Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mariela Fierro, holistic nutritionist at Nutrition and Holistic Living, located in El Paso, TX, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

The pillar of my business is to empower others to own their health! Nutrition is much more complex than just monitoring calories for weight management. My passion is to educate people on mindfulness of eating for disease prevention or treatment and health maintenance of body and mind. Understanding the role food has on lifestyle diseases and how making food changes in daily habits can bridge the gap between health and disease excites me to instill this knowledge to others.

My business structure is based on one-on-one virtual sessions with clients who want to level up their nutrition while positively impacting their health. Popular diets that continue to emerge often focus on weight loss, but many fail to evaluate the long-term impact on health while compromising it. My approach is research-based with the goal in mind to reach a homeostatic environment.

Tell us about yourself

Health has always been instilled in me, and early on, I was interested in nutrition but not the "traditional" one. A few years back, I completed a certification in holistic nutrition and found a completely new affection for nutrition. In this short program, I was exposed to the tip of the iceberg of integrative and functional nutrition, which focuses on the relationship between food and disease and the power we have on our own plates every day to impact our health. It was at this point in my life that I began to build my company by offering nutrition services based on newly found knowledge.

I then realized that there was much more to learn, and I had just been given a snippet of the nutrition field. When I searched for academic programs that matched my career interest to offer even more in-depth sessions with my clients, I enrolled in a doctoral program in Integrative and Functional Nutrition at Saybrook University. I am currently in year 4, starting my dissertation with a focus on gut health and the impact gut bacteria has on overall health, inflammation, and immunity.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Can't really name my biggest accomplishment but simply having clients share with me how much my program has helped them to achieve their goals in terms of weight loss, toning, avoiding medications for the treatment of lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, recommending me with their friends and family, or even reaching out to me months later for a quick question are just a few ways I count as accomplishments. To be the person that others trust with their health is invaluable!

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

I consider challenging at times is the creation of social media content. Having to constantly create content that is engaging takes time, but this many times is what gets you discovered, which makes it vital to the business.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Start now.
  2. Get out of your head! You have something to offer that people need to hear about.
  3. The perfect time will never come. Create it!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

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Where can people find you and your business?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nutritionandholisticliving
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nutritionandholisticliving/

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.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.