Episode 421: How To Build a Business with Staying Power in a Trust Recession with Erin Holt
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
This was supposed to be a 15-20 minute episode. Turns out Erin has a LOT to say about it.
Today, Erin is giving you a sneaky peek behind the numbers at The Funk’tional Nutritionist, and what those numbers reveal about building a business with real staying power.
She breaks down what it means to build trust as an actual business asset, especially in a market where people are tired of clickbait, overhyped promises, weird DM pitches, and wellness content that feels like nobody brought receipts.
She also explores why consistency is such an unsung hero, why quick wins are not the same as staying power, and why watered-down content is watered-down medicine. Because more eyeballs do not automatically mean more clients, and being trustworthy might matter more than being everywhere.
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:
Why Erin had to become a “numbers girly” and what % of 1:1 clients come from the podcast
The 3 questions long-form content gives people the chance to decide
Why hearing crickets, being misunderstood, and getting negative comments are part of being consistent
What can quickly get sketchy if your message, offer, or identity is still all over the map
The “C word” that Erin says matters more than any shiny marketing trend, and the power of referrals
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.
Manifest Your Health is our neuroscience backed membership designed to help you reconnect with your body, regulate your nervous system, and finally break out of the symptom loop.
Episode 400: 8 Years of Building The Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast: An AMA with Erin Holt
Subscribe to Erin’s Substack for a no-nonsense space about health, entrepreneurship, and manifestation.
Organifi Supplement Powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
OneSkin (Use code FUNK for 15% off your first purchase)
Qualia Creatine (get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
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Evaluating trustworthiness is a continuous, often subconscious process. So we are essentially screening for, can I trust this person on a very subconscious level over and over and over, over a course of interactions that we have with people. So what makes someone trustworthy? There's an actual list: consistency, reliability, integrity. Transparency and honesty, the belief that someone has other people's interests at heart, not just their own.
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.
Hi, hello out there. Today is a little bit of a sneaky peek behind the scenes of our numbers. So the numbers of our company and where specifically our clients come from. When I first saw this data, I immediately knew I wanted to share it on the podcast. And I kind of originally thought this would be like a 15, 20-minute quickie episode. And then I started writing and I pretty much couldn't stop. So turns out I have a lot to say about this, not just the numbers, but the story that the numbers tell, which has become a little bit of a healthy obsession point for me lately.
And that's particularly interesting because I am someone who constantly said, I'm not really a numbers girly. Don't put me inside a spreadsheet. I don't love all the data. I don't love numbers. I don't love that kind of stuff. And My business advisor, one of my mentors who's very no nonsense and very tough love and a very straight shooter, looked me in the eye and said, yeah, hey, you actually have to be if you wanna be a CEO of an organization. And so I have found a way to love the numbers. And because I love stories and because I love people, I love the stories that numbers tell about people.
And I'm gonna share some of that with you guys here today. I personally, I love podcasts. I listen to them all the time, and I tune into podcasts because I want to be expanded in some way. I want to be expanded in ideas of what I can implement, whether that is in my health, my body, my life, my business, whatever. I want to be expanded in my beliefs about what is possible. That's a big reason that I tune in. I want to shift in how I'm seeing things. And so my hope is that when you tune into this show, when you listen to this show, you are expanded in some way.
And that is truly the intention that I had when I sat down to write this episode. And as I'm recording this episode and sharing all of this with you here today, so many of you guys know that I mentor and I train practitioners in FNA, which stands for the Funk’tional Nutrition Academy. It is a pretty robust clinical training in functional medicine. It is a 14-month academy, and there's also business mentorship to help you either start to grow or build your private practice. And recently a conversation came up about marketing, specifically about resisting marketing, which is so common in probably any founder or business owner, whether you're a practitioner or not, has felt this way at some point or is feeling it right now as we speak. And in my experience, resisting marketing. Meaning like, I know I should do it, but I resist it, usually comes down to 3 main issues. One, time constraints, because you're doing so many other things in your business, you feel like you just don't have the time.
Two is visibility wounds, because it is hard and uncomfortable to be fully seen, to be fully witnessed. And 3 is a warped perception of marketing, meaning we see it in a negative way, which is totally fair and totally valid. And we'll talk about some specific examples of why we see marketing in a negative way, because some people kind of use it in a not so great way. So of course we discussed all of this as well as ways to fall in love with marketing, because I do believe that in order to run a successful business of any kind, whether that's a private practice or something else, we do need to market. And so if we can see it as an extension of what we do and what we love to do, I think that makes it a lot more approachable. We need to find ways to do it that feels good to us, that doesn't feel like self-betrayal. And so those are all of the things that we discuss. But one piece of this conversation that I really wanted to bring to you here on the podcast is another big reason that I see people resisting marketing because of, and I've certainly felt this way more recently myself, is that there's just so much noise.
There can be such a strong impulse to follow the new shiny trends in marketing. It's kind of like shiny object syndrome. Mm-hmm. There's no shortage of them if you follow any type of business or marketing advice. So it's easy to feel like you are not doing enough if you're not doing the viral trends that everyone else is doing. And what happens, and I see this often, what happens in this scenario when there's so many options is that people can get frozen in indecision. There's so many options that I don't know what to do. It's that analysis paralysis.
And when we're frozen, our energy is like locked up. And when our energy is locked up, there's little to no energy to put into forward motion, forward momentum. Now, earlier this year, for the 400th episode of this podcast, I did an ask me anything episode where I answered listener questions, and I received a lot of questions about business. And the biggest takeaway from that whole episode in terms of business advice is this: consistency is such an unsung hero. There's just a level of depth that is created through consistency that cannot be reproduced by chasing trends. And if your sole focus is chasing the shiny trends, that can actually lead to inconsistency because you're always changing course. So my big mission with my work and why I've shown up doing this work for 15 years is to show people their power, not to give it to them, because I can't do that. But to show you that it's already there, to help people become fully expressed, to allow their inner magic to shine out into the world and to help you remove any blocks there are to doing that, removing any blocks to what you think is possible for yourself.
And this is true whether it's here on the podcast or in our 1:1 work or in Manifest Your Health or in the Funk’tional Nutrition Academy. What is true is that people need to be supported in showing up fully as themselves, in using their voice, in being fully expressed as their authentic self. You guys, that is how we get healthy. That is how we get happy. That is how we can become successful. And if you've been listening to the podcast for a minute, this should come as exactly 0% surprise to you because I talk about this often. But what might be surprising is the next thing I'm going to say. What is also true is that many people need the most support with being able to do this consistently.
And this is what I see time and time and time and time and time again as I mentor people. It's not like you show up once as your authentic self and you're like, I nailed it. I cracked the code. It is really like, how do you keep showing up? Yeah. How do you stay fully expressed? And so my hope and my intention with today's episode is that you take the pressure off of yourself to do all of the things all of the time, and you are able to redirect and channel that energy into focused effort, what feels aligned and true for you, and be consistent with that. But just like visibility, being seen and witnessed can bring up some wounding and some discomfort. So can consistency, and nobody talks about that part. So let's talk about it today, because that's why people need support.
That's why people need ongoing support with this. And I'm coming to you today as a little bit of an elder, perhaps not in age necessarily, but in business staying power. I've been thinking about this a lot, what it's actually like to build a business and a brand with staying power. So I'm sharing my numbers and I'm sharing my thoughts about those numbers and what you can learn from them and how you can apply some of these learnings to your own business. I'm sharing them as somebody who's been in business for a decade and a half, and I've seen and I've had consistent stability and growth. So first my growth was slow, then my growth was fast, and now my growth is stable. So back in June, I released a podcast on healing timelines, and this is exactly what I said. I'm gonna quote myself.
Quick fixes can get us quick wins, but quick wins are usually fleeting. And most people, if you get really honest, most people don't want fleeting results when it comes to their health. That's what I said in that episode. And guys, the same thing is true for your business or your practice. I'm gonna guess that most of you aren't interested in flash-in-the-pan success where you have one good year, but then you can't reproduce it, or you have one viral moment, but then you can't keep up. To me, success is more about can you reproduce the results that you've gotten in your business? Not just once, not just twice, but year over year over year over year. The way that I'm thinking about things now is, would you rather have one viral success story or would you rather have a fat retirement account? I don't know, maybe it's a function of my age. I'm 42.
That's the kind of stuff that I'm thinking about. Quick fixes can get us quick wins, but quick wins are usually fleeting. Most people, if you get really honest, don't want fleeting results when it comes to their business. Okay. So obviously today's gonna be more of a business-forward episode if you haven't picked up on that by now. And that is because as a company founder, I'm obsessed with hearing the thought process of other founders and seeing what their business looks like behind the scenes. So I like to share that from time to time here. I love a peek behind the numbers situation.
I love a cracka. Who out there is watching Real Housewives of Rhode Island? I love them. I love them. I love a cracka. And then also, because we're getting ready for FNA fall cohort enrollment, and I always like to give you a little sneaky peek, a little insight into what it's actually like inside FNA. And these are the exact type of conversations that we're constantly having inside the Funk’tional Nutrition Academy. You have monthly mentorship calls with me along with the business builders, which share my exact framework for creating a profitable And impactful practice. And of course, the bulk of FNA is clinical education and mentorship.
So I am giving you a peek behind the scenes of how we teach in just a couple of weeks, August 25th and 26th. I'm teaching a 2-day masterclass for practitioners on how we help support our clients through the woman's hormonal lifespan. So you can get tickets for that event in the show notes. Would love to see lots of your faces there. It's always fun to see faces on those calls because right now I'm just talking into a mic and I can't see you listening to me. But today's episode is more of a line of sight into how I think about business and how I continue to grow ours in this ever-changing landscape in market. So now let's get to it. Here in 2026 is where our one-to-one clients come from.
I'm going to break it down, and I do want to be clear that this specific data is just from our one-to-one clients, but the numbers that we see for FNA students are pretty close to this as well since man. Manifest Your Health, our app, is a newer offer. We don't have as much data on that yet, but I would guess that it looks pretty similar to this. So here we go. Number 1 is this podcast. 40% of our clients come to us from this podcast. Number 2 is word of mouth or direct referral. 21% of our clients come from a referral.
Number 3 is Instagram and social media. That includes paid ads. We don't spend an extraordinary amount of money on paid ads, but we have been more strategic with it over the past year. And so that's 21% of our clients coming to us. And then the rest of it is kind of broken down into like kind of other random things. So we have Google or search engine, we have IIN— I teach lectures at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition— and so clients will come to us from there. So just kind of like other random stuff. But the top 3, the heavy hitters, are podcast, Last, word of mouth and social media.
Now, I presented these numbers to a recent FNA coaching call, and I told everyone, I want you to look at this data and I want you to tell me what you think this tells us as a company. What is the big takeaway that you see from this list? And I was super proud and super impressed because every single person nailed it. All of this data points to one thing. And that one thing is trust. This list conveyed that the more you can build trust and rapport with someone, the higher their buy-in will be. And I want you right now, effective immediately, to start thinking about trust as an asset that you are building. And that is true now more so than ever, because our— we are in what they call a trust Recession where consumers are more cautious and more discerning with where they spend their money and who they trust. Why? There's a lot of different reasons.
Let me list some of them. One is information overload, especially the clickbaity, fearmongering, conflicting information. There's so many competing voices that it can leave people feeling like, uh, who can I even trust? We have marketing hype. Consumers have grown kind of weary of just like overhyped, pumped up promises of instant results or marketing, you know, really sexy, glamorous marketing that didn't deliver. I would go as far to say that people have gotten better at marketing than they are at their own craft, with a little bit of a whoopsies, because that might drive sales in the beginning, but it's going to lose trust pretty quickly. And honestly, sometimes I feel like in our messaging and marketing, we have to do some like Unlearning and reteaching. People are coming to us sometimes expecting to get better in like 2 seconds because that's what they've been told. That's what's been promoted to them by other companies.
Another big one we see is that all they need are the right labs and then they're all better. And we have to be like, yeah, that's not real. Like I told you earlier, back in June I released an episode called The Healing Timeline: Expectations vs. Reality. It's episode 415 if you haven't listened to it yet. And I recorded that specifically to say like, hey, I understand this is what you're being told. So I totally get that your expectations are what they are. But I need to be so for real with you.
I have to be so honest with you. This is what getting better actually looks like. And I'm sorry if no one has told you that up until this point. You know, it's not people's fault that their expectations are what they are. But I do see it as our responsibility to be honest with people about what actual healing looks like, particularly when we're working with somebody with chronic ongoing issues. Other things that have worn down people's trust are predatory marketing or just even like icky marketing. I'll give you an example. A couple of weeks ago, I had somebody who follows me and follows my work on Instagram.
They reached out to me through DM and they were like, hey, I just wanna bring this to your attention. It's a little icky. It's a little weird. You might already know about it, but if you don't, I feel like I should tell you. So she had commented on a post of mine. The post was about perimenopause and she had commented on it, and then this other account who is a quote unquote expert on female hormones, because of course she is, because who isn't, DM'd her directly and was like, hey, I see that you're interested in perimenopause. Do you want to talk about it? So she was like trying to sell her hormone balancing services to this follower of mine. And this person was like, no, I don't want to talk about it with you.
I don't even know who you are. And you know, yes, it's icky. Yes, it's gross. Yes, it's cringe. All of those things. I think this is the kind of thing that gives marketing a bad name. I think this is why people have a bad taste in their mouth with marketing. I think this is what really erodes trust in a major league way.
Like, I just want to be able to like live my life on Instagram and comment on people's posts that I'm interested in without feeling like I'm going to have somebody in my DMs trying to like pitch their services to me. I didn't invite them in. They're just there. Like, that's gross. That's yucky. But my heart does go out to business owners who are getting this type of business advice from business coaches telling them to do this. Listen, here's what's real, guys. Nobody wants to be cold called in their DMs.
Nobody, nobody but nobody wants that. Nobody's asking for it. Nobody's looking for that. That is not a problem that you are solving. You gotta find other ways to connect with the humans. Think about somebody's very first impression of you. If you're doing this, they're like, ooh, this person is willing to do weird, shifty, shady things that feel icky. That erodes trust.
That doesn't build trust. And as a business owner right now, as a practitioner in the health and wellness space, the number one thing you should be doing is building trust with people. Mm-hmm. Building rapport with people, and this ain't it. So I think one reason we're in a trust recession is because of marketing tactics like that. I also got caught down this like really weird rabbit hole recently on YouTube about influencers and like influencers being caught in big boldface lies and promoting a lifestyle that they're not actually living. So I think people are just like kind of waking up to the idea that like so much of what they see on the internet and so much of what is being marketed to them is fake. And then add to that the rise of AI-generated content, it's like this feeling of what's even real anymore.
I just purchased a course about writing, mind you, it was about writing, and it was so obviously written by either ChatGPT or Claude. I was just so disappointed and I just completely lost my trust in that creator. Like, I'm like, that's a wrap for me, I'm good with you. So all of this stuff kind of combined leads people to be like, who can I trust anymore? So that's why people are saying we are in a trust recession when it comes to buying behavior.
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Now let's unpack where our clients are coming from, because those are buyers too. So where are our leads, clients, and buyers coming from? I'm going to start with word of mouth referrals, even though it was number 2 on the list. I want to start here because this is truly one of the best metrics that you can have in your business, a high word of mouth referral rate, because this means that your clients are having such a phenomenal experience with you that they are telling other people about it. They're telling their friends, they're telling their loved ones. And a referral from a friend has so much value. Personal referrals consistently rank as the most trusted source of information.
Social proof sells because trust is high. And trust is diminishing when it comes to influencers and people we don't know, but it's not diminishing when it comes to people that we do know. Think about how many times you've bought something just because a friend said she loved it. I'm thinking hair dryer, shoes. Tinted moisturizer, a therapist. Like, I can think of so many things for myself, right? And remember when I said before, it's almost like some people have gotten so good at marketing that they're better at marketing than they even are at their own craft. I would say the takeaway here for you is that your craft, your deliverables, the service that you offer is still the most important thing you do, right? Your offer, your services, your clinical work. I know I speak to a lot of practitioners on this podcast, and I'm sure that you are in lockstep with that statement.
So marketing is important, but this is the most important. And this is why the bulk of FNA focus is specifically on this clinical skill set, becoming the smartest, most compassionate, most well-rounded, best practitioner you can be. That is numero uno. Again, marketing matters because you can be the best practitioner, but if nobody knows about you, then you're not helping anyone. But if your marketing outshines your craft, then people will find out about that. They will lose trust in you. That's actually part of the reason we're in a trust recession, and that's not how to build a sustainable business. So be really good at what you do and then go talk about it.
Okay, next let's talk about the fact that 40% of our clients come from this podcast. Like, hot damn! I knew it was our main lead generator. I just didn't know it was this much of a lead. So let's talk about the podcast effect. Why does the podcast convert? So well because it's long-form content. So we have more time to build a relationship. That means you get to know me. You get to hopefully like me.
If you don't like me, chances are you stop listening. But then over time, as you do listen, you begin to trust me. You get the chance to know the person that I am. And as they say, people don't buy from brands or companies; they buy from people. So you know who I am, and you trust that my team is an extension of who I am. They think similarly. They practice similarly. That's why I will often bring our practitioners onto the show so you can get to know them too.
You get to know the way that we think, you get to figure out, will this work for me? Is this what I want? You know, podcasting is a pretty intimate setting. It's basically just me talking to you as you live your life, week over week, month over month, year over year. So we do build a relationship. Some of you guys have been listening to the show since day One. We're like boys at this point, 9 years in, you know, that builds trust. I saw this quote and I wanna share it here with you, and I'm gonna say it like a bunch of times because I really want to anchor this in. You might even write this down. Evaluating trustworthiness is a continuous, often subconscious process.
So we are essentially screening for, can I trust this person on a very subconscious level over and over and over. Yeah. Over a course of interactions that we have with people. So what makes someone trustworthy? There's an actual list: consistency, reliability, integrity, transparency and honesty, the belief that someone has other people's interests at heart, not just their own. And I really spent some time in preparation for recording this podcast reflecting on how I think I was able to cultivate that trust, how I've been able to cultivate and then maintain that trust throughout the years. Yeah. Years in— first and foremost, trust, integrity, and transparency are very high values for me as a person. Like, business aside, these things just really matter to me in my life and in my relationships.
So of course, as the founder of a brand, they're going to inform my brand too. That just makes good sense. But I was like thinking how I've showcased this over the years. How have I showcased to people that this is a voice you can trust? I Have never really been afraid to have an opinion and express that opinion, even if I know others won't necessarily agree, or even if I know not everyone will agree. This is one of the reasons that I always try to come with receipts, because I think in the world of health, it is really important to back up what you're saying, either with research or clinical experience or your own lived experience or some combination of all 3. Having some type of weight In depth to back up what you're saying is so important, especially now in our modern wellness hellscape, or at least it's very important to me. This is a high value of mine. I want you to trust me, and so I'm gonna showcase reasons why what I'm sharing with you is validated in some way, shape, or form.
And having the podcast as long-form content really gives me the opportunity to share all of that with you guys. So it makes sense that it garners trust over time. Another thing is that being liked is not my end goal. Although I will be honest with you, I much prefer being liked to disliked. For sure, for sure. But it's not my end goal. Sharing education that can help people is my end goal. Sharing my hard-earned wisdom with you all in an effort to potentially positively impact your life, that is my end goal.
Yeah. And I've just always wanted to share things the way that I see them in an effort to help people better understand themselves or better understand their situation and help them see things differently. That's like numero uno to me. And for me, that looks like telling the truth, or at least telling the truth as I see it, saying the hard thing out loud, even if I know people don't necessarily want to hear it. I would rather say the thing you need to hear than the thing you want to hear. I just heard Hattie talking. on the phone with her friends. So Hattie's my daughter, in case you're new here, she's 12.
And she's like, my mom will always tell you the truth so you can trust her, right? It made me laugh overhearing that. But it's the truth. You know, people might not love what I'm saying in that exact moment, but subconsciously or consciously, they learn to trust me. It's this idea like Erin will tell me the truth, not just what I want to hear. And so people will say to me all of the time, like, I'm coming to you because I know you'll give it to me straight, or I trust you and I trust your opinion. And here's what's real. I think people are so desperate to be liked and so desperate to fit in and so desperate to belong and so terrified of cancel culture, which is horrible and caustic. I totally can see why people are terrified of it.
I am too. So I completely understand that drive and that desire to belong. It's certainly not wrong. Belonging is safety. But what can happen is that people unintentionally water themselves down in an effort to be liked by all, to be loved by all. But watered-down content is also watered-down medicine. And I believe that we all have medicine inside of ourselves that we have to share with the world. And if we're watering ourselves down, then we're watering that medicine down.
And while that might make you feel safe, because it doesn't agitate anybody It also doesn't change anybody. It doesn't agitate people into making a new decision. It doesn't agitate them into making a new choice. It doesn't agitate them into taking a new direction, making a buying decision to work with you to change their life. Content designed to keep the peace and ensure that everybody loves you does not always garner trust either. I hate to break it to you. People will lose trust in you if they see that you care more about being liked than having a backbone in doing the right thing. And I say this very intentionally because There was a recent situation where a local creator who is definitely in the camp of, I just want everyone to like me, got some really bad press for this exact thing.
And they lost my trust in that exact moment because I saw they will say anything to remain in the limelight. So now I can't trust anything they say that misaligns with my personal values. I recently heard this said somewhere, it's not of value unless you have to sacrifice something in order to uphold it. Woof. So again, that quote, evaluating trustworthiness is a continuous, often subconscious process. When you see people upholding their own values, even and especially if that means they might be risking something in order to do that, that creates trust, even if people aren't consciously aware of that. So all of this to say, and by the way, I need this reminder too, so I'm like taking my own medicine as I give it to you guys right now. Now, if you're creating milquetoast content, I hope I'm saying that right.
I only ever see that word written and it makes me LOL laugh every single time. If you're creating milquetoast content just for the sake of staying under the cancel culture radar, you're also going to stay under people's trust radar too. Okay? So there's gotta be like a little bit on the line for you there to really garner somebody's trust. Now, back to that list of what makes someone trustworthy. Notice the first word on that list was the C word, consistency. This is another reason why the podcast is our number one lead generator. I've been showing up here week over week, month over month, year over year for 9 years. So that in and of itself establishes a level of trustworthiness.
Again, even if you're not consciously aware of it, there's a subconscious level of trust that is built when you see somebody can be consistent. And I think this is a huge part of what gives companies, brands, and people staying power. It is their willingness and their ability to be consistent. So, like I said earlier, think about trust as an asset that you're continuously building. Trust compounds with consistent action and consistent messaging. So what is your big takeaway here? Am I telling you that everyone needs to start a podcast in order to build trust and get clients? Not necessarily. In fact, starting podcasts is one place where people are notoriously inconsistent. I don't remember what the exact stats are off the top of my head, but I know that the vast majority, like over 80%, the vast majority of podcasts that start don't make it past episode 20.
And that's just because it's a lot of work to produce a show between creativity and research and production. I've been pretty vocal about that over the years just because it makes me mad when business coaches are like, just start a podcast, without truth-telling about what it actually requires to have a successful show. Remember, honesty and transparency, one of my core values. So I'm gonna shoot it to you straight. It's a lot of work. So definitely don't start a podcast just because you think you should. Do it if it's on your heart, do it if you feel like you have something to say, and do it if you already know you can show up consistently. So I don't necessarily recommend everybody start a podcast, but I do recommend that you find a medium where you can give people a chance to get to know you, to get to experience you, to be in your energy, to understand what you do, how you show up, and how you can help them.
Them, right? How you can help in general, but specifically how you can help them. And so I know everybody right now is like, should I be yapping? Should I be writing carousels? Should I be writing a Substack? Should I be on YouTube? Should I start a podcast? There's really no one secret medium that's going to magically unlock your visibility and success. It's about finding the medium that's an exact right size fit and For you, whether that's a newsletter or a Substack or a social media channel, somewhere where you're providing some type of value for people, where they can get to know you, get to understand how you think, where you can consistently show up and show out and showcase that you're a trustworthy and reliable resource. And in that way, your people can start to build a relationship with you. People can build that rapport with So really think about what do you actually enjoy doing and what can you consistently do? What can you commit to? Consistency is one of the very top things that breeds trust. And for staying power, we need to breed trust.
Hey guys, if you've been following me for a while or you've been listening to the podcast, you probably already know that when it comes to your health, there's more to the story than what you've been told. A lot of you guys are really smart. You've tried things, you've run labs, you've worked with practitioners, and you're still sitting here like, why doesn't my body feel better yet? That's actually the exact person we work with inside our 1:1 care. You are not doing anything wrong. It's just that no one has really put the full picture together for you. Inside our 1:1 Functional C.A.R.E. Method, we look at everything together. Your gut, your hormones, your nutrient status, your nervous system, your history. We don't see them as separate issues, but as one connected story, because it is. And then we help you actually work through that with real support, ongoing guidance, adjustments, and helping you understand what your body is doing and why. Our goal isn't to just help you feel a little bit better for a few months. It's to actually create something that lasts. We don't go for 90% better. We keep it 100%. So if you are dealing with chronic symptoms, gut issues, hormone imbalances, autoimmunity, and you feel like you've tried everything, I really do get it. Yeah. I get it. And at the same time, I'll say this: when we work with someone like you, it's very rare that we don't find what's missing, because that's what we do. We're a team of highly skilled practitioners working on complex cases every single day. You're not doing this alone. You have ongoing support, messaging access to your practitioner, monthly appointments where we're looking at your progress, your labs, what's working and what's not, and actually adjusting those things in real time so we can find what works for for your body. You can apply to work with us through the link in the show notes, and our team will take a look and guide you from there.
So I'm not a huge fan of the term anti-aging because aging is a privilege and something to celebrate. However, I do want to continue to look and feel good as I age, which is why I take Qualia Senolytic, the first-of-its-kind formula designed to help your body naturally eliminate senescent cells. These are a big culprit behind that middle-aged feeling. They're also known as zombie cells, and when they accumulate, they can lead to less energy, slower workout recovery, joint discomfort, and basically just feeling old. Qualia Senolytic is something you only have to take 2 days a month. I line them up for myself and my husband so we can both age better at the cellular level, feeling more youthful and energized. To experience the science of feeling younger, go to qualialife.com/funk for up to 50% off your purchase and use code FUNK for an additional 15% off. That's Q-U-A-L-I-Alife.com/funk for an extra15% off your purchase. Your older self will thank you. And thank you, Thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode.
And so since we're talking about that C word so much, I wanna share with you how I define it and how I think about consistency for myself. And the first place that I will always start is what I call the art of returning.
I talk about this a lot as it relates to inner work. Those of you who are in the Manifestor Health app, Have heard me discuss this. So people will ask, like, how do I learn to listen to my intuition? How do I learn to trust myself? How do we foster that sense of trust with our own inner knowing or even with our bodies? And I say this: it is through the art of returning. You keep coming back. You keep showing up for yourself. The act of coming back to the body again and again and again teaches you I am a safe. I am a safe space for myself. I am an anchor for myself.
I can count on myself. I have my own back. I won't bail on myself. I can trust me. So the same way that you do that for yourself, do that for your audience. The art of returning. You keep showing up, you keep coming back. And if you don't do that for yourself, I would absolutely 100% start.
Yeah. Start there, because everything we do externally in our business has to start internally with us first. You can write that down because it's really, really important. Everything you do externally in your business has to start internally with you. So learn to view consistency as an art form, as a ritual, As a practice. And in order to do this, you need number 2, which is the ability to stay present through discomfort. Uh-oh, here we go, here we go. When I'm talking about discomfort, I'm talking about the discomfort of creating or posting something and hearing crickets, because that will happen.
The discomfort of receiving a negative comment. Yeah. Because that will probably happen. The discomfort of being misunderstood. This is the hard one for me. Oh, this one's so hard. The discomfort that comes with growth and expansion and visibility. Your business will expose every wound that you have.
It will bring it right up to the surface, bubble it right up to the surface. And this doesn't change the more successful you get. I'm sorry to report, and I know that that is the story that you What you're telling yourself, it is a false narrative. When I get here, then it will be easier. Nope. That is fake news reporting live from the scene. That is not true. I was just talking to a colleague and a friend of mine who is another 7-figure female founder, and she is thinking through hiring and appointing a number 2 for her organization, which is the same process that I started about 2 years ago.
So she wanted to talk through some of the logistics and the finances of that. And of course, I was happy to share all of that with her. I sent her a job description, test Comp plan structures, KPIs, the whole 9 yards. But I also shared with her the belief systems inside myself, in the emotional landscape that had to shift, in the wounds that needed to be explored and healed in order for me to be ready to accept and receive that level of help and support in my business. And because this is not her first rodeo, she's like, Yeah. Yeah, that's the work that I need to do. And I was like, yeah, no shit. Your business will expose every wound that you have.
But here's the positive flip side of that. Your business can become a vehicle for healing those wounds. It's like the Leonard Cohen song. There's a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. And so the way that I look at it, when something surfaces, when discomfort Bubbles up to the surface. It's just your subconscious mind bringing things forth for resolution. It wants you to heal.
So when a wound pops up, it's an opportunity to heal it. That's the beautiful gift that our businesses give us if you allow it to. If you are willing to rise to the occasion, to meet the moment, and this is why I believe staying present through the discomfort is so. Huge rather than running away from the discomfort, rather than running away from the wounds. Guys, they don't go away when you do that. They just follow you to the next thing. And I think this is one of the big reasons why people don't stay consistent. They are trying to outrun their wounds.
So they go to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And then they convince themselves that nothing really ever works for me. Not a Yap challenge, not carousels, not Substack, not YouTube, not podcasts, Newsletters, nothing, nothing works for me. So listen up. If consistency is an issue for you, it's not always a logistical thing in my experience. It's not always a time constraint thing. It's usually this. It's usually the fact that you are unable or unwilling to stay present through the discomfort, which shout out to Manifest Your Health because it is the framework that I use to heal my body, but it's also the framework that I continue to use to do the inner work to grow my business because hey, guess what? Yeah.
The discomfort never fucking goes away. So if you want staying power, you gotta find some tools and resources to navigate yourself through it. The other thing that I wanna say here about consistency, because this feels really, really relevant and it's a mistake that I, I don't wanna say mistake. It's something that I see that I want you to be aware of. Consistency is not just how often you show up, but it's also consistency. Mm-hmm. Of messaging. It's consistency in who you are, what you stand for, what you do, how you can help.
And woof, this is tough love time, okay? Some of you guys are not nailing this. I was just in a breathwork class with one of my mentors, Erin Telford, and she said the flip side of the call out is the call up. So just understand that if you feel called called out, it's really because I'm calling you up. Like, let's go. It's time to shine. It's time to be visible. It's time to blast off. It's time to expand.
Like, LFG, let's do this. So there is this idea of like building in public, and I'm seeing a lot of people do it right now where you're just kind of like figuring your shit out but on public display. Because people do love a little bit like of a behind-the-scenes look. But if you are attempting to position yourself as a guide As a leader, as a mentor, this can be a little sketchy, for lack of a better term. And I think there's a real caveat to building in public. Build in public if you are solid with your consistency muscle already. If you already know you will show up no matter what, then maybe try that on for size. But don't make this big proclamation of what you're gonna do and then disappear because there's this subliminal thing that happens where people are watching.
And they're like, if I can't trust you to show up consistently for yourself, how can I trust you to do that for me? Remember, evaluating trustworthiness is a continuous, often subconscious process. So if you are trying to figure yourself out in real time, if you're all over the map with what you're talking about, what your offers are, what your message is, who you serve, what you offer, what you do, who you are, That can really contribute to confusion, and confusion does not build trust. Actually, confusion can kind of erode trust. And I don't say this to make you freeze even further. I say this with love and also with experience. I talked about this earlier this year on the podcast. One of our goals for 2025, all of last year, was to streamline our offers and our messaging because of exactly this. Things started to feel pretty unclear to our audience in 2024 just because I was trying to do too much.
I wasn't really sure what direction I was moving in. We had a lot of offers. I was doing a lot of different things, and I could get away with that for a while. Like back in 2021, 2022, even 2023's market, it wasn't that much of a deal. But then we hit this trust recession and we kind of can't get away with being all over the map in today's market. We have to have a little bit more clarity. And so that was really our goal and our intention in 2025, which has really carried us into 2026. And we have seen really positive effects of that, of just getting really clear and nailing who we are, what we offer, how we can help, and what our messaging is, and being a bit more intentional and streamlined with this.
And that's part of the reason why I created the Roadmap to $10K Months, which is a program within the Funk’tional Nutrition Academy for practitioners where I help them get really super crystal clear on what their message is, who they're talking to and how they can help. So you establish this first and then, then go shout that from the rooftops. By all means, go get visible once you've like kind of cracked what you're doing, cracked the code on what you're doing. Because if trust is an asset that we wanna start building, then we really wanna start building that from the jump. And this does not mean that everything you do and say has to be perfectly polished and curated. In fact, just the opposite. I'm a big fan of going ugly early, but I do think you should get clarity on what you are about, what you're doing, and who you're helping before you decide to just go build in public and just blast off into outer space and potentially like confuse people. And some people may fundamentally disagree with that, which is totally fine.
I'm just sharing what I've seen and my experience, not just in my own business and practice, but also helping mentor and guide other practitioners and kind of seeing what really works and what just doesn't work. Yeah. Okay, so back to trust, and this is the last thing that I will say before we close out. Trust is earned. It's not something you can buy, and it doesn't just automatically come with more visibility. Are we starting to kind of like get that now? So it's less, how do I get more visibility? How do I get more eyeballs on my work? And it's more, how do I allow people to know me and my body of work enough to trust me? Yeah. Trust me. And the reason that I'm saying this is a mistake that I see a lot of people making is just assuming that more eyeballs, more visibility will translate to more sales.
And that is not necessarily true. More eyeballs on your work doesn't necessarily translate to trust, to conversion, to customers, or to clients. Any successful business Aren't just thinking about leads. They're thinking about leads, they're thinking about conversion, and they're thinking about retention. And conversion and retention is really a trust game. So this is something that we're doubling down on in our practice in business right now. This will be a huge focus of ours and something that we'll be discussing quite a lot within FNA for practitioners building or growing their private practices. So if this conversation expanded you in any way, shape, or form, one, send it to a friend who it might be able to help.
And then 2, think about FNA because FNA will 10x what we just did here today. So if you are interested in that, if you're interested in joining the fall cohort, apply using the link in our show notes. And as always, thank you so much for being here. I love you guys, and I'll check you next week.
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.