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All right, we’re back, my friend. And this episode has a potential to be a little bit grantee. Because I am passionate about what we are discussing today, which is the shortcomings of health and wellness certifications when it comes to business education. And the resulting epidemic of imposter syndrome among practitioners have a lot to say about it. In fact, this is probably going to be a little bit of a longer episode. And it is just part one, this is a two part series. This is just part one. And I already know that I’m a little too caffeinated. And I have a lot of feelings about this. So we could really get into it today. Now, there are good reasons for these shortcomings of our certification programs. And we’re going to talk about those as well. I don’t want you to think that this is all super negative against the programs that we go through to become certified in any field in health and wellness, whether it’s holistic nutrition, or any other sort of health coaching, okay, I’m not against any of that, in fact, my certification program completely changed my life. But it did not set me up for having a successful business. So that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. Before we get into it, please subscribe to this show and leave a review. If you haven’t already. It helps more holistic nutritionist and health coaches find the podcast so that they can get their work out into the world. And any little bit we can do to help others is super important. So that’s the ripple effect that we are all invested in here. As you know, please subscribe and leave a review in your podcast app, if you haven’t done so already. I so appreciate it. Alright, so diving in, let’s talk about how nervous most of us are when we get certified. Now, this is like I said in any health and wellness specialty, and doesn’t matter what your modality is at all, any health and wellness certification, how nervous Do you feel on some level? The reason for that is because there’s a lot of liability and responsibility for helping people with their health, or so we are led to believe we’re going to unpack that a little bit today. To be perfectly honest, most practitioners do not make it past this point of feeling the liability feeling the enormity of the responsibility that they get to actually help people with their health. Which is a good thing, by the way. But most people get to that point and say I’m out. I don’t know enough, I’m not ready. This is too big, I can’t really help people, they’re going to be too complicated. Too many variables, it’s too hard in my state insert all of the imposter thoughts here. Most people don’t make it past that point. In fact, it’s estimated that only 5% of holistic nutritionist in particular, that’s the subset of practitioners that I am most familiar with 5% only of holistic nutritionists have a profitable business. And I attribute a lot of that to the false expectations that are set in our certification programs. Again, that’s not a bad thing, but we have to be aware of it. Now, we are going to talk a lot today about the 5% of quote unquote, successful people of the profitable practitioners, we’re going to talk about those 5%. And we’re really going to pull on some threads about what you think about those successful people and why they are successful. And that’s going to be really juicy. But first, let’s spend some time on the 95%, the 95% of really talented and passionate people that want to help others with their health and go into this field, to heal their own issues in their body to feed their families better like I did, I had no intention of making this a business. When I first started in holistic nutrition, I just wanted to feed myself better and to learn how to feed my family better. Truly, that’s what I wanted. But like many of my students, and probably you as you listen to this, the more I learned about the impact of nutrition and holistic health in general. And I’ve learned a lot of things since those days of my very first introduction to hydrogenated oil.
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I’ve learned a lot since then. So now I know a lot. But when I was just being introduced to that for the first time, and I was really seeing the ripple effect of my entire life and my family and the people around me, and how important this information was I got so excited about making it a business. And I know that most of my students feel the same way. If you’re listening to this podcast, which is literally named the profitable nutritionist, I know that you have an interest in making this a business too. So I’m taking a leap here that you’re listening to this is because you do want to help more people you want to make a living in this field and that you’re passionate about it. Alright, so you are already in the 5% of the successful practitioners, my friend. But let’s think about like I said we’ll spend a little time with the 95% and what that is like and why that happens and why 95% of people that are feeling that passion and that desire never really help their clients and never really get their business off the ground. Why is that? Like I said we come out of our programs and this is my personal stance. We come out of our certification programs and into this industry scared to help But on some level, we are scared to help them, we are scared to over promise big life changing results for them, even if we’ve seen them for ourselves, even if we’ve experienced it. On some level, most of us are afraid to really talk about those big results and to believe that our clients can get those results. You know, I’m talking about that feeling that’s like, well, I did it. But it took me years and but I was willing to go get certified. And I was willing to listen to all of the podcasts and to go to the conferences, and I was willing to read the books, but my clients aren’t, and they’ll never be able to do it. Right. Some of there’s some spots in there that come up around this. Most practitioners, this 95% that don’t ever get their business off the ground, we’re talking about them right now are not confident in their abilities. Really, they feel like they are unprepared. Like they’re a fraud on some level, like they still have a lot of learning to do. They’re not quite ready, they don’t know if they can do it. And on some level, they think that they’re the only one feeling this way, like everyone else is going to work every day and they’re just playing dress up in their mom’s clothes. It’s not helpful. And if you’re feeling like that, too, it’s okay, we are going to talk all about it. Today, I’m going to come at this episode with a goal of completely normalizing those feelings. And explaining to you that the reason they happen is because our certification programs are trying to cover their ass and cover RS by setting us up for the worst case scenarios. Basically, that’s what these programs do. And we’re gonna pick that intimate for now let’s just normalize that it’s totally okay to feel like you’re playing dress up and still go play dress up anyway, to show up to work in your mom’s shoes that are a few sizes too big, even if it feels like that it’s totally okay. Because the reverse of that the other side of the coin is that it’s just not helpful for you or your clients to sit in this feeling of imposter syndrome and never take any action and never make offers to help people and tell them. I know what you’re going through and I can help you. They can feel that hesitation. And we need to fix it. We don’t want to live in that lamp. So yes, it’s normal to initially have a lot of feelings of imposter syndrome and doubt and insecurity around your abilities and your clients abilities to get results. That’s totally normal. If you are a longtime listener of this podcast, you know that we talk about it all the time, because these feelings will never go away by the way, they get quieter, and you get better at recognizing them and telling them to get in the backseat, but they just don’t really go away. So I because of this because this is just something that is always going to be there sitting in the backseat like that chatty kindergartener, whatever it is for you, because it’s always there. We talk a lot about this in my program. So on a recent coaching call with some of my students, I was coaching on imposter syndrome. And I asked how does this show up for you? What would a camera capture when you are having these feelings of imposter syndrome? How does it actually manifest? And what are you thinking? What are you doing?
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Here are some of the things that they shared? Will I actually be able to help anyone? I think it stresses me out because I what I view as help, is reversing an autoimmune disease, getting them off medications, when in reality, their definition of health may be much different than mine. This is an exact quote that was posted in the lounge from one of my students, she continued to say, I’ve also realized that many of these people may have been to other practitioners and will go to other practitioners on their journey, I put a lot of pressure on myself to fix them, and then think I can never do this. But working on creating beliefs around the fact that I do know enough to help people make significant positive changes in their health today is what keeps me going. So I share this one in particular, because I love what she said about her version of helping them is like completely curing them of any issues in their life, any health issues whatsoever. But that’s not real. That’s not a realistic expectation is probably not even what those clients are expecting. Super interesting, right? Here’s what another one of my students shared. When I’m so tired, I can hardly function yet my niche is adrenal fatigue, how on earth am I supposed to help heal other people’s fatigue when I can’t even heal my own? Now, is that a familiar imposter syndrome thought for you? Like I’m still having these issues? How can I help people when I’m still struggling? I’m nodding my head vigorously over here because I’ve had these exact same thoughts. And I know that so many of my students do too. So I’m willing to bet that you’ve had a version of this yourself. The cool thing about what we get to do as health and wellness practitioners is we get to teach from our own journey. That doesn’t mean that everyone who specializes in a certain symptom or a certain condition has had experience with that, but a lot of the time they have so what’s really great is that we get to teach what we need to learn. And that’s okay, because we’re always still learning. We’re always still on the journey. And if you’re a few steps ahead of someone, and you’ve been where they are right now, you can help them You don’t need to overthink this, you can help them. But it’s totally normal to feel some feelings of insecurity around the fact that you’re not 100% quote unquote healed. I say healed. Like, that’s really a thing. If you’re not 100% healed, your brain will tell you how on earth am I supposed to help other people when I can’t even figure out my own world? Well, guess what you don’t have to. And your people will really appreciate the fact that you are right in there with them. Sometimes that’s okay. It’s not something to hide from. It’s totally okay. Here’s what another one of my students said in regards to imposter syndrome. She said, when someone asked me a question, I don’t know the answer to off the top of my head, I have a lot of imposter syndrome. My thoughts go to I need to learn more. And I need to think about this more that will be helpful. Oh, my goodness, right. We all have these thoughts that we should be an encyclopedia, we should know every answer to every possible scenario, as if we’re trying to become medical doctors, or if they know the answers anyway, totally different rabbit hole that we will go down for today. But we have this expectation, right? Like if I don’t know the answer off the top of my head, anything that anyone could potentially ask me ever for the rest of my life, I am just not ready. I’m a total fraud. Huh? When I say that, is that really true? No, of course, it isn’t true. You know, it’s ridiculous. I know. It’s ridiculous. But these thoughts feel really real in the moment. That’s why imposter syndrome is so dangerous because it feels real. Well, yes, you’re hearing right now, you’re not the only one with these thoughts. Because I am reading you verbatim, the copy that my students have given me in regards to this, we had a whole thread going in the lounge about imposter syndrome. And these are their exact thoughts. I’m always wanting to learn more and thinking that will be helpful. Here’s another quote, I’m not a doctor, a nurse, a dietitian and nutritionist. So who am I to be talking about house?
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Juicy, as if our own life experiences have no relevance, we’re gonna talk about that as well. Sarcasm dripping from that statement, I hope you picked up on it. Here’s another one of my students. For me, it looks like thoughts of so many other people are already doing this. So I’m going to leave it for them. They must be the experts. I haven’t been doing this long enough. I need more education and training first. I can’t charge for that, because I’m still learning. Oh, any of this resonating with you. And then for this student, she said all of these thoughts that I’m having create actions of overconsumption for me, I over consumed food, I over consumed Netflix, I over consumed trainings and books and more courses. How insightful is that? This is an industry wide problem that we’re solving my friends. The reason we’re talking about imposter syndrome here is because it is everywhere. You are not alone, if you are feeling less than prepared, when you got certified if you’re newly certified, or if you’re thinking back to that time, I can think back and I’ll tell you about that in a minute. I can think back to when I was newly certified as a nutritional therapy practitioner and I now had these fancy letters behind my name. But I had never felt less prepared. In fact, my certification program had done such a good job of teaching me so many nuances about the human body, and preparing me for so many different ways that clients might present to me and different protocols that I may need to use in different scenarios that could come up that I was completely overwhelmed, to be honest. And that’s why I am now on a personal mission with this podcast. And with my programs, my free course my paid programs to change this statistic of 95% of people getting so overwhelmed when they get certified that they don’t do anything with that knowledge. It feels very, very personal to me because I’ve been there and I see it with my students too. But I also know how easy and how simple it is to get into the 5% and I’m going to grow that number to my friend we’re gonna make that a lot bigger number but for now that 5% of people that do take action anyway, from a place of feeling like a total fraud, sometimes like a total imposter, but they do help people and they help their family and their financial situation along the way. It’s very important work that we do. But I do totally understand what it feels like to be overwhelmed and to be in this cycle of feeling like you don’t know enough yet because our like like I started this episode with our certification programs that we go through do a really good job of preparing us for a lot of things that probably will never come our way. And that’s their job. I thought by the time I graduated and I went through an almost a year long program. By the time I graduated as a nutritional therapy practitioner in June of 2016. I thought that I would have this business thing figured out I thought okay, by the time I actually am certified and I’ve done like washing my hands over here and like okay, by the time I’m done with that part of it. I will feel really prepared I will know exactly what to do with my business people will be flocking to me and I We’ll know all of the things, because that’s what this program is going to do is going to teach me all the things I’m going to know all of it and moving on. That was kind of what my thoughts were like, here’s what happened. None of that was true. My certification program did a great job teaching me about health and wellness and the human body and protocols, and conditions I didn’t even know existed before, then it did a lot for me in that way. But what my program didn’t do, and what yours may not have done is give a lot of information about the practical application of that information with our clients, and how to make a business out of it. And that’s okay, because these programs really are designed to help us learn about the body and to learn about helping people not to necessarily translate it into how you will take that to market and how it’s going to really show up with most of your clients to talk about that in a second. But before I get into what this actually shows up, like I want to talk about the more experience that I had for two years when I was a group leader and mentor for two more cohorts of students that were going through the nutritional therapy Practitioner program. And I got to at this was after I was of course certified myself. So I was coming in as a mentor and as a group leader. And so I got to work for two years with hundreds more students and watch their certification journey and their businesses start. And many of them stall around the time where they were just getting graduated and should be ramping up and ready to go out into the world and sell their services and help people but what I was seeing many of us know is that that never happened. And those students are in a constant cycle of, I need to learn more, I’m not quite ready yet, I don’t think I’m ready. I am not sure what’s going to happen, I need to get more certifications like a loop loop loop, right.
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And I just hate seeing this, I hated it, then I hate seeing it now, which is why I love the work that I get to do, which is to help my students to take action and to make money and help their clients anyway, even when they’re feeling a little less than secure in their abilities or their clients abilities. Students in these programs as I was watching as a group leader, and as a mentor, I was just seeing them be so scared of hurting their clients, and being so scared of being stumped by someone that came to them that was a really difficult or complex case, or had a lot of questions they didn’t know the answer to. And that was like a paralyzing fear, like I’m going to be stumped. And they’re going to know that I don’t know my shit basically, is what that comes down to. No, that’s not going to happen, it’s going to be totally fine. And you can handle it if it does. But it’s not going to happen. So here’s what when I we could see this pattern, and we could see how it played out in their businesses. This thought I don’t think I’m ready yet, which might resonate for you, too, leads to this feeling of inadequacy, being unprepared, being confused, being anxious about having conversations with potential clients, or even really promoting your business because of this thought I just don’t think I’m ready yet. And then what do we do when we’re feeling anxious? And when we’re feeling unprepared? And when we feel like we’re wearing mom’s shoes that are a little too big going, going to work? We’re playing dress up? What does that look like we’re looking for the next certification. We’re researching the next advanced training we can do. Okay, you might be reading more books are listening to even more podcasts, which by the way, is going to lead to going down rabbit holes that are even more complex and making you feel even more unprepared for clients does the complete opposite of what we think it’s going to do. But from this thought of I don’t think I’m ready might be, like I said taking on more trainings filling up your schedule with more education. Like one of my clients said she over consumes food, Netflix and trainings and books and courses, what she’s feeling these feelings might be exactly the same for you. I know a lot of chips happen in my life personally, I’m working on it. But a lot of chips go down when I’m feeling imposter syndrome. Some clients of mine have and many of the students that I was privileged to be a mentor for in these two cards I’m talking about or looking for jobs with other practitioners. So they would be talking themselves out of starting their own business and trying to look for a job with a chiropractor or officing with someone else that would take the liability off of them. That was really interesting, even though that hadn’t been there. Now, I want to make a distinction here that hadn’t been their initial plan. Their initial plan was to start their own practice. But as these thoughts of inadequacy and this imposter syndrome was really taken right towards the end of the certification program when they were feeling it more and more and more than they were starting to change the plan with I need to I need to maybe go work for a couple years for someone else first, which was really interesting because that hadn’t been their initial their initial business plan. Other people just completely would ghost on their practice clients. So they would have people that they had been working with for free or maybe for a low price while they were going through the certification and then once they started having these thoughts that they didn’t actually know what they were doing. And they weren’t ready yet, they would kind of ghost on these clients, they would say they just got too difficult. I needed to refer them to someone else. But really what was happening here is they were doubting themselves, it had been going fine, until they started doubting themselves. Fascinating, right? Many students, I have seen buy a done for you program to sell instead of creating their own, they start to believe like, oh, my gosh, I just I really don’t know how to do this, I need to use someone else’s process. I need to use someone else’s work here, instead of my own, I don’t trust myself.
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I don’t think I know enough, I don’t think that I’m going to be able to figure out what to say when people come to me. So I need someone else’s process that’s already figured this out. And then the result, of course, from all of these things is that they never do feel ready. I see this a lot. I’ve seen it in the past. And I still see it a lot of people that 95% Just never feel ready. Because there will always be unknowns, there will always be liability, there will always be client symptoms that come up that we just don’t really see come and these hard clients will come in sometimes people ask questions we don’t know the answer to there’s always going to be uncontrolled variables like that. That’s just called being in business. They’re everywhere in our life. We never know what people are going to ask us or what conversations are going to come our way. But we don’t sit in panic about it most of the time, like we do with our business, it’s the weirdest thing, right? So when this thought I don’t think I’m ready, is the prevailing thought, you will never feel ready, ever, because you will take so many passive actions in your business to try to reassure yourself that you’re ready. And what that does is it creates a cycle of overwhelm, for learning more information that brings you to more decisions that you have to make and feeling less ready by the hour. It’s what it will always create. And the thing is, is I feel like most certification programs make this anxiety and uncertainty worse, by totally glossing over the business aspect, and leaving more questions than answers when it comes to how to actually go to market and help the people. And then what our certification programs also do is they highlight the worst case scenarios. Like the absolute hardest clients, the most difficult ones, the most complex things that could ever happen. We talk about those cases. And that’s what we’re prepared for. So subconsciously, we think that that’s what awaits us in our practice is these really, really hard, hard clients and situations that were unprepared for. And I understand why this is part of the process. I do. I’m not I don’t even think it’s a problem. Now, remember, my background is real estate. So as a real estate broker who for almost 20 years has been mentally beaten into submission, about not getting sued, and how to cover my ass and not get sued and cover my eyes and not get sued. I understand where this is coming from, from the companies that certify us and from these businesses, I understand. But it’s not helpful for your business or for your future clients to perpetuate the thought that you might not be ready or that it’s going to be hard or that you might not be prepared or that you won’t know how to handle these situations, if they ever come up, you are ready. I know this, if you’re listening to this podcast, you are ready to help someone right now today, I’ve had students who created six figure businesses during their certifications instead of working with free practice clients. So I know that you could do this, get your ducks in a row with your liability insurance and whatever legal considerations you need to get handled. Because you’re gonna need to do it at some point anyway, and just do it and just start now. This is my little cya. As far as this goes, I want you to be a legal Beagle and do cross your t’s and dot your i’s with whatever you need to in the state that you are working in or the country you’re working in. But I want you to do it right now and figure out a way to go help people today. Because I know you can do it. You are so resourceful and capable, I want you to go do that right now. Don’t do anything illegal. But don’t drag your feet either. Like moving on from that. That was my cover your ass. I just want you to be in compliance as much as you need to be. But I also don’t want you to overthink it. When I was preparing for recording this episode, I had just this thought that popped into my mind of a completely unrelated and yet, I think quite related example of what this looks like. So first, a little context, I
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think that what we need to remember is that our clients and just hopefully this is helpful in the entire overarching theme of imposter syndrome is that our clients are not trying to hire another medical doctor or another specialist most of the time. And I think that one of my students whose quotes I read at the beginning of the episode really was feeling that as well as she was saying, and this is what we need. to remember is that most of my clients have already done that they’ve already pursued other practitioners, they’ve already gone to experts, and it hasn’t worked for them, or they’re looking for a different solution, or they don’t want to get to that point. Right. So maybe, for you, maybe it is a client whose kids are really struggling with their health, and they don’t want to keep going to more experts or more other practitioners, they want to come to you because you have helped your kids, this is just an example that comes to mind. Like maybe you have the life experience of a mom who has already been down this road and can shorten the learning curve for them, and just tell them do this, and this and this. So the point is, is that we don’t need to be doctors, maybe some of you that are listening to this are doctors. So I guess I’ll put that out there. If you are a doctor, then you already know how what this looks like for you. But for most of us that aren’t and don’t want to be and are never expected to be, we have to remember that. It’s not just information that our clients are coming to us to find out the information, the facts, the statistics, that that kind of stuff is all available. Everywhere else, they can get it in books, they can get it in podcasts, they can get it in all sorts of ways. Not that they want to, but they can’t write. The reason that our clients come to us, we have to remember this are the intangible support and expertise and personal experience, and the human component of what we offer. As health and like alternative health and wellness practitioners. It’s something different, it’s connectability. It’s all that juicy, intangible stuff is really what your clients want. And you are absolutely capable of delivering that right now. Without learning more without being a human encyclopedia that knows the answers to every question. So remember that as I give you this example of my OB doctor, when I was having babies, okay, like I said, this is not really an example. But it kind of it says I was thinking of like, what, what does that look like for a doctor? And I was kind of asking myself some questions about like, why, why do we have this expectation that we should be a doctor, or that we that our clients would even want us to be? Or that they would even want us to have this encyclopedia of every medication or every treatment possibility or every variation of different scenarios? Like why do we even have that. And so I was thinking about doctors that I had worked with in my life. And this
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my OB, when I was having babies is a really interesting example to think of he’s from Norway was from Norway is from Norway, I assume he still alive. And so he was, like, culturally, very different than most other doctors I had worked with up to that point. He was like, super Curt, very, very point blank, like, he would just say there was no bedside manners, what I’m trying to say, okay, he would just say whatever he was trying to say, with the least amount of words possible, he was very blunt, I happen to appreciate that. And I didn’t really care that he had zero warm fuzzies. Because I just wanted his technical knowledge. I wanted him to get the healthy babies out of my body and keep me healthy in the process. And if he was good at that, I was fine with it. But as I thought about this, it must have impacted me on some level because as I was thinking about the client and practitioner relationship, I was remembering how seriously awful his bedside manner manner was, he had none, I mean, actually, zero. But what he had was an entire team of nurses and assistants. Like he had a very big practice, okay. And he had an entire team of people there that were clearly employed for the explicit purpose of just a buffer between him and his patients. He had, he had this process was down to a science for all of the other people to have the great warm fuzzies and connectability. And to help with everything other than getting the babies out of the body. They left that to him, but everything was handled by his staff of nurses. Super interesting, right, because his certifications and experience made him a technical expert, which is exactly what was needed very similar to what our certification programs have the goal of preparing us for the technical know how the expertise, all of that, but I’m telling you, this man would have had zero patience without his team of nurses and assistants handling the human component of it, even though he was really good at the technical side. I have two thriving human children and some very difficult pregnancies to give evidence to that he was very good at what his expertise was, but I’m telling you, he wouldn’t have had anybody to practice on if left to his own devices. He was just terrible at any communication with other humans. competent, yes. The human component not so much. And I think about this and the reason I’m even bringing it up is because as a health coach or nutritionist, you are the one with the bedside manner. You are the one With all of the human component, right, that’s handling all of that. And I’d argue that the interactions with your clients that are supporting them and that are fostering those relationships is what’s going to get them the most of their results, like 90% of their results probably isn’t going to be the 10%, of technical knowhow, or giving them resources and protocols, it’s going to be the 90% of what they are lacking when they go to a different kind of practitioner or what they are lacking when they pursue these other experts that aren’t really helping them that much. So I don’t know, that’s kind of a weird sideways example. But my mind wanted me to tell it to you, because it kept coming up, I was thinking about this doctor. And just some of the things he was like, he just would just tell me, I was fat, he just had no problem telling fat I was, for example. And it didn’t bother me, because honestly, I just didn’t care. And I just wanted him to get the babies out of me safely. But I can see how in retrospect, how he had these other people working on his behalf to clean up the messes all of the time. And I think about in our businesses, we don’t have these other people to clean up the messes, we are the ones that are connecting with our clients. And that is ultimately what they want. Yes, they do want to get the results, they want to know that you know your stuff. Of course, that’s important. But I don’t think it’s the most important thing. We’re going to talk about that more in a second. Let’s just land this plane on this one that though with your certification, and the letters behind your name are not what are going to make you successful as a practitioner, your brain is your thinking is your resourcefulness and willingness to learn new things is you knowing where to find the answers when you don’t know them. That’s what’s going to make you successful, you’re connectability to your clients, their belief in you your belief in them, that human component, that’s what’s going to make you successful as a practitioner, your social IQ, your ability to be in a new situation and read the room. Your confidence, to talk to people about the problems they’re having, and say the words I can help you.
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All of these are traits of successful people, right? I have successful mentally in quotes here, these successful people, that’s what they do, right? It’s not that they’re a human encyclopedia that knows every process in the body. And how that works. If that was the case, I’m telling you, my doctor, what he would have won all of the awards, he knew the things but he was just in his own way so bad with his patients. And I’m sure so many people never came back to him because he was absolutely awful. at the bedside manner. I don’t know what else to call it anyway. I’m not saying that the technical knowledge isn’t helpful. I’m not saying that everything that we learn in our certification programs about all the ins and outs of different protocols and different systems in the body, and how different areas of our life are related and the holistic picture of health that we are trying to help our clients with. I’m not saying that that isn’t important? Of course it is. Of course it is. But can we just be honest that most clients, they need to drink water. Like they need to understand that they need to sleep at night. They need to not drink Diet Coke. All day long, like 12 cans, they need to not do those things. That’s step one. That would get them feeling results in momentum to just do the one basic thing. So for most of my students, and I’m sure it’s the case for you to the clients that you see and that are going to come to you they just need to hear and implement the basics over and over again. They need to know that you’re supporting them. As they figure out those basic things. They’re not going to try to stump you. They need water. So I do we overcomplicate this, why do we make it seem so hard? The answer is because we are human. And that’s how our brains just think on default. They just do. You hear me say this all the time, our human brains are wired to default negative thinking. Our brains are seriously wired for this to bring up the worst case scenario thinking as a protection mechanism, say stop now, because these terrible things are about to happen. So you just need to stop. And for that reason, 95% of holistic nutritionist will not help their people and they will not help their own families by building a profitable practice for themselves. Because they don’t know how to question the shitty imposter syndrome thoughts that their brain is literally programmed to think on default. They don’t have to question it. And this keeps me up at night. I’m going to be honest, this is what I’m constantly thinking about. It’s why I’m recording this episode right now. Even though if I’m going to be totally honest, my own shitty imposter thoughts are loud and clear in my head today and all days usually telling me that I’m not really an expert at this either. telling me I should go learn some more things first. Except, like my My version of this, it’s like, well, you’re not really an expert at it yet, you have to do more first and then you’re an expert, except here’s the truth of it. When it comes to thinking shit thoughts about myself and my business, I’m as much of an expert as anyone. I have those same thoughts to my friend, oh, that I’m a human to. The difference for me. And I would say for anyone who has a successful business, in this industry, or probably anywhere, is that I also give equal airtime to the reasons why I am the best person to deliver this message today. It’s my moral obligation to show up even when I want to overthink it, or even when my brain tells me that I should prepare more, or I should do more and have more experience before I present this to you, or whatever that is. And that’s usually a version of that for me. But whatever your version of that is, you have to do what I do, which is spending lots and lots of time and energy collecting evidence for how I already am a thought leader. How my unique life experiences and perspectives are exactly what people need to hear from me right now. How I’m totally ready right now. However imperfectly, I deliver this podcast episode today is exactly how it was supposed to be. It was perfect. It’s fine. This is what I do I just give equal airtime to those thoughts. If I’m going to think the crap ones, that I have to give an equal amount of time to thinking the thoughts that are the opposite, that it’s like, it’s totally fine.
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Now, let me share with you an experience of that happened in my business just a week ago, actually in the last week. So you’re going to be getting this episode in January. But right now when I’m recording it, it’s December. And enrollment for my program just closed for the final time in 2021. Last week, so 48 hours after the doors closed, I get an email from one of the students that had just joined two days before, okay, two days. Now I happened when I got this email, I happen to be in the parking lot of a Panera Bread where I was about to go get coffee, I was living my best life on my way to a very long overdue hair appointment to get my roots color, come out my perfect coffee, and make my gray roots go away. It was just it was a good moment, right. And I checked my email, I can’t remember why. But for some reason, I was waiting for an email or something. And so I had I checked it immediately when I parked my car. And I got this email from this new student. Okay, I started just ugly crying in my front seat because of the wave of gratitude I had when I read her email. Now for context, and I’m going to read it to you. For context, the student had been fired from her lucrative nursing job due to certain mandates that had recently been put in place. We’ll just leave it at that. So emotions were high stakes were high, I will say, Okay, now here is the email that she sent me. She said, best decision I’ve ever made. The second I registered, someone reached out to me, I just got off this constant call and charged $5,000 for six months, then someone else gifted a six week program to a family member for $2,000. I’ve only gone through the first few videos, I just made $7,000 in one day, which is more than I would have made in a month working at the hospital at the top of my pay scale. Thank you for praying for me, Natalie. So you can see how I had all of the emotions and all of the tears. When I read this. My friend the tears were running down my face in the Panera parking. Because I’m so grateful to be able to do something that I love, of course, but more than that, because of the huge, huge ripple effect of what this means for the students family and for her clients that she gets to step up and work with. Now think about this. And that’s what I said to her. I said, I am so excited for these clients of yours. Their lives will change because she was willing to feel the feelings of imposter syndrome and just help them anyway. And she posted this in the lounge after she sent the email to me. I said can you post this in the lounge so we can talk about it. But she was more than happy to do so she posted in the lounge and a lot of members were chiming in on this and congratulating her and we were talking all about it. And she expanded on it with a lot of just a lot of candid willingness to say that she was not feeling ready. She was she was totally feeling like an imposter. But it was go time and she was ready to do it. Right. So I give this example because that’s what the 5% and growing of course we’re making this 5% much bigger, but that’s what the 5% of successful practitioners are doing and are willing to do. They’re letting those feelings of imposter syndrome sit shotgun in the car. Sometimes they’re still along for the ride, but they’re not letting them steer the car, or pick the radio station or enter the destination into the GPS right. This is what I’m saying? It’s totally possible to feel unprepared to feel like you might not be ready and to feel like you’re not exactly sure how it’s all gonna work. But do it anyway. That’s what is available. Just Do It Anyway, be successful, make more money in one day, then you would have been able to make an entire month previously, that’s completely available. So, so juicy. And I’m just I’m so grateful to be able to do this. So now I’m going to tell you about another student of mine, who was talking a lot about the imposter syndrome she feels. And I think that this will tie in really well. So you’ll see what I mean, when I’m done reading it, this is what she said, I can relate to what everyone says about imposter syndrome, especially about how we can teach what we haven’t fully mastered yet, because that was me. Weight loss is what I teach. And I struggled with overeating and wasn’t able to stop yet. That’s what I was teaching. And some clients were having success, and some are not. And I would get so overwhelmed with anxiety about those who were not losing weight, because I struggled still so much with overeating. So she went on to give examples of that. And then at the end, she summed it up by saying this. So I told myself that every client session is gold, and an opportunity to become more of an expert. And that by me just showing up in that room. That is enough, just my supportive presence, that will be what they need. And that all I have to do is show up with joy and curiosity, and love, and then listen intently and just hear them out. I know sometimes just allowing someone to talk is enough, and offering a bit of encouragement might be enough for them.
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So she said on Wednesday, one of my most difficult clients literally said the words don’t give up on me, like she somehow knew I was wanting to. And that’s when I really realized how important just showing up was and giving people the time to work through their issues. Just the passage of time, I see is enough to allow people to change. So now I try not to get caught up in how one session goes on the surface. Because I’m working on the belief that anything I bring to a session, as long as it’s in love is in service, and that it will be helpful. Can we just drop the mic right there, right there. That’s it. How true is everything she said, I just wanted to share that takeaway. As another reminder that the work we do is so necessary, we are not doctors we shouldn’t try to be maybe you are picked out. What we are as holistic nutritionists and health coaches of all varieties, is what our clients wish they could get from their doctors, if many of them are being honest, I want that to really sink in for you and you to feel the truth of it. Because these feelings of imposter syndrome, they come from the thought error, that we should know everything about everything. And that if we don’t, it’s a problem, and we have to solve that problem. But that’s just not true. It’s not a problem. It’s not it shouldn’t even be expected. If you’re listening to this podcast right now I’m going to repeat it, I know that you have the tools and desire to help people improve their health, doesn’t matter the exact process or modality or philosophy that you teach. The core of it is this people are sick and confused and they’re suffering. And you can help them probably with really basic, basic strategies, and support. And being that human component and connected, supportive practitioner that they want, and that they aren’t getting anywhere else. I feel like I’m getting a little chilly be here. So at the risk of being kind of rah rah, I just want to say you can do this. The best part is that while you’re doing this, and you are really helping people, not because you’re an expert, and you have the answer to every single question they’ll ever ask you, it’s not what I’m saying. And you shouldn’t even expect that and they don’t expect it anyway, so I’ll pressures off there. But the best part about that is that while you are doing that you get to provide for your family. And you get to see the results of financial stability and abundance in your life while you are helping people and while you’re standing tall in your abilities, to just hold the space for them and to show up. And like my client, Jen said to just bring anything to a session with love and in service and know that it will be helpful for them. That is an amazing gift we’ve been given. Okay, so 45 minutes in, and we’re just getting
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do the exercise I want you to do today, but that’s okay. Sometimes we have to take our time. And like I said, this is only part one of the episode Can you even imagine? Okay, so let’s get back to what our brains think about these other more quote unquote successful people and what they’re doing differently in their business than what you might be doing. Because it doesn’t matter how successful you are, you might have a multiple six figure business right now. And still thinking that you’re not successful yet. If you have imposter syndrome thoughts, that it’s not enough yet, you’re not an expert, you’re not quite ready. You can’t really help people yet you can’t fill in the blank, whatever that is for you. If you have those thoughts, you will keep having them at any level of income in your business. That’s why you have to be able to see it and with this exercise I’m going to teach you it’s going to really help you do that. So you can clean it up now and enjoy that success. that you have? Well, let’s be clear, no matter what level of income you’re at, if you’re having these thoughts, you’re probably looking at people that are further along, which are the quote unquote, successful people and thinking, thoughts about them and what they’re doing differently, that it’s easier for them, or that they have special skills that you don’t have. So I’m sure you have thoughts about it, we just want to find out what those thoughts are. Because sometimes it’s easier to think about others. And that helps shine light on our thoughts about ourselves just a different way to come at the same question, which is, how is imposter syndrome showing up for me, this is just a different angle to think about other people who you might be thinking don’t suffer from any imposter syndrome, and what you’re thinking about that. So don’t use this, let’s a little bit dangerous territory here, I’m going to have you think about other people. But I don’t want you to use this as an opportunity to shit on yourself, by comparing yourself to them. And so that you have an excuse to feel bad about your own progress. That is not what we’re doing. That’s not the purpose of this exercise. What I do want you to do is something that my students are actually doing inside my program this month in the 3k, in 30 Days Challenge, which is making a list about what they think about successful people, what they think successful people think and do differently, and what makes them successful. It’s just look, it’s very fact based, like, what do we think about that make a list, sometimes our brains can’t quite see success as inevitable for ourselves right away, or sometimes it can’t appreciate the success that we are already enjoying, which happens quite often. But like I said, your brain probably can think of examples that come to mind of other people who are, quote, unquote, successful in any definition that you can think about, and has thoughts about that. So we’re just coming at it from that angle, I want you to think about the successful people, as you do this exercise, successful in business, successful in your field of expertise, successful colleagues, people that are successful in their health journey, etc. Any other successful people, and your thoughts about them will work here. You can even use my students that I gave examples of my student, Natalie or gender, anyone that I’ve been talking about here, use them if you need to. And here’s the first part of this exercise. I want you to list out how do those other people figure out how to get their clients the best results? How do they figure it out? How do other people figure out how to move forward without having all the answers? How do other people meet their goals? What do they do? And how are they capable of doing it? Get specific about what your brain thinks about them, you’re gonna have thoughts that come up in answers to these questions. What does your brain think about these other people and their success, and go nuts, and I want you to write it down. I’m a broken record. On Writing things down, I really want you to do that. Take the time to get a pen to paper and actually write the answers here. Now, here’s the part two of this, which I think is really insightful is I want you to think about those people like these successful people that you’re you have on this pedestal, where they always successful. Did they have a long learning curve? Did their first clients get results? Or did they fumble? Did they ever doubt their capabilities? Do their brains have lots of uncertainty? Do they have balance in their life and other priorities? Or you having the thought that they must work all the time to have success? They must be completely devoid of any other priorities in their life? What are your thoughts around that? Do these successful people maintain a level 10 commitment at all times and never waver? See what your brain comes up for for this, just write? Get it all out on paper and just find out what your unconscious default thoughts are about other successful people.
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This can be so fun. Have you ever wondered about how some people just make things happen in their business? Like really? Here’s an example that I think of, I say, with total love to my network marketers. But have you ever thought of someone in the direct sales space that has zero certifications, but they use a product or a system that works for them, and then they sell it to people? And those other people get success as well. It doesn’t matter what the product is, I’m sure some come to mind for you. 20 different examples off the top of your head, maybe even yourself, you’ve been in network marketing or still are. And again, I have no shade to this. I love me some direct sales, as you know, but maybe you can think of some who have just jumped in feet first in direct sales, and they have had success and their clients have had success. And there might even be a little part of you that feels some judgment about how that is even possible because they don’t have the certifications. They don’t have the experience. They don’t even know the things that you know, the injustice, right? Like I said I’m kind of kidding here, I love me some network marketing myself. And I think it’s a great crash crash course in personal development Crash Course. Maybe I think that do anyway, I think it is a crash course in personal development. Because anytime that you’re promoting your own business and for a lot of people, network marketing and direct sales as the first time they’ve done this, you are going to be absolutely stripped naked, mentally, and you’re going to find out what all your insecurities are. And then if you have the tools to do so, which I think a lot of direct sales companies try to provide, on some level, you get to work on those insecurities, and then you grow your capacity for success. And you grow your capacity for tolerating failure and experiencing the imposter syndrome. And the good stuff is waiting on the other side. So no disrespect to Network Marketing. For me, of course, I love it. But I know that when we watch other people be successful in that field, in particular, as practitioners that feel like we have more information. Sometimes there can also be some entitlement that comes up like well, how can that person be successful, and they don’t even know what they’re doing? Maybe you have some thoughts about that. And I would take that to the pen and paper as well. Do this quick brainstorming exercise today, like really do that always doing these things that I suggest with a pen and paper, although you may be tempted to just do it in your mind, do it on paper, I’m serious, it really is the key to unlocking your own thought patterns. And those thought patterns are what’s keeping you from playing small, whatever version that is for you, we all have a different version of what small is and what really stepping into our success would be that’s different for everybody. But for you, if you’re feeling any of these imposter syndrome thoughts, and most of us are sometimes at least, that’s what’s happening here. It’s just thoughts, just thoughts you’re having. And when you can take them. Take those thoughts that you have about successful people, or about the most successful version of you, or about the success of your clients, whatever your version of imposter syndrome, thoughts show up as whatever those are, when you can put them on paper, everything changes, because you’re experiencing a gap between where you are right now and where you want to be. And those thoughts are the gap. So like I said, I often say this, I’m gonna repeat it, all that stands between you and where you want to be as a paper and a pen. Take those thoughts that are swirling in your brain, because they are already there. These are not new thoughts, they’re already there, you’re already thinking them. But writing them down on paper so you can see them is transformative. Because the awareness that comes from that. And having the capacity to just observe your brain without judging it is going to take you so much further in your business, and truly in every other area of your life. But we’ll focus on your business for now is a good starting point, it’s going to take you so much further than anything else. When you have that awareness of these thoughts that you’re thinking on default, then you can start to choose more useful thoughts on purpose. And you can start to shift those default thinking patterns in a direction that’s going to be more useful. But the first step is you have to see what your what you’re thinking right now, you have to see what’s already going on in there. This is the kind of work that we do inside my program. Yes, you get all of the strategy on pricing and marketing, and all of that jazz. It’s all in there. But what you really learn is how to talk differently to yourself. You really learn how to show up as a compassionate leader that loves what she’s creating in her life and for her clients. And you learn how to look at your thoughts without judging them as good or bad. You learn how to teach your clients the same thing. Just so important.
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So if you’re a hell yes for getting a steady drip of this mental work along with all of the step by step strategy that you need to grow a profitable wellness biz for yourself that you love so much, you need to join the profitable nutritionist program at the end of the month. When enrollment opens back up for a few days, the doors are going to be open for new students to join from January 28 to the 31st. If you haven’t already, you can get all of the details on the program and join the waitlist at Build a Profitable practice.com forward slash join. So that was my little PSA. Now let me leave you with this in regards to feeling imposter syndrome and the inadequacy and all of the thoughts of fraud, and just all of that when it comes to your business, your capacity to grow your business is in your brain. That’s it. It’s just it’s all the thoughts that you’re thinking it’s already there you have everything you need. You need to tell people that you can help them by saying the actual words I can help you as often as possible. Even when you feel uncertain, and doubtful. The certification programs that we go through are designed to make us feel uncertain and doubtful so that we don’t hurt our clients. And so we don’t go out of the scope of our practice and so we don’t get sued. Just remember that those programs have a huge cover your ass component just like my real estate licensing board. Words, and pretty much every other professional organization these days. So if you got certified, or you’re in certification right now, and you’re feeling even more fearful and uncertain at the end of your program than you were when you started, that’s normal. But you have to move past those fears and start helping people anyway. Don’t wait for those feelings of being a total fraud and imposter and not feeling ready to go away entirely, because they never will. And that’s what nobody talks about. They never will go away ever. They just get less important, and they get quieter, the more people you help, and the more awareness you have, that those thoughts are just part of the deal, sometimes, I promise. Now, does this mean that you’ll never go get more certifications and learn more skills? Of course not. But I don’t want you to delay your business goals, or your personal dreams or financial freedom in your life for your family to wait for someday when you have enough fancy letters behind your name. And you finally feel ready? No, no, no, no, you can start right now. And you’re never gonna feel ready anyway. How’s that for an uplifting thought to end things on, we are going to continue this conversation in part two, with the distinction, which is super fun between confidence and self confidence, and then how to build more of both of those. Because feeling confident is a huge key to success, of course. So we’re going to talk all about that. And I have some tricks for how to create more confidence in your practice. But in the meantime, do not dismiss the effectiveness of just getting out your pen and paper for the love and just re listen to the last 10 minutes of this episode. With all of the different questions that I laid out that you can ask yourself and do the journaling exercise. So many gems are going to come from your brain that is already genius and capable and ready right now. You’re going to be able to see that when you answer those questions. So relisten into the last 10 minutes, or go to the show notes of this episode, where I have all of those questions laid out for you and listed and then do the journaling exercise. That is your homework and it’s important. Your clients need you to do that. So even if you don’t want to do it for you do it for them seriously. Alright, get out your pen and paper do the exercise and I will see you back here next week.
