NakedChats

Tess Keightley defines herself as a ‘digital dietitian' and is the founder of Authentic Spoon Nutrition. She enjoys assisting health-conscious food brands by delivering nutrition consultancy services and media commentary, adding value to brands by delivering trusted dietitian-approved messages that allow them to flourish. If you follow Tess on Instagram @authentic_spoon, you may have seen that earlier this year she was appointed as the dietitian for YouFoodz - a nationally recognised meal delivery service company. When she isn’t working for YouFoodz, Tess can be found working in her business, Authentic Spoon Nutrition, where she shares genuine evidenced-based nutrition education across various social media platforms and supports clients one-on-one in her online clinic.In this chat, Tess shares her post grad journey and the story of how a chance encounter at a networking event led her to landing her then dream job. Tess and I also discuss the impact that social media has had on her career, as well as how

Maree Ferguson is the founder and director of Dietitian Connection, an online community and education hub that exists for dietitians all around the world. Maree has worked in a number of different roles throughout her 25 year career in the dietetic industry. The most notable of these was her role as Director of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, and her position as a Senior Research Scientist at Abbott Nutrition in the United States. Maree has also held a leadership position within Dietitians Australia and worked with colleagues to develop the Malnutrition Screening Tool - a tool that has been implemented in hundreds of hospitals worldwide to help identify patients at risk of malnutrition. In this chat, Maree and I discuss her career journey and how experiences led her to take a leap of faith and start her business, Dietitian Connection. Maree talks about navigating the industry as an introvert and shares some of the challenges that she has faced in business. We also hear

Leanne Ward is a renowned Australian media dietitian, nutritionist, sports dietitian and social media influencer known as The Fitness Dietitian. With nearly 10 years of experience in the nutrition industry and over 400,000 followers worldwide, she has dedicated her career to helping women find peace, happiness and sustainability with their body, health and lifestyle. Leanne specialises in coaching women to conquer emotional eating, heal their gut and stay LEAN for life with her 1:1 premium coaching program and shares evidenced based nutrition advice around her specialty areas of gut health, emotional eating and sustainable fat loss on her top-rated podcast Leanne Ward Nutrition.In this chat, I talk to Leanne about her transition from clinical dietitian to entrepreneur. Leanne is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to social media and this chat is full of so many tips for people who are wanting to build an engaged social media following and harness this audience to grow and scale a business.A huge thank you to

Alicia Sires is Accredited Sports Dietitian (APD) and Nutritionist (AN) and rising star in the dietetics profession. A country girl at heart, Alicia moved to Brisbane in 2014 to study nutrition and pursue her dream of becoming a dietitian. After graduating with a Masters of Dietetics from The University of Queensland, Alicia jumped straight into the workforce landing a full-time role with a well known local private practice. What followed was something that can only be described as an emotional roller coaster of a year as she navigated her way through business and life as a new graduate. Despite the roadblocks that she has faced along the way (and trust me, there have been some big ones) Alicia’s passion for nutrition and helping people improve their health and wellbeing never subsided.This chat takes a completely different approach to those to date, providing insight into what life as a new graduate dietitian is really like. Alicia and I chat about her time at university, and discuss her experiences working

Joel Feren is The Nutrition Guy, an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) and Nutritionist with a background in biomedical sciences. Aside from his work in private practice, Joel doesn’t fit the mould of a traditional dietitian. Instead, he can be found regularly consulting to the food industry, writing nutrition articles for print and online publications, presenting on television for Channel 10’s My Market Kitchen and Studio 10 and engaging in media based work via his role as a Media Spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia. Joel is passionate about dietitians working in the food industry and enjoys the challenge of debunking commonly held nutrition myths in the media. He believes that nutrition is too important to be an afterthought for food brands and businesses, and dietitians can play a fundamental role in improving the nutritional quality of our food.In this chat, Joel opens up about his experiences consulting to food industry and working with the media. He reflects on some career highli

Nicole Dynan is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Founder of The Good Nutrition Co., a Sydney based nutrition and dietetics practice specialising in gut health, corporate nutrition services and private practice. Having spent 10 years working in chronic disease management within the pharmaceutical industry and experiencing first hand the challenges associated with maintaining her own health within a stressful corporate environment, Nicole made the bold decision to go back to university to study nutrition and begin her journey toward helping people change their lives for the better.In 2012, Nicole started The Good Nutrition Co. to share her knowledge of the power of food and since then has helped thousands of people through three private practice locations and corporate and workplace nutrition and wellness programs. Nicole has achieved some seriously amazing things in her relatively short career including pioneering the first Employee Assistance Program (EAP) phone-based nutrition service in Australia, hol

Rebecca Miller, or Bec as she is more commonly known to thousands of people online, is a clinical nutritionist and founder of Health with Bec. After battling with weight fluctuations and chronic digestive issues from her teens to her early twenties, Bec developed an interest in nutrition and passion for research as she began to explore how food could assist in the management of these issues. Shortly after graduating from Curtin University with a Bachelor of Nutrition Science, Bec founded her business, Health with Bec, where she began working one-on-one with women who struggled with similar issues to herself through the development of personalised meal plans. After years of working with clients and writing over 600 personalised meal plans, Bec created her first online program with the aim of helping even more women lose weight safely and develop healthy and maintainable lifestyle habits. Today, Bec has expanded her portfolio to include two online programs and a handful of other ebooks and is showing no signs o

Joe Leech is an Australia Dietitian and Nutritionist living in Sweden, and is the face behind popular science based website DietvsDisease.org. His website, which is a go-to for millions of people around the world, provides actionable, science-based information for those living with with diet-related health conditions and diseases. Joe has built a reputation as being an expert in the skill of nutrition communication. After winning a twelve-month membership to the Australiasian Medical Writers Association in 2012, Joe became the primary contributor to Healthline’s Authority Nutrition website and has been researching and writing articles on nutrition ever since. Joe also creates engaging nutrition videos for the online space where he breaks down bodies of evidence into easily digestible and consumable videos for YouTube and social media.In this chat, Joe and I discuss the art of nutrition communication. Joe provides listeners with an insight into the world of SEO and offers actionable tips to help you ensure you

Rebecca Gawthorne is an experienced Dietitian and Nutritionist and the beautiful soul behind the popular Instagram account @nourish_naturally. Bec’s credible, yet easy to relate to tone, has made her one of media’s go-to girls for professional nutrition advice which is testament to her powerful influence in the online health space.Her energetic and vivacious nature is contagious, with her passion for healthy living captured perfectly in the bright and colourful imagery of her popular Instagram, Blog and  YouTube channel. Not only does Bec have extensive experience working with brands to advocate healthy and nutritious living by capturing inspiring images and sharing them online via her socials, but she also works regularly with the media to positively promote products and educate consumers of important health messages- a role that is growing in popularity within the dietetics profession.In this chat, Bec and I talk all things social media. She shares some insight into what it is really like running a full-tim

Talia Cecchele is an Australian Dietitian and Nutritionist currently living and working in London. Talia is a woman who does it all...the amount of work she fits into one day is incredible! Talia works as a specialist dietitian on an inpatient eating disorders unit, has a locum role as a paediatric dietitian for the National Health Services (NHS) and also practices privately at the Rhitrition Clinic- one of London’s leading private nutrition clinics. Somewhere in between, Talia also maintains an Instagram page, blog and website that hosts over 100 free recipes to help inspire people to live a healthy life. While this workload may sound a little crazy, Talia’s story represents what is a reality for many dietitians in our industry and demonstrates what can be achieved if you work hard enough.In this chat, Talia and I focus on her work in the area of eating disorders. We discuss how she got started, tips for those wanting to specialise in this field and treatment options for those suffering with diagnosed eating

Nadia Felsch is a Clinical Nutritionist (BHSc) and the down-to-earth personality behind the Instagram account @nadiafelsch. Based in Sydney, Australia, Nadia is a strong presence in the online health space where she regularly calls out nutrition BS and proudly fights diet culture. Whether she be consulting from her home clinic, sharing delicious recipes on her blog, or speaking to audiences at events and workshops, Nadia’s passion for empowering others to take care of their health shines through in everything she does. Nadia is one of a small group of nutrition professionals that have used their expertise to develop a food product for the market, creating a delicious line of DIY baking mixes and launching her own brand Wholefood Society. Her most recent project has been the launch of her podcast 'What The Hell Do I Eat', where she and fellow nutritionist Monica Fenwick shift through the nutrition headlines and myths to provide people with the tools to call out BS and enjoy their own path to health.I

Alicia Edge is an Advanced Sports Dietitian and Co-Founder of Compeat Nutrition- an online sports nutrition platform aiming to deliver the best in nutrition advice to support the performance of people in sport and in life. Alicia graduated with a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics from The University of Newcastle in 2008, and since then has worked in a variety of different roles across community health, private practice and sports settings. In 2016, Alicia and her husband Daniel came up with the concept of Compeat Nutrition and since then have invested a lot of themselves into bringing this amazing company to life...all while raising a young family.Today, Compeat Nutrition is disrupting the sports & performance dietetic scene, removing the dietitian from the clinic and integrating them into the lives of the active individual whilst at the same time reshaping the value proposition of what is an undervalued and underemployed profession. Compeat Nutrition has established partner agreements with some of the

Welcome to the very first episode of NakedChats! In this episode, I share my own story to provide you with a bit of context as to who I am and what this podcast is all about.Armed with ambition and a head full of dreams, I founded my nutrition consulting and communications business, The Naked Truth Australia (now Rachel Hawkins - Dietitian & Nutritionist), in September 2018…just two short months after graduating with a Masters of Dietetics from the University of Queensland, Australia. After recognising the need for more relatable nutrition professionals in the online health space, I set about shaping my online profile to do just this. Today, I have a growing presence in the online health space and am recognised as a trusted source of nutrition information to thousands of people online.This episode includes a Q&A section in which I answer all of the questions my online community wanted to know most. I chat about what I do for work, how I earn an income, tips for establishing and marketing an online bus