I have been aware of Stephanie’s entrepreneurial ventures for years, and you’ll see how her different experiences have led her to her current businesses. She has done a variety of things since becoming a dietitian and now works to help other dietitians create successful online programs, a trend we’ve been seeing of dietitians sharing knowledge with other dietitians to continue to promote the profession.

Why did you become a RD?

In high school I thought I wanted to be a naturopath, help people be well with natural ways. So I took Nutrition as my undergrad. Once in nutrition I knew I didn’t want to be a ND, and loved the idea of helping people improve health with real food. I later worked with kids and teen moms teaching nutrition through cooking and loved every second of it. I became passionate about real food healing and even pursued culinary training post grad.

What area of dietetics do you work in?

Business & Education

How would you explain what you do?

I help health professionals create an online program for their practice. I run live online workshops, and other events to lead my clients through a process to lean into their current experience in practice to make a bigger impact, reach more people and educate clients better using online health education.

I also run an online program for my own practice, Clairity, which helps people find relieve from IBS and identify their own triggers. I’ve been running this program since 2015 online and have enrolled over 2000 clients.

What are your ‘typical’ daily/weekly tasks?

My week can change, but mostly I spend time meeting with my team members, running group calls for my clients in The Leveraged Practice Workshop or my other programs, providing individual coaching support, planning and recording my podcast, evaluating sales and marketing efforts and creating content.

What has been your career path?

I always loved program planning. My first job as a dietitian was developing, implementing and evaluating a kids cooking program to improve their nutritional status and reduce obesity in a small town north of Toronto. This program ended up winning a national award! It was a thrill in my first year being an RD. I then working in a Family Health Centre and quickly knew I needed to create my own job for myself that I loved. I enrolled in culinary school and launched my practice “Whole Food Therapy” where I supported clients in improving their health with real food, cooking demonstrations and recipe coaching. Within a year I specialized in digestive health, started my clinic and focused on helping people with IBS. It’s been 7 years in this area of dietetics.

Along the way I realized I was doing things in my practice other dietitians wanted to know. I launched the in person workshop, Demos for Dietitians, with my partner Adam Hudson. We toured Canada twice, taught workshops at the National conference and did consulting for brands like Dairy Farmers of Canada and Pulses. This work leaned into me creating other in person and online workshops to teach dietitians about gut health and FODMAPs, business and creating online programs in health.

What advanced education or special training do you have?

I have a Masters from the University of Toronto which prepared me to be a master at program planning, implementation and evaluation. Along with a culinary certificate from Liaison College. I developed a lot of my expertise through real practice.

In an ideal world, what does the industry look like 5 years from now?

Oh Wow. Great question. I think it really depends on your angle and perspective and the work you are in to answer this question. For me, I look at health education as a whole. I believe there is great opportunity in using technology to offer better care, more access, affordability, and convenience which will allow us to be effective with resources and make a bigger impact on the health of the country and the world. In 5 years, I see more hospitals, clinics, and practices using online platforms to educate with online health programs.

What misinformation about RDs would you like to clear up? What would you like people to know about RDs?

RDs make an impact in all areas of health and wellness, from the incredible work on in-patient hospital care, to public policy development on a national level, to improving education methods. RDs are also incredibly brilliant and compassionate individuals. So many dietitians have this incredible skill of connecting and loving other humans, honestly. A real beautiful skill to offer compassion, care and support in the most difficult situations. So much of what we do is not actually about food, but about hearing someone, sometimes for the first time, and what they are really going through. Being someone who hears them, understands them and believes they can overcome this. RDs are incredible.

What are challenges you encounter as a RD?

Well. At this point in time, I think we are actually harming the public with the restrictions and restraints put on registered dietitians. Governance by individual colleges restrict dietitians from taking clients from out of province or state, depending on where you live. While there are incredible dietitians who are experts and specialists in a certain area, there are people suffering in various places that need this help. We need more RDs to get really really good at something, at some part of health and nutrition. When you focus your attention on one thing, you get so good at it and can make a bigger impact on your clients. So as dietitians are doing this, becoming specialists, we need our colleges and associations to catch up. To help us to help more people across borders, no matter where they live or what their zip code.

What tip(s) would you give to our readers?

Make space to connect to yourself. Listen to your own dreams, your own ideas about how you can impact your clients and make a bigger difference in the world of health. And then go out there and make those dreams and ideas real. We need you to.

More about Stephanie:

Website: TheLeveragedPractice.com

iTunes: The Leveraged Practice Podcast

Instagram: @theleveragedpractice

Thanks Stephanie!