Episode 584: 6 Unique Ways to Make Money as A Food Blogger (Besides Ads) with Chris De La Rosa

EBT584 – Chris De La Rosa

Intro 00:00

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

Megan Porta  00:38

If you are looking for some really unique, really cool ways to monetize your business outside of advertising. This episode is going to give you so many ideas. Chris de la Rosa from Caribbean pot joins me in the episode to talk about seven really unique ways to monetize your business. He talks about doing branded partnerships in a really cool way. He talks through ways that he offers digital products to his audience and physical products. And I’m going to leave a few of them for you to learn about during the episode. You’re going to love this one. It is episode number 584 sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  01:22

Food bloggers, have you experienced traffic loss after the recent Google updates. Are you feeling confused about how to move forward? I get it. I have been a food blogger for nearly 14 years. And I’ve been through the wringer with industry changes and business changes. You name it, I have been there. When I look back over my tough times. The thing that pulled me out of slumps and traffic loss and disappointment was always people. We need each other right now more than ever. You are in this food blogging game for the long haul I know you are. And that means you need to find people to collaborate with to connect with and to learn from. Eat Blog Talk has two great options for you coming up. The 2025 Eat Blog Talk mastermind groups and in person retreats. We are now taking applications for the 2025 mastermind groups. This year we’re splitting the group’s in two. It’ll be intermediate and advanced and beginner. We also lower the price to accommodate traffic and revenue dips a lot of us are experiencing apply now as the first four people let into the group will receive 20% off the whole year. Go to eatblogtalk.com/mastermind to apply today. And there are still a few spots remaining for the 2020 for Fall Retreat, which is also discounted this year due to revenue loss for so many. Join us in October in Minnesota. It is my favorite time of year here in Minnesota for three incredible days filled with laughter, great food, tons of learning and connecting and honestly, they’re just so much fun. You will not regret attending this retreat, head over to eatblogtalk.com/retreat to apply for that today. I hope to see you in one or both of those spots. I can’t wait for the next 12 months and to see all of your businesses explode. And trust me having those people in your corner is going to help. 

Megan Porta  03:23

Chris De La Rosa, is the founder of CaribbeanPot.com, a platform dedicated to exploring the vibrant culinary culture of the Caribbean. Although his roots trace back to Trinidad and Tobago, Chris’s goal is to showcase recipes from all the enchanting islands that contribute to the rich tapestry of Caribbean cuisine. Through his website, social media channels, and YouTube videos, Chris shares the authentic flavors, techniques, and stories that make Caribbean food so special.

Megan Porta  03:51

Chris, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today? 

Chris De La Rosa  03:55

I am great at the summertime. And you know, I love the heat. Thanks for having me. Megan.

Megan Porta  04:01

So happy to have you here. And I’m excited for our chat today, before we get into unique ways to monetize outside of ads. Do you have a fun fact to share with us today? 

Megan Porta  04:12

Yeah, and this may come across as a little bit strange to a few people, but culturally Caribbean men, we don’t smile, and only in my adult years did I learn to smile doing online content. You know, growing up, my mom would always say, you guys look vex and vex. You know, I were angry speaking to my brother, and I should always complain about that. And the beauty about learning to smile and smiling is that it’s opened up so many doors. For me, a simple thing like a smile just engages people so much, and people become more receptive to just about anything that I share. 

Megan Porta  04:49

Oh my gosh, that is the coolest fun fact ever. I love that. And I was just looking at your blog, and you have a lovely smile, so it’s so inviting. So I’m glad you. Learn 

Chris De La Rosa  04:59

Thank you so much. 

Megan Porta  05:01

Glad you learned to smile. Oh, that’s so great. Okay, I’m super excited to chat with you first. I would love for you to give a little bit of a background on your blog, because it is so unique. It’s so beautiful. There’s so much passion intertwined. I can just see it and feel it. So tell us a little bit about your blog. 

Chris De La Rosa  05:20

Caribbeanpot com. You know, I started that back in 2009 as a means of documenting recipes for my daughters while they are 100% Canadian, our kitchen reflects that of the Caribbean, my heritage and I did all the cooking so and, you know, while, and it’s not necessarily a complaint, I understand why Caribbean culinary culture, you know, like most older cultures, they were passed on verbally and never written down. So there was never any written recipes for them. So I started the blog, Caribbean pod.com to document those recipes. And because of the effort I put in, there this passion that you spoke about and you saw it became a sort of an online portal for everyone across the globe to tune in to get those recipes. So what started off as something very personal, and this is why, when you go through the website, you will see it’s very diary like, very conversational and all that. It was something very personal for my daughters, and that grew into something that, you know, a lot of people tune into now.

Megan Porta  06:25

Well, amazing. I love that you started so long ago. So you’ve got a history with blogging and content creation, so you’re you have some real value to add to this space too. It sounds like, yeah. So let’s talk through some ways to monetize outside of ads. This is a huge and very relevant topic right now, because there are all those people who either have ads and they’ve seen a decline in traffic, or maybe they’re waiting to get into an ad network and they want something to kind of supplement their income. So you have some ideas for them. Chris.

Chris De La Rosa  06:58

yeah, yeah, most definitely. And you know, you know, after every, every sort of YouTube, um, Google, change, and we see traffic drop and everything else, we all kind of like scramble to figure out, where is our, you know, where is the money going to come from? Because, you know, for most of us, this is our bread and butter. This is how we pay the mortgage and everything else. And one of the, you know, I have a few of them, and one of them is branded partnerships and and sponsorships and and, and over the years, I’ve developed this sort of way of working with other brands, especially anything relating to food and travel and all those things, collaborating with those brands. Of, you know, it could be some like culinary equipment. It could be, you know, like a product that I use every day. So any sort of branded partnership and sponsorships, again, it must fall within what I do, and you must not, you know, I try my best never to lead my audience wrong. I’m always, I’m always, always aware of what I recommend to people. So it has to be a good fit, and has to be something that I would use, whether it’s a specific brand of spices, whether it is a whole branded event, it must all fall within what Caribbean Pot has built its base on.

Megan Porta  08:17

Yeah. It has to be aligned, for sure in order for it to work, right? So how do you go about doing that? I know this is a really lucrative option for some people, but correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it does require some time investment and some patience. So what are your thoughts on that? 

Chris De La Rosa  08:36

I think one of the first things you need to do is to create that sort of calling card with your stats and what you bring to the table, and have that in a spot on your website where you know, you know these, these sponsors, they’re out there looking for you. So once you have that calling card on there, whether it’s a one page or a two page PDF with your stats and what you bring to the table, your audience and everything else. Chances are someone’s going to find it sooner or later, too. But more importantly, what I’ve learned is that hiring someone, finding someone whose specific role is to find and secure those branded deals. I like you know, one of the things my mentor taught me is that focus on the things that you’re good at, and pay others to do the things you’re not so good at. And I wasn’t good at connecting with those branded sponsors, so I hired someone to go out to act on my behalf. And, you know, engage those brands. You know, we create a list of brands we want to speak to every month, and we go through a checklist, we contact those people, and we get feedback. Maybe, you know, sometimes it’s at the end of their advertising season, maybe their budget is almost over. But don’t think only today, think next year, think the year after, and. Don’t always go after the money. Sometimes you need to figure out what they’re looking for in branded partnerships. So, you know, having that calling card and hiring people to work on your behalf. I know, you know, some people are even their part. You know, YouTube, I think it was released a program not too long ago, maybe about two weeks, about two, three weeks ago, I was contacted by them, where they have an in house program where you can bid on deals with brands. So those are the sort of ways that you connect with brands. 

Megan Porta  10:30

Okay? That gives us some good ideas. And then when you decided to hire this out, which I think is a fantastic idea, I do not hear of that often hiring this specific thing out. Where did you go for that? Where do you even look? 

Chris De La Rosa  10:43

It is tough. I’ll be I’ll be honest with you, Megan, it’s not easy finding someone. And you know, the unfortunate thing about the industry is that people in our community here, we don’t truly act as a community, because we tend to think, in the Caribbean, we say crabs in a barrel, where we’re all trying to pull each other down rather than helping each other to the top of the barrel kind of thing. We don’t share these and this and this sort of information. So it was tough. It is tough to find these people. But you know, sometimes you speak to other creators, and on the rare occasion, they share with you, coincidentally, the person that I’m working with now, she used to work for a food app, and they I had worked with them closely. She left, and she started her own business. I reached out to her, and while it wasn’t specifically the type of business she was looking for, the type of business she wanted to generate, after having that conversation with her, she came on board and she started working with me. 

Megan Porta  11:39

Okay, so I mean, like you said, it’s hard, so keep your eyes open. Maybe ask trusted peers for connections to be made, that sort of thing,

Chris De La Rosa 11:50

You know. And you know, I did say that we don’t communicate in our community. We tend to not share as much as we can. But you’re so correct. You know, peers, you know, even if they say no and they’re hesitant to help you, maybe that’s fine. But move on to the other, your other sort of contact, and, you know, put the word out there that you’re looking for help.

Megan Porta  12:11

Yeah, exactly, and it might come your way. Okay? Anything else on landing branded partnerships and sponsorships?

Chris De La Rosa  12:18

Just be true to yourself. You know, you know, I see too many times people I follow, especially on Instagram and Tiktok, they do brand deals with completely doesn’t make any sense. And I can tell you for a fact that they didn’t research the company at all. They didn’t research the product because the lore of that whatever money was offered to them. You know, when you have zero income coming in or limited income coming in, and then you get a little payday, you’re like, right? I’m going to jump on this. But try not to sell your soul. Try to be honest to yourself. Be honest to your audience as well too. Because at the end of the day, if you’re not genuine, it does show and you will lose that sort of following that you have.

Megan Porta  13:01

You’ll lose that trust. 

Chris De La Rosa  13:03

Yeah, definitely, yeah. 

Megan Porta  13:04

Okay, awesome. What else do you have? Chris for ways to monetize, outside of ads?

Chris De La Rosa  13:09

Coming from the store, from the story that I started off with, there with no cookbooks, anything written. As far as Caribbean culinary culture is concerned, one of the big things, and the main earners for me has been digital products and online courses. While I did self publish my first cookbook, The Vibrant Caribbean pot back in 2006 I think it was, you know, people are spoiled. People wanted that sort of free shipping that Amazon gives people and not just free shipping, but you know, and overnight, in 24 hours, you have it on your doorstep. Unfortunately, I can’t do that. So what I went, I went, not only did I self publish, but I created digital products as well, the digital version of the cookbook, and every six months, I’m trying to release a new digital cookbook as well, and there’s no overhead after you’ve spent the money on on a designer, on an editor, all those things. But then after that, it’s all profit after that, and it’s so easy. You know people, people, you know it’s not like before, where people are not accustomed to using digital products. They’re very much in tune with digital products. So creating those digital products, and, you know, I had to date, I have three of them. One of them won a Gourmand Award, which is like an Oscar for cookbooks. And the other thing is online courses, you know, you know, I’m speaking from a food perspective, but just about any sort of niche that you’re in, you can create digital products, whether it’s an online course or a how to or whatever it is, there’s the need for it out there.

Megan Porta  14:52

Yeah. So with your ebooks, you said you create a new ebook approximately every six months?

Chris De La Rosa  14:58

That is correct, and that was. So that mindset started at the start of 2024 because the prior to that, I had the physical cookbook, which became a PDF, which I sold. But starting January of 2024 I, you know, I have so many recipes. I have over 1500 recipes on Caribbeanpot.com and here’s the beauty about it. Megan, I am not I’m taking the same content that I have on the website and repurposing it, densing it, I am adding new images to it, and then I hire hiring staff to come in and create that cookbook for me. So it’s pretty much the same content. Just, I’m putting it in a different format for people. 

Megan Porta  15:41

Repurposing. yeah, is so efficient and wonderful, isn’t it? How do you kind of package your topics together? So you take topics from your site? How do you decide how to package them so that they sell an ebook format?

Chris De La Rosa  15:56

I look at the videos I use, and this is where I use my YouTube statistics. For instance, I noticed that during the fall months, my soup recipes, the views on my soup recipes and engagement do really well. So that is how I started and I wanted to publish a soup cookbook. So that is the soup season, Caribbean comfort food in a bowl. I started working on that for the fall months. Like I had plans to create a grilling a barbecue cookbook for to release in June for the barbecue season. And unfortunately, I had to drop back on that. And I’m working now on one for Christmas, which gives me enough time. So looking at the stats from my YouTube videos, I see when what videos are doing good, what topics are doing good, and I use that information to create my cookbook. So while I missed out on the barbecue season this year, it’s a bit too late now for it, I I’m gonna have that ready for early June. I’m also going to have one, which I’m going to be calling sips, which is going to be all about summertime drinks that we enjoy in the Caribbean. So all those exotic fruits that you see out there, I’m going to use those and package it into a cookbook for late spring of next year as well.

Megan Porta  17:18

I love that you think ahead. You said this earlier too, so it’s not just like, oh gosh, I’m too late. Never mind. I can’t focus on summer spring recipes. No, you can focus on those for next year, and you’ll be ahead of schedule, right?

Chris De La Rosa  17:31

Exactly. And you know that is key, always planning ahead and and you know, we all, we’re all into this whole new technology out there about AI and stuff like that, and I’m gonna piggyback off that. Maybe we can, we can have a conversation about that at some point, but the future always look down the road, and this is why, earlier, when I spoke about the sponsorships and the brand deals, don’t only think about what they can do now. They may say no now, the brand may say no now, but they have next year, and they have the following year. Try to get an idea of where, which direction they’re heading and anticipate that, and then, you know, you can circle back, 

Megan Porta  18:11

Yeah, the future is ripe with opportunity. Don’t take a no as no period, right? Like maybe just not now, not yet. Love that perspective, and I also love how you look into your YouTube statistics to see what people are engaging with. I think that is so smart. Now, if somebody doesn’t have an active YouTube channel, I would guess they could just use Google Analytics or another platform to see what people are really enjoying. 

Chris De La Rosa  18:39

Most definitely, I know from time to time, I still peek at my Instagram statistics and stuff like that, TikTok. I’m relatively new to the TikTok game because I came on board pretty late, and it’s a sort of a learning curve for me and stuff like because the dynamic on there is totally different than the other social media platforms. But, you know, we there is information out there and and you can, you can use common sense as well. You know, Christmas is coming up. Of course, people are going to be switching Christmas recipes, holiday recipes, all those different things. Easter, we’ve got Thanksgiving, we’ve got spring, you know, and January, for instance, January, everybody makes these commitment to live healthier and change their diet, and they’re more into smoothies and salads and all those different things. So you have those things out there. You just got to kind of tune into it and create those, you know, like ebooks, in my case, to cater to those.

Megan Porta  19:31

Yeah, absolutely okay. Anything else about digital products before we move on Chris?

Chris De La Rosa  19:36

No, you know, just, I do have one point actually, when you hire staff, make sure that they’re able to put your vision into place, into you know, you know, the same way people look at my website. They look at me on on YouTube or Instagram or everywhere else. I want my cookbook to have that sort of energy as well, whether it is from a graphic design standpoint, or how it’s edited, all those different things. You know, you can go to, like, I believe it’s called freelancer.com and you can, you know, post your project on there and have people bid on it. And, you know, go through the business and make sure that these ask for examples. They must have examples of work they’ve done before as well too.

Megan Porta  20:21

Yeah, that’s really great, solid advice. Okay, what else do you have for ways to monetize?

Chris De La Rosa  20:26

You know, we’ve been testing something. We have, we’ve been receiving samples, and it is more physical products, like aprons, cooking utensils, cookware. You know, I had my team, and when I say team, my assistant, reach out to a few companies who design pots. And I have, you know, if you’re in the space and you’re using pots every day, of course, you have ideas on how to do design a pot that you would be happy with, that you you see benefits of using and you’re happy to put your name on it. So, you know, the other ways is like physical products. In my case, you know, it could be aprons. It could be something simple as my logo on a on an apron, or you spoke about my smile earlier. Maybe, who knows? Maybe my smile sells. 

Megan Porta  21:14

I love it. 

Chris De La Rosa  21:16

Yeah, you know, you move on. And then, in my case here, I can do spice blends, because, unfortunately, we have a terrible, terrible sort of record with high blood pressure, diabetes, all those different things in our community. And you know, even in Canada, in the United States, I see the numbers every day. So changing up those spice blends and everything else, where it’s lower in sodium and more healthy for you, that’s the sort of avenue I am gravitating towards. Sauces, you know, it’s like, it’s like, you know, everybody has a sauce coming out, a hot sauce, or, as we see in the Caribbean, pepper sauce. It’s one word. Those are the sort of areas I can tap into if I wanted to, because I have the audience. I have the audience is just creating these products and being able to efficiently get it out to the customer and them being happy with it.

Megan Porta  22:10

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Megan Porta  23:09

Food content creators have so many ideas in this area. I feel like the hard part is figuring out which products to make or to have created. Do you know what I mean? Because there’s so many different routes we could go.

Chris De La Rosa  23:21

Yeah, the execution part of it can be a bit challenging. And you know, we’ve encountered that as well too, because here’s the other part of it, is sometimes cross border shipping can be a bit tricky, if it’s for sauces and spices and all that, because at the end of the day, you have to meet the standards to be able to ship internationally, and all those things. So people just got to be mindful of that. Yeah,

Megan Porta  23:46

okay, yeah. There’s so many things, I mean, so many routes you could go with that we are full of ideas when it comes to creating something physical. Is there anything that you’ve created physical that has worked really well

Chris De La Rosa  23:58

Outside of the cookbooks? No, and it’s only because I’m bringing on my manager the early part of this year, our focus has been more on products and the product development, because the sort of execution like I spoke about earlier there, it can be costly sourcing and having the right ingredients and everything else, you know, and it has to be lab tested. Some of the stuff have to be lab tested and all that. So I haven’t, but about six years ago, I did print t shirts with just the Caribbeanpot.com logo on the front a black T shirt. And you won’t believe how many people when they saw me on camera. And that’s the beauty about it on camera, I can, I can advertise it as well, right? So if I wore the apron, if I, if I did my spices, I can include it in my recipes, and it sells itself. But because that T shirt was so requested, I did end up selling, I think was what 100 or 150 of them. I think it was within. In one week or something. But again, the work involved in packaging it and shipping it out and stuff like that, because in Canada, when we have to ship something down to the US, we have to fill out a customs declaration. Back then it was written. There was nothing digital. You couldn’t go on a computer and just import data into a field. Now you can, but there was so much work that I just, I, you know what? Let’s do the 150 and that’s the end of it. And the beauty about having a number like 150 is people attempted to buy once you see we all we have is 150 and this message is going out. And back then, my mailing list was 65,000 people. So the numbers, people were just rushing to buy it, right?

Megan Porta  25:45

Lots of demand. 

Chris De La Rosa  25:47

Yeah, yeah, you created it.

Megan Porta  25:50

That’s awesome. And I love that you just advertised it yourself by wearing it in your own video. That’s so easy, right?

Chris De La Rosa  25:57

You know. And that is the advantage we have, not only as food creators, but online content creators as well too, because we can put anything that we use into our videos, into our content as well, too.

Megan Porta  26:10

Create that intrigue and make people ask you about it. 

Chris De La Rosa  26:13

You know, the funny thing is not funny thing, but the interesting thing is, when I create, when I publish, the vibrant Caribbean pot, physical cookbook. One of the things it would be lost in my on my social media, but one of the things I did was I asked people to take a picture with my cookbook in a sort of a famous location where they live. And I had people at the Sydney, Sydney Opera. I had people at the Eiffel Tower, people at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I have places in Bahamas, in the US. I had one person outside Disney holding it up and that that sort of showing me where you you are with my cookbook, it created a sort of a demand for it as well, because people saw it as being important. That’s something we want to have as well too.

Megan Porta  26:59

All over the world. So people are going to want it more. So cool. Okay. What other ideas do you have for monetizing, Chris?

27:05

over the years, I have worked with sort of menu consultation where someone has an idea for a restaurant they want to open a Caribbean restaurant, whether you know. And the first offer I had was in Dubai. Unfortunately, I had to pass up on that one because they wanted me to come out to Dubai for six months to help set up the menu, to help with train the chefs and all those things. I’m like, I cannot leave my home here in Canada and move to Dubai for six months. So, you know, they say six months, but in reality, it could have been longer as well, too. But menu consultation, I’ve worked with a couple restaurants locally here in Toronto, where they wanted tips on some of the food that we’re going to have on the menu, and they hired me and another chef friend of mine. We went in, we fine tuned the recipes for them, and now it’s on their menu in the restaurant doing really good. The reviews have been really good. So menu consultation is one of those sort of areas that. And you know, if you’re in the food scene, you can tap into that as well too. You know, the thing though, Megan is, what you have to do is, when writing your content, when doing your content, you have to come across as someone who is, you know, you’re like the professor in that sort of thing, that sort of niche kind of thing. So because of the amount of recipes I have on caribbeanpot.com, because I have such a huge following online, across all the social media platforms, people see me as the authority on Caribbean food, and that in itself, sells me to restaurants, for them to come to me and say, well, we want to do this. And you know, we spoke earlier there about sauces, the pepper sauce that I spoke about, I’ve had people come up to me and say, well, we’ve used your recipe and we sell it now. And I’m like, yeah, you guys should be hitting me a little $10 or something. Hit me a little tip. Yeah. But again, menu consultation. Huge, huge, huge opportunity. 

Chris De La Rosa  29:04

So people come to you because you are so well known with your niche, in your niche, do you ever go to restaurants and or does it always work the other way around? 

Chris De La Rosa  29:14

We haven’t contacted any restaurants yet. There wasn’t anyone that I actively wanted to work with. But that can all change, because, you know, at some point I’m thinking, one day I will open my own restaurant. I’ve been warned about it. You don’t want to go down that road, because you have the freedom of working from home. All I need is a space to cook and a camera. And I, you know, I was in Serbia, of all places, and I was filming video over there I went. I went to stay a couple weeks with my friends, and I filmed videos out there. So taking away that sort of freedom is something I’m very worried about, but I’m also saving my sort of best recipes for if I do want to open a restaurant. So this is why I don’t go to people don’t go to restaurants if they want me and they want. To work on a certain menu. I will work with them on their idea, putting their idea into sort of reality.

Megan Porta  30:07

I like that. Okay, other ideas, Chris? 

Chris De La Rosa  30:10

Food tours and culinary experiences.

Megan Porta  30:15

Talk more about that. 

Chris De La Rosa  30:16

Yeah, I had the opportunity to be in Italy, I think prior to covid. I think was a year before covid, and I saw all these people out there traveling just to experience food from the region. So this is why we’re in talks now. It’s a tour company to take people down to the Caribbean, give them that true taste of the Caribbean, you know, whether it’s Jamaica or, you know, and that’s the beauty about the Caribbean, is that every island, while they are we are all Caribbean at heart. We have our sort of nuances or uniqueness about every island and and, you know, if I were to take people to Trindad and Tobago or Cuba or Dominican Republic, if I were to take people to Jamaica and offer that sort of food tour. Now it doesn’t have to be that far. It can be something local. We can do a Caribbean food tour right here in Toronto, which is an hour west of Hamilton, where I live, right here in Hamilton, I can do a food tour as well, because people see me as the authority on food. So it’s easy for me to sell just about anything to them, you know, organize and lead culinary tourists to the Caribbean. And it doesn’t, you know, food doesn’t have to be just about what you eat, per se, from a restaurant or something. It can be a market. You know, I was, I was in Barcelona, and, Yo, man, the markets there are just incredible. I was down in Seoul, South Korea. Same thing, the night markets are just incredible, and having that person to take me around and show me with the native language and everything else opened up my eyes for all these culinary tours that potentially can happen. 

Megan Porta  31:51

Is this something you could just scope out on Facebook? Or how would you gather people to create a tour? If you’ve never done it before?

Chris De La Rosa  31:58

I would say so, yeah, you know, tap into the your, your sort of community, whether it’s Facebook, actually, Facebook would be the prime example you go on there. You, you know, it’s going to start small, obviously, but you, you, you join those groups that people who are into food around, you know, they call themselves foodies and stuff. You tap into those sort of communities on Facebook. You create your tour, and you start small, maybe five people, and then you move up to 10 people, how many people that you think you can accommodate? And in partnership, you know, I took, I took a local food tour here in Burlington a few years ago. And the tour guide, he worked directly with the restaurants, so he got X amount of dollars for bringing in customers to their restaurants. And in turn, they created a special menu, a sort of tasting menu when we went. So you work hand in hand with those restaurants as well too. And a lot of you know, you look at Toronto, you look at Burlington, you look at Hamilton. We all have that Restaurant Week or a few days a year. When we tried, they tried to restaurants, try to attract people, try to tap into that as well. But you’re so correct. I would tap into social media first, advertise it on the Facebook and your community, your friends, are the ones who would be your first customers, and by word of mouth, it will grow from then.

Megan Porta  33:15

Yeah, that’s such a unique experience, too. That’s something that people just love. They love that in person, human experience, enjoying food together, that is just so appealing, I think, for so many people. 

Chris De La Rosa  33:28

Oh, definitely. 

Megan Porta  33:29

Yeah. So cool. I am so inspired by all of those. Chris, thank you for all of this. Okay, you have more though. What else do you have?

33:35

You know earlier, I sort of hinted on AI, and we when it first when I first started seeing it, I’m like, well, it’s going to take the human away from things. It’s going to take my sort of need for people wanting recipes from [email protected] because if you typed in in whatever device, jerk chicken, there’s going to be so many recipes generated from AI. But rather than see it as something that’s going to shut me down. I’ve seen it as something that I need to tap into. And, you know, I’m in talks right now with a company, and I really can’t name names, because contracts haven’t been signed and everything else, but I’ve tapped into that where I’m going to be the sort of voice for that. AI, when I say voice, I use it loosely, not my actual voice, but bringing my recipes and my take on Caribbean culinary culture onto their platform. So working with AI, the other thing I’ve used AI for is, once I create a video to upload to YouTube or Instagram or wherever it is, I usually use an AI tool to help me generate the title, the potential title for that recipe, and what I have noticed over the over the sort of five or six months I’ve been testing it, those AI titles have increased my video views by about 7% even deeper, the went up 3% Of new non subscribers watching my videos as well too. So using that new technology and embracing new technology, you know, you know, I, I strongly advise for it. The other thing is, you know, QR codes, if you want to direct people to your website, once you post a picture on your socials, include a QR code that they can scan that takes them back to your website. If the if your whole thing is to drive traffic to your website, do so use a QR code that they can take them directly to the recipe. The other thing I have tapping into is, you know, a lot of times you go to everyday grocery store, and that’s the beauty about it, I am not asking you to go to a different grocery store. You can go to your everyday grocery store buy the same ingredients that you normally buy, but at caribbeanpot.com I’m teaching you how to potentially use those same ingredients with a different technique of cooking. When you go to these grocery stores, sometimes you may see an interesting ingredient like plantin or mangoes or different types of hot peppers or whatever I am speaking to grocery stores to put a little QR code on the bottom where those those items are that a potential customer can scan that and they can find a recipe or information on that item, and they can point them back to caribbeanpot.com, so again, using technology to bring people back to my website in collaboration with the grocery stores, who gets their product sold at the end of the day by informing people, one, how they can use it, and two, what product is about.

Megan Porta  36:37

So creative and things that I don’t think a lot of us would think of. I love all of this. I so strongly believe that people who embrace the changes, especially with technology advancing the way it is, are going to be the one to move forward more quickly.

Megan Porta  36:55

Yeah, and, you know, I worked in partnership with with SideChef about way back in 2020, and I’m not sure if I was one of the first people, but I can definitely see I am the first person with Caribbean content to have an Alexa skill developed for me with my recipe. So an Alexa skill is like an app that runs on your Amazon, Amazon device that you know there I am teaching you how to cook with this Alexa skill.

Megan Porta  37:24

Yep, there are so many ways to embrace technology and to incorporate your brand and your content into it. I think, Okay, anything else you have for us Chris? 

Chris De La Rosa  37:34

Yeah, this one is one I’m very passionate about, because it will help cut back on waste. I hate food waste. I see. I hate seeing so much food being wasted when there’s so many people around the world who just don’t have access to food. And it is, you know, tapping into like ghost kitchens, where people local to me, who know me, and who want to taste Chris, can be part of things. And I have a friend in Trinidad Tobago who does it, and he has a whatsapp list where He sends out a menu at the end of the week, I think, like Thursday, and you have to respond by Sunday of food items that he’ll be cooking and preparing that you can pre order, thus creating less waste, so you have zero waste, because you know who’s going to be buying and you know how much you’re going to need, so you don’t have to, you know, worry about wasting food. But essentially, I’m giving people the opportunity to buy cooked food from me, and rather than trying to build a kitchen and all of the overhead and everything else, you know, there’s so many ghost kitchens out there that you can use now and to make it legit and to follow all the requirements of health and food safety, I will have to do that, but creating that mailing list via WhatsApp or whatever sort of format that you want, and offering people a taste of what you do. But I’m going to go a little bit different than my friends, where they cater to everyone, but I’m thinking, I’m going to cater more to the sort of retired community where they don’t have the ability to cook anymore. Or the children want mom and dad, you know, they’re older now. We want them to eat. We want food delivered to them. So I’m going to partner with a food delivery company so I can give people the opportunity to buy food locally here from me.

Megan Porta  39:22

That is so cool. Okay, so where ghost kitchens? I’ve never heard that term before. Where do you find a ghost kitchen?

Chris De La Rosa  39:29

If you know, the funny thing is, it’s out there. If you type ghost kitchens, kitchen into into your Google, you will see them come up and essentially what it is, it’s it’s a kitchen, a community kitchen, run by an organization, whatever organization it would be, where you rent space in their time and space, and they would allocate storage for you, maybe freezer space, fridge space, and you can go in there. It’s been health and safety standards. Usually go in and they monitor everything. And it makes sure everything is up to par for food, for safe food handling and all that. And you rent that space in there, and you use the kitchen, and from there, you can distribute to whoever your customers are. And they became popular here in Canada during covid where most of the traditional restaurants were closed down, and people were like, Okay, we’re gonna go to a ghost kitchen, and we’re gonna start making our food there and shipping it out from these ghost kitchens.

Megan Porta  40:28

So cool. I just Googled it. Yes, they’re a thing. Like tons of tons of search things came up. So wow, thank you for sharing.

Chris De La Rosa 40:39

Those ghost kitchens are out there, and it’s a great opportunity, you know, even if you want to do, and we spoke earlier about there about physical products and stuff like that, if you wanted to do your spice blend, if you wanted to do a hot sauce or maybe a jam or a jelly or a pickle or something, to be able to to get that quality control and to abide by local laws and everything else. You can use those ghost kitchens to create your products as well too. So you don’t need to go out and spend a ton of money on these big canning pots and and huge stove and pants and everything. It’s all provided there for you. It’s just you pay a small fee to be able to use it. And you know, how often would you be doing? You know, you do your first batch of hot sauce or whatever it is you want to do, and then maybe in another couple of months, you schedule more time, and you go back in there, thus you don’t need to spend a ton of money to create your products as well. 

Megan Porta  41:35

So cool. Thank you for that. I think people are going to find that extremely valuable. So this was all really inspiring. Chris, seriously, such new perspectives and information. I so appreciate all of this. Are we missing anything before we start saying goodbye?

41:51

I think we covered pretty much all that I can think about, all from my experience and the sort of direction that I’m heading to. I think we’re good. 

Megan Porta  41:59

Yeah, good. Well, thank you so much for being here. Do you have a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with? 

Chris De La Rosa  42:06

I have two, and the reason for two is one takes me back to being a little fella, little boy on the islands. Our mom would always tell us to put our best foot forward, meaning to always give our best in everything that we do. And that is something my mantra for my entire life, and I think it’s the same for my brother and sisters. And the second one is as content creators and we touched on it earlier briefly when we spoke of when you spoke about burnout. Gabrielle Union said, If you prioritize yourself, you’re going to save yourself. And that is so true. Prioritize yourself. You know, yes, social media will always be there, content will always be there. But if you’re not healthy, if you’re not in a good space, it will reflect on what you do and your capability to do things and to build out your business. So prioritize yourself.

Megan Porta  42:55

Amen to that. That is one of my personal things that I live by, so love that you ended that way. We’ll put together a show notes page for you, Chris, if you want to peek at those head to eatblogtalk.com/CaribbeanPot, tell everyone where they can find you. Chris? 

Chris De La Rosa  43:13

CaribbeanPot.com I think I plugged myself so many times on this podcast. I hope I didn’t break any records here. But caribbeanpot.com if you want to learn a little bit more from the business side of me, you can head over to chrisdelarosa.com. Those are my two websites. 

Megan Porta  43:29

Go check out Chris’s lovely smile and inviting food and photography. It’s such a beautiful site. So yeah, I hope everyone goes to check that out. And thank you so much again for being here, Chris truly, and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  43:47

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 you.