Talent Trumps Experience

Ignore negative people. Believe in yourself.

Back in my corporate days, I avoided politics… But I wanted to climb that ladder. At Natural Organics I had a leap in mind: I wanted to move from copywriting in R&D to running Editorial for Energy Times magazine.

Before making the proposal, I met with the departing ET publisher to get his blessing. Boy was I in for a surprise! He sat me down and told me I would fail. I had no magazine experience. It’s a complicated job. I would need extensive training. Blah, blah, blah… the real kicker, I will never forget. He told me, “You know, if you get this job it could actually hurt your career.”

Since I was sill a bit green, this bizarro pep talk shook me up. But I persisted, became Executive Editor and persevered. Four months later, I completed the annual Energy Times Cancer Issue with Alec Baldwin as the feature interview. It was the biggest celebrity we’d ever landed. After the issue came out, the founder called me to tell me it was the single greatest Energy Times in its 17-year history.

Ultimately, I improved ET: Better content, lower operating costs, and, most importantly, superior promotion of nutritional supplements and natural health.

The Lesson: Go ahead. Tell me I won’t succeed. I dare you. Talent trumps experience every time. These days, the Natural Health Writer has both in spades.

Angry Baldwin

When I took over editorial of Energy Times, the magazine’s founder gave me a mission: get celebrity covers. My first issue, I got Ed Begley, Jr. By my third, I landed Alec Baldwin for our annual Cancer Issue.

My most exciting and gratifying celebrity interview... all to fight cancer.

This was the biggest celebrity “get” in Energy Times’ history. Sure, Alec got ticked off at me during the interview. Yep, I got hate mail from Conservative readers for putting him on our cover. The universe then gave me the finger when Alec’s notorious voicemail rant hit headlines right after my article came out. Despite these hurdles, we successfully raised awareness and money for the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research fund. When the dust settled, Alec Baldwin’s star continued to rise.

The Lesson: Landing an A-List celebrity for Energy Times involved a great deal of creativity — but this is the Natural Health Writer’s specialty. I take a lot of pride in this article, both for the writing quality and the publicity it generated for a great cause. Plus, whether you’re a fan or a hater, you will see that Alec Baldwin is intelligent, articulate and knowledgeable about health and environmental issues.

Writing for Health Freedom

Oh byoooooteeeeful, for spaaaacious skies, for amber waves of graaaaaain...

The Natural Health Writer is the voice of the Nutritional Health Alliance. The NHA was founded by industry giant Gerald Kessler, who helped create the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).

As the NHA’s writer, I adopted Kessler’s bombastic style to advance Health Freedom. The concept: We are one bad bill away from losing access to supplements. I believe in this cause; Europe has already set the precedent. Click the Capitol to read my latest NHA column.

The Lesson: Hiring a nutrition writer? Make this your first interview question: “Can you explain DSHEA?” If the candidate looks flabbergasted, move on. I have written about DSHEA since 2003. I understand DSHEA, and I know how the FDA and FTC regard supplements. This knowledge is supplement marketing gold.

Ginkgo Hilarity

I recently wrote a marketing piece on Ginkgo Biloba. I was pleased with it.
The claims were strong and substantiated; the story was Sexy Nutrition. Part of that story:  ginkgo trees are  200 million year-old “living fossils,” with individual trees living up to 3,000 years. Bafflingly, the client circled these facts in red pen and wrote “substantiation needed.”

What the heck? The Natural Health Writer is all about substantiating supplement health claims. But the Ginkgo facts had nothing to do with health! I shrugged, retraced my research, and started new research to reinforce that my ginkgo facts were strong. They were. The silver lining? On my second round of research I discovered some compelling ginkgo factoids that will make my next ginkgo piece even sexier.

The Lesson: Substantiation is essential, but it’s a slippery slope. If we as an industry start requiring substantiation for non-health related facts, we may end up needing substantiation for statements like “the sky is blue!”

Tour Riders

I'll have whatever Bruce is having!

Seeking celebrity nutrition news for a sales training piece, I was struck with sudden inspiration: What about “Tour Riders”? These dressing-room demands of superstars are most publicized when they are outlandish… but would any health-conscious celebrities request pre-show nutritional supplements?

After a little digging I found out some celebrity nutrition secrets, which I passed along for store associates to use as ice-breakers with customers. Click the image at right to learn which celebrities demand nutrition in their dressing rooms!

The Lesson: Love it or loathe it, the Cult of Celebrity is a powerful motivator. If a celebrity takes a nutritional supplement, gawkers will follow suit. The tricky part is connecting celebs to supplements… you’ve got to be creative in your research.

Q.P. CORPORATION

Now that LOST is over, it looks like the Dharma Initiative is working in the natural products industry...

Before advertising any nutritional ingredient, consider your target market and their focus on cutting-edge quality. Oh, and taking note of the year, heck, even the decade, helps too.

This Q.P. Corporation brochure (offering nutritional supplement raw materials like lecithin, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin) was printed in 2010. But upon seeing it, my reaction was to call the 1970s and ask if they wanted their brochure back.

The American natural health industry sources raw materials from China and Japan. But clearly, these eastern suppliers often fall short on marketing. Q.P. (a Japanese company) cannot penetrate the American market using promotional materials that feel synthetic and outdated — especially in an industry that values natural origins and nutritional innovation.

The Lesson: Retro is fashion-cool, but it has no place in nutrition marketing… nor does the word “chemical.” Our industry seeks natural, safe, quality ingredients that help people. Q.P. ignores these factors and promotes a ’70s sci-fi nightmare of chemical toxic green. This is not how natural health looks!