Beyond The Clinic

046 The niche mistake from the 'wellness' industry that cost Tara her first business - an interview with Diabetes Dietitian Tara Bruni

• Sarah Almond Bushell • Season 1 • Episode 46

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Welcome to Beyond the Clinic 👋

In today's episode, I'm thrilled to share a truly enlightening conversation with my client Tara, who bravely opens up about her journey from choosing the wrong niche to building a thriving diabetes-focused practice. If you've ever felt stuck in your business or questioned your niche choice, this episode is absolutely for you.

Episode Summary 📝

Tara's story is one that many health professionals will relate to - starting with a seemingly perfect niche (pre-diabetes) only to discover it wasn't commercially viable. We dive deep into the valuable lessons learned along the way and how she transformed her business by pivoting to type 2 diabetes support.

Key Takeaways 💡

  • Why choosing an "empty" niche isn't always hitting the jackpot
  • The crucial difference between a specialty and a profitable niche
  • How to adapt your marketing strategy for healthcare clients
  • Understanding the "bleeding neck vs stubbed toe" concept in health business
  • The importance of building trust before selling in healthcare
  • Why transparency matters in pricing and marketing

Brilliant Insights ✨

  • Marketing in healthcare requires a longer trust-building journey
  • Your niche isn't just your specialty - it's about attracting your ideal client
  • How-to content might grow your following, but not necessarily your client base
  • The value of evidence-based business decisions

Quick Fire Round 🔥

Best part of the working day? Walking by the sea at 11am Why diabetes? Making a real impact with clinical skills Tech - love it or hate it? "Hate setting it up, love it once it's running!" Motivation technique? Daily reminder of the big vision Top business lesson? No decisions should be made on a whim

Resources & Links 🔗

Follow Tara: @TaraBruniNutrition on Instagram 

Final Thoughts 💭

If you're feeling stuck in your health business or questioning your niche, remember Tara's journey. Sometimes what looks like a perfect opportunity needs deeper market research and strategic thinking. Want to chat about your business journey? My diary is currently open for discovery calls.

Next week: Join me for another inspiring episode of Beyond the Clinic!

I'd love to hear from you, click the link to 'text' the show directly

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Freedom Formula: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/freedom-formula
Website: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/
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The Master Plan - Discover the 22 steps you need to take (in the right order) to build a successful business so you can earn enough to live the freedom lifestyle you dream of. https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan



Sarah Almond Bushell: [00:00:00] Welcome to Beyond the Clinic, the podcast for health professionals who intend to take their expertise and transform it into innovative income streams that extend well beyond the traditional clinic model. I'm your host, Sarah Almond Bushall, registered dietitian and certified business coach, and proud owner of not one, but two successful businesses.

Online businesses. Picture this. It wasn't that long ago that I was a full time NHS employee, afraid to take the leap from the security of a regular salary. I understand that stepping up as an authority can feel intimidating, but it doesn't have to be scary. And you do not have to do this alone. I'm on a mission to inspire ambitious health business owners, or those who want to be, who dream of being able to positively impact thousands of people's health and lives while simultaneously enjoying the freedom that [00:01:00] comes from being your own boss.

If you've been nodding along, then you are in the right place. In this podcast, you're going to learn tangible, easy, actionable business strategies. On how to accelerate your business success that extends well beyond the traditional clinic model. You'll also hear from successful health experts where we'll dive behind the scenes of their businesses so you can hear exactly what it took for them to grow flourishing businesses too.

Thank you for being here and welcome along to Beyond the Clinic. Let's dive in.

Today I am interviewing my client Tara, who came to work with me after setting up her business with the support of another business coach specialising in those in the wellness space, only to find that her niche wasn't profitable. I just want to say how much I appreciate Tara in sharing her experience with our audience because talking about our mistakes and vulnerabilities in [00:02:00] business is actually really hard and I know that this episode will truly help so many others.

So with that said, Let's welcome Tara.

Welcome, Tara. I am really excited to have you on the podcast today because you and I have been working together for five or six months or so now. And I think you've got a really interesting and quite unique story. So yeah, welcome. Do you want to start by just introducing yourself? Sure. 

Tara: So thank you so much for having me.

I'm so happy to be here. So my name is Tara and I'm a diabetes dietitian. And that's why I do. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Awesome, Awesome. Tara, can you start by taking us back to the very beginning about when you started your business? What inspired you to do it and why did you decide, because you're a diabetes dietitian, but that wasn't your first niche, was it? 

Tara: No, exactly. So I started the business, I would say about a year, just over a year and a [00:03:00] half ago.

Okay. And I started it, I think for Two reasons, I think the first reason was I was working in the NHS and being a diabetes dietitian, there's so many people who have type 2 diabetes and so little people so few diabetes dietitians. And because of that, the reality was that I could only see a patient for 15 minutes in total.

And I just felt completely useless in my job because we all know that diabetes, you can't really overcome it in 15 minutes. And so I just remember being sat in clinic one day with this woman who was just prescribed insulin. And she was just in tears and she was so angry and it was her first time.

ever to see a dietitian. And I just felt I could have helped so much if I saw her before, or if I was able, if I was given the time to support her in the way that I meant to support her. And I just [00:04:00] sat there thinking this, what am I doing here? I'm not being able to. To do my job properly. And so I think that was one of the reasons why I started the business.

The second reason was also from a personal perspective. So working in the job that I was working in. From one day to another, like you never know when your job plan was going to change. So from one day to another, they're sending you somewhere else, an extra hour of, transport. And it was just, I just felt like I had no control and I never knew what my day to day was going to look like.

And so Yeah. So I decided that, I wanted a bit more time freedom, location freedom and financial freedom, of course. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah. I think they're all huge draws for particularly for us who've been in the NHS and really felt that sort of scarcity of, not enough resources. [00:05:00] Not enough time to really help our client, knowing that you could do a much better job if you had more than 15 minutes.

And like you were saying about your lady who had just gone into insulin, if you'd been able to see her before, perhaps you could have helped prevent that from happening. Your original niche when we first started was dealing with pre diabetes, wasn't it? 

Tara: Yeah, I just, because I think when I first started the business, the way I knew I needed to choose a niche.

And so the way I did it was I just went online and I saw, I knew I wanted it to be in my specialty. Like it had to be diabetes. I have to be pre diabetes or cholesterol, blood pressure. And then I found that nobody was doing pre diabetes and I was like, Oh my goodness, I hit the jackpot and I'm going to be super successful.

So I decided let's. Go with pre diabetes. And so I set everything up. I created the lead magnets. I set up a social media account. I did email marketing. I did everything. I even run ads. And I was [00:06:00] getting really excited because I was getting a few people following my page and I was getting a lot of engagement on my social media.

But then when it came to sales, it wasn't really translating and I just couldn't figure it out. I was like, what on earth is going on with this? And I think that's when I came to you. And I think on our discovery call, I think I told you, Sarah, my marketing system is broken and I can't figure out how to fix it.

And I think, yeah. And then I realized, I think since working with you, that actually no business decision is ever really made on a whim. It's not everything has a thought process. It's not just, Oh, I think this is going to work. So I'm just going to go with it. And so we spent a lot of time, we did lots of market research and everything.

And then the moment was when I realized that actually, if nobody is doing it, it's more of a red flag. Then it is, I hit the jackpot type of thing. [00:07:00] And so that was a big moment for me. I think that was a big learning and I don't think I would have figured it out if it wasn't for all that work that we did together.

I think I would have kept going and eventually said, you know what, this is not working back to the NHS type of thing. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. . I think that's just an amazing story because I think particularly when we're really passionate about something, and going back to that example you gave us about the lady who went on to insulin, if you think, I can help these people, who are at risk of developing diabetes before they actually get that diagnosis.

You can make a real difference to people's lives, but unfortunately that doesn't always translate into a commercial sense. So there's often, it's a really lovely idea and it's a really lovely thing to be able to help people with, but does it make money? And I think that's where, when we got together, we looked at this and went okay, let's go and find some evidence that actually this is a viable business [00:08:00] model.

And am I right in saying that's when you discovered that it probably wasn't? 

Tara: Yeah, dead in the water, I would say like it wasn't at all.

Sarah Almond Bushell: Oh thank you for sharing that. So we've talked a little bit there about one of the mistakes that kind of happened early on in that, in the business there. Were there other Were there other things that stood out? Are there like little business mistakes? Because I know you worked as another business coach beforehand, didn't you?

Are there other things that you think perhaps didn't work specifically for you in the health side of things? 

Tara: Yes, actually, there were so many things. So I think ever since we worked together, I feel like my business aligns a lot more with my values in general, in the sense that, My previous marketing system, what I was doing is I was going to a cold audience.

So people who never knew me or heard of me or anything, and I was inviting them to work with me on my high ticket offer. And so I didn't realize, and you know what? [00:09:00] It didn't like the marketing system that I had, it didn't feel right, but I think sometimes you can't really tell whether it doesn't feel right because it's something new and you just need to keep going or it doesn't feel right because maybe, the market, there's something wrong with.

The way you're doing things. So the system in itself. And I think, so I just, it's you're not selling hard enough, keep going, that sort of thing. And I just kept going with the same strategy, but it didn't sit right with me. And I think what I've learned since working together is because in the health sector, people are quite vulnerable, like they're coming to you because they need help.

And. It's not a perk, it's they need your help. And so to work with you, they're never going to work with somebody that they don't trust. And and to develop that trust, you need time. And so the marketing system needs to be a lot longer. It has to be, you need to show different sides of you in different ways and meet people's learning, learning preferences.

I don't know if I said that term correct, [00:10:00] but basically it's. It's a different strategy altogether and I think it, it feels a lot better. Like I remember, how you have your email sequences and I remember when people would first come into my email marketing world the first email sequence they'd be exposed to was actually a sales sequence.

And so I just, I just had this urge, like I wanted to close my eyes. I don't know if that makes sense, but I just wanted to just take them out of that sequence and just put them into my newsletter sequence. And I just, it was just didn't feel right for me. And now I understand why basically it's because people need time before they're ready to buy from you.

That's right. Yeah. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: And I think you're right when you're selling to people who haven't built that trust factor yet, it can feel really icky, can't it? And I can see why you want to just take them out of that system and put them somewhere else where you could nurture them. And one of the things I think.

That is [00:11:00] a shared value that we all have as healthcare professionals is that we go into this to help people. We don't go into this to make money. We go into this very much from a place of wanting to care for and look after and help people and make them better. And one of the things that I think is very different from a lot of Business coaches who perhaps focus on wellness professionals rather than healthcare professionals, is there's a lot more deepening of the trust, the connection, the shared values that needs to happen between you as the business owner and the client who you're wanting to help.

So it's often not just as simple as inviting someone to join your lead magnet, sending them a series of emails and then saying, Hey, do you want to come and work with me? Because actually they're trusting you with something. That's as valuable as their life itself, aren't they? 

Tara: Exactly. And I think it's so different.

It's not selling a product to somebody, you can just, show up like that with your product. It's completely [00:12:00] different and it translates into every step of the marketing system. It's not just, one thing that you do, it's everywhere. I don't know if that makes sense in every step from when you, the first post that they see to your email sequence to.

Your social media to everything. It's all a strategy and it's all geared towards health. And, and it, I just, I think I just feel a lot better with the way things are at the moment. And I think also with transparency, going into sales. It's hard for us because we never got any of that nobody's ever told me anything all of this is so new to me.

I've never, never, I didn't even know what a funnel was, like, and it just. It feels difficult to begin with, but when you do it in a way that I think matches your ideal clients and your values, then it doesn't feel that way anymore. It just feels a lot more natural. So for instance, one thing that I didn't have was like, I didn't have my prices on my [00:13:00] website and I just.

It didn't feel right for me personally. So I just didn't feel comfortable surprising people with a price on a discovery call, for instance. But now everything's there because I feel like transparency is one of my values and it just generally, it just feels a lot better. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, absolutely. I think there's something in that, isn't there?

Where, we're not in the convincing games. We're not sales people as such. We are really Our job is to provide people with the information they need in order to make an informed decision about whether they want to work with us or not. And it's totally okay if they decide that actually, now is not the right time, or perhaps I prefer the personality of the next dietician or whoever, that's totally fine.

Our job is to give them the information so that they can make that decision from a place of being fully informed about us. Who you are, what you do, what results you can get for them, what the price is going to be, all of that. 

Tara: Yeah, exactly. Cause I just [00:14:00] remember like having these discovery calls.

Like I think my whole previous marketing system was based on convincing people. Yeah. So from, working with people who have prediabetes, convincing them that it's really important to do it now, but then as you mentioned, I know it's not your specific expression, but the bleeding neck versus the stubbed toe sorts of things, no, they're not ready.

They're not ready. They don't think it's important enough to invest time and money into this sort of thing. So I was there convincing them that this is really important. And then they were hopping on these calls where I was just Surprising them with my pricing and my program and it just You know, it, it didn't work.

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. So let's circle back to that bleeding neck stubbed toe thing. Cause this has come up quite a few times recently when I've been chatting to people. For listeners who don't know, there's a guy called Perry Marshall, who is a, I think he was an advertising person actually, but he coined this phrase that people will only buy if they've got a [00:15:00] bleeding neck.

problem and not a stubbed toe because the stubbed toe obviously is inconvenient and painful and a bit frustrating, but they can get on with their lives. But a bleeding neck that needs fixing now. So it's more about that urgency. Yeah, so circling back, you had started your business in this pre diabetes niche.

You set up your whole marketing system. You'd grown an audience on social media. You had a lead magnet. You had email funnel set up. But no clients, and then you went and did your market research and you realized that perhaps the pre diabetes was more of the stubbed toe rather than the bleeding neck.

So where did you go from there? 

Tara: Yeah, so now I basically backtracked and then I'm changing my messaging basically to suit my type two diabetes niche, which is anyways what I love to do and what I'm meant to be doing and what I was hoping to plan to expand to in the future. Yeah, so right now I am working with my ideal client, who is somebody who has type two [00:16:00] diabetes.

Sarah Almond Bushell: Excellent. That's great. And have you had to change very much in terms of that marketing system that you had already set up? Oh my goodness. 

Tara: you would think that, pre diabetes, type 2 diabetes same, same sorts of topics and everything. But marketing to these people is completely different.

Like the messaging is completely different. When you're talking to somebody who has pre diabetes. You are basically talking about the fear of getting type two diabetes. So if somebody who has type two diabetes comes on your page, they're going to be like, Ooh, this is not for me. So it's a completely different thing.

It's going back, I think, rewriting. So I've got a really nice welcome sequence. Thanks to you, Sarah, which I'm actually really proud of now. I just want everybody to be on my welcome sequence. It's very generous. It's very, it, it just feels right. And yeah, so for everything from all the email sequences to all the social media strategy, for instance, [00:17:00] talking about pain points and desires, which is another topic, before I had lots of how tos and I think what was happening is, probably another third issue was that it was more, it was becoming more of a influencer profile, which is not I, it's not what I was looking to do. And so it's all of that. So everything's changed basically. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, you're right. So I think, as healthcare professionals, we want to help people. And so it's really natural for us to create how to content. Have you got this problem?

Here's what you do. Here's three tips to do that. Here's, and telling people essentially solving their problems for them. But unfortunately that doesn't. Lead to clients. And what that often leads to is an audience full of other healthcare professionals who are there for their own interest because you're talking about something that you've all got in common.

But they're never going to buy from you. One of the things that we need to do is, you mentioned messaging there, is to really understand Who your [00:18:00] client is, what their struggles and their frustrations and their things that keep them lying in bed awake at night. Are and how you can communicate that, to them in a way that reflects their day to day lives.

So like with really tangible examples about what they might be doing on an everyday basis, whether it's sitting at their desk at work, eating a really boring lunch full of salad leaves, you've got to make it paint that picture in their mind of, Oh my goodness, this is me. And actually what we're trying to do with our social media content is not educate at that point.

A tiny bit of soft education might be okay, but it's really to make them go, Oh yeah, that's me. She understands what I'm talking about. , I really resonate with this person. I want to follow her and see what else she's got. And then of course, the more of that sort of content they see, the more that they begin to like you.

And then when you do present your lead magnet to them, so [00:19:00] you can deliver this lovely series of emails to them, they begin to trust you as well. 

Tara: Exactly. And I've actually noticed that on my page. If you look at my page, the ones, the posts that get the most engagements are the ones that talk about the pain points and desires and the how to's, not much, but those other posts are the ones that I think make the biggest difference.

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's meeting people where they're at really so that they see your stuff and they go, yeah, she knows what it's like. She gets me. Yeah. 

Tara: Yeah. And it's that thing about also the niche. I didn't really understand what it meant before. Like I always thought like a niche was like your specialty and, something that, something cool that, nobody's doing to make you stand out.

Actually, that's not what it is. It's not that. It's completely different. A niche is basically attracting your ideal client to you. And I think that was a big learning for me as well. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. And me [00:20:00] too, actually. So when I first started in taking my private practice, because I've had that for decades, but turning that into the online space and using the

power of the internet essentially to to make my business grow. I worked with another dietitian who as a mentor, and she said to me, Oh yeah, being a pediatric dietitian, that's a niche. And so I, that's what I did. And that's what I tried to market. And what I found was nobody was really that interested apart from other pediatric dietitians.

So I think it is a bit of a. A myth, actually, of that your niche is your speciality because it really isn't. Yeah, exactly. It really isn't. Brilliant. So actually, I'd love to just ask you, if you had one piece of advice that you could give? To a freelance dietitian or a healthcare professional who has perhaps set up a business and has got a little bit stuck, or they're not getting the traction that they want, and they just don't know what's going on.[00:21:00] 

What's that one piece of advice that you would love to share with people? 

Tara: Work with a business coach, honestly, I know I would say that, but it's so true because if I didn't start working with you, I would still be doing what I was doing and getting. no results and not understanding why. So I feel like the thing is that we really don't get that knowledge.

Nobody gives you that knowledge. And you can wait, like it takes time. It takes a lot of time, even when you have it figured out. Yeah. A lot of time, but it takes some time, but it will take a lot longer if you don't have that guidance and that knowledge. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're absolutely right. It does.

It does take longer. I've still got a business coach. I still work. In fact, I've got two business coaches that I work with on completely different things because, I didn't study business at university. I did a degree in dietetics most people who are healthcare professionals.

And so I've had to go on and learn that, as a [00:22:00] postgraduate thing, and there's still so much to learn. And it does make me feel a little bit fearful, actually, when I see some of my colleagues say, Oh, I'm going to set up as a business coach and I'm going to help other people with their businesses.

And I think it's not as simple as that. Not if you want to really help people truly and get them results. And yeah, we can all mentor. our colleagues and our friends. But actually, if we want to get them results, it's a bit more complex than that. So thank you for that. 

Tara: Yeah, no, but I really feel like it would be like a missed opportunity.

Like for me, what would have could have happened is I would have just given up on my dream because I would have thought, Oh, this is just not working for me without really understanding what's going on. So I think it's really, I think that was. That's the best investment that I've done for myself, for my business.

Sarah Almond Bushell: Thank you for saying that. And honestly, for those listening, I did not prompt Tara to do that.

Oh, brilliant. So I'm just want to end with five quick fire questions that I ask all my guests, if [00:23:00] that's all right. So number one, what's the best bit of your working day? 

Tara: So the, I get to go on walks when I want, and I live by the sea like you, Sarah. So it's really nice to be able, at 11 a. m. If I want to go for a walk, I can go for a walk.

No one's going to tell me anything. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Freedom. It's freedom, it's proper freedom, isn't it? Yeah. Awesome. Number two, why do you do what you do? 

Tara: I am so passionate about diabetes because I feel like it's one of the areas in dietetics where we have a lot of impact. And so I'm really able to really use my skills to make a difference.

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, I agree with that. I was in diabetes for a long time in the NHS and paediatrics. And yeah, I agree with that. Definitely. Question three, tech. Tech is a big part of our businesses. Do you love it or do you hate it? So 

Tara: I hate setting it up, but once it's set up, I absolutely love it. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: So it's 

Tara: worth it.

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, it's definitely something you have to learn, but definitely something [00:24:00] that pays off. Yeah, absolutely. Question four, how do you keep motivated? 

Tara: I remind myself about my dreams and everything. I think that's the main thing that I do. Every morning I wake up and I remind myself why I'm doing what I'm doing.

And that really keeps me moving forward. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. So keeping your eye on that goal, that, yeah, that big vision you've got. Yeah. Brilliant. I love that. And last but not least, what's the, what's one thing that you know now that you wish you could have told your former self when you were just starting out in business?

Tara: That no business decisions are made on a whim. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. 

Tara: You don't just decide to do something. There's a strategy behind it. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. And yeah, I think we've touched on this earlier actually, we're evidence based practitioners in our clinical lives. We've got to be evidence based in our businesses, otherwise it's just not going to work.

Exactly. Brilliant. Thank you so much for your time, Tara. Do you want to let people know where they can follow you, where they [00:25:00] can find you if they want to learn a little bit more about what 

you do? 

Yeah. 

Tara: Sure. So I've got my Instagram page. It's called Tara Bruni Nutrition. I would love to see you there.

Sarah Almond Bushell: Brilliant. And I'll pop a link in the show notes as well. So people can click on that directly. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks, Sarah. Bye. Bye. 

Oh, wasn't that so amazing? I just want to say thank you to Tara for sharing her story with us today. And if you are thinking about working with a business coach to help you build your business, then my diary is currently open at the moment for discovery calls. I'll pop the link in the show notes. And if you want to chat about how we could possibly work together, then by all means, you're welcome to book in with me and let's take it from there.

Bye for now. 

That's it for another week. Thank you so much for joining me as we explore the abundance of strategies to help you recapture that feeling of possibility and excitement [00:26:00] as you drive your business forwards and beyond the clinic room. If you found today's episode inspirational, then don't forget to like and subscribe to the show to stay in the loop for more valuable advice that I'm going to be sharing each week.

If you want to be the first to hear about new episode releases, news and ways that I can support your business growth, then please don't forget to check out the links in the show notes. and you can also connect with me from there. Don't keep me a secret, I would be delighted if you left a review and shared this podcast with your colleagues.

Until next time, bye for now.

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