Podcast appearances and mentions of bjork ostrom

In episode 642, Megan chats to Bjork Ostrom about how to protect your time and mental well-being as a creator and business owner, so you can continue producing your best work and building the business you desire. Bjork loves to find ways to maximize potential - of people, of technology, of life. His wife Lindsay started a food blog a few years ago and they decided to do just that - maximize its potential. They hope to share what they've learned with other food bloggers here on Food Blogger Pro. Bjork is a terrible chef. In this episode, you'll discover effective strategies to organize your workday for maximum focus and reduced mental clutter, while also uncovering ways to find deeper fulfillment in your work. Key points discussed include: - Purpose prevents burnout: Clearly define the purpose and mission behind your work to stay motivated and avoid burnout. - Recognize "enough": Determine what "enough" looks like for your business and personal life, and set boundaries accordingly. - Implement effective systems: Develop repeatable processes to manage tasks, priorities, and projects, keeping your brain uncluttered. - Practice self-care: Prioritize your mental and physical health, as your brain is the primary tool for your creative work. - Embrace imperfection: Accept that you'll never be "done" and that some level of imperfection is inevitable - focus on continuous improvement. - Seek alignment: Ensure your daily work aligns with your deeper purpose and brings you a sense of flow and fulfillment. - Set boundaries: Establish clear boundaries around technology, work hours, and other commitments to protect your time and energy. - Reflect and adjust: Regularly reflect on what's working and what needs to change, then make small, incremental adjustments. - Leverage support systems: Build a team or community that can provide a "fallback" when you need it, reducing stress. If You Loved This Episode… You'll love Episode 536: Is Social Media Ruining Your Productivity? How to Prioritize Deep Work and Minimize Distractions with Mike Cleavenger Connect with Foodblogger Pro Website | Instagram | Facebook

In today's episode (150) of the EAT, CAPTURE, SHARE podcast, I'm sharing an episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast, where – in a twist to our usual format – I am the one being interviewed by the incredible Bjork Ostrom, host of the show and founding member of Pinch of Yum.We talk about what it really takes to grow a loyal audience on Instagram and how to navigate the ever-evolving social media landscape. This episode will inspire you to revamp your social media strategy using my tried and tested formula for creating viral food content!Here's what else you can expect from today's episode...I share how you can get feedback on your Instagram from me!I talk about what it was really like to leave my 9-5 and run The Little Plantation.I give my top tips for successfully working with brands.I share my insights into scaling up your business.I talk about the number one thing I did that helped me become profitable as a food blogger and photographer!I reveal the ultimate formula for creating viral and irresistable food content on Instagram.I share the four most common traits among successful food creators on Instagram TODAY!LINKS MENTIONED:Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with with my link, hereOrder my brand new book HOW TO MAKE YOUR FOOD FAMOUS HERE! It's all about developing a social media strategy that works!My first book, Creative Food Photography is available HERE! It's for food photographers who want to find their own unique style and up level their photographyBjork's website Food Blogger Pro and InstagramPinch of YumHow to monetise your food blog with Bjork Ostrom – Eat Capture Share Podcast episode number 73Behind the scenes of my food photography biz – Eat Capture Share Podcast episode number 69The Little PlantationInstagram coaching power hourFind full show notes HEREFind my Instagram HERE 

This was too good of a webinar not to put into the podcast. Last week I hosted Bjork Ostrom from Food Blogger Pro in a Pinterest Q&A and talking about where food creators fit within Pinterest in 2025. We talked AI, number of pins per day, tactics, and focusing on less instead of more. If you want to join Food Blogger Pro, use the link in the description to join.Also, we want to invite you to attend our first Pinterest marketing webinar of 2025. On January 16 at 10 am pacific/1 pm eastern I'm going to dive into the top 3 mistakes I see people making on Pinterest. And how to fix them. It's totally free and a jam-packed hour. Yes, we will have a replay but we would love for you to join us live. Head to simplepinmedia.com/class or click the link in the description below. See you there!—-------Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

Download my free guide to discover the 6 powerful triggers that turn your product into a must-have and make people want to buy it.

The power of recurring revenue and breaking down key metrics for running a membership site with Bjork Ostrom ----- Welcome to episode 480 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week, we're excited to air the second episode of our mini-series with Memberful, in which Bjork discusses the ins and outs of membership sites and the power of recurring revenue. The Secret to Generating Recurring Revenue with Bjork Ostrom Tired of chasing after millions of followers? In this week's podcast, Bjork spills the beans on how you can build a thriving business with just a small but dedicated community. He discusses the power of recurring revenue and how that can translate into stability for your business. He also breaks down some key business metrics that can help you track your progress and make smart decisions. Let's face it: Building a sustainable business isn't about getting everyone on board. It's about finding your tribe and serving them really well. This episode is a must-listen if you're looking to grow your business in a more sustainable way! Three episode takeaways: You Don't Need Millions of Followers: It's a common misconception that you need millions of followers or subscribers to build a successful and profitable business. The reality is that even a small, dedicated community can be enough! By focusing on quality over quantity and building strong relationships with your audience, you can create a sustainable income stream that allows you to thrive. Recurring Revenue is Key to Stability: One of the biggest advantages of membership sites is the predictable income they generate through subscription fees. This recurring revenue provides a stable foundation for your business, allowing you to focus on growth and improvement without constantly chasing new opportunities. Unlike one-time sales or advertising revenue, which can fluctuate, membership fees offer a reliable source of income. Understand Your Business Metrics: To make informed decisions and evaluate the health of your business, it's essential to track key metrics such as MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), churn rate, customer lifetime value, and customer acquisition cost. These metrics can help you understand your business's performance, identify areas for improvement, and make strategic decisions. Resources: Memberful Episode 45 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast: How to Use Facebook Ads to Reach the Right People with Tony Rulli from IntentionalSpark.com QuietLight Episode 32 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast: Buying & Selling Websites with Mark Daoust from Quiet Light Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group Thank you to our sponsor! This episode is sponsored by Memberful. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors. Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Income diversification, monetization strategies, and memberships with Bjork Ostorm ----- Welcome to episode 478 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week, we're launching the first episode of our three-episode mini-series with Memberful, in which our very own Bjork Ostrom talks about the power of community, income diversification, and memberships. Last week on the podcast, Bjork chatted with Ewen Finser. To go back and listen to that episode, click here. How to Address This Common Food Blogging Mistake Let's face it: most food bloggers are stuck in a rut when it comes to making money. They're relying on one source of income (usually ads), and that's a bit of a risky game. If Google or Pinterest decides to change their algorithms, your traffic and income could take a nosedive. So, what's the solution? Diversification! Instead of squeezing the same old orange, look for other juicy options. Affiliate marketing and sponsored content can be great ways to boost your income, but if you're looking to bring in recurring income, you may want to consider membership sites. They let you build on what you're already good at: creating awesome content and connecting with your audience. We hope you enjoy this episode — be sure to tune in to the second part of the mini-series next week! In this episode, you'll learn: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Relying solely on ad revenue can be risky, especially if your traffic sources change. Diversify your income streams. Explore options like affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and memberships to create a more stable business. Build a strong business foundation. Focus on creating valuable content, engaging with your audience, and building relationships to support sustainable income. Resources: Memberful 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly Ewen Finser's newsletter: Niche Media Publishing Food Blogger Pro Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group Thank you to our sponsor! This episode is sponsored by Memberful. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors. Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Build a scalable, impactful online business in this Marketing Speak episode with Bjork Ostrom, where we delve into the dynamic world of content creation, monetization, and optimizing digital assets. Bjork, recognized for his adeptness in growing online communities and monetizing content, began his journey with a humble blog that initially earned a mere $20. Alongside his wife, he transitioned from traditional jobs to creating food content on the internet, ultimately growing their blog to generate thousands of dollars per month. His success is rooted in continuous learning, content optimization, and strategic partnerships with ad networks like AdThrive and Raptive. The episode is a goldmine for anyone looking to build, monetize, and grow their online presence sustainably. Tune in!  The show notes, including the transcript and checklist for this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/465.

How can one income stream turn into a whole lot more? Simplify first, diversify second—that's an idea I have always advocated on the show. The first step towards diversifying is to have something working. But how do you know it's time to diversify? That is exactly what Bjork Ostrom (our previous guest from Ep 46) has done as he (and his wife Lindsay) masterfully “stacked” multiple online businesses that have developed out of their original food blog, Pinch of Yum. This 10-year-old blog has been a launchpad for Food Blogger Pro (a guide for aspiring food bloggers), Clariti (for optimizing your site's content), and the holding company, TinyBit. And this is the framework he uses to decide if an idea is worth pursuing. Full Show Notes: Side Hustle Stacking: How One Extra Income Stream Can Lead to More New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: The Next Wave - Your personal Chief AI Officer for implementing AI to drive business growth. Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! Airbnb - Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!

Pursuing zero-based dream building, being intentional about educating yourself, and focusing on yourself and the needs of your audience with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 445 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we have a solo episode with Bjork! Zero-Based Dream Building for Content Creators In this solo episode, Bjork is chatting all about the concept of zero-based dream building. He discusses why you might want to try this strategy when thinking about growing your business and following your dreams, as well as how to go about zero-based dream building. Bjork goes through a step-by-step process of zero-based dream building, which should help you as you're thinking about setting goals for your business and for personal growth! It's a short but sweet, thought-provoking episode — the perfect listen as we head into 2024. In this episode, you'll learn: How to approach ‘zero-based dream building.' The importance of staying in your own lane when building your dream (i.e. business). Why you should focus on yourself (how you like to communicate and what you'd like to be an expert in). Why you should focus on the needs of your audience during this process. How to pursue getting a tiny bit better every day at a medium and a topic. How to be intentional about how you educate yourself. Resources: Readwise Reader Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti and Cultivate WP. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors. Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Balancing quick and slow knowledge, using time blocks for continual learning, and pairing habits with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 402 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we have the second episode in our series on habits for creators, which is all about the habit of continual learning. How to Prioritize Continual Learning Do you currently set aside time in your schedule for continual learning? Or do you feel like you're just too busy to make time for it? Either way, we hope that today's episode will help you to rethink continual learning, and give you inspiration for incorporating it into your life as an entrepreneur. Bjork chats about the importance of continual learning as a business owner, time blocks, and habit pairing — you won't want to miss this episode! In this episode, you'll learn: The difference between quick knowledge and slow knowledge, and why you need a balance of both. How to use time blocks to implement the habit of continual learning. How to incorporate continual learning into your life on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Why using time blocks can lead to better building blocks for your business. How to pair the habit of continual learning with the habit of a monthly review. Resources: Notion Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Who wouldn't want to scale their business?When you think about scaling, or growing, your business — does it seem like an absolute no-brainer “yes!” Or, do you feel some hesitations around the idea of taking your online culinary business of the next level?In this episode, Bjork Ostrom from Food Blogger Pro shares his honest take on what it takes to scale a business. And it might surprise you!With over 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur in the online space, Bjork gives us a behind-the-scenes look into how he and his wife Lindsay approach their very successful blog, Pinch of Yum, and their portfolio of online businesses.In this show, Bjork shares:The story behind their food blog, Pinch of Yum, which now gets 4-5 million page views per month!How to think about growth when you're a solopreneurThe importance of redefining what success means to you…and much, much more!I can't wait for you to dive in! This episode will undoubtedly plant some new seeds for thought in your entrepreneurial mind especially as you think about how you want to grow your business.SUBSCRIBE, RATE & REVIEWWant to support our podcast and help it grow? One of the best things you can do is leave a rating and review wherever you tune in. Thanks so much!HELPFUL LINKSCheck out Bjork's portfolio of businesses at Tiny Bit and Lindsay's blog, Pinch of Yum.Get on the list for our upcoming special event (and you'll also access our free Culinary Roadmap!)Tune into my interview with Bjork on the Food Blogger Pro podcastThanks so much for listening! Connect with me on Instagram (@culinarycynthia) and let me know how you enjoyed this episode. I'd love to hear from you!

Prioritizing your time and talent, cultivating a bias toward action, and embracing the grind with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 400 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork is chatting about four takeaways that he has observed during his interviews with experts, food creators, and friends over the last 400 podcast episodes. 4 Takeaways from 400 Episodes In this episode, Bjork reflects on conversations from the last few years and discusses four themes that came up time and time again in these interviews, and in some way contributed to the success of the guests. Over the course of the episode, Bjork unpacks each of these themes and provides examples and takeaways to help listeners apply these themes to their own businesses. As we celebrate 400 episodes, we wanted to thank YOU for listening to The Food Blogger Pro Podcast - we couldn't do it without you! In this episode, you'll learn: The four themes that Bjork has noticed over the course of the 400 podcast episodes he has recorded The importance of leaning into time, talent, and learning in your business (and hoping for some luck, too!) Why you should cultivate a bias toward action How to prioritize the skills you're naturally good at Why you might want to embrace your “grind” More details about our upcoming habits mini-series on the podcast And more! Resources: User Controlled Analytics: The 3 Most Important Types of Analytics in Your First Year of Blogging Atomic Habits Connect with Bjork via email Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Dealing with hacked Instagram and Facebook accounts and tips for securing your own social media accounts with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 392 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork explains how the Pinch of Yum Instagram account got hacked and eventually recovered. Pinch of Yum's Hacked Instagram Account Last month, Bjork and Lindsay went through something we all fear as content creators: they completely lost access to the Pinch of Yum Instagram account after Lindsay's Facebook account got hacked. Talk about a scary situation! They were eventually able to get the accounts recovered, but they went through a few very stressful days trying to get everything sorted out. In this episode, Bjork shares the entire story of how this happened, how they were able to recover the accounts, and what measures they're taking to prevent this from happening in the future. Last but not least, Bjork also provides some tips for how you can secure your own social media accounts to hopefully avoid a situation like this. In this episode, you'll learn: How Lindsay's Facebook and Instagram accounts got hacked How two-factor authentication works How they were able to get the accounts recovered Tips for securing your own social media accounts How phishing works Resources: Pinch of Yum Meta Authy Google Authenticator 1Password Connect with Bjork via email Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Today's guest on Nichepursuits podcast is Bjork Ostrom. Bjork and his wife Lindsay started Pinch of Yum back in 2010 as a food blog on Tumblr and today, their site gets between 4 to 5 million page views per month. Bjork shares some of the approaches they've taken to grow their blog and multiple business ventures.

In episode 13, we’ll chat with Bjork Ostrom about building a 6-figure membership site, finding your niche, and audience building. Topics covered [01:31] Bjork introduces himself, and talks about why he likes being on other peoples podcasts. [01:50] Adrian asks Bjork to talk about how he and his wife got into food blogging. [04:04] “People assume that I have some credibility in food or recipe development, of which I have none….for me it’s about what does it look like to run a successful business” - Bjork [04:52] “So much of the success of an information product has to do with deep knowledge around a specific niche.” - Bjork [05:45] It’s in the marketing and the advertising, not the code. These are skills that sometimes developers don’t feel comfortable learning. [06:33] One thing that can be hard about marketing is that there is not a concrete response generally, whereas with developing you can test a piece of code and see if it works or not. [08:31] Bjork talks about audience building and how that is similar to trust building. [10:24] Publishing content and figuring out the technology around that can be somewhat easy, but creating content that resonates is really the goal and that takes a long time. Bjork talks about his experience with how to analyze feedback to help create content that resonates. [13:40] Adrian discusses the importance of reciprocity. [14:53] Bjork remembers why they got into the educational space after creating and having success creating their initial food blog. [16:32] Adrian talks about creating competition with educational products and why that can be a good thing. [19:07] Adrian asks Bjork about creating the membership site and that process. [22:11] Adrian remarks on the importance of audience building and gives a practical example of how to start. [24:43] Starting small and building over time is important in info products. In the beginning you want to be able to pivot. Bjork talks about the early stages of info products. [26:38] “Really specific in your focus, really broad in your brand, to allow you to level up over time.” - Bjork on early stage info products. [28:09] After Adrian asks Bjork for his advice for beginners, Bjork talks about trying to catch a wave and the importance of making sure it’s something that you enjoy. [29:15] Being the “ultimate” expert is not important. You do need to have expertise, but part of the journey is documenting what you are learning and that experience. [30:26] Who you are within the content you are creating is very important and part of the overall success of info products. [31:32] Ad

Creating valuable content, delegating and elevating tasks, and setting business and life goals with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 338 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about five themes that he's noticed when reflecting back on the past year. Reflecting and Looking Forward As we enter into the new year, it can be really helpful to look back on the previous year and reflect on some of the lessons learned. So we're doing just that in this episode! You'll hear five themes that Bjork has identified when reflecting on 2021 and how he's going to use that knowledge to his advantage in 2022. From insight on creating valuable content to delegating tasks to defining your life goals, this episode is packed full of great advice to help you start the year off strong. Plus! As a bonus in this episode, you'll hear about The Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group that we just launched for podcast listeners. Within this brand-new Facebook Group, you'll be able to chat about recent episodes, submit questions for future interviews, and more. Be sure to check it out to continue the conversation! In this episode, you'll learn: How The Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group will work How to create really valuable content What the difference is between makers and managers Why it's so important to delegate and elevate tasks Why you should set both business and life goals How to practice 1% infinity Resources: The Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group FBP Live Q&A: The State of Pinterest – available for FBP members! EOS Delegate and Elevate Exercise Superhuman Mailman Zapier Check out the Food Blogger Pro YouTube channel (and subscribe while you're there!) If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Transitioning to full-time blogging, leaning into your strengths, and following your own path as an entrepreneur with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 332 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we're sharing Bjork's episode from the Eat, Capture, Share podcast with Kimberly Espinel. Featured Podcast In today's episode, we're switching things up because it's actually Bjork in the interview seat! We're really excited to be featuring an episode of the Eat, Capture, Share Podcast. Kimberly recently interviewed Bjork about his journey to becoming a successful entrepreneur and online business owner. You'll hear what the first streams of revenue were for Pinch of Yum, Bjork's advice for those wanting to make a living through food blogging, and why he believes in the idea of 1% infinity. It's a really inspiring conversation, and we know you'll enjoy hearing more about Bjork's story. We hope you enjoy this featured podcast episode! In this episode, you'll learn: The quick story behind Pinch of Yum, Food Blogger Pro, WP Tasty, Nutrifox, Clariti, and TinyBit How Bjork and Lindsay leaned into their strengths when building Pinch of Yum What the first streams of revenue were for Pinch of Yum His advice for how to transition to making a living through food blogging Why he launched the Food Blogger Pro Podcast His top tips to quickly monetize doing what you love The biggest mistakes that he sees creators making when trying to grow their businesses Resources: Eat, Capture, Share Podcast Pinch of Yum WP Tasty Nutrifox Clariti TinyBit Crush It!: Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion Pinch of Yum Income and Traffic Reports 324: Building Strong Partnerships – How Bob's Red Mill Works with Content Creators on Sponsored Content MicroAcquire FE International Quiet Light Brokerage 032: Buying & Selling Websites with Mark Daoust from Quiet Light Flippa Eat, Capture, Share Episode #67: Your Pathway to Success 322: Going All In – How Sarah Cook Went From 17k to 600k Monthly Pageviews Check out the Food Blogger Pro YouTube channel (and subscribe while you're there!) If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

In today's episode (73), I'm chatting with Bjork Ostrom, host of the Food Blogger Pro podcast and founding member of Pinch of Yum. We talk about the steps Bjork and his wife and business partner Lindsey took to turn Pinch of Yum from a simple food blog to a multi-million dollar online business and how YOU can grow and monetise your blog too! Here's what else you can expect from today's episode... I share some exciting news about my brand new online food styling course! Bjork introduces himself Bjork talks about how Pinch of Yum began Bjork describes which easy steps you can take when you're just starting out and are eager to monetise your food blog Bjork outlines the key question you need to ask yourself if you want to earn an income online! Bjork gives his top tips on how to transition from a day job to making a living through food blogging. Bjork talks about why he started the Food Blogger Pro podcast and how it's helped his online business. Bjork gives his top 5 tips to quickly monetise doing what you love. Bjork talks about the commitment it really takes to pursue a creative passion. Bjork describes the biggest mistakes food bloggers and photographers make when trying to monetise their content.   LINKS MENTIONED: My book, Creative Food Photography is available HERE! It's for food photographers who want to find their own unique style, who want to up level their photography and who are prepared to go on a journey to discover who they really are as creatives. Find my brand new DOMESTIKA Food Styling ecourse HERE. Episode 69 - Behind the scenes of my food photography biz Pinch of Yum, Food Blogger Pro, and. WP Tasty Nutrifox Clariti TinyBit CRUSH IT! - Gary Vaynerchuk 324: How Bob's Red Mill Works with Content Creators on Sponsored Content - Food Blogger Pro MicroAcquire FE International Quiet Light Brokerage Flippa 322: How Sarah Cook Went From 17k to 600k Monthly Pageviews - Food Blogger Pro Find the full show notes HERE Find my Instagram HERE

This week on The EAT, CAPTURE, SHARE Podcast (69), I'm sharing an episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast, where I was interviewed by the incredible Bjork Ostrom all about the ins and outs of running a thriving food photography business. We explore what it's really like dealing with the ups and downs of being a creative business owner, money mindset and how to find success in the online food photography world. Here's what else you can expect from this episode…   I share some more about my signature food photography and food styling course! I explain why I launched this podcast. I outline why creatives can be incredible business people. I note what prompted me to launch my food blog, The Little Plantation and why I decided to shift my content to food photography. We chat about ikigai I outline exactly why and how I check in on my business every day. I explain the importance of positive self-talk and mindset I share how I teach students to find their unique photography style We explore the meaning of having a colour story I share how I reach out to brands I note why it's important to create photos that your ideal customer is looking for I chat more about my online course and the Instagram food photography challenge     LINKS MENTIONED: My book, Creative Food Photography is available HERE! It's for food photographers who want to find their own unique style and up level their photography. Find out more about my signature online food photography and food styling course HERE Food Blogger Pro Joy the Baker Ikigai My favorite planner Gabriel Cabrera Luisa Brimble Aran Goyoaga Instagram Food Photography challenge Find me on Instagram and Pinterest Find the full show notes HERE

Maximizing your Q4 revenue, how to keep the Q4 momentum, and republishing content with Bjork Ostrom and Jenna Arend. ----- Welcome to episode 318 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we're rewinding back to a Q&A we held last year where Food Blogger Pro members asked Bjork and Pinch of Yum's General Manager, Jenna, questions about preparing for Q4. How Food Bloggers Can Make the Most Out of Q4 It's another FBP Rewind episode today, and we're so excited to revisit our October 2020 Q&A with Jenna Arend from the Pinch of Yum team! We hold these live Q&As every single month for our Food Blogger Pro members. Sometimes we focus on a specific topic (like this one), and other times it's an excuse to pick Bjork's brain on any blogging topic under the sun. It's so fun to connect, answer our members' toughest questions, and have an hour to intentionally work on getting a tiny bit better. And in this Q&A, we focused on all the ways that food bloggers can make the most out of Q4! Q4 is made up of the last three months of the year (October, November, and December), and it's a big deal for food bloggers. Not only are people hungry for recipes, but advertising spending also goes up during these three months, and sponsors are looking for bloggers and content creators who can create seasonal content. We hope that you enjoy this Q&A and that it leaves you feeling inspired and motivated as we get closer and closer to Q4. In this episode, you'll learn: What Jenna's role looks like on the Pinch of Yum team How the Pinch of Yum team is preparing for Q4 Tips for Q4 if your blog is new How to maximize affiliate earnings in Q4 Alternatives to the Amazon affiliate program How Q4 differs from Q1 and how to keep the momentum into the new year How to choose whether to create a new recipe or republish existing content What Pinch of Yum's current email strategy looks like Resources: Pinch of Yum October Coffee Date post on Pinch of Yum Republishing Content course

How to invest in yourself, how to make your money work for you, and other key takeaways from Rich Dad Poor Dad. ----- Welcome to episode 316 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we have another episode in our Book Nook series where Bjork identifies five different takeaways from the book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” Five Takeaways from Rich Dad Poor Dad This week on the podcast, we're sharing another episode in our new Book Nook series! In this series, Bjork reviews one of his favorite business books and outlines some key takeaways that you can apply to your blog or business. In this episode, we're focusing on “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” a powerful personal finance book that explains how you can make your money work for you. Bjork shares some of his main takeaways from the book and shares how bloggers and content creators can implement this advice to grow their own businesses. In this episode, you'll learn: Why it's important to invest in yourself What a personal board of directors is Why it's important to buy assets, not liabilities Why you should learn through experiences How you can have your money work for you Why mindset is so important Resources: Rich Dad Poor Dad Check out the Food Blogger Pro YouTube channel (and subscribe while you're there!) If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Ben Aston is joined by Bjork Ostrom, co-founder of TinyBit. TinyBit’s focus has always been organic growth, mostly through content. They do some limited advertising, mostly retargeting and occasionally paid Facebook campaigns. Listen to learn how to optimize your old content to drive more traffic to your site.

How we're going to start incorporating video into our podcast episodes and the five TinyBit core values with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 300 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we’re celebrating our 300th episode and talking about what you can expect in future podcast episodes. Core Values  It’s a milestone episode today, and we’re celebrating by talking about our core values as a company and how they impact what we do each and every day. Thank you for listening to The Food Blogger Pro Podcast –– whether this is your first episode or your 300th. We appreciate our Food Blogger Pro Podcast community so very much, and we’re thrilled and honored to be on this journey with you! Here’s to many more episodes.

Why you are not the product of your business, how to work on and in your business, and other key takeaways from The E Myth Revisited. ----- Welcome to episode 298 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we’re starting a new series called Book Nook! In this episode, Bjork identifies six different takeaways from the book, “The E Myth Revisited.” Six Takeaways from The E Myth Revisited  Welcome to our first episode of our new Book Nook series! In this series, Bjork will review one of his favorite business books and outline some key takeaways that you can apply to your blog or business. This week’s focus is on “The E Myth Revisited,” a book about the ways a small business can become an extraordinary small business. Bjork unpacks the advice in the book and relates them to creating content online as a blogger and business owner. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why you should be ready to wear a bunch of different hats as an entrepreneur How to work on and in your business at the same time Why systems are so important in business Why you aren’t the product Resources: The E Myth Revisited 297: Blog Flipping – Developing, Monetizing, and Selling Websites with Chelsea Clarke EOS If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

http://microconfremote.com We asked our MicroConf Remote speakers to answer the question: "What is one thing I can do today that will make a meaningful impact on by business in the future?" Bjork uses a simple expense audit and asks 3 questions for each transaction: Should I cancel this? Should I change this to a yearly discount plan? Can I ask for a discount? Check out the video and get registered for MicroConf Remote! MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/MicroConf E-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com MicroConf 2020 Headline Partners Stripe https://stripe.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe Basecamp https://basecamp.com

http://microconfremote.com We asked our MicroConf Remote speakers to answer the question: "What is one thing I can do today that will make a meaningful impact on by business in the future?" Bjork uses a simple expense audit and asks 3 questions for each transaction: Should I cancel this? Should I change this to a yearly discount plan? Can I ask for a discount? Check out the video and get registered for MicroConf Remote! MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/MicroConf E-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com MicroConf 2020 Headline Partners Stripe https://stripe.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe Basecamp https://basecamp.com

How to track user-controlled analytics, what a mental activity monitor is, and how to align with your journey with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 290 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about blogger burnout and how you can improve the relationship you have with your work. Blogger Burnout  When you’re living that solopreneur life, the process of starting and growing your blog can get overwhelming. The countless tasks, to-dos, and responsibilities can really add up over time, leading to a sense of fatigue and burnout. In this episode, Bjork shares seven different concepts that can help you combat those feelings of blogger burnout and fall back in love with your work. And we’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments here –– how do you overcome those feelings of burnout? In this episode, you’ll learn: The idea of a mental activity monitor What user-controlled analytics are and how to track your progress How to “add frosting to a cracker” What it means to align to your journey Why it helps to have friends who are removed from the work you’re doing Why you should consider taking a break if you need one Resources: 277: Care For Yourself – Mental Health for Entrepreneurs with Sherry Walling If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

How to pay attention to when you feel tension, focusing on your craft, and serving your audience as a blogger with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 285 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we’re rewinding back to an episode we shared earlier this year about what to do when you feel like you’ve done everything. What To Do When You Feel Like You’ve Done Everything  I’m sure there has been a time in all of our blogging journeys where we feel like we’re doing everything we can, yet the traffic, income, subscriber, and/or follower numbers just aren’t moving. So what do you do then? What do you do when you feel like you’ve done everything you can? That’s what this episode is all about. Bjork will offer some high-level advice and specific strategies that you can implement when you’re feeling stuck. In this episode, you’ll learn: The importance of limiting comparison How to be flexible and understand what you’re trying to achieve What it means to focus on your craft Why posting frequency isn’t super important Why it might make sense to “niche down” How to serve your audience Resources: Lindsay’s personal Instagram account 003: Sally McKenney from Sally’s Baking Addiction on Creating Success 018: How to Build an Online Business Without Blogging with Jadah Sellner from Simple Green Smoothies If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

How to understand small business taxes, what S-Corp elections are, and how to review your blogging expenses every quarter with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 284 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we’re rewinding back to an episode that will help you optimize your income and make more money from blogging. Making More Money Without Doing More Work  Welcome to our first FBP Rewind episode in this two-part series! Today, we’re rewinding back to a solo episode with Bjork where he talks about the ways you can maximize your blogging income. Between implementing smarter ways you can track your income to understanding different tax laws, this episode will help you implement some helpful money-making strategies in the new year. This episode is a great reminder that small tweaks in your day-to-day can help your business get to the next level. In this episode, you’ll learn: How business programs work How to track your mileage What purchases you can expense for your blog Why you should consider hiring a CPA When you should do an S-Corp election How you can hire help Why it’s helpful to review your expenses every quarter How home office deductions work How to be proactive and ask for a raise Resources: Apple Business Automatic Bill Shark Download our free ebook, 16 Ways You Can Monetize Your Site If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

The value of offering help, utilizing processes to make decisions, and reserving some unstructured time for yourself with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 283 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about five different ways that you can try to make 2021 better than this year. Last week on the podcast, Bjork chatted about some of the positive takeaways he has from 2020. To go back and listen to that episode, click here. Looking Forward  We’re all probably hoping that 2021 is a lot better than 2020 has been, and in today’s episode, Bjork is covering five different ways that you can try and make that happen. From partnering with others to leaning into processes to help guide decisions, we’re hoping that you can tuck some of these ideas into your back pocket and pull them out as you strive towards personal and business growth in the new year. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to focus on stability How to partner with others Why you should offer help when you can Why processes help guide decisions What it looks like to create unstructured time How to know you’re on the right path Resources: Clariti Pinch of Yum WP Tasty Nutrifox 15Five If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

How to use a framework to accomplish a goal, asking for help, evaluating your needs, and thinking about your legacy with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 282 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about some of the positive takeaways he has from 2020. Helpful, Impactful Takeaways from This Year  This year has been a bit of a doozy, hasn’t it? Even with it being an eventful year, we still have some positive takeaways that we’re planning on bringing into 2021 (and beyond). And that’s what this episode is all about! In this solo-episode, Bjork shares nine of the most helpful and impactful takeaways from the year, ranging from personal development to business growth to mental health and beyond. We’d love to hear your most impactful takeaways from this year in the comments section on the show notes for this episode: foodbloggerpro.com/282 In this episode, you’ll learn: Why it’s important to ask for help The impact that a framework can have on your goals How to evaluate your needs The difference between a personal brand and a brand that’s personal Why you should understand your financial books How to ponder your legacy Resources: EOS Pinch of Yum WP Tasty Nutrifox Clariti Loom Dropbox If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Transitioning to full-time blogging, running a blog as a business, and making every day enjoyable with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 276 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week, we’re playing an episode from the Irie Lemon Podcast with Liz Della Croce and Vincent Mcintosh. Scaling Your Business & Providing Massive Value  Today’s episode is a bit different from normal, and that’s because we’re featuring an episode of the Irie Lemon Podcast. Liz and Vincent interviewed Bjork a few weeks ago about his unique journey from non-profit educator to food and tech CEO. You’ll hear stories of how Bjork and Lindsay formed their businesses, how Bjork stays inspired, and how he delegates and hires. We hope you enjoy this featured podcast episode! In this episode, you’ll learn: The quick story of Pinch of Yum, Food Blogger Pro, Nutrifox, and TinyBit What Bjork did before starting Food Blogger Pro How Bjork and Lindsay transitioned to blogging full-time How Bjork and Lindsay described running a blog as a business Why Bjork wanted to educate others through the income reports on Pinch of Yum How to find your why How to make every day enjoyable How Bjork and Lindsay passed responsibilities off to others What intentional ignorance and radical delegation mean The story behind Food Blogger Pro Why you only need to be expert enough to each someone something Resources: Irie Lemon Podcast Pinch of Yum WP Tasty Nutrifox Clariti Atomic Habits Youth Frontiers 1000 True Fans Baremetrics ConvertKit Buffer Pinch of Yum Income Reports Smart Passive Income The Social Dilemma Designing Your Life The Life Coach School EOS Pilot Hand Built The Last Dance If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Maximizing your Q4 revenue, how to keep the Q4 momentum, and republishing content with Bjork Ostrom and Jenna Arend. ----- Welcome to episode 274 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we’re re-sharing a Q&A we held for our Food Blogger Pro members where Bjork and Pinch of Yum’s General Manager, Jenna, answer questions about preparing for Q4. Last week on the podcast, Bjork chatted with Danielle Liss from Businessese and LISS Legal about the ways that bloggers can protect their content. To go back and listen to that episode, click here. How Food Bloggers Can Make the Most Out of Q4  Q4 is made up of the last three months of the year (October, November, and December), and it’s a big deal for food bloggers. Why? Because people are hungry for recipes! They want recipes for Halloween, Thanksgiving, the holidays. And when we’re not experiencing a pandemic, they want crowd-pleasing recipes and recipes they can make for their holiday parties and get-togethers. Not only that, but advertising spend goes up during these three months. Sponsors are looking for bloggers and content creators who can create seasonal content, and display ad revenue goes up because traffic is up. To help you prepare for Q4, today we’re sharing the Q&A we hosted with our Food Blogger Pro members last week! We have these live Q&As every single month for our Food Blogger Pro members. Sometimes we focus on a specific topic (like this one), and other times it’s an excuse to pick Bjork’s brain on any blogging topic under the sun. It’s so fun to connect, answer our members’ toughest questions, and have an hour to intentionally work on getting a tiny bit better. We hope you enjoy this replay of our Q&A from October 2020! In this episode, you’ll learn: What Jenna’s role looks like on the Pinch of Yum team How the Pinch of Yum team is preparing for Q4 Tips for Q4 if your blog is new How to maximize affiliate earnings in Q4 Alternatives to the Amazon affiliate programs How Q4 differs from Q1 and how to keep the momentum into the new year How to choose whether to create a new recipe or republish existing content What Pinch of Yum’s current email strategy looks like Resources: Pinch of Yum October Coffee Date post on Pinch of Yum Republishing Content course

This week Liz and Vince interview Bjork Ostrom from Food Blogger Pro to talk about his unique journey from non-profit educator to food and tech CEO. Bjork loves to find ways to maximize potential - of people, of technology, of life. In 2010 when his wife Lindsay started Pinch of Yum, a popular food blog, they decided to do just that - maximize its potential. A decade later, their suite of businesses, TinyBits, is designed to share what they've learned with other food bloggers.. It’s important to note that Bjork is an admittedly terrible chef.Bjork Ostrom is always learning; he’s great at articulating his lessons and kindly shared so many with Liz & Vince, including: Bjork’s advice on scaling from side-hustle to full blown business Bjork & Lindsay’s unique approach to entrepreneurship The importance of adapting your message for your audienceHow to preserve your company culture during growthBehind-the-scenes look at TinyBits’ operational rolesToday’s entertaining episode is sponsored by Revolution Farms. Links to Bjork & Lindsay’s TinyBit suite of businesses:Pinch of Yum - A food blog with simple and tasty recipes.Food Blogger Pro - Start and Grow Your Food BlogWP Tasty - Handcrafted Plugins for WordPress BlogsNutrifox - Easy to Create Nutrition LabelsClariti | The easiest way to organize your blog content for maximum growth Revolution Farms Official Website Connect with Irie Lemon on Instagram or Facebook Connect with Liz of The Lemon Bowl on Instagram or Facebook Connect with Vince of Irie Kitchen on Instagram or Twitter  If you have any topic ideas for the future, let us know on Instagram or the comment section on YouTube! Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review and send it to your best friend. Stay tuned for weekly episodes filled with practical tips, amazing conversations and incredible guests!

How to remind yourself of personal and business tasks, protect your stuff from theft, and keep a tidy computer with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 270 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about his must-have apps for a productive business and personal life. Get It Done  Apps are great to help you become more productive, track your progress, and optimize your day. But which are our absolute favorites? The ones we rely on day after day, week after week to help us get it all done? That’s what Bjork is focusing on in this episode. You’ll hear about the apps and tools he uses to fly through email, stay on top of business and personal tasks, record quick videos, and stay hydrated with a color-changing water bottle. Yes, seriously. We’re excited to share some of our favorite apps with you today! And if you have any must-have apps, leave them in the comments at foodbloggerpro.com/270 –– we’d love to hear your suggestions! In this episode, you’ll learn: How Screen Time/Downtime works on Apple products How to use Things to remind yourself of business and personal tasks How to quickly manage your inbox How to send recurring emails How to use Asana as a team How video can help prevent miscommunication How to strengthen your passwords How to drink more water in a techy way How to store articles for later How to protect your computer or phone from theft How to keep your computer tidy and free from viruses Resources: Information about Apple’s Screen Time and Downtime 165: Getting Things Done with David Allen Things Superhuman Gmail Boomerang Asana Loom ScreenFlow 1Password Hidrate Pocket Tile CleanMyMac If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

The importance of limiting comparison, how to be flexible, focusing on your craft, and why posting frequency isn't very important with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 245 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork reads an email we recently received and offers advice on how to overcome the feelings of feeling stuck. Feeling Stuck  Today’s podcast episode is actually one of our new favorites because it actually came together in less than a week. We received an email from a fellow blogger last week, and in the email, she describes why she’s feeling a bit stuck. She’s optimizing her posts, she’s creating pictures for Pinterest, she’s focusing on email marketing, but her traffic isn’t where she wants it to be. She feels like there’s something that’s she’s missing – a key that will unlock her blog’s potential. And that sounds familiar, right? “I’m doing all of these things…why am I not seeing results?” So this episode is all about that – what to do when you feel like you’ve done everything. You’ll hear this blogger’s anonymous email in its entirety in this episode, and I’m sure the sentiments that are shared in the email will sound really familiar to you. Then Bjork will offer some high-level advice and specific strategies that you can implement if you’re feeling stuck in a similar way. It’s definitely a different kind of episode, but we hope you enjoy it! In this episode, you’ll learn: The importance of limiting comparison How to be flexible and understand what you’re trying to achieve What it means to focus on your craft Why posting frequency isn’t super important Why it might make sense to “niche down” How to serve your audience Resources: 003: Sally McKenney from Sally’s Baking Addiction on Creating Success 018: How to Build an Online Business Without Blogging with Jadah Sellner from Simple Green Smoothies If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

How home office deductions work, why you should consider hiring a CPA, and how to track your mileage with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 240 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks through the ways you can create income without doing more work. Income  Making more money without doing more work…that’s the dream, right? Well, now it’s a reality! Bjork is here today to chat through some of the ways you can work smarter and make more money without doing more work. It’s a really helpful reminder that we don’t necessarily need to be hustling all the time to get our businesses to a new level; some small tweaks in your day-to-day can help get you there as well. In this episode, you’ll learn: How business programs work How to track your mileage What purchases you can expense for your blog Why you should consider hiring a CPA When you should do an S-Corp election How you can hire help Why it’s helpful to review your expenses every quarter How home office deductions work How to be proactive and ask for a raise Resources: Apple Business Automatic Bill Shark If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Ad-supported video players, why user experience is important, and understanding ad impressions with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 238 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about how you can optimize and increase the earnings you receive from the ads on your site. Understanding Ads  Ads can be an effective way to earn money from blogging, but how do you know you’re making the most out of your ad placements? That’s what Bjork is here to talk about today! He’s sharing seven tips to help you increase the earnings you’re receiving from the ads you’re running on your site without having to increase your pageviews. From understanding viewability and impressions to encouraging your readers to stick around on your site, this episode of the podcast will help you make sense of the wonderful world of ad revenue! In this episode, you’ll learn: What viewability is What impressions are Why it’s important to keep user experience in mind when it comes to placing ads on your site How you can encourage people to stick around on your site What overlay ads are What ad-supported video players are What sticky ads are Why you might want to delay using ads Resources: 231: A Better Experience – Building Engagement, Not Just Traffic with Kingston Duffie Slickstream AdSense Mediavine AdThrive Sortable If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Ward chats with Alexa Peduzzi and Bjork Ostrom, of Food Blogger Pro about having a 'member first' mentality, the importance of making sure your pricing reflects the value of your product and the different marketing strategies they've used to grow their audience.

Setting SMART goals, understanding the why behind your goals, and the importance of gratitude with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 235 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about how you can set better goals in the new year. Three Ways to Set Smarter Goals in the New Year  Tomorrow we welcome a new year and a new decade (depending on who you ask). And that’s why we thought it was important to rewind back to our 131st episode, Three Ways to Set Smarter Goals in the New Year with Bjork Ostrom. We all know how new years resolutions or goals typically go: we’re ambitious and make a ton of changes, and we slowly but surely fall out of those habits we once wanted to strengthen. If you’ve experienced this with your new years goals, you’re not alone. And if you have some goals or resolutions you wish to keep this year, we think you’re really going to love this episode. Bjork’s tips will help you create goals that will last and help you accomplish those goals with the right mindset. In this episode, you’ll learn: What SMART goals are Why it’s important to understand why you’re setting a specific goal Why gratitude is so important Resources: Hygge If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

How to get things done and enjoy the work you're doing, why you should think about who you're serving, and how to improve over time with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 233 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks through seven questions to ask yourself as you look to the new year. 7 Questions  At the end of each year, we all get a little retrospective. How did this year go? Was it a good year or a not-so-great year? What can I do differently next year? This episode will help you evaluate the current year in anticipation for the year ahead. Bjork outlines the seven questions you should ask yourself to help you assess, plan, and adjust the way you tackle your business each year. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to take a step back and figure out your goals How to get things done by finding the work you enjoy Why it’s important to think about your audience How to improve over time How to figure out what you need to stop or start doing Resources: Instacart If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

How to filter your emails, why you should create a morning routine, and how to perform quarterly Google Search Console reviews. ----- Welcome to episode 224 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about some of the routines he has implemented to help him stay focused. 5 Routines  Routines can help you establish habits in your work and personal lives, and in this episode, Bjork covers some of the routines that have been the most impactful in his life. While you’re listening, we encourage you to take a look at your day to see where it might benefit from a routine. Maybe you can establish a new morning routine, or maybe you can find a way to make your inbox more manageable. We hope this episode gets you excited about the wonderful world of routines! In this episode, you’ll learn: Why it’s helpful to filter your emails How to label your emails Why Bjork likes morning routines How Bjork journals How to do a quarterly bank review When you should review Google Search Console Why it’s important to analyze the work you’re already doing How to process your inboxes How to evaluate your week Resources: Shoeboxed Things Asana Trello The Five Minute Journal 124: How to Level Up Your Life with UJ Ramdas Google Search Console course 165: Getting Things Done with David Allen If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Welcome to episode 221 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork goes live on Instagram to answer your questions about blogging. ----- Welcome to episode 221 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork goes live on Instagram to answer your questions about blogging. Live  One of our favorite things about working with a community for food bloggers is connecting with that community. When we were thinking about ways we could connect with our podcast community, we quickly figured out that it’s difficult to connect with your podcast listeners. Podcast episodes are typically made up of two distinct “sides” — a recording happening on one side, and then the listening happening on the other. Rarely do those sides meet in the middle. That is, of course, until today.

How to figure out which old posts you should optimize, what it means to "connect" your posts, and a simple way to track your optimization efforts. ----- Welcome to episode 214 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, you’ll learn how to optimize old posts, connect your posts to one another, understand the impact of your optimizations, and more. Optimize  It’s time to talk optimization! And this episode will help equip you with the strategies and processes you need to optimize your posts, build authority, and First, you’ll hear from our SEO Expert, Casey Markee, as he talks about optimizing and republishing old posts. He also talks about whether or not it’s okay to have a 404 page and when you should consider noindexing your posts. Then you’ll hear from Jeff Coyle from MarketMuse, a content planning and optimization software, about connecting your posts to one another and the tools you can use to optimize your posts. And then Bjork Ostrom, rounds out this episode by talking about how you can track and monitor your optimization efforts to make sure that they’re having the impact you hoped. It’s a simple way to keep tabs on whether or not you’re targeting the right posts with the right optimizations. It’s a really helpful episode, and we hope you’ll be able to apply these tips to your own blogging efforts. Enjoy! In this episode, you’ll learn: Who the Father of SEO was How to select old content to optimize and republish What it means to noindex a post If it’s okay to delete a post What technical SEO is and how to optimize for it How you can find posts to optimize Why it’s important to “connect” your posts Tools you can use to optimize your posts How to build authority How annotations in Google Analytics work Resources: Yoast SEO plugin SEMrush Moz Screaming Frog Broken Link Checker WP Rocket ShortPixel Cloudflare Contact Casey on his website, Media Wyse, and on Facebook Google Search Console MarketMuse Connect with Jeff Google Analytics If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

What a Personal Board of Directors does, how to fill the seats on your Personal Board of Directors, and how your Personal Board of Directors can help you grow with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 205 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork wraps up our Projects series by talking about building his Personal Board of Directors. How (and Why) You Need to Build a Personal Board of Directors  In the final episode of our four-part Projects series, Bjork is here to talk about forming his Personal Board of Directors. The people on his Personal Board of Directors help keep him accountable and encourage him to set aside the time to do the things that are important to him. In this episode, you’ll learn how to form a Personal Board of Directors for yourself, what seats you migh want to fill, and how the people on your Personal Board of Directors can help you grow as a business owner and person. Enjoy! In this episode, Bjork shares: What a Board of Directors does The seats he fills on his Personal Board of Directors Who is a part of his Personal Board of Directors What the future of his Personal Board of Directors could look like Resources: Things Zoom If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

A great deal of the businesses we sell at Quiet Light are founded by entrepreneurs looking for the rush of finding the next thing. Sometimes they look to sell because of burnout and sometimes it's just boredom. Today's guest's business is designed to help entrepreneurs really question the goal of the businesses they run. Jason Zook earned social media fame and experienced that burnout while on his first entrepreneurial ride after walking away from his day job. For five years Jason ran IWearYourShirt, creating thousands of videos, photos, posts on social media, and had countless media outlets talking about IWYS during the early days of social media marketing. At some point, Jason realized he had almost created a self-made work prison for himself. He and his creative wife started their company to guide owners towards financial freedom and a business they actually want to work on. Jason's focus is now on working to live rather than living to work. He strives for entrepreneurship with a healthy balance. Episode Highlights: The backstory on Jason's current company, Wandering Aimfully. Why the t-shirt business had to end. The things Jason learned from that business and his subsequent years of starting and growing companies. How Jason and his wife formulated the idea for the business. The importance of setting a mark and working towards it. What the “enough” number means to Jason and his wife. How to create the balance between getting ahead and falling behind. How that balance applies to the business creep that can often take over work-life balance. Ways Wandering Aimfully helps people build their business impactfully based on what they need, How Jason uses challenges to create habits. Transcription: Joe: Most of the businesses that we sell Mark … well maybe not most but a great deal of them are businesses where someone bootstrapped it, put all their energies into it, got it up to a certain level, and then looked around and thought “man, this is kind of work now I'm not loving this day to day anymore; I'm not happy with this challenge and I'm getting burnt out”. It happened to me. I had a cushy gig, I was working 20 hours a week, easy business, recurring revenue, and I looked around and said this isn't fulfilling me, I'm burnt out I need to move on. A lot of buyers that are from the corporate world don't understand that. Those people that are in the entrepreneurial world know that they need that new challenge, that exciting challenge. And as I understand it you had Jason Zook on the podcast; a husband and wife team actually and they talked about working to live not living to work and trying to overcome that burnout challenge. Mark: Yeah, Jason got completely burnt out with one of his 1st businesses and one of his 1st businesses; really simple concept, he would wear a t- shirt that was a sponsor. It would be their company on the t-shirt and he would wear a t- shirt every single day and put up a YouTube video of that and the prices increased every single day for that sponsorship. And so as he put it he said I was doing daily videos before Casey Neistat made that cool to publish daily videos on YouTube. He said it was great initially and he was making money by just wearing t-shirts and having people follow him around with cameras. But then this organization grew and it grew more and more and his whole life every single day was being documented and he built this prison. And I think as entrepreneurs a lot of us can relate with this idea that you build prisons sometimes for yourselves with the businesses that we've built. And so he naturally got completely burned out on that and now his whole focus and life as entrepreneurship but with a healthy balance in that life and understanding what are the real goals of your life. What do you really need and why are you doing what you're doing? And I think these are really important lessons for all of us just to keep in mind and have as a focus when we're pushing that entrepreneurialism envelope like why are we pushing growth, why are we adding this new feature to our business, and really understand what is our goal as an entrepreneur? Maybe you want to be a billionaire and if that's your goal all right then go for it but I think most of us get into this entrepreneurship game for the lifestyle. We get into it for the freedom. We get into it to be able to do what we want to do by our own rules. So are we actually doing that? Are you doing that? And is what you're doing fulfilling you today? So this whole podcast … Jason is somebody that I did not know before this podcast. He and I had never talked before and … just a fascinating guy, an absolutely magnetic personality so I'm excited to share this interview with everyone today. Joe: I don't think we can have enough people on the podcast talking about work life balance. We had Ezra Firestone; Ezra's got a staff of 25 or 30 VA's working all over the world and his work life balance is his primary focus. He and his wife they've got a certain lifestyle that they want to live and he is growing the business but at the same time making sure everybody within the business understands that work life balance. So I'm excited to hear what Jason has to say, it's always interesting to hear somebodies approach in what they do on a day to day basis. Let's go right to it. Mark: Jason, I'm super excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you for agreeing to come on here based off a completely cold and random e-mail that I sent to you. Jason: It was a good cold and random e-mail. As someone who has sent thousands of cold and random e-mails in my time as an entrepreneur, it was a good one. You didn't just kind of like lay out exactly what you wanted, you were kind, you were nice, you really presented yourself well and I was like yeah I'll say yes to this interview. I have no idea who you are, we're meeting for the 1st time in this conversation which I think is fun. Mark: Yeah absolutely and I'll tell you why I wanted to have you on the podcast. I think I said it in an intro e-mail that I sent to you. But on your website, you and your wife have a phrase on there and it's actually one of the core values that I consider my company Quiet Light Brokerage to have and that is that we work so that we can live we don't live so that we can work. This idea that hey we're entrepreneurs, we get obsessed, we love the grind, we like that sort of thing but at a certain point it's got to have something else beyond just the work itself; right? Jason: Yeah. Mark: I would love to get your story, have you share your story real quick with the listeners as to how you kind of came about this with Wandering Aimfully and this new mission that you and your wife have. Jason: Yeah sure. My entrepreneurial journey actually started kind of way late in life for a lot of people who are entrepreneurs like had lemonade stands and they like went door to door and did all those things and started businesses super early; I didn't. I started my 1st business when I was 27 on a whim after leaving a full time job that I in all essence liked it just was a very boring job and I didn't see a lot of potential for myself there. And I really felt this drive and this pull to do something better and something else. I started my own design company. It was just two people and from there I had this kind of crazy idea to get paid to wear t-shirts for a living for no reason whatsoever other than I just thought social media is kind of growing. This was 2008, 2009 I just … I don't know there was just something about it that seemed interesting to me and it struck me one day when I was literally standing in my closet looking at all these clothes that I had paid brands to own and then walk around and kind of schlep and promote. I was like wait why am I doing this? This is so weird. Could someone just pay me to wear their shirt? So that idea did not take off. I launched a website called iwearyourshirt.com five people showed up on the 1st day. I think three of them were my grandmother like refreshing the page, no joke. And then I really had to start doing the entrepreneurial kind of hustle and sprint that we all do to get things started. I was e-mailing friends and family and I was getting on Twitter and jumping in conversations back when Twitter wasn't just a barrage of political nightmare that it is now and that's not to say there's not some still good stuff on Twitter but this was 2008 so it's very different; a very small community. And yeah that idea just kind of took off on its own after a lot of hard work putting in a daily YouTube video. So I recorded 889 videos straight every single day before vlogging was a thing before Casey Neistat was recording videos and we were all watching them and loving them all I was making really terrible videos every day. But yeah that led into a couple of different ventures along the way. I created a software company to help people build and sell online courses because I wanted to build and sell online courses I just wasn't a good one at the time, a couple of other little random things and then yeah just a couple of weird different changes and ebbs and flows. My wife actually worked for my I Wear Your Shirt business and when that had to shut down in 2013 after 5 years she was kind of left with like I don't wanna go back to the nine to five world, I'm going to start my own business as well and so she started a business. So we kind of worked like 12 feet from each other but we always chatted and then we kind of came back together this past year on this Wandering Aimfully project. Mark: So why did the t-shirt business has to end? Jason: So many factors that we can dive into, I'll lay down on the couch and we can talk about them all. Truthfully it was my 1st business and I think so many people can resonate when you start your 1st business you don't know what you don't know. And I didn't know about managing people, I didn't know about managing money, the pricing scheme of I Wear Your Shirt was very poorly designed for paying people at a consistent salary. So the 1st year it was just myself and it was a dollar on the 1st day, $2 in the 2nd day, $3 in the 3rd day and so that pricing scheme is cool because it's so low barrier entry in the beginning and towards the end of the year once you build momentum it makes sense and it adds up. It made $66,795 in the 1st year which is really cool. But when you have five employees as I grew the company too because I thought I had to scale up, I thought I had to grow, I'm reading and watching all of the things that we're all reading and watching and I'm thinking that's what I have to do. I ended up having $30,000 in salary in January when my business only made $800. That doesn't work out well and so it was just a lot of those things where I just was so new to things; we had billables, we were printing all of the t-shirts through an outsourced printing service. I didn't know about just like paying invoices and all those things and so I got very back on bills and I actually built up a $100,000 in debt not overnight but in about a year and a half and it just it was so crazy to me because Mark it went from I was making almost $100,000 with literally no expenses, literally getting e-mails from PayPal like “hey there's a $100,000 in your PayPal account what's going on” to people e-mailing me and going “hey what's going on you can't pay your bills or you're 30 days late in your bills”. And so eventually I just saw the writing on the wall and I was just like this isn't sustainable. I tried this thing, it kind of grabbed its moment in time in social media and the landscape of it and I just wanted to move on to other things plus I really overworked myself every single day running the business, wearing a shirt, managing people, doing all of the marketing and sales and interviews and things. It was just time at the end of five years to move on. Mark: Five years is a long time to be wearing other people's shirts. Jason: And I'm still wearing other people's shirts if you think about it I'm just not talking about them at all. And almost none of them have a brand name on them because I'm just so burnt out from that. But yeah I actually don't regret any of it. I think I learned so many unbelievably important valuable lessons that I continue to use to this day in everything that I do. So while it ended not on a wonderful note and I don't feel like I have like this crazy awesome success story I also have a really relatable story that so many business owners can kind of stand behind me or stand with me and go “yeah my 1st business didn't do well either or my 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th it fizzled out or I didn't manage it properly” and you just learn from those experiences and you kind of take those with you and you kind of take your lumps and move forward. Mark: Yeah you know I would disagree I actually think the idea that you were able to take something as simple as wearing a t-shirt and having somebody paying for that and turning that into something that actually generated revenue is pretty remarkable. Now obviously is it sustainable, eventually, you're going to run into the problem that you ran into which is I don't want to wear your shirt anymore and I don't want to be on TV … have a video done every day and everything else that you ran into. You said something in there in that story that you were reading and listening to what everybody else was reading and listening to, there's a sort of like momentum that's out there in the business community where there is this almost like a psych guy stuff here's what you should be doing and it's all towards drive, drive, drive, grind, grow, expand, and all this sort of stuff. What are some of the things you've learned over the years with all the different ventures that you've been in about listening to that or not listening to it? Jason: The 1st one is more money more problems and as silly and as dumb as that sounds it's true. I mean it's just I don't know any business owners that have taken their business from one level to another level whatever that means and not encountered so much more work, so much more stress, so much more all of the things. And I saw that with myself like in that 1st year of I Wear Your Shirt I was making almost $100,000 because I had some other sponsorship stuff in there. There was literally almost no stress. I mean the daily creativity and all the things I had to do was a lot of work but in the 3rd year of I Wear Your Shirt when I had five employees, we had five sponsors per day, we made almost $600,000 that year; I was so much stressed. It was a nightmare almost. And I'll tell you I made $30,000 that year. I got paid the least as the person who was doing the most. And I think so many people can relate to that and so I just saw all of these things that I was latching onto of like I wanted a million dollar business what does that mean? I wanted this big house, why? I don't need a big house, I actually like having a small place where I know where everything is and I don't have a lot of stuff. And so I really just started to look at a lot of these different values that I was buying into or believing into especially the ones that society puts pressure on you and when you read Entrepreneur.com, or Business Insider, or Forbes, or whatever you're reading we all read these stories of millions and billions and all this stuff. It's like where are the people who are just making $100,000 or a couple $100,000 or $50,000 that are super happy? And it's because those stories don't sell. Those headlines don't get clicked and I really just started to reevaluate all these decisions and it was through a lot of conversations with my wife and we just kept saying this phrase what is it all for? Like what is all of the work for, what is all of the time for, what is all the energy being put into this for if at the end of a day or the end of a week or a month or a year you're so tired and you don't enjoy the life you've created? Why are we doing that? I should just go get a nine to five job at Target and clock in and clock out and leave and that's it like I don't even think about it. And so I do think there's just a lot of misnomers that go on with this like buying into up into the right mentality and you should always be growing and social media landscape can change so you got to grab all the Facebook advertising stuff you can do. It's like no you don't have to do that. You build the business around the life that you want and you really figure out what that means to you and I think that's so personal and subjective to everybody that's starting a business. Mark: At what moment of your life did you really start to formulate that when you and your wife were thinking what are the values that we actually want to have? Because look I agree with you 100%, this idea of I want a million dollar business and once I get a million dollar business I want a 10 million dollar business. When I talk to some of our clients, some of the people that are preparing to sell and I ask them what are your goals, why are you thinking about selling? Because one of the things that I try and impress especially on sellers … I'll tell you a quick story here; the 1st client that I worked with, a good friend of mine he had a company and he came in and said “Hey would you help me sell my business?” Well this is how Quiet Light Brokerage started and I went through the process, we got it sold. I won't say exactly for how much but you know what he was in financial trouble just a couple of years later. He gave up a lifestyle business for a big pile of cash today thinking this is going to set me free only to find out that he was back in the grind that he was in before. And so I'm curious from your standpoint what was it where you started to question that up until right mentality and same maybe it's on up into the right maybe it's whatever is right in front of me today? Jason: Yeah it's funny I get chills because I think back to the exact moment. I was in Fargo, North Dakota speaking at a very small conference called Misfit Con; they don't even do it anymore. And this is like literally 120 people and I was a speaker. No one knew who the speakers were so it's just a group of us sitting in this really cool yoga studio actually kind of converted into this space. A guy stepped on stage and he had well-coiffed hair and he had skinny jeans and he had really nice boots and I'm like this guy's going to tell me all the secrets that I need to know to succeed. And he started telling the story and it was eerily similar to mine of trying to grow, being focused on the money, the big house, the things, the stuff and I come to find out that was Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists and his story was so akin to mine. And then when he started talking about these specific values and these specific things and really questioning all of the stuff that we buy into both societal and personal and these things it really hit me. It hit me hard sitting there and I remember sitting with my wife at the time just looking at her and going like uh-oh we got to rethink everything. And I think I spoke like two or three spaces after him and I just remember spilling my guts about how everything wasn't perfect at the time for my I Wear Your Shirt business and yet I was there to talk about this is a business that was supposedly doing so well. And that flight home after that conference we basically sat down and were just like what do we actually need to live? What do we want our lives to look like? Then those questions are so big and they're so heavy and they're scary because you tend to find yourself thinking well if I'm going to make a decision that's the decision forever. That's just not true. It can be a decision for the next three months, six months, a year, two years, five years, whatever it is and we've changed so much in that time since that conversation; that was 2012, 2013 and it's just been really big for us too at every turn and every opportunity where we can do more or we can sell more or make more is to ask ourselves hold on what is this going to add to our plate. And just like your story with the client that you worked with I find that question to be so interesting to me, I was like if I sell a business or anything I'm a part of, like I have a software company, the online course business, like if I sold that business and I made X amount of money from it what would I do with that time? I like working on that business. I actually enjoy it and I want to invest in it and so if I just sold it for a small chunk of cash which is a sizable chunk of cash, in a long term it's not really that big of a chunk of cash I'm going to have to start over. And I think we see that with so many people and you suppose this way more than I do but so many people sell a business that they actually enjoyed working on only to then find themselves a couple of months or years later bored out of their minds wishing they had something that fulfilled them to work on every day. And that for me is kind of where this comes from too of like I want to make enough money that we don't have to think about money and truthfully we're not there yet. We don't make enough money every month. We were just like we don't care about money but we've set what mark looks like and we're working toward that mark. We call that our enough number and once we hit that number we're just going to stop trying to make money. And you are going to have to fill in gaps [inaudible 00:08:45.1] we have a lot of monthly recurring business stuff. And so it's always going to be a game to just kind of stay around that enough number but I love the work that I'm doing so I'm happy to do that. Mark: How would you balance out the difference between … I think there's two motivations for working hard, right? One is to get ahead the other one is to not fall behind. Jason: Yeah. Mark: Because oftentimes in business I've seen it some of our clients that come to us with distressed businesses where they got to that enough number or probably more than enough and then they're like I made it and then they relaxed and then a year later they're thinking oh my gosh my business just completely fell apart underneath me. How would you approach that in your own life when you get to that stage of having enough to make sure that you're also not necessarily falling behind? Jason: Yeah I think it really depends on your lifestyle and I think lifestyle creep is such an interesting idea that we all run into and just like you started saying earlier it's like well you create a million dollar business and then you want to make a 10 million dollar business or even just a two million dollar business and the reason that that tends to happen is not because you need that money, you don't need the money, it's that you go oh well now I can afford this and so now I'm going to … I need more money to kind of balance that out. And so I think for Caroline and myself, my wife, we really just started to try and define what are the things that we love and want in life and if we don't have those now what does it actually take to get those things? And to really put a price tag on those and then to question those things and to go … for one thing for us has been looking at buying or building a dream home and for most people, that's in like the millions of dollars. For us, I think we could actually do it for a couple hundred thousand dollars. Like we just want a 1200 square foot cool modern pretty fab place and we keep going through the effort of that and just going you know what though the cash that it would take up from for it, the time and stress to deal with everybody building all the things right now in our lives it just doesn't fit. And it may be something we do down the road but it just is not … I don't want to creep into that and have that completely change our life. So to answer your question I really think it's about checking in constantly with the things that matter to you and then really questioning every single one of those things and just going like do I need more money to do this or do I just need to change something in my life or change something in the way that I operate because I kind of … I tend to find for myself at least like flexibility and control of my time is the number one thing I want. Of course, I want more money in the bank but if I can make a little bit less money and have a little bit more time because I'm not working to make more money I'm happier because I can then choose my schedule every single day of my life. I don't have to give up and sacrifice things at the whim of making money and that to me becomes a really important discussion to constantly be having with yourself and thinking about. Because just like you said with that client you can reach your enough number and then just fall back and go okay I'm good like I don't have to do anything anymore and it's like yeah but that's not how business works. You just don't get to a finish line and then you're done and you won the race. You kind of have to stay in the race at a certain point and you find that pace that you can kind of go at that makes sense with you. Mark: Yeah I think something that's interesting with business as well because you talk about lifestyle creep and that's obviously a problem. I think anybody can relate with that but there's also business lifestyle creep that I've found where when you start up a new business some of it … a lot of it is bootstrapping, you're going out there and you're figuring out how am I going to make this business work with whatever little money I have and then you get that client they pay you less money and like awesome I can now pay for ads. It how you start paying for ads, you have an ad budget and then you hire a few employees and now have those employee … the next thing you know your monthly budget is ramping up and you have the added stress of I got to keep layering on more and more revenue to be able to cover this monthly budget as well. I think it's an interesting concept to say core value is both for the business core value is also for yourself and keep reminding yourself of those core values in order to stay true to that and have a balanced life. That's what you question, just kind of riffing on what you're saying there. Jason: No and I do think it's a really valid one because we've thought about that. My wife and I, we live and work at home so where we would have a dining room table we have our desks and it's been that way for the past six years, five years something like that. And for a lot of people that would probably be the worst thing ever. They'd be like oh I don't want to look at my work I want to be completely separate so I need an office or I need a studio or whatever. And so I do think there are some decisions you could make for your business being separate from your life if that really matters to you. For us we run very creative businesses, we love the community that we built so I don't hate my e-mail inbox. I don't loathe looking at these things so for us it is such a blend and lifestyle career business creep for us would potentially be like oh we want like a really cool office base like we've talked about this before. And it's like yeah but we have that in our home it's just not a full dedicated space and we don't actually need that. So it's continuing to come back to that and then honestly I think a big part of it too is not watching all of the videos and reading all the stories of the cool office spaces. Because then you just get stuck in that mode of like oh yeah but I really want a ping pong table and the full living wall and it's like I don't need that. That's just a cool thing and I can appreciate someone else having that. Mark: I do want to nap pad. I'm just going to say it like I want a nap pad in my office because that would be awesome. I've got a glass door you can actually see it. If you're listening in your car you can't see it of course but I have a glass door behind me so I can't really take naps in my office. Let's talk a little bit about your community. I love what you guys are doing with the community over at WanderingAimfully.com. Tell me a little bit about it and who it's targeted towards and what the whole purpose of this is. Jason: Yeah I think it's a really good question of who it's targeted toward because when we started to blend Caroline and mines two businesses together in March of 2018 … and actually the conversation started many months before that. We weren't sure who to target because her business was targeted to soulful creatives which is kind of general in a way and my business was targeted to business owners who just want to get better at taking action. Again very general audience it's not like stay home moms who love to cook vegan meals. It's like it's not as focused as it could be. And so when we started Wandering Aimfully it was very generic of like independent creative business owners and that's designers, musicians, artists, [inaudible 00:24:57.5] and we really found that it was tough to get people to identify of like hey I'm raising my hand I fit within Wandering Aimfully. They kind of felt like they did but it just wasn't kind of niche enough if you will. And so in the past couple of months we really decided to hone in further on okay who have we attracted over the years that we've made the most impact for? And what we found is that that's service based business owners or like client based business owners; so that is your designers, that's your developers, that's your coaches, that's people who have clients and that they want to move away from selling their time one on one to building digital product businesses. So it's having online courses, books, workshops, membership communities of their own whatever that is. And we went back to the root of what did we do when we were getting started and that's exactly what we did. We were service based business owners and we wanted to stop trading our time for money and we want to try and reach more people and make more of an impact based on what we had learned and experienced. And so now that's essentially who Wandering Aimfully is for and there are some fringe benefits to people who are not those people but if you run a service business and you want to transition into selling digital products we're the perfect community for you because we ourselves have had that exact experience. We know exactly how to help you. We built now a six months program that helps people really do that without burning out because we just decided the people need to slow the hell down and not try and transition their entire business in 24 to 48 hours or a couple of weeks. And it's been really interesting to shift the focus on this is exactly who we are for and it's a smaller audience and you have people who self-identify much faster than we did before where people are like I don't know if it's right for me it's like now they know that it's right for them and then for everybody else they can still kind of try and figure out if it's right for them but we can now more clearly identify. Mark: That's pretty cool. I've kind of poked around through your website and you guys have all sorts of prepackaged courses and checklists and everything else. One thing I love about this and I can relate with buyers who are acquiring a new business or anyone growing a business as well you get into something and there's a sense of I've got to be doing all the things all right now. I got to have my Facebook marketing strategy, do some CRO, get an Instagram account going because it doesn't have that and it's this long list of things and you're going to just kill yourself in trying to do that. What you guys have through this community, I saw you have a bunch of checklists and action plans for some pretty normal things that a lot of different companies are going to have to deal with as well. And it seems like the entire goal and correct me if I'm wrong but the entire goal is just that breaking up these projects into bite sized pieces. Jason: Yeah absolutely and we just want to help people navigate. Like you said when someone is running a business or starting a business or making that transition from clients to products there's a lot that can be done and really what we try and do because it's what we've done for ourselves is to identify what do you need to do. Like what is actually going to make an impact? Because for so many people a Facebook ad campaign or an Instagram account is not at all what they should be focusing on. What they should be focusing on is creating some type of really valuable content that can be searched for on the internet because Google is still the number one place that people go on the internet and that is not going to change for quite a while. And so we've just seen through a lot of experience that people want the shiny new and fancy and we've been there as well, we've been one of those things too but you find that they actually don't make that big of an impact on your business and it's a lot of time spent without a lot of return. And listen I'm all for branding, I'm all for hitting the word out about your business and going where people's attention is but I think that there's a lot to be said for having a good foundation for your business, making sure that your ducks are in a row and so much and you probably see this so often is as business owners a lot of times we don't even know the basics of expenses and cash flow and I know that stuff can sound really silly to people like oh how do you not know that? It's because it's different for every business. So what we're taught about how to run a business may not be applicable to the business we actually create and start. And so I think that so much of that we've seen is just trying to help people navigate their own journey based on our experiences, experiences of community members, identifying bigger tasks like you said that people want to do like if you want to start a podcast that's a pretty big task. There's a lot of things that go into that that you don't see and so we've broken it down. I think it's in like I don't know … I want to say less than 100 steps and that sounds like a ton but some of the steps are like name your podcast step cool, check it off the list. But it gives you this incredible bite sized thing and people find it so helpful to just have this list to be able to like yes I did that, yes I did that, and go through and knock it all out as opposed to having to think of everything themselves. Mark: Yeah it reminds me of a couple of other episodes that we did here at the Quiet Light Podcast. One was with Bjork Ostrom who owns Food Blogger Pro and a few other pretty big food blogs and he talked a lot about … he's grown that company from nothing into a significant enterprise and he talked a lot about this idea of I'm not going to try and double my business tomorrow. I'm going to try and have this single daily marginal improvement and the compound in effect of this on a day to day basis. The other person … you talked about going back to the basics and focusing on those things that really work well the person you're agreeing with right now Babak Azad who grew Beach Body into a billion dollar business that was on the podcast and he told me … he said people are focusing on way too many advertising channels. He said that you should really be focusing on just a few; probably one, maybe two because if you're focusing on six that means you're not doing any of them well. You've got to focus on those basics so I think that's fantastic advice. Okay, I'm going to round this out with a final question here for you and this is really the content on your site. I absolutely love … I've always liked this kind of I'm doing this productivity experiment or just whatever sort of experiment. Jason: Yeah. Mark: You recently rode a stationary bike at your standing desk for 30 days and I haven't read how it finishes out but how did that go? Jason: Cliff hanger, okay, so the reason why I did this experiment … why I love doing 30 day challenges specifically is because it's just like you said with like you do these little daily things that can add up and incrementally make a big change or make a big impact. And it's hard to change, it's hard to build habits, it's hard to do those things and I highly recommend a book Atomic Habits by James Clear; a friend of mine and just a super smart guy when it comes out. So if anybody is like I'm bad at habits James will help you, that book is really great. But for me, I just always like breaking these things down into 30 day challenges. So to round this out I rode a stationary bike at my standing desk every single day for 30 days. I just wanted to know could I get a little bit of exercise every day because I'm just at my desk. I didn't want to sit at my desk and do those things and I ended up burning 18,339 calories in 30 days. It's insane. And I wrote this at the end of the thing and I talked about this in the video that I kind of recapped and put it all together it did not feel like I was working out. It felt like I was sitting at my desk very slowly methodically riding this bike while doing e-mails and bunch of other admin tasks and the average amount of time that I rode the bike a day was one hour. It didn't feel like I was riding an hour because I would break it up into different chunks throughout the day. I rode an average of 25 miles a day and at the end of it my pants fit better, I had more energy every day, and it really became a good solid habit for me. So it was super … just a weird random thing I wanted to do but now like I still have the bike we're now a couple of weeks after that I've finished up I'm still riding it. It's great. My wife is starting to ride it and it's just one of those things that's like challenge yourself to do something for 30 days that you might think is weird or out there are different and see what kind of tangible result you get cumulatively over the time and you might realize like wow yeah in a couple of days of course I didn't get like six pack abs from riding this bike but I think if I do this for six months I'm probably going to be in a better shape than I would have been than just if I'd continue doing at the gym and eating better and all those things. Mark: That's fantastic. I absolutely love everything that you guys stand for. I think it's so easy for all of us entrepreneurs to build businesses but at the same time build little prisons for ourselves as well because we get so driven by productivity when we worship at that altar and then also by just having more and more and more instead of thinking about like you said at the beginning that focus on the goals and ask yourself a question and I'm encouraging everyone listening that's thinking about buying a business or maybe you want to sell the business or you're building something right now to ask those questions; why, for what, what are your goals, what are your values, what do you value in life, a really good advice. Jason: Yeah, absolutely. Great chatting with you. Mark: Thanks for having … thanks for coming on I should say. Way to end that professionally. Alright, thanks for having … for coming on Jason. Jason: Yeah no problem.   Links and Resources: https://wanderingaimfully.com/ Atomic Habit

What is an EIN, how to separate your business finances from your personal finances, and keeping your books in order with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 204 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about how we’ve structured our businesses and the tools we use to manage them. LLCs, S-Corps, and Accounting, oh my! If you’re generating income with your blog, it’s important that you have your business structured in a way that you not only understand, but that helps you make strategic decisions in the future. Bjork is here today to chat through how we have our businesses set up, as well as the tools we use to keep track of our financials. You’ll learn why it’s important to separate your business income from your personal income, how to make sure your books are in order, and more to give you a better idea of how you could be managing your blog expenses and income. In this episode, Bjork shares: How you can be strategic with your losses Why it’s important to separate your business income from your personal income What an EIN is Why we’ve separated the financials for each of our businesses How we make sure our books are in order What tools we use to keep track of our purchases and income Resources: QuickBooks Pilot Shoeboxed Leave us a review on iTunes! If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Balancing the attention you give to ads, increasing your business' earning potential, and making a blog visit more valuable with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 203 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork chats about how we’re strategically targeting our low-hanging fruit. How We’re Finding and Juicing the Low-Hanging Fruits in Our Businesses  Working smarter, not harder. Sounds like the dream, right? That’s exactly what this episode is about; putting in a bit of work and getting a big return. This episode is part two of our four-part “Projects” series, and Bjork is sharing some ways that you can be thinking more strategically about the low-hanging fruit in your own business. He’ll encourage you to find the things you’re already doing and do them a little bit better so that you can be more efficient and effective with your work. In this episode, Bjork shares: The two ways you can optimize the ads on your site How you can balance the attention you want to give up to ads How you can increase the earning potential of your business How to make a blog visit more valuable Resources: AdThrive Mediavine Slickstream OneSignal 202: WP Tasty – Our Early Stage Strategy for Building Traffic and Marketing with Bjork Ostrom If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Retargeting website visitors, specific opt-ins, and quick-start guides with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 202 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about WP Tasty’s traffic and marketing strategy. Our Early Stage Strategy for Building Traffic and Marketing  We’re so excited for this episode because it marks the start of our three-part series, “Projects.” Today’s episode focuses on WP Tasty, our sister site for WordPress plugins for food bloggers. One of the words that you’ll hear Bjork say a few times throughout this episode is the word “intentional,” and it’s at the core of the strategies that we’re sharing today. We encourage you to take some of the strategies you’ll hear today and see if you can apply them to your own blog or business in an intentional way! In this episode, Bjork shares: Why WP Tasty’s churn rate is low Why support is so important Where traffic is for WP Tasty How WP Tasty is optimizing their traffic Why it’s helpful to create content in buckets How WP Tasty is handling content scheduling and planning How WP Tasty uses pixels to retarget customers How to make a “quick start” guide for your content Why a specific opt-in is more helpful than a generic one Resources: WP Tasty WP Tasty’s blog Ahrefs 091: Optimizing Recipes for SEO with Joost De Valk from Yoast SEO CoSchedule 201: Email Marketing for Bloggers with Matt Molen Moz Sign up for the Food Blogger Pro waiting list If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

How we built a membership site on WordPress, how we work as a team, and how we run our business with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 200 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about the tools that we use to run Food Blogger Pro. The State of Food Blogger Pro  And the day is here! Welcome to the 200th episode of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! To celebrate, we’re focusing on…Food Blogger Pro! More specifically, this episode focuses on how we run Food Blogger Pro as a membership site, business, and producer of content. Bjork talks about all of the tools that are essential to running Food Blogger Pro, and we encourage you to think about the ways that you could incorporate some of them into your own blog or business. Whether this is your first Food Blogger Pro Podcast episode or your 200th, thank you for making the FBP Podcast a part of your week! In this episode, Bjork shares: How we built a membership site on WordPress The plugins we’re using on WordPress How we work as a team How the business works How the podcast works Resources: 000: Our Beliefs, Our Hopes, and Our Dreams 195: Some Exciting Updates Coming to Food Blogger Pro with Bjork Ostrom Restrict Content Pro bbPress Stripe PayPal Intercom Nutrifox ActiveCampaign ConvertKit Vimeo ScreenFlow Slack Asana Zoom Loom G Suite Quickbooks Shoeboxed Justworks Slavic401k PeopleKeep Track1099 Heil PR40 USBPre 2 Libsyn If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

How we started Food Blogger Pro, why we're switching to WordPress, and how to start something with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 195 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork chats about a big and exciting change we’re making on Food Blogger Pro. Some Exciting Updates Coming to Food Blogger Pro  Something very exciting has been happening behind the scenes here at Food Blogger Pro HQ for the past few months, and we’re finally spilling the beans: we’re moving to WordPress! That’s right! We’re migrating Food Blogger Pro from a CMS called ExpressionEngine to our recommended CMS for food bloggers, WordPress. There are many reasons why we’re switching over to WordPress, and that’s what Bjork is here to talk about today. He’ll share how Food Blogger Pro was initially set up, why we think WordPress will be a huge win for our membership site, strategies for starting something big, and more. We’re so excited to share this new and improved version of Food Blogger Pro with you. :) In this episode, Bjork shares: The story of how Food Blogger Pro started How Food Blogger Pro is currently set up Why we’re moving to WordPress His thoughts about starting something Resources: Kicktastic FortySeven Media Sign up for the Food Blogger Pro waiting list! If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

We Get to Know business developer and creator Bjork Ostrom from Food Blogger Pro & Pinch of Yum. We were absolutely honored to chat with the ever inspiring Bjork.  He requires little introduction in the food blogging world.  Bjork is the founder of foodbloggerpro.com – a membership website that teaches food bloggers how to start, grow, and monetize their blogs. After helping his wife Lindsay get started with her food blog, pinchofyum.com, in 2010, Bjork started to wonder: is it possible to make a living from this blog? In 2011, he began publicly sharing the traffic and income that he and his wife Lindsay were generating from their blog, Pinch of Yum, in monthly income reports as a way to document their progress and share their findings with other food bloggers. These income reports have been a unique resource for many bloggers across all niches as they have ultimately documented how the couple took their site from a $20/month hobby to a 6-figure business. Today, Bjork continues to run Food Blogger Pro while also developing two new software tools, WP Tasty and Nutrifox Bjork is a talented educator at heart with a passion to uplift and help others.  In this interview, he talks candidly about the ups and downs of growing their successful business, how deep purpose and intent outweigh growth and financial gain, his favorite book and meal and what it’s like being a new dad to 3-month old Solvi.  We loved this interview, gained personally from his perspective, and hope you will too. Visit wegettoknow.com to explore original and guest related content and to learn more about our podcasts and guests. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dr. C Vitamins. Use our code WEGETTOKNOW to save 30% off your order of their pharmaceutical grade and medically endorsed vitamins. Dr C Vitamins are the highest quality and are tested for potency and purity that ensure their quality www.drcvitamins.com

Intentional effort, going by stopping, and finding the good with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 183 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, we’re rewinding back to a Bjork solo episode where he talks about how to keep going when you’re not sure you can continue.  How to Keep Going Happy 2019! For today’s podcast episode, we’re rewinding back to a solo Bjork episode called, “How to Keep Going.” This episode was originally published in August 2017, but the strategies, advice, and techniques Bjork shares will help you stay motivated in the new year. It’s tough to keep going, keep doing, and keep creating, especially when you’re trying to balance it with the other aspects of your life. The tips Bjork shares in this episode will help you get up each and every day to do the work. In this episode, Bjork shares: Why someone else’s path might not be the one for you How to find your own path Why time is a key ingredient How The Path differs from The Resistance How temporarily stopping can help you keep going Why deadlines are important and how they have impacted Pinch of Yum and Food Blogger Pro Why gratitude moves you forward Resources: Open for Business Podcast Startup Podcast Smart Passive Income Podcast FE International Website Brokerage Quiet Light Brokerage Episode 032: Buying & Selling Websites with Mark Daoust from Quiet Light Brokerage Pinch of Yum - Afton posts If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

A free event (and you're invited!), proactive content consumption, and microlearning with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 174 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about the ways that you can practice 1% infinity with your blog or business. 7 Ways To Practice 1% Infinity If you’ve been around Food Blogger Pro for a while, chances are that you’ve heard of 1% infinity. It means making a little bit of progress, every single day, forever, and it’s our philosophy here at FBP HQ. But how do you actually practice 1% infinity in your own life? That’s the question Bjork is answering in today’s episode. And we’d love to know: what’s the #1 way you practice 1% infinity in your business? Let us know in the comments at foodbloggerpro.com/174! In this episode, Bjork shares: Why free events and webinars are valuable What proactive content consumption is How to block out time for microlearning An easy to fill your day with knowledge Why it’s important to connect with both similar and diverse groups of people How conferences or in-person events are inspiring What structure-free times are Resources: Register for our Video in 2019 Summit! Pocket This Week in Startups Startups for the Rest of Us MacBreak Weekly Mixergy If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Thanks to our Reviewer of the Week, Aaron from Fat for Weight Loss! If you’d like to be featured, leave a review for us on iTunes and include your name and blog name in the review.

Staying motivated, avoiding mistakes, and refreshing old content with Olena Osipov. ----- Welcome to episode 172 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Olena Osipov from iFOODreal about the importance of dreaming big in order to grow your blog. Dreaming Big Your goals, dreams, and aspirations shape the direction in which you take your business and blog, and Olena’s journey is a great example of that. You’ll learn how she stayed motivated and encouraged through all of the ups and downs of blogging and how she managed to take her blog full-time. Olena is living the dream, and she talks all about how she did it in this episode! In this episode, Olena shares: What it was like to move from Ukraine to Canada How she decided to start her blog How she stayed motivated How to keep going and connect with others What her biggest mistake was How she saw 75% growth in traffic SEO recommendations she received Why updating old recipes was so helpful Resources: Unsplash iFOODreal Pat Flynn 053: Pat Flynn’s Tips for Building Online Businesses That Fly 097: How to Create a Full-Time Income from Blogging Using The Egg Carton Method with Bjork Ostrom 093: How Finding a Niche Transformed a Business with Meggan Hill from Culinary Hill 132: Perfecting Your Story and Your Brand with Laurie Buckle 091: Optimizing Recipes for SEO with Joost De Valk from Yoast SEO Google Ads Keyword Planner Google Trends Ahrefs Moz 133: Optimizing Your Food Blog’s SEO with Casey Markee 136: Optimizing for Search Results on Google and Pinterest with Raquel Smith Tasty Recipes Nutrifox Tasty Pins Follow Olena on Facebook and Instagram If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Thanks to our Reviewer of the Week, HayMade! If you’d like to be featured, leave a review for us on iTunes and include your name and blog name in the review. We’d like to thank our sponsors, WP Tasty! Check out wptasty.com to learn more about their handcrafted WordPress plugins specifically made for food bloggers.

Advice for bloggers, starting a business, and publicizing income with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 164 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week, we’re playing an episode from The Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast. In this episode, Bjork chats with Danielle Liss about trends in blogging, how they started all of their businesses, why they decided to write about their income on Pinch of Yum, and so much more! You’ll also learn about his favorite books and whether he’s a Mac or PC guy. In this episode, Bjork discusses: How he and Lindsay transitioned into entrepreneurship How Food Blogger Pro started Why it’s important to fulfill a need How Nutrifox and WP Tasty started 1% infinity and advice for bloggers Thanks to our Reviewer of the Week, Emily! If you’d like to be featured, leave a review for us on iTunes and include your name and blog name in the review. We’d like to thank our sponsors, WP Tasty! Check out wptasty.com to learn more about their handcrafted WordPress plugins specifically made for food bloggers. Resources: Get the resources for this episode here: https://www.businessese.com/episode48/

We love a success story. Headlines continue to sound the death knell for bloggers and blogging, but the truth is that this medium is far from dead. What it's doing is evolving— growing up and learning responsibility, really— and there is no shortage of paths bloggers can take to also evolve, honing their craft and maximizing their potential. ...continual improvement, every day, over a long period of time. -Bjork Ostrom Bjork Ostrom and his wife Lindsay are the perfect example of that: they launched the food and recipe blog Pinch of Yum back in 2010, and they've been taking their food blogging business to the next level ever since. Bjork is the founder of Food Blogger Pro, a membership website that teaches food bloggers how to start, grow, and monetize their blogs. Day to day, you’ll also see him around WP Tasty (the go-to place for WordPress plugins for food bloggers), Nutrifox (a tool for creating your own custom nutrition labels), and Pinch of Yum, as well as hosting the Food Blogger Pro podcast. We're super excited to have you listen in on our conversation with Bjork! In this episode you'll learn about: The Food Blog Money Making Experiment: income reports and why they were included them on Pinch of Yum the story behind the launch of Food Blogger Pro trends in blogging and the influencer space Nutrifox, WP Tasty and the plugins that they offer advice for those looking to succeed in this space today What small thing can you do TODAY to take your food blogging (or any blogging!) to the next level? Let's brainstorm over in Businessese HQ, our private Facebook group for digital entrepreneurs and all-around awesome influencers of all kinds. Resources: Food Blogger Pro and Pinch of Yum WP Tasty: Tasty Pins, Tasty Links, and Tasty Recipes Nutrifox The Food Blog Money Making Experiment The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World by Rand Fishkin Contact Bjork: bjork@foodbloggerpro.com

Monetization strategies, thriving on social media, and ignoring comparison with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 160 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, we’re sharing a recording from our most recent Live Q&A on Food Blogger Pro. A Sneak Peek into an FBP Live Q&A You are getting a sneak peek into one of our favorite perks that comes with a Food Blogger Pro membership: Live Q&As! We hold a Live Q&A for our members every month, and they’re a chance for our members to get answers to their toughest blogging questions…live. Our Q&As are the perfect opportunity to invite our experts to chat about a specific topic, but they’re also great for picking Bjork and Lindsay’s brains. This month’s Q&A was an “Ask Bjork Anything,” and Bjork answered our members’ questions about email lists, photography, monetization strategies, and more. Enjoy this sneak peek into Food Blogger Pro Live Q&As! In this episode, you’ll learn: How Bjork and Lindsay monetized Pinch of Yum in the early days The difference between profit and revenue Strategies for new bloggers who want to reach out to brands How to handle new social media platforms like IGTV The ideal Pinterest image size How Lindsay stores her photography props The best ways to grow your email list How Pinch of Yum started to build a team How to not get discouraged while you’re growing your blog How to promote products on your blog What you should do with old content How we set up our bootcamps Resources: Apply for our Member Success Agent position! Pinch of Yum income reports 149: How to Get Your Content to Stand Out on Pinterest with Yuka Ohishi 10 Mistakes that Bloggers Make and How to Fix Them 7 Essential Tools You Need to Shoot Your Own Recipe Videos Wayback Machine Zoom If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Thanks to our Reviewer of the Week, Madison from A Joyfully Mad Kitchen! If you’d like to be featured, leave a review for us on iTunes and include your name and blog name in the review. We’d like to thank our sponsors, WP Tasty! Check out wptasty.com to learn more about their handcrafted WordPress plugins specifically made for food bloggers.

For those of you that don't already know Mike Jackness, he runs an ecommerce business approaching 10m a year in revenue, and is the co-host of the EcomCrew Podcast. On the Podcast Mike shares his direct experience with listeners to help them grow their ecommerce businesses. If you've tuned in to our Podcast regularly, you've heard Mark and I talk about how multiple revenue streams increase the overall value of your business (by de-risking it). So…if you want a more valuable business why not expand it to include email? But email marketing is dead right? All junk mail and spam. If that's true why does Mike get an open rate of 30% on his emails…and generate over 52% of his revenue for ColorIt from email? Because it works…and he does it in a “helpful”, customer friendly way. On today's Quiet Light Podcast Mike shares his process with email marketing using Klaviyo, and talks about how their Facebook synchronization feature enhances his customer reach and overall return on investment. The Facebook ads produce a whopping 1500% return on investment! You can learn about Klaviyo through their online training feature, and listen in to the EcomCrew Podcast and pick up additional tips and strategies. Mike and Dave also offer specific training such as importing from China, Launching on Amazon and finding your product niche. Episode Highlights: Using Klaviyo email marketing software to produce over 50% of revenues Add on the Facebook Synchronization piece and boost your ROI (1500% in Mike's case) Email marketing should be “helpful”. Treat the customers the way you want to be treated. The “trifecta” as a marketer includes an email address, a facebook messenger list and have the customer pixel'd. Google, Yahoo, AOL etc. look for a high open rate. Remove customers who don't open emails after 13 weeks. There are no “secret 10 step plans” that work for every model. Know your business variables and apply them to increase your success. EcomCrew Podcast has produced over 150 Podcasts. And yes..the best episode is #88. Knowing the value of your business and planning for an exit – is the smart thing to do. Transcription: Mark: Oh welcome back from Italy. Joe: Thanks man, it's good to be back. Mark: Ah is it really? Joe: Yeah that's a good question, I don't know. Mark: Well welcome back all the same. I'm sure everybody's glad to hear you instead of me for a change. Joe: I'm a little tanner and a little fuzzy. I haven't shaved in a couple weeks. Mark: Yeah. Joe: Haven't trimmed it a couple of weeks I should say. Mark: Haven't trimmed … are you missing the espresso and the- Joe: Oh man café, ginseng, the views of the ocean. We were at the coast for most of the times as you now we're in Rome as well but up in the north and coast of Italy is absolutely gorgeous. Mark: Hey I got a business idea for you. I think you and I need to start a podcast about traveling to Italy and of course, you would have to go onsite for that. Joe: I think it's a great idea. Let's do it. Mark: All right you guys we're going to shut down Quiet Light Brokerage and move on to a new business, new venture; a podcast about Italy but stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, we do actually have something related to Quiet Light Brokerage and that is … and to buying and selling online businesses; you talked to a mutual friend of ours, somebody who's been a friend of Quiet Light Brokerage for a while Michael Jackness. Joe: Mr. Mike Jackness from EcomCrew. Mike and I go back to him at e-commerce shield presentation he did on email marketing and a Klaviyo on what he does within his ColorIt Company, the adult coloring book company. And you would think email marketing is dead but this guy generates 52% of his revenue from email marketing. Has like a 30% open rate and just nails it, hammers it down and produces a ton of revenue that way and does Facebook synchronization. He talks about it all, on his Facebook synchronization that's part of Klaviyo, don't want to get too technical but he gets a 1500% return on investment. You and I have talked about this all the time, diversification of revenue streams does what to a business other than add more revenue; it's more valuable, right? Mark: It absolutely reduces the risk, increases stability, yeah. Joe: That's right. So we talked about that. We talked about the ability to expand beyond your typical just one source of revenue e-commerce business whether it be your Shopify store or your Amazon FBA site using tools like Klaviyo and Facebook Messenger, things of that nature. And then we talked a little bit about EcomCrew what they do there. EcomCrew is yes a podcast Mike and Dave have been doing it for almost three years now and they just simply help people. They've got a … my favorite subject is the under the hood section where they actually talk to an e-commerce owner about the problems within their business and try to help them right there right on the podcast sharing a lot of detailed information for people to help themselves. Mark: That is pretty cool. He has a ton of knowledge absolutely. The podcast they have is fantastic. I think the topic itself is really fantastic especially as people are trying to build up more integrated marketing systems. You know this idea of having their email coincide with a live Facebook audience and the marketing that you're doing there. Really really kind of advanced stuff but really good stuff and those numbers are staggering; 1500% ROI on Facebook. Joe: Yeah, huge. Mark: Incredible. Joe: Huge and he started small. He started testing little things just like everyone else. It's not like he had all this knowledge, he figured it out along the way. And just to put some numbers behind Mike and his expertise he's hoping that 2018 will be the year when his business overall hits the 10 million dollar revenue mark. So he's not a small player, he's doing a great job. Somebody that is now traveling around the world doing presentations and speaking on E-commerce Group Podcast subject and on email marketing and e-commerce in general, so definitely somebody worth listening to. Mark: You know one thing I do want to say before we jump into the episode, when people are listening to these numbers and hearing things like 1500% ROI, 10 million dollars breaking this year, I think it can be really intimidating for some people that are maybe at the beginning stages to hear this and to see all the opportunity and see so many advanced stuff these people are doing. We did an episode with Dan from Science of Skill who pulled about two million dollars of revenue from an email list of about 11 or 12,000 people. We've talked to Bjork Ostrom from Food Blogger Pro who is completely dominating that world. And I think the one thing just to keep in mind if you're hearing these episodes and seeing what some of these people are doing don't be overwhelmed by it and understand something that you alluded to Joe; he's done this over time. Focus on this continual improvement every day, small little group improvements and you can work yourself up. These guys didn't jump up to this in one month they did this over time. Joe: Yeah and on the podcast EcomCrew, he'll talk to and work with people that are doing 50,000 dollars a year in revenue and that's what they do under the hood and they help that. He'll also do it for folks that are doing half a million in revenue or five million in revenue but you know at all stages there's different tools and resources that can be used to help people grow their business. And bottom line is Mike's just a really nice guy. He's an expert in the arena. He's sharing the information. He's not afraid of competition. He says if I share information about my business and competition comes up and bites me in the heels it's because I didn't do a good enough job in promoting my own products. Mark: That's awesome. All right let's get to it. Joe: Hey folks it's Joe from Quiet Light Brokerage and today I've got Mike Jackness on the line with me. Hey Mike how's it going? Mike: Good man, it's good to be here. It's good to see you, I wish it was in person but it's … at least we're actually … we're in the same room. Joe: I agree. Good to see you as well and I know you've been traveling the world, good to be back in San Diego I hear right? Mike: It is man, like I can live anywhere in the world I want. At least we could at the time when we moved here I was like we had a virtual business but it's we're kind of anchored down here now but I want to be here and I feel sad whenever I had to go somewhere because it's San Diego, it's a pretty awesome spot. Joe: Well you got good problems. You're kind of a big shot now; you're travelling the world [crosstalk 00:06:51.0] all over the place. For those folks listening that don't know you why don't you, as you know we don't do formal introductions here at Quiet Light. Why don't you share a little bit of background on yourself? So what your history is, what you're doing now so that they understand who we're talking to today. Mike: Yeah no problem it's always [inaudible 00:07:07.3] to talk about yourself but I'll give it a shot. I've been doing this online marketing stuff for … this dates me for about 15 years. I actually quit my job back in 2004 and I've been doing this stuff ever since. Like some I retired in between a couple businesses that we were doing for a couple years and RVed around the country and got bored of being retired so we got sucked back into the business again and it was an e-commerce this time and we started doing that a few years ago. It's been almost five years now and are on the road to build an eight figure business this year. We'll get to crack eight figures this year or next year and along the way we've been documenting all that on EcomCrew. So it's been a much different environment than what I was doing before which was affiliate marketing where everybody was really guarded; you never talked about anything you did because everyone was kind of a competitor and going after the same traffic. But in e-commerce, it's like this multi-trillion dollar industry and you're never going to be the one selling all the things in your niche. And one of the things that we do is coloring for adults and I always say like I'm never going to select all the gel pens in the world. So talking about what we do and being open about it I think has been cool and yeah it might create some competitors but if they can catch me I feel like it's my fault. It's kind of been my philosophy plus I'm just more secure about everything I do now that I'm a little bit older. And I look at the things that come out of it positively, which is getting to meet people like you which would never happen if it wasn't for EcomCrew and speaking and all these things. So and for the most part like 99% of what we do; helping other people doesn't adversely affect us and for the one [inaudible 00:08:41.9] that does you know so be it whatever. Joe: Well you just touched on it what you do believe and I'm … for people listening EcomCrew is just that. It's what we do at Quiet Light, it's helping other people. Help them first then things come back to you. And I've seen you do presentations on the adult coloring books and the email marketing behind it. I've listened to the EcomCrew podcast; I worked with Dave as you know as well. So I want to talk about both but let's just answer the simple question first about email marketing; you know I'm an old school direct marketer, I've been self-employed since 1997 believe it or not. Mike: Nice. Joe: It was radio direct marketing back then and then the next evolution at that point was email right? As old isn't email marketing dead, are you making any money with it? Mike: Yeah and it's a trick question right, or it's a blue question, it's a softball question. You know when I first got into doing email marketing for e-commerce I felt the same way and I had drug my feet forever and it's probably one of my bigger regrets in this business for a couple reasons. Number one, I think its human nature to approach stuff in life and in business the way that you think about it yourself. So for me, I flipping hate email. It's my biggest nemesis. I cannot get to Inbox 0 no matter how hard I try. It … I'm unsubscribing for more things than I'm subscribing to just to try to get email under control and I just viscerally have this negative hatred in reaction towards email. So you know I didn't want to get into emailing people because I … you know how I am I like to treat others like I like to be treated. So for me, that was the conflict more than anything. It's like I'm going to start emailing people and I wouldn't want to even receive these emails myself. So that was the basis for the whole thing to start with so I was slow at doing it. But listening to other people talk and going to other you know a lot of these conferences and you still hear email as a prevalent thing and it's important; you should be doing email etcetera etcetera. So eventually I started dipping my toes into it and what I realize now many years later first of all email is 52% of our revenue. I was just looking before doing this podcast; it's 52% of our revenue for ColorIt. So it's a massive amount of our business. But our open rates- Joe: That's 52% of nearly an eight figure business. Mike: So just to … yeah [inaudible 00:11:07.1] that's just on ColorIt.com so we also sell on Amazon and Amazon is two thirds of our business so … but it's two thirds of a million dollar business because ColorIt.com does about a million dollars a year. And as a business overall ColorIt is bigger than that because you add in the Amazon component. But yeah what we do on ColorIt.com like when it's our own website and we control all of our own destiny; email marketing is a mass sort of part of that and it has a massive halo effect that you can't directly determine. But it has a massive halo effect on our Amazon business as well. Because people are reading these emails and they eventually go buy on Amazon. We have a lot of data on this but you can't … it's not empirical, you can't tell definitively like exactly what's going on there. But I mean totally you can look at the numbers and say okay by doing these things over here that it's affecting the stuff over here. So it definitely makes a big difference. Joe: Yeah for sure and then we're going to talk about open rates there in the email before I interrupt. Mike: Yeah. So our open rates are close to 30% so they hover somewhere 28 to 32% depending on what stage we are on scrubbing or list. So one of the things that we work really hard on is email deliverability; making sure things end up in the primary inbox, not in spam; that we are providing value to people so they want to open our emails. So that's been a really big angle for us so we kind of use the 80-20 rule here where at least 80% of our emails are helpful and they're not hitchy in any way of what we're trying to sell you something. And it's really more like 90-10. The vast majority of what we send out is helpful tips and tricks or things you want to know. So for instance in the coloring space; how to blend your shade with colored pencils, how to blend with markers or something like that, how to sharpen your pencils. Here's a time lapse video of how to draw this particular drawing and here's a free copy of it. Here's some stuff from our community other people submitted you might want to like it out as well. We're doing a giveaway this month or fan of the month contest. All these types of things that add value and every now and then once every six weeks or so or eight weeks we're releasing a new product and that will be a part of the sequence. Or maybe there's a Mother's Day sale or the month it's going to be come up soon it'd be a 4th of July sale. But very few of our emails are in that realm and most of them are in here are some helpful tips and tricks. So let's apply that to something besides coloring let's like it like tactical.com, your emails will be 10 things to bring on your next hiking adventure, how to prepare for an emergency, things to put in your bug out bag, what to do when the lights go out; whatever the types of things that we're doing in tactical world. Things that are like truly helpful for people especially I mean right now we're getting into hurricane season so we're going to be releasing a lot of content about that. And you know the fact of the matter is that most people just aren't prepared. Like a hurricane comes or an earthquake, a tornado comes whatever and you have no food and water or a flashlight that are is or all dead whatever it might be. It's actually quite helpful to people to bring us the forefront of their mind even if you just think about it for a second you can actually help save someone's life in this case. So these are the types of things we'll provide and every now in that cycle he check out on your products this might help you as well. So the vast majority we do is trying to train people to want to open our emails, to kind of like … you know and humans are very habit forming creatures. It only takes a few times of doing something to make it a habit. So we try to make this a habit for them and that's our approach. Joe: Yeah it seems to have worked with your open rate which is pretty phenomenal. Let's back up a step, what email software are you using; what do you prefer? Mike: So we're using Klaviyo for almost everything at least in the e-commerce space. You know Klaviyo is just heads and tails above everything else when it comes to e-commerce. It has a direct integration with Shopify, you can build segments within Klaviyo, people that have done particular things and then generate emails based off of that. And probably the feature that it has that's most valuable is the ability to then take those segments and synchronize those segments with a Facebook audience and then you can … it can currently run Facebook Ads to that group of people which is highly effective. And the thing that really got me going with this was actually a really funny story because I had just got done presenting at E-commerce Fuel; I think you might have actually been there. I was talking about email marketing and I was like- Joe: That was Savannah? Mike: Yeah. I think it was in Savannah. And I was like gloating about email marketing and all these cool things that we're doing and at the time that I was really … all I really focused on was mostly email marketing. And what I had said there was at the time our open rates where between 20 and 25% which is still double industry average and we've since improved that. But I was really proud of that fact and someone came up to me after the show. A good friend of mine, Kevin Stucco and he was like well what about the 75% of people that aren't opening your email? And I was just like … it was an instant like aha moment. It kind of knocked me down a peg because I was like all … kind of like in that gloating mindset but it was actually a really good point. Even … you know I was looking at it from one perspective of we're double or more than double the industry average on open rates on email. But what he made me think about was what about all these people that aren't opening email. And one of the things that Klaviyo at the same time was coming out with was that synchronization feature. So we started getting really heavy into Facebook Ads. And what you can do is if for instance there's like someone … let's say your average order frequency is 80 days so what we do as a win back sequence at 90 days we offer them a coupon; the comeback as an email. Well, why not run an ad to them, a Facebook Ad at the same time and Klaviyo makes that really easy. So yeah there's going to be basically three things that can happen; either they're going to open your email, they're going to see your Facebook Ad, or they'll do both. Some people going to see both of your email and your Facebook Ad. But either way, throwing the Facebook stuff into it is a much more effective approach. So it's been really successful for us and now we have these Facebook Ads that run 100 or 1500 to 2000% return on Ad Spend. Joe: Wow. Mike: But the most effective ads that we run are- Joe: It's incredible. Mike: Yeah. Because if you think about it I mean it's a super small audience, we're putting a really small budget together and these are like highly primed people. These are someone that's already bought from us. They kind of maybe forgot about us, you send and ad to them 10% off of course they're much more likely to convert than someone that's called traffic. It's way … this is what people forget about in e-commerce; it's way easier to sell someone something the second time than the first time. But the problem is that we all get our high off of getting new customers so that's what we always focus on is those angles. But what really brings the profitability to e-commerce is nurturing the existing customer. Joe: Lifetime value of a customer. Mike: Yeah. Joe: Repeat customer acquisition all that good stuff. So Klaviyo is the software of choice. Your emails separate yourself out from the mass emails that we get just by being as helpful as possible. So you don't wind up in the unsubscribe section and then combine and sync with Facebook which is great to go back out to those folks. On the emails themselves, how many are you sending on a day or week or things of that nature, and do you have any concerns about people opting out and do you make it easy enough for them to unsubscribe? Mike: Yeah. So we were sending millions of emails a month now literally; the number is actually crazy. We were just looking at our Klaviyo account the other day and it shows you the number of emails you've sent out. And in this particular account we're looking at it was actually just yesterday and it was 200,000 emails we had sent out and we were just like four days into the billing cycle. And I was like uh-oh like oh excuse me something might be wrong with … I think they were sending like … maybe people are getting two emails of the same thing or something. We kind of dug into it for a few minutes and realized just like the actual frequency, the number of emails we're sending is like in the millions a month now and it's actually accurate. And that's what we want to be happening it's just that we didn't quite have our … even have our heads around it. Joe: At the millions a month, how many is one individual getting? Mike: It really depends. It depends on how they came in to our system and what part of the sequences that they're in. There are some situations where someone might get an email from us literally every single day. So if they are coming in to one of this new lead magnet flows that we have which is basically I call this this the trifecta; this might be like a little bit of a version of what we're talking about today because we're talking about email but just as a real quick side note the trifecta to me as a marketer is getting them on a Facebook Messenger list, getting them Pixeled so I can also have their Pixel data, and getting their email address. So to me like- Joe: What's the Pixel part? Mike: So the Pixel part is just it when someone visits your website that's a piece of code that you have on your website that the Facebook Pixel or the Google Pixel and by having this script on your website you now know that someone has visited you and you know that they visit a particular pages or that they took particular actions. You don't know individually who they are like I don't know that Joe Valley visited my website today but I … you are in a bucket that I can say like I want to know all the people that did X, Y, and Z and you'll be in the bucket and I can then advertise to you in a particular way by being in that bucket. So what we do for Facebook campaigns or most of our campaigns is this whole … again the provide value first angle. So we'll offer people something for free whether it's free downloadable content, free drawings, a lead magnet whatever might be or offer them a free plus shipping off or maybe … so we start with these really compelling low friction offers and then send them to a Facebook Messenger flow. Which is basically are you definitely interested in this; yes or no. If they say yes we give them a link to a page and when they get to that page they're now Pixeled. So we have them on our Facebook Messenger list I can market to them that way. I have them Pixeled so I can remarket to them that way. And then that landing page will have a spot to give us their email address and I can market to them that way. And when they come through one of these flows for free downloads let's say we don't just give them all the free downloads in one day. We give them an email every single day for 30 to 45 days. It's actually a very long sequence where … so it's a 20 free download program or promotion I would say. And so we're giving them a download every other day and in between that we're giving them some other value. So and we tell them we're going to send you 20 free downloads, you're going to get one every other day. We don't tell them they are going to get another email every other day in between but they still open those as well. Joe: Yeah. Mike: And those other emails are still value, it's the how to blend or shade kind of emails or things like that, here are some stuff from our community and in it dispersed within there is here's a coupon for the book that you were just downloading these drawings from and things like that. So in that circumstance, their getting emailed incredibly frequently but the baseline minimum that people are getting email from our company is six times a month. That's the absolute minimum, someone, what would get. Joe: And that's fine. I've seen people … I've seen your presentation and I've heard people say man that's a lot of emails but if they don't want then they opt out. Mike: Yeah so- Joe: And your open rates- Mike: Exactly let me let me hit on that just real quick because it's a really important point. Again treating people like I'd like to be treated; I don't … if I don't want the email like I want to be able to number one at least [inaudible 00:22:39.8] easily unsubscribe so we make that easy for people. And I want them to be able to easily unsubscribe. What people … the shady email marketers don't get is you're actually hurting yourself more by trying to jam it down their throat because you want the open rates to be high. And Google and Hotmail and Yahoo all the different email platforms look at your stats of your open rates just like Google is looking at click to rates in inorganic search. And if your open rates are high, way higher than average; they're gonna say though this is content that people probably want we're going to put this in the main inbox. If you dip below a certain point you'll end up in the in the promotions tab, if you dip below even a certain point from that you'll end up in spam. And there's like no way to get yourself out of there. So we want to keep our open rates as high as possible probably for our own best interest right? So it's- Joe: Yeah. Mike: We make it easy to unsubscribe and if you don't open one of our emails for 13 weeks we unsubscribe you for yourself. So we figure after 13 weeks you know which is going to be probably something that range of 20 emails that we've sent out if you haven't opened one of those emails in that longer a time period you're probably just done with us and we'll just stop emailing you. And in that way … that's one of the reasons why our open rates continue to be as high as they are and we keep on adding our net gain every month is way higher than our unsubscribes or people we're removing. We've got something like 60,000 active emails on ColorIt where you know some people might look at that list and they would say it's 200,000 or something because we're not constantly scrubbing it. Our emails are active; these are 60,000 people that are actively open … we have 60,000 people that have opened at least one of our emails in the last quarter which is a much better stat in my mind than looking at the total number of people we've ever signed up. Joe: I totally agree. We're constantly asking that question in our client interviews and trying to drill down into the relative usefulness of those total emails. Yeah for those that are listening can you touch on, I mean it's probably overwhelming for both buyers and sellers that are listening in terms of if they've never done email marketing if they don't know how to do any Facebook marketing. I want to ask a question; let me first touch on the fact that for those that are not doing these now, for those that are getting revenue from one channel your business is going to be 20 to 30% less valuable than one from multiple channels and you also … and that's because of the risk. You're at a greater risk of a catastrophe if you're 100% Amazon business or 100% email marketing business, or 100% Facebook. You want to spread out and do all of them and have more sort of legs on the stool to balance out the business. Buyers will love that. They'll pay more for it. Mike: Yeah. Joe: And figure how to do it so what kind of training would you recommend for anybody looking to learn Klaviyo, anybody learning Facebook marketing? Mike: I mean we obviously do ourselves some I mean that's a kind of a loaded question but- Joe: It's funny, wasn't actually for people listening it wasn't a loaded question because I didn't know that. I know that you're doing … I know I've listened to EcomCrew you know I know Dave well, I know you well know and I love your Under the Hood sessions and I didn't really hear that you're actually doing the training sessions on Klaviyo and email marketing so let's … on Facebook so let's move to that. Let's talk- Mike: So we have a new thing called the EcomCrew Premium and what we were doing is like releasing a course every couple of months and charging 500 to 1,000 dollars per course depending on what the course was on. We did one on importing from China. Then we did another one on how to launch products on Amazon the white hat way without doing any black hat tactics. And as we kept on releasing courses we were getting emails of people just like this is getting expensive. It's like our core fans are like they're just buying everything we do, it was getting expensive and I also felt like starting to feel like a kind of a used car salesman in some respect because you're just constantly trying to sell them something different every couple of months. So we just said you know what like … because you know how Dave and I are like and we just we're not like that so- Joe: [inaudible 00:26:36.0] Mike: Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Joe: [inaudible 00:26:38.4] Mike: Okay well that makes more sense though he is Canadian so like by default he's just like already 40% nicer. Joe: It's it. Mike: Yes so we came up with this subscription model which is you just pay once a month, then you get access to everything that we've already done; everything that we're going to do in the future. And it includes webinars twice a month and the training we're about to release depending on this podcast will be released. The next one we're doing is on Facebook Messenger and we actually have a webinar later today as recording this on that topic as well. So we give those webinars to our EcomCrew Premium members as well. So we're constantly talking about this stuff and whatever's going on more current. The Klaviyo we don't actually have a course on yet I mean that was something that I learned on my own. I'm not really sure if there's one out there. We are going to be doing one on that but as a part of our subscription model, you also get access to us to ask questions so you can just email questions if you're having a hard time with Klaviyo as if for instance we would just help you with that as well. It's any type of e-commerce stuff we would help with. But Klaviyo is simple and it's complicated at the same time. Like I can understand why it would be overwhelming. I'm kind of a tech guy so I naturally kind of gravitate towards the stuff and figure it out. When I realize when it's complicated is when we hire a new employee and I had to explain to them how to do it and I see their eyes kind of glaze over. It's like I'm trying to explain the difference between a segment and a list or a flow and a campaign or how to synchronize something to Facebook and they're just like … you've been kind of giving that look and I … and then I understand that some things come harder to certain people. It'd be the same look I would give somebody if you asked me to do rock climbing or something. I'd be like yeah that's not going to happen. I'm not going to be able to do that. So yeah I don't know besides just Klaviyo's own website for that like what the best way to go about that is. Joe: So yeah you sell a very visual product you know with ColorIt and the tactical gear stuff you know common sense makes sense, between your connections with the EcomCrew and the Under the Hood Segments what's the strangest … I don't want to say, I don't want to call somebody's product or service strange but the thing that you would think would not necessarily work via email marketing that or Facebook that they get a shot and actually made a difference in their business. Mike: Yeah I mean let me start by saying give you like a whole another kind of answer to this real quick. What I always say when I when I speak at events or do these podcasts, whenever wherever I'm talking about and this comes up, one of the things that drives me crazy I mean you're in the same industry I'm in there is a lot of people out there that are like follow my secret 10 step plan, do these exact things and sprinkle this special dust in your business and you'll be a millionaire overnight. Those ads are on our Facebook feed like nonstop. We also go to events where some of these people speak and it drives me nuts. So I'm always cautious and tell people look like you have to use … you know your business better than anyone else and there's like all these variables that kind of go into it. You have a different margin than I might have or maybe there's a Facebook audience site that directly matches up with what you're doing. Maybe you have the ability to get user generated content really easily or you can make a lead magnet or a free plus shipping offer. If you have a lot of repeat business opportunity maybe you don't like I mean … so I try to talk about all these different types of businesses that we've been involved in and how we've approached it. And the thing that's cool about us now is we have four brands. We're doing things in coloring and hot and cold therapy we have a baby brand and we have a tactical brand. I'm gonna start talking a lot more about like our different approach for each brand but what your … the question you're asking is and I think that the answer to it really is that every business is unique. You have to follow maybe a basic outline of what people … like I'm doing with email marketing, here is like the different approaches we've taken with our different niches but you know it's hard to just say like do these exact 10 things. I mean there's a couple of things you want to do by default with email. You want to definitely have like an abandoned card sequence; that applies to everybody. You want to have a win back campaign; that applies to everybody. But what doesn't apply to everybody is 20 free downloadable coloring pages. That doesn't make sense for anybody else except for us. Joe: Right. Mike: Or like here's how to prepare for an emergency that probably doesn't apply to most businesses. You have to think out of the box and more importantly than anything is try a bunch of different concepts and don't be afraid to fail. This is where I think people get hung up like the human nature which I'm different in this regard for whatever reason. I'm wired differently. I just don't care about embarrassing myself or doing something that doesn't work. So you know I'll try 10 or 20 different things until I find the one that resonates and gives some traction where you know somebody else might try something once or twice and just give up. You have to keep on trying different concepts until you find the one that really seems to resonate and then with something in the world of Facebook when you find the thing that resonates or in email marketing it really seems to work. You'll get stats that are completely different than what you've done to that point. I mean 10 times better, 20 times better and you'll kind of hit that thing that kind of … that really works and I'm hoping that kind of answers the question. I mean I'm always reluctant to talk about other people's business specifically that we've run into at EcomCrew because I'm always pretty protective of the things that they're doing. Joe: Yeah. Mike: I never want to break anyone's confidence but I think that that is probably the best approach. And one last thing that I'll mention is when we got started in e-commerce with treadmill.com and I always talk about this. So it's like that's the most different thing that we've done compared to the other things that we're doing now. The approach there would be way different than selling something like a coloring book because you're only going to sell someone one treadmill. You've got no chance at a second sale. In fact, you just hope that they don't return it because it turns out to be like the most expensive clothes rack they ever bought right? Joe: Exactly. That's right. Mike: So I mean you have to take a different approach with that. And it's a much longer term sale cycle that you're not going to spontaneously sell somebody a 2,000 dollar treadmill. This is sort of like well long thought out, multi-year struggle with weight or whatever it might be that drives them to buying this treadmill, much different way to approach it so you've got to take a different approach there than selling somebody a sort of coloring pens or something. Because like yeah you can put an ad up, they're 30 bucks. Someone won't think twice about buying that and it can be a very spontaneous purchase versus the other way around. So you got the like … it's kind of like what you do, I mean people … like it's a very long sell cycle when you are trying to get someone to sell their business or purchase a business. That doesn't spontaneously just happen. So you're having to take a different approach with your email and your marketing than someone else that's actually selling widgets that are something that people just want to buy like that so- Joe: And it's interesting; it's the exact same approach you take in email marketing which is help as many people as you can. Be [inaudible 00:33:45.2] as you can and it generally is it's the right way to do it number one. But it generally works. You build relationships with either customers or clients like you sell from whatnot that they come around and work well. Mike: [inaudible 00:33:57.3] that works pretty well in life too by the way. Joe: That is [inaudible 00:34:00.6] life lessons from Mike Jackness. Mike: Yeah. Joe: We're running short on time but I want to talk about just EcomCrew briefly. I want people to now how to listen in because if you're in the e-commerce world you got to listen to Mike and Dave on EcomCrew because all they do is help people. Talk about that for just a minute; when did you start it, how do they download, listen to it, that kind of thing. Mike: We started it I guess it's been three years ago, three or four years ago. It's kind of hard to … I lose track of time. And we're out at Episode 150 something on the podcast as of recording this. My favorite episode we ever did was Episode 88 though, which was the Joe Valley EcomCrew podcast so- Joe: [inaudible 00:34:37.6] we talked today. Mike: I did. I just I was just looking on this great. But it's been a weekly podcast and we've now gone to twice a week. So twice a week we are talking about e-commerce stuff because between Dave and I we have plenty of things to talk about. We might even go to three times a week I just don't know if I have the time to do it. But as you're growing a business with the speed that we are there's plenty of talk about and I love talking about it because it produces a lot of cool stuff. I mean like I said it helps me meet people like you know but it also … it's really embarrassing to have to get on a podcast and start like you were … because I talk about my goals and the things that we're like looking to do. When you have to get on the podcast and say like I didn't get this done it's like there's nothing better than peer review and peer pressure. So I keep on pushing it till I get stuff done. So it's been very helpful for me as well. So yeah there's the podcast component so on iTunes E-C-O-M-C-R-E-W but we also have a blog which Dave does almost all of that content, EcomCrew.com all of that stuff is free. We even have actually a free … three free courses under the My Ecom Career Area none of that requires giving us a penny. It's just kind of us giving back. And you know I hope our long term strategy just like you is if we help people in they get an affinity towards the things that we're telling them and teaching that eventually they would want to become a premium member. But even if they don't like you were pretty financially secure and happy with what we're doing and all the other stuff is free. So definitely come check us out. Joe: It's awesome. Thanks Mike. I appreciate it. Anybody listening I would highly highly recommend you go to EcomCrew and check it out, download, listen to the podcast; definitely Episode number 88. Mike: Best episode ever. Joe: Ever. Mike: It actually was one of our best or highly rated episodes. And people are always interested in buying and selling their business. I mean it's something you should always be thinking about it's just I think people often wait too long to be thinking about these things and- Joe: Nine times out of 10. Mike: Yeah. Joe: Planning in advance should be probably number five. Mark doesn't like it but plan in advance you're going to understand the valuations and you do things like we talked about today which is [inaudible 00:36:41.1] email marketing and you'll [inaudible 00:36:43.6] business and get high value profit so [inaudible 00:36:46.6]. I appreciate your time today Mike I know you're a busy guy. Mike: No problem, thanks. Links: Ecomcrew.com EcomCrew Premium Episode 88 Klaviyo.com Klaviyo Facebook Snyc

Keeping a long-term mindset, "What I don't do" lists, and connecting with others with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 155 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about important ways to overcome blogger burnout. Keeping it Fresh and Avoiding Burnout Burnout happens to everyone, so it’s helpful to have a few tips and tricks in your back pocket for when that feeling strikes. That’s why Bjork’s here today. He’s talking about the seven burnout-fighting tips he implements in his own life. Between an efficient way to take a weekend trip to finding the perfect coffee shop when you want to switch up your work environment, this episode will equip you tools to knock out your blogger burnout. In this episode, Bjork shares: Why he has a long-term mindset Why you should view everything as an experiment Why you should unplug once in a while Why it’s helpful to switch up your work atmosphere How to make “what I do” and “what I don’t do” lists Ways to meet up with others Why it’s important to switch it up Resources: Gmail app If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Thanks to our Reviewer of the Week, Katie from Healthy Seasonal Recipes! If you’d like to be featured, leave a review for us on iTunes and include your name and blog name in the review.

We're celebrating our 150th episode with a fun Q&A with Bjork. You'll learn about his management style, why he loves Minnesota, how they're A/B testing on Pinch of Yum, and more. ----- Welcome to episode 150 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork is in the hot seat, and he chats about his favorite music, how he formed his management style, and his favorite Pinch of Yum recipe. Get to Know Bjork Ostrom Happy 150th episode day!! We’re so honored and thrilled to have you listening along to the Food Blogger Pro Podcast each week, so to celebrate, we’re publishing a fun Q&A episode with our fearless leader, Bjork Ostrom. We’ll focus on some business and blogging questions, and then dig into the personal stuff and discover more about Bjork’s music career (!!!) and his unconventional favorite Pinch of Yum recipe. This interview was a lot of fun, and we really hope you enjoy it! In this episode, Bjork shares: What his most memorable podcast episode is If there was ever an episode that inspired him to change a part of his business How he overcomes roadblocks How they’re using A/B testing on Pinch of Yum His and Lindsay’s AIM screen names The books he most recommends Why he loves living in Minnesota What he likes to listen to on Spotify How his music career helped shape his future careers What his favorite Pinch of Yum recipe is How it feels to have 150 episodes in the books Resources: Register for the SEO Bootcamp! ScreenFlow Zoom 145: Present Over Perfect with Shauna Niequist Present Over Perfect 104: How Bloggers Should Handle Their Taxes and Accounting with Cathy Derus 063: Personal Finance for Business Owners with Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents 147: GDPR for Influencers with Danielle Liss Slack Intercom Google Optimize Y Combinator The War of Art 087: How to Take Permission and Grow Your Business with Andy Traub Man’s Search for Meaning Spotify 144: Netflix, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Somebody Feed Phil with Phil Rosenthal Bjork’s favorite Pinch of Yum recipe If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Thanks to our Reviewer of the Week, Angel from Cheftographer! If you’d like to be featured, leave a review for us on iTunes and include your name and blog name in the review.

Jasmine has starred in over 30 TV commercials for major brands including Coca Cola, CVS, Pillsbury, Pringles, Hillshire Farms, Smuckers and many more. Her recent television credits include parts on Super Girl, iZombie and Haters Back Off, Frequency and Second Chance. A multi-dimensional creative, Jasmine has founded and/or contributes to a numbers of businesses: In 2014, Jasmine founded The Blenderist as a single-contributor food blog. Two years later, she started The Black Food Bloggers Club, which she has grown into a lively and focused community. In 2017, she was inspired to promote diversity in food blogging by building out the Black Food Bloggers Club and converting The Blenderist into a multi-contributor site featuring the contributions of BFBC members. Jasmine is a proud teammate of Bjork Ostrom's at Food Blogger Pro, where she heads up the affiliate program and designs graphics for the FBP blog and podcast. Jasmine helps clients solve design and marketing problems, collaborating on branding and design projects with her artist partner Chris through their creative agency, RXVP. A passionate lover of chocolate, Jasmine has a certificate in Chocolate making from Ecole Chocolat. She co-founded Chocolate Codex, an informational resource for consumers looking to expand their chocolate knowledge and appreciation. Chocolate Codex features "tasting notes and commentary on chocolate from around the world" and offers "(totally unscientific) tasting guidelines to serve as a prompt to help tasters and readers develop their own tasting vocabularies." Jasmine lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with Chris and her grumpy chihuahua. She enjoys spending her free time discovering new wines, listening to podcasts and baking mind-blowing desserts (often featuring chocolate)!

How to launch a membership site, name a blog, and hire a team with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 135 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week, we’re playing an episode from the Dishing with Delishes podcast. In this episode, Bjork chats with Elaine about starting Pinch of Yum and Food Blogger Pro, building a team, and developing plugins. You will also learn how Lindsay and Bjork met. Spoiler alert: they’re high school sweethearts! Thanks to our Reviewer of the Week, Kate from Gift of Hospitality! If you’d like to be featured, leave a review for us on iTunes and include your name and blog name in the review. In this episode, Bjork discusses: What he and Lindsay did before food blogging How they met - How they decided on the Pinch of Yum name When they decided to hire a team The difference between contracted workers and employees How they launched Food Blogger Pro What’s included in a Food Blogger Pro membership Why they decided to publish their income reports How WP Tasty started Resources: Get the resources for this episode here: https://www.dishingwithdelishes.com/014-bjork-ostrom-food-blogger-pro/

After helping his wife Lindsay create and launch her food blog, Pinch of Yum, in 2010, Bjork Ostrom started to wonder: is it possible to make a living from this blog? One year later, he began publicly sharing traffic and income data the blog generated as a way to document and share the couple's findings with other food bloggers. Pinch of Yum's monthly income reports have been a unique resource for many bloggers across all niches as they have ultimately documented how the Ostroms took their site from a $20/month hobby to a six-figure business between 2010 and 2017. In January 2013, Bjork launched Food Blogger Pro "with over 250 videos covering the most important things a food blogger needs to know to start and grow a food blog." The site was an immediate success, with an initial membership representing 26 countries. Today, Bjork continues to run Food Blogger Pro while also developing two new software tools, WP Tasty and Nutrifox. Bjork’s favorite things in life are watching The Office reruns with Lindsay, all things tech, rainy days, Sage the dog, and a Juicy Lucy with fries.

Clarifying your why, finding gratitude in all things, and knowing it's possible with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 131 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about setting goals for the new year. Three Ways to Set Smarter Goals in the New Year Have you ever set a goal for the new year and not followed through? We’ve all been there. Bjork is here to help you with three mental frameworks that will help you make smarter goals and keep you motivated in the new year. Between understanding why you’re setting a specific goal to why it’s important to practice gratitude, this episode will help you strategically and intentionally create goals to help you and your business grow. In this episode, Bjork shares: What SMART goals are Why it’s important to understand why you’re setting a specific goal Why gratitude is so important Resources: Hygge If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.  

Today's interview is with Bjork Ostrom, the founder of Food Blogger Pro. Bjork and his wife Lindsay started Pinch of Yum. When they started out, they really didn't know a lot about blogging, and people kept telling them that food blogs were hard to monetize. They went for it anyway and learned as they went along. But by applying a few common sense principles, such as continuous small improvements, Bjork and Lindsay have gone from unknowns in the food blogger world to building a virtual empire. In this interview Bjork shares how he went from not really knowing anything about blogging to becoming a multifaceted online entrepreneur. Episode Highlights: Lindsay started posting recipes on social media in 2010. Bjork was also interested in online business. After reading and listening to Gary Vaynerchuk, he was interested in publishing online and creating a business around it. Bjork worked behind the scenes to create income from a recipe blog. They started on Tumblr and kept working and building and after seven years they were successful food bloggers. It's been their goal to enjoy what they are doing and the process of working on their site and creating great content. Their workshop has been a big goal. The first thing they did was break it down into micro goals. User control analytics and putting gut and feel before actual numbers. Finding things other than numbers to focus on such as enjoyment for success. Using analytics and metrics to figure how to prove things. The idea of acquiring a business and continually making small improvements. The importance of making a list of things you are excited about and that are high impact. If you are not good at some important things find someone to do those for you. The nuance of grit and doing things you don't want to do, but not falling in love with grit and being miserable. Getting a little better everyday over the long run. Resources: Pinch of Yum Food Blogger Pro @BjorkOstrum on Twitter Bjork Ostrom Facebook Crush It! You Should Test That

How to work in your zone, set a morning routine, and optimize your workspace with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 110 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about 10 habits that can help your business grow long-term. 10 Simple Habits that Create BIG Growth for Your Business Forming habits can have an exponential affect on your business’ growth, and Bjork has seen that first-hand as he built Food Blogger Pro. Bjork talks about 10 habits that have had a huge impact on his productivity and on Food Blogger Pro’s growth. He recommends apps, systems, philosophies, and practices that you can implement today into your business to see growth long-term. In this episode, Bjork shares: What a “black book” is How to keep track of your to-dos How a morning routine can impact your business How to get to “Inbox Zero” An easier way to keep track of receipts How to save articles to read later How to optimize your workspace Why you should turn off all push notifications How do perform a time audit How to find ways to “work in your zone” Resources: Evernote Things Asana Trello Getting Things Done Clear Koalcat’s Clear Five Minute Journal Headspace Mixmax Boomerang Shoeboxed Pocket Moment Rescue Time The War of Art If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

How to trust your gut, why you need to build your own path, and why you should pursue the work (not the end) with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 101 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about the lessons he learned after five years of publishing Income Reports on Pinch of Yum. What I Learned After Five Years of Income Reports The Pinch of Yum Income Reports chronicle the experiment Bjork and Lindsay started as a way to find out if it was possible to create an income from a food blog. Spoiler alert: It is. After five years of publishing these income reports and sharing the process of turning Pinch of Yum into a business, Bjork has learned quite a few lessons. From learning to trust his gut to building their own path to learning how to learn, the 20 lessons Bjork discusses will help anyone in pursuit of starting their own business and becoming their own boss. In this episode, Bjork shares: How and why he started writing the Pinch of Yum Income Reports Why you need to listen to your gut How you can learn more information about your industry Why you should dedicate time to reflection Why working with the right people is important Why you need to build your own path Resources: Register for the One-Day Recipe Video Bootcamp! Pinch of Yum on Facebook and Instagram Pinch of Yum Income Reports Youth Frontiers This Week in Startups podcast The James Altucher Show Mixergy podcast Marketing School podcast MacBreak Weekly podcast How I Built This podcast This American Life The War of Art If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Our listeners' favorite FBP podcast episodes, what they've learned, how how they've applied what they've learned to their blogs ----- Welcome to episode 100 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week, we’re celebrating our 100th episode with a special community episode! How FBP Listeners Have Used the Podcast to Grow their Blogs and Businesses There have been 99 Food Blogger Pro Podcast episodes before this one, and we’ve heard from a lot of amazing people. From full-time bloggers to SEO experts to social media pros, this podcast has seen no shortage of inspirational interviewees! We’re really excited about this episode because we’re hearing from you. We asked our listeners what their favorite Food Blogger Pro Podcast episode was, and we’re so excited about the response. It’s so exciting to hear which episodes came to you at a specific point in your blogging career and how the podcast helped you overcome obstacles, become more confident, and grow your business. We hope that this episode will help you find an episode you might have missed or remind you of an episode that you’d like to go back and listen to again. Thanks so much for a great 100 episodes! These are our listeners’ favorite Food Blogger Pro Podcast episodes: 038: 7 Strategies to Build Traffic 035: How to 10x Your Facebook Following in One Year with Stephanie from Spaceships & Laser Beams 097: How to Create a Full-Time Income from Blogging Using The Egg Carton Method with Bjork Ostrom 013: An interview with Molly Yeh, the author behind Saveur’s 2015 Blog of the Year 083: The 1% Infinity Improvement Plan with Marly McMillen from the Chopped Podcast 094: How to Keep Going with Bjork Ostrom 019: How to Master Pinterest for your Food Blog with Susan Wenner Jackson from Ahalogy 001: Lindsay Ostrom from Pinch of Yum on Life as a Career Blogger 089: How to Build a Plane with Alexa, Jasmine & Raquel from Food Blogger Pro 058: 5 Tips for Overcoming the Resistance 024: How to Find Balance in Blogging with Ali Ebright from Gimme Some Oven 039: 12 Ways to Overcome Online Jealousy with Lindsay Ostrom from Pinch of Yum 093: How Finding a Niche Transformed a Business with Meggan Hill from Culinary Hill 040: How to Monetize a Podcast from Day 1 with Allison & Suzy from the Food Heals Podcast 055: Generating Income through Self-Publishing a Cookbook with Jason Logsdon 028: How to Boost Your Blog’s SEO with Casey Markee from Media Wyse 065: Michelle Tam from Nom Nom Paleo on Building a Brand, Launching an App and Publishing a Cookbook 092: How to Make $40K in the First Year of Blogging with Chelsea Lords from Chelsea’s Messy Apron 052: How to Sell 4,000 Cookbooks Before You Even Publish with Megan Gilmore from Detoxinista 032: Buying & Selling Websites with Mark Daoust from Quiet Light Brokerage 008: Simplifying Ad Optimization with Andy Marzka from AdThrive 073: How to Publish Consistent and Quality Content with Jessica Merchant from How Sweet It Is 090: How a Legislative Assistant Created Her Own Path to Working for Herself with Brita Britnell 084: New Year’s Motivation: 1% Infinity Resources: The Anthony Kitchen Balanced Bites Tiny Kitchen, Big Food Brown Sugar & Vanilla The Spiced Kitchen A Day in the Kitchen Seasoned Vegetable Will Write for Food Blogtastic Food Dash of Wisdom Roots and Radishes Hostess at Heart Stress Baking Veggies Don’t Bite The Mighty Mrs. The Food Charlatan The 365 Days Podcast Johlene Orton The Bewitchin Kitchen Wander Spice The Little Plantation Craft Industry Alliance Little Bits of Real Food 40 Aprons Champagne and Paper Planes Isabel Eats Rhian’s Recipes Homegrown Provisions Real Simple Good Beneficial Bento The Mediterranean Dish If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Be sure to review us on iTunes!

How to make money from blogging, why you should divide your income into eggs, and how to fill your egg carton with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 97 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork talks about dividing income into multiple “eggs” in a carton of blogging income. How to Create a Full-Time Income from Blogging using The Egg Carton Method For a lot of us, “pro” blogging (i.e., making a full-time income from blogging) is the dream. In order to do that, however, income needs to be coming in from multiple channels. Bjork likes to think of these “channels” as eggs in an egg carton; you need to fill your egg carton with different revenue streams in order to create a sustainable income from your blog. It’s really difficult to create a full-time blogging income from only one “egg,” so diversifying your egg carton can help you get there even sooner. In this episode, Bjork shares: Two things that make an impact on making an income on your blog How to divide your income stream into multiple “eggs” A way to figure out how much you need to be making from each of your “eggs” 15 different ways you can make money blogging Resources: Record a message for our 100th episode! ProBlogger How to Make $40K in the First Year of Blogging with Chelsea Lords Finding Success on the Verge of Quitting with Dustin & Lacey Baier How to Connect with Brands & Find Sponsored Content with Francesca Bandicci Pinch of Yum on Instagram Generating Income through Self-Publishing a Cookbook with Jason Logsdon Food Blogger Pro waiting list FBP Affiliate Program Eventbrite

What recipe plugins are, why you should be using one, and how to create the perfect search result with Bjork Ostrom. ----- Welcome to episode 96 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week, Bjork talks about recipe plugins and why you need one. How to Create the Perfect Recipe Post Regardless of where you are in your blogging journey (just starting out to full-time), chances are you’ve heard the words recipe plugin before. These plugins are incredibly important for food bloggers to be aware of because they not only make your recipes look beautiful, but they also help your blog communicate with search engines like Google and Pinterest. There are so many elements to consider when choosing a recipe plugin for your blog, and it’s important to choose one that checks off “all of the SEO boxes.” So when Bjork noticed the recipe plugin Pinch of Yum was using wasn’t quite keeping up with the times, he decided it was time to build one in-house. In this episode, Bjork shares: What a recipe plugin is and why food bloggers should be using one What structured data is and why it’s important How to view your recipe posts like a search engine Why recipe plugins are helpful for both search engines and your readers How to create the perfect search result in Google How you can start using Tasty Recipes today Resources: Tasty Recipes on WP Tasty 8-year-old drives to McDonald’s Joost De Valk (Yoast SEO) podcast episode Info about JSON Info about Microdata Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool How to search for a specific search result on Google: site:pinchofyum.com pesto asparagus noodles Yoast SEO Plugin Nutrifox

How finding the right path for you can help you keep going with your blog.  ----- Welcome to episode 94 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! In this episode, Bjork talks about how to keep going when you're not sure you can continue.   Whether you’ve been blogging for a few months or a few years, you’ve no doubt had the thought at some point or another: How do I keep going? Blogging can be tough. You might be fitting it in after your regular full-time job hours. You might be running your blog as a business with not enough hours in the day. You might be juggling it on the side while trying to raise a family. Whatever your situation, you’ve likely found out that blogging isn’t easy, and on some days it’s tough to imagine how you’ll keep it up. Today, Bjork talks about some techniques that he and Lindsay have used in their businesses to help them get up in the morning and do The Work. In this episode, Bjork discusses: Why someone else’s path might not be the one for you How to find your own path Why time is a key ingredient How The Path differs from The Resistance How temporarily stopping can help you keep going Why deadlines are important and how they have impacted Pinch of Yum and Food Blogger Pro Why gratitude moves you forward Resources: Open for Business Podcast Startup Podcast Smart Passive Income Podcast FE International Website Brokerage Quiet Light Brokerage Episode 032: Buying & Selling Websites with Mark Daoust from Quiet Light Brokerage Pinch of Yum - Afton posts If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Be sure to review us on iTunes!  

I’m really happy to have my friend Bjork Ostrum on the podcast today. While Bjork and I have not met in person, we have mutual friends in Erin Chase and Jim Wang, both of whom I’ve had on the podcast in previous episodes. Bjork runs the very popular site Pinch Of Yum where he blogs about food. And when I say that his site is popular, I mean that it is crazy popular. Last month he had 2.7 million visitors to his site. He has 91,000 Facebook fans, over 227,000 Instagram followers and almost 100K Pinterest followers. Enjoy the interview! […] The post 143: How To Make 6 Figures As A Food Blogger With Bjork Ostrom Of PinchOfYum appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

In the 15th podcast, we meet Bjork Ostrom from Pinch Of Yum who together with his wife Lindsey innovate in area of Food Blogging and Food Photography.

Do you cook together with your significant other, or is it just too painful? In this episode we explore what it means to have a creative partnership in the kitchen, or whether it's better for all involved to divide and conquer. Special guests Lindsay and Bjork Ostrom of the prominent food blog Pinch of Yum share behind the scenes in their own relationship, and we share our favorite recipe for a cooking date.   Cooking date perfection: Simple shrimp and artichoke paella Veggie version: Simple vegetable paella Add stations Indie in the Kitchen for cooking and Cocktail Party Jazz for eating   Our tips for cooking together as a couple Should you cook with your S.O.? Take our quiz.   Lindsay and Bjork Ostrom run Pinch of Yum Pinch of Yum on Instagram   Date Night In by Ashley Rodriguez A Couple Cooks on Instagram and Twitter

Bjork Ostrom, together with his wife Lindsay, are the founders of both foodbloggerpro.com and pinchofyum.com. In less than 5 years, he and his wife built a side hobby - food blogging - into a $300,000+ per year (and growing) online membership site.  As a non-profit employee and 4th grade teacher by day, Bjork and his wife navigated the early challenges of developing their passions into both a successful business and something they would enjoy doing on a daily basis. Based out of St. Paul, Minnesota, Bjork and his wife are now working together to take the business to the next level (and to see if they can't crack the 7-figure revenue mark). Bjork's wife, Lindsay, started Pinch of Yum in 2010, making their first dollar through an ad network. They started doing income reports in 2013. This instigated a lot of questions, which led to the development of Foodbloggerpro, which they rolled out over the course of 3 months from November 2012 to January 2013, raising over $10,000 in pre-sales. Foodbloggerpro now makes $300,000 a year and they're working on ways to grow the platform to 1 million / year. What Bjork Ostrom and I talk about in this broadcast: How a teacher and a non profit employee turned his skills into building a 6-figure membership site How he and his wife worked together to combine their passions for food and software Why reinvesting your initial revenue is so important when you're just starting out How to determine what to pay yourself vs. reinvest in your growing business How Bjork turned 500 page views a day into a $300,000 in annual revenue How monthly income reports attracted attention and led to the creation of FoodBloggerPro How Bjork is able to maintain the massive website only investing 20 hours per month Why you should look for ways to sharpen your skills in your current job to compliment your side hustle How to double the benefits of your current job by honing your skills for entrepreneurial ventures What Bjork did to prepare to build his very first membership site How he self raised $10,000 to begin the membership site (without using a crowdfunding site) The difference of viewing something as a business vs. an income stream The 3 part filter he uses to collaborate with his wife on what the next steps should be “1% infinity” (a philosophy that Bjork lives by) Why long term vision trumps short term vision for building a successful business Bjork Ostrom on building your skill set and maximizing your time: “Any time that people are doing anything, there is always the potential to double whatever it is” Bjork Ostrom on what the big idea is: “What has gotten us here won’t get us to the next level.” Bjork Ostrom's biggest piece of advice: “Feel the burden of doing a little bit each day to make it a little bit better and to make yourself a little bit better.” Find Bjork Ostrom online: pinchofyum.com foodbloggerpro.com Twitter: @bjorkostrom Other resources mentioned: Expression Engine Kicktastic Screenflow Wishlist Austin Kleon "life of a project" If you enjoyed today's podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.

In the second episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast, the tables are turned while Lindsay interviews Bjork about how Food Blogger Pro got started and his tips for success. Bjork Ostrom: Non-profit opportunity seeker turned invaluable food blog resource & entrepreneur If you thought you knew Bjork, you didn't know him this well. Lindsay asks the personal questions that only a wife can get away with - like what pills he takes in the morning and can he please parse those two paragraphs down into one sentence? This fun interview helps us get to know the main guy behind Food Blogger Pro (and this podcast!) just a little bit better. In this 58-minute episode, Bjrok reveals: What his day looked like 5 years ago, and how it contrasts with today How he uses books to propel him forward in his career and personal life How Food Blogger Pro got started - and what he would change if he were to do it again His one tip for multiplying success How to outsource work so you can do more of what you enjoy Resources: 5 Minute Journal Exponential Organizations, Salim Ismail Things App The Mixergy podcast The War of Art, Steven Pressfield Smart Passive Income Bjork's Twitter bjork@foodbloggerpro.com If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email us at podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Is it possible to make $250,000 from a food blog? It sure is. My guest on the latest episode of the Smart Business Revolution podcast is Bjork Ostrom, one half of the team behind Pinch of Yum – one of the most popular food blogs on the web. Bjork runs Pinch of Yum with his […] The post 079: Bjork Ostrom | $250K from a Food Blog appeared first on Smart Business Revolution.

"It's not about reaching the mass market, it's about a small group of people that want to follow you" Bjork Ostrom on building a community My guest today is Bjork Ostrom, creator of Food Blogger Pro (which he created while spending a year volunteering in the Phillipines - what!?), and which has helped hundred of food bloggers grow and monetize their food blogs. Bjork, along with his wife Lindsay, are the rare husband and wife team behind the popular and highly profitable food blog, Pinch of Yum. I met bjork a couple years back in Minnesota and he has been a great resource for books, business advice, and tech details. Plus he is an all around genuine and caring fellow. I’m sure you are going to learn a lot from this episode, especially if you like food or have an online business! "Adventure is a long term story of progress, positivity, relationships and small decisions towards doing things that are uncomfortable" - Bjork Ostrom Bjork And Lindsay Ostrom What you will learn in this episode -How to build a 6 figure business with your spouse -The importance of building charity into your business -The future of blog monetization -How the online course Food Blogger Pro was made -The benefits of travel for building connection -How to volunteer for a year abroad Mentioned in this episode Food Blogger Pro Pinch of Yum Pinch of Yum Income Reports Pat Flynn Gary Vaynerchuck CRUSH IT! Seth Godin Thanks Bjork Ostrom! If you enjoyed this session of The Art of Adventure Podcast, let Bjork know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter: Click here to thank Bjork on Twitter Support the Art of Adventure! This episode is brought to you by REI! Subscribe to The Art of Adventure Podcast in iTunes or Stitcher. If you enjoyed the show, please help us by leaving a 5-star rating and review!

In episode 46 of The Side Hustle show, we get to hear the incredible story of Lindsay and Bjork Ostrom, who built PinchofYum.com up to a massive audience all while working a day job. In fact, they spent a full year volunteering in the Philippines but still managed to keep the site growing and thriving! In January, the site generated more than a million pageviews and earned over $17,000! In this interview we dive into how they got started, how the readership grew, and how they monetize the site.

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we are talking about one of the most challenging parts of having a niche blog: monetization. My guest is Bjork Ostrom of the food blog, Pinch of Yum. Blogging is wonderfully fun and brings all kinds of rewards in and of itself like making connections with like-minded people all over the world and getting your ideas into the public eye, but creating and maintaining a great blog is also really time consuming. Coming up with fresh content several times each week, writing posts, taking attractive photos and editing them, and then responding to comments can become an all-consuming job pretty quickly. If it's a job you love and you're good at it that's awesome! But no matter how much you love your job, you probably want to get paid to do it and that's where today's guest comes in. Bjork and his wife, Lindsay, have a beautiful food blog called Pinch of Yum. Most posts on Pinch of Yum are easy-to-follow delicious recipes, but Lindsay and Bjork are also interested in showing how to make an income from blogging and helping others do the same. Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same. To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.