Peaceful Profits Podcast Ep. 65 - This Nutritionist Gets Clients with a Book
Synopsis:
In this transformative episode of the Peaceful Profits Podcast, host Chanelle Nielsen sits down with Brenda Wollenberg—a board-certified natural health practitioner, integrative nutritionist, and best-selling author. Brenda shares her powerful story of overcoming burnout, narrowing her niche, and restructuring her business into a scalable, stress-free model with the help of Peaceful Profits.
You'll hear how she went from struggling with too many offers and marketing confusion to creating a book, course, and clear funnel that speaks directly to her ideal clients. Brenda opens up about the emotional and mindset shifts she experienced throughout the process and how the Peaceful Profits coaching team guided her every step of the way.
If you’re a health practitioner or coach looking to regain clarity, confidence, and consistent revenue without hustle, this episode is a must-listen.
Transcript:
Peaceful Profits Review: This Nutritionist Gets Clients with a Book
[00:00:00] Chanelle: Hello, Peaceful Profits nation. I'm your host Chanelle Nielson here with an exciting client spotlight episode for you today. Today we are talking to our client, Brenda Wollenberg. Brenda, welcome to the podcast.
[00:00:12] Brenda: Thank you very much. Now, really fun to be here.
[00:00:14] Chanelle: Yeah, we are excited to have you and I'm going to start off telling you a little about Brenda.
[00:00:18] Chanelle: So Brenda is a specialist in natural wellness programs for children, teens, and adults has been featured on TV and podcasts, including Jonathan Baylor, smarter science of slim and the food [00:00:30] junkies podcast, and has had articles published in Canadian living McLean's and family fun. Thanks. Thanks. Author of overweight kids in a toothpick world, a practical manual for families dealing with childhood obesity and eat sleep move for your genetic body type, how to physically and emotionally care for a unique you.
[00:00:49] Chanelle: She has redefined the path to both family and adult health by creating personalized for your body type and genetics online wellness programs. She loves discovering effective [00:01:00] down to earth steps to increased health and helping others along that journey. Her decades of experience as a show, her decades of experience as a social worker, pastor, and nutritionist allow her to uniquely and compassionately share on body, mind, and spirit wellness in a variety of settings.
[00:01:17] Chanelle: All of it. However, the passion for wellness, the teaching and the learning starts at home with her husband, Mark, and they're amazingly wonderful. Five adult children and growing gaggle of grandchildren. All of it. [00:01:30] I love all of it. Brenda is so exciting. I love all the things that you're doing and it's awesome to hear it all come together at the end there with family.
[00:01:41] Chanelle: So thanks for that little glimpse into you.
[00:01:44] Brenda: You're very welcome. When you hear somebody else say it, you think, Oh my goodness. I actually have a pretty good life, so thank you for selling it out.
[00:01:53] Chanelle: Yeah, it's wonderful and I, I love that bio for a lot of reasons. First of all the amazing things you've done, but [00:02:00] also you really bring home what Peaceful Profits is about, which is yes, it's about creating an amazing business so that you can have an amazing life.
[00:02:10] Chanelle: And you said it, it is, you do have an amazing life. So let's go ahead and talk a little bit about your business to start. You are in the health and wellness field. What got you interested and got you started along that path?
[00:02:26] Brenda: I suspect that it's like a lot of people that you ask [00:02:30] or in the health and wellness injury industry.
[00:02:32] Brenda: And it starts off as being very deeply personal. So I was a sickly kid. I had rheumatic fever when I was five. At that point, at that age, it's a number of decades ago, they put you on low dose antibiotics for ever. So for seven years, every day, a shot of antibiotics. I was a sickly teen, super active, involved in sport and music, but seriously, poor immune system.
[00:02:57] Brenda: My parents used to joke that I had four colds a [00:03:00] year and they each lasted a season long. So it was just wah! And then I became a sickly young adult. By the time I was a practicing social worker. And I loved, I seriously loved my super stressful job but I was irritable and moody and fatigued a lot of the time.
[00:03:16] Brenda: I had an ulcer, at 24. You're like, oh my goodness, I had thyroid issues. I had insomnia. Throw in some anxiety and a little bit of loneliness once in a while, and I just thought, oh my goodness, so one day, my husband was pastoring at the time, and [00:03:30] someone that was in a young adult group came up to me one day, a lovely woman, and she said, I'm really concerned about you you're tired, you fall asleep on the couch and you come home from work, she said, Frankly, I think you used to be smarter than you are now.
[00:03:43] Brenda: I'm like, I'm seriously insulted by this woman, but I'm also agreeing with her. So she says, I have a solution for you. I think you need to see my boyfriend. And I'm like, who the heck is your boyfriend? Turns out he was a master herbalist, superstar. Smart guy, member of Mensa. He was doing [00:04:00] vitamin formulations for some of Canada's largest companies at the time.
[00:04:03] Brenda: So I think you need to see him. He has a private practice and I think he could help you. So I'm a quarter Irish. I remember telling my husband like I'm gonna go and see this guy. I don't even believe in this stuff. This is like whoo, but I'll go see him. I'll do what he says for two weeks, and then I'm going back to eating pig fringes and enamel bars.
[00:04:21] Brenda: Okay. And I went to him, I did what he said for two weeks. And it's one of those things where you go the rest is history. So that. I [00:04:30] really got it going, was me being super sick, then me doing some volunteer work along with him, and, doing writing in the field as a social worker, writing some newspaper columns on kind of body, mind, spirit, wellness.
[00:04:45] Brenda: And then when our youngest went to kindergarten, I thought, okay, so social work and pastoring is not enough. How about if I go back to school and become a nutritionist? So that's when I added holistic nutrition certification to the mix. [00:05:00] I thought I was going to write more with that, but instead I hung out a shingle and did the writing, but also started running courses and went on consultation.
[00:05:09] Brenda: And then I think just, if I can add one more thing, a major propellant to where I am today in this field is really helping clients understand the power of individual personalized protocols. Thank you. Instead of just one size fits all things and I'll tell you a somewhat funny quick little story around [00:05:30] how that got because we decided I was going to take my lovely family on a vegetarian stint after I'd been eating really well and all of us really healthy for a while and just, Maybe you have ever done this where you've just studied something and you put blinders on, and it's okay, this is the best thing.
[00:05:45] Brenda: This is the best thing for everybody. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this really well. So I'm completely ignoring the fact that my husband is like massively gaining weight. He's really cranky and lethargic. He's a college athlete, and now he wants to sit on the couch and [00:06:00] just, surf. And the school's calling us in because one of our kids, they're intimating that.
[00:06:05] Brenda: They have attention deficit issues that they're into. Maybe we should put them on medication. And I'm like, hold it. Okay. What is wrong with this picture? I took all seven of us on this journey. I feel amazing. Clearly, other people in my household are not feeling amazing. Yeah, and that's when I came across the material by an American nutritionist, really Anne Louise Gittleman, just on Your Body Knows Best, and had my husband do this survey, which [00:06:30] I've done hundreds and hundreds of my practice, and I've never had someone come out higher than With the need for animal protein and fat.
[00:06:37] Brenda: I saw the survey I said, Oh, babe, we just have to go buy you like a cow like right now and he was just like Hallelujah. So yeah, and literally in 6 to 8 weeks, completely lost the weight. I had my husband back, energy, my child that had been struggling with, issues. I saw their focus come back on that.
[00:06:56] Brenda: Yeah. It was a clear wake up call for me that I needed to not be preaching a [00:07:00] one size fits all nutritional approach. So that was my tea in the road kind of moment there. Yeah.
[00:07:07] Chanelle: Yeah. I love it. It's so interesting to hear this background and where you've come from and the steps along the journey.
[00:07:16] Chanelle: And I'd even say, The missteps as well, to try this protocol that just felt so right for you and yet didn't work for your family. You mentioned in your most recent [00:07:30] business win that. You've learned that nothing is wasted. And before we talk about that in the business perspective, I'd love to hear about that idea from a health perspective.
[00:07:40] Chanelle: How does that idea that nothing is wasted apply to your own and your family's health journey, as well as people you've worked with?
[00:07:48] Brenda: So as someone who is very. Sympathetic nervous system dominant, so analytical, linear thinker, if you've ever heard of the Enneagram system, I'm a one, we like to be [00:08:00] right.
[00:08:00] Brenda: And not just right so that we can be better than other people, we just feel really compassionate and don't want to steer people wrong. So it's it's really Drive to be, the best and really, when I started off with these mistakes or missteps, as you said, I really saw them as failure.
[00:08:17] Brenda: I hadn't told the mark. I really missed the finish line by a mile. And so this vegetarian for our family, anyways, disaster. The times that I thought that you could get all the nourishment that you needed from today's food supply. [00:08:30] That was another misstep. Oh, no, we don't need supplements.
[00:08:32] Brenda: We're just going to do this. My errors, my years of erring on the side of doing more rather than simply being. Like, I had a lot of, we can still, Several podcasts with missteps. Okay, but what I realized eventually was that crashing and burning can be a really valuable tool. You can evaluate and if you have a little understanding, if you grow in the concept of grace.
[00:08:59] Brenda: And, [00:09:00] 20 years co pastoring with my husband, I had to have a little bit of that calm where, oh man, there can be this recognition of this core spark of the true self, or whatever your language is, a sacred or great love or shared humanity, whatever language resonates with you, there is something in us that needs to be heard.
[00:09:16] Brenda: To be revealed and become this fuller expression of you and part of how you get there is realizing that you're going to do some things wrong, and it might not be fun, and it might be very painful. You might have to let someone down, and you might [00:09:30] have to apologize. You might get hurt. A plan will completely blow up in your face with reflection and evaluation.
[00:09:39] Brenda: You can go, Oh, what was going behind that thought? What did I need to learn differently? What? Could I forgive myself for, could that actually be a stepping stone to something else? A more healed me, a stronger relationship, or even a recognition that you need to end a relationship. But a clear sense of who you are [00:10:00] and what you're doing on this amazing planet.
[00:10:02] Brenda: So that'd be personally. With my clients, like the ones who come to me and really believe, Oh no, I read somewhere that I can subsist on six hours of sleep a night when they actually need nine. Or they believe that a scale, their weight scale, or the BMI is going to be an accurate reflection as an excellent way for them to move forward with health, or that they do really well on keto, when it's clear that they are not [00:10:30] doing well on keto.
[00:10:31] Brenda: Their buddy might have, but it's not something that maybe genetically they can even tolerate. When they come. And they're discouraged about this. I just go, no, look at all you've learned, look at the information you've gleaned and how can we work on you really noticing what you're noticing so that, when you're flagged emotionally or mentally, or when your energy is dipped in the tank and your ability to reach and maintain an appropriate for you kind of [00:11:00] size, which will be very different than your Twiggy friend size or your whatever buddy size, that You can use this as a valuable course correction, and I think that's when they also start believing in this nothing wasted approach, and that, in my opinion, that's a game changer when you can see it that way.
[00:11:19] Chanelle: Yeah, that's so good. Such a good just life lesson there that I'm hearing is this idea that nothing is wasted, that everything can be a stepping [00:11:30] stone if we let it, if we let it. And so this concept that you've introduced the idea of actively working to make that a stepping stone and to look at all you've learned is very powerful.
[00:11:45] Chanelle: I'd love to shift gears and talk about how you've used that in your business because, we ask, pre previous to recording the podcast, we ask what was a most recent business win. And your answer was [00:12:00] very unique in that you said you've, your business win is learning that nothing is wasted.
[00:12:05] Chanelle: And I think, first of all, I want to point out. How remarkable it is to recognize that learning as a business win, because so often we just blow past the learning point and oh, the win is monetary, the win is this, and yet that learning is such a huge piece to that. Piece of the puzzle. Now I want to ask you, what are some [00:12:30] things in business that people might think of as wasted that you have learned are actually valuable?
[00:12:36] Brenda: I'm going to blame Peaceful Profits for a lot of these in a very kind and appreciative way. So I have tons of mixed emotions about social media. And free discovery calls and watching trending videos. Okay. I just not my favorite learning style. There's a whatever. Okay, let's start with social media.
[00:12:57] Brenda: Our children were the ones in high school, [00:13:00] bemoaning the fact that they were the absolutely last kids in the whole school campus. To have a cell phone and get social media accounts. That's how much I love it. Okay. They got very little screen time at home. And part of me sees social media time spent as being a huge time waster.
[00:13:18] Brenda: And thanks to people like Dr. Andrew Huberman, who's an associate. Professor at Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford and his podcast and all the training that I take on genetics and dopamine production and [00:13:30] receptors. I know way too much about things like dopamine cycles and these peaks and drops and baseline levels.
[00:13:36] Brenda: Scrolling to Facebook and TikTok is not my idea. I have a good way to, have a stable dopamine pattern happening in my body. So it's I have these mixed emotions when I joined Peaceful Profits, which by the way, unsolicited plug here, absolute best business investment I have ever made in my 25 years of being self employed.
[00:13:56] Brenda: Okay. So really appreciate that. But this whole thing about [00:14:00] wanting to organically grow my reach through my books, I'm probably going to need to expand my presence, which was. I'm not on LinkedIn much. My ideal client is more likely to be on Facebook or Instagram. So that's where I had, like I said, this minor presence.
[00:14:15] Brenda: But truthfully, every time I'm on there, it's Oh, I can't believe I'm on here. I'm wasting brain. I'm wasting, wasting time. And then Amanda Kijak shows up, Facebook coach on, Facebook, your coach on Facebook. And she seriously changed my mind on [00:14:30] that and on my business. trajectory. So huge shout out to Amanda, super helpful.
[00:14:35] Brenda: What I've realized is that the time I spent on social media is invaluable in letting the public know about who I am and what they would get if they invested with me when I spend time on these free wellness roadmap calls. And my husband's forever saying to me, Brenda, just, They just talk with you, they will fall in love with you, and they will want to book you as, as their wellness coach.
[00:14:57] Brenda: And I'm like, oh man, even if these people [00:15:00] don't decide right now to take my big ticket item, they don't want to do this right now, it's not wasted time. If I helped with them along on their wellness journey a little, if I gave them some input, if something is valuable for them, if I grew our relationship so they might want to come back later at some other point, they'll read my emails or whatever.
[00:15:17] Brenda: That is not. That's not wasted. The not right now can drive me to ask questions like, okay what else could I offer them? Or the other thing, okay, if not them, then who else? Who else can I [00:15:30] be looking at on my list or get back to? I find it Instead of being discouraging, I'm not saying there's not a little discouragement there, but instead of being that primary thing, it's more okay, so who else can I reach out to?
[00:15:43] Brenda: Yeah, the time I spend on people's office videos is not wasted. It brings clarity and a whole sense of direction. Chaff kind of falls away. Yeah, so those are all the things I would say that the whole not wasted. I've [00:16:00] found in the actual business practices that I'm embracing more and more.
[00:16:04] Chanelle: Yeah, that's so good. And I think that a lot of people have that same mentality toward social media. I love the shift that has happened with you. And, Especially to change just the mindset of, okay, this isn't wasted time. This is actually building relationships. This is actually leading to other things.
[00:16:26] Chanelle: And so it, it's a big deal to [00:16:30] have that mentality shift to be able to grow your business in that way. And to get in front of people like your husband said, just so they can meet you and see what you have to offer. So I love it.
[00:16:41] Brenda: I think it's your mental attitude that's better. Your comments and posts are going to be better.
[00:16:45] Brenda: If you're hating that you're on there and you're thinking, Oh, I should be doing something more productive. You're probably not going to come across as someone people actually want to engage with anyway. So that was very helpful.
[00:16:56] Chanelle: Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that. I think that's really valuable. [00:17:00] Now, how has that learning and that understanding led to monetary wins in your business?
[00:17:07] Chanelle: I want to make sure we hit on that as well.
[00:17:09] Brenda: Sure, absolutely. I followed, I had already written a book just by buying Mike's book. I hadn't even bought the, the business program. And My beta launches of the big ticket I had this past fall, and then in January that I developed through your format had, were great.
[00:17:27] Brenda: Each of them had four or five either [00:17:30] paying clients, or one was in kind. She'd edited my book, and so I gave her the program for that. And so that was great. That was, Like, big ticket item, beta launch price. I know you guys still laugh at my beta launch prices, but still, it was, four or five thousand US dollars, which is about a zillion Canadian dollars, so I was very happy about that.
[00:17:47] Brenda: But what's happening now, and this is where it's if you can get this trajectory, And know what you're doing, but also be open to some things that might be coming across, back to that whole theme of nothing [00:18:00] being wasted. It was through my interactions on social media again, Amanda's suggesting things like, what are a couple of really good groups that your people would be a part of, that you can actually just give to.
[00:18:12] Brenda: No, no spamming, no all that kind of thing, just go in and give them. So there was one group in particular, a very large group led by a Canadian doctor based on people struggling with sugar addiction. So I just began to basically serve in that group, like some suggestions and helping people [00:18:30] understand that everyone is different and that even genetics.
[00:18:33] Brenda: plays a role in how you respond to, say, carbohydrates, and that could impact your cravings, etc. And not being preachy, just trying to be really helpful. But the doctor chimed in on one of these posts one time and said is this like serious? And because, doctors, the human genome was only mapped out 20 years ago.
[00:18:49] Brenda: So if you had your practice, took your training 30 years ago, you don't even know much about specifics of it. So she said, tell me a little bit more about this. So I told her, and she was like, okay, so Do you actually [00:19:00] read people's DNA? I said that's not technically what it's called. But yeah, I do.
[00:19:05] Brenda: So she booked an appointment. Loved it. She has this Big Food Junkies podcast that you mentioned. She got her two co hosts to also do a DNA review with me. And they loved it so much that they just had me on two editions. One explaining how I came to this. And then two, the second one, interactions with them comparing their different DNA.[00:19:30]
[00:19:30] Brenda: The changes that they had made in their diet, their lifestyle, their supplementation since they met with me, and how it benefited them. My trajectory, my big ticket item, has shifted slightly because this podcast drops in the first two weeks of June, and what is clear is that we need, I need an intermediate.
[00:19:49] Brenda: thing that is much more directed to specific genetics and walking people through then how you do that. But all the learning from people call this and I'm just, giving myself another big ticket. [00:20:00] I guess it's more in line with the current way that people seem to be going. So yeah, so that's like that.
[00:20:07] Brenda: I've had, they're sending clients my way already for my nourish your DNA review. I haven't even done The podcast has not even aired yet, and they're, and I'm sorry, launching the beta test for that big ticket item at the end of this month to those three co hosts. Are a part of it so they can understand it better.
[00:20:24] Brenda: They're the two therapist social workers that are a part of it, so they can refer their clients to [00:20:30] me for help with this. So I'm just like, whoa, okay. A little pivot here, but totally along the lines of what I want to do. So yeah, that's been, that's a big monetary win with future potential for much more of it.
[00:20:43] Brenda: Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Congratulations. And it's fun to see how your business continues to evolve and grow and how you continue to evolve and grow and continue to live out what I feel like is the theme of this podcast that nothing is wasted, right? Okay. Now I have this [00:21:00] new connection. Now I have this new opportunity.
[00:21:02] Chanelle: Nothing is wasted. I'm going to shift. I'm going to grow into that opportunity. So I just applaud you for doing that, for being open and willing. And I think that we can learn a lot and take a lot from your example of that. Now I'd love to hear. Your advice that you would share with others who are new to this journey that kind of getting started or maybe they're, they've been around a while, but they're struggling in their business.
[00:21:28] Chanelle: What advice would you [00:21:30] give to them? I find when I ask it, ask that question. It's always what is continuing to be most helpful for me that I'm not quite there, arrived at, but none of these, I'm going to give you three quick things. None of them have I arrived at them. Okay. They're all probably things I just needed an additional reminder of today.
[00:21:51] Brenda: Okay. So one, if you have a good plan, stick with it. I think that this program can help you create very [00:22:00] solid, stand the test of time, business plans and model. So stay the course, stay away from the kind of bright, shiny objects which are in the business world or the, get rich quick, do this, whatever even new courses or weekend trainings.
[00:22:17] Brenda: That don't support the main and the plane of what you're doing. Just let them fly by. Okay. So if you've got a good plan, stick with it. Number two, take care of you. One of the things that [00:22:30] most attracted me to Peaceful Profits at the beginning was the recognition that you could have a peaceful life, that you could do something you really loved and were passionate about in the business world.
[00:22:41] Brenda: And it did not mean abandoning. The children, and the grandchildren, and the husband that you really love, and the friends that you really love. So my daily mandatory actions, like the meditation, the audiobooks, the journaling. I journal less, but the other two are very regular parts of my life. And then I also add my own [00:23:00] Taking care of me, what I call, no matter what.
[00:23:02] Brenda: Get some sun on my face as close as possible when I wake up in the morning. Be out in nature, out for walks in the trails around my house. Eating my optimal fuel mix. Family time and getting enough sleep. I would suggest to anyone listening who is going, Yeah, that sounds good to me. Then, what are your personal keeping me at my best for?
[00:23:22] Brenda: Self care plan options, do them. And then number three, celebrate every freaking win, even [00:23:30] the teeny tiny ones, okay? Some weeks, self employment, particularly in the solo entrepreneur stage, like I have, To many hired people, a little bookkeeper for a few hours, and a little admin for a few hours, but it's mostly just me.
[00:23:45] Brenda: And sometimes, at this stage it just simply sucks. The computer crashes, you're scrambling through a number of different projects, all of which require your input on them. Your tax bill is due, you cut the fluid, there's no one covering for you [00:24:00] It's not a very fun, Time sometimes. So I think it's really important to not just celebrate when you sell a big ticket offer and you make, a thousand or fifteen hundred or two thousand or five thousand, whatever it is.
[00:24:13] Brenda: It's really important to be grateful that you sold another few 497 books. And dance around your office, when a client is so grateful to finally have clear direction and have rekindled hope and, the belief that she [00:24:30] could still feel healthier no matter what age she's at. When you finish a new cool document in Canva, when you finish another module in your membership site Take a minute, as Joe Dispenza and others say, and just sit in that present moment.
[00:24:43] Brenda: Be there. Feel like you have a wave of contentment and accomplishment and joy. And don't just be there for 30 seconds while you plan your next strategy or you're, you think about, oh yeah, but I tried that before and it didn't, it did eventually evolve. No, just right [00:25:00] now, present, celebrate, let it roll over you, even if only for a few minutes.
[00:25:05] Brenda: Because then You can get going on the next step in this wonderful plan for your life. Those are the three
[00:25:12] Chanelle: I love it. Okay, to recap for all of you listening, stick to the plan, take care of you and celebrate. Those are fantastic pieces of advice. I love it. Now, to wrap up, we would love to hear how listeners can find out more [00:25:30] about you and what it looks like to work with you.
[00:25:32] Brenda: Sure. Absolutely. So my website is imbalance lm.com ll lifestyle management. So imbalance, lm. And on there you can shop for my book, the, eat, sleep, move for your Genetic body type, how to basically physically and emotionally care for unique use. It works on metabolic typing and then just a little bit of stuff on genetics.
[00:25:56] Brenda: And then, if you have already had your DNA [00:26:00] dumped through 23andMe and you're tired of looking up long lost relatives and you actually want to do something else with that, you can book a Nourish Your DNA review with me, again, on the website, inbalancelm.com/shop. Both the book and the review are on there, where you get really amazingly personalized And practical tips on how to eat, sleep, move, detox, all those kind of things.
[00:26:23] Brenda: And then you're also super welcome, I'd be very happy if you want to join my free Facebook group that Amanda made [00:26:30] me set up, which I'm so glad that I have. And that one is Healthy Lifestyle Support for Women. That's it. I have ongoing one to one consulting that I do with people. As well as a number of different groups that run 12 week programs that run and so those are all through Zoom.
[00:26:46] Brenda: So I have clients all over the world, basically Africa, Europe, States, and so it's very fun. So any of those ways, I would be happy for you to join me and just check out and see if I might be able to be helpful to you as well.
[00:26:59] Chanelle: Perfect. [00:27:00] Thank you for sharing those and you have been helpful to all of us today.
[00:27:04] Chanelle: So thank you for being here and for all the wonderful things you've shared.
[00:27:07] Brenda: Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. Okay.
[00:27:11] Chanelle: Thank you everyone for being here and for listening and we'll see you next time. Bye.