Welcome to Dietitian Boss. My name is Libby Rothschild. I'm the CEO and founder of the Dietitian Boss Method. Our company is here to help you get started in private practice, even before you think you're ready. I've created a proprietary process to help you increase visibility, create organic content.
Enroll clients into an offer and learn sales skills that don't even feel salesy. Listen every week to your colleagues as they're being interviewed and we chat about their progress and success from when they got it started from zero to all the way to creating million dollar businesses and beyond.
Hello and welcome. Today I'm here with Coach Heather. She's a coach here at Dietitian Boss. She supports the Dietitian Boss method and helps our clients. And today she's gonna share a little bit about her experience with private practice, what she regrets and what she appreciates about the journey. With an emphasis on private practice being a journey, and we recorded another episode to share a little bit more about Heather and her background.
So make sure to check that out so that you can get the full picture of her amazing dynamic background and how she's living her life today with a lot of balance that aligns with the Dietitian boss method values. So welcome to today's episode, Heather. Thank you. So happy to have you here and be able to chat.
It's very fun. So will you share, you know, a couple sentences of background for those that didn't listen to past episodes together about who you are, and then we can dive right into your experience with private practice? Absolutely. So thanks for having me here. Thanks for listening to this podcast as well.
And I am Dr. Heather Paulson. I am a board certified naturopathic oncologist. I'm currently retired and living in Peru, and I'm loving living in South America. The lifestyle here is really beautiful and. I was in private practice for 15 years supporting people with a cancer diagnosis with naturopathic oncology.
I did a hospital-based residency, so understand struggles of clinicals and what Dietitians go through in that hospital-based environment or clinical-based environment. And now, living in Peru, running, I opened a retreat center here to offer another way of seeing life, another lens of living compared to the experience I had in private practice, which was a pretty fast-paced, high volume, entrepreneurial, crazy existence, that really led to burnout.
And I see so many of my friends and colleagues go through this cycle of burnout. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit more about what that burnout, because firstly I think we need to define private practice and then burnout, if that's okay. Can you define like what private practice means to you or your experience and then we can talk about a couple different definitions as well.
Yeah, so my private practice experience, I had a brick and mortar clinic in Arizona where I saw patients in person, ran an IV room, had other providers working for me, including psychotherapy, and acupuncture and massage. , and so I really was approaching people holistically in that sense, and so that's what private practice looked like.
For me. It was mostly one-on-one, and towards the end I started offering digital programs and group coaching to support people who didn't have the budget to work with me one-on-one was really why I went in that direction. And so in private practice also looked like being the digital marketer for my business, it looked like being an author of a book.
It looked like writing a ton of blogs. I mean, there was the content creator, the photographer, the, I don't know, the everything. Thank you for sharing that. And I think the traditional private practice means many things. But the traditional connotation is, or denotation would be that it's like working in a brick and mortar, which is fine, but there's also other definitions such as digital products and offering courses and speaking and all of that.
So I just want to say that private practice, I believe, is accessible for everybody. And I think that it's something, even if you don't do full-time and you decide you wanna have a side business or side consulting as a private practitioner, Definitely accessible, and I appreciate that you have that background in all types of different areas.
From book to employing other professionals to work in your private practice, to then being location independent. So you've got a really diverse background in private practice to be able to add that experience and share that with our clientele and our business, which we're lucky to have you because that helps us diversify.
Our backgrounds, right? And our perspective on what private practice means and how we can be honest to our clients about the journey. Cuz it is the journey, right? It's not just a, a quick overnight type of thing. I love that you're talking about wearing a lot of hats too. Thanks for sharing that. So, okay, we've defined, or we've talked about private practice and how we can mean many different things.
The next thing we were gonna discuss, I can't remember, I had said two things, but it was, so you were sharing a little bit about your private practice and then the next thing I guess I would ask is, what do you look back at and say or now like, wow. that went really well, or your favorite part, or something that was smooth, that you're like really, you know, one of your strengths in the process.
And then what was something that you're like, oops, that didn't go well. And I think we all have these experiences, so it's good to reflect for everybody to think about what went well and what didn't went well. I think it'd be really cool if you would share a little bit about that with us. Yeah. Well, one of the things that I can say in retrospect went well is that I was doing a good job of generating revenue and really having what would be defined as a successful business.
I had multiple streams of revenue. I had multiple providers. I had a consistent income that I could hire employees based on that income and not be worried about paying them. In the moment, I will say I felt very unsuccessful. I felt like I wasn't making enough money. I felt like I wasn't doing enough. I felt like such a failure.
So it's hard sometimes to see your successes in the moment, but in retrospect, especially seeing some of the revenue goals that. , we have US benchmarks here in Dietitian Box. I was like, oh. I was like hitting those revenue goals from month one, you know, like, and I felt like a total failure. So I can really resonate with our clients when they're in that, that mindset of like, it's not working.
And as a coach you're like, this is totally working. So that's one of the successes I feel happened early on and that I'm proud of even now. Like Oh wow. Because I have to remind myself now that I. New retreat space to that. Sometimes I feel like I don't know what I'm doing with business, which is a total false statement that my brain is made up.
So I just have to remind myself of that all the time. Like, you know what you're doing. This business is already profitable and it's only been open for a couple of months, which is uncommon and opening a business. Right. I can relate. If you are listening and you feel like maybe you're not doing good enough, I can always relate to our clients in that.
Yeah. And when we coach together and when you coach our clients, they feel that, you know, and you understanding being in their shoes and employing that level of empathy and being able to share your experiences makes the experience more meaningful when you're coaching them. So that's really valued. And I think feeling like a failure at some part of the journey is par for the course.
Right. I think that's something that we all experience and. Through that is what's more important because those situations of feeling that level of failure are reoccurring in different milestones. As we continue to progress in the business, whether we're hiring our first staff member or our 12th, there's always gonna be hiccups along the way.
And I love that you mentioned, you know, being profitable fast, and that's not always ex. Expected. And those are, you know, that's like the kind of nonlinear journey where everybody has a different life circumstances and setting and personality and skillsets and pacing. So there's a lot of factors that can impact somebody's journey.
So I think it's great hearing you share. Yours. So you're saying the good thing, you look back and you're like, wow. Like I was hard on myself and I was making money, you know, I was making revenue. I hit markers like that makes you feel great. Which is awesome because that is important. , we are in business to make money, so that's good.
What would you say you look back on, unless if you have more, I'm sure you have a ton of great things, but if you were to add to like if you even had one more thing where you look back and you're really glad or happy with it, if you have anything, can you add that? Or if not, can you share a couple things that you.
One of the things that I loved about my practice was my team, and that's one of the things I love about working with a Dietitian boss too, is that team is so important to me. And having that team behind the scenes in front of the scenes was just really fulfilling for me. And they weren't just team members, they were my friends and even some of my.
Supporters and cheerleaders and vice versa. For I was for them. And of course I had successes with my patients in overcoming cancers that they were told they would never live past six months and we would be working together for many years and they would have tumor regression. So like those are amazing wins.
I mean, that's why I kept going right. Seeing people get better and having people live a life that they were told they weren't gonna be able to live was amazing. That's an amazing, incredible piece of work. . Yeah, that's really incredible. So that's a purpose-based, fulfilling mission-based company, and that's exactly what we show our clients.
How to do here too, which is part of the reason that motivates me is that helping Dietitians, healthcare practitioners is so rewarding because we we're really helping people with their unique health outcomes and that's a really satisfying thing. So thank you for sharing that. And that must have been really motivating on hard days, right?
No matter what happened, you know, cuz hiccups happen in business. Do you think that kind of provided you a North Star to be inspired to support the transformations through a seriously challenging emotional time in people's? Yes, I definitely had a very strong North Star, a big why, and I talked about that a little bit on our last episode, so if you didn't hear it, go back and listen to that.
But having that strong North Star keeps me motivated to keep going forward. I mean, there are days that patients aren't doing well in advanced cancer and in working in that environment, it's normal to have patients that. And those were really hard days cuz they're family to me. I love them, I love my patients, and I got to know them on a really deep level.
And so there were hard days, but I knew the impact that I was making and why I was in that field. That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that and being able to, again, role model that for our clients. I think that's special. So let's move on or let's move to, I don't wanna say move on. Let's move to a topic about things that you regret or that you look back and you almost like face calm.
We all have these moments and if you can't think of any, would encourage you listening to start thinking, because we all have them. So what would be a couple of your. I have a lot of big regrets, but I had to reframe my regrets and failures as learning experiences because that's what they are in business, right?
Absolutely. They help us. Turn towards what we're really meant to do and also give us feedback on what's working and what's not working. But my biggest regret, and I say this with my full heart, my biggest regrets are solved by the Dietitian Boss method, which is why I can really get behind the coaching gear at Dietitian Boss.
I need some of this coaching from my heart and really say, no, guys, like, listen, , listen to the advice here. My biggest. Is that I launched a program. I had done all of this training in digital marketing. I had a coach and my coach was coaching me on launching this program and I knew my market. I knew my ideal client cuz they were in my practice all the time, but I missed.
Some pieces of market research where I didn't deliver the program that people wanted. I delivered a program that I thought they needed. And what we think people need and what they want often don't align. And they do need what we think they need based on our level of expertise, but they're not gonna pay for it unless you give 'em what they want.
So my challenge was that I. Built out a membership site, like a fresh membership site, not teachable platform. Yeah. Like we had built out a website, I had spent Facebook, I had spent like over $5,000 on running Facebook ads, plus hiring the people to run the ads, plus the graphic designers plus this, blah blah la la.
So all in all, I spent almost $20,000 investing into a program that I launched, and the only people who bought it were six of my current patients. Yeah. And that didn't pay for anything. I underpriced it. It was a year long program. Who makes a year long program? I don't know. , and so it wasn't sustainable, so I had either refunded the six people that bought it or I had to roll their investment over into my private practice and just use it for one-on-one consultations in the IV therapies.
Luckily, I knew those six people intimately, and so they were really cool when the program didn't work out. There was no customer service problems there, and in the midst of all of that, I also got banned. And had to hire a lawyer to reopen my Facebook page because of the way that Facebook does and does not allow you to talk about cancer.
And I thought I hired a company that knew how to work around these rules and they got me banned. So I fought Facebook and got my page reopened. So there was just like so many left in that process. I lost a lot of money. I was afraid I was gonna have to close my. Because this was also right when I opened my brick and mortar practice.
It was within six months of opening that practice. So the regrets, and that was the investment I made up front. I would've totally done a beta test and now I only beta test. I only make thing products that I'm getting paid to make and I'm making them while people are paying me to be in a group or you know, to be supported by this new product.
So I will never, ever again build something. Before people show that they're interested. And one of my coaches said, you gotta build the plane while you're flying it. Like that's the only way to run a business. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. And that's a lesson really hard for our clients to learn, cuz in the Dietitian Boss training and in the method we frame out that you definitely don't wanna build a comprehensive program until you've ran through clients as a beta to identify how you can adjust the program to fit their needs.
Because no matter how much we think we know, we don. Until we observe, talk to people and get feedback. And without that data we're making assumptions. And the more we make assumptions, the less likely that our assumptions will be validated. So this is a really common thing that we see in here and I appreciate you sharing that.
And it's also hard with scaling cuz you're like, well, I wanna create this program that makes sense. and it can help people. But then if you're missing one piece, right, it can cause a lot of friction. And that friction is something that's learning less, but it's still frustrating. So I appreciate you sharing that, and I can't tell you how many times I hear people coming up with these robust programs that they've ran nobody through, and that's definitely.
Doing some research first I would suggest is a better approach for resource management, so thanks for sharing that. Appreciate your honesty. Yeah, I just wanted you guys to know one of my things that I wanted to come out of that was that I wanted to prevent this from happening with other business owners in this wellness and health.
Space and heart-based entrepreneurs, you know, and who really wanna make a difference in the world. And so I started teaching some of these hard lessons that I learned to my naturopathic medical students when I was in teaching at the school. And I have them do social media assignments to kind of learn the hard lessons that I had to buy lawyers to learn.
And I think that's so important about the Dietitian Boss method is. Yeah, we test things. We encourage you to test things first, that you're getting paid to test things and that the social media marketing that's done through Dietitian Boss is not the kind of marketing that's gonna get you banned, and it's just so important to me, and I just wanted to save people the $20,000 that I lost.
If I can save it for you, it makes sense for. And I appreciate that, and what I'm hearing is that like working with us helps you align with your values of trying to show practitioners and heart-based practitioners how they can like help people with less headaches. How they can basically become an entrepreneur or achieve entrepreneurship to some level in a more seamless way by seeing testing as part of the process.
and really like owning that piece of the puzzle. Like you said, get paid for testing. I think that's a great way to put it. So I appreciate that and I think that's a great way to say like, this is how I'm showing and helping people like you did it with your medical students that you were teaching and now you're able to help us Dietitians.
We appreciate that cuz it takes a aim to be able to support an entire, like an industry in the industry of dietetics. So few of us are in private practice. Less than 8% of us own a business. Less than 10% of us earn a hundred thousand dollars or more a year. Despite us wanting to and talk about these.
Openly and to have support is important, so I appreciate you sharing that. Okay. Any other final thoughts or words that we wanna wrap up with today? We could talk about similar topics for a long time and maybe we'll do some future episodes, but anything on this particular episode that would be helpful to wrap up with?
I think there's a great place to wrap. I just want anyone listening to know that despite these regrets, despite these struggles, serving people, that it's in your heart to serve is so fulfilling. And I don't think I would ever be able to go back to living a life where I was working in a job that didn't fulfill me from a soul level, from a heart level.
So if you. Are in that space right now where your job is sucking you dry a little bit. Just know that there's other ways available and we're here to support you through that. And you can learn from my life mistakes. Yeah. And you can follow a method that helps you do this in a, in a really low risk way, cuz it feels really risky to put yourself out there.
Yeah. But this is a very low risk way to explore these. Appreciate that. And as aspiring entrepreneurs, definitely decreasing the risk is good to help us, you know, get our feet wet. So appreciate you sharing that. One of the principles of the Dietitian boss method is purpose. So I think this episode did a great job of talking about that and how purpose can guide us as our North star to accepting that sometimes are gonna be challenging and how to reframe it and then approach testing as an opportunity to get paid and learn.
So those were my kind of. From today. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure as always, and I look forward to recording more episodes with you in the future. So thank you. We are so excited to offer you support in our various programs. If you identify as a beginner and you're looking to lay down the foundations, our society program might.
Great sit for you. I encourage you to go to Dietitianboss.com under group coaching and apply for our experience, our transformative experience based off of my proprietary system called the Dietitian Boss Method. Additionally, we offer a higher level program called Executive to help you hire and manages.
Staff as you expand and scale your program, whether you're offering a membership course, group programming, private coaching, or a combination of various different offerings, we're here to help you on your journey with developing processes and implementing the operational foundation that you need. to reach your goals.
A lot of our clients wanna work 20 hours or less a week, and we're so proud to say that we've helped them achieve that goal. And you'll hear their stories on this podcast. Make sure to stay tuned and apply if you're looking for support to get there faster and meet some colleagues along the way who share your same growth mindset.
