How Abbey Rodriguez Founded and Grew Tastemaker Conference | The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Abby, welcome to the podcast.

Hi. I'm so happy to be here.

Yeah. Excited to chat with you. Because you have done something and are doing something that not only do I have not any expertise in, I'm really curious in it. I'm also very intimidated by what you do, which is events where either virtually in the last year and a half especially, or in person, you gather a bunch of people. And to me, that seems like really stressful and hard. Is it stressful? Is it hard? And then give us a little background about what it is that you do and what you're up to.

Yes. Is it stressful? Is it hard? I would say yes. And it depends on your personality type because I think there are two people in this world that are like, yes, I want to plan an event and bring people together. And this brings me so much joy. And then there's the other type that's like you. No, no, no, no. Hard pass. But there's a lot of logistics.

Yeah. It seems like you have to be somebody who's not only a people person. You love to be with people, hang out with people, gather people, but you also have to be somebody who's really good at logistics or have somebody on your team that you work with who's really good at logistics and planning. Did you know, getting into it that those would be things that you're good at or is there somebody on your team who's good at it? What does that look like for you in terms of making a decision around building a business around events and bringing people together?

Yeah. So I'm actually very lucky and privileged in the sense that I have a sister in law who was an event Planner for Fortune 500 companies for two decades. And I said, hey, Stephanie, how would you feel about teaching me how to throw a conference? And she was like, yes, because I've always been a people person. I love that element. That is where I shine and light up, is bringing people together. I'm very much an extrovert that way and so I didn't have that specific skill set, but I'm very strategic and do like logistics and digging through things and processes. But through her guidance we did that and of course we have an amazing team. Leslie is our operations and logistics manager on the Tastemaker team. So she helps keep all that going.

Yeah, yeah. What were when you sat down with your sister in law, what were the things that were eye opening or interesting to you in terms of what it takes to pull off a event, like running an event based business?

Yeah. So the planning, the lead Time that you need. I mean, I know a lot of bloggers, it differs depending on your work style, but lead time is generally anywhere from what, three to six months. But with an event, you have to have a lead time of, of anywhere from one to two years. So you know, we, we've been planning for 20. Well, the pandemic notwithstanding has kind of messed things up. But you know, we'll be planning our events that are two years down the road. And so I think for me, because I'm very much like a fly by the seat of your pants spontaneous type of person as well. So it was hard for me to commit to something so far in the future. But it definitely helps things not be as stressful when you have that game plan and you know exactly every step. I was surprised too to see the event resume that one puts together. It's every detail down by the minute at certain points. So it's very, very detail oriented.

Yeah, it's. I have a friend who's a wedding videographer and he talks about what that reality is like to be like booking his next summer a year before. But you really, I would assume you have to get into the rhythm of always thinking a year in advance. So even while also thinking about, you know, six months from now or three months from now, like there's always those deadlines things that you need to take care of along the way. When did you do your first event and when did you decide, hey, this is actually something that I want to do. I want to build around this and build a business around it.

Yeah, the genesis of Tastemaker. So our first event was actually in 2018, which is insane to think that it's almost four years ago, I mean, because 2021 is almost over. And it started actually got this idea in 2017 because I have been blogging since 2010 and it started as a lifestyle blog. And then I niched into food blogging and food photography in 2015 and realized in 2017, you know what? I would love to have a conference that is a little more intimate, that hosts around 200, 250 people. That is this very experiential, bespoke event that doesn't exist for food bloggers. And I did have Stephanie, my sister in law, that I mentioned as a resource. I'm like, you know, this is the perfect opportunity. And it was one of those just magical things. I remember reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert of this idea, the idea of how things are waiting to be made manifest. And this was my thing. And it kept coming back and it Kept coming back, and I just couldn't ignore it any longer and then decided to go for it. And it was the biggest leap of faith I've ever taken in terms of business because, A, I didn't know how to do it, and B, it was just kind of a radical idea to think that I could do something and pull it off. But obviously there was a huge need for it. We were able to sell out the first year. We've been able to sell out every year since. We've been able to stay alive during a pandemic by transitioning virtually. And it's just something that's really needed because, as you know, it can be very alienating to be working by yourself all day from your computer, as a lot of people now know, working from home. And we just. We crave that in person connection so much. It provides that opportunity.

Yeah. And I recently got back from the first trip I've done in two years, and it was a meetup. There's maybe 10 other people who run similar, but not exactly the same types of businesses. So, like somebody who focuses on book launches and somebody else who has a technology website and got together to hang out. And it was just kind of a chance to be together in person. And what's interesting is people can say the same things that you maybe would read in, like a blog post or you'd hear in a podcast, but there's something about being together with people. I think this applies virtually as well, but especially in person, where what people say and the information you get, you receive it in a different way, where it seems more transformative. And I hear that a lot where people have gone to a conference and that's kind of been the catalyst for something for them, like inspiration or an idea or a concept. It's like when you're in a space with people doing similar things, you're inspired in a way that you can't be, even if it's the same information that you're getting from somewhere else. Talk a little bit about your site, what that is, and then have you shifted your focus now that you have traction in this new area? And how do you balance a preexisting idea that you were focusing on and building with something else that's new and exciting and that has a lot of traction.

Yeah. So you talking about specifically the Butter Half, my food blogger website, and transition to that? Yeah. So the. The Butter Half is. Is something that I started as a, you know, kind of a passion project, but realizing, oh, I can make a lot of money by Niching down in this blogging world and you know, that was its own journey in its. I started it as making family recipes and then through a series of health issues decided to really niche down into more gluten free health nutrition focus. And I actually, my last, my focus for the last year and a half, two years has been creating a cookbook called Root and Nourish that was published earlier this year in April of 2021. And so that really was my focus. I had these two buckets because I'm very big on boundaries and bandwidth and not doing all the things which I know you talk about. And you know, so I was focusing on that and then focusing on Tastemaker because that was, those were the two income streams that just made the most sense for me, for personal goals, professional goals and everything. And since then, since the pandemic happened though, I really had to sit down and make a choice of do I want to keep putting a bunch of time and energy into the butter half right now or focus on Tastemaker? And I kind of hit that crossroad where I'm like, you know what, I'm going to choose the tastemaker route because this just feels like the nest next logical step. Because I, I've learned, at least in my own experience that you can't fully shine and commit and grow something unless you, you give that 100% of your energy. Right where focus goes, energy flows, type of vibe.

Yep, totally.

You know, and I, you know, I could essentially hire a team to run out the butter half if I wanted to, but this is something I just wanted to step into fully. So for now, the butter half has passive income that I still rely on, which I was able to set it up over the course of those years to, to do that. So it still exists and it's just not the season right now to be focusing on that. But it's set up so that I can return to it whenever I'm ready to. And it still is very much like a part of my history and brand. And I keep up to date on what food bloggers are doing and the education they need. But it's from the lens of, okay, how can we create a conference and create this, this educational platform where we bring experts together to teach people and connect them.

That's awesome. It's one of the things that I love about the pursuit of an area of interest or passion in your case, your blogger website is a lot of times that will evolve into a new thing and sometimes that means it's a new thing within the thing you're doing, like, you get into it and you realize, wow, I really love photography. And so instead of pursuing a business, you know, with display ads, from a bunch of traffic to recipes, somebody says, I'm actually going to pursue photography is what I do. Or videography or web development in your case. It feels like the evolution is, hey, I really like this thing. And there's a community around this thing that needs education and resources. That feels like a really good fit for me. So I'm going to evolve into the next thing. And some people will sit in the same place forever and it's a good fit where they started, but other people, they evolve into a new thing. I'm curious to know what that looked like from a business decision perspective. So a lot of times you'll hear people talk about, like, conferences are really hard and it's really hard to make money within conferences. And my guess is it's not like a blog in that. With a blog you can start and you're like, okay, I can maybe pull this off for like $100 a month. But with a conference, you're like signing contracts and you have people who are going to pay you a certain amount and do pay you that amount. And you don't know there's a. The stakes are a little bit higher.

Yes.

What did that look like for you to get started with that? And what did you learn about running a conference business? Because it kind of fits in this space of events. We talked to Liz from the Lemon bowl, how she does events and how she fits that into her business. But what did you learn about the business of events as you've gotten into it over the past few years?

Yeah. So when you mentioned the stakes are high, that's 100%. That's where that faith is. It was involved of like, I have to have a really solid business strategy for that. And so I am very much a fan of you gotta spend money to make money. I think that is an old cliche dodge that we all live by. And it's. It's this notion of, are we putting it into practice or just saying that.

Yeah.

And so I took. Honestly, I took a big risk, which when you start a business outside of blogging, because it is such low stakes and the overhead is so low, you can start with minimal overhead costs. But I had to put on my real business hat of how, you know, you would get funding. How do you. How do startups function? It was very much a, you know, University of Google situation too, where I had to learn a lot of things. That I didn't know. And so I took a lot of the profit that I was making from the butter half and I put it into the, into the conference. And so I had to make that choice. And you know, I recognize that I am in a position that allows me to because I have a partner who works full time and can provide for our family. And not everybody has that. And so I 100% recognize that, acknowledge that. But it was a risk that I was willing to take because I think there's a lot of value in those in person connections because there already are a lot of, you know, food blogger educational platforms, obviously the food blogger pro community. But that in person connection was the one gap that I wanted to fill. And so in terms, you know, of revenue, of like how that all works is I took my strength in wheelhouse of brand partnerships, which I feel like has always been something that is easy for me because I love people and I'm so extroverted. And so we built it off the model, off of ticket sales and sponsorships. And so that is a really big part of our revenue. And having those existing relationships was able, we were able to set a framework for creating it so it would be profitable. And we have fortunately been profitable with the exception of the pandemic. But that was just a weird thing where we just had to roll everything over.

I have some friends who have related kind of conference businesses or in person event businesses. And it's like if there's one business, it's like literally the main purpose is to gather large people together in person.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. So I mean that honestly, full transparency has been super hard. But again, I've been able to weather that just through, you know, smart business planning and having things saved and having resources. And that's the importance of saving for a rainy day when you are running a business, when, when there's hiccups, what.

When you, so you talk about, obviously there's ticket sales that go into a conference. That's a piece of it. Obviously people buy a ticket to attend. Easy to understand. What about on the brand side? When there's a brand coming to a conference, what are they looking to achieve and what is their hope in terms of sponsoring or maybe having like a booth at a conference? Because that's an area where I think conceptually kind of understand it. But I'd be curious to know from your inside understanding, what is a brand looking to get out of when they attend a conference?

Yeah, so that is a great question. And I think again, the answer is always, well, it depends overall. What we offer though is experiential marketing, which is its own form of marketing where you get to showcase your product in person and create an activation is what it's called, where you can engage with that product. So for example, say if we had somebody with a blender come and a blender brand, or a brand that has a blender that they offer, they could have presence inside of our snack bar, could be blending the smoothies right, right there in, in the middle of the conference. People can be engaging with it, they can be interacting, they can see how it works and they are able to see the functionality of that which you wouldn't otherwise be able to really convey. There's only so much you can do through video and photos where that hands on experience is so incredibly important. And so it provides that. But also because our conference is different in that we gather influencers, there's a lot of social reach and ability to have a lot of social media visibility inside of a vacuum for these two days where people are posting because they're really inspired. And there is a word for what you were talking about earlier of that feeling that, that you have. It's called effervescence. Yeah, it's a sociological term. It's called that if you want to like get nerdy and go read about effervescence. There's lots of academic literature out there on that. But you know, people, I think there's something to be said to interact with that. And then in terms of, you know, how else can a brand get an roi? Because that is another important aspect I think of when we're recruiting brands or brands are thinking about coming is okay, what is this going to do for me there? And so I think just making those in person connections with influencers for those brands who are wanting to do influencer marketing or they already are, and they want to meet people in person. Because as you know, it's so different when you meet somebody in person, even just over a zoom call. As great as it is, like it would be very different if you and I were sitting down in person, having a coffee, tea, whatever, and talking face to face.

Yeah. What do you see? So two parts of this question. The brand side and then the, the influencer, blogger, creator side. For somebody who's a publisher, we'll use that as a broad term. Who's coming to invent like this? Obviously there's learning. That's a huge piece of it. How do you get to know new things that are happening? Trends, you know, and it's. And you are sitting down and like watching it in a way that you wouldn't if you're watching a YouTube video. But then there's also the piece where there's a networking element. Maybe it's with other creators and publishers, but also with brands. Do you see that as a reason for somebody who is a creator to attend a conference? Or would you say that's kind of secondary or maybe a third tier type focus? Where do you see connections coming out of this? Where, hey, you have a partnership with a brand who's also attending the conference?

Yeah, so we, our brand values are built on this very concept of community, number one, education and experience. And so I think the most important thing is that community aspect where you're getting to go meet other like minded people who do the same thing you do. Because it's not every day you meet a food blogger. I mean, when people ask me, oh, what do you do for a living? I'm like, I throw events and teach people about food blogging and content creation.

And they're like, it's a niche.

Wow. Wow. I'll never meet anybody ever again that does that. So it's just, you know, how refreshing it is when you meet somebody. You're like, oh, you're a food photographer, you're a food blogger.

Me too. You get it.

Yeah, yeah, you get it. And so being able to facilitate that because we have a lot of great testimonials and just personal stories that attendees who have now become personal friends of mine have told me that they're like, you know, I would not be at the point that I am with my blog if I had never gone to Tastemaker, if I had never gone to this event. Because you meet people who get you, who are in a similar phase of your business that you're, you know, you're currently struggling through, or you're trying to achieve a certain goal, you can find accountability buddies and again, effervescence, like, it's a very real thing that we need as social beings. And then in terms of the brand partnerships, do we see people having success with those? This is more of an opportunity to get that face to face interaction so that when you follow up and you send somebody an email and you're like, hey, remember we met at this event, love to work with you. Somehow I think that goes so much further. And getting your foot in the door when they're receiving, you know, thousands of emails, it just puts you, you know, on top of the stack versus being like in the slush pile, you know, and so I Think there is a lot of value in that or, you know, if you already work with a brand and they're going to be at the event you're going to, what a great way to meet somebody in person and have that face to face interaction.

What I want to make sure that we get at the end here is a chance to talk about the upcoming conference. So you're putting together the pieces for it. It's happening in March, Midwest shout out to Chicago. It's very rare that we have a conference that like we could drive to in a day here in the Twin Cities and just love the city of Chicago, obviously an awesome food city as well. Talk about what people can expect for that. And I know that you have a discount for podcast listeners. Want to make sure that you can shout out, shout out that as well. So just give us a little preview of what's to come in March.

Yeah. So the upcoming conference is on March 3rd and 4th in Chicago. It'll be at the historic Rebel Motor Row. And we're actually hosting it in partnership with the Inspired Home show, which is the world's largest home and housewares appliance trade show. And you know, I've been working with them over the past years. They had some influencer conferences and creator pieces and we decided, hey, why don't we just do a B2B thing, come together. And so with that you get access to the conference, which is on a Thursday and Friday. There are 30 classes, there's breakout sessions, we have keynotes, panels, lots of great content. We have brands coming that it'll be exhibiting that you can network with speed networking elements there. We'll have that tech hall for anybody who needs help with their SEO or the tech side of things. So a lot of good hands on opportunities. We also have pop up a shop up swag. I'm saying that incorrectly. Pop up swag. Shoppable swag. There we go of the day, you know, so a good way to get your hands onto current new products and then in addition to that, the next day you get access to the show. And so that is a wonderful opportunity in its own right. And we actually have a special speed networking session with some brands that are exhibiting at the trade show who want to work with creators in general. And so really, it's really a great place to come meet brands, meet your fellow food bloggers, creators and be able to see people in person. And to your point of like the food element, we also have excursions that we do that are a separate ticket on Saturdays. So we get to go to restaurants and hang out and see the city and the cool architecture. So it's just going to be a really cool, fun event.

The best way for people to, to. To take advantage of that is what I just want one more chance to talk through. Go to the website, use the discount code. What does that look like?

Yes. So you can go to tastemakerconference.com that's where we sell our tickets. And then listeners get a $50 off discount code, which will be good for one week. We are setting a time limit on that just because, as you mentioned, they are capped tickets. So as soon as they sell, they sell and we can't offer more. So, yeah, definitely check out our website. You can also follow us@tastemakerconference.com we're on Instagram. That's where we hang out mostly. If you want to connect socially, you can sign up for our email list too to get updates in your inbox.

Great. And we'll do one to define it one week from the day the podcast goes live. Does that work?

That is correct.

So if somebody's listening to this eight days after bummer, you need to download the podcast in real time and then the discount code. Should we include it? What's the best way to include that or to let people know about it? Do you want to. We can send it an email. We can put in the blog post. You could say it right now. What would be the best?

Yeah, let's do food blogger Pro50.

Great. So we have that. Anybody who's listening in real time, you get the bonus of getting that discount code. Abby, anything else that you'd like to say as we wrap up here? Words of inspiration or from somebody who has started something, built something, had success with something. For other people who are in the middle of doing a similar thing, what are your words of wisdom or advice for fellow creators in their own right?

Yeah, you know what? I feel like this is a great way to end it because I've been thinking about this all day before this conversation was happening about in 2017, when I had the idea to start Tastemaker. I remember running along the pathway in my house when I lived in California and I was listening to Food Blogger Pro.

There you go. It's full circle.

It's full circle, circle. And I was like, oh, they are so inspiring. I need to do something. And like, I honestly attribute Food Blogger Pro is part of the journey to starting this and us sitting here and talking about it. So it is full circle. And so my advice would be to just keep going, have a vision for something, write it out, put it on a sticky note, put it on your mirror on a wall, and keep looking at it until you hit that. Because I think when we say things out loud, we put them out there. We hold ourselves accountable, and you really can make things happen. So don't give up. Keep going.

I love that. That's awesome. It was something that you had mentioned that I had made note of and kind of was nodding my head, which most people wouldn't see unless they watch video. But you talked about grit and, like, it's grit in general, but especially with the conference business in the middle of a global pandemic, like, to have the grit to be able to get through that. I think that was the word they used.

Yep.

But so often, I think the work doesn't look like what it is when you get up on stage and, like, welcome everybody under the lights of. Of the, you know, stage and everybody applauding. It's like the grit of showing up every day and kind of grinding away. And you've done that, so want to commend you on that and that Food Blogger Pro. Could be a podcast, could be a very small part of it. And excited to follow you with your journey, Abby. So thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me.