Carla Hernandez, Certified Nutritional Therapist. Wise Roots Nutrition offers individual nutrition consulting, online classes, and an abundance of resources and information to help you feel and look beautiful from the inside out!
Jeffrey Veffer: I have with me Carla Hernandez, a certified nutritional therapist from Wise Roots Nutrition. Carla, thank you for coming on the call with us.
Carla Hernandez: Thank you for having me, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey Veffer: Carla, I wondered if you could explain a little bit about your practice.
Carla Hernandez: Sure. So I have currently a private practice in San Francisco, where I see individual clients, locally and also worldwide via Skype and phone, and I specialize in skin conditions. So I see clients that are struggling with chronic skin issues, whether it be acne, eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, anything along those issues. I obviously, you know, address it from an internal perspective.
So usually those types of issues are more for a dermatologist or an esthetician, but a lot of it is coming from within as well, and there’s not a lot of information out there in the conventional setting that explains the connection between the skin and the internal perspective. So that’s where I come in, and I figure out what’s going on, so that we can relieve those symptoms.
Jeffrey Veffer: Great. That’s really interesting, the way that you’re able to make those connections between what you eat and your exterior. So what are some of the techniques you use to get new clients?
Carla Hernandez: So as far as getting new clients, I would say at first it was a lot of really focusing on my online presence, because I knew that eventually I didn’t want to have just physical clients. I really wanted to have more of an online-based business, just to give me the freedom and the flexibility. And so I focused a lot on social media, whether that be through Facebook, or Twitter, or Pinterest, now is really big, Instagram is really big, and just kind of getting your awareness and your networks out through just an online presence makes an enormous difference.
You really have to . . . Just like you would network in person, in your local town or city, you do the same thing online. You find people who are willing to help promote you and put you out there as a professional in your field and your expertise. And so that has been a really, probably one of my biggest marketing aspects to my business.
Then, in addition to that, just trying to consistently give out high quality information, again, whether it be through social media or a blog or being consistent with newsletters. I do both. I do it both locally in my hometown . . . or not hometown. Excuse me. Where I practice in San Francisco, but also online. So it can be a lot to juggle. That’s why delegation can be very helpful and getting someone who can help you build this. Yeah, that’s what I’ve found to be probably the best marketing.
Then really, after that, it’s just I’ve been getting a lot of referrals, a lot of word-of-mouth, a lot of people who just find me because their friends forward their blog to them, and they resonated with what I’m doing and what they’re trying to find. I get a lot of those. So now it’s, I would say, a lot of word-of-mouth.
Jeffrey Veffer: Great. You’re doing a lot of things, and it sounds like you’ve got a lot of techniques on the go. How do you efficiently manage your time?
Carla Hernandez: That’s a great question. A lot of discipline. I would say structuring it into just a calendar, honestly, like Google Calendar, iCal, scheduling and just your tasks that you need to get done for the day. Clients are obviously in there, but then I usually leave two days out of the week where it’s just admin work. It’s just marketing work. It’s just networking and just really trying to . . . It’s a balancing act, and it can take a while to figure out, and I’m still not perfect at it.
But just knowing the big things that are really going to get you noticed and get you seen, those are the things you have to be consistent at. For me, that has been networking and blogging and the social media.
Jeffrey Veffer: It sounds like you’ve had some really good effects with those techniques. But if you had to change one thing about your practice, what would that be?
Carla Hernandez: I would say honestly just to get more help because, like you said, it is a lot to do for one person. You’re not just the practitioner, which is, I think, why a lot of people get started obviously in this field, you know? We’re passionate about what we do, and we want to help others. But then, when you’re running a business, you get tangled up in what a business consists of, whether that be the admin work, the finances, the accounting. So then, you become all these different professions, which is not your expertise. You have to teach yourself, and it’s a lot of time, and it’s not really where you’re most efficient at.
So I would definitely say delegating work and hiring those people. In the long run, I know that most people don’t want to because of the money. But I did that for years, and when I finally switched over, that’s where I actually saw an increase in my income because I could focus more on growing my business instead of working on the business.
Jeffrey Veffer: Well, that’s fantastic advice, and it echoes a lot of what I’ve heard from other practitioners who were able to really grow their practice. Okay, Carla. Thanks so much for talking about your practice. We really appreciate it.
Carla Hernandez: Thanks so much for having me.
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