Interview with Nikki Ostrower, Founder of NAO Wellness

Nikki Ostrower is a 2008 Academy graduate, nutritional expert, and proud owner of NAO Wellness in New York City. Her connection to her work runs deep.

Our Academy Healing Nutrition Co-Founder Patricia Lopez sat down with Nikki for an IG Live interview (click here to watch) on March 12, 2021, where they discussed Nikki’s experience with the course and how it has shaped her career today.

Photo courtesy of NAO Wellness

Patricia: We thought it'd be super helpful for our community to hear from different graduates, incredible graduates like you Nikki, and share a little bit about their experience. So I guess with that in mind, Nikki, I would love to introduce you.

For those of you that have been following us, you may know that I was a student of the academy in New York before opening the branch here in London. And Nikki, I remember you came actually to one of our modules and shared your experience, and I remember thinking, '"well, what an inspirational story!”

Having seen your success back then in 2015, and how it's continued to explode throughout the years, it's an honor to be reconnected with you. So if you don't mind giving everyone a little bit more of an overview about you. What brought you to that moment in time when you decided to enroll with us?

Nikki: Yeah! So way back when I was a little girl, I've always had a passion for food and nutrition, and I always told my mom, I'm going to be a nutritionist. One day my mom was like, yeah, that's great and all, but if you really want to make money, you're going to go into business and accounting. And so, you know, I actually ended up going to business school at SUNY Binghamton, and I graduated with a degree in business and quickly moved to New York City. I worked for a Fortune 100 company in sales. And that was great and it taught me so many things about business, all the different types of people in business, sales techniques, marketing techniques. And I worked there for five years selling copiers, printers, and software solutions, door to door in a two-block radius in Manhattan. So it was grueling and there were parts of it that were grueling. And of course, there were parts of it where I really thrived off of the education and also owning those two blocks in Manhattan.

So then, after the five years I ended up bottoming out there with a debilitating eating disorder, I checked myself into rehab in Arizona, I spent six weeks there and knew that if I was going to come back to New York, I couldn't work, you know, at Rico again working 18 hour days. So I decided to actually take a year off and just focus on my recovery. And I took a year off from what I actually like doing, which is the sales and marketing aspects. I just took a regular job so that I can afford to pay the bills. And while that was going on because I was focusing on my recovery and I was also diving into how food can be medicine, my intuition opened up and, I quickly decided that I wanted to go back to school to study nutrition, and that was where my journey began.

With all of the research, where do I go? What kind of degree? It was so overwhelming at first. So I researched all avenues from the registered dietitian route and all the schools in Manhattan that offered it... I took my GREs and took a bunch of undergraduate courses since I had a business degree. So I took all the human anatomy and physiology and nutrition 101, which was really beautiful, and I felt that to be very useful information. But what I found was that the graduate degree wasn't something that I was passionate about, which is why I decided to go the holistic route.

And I researched all these different paths and different schools, and I arrived at the Academy of Healing Nutrition. I went to an open house. And I mean, it's kind of like when you're taking care of yourself and your intuition opens up. At the end of the Open House, it was this light bulb moment. You just know, and I signed on the dotted line that night and actually put everything on a credit card. I had absolutely no money and just took a leap of faith because I knew deep down in my soul that this was my next adventure and the path that I was supposed to be on. And so that is essentially the story of how I came to arrive at the academy.

Patricia: Amazing. I love that you bring this intuition element into play because I often say, we could have a giant ad of Academy Healing Nutrition and Piccadilly Circus, which would be the equivalent of Times Square. And perhaps if you're not meant to see it, or ready to see it, you won't see it. But oftentimes people who are sort of ready for that next step start to kind of get this inner knowing. And then, one dot starts to bring to the other and those synchronicities that happen and they land in our space. Which has been always such a rewarding way to see students, prospective students honoring that intuition and knowing.

So, it's nice to hear not only the research that you had but also that innate and gut feeling in a way that that was part of the equation. And since then, you've pursued the course, and I would love to know then what was your main takeaway from from studying with the Academy? What were your favorite parts of the program?

Nikki: It's so funny because it's such a hard question. I think the course is so well organized, with all novel education spanning years and years of traditional healing modalities and really fuzing it with the modern technology that we have now. But what I found fascinating is it really does take a deep dive into traditional healing and also the cooking aspect. So I never lifted a pot or a pan a day in my life until the academy. The Academy made these cooking classes so approachable, realistic and also healing. We weren't just cooking a beautiful, delicious meal, but we were adding in all these different herbs and spices, which also had different healing benefits while also learning about our own body types, and learning how to body type other people because we're all so different. There's no one size fits all approach.

What I found at the Academy of Healing Nutrition is that it really gave us a full picture of how to really be with and treat all different types of humans, all different cultures, likes, tastes, and share it in a way that is palatable and delicious as well as healing. So I would say not only the cooking, but you know, all of the special teachers you know that that come in and share... Nam Singh, Inga, Letha, I mean, of course, Roger, William Tara, Robert Sachs. They've all played such a huge part in my education. They were so supportive if we had questions, whether it was during or even after, and the mentorship program as well as the community. So I'm actually still really good friends with the folks that were in my class. You know, my dear friend, Anna and I went to each other's weddings. We saw each other have kids and we're still practicing all of the principles that we have learned at the Academy. So not only do we get to heal ourselves, but we also get to share it with the world, which is really fricking cool.

Patricia: Yeah, we were just sharing with the graduate that we interviewed on Tuesday how it doesn't really feel like work. It's just, you know, this passion that you get to live in.

Nikki: I don't want it to end! All my friends and I in the class were like, "wait, this is really not ending, right?" And so we would actually make sure that we stayed in touch and we would give each other challenges so that, we would really create the momentum so that we can live out the dreams that we wanted to create out of studying at the Academy.

Patricia: You mentioned your healing journey leading up to the Academy. How would you say that the course itself took that into a further or deeper way than prior to you enrolling?

Nikki: It's night and day, because gosh, I was two or three years into my recovery when I started the Academy. Because my intuition was really open, you know, I got to make myself a client first and foremost. I had so much information and so many health conditions because of the eating disorder. And now I have to say, I'm medication-free and I feel amazing.

Patricia: Incredible. Yeah, I always invite that opportunity to anyone who either comes with something that they're working with or perhaps nothing major necessarily, but that that journey of the Academy is you're the client first... To your point, there is that opportunity to dive deeper into healing yourself and having that opportunity to embody everything. And that just makes you that much more able to guide others to do the same.

Obviously, you've guided so many people since you graduated, you have your own center. You have an infrared sauna I am jealous about, you offer sessions and obviously coaching. What haven't you done?!

I would love for you to share a little bit about what happened after you graduated and how you gradually started to build up your offerings in different ways.

Nikki: So it all started because I was so lit up by so many different themes of nutrition and wellness. But then, you know what I noticed that I was really passionate about after graduating was seeing clients 1:1 with eating disorders as well as corporate wellness.

While I was in school, I started building out a website and, I just didn't want to wait. And I started to see clients totally complimentary in exchange for feedback. And so there was a beautiful exchange of me getting into my groove, seeing what's working, what's not working, and hearing feedback. And I and I always say feedback is one of the most important things that really enabled me to grow as a human personally and professionally. And I didn't take anything personally, either. I really believe in the same "perfectly imperfect".

For me, things aren't going to happen all at once, and I don't need them all at once. Things really do take time and so be patient with yourself, ask questions, ask for help. We can't be good at everything. So I learned the art of outsourcing things that I'm not good at. And little by little my business started to grow, where clients started to come in for a lot more things than just eating disorders. So I started to hire other practitioners that specialize in other things from, you know, autoimmune to sports nutrition, gut dysbiosis, and the microbiome. You name it. So we had about four nutritionists on our board. We also had a nurse where we did food intolerance testing.

And then after I had Emma (so Emma never took a bottle, and I was fortunate enough to have an incredible home birth) and my husband was out of a job at the time, so I was literally going to my office, going home to nurse, going to my office, going home to nurse and my midwife is like, "you just take the baby to work and you nurse!" and you know, at that time it was six years ago and I was seeing all kinds of eating disorders and I was like "Marcy! I love that and I totally would, and there's no shame in my nursing, but it's a little distracting if I'm with a client". And so, you know, I always knew "air mask on me first". So what happened was between all the running back and forth, every time I would go to do self-care I noticed that something was missing for me... It was either the customer service, it was hard to make or change an appointment. So by the time I went to my self-care, either got home or back to the office, I felt like my zen was out the window. So that was when the idea popped into my head. You know, what about if I can have all my favorite people, places, and services under one roof and in the West Village?

And I'm a huge believer in manifestation! I had no idea that it was the word manifestation, but I wrote down all the things that I wanted on a piece of paper, and one of them was all the different services, the location like really specific 14th street to Soho, you know, the Hudson River to Fifth Avenue. And that was it. And people would laugh because they were like, "you want the most expensive, real estate and you have a tuna fish budget". But folks that really knew me, know that if anything's possible and if anyone's going to make it happen, that when I put my mind to something, it's going to happen. But I wasn't stuck on it because if it didn't take off all the boxes, I didn't want to do it. And long behold it was the last place that I saw, the place in the West Village, and again, as I walked in there, it was an empty canvas. It was a huge rectangle with nothing in it. And I'm like, "holy sh*t!”, you just know! And I signed on the dotted line. Architect, construction, interior designer, you name it. We did. I had no idea what I was doing. Didn't have a business plan. And I was just like, You know what? I do like I always do. You just do one step at a time. Then I did the forecasting. I outsourced a little bit more, and eight months later, we moved in. And you know, what's crazy is, you know, we're a mom and pop. I'm not against getting any investors, but my husband and I were able to do it on our own and make it happen. And the coolest thing is it just took a year to start up. We were never in the red until COVID... You have to take it with a grain of salt and always try to find gratitude. And you know, whenever I see lemons, I'm always making lemonade.

So we have pivoted in the most beautiful ways where the virtual corporate wellness has taken off, and I know that you guys have pivoted online and it's I just see how successful the online platform is and really making it work. And congratulations! I had no doubt that you guys would be successful online. I actually have two clients that are in your course right now, and I actually introduced them two, so we're always connecting each other. They're loving it, they're loving every aspect of it.

And so thank you for taking care of the folks in your class, because it's a really big deal that they're not just a fish in a big sea. Everyone and including myself truly gets what they need and so much more... like, beyond expectations!

Patricia: Yeah, thank you. And I think it is so important for us to have that community feel. We always say Academy is a family, right? And we know our students by name. We know their story. We know why they're there. We know what they need. For me in the U.K. and then for Roger and New York, it's just an honor. We get to meet incredible students with incredible life stories and a passion for this beautiful world of holistic healing, not only for themselves but more importantly as well for for for the well-being of the world, right? So it's absolutely our pleasure to host with love in that way.

Thank you for sharing your trajectory. Obviously, sometimes graduates feel like, "okay, where do we start? They have all this information and all this excitement. But that idea of going one step at a time is exactly right. And obviously, you've come from having your health coach business to then a physical center that's also expanded to online. It's been incredible to witness that growth on your end.

As we're wrapping up, I would love to know if there's anything else you would want to say or any advice that you would give to people who are perhaps still on the fence or just trying to figure out if this is the right step for them.

Nikki: Yeah, I think the first thing and I think what we addressed earlier is to really trust in your gut. I know it may feel scary, but there's such a beautiful future not only for yourself, but if you want to take this on as a career, it's the most beautiful and satisfying move that I've ever made. I mean, you guys have completely transformed my life and made so much possible.

And if anyone has questions, I'm also an open book. You can email me at nikki@naowellness.com. Perhaps someone has a question that they want to ask me, so feel free to reach out any time. I would love to support anything for a school that really has helped me more than words can share.

Patricia: Thank you, Nikki. That means a lot. I really appreciate it, and it's so nice to still remain connected with you throughout all these years.

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