This article was first published in The Huffington Post, on February 16, 2016
Just because you’re in the field of holistic health does not mean you need to stay sequestered in holistic health media, or even in health media. By thinking expansively and creatively about who you are, what you do, and whom you serve, you can position yourself as relevant for a diverse cross-section of media. How do you get out of a limited media mindset? Think of yourself as a prism, catching the light at different angles, depending on how you hold that prism.
Let’s say you are a holistic nutritionist. It’s pretty straightforward to think about pitching general health media, or health sections of newspapers, with the angle of optimal nutrition for optimal health. Go beyond, by thinking about the additional applications of nutrition, and pitch the corresponding media markets:
Local
Offer a local summer cleanse program, and prior to the event, pitch local television, radio, and newspapers with an interview, offering pointers on how to do a safe and effective cleanse.
Political
Pitch political magazines with an investigative look at the links between racism, poverty, and nutritional deficiency among youth.
Business
Pitch business magazines with an exploration of what C-suite members typically eat, and what they need to eat (or not to eat) for peak performance.
Ethnic
Pitch ethnic magazines — in particular, those of your own ethnicity, so you can include compelling family stories — with an exploration of healthy ways to prepare traditional meals.
Advocacy
Pitch patient advocacy magazines (targeting those with diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, etc) with guidance on the optimal diet for managing or eliminating that particular health condition.
Op-Ed
Pitch the op-ed section of newspapers with an opinion piece on why you would like to see health insurance companies subsidize juicing as part of a healing regimen, just as they subsidize pharmaceuticals.
Fitness
Pitch fitness magazines with the best foods for increasing muscle mass, building stamina, and losing weight in healthy and sustainable ways.
Food
Pitch food magazines with delicious, nutrient-dense, and time-saving recipes.
Alma Matter
Pitch your college magazine with a story about how a particular experience at that college influenced your decision to become a nutritionist.
The media mindset is quite different than the marketing mindset. The idea is that you are not promoting your services per se, but rather, you are positioning yourself as a go-to specialist, who has a deep understanding of the importance and applications of your specialty. With this approach, you can get into, and stay in, the media spotlight, across a broad spectrum of media markets. Doing so keeps you relevant, increases your search engine optimization (media links to your website are gold), and boosts your status – in the latter case, increasing your credibility and therefore making people more likely to trust and work with you.
So go ahead: Think outside the box, and take the media world by storm.
