Brittany Mullins, BS Marketing ’07, found her professional niche while studying at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University. Since graduating, she has founded and ran her successful brand, Eating Bird Food, providing healthy recipes and more to her loyal followers.
When Mullins began her freshman year at George Mason, she was determined to not gain the “freshman 15.” Even though she had always consumed the average American diet, now, she decided, was the time for her to turn over a new page.
As she got into top physical shape, she learned everything she could about health and nutrition, some of it by enrolling in nutrition courses at George Mason. Combining her newfound passion with her marketing background, she would soon establish Eating Bird Food, a platform providing healthy recipes.
With a combined social following of more than two million, Mullins has also published a cookbook and serves as a nutrition coach. Her brand continues to grow as followers recognize and trust her as an expert in her field. Eating Bird Food has been evolving ever since Mullins came up with the initial concept.
“After graduating, I got a job in marketing and also started a food blog to keep myself accountable to my healthy eating,” she says.
As Mullins states on her website, “Eating Bird Food simply means eating a wholesome diet focused on real foods—without labels.” Even though her personal preference is to eat plant-focused meals, she also eats fish and lean meat, enabling her to provide an array of healthy recipes to meet an individual’s own dietary preferences. On her website, she offers detailed recipes, complete with photos and videos, and organized by meal course, protein, diet, and cooking method. Furthermore, followers have the option to purchase a variety of meal plans.
Mullins has clearly found her own recipe for success when it comes to content creation. When asked for tips for someone who wants to break into the space, she says, “I say number one is just to start, and number two is to be really passionate about your topic and to niche down because the market with content creators is really saturated. Find something that is ‘your thing,’ and when people think of this, they’ll come to you for that specific content.” She continues to niche down even more, now focusing on more protein-focused recipes.
Though being her own boss gives her a lot of flexibility—something that the wife and mother of two greatly values—there are many challenges Mullins has to overcome. “I have to wear all the hats and do all the things, like the bookkeeping, taxes, and everything else,” she says. “Whereas if you’re an employee for a company, someone else manages those tasks and you don’t have to worry about all those extra things.” Additionally, she manages a team of four people and then contracts other professionals to accomplish tasks like videography and photography.
Having found her niche in content and amassing a large, loyal, and still growing audience, Mullins is excited to find more ways to expand her business. With a keen eye on updates happening with artificial intelligence and SEO, she’s considering new possibilities from affiliate earnings to expanding her products for purchase. Her expertise on both healthy eating and marketing have earned her a large following, which helps establish a built-in audience for whatever new venture she decides on next.