Colleen Left Her Clinical Job To Focus Full Time On Building Her Private Practice!

Libby Rothschild: [00:00:00] I’m Libby Rothchild, the former clinical Dietitian who transformed into a full time virtual business owner. It was only one year ago when I made fifty five thousand dollars a year in my clinical job and now I make a hundred thousand dollars a month being my own boss. And you can do this to my clients who are all female Dietitian. Since students started from zero and created six figure maltose six figure businesses by following my proven method and they’ve all been guests on here, my proven method shows you how to attract cash paying clients using social media marketing strategies that work. You don’t have to guess. Waste time or hold yourself back when you follow my step by step method.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:00:42] Today’s podcast guest is Colleen Christensen. Colleen is a registered dietitian, nutritionist specializing in helping women overcome restrictive food rules and disordered eating. She helps them feel comfortable eating the food they want when they want without guilt, stress or anxiety, inspiring them to live their lives. They’re worthy of on their terms, not on their food rolls. In addition to working one on one with clients, Colleen has created a community of food rule-breakers inside of her E-course and runs a successful food blog where she shares delicious and nourishing recipes. Today’s special guest is a high performing registered dietitian, nutritionist, client of mine and my one on one coaching program. I’m so excited for you to hear her story and her journey. Can you walk us through using social media for your journey?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:01:32] Yeah. So I first created my first Facebook page or a recipe blog that I had in college in about 2013, and it was something that I just kind of dabbled with on and off, nothing serious. So that’s, I guess what you’re saying technically started. And then about in May of last year or so, maybe 2018, I really started using social media for business purposes, specifically Instagram, and got a little more serious about strategizing. Laughs And it’s definitely evolved over time. It’s been a lot of trial and error to find something that works for me, something that felt authentic and something that was well received and that got my message across in a way that was clear and concise. And what I was trying to convey reaching down was a really big part of my social media journey. So I personally went through a lot of patience. And again, that was really just trial and error in order to find what I found to be the message that I was truly passionate about, which for me ended up being helping women overcome disordered eating and restricting food roles. And what I found this message is something that I was just really passionate about. Everything just sort of clicked with social media and it started to become easy. And that’s just something that has evolved over time, that trial and error to find out what what works for everyone, because it’s not going to be the same for everyone with their social media learning strategy looks like.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:03:16] Sure. Can you walk us through any kind of tips or anything helpful for those listening for how they can strategize more effectively and get more clear what their niche understanding that the process doesn’t look the same for everyone?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:03:30] So I would definitely say obviously do what feels authentic to you with the message that you’re trying to get across. You can’t just simply look at someone else, if that’s what I need to do. It has to feel authentic to you because it’s content that you’re going to be putting out. So you want to feel good about it. And the message that you’re doing something that I did a lot was looked at insights on social media, find out what was well respected, what posts had different. You know, those followers had the most engagement things that people were really responding to for more of the strategizing. And then when you find those, find out what what is it about those posts that are different from the posts that maybe didn’t do so well, create more of the things that did well based on those insights? And then you find that over time, wonderful excellence.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:04:27] I know that you still work a clinical job. And can you talk to us a little bit about your full-time job and how you’re able to manage this all and any of, I guess, being able to build your brand so effectively with juggling multiple things and and being able to really commit yourself and being realistic with all that you have going on?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:04:48] It’s definitely been hard with having a full-time job, but it’s definitely doable.So if anyone out there saying, I can’t do this. Because I have a full-time job. That’s something that shouldn’t be an issue. It’s totally doable for me. Something that I struggled with was time management. And so having good practices in place that’s working is huge. Getting all of your content done, captions done so that you don’t have to be having this stress when you get home from work. And then it makes it a lot less fun because doing things on social media should be fun and enjoyable. Time management has been huge for me and helping juggle being full time and the side sort of thing and also just being very clear on boundaries, having those boundaries used to easy to just get sucked into social media on your free time and then you have no time for family or friends.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:05:54] So creating those boundaries is a huge deal. And what tools have helped you with creating better boundaries so that you’re able to manage multiple things?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:06:04] So be sure it’s healthy where you can track your activity on Instagram has been huge. I remember when I first looked at that, it was a little scary when I saw how much time I was spending on Instagram and it was all just time that was not productive. It was just me mindlessly scrolling. So I set a time limit for that.The amount of time that I could get to be on Instagram and perhaps a little bit of a reminder that you’ve reached that limit. And then another thing I did, I simply moved to the app on my phone. I put it into a new folder because that was something I realized I was just automatically going to and then I have time to do it. What are you doing? How did you even get on Instagram? But it was just so automatic. So you can just set small things and feedback into a different folder. It’s going to make you think twice about clicking on the ASX and you open it. So that was really good for managing the time I spent on Instagram and then things blocking a little bit of time to create content to look at those sites. So you just get it done. And it’s not something that you have to do on a day to day basis. And it just you’re so much more effective with your time. If you just do it all at once while you’re in the group. So I literally went on my calendar, OK, I’m pretty content from this time to this time. On this day, you just crank it out and then you don’t think twice about it.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:07:32] Awesome. Can you walk us through creating a digital course?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:07:38] Yeah, so creating a digital course was something that I wanted to do for a long time, and I’m super happy that I actually ended up doing it because it allowed me to reach so many more people in my message in a way that’s flexible for them financially with time commitment.And it was intimidating for a lot of people that one to one, if they’re not sure if they’re ready for that, is something that I put off for a long time, to be honest, because I am totally not tech-savvy. I know everybody says that, but for me, it’s totally true. I am not a tech person at all, but I broke it down to the steps that I have to do. So I did a little bit of research which did not take long at all, and then wrote down what are the exact steps that I need to do to create an online course? And it turned out to be super easy. Nothing was intimidating. I made myself a timeline and ripped it off like a Band-Aid. It was something like I said, I put off for a long time. It was overdue. So I just had to get it done. And for me, I recorded the entire course, edited and uploaded it over just a long weekend. And I think it’s just about two hours of video. So it was a lot of my time on that weekend. But I that’s how it works best for me. I’m not sure if it’s the best way for everyone to do it. I get a little obsessive over it being so keeping focus over that weekend was not hard for me. And I found that once I told other people that I was making before some I are friends. I told my husband, I told I stuck to it. So actually vocalizing what I wanted to do was huge. Maybe Gontarski would be motivated, also super competitive on TV. So I was going to get it done one way or another. They were a couple, you know, mental breakdowns over that weekend. But I got through it and got it done. But it’s something that I so happy that I ended up doing.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:09:44] Wonderful. I love hearing your story. And can you walk us through creating a premium offer in your business?

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:09:51] Yeah, so I made this decision pretty early on in my business that I didn’t want to be of value kind of business, so I want to give all of my clients a hundred and ten percent of my focus. I don’t think it would be to not do that just with the type of person that I am. And when I was looking at my pricing to see if I needed to adjust, I broke down the time that I spent with each client down to, you know, communication between the two sessions at any time that I had to prepare for the sessions. And what I was charging was such a low hourly rate, I knew I was worth more than that for what I was giving my clients. And this was just a huge money mindset thing that I had to overcome. And I think a lot of people struggle with this money mindset. It’s been big for me and it’s huge for a lot of people, especially dietitians. But when you understand your work, you’re able to have that particular offer. So really breaking that down for me, what exactly I was giving my clients was huge.And like I said, I knew I could get my mind anything less than that premium offer. I didn’t want to be a volume person. I wanted to give them my focus because that helps them achieve their goals faster. And that’s what I want. I want women to stop wasting so much of this life, this amazing life that we only have one of having to stick to these rules that are not allowing them to reach their full potential. So it just having anything less than a premium offer, it’s just not the type of business that I personally wanted to run. So that meant charging a premium price. And it made me so much happier with my offering to do that, because I know that I can give 110 percent to my clients and not have to feel frustrated or unhappy with the hourly rate. I feel like having your price align with your offer in your business allows business to be more enjoyable. It allows it to be a better experience for everyone. And it’s just so in line with what I wanted to offer my clients.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:12:10] I love that and I agree 100 percent. So congratulations. Talk to us about being featured by Shape magazine and that experience.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:12:20] Yeah, so I was contacted by a writer at Shape magazine about for them to feature me.  And this was really a really crazy experience. I had started writing down my goals every day and one of the things I said I wanted to do was to be featured in a magazine. And then when this came across, it was just my mind was kind of one of the reasons I wanted to be featured in Shape because for me, I saw that as being a huge opportunity and a big milestone, being able to be in touch with so many women who break that theme that they struggle with liberals. So that was something that I had set a goal for myself. And I truly believe in the law of attraction and manifestation. And so that is really what I saw this. And so it’s something that I had thought about, something that I wanted, and it’s like attracts like, so my thoughts attracted that opportunity. And it was just kind of kind of surreal to see that come to fruition. But I really think it was because I had decided what I wanted. I set my mind to it. I was open to that offer, something exciting, and I love it.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:13:44] Can you talk about hitting your sales goals and what does that mean to you? I feel like so many of you listening struggle with this. But what I find is that a lot of dietitians don’t set goals. So if you could talk a little bit about that process and what you learn from it.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:14:01] So again, here I really track this down to writing my goals down daily. I cannot tell you how it’s such a simple path to do, but it is honestly so crazy, life-changing. So obviously, to be able to have a goal to write down each day, you have to have specific goals for each. So for me, I sat down and thought, OK, what do I want? Because in order for the walk manifestation to work, you have to have something specific. You can’t just say I want more money. OK, well, is that a penny? Is that two pennies? What does that look like? So for me, I found out, OK, this is what I want my monthly income to be. I did that based off of my expenses and what I wanted for my salary to be. So I got very specific. I said, this is what I want my monthly income to be, what would I need to do to get there? So I said I would need X amount of clients to get there. I wrote that down every single day. And I found that by doing that, I was searching for ways to make that happen. So how could I increase my appearance, my program? How could I increase my conversion rate? So doing work on sales calls in just writing down these goals, getting very clear, being open to opportunities to help you reach those goals was huge for you. And I think that’s one of the reasons I have been able to consistently hit my goals because I have those specific goals in the first place and B, because I have them on the forefront of my mind every single day. And I said something that we recommend using every single day because you don’t be the one stand expected to last. The same thing is with motivation. Doing it every single day is going to help you keep everything that you want on the forefront of your mind. And I definitely think that’s helped me that motivation daily writing my goals has helped me to achieve those goals because I’ve been open to creating those experiences to make it happen.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:16:15] Amazing. Super inspiring. Thank you for sharing that with us. Can you speak about investing in your brand?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:16:23] Yes, but this is something that I had resisted for a long time because it’s scary. Investing in yourself is scary. And I for me, I felt a little guilty over it, to be honest. But I should have been spending my money in other ways. But I looked into the future and I knew that I knew what I wanted and I knew that creating this business was what I wanted to do. And there was two options. I could sit here and drive myself nuts and also drive my husband nuts because I was cranky and moody and frustrated about not knowing how to do things. Or I could reach out for a mentor, for help, for someone to guide me, someone who’s done this. And so when I looked at it that way, that’s what I chose to do. I saved my pennies so I didn’t have to make this huge financial issue. It was something that I had planned for. And I can tell you 100 percent, 100 percent that it has been one of the best. It has been the best thing that I’ve done for my business, because when I reached out for help was when I started to grow. You’re able to see things through a different light. I have someone who’s been through it. Yes, you can do it yourself. It’s going to be frustrating. It’s going to take you so much longer. So it’s something that I don’t regret at all. It was I also think it was kind of hard for me because sometimes when you reach out for help, I know I personally struggle with this. It makes me feel like a failure. But I should be able to do this myself. Why can’t I think so? That was definitely a big struggle that I had to overcome that it’s not that you’re not good enough or anything like that. It’s OK to ask for help. And I know that that’s something that I struggle with.So that’s something that probably caused me to put off this for so long.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:18:23] Understood. Any reflections of our work together?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:18:27] Yeah, it’s been fabulous. Like I said, having you as a coach has been absolutely amazing. My business has grown more in our time together than I had ever had. We not work together. Just having someone who can walk you through it, someone who can help guide you, hold you accountable is huge because we all have these ideas about what to do about fruition, helping you to kind of be accountable for the things that I want to get to always support me, if you can, to the emotional side of things. I mean, this can be frustrating. It can be tough to have someone to talk through those things with you and figure those things out and have support has been absolutely huge. And I feel like I have so much clarity. My business is I actually feel scalable now. It’s not piecemealed together. So there’s been a long story short, there’s a lot of positive.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:19:31] That’s great. And considering that you said investing in your business was hard, understandably, how do you feel now that you’ve hit your sales goals? Meaning do you feel now at a different stage of success and growth in your business? I would consider you a high performer. Do you feel more inclined to invest more in your business or do you still feel some of that hesitation? I’m curious because I’m all about and I have a philosophy where I like to invest more as I grow more in my business. And I’m wondering a little bit of the mindset and how you feel that factors into your high-performance progression as such an amazing Dietitian who’s now scalable. It’s great has a scalable business.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:20:13] I do think that investing in your business is one hundred and eighty percent needed. It’s something that I definitely much more comfortable with. I think it’s probably hardest to make the first investments.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:20:26] Sure.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:20:27] To make that first leap because it’s almost kind of like the fear of the unknown. Will this work? You know, is it something you really need to do, especially in the beginning stages of building your business? You’re kind of like like I want to keep my son as well as possible. But when you invest and you do it, you’re going to gain so much more income, so much more potential, so much more reach. So for many things. And so for me, it’s definitely changed that. I love it. I see my business because they see it as a way for it to grow even more, you know, for it to be able to continue to be scalable and take it to the next level.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:21:10] That’s amazing. I love that. And can you give us just like a couple, maybe one or two examples of investment beyond coaching? Just to I think maybe a lot of you listening don’t understand exactly what this means to invest. So I can give some examples I’d like to to hear Colleen. I mean, for example, photography, that’s an example I can think of anything else in line with, like whether it’s a lower middle range or a higher investment that you feel has been really worth it.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:21:39] A couple of things. So kind of lower ticket ones, just different management systems to help make things on autopilot. Absolutely. Love it. Again, I’m not tech savvy by any means, but I’m always on their chat with their support people and they always help me. So that’s something like workflows, you know, making automated for you.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:22:02] That’s great. Great insight. Great insight with a little to get to because that’s only thirty dollars a month.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:22:08] Yeah, it’s fabulous. So that was an investment. But again, it’s something that I was like, oh, do I really need these automatic emails to go out? I just send the invoice via e-mail and that’ll be fine. Oh my gosh, it takes so much of your time. And now I can afford a client and it’s just. Oh, it’s just that’s time I can be spending with my husband, my dog. So I love it. That was an investment. I just got my website redone and I’m obsessed with that. I mean, if I feel like it’s reflecting of the business, that’s great, especially with having this premium offer. It’s something that my website was not matching up with before, but it was a decent investment. To me, that’s more of a higher ticket investment. So that was a tough one for me to make. But again, I want to see the benefits of investing in your business. I am so happy that I did it because now it’s going to say that I’m proud to show and I’m proud to direct people to. So that’s that’s one autography. It’s another one just having quality images of yourself, of your brand to be able to portray the image that you want to be is huge and. That was something big for me to be able to have those photos to show that was the big one.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:23:33] Yeah, and I will say I have a strong philosophy. Or if you’re in the beginner stage, I don’t think you need either a website or you need anything beyond a basic website. You can survive with a landing page and make sales. And what I love about Colleen is that as she’s progressed in her brand and created such a powerful brand and really been so clear with their messaging, you know, what you’ve done is you’ve aligned that clear message with your website. And as you’ve progressed, your website has progressed and your brand has progressed with you. And that’s exactly what I recommend. So a lot of dietitians like to get this beautiful, fancy website at the beginning. And if they do invest, they say the first thing I’m going to do is a website. And what a lot of you listening might not realize is that before you have clarity on the message and the content, that website doesn’t mean much. So what matters is that the website is a reflection of all of the hard work that you’ve done to identify how your business aligns in the market, what problems you solve, and how you have identified purpose and passion with your business. And I think that’s what Colleen has done such a good job of achieving. And your website is very beautiful. And it’s so you and the colors and the style and again, even the professional photography, which again would be like a maybe lower take it investment. All have just turned out so well. But for those of you listening, I don’t want you to realize that Collene didn’t start with this beautiful website. She worked her butt off to get clear with where she is today. And it doesn’t necessarily have to start with a beautiful website. It starts with getting behind the scenes, getting behind the computer and getting clear with who are…like Colleen said, she went through some niches. She spent some time. She’s dedicated, she’s passionate. She makes time and prioritizes time to learn and grow. And those are the steps that come before having that beautiful website. Common misconception, and understandably so, because everybody needs a website, no doubt. But the question is, at what point do you need a website? So I just want to I don’t think Dietitians need to focus on that first. If you’re listening and you’re new, you need to first focus on your message before because the content strategy that goes into a website is no light. It’s not a light thing. It’s it’s quite a process to get it to align and and complement what you’re doing and why you’re doing in your offers takes so much clarity. So you need to do the work before you have the final product to be an accurate reflection of what you’re doing and how you exist in the market. So I was wondering, and this has been such a wonderful conversation and you are so inspiring as a high performing Dietitian, I’m so happy to have you on. If you could talk about mastering one social media platform before going on to a second platform, if you could tell us about your journey with that.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:26:16] Yeah, this was tough for me because I totally have shiny object syndrome. If you tell me that X, why do you think it was being it like, oh my gosh, I have to get on it. I need a lot of people feel that way too. Oh yeah. I don’t want to be late to the game, but for me it was tough to stick to one platform, but it’s been the best thing to do because you are going to save yourself so much sanity by mastering one by one. So focusing on one thing, I mean, you can’t really focus on something if you’re spreading yourself among five different things, trying to learn at once, it’s going to take you forever to master any of those. So mastering one platform for me that was Instagram, looking at those insights, finding out what works, finding out a flow of content production has been a huge event. That’s like a sexy beast. So much sanity, it seems those around me, so much sanity have a stressful. Oh yeah, yeah, I do a million things at once if it helps with no balance between work and life because you’re not trying to do anything but one thing, you have to do that all you can take it piece by piece. If I love that passage of your message before you try to separate yourself from around all of these social media platforms has been huge. And then you get into such a flow with it, it’ll start to become very easy. And then it almost starts like it’s kind of OK, you know, Instagram, this is how are you? And then you can go on to your next platform. What do you want to do for that signal? And then you don’t have to worry about slipping back on your first platform for me, Instagram, because at that point, it’s just so easy. It’s effortless. It feels it feels natural that you’re able to focus that energy onto the next platform and creating understanding how to create good content or whatever.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:28:28] All right, so yes, and for those of you listening, I want to just clarify a couple of things, because I think there’s some ambiguity with me saying mastering one platform. What does that mean? What is mastery mean to you? I think we should define that so people listening can not make assumptions based on vanity metrics, which I feel people often do. Like when I hit this number, I’ll go on to another. So can you explain what is mastering mean in your journey?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:28:56] So for me, mastering has been being able to clearly and concisely convey my message and have the outcome that I want. So leads and building email list and to have it be done in a way that feels natural, easy, it’s not piecemeal, know patchwork, it’s very, very easy.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:29:26] Yeah, and Colleen has a process. So what I love about you is that, you know, nothing that you just said had to do with the fact that you’ve got over 40000 followers. It all has to do with how you’re using the platform to be clear with your message, solve problems, be a resource for women who want to break food rules. You know, you’ve obviously done such a good job that your visibility is recognized by Shape magazine. And then you have channels, you have different income levels, different options where people can either do a course or one on one. And that’s it’s not just creating those options. It’s actually having people purchase your products and services consistently after they’ve found you through this lead source of Instagram. And so what I love about Colleen is she is proof of concept. She’s using the Instagram as her primary source achieved results from her sales goals with a course and a premium service. And then at that point, she says, OK, I’m going to take this framework. I’m going to take this concept of what I do with my brand and then choose another social platform. And that’s what I suggest for those of you listening, is to get really clear on what is it look like to get the result you want. And if you try to spread yourself thin, if Colleen would have tried to do another platform, if she was trying to figure out her niche, it would have caused exhaustion, confusion, anger and anxiety. Therefore, try to if for those of you listening who are looking for inspiration, remember, the most important thing is the the back work, like actually getting clear on this, how she creates systems that give her a return. A return is a lead and someone who applies to the program or service or a sale. And so I just want to be clear with that. It doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve, you know, grown a certain amount, although growth is great, but it has to be growth with sales or else it’s not exactly clear. Totally agree. So do you have any tips for dietitians who are inspired and, you know, they follow your journey, see your amazing content, understand that you have clear systems in your business? Do you have any tips for them on how to niche down or they need inspiration for using Instagram as effectively as you have to generate organic leads and align with our purpose and profit?

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:31:37] So first, I would say I think a lot of people, people reach out to me and ask, you know, how do I get started? How can I build a business that you have? And I would say, just get started and find out what it is that you’re passionate about. Make a list of a few different topics that you’d like to talk about, things that resonate with you, and then just take them out for a test drive. So pick the ones that you like Libby that you resonate with most. Pick it up, for instance. Right. And see how it feels and then adjust. So being able to adjust is huge. I guess I went through a couple of issues before finding this one that. I tried, they did. That’s OK. It’s OK to hit. I think it’s needed as you’re figuring things out. So just stay with it. You’ll find what feels natural for you. It’s OK for it to not happen right away. I think the majority of people, it doesn’t happen right away, but just decide that you’re going to go for it and. Started some things, and it just love it.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:32:47] That’s a great feedback and I would agree pivoting is important in business, and especially when it comes to finding your niche, which a lot of us feel pressured to do. And the process of finding it is more important than the actual niche itself, because the back end of understanding, you know, how to apply yourself and go through the process is repeatable. So if one niche doesn’t work, like Colleen said, it’s important to be authentic. I know Colleen has said that throughout this conversation, and that aligns with how I feel, too. If you’ve tried something on a dress on and you decide it doesn’t work, that’s OK. You can try on another dress. It’s not a problem. And pivoting is part of the process and it’s to be accepted and embrace. The problem is when you’re so scared that you don’t try at all or you’re too afraid. Yeah, it’s mainly fear. And I get it. I mean, I struggle with fear too, and I’ve been very open about it. And so is Colleen. Colleen was afraid of investing in Coleen’s, had multiple breakthroughs. So we’ve all been there and we’ve all reflected on it. And I think it’s important that to take in her advice and say, OK, I can pivot. I give myself permission to try reflecting on what’s a what’s of interest to me so that I can focus my message in the market and hit all my sales goals and align with purpose and profit. Right. Because that’s that’s what’s important. Any other final thoughts you want to leave us with today? This has been so, such a wonderful, inspiring conversation.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:34:12] I just say, if you have any questions or anything, feel free to reach out to anyone. I’d like the Dietitian to our presence on social media are all super, super great to chat with. So if there’s anything that you’re struggling with or one network with anyone, I would encourage you to do that.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:34:31] Great, great advice. And if you could just remind everybody where to find you on social, both on Instagram and YouTube.

 

Colleen Christensen: [00:34:37] Yeah. So my handle is no doubt rules and my website is excellent. And then YouTube.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:34:54] If you identify as a female Dietitian or student apply to my coaching program, I’m accepting applications now. My clients go from zero to exceeding their sales goals. I save you time, energy, and I show you how to confidently become a Dietitian boss. Thousands of your colleagues from around the world are doing it. And so can you! Apply on my website, Libby Rothchild, to check the show notes if you want that link right away.