[00:00:00] Hey there, Dietitian bosses. This is Coach Heather from Team Dietitian Boss, and today I am joined by one of our very special members of the Dietitian Boss Academy. Kristin Keenan, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Where can we find you?
What kind of niche are you in? Tell us a little bit about you. Awesome. So I've been a Dietitian for about five years and my first job out of internship was not actually really nutrition related. I have my master's of public health, and so I'm using that. At my job right now with some oncology emphasis, but I've always had a [00:01:00] passion for pregnancy, postpartum, and then recently more fertility related information and just how much that can change people's outcomes.
So that's who I work with now. So my handle on Instagram is nourish fertility, and I share all kinds of fertility information there. Amazing. And we see that a lot in Dietitian Boss, that people start in one place, right? And then they figure out, oh, I really have a passion about this particular audience.
And then they. Move in that direction. So we see this pretty frequently shifting lanes, if you will, or maybe the lane that you have your job in isn't your main passion, but it's a good job and it pays, helps pay the bills and things. But then you can focus your private practice. And what you're truly, truly passionate about.
[00:02:00] How was that process for you in identifying fertility as a population that you wanted to work with? Yeah, so I knew I wanted to work in the prenatal space, and the more I looked into it fertility just became something that I didn't learn as much about in school, and I found out how much of an impact it can have.
But I was also really interested in pregnancy and postpartum. But I didn't know which of the three I knew I wanted to narrow down to a very specific Isha as y'all recommend we do, but I didn't know which of the three. So I started out general, started with my first course, just doing general nutrition around macronutrients and energy and.
Used my current network of friends and family and then used that time to narrow down between the three. And I found that my passion was with fertility, [00:03:00] nutrition, and I loved that niche. Not only for the content or like how to work with people, but also that I could continue working with people. Even once they get pregnant or postpartum.
So I could carry them through that whole journey and really like advocate for them and keep that relationship with them. So that's how I. Awesome. Yeah, that's a great entry point, right? If you're interested in prenatal, postnatal, postpartum support, then fertility is the pre step to all of those things, right?
You're talking to people who are interested in getting pregnant, and then they do fall pregnant. Then you can continue that support. So that's a great way to look at the customer journey. As we call it, you know, where is, where is somebody coming into contact with you, with and with your business? So that's a great [00:04:00] way to look at things.
With fertility and moving into your niche, was there any challenges that you bumped up against? Like, were you nervous about picking one topic between the three? How did, how did that process go for you? Yes. So I'm a perfectionist for sure. So I was really scared to make that choice and wasn't sure if it was right or if I was gonna change my mind.
But through y'all's advice, I knew that picking a specific niche was the best choice. And so I did research, did our market research like y'all show us how to do and Came to, I mean, doing lots of market research to find out which of those niches that I was interested in doing. Sorry, I kind of [00:05:00] forgot.
Got off track. What is, what was the question again? That's ok. No worries. The question was, how was that process of like narrowing it down to that one thing? Because sometimes there can be mindset blocks that pop up and like that you said you're a perfectionist and that can stop us from taking action and just picking one thing.
So how did you work through that piece? Okay, so I just had to take the leap for sure. You just have to put yourself out there. So I just decided one day that I was going to do it. I made my separate Instagram account. I promoted it on my personal Instagram account, what I was doing. And then through that, things got a lot easier.
And I know it's like that for a lot of Dietitian bosses. My messaging became Gary's streamlined. I. I knew who I was speaking to and it really helped me be able to [00:06:00] help people further because I wasn't trying to spread myself in a million different directions and I had really clear focus and was able to provide education on social media that helped people with that exact.
Thing that they were looking for. And I also found that new followers I was getting were definitely related to my niche and people were higher engaged. Or engaging in higher amounts from the people I was getting followers from. So I wasn't getting as many followers, but of the ones that I was getting, I was able to engage with them and start conversations with them and they were interested and like replied back.
So that was really great. That's awesome. And that really highlights an important piece where people can tend to, when they're building their business on social media, they can tend to focus on the numbers. Right. [00:07:00] And we always encourage to take a step back from just the number of followers and look at the quality of followers that you're getting, and are they your ideal client and are they talking with you and are they liking and commenting on your posts or DMing you or engaging in so many different ways, which makes a more high quality follower than just.
Getting something to go viral and getting a bunch of followers that maybe don't necessarily need your help or resonate with your content. Yeah, so perfect illustration of that. One of the things you, we talked about before we started recording the podcast is mindset, and I love seeing your mindset reframes in the Facebook group.
We're so grateful that you share those. I know that they help other people in the group as well. Where [00:08:00] did you think your mindset was prior to joining the Dietitian Boss Academy? I definitely had doubts that I could do it, be my own boss, be an entrepreneur. And it's really funny, I took an entrepreneurship class in high school and was like, oh no, that is not for me.
And then, yeah, so then Just with where I am now in my career and what I want to do and wanting to get back more into nutrition, I was like, okay, well, virtual is a lot different than a brick and mortar and I, I have more stuff under my belt. I felt more confident, like especially going through the internship, you feel getting through that.
If you feel like you can get through that, then you feel like you can get through anything. So that definitely boosted my confidence. And it really just helped [00:09:00] me know that I could do anything. And then taking that into business I was really scared still, but I knew that if I put my mind to it that I could do it.
And. Something that was interesting to me about mindset is that it wasn't just like, okay, I'm going to do this and then I'm good. It's, it's a continuation of constantly reassessing your mindset and pulling it back to a growth mindset and how you helped me with that so much through our Facebook community and just each week.
Saying that I was doing a great job and to continue showing up day in and day out. That was one of the biggest things is no matter what showing up, And that will provide results. Cuz I had a lot of fear about success, but you showed me that if I showed up no matter what, I will see success. And that helped me believe that I will be successful [00:10:00] no matter what.
It's just a matter of when, not if. And success of course, looks different each stage of business. But doing that and. Also journaling, like affirmation prompts really helped me. Like I took the affirmations from the academy membership and wrote them down on a piece of paper and would write one down every single day in my journal.
And it really helped me start believing them and started believing that I could do this, that I was going to be successful, and that as long as I showed up it would happen. So that really helped. Yeah, there's some amazing resources. I mean, we start off in the academy with mindset for a reason, cuz we know that that's a common hurdle that all of us have to overcome in order to be brave enough or have enough courage to start a business or continue to show up on our business [00:11:00] when things are working, when things aren't working.
You know, there's always new things to navigate when it comes to. What shows up for us in our businesses. I read a quote once that said that. I don't remember who said it, so I apologize for not being able to state the name of the person who said it, but they said that running a business is the most intense spiritual practice that you could ever enter cuz it shows.
So much of yourself, so many different pieces of who you are and what bumps up against your own information of where you block yourself or where your perfectionism pops up or where self-worth might. Popup as well, or the imposter syndrome. We talk about a lot in Dietitian Boss, like, who am I to be serving these people or talking about this?
So thank you so much for sharing that idea of taking those [00:12:00] affirmation prompts and writing about them in your journal. You really went deep before joining Dietitian Boss. Were you already interested in mindset? Were you reading books about mindset and neurophysiology? Were you exploring affirmations prior to Dietitian Boss?
Not as much. I actually started going to a counselor for anxiety about a year and a half ago, and she is really the person who pushed me to start my business from the beginning, just with my circumstance. I'm in a rural area, so there's not very many nutrition jobs, and she is an entrepreneur and she was like, I do this, like that's my full-time job.
I'm in entrepreneurship. Like you can see how this works, like I think you can do this. So she gave me the initial push and [00:13:00] then finding Dietitian boss really helped me take what I wanted to do and actually make it happen through y'all's step-by-step process. And then I forgot the question again, so I'm sorry.
That's okay. You're good. You're perfect. So with, with that, one of the things that I ever like really appreciated about. Watching your journey is that you are an action taker. I mean, you just put your course out there, the macronutrients course. You didn't know what your niche was gonna be yet, you were still investigating, and a lot of people let some of those details prevent them from just taking an action step.
What do you think? Helped you with that? I know. Is that something, were you always like the first kid to dive off the high diving board or was this a new aspect of you? I think it's [00:14:00] something that in my twenties I've kind of developed this skill and just knowing that the braver I was and Doing things that were uncomfortable, the more comfortable they got.
And this is something, I think this started with the internship really, cuz I was put in a lot of scary situations like we all were. And just, I got so used to being like out of my comfort zone that I just knew that like being out of my comfort zone felt uncomfortable. But it was a good thing because I was growing and I was.
Learning something and growing in my personal development. So I was definitely scared putting those things out. But Dietitian boss really encouraged me to do those things and really taught me that. [00:15:00] You learn as you go. That is something that I didn't know before. Dietitian Boss was I wanted to do everything perfectly the first time and do all the research on the front end and know everything about something before I launched it or did it.
And y'all encouraged me to just like put it out there. Just do it. You can just put it out there and then tweak. And I found that. That is the better way because then you're not researching all these things that aren't what people want. You're actually like just putting it out there and then hearing from people who you're actually trying to help and tailoring it based on what they need so you can make updates.
It takes so much less time and it's really freeing, but it is scary starting out to just do something imperfectly. But it gives you motivation too. Like just throwing my course up there. I mean, I prepared for sure, but [00:16:00] just like just recording it. I just like hit record and I was like, I'm just gonna do this as a practice round.
And it ended up being the one that I posted. And just having it up there gave me so much confidence and helped me realize that like it doesn't have to be perfect and that it's gonna help people, and that gave me motivation to keep going. Yeah, we know that that's a common mindset that well. If, if you are somebody who's gone through internship chip for nutrition, you've maybe gotten a master's degree, maybe some other deeper education, we consider you a high achiever.
We know some things are true about higher achievers, and one of that those things is that. It's scary to do things imperfectly cuz if you are a high achiever in an academic setting, it required really good grades and you couldn't miss a question on the test. And that translates [00:17:00] into a lot of fear and like, well, what if I get this wrong?
Like, what if I pick the wrong niche? What if I don't do my course? Perfectly. We've had some Dietitian bosses in our programs be worried about how they look or how they sound when they record things, which is why we encourage you to just show your face because people will connect with you no matter how you look or what you sound like.
So that is really amazing that you were able to work on that in your internship. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable things. That is an amazing practice, especially for entrepreneurship because there's gonna be a lot of of decision making and there's gonna be some times of discomfort that leads to what you want, you know, whether that's more freedom or more time, or more income.
So what is your North Star? What is your driving [00:18:00] factor for doing your private practice? Well, I know nutrition is. What I'm meant to do. And through this process, I've found that counseling people or doing one-on-one coaching is also my biggest passion. And I like light up doing it and get so excited and invested in my clients and their journey.
So I know it's what I meant to do long term for my career and my motivation was. Being able to work part-time, but also have my financial goals met to prepare for starting for a family. So that was my biggest North star. But through that I found that I can do something like doing this makes me happy, but it's also less stressful than like a typical kind of corporate job.
And I can help people but [00:19:00] also have. Time and financial freedom, and that's why I started. Amazing. So I wanna give you a little space to celebrate. Sometimes this is uncomfortable for people, but can you share with us where you started before the academy and what's happened for you now?
So I would say that the biggest win is mindset. Like I've said, that is the biggest, that was my biggest hurdle and I knew that getting over that or being able to change into a growth mindset and just know that I can make this business successful as long as I keep showing up. That was my biggest and first win.
The first thing I did was launch a course to my friends and family, really, and just getting that off the ground gave me a lot of confidence [00:20:00] and I sold that to five people pretty quickly, I think within a month of starting that course. And then after I got that under my belt, I decided I wanted to dip my toes into one-on-one counseling.
So I started. Advertising for that, and I've had three clients and one-on-one counseling, and I've really enjoyed helping them being there with them on their journey. Yeah. Yeah. And I just wanna say that launching to your friends and family like that is sometimes the bravest act that any of us can do.
Sometimes it's easier to offer our services and our areas of expertise to total strangers than asking our friends and family to get on board with what we're doing or to invest in our business. And yet that is. Like a perfect place [00:21:00] to get started, right? It's a perfect place for people to start their businesses and get comfortable talking about it, but bravo to you for having the bravery to put it out there to your friends and family.
Thank you. Yes. Other things I thought of were laying the groundwork for a business that can be a challenging part, especially for Dietitians who're not accountants, all that kind of thing. So like getting my licensing like L l C and all of that was a A big success for me, getting everything legally compliant and then really dipping my toes into marketing.
And marketing has been challenging for me. I think it's challenging for a lot of Dietitians. And one of the other big things I did was try to do networking with people in my community, medical professionals. [00:22:00] So I sent out like packets. That had a letter to doctors and midwives, chiropractors, counselors, just anyone who would maybe work in my niche.
And I sent them like a rack card with my services, a business card, and a letter. And Ive got four people who've agreed to start referring to me within my niche. So that is a huge, huge milestone because that's gonna help me with getting clients long term. Yeah, and that is another huge step of bravery to.
Put yourself out there to strangers and just say, okay, I'm just gonna put myself out there and see what happens next and see who refers to me. So that is also amazing. And for if, if, if are listening to this and you're a little more introverted, that means you don't have to go door to door and knock on people's doors or go [00:23:00] to networking meetings where you're talking to a bunch of people.
You can send a letter. You can send your information and then you can follow up and contact them or have them contact you. So Those. I'm not calling you an introvert, but I'm just saying that this is a great strategy for people who are exhausted by the idea of going to an in-person networking meeting or knocking on medical office doors and.
Talking to the front desk staff. So good on you for finding a strategy and for establishing these referral relationships. Now it's about nurturing those referral relationships. So how is that coming? What are you doing to continue to nurture those relationships? Yeah, so I reach out probably about once a month and just try to, Keep the relationship going and one of the big things from your guidance, [00:24:00] Heather, was seeing if there was any way I could help them by like making a handout or an educational resource for their clients and putting my contact information out.
On it. So that's something that I've been doing to like stay in contact is any other ways that I could help their clients get the information they need, just so they know that my goal is to help their clients in whatever way they need and also keep that relationship with them. Yeah, that's that's a great step and shows that we're in service cuz sometimes, like you said, you didn't really know much about marketing or you didn't really feel comfortable with marketing.
But when we take that step back, marketing is relationship building and supporting people that need your help. That's, that's the core when we're marketing from our hearts or when [00:25:00] we're marketing from our desire to be of service and not, we're not marketing cuz we're a junk food company trying to sell more products.
Right. It's a, it's a very different approach. Right. For sure. Cool. So If there are other people listening to this podcast that are hesitant to get started, maybe took an entrepreneurship class and was like this isn't for me. Just like you did. What words are even working at another job? Cause you have a job and are doing this work as well, what words of encouragement would you pass on to them?
The first thing is taking the leap to get started for sure. Starting a business can take time and you have to take that first brave leap. And it's [00:26:00] exciting and scary, but it's definitely worth it. And then after that, I would work on mindset. I think that that is the first, the groundwork that will keep you going.
Long term, even when you get discouraged or maybe something's not going the way that you thought it would, continuing to show back up and things. Will turn around or maybe they'll look a little bit different, but you will see success. So working on that mindset and showing up every day will definitely help you be successful.
And time management has also been another huge thing. I am a go-getter and I get very excited about my business, but I know that I can get burnt out if I just work on it all the time. I just. Enjoy it and love what I do so much in my business that I just wanna work on it 24 7, but I know that that's not practical.
So I set a time limit on how many hours per week I can handle [00:27:00] doing my business on top of my full-time job. And that way I still have a little bit of work-life balance and able to enjoy the weekend and time with my friends and family. So having. That time limit really helps and it changes. I am always readjusting and reassessing and figuring out like, okay, it's the holidays, like I need to spend a little less time because there's more things going on.
Or maybe it's the summer and I have more time so I can up how many hours a week I spend. But using that time management and setting goals really has helped me too. Awesome. Yeah. That's when you're doing this to create more freedom and space in your life and then you work on it incessantly. That's the opposite of what your North Star is about.
Right? And but it's easy to get sucked into it when you're having fun and you're. Passionate and [00:28:00] you have a drive to get things going, but what we see sometimes is when we overstretch ourselves in the beginning, then by the time things get off the ground, you're exhausted and you can't fulfill on all the things that you've been running so hard to achieve.
So I'm. Really grateful that you created those time boundaries for yourself and are putting into practice the time management techniques that we talk about in Dietitian Boss. Okay, so last question. If you feel comfortable, do you have a favorite affirmation that you repeat to yourself that you think would be helpful for other people to hear?
I really love the one that is in the academy that says that you can help people. [00:29:00] Now I'm trying to remember how it goes. It's like you can help people have financial freedom and love what you do all at the same time. That's a great one. And then another one that I love is, Every day that I'm showing up, I'm getting more successful in my business.
Mm. Awesome. Thank you so much, Kristen, for sharing your journey with us. We can't wait to continue to. Travel along this road with you and see where it leads to you. Cause I know it's gonna lead to great things. And before we sign off, can you remind people one more time where they can connect with you?
Yeah, I'm on Instagram at nourish dot fertility. I have Facebook page, nourish Fertility, and. I am starting to learn TikTok and on TikTok, [00:30:00] I'm just at Nourish Fertility. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, and for those Dietitian bosses listening in, I hope that Kristen's affirmations give you some place to shift your mindset or some encouragement, and hearing Kristen's story helps give you the courage to take that leap that she's talking about and just go for it.
Go for your dreams. Create the life that you want to live, and. You can do it. We know you can do it, and we're here at Dietitian Boss to support you in taking that leap with maybe like a little bit of a bridge there to catch you in case you need some support. So we're really grateful, Kristen, for you sharing, and we're grateful for all of you listening today, and we'll chat with you all soon.
