Episode 771: No Ads, No Gimmicks – How to Build a Purpose-Driven Business That Lasts With Molly Patrick

EBT771 – Molly Patrick

[00:00:00]  Megan Porta

No ads, no gimmicks, no cringy marketing. Molly Patrick has built a thriving, values driven business and global plant based community over the last 10 years without ever running a single ad on her blog. In this episode we talk about how strong community replaces the need for traditional marketing. It helps your audience feel seen and supported and it keeps your business resilient in uncertain times. And don’t miss the end. Molly shares her exact tips for building the community of your dreams. Watch this on YouTube. You will want to soak up every minute.

[00:00:24] 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.

[00:00:52]   Sponsor

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[00:01:20]   Megan Porta

Hello, Molly, welcome. How are you today?

[00:01:22]  Molly Patrick 

Hey Megan. I’m good, thanks for having me.

[00:01:25]  Megan Porta 

So excited to chat with you about something very important, which is community, as some of you may know. Before we get into that though, do you have a fun fact to share with us?

[00:01:35]  Molly Patrick 

You know, I was thinking about this and, well, let’s see. I think I’m a kind of a boring person actually. But I was like, you know what, everybody has a fun fact. So, I mean, one thing about myself is that I have never eaten meat in my whole life.

[00:01:51]  Megan Porta 

Oh, wow.

[00:01:51]  Molly Patrick 

And so that’s something that’s kind of, you know, kind of rare. So I’m 45 and I was raised vegetarian and I never, I never tried it, I never was interested in it. So I’ve never, I’ve never had meat in my mouth.

[00:02:05]  Megan Porta 

Wow, that’s, that’s awesome. Yeah, not many people can say that. I think a lot of people become vegetarians or vegans when they’re older and able to make decisions on their own. So very cool. Love that.

[00:02:17]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah.

[00:02:18]  Megan Porta 

And that leads into your blog because I know your blog is, has a vegan theme. Right. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

[00:02:26]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah. So what I do definitely includes a blog, but we, we, our whole mission is to help people eat more plants. And so that’s the whole thing of it. And we really meet people where they’re at and so in the beginning I had a name with the word vegan in it, but it wasn’t really adding up to like who I was.And I really wanted to be really inclusive. And so by helping eat more plants, it feels like an invitation more than like rules.

[00:02:59]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, for sure. I totally get that because I’m a meat eater myself. But I just looking at your blog would love a lot of the things you offer. So it’s not like if you do eat meat, you’re not going to be welcome or feel like you can find things here. Correct?

[00:03:16]  Molly Patrick 

Totally. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. We have people who are, you know, in all parts of their journey and some people have no interest in not eating meat and not, you know, and they want to keep the cheese or the eggs or whatever. And some people are really trying to get away from that. Some people haven’t done that in many years.

[00:03:33]   

And you know, everybody is at a different place. And so we really honor, honor that and respect that and everybody is welcome. And that’s one of the main reasons I actually started this was because I wanted to create a really inclusive place for people where they felt supported and never had to feel judged or ashamed for where they were at.

[00:03:51]  Megan Porta 

Amazing. I love that. And then when did you start this website?

[00:03:56]  Molly Patrick 

So I started in, I guess officially in 2014. January 2014 to be exact. Like the middle of January of that year.

[00:04:09]  Megan Porta 

And then you. Yeah, that is a long time. I mean, what is that, 11 years now? Coming on 12 years. Amazing. And then you offer more than recipes, you do a meal plan. Correct. And what else do you offer through your website?

[00:04:22]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, so we, we have two, well, we have two main products that bring in like the bulk of our revenue. And one is called Meal Plan Club and it’s for people who sign up, become members. They have access to this really awesome member portal where we have hundreds of meal plans and thousands of whole food plant based recipes.

[00:04:45]   

And it’s really works really well. It’s very user friendly, it’s very, it works with you. It’s like a, it’s like a kitchen tool. Having a kitchen tool. And it’s something that we developed ourself, not ourself. I mean, I didn’t, I can’t code or anything, but we hired some awesome developers to develop this because there was nothing really out there like it that we could like plug and play.

[00:05:07]   

And so we created it from scratch. All the recipes and the meal plans are done by me and my team. And so we have this huge archive, this huge library. We drop new stuff every week. And so we offer that. And then I also also offer a plant powered weight loss program, which is also a membership.

[00:05:24]   

I’m also a coach, a weight loss coach. And so that’s the other kind of thing. We also offer like guides and workshops and like one off type of things. And then of course, all the, all the free resources. I have a podcast and we have a blog and I have a newsletter. And so we have a lot of really helpful stuff for free. So we’re kind of, we have all the tiers.

[00:05:47]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So it sounds like you’ve created this really strong community, which is such a nice tie in to our theme today topic. When did you see the importance of that? So not just creating a blog where you’re dishing out recipes, but where did you see the importance of putting it all together and including the podcast and the meal plan and all of the, the membership and all the other services you offer?

[00:06:13]  Molly Patrick 

Well, it was definitely a progressive thing. Like, I did not have a plan of how it was going to go because I honestly had no idea how it was going to go. I had never done anything online before. I had always worked in actually the restaurant world and the photography world and using my hands a lot.

[00:06:32]   

Like, I, I was not familiar with online anything back in 2014. And of course it’s changed so much since I started, but I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing really. And so I didn’t really have a plan. So everything happened really like progressively and, and sort of happened naturally and organically as I saw a need for it.

[00:06:53]   

But because I was brand new to this, there, there was so much, and it’s still true today, even maybe more so. But there was so much information for people who are just getting into this and it could be really overwhelming, like, okay, this person’s saying to do this and this person’s telling me to do this and, and I should do this program and I should do this course.

[00:07:13]   

And if you’re not careful, you could just consume all of that and never actually start. Right. And so what I decided to do very early on was to stop listening to like everyone apart from three people who I really liked. And I just vibed with their style. I thought they were really authentic.

[00:07:34]   

I liked what they were doing. And so I unsubscribed from all the newsletters. I, you know, stopped following all the people except for those three people. And for those three people, I really dove into what they were saying and really kind of followed what they were doing and really put all my energy into that.

[00:07:52]   

So it was very focused. And so one of the things early on that I decided to do was to start a newsletter, an email list, right, and start growing my list. And that really scared me because I was not a writer. I did not like writing. I had like, my grammar was horrible, my spelling is bad.

[00:08:11]   

I’m like, I’m not a writer. What am I doing? But I’m like, okay, so this is something I’m going to have to at least be decent enough to do to put something out there that’s helpful for people. And so I started the, the. My Saturday email, which I’m still sending out every Saturday to this day.

[00:08:28]   

And through that I just, I told, you know, I just basically shared what was going on with me and I got personal with it. And I was really. I think the word authentic is used a lot, but I just, I was like, okay, well, I don’t know what else to write about. So I’m just going to write about what’s going on in my life.

[00:08:45]   

And slowly that really gained a lot of traction. And people could relate because we all go through this, all this human stuff, and when it’s not super polished and you’re not trying to be this idea of what you should be, you can just be yourself and people will relate to that. And so from the beginning, I had people who were, were drawn to that and who also wanted to share with me things about them.

[00:09:11]   

And so I would get a lot of responses from my emails like, oh, I can totally relate because this thing happened or that thing happened. And so I knew from the beginning that, oh, like, I’m really having a conversation and this isn’t just about me. And so I knew that that needed to, there needed to be like a place for that.

[00:09:27]   

And so that was one of the first things that I focused on really was building a community. Before I had anything to sell, before I had any offerings, before I had like, you know, it was very bare bones at that point. But I saw how powerful that was and I knew that I wanted to be really inclusive and help people eat more plants who, who were coming from all, you know, stages of, of life and, and all patterns of eating.

[00:09:50]   

And so it was a very natural thing for me to then focus, you know, bring that community in it and really focus on that community for like a couple of years before I even had an offering. I mean, I, I had a couple things. They didn’t work very well, but it was great to, to test those things as well.

[00:10:05]  Megan Porta 

It sounds like relationship could be what you did at first, instead of community, like, you just built those relationships by showing up and being real and being you and talking about what you’re going through and what your journey is, what your life is. And that creates trust. Right. People start to feel like they can relate to you and trust you, and then that community formed, which is the awesome way to do it. But it’s for a lot of people starting blogging now, it feels overwhelming because that takes time and patience and people want to fast track to everything, so.

[00:10:40]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, well, the thing is, I mean, you can fast track it. There’s ways to fast track it. And I get how shiny that is because we as humans, we really like instant gratification. But delayed gratification is going to last a lot longer than instant gratification. I mean, I’ve been doing this now for going.

[00:10:58]   

You know, I started in 2014. It’s 2025. I mean, I’ve been able to sustain this because of those relationships I built in the beginning and because of focusing. Okay, this is a marathon. This is not a sprint. And so I think for anybody who’s like, hey, I’m just looking to, like, make a quick buck, like, there’s ways to do this and like, the way what I did, isn’t it?

[00:11:20]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah.

[00:11:22]  Molly Patrick 

But it has been a really. It’s been a lucrative career. I’ve been able to not, you know, have a job for all of these years and to pay myself well and to pay my employees well and be able to do what I love. And so, you know, there. It’s been really rewarding in that way.

[00:11:38]   

And we’re still going. Right? And. And so many people I’ve seen come up who try that fast, shiny thing, and maybe they have, like, some initial really big successes, but those people, like, they’re not here anymore. You know, they went on to different things because it’s. Yeah, it’s hard when you. When you’re going for that fast buck.

[00:11:54]  Megan Porta 

Right. Do you feel like you’ve been able to connect emotionally deeply with the people in your community? I’m sure you probably have.

[00:12:05]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah. I mean, I don’t think I could have done this if I didn’t. Because, I mean, I think that humans have a pretty good radar for, like, bs, And I think it can be really obvious when you’re, like, wanting to connect without sharing, like, honestly, a part of yourself. There’s, like, there’s something missing there.

[00:12:30]   

And. And people might not even, like, know why they’re not interested, but it’s just like, it Falls flat. And I’ve seen people do it. I actually had somebody that I knew a long time ago. She was starting out, and I was, you know, just kind of. She was curious on, like, how I was doing it and what I did, and I kind of told her.

[00:12:47]   

And she tried to do it, but, like, it didn’t. It didn’t work. And I would read her stuff and I would listen to her stuff. I’m like, it’s not like I don’t believe you, though, right? Like, it’s just like, you’re trying, but I don’t feel like the heart of it. And so I don’t think.

[00:13:03]   

Think for me, it would be possible. I mean, maybe for some people it would be, but I really had to, like, not give all of myself. Right? But certainly, like, be honest about, like, here I am humaning right now. And that’s what this looks like at this point in my life, because that’s what people relate to.

[00:13:22]   

And that’s what people. People want to know that they’re not alone in their weirdness or their flaws or their imperfection or their, you know, quirks. And so I think you kind of have to.

[00:13:33]  Megan Porta 

For somebody who’s listening, who might yearn for this, and they feel like they don’t have maybe that real connection, the emotional connection with their audience. Do you have thoughts for them, recommendations for just getting started with it?

[00:13:49]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah. So what I used to do when I first started is I. Whatever I was writing, whether it was a blog post or an email or even just a response to somebody who had emailed me, I would pretend that I was writing to my best friend.

[00:14:03]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s brilliant.

[00:14:04]  Molly Patrick 

And when I did that. And I’ve had the same childhood best friend since we were, like, born, basically. And she knows everything about me. And there’s like, I know everything about her. And I’m like, okay, I’m just gonna. In my mind, I’m writing to her. What would I say? And if there was anything, you know, like a, like, email that I wrote, I would go through it and read it again.

[00:14:26]   

Okay, would I send this to her? And what would I change if I was? And that. That really I was able to call myself out on areas where I was, like, trying to look a little bit better than I was, trying to make myself seem a little bit cooler than I was, because I wouldn’t do that with her because she knows that I’m not cool. And, like, she still loves me. And so, you know, having that person in mind was really helpful in the beginning.

[00:14:50]  Megan Porta 

That is such a good hack. Sometimes I do write things and I read through it and I’m like, would I actually say that line? So I like the best friend kind of just having that thought in your head to like, would they, would they receive this as being Megan or not? And just using that as your standard is great.

[00:15:11]   

Yeah, I love that. Okay, so I’m wondering about. You have a membership, correct? And how many members do you have in there approximately?

[00:15:20]  Molly Patrick 

Well, we don’t. I don’t talk about numbers ever. But we have two memberships. We have the meal plan. Well, we actually have three memberships. We have meal plan club, but we have recipe club which is like basically the same thing, but they have access to all of our recipes and not our meal plans.

[00:15:34]   

And so it’s, it’s like $12 a month. It’s really affordable. Our meal plan club is like 25 a month or it’s cheaper if they sign up for like, you know, a longer amount of time. And then we have our weight loss membership. So I can tell you that we have enough people in our membership and we have had enough people in our membership over the years so that we’ve never had to take funding, we’ve never had to borrow money and we’ve been able to sustain ourselves through all the ups and downs and pay our, you know, five full time employees really well.

[00:16:05]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, Yeah, I was just wondering like, is there enough people in those memberships to like, do you feel like you have to be on alert all the time to answer questions and field comments and all of that or is there enough trust that it doesn’t feel like that?

[00:16:23]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, it’s pretty smooth at this point and it runs pretty much. I mean we’ve done this for so many years. It really feels like a well oiled kind of machine. Part of, you know, one of the, one of the great things about having community. And so we have a private Facebook group and this is mainly where our members and non members can go.

[00:16:44]   

So I’ve never created a community for. Well, in our weight loss group. That’s only people who are in the weight loss group because it’s a little bit more intimate, it’s a little bit more, it’s smaller. So it’s a different vibe. But our main Facebook group is really where the community shines and loves to go.

[00:17:02]   

And the awesome thing is people will join that have questions and then our members will answer them because people like to share information and people like to be like, oh, I know the answer to that. I’ve been Doing this for a long time. Here, let me help you. And so just by having that group and being able to mix the members with the non members of our membership has been great because it’s like, you know, 80% of the stuff that would usually be emailed into us, our members are already taken care of.

[00:17:31]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:17:32]  Molly Patrick 

And so that’s been, been great. And the other thing is that we don’t have a ton of that now because we got so much feedback from our members that we knew exactly what we needed to tweak, what wasn’t working, what people. You know, the whole idea is like, answer as many questions as you can before they come up.

[00:17:50]   

And the only way you do that is to get feedback. Right. So because we’ve been doing it for so long, like if we launch something new, then it’s like, okay, we’re waiting for the feedback, but then once we kind of tweak and then, you know, our community can take care of questions for us.

[00:18:05]  Megan Porta 

So you’ve fostered a really a self sustaining community, which is kind of the goal when you have a membership, I think. So you’re not feeling like you constantly have to be checking in and answering and people are upset and reaching out. They can answer each other’s questions, which is great.

[00:18:21]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah. And we do, you know, there’s a lot of people who have gotten off Facebook and so we have, I mean, we have like 67,000 members in our group still. I mean, even I thought it would start going down when people really started to get off from Facebook. But it goes down and then it kind of goes back up again.

[00:18:38]   

I mean, I don’t think Facebook is going anywhere. It’s still, we’ve, we’ve looked into other community platforms to kind of build on and so far we haven’t because most of our audience is already on Facebook and they’re older, mainly older women, and so they don’t want to learn something new. Right. It’s there, they’re there.

[00:18:55]   

So we’ve just kind of kept that. But no, I mean, we, we focus on creating content. You know, we have a lot of content that we produce because we do have these ongoing memberships. But because we’ve created this community, we can focus on the content and not focus on like always being on alert or asking questions or, you know, constantly being in the inbox.

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[00:20:14]   Megan Porta

Being so close to your community, do you feel like they deliver? I don’t know the golden gems to you regularly. Like, this is what I want, Molly. I would like this in the platform or I would like to see this sort of recipe. Do you send out regular surveys? How do you get feedback from them?

[00:20:32]  Molly Patrick 

I mean, we just engage. We just, we have some great Facebook moderators. We have two of them. I’m in the group a little bit every day just because I want to be there. I like to be there and I want to share like what I’m cooking, what I’m making. I, I, it’s a, it’s a really positive, like, wonderful space to be in.

[00:20:50]   

And so I’m just looking at what people are talking about. And we do like, we have, we encourage people, like, hey, if you have ideas and stuff you want to see, here’s a link to a form and we look at all of the suggestions, all of the feedback. We encourage people to reply to emails that I send, let us know what they think, what, what do they like, what’s working.

[00:21:09]   

So we really, like, we have really followed or provided a path for them based on what they need. I will say, though, there have been times where I did that too much and for me it kind of backfired and I realized, okay, like, it might not be appropriate to give them every single thing.

[00:21:31]   

You know, create a solution for every single thing that people are throwing at me because maybe it works better without right, maybe because of the constraints of the system or because of what we’re doing, like, it doesn’t make sense to do that. And so in the beginning I was like, yes, we’re going to do all the things that make all the people happy.

[00:21:48]   

And sometimes there was things that people thought that they wanted and we did it and then they ended up not wanting it at all. And so there has to be kind of that balance. So because we’ve been doing this for so long, we kind of know now, okay, this is something that makes sense.

[00:22:02]   

You know, we’re not going to have to reinvent the wheel. We can easily add this and it’s something that we want, so we can try it. So I think that, yes, and now I’ve learned, like, but take it. Take things with a grain of salt that people tell you that they want.

[00:22:15]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. If somebody doesn’t have an established community on Facebook or elsewhere, how do you recommend they get that feedback without being intrusive?

[00:22:25]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, well, I mean, I think that, I mean, how do we communicate with each other right now if it’s not on social media, it’s through email. You know, I think that email is such a. I think it’s becoming like this underrated kind of gem that’s still really relevant, I think, I mean, depending on your, I guess, depending on your demographic.

[00:22:44]   

Right. Like if I was trying to reach, reach 20 year olds, I don’t know that 20 year olds get read email anymore, so maybe you’d have to do that through DMS or something. But for, you know, if it’s the same demographic as me, I would say definitely email. And also the communication that you give your members.

[00:23:01]   

So if you have a membership, right, you’re going to be sending some kind of email to let them know when the new stuff drops or when the new, you know, new thing is happening. And those emails are really great to get feedback because you do it in a way that’s like, hey, I want to help make it easier for you.

[00:23:17]   

Right. Because the whole reason, you know, the whole, the whole reason where any of us are in business is to solve someone’s pain point, right? Is to solve somebody’s problem. And so if you get that across, like, hey, we want to make this easier for you for this problem to be solved, then people will be really open to it and it won’t feel pushy or intrusive if it’s just done with that lens.

[00:23:39]  Megan Porta 

Right. Offering value and obviously being real like we had we’ve talked about.

[00:23:45]  Molly Patrick 

Right.

[00:23:46]  Megan Porta 

Do you ever take the content from your community and use it as like testimonials either in your blog or elsewhere?

[00:23:55]  Molly Patrick 

Not. No, we have. So we, we have, we use app called Senja, which is a really good testimonial app and you can do videos and also just written testimonials. And we encourage to people, you know, we, we don’t encourage them a lot, but the option is there like, hey, if you like this, leave us a testimonial.

[00:24:15]   

And most people are like, really happy to. Because if you, if you have something that’s really honestly helping somebody’s life get better for any reason, you know, they’re, they’re happy to share, they’re happy to be like, yes, let me tell all the people that this is amazing. And so it’s really easy to get testimonials and to get, you know, feedback that you can then share with other people.

[00:24:35]   

So that’s one way that we kind of use people’s. We don’t take stuff right directly from the group and put it in there. But we are like, hey, if you like this, leave us a review. And they usually do. But then the other thing is I will see people in the group or people will email in like, hey, I managed to get off my cholesterol medication this month.

[00:24:54]   

Or hey, I no longer am pre diabetic. And I’m like, perfect. Will you go on my podcast? Will you, you know, can we do a blog post together? Like, and usually people are like, yes, like, sign me up, I want to share this. And so then I’ll do a whole like conversation with them or they’ll write something for me and we can use it in that way.

[00:25:11]   

But it’s always, you know, it always happens organically and naturally. It’s not something that I’m trying to do.

[00:25:18]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, and how about word of mouth? Is that important for you? I’m guessing you provide tons of value and people just naturally talk about it to their loved ones, correct?

[00:25:28]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, I mean that’s really how we grew and, and how we’re able to do it. We’ve never spent a lot of money for ads. We’ve never, like, we, we are con, we do content marketing and with content marketing you really rely on people telling other people. And so that’s, you know, 90% of, I mean, I’m pulling that number out of my ass.

[00:25:52]   

I don’t really know for sure, but the majority of the people who find us find us because their co worker told them, their sister told them, their brother in law told them. And they’re like, I want to check this out because I’ve seen what it does for them. Or I was curious about eating more plants and somebody told me about you. So that’s, I mean, word of mouth has been like priceless for us.

[00:26:12]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Do you use advertising outside of ads on your blog?

[00:26:17]  Molly Patrick 

Well, we don’t use ads on our blog at all. Our website and our blog is completely ad Free. So there’s no, we’ve never ran ads on our blog. We’ve always monetized through our memberships and we don’t run any ads. So on the podcast, I do like a little ad for our membership, but that’s it.

[00:26:36]  Megan Porta 

Okay. Yeah, Tell me about your podcast. So what do you talk about on there?

[00:26:41]  Molly Patrick 

So I talk about a range of things. I mean, it’s, you know, people come to us because they want to eat more plants, but also it’s just an overall like, you know, lifestyle. I’ve been sober for 10 years and cigarette free for 10 years. And so I talk about that. So I talk a fair amount about sobriety.

[00:26:59]   

I have people, I have experts on the podcast talking about this lifestyle. I have a lot of doctors who come, who come on and people who are, you know, experts in this field. I have a lot of, like, our members come on and talk about their results and, you know, what, what’s changed for them through all of this.

[00:27:17]   

And then I’ll just talk about myself. Like, I’ll talk about, you know, trips I’ve taken, I travel a lot. And so I talk about plant based eating on the road and how I make it work. And so it’s just little bits, you know, it’s, it’s really easy, like coming up with things, talk about.

[00:27:30]   

Oh, it’s, there’s. I will never run out of things to talk about because I’m always like in the community. You know, I just go in the Facebook group, see what questions people have, and I’m like, oh, it’s great. I’ll make a podcast about that or I’ll do blog posts about that. It’s like so easy to get ideas.

[00:27:46]  Megan Porta 

It sounds like it aligns with the rest of your content really well. So people in your membership would probably find a lot of benefit from listening to that. And do you find that your members, your members also frequently listen to your podcast or is it a separate audience?

[00:28:02]  Molly Patrick 

No, I would, It’s. I mean, people had been asking for a podcast for a long time and I was like, I don’t know how to do that. Yeah, it’s hard. It’s a lot of work. And then I was like, okay, well, I’ll just figure it out. And so I eventually did. But yeah, I mean, a lot of like, our community is super. Yeah, they’re into it for sure. I would say it’s like probably mainly our community who listens to it and then some people will come across it, but it’s mainly our community.

[00:28:27]  Megan Porta 

Do you ever consider putting ads on your site or do you feel like this is definitely a site that does not need ads?

[00:28:35]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, no, I haven’t ever been into it. I mean, what I love, I mean there’s so many blogs out there that do have really good content and really good recipes and you know, I just go there and then especially like there’s a lot of plant based ones out there and you go on their blog and you’re looking at a recipe and then like an ad for like salami or like lunch meat will pop up.

[00:28:57]   

And I’ve always just felt really like, oh, I don’t want, like, I don’t want that. And I love that our site is really fast, that there’s no pop ups, that there’s no videos, that it’s really easy to navigate, that when you scroll it doesn’t jump back up automatically. I mean it’s for me, like I just wouldn’t at this point I’ve never considered it and I can’t see myself considering that just because I want it to be really helpful for people.And we have a different way to monetize so we don’t really need to.

[00:29:24]  Megan Porta 

Do you feel like the way you’ve structured your business and all of your content helps you ward against AI a little bit?

[00:29:33]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, I mean I do think that, right, like AI, that’s a, that’s like a very big topic. I think that it can be very helpful for things. I think it’s also very horrible for a lot of things. I think the amount of resources it takes are pretty horrific. I do think that AI is giving people who do this kind of work even more reason to be genuine and to be authentic.

[00:29:58]   

Because you can have AI write a pretty generic post and it might even be a kind of funny post. Like it can give, you know, some personality to it. And so anybody can do that now. But like AI doesn’t have the human experiences that we have. AI doesn’t feel the pain and the devastation and doesn’t go through grief and doesn’t fall in love and all of those human things that really at this point, I mean it might change, but at this point, you know, humans are really the best at sharing those.

[00:30:33]   

And so I think it gives people even more of a reason to be like, okay, like put some of your heart into this because it will make a difference.

[00:30:40]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Do you have any other encouragement or insights for somebody who really wants to lean into community more? Do you have any tips, Anything come to mind at all?

[00:30:51]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, I think it’s such an important thing. I mean, depending on what you do. For what. For what I do, it’s been really, really important. And I think the most. One of the most important things is to don’t force it. Like, hold it gently. Hold it authentically. Be useful. Like, genuinely be useful.

[00:31:13]   

Sometimes if we try too hard, it’s like when you, like, have a crush on somebody and you’re, like, really trying too hard, they get that sense and they’re like, oh, yeah. You know, like, it’s. They kind of back up a little bit. But when you hold it lightly, when you. When you. When you’re not squeezing it, right, and giving it room to breathe and being, like, providing a space where it feels good to be in and where you’re also getting, you know, some information that’s going to be helpful, I think, approaching it like that.

[00:31:40]   

But I think in order to do that, you really, truly have to want to help people. Like, you can’t go into it with this idea of, like, okay, I’m going to be helpful, because that’s. That’s kind of the way to do it without really doing that. Because, again, people will know.

[00:31:54]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:31:54]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah. So I think holding it lightly, I love that.

[00:31:57]  Megan Porta 

I think that applies to pretty much everything in life. Being a parent, being a partner, being a friend, having a business, having a community. You can say that to just about everything when you grip it tightly. People don’t like that. And they don’t need to be in your presence to see it either, or feel it.They can feel that. I think your community can feel that sort of thing from a Facebook group and from comments or wherever.

[00:32:22]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, I totally agree. I. I wrote. Speaking of blog posts, I wrote a blog post years ago about my niece who is, like, I think six at the time. And I had this cat, Panda, who I loved, and she loved this cat, Panda, and. And Panda did not like her because every time Eleanor would go to Panda, she would squeeze the cat.

[00:32:41]   

You know, she would squeeze it, and he was like, like. And he, like, run away. And I was like, Eleanor, here’s the thing. Like, you can’t squeeze the cat. I’m like. So I was like, one day she was over my house and, like, sit on the couch, you know, put your arms just wide open, and I’m gonna bring Panda to the couch and just, you know, just pet him.

[00:32:59]   

And so I did. And then Panda got on her lap, and she’s just petting him, and she’s like, it’s working. I’m like, yeah, you can’t squeeze the cat. So that was such a metaphor. I wrote a whole blog post about it. It’s like, don’t squeeze the cat and like, things will happen.

[00:33:13]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh, that’s so true. Cats know more than any creature. I swear.

[00:33:18]  Molly Patrick 

It’s crazy.

[00:33:18]  Megan Porta 

When you’re going to chase them and squeeze them and overly over pet them, they. They have that radar like no other creature.

[00:33:27]  Molly Patrick 

It’s so true. They know even before you know, right. They’ll be like, oh, I’m feeling something. I know. I’m a total cat person.

[00:33:36]  Megan Porta 

We have a cat too, and we occasionally have kids who do the same thing. They’ll come over and be like, why isn’t your cat coming to me? I’m like, stop chasing it around the yard and maybe he’ll come to you.

[00:33:46]  Molly Patrick 

It’s the same thing. So with community, it’s that. That’s what it is. Yes.

[00:33:50]  Megan Porta 

Don’t be a cat chaser.

[00:33:52]  Molly Patrick 

Right. Or a catcher or squeezer.

[00:33:53]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Okay. Anything else, Molly? This was really informative. I think a really good encouragement for people who feel like they need a little dose of community and just to get connected more with their community to do so. Is there anything before we say goodbye to end with?

[00:34:11]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah, I think just kind of adding on to that last bit before the cat conversation, just the importance of community. And I can say, you know, stuff happens, right? Economy, it goes up and down, right? Pandemics happen, like, you know, happened. Like there’s been plenty of times in the, you know, 11 years that I’ve been doing this where the outside circumstances look kind of bleak.

[00:34:38]   

And for people really relying on ads or people relying on like just social media alone, that can be really scary. But when you have built trust and when you have built a product that really solves a problem and you have built a community that will carry you through all of those ups and downs, right?

[00:35:02]   

And we’ve seen over the past year, well, like this year, this past, like six months, like, it’s rough for people here in the U.S. right? People are losing their jobs, the economy is really unstable and we have lost members. But so many people that I’ve talked to that I’ve reached out to, that I have communicated with, they’re like, you know, I love to support you.

[00:35:25]   

This will be the last thing that goes. Or like, this is so valuable. This will be the last thing that goes. And I budget this in like, you know, though, that community, those people, those people will carry you through and help your business survive. You know, the downtime is because there will be down times Right.

[00:35:43]   

This is not like we’re not always on the up. And so I think just, I’m so grateful that I put focus on that in the beginning because if I hadn’t, you know, when the pandemic hit, I would have closed. Right. But instead, like, I rallied and the community rallied and we were able, you know, people were in it.

[00:36:03]   

And so it’s like having that bond and having that connection, it just takes it to a different level and it’s really done my business well.

[00:36:11]  Megan Porta 

Amazing. I love those words. To end with, thank you, Molly. Thanks for being here and sharing all this value. I think this is such an important reminder that we all need this. We need to be real. We need to form those connections and just appreciate you today. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with?

[00:36:30]  Molly Patrick 

So there’s a poet by the name of Erin Hansen, and I think she’s Australian. There’s not a lot about her online. And I actually ordered a bunch of her poetry books from like, her website. I think she self publishes. And she has this one quote that really is popular online and it’s been like shared a lot.

[00:36:50]   

And it’s from the whole poem is actually really beautiful. But the quote that, that I’ve always loved a lot is so the bigger part of it is there’s freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky. And you ask, what if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly? And I love that because this can be a scary journey, right?

[00:37:13]   

This can. Like in 2014, when I was fired and I decided to do this, I was like, okay, I’m gonna put all of my like plant based eggs in this basket. And it really was scary. And so you can really get yourself freaked out. But it’s like on the flip side, like, what if it works?

[00:37:31]   

Like, wouldn’t that be cool if it works? And that’s always the energy that I’ve gone, that I’ve had this, you know, that I’ve. This is the lens that I’ve chosen to, to use is like just curiosity and like, yeah, but if this works, like, how amazing would that be? And so that quote really ties into like the, the attitude that I have had.

[00:37:50]   

And like, yeah, it’s scary, but like, what could, you know, how could it. How could it change my life and how could it change other people’s lives? And like, wow. Like, maybe, maybe it won’t suck, maybe I won’t fail. Like, maybe I will thrive. And so I just, I love that.

[00:38:05]  Megan Porta 

That’s amazing. I love that too. I think I’ve heard that quote before, that part of the poem. So thank you for sharing that. We’ll put together a show notes page for you, Molly. If anyone wants to go peek at those, you can head to eatblogtalk.com/cleanfooddirtygirl. Do you want to tell everyone again where to find you, Molly?

[00:38:23]  Molly Patrick 

Yeah. So cleanfooddirtygirl.com is our website and you can find everything on that site, links to our podcast and our blog, and sign up for my email links to our social media links to our Facebook thing, links to our memberships. Everything is there and it’s. Yeah. And there’s a lot of very good free content on the blog as well. Lots of free recipes and articles.

[00:38:45]  Megan Porta 

Awesome. Ad free too.

[00:38:46]  Molly Patrick 

Yes. Ad free. Yes.

[00:38:48]  Megan Porta 

All right, well, thank you again, Molly, and thanks for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

[00:38:56]  Outro

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