FDN practitioner Carmen Dunn experienced a burnout for several years that eventually catapulted her to quit her corporate marketing job and go back to study holistic nutrition. The resulting effect of burnout left her with severe adrenal dysregulation, as well as, cortisol that was just shy of having Addison’s disease, a frightening revelation! During school and after graduation, she did everything under the sun to resolve these health issues. She worked with Naturopathic instructors, took all the herbal supplements, B vitamins, etc. and yet she still didn’t feel a shift in energy. This journey ultimately led her to find FDN.
Metabolic testing through FDN, revealed her worst fear as a seventeen year vegetarian! Carmen learned she was a fast oxidizer and should be eating tons of meat, including dark meat and fat. This knowledge combined with the results of her food sensitivity test uncovered that Carmen was also highly sensitive to dairy, grains and some legumes, which was psychologically unsettling to her. Through work with her FDN mentor, Whitney, Carmen uncovered the missing pieces in her diet and hormones. This was a huge shift on Carmen’s perspective not only about her vegetarian diet but also how eating meat could actually be healing for herself and her clients!
“Generic nutrition just wasn’t working for me – in terms of getting my clients results… I definitely wanted to learn more about getting closer to the root cause of peoples’ health issues!”
Carmen shared a huge take away from her FDN training was the information on stress! She added, it was probably the biggest thing that impacted her practice. She feels that understanding real and perceived stressors have the same physical impact on the body was a huge shift. This has helped her make the most dramatic educational change with her clients and through her presentations.
“Understanding the steroidal hormone pathway was huge. I use this with my clients to help them understand how stress and burnout have effected their energy, menstrual cycle, lack of libido, etc.”
Carmen said her clients are typically high stress, business professionals who are on the road to burnout – predominately females. Carmen’s has found a niche and enjoys working female professionals who are self-described as perfectionists, that have difficulty letting go of control, and Type A personalities. She shared that a big challenge with her own clients is motivating those who feel they are not seeing results fast enough.
“Adding in the lab work has made the biggest impact on getting results for clients, which has gotten me more business…”
Along with practicing as an FDN-P, Carmen is a Certified Nutritional Practitioner. Her top tip for her fellow FDN practitioners, is to hire a business consultant. She said, embrace that you’re a business owner first and foremost, not a health practitioner. Also, she added, do not be afraid to charge what your worth for your work. Carmen graciously shared that her own sales went up when she switched from charging $80 per hour to 2K for a program and is now charging anywhere from 3 to 6K. She suggested to market via social media outlets, speaking and community events. Carmen has successfully hosted HER Success Series with four other colleagues, which focuses on five areas of life where women burnout. Amazing work Carmen!
Visit Carmen’s website: www.carmendunn.com
Some topics covered and questions answered in this call include:
- What was your background before you came into nutrition?
- How did you find FDN?
- What is generic nutrition and why do people need something different?
- How did your eating change on your own health journey?
- Which part of your own health journey was the hardest for you? Diet, stress management?
- What are a few things that you took away from the FDN training?
- What type of people do you typically work with?
- With the clients you work with, have they been to other practitioners before coming to you?
- What are the biggest struggles that you see with your clients?
- What advice do you have for those who may be starting their own health coaching business?
- For new coaches, what do you think about how to charge your clients?
- How are you using technologies with your clients?
- How do you market your business?
