Do you ever wonder how some people seem to have so many cool opportunities fall into their lap?
Have a feeling that networking might have something to do with it, but you’re not quite sure what it really means to “network”?
Today I’m chatting with dietitian Su-Nui Escobar about the power of networking for creating new opportunities for yourself.
Su-Nui shares her definition of what networking is and how it can be a very casual and easy thing to lean into.
We discuss how embracing your uniqueness can help you stand out and how to believe in yourself even if you’re just beginning.
I think you’ll be super inspired by some of the stories Su-Nui shares and walk away from this episode with some excellent points of reflection for your own life and career.
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More About Su-NUI
Dr. Su-Nui Escobar is a Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist, doctor in clinical nutrition, and spokesperson for over 12 years. Su-Nui is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson and has previously worked as the national spokeswoman for national brands for the Hispanic market. In addition, Su-Nui’s charisma and warmth made her a frequent guest on Hispanic popular morning television shows.
Su-Nui Escobar is the dietetic internship director at Larkin Community Hospital and teaches at Nova Southeastern University-Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Su-Nui is also the founder of Evolving Dietitians, an Instagram account and blog that helps dietitians, and dietitians to be, to build a strong media presence.
Connect with Su-Nui
- Website: evolvingdietitians.com
- Instagram: @evolvingdietitians
- Facebook: Evolving Dietitians
- LinkedIn: Su-Nui Escobar, MS, RDN, LDN, FAND
Evolving Dietitians IG Course
Learn more about Su-Nui’s Instagram for Nutrition Bloggers course.
Episode Transcript
Erica: Hi, Su-Nui. Thank you for being here on the podcast today. I am very excited to talk to you about the power of networking for attracting more career opportunities. I think that is something that really stands out in your professional experience and background. So I really appreciate you taking the time to be on the podcast today to talk with us
Su-Nui: about that.
Thank you for having me here. I’m very, very excited. And, uh, let me tell you, I learned about you because of a networking event. And from there I took your course. I developed my blogs, so yeah. Networking is powerful.
Erica: Well, great. That’s a perfect story. So I always like to start these episodes by just getting some background on my guests.
And I know you’ve had a really wide variety of unconventional career experiences in dietetics. I know you’ve done everything from like national spokesperson work. You founded an internship, you created meal plans for a celebrity business. You wrote cookbooks, you’ve gotten your doctorate. Like that is an insane breadth of experience.
So I’d really like to dive into some of those opportunities and hear more about, you know, how these things came about. But let’s go back to the beginning. Like, how did you get into dietetics in the first place and maybe a higher level level overview of your career journey so far?
Su-Nui: Well, the the way I got into dietetics was actually funny because I took a semester off to work in a cruise.
And I was doing an undergrad in hospitality with a heavy emphasis in restaurant management. And I saw in the cruise ship, how different people ate in a place where you can eat anything and everything you’ll want that got me interested in diabetics. So I finished my degree and went back to grad school for nutrition.
And, uh, and after that I was just really open to opportunities and then just different opportunities came and I kind of knew about the way that I wanted to take, but I have been always very open to opportunities and try to be as prepared as I can to take them.
Erica: So what did you do first when you graduated?
Su-Nui: I need like everybody, a job. Uh, well, I was working on WIC, as I was doing my grad school, but then I went to a hospital, but in the hospital, along with that in the first year, I met, a few people that got me started in advertising and that’s a career that I had parallel to doing clinical for as long as I’ve been practicing.
Erica: And when you say you met people, w what does that look like?
Su-Nui: That was, well, I was part of a childhood obesity committee, and one of the participants of this committee knew they had an opening at an advertising agency and when she was asked. So do you know a dietitian that speaks Spanish, that can serve as our us or national spokesperson?
She gave my name. And like, along with that, I had met her in a health fair, like super random. This lady had just come to my booth and I started talking to her and I would reach out for the longest time. And then, you know, like when I went to her office for an interview, it was like, Oh, it is you. I know you so that you know, that, started.
my career in advertising and actually I lasted with them for about 12 years. And she left because this group kept on moving, but our client was a milk life, which is the former got milk campaign. And I stayed with the group for, for almost 12 years.
Erica: Wow. Well, that’s so serendipitous too. Such a great example of putting yourself out there and you never know what’s going to come from it because when you initially met that woman, it’s like, who knew that you would meet her again in the future, you know?
Yes.
Su-Nui: But that seems to be a recurring theme. It happens to me like all the time.
Erica: Is that how you got some of these other, cool experiences too? Like I know I saw that you did some meal planning for celebrity business. I don’t really know a hundred percent what that means, but it sounds cool.
So how did that come about?
Su-Nui: Uh, I, I met him in and he’s a Spanish celebrity, so I met him in a friends of friends house. Actually with my sister, so she’s like, oh, you know, let’s go to these like little meeting we’re going to just cook some and what are you going to just enjoy very casual.
So I went, I went to that meeting or to that like party, small party. And I met him and like, we started talking and he’s like, I know I have the feeling that you and I are going to work together at some point. I’m like, sure. Sounds great. But nothing happened. Few months passed. And I used to talk a lot with this position at the hospital and nursing station and he introduced me to him professionally.
Uh, so again, it was one of those things that you met again, and you’re like, oh, you know, so you’re not a stranger. You now are someone that, that, you know, a face that is familiar. So the connection happened a lot easier. And again, that’s a relationship that, um, has keep on developing. And I don’t work with him all the time and just like, uh, have a help him, um, for certain parts of their business.
But, you know, I just keep seeing his face in many places.
Erica: It feels like you have a very open spirit kind of like you just put yourself out there and things come to you, almost, which I totally relate. Cause I feel like sometimes that happens to me as well. Even just like in the online space. I’m not so much involved in my real life community, but definitely in the online space.
It’s like you just, things just come together. It’s just a weird way. So I know you, you personally credit networking and things like that, for a lot of these opportunities that you’ve gotten. So, if you had to define what, like networking means, how would you define that?
Su-Nui: I think just put it out there.
You put yourself out there, you talk to people, you, and I’m glad that you mentioned the online space. Because I feel that now there’s two places where we need each other. One is the real world. And that could be from belonging to a running group in your community to, you know, attend into your local, a professional association or by creating friendships online.
Erica: Yeah. Sometimes I struggle with a quote-unquote networking. Cause I feel for some reason I have this perception that that’s like something that really extroverted people do. And you know, it requires a lot of interpersonal interaction and that kind of drains me. So I’m like, maybe I’m not so great at networking, but in other aspects, I think I am just maybe online.
So do you think there’s like a certain type of skillset or personality that helps people network or do you have any tips on how to get better?
Su-Nui: First, I don’t think that you’re having any issues putting yourself out there. I honestly, I feel like you are one of my best friends because I haven’t listened to your podcast so much.
I mean, through your courses, through your Facebook group that, you know, like, I feel that I know you, so if you tell me, you know, Hey, you know, there’s these thing going on this symposium, this course then, because interacted with you so much and you’re out there that it’s just, I don’t know. It’s just easier to, to, um, do anything with you.
And certain personalities I don’t think so, I mean, honestly, I’m not an. Um, uh, I’m very introvert. I will be very happy living in my house all the time in a Capone, but I, um, I forced myself to go out and I tend to belong to groups where I have an interest to belonging to, even though that they might not necessarily, I’m not doing it for a business purpose or for anything, but like I like running.
So it’s nice to run with a group of people. Then from there, I got the preceptors for my interns. Yes. So it’s, it’s just talking to people growing your social media, putting yourself up there one way or another, whatever feels more comfortable to you. And, uh, the last thing I’m going to say about these, my, I run an internship program.
My interns are very, very iffy about, um, talking to physicians. They’re like shaken to the ground or to the core, when we tell them yes, call the physician in the case, and you tell them about what are the nutrition needs for the patients. And they’re like, oh my God, no, by the end of the internship,
they’re best friends with the physicians and they are very a very important part of the team because they force themselves to it.
Erica: What I heard you saying kind of is, thinking about what comes naturally to you and how you like to connect with people and your interests, and just knowing, and having the confidence, almost that through exploring those things that you like, and just getting to know people that stuff will come back your way.
It’s not like you intentionally plan it and you’re like, I’m going to meet this person here or this person over here. It’s just. Uh, being open, I think. Would you agree with that?
Su-Nui: Oh, absolutely. And, and, you know, I think you put it in a really nice way, and again, you never know what is going to come your way when or who is that person that is actually going to give you the connection that you want to grow in a different
Erica: way.
And I love how you said even. With the example of me feeling like I don’t really do a lot of networking, but then you coming back and being like, but your podcast is almost like a form of networking. It’s ha it has like a dual networking purpose actually, when I really think about. Because there’s people listening and I’m connecting with them, although it’s only kind of like a one-way connection until I get feedback, from the listeners in on other channels, because podcasting is like, you can’t like comment really on the podcast while you’re listening.
But it’s also a way to connect like we’re doing right now in interviews. Which, yeah. So I guess you’re right. Maybe I am better at networking than I thought. So what I hear you saying is that do what feels good. It’s not about the ulterior motive and. I also picked up a tidbit from what you were just saying with reaching out to people that you admire, like in the, the doctor example, even, people that you might feel intimidated by like a physician or another person in online space or wherever you’re hanging out and you want to meet people.
I think the person on the other side, wants you to reach out to them, you know, I mean, like they welcome that. You might feel like, oh, who am I to be just like cold messaging this person or emailing them. But. people don’t do it as much as you might think. Like, as, for example, somebody who runs a podcast or like a large Facebook group, I don’t get that many people just like reaching out to connect.
So when people do, I mean, you remember them, you remember the people who, participate in your Facebook group or email you a question or something. So definitely I agree with that advice. Like you just never know. You never know what opportunities are going to come.
Su-Nui: No, you never know. People connect in many different ways, in many different reasons.
And the worst that can happen is that you reach out to them and nothing happens and there’s nothing lost, you know,
Erica: if you never reached out to anybody, then you never even have that initial spark or name recognition to get the ball rolling potentially in the future either. So
Su-Nui: I always say my interns, uh, I pushed them to network a lot and, uh, We weren’t very active before COVID in the professional organization, in our local chapter of the academy.
And a couple of them got jobs because they, they knew the dietitians. So when they were ready to apply, they could send the email and their resume directly to them. And, uh, many times when you applied to the. Through the website, you get no response, but you do get response when you email this person directly.
And one thing, one story that I can tell you about that is, um, there was this one job that I wanted to, or was freelancing and I want it to be like a couple of stable day. Um, and I had applied like a couple of times, no response. Then through someone, she connected me to the hiring manager. I got the job.
And I love the job, but on top of that, in that place, I met my ex, then I have a beautiful child, out, of that networking connection.
Erica: Well, that’s a really wonderful example of everything coming together. So I, you just mentioned that participating in like the local academy chapters was really helpful.
Is there any other sort of, Organizations or platforms maybe more in the dietetic space that you’ve had great success connecting with other people.
Su-Nui: Well, definitely the local chapter, the academy helps a lot because the people that, are there locally for you, but Facebook groups are amazing way to connect in one way or another.
Um, I love your group, but I’ve been really very invested in certain groups because I feel that they have helped me a lot to grow in the, in the new space that I’m exploring. Um, what else? The academy professional level as well is good. Instagram connect with other dietitians in Instagram, or other forms of social media.
I mean, whatever platform you prefer, but I mean, there’s so many ways to reach out these days. It’s amazing don’t underestimate also the power of just becoming involved in your community.
Erica: Do you go to conferences or anything like that? I mean, obviously there’s not a lot happening right now, but in the past,
Su-Nui: yes, I love that, Today’s Dietitian, because I feel like they’re a little bit more unconventional and the jobs and the conferences presented there, they might be a little bit different, but whatever your interests are, try not to always do the same, depending on, what type of connections you want to do and what things you like to do in your professional professional career. Just go to those conferences and you never know. Again, what are you going to learn and who are you going to meet that it’s going to help your profession.
Erica: You know, even connecting in online course groups, I think some, some training programs that I’ve joined, you get access to like a smaller, more intimate community of other people taking the course. And I’m just thinking back like, oh yeah, totally made connections in groups like that too.
Maybe even outside of just the nutrition niche. So yeah.
Su-Nui: Yeah, you actually took the words out of my mouth because I was going there. I joined your course and then I, like, I did it, uh, along with, uh, the course that Katie Dodd has. So I belong to both groups and I feel like that’s so helpful. I get some of my questions answered and then I feel really connected with a certain group of dietitians, because it’s such a small group that you keep hearing or seeing, I guess the names again and again, and you get to know who they are and they get to know who you are.
Definitely. Great. I love the online courses it is worth the investment.
Erica: I would say that’s, played a role in you being on this podcast too. I have a pretty long list of people who have suggested themselves as guests. But like when I see someone’s name that I know, or who’s a student, I’m like, oh yeah, like I can totally reach out to that person.
So it definitely gives people a little bit of a leg up in just getting to know, getting to know people.
Su-Nui: I love it. This is like a it’s fun and it’s a completely different way to connect then it doesn’t take as long as a face-to-face meeting.
Erica: Yeah. I actually just a funny story. I think last month when I was looking through just some of the conversations in my course group, um, somebody was like, oh, I got a back link from XYZ website.
It was like pretty reputable, but they’re like, I don’t know what article they featured me in it. How can I figure it? You know, who featured me and somebody chimed in and they were like, oh, it was me. So yeah. So even in that sense, people are just featuring each other because they’re familiar with each other in different, smaller groups.
So, I think, um, also one of the things I really admire about you and your story. Like you’ve really leaned into your personal unique strengths as well. Like leaning into doing the Spanish got milk campaign, correct me if that’s Erin, if that’s wrong, but you kind of like leaned into your cultural background and your life experiences even to get some of these experiences.
So I’d love to dive into that topic a little bit.
Su-Nui: Well, I mean, I know that it’s very trendy now to talk about cultural diversity and not only cultural, like whatever makes us unique, whatever that is. But, I didn’t realize this, but there’s, there are very few that dietitians that speaks Spanish. and I grew up in Mexico.
So my Spanish is pretty. It’s pretty clean. So I, I speak it. Then I write it very fluently and that has always helped me with, uh, many of my jobs, in advertising. Definitely. Um, it wasn’t until like last year when I started like talking more to the general market before I was just purely Spanish. Because there’s no many of us, I had a lot more opportunities.
And then of course, you know, I always liked cooking and I cook things that belong to my culture. And I also like traveling and I did classes all over the world. Um, and that has also like put me as a culturally competent expert. I mean, I don’t know how to define it, but you know, now people look for me because they know that I can, uh, develop recipes, with a cultural background.
And while I always be like involved in the Hispanic recipe development, I have a more diverse background.
Erica: I could imagine people listening might have their own unique thing that, that they have experience in, but maybe they almost take it for granted and they, and they’re not necessarily maybe using it as an asset, um, to stand out.
But everybody has something I feel like to, to set yourself apart and, Lean into to create more opportunities for yourself. So sometimes I think when we’re, so in meshed in wherever, like maybe it was place that we’re from or a type of food that we like to eat, or a language that we speak, we are, we forget that not everyone has those skills.
Su-Nui: And many times we event want to hide who we are because we don’t like it. So I think we embrace who we are, our background that makes it make us a more interesting individuals and better professionals. So it’s just matter of step into it. And, I think getting away sometimes of your comfort zone can help you because you discover a lot of things about yourself and who you are when you are not in your bubble..
Erica: Do you have any examples of getting out of your comfort zone that you’ve done?
Su-Nui: Um, right now, I know I’m spending a month in a Dominican Republic, uh, in a place that is like very, um, small. And I feel like just being here has opened up like different parts of my personality that I. That had been shuttered for, for all the time that I had spent, working at home, you know, without like that much interaction.
And I know you don’t have to be at an extreme as that, but even just belonging to a different group that has nothing to do with the things that you do every day can help you understand better who you are.
Erica: What made you make the decision to pack up and move to different location for awhile?
Su-Nui: There’s really no, not a good reason for it other than, you know, I can, and I hope that, I can work on line forever and I can have, different experiences.
Erica: Yeah. Can we talk about that for a second? Like you just said, you know, I did it kind of cause I can, but what type of work are you doing that makes that possible right now?
Su-Nui: Well, one, I continued my, my job as a dietetic internship director online, because really you’re not the preceptor of the students. So you have the flexibility to be working remotely and still getting your, your work done. Like I’m doing right now, a recipe development, which is again, very easy to do from anywhere because it’s not a position that you actually have to be involved.
I don’t know, because I guess I’m not with so many distractions, I’m actually being able to focus more on my long-term goals. So
Erica: what are your longterm goals?
Su-Nui: I really love working from home. I went to create a lot more online courses and I love writing, so I hope to continue to write
Erica:
Well, you know, I’m all about those things too. For the recipe development, how are you getting those connections or gigs?
Su-Nui: The one that I’m doing now. I mean, I’m being doing recipe development because as a spokesperson, one of the things that you do is develop recipes. Well, in my case, that was part of my contract.
And then I had different experiences, so I kind of was prepared. And then I don’t know how this person found me like many years ago, like maybe seven years ago. And I did some work with her for a little bit, um, And the owner of the company out of the blue, uh, saw me in social media again, and he’s like, oh, I, now that I’m reactivating these, I’m going to call her again.
And yeah, he called me and I’ve been working with him as well. So it was, uh, uh, an experience in my past. But, um, yeah, I know they’re one of those things to another network.
Erica: And then you also got your doctorate,
What did you, what, what did you specialize in?
Su-Nui: It’s that doctor in clinical nutrition? So some more practical degrees, not as much as research and, um, I did it all online, which actually made it really, really possible. It was quick, I did it in three years and although it took some time and effort.
It wasn’t, it wasn’t too bad. It was very doable and very everything that they teach is very, applicable. So it’s, it was not about to do independently. Mia helped me a lot because I had planned to do everything online and because the world got to, uh, to a stop people like answer my surveys within a week.
So my work really speed up and went really fast and I was able to like, finish it like really quick.
Erica: So what’s your long-term vision? I’m just, I’m so curious. Like who do you want to serve? And, um, where do you see yourself going?
Su-Nui: Um, there’s still groups that I really want to serve. One
is dietitians, because I feel like. I mean, I have like all the background I been, uh, in a way I’ve been teaching for so long as on internship director and as a university professor that I’m like of that group, that I went to help them to continue to grow, but in a different way. So I did, I started the social media to help dietitians, to start getting their voice out there because I’m big on that.
We are the nutrition experts and although I’m not big on titles, I think we should own. Our expertise. And, uh, we need to do that by doing better and better marketing and putting ourselves more out there as the nutrition experts that we are so dietitians are a big part of who I want to serve. And the other population that is more nutrition related because, you know, at the end, that’s it, um, women that are going through perimenopause and menopause.
Because again, I don’t feel that there’s a lot of help for these, these populations.
Erica: So bigger picture. You’re like, I can see it all coming together. Like I’m going to serve these two kind of like two different businesses, in the online space, create some programs for them. Use your marketing background and your spokesperson, background, and content development background to attract those people online.
Such a good combination.
Su-Nui: I like the way you are able to put everything together. But, uh, but yeah, exactly I think like everything that I had done in life can very easily land into like online courses and in serving people, you know, in a very different way to what I had served them, but at the end, teaching them the same skill that I’ve been teaching for for my entire career.
Erica: Yep. That’s like a common thread. Um, I recently asked people, you know, what they. Wanted to hear about more of on this podcast. And a lot of people said they wanted to just hear from other dietitians and hear more personal stories of just like, this is where I started. This is where my career journey took me.
And these are like the unconventional things I’m doing now. Cause I think people. It’s not super common to, do something. So out of the boxes, a lot of the experiences that you’ve had. Um, so I think when people hear like, oh, this is just a normal person, you know, doing these things, like I can do that too.
It’s really inspiring for them.
Su-Nui: Thanks. It’s it is not, it’s not super power or a degree or anything. It’s just open yourself up to new opportunity.
Erica: And you said you started an Instagram, for dietitians, what’s the
Su-Nui: handle?
Evolving Dietitians
Erica: I will put that. I mean, people can obviously just go find it, but I will also put a link to it in the, um, in the show notes for people, if they are on the go and they want to come back and look at all your resources later, if they can find [email protected] and then just look for this episode number and I’ll have links to all of your stuff there for people to check out.
Um, how’s that going? Do you enjoy that project?
Su-Nui: Oh, my God. I do very, very much. And you know, it’s very rewarding when people say like, oh my God, thank you. I been trying to like do these forever and it just was not happening. And a lot of the things that now come very natural to me. I know that, uh, at some point I struggle or there’s just things that they don’t teach you in school.
So if I can, you know, if I can help someone else to have a bigger voice? I, I will be honored to do that
Erica: a thousand percent. That’s like how I started so many of the actual successful things that I eventually created online. Almost all of it originally started as a personal pain point and feeling.
I worked through a struggle and I wanted to share how I worked through it with other people. So yeah, that’s always,
Su-Nui: um, tutorial for websites is great. I mean, it’s something that is relatively simple, but I can tell you that I was able to just, okay. Tutorial, computer, get it done. You know, it’s just, it’s just, sometimes it’s just need that little help guide you through the process.
Erica: And otherwise there are sometimes there are so many options and so many possibilities that I think sometimes people get stuck in like analysis paralysis. Yeah. Yeah. I know. We’re so like perfectionistic type in it. There’s definitely been a theme of people being. Uh, I wanted to do this for like three years, but I’m still thinking about it.
So anything that you can do to help people actually take action, I think is huge. Yeah. Because I don’t know how you feel. I think you probably would agree based on, I feel like you sort of, it seems like you just sort of like jump into things, but as they come your way, so it seems like you’re pretty good at taking action.
When the opportunities arise, but I think that’s where the most learning and growing comes from.
Su-Nui: Yes. But at the same time, I do have, a background where I’m getting prepared for things. And then, you know, it might be able to talk that the opportunities. I remember reading a book as teenager. And, um, it just, uh, give you like, uh, Story where you are born , in a, in a high rise at, at different levels.
And every level is a little better. And while you’re in a certain level, you can spend your time, um, preparing and doing, but preparing for the next. So when the elevator door opens, if you’re prepared, you can jump in and going to the next floor. But if you’re not prepared, you’re going to continue being where you are.
So, I don’t think it don’t think it too much. You have to take the opportunity because that opportunity might not present again, but you do need to be prepared to take it. So
Erica: kind of like continually working on self-development and those types of things, or do you have any other tips on how to be prepared?
Su-Nui: I think so, but what I’m saying, being prepared that doesn’t necessarily mean like getting another degree doesn’t necessarily means, oh, I need to know everything about renal nutrition before I can do this in the renal space. It means that you’re working towards the goal, but you don’t have to have another degree.
You don’t have to be a super expert. You just have to know your stuff. And that sometimes might not even mean working more on your nutrition knowledge, but you might be working on your marketing, scaling, writing, working on your communication skills. So you, you need to know where you are going. What is your general path?
And then being able to. To take new opportunities as they come.
Erica: Thank you for saying that. That was very well said. I agree. We got another problem we often see in the nutrition space. It’s like, I need that other certification. I need that degree. Like I putting up almost like your own roadblocks against yourself, because you maybe lacking confidence or feeling that a little bit of that imposter syndrome and you think.
The thing that’s comfortable, like getting a degree or doing something that you’re familiar with, like passing all these tests is the thing you need. But oftentimes that’s not really the thing you need.
Su-Nui: Then you see like all these nutrition, coaches that take like one year or three months of nutrition and they’re doing great things.
And a lot of them are phenomenal, but they just did. They had that confidence where like, yeah, I’m just going to do it. Then I know my stuff. I’ll do it.
Erica: Do you weave that at all into like your internship work as an internship director? Like, is that a common thing that students are struggling with?
Su-Nui: Yeah. They don’t feel that they know enough when like, even when they’re speaking to other healthcare professionals, they’re like, well, I don’t know.
No, you know, your stuff. Yes. You might talk to the physician in, like, he’ll explain or, she will explain you something else that is impacting the care of the patient. And then that’s a great learning opportunity for you. But most of the time the physicians are going to say yes, of course. So it’s, not having that like confidence to like do great things.
Yeah. Some others have great confidence and they’re doing great. I recently had an intern who now has like 15,000 followers in Instagram because one day she’s like, I’m just going to do it I’ll, get it done. And yeah. She’s, she’s great. But she believes in herself.
Erica: How do you believe in yourself? I think some people struggle and they’re like. I just, I don’t get
Su-Nui: it. That’s, that’s a tougher question to answer that. I think that comes with a lot of the inner work and, and just believing in yourself. And if you feel like you’re lacking in something, uh, you don’t know enough about intuitive eating and that’s something you want to learn.
Uh, just go ahead and learn it. I mean, I knew nothing about like blogging in general and I’ve been wanting to do it for so long and I’d been like diving into that space. And now I feel like pretty confident. I hope it pays off. It’s a long-term game, but you know, I, I feel that I have the tools and I, I don’t feel that I’m going there.
Blindly. I feel like. I’m going there with a background now and has become like a very enjoyable journey and whatever happens happens. I can not control what is going to happen, but I can control about starting and getting it done.
Erica: Yeah. And getting some guidance. It sounds like that’s, that could be helpful from people who’ve already done it.
Su-Nui: Thank you and, Katie. My, uh, my guides, although you probably didn’t know how important you’d been in that, that part of my life. Well,
Erica: thank you. Uh, yeah, I’m a natural just like educator, so yeah, it feels good to know. What I’m putting out there is helping. I mean, you know,
Su-Nui: it’s, uh, I, I feel like in whatever you do, having guidance, um, can just speed up the process and yes, you can get it from here and there, but sometimes you, you don’t have the confidence to do it.
And, um, and he’s funny that you talk about confidence because. I feel like it’s very common that we feel like imposters or we don’t feel like we’re good enough. That’s a very common thread. And then we keep having reassurances that we are good, but many times we choose to ignore the people that are telling us that we, we are
Erica: great.
Do you have any tips on how to kind of remind yourself when you’re having a down day? The thing, the nice, positive things that people have said about you or your work, ?
Su-Nui: I mean, Sometimes it’s just even get away from the space, like, um, just break for a minute, just put like, happy music and dance, and just let yourself go for five minutes.
And then when you sit down again, You might feel better about yourself or go for a walk or go for a run physical activity. I think it helps a lot to elevate your mood, um, and also sometimes just remember, like all the good things that happen to you. I do like, every three months, I like to set up goals for myself.
But before I start setting up the goals for the three months ahead, I just make a list of all the gains that I had on the month before, because you don’t see it when you don’t think about it, but when you start writing it down, you’re like, man, I got some good stuff on these
Erica: three months.
Totally. I love that suggestion. One of the things I have in my SEO course, I made like a tracker. And I upgraded it this, this year. So for anybody who’s been in my course, definitely go check out the newer version. But yeah, tracking every month, like you’re blogging stats and. I added some sections on making notes, like, oh, what really worked this month?
What didn’t work this month and just reflecting because you’re right. You totally take it for granted sometimes. And then sometimes also like the bigger picture view, maybe you don’t even notice the progress in the month to month, but then when you pull back like six months, it’s like, whoa, I had like 10 X growth and I didn’t realize it or something, you know,
Su-Nui: no, that’s, that’s a, that’s a great point, like knowing where you have been can make a difference because you can get used to the new status really quick.
Erica: another thing I started doing, I don’t know if this is helpful for anyone listening. I historically have not done a very good job of really focusing on the wins that my students have been getting either. So people will share stuff in the group periodically, and then I’m just like, oh, yay.
And I just forget about it. Uh, so I’m trying now with my monthly office hours to kind of celebrate those wins with people. So I’ll go back through and look at what people shared and. create prompts to encourage people like, Hey, what wins did you have this month? So it’s just a more encouraging space, I think as well.
So
Su-Nui: I love that.
Being recognized, I don’t know. It, it means a lot.
Erica: So as we kind of wrap up here, Looking back on your whole career journey so far and all of the cool unconventional opportunities you had, if you had to summarize maybe like three tips or pieces of advice for people listening, who are also interested in doing something more unconventional.
I know we’ve talked about a lot of stuff, but maybe just off the top of your head, the top three things that you maybe wish you knew when you started or what other people should know too.
Su-Nui: I wish that I had explored the different avenues that dietitians can take like really early on.
And like some of the ones I took was because they were presented to me, but our profession is so amazing because you can go in so many routes that why only focus in on one thing. And the one thing only that you can do, and for my interns it’s clinical nutrition. But there’s so many things that is just matter of exploring to choose one. Second,
you need to be prepared to take the opportunities. And I have talked about, uh, we have talked about for a long time today. Uh, and the other thing is just, don’t be scared and just get it done. The worst thing is that is that you fail and so what, you’re gonna fail. We’re gonna fail so many times in life.
That failing one time, two times, three times. It doesn’t matter. Just take the opportunity and run with it.
Erica: Ooh, that was so good too. Definitely something to touch on. Yeah. Failing. Failing is not bad. Failing is learning. Um, I’ve shared plenty of times on this podcast that, uh, it’s not like I just like popped out of the gate and created a successful brand.
Like with no failure. I’ve had lots of failure online. And it’s the people who keep going and try to analyze on maybe, oh, why did this go the way that it did and maybe make some tweaks, but try again. That’s really how you eventually get to where you want to be. A failure doesn’t mean.
That you need to do 180 degree pivot, like do something totally different. Um, sometimes that could actually, I think, hurt people if they’re like this didn’t work. So I’m scrapping the entire idea and doing something totally different. Like maybe you just need some tweaks, you know,
Su-Nui: that’s so true because sometimes you’re so close to success.
But didn’t see it and changing the strategy 180 degree degrees might not be the solution.
Erica: Yeah. Like for example, maybe you were like, oh, I’m gonna start a blog and you do it for like three months. And you’re like, oh, I didn’t get the results. I. Screw that I’m doing Instagram. And then you do that for three months and then you’re like, Ugh, this isn’t working either Facebook live, that’s where it’s at.
And then the hopping around is if you had just taken those nine months and just stuck with one of those channels, you probably would have way better results. And you thought
Su-Nui: you were becoming better as you
Erica: learn. Yeah. I really enjoyed talking with you today and hearing more about your background and all of the ways that everything has come together for you.
And I know people are going to connect with the different, I feel like there was like little, like wisdom drops that happened to just like in our natural conversation. So thank people are gonna feel really inspired, um, and hopeful about their careers after this episode.
Su-Nui: Thank you. And I encourage everyone to just, you know, try different things and find your passion because it’s a great, great profession.
And it’s just a matter of like, finding what makes you happy and doesn’t feel like work .
Erica: And if people want to stay connected with you, is there a certain social media channel that you hang out on the most that people can go follow you?
Su-Nui: Yes. Uh, my Instagram account is, @evolvingdietitians, And my website for dietitians is the same.
evolvingdietitians. And I really loved the name because I feel like we’re always evolving.
Erica: Well, great. Um, so again, I’ll put the links to, find all of your resources and everything in the show notes. If people are listening while they’re driving or something. But seriously, thank you for coming on today and chatting with me.
Thank you it was fun.
Su-Nui: I loved it.
I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you’re feeling lost in a sea of influencers online and want some tips on how you can use SEO, AKA search engine optimization to stand out and actually build a monetizable audience. Head over to SEOfreebie.com to get my free roadmap for success.
Erica Julson is a registered dietitian turned digital marketing pro. She has over 12 years of experience blogging and building online businesses and has taught over 900 wellness professionals inside her signature program, SEO Made Simple.
