[00:00:00] Welcome to the dietitian boss podcast. I'm Libby Rothschild, creator of dietitian boss. After almost four years of sitting in my dimly lit windowless clinical office, I had enough. I wanted to feel like my work mattered. So I did something about it. I created a [00:00:20] program that empowers dietitians and nutritionists to create their own private practice from scratch, following my proprietary system.
[00:00:27] Before I did this, I had a private practice of my own while working a full time job, and I learned a lot about building relationships, marketing, and sales, and I'm so excited to be able to share my proprietary framework with [00:00:40] you. Hello, and welcome today. I am excited to talk about four tips to have a successful dietitian side hustle.
[00:00:51] This is also pulled from a blog post over at dietitianboss. com where you can read today's episode. So, what I want to talk to [00:01:00] you about is the fact that creating a side hustle as a registered dietitian can be a great way for you to feel stimulated and challenged. So, To use your degree to reach more people, to create impact on a greater level beyond where you live, because you can reach more people.
[00:01:18] We'll talk about that in a minute. [00:01:20] And you can also earn income. Now you might like to feel challenged as a registered dietitian beyond your nine to five or per diem work. And creating a side hustle can do just that creating a side hustle can help you feel more comfortable about the work that you're doing and feel more confident, as [00:01:40] well as creating additional revenues can help you with saving for retirement, purchasing things that you wouldn't otherwise be able to afford and giving you the flexibility.
[00:01:49] If you want to take the side hustle full time to create your own schedule, which is the ultimate dream of our audience here at dietitian boss. Now you might be wondering. A little bit about [00:02:00] dietitians, you might already know this, that many registered dietitians like yourself are struggling with huge debt, because as a registered dietitian, our schooling cost a lot of money, right?
[00:02:11] And there's also, depending on where you live, the salaries can range. So, the median salary for registered dietitian is 60, 000 dollars, where most [00:02:20] dietitians go into clinical work as per the stats we have from the Academy of nutrition and dietetics. So, knowing that our, Schooling, we required a master's degree now in 2024, schooling costs a lot of money.
[00:02:32] There's a lot of rigorous schooling required to sit in, to be eligible, to be a registered dietitian, and the pay is, you know, 60, 000 is the [00:02:40] median pay. We might want to find other ways to earn revenues outside of what the, you know, jobs are offered where we live. And if you're already running a business, you're probably familiar with what it means to start a height side hustle.
[00:02:53] Cause many of you started on the side. Some of you went all in as you've listened to from many of our podcasts, episodes [00:03:00] of our clients. Right? So if you're looking at making more money, although there's many reasons why you would start a side hustle, just know that 60, 000 doesn't always go very far. In terms of where you're living in the United States, and you might know that a lot of dietitians don't always have the [00:03:20] ability to get a raise or promoted unless if we sit in for 1000 hours to become certified diabetes educator, or some type of specialty, which can help you make more earn more income.
[00:03:31] But that takes a long time. And to earn those hours, and it costs money. Some of your, you know, depending on if you have a job, maybe a clinical position, they might pay [00:03:40] you or give you a stipend for that. But it's still going to mean that you're sitting on that lower salary for a long time. So you might want to earn an extra income on the side and you might be okay.
[00:03:51] With that extra income on the side taking longer, if you do something like you start writing blogs and it might take a while for that to pick up traction or [00:04:00] right away, you want to start earning money and you want to start seeing clients on the side, even if it's not full time. Right? So you might be looking for extra ways to supplement your income.
[00:04:09] And there are a lot of people outside of dieticians that are enjoying this side hustle idea. So you're not alone in about coming up with another way to earn money. I [00:04:20] want you to think about what skill you have that's valued. Right? And what interests you what you're good at. So, if you really enjoy writing, and you're an introvert, then perhaps writing blog posts would be a good opportunity for you to start.
[00:04:34] And if you really love being with people. And you like the energy in the room. You might want to look at [00:04:40] speaking. There's also consulting menu writing. As you know, online products, you can create, you want to create the demand for it first, but you can create eBooks courses, group programs are so many opportunities of ways to earn money.
[00:04:54] And it doesn't have to be full time. In fact, a lot of our clients create part time work and some [00:05:00] of them are earning full time. Salaries, because they've been able to create a lot of demand and come up with different price points. And that's a conversation for another episode on what that looks like.
[00:05:10] But I want you to know, there are many different ways for you to create monies on the side. And I want you to think about what skill you have and where your interests align. [00:05:20] So I'm going to give you a list of how you can set up a successful dietitian side hustle. Firstly, you're going to have to adopt a business mindset.
[00:05:28] So, I want you to take a look in the mirror, right, and admit something to yourselves that dieticians are not always the most profit driven people in health care. And the reason that we went into this field is because we [00:05:40] wanted to help people, right? Not because we were necessarily trying to get rich. So most of us are not bottom line thinkers, meaning we're not thinking about a bottom Profit.
[00:05:48] We're really thinking about patients first. So you're probably thinking more about how you can help people and less about what income or revenue you can take home. And that's okay. [00:06:00] What matters is that you're aware of how you operate and what's important to you. And then after you're aware of what comes to mind when you think about business and if it's first the patient and then profit later, You're going to have to learn new skills.
[00:06:13] You're going to have to balance working your skills and interests with also making sure that you're able to understand what a profit [00:06:20] means. All right. So the difference is that, you know, a side hustle. Is something that you can start very less than part time. So I want to take out the intimidation factor of you feeling like you're not ready to get started because really anybody who has a couple hours a week can get started with the side hustle.
[00:06:37] After all, that's how I started. I started [00:06:40] most of my businesses on the side, and then they grew to full time or part time. So, then what I want you to think about is also exploring marketable services. So we talked about that a moment ago when I asked you to think about your skill and your interest. So, the chances are that you're probably trying to do more than your regular [00:07:00] work.
[00:07:00] If you're wanting to start a side hustle, assuming that you already have a per diem or 9 to 5 job. So, if you're looking for new avenues of income, there's actually a lot of options that are available. If you're able to sit and think critically, if you want to supplement your income. So, some of the options, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, eBooks [00:07:20] are a great way that you can earn passive income, but you do need to 1st, understand what people want when you're creating that book.
[00:07:26] So you're going to have to be really clear about what to make webinars and courses, and they, you can help your colleagues with certain topics and dietetics. If you're interested in starting with that, that's how I started. I started by creating a website. [00:07:40] Webinars and courses for other medical practitioners, and then I started making them for dietitians.
[00:07:45] And 1st, I started talking about nutrition related topics, like medical nutrition therapy. And then I showed dietitians how to create these webinars and courses for their audience, right? You can also do subscription services or online [00:08:00] communities or memberships. Those are becoming really popular. And then you can do private consultations, remote work.
[00:08:05] You can also do blog posts if you want to do writing, and you can also write for other people. So, as I listed above, these are some great starting places, and they have very little upfront effort or investment, right? It just takes a [00:08:20] little bit of time and some strategy to think about how you can position yourself for a membership.
[00:08:27] For private consultations to create a webinar and, of course, or an ebook. So that's that's the hard part is positioning yourself, but it does not going to cost a lot of money for you to get started. Now, the last 1 of [00:08:40] the last topics, the 3rd tip would be to niche down as I talk about all the time. So think about.
[00:08:46] How your efforts can position yourself in a way where people are going to know who you are and how you help people. And that has to do with your clear messaging. So this concept always seems counterintuitive, especially at the beginning, or if you [00:09:00] think you have a niche, but you're not quite fully clear with what you do and who you serve and how you help them.
[00:09:06] So I want you to think about what's in demand right now. What are people seeking for when they look for solutions, when it comes to nutrition and health, and then I want you to see how your interests or your background can align with what people are looking for. [00:09:20] Is it diabetes? Is it chronic kidney disease, or is it not?
[00:09:24] Is it a condition like or maybe it's none of the above and you really want to go into pregnancy or sports nutrition or men's health or children nutrition. So, there could be certain avenues you're interested in, and there's a lot of different ways to [00:09:40] niche down. You can even niche down by location. You can become known as the Texas dietitian or the Southern dietitian.
[00:09:47] Right? But thinking about how you want to stand out and position yourself will help you. Sell the ebook and the course and the webinar and the consultation. So it's really important to look at how you are positioning [00:10:00] yourself and connect with other people who are in similar and opposing industries or niches so that you can connect with them and see how you can help one another, because if someone comes your way and they're interested in weight loss and you don't do that, you can still help them by guiding them towards someone who might be able to help them.
[00:10:18] And the goal of finding your [00:10:20] ideal niche in the market. Is to understand exactly who would benefit from what you're selling. And that's why in the library, which is our affordable monthly membership, we show you how to construct your avatar, your ideal client, your perfect client that you want to sell to who's willing to pay for your services or your product, whatever it is that you're selling.
[00:10:39] And that's going to [00:10:40] help you learn how to position yourself. So no matter what you decide to sell as your side hustle, you'll have an easier time doing so because you know who you're marketing for, right? Because we can't market for everybody. And if you market to everybody, you essentially market to nobody.
[00:10:53] So I want you, as you're listening to think hard about your value proposition, meaning what is it that you do that stands out from [00:11:00] somebody else for your side hustle? And your pricing strategy so that you can target, you can market to your target audience appropriately. Now, the 4th tip would be to network.
[00:11:13] All right, this is the last tip. Now, I know that sometimes being social or going out and talking to new people. [00:11:20] Or making an effort can feel uncomfortable. It can feel a little bit forced. It can feel weird. You might not want to do it, but you do get used to it. Once you set small goals, maybe the goal is to go to one event a month, or maybe you start with one event a quarter, or maybe you start reaching out to people and doing some outreach more than you had before.
[00:11:39] And [00:11:40] that just starts to get the wheels turning, right? Because business and running a business can feel scary. But remember, before the Internet started and before the online marketing, most businesses grow from networking and word of mouth and referrals. So for you to position yourself in front of that kind of avenue to get clients and [00:12:00] to let people know that you exist in your side hustle, that's a really good way for you to start to attract business.
[00:12:07] And remember, you have to tell people that you are taking clients, or if it's not clients that you have a product or service to sell, whether it's an ebook or a webinar or course, people should know what it is that you're selling because you're [00:12:20] telling them and if they're not a good fit, you're asking them to tell people that they know that might be a good fit for your product or service.
[00:12:27] When you join communities of like minded people, like, let's say dietitian entrepreneurs that are working towards similar goals of flexibility and side hustles. You're going to discover that building a business. It's not as scary because when you do it [00:12:40] with someone else, and you have a community, you're going to keep your motivation up.
[00:12:43] And you can share ideas, and even if you meet someone else in a similar space, let's say you're both in prenatal, or you're in different spaces, weight loss, and then weight neutral or weight loss and body positivity or food freedom, you can still coexist and perhaps even support one another. And that will actually [00:13:00] strengthen your ability to be a professional and understand different points of view.
[00:13:05] And remember that as professionals, it's really important to know other people in our industry and work alongside them. So having a group. In a community is important, and we know that dietitians or a small there's a small community of us compared to, let's [00:13:20] say, therapists and other health care practitioners.
[00:13:23] So, being able to find people who are looking at, or are already creating side hustles is really important. really special. So I want you to ask yourself, what community are you participating in? Is it enough to just go on Instagram and follow a couple people that you look up to? Or are you actually nurturing those [00:13:40] relationships?
[00:13:40] And what does that nurture look like? Is it consistent? And I can tell you that we offer that for you. And that's something we're really proud of here at Dietitian Boss, is that when you join the library, You have an opportunity to work alongside your peers, as well as me and my team to learn and grow and really grow your business and learn how to market effectively and learn [00:14:00] the different ways of marketing that fit your personality type.
[00:14:03] So I want to invite you to join the library because it is going to be a great way for you to start your side hustle and feel more confident. Head over to dietitianboss. com to join today. And thank you so much for listening.
[00:14:19] If you're [00:14:20] looking for support to start, grow, and scale your dietitian private practice, I want to invite you to work with me and my team. We have a few different options. Head over to dietitianboss. com and apply to have a conversation with somebody from our sales team to discuss your options for your budget and stage [00:14:40] of business.
[00:14:40] Head over to dietitianboss. com and we look forward to connecting.
