Inside Influence with Melanie Lionello from Naturally Nutritious
Name: Melanie Lionello
Social Handles:
Instagram: @naturally_nutritious
Blog: melanielionello.com
Twitter: @nat_nutritious
Facebook: @natnutritious
Category: Food and Health
We recently caught up with Melanie Lionello, owner of mouth-watering recipe blog, Naturally Nutritious. Through her love of food and background as a nutritionist, Melanie
shares real recipes with just the right amount of indulgence!
We absolutely love scrolling through Melanie’s Instagram for dinner inspiration, especially because her recipes are super easy to follow (although we usually just end up getting food-envy). She also has a ‘nutrition spotlight’ on her blog, where she talks about and breaks down the science behind popular health trends that are always kicking around.
Read on to hear about her content creation process, recipe inspirations, favourite bloggers and influencers, and what’s next for Naturally Nutritious.
Your content has always been super high quality, even when you started back in 2014. Did you have prior experience in content creation, styling and photography or did you fall into being a social media influencer?
I have no formal experience in styling or photography at all! It’s all just been practice along the way! I kind of fell into social media and didn’t really understand what is was haha! My sister made me start an Instagram and then I started sharing my food photos and recipes as a creative outlet.
Where do you find inspiration for the content and recipes you create? Your photos make our mouths water!
Thank you! I get inspiration from everywhere! From what’s in season to an old family recipe to something I remember having when I’ve travelled overseas to something that I learnt to make during my honours thesis year where I looked at Turkish culinary culture. If it’s food, I’m inspired!
We think it’s awesome that you follow a bunch of other food influencers. Have you found the industry to be supportive or competitive?
Totally supportive! I have met some of my greatest friends through social media and we are always open to candidly discussing everything that we are doing, or need help with. We only ever want to lift each higher 😃
On that note, have you met any foodies along the way and would you ever consider collaborating with them?
Absolutely! That would be such a great creative experience and I always learn so much from others.
What are some of your favourite accounts to follow?
1: @natalie.zee – incredible photographer, such a hard worker and an all-round beautiful human being
2: @tohercore – she really has the ability to transport me some place else with her moody photography and cosy creations
3: @naomisherman_foodcreative – my mouth waters whenever Naomi’s images appear on my feed. She is also a brilliant storyteller
4: @anisa.sabet – comfort food and cocktails, two of my favourite things!
5: @cookrepublic – beautiful veggie-full recipes that are easy to recreate
What is the most challenging part about being an influencer?
I’d say it’s needing the constant drive to create and evolve. Sometimes it’s exhausting and it’s hard to step away from. It’s not often or common to have a social media break I think, but sometimes you just kind of hit a creative roadblock and a little break, even a day or two can help me at least to find my jam again.
Has social media been a large part of your success as a nutritionist and building your own personal brand? How much of a part has it played?
It’s been instrumental. Although, I have to say that being a nutritionist is now secondary to being a food photographer and recipe developer funnily enough! Either way, social media has been my ‘rolling business card’ as such since I was still studying and it’s given me exposure in ways I thought were not possible. I doubt that I would be able to undertake the work I do, with the flexibility I have, without social media.
When collaborating with brands do you prefer to have a strict brief, or more of a casual direction and creative freedom? Why?
I am really easy going when it comes to working with brands. I will work around whatever the brand would like, to achieve their desired goal. Everything always has my own vibe to it so I’m never really fussed if the brief is quite strict - sometimes it’s actually easier to work to because you can only let your creative juices flow so far!
What are your tips for declining campaigns and collaborations that don’t align with your personal brand? Do you have any advice for other influencers?
Be polite, give a brief courteous explanation as to why you don’t align or aren’t interested and leave it at that. Be professional always, you never know when the person you’re liaising with may pop up again in the future.
What’s next for you and Naturally Nutritious?
I am working on some big changes for NN, everything will run exactly the same but it won’t appear as you know it today! And I am also working on my second recipe e-book which will be completely free for my audience to download, I’m super excited about that!
And finally, what advice would you give to up and coming foodies and influencers? Do you have any tips on what to do, and what not to do?
Just be genuine! Cook and share food you love. Don’t follow trends. Just do you because everyone else is already taken 😃
**Want to know more about what it is like to be an influencer? Make sure you check out our Inside Influence series on the Scrunch Blog. **
