Episode 665: Build an Online Business Without Relying On Social Media – Powerful Collaboration Strategies for Food Bloggers with Brett DuPree

EBT665 – Brett Dupree

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. 

[ 00:00:37 ] Megan Porta   

As food bloggers. We can so get stuck in our own little worlds that we forget that it is an option to collaborate with other food bloggers to create amazing projects and products. Brett Dupree from Freaking Delish joins me in this incredible interview to talk about her success collaborating with other content creators to create this summit, the What’s for Dinner Summit that has allowed her to find success in areas of her business that she didn’t anticipate.

[ 00:01:09 ]   

She has built some solid long term relationships and so many other benefits have come from this. So whether you want to become a part of somebody else’s collaboration or maybe you want to start your own thing, this episode is just what you will need to get inspired to start. It is episode number 665 and I hope you love it.

[ 00:01:32 ] Sponsor   

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[ 00:01:56 ]   

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[ 00:02:11 ]   

Brett Dupre is a food blogger and the founder of Freaking Delish, where she helps hardworking families create simple, delicious meals that fit into their busy lives. In addition to her blog and membership platform, she hosts an annual summit What’s for Dinner? The summit that together content creators from across the food and lifestyle space to share practical tips, recipes and inspiration.

[ 00:02:33 ]   

With a focus on collaboration and serving everyday families, Brett is passionate about making mealtime stress free and meaningful for everyone. Brett, welcome to Eat Blog Talk. I am so happy to have you here and it’s so nice to meet you. How are you doing today? Oh, I’m great.

[ 00:02:49 ]  Brett Dupree 

I am just so excited to be here. I’ve been listening to you for so long. It feels like so. This is such a cool experience. I’m so glad to be invited.

[ 00:02:57 ]  Megan Porta 

I love listeners become guests. That is so special to me because they know each other automatically already.

[ 00:03:05 ]  Brett Dupree 

I definitely feel that way. I’m like, oh, she’s in my headphones. And now it’s like, finally. So nice to meet you in person.

[ 00:03:11 ]  Megan Porta 

Oh, well, it’s so lovely to meet you. And we’re going to talk about collaborations. I think this is such an important topic and something that a lot of food bloggers don’t explore. So I’m really excited to hear your story with it.

[ 00:03:25 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yes, I’m eager to talk about it because, like, I feel like I have a lot to say about it right now.

[ 00:03:29 ]  Megan Porta 

Well, that’s good. That makes for a really interesting and lively conversation. So it’s going to be great. Do you have a fun fact to share with us, Brett?

[ 00:03:37 ]  Brett Dupree 

Fun fact? I am a crazy chicken lady.

[ 00:03:40 ]  Megan Porta 

Okay, explain.

[ 00:03:41 ]  Brett Dupree 

I got Covid chickens for my. For my boys when we were homeschooling, and they are, like, the thing, the project that will never go away. So I’m on round two. So I have. Okay.

[ 00:03:53 ]  Megan Porta 

I was going to say, how long do they live approximately?

[ 00:03:56 ]  Brett Dupree 

I was mistaken. I thought it was going to be, like, two years. Not true. They can live for, like, years.

[ 00:04:05 ]  Megan Porta 

Oh, years. I had no idea. Like five. Five years.

[ 00:04:08 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yes. At least.

[ 00:04:10 ]  Megan Porta 

Wow.

[ 00:04:11 ]  Brett Dupree 

So, I mean, you know, as long as they don’t get snatched up by hawks and whatnot. Yeah.

[ 00:04:15 ]  Megan Porta 

Right.

[ 00:04:15 ]  Brett Dupree 

So we have. Yeah, we have Rhode island reds and Easter eggers, so we get pretty green eggs and pretty brown eggs.

[ 00:04:21 ]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s amazing. Yes. I feel like the COVID trend was to gather chickens, but I love that you’re still going strong and that you didn’t let it die after Covid died.

[ 00:04:32 ]  Brett Dupree 

I literally can’t give these chickens away.

[ 00:04:36 ]  Megan Porta 

And do your boys love them?

[ 00:04:38 ]  Brett Dupree 

They used to, and now it’s just like, you know, kind of a chore. We’re like little farmers. Wannabe farmers. Yeah.

[ 00:04:46 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. That happens with kids where they get really excited about something, and then mom or dad ends up being the one to take care of this project.

[ 00:04:55 ]  Brett Dupree 

Now they’re 10 and 12, so they’re, like, too cool for school, but, yeah.

[ 00:04:59 ]  Megan Porta 

You know, that’s funny.

[ 00:05:01 ]  Brett Dupree 

So. Yeah. But we have a lot of eggs, though. I still get four eggs a day, so.

[ 00:05:04 ]  Megan Porta 

Oh, it’s a lot of Eggs.

[ 00:05:06 ]  Brett Dupree 

So right now it’s kind of like my neighbors are coming around.

[ 00:05:09 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, right. We eat so many eggs in our house. I feel like I should get a couple chickens just for that.

[ 00:05:15 ]  Brett Dupree 

It really is low maintenance if you’ve got the space. It’s like such a easy. It’s like the gateway drug of like homesteading, you know, like it’s so easy. It’s so easy. But they’re just kind of nasty sometimes.

[ 00:05:27 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, right. And we do have this killer cat. Like he’s super snuggly. We love him to pieces, but he’s outdoor indoor cat and I’m afraid that he would just not do nice things.

[ 00:05:38 ]  Brett Dupree 

We have a straight that comes around. She’s meow, meow and she does not touch my chicken.

[ 00:05:42 ]  Megan Porta 

Really?

[ 00:05:43 ]  Brett Dupree 

Never touches them. Never. My dog, my dog, he like she raised it, raised them. So like they come after her, but she doesn’t.

[ 00:05:54 ]  Megan Porta 

That changes the story for me because I always assumed that our cat would absolutely murder and just destroy them. But maybe not. Maybe.

[ 00:06:02 ]  Brett Dupree 

Mine is an alley cat. She’s like a hardcore stray. She battles all kind of wild animals.

[ 00:06:07 ]  Megan Porta 

Out there and she’s good to know. I’m so glad we talked about that. Now a much different topic. Onto collaborations. From potentially dead chickens to collaborations. That’s a segue there. Before we get to collaborations though, I would love for you to talk about your blog a little bit. Freaking delish. Just give us the scoop on it.

[ 00:06:30 ]  Brett Dupree 

Freaking delish is, you know, it kind of started as like a little bit of a passion project. My husband is a food photographer. I’m the ultimate foodie and we just, it went from a mom blog situation to a full blown switching niches and going all in on food. We’re just a foodie family.

[ 00:06:48 ]   

So it was a natural thing for, for me to niche down and do it. I know that’s kind of hard for a lot of people to do, but it was and it was, it just brought so much joy. It made it fun. It made it fun. It made it light. So Freakin Delish.

[ 00:06:59 ]   

It’s really focused on the same audience though. So I was focused on working moms and now I’m still work. I’m still focused on working moms and busy moms and trying to help them come together. Really. You know, you talk about this idea of perfection and there’s the mental load that moms carry and I wanted to really streamline that into dinner.

[ 00:07:23 ]   

Dinner is super important for us. My husband is a two time cancer survivor, so it’s like my thing is to have Us come to, like, that family time is so incredibly important. And I don’t care how busy you are. Like, you. When you. When you know how important that is, it’s something that you don’t ever want to give up again.

[ 00:07:41 ]   

So that’s. It’s just my. It’s my passion to just bring families, show them easy ways to get this magic for themselves and get that little family time, whether it’s sharing these cooking duties or, you know, taking shortcuts or whatever. So Freakin Delish. Just all about that, you know, doesn’t have to be perfect.

[ 00:07:58 ]   

It’s. It’s the time. It’s the getting that family together is. So that’s kind of how. That’s how I started.

[ 00:08:05 ]  Megan Porta 

You just sold me, like, times a million. That was so beautiful. I hope that you give that spiel to everyone who asks about your blog.

[ 00:08:11 ]   

Because that is like.

[ 00:08:12 ]   

Like tear inducing and just, you know, it pulls at your heartstrings and it also, I think. I don’t know, just. It’s relatable. Like, a lot of people have that struggle and that desire. So thank you for doing that.

[ 00:08:25 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yeah, it’s. It’s true. And it’s. And it’s growing more and more every day. So it’s everybody. Somebody you know has been touched by something, and it’s that family unit just, like, slowing down, releasing that perfection. These standards bars that we keep raising and setting for ourselves as women, as mothers, you know?

[ 00:08:42 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[ 00:08:43 ]  Brett Dupree 

Kind of letting that go a little bit and, like, refocusing, sort of recalibrating your. What’s important, you know, I think is huge.

[ 00:09:17 ]  Megan Porta 

Okay, so you do collaboration with other bloggers, and I’m so excited to learn about this. This is something that not a lot of bloggers do. So first of all, talk about kind of your journey with collaboration and how it’s worked for you.

[ 00:09:34 ]  Brett Dupree 

So it really started out of a desire to not want to put the fate of my business into any one particular pot, like Facebook or YouTube or Instagram or any one specific algorithm that I didn’t have control over. You know, that’s that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to start this as a small business.

[ 00:09:07 ]   

It wasn’t, you know, I was passionate about it, but I also wanted to replace my income. So I want. I was looking at long term, how do I. How do I control as much of that as possible without giving it away and being sort of, you know, at the mercy of some algorithm?

And the only way I could figure to do that was. And I did the Facebook ads when I first started, I went from zero to like, my first hundred subscribers were. I got them from Facebook ads. That was, you know, that was how I was taught. That was how we were raised up.

So that’s what I practiced. And I just couldn’t see that being a sustainable way for me. It just didn’t. It didn’t feel right with what I wanted to create for myself, because I’m not a big social media person. Being a food blogger, that’s kind of an oxymoron, but that’s where we are. Yeah.

So that’s. I knew there had to be a different way to do it, and I started doing bundles and sort of doing a lot of outreach to try and pull together people and like, how can we work together? How can we do this together? I didn’t honestly get a lot of good feedback from food bloggers at the time because they were stuck in their own, like, trying to get traffic to their site.
  

It very isolated, sort of not collaborative efforts other than just sharing links and whatnot, so. Which was kind of a bummer, to be honest with you. So as a new blogger, I was like, this is gonna be. This is gonna be tough. And so I just feel like. And I tried different things.
 

I tried the bundles and working with people. And I really reached out to mom bloggers, to be honest with you, because that. That was. We had a crossover audience. And so that’s kind of where things started. People who were talking with, you know, had family audiences talking about family matters, whether it’s finances or health and wellness or whatever.

And that’s kind of where my. Where it started. And then I was introduced. A blogger friend of mine heard about doing a summit, and she’s got a completely different niche. She’s. She’s actually a, like a homesteader. So she was like, there’s this amazing way that we could. You know, she was all about the collaborations as well.

She’s like, this is. This is going to be it. This is the collaborative way to like, grow our business. Like, kind of checks all the boxes. And so she introduced me to Summit in a Box and Krista Miller and I mean, it just kind of blew my mind. I was like, oh my gosh, this could be the thing to kind of build our audience, generate revenue, build our memberships and create this sort of consistent, predictable income stream that we’re all sort of, you know, trying to get without being at the mercy of an algorithm that, you know, is brutal and unpredictable.

[ 00:12:10 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, absolutely.

What you said earlier about isolation and just kind of working in our own little world, oh my gosh, that is so true. It’s so hard to break people from that just concept of like, you, you don’t have to do this. And it can actually be a lot easier if you work with other people. Like, the more people, the better.

[ 00:12:34 ]  Brett Dupree 

It’s, you know, it’s sort of the same mind people are. Change is so hard and it’s better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. Right. That’s kind of where a lot of us live a lot of the time about everything. So it’s trying to sway and like get them to do something different or, and, and what I’ve found also like kind of getting into the summit thing is a lot of food bloggers have products, they’re generating revenue still just from ads and views and things like that.

So that to me has been sort of the biggest struggle. But it’s really been really interesting how when I’ve tapped into and connected with food bloggers, they’re like, you know, I, I don’t actually sell anything and. But I’ve been really thinking about doing that and creating a product. And this could be, you know, sort of a way for me to do that and sort of segue and add it to my business, you know, repertoire.
 

Things that I have, you know, if they have a cookbook already, but they don’t have like a low ticket item or a membership or whatever, but they’ve been like, you know, I need to diversify and I’d like to, you know, this, this might be a way to kind of get the ball rolling a little bit.

[ 00:13:40 ]  Megan Porta 

So yeah. So if somebody listening is not totally sure what you’re talking about when you’re referring to summits, can you just describe what you’re talking about with the word summit?

[ 00:13:50 ]  Brett Dupree 

Sure. So a lot of the food bloggers out there are probably familiar with some of the summits, the in person summits or conferences. Food blogger conferences that take place, you know, annually in a certain location. Right. So you’re there for a couple of days, you meet a whole bunch of bloggers. You sit in on different speakers talking about all these different topics, right?

About your, your area, your business. This is the exact same thing, except it’s online. So it’s a virtual event. And it’s usually three to five days. I can’t imagine a five day event, but a three day event is where I live and that’s a lot. And so it’s just, you pull a bunch of.
 

So the way the online summit is sort of set up, it’s a virtual event. You have, you know, roughly 20 speakers or so. And so for me it’s, it’s all different kinds of foodie experts and they can be from any sort of YouTube or cookbook authors or just straight up food bloggers coming together and having their little slots and their little times where they have a little presentation that they give and help the common sort of shared audience tackle whatever topic that, you know, you’re focused in on.
  

So that’s kind of how it works. And it’s, and it works, it helps everybody’s audience because it’s a free event. Typically I have seen paid ones, but the ones we’re talking about are typically free. And then you have an upsell. So like a VIP pass with, that’s loaded with different things from your speakers, you know, special access and that kind of thing.

[ 00:15:20 ]  Megan Porta 

And then do you also get email addresses to add to your subscriber list or is it more about the product?

[ 00:15:27 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yeah, it’s both. So this, it’s kind of like I said earlier, like this is sort of a thing that kind of checks all the boxes. If you’re the host putting on the event, then they reg the attendees will register through you, you collect all of the, all the leads. And then the individual speakers, they will during their, their slotted time, I’ve seen it done a couple of different ways, but basically during your slotted time as a speaker, you’ll have like a little freebie, a lead magnet that you’ll give away or a special discount code that you want to give out for just the attendees and they’ll click the link and then you can capture those leads that way and also capture the leads from.

If you contribute to the upsell package that upsell that VIP ticket, then you can capture leads that way as well. And you’ll also get an affiliate commission from sending your audience to the registration page. And if they purchase the VIP pass, then you, as the speaker who sent them there will get the affiliate commission as well.

So you get to earn money, you get to capture leads, you get to get in front of different audiences, which is, you know, ideal. And people who are looking to solve the, the problem, they’re looking for your solutions. Right, Absolutely. That. Yeah. So it kind of checks, checks them off.

[ 00:16:48 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Not only are you getting email addresses and more traction on your content, but you’re also adding so much value to the people coming, which is my goal. And it’s free. Yeah.

[ 00:17:00 ]  Brett Dupree 

And they get free things from every speaker typically. So it’s like you’re corralling as the, as the host. It’s a lot of work on the back end, obviously getting the speakers doing all the back end stuff. It’s a ton of, it’s a ton of work, I’m not going to lie. But it’s such a big win for your people and for everyone else’s people that like, it’s, it’s a beautiful, it just like you get what you get, you know.

[ 00:17:25 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And if you are watching on YouTube, leave a comment right now. Have you ever been involved in a summit or is this something that you’ve ever wanted to get, be a part of? I’m just curious.

[ 00:17:35 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yeah, that’s a good question.

[ 00:17:40 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So how do you make sure your collaborations aren’t just like a one time deal? How do you make sure that it’s leading into like growth for your business as a whole? Does that make sense?

[ 00:17:50 ]  Brett Dupree 

So I think you can’t know for sure, but I think that this sort of, this is a, this is a hot button issue. This is a hot button issue for a lot of content creators. They don’t want to give away what they feel is like they’re, they’re hard work, you know, they don’t want to give it, give it away for free if they don’t know what they’re going to get on the, on the flip side of it.

And I just don’t, I generally don’t operate in that perspective sort of at all. I am, that’s sort of very, a very limiting mindset in my world and I like to operate at this perspective of abundance. Like you do get what you give and the, and you can’t, you can’t really put like this.

I mean you can, but it’s, it. I think that the more opportunity you give yourself to grow and see new audiences and connect with other people, that that’s only going to benefit your business and introduce you to other people and create sustaining relationships for people who are like minded. Now there’s going to be people who are not like minded and they’re not going to want to, they’re only going to want to get that one piece.

But that’s life, you know, that’s every, every business. So I think that the more that you’re willing to share, the more that you’re going to get back and more people are going to want to work with you. And that’s. Well, that has been my experience at least, because from last year I did two summits.

I did one in February and one in August, and I don’t recommend two summits back to back. It’s crazy, crazy pants. But it has spawned so much from that. So like other I’ve been asked to do, like this is a, this isn’t a prime example just being on your podcast, but this whole year is filled up for me so far.
  

For the next five months I have speaking things and bundles and other summits that I’ve been at that are not necessarily really in my niche, but the, there’s a crossover for the audience. So it’s like things have happened that I hadn’t even really thought about as a result. But you know, windows are opening all over the place.

[ 00:19:53 ]  Sponsor 

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[ 00:20:13 ]  Megan Porta

I love this message. I was just recording an interview before this where we came. We were talking about a totally separate topic, but same message, which is on paper, things do not always make sense and it might actually stop you from pursuing a project.But something like this, where you’re collaborating with other people, that’s such a powerful thing. You’re opening yourself up and you’re doing something that’s scary and that might feel really uncomfortable, but doing so opens doors for you that you cannot see when you’re writing everything out on paper. So you can’t just sit down and be like, okay, should I do this collaboration?

Well, this doesn’t make sense because like, you just have no idea where this is. So the message is like, open yourself up to opportunities like this and other opportunities that you have no idea are coming will come your way.

[ 00:21:06 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yeah. And I think you have to do it from a genuine place of like, this feels right to me, you know, like not the, the paper thing can, you can’t let it define you because that it can work for somebody. You have to create your own blueprint because like if you’re, especially if you’re duplicating what somebody else has done or in the past or what’s the right way to do your business as a blogger?

Like, that’s all great in theory, but in practice, it. You could make you miserable. Right? Yeah. So, I mean, the practice is really, I think, everything in this world because you, we, we are required to produce a lot of content. And you know, that has to come from a place of joy because it’s.

You’re just going to be spinning your wheels otherwise and you’re working yourself and then you could be doing anything else.

[ 00:21:55 ]  Megan Porta 

So would you say that opening yourself up to collaborating with others has improved almost everything in your business? So we’re talking, you know, traffic and sales and revenue and relationships and all of that?

[ 00:22:12 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yes, absolutely. And, you know, I think you. I can’t think of a way that it hasn’t. I mean, it has, in all honesty. It has been a ton of work on the front end. So it was a real gamble to kind of figure out if this was. I didn’t know if it was going to pay.

It was a grand experiment really, because there’s this, this type of summit has been done in like, sort of the, you know, B2B side a lot, but not necessarily. And in different niches, but not in food. And because especially since there’s like food and dinners and quick meals and meal plans, all this stuff is so prolific everywhere and every outlet that you can look at.

So it was, for me, it was like, is this going to play? And in my area? But the answer is yes. Like, there’s still, there’s still people like that one of. They need the meal plans. They want the help. They want you to curate it. They want, like, there’s, there’s this desire and this felt need that’s there.

[ 00:23:10 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is a definitely needed information and I don’t think that will go away.

Do you find. So we’ve kind of alluded to this, but do you find that when you approach people about being part of your summit that they’re mostly hesitant or are they like, oh my gosh, this is mostly hesitant? Yeah. Okay, so talk about that.

[ 00:23:28 ]  Brett Dupree 

A lot of no’s. There’s a lot of no’s. A lot of ghosting. And that’s. I kind of knew that that was gonna happen going into it, because I’m also, let me just say, like, I previously mentioned, like, I was not. I didn’t want to build my business on social media. I didn’t. And, and like, and I saw this because it’s.

It was such a Sort of a. So my husband is a food photographer and he’s got, you know, 12,000 plus followers and he does, he does mostly print media. So he’s a senior food photographer for a lot of different magazines and he’s never posts and he just has these people following him. Right.

And he was like, you’re going to have to do this, you’re going to have to do. I was like, I’m not doing social media. As of right Now, I have 400 something followers on Instagram. So I have not built my business, but I have a steady income that’s coming in just from this.

So to me it’s been like, when I ask people, I know the first thing they’re going to do is look me up on Instagram and like, you know, who is this girl? And you know, kind of what can she do for me? You know, what’s, what’s in it for me? It’s kind of the attitude and so it produces a whole lot of no’s however, and that’s fine.

And that’s been fine. I’m like, they’ll learn, they’ll get, they’ll get the message eventually. I’ll sway them at one point.

[ 00:24:50 ]  Megan Porta 

I love it. I love your attitude.

[ 00:24:52 ]  Brett Dupree 

And so. But it’s like they have to, you know, but then there’s others that are like, oh my God, this is awesome. Yes. Oh, this will be fun. Yes. Thank you for this. I wanted to do video, but I, I didn’t really have a, a reason to start doing it. This will be a good catalyst for me.

Or, you know, this will, this will get, get me on a deadline so I can create that content that I’ve been wanting to create but really didn’t have a reason to do it. So. Yeah, or just to get in front of a new audience and collaborate. People like the idea of collaboration and I think that that has been where I have found this success, is that those people who are looking for that.

This is a great way to do it.

[ 00:25:25 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, it’s kind of a forced way to do it. Like, okay, now I actually have to do this.

[ 00:25:30 ]  Brett Dupree 

Sometimes we need those artificial deadlines, you know.

[ 00:25:37 ]  Megan Porta 

A lot of us. Well, that’s interesting that you get a lot of no’s.

Just, I mean, it doesn’t surprise me, but yeah. I don’t know.

[ 00:25:45 ]  Brett Dupree 

People are curious and they’re kind of like, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t quite know. I don’t, I don’t know if I should do that I’m just gonna wait. Hit me up next time. I have gotten a lot of that too. Like, oh, this is interesting, I’m busy. But maybe next round, you know, maybe.

[ 00:26:19 ]  Megan Porta 

It’s one of those things where you just have to have exposure to it for a while. And then after, you know, a few rounds, they’re like, okay, now I get it. And I’m on board.

[ 00:26:37 ]  Brett Dupree 

It’s like everything else, right? You’ve got to show your audience, like, how many times, 11 times or whatever before they’re like, hey, yeah, I have to keep seeing this. I keep seeing this.

[ 00:26:45 ]  Megan Porta 

So why did I say no to that? I need to go back.

[ 00:26:48 ]  Brett Dupree 

And I had people start to contact me after the second summit and like, oh, somebody forwarded me this, like, you know, can I apply for the next round? And I was like, oh, yeah, okay. I didn’t. Sure, sure you can.

[ 00:27:04 ]  Megan Porta 

So word of mouth is getting back to you. Yeah.

[ 00:27:07 ]  Brett Dupree 

And like, so people who’ve gone to the summit have told their, like, if they’re in other memberships, they’ve. That’s how I’ve gotten some different speaking things is that, oh, one of my members went to your summit. I didn’t know about it, but then I checked it out and this is really cool. Would you like to come and speak?
 

Or whatever. And so I never saw that coming either. So it’s been, it’s been interesting. It’s just gonna, you know, it just takes a little time to get traction. And I figured that would be the case. And. Yeah. So, you know, that’s okay.

[ 00:27:29 ]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely. So you said two summits in a year is not ideal. Now, moving forward, do you do just one a year?

[ 00:27:14 ]  Brett Dupree 

That’s my plan. As of right now, I’m dabbling with the idea of an evergreen one. But that’s going to be TBD. But, yeah, I think it’s going to. It’s going to live in the fall for right now. So that’s kind of my plan. And I think it’s going to be easier too, for so many of us.
  

Plan out our content calendar so far in advance. You know, we like to do these quarterly or, you know, six month or even the full year. You know, people are locked up and have their stuff already planned out for their people. So I think it’s going to work just to do it once.

[ 00:27:48 ]  Megan Porta 

Right, right. To be continued. Do you take applications or how do you filter people who want to be a part of this?

[ 00:27:55 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yes, I love. Well, because in the spirit of collaboration, I love recommendations. So that’s part of the onboarding process that we have is if someone is like, that’s one of the questions is, do you have anyone that you would like for me to ask to participate in this, this summit or the next summit, A future summit.
  

So that’s how I’ve gotten a lot of mine. It’s like, oh yeah, my friend, she’s also in this niche, she’d love to, you know, do this too because she wants to start doing video as well or blah blah. So that’s been how I’ve done it. But now for this summit, I have a, an application that I’m.
  

I’m gonna put out and kind of get circulating because there seems to be interest for it. So just another round. I’d love to, you know, give you guys the opportunity to apply if you want to. I’ll give you the link so they can check it out, see the details.

[ 00:28:40]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely. That would be great. I’m sure a lot of people. Yep, a lot of people would be all over that. What if somebody wants to start something like this themselves? Do you have any tips for those people?

[ 00:28:57 ]  Brett Dupree 

Summit in a Box. That’s my biggest record. I couldn’t have done this just flying solo. It’s a, it is a grand undertaking. It is a months in advance project. So the way Krista from Summit in a Box, she’s. That’s. That’s who she gives you the whole asana. The process. Process. And it is thorough.

I will say that it is thorough and it is not for the faint of heart, but it’s, it is, it is worth the effort. If you’re one of those people who likes, fancies yourself, sort of an event player, big on organizing. If you love that that’s like your, you know, your bailiwick, then this is summit.
 

Summits are awesome to put on and I think that the sort of, the possibilities are endless. You know, we have what’s for dinner. This summit, we’re focused on dinner and helping parents do quick meals and budget friendly stuff and things like that. But I think that the possibilities are just absolutely endless because the further you niche down in it, the better response and results that you should get.
 

That’s sort of the theory of it. So.

[ 00:29:55 ]  Megan Porta 

Oh yeah, that’s a good thought too. Just from the start trying to figure out maybe a niche for it. So it could be, I don’t know, like sourdough baking or.

Could be absolutely anything.

[ 00:30:10 ]  Brett Dupree 

Absolutely. Yeah, it could be absolutely anything. Like vegans or you know, raw food or you know, you think of the, all the different types of things that are so many. Oh, my gosh. So, yeah, I mean, the possibilities are endless.

So I think it’s for everyone. It’s just, you gotta know, getting into it, it’s like a minimum of three months, and I don’t. I couldn’t have done it in three months. It took me a solid six, so. And that’s. That’s with a lot of effort, and.

[ 00:30:34 ]  Megan Porta 

That’s with just the planning before the summit actually happens.

And Summit in a Box is very dialled in. In doing this, you would say she.

[ 00:30:46 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yeah. I couldn’t have done it without.

Without her. Yeah. Just. It’s like, how do you build a website? You gotta have, you know, somebody that knows how to do that stuff. You don’t just walk into it willy nilly.

[ 00:30:58 ]  Megan Porta 

So what would you say? Some maybe characteristics or some things that someone deciding whether or not to do this has to have? So you mentioned high level of organization, 100% maybe. Patience. Anything else?

[ 00:31:11 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yeah, you kind of have to want to corral sometimes. It’s like, you know, herding cats, you know, trying to get everything together. It’s because it’s.

You have a lot of different sort of balls in the air. So you’re juggling not only producing this big product, this VIP ticket, which is in and of itself a whole product, and it’s a collaborative product. So it’s like a bundle on top of an event. And a lot of times people have live portions, so you can have like round tables.
 

And we do a. We do a live chat on ours. So there’s. There’s live element components and different things. So it’s like you kind of have a lot of balls in the air on top of also keeping up with your regular list and your social and different things like that. So it’s. Can be.

Can be a bear. So that’s. That’s definitely something to consider.

[ 00:31:58 ]  Megan Porta 

And I imagine that you have just made some deep, awesome relationships from doing this.

[ 00:32:05 ]  Brett Dupree 

Yes, I love it. It’s been so fantastic. Like, that’s. That’s the reason why I’m doing it again. You know, like, that’s the reason because it’s. This was the piece for me as a food blogger that was missing was. I. I’m a chatty gal. Like, I love getting, you know, I’m a little social.

I’d like to. I like to have that connection. And this was sort of the piece that was missing from that. And it gave that to me. And also, you know, it built my membership as well on the back end, which was awesome and gave me, you know, another outlet to be sort of in a space of communication with like minded folks.
 

So it, it helped in a lot of ways bring that to my business where it wasn’t there before. And I now I have these relationships with these other content creators that are very different. They create very different content than I do. But we sort of all rise together. You know, we help each other out, we bring each other along, which is, you know, that’s the great thing about it.

[ 00:32:57 ]  Megan Porta 

And they’re probably people that you might not have run into otherwise. Right. Like if they’re a totally different niche, there might not have been an opportunity to get to know them. But now it’s like, yeah, you just never know. Yeah.

[ 00:33:10 ]  Brett Dupree 

And that’s, that’s the, that’s a hundred percent. The takeaway is that, you know, if you feel stuck in your business and if it’s just like wearing you down, if the grind is wearing you down and you’re like, why am I doing this? You know, change it up, change it up. Definitely this collaborate.
  

You know what, it doesn’t have to necessarily be a bundle. I mean, some of it could be a bundle. It could be, you know, the freebie swaps and different things. It could be you putting on a mastermind for someone else’s membership or them and them doing the same for yours and like teaching what they know, sharing that information.
 

I think that that’s, that’s where a lot of people get stuck is they don’t want to share what they have. And I think that if you’re open to sharing it, if you create that little crack and open that idea up a little bit, I think you’ll get back way more than you give.

[ 00:34:00 ]  Megan Porta 

Great message there. I love that so much. Also, what came to mind as you were talking was I’ve heard people do collaborations with cookbooks. So if you have maybe an idea of people in a similar niche or something that would be complementary to your niche, creating just a massive cookbook together, that, that’s what we do.

[ 00:34:17 ]  Brett Dupree 

That’s what we do for the summit. We do. That’s one of the, one of the pieces of my VIP ticket is I call all the food bloggers. Most of them are food bloggers that have had a couple of speakers who aren’t food bloggers that come on and talk about like gardening, how to grow different things or whatever.

But I do a collaborative cookbook. That’s part of it. So everybody gives one of their recipes and you link to the blog post as well. But so the attendees and the people who purchase it, they love the souvenir cookbook because it’s a little taste to everybody, and it’s just super fun, you know, that’s honestly the biggest pull, I think.

[ 00:34:55 ]  Megan Porta 

I had no idea. But, yeah, that’s so cool.

[ 00:34:58 ]  Brett Dupree 

There you go. You got it, girl.

[ 00:35:00 ]  Megan Porta 

Is there anything else you have in your mind that people just absolutely need to know if they want to either be part of a summit or start their own or collaborate in some way?

[ 00:35:39 ]  Brett Dupree 

Get comfortable on video. You know, I think that’s. That’s. People fight that. Ooh.

Yes, we fight it. I was. I was the same. Like I said, my husband’s a food. He’s a photographer, a professional photographer, and he’s just like, why are you so bad on camera? Why does it happen? When I turn the camera on, who do you turn into? So that’s where I started. And I, you know, I’m very good.

Like, one on one. I love to talk and do this, but in front of a camera, I was just like, like. So it’s. It was a real struggle for me at first, but I think that’s something that, like, just kind of. It’s like with anything else, just the practice and finding a way to do it that’s comfortable for you in a very uncomfortable. Situation. But it’s. It is. That’s my biggest tip, is, like, get on camera. Get on camera.

[ 00:36:03 ]  Megan Porta 

Sometimes you have to just force yourself to do those things and do it ugly and just show up and continue doing it so that it does become more comfortable. I was there, too. I mean, there was a day when I couldn’t sit here and do this at all. No, but repetition, it’s all about repetition and just consistently showing up and knowing that you look weird or sound weird or whatever.
 

It’s. It’s okay. We all do. It’s okay.

[ 00:36:32 ]  Brett Dupree 

It’s okay. Yeah, it’s. I’m trying, and I’m trying to make the foray into the Instagram world right now. So I’m reliving that again. You know, just like a quick, get it out, get it out, get it out, get out. Imperfect, right? It’s like, imperfectly. It’s done as better than perfect every single time.
  

Otherwise, you can’t move the needle. So it’s. If. If that, like, just do it. Just do it. Imperfect. Imperfectly. Yeah.

[ 00:36:56 ]  Megan Porta 

Sums up the conversation right there. I love it. This has been so great. I feel inspired. Thank you for bringing your story to the table and your success. And I love that so many opportunities are falling into your lap because you showed up imperfect over and over, and you did things that were probably extremely uncomfortable and scary.

But look at you now. Yeah, look at me.

[ 00:37:21 ]  Brett Dupree 

Thank you so much for this. This has been great. And I just love. I love what you do.

[ 00:37:53 ]  Brett Dupree 

It helped. It always gave me a safe little place to go and learn something new and feel like you’re not alone, like we’re all trying to figure it out. So I appreciate what you. You put out into the space for all of us who are just struggling to figure it out and make our own path and find what works for us.

So thank you for being generous with what you’ve done.

[ 00:37:48 ]  Megan Porta 

Thank you. That means so much to me. Thank you, Brett.

[ 00:37:50]  Brett Dupree 

Absolutely.

[ 00:37:52 ]  Megan Porta 

Try not to tear up now. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with today?

[ 00:37:57 ]  Brett Dupree 

I wrote this one out I wouldn’t forget. So something that’s always been helpful to me, especially in our niche, is that, you know, people will look at it and say, oh, it’s just. It’s overdone. There’s so many food bloggers out there. Everybody is a food photographer now. If you have a phone, you can be.
  

If and if people are finding success being a food blogger and just starting out, just. That’s evidence. That’s evidence that you can do it. That’s it. It’s. Don’t feel that like, oh, it’s already been done. I can’t do it. That spot is taken. That’s just evidence that you can also make that magic happen.
  

So that’s my. That’s where I’m at.

[ 00:38:32 ]  Megan Porta 

So many important messages delivered. Brett, thank you so, so much.

[ 00:38:35 ]  Brett Dupree 

Absolutely. It’s been so fun.

[ 00:38:38 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. We’ll put together a show notes page for you with everything we’ve talked about. So if you need any of the resources we’ve mentioned, you can head here. Go to eatblogtalk.com forward/freakingdelish. And I want you to tell people, like, where they can find you on your blog. If you want to mention social media, that’s cool.

[ 00:38:57 ] Brett Dupree   

And then also, yes, social media. Well, I always. I can follow @freakingdelish. 

[ 00:39:00 ]  Megan Porta

And then also your. Your summit, if people want to go apply for that.

[ 00:39:12 ]  Brett Dupree 

So it’s whatsfordinner@the summit. I’m going to put a link below so that people can apply if you’re interested, if this is something you want to check out, if you’re like, if you’re just curious, if you want to talk more about it. I’ll. I’ll put the application and so we can.

Because I’m, I am. I’ve already started building it for the fall, so I’m excited to start early because summer, because summer’s going to get us. It’s going to sneak up so fast. So I’m like, I’m. I’m on it this year, but. Yeah, that’d be great.

[ 00:39:35 ]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Awesome. And I have one last question. Do you have a limit to how many people you let into your summit?

[ 00:39:42 ]  Brett Dupree 

I have so far done 20 each round and that’s where. But that’s just sort of. That’s sort of an arbitrary number. I think it keeps it really manageable and quick because, like, unlike a lot of other summits, I don’t like to do like super long segments like some people at summits do, 45 minutes an hour.
  

I like to keep it really short and manageable for our attendees. So, like 20 minute slots max and keep it real, you know, easy to digest and walk away with, you know, action steps. So.

Can fluctuate. Yeah.

[ 00:40:14 ]  Megan Porta 

Cool. All right, everyone go check that out if you’re interested. And thanks again, Brett, for joining us and thank you for listening, food bloggers. I will see you next time.

[ 00:40:25 ] Outro  

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you posted it to your social media feed and stories. I will see you next time.

EBT XX –

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.