Sandra Nomoto is a writer, editor, and content strategist known for her dedication to ethical marketing and plant-based living. Dubbed The Content Doctor, she helps businesses craft compelling, values-driven content while advocating for sustainability and conscious entrepreneurship. In this exclusive interview, we dive into Sandra’s journey—from her early days in public relations to becoming a leader in the vegan marketing space.
1. What inspired you to become a communications professional?
Sandra Nomoto: Someone from the film department at my university forwarded me an internship position at a local public relations (PR) firm in Vancouver. Even though I didn’t study public relations or marketing, I had majored in English Literature and Film Studies, applied, and got the position. That was my first full-time job outside of school. After a year and a half at that company, I decided to start my own business in 2008, which grew over time to a small virtual PR agency. After closing that in 2018, I dedicated my career to working with vegan companies, authors, and now vegans.
2. Can you share with us when your story as an author started?
Sandra Nomoto: I wrote my first book, a workbook called The Only Public Relations Guide You’ll Ever Need, before I closed my agency in 2018. I wondered if I still wanted to publish the book even though I wasn’t doing PR anymore. I decided to publish anyway to get experience in self-publishing a book on Amazon. This experience was really helpful when I self-published Vegan Marketing Success Stories in 2022.
With the options that are available now, I think anyone could become vegan in less than a year.
3. Can you share a bit about your journey with veganism and what challenges did you face along the way?
Sandra Nomoto: My journey started when I saw Earthlings at the end of 2007 and knew I wanted to stop eating meat. What’s funny is, earlier that year I had gone on my first date with the man who would become my husband, and said a vegan diet was the most ethical one possible—but I thought it was too hard to do. Within a few years I had cut meat out of my diet. I almost had to learn to cook again because at first, I was eating a lot of processed foods like vegetarian pizza and fish sticks. My husband (who had become my boyfriend!) pointed out that I needed to learn to cook and eat more whole foods. For many years, as I learned to cook whole-food plant-based meals, I still ate some seafood, dairy, and eggs on the weekend.
In 2017 my husband and I went to New York City for our honeymoon and ate at Morimoto. I had what I called the best seafood meal in my life and that was the last time I ate seafood or eggs. I eventually gave up dairy a year later after finding out it might be the cause of my years of painful digestive symptoms. The biggest challenge for me was just learning to replace all the animal foods with plant-based ones. After my diet was fully vegan, everything else became so easy. With the options that are available now, I think anyone could become vegan in less than a year.
4. We heard about your book Vegan Marketing Success Stories. Would you mind telling our readers a bit more about it?
Sandra Nomoto: The book teaches any business owner or marketer all the tactics that could possibly be in your marketing strategy. All of the submitted stories were submitted by people running a vegan company, and the rest of the examples were approved by the vegan businesses I reached out to.
5. What are some common misconceptions about vegan leaders, and how do you debunk them?
Sandra Nomoto: One big misconception I think people have is that first, leaders can’t possibly be vegan. But there are powerful vegans pretty much every industry, from politics to entertainment to sports and activism. While it’s impossible to debunk all the misconceptions people have about vegans (e.g. we don’t get enough protein, we lack energy, we’re preachy, etc.), what I try to do is amplify the content of vegan leaders online, especially on LinkedIn. Sometimes I will point out that they are vegan. I also keep a list of notable vegans on my “List Love” page on my website.
Read more: Vegan Marketing in 2025: How to Market Your Product to Vegans
6. Would you like to share your favourite success story from one of your clients with our readers?
Sandra Nomoto: love all my vegan clients, but I really enjoyed working with Rey Ortega at Sun Flour Baking Company in late 2023. Many people don’t know Rey’s story (he’s been vegan for over 30 years) and that Sun Flour Baking Co is probably the biggest vegan cookie company in the US (no, Oreos don’t count!). When Rey wanted to share more of his story in media and podcasts and help other vegan business owners, I landed 22 features and interviews for him. Definitely look out for Sun Flour Baking Co’s cookies—they’re so good!
As our conversation with Sandra Nomoto comes to a close, it’s clear that her passion for ethical marketing and veganism goes beyond business—it’s a mission to create a more conscious and compassionate world. Her insights remind us that the way we communicate and market our work has the power to shape industries, shift perspectives, and drive meaningful change. Sandra’s journey is proof that ethical business isn’t just possible—it’s the future.