158: How to Grow Your Instagram Following to 100k with Lise Ode

In this interview, I share a quick tip about how to search for your images. And we have a conversation with Liza Ode about how she grew her Instagram following from just a few thousand to over 90,000 in a short period of time. Hey there, everybody. This is Bjork Ostrom, and you are listening to the Food Blogger Pro podcast. And we are so excited that you are here and so thankful that you are tuning in. This is one of our great honors and privileges that we get to do each and every week. That is the Food Blogger Pro podcast. And we have thousands of people from all around the world that listen to this podcast. And that is so awesome, because without you, we wouldn't be able to do it. Here's how it works. The podcast. We do interviews. We talk to people. Sometimes I do a solo podcast interview. But with every podcast interview now, we do what's called a Tasty tip, which is brought to you by our quote unquote sponsor, WP Tasty. I say quote unquote because it's actually a site that we own and operate. It's kind of a sister site to Food Blogger Pro, and it is for people who have WordPress blogs. And we create plugins for those sites. It's actually plugins that we first think about, hey, on Pinch of Yum, which is the food blog that my wife Lindsay and I run, what are some things that we really want to do? What are some things that we want to implement and be an important piece of the site? And we create that plugin and we have that run on our site. And then if we think there is potential for other people to use it and there would be value, then we release it on wptasty so other people can get, for a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the cost, the multiple thousands of dollars that we put into originally developing that plugin. So if you're interested in checking out what those are, you can go to wptasty.com and learn more. But each week we do a Tasty tip, which is brought to you by wptasty. And today's Tasty tip is all about images, and specifically, it's about searching for images. And if you are a blogger, you know that images are really important and you put a lot of time and energy into creating those images. And you want to keep track of how those images are being used around the web. And one of the ways that we do that is a service called Pixi P I X S. Yeah. And Pixie does image searching for you, and it lets you know the sites that are using Your images. Now, the idea with Pixie is that if you want to, you can follow up with one of these sites and ask for compensation for that image that they are using. We've only done that a couple of times, and it was actually before we used Pixie. The main way that I recommend people use Pixi is to load in the images from their site so they can track along with how those are being used around the web. And if you notice somebody using your image, best thing to do is to first reach out to them and say, hey, I notice you're using my image. Can you provide a link back to my recipe or back to the post that you are linking to? And a link is a really valuable thing when you are building a blog because it's one of the things that Google looks at when they think about the algorithm or when they put together the algorithm that ranks a certain piece of content. So if you can get more links to your site, that means in general that your piece of content is going to have the potential to rank higher. So if somebody's using an image, a lot of times people don't really think about or know the fact that they should credit back to where that image came from. Then you can use a site like Pixi or Reverse Image Search on Google, which is not an automated service, but you can just take an image and drop it into the search field when you're in the images area in Google and see all the sites that are using that image. But you can use these services to get a better idea of the sites that are using the photos that you've created and you've put onto your blog. And if they're using that without giving you credit, you can reach out and ask for credit and a link back to your site. So it's a little tool, a little tip, something that you could possibly implement into your routine to get a better idea of how your images are being used around the web.

And.

And that is called Pixi P I, X, S, Y. But you can also do that with Google with what's called a reverse image search on Google. So that's the tasty tip for this week. In today's interview, we're going to be talking to Lisa Ode and her site is momloves Baking. And she's going to be talking about some things that she implemented to help grow her Instagram following. And anytime that we hear from somebody that says, hey, I've been doing these things and it's been working really well, we want to make sure that we have a conversation with them to expose that to our Food Blogger Pro audience. So I think you're going to enjoy it. Liza is going to be talking about building her Instagram following from just a few thousand to over 90,000 and exactly how she did that. So let's jump in. Liza, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah, it's fun to connect because before we press record, we were actually talking about. You attended. It was one of. Or was it the first Pinch of Yum Food photography workshop that Lindsay did?

I did. I was a member of the very first one.

Yes. Way back in the day. And that kind of launched us into talking about this kind of timeline that you've been on, this journey that you've been on. And today we're going to be talking about Instagram. But I actually asked if you'd be willing to share kind of that timeline of your blog. It's a little bit different than the story because you kind of have this step by step, the years that you took in terms of like you thought about starting a blog really early, then you didn't, and then you started an Instagram, then you started your blog. So I'd be interested to hear the timeline of what brought you to today and to talk about kind of those different important points along the way.

Yes, yes. Well, the idea for the blog was actually my husband's back in 2006, and that was before I was even following a blog or knew what it was. And he read an article about these retirees that were making six figure incomes just by writing about their hobby. And because I love to make cakes, he thought, you know, why don't you try writing about your baking? And I thought about it and I knew nothing about it. And I was kind of scared and thought it'd be hard to figure it out. So I said, well, that sounds cool, but, you know, I don't think I'm gonna do that now. And I ended up being an actual cake business and where I made wedding cakes and party cakes for about four years. And then I started making recipes to enter in the Pillsbury Bake off. And I got that. And I don't know if you are familiar with that, but it's, you know, a historic contest. Yeah. Started in 1949. And so it was kind of a big deal that I got into that. And so, you know, they say they get tens of thousands of entries and people try year after year to get into it. And so at that point I had, you know, stopped the cake business. And once I got into the Pillsbury Bake Off. It really gave me the confidence to, you know, start the blog because I realized that I really enjoyed creating original recipes and I thought that I would give it a try finally. So 2014 was really the first year that I actually started the blog.

Yeah. It's interesting how for so many people, it takes kind of that external validation of the skills that you already had. It's not like you had new skills and then that's what led you to win the award. It's like you had these, but it was somebody saying, hey, we think that you are the best or one of the best, and we would like to give you this award or to even, even to be a part of it, you know, is such a big deal. Can you talk about if you rewind a little bit? So you had this cake business, and one of the things that we talk about is there's different avenues to build a path to your passion and to doing your passion. So when you think back to the four years of doing the cake business, for some people, that would have been a dream job and something that they would have really loved. I'm guessing for you there was parts that were really awesome about it, but also some parts that were not ideal with it. So what led you to start it and then what led you to eventually the point where you said, hey, I'm going to close up shop on this and look for the next thing?

Well, thank you for asking that, because that's a really good question. I have always loved to bake since I was a kid, and it really was a dream to start a cake business and just to try to make money doing something that I truly loved. And I was also a graphic artist. That was my day job. But when I started the cake business, I had become a stay at home mom, basically. But I wanted to make a little extra money and I wanted to do it doing something that I loved. So I started the cake business from our home and I, you know, I had the ovens in the garage, I had this giant mixer, the whole setup, and. And I started doing really artsy type cakes that were really expensive and would take me like a week to complete them. And I had one assistant that would help me on occasion, but not every day. And so what happened is it just. It was great at first, but after a while it just became so much work and I wasn't making much money and I started to just not like my love of baking anymore.

And it's. It's an interesting thing that you want to protect when the thing you love the most becomes the thing that you dread. I feel like that's a really important thing to be aware of as creators is. Is that moment that that happens. So contra, I'd be interested to hear you contrast where you are now. What you're doing now. It's. You're doing similar things, right. You're still baking and that's your focus and it's something that's still a passion, but it looks a little bit different. So how are things different now than from that first business that you had?

Yes, exactly. Well, now the idea, the dream was that I want to bake for fun for me, for the family, for neighbors, for my friends, just whenever I want to do it and whatever I want to do and not be told by somebody, this is what you have to bake. So, and along the way, make. Create some really cool new recipes and give new ideas or like, you know, easy baking recipes for busy moms. And also fun. I love doing things that are really cute, that kids love, that are, you know, kind of artsy. It's just a combination of all the baking that I love.

Yeah. And that's such a big part of it as people who are creating creatives is the ability to create what you want as opposed to. My dad does ceramics and pottery and he talks about how difficult it is when people come and they say, here's what I would like you to create. Can you please create this for me versus him? Creating something that then other people come and say, I want that. And the act of doing it is exactly the same, but the intent and the creative process is so different with that and what. How nice it is to be able to create without restrictions or without detailed restrictions on what you're doing. So go ahead.

It's the same thing as a graphic artist, because I did that for 15 years and it was the same thing as a graphic artist working for somebody else. I was doing art that somebody else was envisioning. So it's not really you. I mean, it's just you're kind of like the vehicle or. You know what I'm saying?

Yep, yep, absolutely. Um, and one of the things that I find so interesting in your story is that you are a creator. You're motivated by learning new things and yet you're willing to place yourself in the role of beginner or learner. And one of the fun stories that you told was being a first time attendee of the first ever food photography workshop. You talked about this outcome that you had from it. So you went to the workshop, learned about food photography. Obviously, you're somebody that understands art in the. In the creative process, but you were intentional to. To learn to be a student. So can you talk about why you've done that, why you've decided to do that? And we're going to talk about some of the outcomes that have. That have come from that. But it'd be fun to hear that story from the workshop. What happened after that?

Yes, well, photography, food photography was something that I had to learn as a food blogger. Of course, that was the first thing that I had to practice and get better at. And the first year, I think back, my pictures are just terrible.

I feel like it's such a common. It's like a shared feeling of, you know, looking back two years and being like, oh, man, I published that, didn't I? Everybody can relate to that.

Exactly. And as an artist, you know what's good and you know what's not. And so, you know, I was admiring all these beautiful food photographs and other people's blogs, and I wanted to be able to do that myself. So I flew to Minnesota for your first ever workshop? Yeah, of course. You know, I was inspired by the. By Lindsay's beautiful pinch of yum photographs because she does an amazing job. And so even though I have to add this, that I hate to fly.

So you push through, even the fear of flying to come, it makes it even more special. Thank you.

Yeah, it gives me really bad anxiety. So I was like, I have to do this. And I did. I made it through. And I'm so glad that I did and met some really nice people and I didn't get to meet you. But, you know, Lindsay is a doll. She's a sweetheart, and she's a great teacher. And, you know, it was a weekend course. So I learned so much in those basically two days, I think it was.

And you had talked about taking. Taking what you had learned and then coming back and doing a shoot that resulted in kind of some positive outcomes for that post, kind of this viral post. Can you talk about what that was and was that correlated to improved photography?

Yes, absolutely. It was actually a couple months after the workshop, and I'd had a chance to practice my new skills, and I had. It was a sponsored post that I was doing. I think it was in November, and it was a chocolate turtle poke cake recipe that I had created myself for a brand. And it was funny because I was actually in a big hurry to take those pictures because we were going out of town. It was like the Holidays. I think it was like right before Thanksgiving or something. And so I took these pictures really fast, and then we ran out the door and I brought the cake with me to my family in Alabama. And then when I looked at the pictures, they really came out great. And I don't know, it just this one picture. I mean, all the pictures on that blog post are nice, but I think it was the pen. It was because I made a. I think I made a long pin for Pinterest.

Yep.

And one of the pin. One of the pictures was like, you know, the process, you know, it's like poking the holes, I think, for the poke. And the other picture was the finished product. And I mean, that one pen is still getting so many hits. And, you know, when I look at my analytics, it's like I'm actually making that picture still.

Yeah, for sure. It's interesting when you. When you stick with it long enough. We talk about this a decent amount. Oftentimes you'll have these things that we call kind of these hits, and it's kind of like a band where you maybe write 50 songs and then one of them turns into a hit.

And.

And that's such a good example of it. And one of the questions that I had kind of as a follow up, were there things that you took away from the workshop? Like, if you were to say, you know, these were the biggest things that I implemented after doing the workshop. For those that can't attend a workshop, you know, what are some of the things that you learned in that process that they could take away and potentially implement if you had kind of a bullet list of important things that you learned?

Well, sure. This is like off the top of.

My head because it was the first one, so. It was a while ago.

Yeah, yeah. But I mean, for me, it might sound kind of silly, but I was kind of afraid to use the manual settings on my own camera.

Sure. Yeah.

And I'd only been doing it in the automatic mode. And so, I mean, just that alone, she just taught me. She kind of taught me the basics, which it's hard to learn. I mean, you could learn it from a video, I guess, or a book or. But it just. I like somebody to show me how, and especially an expert, you know, and then being able to practice while we're there. And the lighting. The lighting is so important. And, you know, she helped me with that. And actually I. I love the natural light, but I haven't been able to use it a lot in my photography because of, you know, just positioning. And I use artificial light. And that was. That one picture was actually artificial light.

Yeah. Cool. Um, and the thing that I think is so great about that is it's such a obvious example of you intentionally learning and then applying those things that you learned, which it's rare for people to make the effort to learn, and then it's even more rare for after people learn to implement that. And that's something that I would love to talk to you about in regards to Instagram. And anytime that somebody connects with us and they say, hey, I've been doing something that has been working well and would love to share it with your audience, we want to look at the potential of saying, okay, is this something that we can open up to the broader Food Blogger Pro podcast audience to see if that can help them as well? And one of the things that you had mentioned was this idea of Instagram growth and having some making a change that resulted in your Instagram account growing and growing at a pretty substantial rate. So would love to jump in and talk a little bit about that. So on your. With your Instagram account, you've been using Instagram for a long time, but you had talked about it being kind of stagnant for a while. And can you talk about what when you started and then at what point you said, I want to start to intentionally grow, and then what you did about it?

Sure. Instagram, like I said before, it actually was started before I started my blog. I think I started my Instagram account in 2012 just for fun, just for personal use. And then I kind of transferred it over to my mom Loves Baking once I started the blog. And I would post fairly regularly, but I didn't see a lot of growth there. I think I got to about 2,000 followers. And it kind of stayed there for about three, three or four years. Even though I still posting fairly regularly. Not every day, but, you know, a few times a week. And so what I did is last fall, I think it was around September, I decided to take a course on how to grow your Instagram and just try to figure it out, because it seemed like a mystery to me. Like, how do you grow this thing?

Yeah. And you can mention what that course is if you're comfortable with it. I feel like people would be interested to know.

Sure. I found it. Well, just by searching on Instagram. There's another page that I follow called Cupcake Project. Her name is Stephanie Pollock, and she. And another Instagrammer, I think his page is Grillin Fools. They do it. They created this webinar together. And it's a course that you pay for and it's videos that you watch yourself at home. And it's quite a lot of material. I mean, I think it was about 20 hours of videos. And so it takes some time to go through them. But they found a lot of success in growing their Instagrams fairly fast and they're earning income through their Instagram. And so that was another key I wanted. I'm still always looking for new ways to monetize. I'm doing this as a job, you know, it's not just a hobby for fun.

Yeah. And, and it, and it. And what I love about hearing your story is being so intentional with that to say, okay, I know that I want to improve my food photography. Here's what I'm going to do. Not only am I going to take a class, I'm going to take a class that requires me to fly, and I hate flying, and that is a sacrifice and that's hard work. And then saying, okay, I know I want to understand Instagram and grow Instagram. So I'm going to, I'm going to apply myself and take a course and learn about that. So you go through this course, you say, okay, I know I want to focus in on this One area I'm going to focus in on Instagram growth is it's a popular platform. It's something that I know is important for brands. Let's go ahead and think about ways to build this. Take this course. What were some of the things that you started to change as you started to think intentionally about growing your Instagram following?

Sure. Well, actually, I wanted to also point out that in the beginning of the course, she says that she has found that she can earn income on her. She has a blog too herself, but she's found that Instagram can be a source of income all by itself. Like, brands are paying for you to post a photograph using their product and just the photograph, they don't need a blog post. So I thought that was sort of interesting. And so that was another reason why I was excited about doing it. But. So you're asking.

Yeah, well, and on that note, I think it's important to do a little bit of a side tangent to point out this idea of, you know, there's in, in this industry, a lot of people talk about, hey, you should never build your platform, and other places and they talk about this idea of sharecropping and the idea like, hey, at any moment, Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest can, you know, remove the. Your reach or impact your. The algorithm that doesn't reach people as much. But there's also this reality of that's true and yet these platforms are really influential and there's a lot of attention on there. So I think it's important to point out what you said, that there are these places and it doesn't have to be just your blog. There are these places where you can also think intentionally about brand and business building. And Instagram is a great platform for that, and we see that as well. With Pinch of Yum, we have a lot of brands that work out and say, reach out and say, hey, we'd be interested in just doing a video. And that would be. We could do that just on Instagram because there's so much attention there. So I think it's a great point and really important to give that some time as we think about building our businesses and building our blogs, and not just building our blogs, but building our brands as well. So I think that's a great point. So to go back, the question, the question that I had asked was, you know, some of the things that you started to learn and implement, and knowing that, like you said, there's 20 hours of content and we don't want to share all the specific details of what that course would be out of respect for them in their course and want to encourage people to check that out. But for you personally, as you look at your Instagram following and some of the things that you change, what did you start to do that helped you to pick up traction? And then what did that look like in terms of followers and engagement and things like that?

Okay, yes, I'm going to tell you that in one second. I just have to say one other thing on our little tangent that as I just said what I said and then I realized I'm talking to you on Food Blogger Pro and telling how you don't have to just have a blog. I just want to.

Yeah. No, you mean because literally the name Food Blogger Pro, Is that what you mean? Yes, yes, for sure. I think it's super important. And if it's. If I were to go back and rebrand, it wouldn't have blog in it because it's so much more than that. It would be Food Brander Pro. No, that wouldn't be what it would be. But as much as possible, that's why I try and call it out. Because it's not just blogs.

Right. And I do want to say that I still love my blog and I'm not abandoning my blog at all. And I have so many things I want to do on my blog that I'm really excited about, but we're focusing on Instagram today. So one of the first things that she taught, which is one of the first things I started implementing, is to post much more often than I was before. So like, five to seven times per day, as opposed to like, once every couple days or once a day. And also to share other people's content, not just my own, you know? You know, giving them credit, of course. And focusing in on your niche.

Yeah.

And being consistent.

So let's talk about each one of those things. So posting more throughout each day, what does that look like for you? How often are you posting and what does that look like from a scheduling standpoint? It feels like it would be a lot of work.

It is a lot of work. And I do want to mention that. Okay. I said that I started at 2,000 followers in September, and now I'm up to 94,000 today in June. So that's what, six months, seven months?

Yep.

I'm growing about 2 to 3,000 new followers per week every single week at this point, which is great. I'm really excited about that.

Yeah. And I'm glad that you bring that up, because it helps put some context around what that looks like. Yeah.

Yes. But it's not without a lot of work. Anything, you know, any. Any success story is going to have a lot of work behind it. And I have been doing a lot of work.

Yeah.

I've really focused on it and done. I think I spend probably a few hours a day on just Instagram and, you know, maybe an hour in the morning and, you know, an hour throughout the day, an hour at night. And, you know, I've heard that you can post. You can post seven posts in a row, supposedly, and the algorithm will separate it out, but that didn't work for me, so I have to kind of, you know, post in real time, you know, every couple hours, which is basically what I do.

Got it. And you're. For that you're not using a scheduling app or something like that. That. That builds that content out. You're doing this kind of in real time.

I am. But you. You can. Like, in the morning, I will. In the actual Instagram app, you can create all these posts, you know, like drafts, and so they're already. So I can kind of do all the work in the morning if I want to, and I can have my seven posts ready to go, and then every couple hours, I'll just hit share.

Got it. So you can you can batch the creation process and then what you're doing is you're going in and kind of spreading that out throughout the day. So you're sharing frequently throughout the day, multiple times, but not necessarily having to go in and kind of turn on your content creation brain each time you do that.

Exactly.

Got it. And then for the. For sharing other people's content, can you talk a little bit about what that looks like? Obviously, you talked about attributing that back to the post. Are you reaching out to these people and saying, hey, you know, can I share this content from your post? Or are there certain pages that, you know would be places you can go to find that type of content that's shareable content? What does that look like and how do you go about doing it in a way where you know that you have the a. Okay. From the other content creators that. That have created that content?

Sure. Well, I. My. My Instagram is cake and baking inspiration. That's what I have at the beginning of my profile. And so I have a lot of cake raiders and bakers that are looking for ideas. And so I am taking, you know, when I'm sharing other people's content, there are other cake makers and bakers who really want their content to be shared. And it's a very similar concept on Facebook. You know, when you're sharing, people share a lot of other people's content. It's the same thing. In the beginning, I was asking a lot of people if it's okay, and everybody said, sure, yes, please. And, you know, now I have all these people tagging me. I mean, I need to hire an assistant just to help me, you know, go through those, because I have. I can't get to all of them. And pretty soon, you know, it's pretty early on that I stopped even asking people because I've never once had somebody say, don't share my picture. Most of them have all said, I mean, everybody said, thank you so much. So I feel like we're helping each other.

It's interesting. One of the things that we do for Food Blogger Pro is we have a hashtag, and we use that to kind of curate content. So one of the things that we, you know, if you look at our little bio, it says, use Food Blogger Pro for a chance to be featured. Now we have 3,500 followers, not, you know, 90,000. So we're not having to sift through as much. But for those that are, I think it's a good idea for those looking to curate content. If you're looking to integrate that in. It's one of the ways that you can do it in kind of a reverse way. You're not having to reach out to other people and ask if you can use their content, but they're essentially tagging you and saying, hey, this is something that you can. That you can use. I know that Feed. Feed, which is a popular. They have multiple different accounts, does something similar as well, where they have a tag that you can use, which is essentially putting you into this category of saying, like, hey, would love to be featured on your account. So increased in the number of times that you're posting in a day. And also, it sounds like a little bit of a change with the type. Type of content that you're posting. So do you have kind of category buckets of what you're looking for when you're posting certain content?

Yes. That's an interesting question. I feel like I'm combining my art background with my cake background because I love sugar as an art form, basically. Yes. So I love things. Things that are. That are artsy. I love painted cakes. That's something that's new. And I love macarons. Those are really beautiful. People are painting on those too. And I share, you know, cakes, cookies, pies. There are people doing pie art even. There's one girl that does faces on pies, like Oprah or, you know, the Prince. And you know, the ones that just got married.

Yeah, the Royals. You could just call them the Royals. Yeah. We were at. This is a side story. We were at a. My cousin competed in American Ninja Warrior. And there's this. It's super late. You stay up till like, 2 or 3am when they film. And the. We were waiting to see my cousin, and she's like, oh, this next girl is super good on an American Ninja Warrior. Her name is Meghan Markle. And we're all like, wait a minute, Meghan Markle? Like, she's not American Ninja Warrior, is she? She's like, yeah, no, it's Meghan Markle. And we're like. And it was Meghan Martin who's like, she's an American Ninja Warrior celebrity. But I think there was so much talk about Meghan Markle and the Royals that she just got him confused. So that would have been really cool, but it wasn't. So, yeah, the Royals doing the face of the Royals on a piece of. So essentially, it sounds like, sorry, go ahead. What's that?

Perry. That was his name. I can't think.

Yes, for sure. So essentially, it's sharing These categories that are interesting to you, probably fun for other people to look at. But then how do you intersperse your own content into that? Because that's an important piece of it, especially if you're thinking about from the monetization standpoint. So you're building up a lot of followers. But if you're not getting your own content in there, then it's hard to get a brand or a sponsor to pay for you to feature their content within your feed. So what does that look like?

Well, I'm still featuring my own content as well, at least once a day, I would say. And I'm also featuring myself, so you'll see pictures of me because I'm trying to kind of create a brand with myself. Because I think actually it might have been one of your podcasts that I learned. You know, I'm the only thing that is really unique about my business because there's so many food blogs out there. I'm trying to create a brand.

Yeah.

The stories. I was going to say the stories. I do share lots of everyday life stuff on my stories and that's been a lot of fun.

Got it. And to balance the stories and the actual posting, I would guess would be kind of a hard thing because not only are you posting five to seven times a day, but you're also doing stories. So when it comes to stories, are you doing that? Will you do an hour of Instagram posting and scheduling and kind of drafting and then. And then say, okay, I know I'm going to do a story. So then I'm going to view this as a different block of time and, and walk through that content creation or what does that look like? How do you balance those two things?

The stories? I'm just kind of like willy nilly.

Sure. Like when you feel inspired, you'll do.

It, for lack of a better term.

Yeah.

Fly by the seat of my pants. Like, Yeah, I just try to make it real, keep it real, you know, whenever the spirit moves me or.

Yep.

Just like I think I'm going to do a story now. It's really. It's really. Yeah, it's not really that calculated.

And I think that's what people like about stories is that they are raw and real and unfiltered, to use an Instagram word. No filter. So a couple more things that I feel like would be interesting for people to hear about as it relates to the Instagram growth. So you've been posting more. You're intentional to block that time out, to view that as a part of your brand to say, hey, it's not just my blog, but there's these other platforms that are important. It's using other people's content along with yours. Maybe kind of at a 1 to 6 or 1 to 7 ratio. If you're posting six times a day, you'll try and do one post that's yours as well. And then there's this really interesting component that has to do with having people come to you and say, hey, I see that you have 100,000 followers. We would like to work with you to get in front of those followers in a brand or sponsorship capacity. Can you talk about what that looks like and how that works, how those connections happen and how it unfolds?

Well, honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out. I have gotten jobs recently through an influencer network that are just Instagram only, really exciting. I've already gotten a few of those where they're just paying me to, like I said, post a picture or video just on the Instagram. And so that's really cool. I'm learning. I have never, at this point, I haven't really learned how to go directly to brands. And that's a whole other ball game that I have to, you know, change cats and figure that out.

You know, that was something for Pinch of Yam. We used an agency as well. And that was just until it was last. It was six months ago. Was it six months ago? I forget when it was, but we switched over into doing it just in house because we had the resources. But it was the same thing for a really long time for us where we were using an agency. So can you talk about the agency that you use for that? And then is it something where you have to apply and say, here's how many followers I have, here's the niche that I'm in? Or do they send something out and say, let us know if you're interested. What is the agency and how does that work?

Sure. Well, it's social fabric, or they're also called collective bias. And they're just a company that I've been working with from almost the beginning. And I've slowly made a little more money over the years. They've raised the pay, basically as I got more experience and more followers and everything. So I'm just used to working with them. And so what I have to do is, you know, they have a website and you're a member, and then you have the jobs that are available and are the campaigns, and then I have to apply and give them my idea. You Know, they say what they need and I give my idea and then they. They decide if they want to choose me.

Cool, that's great. I think that's super helpful, especially for people that are in the early stages of kind of figuring out, hey, do I want to try and connect with brands and pitch them on my own, or do I want to work with an agency where there's a little bit less of that heavy lifting that they have to do? And I think that's a. It's a great resource, and I think people are always interested to hear what other people are doing. So what does it for you when you think of kind of looking to continue to grow and to build? Is there more for Instagram for you, or do you feel like you're moving on to the next thing here? You're going to on focus in on the next area that you really want to grow? What do the next six months look like for you?

Well, I'm still. I'm full steam ahead with Instagram. I'm approaching 100,000, and I have want to do something really fun to celebrate that. I want to do a choreographed dance.

Yeah. Nice video.

I'm not kidding, because I love dance. And I actually did a vision board in January, and I have a blog post about it. I'd never done one before, but I kind of mapped out what I wanted to do this year. And the first word at the top of my vision board is fun, because the world can be kind of lonely. And I was kind of like, my head down working on this blog for almost four years just by myself. And I've decided I want to change that and I want to start collaborating. And I already have started collaborating and just trying to have more fun with it. This week, I did something that was definitely fun. I did a live Instagram video with another baker, Ali, from Baking a Moment, and we. I started a live story. And then she asked to join. And so it's like a split screen. And we took baking questions and we got to know each other. I'd never met her before, and that was really so, so much fun. I just enjoyed it.

Yeah, I think that's. It's a great reminder as much as possible to think about creative ways to have fun but also do work because it's work and it's, you know, putting value and important things into the world, but it's also fun and it's new and it's fresh, and those things are so important. For those that aren't familiar, can you talk about what a vision board Is. And how you did that.

Sure it is. Basically, I had a few friends over magazines and scissors and glue, and we cut out things that were, you know, things that we wanted to do this year. You know, pictures, words, and pasted them on the board. And you know, like I said, I had fun, I had collaboration. I had, you know, fashion style. I wanted to work on my style because I'm trying to build my brand and there's gonna be more pictures of me and, you know, I want to publish a cookbook. I had a picture of a cookbook and you know, stuff like that.

Cool, that's great. And I think as one of the mistakes that we can make or one of the things that keeps us back from reaching our full potential is like, you had talked about having your head down too often. And I'm in the middle of finishing this book called Getting Things Done, which sounds like the most boring book ever. But it's just about how we can free our brain up to do creative thinking. And one of the things that David Allen, who's the author in the book, talks about is how important it is to give time and energy to the high level types of work that we do. Whether that be thinking strategically about projects or on an even higher level thinking about what it is that we're doing on a day to day basis and how we're approaching our work, you know, from a 50,000 foot level as opposed to like, how do I get, how do I respond to more emails in a day? But to be really intentional with that, it sounds like that was something that you were doing and how valuable that is, and you see that impact by the things that change for you. Like you start to do different things. And that's such a great, powerful thing. So we're coming to the end of the episode. If you were to speak to somebody who's in the early stages of blog building and we're just getting started out, what advice would you give them?

This is something I wanted to say. When I started the food blog, I was like my, I was trying to reach the Internet, like this big information highway, you know, trying to drive traffic to my blog. And that was. I was on that track for a while, you know, and now, like lately I said, I want to collaborate, I want to be around more people, have more fun. And now I want to try to do things in my own community and reach out to people in my own community. I just want to say that it's like kind of like missing the big picture in a way, trying to reach so Many people. But it's like, hey, there's people here that I want to reach too.

Yes.

Right in my own town. So, you know, to try to make human connections and instead of just being by myself. And so I want to support other women. And I'm starting a series on my blog where I'm interviewing women that inspire me, that are in my community. And I'm also opening up my blog to eight. I have eight new contributors. I have four so far, and I'm looking for four more.

Awesome. That's great. So a good resource for anybody that's interested in maybe going down that path. And I think that's a great way to build a brand is to have other people who are kind of in the same. Interested in the same things, creating content around that thing in a central place. So good for you for doing that. So question the question about going back. If you were to speak to somebody who's just in the early stages of doing this, what advice would you give them?

That's a really tough question. I'm not sure if I would have done anything differently. I didn't mention that I started in the beginning with a project for myself, a one year baking project where I made all of the Pillsbury Bake off recipes in one year. Because I made all the winning recipes at that point there were 52, so it was one per week. So I had a plan for myself to make one per week and I was making somebody else's recipes actually, so I didn't have to worry about that part. And I just worked on the food photography, learning the WordPress and just kind of figuring out the blog. The first year I didn't worry about driving traffic to my blog. I mean, I was just trying to learn how to do it just kind of step by step. You know, you have to give yourself time and know that it's. And it doesn't happen overnight. Just like any business, it's gonna take a few years, you know.

Yeah, for sure. And I love that idea of having a project. That's one of the things that I've been thinking about with any changes that we're making is not necessarily thinking of them as we are forever going to change this moving forward. But hey, this is gonna be something new that we're gonna try for this amount of time. Like I'm gonna try for one week, working out in the morning. What does that look like? How does that feel? Uh, and for somebody else, maybe it's, you know, to relate to the topic we talked about today. For one month I'm gonna try spending a little bit more time growing my Instagram account. What does that look like? How does that feel? But to not think, okay, I have to change this forever. But to like you said, give yourself the time and to have a clear understanding that it doesn't happen overnight, which I think is so valuable to have that mindset as you get into things. Liza, so fun to talk to you. Really great to connect. If people want to follow along with what you're doing, where can they follow you online and on Instagram? Sure.

Well, everything is called mom loves baking, so momlovesbaking.com is my blog and then all my social channels are called Mom Loves Baking.

Awesome. We'll be sure to link to those in the show notes as well. Liza, so fun to talk to you and thanks so much for coming on the podcast.

Thank you Bjork.

Hey everyone, Alexa here bringing bringing you the review of the week. And this one comes from Kate from tastyseasons.com and it says of all the podcast series that I subscribe to, the Food Blogger Pro podcast is by far my favorite. I am a food blogger, so yes, I am biased, but I think a lot of the topics that the Food Blogger Pro podcast guests cover apply to folks in a range of fields. Finding your writing, voice, photography tips, how to start shooting quality video on the cheap, advice for bloggers who are just getting started, etc. I also love Bjork's interview style. He asks great questions, lets the guests answer, and asks good follow up questions to dig deeper on interesting bits. It sounds obvious, but not every podcaster is able to pull this off with Bjork's level of skill. Kudos and thanks to the Food Blogger Pro Podcast team for a great series. That was an awesome review. Thank you so much Kate. And we're so glad that you're getting so much out of the Food Blogger Pro podcast. And that is all from us this week. We appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for tuning in and listening. Whether it's your first episode of the podcast or your 50th or your 100th, we just appreciate you for tuning in and taking what you learn and applying it to your own blog. Thank you so much for listening from all of us here at fbphq. Make it a great book week.