Corporate wellness and speaking engagements can be a lucrative option for dietitian business owners to create leads for existing services and diversify income streams.
But it can be a little tricky to know how to find these opportunities. Fortunately, the career development and networking platform, LinkedIn, is a great place to start.
This article will help dietitian business owners better underatnd how to leverage LinkedIn to find corporate wellness and speaking opportunities in your area of expertise.
Step 1: Clarify your signature corporate wellness or speaking offer.
Corporate wellness is a broad term that refers to the programs and services that employers offer to their employees to support their health and wellness.
Corporate wellness provides a huge opportunity for dietitians including, but certainly not limited to:
- Offering webinars and presentations to employees on nutrition-related topics.
- Providing 1:1 nutrition counseling to employees.
- Designing wellness programs.
- Consulting on regulatory and nutrient analysis support.
Your job in this step is to determine what you offer to prospective clients. You can choose to offer services you already provide such as 1:1 nutrition counseling, or a different but complementary service.
This may take some trial and error. While you can lead with an offer to prospective clients, I think it is always helpful to stay open to their needs because you want an offer that meets demand.
The first few conversations you have with prospective clients will prove to be very fruitful in shaping your offer.
It can also be helpful to do some research on the company’s current wellness plan so you can see how you may offer something that complements or enhances their current program.
When it comes to speaking, here are some examples opportunities:
- Podcast guest appearances
- Conferences
- Guest lectures in academic settings
- Presentations within another dietitian’s or allied provider’s program
- Cooking demonstrations
- Continuing education presentations for dietitians
You can be open to all these opportunities, but, I think it is worth thinking about what you like to do and what there might be demand for.
Step 2: Optimize your LinkedIn profile.
The goal of profile optimization is 1) to ensure that your profile shows up in the top of search results for specific keywords and 2) that your profile is visually appealing and arranged in a way that it is immediately clear what you have to offer.
You need to take a couple action steps to optimize your profile to land killer corporate wellness and speaking opportunities for your business.
First, identify the keywords that you want to show up for in search results.
For corporate wellness, two very general ideas are “wellness speaker for companies” or “corporate wellness dietitian.” For speaking, “podcast guest” or “expert speaker on XYZ topic.”
Do a search and see what other dietitians/allied professionals are doing. Add these keywords into your headline and into your experience section.
Like all things in business, it is helpful to have a niche for your corporate wellness and speaking work. When determining what your niche is within these areas, the more specific you can be, the better.
Think about your overall niche for practice and business and who your ideal corporate client is. If you plan to do in person corporate wellness or speaking, think about the demographics of your area.
Second, establish a visually appealing business presence on LinkedIn.
There are a variety of ways to make your profile visually appealing.
I cover all of the strategies in my course, Networking for Nutrition Professionals, but here are the three action items that I think are especially important for landing speaking and corporate wellness opportunities.
- Create a business page for your business. This really professionalizes your overall look and is a great place to further drive brand awareness.
- Ensure your bio photo is clear, centered on your face and looks like the current version of you.
- Review the experience section of your profile and make sure that your niche is clear. Create a role under your business like “corporate wellness speaker” to highlight that you offer these services.
Step 3: Connect with decision makers.
Let’s explore corporate wellness first. Remember that corporate wellness is all about the programs and benefits that support employee health.
Therefore, oftentimes, it’s folks in human resources that will decide whether or not they want to hire you for your services. Think benefits coordinators and human resources specialists.
When it comes to speaking, the playing field is a bit broader. A good starting point could be conference organizers, event coordinators and podcast hosts.
If speaking is your corporate wellness offer, then I would start with the human resource category of connection.
Your action here is to find those decision makers in your area and send them connection requests.
You mean cold connect? Yes, I do! This is what LinkedIn is designed for.
I know this may feel a little weird at first so here are a couple ideas to warm up a cold connection.
- Add a personalized, genuine note to your connection request.
- Follow the company page of any business you are interested in and engage with their content.
- Leverage any mutual connections you may have to make an introduction.
Pro tip: once the person accepts your connection request, invite them to follow your business page.
In my course Networking for Nutrition Professionals, I show you exactly how to work that LinkedIn search function to find those decision makers to land your dream corporate wellness and speaking opportunities.
Step 4: Show off your expertise in your niche
Remember that you are asking someone for access to their audience or employee population. This is a big deal.
Your job is to help the prospective client meet their business goals, essentially making them look good.
In corporate wellness, programs and services that save the company money in healthcare costs will persist. In the speaking world, speakers that bring good reviews from the audience will be asked back.
You need to give your prospective client some social proof that you are the person for the job.
I recommend that you post 1-2x per week on your profile and your business page. Here are some ideas for content:
- Share testimonials from existing and previous clients
- Post videos of yourself talking about a topic in your niche (especially important if you are pitching yourself as a speaker)
- Repost an article or report in your niche and share your thoughts about it
Lastly, remember to engage with others in your niche. This means comment on their posts and follow pages. This helps the LinkedIn algorithm understand who you are and who you should be connected with (and hopefully that is decision makers who will hire you!)
If you want to learn more about posting content on LinkedIn, then grab a copy of my free guide Content Creation for Career Growth.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, LinkedIn is the perfect place for dietitians to pitch their businesses and services for speaking engagements and corporate wellness opportunities.
The steps outlined in this article will ensure success:
- Clarify your signature wellness or speaking offer.
- Optimize your LinkedIn profile to attract these opportunities to you.
- Connect with decision makers who can hire you for speaking engagements and wellness opportunities.
- Show off your expertise in your niche so that decision makers understand that you are the right person for the job.
Need more support? Work with me through my course Networking for Nutrition Professionals, or schedule a 1:1 LinkedIn Dietitian Strategy Call with me and in one hour we will get your LinkedIn ready to go!
