057: Develop Your Business Brain!

Hey, happy August to you!

In this episode I talk about the age old business formula for success: offer a solution to a problem. 

But what does that ACTUALLY mean in the real world??  Tune in to hear my thoughts and learn how you can develop this skill.  

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Transcript

0:01

Hey everyone. 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 entrepreneur, and I do a couple other things on the side. I am back from holiday and i'm ready to catch up let's dive into the first episode of the new month. Hello and happy Tuesday to you. If you are tuning in on the day that this episode is going live. It's a new month, which always feels like a clean slate. I don't know about you guys, but it is exciting when there's a full. Four weeks ahead to plan and do fun things in the summer. We did our big vacation in my family, but we still have a couple smaller camping trips booked up and I'm, I love it. That for me, that's like the best way to spend the summer. I always feel. The most relaxed when I'm in nature and unplugged and. Just makes all your worries feel small. So that's what I'm looking forward to this month. A couple other things that I'll be doing this month is, um, Doing some pitching to beef up my client roster. I do find in August, people are slowly coming back to the work table after being on holiday. So you're more likely to get responses from pitches. And I'm going to be working on something new for the freelance dietitian, which I'm not entirely ready to share with you guys yet. Uh, but it is going to be some educational resources for you to help you launch your own freelance careers and also to help build your own business knowledge. This episode I really want to talk about what does it mean to be a business owner? I think this is something that I didn't really understand until this year. It took me a long time to truly educate myself and learn about business. Because like so many of you, I went to school for science. I went to school for nutrition. I always liked businessy things. I was interested, but I have no formal education. And lately there's been a lot of change happening. Unfortunately, there's been a large number of dietitians in Canada who were laid off from a huge retail chain. And stability and security isn't necessarily as reliable as it once was. And naturally people are looking to other ways to make money, and to survive the craziness. So I do feel like it's also a perfect topic because I've been reflecting so hard on vacation. Oh my gosh. It was a really enjoyable reflection, but I did think about everything. Every nail and board. That's built up my business and just, where do I want to go from here? And I thought that would be a good podcast episode for today. The first thing I want to just make really clear. Is the saying that to be a successful business, you have to offer a solution to a problem. And I've heard that a lot and it's absolutely true. But I've, I didn't really, like, I wish I had seen a couple of concrete examples to see this formula, so that could really click because I think once you learn this. Breakdown method of approaching a problem and coming up with a solution. It will help you find clarity in your own potential freelance endeavors so that you remain crystal clear. Uh, but what you're going to offer. And that's really going to make your business succeed. The other side of that coin that I do want to touch base on today is knowing that you don't have to have it all figured out when you take this first step into your freelance journey. You might be on your 500 step. And it's still okay. To recognize that you have a lot of learning to do still. I think that's healthy and I think that's a sign that you're going to be a great business owner. I guess I might be projecting a little bit here. Like I said, I was mulling over a lot of thoughts on holiday. But I think too often as dietitians, we niche, or we identify with a certain subject matter or demographic or condition that you're addressing. And you kind of forget that you're allowed to pivot. You're allowed to switch to other things if you want to., you absolutely should grow in your business and change your services based on what's in demand. These are all really high level topics. So I apologize if it feels like I'm going straight to a hundred and this episode, if you've been listening since season one, I think you can keep up. But for newbies. Uh, maybe you want to go back a couple episodes and just do some foundation education there. Um, but it's just something that comes with time and with experience and. And yeah. Okay. So here I go. So when it comes to the formula of figuring out the service in your business, I saw this ridiculous comic that really simplifies it. And it says everybody is going to the gold rush and they want to go and get their gold and make their fortune. And you should. Be one of those people and you should absolutely get in there and get your piece of the pie. Or to be extra smart, you can be the person who is going to be selling the shovels, that those people who are going to come and dig for gold need to push their business forward. And by becoming that shovel person you become essential. They cannot dig for gold without you. I think it might be worthwhile to go through a couple other examples so that you can start to also see where exactly the, the most beneficial point is when you're building your business. So, for example, I'm a freelance writer, so I'll address that right away. The freelance writing. Benefit to a client, is that it helps them with their longterm marketing strategy because I'm doing blog writing that uses SEO practices to direct traffic through a funnel to their website. And ideally convert them slowly into paying customers. Because I'm an RD. My credentials are that sweet solution that make it really, really unique and very desirable to certain companies. Other examples of freelance dietitians who've come on in the past that I think have done an exceptional job of offering a solution would be a virtual dietitian. People who are opening their online practices and our RDS need support keeping up with the admin and the marketing. They cannot grow their business past a certain point without the extra help. Boom. That's where a a virtual assistant comes in and offers those services and becomes essential to the business. You're not trying to come up with a solution that's going to satisfy everybody. You just need to be crystal clear about what you're offering. You would be surprised how in your brain you think, oh, who's even going to buy this who even needs this service. You would be surprised how many people will come out and seek your services. And before you know, it it just takes off. Um, another one that I'm thinking a lot about these days, because I am loving writing, but I am always thinking about how can I expand? How can I grow? People are still moving online. We saw a huge shift from brick and mortar businesses to online businesses in COVID and it's not slowing down. If anything, people are wanting a piece of that online pie as well. By making their own blogs to be monetized or getting their own private practices set up. So in my brain, the most obvious person would be to become a web designer. Everybody needs a website. So can you learn the skills to become a web designer and then you become essential and then you can niche. As much as you want, you could work with dietitians who focus on renal health. You could work with dietitians who focus on cardiovascular health. Like it's amazing how you can niche down the road, but the very first step should be figuring out how your business services can be essential and that way you're always going to have work coming to you. You will never not be needed. And I think that is just a cool way to approach business. So some food for thought. Another trending area where the demand is, is developing apps. And again, I know that's very niche skillset, and that might not apply to everyone who's listening. But I'm just trying to get you to think outside the box, start to recognize the pattern of the problem and how to be that essential solution. And so apps really are this eras way so far of getting your, you know, A hundred million dollar gold ticket. That's the dream in Silicon valley. You hope that you make an app and then sell it for a bajillion dollars. There is a lot of space to grow in that field, which I think is really cool. So perhaps you do. Learn some coding classes, or perhaps you start working with the softwares there's drag and drop softwares that you can use to create an app. I've experimented with a couple. I don't really, I don't use apps for my business, so I haven't gone that haven't taken the deep dive, but I've talking to other, I've talked to other app developers and it's amazing how similar they are to like a Wix or a Squarespace website builder, but it's just much smaller for apps. I don't know, like it's, it's very cool to see all of these different areas that you absolutely could fill as a dietitian because you could offer that service to other dietitians or to other health clinics or to other people who are looking to expand their virtual services. I know, I know some of that is like whoosh over my head. I don't want to build an app, Julia. Like I get it. Really, I'm just trying to give a breadth of examples so that you can start to recognize the pattern and see, okay, this is the problem people are having. And this is how to offer the essential service. I just, I wish I had learned that at the beginning, which is why I'm like really trying to make that connection for you now, because it will save you so much time and it will also make you more confident as a business owner. I'm not saying there's not going to be scary days. There's always scary days, but It's like finally, you understand the madness and then you get to play the game because you can't really play if you don't know the rules. So, so that's why I just, you know, that's so forefront in my brain. And I just think about that all the time. Now, when I'm seeing other businesses. I look and I'm like, oh, that's why that business is thriving. It's because they're essential. I think of a hairdresser. Like everybody needs a haircut at some point, hairdressers are essential. They're never not going to be there. I like that example. Because i think i mentioned it And the episode before my holiday But even if there's someone else who's doing the exact same service as you you will always have your own audience because people who pay you want to work with you they like you they like your personality they like your energy they like your skills. Never back off of a service just because you see another person doing it Recognize that you're going to add your own flare to that and you're going to stand out and it's going to be awesome So again Don't back down go for it don't let that hold you back. Moving on the other side of that coin I was mentioning is giving yourself grace and recognizing that you won't have everything figured out when you first start and that's normal and that's completely okay. You don't have to be the master of the service that you're offering. You just have to be willing to work hard, to be receptive of feedback. Apply it when appropriate and be willing to grow. Plaster on that forest Gump attitude into your brain permanently and be willing to go on the adventure of entrepreneurship. It's fun. It's scary, but it is so fun. And so whenever things are a little bit anxiety inducing or that imposter voice tells you like, oh, I don't belong here. Just remind yourself that you're going to do great. You are so capable. You're intelligent. You're kind. And you're going to knock this out of the park. So be extra gracious to yourself and just take that first step. If you have to pivot. Then, you know, then you know that you tried the thing and you have more knowledge it's going to make you feel even more confident to pivot in a different direction. I feel compelled to share that message, because again, I know there's people out there who are starting their entrepreneurship journey right now, and analysis paralysis, affects all of us, but I would just be devastated if it genuinely stopped someone from try and achieve their entrepreneurship goals and their freelance goals. So that's it. I feel kind of rambly. Those are my thoughts. I hope that they made sense to you. This is coming from a brain. Who's been thinking about them for the past two weeks. Happy that I shared it with you. And I hope that you feel like you have something to think about. And I hope that when you're out driving or walking in your neighborhood and you see these businesses, you start to do that exercise and start to think, okay, well, what makes that. Frozen yogurt place essential that they're able to stay open all year round, even in the winter. Like what are they doing? That's making them stand out. Okay. That's it. If anyone has questions or wants to chat about this, please send me a message. I am on Instagram at freelance dot dietitian. Uh next week there will be a new episode and i'll catch up with you then have a great week Bye.