Episode 799: Can’t Do It All Yourself Anymore? Here’s How to Start Building a Team With Erin Jensen

EBT799 – Erin Jensen

[00:00:00]  Megan Porta 

If you have ever felt like your business has outgrown what you can handle on your own, but hiring feels overwhelming or even risky, this episode is for you. Erin Jensen from The Wooden Skillet joins me to share how she built a team to support her business in a thoughtful, sustainable way. We talk about how she knew it was time to hire, how she found the right people, and what it actually looks like to train onboard and grow a team as a food blogger or small business owner. She also shares the behind the scenes realities, what worked, what didn’t, and how building a team changed everything for her business.

[00:00:37]   Intro

Hi food bloggers, I’m Megan Porta and this is Eat Blog Talk. Your space for support, inspiration and strategies to grow your blog and your freedom, whether that’s personal, professional, or financial, you are not alone on this journey.

[00:00:53]   Megan Porta

Hi Erin. Welcome to the podcast. How are you?

[00:00:55]  Erin Jensen 

I’m good. How are you?

[00:00:57]  Megan Porta 

I’m so good. I’m so excited to chat with you today. It’s Friday. I love Friday. Friday, one of my favorite days.

[00:01:04]  Erin Jensen 

Same.

[00:01:05]  Megan Porta 

Yes. Well, we’re going to talk about growing a team to support your business. I’m. We haven’t covered this in a while, so I’m really excited to chat about this here in 2026. So what do you think is the pain point that would cause a listener to press play on this episode?

[00:01:23]  Erin Jensen 

The pain point would probably be feeling overwhelmed, maybe not knowing if it’s time to either bring on an independent contractor or someone more permanent or long term, like an employee or if you’re just like curious as to what that looks like so that you can make an informed decision about what’s best for your business.

[00:01:45]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s perfect. Awesome. So I think this can apply to a lot of different people and scenarios.

[00:01:52]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. As I was thinking about it, because I was just thinking about it from my point of view and I have two employees. But you can also build a team with independent contractors, which kind of I realized. So it can look like a lot of different things. I’ve done both. Yeah.

[00:02:08]  Megan Porta 

So it could be someone just starting out kind of in the beginning stages, or it could be someone who’s way more advanced and just wants to really put a solid team together. Yeah.

[00:02:18]  Erin Jensen 

And there’s a lot of different ways to evaluate what’s right for you. So a lot of different ways you can do it. There’s no wrong way to do it.

[00:02:25]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Well, we’re going to talk through all the details to give us a framework of who you are. Tell us a little bit about your Business. And your blog, the Wooden Skillet.

[00:02:34]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. So I’ve been doing the Wooden skillet for over 10, 10 and a half years. I think it’ll be 11 in October, which is crazy. I used to be a lawyer. I practiced for seven years. Yep. So I have a JD and an MBA. I just really liked going to school. And so I joined private practice and practiced for seven years.

[00:03:00]   

And about four years into that. I have always loved cooking. My mom cooked, like, all the things from scratch, so I’ve just always gravitated towards cooking. But I never thought about making it a career. I mean, at that point, like, you know, back in the day, making a career out of food was like owning a restaurant.

[00:03:17]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:03:17]  Erin Jensen 

Or, you know.

[00:03:18]  Megan Porta 

Right, right.

[00:03:20]  Erin Jensen 

And then I can’t think of the name of the blog. It’s not Pinch of Yum. I’m gonna think of it, but I found a blog. If I think about it or I think of it, I’ll let you know. For I turn to 41 tomorrow. So, you know, Paramount. Crap, it’s happening. Yeah, I get it.

[00:03:38]   

But I found a popular blog and realized that that was a thing and kind of started following her. I think I actually started a blog like pre The Wooden Skillet, but it was like, so, so sad. Like I don’t even know what it was. But I did start something and then I kind of quit.

[00:03:59]   

And then I like rethought about it and organized myself and started the wooden skillet in 2015. Anyways, so I was still a lawyer, so I just like wanted to work on recipes for fun on the weekends. Obviously very different than being a lawyer. And then I realized you could make money doing it.

[00:04:14]   

When I found like, Pinch of Yum income reports, as we all did, and then like, the competitive side of me kind of kicked in. I was like, ooh. Like, I had two young daughters at the time. I now have three. Three daughters. And I was the idea of working from home and just seeing them more obviously, as a lawyer, you work pretty long hours sometimes.

[00:04:37]   

And so I kind of just like got it in my head that I wanted to make it a full time job. So it took me about three years. And when my third daughter was born, I resigned.

[00:04:47]  Megan Porta 

Amazing.

[00:04:49]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. So the Wooden Skillet we do basically, like, we’ve. We’ve bumped around a couple different niches. We were very like Whole 30 Paleo for a while. But over the last, I would say five years, we’ve really just gotten into like flavorful, delicious dinners. We do a lot of outside cooking on the Blackstone Grilling Smoking and just easy.Weeknight dinner. Comfort food. Healthish.

[00:05:12]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Great.

[00:05:14]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah.

[00:05:15]  Megan Porta 

Love it. And the name is great for kind of like, a broader scope of recipes too. The wooden skillet could be, like, really anything. So I love the name. I. It’s such a great name. Yeah. Every time I see it, I’m like, ooh.

[00:05:27]  Erin Jensen 

Oh, thank you.

[00:05:28]  Megan Porta 

Good one. So 11 years old is your blog. Happy birthday. And then your birthday’s tomorrow, you said it is tomorrow. Happy birthday to you.

[00:05:36]  Erin Jensen 

That’s amazing. Thanks.

[00:05:38]  Megan Porta 

Happy birthday to both of you. So at what point in your journey did you realize that you needed to start outsourcing or getting help?

[00:05:47]  Erin Jensen 

I think I was about 3ish years in, so around 20. 20. 2019. And I remember talking to my friends, like, I might need to have someone help me with something, like Pinterest or. I don’t know. I just felt very overwhelmed keeping up with everything. And so for me, it happened a little bit organically.

[00:06:18]   

One of my good friends whose husband went to high school with my husband, her name’s Bridget. She was a good friend. And I was kind of venting to her and some other friends that I was feeling overwhelmed. I wasn’t really sure, like, what I was gonna do. I didn’t know how I could find someone that I could trust.

[00:06:38]   

And so she. I remember I was at Tastemaker in Portland, and she emailed me and was like, hey. She had, like, just stayed home with her two small girls, and she had been home with them for, like, two years. And she. Excuse me. Basically just said, like, I want to work, like, a little bit, but I don’t want to work a ton.

[00:07:00]   

And you said you needed someone, and I know we’re already friends, and so it might be weird, so it’s okay if you don’t want to, but if you need someone to help, like, for photo shoots or whatever, like, I’m in. And so we went for it. So she started as just an independent contractor doing, you know, odds and ends.

[00:07:20]   

She might have done Pinterest at the beginning and then would come over for photo shoots and help me do dishes and all things that a photo shoot requires. And then I started training her on writing blog posts, so.

[00:07:35]  Megan Porta 

Nice.

[00:07:36]  Erin Jensen 

So that was a while ago now. Yeah.

[00:07:38]  Megan Porta 

So is she still working for you?

[00:07:40]  Erin Jensen 

She is.

[00:07:40]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh. Okay. I love this, Erin. I love this because I do the same thing. I. I started out the same way. A friend was like, really? I’m looking for a flexible job. You. I know you need help. Can I. And it worked so well. For, for the longest time. And then she eventually, like, went her own way.

[00:07:59]   

But now I have another friend who I trust implicitly. She’s a longtime friend.

[00:08:05]  Erin Jensen 

Part of it, I know.

[00:08:06]  Megan Porta 

And she wants the freedom and I want the trust. And I know that she is invested in working hard for me because. Because we have a relationship.

[00:08:16]  Erin Jensen 

Y.

[00:08:17]  Megan Porta 

So I swear this is like, it has worked so well for me to do this. And people, some people think I’m crazy. They’re like, well, wouldn’t it be weird to hire your friend? So can you speak to that?

[00:08:28]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah, sure. Let’s see. Me and Bridge, we’ve been friends forever. She actually met my husband before I met my husband. They went to college together. She’s just been, she’s been around forever and she has a very chill personality. Not that I’m super, super energetic, but when it comes to business, I’m a little all over the place.

[00:08:56]   

She’s very calming and yeah, just she’s. Her personality is super chill. So I feel like we’ve done a really good job balancing. There’s like our business mode where we are talking business and we’ve had to have tough conversations. She’s asked me for a raise before, which is always weird to do to your friend, you know, friend.

[00:09:17]   

My answer was yes. But then also when we’re hanging out as friends, usually we try, we don’t really talk about business too much, we. Unless it just comes up naturally. But. So we’ve done a good job balancing the two.

[00:09:32]  Megan Porta 

I feel like, yeah, there’s a separation, right? Like, you know, when to separate and when not to. And it’s like the, the relationship is established. So you just know, like, this is my business and you’re help, you know, you’re helping in certain ways and it just like, it doesn’t get messy for me.

[00:09:49]   

It doesn’t feel weird to me.

[00:09:52]  Erin Jensen 

No, it hasn’t really for us either. I’ve been really proud of us.

[00:09:56]  Megan Porta 

That’s so, that’s so great. Oh my gosh. I’m proud of you guys too. So after Bridget, when did you realize that you maybe needed a little bit more help?

[00:10:07]  Erin Jensen 

So. So Bridget was a stay at home mom for a while and one of our other really good friends whose name is Liz, whose husband is like in my, my husband’s like, same friend group, this friend group, just producers, all of my employees. Her name is Liz and her and Bridget would hang out because they, they both previously worked outside the home and both decided to stay home for a while with their very young children.

[00:10:35]   

It also worked well. Bridget has a degree in nutrition and Liz has a degree. I believe it’s in marketing.

[00:10:41]  Megan Porta 

Ooh, that’s nice.

[00:10:43]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. And so I think Bridget and Liz would hang out, you know, sometimes, and obviously Bridget would talk about work and she’s like, I don’t know, it’s pretty fun. Like, if you’re ever looking for something, you should talk to Erin. And so she did eventually reach out and was like, do you need a third in that little party of two?

[00:11:03]   

So I honestly, like, and I told her this. I wasn’t really looking for anyone at the time. I didn’t, like, have active plans to hire anyone else. But she’s awesome. And, um, I thought it might be nice to have someone help me with social media, which at that point was kind of changing over into like, this heavy video stuff where before I didn’t have to worry about, like, producing videos.

[00:11:29]   

It was just a quick, you know, photo shoot and that was it. So. And I thought she would be good at it and potentially thought that she might be good with working with brands for, like, sponsored content because she has worked with brands before on, like, an advertising side of things. And so, yeah, we just kind of brought her on and again, she was independent contractor, minimal hours, and just kind of learned as she went.

[00:11:58]   

But again, no, like, experience in blogging or anything. Same with Bridget. So, yeah, making that kind of conscious decision to conscious just kind of happened. Hire someone that maybe didn’t have the experience, but you knew that in by investing in them and teaching them how you like to do things. It might take longer to, like, onboard them, but once they’re on, like, they’re probably going to stay a while.

[00:12:28]  Megan Porta 

Right.

[00:12:29]  Erin Jensen 

And care more and really learn how you like things done as well. So.

[00:12:33]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh, I know that care is so huge.

[00:12:36]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah, it is.

[00:12:36]  Megan Porta 

The trust factor is, is massive. I hear people all the time, like, I don’t know, I mean, there’s this person they were recommended by so and so, but I don’t. I just don’t know if I can trust them. And in my mind I’m like, oh, I’m so grateful that I can trust my assistant.

[00:12:52]   

So grateful. Because there’s no question, like, she can be in my email and. Yep, she’s not gonna say anything weird or look at anything. You know, it’s just so valuable.

[00:13:01]  Erin Jensen 

Trust them both with whatever, anything.

[00:13:05]  Megan Porta 

It feels so good. So I. I feel like there are certain qualities people need in order to work because you mentioned, like, they didn’t have prior blogging experience and neither did the people that I had brought on as contractors. But they were. They were friendly, they were kind, they were organized, they were fast learners.

[00:13:25]   

I knew they were smart. And I think those are really all. I mean, really all you need, because you can teach someone with those qualities really anything. And they’re going to do great.

[00:13:36]  Erin Jensen 

Absolutely. Yeah. And it’s. I mean, it’s hard working for an entrepreneur, I think, just generally speaking.

[00:13:42]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:13:43]  Erin Jensen 

And then specifically for a food blogger. Speaking specifically to that. I mean, it is a hard job. Like, it’s constantly changing. Like, we constantly have to pivot, and therefore our employees have to pivot. So to some, you know, some things stay the same, but there’s. You know, you could show up at work someday, and I might be like, yeah, we’re gonna start doing this, guys.

[00:14:02]   

Let’s all figure it out together.

[00:14:04]  Megan Porta 

You have to roll with it pretty easy.

[00:14:06]  Erin Jensen 

I mean, as do we, but. Yeah. So it can be. It can be a challenge to work.

[00:14:12]  Megan Porta 

I remember my first assistant when it was kind of a thing to start, no indexing pages, you know, on your blog, because, like, Google was, you’re getting, like, zero to two page views a year or something like that. So I started going through and doing that, and I remember she was like, but why would you do that?

[00:14:30]   

This is such a great recipe. And I was like, no, no, no, we can’t. We have. And it took her so much power to just, like, hit no index because she was like, but this is really good. I’m like, no, I know. But, yeah, you’re right. We do. We have to pivot a lot.

[00:14:46]   

But they do, too. And it’s a lot to expect of people.

[00:14:49]  Erin Jensen 

It is. Yeah.

[00:14:50]  Megan Porta 

It’s a lot of, like, yeah, you know, jostling and, like, changing all the time.

[00:14:56]  Erin Jensen 

It is a lot. But I will say, hiring moms, I think. I mean. Oh, yeah, we know how to handle things.

[00:15:05]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:15:06]  Erin Jensen 

I always tell them, like, I swear on our resume, you should be able to put, like, I’m getting kids. Yes, that. And then, like, bullet point. I’ve gotten kids ready in the morning to get out to school. I swear, if you can handle, like, getting three kids out the door in the morning with all, like, the random questions that come up, the quick decisions you have to make, the prioritization, like, literally, it’s stressful, like.

[00:15:31]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. To the max. So if you can do that, you can handle that.

[00:15:35]  Erin Jensen 

You can handle. You can handle this.

[00:15:37]  Megan Porta 

Totally. Yeah. That’s a great call. And the flexibility, too, I think, is huge. That’s really motivating. For a lot of people, especially moms who want to be at home with their kids a little bit more.

[00:15:48]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. I will say mom culture is a thing at The Wooden Skillet. You’re a mom first, and then you’re an employee. We all have small kids. I have the oldest one who’s 14.

[00:16:01]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:16:02]  Erin Jensen 

And then Liz has the youngest. I think Liz’s like, 2 2ish.

[00:16:05]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:16:06]  Erin Jensen 

So, I mean, we are in the thick of it. And there’s some days for photoshoots when I get a text at 7am Someone has a fever, like. Yeah. And it’s always us, usually, who stay home with them, so.

[00:16:19]  Megan Porta 

Yep.

[00:16:20]  Erin Jensen 

And it’s like, it is life, right? Yeah. You know, I had some. Some more stressful experiences with that, being a lawyer where they’re not so.

[00:16:31]  Megan Porta 

Right.

[00:16:32]  Erin Jensen 

Considerate. Yep. So I just vowed I was like, I’m never gonna make someone feel bad for having a sick kid or. Absolutely.

[00:16:40]  Megan Porta 

I love that.

[00:16:40]  Erin Jensen 

Whatever. So. So we’re a very, like, mom first.

[00:16:44]  Megan Porta 

Love it. As it should be. I mean, our kids are the best and so important. Right. We have to take care of them and us and all of that. So I love that. Now, are your Bridget and Liz, are they contractors, or did they turn into employees for you?

[00:17:01]  Erin Jensen 

So they both turned into employees. Let’s see. I don’t think it might have been. What year is it? 2026. It might have been 2024. I think it might have been. It’s at least two years. Yeah. So it’s been two years. So. Yeah, we made the switch just because, like. And this will depend on your state, but, I mean, there’s legal definitions to what, like, the difference between an independent contractor and an employee.

[00:17:30]   

And so in, like, working with my accountant and everything, it just was pretty clear that at that point they were more employees than independent contractors, given, like, the amount of control I had over what they were doing and all the things. So. Yeah.

[00:17:47]  Megan Porta 

So do you recommend people, if they. Let’s say they have some contractors and they’re just not sure if it’s a good move to turn them into employees. Do you recommend they talk to their accountant or where do they go?

[00:17:57]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah, I mean, ultimately, that’s, like, a legal decision that needs to be determined. So. Yeah, I just talked to my accountant. Maybe he sent me, like, the statute or something, and I read it over, and I was like, yeah, they probably are.

[00:18:13]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:18:14]  Erin Jensen 

So. So, yeah, we made that switch, which as far as, like, financially. Excuse me. Financially. So they’re both paid hourly at this point. I’m trying to, I mean, once they’re employees, you know, you have to do some different, you know, insurance at this point it’s evading my brain, but I’m sure it’ll come to me later.

[00:18:42]   

So there is like some extra cost to having them be employees. And then we also then implemented some like paid time off so they both have PTO and let’s see, PTO and then we do like bonuses at the end of the year. So I do like a little bonus tied to Thanksgiving week since that’s always our biggest week.

[00:19:07]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s a good idea.

[00:19:08]  Erin Jensen 

So we tie like a little bonus to Thanksgiving week and then I do a year end bonus that’s just tied to how the business does. And then this year we started doing a simple IRA which again you would work with your accountant to do. And, and we do, we do a small match on that as well, like a 3% or something.

[00:19:29]   

So. But yeah, I mean, as you said, I mean, Bridget’s been with me quite a while and you know, she has to make decisions too, what’s best for her and her family as her kids are getting older. And so we kind of had a conversation of, you know, this has been lovely, like the flexibility and I appreciate that.

[00:19:47]   

But like at some point I think she was ready for more. So we made some changes to align it with more of like a little bit more of a traditional job where you would have PTO and retirement and all those things. So. And that’s just a decision you have to make from a business perspective.

[00:20:06]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely. I think it’ll, I mean that’s obviously different for everyone. Maybe it’s not a right move for you, but talk to your, to your contractors, see what they’re thinking and then also your financial people and decision based on that. I want to ask you about roles and expectations. But first I, before I forget, I want to mention if you don’t have a built in Bridget or Liz or Cara, for me, yeah, maybe there are other places to look. I always say, like friends of friends. Or like, like neighbors who have trusted family members or friends. You know, like there’s, I think there’s other ways to go where you can find that trusted person if it’s not directly like a friend that is looking

[00:20:52]  Erin Jensen 

For, definitely tap into your network. Network.

[00:20:55]  Megan Porta 

Right.

[00:20:56]  Erin Jensen 

I mean, I think especially for food blogging with like if you want help with photo shoots, I mean looking local obviously is really nice.

[00:21:05]  Megan Porta 

Yes, absolutely. That does help because those days get

[00:21:09]  Erin Jensen 

really messy and we do, so we do. I mean part of this conversation having employees or independent contractors allows me as a business to have a variety of different income streams. One of those is we do food photography for other food blogs. And that was part of the reason also that I took on Bridget and then Liz, so they helped me on those.

[00:21:35]   

We do two or so client photo shoot days a month where we. I mean, very organized and we get a lot done in a short period of time, but there’s three of us, so, yeah. Having them in the kitchen to get all the dishes done and everything.

[00:21:54]  Megan Porta 

So helpful.

[00:21:55]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah.

[00:21:55]  Megan Porta 

Doing that on your own is seriously one of the biggest stressors of this job. Oh, my gosh.

[00:22:03]  Erin Jensen 

So that’s like, an easy thing if you’re evaluating your business. If I could recommend anything, that would be probably one. If you can find someone local in your neighborhood, even, like, to come over and do dishes, help on a photo shoot day and just keep things moving.

[00:22:17]  Megan Porta 

Moving.

[00:22:18]  Erin Jensen 

Yep. My favorite thing is when I, like, have a whole thing styled and I’m done with it. Like, I can walk away and they clean it up for me, and I’m. I’m on to the next. Yeah. So, yeah.

[00:22:29]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh. Just thinking about that stress makes me sense of, like, just seeing us seeing a scene after you’re like, oh, my gosh, I have to put all this away.

[00:22:38]  Erin Jensen 

And like, oh, yeah.

[00:22:41]  Megan Porta 

So how do you define roles and expectations for each? Do you have kind of a process that you go for. Go through for that?

[00:22:48]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. So I remember in the beginning, Bridget and I would sit down and I would make a big list of all every. Tried to think of every task that I do, which is every. I mean, at that point, it was everything, but I tried to list them all. And then it was a practice of like, okay, which ones can I move over to?

[00:23:08]   

Bridget’s column. And so we. We created. It’s called. Every year we have a D and D meeting. We call it D. Doe we talk about payments, pay a salary, whatever, and duties, and we talk about D and D meetings. So we go over what everybody’s doing. Does it still make sense? Is there anything on my list that I can move over to them, or are there things on their list that don’t make sense anymore that I need to take back or that just doesn’t need to be done anymore?

[00:23:39]   

And then we always evaluate compensation. But yes, at the very beginning, that’s how we just started doing it, was figuring out, what am I doing? What can I take off of my plate that Bridget and now possibly Liz can do instead of me? And now I Mean, obviously now we’re kind of in our own little groove.

[00:24:02]   

We don’t move things around too much anymore. But. Yeah. And I can’t think off the top of my head if I have, like, a document where it’s listed, like, specific roles and duties. But.

[00:24:16]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I suppose at this point you guys are just.

[00:24:18]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah, everyone. Yeah, yeah. It’s been a while since we’ve, like, actually written it down, but. Right.

[00:24:23]  Megan Porta 

But if you’re just getting started with this, I think what you’re saying is probably a great first step. Just write.

[00:24:29]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah.

[00:24:30]  Megan Porta 

Everything down as you do it, as you go through your week. Just. Okay, I did this and this and this and then.

[00:24:34]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah.

[00:24:35]  Megan Porta 

How do you suggest picking the duties or tasks to start switching? Are they things that you don’t necessarily like or you don’t need to do? How do you know about that?

[00:24:44]  Erin Jensen 

So there’s a bunch of different ways you can do it. I’ve. You know, I’ve heard people say before, like, find the things that you don’t like to do and outsource those. So that’s definitely one way to do it. Another way to do it is to kind of follow the money to the extent you can find those tasks that, you know are moving the needle.

[00:25:01]   

And if possible, it might not be possible for some of them, because for some of them it just requires me. But if possible, if there are tasks that are moving the needle as far as income in the door, and you have a process in place that, you know, someone else can duplicate up to your standards, then that’s a good one to try to hand off to someone.

[00:25:24]   

And then, you know very clearly that what they’re doing is generated income to cover the cost of paying them and hopefully making a profit. Or the other thing you can do is just find tasks that you have to do that don’t necessarily, like, move the needle per se. I mean, you could argue everything moves the needle because it’s just holistic business at some point.

[00:25:47]   

Yeah. You know what I mean? Finding those tasks that are maybe a little bit more mundane, that just free up your time, you know, so that’s kind of a decision that you can make depending on your strategy. So you can find things you don’t like. You can find things that just free up your time.

[00:26:04]   

So you can either spend more time making money or just more time not working.

[00:26:08]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Or.

[00:26:10]  Erin Jensen 

Or assigned tasks that, you know, you can scale effectively with someone else either doing all of it or some of it, whatever.

[00:26:19]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah. I think having the tasks written out in front of you I know. And just. I. For me, it just is obvious each time. Like, obviously it’s. And it might be a different reason each time. Like all of the things you’ve mentioned are valid, but for me it just is like a gut check thing too.

[00:26:38]   

Like, yep, that’s the one. That’s the next thing to hand off and.

[00:26:41]  Erin Jensen 

Absolutely.

[00:26:43]  Megan Porta 

So writing those down, I think is really important.

[00:26:45]  Erin Jensen 

That was actually one of my. One of my tips for if you already have. Even if you. Well, I guess if you don’t have a team or if you have a team, doing a task audit is a great idea and something we could probably all do. Just write down all the tasks you do whether you have a team or not.

[00:27:02]   

If you don’t have a team, writing them all down and figuring out which ones can I outsource for all the various reasons I already went over. And if you do have a team, you can still do that kind of task. Audit of. Okay, everyone, let’s list out everybody’s tasks or duties and do we need to move things around?

[00:27:24]   

Is everything being done up to our current standards? Do we need like an actual written out, standard operating procedure, just kind of doing an audit? It’s always a good idea.

[00:27:37]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Yeah. I love that you said even if you don’t have a team yet, so you could just kind of audit yourself. Like, am I doing things that I don’t need to be, that nobody needs to be doing? Could I delete this task altogether?

[00:27:49]  Erin Jensen 

You could label them like, like, kind of how I said. Like, is this a task I don’t like to do? Is, does this task, like, does this task move the needle? Is this like a money making task or is this just like, why am I doing this task? Just kind of take a step back.

[00:28:03]   

I don’t think it would take super long, maybe a half hour.

[00:28:06]  Megan Porta 

Right? It really wouldn’t.

[00:28:08]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah.

[00:28:09]  Megan Porta 

30 minutes of your time. It would be well worth it.

[00:28:11]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah.

[00:28:12]  Megan Porta 

So how do you. When you first hired your people. Bridget and Liz. Hello. Nice to meet you. How did you like. Okay, here are the tasks you’re going to do.

[00:28:26]  Erin Jensen 

Mm.

[00:28:26]  Megan Porta 

Now let’s get into it and figure out how to onboard, I guess.

[00:28:31]  Erin Jensen 

How did you go about that onboarding? I think it’s hard with like a creative business like we have. It’s hard to. I actually don’t have a ton of like SOPs standing standard operating procedures. A. Because I feel like everything’s always changing. So I feel like I’d keep having to rework it. But a lot of it is so creative.

[00:29:00]   

Based off of what I want as far as how blog posts are written or how videos are edited to some extent. Obviously there’s some tasks that you can easily write down, but big things, big money makers, blog post writing. And obviously that’s been changing a lot lately. A lot of it’s learning kind of as you go, I mean, and just talking about it with each other.

[00:29:32]   

Like after a blog post is written, going over it with each other and tweaking it. We have like a blog post structure document that we are will eternally be editing, I’m sure. But yeah, as a creative business, it’s definitely hard to onboard for several tasks. So Liz helps me make videos. So she’ll come over about once a month and we’ll shoot videos together.

[00:30:00]   

And she just kind of learned how to edit them. So I don’t have to do that because it does kind of is a time suck. But there’s a specific way that I like it done. And so she kind of just had to jump in and like start doing it. And I would give feedback or like I would tweak it after she gave it to me and then she would look at and be like, okay, like she just kind of has to learn a little bit on her feet.

[00:30:23]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:30:25]  Erin Jensen 

So yeah, to the best of my ability. Go out.

[00:30:28]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Oh, I was gonna say there’s really no, like, here’s what you do xyz. It’s more just let’s get started and see how this goes.

[00:30:36]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. I mean, obviously like you said, you go through that kind of task audit and you’re handing off certain things. So now your employer, independent contractor, has their list of things that they’re doing and obviously you can have a meeting and go through that list and be like, these are now your tasks and let’s talk through them.

[00:30:50]   

So they’re not like, just don’t know what’s going on. But once they have that list and you go through it, some of those things they’re just going to have to start doing and you’re going to have to give feedback and. And that’s where hiring someone who obviously can learn on their feet quickly and is intuitive and can pick up on those tweaks is invaluable because sometimes it’s hard to explain and I could do better.

[00:31:17]   

That’s something I could do better at is communicating. Taking the extra time to, to really communicate what I want. And. But sometimes my brain is moving too fast and I expect them to read my, my mind. Sometimes I do say, I think we

[00:31:31]  Megan Porta 

can all relate to that, probably everyone listening is like, ooh, me too.

[00:31:35]  Erin Jensen 

What I’m saying, like, it’s hard. It’s a hard to. It can be a hard. It’s a challenging job. It can be challenging.

[00:31:41]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:31:42]  Erin Jensen 

Be for that reason. Because yeah, sometimes I’m definitely guilty of just expecting them to read my mind.

[00:31:46]  Megan Porta 

And yeah, I do the same. I’m so. I. I love working for myself and I don’t mind sitting at my desk all day and working.

[00:31:56]  Erin Jensen 

Me neither. I love it.

[00:31:58]  Megan Porta 

I know. And being in my kitchen alone, I enjoy all of that. So sometimes I’m like, oh, I should probably. Even though my team is doing all the things great. Like, I should probably check in and make sure everyone’s like, good. Do you have that thought too?

[00:32:14]  Erin Jensen 

Absolutely. Yeah. I. Yes. I always feel like I have so much to do. Even though, like, I’ve handed off tasks to that, like they’re all working. They. I don’t think we address this. So they each work about part time. Neither of them are full. Full time. But yeah, my brain’s moving so fast and onto the next thing or what I have to do.

[00:32:35]   

So it’s definitely. When you have employees or independent contractors, there’s also the time that you need to take to communicate with your team. Have meetings or just like an open office hour type of situation. I know they’ve mentioned wanting that before. You know, like a monthly, like, yeah, bring whatever questions you got.

[00:32:57]   

Let’s hang out on Zoom call for an hour or two and whatever random questions you have about whatever you’re working on or whatever. Like, let’s talk about it. So. But unfortunately I just get too. I feel like I’m too busy to do that sometimes.

[00:33:14]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I know. My husband works with me now and he came from the corporate world, so he’s used to that, like meeting, touching base with people and circling back. I know. Circling back. So right away he was like, you guys don’t have any regular meetings. I’m like, I hate meetings. Unless I absolutely have to be on a call.

[00:33:36]   

I do not.

[00:33:37]  Erin Jensen 

A meeting that could have been an email is.

[00:33:39]  Megan Porta 

I can’t.

[00:33:40]  Erin Jensen 

Like, I hate wasting time.

[00:33:41]  Megan Porta 

I hate you. Me too. So I’m like, no, we’re not going to do it. And he’s like, well, you should probably have like an team meeting. But I like the idea of doing an kind of an open office hours where maybe I’m just. I have a Zoom link. I have it open if you want to hop on and ask me a question.

[00:33:57]   

It’s not going to be anything formal Right. Go for it. I love that idea.

[00:34:01]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah.

[00:34:02]  Megan Porta 

Okay. I might steal that from you.

[00:34:03]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah, definitely. And I should steal my own idea because I should.

[00:34:06]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, we should all. You should all listen.

[00:34:09]  Erin Jensen 

We should start doing that. We do. I mean, we meet and have like strategy meetings, I would say quarterly. Ish. We actually have one next week where they’ll come over and either I pick a, you know, if there’s like a topic of like a big change that’s coming up or whatever. So, like we’re meeting next week and we’re going to talk about email stuff, Convertkit and Substack and all the things.

[00:34:34]   

And then we’re going to talk about blog post writing, some changes, recipe testing process. Like just kind of all those things and really break it down together all in one room, which is nice.

[00:34:45]  Megan Porta 

That’s nice that you guys can get physically in the same room together. I think that would make it so much more appealing.

[00:34:50]  Erin Jensen 

Yes.

[00:34:51]  Megan Porta 

Because it’s just not the same on zoom or on a phone call.

[00:34:53]  Erin Jensen 

And then Bridget and I probably talk quite a bit because she does, she does more of like blah. Like she’s. I would call her like my blog manager of sorts. So she’s kind of like behind the scenes with everything. Yeah. So she’s kind of like my number two. Like she knows everything that’s going on.

[00:35:12]   

Liz does a lot of social media and then blog post writing and some. She helps with Substack a little bit. She’s, she’s, she’s great with Canva, making a good, like, menu plan or whatever.

[00:35:24]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s so nice to have someone who loves Canva.

[00:35:27]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah.

[00:35:28]  Megan Porta 

How do you keep spirits up? Like if something feels heavy in the industry or maybe it’s just been a long time since you all have gotten together. Are. Do you have ways to kind of like, I don’t know, keep everyone happy and.

[00:35:43]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah, we’ve done, we’ve done some fun stuff and we’ve had, let’s see, we’ve done like step challenges before. Like in January, February. Liz always wins. So Liz also teaches bar classes. So she’s like just Energizer Bunny. So we can’t figure out why she always crushes us with a step count. But so we do like fun little challenges like that.

[00:36:10]   

We, at least we used to. Maybe we don’t anymore, but for a while we did like quarterly outings. So like either we all go get pedicures together or we all go get a drink together. We do a Christmas, like party. Not really a party. We go out somewhere fancy for Dinner for Christmas and bring our husbands.

[00:36:28]   

We’re all like best friends, so. So we do that. What else do we do? Usually in the summer we’ll do like a family picnic at one of our cookout, one of our houses. So yeah, we do fun little stuff here and there.

[00:36:44]  Megan Porta 

I love that. That’s. That’s a great way to keep things happy and.

[00:36:48]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah, yeah.

[00:36:49]  Megan Porta 

Positive. And then communication, just about work. So when you guys do dig into work, I imagine you, you know, you have to keep that open and obviously honesty and just keeping things out, out in the open. Not like gatekeeping anything or being weird about anything is huge too.

[00:37:08]  Erin Jensen 

Absolutely. And asana for communication, like as far as like logistical, project management, for kind of keeping track of new blog posts, blog post updates, our photoshoot schedules in there. Substack schedules in there.

[00:37:25]  Megan Porta 

Nice.

[00:37:26]  Erin Jensen 

All the things so.

[00:37:27]  Megan Porta 

Well, you better hold tight onto Bridget and Liz because everyone’s gonna be like, I want Bridget and Liz.

[00:37:34]  Erin Jensen 

They are pretty awesome.

[00:37:35]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So what final words do you have? If people are feeling like I want a team who supports me like this and that’s the morale is high and everything is great, but they don’t know where to start. Or maybe they do have a team and it’s not quite that vibe. Do you have advice for those people?

[00:37:56]  Erin Jensen 

Hire your friends? No. I don’t know. It worked out well for me because it, it is nice to have fun. I mean, and I think that’s a huge bonus to. I mean, we work quite a bit and photo shoot days are some of all of our, I think, favorite days because we’re all together at my house, laughing.

[00:38:17]   

It’s like a therapy session while we’re doing photo shoots. But yeah, so if you can find like a reliable friend who. I mean, I hired two hard working moms who used to work, you know, more in corporate and they crush it. I mean, moms are unstoppable. So a mom who doesn’t, you know, wants a more flexible schedule, who’s.

[00:38:43]   

Can I swear? Can we swear on this show?

[00:38:45]  Megan Porta 

Sure. Go for it. Okay.

[00:38:46]  Erin Jensen 

Like a badass mom.

[00:38:48]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:38:48]  Erin Jensen 

Like, oh my gosh. Who doesn’t want to work, you know, 40 hour week and wants to have flexibility. Like, yeah, that’s who I would go after because they rock.

[00:39:01]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And you, I hear stories all the time. You probably do as well. Like horror stories about people who hire people they don’t know that. Not that that’s bad because that can turn out really good too. But there are situations where it’s like they didn’t show up or they didn’t deliver or they didn’t, you know, they fell short in some way. Big time. And I’m always like, oh, I love. I’m just so grateful from. For Cara and for my team. I have the best team in the world.

[00:39:29]  Erin Jensen 

Same. Yeah.

[00:39:30]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:39:30]  Erin Jensen 

It would be very. It would be lonely. Yeah. It is also another perk to say again if you’re looking for someone. I think what worked well with Bridget, like, at the beginning is it’s really nice to have someone help you with photo shoots. Right. Like to be there. But then she is there trying the recipe with me.

[00:39:51]   

And then she’s usually the one who writes, like, the body of the post. So she is testing it with me.

[00:39:58]  Megan Porta 

That’s valuable.

[00:39:59]  Erin Jensen 

And then is the writer. You know, I write the recipes from my brain, but she’s the one who generally writes the blog, the body of the post. And then I look it over and everything. And Liz writes as well. And so they’re both there on photoshoot days trying everything with me and tasting it and seeing it and working through issues with me or retesting it.

[00:40:19]   

So it’s kind of a one, two punch to have someone help you with photoshoots and then also be a writer. So I feel like that’s a really good. That’d be a good place to start, too.

[00:40:30]  Megan Porta 

So valuable.

[00:40:32]  Erin Jensen 

So that’s what I really. It’s hard, actually, when they miss a photo shoot day because they always say when they go to try to write a post, obviously we have notes and whatnot, but they’re like, if I’m not there, like, it’s just harder.

[00:40:43]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Wow. That’s really cool. I didn’t think about that. Well, this has been so great and thank you for sharing everything. I know. I mean, it sounds like you have such a good little team. And I think. I think it’s so great to hear that because people think this sounds impossible. Like there’s no way I could put a great team like this together.

[00:41:03]   

But it is possible.

[00:41:05]  Erin Jensen 

It is. And starts. Start slow, you know, like, that’s how. That’s how I did it. I mean, they. They. I don’t. They worked like six hours a week, maybe four days as an independent contractor and just try it, try it out and maybe it won’t work and that’s fine. But you could try and just see.

[00:41:25]  Megan Porta 

Your team didn’t come together overnight. You spent years and years building this and, like, adding hours and tweaking your systems.

[00:41:33]  Erin Jensen 

It’s just been like, seriously just a slow burn.

[00:41:36]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:41:37]  Erin Jensen 

And, yeah, lots of tweaking, lots of communication, lots of evaluating what everybody’s doing and. But yeah, start slow and look around you for someone valuable who you might not think about.

[00:41:50]  Megan Porta 

They might be right in front of you. They might be right in front of you. Well, thank you, Erin. This was so fun and it was just good to connect with you. And I know a fun conversation on

[00:42:02]  Erin Jensen 

a Friday because you’re in Minneapolis area, aren’t you?

[00:42:05]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, same. Oh, you are.

[00:42:07]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. You’re in Minneapolis.

[00:42:08]  Megan Porta 

Wait a second.

[00:42:09]  Erin Jensen 

Why did I not know that? Absolutely.

[00:42:12]  Megan Porta 

Okay. After we’re done recording, I’ll ask you what club or where you live maybe you live.

[00:42:17]  Erin Jensen 

Yes. We’ll grab coffee sometime.

[00:42:19]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that sounds awesome. Well, thank you again. And we will put together a show notes page for this episode. If you want to go peek at those, you can head to eatblogtalk.com/thewoodenskillet.

[00:42:30]  Erin Jensen 

Awesome.

[00:42:30]  Megan Porta 

And where can everyone find you, Aaron, if they want to go check out your content?

[00:42:34]  Erin Jensen 

We’re at The Wooden Skillet. Everywhere.

[00:42:36]  Megan Porta 

Pretty much everywhere.

[00:42:37]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah, we’re everywhere.

[00:42:38]  Megan Porta 

Great. Well, everyone go check Aaron out.

[00:42:40]  Erin Jensen 

Yeah. If anyone has questions, feel free to reach out. Sometimes it’s nice to just talk to someone who’s done it before. So I love that.

[00:42:48]  Megan Porta 

That’s very generous of you. Well, yeah. Thanks again and we’ll see you next time. Food bloggers, thanks for joining us. 

[00:43:06] Outro

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If today’s episode sparked an idea for you, snap a screenshot, post it on Instagram stories, and Tag me at Eat Blog Talk. I love seeing what resonates with you. I will see you next time.