Eat Blog Talk | Megan Porta

What are 5 things we do that hinder our success and happiness? Megan talks through these self-sabotaging behaviors and how to cultivate a mindset conducive to greater happiness instead. You’ll learn valuable strategies to stop sabotaging yourself and your business success, including being aware when you are making excuses or resorting to inaction as a way to avoid scary tasks. She covers the following key points: 1. Making Excuses: Recognize and challenge excuses that hinder progress. By fostering awareness, individuals can break free from self-imposed limitations and pursue their goals with determination. 2. Letting Fear Run Your Life: By confronting fear head-on, you can experience growth and fulfillment. Taking bold actions can yield significant rewards and propel you towards your aspirations. 3. Caring What Others Think: It’s important to overcome the need for external validation and embrace who you are. 4. Not Taking Action: Inaction is detrimental to progress; embrace the power of small steps towards yo

In this bonus episode, Megan Porta and Melissa Erdelac discuss strategies for pulling yourself out of a business rut and the importance of investing in your business to accelerate your success. They cover information about identifying when your business growth is stagnant and one of the best ways to find new inspiration and valuable knowledge through in-person or virtual blogging retreats and conferences like Flavor Media Summit. This is an exclusive event run by Megan and Melissa for experienced food bloggers who have successful and income-generating businesses. Their goal is to unite accomplished food bloggers for strategic networking, empowering them to thrive, collaborate and ignite long-term growth in an exclusive and transformative gathering. Flavor Media Summit is a two-day workshop-style event taking place on May, 2nd and 3rd in Denver, Colorado. Their goal is to ensure that attendees walk away with a TON of valuable information that they started applying during the event so that they are not stuck wi

In episode 507, Megan chats to Sally Cameron about the process of recipe development, including thorough testing, catering for your readers’ needs, food safety and building trust through recipes that succeed time and time again. Sally is a professionally trained chef, recipe developer, online content creator, speaker, and certified health and nutrition coach. She created all of the recipes for Dr. Mark Hyman’s NYT best seller Eat Fat Get Thin, the NYT million copy bestseller “The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life” companion cookbook, and Sony Five Essentials video series. She’s been blogging at A Foodcentric Life longer than she’d like to admit. Changing her diet by going gluten-free and focusing on whole fresh foods, lots of plants, nuts, seeds, healthy fats and quality proteins helped her lose weight, get healthy, detox from heavy metals, and recover from Lyme, mold, and gut issues. With all of that, it’s no surprise that special diets are her forte, because healthy is a lifestyle. Fun Fact: Sally's

In episode 506, Jillian Leslie teaches us strategies for how to get our mindset in the right place for 2024 and stay positive, while navigating the ever-changing landscape of online business.  Jillian Leslie loves building businesses on the internet with her husband, David. In 2009, they started Catch My Party, one of the largest party ideas sites on the web. In 2016, Jillian and David built MiloTree, a smart pop-up app to help bloggers and creators grow their social media followers and email lists. And in 2021, they built MiloTreeCart, the easiest tool for bloggers and creators to sell digital products. It's built for non-techies. For the past 4 years, Jillian has been hosting her weekly podcast called The Blogger Genius Podcast. She interviews successful bloggers, entrepreneurs, and industry experts to break down what's working now in online business. In this episode, you’ll learn about the power of staying open-minded and flexible in the face of changing circumstances, the significance of surrounding yours

Megan explores 5 ways to celebrate wins in our business and life so that we can cultivate happiness every day. We tend to overlook our wins while constantly striving for the next best thing or goal. This way we never truly feel happy in the present moment. Megan therefore highlights the significance of pausing to appreciate our journey and accomplishments because by reflecting on our progress and successes, we can boost our happiness and mindset. She covers the following key points: 1. Acknowledge Your Present Wins: Consider how often you appreciate your current circumstances and reflect on your journey over the past months or years. 2. Celebrate Your Achievements: Celebrating wins sends a powerful message of gratitude. Whether through quiet moments of acknowledgment or indulgent treats, celebrating reinforces the value of our accomplishments. 3. Five Wins to Celebrate Now: Track Blog Statistics, Completed Projects, Physical and Mindset Progress, Goals and Dreams realised and Financial Gains. 4. Cultivate a H

In episode 504, Megan chats to Erin and Ben Clarke about running a business as a couple, including the importance of setting boundaries and dividing responsibilities. Erin Clarke is the creator of the tremendously popular recipe blog Well Plated and the author of the best selling Well Plated Cookbook and forthcoming book, Well Plated Every Day. She's fearlessly dedicated to making healthy cooking easy, affordable, and of course: delicious! She specializes in lightened-up comfort foods, easy weeknight meal ideas, and wholesome versions of your favorite treats. Erin lives in Milwaukee with her husband Ben and their lazy, loveable beagle mix Teddy. In this episode, you'll learn about the challenges and rewards of running a business as a couple and the importance of over-communication, mutual understanding, and adapting responsibilities to suit each partner's interests and strengths. - Over-communication is Key: Clear and frequent communication helps navigate challenges and expectations effectively. - Recognize I

In episode 503, Jenny Meier teaches us 3 ways to build a community on Substack and how to use the platform to network and increase our blog's reach. Jenny founded Kitchen Skip in 2019 as a place to share easy dinner recipes with busy parents like herself. Almost 20 years earlier, Jenny had attended culinary school and spent years working in restaurants, cheese shops and wine stores before she started developing recipes for food and wellness websites in 2009. Finally, in 2019 Jenny started her own food blog. She monetized with MediaVine at the end of 2021 and started her Substack newsletter in June of 2022. In this episode, you'll learn about how to get started on Substack and why it's a great platform to build community and expand your reach and knowledge, and how embracing new writing platforms can enhance your skills and open doors to collaboration opportunities. - Alternative to Email Newsletters: Substack makes it easy to send out newsletters to subscribers, helping you build a community around exclusive

Megan discusses the importance of decluttering our life, its impact on mental health and productivity and 5 ways in which we can get started. Decluttering your life is an easy, practical way to open up space for good things to come into your life. Megan shares strategies for decluttering physical spaces, electronics, calendars, relationships, and your mind. She also provides actionable insights to help you enhance your well-being and productivity by creating space for positive change through decluttering. She covers the following key points: 1. Declutter a Physical Space: Decluttering spaces like closets, cars, desks, and pantries, can be broken up in bite-sized tasks and will affect the way you feel. 2. Declutter Electronics: Tips include organizing phone apps, deleting unnecessary files, and managing email subscriptions. 3. Declutter Your Calendar: Evaluate commitments and redistribute tasks to prevent burnout. 4. Declutter Relationships: Assess and adjust relationships for mental well-being. 5. Declutter Y

In episode 501, Amanda Polick teaches us how to embrace rejection so that it becomes a catalyst for personal growth and resilience. Amanda Polick is a cookbook and food memoir coach. Her work has been featured by Cooking Light, Time, Southern Living, and Food & Wine. She’s a proud member of Cherry Bombe, Les Dames d'Escoffier International, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Amanda lives in Nashville, Tennessee now, but a piece of her will be in California forever. In this episode, you'll learn about handling rejection gracefully by staying true to your purpose and the value of embracing feedback, and supporting fellow creators amidst challenges and uncertainties. - Remember Your Identity: When you get rejected, remember your identity and purpose to help you maintain self-assurance and direction. - Embrace Rejection as Growth: Rejection is a catalyst for learning and personal development, essential for building resilience and determination. - Boldness and Authenticity: Uniqueness

In episode 500, Megan chats to 3 SEO experts: Ty Kilgore, Samantha Blake and Steve Wiideman, about what SEO strategies will help food bloggers grow most in 2024. Ty Kilgore has been geeking out on SEO and Digital Marketing for over 14 years. He founded Everything Digital Marketing in order to share his passion and to clearly instruct, guide, and help influencers overcome the frustrations related to SEO and Digital Marketing. Samantha Blake began a web design and SEO business after food blogging didn’t go as planned. While she still enjoys cooking and baking as a hobby, she learned she truly had a love for web design and SEO pieces when it comes to business. Sam particularly loves designing and developing websites and coming up with SEO strategies for food bloggers - it's the best of both worlds!  Steve Wiideman is the Orange County, California based strategic planning specialist, founder of The Wiideman Consulting Group, and renowned as “SEO Steve” for the extraordinary breakthroughs he helped achieve for For

In this episode, Megan outlines 5 steps to help us craft a morning routine that fosters energy, productivity, and overall well-being. Whether you spend 10 minutes on a morning routine or 3 hours, these rituals can enhance our consistency in business endeavors and our personal lives. Megan explains the multitude of benefits of morning routines, including increased productivity, improved mood, mental and physical health, and the cultivation of gratitude and inspiration. She covers the following key points: - Design Your Dream Morning Routine: Envision an ideal morning routine without time constraints, considering activities that ignite energy and align with personal goals. - Develop a Baseline Morning Routine: Determine the time available for your morning routine and prioritize activities accordingly. Even short routines can yield significant benefits. - Prepare in Advance: Visualize the morning routine before bedtime to set intentions and align the mind with upcoming activities. Use strategies like going to be

In episode 498, Megan chats to Brittany Roche about mindset shifts and practical strategies for successful brand collaboration while staying true to ourselves. Brittany Roche founded Plant Power Couple with her partner Terrence in 2015, eager to share their innovative take on vegan cooking with other plant-curious people. Brittany started working with brands in 2020. She had just made it into MediaVine when the pandemic hit and she saw her RPMs drop drastically. She had been learning about working with brands for 3 years prior to this, but when she knew she had to diversify her income, she decided to really go for it! Now, she's formed genuine relationships with dozens of brands and has created a system that ensures a consistent stream of brand work that feels natural. In this episode, you'll learn about the importance of building genuine relationships with brands, strategies for resilience in the face of rejection, and effective follow-up techniques to maximize collaboration opportunities. - Build Genuine Re

In episode 497, Lexi Harrison teaches us the latest strategy to grow on Instagram and TikTok and how to generate a lot of audience engagement. Lexi and Beth are the mother-daughter duo behind Crowded Kitchen, a (mostly) vegetarian food blog. In addition to creating recipes, photography and videography for Crowded Kitchen's social media and website, Lexi and Beth also create freelance content for many food and beverage brands. In this episode, you’ll learn about how to increase your social media following and improve your engagement using hooks, voiceovers and captions. - Post a Series to Build an Audience: Posting a series of related content on Instagram Reels encourages people to follow your account for more. - Leverage Facebook for content distribution: Leverage your content via Facebook, especially now that there is the ability to post reels. - Casual Setup and Filming: Avoid overstylizing your shots and use an iPhone for filming. - Longer Form Content for TikTok: TikTok strategy includes using longer vide

In this episode, Megan explores the transformative power of visualization, focusing on five steps to help you manifest your dreams. Megan explains why visualization is essential in accelerating personal and professional goals. Visualizing your dreams involves more than just imagining; it entails embodying the emotions and sensations associated with achieving your desires and requires clarity, belief, and inspired action in the process. Megan covers the following key points: 1. Know What You Want: Clearly define your goals, whether they involve material possessions, experiences, or personal growth. Be open to flexibility in the details while maintaining clarity on your desires. 2. Understand Why You Want It: Dig deep into the reasons behind your aspirations. Your true motivations often extend beyond surface-level desires and connect to deeper values and emotions. 3. Believe It Is Yours: Embrace a mindset of unwavering belief that your dreams are within reach. Visualize them as if they are already manifesting i

In episode 495, Megan chats to Ashley Covelli about how to host successful virtual or in-person cooking classes, including technical setup, engagement strategies, and pricing considerations. Ashley Covelli is the food photographer, recipe developer, and culinary instructor behind Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen and the co-founder of Passing the Plate. She loves helping busy people find time to cook delicious meals while reducing the amount of stress, money, and waste involved in the process. She believes in the restorative and joyful practice of sharing meals in the community, preserving the recipes of our ancestors, and cooking as a way of creating memories with loved ones. Ashley’s legitimately tiny kitchen is located in Ossining, New York, where she lives with her husband, son, and a feisty rescue cat. Her professional background is in graphic design and fine art, and she brings that aesthetic to her culinary creations. In this episode, you’ll learn about how to generate additional income through cooking c

In episode 494, Ella Gilbert talks about how to create extra income streams for your business through freelancing while still maintaining time for your blog. Ella is a food blogger focused on cozy and approachable recipes for the modern baker and home cook. Ella is also a food photographer and writer for other food bloggers. In this episode, you’ll learn about the viability of having a career in freelancing, how to build your personal brand, develop strong relationships and manage your time. - Freelancing as a Viable Career: Freelancing offers a viable career path, providing opportunities for individuals to showcase their skills and expertise in a flexible and independent manner. - Personal Branding: Building a strong personal brand is crucial in freelancing, enabling freelancers like Ella to differentiate themselves and attract clients based on their unique skills, experience, and reputation. - Client Relationship Management: Clear communication, transparency, and professionalism foster long-term client part

In this episode, Megan explores the 5 steps to release business grudges and why it’s important for our blogging career and mental health. It is important to address business grudges, because they can evolve into significant mental burdens affecting various aspects of our lives. From negative comments and unsolicited advice to challenges with platforms like Facebook, Megan unveils the common grudges that plague the food blogging community. She covers the following key points: 1. Defined and Acknowledge the Grudge: Identify the business grudge occupying the most mental space and write down specific details. 2. Write Out Your Grudge Story: Delve into your grudges, answering why you hold them and exploring the emotions associated with these grievances. 3. Analyze Your Grudge Story: Take a step back, analyzing the grudge story with a big picture lens. By distancing yourself from the emotions, you can identify patterns and underlying issues. 4. Rewrite Your Grudge Story: Reframe the narrative with a collaborative a

In episode 492, Megan chats to Murielle Banackissa about how to create inspirational food photography and tell a story using lighting, props, food and textures. Murielle Banackissa is a food photographer, food stylist, YouTuber, and soon-to-be cookbook author based in Montreal, Canada. Outside of spending hours developing new recipes and shooting them in her home studio, Murielle loves getting lost in good books, designing her bullet journal spreads, sipping on warm beverages, and going on long walks. She draws a lot of inspiration from the colors and textures found in nature. From water droplets to the sun shining through the leaves early in the morning and the orange glow of summer nights, Murielle loves paying attention to the magic surrounding her as a way to feel more grounded and present. In this episode, you’ll learn how to improve your food photography, from setting mood and learning from others to practical advice such as which lenses are best depending on where you are in your own food blogging jour

In episode 491, Jacqueline Debono teaches us how to grow an engaged audience of email subscribers by sending authentic newsletters.  Jacqueline is a Brit living in Verona Italy for 20 years, happily married to a wonderful Sicilian. Jacqueline has a love of Italian food, particularly pasta and so 7 years ago she started her blog about Italian pasta, including only authentic Italian recipes for all kinds of pasta (dried, fresh, homemade). Her original goal was to feature as many types of pasta as she could (with recipes). So far Jacqueline has about 400 recipes for 80 types of pasta! Many more to go! Jacqueline got accepted to MediaVine in 2019 (with 25k sessions) now at 190-200k sessions a month. She can say it's a pretty successful niche blog. But then everybody loves pasta, right? In this episode, you’ll learn how to grow your newsletter subscription base using personal anecdotes, insights into your own life and evergreen content, as well as finding out how often to send out emails to your subscribers. - App

In this episode, Megan shares quick ways to boost your mood and feel good instantly. When we're going through a tough time, we ironically resist positive activities. Find out how to overcome this barrier with a set of easy ways to feel good instantly and create your own personalized list of activities that bring you joy. Megan covers the following key points: 1. Breathe: Explore the power of intentional breathing, giving you instant relief and rejuvenation. 2. Express Gratitude for Another Human: Express gratitude, focusing on specific individuals who bring joy and support. Take immediate action to convey appreciation. 3. Hydrate: Use quick hydration as a simple yet effective way to improve mood and energy levels. 4. Quick Workout Burst: Do a brief one to five-minute workout to instantly boost energy and improve mood. 5. Get Out in Nature: Spend just a few minutes outdoors, connecting with the environment and experiencing the instant mood-lifting effects. Get in touch with Megan if there is a specific mindset