From Amanda Rose, Ph.D., Founder of Eat Like a Bear!:
Eat Like a Bear! is seeking marketing partners. If you’re a super-cool brand and as awesome as the Eat Like a Bear! community, we may be a very good fit. I hope you read on.
We’re out Living Our Most Vibrant Lives, Free from the Shackles of Extra Pounds
The Eat Like a Bear! community has achieved unprecedented success in weight loss in a highly underserved demographic: older women who have always struggled with their weight.
To date, we’ve had over 200 community members lose at least 100 pounds, and we’ve had thousands of other weight loss success cases. (Find our “Century Bears” here.)
Many of us are one-meal-a-day eaters, often eating a giant crafted salad or skillet dish.
Our tagline is: Eat, and go be awesome!
We eat fairly distinctly, but our success may mostly be due to our “go be awesome” focus, as we have many people getting out and hiking, kayaking, and horseback riding for the first time in decades.
We’re a Growing Movement with Earned Media
The Eat Like a Bear! movement is growing largely through friend and family member referrals and is growing in social media. Many of our community members are directly accessible via email (and the email community is growing by a couple of hundred people daily).
The community has had some great media appearances, including being featured eight times in a national magazine. I’ve also been on multiple regional TV spots. (Find our earned media here.)
In July 2023, Eat Like a Bear! made Yahoo News for having 200 community members who had lost at least 100 pounds. (Find the Yahoo News article here.)
We Have Life-Changing Reports From Many People
We have extreme life-changing reports coming out of the community daily:
- Improvements in mobility: Starting with canes, walkers, and wheelchairs and ending on hiking trails.
- Improvement in agility: Being able to get back on the literal horse and ride on horseback for the first time in decades.
- Improvement in size and flexibility: From being too big to fit into a kayak to being able to step into one and row on the open water.
- Improvements in insulin resistance and A1c: Members reporting a reduction in medication and in symptoms of diabetes.
Our core mission is to lead these life changes in our distinct demographic AND THEN to impact the younger generations that follow us.
We do so with a way of eating that is highly accessible in all ways, but especially financially. This is a way of eating that can be done on a SNAP/food stamps budget.
I teach this way of eating for free and hold no secrets behind a paywall.
Our Way of Eating Fills Shopping Carts With Fresh Produce
At Eat Like a Bear!, we have a distinct meal framework that drives the success you are seeing. I ate one meal a day to lose 140 pounds, and it was often a giant salad or skillet dish, now known as the “Ridiculously Big Salad” and “Ridiculously Big Skillet.” Each leverages a large base of vegetables to keep the number of calories low.
This way of eating is highly effective for weight loss, and it embraces whole foods and vegetables in a way that makes implementation extremely easy and inexpensive. (Find a series of simple meals on YouTube here.)
Notably, the core community of Eat Like a Bear! is in America’s heartland, and many of its members live in rural communities.
Those Shopping Carts Are in Memphis, Milwaukee, and Missoula
Although we have community across the globe, the core of Eat Like a Bear! is in America’s heartland.
When we analyzed our first 100 Century Bears (members who lost at least 100 pounds), it became evident that the Eat Like a Bear! message resonates in rural America:
- 8 of the first 100 Century Bears are from Missouri, 8 from Texas, and 5 each are from Wisconsin and Michigan.
- The most “urban” Century Bears (5%) come from suburbs of Dallas, Charlotte, Seattle, and St. Louis.
- Southern California Century Bears are from Idyllwild and Temecula.
- While there were no Century Bears from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York, two of the first hundred are from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. One lives in Alaska.
If you’ve been seeking to reach consumers in America’s heartland, you’ve found the right partner.
We Need Marketing Partners Who Are as Awesome as We Are
Surely there are a good number of brands who are both as awesome as we are and are aligned with the Eat Like a Bear! core values.
Let’s pre-qualify everyone right here on this website ….
At Eat Like a Bear!, We Get DIRTY and We’re Proud of That
You should know that I often run around DIRTY.
Notice in the photo above that my hair is disheveled. When I’m on a hike, I usually end up looking disheveled, sometimes even filthy.
I also often work on my five-acre property and end up dirty and sweaty with “hat head.”
The Eat Like a Bear! community loves these photos because our community members also aspire to be out getting filthy.
If filth and general unkemptness bothers you, we are not a good fit. Instagram is filled with much opportunity for you.
We may be a good fit if you have:
- A great trail shoe or boot that’s not too prissy to get dirty.
- A hardcore work boot made to get dirty AND made to support hard work.
- Outdoor work clothes that provide some protection against burns, scrapes, and poison oak.
- A quad or small tractor that represents the hardworking culture of our community, that is not afraid to have filthy, hardworking older people using it in social media.
- A vehicle expected to get muddy and scratched.
- A unisex (probably western-style) hat that fits this legendary story. (Don’t judge.)
- An excellent laundry detergent or soap because when you get awfully dirty, it’s also good to get clean. 🙂
Eat Like a Bear! Is the Wrinkle Capital of Social Media
If it bothers you to see my wrinkled face, and if you wonder how on earth my wrinkles will represent your youthful brand in social media, then we are not a good fit. I direct you to the beautiful people on Instagram.
(If you are a cosmetic surgeon and want to carve me into a Hollywood beauty, I double-dog dare you to give me a video shout out in social media. My response will not disappoint.)
We may be a good fit if you have quality cosmetic solutions of the kind we may be anyway (e.g., moisturizer, sunscreen, products for fine lines) and if your brand actively seeks to be inclusive in its body imagery messages.
Tools for Our Emerging Active Lifestyle
When we get a taste of being active again (or active for the first time), there are certainly tools to assist us in our activities that improve our performance and reduce our risk of injury. As proud as we are here, we’re not too proud to reach out for some obvious help.
We may be a good fit if you have tools that improve our foot and limb health, helping us walk farther and faster, and that may help us through special life circumstances such as knee and hip replacements. Examples include orthotics, slip-on shoes with added support features, specialized socks, and assisted walking devices.
Tools for Community-Building and Storytelling
The Eat Like a Bear! community has a highly active and engaged core, ready to amplify our stories. We have done so with virtually no funds.
Our situation at this point reminds me of what my grandpa used to say: “There is no shame in being poor, but it sure is unhandy.”
We could tell our stories with far more flair and pizzazz, visiting each other in real life, if we had more resources. Partners in travel and hospitality (transportation and lodging, in particular) would go a long way to assist in telling Eat Like a Bear! stories.
Do you have an airline, train, vehicle, or other transportation-related brand that could help us meet our community members in real life?
Do you have any sort of brand that puts roofs over heads (hotels and other lodging) while we’re out meeting our community members?
Do you host a destination that a few of us need to explore?
Heck, do you have a rainproof tent that I can pitch in Brenda’s backyard when I visit her? (I’m not too proud, and that would make a great YouTube video.)
Seeking Marketing Partners to Integrate Into Our Stories
One of our goals here at Eat Like a Bear! is to facilitate the storytelling of our community members, helping amplify their stories of success.
Your brand may very well fit in these stories:
- We send a weekly story via email to our email community of 120,000. Your super-cool product could be included along with the story.
- We have an emerging podcast on YouTube in which we can integrate a mention for your brand.
- We have multiple opportunities in social media, depending on the partnership we carve out.
Thank You for Your Consideration
Thank you for your consideration and your help in supporting our mission. (Read our mission here.)
As you look into the unlikely community of Eat Like a Bear!, consider that despite the advancing age of our “granfluencer” platform and its clear lack of Instagram-worthy beauty, the next parents and grandparents we impact may be your own.
I’ll catch you on the trail.
Amanda Rose, Ph.D., Founder, September 2023
