Name: Susie Kundrat, MS, RDN, LDN
Author, Eat Move Groove: Unlock the Simple Steps to Lifelong Nutrition, Fitness & Wellness (2024) and founder of Eat Move Groove, LLC.
Tell us about your book:
I wrote Eat Move Groove: Unlock the Simple Steps to Lifelong Wellness to solve a common problem so many people face – how to take care of yourself by eating well, moving well, and supporting personal well-being – but in a simple, positive, doable way every day. There is so much confusion and misinformation around nutrition, fitness, and wellness today, and it’s frustrating to know what to believe. My goal with the book is to offer a new solution that’s based on solid science, developed from tried-and-true applications, is easy to understand, and is possible to do every day. As a clinical professor and Registered Dietitian, I’ve been teaching students how to take science and make it simple to actually do for over three decades. I wanted to partner with consumers, corporations, and organizations to maximize well-being for the long term.
How did you develop your launch team?
I read everything I could, attended trainings, and picked the brain of many of our NFAA members to determine the best way to set up my launch team and plan the book launch. I asked all of my beta readers, interns, friends, colleagues, and family members if they’d come on board, which gave me a large group from the get-go. I utilized Bookfunnel to set up a downloadable book, recorded my audiobook with the incredible Mary Catherine Jones from The Audiobook, and organized our first book launch events and workshops at a local (Champaign-Urbana, IL) bookstore, brewery, YMCA, OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute), and through our email newsletter. By that point, we had about 500 members of the book launch team, which helped spread the word. I continue to request feedback, encourage readers to write book reviews, and make a point to keep our community as informed as possible about events and what’s coming next. We keep it light and have fun.
Can you talk about your book tour and how that’s going?
Our Eat Move Groove Wellness Tour started at the end of August 2024 and toured New England in September, the Midwest in October, and the Southeast in November in Sadie, our Sprinter camper van. We mixed in camping, hiking, biking, swimming, pickle ball, farmer’s markets, and plenty of time in nature with events at universities, organizations, community fitness centers, senior centers, local bookstores, and in the homes of colleagues and friends. We just completed our spring 2025 tour through the Southwest, California, up the West Coast, and back through Utah where we hit the “Big 5” National Parks. We made more time for camping, hiking, and being in nature. I also scheduled a host of online Eat Move Groove wellness corporate and educational trainings, which gave us more flexibility with the schedule. We’ve spent the good part of the last eight months on the road. It’s been fabulous!
Can you highlight some of your best successes?
One of our greatest successes has been partnering with local breweries to set up Eat Move Groove Wellness Happy Hours. We thought up this idea last year as a way to engage our online community and connect with friends, family, and colleagues on the road. We’ve taken it to local breweries, many women-owned or minority-owned breweries. I have found women and new business owners to be especially interested in collaborating. Like all of our events, we donate 22% of all book sale profits to local nutrition security efforts like food banks, food pantries, or feeding programs. We find breweries that are also committed to giving back, and it’s a fabulous way to learn about a local community and enjoy amazing beverages! After all, wellness includes enjoying your favorite LOVE foods or drinks – that’s part of our Eat Move Groove philosophy. Some of our favorite spots have been:
*Bow & Arrow Brewing Company in Albuquerque. NM
*Hopping Gnome Brewery in Wichita, KS
*RiverWalk Brewing and Taproom in Newburyport, MA
*Urban Growler Brewing Company in St. Paul, MN
*Uptown Garage Brewing Company in Ankeny, IA
*Good Vibe Kombuchary in Grass Valley, CA
*Triptych Brewing in Savoy, IL (one of our home-town favorites where we kicked off our book launch)
How have you been connecting with people across the country?
I learned early on from Stephanie Chandler with the NFAA in her invaluable book publishing training to leverage my personal “sphere of influence” to nurture connections, relationships, collaborators, and colleagues. This was golden advice. I distinctly remember taking hours to write down everyone I could reach out to after one of the sessions. I really enjoy people and have been fortunate to maintain numerous significant relationships in my life, through my career, and as a product of growing up in a wonderful tight-knit small town in Iowa, where people love to stay connected and help each other. My wife is a professional singer and has done the same in her world, so between the two of us, we reach out to everyone we know!
At most of our events, we reconnect with old friends, family, and colleagues from our previous work and personal lives, so we have been enjoying our travels immensely. Nurturing these new connections and meeting so many new, amazing people is the greatest gift we’ve received from our extended Eat Move Groove Wellness Tour – connecting, reconnecting, building new relationships – which happens to be one of the “22 Ways to Get Your Groove On” in my book.
How have you blended your background as a college professor into your book tour?
I “retired” from full-time teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the summer of 2023 when I decided to get serious about writing Eat Move Groove. There weren’t enough hours in the day to keep working full-time and write the book, develop a new business around the book and programs, and “go back to school” to learn how to be an authorpreneur. That was a great decision, as it provided time and space to fulfill my dream of writing Eat Move Groove. I also knew students I’ve been teaching in nutrition, dietetics, kinesiology, and related fields who were interested in wellness might want to jump on board as interns and learn right along with me.
I’ve worked with over 30 interns from 10+ states in the last two years – one team to help launch the book last spring and my current team that has played a significant role in collaborating on brand development and building out our Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube channels. I love teaching, and students are so creative, energetic, and interested in learning real-life applications of academic work. This February, we launched the Eat Move Groove Wellness Network for students and young professionals who want to learn more from experts in nutrition, exercise, and well-being. It’s growing every month!
How have you blended your tour with social action work you’re doing around the country?
When we decided to purchase a used camper van to travel the country in (my life-long dream), embark on this year-long Eat Move Groove Wellness Tour, and spread the word about simple, positive wellness around the country, we were also committed to making a positive impact in the communities where we stopped. We decided to donate at least 22% of all book profits back to local nutrition security efforts wherever we hosted events. In addition, my wife recently sang a concert in Palm Springs where all proceeds went to a local feeding program. So far, we’ve raised over $5,000 through these efforts in the last 15 months. It’s part of our “attitude of gratitude” we live as we travel – knowing we are extraordinarily fortunate to be on this tour. We fundamentally believe everyone deserves to have enough high-nutrient food to eat.
Tips for authors:
Find the experts and utilize their knowledge, expertise, and experience – and stay connected to them!
We’ve also connected with many of the key collaborators on the book while on tour – my developmental editor Sheila Buff in upstate New York, my copy editor Sandra Wendel in the Omaha area, my audiobook engineer Mary Catherine Jones in Vermont, my publicist Joanne McCall in the Portland, OR area, and most recently, our very own Stephanie Chandler in northern California. Again – connections have been so important to the success of this book and our tour. Plus, it’s incredibly fun to meet the people who have played significant roles in your book’s success in person!
Do you have suggestions for other authors looking to launch a book tour?
As my wife Audrey says, this year we are on our “journey of inquiry.” Some things we thought would be successful (like partnering with local bookstores) haven’t panned out as well as we’d hoped. Other events like the Eat Move Groove Happy Hours have turned out to be a hit and so much fun, too. In the fall, we hosted three or more events per week and traveled a lot each week to get from place to place. This spring, we’ve focused on a smaller number of bigger events like keynote speaking at events and conferences, planning several events in one area (we had three events in Dayton over two days in January and that worked great), and planning more time for camping, exploring, and seeing the country. We are finding our groove now with a good mix of work, events, play, adventure-seeking, and down time. After all, Eat Move Groove is all about fostering personal well-being for life, so we want to embrace and respect the experience as much as the work!
I also suggest starting early with reaching out to potential connections in the communities you plan to visit. As I tell my interns, “About 10% of everything I’m trying actually works, but that’s ok!” It takes a lot of time to plan your adventures, determine the best options for workshops and events, and ensure you have local support for the events. Our most successful events happened because we planned well, and we had one or more invested local people who enthusiastically hosted us. When you have committed people on the ground where you stop, they help rally folks who are interested in your book. It’s also important to find the people who are looking for you and the solutions your book offers and connect with them ahead of time – through your email list and social channels.
Lastly, send out press releases for events that are open to the public. Reach out ahead of time to local news outlets and consider working with a publicist. I met my publicist Joanne McCall through the NFAA Media training, and she has been an incredibly valuable member of our Eat Move Groove team. I’m constantly learning the “business” of being an author, and having a mindset of knowing you will learn new things each day is so helpful. We’ve sold over 2,000 books so far, which I feel good about as a self-published author. But there is so much more to learn and explore. I look forward to it!
Susie Kundrat, MS, RDN, LDN is a sought-after keynote speaker, the author of Eat Move Groove: Unlock the Simple Steps to Lifelong Nutrition, Fitness & Wellness, and a clinical professor emerita with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Zilber College of Public Health. You can connect with Susie at eatmovegroove.com or @eatmovegroove on her social media channels.
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