In episode 459, Allison Ferraro teaches us the importance of not making excuses when it comes to reaching our goals, and other easy mindset hacks to grow our blogs while keeping a healthy work-life balance.
We cover information on staying sane amidst various responsibilities, how to keep yourself motivated while working towards your goal and why you should focus on one income stream before you diversify.
Listen on the player below or on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
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Guest Details
Connect with Always Eat Dessert
Website | Facebook | Instagram
Bio Allison is the recipe developer and food photographer behind the baking blog Always Eat Dessert. What began as a fun hobby back in 2014 while she pursued a career in advertising became a much-needed creative outlet when she left her job to be a stay-at-home mom and is now a full-fledged business sharing scratch baking recipes and baking tips. Allison lives in Philadelphia, PA with her husband, Alex, and their two children.
Takeaways
- Stop making excuses. Don’t wait for the perfect moment to make your dreams come true.
- Prioritize your goals and focus on just one at a time.
- Go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket – focus on one income stream at a time.
- To make a real difference, avoid shiny object syndrome.
- Know what to do and where to focus when your traffic goes down.
- When you feel overwhelmed, go back to your WHY – Why do you want to be a food blogger?Â
- Set lots of small goals that lead up to your larger goals, and then celebrate every time you achieve one of your goals.Â
- What is your next area of focus?
Resources Mentioned
Blogging
Casey Markee SEO audit
Cooking with Keywords course
TopHat Rank seminars
Podcast
Eat Blog Talk Episode #430
Eat Blog Talk Episode #427
Align & Expand Podcast Episode #16
Food Blogger Pro Podcast #419
Books
The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan
Transcript
Click for full script.
EBT459 – Allison Ferraro
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 achieve your freedom, whether that’s financial, personal, or professional.
I’m Megan Porta and I’ve been a food blogger for over 13 years. I understand how isolating food blogging can be at times. 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 00:38
Maybe you’re a mom or a dad, or a really busy person who has a full-time job, or you have other obligations of some sort, and you’re trying to manage a blog. I think we probably all fall into this category. Alison Ferraro from Always Eat Dessert joins me in this episode to talk about how to juggle these things and how it’s not easy to acknowledge that it can be just downright difficult at times to feel even a little bit of sanity as you navigate the blogging and parenting or working outside the home journey. Alison talks through a few things that she had to do with herself in order to really start making progress. She had to kind of call herself out on some excuses she was making in her life. I think we all do this on some level. She had to really put our blinders on and block out a lot of the information in our space in order to meet her goals. And she delivered so much more value inside the episode about ways that we can balance our lives and not feel crazy. This is such an important episode for all of us to listen to and really let sink in. It is episode number 459 sponsored by RankIQ.
Sponsor 01:55
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Megan Porta 02:37
“I’d say I’m more motivated. Like I actually can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Whereas before I just felt like I was spinning my wheels. And for what because I did quite well what I used to do. And it was a lot easier and very unique to me. So part of me was like I don’t even know why I want it anymore. Now I have a very clear picture of my goals what I want to do with my website, where it can go and what I want out of it.”
Megan Porta 03:03
Alison is the recipe developer and food photographer behind the baking blog Always Eat Dessert. What began as a fun hobby back in 2014, while she pursued a career in advertising became a much needed creative outlet and she left her job to be a stay at home mom, and is now a full fledged business sharing scratch baking recipes and baking tips. Alison lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her husband, Alex, and her two children.
Megan Porta 03:29
Allison, hi, how are you today?
Allison Ferraro 03:32
Hi, Megan. I’m so great. Thank you so much for having me. How are you?
Megan Porta 03:35
I’m doing good too and I’m so excited. You’re here to chat about this very important topic. First, though, do you have a fun fact to share with us?
Allison Ferraro 03:43
I do. So back when I was in college, I spent a semester studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, and I lived with a host family while I was there. And completely by coincidence, I was matched with a host family that lived in the same town where my great grandmother had grown up before she emigrated to the US. So besides the just you know, wonderful experience of being able to spend a semester abroad in Europe during college, to also be able to dig it in a little bit to my family’s heritage and learn a little bit more about where my great grandmother was from was really incredible.
Megan Porta 04:18
Oh my gosh, okay, that could not have been a coincidence. That was like preordained plan. Right. And I knew what that is like universe sent me. Absolutely. There was no coincidence there. But that’s so cool. And I’m sure you learned so much about your family and culture and all of that.
Allison Ferraro 04:34
I did it was the best experience ever.
Megan Porta 04:37
Ah, how long were you there did you say?
Allison Ferraro 04:40
It was a semester so about 4 months.
Megan Porta 04:42
Okay. Oh, so cool. I’ve always wanted to go there. It’s on my list. Well, let’s talk about being a blogger and a mom. This is not easy to navigate. I’ve been doing it for a long time and oh my gosh, there are days when I just want to throw in the towel and run for the hills but there are ways to do it, there are things that we can do to make it easier so that we’re not feeling so overwhelmed. And you are bringing these amazing talking points to the table. So do you want to start Alison by telling us a little bit about your blog?
Allison Ferraro 05:13
Sure, I’d love to. So my blog is called Always Eat Dessert. And I was actually just chatting with someone about this. It’s a little bit of a funny story, because I started my blog back in 2014. And at the time, I envisioned it as a lifestyle blog. That’s I was reading a lot of lifestyle blogs back then. So it was, you know, some food, some style, some home decor, you know, family stuff, what I did on the weekends, like a little bit of everything. And over the years I’ve niched further and further down, you know, got rid of a lot of the older content and focused on food, and then eventually just on desserts. But I called the blog Always Eat Dessert from the beginning. So that which is just totally, you know, again, totally a coincidence.
Megan Porta 05:58
Another not coincidence, coincidence.
Allison Ferraro 06:01
So I basically like rebranded my whole blog, except I didn’t actually have to rebrand it. So…
Megan Porta 06:09
Yes, some things just work out because they’re meant to write. That’s so cool. So 2014. And then at what point did you niche down to a baking blog?
Allison Ferraro 06:17
Probably around maybe 2016 or 2017, I started to focus on just food. And then pretty quickly from there more on desserts. And then over the years, I’ve gone back and as I’ve audited my site, I have deleted, gosh, hundreds of posts that, you know, we’re like style and home decor and some savory dishes that just really didn’t fit, where I was trying to take my blog going forward.
Megan Porta 06:45
It’s a constant journey and evolution within it.
Allison Ferraro 06:48
Oh, my gosh.
Megan Porta 06:50
Literally never ending. Okay, so you’re a mom as well, correct?
Allison Ferraro 06:53
Yes. Correct.
Megan Porta 06:54
And you have how many kiddos?
Allison Ferraro 06:56
I have two kiddos, they both have birthdays coming up. So our son will be turning five very soon, and our daughter will be turning three.
Megan Porta 07:03
Okay, so young kids? Yes. So how did it go, when you first became a mom, and you were managing your blog?
Allison Ferraro 07:10
It started off great kind of actually, even before the kids came into the picture. When I started blogging, I, my husband and I were engaged, but not yet married, I was working full-time outside of the home. And I always envisioned that I had wanted to be a stay at home mom, that was that was always my hope and my dream. And at the time, you know, working full-time outside of the home, I still felt like, I didn’t have time for blogging, I was cramming everything into the nights and the weekends. And that was really challenging. I had a demanding job, I worked as an account manager at an ad agency. So it was you know, it was not nine to five, I’m I’m at the office for long hours, I’m getting emails and client requests around the clock. So at the time, I told myself, oh, you know, when I when I’m home, with kids, when we start a family, I’ll have so much more time to dedicate to blogging. And you know, I mean, for anyone else who might be in that boat and has that thought, I’m sorry to burst your bubble. But that is not. That’s not what it or at least for me, that’s not what it was when we suddenly had kids.
Allison Ferraro 08:13
So when our son was born, and you know, those first few months, I’m sure a lot of moms or parents could relate to this, this first couple of months when you have a newborn and you know, they’re not smiling yet, they’re not talking yet, it can be really lonely. So having this other like creative outlet to throw a lot of your energy into can feel kind of freeing, it’s it was something that I was really leaning into maybe more heavily in those first few months when I was home. And I think you know, as your kids grow, your responsibilities as a parent are constantly shifting, you know, when you have a baby who’s literally just like eating and sleeping, you maybe do have a bit more time, but that really only lasts a couple of months and then they start to require a lot more of your time and your attention. So it was right around a couple months after my son was born that I said you know what, I really want to take this hobby and try to turn it into a business. I’d like to be able to stay home with my kids long term and work for myself you know do work at home mom and try to try to balance these two so that I can have a lot of flexibility and but I pretty quickly as he started to grow and you know, crawl and walk and I’m suddenly I’m chasing him around the house all day, you know, just realized that, you know, wow, I don’t have all this free time that I envisioned I might as a stay at home mom. So balancing that became challenging. And then he was almost almost two when our daughter was born and then that you know, there were two of them and it got more and more challenging everyday from there.
Megan Porta 09:48
Yeah. Multiplying. This is not getting easier. This seems to be getting a little more challenging. Yeah. So where did you go from there as far as like, you know, just to getting into your blog more?
Allison Ferraro 10:01
So I mean, to speak completely candidly, that’s, that’s where I really started to struggle when our daughter was born, I really felt that pole between, I wanted to be a really present mom who spent time playing with the kids and my, you know, my whole goal had been to be home with them and to be active with them. But I also was putting a lot of pressure, admittedly pressure that I was putting on myself, to achieve these goals I had for my blog and for my business, and I would definitely consider myself to be an overachiever. You know, I’m constantly pushing myself to be the best to reach the next goal, and trying to manage those responsibilities between caring for these two small humans who I love with my whole heart. And also this business that is almost like another baby that I also really love. It was a lot, you know, it was a lot of pressure coming from all these different directions. And that that’s where I really started to feel overwhelmed that the responsibilities of motherhood and also trying to grow my business at the same time, were just not, it was not in alignment in the way that I had envisioned when I sought to create this business that would give me flexibility to be home.
Megan Porta 11:21
Isn’t it funny how we have ideals before we get into whatever we’re thinking about in our lives. And then when we get there, we’re like, whoa, this was so different than anything I ever could have thought the balance of motherhood and blogging is crazy hard.
Allison Ferraro 11:36
It’s so hard. And, you know, it’s so hard. But I also know, there’s so many of us doing it. So, you know, in terms of the excuses that I was making, it’s, at first when I was working, it’s like, well, you know, I don’t have a lot of time, you know, when I had a full-time job outside of the home, it’s like, well, I’ll have more time later. And then I have kids, and it’s like, well, I still don’t have a lot of time. So you know, when they’re in school full day, then I’ll suddenly have all this time, I started telling myself that when, you know, shortly after my daughter was born, and then I realized, you know, that’s years, that’s like five years away. Am I just gonna sit here and be stressed out and overwhelmed and feel like I’m not accomplishing anything for five years until I suddenly feel like I have more time? So it really brought me back to you know, why? Why did I want to do this, I don’t want to be home with my kids, trying to be present with them. But constantly having this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I should be working, or I should be doing this thing that, you know, I need to be doing to accomplish my business goals. So yes, trying to balance the two, oh, my gosh, it’s hard. I know that there are a ton of people listening who are in the same boat, you know, whether you’re a parent, whether you have a job outside of the home, in addition to your blog, you know, or all of those things, or whatever it is, everybody has responsibilities in life outside of just their blog and trying to manage that can be really, really difficult.
Megan Porta 13:04
I think that when we call ourselves out on our excuses, that’s when we can really start to figure things out. I love that you were like, wait a second, am I going to do this for five years, to continue to make excuses. And I think we all get to that point where we do that we realize our own BS, and we call ourselves out and just like, Okay, I need to make a decision here. Am I going to do this? And if so, how am I going to make this work?
Allison Ferraro 13:27
Right? And yes, absolutely. And that’s hard. Calling yourself out on your own BS is, it’s kind of scary, like you’re having an honest conversation, oh, self, like, no self, you’re wrong. But the answer to am I going to keep doing this for five years is no. You know, I’m stressed out, I’m burnout. I can’t keep doing this isn’t fun. I can’t keep doing this for five more years to hope that maybe then the stars will align.
Megan Porta 13:54
Right? And who knows? Even then maybe they won’t. Right.
Allison Ferraro 13:57
Right. I mean, the last two times, I thought that life is you know, things will be perfect when? When it wasn’t that way. So why why would I think that the next time will suddenly be it?
Megan Porta 14:08
Yeah. Okay, so you called yourself out. Good for you. Allison, What decisions did you make? Or what changes did you make at that point?
Allison Ferraro 14:15
So that was where I decided to really hone in on one goal. And this is this is something that I think is, for me, maybe has been the biggest challenge of blogging, you know, in addition to managing the mindset and the pressure challenges, is trying to really like put your blinders on and focus on what what is the right next step for me. So for me personally, I felt like the best goal to focus on was getting on an ad network. I have limited time to dedicate to my business. So having passive income through ad revenue felt like the best, you know, first income stream to really focus on and I felt the best way to get there was to focus on SEO. So my goal was to get on Mediavine. And I, the way I plan to accomplish that goal was to learn everything I could about SEO, increase my website traffic, and through organic search, and, you know, really put all my eggs in that basket and focus on that goal.
Megan Porta 15:20
I think the overarching message that we received from being in the space is that we need to do it all or not, maybe not all of it, but most of it. So I love that you’re giving people permission right now to just do one thing, because we so often hear the opposite of that.
Sponsor 15:39
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Allison Ferraro 16:59
Shiny Object Syndrome is so real. It’s so real. You’re thinking you know you go on Instagram and it’s wow, you know she’s doing something incredible. I want to learn how to do that. Or I see that it’s working for her maybe I should be doing that too. And it’s you know, social media reels, TikTok and then a couple months, Threads showed up on the scene and it was like, Oh my gosh, you know, I was late to TikTok. Maybe I should be early to threads. And so you’re just you’re all over the place. And that that was how I had felt before was that, you know, I was like a, what’s the saying a jack of all trades, master of none. Like I’m I’m half assing, you know, my email list, my social media, my SEO, all these different aspects. And I’m not doing any of them well, and none of them are making me money.
Allison Ferraro 17:45
So, you know, why am I doing this? Like, let’s focus on the thing. But yeah, it’s really hard to try to ignore what you see other people doing that you feel like you should be doing as well. And even when you get to the point where you say, Okay, I’m going to focus on the one thing, choosing what’s the one thing? Yeah, like, what’s the one thing for you? Because, you know, for me, in my situation, I felt like getting on an ad network was the best next step. But if you’re someone who you know, needs to be making a decent amount of money today, that could be more of a long game, and maybe waiting for an ad network isn’t your best bet. Maybe you want to be taking on freelance clients or you so it’s going to be different for everybody.
Megan Porta 18:31
So you mentioned Threads, I was at the tail end of our summer vacation, when Threads came out. There was that week where everyone was talking about it, and it had this huge boom. And I had the exact same thought process that you just said I was like, Okay, I was I’ve been late to the game with TikTok and other things. Maybe I should leave on this. And I was so back and forth about it. Allison, like, wait a second, who am I? I’ve been doing this for so long. I should not be persuaded by this new thing. Like I honestly felt like I should drop everything during my vacation and figure out Threads, which is ridiculous. Like, I couldn’t wait a week and figure it out then. But it’s so tempting.
Allison Ferraro 19:12
I mean, it was it was pretty dead a week later, wasn’t it?
Megan Porta 19:17
It was right! I know.
Allison Ferraro 19:19
I felt that way too. It’s all of a sudden, here’s this new shiny thing. We all need to run to it.
Megan Porta 19:24
I don’t think we’re ever immune to that sort of thing. It’s always going to be that back and forth in our minds like oh, here it is, this is it. This is the thing that I can finally be on top of and get all the traction and like crush every you know, like you just have that thought but then like, come on, come back to reality.
Allison Ferraro 19:41
I think it takes more experience in the industry honestly, or maybe just experience as an entrepreneur to know that you’ll be more successful if you stay in your lane. Like don’t, don’t constantly be chasing the new shiny thing.
Megan Porta 19:54
So true. And that’s not to say that you can’t do a little dabbling like if Threads seemed appealing you know, opening an account that doesn’t take much time, open an account, put up a post that’s like five minutes of your life and see how it feels. But to commit to digging into Threads right away, that’s a whole other story.
Allison Ferraro 20:13
Absolutely.
Megan Porta 20:14
So you have been on an ad network now for a while.
Allison Ferraro 20:19
I have. So this was probably like, late 2020, early 2021. When I said, you know, okay, I need to, I need to rethink how I’m doing this, I decided I was gonna go all in on SEO. And then the end of last year, I was accepted to Mediavine. So I’ve been on Mediavine since January of this year.
Megan Porta 20:39
Awesome. So how has it been since? Have you felt relief? How’s it felt?
Allison Ferraro 20:43
Huge relief to have accomplished that goal. I think, you know, that was that was a big long goal that I was working towards. So huge relief, but it kind of goes both ways. So you know, initially, it’s Yes, I did it, I made it. But I had heard people say that when you reach an ad network is when the real work begins. And I have found that to be true that you’re not just going to join an ad network. And you know, suddenly, you’re making millions of dollars, and you know, your husband can leave his job and come work with you like that, you know, that doesn’t happen right away. So SEO is still at this point, my my main focus that even though I’ve now I’m on Mediavine, I’m still trying to maximize this income stream for my business, that I still want to grow my traffic, I’d like to increase my RPMs, I had, you know, a bit of a slump in the summer, which is is normal, especially for a baking blog, you know, there’s definitely some seasonality to my web traffic. So even though I expect the traffic to go down in the summer, it’s always still a little disheartening to see that. So but now, you know, Q4 is on the horizon and that’s our Super Bowl, so…
Megan Porta 21:56
How has managing motherhood changed? Or maybe it hasn’t changed since you got into an ad network?
Allison Ferraro 22:03
Gosh, that’s a really good question. I think, in some ways, it has changed because I feel this enormous weight off of my shoulders, that, you know, I, I did it and I need to keep focusing on growing it. But I no longer feel this immense pressure to reach that one goal. So that I think that gives a weight off of my shoulders, and I feel less of a pull when I’m with my kids to like to be working, I feel more okay, just spending that focused time being present with them. But it doesn’t take all the pressure off. I think there’s definitely still more work to be done.
Megan Porta 22:44
Yeah. And I imagine that like, we were talking about threads, like there are still times when you probably go back to those feelings of like, oh, my gosh, how do I manage this all?
Allison Ferraro 22:55
Absolutely, absolutely. I think it’s it’s a constant reminder, sort of, like you said, it’s a constant reminder of coming back. And, and refocusing. I think, you know, for anyone who feels like they’re maybe in a similar position, you hear so many times, or at least I heard so many times, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, you know, it’s so important to diversify your revenue streams. And I think that’s true, I think that’s great. But what I never heard anybody say was, you don’t have to diversify all at once. You don’t have to build all these revenue streams all at once. And I think for so long, that was what I had been trying to do. And so to give myself that permission to go ahead, put all those eggs in one basket for right now. And, you know, focus on this for right now. And then as as I continue to grow this as I feel comfortable to then expand into other realms. So, you know, at the time I had, I put a stop on, I was doing a little bit of freelance photography, I had done a little bit of sponsored content, and was saying no to those opportunities all in on SEO. And I’m still there, but I could see in the next, you know, maybe six months to a year starting to expand into some other possible streams as well.
Megan Porta 24:13
I think intuition plays a role in this too, because you just kind of, I think especially women have that feeling like this is too much, or Yes, I might be ready. I love that you put a time on your I can see expanding in six months, because in your mind, you can kind of feel that. So I think that a lot of this has to do with intuition and just kind of leaning into how you’re feeling. How much do you lean on your intuition would you say Allison?
Allison Ferraro 24:44
I think more and more each year as a blogger. I think as you know, as a younger blogger as a younger mom, I didn’t maybe trust myself as much and I would second guess myself a lot more but I think as I become more seasoned and both of those arenas I’m, I’m more confident in my own decisions, I find myself trusting my gut more and just knowing that I know what’s right. For myself, for my kids, for our family and for my business.
Megan Porta 25:14
And not just knowing it, but following through with it. That’s always been a hard thing for me like, I know what I should do. But do I actually do it?
Allison Ferraro 25:21
That’s a really good point that, right? Those are not necessarily the same thing. Yeah. Knowing it, and then also doing it.
Megan Porta 25:28
And when you go against it, you learn pretty quickly that you shouldn’t have done that.
Allison Ferraro 25:32
It just feels wrong.
Megan Porta 25:33
Yeah, it does feel wrong. Yeah. Okay, so do you have advice for people, whether they’re moms or not, maybe they have jobs like full-time jobs? Or maybe they’ve got other commitments, they just feel stretched? For whatever reason? Do you have advice for how to deal with the overwhelm that comes along with that?
Allison Ferraro 25:54
Yes. And I will give this with the caveat of, I wanted to talk about this topic, because I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress. This is something that I personally, as you know, a self proclaimed overachiever has really struggled with, but I’m not an expert, I still have a lot of growth and work to do. You know, I’ve been blogging for almost nine years, I have over 30 years of experience as an overachiever. So I feel like a lot of experience in this area. But I think nobody has this like, truly figured out. So I think whatever your other responsibilities in life are, in addition to running your blog, and your business, trying, when you feel overwhelmed, it can be so easy to push forward and try to accomplish more. You know, if you’re looking at your to do list, and you’re seeing all these things that you wanted to accomplish this week, or this month, or whatever, and you’re feeling behind, it can be really easy. I’m speaking for myself, too, you know, well, I’m gonna stay up late and get that done. And I’ll be tired, but I’ll feel better because I crossed it off my list. But I would challenge you to try not to do that, try to give yourself a chance to reset. Whether that is take a nap, or you know, sit down and with your list and really be cutthroat in prioritizing it, what what are the things I have to get done? And what can I let go of, and then as part of that reset, and that reevaluation of your priorities, really remembering your why, like, why, why are you doing this? Because I think sometimes when we feel like we just have too much on our plate, we’re packing too much on, you know, it’s like, why am I doing this to myself? What am I doing? But if you if you come back and focus on, you know, why are you doing this? What is your goal for getting out of this, I think that that can be really helpful in reframing what your priorities are and how you need to be spending your time.
Allison Ferraro 27:53
So for me, you know, in addition to creating my blog, because I really love scratch baking and wanted to help others feel confident baking from scratch in their own kitchens, I started this business because I wanted to be able to be a mom who is at home and, you know, has the flexibility to spend a lot of time with her family, but also has this creative and intellectually stimulating outlet and this business for herself. So when I find that I’m really overwhelmed and exhausted and you know, on the brink of burnout, it’s that it’s defeats the whole purpose. If I’m if I’m so stressed out by what I’m trying to accomplish in my business, that I’m not spending quality time with my family, then that defeats the whole purpose of why I wanted to do this in the beginning. So it’s it kind of back to what we said earlier, it’s your calling yourself out on your own BS a little bit. But you know, if you’re if you’re pushing yourself so hard that this is no longer helping you accomplish your personal goals, then you need you need to rethink the way that you’re operating your business and balancing your your business and your life.
Megan Porta 29:01
I think the underlying theme here is like really calling yourself out on so much stuff because it’s so true, we can get so in our heads and it seems like it would be easy to stop yourself and say, okay, Megan, you need a reset, go take a nap. But it’s not for me anyway. That is the hardest thing to do when I’m feeling overwhelmed and like I need to get all of the stuff done and my to do list is a million miles long. The last thing I want to do is go take a nap I want to keep working. So it’s like just to acknowledge that this is not easy. Calling yourself out is one of the hardest things we can do as entrepreneurs. Do you have advice Allison for… I don’t know, like I’m trying to think of like some sort of pattern interrupt or something to like shake ourselves and say listen, you need you need to rest.
Allison Ferraro 29:54
That’s a really good question. That’s probably something I struggle with honestly, but I think anything that makes you feel really good. So, honestly, for me, it would probably be like, go for a walk. I think something that interrupts what you’re doing, and, you know, gives you endorphins gives you fresh air. So yeah, I mean, maybe a walk outside would be a great option to just kind of break that up, like, find a little bit of peace, try to think about something else for a little while and come back to it with a fresh head. Because also trying to, like think yourself out of overwhelm, while you’re overwhelmed, is really hard to
Megan Porta 30:32
That’s yeah, it’s almost like, insanity. Like, it’s so impossible for me to do that when I’m in that point. And even something as simple as just, there was a stretch. I don’t think it was last winter, maybe the winter before when I was just really burned out and just feeling that like overwhelmed. And no, I must have been spring because it was nice enough to go outside. Because I remember telling myself, if you can just get outside and get sunshine on your face for like five minutes. And that was enough to make me just pull me out of my chaos and be like, Okay, this helped this was good. So it doesn’t have to be something big like you don’t have to go for an hour long walk right, you can do something really small.
Allison Ferraro 31:11
Right? Now, so true.
Megan Porta 31:14
Let’s see, what else do you want to chat about in regards to just staying sane as a business owner and a mom or a parent or whatever?
Allison Ferraro 31:24
I think one other thing I wanted to mention is the importance of celebrating small wins in your business. And this is more of a like do as I say not as I do saying because I’m really bad about this. But I think I’ll use my goal of reaching Mediavine as an example. Once I set that as my goal. It took me like almost two years to get there. I actually had an audit with Casey Markey back in, gosh, when was that the fall of 2021. And he told me, Oh, you know, work through this to do list and you should be there in about six months. And well, it took me longer to implement everything that he said, because, you know, again, because of some of the time constraints that I have. So it took me about a year and a half. And that, you know, that’s a long time to be looking at this big goal. And feeling like I’m still not there, I’m still not there. So in retrospect, I wish I had looked at it and said, you know, okay, I’ve increased my monthly sessions by you know, 5000, instead of just always be looking at that I need 50,000 monthly sessions, you know, I need to reach this goal. If I had broken up, broken it up into these smaller baby steps and celebrated each one along the way, I think it would have made that lengthy goal and that long process that I was going through more enjoyable and easier. And I would have felt better about the attraction that I was making along the way.
Megan Porta 32:47
And it may have closed the gap a little bit too, because that’s like, what you’re saying is like gratitude, when you focus on gratitude and the things that have come to you that you’re grateful for. Things tend to go differently, but when you’re focused, okay, have you read the book The Gap and the Gain?
Allison Ferraro 33:04
I have not, but I listen to this podcast enough to know that I should read it.
Megan Porta 33:08
Okay, Allison, you should go get it today. And everyone listening, I’m not kidding. It’s my favorite book, not just for business, but for getting through life. And just appreciating those small wins exactly what you’re talking about. It changed everything for me. The way I… our oldest son had heart surgery a few years ago, and I happen to just finish reading the book, then. It literally got me through his heart surgery with like, I was fairly unfazed by it, which, in previous surgeries, that has not been the case. Because it taught me to like instead of saying, oh my gosh, where we’re in the hospital after this massive surgery, it was it took like 10 hours like it was a long surgery. Like instead of focusing on that, I learned to say okay, we just decreased his bend setting and an hour ago, it was higher. That’s improvement. That’s progress. So everything that happened to him and to us in the hospital, it was like a step of progress, if that makes sense. Instead of like, oh my gosh, we have like five more days here at least maybe a week, maybe 10 days instead of looking ahead to that, like 50k mark for Mediavine. That’s such a gap. Who knows when you’ll get there. And that is just going to create this sense of scarcity and lack in your mind. So focusing on those little gains. Game changer. So yes, everyone should go read that. And that’s exactly what you’re seeing right now.
Allison Ferraro 34:29
Yeah, you have convinced me I will be ordering The Gap and the Gain today. I hope everything went well and your son is doing well.
Megan Porta 34:34
Oh, it did like he was great. It was fine. Overall, yeah, no worries. But it really helped to change my mindset, not just like, not just for the big things either. But for the little things like if I I’m hosting this retreat in a few weeks, and old Megan would have been like, I have 10 bedrooms to fill but there are two bedrooms left. And so I would have focused on those two bedrooms, but now I feel like I focus on, I’m so grateful for the people who are coming. So I focus on those people. And it just changes everything.
Allison Ferraro 35:08
Absolutely. That’s, that’s amazing. And I think that’s a, that’s a really big lesson that I think motherhood has taught me that carries over into everything is like, the little things are the big things. You know, you think of like the big summer vacations and these, like big core memories that you’ve made. And of course, those are incredible, but it’s the little like, last night was our last night of summer, my son had his first day of school today. And it’s like, we just like watched a Disney movie on the couch and had a little snack together. And it wasn’t anything fancy. But it was just nice. And it’s special. And I always think of, you know, 20 30 40 however many years down the road, I feel like I’m gonna look back at this season of life. And I think those are the moments that I’m going to cherish the most.
Megan Porta 35:53
You and I had a similar day yesterday, because my boys too went off to school today. And yesterday, I was feeling just sad. Like, yeah, gosh, they’re getting older. They’re I have one middle schooler, one high schooler and it’s not too far away that they’re going to be doing with you know, going to college or getting a job or whatever. And I’m just in that season of really trying to cherish every moment and I love your I wrote your line down and the little things are the big things and to just appreciate and cherish those things as much as you can. So beautiful. Okay, what else do we need to know before we say goodbye, Allison.
Allison Ferraro 36:30
Oh, gosh, I think that’s everything.
Megan Porta 36:32
That was so good. I love this conversation. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Allison Ferraro 36:36
Oh, are you kidding, thank you. This was… it was such a joy for me to be able to chat with you about all of this.
Megan Porta 36:41
So much fun. It’s one of my favorite topics. Do you have a favorite quote or words of inspiration to share with us?
Allison Ferraro 36:46
I do an inspirational quote that I really love. It’s from Henry Ford. And it’s whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. So to me that just means you know, believe in yourself and you can do anything.
Megan Porta 36:59
It’s one of my favorite quotes. I love that one. We’ll put together show notes page for you Allison if you want to go look at those you can head over to eatblogtalk.com/alwayseatdessert. Allison, tell everyone where they can find you.
Allison Ferraro 37:13
You can find my website alwayseatdessert.com I am on social media @alwayseatdessert. And I would love if anyone wants to continue this conversation. I love talking about my blog and my kids. So if you ever wanted to email me DM me, I would love to chat with anybody who’s maybe feeling some of these same kinds of feelings and wants to chat.
Megan Porta 37:33
I love it. That’s such a generous invitation. Thank you again, Allison. And thank you so much for listening food bloggers. I will see you in the next episode.
Outro 37:43
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk, please share this episode with a friend who would benefit from tuning in. I will see you next time.
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