If you’ve been dabbling in blogging and online business but haven’t taken the plunge and really started taking it seriously yet, then this is the episode for you. Today, I’m chatting with Sarah Almond Bushell, otherwise known as The Children’s Nutritionist.
Five years ago, Sarah decided to start taking this online business thing seriously and intentionally to start creating online income. Flash-forward to now, Sarah is the proud owner of a multiple six figure online business with a large variety of income streams.
Listen in now to hear her inspirational story!
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More About Sarah Almond Bushell
Sarah Almond Bushell is an award-winning Registered Dietitian, ex NHS Consultant child nutritionist of 22 years and founder of The Children’s Nutritionist™ who is working to reduce the stress around mealtimes for parents of babies and toddlers. She is also founder of Dietitians In Business helping freelance RD’s grow online business’s, so they earn more money without having to work all hours & enjoy more fun in life.
Connect with Sarah
- Website: childrensnutrition.co.uk
- Instagram: @thechildrensnutritionist
- Facebook: Feeding Babies
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Episode Transcript
Erica Julson: If you’ve been dabbling in blogging and online business, but haven’t taken the plunge and really started taking it seriously yet. This is the episode for you. Today, I’m chatting with Sarah almond bushel, otherwise known as the children’s nutritionist. Sarah is a dietitian from the UK who has actually had a website since 2008, but she didn’t start using it to grow her online income. until nearly 10 years later,
In 2018, after the passing of her mother, Sarah had a wake up call and realized that life was too short to be spending her time in stressful jobs that perhaps didn’t fill her cup. So she decided to start taking this online business thing seriously and intentionally to start creating online income. Flash-forward nearly five years later. And Sarah is now the proud owner of a multiple six figure online business with a large variety of income streams, including ad revenue, online course sales, digital goods, membership, income brand work, affiliate income one-on-one consults with an employee on her team and now business coaching as well for other dietitians, especially those in the UK.
And Europe who are interested in growing and scaling their online businesses as well. In this episode, we chat about what Sarah’s turning point was when she realized that online business was a really viable career path to take. How she was able to grow her traffic to about 50,000 monthly sessions while still on Squarespace.
Why she decided to finally switch over to WordPress and how her traffic tripled right after she switched. How she started with more active income streams. Like sponsored content and one-on-one consults, but gradually was able to switch to more passive streams like online courses, memberships and ad revenue.
We chat about how Sarah really considered the customer journey when she was coming up with her product and service ideas. And she gives us some really great tips on how she gets to know her ideal customers so that she can more effectively market to them. We also learn more about Sarah’s recent foray into paid PR and the incredible results she saw from using that strategy to build her brand’s authority.
We chat about whether or not Sarah has a team to help her in her business. And what a week in the life looks like inside her current gig. And finally we end the conversation with some little nuggets from sarah her best tips for people who feel like they’ve been plugging away in their business for a while, and just can’t seem to make any progress she shares what people should really be thinking about or focusing on to start getting unstuck i really think you’re going to love this conversation so let’s dive in.
Erica Julson: Hi Sarah,
welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to actually quote unquote meet you after
being connected online for years. It feels like a long time now. I actually was curious about this cuz I knew that you joined my courses like really early on and I went back in the system just to see how early, and you were one of the first 20 people to enroll in late 2018 when I was like beta launching.
Like I asked people to sign up before I even had a product created. It was just the idea of these courses. at the time, I think, um, I was presenting at like a membership site where I was gonna talk about s e o monetization and email. That was like my idea for the first year. And I did execute on that that year and then eventually like pared it down.
So now I’m just doing seo. But you enrolled. Straight outta the gate before there was any ever anything concrete. So I just wanted to say thank you for that . Um, I mean, obviously if people like you didn’t like take a vote of confidence like that with me, I don’t know if we’d be here today. So thank you.
Thank you for, jumping in when you did. Uh, and I know you’ve come super far with your business in the last four years or so. and we will dive into that today in the conversation.
I’m really inspired by everything you put together. So thank you for being here today.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Thank you so much for having me.
Erica Julson: So to start the conversation, what I, I did was I took your url cuz you have a really good U r l, it’s childrensnutrition.co.uk, which I, I was like, wow, you had to have purchased this really early on to get something.
So, I don’t know, like, like broad, I guess like children’s nutrition, , all of that stuff got swooped up early on in the days of the internet. So yeah, it looked like you had it since 2008, which is amazing. Uh, incredible that you started your site so early on, really in the grand scheme of the internet. Um, so I was just poking around and looking how your site has evolved over the years and, yeah, it’s come so far.
So I was wondering, you know, take us back to 2008, what made you initially decide to even start a website at that time? Did you have a business? What, what were your thoughts? .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so, um, so I did have a business. I’d had a private practice since about 2002. Um, but it was totally ad hoc. It was, you know, referrals from the doctors that I worked with would ask me to see their private patients and I’d see them on the way home from the hospital.
And I had my first baby in 2007 and I was coming towards the end of that maternity leave and going back to work. And I was gonna go back part-time and I needed to supplement my income somehow. And the intention was to, start a website so people would be able to find me and see more private patients.
Erica Julson: And did that work at the time?
Sarah Almond Bushell: So what actually happened was, I put it, put everything up there and I was getting quite a lot of, um, PR work. So newspapers and, uh, radio stations contact me for information, you know, for comments on, on stories that had come out. And as a result of that, I got contacted by the local, council, um, where I live in East Sussex in the UK to ask if I would get involved in a project on nursery school meals.
So essentially they wanted to, uh, look at all of the nursery meals in their, the nurseries in their area. There was 40 nurseries, have all of their food. Collected and sent to a lab to be analyzed, and then they wanted a nutritionist to take a look at it and give them some advice for improvements really.
So I, I would say the website probably, didn’t necessarily lead to that, but certainly I was putting all my links to the, the newspaper articles and things like that on the website and that resulted in that, that project work.
Erica Julson: Awesome. Yeah, and it looked like you had relatively the same kind of website until maybe 2014 ish, and then it seemed like there was a nice little branding refresh.
And then a notable thing that I noticed was that you added a blog component to your website, and maybe some additional, like one to many type of offerings, like some weaning workshops and stuff. So what went into that transition? What, where were you trying to go? .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. So, um, so that was quite a few years later, I’d gone back to the N H S and I’d, um, progressed in my career.
I was a dietetic manager at that point, still part-time. And so I was still trying to supplement my income and one of my colleagues husbands was setting up a web design company. And so they said, you know, they would have a go and, and create a website for me. And that was a Word Press website, but it was so clunky I couldn’t do anything with it.
I couldn’t make any changes. Every time I wanted to add a blog or correct a typo or absolutely anything, I had to employ him to do it for me. But it, it was okay and it kind of stayed like that for years because I was busy doing work elsewhere in, in the hospital. So, you know, the, the focus wasn’t solely on the, on trying to grow the business at that stage.
Erica Julson: Okay. And then where were you in 2018 then we’ll just flash forward a few more years. When I opened up my course offerings and you decided to enroll, like where were you at in business at that point and what were your goals?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so, so it was a bit of a, a wake up call for me really. But in 2018, um, my mom died.
She had, she was diagnosed with this really rare form of leukemia and she died quite suddenly. And at that point in my career, I was working as an N H S director and it was the most stressful job I’ve ever had. I had to be on call in the middle of the night. Um, it was a time when the NHS were trying to make huge cost savings and I kept having to get rid of jobs and reduce services and ask people to do more for less.
And it was. , it was a really, really tough job. And I think what happened was after my mum died, it gave me a little bit of a wake up call. You know, that life was too short. And, so in the sort of months that followed, I really started to think about taking my business that I had on the side a little bit more seriously and, and turn it into something that could actually become a career.
So how I ended up finding out about you was I took three months off after, after I lost my mum, just supporting my dad. And they lived in Spain. So I spent three months in Spain. And I found myself just listening to podcasts about how to, how to run your own business essentially. And I discover.
Pat Flyn and the whole concept of passive income. And then on on one of his episodes, he was interviewing Amy Porterfield and she started talking about the power of list building in digital courses. And, you know, at that point I was absolutely hooked. That was definitely the path that I wanted to go down.
And there was a, there was a dietitian, um, who was, who was also a marketeer called Emily Foster, who I’d kind of been introduced to a year or so before that. And she’d actually taken me, um, a. Under her wing and showed me how to use a Squarespace website. Um, so I moved away from that clunky word press one that I, you know, I couldn’t do anything myself and I set myself up on Squarespace and I could actually use it.
So it was brilliant. And she had a podcast and she interviewed you on the podcast and you were talking about Pat Flynn and Amy Porterfield and I was like, oh, she knows, she’s seen people as me. Um, that was so long ago. Long ago ago. . Yeah, I know. Forgot about that. Know. And, and what I remember about that was you talked about your freelance, um, or your Facebook group, the Unconventional Rd Facebook group.
And. I just thought, you know what, this is exactly what I need. Because I knew that I didn’t wanna see patients. I didn’t really wanna be doing loads and loads of brand work because really I was just jumping from one job to another job, working for somebody else. Um, and so I found your group really, really inspiring, and learned like tons of different ways to make money other than actually seeing one-to-one clients.
Erica Julson: Wow. Okay. I love that story. That’s so, so funny to hear, like the way that people get there, but yeah, it’s so true. I, um, I was equally obsessed with Pat Flynn for a long time. Like that was definitely my, one of my gateways into the online world as well. And I, I remember back in the early days, I was like, I wanna be like Pat Flynn for dietitians.
Yeah. Yeah. . Uh, yeah. Okay. So let’s see. At this point it’s like 2018. You’ve enrolled in the courses to learn about SEO to grow your audience and some ideas for monetizing and integrating email as well. So what happened, like when you started implementing these types of things, like maybe we’ll start with seo.
Like did you have any big aha moments where you’re like, oh man, I can’t believe I was doing it this way. Now that I understand SEO, .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Absolutely. So, yeah, so I really thought a blog, you know, back, back in 20 17, 20, early 2018, I thought a blog was like a diary, like an online diary. And I guess it probably was back in the day, wasn’t it?
So I had this, facility now on my Squarespace website to start documenting things. And so that’s what I did. So I, I wrote all these posts and they were absolutely dreadful and I took them down not long after I did your course, um, about, you know, what it was like in the autumn and all the lovely colors of the trees and, you know, all of this stuff.
And the thing was, if I looked at like, other really famous dietitians in the uk. and had a look at their websites, that’s what they were doing as well. So I honestly, I honestly thought that was the right thing to do. And, you know, I’d drop in periodically something that I thought might be of interest in relation to nutrition.
So when I learned about keyword research, it was like a revelation. It was . I was like, you know what? Write about what people are looking for. That’s so much better than, you know, just putting your own thoughts down on, on your screen. So that was, you know, probably the biggest aha moment for me. And I just remember, so when the, when I did the course, I was still working full time in this, in the n h s.
And I just remember like driving around the countryside in between these meetings that I was going to and having to like, pull over on the side of my car because there was something like you said, and I thought, I’ve gotta write that down. I’ve gotta write that down. And then, you know, dashing back to a computer to try and like implement it on my website.
So yeah, that was, it was absolutely a huge eye-opener to me. Yeah,
Erica Julson: I can relate to that. I did the exact same thing with my first attempt at a food blog. did not understand the, that you could create content around what people were looking for and like, oh, that’s how you get found .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, makes sense now.
Oh, wasn’t it?
Erica Julson: Yeah. I know. It’s so obvious in retrospect, but yeah. Okay, so when you were, did start to take it seriously, like how often were you able to publish and what kind of results were you getting? And if it took a while, cuz as I talk about quite often on this podcast, it’s usually like a 1, 2, 3 year process to get to where you’re trying to go and make good money.
if you’re, yeah. If you are trying to build large amounts of traffic, I should say that’s more for like ad revenue. Maybe if you’re selling something more niche, you could see some results a little sooner. But, um, so yeah. What, what was your publishing frequency like and what, what kind of results were you getting?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. So, um, I remember I was, so, I’m a bit of a data geek, so I was, I was writing down all of my numbers at the time and I remember I had, something like 1,800 and something page views when a very first started. So I was quite surprised that I had that many. Um,
Erica Julson: but, and, and just to put it into context, you’re still on Squarespace at this point.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Still on Squarespace right at the very start. Yeah, absolutely. And, all I could manage was one blog every two months. So I, I did six in that first year, but by the end of the year, I’d gone up to 5,000 views, which felt absolutely epic. I felt like I, I was working it, you know, I was definitely singing progress.
But then, you know, fast forward a year later, I was blogging, about once a month at that stage, and I was up at 25,000 page views. So that was a huge jump. So I really felt as if, you know, the progress was happening, it was suddenly taken off. But again, I was still working full-time in the N H s and, and my blog was this thing that I did on the side.
Um, and I was still doing the brand work for, you know, for the extra income and trying to, for my social media and also launch my first course. So there was like, it w it was kind of one of many things that I was working on at the time. . Okay. And that was all still on Squarespace?
Erica Julson: Yeah. Yeah. So then at what point were you maybe.
should I switch to WordPress or was that not even on your radar yet? Like what made you eventually switch over from Squarespace to WordPress?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so I know we had so many conversations in the Facebook group about, um, switching over to WordPress and I was always like, no, no, no, I’m not going back there.
I’ve had a bad experience. I’ll, I’ll stick with what I know. And I think actually
Erica Julson: to be fair, I just wanna point out like that’s a really good lesson for people listening though. Like you still took action. Like I think that’s the most important thing. Like you still experienced growth on the platform that maybe people were like, Hey, you should probably switch to WordPress, but you were like, okay, I hear you, but not right now.
I can’t handle it right now. And like, you still did the work and Yeah, that is huge cuz I, I think sometimes people get caught up in perfection and they’re like, well if I’m not on WordPress then I just can’t do anything cuz it’s not perfect. Please set up right now. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, so. , thank you for sharing your story and the success and growth that you were able to see on Squarespace, cuz I think that’s inspiring for people too.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, absolutely. And, and like you say, it was a lot of work. So I had all these little workarounds, you know, with creating J S O N LD code to stick in the back of my blog so Google could actually read what it was about. And, you know, there was no way of having recipe cards. So I’d, uh, had another bit of code to, to like produce a box and then something in Canva to make it look pretty.
And then, you know, there was no print button, so if somebody wanted a print, it had to go through to the Google Drive. There was just like, Fairly extensive workarounds really. But I think, I think the reason why I didn’t switch over was that fear of not being able to do it myself. And also because my money making at that stage was, it was, it was okay, but it was inconsistent and I really didn’t want to get to a point where, um, I had a website that I couldn’t do myself and I had stuff that I wanted to publish, but I couldn’t afford to pay the guy to publish it.
So it was, it was fear really that held me back up until, um, about summer 21, when I did eventually make the, make the change. .
Erica Julson: Yeah. And to be fair, there a lot changed over that time period. Like from when you first had your, your WordPress website to where it is now. There’s been so many improvements in making it easier to use as an individual without having to be like a website pro.
I agree. Like I started my first website on WordPress in 2010 and back then there was like, the themes were so bare bone, you really had to custom code a lot of stuff to get it to look even remotely Good . Like it was very different. Yeah. Um, so I totally understand, like if that’s the experience you had years ago, you’re like, eh, that wasn’t the greatest
But thankfully, I don’t know if you agree, I think it has gotten a lot easier, uh, these days.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, absolutely. So the, um, I use a theme now, elementary theme for my page, build it, and actually it’s, it’s as easy as Squarespace. It’s, you know, drag and drop and it’s absolutely fine. So yeah, definitely much easier than what I had back then.
Erica Julson: So what, what gave you the push then, if you were afraid, but then you did it. So what, what made you change your mind?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so I’d had a period of time where I had no growth at all on, in terms of my Google Analytics. So I’d, It was for about a six month period. It was quite a long time. And at that point I also had a bunch of interns who were working for me who were, had created all these amazing SOPs, you know, to create content in exactly the way that I wanted it to be created.
Following your guidance from the course. And I had. At one point, I think I had about 40 different, um, interns writing for me in order to generate loads and loads of blogs. And there were really, really high quality blogs and they were fantastic. And I was getting them up on the website, you know, with quite a big frequency.
And I was seeing no growth at all. So I knew something at that point was off. And I’d, I’d be, I’d been a member of a, a Facebook group for Squarespace bloggers and people talked about. Threshold, this sort of ceiling that people hit. And then, you know, they would then switch over to WordPress and come back and tell everybody, Hey, you gotta switch over to WordPress.
So I was like, okay, you know what? I need to listen to the people around me here and actually just make that change. And I’m really glad I did. So there was, it was a big job. So there was over 200 blogs on the website when I decided to make that change. And it actually took us about 10 months working with a team who helped me redesign the whole website and move everything over.
And I went live on the 28th of May last year, 2022. And. No joke. My traffic tripled overnight. .
Erica Julson: That’s insane. But so awesome. Were you like, yes, ?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. I was like, it’s true. It really was true. .
Erica Julson: That’s so funny. Yeah. I mean, and I love that you gave us the insight that it was a really big job and it took 10 months because you’re right.
Uh, sometimes people. Go into the switch maybe a little naively, uh, but if you wanna do it right, which it sounds like you definitely did to see such fabulous results after the switch. Uh, you, there’s a lot of like small things that you have to match up and try not to really change too much about the way your site is structured during the switch.
And that takes a lot of work cuz it’s essentially a new platform. You have to redesign everything to make sure when you transfer the content over all the formatting and the schema. Yes. And all that is all the same. Uh, so yeah, kudos to your team that helped you cuz it sounds like they did a really good job, so Yay,
Yeah. Yeah. And do you think now, and looking back, like if someone is listening to this podcast right now and they are also on Squarespace, what would your advice be to. , if their goal is to get like a lot of traffic, like 50,000 sessions a month and up, so maybe they can get ad revenue or something, what would you tell them?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, they’ve gotta make that switch. Um, so really interesting actually. But in my, in my business coaching that I do, for probably the first year that I did that, I talked about Squarespace and I talked about all the workarounds and all of that. And now, if anybody comes to me and they’re not on a WordPress website and their intention is to optimize SEO to, you know, even to get more one-to-one clients, I always advise them to switch over.
Absolutely.
Erica Julson: Yeah. It just makes sense. Like if you’re, if you’re gonna do the work Yeah. You would hopefully want to get the most juice out of like the lemon squeeze, you know? So Absolutely. Anything you can do. Yeah. To make sure you’re getting results. Uh, so let’s switch over a little bit and talk about the different ways that your business makes money right now.
I know I sort of teased it in the beginning, uh, just to recap. I think you sent me over some, a list of different ways before we started talking. There’s like brand consultancy, influencer marketing, online courses, memberships, subscription services, group programs, e guides, business coaching, ad revenue, and affiliate income.
And I know you still have an offer for one-on-one consultations via another dietitian on your team. So I, for me and people listening, they’re like, wow, that’s a lot of different income streams. But I, I don’t know. I’m guessing you didn’t just like start all of them at the same time. Was there like a strategy involved?
Like where did you start first and how did you get where you are today?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, it, it does sound like a lot, doesn’t it? Um, , it doesn’t feel like a lot of promise. So where I started was I knew the goal. Revenue. That was the number one goal that I started, you know, five years ago I wanted it to hit. But I also knew it was gonna be the long game and I, you know, and especially being on the Squarespace, I knew it was just gonna take time.
So kind of like chipped away with that in the background. Um, and then I started doing what I’d always done with the consultancy with brands. But, and I did loads of like, really short projects, but I’ve, I felt, I dunno whether it was just, I dunno, maturity time or what, but I felt more confident with putting my prices up.
So I started to, um, make a bit more money working with the brands and also working with the really big brands as well, so people who I knew could afford it. So, um, Hines and Burger King and Hovis and, you know, some of the, the, the bigger brands. But I really got fed up with essentially doing a job and working for somebody else.
And my heart was still in this whole notion of passive income. And so, because I was doing a lot of work around baby nutrition and, you know, some of the work that I was doing for the brands was around weaning, and I was still doing my little weaning workshops on the side. What I decided to do was put all of that knowledge together and create an online course.
So that was kind of my first, uh, that that kind of all happened at the same time, I would say. So blogging in the background, the online course and the brand work in that sort of first, first bit.
Erica Julson: Sure. And how did that go? Did you, yeah, I mean, what was the experience like? Like did you ask your audience at all, like what they were interested in, or did you create the product and then get feedback?
Did you pre-sell it? Like, what was your. .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so it wasn’t my first course. . So my first course I didn’t honor that and it didn’t sell. Um, my first course just for the story really was a course on baby nutrition, which I thought like everybody needs to know about baby nutrition. So I’d created this, um, course and put it out there and I did actually sell a few spaces, but nowhere near what I wanted to sell and I had to keep reducing the price.
I think I sold maybe 20 spots. in its first launch and at the time I didn’t launch because I didn’t really know about launching. So it was just something I created and I put it on Teachable on the free plan, spoke about it in other people’s Facebook groups and had very little uptake with it. So that kind of died of death quite quickly, really.
But yeah, so this, so this, this proper course that I created properly, um, because I knew about Amy Porterfield from all of my research. I joined, I’d actually joined Digital Course Academy, back in 2019. And actually I think that was her first iteration of that as well. And I literally just followed her process step by step by step, and launched it step by step by step.
And it worked. And, and it was great. And, and what I found was actually the, all the mums who went through that course, they were still in my audience on Facebook and on Instagram, but then they were coming back to me a year later and they were like, oh, I’ve got fusA eater, I’ve got toddler who’s throwing cutlery across the floor.
And, you know, they’re, they’re refusing to have anything to eat and I don’t know whether to give them a something before they go to bed, so they’re not hungry. And then I ended up creating my membership, which was the Happy Healthy Eaters Club. So they. They almost, my second niche kind of came from the, the people from my first niche really, I guess the children just got older and they came to me with their new problem, which I then created something to help them solve.
Erica Julson: I love that. And what made you decide to make that a membership side instead of a second course?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so the reason why I did that was because I just felt like the topic area was so vast. Um, so with weening it was, it was quite clearly a course. You know, you start at six months and you do this, that and the other, and then you get to a year and your baby’s eating.
But with the, um, with, with the toddlers, you know, there was a bit on fussy eating, but there was also a bit on nutrition that I needed them to know. Um, I wanted to teach ’em about positive food parenting. There was stuff around the. You know, around child development and the sensory side of learning how to eat, and it just felt like vast.
And so the way I designed that was I had, um, a new masterclass that, that I produced every single month and sometimes I brought guest experts into to deliver, if it wasn’t my, my particular area. But I created a, a, a quiz so that when people joined up, they could take the quiz and they could work out depending on their answers, which bit to work on first and then, you know, go back to the quiz at a later date and do the next bit.
So that worked really, really well.
Erica Julson: Love that. Uh, what tool were you using for the quiz?
Sarah Almond Bushell: I used, uh, try Interact.
Erica Julson: Nice. Yeah. And you have, you liked your experience with.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so it’s very frustrating. So I use it for a couple of lead magnets as well, and it’s very frustrating that people can get the answers without putting in their email address, but you have to do that because of gdpr.
So, I found a bit of a workaround actually in that when they, when they get their answers, that I’d host it on, on a page on my website and there’s a video there and it gives them some first steps, but then it says, Hey, you know, did you sign up for my emails because I’ve got something really interesting coming for you tomorrow.
Oh, you didn’t, oh, here’s a box you can sign up now, . So I’ve found that I’ve actually been able to capture quite a lot of the people who didn’t bother the first time round by telling them that’s something really exciting is coming tomorrow. .
Erica Julson: Oh good. I love that tip. , thank you for sharing. Yeah, . And then around the same time, you were also kind of like integrating affiliate links naturally in your content.
So that’s how that income stream. Glommed onto the list. Yeah.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, absolutely. So again, that was something I learned from you when, when you had the, the course on Make money blogging about, Amazon affiliates and, other brands. And it, and essentially every time I produced a blog that had something that I could link to, I did.
And both inside the membership and the course, there was products that I was linking out to as well. So it kind of, that kind of just happened naturally, I think.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Yeah. That one’s not like, , I feel like that’s like the lowest hanging fruit . Maybe it’s not gonna make you the most money unless that’s like your full focus and strategy.
Obviously there are people who run a full affiliate blogs, but that’s very different, very different tactic to take usually in terms of how you decide what content to create. But, uh, okay. And then I guess flash forward to today, like what is your most successful income stream today, uh, in your business?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so, um, so it’s, I had a look at my, my stats for my, how much money I’ve made over the last year or so, and it’s actually a 50 50 split. I was really surprised at this cuz it, oh yeah, I should know this off my heart, really. But what I’ve found was, it’s. 50 50 between my business coaching, and that’s a combination of the, I do a group mastermind for dietitians, fairly new in their businesses, and also one-to-one coaching for those who are a bit more further ahead.
Um, so it’s split between that and, the Happy Healthy Eaters Club. So the way that membership runs is that I’ve, I’ve tended to live launch it about three times a year, and it’s about two and a half years old. So I’ve done quite a few launches and some of the people, you know, some of the members I’ve got were the very first founding members who are in on like the cheapest price.
But every time I launch I get new members and they tend to hang around, you know, six to nine months or so. So yeah, that’s, that brings in a real nice reoccurring revenue. Yeah. Which I think is really nice to have.
Erica Julson: How many do you know offhand how many people are members?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Um, I think about 120, although I don’t know for definite.
Yeah.
Erica Julson: That’s great. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so I heard you say you launched it a few times a year. Does that mean that that’s the only time people can enroll or is it a combination of, you know, you know, is it available on your website or is it like only available through email? Like, what’s your sales mechanism? I’d love to hear how people do that.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it’s, it’s a closed door, so it’s only open when it’s open. If someone comes to me desperate and they can’t afford the one-to-one, then I will let them in. I, I wouldn’t make people wait, but I don’t really advertise it. So yeah, it’s kind of just that closed doors. Mm-hmm. , the, it’s always there.
The sales page is always there so people can see it, but you know, when they click on the button to buy, it takes them through to the, to the waiting list. And actually, what I’ve found is, one of the most. One, uh, one, one of the things I do, we wanna look at my funnels is I work out what the most profitable customer journey is and people being on the waiting list as a real, indication that they’re likely to then sign up.
Erica Julson: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Great. That’s similar to, to how my SEO course is set up at this moment. I don’t know if it’ll always be like that. I’m s I think I’m gonna change some things, uh, this year, but I’m not sure exactly how , so, uh, yeah. But, um, yeah, so basically people enter their email to indicate that they’re interested and then they’ll get notified via email when it’s open, and then yes, people purchase.
Perfect. Uh, okay. And I mean, after all of your experience building these things, uh, like courses, your membership, I also, you also have some just like digital goods too, right? Um, how did, yeah. You
Sarah Almond Bushell: forgot about those. Yeah. . Yeah, so actually I did those really early on, probably before the course thinking about it.
So actually what happened there fell into that totally by accident. So I created, some portion size guides for babies and toddlers that I was using as lead magnets. And I put them out there and I made, I think I got 2000 leads within the first week. So I was like, oh, hang on a minute, Sarah, you need to charge something for this.
So I, so I took them down and just put, you know, 9 99 price tag on them and sold those o on social, essentially mainly Instagram, but also on my website. And also they’re in my nurture sequence emails as well, just periodically through. Um, and so they just trickle in sales all the time, which is really nice to have.
Erica Julson: Yeah. And what do. Do you think, I’m curious to hear your thoughts. I haven’t done little, like low ticket offers yet. I might in the future, but I’ve heard people talk about, you know, if, if someone can purchase something small from you and they have a good experience, oftentimes that can increase the likelihood that they might purchase something higher ticket from you.
Cuz they know your work essentially and they feel confident. Um, ha has that rang true to you?
Sarah Almond Bushell: It has to my toddler parents. So I quite often find that when they, when they’ve got a the first thing they do is look for the cheapest option. Um, try that and then realize actually they need a bit more and then they come for the next thing.
Um, and actually what I find is some people will go straight for the membership and some people want the one-to-one, which is, you know, run by, the dietitian I have on my team. But yeah, that sort of 9 99 guide can then lead into, you know, 1200 pounds later, which is, is quite a nice thing to have.
Erica Julson: Yeah. So I love it. Sounds like you’re really thinking about the customer’s journey through your business where it’s like you give them this very introductory lower cost option, but then you’re prepared to serve them in more hands-on ways, either in the membership or one-to-one work as well. So that’s probably a really good customer experience.
Yeah, . Um, let’s see. Okay. So after all of your experience building these different income streams, uh, like what are some of the biggest lessons you think you learned or anything major that you would do differently in retrospect? .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, I think one of the biggest lessons I learned, particularly in relation to the, the toddler moms when I was really refining that funnel, was you can’t do enough market research.
So, you know, when I was creating this product and, and selling this product, I really honestly thought I knew their pain points, I knew their desires, I knew everything about them. But actually people change over time and sometimes your perception of them changes over time. So one of the things that I try and do now is, get some of these eyes of your clients on a Zoom call, you know, once a quarter if I can, and just chat to them and understand exactly what’s going on for them, what it is.
They’re hoping to achieve. And also kind of the emotion that’s attached to that and you know, how it really plays out for them in real life. And what I’ve found is the more you do that, the more the better your marketing material becomes and the more you can help your clients cuz you can provide them what they’re actually looking for.
So, yeah, so I’d say one of the biggest lessons is don’t assume that your, you’ve done your ideal customer work once and that’s it done. You know, you need to do it lots of times in order to, to keep fresh with that.
Erica Julson: Yeah. And where are these people coming from? Are they just people in your general audience or cust people that have bought from you already?
Or who are they and how do you invite them onto a call?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah, so I, I avoid anyone who’s bought from me because I, I want to get people who, um, I don’t want people to tell me what they think I want to hear. I want to hear it, you know, from strangers, so they don’t, they’re not offending anybody by saying anything.
So I either go to usually my Instagram or my Facebook group and ask for volunteers there. Or, um, I have sometimes put something out on an email list, more surveys actually, that I send via the email list. But yeah, people tend to be, and I always say, you know, in exchange for your time, I’ll happily answer any questions you’ve got.
So you, it usually fills up quite quickly.
Erica Julson: Nice. Yeah, that’s one of the things I always hear people saying that you should do, and I’ve never actually done it, so it’s also on my list of like things I should probably do . Uh, but yeah, I totally agree. For some reason that concept keeps coming up. like in things that I’ve been listening to, I’m like, is this a sign
Do I really, I should probably put this on my agenda. Um, yeah. Uh, and one of the things I was just listening to, something in on this topic, and one of the questions that they asked people was like, you know, if you had a hundred dollars to spend, like what would you spend it on? Or a thousand dollars.
And it’s not even like, what would you spend it on even in your business or like to solve this problem. It’s just like to learn about your customer and what they value and like understanding where they wanna spend their money in general. Like whether it’s like a vacation or, you know, a dinner out or like whatever they respond to is like really good insight into their values and how what, what they like.
Yeah. And that can play into your marketing for sure.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. So absolutely. I don’t think you can ever know your right. Ideal client well enough. .
Erica Julson: Uh, okay. So thank you for that suggestion. Anyone listening, if you’re like me and you’ve never done this, , highly recommend learning more about it. Uh, let’s see. And did you have any other, so you now you’re doing your, um, your, your market research often and it’s never done, essentially and Yeah.
actually before we move on from that topic, like, so you do the calls, you’re asking people questions. Do you have like a framework of questions that you ask people?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yes, I do. Um, so I’ve got a set of questions that take people through. Um, one, one of the things I try and do actually is identify what their limiting beliefs are, because I find that, if you can work out what’s holding them back, you can really tailor your marketing material in order to try and help them overcome.
and realize that actually, working with somebody or, or, you know, buying the thing is what they need to do in order to solve a problem. Mm-hmm. . Um, so yeah. Yeah.
Erica Julson: And, uh, and then after you do that and you get people’s responses, like how do you practically infuse that into your marketing? Do you have steps for that too?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yep. So I’m fortunate that I’ve got a couple of copywriters on my team actually. So what I tend to do is transcribe the conversations, and ask them for, for their expertise, you know, their therefore but with words than I am. And what they’ll do is they’ll take a look at the, the information that I’ve gleaned and, and turn it into social media posts and, um, sales page copy and emails you, things I can use in this, in my sales emails in particular.
So yeah, just really taking those words and share, sharing them for ’em wide really. .
Erica Julson: Yeah. There’s nothing more powerful than using your ideal customer’s words. Yes. And like putting it back to them. Cuz then it feels like, oh wow, they really get it and they’re like, understanding what I’m saying.
essentially. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I love that tip. Not just using it for your, you know, sales page or something, but also social media, like as a way to connect, I feel like, with your ideal customer and give them that feeling like, oh, okay, they get it. That’s really powerful. Again, I’m not really doing that.
Absolutely. We can’t really , I can’t really like espouse on this very much, but in theory it’s what I plan to try to do. Uh, boosting my social media ta uh, like strategies on my list for my next things work on, once I get my course relaunched. So, yeah. Okay. So any other big lessons that you learned? ,
Sarah Almond Bushell: any other big lessons?
So I think, uh, one of the other big lessons was about um, you know, not creating something until you’ve actually know people actually want it. Um, like that first baby nutrition course that I created. And, and pre-selling actually. So that’s the other thing. Every time I’ve created something now I pre-sell it before, or, well, I dunno, actually create it or create the outline or the idea, the concept and present that to people and pre-sell it at a sort of a founding member’s price.
And then if I get enough of interest, then I’ll go on to create it. And that saved me a lot of, you know, even, you know, since, you know, since then, it’s save a lot of time. Most things I have gone on to create. But, um, about a year ago I decided I was gonna create a, a particular program for other dietitians in business.
And I sent an email out and posted about it on social and I only had one person say they would be interested. So I’m so pleased that I did that , cuz that would’ve been a big time suck. So yeah. Um, you know, absolutely not, not doing that background work. First of all, and what else? Um, so, oh, oh, the other thing as well is I think it came to me quite late actually, about how much you need to nurture the audience that you build before you can try and sell to them.
So, what I’ve, what I’ve realized now is once I’ve, once I’ve got leads coming into the business, I have got a really awesome, um, nurture sequence essentially that goes on for quite a long time. And what I’ve found is the longer the people that are on my list and the more nurtured they are, The more likely that they are to buy.
So if I can spend time and effort crafting these emails, I can send out to them or even, you know, videos and sometimes people say, oh, I already feel like I know you, and it’s because I’ve sent them videos every week for a few weeks. I think that’s something that has really helped sales as well.
Erica Julson: Yeah. Do you cross use those videos?
Like is it a video from social that you’re like embedding in your email, or is it like just something private that you host somewhere and send out in the email? Like what, what’s your strategy there?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. No, it’s def it’s, it’s all over the place, so it’s the same stuff that will go, um, on social and email as well.
Awesome. Um, so yeah, absolutely.
Erica Julson: great repurposing strategy. .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Absolutely, yes. Yeah, yeah,
Erica Julson: yeah. , I get that, uh, comment from people listening to my podcast cuz they’re like, I feel like I know you from your voice and stuff like that. Uh, so I agree. Any, any format where it’s goes a little beyond the written word is a really good way to build connection and trust for sure.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yes, definitely. Okay, so it’s all about the relationships, isn’t it?
Erica Julson: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And so in terms of your audience and your marketing channels, what has been like the biggest winner for you? .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. So I’ve, I’ve had quite a lot of, of success with, well, SEO obviously. Um, what I find actually is people will find me on Google for the one-to-one consultations.
So when, whenever I, I always ask people where did they hear about me? And nearly always for the one-to-one consultations at Google and that, that’s for the nutrition side of the business. Um, so the SEO has been great for that. Uh, you’ve had in my email marketing, I would say that’s probably been one of the main things that’s been really successful for me.
So I make a lot of digital sales that way. So, you know, if I, if I ever need, need a little cash injection, I just might send out a couple of emails and I’ll get sales in return from, from that. But the other thing is as well, is when people join my list, they enter a quite a long. Email sequence and in, you know, various intervals in there.
I’ve got little things for sales, so that just really allows me to have a nice passive, regular income coming in, you know, trickling in on an, an evergreen funnel all the time. Um, so that’s been good. Um, what else? The way I’ve used social media is to drive people to the website, so, um, I find that although I’ve got more followers on Instagram, I get more traffic from Facebook, which is interesting.
And Pinterest worked really well for me for a little while, and then that stopped working, but I’m having a look at that again this year. And then the other thing that’s been great for me actually is Facebook ads. Mm-hmm. . So I, I started playing with ads quite a few years ago and did not know what I was doing.
And then I did some training, and. That’s been brilliant, particularly for things like leading up to the live launches, so getting people onto the webinars, um, that’s been really, really successful. And retargeting people who’ve been to the webinars with the, with the offer. And actually what that’s led me then to go on and do is to do some training so that I’ll become a certified Facebook ads manager and I’ll be able to help other dietitians with their Facebook ads as well, because I think they’re so powerful when you know what you’re doing, but it’s really hard, you know, to, to really learn how to do them properly, which I guess is why people employ ads managers.
Erica Julson: For sure. Yeah. Uh, yeah. And I feel like getting to know the dietitian space gives you an advantage too, cuz I know there are more restrictions if you’re talking about health stuff, , like certain words you can’t use and things like that.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Images and, yeah. All sorts of things that you can’t actually say.
Um, when you use, there’s a, there’s a technique for being kept out of Facebook jail. .
Erica Julson: Yeah. So that is an asset, like if you nail that, like definitely , that is, that takes a lot of time and experience and playing to learn. So, definitely worth outsourcing to someone who knows what they’re doing. For sure.
Yeah. Uh, and then I, I think you mentioned that you did a little bit of PR too. What was that like?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah. So I started doing, I had been, I’ve always kind of done a little bit of pr, but never properly. Um, and I decided that I wanted to work. I wa so I wanted to, to do it for a few reasons. I wanted the back links to help the seo, um, but I also just wanted to raise my profile as, as the sort of first eating dietitian in, in the UK as the, the go-to person.
Um, and so I decided to use PR to do that, and that has been brilliant. So it’s got me featured all over the place in all different kinds of publications. It led to me setting up my very own fussy Eating Awareness week in November last year. Love that. Which was really great. Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was a, that was fantastic.
I really enjoyed that. And yeah, I think what it’s done is it’s, it’s kind of just, it, it’s, it’s kind of just. , I, I guess, increased my thought leadership. It’s kind of just put me out there as the person to go to if you’ve got questions or if you want to talk a bit more about, you know, fuss eating.
It’s really helped. Yeah.
Erica Julson: And for people listening who aren’t familiar with what PR is, can you just share what that means?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so it’s working with the media really. So, um, whether that’s in print or, uh, a lot of publications are online now. I’ve done a bit of radio work, a bit of TV work, podcasts, things like that.
So, yeah. Yeah. And did you, and of course, if it’s, sorry. Oh no, go ahead. . Um, if it’s in a, in a digital place, then if they give you a back link, then that’s, you know, brilliant in terms of, um, your SEO as well. So if that’s been really helpful for. .
Erica Julson: Yeah. So many ways that that helps, boost your SEO for sure.
But the backlink and then also, like you said, the thought leadership and making it clear to bots who are like crawling the internet and looking for your name, mention places, uh, that that shows that you have a lot of authority and people trust you cuz they feature you on, on big platforms. So did you do all the outreach yourself or did you work with the team?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so last year I worked with a team, f for Mo most of last year actually. And they were fantastic at finding me the work. And also, um, one of the things they helped me do was really, really refine my message so that I wasn’t just a pediatric dietitian or, you know, a dietitian who talked about weaning babies.
And for eaters it was really like, what is it about fussy eaters that you want to do? So they really helped me sort of nail my messaging and what I really wanted to be known for. Um, and then this year I’ve decided to go alone and it’s been a lot slower because obviously they’re, you know, scouting, looking for all of these places for me to be featured.
But um, yeah, it’s been really, really good, really effecti. ,
Erica Julson: and is that a pricey investment or, I don’t really have any experience hiring pr.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yes. It was very expensive, which is why I’ve decided to have a go at doing it myself. So I think probably I spent maybe 20 or 30,000 pounds last year on, on pr.
And, you know, there’s no guarantees. So if the journalists aren’t interested in talking about anything to do with nutrition or children, then the, the results just might not, the opportunities might not happen. So, yeah. No guarantees.
Erica Julson: Yeah. But it does sound like you got a lot of good placements in that one year commitment, so, yes.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah, I did. Yeah. And some really high profile places as well, you know, like the Huffington posts and things like that, which, which was really great. .
Erica Julson: So I know we’re, we’re, we’ve been talking for almost an hour now and I don’t wanna take up too much of your time, but I know that you’ve really also sort of niched down into helping dietitians set up funnels and kind of optimize those funnels.
And it seems like you have a really good understanding of the different, like, levels of funnels, like top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel. Can you just like, quickly run us through what that looks like in your business, uh, and explain kind of what those terms mean for people.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, absolutely.
So yeah, so I think once I started to understand funnels, everything just made sense. And, and actually now that’s exactly what I do is I teach funnels to two other dietitians. So yeah, so at the top of the funnel is essentially your, your visibility strategy. So, uh, for me it’s people finding my website, so seo.
I’ve also got Facebook group, the PR work with counters, sort of top of funnel visibility. But also I run engagement ads through Facebook and Instagram. Um, and then just being a guest on other pupil’s channels that can really help with visibility. But once, once you’re visible, you’ve then got to get people.
Actually into your funnel. So the sort of next step really is, turning some of those people who’ve seen you into leads. So the, the sort of obvious thing that a lot of people do is create a lead magnet, like, or a freebie. And I’ve got all sorts of different ones in my business. So pdf d downloads, the quizzes, um, webinars, and off the back of all of those, there’s a thank you page.
And I have a, uh, what we call a trip wire offer on that thank you page, which is usually something that’s fairly cheap and no-brainer price. Um, so under, under $50, under 50 pounds I would say. And so you earn a bit of money that way, which is great. . And then, so once, once those leads are in, in your funnel, you then really need to nurture the relationship.
So that’s kind of what I was alluding to earlier. and the way that I’ve chosen to do that is, so actually they come in and they get a, a bit of a welcome sequence and then they go straight into a sales sequence. And then whether they sell, whether they buy or don’t buy, at the end of that sales sequence, they all go into this lovely, warm, nurturing sequence.
And it’s essentially just really high value content. That’s really, really helpful. Actually. What I do is I repurpose my blogs, so just rewrite the blogs into emails. And I’ve got one, um, sequence. You know, if people come in on a baby lead magnet that leads through till for about six months, and then they go into my toddler sequence.
If they come in on a, the toddler. Leave magnets, they go into this two year toddler sequence. Um, and then every time I create a new broadcast email, I just add it onto the end of the toddler sequence. So that sequence is just gonna get longer and longer and longer. And so it’s, it’s just over two years now.
And then if you know, so my audience is segmented on my list. So I’ve got the baby bucket, I’ve got the toddler bucket, and then I’ve also got the dietitians. And so if you’re a dietitian who comes in on a lead magnet, you get entered into this year-long nurture sequence, which is just loads of really, really high value.
Stuff. And then when the time is right, I will sell something. So sometimes it’ll be, if it’s a low ticket thing, so it’ll be within those emails. And I find I can sell anything up to about 500 pounds via email. If it’s something a bit more expensive, I tend to, I tend to either live launch, which I actually love live launching, so it’s, it’s a bit full on and there’s a lot of energy, but it’s essentially a presentation and a sales pitch.
And then at the end of that live launch, more emails to nurture, um, and, and coach them into the sale, essentially. Mm-hmm. Or sometimes it’ll, rather than, rather than doing a live launch, I’ll invite people onto a discovery call instead, and make the sale that way. So the coaching towards the sale actually happens on a call.
So that’s kind of the bottom of the funnel, um, bit. And then of course, when they’re a customer, you really want to onboard them really well, off board them really well, give them an amazing experience. So then they come back and be a repeat customer. And the dietitians that I coach, that’s what I want for them in their businesses.
So, you know, whether they’re just starting out or quite a lot of the time, they’ve set up private practice, but they haven’t really thought about the business or the strategy side of things. So I’ll really help them get this nailed. Or if they’ve already got a business and they’re looking to scale it, we’ll literally unpick every step of that funnel and work out, you know, what are the microversion points and what are the bottlenecks and what do they need to double down on, or what do they need to change so that they can just.
Really scale and, and optimize and start making lots of money. .
Erica Julson: Yeah. That’s one of my favorite parts about setting up systems like this is that you do get actionable data. Yes. So you’re not guessing. Um, yes, you can figure out what’s working and what’s maybe not working so well and keep tweaking. And then, like you said, once you have something that converts at a really reliable rate, it’s just like, okay, let’s like open the doors.
Like, you know, if you can put ads on top of that and get leads that way, like you’re just multiplying your results essentially, uh, in a pretty reliable way.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Absolutely. Yeah. And, and I think that’s it. You know, one, once you’ve, once you’ve nailed your funnel and you’ve got it working properly, it’s just a numbers game.
You know, the more you put in, the more you get out the other end. So. Yep. Yeah.
Erica Julson: and. I’m just gonna say it, it sounds intimidating, like the way you just laid that out, you’re like, holy moly, that is like a lot of work and a lot of steps, , but I, you don’t have to like, you can baby step it, you know, like get your welcome sequence in there, like create your really low ticket, like trip wire off or, or whatever.
Like, you know, you can do it little step by step and then eventually you look back and you’re like, wow, I have a lot going For me, it’s mostly automated. Like, that’s what, what I did before I had my first baby. I spent almost a year creating my current Evergreen funnel and like really optimizing everything as best as I thought I could, in the beginning.
And it really, really paid off and I think saved, earned me more money and also probably saved me money in the long run, because it was actually optimized .
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, I think you, you’re absolutely right there. You know, you, you, you have to dedicate a chunk of time to working on your business, not just in your business.
Because once you’ve got this all set up, it, it’ll pay and dividends.
Erica Julson: So, yeah. Just really, really quick before we wrap up, , do you have a team? Like how mu, how realistic is this? Like, do you have to have like 20 employees to get something like this done? Or, you know, what does your team look like if you have one?
And how much are you working every week?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, so no, I have a very, very small team. So I have this myself, um, and I work. Monday to Thursday, I like to keep Fridays as a day to myself and I only work school hours, so I do nine 30 till about three o’clock ish. And then, um, I have Claire, who’s my assistant on the team, so she does about 15 hours a week for me.
She still works full-time in the N H s, so it’s evenings, weekends, you know, that kind of thing. Um, and, but she’s absolutely brilliant. And then I’ve got some contractors. So I’ve got a couple of part-time VAs who, you know, just do ad hoc work. One wanders more design stuff, wanders, more tech, Kajabi stuff.
Um, and then a couple of copywriters, again, who are contractors. So it’s all ad hoc work. They’ll write stuff for me whenever I need something doing. And we’ve just brought on a videographer and photo. , um, to work on some of the recipes, but again, it’s all contracted out, so it’s just small projects as and when we need people.
Mm-hmm. , so you don’t, you don’t need to have a huge amount of time, actually, no. .
Erica Julson: Yeah. So I love that. Monday through Thursday, nine 30 to three, one part-time DA and some contractors. And, and you mentioned that you’re making multiple six figures with this setup, correct?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, and I think part of that is because the overheads are so low, so I don’t have very much, uh, you know, to, to spend every month.
So the, obviously there’s a tech and that, that costs a little bit. But my biggest expense or the, the, the, the team, so once I’ve paid their bills, you know, everything else is, is profit, which is just amazing.
Erica Julson: I know it’s the best , it’s, yeah, so much better than having a full office and all that overhead that comes with it.
So, and I love that you can reach people basically all over the world. Like we are connected and we don’t live anywhere near each other, so we would never have worked together if we were limited to in-person. Uh, so true. Yeah. Uh, so where do you envision going in the next couple years?
Sarah Almond Bushell: So this year we’re working on the SEO for the recipes.
That’s a big job for us because the recipes were created back in 2018. Uh, so we need to really, really sort those out. So there’s 120 on the website in the minute they bring in virtually no traffic at all. So we’re working to optimize with, images, video. And so the intention is to get more money from Media Vine with, with those, and actually.
I’m just, I’m just looking at, at that project as the c e o. So my team are all kind of doing that, which is great. I’m just kind of taking that bird’s eye view, because what I’m trying to do this year is grow the dietitians and business brand. So I’ve got the Mastermind, which has just been approved by the British Dietetic Association for 40 C P D hours, which is amazing.
So I’ve got their, their endorsement, which is lovely. And then also I’ve got the, my, the program for the, those who have kind of been through, um, the Mastermind or they’ve already got established businesses, so that’s called Elevate. And I currently teach that one-to-one at the moment. But I would love to teach that as a group if the numbers, you know, were bigger.
So my, yeah, my plan is to really, um, scale outside of the business this.
Erica Julson: Love it. Yeah, totally relate. , it’s so much fun. Once you get like the bones in place, it does allow you to kind of step back and be more of the c e o and do the bigger picture planning. And I don’t know about you, but that stuff’s fun,
It’s really fun. It is.
Sarah Almond Bushell: It’s, it is. It’s the bit I love the best. So yeah, really happy to be doing that. .
Erica Julson: All right, well let’s close it out. I would just love to hear your, like, final advice for people listening. I kind of, I know in my notes for the episode I asked for like the top three pieces of advice for rds who are thinking about starting an online business today.
And then also like the people who, I know there’s a lot of people listening who are in the frustrated and feeling stuck phase. So like, to those people, like they’re thinking about getting started or they’ve started, but they’re just like, Ugh, none of this is sticking, nothing’s working. Like what is going on?
What are your tips for them? Yeah.
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. So, um, so the, for the Stuck people, , um, what I would say is, Are they absolutely a hundred percent clear on who that ideal client is? Because people buy what they want. They don’t buy what they need. But we, particularly as healthcare professionals, are really good at creating what we think that they need.
But that’s not what they’re gonna. Paid money for. So, if you are absolutely clear about that, what I would do is I would look at your wholesale pipeline, the wholesale funnel. So where do your leads come in from? Um, what do you do with that lead in order to deepen that connection and nurture the relationship?
You know, how do you present the offer? Is it the right way to present the offer to them? And, you know, really unpick all of those, I call them MicroCon conversions, but people make decisions all the way through that funnel. So, you know, look at all of those decision points and just see is there anything that’s not working.
It could be the, your, you know, looking at your emails, the open rates are, are low, so it’s probably the subject line. It might be, you know, they, they’re opening the emails, but they’re not clicking on the link. So it’s really just looking at all those tiny little steps, um, through that funnel. Mm-hmm. And for the people new to business, I think the, you know, the, the key three things are, you know, have a niche.
Please, please, please have a niche. It’s definitely the stumbling block for lots and lots of dietitians who just, you know, don’t want to nail, nail down and just do one thing. But it’s really, really hard to run a business if you’re trying to be a jack of all trades. And then once you’ve got your niche work out what your mis mission message is.
Let’s get that mixed up. So what is it the thing that you wanna be known for? What’s gonna make you stand out from all the other dietitians in your specialty? So, you know, really nail that message. And then the third thing I would say is, You have to get visible. So what, that was one of the things that really, um, I struggled with at the start was putting my face and voice out there and actually, you know, standing for my business as, as the business owner, but people buy from people, they don’t buy from businesses.
And so you do have to get visible and be everywhere and be consistent with it so that they can get to know, like, and trust you because that’s really, really important if you essentially, if you want your business to be a business and not a hobby. Yeah.
Erica Julson: And I will, uh, circle on top of that, but don’t let the perfection piece get in your way.
Because I remember earlier in this episode you said that at one point you were publishing a blog post like every other month and that was all that could happen at that time. But that was still consistency. Yes. And that’s important. Yes,
Sarah Almond Bushell: it is. Absolutely. Done is better than perfect.
Erica Julson: Exactly. Great. Well thank you so much.
This was a really helpful, informative interview. I know it’s gonna be inspiring for a lot of people, so if people want to connect with you further and follow along with your you and your brand, where should they go?
Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, thank you so much. Um, so my website is Children’s Nutrition dot Good uk. Um, the children’s nutritionist across all of the socials.
And then for the business coaching side of things, my website is sarah armand bushel.com. And I have an Instagram account, which is dietitians in business where I share a little bit of behind the scenes stuff following along my business journey, but also some tips and advice
Erica Julson: as well. Great. Well, I will put all the links to that in the show notes if people, uh, can’t jot that down right now.
So if you’re listening, you can just head to the unconventional rd.com when you have time in the future and find this episode and all the links will be there as well. So, thank you so much for your time today, and I am so excited that you’re a part of our community and we get to keep in touch and I get to see all the exciting things you’re doing.
So thank you again for, for sharing your story today.
Sarah Almond Bushell: It’s a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.
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.
