Lindsay Cotter is a gluten free guru over at CotterCrunch.com she’s a fitness professional and nutrition specialist for gluten free eating. her goal is to fuel you with easy gluten free recipes nutrition tips and lots of no bake healthy bite recipes. She does her best to share proper health tips and tricks to keep your life in balance!

Tell us about your journey with CotterCrunch.com

I started at the end of 2008-2009 and on my husband’s blog. He was a professional triathlete  and he just ask me to start posting recipes because all his budies and athlete friend were asking for recipes. After that, I made my own and that’s also when I had to transition into gluten-free eating due to a parasite infection. I tied the two in and just took it on from there. I used to put some fitness in it but after my husband retired from triathlon, I really just focused on healthy bites, gluten-free eating and nutrition topics.

What has been your proudest moment so far?

One of the fun things that I’ve been able do, since my husband is a tri-athlete, is talk a lot with Tri-Athlete magazine. I sent them a few healthy bites and they put them in their magazine and promoted them for me. Also I got connected with another friend who had a big triathlon podcast and she promoted my site and my e-books for healthy bites. It’s really exciting to still be in that community and be able to share that love of nutrition and sports in relation to triathlon and endurance sports.

What was your biggest flop?

When I did a sponsored post for a gluten-free company and I messed something up in regards to the nutrition topic.

Was there a specific moment where you realized you needed to move beyond just regular website ads and do more work with companies and brands?

There are seasons that your ad revenue is high or low, it just comes and goes quarterly. The blogging world really changed and you could bombard your page with ads and it would just be horrible and load slow. You may get more revenue but you also lose a lot of viewership or you could focus on just creating a niche, selling your own product, having some ads to keep some money generated and in doing sponsored content.

What are tips for someone who is starting out or someone who wants to make the transition towards working with brands and getting sponsorships?

Companies like to approach you, but they want you to approach them as well and say ‘hey! this is what I have to offer, this is what I think is going to be great. Tell them even if you don’t have a huge following but maybe your reach is really high. Tell them that you have an authentic voice and will do your best. There’s usually a budget and a way to work together but it’s just all making that connections. Just reach out to companies you want to work with and start a conversation.

Tell me about the moment where it went from being a hobby blogger to business.

When you fork over money to re-do your site. You’re like, ‘okay. This better work.’ There’s some point where you get a certain amount of traffic that you need to upgrade and maintain your site. I think that’s the point where you think, “something’s got to change.” Your site should be reader friendly and usable. You have to invest in yourself and that’s really scary. You have to invest in the time, money, the energy and everything, otherwise it’s just going to be stagnant. Ask yourself, are you ready to make that jump and to really believe that you can do this?

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How did you learn photography?

One thing that really helped me was reaching out to other friends who learned photography. I also have a good blogging friend that gives me a lot of feedback as well and her photography is amazing. I also reached out to one of the food photographers here in Austin and I just asked if she would give me a few hours of her time to learn some inside tricks, basics and critiques.  Reach out to those who are willing to help. You can always trade, if you have a specialty with something then, “you teach me this, I’ll be happy to do this…’

What is your biggest piece of advice to someone who is just starting out?

Do not compare. It’s so hard to not think, I should be at a certain level, when you just need to focus on your journey and what you can offer to others.  Just grow day by day, small victories of what you can do because, literally, you can’t do it all. Embrace that process.

Do you have a company/business owner/ food blogger that you looked up to?

I’ve always loved Lindsay from A Pinch of Yum and Jessica from How Sweet It Is. These are those people that I’ve known for so long and I’ve learned a lot from them.  They are also real people and share their journey as well. I love that they are authentic.

Where do you see yourself and your company in 5 years?

My goal is to make a gluten free or green food cookbook for athletes, as well as another healthy bites cookbook, like portable snack version for kids athletes with allergies.

How do you stay balanced and how do you make sure your day is successful?

I have a glass of wine every night. I would say also try to schedule time off. I’m horrible at it but I try to.

What has been a successful marketing technique for you whether it was a giveaway, a promotion or a partnering with a company?

I host a giveaway each month for healthy bites because that way I’m able to do a donation and ship to somebody. I love doing that because I get to give something away that is my specialty.

Share one thing that your readers and listeners to know about you that you think they don’t know.

I don’t like writing. It’s not my gift and yet I’ve been doing it since 2009.

Where can we find you?

• Cottercrunch.com.
• Facebook: Cotter Crunch
• Instagram: @cottercrunch 
• Twitter: @cottercrunch
• Pinterest:Cottercrunch

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