Episode 420: LIVE Business Coaching Call: Pricing, Entrepreneurship & Building a Functional Medicine Practice
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This one is for the practitioners and business owners who are questioning their next step or wondering why growth feels so darn overwhelming.
In this episode, Erin is giving you a behind the scenes peek into what business mentorship looks like inside of The Funk’tional Nutrition Academy. Inside this live coaching call, Erin answers real practitioner questions around pricing, visibility, podcast growth, building a clear method, and figuring out whether entrepreneurship is actually the move.
Erin also gets into the pressure to be further along, the sneaky comparison spiral, the self-trust required to charge real money, and why trying to do 17 things at once is usually a one-way ticket to overwhelm.
P.S. What is it actually like inside of FNA? Erin is teaching a 2-day masterclass for practitioners on how to support clients through a woman’s hormonal lifespan. Grab your ticket here!
In this episode:
The reason “arrival” does not exist, even when you hit the BIG, shiny goal
Why Erin is a big fan of price transparency, and what it means if your pricing scares you
How to build a clear framework without turning your client work into a cookie-cutter template
Why trying to build everything at once can diffuse your focus, your energy, and your actual life force
The question Erin asks when someone says they want it all right now: could you actually hold it?
Resources mentioned:
Applications for the Fall 2026 cohort of The Funk’tional Nutrition Academy are now open! If you’re ready to become a certified functional health practitioner, apply now.
Join Erin’s 20 day audio course, Manifest Your Wealth to rewrite your money stories and bring more abundance into your life.
Episode 399: How To Stand Out As a Functional Medicine Clinician In An Oversaturated Market
Episode 400: 8 Years of Building The Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast: An AMA with Erin Holt
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Erin Holt:
When we pursue a lot of different stuff, a lot of different goals at the same time, all at once, we usually do that in an effort to get there faster. We're like, okay, if I could just do all this stuff, then I'll get there faster. But what actually happens is that we diffuse our focus, we diffuse our energy, we diffuse our life force. And by the way, this is like my personal one-way ticket to overwhelm is when my focus, my attention, and my energy is diffused. That's when I start to feel really, really, really overwhelmed. But when our energy is diffused, when our focus is diffused, everything takes longer.
Welcome to the Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast, spelled with a K, because we do things a little differently around here. I'm your host, Erin Holt, and I've got 15 years of clinical experience as a functional nutritionist and mindset coach, creating a new model that I call intuitive functional medicine, where we combine root cause medicine with the innate intelligence of your body. This is where science meets self-trust. Your body already knows how to heal, and this show is going to show you how. If you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health, be sure to follow and share with a friend because you never know whose life you might change.
Erin Holt:
Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the show. Today is really more of a business-forward podcast for business owners, but specifically for practitioners, and that is because we are getting ready for FNA's Fall Cohort enrollment. FNA is the Funk’tional Nutrition Academy. It is our 14-month practitioner training and mentorship. And before we open the cart and welcome our new students in, we always like to give you some insight into what it's actually like inside the school. And so that's exactly what we're doing in just a few short weeks, August 25th and 26th. I am teaching a 2-day masterclass for practitioners on how we help support our clients through the woman's cycle.
Hormonal Lifespan. So we're bringing more to this conversation than what you're seeing on social media, because I think that's really, really important. We want to give you some insight into how we practice and also how we teach inside FNA, and that will be more from a clinical perspective. So you can get tickets for that event in the show notes. But a huge component of FNA isn't just the clinical education and clinical mentorship, it's also the business mentorship as well. So today's podcast is going to showcase more of that. And this was a live Q&A coaching call that I led during the open house we did last enrollment. I lead a business mentorship call every single month where I answer all of your questions and I help you navigate whatever it is you're navigating in your business, because there's always something.
Specifically, what we're covering in today's episode is price transparency. So whether or not to post your prices on your website. I'm going to offer a reframe for when you're putting pressure on yourself to be further along than you actually are in your business, your career, or your life. We'll talk about finding the balance between having a clear, repeatable method and framework for your offer and also keeping that work really personalized, which we know is so important in functional medicine and functional nutrition. We'll talk about growth strategies for a podcast, and then finally crossroads in a career to launch into entrepreneurship or not.
That's what a lot of people are trying to decide, when do I leave my job? Do I leave my job? Do I try to straddle both? What does that look like? So we'll kind of talk through some of that at the end of the episode. Now, within FNA, we also have the Business Builders, which are classes and programs that map out both practical strategies to do in your business for how to start it or how to grow it, but also the inner work that is so important for anyone building their own business in practice, as you will hear me discuss a bunch today.
We have the Roadmap to 10 K Months, which is a 6-part repeatable framework to help you build $10K months in your practice with just one streamlined offer. We've got the Energetics of Expansion. It's like a cult classic, everybody's favorite, because I'm really addressing all of the blocks to visibility. I recorded it right after the first time I went viral and really had to talk through how I sort of achieved that from more of an emotional perspective. How did I get my nervous system ready for all that growth in visibility in such a short period of time.
Manifest Your Wealth, which is another amazing program that I had so much fun creating this one. I'm really helping you connect to your own value so that you can share it with others and like essentially stop putting so many blocks and obstacles in your way of earning. And then Meg O'Neill also leads a monthly social media session class. So she's walking you through what is performing well on social media and how to execute it without overthinking. I swear.
My practitioners are like the best overthinkers I know. And so we can create all of these reasons to not just go for it and not put ourselves out there and to make it more challenging than it needs to be and I think Meg has such an excellent way of cutting through all of the noise and just getting to the heart of the matter of like how we can just show up.
So if you're looking for a program that includes very robust continuing education, one-to-one clinical mentorship, but also the business trainings and the business mentorship from somebody who's been doing this for a long-ass time, you know, I've got staying power. Your girl's been out here for over a decade and I keep showing up and we keep growing and we keep evolving.
So I feel like I'm perfectly positioned to actually teach these things because I've been through like every iteration of my business and I can share all of the things with you. FNA is really the school for you. So apply today using the link in our show notes. I would love to invite you into the fall cohort. It is going to be great. And now here's today's show.
Erin Holt:
We got a lot, a lot of questions to tuck and roll into today, so I want to get right into it. FYI, so we're in the middle of an FNA launch and we're doing the open house. We're getting a lot of watches on the replays, so I'm speaking to the replays.
Hi, Hello.
What we do for FNA students is after we go through a launch— so we meaning the Funk’tional Nutritionist, my company goes through a launch— I usually like to do a little debrief to give you a line of sight into how things went, what Worked really well, what we learned, what things we would do differently. So then you can learn from our wins and then also our learnings. I won't call them mistakes, but our learnings too. So the open house was a brand new concept. We've never done this before. So I'll kind of debrief you guys once it's all said and done on what really worked and any wins and pearls you can take away and use in your own business. So just a heads up, we love to do that. We love to unpack and debrief launch wins and successes. Okay, so we're getting into the questions today.
This is from Diane, and Diane is — I don't see Diane here. She's been on every single open house call, so this is the first one she had to miss, but I'm going to answer her question first, and it's about posting pricing.
So, do you recommend posting your prices on your website? I've heard pros and cons, and I want my clients to be aware that there's a cost to my 6-month program, and as an unlicensed practitioner, I can't accept insurance, but I don't wanna scare them off before we've had a chance to talk about their potential transformation.
So quick rundown at the orientation, I will show you guys how to use our Q&A database. So we've been doing these Q&As for 6 years now, so there's a lot of them. They're all recorded and they're all put into a searchable database where if you are ever like, I wonder what Erin has to say about this, you can type in the topic that you're wondering about, and it will pull up any calls that I've discussed this. So we've definitely discussed pricing a bunch, and that is not to deter you from submitting your questions to these Q&As. Always do that because who knows, in 6 years my position may have changed, or I might have learned some new things, or the market has changed. So definitely always submit your questions. But if you don't wanna wait around for the next Q&A and you're like, I wonder what Erin has to say about this now, that database exists. So you can always search previous Q&As for that. And again, in the orientation, I will show you guys exactly how to do that. And so what I'm gonna share with Diane today, I'm gonna preface this by saying there is no one right way to do this.
There's no one right way to do anything in business, but I'm always happy to share the way that we do it and why I've made these decisions. So I'm a very big, huge fan of price transparency. Our prices are on our website. They are in our application. That is true for our one-to-one practice. That is true for FNA. That is true for anything that we offer. We put our prices out there, and I've always done this too, to be clear.
Part of the reason for that is I personally am an empowered buyer, so I do not want to have a conversation. I don't want to have to have a conversation with somebody in order to determine whether the price aligns for me or not. I'm a big girl. I'm a grownup. I can make those decisions myself. That's how I come at it. So I don't want to create a buying or sales process for my clients that I wouldn't want to participate in myself. So that is kind of my, my stance.
I also, when I was doing all of our discovery calls back in the day, I really didn't wanna waste my time or a prospective client's time, if they know that this is not feasible for them, then I'm not going to waste either of our time having a conversation about whether or not I could help them if that's kind of a moot point. I really, really, really value freedom, my time freedom, a lot. So if I'm going to invest my time in something, I need to know that it's worth it, that it's impactful, and that there's a reason for it. And so what I just found is that if I had to spend all of my discovery call talking about pricing, it wasn't really a great use of my time. And quite frankly, now that Rachel does discovery calls for FNA, I feel the same way about that. I don't want her or any of you going into a discovery call feeling like it is a sales process or feeling like there's going to be a pitch. I don't want Rachel— she's not a salesperson, she's a clinician— so I don't want her going into a discovery call being like, okay, here we go, I have to drop the bomb on them, I have to tell them how much this costs, And then I have to convince them that we want them to enroll in this. Like, that is not what we're doing.
It's literally just a conversation to be like, is this a good fit for you? We'll tell you about the program. You tell us about us. We'll talk about it if it's a good fit. So I just like the environment that that creates for all parties. So I like everyone before they get into a discussion to know what the pricing is. That just aligns for myself and how I want to practice. Generally speaking, Empowered buyers are empowered clients. They're the ones who show up with a higher readiness level.
They're ready to make the changes that is required to get the transformation that we want. And that is who I want to attract into our company, into our organization. I've spent the past 15 years attracting empowered clients and empowered buyers. And so what's really interesting, and, and those of you guys who are in FNA know this because I shared this last year when we discovered it. I was like, whoa, I was really surprised. What's so interesting to me is that last year our goal was to scale and grow our one-to-one practice. And so I was telling myself a story based on industry standards that we had to add discovery calls. So we weren't doing discovery calls.
This is for our one-to-one practice. We weren't doing them. And then we added them and we made them a necessary part of the process. So you applied, you had a discovery call, and then you got invited to join us into the one-to-one. And we saw conversion tank by adding discovery calls. So we went from having no discovery calls to mandatory discovery calls, and our conversion went way down. So what that really told us is our buyers are empowered, our clients are ready, and they don't need a sales conversation in order to work with us. There's always available if somebody asks for it, those are available, but we took them out of the sales process. So that was really interesting to me.
And again, I think it ties into the fact that I have been attracting empowered buyers and empowered clients for 15 years now. So that's how people are coming to us. They're like ready to go. As far as I don't want to scare them off with my prices, that tells me that some part of you feels like your fees are scary. And so that seems like really good internal work to do and to unpack that in yourself. Like, what about your fees feels scary and why do you think that they would detract somebody? So that would be more of like the internal work.
And I think that if people are getting to the point where they're on a sales call with you and they're balking at the price, then what that tells me is that they're not seeing and understanding the value. So it's more of a messaging issue and what we need to work on is conveying the value that they would be receiving through the 6-month program working with you and having that more front and center.
Kaylee says: do you think that discovery call philosophy would apply to newer practitioners as well? Kaylee, do you mean like not having discovery calls? Because I just said a lot about discovery calls, so I don't—
Kaylee:
Yeah.
Erin Holt:
I don't know specifically. Yeah. So I think that this is really specific to us because like I said, industry standard is discovery calls convert way better. And I think in today's market, you know, everyone's saying that we have a trust recession going on where people have just, they've invested in so many things that really have not paid off for them. So I think having a conversation with somebody just to like say, I can actually help you, is a huge asset, especially if you are growing and building your business from the ground up. So I wouldn't take what I just said and extrapolate it to mean that discovery calls should not exist. I think they absolutely should. And as like, you know, I know that you're doing the Roadmap to $10K Months with us, so much of our market research comes from those calls.
So we learn, and our audience, so much through having those discussions. We learn what their needs are, what their objections are, what their fears are, what their frustrations are. So I would definitely recommend to new practitioners to have discovery calls for sure. For us and where we are in our business, they did not convert, and that was like really, really, really surprising to me. So I wanted to share that. So those are some of my thoughts in terms of pricing. I believe in price transparency, so I want that out front and center for all of our offers and for all of our prospective clients to see. Okay.
Erin Holt:
Next Q is from Lara.
I often find myself putting so much pressure on myself about where I want to be, my expectations in business, finances, and experience, and it overwhelms me or sometimes makes me feel disheartened in comparison to where I actually am. I know you've spoken about the difference between the gap and the gain. However, I can get so caught up in trying to catch up to where I think I should be. The output is way more than the input, which I know is normal at the start of creating a business. I think I want everything and I want it all now. I'm wondering, in the beginning of your solopreneur journey, how did you manage your expectations, stress, and self-doubt and not get overwhelmed by the gap?
So for those of you who are like, what is the gap and the gain? The gap and the gain comes from this. Book. One of my biggest questions that I get is what business books do I recommend? So I'm going to showcase so many books today. So if you're a reader like me, these are some of my faves. So it comes from The Gap and the Gain, and we'll get to that in a second, but that's what she's referencing, by the way.
So in the beginning of my solopreneur journey, I did not have this And by this, I mean like where I'm at now. I did not have this as my goal. Okay. And I think that's really important to know and understand. And this may be— I'm like getting back into human design right now.
So you guys have probably picked up on that because I've like referenced it in all of our calls. I'm like, by the way, human design. I am by no means an expert. I am trying to become an expert on my human design so I understand myself better. But I am a non-specific manifester, which means that I manifest or I create things or I call things in by focusing on feelings, by focusing on my emotions, my general desires. And then I basically let the universe fill in the details. So I kind of like point myself in the general direction of where I want to go, and the universe kind of fills in the gaps. Because when I do that, the details, like the fill-in, is usually so much greater than what I could ever imagine or predict for myself.
So 15 years ago, hell, even 10 years ago, even 8 years ago, there is no way I could have predicted or even envisioned any of what you see and what I have built. It just was not in my frame of reference for what was possible for me. So that is just that's kind of the way that I do things, and that is the way that I think about things. So rather than have this one big goal, I kind of build the goal as I go. I'm more focusing on smaller increments, like what is the next incremental thing that I have to do and call in and manifest? I'm gonna do that. And what I'll admit to you guys freely is that how it turns out is sometimes less exciting to me than the actual journey of getting there. And that's probably why I'm an entrepreneur, because I'm a little psycho. But like, I just love the chase.
I love the hunt. I love the process. And the pursuit of the next goal is kind of what makes all of this fun for me. So I don't know if I necessarily personally can relate to the idea of getting overwhelmed with the gap. If I'm being very honest with myself, I think the times that I get overwhelmed with lack of success or feeling like I'm not like far enough along is when I'm comparing myself to someone else. I do get caught up in overwhelm and like I'm not doing enough if I'm comparing myself to somebody else's success. Yeah.
So that's a lot of us, right? And that's when I have to check myself because I'm In that situation, I'm not necessarily letting my internal feelings guide me. I'm letting someone else's external success, or what I perceive to be external success, guide me. And that usually doesn't really end very well. So back to Lara, if you are constantly comparing your now, where you are right now, to the huge goal that you set for yourself in the future, I would imagine that it's really, really, really easy to feel like you're falling behind.
So I'm gonna do a, a refresh, a little refresh on The Gap and the Gain, or an intro in case you're not familiar. So the idea of this book in this concept is that happy, confident, successful people have more of a tendency to focus on the gain. So that's where they are now compared to where they've been. Whereas I guess what's the opposite of happy, confident, and successful?
The opposite of that is that these people tend to focus on the gap, which is where they are now versus where they want to be. And I'm going to read a quote from this book that kind of helps to anchor it in.
“Research in psychology shows that confidence is not what creates success, but rather prior success is actually what creates confidence.”
So by like kind of pivoting on our heels and turning and looking at the past and being like, oh my gosh, look at how much I've done up into this point, that is actually what builds the confidence in us to pivot on our heels and look to our future and be like, okay, I can do this next thing. I'm also reading this book right now, The 6 Pillars of Self-Esteem. When I was preparing for this call, Or I was reading this and I was thinking about Lara's question when I was preparing for this call. And obviously this book is about self-esteem, but it says research shows that high self-esteem subjects will persist at a task significantly longer than low self-esteem subjects. If I persevere, the likelihood is that I will succeed more often than I fail.
If I don't, the likelihood is that I will fail more often than I succeed. Either way, my view of myself will be reinforced. And this book defines self-esteem as our confidence in our ability to think, confidence in our ability to cope with basic life challenges. So it's like an inner tenacity, and it's also our confidence in our right to be successful and happy. So to really feel like our desires matter and we're worthy of them. So I think what I'm trying to get at here is that a lot of confidence and success and forward momentum is actually internally built. It comes from within. Do we have to do the boots on the groundwork? Absolutely. But most of it is coming from within. The boots on the groundwork, like working toward our goals, is like a reaction. It is a byproduct of how we feel inside.
Lara said the output is way more than the input, which I know is normal at the start of creating business. Totally, totally. I think I want everything and I want it all now. So there's 2 things that I want to say in direct response to that. One, if you feel like you're putting in a lot right now, make sure that what you're putting in is focused input. Focused input. Work on one thing at a time. When we pursue a lot of different stuff, a lot of different goals, at the same time, all at once.
We usually do that in an effort to get there faster. We're like, okay, if I could just do all this stuff, then I'll get there faster. But what actually happens is that we diffuse our focus, we diffuse our energy, we diffuse our life force. And by the way, this is like my personal one-way ticket to overwhelm, is when my focus, my attention, and my energy is diffused. That's when I start To feel really, really, really overwhelmed. But when our energy is diffused, when our focus is diffused, everything takes longer, like much, much longer. For those of you who don't know, we're doing a course in FNA called Roadmap to $10K Months. And in this course, I have everyone focusing on one thing, not 17 things, not the next 3 things that we're building.
And Suzanne, you're just, you just happened to be right in my field of vision, so I have to call you out. I think it was the last class, maybe it was 2 classes ago. Suzanne was like, okay, so I'm like building both of these things. Or maybe it was in our one-on-one session. I don't know. And I was like, one thing, one thing, like pare it down. And this is coming from a manifesting generator. I wanna create all of the things all of the time, but I know that if I focus on one thing, I will get there faster. And so the more I grow, the more support I have in my organization.
You would think, oh, she can take on so much more. No. The more I grow, the less I attempt to do and the more focused I attempt to get, because that is what's going to get me further faster. And I know that based on just witnessing my own behaviors over the years. When you're working on multiple things, it might seem like you're getting a larger volume of tasks done. You might feel like more accomplished at the end of each day cuz you're like, I did so much, but you're actually. Making less meaningful progress. Okay.
So if you feel like the output is way more than the input, I think she meant that the opposite way. Like she's putting in a lot and she's not getting as much out. So if she feels like the input is so much, make sure that that input is actually focused. Okay. So that's like a tangible piece of advice there. The other thing, less tangible, more internal, but equally as important. She said, I think I want everything and I want it all now.
So everyone here, listen to this. Listen to what I'm about to say. If you had it all today, if somebody came up to you and was like, here it is, it's all here, you've got it, could you actually hold that? So let's say it's Instagram visibility growth, right? Could you actually hold the visibility? Could you hold 4 negative comments on your next post right now? Could you respond to 50 DMs today, right now? Do you have the time for that? Do you have time in your schedule for a fully booked calendar of clients? What about all the administrative work that comes with that? Can you handle that today, right now? Right now you're saying you want it all and you want it right now. Could you handle that today, right now? We have to get so honest with ourselves. If you had that many people counting on you, Right now, today, do you have the self-esteem and the inner resources to actually uphold that? Let's say you've grown so much you need a team, and then 3 members of your team tomorrow ask you for a raise. Can you have those conversations right now? Could you do that? So this is what we have to start thinking about. And I am telling you this like honestly, because every single time I'm working on my next goal, I I always have to ask myself, who do I have to be in order to not just call that in and receive that goal, but actually hold and have that goal? And is that realistic for me right now, given the current parameters of my life? I want it all and I want it all now. Can you have it now? Can you have it now? Be so, so honest with yourself.
I don't know, have you guys seen this reel that's floating around? The quote, like the hook is, to be in entrepreneur is to realize that the person you have to become is harder to build than the business itself. Have you guys seen that? Every time I like save it every single time it pops up, cuz that quote, I'm gonna, it's so good. I'm gonna post it in the chat. This is like the truest, truest thing about entrepreneurship. The person you have to become is harder to build than the business itself. It is so true. Like 10 outta 10.
So think about that. Like, who do we have to become in order to call in, hold, and have these goals? I love setting big goals. I would never discourage anybody from setting big goals, but you also have to become the person that can like hold that goal. So while we're waiting for the external world to catch up, for the external, our external reality to catch up, we have to tend to our own inner world. Yeah. That's the work, right? That's the job. So back to the gap and the gain. I don't know if I said this before, but I want you to think about it less as a concept.
Oh yeah, yeah, the gap and the gain. I know about that. I know about that. I know about that concept and more of a practice and turn it into an actual practice. So show your mind every day, show your mind evidence that you are making forward momentum. So I like to use, I've shared these with you guys before somewhere, these little like micro shift mantras, cuz it's like say my next goal is creating a $10 million business, something that's like so insane and so far away from where I am right now. Just to like say in my mind, I am the CEO of a $10 million company. My mind's like, no, you ain't, bitch. Like, that's not true. Fake news.
So if you create mantras in your head that your brain rejects, one thing that you can do is like kind of like build up to it. So every day I'm becoming more and more like the person who, or I say the woman who. So every day, I'm becoming more and more like the woman who— and then 3 times a day, show yourself. You could do this in your morning journal and like before bed and then midday.
3 is like not actually a magic number for this, but 2 times a day would work too. Show your mind evidence of how you're actually doing that. Even if it's this big, even if it's this big, you have to start getting very skillful at collecting evidence of the progress that you've made. The progress that you are making. Okay? Because right now you're looking ahead and you're being like, fail, fail, failure, failure. You have to look behind you and start to collect evidence of all the things that you have done. Because here's the last thing I'll say on this. Here's the secret.
Arrival doesn't exist. This is coming from somebody who's set and hit a lot of goals. Arrival doesn't exist. You're never gonna get to a point where you're like, I've made it. I've cracked the code.
I've done it. Here I am. I've arrived. It doesn't exist. So how do you think you're going to feel when you get there? You have to know the answer to that. How do you think you're going to feel when you get there? And then second part of that is how can you make it your responsibility to do things that cultivate that feeling now, right now, present day?
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Moving into the next question, this one is from Kaylee. She says, I've been building out my signature method as a new practitioner, and what I've been landing on is 4R: reveal, regulate, restore, rebuild. I'm trying to find balance between having a clear, repeatable framework framework and keeping the work really personalized. I want this method or framework both as a marketing tool to use on my website, socials, and in sales calls. Super smart, by the way, but also as a guide for me as a practitioner to walk my clients through a clear path. How do you balance structure with personalization and the difference between how a method is communicated versus how it's actually used with clients? Great. Great question, and I got another book recommendation. I really tried.
I really put them all there. So this book is Traction. It's phenomenal. This is really about team building and putting people in the right seats. So if you're not building a team right now, it might not be super useful to you. But there is a section on like building out the process. So I want to read you a couple of lines that I feel would be the most impactful for folks that are here. There's a proven way you provide your service or product.
To your customers. You do it every time and it produces the same result. It's what got you where you are. So by the way, this is a lot of what we're mapping out in the roadmap to $10K months. It's like this exact thing. What you need to do is capture that process in a visual format to guide your sales team. So many of us don't have sales teams, like where are the sales team? You know, you're looking at her. That's totally fine because you can still use this.
It should be encompassed on one single piece of paper. It must illustrate your proven process, and it must have a name. It should show each step from the first client interaction to the ongoing follow-up once your product or service has been delivered. Now, I am not like a huge fan personally myself of like following somebody's like step-by-step framework, so I've like taken this concept. It's not on one page. It's not really a visual format, but you could do that if that landed with you. You could do that. Here's why it's important: creating a standard proven process to use.
Used in selling situations, so this could be discovery calls or on Instagram, on a, or on a website sales page like Kaylee's referencing, it will give you 2 very powerful advantages. One, it will increase your potential customer's confidence and peace of mind in doing business with you. Super true. 2, most other companies don't illustrate how they work, so this will make you stand out among the competition.
Also true.
So the idea is when you have this process mapped out, you could be like, hey, let me show you exactly how we're able to accomplish great results for our customers or our clients or our patients. We have a proven process that we follow called the blah, blah, blah, the name, the 4R process. So that's kind of the thought process. behind it and how it really serves very well, like, with external marketing and sales calls. This other book, this isn't like— if I'm like referencing all the best business books in the world, I don't know if this is the best one, but there's a couple of concepts. It's a lot of fluff and it's like very woo-woo. Not to say that woo-woo is fluff, it is woo-woo, and also this book has a lot of fluff, but there's a couple of concepts. I'm just gonna like give you like the number one thing she talks about about the transformation.
And she's like, basically what we're creating is, or basically what we have is like people coming to us that want something different than what they currently have. Then there's this black box. That's what she refers to it as. And then on the other side of the black box is a person who is aligned with having what they want. So I need something, I want something, here's this black box, and then, okay, great, now I have it on the other side of the black box. So that black box is just the transformational container.
Mm-hmm.
That we are creating people, and inside the black box is where we work our magic. So the framework that Kaylee has created is the container. People, we know this, people, I'm just gonna go through them all right now. Gap and the Gain. This one is the one I'm reading. It's not a business book. It's on self-esteem. The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem.
Traction.
And then shift the field. Not really a business book. The framework is the container. And the reason why this matters and is important is because people feel safe in a container. They feel safe having clear expectations, clear guidelines, clear boundaries. We all know this. We all operate this way. And, but we also know that as practitioners, especially root cause practitioners like us, We all know that human bodies with their different lived experiences and their different health histories and their different belief systems and their different readiness levels and their different access to resources, they're all going to respond so differently and they're gonna respond on different timetables as well.
So how do we essentially align these 2 truths? One, people need boundaries and frameworks and reference points to people behave really differently within the container. I always think about it like I talk a lot about archetypes of divine masculine and divine feminine, and we really, really need a blend of both. So think about it like this: water needs a container to hold it, gas needs a container to hold it. So once we have the container, that's like the divine masculine, like Like sturdy, steadiness, safety, structure. Once we have the container, then we can be fluid within it. We can bring the fluidity. What some people try to do is have the fluidity without the container, and that's where it can start to feel like a little flaky, shaky, a little untethered maybe. And then some people like, here is the system, here is exactly what we do, and that's when we kind kind of lose like the intuitive nature of like, let me flex into and out of this based on the person sitting in front of me.
So this is where like, kind of like medicine, templated medicine, a lot of what I've talked about for a lot of years, like this is the lab result, this is the protocol, this is the way that we do it, right? That is like overly masculine, overly structured. So we truly, truly, truly Mm-hmm. We really need a blend of both of them. So having a system and having a framework to work within is a really smart practice. When we can showcase that we have this strong container that has boundaries, solidity, clarity, that's what creates the trust with our clients for us to be able to work in kind of a nonlinear dynamic way. It allows us to be fully responsive. Responsive to our clients. So a helpful reframe, if anyone that is struggling with this, a clear framework doesn't limit personalization and our ability to meet the person where they're at.
It actually creates the safety and the security and the structure for that personalization to happen. Okay. So now that we've like set the context, we can answer Kaylee's question. So in our one-to-one, we do have a clear repeatable process, and I'll show that to you guys in a second. But what happens— we call them 4 phases— what happens inside each phase, that's where the personalization comes online. So I'm going to show you 2 examples of how we do this. This is the Manifest Your Health sales page. And so when I first— many of you know this, but for those who do not— when I first ran Manifest Your Health, I did it as a live program, and I just ran it live and we just leaned into it, and it went really well.
A lot of the feedback that I got from a lot of people is that they wanted a little bit more structure to it because manifest your health is exactly what it sounds. It's about manifestation. It's about using your mind. It's very divine feminine. It's very intuitive, and that is like the medicine. That is the medicine that people need to receive. So I'm like, that's what I'm going to deliver. But people were like, okay, but how do I do this? And when do I do this? And some people just need that grounding. They just need that structure to anchor in and give themselves the permission to explore the other side of it. So when, as we're rebranding this and rescoping this, I created a 5-phase formula. This is for other people to anchor into. This is for people to like really understand the process in which they're working through. And this is for people to like be able to wrap their head around this. Okay? So this is an example of that. Another example is this is from our one-on-one sales page, the Functional CARE method.
C.A.R.E. is an acronym and it stands for Uncover, Align, Resolve, and Evolve. So this is our 4-step process. And I did, I really mocked this up. up based on the book that I shared with you guys, based on what I learned here in Traction, because we were attempting to scale. And I knew that in order to scale, we would need to be getting this out there to more people. More people needed to see it. More people needed to understand what we were doing here. So you can see that we have step 1 is uncover.
We have step 2 is align. And this is all on the website, so you can go check it out at your own time. I don't want to spend too much time here. Step 3 is resolve. And step 4 is evolve. So we created a system. So I want you to think about this in 2 ways. One is external, so this is marketing, sales calls, discovery calls.
And then 2 is internal, which is your actual one-on-one clinical work. So if Kaylee's process is 4R— reveal, regulate, restore, rebuild—
The job of that is to simplify your work. It's to show people there's a path. It should feel clean. It should feel clear. It should feel repeatable. Like, this is the process I take everyone through. This is the process in which I get my clients results. Okay? So that's what we're communicating externally.
Internally, the internal version of that is the clinical work. It's how you actually practice. And so what I think for you, you really wanna get clear on what is the goal What is the goal of each phase? How do you know when you're ready to move on to the next phase? And what are the tools that you will pull from in each phase? So I'll use ours as an example. Uncover, that's the first step. This is about identifying what's really driving symptoms. Okay? So that is going to be true. That's going to be the first step for every single person that we work with. But how we get there is never identical.
So one client might be coming to us, they already have labs, so we're just looking at the labs that they already have and giving a second set of eyes and having a new conversation and creating more context through their health history. That's how we're uncovering it for one person. Another client may have never done labs before, so we have to order a bunch of labs because they've— we have no data on them. Another person, in conversation, we might realize that they have a lot of emotional contribu— There are a lot of emotional patterns that are contributing to their symptoms, and we might want to address that before we even jump into labs. So uncover is always going to be the first step, and it's always going to be about identifying what's driving our clients' symptoms. Okay? And so that is what we're telling people, like, when we work together, this is the first step that we're doing internally.
Depending on the individual, it might look different what we're doing in that step. So it's gonna be the same goal, root cause clarity, but it's gonna be a different path to get there depending on the individual. So that's how we can create the structure, set the framework, but also personalize it within. Second step, I won't go through all 4 of 'em, but just to give you one more example, align. So this is where we align the right data with the right plan for the client.
So we're walking them through what each piece of data means, how it connects to their symptoms, why it matters. And that's true for everybody. That is always gonna be step number 2. Here's the data we have on you. Here's how, what it means. Here's how it connects to what's going on in your body. Some clients need more education and more explanation, and some need a lot less. Some need unlearning and simplification.
Some are like, tell me everything. I wanna know everything. And some, you can just see the overwhelm in their eyes and you're like, okay, we gotta like walk this back. We gotta dial this way back. They are overwhelmed. So how we communicate that is going to be very different based on the individual. If you think back to Friday's class, for those of you guys who are on Friday's class with me or watch the replay, if someone has deficient interoception, we're gonna talk to them very, very differently than someone who is more hypervigilant.
Right. So none of this, this is all internal. None of this is stuff that I'm saying on a sales call, right? Or on a discovery call. I'm not gonna be like, we're gonna assess your interoception levels and base our communication. Like, I'm not saying any of that. That's the internal work that they're doing externally. What we're saying is step number 2 is we're gonna find all the data and then connect it to a plan for you that actually works. So it's very individual.
That's what I would be saying externally. So I want you to think about the framework serves an external purpose, but it also serves an internal purpose. But you can sort of modify each and every step within it based on the individual in front of you. So externally, we're communicating the step or the phase and the goal, but then there's a completely different strategy based on the individual. Does that make sense? So long story short, it's great that you have a framework. Keep it up, that's amazing. It's not going to prohibit or inhibit you from personalization.
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So this is podcast specific. So I recently started a podcast almost a month ago. Yay and congratulations. It's called Fuel and Founder, and the idea behind it is blending functional medicine and wellness strategies with honest conversations from female founders to show that sustainable success is possible and we don't have to burn out our bodies while trying to build our businesses. Love that. Right now I've just been doing solo episodes, but getting local female entrepreneurs lined up. My question is, will you come on my podcast? And my answer is yes, I will. Just kidding. That's not the question.
I know it's a long game and the key is to stay consistent, but when you were in your early stages of building your podcast, what did you do as far as strategy to help it grow? Right now I post on Instagram, I send out a weekly email to my list. I ask people to share. I had 200 downloads in the first week, but things have tapered off a bit. as expected, but I'd like to see an increase in the number of downloads.
So I'm gonna be super duper honest with you and share that in order for me to answer this question, I have to go back 9 years cuz that's when I started my podcast and it was a, an extremely different landscape than it is right now. I admittedly got in relatively early and I was not competing with celebrities. You know, it is a different climate and that is not to discourage you, but more Or to perhaps set some realistic expectations about what it's gonna take to really punch your way into the podcasting space. So I think to share what I did wouldn't necessarily be super relevant in today's climate, but let's still talk about this. The first thing is, what is your goal of the podcast? You can pull yourself off mute. Oh, you're driving?
Guest:
I'm, I'm parked, so I'm good. Yeah. And I mean, really just for like visibility and for people to share it and connect with other like local female business owners and of course, like end up getting clients out of it too. So it's not to like get famous or like be this like huge podcast star. I mean, mostly to just like grow it and grow my business. And that's about it.
Erin Holt:
Totally. And that's like, great. My podcast is still our number one lead generator to date. So like, I love that. So are you specifically looking for clients, for health clients that are female founders? Okay, so that is like the niche that you really want to focus on?
Guest:
Yeah. And like, it doesn't have to be, but I just really resonate with a lot of them. And I think we all kind of go through the same or similar health struggles. So it's been kind of like a newer— I feel like I've been getting an influx of newer patients that are also So business owners and just can relate to them a little bit more.
Erin Holt”
Okay. So your email list that, 'cause you right now, current marketing strategies is Instagram and email. Are there founders on your email list or is it more just like people who are looking to get healthy primarily?
Guest:
It's a mix. I mean, there's definitely some entrepreneurs on there. I would say more of the Instagram is based on The female founders.
Erin Holt:
Oh, good. So you have these people in your audience right now?
Guest:
Yeah.
Erin Holt:
Okay. Because I know I've shared this before, but so my audience is people who want to better their health. And then we have a subset of that who are practitioners. What we've experienced is that when we talk into practitioners, our engagement goes way down because it's such a small subset. So we had to curate another audience through email that was practitioner only and really put most of our communication to practitioners there. So we just didn't lose people. Just keep that in mind.
And I think if this is truly the niche that you're gonna go in, I would just double down on that and just really be speaking into female founders, and that will grow your audience in the right direction. So I just wanted to be really clear about that. So with that said, if really truly your goal is to get female founders to work with you for their health, I would be thinking about where your audience is, where they're hanging out, what are they searching for? Have you done the market research to really like understand this audience? I mean, you're in this audience, so you like kind of get it.
Guest:
Like from a local standpoint, yes, not like beyond that, really.
Erin Holt:
Okay. And like, you are a female founder, so like you like understand a lot of the trials and tribulations that go along with that. So you can speak into that as somebody who, like, lives it and experiences it. That's where I would prioritize getting the podcast to is female founder. Do you only work with local clients?
Guest:
Pretty much. I mean, like, throughout the state of Wisconsin, but yeah.
Erin Holt:
Okay. I would potentially do some type of podcast event locally in, like, a local networking group or local business group, local female founders group and do some type of event for whether it's like a live podcast filming or something like that. But I would really prioritize getting in places and spaces where female founders are actually hanging out.
Guest:
Okay.
Erin Holt:
The other thing, and this is, this is like a little bit more specific, but really, really helpful, is titles and SEO is really important. So people are finding our podcast, my podcast, through like searches. So they might type in like H. pylori. So if you like go back, especially for the past, I would say, year, you can notice that our titles have shifted slightly. You can do like a little bit of like research, just how do we used to title things versus how we title things now. It's a little bit more— I don't want to say clickbaity, but like hooks. Like the titles themselves are hooks, and we're putting in specific words and terms in there that somebody would be searching for.
So it can be like, sometimes sound like a little specific. That's really intentional. And I wouldn't be afraid to use longer titles too that kind of packed in those SEO-rich words that your audience, female founders, would actively be searching for. That has been really huge in helping people find our podcast. This is kind of an obvious one, But if you're getting other local female entrepreneurs lined up, have them share that with their audience. But have that be— I think we can get a little like squirrely about asking for that kind of stuff. So have that be part of the conversation. So you're inviting them onto the show.
Would you be willing to share this with your audience? Just have that really transparent, upfront conversation. Whenever somebody asks me to do something or to show up or to participate in something, I— this is what I always start by saying. What is the marketing expectation on your end? What is the marketing expectation on my end? Because I need to know, do I have the bandwidth to do what you're asking me to do? And some people, because people get weird about having these conversations up front, and so sometimes I will agree to do something and then we're like, you know, like we've already promoted it and the person is like, oh, could you share this? Could you share this? Could you share this? I'm like, none of this was mapped out.
Like ahead of time. So now I'm irritated and resentful. So I just think it's like just good business to be super transparent about what the expectation is. And like, I would love to have you on the show. Would you be willing to share this with your audience? Would you be willing to send an email out? Would you be willing to post this if we're doing like a collabo reel? Would you be willing to post that? Just like map out all that stuff ahead of time so you know that they're willing to do that. But that's another way, cuz obviously you are now getting in front of other people's audiences, which is huge. And then you could potentially do a giveaway. We did that, uh, not necessarily in the beginning, but when we were going through another like podcast push and growth phase, we did giveaways.
We have sponsors, so we did sponsor giveaways, but you could do something like that so more and more people will share the show.
Guest:
Okay. Thank you.
Erin Holt:
You're welcome. This is really exciting though. Congratulations.
Guest:
Thank you.
Erin Holt:
I checked it out. It looks awesome. It looks super professional. I listened to an episode and you're doing a great job. Great job. So, oh, thanks.
Guest:
Yeah, it feels really weird just talking to myself, but it's been kind of fun.
Erin Holt:
Yeah, see, it's gonna get really comfortable, and then when you have to talk to other people, that's what's going to start to feel weird. So watch out. All right, good job. Keep up the good work. Next question is from Stephanie. I think this is another one that a lot of folks will be able to relate to.
Hi, Erin. I'm at a crossroads with my career. I'm career transitioning from corporate laboratory healthcare into functional medicine. I've been simultaneously working full-time with school for the last 3 years, and I finished my CNS, and I'm not going to read all that credentials officially last month. Yay! And I'm now feeling stuck and directionless, as well as a bit of burnout on what comes next.
So we know that Stephanie's a hard worker, and we know that she can do a lot already. That's what this tells me. I don't feel experienced enough to launch into entrepreneurship, nor do I feel experienced enough to be hired in a practitioner role. I'm feeling stuck with next steps in figuring out how to leave my very safe corporate role and begin to move forward. Would you recommend I look for health coaching, not practitioner opportunities in the functional medicine space, just to gain some experience, quit my corporate job and give entrepreneurship a go? I would love any recommendations you have on getting started. Thanks.
So we recently went through a hiring process and Rachel and I pulled— we just felt like we learned so much through that process that I was like, we should record a podcast on this.
I'm like, we just like, this information is just gonna sit here with us, but I think this information could like really, really, really, really, really help a lot of people. So we put together a whole podcast about We recorded it together. The audio was super weird and I had to rerecord it myself, so that was kind of a bummer. But we put this together based on everything we went through and everything that we learned about what we're seeing with practitioners, what we're seeing in the industry, what's going on with the market, what people are looking for. And we did an episode on it. It was episode 399, and the title is How to Stand Out as a Functional Medicine Clinician in an Oversaturated Market. By the way, that's what I mean about hooks. Okay.
That's a title. So, like I said, we learned a lot about the current state of the industry and the skill sets that you are competing with, with other practitioners, but also the big gaps that we're seeing that you have the opportunity to fill. So I think about this as like, it's basically a masterclass in how to position yourself. So out of curiosity, did anyone listen to that episode? yet. Let me know if you did. And let me know if you did, what your biggest takeaway was. Was there anything that was surprising to you? Was there anything that was like a super aha for you? Let me know what you thought about that. Okay, so my recommendation is going to be to listen to that episode.
I think every practitioner should listen to that episode. Okay, amazing. Stephanie, did you listen to it yet?
Stephanie:
I did listen to that one. Yeah, I think I— it was great. But still just coming back to like the getting the experience and maybe getting the experience in like not the space that I hope to, Just to like get started somewhere. And I think you said in the podcast was like, take the job that you might not want to take or like for less money or whatever. And that's kind of where I'm stuck.
Erin Holt:
So, okay, I don't think you guys are selling yourself as much as you should. The fact that you're in FNA is going to set you apart. I really want you to leverage this education. And so I don't feel experienced enough is like the big thing that I'm, I'm hearing from you. So you've got to get the experience, right? You've got to build reps. We know this. What my suggestion would be, and I'm, I'm kind of hesitant to give like specific suggestions because what I suggest for you is gonna be very unique to you and your desires and what you wanna do. So let me just like push that aside for now cuz we'll get to that in a second.
But leverage the resources here. So take clients on the side. I'm very— what, I always get this wrong— risk adverse. I'm not risk adverse. Like, I'm risky. I'm risky business. Like, I, I love a risk. I don't care. I will do it. I will bet on myself. The ROI on me is high. I am like never doing things street legal, whatever. So what's the opposite of risk-averse? I'm reckless. So with that said, I would never tell somebody like, leave your full-time business if you've never worked with a client before, right? And like, just be an entrepreneur, just like do it. So I think while you the safety and the security of a full-time position. You're getting your bills paid, you're getting your needs met.
This is such a great opportunity to start taking clients on the side. You don't have the experience that you want right now, gap in the gain. You have a lot more experience than the average person. You have a lot more knowledge than the average person. You still have the resources to help people. Not only do you have the security of a job and a, and an income, but you also have the security of FNA. So if you ever feel like, oh my gosh, I'm like punching above my weight, that's when you can schedule a call or come to a Q&A or post in school and have the resources that FNA provides. We also— and I mentioned this in the podcast— this is like, do not sleep on this.
For any of you guys in FNA, do not sleep on this. This library of resources is gold. It is all of the one-to-one office hour recordings. And you will see Rachel and Elise go through client experiences, go through labs talking to clinicians. So even if you're not getting the hands-on resources of working with clients, don't underestimate just witnessing other people's reps. That is going to build your comfort level, your confidence in seeing and witnessing some of these things too. So definitely utilize all of the resources. I know I've mentioned this a bunch.
I just have a lot of friends in this space who are scaling and hiring clinicians, and I— it bears repeating here, the number one thing that they're seeing is that people are saying they have functional medicine experience, but this is what they said. They're like, yep, I have functional medicine experience, I treat the whole body, but they have no way to back that up. There's no specificity. What does that mean? And honestly, we saw this a little bit too, where people were really like focusing on the basics, but we're like, we need more details, we need more specifics. How do you treat the whole body? I love that you're aware of the whole body. That isn't going to cut it.
So how specifically are you doing this? So I would start to think through whether you're going to go out on your own, you need to be able to sell yourself, or you want a role in another company, you still got to be able to sell yourself and sell your experience and sell your education. So really think about that. So I know that this isn't answering your exact question, but I always like to answer these questions in a way that can help a lot of people. Okay, but back to you. In order for me to recommend next steps, I would really need to know what you want to do, and that is only a question that you can answer. I can't tell you to be an entrepreneur or to get a health coaching job. I wish I could. You know, wouldn't it be that easy? Wouldn't that just be that great if we could just like outsource these huge like questions to other people? So I would really think about what you want.
Getting a health coaching job in the functional medicine space versus building your own thing as an entrepreneur are two. 2 wildly different things, 2 wildly different experiences. I actually referenced this in a recent podcast, episode 400, because I had a lot of people write in being like, where do I get started? How do I get started? And I honestly talked about how I don't think that everyone has the genetic makeup to be an entrepreneur. And I don't think that that is a bad thing. I think the bad thing is when we try to convince ourselves to be something that we're not. Or we tell ourselves a story that the only path to success is through entrepreneurship. It, it isn't. I am an entrepreneur through and through.
I've never had a real job in my entire life. There was one way, and that was for me to figure it out myself and do it myself. That is just who I am. So this was my path to success. And with that said, I also require a team of kick-ass, all-star, A+ players. So like there's multiple paths to But ultimately, you have to figure out what feels good to you. And sometimes it's a little trial and error. You know, when we're starting a business or when we're going into entrepreneurship, we have to be as much of an expert on ourselves as we are on our craft.
So, you got to get really good with functional medicine. You got to get really good, potentially even better at knowing yourself. That is what entrepreneurship is going to require of you.
So what do you desire? What lights you up? What makes you tick? What is your zone of genius? Where do you have a tendency to hold yourself back and to potentially self-sabotage? Like, what are your patterns? We need to be able to pattern assess for ourselves. And so I would really think through that and let that guide your next steps. And kind of back to like the risk thing. I know I was joking about that, but also like what I've seen is that if somebody has a need for certainty, a need for predictability, they can be better off as a supportive role in somebody else's organization. Like go and collect a paycheck. It doesn't mean you're not gonna make a huge impact with your work. It doesn't mean you're gonna be a, you're not gonna make a huge contribution.
But entrepreneurs, to like really go out and build this thing on your own, you have to have a little bit of like whimsy. Like you like a little bit of mystery, you like a little bit of excitement, you like a little bit of risk. You crave the freedom to explore, freedom to figure it out for yourself. So do you do better? A good question to ask yourself is, and this is obviously for anybody who's figuring out which lane they wanna be in, do you do better with clear expectations and clear parameters? In guidance, in certainty, in predictability, in knowing what to expect? Or do you love the mystery and the intrigue of figuring it out yourself? What is your appetite for risk? Risk-averse people, chances are, don't make great entrepreneurs because it just is going to create so much unrest and stress and chaos inside of you because the predictability, it's not there with entrepreneurship. We can try, we can set up systems to create as much predictability as possible. But at the end of the day, like everything that you see here, I carry it on my own two shoulders day in and day out, you know? And I love it. I love it. I love it.
I love it so much. So as I'm talking through this, and I don't mean to put you on the spot, cuz this might be something that you're like, oh, I'm gonna like journal about this for a hot minute. But like, as I'm talking about this, is there like one place that you feel kind of called to or drawn to?
Stephanie:
Wonderful journal questions. And yes, I'll absolutely think through that. I think is I almost feel like I've romanticized the idea of my own business. But then when I do sit back and think about my personality, I'm like, yes, I do like structure. I do like clear expectations. So maybe that's not for me. But the idea of it is like rose-colored glasses. Like, maybe that's not realistic for me.
Erin Holt:
So I think what could be Great is while you're in a full-time role, even though it's not your ideal dream role, it's like providing value into your life, right? It's paying your bills. What if you like just kind of dipped your toe in the water of getting your own clients and like try on entrepreneurship for size? Try on building your own business for size and be like, do I love it? Do I hate it? Is it exciting? That way you don't have to like fully commit. You don't have to quit a whole ass job and jump into the deep end of the pool. So you can do it, you can trial it, you can see how you do. Like, do you like marketing? Do you like representing yourself? And try it on and just see. Like, kind of give yourself permit. You're in a great position right now where you can give yourself a lot of permission to explore without having to commit and go 10 toes down on something. And I think that that's like a really great thing.
So maybe it's a little bit of reframe because I totally get the burnout. You just You know, hammered through a lot, right? That is so real and that is so valid. But what if you just reframed your current position and it's like, it's not my forever. Like, I'm not trapped here. I'm not stuck here forever. But man, it's really providing a lot of safety, security, and comfort for me right now. And it's giving me the opportunity to explore some other things so I can figure out what is my next best step for myself. And that way you can build some some reps in the meantime.
Stephanie:
Can I ask one more thing? I think part of it too for me is in my corporate role, like these are 2 different brain buckets for me. So like sometimes it's hard for me to like, okay, here's my corporate job and then like transition to, I wanna like spend more time in FNA and like think about these things. And talking about structure, like should I be I don't know. I feel like right now I'm zigzagging my day where I'm like, here's my corporate job, here's a meeting, and then I try to do this in this hour and try this in this hour. And that's hard for me to move back and forth. And what's motivating me to want to quit the job altogether and be like, ah, that's burning me out also. And I'm like, how do I put my brain in one bucket so I can focus on that one thing and make the best use of my time?
Erin Holt:
Yeah, so what you're describing is context switching. And, you know, to be honest with you, there's some degree of that in entrepreneurship because you're kind of wearing— if you're a solopreneur, you're wearing a lot of different hats all at once. But it was kind of that back to the advice that I was giving Lara about like focused, like trying to focus. So I'm wondering if there's opportunity for you in your day-to-day week to have focus Deep work time, even if it's like 2 hours of focused deep work, is going to be more productive than like 4 hours spread out in random dribs and drabs throughout the week. Do you know what I mean? So do you— is that available to you?
Stephanie:
Yeah, I just gotta like put it in my calendar and I can make that work.
Erin Holt:
And so a lot of this is, is setting boundaries and upholding boundaries for ourselves too. Time boundaries, schedule time blocking, exactly like Greg said. I am pretty— because I like, I'm like, freedom, man. Like, you can't tether me down to a schedule. And also, time blocking is like so huge for me. It's so, so, so productive. So I would recommend that and really like focus, like phones off, notifications off, like deep work time where you just fully dedicate yourself.
Stephanie:
It's been really great, Thank you.
Erin Holt:
You're so welcome.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. If you got something from today's show, don't forget, subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend, and keep coming back for more. Take care of you.

