047. Dishing with Beryl Krinsky, Entrepreneur and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist — DishWithDina

Welcome back, dear listeners, to the Dish with Dena podcast. I am so happy to have you join us again today. My guest is Beryl Krynski. Beryl and I dish about our second careers, the power of positive thinking, and our never-ending ambitious list of goals and future pursuits. Beryl runs two successful organizations. One is a corporate wellness firm that helps companies provide wellness events and strategies for their employees. and the other is a fairly new dietetic internship program that focuses on business planning and entrepreneurship to help our future colleagues hit the ground running in opening their own businesses once they pass their dietetic exam. So sit back, enjoy the conversation, and let's dish.

Welcome Beryl Krynsky to the Dish with Dina podcast. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to chat with me. There's so much going on in your world and I I can't wait to catch up.

Oh, thank you, Deena. It's wonderful to be here and thank you for doing this and providing this outstanding resource.

Yay. As I always do in the beginning of my episodes is a little bit of an origin story and you and I know each other in a variety of different ways. Will you share with our listeners if you even remember this far back? Because I was having trouble thinking, was it 5 years? Was it 4 years? But it's been a while that you and I have known each other. So share a little bit about how maybe we've come to learn about each other and the capacities that we work together.

Oh sure. Let's see. Well, I'm a business owner and my first business is called Be Complete and that is a corporate wellness firm. And we grew pretty fast into the New York area. And I was looking to find a registered dietitian that was friendly and personable and great with groups. And I came across your website or maybe your LinkedIn. I can't remember. And I reached out and I think it was when you had recently become a registered dietitian. But as your listeners know, you have such a great background in all different areas, media and project management, et cetera. And you said this would be great. And so of course I wanted you on the team. And prior to the pandemic, we were doing a lot of in-person wellness events and that was awesome. When I was getting the second business, which is a dietetic internship underway, I wanted to put together a really diverse board of advisors, advisory board. And you were one of the first people that came to mind for many reasons. And one of the reasons being because you are a second career registered dietitian and a good number of our interns are also second career RDs to be, and I knew you were going to connect really well. And since you've worked with so many interns and so many students, and you are such an amazing preceptor also, I thought you'd be such a wonderful board member. And I will always remember the day when I asked you if you would be on the board, and I think you started to tear up and I started to tear up, and we were both like jumping up and down and hugging. It was awesome. And that was back in 2018 or 2019, I can't remember.

Yeah.

And now, you know, 2022, and here we are.

It is crazy how so much has happened in what I think is a short amount of time, because you're right, I met you at the beginning of my second career as a dietitian. And for people who have been listening to this podcast, and for many of the guests that I've had on, those of us who are in the field of dietetics, we know how It does take a very long time to get through it, a lot of time, energy, blood, sweat, and tears, and so on. So it's really so wonderful when people can connect on different levels of understanding, not just the path through the dietetics, but also, as you said, if you're coming from a place of being an adult learner or it is a second career path for you. And like in my case, I came from a Bachelor of Arts and I ended with a Master of Science. It's like learning 6 different languages over the course of, you know, 5 years or so. And then into that too, because the, I guess, the traditional pathways that dietitians take, or as they progress through being interns, are more clinical and community-focused. And then here you enter in with a business entrepreneur-focused internship program. Like, you really have been a pioneer in this field, and I'm so grateful to know you in so many different capacities and for being— to be able to have the opportunities that I've had because of you, because you make me feel like anything can be accomplished and that there are— I can be fearless about things. And that especially you as a woman entrepreneur, like, this is important to see representation like that as well out there. So I'm, I'm just so pleased and honored to be in whatever way I can be in your circle. So thank you for all the kind things that you just said, and likewise as well, tenfold, Beryl.

Oh, thank you, Dina. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.

I love this, for sure, for sure. So I want to also learn a little bit more about the you that I don't know about, as a lot of these episodes are based on, you know, we all eat food, everybody eats, we all have a story to share. Can you tell us a little bit about what some of the earliest food memories that you had as far as where you grew up, what maybe your culture was, your upbringing, your relationship with food back then, and how that might have led you into the path that brought you to dietetics?

This is quite a story. My relationship with food started at an extremely early age, and I was a food critic before I even knew what the word critic meant. I was rating quiche. I would say, like a little teeny kid, this is a good quiche, but not the best I've ever had. And I would, I would, my parents would take us to restaurants and I would tell the waitress, there's always room for dessert, and all kinds of crazy stories with food. When I was a really young person, I appreciated food based on the way it tastes, maybe smelled a little bit, looked, but a lot of taste. As I started to get older, I started to learn more, a little bit about nutrition. When I was 13 years old, I was doing a science experiment and my mom helped me. And the science experiment was looking at what the food of my fellow 13-year-olds were eating. And then we did food makeovers. Like, for example, let's say someone was eating chips and we suggested like popcorn, which is easy, but then we went a little deeper and we looked at maybe like pepperoni pizza rolls and made instead spinach and ricotta pizza rolls. And then we did some surveys and we analyzed and the kids rated the food makeovers and they really liked the food makeovers and I won several different levels of the science fair, and I kept, you know, kept progressing, and everyone said, this is such a great science project. And that was kind of when the light bulb went off, and I realized, oh, I really like this. And then when I went to college, and I took my very first introductory nutrition class, I knew how much I love nutrition and food. So that kind of started at an early age, and I've always been a foodie. And my family, I'm the one that, that studied nutrition and food, but my whole family are there. Everyone's a foodie. And we talk about food all the time. We definitely still rate food. We tell stories about food. And it seems like a lot of our most fond memories deal with food.

As I tend to do, I'm scribbling I wrote down a lot of information on my little notepad here because this is cracking me up. I'm picturing little you with your school classmates. Everyone else is doing the volcano explosion lava stuff, and you're sitting there critiquing food and coming up with alternatives of modifications to different recipes.

I love that.

So your mom was the one that kind of encouraged that science fair project, and you mentioned a lot of people in your family are foodies, but does anybody have a background in culinary arts or anything? Does anybody own a restaurant, anything like that?

No, nothing like that. My mom's background is in art. My dad's background is in medicine. And the rest of my family, you know, business and lawyers, engineers, like no, no other formal food training. I'm the only one that with the nutrition and food training.

That is amazing. And this just goes to show you that sometimes hobbies and desires don't necessarily have to be your full-time job. Like you can still enjoy a lot of things. Quote unquote, on the side, but also feel very lucrative and can have you explore your passions while you're also working on other things. And this is something too that I teach undergrad nutrition, and we have life cycle discussions, and we talk about how food experiences and behaviors can shape people in their childhood years and leading them up, obviously, into their adult years. But things like allowing your children to experiment with different flavors and tastes and having them cook in the kitchen, going out to eat and dine out. So did you live in an area where you were able to explore a variety of cultures, or did you just experiment with like cookbooks? So how did that, how did that work as far as broadening your scope of tastes and preferences?

Well, when I was growing up, we did, we moved around a considerable amount. And so I, I did grow up in different states and, you know, different, different environments. So that exposed me to different types of cuisine. And then, I was really interested in it and my mom would get me cookbooks and I would look through and she had tons of cookbooks too. And, and we would look through different recipes to understand more about different types of cultural cuisine. My background is Judaism. And so I learned traditional Jewish recipes. We had a lot of friends of different backgrounds and my parents loved all foods. So whenever we had an opportunity to go visit someone else, we'd always want to taste their traditional cuisine. So I was fortunate in the fact that my parents helped expose me to different types of food and different types of cultures.

Oh my gosh, that is amazing. I compare this with some of my earlier food memories. My mom and dad, well, my parents are born and raised in Italy, and then they came to America. And my father was very not into a lot of other things. So he was like, why eat when you can make it at home? And that sort of thing. So we were really not exposed to many other cultures. And when we did get together with people, they were all what we call paisans, right? They were like fellow country people from Italy, and not just different regions of Italy, all from the same tiny town that we just kind of, you know, congregated for events and holidays. So we didn't really have a lot of exposure, but I was always interested in, in trying new things and cooking at home when I was allowed to. So I love that we have that in common too, being able to explore. In your case, encouraged by your family. In my case, I just kind of, you know, went rogue, did that on my own. But I just— I love when the earlier you get involved in these things, I really do think they allow you to shape the behaviors that you have, not just with the experience of cultural foods, but also nutrition and how you feed yourself and allowing yourself to be free with things that you choose. Obviously, as long as we have the access to do so, both financially and location-wise, we have access to certain foods. So I just love, love, love that story. And I honestly, I don't think I knew that about you. So thank you for sharing that. That was so cool to learn. Let's fast forward a little bit. So now in your current state of affairs, now that you are a dietitian and you have a couple of your own businesses, one of which was the dietetic internship, as you mentioned, was there anything, especially since you have such a broad family base with a lot of different things that are potentially also influencing you in that sense, was there anything that you brought with you in developing yourself as an entrepreneur? Because that's It's a bit of a scary thing. Not everybody's cut out for it. It can feel a little bit overwhelming. Tell us a little bit about your process with even venturing into your own business pursuits and why not work with just a traditional 9-to-5 and call it a day?

I also knew ever since I was really young that I wanted to either be an entrepreneur or run a business. I knew that very, very early on. And I didn't know exactly how I would get there, but I knew I would get there. And when I was, I worked in corporate America for about 10 years and I also got my MBA when I was working in corporate America. And I kind of was quote training myself, I'm doing air quotes, training myself for entrepreneurship. And then when I was, this was over 10 years ago, I met someone who's also an entrepreneur and he became my first business mentor and kind of showed me the ropes and helped give me the courage to quit my 9 to 5. Well, it wasn't a 9 to 5, but you know, the corporate job, it was totally scary. Uh, but I did it anyway and I believed in myself. And I think, I think that's something that people listening and people that are thinking about starting a business or doing something scary, it's so important to believe in yourself no matter what. And it's important to believe that you don't have to know all the answers. And in fact, you don't even have to know most of the answers, but to believe that you're going to be able to figure it out or you're going to work with someone who, who can help you figure it out. I think that's one of the keys. And I, I did. I believed in myself. And actually my parents in a very nice way told me I was crazy to quit my corporate job. But I said, you know what? You can think I'm crazy and I'm going to do it anyway. I think that I had enough experience where I knew that if it didn't work out, I would be able to pretty easily go back and get another job, but I knew I would regret it forever if I didn't give it a real authentic chance. And through a ton of hard work, I mean the hardest, I can't even describe how hard this work has been, but, um, I would do it a million times over again. And I would say I really, I felt, I felt successful at a few different points within my career so far. But I think the most successful and grateful I felt was in 2020, 2020, when we got the accreditation for the internship. And that was such an accomplishment. And I really felt like this is, this is what I'm on this earth to do.

It is so beautiful when things align like that. And I made some notes as you were talking about some keywords. You know, it's not a woo-woo mindset when you really do think positively, you have these affirmations, I know I can, I'm resourceful, I'm confident, I trust that I can figure things out. I think a lot of times people just get stuck with like, you know, what's it called, analysis paralysis and that sort of thing, that they get stuck in a mindset of I'm afraid to make that first step. But just like Beryl was saying, it doesn't have to be perfect. You just can move forward, figure it out as you go, have some idea or action plan in mind, but know that you are resourceful and that there are plenty of things out there who, and people too, I've found that are willing to share information, willing to guide you. In your case, Beryl, you mentioned having a mentor. So there are people out there who are able to provide you with experience, knowledge, skill sets, checklists. In our world, you know, I hope that some of the preceptors that oversee interns aren't just there to supervise the, the practice of the intern, but also provide that mentorship when they can. And again, everybody brings something different to the table, but that even if you learn something, what not to do, that's still a step in the right direction because then you know what you're on the path for and things that are validating to that. And so, in your first business that was specifically with corporate wellness and you came from, as you said, corporate America, you had the discussion about the MBA and so on, and that then turned into what you wanted to see as far as the dietetic internship. In other words, were there things out there that you just felt like this could be better. We could have different offerings. And I'm the person to step in and provide that resource and that opportunity and that experience to these new— this new generation of dietitians who wants to come in and create their own world for themselves.

The idea for the internship, the Complete Business Dietetic Internship, it, it evolved from early stages of my first business, Be Complete. And so when it was like the first year or so, and creating all of the materials for Be Complete, I needed help. And, you know, at that point I couldn't hire people to help me. And so I had interns, I had dietetic interns, and I had some students that were getting master's in nutrition. And each month someone will come to help for 4 weeks. And many of them were extremely helpful. And when we would talk and I did provide mentorship and we would talk and we would have lunch and we'd get to know each other. And then they would come with me when I was doing events or sales meetings or things like that. And they would ask the same question, each one of them, how did you start your business? How do you know how to start a business? How do you know sales and marketing and all these business-related questions? And after 6 of them asked me the same question, I had another light bulb go off and I thought, now these are, Smart, capable, motivated dietetic interns/graduate students, and they are not learning about business at all. I need to change this. And look, I actually had an intern look this up. I said, can you look up how do you start a dietetic internship? This is going back like 2016, or wait, was it 2015? I think 2015. So she looked it up and she said, okay, Beryl, I found it. And you have to have been in business and profitable for 5 years. So I marked the calendar. I literally marked the calendar and it was, started working on the self-study. It was fall, I think of 2018, fall of 2018 and submitted it. I think it was December 2018. Yeah, it was December 2018. That's when we started the process. Because I had it on the calendar when I could apply because I had to wait 5 years. And so then I had it on the calendar and, and I applied and it took, it took that long to get it accredited. It took like almost, almost 2 years. But that's okay. You know, sometimes things happen differently than you predict, right?

The process was not your fault. Like you, you had to comply by certain criteria and that's what happens. I mean, I'm in the process of taking insurance for my one-on-one private practice. And I did all the right things that I'm doing. And now I have to kind of sit by and wait for some things. But I love that you, you just measured it out. You're like, let's weigh and measure. I'm marking it on my calendar. That's the day it's going to happen. Also something that I want to point out too, which a lot of people tend to— I think we come to learn this as we go. Things are sometimes offered to you. Like you pay attention enough in the conversations that you're having, you can pick up where what we call those pain points are, where people are struggling. And if you are so prone to and interested in designing a business or providing a service or putting a program together or working with whatever, your community, and doing some sort of intervention somewhere within your neighborhood, looking to see what people struggle with the most— boom, that's a built-in opportunity right there for you. So I love that you just picked up on the same question coming over and over again and thinking to yourself, you know, like, this is a no-brainer, like, I could easily plug myself in. And you have the ability to do that. So now this is exciting. Because share with us, for anybody not listening, and it's rare that most people who are listening to this don't know what a dietetic internship is, can you share with us a little bit about your internship, the KPTI, in relationship to a more traditional, uh, internship? And we're talking two things. Number one, the distance versus the traditional track, and then number two, the emphasis. In the case of rotations, what people are getting their experience in, there's got to be certain things that are going to be No matter where they go, this has to be completed. There's a competency that's related to that. So they do have to still work in a clinical setting and do other things. But what are some of the things that you have built into your curriculum?

The first point that you made, we are a distance internship, and the model for that is that our interns are able to pick the geographic region where they do their supervised practice rotations. This option makes it more cost-effective for people that, for example, want to live at home or with relatives. It also makes it more flexible for people that might have, you know, saved up some money or maybe had a job, you know, in between and want to travel and want to experience the supervised practice rotation in a totally new geography. We have had a handful of interns that have moved across the country because they want to they really want to see what it's like in a totally different state. They want to work with a specific preceptor that they follow, that they really admire, and it's such a cool opportunity to do that. Our internship, as you mentioned, is business and entrepreneur focused, and so we have built in 7 weeks of business rotation, which is pretty different. The majority of dietetic internships do not have any business rotation or any business training built into the program.

Correct.

And we have, um, we've reduced as much as we can the other hours, but we still have to make sure that our interns feel really confident in all the other areas of dietetics. For example, we, we still have 9 weeks in clinical. We have 3 weeks in community, and we have 6 weeks in food service management. We offer something that's also a little different. We have 3 weeks of enrichment. This is traditionally in our program done at the end of the rotations, and this gives our interns an opportunity to pick 3 weeks of an area of supervised practice that they're super interested in. Maybe they didn't get enough experience during their traditional rotations, or maybe they loved a rotation so much they want to go back. Um, our interns get to create their own goals and objectives for this 3-week rotation, and we've gotten great feedback from this too. Interns really love having this option, and preceptors really appreciate it also because, um, it's more fluid and it gives both the preceptor and the intern complete control over what they're learning and projects and, and opportunities that they're doing.

Right, a little bit more robust. Like you said, it's an enrichment of it, so you're adding on or you're going back into and, you know, kind of flushing that out a little bit more than you might have been able to in that set rotation.

Another aspect that's different with our internship is that we have our interns create business plans. We have them do business plans for the different site rotations. And then the— I personally think it's the best part of the internship— for the, the grand finale, the final project, the interns create their own business plan. So that idea that they've been thinking about, dreaming about, maybe an idea that they figured out during a rotation, that they really want to take to the next level. They create the business plan. Um, I specifically help them with their business plans and then we do a business pitch event and the interns get advice from business leaders, registered dietitians who have their own successful private practices, registered dietitians in industry. We also have some business advisors. So it's a really, really great— it's a really great opportunity. It's a really great part of the program, and some of our graduates have taken their business plans and created businesses or grown existing businesses, which is so awesome.

It really is awesome. If anybody out there is aware of what it takes to put together a business plan, it is very time-consuming. There's a lot of research involved. But honestly, it's like anything. If you want to travel, if you want to go on vacation, if you're planning a trip, you need a roadmap. You need to figure out what's going on. Without a business plan, you could be spending an inordinate amount of money on investing for whatever supplies and equipment and training, overhead for rent, etc., and then not even realizing that you're not making as much as you could be making because you don't have a proper marketing plan in place, you don't know how to collaborate and do partnerships with people, or there might be places where you are more desirable because you're living in an area that doesn't really have what you're going to be offering. And so that's something that is so, so unique in the KBDI program barrel. And I know, having not just been involved with the advisory board but also having been a preceptor to so many of your interns, that But if it weren't for them, I still would be floundering because they really helped me. I mean, this was almost like it was— I felt embarrassed almost of how little I had put together for myself because when I started, I kind of just hit the ground running with throw everything at anything and see what sticks. And it was very overwhelming to me to go through page after page and figuring out, you know, who my competition is, what my target audience is, what's my mission, vision statement. And all of your interns chose a particular avenue or a channel in which I wanted to pursue within my own business, because I don't want to just do private practice. I want to do a variety of other things. And they were so, so creative. Everybody had like their own spin. They were so involved in the conversations that we had too. It didn't feel like it was just an assignment for them. It felt like they were really truly invested emotionally in seeing me succeed. And so I am so grateful that that exists for me as a as the business person and as the preceptor, but also for them, because just like you said, I mean, I think this is really across the board in a lot of different majors. You don't learn in school things that are going to set you off into the real world. You don't have that hands-on application. It's all very, you know, theoretical and textbook-based. Resources are provided to you, but you don't really have that experience there. And maybe you'll do some fieldwork assignments or you'll volunteer, but you still don't know the nitty-gritty of things. And I think that's really what sets apart your program from so many others. And just as a side note, since you tooted my horn earlier, I'm going to toot yours now because I have been a preceptor since day one, literally day one as a dietitian. So a little bit more than 6 years, I hit the ground running and I just collected interns as I went because I wanted to give back as soon as possible and really, you know, be able to experience that, what I thought was mentorship and nurturing, and work with them side by side. So I've worked with a lot of different programs across the country and nobody is as hands-on and as involved as you are. With the interns, with the preceptors, with the program. So it speaks a lot to, you know, your baby is there, you're taking care of it, yes, but you really— I think you're just so supportive in nature, and you have a ton on your plate. So it's not like, oh, you have more time than other people do. I probably think you probably have less time than other people do because you're juggling so much. So I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the amount of effort and energy that you put into your program and to directing your interns, because I think as a result they're going to be that much more successful.

I teared up when you said that. Thank you. Thank you.

You're very welcome. So let's talk— I want to keep my eye on the time here, so I don't want to, um, I mean, I could talk to you for 4 hours, Beryl, you know this, but I want to find out a little bit more about the future you, because for a couple of reasons, for those who are involved in this profession, we now have a mandatory master's degree requirement. So back in the day, you had to have your bachelor's and then you went into your internship and that was done. And now because the powers that be want to, you know, elevate the profession, and I believe they think with having us have a degree in this realm that we might end up getting a little bit more money because we've often not been paid very much in this sense. But in your doing so, you know, you're not automatically affiliated with a program or college. So can you tell us a little bit about this? Because there This is exciting news.

Yeah, we are, we are so excited about our master's partnerships, and we started looking at different master's programs because we knew that we were gonna have to partner with at least one, but we actually went with two different options. And because of our focus, we wanted to find graduate programs that aligned. So our first Our first master's partnership is with Middle Tennessee State University, and they have a master's in nutrition leadership. And we thought that this would be such a great option for our interns that are coming in without a master's that, you know, we have— everyone has to have a master's, but they didn't want to do the full-on MBA yet, but they wanted to do something that was in leadership, and we thought this is perfect. And the, the Master's in Nutrition Leadership is a 30-credit program, and we're going to be able to give our interns up to 6 credits off of the 30 credits based on the KBDI business plans and business assignments. So that'll be really great. And then it's an asynchronous program, and we're, we're estimating that interns will be able to complete the supervised practice and the master's between— within 14 to 16 months. So pretty fast and furious, and graduates will come out with both supervised practice hours completed and the Master's in Nutrition Leadership. So that's option number 1. Option number 2, we are business and entrepreneurship, so we have to have an MBA partner, and we definitely looked at many different options. However, we're going with my alma mater, which is St. Joseph's University, and they have an online MBA. They have different tracks, and we're encouraging our interns that want to do the MBA to either do the leadership MBA track or the healthcare administration MBA track. This MBA is all online. Anyone that's local to Philadelphia could go to classes, but it's all online. And this is the part we really like too. They are live online classes. So like for example, when you're doing your finance, which is really hard, or your economics, which is real, or accounting, which are really hard classes, you're doing it live. So you can ask the professor in class your questions versus asynchronous, which, um, you can of course still ask questions, but it's not done. It's not done live. So that's why we went with that MBA option. I just remember when I did my MBA, I did an executive program and I did go to class. I did go to class. And, um, when I was doing some of the online work, like for example, finance, it was really, really hard to do finance online because especially when you're coming from a non-business background, you're gonna have more questions than someone that's coming from a business background. So it— I think for the interns that are doing the MBA track, having those live virtual classes is going to be really, really helpful. That program we anticipate taking a little bit longer before the supervised practice starts. Anyone that's coming in that's going to do that track will be able to do the foundational classes, and those are asynchronous. The foundational classes you can get those done in the summer before the supervised practice starts. And then we're estimating the MBA to take also about 16 months to complete, and that would be supervised practice and MBA classes.

Oh my gosh, what a, what a fantastic— again, the roadmap is what I'm thinking of there too. You have everything laid out for them. They have an option of which, which direction they want to go in, and the affiliations with these. I mean, this is fantastic. Also As an adjunct myself, while I'm— and, and also being a student myself sometimes— while I appreciate self-paced, asynchronous, there really is something to say about having the ability to have that live option too, because you do, you have interactions with your classmates and your teacher, and it feels a little bit more, I guess, exciting and tangible versus kind of flying solo on, on your own there. Uh, that is, that is so exciting. So congratulations for all This is super cool, super cool stuff. And that, that gets implemented like within the next year, or is that starting now?

It actually— we are, so we're officially approved and it will start with the, um, spring 2023 match. And so for anyone that's applying for the spring 2023, there are a few different options. So anyone that's coming in already with a master's completed or who are halfway finished with a master's will just complete our supervised practice.

Got it.

Anyone that's coming in without a master's will pick either, either of our master's options.

Fantastic. I have some follow-up questions that are somewhat related to this and somewhat related to you as an entrepreneur and as a business person going forward. So what does the future you look like, whether it's still related to the internship? Are there other things that you want to pursue? Do you want to take over the universe at one point, Beryl. What, what's your business plan?

I would say 5, in the 5-year plan, there will be additional management support for Be Complete as that business continues to grow and expand throughout the country. Now that the pandemic is winding down, we're doing more and more in-person events. And we're continuing to grow into different states. And so having more management for that business is the vision for the next few years. For the internship, our, our next big step is getting our full accreditation. And so we're gonna be, we're working on our self-study now, and we will have our accreditation meetings in the spring of '23. I would— and we also want to, we want to, we want to have our experience with our first class completing master's programs with supervised practice, right? But then in the next few years, I would like to grow the internship as well, and of course hire an additional director to help support the program, because just thinking about our number of applicants for our last last class, we had more than double the number of applicants of spots we have, right? And so there's, you know, we'll, we'll see, we'll see what happens. But, uh, I think there's a demand for this. And so how amazing would that be to be able to provide spots for just about everyone who's qualified and interested in this opportunity? Um, so I would like to expand the internship in the future as well, right?

I mean, we wish there was a place open for every single person that applies because that is unfortunately the way that the internship is, where there tends to be a lot more applications coming in and not enough positions to be filled. But that's because programs have to have management over that. Like, it can be quite overwhelming when you have 100 people signing up and you're trying to manage 100 people. So what are some— I'm gonna ask a couple questions. What are some of the things that you might look for when people are applying into your program? And I know some behind-the-scenes things for myself because I sat in on some of these interviews, but, you know, What, what would be an ideal candidate for your program?

The ideal candidates have a few different qualities. One of the things that's really important is internal motivation. Our internship is, well, it's a little harder. I think it's, I really think it's a little harder than traditional dietetic internships because we have that added business and entrepreneur training. So it ha— so the best dietetic interns are people that are internally motivated because you're going to be working a little bit harder than you're going to be working in something, something else. So that's number one. Number two is very organized. Being a dietetic intern, there are so many different things going on. You're going to different supervised practice. You have different preceptors. You, for example, you might be moving to a different location, you have your class days, you might still have a part-time job, you know, you have, of course, you have your life. There are so many other, so many things going on at the same time. And our interns that are most successful are the ones that are most organized. We also look for professionalism. That is critically important, and the professionalism is important As the interns graduate and then either go for their first job or, or job as a registered dietitian or start their business, professionalism is paramount. And so we really look for that too. And we also look for technical acumen. We're a distance program, we're doing so much virtually, right? And we want And now of course we will, we accept interns that, that are early stages with technical understanding and aptitude, but it helps so much to have that technical aptitude. And it doesn't, it doesn't mean that you're writing computer code or you're creating, you know, anything like that. It means that you have email etiquette. It means that you have some experience not hosting a webinar, but at least you've attended webinars. You know, things like that. So that really, that helps too.

Yeah, there's a lot of things that are naturally built into the competencies within every curriculum that have to be met, but I think having the ability to interview applicants as well, like get to know who they are, what their goals are, how they read in front of you too, exactly like you said, because it's a little tough to do that via web-based platforms instead of, you know, meeting and handshaking and sitting down with somebody and watching body language, you're really relying on people's different ways, their personalities, and shining through. And that's not to say, by the way, for anyone listening, you know, you can be a shy, reserved, introverted person but still have that drive. And that's what we're really trying to see come out. Like, what are the things that you're desiring to be? How do you stand out among the crowd? And why do you think you should land a spot in a place place like KBDI because they're really going to nurture you in that direction. So you want to make sure that you're getting what you can out of it and you can then almost like represent the program ad infinitum, you know, as the years progress, that you could really speak to what you learned and how that experience was for anything. Because you're not just going through, you know, in the machine and out the other end. There's a lot of stuff that you're going to be taking with you. So I really appreciate the support and guidance and experiences that you provide in that. So thank you again for sharing all that. So on your end, Beryl, you know, how are things? How do you keep on top of things? You have a lot going on. What are some of your non-negotiables as far as maybe, you know, your personal habits and self-care? What are some of the resources that you rely upon to keep up with certain things in the profession?

I have studied a lot on productivity, and so that's— and I actually do it, I do a workshop on that. So So I take my own advice on productivity and I'm not going to get into the details, but that's how I try to keep everything organized. As far as what I do to stay sane, I love exercise. I love it. I exercise just about every day and I do it because I love it, not because it provides all these amazing benefits. It's because I really enjoy it. And so, That's a non-negotiable. I, I really, I truly believe in meditation. I sometimes am really good about it and sometimes not as good about it. However, when I'm consistently meditating, my life improves and I believe in the power of meditation. I also believe in life balance and luckily my family is close to me. I have amazing friends. And so I have that social time. It might not be so much sometimes, but I always make sure I have some social time because that's really, really important. I spend time in nature. And last but certainly not least, I have the most adorable little bunny rabbit named Annabelle Sparkles. She's the light of my life. And every day when I see her, it just makes me smile and makes my heart so full.

Is she the Be Complete/KBDI mascot unofficially?

I guess unofficially she is. She's just so cute. I love that.

You really speak to a lot of, you know, practice what we preach type of things because it can be very overwhelming and it's easier said than done sometimes, which I understand when people have an unrealistic amount of work or they're limited with resources. But if you don't, you know, if you're the old adage says, right? If you try to pour from an empty cup, you're just not going to be able to do that. So really allowing yourself to have something. So in, in your case, it sounds like physical activity is a non-negotiable. This is something that brings you joy, you feel rewarded. In my case, physical activity is usually the first thing to come off my plate, and sleep is the one that I will absolutely not sacrifice ever. So depending on what every— anybody who has, you know, this, this concern with work-life balance, you make do with what you got sometimes. It can't maybe be perfect in that sense, but please don't ever deny yourself and everything for the sake of other things. Try to make sure you prioritize your physical and mental, mental health in particular in some way before you sacrifice that, because that really can be quite detrimental. So thank you for sharing that and providing some insight into your, your way of doing things too, Beryl. So is there anything that we haven't— we've covered a lot, so is there anything that we haven't covered that you would like to share? And of course I'll be including your social media connection information on here if anybody wants to reach out and follow and learn a little bit more about your programs.

For the internship, we, we host virtual open houses, and let's see, for the spring 2023 match, we're hosting one in November and one in January.

Sounds good. And then my final questions before we officially wrap up, Beryl, is what is— so right now at the time of this recording, we are in the beginning of a week, we are kind of mid-afternoon, a little bit late afternoon— what is on your plate, both figuratively and literally? So what is it that you're working on when we wrap up here, and then what are you going to be eating for your next meal?

Okay, well, I'll tell you, it's It's funny. I'll tell you what I had for lunch. Sometimes I eat things that are so healthy. I'm like, oh my gosh, why? I must do something that's not healthy because this is so healthy. But, and then I'll tell you what I'm doing later.

Okay.

I really like this brand called Kitchen and Love. And they have, it's for busy people that want to be healthy. So it's either a cup of cauliflower or a cup of quinoa. And it comes with kind of like a protein and seasoning pack. And you don't even have to heat it up, but of course it tastes better if you do. So I had, it was the Peruvian, something like that, Peruvian maybe ceviche, but you know, it's all plant-based. So it's the Peruvian mixture with the cauliflower. And then I put on a pouch of tuna and some pumpkin seeds.

Oh, I love it.

So healthy, but it tastes really good. So that's what I had for lunch. And then we're actually doing tomorrow, we're doing an in-person, a mini wellness fair tomorrow. So I'm going to take the materials over to one of the dietitians in, so I'm located in Southern New Jersey. So we're doing the fair outside of Philadelphia. So yeah, so a couple of the dietitians on the team are going to do the fair tomorrow. And so that's awesome. So happy to be doing in-person events again, finally.

For sure, for sure. I mean, it's nice to just have any contact, but it's also lovely to see people in human 3D form at that point. Oh my goodness, this has been such a pleasure to catch up with you, learn so much about all of the things that are going on in your life. I cannot thank you enough again for spending close to an hour with me, and I hope I can get to see you again in person, either in the city or some other way, maybe soon before the end of the year, at least next year, something like that. I really hope we get to cross paths in person again soon and hug, hug once more.

Oh yeah, me too, Dena. Yeah, we will. We definitely will.

Thank you so much for joining me this week on the Dish with Dena podcast. I am Dena D'Alessandro, registered dietitian nutritionist, founder and chief executive life changer at Dish with Dena, and I'm also your host. If you like what you heard, I would be so grateful if you could subscribe to this podcast, leave a review, and share this with others who you think might benefit from what we have to offer on these episodes. You can also join my mailing list at dishwithdina.com or email me at info@dishwithdina.com with questions, comments, feedback, and if you'd like to be a guest on a future episode, because everybody eats and we all have a story to share. I hope you tune back in next week when we dish again.