Latest / Nutrition Connection by Dr. Kristen Hicks-Roof / 60: Stacey Dunn-Emke MS, RDN - CAREER COACH / OWNER
Transcript
- Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Welcome back to the Nutrition Connection Podcast, the show where science meets storytelling. I'm your host, Dr. Kristin Xroof, dietitian, researcher, and lifelong advocate of the role of nutrition, health, and wellness. Each episode, I sit down with dietitians and nutrition experts all across the food and healthcare landscape, leaders whose work touches nearly every aspect of our lives. So whether you're a student, a seasoned professional, or someone simply curious about food, nutrition, and health, this podcast is just for you. The views, thoughts, and comments on this podcast do not reflect those of my employer nor the employers of my guests. So let's go ahead and get connected. I'm super excited to bring out a connection of mine. I can't wait for you guys to meet her. We have Stacey Dunn-Emke. She is the founder and owner of NutritionJobs and DietitianSalaries.com. Welcome to the show, Stacey. Stacey Dunn-emke: Thank you so much, Kristin. I feel honored to be here. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: So I have followed you for a number of years and we've been able to connect over the years just that you manage nutrition jobs and dietitian salaries. And it's just fun because I feel like we in a way have a lot of crossover and passions to bring more dietitians into more careers and really bridging those gaps between what people are looking for in both their jobs and their salaries. So I can't wait to dive into the conversation with you today. Stacey Dunn-emke: Me too. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: So what inspired you and made you want to become a nutrition professional in the first place? Stacey Dunn-emke: ⁓ gosh, well I have the very unusual story that people may have heard before, but I'm one of these outliers that knew what I wanted to be when I was 10 years old, besides being a firefighter. I knew that I wanted to work in the field of nutrition because, as you and I were talking about off screen, I love skincare. I love everything about it. And so when I was little, I would put on yogurt masks and beer, hair masks, and yogurt, like all kinds of different things. And I was amazed at what the nutrients could do to my skin and to my hair. And so I fell in love with it. My mom had a friend who was a dietitian and she sort of mentored me along the way to how you turn this passion into face masks, into an actual profession. So that's sort of the genesis of how I wanted to become a dietitian. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: That's crazy and for those of you who watching video, was just telling Stacey before, my face is all red because I'm literally breaking out from a new cream that I put on this morning. So if you're on video, you see, you're going to see my bright cherry red face, but Stacey, maybe this is the connection. Like it just so happens. I break it out on the day that I have a guest that you are into skincare. So let's talk about your journey. That's an interesting connection point, right? I mean, I know that I was really passionate about nutrition because I was an athlete and it was like, okay, if I didn't eat well, I didn't perform well or didn't recover well. So let's talk about your journey then as you were like, okay, I know I want to be in the nutrition field. What sort of jobs have you had? What has your career been ultimately to get you to today as founder and owner of two companies about connections and jobs and salaries? Stacey Dunn-emke: Well, like most of us, I started off in clinical nutrition, which I still love. I still think it's fascinating. I haven't worked in clinical nutrition in a long time, but I was a clinical dietitian. I started off with a bunch of pretty ⁓ jobs and then I got interested in nutrition support. So as ⁓ a certified nutrition support dietitian, that was my certification at the time. It's got a different credential now. I was in the burn unit, I was in the NICU, in the ICU, and many different hospitals in my San Francisco Bay area. I was then a clinical nutrition manager. I then started to develop the website, Nutrition Jobs. This is a really funny story actually. I wanted, well, I just got access to the internet. and at my hospital setting and I started looking for a new job because I didn't want to be a clinical nutrition manager anymore. I actually really liked working in the burn unit and the ICU and the NICU. So I am not great at managing people. And I started looking for a job and we had very few resources at the time. And there was Monster.com, there was Hot Jobs, there was just a few other. job boards out there and I started looking for a dietitian job and there were like no dietitian jobs which was not the case. They were actually out there. They just were not online. So I decided to build the website that would have all the dietitian jobs and so that was sort of the beginning. While I was building that out, I then took a job working for Dr. Dean Ornish in research and so I did prostate cancer nutrition research for many years, did a bunch of publishing. ⁓ a lot of ⁓ great patient intervention work. ⁓ It was fantastic. I loved that job. then was still running nutrition jobs, started to build out a family. Beyond building out a website, I building out a family and I couldn't do all three. I couldn't have this little beautiful baby and have this wonderful website and have my awesome research job where I got to do so many fun things. So everything ⁓ sort of narrowed down, titrated down to working on the website and of course my kids. So that's sort of that process. And I've just been running nutritionjobs.com for like 26 years now. And then just, yeah, I know. It just stays around and it's a wonderfully successful business. It still is. Things change all the time in the business and I'm constantly pivoting. I'm like on a lazy Susan. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Wow! Stacey Dunn-emke: pivoting all the time, which I love. I love trying to stay current and relevant like all the time. So that part's been fun. And then two years ago, I launched a dietitiansalaries.com and then just recently it now has a salary calculator. So I can talk more about that later, but that's my journey as a dietitian. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: I love that. know, one of my favorite parts about having guests on the show is no one's career looks the same. I mean, literally not a single person I've had on the show. It's like, ⁓ you look very similar to this other person. No, you know, everyone kind of a lot of people have maybe started in clinical and I do think it's a really good foundation. Plus that was almost hammered into us, you know, years and years ago. You have to do clinical before you do anything else. I don't think students are really doing that. as much potentially anymore because there's so many niche jobs that have continued to open up. But I think that's also touching to say like, sometimes you plant this seed of starting nutrition jobs and it just takes time, ⁓ it takes time to grow. You know, I think sometimes I know even with my podcast and my LinkedIn, sometimes I'm like expecting this like massive growth right away and you're like, no, it's going to take time. Like give it more than a month. Right? Stacey Dunn-emke: For sure, more than a month, because elements change, marketing changes, you learn how to market, you learn how to provide more user features. Always thinking about your audience, always thinking about what is it that my audience needs? What do they need from me? I'm providing a service in exchange for money. What do they need from me? Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Yeah, well, I think it is tough. You're right. Things are always changing, both in the online environment. Plus, I think just the field of nutrition has changed so much in the last 20 years, right? Like when I was at U of A, there was not even sports dieticians on staff. You look now and there's sports dieticians. And so that's just one area. feel like retail has grown. The food industry has grown. I mean, there's so many different sectors, but also even in clinical. I think we're understanding more of a need of dieticians on healthcare teams, in NICUs, in cardiac floors. So tell me a little bit about nutrition jobs. Why would someone want to go there? What all offerings do you have? What are some of the features that maybe you've learned to add over the years? Stacey Dunn-emke: I'm making out my marketing pitch right now. All right, so, so NutritionJobs, it's a online job board for dieticians and dieticians to be. It's a great place to browse dieticians. think I have a weekly career newsletter that goes out and I have a little sentence in there about how many jobs are on the website right now. And I just, think it's around 1200 jobs. So there's a lot. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Hahaha! Stacey Dunn-emke: There's a lot of jobs, there's a lot of opportunity, lots of different locations, lots of different employers. Anyway, they're out there, there's ⁓ a lot of opportunities. So dieticians can search directly for jobs. They can also sign up to get email notification for jobs that meet their search criteria. They can also post a very, very, very brief resume profile that then employers can search for and find them. So that's a great way to passively job search or be available for opportunity by having that resource for them. And then I've got like tons and tons and tons of resources. So I've got courses on how to build out your LinkedIn profile to attract opportunity. I've got templates for resumes that recruiters love, love, love. So that's important. I've got a ton of resources on how to work on salary negotiation. conversations. I've got resources on how to feel more confident for job interviewing. So the whole idea is for dieticians to love their jobs, to be able to find a job that they love even more, and to be able to successfully have some salary conversation, ⁓ maybe negotiations even. So lots of resources. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Well, and those are things that I think a lot of people, graduate from school or their grad degree or their internship or wherever they're coming from. And they're like, where do I go to look? Right? Like, how do I find the jobs? Or I mean, people reach out to me all the time. How do I find a job like yours? Because it may not necessarily say dietician in the title or maybe it doesn't even say the dietician in the description. So I do think it's a great hub. Plus you can be connected with many other people and start to understand what are some of the roles and the titles ⁓ or the different areas. Maybe you want to do some traveling and you want to, you know, take on a different job in Little Rock, Arkansas or wherever you want to go. So that is really fun. Stacey Dunn-emke: We literally just had a job posted today that was for a traveling dietitian. So a dietitian who travels to another facility, they are providing maybe a maternity leave or it's like a consulting position. There's lots of opportunities out there. Yeah. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: There are so many opportunities, I agree. And I think it's a good time for nutrition because nutrition is top of mind for health facilities, it's top of mind across people's minds, so they're maybe seeking even those, the phase and nourishes and things that are hiring at the large scale, but there's so many other facilities that are looking for ⁓ dietitians. So that's awesome, I love that. And I also love dietitian salaries because... You know, I know the Academy has a paywall on their ⁓ annual salary report. So talk us through a little bit. what does that look like? And what does your day to day look like just in managing these? Stacey Dunn-emke: So, Dietitian Salaries was the idea. I was working together with Holly Larson of Holly Larson Rice and she runs an annual money conference. Dietitian, I forget what it's called, that's not my head, the Dietitian Money, yeah. Yeah, and so we came up with this idea of we needed like a database where dietitians anonymously provide their salary information and it, Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: I think it is Dietitian Money Conference, because I spoke at it, I think, last year. Stacey Dunn-emke: We wanted it to be a place where dieticians can look at salaries or compensation based on geography, based on education, based on certifications or advanced certification or education they might have, lots of other different variables, but specifically to also include someone's job title. That is something that the academy cannot do for their... tool that they have available, which I also promote and think it's awesome. They have the compensation report, which is a validated process. I think it's every two years they provide and then they collect that information. So there's like a couple years lag sometimes in what the data is being collected and what's out there. with dietitian salaries, it's real time. Once you participate anonymously, even I cannot see what someone's information is, you participate anonymously, you then have access to the full data or a good portion of the database, and you have full access to a salary calculator. So that just launched. And so I'm still having fun with it. I was just talking to another dietitian about ⁓ all the different ways it can be used. And we were talking about certifications and specifically ⁓ certification as a nutrition support specialist and what the difference in salary can be, for example. Well, back to dietician salaries, it has about 3,000, I think 3,200 salaries in the database right now. So that's amazing. I mean, that is just amazing. The calculator extrapolates out to a 40-hour work week. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Right? Stacey Dunn-emke: and ⁓ cuts off at about 12 months. So you're not getting like two year old data. You're just getting information from the last year. Yeah, the last 12 months essentially, but you can see all kinds of variables and how it relates to you. It's just fun to look around and see what your options are out there or it's a great way to benchmark against maybe other people in your facility or if you're going in for a job interview to be able to speak to that. It's not validated, but it is all anonymous information that is in real time. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: One, I think that's super helpful because I know, especially like I would consider myself in a niche field of nutrition, sometimes there's no comparators, right? And so you're like, okay, what maybe something somewhat similar, whether it's a job title and I've been trying to pull those or talking with colleagues. So it's awesome that you have that tool. Hopefully people use it ⁓ really just to expand their horizons and give them confidence that, hey, maybe I'm being underpaid. I need to advocate for myself, which I think is a big challenge for a lot of nutrition professionals. They continue to be underpaid and they're upset they're underpaid, but they don't know how to approach that conversation. I know I've had to be mentored quite a bit just of like, how do you ask for a promotion and a raise and how do you be consistent and what data do you need to provide your boss to be able to move the needle? And sometimes it's different for everyone, but I do think that it's awesome to have those tools. Stacey Dunn-emke: Mm-hmm. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: In terms of owning those two websites and all the management, what does your day to day look like? Are you just on your computer the whole time searching jobs or do they come out to you? Tell us about your day to day. Stacey Dunn-emke: Well, I think one of the reasons that I wanted to have my own business was for flexibility in my day. I've got the three kids. I live in this beautiful town, San Francisco. I've got the beautiful ocean. I've got tons of friends. Like there's so much to do. So I really wanted to be able to have my own entrepreneurial business. And so There are some days, no, today is the same, right? I think that's everyone's answer when they're an entrepreneur. ⁓ There are days where I'm working really long hours, but I often work in kind of ⁓ unusual pockets of time. So I might work late one night. might start, ⁓ I don't start too early because I always start, you guys have listened to me in the past before I start my day with an ocean dip with a few friends every day in most weekdays anyway. ⁓ And ⁓ so once I get back from the school drop, we go to ocean dipping, get home, get started with work. And some days I will work like a really long day, some days are shorter. So it really depends on what's happening. If I'm working with an employer, we're working on a campaign together. to either sponsor a newsletter or to sponsor a webinar or to work together on something. I'll make sure that they're taken care of. That's where the revenue comes from. So they're always my priority. It might be that I'm giving talks. I give a talk probably at least once a week, if not more. Yeah, so there's always something happening virtual in person. There's ⁓ a lot of, ⁓ everyone wants to talk about Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Wow. Stacey Dunn-emke: jobs and careers and salary negotiation, job interviewing, which I love these topics. I really, really love these topics. So I do a lot. I do a lot for universities. We've got a lot here in San Francisco. so I spend a lot of time doing that. I also do a lot of podcast interviews, my own podcast, but also for others as well. So it just sort of depends. I love to learn how to use new tools and new applications. think it's all, and as you heard, I've had this business now for 26 years. So I'm always having to stay relevant and on the ball and make sure that I know what's going on and staying connected with other dieticians. So learning applications, spending time with other dieticians and making sure I understand what their industry and how it's changed and what that looks like as well. So, you know, every day is different, but the bottom line is I pay really close attention to my employers who are paying me and then making sure all the job seekers are doing a good job, being able to advocate for themselves, feel confident, and have all the tools that they need to be able to apply and get those jobs. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: And hopefully they do get those jobs. think it's a, you know, you're a really good conduit connecting employers with future employees. And I think that is a great opportunity for getting more dietitians in more careers, in more jobs, and making sure that they're happy with what they're being paid while they're doing it. So that's great. Check out nutritionjobsanddietitiansalaries.com if this is of interest to you. But we're going to keep going a little bit. You know, I love science. I love posting about science. I love talking about science. How does that play a role in your day to day or does it in terms of like business management? Stacey Dunn-emke: That's a really good question for me actually because I still stay current with what's happening in the nutrition world in research. As I mentioned before, was ⁓ the dietitian involved and in charge of the nutrition for a prostate cancer lifestyle trial. I have always been on the forefront of providing data for what it is that I do. So I think science, can mean a lot of different things. When I was a clinical dietitian, This may not happen as much anymore, but we would have these patients that would be NPO for days and days and days. I'm watching it and I would just present the data to this ancient surgeon and say, dude, we got some bacterial translocation happening, I'm sure, or just provide some other actual concrete data. So I think data has always been a big part of how Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: The A's. Stacey Dunn-emke: I am guided by the work that I do. Data in my own company now. Also data when I was a, I was also an outpatient dietitian and I remember thinking that at some point they're going to cut me off from this position because I was, I don't know how the little department was making money. So I actually went into the IT department, asked how was that they were coding. for the services I was providing and how are they getting reimbursed? ⁓ they weren't getting reimbursed because they weren't coding for it. Okay, well let's figure out how to, like what's the backend? What's the data on how we can get reimbursed? And we did. And I don't know if now listeners are thinking there's a common thread in Stacey's career. And that is like all the science, like all the backend of stuff. I love all the backend of the computer applications, of getting reimbursed, of providing information for a provider, someone that's going to impact someone who's paying me, giving metrics. that, that is so important. I do like patient care. I like direct patient care, but I like data, which is why I'm doing this. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: when honestly you wouldn't have a successful business if you didn't like data because I'm sure the employers are, how many times was my job searched? How many people came through your channel to then apply to these jobs and vice versa, right? How often are people visiting your website? Like there's so much data that yes, it is science and sometimes it's in the published literature but sometimes it's data and scientific evidence in what you're doing to have a successful business. Right? Stacey Dunn-emke: also helps inform you, like what direction should I go in? So for example, for my own business, I can look at the backend of Google Analytics and see where's my traffic coming from. it comes from direct, it comes from email, it comes from organic search, and ⁓ it does not come from Pinterest, which I spend time on. Okay, that means I need to spend less time on Pinterest. I mean like zero. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: No, but I think that is so informative for all of those who are interested in entrepreneurship or they have private practices or private businesses really understanding the data of could be referral sources or you know, a lot of things what I see too is how do you price yourself out? Right? When you're trying to do business, if you're doing some consulting work. So that all can be informed by data to be able to make the best decisions to make sure that you are a qualified candidate, but also a competitive candidate. for that opportunity. I think that is, it's imperative of being successful. You would not have this job, this business for 26 years if you didn't do it. But what has been, you you've had this career, many different career paths really, but ultimately being the founder and owner of two companies. So what's been your favorite or something you're most proud of so far? Stacey Dunn-emke: think just keeping it this long, right? Like it's still, it's still making money. It's still like my passion. I love sitting down to do it. I love the process of understanding what pain points recruiters have, what pain points job seekers have. ⁓ I, I just love, I love doing it. I love getting into LinkedIn and being able to help dietitians really show up. a lot more and to attract opportunity. is something that it's been fun to watch with all of the education I do on LinkedIn. Everyone is like really stepping up to LinkedIn, which I love to see. And that's been really rewarding. But I think just having fun and staying relevant is something that I'm always, it's still very successful and I'm still very happy running it. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: I love LinkedIn too. Like I have a personal passion for LinkedIn. I've learned so much. I've started taking up a couple of trainings. I know Gisela was on my show not too long ago and she was one of the ones who really inspired me to get on that platform. It's incredible the professional networking and the thought leadership that you can have on some of these platforms. We actually do have a session at Fancy on Tuesday afternoon. If you are going to... Fancy, make sure you check it out. It's all about using LinkedIn for professional advancement. So definitely stay tuned. So, Stacey, what tips or suggestions would you have for one, someone who's just trying to find a job in nutrition, but then two, someone who wants to be an entrepreneur like yourself? Stacey Dunn-emke: That's a really great question. I think one of the most important things anybody can do, regardless of what niche you want to go into, is documenting your work successes. That can do a lot. I'll just think about all the different ways in which that can help you, but first let me show you how to do that. Documenting your work success is like a work journal or a bulleted list of all the work that you've done. in a way that describes the quantitative work success that you've had. Talk about ⁓ the number of patients that you've seen. Maybe you can talk about biometrics that have increased, decreased, or improved. You can talk about if you're in marketing or social media, you can talk about engagements. You can talk about a lot of stuff. But keeping an ongoing list of your work successes that you can then speak to. and you can speak to those in job interviews, in networking events, ⁓ not necessarily boasting, but like understanding what your value is and talking about what you can offer, whether it's got a collaboration or a paid opportunity based on back to the data, based on your value. What is it that you can provide? What are some unique attributes that you have? because every dietitian's a snowflake in some way, right? There's something unique about each one of us that we can provide that can be an opportunity for somebody else. It can be a service that we can provide. So I think it all goes back to understanding what your value is and being able to speak to that. It can come in elevator pitches. It can obviously be used in a job interview when they ask you behavioral questions. You've got a work success story. to weave into your answer that you know they're gonna ask you this question. You can weave that into their answer and speak to a specific skill that you have, leadership, initiative, teamwork, or whatever that skill might be, but you can weave that in because you know, you can articulate what your value is and just keep an ongoing list of this. It's so hard to remember all the stuff that you do. If you can do it every week, the talks that you gave, ⁓ the health fairs that you served at, the presentations or poster sessions or families that said nice things about you when you were doing the outpatient counseling or working with somebody, document that, bring that into your performance evaluation. If you don't have one set up, make sure you get those set up all the time. If you're like in a consulting position, you may not get the annual reviews, but have this documented list of your work successes. to again show your value. is data which can then translate into money. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: I you are, you had that. That was like your own elevator pitch. I mean, I could tell that you were in the zone right there, Stacey, but it was so good because I love how you talked about have a measurable impact too. I think this is one of the tips and feedback I give to people all the time on their resumes. They just tell me those bulleted underneath their role, it's like perform clinical assessments. I'm like, of course you perform clinical assessments. You're a clinical dietitian. give me some measurable objectives, like managed eight people in our clinical nutrition program. Give me some grit on whatever that is. And I think with those who are entrepreneurs or private practice or maybe in niche areas, you can get feedback and some of those measurable wins in a number of different ways with partnerships that you do, with any sort of activations that you might do. So I loved those tips and examples. And clearly, People need to go to you for more tips and advice on how to be successful in nutrition jobs right there. I think that was great. What tips would you have for someone who wants to be an entrepreneur? Like how did you get the confidence to be able to go out on your own and start that? And I know it was like a slow build, but what would you give someone who like wants to do it, but they just don't know where to start? Stacey Dunn-emke: Aww. think learning from others, I'll be totally honest, when I started my first website, there weren't that many resources out there to tell me how to even code a website. And so I would just learn from others. So there's a lot of observational learning, bigger companies who have spent more money doing it. There's also a lot of resources. There's a lot of free resources online, but I used to ⁓ right click on website to get the view source and I would like, ⁓ that's how you do bolding. You know, it's forward slash beat. You know, like I would like look and see how does a big company send you their first email when you sign up for their newsletter. ⁓ they use that as like their tagline. ⁓ that's how they have an emoji there, but not there. They have a PS here, but not. you know, a link up there. So you learn from others who are much bigger than you. So that's like sort of one little cheating way to sort of get yourself in there. But learn from others, I think, is the bigger picture. And you don't need to go it alone. There's a lot of resources, I think, relying on other dieticians or other health professionals or other entrepreneurs who are working in an area that you find interesting and valuable. You can see what the work that they're doing. But I think the actual money transition from the day that you quit your full-time job and the day that you're going to try to make more money, that's a decision that's so very independent of the person. It depends on whether you have health insurance, you don't have health insurance. So I actually, when I started nutrition jobs, I asked if I could work four days a week in my office On the fifth day I was on call at one place and then the other and I would just like work because we ⁓ had like a really great cat five line that I was able to ⁓ upload all of the information onto the website. But another job I asked if I could work ⁓ seven hours a day and be on call for that eighth hour and but they were only paying me for the seven hours but be on call so I can then work on the website for an hour. hour at the end of the day, but always on call, always available. there's a lot of different ways you can make that transition because I didn't have another place for health insurance when I was making the transition. eventually I did, but it took a long time. So my road was very long. Some people make the jump right away. It just depends on your own situation and what your needs are. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Well, now with AI, there's a lot of ways that you can also learn. It's like the YouTube in a text version, right? So I think I love how you were learning literally on codes from websites. So you can do that, but that's, would say, Stacey, that's a little bit more old school, but now, mean, even AI can help you build codes and you can pilot test. And, you know, that's kind of as I've started the podcast and I'm trying to learn websites and all this other stuff, right? It's like. Stacey Dunn-emke: Yeah. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Okay, I just spend little bits of time when I can. Sometimes it's in the evening or on the weekend or you know what I mean? Or during my lunch break of like, okay, if I do little bits of pieces over time, it will slowly build itself. But trust me, I feel like one of the things I've learned is you have to be far from perfect in the beginning and it will get there. But it's... Stacey Dunn-emke: It will get there. It will get there. And if you're ever in doubt also, just like, how do I spend my time? Go back to where are you making money? What does my audience need? What service can I provide? Always think about, I always say like, think like a capitalist. What service can you provide that they actually need that makes money? Don't spend time on stuff that doesn't make money. If Pinterest isn't bringing you any money, do not spend more time on it. I've given it two years now. So I need to like not spend more time. You have to triage your time like nobody's business when you are running your own business. Always think, what does my audience need? How can I meet their needs? Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: when sometimes you do pro bono work because it will end up meeting, getting more income, whether that's through contacts or leads or whatever. So I think it's a balance between those. It's very tough. It's very tough to really go all the way on your own unless you just have this incredible idea, but know that it's a process and there are people out there, there's resources that you can lean in on to help. So my favorite question, Stacey, if you had a crystal ball, what do you think is coming next in nutrition? Stacey Dunn-emke: I think there's so much coming. I feel like ⁓ there are so many more opportunities now than there ever have been. And I'm speaking from, what is it now, 35 years of experience. There are wonderful opportunities out there. The consumer is more in direct contact with you than they have ever been before. Before there was always this paywall gate between you and the physician or you in the hospital, your paycheck was always coming from the third party. It wasn't coming directly from the consumer. So now that the consumer can see you with social media, you can really show what it is that you can help them with, how you can be of service. That is gold. think the advent of AI in dietetics is going to be very helpful. think it can help a lot of facilities when you think about sort of the foundation of clinical work is getting reimbursed for malnutrition so that we can increase our FTEs in a clinical setting or increase the pay. ⁓ Having AI ⁓ help with that malnutrition screening, even if you're in a rural setting, to work together with your electronic medical record, there are... ⁓ I just feel like there's a lot of opportunities now with social media and with dietetics. But I think there's going to be a lot of creativity that dieticians are going to to tap into to be able to find these opportunities, to be able to embrace them. I know that the advent of some of the venture-backed telemarketing platforms, some have felt a little sour about it, some feel very positive. I think the one benefit is that they've done all this free marketing for us. Who else was, no one else was like giving us that amazing commercial about that you need to have a dietician and it might be paid for by your insurance, right? No one else was doing that. So I think there's opportunities that are just out there that we never imagined before. And again, just getting more direct to the consumer. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Right? was really hoping you were gonna say what's next to nutrition is a face cream that I don't break out to because you were interested in face creams from the beginning. Stacey Dunn-emke: Well, I mean, I know we probably have to wrap up, but I mean, literally I can spend the next five minutes with my skincare routine that I swear by. I'll share that offline. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: I'm just joking. No, I think you're right. think AI wall is scary for many because it's the fear of the unknown. They're not sure how it's going to overlay. I think it can help with efficiencies. I also agree with you that there's been such more promotion between I think the Academy is really trying to step up their game to help promotion of what are dietitians? What do they do? Where are they at? But then you have some of these huge telehealth companies that it's bringing for the first time. nutrition directly to your phone or to your internet. And it's not that, you know, people having to go find a clinician, which is sometimes really hard. Like Google can only go so far to connect you with a dietician. So I think there is a hub there, but I agree with you. I think it's also brought a lot of competition for those who were building their own private practices as I'm sure it's pulling from their patient load. So I think there's pros and cons, but that's business, right? Business is competition. How are you going to pivot yourself and make yourself niche or are you going to offer different sort of services that maybe aren't offered with your competitors? So we all do it, whether you're in entrepreneur or you're in private practice or in clinical or food service or whatever area you are, we all do that. thank you, Stacey, so much for being on the show, telling us all about your entrepreneur business, but also giving us some tips and advice. So really appreciate you coming on. And if you like the episode, make sure you like, subscribe, leave a review. But most importantly, check out the next episode because every episode I bring on a different dietitian and nutrition expert to share their story and give you tips and advice on how to be successful.