From The People Who Work With Melanie
REAL CLIENTS · REAL WORDS
Testimonials reflect individual experiences; results vary by practice.
Most practices treating a "social media problem" are actually leaking somewhere else: discovery calls, follow-up, referrals, retention. The Marketing Lab gives serious practitioners a strategist who knows their practice, unlimited questions answered twice a week, and a marketing health check twice a year. Diagnosis first. Then the fix.
25 founding spots · 6-month commitment · Lifetime pricing lock
Most practices only think about marketing when revenue drops, a competitor opens nearby, or a channel suddenly stops working. By then, the fix is expensive and the damage is already done.
Having ongoing access to a strategist who already knows your practice means you don't have to explain yourself to someone new mid-crisis. You get consistent eyes on your business, proactive health checks twice a year, and real strategic conversations when you need them. Not emergency scrambling. Not starting from scratch every time something changes.
This is what a trusted advisor relationship looks like, scaled to work for practitioners who don't need (or can't yet afford) a full fractional engagement.
Practitioners are exhausted. They're producing content they don't believe in because they've been told they have to. They're using AI to write captions and posts, often without a filter to tell whether what comes out is any good. The result is what you've probably noticed on Instagram: every practitioner sounds the same, every post is forgettable, every account blurs into the next.
Here's what nine years of working with 1,100+ practitioners has taught me: the practices that grow aren't the ones posting the most. They're the ones whose underlying marketing systems actually work. Messaging that's clear. A conversion path that doesn't lose people. Retention that keeps members engaged. Referrals that actually happen.
Content on top of a broken foundation doesn't fix the foundation. It just makes you tired.
The Marketing Lab is for the practitioners who are ready to stop fixing symptoms and start fixing what's actually broken.
“My Instagram isn’t working. I probably need to post more.”
WHAT A PRACTICE OWNER SAYS WHEN GROWTH STALLSThe practices that grow aren't the ones posting the most. They're the ones whose underlying systems actually work.
I started in functional medicine in 2015 as the office manager and FMCA-certified health coach at a startup functional medicine clinic. I did intake. I answered the phones. I managed the marketing. I watched a generalist agency produce content that contradicted our clinical guidance and had to call every patient to clean it up.
That clinic also had a business coach on call, and I saw both sides of that. Having someone to ask changed how we made decisions: problems got caught early, nobody had to guess. And it was expensive. The kind of expensive most practices will never be able to justify.
That's when I started Functional Media.
For nine years I've worked with over 1,100 functional medicine, naturopathic, and integrative practitioners. I've watched the industry change. I've watched AI flood the space with generic content. I've watched good practitioners spend money on marketing that doesn't move the needle because the leak isn't where they think it is.
The Marketing Lab is the advisor relationship we had at that clinic, rebuilt for the practitioners who were never going to pay what we paid. Same access. Same directness. A price a practice can actually justify.
Testimonials reflect individual experiences; results vary by practice.
When you join, you complete a short profile of your clinic: specialty, practice model, team, current offers, pricing, what's working and what isn't. It sits in front of Melanie every time you ask a question, so every answer accounts for your actual practice instead of a generic one. No re-explaining your situation, ever.
Ask as many questions as you want, as often as you want. Questions go into the portal feed without names, so ask the real stuff. Melanie answers by video every Tuesday and Thursday, with an audio-only version of every answer, and you get a heads-up the moment yours is answered. No live calls to attend, ever.
Twice a year, you update your Practice Profile with your current numbers and Melanie reviews your marketing situation. Within 2 weeks you get a short written assessment identifying your top one to three leaks and what to prioritize next.
A 30 to 45 minute private call with Melanie to work through a specific situation in your practice. One included call a year on the monthly plan, two a year on the annual plan, and you can book your first the day you join.
A new training each month: a short video (around 10 minutes) that frames the thinking, a written guide that carries the depth, and a workbook that turns it into something you can apply to your own practice. Topics span the full marketing picture: messaging, conversion, retention, referrals, operations, patient experience, and yes, content.
Every answer is saved to the member library, organized by category with a directory, so you can pull up everything on retention, referrals, or discovery calls the moment you need it. The library builds week after week: the longer the Lab runs, the more it's worth.
20% off additional 1:1 advisor sessions ($397/call vs $497 for non-members), 20% off custom work, and member-only rates on Functional Media's other offerings.
There's no limit on questions and no such thing as too basic or too specific. Every answer is delivered by video in the weekly feed (with an audio version), then filed in the library by category, so the next member with the same question finds it instantly.
"Everyone keeps telling me to post more. Is that actually my problem?"
"I have followers but almost no bookings from Instagram. Where's the disconnect?"
"Honestly, I don't know if I should keep doing Pinterest."
"Patients love us, but nobody refers. What am I missing?"
"My program members ghost around month three. Is it the program or the marketing?"
"I'm ready to hand marketing to a VA. What do I give them first?"
Representative examples of the kind of questions the Lab is built to answer.
Do people understand who you serve and why they should choose you?
When the right person lands on your site, what's the path to booked?
Are current members staying, engaging, and referring?
Do past clients and partners actually send people to you?
Is what's working visible publicly or stuck in your inbox?
Is what you're publishing serving the business or just happening?
The operational decisions that quietly make or break growth.
This is the territory the Lab covers. The trainings go deep on these over time, your health checks find which ones are leaking, and the feed answers whatever can't wait.
Functional medicine, naturopathic, and integrative practitioners, plus health coaches, acupuncturists, and aligned providers.
Practice owners who suspect their marketing problems aren't really marketing problems.
Serious practitioners willing to commit to 6 months of real work on their marketing.
Practitioners who want someone to just hand them Instagram captions. The Content Bank exists for that.
Anyone looking for a magic pill, a quick fix, or an AI that does your marketing without a judgment filter.
Practices not willing to look honestly at what's actually broken.
Because this isn't a course you binge in a weekend. The members who get the most from the Lab are the ones who stay long enough to actually apply the work. Six months is the minimum for meaningful change in your practice's marketing.
If you're looking for a quick fix, this isn't it. If you're ready to actually build something, this is where you start.
If you want to be one of the 25, this is the moment.
At the clinic, an on-call strategist was a cost only a funded startup could justify, and I don't believe marketing advice needs to be gatekept behind $50,000 paywalls. The Lab is that relationship priced for an actual practice. For scale: the included 1:1 sessions are worth up to $994 a year at the non-member rate, and they're the smallest part of what you get.
Run the math. Your first six months include a $497 advisor session (your yearly included call, bookable the day you join), a full Marketing Health Check, six trainings, and twenty-six weeks of unlimited questions, for $882 total. Go annual and the two included sessions are worth $994 on their own, which prices everything else the Lab does all year at less than one extra call.
25 founding spots. 6-month minimum commitment. Lifetime pricing lock. The lock means your rate never goes up while you stay enrolled; billing continues on your plan's schedule. On the monthly plan, after your six-month initial term you can cancel at any time before your next billing date. The annual plan renews for a full year at a time, and you can cancel a renewal any time before your renewal date. After the founding spots fill, the Lab opens at $197/month and the founding offer closes permanently.
You don't need the Content Bank to be in the Lab, and you don't need the Lab to use the Content Bank. The Content Bank is done-for-you content: posts, captions, templates. The Lab is ongoing strategic partnership: understanding what's actually broken in your marketing and fixing it. If you want both, they stack well. Neither requires the other.
No, and here's the difference. A course is finished before you arrive, and it has no idea you exist. The Lab is the opposite shape: the monthly training is the smallest piece of it. The center is a loop that knows your practice. You ask about your actual situation, the answer is built on your Practice Profile, and twice a year I personally review your marketing and tell you what to fix next. A course ends the day you finish it. The Lab compounds the longer you're in it.
You can. Here's what nine years of watching practitioners has taught me, though: almost nobody books the call until something is already on fire, and that's the most expensive possible time to fix it. The Lab flips that. For less than a third of the price of one session, a month of membership gets you answers every Tuesday and Thursday, a strategist who already knows your practice, an included advisor session (two on the annual plan), and a health check that catches leaks before they become fires. One call is 45 minutes with the problem you already know about. The Lab is a strategist in your corner all year, including for the problems you can't see yet.
No. Social is one of several marketing systems and often not the most important. The Lab covers the full picture.
If you're in the alternative health space, yes. The systems the Lab covers (messaging, conversion, retention, referrals, operations) are the same systems whether you adjust spines, run panels, or coach. My specialty is cash-based practices: if your revenue comes from patients choosing to pay you rather than insurance volume, the Lab was built around your economics.
The Lab is designed for practitioners who have an active practice (even a small one). If you haven't opened yet, you'd probably benefit more from working with me 1:1 to set up the foundation. Reach out and I'll tell you honestly whether this is the right fit.
On the monthly plan, yes. The 6-month minimum covers your initial commitment; after that, membership continues month-to-month and you can cancel anytime with 30 days notice. The annual plan works by full years instead: each renewal commits you for the next full year, so to stop it, cancel before your renewal date rather than mid-term. And on every plan, as long as you stay continuously enrolled, you keep your founding rate forever.
No. The trainings, the library, the feed, and everything else in the Lab are part of membership, not downloads you own. While you're enrolled, all of it is yours to use. When your membership ends, access ends with it. Your workbooks and anything you've saved for your own practice are yours to keep.
You'd rejoin at the current standard rate, which will be higher than founding. The founding rate is only locked in while you stay continuously enrolled.
No. Everything in the Lab is async and lives in the member portal. Trainings are released on your schedule, answers drop every Tuesday and Thursday, and your included 1:1 Strategic Advisor Session is scheduled when it works for you.
Nope. You're welcome to lurk. You can learn a lot from watching the answers to other practitioners' questions, including things you might not have thought to ask yet. Asking your own questions gives me the chance to help with your specific situation, but there's no requirement to participate every week.
No. The Lab is designed around your direct access to me, not peer-to-peer community. You submit questions (as many as you want) and I answer them in the portal feed every Tuesday and Thursday by video, with an audio-only version of every answer. Every member sees every answer, and all of it is archived in the categorized library, so you learn from each other's questions without another group chat to keep up with.
No. Questions appear in the feed without names. I use your Practice Profile privately to understand your situation, and when I answer, I share only the background the answer needs to make sense: the kind of practice, the kind of patient base, never who you are. But your answer is still built on your full profile. The feed version is generalized for everyone else; you'll recognize every detail as yours. Every answer lives in the feed and the library; that's the point. Both live inside the member portal, so questions and answers are only ever visible to other members. Nothing you ask is posted publicly. If something is so specific to your situation that it can't be anonymized, that's exactly what your included 1:1 Strategic Advisor Session is for.
If there's already an answer in the library, I'll point you to it in the directory so you can find it easily. If your situation is different or you still have a question after watching, tell me what you need help with so I can address that part.
25 founding spots · 6-month minimum commitment · Lifetime pricing lock
Functional Media is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Meta Platforms, Inc. Membership billing is handled at checkout; the 6-month minimum and founding pricing terms are stated at purchase. Results vary based on individual effort, market conditions, and platform changes; strategic guidance is one tool within your broader business, not a guaranteed path to success.