I’ve been sitting on some big news for a couple of months now, and just got the official green light to share with you.
And can I just say, as a former newspaper reporter — whose job it is to find news AND TELL IT TO PEOPLE RIGHT AWAY — this has been really tough to keep to myself!
But let me backtrack for just a minute, and tell you the story:
The start of social media as we know it today began while I was in medical school. That’s when, for better or worse, I joined Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. (Instagram and TikTok weren’t even things yet. I was a late adopter of YouTube.)
Although I was pretty active on Facebook, I didn’t really get Twitter until the pandemic. And LinkedIn? It was a graveyard of ancient birthday messages and people writing to say “What you do is SO interesting; pay me lots of money for business coaching.” Pass.
But this winter, while posting pandemic news to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to toss the same things up on LinkedIn. Why not?
I cleared out the ancient birthday messages, and figured out how the platform worked a little better. But more activity meant more of those spammy messages. Still, I had to look when they came in.
One day in January, I got a message that didn’t look like spam at all. In fact, it was from the director of medical science for Gaia Herbs, one of the most prominent herbal companies in the United States. The message said Gaia was looking to add a naturopathic doctor to their scientific advisory board; would I be interested in discussing this?
I got on a call the next day. I did another interview the next week. There was some (virtual) paperwork and doodle polls. But they had a process to go through before I could tell anyone. It was so hard to keep this to myself!
But yesterday afternoon I got the official email with all the social media images and language and links and stuff. And I’m so excited I can finally share the news!
You can read more about the advisory board here.
This is a huge honor and welcome responsibility. I’m beyond excited to support the work of a really stellar herbal company and do what I can to remain a voice for the plants, the people and the planet.
Thank you for sharing this journey with me.
