Episode 780: “I Decided I Was Going to Be the Driver” – Leaving a 9-to-5 for Full-Time Blogging With Cheryl Norris

EBT780 – Cheryl Norris

Intro 00:00

[00:00:00]  Megan Porta 

What does it really take to leave your 9 to 5 job and turn your blog into a full time business? Cheryl Norris from the blog Bakes by Brown Sugar did just that. And in this episode she shares the mindset shift, the planning process, the systems, and the powerful decision that changed everything for her, which was I am going to be the driver in my life and in this decision. If you are dreaming of making the leap, this episode is for you.

[00:00:30]   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.

[00:00:50]   

Hello, Cheryl. So great to see you on Riverside. I usually see you on Zoom, but. Hello. How’s it going today?

[00:00:53]  Cheryl Norris 

Hey, Megan. Good to see you. It’s going good. I’m excited to be here with you.

[00:00:57]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, me too. This is your second time on Eat Blog Talk, but it has been a while. When was the last time you were on? Do you remember?

[00:01:04]  Cheryl Norris 

I don’t know

[00:01:05]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh. It’s been at least two years.

[00:01:07]  Cheryl Norris 

It’s been a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it has been.

[00:01:09]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, something like that. But today we’re talking about something that you’ve done recently, which is transitioning from working full time at a completely unrelated job to. To operating your own business full time, being a full time food blogger for many. So excited to chat about this because I know it’s fresh for you.You’ve just gone through it, you are going through it. So you have.

[00:01:31]  Cheryl Norris 

Great. I’ve learned a lot.

[00:01:32]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, you’ve learned a lot.

[00:01:34]  Cheryl Norris 

I thought this might be a good topic for, for Megan to discuss with Megan and her audience.

[00:01:39]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely. I think there are a lot of other people who are considering it or who are going through it too. So it’s a great one. But before we get to that, what pain point are we solving in today’s episode, would you say?

[00:01:50]  Cheryl Norris 

I think the pain point that we’re solving is how to work your way through that transition. Because regardless of what reason you’re leaving your full time job and, you know, going into your own business, your own, you know, say, operating a blog full time, there’s this transition period that a lot of times people don’t talk about.

[00:02:10]   

Most food bloggers that have talked about leaving their full time corporate job and, you know, operating their own business, they talk about it being the best decision they’ve ever made, which I totally get. But at the same time, they very rarely talk about that transition that takes Place as you go from working for somebody else to working for yourself and everything that’s involved with.

[00:02:34]   

Yeah, just making that transition, say, from having somebody else set deadlines for you or the deadlines being external to setting deadlines and planning for your own business.

[00:02:46]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. That transition is no joke. And it’s. I think it’s great that we’re talking about this because it’s something that gets glossed over. Like, people think, oh, I leave my job and then. But wait, what. What about that messy middle part? Yeah.

[00:02:59]  Cheryl Norris 

And it was harder, to be honest. It was harder. I didn’t realize it would be that hard. I mean, I. I’m making money from my blog. It’s paying for itself. I enjoy what I do, you know, in terms. Especially, you know, the recipe testing, recipe development, the writing. But yeah, it was. It was harder.

[00:03:17]   

I wasn’t expecting the bumps that came along the way just from, I would say, more of a mental place than the actual work itself. Yeah.

[00:03:26]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing about your experience so others can learn from you and know what to expect and also navigate through their own journey. So thank you. We’ll get back to that. But I would love if you just framed, kind of give us an outline of your blog. When did you start Bakes by Brown Sugar?

[00:03:44]   

Give us any details you want about your amazing blog.

[00:03:48]  Cheryl Norris 

Oh, thank you. So I started Bakes by brown sugar in 2018. The name came about because I was actually on set filming a competition baking show and I was talking to one of my fellow contestants. I was, you know, I was telling him, like, I’m trying to come up with the blog. And so we just were going back and forth with names.I was like, no, no. And then he said, what about Bakes by Brown Sugar? I said, yes, that’s it.

[00:04:15]  Megan Porta 

Nailed it.

[00:04:18]  Cheryl Norris 

And so that’s where the name came. But I started it in October 2018. It was supposed to be September, but I broke my wrist. I broke my right wrist. Of course, I’m right handed.

[00:04:28]  Megan Porta 

Oh, no.

[00:04:28]  Cheryl Norris 

So it got. It got delayed a few weeks. So started it in 2018. And the reason I started it is because I love. I’ve always loved to bake. And I got online more social media, started sharing stuff on Instagram, and I realized I want to share the recipes and the whys and the how-tos, not just the final picture.

[00:04:48]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:04:49]  Cheryl Norris 

So I said, hey, I’ll start a blog. How hard can it be?

[00:04:52]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, well. And the rest is history, right?

[00:04:54]  Cheryl Norris 

The rest is history. Yeah. So it’s a baking blog because I love to bake. And that’s part of, you know, you, you figure out what you want to do kind of, you know, we always talk about the niche, but one of the things I have figured out over the last few years is the why I do this.

[00:05:13]   

And I love to bake. I get a lot of pleasure from it and I want to share that joy with others. But I also want to make it as. I want people to be as successful as possible when they’re in the kitchen baking because I understand what it means to put a lot of effort into making, you know, whether it’s a cake or pie and not have it come out.

[00:05:34]   

And so on my blog, you know, I provide a lot of details. I write, you know, very detailed recipes. I provide weights and volume measurements because I want people to be as successful as possible, but I also want them to have fun. I don’t want them to stress.

[00:05:49]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:05:50]  Cheryl Norris 

When they’re in the kitchen. And so my blog is not only about delivering, you know, really good recipes, but it’s also ensuring that people are going to be successful and that they’re going to have fun. That, you know, once they learn my recipes, they can relax and just have fun with it.

[00:06:07]  Megan Porta 

I love it. That’s such a good outlook and such a good niche. I love your recipes, your photography. Everything is just put together so well.

[00:06:15]  Cheryl Norris 

Thank you.

[00:06:16]  Megan Porta 

So 2018, you started and at the time you also had a full time job, correct?

[00:06:23]  Cheryl Norris 

I was working full time and I was also about three months into it when my husband had a stroke.

[00:06:29]  Megan Porta 

Oh, gosh. I don’t think I knew that.

[00:06:31]  Cheryl Norris 

Yep. So I was, it was, it was interesting because I started it as a hobby. And then beginning of January, I decided to turn this into a business, or at least treat it like a business in terms of having this, the discipline and, you know, recording expenses, tax returns, you know, filing an llc, all of that. And two weeks, less than two weeks later, my husband had a stroke.

[00:06:56]  Megan Porta 

Whoa.

[00:06:57]  Cheryl Norris 

Yeah.

[00:06:58]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh.

[00:06:59]  Cheryl Norris 

But I will say, I will say this because at first, you know, when he had a stroke and I realized the level effort was going to just take working full time, helping take care of him. I, at that time I was thinking that I wouldn’t, I, like, I didn’t know how I was going to keep the blog going because this is like, you know, like, where do you find the time?

[00:07:19]   

But I found the blog to be, I don’t know so much as, I don’t know. The safe place is a word to use, but it was my place yeah, my respite. Yeah. Going into the kitchen, working on recipes. Yeah. It was kind of my breakaway from everything else and I think that’s what really kept it going.

[00:07:42]   

It was definitely not my technical SEO because I was supposed to be learning all that, but I really didn’t have time. I was just like, I was just focused. I will just make the recipes and I will write about them and. Yeah.

[00:07:54]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Wow. Okay. That, that adds a layer. So you have your husband going through a major medical ordeal. You have to, you know, be there for him and manage your job and do life. And then I love that the blog became your respite and kind of your, your happy place. And did it remain that for, I mean, it’s now 2025, so that was what, 19, 20. That’s a lot of years. So that’s six years doing full time job and blog and life.

[00:08:27]  Cheryl Norris 

Yep.

[00:08:28]  Megan Porta 

Did it. Has it always remained your kind of respite, happy place?

[00:08:32]  Cheryl Norris 

Honestly, I would probably say there were times that it didn’t. There was one period of time it was, I think it was August of 23. Serious burnout.

[00:08:41]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:08:42]  Cheryl Norris 

And I thought, oh, I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m tired all the time. And then I remember something this pastor said years ago. He said, tired eyes make poor decisions. So I said, okay, I’m not going to make any decisions while I’m tired because obviously I’m tired. I need to get a break.

[00:08:59]   

I need to, you know, get some rest. And at that time, I think I just kind of eliminated. Well, not so much eliminated, but I stopped just doing a lot of stuff and really took a step back and realized that a lot of what I was doing was comparing myself to other bloggers.

[00:09:16]   

You know, you saw a lot of other people out there doing video, doing all this other stuff. They’re putting stuff every day on Instagram or, you know, sending out emails four times a week. And so part of that issue was I was comparing myself to others. And so I was like trying to like hustle, you know, get all this stuff done.

[00:09:32]   

And that’s what led to burnout. So I took a step back and really started to think about why did I get into this the first place? And it’s because I love to do, I love to bake and I love to share that. So just going back to that and that really just kind of flipped the switch or.

[00:09:51]   

Yeah, flip the switch for me, just from going from burnout back to passion was just focusing on why I was doing this. And. And to be honest, I also had that I had the luxury because I had a full time job, so I was not dependent on the blog, you know, for, for a living.

[00:10:08]   

So I had that. I had that space to just say, I’m going to pull back from all this other stuff and just focus on, go back to focusing on what I love about this.

[00:10:18]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So your job, your full time job really was a blessing. It gave you some wiggle room and freedom for a long time to be able to do this and continue it.

[00:10:28]  Cheryl Norris 

Yep.

[00:10:29]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s great. And then this past year, I know that you’ve, you’ve been in the mastermind, so I’ve gotten to have a front row seat to all of this. It’s been really fun to watch. So some big changes were made in your job and you were kind of trying to decide like, should I exit the corporate world?Should I stay? So talk us through all of that. What happened?

[00:10:52]  Cheryl Norris 

So at the beginning of the year, our company announced that they were going to be going through a lot of cost cutting measures. And there wasn’t. They were sharing some information, but not a lot. And I remember asking my boss early in the year, like, I think January, February is like, is, is my position impacted?

[00:11:13]   

And. And they’re like, oh, no, no, everything’s going to stay the same. I’m like, okay, that’s not really an answer. And I kept asking, but I really couldn’t get an answer. And so then in July of this year, I was told that my position was being eliminated and I had 45 days to find a new position within my company.

[00:11:32]   

And so of course, panic set in. Just like, what? How could you do this to me? You know, all the things I’m thinking I didn’t say out loud in your mind? Well, yeah, in the meeting with my manager in HR, you know, and over that weekend, you know, just went through all the motions when you, you know, you get that layoff notice. I was pretty fortunate though, in that I had 45 days.

[00:11:55]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:11:55]  Cheryl Norris 

To work through this transition to look for another position. And so came back the following week, Monday, determined to, you know, look for another position. The thing too, though, since they were going through cost cutting, not only had my position been eliminated, but a lot of open positions that had Norm had previously been there like say two weeks earlier, all of those were gone.

[00:12:17]   

So, you know, we went from like, I don’t say having three pages of jobs listed internally to like, there was like less than one page, so there wasn’t a whole lot. So. But there was one position because they were. So they eliminated my position, but they repurposed it to another position within my group.

[00:12:35]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:12:36]  Cheryl Norris 

And my boss invited me to apply for that. So I did apply for that. You know, a friend of mine who was a manager, she read through my cover letter, you know, talked to friends, pray, got in, you know, input, and I applied for the job. But earlier that year, I’d really started thinking, too, about when I might want to leave that job to operate my blog full time.

[00:12:59]   

But I had put that out, like two years in the future, you know, kind of like, okay, this transition period, grow the blog, have so much income. So I’ve been thinking about it, you know, another two years. And so that once I put in the job application, I really started thinking about that again.

[00:13:16]   

That. Is this. Because I was thinking more from the place, okay, what if I don’t get this job? What are my finances going to look like? But then I started thinking about what happens if I just decide to leave. Because I was also at a position in my job. I’d been there long enough, almost 37 years, where I could officially retire from my company, even though I was being laid off.

[00:13:39]   

I was also in that position where I could say, okay, I’m going to retire. I want my retirement party.

[00:13:45]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:13:47]  Cheryl Norris 

So I just really thought about that. I, like, started running through the numbers, you know, and I was also pretty fortunate, too, in that I was getting 26 weeks of severance.

[00:13:58]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh. Nice.

[00:14:00]  Cheryl Norris 

And because I’d been there at that job that long, I was also getting retirement in addition to my 401k. So. Amazing. Yeah. So I had a lot of options, you know, I had a lot of options. There was going to be a transition period because I wasn’t 59 and a half, but still.

[00:14:14]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:14:15]  Cheryl Norris 

You know, when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, even though that tunnel is like several months away, you know, that light is several months away. It’s still the fact that you can see that light.

[00:14:25]  Megan Porta 

Right.

[00:14:25]  Cheryl Norris 

That makes sense.

[00:14:26]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Wow. Okay. I didn’t know all those details, but that’s so. That’s so.

[00:14:31]  Cheryl Norris 

I know. Maybe I’m giving more details, but I love it. What? You know, my company had decided that they were going to eliminate my position and was interesting too, because one of the things. So I decided bit by bit that I was going to be the driver in this situation in terms of controlling what I could control.

[00:14:49]   

So part of that was, you know, just how part it started with me controlling my responses and how I was going to react, how I was going to treat people, all these other things, how I was going to present myself. So one of the things I decided was, you know, I wasn’t going to just, like, disappear, you know, because sometimes you come.

[00:15:08]   

You come into work one day and someone. Somebody’s gone. You, like, found out they retired. Like, they retired or were fired a week ago or something like that. So I just start, first of all, I just start telling people, oh, my job’s been eliminated. And sometimes people don’t want to do that because maybe there’s embarrassment or something like that, but I’m like, I don’t have anything to be embarrassed about.

[00:15:28]   

I mean, I, you know, I can see if I had done really poor work. I was on a. You know, like, I had screwed up myself, but I hadn’t done anything so wrong. So I started telling people because, again, I didn’t want to just disappear. I wanted to make sure I said goodbye to people.

[00:15:45]   

I love that I did that because it allowed me just to have more natural conversations about handing over work my last days. All these different things, like, took that out of the equation, that, oh, do people know? Or. I was telling everybody. I sent out an email to a bunch of people. Might as well.

[00:16:05]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, well, first of all, I was.

[00:16:06]  Cheryl Norris 

Telling people that, hey, I may not be able to finish this project because of this, but once I made the decision to retire, I just let people know that I was leaving. But in driving that decision, in making my decision to drive, to be the driver, part of that was really knuckling down and just determining what I really wanted to do.

[00:16:24]   

Did I really want to go for that other position, or did I want to start making that transition to where I was retiring and leaving the company and things like that. And so again, when you decide to be the driver, when you decide how you’re going to handle this situation, how you’re going to interact with people, all those different things, it’s.It really is a sense of freedom.

[00:16:45]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Okay. I love this so much, Cheryl. I love that you just decided you were going to be the driver. I love the words, too, because so often people are like, well, I’ll just see what shakes out and see what happens and see what other people decide.

And they’re just left bumbling around, like, at the whim of what other people’s decisions are. And you just were like, okay, this is my decision, my control. And you just, you just did it, and you did it in a very respectful way and something that aligns with Cheryl, and I love that that’s so admirable.

[00:17:25]  Cheryl Norris 

Well, thank you.

[00:17:26]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:17:27]  Cheryl Norris 

And I want to say to that, I think part of it is you determining how you want to show up in a situation or who you want to be, even when bad stuff has happened to you or maybe someone’s treated you poorly. And I’m not saying that the company treated me poorly. It was a bad situation, obviously.

[00:17:46]   

And sometimes people are like, well, that person did this to me, so I’m going to do that to them. But more and more, I realized you have to decide what type of person you want to be, who you want to be in that situation, and not let it be dictated by the fact that maybe that person did say something mean to you or do something mean.

[00:18:03]   

And I think our natural inclination is to retaliate. But I think what you really have to decide is who you want to be in that situation, how you want to show up in that situation, and be. Be true to that.

[00:18:17]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh. That’s like a subtitle to this episode, too. I mean, we’re talking about work and leaving work, but that, I think, encapsulates so much. Okay, so you made the decision to take control and to leave your job on your condition.

[00:18:35]  Cheryl Norris 

Yep. I was thinking about it, praying about it, talking to other people about it, and then I remember I woke up Friday morning, August 1st, and it was a clear yes, that, yes, I’m leaving this job. Yep.

[00:18:51]  Megan Porta 

I love that.

[00:18:52]  Cheryl Norris 

I just. I decided to leave the job. And once I made that decision, it was so freeing. It was just like this weight that had been lifted.

[00:19:00]  Megan Porta 

Yes.

[00:19:02]  Cheryl Norris 

And since I made it on a Friday, I had that weekend, you know, before I had to tell my boss, and I kept waiting for. You know, like, sometimes when you make a decision and you’re like, no, no, no, I’m not gonna do that. Right. Like, he’s like, in your mind, you say yes to something or no to something.

[00:19:17]   

You’re like, oh, is that the right decision? But it just. It felt so freeing. It felt so right. And then I told my boss. She was the first one I told when she and I had a chance to talk. And I still kept waiting for that feeling to come, like, oh, what did I do?

[00:19:32]  Megan Porta 

What?

[00:19:33]  Cheryl Norris 

Like. Like, you know, because I have withdrawn my. And so. Because when I talked to her, I also withdrew my application for that other position. And it was. I kept waiting for that feeling to come, like, oh, what did I do? What did I do? Yeah, do that. And that never came. Which is.

[00:19:48]  Megan Porta 

That’s a sign. That’s a good sign, right?

[00:19:50]  Cheryl Norris 

Yeah, that’s a. No, that it is a good sign. And so that’s when I started sending out the emails to people like, hey, I’m leaving, blah, blah, blah, you know, and just letting people know because again, I just didn’t want to do that disappearing act and like, oh, where did Cheryl go? Like, I know she quit.Yeah, she got fired.

[00:20:05]  Megan Porta 

Right? What happened to Cheryl? Yeah, that is, there’s so much, I don’t know, power in what you just said. The, the whole like, yes, I made a decision and then feeling it. You can just feel that weight and leave. You can’t you just.

[00:20:19]  Cheryl Norris 

Yeah.

[00:20:19]  Megan Porta 

And that’s how you know it’s right. Yeah.

[00:20:22]  Cheryl Norris 

Yeah. And then I have a friend at the company who’s really good with finances and so sat down with her for an hour and we were going through all like, all the financial stuff and different things like that. And that was kind of like she showed, like she showed me a bunch of stuff that was really cool.

[00:20:35]  Megan Porta 

That’s great.

[00:20:36]  Cheryl Norris 

But yeah, just running the numbers.

[00:20:38]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So transferring this to somebody else. So if somebody else is on the fence, maybe they’re at a full time job and they’re considering and they have been for a while, like, oh, should I, shouldn’t I? I don’t know. And they’re stuck in that loop of not deciding. Do you have any thoughts for them?Suggestions, encouragement?

[00:20:56]  Cheryl Norris 

I would definitely say, and everyone’s situation is going to be different because I’ve heard of people leaving jobs because the environment is so toxic, it’s affecting their health. So everyone’s different. But I would definitely say look at the data and not just go by emotion. Again, I was really looking at the numbers this year, 2025 is the first year where the income that I’m earning from the blog will absolutely pay for everything, for all my business expenses, plus having things left over. So that was, you know, looking at the numbers, it’s like, well, at least for the next few months I’m making enough money to not only run the blog, but have leftover some money left over for, you know, just for like living expenses.

[00:21:41]   

Plus I’m getting a severance, plus I have a retirement check that I can collect at any time. So I had all those things going for me. But yeah, definitely look at, definitely look at the data, look at the finances. And again, I understand everybody’s situation is different, but take control, at least from the perspective of understanding what your finances are, what the job market looks like, you know, take advantage.

[00:22:08]   

One, one, one piece of advice that someone gave me and I didn’t have time to execute on it was they said, get letters of recommendations before you leave.

[00:22:17]  Megan Porta 

Oh, okay.

[00:22:18]  Cheryl Norris 

From people that you work with, people that you. You trust. Yeah, yeah. I didn’t get it done because it’s just all right, the chaos and transition. But, you know, that was like. That was a piece of advice I never heard before, but that was pretty. And if you have time, do all the stuff that you would normally do, like update your resume, just all those different things.

[00:22:37]   

Like, while you’re there thinking about it, go on LinkedIn, make sure your LinkedIn is updated. And that’s even before you, like, leave. Because, yeah, while you’re there in the company, you could still maybe ask people what, you know for advice. And the other thing I would say, so my company is part of the layoff.

[00:22:54]   

They had outplacement resources that they made available. So I decided to check it out. And it was like a wealth of resources. And I’m so glad I did. And I found out, interestingly enough, that a lot of people who have been in the same situation don’t take advantage of it. They never use it.

[00:23:12]   

I mean, it had. Yeah, had all types of free resources. I was able to work with a counselor, like, meet with them as often as I wanted to. And I’m so glad I took advantage of that because I use all those resources to update my resume, update my LinkedIn. What else did I do?

[00:23:26]   

Oh, they had free training through LinkedIn. I took advantage of that, everything that I could during that two months. I had those resources. So any. Any resources that your company is offering to you.

[00:23:36]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:23:36]  Cheryl Norris 

Take it.

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[00:24:24] Megan Porta  

I suppose most people get caught up in the emotion of it and just don’t allow themselves to get like, oh, there’s resources here that I can actually use and will benefit me. That’s really interesting. So you knew the transition was coming and you had time to prepare. Did you have a plan in place or did you just kind of get into it and realize, oh my gosh, this is, there’s a transition here. How did you deal with the transition?

[00:24:48]  Cheryl Norris 

I tried to approach it the way I would if I was going to another position, you know, within my company. And so I just really started thinking about what that transition would look like. And I’ll admit, you know, people were asking me and I would tell people, listen, I’m excited about it. I’m excited about operating my blog full time.

[00:25:06]   

But I’m also, it’s also scary. I mean, if nothing else, there’s, there’s health insurance, the whole health insurance thing. But yeah, it was, I’ll totally admit to it. While I wasn’t regretting my position to leave, it was just, it was just a little scary going into something that was totally different. Operating my own business, leaving this job, that at that point I had been there 36 years and 10 months.

[00:25:31]   

Wow.

[00:25:32]  Megan Porta 

Wow, that’s crazy.

[00:25:33]  Cheryl Norris 

So that’s a big change. That’s a big change. When you’re talking about being so somewhere that long. I knew I would miss certain aspects, aspects of it, you know, the people I work with, certain parts of the work that I did acknowledge that I would definitely miss that. So me being me, one of the things I just started doing, I start, I worked on a transition plan and other people may be familiar with this, but it’s like a 30, 30 day, 60 day, 90 day transition plan.

[00:26:03]   

Like, what am I going to do within those first three months? Because I knew for me, if I didn’t have a plan, if I didn’t have something written down, I would kind of drift. You know, I would still be doing the same things with, you know, with the blog in terms of producing content.

[00:26:17]   

And this is what I was thinking at the time. But I also knew me well enough to know that if I didn’t have stuff written down, if I didn’t have a plan, I would just kind of drift and I could potentially be at the end of the year, I’m like, okay, what did I accomplish?

[00:26:28]   

Yeah, right during that time.

[00:26:31]  Megan Porta 

So what? Tell us about your plan. What was all involved in it.

[00:26:36]  Cheryl Norris 

So I basically broke it down into like I said 30, 60, 90 days and started thinking about what I wanted to accomplish. The first 30 days was, I would admit, was a little over ambitious. But at least the first week I was, you know, the first week was just like the regular things.

[00:26:54]   

Applying for unemployment, getting all the different paperwork I needed to get in with regard to health care coverage and all the different things like that. Trying to take care of that and taking some time off. It didn’t quite happen that way. The whole unemployment thing took way more time it would take. And then I also just started writing out specific things like I wanted to accomplish with the blog in terms of starting to produce content or more frequent basis.

[00:27:22]   

Yeah, special projects that I wanted to work on in terms of ebooks and different things like that, shooting more videos. And this is, I got further and further out having certain things in place. Now if you ask me, ask me how well the execution went. I got some of it done, but not all of it.

[00:27:40]   

And again, it goes back to that transition. It was a little harder than I thought. Not because I was missing my job, but it was, it was just a mental thing. It was, I don’t know the word to describe it, but making that transition. I just hadn’t expected how hard it would be to transition to working for myself, myself full time.

[00:28:02]   

And hindsight being what it is, I wish I had taken more time off, you know, maybe like two even three weeks off just to really wrap my head around what this new thing was and going to be for me. And I remember talking to the group in the Mastermind saying I thought by now like I was like towards the end of September and I hadn’t produced a whole lot of new content.

[00:28:29]   

I remember saying to the group, what is going on? And I remember you guys were, you guys had some really good insights saying, you know, it’s like when you start a new job and you’ve got that transition period where you’re learning stuff and figuring out stuff. I said that’s true. Like if I start a new job.

[00:28:46]   

Yeah, in some ways you hit the ground running, but not necessarily with producing a lot of stuff. You’re still kind of learning the ropes and different things like that. And then just, yeah, just kind of the sadness over leaving a job after 30 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So just going through all that, letting myself feel all the emotions and just reconciling with that.

[00:29:09]   

And then there’s also just the, oh, can I really do this business successfully? The blog, and it was, it was successful in terms of, you know, from a part time perspective, you know, limited hours, producing content, making money. Yes, definitely doing that. But can I now take it to the next level? You know, having that 40 hours a week.

[00:29:29]   

And also I found myself felt busier. I felt like I was busier.

[00:29:33]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Before I know what you mean.

[00:29:35]  Cheryl Norris 

And someone said it’s because all that stuff you were doing on the margins, it’s now fell into fill that space. I thought having not having a 40 hour job, you know, that I had to report to Monday through Friday. I thought, oh, I’m just gonna have all this extra time now because I wasn’t working. I probably was working, I don’t know, maybe 20, 30 hours a week on my blog. But I thought for sure. Now all this stuff and I’ve got a little extra left over. It was just like all that time filled in.

[00:30:08]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Isn’t that amazing how that happens?

[00:30:10]  Cheryl Norris 

It is, it is.

[00:30:12]  Megan Porta 

It’s like a trick, like a mind trick. I don’t know, it’s so weird. But yeah, I, I know what you. Exactly what you mean. So how did you deal with that once you realized, oh, this is not what I was expecting. How did you move forward from there? Because I think a lot of people will be able to relate to this stage well.

[00:30:30]  Cheryl Norris 

So one of the things that was part of my 30 day, 30 day plan was to develop my ideal week. And I think this is really important because, you know, first writing it out, it’s not set in stone, but just taking time to say, okay, this is what my ideal week will be.

[00:30:51]   

You know, figuring out those days that you’re going to work, you know, is it going to be a Monday through Friday, Tuesday through Saturday, whatever it is. And what I was trying to do, I knew what I didn’t want to happen was where I was working seven days a week. So that was the other reason for writing out the ideal week.

[00:31:07]   

I wanted like a five day week, you know, even like maybe six days, depending on what’s going on. But I wanted that five day week. Kind of like my old job. I didn’t because I didn’t want to risk burnout by working Sunday through Saturday without a break. So ideal week for me ended up being Monday.

[00:31:26]   

While I’m doing a lot of admin stuff, Tuesday through Thursday I’m doing a combination. So Tuesday would be also admin stuff, but getting more into recipe development. And then Wednesday and Thursday I’m in the kitchen, Friday I’m taking care of like household stuff, you know, chores and things like that. And then I’m back in the kitchen on Saturday, finalizing recipes, taking pictures.So that started as my idea doing.

[00:31:55]  Megan Porta 

How has that evolved?

[00:31:57]  Cheryl Norris 

It’s evolving. I’ll put it like that. It is still evolving. The issue that and I have been able to stick to that, it’s the one reasons I like Monday as an admin day is because I can just kind of like sit at my computer. It’s kind of a chill day after a busy weekend, doing whatever, you know, spending time with, you know, friends or family, you know, husband, date night, all the different things like that.

[00:32:22]   

Because. But you know, and you know how Mondays are where you just come into, you’re sitting at your computer, you’re looking at it.

[00:32:26]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:32:27]  Cheryl Norris 

So it’s. I’ve been able to stick to it pretty well because I told someone if I did not have written out my ideal week, I can see where I would spend the majority of time. Just in front of my computer.

[00:32:36]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:32:36]  Cheryl Norris 

You know, by the time you do everything with social media, writing out recipes, writing blog posts, it would be so easy to spend 30 hours on my 40 hour week.

[00:32:45]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:32:46]  Cheryl Norris 

In front of the computer.

[00:32:47]  Megan Porta 

I know. It’s wild how that happens. It’s like what’s the Parkinson’s law? Your whatever container you give to something is what you’ll fill it with. Like you just. Yeah. If you don’t have a plan, you, your mind kind of goes wild and you’ll just fill it with whatever. So I love that you did the ideal week and it, that you say that it’s evolving.

[00:33:07]   

Like you’re always. Mine is always evolving too. I feel like all of our weeks are constantly changing and evolving as we grow and does our blogs change and our businesses change. So just to kind of expect that. Right.

[00:33:21]  Cheryl Norris 

Yeah. And. Well, and so what I’m struggling with now is just leaving things like at 5:00′, clock, 4:30, 5:00’ clock.

[00:33:29]  Cheryl Norris 

So that’s one of the goals for myself that I’m setting. Yeah. One of the goals I’m setting for myself is just to leave things at 5:00. Because I still find myself working on stuff in the evening, kind of like I did when I was working a full time job. And I’m like, what am I doing?

[00:33:44]   

Like sometimes I’ll just be at my computer at 9 o’ clock at night and I’m like, like nodding off.

[00:33:48]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh, so tired.

[00:33:49]  Cheryl Norris 

I’m like, no, I can get this done. And they finally have to give it up because it’s like 30 minutes. And I’m like, I haven’t even finished writing the email.

[00:33:56]  Megan Porta 

Oh, well, I’m impressed that it’s that you’re already thinking about it. It took me years before I left. When I left my corporate job, it was years before I was like, oh wait, maybe I shouldn’t be working at.

[00:34:07]  Cheryl Norris 

9Pm No, I shouldn’t because I didn’t, you know, my corporate job. I mean, granted, I probably have more care, you know, more of my heart is into running my own business than it was, you know, working for someone else. You know, when I’m working for them. Yeah, I was, you know, doing the stuff I needed to do, maybe working overtime.

[00:34:26]   

Fortunately for my job, overtime wasn’t a normal thing. But when I had to work overtime, it was no big deal. But usually, you know, I worked from 7 to 4:30 and I was able to leave at 4:30. I would. There was no requirement of me to, you know, answer phone calls or be back on the computer once I left my job.

[00:34:45]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:34:46]  Cheryl Norris 

So. And I kind of. I need to. And that’s where the job description comes in, too, because part of that job description is just like you would, if you were hiring somebody, you would say, these are going to be your responsibilities. These are going to be your hours, you know. You know, you’re going to be working Monday.

[00:35:02]   

You know, like, when we hired onto our corporate jobs, we were told, hey, you’re going to be. You’re expected to be here Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. You get half hour for lunch or hour for lunch, different things like that. And that’s why having a job description is so important for yourself, and this is advice I got from somebody else, is how would you treat your most valued employee?

[00:35:20]   

If you had this employee who was a superstar and you absolutely wanted to keep them on the job, you didn’t want them to go anyplace else, how would you treat them?

[00:35:29]  Megan Porta 

Oh, so treat yourself that way. And so many of us don’t do that. I don’t think so.

[00:35:35]  Cheryl Norris 

If you had this superstar employee.

[00:35:37]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:35:37]  Cheryl Norris 

You know, and they were super productive and they were getting stuff done, and they were saying. They came to you and said, hey, I need to work 7 to 4, I gotta be out of here by 4:15 to go pick up my kid or whatever, you know, how would you treat them?

[00:35:50]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Wow. Okay. That kind of blew my mind. I. I mean, I wonder how many people listening have actually written a job description for themselves. But that doesn’t take long. Right. It probably took you just a little bit of time to get that out. Yeah.

[00:36:06]  Cheryl Norris 

And the next thing I use Chat GPT for. Like, I listed all the things that I’m doing.

[00:36:11]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:36:11]  Cheryl Norris 

And so I said, please write a job description as if I’m going to advertise for a position based on all these responsibilities I’ve listed here. So I came up with this. This really good job description. And then part of that too is seeing that and thinking about, okay, what can I really get done right now?

[00:36:30]   

What. What’s realistic in terms of the hours that I have in terms of getting that done. And then that’ll also help you with your ideal work week. Yeah, getting that done.

[00:36:38]  Megan Porta 

Do you find that you tweak from week to week so, you know, learn as you go, basically. So one week you’re like, oh, I thought this would work, but it didn’t. I’m making changes and adjusting for the following week. Do you just continually do that?

[00:36:52]  Cheryl Norris 

Yeah, I’m always. Yeah. Making those little tweaks, making those little adjustments. Like, for instance, one friend, she gave really good advice and she said, don’t schedule any household tasks during your work hours.

[00:37:03]  Megan Porta 

Oh.

[00:37:04]  Cheryl Norris 

Once you have your work hours set. And that’s really good advice.

[00:37:07]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:37:08]  Cheryl Norris 

So any house, you know, during the week, anything I have to get done that’s household related, I do it before I start my work day. Right. So if I need to get a load of laundry in or anything like that, I do that. And, you know, and that’s. That’s really good advice because it was about not mixing the two.

[00:37:22]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Because those rabbit holes of household stuff can really get out of control. Right. Like, oh, laundry. And then you see your dishes and you all just wash a dish, and then all of a sudden you’re like, wait a second, I was supposed to be working.

[00:37:36]  Cheryl Norris 

Yep, I’ll empty the dishwasher. Different things like that. Or.

[00:37:40]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah. It’s not just gonna treat it like.

[00:37:42]  Cheryl Norris 

I. Yeah, treat it like I did again when I was working that corporate job. Yeah, when I was working my corporate job, there would be days where I would get a load of laundry. Like, I get up first thing, put a load of laundry in so it’d be done. So I put in the dryer before I left for work, but I wasn’t like, stopping during my workday. I gotta go home and exactly, you know, mop the kitchen or something like that.

[00:38:00]  Megan Porta 

Right, right. Respecting your job as if you are working outside of the house. Is there anything else you think people need to know? If they are in the transition, if they’re going through this and they’re just maybe struggling or I don’t know, like, not really having clear direction or. What are your thoughts?

[00:38:20]  Cheryl Norris 

I would definitely. Be kind to yourself, give yourself grace. And when you are struggling, really sit back and think about why you are struggling. What is it that’s kind of bothering you or just kind of needling at you and write it down and then think about what that solution would look like for you because it’s going to be different for everybody else.

[00:38:45]   

Right now I find I’m tired all the time. And I realized because you know what I said earlier about I still find myself working at 8 o’ clock at night. And I realized because that’s, I’m, that’s one of the reasons I’m tired. I’m not getting enough rest. And so that’s why, as opposed to like, oh, my new year goal is going to be this, it’s like, no, I need to like kind of cut this off now.

[00:39:07]  Megan Porta 

Right. And taking care of yourself too is what you’re doing. So instead of like, well, I’m going to push, push, push and get all these things done, you’re actually looking at yourself and taking cues from your tiredness, which I think is so important. Can’t just push past it. Yeah.

[00:39:24]  Cheryl Norris 

And that, and that’s where having the transition plan, really writing out that 30, 60, 90 day transition plan and going back to it on a regular because you may not get things done on that schedule, but if you kind of find yourself kind of struggling with stuff, going back to that plan and looking at it and reviewing what you said you wanted to get done.

[00:39:46]   

And so even if you’re maybe at the 60 day mark and maybe there’s stuff from the 30 day plan that you know that 30 day period that you said you want to get done and didn’t get done because for instance, part of the 30 day that I didn’t get done until recently was setting up a system for controlling my schedule.

[00:40:03]   

So I recently, even though that was part of my 30 day transition, I didn’t get it done until recently, which was setting a management system, setting up ClickUp up.

[00:40:12]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:40:12]  Cheryl Norris 

To help me manage my day and help keep track of stuff. And that is having a system is always helpful whether you’re writing stuff down. Because that’s what I was doing. I had a planner for that and that’s what I was doing. And that helped with the day of the day. But I needed something that was more that could help me visualize stuff by the week and by the month.

[00:40:30]   

And so I just recently got setting up ClickUp. I’m still setting it up but I’m working on it for the major stuff with regard to blog content. And it’s nice going in there on a daily basis and being reminded, oh, oh, you said you’re going to do this, so this is what you’re going to be doing.

[00:40:45]   

This week or this is what you’re going to be doing today. And that takes a lot of pressure off of not having to just keep stuff in your brain, but just putting it down, whether it’s on your paper planner, on your computer, and being able to track it that way, because then you’re less likely to forget.And yeah, it just. It takes a load off when you’re not having to think about it.

[00:41:05]  Megan Porta 

So it sounds like a lot of this has to do with just intentionality. Being intentional with prep work and putting a system in place, making sure you’re ready, having a plan, knowing that the transition is going to be a transition and not just, oh, from point A to point B, having your ideal week set that you know is not going to be perfect, but that you can tweak as you go. Just having all of these things in your mind is going to set you up for success. Right?

[00:41:31]  Cheryl Norris 

Yeah. And especially the ideal week. I. I can’t talk too much about that because it really does give you structure. Even if you find two weeks in, oh, nope, this is not going to work for me. You can go back and tweak it. You can go back and make changes to it.

[00:41:44]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, right. And I think that’s something important that we need to stress, is that nothing needs to be perfect in your mind when you set out to do this. It’s going to change, right, Cheryl? I mean, it’s not like, oh, I think it’s going to be this way, and if it’s not, I’m going to be really mad at myself.

[00:41:58]   

That is not helpful.

[00:42:00]  Cheryl Norris 

Definitely. And even with my job description, I. I actually need to go back. This. This podcast is reminding me I need to go back and. And tweak that, because I wrote that in early September, and I need to go back and refresh that and say, okay, no, this is actually what I’m doing.

[00:42:17]   

Yeah, I thought it would be this, but no, this is actually what I’m doing.

[00:42:21]  Megan Porta 

Right. Yeah. Things are going to be different and they’re going to change and evolve. Is there anything we’ve forgotten about this topic that you think would be helpful for people going through this?

[00:42:30]  Cheryl Norris 

Let’s see. I’m thinking. I’m just looking at my notes. No, I think that. I think that was, you know, I think that was the. The major stuff.

[00:42:38]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:42:39]  Cheryl Norris 

You know, and thinking about looking at my notes again, I just wanted to share with people because, again, I’ve heard a lot of food bloggers talk about making that transition and. But no one’s ever really just talked about, I would almost even call it a pit. This, this manager management training course I took years ago had this phrase called the pit of incompetence.

[00:43:00]   

And he described it as, you’re on this one side of the pit where you’ve been operating for years. You’re competent, you know exactly what you’re doing, you have everything on lock. And then you. But now you need to get to the other side of the pit. Like, you need to get to that higher level and you go through this pit where you’re struggling to pit of incompetence, where you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re trying to figure things out, you’re, you know, you’re trying to get to that other side and you eventually get to the other side where you’re like, yes, okay, I finally know what I’m doing.

[00:43:35]   

And, you know, we often, you know, obviously we all grew up. We were all told that being told being called incompetent was a horrible thing.

[00:43:43]  Megan Porta 

Yes.

[00:43:45]  Cheryl Norris 

But I love the way his training. Rephrase that, as in, we all go through that when we want to go to the next level. You know, if you, if you want to go to the next level, if you want to change, you’re going to go through that pit of competence where you’re figuring things out and that’s okay.

[00:44:01]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:44:01]  Cheryl Norris 

Where you just don’t know what you’re doing or you’re trying to figure it out or you make mistakes, but that’s okay because you learn stuff along the way and you eventually get to the other side. You, you eventually make it out of the pit.

[00:44:12]  Megan Porta 

So much grace involved in this process is the kind of underlying thought there. So. Yes. And I just want to say thank you for sharing all about this because it’s really fresh for you. It’s still, I’m sure it’s still challenging at times. So thank you for showing up and sharing about your experience, Cheryl, we really appreciate you.

[00:44:32]  Cheryl Norris 

Thank you. No, I enjoy this and I hope this helpful to someone. I hope.

[00:44:36]  Megan Porta 

I know it will be. Absolutely. This is, this is gold for anyone going through this or thinking about doing it in the future. So thank you. And to wrap up, if I asked you, what is your number one tip for food bloggers right now, what would you say to them?

[00:44:52]  Cheryl Norris 

That I would say my number one tip, depending on where you are, is ask yourself why you’re doing this and if it’s because you love food and hopefully if, hopefully it’s because you love food. You know, just remember why you started this. And especially if it’s because you love good food, you love creating good food for others to enjoy.

[00:45:14]   

Just remind yourself of that. I mean, all the other stuff, the technical SEO, the keyword research, yes, that will always be there. But, but you know, I would say lean into those dishes that you love to make and that you think others will enjoy.

[00:45:30]  Megan Porta 

That’s back to the basics, right back to where your heart is pulled. I love it so much. Thank you for that.

[00:45:35]  Cheryl Norris 

Go back to, yeah, go back to the level food because that, that makes it so much easier to get into the kitchen when you’re excited about creating a dish and sharing it with others.

[00:45:45]  Megan Porta 

Yep, that’s. I think the, one of the amazing things about our businesses is that, that for a lot of us it does revolve around food. And food is so fun and delicious and you know, depending on our niche, easy for us to make and all of that. So love, love that. As a final thought, thank you.

[00:46:01]   

We will put together a show notes page for you, Cheryl. If anyone wants to peek at those, they can go to eatblogtalk.com/bakesbybrownsugar2 since you’ve been on here before, we put a 2 on there. Tell everyone where they can find you if they wanna go check you out online.

[00:46:16]  Cheryl Norris 

Okay, so obviously there is my blog Bakes by Brown Sugar www.bakesbrownbrownsugar.com and I, I’m on, I’m on social media, Instagram and Facebook. Bakes by Brown Sugar. And I’m on Pinterest as Bakes by Brown Sugar.

[00:46:31]  Megan Porta 

Amazing. Everyone go check Cheryl out. Thanks again for being here Cheryl and thank you so much for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

[00:46:44]  Outro

Thank you so much 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.