Talk about dietitians who inspire me. I met Kristina Todini, RDN, when she was still a student and she wowed my socks off. Fast forward 2 years, and she’s a new dietitian still making changes and rocking our industry. Here’s a link to her student spotlight to see what she did in the past.

Read on to learn how this innovative dietitian is enhancing our nutrition industry as a communications consultant and blogging influencer. And Kristina landed her dream job while in school just through networking! You can find your job through the people you meet. – Sarah

What attracted you to the field of nutrition and dietetics? I was initially interested in becoming a dietitian after discovering a love of cooking healthy food. I did not grow up eating healthy food, I come from a family that orders take out for holidays and I didn’t know how to cook a chicken breast until I was 22. But after finding a love for experimenting with new foods and flavors in the kitchen, I wanted to share that passion with others and decided to return to school to become a registered dietitian.

Your Job Title? Nutrition Communications Consultant

Company you are with now? By day I am a nutrition/sustainability consultant at FoodMinds, a communications and public relations agency with 18 registered dietitians. By night I write about global foods and travel at www.forkintheroad.co. I also dabble in freelance website design, coaching and consulting on the side. I stay very busy!

Website: – www.forkintheroad.co

Social Media:
– Instagram: www.instagram.com/fork.in.the.road
– Twitter: @kristinatodini

Describe a typical (or not so typical) day-in-the-work-life for you? No two days are ever the same! At FoodMinds I work with agriculture clients who look to us to help them create responsible nutrition/sustainability programs and messaging. My days are filled with meetings, the occasional conference, more meetings and lots and lots of research.

At night and on the weekends I work on my blog by recipe testing, photographing and writing new content. It can be overwhelming at times to balance both but I love having my own personal creative outlet to share my love of foods from around the world.

How did you get your current job in dietetics? Interestingly, my position at FoodMinds came from being a member of the Nutrition Entrepreneurs DPG (NEDPG). While I was an intern I received an award to attend FNCE from NEDPG and afterward I wrote a short article recapping my experience for the group’s Ventures newsletter. Flash forward 6 months later when the newsletter was printed—I was finishing up my internship and ready to start graduate school. Long story short, the founder of FoodMinds read my article in Ventures, contacted me through my blog and asked me to come in to their new office in San Francisco to meet their team. I interviewed, was offered the job and turned down grad school to start at FoodMinds three days after my internship ended. It was a hard decision but I had to get real with myself and ask if this would be a job I would want after graduate school and the answer was a resounding yes. So I took the job and never looked back!

Bottom line: never underestimate the power of putting yourself out there and talking about the things that interest you. If I hadn’t written that article about wanting an “outside-the-box” career then I would not be where I am today.

What skills were you born with and what skills have you learned along the way? I’ve always been a great communicator and writing has always come easy to me, but working in a communications agency has helped me to refine and define my writing based on which audience my work is targeting. Working with seasoned communications professionals has allowed me to learn and grow and helped me to find my own voice and build confidence in my work.

On the blogging side, I have increased my technical skills exponentially just from building and designing (and redesigning, again and again) my website. Another area of growth has been with photography—while I have a long way to go, I look back at older blog posts and laugh at how delightfully bad my posts were. With any new skill, there is no fast track to success and you must take it day by day and continue practicing until you find your own strengths and style. It’s a fun evolution!

What advice do you have for others wanting to be just as successful and fulfilled as you? Keep doing the things you’re interested in, even if (especially if!) they don’t fit the mold of what a dietitian traditionally does. I realized quickly in my internship that a traditional job in dietetics was not for me and that I craved a career with flexibility and creativity. The amazing thing about this field is that you can truly take your base knowledge and apply it to anything—it just takes determination and grit to make your idea succeed.

If you could be paid for your job with something other than a paycheck, what would it be? Wine and cheese? If I have to be paid for my job with anything other than money if would be experiences. I love travel, I love trying new foods and flavors and I love learning about food cultures and traditions here in the US and across the world. I would be happy to eternally explore the world, one plate at a time.

Sarah Koszyk is founder of Family. Food. Fiesta. A family-based wellness program and blog focusing on recipes, family health tips, and videos with kids cooking in the kitchen. She is a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Coach specializing in sports nutrition and adult and pediatric weight management. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or LinkedIn.