We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alex Gardner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alex, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

I knew early on in undergrad that I wanted to have my own private practice as a dietitian. So throughout my internship, I was working behind the scenes to get together everything I needed to launch a practice. The day after I passed my credentialing exam, I started Alex Gardner Nutrition! I didn’t really have any idea of what I was doing, so I hired a business coach and that helped me to refine my thinking and narrow down who it was I really wanted to help. It wasn’t hard for me to decide to specialize in fertility, prenatal, and postpartum because I had extensive training in the WIC program and I was working as a Maternal and Child Health Nutrition Leadership Trainee at the University of Tennessee at the time. My advice for others wanting to start their own practice is give it a shot, but you HAVE to be consistent and it helps to have guidance. It takes a long long time for the seeds you sew to start coming to fruition.

Alex, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My grandmother started a catering company in the 1970s that my dad took over in the 1990s. So I have been around food and business since I was born. I knew I wanted to do something along those lines enjoyed the science field and also helping people. I decided to become a dietitian when I took a nutrition class in high school and fell in love with the subject. From there, I was dead set on becoming a dietitian. I completed my accredited undergraduate program, my 1 year dietetic internship, and my Master of Public Health within a 7 year period. During that time, I started my business and started helping mamas nourish their bodies so they could conceive, grow, and deliver a healthy baby without feeling overwhelmed.

I provide telehealth nutrition counseling for women and include a variety of services including one on one sessions, group sessions, customized meal planning, hormone testing, and food sensitivity testing. I am also in network with Blue Cross Blue Shields. There are very few dietitians who specialize in perinatal nutrition, and even fewer who specialize in fertility. What makes me unique is that I am a safe place for women to come when they are wanting to prepare their bodies for pregnancy. Some couples struggle with fertility, but don’t think about talking with a dietitian prior to trying assisted reproductive treatments. And for couples who do use assisted reproductive treatment. It’s vital to optimize sperm, egg, and uterine quality with nutrition prior to collection.

When I am able to look back and see pictures of all the families with their happy and healthy little ones, that makes it all worth it.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Networking, networking, networking. My favorite saying is “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and that couldn’t be more true. Building a strong network of allied health professionals and referral partners is essential. And you may not see referrals from them for a while, but by being consistent in communicating and engaging with your network, you build that know, like, and trust factor that is essential for friends and referral partners sending you clients.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I first started Alex Gardner Nutrition, I wanted to help everyone and anyone. I was posting about diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, basically anything you could think of. I was a “generalist”. At the same time though, I started grad school. I thought I would focus mainly on school and people would just come to me for help. Well that obviously didn’t work. So after that semester, I decided to get more serious and hire a business coach. They advised me to niche down. I was very skeptical at first since I thought it would limit me. But, I knew my passion was in perinatal nutrition so it wasn’t a difficult decision to make. And I’m so glad I did! I am always learning something new things about perinatal nutrition and am able to spend my time honing in on the research surrounding the subject so that I can be an expert in the area instead of trying to be a generalist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alexgardnernutrition.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexgardnernutrition/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/momandbabynutritionsupport
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-gardner-rdn-ldn-clc-ba91a1215/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7XyrKdQ2J25Zrdn7F224Kw
• Podcast: https://sites.libsyn.com/473898/motherbabynutritioncarepodcast

Image Credits
For pregnancy photo: Amina Filkins For pregnancy test photo: Cottonbro Studio For baby photo: Helena Jankovič