[g_podcast id="14167292"]
In this episode, I talk a bit about my personal past and what my entrepreneurial career is all about. I talk about how I got to the business I have today, what I'm all about, what my vision is for the future, and I'm curious to see how you like getting an insight into my development.
In this episode I tell you:
Welcome to a new episode of the Gut Happiness Podcast. This is Julia Gruber, your host. Today's episode is quite personal. An acquaintance, the lovely Marian, who is abusinessshaman, asked me to do a podcast episode about my entrepreneurial journey and how my business came about.
Of course I'm happy to do that. On the one hand, I thought: Well, I don't have such a huge story to tell. On the other hand, Iknow that some of my listeners are new. That's why I thought it might be a good idea to tell you a bit about me personally so that you can imagine who you're dealing with here.
I actually became an entrepreneur "by chance". When I met my husband Roman, he already had a business. Until then, I had always been an employee and never really had the urge to start my own business.
I originally trained as a hotel manager. At 19, after leaving secondary school, I asked myself: What should I do? What kind of training could I do? At first I wanted to study, but I didn't know what. Somehow I ended up in the hotel industry because I love traveling and speaking foreign languages. I speak several languages: Swiss German and High German of course, Italian, English and French quite fluently, Spanish quite well now too ssend. Somehow I've always had a talent for languages. I also learned Latin at grammar school, which is a great basis for other languages. So I wanted to do something that had to do with people, travel and languages. Hotel management was the obvious choice.
After hotel management school, I also worked in a hotel. Of course, I also did internships during school, one at Lake Constance in Switzerland and one in Italy, by the sea nearPortofino. After hotel management school, I worked in America for a year and a half, inBoca Raton in Florida. Ireally liked that too. It was a huge hotel with 1,000 rooms and 2,000 employees. It was also a historic building, the original building. There were several buildings.Boca Ratonis a well-known resort in the USA for meetings, also known for tennis and golf. I really enjoyed itbecauseit had a special atmosphere and asizethat you don't know from Switzerland.
After a year and a half, my visa expired and I went back to Switzerland. Somehow I didn't know what kind of hotel I would work in after this experience. I didn't really feel like working in the Swiss hotel industry.
Then I started working for an internet company. It was actually a software company. It went bankrupt relatively soon, but this company passed me on to an internet company. I then worked there for several years as an office manager. Iwas in charge of administration, marketing and HR. It was a small company that thenmerged with alargercompany. That was also a super exciting time. I was the boss's right-hand man and was able to contribute a lot, help organize a lot and learned a lot, especially things that are now very useful for my business, such as everything to do with the Internet, websites, marketing knowledge, etc.
At some point, I got to the point where I really, really liked it and I also found it very difficult to quit my job, but I had the idea that - I think I was about 30 at the time - I felt like I wanted to go on a really bigtrip. I had seen that with my brother. He often traveled alone as a backpacker. I asked myself:Can I do that too? Can I do that too? Can I travel alone?
I didn't have a partner back then, I was completely unattached. I thought to myself: if I don't do it now, I might never do it. So I quit my job and went on a "trip around the world". "World trip" in quotation marks, because I didn't travel the whole world.I started with Hawaii, where I met up with a friend. I then went from Hawaii to Australia, where I spent three months. That was the maximum youcouldstay in Australia on a tourist visa. I traveled the east coast, the south, the west and Tasmania. Where I didn't go was right up north. I was in the middle -Uluru and so on - and I really enjoyed it.
I also learneda lotabout myself,including about being alone.However, I did meet up with people I knew from time to time. For example, I drove with a friend from Sydney to Adelaide via Melbourne. That was really, really, really great. Later, I met friends of my parents on the east coast. I ended up staying with a friend in Perth who I had met inBoca Raton, at this resort. She was my roommate at the time. We had rented an apartment together in America. She now lives in Perth and I visited her there.
Then I went to Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and back to Thailand. That was another three months or so.Then Icompleted the whole thing in Cornwall, England, where I met my family: Mother, aunt, brother etc. We had a nice final vacation in Cornwall and then I came back to Switzerland.
I think I have very often been guided by chance in my life. I got a job at a fitness center, where I took over the administrative management of a new center. I was allowed to. That's how I met my husband Roman, who already had his own company in the field of nutritional advice. He did blood analyses and put together vitamin mixtures based on the blood analyses, especially for athletes,because he himself came from top-class sport.
We started working together by me helping him to create his website and writing texts for him. We often went to sporting events at the weekend because he worked with athletes. They are always at the weekend, so I always had time to help him. I learned more about his business in the process. At some point, he asked: How about doing a bit more?
By then I was no longer working at the fitness center, but atPriceWaterhouseCoopers. That's a huge company in the consulting sector. I was an assistant to two partners there. I was then able to reduce my workload there so that I worked for Roman - my husband - one day a week. That's how I ended up at this company. At some point, I also resigned fromPriceWaterhouseCoopers. We moved from Zurich to Basel. Then I took the step ofworking with my husbandfull-time. That was the beginning of my entrepreneurial story, because then - yes - there was only our company left to finance our livelihood.
Back then, as I said, we did these vitamin analyses and were in a building where there was also anosteopath and a fitness center. The boss of this company had read a book - I still remember it -called"Das Mammut auf dem Teller" by Nicolai Worm. And he recommended it to me. That's how I got into the subject of nutrition, species-appropriate nutrition. I then trained as a nutrition coach and started advising people on nutrition.
And again this boss from the fitness centerwith osteopathy said: "They suggested a super concept to me, it's called 'metabolic Balance'. It's a nutrition program in which you create a personal nutrition plan based on a blood analysis. How does that sound to you? Wouldn't you like to offer something like that?" My husband and I both said more or less at the same time: "Nah, that sounds like marketing and nonsense, and we don't do that." But then this boss said: "Why don't you at least take a look at it?" We then attended a presentation and training session at, where we were given a personal nutrition plan and then realized that this is actually quite a good system.
So Istarted creating nutrition plans - these "Metabolic Balance" plans - and then really went from 0 to 100. I sometimes created 20 plans a month, achieved really great results with clients and gained the confidence to see what a difference nutrition makes in people's lives. I've had people come in after a fortnight and say: "I have so much more energy. I'm sleeping better. I've already lost a few kilos. I can get up the stairs better." That really inspired me. Ultimately, this laid the foundation for me to say that nutrition is our foundation and has a muchgreaterinfluence on our well-being than many people want to admit.
I believe that the experience I gained there is still the basis of my advice. I no longer actively offer"Metabolic Balance", although I still "can" do it - i.e. I still have the license. If someone says they want to have such a personalized nutrition plan based on a blood analysis - which was the case again just recently - then I can still offer that and I'm still a fan of the program if it's advised properly. I'm always being approached by people who say: "'Metabolic Balance' is humbug. It doesn't work. I know someone who tried it. It didn't work at all." I always say: "It really depends on who advises you, how you are guided through the program and ultimately how the person implements it."
It is based on a species-appropriate diet, a carbohydrate-conscious diet, which I still recommend. You only eat three times a day. You have a five-hour break between meals. These are all things that I recommend anyway, especially for a gut-healthy diet. In any case, that laid a bit of a foundation for what I do today.
This experience made us realize how important nutrition is. You can't just swallow vitamins. It is also important to adapt your diet accordingly. We then noticed that many people who had such a vitamin mixture done because they had vitamin deficiencies felt better subjectively, but did not have objectively improved blood values. When the follow-up check was carried out, they still had vitamin deficiencies even though they had taken the vitamins.
So at some point we came to the subject of the gut. My husband said: "There must be a leak somewhere. It must actually be in the gut, because the gut is the place where people absorb nutrients. And if someone takes vitaminsbut the vitamins don't reach the blood, then there must be a problem in the gut. be."
That was over ten years ago when he started offering and carrying out stool analyses. We really have done thousands of analyses. Unbelievably, thousands! Through these analyses, we gained a great deal of experience in the field of intestines and intestinal cleansing. We then looked for products that could help. If the stool analysis shows that something is wrong in the gut, then you also need products such as probiotics, prebiotics etc. to get the gut back in order. We then found a product that we liked, that worked well, that worked well. Customers then came and said: "I really feel better. I have better digestion, a better mood, better skin, no more hay fever, etc." We achieved really great results.
The sad part of the story was that this product came from Austria and was not really adapted to the Swiss legal situation. We also didn't get enough support from this company to make it legally compliant for Switzerland. So we had to look for another company. Again, it was a "coincidence" that someone from Arktis BioPharma in Germany approached us. We took a look at the products and realized that they really are top quality, everything is made in Europe, mixed in Germany and works just as well as what we had before, ifnot better in some respects.
So we added the Arktis products to our range, foundedthe Swiss representation of Arktis BioPharma and then gave these products to our customers in the practice and started supplying them to other therapists. This is how we came to have or still have this product company alongside our practice.
Roman and I with goalkeeper Diego Bengalio Roman with footballer Stephan Lichtsteiner
We then realized that the practice was fun and that we were having great success with our customers. We didn't do any advertising at all, just word of mouth.Metabolic Balance"certainly helped, because when people lose weight, their environment notices. People ask: "What have you done? You look look great?" Of course, they then told others that they had been with us. So we got lots and lots of recommendations, especially when it came to the gut, vitamins and so on. We also worked with professional athletes, especially with many footballers, including international teams:Bundesliga, Premier League, national players from Switzerland, etc.
So word got around. As a result, our practice was always fully booked. As a result, Roman and I were simply knocked out at some point and no longer really had any fun. If you are constantly fully booked and have to be fully bookedhave to beto bring in enough money to pay your rent, pay your staff and so on. I think many therapists feel that way. You hear it again and again, even from doctors, even from naturopaths, that it's a constant struggle. You can't work more than being fully booked. Time is simply the limiting factor.
That's why at some point we looked at all the rental costs, the staff costs, the effort involved in running a practice, plus the time tied up ... That's when we decided toclosethe practiceand only operate online, i.e. offer online consultations.
However, I had already started to develop an online course. I had already done this alongside the practice. At the time,it wascalled "Never again noodles is no solution either". That was the first nameof my course. It was purely a nutrition course.I used the content todevelop a course called "WellnEssen" because I wanted to show that you can achieve well-being through food. It's not primarily about weight and losing weight or anything like that, but about feeling really good in your body.
This "WellnEssen" then gave rise to "Darmglück". That's my ... I think they call it the "flagship course". It's the course I really prefer to offer when it comes to dietary changes and intestinal cleansing. It's more than just a course. It's actually a coaching program, because it includes live calls where participants can talk to me live and ask me questions. We have bonus calls with guest experts. At the moment, we've even included yoga classes. So, lots and lots of things. It's more than just an online course. It's actually a coaching program with a Facebook group where you're supported. That is This is the basis of what I do every day.
Of course, I still do themicrobiome analyseson the side. What does"on the side"mean?People who would like to book this canbooka microbiome analysis with me.This is particularly suitable for people who actually have intestinal problems, have already tried a lot of things, have been to many therapists and are somehow not sure what is really going on in their intestines. You can really see in black andwhite where there are problems in the intestine, whether there are any bacterial imbalances, whether the pH value is OK at all, whether there is perhaps an indication of certain intolerances, whether the intestinal mucosa is inflamed, whether there is a permeable intestine etc. etc. That's something I still offer. It's exactly the same as we used to do in the practice, except that we no longer have a consultation, buta video in which I explain the findings. If someone then wants a consultation, they can of course book one.
It turned out that this is just as easy to do online as offline. People even love the fact that they no longer have to travel to us. Some of our customers came from Zurich or Geneva or even from abroad. They can save themselves the trip now. You can talk to me via Zoom, from "computer to computer". The business has simply developed differently. It's still fundamentally the same, but it works completely online.
That's where I am today. What has been added in recent years, since I started working online, is the mental aspect. I have also trained in hypnosis. The effect of the subconscious on our health, on our thinking, these are things that I have added and that also make up the Gut Happiness course. It really isn't just about nutrition. It's not just about achieving the fastest possible result in the body, but also about looking at how I live my life: How do I live my life? What are my thoughts? What role does stress play, for example? Stress and the gut are closely linked. If I want to get my gut in order, then it is also very, very helpful to look at the topic of stress, for example, the topic of lifestyle. This has all found its place in the Gut Happiness Coaching Program.
Then at some point the podcast was added. That's where I am today.
As far as developments for the near future are concerned, I'm going to get more involvedwith ArktisBioPharma. In the meantime, my husband and I are keeping these two companies separate. There were two companies from the outset, but my husband no longer does any consulting work at all, instead devoting himself entirely to the ArktisBioPharma. In the future, I will support them a bit more, also in terms of marketing and newsletters, perhaps in terms ofsocial media, because that's something I enjoy, something I think I can do quite well and where I can perhaps add value.
What I would really like to do more with is my "talent" - I'll say that now - for drawing and illustrating, because I don't think many people like reading that much. Maybe I could see if I could givepeople who learn visually some more input. I'm also thinking about perhaps illustrating and writing a book one day, but with less text and more pictures, to bring these connections between gut and health, lifestyle and thinking into it.
The other direction in which I might go further would be to talk more and more about: How do you think? What are your thoughts?
Someone has already written here in the podcast that everything I do is too esoteric. I don't see it as esoteric at all. At the end of the day, it really is like this: how you think influences how you feel. You can observe when you have certain thoughts: How do you feel when you think these thoughts? The feeling then in turn influences how you act, i.e. the things you do. The way you actultimately influences the result you achieve. So your life circumstances aredirectlyinfluenced by your thinking.
For me, this is something that I definitely incorporate into my consultations and where I also think: whoknows, maybe one day I'lldesign a course that's more along these lines? I might offer coaching sessions that offer even more support. I say "life coaching" or "transformation coaching".I alreadydo that in "Darmglück". It's a very comprehensive program, as my participants always say. It's not a nutrition program, it's actually a lifestyle program that simply starts with nutrition.
My vision is that more and more people realize - right now ... We are still, now that I record this, in the "corona crisis". I think that right now it will be important for people to realize more and more that health is our greatest asset and that we have it in our hands to influence this health,that it is important to strengthen our immune system, that we don't have to be afraid that any virus can harm us immediately.
If we have a strong immune system, then our body is also able to fight off viruses. That's why it doesn't matter what I eat. Because things like sugar, fast carbohydrates and alcohol simplyweaken the immune system. That is a fact. That's not an opinion. That's a fact! If you're constantly eating things that bring your immune system down, then you're not doing yourself any favors. At some point, you won't be able to live your life the way you want to live it. That's my 'why' behind what I'm doing.
Where will this take me entrepreneurially? That was perhaps one of the questions Marian had when she asked me if I could record this podcast episode. I don't know yet. Basically, I think that what really fascinates me, and I see this with my customers too, is when people say: Hey, I've actually changed my life because of my change in diet.Maybe: I've made new friends. Or: I've made a change in my job. I got a new job or looked for a new job. Or: I have improved my relationship again and get on much better with my husband/wife. Or: I have more energy again and therefore feel more like getting more socially involved, for example.
I believe that in order for you to be able to take good care of other people, it is very, very important that you feel good yourself and that you have strength and energy and are in a good mood. If my offers have the effect that people actually optimize their lives and enjoy what they do more, then I have achieved my goal. That's why I do what I do.
I hope this has given you a bit of an insight into what I do and how I work. If you have any questions or would like to work with me, there is, as I said,the "Gut Happiness" coaching program. Just go towww.darmglück.com and you can find out more.
If you want to do a microbiome analysis - if you really want to take a look: What does my gut actually look like? Where can problems come from? Do I perhaps have silent inflammation? Do I perhaps have a permeable gut? -d data-contrast="auto">then you can find this offer here: https://arktisbiopharma.ch/gesunder-darm-angebot/
Now I thank you for listening, for taking part in my journey and I think now you knowa bit more about my background. I look forward to having you back next week for the next episode of the "Darmglück" podcast.
I wish you a good time.
Now I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast so that you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I would really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people find the podcast so we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
In this episode, I talk a bit about my personal past and what my entrepreneurial career is all about. I talk about how I got to the business I have today, what I'm all about, what my vision is for the future, and I'm curious to see how you like getting an insight into my development.
In this episode I tell you:
- What I did before I became a nutrition coach
- How I first got into nutrition and then gut health
- How my business has developed into what it is today
- What offers I have for my clients
- What motivates me
- Where it may go in the future
Welcome to a new episode of the Gut Happiness Podcast. This is Julia Gruber, your host. Today's episode is quite personal. An acquaintance, the lovely Marian, who is abusinessshaman, asked me to do a podcast episode about my entrepreneurial journey and how my business came about.
Of course I'm happy to do that. On the one hand, I thought: Well, I don't have such a huge story to tell. On the other hand, Iknow that some of my listeners are new. That's why I thought it might be a good idea to tell you a bit about me personally so that you can imagine who you're dealing with here.
I actually became an entrepreneur "by chance". When I met my husband Roman, he already had a business. Until then, I had always been an employee and never really had the urge to start my own business.
People - languages - travel
I originally trained as a hotel manager. At 19, after leaving secondary school, I asked myself: What should I do? What kind of training could I do? At first I wanted to study, but I didn't know what. Somehow I ended up in the hotel industry because I love traveling and speaking foreign languages. I speak several languages: Swiss German and High German of course, Italian, English and French quite fluently, Spanish quite well now too ssend. Somehow I've always had a talent for languages. I also learned Latin at grammar school, which is a great basis for other languages. So I wanted to do something that had to do with people, travel and languages. Hotel management was the obvious choice.
After hotel management school, I also worked in a hotel. Of course, I also did internships during school, one at Lake Constance in Switzerland and one in Italy, by the sea nearPortofino. After hotel management school, I worked in America for a year and a half, inBoca Raton in Florida. Ireally liked that too. It was a huge hotel with 1,000 rooms and 2,000 employees. It was also a historic building, the original building. There were several buildings.Boca Ratonis a well-known resort in the USA for meetings, also known for tennis and golf. I really enjoyed itbecauseit had a special atmosphere and asizethat you don't know from Switzerland.
After a year and a half, my visa expired and I went back to Switzerland. Somehow I didn't know what kind of hotel I would work in after this experience. I didn't really feel like working in the Swiss hotel industry.
Then I started working for an internet company. It was actually a software company. It went bankrupt relatively soon, but this company passed me on to an internet company. I then worked there for several years as an office manager. Iwas in charge of administration, marketing and HR. It was a small company that thenmerged with alargercompany. That was also a super exciting time. I was the boss's right-hand man and was able to contribute a lot, help organize a lot and learned a lot, especially things that are now very useful for my business, such as everything to do with the Internet, websites, marketing knowledge, etc.
The wide world is calling
At some point, I got to the point where I really, really liked it and I also found it very difficult to quit my job, but I had the idea that - I think I was about 30 at the time - I felt like I wanted to go on a really bigtrip. I had seen that with my brother. He often traveled alone as a backpacker. I asked myself:Can I do that too? Can I do that too? Can I travel alone?
I didn't have a partner back then, I was completely unattached. I thought to myself: if I don't do it now, I might never do it. So I quit my job and went on a "trip around the world". "World trip" in quotation marks, because I didn't travel the whole world.I started with Hawaii, where I met up with a friend. I then went from Hawaii to Australia, where I spent three months. That was the maximum youcouldstay in Australia on a tourist visa. I traveled the east coast, the south, the west and Tasmania. Where I didn't go was right up north. I was in the middle -Uluru and so on - and I really enjoyed it.
I also learneda lotabout myself,including about being alone.However, I did meet up with people I knew from time to time. For example, I drove with a friend from Sydney to Adelaide via Melbourne. That was really, really, really great. Later, I met friends of my parents on the east coast. I ended up staying with a friend in Perth who I had met inBoca Raton, at this resort. She was my roommate at the time. We had rented an apartment together in America. She now lives in Perth and I visited her there.
Then I went to Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and back to Thailand. That was another three months or so.Then Icompleted the whole thing in Cornwall, England, where I met my family: Mother, aunt, brother etc. We had a nice final vacation in Cornwall and then I came back to Switzerland.
First steps towards nutritional counseling
I think I have very often been guided by chance in my life. I got a job at a fitness center, where I took over the administrative management of a new center. I was allowed to. That's how I met my husband Roman, who already had his own company in the field of nutritional advice. He did blood analyses and put together vitamin mixtures based on the blood analyses, especially for athletes,because he himself came from top-class sport.
We started working together by me helping him to create his website and writing texts for him. We often went to sporting events at the weekend because he worked with athletes. They are always at the weekend, so I always had time to help him. I learned more about his business in the process. At some point, he asked: How about doing a bit more?
By then I was no longer working at the fitness center, but atPriceWaterhouseCoopers. That's a huge company in the consulting sector. I was an assistant to two partners there. I was then able to reduce my workload there so that I worked for Roman - my husband - one day a week. That's how I ended up at this company. At some point, I also resigned fromPriceWaterhouseCoopers. We moved from Zurich to Basel. Then I took the step ofworking with my husbandfull-time. That was the beginning of my entrepreneurial story, because then - yes - there was only our company left to finance our livelihood.
Back then, as I said, we did these vitamin analyses and were in a building where there was also anosteopath and a fitness center. The boss of this company had read a book - I still remember it -called"Das Mammut auf dem Teller" by Nicolai Worm. And he recommended it to me. That's how I got into the subject of nutrition, species-appropriate nutrition. I then trained as a nutrition coach and started advising people on nutrition.
And again this boss from the fitness centerwith osteopathy said: "They suggested a super concept to me, it's called 'metabolic Balance'. It's a nutrition program in which you create a personal nutrition plan based on a blood analysis. How does that sound to you? Wouldn't you like to offer something like that?" My husband and I both said more or less at the same time: "Nah, that sounds like marketing and nonsense, and we don't do that." But then this boss said: "Why don't you at least take a look at it?" We then attended a presentation and training session at, where we were given a personal nutrition plan and then realized that this is actually quite a good system.
Nutrition is the basis for everything
So Istarted creating nutrition plans - these "Metabolic Balance" plans - and then really went from 0 to 100. I sometimes created 20 plans a month, achieved really great results with clients and gained the confidence to see what a difference nutrition makes in people's lives. I've had people come in after a fortnight and say: "I have so much more energy. I'm sleeping better. I've already lost a few kilos. I can get up the stairs better." That really inspired me. Ultimately, this laid the foundation for me to say that nutrition is our foundation and has a muchgreaterinfluence on our well-being than many people want to admit.
I believe that the experience I gained there is still the basis of my advice. I no longer actively offer"Metabolic Balance", although I still "can" do it - i.e. I still have the license. If someone says they want to have such a personalized nutrition plan based on a blood analysis - which was the case again just recently - then I can still offer that and I'm still a fan of the program if it's advised properly. I'm always being approached by people who say: "'Metabolic Balance' is humbug. It doesn't work. I know someone who tried it. It didn't work at all." I always say: "It really depends on who advises you, how you are guided through the program and ultimately how the person implements it."
It is based on a species-appropriate diet, a carbohydrate-conscious diet, which I still recommend. You only eat three times a day. You have a five-hour break between meals. These are all things that I recommend anyway, especially for a gut-healthy diet. In any case, that laid a bit of a foundation for what I do today.
This experience made us realize how important nutrition is. You can't just swallow vitamins. It is also important to adapt your diet accordingly. We then noticed that many people who had such a vitamin mixture done because they had vitamin deficiencies felt better subjectively, but did not have objectively improved blood values. When the follow-up check was carried out, they still had vitamin deficiencies even though they had taken the vitamins.
So at some point we came to the subject of the gut. My husband said: "There must be a leak somewhere. It must actually be in the gut, because the gut is the place where people absorb nutrients. And if someone takes vitaminsbut the vitamins don't reach the blood, then there must be a problem in the gut. be."
The right products are needed
That was over ten years ago when he started offering and carrying out stool analyses. We really have done thousands of analyses. Unbelievably, thousands! Through these analyses, we gained a great deal of experience in the field of intestines and intestinal cleansing. We then looked for products that could help. If the stool analysis shows that something is wrong in the gut, then you also need products such as probiotics, prebiotics etc. to get the gut back in order. We then found a product that we liked, that worked well, that worked well. Customers then came and said: "I really feel better. I have better digestion, a better mood, better skin, no more hay fever, etc." We achieved really great results.
The sad part of the story was that this product came from Austria and was not really adapted to the Swiss legal situation. We also didn't get enough support from this company to make it legally compliant for Switzerland. So we had to look for another company. Again, it was a "coincidence" that someone from Arktis BioPharma in Germany approached us. We took a look at the products and realized that they really are top quality, everything is made in Europe, mixed in Germany and works just as well as what we had before, ifnot better in some respects.
So we added the Arktis products to our range, foundedthe Swiss representation of Arktis BioPharma and then gave these products to our customers in the practice and started supplying them to other therapists. This is how we came to have or still have this product company alongside our practice.
Roman and I with goalkeeper Diego Bengalio Roman with footballer Stephan Lichtsteiner
We then realized that the practice was fun and that we were having great success with our customers. We didn't do any advertising at all, just word of mouth.Metabolic Balance"certainly helped, because when people lose weight, their environment notices. People ask: "What have you done? You look look great?" Of course, they then told others that they had been with us. So we got lots and lots of recommendations, especially when it came to the gut, vitamins and so on. We also worked with professional athletes, especially with many footballers, including international teams:Bundesliga, Premier League, national players from Switzerland, etc.
100% fully booked
So word got around. As a result, our practice was always fully booked. As a result, Roman and I were simply knocked out at some point and no longer really had any fun. If you are constantly fully booked and have to be fully bookedhave to beto bring in enough money to pay your rent, pay your staff and so on. I think many therapists feel that way. You hear it again and again, even from doctors, even from naturopaths, that it's a constant struggle. You can't work more than being fully booked. Time is simply the limiting factor.
That's why at some point we looked at all the rental costs, the staff costs, the effort involved in running a practice, plus the time tied up ... That's when we decided toclosethe practiceand only operate online, i.e. offer online consultations.
Helping more people - anywhere, anytime
However, I had already started to develop an online course. I had already done this alongside the practice. At the time,it wascalled "Never again noodles is no solution either". That was the first nameof my course. It was purely a nutrition course.I used the content todevelop a course called "WellnEssen" because I wanted to show that you can achieve well-being through food. It's not primarily about weight and losing weight or anything like that, but about feeling really good in your body.
This "WellnEssen" then gave rise to "Darmglück". That's my ... I think they call it the "flagship course". It's the course I really prefer to offer when it comes to dietary changes and intestinal cleansing. It's more than just a course. It's actually a coaching program, because it includes live calls where participants can talk to me live and ask me questions. We have bonus calls with guest experts. At the moment, we've even included yoga classes. So, lots and lots of things. It's more than just an online course. It's actually a coaching program with a Facebook group where you're supported. That is This is the basis of what I do every day.
Of course, I still do themicrobiome analyseson the side. What does"on the side"mean?People who would like to book this canbooka microbiome analysis with me.This is particularly suitable for people who actually have intestinal problems, have already tried a lot of things, have been to many therapists and are somehow not sure what is really going on in their intestines. You can really see in black andwhite where there are problems in the intestine, whether there are any bacterial imbalances, whether the pH value is OK at all, whether there is perhaps an indication of certain intolerances, whether the intestinal mucosa is inflamed, whether there is a permeable intestine etc. etc. That's something I still offer. It's exactly the same as we used to do in the practice, except that we no longer have a consultation, buta video in which I explain the findings. If someone then wants a consultation, they can of course book one.
It turned out that this is just as easy to do online as offline. People even love the fact that they no longer have to travel to us. Some of our customers came from Zurich or Geneva or even from abroad. They can save themselves the trip now. You can talk to me via Zoom, from "computer to computer". The business has simply developed differently. It's still fundamentally the same, but it works completely online.
That's where I am today. What has been added in recent years, since I started working online, is the mental aspect. I have also trained in hypnosis. The effect of the subconscious on our health, on our thinking, these are things that I have added and that also make up the Gut Happiness course. It really isn't just about nutrition. It's not just about achieving the fastest possible result in the body, but also about looking at how I live my life: How do I live my life? What are my thoughts? What role does stress play, for example? Stress and the gut are closely linked. If I want to get my gut in order, then it is also very, very helpful to look at the topic of stress, for example, the topic of lifestyle. This has all found its place in the Gut Happiness Coaching Program.
Then at some point the podcast was added. That's where I am today.
What's next?
As far as developments for the near future are concerned, I'm going to get more involvedwith ArktisBioPharma. In the meantime, my husband and I are keeping these two companies separate. There were two companies from the outset, but my husband no longer does any consulting work at all, instead devoting himself entirely to the ArktisBioPharma. In the future, I will support them a bit more, also in terms of marketing and newsletters, perhaps in terms ofsocial media, because that's something I enjoy, something I think I can do quite well and where I can perhaps add value.
What I would really like to do more with is my "talent" - I'll say that now - for drawing and illustrating, because I don't think many people like reading that much. Maybe I could see if I could givepeople who learn visually some more input. I'm also thinking about perhaps illustrating and writing a book one day, but with less text and more pictures, to bring these connections between gut and health, lifestyle and thinking into it.
The other direction in which I might go further would be to talk more and more about: How do you think? What are your thoughts?
Someone has already written here in the podcast that everything I do is too esoteric. I don't see it as esoteric at all. At the end of the day, it really is like this: how you think influences how you feel. You can observe when you have certain thoughts: How do you feel when you think these thoughts? The feeling then in turn influences how you act, i.e. the things you do. The way you actultimately influences the result you achieve. So your life circumstances aredirectlyinfluenced by your thinking.
For me, this is something that I definitely incorporate into my consultations and where I also think: whoknows, maybe one day I'lldesign a course that's more along these lines? I might offer coaching sessions that offer even more support. I say "life coaching" or "transformation coaching".I alreadydo that in "Darmglück". It's a very comprehensive program, as my participants always say. It's not a nutrition program, it's actually a lifestyle program that simply starts with nutrition.
My "why"
My vision is that more and more people realize - right now ... We are still, now that I record this, in the "corona crisis". I think that right now it will be important for people to realize more and more that health is our greatest asset and that we have it in our hands to influence this health,that it is important to strengthen our immune system, that we don't have to be afraid that any virus can harm us immediately.
If we have a strong immune system, then our body is also able to fight off viruses. That's why it doesn't matter what I eat. Because things like sugar, fast carbohydrates and alcohol simplyweaken the immune system. That is a fact. That's not an opinion. That's a fact! If you're constantly eating things that bring your immune system down, then you're not doing yourself any favors. At some point, you won't be able to live your life the way you want to live it. That's my 'why' behind what I'm doing.
Where will this take me entrepreneurially? That was perhaps one of the questions Marian had when she asked me if I could record this podcast episode. I don't know yet. Basically, I think that what really fascinates me, and I see this with my customers too, is when people say: Hey, I've actually changed my life because of my change in diet.Maybe: I've made new friends. Or: I've made a change in my job. I got a new job or looked for a new job. Or: I have improved my relationship again and get on much better with my husband/wife. Or: I have more energy again and therefore feel more like getting more socially involved, for example.
I believe that in order for you to be able to take good care of other people, it is very, very important that you feel good yourself and that you have strength and energy and are in a good mood. If my offers have the effect that people actually optimize their lives and enjoy what they do more, then I have achieved my goal. That's why I do what I do.
I hope this has given you a bit of an insight into what I do and how I work. If you have any questions or would like to work with me, there is, as I said,the "Gut Happiness" coaching program. Just go towww.darmglück.com and you can find out more.
If you want to do a microbiome analysis - if you really want to take a look: What does my gut actually look like? Where can problems come from? Do I perhaps have silent inflammation? Do I perhaps have a permeable gut? -d
Now I thank you for listening, for taking part in my journey and I think now you knowa bit more about my background. I look forward to having you back next week for the next episode of the "Darmglück" podcast.
I wish you a good time.
Now I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast so that you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I would really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people find the podcast so we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
