373 What Every Ambitious Woman Needs to Know about Fertility with Dr. Rachel Corradetti-Sargeant.
Naturopath Doctor
Dr. Rachel Corradetti-Sargeant
In this episode, Kelsey is joined by Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargeant to explore a topic that’s rarely discussed on the Visionary Life Podcast but incredibly important, fertility especially for high-achieving women balancing business and family goals.
Drawing from over a decade of experience as a naturopathic doctor specializing in fertility, Dr. Rachel shares the realities many women face when trying to conceive, the common challenges like PCOS and thyroid imbalances, and how stress and modern lifestyles factors play a crucial role.
We unpack the myth that “women can do it all” without consequences and dive into how timing, understanding your cycle, and environmental toxins impact fertility. Dr. Corradetti-Sargeant shares practical advice on how to navigate this journey without overwhelm, emphasizing self-compassion over perfection.
For entrepreneurs and busy women, this episode is a reminder that while ambition is vital, so is listening to your body, setting non-negotiable wellness habits, and seeking the right support when you need it.
Whether you’re just starting to think about family or deep in the process, Rachel’s wisdom offers clarity and hope.
Timestamps
[00:07:10] Why fertility conversations need to start early and how high-achieving women are uniquely impacts
[00:10:31] – The benefits of understanding your cycle and testing your hormones before you're ready to conceive.
[00:15:21] – Why “just relax” isn’t helpful advice
[00:23:29] – Free 6-pillar fertility wellness challenge and her masterclass on understanding your cycle.
[00:31:34] – How there’s no such thing as perfect fertility.
[00:38:25] – The impact of Infertility, pregnancy loss, and parenting shaped Dr. Rachel’s career journey.
[00:41:36] – The Systems That Keep Her Practice Running
In this episode, we also chat about:
Why fertility awareness should start early, especially by your 30s
Common hidden factors that can impact fertility like PCOS, thyroid issues, and lifestyle habits
The nuanced role of stress in conception and why “just relax” is not enough
How environmental toxins and everyday choices influence reproductive health
Practical steps to balance your business ambitions with family planning
The importance of personalized care and expert guidance in fertility journeys
How to honor your menstrual cycle phases without overcomplicating your life
To connect with Dr. Rachel Corradetti-Sargeant:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_rachel_nd/
Book an appointment: https://conceive.janeapp.com/locations/conceive-stoney-creek/book
Website: https://www.rachelcorradetti.com/
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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Kelsey [00:00:00]:
You're listening to the Visionary Life Podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Rydle. Each week I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures, and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship. This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. And if I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode, it's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us. You know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you.
Kelsey [00:00:52]:
It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in. Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to today's show. I am chatting with Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent. She is a fertility focused naturopath.
Kelsey [00:01:06]:
She is also a colleague of mine. We hang out in a business capacity and chat about all things business life. I've actually worked with her one on one before, both to support her business and I've hired her as my naturopath.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:01:18]:
Which is really, really cool.
Kelsey [00:01:19]:
And I've just known Rachel for a long time. She's actually really good friends with my sister. So there's so many synergies between Rachel and I admire her work. I love what she does. I've really enjoyed watching her journey and her evolution. And one thing that's so inspiring about Dr. Rachel is that she has niched down and really started to dominate in her area of expertise, which is just an incredible journey to be on. To watch somebody who's so gifted at what they do continue to grow and scale and look for what's next.
Kelsey [00:01:50]:
What's next, what's next. So, more on Dr. Rachel in a second, but I just thought I would share a quick life update. So I have talked a bit about just being in a season of growth post maternity leave. So my son is almost a year and a half now, which is so crazy, you guys. I know if you're parents, you probably feel the same. Every milestone just feels surreal. And I just, I really gifted myself a year of maternity leave.
Kelsey [00:02:18]:
I didn't do a ton of push marketing, honestly, I never do necessarily, but I really just leaned into like, hey, if clients are meant to be, great. But I push pause. And then I. I've shared this, but come January, I started to feel this little ping of, like, okay, it's time to get out to meet new people. After a year of really being homebound and saying no to everything, I felt ready. So it's been so fun to actually, like, get back into my business from a grassroots level after taking a year off and kind of coming at it from that beginner perspective of, like, if I'm feeling a little bit like, what do I do? What do I work on? What's the focus? Now I'm following my own formula, which is like, step one, go through the Visionary Annual planning workshop. Did that in January. I taught it in December and then did it for myself in January.
Kelsey [00:03:10]:
The cool thing is you can actually go through this anytime. So you can just DM me the words annual planning, and I'm happy to share the details of that with you. There is a cost, but it kind of gets you on track for what you want. Step two, review that and decide, like, what are the things that you're going to take action on right away? And we prioritize our goals. And one of the things for me was networking. Another thing for me was getting back to professional development. So I am somebody who loves and craves getting into rooms of people learning. And I didn't do that intensely for my maternity leave.
Kelsey [00:03:46]:
And then as the. The winter started to unfold and into spring, the days were getting longer. I was like, all right, Like, I am so keen to just find that next opportunity. So I did some local events around here. We hosted our own wave event with 50 female entrepreneurs, which we have another one coming up in October at the most gorgeous venue in Elora, Ontario. Anyways, you can DM me the word Wave event and if you want more details on that, because tickets are gonna sell super fast. Um, so, yeah, I did that. And then I started having conversations about, like, what's the big investment that I'm gonna make? So I was part of a mastermind last year on Matleave.
Kelsey [00:04:27]:
It was amazing. Highly recommend it. If you're curious what it was, just let me know and I can connect you with the founder. Um, and it was called Curiosity Island. That one went so well, but I always like to switch it up. So instead of renewing masterminds, I usually like to join a new one every sing. And I actually ended up joining two different ones this year. So I joined Chris and Lori Harder, who I absolutely love, admire, respect, have been following their Work for a decade, joined their mentor collective, Mastermind.
Kelsey [00:04:59]:
And then I joined Alex Hormozi's two day in person workshop in Las Vegas. And that was awesome. So I've been stretched a lot in the last two months. Then an opportunity landed in my life. Isn't that funny how this happens when you invest in yourself? It's like the investment comes back, the universe rewards you. So I do this and then boom, a big opportunity comes to work with a big client in New York to go to New York City. And all of a sudden I'm like, whoa, this is exactly where I'm meant to be. Funny, because two years ago I remember and Dave reminded me of this, my husband, he was like, do you remember two years ago when you said this thing? He was like, and just to let you guys in, I basically said, you know, I want to break more into corporate because corporate is where the bigger contracts are, where I know I can make a bigger impact, et cetera.
Kelsey [00:05:52]:
But I said to him, I don't know how to do it. And two years of planting little seeds, looking for the opportunities, booking meetings, literally expressing this when I'm in conversation and out in the world. And it finally happened, which is so cool. And so I've got this client and now I'm on this journey. So I'm in these masterminds, but I'm also hiring specific mentors to guide me in becoming a fractional cmo. So I actually have a call with Jenna Kutcher's former marketing manager this week, which I'm so excited about. And, yeah, it's just a season of growth, so I'm not necessarily, like, harvesting a lot of seeds at this moment because this month is dedicated to just connecting, rooting down, meeting new people, and prioritizing relationship building, which, yeah, I just.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:06:45]:
Thought I would share that with you.
Kelsey [00:06:46]:
Because we're not always in a season. Forever. I was in my maternity season. Now I'm in my connection season. And I just love the ebb and flow of entrepreneurship. It is truly the most beautiful thing. And honestly, I don't think I would trade this for the world. So just very grateful to be on this entrepreneurial journey with all of you, whether you're current entrepreneurs or maybe diving into it in the future.
Kelsey [00:07:10]:
So back to my episode with Rachel. We are diving into why fertility rates are on the decline, what we can do about it, top things to avoid, how to make sure we're taking care of ourselves as high performing entrepreneurs, especially women. So, men, this will be a good one to listen to. If you have a woman in your life who is thinking about conception or conceiving. But of course, it's half you as well, so. But we're primarily focused this episode on talking about how to optimize your fertility as a female entrepreneur. So really pumped for this one. If you want to connect with Dr.
Kelsey [00:07:46]:
Rachel, I'll leave all her links in the show notes and otherwise, let's get right into Today's episode with Dr. Rachel.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:07:55]:
Dr. Rachel, welcome to the Visionary Life podcast. We are actually touching on something that in over 350 episodes, I have never covered this topic before, which is why I decided you need to come on the show because you are the expert. Expert in fertility. You have so much knowledge as a naturopathic doctor with this specialty. So we're going to dive into it all. I'm going to hold nothing back. I know you have a lot to share, so thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker C [00:08:23]:
Thank you for having me.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:08:25]:
So, Dr. Rachel, there are so many motivated, high achieving, let's call them type A women. I am one. I think you might identify with a little bit of that, too. And we want to do it all. Like, we want to have the business, we want to be the best parent. We want to be pursuing our athletic goals. And we have a gym membership that we show up to five days a week.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:08:48]:
We have friend circles. We want to go on cottage weekends. Like, we want to keep the house clean. I could go on. I am so curious, like, with that phrase of women can do everything, we can do it all. How does that potentially not serve us as women who are trying to conceive, as women in our 30s, potentially who want to extend our families but might be having trouble?
Speaker C [00:09:16]:
So I think the important part there is being told we can do it all, which, you know, is not wrong. We really can do anything that we put our minds to. But where that can sometimes get us into trouble is if we're waiting too long to think about growing our families. I find there are people who are told, well, you know, science will figure it out, right? And unfortunately, in my role, working in a fertility practice now for it's been almost six years, sometimes science can't figure it out. So I really think it's important for young people to think about their fertility when they're thinking about their career choices as well, so that they don't wind up being out of options and being surprised about that.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:10:09]:
So what exactly do we need to consider? Like, let me rewind to my mid-20s. I was working a corporate job. I Was thinking about starting my own consulting business. What would you say were some of the things that I should have been thinking about in terms of making important career decisions in my most fertile decade, we'll call it.
Speaker C [00:10:31]:
Yeah, so mid-20s, I think, you know, as long as things are, are going well with your cycles and you're not noticing any sort of major hormonal problems, that time of life may not be the most, how do I say, Pressing time to figure things out. But certainly by the time you're getting closer to the 30 mark, if you haven't started to think about whether or not you would like to have children at some point in your life, regardless of whether or not you have a partner, it's good to get a baseline evaluation of where things act. Right. Certain tests you can do include looking into your ovarian reserve, for example. That's something that we can easily evaluate through blood work, getting a sense even of baseline hormonal testing, if that's something that you're, that you're curious to find out. So once we have that information, it can be really helpful to then give you options. So let's say you're a 30something female entrepreneur and you don't have a partner, but, you know, one day you would like to be a parent. Well, perhaps you're thinking about, okay, is this a good time for me to consider, you know, doing egg cryopreservation or egg freezing so that by the time, you know, I am 40 and perhaps if I haven't had children at that point, and perhaps I, I don't have a partner to have children with that I can go ahead and move forward with my family, building goals, using much younger eggs.
Speaker C [00:12:12]:
Right. So those, these are, you know, big topics, but it's, it's. And we don't necessarily have to go to that extent, but it is helpful around that 30 mark to learn about your fertility so that you have choices.
Kelsey [00:12:26]:
Yeah.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:12:27]:
It's so funny because my friends and I often laugh that in our young 20s we were like doing everything we could to not get pregnant. Right. And then it's like as you transition into the next decade, into your 30s, you're like doing everything you can to get pregnant. And sometimes it's like, it's not as easy as we thought. So I am curious to kind of set up this conversation. What are some of the reasons that women who are in their mid to late 20s, early 30s, why might they be having trouble conceiving? What are some of those factors that you could bring awareness to? Just so that we know, like, what potentially is holding us back.
Speaker C [00:13:11]:
Yeah. It's interesting, you know, being in this world now. I've been in practice for almost 11 years, and it has been 11 years. And, you know, being specifically within the fertility world for the last almost six, you really see trends. And I am still surprised to this day. I don't know why I'm surprised anymore, but I am when I see young people coming in who are in poor health and that's the reason why they're having difficulty conceiving. We see. See a lot of polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS going on in the clinic.
Speaker C [00:13:45]:
And unfortunately, at the root of that is often issues with blood sugar control, and that often stems back to poor lifestyle factors. Right. So individuals who don't know how to eat well, they haven't been taught that before. They don't understand the value of exercise. And so they're coming into the clinic with, you know, blood sugar that is steps away from diabetes, or they're already diabetic, or we have high cholesterol levels, or, you know, we have really high inflammatory markers and they're not getting regular periods. And, you know, we see this all the time. It's not always PCOS that presents. We do see a lot of thyroid issues that occur within the fertility world.
Speaker C [00:14:30]:
So that definitely is a problem. And I'm certainly seeing more endometriosis as that condition becomes better, worked up and diagnosed by, you know, other healthcare providers that are working with patients in the family practice setting. I'm seeing more of that come into the clinic, too.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:14:50]:
What about things like stress, sleep, never feeling like you can rest or give yourself a mental break. Like things that women, I think, tend towards, especially when they're entrepreneurs, like, working hard, long nights, almost like masculine energy. I'll call it, like, got to do all the things, wear all the hats. How do you see that impacting a woman's fertility journey?
Speaker C [00:15:21]:
Yeah, you know, I think when you're younger, that maybe won't be as impactful, but as patients get older and we start to see their egg quality wa. And we start to see hormonal shifts happening, certainly that high cortisol output on a regular basis can throw things off. And so we can see that impacting cycles. We can see that impacting, you know, thyroid function. I see that in some cases. So that's where we'll sometimes see that throwing things off. There is, you know, thing that we'll commonly hear about is, oh, just relax and you'll get pregnant. And I think that's really misleading and upsetting for a lot of people because it's never as simple as that.
Speaker C [00:16:07]:
The research is clear that stress certainly can impact fertility, but we're not clear that stress causes infertility. Right. So I don't want to, you know, oversimplify it and say if you're too stressed, this isn't going to happen. Right. I mean, people get pregnant during wartime, so, you know, it's really not fair to say that if you're stressed, then it's not going to happen. The world is stressful. We live in stressful times. Oftentimes it comes down to, well, how are you managing that stress? Right.
Speaker C [00:16:43]:
And we do have to find ways to really prioritize our wellness. What are the non negotiable things that you need to be doing just to be a healthy human? How on earth can we expect you to create another one if you aren't already yourself? Right. I often kind of, I don't joke about this necessarily, but I'll say in practice that my patients are like the ultimate bodybuilders. And the reason this is, you know, interesting is because I come from this history of bodybuilders in my family, one of them being my mother and my stepfather years ago, when he was still alive. And so I spent a lot of time surrounded by bodybuilders. If anyone knows anything about bodybuilding, these people are, you know, really eating a lot of protein and sleeping a lot. And, you know, some of these things we can carry forward into the fertility world where it's like, technically you're the ultimate body, but bodybuilder, we're kind of trying to create a whole other human. Right? Prioritize how you're caring for yourself.
Speaker C [00:17:52]:
Do you need to eat protein in the middle of the night? Probably not. Do you need to work out for hours a day? Probably not. But can we borrow some of these habits? You know, exercise, eating well, good sleep? Yes, we can borrow some of those habits so that we can have you achieving your, you know, fertility goals.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:18:11]:
Is there anything that's changed? I know this is a big question, but is there anything that's changed environmentally over the last few decades that has caused fertility to go down? Because it's just crazy. Like when I, I was just in Vegas for a conference and I was talking to a few women who were doing IVF in their mid-30s, and I feel like everywhere I go, like I'm having a lot of these conversations and I keep wondering to myself, is this more common now? Are we just talking about it more? What Is your perspective on, like, what's going on with. Yeah, like, the trends in infertility rates?
Speaker C [00:18:48]:
I think it's a perfect storm, to be honest. As mentioned earlier, I really do think that there is a bit of a problem with overall wellness. And I. I really do see that every single day. I mean, it is a rare moment when I have, you know, patients, you know, labs hitting my desk, and I'm not seeing metabolic issues, nutrient deficiencies, you know, hormonal imbalances. Like, that's just my everyday experience in practice. And then add to that a lot of the toxins that are out there in the world and certainly things that I screen my patients for when they are in for an init consultation are things like, what's your plastic usage? Like, what are your personal care and cleaning products? Like, are you using a lot of scented products in your home? What's your air quality like, what's your water quality like? Right. Where do you live? Right.
Speaker C [00:19:46]:
Are you by a highway? In. In my area where we're located here, I'll tell you. I mean, we. I'm associated with a number of different clinics throughout the province, and it's quite well known that in this particular clinic where we're located in the Hamilton area, we have, you know, not great sperm quality for a lot of patients. And when you think about, well, what's around, we have refineries, we have a lot of farms and a lot of wineries where a lot of pesticides are being used. So, you know, these are things that we have to consider that that toxic burden is a lot higher for people. And some people don't handle those toxins as well as others. And we'll see that play out with their egg quality and with their sperm quality and with their hormone balance levels.
Speaker C [00:20:31]:
Another thing that I think is problematic is just some of the social toxins that have become, you know, really common, especially marijuana now that it's legal here in Canada. You know, we have a lot of patients who are using that and have no awareness that it's very problematic for sperm quality. Other things that I'm seeing lately is, you know, people are quitting smoking and that's great, but then they're switching over to nicotine pouches or they're vaping instead. And. Okay, well, these things aren't helping either. Right. So sometimes I'll joke that I'm Dr. Killjoy, because when patients come to see me, I'm taking away all of their fun.
Speaker C [00:21:11]:
You can have sex, but you can't do anything else, right?
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:21:17]:
Oh, it's so good.
Speaker C [00:21:19]:
So, yeah, there's a lot out there these days that is impacting our overall, you know, fertility levels. And we are seeing the impacts of that in a variety of ways.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:21:30]:
I think it's probably easy when you're having conversations like this to like, feel a little bit doomsday or, you know, to all of a sudden feel like, oh my gosh, like, everything I'm doing is potentially harming my potential. I'm curious if you are giving kind of generic advice to the person who's listening, who's like, I just need to know, like, what are some of the things I should start doing and what are some of the things I should stop doing? Let's give a few tactical tips to the person who's like, okay, all of this is, is, you know, happening in my life. What can I do about it?
Speaker C [00:22:05]:
Sure.
Kelsey [00:22:07]:
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Speaker C [00:23:29]:
So a couple of resources that could be helpful. I do on my website have a fertility challenge per se, that patients or not patients, excuse me, but readers can go through and it's completely free. And what it does is it walks people through this idea of kind of six pillars of fertility wellness. And so it helps, you know, Patients. Gosh, I keep saying patient. That's because I've been in clinic all day. People. It helps people work through, you know, just some evaluation of their nutrition, some general insights on their toxic load.
Speaker C [00:24:09]:
Gives them some information on, you know, what could be going on from a hormonal perspective. It talks about the benefits of sleep and stress management, conception, timing, things like that. And then I also have a course that I've created. It's a masterclass, essentially teaching people all about their cycle. So, you know, this is someone who's listening, who's a menstruating person and they remember learning about their menstrual cycles back in, you know, elementary school or in high school and then they like forgot or wanted nothing to do about it and now they're thinking about getting pregnant and they're like, what the heck? You know, that's a good opportunity to really learn about, well, what is, when do I try, you know, what are the apps that are out there? How can I use those to really learn about my body? What about the technology and the tools that are out there? I've heard about ovulation, predictor kits. When do I use those? What do those tell me? Right? There's a lot of information out there on the Internet, but sometimes it can be hard to know how that applies to you. So I've tried to make that more available from, you know, maybe a slightly more educated person so that people can, can learn that about themselves. So I really do think those are some of the good places to start to chip away is to look at those basics.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:25:30]:
Amazing. You mentioned something about, you know, the different phases of our menstrual cycle as women and as female entrepreneurs. I feel like there's so much still to be studied and even just to like learn in how we can actually structure our business and like, what, what rituals we have each week or when we do speaking gigs or when, you know, like there are times when I'm like, I just don't want to get on any client calls because I'm on my period or it's leading up to. Can you just walk us through a little bit of what that typical 28 day cycle is like and how can that actually guide our business decisions as women running business who are potentially trying to conceive but also want to maximize our energetic outputs during every single stage of our cycle?
Speaker C [00:26:21]:
Yes. And so I'll speak to this. I, I want to reminds people that you can get overwhelmed with the information that's out there on this topic. There's so much about, you know, only exercise like this and only eat like this at this time in the cycle and use these seeds. And I think that really can create overwhelm when at the end of the day, we're really just trying to encourage people to have healthy habits. So if it becomes overwhelming to only eat sunflower seeds for these two weeks of your cycle, well, don't do it. Right. Like, just eat the sunflower seeds whenever you want.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:27:02]:
Or like, I have someone I follow on Instagram who's like, only do a hard leg day on this day of your cycle, and then you can have an extra half piece of sourdough on this stage. And I'm like, what? Like, this is so minuscule. I'm gonna eat sourdough every day.
Speaker C [00:27:16]:
Absolutely, yeah. Like, that kind of stuff I think gets very problematic. And again, can. Can over complicate things. Right. To be that complicated. Are there different phases of the menstrual cycle? Yes. Are you going to feel differently throughout those phases? Sure.
Speaker C [00:27:36]:
Do we need to radically change our lives? Probably not, you know, to meet those different phases. But you can listen to your body and so you'll hear things about, you know, during menses that it's a nice time to rest. Well, during menses, you probably want to rest anyway, Right? Like, a lot of people aren't feeling super fantastic. Not that we want you to feel terrible. Yeah, that's a sign of other problems. But, you know, you probably do want to rest for those few days. But we also know that exercise can help with period cramps. Right.
Speaker C [00:28:08]:
So going out and getting moving isn't going to hurt you. We hear about closer to ovulation, which is generally the middle of the cycle, people who are more engaging at that time, or they may have more confidence, they might be better well received by others, and that's because their hormone levels are often peaking, in particular their estrogen and even a little bit of, like, their testosterone levels. So some people might feel more confident putting themselves out there during that time period of time of the cycle. Then we talk about the luteal phase where, you know, that's after ovulation. And, you know, potentially if you're trying to conceive, you could be in the very early stages of pregnancy. If you haven't conceived, then you're going to be in this. This time when your progesterone levels seem, excuse me, tend to be a bit higher. So sometimes people can feel a little bit more drawn inward.
Speaker C [00:29:01]:
Maybe they feel a little bit quieter. Maybe they don't want to put them up themselves out there as much. And that's fine, that's totally fine. But I don't think it always works out perfectly that we can match all of our, you know, business needs and life needs to things that are going on with our cycle. So honestly I think it's better just to listen to your body and, and kind of do what's right for you. So it's not over complicate.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:29:30]:
Absolutely. And you're right. It's like all this information can be so empowering, but it's like what is the tipping point when it becomes overwhelming and it actually starts to become a burden mentally and in many other ways too. So yeah, I think that's a valid point.
Speaker C [00:29:47]:
Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:29:49]:
No, go ahead.
Speaker C [00:29:50]:
I was gonna say I always come back to two sort of thoughts from, you know, really well known people. Katie Couric is one of them. So well known U. S journalist. She had this great quote that I've held on to for years and years which is, you know, essentially there's often a situation of too much information or TMI and not enough understanding. So any you. So I always think like TMI neu and that's a really good way to just, just you know, take the Internet, take chat, GPT. Right.
Speaker C [00:30:30]:
Like you could get all the things in the world but do you have enough understanding? Do you have the knowledge, skills and judgment to be able to interpret this and apply this to yourself?
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:30:39]:
Yep.
Speaker C [00:30:40]:
Maybe not. In which case you might need an expert. And then I always come back to Marie Forleo's nnt so non negotiable time where she really encourages people to come up with their list of non negotiable things. What are those things that keep you going every single day? I know for me it's exercise that's like non negotiable. Right. Drinking my water, having time to, you know, prepare healthy food. These are non negotiable items in my life, you know, what are those non negotiable things for you? Let's stick with those and then we don't have to worry about when to eat sourdough.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:31:16]:
I love that so much. It's like yes, having these like guardrails, but it's not like so strict that you can't veer outside of them and like enjoy life a little bit and stray from your habits but come right back to course when you need to. So yeah, that's so helpful.
Speaker C [00:31:34]:
Yeah. Perfection is not going to get you pregnant. So.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:31:39]:
And I think we need that Reminder, Right. As women who potentially are striving for the perfect launch or to have this beautiful branding online. Like, I know that so many of the listeners, like, there is this standard that they hold themselves to. And so when we then relate that to fertility and trying to conceive, it's like, oh, it doesn't work that way. Like, you can't try harder. Of course you can optimize, but you don't get to, like, execute everything perfectly to get the result. It's just a different. Yeah, like a different game.
Speaker C [00:32:15]:
Totally is.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:32:17]:
So let's talk to the woman who is potentially in a season where she wants to conceive, but she's also got a lot on her plate with her business. To that woman, do you say, like, it's time to unload a little bit. You need to maybe hire help? Maybe don't schedule that launch. Like, if someone is so regimented, they have a schedule that's packed nine to five every day, there's a lot of targets that they need to reach. They have, you know, these big quarterly goals that they're reaching towards, but they also have this other goal of expanding their family. What do you say to that person?
Speaker C [00:32:58]:
Breathe. No, that oversimplifies it. You know, I don't think it would be fair for me to say that you can't work through those things while you're trying to conceive. Right. I think it really has a lot to do with the person's, you know, fertility status. If I need someone to scale it back, I'm probably going to know more about that. If I'm seeing issues within their, you know, fertility baseline testing, or if they're going through fertility treatments and we're seeing issues. Right?
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:33:32]:
Yeah.
Speaker C [00:33:33]:
Nine to five being like, does that packed schedule mean that they're stressed to the max and they're relying on five cups of coffee in a day?
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:33:42]:
Yep.
Speaker C [00:33:43]:
If that's the case, then, okay, maybe we need to talk about how this is impacting you. Does it mean you're not getting any sleep? Does it mean you're not getting any exercise? Does it mean you can't eat healthy food? Well, if that's the case, that we probably need to scale back, but for other people, if that's their norm, that's how they operate, and, you know, they're still able to care for themselves and they're not seeing cycle impacts, then it might not be a problem for them to continue on with living their life that way. And if we start to see it become a problem, then that's you know, a different story.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:34:19]:
Yeah, I appreciate what you're saying because it's such a reminder that like, as with anything in life, there is nuance.
Kelsey [00:34:25]:
Right.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:34:26]:
It's like when somebody buys a digital course and they're trying to learn how to make Instagram reels and they follow it. Exactly. And they're like, wait, but that didn't work for me the same way that it worked for the person who sold it. It's like, well, life is nuanced. Like there is no one size fits all formula. And that's why it's so nice to have one on one support in times like these. Like whether you're trying to grow your business, whether you're trying to extend your family, whether you're trying to train for a half marathon. Sometimes the blanket advice, the chatgpt, the constant emails that we get with stuff, it's like, that's all well and good, but then also working with a trusted professional can kind of bridge that gap into like actually taking the knowledge and being like, what is for me and what is not for me.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:35:13]:
Right.
Speaker C [00:35:14]:
I do find, as you know, if we kind of, if I put my business hat on for a minute and I think about the work that I do in the fertility clinic, it is that one on one, like door closed. No one else is involved in this but me and the patient. Like that relationship is so important.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:35:36]:
Yeah.
Speaker C [00:35:37]:
You know, these patients are not sitting in the waiting room chatting to each other. Right. Like, it's not even going to some fertility, you know, community events that are out there. That's not always a comfortable experience for a lot of people. So you'll see a lot of fertility patients connecting online because they can be a little bit more anonymous. Right. And so, you know, even professionally, when I've tried to do things online, I don't always find that they're as well received.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:36:08]:
Yeah.
Speaker C [00:36:09]:
But my clinical practice is, is very busy and I think it's because people really enjoy that. Like, okay, I finally get to talk about the nitty gritty details of how this is impacting me and, you know, what are the nuances of my particular situation? It is, you know, very personalized.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:36:31]:
Now, you mentioned having a busy practice, being fully booked. We have a lot of people who are a little more junior in similar shoes as youth. Maybe they've just graduated from their designation, they're becoming a health professional. They are entering into a career path where they're kind of responsible for building their own clientele. So to shift gears a little bit, I'm just curious if you can share, like, what do you feel was that inflection point of you going from like, hey, I'm just starting my practice, trying to build, to now having a fully booked practice. That is a goal of so many of our listeners to get to that point and then of course to like, keep on growing from there. But can you share any of like, the, the success moments, the moments that your career popped and like, how did you turn this into a business where now you have a solid niche, you're helping a full roster of patients? Anything you want to say on that time? Time. Yeah.
Speaker C [00:37:32]:
Flexibility, tenacity.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:37:37]:
Yeah.
Speaker C [00:37:37]:
And having a really good team. Right. I mean, this is not something you can really do on your own. I have.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:37:45]:
Yeah.
Speaker C [00:37:45]:
People behind me. I have to. So, you know, my career has never been a straight line at all. Right. And you know, I, I've worked with you to help with my professional development and you know, that, that, you know, it's been very up and down and, and when, when I graduated in 2013, where I started then in practice is certainly not where I've wound up. And yet everything that happened along that journey, good and bad, you know, it involved kind of a lot of stop and start.
Kelsey [00:38:24]:
Yeah.
Speaker C [00:38:25]:
Especially as I was growing my family and going through some of my own issues with conceiving and maintaining healthy pregnancies primarily. And, you know, it's just not a straight line journey. So you have to be, you have to be willing to let it grow. You have to be willing to accept that there will be change. You have to know that things will go up and down. I always heard from, you know, people who had graduated before me that it could sometimes take 10 years to really hit your stride. And you know what? Sometimes it really does mean you give up. No, I think I'm probably, I am a bit of a tenacious person.
Speaker C [00:39:04]:
So I don't, I don't give up too easily. And so, you know, I've just always kind of stuck with that knowledge of keep going even if things aren't perfect, even if you think you're not meant to do this one day and you want to give up then, even if you, you know, miscarried again, you're thinking, how am I going to keep going? And you know, any variety of things. Gosh, it's been wild certainly in my practice life, but, you know, there is definitely a sweet spot. I do find that, although I was a little bit resistant to it initially, finding a nation practice is, is helpful. Yes, it does help because you can really be really targeted with your messaging. Yeah. So that's an important point as well. And I do find that since I've, I've joined my clinic here.
Speaker C [00:40:00]:
Yeah, it's been really a life changing experience professionally.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:40:05]:
So, yeah, I love that you share the ten year thing because I feel like that should just be the baseline of like just expect to be building and pivoting and be non linear for 10 years and if it's sooner, great. But it might actually take that long because I feel like the narrative is like, start your practice and like give it a year, give it 90 days. And it's like, wait, is that true? Because there's so much that, you know, needs to unfold on every single journey. And I think that as we extend the time horizon, things always grow.
Kelsey [00:40:40]:
Right.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:40:40]:
But it's that patience, that tenacity like you're talking about that eventually leads us to that fully booked roster. So yeah, it's really incredible to hear.
Speaker C [00:40:50]:
Your story and creating those. I think what you helped me with so much was creating the systems.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:40:56]:
Yeah.
Speaker C [00:40:56]:
When we started working together a couple of years ago, it was when I was fairly new in this practice and you know, I really needed to create the system, the consistency. So even if it's not perfect, you know, having some degree of consistency really does make a difference. And I have some good systems in place in terms of, you know, when I see a patient for a consultation, at the end of that consultation, I'm ensuring that we are scheduling our next visit because I know that if I'm the person who's going to see a healthcare provider and we don't talk about when I'm coming back, I probably won't because I'm too busy, I'll forget.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:41:36]:
Right.
Speaker C [00:41:36]:
Or, you know, when I think about, I keep a lot of lists so that I can kind of keep track of how's that patient doing and is that patient pregnant now and have they had their, their follow up for this and you know, are they on the right newsletter list? And I just try to be really organized and it helps me also understand at the end of the year, well, how did things go in practice? Am I growing? Have my patients had success? Where do I need to change? So, you know, these things take time to build up and it takes time to get into these habits and I'm certainly still constantly learning, especially with AI on our plates.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:42:14]:
Oh my goodness. No kidding. Yeah. As we wrap up, I'm curious, is there one area, whether it's personally or professionally, where you're currently leveling up or learning a new Skill or devoting time and energy to, to what's kind of your focus these days. What's something you're super curious about?
Speaker C [00:42:35]:
Yeah, so I mean AI for sure is super interesting and it's, it's kind of fascinating being a healthcare provider with AI because I think there's a lot of fear out there generally with AI that it's going to take over and so interesting because that's not how I see it at all.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:42:52]:
I don't either.
Speaker C [00:42:53]:
Yeah. And I really just, I see it as a tool to help with efficiency and as a way to maybe take a little bit of the pressure off of entrepreneurs because there are things that can be really helpful with but it really does not take away that personal touch and that human experience. Right. So that's pretty fascinating. I'm definitely thinking about my next steps now that I do have, you know, a fairly busy practice and there's only so many hours in the day. My children are getting older and I find as they get older they need me more. Interestingly enough.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:43:34]:
Yeah, that's it. I thought you were gonna say the opposite.
Speaker C [00:43:36]:
No, I find they need, well, having a daughter in competitive dance and a son no doubt will be in some sort of high level of hockey. I'm gonna have some demands on my time. I already do with, with dance competitions. So, you know, how can I continue to, I don't know, grow my practices the right way, probably grow my business structure so that I don't have to be one on one as much can be, you know, welcoming others into my practice in different roles so that I can still be, you know, home with my family too.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:44:13]:
Amazing. So cool. And definitely keep us posted on that journey. We'll have to have you back in a year or two to see what evolution has happened because I know that's such a common. Yeah, common dream of like how do I scale beyond myself? So really, really cool to hear a little piece of what you're working on. So Dr. Rachel, if people want to connect with you, if they want to work with you, if they want to get your free resources, where are the best places for them to find you and to say hello?
Speaker C [00:44:40]:
So Instagram is where I do hang out the most. I will one day embark on Tick tock, but I'm just still a little afraid. So Dr. Underscore Rachel, underscore nd is where I hang out on Instagram. My newsletter. Newsletter and a lot of information is available on my website@rachelcore.com those are probably the best ways to find me.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:45:02]:
Amazing. Yeah. We'll link everything in the show notes and I just cannot speak highly enough of you, the entrepreneur you are, the naturopathic doctor that you are. So I definitely recommend anyone listening who is curious to go check out your work and to connect with you and say hello. And yeah, we wish you all of the best. Thanks for diving into all things fertility, menstrual cycles, things that we don't always talk about on the Visionary Life podcast, but especially important for all of our female listeners. So thank you. Dr.
Dr. Rachel Corradetti Sargent [00:45:29]:
Rachel, thank you so much.
Kelsey [00:45:32]:
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis. So it would mean so much to me if you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either itunes or Spotify. It just takes a second. And if you don't want to rate the show, you could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice. Tagging me at kelseyridle. I'll catch you in the next episode.
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