Welcome to Dietitian Boss. My name is Libby Rothschild. I'm the CEO and founder of the Dietitian Boss Method. Our company is here to help you get started in private practice, even before you think you're ready. I've created a proprietary process to help you increase visibility, create organic content.
Enroll clients into an offer and learn sales skills that don't even feel salesy. Listen every week to your colleagues as they're being interviewed and we chat about their progress and success from when they got it started from zero to all the way to creating million dollar businesses and beyond.
Hello and welcome. I'm here today with Coach Heather, and I'm super happy to share her journey, her story, and a little bit about how she aligns with our value of balance and what her life looks like. Welcome to today's episode, Heather. Super excited to share conversations with you. Awesome. Thank you so much for this time, Libby, so I can chat a little bit about this journey that I've been on.
It's a pleasure and I say it all the time. I'm so like fortunate to work with you and that our clients get access to your vibe and your whole aura of just a great deal of empathy, relatability, kindness. I would say you were just an amazing coach, so it's just a pleasure to have you here and to be able to work with you.
Thanks, . I was wondering if you, and I just smother you with compliments, but they're all true. If you could share a little bit about your background. So you know, our clients of ours and Dietitian boss, they know a little bit, but for those that aren't, if you could just share your journey and your background.
And this is a two part, so we're gonna share another episode about your experience in private practice. So we're gonna go a little deeper, but today I just want it to kind of be a little bit of an overview because you have a really cool. And you do really cool things, and I think that having you in the business and role modeling that is so aspirational for our clients and for the community at large of Dietitians.
Yeah. Thank you so much. You know, I just wanna say that it is a journey and being entrepreneurial, starting a clinic, starting a business has so many aspects of self-learning and self-heal. Even because things come up in that journey. But just a little bit about my technical background is that I was trained as a naturopathic physician, and that means different things in different states and different countries.
So depending on where you're listening from, that could mean something different. But where I practice medicine was in the state of Arizona, so I was a primary care provider. And I could prescribe prescriptions. I did IV therapies, I could do minor surgery. And our scope is very broad in Arizona, and so I practice as a naturopathic doctor, but I also specialized in naturopathic oncology, which I was one of the few board certified naturopathic oncologist in North America.
There's about 150 of us in all of North America, so that was some specialty training I did. I was able to do a residency in a hospital, which is very rare. A naturopathic doctor, so I can really resonate with Dietitian bosses out there that are doing their clinicals. I know that hospital life experience and maybe being a square peg in a round hole kind of a system, I totally resonate with you guys on that.
I was part of that system and I was also a square peg in a round hole. . And from there I started private practice and I also taught at the medical school that is currently Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, but they're going through some renaming right now as a university. But I have been teaching oncology at that medical school for over a decade now.
So I bring some of that kind of experience of teaching and understanding the struggles of being a student, being in clinicals, being in residency. I so resonate with you guys and how to support ourselves in that path. Then I got into digital marketing. So private practice, as you guys know, it's so important to have a social media presence, and I understood that from the get-go in starting my own clinic.
Really took a deep dive into marketing and social media marketing, digital marketing, digital platforms, all of those things that can really make you dizzy. And I feel like I got even more specialty training in marketing and social media marketing than I ever spent studying oncology because it was such a foreign topic for.
Thank you for sharing that. And can I ask a few questions? What year? Yes. Was that because digital marketing is still considered innovative? Only 16% of businesses are fully remote, so it's still rare to have a fully online business. And there are a lot of pieces, the digital marketing, which can feel overwhelming, which is why a Dietitian boss, we break it down and have you do one step at a time.
So I appreciate you sharing that journey. I'd love to learn more about what timeframe that was like. Was that five years ago? So 20 years ago, so I first started virtual practice in 2009, so that's when I was doing virtual consultations, doing, back then Zoom didn't exist in 2009 or Google meetups. Yep.
So I was doing that old school over a phone that plugged into the wall. With like headset . That's amazing. You're an innovator of your time and you're ahead of the game. And our clients are grateful because you have been able to share the experiences of seeing a lot throughout the last 10 plus years in online space.
So you've been in the online space for over a decade, just like our director of operations, which is really cool to work with you and the team and to be able to, you know, all work together and collaborate because you have such robust experience in the online landscape, which is, there's a lot of pieces.
There are a lot of pieces, and I'll say I had a completely virtual office starting in 2000 and maybe at the latest 2015, because that's when I started having remote people be my front desk staff and be the people who answered my email. So I had a brick and mortar clinic, but I was the only physical body in that brick and mortar clinic besides my other clinical provider.
So I had an acupuncture psychotherapist, massage therapists in my clinic as. It's amazing. So we're gonna do a full other episode and talk about going deep into that experience and the pros and cons and reflections on private practice because I think that's really interesting. So thank you for sharing that.
Can you talk more like a little broadly about however you wanna share, cuz right now you live in Peru. Yes, I know I fast forwarded quite a bit from 2009. Are you comfortable sharing just a little bit about how your trajectory with private practice, kind of like big picture and then what you're doing now that would really share just a bit of the story of you, which is cool.
Yeah, absolutely. So the reason why I went into digital marketing pretty early on in my private practice career and in my career in general, was that I always had the goal of being location independent. So at the time, my ideal was to practice on one of the Hawaiian Islands. Preferably Maui, and I knew that people who lived on the islands did not have the same income stream as people who were mainlanders in America.
So I knew I had to somehow set up revenue from Mainland America to provide care for people on a remote island. It just so happens that I didn't end up in Maui. Instead I ended up in Peru. But that same model. Applied of being location independent and being able to serve people, not only generate revenue, but actually what ended up happening with my practice as I started serving people all over the world because, and there's only 150 naturopathic oncologists in North America, but in the world, statistically, there's even less of us.
So I ended up supporting people in different countries and creating a practice that. Not only location, independent for me, but in location independent for my patients and clients, was really important for serving people who had problem that I could help solve, which was cancer. So I'm hearing two things that I wanna highlight.
Thank you for sharing that, Heather. Firstly, you niche down. Yes. And that's something we teach. So I appreciate that. Role modeling as incredible that you said a hundred or 150, I wanna make 150 approximately. Yeah. I wanna talk just briefly about the mindset to do that, and then secondly, you decided to go fully remote to be location independent a long time ago, and you achieved that goal.
Yes, , and that's the complete alignment with Dietitian, boss, and fantastic role modeling. I wanna start with fully remote, like that's really big motivator for our clients and for a lot of people it's a big, you know, sell. What kind of motivated you enough to do that? Is it the experience, the travel? Like what made you so dedicated enough to actually make it happen?
I saw problems that I didn't like about how practices were ran, and I wanted to solve those problems to have a better experience for my patients. So going fully remote with my front and back office was more about my patient experience than location independence. It happened to. Naturally feed into location independence.
But my experience was someone who supported people with cancer in my personal life Was that when they were at checkout or like the front desk person was always distracted, it was always this like push and pull between answering the phone and paying a hundred percent attention to the person on the phone or dedicating themselves to.
The person standing in front of them, in person in the practice. And so I had decided early on that before I even opened my own clinic, I had decided that I never wanted the phones ringing in my office. I felt it was distracting. I felt it was rude to the people who were there in person and they didn't feel well cared for.
So I immediately first step, took phones out of my office and took 'em. Wow. It's really inspiring to hear that you did that before. That was a thing that's still not common in a lot of private practices, so you are truly innovative. I just wanna highlight, and I feel this and working with you, you're coming from a standpoint of always putting, you know, the client first.
I'm glad I asked cuz I didn't know that. So your impetus for going remote was, Primarily based on the client having an amazing experience and then secondary for you to travel where a lot of folks reverse it. And no judgment about like your order of priorities for those who are more interested in having drink at the beach or however you wanna spend your time.
It's always a balance of both, right? So we wanna be client-centered and you can have access to more people, especially only one. Of 150 people, I'm sure you have more access as a remote worker than if you were to be in person. Right? Because that would limit you as well. So I can see where there's so many benefits to the end user, meaning a client for you to have a remote business, but it's one thing to dream it and then to actually do it and you actually did it.
So that's super cool. Thank you. Can you share a little bit about the nicheing down process? Like is that something in your digital marketing education, is that what you learned or what got you. Do that, did that feel scary for you or natural? No, that was completely natural for me. Okay. So unlike a lot of my colleagues, so a lot of naturopaths are jack of all trades, right.
They do general practice, they do general medicine, family medicine. So it's rare in naturopathic medicine to niche down the way that I did. The reason why I applied to naturopathic medical school, Was because of my personal experience of my dad dying of stage four colon cancer, and I knew that that was the problem I wanted to solve.
I saw so many problems in the way people with cancer were treated, and I also saw a lack of dignity in the dying process, and I wanted to be part of a solution. Within the context of conventional oncology, which is also why I did a residency in the hospital. Cause I'm not anticon conventional medicine. I wasn't standing in that space of the conspiracy theories or other things that go on with natural cancer care
But I saw some problems in the current system that I felt needed to be shifted in order for people to experience cancer with health and dignity. So I. From day one that I was gonna be going into this niche, and then every step that I took in my training was about how to be the best that I could be in that particular area of expertise.
That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that, and I love you sharing your story. I have so many more questions. Luckily, we'll have a lot more time together to unpack bits of your story. If we could talk about today's intro to you a little bit about now where you are, the life of Heather and Peru, and how you're operating, and how Dietitian Boss is involved with that.
Could you share just a little bit about what your life is like? Almost like a day in. Now, or if you could just share that. Yeah, I would love to share a day in the life and actually anyone's invited to enjoy a day in the life in Peru because part of what I've started here is an invitation to like my old self, to experience my new life.
And some of you guys might resonate with this. So in my old life I was running my own business. I was working anywhere between, I was seeing patients anywhere between eight and 12 hours a day. Plus running my digital marketing plus writing a book. Plus, plus, plus plus. So I was working about 14 plus hours a day.
I would start working at 6:00 AM in the morning and I would end at seven or eight o'clock at night, which is not a recipe for health and wellbeing. . And so now, How that's translated into my remote life and my current life is I sleep until I am ready to get up, which is usually around six 30 or seven, and I have a very calm breakfast, and then I get to enjoy the mountain views that I have around me.
And then I usually do something around nine o'clock is when I either start working with our Dietitian boss clients or start doing things to support the people who. Opened a little retreat house, and so I'm supporting the people who are staying here in our houses here and giving advice on where to eat and have fun in Peru.
And then I'm also just enjoying my surroundings here, a beautiful natural area. So I get to walk to town and go grocery shopping in our huge Mercado, which is all full of local food. It's like a farmer's market dream in the. On steroids and that's kind of day in the life. I support our clients for a couple hours every day, give some feedback, and then I'm able to wind down and go to bed and rest and take care of myself, like cook real food,
I actually have time to cook. It's just a complete opposite of how I was caring for myself, my body, my home when I was working in my private. Thank you so much for sharing that, Heather, that was such a special recap of your adventures. I know we didn't even touch the surface of you, but I really liked sharing a little more about you so that our audience can learn what you're up to and who you are and what you represent and your story, and I think that's really powerful.
We are gonna record another episode that I want everyone to listen to. That'll be more about your experiences in private practice, things that you regret, or things that you felt really good about in private practice. So we're gonna go a little deeper on that piece of the story. So make sure to, to check out that next episode.
And thank you so much, Heather, for your time and you know your energy today. Thank you, Olivia. We are so excited to offer you support in our various programs. If you identify as a beginner and you're looking to lay down the foundations, our society program might a great sit for you. I encourage you to go to Dietitianboss.com under group coaching and apply for our experience, our transformative experience based off of my proprietary system called the Dietitian Boss Method.
Additionally, we offer a higher level program called Executive to help you hire and manage a staff as you expand and scale your program, whether you're offering a membership course, group programming, private coaching, or a combination of various different offerings, we're here to help you on your journey with developing processes and implementing the operational foundation that you.
To reach your goals. A lot of our clients wanna work 20 hours or less a week, and we're so proud to say that we've helped them achieve that goal. And you'll hear their stories on this podcast. Make sure to stay tuned and apply if you're looking for support to get there faster and meet some colleagues along the way who share your same growth mindset.
