We were lucky to catch up with Elena Pulido Presa recently and have shared our conversation below.
Elena, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
The first and most important thing is to believe in yourself. Then, you need to create a plan and get organized to do it.
Being self-employed has pros and cons. The biggest advantage is that you can manage your time, decide when to have vacations and, if your business is online, you can work wherever you want.
But the biggest disadvantage is that you have to set your schedule, your work hours and learn to be productive. You have to work every day even if you don’t feel like it. There have been many times that I have procrastinated or made excuses to take the day off or do something I thought more important than starting my work schedule. I have only started to be successful when I have planned my day to day and had my goal clear.
Elena, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have always been interested in selfcare (nutrition, natural supplements, exercise, breathing techniques…). In my life I liked to have healthy habits and found out that I was constantly learning about it. I loved to investigate ways of being healthier.
By the time I decided to change my professional path I was living in London and working as a real estate agent.
I decided to check some naturopathy schools there but didn’t find any that I really liked, so for the first time in 3 years I had the idea of going back to Spain and that was what happened. I found a school in Madrid and started to study Naturopathy. For the first moment I loved it. Studying it wasn´t an effort. I loved everything about it, all the subjects. For the first time I liked spending time investigating and learning more and more everyday.
I also decided I was not going to work in anything else that was not related to this profession. This was a very important part that allowed me to see how my professional life was going to be. So I began to work, for a very little salary, in herbal shops at the same time I was studying for my degree.
For 6 years I worked in herbal shops until I decided that I wanted to help people in a deeper and more personalized way.
I also realized that I liked to teach, explain the whys of what was happening to people, in terms of heath, and in this way make them see why it was necessary to change their lifestyle to find balance.
I opened my private practice in 2020. Now I combined the consultations with short workshops (they can go from two hours to 3-4 sesions of one hour and a half) in which I teach people to build healthy habits to stay healthy and prevent illness. They are always about a specific topic: detox, menopause, nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding, etc. I think I have a good way to make it easy and, the most importantly, understandable.
Meanwhile I have continued studying. I have trained as a dietitian and have done several masters on intestinal microbiota. In my consultation I take a holistic approach, taking into account not only my patient’s specific problem, but his entire organism and also his emotions, to bring him back to balance. Everything is connected.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
There has been a few thing that had impact on this. I can summarize it in three points:
– Plan. Which sources are you going to use?, How much time are you going to spend per day?
– Colaborations. Contact other professionals related with your fild and work together.
– Word of mouth. This one is the most important one. Prepare yourself and do a good job.
It is also important to ask your clientes for reviews, this proves your good work, and to be an approachable and honest person.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I do very personalized work and I carry out continuous monitoring through WhatsApp or email. I remain available to the client so that they can contact me if they need it at any time.
I also believe that I have very competitive prices and I adapt to the client’s purchasing power when they need natural supplementation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.d-u-n.com (the website is going to change in the next 3 to 6 months)
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenapulido_naturopata
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designupnaturopathy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-pulido-presa-89440b168/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elenapulidopresa5430
Image Credits
Cralota López de Santa María