This week on the podcast, I’m talking with eating disorder dietitian and business coach Jennifer McGurk.
Jennifer currently runs two different businesses in the dietetic space: a group private practice that serves clients with eating disorders and a coaching business that helps healthcare professionals create successful, weight-inclusive practices.
Jennifer has been at this for over a decade now and has so much wisdom to share.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Jennifer’s experience starting her first private practice in 2011
- What spurred her to expand from solopreneurship into a group private practice
- Why she decided to start a second business five years later to help other RDs build private practices themselves
- How she would go about starting a business again today if she was back at square zero
…and much more. Listen in now to hear this insightful conversation.
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More About Jennifer McGurk
Jennifer McGurk is on a mission to empower non-diet business owners build a business that supports their clients to feel fabulous about food. As the CEO of Pursuing Private Practice, Jennifer leads an entire team that transforms businesses with education, supervision, coaching, and community. The company offers Business School, Supervision Groups, and Business Coaching Intensives. Jennifer is the host of the Pursuing Private Practice podcast, where she shares the ups and downs of growing a business and features guests to share their own journeys.
Connect with Jennifer
- Website: pursuingprivatepractice.com
- Instagram: @pursuing.private.practice
- Facebook: Pursuing Private Practice
- LinkedIn: Jennifer McGurk RDN
Jennifer’s Free Workshop
Check out the Pursuing Private Practice FREE workshop – 5 Steps to Start Your Private Practice This Week
Episode Transcript
This week on the podcast. I am talking with eating disorder, dietitian and business coach, Jennifer McGurk. Jennifer currently runs two different businesses in the dietetic space, a successful group, private practice that serves eating disorder clients and a coaching business called pursuing private practice that helps healthcare professionals create successful weight, inclusive practices.
Jennifer has been at this for over a decade now and has so, so, so much wisdom to share. In this episode, we cover a lot. We talk about Jennifer’s experience starting her first private practice way back in 2011. What spurred her to eventually expand from being just a solo preneur into a group, private practice and why she decided to start a second business five years later to help other RDS build private practices themselves.
We talk about her struggle to initially niche down in both her private practice and coaching business, but how getting crystal clear on her messaging led to wonderful business growth. In both scenarios, we discussed Jennifer’s experience trying to launch a brand with a self-published book and why she would not do it that way again.
And we even talk about how she would go about starting a business again today, if she was back at square zero, which was a super insightful conversation. We talk a bit about the similarities between diet culture and hustle, business culture, and how Jennifer’s philosophies are the antithesis of those.
And finally, we get into some really amazing insights about the stages of business that Jennifer has gone through and that she sees others go through as entrepreneurs as well. She’s coined them starting growing, scaling, and coasting. You’ve probably heard of the first three, but I love the idea of a coasting stage.
And I think you will too. Can’t wait for you to hear all the gems that Jennifer has to share. Let’s get into the conversation.
Welcome to the Unconventional RD podcast where we inspire dietitians to think outside of the traditional employment box and create their own unconventional income streams. We’ll talk all things online business to help you start, grow, and scale your own digital empire.
Erica Julson: Hello. Hello. I am so stoked to have you here on the podcast today. I know originally I was a guest on your show back in 2021. So I’m really excited to return the favor and have you here back on my podcast, like a year or so later. So thank you.
Jennifer McGurk: Thank you, Erica. I’m a huge fan of your show. I love your show so much.
So I’m so honored to be here.
Erica Julson: Well, I am honored to have you here. I feel like we’ve been friends sort of in the online space for a long time. And we get to periodically check in. So, yeah, I’m, I took a little bit of a break with accepting guests, I guess, on the podcast while yeah, I had my son, so it feels good to be back in the swing and being able to connect again with some people that I really wanted to have on, including you.
So . So thank you.
Jennifer McGurk: Thank you, Erica. Well, it just goes to show like your business has built such an awesome brand that you can take a break and you can coast and come back whenever you want, and you’re still literally running a very successful business.
Erica Julson: Oh, I like that little breadcrumb drop. We’re totally gonna talk about that later in the episode.
Jennifer McGurk: Yes, we’re
Erica Julson: yes, . So, I know you’ve been running a private practice for a long time, I think over a decade now and yeah, you’ve also been coaching dietitians on starting private practices. I tried to look back and see like when you started that, what you’re pursuing, private practice website and it looked like maybe like 2016 or so, so a long time in that space as well.
So I think it’d be great if you could, maybe just before we dive into your journey, just give us a summary of what you’re doing today and then we can go backwards and, and talk about
how you got there.
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Oh, I love that. So yes, I love the work that we are doing now. It has definitely been a journey to get here because you’re right, I did start in 2016 and I’ve watched this part of my business pursuing private practice go through tons of ups and downs.
Um, so I consider pursuing private practice to be a business education company with lots of different offers for different stages of business. And that is actually recently new, which I can talk about too on the podcast. But we have a membership for people that are starting and growing their business.
We have supervision groups, and then I’m also getting more into business coaching and consulting for organizations. That really is my 2023 goal. .
Erica Julson: Yeah. What does that mean? Like for organizations?
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah, so I, so organizations, I want to, and this is actually the first time I’m actually saying this on any type of public platform, so I’m excited that it’s gonna be on your podcast first, but I have an idea to get hired by organizations to go in and really fix some leadership stuff and team issues.
I feel like I’m in a very unique situation where I am an employer and I have employees in my business, and I also teach people how to leave jobs to become their own bosses. So I understand both sides. I understand what it’s like to be an employer. I understand what it’s like to be an employee and there are tons of, tons of issues in both sides, and I feel like I could be really, really useful and helpful for organizations and private practices going in as a consultant and working with both sides.
But again, , I’m not doing anything about this until 2023 . So it’s not, not an offer that I have yet, but it’s something that I’ve been thinking about.
Erica Julson: I like that I might, I’ll be paying attention. Cause , I feel like the next thing in my business is probably expanding and growing and Yeah.
It’s, it’s hard. I think it’s hard. .
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah, it is. It is. Leadership in teams is something that I have learned the hard way. I have learned so many lessons and it’s also something that I’m really passionate about. Yeah. So I, I love that.
Erica Julson: Yeah. And I feel like in, at least in the dietetics communities that I’m connected with, it doesn’t seem like there’s that many people who are running like big teams.
There’s a lot of solopreneurs, a lot of solo private practice people, solo bloggers, online business people. Maybe they have a few freelancers or something. But yeah, I think there is a little bit of a gap in our space with guidance on that. So. Cool. Yeah. Okay, well then maybe let’s go backwards, , and uh, when did you become a dietitian and what did you think you wanted to do when you started
Jennifer McGurk: out?
Oh my gosh. I know. So I became a dietitian. I graduated Penn State 2006. Went on to my internship in Hopkins 2007. And honestly at that time I was struggling so much with my own eating disorder. I just wanted to be a dietitian to like fix myself not even knowing what that meant. And really was passionate about, you know, all things nutrition, like almost like an orthorexia type of passion.
I was really kind of obsessed and doing things the quote unquote right way, meanwhile getting deeper and deeper into my own eating disorder. So I was very lucky. I consider myself, you know, very lucky, very, I do have a lot of privileges in the sense that I could get help from a eating disorder. I can afford to see someone and you know, also to have the personality that like I took that risk and I think that that’s really important to name so, I got help.
Meanwhile, like fast forward many years, so it’s literally one sentence, but fast forward many years I recovered from my eating disorder and became really passionate about doing this type of work as a dietitian. My first job was a diabetes job in outpatient diabetes counseling. It did not light me up. I was a very bored, I’m a horrible employee.
Erica. I think you be able to have lot might be able to relate since you have lots of guests on here that are probably horrible employees. But I really decided to start my own business in 2011 and watched it grow from there.
Erica Julson: So you started, did you start just right in at a private practice?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. So I had two part-time jobs at the time. I had a full-time job. I wanted to start my business, so I went down to two part-time jobs and from there I, you know, took a lot of different people because I was only seeing maybe like two or three people a week, six months into starting my own private practice.
And then eventually I specialized into eating disorders, um, which I’m really happy I did.
Erica Julson: And then eventually that took off. And now do you have other people working in that company?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Yes. So eventually that did take off. I was forced, and I say forced, Really forced to hire my first person. When I had my son, I didn’t wanna hire anybody.
I did not wanna build a team because I think I was a little bit of a control freak back then. But I was going on maternity leave and at the time I think I had like 25 clients a week. Like I had a full caseload of full private practice. So I was forced to hire someone. I did it completely wrong. I did everything wrong, but I did it
But that turned into a group private practice. And then eventually now we had three. Now we have two dietitians working in the group private practice.
Erica Julson: And how long has that been running as a group practice?
Jennifer McGurk: 11 years. Wow. Oh, as a group practice. Seven years. Wow. As a group practice. Seven years. But that’s amazing.
Been in business. Yes. Um, and at the time too, when having my first son, that’s when I also got the aha moment or the, I guess, I don’t wanna say sign cuz it’s a little bit too woo, but like I got. Interested in taking the next step to really help professionals because I really wanted to do supervision with people.
A lot of people at the time were asking me how to start a private practice and I just kind of said to myself like, I really have always loved business, so let me just write this little guide, which turned into a short, short book series, um, on private practice and that’s how pursuing private practice was born.
I
Erica Julson: feel like I remember that when it, when we first launched it, . Yeah. Cause I think that was right when I was kinda like getting into the online space and connecting more dietitians. And I totally remember coming across your site and, and your offering some stuff. So way back when, way back when I even went back on the way back machine cuz I.
Interested in just kind of looking at how your branding evolved. and it’s so funny, ,
Jennifer McGurk: I’ll say Erica, that website is so good because if you wa so, okay, this is a little spoiler alert. If you look at every single expert out there, you think that they got everything right the first time and that they made no mistakes.
And all you have to do is go back on way back machine and look at our websites. .
Erica Julson: I know, it’s so funny and I feel like, yeah, well I don’t know if I, I’m not trying to jump ahead, but I feel like, your original branding was, it’s something that so many people do in the beginning where it’s like, start a business have the freedom and flexibility you want versus now you’re like, I help people start weight inclusive, like private, private gets so specific but everyone starts out so vague cuz they don’t wanna like,, Alienate anyone, I think.
Yeah. And they wanna like appeal to everyone, any private practice owner. So,
Jennifer McGurk: yes. Oh my gosh. I remember saying like, start and grow the business of your dreams, , like, like I would just appeal to everybody. No, no, no, no. So I,
Erica Julson: I guess it’s, can I just like dive into that right now then? Yeah. Like how did you learn to get more specific?
Talk us through that.
Jennifer McGurk: That’s, it’s a really good question. I think I was afraid, I think the driver of being very general was just a scarcity mindset, to be very honest with you. And I think I was just nervous or afraid that I wasn’t gonna get enough clients and I had to talk to everybody in order to, you know, have three people work with me.
And it was so funny because at the time for pursuing private practice, this was like 2016, I really started to niche down very heavily in eating disorders and then like a weight inclusive approach in eating disorders and like 2015 ish. But granted, I did not know everything about health that every size, I still don’t know everything about health, every size or weight inclusive approach by any means, I’m always gonna be.
But at that time I was seeing how my practice was getting better, and I say like it was more streamlined. I was working with the clients that I really enjoyed. I was working with similar types of people, so I felt like the work was easier because I was learning so much from these clients and I could apply to these clients and getting supervision, and I just saw it skyrocket.
And it was so easy too, just to do everything related to business because I was focusing on one niche. So at the time, pursuing private practice was really general, but the more niche I got with my group practice, the more I got niche with pursuing private practice.
Erica Julson: One of my other questions was how is your time split right now since you do kind of have two businesses?
Like are you still seeing clients in your private practice and then how much versus how much time are you doing business
Jennifer McGurk: coaching?
Yeah, so this is jumping a little bit ahead, but I will say I am very much coasting. in the group private practice. It probably is a few hours a week on my part because I, and here’s the thing, because I have a team that is really running things for me.
Like I have put in years and years of work into that group practice. We’ve done a million different projects that I’ve led over the years, but right now we’re not really growing. We’re just coasting. You know, we still have referrals coming in because we’ve built up such a great reputation. My two dietitians that are seeing clients, you know, I try to make it as easy as possible for them to come in, do a great job with their clients and leave everything else to the practice.
Um, and that’s because of my amazing executive assistant, Danielle, who’s in the room with me right now, so I can give her a little shout out there. Um, but it’s just so, so easy. So we’re coasting in that business so I can focus on actively scaling, pursuing private practice, which is what I’m doing.
Erica Julson: Yeah, I think that’s a really great example too. I think a lot of people they might look at people like you who’ve been doing this for many years and are very successful in a lot of things at this point and think like, how the heck are they doing it all? But you personally, single-handedly are not doing it all.
Jennifer McGurk: Oh my gosh. No. No. Absolutely not. Yeah. Yeah. No. At one point last year I had eight people on my team. Yeah. I don’t have eight people anymore, but I had eight. Like there was a point where this business was so big that I needed eight people on my team. Yeah. So it’s really important to recognize that. Yeah.
Erica Julson: Well, good for you for, I feel like it takes a lot of trust to outsource. Uh, yes. So good for you for empowering other people to like take the reins and run with it. Yes. Yeah.
Jennifer McGurk: Yes, definitely.
Erica Julson: And I forgot to ask, is your private practice in person virtual? Both.
Jennifer McGurk: Right now we’re virtual. We, we were in person for like, forever.
We were in person up until Covid. And then once Covid hit, you know, I think the world changed, but especially with eating disorders and we see a ton of adolescents at our practice, it just changed so much to favor virtual. But I will say a big, you know, point in that is that we don’t process insurance directly.
I know telehealth has been a nightmare sometimes for providers to get reimbursed. So that’s one thing that I have to say. And then also too, we have years of counseling experience under our belt. So I can pick up, and this is, this is a skill and so if you don’t have this, like do not feel bad because it is a learned skill.
Like counseling over Zoom is a learned skill. You want to be able to ask questions, you wanna be able to kind of read body language from shoulders up. And it’s harder to do that when you’re. on Zoom with someone and not necessarily in the room, but we’ve had, you know, years of experience with counseling that it’s still working for us.
It doesn’t necessarily work for everybody though.
Erica Julson: Nice. . Okay. So you have your private practice that’s now virtual and running with a couple dietitians, and you are doing, it sounds like more of the like higher level work maybe. Uh, and then the, the dietitians that you have on your staff are doing more of the, you know, one-on-one client work.
Yes. Um, and then you have this whole other arm of business with pursuing private practice. And you, you briefly mentioned how you wrote a book, . So it sounds like, it sounds like the way it happened was kinda like you were getting questions and you’re like, okay, like maybe I like the thought process you had behind it.
Like, okay, I’m getting the same questions over and over, so maybe if I just put this on paper, people will buy it , maybe. Is that what you were thinking?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. I don’t know what I was thinking. Honestly, I did not work with a business coach back then, so that was my number one mistake. , don’t do what I did. Um, that’s, it’s what I was thinking.
I honestly didn’t know where pursuing private practice would go. It was just a creative project when I first started. And I think that that’s really important to name, because there’s so many people out there that think they have to have everything finalized and everything checked off, and the perfect plan for everything before they literally put it out into the world.
And my stance on that is that you just kind of have to start, you just have to do the hard thing. You have to challenge yourself to do the next right step. And for me, that was putting everything that I had in my brain into a Word document to publish as a book. But thank God it, you know, kept going after that because I actually lost money.
what that project, looking back,
Erica Julson: how long did it take you to write it?
Jennifer McGurk: About a year. Wow. About a year. Yeah.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Wow. That’s wild. Yeah. Yeah. I have not written a book, but I have heard from other people that it’s like, you know, maybe more of like a resume builder type of thing, or like a way to get like speaking engagements or like things like that may and definitely not a monetary play.
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah, I mean, it helped my, it helped launch the brand, but I would not do it again. Um, and also too, because, I mean, this is kind of funny, like, it’s so funny I said, I said today to my team, I said, I have to write all of these emails today, and I am not a good reader. , like, I’m not a great writer.
So it’s just, you know, funny that I picked that when it’s not one of my strengths, , but it’s what it, it was 2016. I can just kind of claim that I didn’t know what I was doing. Yeah. And did not work with a business coach .
Erica Julson: So what would you do if you had to do it over, how would you launch your brand today?
Jennifer McGurk: Oh my gosh. Today I would start off with some sort of high, high, high touch, like probably podcast, um, to start to literally gather information from people on what they want from me. I would start having conversations one-on-one, but also conversations in groups. I might, I might still do a free Facebook group if I was starting today.
I’m actually not doing a free Facebook group, at the moment. But I do think that that marketing, I mean like you can tell us Erica, like, I still think it’s very, very, very valuable cause it teaches other people that you are a expert, even though I know it’s a lot of work to run on the backend, which you can speak of.
But I would just have conversations with people and I probably would launch one-on-one and then I would go into groups and, but it would make money right away. A book did not make money.
Erica Julson: Mm-hmm. . All right. So, okay. You started pursuing private practice. You wrote the book. It maybe didn’t have the reception that you like.
Why do you think it didn’t go as you hoped?
Jennifer McGurk: Oh, well, I think it did. Well, I, so here’s the thing. I think it did well. I actually forget how many copies of the book I sold, but it, it definitely launched my brand. It did well, but for all of the work and effort and money that I put into the project, the money that I made back on my return on investment was negative at the end of the day.
Erica Julson: Yeah. So, so you’re kinda saying like, if you were just trying to build a brand, like you could have just been on like Instagram or something, rather than putting it all
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah. Them trying to sell a product. Right.
Erica Julson: That makes so much sense. Yeah. Okay. So many helpful insights, , , but I love what you’re saying.
Like, you, you just have to do it and try. Yeah. And that’s how you learn. Yes. And I resonate a lot with what you said. that it wasn’t really started as a business. Uh, cuz same with the Unconventional Rd. I, it was just a Facebook group that I just wanted to connect with other people. Yeah. Uh, there was no product to sell or anything for.
Yeah. You know, almost two years. So . Yeah. Okay. So I guess flash forward now till you had the book and then how did you get to where you are now? Like what type of offerings came next?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Okay. It’s so funny. I was just at a mastermind with my business group in Nashville last week, and one of the mastermind friends there said, we all have a 100% track record of figuring it out.
and I just love that so much. I was like, that is the quote to say out loud when you are pivoting. So it went through multiple pivots and pursuing private practice just went through another pivot because businesses have to pivot when the market pivots and there has been no time, like 2020 and 2021 and 2022, that the market has really pivoted.
Like we have had so many ups and downs. But I think that that’s because we are really serving business owners. I feel like our, our business owners that we are serving serve clients and they’ve been more consistent with the business and the market side of things than us. But the economy, the recession, you know, the unrest in the world, like people losing their jobs, people starting businesses like.
it’s all affected pursuing private practice. So 2016 book came out 2017, we started a course and courses were very popular back in 2017, like, and I still think that they’re popular today. But we started a course and then it accidentally turned into almost like a group coaching program because we started offering calls for free.
But keep in mind, this was still a one-time purchase at the time. And then we pivoted towards an actual like membership program. And then that kind of pivoted into a high level mastermind because we kept on adding things and adding things and adding things. So that version of it was called dietitian Business School.
But as we were adding things, we were actually helping people grow into like group practices, scalable offers, you know, helping people with hr, helping people really scale their businesses. So dietitian business school became starting growing and scaling. And then of course we always talk about coasting too.
And it was just like too big and it was serving too many people in different phases of their business. Because if you’re starting, you wanna know how to get an e i n number. And the person that is hiring their first dietitian does not wanna talk about e i n number. Like you already know that. So we decided to literally burn everything down, which was a huge process to go through.
And now we have different offers for the different stages of. So we just launched business school. That’s for people that are starting and growing. That’s our membership community. So you have access to our beginner basics course. You have access to all of our other business courses, and that is really where you get a ton of education support community that’s for people in that phase.
And now we’re doing supervision groups for growing. Um, and also too for clinical skills cuz we do really believe in doing a good job with our clients. And then I’m starting the business coaching intensives for scaling. So that is how the evolution of P P P came to be.
Erica Julson: That was semi recent, right?
Like how long ago did you
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it was, we officially switched over in September to business school.
Erica Julson: And for reference, we’re recording this in November 20, November 22. Cuz I know it’s gonna air later.
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah. Um, and the thing is, we’re not done yet. And. I could have said to you, Erica, oh, well let me just wait until everything is perfect to go on your podcast and talk about it.
But no, you know, like we’re not doing that. Like I’m in the middle of a transition, taking challenges, you know, making pivots and I don’t have everything figured out, and yet here I am and it’s okay. Like, and I hope to lead by example because so many of us get stuck there.
Erica Julson: I resonate with so many of the things that you’re saying cuz I feel like I did something similar in my business where I had like way too many things and then scaled it way down.
Mm-hmm. and now I’m figuring out how to bring some of those components back in. But in a more like, yeah. Well thought out way, , you know? Yes. Yeah. Because I do feel like sometimes you get so excited in the beginning and it’s like more, more, more, more, more. And then you’re like, what did I build?
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah, that’s exactly what I did.
It’s like, you need this. Oh, you get this, you need that. It’s like Oprah in the car. It’s like you get a car, you get a car, you get a car. But it’s so hard cuz I care so many, I care so much about everybody. But I was seeing it’s like this is just not serving everybody because it’s back to serving.
everybody, you know? So I hope that that makes sense. It’s like, by serving people of all stages of business, I wasn’t really able to get into like the real stuff that people need when they’re starting the real stuff that people need when they’re growing and the real stuff that they need when they really are scaling.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Was this just a realization that you came to just observing what was happening or was this like feedback you were getting from people in your community or both?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes, both. Both. Yeah. Yeah. Um, both. We, we took a very, well, we’re client, we’re a client-centered company.
Like we, everything that we do is really for serving our people. So we always have taken feedback surveys. We’ve had one-on-one conversations with people, like, what can we do differently? So it wasn’t necessarily that they told us that we needed to break things up, but the more feedback we got, the more we realized that it was just inevitable.
Like we just had to break it up.
Erica Julson: And then what did you do with the people who were already in your programs?
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah, so we invited them to come over. , we invited them to come, we lost some people, which is okay, you know, like, and of course we’re all gonna feel horrible about that. But it doesn’t, just cuz you didn’t join business school doesn’t mean that your work with P P P is over.
But I think it really is figuring out like, who is your ideal client? You know, the person that wants everything has the opportunity to join everything, but it’s really meant like, this offers for this person, this per offers for this person, this offers for this person.
Erica Julson: You just said like, okay, we’re, we’re reformatting it, it used to be everything all in one, and now there’s like yeah.
Different things that you place for you to go. And then did you give them any sort of. Discount to go into the new ones or were they grandfathered in? Or was it like, oh, here’s all the old stuff and you can still access it if you want, or whatever. Yes. So tell you people do that.
Jennifer McGurk: I know it’s an operations headache.
I couldn’t have done it without my team. Um, so we really, we had to reach out to everybody individually, cuz some people already paid for the annual option. So that was a little bit of a headache, but we worked it out. Yeah. You know, like we really do serve people for trying to lead by example, trying to, you know, lead with our values.
But yes, it was an operations headache, but luckily I like technology. I know some people don’t, but I really like technology , so we, we ha we figured it out.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Speaking of technology, what do you run everything
Jennifer McGurk: on?
Okay. Are you ready for this? ? . Okay. WordPress, Uhhuh, . Convert Kit. I don’t wanna say landing pages cause that’s not the right word.
Like Optin, like Convert Kit is our email marketing system. Mm-hmm. . Um, we have Gmail for our customer service stuff connected to Convert Kit. We have Monday for our C r m Acuity for scheduling. Um, we had Teachable for our lessons, but we recently just switched over to SamCart because they were able to give us so much more technology on the backend with a lot of the different stats that we were just kind of missing or like doing by hand.
So I really like the te the SamCart checkout pages. So we just switched to SamCart and we’re gonna try using their courses app. So I know e-learning is huge. Um, right now it’s going okay. We’ll see how it goes. . But we also use, I’m trying to think, Canva, of course, Dropbox, we use the sauna for project management.
I feel like I’m missing more , but you know, this is after 11 years. Yeah, 11 years of building a business. You don’t need, I mean, zoom, you don’t need all of this stuff at the beginning. Yeah. You need a good E M R if you’re seeing clients.
Erica Julson: Do you have one that you like the best right now?
Jennifer McGurk: So right now we’re on acuity, believe it or not.
We are. We are weird because a lot of times I recommend simple practice practice better. I think those are great and so much more of a robust E M R system. But we really like Acuity for our E M R, we just get the powerhouse version.
Erica Julson: That’s what I use to schedule my podcast interviews. . Yes. I know.
It’s all synced up. I like the automations. I, that is one thing I think. Yeah. Pat my own myself on my own back right now. I did a good job automating my podcast process. .
Jennifer McGurk: Yes you did. I can say as a guest, it was very smooth. It was very streamlined. I appreciated it. But it’s great. I know tech is, tech is, I, this is like a whole nother conversation, but like, technology is amazing and I mean sometimes I usually say if you can pass Oche, you can start a business.
But if you can pass oche, you can absolutely figure out technology and like technology is so like, helps businesses so much. Like don’t be afraid of the technology. Yeah. Just experiment.
Erica Julson: Like you said, now you’re trying SamCart, like you can always experiment and try something new.
You don’t have to be. Feeling like your pick is like the end all, be all forever . No, it’s not a it’s not, yeah, not, yeah. A lot of ’em make a lot of different, I mean it’s obviously depends on what platform, type of platform we’re talking about, but a lot of them will help you transport your data from one platform to another.
Like if you wanted to switch email platforms or whatever. So Yes. Oh my gosh. Again, back to this main point, like just start . Yes.
Jennifer McGurk: Just start. Yeah. And just mess up. Like, just mess up. You will mess up. I cannot tell you I have sent, um, and my team too, like this is another conversation around team. Like, I have messed up, my team is messed up and it’s okay.
Like we survive, we mess up, we say haha, we explain, we try to make it right and we go forward. You know, like I am not afraid to mess up because I know I will mess up. Yeah. And I hope that that gives you permission to just get started.
Erica Julson: Yeah. All right. So let’s see. I think I’d like to talk a little bit about the.
transformation again in kind of like your messaging in your business and Yeah. How you got there, like, and, and how did, I’ve heard you say it a couple times in this interview already that, oh, I wasn’t having, I didn’t have business coaching yet. I didn’t have business coaching. Like when did the business coaching enter the picture and how did not impact, you know, how your business changed?
Did that help you niche down or was that
Jennifer McGurk: totally.
Absolutely. Yes. Well, I, well, I mean, yes and no. I feel like supervision was actually my first form of business coaching that I didn’t even realize was business coaching. But I will give a major shout out to Jessica Snick. She was my first supervisor ever when I had no idea what supervision was.
But she helped me process as a clinician, like what was going on in my own work with clients, how I was showing up as a business owner. Um, I remember she talked about her cancellation policy, and I remember just thinking like, what’s a cancellation policy? Like, just boundaries without even realizing that she was business coaching with me.
But supervision helped. So much in me understanding my own insight. Cuz you have to remember too, I was struggling with an eating disorder. Like I did not have the best self-care back then. And it’s not like it magically got so much better when I recovered. Like I recovered from my eating disorder. But I still had a lot of mental health stuff to work on.
I still had anxiety, I still had all this other stuff that I was figuring out as I was running my business. And not to say I’m perfect now, I’m still figuring out at this stage of business, but it’s almost like supervision gave me permission to have insight to look at my own stuff and how it was showing up when I was running my business and while I was building my business too.
Cuz there’s differences between starting and now growing when you have more people than you ever thought you would ever have. Maybe you have like 10 clients in your practice and you’re like, oh my gosh, like now I’m not charging enough. What do I do? You know?
Erica Julson: Mm-hmm. . I don’t know a ton about supervision, but it, it feels like that’s, more ubiquitous, I guess I would say, in maybe the eating disorder space than other spaces.
Yeah. Why do you think that is?
Jennifer McGurk: I think it’s because we’re very therapeutic in the eating disorder space, but I really wish that supervision was available to every single area of dietetics. It is so crazy to me how, and again, maybe this is a little political with the academy, but it’s like so crazy how it’s just very, like, it’s recom.
It’s required if you’re a therapist seeing clients to get supervision, and yet the academy’s like, oh, you’re gonna see clients, you’re gonna counsel. You don’t need to know anything about therapeutic modalities, . But yes, you do need to know about supervision and therapeutic modalities and how to work with people, you know, cuz we’re humans, like our stuff shows up whether we like it or not.
Erica Julson: Yeah. And how do you, I mean, obviously it sounds like you offer supervision now. In some aspects in your business, but
Jennifer McGurk: yeah, we do supervision groups.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Yeah. Other than that, like how do people even find Yeah. Someone to be their supervisor? ?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Yes. Well reach out. We have, we have lists that other people have made too about amazing supervision resources.
But I also think too, being in community with people is important because when you see other people doing the things that you wanna do, and when you have really good insight as to what that means for you, like sometimes I call it my own like quote unquote jealousy. It’s not about the other person, it’s about you.
And like, what are the boundaries that you need to change? What are the boundaries that you need to set for yourself? Like if there’s something out there that someone else has, I feel like supervision’s really the place for you to explore that. To say like, why am I feeling about this way, about whoever it may be?
And it really has gotten me to think about like, what are the boundaries that I might need to set that are new because of the way that I feel right now?
Erica Julson: Ooh, that’s really good.
Yeah. Juicy jy.
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. And especially with each child that has entered my family . That’s another thing too, like with every kid I have had to change cuz my identity has had to shift.
Erica Julson: Yeah, I bet I can relate to that as well. I only have one, but yeah. Yeah, that was a huge change. Yes. I remember crying into my laptop like one month in like, am I ever gonna work again? Like
Jennifer McGurk: I know, I know, I know. Yes, I’ve been there
Erica Julson: okay,
so you started out with supervision and then how did that lead you to exploring like actual formal I’ve done,
Jennifer McGurk: yes. I’ve done a lot. I’ve done a lot of business groups. Um, my main group that I have been with has been, hello seven, Rachel Rogers. Do you know Rachel Rogers? Yes. Yes. I was in HER Inc.
I was in her club, her incubator program. I was in her mastermind, um, for a little bit. And I love their messaging, but I also just love the coaches that they’ve had in that program. And it has shown me like you can have a C E O that’s really powerful and hire people as a team and help people get results.
Because that’s one thing, like Rachel does not coach everybody individually in Hello seven. She can’t, like, there’s thousands of people there. And it really is figuring out how to create intellectual property for messaging, for brand, and, you know, the, the company. And then having people able to help people process that information.
Mm-hmm. , because that’s where I feel like some courses are, and I know you can speak to this too, Eric, cause you have a course with a group, but it’s like information is information and not everybody takes advantage of it. I feel like people need a place to ask questions, to go for support, accountability, community.
And that’s what I really hope to create here at this company too.
Erica Julson: Nice. All right. So hello seven. Yeah, I definitely love Rachel Ra. Rachel Rogers. I listen to her podcast too. Um, yes. Yeah. I love her podcast. I also really like, How I’ve noticed that over the few last few years, you have been speaking more about how you see similarities between diet, culture and business hustle culture, which I love , so I wanna dedicate some time to that.
I think that is an area that. Makes so much sense and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. . But it doesn’t get talked about that much that I’ve seen at least. Can you maybe shine some light on what you mean by diet culture, similarities between business culture? May we be with some concrete examples?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Oh my gosh, you’re so right. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s just like diet culture in dietetics and in nutrition and, you know, all the weight loss stuff out there. It’s like once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So, I mean, honestly, diet culture exists because people don’t feel good enough and the patriarchy holds power and really wants to get more powerful and more powerful and more powerful.
And diet culture are lies that basically sell, sell diets to people to say like, when you do this, X, Y, Z will get better. And that’s the same exact thing with business. Like how many ads do you see where , it’s like, oh, you sell your course from the beach. Or My favorite one is like, I launched my course with no audience and made like a hundred thousand dollars.
And I’m like, that’s such bs. So it really is black and white thinking. It is so harmful. It takes advantage of people, it prides on people’s vulnerabilities and I just see it everywhere. And I think it’s something pretty powerful about weight inclusive providers. Like we’re not afraid to say the truth.
Like we know that weight loss is not the answer for a lot of people because weight loss, you know, doesn’t work for a lot of people. Everyone has autonomy to do what they want with their bodies. And like that is body liberation in my opinion. So if you wanna do a weight loss diet, totally fine. You can go and do a weight loss diet, but if you want another alternative over here, we have solutions for you that can really help you heal your relationship with food.
And I go a step farther and say like, feel fabulous about food because he like intuitive eating health at every size. Like it really can change your life so much. And there are research, there’s, you know, support, there’s inspiration from other people that literally it works. So that’s why I hate diet culture everywhere, not just for our clients, but also in business too.
Erica Julson: Yeah. So like what’s an example of a business message that’s like steeped in that same type of like,
Jennifer McGurk: Okay, I just saw this Facebook ad. So get your, get your social media plan for 30 days and plug in these templates and you’re gonna make thousands of dollars. Like, first of all, how many people say, I just need you to tell me what to eat
Like, how many people need, I just need a meal plan. And then like, they don’t follow it because it’s not foods they like, it’s not up to their, like, not up to their standards. It’s a different culture. They have allergies to certain foods, like they’re not connected to their body, so they’re emotionally, you know, whatever.
It’s just like it’s not going to work for them. So you buy this 30 day social media plan and you open it up and it’s things that are not gonna work for your business. So you don’t do. , you throw it out and you did not make your money back. . . Right.
Erica Julson: And it’s that promise of the quick fix, like, oh, I just, this must be the thing.
Quick fix. Mm-hmm. and I just needed to buy this pack. . Like, no, that must be what I’ve been missing this entire time. Yeah, yeah. So what would, how would you change that to Oh yeah. Fill that need, but not market in that way?
Jennifer McGurk: Oh yeah, I think you need information. Like, don’t get me wrong, I a 30 day Instagram template.
Like it’s fine, but it’s not going to solve all the problems of your business and it’s not going to make you X amount of money and you don’t guarantee that you’re gonna do it. And everything is gonna change. Like a 30 day Instagram template. Like, hey, this is some great captions that you can take and make your own, but let’s process like what do you think about Instagram?
How is it gonna serve your audience? Like are your people there? Do you like being on Instagram? How does it make you feel? Like what are the things about the thing that are going to show up and affect your business? And that’s where people need to process information. It’s not just receive information, it’s process information.
I’m sure. Can I use your example Erica, if you don’t mind? Like Sure. How many people by a course. and they just don’t know where to do the next step. They need to come to your Facebook group. They need to ask a question about seo. They need to bounce ideas off of people. They need to hear inspiration in other people doing it, and then they’ll actually go do the thing.
Erica Julson: Yeah. I actually changed a lot of my course when I relaunched it. Was it last year? I guess I don’t even know anymore. , what day is it? But yeah, I found that same thing where I really needed to a, like front load a lot of that, like exactly what you’re saying, like understand what you’re doing before you start
And so yeah, I, I was doing a lot of that, like outside of the course content in the Facebook group, but I needed to put it in the course. So it was like, before you start, trying to do a whole like content calendar and keyword research plan, like go back, like, wait, why are you doing this, this?
Mm-hmm. , where are you trying to go? Like How does this feed into your, your monetization goals? And really make sure you have clarity on that first . Yes.
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It’s just like the connection between. You know, intuitive eating health at every size, like great relationship with food. Like there’s connection there.
And at the same time, like, why are you running your business? Why are you making the decisions that you’re doing? What, what are some of the things there that you can connect with? So you make decisions with integrity and you make decisions according to your values too.
Erica Julson: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, that was gonna be one of my questions.
In your business, have you changed any of your marketing? Uh oh. Like looking back in retrospect to be more in alignment with your beliefs and values. These days
Jennifer McGurk: all you have to do is go back to way back machine. , . Look at my old websites. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Just like, just like I went through a whole entire rebrand.
When I found and really embraced intuitive eating in a weight inclusive approach, I had to go back, like I was mortified at some of the language that I used on blog posts in 2015. You know, I had to go back and I had to really say like, okay, I wouldn’t say it like that anymore. Here’s how I would say it.
And that’s okay. Like I think it’s perfectly fine to evolve. That process took me years. And the same thing with business. It really has taken me years to embrace, like how I teach as a business owner according to those values.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Yeah. I, I agree. It’s been a intentional process over here with the brand as well.
Uh, obviously not perfect and always, tweaking and learning. I think I saw, I don’t even know when this was, when that like Lu, was it not Lulu, uh, what was the name of Lula Ru or something? Oh, Lu Laro documentary. Yeah. I think I saw you post something where they were talking about, if so and so can do it like so can you.
And I’m like, oh man, I totally said that. But they talk about how that’s like really harmful Yeah. In that documentary and I’m like, oh duh.
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah, but you, yeah, it’s, yeah, it’s the business coach that’s like, I made a million dollars so you can make a million dollars too.
It’s like I sold this much, this amount of leggings. You can do it too. Now granted, I love inspiration. Like I think actually Rachel Rogers is a perfect example of this. Like you can inspire people and you can say like, I have built this business from scratch. You know, I did not have people that looked like me.
And I want you to know that it’s possible for you, cuz I kind of feel like that with non diet people, like the, the norm is to sell weight loss and make a shit ton of money and it’s just not, you know, the way that we feel good about a lot of things cuz it doesn’t necessarily line up with our values. So I wanna say like, I grew a really big business selling a non-diet approach.
Like this message needs to get out to as many people that can possibly hear it.
Erica Julson: Mm-hmm. . Yeah, I think it comes back to. giving people permission to mm-hmm. do things in a way that feels good to them. They’re, yeah. And I think part of this is confidence that comes from doing . Yeah. At least in my experience.
But in the beginning, I, I do feel like, you feel like there’s some magic formula that if you like veer off one step, like everything’s gonna fall apart. , and then, and then as you gain experience, you’re like, oh, you know, like for my example, I could take away my payment plan that I marked up 20% because wait, that’s kind of bs.
Mm-hmm. . Like I don’t really wanna do that. And yeah. But when you’re doing it, like that’s all you see everywhere and you don’t, sometimes you just don’t pause to think, like, to think, am I doing this? You know?
Jennifer McGurk: I remember when you said that on my podcast, I was like, that is so awesome, . Like, I was like, that’s so awesome.
So I really commend you for doing that. It’s such a great example.
Erica Julson: Well, I got that inspiration just from conversations that someone else started in my Facebook group, so I can’t take credit. I just was. Listening, I guess, and paying attention. So, uh, yeah.
Jennifer McGurk: It’s why your Facebook group is so powerful. .
Erica Julson: Yeah.
Yeah. So I also really admire some of your, um, messaging that I, I noticed you’re highlighting a lot more on your website now about the different phases of business. Like you already talked about starting, uh, your business growing and then scaling, but then there’s sort of this fourth dimension that I don’t really see that often, which is coasting
Yes. And I really resonate with that, as you probably know right now. Uh, so. , what is the coasting phase of business?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. So it actually came to me from my group. You know, it was dietitian business school at the time. Now it’s business school. But we were just talking on a call together about how sometimes it’s really hard to just focus on grow and grow and growing.
And I think I said something like, oh, well then you’re just coasting. And it was so funny because everyone on the call is like, what? Like what? Tell me more. Like what does that mean? And I said, well, I don’t know. What do you all think it means if we’re coasting in business? And we’ve always been a company that is focused on self-care boundaries, like honoring us as humans, like showing up for our businesses, but not just as the business owner, but also as the human that’s running the business.
So coasting to me just means coasting in business. Like not necessarily trying to grow, grow, grow, you know, taking some time to honor not working nights and weekends. Because there will be seasons for that. Like if you are a business owner, the only thing I can guarantee you is that you will work nights and weekends at some point.
But it’s like taking time to separate work and family. You know, not necessarily overworking yourself, figuring out what are the boundaries that you need. You know, I personally went through this after e, well, I should say during too, like during my three pregnancies and postpartum where I was on maternity leave.
Like I’m not trying to actively grow a business if I’m out on maternity leave. And you know, last year I had a ton of mental health stuff that was happening, and it was just like, I can’t focus on grow, grow, grow. I’m gonna focus on coast, I’m gonna stop all of the ideas that I have in my head. I’m gonna put them in a parking lot.
Like now what you see is those ideas coming to fruition, but they’ve been in my head for six months to a year and I could not act on them right away. Yeah. So it really is about taking the time to intentionally set. the goals for your business. And that literally might mean making the same amount of money, maybe even making less money and having more time to yourself, more self-care, more boundaries.
Erica Julson: Yeah, that’s been a hard one for me personally, , because I wa prior to having kids, I was like really into the growing and the excitement that would come with like, doing new things and you know, expanding into new platforms or whatever it might be. But yeah, having a baby was like a huge wake up call and Oh yeah, I can say that.
Probably say that I’ve been in the coasting phase for the last year and have finally come to embrace that. But it’s so funny. Yeah. It’s so funny how you say you, like, you shelved your ideas. I wish I had my notebook next to me. It’s in the other room where I was sitting before this call, but it’s literally, eight different places I could help people, like in my customer’s journey and different Yeah.
Lead magnets and opt-ins and, and things that I could create. But that has been sitting there for at least six months. But I, it’s ready for me when I’m ready. Yeah. And I think there is something powerful and at least like getting it out of your brain. Like, oh, you can still have fun and like dream and, strategize with what you’re gonna do when you have time.
But it’s also okay to just like, . You know, I’m only running one course right now, and I’ve have only been running one course for a year and a half now, and nothing fell apart. I’m actually making more money than I did . Right, right. Yeah.
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Oh my gosh. It’s okay to rest. Yeah. When you need it. It really is, and I think it’s, it’s also really hard for me to do that.
I don’t, are you in Enneagram three? I’m an Enneagram three.
Erica Julson: You know what? I can never remember. So I wrote this down. I’m totally gonna look. , . Oh, yep. I am Type three. The achiever. . Yes, the achiever.
Jennifer McGurk: Enneagram three. I don’t know if anyone else out there is in Enneagram three that really struggles with coasting, but there’s something about Engram three.
It’s like my brain. Wants to have a hit of dopamine checking things off. And the biggest check marks that I can give myself are like business projects. And I’m like doing this, doing this, doing this. But honestly, like 20 20, 20 21, I mean, I feel like everyone had major pivots because of Covid, but my family really went through some challenging times and it was, we need to, I need to put my Enneagram three energy into my family as well.
You know, like life is not just about business, it’s also about family. It’s also about me. It’s also about taking care of me like I have had. A couple times in my life where I’m like, who is Jennifer ? Like, not the business owner, not the mom, not the sister, not the wife, but like, who am I? And I feel like that has been so transformative in my business, but I didn’t, you know, have that aha moment for business.
I had it for myself. Hmm. So, prioritize my hobbies, my self-care. It’s freaking hard and you need babysitting , but it’s so worth it to, to really get to know you again.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Life man. . I know. I, it feels like as I’m getting, getting older, it’s like different layers, you know, there’s different layers of things I keep getting sacked on.
but Oh yeah.
Jennifer McGurk: Yeah. Oh yeah. and go to therapy. I will say that therapy helps so much. Yeah. For everyone out there.
Erica Julson: Well, okay, so coasting phase. I feel like you should like trademark that or something. Cuz I love that. .
Jennifer McGurk: Maybe I should . I didn’t even really think it was that big of a deal. I was like, oh, it’s just, you’re coasting.
Everyone’s like, what? ?
Erica Julson: Well, it makes so much sense, but no one, no one really talks about it.
Jennifer McGurk: No one talks about it.
Erica Julson: So I guess I just wanted to wrap up. Can we get an overview, I guess is the right word. Uh, what your team looks like today. Like Yes. What kind of help do you have?
Jennifer McGurk: So, uh, my team has had a lot of transitions. So we are actively in a time of transitions where everyone’s job descriptions are a little bit like muddled. I, in fact, I said to Danielle, you know, Danielle’s my executive assistant, so I’ll start there. I have a full-time executive assistant, Danielle Young, she’s amazing.
And her job description is literally like, help me with everything. . She’s laughing cuz she’s right here, but help me with everything. So she’s been in our marketing, she’s been in our customer service, she’s been in our Facebook group. You know, and honestly like we’ve together, you know, I always say like the work that you do, you know, my boundary.
You’re not gonna work overtime, but the work that you do here is gonna be a little bit chaotic and it’s gonna be a lot of fun. So she helps with everything and that’s been a lifesaver. I hired her back in May and our company has absolutely been, you know, so lucky to have Danielle. Um, I also have Annie, who’s my virtual assistant.
So Annie does a lot of the admin things. We actually call her our admin assistant, so she’s the admin assistant for the company. She’s the contractor. So she does a lot of projects for us and just kind of keeps all of the email marketing stuff together, organizes all of our Google Drive stuff, things like that.
Annie also is in charge of our like course app, so it was teachable. Now it’s, so we do need someone to literally upload all the stuff. So that is Annie. She also records our calls and does, you know, the system stuff. Um, and then we have Courtney, Courtney Vic is our amazing designer who I tell you, Erica, you would laugh at some of the things that I have done to the website,
Cause I don’t know how to do anything. So Courtney designs all of our pages and then we have Daniel who does our podcast editing and he’s awesome. And then I have my two amazing dietitians. One is Alyssa, she’s also our supervisor at pursuing private Practice and she leads the supervision groups and helps out with our Facebook group.
And she is an awesome clinician as well for the group practice. And then we have Laura, who is a clinician at EBIT knowledge for the group practice.
Erica Julson: Wait, okay. I, that was just a little light bulb moment. I love that you Yeah. Cause I know how earlier when you were talking. Some of the group business coaching that you’ve been in, you’re like, oh, light bulb moment.
Hire really great people to kind of serve the community that you’re building. Cuz obviously no one can build a huge business alone, . So yes. I love that you pulled someone from your practice into, into the other arm of your business. Cuz that makes so much sense cuz the type of practice that you’re running is in alignment with the type of practitioners you’re serving.
Jennifer McGurk: Oh yes. The coaching, yes. Alyssa and I talk like, it’s so funny, we experiment a couple things like over in the group practice and sometimes two supervision with Laura. Cause Alyssa supervises Laura too. Like we click a little experiment over here and then if it works, we bring it to pursuing private practice.
We’re a little bit of a test run there, but yeah. Alyssa does both. Alyssa, is she? Well, Danielle too. And And Annie too. I mean, Annie does mostly pursuing private practice stuff, but Danielle and Alyssa are both. Companies like group private practice and pursuing private practice because what, right now I have one legal business.
Yeah. I just, you know, legal side of things. I have one legal business and two branches of it. Yeah.
Erica Julson: That probably makes things a lot easier from like Yes. Taxes, accounting, .
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I have good accounting software cuz I have to make decisions based on numbers and revenue. Yeah. For both of the offers and like, especially with P V P, all the different offers that we have, but it is organized.
Erica Julson: do you have any tips on where to find amazing people to hire? What have worked best for you?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s so interesting. I have used different sites in the past and I have always, you know, used great job descriptions and have hired people. But I will say, I really think that when you are able to craft a job description with the things that you need, with the outcome, not necessarily the tasks.
but with the outcome of what that position will do, and we measure KPIs here, you will find people that are really good for the role because good people will take a job description. Like they’re not here just to check off boxes. They’re here to produce outcomes for the company. So I think interviewing, making sure that you have challenging conversations at the beginning, like outlining sticky situations and trust me, I didn’t know any of this even six months ago.
like I have learned, um, is really important. So again, it’s like, you know, I need a meal plan, and then someone doesn’t follow it. It’s like I need a job description, but then someone doesn’t, you know, act on the job description. You have to learn how to do this stuff as a leader.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Well, I can’t wait to hear more about your insights.
I’m sure you’ll share as. Flesh out more offerings in that arena. . Thank you Erica. Yeah, so I mean, obviously you just had a huge pivot. Uh, where, do you have any idea where you wanna be in like five years with your business? ?
Jennifer McGurk: No, . Well, actually, you know what I will say, I still wanna be working in my zone of genius, like 80% of the time.
I think I’m there now 80% of the time. Um, and I wanna be here because there have been times in my business where I’ve only been in my zone of genius, maybe like 50% of the time, sometimes even like 30% of the time. And I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m doing all these things I don’t wanna do. Mm-hmm. right now, I’m doing a lot of stuff I love doing.
So that is where I wanna be in five years.
Erica Julson: Keeps it, keeps it enjoyable and sustainable if, if you like it. Okay. And then just to wrap up, for the people listening today who maybe are interested in starting their own private practice, since that is something you are highly skilled at helping people with, uh, what would be like three big pieces of advice that you would give someone interested in starting a practice today?
Jennifer McGurk: Okay. Number one, you’re not supposed to have it all figured out. You know, that’s the stage of business that you’re in. You are definitely not supposed to have all the answers. Um, two, you have to go outside your comfort zone. You know, it will make you a better dietitian though, because you will understand your client’s process.
Like when you go outside of your comfort zone, like just recognize those are the things that our clients are doing in session with you as the counselor. Um, and I definitely think the community’s number three. Like you have to be surrounded by people that just get it with you and that will cheer you on.
But then understand like, you know, having a huge win on Monday and having a huge crash on Tuesday. Cause that happens in business. Absolutely. Yeah. Yep.
Erica Julson: Yep. All right. Well, honestly, thank you for spending an hour here with us today. I always love to hear your insights and so many good little aha moments.
from our conversation. Uh, where should people go if they wanna follow along with the work that you’re doing?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. Okay. So website, pursuing private practice.com is probably the way to find everything. I also have a podcast, so obviously if you’re listening this far, you love podcasts, so pursuing private practice is the podcast.
And then if you are starting specifically, we have a workshop. It’s pursuing private practice.com/start your private practice. It’s a workshop all about starting a business, so that is where you should go, sign up for that and it’s free.
Erica Julson: Great. And will that be available kind of like in perpetuity, ?
Jennifer McGurk: Yes.
That’s our, that’s our new opt-in. We’re just like you Erica. I’ve had a list of various opt-ins that I have wanted to get off the ground for probably a year now, but that’s the only one that is out right now. And then hopefully another one will be out in December. But fingers crossed, we gotta do some other stuff first.
Erica Julson: And then what social platform are you most active on
Jennifer McGurk: Instagram? Pursuing pursuing dot private dot practice. You can find me there too. .
Erica Julson: And you also chime in periodically in my free Facebook group, the Unconventional RD community. So if anyone, anyone, listening’s not in there yet.
Jennifer McGurk: you have the best conversations. Oh, thanks. So good. So I appreciate you.
Erica Julson: I know you get tagged somewhat often in private practice related conversations. Yeah. So just throwing it out there that you are a source of knowledge in the group there as well.
Jennifer McGurk: Yes. You can tag me, . I love it. Great.
Erica Julson: Well, thank you again,
Jennifer McGurk: thank you, Erica.
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.
