Episode 758: How To Rebuild Your Blog After Hacks, Hijacks, and Heartbreak With Laura Ashley Johnson

EBT758 – Laura Ashley Johnson

[00:00:00]  Supercut 

You are going to want to download our bonus Supercut that gives you all the information you need to master Pinterest. Head to eatblogtalk.com/masterpinterest to download today.

[00:00:14] Megan Porta   

What would you do if your blog was hijacked by a criminal, literally or your entire Facebook audience vanished overnight? Laura Ashley Johnson has lived through both of these unthinkable scenarios and she came out stronger in the long run. In this episode she shares the jaw dropping challenges she has faced as a food blogger, the mindset that kept her moving forward, and the power of community, grit and starting over. If you have ever thought about quitting, I think we all have from time to time. Do not miss this episode. It is so good. It’s the comeback story we all need to hear.

[00:00:50] 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.

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[00:01:39] Megan Porta  

Laura, welcome to the podcast.How is it going today?

[00:01:42]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Thank you. It’s going great. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:46]  Megan Porta 

I love your, your accent. It is the best southern flavor. It’s one of my favorite accents of all time.

[00:01:54]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Oh, thank you.

[00:01:56]  Megan Porta 

So we have a super relevant topic today that we’re going to talk about and that is conquering challenges in Food blogging. I think this is something on all of our minds pretty much all the time because it’s kind of a hard world out there right now, to be honest. So you’re gonna tell us your story and give us some tips about how to get through, which I think is going to be really well received. Before we get to all of that, do you have a fun fact to share with us?

[00:02:27]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Well, I found this to be very hard. I kept asking family members what is super interesting and I got a plethora of like ideas that I thought they won’t find that, but I think we narrowed it down to like a turning point for me with maybe getting a, an arsenal of recipes under my belt with my family.

[00:02:47]   

It’s been 13 years ago, but I was coming home from D.C. from a dietitian’s conference and on my plane was Bobby Flay. And I was like, okay, get the courage. Just go say hello. Like, you know, he was a hero. And I went up to him, he was eating some Tobleone chocolate. And I just said, you know, thank you for all that you do.

[00:03:09]   

You inspire me. And he was like, I’m going to Kentucky to race a horse. And he’s like, where should I get the best fried chicken? And I said, well, at my house, of course. So I was just. I was being sincere. But I have ruminated on saying that since then because I truly meant, like, I would love to feed you fried chicken.

[00:03:31]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:03:32]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Some folks are like, that was a little flirtatious. Flirtatious, maybe. So I was like, okay. I was very confident about my skill and something that I grew up cooking. And I want to write this down and just start writing things down. And I had a. I had a lot of recipes to start with. Once, Dinner in 3-2-1 came to be.

[00:03:53]  Megan Porta 

That is so great. And when you told the story, I didn’t think it was weird or flirtatious. I thought, thank you. This girl is confident in her fried chicken. And thank you. Of course you would come to house. So I’m sure he took it that way, too. Okay, good. I think it’s great.

[00:04:08]   

I think responses like that will stick with people like Bobby Flay. He’ll remember that forever. You didn’t recommend whatever restaurant down the street, right?

[00:04:19]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah. Places.

[00:04:21]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah. No, I love it. And good for you for having the boldness and bravery to go up to him in the first place. How many people would just retreat and then later be like, oh, my gosh, I should have done that. But you did it.

[00:04:36]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah. I didn’t want to have a regret.

[00:04:39]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, exactly. I love it. Well, this shows us what kind of person you are, Laura. You’re bold. I love it. Tell us a little bit about your blog, which is called Dinner in 3, 2, 1.

[00:04:50]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So, like I said, Dinner in 3, 2, 1 has really been evolving my whole life. At where it really started was January 2020, right before COVID So my son was visiting from college and making some Mac and cheese from a box. And I said, hey, bud, I could teach you how to make some really good Mac and cheese if you’d like.

[00:05:10]   

And he said, sure. So I showed him, like, making the roux, taking some cheese. I was like, whatever we got, we can make it. And. And he just watched. And then the next morning, I come down from work, and he’s making it by himself. And he was using whole wheat flour, which was not what I showed him, but it was a great start.

[00:05:29]   

And he was like, you like TikTok? TikTok’s, the next big thing. And I think people would really, like, learn a lot from you. People want to learn what you just showed me. So I was like, I’m gonna do this. And I started with just tick tock and Instagram, but then. And then I started having folks say, well, I don’t have Instagram.

[00:05:49]   

I only have Facebook. So it grew to that. So I was just on socials for a while, and then a lot of things grew from there, but that’s. That’s where it started. But I’ve always had a love for food. I am a dietitian and a diabetes educator as my profession when I went to college for.

[00:06:09]   

And I’ve always loved to cook and eat. I grew up with a big family of cooks. The rule was you either had to cook or clean. And I always wanted to cook. So. Yeah. So I just, you know, brought on a lot of that from my elders, and I respect them. And they still cook with me on Dinner in 3, 2, 1.

[00:06:28]  Megan Porta 

Amazing. I love that story. So you started on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Have those channels grown pretty well for you?

[00:06:37]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

They have across all of the socials, because I’m on those. And I have YouTube and Pinterest as well. It’s about 1, 1.8 million followers now across all of them.

[00:06:50]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh, that’s great.

[00:06:51]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah, it’s a. It’s been a wild ride. And I find. I think we’re going to talk a little bit more later about how the website developed, but the support of social has been a big support of how my business has grown.

[00:07:06]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that is cool. I love stories like that. Okay, so from there, when did you decide to turn everything into a blog?

[00:07:16]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So a little over a year. We were in my family’s house for Christmas and my. My husband was like, you just. We need to, you know, bite the bullet and get in there and. And get this website started. So I knew nothing about a website development. You know, how to do that. I had really no context to reach out to, to that.

[00:07:39]   

So I did it through an online source, which. This will be one of our struggle, you know, things I conquered later on we talk about. But it was about a year and a half into it, and then it’s grown from there.

[00:07:52]  Megan Porta 

Okay, that’s great. So you. I mean, this is not the normal story. Most people start with a blog and then they realize they have to build social. So you did it a little bit backwards, but I mean, it sounds like you have found great success and you’ve been able to keep going. And I know that you’ve had a couple times in your journey when you could have easily been derailed.

[00:08:17]   

Right. Do you want to talk through those times?

[00:08:21]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yes, that, that is, it’s perfect timing with what I just shared with the website too. So I hired, you know, someone I didn’t know through like a portal that you can join online. And they had all of what seemingly were the credentials for creating a website, a food blog website as well. So I basically, on scratch paper, I drew what I wanted it to look like.

[00:08:45]   

And I will say at the time, I did not realize what the purpose for, like the written commentary on a recipe was for a blogger. I had no idea. And I had took this approach of. I prided myself on only having the recipe there. I had, I had no idea. So I had them upload the recipes every week and it kind of got to where they weren’t doing things correctly. And I taught myself how to code a recipe onto my website.

[00:09:17]  Megan Porta 

Okay, impressive.

[00:09:18]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

I did not know this was a thing though. Okay. So I taught myself well here and here’s how things went down. So this was, this was the, this was the bad, first bad moment. So I had the website a little over a year and I’m like, I have such a good following on social.

[00:09:36]   

Why am I not monetized yet? I know that I’m, I should be getting the throughput on my site from this. What, what’s going on? So my son is, he’s about to graduate from college, but he’s in computer science. And he and his friend got on my website in the back end and they looked, they were like, oh, do you know they’re selling drugs on the back end of your website?

[00:09:54]  Megan Porta 

What?

[00:09:55]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah, I was like, oh, excuse me. They’re like, yeah, they’re. There’s a, this is definitely an illegal drug trade situation on your website. And I was like, are you kidding? Like, shocked. It was. So my website is dinnerin321.com. And that’s what it was. But their illegal drug trade was like a, you know, dot com backslash McCormick and then like a big long tagline, like something I would have.

[00:10:25]   

I don’t even know how they found it, but they’re very computer smart, so they found it within about 10 minutes. So I was like, well, this makes sense. And I immediately changed my passwords, fired them, reported it, Nothing came of it with the place that they’re still working to my knowledge, but I was in such panic mode and I’d done this.

[00:10:48]   

Now I’m blogging for about three years. I’m like, okay, I’m working so hard. I’m not making the money to. I am a dietitian. I could just do that. I need to either pivot and, like, create a product or. Or is this. Is this website ad thing worth the patience to continue working on this?

[00:11:09]   

I didn’t really know where to go. And I had a community of, like, people. I call them my ride or dies folks that I follow. They’re just people who have support. They support me tenuously. They engage, and I engage on theirs. And it’s a. It’s a mutual support. And one creator. Her name is Amy Nash.

[00:11:28]   

Her. She’s House of Nash Eats. She’s just the sweetest and she’s the best, isn’t she? She is so sweet, like, so gracious and wants to help. So I sent her a dm. I was super nervous because I had asked, like, a couple bloggers in the past a couple questions. It didn’t get. It wasn’t well received.

[00:11:50]   

So I was just like, I don’t know where to turn. Like, are they going to be helpful or not? You know? Yeah, I didn’t know I was going to be. So I reached out to her and she said, let’s have a conference call. I want to meet with you. I want to tell you all about this and we’re going to help get you on track.

[00:12:06]   

So she met with me, like we are right now. Gave me all kinds of contacts to fix everything. Everything was not set up right. There was no, like, recipe plugin on my website, so that coding wasn’t necessary. I didn’t know that. She explained why writing a recipe is important and all of its elements on there in lots of different ways.

[00:12:25]   

And I literally spent the next about year and a half basically doing all of my recipes again, getting process photos, writing the whole thing. But it. Here’s the thing. After she helped me, I got the right people and everything set up. I was monetizing in about a month and a half.

[00:12:43]  Megan Porta 

What? That’s crazy. Awesome. Wow.

[00:12:47]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah, it was amazing. I. This all happened in, like, December and like, I think February, like, second, like the first week of February, I was art. Like, it was. It was amazing. So, you know.

[00:13:00]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:13:01]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Big things happened since then.

[00:13:02]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Okay. That. There’s so much baked into that that is important to talk about, I think. And that’s the point of our conversation today. You didn’t give up. You knew you had potential. You were like, wait a second. Why isn’t this working? Who the heck would know that there could be even be a drug trade going on?

[00:13:23]   

What? I was speechless when you said that. I. What? Oh, my gosh. Thank God your son looked into that and found it. And then you reached out to somebody who you thought you could trust, and she helped you. That’s so incredible. And you got monetized. Amazing.

[00:13:40]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Oh, it was a lot. Big things, and, you know, it. Everything pivoted from there, honestly, even from all the things we’re going to talk about with, like networking and opportunities for growth, it all stemmed from that. And, you know, that could have just been truly a moment. I was like, I am so tired of this.

[00:14:00]   

You know, you work. It was nearly three years of not. Of working and not making. You know how hard it is, the amount of time and money you put into it, and you’re not getting that return. You’re like, okay, I don’t know if I can keep doing this. But you do.

[00:14:15]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And sometimes it’s the hard times that make us realize what we need to do to get to the monetization and the traffic and the good times. So you push forward. That. Yeah. That shows a lot about your character. And now I know you had a second obstacle come up. Do you want to talk through that?

[00:14:36]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yes. Yes. So after I got set up with all the right people that first year, a big turning point for me was I hired someone on my team that does a lot of my SEO strategy with me. We work extremely close. Her name is Laura Arnold. You’ve actually interviewed her on the podcast as well.

[00:14:55]   

She’s an amazing human in every way, and I love working with her. So it’s. It’s been a couple years of growth with her, and, you know, doing old work again and doing new work, and everything was going just so well. Very so well. And this is kind of funny because we’re on a podcast right now.

[00:15:13]   

So this has to do with a podcast. So I got an email and an invitation to be on a podcast. It was. It’s a legitimate podcast as well. I corresponded with this podcast for about a week and a half, two weeks, and we ended up scheduling a date. I even ran it through someone to look at, too.

[00:15:30]   

Looked completely legitimate. The morning we were going to get on a Zoom call to do the podcast, and I got on there, talked with them. We had to set it up. Kind of like how we did a setup this morning, and when I got off the call, And I was prepared for the podcast and I had called a friend about something that just a follow up that had missed a call.

[00:15:50]   

And then I got on my Facebook to check something, it was gone. I was like, what’s going on? And literally, like, it was like my page, it didn’t exist. So panic mode ensued immediately. I had nearly a half a million followers at that time, and everything was gone. So during that podcast, they were able to hack my account during this setup situation, okay, they.

[00:16:18]   

They hacked my account and they created a new page called Healthy Tips and Recipes. And it said, it even said, created by Dinner in 3,2,1. So I, like, I created the page. They migrated all my followers to that page and then deleted me off the account and then deleted my page.

[00:16:39]   

So I immediately went into fix it mode with Facebook. Over the course of about a month, I opened up 41 cases with Meta. I sent them every documentation that they ever requested. Every time it was a new case, it was a new. I had to tell the story all over again, like from the very start.

[00:17:01]   

About two and a half weeks after it happened, I actually found out about. I didn’t know about that page at first. This is. At the time, I only knew my page was missing. But a follower of mine from my hometown took a screenshot of something kind of like a trashy story that she saw, and she was like, I don’t follow this.

[00:17:17]   

And she clicked on it and she saw that, like, all of the mutual friends that she had were looked to be strange. So I looked on that page and that’s when I saw it was created by Dinner in 3, 2, 1. So I knew all of those. And there was about the same amount of followers.

[00:17:33]   

So at that point I was like, I’ve got it here. They here. They’re all here. You know, yeah, this is going to be perfect now. Facebook will fix it. I put this through the Better Business Bureau. I tried getting lawyers involved. I. I was willing to go to California to fix this. I said, I will give you my DNA if you need it.

[00:17:53]   

This has taken me four years to create and to lose it all in a second. It was disheartening. And I didn’t share it on my blog because these were powerful, you know, hackers. And I didn’t know, like, what extent they could hurt me further. So I didn’t say anything. And after about a month, what?

[00:18:16]   

The hackers ended up creating another page from that page. So I was like a level deeper and migrated the followers to that. And then it didn’t say Dinner in 3,2,1. Anymore. It said, like, from Healthy Tips and Recipes. So I’m like, this is literally sucking all of my joy and energy every single day.

[00:18:35]   

I’m starting from scratch with this, and it was just breaking my heart. So after that happened with the next page, I just surmised, I’m like, I’m going to start over again. Meta would not help me with all of my efforts.

[00:18:52]  Megan Porta 

Wow.

[00:18:53]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

And so I started a new page, and they actually gave me back my old handle.

[00:18:57]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:18:58]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

You know, because I was like, now I’m gonna have to have one social handle. That’s not dinner in 321. It’ll have to be like, the Dinner in 3, 2, 1, or. But they. Since they deleted it completely, they gave it back like facebook.com/dinnerin321.

[00:19:14]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh. I. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so speechless. I am so sorry. Those are two huge hits to your heart and to your business. And I think a lot of people would have left, like, thrown in the towel and just. I don’t know. I mean, that is. You said disheartening, but I was thinking more like completely heartbreaking and life shattering.

[00:19:40]   

That’s.

[00:19:40]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Oh, yeah.

[00:19:41]  Megan Porta 

That’s a huge.

[00:19:42]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

No. It was for sure. Like, I felt so. Kind of like, just such a void, like, I couldn’t fill. And also, I think a lot of us know with, like, our families, too, we don’t want to wear them out with our, like, our feelings of sorrow. It’s something like that. Like, they know that we’re sad.

[00:20:01]   

And so I was like, I feel like I can’t, you know, continue with this conversation. And, like, honestly, if I didn’t even talk about it, you could read it on me. I was just always waiting for. Because there’s a face. Because Facebook does call. And so I was waiting on the calls and waiting to get back in the chats, you know, getting support. You can talk back and forth with them, but it’s. It’s just a struggle bus. It was a big heartbreak, for sure.

[00:20:28]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. I can’t believe that there’s nothing set up in Meta to help help you. I mean, it sounds like you went round and round, and the. It’s obvious what happened. So why couldn’t they shut that page down and give you your page? Was there an answer to that?

[00:20:45]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

They said, the migration of my followers from that page to the new one is an illegal like or like, something that’s not allowed. I’m like, well, obviously, it’s probably not allowed, but it can happen. So why don’t you migrate them back to my page? They’re my followers and they initially tried to monetize off of my followers because that’s, that’s what they want the followers for.

[00:21:07]   

They want clickbait and they can monetize off of them because it was also my best monetization social media platform. Also, it was my biggest traffic source to my website was Facebook as well. So it was like, I’m like, you guys don’t understand. Like, me not having this back is a huge blow to my finances as a business.

[00:21:29]   

And you would talk to some Meta people and they knew, like, they had compassion and they did believe me. So you have this, like, hope that they’re gonna, they’re gonna advocate and make this happen. And then they wouldn’t. And then the next person you talk to doesn’t know my story at all.

[00:21:46]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:21:46]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So it was just like starting over. But it, I mean, I had to send in passport information, articles of formation for the business. I had, I even hired a hacking consultant. I paid thousands of dollars for this. Yeah. I did literally everything you could possibly do and nothing worked.

[00:22:06]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh. Okay, well, we’re gonna get to like how you got through that. But if, if this happens to anyone else, do you have tips for them? Like just let it lie, like, don’t go through the hassle or what. What do you have for people? Because I know other people who have gone through this before, sadly. What would you say to them?

[00:22:24]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Well, first thing is trust nothing until you just do your work. I’m telling you, even when I. So I applied, applied to be on your podcast, but even when I got the email of, we’d like to have you on here, I vetted it with a friend just to make sure because I, I get podcasts in invites every single day that are fake.

[00:22:46]  Megan Porta 

Wow.

[00:22:46]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

And they all, and they sometimes can obviously be fake and sometimes they’re not.

[00:22:52]  Sponsor

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[00:23:32]   

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[00:24:06]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So just literally vetting everything that you get. I had another like a, this was right after that I had a brand so I used a piece of like a bakeware in a video and so the brand reached out to me to, wanted to do like set up a long term contract and it looked great. I, I reached out to the, to the brand myself though and I was like, I just want to vet this.

[00:24:26]   

You know, I would love this opportunity but just want to make sure. And they were like, like, can you speak on the phone? I was like, absolutely. So I get on there and they said this is not real, but they are using our marketing person as the like. If I were to look up that brand and who their marketing leader is, she was the leader, I, I would have just, oh, it’s her.She is the person. So it’s real. It wasn’t real.

[00:24:50]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh.

[00:24:51]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So it’s that easy. And like if I had gone with that, then they want you to like connect your socials and really connecting your socials for analytics. They’re actually connecting it to have access the people that are hacking in order to do that. So you have to do your homework before agreeing to anything.

[00:25:12]   

And there is meta support. You know, on Instagram I’m, I have the blue check mark and I can get them on a chat. Pretty Instagram’s very simple to do that and I even used it when I was trying to get Facebook things going on and they don’t like that. But if I couldn’t get Facebook going on a communication that was one way to connect it.

[00:25:33]   

And on Facebook I am a verified account now. I don’t have the blue check mark. I’m on a waiting list for that now. But for like safety measures I am a verified account and I had to provide like extra documentation for that. And I have some great passwords as well. Wow.

[00:25:53]  Megan Porta 

You should Start like a little course like how to protect yourself. Because I think a lot of us are just so trusting. Like, oh, a podcast. Why would you ever think otherwise? That’s so crappy and crazy. Yeah, I’m.

[00:26:09]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

They can so easily do it as well. Like, even something out of the food world. But I was watching, like, you know, TikTok has TikTok shop and things, and there was a top I liked the other day, and I went to the website to buy it and I was like, something just was off.

[00:26:24]   

So I googled the name, and this fake company was basically showing a real company’s video. So if you ordered that item from them, it would be like a super cheap knockoff. That was not good. And so I went to that girl’s page and I saw like a few videos of hers of like, I don’t know how to make them stop.

[00:26:43]   

And this is if. Make sure you buy it from this boutique. This is the only place that it is. So it’s like you have to do a little extra homework just to make sure.

[00:26:53]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Okay. Well, we’ve all been given a lesson, so be careful, people, what you open and agree to. So these two things, these two stories are heart wrenching and oh my gosh, how did you keep moving forward? What are some of the pieces that made you continue? Because a lot of people would not have done that.

[00:27:17]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So the most important is my faith. Like, I knew that God had blessed me with this journey and so prayer and seeking guidance on what I should do, that is the first source I would go to. And I knew that, like, we all are given purpose to, like, spread joy. And that is what I want to do on my page.

[00:27:39]   

And I want to help families get dinner on the table in a way that they find joy and their family likes it. Like, I know my mission. So that’s my first source. And then my family is the second. My husband is my biggest cheerleader. He is the reason, like, that I have my business and have been able to grow and make big decisions with it.

[00:28:01]   

He is my guiding light in this. So my husband and then my extended family as well, my fam, my mom, all of them, like, they’re all there for me. And I’ve built a huge community even in these moments out of the Facebook thing. In particular, the. The love and grace and kindness that my followers gave me when I did share what happened was an incredible blessing.

[00:28:33]   

Like, I still think about it. I could go back to the. I shared one thing on all socials just to say, this is my new page. And this is. I gave them a. A snippet of what happened just so that they would know and if I needed a boost of love, I could go to that pastor, read their comments.

[00:28:52]   

They’re the sweetest comments. And just the direct messages and stuff, it’s. It was overwhelming love. So that’s what helped me to push on. God, my family, and my community I’ve built with Dinner in 3, 2, 1.

[00:29:06]  Megan Porta 

So leaning on the people who love you and who are supporting you was. Was kind of the first thing to get you through the madness, to put the pieces back together and keep going.

[00:29:18]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:29:21]  Megan Porta 

And then did you lean into the food blogging community much during that time? I know Amy helped you, and I don’t know if you had other support in your business yet, but how much did you lean on our community?

[00:29:33]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So I met a lot of people. Once I met Amy, she was my open door to really forming some incredible relationships. Before for her, I had my ride or die community on my socials, but she invited me to Tastemakers to the conference that was in March. So she invited me there and I, I mean, it was. I was super nervous. I knew nobody except Amy.

[00:29:58]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:29:59]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So I went there and everyone was so sweet. I formed some amazing relationships. And then from there it. It’s just grown. I have a probably 30 to 40, like, really close blogging friends that are like, go to DMs texts, you know, because from there also came retreats and, you know, mastermind opportunities. And I’ve spoke with some masterminds that I’m not a part of, but I’ve been like a guest in them as well.

[00:30:30]   

So it’s. That was my open door for forming some really amazing friendships.

[00:30:35]  Megan Porta 

There is so much power there. I love that you connected with people. I almost got emotional because it’s. It’s just. It’s so overlooked if you don’t have it. But once you get it, you see there’s so much power, you can’t even explain it in words. Right. Like, you just feel. You feel the love, but you also feel the growth and the learning and all the other little perks that come along with knowing people who are in it with you.So, so glad you found them.

[00:31:05]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Thank you. And once you find them too. It was my first realization like, this is not. I felt like this world was a competition and no one and people were out for themselves until, yeah, this happened. But I. Because that was the only experience I had had asking a couple folks, like, a couple simple questions.

[00:31:25]   

You know, I got this. These answers that made me feel disheartened. So I was like, I’m not asking for help anymore. This is. Must be how people are. But. But no, my friends, my close friends, we are all each other’s biggest cheerleaders. That’s what we want to do. We get so much joy out of seeing each other succeed.

[00:31:43]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I know this community is amazing. 99. Like it’s. Everyone is generous and supportive and kind and I know that not every community is like that. I hear from other communities like, oh my gosh, the food blogging space is so amazing. And we. And it really is. So I’m. Yeah. Just so grateful that you found them because I’m sure that helped you get through some of the hard times that were lingering maybe a little bit.

[00:32:12]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Oh, for sure.

[00:32:14]  Megan Porta 

So talk about your two big kind of, you know, situations aside. I’m sure being on social media and having big accounts and then starting the blog, you’ve also been had to face, you know, like we all do criticism on some level, whether it’s blog comments or YouTube comments or whatever. How do you recommend dealing with that?

[00:32:38]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So I. What I tell folks a lot because that’s. My friends ask that same question quite a bit is just that comes with the territory of this business does so expect it and you’re going to see it every day. And whatever you feel is like a weakness, like something you don’t like about yourself, magnify that someone’s going to bring it up and they’re going to say something not nice about it.

[00:33:05]   

So in the beginning of blogging. Yes. Did it impact me a lot more heavily? For sure. But now I look at it as that shows their heart, not mine. And they’re so weak and unhappy that they had to say that to make themselves feel better. For some reason, like something there’s a void they’re having to feel.

[00:33:28]   

I personally don’t share. I have some blogging friends who will share like a mean comment or something on their stories or something and maybe that’s therapeutic for them to kind of do that and it helps them. But for me, I feel like it. It just shines a light on it and it, I feel like it’s of kind because I’m good.If I did that, I would get a ton of comments or messages back like, you didn’t deserve that. That’s so mean. That’s. I hate when people. I don’t. I don’t need to do that.

[00:33:58]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:33:59]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So I think more of just have the expectations going to be there for sure. Anything that you feel is a. Something you’ve not liked about yourself or you like to change, it’s going to be heightened and consider it a boost in your algorithm.

[00:34:13]  Megan Porta 

Yes, yes, yes.

[00:34:15]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

You just help me because honestly if you have a good too they’ll make one mean comment. They’ll have a thread of people supporting me right behind us.

[00:34:24]  Megan Porta 

Right. And you don’t have to say a word.

[00:34:26]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah, no, you don’t have to say anything. So I used to give like a thumbs up to mean comments or just like a smile.

[00:34:33]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:34:33]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

But I would never, I. I never banter back and forth with a troll.

[00:34:37]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:34:37]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Never.

[00:34:38]  Megan Porta 

It’s feeding the fire and it does give attention to the, the things that you don’t want in your life.

[00:34:44]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah.

[00:34:45]  Megan Porta 

I think even if you reply with something positive, you’re still feeding it. That’s what they want. They want a reply from you. So I’m of the mindset to completely ignore the garbage and like you said, it’s, it’s good for the algorithm. It just my, my husband always called it. Oh my gosh, I’ve forgotten it.Healthy. Healthy. Oh it like the, the concept of it engagement and starting in an unhealthy way but it’s actually adding to the flavor of your growth. So.

[00:35:20]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah.

[00:35:20]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:35:21]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

And it’s also just showing the reflection of the. Your type. You know, I’m a strong person. I know I can take, I can take a few punches. It’s totally fine. I’ve got think about how many people who support you versus those few that are mean and just you know, focus on that. And I think it’s almost like you come to this real.There was a point at which I feel like I just was like listen, this is not worth an ounce of my thought.

[00:35:49]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:35:50]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

You know, it’s really not. So I probably in the beginning did post like look what this person said. But I wouldn’t do that again.

[00:35:58]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:35:58]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Ever over that.

[00:35:59]  Megan Porta 

I think that’s a. There’s a learning curve to that too and just kind of a maturity that you come to if you’ve been doing this long enough where it’s like I don’t need to engage. I’m good. I’m happy with my people and, and myself.

[00:36:12]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yes.

[00:36:13]  Megan Porta 

Have you had any self doubt over the years during your debacles and also after. And how have you dealt with that?

[00:36:22]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Oh for sure. I can tell you. I comparison. We’ve. We talk about a lot in different like retreats and conferences and stuff. It is one of the worst things you can do is comparing yourself and like wishing you were already at this point where someone else is in their journey. So I think when I have done that like seeing another person doing great things and I’m not there, it makes me doubt like what.

[00:36:46]   

What am I missing that’s there instead of being like okay, time is one thing that you can’t really purchase. As a food blogger, you know, I would have given lots of money to like just get to where someone else is, but that’s just not how it works. Like it’s, it’s a timing game even starting with my SEO gal back.

[00:37:08]   

We’ve been together now for two years. I knew it was going to be a slow growth, but watching it happen, evolve over the last two years has been incredible. And like two years ago I would have been like, this is just taking forever. Like, you know, it’s very frustrating. So yeah, self doubt for sure.

[00:37:24]   

And I think comparing yourself with others is what can creep that into. So I try to be cognizant of this is my journey and what can I do to improve it or to grow. Not compare it to like where somebody else is.

[00:37:40]  Megan Porta 

And I think what I’m hearing too is maybe a bit of enjoying the journey. Even if it feels. Feels struggly and like is this ever going to get where I want it to go? Just sitting back and enjoying it is it sounds like you do that too.

[00:37:56]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

I do. I will say my, my, like my birthday present to myself last year. This will sound pretty bad. I will say. I used to have my notifications turned on for all of my social media outlets and I was constantly commenting back and messaging and it got. But it’s, it’s unhealthy. And that’s when I started to not enjoy it just because I was, I’d be having conversation be like, just continue looking down, you know, afraid I’d miss something or not, you know, answer a question.

[00:38:28]   

So on my birthday I turned my notifications off for everything and I was like just for the day. But I didn’t turn it back on.

[00:38:36]  Megan Porta 

Yay.

[00:38:38]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So I was like, I engage a lot on social media. Like that’s why I have a large community and I even have a VA that helps me to keep up. But you can also only do so much or you get put in Instagram and Facebook jail. So there is a limit to which you can do that too.

[00:38:55]   

But that helped me to get back to enjoying the journey more. Not being able to disconnect a little bit.

[00:39:03]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I’m so glad when you said that you gave it to yourself. As a birthday gift. I was like, oh, I hope she kept it. I was so happy to hear that you did. Yeah, that’s. That’s great. I. I’ve been notific list for a few years and it’s. It was life changing for me.

[00:39:17]   

Honestly. It changed within a few months. I felt like my life was totally different in a better way. It. And that’s not being dramatic at all. Like it literally changed my life.

[00:39:29]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah. I mean, and the tools that are now in place, like I use groceries list. So that helps to answer a lot of the things that I used to do and be able to. To. They. They’ve really changed the trajectory of my business in terms of my social media on Instagram and Facebook and that has helped since I don’t do the notifications anymore with that.

[00:39:51]   

But I still answer for, for me every DM that I get on Facebook and Instagram and I try to stay on top of answering back things on, on like the, like the comments on the post as well. It can. It won’t let you do so much. But I do stay very, very engaged still.

[00:40:10]   

I remember at the first retreat I went to, they were like, you’re on it that much. But I know that social, the social media outlets have, I feel like blessed me with a presence on there because I am so active with my people who follow me and with my, my followers.

[00:40:30]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Right. Yeah. You can be engaged without letting it run your life.

[00:40:35]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yes.

[00:40:36]  Megan Porta 

Yes. Okay. I want to hear about teams. So just how you have managed to. Because you have some trust issues in your business, like some really bad things happen because you trusted people. So how have you been able to hire a successful team? Do you just want to talk through that a little bit?

[00:40:57]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yes. So building my team of friends and my community, my blogging friends, has been what has built my community of people who work for me and with me. So over time, as you know, things financially improve with my business. I hired a little bit more every time and I. It was all direct recommendations from my friends who have had good experiences.

[00:41:22]   

So I, I say seek from within because typically if your friends have had good experiences, you’re going to have good experiences too. And you know, of course going to conferences and learning about new opportunities for working with people there. And a lot of businesses are represented there in those in that room with all the businesses.

[00:41:43]   

And you can hire some great people through that too, if it’s not through a friend, like they’re there to talk with too. So I haven’t. Fortunately, I haven’t had to have a lot of trial and error with my team because they’ve just worked from the start.

[00:41:57]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So that’s good. So it kind of goes back to the community piece. Right. And it does having supportive, smart, generous people around you who you trust who can pass off like, oh, web hosting is this is. This is a great option or here’s a great VA or whatever. And then just. It’s kind of like a built in, built in team. Right?

[00:42:19]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah, yeah. And I like right now, like I said, I have my SEO gal. Groceries list is a service, but I would consider it like a part of my team. I have a Pinterest lady and an email lady. I have a VA and I have like some kitchen assistants. Some days I might make more than one recipe.

[00:42:36]   

So those things, you know, you always got to think of like there is an expense into it, but what is the outcome because of that too? It might even just be mental health, honestly.

[00:42:46]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:42:47]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Just to get like, you know, having someone in the kitchen with me doing four recipes or something. Like I also have a presence there to chat with and to keep me from, you know, keep me on, on pace and clean and just, you know, that supportive source right there. So there’s a purpose.

[00:43:05]   

Even if it’s not always necessarily quickly monetarily. It could be something just like emotionally and mentally healthy as well.

[00:43:12]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, totally get that. Do you have. I know you’ve given a lot of reasons not to give up. I mean, good things always wait for you on the other side of big challenges. But do you want to give a little bit of additional encouragement if somebody is going through something hard like what you’ve been through, or maybe it’s something else entirely just to keep going.

[00:43:35]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

I would say look at the people in your circle already and see where you can find help. Ask for help. Probably the biggest thing be discerning, of course, of who is in your circle as well. Discernment is very important. I knew immediately who I could ask. That was very kind. I just had that intuition about it.

[00:43:55]   

So ask from within if, especially if you know they’ve had a struggle as well. Most of us want to help. Like I, I was at a event one time and this person DMed me while I was there and I was reading it to a person beside me. What this person asked and she was like, listen, you are on social at this level.

[00:44:13]   

You’re going to get a ton of people asking you questions. I’m like, I’m not going to not answer her question because that is the person that asked and didn’t help me before.

[00:44:22]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:44:23]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So it was a perfect moment. But I thought, but you would probably be the person who wouldn’t like, just answer. She’s not asking to have a conference call or a complete lesson in social media. It was just something that could be, could literally make a different trajectory for her business. So I liked that she felt she could ask.

[00:44:44]   

So ask for help from within and look and having that supportive family who also know the demands of our job. It is a job as well. That’s important. If they think it’s just for fun only, you might want to change that perception.

[00:44:58]  Megan Porta 

It’s very different. Some conversations to have. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:45:02]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

You know, I, I had a double job there for the longest time after I, met Amy and went to Tastemakers and I went to my very first retreat at that first retreat was when I was, I realized I needed to quit my job as a dietitian. Like, I had this aha moment.

[00:45:20]   

I knew where I was financially and what I needed to do to pivot to make my, my blog a success. And so I, I put my notice in right then while I was there.

[00:45:31]  Megan Porta 

Amazing. Oh, that’s.

[00:45:33]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah. And I had my biggest cheerleaders right there.

[00:45:36]  Megan Porta 

Right. Right with you, cheering you on.

[00:45:38]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Yeah.

[00:45:39]  Megan Porta 

Oh. Well, Laura, thank you for sharing all of this. I know some of it is probably pretty raw and some like these stories are no joke. You went through, I mean, a lot more. A lot more than most of us can say we’ve been through. That’s some pretty big stuff. So good for you.

[00:45:58]   

First of all, thanks for sharing. Good for you for getting past it and continuing to move on. And I think that in itself is so inspiring and will land really well with listeners. So yeah, just thank you for everything and sharing today and joining us here.

[00:46:15]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Thank you so much. I’ve enjoyed it.

[00:46:17]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, it’s been such a pleasure. You’ve already given us so much inspiration. But do you have additional either a quote or words of inspiration to leave us with?

[00:46:26]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

So I’ll tell you, these are what I call my three C’s. When I’ve done mastermind like groups to teach some things about social media or blogging, I say these are my three Cs. My three Cs. First, just don’t, don’t get buried in analytics. If you’ll do these things. I think it is my experience that you’ll succeed.

[00:46:48]   

Make quality content. So content first. Make quality content. Be consistent with your content. Be consistently present and connect with your audience. They want to be your friend, not just make the pie that looks so delicious. They want to know where you learned how to make that pie and why your mama was so sweet when she made it.

[00:47:11]   

So content, consistency and connection are my three C’s.

[00:47:15]  Megan Porta 

I love it. And I love the way you say pie. That’s the cutest thing ever.

[00:47:22]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Thank you.

[00:47:22]  Megan Porta 

Way to end. We will put together a show notes page for you Laura if anyone wants to go look at those. We’ll have everything we talked about today. You can head to eatblogtalk.com/dinnerin321 tell everyone where they can find you Laura.

[00:47:37]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

I am on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest all Dinner in 321. My website is dinnerin321.com and just I will say as well it’s the holiday season I believe as we’re sharing this now and Happy holidays to everyone and I do have a holiday recipe card so you’re going to see that on my page as you enter it now.So just to let you know, that’s what you’re gonna see now.

[00:48:02]  Megan Porta 

That’s exciting.

[00:48:03]  Laura Ashley Johnson 

Awesome.

[00:48:04]  Megan Porta 

Well everyone go check out Laura’s content. And again, thanks for being here and sharing Laura. And thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

[00:48:17]   

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. I would love your help with something special. I’m putting the finishing touches on my memoir, Take the Exit together. If you want want sneak peeks, cover reveals and a say in how it all comes together, join me on substack through the link in the description. I can’t wait to bring you along. You can also join the email list at eatblogtalk.com/takethexit.