Today we’d like to introduce you to Christel Oerum.
Hi Christel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1997 at the age of 19. I kept my diagnosis private and went through life without connecting with others with diabetes. I’ve never been embarrassed by my diabetes, but just never realized the power of sharing, learning from each other, and becoming part of a community.
That all changed after my husband and I moved to Santa Monica in 2011. I started working out at Gold’s gym in Venice and soon started to prepare for my first bikini bodybuilding show.
Through that journey, I realized how complicated it can be to exercise while living with insulin-dependent diabetes, and when I couldn’t find the resources online to support my journey and my health, I created them myself.
And that’s how my business Diabetes Strong got started. It’s a virtual platform for people living with any type of diabetes. Here people can find resources, no longer just about how to safely and effectively exercise with diabetes, but resources supporting most aspects of living with diabetes.
People can access the website for free, watch informational YouTube videos, or participate in our Diabetes Strong online community on Facebook. All for free and created for people living with diabetes, by people living with diabetes.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Most major life changes are associated with challenges, and establishing Diabetes Strong was no different. My husband and I had both worked for large corporations throughout our careers, and although we were both somewhat burned out, it was good solid careers and with that comes stability.
We both made a leap of faith, backed up by some solid analysis, and left the corporate world to run Diabetes Strong full-time in 2015.
Starting a business from scratch takes time, and none of us had worked with digital publications before, so we had to learn fast to grow the website to a sustainable business.
The website has gone through several iterations, our branding and positioning have been adjusted, and adjusting to Google algorithm updates has sometimes been exhausting.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Diabetes Strong is an online publishing company. We focus on providing actionable information for people living with any type of diabetes. The content on diabetesstrong.com covers any aspect of living with diabetes that people are searching for through the larger search engines. That means that all articles are optimized for search and seek to answer the questions people have through an objective journalistic approach rather than trying to sell people a product or solution.
The vision behind the website is to provide not one solution but enough information and solutions so that people living with diabetes can make informed choices about what is best for them and their diabetes management.
It’s not a medical website so we don’t give medical advice, but since living with diabetes means dealing with blood sugar management 24/7, we believe it’s important that people are empowered to make decisions and to ask their medical team the right questions.
For those seeking information in a different format than written, we also offer a YouTube channel and a large Facebook group where people can find peer support.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
When we started Diabetes Strong, I reached out to anyone who had a blog/website or was active in diabetes advocacy. My approach to outreach has always been to lead with how I can support the person I’m reaching out to. You have to lead with what you bring rather than only what you need. Since I was very focused on exercise and diabetes when we started, I would offer to write content about that, teach group workouts or record training videos, and speak at events and diabetes camps. And I still do that today, as it’s a great way to connect with others working in the same space and a great way to give back to the community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://diabetesstrong.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diabetesstrong_ig/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DiabetesStrong/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Thefitblog
- Other: https://www.diabeticfoodie.com/
