[00:00:00] If you're looking to grow your business as a registered dietitian, you've come to the right place. If you're not sure what to do or what steps to take next so that you can create flexibility and freedom in your life, then you're going to learn a lot from tuning into our podcast here at Dietitian Boss.
[00:00:17] I'm Libby Rothschild, the founder of Dietitian Boss, a [00:00:20] fellow registered dietitian and business owner. And in our podcast, I share the highs and the lows, and I talk all about how to grow your business. Get it started. And I interview our clients to date. We've had over 200 interviews from clients who share their journey on our podcast dietitian boss.
[00:00:37] Welcome to today's episode. We're [00:00:40] joining with Brandon Grubber, a registered dietitian and the manager of Revive Wellness in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Revive Wellness is one of Western Canada's largest team of dietitians offering cutting edge nutrition and lifestyle coaching supported by chefs and mindful instructors.
[00:00:56] With six and a half years of experience as a registered dietitian, Brandon holds a [00:01:00] diploma in sports nutrition from the International Olympics Committee. His specialties include sports and performance nutrition, nutrition for ADHD, and plant based eating. In his managerial role, he oversees the strategic, tactical, and operational activities at Revive Wellness.
[00:01:15] Authenticity is one of his core values, and it shines through in every facet of his work. [00:01:20] Whether he's creating content, engaging with clients, or participating in conferences, he proudly presents his true self and encourages others to do the same. Welcome to today's episode.
[00:01:29] Libby: All right, Brandon. So really happy to have you here today. And if you could just share a little bit more about your role beyond that bio that I introduced you with.
[00:01:37] Brandon: Yeah, I'm happy, happy to be here. So [00:01:40] my role in the company I work for Revive Wellness here in Edmonton, Alberta and Canada, has evolved many times.
[00:01:46] Brandon: I probably wear many different hats. Current title technically is the manager of revive wellness. So I oversee the business strategy. I oversee operations. I oversee [00:02:00] pretty much the entire clinical team underneath me. I have a team lead that sits beneath me that helps support the team of dietitians that we have, the chefs that we have.
[00:02:09] Brandon: So I, from a business strategy perspective, also integrate in all the marketing components. I integrate the administrative components of pretty much every [00:02:20] aspect of our business. I touch, but the, why I said that I wear multiple hats and even though my technical title is manager, my skillset goes beyond just what I was trained for as a registered dietitian, because I still see clients, but I also help out with website material.
[00:02:37] Brandon: I help out with content creation. We [00:02:40] also record a podcast, like, there's so many aspects of what I do for the company here at Revive, It's I could probably spend the entire podcast time here just talking about that, but that's a little short piece about it. Yeah.
[00:02:52] Libby: And that's wonderful because it keeps you busy and stimulated, right?
[00:02:56] Libby: It keeps you on top of different facets of [00:03:00] business and it keeps you interested, right? Because sometimes we can get so comfortable doing one thing. So I can tell that you, when you wear hats, you also develop those skills and that must be exciting.
[00:03:10] Brandon: Oh, yeah, actually. We, as an organization, we send out a weekly updates to the entire team.
[00:03:15] Brandon: Our team has grown substantially in the past couple of years. We found different ways to [00:03:20] communicate updates, operational updates, you know, just fun news for everybody. And one of the things we do to try and encourage people to read it is put a little fun question at the end of it. That asks a, just a basic kind of question.
[00:03:31] Brandon: It's a fun question. Sometimes it's a little bit more serious. The one that was this week was what drives you forward? In our work for the [00:03:40] company and, funny thing actually related to wearing many hats. My answers sometimes get kind of fun and everybody knows the way that I communicate internally.
[00:03:47] Brandon: But my answer was, chasing dopamine in ways that are productive for the company and for the clients that we serve, because I mean, 1 of the reasons why I [00:04:00] chose to join this organization originally, and still, to this day, the only organization I've been with professionally is because of that. It is the only place that I have found that I can have variety, but not variety at the expense of success for the company, like, I'm not to sound egotistical, but like, I'm only [00:04:20] venturing down paths that I feel like I can add value and have a skill set in, or I can build a skill set in. So, and I'm open to feedback in those areas too. So if I'm only going to wear a hat if it fits.
[00:04:31] Brandon: At least half decent.
[00:04:32] Libby: Yeah. And that, that's exciting. And it's, mutually beneficial, right? Good for the company because they're able to have you help fill some of those gaps and good for you [00:04:40] because it keeps you stimulated and fresh as a dietitian and as a manager. Because you definitely need to have a lot of skills, interpersonal skills, as well as you could say hard skills, right?
[00:04:49] Libby: To be able to conduct that role efficiently. So tell us a little bit, Brandon, about how you evolved to what you do now from when they first hired you. You've been here in this role professionally. So that [00:05:00] means for six plus years, right? Yep. So talk about like how, what did you first do in the company? How did you get to where you are now?
[00:05:07] Brandon: I actually previous to six years, so six years as an employee, but I actually started as a volunteer with the company in 2016. I needed some volunteer experience when I was in the university program [00:05:20] here in Edmonton, in the dietetics program. So I reached out met Lorraine Wales, the owner and still current owner of the company, did some volunteer work there, did a little project on body composition analysis, which was a blast.
[00:05:34] Brandon: And then continued that volunteer gig until I was finished. My internship got offered a job, develop a [00:05:40] really close relationship to this day, still have a close relationship with Lorraine, the owner. It was a no brainer at that point. So my role coming into the company was just a registered dietitian.
[00:05:49] Brandon: Mostly working with clients one on one, did some corporate work, still do, do some content creation to help support marketing for our social media and our blog and all these things. And as time [00:06:00] progressed, I started becoming more interested in marketing, content creation, but beyond that, marketing strategy, marketing campaigns, the impact on the business and how people come to us and find us out and recognize our brand and so on and so forth.
[00:06:14] Brandon: And then, you know, the company grows people come and go for professional reasons. [00:06:20] And then you see roles open. Oh, I can fill this spot at a couple extra hours a week, grow your skill set. And then as time evolved, I got more engaged in the tech side of our company. So revive wellness here in Edmonton is an in person and virtual dietitian practice.
[00:06:39] Brandon: Most [00:06:40] of us are dietitians. We've got a couple chefs, but we offer nutrition and lifestyle coaching. But the tech side of our business is called MyViva. They're the parent company technically, and they're a digital health tech company. And at the point of when I began my career with revive, it was growing and we still needed to develop content for [00:07:00] and build that digital product.
[00:07:02] Brandon: So there was more opportunity there aside from the dietitian components. So, I got more engaged there and I actually started to manage a team of content creators various subject matter experts that were creating content in the nutrition space, the mental health space, [00:07:20] the fitness space that was probably 2020, I think, 2020, 2021, in that Time span, a very interesting time span and I had because we were just the pandemic hit us that time.
[00:07:35] Brandon: A lot of learning that happened for me personally and professionally in that period of time. [00:07:40] And it wasn't the right fit for me though. Something about that role. I don't know what it was not personally. Because it was managerial role, but it just wasn't, it wasn't something that it got me fired up.
[00:07:53] Brandon: You know, I've evolved as a person to, to help manage and lead people in better ways than I did back then. So if I was in that role back [00:08:00] then as to, I was in that role now, knowing what I know now, I probably would do it differently. But nonetheless, at that point the owner Laureen, we had a conversation about where we need to take.
[00:08:12] Brandon: Revive wellness, the nutrition, lifestyle coaching part of our business, and there was an opportunity because [00:08:20] her role as the CEO and owner of the company to that point was very much the same as what I'm doing right now, but she was becoming more and more. Her time was being taken up more in the other areas of the company, and there was, there was a need to have somebody fill a role that can do [00:08:40] what I'm doing now at that point.
[00:08:42] Brandon: And so her and I had a conversation around that. There's an opportunity here. We need somebody to fill this spot and take the business forward. Because of the reasons what I mentioned, and it's her and I have not had a conversation prior about that role. And I'm like, yeah, I think that would be a [00:09:00] much better fit.
[00:09:01] Brandon: For what I can provide the company for where I know we can take the company. I was at that point, probably one of the strongest sales people on the company, too. We are a private practice. We have to sell to people and one of the more senior dietitians on the team as well. So from there, that was about, I think, mid to late [00:09:20] 2022.
[00:09:20] Brandon: I've been in that role ever since.
[00:09:23] Libby: And what helped you with your business skills, specifically sales, and you're talking about management, a lot of classically trained dietitians, at least here in America, and from what I know of in Canada, they don't necessarily receive that training. And so since this is your first job in this professional [00:09:40] arena, what helped you craft those skills?
[00:09:41] Brandon: Funny, actually I've had many people ask me that, because when I talk to people about, the business operations, how to improve the business, all these different areas, I ask it, like, you have an MBA. And I'm like, no, I do not have an MBA. So I guess I just have that. And I wouldn't [00:10:00] say I have that naturally, but what I've developed over time alongside the personal work that I've done on myself.
[00:10:05] Brandon: I mean, my, my brain has evolved so long, so many times and that's in six and a half years started working with a psychologist, working through some personal stuff and over time, the biggest thing I would say [00:10:20] is I still do see a lot of similarities with running the business operationally sales marketing.
[00:10:27] Brandon: I draw a lot of similarities between that and just working with clients 1 on 1.
[00:10:31] Libby: Can you talk a little more about that? I think for the listeners, just to paint a picture, I don't know if they can make that parallel without being a little bit more
[00:10:37] Brandon: concrete. So [00:10:40] when I'm working with clients one on one, cause that prior to that was my primary role.
[00:10:43] Brandon: There's a lot to do with communication. There's a lot to do with messaging, communicating value. Trying to ensure there's a good experience from start to finish both in verbal and written communications, because in our work, of course, sessions are verbal and visual, like [00:11:00] conversations like what we have right now.
[00:11:01] Brandon: But there's also pieces related to, you know, what we're telling them outside of sessions, what we're, what we're sending them communication and resource wise. So all these things I started to put together in my mind. I'm like, well, this is all really the same. We're. We're dealing with humans. We're trying to get humans to understand something, whether [00:11:20] it's Value of our offerings or what this step in the process of working with our company is going to be, or what I'm going to help somebody with, or the main messaging inside of a piece of written content, like in a blog, or you know, these gaps that we have in the [00:11:40] business are here because of X, Y, and Z reason, and it's usually related to providing a better experience or a communicating value better or some variation of all of those things.
[00:11:52] Brandon: And I started to say, well, there's a lot of things that just logically make sense. If you put those pieces together we want to bring in more people. [00:12:00] How do we do this? Well, we got to make people aware of us. How do we do that? And then it all just kind of came back to, we need to find the humans.
[00:12:07] Brandon: We need to communicate clearly to the humans and we need to treat the humans. Like rock stars when they get to us, all of those things, we cover them and we're in a pretty good spot.
[00:12:18] Libby: Yeah, that's beautifully said, [00:12:20] and I will say you have a gift because many clinicians, although they're extremely intelligent and dedicated and heart centered with the work that they do.
[00:12:27] Libby: They can't make that parallel between the work that we do as clinicians and then the marketing and the sales and the operations piece to connect the dots. So it really is a skill. skill that you have, although you're humble about it, it's [00:12:40] not something that every clinician is able to do, whether they're a manager like you or whatever various role that they have, right.
[00:12:46] Libby: Whether they're a clinician for another practice or they have their own, right. It can be a struggle. It's a lot of hats to wear.
[00:12:52] Brandon: Totally. I think probably at the beginning, I just needed to do that to do my original job better. And then it just [00:13:00] kind of fell into place after that.
[00:13:02] Libby: Yeah. I'm assuming a support system. It sounds like you have an awesome job at an amazing company with a lot of different facets to the company. So it provides that support. Stimulation for you, which is also a great platform. Not everybody has a positive sounding board or place where they feel like they can blossom.
[00:13:16] Libby: So when you connect the dots, I also heard you say it's doing some personal work, [00:13:20] which you didn't talk about in depth, but I can say that can make a huge difference, right? Our mindset and thinking about how we can improve looking at. Our work as an opportunity to build skill sets and understand and accept there are going to be failures and to be resilient is a big part of improving whether you're talking specifically about business or just anything.
[00:13:39] Libby: So, [00:13:40] I did hear that from you, although you didn't go too deep into it, and I just want to make sure I'm giving you credit for that, because that can go a long way when it comes to growing as a professional.
[00:13:47] Brandon: Totally. Yeah, I can talk an hour about that, but I'd, I'd rather not explore every single rabbit hole just for the sake of time.
[00:13:54] Libby: Well, I mean this is already the 2nd time we've had you on the podcast because you're so interesting. So it just goes [00:14:00] to say that there's a lot of great things to say about the work that you do. Can you share? Absolutely. Can you share a little bit about what have you learned about group practice that you didn't expect?
[00:14:09] Libby: And if you wouldn't mind sharing the size of the team, just to give some context for the listeners.
[00:14:13] Brandon: Yeah so the size of our team currently from a clinical perspective we have 9 [00:14:20] dietitians on the team. We have more people on the team that are dietitians. I lose count every time somebody asks me this question.
[00:14:27] Brandon: It's like 11, 12, or 13, but there's only 9 people actually seeing clients currently. But Trained dietitians is more than that, but our team as a whole, when you account for every single person is [00:14:40] around the 40 mark, the whole company is a whole collective is around the 40 mark to your part about the group practice my only experience, all other than an internship was in a group setting.
[00:14:51] Brandon: And I think I have this conversation with people that are looking to get into private practice a lot because You know, they're always like, oh, I want to go into private practice, [00:15:00] start a business on my own and the difference between that and being on a group or a team. I'm assuming that's what you're referring to as a team practice as opposed to
[00:15:07] Libby: yes. Correct.
[00:15:09] Brandon: Yeah, to your point, having a support network, having a sounding board, all those things, you know, that because I don't have all the answers. And I at least had 1 person, a couple of people [00:15:20] when I 1st started with revive as a volunteer that I knew the owner and then my supervisor at the time when I was doing my volunteer project.
[00:15:27] Brandon: I'm like, and I didn't as I progressed through my internship. I didn't see that. I saw it like there's mentorship pretty much anywhere you go, you can find it, but on a day to day, like, nitty [00:15:40] gritty, just having a conversation or in a meeting about people that are also dietitians, because that was obviously unique.
[00:15:47] Brandon: It's kind of like having a 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th, or 5th. 9th brain you can't really, you can't say enough about having that level of support for even the simplest of things, like [00:16:00] sending a message to somebody or a client or something like this. You don't always nitpick every single message you send out, but, like, if you wanted to have something simple and get feedback from a team of people, you can do that as opposed to.
[00:16:12] Brandon: Yourself and I, you know?
[00:16:15] Libby: Yeah. So the power of the collective and that I will preface that by saying that is with the [00:16:20] hopes of you having a healthy team environment and a positive culture, which it sounds like you guys, you guys have. So that helps me segue into the last question of the conversation, which is, what do you think helps your team?
[00:16:31] Libby: Or you develop strong team values and kind of help people be on the same page to create that collective. Cause that can be a big challenge for managers, especially with a [00:16:40] team, even though it's. but nine dietitians, that's pretty big, right? So what's the secret?
[00:16:44] Brandon: I'm going to take a page out of the owners Lorraine Wales's book and how she built the company.
[00:16:51] Brandon: When. We did a lot of work on the business. It was like six to eight years ago. It was right before I joined the company. One of the things [00:17:00] that she did with the team is develop and revise the company's core values. We have six and there's passion, compassion, innovation, bravery, humble confidence, and is that five or six?
[00:17:15] Libby: It's humble and confidence are two separate ones. And that's five. Or
[00:17:19] Brandon: 6 [00:17:20] in tenacity.
[00:17:21] Libby: There you go. That's 6. Okay.
[00:17:23] Brandon: And some, she always jokes about like, some companies have core values and they don't stick to them. They just kind of have them just to have them on the wall. We literally fire against those. We evaluate against those. We liberate against those. They are literally, and [00:17:40] I'm not even just like saying this to say this because I'm here and I have to but those are key pieces of what we need our people to be and own. And if there's areas that we need to change and, support, we have a way of understanding.
[00:17:55] Brandon: Are humans on our team in those areas. That's [00:18:00] been a huge piece. I think yeah, that's probably the most significant. And then, I guess, helping to manage that many people is I mean, the biggest thing is aside from that, making sure that. I'm doing what I can and that's kind of relates to the work that I did on myself.
[00:18:18] Brandon: How can I. Lead [00:18:20] these group of humans better. What can I do to better support the team? You know, kept running into challenges with, like, communication and being inside my own head and and all these things that were getting in my way of being able to support my team better and help provide mentorship where I needed to and [00:18:40] quicker decision making and things like that.
[00:18:42] Brandon: So that's 1 of the things that sparked that work that I did for myself. Yeah. I would say those are probably some of the key things that come to mind that help protect the culture and set the expectation that we have those same things for everybody on the team and a lot that comes with that, like how [00:19:00] we function in meetings and how we function as a collective and when we're working on projects together and all these things, it just kind of trickles down from there.
[00:19:08] Libby: Yeah, and you know what? It's not easy to do that. It's really not easy to get a team of 40 on board with the same 6 values and to hire and fire and evaluate against those values is, I think, what every business [00:19:20] aspires to do and very few succeed. So it's really impressive that you're not only able to be a part of this company, starting from a volunteer to coming up to manager, but that I could tell you enjoy it and they are.
[00:19:30] Libby: Grateful and lucky. I'm sure to have you. So thank you for sharing the experience and your journey on air. Brendon, is there anything else that you want to leave us with [00:19:40] today as we wrap up our conversation?
[00:19:41] Brandon: No. I appreciate the chance to, to share a little bit about me with your listeners. I hope, hope you found it viable.
[00:19:48] Brandon: Perhaps there will be another chance to join your podcast. I wasn't expecting a second time, but it's always a fun time to have a peek into your world and have a good chat.
[00:19:58] Libby: Oh, same, same here, Brandon [00:20:00] and congrats on all your success.
[00:20:02] Brandon: Thank you.
[00:20:02] Looking for support to grow your dietitian business or even get started, I invite you to join the library, our monthly affordable membership that shows you exactly what to do every step of the way so that you can create the business of your dreams. Not sure if it's the right time, the membership gives you an [00:20:20] option to.
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