Let's time travel together back to December 2022 when the last season of the Freelance Dietitian Podcast wrapped up.
Since then I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what is really important to me as a business owner and being honest about things I do that I don't even enjoy (but I thought I had to??) Maybe you can relate?
Love the show? Consider donating, leaving a 5 star review, or sharing this episode with your friends! Your support keeps the show afloat so new content can be released every week. Thank you very much!
Let's time travel together back to December 2022 when the last season of the Freelance Dietitian Podcast wrapped up.
Since then I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what is really important to me as a business owner and being honest about things I do that I don't even enjoy (but I thought I had to??) Maybe you can relate?
Love the show? Consider donating, leaving a 5 star review, or sharing this episode with your friends! Your support keeps the show afloat so new content can be released every week. Thank you very much!
Hey, and welcome to the freelance dietitian podcast. I'm your host, Julia. I used to be a clinical dietitian and now I'm a freelance writer and entrepreneur. If you like hearing about ways that you can make money while also prioritizing your life work balance, then I think you're going to love this podcast because that's what I'm all about. Let's start this episode.
Julia:
Hey, here we are. Episode two of season four. Woo hoo. I think this is episode number 53, which is pretty darn cool. When I started the podcast, I just did it because I wanted to push myself to do something I've never done before. And I just knew that I've always loved podcasting, so I just thought, okay. Yeah, let's give it a try. What does it feel like to be behind the microphone? Taking breaks and having seasons really does work for my brain and putting out content. I mean, it's entirely optional. It's been a love story ever since. Number 53 feels pretty cool. I am just sharing that little, I don't know, background info with you in case you're on the fence of making your own podcast, you should just do it. You don't always need a plan of like what you're going to build something out to be in your business. Sometimes it's fun to take the dive and try it and see how far you get with it. So, yeah, take that as a sign. You should totally do it. If you're thinking about it, you should totally do it. At the end of last week, I did promise you guys, I would catch you up on what I've been doing for the past six months. And I don't think it's really necessary to do a month by month breakdown because things have been very stable. I just want to give some general themes of what I've really been working on and applying over the last six months. What's been going well. And what are some things that I'm still trying to figure out? So let's time travel. Let's time travel, six months back. I remember feeling in December, very proud of my first year full-time as an entrepreneur and then very burnt out. Honestly, truly, I was a little bit too burnt out to the point where I couldn't even enjoy. The successes or the milestones, or appreciate the small things. And that's how, you know, it's time to reevaluate how am I managing time and energy? So I'm not really a person to set new year's resolutions, but I do enjoy the symbolism of, you know, a new year, a clean slate. So it did just feel like a very organic time to start fresh. After the Christmas holidays I came back and I said, okay, What is working. And more importantly, what do I even like? How do I even enjoy spending my time in this business? I feel like I am definitely someone who compares themselves too often to other successful entrepreneurs. And then I try to emulate what they are doing because obviously it's given them success. So my brain says, well, those best practices are going to bring me success. But then the problem ends up being that you are living someone else's dream. Then you take a step back and be like, okay. So what are the actual hard skills that I can take away here that will help me continue to grow my business? Continue to help me grow as a person. And how can I tailor that to the stuff that I'm actually interested in? I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't send me a message because that's been, because that is a area that I've been exploring lately and it's really hard. Because you have to be brave because it means that you have to go off the path that someone else has carved out and forge your own. And although that is exhilarating and thrilling. It's also frickin scary. And some days I am living with the fear comfortably by my side and other days, I just want to curl up in a little ball and I'm like, wow, it is scary to go ahead and carve your own path in the world because there's no guarantees. I think that is something that is always in the back of my brain. I love security. I think every healthy individual love security. And sometimes when you're burnt out. Your threshold for discomfort decreases. So I entered 2023 with those thoughts in my brain and I decided, okay, I need to get off social media because I need to have a break from seeing what everyone else is doing. And I need to figure some stuff out for myself. And when I dug deep, I realized, okay. The most important thing for me is to create consistency so that I can feel more secure. For me, that meant going even deeper into my writing business and exclusively focusing on that. For the last six months, I've been really focusing on building up a consistent schedule with my clients. A consistent work schedule and payment schedule so my business can stay financially healthy. And then I've also been working on pitching regularly so that I can keep that vein alive that brings in new work and new opportunities. The way that I've done that is just through scheduling times into my calendar and sitting down and doing the work. There's no magic formula there. It's just about being diligent and not putting things off or procrastinating. That's been helpful for me. Something that can help me, uh, stay back, like feel more balanced with that schedule is dedicated times for work and including times for fun. And I will schedule those directly into my calendar. Whether it's a yoga class or a coffee date with a friend. Or going out of town for a little day trip if I can swing that, that doesn't happen every week by any means. But, you know, those little glory moments that make you realize, okay, this is why it's all worth it because I get to do these fun things. So for me, that's been really working for the past six months. The types of work that I've been doing has just been writing. I'm a writer. I love to write. That's it. Some fun things that I've been doing would be some nutrition consulting specifically for apps. I think the health technology space is. You know, it's already here, but it is just exploding and booming. And honestly, you can try this. You can put nutrition consultant into your LinkedIn header that describes you. And people will probably reach out to you. That's how I've gotten every single opportunity is through LinkedIn. And nine times out of 10 at somebody developing some health app. And they have a nutrition component and they want you to consult and share expertise to make sure that the knowledge they're sharing is legit. Uh, I wouldn't say that they're all created equal by any means. But it's still cool to see how you can leverage your credentials and see what opportunities are out there. I feel really compelled to say that if you do accept any kind of work, whether it's writing or consulting or anything, always have a contract, do not do any work without having a contract in place. Okay. Good. So in a nutshell, those have been the biggest things that I've been working on for the past six months. I think one thing that really stands out personally as being the most beneficial for my business was taking time to sit down and write, what do I like doing. How do I like spending my energy? And then I also included a column that said, what do I dislike doing that I'm currently doing in my business. What's not serving me. I don't know how you operate but I find it's really hard to be vulnerable and saying out loud, what I really want. I always hold myself back. I'm always like, oh, this would be my first place option, but I default to my second, always. I don't know if it's just like, I don't think that I'm deserving and maybe I don't think I'm capable. Maybe. I don't think that I'm confident enough to actually pull it off and make it happen. But it's definitely a mindset that holds you back and it is something that I am continuing to work on and that's the best you can do. We're all just works in progress, baby. And there's no judgment in that. I think also, I know this may be a bit rambly or repetitive, but I think something that allowed me to freely explore those sides of my business more in my own wants and dreams was taking time off from social media. It's so hard to picture your own version of a happy life when you're constantly consuming other people's lives. Uh, so, you know, I can't say enough how valuable that was. And I think if you're somebody who's feeling really stuck between a rock and a hard place and just so lost and so unclear about where to go next, maybe you do that exercise and see what comes out. You can message me if you need support or friend in the corner, you can message me about that. That's all I wanted to share in this episode. I am doing slightly shorter episodes because it is summer break. I know people are busy. In the next episodes, I'm probably going to spend time unpacking more of these concepts in more detail. Like I said, I'm pretty big on mental health and growth this season. So if that's what you're into please stick around. If there's something from this episode, you want me to talk about a little bit more, shoot me a message. You can reach me on Instagram at freelance dot dietitian, or you can always send me an email@juliaatfreelancedietitian.com. So I'm going to sign off. I hope that you guys have a great week and I'll be back here next Tuesday. A friendly reminder that if you love the show, please consider leaving a five-star review or you can leave some commentary. Any feedback that you provide on the show, boosts the algorithm so other people can find it easily and enjoy the content as well. Thank you so much. Bye