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47 | On having another job
If you've ever felt badly because you have another job in addition to your work as an herbalist or nutritionist, this episode is for you. Learn why it's okay, usual, and expected for most herbalists and nutritionists to have multiple streams of income, particularly in the first few years of setting up a practice.
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Transcript
Camille (00:00)
Well, hi there. Welcome to in the clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a licensed nutritionist and registered herbalist. And in this podcast, I share little tips and tidbits that might be interesting or helpful for other practitioners.
Camille (00:21)
Hello. I want to talk to you today about having another job when you are an herbalist, or a nutritionist, or a coach, or whatever it is that you do. I have heard from people over and over again that they feel badly. They feel like they've done something wrong when they have or need to have or want to have a different job in order to support themselves as they grow their practices as a coach, an herbalist, a nutritionist, or whatever it is. People feel like the sooner they can get rid of that other job, the better, and that they're not a real herbalist or nutritionist or what have you, until they're only doing this kind of work. And y'all, I have some news for you. First of all, almost every herbalist, nutritionist, et cetera, that I know has something else they do in addition to clinical work. There are very few people out there doing only clinical work 100% of the time. Why is that? Well, there's a couple of reasons. Number one, because it's really hard. Even if you could get enough clients to absolutely fill your roster every single week, over and over and over again, everybody has a limit.
Camille (01:31)
We all have a limit to how many people we can realistically see in a day or a week or month without burning out and without having it be too much. Our capacity counts for something. So taking aside all other factors, it just isn't realistic to only do clinical work. Most people also have some other type of work that they do either because they want to or because they need to. That can include things like teaching or medicine making, herbal product making, consulting for companies, et cetera. There's lots of herb and nutrition related things that a lot of people do as part of their work. There are also lots and lots of people who have two different streams of income, one of which is their herbal, nutrition, whatever work, and another of which is something totally unrelated. You could be a mechanic, or do office work for somebody else, or be a virtual assistant, or work in the health food store, or whatever else. There can be things that are absolutely not related in any way, and lots of people do that as well, because it's really challenging. It's really challenging, especially in the beginning of a practice, to fully support yourself and your family using this work.
Camille (02:51)
It takes time to build a network in your community. It takes time for people to know that you are there and you're available to help them. It takes time to build up recurring clients who come back every year, every season, every month, whatever. These are all things that need to be put into place. And it takes time for you to learn how to manage all of this, how to run a practice, how to price things in a way that's sustainable for you and sustainable for your clients, how to figure out what your monthly expenses are going to be, how to make adjustments in the things you need to do. So it's absolutely reasonable for you to have something else to help support you and whoever else you're supporting as you learn how to do all of this stuff. There is nothing wrong with having two or three or however many streams of income that you need to have to get to where you want to be. Now, I understand that it feels like, oh, I'm splitting my time and splitting my energy, and I don't want to be doing that. I want to spend all of my time working in herbs, working with my clients, working with nutrition.
Camille (03:56)
And here is another thing I want to tell you. Even when, even if you have the luxury or you've done all the work to build up so that you're financially depending on just your herb or your nutrition or whatever else work, you're still going to be spending a good amount of time doing things that don't involve directly working with clients. Because if you've been doing this for any length of time, you will know that even when you are exclusively seeing clients as your income producing source, there.
Camille (04:23)
Is a lot of back end work.
Camille (04:24)
That goes on behind the scenes. There's a lot of charting and there's a lot of communication. There's a lot of twiddling with your website and doing marketing and promotion, and trying to find new clients, and following up with old clients and building referral relationships and all this other stuff that's going to be taking up a lot of your time. It's not all going to be spent just thinking about your clients and immersing yourself in your client work. There's still going to be stuff you're doing that you don't really like or want to do. That is just part of the deal. And sometimes it's related to client stuff and sometimes it's not. So it is okay. It is absolutely fine. And you are still a real professional herbalist, even if you have other things going on to support your work. Now, I understand the goal of saying.
Camille (05:09)
I really do, I don't enjoy this accounting work that I'm doing or this website work I'm doing or whatever else.
Camille (05:14)
It is that you're doing. If you don't really love that and you would prefer to let go of that, that is okay. You can work up towards it. But my advice to people is always to wait and let those other types of income go. When you feel really secure in the income stream from your herbal nutrition or whatever else work, wait until you know you can count on it. Until you let the other things go, if you have plunged right in and said, okay, I'm just going to make this work, and I'm going to find a way to support myself using only my nutrition practice, and it's not working. It is fine to get a job temporarily. There's nothing wrong with that. You haven't failed as an herbalist or you haven't let yourself down. If you need to also do something else temporarily and for a little while until you get the momentum going, are there ways to make it work without doing other things? Yes, but is it really hard? And do I recommend that you have some sort of safety net or cushion in place when you do that? Also? Yes. Okay. So the big message that I want you to walk away from right now is that it's absolutely okay to have something else you're doing.
Camille (06:28)
You can still think about yourself as a professional nutritionist, a professional herbalist. You can still call yourself a professional herbalist and a professional nutritionist. You can still be in that mindset and have something else you do. We all have multiple roles. You may have roles as partner, spouse, child, parent, friend, et cetera. It's okay to have two or three professional roles as well. It doesn't make any of the other ones less important just because you have multiple roles. Okay. So the only advice that I have to you is I'll leave you with here also, is to just be really careful about your time. Because one of the things that does come up if you have two different jobs, one of them, let's say accounting and one of them as an herbalist, is that you can overwhelm yourself trying to do two full time jobs. So be really thoughtful. If you do have a second or third or however many supports of income coming in, really think to yourself, how many hours do I want to devote to each of these a week and be diligent about it. And that's going to be a topic for another podcast another time.
Camille (07:33)
So I'll go into that more later. But hopefully this will ease your mind a little bit if you've had this hanging over your head, feeling like you're not quite enough or you're not quite there yet because you have other sources of income. Okay, hope that helps. Have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you soon.
Well, hi there. Welcome to in the clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a licensed nutritionist and registered herbalist. And in this podcast, I share little tips and tidbits that might be interesting or helpful for other practitioners.
Camille (00:21)
Hello. I want to talk to you today about having another job when you are an herbalist, or a nutritionist, or a coach, or whatever it is that you do. I have heard from people over and over again that they feel badly. They feel like they've done something wrong when they have or need to have or want to have a different job in order to support themselves as they grow their practices as a coach, an herbalist, a nutritionist, or whatever it is. People feel like the sooner they can get rid of that other job, the better, and that they're not a real herbalist or nutritionist or what have you, until they're only doing this kind of work. And y'all, I have some news for you. First of all, almost every herbalist, nutritionist, et cetera, that I know has something else they do in addition to clinical work. There are very few people out there doing only clinical work 100% of the time. Why is that? Well, there's a couple of reasons. Number one, because it's really hard. Even if you could get enough clients to absolutely fill your roster every single week, over and over and over again, everybody has a limit.
Camille (01:31)
We all have a limit to how many people we can realistically see in a day or a week or month without burning out and without having it be too much. Our capacity counts for something. So taking aside all other factors, it just isn't realistic to only do clinical work. Most people also have some other type of work that they do either because they want to or because they need to. That can include things like teaching or medicine making, herbal product making, consulting for companies, et cetera. There's lots of herb and nutrition related things that a lot of people do as part of their work. There are also lots and lots of people who have two different streams of income, one of which is their herbal, nutrition, whatever work, and another of which is something totally unrelated. You could be a mechanic, or do office work for somebody else, or be a virtual assistant, or work in the health food store, or whatever else. There can be things that are absolutely not related in any way, and lots of people do that as well, because it's really challenging. It's really challenging, especially in the beginning of a practice, to fully support yourself and your family using this work.
Camille (02:51)
It takes time to build a network in your community. It takes time for people to know that you are there and you're available to help them. It takes time to build up recurring clients who come back every year, every season, every month, whatever. These are all things that need to be put into place. And it takes time for you to learn how to manage all of this, how to run a practice, how to price things in a way that's sustainable for you and sustainable for your clients, how to figure out what your monthly expenses are going to be, how to make adjustments in the things you need to do. So it's absolutely reasonable for you to have something else to help support you and whoever else you're supporting as you learn how to do all of this stuff. There is nothing wrong with having two or three or however many streams of income that you need to have to get to where you want to be. Now, I understand that it feels like, oh, I'm splitting my time and splitting my energy, and I don't want to be doing that. I want to spend all of my time working in herbs, working with my clients, working with nutrition.
Camille (03:56)
And here is another thing I want to tell you. Even when, even if you have the luxury or you've done all the work to build up so that you're financially depending on just your herb or your nutrition or whatever else work, you're still going to be spending a good amount of time doing things that don't involve directly working with clients. Because if you've been doing this for any length of time, you will know that even when you are exclusively seeing clients as your income producing source, there.
Camille (04:23)
Is a lot of back end work.
Camille (04:24)
That goes on behind the scenes. There's a lot of charting and there's a lot of communication. There's a lot of twiddling with your website and doing marketing and promotion, and trying to find new clients, and following up with old clients and building referral relationships and all this other stuff that's going to be taking up a lot of your time. It's not all going to be spent just thinking about your clients and immersing yourself in your client work. There's still going to be stuff you're doing that you don't really like or want to do. That is just part of the deal. And sometimes it's related to client stuff and sometimes it's not. So it is okay. It is absolutely fine. And you are still a real professional herbalist, even if you have other things going on to support your work. Now, I understand the goal of saying.
Camille (05:09)
I really do, I don't enjoy this accounting work that I'm doing or this website work I'm doing or whatever else.
Camille (05:14)
It is that you're doing. If you don't really love that and you would prefer to let go of that, that is okay. You can work up towards it. But my advice to people is always to wait and let those other types of income go. When you feel really secure in the income stream from your herbal nutrition or whatever else work, wait until you know you can count on it. Until you let the other things go, if you have plunged right in and said, okay, I'm just going to make this work, and I'm going to find a way to support myself using only my nutrition practice, and it's not working. It is fine to get a job temporarily. There's nothing wrong with that. You haven't failed as an herbalist or you haven't let yourself down. If you need to also do something else temporarily and for a little while until you get the momentum going, are there ways to make it work without doing other things? Yes, but is it really hard? And do I recommend that you have some sort of safety net or cushion in place when you do that? Also? Yes. Okay. So the big message that I want you to walk away from right now is that it's absolutely okay to have something else you're doing.
Camille (06:28)
You can still think about yourself as a professional nutritionist, a professional herbalist. You can still call yourself a professional herbalist and a professional nutritionist. You can still be in that mindset and have something else you do. We all have multiple roles. You may have roles as partner, spouse, child, parent, friend, et cetera. It's okay to have two or three professional roles as well. It doesn't make any of the other ones less important just because you have multiple roles. Okay. So the only advice that I have to you is I'll leave you with here also, is to just be really careful about your time. Because one of the things that does come up if you have two different jobs, one of them, let's say accounting and one of them as an herbalist, is that you can overwhelm yourself trying to do two full time jobs. So be really thoughtful. If you do have a second or third or however many supports of income coming in, really think to yourself, how many hours do I want to devote to each of these a week and be diligent about it. And that's going to be a topic for another podcast another time.
Camille (07:33)
So I'll go into that more later. But hopefully this will ease your mind a little bit if you've had this hanging over your head, feeling like you're not quite enough or you're not quite there yet because you have other sources of income. Okay, hope that helps. Have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you soon.
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