Shownotes
In this episode of 'Thriving Holistic Practitioner,' we welcome Ashley Holmes, a holistic fertility coach from British Columbia, Canada. Ashley shares her personal journey from being a hot yoga teacher to becoming a fertility coach, spurred by her own struggles with unexplained infertility. She discusses her transition to an online business model during the pandemic, the importance of Ayurveda, and how she intuitively navigated expanding her services. Ashley emphasizes the significance of inner guidance, collaboration with other heart-centered entrepreneurs, and finding your tribe for support. Tune in to learn about her holistic approach to fertility, daily practices for maintaining clarity, and exciting future plans.
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:24 Ashley Holmes' Journey into Holistic Fertility Coaching
02:52 The Role of Yoga and Ayurveda in Fertility
05:38 Transitioning to an Online Business Model
08:11 Marketing and Building a Community
11:31 Daily Practices and Personal Insights
13:53 The Importance of Collaboration
22:22 Future Plans and Staying True to Your Mission
29:59 Final Thoughts and How to Connect
Ashley Holmes Bio- Ashley supports women struggling with infertility to conceive with ease by creating a fertile foundation within. She is passionate about bringing mind, body, and spirit into balance and alignment in order to nourish yourself optimally for conception to occur. Her aim is for no one to feel alone on their fertility journey.
Connect with Ashley:
https://www.instagram.com/ashley_holmes3202/
https://www.facebook.com/ashley.holmes.3979
https://www.facebook.com/groups/271957647919481/?ref=share_group_link
https://vibly.io/expert/ashleyjholmes
Meet Lindsay Sutherland, a passionate business consultant with a deep love for holistic modalities. Though her career path diverged from holistic practice, her innate talents and extensive experience have uniquely positioned her to guide others in the field. Lindsay's journey is fueled by a profound desire to combine her expertise in business and marketing with her fascination for holistic modalities. As a consultant, she empowers holistic practitioners to thrive by merging strategic business acumen with holistic principles.
Transcripts
Howdy, welcome back to the Thriving Holistic Practitioner podcast.
Speaker:Can I just start by telling you how excited I am?
Speaker:I'm thrilled.
Speaker:I'm just tickled.
Speaker:We just wrapped up a three day workshop called Organize Your
Speaker:Practice and it was so much fun.
Speaker:My goodness, my business partner Emily Tornatore and I hosted this three day
Speaker:workshop to help Practitioners get a grip, I guess you could say, get a
Speaker:grip on their business, organizing it.
Speaker:And you know, it was funny because after we were done, one of the,
Speaker:one of the participants said, she goes, you know what, this is one of
Speaker:those things that I put off all the time because it feels so daunting.
Speaker:I never want to just dig in and do it.
Speaker:But once we got started, I realized it just wasn't that big of a deal.
Speaker:And I'm so glad I did it.
Speaker:And I was telling Emily, I said, you know what, to me, it's It's
Speaker:like, it's like in the movie, The Incredibles, when, when Mrs.
Speaker:Incredible or Mrs.
Speaker:Parr calls Bob and says, Bob, it's official.
Speaker:We've moved in.
Speaker:And she's like, I've unpacked the last box.
Speaker:You know, it's like, how, how many of us have moved?
Speaker:And then we just have that one pesky box that we never want to get to.
Speaker:So we just leave it there and leave it there until we finally
Speaker:maybe get around to unpacking it.
Speaker:That's what it's like when it comes to organizing a business.
Speaker:It's like that last box that you just don't want to unpack
Speaker:but when you do, it brings so much freedom into your business and into your life.
Speaker:And it's just so powerful.
Speaker:It's truly amazing.
Speaker:Incredible.
Speaker:Har har har.
Speaker:Pun intended.
Speaker:That wasn't really a pun, but you get it.
Speaker:That was a joke.
Speaker:I know my jokes are corny.
Speaker:You'll have to, you'll get used to me.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Anyway, I'm excited to tell you about our guest today,
Speaker:Aimee
Speaker:Gallo.
Speaker:Aimee and I hit it off.
Speaker:She's originally from Alaska.
Speaker:And her father was an immigrant, but she just learned so much from
Speaker:him that carried into her journey as a holistic practitioner.
Speaker:Later, she and her husband moved to Oregon, which is kind of in my neck of
Speaker:the woods because I'm here in North Idaho.
Speaker:So we had a lot.
Speaker:I just felt like kindred spirits.
Speaker:Spirits.
Speaker:But what's really amazing about Aimee's story is that she and her husband picked
Speaker:up and moved all the way to Spain.
Speaker:I know, right?
Speaker:Huge shift.
Speaker:And she was able to take her business with her.
Speaker:So we dive into what that process was like.
Speaker:What is it been like to establish a practice in a foreign country?
Speaker:And what does that whole transition look like for her son too?
Speaker:We, we touched on that.
Speaker:So dig in.
Speaker:I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker:And by the way, if you want to catch the replay to the three day workshop, that
Speaker:is available to you for the next week.
Speaker:So dig in.
Speaker:There's a Facebook group that we did it in and that's below.
Speaker:If you get a chance to get in there and watch the replay, I
Speaker:really encourage you to do that.
Speaker:Otherwise you can catch us on the next round.
Speaker:We'll be doing it again in about a month and a half.
Speaker:Okay guys, thanks for tuning in.
Speaker:Let's get started.
Speaker:Hey, everybody.
Speaker:I'm your host, Lindsay Sutherland.
Speaker:I'm excited to have you here with us today.
Speaker:Also joining us is Aimee Gallo, who is a double degree
Speaker:nutritionist and health coach.
Speaker:She has been helping people claim and recover their health and
Speaker:vitality for more than 20 years.
Speaker:Originally from Washington, she's now living in Spain and she's here
Speaker:to talk about that journey as well.
Speaker:Um, and the name of her company is Vibrance Nutrition and Fitness.
Speaker:So Aimee, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker:I'm excited for this conversation.
Speaker:I am too.
Speaker:I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker:Yay.
Speaker:So let's start, just tell us a little bit about your journey, how you
Speaker:embarked upon the holistic path and, uh, just some of those foundational
Speaker:Things that you might've gone through.
Speaker:How did I end up here?
Speaker:I, um, when I was 12 years old and I grew up in Alaska, I spent my
Speaker:childhood in Alaska and then came down to Washington state for college.
Speaker:And as a young child in Alaska, I was in a bookstore one day and stumbled upon a
Speaker:book called 101 ways to save the animals.
Speaker:I was about 12 years old at the time, and I thought it was going to be about dolphin
Speaker:safe tuna and saving the rainforest.
Speaker:And it was written by the founder of People for the
Speaker:Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Speaker:So it was about, um, fur farms and animal testing, and how food is raised
Speaker:in the United States, specifically meat.
Speaker:And I had, I come from a family of animal lovers and I was completely
Speaker:aghast at this revelation of the, uh, uh, commercial feedlot operating
Speaker:systems that we have in the States.
Speaker:And so I decided to go vegetarian shortly thereafter.
Speaker:And there were some family members who were concerned about particularly
Speaker:my iron levels and protein intake.
Speaker:And in my adolescent mind, it was like, well, the entire.
Speaker:country of India is vegetarian, so it's got to be fine, but
Speaker:I needed to prove my case.
Speaker:So I set out to the library and started reading, and that's when I discovered
Speaker:the profound impact that nutrition has on our quality of life and our longevity.
Speaker:And it is a rabbit hole from which I never emerged, unlike
Speaker:Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
Speaker:I stayed in Wonderland, and I have been enamored with the field ever
Speaker:since, and have been really fortunate to have been able to build my career
Speaker:doing something that I feel still so strongly and passionately about.
Speaker:That is incredible.
Speaker:I think you're probably the first.
Speaker:Now, my dude, I think you're Only like the seventh or eighth person I've
Speaker:talked to on the podcast, but the first and in my even external life beyond
Speaker:podcasting, who's started out so young with like knew their mission so early
Speaker:on in life and then evolved from there.
Speaker:That is so cool.
Speaker:Oddly, my husband is the only other person I know.
Speaker:That is so neat.
Speaker:And that I'm curious, what is his, is he also into food and nutrition or is he not?
Speaker:No, I know.
Speaker:I mean, he's a foodie.
Speaker:He loves eating food.
Speaker:Um, and he loves eating good food.
Speaker:So we work really well in that regard, but he, he received one of the very first,
Speaker:um, Apple computers in the eighties and learned how to program as a young child.
Speaker:And was creating his own programming languages in high school.
Speaker:And so he's been a programmer, a web programmer and developer
Speaker:since the very beginning.
Speaker:No kidding.
Speaker:That's, that's powerful.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:What a cool story.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:So, okay, so you got into this bunny trail.
Speaker:This was a, this was a personal interest.
Speaker:You were doing this for yourself.
Speaker:When did it, when did you decide that this was going to evolve into a career path?
Speaker:Obviously, I'm sure when you got a little older and started wondering
Speaker:about how to make money in the world.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, I, um, I knew by about age 14 or 15 that this is what I wanted to do.
Speaker:And when I was in high school, I volunteered at the hospital with the
Speaker:registered dietitians and I emerged from that experience saying nutrition,
Speaker:yes, hospitals, no, absolutely not.
Speaker:So I knew that, um, preventative care was always going to be.
Speaker:Where I would be and that I didn't want to go through the hospital system.
Speaker:So I never actually ended up becoming a registered dietitian.
Speaker:I obtained my nutrition degree in 2000, my first degree in 2004, and then
Speaker:started what I called nutrition coaching.
Speaker:Because at that point in time, the word health coach didn't actually exist yet.
Speaker:So I became a nutrition coach and I was giving people general
Speaker:guidance on healthy eating.
Speaker:I started off working for the clients of my running coach and so immediately
Speaker:began in in the field of weight loss as well as endurance sports nutrition.
Speaker:And because they don't teach you anything about running a business in college,
Speaker:I fell flat on my face pretty rapidly.
Speaker:I had no idea how to run a business.
Speaker:I didn't feel comfortable marketing myself because I wasn't a registered dietitian.
Speaker:And we were told in college, that's the only thing that's going to be respected.
Speaker:Nobody will listen to you unless you're an RD.
Speaker:The truth is none of my clients ever asked for my degree or my qualifications.
Speaker:They just wanted to feel better.
Speaker:But it was really ingrained in my mind.
Speaker:So about two years after I finished college, I went to the Institute
Speaker:for Integrative Nutrition to get my health coaching degree or my health
Speaker:coaching certification, excuse me.
Speaker:And that I was motivated to go there because they had a.
Speaker:They had, part of their program was how to teach you to get
Speaker:a practice up and running.
Speaker:So you would learn from a variety of, of teachers, visiting teachers, many of whom
Speaker:were my childhood heroes, like Walter Willett and Dean Ornish and, um, Sully,
Speaker:Sully Fallon and, and, So I was drawn by actually meeting these people in person.
Speaker:It was like amazing.
Speaker:And then they were going to actually teach me how to market myself, how to
Speaker:get clients, how to make this work.
Speaker:And that was a game changer for me.
Speaker:That really gave me the confidence to be able to go out and help people.
Speaker:I didn't need to have industry approval to make a difference.
Speaker:Um, and that was, that was key for me.
Speaker:Okay, for those of you listening, I want you to write this down.
Speaker:I'm doing it with you.
Speaker:I don't need industry approval to make a difference.
Speaker:I think that is such a key thing, and not even just in the holistic space,
Speaker:because I've been doing this a long time in the internet and online space.
Speaker:Um, And I think the same thing stands to reason there.
Speaker:Oh, well, I'm not certified in SEO or I'm not certified in creation, yada, yada.
Speaker:And so we think we need to go get all these certifications and
Speaker:trainings and so on to set our worth.
Speaker:But if you can legitimately make a difference with what, you
Speaker:know, you have a starting point and that's the key thing there.
Speaker:Another thing that you mentioned too, that I want to highlight.
Speaker:You probably don't really realize what that is as a joint venture.
Speaker:And I think that's a really great way for beginning practitioners to start.
Speaker:You said that you were, um, doing nutrition coaching for a fitness
Speaker:coach or somebody in that genre.
Speaker:That's a great way to start leveraging.
Speaker:It's called leveraging other people's audiences.
Speaker:And it, you know, of course that was probably before podcasts were super
Speaker:popular, if they were even a thing yet.
Speaker:Um, I think YouTube was just getting started in the early 2000s.
Speaker:So, it wouldn't have made sense to leverage other people's
Speaker:audiences in ways we can today.
Speaker:And it's now becoming an overlooked, uh, business strategy because we're all so
Speaker:focused on social media and podcasting and, and YouTube guesting and all these
Speaker:things that we're forgetting something as simple as building strategic partnerships
Speaker:and creating a win win relationship.
Speaker:So I think that's a really key thing to highlight.
Speaker:I, I agree.
Speaker:And I've been, I've been largely.
Speaker:Reluctant isn't the quite, quite the word, antagonistically resentful of being
Speaker:told that in order to build a following, I need to be online, I need to be buying
Speaker:ads, I need to be doing this, that, and the other, that doesn't, it doesn't
Speaker:fit my personality, I don't like it.
Speaker:Marketing in that sense.
Speaker:It doesn't feel authentic to me.
Speaker:I don't like receiving ads.
Speaker:Why would I want to be contributing to that?
Speaker:And so for me personally, anyway, it doesn't feel good to do that.
Speaker:And every time I've tried, because I've been told this is what you're
Speaker:supposed to do, I just ended up angry and resentful, the.
Speaker:We, we really in this very modern digital age have forgotten the power
Speaker:of that personal connection in real time in life, human to human, because
Speaker:everything is so focused online.
Speaker:We're online learning, looking, reading, trying to get this information.
Speaker:And all of the people who are online are telling us to stay there.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Our community is filled with amazing people who know people that could
Speaker:completely fill your practice if you make really good authentic connections
Speaker:and you two have an aligned mission.
Speaker:100%.
Speaker:That sums up Joint Ventures perfectly.
Speaker:I couldn't have said it better.
Speaker:It was great.
Speaker:And the scary thing is I think we're just going into the mindset of that.
Speaker:A lot of times people think, Oh, well, they won't talk to me or I don't
Speaker:know how to start that conversation.
Speaker:And I always encourage people to just think if you were to bump into this
Speaker:person, say in a networking event, or, you know, a, um, and it could be not
Speaker:even a networking event, it could just be a wellness event and you just become.
Speaker:What friends, you build a friendship.
Speaker:I think like if we just take the emphasis on the what's in it for me or them
Speaker:and trying to get something like that result, and we just focus on building the
Speaker:relationship, it's an organic process that really is beautiful and it can evolve.
Speaker:With right before our eyes, you know, it's really fun and it's almost magical.
Speaker:It's like actually the fun part of business.
Speaker:I think it's definitely not.
Speaker:So it's saying it takes time.
Speaker:It takes time, just as we don't really like it if we're going on a date and
Speaker:on the second date, the person is like, when do you want to move in together?
Speaker:Neither do we appreciate being on the receiving end of, of someone who is,
Speaker:you know, Who appears to be pursuing the friendship for personal gain, right?
Speaker:So you meet someone, there's a spark, there's a potential there, feel it
Speaker:out, get to know each other, have fun.
Speaker:If it isn't a business setting, like a networking setting, then of
Speaker:course it makes sense to bring it up.
Speaker:Just like a serious dating site that advertises finding a marriage partner
Speaker:is a situation where you would bring up that serious subject quickly.
Speaker:But otherwise, don't be surprised if it takes a year,
Speaker:a year and a half, two years.
Speaker:I've been in the game long enough that I have seen inklings of things
Speaker:be rooted, but not actually sprout and bear fruit for three, four,
Speaker:even five years down the road.
Speaker:And, and that's okay.
Speaker:And oftentimes when they do bear fruit, it's really juicy.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well, let's dive into that a little more.
Speaker:So you, so you decided to start your practice and then you
Speaker:got your second certificate.
Speaker:Was it a certification or a degree?
Speaker:That second one that was a certification in health coaching.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:And then they talked a little bit about business.
Speaker:How did that, how did, what, what was like one big takeaway that
Speaker:kind of got you launched into the next phase of your business?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think the thing that really helped me out was, I think it really was
Speaker:majority, the majority of it was the mindset of basically get over yourself.
Speaker:People need your help.
Speaker:Get to it and forget about not being an RD.
Speaker:That doesn't matter.
Speaker:People won't ask you.
Speaker:They don't care.
Speaker:They just want to feel better.
Speaker:And fortunately, I was in a place where I could.
Speaker:Internalize that and receive it and then boom go out.
Speaker:Additionally, they taught us to leverage using, um, free talks
Speaker:and workshops and then paid talks and workshops to gather clients.
Speaker:This was, you know, very much at the early, early stages of social media.
Speaker:And so most things were still being done in person in real time.
Speaker:Obviously, Talks and Workshops transition very easily to the internet, especially
Speaker:now that we're post pandemic and all very, very accustomed to being on Zoom, and
Speaker:that is still an excellent way to broaden your audience to make collaborative
Speaker:connections, um, and, That has kind of been a seed that has stayed with
Speaker:me throughout Wherever I've been when there is someone or there's an alignment
Speaker:there and we have some overlap How can we create a win win situation together?
Speaker:Mm hmm.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Okay, so when did you feel like your practice started to Get legs.
Speaker:So to speak, you know, it really was taking off.
Speaker:And, um, were there any new challenges that kind of crept up for you at that?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Life has not been short of challenges for me.
Speaker:So things really started taking off, I would say around 2006, 2007,
Speaker:it's going really, really well.
Speaker:And then in, um, late 2007, I experienced a soul crushing breakup
Speaker:that really shook me and, um, definitely impacted my ability to work.
Speaker:I was, I was absolutely devastated.
Speaker:And I.
Speaker:Ended up, um, leaving Seattle for a while and moving to San Diego to do some
Speaker:personal work, um, with a friend that I'd actually met at the health coaching
Speaker:certification program that I had done.
Speaker:And shortly after I moved to San Diego, the economy completely crashed.
Speaker:That were, that the 2008 recession happened.
Speaker:So I was in a new city.
Speaker:I didn't know anybody.
Speaker:The economy was utter crap.
Speaker:Seattle fared fairly well, but California was definitely hit.
Speaker:Uh, the San Diego area was at that point.
Speaker:I transitioned to virtual coaching because I did have clients in Seattle still.
Speaker:And so I started doing phone coaching and I was able to maintain some
Speaker:small, a small client load after I had moved and I joined meetups.
Speaker:I joined running meetups.
Speaker:And to establish myself in the community just to meet people right and that
Speaker:ended up allowing me to be established as a sports nutritionist in San
Speaker:Diego to work with some people there.
Speaker:Later I met a naturopathic doctor, rented some office space for
Speaker:her, from her, and then that.
Speaker:That also allowed me to expand a little bit more, and I just essentially, that
Speaker:was, that was the first time I rebuilt.
Speaker:The first time, I love that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, the first time I rebuilt, um, it's not a linear journey,
Speaker:folks, but each, each challenge, each setback, each surprise.
Speaker:When you come through it, you are more resilient, more
Speaker:robust, and also more humbled.
Speaker:And I think that ultimately allows you to stay in the game
Speaker:when everyone around you quits.
Speaker:I really think success in business ultimately is being about the most
Speaker:stubborn, determined person in the group.
Speaker:That's very powerful too.
Speaker:You know, you got me thinking today.
Speaker:It's, it's this kind of, you never notice how like certain themes come up.
Speaker:Today's theme is flight or fight.
Speaker:And somebody I was just interviewing was talking about that.
Speaker:She doesn't probably even know this came up for me.
Speaker:And my brain went off on this bunny trail from our conversation, but she
Speaker:parasympathetic nervous system and, and, and just kind of how she was healing
Speaker:that and her practice and journey and, you know, that kind of story.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And she made that comment about her fight or flight and how overactive
Speaker:nervous systems can affect our our mindset and our future and so on.
Speaker:And it got me thinking, I'm like, huh, I never really thought about that.
Speaker:But if I look at even my own mindset, some of my biggest struggles come from having
Speaker:a more tendency to flight than fight.
Speaker:And what that does is it makes us want to just quit.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:Whereas that fight symptom or I don't know if it's not a symptom,
Speaker:but a strategy, I guess, that our body's designed to do would then put
Speaker:us where we would just put all in.
Speaker:We would just focus even heavier.
Speaker:There's just this difference in the way of thinking goes about it.
Speaker:If it's not easy, I'm not going to keep trying.
Speaker:And I think that's a really good thing.
Speaker:I haven't even fully digested that concept, but it's just coming up.
Speaker:And then what you said makes sense.
Speaker:It's like the one who stays in the longest is most likely to come out ahead.
Speaker:How do you think, I mean, it sounds to me like maybe, and maybe running was part
Speaker:of this for you or your fitness mentality that pushed through to the end, even
Speaker:when it's tough, maybe that kind of set that stage for you, or do you think maybe
Speaker:there was something else that helped you?
Speaker:Keep your dog in the fight.
Speaker:So to speak, there are a couple of things that come to mind.
Speaker:I think definitely being an endurance runner has played a part.
Speaker:I couldn't deny that.
Speaker:Um, more deeply though, I would say that I think the root of it
Speaker:ultimately comes from my family.
Speaker:So my father is an immigrant.
Speaker:He moved to the United States from Mexico when he was about 15, didn't
Speaker:speak any English, didn't know anything, started off cleaning toilets, you know,
Speaker:bussing tables, things of that nature.
Speaker:And he moved up, he just looked for opportunities and took, took advantage
Speaker:of them when they came his way.
Speaker:And so he began buying cars and fixing them and then
Speaker:selling them for extra money.
Speaker:He, um, once lied about his work position.
Speaker:He was a, He was a prep cook in a restaurant and there was somebody
Speaker:scouting recruits to take them up to Alaska because Alaska needed workers
Speaker:and they were looking for line cooks.
Speaker:And my dad was like, Oh yeah, yeah, I'm a line cook.
Speaker:I could do that.
Speaker:And so then he ends up in Alaska.
Speaker:And, um, from there, he, he worked in the restaurant business for a long time and
Speaker:then ended up buying his own restaurant.
Speaker:So now he has.
Speaker:12.
Speaker:I lost count a while ago.
Speaker:He's a very successful businessman and his tenacity, his drive, his
Speaker:willingness not to take no for an answer.
Speaker:His, um, extreme workaholism also has modeled what I don't want to do, but he,
Speaker:I had an example in my living room of what could happen if you put your mind to it.
Speaker:And knowing where he came from, you know, in a small, small ranch town in the
Speaker:middle of Mexico, in a stone house with dirt floors, and who he's become and what
Speaker:he's accomplished, I have no excuses, right, like there's no, just because
Speaker:it's, I can't expect life to be easy.
Speaker:I don't think that's a recipe for disaster because even in the most privileged
Speaker:country in the world, life isn't easy.
Speaker:So I think that has been a significant part and just stay with it.
Speaker:Stay with it.
Speaker:Stay with it.
Speaker:If you get knocked down, you get back up because that's just what you do.
Speaker:Um, however, that said, I love this field so much.
Speaker:I don't know what I would do if I wasn't doing this.
Speaker:And so in that sense, I almost have removed choice from the table.
Speaker:And so all I can do is keep doing what I'm doing.
Speaker:Whether I make 2, 000 a month or 15, 000 a month, I just need to do what
Speaker:I got to do because that is my life.
Speaker:That's why I'm here.
Speaker:Good stuff.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Let's get to the part about how you evolved again in your business and
Speaker:are able to now travel Europe and be, have this nomadic lifestyle, um,
Speaker:kind of, I guess, If you can, guide us through quickly, like your journey
Speaker:and where that led to and, and how you were able to make that transition.
Speaker:Um, I became a parent and becoming a parent really shifted things from me
Speaker:growing, uh, you know, six, seven figure business was no longer my top priority.
Speaker:It was really about making sure like this wonderful human that I
Speaker:brought into the world would do well.
Speaker:And And so with that, I wanted a backup plan and that's, that's why I went back to
Speaker:school for my master's degree was because in, in the state of Washington, if you
Speaker:have a master's degree in nutrition, the state will license you as a certified
Speaker:nutritionist, you can accept insurance.
Speaker:You can work in clinics, although you're definitely, you definitely have fewer
Speaker:options than a registered dietitian, but there are work opportunities there.
Speaker:And I wanted to make sure that.
Speaker:Um, I wanted to make sure that I had an option for employment so that my
Speaker:business didn't take me away from my child because as the child of business
Speaker:owners, I did have firsthand experience.
Speaker:of spending a lot of time alone because my parents were working very,
Speaker:very hard to keep the business afloat during the recession of the 80s.
Speaker:And there simply wasn't much time, right, to devote to things outside the business.
Speaker:So, um, 2020 rolls along and I implement that backup plan
Speaker:because things were very unstable.
Speaker:My child was at home.
Speaker:He was falling apart.
Speaker:I didn't know how long he was going to be home.
Speaker:Nobody knew what was going on.
Speaker:And a friend of mine that I went to grad school with.
Speaker:Was, um, needing, she was about to go on maternity leave and they needed to have
Speaker:someone and a second nutritionist in their clinic, in their medical clinic.
Speaker:And they were looking for people.
Speaker:And I was like, tell me more.
Speaker:And she was like, I didn't think you'd be interested.
Speaker:And I said, I could be bought for a price.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I did, I did work in a medical clinic and obesity medicine and metabolic
Speaker:health clinic for three years.
Speaker:It was fantastic.
Speaker:It exposed me to so much more than I can be exposed to when I'm in
Speaker:a cash based private practice.
Speaker:We accepted Medicaid, Medicare, and so we saw all kinds of people.
Speaker:People from all walks of life.
Speaker:It was a glorious experience.
Speaker:And I was with very supportive medical professionals who believed in what we did.
Speaker:And that is also not to be expected in the field of nutrition.
Speaker:So it was, it was beautiful.
Speaker:Um, however, I, I was really coming up against this.
Speaker:reality that how my child was being raised, how I was able to raise my child
Speaker:in one of the more expensive cities in the United States, which we had decided
Speaker:at some point was the last city in the States that we wanted to live in.
Speaker:If we were going to stay in the States.
Speaker:Suddenly became too untenable, too unrealistic.
Speaker:It was, you know, we choose to have a retirement fund or we choose
Speaker:quality education for our son.
Speaker:We bust our butts and he's still socially isolated and it
Speaker:wasn't what we wanted for him.
Speaker:It wasn't what we wanted for ourselves.
Speaker:Because I had been virtual to some, if you know, 50 to a hundred percent
Speaker:of my private practice since.
Speaker:What, 2008,
Speaker:no biggie, I, all I needed to do was leave my clinic position that I was working
Speaker:at part time and then I was, I was free.
Speaker:My husband being in tech, um, you know, their office shut down in March of 2020.
Speaker:It still hasn't opened up.
Speaker:He still works for that company, but from here in Spain.
Speaker:And so it became very clear that we want something else for our family, we
Speaker:want something else for our son, and we have, we are in a very fortunate
Speaker:position to be able to do it, and we need to do it soon, because he was, I
Speaker:think that the point that we decided to leave the states, he was turning eight.
Speaker:And I wanted him out before he turned 10, before he entered adolescence,
Speaker:before his friendship groups became, you know, from light into
Speaker:like very deep, deep friendships.
Speaker:So we were like, all right, let's figure out how to make this happen.
Speaker:Let's find a place to go and let's go.
Speaker:Because I'm half Mexican, um, my Latin roots are important to me.
Speaker:I was not able to be fluent in Spanish because my father was learning English.
Speaker:And so we only spoke English in the home and my mother's American.
Speaker:And I don't want my son to have the challenges and language connecting
Speaker:to family that I have had.
Speaker:For the whole of my life.
Speaker:So moving to a country that spoke Spanish was important.
Speaker:Mexico did not inspire a great deal of confidence in me in terms of how
Speaker:it's run, in terms of safety issues.
Speaker:As much as I deeply, deeply love that country, it's so
Speaker:culturally rich and beautiful.
Speaker:I have family down there.
Speaker:Um, It didn't, it felt like a lateral move at best, and I really wanted
Speaker:something better, and so Spain just sort of slowly emerged from the top.
Speaker:It was not on my list, it wasn't on my husband's list, we weren't ever thinking
Speaker:about Spain, but it just showed up.
Speaker:And so we decided, let's do it.
Speaker:And then we decided, well, before we do it, maybe we should go visit
Speaker:Spain and see if we actually like it.
Speaker:And did you?
Speaker:Did you?
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:I actually got the lawyer first.
Speaker:Decided we were going to move and then put the brakes on because it was, I
Speaker:was still, I was working at the clinic and maintaining a private practice and
Speaker:preparing to move to Spain in six months.
Speaker:And that's just not, that's not a thing.
Speaker:Don't.
Speaker:It's not a thing.
Speaker:It doesn't happen that way.
Speaker:So I hit the pause button and we decided to spend a month in Spain.
Speaker:I took a sabbatical from work to make sure that this was really the right choice.
Speaker:And so we came here, I immediately just felt like, oh gosh yes, this, this
Speaker:whole vibe works a lot better for us.
Speaker:We found an incredible school for my son, um, that was a third of
Speaker:the cost of what we were paying in Seattle, and offered him so much more.
Speaker:If we stay here, by the time he finishes high school, he'll know five languages.
Speaker:have opportunities to travel to other countries on student exchange programs.
Speaker:There's like tennis courts and swimming pools at this school.
Speaker:It's nuts.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And for so much less than what we were paying in the States.
Speaker:And then it was just, it was a non issue at that point.
Speaker:We took a tour to the school.
Speaker:It's like, well, I guess we're moving to that town.
Speaker:However, that town is, and.
Speaker:That was it and came home and started selling things.
Speaker:I, I left my position at the clinic, which was heartbreaking
Speaker:because I loved it there.
Speaker:And I love my patients so much, but, um, my son comes first and
Speaker:my, my family's health comes first.
Speaker:So we, uh, So I left and spent the final three, four months in the
Speaker:States, just devoted to getting rid of everything we own and, um,
Speaker:settling our affairs as best we could, and then finding a place to live.
Speaker:Once we got here and settling the whole visa process too,
Speaker:which is a, Crazy adventure.
Speaker:Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:And I love that you shared your journey on how to, how you figured out Spain
Speaker:was the way I was going to ask you that.
Speaker:Cause I think there's a lot of people who desire that laptop
Speaker:lifestyle and that freedom to travel.
Speaker:But then there's the whole.
Speaker:What is it really like actually taking that plunge?
Speaker:Like it sounds really romantic, but then what is it like to do it?
Speaker:So it's really neat.
Speaker:That's really neat that you did.
Speaker:How did, you know, since your son didn't know English, what was the school like?
Speaker:Did they, I mean, didn't know English, didn't know Spanish at the time.
Speaker:Did they have teachers that spoke English to help him make that
Speaker:transition into speaking Spanish full time or how did that work?
Speaker:Yeah, so we've been here for eight months.
Speaker:We're still very new, uh, to the country and, um, he's in a Montessori
Speaker:school here in Spain and he's always been in a Montessori school.
Speaker:And so it was important for me that wherever we ended up, that his
Speaker:school methodology stayed the same because it would be such a, it's
Speaker:such a significant disruption anyway.
Speaker:That if his school was the same and he was familiar with how that
Speaker:all went, it would be one less thing for him to have to adapt to.
Speaker:So we found this incredible Montessori school and at the school, they teach
Speaker:the students, um, English, Spanish, Catalan, German, and French, optional
Speaker:Mandarin in high school, if you want it.
Speaker:But the kids start practicing in Spanish and English and
Speaker:Catalan in the early grades.
Speaker:Kindergarten, first grade, so
Speaker:he, his teacher does speak English pretty fluently, and so he, you know, entering
Speaker:into the school, he's been allowed to read books in English, he gets some of
Speaker:the, some of the lessons are in Spanish or the lessons are in Catalan, he gets
Speaker:Spanish lessons, because we've requested an emphasis on Spanish versus Catalan,
Speaker:it's a choice you can make when you enroll your son in the school, and, um, Now,
Speaker:he told me today, he's like, my teacher says that when we get back from Semana
Speaker:Santa, which is our spring break that's happening this week, that she wants
Speaker:me to start reading books in Spanish.
Speaker:And I'm like, well, that's great.
Speaker:Like you're doing so well.
Speaker:You're ready to read books in Spanish.
Speaker:It's fantastic.
Speaker:Yeah, really?
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's beautiful.
Speaker:Yeah, so he's picking up the language and he's much more immersed
Speaker:in it than its father and I are.
Speaker:So he's picking it up rather quickly, which is wonderful.
Speaker:Um, and the school, it's not an international school.
Speaker:It is a local Spanish private school.
Speaker:However, about 10 percent of the student population.
Speaker:Do our foreigners.
Speaker:So he has friends who are from America or they're half American, half Spanish,
Speaker:um, and friends from Russia and, and also Spanish and Catalan friends as well.
Speaker:That's so cool.
Speaker:I just, I'm excited to see where the world goes.
Speaker:There's so much.
Speaker:There's so much more of a worldly vibe coming up.
Speaker:I think we're just unified humanity is unifying, you know, we're becoming
Speaker:a global species rather than such a.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, that's a whole nother story, but I love that because I see that
Speaker:as coming up in so many different places, man, wow, that is cool.
Speaker:So for your business, now that you're in Spain, you had your client base.
Speaker:How do you see yourself growing?
Speaker:And from here, I'm, I'm in the middle of the third resurrection.
Speaker:So I, I do have a client base that's still in Seattle, predominantly
Speaker:they're, they're all West.
Speaker:No, that's not true.
Speaker:That's not, they're not all West Coast, but most are West Coast.
Speaker:Um, and so I have my mornings that I can use for personal time for personal.
Speaker:Um, you know, recording my own podcast, blasphemous nutrition for working
Speaker:on client notes, things like that.
Speaker:And then my client hours start at about three, 4 p.
Speaker:m.
Speaker:and then go until seven, sometimes eight o'clock at night.
Speaker:So it's a different lifestyle.
Speaker:And again, I'm in this position right now where I haven't quite figured
Speaker:out how to navigate this, but.
Speaker:It's taking time away from my son because he doesn't get home until five 30.
Speaker:So I am fortunate enough at this point that he do not have a full client load.
Speaker:So I only see clients, you know, three days a week, and then two days a week,
Speaker:I'm able to be fully present for my kid.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:What I'm looking to do now over the next three to five years is
Speaker:to Get to know Europe, right?
Speaker:So one of the reasons I launched my own podcast in January was so that
Speaker:I could reach the english speaking world Outside the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker:So, I mean, the East coast is only six hours behind me.
Speaker:That's much more reasonable than the nine hours from the Pacific coast.
Speaker:And then there's all the folks in Britain and Ireland and, you know, a lot of the
Speaker:Nordic countries speak English as well.
Speaker:So I have, I, I have a new population that I don't know them.
Speaker:They don't know me, you know, the first six, seven months, I was really
Speaker:feeling out, like, what do I, what are the needs of the people here?
Speaker:Because I can come in guns a blazing and, um, you know, be all Emily in
Speaker:Paris with my American attitude, fixing the world, but that might not
Speaker:be what they want or need, you know?
Speaker:So I'm still in this.
Speaker:Place of sitting and marinating and feeling out if what I have been
Speaker:specializing in, which is predominantly weight loss, metabolic health,
Speaker:and endurance sports nutrition, is that what I'll be doing here?
Speaker:Is that what these people need?
Speaker:The answers I'm getting are yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:This is, this is a worldwide problem where there's room for you here.
Speaker:And, um, functional medicine, functional nutrition is very much
Speaker:still in its infancy in Europe.
Speaker:And so in that sense, I've come to a place where I'm the pioneer.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:I'm still figuring out where to get the quality supplements that I need
Speaker:for my clients, but, but there's.
Speaker:There's so much possibility here.
Speaker:So now that we are settled, housed, know how to do things like buy grocery
Speaker:stores and work the appliances in the house that we're living in.
Speaker:Now I'm thinking, you know, now I'm starting to expand out, like where are
Speaker:the European nutrition conferences?
Speaker:Where are the holistic medicine conferences?
Speaker:And, um, this is where I'll be networking.
Speaker:This is where I'll be going out here in Europe.
Speaker:There can be a conference in London, a conference in Amsterdam, a conference in
Speaker:Paris, and it's very easy and very quick to get there and not very expensive.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Um, and I'm told most of the conferences are done in English, no matter
Speaker:where they're held because that is, that's the dominant language of, of,
Speaker:um, of the world and of industry.
Speaker:So that's my plan, you know, for, for this year and then into next
Speaker:year is really kind of getting myself known and then doing collaborations
Speaker:with podcasting and utilizing my podcast as a resource for expanding.
Speaker:My voice and my reach to, to those who want to work with someone virtually
Speaker:and, um, aren't limited by borders.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Oh, beautiful.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So I guess we could wrap up with a couple last minute things.
Speaker:Like if you could give yourself, go back to that beginning days and give yourself
Speaker:one piece of advice, what would it be?
Speaker:And then tell everybody where they can find you.
Speaker:I think, I think the best piece of advice I could give myself
Speaker:when I was first starting off is stop trying to be your father.
Speaker:Um, that's not the metric of success that's going to work for you.
Speaker:So I engaged in a lot of overwork, burnout, pick yourself up,
Speaker:recover, overwork, burnout for the first half of my career.
Speaker:And, um, it's not a path I recommend for sure.
Speaker:Knowing what success looks like for you, not what others say it should
Speaker:look like, not defining it by X figures is going to be my success point.
Speaker:X degrees is going to be my success point.
Speaker:What will make your heart happy?
Speaker:Because that's, like, if you don't know what's going to make your heart
Speaker:happy, you don't know why you're going to keep getting up when life
Speaker:knocks you down, when things get hard.
Speaker:And so it's really, really important to be connected to that.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Sometimes you don't figure it out until you start.
Speaker:But you, but if you just stay with that intention to pay attention and figure
Speaker:it out and then have the courage to stick with it, even when times feel like
Speaker:they're taking you in another direction.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:If you don't have the answer, ask the question.
Speaker:And if you ask the question and you keep asking the question, your brain will work
Speaker:on it when you're not even conscious of it and it will, you will find the answers
Speaker:because you're asking that question.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Oh, so good.
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:So tell us where we can connect with you.
Speaker:Yeah, I, my, um, private practice is vibrancenutrition.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:That's V I B R A N C E.
Speaker:And my podcast is blasphemous nutrition.
Speaker:It's, um, blasphemous as in not holy.
Speaker:So, um, And that can be found on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere
Speaker:where you listen to podcasts.
Speaker:I am also on Instagram at vibrance nutrition as well.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Thank you, Aimee.
Speaker:My pleasure.
Speaker:Thank you for having me today.
