I wanted to be a dietitian to find the secret to weight loss because I was like, wow, none of these diets have worked.
I've been dieting for years and then my university offered treatment for me for my eating disorder which introduced me to intuitive eating and completely changed the game for me, that sounds really, really powerful. Is this what motivated you to go into private practice?
Because I know that in your clinical job you're not not necessarily addressing intuitive eating. So what are you doing in your clinical job? And how did that open up some doors for you to head into private practice? So I currently work at a psychiatric hospital. So it's in patients. Like it's a lot of just monitoring weights and medications and dealing with a lot of weight gain.
It is not really hitting my niche of really promoting food freedom these people. The priority for them is to become stable, mentally stable. So as much as I'm grateful for the job, it's not fulfilling or kind of filling that hole of my purpose. So that's what motivated me to find Dietitian Boss and start my private practice.
I love that you mentioned your purpose because that's something that we talk about and Dietitian Bosses finding your why finding that north star. And so before you came to Dietitian Boss, you already have your purpose well defined or is that something that got more to find as you started working through the modules and showing up for coaching calls?
So I knew I wanted to go into private practice where in that realm I was very confused. My old handle was pretty balanced. Are the not a straight message? Didn't really know. So through the modules and the coaching program, I was able to narrow down my niche to something very specific and really try to find a problem and provide a solution to help my ideal client?
Amazing. And so are those some of the changes that started with Dietitian Boss? Are there other things that you started changing? So you mentioned having a clearer message and really narrowing down who you're talking to, you shifted your handle? What kind of other things have you shifted since joining the Dietitian Boss.
I think the biggest thing I've took away from Dietitian Boss will show your face, I was always so embarrassed to go on camera like oh my gosh, people are going to judge me like and that has been such a game changer in my confidence, as a practitioner, in my confidence overall and in my content that's so important and we know that people connect with people and that's a common fear to be like oh my gosh, I have to be on this video, I have to show my face how did you support yourself through that fear and just do it anyways, I think what was really important was having a strong support system.
So the community aspect of Dietitian Boss, having your peers do the same thing and watching them succeed was an incentive to do it and keep going? So I really think, you know, you have the reinforcement with the modules and the coaching but also having this group of people that are in the same shoes as you is really helpful.
Yeah, your group really congealed if you they really clicked really well, this mastermind group but we see this across all of our groups in Dietitian Boss because it's one of our core values to support community and cheer each other on. So it's so important that we have that kind of support, what do you think it helps you show your face? Is there anything else or any other breakthroughs that it helped you do. So I think starting any business can be really overwhelming and stressful.
So I think having people that are going through the same thing as you and supporting each other and lifting each other up is really, really helpful with the community aspect. I'm in a little group chat with a couple of our appears in their group and we text each other almost daily if we have quick questions or are struggling and we have each other's back and that has been so rewarding and heartwarming to see, awesome.
Yeah, it's really important, especially when you're starting out and have a lot of questions or a lot of doubts popping up. Are there some mindset shifts that you've had to make to have a private practice? Oh yes, a lot. You are the mindset, queen heather.
So thank you for being a part of Dietitian Boss, but I think it can be really discouraging at times and there's always the comparison factor like, oh, there's all these people that are more successful and me and I think having a strong support system helps you check in with your reality and be like, you know, you are where you are now and we're here to support you and help you move forward.
So you are extraordinary with the mindset and affirmations and helping support Dietitian Bosses take the next step and be consistent. So I think, yeah, mindset is huge and there are times where there are slower months and you just have to have that continued support to keep going. Yeah, absolutely, mindset is so huge, especially when you're getting started or have you been in business for years and years and years, new mindset issues pop up, we know that to be true here at team Dietitian Boss and really think it's important to support you through that.
So what have been some of the best parts of starting your own practice? I think seeing it evolve. So I think coming from somewhere that was so broad and then getting to somewhere really specific and getting clients and having them see the change has just been incredible to see and be a part of awesome and how have things evolved, has your content evolved?
What about your messaging has evolved in this process. So I think starting out, I was just really general with like food pictures when I was, when I first made my new trick handle and then really identifying a problem and speaking directly to my ideal client being specific and how I can help them hitting their pain points has been huge and I had no idea what even pain points were before the Dietitian Boss Program, so really being taught how to become a social media master has been really helpful and where to get that information has been really helpful for sure yeah and not just social media master which you are getting a degree in practically but also just communication, right? Like you're learning what people need and what they want and how to speak to that.
So that kind of has opened up for you in the way of talking more about because you've been on a journey in your niche in process. So it's gone from food freedom and kind of a balanced body image kind of page two now focusing on binge eating and emotional eating. How did you get to that place in the winding road kind of way?
So it's been a lot of market research and also has been a lot of trial and error. So I think in the social media world there are so many coaches now and you have to find what makes you stand out and making sure that you're identifying the biggest problem to get people to pay so through trial and error and talking to people and getting information has been really helpful and essential to that process. That's so important to know where to talk to people, how to talk to people, what kind of questions to ask, how to sift through the information that they're providing and then allowing that to evolve what we're saying and how we're saying it right, and as high achievers, which most dietitians are high achievers, maybe they identify with the word perfectionists, this can be a huge challenge.
I mean you've really wrote these waves of information and shifting your content based on feedback. How did you bust through some of those barriers of like, but this isn't perfect yet, or I'm failing because people don't want to hear about this aspect of food freedom, and now I have talked about this aspect of food freedom.
So I think Dietitian Boss really encourages you to be consistent over perfection and being okay where you're at showing up for your ideal client and being okay for not with not being perfect. I've posted in my stories in a bathroom with my hair in a towel and I've had someone reach out to me like, hey, I love how you are.
So I think people connect with real genuine people and I think Dietitian Boss kind of promotes being yourself, showing your personality while hitting those key messages. Yeah, none of us are perfect, right? Like, the reality of being human is that we're not perfected yet.
We all have our own level of messiness and you're right. People connect with us as real people which is really consistent throughout what you've been sharing in terms of showing your face and shifting your content and showing up as your real self bath towel and all. So that is one of the things that I know I really love about your content, Mariana and we talk about in team Dietitian Boss in our meetings how much we love how vulnerable you are in your content, how real life you are in your content as well. I definitely think Dietitian Boss helped give me the confidence to do that because I was almost afraid to share my story and my struggles.
But with the continued support, it really helped my confidence. Mm hmm. And so you're working a full time job, right? How have you balanced working a full time job, having a life to live and implementing the Dietitian Boss method changes to start a private practice.
So, so I will say right off the bat, there will never be a perfect time. And I think the way Dietitian Boss is kind of made out is that you can do things on your own time. They have the modules, they have the cause they have the support with the Facebook group and the 1 to 1. So you can go through the modules at your own case and really time packing.
So setting aside time every week to do things and really prioritizing it like this is an investment for me in my future. So really prioritizing it because I don't want to be in clinical forever. It's so important and it's so great that you're able to balance both. And that is really another core value of Dietitian Bosses that you can do this on the side while you're still working your clinical job if that's what you need for income.
And it's still doable. You don't have to quit right away. But many of our Dietitian Bosses get to a point where they get to quit their job and do this as a full time job. So if there is some big breakthroughs or some things that we could celebrate with you through the Dietitian Method and process what would you want us to celebrate with you?
I think the biggest thing withering down my niche, I think I started so broad and really have this flat ideal client that not all of my posts are catered to is really helpful because I think I can seems so overwhelming to where do I start, what do I focus on? And the Dietitian Boss method has really taught me step by step to find the biggest problems and pain points to really narrow down my niche.
So I think going from pretty balanced RD to eat guilt free was a beautiful transition and I'm so excited for it. It's been so wonderful to be observing your transition and to those of you who are listening and taking pictures of your food plates and that's where you're so starting to post, we recommend that to be where you start to post and then show your face every once in a while.
So Mariana started at the most common start point, most dietitians start sharing their grocery store baskets, their plates what they're cooking and that is a great place to get started. But now if you check out Mariana's content and see how specific she is, she is really talking to her ideal client to a specific person and I think that it's really empowering to watch you make that transition.
It's empowering for everybody who's listening because anybody can do this with the right steps in place and to see the kinds of people that you are supporting and helping through. Well Mariana, thank you so much for sharing about your journey and how you've been guided with Dietitian Boss and where you're at now and working full time and with helping people find peace in their body and helping them stop the binging and helping them release emotional eating.
Thank you so much for the work that you're putting out into the world. It's so, so important just before we close, where can people find you again at guilt free dot guilt dot free to both on Facebook and on Instagram and heather. Thank you so much. I wouldn't be here without Dietitian Boss.
It's so great to have you and if you're a Dietitian and you are considering starting a side hustle, you want to go into private practice, you're frustrated with your clinical job and you're looking for a way to get started. We are here for you. We want to support you in finding that ideal client like Mariana has and help you make your dreams come true to live the life that you are going to love.
So thank you so much for joining us. We hope this was inspiring for you today and we'll catch you on the next episode.
