Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura King.
Hi Laura, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
This is a bit of a long story to tell, and it all started about twenty years ago.
I’ve been a Registered Dietitian (RD) since 2004. I spent two years working in the hospitals in Harford County, MD, then did 2 years of nutritional pharmaceutical sales for Abbott Labs (Baltimore City was my territory), and then worked for 2 years for Martek Biosciences (based in Columbia, MD) when the company was bought by DSM.
In total, I spent 11 years with DSM. My last position (still based in Columbia, MD) was overseeing marketing and innovation for the global Early Life Nutrition team. In this role, I traveled a lot, all over the globe, which sounds glamorous, but ultimately it was a lot of stress, a lot of airports, and not a lot of sleep. I was sick often.
In 2017, I was in Sao Paulo for work with a nagging cough that wouldn’t go away. My coworker said she was going to book an appointment for me with her massage therapist. Long story short, I don’t speak a word of Portuguese and the “massage therapist” didn’t speak a word of English, and it was not a massage… it was acupuncture! After the appointment, I felt so much better, fell in love with acupuncture, and kept up with treatments when I got home.
Ultimately, in 2019 I decided to leave DSM and go back to school to study Chinese medicine. It was not an easy decision, but I felt the stress of my job wasn’t sustainable and I missed helping people. Fast forward to quitting my job, opening an online private nutrition practice, COVID, 3 years of Chinese medicine school, 1800 hours of education, 300+ hours of clinical education, and I’m now a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Through it all I maintained my RD because nutrition has always been a big and important part of my life.
I opened up my brick-and-mortar private practice, Cascade Wellness, last year in Woodbine, MD within Home Skincare and Wellness. There, I see patients for acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and nutrition. The owner of the wellness center, Rachel Ferraro, asked me how we could partner as it related to nutrition, Chinese medicine, and skincare. Her clients ask her questions about nutrition as it relates to caring for their skin and she was curious how we could better support the patients and clients we see.
One thing I knew I didn’t want to do was create a one-off workshop with a handout that likely wouldn’t be very useful. Rather, I wanted to create a bottomless resource with trusted, evidence-based, and useful information anyone could use to make actionable lifestyle adjustments to support the health of their skin. As I thought about it more, skin health is rooted in more than just diet and nutrition; lifestyle, stress management, gut health, and Chinese medicine all play a role. So, The Skin Nutrition Library was born.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Yes and no. Yes because helping people ultimately was my goal and I’m beyond excited to be doing that today, so the challenges encountered seem small now. However, I’d be lying if I said no.
Learning hands-on medicine during a global pandemic was a big challenge. Quitting a job that I loved and the self-doubt that came along with that was pretty huge. I know people around me thought I was nuts for quitting a good-paying, stable job, and it was far from an easy decision, but I knew it was right. I think being able to envision the end goal and playing that scene in my head was what helped keep me going down the road.
Another challenge was doing the business thing, especially the creation of The Skin Nutrition library, all alone because I couldn’t afford to hire a team. At DSM I was surrounded by a team of people who all worked together to achieve our collective goals. We bounced ideas off each other, were honest with each other about the good ones and the bad ones, delegated tasks, and ultimately everything got done. It was a rock star team as demonstrated by our success. I didn’t have that when I created The Skin Nutrition Library.
I taught myself how to build a website, had to redo it many times with a few sleepless nights, and was the sole decision maker. I write all the content, check it for errors, and re-write it at times. I plan and execute the marketing strategy, the content calendar, and the content updates. Thankfully, I have some trusted old colleagues and friends who beta-tested it for me and check out the content, however, I very much underestimated the challenge of doing it without a team.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Skin Nutrition Library. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The Skin Nutrition Library is a membership-based resource for trusted and science-based nutrition and complementary medicine information for skin and gut health, and more. It includes content that is curated by myself, a Registered and Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist for twenty years, and a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.
I think the unique thing about The Skin Nutrition Library is that it combines both Western and Eastern medicine information and philosophies, focusing on cause and effect, but also zooming out to help members see the bigger picture and begin to understand how symptoms in their body relate. For better or for worse, modern medicine today is quite compartmentalized. Arguably, this is by design because the body of knowledge is just too large for any one specialty to understand alone. As such, you go to the dermatologist for your skin symptoms, the gastroenterologist for your gut symptoms, the endocrinologist for your hormone symptoms, and so on.
The challenge is, more often than not, the symptoms experienced are intricately related, but that relationship may never get airtime because of compartmentalization. I hypothesize gaining an understanding of the relationship may be the key to finding balance and harmony in health. The goal of The Skin Nutrition Library is to shed light on those relationships, to help individuals begin to understand their body, why they are experiencing their symptoms, and begin to make changes or seek support that will help them achieve their health goals.
One thing I’m most proud of is the information contained within the library. Honestly, for me, the amount of misinformation out there related to nutrition, supplements, medical recommendations in general, and so on is terrifying. What keeps me up at night is the fact that so many people consume that misinformation, fall prey to it, and make health choices or changes based on it, potentially at considerable cost to their health. It is incredibly important to me that the topics are thoroughly researched, and referenced, and that all sides of an argument are shared when applicable. I don’t believe in scare tactics or shiny influential messages, I believe in sharing raw hard facts that are supported by reputable research.
The Skin Nutrition Library was launched just shy of a year ago. Currently, there are more than 75 articles across 14 different subject categories. That’s not including the meal plans, which are relevant to the information provided, and recipes. New information is uploaded weekly. I also welcome recommendations from members on new content to post as well as questions that I will individually answer. Some of the content is al la carte, like the meal plans, if someone does not feel like becoming a monthly member. If someone needs a meal plan more personalized, I’m happy to make recommendations. Members may cancel at any time.
What are your plans for the future?
Continuing to upload trusted, evidence-based, relatable content. I have a list of more than 100 topics I need to write and upload. I know reading articles isn’t always preferred so I’d like to launch more video content in the next year. I will eventually have 30 days of Mediterranean, Vegan, and Vegetarian meal plans uploaded for people to access. And I plan on doing more expert chats.
One thing I’d like to offer also is the cost associated with different meal plans, for example, roughly how much a meal plan would cost if you purchased all organic, non-organic, or a mix of ingredients. The list goes on, but the last thing I’ll mention is offering a summarized version of the material and relationships, as more easily consumable pieces of information.
Pricing:
- Monthly membership (library access + 1 meal plan) = $5.99/month
- Monthly membership (unlimited, full access) = $8.99/month
- Members may cancel at any time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theskinnutritionlibrary.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theskinnutritionlibrary/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theskinnutritionlibrary
- Other: https://www.cascadewellnessmd.com/
