Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dr. Adrienne Stein ND. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Dr. Adrienne, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
COVID was an extremely difficult time for most people, and as a practicing naturopath who worked in a brick and mortar clinic full time, seeing patients in person, and recording notes in a written file, lockdown totally wiped out my practice and my income. Behind the scenes during lockdown I scrambled to pivot my practice to a model where I could meet my patients needs, and still provide an income for my family. One of the biggest realizations that came out of this time was how vulnerable my practice was because it was solely based on me showing up at the office every day. A pandemic or even a car accident, illness or family emergency could take away my practice that I loved and that my family depended on for income. This ah ha made me realize I needed to diversify my revenue streams, and so for the first time I stepped out of the roll of practitioner and became an entrepreneur starting my online side business called Thrive Menopause.
Deciding to step into the roll of Entrepreneur happened at the same time I developed a passion for educating and addressing perimenopasue and menopasue symptoms. I had begun to see what a tremendous need there was for support for women during this transition time and how dismally uneducated the health care system was as well as women in general in terms of what to expect and what is normal. Most women (and health providers) think menopause is just about getting hot flashes, but I was seeing many women developing so many other symptoms that we now know are related to hormone changes. These changes were dramatically effecting their health, their quality of life and their ability to cope. Everything from crippling anxiety, depression and mood swings, to debilitating insomnia, brain fog, memory issues, weight gain, digestive issues and joint pain just to name a few of the 100 symptoms. Given my passion to get more education into the hands of women and my desire to start a side business I decided to create Thrive Menopause.
I had never been an entrepreneur before, but I took the leap into the business world. I took the risk and funnelled my clinic income into building this new business. I joined a mastermind of likeminded health practitioners who were interested in creating diverse revenue streams and greater security while making an impact on the world by reaching a much wider audience then one on one practice. I also invested in a VA, social media support and numerous courses on business and creating digital products. It was a real leap for me into an area I had never even thought of. And funnelling all that money into building Thrive was nerve wracking since of course I never knew if I would create a viable business.
The journey is still at the beginning stages but momentum has started. I created my first online course in 2023 called Mastering Menopause and did my first launch last fall. The course sold really well, and I received glowing reviews about how life changing it was. I plan to launch again in a few months. My email list has grown from 100, to 4000 in the span of a year as word has reached more women. I have also created a number of digital products which have sold well including my Menopause Weight Loss Blue Print, and Glow Guide: A Guide To Radiant Skin in Menopause, and they will soon be available on the store I am opening on my website. The next phase of my business will be to launch a higher end 12 week transformational program for a select group of women who want to ditch the status quo image of what midlife for women means and instead step into their own power and rock this transformative stage of life.
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?
Hello, My Name is Dr Adrienne Stein ND. I am a practicing Naturopath of over 20 years. I became a Naturopath after completing a masters degree in anthropology. During my studies I became fascinated with medical anthropology, where we studied different systems of medicine in the world. Many of the places we studies had a much more holistic view of both illness and health. I began reading I could find on holistic medicine and fell so in love with the discipline I decided to become a Naturopath. I went back to university completing my pre-med at the University of Waterloo and then went on to complete my 4 year Naturopathic Medical Degree in Toronto at the Canadian Collage of Naturopathic Medicine. In more recent years I have gone on to study Functional Medicine, a discipline that uses a variety of labs to determine what the underlying cause might be to a patients symptoms. My patient practice is eclectic with patients that have a range of health concerns like anxiety, skin issues, digestive problems, weight gain, hormone imbalances, and auto immune diseases to name a few. In my practice I developed my Transformational Health Method, a 9 month program where we do a deep dive on hidden imbalances in the hormone system, immune system, digestive system and detoxification system. I put these finding together into a step by step personalized program for each patient. Each person’s program is designed to address any imbalances that are leading to their symptoms through personalized diet recommendations, lifestyle changes and supplements.
I also run Thrive Menopause, my online business that supports women in perimenopasue and menopause through my digital course Mastering Menopause, and various digital products. In recent years my passion for educating women and supporting women during the menopause transition has become a big focus for me. I have pursed addition training in this area, educating myself on effective evidence based strategies that can help women feel better and in control during this often rocky transition time. I have a strong belief that there needs to be a lot more education and support for women and I am excited to be part of that movement. Shocking stats show 1/10 women quit their jobs due to menopasue symptoms. This is completely unacceptable, and we are loosing wonderful and experience female roll models at the peak of their carriers because no one is taking their health concerns seriously. Thrive Menopause was created out of this passion to spread the word and empower women.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
I would say the single most helpful thing for succeeding in my field has been mindset, hands down. As a profession, Naturopaths want to help people, and there is a big difference between wearing the hat of a business owner vs a clinician who’s job it is to help people. Being able to be comfortable and eventually confident as a business owner has been a game changer for my practice and my online business which both really started to grow exponentially as my mindset shifted to embrace both clinician/practitioner to a business owner. .
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
For my one on one practice my most effective strategy has been word of mouth. I try to over deliver and make sure that every patient feels seen and heard. This is especially important in health care as many people have experiences of being dismissed for their concerns and only given a few minutes to tell a practitioner what brought them in. By allowing people to tell their full story, they feel heard and I can pick up on valuable clinical information that can help me understand the underlying root cause of someones health problems. I also believe that my passion for educating my patients in terms of why they are feeling the way they do, or how certain choices my be positively or negatively impacting their health is a real eye opener for them. This builds trust as well as empowers them to make better choices in the future.
For my online business, Thrive Menopause, I have grown my audience primarily through facebook ads. The ads let women know about my free resource, my Menopause Guide, which provides a lot of valuable information. I have had many emails thanking me for the resource. Once people are in my world I do my best to provide great value. I do free talks, I provide handouts, recipes and strategies. I think my focus on providing tones of value for free is what really helps exponentially increase the know like and trust factor of my Thrive community.
Contact Info:
- Website: Thrive Menopause: https://thrivemenopause.com and my Practice: https://www.drsteinnd.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dradrienne.nd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083162080905
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dradrienne.nd email: support@drsteinnd.com
Image Credits
Image credit: KELSEY KURTIS