Episode 2: You're allowed to change your mind about your practice

[00:00:00] Natalie: You know the saying, “pick a lane”. Sometimes, yes. It can be very helpful to drill down, find your niche, and become an expert in something very specific. But what happens if your niche no longer serves you? If things change and it's no longer fulfilling? Maybe your clients stop coming or they have a different need. Or maybe you just find that you have a different calling, a different path, a different way to help.

[00:00:24] Natalie: Well, today on Practice Growth Unfiltered, we are talking to a guest who did just that. She pivoted. She made a change. And so can you. I'm your host, Natalie Mullin, and I'm so glad you're here. If you're joining us for the first time, this show is for health practitioners and practice leaders who love the work you do with clients, but never got taught the business side.

[00:00:44] Natalie: Well, here we talk with practitioners who actually built successful practices and get practical tips on marketing, hiring, scaling, and running your business. Let's get into it.

[00:01:00] Natalie: Today I'm joined by my colleague Varun Chopra, who is a community manager at Practice Better. Welcome, Varun.

[00:01:05] Varun: Thanks so much for having me Natalie.

[00:01:06] Natalie: - and Varun you are joining me today because you talk to practitioners every single day. And you actually had a really interesting conversation the other day. It's the one I mentioned in the intro. So can you tell us a little bit more about the guest we're going to hear about today?

[00:01:20] Varun: Yeah. So I have known Renay through our community roundtable events, and she has always offered such great insight not only about being a practitioner, but about marketing, about how to compartmentalize. But I never really knew her full story. So this is the first that I heard of it. And she has gone through not only very many career pivots, but she's also pivoted her practice.

[00:01:42] Varun: So, it's it was it was a very inspiring talk, and I'm really excited for everyone to hear it.

[00:01:48] Natalie: Nice. I can definitely relate. I've had a few career pivots myself. I don't know if you know, but I actually used to be an elementary school teacher.

[00:01:54] Varun: Oh wow. I did not know that.

[00:01:57] Natalie: You learn something new every day. But you know what? I think that's the beauty of life. No one has it all figured out at the end of the day. And we're all going to go a different path. We're all on our journey.

[00:02:05] Varun: 100%. And that's essentially the gist of what me and Renay spoke about.

[00:02:09] Natalie: I can't wait to hear it. Let's take a listen to your conversation with Renay.

[00:02:13] Varun: How are you doing, Renay? I feel like we haven't caught up in maybe 2 or 3 weeks now.

[00:02:18] Renay: Yeah, I'm doing well. It's been a good 2 or 3 weeks to be, to be honest. So, yeah, it's good catching up. Thank you for inviting me.

[00:02:25] Varun: Oh, yeah. For sure. I've. I've never really, like, heard your full story. Like, I don't know where where it starts. And it's something that I would love to know. I'm, I'm very curious. Like, when did you or how did you first become a health practitioner?

[00:02:41] Renay: I guess it was several, several years ago now. I started I was in corporate. I was in the corporate world, and technology and you know when to university and did all that for, for technology and then got into corporate. So did that for, for many years. Most of my career was in technology. But I one year I distinctly remember I was sick most of the year.

[00:03:10] Renay: And I mean, I had I remember having the flu and was out of work for about two weeks. That year I also had gotten strep throat a few times. I had some sinus infections and I was like, what is going on? I ended up going to a natural path and found out I had a lot of food intolerances.

[00:03:29] Renay: And as soon as we kind of dealt with those intolerances and I removed and eliminated those foods. Lo and behold, I got better. And literally I haven't been that sixth sense. And that was many, many years ago now. I never knew before that that what I ate could affect me so much. So that's how I got into being, having nutrition as a passion and health and wellness.

[00:03:58] Renay: Several. You know, fast forward several years, I stayed in corporate but then got a bit burnt out and lost my passion for technology and was trying to figure out what to do. I stumbled into, you know, thinking, well, maybe I could do nutrition as a job. So, you know, looking and researching and stuff. I decided to go the route of being a health coach.

[00:04:27] Renay: I was debating between, you know, registered dietitian, health coach. What I wanted to do decided to go into health coaching and functional nutrition specifically. So that's how it started.

[00:04:37] Varun: Yeah. I feel like there's so many things that are very relatable to, like most of us, in that I think the piece about corporate burnout is something that we all go through and it's like, okay, do I do I follow my passion? And then also just being introduced to the world of more kind of private health care, which you see a specialist, and then it kind of opens up a whole new door.

[00:05:04] Varun: So would you say that that point inspired you, or was it just kind of an introduction to, okay, like, this is something I can do? Outside of like, more traditional healthcare?

[00:05:16] Renay: I think it inspired me. I really just went head first into it when I, you know, when I learned that, it helped me so much, it was black and white for me. As far as like, okay, I am now a health nut. I know what being healthy does for me and how it makes me feel. So I think it just kind of snowballed from there.

[00:05:37] Renay: And when I was reflecting, I'm like, okay, if I if I can't stay in technology, what am I going to do? I have to do something because my health, again was being affected by by the stress. So I said, well, let's give it a shot. And and that's actually, to be honest, how my whole how it's been ever since even I, pivoted into this role as well as, you know, let's give it a shot and see what happens.

[00:06:06] Renay: And I pivot. If I pivot, then I pivot and it's okay. That's been my mantra, I guess.

[00:06:13] Varun: Yeah. So then so then what was the actual pivot point? Was it, was it reaching like a point of corporate burnout and just kind of taking time to reflect and then moving forward with this, or was it something else entirely?

[00:06:26] Renay: It was funny. When I had the burnout, I actually went on stress leave. I was off work for two months and went on stress leave. Really did some reflection there, but that wasn't the point. I came back to work, realized, okay, this is not what I want to do, then decided to start my own company in technology and do that for a while.

[00:06:50] Renay: But I realized even just changing the the environment wasn't enough for me. And that's when I realized, okay, I definitely lost my spark. That's what I think when I realized I my passion for health and wellness was there. I didn't realize at the point that the technology piece I lost my passion, I lost my spark. And that's when I realized at that point, okay, I need to do something because now that I have my own business, I have to really hustle.

[00:07:21] Renay: And how do I hustle if I'm not into it? That's where that realization came from.

[00:07:27] Varun: So essentially, like pivoting into essentially becoming like like, you know, independent in the work that you were already doing. How much of, of that then sort of carried over into the second pivot of then moving into something that you were feeling passionate about?

[00:07:45] Renay: Luckily, I was able to use that corporation to pivot. So I had the the groundwork set as far as already having the company there, and it was just pivoting my services more than anything. So it was quite easy to pivot from, you know, the corporate world into remote online services and coaching. And, yeah. So it wasn't that difficult from a, from a infrastructure perspective.

[00:08:18] Renay: Obviously it was very different, the services that I provided. But I was loving it and I was excited about it. So it was real. I found it very easy to make that pivot because I already had the corporation set up. I already had that taken care of. So it was just a matter of saying, okay, I'm closing this door, opening this door, hanging this sign.

[00:08:39] Varun: And there's like so many lessons that you could still learn from having that, like no corporate experience, like for my own personal projects, just being able to project, manage and just like being able to see something that I'm fully accountable from start to finish. And, and I think while corporate burnout is, is a very real thing. I think there's, there's also valuable things that you can then bring into becoming a solo practitioner or a sort of like a solo business owner entrepreneur.

[00:09:16] Varun: So when you first started your health business, what were you specializing in, and was it based off of something that you were sort of dealing with yourself and, and, and was it something that was like, like a bit of an obsession for you?

[00:09:33] Renay: I started out with nutrition, functional nutrition, personalized nutrition started out with that just because it did so much for me. Changing my diet. I felt that, you know, I wanted to teach others and help others with that. But what I didn't realize at the time was I still had the effects of of the stress and the burnout, leaving corporate.

[00:10:00] Renay: So I was not sleeping well, and I had to figure that out. I'm like, okay, I have my diet under control. Why can I not sleep? And I, you know, after again researching it and, and learning a lot about my habits and about sleep and what happens when we sleep, I learned that it was the stress that was still causing some of the issues with my sleep.

[00:10:24] Renay: So, but what I found in researching is that I really, really love the sleep angle and focusing on that. And I that was the other thing that that kind of I realized I wanted to do as well is really focus on sleep. Nutrition was a part of that still. But sleep stress management, you know, health and wellness isn't just diet.

[00:10:47] Renay: And when I first did it, it was all diet. It was all nutrition. But then realized, no, there's other things in the life or lifestyle that has to change as well in order to be whole. So, and I think because I just love the fact that I was, I was talking about a lot. I was excited about it.

[00:11:06] Renay: People came to me for their sleep issues. They're like, oh, I can't sleep, I need help. And still to this day, when I say I'm asleep and stress specialist, that's the first thing I get is if somebody doesn't sleep well, they're like, oh, you're so needed. But it's true because I think if you don't sleep well, you're it can ruin your life.

[00:11:31] Renay: It really can. Like, it can be miserable if you're not getting good quality sleep.

[00:11:35] Varun: There's so many factors that like no play into it. So you kind of starting with one angle and then realizing that like in your, like in your own personal life, you were still struggling to find, I would say, I guess balance elsewhere. It kind of, I guess pushed you towards like a different specialization. So then with the with with with the, with the sleep coach, like no title did that then become the only hat you like wore or then like?

[00:12:07] Varun: No. Did it kind of evolve beyond that?

[00:12:09] Renay: It did evolve. So, funny enough, through collaborations, one of the big things that I did to to help promote my business was a lot of collaborations, a lot of networking. And, I invited a lot of people in to do workshops together. And one of the people had met through that, had worked for this company that specialized in memory and cognition coaching, and they were looking for coaches.

[00:12:35] Renay: And I said, well, this sounds interesting. And I didn't think of memory and cognition at all as a specialty, but, I put my hat in to say, hey, I may be interested in this and got the job. And so I became a memory and cognition coach, and it became full time, very fast. It was it was they had a lot of clients that that needed help.

[00:13:01] Renay: So I was able to kind of ramp up and become a memory and cognition coach, which was very different from sleep, stress, nutrition. So but I brought all that because as part of the program that they had, sleep was a pillar. Stress management was a pillar, nutrition was a pillar. So I brought all of my expertise in already.

[00:13:23] Renay: And what I've learned, and I learned a lot more from them around brain health. So then I became a memory and coach for a while and did that for a couple of years, and I'm still connected with them to this day. I work, I do work for them part time now and do group coaching and cross coaching for them as well.

[00:13:43] Renay: On sleep I do hypnotherapy for them and DNA work for them as well. So I still am connected.

[00:13:50] Varun: And it like no. Seems like so much of what you do is just based around finding balance with sleep, with sort of like no memory and cognition. How do you yourself balance, not only the coaching side, but also just running the business and the sort of marketing side.

[00:14:10] Renay: It's it's a lot. And to be honest, I was just thinking I was reflecting on that actually just today about as I, I'm always tweaking my processes, how I reach out, how how people see me, my messaging and all of that. And it takes a lot. I, I haven't hired on anybody else. It's just me doing all the work.

[00:14:34] Renay: And I will admit, I use a lot of AI to help do research and help me get stuff out of my head onto paper. So it really is. Managing my calendar. Like to get everything together is is about if it's not on my calendar, it doesn't get done. So I have to leave, you know, time management, time blocking for clients, for workshops, for content creation, for reach outs, for anything, for conversations, for networking, all of that.

[00:15:08] Renay: So it all has to be planned. So that's how I kind of keep everything managed. But it is a lot. It is, it is it can be and but if you can make it consistent, that's an eye think. Everybody says that, you know, be consistent in whatever you do. And if you can't be consistent, then maybe you need to kind of look at either bringing people on or adjusting so you can handle everything.

[00:15:32] Renay: So right now I'm in that mode is where I'm adjusting to say, okay. Am I putting too much out? Am I writing too much, you know, blog content and it's taking too much my time. Then do I have to back off or do I have to do more outreach or stuff like that? So it's constant where I'm adjusting and tweaking until I, you know, am comfortable.

[00:15:53] Renay: But then that changes to. So it's a constant, kind of reflection.

[00:15:59] Varun: So for like each role and for each, like I guess weekly like no task. Do you, do you feel like you have to kind of compartmentalize it, or are you able to just kind of, shift focus and just do and just wear multiple hats at once?

[00:16:17] Renay: Essentially it depends on the day. It really does. It depends on how well my sleep was the night before. But, I one of the things that I, I teach my clients is that, you know, we can't really multitask. We're not really productive if we're multitasking. So I really try to live by that. It's like I do say, okay, you know, I allow certain days to be working on my business and then certain days to be working in my business, you know, doing what I need to do.

[00:16:49] Renay: So I find that helps a lot is if I focus on a day that, you know, I allow to just write or I allow to just create my content and do the marketing and whatever. And then another days I do my group, you know, I've certain days that I have do group sessions, and then certain days that I leave open for one on ones and, and client work.

[00:17:12] Renay: So yeah, that's how I do it. It seems to work for me.

[00:17:15] Varun: So just essentially like a lot of calendar blocking then.

[00:17:18] Renay: Yes. Yes. But that's how I work. I know everybody's different, but that seems to work for me. The best is if it's in my calendar, it reminds me that, okay, it's time to to focus on this, to do, you know, whether it's prepping for an upcoming client session or a group session or. Okay, time to sit down and shift your brain into content writing mode.

[00:17:42] Renay: And yeah, because it's all using, you know, it's it's it's a lot of different types of energy I find that's needed.

[00:17:51] Varun: So you also, like a few times mentioned having different collaborations. What did those early collaborations look like for you.

[00:18:00] Renay: So early on? It was just me reaching out to other practitioners and wanting to, do webinars with them. I used to do them on a regular basis, so that was my early collaborations. It was almost like podcasting, but it really was just, you know, zoom webinars at that point. So, then I ended up partnering with another clinic because they needed they were looking for practitioners, and they like the fact that I was focusing on sleep as well.

[00:18:33] Renay: I was already doing the memory and cognition coaching. I hadn't done much with sleep because I was full time at that point with with doing the memory and cognition coaching. I did it part time. Sleep coaching kind of did a little bit there, and that's when I did that for a while and then realized that it wasn't going to to work anymore.

[00:18:57] Renay: As far as being a part of that clinic because of just my business has changed. One of the things that I've learned through working as a memory and cognition coach, one of the things that that company did was, DNA testing. And I really found that fascinating. I love data, and that's what I did in technology. So I'm like, oh, I love having data on the human body.

[00:19:20] Renay: So I wanted to incorporate it into my practice and incorporated into the clinic. Unfortunately, they charge us dollars. The clinic was Canadian dollars. It wasn't going to work, but the owner of that clinic said, hey, I really like this DNA testing to let's collaborate together and create a virtual clinic that is more global and not location based. And that's where our new clinic live.

[00:19:52] Renay: Well, Virtual Health was formed, and I was able to bring my practice into that clinic, but I also became the support for that clinic as well. So, and then we brought in some practitioners from her old clinic over to the new clinic, those who wanted to be more global, and it was in US dollars. So it worked out well for me.

[00:20:16] Renay: So that's how that that kind of shift happened. So that's a big collaboration I have right now, is that we're running this clinic together. We're doing a lot. The clinic is still relatively, I say relatively new. It's probably almost two years old now. But, we're doing a lot of different things there that we're launching in the fall.

[00:20:36] Renay: So, we're excited about that. And that just is even more collaborating now. We're looking at collaborating with other practitioners again through the clinic directory that we're creating. So I'm excited about that. But yeah, collaboration has always been a big part of what I do as part of my business. I think it's a good way to bring in business.

[00:20:57] Renay: When you get to know other people, people get to know you. People remember you. They're like, oh, you know, I have somebody that needs help with sleep. I've took them as far as I could go. Can you talk to them? That's my favorite kind of collaboration is where I could actually deep dive and really get into the nitty gritty with somebody and then actually give that client back to the other person and say, here you go.

[00:21:20] Renay: Here's what we discussed, here's what I suggest. And, you know, take it from here. So it's been it worked really well. It's been working really well for me.

[00:21:28] Varun: So then when you are, when you are collaborating in that sense, what does that what does that handoff look like? Is it is it sharing notes. Is it just like having having a sort of conversation and just saying, like, this is where we're at?

[00:21:43] Renay: Yes, exactly. Exactly. If it's a cross coaching, I call it I call it cross coaching. It's cross coaching kind of scenario. I get as much information as I can from the from the client, from the patient or, and, and really dive in with them, have a session and then I give all of my notes back. So if it's something like a DNA test, somebody wants to do a DNA test, I will absolutely do the DNA test, create a summary for them, a roadmap for them, and pass that information back to the other practitioner and say, here's what I found.

[00:22:18] Renay: Here's a quick summary. So that way the practitioner doesn't have to go in and look at the detailed DNA report. They can just grab the summary from me and then use what they want, going forward with the roadmap with the client. So whether it's DNA, hypnotherapy is the same thing. Sometimes people just want me to do a few hypnosis sessions with them.

[00:22:40] Renay: I typically don't do them one off anymore, but as part of a program or as part of a coaching experience, I think it works very well. So that's the other thing that I do, and I find that it just works really well because it allows us to to be able to help, help the client even more. Right? We all have our specialties, and I'm the same way if I find somebody that and that's one of the reasons why I like being part of a clinic environment is that, when I have a client that sometimes it sessions will go a little bit out of my scope.

[00:23:18] Renay: You know, I don't like to prescribe supplements. I don't, from a hypnosis perception or perspective. I don't like to deal with trauma. I'm not trauma informed, so I'd like to refer out to that. So it's nice being in a clinic environment where I have people that I can refer to as well. So it goes both ways.

[00:23:39] Varun: And so, so like this. This is like essentially like a virtual global, like a virtual global clinic. Right. So then prior to, like seeing the opportunity to switch and like move to a more global setting, were you operating more kind of locally or just more nationally?

[00:24:00] Renay: I was global, I was charging in Canadian dollars at the time, but I had I had people that I worked with that were, in Europe. Most of the people that I've, I've realized is most of the people that I work with are in the US. So, it made sense for me to kind of switch anyway to US dollar pricing, but it was mostly North America, that I was working with when before I joined, before we created this virtual global clinic.

[00:24:32] Varun: So then can you share a little bit on like what? That what that looks like, like how far reaching the various practitioners are and like, how, how large that, like network currently is.

[00:24:48] Renay: It's the network that's part of the thing that we are just launching in the fall. So it's quite small right now. The reason why we wanted to do it is we were we felt bound or a little bit bound to who we could provide as practitioners. My partner's other clinic was localized, had natural paths in it, and licensed practitioners who were geographically bound.

[00:25:16] Renay: You know, that, again, is one of the reasons why I wanted something a little more global. But once we kind of got over that hurdle and how we could still refer out to licensed practitioners and natural paths and therapists by creating this directory and allowing people to kind of go through, answer questions and say, here's where you located, what are you looking for this and that.

[00:25:39] Renay: We are able to point them to the right, the right person. So it took a little bit of finagling to figure out, okay, what does that look like from a practical perspective? Because not everybody has to be in as part of our clinic either. We've opened it up because a lot of people that we refer to, they have their own systems in place already.

[00:26:01] Renay: So we didn't want them to come in and say, you have to use our platform, you have to do this. No, we didn't want that, but we wanted to have partners. So that's what kind of spurred on this whole let's create a directory, let's create a network of practitioners and, you know, have various levels of participation. Those practitioners could be a part of our clinic, they could be a preferred partner, or they could be just part of the directory.

[00:26:26] Renay: It says, yeah, I want to I want to, you know, raise my hand and be available for, for, you know, if you have people. So that's that's where we've gotten to. And so we've been reaching out and, you know, we spoke to a lot of people over the last we started this project probably about six months ago, and we started reaching out.

[00:26:46] Renay: And we're getting a lot of interest in it, especially from the natural paths and the license practitioners, because we're we're kind of figuring that out is how do we get people to them without but making sure that they're still working within their boundaries.

[00:27:03] Varun: So then what does that look like logistically? Like, do you have someone running marketing for it, or are you all just running your own marketing that, kind of leads people into a virtual clinic? What does it sort of look like? From a client facing side, essentially.

[00:27:21] Renay: So we ask the practitioners to market. We can only market so far. Right. One of the best ways to market yourself is to not market your services, but market you. So being able to as a clinic, we can market the clinic. And then we will get the practitioners in our clinic to provide information and say, hey, you know, give us some content.

[00:27:43] Renay: We'll put it out there on our social media. We have the SEO going on the website. We're, you know, we're constantly optimizing that so we can get into searches and stuff. We will eventually start advertising as well. We're not at that point yet, but that's part of the plan is to start advertising. But we also this whole directory networking as well as we're planning a community set up as well for practitioners, but also for clients and doing doing what I've done in the beginning, which I'd love to do and I can't wait to do it for the clinic, is get in those collaborations again, where multiple practitioners come together and present and do workshops for

[00:28:26] Renay: our, our community. So that's how we are doing it going forward. And that's all part of that directory network that we're trying to set up. And we're getting moving. So yeah, we've got a lot of interest so far. And it's it's I'm excited. I'm excited to get it officially launched. But we sort of have the soft launch out.

[00:28:48] Renay: We're starting to get people on the website at least to say, hey, here's our partners. We're working with the community software now to get that going. So it's it's exciting times for sure.

[00:28:58] Varun: Yeah. And then like, where can folks learn more about this?

[00:29:03] Renay: They can go to our website at live. Well, virtual health.com is probably the best place. That's where we're that's where we direct people when when they are looking for more information, whether it's clients or practitioners, if they want more information about what we're doing, we have all of that there. And they can certainly on from the website, they can reach out to us as well.

[00:29:21] Renay: We're super excited. My part, my business partner is a web designer. She does all the back and stuff. I am the the admin for the clinic software practice better. So I do all that stuff and we both support the practitioners as well. So and luckily she, you know, she's focused on the technology piece because I still have my practice.

[00:29:42] Renay: So she is a nutritionist as well. But she stepped back from doing the nutrition work to do this kind of work. So so it's worked out really well for us where we haven't really had to bring in anybody else to help us get, eventually we will have to bring in other people. But right now it's just us to working, working through it.

[00:30:02] Varun: Super cool. And then so, so with this sort of I don't know if, if you can call it a collaboration or, I guess, like business venture. Has it changed the way that you work as a solo, as a solo practitioner and has has, like anything, stopped working as you just continue to scale this project and just your practice in general?

[00:30:31] Renay: Yes, absolutely. And that is one of the reasons why I had I do my reflections a lot, and one of the things that I've recently discovered is that, I want more time to support the clinic and the practitioners. I still enjoy the coaching piece, but I am stepping away from the one on one coaching. Not as much one on one coaching.

[00:30:59] Renay: I'll do. I'll still do the cross coaching. I'll still do the group work. And then what I'm doing now is focusing on doing programs for my practice, you know, where people can go through the program, they get office hours with me and things like that. So I find that will open up some time for me to focus more on the community work and the stuff we're doing for the clinic.

[00:31:22] Renay: So yes, my business has is changing because of it, but it's because I want it to. Again, it's another pivot for me, but I like it because it's bringing in. It allows me to do some of the support that I used to do in technology as well. So I feel like I'm, I'm kind of using my career and what I've learned through my career to kind of do this as well, which I think is really cool.

[00:31:46] Renay: So it's really exciting. But yes, from a practice perspective, my, my practice is definitely changing the way I market. You know, I'm bringing in what I've learned and my strengths into the clinic. I've learned that, you know, for me, social media is not the biggest thing for me. And we've had that conversation in the past, but, but doing the workshops and doing the community aspects is where I, I seem to really get my energy from and like doing it.

[00:32:18] Renay: So I want to focus on that. Whereas my business partner, she is very much happy being in the background. She does not want to be the face of the clinic, so I don't mind doing that. But she does the back end support for that and we both have great ideas.

[00:32:36] Varun: So awesome. I feel like a big theme, like in your sort of career trajectory in your story is not being afraid to just pivot and to just roll with the sort of changes. So you are now doing the virtual clinic you're launching, the like, you know, networking. You are also moving away from one to ones to more sort of one, one, two, one, two many through programs.

[00:33:09] Varun: Where where do you go from there?

[00:33:11] Renay: Oh, geez. No, that's a that's a big question. And I think that's something that I have to still reflect on a little bit too, is now that we're kind of in the swing of things here, what does that look like going forward? But yeah, I don't know. I've always had the mindset that, you know, the universe will give me what I need at the time.

[00:33:36] Renay: So, and it's worked out for me so far. So where we go from there, I would love to see, you know, I would love to see, you know, my practice kind of just being a part of the clinic and then and really being able to focus a lot more on supporting others within the clinic as well, and others within our network as well.

[00:33:58] Renay: And still doing that, because I think that will always be somewhere that I get energy from. So I find that I don't think that will ever change. Being able to do that kind of work and just being able to get it out and help people, especially people who are just starting out or people who are stuck. It's it's hard, right?

[00:34:18] Renay: It's hard. And I'm not talking about just practitioners. It doesn't matter what it is. Right? Whenever you're coming up or you have a life change or something, or you're thinking of a pivot, it's not easy, but it's a mindset, piece as well. There's mindset involved to say, hey, it's okay to to try something out. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't mean it failed.

[00:34:42] Renay: It just take the learnings from that and apply them going forward.

[00:34:47] Varun: And yeah, and it's it's it's so hard mentally for some folks to just take that leap of faith to do that first pivot or to to do that sixth or seventh pivot like you have, what advice would you give someone who is maybe at the cusp of, like, okay, I want to follow my passion. I want to help other people.

[00:35:11] Varun: I don't want to risk not having things like a salary or sort of benefits or just like, I can't put it all on myself, that that is my block. What what what would you say to that person?

[00:35:27] Renay: I think that you can always start off small, and try it out. You know, not everybody likes taking risks. And, you know, everybody has their different story. But I think if you don't give it a shot, you know, try it out when you start something new. You don't have to have all the bells and whistles. You can start very small and start just saying, okay, what what feasibly can I do.

[00:35:54] Renay: And I give everybody credit who does that? I didn't do it that way. Maybe in hindsight maybe I should have, but I just stopped and then pivoted 100%. But I do give absolute credit to those people who keep their full time job while trying to manage their. I don't want to call it the side hustle, but I guess it would be in the beginning, right?

[00:36:19] Renay: You're trying to try things out and stuff, so just make sure you have systems in place that you that allow you to have time to work on your new business, your current work, but also self-care. You cannot forget about self-care. As somebody who took stress, leave like you don't want to go through that. It's not fun.

[00:36:46] Varun: Yeah. And on the sort of topic of self-care, let's let's actually step back from practice growth and move into personal growth for just a quick second with this specific podcast, we want to encourage all the practitioners who are constantly serving others to take some time for themselves. So what is one thing, Renee, that you can do for yourself this week, or in an area that that you might have been sort of neglecting?

[00:37:16] Varun: Personally.

[00:37:17] Renay: I think for me it is, I just came off of a short little holiday and, whenever I go away that through my immune system kind of gets tasks, everything, everything changes, right. The time we eat, what we eat, you know, bedtime, all that stuff, sleep. So I think for me, this week is just getting back onto routine as much as possible, especially, you know, just trying to maintain my health, like be healthy, not get sick.

[00:37:47] Renay: And again, as, as I mentioned earlier, everything's in my calendar, so be able to actually sketch some some downtime would be, you know, would be one thing that I need to do, which I don't think I have. So I need to do that.

[00:38:02] Varun: I'd just like to call that the sort of bounce back, which after like a vacation, you just have to kind of like remind yourself, like, these are the things that I do. And then also if, if you are sick, it's the same thing. It's like, okay, like I took some time, but like, this is how I run my life and I need to keep myself on track.

[00:38:22] Renay: Yeah, and definitely don't beat yourself up about it either. I mean, that's one thing. As business owners, if such a solo piano is to be able to take time off that time before, and that time after becomes incredibly busy because you're trying to cram everything in that you would do over that time. So you have time. I don't have an answer for that, but it really is to just be, you know, make sure you do schedule that time and make sure you can allow yourself the grace to actually.

[00:38:58] Renay: Okay, it's going to take me a little longer to finish some things because I took some time off, needed time off. Right. So I think it's that mindset as well. It comes back.

[00:39:07] Varun: Yeah, 100%. Well, thank you so much Renay. It was a real pleasure to talk to you as it always is. And yes. Thank you.

[00:39:17] Renay: Well, thanks for having me.

[00:39:19] Natalie: Thank you for run for that amazing conversation. And thank you, Renay, for coming on and sharing all that wisdom. It's such a good reminder that life is a journey. And as I said, careers are not set in stone. I really like the advice that Renay gave, which is to start small, and if something is no longer serving you, then you have the power to make that change.

[00:39:36] Natalie: And I always believe in making choices that are in alignment for you.

[00:39:40] Varun: 100%. And like we said in our conversation, sometimes it just takes having blind faith in yourself.

[00:39:45] Natalie: Absolutely. And you know what? On that idea of blind faith, I'm just going to pause here and give us all a moment of reflection. You know, we're we're always so busy figuring out our next step, and we often forgot to pause and take stock of those things that we were talking about today. So even if you're going to have that blind faith moment in yourself, what would the blind faith be in?

[00:40:07] Natalie: Right. So I'm going to invite you, Varun, and all of our listeners here to just take the next moment to just really think about what could you have complete blind faith in for your own self, and where can you really focus on those moments that maybe don't serve you anymore, and where you might need to pivot at the same time?

[00:40:30] Natalie: Maybe you might want to think about where is a area of your life that's bringing you a lot of joy. So stay with us. Think on that and we'll be back.

[00:41:08] Natalie: Welcome back everyone. I hope you're feeling inspired and you figured out what's that thing that brings you deep, great joy? Or what's that thing that you have great blind faith.

[00:41:18] Varun: And I am definitely feeling inspired and self-motivated.

[00:41:22] Natalie: I love that you've got to rely on yourself sometimes, you know, because who else is gonna pick you up day after day when things get tough, you've got to just cheer yourself on and keep going, everyone. It's been a joy, you know, talking with you today and having you on the podcast. So thank you for joining me and thanks to everyone who took the time to listen.

[00:41:41] Natalie: This podcast is brought to you by Practice Better, and if you found this conversation helpful, let us know in the comments! Subscribe, leave a review and also please let us know what aspects of practice growth do you want to hear about next?

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