We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aubrey Redd. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aubrey below.

Aubrey, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

As a woman of color, I fall into the minority 3% of black dietitians working in the field of nutrition. That’s a small number, right? In school, of course, I noticed that I was the minority – but I had no clue it was this staggering. After graduating college, I started working for a program called Eat.Right.Philly in the Philadelphia School District to teach students about nutrition. Many of those students had never heard of a dietitian, and didn’t realize it was a career that they could pursue too. I immediately knew that it was my calling to show other students that you can be a successful woman of color in the field – which is why I started my own private practice, Aubrey Redd Nutrition LLC.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As many of us have felt, there’s a pressure in high school to decide what exactly we want to do with the rest of our lives. I wasn’t too sure, but I knew that I felt interested in health and science after becoming a vegetarian and trying to learn how to fuel my body. My tennis coach asked me how I was going to get in enough protein without eating meat and I thought “well, I don’t know”! I started to look more into how I could add in plant-based protein and found a love for nutrition, and a love for learning.

Later in my schooling I learned that the path to becoming a registered dietitian was a little bit longer (and more expensive!) than I had anticipated. I finished my bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics, and then went on to complete my master’s in community nutrition and my year-long supervised practice in nutrition to become a registered dietitian. I passed my boards in August of 2021 and I’ve been pursuing my passions ever since!

Immediately upon completing my supervised practice, I established Aubrey Redd Nutrition LLC before even starting to study for my boards. I knew that I wanted to inspire others to be their best self through nourishing, and balanced nutrition. As a woman in today’s diet culture, I found myself constantly falling into the trap of fad diets, always trying to lose those “few pounds” with the next crash diet. Learning about nutrition helped me to understand how food is fuel for my body, and can help me do so many of the things I love every day. I nurtured a wonderful relationship personally with food, my hunger & fullness, and my body – and I am passionate about helping others do that in my private practice.

In my private practice I primarily work 1 on 1 with clients for counseling, but I also provide meal planning, work with brands/companies for partnerships, and provide corporate wellness programming. I’ve even been able to speak at a multitude of professional conferences, and share some of my story with other dietitians as well! While I’m of course proud of my own growth as a professional in these 2 short years, what I’m most proud of in my practice are my clients. They inspire me with their journeys towards whole-body health each and every day. There’s no better feeling than “graduating” a client from my program who feels empowered in their nutrition journey and knows how to build a delicious, satisfying, and nourishing plate.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Definitely the lessons of “hustle culture”! Look – I love to be successful just as much as the next person… but there’s no benefit in running yourself ragged and burning yourself out. We all want to help as many people as we can and support, but you can’t pour from an empty cup. Today’s society totes the important of hustling to be successful, but after years of pushing myself to the breaking point I’ve come to realize that it’s important to focus on yourself first. Give yourself rest, spend time with loved ones, go on vacations, get yourself a little treat, and just enjoy everything else that life has to offer. Your work will thank you for it!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

It’s important to set yourself up as a subject matter expert, because that’s exactly what you are! Think about it this way – if you were going to go to a doctor for troubles with your heart, would you go to a generalist, or would you go to a specialized cardiology practice? Probably the latter! Find what you’re passionate about and focus on helping those folks, so that you can give them the best possible services. You can of course choose to help anyone and everyone, and that’s okay too! Just be sure to showcase yourself and be confident in the fact that you know what you’re doing and what you’re talking about. You’re a boss, and you know your field!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aubreyreddnutrition.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aubreyreddnutrition/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aubreyreddnutrition
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aubrey-redd-ms-rdn-ldn-ab698410b/

Image Credits
Lead Photo (sunflowers): Autumn Granza of Autumn Breeze Photography Race Photo: Pat Hendrick