Today we’d like to introduce you to Kirsten Screen.
Hi, Kirsten. Thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, could you tell our readers some of your backstory?
I’m a Registered Dietitian by trade, and I was raised to believe that entrepreneurship was an unstable pipe dream (thanks, Dad!). Yet I knew I wanted to own a business by age 17, but every professor, mentor, preceptor (and my parents) told me my dream was “unrealistic” and I needed to “get a real job.” I met my husband while doing my post-graduate internship, and he was already a serial entrepreneur, always starting something, selling something, and tweaking a business idea. So, I got the courage to start my first online business for fellow dietitians in 2004. It failed miserably, and my dad’s voice in the back of my head kept saying, “See, I told you. Get a real job.” So I worked in corporate wellness for several years, first for an immense power utility in Florida, then in Charlotte, NC, and during that time, my husband continued his entrepreneurial journey with me, lending support where I could on nights and weekends. And then we had 3 kids in 3.5 years, and, as is true for most women, my time was short, and the entrepreneurial dream of my own business got pushed way to the back of my brain. But I couldn’t escape entrepreneurship completely, and over 9 years, my husband and I co-owned several businesses. Our most significant endeavor was born in 2013 when we started an IT software and consulting business that quickly grew into something large and profitable. We were acquired in 2016, and while it was a whirlwind (and exhausting) 3-year period of nonstop growing pains and thinking on our feet, it also reignited my desire to build that business I had put in a drawer years earlier. From 2017-2019, I “played” in my business. I didn’t take it seriously; I tried a few things here and there and took clients when they came to me, but I needed to build toward something in particular actively.
And then 2020 hit. With both of us working from home and suddenly having 3 kids in virtual school for an entire school year, being completely cut off from my family (all of whom are in Europe), something hit me with a force I wasn’t quite ready for. I decided virtually overnight that it was time. I threw myself into my online dietitian coaching business with such force that I quickly built a sought-after product, service, and community and hired 2 team members within months. My nutrition coaching business was doing so well that other dietitians I’d known for years (and some I’d never even spoken to!) started messaging me to ask how I was doing. “How did you get your business to scale like this, and how are you managing this with three kids?”
I realized at that moment that most people who become entrepreneurs are good at whatever skill they are selling as entrepreneurs. They might be good dietitians, accountants, or mechanics, but most need to learn how to run a business when they first decide to run one. That was something I had plenty of experience in by that point. Two decades, as it was! So, I started mentoring others on their online business growth journey. First, I was working exclusively with dietitians (those were the people who knew me, of course), and then suddenly, things grew, and my name was passed around, and before I realized it, an entire second business was born. That’s how I got to today. I now still run screennutrition.com, and my team and I serve active adults with their functional and performance nutrition goals, helping them connect the dots with answers they’ve been struggling to get from physicians and other providers and rebuilding their bodies from the inside out, prioritizing gut health, hormonal support, and simple, instinctive nutrition habits. I also run kirstenscreen.com, a business mentorship and consulting business helping online coach entrepreneurs build and scale their businesses to 6-figures and beyond in a way that aligns with their lives, is realistic to sustain, and doesn’t require marketing gimmicks that don’t feel great.
You can also find me on my podcast, The Embodied CEO. I’m an accidental entrepreneur and a romantic one. It was accidental that every obstacle to entrepreneurship was placed in front of me, and I was talked out of it by everyone who influenced my confidence and growth in my career. Idealistic in that I firmly believe in building businesses that feel good, make my life easier, and give me more time, money, and freedom – without working 8-hour days. I flourished as an entrepreneur in my 40s, and I’m grateful it wasn’t earlier – because I wouldn’t have been ready and wouldn’t have demanded unrealistic results from myself. I am where I am because of 2 decades of lessons, failures, and experience. And I love it.
Let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
It has been a challenging road! Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart; not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur. Over the past 2 decades, between the 2 of us, my husband and I have owned/co-owned 8 businesses. Several failed. Some were minor successes. A few were 7-figure and multi-7-figure successes. Every single one of them was a lesson, and running businesses with your spouse, with young kids in tow, with no family support to help navigate it all is a different level of fatigue and challenge. So, no, the road hasn’t been challenging. But it’s been 100% worth it.
Thanks for sharing that. Please tell us more about your business next.
The Kirsten Screen Coaching (kirstenscreen.com and @thekirstenscreen on Instagram) is a business mentorship and coaching consultancy. We help female online coaching entrepreneurs build and scale the businesses of their dreams with strategy, mindset, and prioritizing their lives first. Our mission is to help women realize they can be mothers, wives, and CEOs, and they can create empires that give them more time with their loved ones and generate more income and financial freedom (including generational wealth) without taking up more of their time. The Kirsten Screen Coaching provides 1:1 support, mastermind spaces, and our signature Six-Figure Business Accelerator strategy incubator with all the tools and tangible action to build and sustain a successful online coaching business. Screen Nutrition Coaching (screennutrition.com and @screennutrition on Instagram) is an integrative performance nutrition coaching consultancy. We help active, athlete adults prioritize their functional nutrition by focusing on gut health and hormonal support and understanding how their metabolism works to simplify nutrition for life, reduce symptoms, and enjoy food and activity again. Screen Nutrition Coaching provides 1:1 support, functional testing support, and our flagship self-guided program, The Nutrition Reframe™.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
This journey has been so coupled with my life’s journey, and honestly, it’s been an unexpected joy to help me find myself again after motherhood. Having kids has been one of my most magical experiences; our kids (now 15, nearly 14, and almost 12) are the most incredible young people to know and love. But many mothers experience this feeling of “I’ve lost something” or “something is missing” in that journey, and for me, it was the fulfillment of building my dream and helping others build theirs. With 100% certainty, entrepreneurship was the missing link in tying it all together, and I’m a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend for having dared to dream this dream out loud.
Contact Info:
- Website: kirstenscreen.com and screennutrition.com
- Instagram: @thekirstenscreen and @screennutrition
