Ep 108 DIETITIANS WEEK: Celebrating My Clients

This week feels really special because it’s Dietitians Week.

And honestly? I couldn’t let it pass without celebrating some of the incredible health professionals I’ve had the privilege of working with over the past few years.

Because behind every thriving private practice, every fully booked clinic, every confident business owner posting online with ease… there’s usually a story most people never see.

The messy middle.

The uncertainty.

The “Is this ever actually going to work?” moments while writing clinic notes late at night, replying to enquiries between NHS shifts, or trying to squeeze content creation into a Sunday afternoon while the washing machine hums in the background and someone shouts “Muuuum” from another room.

(If you know, you know.)

And the truth is, so many dietitians and health professionals are sitting in that exact space right now.

They’re brilliant clinicians. Compassionate. Evidence-based. Hugely experienced.

But growing a successful private practice? That’s a completely different skill set.

As a dietitian business coach, this is the part I care deeply about helping people with because I’ve lived it too.

I built my business during 5am starts before NHS shifts, learning SEO while most people were asleep and figuring out online marketing one very clunky tech mistake at a time. (Honestly, some of my early Canva graphics should never see the light of day again.)

So today, I want to share three client stories with you because I hope they remind you that growth is possible — even if things feel slow, inconsistent, or uncertain right now.

 

The Dietitian Who Had the Audience But No Clients

One of my clients came to me with something many people dream of having: a large Instagram following.

People loved his content.

They engaged with his posts.

They watched his stories.

From the outside, it looked like business was booming.

But behind the scenes? He wasn’t getting consistent clients.

And this is such an important reminder because visibility alone doesn’t build a sustainable private practice.

Before we started working together, he was doing bits and pieces of private work through somebody else’s clinic, speaking at conferences occasionally, and taking on the odd brand opportunity here and there.

But there was no clear structure.

No client journey.

No marketing system.

No real business foundations underneath everything.

So we stripped things right back and focused on the “boring” stuff most people try to skip.

The foundations.

 

Why Strong Foundations Matter in a Dietitian Business

One of the first things we worked on was identifying the different types of people within his audience.

And almost immediately, we noticed something interesting.

There were actually two completely different groups following him:

• People newly diagnosed with a condition
• People who’d been struggling with symptoms for years

That distinction changed everything.

Because once you understand exactly who you’re speaking to, your marketing becomes so much clearer.

Your offers become more relevant.

Your messaging starts making people feel deeply understood.

And that’s when clients start saying yes.

Together, we created a structured premium offer built around a transformational journey rather than one-off appointments scattered here and there.

We introduced discovery calls.

We refined his messaging.

We built a follow-up system.

And slowly but surely, things shifted.

Recently, he became fully booked.

Not because he suddenly posted more on Instagram.

Not because he danced on Reels. (Thank goodness.)

But because he finally had a business structure supporting the brilliant clinical work he was already doing.

 

The Power of Niching Down in Private Practice

The second client I want to celebrate is the wonderful Bahi.

Bahi is an incredibly experienced paediatric dietitian with more than 20 years in the field, including experience at Great Ormond Street.

When we first started working together, she already had enormous expertise.

But one of the biggest shifts came when she decided to niche down further into paediatric gut health and children’s IBS specifically.

Now let me tell you something honestly here…

Niching down can feel terrifying.

Most people worry there won’t be enough clients.

That they’ll lose opportunities.

That they’re making things “too specific”.

But in reality? Precision often creates momentum.

Because instead of becoming vaguely relevant to everyone, you become the obvious choice for the right people.

And that’s exactly what happened for Bahi.

Since leaning fully into this niche, she’s:

• Increased her visibility dramatically
• Been involved in IBS guideline work
• Sat on editorial boards
• Worked with major brands
• Appeared on television
• Created a thriving 12-week programme
• Achieved five-figure months

And the really interesting thing?

None of that came from trying to be everywhere online all at once.

It came from clarity.

From positioning.

From owning her expertise confidently.

 

Why Ideal Client Research Changes Everything

Another client I’ve been working with came to me feeling completely disheartened after investing thousands of pounds into business coaching that simply didn’t give her the support she needed.

And sadly, this is more common than you’d think.

There’s so much generic online business advice floating around the internet.

But health professionals need different support.

We work within ethical frameworks.

We navigate clinical responsibility.

We market to audiences who are often used to receiving healthcare through the NHS.

It’s a completely different landscape.

One of the biggest shifts for this client came from revisiting her ideal client work properly.

And when I say properly, I don’t mean filling in one of those surface-level worksheets asking whether your ideal client drinks oat milk or shops in M&S.

(I mean… maybe they do. But that’s not what makes people buy.)

I mean truly understanding:

• What keeps them awake at night
• What they’re worried about
• What they’ve already tried
• What they secretly hope for
• What frustrations are bubbling away beneath the surface

Because when your marketing reflects someone’s real lived experience, they feel seen.

And feeling seen builds trust.

Her content became clearer almost immediately.

More emotionally resonant.

More specific.

More aligned.

And recently, after a sales campaign, she booked 17 discovery calls and started hearing those beautiful little yeses coming through.

 

The Truth About Dietitian Private Practice Success

I think sometimes people assume successful businesses happen because someone is naturally confident or especially “good at business”.

But honestly?

Most of the successful dietitians I know started feeling deeply uncertain.

They questioned themselves constantly.

They worried about visibility.

They doubted whether clients would pay.

They wondered if niching down was too risky.

They panicked during quiet months.

(And yes, even experienced business owners still have wobble moments occasionally.)

The difference is they didn’t stay stuck there.

They got support.

They learned business skills alongside their clinical skills.

And they stayed committed long enough for the foundations to start working.

Because private practice success rarely comes from one giant breakthrough moment.

It’s usually the result of lots of smaller shifts:

• Understanding your ideal client deeply
• Creating offers with clear outcomes
• Learning how to market ethically
• Following up properly
• Building trust consistently
• Simplifying your systems
• Staying visible even when it feels uncomfortable

Not flashy.

Not glamorous.

But incredibly powerful.

 

You Don’t Need to Hustle Yourself Into Burnout

One thing I care deeply about teaching inside Accelerate is this:

You do not need to build your business through exhaustion.

Most health professionals are already burnt out enough.

You’ve spent years working long NHS hours, putting everyone else first, and convincing yourself that success only comes through overworking.

But your business gets to feel different.

More spacious.

More intentional.

More supportive of your actual life.

The goal isn’t just more money.

It’s freedom.

Time.

Choice.

Being able to walk the dog in the middle of the day.

Pick your children up from school.

Take a Friday afternoon off without guilt.

Work in your pyjamas occasionally with a giant cuppa nearby. (Highly recommend.)

That’s the kind of success I want for you.

 

Ready for Support With Your Business?

If you’re currently in that messy middle stage where things feel inconsistent, unclear, or harder than they should… I want you to know that you’re not failing.

You probably just need better business foundations and the right support around you.

The brand new Accelerate 2.0 will be reopening soon for health professionals who want more clarity, confidence, predictable clients, and sustainable growth inside their business.

And for this upcoming round, one lucky person joining from the waitlist will receive a £1,000 cash bonus.

You can join the waitlist here:

Apply for the Accelerate 2.0 Waitlist

And finally…

Happy Dietitians Week.

Whether you’re still dreaming about starting your business, quietly building alongside NHS work, or already growing something wonderful — I hope this reminds you that what you want is possible.

Slowly.

Steadily.

One brave little step at a time.

The Master Plan:

Helping you build the business of your dreams. Get your 22 point step-by step workbook here: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan

Connect with me:

Website: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dietitiansinbusiness/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dietitiansinbusiness

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beyondtheclinicbusiness

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheClinicPodcast

 

Episode transcription:

Hello, hello. This week is a really special week for us dietitians. It's Dietitians Week from the 1st to the 5th of June. And I couldn't let Dietitians Week pass without dedicating an episode to celebrating it properly. So in today's episode, I'm going to be shining a light on some of the incredible health professionals that I have had the privilege of working with. But also I want their stories to give you something too.

Whether that's motivation, inspiration, a bit of encouragement, or just a few learning lessons for your own business. These client stories are really going to show you what is possible for you in your private practice, no matter how things might feel right now.

Because I know so many of you listening might be in that in-between stage at the moment. Maybe you're still in the NHS, maybe you're thinking about starting your private practice, but you're not quite sure how to make it happen. Or maybe you've already started something on the side, but perhaps it's not gaining the traction that you'd hoped for just yet. Or maybe you are already full-time in your business, but again, it's not quite where you want it to be just yet. Well, wherever you're at.

My hope is that these stories will remind you that things can change

even if things don't feel quite like it right now. I'm going to be celebrating three of my incredible clients who have really kindly agreed to share their journeys. We're going to be talking about what challenges they've faced in their private practices, the milestones that they've reached and what exactly they did differently to help them get there. So the first client that I want to celebrate with you is a dietitian who has asked to stay anonymous.

I know so many of you are going to relate to his story and the challenges that he's faced, especially if you're in a place where things have felt a little bit inconsistent or you feel like you're doing a lot, but not quite seeing it translate into clients just yet. So when he first came to me, his business didn't really feel like a business at all. And those were his words, not mine. He was seeing some clients

privately alongside his NHS job, but through somebody else's clinic. He was doing the occasional bit of brand work when opportunities came along and he was also doing a lot of speaking at conferences. But there was no real structure behind this as a business. He was kind of just figuring things out as he went.

But the one thing he did have was a large Instagram audience. People were following him.

they were engaging with his content and they were watching what he was sharing. Now the issue was there was no clear way of turning that attention into actual paying clients. So although it looked like things were going well from looking in from the outside, it wasn't yet translating into consistent clients or income in the business. But recently, since working with me, he's been getting more and more clients coming directly to him.

In fact, he's recently become fully booked. And most importantly, he's got a proper system in place for attracting and nurturing and converting people into clients. And I'm going to share with you exactly what he did to make all of this happen.

But first, let me give you a bit of context as to what was happening before. So 18 months or so ago, he actually ran into some challenges.

with the running of the clinic that he was doing this private work for. And that encouraged him into a decision to step away from that setup and try and build something of his own. And that was a huge turning point for him because instead of continuing with one-off sessions where he only kept a percentage of the client's fee, he started to build something of his own.

actually turning the audience that he'd grown himself into a business and keeping every penny that he earned. But like a lot of dieticians starting out in private practice, getting clients was a struggle at first. He didn't feel particularly business savvy. He didn't know how to do marketing, what to focus on day to day, or how to turn the content that he was sharing on Instagram into actual inquiries.

He found himself doing a little bit of everything, posting when he could, sharing tips and advice, trying different things, but without a real clear strategy behind it. So when we started working together, we focused on his marketing foundations. Now, one of the first milestones in that process was creating structured offers. In fact, we ended up creating two once we realized something really important about his audience.

We realised that there was actually two clear distinct groups within his audience, people who were newly diagnosed and people who'd been living with ongoing symptoms for quite a while. And this is something worth paying attention to because I guarantee if you look at your own audience, there's probably different subtypes of people in there too. So we identified which one of those two groups was the most profitable of the two.

And from there, we built out a structured offer around his signature approach. We delivered it as a package of appointments over a set amount of time with a really clear outcome and transformational experience for the client. We also made it feel more contained and premium with limited availability, which was true, and a price point that properly reflected the value of the important work that he was doing.

And then we brought everything together through his marketing. Now a big learning point for him was not just posting educational content on Insta and instead to guide his people through a journey from being problem aware to solution aware and then towards his specific solution. We also introduced a discovery call as the next step conversion mechanism.

And I coached them on how to structure those conversations, hitting all the bias psychology milestones so that they naturally led to clients saying yes. And then I taught them a simple follow-up process for those who needed a bit more time to consider their options and didn't say yes straight away. And the result of all of this? Well, clients coming through the door, finally.

He also started to sign clients at around five times the value of what he was previously earning through the clinic. How amazing is that? And I think what this really comes down to is actually getting the boring stuff right. The things that most people don't really want to spend their time on, like knowing exactly who your ideal client is specifically and emotionally and how your offer is structured.

and how you're guiding people from content to a call and also how you're following up. It's not always the exciting part of business, but those are your foundations. And even if you've been in business for a while, often those foundations need a refresh because people change. And when they do, you can really tighten things up. When your fundamentals are strong, your ideal client, your offers, your content, your sales process,

Getting clients becomes a lot more consistent and a lot less stressful.

And finally, before we move on to the next client, I just want to share a big win that this dietitian has had recently. So he went from having a really unexpectedly quiet month in the business, feeling quite unsure of what to do to get clients to recently signing five new clients in the space of a month and actually becoming fully booked in his practice. And that didn't come from doing anything wildly complicated. It came from

Us sitting down together and identifying where the low-hanging fruit was in his business. So first I showed him how to follow up properly with people who'd already shown interest. And with my simple follow-up process, he was able to get those new clients there and then. Another thing he did was implement more strategy when it came to email marketing. So when you start using email properly, like my client did,

It honestly will become one of the most powerful tools that you have for building your business, for staying top of mind in people's minds, and of course, for getting clients. So some of you might not have email marketing systems set up yet, and that might feel a bit hesitant around the tech side of things. And you know what? That was exactly the same for my client. He didn't feel techie at all.

But he did realize that he needed to learn those things if he wanted clients and a successful business. And I think that is probably the biggest lesson here. You need to be willing to learn things that don't come naturally to us as clinicians. Because you know what? You can be an amazing clinician, but that alone isn't enough to consistently get clients when you run your own practice. You need to learn the business skills if you want people to know that you exist and to trust you.

and then to want to work with you.

Okay, the second amazing client I'm going to be celebrating with you is a lady called Bahi. Bahi, you may already know her. She's a paediatric dietician with over 20 years of clinical experience, including a background at Great Ormond Street. And she now specializes in pediatric gut health here in the UK. She's also recently stepped down as the chair of the BDA pediatric group. So you might know her face and name from there.

And there are so many things that I could share from Bahi's journey. We've been working together for a couple of years now, but I want to focus on just one key shift that's made such a massive difference in her business growth. And that's the importance of having a precision point niche. So from pediatric dietetics, she has niched down even further into children's gut health and more specifically pediatric IBS.

Something she would tell you herself felt massively daunting at the time, but also deeply aligned with her passions.

first she was worried that this new niche that she picked wasn't going to be popular enough, that it was too niche with not enough clients and was worried that this was not going to bring in enough money to cover her living costs. And let me tell you, she held on to profitable offers like her picky eating course and her allergy services as a bit of a safety net for, well...

absolutely ages. But when she finally took the leap and started owning that children's IBS space and positioning herself as the true expert specialist within it, it came with so many incredible benefits. It helped her become more recognized for her expertise in a much more visible way. She's been involved in writing IBS guidelines.

sitting on editorial boards and contributing to academic work in the children's health space. she's been approached by probiotic brands and even did a stint on TV. How incredible is that? Now what's been really interesting here is that none of these opportunities came from her trying to do more or to be everywhere at once.

They've simply come from her leaning into a more precision niche and really owning that space.

And as they say, the proof is in the pudding. Bahi has seen amazing success with her 12-week gut health program for children, the Happy Belly Club. Over the last 12 months, we've raised her prices three times. And in January this year, at a time when families are meant to be skint after Christmas, she celebrated her strongest month in the business to date, bringing in a five-figure month.

And what's really interesting is that when she has really well matched inquiries, patients who are actively looking for a pediatric gut health specialist, her discovery core conversion rate is exceptionally high, which of course is fantastic. Now this just goes to show when you have a specialized niche and your messaging specifically speaks to those people,

Those people who book a discovery call are already pre-sold to a large extent. They already see you as the right fit and the call simply becomes a conversation about how you can help. And that's exactly what we're seeing here. Now, when I talk about niching down, people often ask me, but isn't it harder when you niche down? Now, the truth is most of the time it's actually so much easier.

So a huge well done to Bahi and a reminder to anyone listening who's thinking about their niche, lean into a niche with a precision where you can and stay committed to it even if it feels easier to drift into something broader. Because when you're an expert, you stop trying to appeal to everyone and instead you just become the obvious choice for the right people.

And that might include your colleagues. Like Bahi, her colleagues are now referring clients onto her because she is the expert.

And the third and final client that I'm going to be celebrating has also asked to stay anonymous. If any of you feel like your business is a little bit disjointed right now, you're definitely going to relate to her story. So when this dietitian came to me, she knew her niche incredibly well, but she wasn't really clear enough on her ideal client within that niche. She wasn't actively promoting her services. And worst of all, she'd previously invested a lot of money into business coaching already.

from someone who knew her niche exceptionally well

that unfortunately

wasn't what she thought it would be.

but now eight months or so later after reworking her business up from the ground, she is so much more confident in what she's doing and she's finally started signing clients. So there's a lot you can learn from her story as well. One of the biggest lessons I think you'll learn from her story is to be intentional about what you invest in. There is so much help available out there, which is amazing.

but it also means it's really easy to invest in things that aren't actually right for the stage you're at, or they don't give you the level of implementation support that you actually need, which is exactly what happened to this lovely client before she found me.

she spent thousands of pounds on business coaching that didn't get her the kind of results that she'd hoped for. She absolutely was being told what to do.

but not how to actually do it or apply it in a practical way inside her own business. And the groups that her coach ran were so large, there wasn't enough time to get questions answered or detailed feedback on the work that she'd done. So the key message here is always do your research before you invest in anything. Always make sure you know exactly what you're signing up for, so what's included and what's not.

Now, one of the first things we worked on together was her ideal client work. So like I say, she already knew her niche, but she just needed to know more about her ideal client. And I really want to celebrate her for this because this is something she fully leaned into despite having already done this once, but she was so eager to learn how to improve. Even though this is not always the easiest or actually the most exciting part of building a business.

And this is something so many people don't realize they actually need to do. There's often this assumption that you just pick an area of interest and you're good to go. So you start working with clients and naturally everything will just fall into place. But that isn't what happens. If you're not speaking to one very specific person and you don't actually deeply understand who that person is, what happens is your marketing tends to stay vanilla.

And that's usually where people end up feeling like their content just isn't landing or their website feels a little bit meh or their offers just aren't converting into clients. And that was exactly where this dietician was getting stuck at the start. She knew exactly who she wanted to support, but it was actually quite surface level. It wasn't backed up by proper market research or a deep understanding of

how those people were actually thinking and feeling and making decisions. But instead of brushing past that and getting onto more interesting things, she really took the time to do this work properly. And I have to say, I do teach this very differently to just about every other business course or coach I've ever come across. I encourage my clients to really get into the nitty gritty of their ideal clients' daily life.

to understand their hopes and their dreams, their small joys and their daily delights and how their problems make them feel on an emotional level. Because it's this detail, when you present it in your marketing, that makes your clients feel seen and heard and understood by you. So she went away and she did that market research to understand things like how her ideal client actually makes decisions.

what their buyer behavior looks like, what their biggest objections were, what they've tried before, their conversations, their limiting beliefs, their confessions running around their brains. And this is where things really started to shift for her because her content became clearer, it became more targeted and much more aligned with the people that she actually wanted to work with. And that's been such a big win because it's going to have a direct impact

on the number of clients who come through the door. Now, I think the biggest and most tangible win for this client is something I really want to celebrate. It's the fact that she's now proving to herself that this is possible because she came from a place where things felt actually quite hard and really quite stressful, where there was uncertainty around cashflow, zero clients in her business after a period of sickness, and a lot of pressure around trying to make things work.

without really having a structural strategy behind it. And now she's got clear offers in place. She understands her ideal clients so much more deeply and she's actually signing clients and hearing yeses on the 17 discovery calls that she got booked after a sales campaign recently. She's now seeing proof that this works.

So a huge, huge well done to these three amazing clients. And what's really important to remember is none of them started in the perfect place. They all had doubts about whether they were choosing the right niche and worries about finding clients and frustrations from putting time and energy and effort into their business and not seeing it pay off. But what they all had in common was that they didn't stay stuck there. They got support and they were willing to learn the important business skills

And they focused on building really, really strong foundations, even when it wasn't the most exciting thing to do. So if things feel a little bit uncertain or inconsistent for you right now, and if you're ready for a business that feels more secure with predictable clients coming in each month and offers that give you your time back, I want to share with you that my business support program is going to be reopening very soon actually.

And for this next round only, I'm offering a £1,000 cash bonus for one lucky person who joins from the wait list. So even if you're just a little bit interested in working with me this year, the best thing to do now is to apply. And if you're accepted for a good fit, I'll pop your name on the wait list. And that way you'll be the first to know when the doors open. And if you do decide you want my business support, you never know, you could be a winner.

I'll put the link.

to apply in the show notes of this episode.

So all that's left to say now is happy Dietitians Week. I'd love to hear your stories. Drop me a little note, drop me a message and tell me your successes in business. And who knows, maybe you can be a guest on my podcast and I can share your story too. Bye for now.