How Sweet Potato Soul Got 600K YouTube Subscribers, Became a Full-Time Creator, & Built a Team

At what point were you like, you know what this is? This business is successful and this is a thing. Like, in the early stages, it's like, is this going to be a thing? And then with the business, I feel like you're growing it and it's like, it looks like it could be a thing. Was there a point where you're like, wait, this is a thing?

Well, okay, kind of.

Because.

Because keep in mind, now, technically at this point, I only have one business, the Nourishing Vegan. But I also have the blog.

Yeah. I'm interested in the parallels of how those work together.

I always did them at the same time. I started the. I started the. My YouTube channel before I even started my business. The Nourishing Vegan.

Sure.

Because back then it wasn't obvious how you would ever make money from a blog or a YouTube channel. It was like, more. It was so difficult to just build your subscribers and your viewers and your traffic for the blog. That's like, I'm not going to put on ads, you know, I don't care. I have another business. I don't need to.

Cause it's like, not worth it.

It's not worth it. And for the blog, if you know, I'd often. I was reading a post about, you know, about this yesterday. There's a blog post on my blog, of course, about the recipe is for my vegan crab cakes. And really, the whole blog post is like trying to like, I'm like advertising my supper club in my house.

Yeah, right.

All the photos are about that.

Like, that's the thing you're promoting.

Yes. It was like pushing. I'm trying to push people to the Nourishing Vegan, to my supper clubs. It was called the Little Harlem Kitchen, but that's what. That was the goal of the blog. I never was trying to monetize it, but I did the blog on YouTube because it was fun. Like, why not? Like, I never thought, like, oh, this is a burden. I need to stop. This is a waste of time. I just never considered that it was just fun. It would be great if it grew into something else. So why not just do it now? In 2016, I was doing very well with the Nourishing Vegan, but the blog and the YouTube channel. So sweet Potato Soul was also starting to grow. I don't remember what my traffic was. I don't remember what my subscribers were, but I had started paying more attention to growing my platforms, specifically the YouTube. I don't remember social media. I don't remember the advent of instagram though I was there and I was posting. I can't even tell you back then, I have no idea, I don't remember. But the blog and YouTube I was starting to pay more attention to starting in like 2015. So what happened was I was on the train with a friend who is an author of. I think now she's on her. She's written 12 books. The time it was 10. And she said, who was it?

We can give a little.

This is Victoria Moran.

Okay.

Yeah. And she's an amazing. She's a vegan author. But prior to writing mostly about veganism, she was more a self help spirituality author and she also lived in Harlem. We were going home and she said, janae, I think it's time for you to write a cookbook. Yeah, like maybe, but who's going to buy it? You know, like my 12 clients. She's like, well, you know, you have your, your blog and your YouTube channel. Like, I think it's like you're doing really well. So she saw that in me, which I didn't even, I didn't think I was ready. She referred me to her, her literary agent. He signed to me. And then 2016 was like the big year for me. At the beginning of 2016 one, I got my first sponsorship deal.

Sure.

I had never reached out to a brand. I wasn't trying to do that. But a brand was the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission. They reached out to me for a year or six month long ambassadorship. That was my first ever paid anything from Sweet Potato Soul.

So that immediately opens the door.

Yeah.

To like, this is a thing.

Yeah. And that's funny. It's like the other brands might have noticed or something because then after like a month, then I'm like, oh, here's two more brands when I work with me. And you know, and it just kind of snowballed. That was crazy because I'm still, remember, I'm still doing the nourishing vegan. I'm still doing my supper club. I'm still having my, my cooking clients. I'm starting to get busier. Then in June 2016, I got a book deal with Harmony, which is the imprint of Random House, Penguin Random House. So that was a big deal too. And so now I'm having even more sponsorships and my YouTube channel is growing, my blog is growing. Like I'm not even really trying. And then now I have a book deal. So what happened was I just kind of got overwhelmed and I had to start passing my clients off to other private chefs. I was Just like referring them away and saying, I'll be back. I just have, like six months to write this book, but let me do this and then I'll be back to you. Like the beginning of, you know, 2017.

Yep.

That never happened because it just.

Because. Yeah. And it's interesting because you had done a lot of work up until that point. Like, you had been putting coal into the fire and. And it's almost like four or five years of doing that with no intent, it sounds like. With no intent of that being like, please, when is this thing going to take off? But like, hey, I just enjoy the process of doing this. And eventually there's enough coal in the engine where it started to go forward. And then it's kind of like. It feels like you're trying to, like, captain two different. Or what? No.

Yeah.

A train conductor. You're trying to conduct two different trains.

Different trains, definitely. And it's funny because it's not like by. It's. There's no act. It's not an accident. Right. That the blog and YouTube took off and then I bought that book deal because I was very intentional about my business. It's funny, like, the end of 2015 and beginning of 16, I was very much thinking. I was thinking, how am I going to grow my private chef company? I need to bring on other chefs so I can take on more clients. I was getting so much traffic to my private chef company and I just had to, like, turn people away. So that was my focus. But at the same time, I wasn't just being loosey goosey with the blog and the YouTube. I was very intentional, like, I want to post the video every week. I want to do a blog post every week. I got to get better with my food photography. Constantly, like, I was very constant, constantly, constantly thinking like that. It just. I just wasn't monetizing it, you know, I just wasn't expecting to make money.

It's like you're reaching out to sponsors.

Yeah, Yeah, I wasn't doing that, or I didn't have ad network or anything like that.

Yeah. And I think what I want to point out is like, you were really. And you just said this, but, like, real, really intentional with it, but weren't trying in the sense of like, oh, I just want to make money from this. I need to make money from it.

Because I didn't have to.

And I think that's what's so great, is you have. I'm trying to think of a good on the fly, like, way to brand this. But the Best thing I've come up with in the last 60 seconds is like, a bridge business. But you built this, like, bridge between where you are now and where you were before, where it's a business in the sense that you have complete control, you don't have a boss. But it's maybe not scalable in the way that YouTube or Instagram or these other businesses, business units are, but it did allow you, it sounds like, flexibility, autonomy, like you could, in a season where you have to do the cookbook, pass off some clients to other people. And I love that idea of working first towards, like a bridge business, to allow you to have kind of the freedom of flexibility, like in your case, to not have to really push to do sponsorships that might have not been a good fit or to monetize too early, which it's just really cool to see that. And I think the first time that it's been such a clear example of somebody doing that, which is really cool to see. So was it hard for you to wind down a successful business or was there enough progress with Sweet Potato Soul where it was like, oh, this feels like the right thing to do, or is there any part of you that kind of wanted to hang on to that?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was very hard. And it's still like, I still have that website up.

Yeah.

It's like, I still use the email.

She. I was like, oh, I need to ask about this. Because, like, this is the email. And I was like, so this must be like a bigger. But it's. It sounds like, not like, yeah, okay.

My business now is Sweet Potato Soul llc. It's not, you know, like, I have a whole different business. And it was hard. And even thinking about it now, it is hard. Like, I don't want to. Like, there's a part of me where I'm like, oh, I can always go back to that. Or, you know, I just cannot. For some reason. I just. All that work, even though I haven't done it in, like, it's been. It's been six years. It's been five and a half, actually. I just cannot let it go. And I still update it sometimes, I just can't let it go.

Do you still get people reaching out?

Yep. Yeah, about once a day.

Oh, really?

One email a day. And now because I was in New York and then I moved to Los Angeles and now I'm here in Atlanta, now I get primarily emails from LA because I've only been here in Atlanta for, like, six months.

Sure.

So now people think I'm in la. So at least once a day, I get an email from someone in LA wanting to book me.

Oh, interesting. So if the last thing on that before we move on. But what would your advice be? Or what did you learn about business with that first stage of kind of your business development and your career?

I learned a lot about the need to. To outsource, even though I wasn't doing it.

Sure.

But looking back, especially, you know, everything is clear in 2020 hindsight.

Yeah.

But looking back, I see, like, how I really could have scaled more and still been able to have the nourishing vegan and sweet potato soul. If I were able to relinquish some of that control and hire other chefs and bring on, you know, maybe an assistant to help me even to just coordinate other people's schedules, I could still technically have that business. And I think that's one of the reasons I haven't let it go, because I'm like, maybe I'll do it.

Like, maybe there's something there.

Yeah, maybe there's something there still. But definitely, I. That was the biggest thing. You know, if you want to grow, you need to, like, you. You say it all the time and hear it all the time on your podcast. You know, it's not not who, but how, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, yeah, that's.

Or not. How about who is it not how.

But who, not how, not how, but who, not how, but who idea being for those who aren't familiar. And this was. This actually came up in conversation. It's a name of a book which I haven't read, but I feel like it's one of those books where it's just the title. Like, that's. That's the takeaway. Um, but. But I notice of myself sometimes, I'm like, oh, how do I do this? How do I do this? But as business owners starting to think about who knows how to do this and go to that person. And an example being, like, in my previous life did it. And, like, I actually really like troubleshooting stuff. Like, there's a little part of me that's like, any time. Yeah, exactly. Like, I forget what it was the other day, but something came up where I had to troubleshoot it. It was just like, the best. It was 15 minutes of, like, troubleshooting this tech issue, and I loved it, but it's like, I can't do that for, you know, if we have a team of 16 people who have random stuff. So it's like, who? And we hired a, you know, fractional kind of IT service and they remote in and they help and so I think that's a, that's a great takeaway. Did you roll that those learnings into sweet potato souls? You started to scale that up and I'm curious to know how the learnings of the first stage or first chapter impacted the next chapter.

Oh my gosh, yes. And I'm still learning. Yeah, like every single day. Right. It's a learning experience constantly. But yes, I definitely did just organization as well was super important for going into sleep Data Soul because like my old business, I in sweeped Data Soul. It's not just the blog. I've got the Instagram, I've got, well, just social media in general. I've got the YouTube channel, I have the blog, I have the newsletter. And so it's like all these little different parts. And so yes, I had to, you know, grow a team. Didn't want to. I had a lot of fear around that.

Where do you think that fear came from?

Letting go of control. Yeah, like just afraid that someone else isn't going to do it as well as I would do it and. Or they would take such a long time doing it the right way that I might as well just do it by myself.

Uh huh. You know, how did you overcome that?

Just letting them do it surely. Like hiring people.

Exposure therapy.

Yeah, exposure therapy. Also hiring the wrong people and you know, getting, becoming even more afraid. Oh my God. See, confirmation bias. I knew it wasn't going to work out, but still I know like on an intellectual level that in order to scale and grow my business, I, I need to bring in the people who, you know, to help me. So I knew this person didn't work out, but yes, I will find the one who does. Yeah, that's a struggle because I'm you know, like most of us, like all of us, I'm led by emotion primarily, not my intellect. So it was hard, but yes, I just pushed myself.

It's one of those things that I think is a skill working with people, working with the team. But we don't think of it as a skill. And I think there's certain categories that we definitely think of as skills. Playing guitar, skateboarding, like cooking. Cooking, painting. And we're like, oh my, my goodness, like I'm a, I'm terrible skateboarder. But I'm like if I could do this for five to 10 years, then I'll maybe be a good skateboarder, right? Yeah, I'm a bad dancer. Five to 10 years, maybe I can be doing a YouTube dance.

Right. You'd be Michael Jackson.

But I think when we think of like working with a team or hiring, that's something we don't necessarily put in the category of a skill. But I think it is like, we need to get better at it, we need to improve at it. I remember this conversation I was having with Lindsay. We were driving down the highway and we were talking about kind of next chapter type stuff where we see things going. This is maybe a year or two ago, or two to three years ago. Covid kind of warps everything. But I remember saying to her, like, I think that I like all the stuff that I've been good at. I kind of have to let go of and I have to get good at this new thing, which is like figuring out how to work with people. And it's abstract and I don't really understand it. But what I love about some of the things that you shared was this realization of, like, hey, you know what? Like, I need to just commit to doing this. I know it needs to happen. And so you just do it and learn over time. Hey, this did work. This didn't work. And continuing to commit to it. Um, so what, what does that look like now for you? What are the. What are the things that you've learned? And. And who are the kind of team members, whether contracted freelance full time, that are most important for your day to day?

Yeah. So I actually brought on. I hired my first team member in 2019. It didn't work out, but then I. So I actually didn't have anybody else. Also because I'm shy and because I'm an introvert.

Yep.

I don't want to say I'm shy. I don't like to say that because Introvert. Definitely I'm over that now for sure. The introvert is strong. I just don't like having a lot of people around me.

Yeah.

I just rather just work from home, work by myself. That I like that. So that's another reason I didn't want to bring anybody on, because I didn't want to have to talk to people.

It's a work preference where some people would be like more people around me, the better. I want to work with the team. I want to have more calls.

Exactly. And I'm the type of person who, because of this, like, the way I am, I. If there are people around, I can sit in silence. However, I'm going to want to entertain you. I'm going to want to feed you. I'm going to want to make you laugh.

So you have some burden of entertaining, hosting, making people feel comfortable. Yeah.

And then of course, when you hire people, for me, I have that. But for all of us, when you hire people, you have the burden of actually having to give them work and pay them. And so now you are their employer and they count on you. And that's like a whole another. It's a whole different thing. Right. So I didn't want any of that. So I hired my next team member. I thought she was just going to be part time the very beginning of 2021. I waited a whole year until I hired her. And now she's full time. She's been with me Since I think, January 4, 2021, just over a year now. Full time, the entire time. I don't think we ever did part time. Maybe for like a day.

Sure.

And she's great. And her role has kind of morphed. At first I hired her just as an assistant because at the time my husband, my ex and I, we were splitting up and I was expecting for him to just move out of the house. And I just needed help, you know, like being a single mom, managing all that stuff. Hired her. I don't think she ever did any of the assisting stuff because I'm like, well, you know what I really need you to do?

And she's smart and capable.

Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. She's also a videographer. She went to school for that. So then she became my videographer and my editor. She's still full time, even though I don't even live in the same state anymore. Now we're in Georgia. She's still full time. She mostly does all my editing. She also does, like, my newsletter. She does a lot of my social media. Not my Instagram. I haven't outsourced that yet. But all the other stuff, Facebook, Twitter, helps me with project management. When I moved down here to Atlanta, I also hired a videographer here. And he's been amazing. He's part time and he has his own business, so he does lots of other things as well. And I also hired a part time personal assistant because now I am a legit single mom.

Totally.

I really needed that.

That's awesome. I. One of the. So I read this book. I think I put it up there. I won't grab it, but it's called your world class assistant. Michael Hyatt, who is a. He speaks a lot about like leadership and business and whatnot. Anyways, hired Mary, who came on board as an executive assistant. I'm like, how do I. How do I even do this. One of the things that was really interesting. Mary's in Michigan. But was they talked about the importance of, like, that actual. Like, when you're a business owner, it's your work and your life, and those aren't separate. Like, it's all mixed together.

I know.

I'm interested to know. Well, and the other piece within this is I think sometimes we do think of them as separate. And so it's like we have our business over here. I need to hire for my business. But I think for some people, a good first step is actually to figure out how can you hire for somebody to help with all of your other life stuff, which you're doing two, three, four hours. Who knows a day of that life stuff. What was that like for you to hire a personal assistant? What's most helpful about that relationship? And how did you find that person?

Oh, my God. So helpful. She is. She's a godsend. Because. So first off, what it was like, was a little difficult because I. I have this thing where I don't want, you know, I just want to feed you. I want to take care of you. I want to be your personal assistant.

Totally. Like, it's uncomfortable for you to have somebody taking care of you.

Right. Like, can you take the recycling and the trash out? For me, like, that makes me uncomfortable. And I grew up. My mom has a cleaning service and my dad has, like, a commercial janitorial company. So I grew up very blue collar. I started working at cleaning houses at 8 years old. So that was like. That's like my background background. So I think I have, like, a thing about actually hiring somebody to do that. Like, I've never hired a cleaning service. Now that I live in Georgia, I have a cleaning service because they. It's my mom, like, she does the cleaning. Like, I've never felt comfortable for. Whatever. Anyway, hiring a personal assistant was like that too. Because you do. Like in the job listing I posted it on. Indeed. It's very long. And in the job listing, I'm just like, you know what? I'm uncomfortable with all this, but I'm going to write it out because then I'll find someone who is comfortable with all this.

You say, here's exactly what it will be. As opposed to saying, like, personal assistant. And like, oh, yeah, P.S. it's taking out the trash and recycling. Sorry. Actually, you know what? I'll just do it. I'll just do it.

Yeah, exactly.

But if that's like a line item on the job description. Yeah.

Write it all. Laundry, take it out of the trash, clean the kitty litter box. Like everything I wrote, everything, what I did, I took like a week to notice with my. What my ex does a lot because, you know, I was so busy with my daughter and just like my business. So my ex was doing a lot of this stuff that my assistant does now. And so I just was like. And he, he and I work together with this like, what do you do? Okay, yeah, clean the litter box because I'm not going to do that. Just together. Made this very long list. Posted it on indeed. I got a lot of though. I did the same job listing in LA and here in Atlanta literally just reposted. So I got a lot of interest both times. And I. The first person I hired in LA worked out great. She's still full time. The first person I hired here in Atlanta did not work out, long story, but didn't work out. So I found another who is my assistant now and she's great, she will do all of that stuff. She's very sweet. My daughter loves her because, you know, we're just all here at home and she's helpful with my business as well. That's amazing. She can take photos for me which I also put in the listing. Like literally everything I needed her to do, I put it in the listing. She take photos. She can read books to my daughter. She can right now because she's a lot younger. Great thing about working with like people in their 20s. Yeah, she's like way ahead on like TikTok.

Sure, sure.

Reels and everything because I don't even pay attention. So she, that she's my TikTok girl now. I let her do that. That's like her part time. Part time, yeah. So she does everything, you know, she does have to do around the house and then she's like on the computer like scheduling, you know, like planning my TikToks and like okay, Friday, we're going to film this tonight.

That's awesome.

So it's great.

Yeah, it's. I think what's inspiring for me to see with your story as it relates to that is this idea of coming up against a complex problem and then figuring out a solution for it. And I think essentially that's what we're doing as entrepreneurs is it's a never ending set of problems, complex problems that we're coming up against. And it's both personal and it's work and they're overlapped and it's figuring out how do we both get what we need in our personal lives and our business and working with other people to do that, and it's exactly cool, exactly to see that.