357: How Content Batching Helped Amanda Scarlati Go From 7,500 to 65k Pageviews in One Year

This episode is sponsored by our sister site, Clarity. C L A R I T I is how you spell clarity. All different iterations of how people say it, but it's clarity because it helps you to be clear on what it is that you need to be working on and really gives you direction around how you can go around improving and updating and tracking the content on your blog. We built it because we had been managing everything in a spreadsheet. So my guess is there's two people listening to this podcast. One would be you are people who track stuff, then you probably track it in a spreadsheet. Maybe airtable, maybe notion. And my guess is it's a lot of manual work. There's another group of people who just aren't tracking anything. And that's okay, you'll get there eventually. But Clarity is going to be the tool that's going to allow you to do that more easily. It's going to allow you to not spend as much manual time doing the tracking, updating, improving, and just generally understanding the lay of the land with your content. And one of the things that I think is most important a lot of times we talk about hiring on this podcast, but one of the things we don't talk about enough, and I probably should talk about it more, is some of the first positions you should hire for are software. It's not an actual person. You're hiring software to come in and do a lot of the work that you are doing. And that's what clarity is for us. As the pinch of Yum Team Food Blocker Pro team. We use clarity to take manual work away from our day to day tasks and we automate that. It's one of the easiest ways to have your first hire. So if you're thinking, oh, you know, I hear people talk about hiring a lot, who should my next hire be? My encouragement for you would let your next hire be a tool like Clarity, where you're going to spend 25amonth and you're going to save an incredible amount of time. That's what it's all about. So if you want to check it out, if you want to learn a little bit more about what it is and how it works, you can go to clarity.com food and you can deep dive into the ins and outs of Clarity just by signing up for that list. And that's not going to sign you up for the app, it's not going to sign you up and, you know, process any payments or anything like that. It's just, it's just going to allow you to understand the tool better through some onboarding emails that give you a little bit of context around what Clarity does and and why we built it. So again, that's clarity.com food if you want to check that out. And as a last note here, we're halfway through this 25 forever deal. So when I say you can, you know, think of hiring clarity at $25 a month as a little like team member who's in the background working for you, that deal's not going to last forever. We're just wanting to get to our first 500 users as we're in the early stages with this. You'll still get a lot of value out of it. But the great thing is as the value within Clarity increases, as we build out more features, as we build out more functionality, you will be locked in at that $25 price as a thank you for signing up early, for getting, for being somebody who's using the tool early on, giving us feedback, but also finding a lot of value out of it. So thank you to Clarity for sponsoring this episode. Hello. Hello. You're listening to the Food Blogger Pro Podcast. My name is Bjork Ostrom. Glad to have you here. Today we are interviewing Amanda Scarlatti and she's going to be talking about batching content and how that helps her stay sane while also continuing to grow her blog. She's going to be talking about what it was like to scale her blog from 7,500 pages to 65,000 in one year and how batching content helped her do that. She's going to be talking about the rhythms that she has, how she plans on a quarterly basis, how she shoots batch content, produces it, and all the ins and outs. So it's going to be a great interview. Before we jump into it, though, I wanted to give you a little heads up here for any Food Blogger Pro members on Thursday, May 19th. So that's coming up right around the corner, 12 Central, 1 Eastern. We have a live Q and A with Sam Adler from Frosting and Fettuccine. She's going to be answering all things photography related. So if you are a Food Blogger Pro member, make sure to check that out in the live area. And if you're not, you can go to foodbloggerpro.com join and become a member. And on Thursday, you can join us for that live Q and A. So to this new episode, all about batching content. I think there'll be a lot of takeaways and some great insight for anybody who's just starting out or even for those of us who have been doing it for a while. I think anytime that you can think about efficiency and how to be more effective with your time is a good thing. And Amanda talks all about that. So let's go ahead and jump into the interview. Amanda, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. Bjork, I'm excited.

Yeah, we had a brief conversation at Tastemaker Conference, connected a little bit, followed up after that. And continuing the conversation here, we're actually going to be talking about your journey with your blog and kind of some unlocks that you've had and growth that you've had and a lot of that tying back to batching content. We're going to talk specifically about what that actually looks like to see if there's some takeaways for folks. But before we do that, rewind the tape a little bit. I'd be curious to hear when did you launch your site and kind of what was your mindset at the point when you started it?

Yeah, so I launched my blog, Saprito kitchen back in 2017 and at the time I had just moved and become a new stay at home mom. And I've been in the food business for a very long time and thought, you know what, this is something I kind of want to always wanted to do. I've always wanted to share my food and I do my own thing. So now is the best time to do it. And I think like a lot of people, it started out as, you know, hobby, like this is something fun. I'm just gonna make food and take pictures of it. And as we both know, there is a lot more that goes into it than making food and taking pictures of it. And so, you know, it kind of started out as a hobby, but as I went into it, I thought, you know, I'm really enjoying this. I started to really enjoy the photography more writing, the cooking, recipe development, all of that stuff and just kind of took it from there. And after taking some time off and you know, coming back into it, I thought, you know what, this is what I want to do and if I'm going to do it, I need to kind of switch my mindset. And when was it needs to be a business. I would say that was probably at it was during the pandemic actually, because I took kind of a break during the pandemic because, you know, all my kids were home. And yeah, it was a pandemic and it was just very overwhelming.

And you have four kids, so it's.

I do yeah, there's a lot going on. Well, and my husband is an emergency room nurse, so he was gone all the time. And I thought, you know, what am I doing here is I need to make a decision. And I thought, you know what? This is what I want to do, and this is what I want to do for me. And so I kind of relaunched my blog at the end of, like, let's say, August 2020.

And that's a super stressful season, because if you're. If your husband's, like, in. You know, in. In the middle of everything that's happening with COVID feels like that would be a certain level of kind of stress doing some version of, like, schooling from home. It's not homeschooling. I know. But also kind of like a version of that, and then also saying, like, now I'm going to double down and actually change my mindset around my site. It feels like that would be, like, a stressful season to do that. Or do you feel like at that point, things were under control enough where you're like, yeah, I have a sense for what's going on, and now is the time?

Yeah. I mean, I feel like that first part of the year when we went in lockdown and all that stuff was really difficult for me. I really struggled with it, you know, having my kids home and trying to entertain them and. But also having my husband gone and then, you know, just going through all of that. It was a lot. And so this summer, I thought, okay, I'm gonna take the summer to figure this out, and I'm gonna hit the ground running after summer is over. You know, the kids are going back to school. I think I've got this. And it was still hard, and it still is hard. You know, it's. It's a stressful situation. I think when you're a mom or you've got, you know, maybe you're still working your other job and trying to do this, it's. It's a lot going on. And so I kind of look back at it, and it's probably a little bit crazy, but I think it's more a mindset set shift that you have to say, okay, I'm ready to do this. And when you're ready to do that, you kind of just need to go with it.

So what was your mindset before and then what was your mindset after and what caused it to change?

Well, before it was. I thought, well, this would be kind of cool to have as a business, or. I. You know, I think I'd like, to make money at this. But, you know, imposter syndrome is real, and I struggle with it every day. And it was like, I don't know what I'm doing. Why are they going to listen to me? Nobody cares about what I do. And I've never been a photographer before. And it was like, you know, I'm not making any money. I can't spend money. And, you know, it was listening to some of these podcasts. I listened to the Food Blogger Pro podcast a lot. Eat Blog talk and some of these other things and listening to these people, and it really is like, I really live by, like, you got to live the life that you want to have. So if you want to be a food blogger, you need to act like a food blogger. If you want to be a marathon runner, you need to start eating healthy and, you know, running and things like that, instead of just saying, well, as soon as I become a food blogger and then I can act like a food blogger, or as soon as I become a, you know, photographer, then I'm going to act like it. And it's, you know, if you start that mindset shift from day one, I was saying, okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to live this life and this is going to be my business. And then it really kind of helps you to grow and be better at that. And so that's what I was like, that's it. And I'm going to invest in myself. I'm going to buy that course or hire that person or get that equipment. Because if you look at any other business, they didn't just all of a sudden start making income that covered their expenses right from day one. There was some sort of investment in it. And I think that's hard for somebody, some people, especially in this business, to, like, get over sometimes. Like, well, I'm not making any money. It's like, if you invest that money, though, as soon as I started doing that investing in myself, then those returns started coming.

Yeah. What were the greatest investments that you made?

I would say hiring people to do the stuff that I didn't know about.

Yeah.

So I hired Nerd Press. You know, up until that point, I had been doing everything myself, and I have zero background in website and all that other stuff. And I really, like, I used, you know, Food Blogger for quite a bit to get kind of those basic and things, but it was taking up so much time because I didn't know anything about it. So I have to learn and figure it out. And then you Know, as, you know, things change constantly with Google and all that stuff. And it was constantly trying to figure that out. And, you know, then core web vitals became a thing and I decided, you know, I gotta get this back end, right? This SEO website, all this stuff. Like, this is a huge portion of it, and I really don't know. And so I signed up to have an audit with Casey Marquis. And that was one of the first things he was like, you need to figure out your core web vitals and get this in line before this May update comes. And so he suggested NerdPress. I changed my theme, purchased a more expensive theme. I went with Feast and the Feast plugin. That helped quite a bit. Nerd Press. And then, of course, having my audit with Casey and just instead of trying to DIY everything, you get to that point where it's like you're pulled in so many different directions and wearing so many hats that you're spread so thinly. And so it was like, I need to. What don't I like what I don't know and figure that out and hire somebody to help me with that so I can work on the stuff that I really like doing. Producing the content, making the recipes, photographing, that sort of thing.

Yeah. Was that hard in the beginning? When. My guess is when you're just getting started, you have this mindset shift. Hey, I'm going to invest in myself. I'm going to invest in my business. One of the strange things about an online business is you can kind of run it without any investment. It's not like a restaurant where you have to put money in to get tables and chairs and equipment. You can kind of, if you really wanted to do it, without any investment, but it's probably not the wisest thing, but you could do it. You could do ramen profitability. This idea of you've made $10, but you only spent $3 on ramen, so you're profitable. But there also is the ability to accelerate growth or have traction sooner by working with experts who will either do consulting or work with you on an ongoing basis. But it's like you also then are spending money. And what was that like for you to do that? There's a little bit of risk in that. You might not get it back, but you could get it back if you have a business that grows and then becomes valuable. And then I'm also interested. So for you personally. And then what was that like to talk through that with a significant other, like your husband in your case? Because I think that's Another thing that exists for people is navigating the pursuit of their passion and something they're interested in and want to build a business in, but also getting buy in in the early stages from a significant other who is maybe like, wait, you're going to do what?

Yeah, definitely. I think personally it's, it's really hard because like you said, for the most part you can kind of do it pretty inexpensively or almost for free. You know, there's a lot of free themes out there, there's a lot of free plugins out there. And I'm not saying that you have to hire somebody in order to experience growth. I just knew that I was at the point where I was like, if I want to do this, I need to do it now and I want to see that growth and I want to take this places and I can see where I want to be in five to 10 years. And so this is the investment that I want to make. And my husband has always been a huge supporter of me and a big proponent in helping me. And so he's always like, just do it, just do it. And I'm the one that's like, I'm more like the financial person, analytical one where I'm like, but I don't know.

You'Re the numbers nerd. Yeah, yeah.

And so that was harder for me, I think, but I think that was also helpful to have that support, you know, and say, hey, I, you know, I'm okay with this and let's do this. And you know, some of the things were more expensive and he understood that, you know, and he's like, you know, I trust you that you know what you're doing and I know you can make this work and I know you can do that. So I think that that was key in helping kind of be like, okay, I can do this and I have your support and we can move on with this.

So yeah. How did you fit that in time wise? And maybe this will step into the kind of the, to start to speak towards bashing content a little bit. But so you have, you know, everything that's going on around you, it's where Global pandemic. So there's, I don't know what schools look like for you, but it's like kids are in and kids are out and there's like exposure in the classroom. So then we can't go in. It's like, it feels like for a lot of people it was just a full time job between one person or two people kind of splitting it. But like Managing the household to figure out how to make things work, but then also to spend that time scaling up your site. What did that look like and how did you figure out time wise how to do that over the past year and a half?

Yeah, it was really difficult and it's still something I struggle with. You know, I still, you know, I still have my kids, I still have my husband, so it's still hard. And I think we're kind of leveling out now here, at least as far as school. But you know, even at the be as early as the beginning of this year, they were sending my high schooler home because the cases were too high and a test to stay event. And so, and that kind of plays into, you know, my schedule obviously, because if my kids get sent home or they have virtual Fridays sometimes, then I know those are days that I'm just not going to get a lot done. And so that's like, you know, when I was looking at this and thinking, okay, I really gotta like get going on this, like, this is what I want to do and I really want to make this work. And but how do I do that? You know, I still have these responsibilities. You know, I have a teenager, but I also have little ones at the time, you know, were 2 and 4 and so, you know, they need my attention quite a bit. How do I make this happen? And so I had heard about, you know, batching content and you know, people doing this and I'm like, it was very scary to me, like, okay, well that's a lot, you know, to grow into it and say, okay, I'm going to make X amount of recipes this day or whatever.

What was scary about it? Just like intimidating to think about doing.

That well, and it requires a lot of planning, you know, which I'm a huge planner, so I'm all about that. But it's a lot of work to kind of get it set up. You know, I plan out my, basically I go kind of quarter to quarter, I plan out the quarter before, but then I'll review things kind of on a weekly basis or monthly basis if I need to adjust things.

So you talk about that when you plan a quarter. What does that look like?

So I just go through and say, you know, what do I want to do this quarter? So, you know, a lot of last year was consumed with republishing old content, especially after my audit. And I didn't publish a ton of new content, maybe less than 5 in the back half of the year. And so it was planning those out. If I had any sponsored work, you know, putting those things on the calendar and then also looking at those and, you know, doing things seasonally, obviously, you know, doing grilling recipes in the summer and, you know, cookie recipes in December and kind of putting those on there and saying, okay, this is how much I want to push out each week. So looking at it and say, you know, I want to do two recipes a week or three recipes or one, whatever that is, and then planning those out, you know, I use Airtable. We kind of talked about this a little bit when we were at Tastemakers, but I use Airtable quite a bit to basically manage all my content. So I went through there and kind of make a calendar for the quarter and say, okay, these are the things that I want to. If there's any goals that I have as far as, like, republishing old content, you know, maybe it's 10 recipes, you know, in that time period, then I want to make sure I have all those on there. And then I will go through there on a monthly basis after I've kind of planned it out and thinking, like, I don't know what I was thinking posting that, you know, recipe in February, that doesn't make sense or whatever. Or if I, you know, sign a contract with somebody and I got to work that in, then I'll do some adjusting and things like that. But then once I have that all in there, it really helps me because then all of that guesswork or planning is done. So it's not like you're sitting there on Monday, okay, what am I going to do this week? What recipe am I going to post? And I've got to go to the grocery store now and figure it all out. It's kind of done ahead of time. And so then that is a.

It's like a version of batching, which is batching planning. Like, you're sitting down and thinking in one. And I feel like the benefit of batching is you're not having to, like, task switch. And so you're sitting down, you're thinking, okay, I'm in the mindset of planning. I'm going to plan out for this. This block of time. I have four hours and I'm just going to plan. And then you can kind of turn off that part of your brain with. To your point, like, you're making micro adjustments along the way, but it's more of like, you have all the pieces now and you're just kind of shifting them versus finding the pieces and putting them on the table. Um, I'd be Curious to know how far ahead you plan a quarter. So, like, as 1/4's coming to a close, is it like a month before the new quarter starts? Are you planning the next quarter? And do you plan quarters as like a true quarter? So, like Q1 is January, February, March, and then April, May, June, or do you kind of go at your. With your own kind of seasonal calendar?

You know, I do. I do kind of go with the, you know, January, February, March, you know, Q1, Q2 type things. I'm at like a. A big proponent of seasonality and cooking especially. And so that just helps me brainwise to think of it that way too. But so like, in January, I was planning quarter two. So I try to do it at the beginning. That way it's done and it's out of my thought process and. And then keep going that way. And then like in the beginning of January, I already know my, my schedule is solidified and maybe I look at February to see if there's any tweaks that I need. So I try to give myself a little bit of time as opposed to doing the last minute. Now, are there times that that doesn't happen? Absolutely. But I do try to plan ahead with that, and I do. Going back to what you were saying about, you know, that task switching, like, that's huge for me. You know, they say whatever it takes, like 20 minutes for your brain to, like, really kick in and do something. And I completely find that especially like, you know, you can relate to having young kids. It's like you're getting pulled in a bazillion different directions and you're like, ah, so if I can sit down and like, for me, writing is always really hard. Like, that's not my strong suit. And so those days, I do those on a day that my husband is not working and I can go to a quiet space and I can focus, but I find that I write so much better and I come up with really great ideas and, you know, tips and tricks, you know, regarding recipes. And so some of those things that are harder for me or I need to focus on more, I make sure that I'm doing on those days that I have more time when I by myself, when it's quiet and that sort of thing. Yeah, but I feel like creatively too, like, even when I'm photographing recipes, I really kind of get into that. And then you remember, like, oh, I did this. I'm going to try this trick on this photo or, you know, whatever. And so it kind of helps you stay in the groove of things. And I feel like it. I do better, you know, more quality work when I'm. When I'm doing those kind of. In batching.

Yeah, that makes sense. And so, so interesting in that, like the start of quarter one, whether it be first week, first few weeks, whatever. Like you're thinking about quarter two, but then you also have quarter one done, so you're working through that. So I get the quarterly planning. What does it look like the next level down? Are you working on a set schedule then where Monday's always this, Tuesday's always this. So there's some predictability there. Or does that get shifted around too, depending on schedules? And what are those kind of blocks of work that you're batching in?

Yeah, so I do have kind of a weekly schedule that I stick to. So like, Mondays are my writing and keyword researching days and kind of planning. So I look at the content that I am doing for the week or the next week or the week after that, depending on how far I'm ahead. And I do my keyword research. And so, you know, I go through and research because, you know, it takes a lot of time and get all those topic things, you know, that I want to. And then I kind of go through and I write my first draft on my blog post.

Yep.

And then depending on what I have the rest of the day, I'll kind of plan. So maybe I'm looking, you know, this month I'll be looking into, you know, end of April, May, for any shifts that I need to make. Um, then Tuesday is kind of my administrative day. So it's when I get all those kind of simple things done, but just monotonous tasks, you know, accounting and social media audits and looking at all these things that I need to get done.

Sure.

I also go grocery shopping. So on Mondays, I'll also kind of put together a prep sheet that I do for each shoot that I have, and it shows all the ingredients on the recipes and, you know, what props I might need or extra garnishes, all that stuff. So that way when I go to the store on Tuesday, that's already done. And also works too, when you're doing keyword research. Maybe something comes up that you didn't think of, but that would be helpful for the recipe. Then I make sure I know that ahead of time before I shoot the recipe and go to the grocery store. And then Wednesdays are typically for that.

Real quick, because I think people will be like, oh, I'm interested in hearing this.

Yeah.

For each of those kind of steps, what are the different tools you're using? So Monday, you're doing keyword research. What is the tool that you use for that? Like, can you just also talk through the different software and solutions that you're using?

Yeah, absolutely. So I use a combination of things for keyword research. The biggest one, I would say, is key search. I also use Keyword Surfer. I recently took Aleka Shunk's course on cooking with keywords. Highly recommend that to anybody who is not sure about keyword research, because it was. I thought I had a good handle on it and I took that and realized I did it. So it was hugely helpful. So there's kind of a process that she walks you through of the best way to do that using those different tools. And I have kind of a spreadsheet that I do for each recipe, so it tracks all of that stuff. And then that way I have that too. So if after I publish a recipe and it's just not doing what I want to, then I can go back and I can look at all those keywords that I researched or, you know, the different LSIs and things like that and say, oh, well, maybe I tweak this or add a different, you know, word at the end of it or other word recipe or something like that. So I already have that done and I can go back and reference that and then obviously I'll just write the blog post right there in WordPress.

Yep.

And. And then I also, like I said, I have kind of a prep sheet that I do for each shoot, and it's just in Google sheets that I have together. And it shows, you know, what the recipe is. You know, if it's for a CL when it goes live, all the ingredients that I'm going to need kind of places for me to make notes on timing. And then also has the instructions. And then I plan out every shot. You know, I say, okay, I'm going to do an ingredient shot and these are the props I'm going to use. And then I'm going to do this shot because I do step by step photos as well. And then that really makes it so much easier on shoot days because it kind of takes that part out of it. Because I can sit there and say, okay, now I know because sometimes when I'm in it, I can be more creative and, you know, look up some photos for inspiration and think, oh, this would be a cool idea. But sometimes when I'm going through that and maybe there's a timing thing where I have to hurry and get this next shot, I completely forget about it. So it's helpful to have that all written down that way on my shoot. And then I. Exactly what I do. I can pull all my props ahead of time, pull on my ingredients ahead of time, have them prepped and ready to go, and then that makes it easy. If you're doing, you know, two, three, four, you know, shoots in a day, you can just kind of boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Go through.

Yeah, yeah. When you have that, it's kind of the. I've talked about this a couple times in the podcast, but that idea of I don't know who this quote was actually should be attributed to, but the idea, if you're cutting down a feel, like it's like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or like, like some other random author, like, it's always these quotes that it's like every quote goes back to George Washington. But like, if you're going to cut down a tree and you have eight hours, you sharpen the ax for seven.

Yeah.

It feels like with badging content, there's maybe some similarities with that where if you're going to shoot four recipes, three recipes, whatever it is, in a day, like, that's not just you powering through, it's you having a really tight system and doing planning ahead of time. And it sounds like this is an example of that, where you're doing work. It's like you're batching the preparation so you can batch the actual shoot itself, which I think is an important takeaway within this. And I think that idea of kind of a sheet that you're using or like a Google Doc to walk through and say, like, okay, here are the shots I need to get. So you're not having to do a lot of that thinking ahead of time. It's really smart. So to continue the walkthrough of your week. Monday, kind of keyword research, planning. Tuesday is a little bit administrative stuff. Wednesday, you were saying was what?

Shoot many. Shoot days. Shoot days.

So, yep, day a week.

Yeah. Yep. Typically, unless something goes wrong, then usually it's once a week. And so then I have everything prepped and ready to go in the morning, you know, get all my ingredients out and in our bowls or whatever for the ingredients shots, and then I can just, boom, go through it and, you know, I'll plan out ahead of time too. If there's something that maybe is cooking in the oven for an hour or something, then I might try to get another simple recipe or at least some prep shots done. Or if it's a slow cooker recipe, obviously that takes longer. So you kind of have to do some planning ahead of time to, you know, fit everything in that way. Yeah, but. And then that takes up a majority of my day, depending on how much I'm doing. And then if I do have any time left over in the day, usually I reserve that for like catching up on podcasts or maybe there's a course I'm trying to finish up or something I want to read because I'm usually pretty tired after totally exhausting.

It's like a different type of brain.

Yeah, brain space you need to access. Yeah. So then on Thursdays I usually edit. So going through any photos or whatever that I have and getting them edited, making any sort of graphics and pins and, and all that stuff kind of photo wise and videos, I'm just kind of starting into getting into that. So that kind of is involved in that as well. And then Fridays is kind of my finalizing day. So I try to do some finalizing on Thursday as well, like, you know, putting in those things and rereading my posts to make sure what I wrote the first time is still what I want to say. Or did I make any tweaks when I made the recipe that I need to, or did I note any changes that might need to happen? And then on Fridays too, I'll kind of try to wrap up the week. So was there anything I didn't get done? I'll schedule my social media out for the following week. But I do know, like, you know, a lot of times my kids have a virtual learning day on Friday or my daughter will have early release. And so those days I try not to do as much because I just don't find myself very productive.

On Fridays you need a flex day.

Yeah, exactly. And so I use right now a combination of like Automations in Airtable, but I also use tasks in Google Calendar. So I have repeating tasks that I just have set up so I know, you know, on Monday this is what I do, Tuesday what I do. But then I can also go in there and add the one off, like, hey, I need to prep for this, or I need to get this person their proposal or I need to listen to this podcast or whatever. Because for me, with when you have so much going on, just having a place to kind of write it down is helpful. And then also I feel like, whoa, look at all those things I checked off on my schedule today. And it makes it really easy too, because then I can move things around. So as on Fridays too, I'll look to the following week and say, you know what, I've got a lot of stuff going on. My daughter has doctor practice, I've got this appointment, I need to be home early for this. I might need to adjust my days a little bit so then I can just drag and drop those tasks to different days. And then also on the flip side, if I'm going through a day and like man, I really just didn't get anything done, I still have these three tasks. I can just push them off to the next day and say I'll just move these over to the next day and then I can check them off when I finish them tomorrow.

And that's using Google Tasks. So what you'll do is like, you know, hey, every Monday I'm going to be doing these things so I'm going to create that as a recurring task that I check it off, but it'll just automatically populate next Monday. And so those. There's some kind of pattern and rhythm with that. What are you populating into airtable automatically?

So I just started doing this because I was talking to somebody I actually didn't know a ton of about the automation, the narrowtable until recently and somebody was telling me about it and I was like, how did I not know this? So what I've started doing just recently is putting in automations so for to check on republished or published posts. So I have an automation and then it goes after 30, 60 and I think 190 days, I think it is so that I go in and once I flip that task to publish or completed or whatever I have as a status in there, then it will trigger that automation. So after 30 days I get an email that says check this post. So then I can go into Google Search Console or my keyword tracker and kind of look at things and say hey, you know what, this is doing well or this is not doing well. And you know, it doesn't always land right there at the 30 days. You know, sometimes posts take a little bit longer. But then I have, I've started implementing that so I can see kind of check on things and not just, you know, spending all this time working on these posts and forgetting it. In two years being like, oh wow, I haven't seen any traffic from that.

Yeah, why is that? You have to. There's. We have that for Google Search Console for all of our sites where we just have a little reminder. We use Asana as our task management, project management reminder. But just like to go and check Google Search Console like hey, just do A review here and see what's going on with Google Search Console and are there any issues, warnings that we might have missed if we don't have that habit around it? How do you within Airtable, do you have like a tab or an area that's like recurring tasks or like where, where does that. I'm just trying to visualize where that lives.

Yeah, no, I don't have that right now. Like I said this, it's fairly new that I've just started doing this. So I have a list of all of my published posts that are on my site and I have a list of when it was originally published, when it was updated, if it was updated recently, and when it was republished. So I have a trigger on there. You can set up an automation where it says, okay, if the publish date was within or on the 30th day past that date, whatever it was March 22 or whatever, then it will send me an email and you set up exactly what that email says. So I have it on there, it says Chuck post ranking and then you can put different things in there. So I have the post title, the address, the website address, and then also when it was originally published. So then I can go into Google Search Console and filter by that date and look forward and say, oh, okay, this is what it's been doing. Or I do see a huge jump in impressions, but the clicks aren't coming through what's going on. So it's fairly new and that's about as much as I've dipped my toe into right now. But it's cool and there's a lot of things you can do with it. I just haven't quite gotten there to do a lot of stuff with it yet.

Yep. Nice. That's awesome. So really interesting to hear kind of your quarterly, right? That's the big planning and that allows you to set up kind of the plan moving forward. And then the batching side of it is like on a week to week basis there's this repeating pattern that you have. So there's some predictability, especially Monday through Thursday with Friday kind of being a flex day. So you know, hey, generally speaking, each day is going to look like this. Having one day where you're doing shoots start to finish, might be republishing, might be new content. Um, and the cool thing is the result of that along with one of the things that I heard you talking about, which I feel like is important to call out continual learning, like prioritizing courses, content, podcasts, like layering that in as part of what you're doing has resulted in your site, you know, going from 7,500 to 65,000, which you shared before, which is incredible and kind of unlocks that, that stage of being able to apply for ad networks. And it also gets to this point that I feel like is a really critical point where it was like, oh, this is like depending on people and where they live and what it looks like, but like pay the mortgage type of income. And I feel like anytime that somebody gets there, that's like a life changing event where you're able to create a business that is supporting your family and not that everybody uses it for a mortgage, but I just feel like that number is kind of like an interesting number and flexible enough where people are like, oh, yeah, that's a good, solid number. That's a good, solid number. And that was one of the first things I remember talking to with Lindsey when she was first starting is we were living in a. It was a condo that we had bought for 68,000 and our mortgage was just like, it was ridiculous. It was like $460 or something. It was just such a tiny mortgage. But I remember saying, I think this could, like, I think you can create something that will pay the mortgage. That was kind of the number that we had used as this, like, inspirational pursuit. And it's. And you've achieved that, which I feel like is worth, like pointing out and saying, like, awesome. That's. That's really incredible. Yeah. If you were to, if you were to say, you know, look back and it's a relatively recent time period. It's one of the things that we hear on the podcast is like, hey, you'll occasionally talk to people who have been doing it for like 10 years, which is fun to hear. But like, for you, really, in a focused period of time, like encased within the pandemic, like, we're able to. You were able to do this, like, when you really started focusing and, you know, pursuing it. If you were to go back and say, hey, here are the things that I did that were most important along the way, what would those things be for somebody else who is interested in, you know, really doubling down and focusing on their site and wanting to grow.

Yeah, I would say believing in yourself, helping you, you know, get that mindset shift of, this is my business and I want it to succeed. I think you have to go from business like, you know, just working on something to business owner mentality and saying, this is what I've got to do, and kind of saying, okay, I'M going to make this work. Like this is my business and this is happening and, and really set yourself up, you know, like, I'm going to go to work and these are the hours that I'm working. I think it's really, really difficult when you live and you work in the same space to kind of separate that, especially when you're working for yourself because it's really easy to be like, I'm just going to watch Netflix for a little bit.

How did you separate it?

You know, I just, I set my hours. I really did. I went through and said, okay, this, these are the hours that I'm able to work based on, you know, preschool drop offs and pickups and home or whatever. And this is the hours that I want to work. And so my kids know when mommy's at work she's working, but when she's home she's with them, you know, and I'm giving them my attention and so I really try to stick to those hours. And of course there's things that come up that I have to finish up or whatever, but I try to do that maybe after they're in bed so they know, hey, when I'm at work I'm working, but when I'm here, I'm with you. And, and then setting those tasks for me like daily, this is what I'm going to do. Because I kind of started to think, okay, when I used to work a job for somebody else, like there was things that I to do every day, so let's do that, you know, set up what. And that's kind of how I started getting into the batching. Like, this is what I'm gonna do this day and this is what I'm gonna do this day. And you know, batching that stuff and putting it together really just was key for me A, because I could get a lot done and in a focused space, you know, where I was really thinking and producing good quality work in that time. And then just knowing what your limitations are, you know, I knew that there was only so far I was gonna get with this website and not being afraid to kind of spend that money. And like I said, going back to that you don't have to spend money to be successful. But if, you know, you're just kind of like running into a brick wall with something, look for help, you know, look for someone to help you and, and don't be afraid to spend the money because like I said once I invested in myself and just not from a money aspect, but investing in myself and believing in myself. That's when I started to see that growth. And I know that kind of sounds cliche, but it really did. I mean, and I looked at it. I was getting really frustrated about fall of last year and thinking I really wanted to qualify for mediavine at this point, and I set these goals, and I just don't think I'm gonna make it. And it's just getting close, and I don't know what to do. And I really gotta. Like, I was trying to push out three a week, and I was just getting really burnt out, and my husband was like, why are you doing this to yourself? And I'm like, because I have to do this. And he's like, but nobody knows that you were three recipes this week except for you. And I'm like, I know, but I feel like if I have these tasks and these goals, I got to stick to it. He's like, yeah, but if you're burning out and you're not, you see any quality slip, you need to back off. And that was my key. Like, okay, yeah, I'm not doing the best pictures or the posts aren't written the way they wanted to, or, you know, just things aren't the quality that I want them to. And that's when I decided to back off. And I did. And I thought, you know what? Quality and consistent quality is more important than just pushing out as much content as possible. And, you know, they always say content is king, but it's, you know, it's good quality content. And, you know, fast forward, and it was December 26th, I hit that. That mark for media was able to apply. But I, you know, I got looking at it, and I'm like, oh, man, I can't believe I did it. And I went back and I looked at those numbers from the beginning of the year, and I'm like, holy cow, Amanda. Like, you. You really did this. You know, it wasn't like I was at 40 and got to 50,000 sessions or whatever that goal was. Like, you really took it. You know, From January of 2021, you were at about 7,500 sessions. In January of 2022, you were up at 65. Like, that's. That's pretty incredible. And so I think, too, looking back, and I think it's really easy to get in this. Like, I got to just do more. I got to do more. Especially when your own boss, you know, you're really hard on yourself. Like, right? But looking back and saying, hey, you know what? Look what I accomplished. Like, this is really great. And I am doing good things. And, you know, I think it's easy to kind of compare yourself to other people and say, but they're doing this and they're making this amount of money and they got this sponsorship and, you know, look at what you're doing, and it's pretty great. And just staying in that focus, I think, is huge.

Yeah, it's. I think of sports analogies, which whenever somebody else is a sports analogy, I'm like, sports analogy. And then I find myself using them all the time. But, you know, I really think of cross country as a good example or maybe like, cross country skiing, where I feel like the mindset of a lot of people who are doing a sport like cross country is like, I want to beat my last, best time, as opposed to, like. And I think you want to win. Like, that's part of what a sport is. Is like, hey, it would be really cool to, like, get first place. But just having this mindset of, like, how can I improve? And within the constraints that exist for me. And it's like, if life is going to look really different if you have four kids, it's a pandemic. You know, you. I think about that with Lindsay, and I, too, it's like we're both working on this thing together. That's a variable that doesn't exist for a lot of people. And so what does it look like for you? And then what can you then step back and look at it and be like, hey, I'm proud of the work that I did, given the reality of the life that I'm living, as opposed to, I'm proud of what I did when I put it up against this other example of somebody else who. I'm not really sure who is working with them or what their constraints are or whatever it is, but to stay focused on your own goals, your own progress, and to not get distracted from that, I think that's a great. A great takeaway.

Well, and I think that's really easy to do that as. To compare yourself to other people. And you just. You never know what's going on behind the curtain. You don't know what they have or what they're struggling with. And so I think just, you know, I love what you guys always say, just getting a little bit, you know, tiny bit better every day. And that was one thing I always kept in the back of my head, okay, you might not be where they are, but look how much you came over the last couple months and how much better you are and how much you've Improved. And you did this and you did that, and, you know, giving yourself a little bit grace, like, because things happen, and there's weeks that I'm like, oh, my gosh, I didn't get anything done, and this is so frustrating, and I'm not going to meet this goal and this goal, and it's like, okay, but you also did this, this, and this. And, you know, your kids needed you. And that's just how it goes sometimes.

You know, that's great. I heard somebody describe being an entrepreneur as taking a step back every day for four days in a row and then taking five steps forward once every five days. So it's like you're still. And then you pull that out over a year or two years or 10 years, you make a lot of progress. But sometimes it can seem like, man, every. On average, it's actually, like, going backwards. Now, I know that's different for all, you know, different entrepreneurs and businesses, but this idea of, like, you show up, you hustle, you maybe end the day feeling like, gosh, I didn't make any progress. But the key is to do that five days a week, and one of those days, you're going to have those leaps and those unlocks, even though it might feel like the majority of the time, you're showing up and you're not making as much progress as you want. And I think that kind of ties into the tiny bit idea, like, tiny bit better every day. Maybe some days you don't, but, like, over the macro year, two years, 10 years, you can make a lot of progress. And you see that with your story, which is really fun to see. So, Amanda, where can people find you? Follow along with what you're up to and connect with you?

Yeah, definitely. You can find me. You can connect with me through my website, sapporitokitchen.com or on Instagram Saprito Kitchen as well.

What's the. What's the story with the name? Just as we close out, usually in.

The beginning, but yeah, no. So Saprito means tasty in Italian. And a lot of my food is Italian comfort food, that sort of thing. And so something I had thought of, like, a really long time ago. And so when I started it in 2017, I'm like, all right, this is what we're going with. Yeah, that's great.

Cool. Well, thanks so much for coming on, Amanda. Really great to connect.

Yeah, thanks so much, Bjork. Have a great day. Hey. Hey.

Alexa here from the Food Blogger Pro team. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast. Thank you for tuning in. I wanted to let you know that we have a live Q and A coming up. We typically have a live Q and A every single month for our Food Blogger Pro community, for our Food Blogger Pro members. And if you're not a member or maybe you're a new member of the community, maybe you don't know what they are. So I wanted to give you a quick rundown on what you could expect from a live Q and A at Food Blogger Pro. So like I mentioned, we have one per month and in these live Q&As we typically focus on a specific topics. So whether that be photography, SEO, WordPress, developing recipes, we kind of COVID everything and anything on these live Q&As, and then Bjork, or sometimes Bjork and a guest and industry expert come on and answer all of our community's questions live. So our community submits questions and then Bjork and whoever is joining him in that specific Q and A will answer the questions live. And all of our past live Q&As are available for all members. So they are just such a great time. And we love being able to connect in a way that's sort of face to face in a virtual setting. So if you're interested in joining our next Q and A and you're not already a member, be sure to head over to foodbloggerpro.com join so you can learn a little bit more about the community and sign up there. And then if you are already a member of the community, hello. Hello. We hope to see you at our next one soon and can head over to the Live tab whenever you log into the site to get access and register for our next live Q and A. So thanks again for tuning into this episode of the podcast. We appreciate you so much and we'll see you next time. Make it a great week.

Sam.