Meet Malina Malkani, MS, RDN, CDN, who is a Boss Dietitian and CEO. She started out at the VA to get experience in clinical nutrition. Over time, she was able to expand her scope of practice to do consulting work which led her to starting her business as a consultant, recipe developer, and content creator. Check out her career path and the steps she took towards making her own dream job come true.

Your Job Title?
Registered Dietitian, CEO, Author

Company you are with now?
Malina Malkani, LLC

How to Find You:

- https://www.malinamalkani.com/

- Instagram & TikTok: @healthy.mom.healthy.kids

- Pinterest: @healthy.mom.healthy.kids

- Twitter: @MLMalkani

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MalinaMalkaniNutrition

Describe a typical (or not so typical) day-in-the-work-life for you?
Aside from my mornings which are pretty consistent, my days always look different and depend on the various projects I’m working on. I start by getting my three girls up, making their breakfast, packing their lunches, and getting them to school.

Then I work out, shower and get to work which involves online meetings with private nutrition or consulting clients, content creation and engagement on social media, food photography, recipe development, shooting, writing and creating new content for brand partnerships, writing articles and working on my latest book, responding to media requests, meeting with interns, and working on digital marketing and sales funnels.

How did you get your current job in dietetics?
After starting my nutrition career in weight management and bariatric surgery at the Bronx VA Hospital, I took a few years off to care for my girls who were all born within 3 ½ years of one another.

When my youngest was 2, I started working again as a nutrition consultant for a digital wellness and telemedicine company and then launched my own online business and private practice in 2017, which I have been building ever since.

What skills were you born with and what skills have you learned along the way?
I come from a long line of singers and it seems that some musical and performing skills are passed along in our DNA. For my first 10 years post-Northwestern University undergrad, I worked in the performing arts (AEA, SAG-AFTRA) as a New York-based singer, actor, dancer and model.

My prior occupation gave me a level of comfort and confidence with public speaking, media, presentation, and performance-related work that I’ve always been grateful to carry over into my dietetics career.

Along the way, I’ve learned so much about behavior change and counseling, translating nutrition research into practical applications, content creation, technology, marketing, social media, and the nuts and bolts of running a business.

What advice do you have for others wanting to be just as successful and fulfilled as you?
If private practice and nutrition entrepreneurship are goals, I do think it’s important to get some solid clinical experience first to help deepen both expertise and confidence.

Grab every opportunity you can to network, even when you’re not in the mood! You never know when you might meet someone who changes the trajectory of your career.

Find mentors who inspire you.

Support the efforts and endeavors of your peers and colleagues. Share their work with your audience.

Create and/or join a Mastermind Group with whom you meet regularly, who will hold you accountable as you work to achieve your goals, support you on your journey, and help reduce some of the feelings of loneliness that can be difficult to manage when you’re in business by yourself.

If you could be paid for your job with something other than a paycheck, what
would it be?
Hands down - TIME! As an entrepreneur and single mom of three, I would give anything for more time for my girls, my family, friends, self-care, volunteer work in underserved populations, my business, reading, relaxing, traveling, cooking, making music, and more…I find life to be endlessly fascinating and try to squeeze everything I can out of every precious minute.