Episode 561: What Meta Told Me To Do To Grow On Instagram (+ How My IG Growth Got me a Book Deal) with Sophie Sadler

EBT561 – Sophie Sadler

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

This is a topic that honestly never gets old because I feel like every person that talks about growing on Instagram has a completely different spin. Everyone has a different reason for growing on Instagram, different strategies, different things that work for them. And Sophie Sadler from Dirndl Kitchen, joins me in this interview to talk about how she grew her Instagram account very quickly because she wanted to publish a cookbook. She has a much different strategy than the previous two people I’ve talked to about this topic. So I find it really intriguing to hear her perspective and what has worked for her. She published reels on Instagram every single day from September 2023 until the time that we recorded this in May of 2024. So that’s a really long time. But it worked for her and she has grown her account by I think somewhere around 60k. In that time. Sophie also talks about ditching perfection how a lot of users and followers like the real they like the raw they like seeing you when you’re not at your finest when you’re actually imperfect. She also talks about not overthinking it. So if you’re inspired to post a reel that doesn’t have to do exactly what with your niche, do it post about a variety of topics and see what lands with your people. She also talks about converting it to your email list and how important that is how many subscribers you can get when you have this at the top of your mind and also tapping into a tool like Manychat to automate responses, and this can help you really grow your traffic to targeted posts pretty quickly. If you’re looking to grow on Instagram, which I feel a lot of you are right now you are going to really enjoy this episode. It is number 561 sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  02:32

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Megan Porta  04:02

Sophie Sadler has been baking and cooking from as early as she can remember from helping as a child in her almost kitchen in Germany to starting her own cupcake catering business and working in a handful of restaurants and bakeries. While attending college in the US, eight years ago she found her calling with her authentic German food blog Dirndl Kitchen. Sophie has launched two online courses this year on German baking, and will publish her first German cookbook in 2025. 

Megan Porta  04:30

Hello, Sophia, thank you so much for being on the podcast. How is your day going so far?

Sophie Sadler  04:35

Hi, Megan. I’m so happy to be here. It honestly feels a little surreal because I only know you from the other end. But it’s going great. I actually got to visit with a friend this morning. Which is more or less unusual for me to do during the week, like just on a random weekday. But yeah, other than that I already baked. I’m like in the process of baking two loaves of bread. I already baked some muffins this morning. Oh, a few more things to accomplish.

Megan Porta  05:03

productive day. Wow. Well, thanks for making time for this. We’re super excited to hear about how you grew your Instagram so that you can get a book deal because I know that was a really big goal of yours. Oh, before we get started with that, do you have a fun fact to share with us?

Sophie Sadler  05:18

So I do have a twin sister. I’m six minutes older. But I think the biggest, like, fun fact about this is that both of us ended up moving away from Germany. I ended up moving to the United States from Germany, and she ended up moving to Latvia. And they’re both for love. So yeah, I miss her a lot. She’s 5000 miles away, but I do get to see her. I do get to see her when I go go home to Germany in the summer. So I’m very excited to hang out with her again.

Megan Porta  05:51

Oh, I bet I bet it’s hard being so far away from a twin. 

Sophie Sadler  05:55

Yeah. I mean, we were never close growing up. But honestly, the older we’d get, you know, the more you come to your senses, and you’re like, oh, yeah, that person is actually cool. So let me hang out with her more. 

Megan Porta  06:07

Yeah, I think we can all relate to that on some level. Yeah, maturity helps with that. Right.

Sophie Sadler  06:12

Oh, yeah, sure. And distiance as in our case.

Megan Porta  06:15

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so I want to learn a little bit about your blog, because it’s got a really unique, awesome niche, which is German recipes. Correct. And it’s Dirndl Kitchen. So do you want to tell us a little bit about your blog? And then also very curious what dirndl is.

Sophie Sadler  06:33

So I started my blog in 2015 for longest time didn’t even know what a blog was. So literally, I was just like writing a diary about my experiences growing up cooking German food, and my in my grandma’s kitchen. Because she’s really the one person in our family that cooks authentic German food on a daily basis. And we just spend afternoons at her house, and we would bake and cook together. And those were such memorable experiences, because she was really like another mother to us, me and my sister. And she did pass away shortly after I started my blog. And so to me, that was even more of like, an encouragement to keep her cooking alive. So for the longest time, actually, my mission was more or less like, kind of to honor her. But I guess the more I’m like digging into blogging, and, you know, finding my own path, in this whole way, the more I’m like, Okay, this is actually and I’ve actually gotten messages from my grandma about this, too, is like, try not to just do this for me, like, do this like because you want to do it in your own way. And like try to have that voice be heard too, because it’s so hard for me. It’s sad, because you know, now, I’m eight years into it. And she’s passed away eight years ago. And some of those, like distinct conversations that we had are fading and those memories, and I’m like, oh, gosh, what am I going to do? And yeah, now that I’m removing all of those personal stories from my website, just to make Google Google God’s happy, actually, the book came in at a perfect time, because I was like, I can put some of those stories in my book. So I can, you know, have those stories live on in a printed format instead. And Google won’t be mad at me.

Megan Porta  08:15

Yeah, absolutely. That’s so important, especially with that connection that you had with her. That’s, that’s really great. 

Sophie Sadler  08:21

And so the name of the dirndl is a traditional bavarian dress commonly worn at fest type festivals, which are basically giant for fairs in Germany. And Oktoberfest just happens to be the largest fare in Germany and tourists, obviously, millions of people that travel there and have a great time drinking for two weeks straight. But I’ve actually personally never been to the Oktoberfest in Munich, but we do have festival all around Germany, and people sometimes do like to dress up for those in dirndl and lederhosen wasn’t regardless of whether they come from Bavaria. And when I thought about, okay, what do you Americans, because I live in Kansas City. And so I was like, What do Americans think of when they think of German people and traditionally, and you know, ironically, typically, in those traditional types of clothes, which are dirndl and lederhosen, who was in the leather, kind of overalls that men like to wear, and see how the dirndl dress is beautiful, bavarian traditional dress, and I’m not trying to like make fun of any kinds of bavarians. I just thought, oh, this will be simple for people to remember. But I am running into issues with people not knowing how to spell it.

Megan Porta  09:36

yeah, I mean, it’s a fairly short word. So you can spell that pretty easily. But yeah, it is, like unique. I mean, it’s obviously when I looked at it. I was like, that’s not an English word. But it’s a good conversation starter. People, I’m sure ask you about it all the time.

Sophie Sadler  09:49

And honestly, with Oktoberfest being on the rise all across the United States, I don’t know if you guys have one close to you. Yeah. But people are becoming more familiar with it. So I’m hoping that will be my saving grace.

Megan Porta  10:00

There you go. Yes. I love that. All right, well, great to learn about your grandmother and your blog a little bit. And I know that you really have had this goal of publishing a book, right? Do you want to talk about that? Yeah. 

Sophie Sadler  10:13

So I guess when I think about, like, my whole career, which I did not know, for the longest time, what I really wanted to do the blog kind of started as a side project, not knowing at all that it was going to be a way for me to be able to even make any money with it until I came across some other bloggers. And, you know, started learning that there is money to be made in blogging. And yeah, for some reason, that was just like, such a mind blowing thing for me to learn. Yeah, I was like, wow, I can maybe do this as an actual job. Like, I don’t have to just do this on the side. Because honestly, like in the kinds of careers that I was in, I never really felt like truly passionate about. I don’t living out somebody else’s dream, I guess I wanted to live out my own dream in a way. And I saw blogging is like kind of a hobby at first. But the more I did it, the more I was like, Oh, this is just such a natural thing for me to do, I was able to publish like one new blog post every single week for years. They weren’t in any kind of fancy recipe cards, and they weren’t Google optimized blog posts. They were there. 

Sophie Sadler  11:19

And I was like, if I can do that consistently, there must be something there that maybe I could turn this into something else. And so eventually, that I once I started learning about SEO, which wasn’t until around three years ago. It’s funny because I was like just writing a diary for five years. And then I was like, waking up. And I was like, oh, yeah, there’s this thing. And you’re supposed to actually do it a certain way so people can find you. And it’s suddenly like, things clicked, I hired Arson to help me with my SEO coaching stuff. And I hired Nerd Press, because the tech perspective of blogging totally freaked me out. And that was, you guys just take that part over. And I felt like I was more able to focus on the creative side. But the more that I dug into keyword research and all those things, the more I felt like, Oh, that’s really kind of stripping some of my creative freedom, because I have to write in a certain way in order for people to find me on Google. And then I was like, Okay, well, what am I going to do, because I love these stories. And people actually, that, you know, I connect with on Instagram, they love those personal stories, where I’m going to put these. So I literally have, like, all of my personal stories for my blog posts, I like, copy them and paste them in a document on my phone, or on my laptop. I mean, it’s like the notes, you know, and MacBook, and I can just refer back to those. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, this will be a perfect place for a book. And just to have those stories kind of have like, just a way to live on without being judged by Google or anyone else. And it is truly those little snippets of my life growing up in Germany that people connect with the most. And that are, you know, people are like, Oh, thank you so much for bringing me back to my own grandma’s house, because I totally forgotten about this recipe. And you describing how you sat at her kitchen table making this food together, like really brought me back. And it almost brings me to tears sometimes that I get to do this that I actually get to, you know, make some money with it. But it’s yeah, it’s really fun. 

Megan Porta  13:20

It is a dream come true, right. And when we sit and think about it, it’s like, this is really cool, that we can make money doing this.

Sophie Sadler  13:27

And honestly, I mean, he was qualified for an ad network last year. So I haven’t been making like consistent. I want to call it passive income. But it’s not because you have to keep everything updated anyway. So but like, just like consistent blog Income, like yeah, thank you Arson, again, for helping me, you know, connect with the way to turn this into some kind of income. But absolutely. It’s been so fun. So good. 

Megan Porta  13:28

I’m glad I love hearing about your journey. So you took your store. I love also that you took your stories from your blog posts and put them somewhere off your blog, because those were really precious to you. And then decided to put them into a book. So your book is in the works, right? It’s being published. I mean, it has like a date. 

Sophie Sadler  14:14

Yes. Supposedly next year in August, just in time to catch Oktoberfest season for next year, because that starts in September. So yeah, I think that’s the date. I guess I would have to confirm with my publisher, but But yeah, it’s been an interesting journey. I actually started talking to my publisher a while back, it was about a year and a half ago. And I kind of went a non traditional route because I never sought out an agent. And instead, my publisher contacted me, and for some reason, like I actually had signed a book deal a few years prior, that totally did not feel aligned with where I wanted the book to be and I ended up canceling the contract. And I was like, this just wasn’t right, I guess the right, the right opportunity will come along. But I don’t know if I have the, if I have it in me to write a proposal without knowing that there is a deal, because to me, it felt like such an overwhelming project even to just to write a proposal for an agent to then find a publisher for me. So I kind of just like, let it like, set it aside, I focused on my blog and SEO stuff. And then this publisher came along and what they described and the kind of book that they were wanting to publish with me, was everything that I wanted. But I was at the time when they first contacted me, I was so stressed out with SEO, I had these like huge goals of making edge, I was also like, very pregnant. And with my third babies, I have three little kids at home. And I was like, I don’t want to make all these things happen. I just don’t know. I think something in me that was like a fear or doubt leading thought kept me from going through with it. And at the same time, they kind of just started ghosting me. And I was like, Maybe this wasn’t meant to be, then I kind of still like as I kept following up with them about every two or three months. And I heard nothing back ever. And then one month, it was like last year in August or so they finally sent me an email back like acted like they had never lost conversation with me. 

Megan Porta  16:27

Weird.

Sophie Sadler  16:28

It was so interesting. And I was like, Oh, there you are. I’m so happy to answer. That’s my thoughts. Of course, I just like emailed back very professionally. I was like, This is great. Let’s have a conversation again. And they yeah, we just went got on another call together. But one of the things that they wanted me to prove is that I had an audience to market the book to. And I got very stressed out, to be honest. Because I had like, I basically started Instagram, the same day that I published my first blog post in 2015. But I never really saw much growth on it at all. I grew 15,000 followers over a period of eight years. And I wasn’t posting consistently, but to me, it was just like, how much time do I want to put into this thing? Because I know yeah, I don’t really see it paying off. I have three little kids that I know, you know, would love my time over Instagram. And I just really don’t know if this is the right path, but when they came to me, and they’re like, Okay, we need you to prove that you have an audience. And magically around the same time Meta, so Facebook had me schedule a call with them. I don’t know if you’ve gone through any of those calls before. So yeah, there’s just like a pop up on my on my phone and it was like Meta wants to talk to you. And I was like, Okay, let me see what they have to say. And I got, I scheduled a call. And it was so interesting, because they don’t really give you a time when they’re gonna call back. They just randomly send you a text message one day, and they’re like, be available to jump on a call in the next hour or so. 

Megan Porta  16:30

Oh, wow. 

Sophie Sadler  16:50

And I was like, I literally like saved, like that person who ever texted me how to name in the text message. And I literally saved the number in my phone with that first name. And I answered that she called and I was like I answered the phone. And I was like, Hi, Alison. I think that was she was like, Oh, you’re really 

Sophie Sadler  18:26

But then she’s like, okay, let’s talk about your reel strategy. And I was like, What do you mean, a reel strategy? I don’t have a strategy. Please tell me what my reel strategy needs to be. And yeah, like nothing. I had nothing. And I think that day, it was September 6th of 2023. So last year in September, and she was like, Okay, here’s what you need to do. You need to post ideally, every day. You really need to be under 30 seconds long use trending audio, if you want to, but you don’t have to try to have like something to catch people’s attention in the first three seconds. And there’s like the all these random tips. And I was like, okay, okay, okay, maybe maybe I should do this, because the publisher says I should do it. So something in me was just like, I’m just gonna give this a go for 30 days, I’m gonna post every single day. I started this real challenge. And it was actually really interesting because I started posting about that I was going to do this real challenge. And I think there was about 20 or 30 people that also got infatuated with the idea and started doing it with me, because I was like, Okay, if I tell other people that I’m doing it, they’re gonna hold me accountable, right? Or at least I thought they would or you know, it was just something in my head. Like, if I just blast this out to my 15,000 followers at that time, then maybe I will actually do it. So. So I just started posting every single day. So September 7th of 2023 was the first day that I posted a real consistently, I’ve done it before, off and on, but I never like really had a rhyme or reason or strategy of any kind behind it. And it really started paying off. I mean, in the first month, I grew around 5000 followers, and I thought that I was ecstatic. Because before it had taken me around five years to grow 5000 followers.

Megan Porta  18:26

Oh, hi. 

Megan Porta  20:25

Oh wow, that’s great.

Sophie Sadler  20:28

I was like, Okay, maybe this is a fluke, maybe not. So I just kept going and just kept going and going. And now I’m like, eight months in of posting every single day. And I am 66,000 followers now that I was at around 18,000 when I started this.

Megan Porta  20:43

Oh, my gosh, that’s amazing. Well, congratulations, that’s got to feel so good.

Sophie Sadler  20:48

I mean, it feels it’s so interesting, because like, it feels good, because I’m like, okay, maybe this means something, maybe people will see my stuff. Maybe this will help me with book sales. But at the same time, it’s like, I don’t know, if it’s really it’s not really super satisfying to me in the moment, because I feel like I’m just kind of like in the busy work right now. I’m just like posting every day and then like, trying to do my book stuff and trying to still keep the blog updated. And it feels good that something finally is working for sure. But like I haven’t really focused on like, Okay, now that I have this audience, let me get some paid partnerships. You know, I am how to like do outreach or anything to like, kind of monetize some of the thoughts. I also don’t know if that is really where I want to invest my time right now. Because I feel like I need to focus on my book. But yeah, it feels good that finally I feel like I’m putting effort into Instagram. And finally something is actually showing.

Megan Porta  21:47

Yes, that’s amazing. That is such a good feeling. So you’re posting everyday, are you? How much time are you spending daily on your reels.

Megan Porta  21:57

So it’s super interesting, because the reels I spent the most time on typically don’t do the best. It’s like, it’s actually funny. About two months ago, I posted a reel and I literally wasn’t even almost going to record it because my husband wasn’t into it. So sometimes I like to bring him into some of my reels. Because I post about when you post every day, you kind of have to get creative with what you’re posting. Because I feel like if I posted a recipe every day, I would like get super burnt out on just having to be in the kitchen all the time. And so I post about like German language, motherhood, parenthood differences between Germany and America, the au pair program, I’ve posted about struggling with eating disorders in the past, which is actually really close to me, because I just like I feel like I’m so free now of that. But I do see lots of people struggling with that still. And I actually have some online courses as well, that 10% of the like, what I’m making and sales with the courses actually goes to an organization that helps people with online group therapy for those with eating disorders, which is something I wish I would have had as available to me as a resource because I was waiting for about a year to get a spot in the clinic to get some kind of professional treatment. Yeah, so yeah, I post a lot about a lot of different things. And people seem to connect, you know, on all sorts of different areas. Because I think when you you know, kind of like people just get curious. They’re like, Okay, who is this person? Yes, it’s German food. But what does she do? What does she eat? What does she wear? What does she travel? Like? It’s just like, people get like, hyper curious about other people. And yeah, it’s it’s very interesting, because sometimes I’m like, my overstepping, is this okay to post, like, I don’t know, is this like something. But I have thought overall, and this has been my experience that because I post every single day, I don’t tend to overthink as much anymore. And when I do have a post that doesn’t do as well, it’s just another day. It’s like, I’m gonna post a new video tomorrow or a new like, I’m trying out carousels as well, because my most recent call, meta told me that I should not post a reel everyday anymore. And that really, really threw me off because I was like, I have been posting you reel everyday. It’s been working fantastically for me. So how dare they change my strategy? 

Megan Porta  24:19

So what did they what was their alternative?

Sophie Sadler  24:22

They’re like, Well, maybe you should back off on posting reels every day. You should maybe just post them like five days a week and then do carousels the other two days and I’m just like, carousels actually to me are more exhausting by now because I’m just in such a mode with like posting short videos. And when I post the carousel, I’m like, okay, each photo is a separate story. Now I’m gonna have to write this like 10 page long caption to describe every photo and the carousel. At least that’s that’s been my Hangout. So I haven’t really been able to capitalize on on the carousels. I don’t know maybe they work for other people. But for me, because I think I’m in the mindset of reels. Like it’s really hard for me to get out of it. But at the same time, it’s like, I felt like once I did 30 days, I almost like had this habit established, which then helped me to not overthink posting as much, because then I was just like, oh, I, you know, standing in my kitchen making a coffee, I can just record myself doing that. And I can overlay it with some kind of text that speaks to people that maybe have gone through something like me in the past. And I don’t have to, like do any kind of creative video visual, but maybe the text on the video speaks to people directly, you know, and you start seeing people doing certain things and instead of being like, how can they do that I can’t do that. I started thinking oh, if they’ve been able to make this work for them, I can do that too. You know, it’s it’s been very motivational and in a way because you’re starting to see the payoff and you’re starting to see other people that do something that works for them. If you do your spin on that could work for you too. So like all the time now when I scroll through Instagram, which doesn’t happen a lot, honestly like the more I’m on it, the less I want to be on it. But when I am on it, I’m trying to be intentional and seek out inspirational content like something that gives me an idea for what to post either that or I’m like on there and I’m trying to like support other creators because I know how hard it is I like leave them a comment on my recipe post or something just because I’m like, You need to be seen too.

Megan Porta  26:33

Validating them as well. Yeah, I totally get that too. So medic keeps calling you like you still have consistent contact with them I’m so shocked by this I’ve never heard anyone say this before.

Sophie Sadler  26:44

So I don’t have like a hotline or anything and I’ve actually tried to text I’ve tried to I tried to text the issue back and and it’s like it just doesn’t like they just delete I feel like they have this like like throwaway phone or something. I don’t know 

Megan Porta  26:58

That’s funny. 

Sophie Sadler  27:00

They have this like payphone that they just like do one call and they throw it away is and get in contact with them after that. 

Megan Porta  27:07

We talk to you when we want to talk to you. sort of thing right? 

Sophie Sadler  27:10

Yes. 

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Sophie Sadler  28:44

It’s interesting because like they told me after each call, they’re like oh, we’ll follow up with an email series giving you some additional tips and I never got any of those emails so I don’t know if they’re actually Meta calling me I don’t know if it’s like literally… 

Megan Porta  28:56

That’s so weird. 

Sophie Sadler  28:57

In my head. Like I don’t even know if this actually happened like it… 

Megan Porta  29:03

I’m sure it happened. I’m sure it is. You’re one of the lucky ones. I would see it as just like divine intervention of some sort of like you wanted this right. Like you wanted a way to publish a cookbook. And oh my gosh, things unfolded and it worked. So that’s really all that matters. You did your experiment your 30 days and then you just kept doing it do you think you’re gonna keep going doing the daily reels or daily content?

Sophie Sadler  29:30

It’s interesting because yeah, since I started posting carousels, my follower count growth has definitely slowed. And I don’t think it’s really discouraged me from posting at all, but it’s definitely made me think like, wow, like all this time that I spent posting content over the last eight months because that’s how long I’ve been going out this like you know, I do have like three little kids, one of them just turned one year old and so eight of those 12 months, I’ve literally been spending so much time on Instagram just like trying to figure this out. And I’m just like just trying to be more intentional about my time that I’m spending. But at the same time, I do want to continue growing. And I do have a goal of growing above 100,000 followers by the end of the year, I just had this in my head at the beginning of the year as I’m gonna hit 100,000 at the end of this year. And like last year, you could have asked me around the same times like no way like, yeah, okay, I can maybe grow 1000 followers?

Megan Porta  30:28

No, it’s amazing what you’ve accomplished, really. I mean, this is a goal of so many people, some people have the goal for getting brand work. Some people want to publish cookbooks, like you or books of any sort. And then some people just want traffic or community. So I think it’s amazing. Give yourself a huge pat on the back, for doing this and doing so much more than you imagined you could do. It’s really incredible. So now that you have this audience on Instagram, do you believe that this is what you need and what the publisher was looking for? As far as just getting your book out there and having it be successful? 

Sophie Sadler  31:06

Oh, yeah. Cuz when I first talked to them again, last year, they had told me hey, you need to prove to us you have an audience. And so I grew my following, I think was around 20,000 followers. So I had like, over doubled my following in about three months. And was like, Hey, I did some things on Instagram, I grew my following for a little bit. Like, you know, I grew my following some I’ve doubled my following. What do you think, can we do this? Can we can we have a deal? And so yeah, I signed a cookbook deal in December of 2023. And I felt like definitely, it helped that I put this effort into it, because I got the deal. But now I’m trying to figure out okay, you know, I, I guess I don’t like I don’t love coming across as salesy, which is funny, because I’ve had so many sales positions in the past before I committed to blogging, but I don’t like to, for people to like, feel like they’re buying stuff for me just because they’re buying stuff from me. So I always try to think of like, just connect with them on some kind of emotional level. And like, trying to think back to my I feel like my ideal target audience are people that are my past self that have gone through a transition from either moving from Germany to here or two somewhere away from Germany, and that maybe half German ancestors are trying to connect to because I do feel like, you know, especially during COVID, everybody was doing the ancestry.com. And like the Who am I kind of like I have so much time with myself, let me find out who I am. And a lot of people did find out oh, I am, I am maybe mostly German. So maybe I need to do some German cooking to connect with my German heritage. And it was really interesting for me to see so many people just like wanting to connect to their German culture from all sorts of backgrounds. But I’m also trying to always think about that person that, you know, just longs to feel closer to Germany, because they’re not there. And they just want to have some kind of authentic experience at their home. And I do feel that by cooking German food and any kind of food, really, you’re getting to have a really close experience of experiencing authentic culture, especially like ethnic foods, by experiencing that wherever you are in the world. And so I’m just like, trying to make it as easy for people as possible to have that kind of experience wherever they are. But I’m always trying to think of that person like, okay, you know, they’re not used to cooking those kinds of food, like what kind of ingredients can I tell them that they can get that maybe are super easy to get, and that aren’t any kind of special ingredients that will still lead them to have an authentic result, and will still let them to recreate some of those memories maybe that they had when they visited Germany and had this food there. And yeah, just like trying to, like really get close to those people. And I do think through Instagram that’s been such a, you know, a growing unique way to cope, like just to connect with people. And that’s something that I don’t really get by writing a blog. I mean, I randomly will get some people responding to my email newsletter saying like, Oh, this like really made me think of something. But it’s not really an ongoing conversation and I just love the back and forth between people in my community. Like I a lot of times like I post my real super late at night actually, I’m so bad at this I will like be falling asleep and like trying to come up with text to post because I feel like that’s the only time I get to have like quiet and peace in my mind because that’s when it’s quiet and quiet and peace in my home. And people then like I will be going to sleep but then I’ll wake up and people are already having conversations with each other and my comments and it’s was such a great way because I feel like I don’t even a lot of times have to comment back on people’s comments because there’s other people already doing In this for me, and I think that’s just such a unique way to do that.

Megan Porta  35:04

Yeah, it is a unique platform in the best way. It’s, yes, provide something that no other platform provides. And it’s, sometimes it’s really hard to describe like, you’ve done a really good job of describing it. But when I tried to do that, it’s really hard to articulate how unique Instagram is, in so many ways. So I am so excited for you. I hope that this journey you’ve been on for the past nine months has really helped to just set the stage for success with your cookbook, and so many other things. I think it I think it will, I hope you feel hopeful for that, too. Do you have tips for food bloggers, or anyone looking to grow their Instagram account quickly, no matter what the reason, 

Sophie Sadler  35:50

I mean, my biggest tip would be to post every day. And I wouldn’t even say like, because initially, they also told me like, try to post around the same time, and I’ve kind of played with it back and forth. And I’m like, I don’t to me, there’s not really one ideal time to post I post late at night, because that’s just what works for me, because that’s when I get to be able to think about things like that. I tried to always to, like have some kind of folder with ideas like whether it’s I actually have a few different ways of how I keep track of this. So one is like just in my notes app on my phone, I just keep a running list of reels ideas whenever they get to me. And then also whenever I see some inspirational content on Instagram, and I’m like, Oh, I could spin this in a way that works for me, I will just save it as reels inspo on Instagram directly. So then I can go back to it and like watch it and be like, you know, because I feel like we always, at some point, lack motivation, or like lack ideas. And I think it’s just great to have this like vault of ideas that we can refer back to. So I think that is something that I encourage people to do. And I always think to like, Yes, I sometimes do video with my DSLR. And I edit it on there. And I edit it on my laptop, and then I’ll like upload it on there. And it looks like super clean and pretty and like more professional but honestly, the less professional, the videos look, typically the better they do. So I have actually like, I don’t even have a phone holder for my iPhone anymore. I literally just set it on my counter again, whatever, like a flower box or whatever I can find. Yeah, and record something because while I used to have phone holders, but they all broke, I don’t know, I have not been able to find a single one that’s not broken. And so like those types of videos tend to do better for me of like making recipes or just recording something about what I’m doing and finding a way to connect it back to my audience always thinking back to that person. That is my ideal person that I have in the back of my head. And, and it’s funny because my person has a name. And she’s actually real at that she does inspire me, her name is Jenny. And she inspires me for all content that I create. Because she’s like, really, I don’t know, she’s so truly in the community and so active and I’m like, every time I think about something that I’m doing, it’s like, what Jenny like this, like, is this something that Jenny would do, or Jenny would love for I was trying to think about Jenny whenever I create content. Let’s see, what else do I have connect with people like that’s a big one, describe and struggles that I have tried to problem solve for people. So any kind of problems that I’ve solved for myself, I tried to like just get people like whether it’s like something like a unique way of preparing some kind of food where I’m like, Oh, I didn’t know that you in order to clean leeks, you actually have them and you have water running through the layers. For you cut them up. I don’t know, for the longest time, like that was not something that was on my radar. And I was like, Oh, maybe I need to like share this tip. Because I know too many people that people have never cooked with leeks and I love leeks. 

Megan Porta  39:00

Yeah, leaks are amazing. 

Sophie Sadler  39:01

I actually just picked up some leek seeds. So we’ll see how it goes. If I can make them grow in my garden or not. 

Megan Porta  39:08

I like your idea of just like maybe even jotting down as you’re cooking the little problems that you come across so that you can just highlight those in your reels or in your content because if you’re having the problem likely other people are as well. So I think that’s a really like super easy way to just nail some pain points from people 

Sophie Sadler  39:27

Also like, like content ups, inspiring, encouraging. I feel like people always like to be uplifted in some way. It’s interesting because people feel like Instagram was like just you know, it’s not authentic because people only post their highlights that they don’t like go in deep on the struggles but like to me it’s like whenever I am on Instagram, I don’t want to see people struggling. I want to see inspirational content. I don’t know how other people feel like I don’t know what other people feel like when they’re you know, seeing other people, but I’m not trying to, like, you know, only highlight what is going super great in my life, but I’m trying to have always some kind of thing that people can take back and be like, Oh, this was like, you know, really inspirational or like really helpful or just like helped me have a better outlook on my week? Or you know, something? Yeah, I don’t know.

Megan Porta  40:26

I like the thought of just rotating between, like educational, inspiring, encouraging, helpful, like, that sort of thing. So you’re kind of hitting all the bases, but I appreciate that you try to keep it positive, because I’m with you. I don’t like. I mean, it’s kind of fun to see like bloopers in the kitchen. And you know, like, the messes that people have, like, that is intriguing. But I don’t like to hear if people are having like, terrible crappy days. Like, that is not my thing, either.

Sophie Sadler  40:54

Yeah. No, I struggle enough with like, some of my own stuff. Yeah. And I, you know, go on a platform. And I know, there’s been this like trend going around of like, you know, here’s what, here’s what I actually struggle with. And I don’t know, I just couldn’t get myself to do it. Like, you know, it was like, a little too real. And I was like, I don’t really need people to know everything about like, all the things of my life. Sure.

Megan Porta  41:20

You can be real without being totally raw, right?

Sophie Sadler  41:24

Yeah. Yeah. Because they’re not my therapist, like, I don’t know what kind of feedback they could give me.

Megan Porta  41:29

Exactly what’s with Wayne here? Do you use your email list? Like, do you talk about people signing up for your email list, and then offering them other content through Instagram?

Sophie Sadler  41:39

Yeah, so one of the biggest ways for me to grow my email now is by using many chat, but I do feel like Instagram is kind of slowly seeing that many like automation chat automations, like many charts are bringing people off the platform. And I don’t know this, like last two or three weeks has been kind of like weird. With Instagram, I don’t know what’s going on, I can’t put my finger on it. I feel like you can never put your finger on it. But I don’t know, there’s something about the automation, that I think Instagram is just like now catching on to, because a lot of times I would be like, you know, cooking a recipe and then I’d have people say some kind of key word in order to get the recipe and like the recipe link to my blog post with a recipe and in a message. And I don’t know, I don’t think it’s working as well as it was about a month ago. Okay. But I also use that same automation, so many chat for, I create some kind of resource for PDF, downloadable guide, and then I’ll upload it to my emails, email provider, which I use Flow desk, and I then will have people common something in order to get the guide, which then automatically puts them into my email list. And there have been some posts where I was able to grow like 500 email subscribers, and with one post 

Megan Porta  43:06

Wow. Which is amazing.

Sophie Sadler  43:08

Like, I don’t even know how much that will cost in order to like pay for 500 people that actually want to know from you. Yeah, and know about you and what you do so, yeah, it’s, it really depends. And, you know, like randomly, I have reels that go viral, which then kind of carry me for a few weeks, because they still gain try, like they still have people. I still get people from those reels following me even weeks after. But it’s so interesting, because those kinds of the kinds of reels that go viral a lot of times they have nothing to do with food.

Megan Porta  43:40

Yeah, I’ve heard that too.

Sophie Sadler  43:42

But I still like there’s like one reel I posted that 23 million views, I got 700,000 interactions and it did give me like 7000 followers, which may seem slow in comparison, but and that was like about my husband learning German and me celebrating his two year anniversary of committing to learning German every single day. 

Megan Porta  44:08

That’s so cool. 

Sophie Sadler  44:09

But it’s like, you know, the most random post

Megan Porta  44:12

Yeah, that’s just proof that you should be consistent because you never know what’s going to take off so doing it consistently whether it’s daily or something else will eventually produce results right?

Sophie Sadler  44:25

One like also maybe just like not overthinking it and always have to like think like, oh, because I am a recipe blogger. I have to post recipes every day. Right? But you know, anything related to your life could really be a really resourceful I feel like if people like your voice of how you present yourself on Instagram, they’ll likely also like other things about you. Whether that’s I don’t know anything that anything else that you’re passionate about. So I don’t think it’s bad to experiment. When you’re posting every day. You can experiment with posting different things about your life, whatever aspects you want to share it without having to feel like, Oh, those posts have to perform, because it’s just another trial, like a thought stage was just like another experiment. 

Megan Porta  45:08

Yeah, that’s a great reminder, so much of this is great reminder to all of us, would you have anything else as we prepare to say goodbye, Sophie, that you just want to be sure to mention about growing Instagram?

Sophie Sadler  45:21

I guess the biggest thing is to try to stay true to yourself, I think it’s so easy to look at other people and be like, Oh my gosh, like they’re doing so great. They are growing so rapidly, they must be doing something that I cannot do. But I think the one thing that I have learned from all of this in the last eight months, is that I look at other people’s accounts now. And I see them as inspiration and like encouragement, that because they were able to do it, I can do it too. And it also is like super motivating to grow the kind of community to then get the kind of feedback that I think can be super encouraging to keep you going. Because now it’s like kind of I mean, it’s it’s a super strong habit that I have to follow up over these eight months. And it’s really become fun. I would say if you’d asked me eight months ago, if Instagram was anything that I’d want to spend my time with, I would have said no way. But now it’s like it’s actually becoming fun to post because you have somewhat of an idea of what is going to do well, what is not and like what you know, it’s also it’s just become less stressful. It’s just this thing that I’m doing. I’m just doing it and whether it’s gonna work, like one day may not work, and that’s okay, because I’m just gonna keep doing it. And that’s fine. Yeah, that doesn’t stress me out as much anymore as it was when I was posting maybe twice a week. And it’s like, you know, one of those two times didn’t go well. It could be like the next six days. I was like, I hate Instagram. Yeah. But now it’s like, one of those posts doesn’t go well. I’m like, the next day. I’m just doing it again. And it’s just part of life. 

Megan Porta  47:09

Yeah, it’ll be fruitful for you. I think all of this is definitely going to pay off. So nice work sticking to it. You’ve inspired us and you’ve created awesomeness for yourself. Thank you so much for everything today. Sophie, we really appreciate you taking the time for this. I know you’ve already provided words of inspiration. Do you have a favorite quote that you want to share? I know some people like to wrap up with a quote.

Sophie Sadler  47:30

I guess I thought about a quote. But then I was like, what if I just tell people this one German word, which is fernweh, which means if you’d like literally translated it, it means distance ache. But the meaning is a longing, a longing for distant places. And I love the word because it’s kind of like a, I don’t know, it’s almost like a travel bug kind of know how to translate it into English, but…

Megan Porta  48:00

Like wanderlust kind of…

Sophie Sadler  48:03

I guess, in a way except I think it’s kind of like this idea of like, the world is there for all of us to explore. And let’s just explore I mean, it could be the world but it could be anything in life, right? Like let’s just explore all of the different areas in our lives that are interesting us that are making us who we are. That really helps us connect with ourselves and whether that’s travel or like picking up a new hobby or you know, just doing whatever it is that makes us better humans. 

Megan Porta  48:38

Love it. Such a great way to end we’ll put together a show notes page for you, Sophie if you want to go peek at those you can head to eatblogtalk.com/dirndlkitchen and why don’t you spell dirndl for everyone? And then also tell everyone where they can find you, Sophie?

Sophie Sadler  48:53

Yeah, it’s D-I-R-N-D-L kitchen.com. Was the blog and then I most active obviously on Instagram. I have been active on TikTok before I did get 3.7 million views with my first ever TikTok video, which then really scared me and I like fell off dramatically after that. But I randomly still post on TikTok and I’m I’m also working on an online membership, which is hosted through Kajabi, which is where you have some online courses. So that is like a paid subscription kinds that I’m trying to take off of Instagram, which is funny because we’re just talking about how great Instagram is. But I feel like building something outside of Instagram, along with email newsletters, you know, is kind of crucial to, I guess, staying successful in the long run. Because you always have to think about you know, you don’t know what Instagram is going to do. You know, they’ve been doing something over the last few weeks. But yeah, so those are the places and yeah, I’d love I’d love to connect with everyone whether whether you’ve traveled to Germany before or not, or just have an interest in German food. But yeah, it’s been so fun to be here. 

Megan Porta  49:59

Awesome. Well yeah, thank you so much for being here, Sophie and thank you for listening today food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  50:08

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.