453: Balancing a Full-time Job and Your Food Blog with Vincent DelGiudice

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Hey there, this is Emily from the Food Blogger Pro team and you are listening to the Food Blogger Pro Podcast. This week on the podcast, Bjork is chatting with Vinnie from Always From Scratch and we first met Vinnie when he joined Bjork for a coaching call in 2023 and Bjork enjoyed the coaching call so much that he thought he would interview Vinnie for the podcast and bring this conversation to the masses. In this podcast episode, Vinnie shares more about his career. He started off as a speech language pathologist and then started his food blog in 2019. In the middle of last year when he first chatted with Bjork, he was thinking about taking his food blog full time. He qualified for Mediavine and had over a hundred thousand followers on Instagram and thought it might be the right time to take the blog full time. But since then he's decided that he's not quite ready to do that and he was able to use his blog and social media accounts to get himself a job that is more in the content creation industry. Industry Bjork and Vinnie chat about balancing a full time job with running a food blog and also a family and how to know when it's the right time to take your blog full time. I think it's a really great interview for anybody, but especially those who have kind of just started their food blog and are thinking about what their Future might hold. I think it'll be a really valuable listen, so I'm just going to let Bjork take it away.

Vinnie, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. Yeah. Excited to be here.

Yeah. We had a conversation. We do these things called Coaching calls with Food Blogger Pro, where it's one of my favorite things that we get to do, sit down and hear a little bit about somebody's story. It's kind of like what you'd imagine if you connect with a friend who's, like, mutually interested in a similar thing, and you kind of jam on ideas and brainstorm and think about what's to come. We had that conversation. I'm trying to think of when it is. Would you be able to pinpoint the date of when it was or even the month?

I know I want to say July or. It was. It was definitely, like, warm out.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's. It's like it was in a warm season of the year, and we're recording this now in February. And what's great about that amount of time, let's say it was July. It's like a half a year. Half a year plus, a lot can happen if you take action and you move on things. And you've had some significant changes in between that timeframe. And I would love to hear about those, because one of the things that we talk a lot about on this podcast is essentially like, how do we have conversations around evolving our careers, whether that be working on our own thing full time or just like, working on work that is more aligned with what we want to be doing. And you've made some of those transitions in a pretty significant way. So take us back to kind of where your headspace was at in July and some of the questions that you were working through.

I think in July, you know, or whenever it was, I was really focusing on this idea of, like, I was. I was at the time I was laid off for my job. So I was in this moment in my life where I was like, I need to make this food blog work or else, like, I'm failing at it. And it felt like this. It really felt like it's all or nothing. It felt like that. And then as I started realizing, like, this is just not the time, like, I'm not ready to do this full time in terms of financially supporting a family. I tried to figure out ways where I can use the skills that I was learning, whether it was in SEO, video editing, photography, and bring that into a career or at least something that was different than what I had been doing, which was speech pathology. So that's what I did. I was able to apply for a bunch of jobs, a ton of jobs. So many jobs.

But where were you applying? Was it on, like, job boards and.

Yeah, I was on, like, I did a lot of, like, indeed. And all that stuff. And then one day, you know, I just thought to myself, I'm gonna go on LinkedIn. And I saw this guy post this job in my name in my area for a photographer. And I just messaged him and was like, hey, I think I'd be a great fit. And the next day I was like. I think it was like two or three days later I was hired. So it worked out well because it was kind of just in the moment. The perfect thing where I saw a photographer and I was like, this is what I want to get better at or one of the things I want to get better at. So that's sort of where I was able to kind of transition to a different job, which was cool.

Yep. And, you know, one of the things that we can do to some degree, like, there's always. Some people have less flexibility than others, but, like, for the most part, we can be pursuing, like, the continual rewriting of our job description. And I'm not talking about job description. Like, you are hired into something and they have a job description and they give it to you. That's one of the things that. One of the ways you could look at job description. I'm talking about, like, if we are CEO of you, Inc. And your job is, like, what you get paid to do, that can evolve over time, and you can have this mix of W2 contract, freelance, passive income, or, like, business entrepreneurial income. And we can figure out what are the ways that we can shift and change and adjust all of the different components of those different areas to get us closer to. It's probably never going to be a perfect match, but closer to where we want to be. So when you looked at what you were doing, what was it that you knew you didn't want to do more of in speech pathology? Because it's like you had a successful career. You had a master's degree in speech pathology. Like, you were really established in that career. So what did it look like to let that go? And how did you know that wasn't what you wanted to do moving forward?

I worked in a really specific niche. I only worked with, like, singing voice people and, like, people with throat cancer. And I did it all virtually because I was working for a company in Nevada. And when I was Laid off. I was trying to find something very, very similar. And I had worked in nursing homes before, and I just knew, like, I couldn't go back to that. And I even. I even went and interviewed at one and I walked in the building and I was just like. In that moment, I knew. I was like, I can no longer do this. I will not be happy. And even I think the biggest thing was, like, how scary switching or starting over really felt, because the whole thing was really just like, how do you decide if that's the right move? And you just really don't know until. Until you switch and, you know, try something.

Yeah. So I had a friend who reached out recently, and they were talking about her husband's kind of trying to figure out what does he want to do as a next step, potentially career change. So I was kind of thinking about some of those things. There's a. An acquaintance. I wouldn't say friend. We just had a short conversation at a conference. Her name is Jenny Blake, and she has this book called Pivot, Pivot Method. And it talks about kind of these career transitions that we're in. There's also this great book called Designing youg Life. And they have one also called Designing youg Work Life, which is kind of for people in these transitionary periods. But the reason I say that, the reason these books can exist and these and courses can exist is because it's common. Like, there's a lot of us who are in this stage of life or stage of our career where we're like, we want to do something different and we feel like there's something out there that's more exciting or better fit. And for anybody listening, I just want to, like, validate that that's okay, and that's good, but it's also hard. So for you, Vinnie, as you moved into that, you knew when you walked through the door, like, this isn't going to be a fit. And people say this and it's true. Like, when you know, you know. And like, for you, in that moment, you knew. But the hard thing sometimes is then knowing what is the fit. So talk to me a little bit about the world of, like, digital media and even, you know, creating food content, because that's a piece of you Inc. Right now you are creating income from your site, which is kind of this additional income that you get from this W2 job that you found. So. But how did you know that's where you wanted to go?

I knew I needed to do something that was in the same field as, like, food blogging I know like I enjoy creating, I enjoy like content creation in general. I love doing food creation, but it's just wasn't the right time for me to be full time food blogger. And what it felt like at the time was like, I need an income and if the food blog is making X amount of money and I have to take all of that money and put it towards my family, then I can't grow the food, the blog and I can't grow the company. And that's what it is. It's a company at this point where it needs money invested every month to try to like scale it and create more, do audits and everything just gets more expensive the more it grows. And for me I was like, I need to figure out something that I can do that's I'm going to continue to learn and continue to grow in a way where I'm still writing, still creating. So I just started searching for digital media and I basically used my food blog and my Instagram as my resume. Like I had a resume but you know, it all was speech stuff. And then at the top it just said like food blog and like had like how many followers and you know, the site stats and stuff like that. And, and yeah, my food blog isn't making enough money for me to survive on. But the idea that it's got me a career where I'm getting paid each week says enough to me. Where I'm like, okay, it was successful enough where somebody is willing to pay me money now because of the food blog.

Yeah, it's one of the things that I think is often that we don't give enough credit to in the process when we are looking at metrics or numbers or money or whatever it might be is skills and skill development. And what we found is a lot, lot of times what can happen when you get into the world of content creation is you find something that you're really passionate about, that you're interested in and that you are good at or know that you can be good at photography as an example in your case, or video, like kind of the digital media side of things or for other people, they've realized that they are really good at writing and they get into that, or recipe development or even like, you know, HTML, css, like design, like all of these are different skills. And so I think it's important for us to remember as we're getting into this, like you said, it's not just the outcome, it's also the journey. And what you're learning on the journey can be applied in other ways. And I think it's one of the greatest ways to grow and to build a thing is to have something adjacent to it, which is, like, within the realm of what you want to be learning and getting better at, and then allowing your business to just reinvest those profits back into the business. And, you know, I think the. Like you said, it's a business, and businesses are inherently valuable. The more you grow this business, the more you have a valuable thing. And it's actually for. I'm kind of a personal finance geek, and one of the things I've started doing is like, hey, roughly speaking, like, what is the value of this, you know, website that we have or this online business in a similar way that you attract the value of your home? Because these are valuable things. And so to pair something like a W2 job where you're learning with a valuable business that you're able to reinvest back into and grow feels like a really valuable thing. What does that look like in terms of your time? Because you also have family. You know, you have time that you want to spend with them. So how do you balance that and make sure that you're having kind of the time that you need in each category of life?

I think it's hard to balance that. And then you have to be very intentional about how you spend your time. Because even if I have. So I don't really drink anymore, and, like, if I were to have, like, three beers on a Friday, I can't work on a Saturday morning. So now I lose Friday night and Saturday morning, you know, and I. I really focus on it like that. Like, where can I get an hour? Like, can I get an hour on Friday? Can I get two on Saturday? And I try to be intentional about, like, making those small units of time add up. So if it's two hours, I know I'm gonna get every. Every weekday morning and 45 minutes every night. It over. Over a week, it starts to really add up how much time you can really put into a blog. And obviously, creating the content is very time consuming. And my wife is super awesome with making sure I have some time on Saturdays and Sundays to shoot, which is. Which is great. And.

Yep.

So that's kind of how I separate my time.

Yeah. And it gets easier to justify when you're at the point where you are where, you know, once you get to. And you don't have to share specifics, but, like, the site's getting enough traffic now to say, like, okay, this is substantial in a Way where it justifies the time that you're putting into it. You know, it's. It's money that could maybe cover a mortgage or, like.

Right.

It's. It's getting to that amount where it's. You feel it and you in. And it's. And it makes a difference. What was it like in the stage kind of before that? Because I think some. Some people are like, hey, if I. I can justify it once I get to that point. But you only get to that point once you spent enough time getting it there. So what did it look like knowing that you started in 2019? Is that right?

Yeah. Yep.

Yeah. What did it look like in those earlier stages when it was maybe more of a grind and you weren't getting that initial kind of positive feedback loop of ad income or maybe sponsor content or whatever it might be.

You. I, I personally felt, like, silly sometimes where I was like, I'm wasting my time. I'm wasting my. It feels, and it can feel like very heavy where you're not creating, like, an income, but you're spending hours and hours and hours of time, especially in the beginning when you're really trying to build up your content. That. And one of the things I always bring up to my wife and I steal this from you guys is the 1% thing. And. Because, like, she comes to me with all these ideas and I gotta. I always say, like, I gotta do one thing at a time and we'll build it up.

But one hour today.

Exactly.

What's the thing that's gonna make a difference?

Yeah, so I, I think you. You have to just get past that idea of, like, what I'm doing doesn't mean anything because in the beginning, it can really feel like you're three blogs or you're 10 blogs or you're 15. And it can feel very insignificant in the grand scheme when you compare to other people. So I think it's important to look at, like, what you want to do and, like, how you're going to get there, and just knowing, like, how long it can take, because it does take a long time to get comfortable creating. Get comfortable, like, in your process. And you get 50 blogs in and you look at your first five, and you're like, what was I thinking when I wrote this? Or, like, what was I thinking when I shot these pictures? And you. You can't get better unless you just go for it. And as tough. Tough as it can be in the beginning, it's. It's really nice to be able to look back at it and Say like, wow, like, look how far this has come.

Yeah. Part of it too is, you know, to talk about that skill development piece. It's like, what do you want to be good at? And I think sometimes we can get lost in like wanting to hit these certain goals, which is still important. Whether it be like, you know, I want to get to 50,000 page views and apply to an ad network, it's like, that's great. I think it's good to have those goals. But also like, what do you want to be excellent at? And think about that, because you will become better the more that you work at a thing. Even if some of the things that are harder to control, followers, page views, whatever it might be, those aren't always the best indicators of how good you are at a thing. And if you stick with it long enough, eventually once you get to a point, you will get noticed. But sometimes it takes a long time, like years before that happens. So for you, what was the point where you felt like, can you pinpoint like any, like, made it or like, this feels like unlock or. My guess is you apply to an ad network and then suddenly you're earning money in a way that you weren't before. You get to a hundred thousand followers on Instagram and it's like, wow, that's a really big number. And for some people, they aren't as aware of some of those things as others. But like, were there steps along the way where you felt like, hey, this is really cool and it was validating for the work that you had done or even getting a job in digital media? Right.

I mean, that was, honestly, that was a huge one for me because I was really able to equate something to like a, you know, a large sum, like a yearly salary is a large sum of money and something to do. I think in terms of like the blog though, getting, getting on mediavine was really awesome. Like, consistent income for like a small business is so important to be able to scale because when you're relying on products and sponsored shoots and maybe you don't get a lot like me, I don't get a lot of sponsored shoots from my Instagram. It's like not enough. So you have to like hope for like the next one to come in and you have to do a lot of reach out. And I'm not good at reaching out to companies and trying to like sell myself. But writing the blogs and getting that income from the, the ads is, was a big one. But it was to me, I, I think that's when I Realized, like, this is step one. Like, I just got to step one. And this is like only the beginning. And it really felt that way when I first. Because you get, you get there and you're like, oh, wow, now I really want to like, grow this thing because it's exciting. But. And then with Instagram followers, it, you, you think it matters, but it's, it's just like you, you get to a number and you think it's going to feel like, you feel like it's going to feel some sort of way, but it just, it never does for me. And yeah, I don't get a ton from my Instagram besides, like, maybe like views on my website. Like, it's really the only way. And yeah, I think the main reason I got to 100,000 followers was I posted a, a recipe that people hated, like, hate it. It was an Italian, Italian wedding soup. And every comment was negative. But, like, it got me so many followers and I was like, interesting. It really validated for me, like, how little it, like how much I should just like, what I should be focusing on, focusing on. And, and for me it was like, wow, okay, so like, this doesn't make sense. Like, I'm creating something that people seem to not like, but it's garnering more engagement. So it's funny the way Instagram can sometimes mess with your mind a little bit.

Yeah, totally. And what's interesting about that is, like, sometimes you see that in really big accounts, not even necessarily in the food space, but, like, can also be the most controversial. And the reason that it works is because it's like engagement and it's attention. And sometimes that controversial type of content can be really engaging. There's other ways that obviously on social that you can grow and that you have engaging content, but you see that potentially sometimes as an outcome.

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So for you, when you think of the evolution, like you had this job in speech pathology and it's like that's what you're doing, that's what you're focusing on. You were let go from this position and then there's this moment of like, what do I do next? And initially the thought was, hey, let's figure out if I can scale this blog and the income from it, this business as quickly as possible. It sounds like in that season and it was kind of around where we talked where it was like, this probably doesn't make sense to try and like scale this as quickly as possible to become a full time income. So the next pivot was into what does it look like to have my day job be closely aligned with what I want to be doing long term, which was photography and video. Is that right?

Yeah, I mean my main thing is I like doing video, do a lot of product, product photography right now and some content video.

But yeah, Yep. And so at this point what you're doing is saying, okay, I'm going to have that be my main gig. You love video and you love photography. That in and of itself, correct me if I'm wrong, feels like a win. Like that's a career change that you've had in doing something radically different than what you were doing before as a full time gig and getting paid to do this thing that five years ago you probably couldn't have gotten paid to do. Does that feel accurate?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think it's really exciting because. And this is. It sounds cliche. Every day I go to work, I, I'm like, I'm happy. Like, I'm like, this is awesome. Like I'm, I get to read about email marketing or read about. And yeah, and I'm reading in the sense that like I'm trying to grow that company's brand and I really try to stay focused on that company when I'm there. But it is a cool thing because I'm, as I'm learning about them, I'm learning about what I can do with my blog and as I'm learning more about my blog and SEO or whatever, I'm able to kind of influence the W2 job. So I think sometimes it's a win win.

It's like the best win win.

Yeah, I really feel that way and I never feel like now I'm doing both things all the time, so I'm like burnt out. Like they're different enough where I get to do a lot of the things that I like throughout the day and I feel very fulfilled in how it all came to fruition.

Yeah, that's awesome. One of the things that I love about that too is you talked about essentially what you were doing was building an incredible portfolio and then you were able to use that and say, like, here's my, here's the case study for why I know video and why I know photography and why I know, you know, digital media, because I've been doing it for five years. Can you talk about in that conversation if you can identify it, like what the variables were when with your online content that were perceived as most valuable? Was it like. Yeah. Well, yeah. What, what was it?

Yeah, I mean it was. I think it was just the fact that I was somebody who took nothing and made it something. And I think that's when you're a content creator. Like, we base a lot of our like, value on what people will pay us or what people will like, give us for what we're doing and I, we create a lot of stuff. And when you look back at a portfolio like that, you are able to say like, something that you really built from the ground up and how you knew nothing and you learned it all and were able to like, create something. And I think that was the most valuable thing that, like, when I was interviewing that I heard was that it sat like all the questions were leading to the point where I was able to do this from zero to go to here.

Yeah.

So creating that, I think was important.

Yeah, it's. I think people underestimate how valuable it is in the, in, in the marketplace to take something abstract and from there build it into a thing that is people can interact with. And I think for somebody, my, my guess is when you are hired into a role like the one that you were hired into, for somebody to look at that and say, hey, that means that you can, we could give you something abstract like, hey, we're interested in growing search traffic and you are somebody who can take that and say, okay, I'm going to get after it and I'm going to figure it out. And that's like a relatively uncommon thing in the world for somebody to be able to take a general direction, general thought. Here's where we want to go and work to make it exist within the world. And that's so much of what we're doing as creators is we're coming up with an abstract vision of like, here's what we want our site to focus on and the, the audience to be like and the focus for the, the niche. And now we're going to learn WordPress, we're going to learn Instagram, we're going to learn YouTube to like, build something around this and make it like a successful thing in the world. So when you think of kind of these parallel tracks, do you have a vision of like, what you're. And if this is a chapter, like, do you have an ideal vision of like, how that evolves and what the next chapter looks like? Or do you feel like, hey, this feels pretty good to be where I am right now. I can grow my site, I can reinvest back into it. I can create a following while also doing work that I love.

I am trying to look at it more that way where I'm like, very much present in what I'm doing day to day where, where I felt like with speech, I was sort of just like, trying to get done. Like, I felt like every day was the same where now I'm like, chipping away and growing Things. It's just a different perspective that I have with this job and with the blog now. And I feel like the difference is, is that I'm able to look at it. Like, I. I can grow my blog now. Like, I can put the time in and let it grow instead of being like, this needs to happen now and I need this to be here, or. And I'm just excited to see where it will go. I think there's so many things I want to learn, right? Like, I. I'm like, when I start getting into SEO now, I'm like, oh, I need to learn more. And I. And I. All I can do is read about it and learn about it. And, like, sometimes I want to just be in video editing mode, and I want to, like, learn more about transitions and this and that. And I let myself kind of go into those funnels where I just try to learn as much about one thing at a time as I can. And sometimes I get burnt out from that thing and I keep doing it, but, yeah, I move on to the next thing that I want to learn. And I feel like these two jobs are letting me kind of deep dive more.

It's. I've references a couple times on the podcast, but there's this composer, Charles Ives, and he was this experimental composer, and so he'd have these kind of weird songs or symphonies or whatever they would be that he would do. Like, one of them, if I'm remembering right, would be, like, the person would come out and, like, smash the piano with a sledgehammer. Like that was it. Or like, I think he was also the one who had somebody come out and the composer would just, like, sit at the piano, but, like, not actually play anything for a certain period of time. And, like, that was one of the songs. But he was an insurance salesman, and what it allowed him to do was to have to release the pressures of, like, income from the thing that he was most excited about. And I think for a lot of us, there's a benefit to crafting our life in a way where the thing that we're most excited about and interested in doesn't have to be the thing that we have to, like, fully serve and that we have. It feels like what you have is a really good balance, which is, like, you have this client. It's a W2 job. That is the primary thing that you're focusing on, which is also in the realm of what you're interested in, which is great. But then you also have this kind of playground that you can create content, build a Following, but it's also revenue generating, and that's a really fun game to play when you put time into it and you see a little bit of a boost of traffic or you see more email signups, but you don't have the pressure of, like, I need this thing to perform at this level. And if it drops, there's because of a Google algorithm update that suddenly you're going to lose a bunch of sleep. Does that feel accurate when you think of kind of the balance that you have right now between those two things?

Yeah, it feels like I'm just not letting everything ride on this one thing, which I think is important in. In anything, you know? Yeah, you never want to have everything on, like, something like Instagram, where it can all fall apart so quickly. You know, you just never know with some of these things. Like, and I. I always hear, like, your email list is the most important thing. So, like, lately that's like, the thing that I've been like, I need to grow this. And, like, that's what I focus on or, you know, whatever. So I think it's a cool experience to be able to have something that's growing, be able to, like, have this competitive, you know, finance piece to it where I get to say, like, okay, like, here's what I did this month. Here's the way it created income. And it definitely makes it a little bit more fun when you're able to switch from, like, your focus of, like, followers or, like, engagement, or like, this, when you can really pinpoint, like, this is how much income it generated. And now we're talking about, like, numbers that can matter to your family.

Yeah, that's awesome. Let's say there's somebody out there and they're in this. In between, they're kind of trying to figure out, like, what is. What does my next chapter look like? And they don't know what the next steps are. After you having gone through it relatively recently, you know, within the last year, half year, what would your advice be to them as they're kind of out there trying to figure things out.

Identifying what you're good at is so important and being able to show somebody how that will help them, because I think that's how I was able to, you know, explain why they should hire a digital media assistant or photographer who has no history of being a digital media person or photographer. So I. I think knowing what you're good at and being able to really, like, tell people about it and, and explain why that works for you. And, and I think you said before like, trying to, like, know or work on what skill you want to develop that's so important when. When we're thinking about content creation, because there's so many skills that you can have and so many different ways to create. So I think identifying what you like and get it, just putting in the hours into that can help you kind of make those decisions when it comes to, like, where am I going to go next? Yeah. When. When you know. You know, though, like you said that before, you. You do know what you want to do or you know you will. Like, when you see what you want to do, you'll be able to kind of fall into place with it. Yeah.

Identifying where you feel the pull. Like, right. And I think even when you sit down during the day, like, what are the things that you're most excited to get to? Are you excited to get to video editing? Or do you dread it? Right. Are you excited when you get to, like, tinker with your web sites, HTML and css? Or do you dread it? Like, are you excited when you do get to do comments and interact with people? Like, using those as kind of little indicators for where there is a draw for you? I think is. Is really great. There's in. I'm pointing up on my bookshelf, but there's that book designing your life that I mentioned before. They also have one that I haven't read after called designing your work life. One of the exercises they have is like, at each. With each thing that you have in your day, whether it be a meeting about a certain subject or a task that you're working on, or a project, writing it down, and then they have like, a little fuel gauge, like, empty to full. And what does it look like? What did that activity look like for you? What did it. Was it like, gas tank full. This was really great. Or like, gas tank empty. And my guess is for you, when you were in the season of doing speech pathology, towards the end, it was probably a lot of like, gas tank empty. Like, I'm getting through it, I'm doing it. You're probably good at it. But for whatever reason, it was draining. And now it sounds like a lot of the things that you're doing throughout the day are gas tank full. And I feel like in. In the conversations that we have, like, this podcast can be a success if we can help facilitate the transition that people have from, like, less gas tank empty, more gas tank full days. And it sounds like you've pulled that off in a. In a really cool way.

Yeah. And I, I think what's really important to realize too is that like every time I edit a video, I'm not gas tank full.

Yeah.

Sometimes I'm like, oh God. Like I would rather be in my bed than be sitting here dragging this chicken parmesan video. Like yeah. At 5:45. You know, like, I think it's important to recognize like sometimes you don't want to work and this is work. Like everything that you do with your blog. Like, yeah, you can say you love it and it's what you're meant to do and all this but. But it's still work and work sucks at the end of the day. Like everybody wants to be relaxing doing like I want to sleep. Like, you know, what do I, I look forward to a life where I can sleep eight hours and that's not realistic in content creation right now where I have a full time job. Like I want to grow it and sometimes I'm psyched about doing certain things and sometimes I'm not. So I think managing that like guest hang quote unquote to being like today, like I am really writing well. So that's where I'm going to put my energy because that's where I, I'm feeling fulfilled and maybe tomorrow I'll get more editing done if I. That's where my brain's at. But being able to kind of like switch it up and not let yourself be like a one trick pony, I guess where you have to be doing this thing to make yourself happy because that's great. It can eventually feel anything. Can eventually feel like tough to get through or gas tank empty.

Yeah, I think it's a really good point. You know, Steven Pressfield wrote this book called the War of Art. And in it he talks about this idea of the resistance and he talks about it specifically for writers. And I think it's an important concept in that even if it's something that we know we want to be doing, let's say we know we want to be a writer or photographer or we want to do video. We can still in pursuit of that have resistance, which is like, I really want to do this, but I'm gonna like do the laundry first. Like there's this part of us that just resists the thing that we actually really want to do and it is because sometimes it's really hard to do. And especially if you're doing it, you know, in the margins and you're trying to make it work and you have a busy schedule. And so I think it's important that you called that out and Totally agree that, like, it's not always hunky dory. Feels really good. Like, you know.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Thankful. That's great. Yeah. Super inspiring, Vinnie, to talk to you, to see your transition, you know, in a relatively short amount of time. When we had that conversation when. Whenever it was like June, July, August. Yeah, it was warm out and it's. It's inspiring for me to see you kind of evolve your career. If people want to connect with you, where's the best place for them to do that and reach out? Connect, whether it's shoot a quick message or follow along with what you're up to.

Yeah, sure. For. For sure. You can find me on Instagram at Vin del Giudice and then my website is always from scratch.com so you can always email me at Vinny at always from scratch.com and that's where you'll find me.

Awesome. Vinny, thanks so much for coming on, sharing your story. Super great to connect. Awesome.

Like, Hey there. This is Emily from the Food Blogger Pro team. And thank you so much for listening to that episode. We really appreciate it if you liked this episode or enjoy the show. We would really appreciate you leaving a review or rating wherever you listen to your podcast episodes. Ratings and reviews help get the show in front of new listeners and help us grow our little show into something even bigger. We read each and every review and it makes us so happy to hear when you're enjoying the podcast or what you would like us to improve or change in upcoming episodes. All you have to do is find the Food Blogger Pro podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, whether it's on Apple or Spotify or another player, and enter a rating and review. While you're there, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss a new episode. We really appreciate it so much and it makes such a huge difference for our show. So thanks in advance and that's all we have for you today, so have a great week.