The Journey to $100k as a Content Creator with Johnny Brunet

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Hey there. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast. This week Bjork is sitting down to chat with Johnny Brunette about his success as a content creator. Johnny had a pandemic pivot, moving from stand up comedy to mastering the Blackstone griddle, but his success story all comes down to brilliant strategy. He'll walk us through his genius move of creating content only for the beginner cook to dominate an overlooked market. Then they'll do a deep dive into numbers as Johnny breaks down his successful revenue mix of YouTube, AdSense, eBooks and affiliate marketing, which will give you a simple rule for a successful and simple sales funnel. If you need a blueprint for turning a niche idea into a full time income, you'll definitely want to tune into this episode. And now, without further ado, I'll pass it over to Bjork.

Jonny, welcome to the podcast.

Hello. Thank you so much for having me, Bjork. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah, this actually came out of a conversation on the Food Blogger Pro forum. Had a little back and forth. Somebody was asking about, you know, kind of some thoughts and advice around some stuff which often happens in the Food Blogger Pro forum. How I wrote a response and then it's cool because you jumped in and you were like, hey, here's you know, some actual on the ground, like building my business, a little bit of a case study of how you're doing it. And I was like, that's awesome. And my initial understanding, you were talking about your ebook and selling your ebook. My initial understanding was like you had started, you had gotten to the point where you're selling 20, 30, 40 copies of your ebook. And I was like, hey, cool, once you get to like 100, 200, why don't you jump back on, jump on the podcast so we can have a conversation around it. And you're like, oh, I'm there now. You were like, I'm just selling that many through my website. I'm selling 20, 30, 40 copies through my website. If you include my YouTube channel, I'm selling, you know, 200 plus sometimes a month. And I was like, oh, awesome. Let's have a conversation about how you did that. So when did you first start creating food related content and what was it about?

So I started in Covid. I was a Covid creator, I guess. Try to keep it short. So I did, I did stand up comedy as a hobby for six years leading up to Covid.

Awesome.

Then Covid happened. My wife got pregnant and I was like, well, I'm not, I'm not going to be going out in public and coming home to, you know, my wife who's pregnant with her child at a bar with like 50 people. Yeah, 50 people just all talking into the same microphone. They're terrible jokes, mine included. I'm not saying mine were great. And so I was like, well, I can't just shut off this creative faucet. Like I've been doing this for six years. Like I really, for no money, I just really enjoyed doing that. And so everybody, like a lot of people jumped into content, did a couple of different things that didn't go very well. All comedy related. It's just hard. Entertainment's super hard. Like you, you need to be really entertaining and you'd be really funny. But I cooked my most of my life, my whole professional career was in food service, front of house, back house, manage retirement communities and restaurants and stu. And so I'd gotten some like little classes and stuff about YouTube to try to grow the comedy thing. And they're talking about niching down and trying to find a good niche. And then I saw a griddle one day, Blackstone Griddle, like a flat top grill, which is very popular. If people aren't familiar, they're outside, just flat surface. And I was like, oh, I always wanted those. I Worked at a diner and I did a lot of those. And then I really, I would like one of those. Those are pretty cool. And then like I looked at my checklist as I was still doing like comedy shorts and stuff. I was like, oh, this checks off a lot. The like, this is very specific for a need. I did a little bit of research on Google Trends and it's like, it's becoming more popular. It's like, do you have any knowledge? I was like, actually a little bit. Like, I've never been a chef. Like, I'm not, I'm not like, yeah, but you've cooked.

I mean that's like, you probably have more hours than 99% of.

Yeah, I mean, I've still over a flat top on Sunday morning for eight hours making omelets and pancakes and stuff at a Bob Evans. Which that's why my first job out of college, it's a diner in the Midwest. So people aren't familiar, but it's like that's expertise on.

Yeah, the product.

Cracker Barrel. Yeah, like, same thing. So, yeah. So I was like, oh, I actually. And then I started watching the videos. I was like, oh, I think I actually know a little bit more than some of these guys. Like, not like in an arrogant way. I was like, I think actually there's some stuff not going over.

We call it expert enough. Like you, you have enough Expertise to teach 98% of the population how to do Blackstone better.

Yeah. And like looking back on, I said, well, yeah, I trained at a place that had 500 restaurants and that's their whole business was making breakfast. So it's like, yeah, they train like they basically, you know, they cultivated years of knowledge for short order cooks and they're training me. And then it just so happened that someone finally got popular, make a residential version. And I was like, oh, so, yeah, but you still don't know. You still learn more along the way. There's little differences that I had to learn by just doing it and that, you know, that came up too.

So which is part of it is like getting started. Like, that was the key too. Like jumping in and actually doing it.

It is like you just got to jump in and do it. But then like, I did get lucky to have some big wins at the beginning because of its popularity and then because of a few things that like, you don't understand till later, you know what I mean? How like you do something and you're like, oh, I did it. And then later you're like, I didn't really Fully understand why that worked. It just worked. What is an example? Like, so like I did a breakfast video and like, and I could not. And I still can't like recreate it has like over a million and a half views and stuff. And I just like, oh, I thought it was a pretty good video and stuff. And then I went back and started taking courses and stuff and noticed had a lot of things like a. I'm. I'm bringing in knowledge that hadn't. Wasn't really around in other videos. Just about like cooking order and temperature control on a flat top and stuff like that, which is like, not to go in the weeds. I'm sure no one cares about it. But like the main thing is like it with flat tops is people want to use them like grills and just like kind of turn them on high and then you just kind of burn everything. And so where. So temperature control is something nobody was talking about and like why. And how to control it and why you don't cook your eggs at the same temperature as your pancakes. Which is a very not common sense thing. But maybe for the home cook or the established home cook makes a lot of sense. But outside for maybe what I would consider your grill guy or you're. You're not. It's not always a guy. It could be mom or whoever, but it just wants to turn it on and throw stuff down. And it's like, well, these eggs burnt. It's like, yeah, man, you're on high. Like, the eggs are delicate. Like, yeah, yeah. So that. And then I kind of told a story. Like I said my wife was pregnant. I opened it up with like something like, my pregnant wife wants some food. And so we're going to. So I had no idea like that I'm like laying in a story at the beginning, which I know in a lot of your podcasts recently. And it's just, it's big to like give that. That story kind of lay that groundwork of, you know, I want to make her breakfast, so then I do on the flat top. So yeah, that's great. Helped out too.

It's a couple of things to pull out that I think are important. You know, you're humble and you're analysis of it, but I think you were also intentional in saying, okay, you were number one. Like, you were doing courses, you were learning, you were researching, you were trying to understand. And from that, that fed into some of the decisions that you made around a niche. Niching down, getting really specific and looking at not only the niche, but looking at the trend of that niche and we talk about it on the podcast of you not only need to be a really good surfer, which means you have the skills, the abilities. You know, in your case, it's like understanding actually how to cook on a, on a blacktop, understanding story, like understanding some of the video components. So those are the skills you need to be a surfer. But it's only gonna matter if you actually then catch a wave. Like, and what I hear you saying is like, you also caught a wave, the wave being blacktop. That's the part where you maybe look at and say like, hey, I had some luck involved with this, but it was also from researching. And so I. What you're saying resonates with me because we see this time and time again with people who are building successful content businesses, which is they have the skills and the expertise or they are expert enough to like teach somebody a thing. They get after it. They, they learn and do this idea of like, ready, fire, aim. Instead of ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, fire. Like you are constantly ready for your aim. So you're getting closer to a good piece of content. You're learning what works and what doesn't work. And then you're doing all of that within the context of like an industry that is growing and then you do it for a long period of time. So you started in 2020, you had some initial success. I know you're at the point we can talk about this, where you're on track to do a six figure year, which is incredible. But at what point did you learn that, hey, I might be onto something and I can actually make some money from this?

Probably the first year. But yeah, sorry. One thing I just wanted, you just reminded me, I wanted to mention real quick was okay, but when, like the niche thing, like if I ever talk to anybody, I mean just the stereotype, like, I feel like it's, it's the thing that like is so commonly said, like whenever you learn a skill, there's like, this is the thing. It's like riches are in the niches or like same thing, like, you know, whatever. I don't know, I play golf. Keep your head down. And it's like, it's like, yep, that's the first thing. And then you just skip it and you just keep going into all the other little stuff. It's like, but you're right, like if you skip the first part, like it's just going to be uphill, which like your metaphor of like catching the wave or whatever, it's like yeah, like, narrowing the niche was, like, the best thing I ever did. And now I know. And then it. I always heard someone say, like, go down four levels, too. So, like, like. And I even in the last couple years did that more. So it was like, you know, out outdoor cooking or. Or is the first one. And then, well, cooking. I'm sorry, Cooking would be a niche, and then it would be outdoor cooking, and then it would be. The Blackstone would be three. And then with the ebook and stuff. And I'll get into this. Like, I really went after beginners. Like, no one was helping the beginners. Everyone was doing, look at what I can make. Look how fantastic this is. And I use my Blackstone griddle and my smoker and my pizza oven. And I mean, we've probably seen videos like that. They're just more of like, wow, I can't believe he did that. Or she did that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or mine was like, no, like, you just got it. You're right.

Here's some hash browns.

Yeah, hash browns. This is what you bought it for or you got it for Father's day? It's a $300 thing. So, like, you're not trying to be, you know, run a Japanese steakhouse yet or, you know, whatever. So anyways, I just. I always. If anybody ever asked me, I always, like, go down when I heard four levels. Like, it's hard. Like, you can go two or three. Like, yeah, it makes sense. It's like, no, go one more and then you'll find. And so I position my ebook in the same thing. Like, this is the. This is the solution. You just got it. This is the solution to your problem. For a beginner, I'm going to show you real world beginner stuff. But, yeah, so the first year I got, again, so when I say lucky, like, I got lucky on YouTube that, like, I started getting a lot of views because the videos started taking off. And then also, I didn't realize till later that not all YouTube views are created equal, so. Not all.

What do you mean by that?

Advertising is created equal. So they advertise the same. They pay out just, like, the same way like, TV does. Like, you know, daytime soap opera commercial isn't as much as a Super bowl commercial.

Sure.

So, like, I'm somewhere in the middle. But it was like, I didn't realize, like, they'd be like, who's your audience? And. And I heard in a podcast once, like, they're like, kids content on YouTube makes, like, no money. You get 3 million views. They don't have no money to spend. So finance anything if you're in the finance is like top, top of the top. Like insurance.

You talk about insurance, how to, how to shop for a new insurance plan.

Yeah, I'm established adult with a family.

Looking for, looking to spend money.

I have a credit card ready to go.

Yeah, yeah, like so.

Well, so mine is like you know, middle aged man like you know who like has money and like probably works and is for a family. But also this may be a stereotype or not. I feel as a hard audience to get to because like sure, they're not very trust, trustworthy of things and maybe don't impulse buy as much. So I just like have a heart higher. I didn't realize how much higher until I heard that. And then I talked to other food creators that were getting similar views that were getting like 60% of the monthly money from me. So like the first year of YouTube I made like $12,000.

And that was the piece where you talk about being maybe a little bit lucky is like getting into a category that pays a little bit higher than generic food content. Is that what you're getting at?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that. I mean having knowledge to run the griddle from my life experience has probably helped out a little bit as well. But I also think you can still create a channel and do the learn in public or build public model with any niche. If you niche down enough, I firmly believe you could do a how to, I don't know, think of baked pie. Specific, like specific pie related. Like I'm just doing pies. I've never made a pie before in my life. But every day I'm going to start baking a pie and recording it. And I still think you could grow that way as you learn, you just document your learning. So I still think that's possible. But it was night. I mean I had knowledge. So. So yeah, the first year I made a little bit of money. You know, I wrote out a plan, my like five year dream plan of like going full time and how I would do it. And then I started, you know, what would the money look like?

And it was like 2020, 2021, 2021.

Probably after the first year. Yeah, when I hit like the 12,000, like in a little bit, a couple thousand on Amazon. So yep, affiliate. That was the first money. So the affiliate started first but then YouTube quickly passed it. So I did that, started an email list and then second year, end of second year, wrote the ebook and it was 30 pages, you know, $10, not great, but just I got it done.

You did it? Yeah. And it was just like in Google Docs, like word, like put together. Okay, Canva.

You go into Canva, create a new template off Canva.

Love it. Yep.

This is great template I use today. Yeah, I mean it's the same and it was, and it was recipe template, they had everything like formatted for the pictures and stuff like that. So yeah, if you want to do an ebook, I mean, yeah, I would say it's totally possible you can buy a template. Don't overthink it. Don't overthink the design. No one cares about the design. By the time they see the design, they've already gave you their money. So sure. Like I fell into that trap too where it's like, what should it look like? It's like it just. Just tell them what you're promising them. I'm promising you 30 gluten free recipes, desserts. I'm promising you that. You know what I mean? And if you have a website, you already got those recipes probably. So. So I did that and then built a whole website because I had no idea what I was doing and literally didn't know that I could just get like something else like thrivecart that I use now that I didn't need a whole website to sell an ebook.

Sure.

But also it's one of those things where you think you're gonna do too much and like I just had.

Right. You know what it's gonna be and yeah, yeah.

And I built it through elementor and way too much care on the aesthetics of it and blah, blah, blah, when I should just do more recipes. And really I just needed a landing page. Like all I needed was a landing page to sell this book.

And so the first year, Sandstore as well. We've talked about Sandstorm in the podcast, but essentially it's like you need something. Gumroad is another one. You can do it within kit. Like, essentially what you're saying is like you needed a website URL, a buy button and the ability for the PDF to be sent to somebody.

Exactly. So then what eventually happened? So that was a lot. And the website was super slow and clunky and that's what I'm sending everybody to. So then I joined, I took another class, whatever. And this is a couple years in when I'm getting ready to fully go full time or I'm sorry. So the first year, I don't know how much you want me go in this. So I sold like 5, 500 copies. The first year I was like great, this is amazing. And that was year two or three. So it went like a couple thousand to seven thousand to last year was like $15,000 worth of ebooks. And it went from like $10 and when I would update it, I'd go to $15 eventually. I don't remember where that was in there. I also eventually learned that like yes, Kit has a very simple way to get your ebook out. So I switched over from, I switched my email provider to Kit from one of the other ones. That made it easier. I could also pop it in the email real easy. And that was like two years ago when I went and sold like 15,000 and then eventually learned about like Thrive cart and stuff. And when I decided this past year that this was gonna be my main focus, that's when I like, I did thrivecart and build a landing page which isn't necessary. You know, you don't. That's just me going deeper because I started making more money off of it. But I mean that's after a lot of stuff too. You know, I tried a community, I tried a course and just, I tried too much stuff and then realized like ebook had already been working. It's been growing each year. So then after like that, like I said 15. So then this year is like I'm doubling down. Like everything is ebook. And that's when I joined Food Blogger Pro at the beginning of the year. Said, well, the website will lead to the ebook too. But it doesn't need to be a full blown. Like I'm not doing a traditional food blog. I just want to answer the five or six basic questions like seasoning, cleaning, what oil people like to use accessories. And then everything else is just a recipe, I don't know, index, you know, that's what it is. And I can put my recipe at the bottom of each video. Well, the recipe or the ebook, the e book's in each description. But also if the recipe is on the site, that's in there too. And then when you go to the site, I don't run ads, I don't run any. So the only thing you can do is either read the recipe and the only thing to click on is either in the sidebar is my ebook and then, and the main menu is my ebook. And then in the about me page is my ebook. So you can't really go anywhere else.

It's such a good example of like, you know, we talk about this idea that a lot of people who are listening to this podcast and thinking about growing a business, they think about themselves as marketing content, where you create content and then you market it. You try and get people to watch it because that's how you make your money. It's like advertising dollars on a website or maybe YouTube ads on your YouTube channel. But in your case, one of the things that's really great is you are able to do content marketing. You are creating content to market a product. And you now have the equivalent of what would be a site with, I don't know, 100,000 page views in terms of the amount that you are making from your ebook from selling 25, you know, 50 copies of your ebook from your website, which it sounds like you're kind of at the point where you're selling, you know, quite a few from your website. And that's.

Yeah, it's very seamless.

So much easier. Sure, yeah.

More in the summer, it was like close to 50 by the end of July and August. And then now it goes down, but that's fine. But my goal is by will be.

Like a low month.

And yeah, so Christmas actually will have a pop because people will get them. But yes, February will be terrible.

But I think, and this is super helpful, you were really generous to provide kind of a breakdown here, and I think it'd be interesting to talk through this if you're up for it. But last year generated $80,000 of revenue within your business, which is amazing. 55%. You actually have decimals. I'm going to include this because I think it's kind of fun. We'll nerd out on it.

Decimals.

50. Okay. Okay. Yeah, to be clear, 55.7% YouTube AdSense, 15.2% sponsorships, 12.7% affiliate and then 16.5% ebook to make up that 80,000 in revenue. And then this year projecting over 100K, which is awesome. And these percentages are also interesting. 44%, 44.1% YouTube AdSense, 34.2% ebook sales. So that has essentially doubled. Sponsorships 10.8% and affiliate 9%. The thing that I'm interested in talking about, number one. All of that is incredible. Super cool to see and a huge congratulations. It's like, you know, I don't know what the percentage is, but it's only like, I don't know, 15, 10% of the population that's earning over a hundred thousand dollars or more. Just in general, like W2 jobs and contracting and business owners, let alone within the context of like building a content business. So that's super incredible. Before we continue, let's take A moment to hear from our sponsors. What if your content could earn more and do more for your business audience and your future? You might know Raptive as the ad management platform behind thousands of the world's top creators, including Pinch of Yum. But today Raptive is so much more than ads. They're a true business partner for creators, helping you grow your traffic, increase your revenue and protect your content in an AI driven world. Unlike one size fits all platforms, Raptive customizes strategies for each creator whether you're growing a niche food blog or running a multi site business. They offer expert support in SEO, email and monetization strategy and they're leading the charge on AI advocacy to protect the future of creator owned content. And the best part? Raptive supports creators at every stage from rise their entry level program for growing sites to their top tier luminary level. They're offering scale with you so you can get the right support when you need it the most. Apply now@raptive.com to get a personalized growth strategy and join a creator community that's shaping the future of the open web. Thanks again to Raptive for sponsoring this episode. You talked about focusing in on the ebook and I think that's a really fun thing and smart thing for you to do. Fun thing to talk about because it seems like you've had success with that. What does that look like for you to double down on focusing on the ebook and what have you learned along the way to increase those sales or to increase the revenue from that?

I'm sure the percentages can get if you're not a math nerd, which it sounds like we're pretty similar so maybe you and I are everybody else's. So like probably like the 45k is what YouTube has been the last couple years, give or take. So that stayed the same the percentage change because the ebook last year was 15 and it's probably it might hit 40 this year depending on how the holiday season goes. It's getting close so it's gone up a lot. Like I said, last year was my first half year going full time and I wanted to do everything. I wanted to try to get as many revenue streams as possible and do a course and then do a community and I already had the ebook and and I just pulled myself in too many different directions and then also it's like I, I'm like I was saying with the links and stuff. I forget where I learned all this for I watched too many whatever social media gurus but it's somewhere, somewhere just like keeping it simple, like keeping one link and one click. Like, how many options are you giving people? Do you want them to buy your course or do you want them to buy your ebook? Do you want them to join your community or do you want them to go get this spatula you use? You know, like, it's just like a lot of. And so. And then also it. And actually last year's YouTube was down a little bit, and this year's gonna be up because, like, I was, like, going all over the place with the videos, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? And like, this year's just like, well, every video goes to one thing. It's the ebook. And it doesn't even go to it. Like I was saying with the site. I don't. It's just. It's listed in the comment, in the description, and it's in the comments. I always pin a comment. But, like, I'm a terrible salesperson. Like, if you ask me about the ebook, I'll sell it to you. Like, I. I'm very confident in it, but I' not comfortable with being the, like, I'm shoving it down your throat at the beginning of the video person. So. But the reason I feel like is because, like, I just kept saying, like, well, if it's everywhere on the. And then I build the website and then I build the video, and that's in my about me, and then it's in my about. And it's like, it's at the bottom of most of my email news. Like, there's no way you find me and don't know it exists. Like, there's just. There's no way. So either you. You decide it's worth your money or not without me having to be like, and there's some people that don't want it, but at least I don't, like, turn them away by, like, always, always, always, like, pushing it on them. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And then it's there. Like, people can click on it. An example, like, in a YouTube description, the link is there. And a huge part of marketing isn't, like, twisting somebody's arm. It's just, like, attention. And so people know that it's there. You don't have to, like, force it to your point. You know, it's like, like you can drive by a McDonald's and it's not like they're hard selling you on it, but like, man, you're gonna drive by quite a few McDonald's and at some point you might.

Yeah.

You know, turn in and go to McDonald's.

Yeah, you'll see it. And then another thing that came up this year was it's called fourth wall, which through YouTube. I'm not sure how it works with the other platforms. It allows you to put it on your shelf where it used to be, like a merchandise shelf below the video on YouTube. I don't know. Well, now you can put a digital product there. And as everybody's doing this Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, where you can then pop it up during the video.

Cool.

So like pricing that with affiliates and stuff on Instagram and as well where like, like they can pop up like, whatever. Like this is the blender I'm using. Like, yeah, this lets me pop up my digital product in midi mid video when I mention it and it. And I. It'll be like, this recipe, by the way, is in my Griddle 101 ebook. Period. End of sentence. It pops up like, I don't. You know what I mean? Like, I don't, like, give them a hard pitch. It's just like, are you interested in learning more or not?

That's cool. I've never heard of Fourth Wall. Like, I pull it up and I kind of see some familiar faces. Mkbhd, who's a tech reviewer. But the basic idea is that it is a product or it is a software company that allows you to include links to different products within your social content. Is that right?

Correct. And so for the longest time on YouTube, if there would be a merch bar underneath and like the main. There's like two people. It was like Teespring, which turned into Spring, which did like T shirts and stuff.

Yep.

And somebody else. It was a physical merch bar. Like you were selling physical merchandise and it was mainly just apparel usually is what people had. And then this is just new to where like, oh, you can drop a. You can drop a. A digital product down there. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or new to me in the last year.

So sure, that's cool. Do you have a sense for where people are coming from? All the links that you have? Like, what percentage of those are 4th wall vs link in the description vs emails? Or is it at this point, don't know how that traffic divides out?

So it's like probably 40, 35% is fourth wall. Everything else I know is through ThriveCart, which then ThriveCart. I have as many individual links. I'm not perfect. I mean, it probably would be if I was really OCD about it. It probably would be more beneficial to have as many individual links as I can. So I do know. I do know which one's my menu on the website. My sidebar on the MEM website, some specific blog posts. The one that gets messy is I just have YouTube description.

Sure.

And that's 250 videos.

So that's the one where like, like it's also. If you were to do one for every single. Yeah, that would be.

But I don't know. Oh, I have some QR codes too, which I actually did. Sold a couple more than I thought. I. My TV watching in the past two years has surprisingly grown on YouTube. The amount of people watching on TV is.

Oh, sure, yeah, I do that. I watch YouTube videos on a, like traditional TV.

So then, yeah, what a lot of people do is start popping up qrs at the end of the video rather because you can't do anything. And you can just. And I.

The assumption is they'll have their phone with them.

Yeah, I've sold at least 20 and I've only done it like five videos. But another barbecue guy told me he was doing it. I was like, I don't know, that's a lot of work, man. But okay, I'll do it. And then like, yeah, I mean, at least. And it works three a month gets sold through somebody clicking a QR code or taking a picture.

The thing that I think is so great about this, and I don't know if this is what you're alluding to before, like, you don't remember who it was, but you talked about Alex Hermosi, which was an online marketer. This idea of like one product, that he has one product, one avatar, one channel. Yeah, that's huge. And I think that so often what happens is like we get so distracted by all of the different things that we can do. And, and really, like in your case, you have this ebook, people are buying it, you have content, people are watching it. So then what do you do? Well, why not just go deeper with figuring out how to get that link in front of more people? One of the questions I would have for you is have you ever thought of, now that you have all of that traffic funneling to that page, have you ever thought about breaking out tiers? So you have the $20 product. Would you ever create then a $35 or a $40 tier and then like a, you know, high end $70 tier because all of that traffic is already going there? Is that something that you would do?

Yeah, so like kind of last year I tried to do that with the course and it's kind of, you Know, I'm not sure exactly. It's probably a little bit of both of the course not working and me not pushing it as hard as I wanted to for 50 or so dollars. And then I also just didn't personally. Eventually I was like, well, am I comfortable with it? Do I think it's worth that? Like I, I moved the ebook to $20 recently, this past year and I, I, it's more than some physical books that are out there on griddling, but I am still 100% confident that it's better because I bought them all. I've bought all of them. Yeah, I'm 100% confident that it's the best thing available in my niche because I've read them all and I've tried to make it for the, and I think it's worth the money. When I got to the course, I just wasn't, I just didn't have the faith in it to sell that much. But yeah, I'd love another tier. I just can't, I just don't know what it is in the cooking world and it's just such a, and sometimes I, I question whether it's me being scared to charge more or if it's maybe just trying to be realistic about what my thing is compared to complexity wise of like, you know, going into baking. Like, you know, like it just, there's just so many levels, like I just say that scares me. But like seriously, like, like there's like, you gotta like get down to a level of like cooking and expertise and you see the sourdough stuff and it's like, yeah, I mean a sourdough course probably is worth a hundred dollars. Like it probably is. Sure mine. It's just like a kind of a very specific niche and then recipes and I don't know. So yeah, I would love to, but I just don't, I don't see the product yet for that that people would pay for. But maybe I'm just limited. Maybe it's a limiting belief. I don't know.

Yeah. And you know your audience and it sounds like part of it is you kind of tested it out. It didn't feel like a great fit. But the basic concept for anybody listening that I always think about is like, like once you have that proven path, like what does it then look like to offer multiple levels within that? Like so you have an ebook and then you know what would be the net this is sounds like what you're trying to figure out. It's like what would be the next thing in addition to that that would be as valuable, that people would pay more for. That's the hard part.

Obviously one on one. But to your point, community stuff.

Sure, yeah, yeah. But to your point, like it's easier to think about like adding on in that funnel versus I think what sometimes people do is they go and create a brand new different category where they're like, hey, this worked for the blacktop and now I'm gonna go and do it for Sourdough or whatever. And it's like, oh, that lift is so much more than just so much more doing something additive within the funnel that already exists. So tell me about your site. You talked about that. You know, it's. It sounds like at the beginning of the year, thousand sessions a month. And that's grown here in the summer, you know, 18x if we can, we'll frame it up as marketers. How, how have you grown that traffic? Being that you're kind of social first.

So it's probably. So yeah, through the heat. So it's a very seasonal niche. So through the middle summer it went up to about 18,000. It's back down about 9 or 10. And I imagine it'll kind of, you know, just stay there through the winter and then hopefully go way higher next summer, you know. How have I grown it? Well, I. So on the site I really didn't do anything too crazy. I just went after my most popular videos and I mean you can, I'm sure you'll link my site. It's not by impressive by any means, but. And then I just. Every video I would just put the link to the recipe in the bottom and then I would put the, you know, the video in there and they're really pretty straightforward. And I don't know with AI and stuff how all that's going. Like they're just, just very bland. I don't know, blog posts. Like, it wasn't really going over a lot, but I think that may have been easier for them to like really crawl. And then also I think it wasn't a coincidence that like my three best videos and this is. I have no idea what I'm talking about. Like, I don't know, I'm not a nearly a vlog expert like you, but everything I've been trying to like figure out is like as AI has risen and people talk about just building a brand and how they can take in all the information and stuff, I can't find it. I can't be a coincidence that my three to four best posts are my videos that have, yeah, million Views, you know what I mean? I think they're, it's just, it's now smart enough to correlate them together because YouTube page, website, same name chicken fried rice video has a million and a half views. That's my best video now. It's also my best blog post and it's, yeah, nothing special compared to any other chicken fried rice on the Blackstone or on a griddle or on a flat top grill. It's no different than anybody else's. I just think it's now probably given me a little bit of authority because I have the other authority through YouTube is my guess.

Yeah, yeah, totally. It's one of the things that we're seeing and that we're talking a lot about, which is the value of a strong social following outside of your site itself. And so, you know, the food space is a little bit insulated from this. But what we're seeing is, generally speaking, if you have a strong following on a social platform, that's going to be really advantageous for you on your website for the exact reason that you shared like you have a piece of content, if that goes viral, people are naturally going to be looking for it and wanting to find it. Maybe you have the recipe within the description itself, but especially if you don't, like people would be wanting to go and find how to make it. So it makes a ton of sense to close it out. I'm curious the advice that you'd give for people who are interested in growing YouTube. Like, it's been a platform that's changed a lot. There's long form content, there's short form content. Are you focusing on one primary type of content and what would your advice be if somebody's like, gosh, I would really love to grow my YouTube channel. What have you learned in the process?

I mean, I'm currently going to move into doing some more short form next year. It's my goal when it gets busy. But I've got to have plans to hire an editor for the first time to help free up time to do that. I've done this multiple times. So my advice would be if you're by yourself, just do one. Just, just do the one thing. Whether it's short form or long form, pick your thing, make sure you have your niche. If you don't, you know, that's the most important, like we said at the beginning, and then just get better at, you know, answering very specific questions and things for that niche. It's just, it's so stereotypical. But it's like it's what the Alex Hormozi thing. It's like one avatar, one problem, one platform. So it's like your avatar is your niche or whatever. Like that's, you know, mine's a beginner griddler, not a, not a person with a griddle, not a person that enjoys cooking outside, not a barbecue enthusiast, a beginner Blackstone griddle owner. And my. Their problem is how to use it, season clean, temperature control, what to make. And I solved that with the E book and with every video I make, I try to solve that and then only do YouTube by yourself until you can hire an editor or something because I've spread myself too thin. I've tried multiple streams, I've tried of revenue and products and I would just do one. And if you're just, just do the one. Whether either one's fine, short or long is fine, either one's fine. But just focus on that one and really learn the details of that, that specific one. Because like, yeah, short YouTube videos, I don't, I probably don't even. I don't know as much as I know about long form, you know, and in long form I know a little bit more and I just try to be as clear and concise as possible to where they are. They know exactly what they're getting and I don't waste their time hopefully with any fluff or anything like that.

Yeah, that's great, Johnny. This has been a super fun conversation. Really appreciate you coming on, sharing specific numbers. That's always helpful. I know that you've said as a podcast listener, you know, listening to multiple podcasts, when somebody comes on and shares specifics around where they're at, how they grew, but especially when it contains numbers is super helpful. So appreciate that. And I know that listeners will appreciate that as well. And super fun to talk to a food blogger pro member, like to. It all came out of a forum conversation and you've been doing a great job with this and excited to see you continue to grow and have success as you move forward. Forward. And we have a Blackstone griddle and I am a beginner Blackstone Griddle user. So like I will be liking subscribing and following along with all that you're up to. So I appreciate you coming on and we'll. For people who want to follow along with you, maybe as kind of a quick last note here, where can they do that?

This is Johnny Brunette. It's just that's my website, that's my YouTube page, that's my Facebook. I'm going to try to grow Facebook next year too, as I go into short form after listening to a couple recent podcasts. Recent. Who knows when this comes out? But yeah, if you listen to a couple of those and then. Yeah, I think I sent it to you. But you're welcome to share the Google link to the ebook and for everybody if they want to see what it looks like. Like, I don't. Yeah, you know, I don't care. I think that maybe that'll be a good reference.

We'll make people buy it. We gotta. That's the. That's the. I'll be the marketer for you in this. So if people want to check it out, they can buy it. They can buy it. We won't put that link up.

It just feels like it's fellow creators. But yeah, it started.

You could share it in the forums, maybe just so it's not public. Yeah, if you wanted to.

It was 30 pages and now it's 150. That I'm. So that's the only thing at the end I'd say is like amazing. Just start it. You know what I mean? That doesn't mean that's what it is at the end. And it was $10.

I love that.

Three and a half years ago. Now it's 20. So.

Yep. That's great. Johnny, this is awesome. Thanks for coming on.

Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Hey there, this is Emily from the Food Blogger Pro team. Thank you so much for listening to that episode of the podcast. Since we are kicking off the month of October, I wanted to pop on and let you know what you can expect in the Food Blogger Pro membership this month. If you are not yet a Food Blogger Pro member, we would love to have you. You can head to foodbloggerpro.com membership to learn more about everything we offer and to join us. We always like to say that your Food Blogger Pro membership is changing every week because we are always adding new content into the membership. We are kicking off this month with a brand new coaching call on Thursday, October 9th. We're trying something new. This is a group coaching call with several of our FoodBlocker Pro members who've all gathered together with Bjork to chat about returning to your blog when you've been away for a while. We will have the video and audio replays available for you on the site on October 9th. Next up, on October 16th, which is a Thursday, we will be having our live Q and A all about meta ads. You'll learn everything you need to know to get started with meta ads, how to be strategic with them to increase your followers and drive traffic to your site. It should be a really useful Q and A. If you head to the Live section of the Flubogger Pro membership, you can add the Q and A to your calendar and submit a question in Advance. On Thursday, October 23rd, we are hosting a public webinar with Cookie Finance to talk about all things navigating taxes as a food creator. Again, this live Q and A will be available to everyone. You don't have to be a FUBOG or Pro member to join us. Cookie Finance has put together a registration page. You can head to the Show Notes to register for the Q and A and to join us. Last up on Thursday, October 30th we will have a brand new course all about getting subscribers to your email list. We've been talking a lot lately about the importance of establishing a healthy email list, but sometimes it can be tricky to grow your email list, especially as you're starting out. And hopefully this course will give you some new ideas and strategies to grow your email list. And that's it for October. We are really excited about all the content we have coming up and we're looking forward to seeing you in the membership. That's all we have for this week. We'll see you back here on Tuesday with a brand new podcast episode. Make it a great week.

Sam.