Dietitian Boss Manifesto: How I went from a clinical dietitian in a hospital shooting lockdown, to creating dietitian bosses around the world
My philosophy is based on 3 pillars: Mindset, Marketing, and Sales. Here's why:
Mindset:
I started with the mindset to get all the skills, including more certs, more clinical experience, and more education. (Silly me).
School brainwashed me into believing that I need to wait and get more clinical experience before I can even consider calling myself an expert. (🤦🏻♀️)I talk about this regularly on social media
I followed the rules like a boomer. Hi, boomer. After completing my dietetic internship, I thought I needed to check off the ‘2 years of clinical’ box, so I got a crappy job at a hospital located in the most dangerous neighborhood in New York City, the South Bronx. During a shooting lockdown at my hospital, while the SWAT team escorted me out of the building, I asked myself, “Is this as good as it gets?” (🔫).
My pay was crap and I was refused a raise. I found extra money by working overtime, which meant that I left the South Bronx after dark. One night, on my way home walking from the hospital to the subway, I was chased down by 2 young men who tried to rob me. I ran into a store and had the owner call the police until I was safe to take the 6 train home. That night, I cranked up Taylor Swift-- (“We Are Never Getting Back Together,” my go-to crying song 🎼), and opened my laptop to search for other clinical jobs, but no one was hiring.☹️
After working overtime in the clinic, I met a dental department head who asked me if I wanted to teach a lecture on nutrition and oral health. I negotiated creating and teaching an academic curriculum for dental residents, but the pay was low for the amount of work I put into the process.🤨
Looking back at the lectures that I taught over the course of 5 years, I only reached 250 sleepy, non-responsive academic scholars, who didn't value nutrition. The dental residents only showed up because my lecture was mandatory. Somehow, compared to all my other clinical work, THIS experience was the most fulfilling. Go figure. I only made <$10k a year for lectures (BALLIN’, right? 🙄).
After another depressingly long day at the hospital, I had dinner with a friend and told her about my #clinicalstories. When she caught her breath from laughter and wiped tears from her eyes she said, “Girl, what are you doing? You can help out so many more people online with less headache.” And that's what I tried to do. One of my first posts was me and my bf traveling to Cuba, and my advice to the Instagram community was to try and eat one piece of fruit a day. (Who was I even talking to?)
Marketing:
When I started my Instagram account, I gave random advice on how to make pretty kiwi flowers and silly quotes like, “Making smoothies is only worth it if the photo turns out well.”
The responses were surprisingly encouraging such as, “Def going to be using this in a future post.”
But, I was spending time creating a beautiful smoothie bowl for Instagram pictures, instead of solving a problem. People and companies slid into my DMs to advertise to my audience for themselves since they saw my audience was growing. I had no idea what to do, or how to market myself. At the time, my audience ranged from 12-year-old boys to 90-year-old grandmas (Dietitian Boss tip: Check your analytics on your iPhone, so you know your demographics,🤪).
After 2 months of vegan smoothie bowls and avo toast photos, a weight loss fitness Bro reached out to me (dude dietitian) asking me tips on how to build his audience on the gram. Finally, the light went on 💡 and he became my first IG coaching client.
It took me 5 years to get my first clinical job with a salary of $47,000 a year (as Chief of Clinical 🤑), and within my first 6 months of starting my social media feed, I exceeded $47,000. 🤑🤑.
Those first 6 months of using Instagram were anxiety-provoking, but once I focused on who my ideal client was and how to solve their biggest problem, my marketing blew up. Other online dietitians saw how successful I was and quickly followed suit.
My method can bypass the BS that took me years to learn and get you to the mindset, marketing, and sales part in less time. When you create your own business, you create the rules and can work anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection 👩🏻💻.
Example: My past client Tallene from @pcos.weightloss started from zero and made her first $30,000 after 3 months of working with me by pre-selling her online course. In under 1 year, Tallene created a multi-6 figure business from using Instagram marketing. As a dietitian under 3 years, she's created an empire of a business and brought her husband on board.
Sales:
I had collected all of the degrees (Bachelors, Masters, RD license) and was on my way to getting published for 2 International Review Board (IRB) studies, but STILL, 80% of my day consisted of being told to sit in my office and look pretty (actual words from my administrator 🤢).
As a clinician, the patients did not see me; as a lecturer, the residents didn't want to hear me; and as a dietitian, I didn't feel I was serving anyone. The only people I was helping were those who were paying for my services online. After all, if people aren't paying for your services, they aren't taking you seriously. It dawned on me that neither the patients at the hospitals nor the residents, were paying out of pocket for my services, therefore, they didn't respect me or my time. (#selfpayalltheway).
If you have no sales, it's because your clients don't think you’re an investment. My best clients turn out to be the ones who invest heavily in themselves.
When I realized my services were an investment, there was no holding me back, and my sales took off.
Since focusing my message, I've worked with celebrity dietitians, students, and dietitians with under 5 years of experience. If you’ve heard of a dietitian who’s had success on social media, she's probably one of the 1000s of clients who I've transformed.
In my last clinical job, I made $55k per year, and now I make >$100k a month. I show you how to go from zero to six figures, zero to multi- 6 figures and 6 figures to multi- 6 figures in revenue AND create more impact. I show you how to use social media marketing like a boss.
Now that I work for myself, I only work with female dietitians - my ideal clients (hehe) who are ready to transform into a dietitian boss. You are not alone anymore, you can get started from your internship and/or in your clinical office. After all, that's where I started.
