Episode 650: How to Build a Loyal Following on YouTube and Social Media with Cathy Yoder

EBT650 – Cathy Yoder

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. 

Supercut  00:37

You are going to want to download our bonus supercut that gives you all the information you need to grow your Instagram account. Go to eatblogtalk.com/Instagrowth to download today. 

Megan Porta  00:52

Are you looking to grow your YouTube channel this year or up your game with video, really, on any platform? YouTube is growing. Video is growing and becoming so much more important as we move through these challenging times in our industry. Cathy Yoder joins me in this episode. She is the blogger behind Empowered Cooks. She has a highly successful YouTube channel that gains a lot of traction because she is the air fryer queen. Her audience has given her that title, and she has owned that niche in YouTube. We talk about a lot of things that are involved in growing a successful YouTube channel in this episode, including being relatable, being authentic, providing basic, practical value for your user, leveraging the content that you have on your website and really engaging your audience to create a two way relationship. There’s so much more inside. This is a value packed episode that you’re going to be inspired by, especially if YouTube is on your horizon. It is episode number 650. Thank you so much for listening. 

Megan Porta  02:01

Cathy Yoder is a well-regarded figure in the air fryer community, known as “The REAL Air Fryer Queen.” She transformed from a reluctant cook, seeking quick ways to feed her large family of eight, into an air fryer expert and successful entrepreneur. Her business, Empowered Cooks, offers practical cooking tips, recipes, and accessories, helping busy families create nutritious meals with ease. Cathy’s journey has resonated with countless individuals, with her best-selling cookbook (over 35k copies sold) and YouTube channel (700k+ subscribers), making her a trusted voice in the kitchen.

In addition to her air fryer expertise, Cathy also founded Pine & Pepper, a product line of air fryer accessories. Her story, rooted in practicality and family life, has empowered many home cooks. Whether discussing easy meal prep, building a brand, or balancing family and career, Cathy’s insights can inspire and provide actionable advice for busy parents and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Sponsor  02:02

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Megan Porta  03:47

Cathy, hello. Welcome to the podcast. How are you today?

Megan Porta  03:50

I am so grateful that you’re here. I’m excited to chat about this. This is something that we don’t really talk about a ton on the podcast, strangely, because it’s a kind of a big thing, it’s becoming more of a big deal, YouTube, social media, all of that, and growing an engaging, just authentic audience. So I’m really excited to get into that. But first, do you have a fun fact to share with us? 

Cathy Yoder  03:50

Hi there. I’m so good. Thanks for having me. 

Cathy Yoder  04:18

Fun fact, most people are surprised when they find out I have eight kids. So, yeah, I’ve got eight kids, ranging from 10 to 29. I had my youngest when my oldest was graduating from high school anyway, so in all his, you know, all the graduation pictures, I got this massive belly. It was, oh, that’s kind of funny. 

Megan Porta  04:40

That is amazing. I did see that on your website before our chat, and I was like, I actually scrolled. And I was like, Wait, did I read that? Right? I had to go back and reread. Yes, eight kids. That’s a lot of children. I feel like with my two, I’m overwhelmed. I don’t I don’t know. Do you have any tips about parent overwhelm real quick?

Cathy Yoder  04:59

Well, I think. The biggest thing is just, you know, they come one at a time, but by the time I had my fifth, my older ones were super helpful. And then, yeah, my last two are surprise babies too. And oh, but I’m like, so grateful now that I have them, because otherwise I would have only had my one that’s a junior in high school, and that would be so boring. Yeah? I mean, he’s great, but it’s just so fun. It’s we have a lot of fun when we’re together, but just being patient through the process, for sure.

Megan Porta  05:30

Taking one day at a time, right? Awesome. Well, this makes you a well rounded human. We all know that, and I would love for you to tell us a little bit about Empowered Cooks. 

Cathy Yoder  05:40

So Empowered Cooks, actually, we just rebranded a year and a half ago, but way back in 2008 I actually started blogging for fun. If you remember that that was before Facebook, when everybody just had a little blog spot, right? And we were learning how to do code, and it was just we had the mommy blogs back in the day, and then from that, I started figuring out how to save money. So I started couponing. And I still was like, Oh, I’ll start another one about couponing. And it just kind of grew out of the love for helping people. And so fabulously frugal is where I started. And little did I know, super long story short, it saved us. We you know, I started it for fun. It turned into an income stream, 2008 2009 you know, that whole time of life was different, but kind of a big time stamp where the economy turned and my husband lost job, and anyway, we almost lost our home, but just in the nick of time, the blog started making enough money where we didn’t lose our home anyway. So that’s kind of where it all started. And in the beginning, you know, we didn’t really know what we were doing back in those days, so we were just posting recipes because we were teaching people how to use the food that you bought. And you know, they were recipes with no pictures, and, you know, before Pinterest, anyway, so it’s, it’s morphed into this place where, in 2020 I found myself I had all these recipes. I also had my deals and Amazon things and things like that. Anyway, I had a friend that was like, You need to get on YouTube, because I have all these recipes. She was like, go do food on YouTube. And I was like, Okay. And she coached me through it, and I ended up just like the air fryer content is what really started to lift. And I was having fun figuring it out and sharing it. And it was different. And it was kind of this void on YouTube. I mean, there was content, but not really great content. So I just started, I just leaned into it, and literally, like December, 2020 I went from 10,000 subscribers to over 100,000 No, I got that wrong. It was 2000 to 10 in December, and then two months later, in February 2021 is when I hit 100,000 it just exploded.

Megan Porta  08:07

Wow. So did you start your YouTube channel? At what point did you start Empowered Cooks in there?

Cathy Yoder  08:14

Yes, back in like, I actually had the channel from 2012 and it was Fabulously Frugal, which was in line with the my blog back then, and it didn’t make sense as I really started doing YouTube and growing this massive audience that wanted recipes, it just didn’t match Fabulously Frugal. And so yeah, it was 2023 that we rebranded that channel to Empowered Cooks, and then actually built the Empowered cooks website and and then wow, product line anyway, yeah, it’s kind of been crazy, splitting one brand into three essentially.

Megan Porta  08:52

so a little bit differently than most blogger blogging brands do it. So usually it’s start with the blog and then eventually you build the YouTube channel, but you did the initial blog, and then the YouTube channel, and then you’ve rebranded your blog based on the YouTube channel. That’s pretty inspiring, right? Yeah, so I’m eager to hear about your YouTube channel, so you’re focused solely on air fryer recipes, correct?

Cathy Yoder  09:21

Yes, in the beginning I was doing like, Instant Pot, slow cooker, freezer meals, copycat recipes. So I kind of had different topics. And then the algorithm, you know, after, I don’t know, six months or so, it was the you the air fryer stuff. Is that what lifted so then I just dialed all in on air fryer on YouTube. 

Megan Porta  09:43

Okay, so you have a ton of subscribers. I just looked it was like 700,000 is that right? 700,000 Yeah, okay, that’s a lot. And there are a lot of food bloggers going over to this platform, because you know, of all the changes that are going on in our space, it’s like, oh, I need to be on YouTube and be creating videos. So I think there’s this huge wave of food bloggers going there and just getting started, even if their blogs are pretty old. So you have some tips for those people, yep. How do we get started? What are some things to keep in mind. 

Cathy Yoder  10:23

I started my first year was with my phone. So, like, don’t worry about perfection. You all probably have a nice camera, right, that you could use for video, but you can get really intense with it, but you don’t have to. The most important piece is being authentic on camera, having good sound like sound is number one, right. Visuals, second, great, but just dialing into creating authentic content where people, they get to connect with you in a different way than a blog and even on Instagram, they come into my home. They know my kids, they see my kids, taste us the food. I mean, it’s just such a different relationship. And then they get a comment, and I’ve responded to every single comment, probably even after I had 100,000 subscribers, probably up until about 250,000 subscribers, I was still connecting and responding. Now I’m at the point where it’s my mental space, right? I have to, I just had to break from it so I would comment, you know, I still do pop in there and read comments and respond occasionally, but in the beginning, I was so plugged into it, and it makes a difference to hear what they’re what they want and their needs, and it’s awesome connection.

Megan Porta  11:44

You mentioned starting with your phone if you have to, not being afraid to do that, because I think people are appreciating the more real, raw, just presentation of us recently. Do you agree with that?

Cathy Yoder  11:58

Oh, absolutely, yeah, it doesn’t need to be a studio performance, you know, with the whole crew and all of that, just keeping it simple.

Megan Porta  12:07

If somebody doesn’t necessarily have a honed in niche, but they want to get started with video on YouTube and social media, where do they start? Is it okay to start more generally, or should they find a specific focus? 

Cathy Yoder  12:23

That is a great question. What I would do is, I mean, you’ve got to be in the umbrella of food if you’re a food blogger, right? So not necessarily. You got to teach the algorithm what you’re about, so you don’t want to just have I’m out shopping today, or this is how my kids make their bed. You know, not being all over the place, you got to teach algorithm what you’re about. So what I would do is pick like, six sub topics under your food and then just rotate through those different topics. That’s essentially what I did, and that’s going to it’ll take a little time to teach the algorithm what you’re about, but YouTube is fantastic at finding your people for you, as long as they know who you’re talking to and who you’re creating content for, so having that dialed in and then just rotating through those we call them buckets. My My YouTube coach was a student of Darryl Eves, who does channel jump start. Anyway, she taught me, and then I ended up learning from him, but he basically teaches you have your different buckets. So from there, that’s where you can kind of see, oh, okay, these three buckets are doing really well. So then you kind of let the other ones go and then focus in on those three and then pull in another experimental bucket. How would this topic work? Anyway, it’s a lot it’s just teaching the algorithm. YouTube’s so fun. 

Megan Porta  13:53

I know I hear people say that all the time, but you do have to invest time, right? It’s not something that you can expect to grow within three months or six months. You have to see it as a long game?

Cathy Yoder  14:06

Absolutely, it is a long game. And just being patient and but committed doing food on YouTube is it’s hard because we’re not, you know, we can’t be like some YouTubers are like, Oh yeah, once a month just that. Shoot your eight recipe, you know, your eight videos for the month, or whatever it might be, that’s exhaust. You know, we’re in the kitchen. We’re making the food. It’s exhausting. So you do have to be committed for sure. 

Megan Porta  14:32

Yeah. And how long would you say it takes to start seeing pay off, like a year of investment or more? Yeah?

Cathy Yoder  14:41

For me, you know, I kind of feel like I’m probably a little bit of a unicorn in the where I just found this really great gap, and the tight, you know, 2020, all the that timing, all of those things aligned. But in the beginning, I was spending a ton of time and not making any like my first month that I finally monetized, I made, like, I think $1.38 Oh, my word. That is so much work for that little money. And then the next month I made like, $100 and then the next month I made 300 and then I think I made 2000 but I was just, you know, was the timing thing. But for me, I was like, Okay, I’m gonna set this date. I had set, actually, June 2021, if I wasn’t making at least $4,000 a month, then I would decide it wasn’t worth my time. So I think for anybody, you just need to kind of set your, you know, do it for a year, maybe 18 months. You need to decide what you’re willing to do and what your goal is, and then at that point, make a decision, but don’t expect 1000s of dollars your second month.

Megan Porta  15:49

Well, it’s just like ad revenue. You start out with pennies, literally, and then incrementally, it grows. So you just have to be willing to see those little amounts of money in your bank account at first, and be patient with it. Patience is such a huge piece of YouTube. I feel like, just with any other aspect of blogging, just hanging in there with it and doing the things over and over.

Cathy Yoder  16:14

Right, and remembering the long game as you’re building a catalog of content. So when you do make a video that goes crazy, and people are like, I want to see more things. You’ve got 20-30, whatever videos backlogged that they can sit and binge your channel, which then sends more great signals to YouTube. They’re like, oh, let’s push more of this content out. So just kind of reframing the work. 

Megan Porta  16:39

Yeah, what about video length? Have you experimented with what works for you as far as how long your videos are?

Cathy Yoder  16:47

Yeah. So YouTube, you know, wants people on their platform longer. So basically, anything over eight minutes, you can have an ad in the middle. So it would be so easy for me to just do one recipe, it would be about a two to three minute video. And for me, those have not done well at all. It’s been 12 plus minutes do well. And then every usually I’m at the point now about every quarter I will do every where I repurpose old content and do a certain theme, and I’ll have it like an hour long video. Oh, like, no one’s gonna watch that, but YouTube will serve that out because their average watch time is longer, which means they’re making more money, and I make more money too, anyway. So don’t forget, you can also repurpose content once you build that backlog.

Megan Porta  17:42

yeah, oh, wow. I didn’t even think about the kind of Roundup style, hour long video, but that makes sense that they would serve it up, yeah, 

Cathy Yoder  17:50

Yeah, yeah, they do well. 

Megan Porta  17:52

So how do you show relatability in your videos, whether it’s on YouTube or social media? Because I know that’s huge and getting that engaged audience. How do you start with that? 

Cathy Yoder  18:03

I think the biggest thing is, like, when I fail and make a silly mistake when I’m filming, I will leave it in and I’ll just be like, Oops, don’t do that. Like, just be real on authentic and just, you know, there’s a little bit of a stage face that you put on, but at the end of the day, it’s really me, and it’s just I’m being my weird self and bringing my kids in. You know, not everybody’s comfortable with that, but having my kids taste test and they are ruthless, gone and spit food out in the trash before, and we’ll show that, right? My 16 year old loves food, so he’s great to come review something. But my audience knows and loves the kids. Occasionally I’ll get complaints about the kids, but for the most part, they love seeing the real reactions of you know, what’s really happening in Cathy’s kitchen? Is it really that good? 

Megan Porta  18:58

That’s so great. I love that you’re I love that your son spit out food and that you kept it in there that is real, right? Not everyone is going to love every recipe that’s relatable, yeah, and so authentic too. I think Do you have a different relatability skill depending on the platform? So do you do something different on YouTube versus, say, Instagram, as far as, like, how much of those real moments you show.

Cathy Yoder  19:22

Yeah, the thing with Instagram is, I actually didn’t start that account, empowered Cook’s account, until August of 2023 and like, at that point in time, I was completely off social media, personally, so my daughter has been doing all of the work for that. So she’ll basically just say, you know, either repurpose videos or say, here’s what we’re gonna do, you know, record this. So I am, it’s a it’s a lot different, because I’m not good with hopping on every day telling stories. I’m like, Man, my life’s so boring. I have nothing to say, you know. So I. I would say it is for sure. I haven’t dialed into Instagram yet, and I don’t I also feel like there’s not too much time to show the mistakes and have a long conversation. Not that it’s long on YouTube. It’s just different, and I haven’t mastered it. So someone can teach me that. So no, it’s a different Cathy on Instagram than on YouTube, for sure.

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Megan Porta  21:25

I’ve heard that different platforms lend themselves for different kind of personalities to come out, and different flavors and way of ways of presenting yourself that’s always so interesting that it’s almost like the platform has a personality, And you adapt to it a little bit? Okay, so I love this concept of just, I do this with blogging and the podcast, honestly, just solving a problem, so solving a simple, easy, basic problem that your audience, or people in general, are having, and that brings in so much views and listeners and followers. What do you think about that? 

Cathy Yoder  22:05

Yeah, I think, like, for me and probably a lot of people, it’s like, when you figure out the problem was originally mine, right? I was overwhelmed by the air fryer. I think it was 2019, when I got mine, and I was like, Oh, how do you you know, it sat in the box. It collected dust. I, I was the person that I now teach to pull it out of the box. You know, here’s what to do first. So it made it really easy to just share my own journey and to take them from that point of overwhelm to look I can cook this, this, this, this, and they become their own air fryer, queen or king in their home. I think that’s the easiest way. Is just to be the mentor you did not have.

Megan Porta  22:51

I love that. That’s what I did with my instant pot years ago as well. I used it as a step step stool in my pantry for two years, and everyone I told that to was like, oh, horrified. Like, how could you do that? You’re gonna break it. What are you thinking? Pull it out of the box. So one day, a friend encouraged me to pull it out, and I went through this process of, like, what do I do with this thing? I don’t know what buttons to push. I don’t know these settings are so confusing. So yeah, I did that very thing with my just started talking them through what I went through when I decided it was no longer a step stool and an appliance. So, yeah, just kind of thinking through your own journey, right, right, yeah, yeah. And that’s valuable. That is adding so much value to people’s lives. And then I have a question for you, Cathy, about existing content. You don’t have to start a YouTube channel and put all new content out there? Can’t you go back and repurpose a lot of the content that you’ve already created?

Cathy Yoder  23:55

Oh, absolutely, yes. I mean, so to be honest, my cookbook, so when I started doing YouTube, and my people were like, We want a cookbook. And I was like, I don’t know how to do a cookbook. What are you talking about? And they kept asking for it. And so I was like, okay, I can do an ebook, right? So I did like, 50 ish recipes and an ebook, and I launched anyway, but all of those recipes were already on my blog. I had all the pictures. It was just repurposing content and putting it in a usable format for people. And I was nervous. I was like, and I also wrote every recipe in my description, which is good for SEO when you start out on YouTube. So it was all there. It was all over the internet. People can get it free, and I tell them, you can absolutely get it free, or you can buy it. It’s all compiled here. Anyway. So I did the digital and then within a month or so, a lot of my audience is older, and they were like, We want an actual cookbook. And it was scary. I was like, I don’t know how to do that. And it took about, I think, seven months and but there again, all of these. You know, I made the cookbook the way. I wanted. I was like, I want to spiral grounds. I want pictures in there and but all of not, all of them, no, all of them are on my website, so no one’s complained. 

Megan Porta  25:09

People appreciate that. Just repackaging it in absolutely in one place where they can go to, yeah, this is a hang up for so many food bloggers. They’re like, why would I put something together that they can access for free on my website, because you’re, you’re packaging it in a unique format, and they don’t have to search through, they don’t have to look at ads. That is valuable.

Cathy Yoder  25:30

yes, for sure, Yep, yeah. And it’s, I’ve sold over 35,000 of those cookbooks. I’m like, so glad that I did it. You know, it was terrible. It was terrible for a few months, like it was such a grind, but now just, it’s just, it’s there, it’s done. Yep, I make money while I sleep. 

Megan Porta  25:50

That’s so great. So as far as old, or, I should say, existing recipes, you can go back and create videos of those, right? You don’t need to create novel, new concepts for every single video you create. Go back to some of your basics. Your go to popular recipes and start creating, maybe YouTube videos of those?

Cathy Yoder  26:14

Yep. And I would, I would, honestly start with a theme and so pick three recipes. I know it’s more work, but, I mean, you could test it out. Test it out, it just hasn’t worked for me. But there are other there are other YouTubers who can get by with just one recipe, you know, and it’s five minutes long, or three minutes long. The thing about YouTube is that, just like Instagram, it still needs to be a little bit snappy, like they don’t need to see you stir forever, unless you’re making the ASMR type videos where people do want to listen and hear you stir forever, you know, and go through that process. But keeping the angles changing, just keeping it moving, will keep engaged. But sorry, I was all over the place. Back to my point of pull three recipes that kind of compliment each other. It’s a chicken or, you know, three different chicken recipes, or quick week weeknight meals, whatever you choose, and then pulls together and see.

Megan Porta  27:10

So kind of back to your different like, I think you said six buckets, right? So maybe you pull three recipes per bucket and just experiment with it, with your existing content. Is that a good strategy? 

Cathy Yoder  27:22

Yeah, test it out and then. But also a bucket could be top 10, blah, blah, blah. You know, a listicle does really well, so Okay, or yeah, you have to play with it. 

Megan Porta  27:33

Yeah, play around experiment. It’s all about experimentation these days too, just seeing what works and then running with what does work. You mentioned earlier, that in the beginning, and maybe even now that you reply to every single comment. Do you still do that? And how important do you think that is when you’re getting started?

Cathy Yoder  27:51

Yes, it’s absolutely important. And in the beginning, you won’t get comments, so you do need to ask a question and to create engagement. But I just remember sometimes, like, even now, when I respond to comments, some people are like, wow, wow, I don’t, I didn’t think I would hear from you. Or they were like, asking the other viewers a question, and I pop on and answer their question, and they’re just like, they feel seen and heard, and people deserve to feel that. So I feel like, when you just serve the one and you and you think about the one person you’re trying to serve, you actually will serve many, but focusing on that one, it’s just really great with engagement, and it just also sends the right signals to YouTube that people are talking and you’re talking back. And I’ve gotten a ton of great ideas from the comments like, Oh, that’s a great video idea.

Megan Porta  28:37

Yeah, listening, right, showing up and listening to what people are saying and actually following through. I used to be really terrible at that, like people would tell me what they wanted, and I was like, Oh, good, but then I wouldn’t deliver what they wanted. I eventually learned that you have to deliver what people are asking you for. Yes, okay, so the the comments now we’re talking on YouTube is, does that carry through to other platforms as well? Do you reply to comments everywhere your blog, social media, you know, Facebook, Instagram and even emails? 

Cathy Yoder  29:09

Yes. I mean, when I think of but about the last, wow, I’ve been blogging. It’s 2008 so however many years, that’s been a long time. What you’re like

Megan Porta  29:19

teen? I think 16 years. That’s a long time. 

Cathy Yoder  29:23

You know, part of it is just that I’m naturally a people pleaser, and I don’t like to have people feel unheard, so I’ve always responded to blog comments. I do have a team now that helps with that for the actual blog part. And like I said, my daughter runs my Instagram, so she like for my mental health, I can’t be in all the places. So I’m fortunate enough now that I have teams to help me, but responding to emails, yes, but I have somebody else that handles emails now, but I’ll still pop in there sometimes, and just because I I just naturally love to help people.

Megan Porta  29:58

Aside from replying to comments. Is there any other way that you build rapport with your people and maintain relationships? So do you engage in, like, I don’t know outside email communication or anything else. 

Cathy Yoder  30:13

I don’t know that I necessarily Well, I mean, I have, I have my monthly membership where we’ll have, like, we do a monthly cooking with Cathy, is what it’s called. So I have a group that comes on there, and we’ll just make something once a month. Of course, that’s a paid, you know, they have to pay me to hang out with me, which sounds weird. That’s okay, a lot of fun. What’s fun to do in on YouTube, especially, is call them out, you know, show a comma on screen and then respond to it or so, and so taught me this trick. Thank you. Blah, blah, blah. So just letting them know I’m it’s just like again, letting everybody know that I’m here and I see them and I’m a real person.

Megan Porta  30:51

Yeah, do you do live streaming of any sort? 

Cathy Yoder  30:55

I do? Yeah, I usually run the holidays. I’ll live stream more often. And the lives are so much fun. They’re so much fun because, you know, responding to comments real time. YouTube also has another function. If I have a longer video, I will premiere you premiere the video, so everybody watches it live the first time together, whoever’s on, and we can sit and have a live chat. So that’s a lot of fun to connect that way too.

Megan Porta  31:21

So engaging, right? Just having that live, open communication, so it’s not just you editing something that you present. It’s like we’re actually here together, having a conversation, which is super valuable.

Cathy Yoder  31:32

Yeah, and that’s the fun part of after creating content, is like talking about it with people and seeing how it’s received. 

Megan Porta  31:39

I get so lit up when I like this, like this, communication right here is so invigorating. Versus, if you and I were to send an email back and forth, it would be great to talk to you over email, but it’s so different. When I get off of these calls, I just feel like we engaged, we made a difference, we added value to the world. It’s so important that we all find ways to do that in our businesses. I feel like, 

Cathy Yoder  32:05

Yeah, especially when we’re we are more isolated working from home. And yeah, the real the real life connection is fun. It’s so

Megan Porta  32:13

fun. So we talked a little bit about finding your niche on YouTube. Do you have any other tips on that, and how important is it to find that niche? 

Cathy Yoder  32:25

Well, again, it’s just teaching the algorithm what you’re about. So I think I mentioned before, I actually started the channel in 2012 so I had some funny little product reviews of my kids riding some bikes, and I had one sponsored video I did for a store anyway? So super random things. And as people were coming and starting to find, I think it was my air fryer donuts, that was the first one that did well. And then YouTube then pushes out more of my channel content, and people are gonna see what wiggle cars, wiggle scooter, you know? What is this about? I thought this lady cooked food, so I unlisted all of those things that were not relevant, and literally within a week of pulling those things off of my channel. I don’t know if that’s exactly what it was, probably com combination of things, but it just helped my channel more because it made my content less confusing. So just think about, you know, what do you already have out there? What are you creating? Is it going to be relevant for somebody that finds you? Are they going to care about these other things? Are they actually going to be confused? So you really have to just think about the person that you’re serving, and that also will serve the algorithm. 

Megan Porta  33:32

Yeah, that it goes the same. The same thing goes for your blog. I feel like when you get rid of that stuff, that content that doesn’t necessarily relate to your niche, that suddenly this weight is lifted from your blog and you’re able to shine and be seen on in so many areas. So it sounds like it’s the same thing, with YouTube? Yeah. Is there anything that we’re missing? What else do people need to know if they want to get into YouTube and grow this part of their business, or even social media, anything to mention there.

Speaker 1  33:37

I think just being kind of like what we talked about earlier, being committed to it, I would totally film four weeks of content. When I started out, I was doing two uploads a week. And then when fall of 2020, started remember, like, school, at home.

Megan Porta  34:24

Yes, the weirdest thing ever. 

Cathy Yoder  34:26

It was, I was like, I cannot do this. Yeah, and film twice a week, and I was editing as well, so I went down to one a week, and that was fine. But in the beginning, just if you can do more frequently, it’s not so much for YouTube. It’s more for you, because if you go look at my first videos, you can go sort and see my oldest video. I have my head cut off sometimes I’m looking at the viewfinder instead of like the camera. It’s ridiculously terrible. So, but that’s how you learn, right? You learn, and then you watch it, and then. Publish it anyway, and just just like, like, fail faster. That term fail faster. Just go, start creating content. It’ll get better. You’ll never be as bad as your first video, right? It’ll be boring and terrible and yeah, so trying to hit perfection in the beginning is not gonna happen. So just publish.

Megan Porta  35:18

That is a hang up for so many content creators, the whole perfection thing, like, it has to be perfect, it has to be just right, and it’s never going to be just right. And you’re giving yourself an opportunity to look back someday and see how far you’ve come. That’s why I always try to think of it. But yeah, just, just put it out there, even if it feels ugly and messy and weird, just do it. 

Cathy Yoder  35:39

Yes, absolutely. Just, yeah, I think Mr. Beast has he he’s got his original videos up still that are terrible. 

Megan Porta  35:47

That’s what my boys have told me. They’ve said that I haven’t watched them myself, but they’ve said that they’re absolutely terrible. And just, I think that’s great, that he wears that as a badge of honor, that, yes, this is how far I’ve come. Look at me now. That’s wonderful. So YouTube is for anyone. If you are a food blogger, you’re creating food content. Do you believe that anyone can get started with this? 

Cathy Yoder  36:10

Oh, sure, yes. It’s just, can you I feel like I’m repeating myself. Just be committed to it. So, oh, I think I started to say, create a backlog. So before you even start publishing, have like, six videos ready to go and then start releasing them. And just pick whether you, even if you’re just doing weekly pick one time. For me, I go Saturday mornings because people are more at home on the weekends, so I get more views on the weekends. There’s a whole lot of other things, but just starting there and picking a time and just being committed to it. I didn’t miss my first upload, I think, for a year and a half, like my my most popular video, I it was like 15 things you didn’t know you could cook in the air fryer. And I slowly worked on it, and I was set to publish it in February 2021, and my family got COVID, and I wasn’t done with the video, and you will see me in that intro video. I was so sick with COVID, but I put my makeup on and just like, sucked it up and faked it to the camera. And that video has made me, can’t remember, 1000s of dollars. It’s gotten me, Wow, 1000s of viewers. It has, I think, over 6 million views now, wow. But it was like, if I just would have given up and not made that video, like you just don’t let things stop you.

Megan Porta  37:26

Yeah, you have no idea how many interviews I’ve recorded that, or I’ve been sick, or I’ve just been exhausted, or just not feeling it. And I get done, I’m like, I don’t know how I did that, but I’m so glad I did, because then I would never, I would literally never record an interview if I was top notch, feeling the best every time. It’s just not realistic.

Cathy Yoder  37:49

Right? Yeah, waiting for the right moment, it’s never gonna happen.

Megan Porta  37:52

know it’s never gonna happen. It never will happen. Well, I’m super inspired by this chat. Cathy and I know others are going to be as well. This is a huge thing this year and beyond. Video, YouTube, making video for social media, all of that, I think, is going to just become more and more prominent in our space. So thank you for bringing your value and expertise to the table. We so appreciate all of this. 

Cathy Yoder  38:16

Oh, thank you for having me. I love sharing. 

Megan Porta  38:18

Yeah. Do you have words of inspiration to leave us with?

Cathy Yoder  38:22

Yeah, something that I became a mantra, because I also am a recovering perfectionist, is that something is better than nothing, and it kind of goes with what we spoke to earlier. Just just start it. Just do it. If you do, if you’re waiting for the perfect, it won’t show up, so it’ll be nothing. So just start with something. You’ll get better. 

Megan Porta  38:41

Yes, the greatest advice ever for a blogger, just get started and keep going. Love it. Well, we’ll put together a show notes page for you. Cathy, if you want to go look at those, you can head to eatblogtalk.com/empowered cooks. Tell everyone where they can find you, both on your blog and your YouTube channel and elsewhere?

Cathy Yoder  39:01

So if you go to empoweredcooks.com that will link to it’s like my hub also on YouTube Empowered Cooks, or even better, for the algorithm, right? Go search air fryer recipes, find one of my videos, then watch it fully, then subscribe. But yeah, that empoweredcooks.com gets you to where you need to be. 

Megan Porta  39:23

Awesome. Everyone go check out Cathy’s channel. It’s amazing. You will be inspired after you look at it. So thanks again, Cathy, for being here, and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  39:36

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