Episode 590: From Stuck to Successful – Real Insider Results from Eat Blog Talk Mastermind Members

EBT590 – Megan Porta

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

Megan Porta  00:37

Food bloggers. Hello, I can’t believe it’s that time of year again where we are talking about masterminds. It’s another year of masterminds. We’re finishing up another awesome year this year in 2024 my current group is so amazing I can’t say enough good things about them, and I’m super, super excited for what is to come in 2025 the groups are going to be amazing, and I can’t wait to tell you about them. Thank you for tuning in today. This is episode number 590. Inside this episode, we’re going to dig into some real life ways, the Eat Blog Talk Mastermind groups in 2025 are going to transform your business as well as you, the entrepreneur behind the business. You all hear me talk about this all the time, how powerful these groups are, but today, you will get to hear it from the people who matter, the people who are actually inside the groups. I can’t wait for you to hear from them. They’re some of my favorite people. 

Megan Porta  01:35

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Megan Porta  03:06

We are back, and I’m so excited to be here chatting with you today. I hope you are having a great week. If you are at your computer or have your phone in your hand right now, pull up eatblogtalk.com/mastermind. Just for reference. Here you will be able to access all of the goodies, including case studies, testimonials, all the details about the new packages and new pricing. You heard me right. There is new pricing and additional packages. Everything you will need to know is on that page. I’m going to try to go through this as quickly as possible. I want to talk about some FAQs that will kind of frame our topic. The first question is, how is the Eat Blog Talk mastermind group different from other groups? I think this is a really important question to answer, because I truly believe that it is so unique and so different from other groups out there, from what I hear from others who join free and other paid mastermind groups, the Eat Blog Talk group really is unique and special. Here are a few of the reasons why I’m not going to go through all of them just for the sake of time today. But number one, I think dedicated leadership, you definitely benefit from a committed leader, me who shows up consistently, I provide my time, my love, my energy, my expertise, every single call to guide and help support members through their journeys. I do one on one planning calls with every single member so they can help plan their own unique life and schedule and business. Number two is vast experience. I have logged over 400 hours of facilitating these groups, so you can trust in the extensive experience that drives the success of the program. Three powerful networking. My superpower is connecting people with the right people who can best assist and serve them. I am a connector at heart, and I love, love, love doing this for the people in the groups. Four curated expertise, you have access to the best and most relevant experts in the food blogging industry through our monthly guest expert calls, which ensures that you receive the most relevant insights and knowledge as someone who talks to a lot of different people through the podcast and other areas, I have access to these experts, and I bring in the best of the best. Five top priority these mastermind groups are a huge priority in my business. They mean so much to me, and I truly prioritize creating a supportive, loving and friendship driven culture and environment. The last thing I’ll mention here is the lasting relationships. You will form meaningful connections that extend beyond the mastermind program. You’ll form friendships and professional relationships that truly do enrich your blogging career and your life. 

Megan Porta  06:03

Okay, next question, what is the investment? I am super happy to announce that we have lowered the pricing this year due to pretty obvious reasons. I think it’s been a bit of a tumultuous year, causing traffic and revenue loss for so many bloggers. So we are introducing three different tiers packages in 2025 to accommodate different budgets and different time restraints, etc. The first package we’re offering is the mini minds program. This is a refurbished version of the mini minds that we’ve done in previous years. In 2025 it will extend all year, but we’re taking the summer off. The requirements to be considered for this group, you need between zero and four years of blogging experience. You do need to have a WordPress site up and running. You can’t come into the group not knowing how to set up WordPress. The investment is $3997 a year, or $350 a month. You can get all the details about this. We have the entire breakdown at eatblogtalk.com/mastermind but in a nutshell, lesser time commitment, lesser financial commitment, but still a super powerful group. We have run this program for six months at a time in the past, for the past few years, and it has been a huge success every time people love this group. The next package is the mastermind program, the most popular program, I think, of all the requirements for consideration your blog must be either in Raptive or MediaVine ad networks, and you must have a minimum of 50,000 page views per month. The investment for the year is $9997 or $850 a month. Again. Go to eatblogtalk.com/mastermind for all of the details. 

Megan Porta  07:51

There’s so much included in this package, but I will give you some of the highlights. We’re going to do three hot seat calls per month in 2025 we are also going to do our in person retreat to kick off the year. This year’s group loved the retreat that we did in January of 2024, it was a huge, huge hit, to say the least, and I can’t wait to do it again. You also get monthly guest expert calls. These are so powerful. No fluff involved. This year we’re adding quarterly group calls with systems and organizational expert Kara Myers, previous mastermind member and blogger over at Sweetly Splendid. She’s awesome, and has helped so many people in my groups to just get organized and hone in on their systems and get their business together. She is going to ensure that your business is operating optimally. There’s really so much more involved. I don’t want to go through the whole list, but go to that page that I mentioned to get all the details. And the brand new package we’re offering this year is the VIP program requirements for consideration your blog must be in either Raptive or MediaVine ad networks. There are limited spots available. I’m only offering a few of these because I personally don’t have all the time in the world to offer personal one on one coaching to everyone. So the investment for this package is $14,997 a year, or 1300 a month. Included in the package is everything from the mastermind program package, plus you get monthly one on one coaching sessions with me all through the year. Okay, the next question, Are there discounts? Yes, we are giving a 20% off discount through September 30th 2024 so hurry if you’re interested, to grab that next question. 

Megan Porta  09:46

How do I know if I’m a good fit for the group? I love this question so many people ask me this. I would say, if you’re a determined and passionate individual, if you love food blogging and you are committed to it and you’re. Moving toward achieving big dreams. It’s a good fit for you. Also, I just really prioritize quality human beings who are uplifting, encouraging, smart and kind and willing to share information. Also, just a willingness to speak up and share freely and give solid advice to your fellow entrepreneurs. I’ll say this too. So many people tell me that they think they have either too little or too much experience to join these groups. None of that is true. There’s space for absolutely everyone at the table at every level to be a part of one of our groups. I promise that no matter where you’re at on the spectrum, whether you just got your WordPress site up and running, or you’ve been doing this for 10 plus years, you will get so much more out of it, and you’ll be able to offer so much more to others than you could ever imagine. Next question, how do I get started? Fill out an application. Go to eatblogtalk.com/mastermind, select your package of choice between the three that I mentioned, and click Apply to join. This will take you through a series of questions that will help us to determine if you’re a good fit for the group and if the group is a good fit for you. If it is, we will schedule a quick call, and we can go from there and last question, Who is this group for, and who is it not for? What am I going to get out of it? I guess that’s like a few questions in one, and I’m not going to answer these because I want my current members to answer these questions for you. So the rest of the episode, you’re going to hear from a handful of my current members. They’re so awesome, and they’re going to tell you why you should join the group, what they’ve gotten out of the group, what their pain points were, all the good things. So here we go, you will occasionally hear a deep voice in some of these clips that are coming up, and that is Terrence. He is the blogger over at plant power. Couple with his partner, Brittany. They were previous mastermind members, and he did all of these interviews for me. So when you hear his voice, don’t be alarmed. He is helping me out here for this purpose. This first clip is from Dawn. She is the awesome blogger over at Savor the Best. She blogs with her mom, Pat. Both of them have been part of the mastermind group this year. So Terence interviewed Don for this episode, and the first thing he asked her was, what struggles were you having before you joined the group, and what were you looking for in a group?

Dahn  12:28

I think that’s just been, I’ve been kind of slowly realizing I need to build connections. I need to build this community around me, and not necessarily just somebody that is like, also doing what I’m doing, but somebody that sometimes you just need a friend. It’s one thing to have your friend down the street, but to have a friend that understands what you’re doing and gets it, because that’s a process too to even understanding it yourself, even to creators, I think sometimes we struggle to really understand everything ourselves, I think the biggest impact has just been noticing that I really need to stay connected. I need to stay connected with other people that are in the same sphere as me.

Megan Porta  13:14

In this next clip, Terrence asks Don about why invest in a mastermind versus just doing a free mastermind. For example, what is the value you get from investing in a quality mastermind?

Dahn  13:27

group, that particular group of friends, it’s not a paid mastermind. So sometimes it’s easy to kind of drop things aside. I feel like when you put a significant investment into a mastermind where you’re really investing your your money, then you’re held more accountable to showing up and to helping the process and staying committed. This other mastermind that I have, it’s a great group of ladies, and they’re they’re committed, and I think we got lucky, but I think that there’s a lot of other like little mini masterminds that people will form like that, and they’ll fall by the wayside. Because I’ve definitely tried to form other masterminds. It’ll start up and kind of putter itself back out. And so I just, I felt like, if I really wanted some good engagement and growth, that getting in and really investing myself would make a difference.

Megan Porta  14:23

In this clip, Terrence asked Dawn what her reservations were before joining a mastermind group and investing in this particular Eat Blog Talk group.

Dahn  14:33

probably the monetary end time commitment was maybe the biggest reservation by the time I wanted to join, there wasn’t an awful lot of reservation, because I just felt that I needed, you know, I really needed to invest in the business. I needed to put a little more skin in the game. And I had been to a retreat that Megan had put on in the past, and I just felt a good connection with Megan, and I felt. Like, you know, like I wanted to continue with something else that she provided here

Megan Porta  15:04

Dawn speaks about the connection piece of being in the group, the support so many people find immense value in the supportive environment they find inside the mastermind. I

Dahn  15:15

think just having this support and encouragement and this group of people that I can connect with, I have an increased confidence. I’m okay with where I’m at right now.

Megan Porta  15:27

Okay. I absolutely love this clip coming up, because Dawn is one of those people that just knows everything about everything. She is so smart, she digs into a topic and really learns it. And she has taught the group, including myself, so much this year. So it’s really funny to hear her say that she felt like she didn’t know anything, because she certainly came into the group and taught us a ton. But I think that’s one of the magic pieces of this group, is that you come in maybe thinking that you don’t know much, and once you start teaching people things that you do know, you get this renewed confidence in yourself and realize that you are more knowledgeable and powerful than you ever knew. Well,

Dahn  16:13

I just, I think that it just helps to have somebody come from a different perspective, have different skill sets. Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m doing. I feel like I don’t even know what I’m doing. And so it helps to connect with other people, and then sometimes you realize you know what you’re doing right. So I guess I’m doing it right.

Megan Porta  16:33

We’re all doing it wrong for the first time this year, in 2024 I decided to host a retreat specifically for mastermind members. And I cannot even tell you how much of a success it was. Every single person who showed up and most of the members were able to do so. Loved it so much. It really set the stage for our year. It helped people to connect in an in person. Way, making those human in person connections was so huge, and we’ll continue to do those in person retreats. So here, Dawn talks about how much she loved the retreat.

Dahn  17:08

In the very beginning of the year, we got together as a mastermind group in a retreat. I’ll tell you what. I feel like that was the best way to start the group out. I’m a little sad that we didn’t all get to make it to the retreat, but a good amount of us did, and I think that that really started us out on the right foot. It wasn’t just a video connection, it was a personal connection that was a super way to, you know, to just really connect and feel like there was a bond and more trust between the whole group. I think it started us out on the right foot.

Megan Porta  17:47

In this clip, Dahn talks about what her hopes and dreams were when she decided to join the mastermind, and how that all panned out.

Dahn  17:55

I mean, as far as a structured mastermind, I’d never been a part of it. So I had some hopes that there would be accountability, there’d be support and encouragement. I just had no idea. But it’s been that, plus it’s been there’s been help with we’ve been we problem solve for each other. There’s definitely confidence boosting, there’s motivation and inspiration, and there’s also just this strong support system. It’s just a great group of individuals and and I feel like we’re forming some long term friendships,

Megan Porta  18:33

the lasting friendships that Dahn referred to. Oh my goodness, yes. Now, having been through a few rounds of year long mastermind groups, I can see these long term friendships that have formed a couple of years ago. They’re solid, you guys, these people are such good friends. They connect, they collaborate, they empower each other, and they help each other’s businesses to grow. That is a real benefit from this mastermind group. In this next clip, this is the last one from dawn. She talks about how everyone in the group brings something unique to the table, creating this really well balanced situation, despite different skills and experience levels and niches, it all comes together so perfectly, even though this is one of the things that a lot of people doubt in the beginning, everything just seems to come together so well in a balanced way.

Dahn  19:30

And so it’s been a huge confidence to see that everybody else that’s in this group and these really business minded people that that we’re all in it together, and maybe we have some different strengths. I’d say some of them balance enough that I feel like we’re kind of on the same level playing field. The

Megan Porta  19:49

next member you get to hear from is Kristina. She is the blogger at when Salty and Sweet Unite. I love Christina. She is such a good member in this group. She brings. Much to the table, as they all do. In this clip, she talks about what prompted her to join exactly this mastermind group. And I love that Terrence has the perspective of someone who has been through the group. So he asks Kristina, do you feel like it’s worth it so far? And then he gives his input about how worthwhile the group was for him and his partner in their business. Love it.

Kristina Cadelina  20:25

So time had went on, I’m from that one. And then I was like, oh, you know, I really like Megan’s podcast and stuff. And I was a part of her I would do the focus calls sometimes. So I was like, No, that’s this is all positive stuff. And then, like, after meeting you guys, I was like, Okay, well, they had a really good experience in the master experience,

Terrence Roche  20:46

yeah, yeah, we actually still meet with almost our entire group every Wednesday.

Kristina Cadelina  20:51

Oh, wow. Side question, have, like, everyone has seen growth, right? I mean, as a group,

Terrence Roche  20:57

Yeah, indeed.

Megan Porta  20:58

I wanted to mention the focus calls that Kristina referred to in the previous clip are included in the Eat Blog Talk accountability group. So if nothing that we talk about today is in your budget for 2025 that is okay, but definitely go join the accountability group. It is an awesome group of people that requires much less of an investment, but that has so many great features. Okay, I wanted to mention that in this next clip, Kristina talks about the growth she’s seen, including traffic growth, Pinterest growth, and she alludes to a call that I had with her, and this is the planning call that I do with every single member, and it’s usually extremely powerful. Kristina talks about this in the clip that it is what led to her massive Pinterest growth. 

Kristina Cadelina  21:45

I’m seeing growth. Yes, I’ve been seeing growth monthly, not only so like my blog stats have grown, and then like my Pinterest views have grown. So yeah, those two things, I mean, they’ve grown a lot since August of 2023 and I think part of that has to do with getting in the call, the initial call with Megan and like that goal setting like, hey, focus on this for the month, this for the week, this for the day, right? And then she’s very good at that, right? She is. And then the Pinterest thing, like, I was really down on Pinterest, like, God, my views are just so low. And then was like, Wait a second, you know, Megan’s like, look how much content you have. Why don’t you bump this up? Why are you pinning only this amount per day? Why don’t you try this amount? And I’m like, Oh, I do have that. I do have enough content. And then getting regular with that. And then I’ve seen, oh my God, my Pinterest views, pre Megan, I think they were at two to 3000 a month, and now they’re at 15,000 Wow, that’s a big jump. 

Terrence Roche  22:57

Nice. It is.

Megan Porta  22:58

One of the main questions I get when people want to join the group is, how do I know that this is going to work? How do I know there’s information there that I’m going to need to know? And my very refined answer to that is trust the process. It just works. Bringing a collection of people together with all different skills and areas of expertise is magic. In this next clip, Kristina talks about all the different areas of expertise that come together in this mastermind group, and this is just to name a few. We

Kristina Cadelina  23:32

do have a good range. So we have someone who has done a lot of investing in SEO, and she has a lot to say on like how a post should be structured, or how you should structure your content and stuff like pillar posts and things like that. So she gives a lot of feedback on that stuff. And then we have a blogger who has been a blogger for a long time, but she recently purchased a blog she’s trying to, not, I want to say, grow that blog, because that blog is big, but she’s trying to maintain the blog and make sure that she’s nurturing that new blog as such, so that it can grow even more. And then we have people. We have one blogger who, like, just released a cookbook or getting a release book. And then we have one, who she’s, she is, I think she’s actually newer than me, but she just got, she just got joined journey. So she just joined journey, yeah, and then, um, you know, she, she participates in a lot of Facebook groups, so she has a lot of info on that. One of the bloggers. She has her blog, but she also has, like an Amazon, like a store, Amazon storefront, and so she just had, she just worked with different things, and she has her own spices. So I. That’s interesting to learn from her, because I really like creating my own spices, and so I told her, like, when I’m ready, I’m going to pick your brain about this. Because she had, she had told me a lot about it already, but I’m like, wait, I can’t take it all in right now, because not there doing it just yet. But you know, it’s just information like that. Like, oh my God, that’s four or five different things that I hadn’t even thought about. Here

Megan Porta  25:26

are Kristina’s thoughts on the mastermind only in person retreat.

25:32

I thought that was a awesome idea to act, you know, to meet people, to actually meet them in person. Like, I really, I wasn’t expecting that that was a really nice feature to have in the mastermind, like being able to actually meet the people that’s in your mastermind. I

Megan Porta  25:47

love this next clip. Christina talks about investing that whole concept of spending your money to be in a high quality mastermind group, and whether or not she thinks it is worth it. 

Kristina Cadelina  26:00

If someone off the streets was were to ask me, Are masterminds worth it? Because, you know, masterminds, they’re they’re an investment, I would say hands down, yeah. Because what you get in a mastermind, not all your knowledge is going to come from that leader. Obviously it’s going to come from everyone. There’s just something about people who are investing in themselves. There’s just something about us that we get it like we want it. We’re going to go get it, we’re going to go figure it out, and let’s all do this together. There’s no room for negativity. There’s negative things that happen throughout that, course, but that’s not what we’re focused on. Yeah, and I think in three groups, I noticed there’s a lot of negativity

Megan Porta  26:43

and regarding investing in a mastermind like the Eat Blog Talk, one that we’re talking about here, Christina talks about, you know what? If you want to make it work, you can figure out a way to make it work. It is so true. And if you’re listening, you know, whether that’s you or not, if it’s not totally fine, but if you want to make it work, you can definitely find a way.

27:07

I just feel like, you know you can make it happen, like, if you want, if you want that growth, because I understand not everyone can do a mastermind, but somehow, somehow you can make it happen, whether it be do a payment plan, 

Terrence Roche  27:19

If you really want it’s worth you gotta make it work. It wasn’t easy for us when we joined, but we found a way to make it work. Yeah, it has really, like you said, it’s absolutely worth it. 

Terrence Roche  27:29

Because one of my doubts, one of my doubts or not, it wasn’t even a doubt, but it was more like, Am I doing the right thing because I’m laid off, I’m on unemployment, and I’m about to join this mastermind say, what? Like, right? I just had that faith, like I’m gonna make this work. Like it’s gonna work. I’m gonna join and take the leap.

Megan Porta  27:50

In these next few clips, you’re gonna hear from my friend and mastermind member, Lucy. She is the blogger at Southern Food and Fun, and in this first clip, she talks about the value of this particular paid mastermind group and how it differs from other groups, especially free groups that are put together. 

Lucy  28:11

I had some friends who had been in it previously. One of them decided to go ahead and do it again this year. Oh, okay, they recommended it. 

Terrence Roche  28:20

And full disclosure, I also was in a group in 2023 so, yeah, I mean, we had five of us still meet on a weekly basis on Wednesdays. 

Lucy  28:30

I had tried a mastermind in 2023 after tastemaker, I met some people there, and we tried to do a mastermind, and that just didn’t go well. There was some drama, and, you know, just, it just wasn’t a fit, right? And so I decided it would probably be better to be in a paid group where everybody’s paying, everybody’s on the same page, there’s a moderator that’s not one of the group. You know, it just seemed like a better way to go about it for the things that I wanted to accomplish. Everybody’s very professional, friendly. It’s, we’re all there for the same reasons. And so it’s, it’s been a good experience.

Megan Porta  29:14

Even though, unfortunately, Lucy was not able to join the in person retreat for mastermind members at the beginning of the year, she still saw that it was valuable for those who were able to attend. So she talks about this a little bit here. It

Lucy  29:28

takes a little time for you to, you know, get to know people. I missed the initial retreat that the group.

Terrence Roche  29:36

I was gonna ask, yeah, so you were not able to make that

29:38

right. I was out of town, so I feel like, you know, the people who did make that, that definitely helps you to kind of gel and know each other, and, you know, then everything else kind of goes a little smoother. So I hate that. I miss that. But, you know, I think it’s probably easier to develop the trust aspect once you’ve met people in person and spent a couple. The days with them and that sort of thing. So I highly recommend that. 

Megan Porta  30:03

One of the things I haven’t really talked about yet in this episode is the Slack channel that the group has access to at any time we are in there every day chatting about, you, name it, SEO, Pinterest, Facebook, strategies, mindset, encouragement, successes, wins. We have conversations going on all the time that are helpful and encouraging and valuable. So Lucy talks a little bit about this and how it’s just nice to have that tight, knit, supportive environment to go to.

Lucy  30:36

You know, it’s just nice to have this resource where you can just ask random questions about different things. You know, how are you doing this? Or what did you do for this? And, you know, we’re all kind of learning some new things now, the MSN stuff and Flipboard and all that. So we are learning that process together. And… 

Terrence Roche  30:56

I was gonna say it is nice to be able to do that together with a group of people sometimes trying to understand that on your own is just overwhelming.

Megan Porta  31:05

In this next clip, Lucy talks about some positive changes she has seen in her business since joining the mastermind.

Lucy  31:12

Just I would say my traffic’s going up. So I feel like my focus is better, working a little more efficiently, working more. So I do feel like it’s it’s paying off. We’ve also had discussions about alternate revenue sources, and so I’ve been delving into some of those things, like setting up an Etsy shop and doing some different things like that. So

Megan Porta  31:37

here’s one of those perks from joining the group that is more of a byproduct, and that is just hearing what other people are doing, hearing what’s out there, because you are a part of such a tight knit group, and having access to this information that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to,

Lucy  31:55

Getting out there and trying Different platforms and sourcing alternative sources of revenue and not just being stuck on the website and the ads and that sort of thing.

Megan Porta  32:07

This next clip is the last clip that you’ll be hearing from Lucy, and she talks about the investment piece of the equation and whether or not she thinks it is worth it. I love that she refers to the ROI being a long game. This is something we don’t talk about often. People get into the group and they want to know, what am I going to get by the end of the one year? But in my mind, I’m thinking, yeah, you’re going to get a lot at the end of the year. But what about five years from now? What positive things will have happened in your business by then? Because you were in this group? 

Megan Porta  32:41

Anybody on the fence, you know, I, I highly recommend the mastermind. It’s expensive, but it’s an investment in your business and investment in yourself. And I feel like, definitely, for me, when you have skin in the game, you will put more into it. Like, I feel like I’m working harder because I’m paying this money for this mastermind, so I need to be present and focused and get as much out of it as I can. So that’s definitely helpful to me. I highly recommend it. 

Terrence Roche  33:13

And if you’re not worth investing in, you then you know, what is it?

Lucy  33:18

I feel like the return on that investment will be yours.

Megan Porta  33:22

Okay? These next clips are from Sarah. She’s a blogger at Bucket List Tummy. I love Sarah. She is a seasoned blogger. She adds such a great element to this year’s mastermind. And in this first clip, she talks about how her expectations were exceeded by some things that came from the year, being in the group this year, and how you might go into a group like this thinking that you’re a seasoned blogger, there’s not much for you to learn, and how that is definitely not the case. You can be the most seasoned blogger in the world come into this group and really just get so much out of it.

Sarah Schlichter  34:01

You don’t know what you don’t know. And now, being in the group, there’s so much I didn’t know or even know to ask about. And I think our Slack group is just invaluable for all the different channels we have to communicate on the topics. And, you know, look back ask questions as they come up, and the support is one of a kind. I mean, Megan is always there, always has ideas to share, and even just the culture that she cultivates within the group is fantastic. I would say it’s more than I expected to get back just because there was so much more involved, and I thought I was a pretty seasoned blogger, knew knew my stuff, but turns out, there’s so much more. 

Megan Porta  34:49

A very common question that I get before people join the group is, how big of a time commitment is this and am I going to be able to show up to enough calls? And it’s just a fact that we’re all human, and we have lives, and we travel and we get sick. So of course, you’re not going to show up to every call. So Sarah touches on this point and talks about how she didn’t show up to every call, nobody does, but how she still felt like she got so much from the group because of our Slack channel, because every call is recorded.

Sarah Schlichter  35:22

I mean, every meeting is recorded. So you are able to kind of trace back any meetings that you miss, and just the real time Slack channel, I think, is just like such a valuable resource on its own, where you’re able to collaborate with people, you’re able to look back on previous chat, you’re able to ask a question about any topic and and have it archived there. So yeah, even not being able to make every meeting, I don’t think that’s tainted my experience in any way. I mean, there’s just so many ways to learn and reach out. And yeah, I think it’s, it’s very powerful community.

Megan Porta  36:01

I have personally been a part of groups in my blogging history where people definitely gatekeep information. They hold back. They don’t want to share everything because they think their ideas or projects are going to be stolen. Blah, blah, blah. That does not happen in the Eat Blog Talk mastermind ever at all, because we just like, we don’t allow it. We’re there to share with each other, and people do so willingly. So Sarah talks about this a little bit as well as just how powerful it is to have bloggers of all experience levels with all kinds of knowledge and skills.

Sarah Schlichter  36:39

I think that’s really powerful. Like there’s no gatekeeping. People really are willing to share their experience. It’s nice to have different levels of bloggers, people who are, you know, have higher traffic, people who are new to blogging. I mean, we’re all kind of on our own path, but we all still have different areas of expertise or knowledge or places that we’re learning from. So I think just that variety is is really powerful and how it contributes to people moving along. In

Megan Porta  37:15

this next clip, Terrence asks Sarah to talk about topics like AI and how we navigated these types of changes in our industry this year, inside the group, I love Sarah’s answer, because a lot of the time we don’t know what we don’t know, and being in a group like this brings questions and topics to the table that we didn’t even know we should be asking.

Sarah Schlichter  37:38

Yeah, I always think it’s helpful to hear other people’s questions, because sometimes we all learn differently, and when you’re taking in new information, maybe you don’t even know where to start with a question or how to ask that question, but having other people’s questions about these topics and which lead to answers I thought was so helpful, maybe things I wouldn’t even have thought to ask, and on terms of AI and chat GPT, obviously, that’s kind of part of our world now. So hearing how maybe more seasoned bloggers are using it in their day to day flow rather than resisting it, I think has been a really cool way to change viewpoints on something that you know could be seen as competition. So for example, people have shared like what prompts they’re using for chatgpt, or how to again prompt it send something back to get more specific, or how to use it for your newsletter just different ways. I personally wouldn’t have thought about using it and discussing some of the paid options, and if that’s worth it. So I think having those opinions and those experiences are really helpful. Every

Megan Porta  38:48

year, there are certain topics that seem to come up that are unique to that year. One of the topics this year that was really unique to 2024 was starting a second site, a handful of the bloggers inside of this year’s mastermind started second blogs, some of them really successful. Right off the bat, it was really cool to watch people in the group launch into this as a project. Sarah talks about her experience with just learning about how to launch her second blog inside the group.

Sarah Schlichter  39:22

Big win that I can hopefully continue to build upon was getting my second blog site onto journey with mediavine, like the the stepping stone to mediavine ads, having one site on mediavine and working on the second one, I think hearing how other bloggers focused on managing two sites, or just, you know how to grow a site from scratch, essentially, I think that was my first big win. 

Megan Porta  39:54

Here’s something else. We don’t talk about a lot that happens inside the group. Yes, we encourage each other to. To start new projects and try new things and explore new ventures, etc, but we also encourage people to pump the brakes when we see that that is right for them. In this next clip, Sarah talks about launching a podcast, which she’s super excited about, but how the group encouraged her to maybe hold off a little bit until the time was right, and how that just felt so good to her.

Sarah Schlichter  40:25

I had talked about starting a podcast, and, you know, I’ve made steps towards that. Haven’t officially launched it yet, but I have had some really great conversations with the group, and obviously Megan, who is a podcast expert on my Hot Seat setting pages and pages of notes for launching. And I actually think really great feedback on like not launching in the past few months, since life was chaotic with going to Australia and then moving and settling in and new schools. So I think had I tried to do that at that time, I probably would have burned out very quickly. So having a lot more information, doing it with more of a plan and preparation to launch soon, the next month or so, I think will be my most significant win.

Megan Porta  41:16

We have a few more months inside of this current group, but Sarah talks about what she expects for her blogging business after the group, and how the group has helped her think about the whole picture of her blog, rather than just creating blog posts, one at a time without much forethought going into why she’s creating the blog posts.

Sarah Schlichter  41:40

Growth, more page views, more traffic, more ad revenue, for sure, and I think just a better strategic plan on how to continue. You know, up until this point, it was kind of like, well, here’s a post I could write, or I could rank for this and kind of all over the place. So I feel like in the last nine months, I have sort of niche down and become a little bit more clear in what I’m posting and similar posts and contact content brackets and learning about that kind of stuff. So I think putting a lot of that into action being more consistent is what I hope for.

Megan Porta  42:23

Oh, here is something else we hardly ever talk about outside of the group, another little perk that just kind of came up this year that’s been really beneficial, I know, to me, and that is that we have a little secret book club that goes on inside of our group. We pick a book together, we read it individually, and then we come together and collaborate about takeaways and insights, etc. This has been a really cool aspect of the group as well.

Sarah Schlichter  42:53

We actually have a book club as part of the mastermind that was something that someone wanted to start. And it’s been really neat to kind of read some of these books and share feedback with everyone, and I think the last two, the main kind of takeaway is basically work smarter, not harder. Like focus on the big things, rather than doing so many little things. Outsource what you can since your time is so valuable, and use that on either the big ticket things for your business or the things that are going to give you the most bang for your buck in the long run, because I would kind of waste time doing monotonous things that are not my favorite but need to be done, and it’s not the Best Use of my limited time as it is. So being able to let go some of that control and hence focus on the bigger items, I think, has been a great learning experience.

Megan Porta  43:55

In the next clip, Sarah talks about one of the things that has been really helpful for her business that she learned from the group, and that is updating old content. And again, just going into a project like this with a little bit of strategy and forethought versus just willy nilly updating random content.

Sarah Schlichter  44:16

I think I’ve had a lot of success with updating old posts, actually, and we’ve talked about that on various video chats and how other people are doing that and tracking that. I’m not someone who who can come up with systems well on my own, so I think learning from other people and how they’re tracking and updating things has been really helpful for figuring out the best concept that will work for me. So I think now that I am tracking that and knowing what post update, that’s one thing that’s working really well.

Megan Porta  44:49

And last but not least, here is the final clip that I will share with you. Sarah talks about whether or not she thinks you should join the group and if it has been worthwhile for her in her business.

Sarah Schlichter  45:02

absolutely. I mean, I think we all know blogging is can be such a lonely career, and while it’s amazing to work for yourself and have flexibility and do something you’re passionate about, you’re not getting that same interaction as maybe you’re used to or going into an office. So I think having, you know, a virtual group of like minded people who are in the same boat, facing the same challenges, is just, I mean, there’s really no words for it. It’s just, it’s irreplaceable to have that support, that knowledge, that guidance and people cheering you on along the way, to celebrate your wins, because we have a tendency to just keep going and not stop and say, wow, I’ve achieved this to this point. And I think having a group to help you realize that can be really powerful to provide that momentum to keep moving forward.

Megan Porta  45:59

That is all we have for you for this episode, I really hope you listen to the whole thing, because it gives you such a big picture view of what you’re going to experience inside the mastermind group. I truly hope to see you in the 2025 group. Please go fill out an application if this feels like something that would truly benefit your business. Head to eatblogtalk.com/mastermind and find the package that suits you best and apply. And I know I mentioned this in the beginning, but we do have three tracks. The mini minds group is a great option, if the regular mastermind just seems like way too big of an investment for you at this point in time. Have a wonderful rest of your day and week. Thank you for joining me here today. I will see you in the next episode. 

Outro  46:47

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Don’t forget to rate and review Eat Blog Talk on your favorite podcast player. Thank you and I will see you next time.