Toronto nutritionist Meghan Telpner made a name for herself—and built a seven-figure, one-person business—at her site MeghanTelpner by publishing well-researched information on health and wellness in a quirky site that reflects her passion for vintage clothes, outdoor life and family. Now she’s scaling up.
With many people hunkered down during the pandemic and now continuing to enjoy the pleasures of doing things like home cooking and giving themselves facials, her posts on topics like “My Ultimate Home Spa: Rituals and Product Reco,” “Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Muffins,” and “Meal And Snack Ideas For Airplane Travel”—have attracted a growing following.
So have her candid views on controversial topics, like “5 Reasons Nutella Should Be Banned From Your Breakfast Table,” “Is The Beyond Meat Burger Healthy?” “Tampons: The Dioxin Glyphosate Vagina Cocktail,” and cosmetics, as in “Is Arbonne Really As Pure And Safe As They Claim.”
“There are a lot of people that are more health-conscious and realize they need to take more ownership of their health,” says Telpner. But many are facing roadblocks, such as high food costs, she finds. “It shouldn’t have to be so difficult to live well,” she says.
Telpner started her business in 2008, after suffering from a health challenge of her own: a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease in 2006, after a trip to Africa. She left her stressful career in advertising behind, got the credentials to become a nutritionist at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition, and made many incremental lifestyle changes—like eliminating gluten and dairy from her diet, and using an infrared sauna—that have allowed her to live life in remission from Crohn’s, which causes inflammation of the intestinal tract.
Meghan Telpner healed herself from autoimmune disease. Now she teaches followers of … [+]
At the time she launched the business, the world was stuck in the Great Recession, and many people were looking for inexpensive, DIY ways to live a healthy life. Working solo until 2011, when she hired a full-time assistant, she introduced her first online class, the three-day Green Smoothie Cleanse, in 2009, and wrote two cookbooks, UnDiet (2013) and The UnDiet Cookbook (2015). In 2014, she introduced The Academy of Culinary Nutrition, where students can learn healthy cooking techniques. Her main revenue stream is the Academy’s 14-week certification program. The mostly online program now has about 3,000 graduates in more than 75 countries. By 2018, the business, which has generally had revenues in the CAD $1.5-$2 million range annually, grew to a three-person team.
This year, Telpner is introducing The Clubhouse Community for graduates of the Academy and other general members of the Meghan Telpner community. Intentionally located off of social media, it features monthly live events, such as cooking demos, and round-table conversations on topics of interest to the community, such as home schooling and zero-waste living. “It is a hub for people to continue learning and building connections around shared values,” she says. “You get empowered with skills and knowledge and connect with people to really cheer you on, support and learn from you.”
Telpner and her team created the community after noticing that many members of the Academy renewed their access to the program every year. “I sensed they want to maintain engagement.”
She is also introducing a teaching resources portal, allowing graduates to purchase access to cooking classes and workshops, enabling them to run their own classes in their communities.
With these new products and services in the works, Telpner wants to make sure she can maintain her low-stress lifestyle. To make sure she can execute on her vision at a high level and still has plenty of time for her husband Josh, also a nutritionist, and their pre-school aged son, she realized she needed to hire a larger team. She used a functional accountability chart—a tool that looks at the work that needs to be done in a business and the characteristics and skills of the optimal person to hold each job—and gradually grew the team to seven people, in addition to herself.
“I felt like if we could get super-clear on who needed to be on the team, so everyone could work in their area of brilliance, it would create a more successful work environment,” she says. “Everyone now has very clear roles. Giving everyone time to think about what they are doing is part of the big picture. We’re able to be more strategic and thoughtful about how we execute everything.”
Despite the worldwide labor shortage, she found the new team members through word of mouth and the company’s email list, social media, and graduates of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. “We haven’t had to go to any agency,” she says.
Having a team has enabled her to travel with her family, now that Canadians are free to do so. One recent trip was to Costa Rica. She has found that her team members have been eager to step up when she is away. “The less I work, the more responsible my team has become,” she says.
To keep the team cohesive, she asks all team members based in the Toronto area to work under one roof once a month. They play trivia games, have “Elixir Chats” where they try her signature recipes, macrame workshops, group art therapy workshops and similar events. “We have fun things on the calendar, so we get to know each other and connect,” she says.
So far, she has only had turnover in two positions, in 2021, she says. One person left to start a business, and another took a job in a much bigger company.
She is expecting continued growth, with the current economic environment similar in many ways to the one where the business first took shape, and interesting eating locally grown food, wellness and the DIY movement continuing to grow.
“Everyone wants to learn things from scratch again, and they’re gardening and making sourdough,” she says. “I think people will keep doing it. When economics come into play, it’s way more cost-effective to do it yourself, and you can find the joy in it.”
