Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Stephanie Sudjian, CEO of Fuel for Life, located in Cambridge, MA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Fuel for Life is an integrative, functional nutrition practice that works with patients from all walks of life to identify dysfunction and restore balance in the body. Our functional dietitians use a food as medicine approach in conjunction with supportive lifestyle counseling techniques to engage, educate, and encourage patients on their journey to optimal health. Our Registered Dietitians are trained through the Institute of Functional Medicine and the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy.
Our mantra here at Fuel for Life is that every BODY is different. We work to honor the uniqueness of each individual's genetic makeup in an effort to achieve optimal health. Many patients come to us after having exhausted what seems to be every diet, medication, and medical intervention out there, with little to no success. Our team strives to integrate functional modalities and to work with patients to change that narrative. We specialize in sports nutrition, gastrointestinal conditions, autoimmune disease, and hormonal imbalances.
Tell us about yourself
As a lifelong athlete and someone who wanted to help others for a living, I was always eager to learn more about how nutrition impacted our minds and body. When I discovered that there was a real career out there where I could marry my passion for nutrition with my passion for helping others, I was sold. While in college, I began to learn more about the field of functional medicine and realized just how important it was for others to understand how to use food as medicine. I came to see what a transformation was being made in patients' lives when they were able to connect the dots in their own health journeys by using nutrition and functional medicine principles. The life transformations I've seen in the patients we serve here are truly what motivates me each and every day- and we have only begun to scratch the surface.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
The biggest accomplishment I've had as a business owner is the success I've seen in what this business can do to improve the health and quality of life for so many deserving people. To know that you can run a company that makes a difference in the most important factor in our lives - our health - is indescribable.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Time management. Finding enough hours in the day to do it all is an impossible feat (because no one can do it all!). When you're a business owner, everything is time-sensitive and urgent. Learning how to identify what is most critical at the moment and allot your time appropriately is a challenge. When you add in the work-life balance piece, it becomes even more difficult. This will always be a work in progress for me personally, but I have to practice what I preach, which is to find the balance in all areas of life!
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
If only life could be lived in reverse! The first tip I'd give anyone looking to start and grow a business is to be patient with yourself. It takes time to learn and grow into what you'd like to become. The second tip would be to compare yourself and your business only to where you were yesterday. Your chapter one is different than the next person's chapter one. The final tip I would share is never to stop learning. Failure breeds success.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.fuel4lifefm.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fuel4lifefm
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fuel4lifefm/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-for-life-llc/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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