Meet Joey Gochnour, BS, BS, Med, RD, CSSD, CSOWM, LD, NASM-CPT, who created his dream job. He successfully combines his knowledge in exercise physiology, nutrition, and fitness to have a well-rounded private practice which coaches clients to optimize their health and wellness. - Sarah

What attracted you to the field of nutrition and dietetics?
I believed it had the magic secrets for me to get the physique I wanted. After finishing competitive swimming after my first freshman semester, I had time for another major as I started out in Kinesiology so picked up Nutrition Sciences. I also had atypical nutrition problems myself, like many who probably get into the field.

Your Job Title?
CEO and Healthcare provider

Company you are with now?
Nutrition and Fitness Professional, LLC (my own—full time private practice)

Website:
nutritionandfitnesspro.com

Social Media:

Twitter: @nutrfitnesspro is the only one I really infrequently use.  I am not a big consumer of traditional social media and have survived without it as an entrepreneur.

Describe a typical (or not so typical) day-in-the-work-life for you?
Wake up, check phone for late cancellations in case I want to go back to sleep, eat, rush to office, see clients, answer phone and voicemail and emails in between clients, eat, workout, lounge, eat, client paperwork / medical records and more emails, cook/eat, TV. On lower volume days I do medical billing catch up if I get behind. If I’m not behind, I do it the day of the client.

How did you get your current job in dietetics?
I made it myself. It didn’t exist.

What skills were you born with and what skills have you learned along the way?
I feel like I learned everything I know along the way. Education gave me the knowledge, grad school made me extremely scientifically analytic with the exercise physiologist crowd, I got my grit from being a competitive swimmer and maximum strength trainer, I got my counseling skills from attending individual and group therapy weekly for almost 8 years now and practicing on the job and having my therapist help me analyze why clients act or react in certain ways or why I react or act in certain ways.

What advice do you have for others wanting to be just as successful and fulfilled as you?
Get an exercise physiology degree and go to therapy or become a licensed therapist yourself, go to therapy, and then get an exercise science Master’s. Work in the field of fitness for a while as a personal trainer to figure out what works and what doesn’t (I have 6.5 years of seeing clients regularly, almost 7 but the last 1.5 years have been lower volume on the personal training side), don’t just get the certification for your name because everyone else has one.

If you could be paid for your job with something other than a paycheck, what  would it be?
Time. Massage. Validation. And the dismantlement of the US private insurance industry for single payer so we don’t have to deal with the administrative burden to the extent we have to in order to be self employed as dietitians. Either get rid of it altogether so everyone is self-pay or make it easier and less of a life suck.