Even Lord Voldemort couldn’t beat Harry Potter. But David Zinczenko did it with a book.
It wasn’t even a magic book. It was Zinczenko’s newly released Zero Belly Smoothies, which knocked Harry Potter and the Cursed Child out of the top spot on the bestsellers list at Amazon.
“We were on the top of the list for something like five minutes,” says Zinczenko. “But believe me, we were really excited about it.”
Zinczenko is founder and chief executive officer at Galvanized Media, which in its third full year of operation has become one of the biggest names in the health and wellness space. The company, which oversees the incredibly successful Zero Belly series, already reports annual revenues topping $5 million.
But books are just one component of Galvanized, which has a bustling office at WeWork Soho South that’s home base for a dozen staffers. The team, which Zinczenko describes as “rock stars,” reaches millions of health-conscious consumers every month through its television, magazine, and online presence.
If Zinczenko’s name sounds familiar, you might have seen one of his numerous appearances on Good Morning America, where he serves as the nutrition and wellness editor. Or you might have seen his name on the masthead of Men’s Fitness or on the cover of more than two dozen books, including the Abs Diet series.
But his name is most closely associated with Eat This, Not That! Originating as a column in Men’s Health back in 2004, it eventually became an incredibly successful series of books dedicated to helping consumers make better choices in the grocery store or at a restaurant. It has been a well-respected brand since the first book was released in 2007, but over the years the brand lost some of its luster.
So after he left his longtime post at Rodale, the publisher of Men’s Health, Zinczenko managed to acquire the rights to Eat This, Not That! in 2014.
“We set out to really rejuvenate the brand,” says Zinczenko. “We wanted to make it resonate with a new generation of health-conscious readers.”
The first thing he had to do was put together a staff. He’s managed to attract some high-profile names, such as chief strategy officer Jon Hammond. He came into the fold after stints as director for communications at Wired and Condé Nast Traveler and director of marketing for the National Basketball Association.
“I’ve known Dave for close to 15 years, since we worked together at Men’s Health,” says Hammond. “We had regular lunches and dinners, sometimes grabbed a drink after work, and stayed in touch about each other’s lives.”
Hammond says when Zinczenko described his idea for Galvanized, he knew he wanted to join such a dedicated team.
“When I was at Wired, I had a front-row seat to what was happening in Silicon Valley,” says Hammond. “I saw companies that rocketed upward come falling back to earth. At the same time, I saw the ones that were able to power through. They’re the ones that truly believe in their mission and what they’re doing and deliver something important.”
Zinczenko also brought aboard Michael Freidson to serve as executive director of editorial. Prior to joining the staff he had been editor-in-chief of Time Out New York and global lifestyle editor of Metro International.
“Dave and I already knew each other, and I always thought he was one guy who got the message right,” says Freidson. “He was starting a revolution about the way that people eat.”
The first thing on the agenda was the Eat This, Not That! website, which hadn’t been regularly updated for some time. Giving it a fresh look and adding lots of original content, the team relaunched it in late 2015.
“We had to start with absolutely no traffic and build up from there,” says Zinczenko. “I remember the day we launched, we were holding our breath. We finally were able to breathe a little easier when we had one visitor. After a month, we had a million and a half unique visitors.”
Less than a year after the relaunch, Eat This, Not That! logs 5 million unique visitors each month. Zinczeko admits that it’s overwhelming success was gratifying.
“I thought Eat This, Not That! could be big again, but so much of what we pioneered in the last decade has been adopted by other food and nutrition brands,” says Zinczeko. “It has taken a lot of effort, but we’ve all been blown away by how many people remembered it, loved it, enthusiastically re-embraced it.”
Confident that the company was on firm footing—it had signed a publishing deal with Random House—Galvanized began looking for a permanent home.
“At that point we were working out of wherever we could find space,” says Hammond. “Sometimes it was Dave’s apartment, sometimes an empty conference room at Random House.”
Even before the construction crew put the finishing touches on WeWork Soho South this past January, Galvanized had decided that an office on the top floor seemed perfect. It had its own skylight, flooding the larger of the two rooms with sunlight.
“Signed on the dotted line a month before opening,” says Zinczenko. “We weren’t sure exactly what it would look like, but we know it was going to be awesome. And, of course, it’s a really cool space.”
With the brand reestablished, the team set about adding new titles to its roster. The first came the Zero Belly Diet and the Zero Belly Cookbook, which established a new series for Zinczenko that focused on the benefit of plant-based proteins. Before releasing the books, his team carefully tested the premise.
“We started with a test panel of nearly 100 participants from all walks of life,” says Zinczenko. “The results surprised even me. Many of them dropped up to 15 pounds in a couple of weeks. And they lost up to four inches around their waistline.”
This past May saw the release of Eat This, Not That! When You’re Expecting, co-written by Jennifer Ashton, women’s health correspondent at ABC News. The following month came the best-selling Zero Belly Smoothies.
And what’s up for the future? Zinczenko admits to having “something like 15 ideas percolating.” December is the release date for his latest book, The Zero Sugar Diet, which focuses on helping people drop the pounds by eliminating foods with added sugars.
The company’s founder also has another project in the works: establishing the Zinczenko Center for New Media at his alma mater, Moravian College in Pennsylvania. He says the center’s mission is to help students get their writing published and gain a competitive edge.
Zinczenko says that he’s put together a team that handles all these different projects without breaking a sweat.
“We all really love what we do,” Zinczenko says. “Our mission is helping to improve people’s lives with exhaustive research, clever writing, and life-changing advice. It’s great to see people respond in such a positive way.”
Photos: Katelyn Perry