Yaa Boayke: Yeah, and that’s something that is really important. So I just really came to the conclusion that one day, you know, I realized that I wasn’t being aligned with who I was as a person and I wasn’t helping people in nutrition the way that I wanted to. But being plant-based and being in this vegan lifestyle, I really wasn’t helping patients in the way that I wanted to because their primary interventions were very high calorie and very high protein, which meant that I was basically telling them to eat a lot of meat and drink as much milk, eat as many yogurts and drink as many supplements as they possibly can. I liked it because I really got to know the patients and I really got to see their progress over time, which I loved. And during these three years, I had the opportunity to work as the primary burn unit dietitian, which was really unique. Nikki Karetov: Yes, so the answer is no, I was not working with my ideal client, I became a dietitian about three years ago and I immediately jumped right into clinical. So can you share what type of work you were doing before you decided to jump in and start your private practice on Instagram? And considering that you do really support the plant-based diet and lifestyle in that role did you happen to work with that ideal dream client that you were seeking to work with on social media? Thanks so much for sharing that, Nikki, I know a lot of people can totally relate with just kind of randomly posting things, but let’s talk about an area of work that you were actively working with the client.

And making money obviously makes that possible. Yaa Boayke: Which is important, you’ve got bills to pay, you have goals that you want to me. But I really realized that it wasn’t making any money. Nikki Karetov: I was promoting plant-based recipes and trying to offer little tidbits on plant-based nutrition, but I wasn’t offering a service and I got a lot of comments saying, oh, the food photo looks good or that recipe looks awesome. And with your Instagram account, were you attracting anybody? What type of work were you doing or promoting on that account or on this account that you have now? It’s a growth journey and it’s important that people recognize you got to start from somewhere else. But it is different when you’re looking to work it and put yourself out there and let people know you’re open for business. So people are like if I just post something visual, that’s the whole point of this. Yaa Boayke: Yeah, a lot of people can totally relate because obviously it’s a visual platform. And I was just kind of posting as I wanted to, and it was mostly just for fun.

So in the beginning, I was posting food photos all the time, posting recipes, trying to make the photo as beautiful as possible. And it’s been through a lot of transformations from the very start until now. Nikki Karetov: Yes, I did have an Instagram.

So one way to start is, did you even have an Instagram when you started your business? So I like jumping in and asking Dietitian Bosses to talk about where they started out and comparing where they started out versus where they are now. And you can check it all out in the show notes. You can find Nikki on Instagram and you can also find her on Facebook, Nicki Karetov, spelled N i k k i, K a r e t o v. She’s passionate about the vegan lifestyle and helps women transition from a meat and dairy heavy diet to a plant-rich lifestyle so they can lose weight, feel energized and live their best lives. Yaa Boayke: On today’s episode, we have Nikki Karetov, she’s a traveling register dietitian from San Francisco, California.

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