Most health and wellness founders hit a wall when their expertise outpaces their visibility. You’ve built something credible—a methodology, a practice, a product that works—but the market hasn’t caught up to what you know. Your competitors appear on podcasts, publish in major outlets, and get quoted in news cycles while you’re still pitching into the void. The gap between what you’ve accomplished and who knows about it isn’t a content problem. It’s a positioning problem. The founders who break through understand that media coverage, speaking engagements, and bylined articles aren’t vanity metrics—they’re business infrastructure that compounds over time when executed correctly.
Start With Subject Matter Positioning, Not Personal Branding
Scott Becker spent 30 years building healthcare thought leadership by doing something most founders miss: he focused on a specific vertical before expanding. He didn’t position himself as a general healthcare expert. He owned surgery centers completely, then moved strategically into hospitals and health systems once he’d established authority in the first space. When existing conferences wouldn’t give him a platform, he built his own events and publications.
This approach works because journalists, podcast bookers, and conference organizers aren’t looking for generalists. They need experts who can speak authoritatively on a specific problem. If you’re “a wellness consultant,” you’re competing with thousands of others. If you’re “the expert on wellness-driven retention strategies for healthcare organizations,” you’ve narrowed the field to a handful of credible voices.
The positioning framework that gets you called first requires three elements: a tight vertical focus, original intellectual property, and consistent visibility in that space. Your positioning statement should answer: What specific audience do you serve? What problem do you solve that others don’t address? What original perspective or methodology do you bring? Generic positioning like “helping people live healthier lives” won’t get you media coverage. Specific positioning like “helping CEOs integrate health decisions into organizational culture as a performance lever” opens doors.
Bylined articles in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, or Fast Company don’t happen because you pitched well. They happen because editors need experts who can provide data-backed perspectives on emerging trends. Deloitte’s research on health-savvy CEOs reveals that publications prioritize leaders who demonstrate “deep empathy” and can articulate complex health decisions in ways that resonate with multiple stakeholders—employees, investors, and the public.
The process starts with creating substantive intellectual property: white papers, original research, frameworks that solve real problems. This isn’t content marketing. It’s the foundation for everything else. When you develop a white paper on a specific industry challenge, you’ve created material that becomes a keynote speech, which becomes a series of bylined articles, which becomes podcast talking points. One piece of original research compounds across multiple channels.
For founders without research budgets, original frameworks work just as well. Document your methodology, create a diagnostic tool, or publish case studies with measurable outcomes. The goal is to give journalists and editors something concrete to reference beyond your opinion. When you pitch a bylined article, you’re not selling yourself—you’re offering insights backed by proprietary data or frameworks that their audience can’t get elsewhere.
Target Niche Speaking Platforms Over Mainstream Stages
The highest-ROI speaking opportunities aren’t the obvious mainstream conferences. They’re vertical-specific events where your exact target audience gathers. Becker’s strategy of building his own surgery center conference when existing platforms wouldn’t give him access demonstrates a critical insight: audience alignment matters more than audience size.
A keynote at a 200-person conference filled with decision-makers in your vertical generates more business results than a breakout session at a 5,000-person generalist event. The attendees are pre-qualified, the content relevance is higher, and the follow-up conversations happen naturally because everyone in the room shares the same challenges.
The Founder’s Summit model shows how curated events position speakers through association. When Dr. Vasan, Dr. Sandra Nichols, and Kimberly Blackwell speak at the same event, they gain credibility from each other’s presence. For founders seeking speaking opportunities, this means targeting platforms that select speakers based on demonstrated impact and community leadership, not open-call speaking circuits that accept anyone willing to pay.
Executive-focused platforms represent another high-value channel. Vistage operates a dedicated resource center for CEO health and wellness, actively seeking expert contributors on burnout, performance, and wellness topics. Peer advisory groups, leadership development firms, and executive networks offer speaking opportunities with audiences that have budget and decision-making authority.
The speaking strategy: identify 3-5 conferences in your vertical, attend as a participant first to understand the audience and content gaps, then pitch specific session topics that address those gaps. Conference organizers want speakers who understand their attendees’ challenges, not generic motivational talks. Your pitch should reference specific sessions from previous years and explain how your content fills a gap or advances a conversation already happening in that community.
Execute Coordinated Podcast Tours With Strategic Intent
Podcast appearances generate visibility, but only when approached strategically. The mistake most founders make is saying yes to every invitation. The better approach: identify podcasts where your target audience already listens, then focus on those exclusively.
Podcast ROI comes from audience alignment, not download numbers. A podcast with 5,000 highly targeted listeners (healthcare executives, wellness buyers, potential partners) delivers better results than a podcast with 50,000 general listeners. The vetting process: review the last 10 episodes, note the guest profiles and topics, and confirm that the host asks substantive questions rather than surface-level promotional softballs.
When pitching podcasts, lead with your intellectual property. “I’d love to discuss my framework for integrating wellness into organizational culture, which I’ve used with [specific companies] to achieve [specific results]” works better than “I’m a wellness expert and would love to share my story.” Podcast hosts need content that serves their audience, not promotional opportunities for guests.
The coordinated approach: identify 10-15 target podcasts, pitch them over a 3-month period, and schedule appearances in clusters. When you have 5-6 podcast appearances scheduled within a 6-week window, you create momentum. Each appearance reinforces the others, and you can reference previous conversations to build credibility. This concentrated visibility makes you top-of-mind when listeners need an expert in your space.
Journalists don’t respond to pitches that ask for coverage. They respond to experts who provide value before asking for anything. Becker’s 30-year relationship-building strategy reveals that consistent visibility through writing and speaking makes you top-of-mind for journalists covering your space. He didn’t chase media—he built platforms that journalists naturally gravitated toward.
The relationship framework: position yourself as a resource by creating original research, hosting industry conversations, and publishing insights regularly. When journalists need a quote or expert perspective, your name comes up first because you’ve been consistently visible and helpful.
The outreach sequence: identify 10-15 journalists who regularly cover your vertical, follow their work, and engage with their articles on social media. When they publish something relevant to your expertise, send a brief note acknowledging their work and offering to be a resource for future pieces. Don’t pitch yourself—offer to provide data, context, or introductions to other experts. This positions you as a connector and resource, not someone seeking coverage.
After 3-4 months of providing value, you’ve built enough relationship capital to pitch expert commentary opportunities. When a news story breaks in your space, send a brief email with 2-3 quotable insights journalists can use immediately. The goal isn’t to get featured in that specific story—it’s to demonstrate that you can provide timely, relevant commentary that makes their job easier.
Create a Coordinated Campaign With Compounding Returns
Thought leadership isn’t a 90-day sprint. It’s a multi-year positioning strategy that compounds over time. The pattern successful founders follow starts with building intellectual property while securing initial speaking engagements at niche conferences and bylined articles in tier-2 publications. Year two focuses on using that initial credibility to secure speaking slots at more prestigious events, pitch to tier-1 publications, and build relationships with journalists and podcast boosters. By year three, you’re maintaining consistent visibility through multiple channels and creating your own platforms to deepen positioning.
The execution framework requires targeting specific audience segments with tailored content. Rather than one generic message, develop distinct positioning for different platforms. Executive audiences receive strategy-focused content connecting wellness to business performance. HR audiences receive implementation-focused content on program design and measurement. Media audiences receive trend-focused content on emerging challenges and solutions.
Coordinated campaigns often include hosting or co-hosting events that position you as a convener, not just a speaker. Identify one major conference or summit in your space, secure a speaking slot, then use that platform to build relationships with other speakers and attendees. One speaking engagement leads to podcast invitations, bylined article opportunities, and media mentions through the multiplier effect of being associated with other recognized leaders.
The measurement framework: track media placements, speaking engagements, and podcast appearances as proof of thought leadership status, but measure business impact through lead quality, partnership opportunities, and client acquisition costs. Thought leadership works when it reduces your customer acquisition costs and increases deal sizes because prospects arrive pre-sold on your expertise.
The founders who break through treat thought leadership as a business function requiring sustained investment, not as a one-time marketing project. They start by being authentically educational, build relationships before asking for coverage, and create original intellectual property that journalists and event organizers actively seek out. Your first step: define your specific vertical, develop one piece of substantive intellectual property, and identify three speaking platforms where your target audience already gathers. Execute that sequence over six months, then expand to adjacent channels. The visibility compounds when you’re consistent, specific, and focused on serving your audience rather than promoting yourself.
