Episode 474: 10 Unique Ways To Network And Grow Your Influence With Kathleen Phillips

EBT474 – Kathleen Phillips

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. 

We all know how important networking is, whether we’re doing it or not. We know it’s an important element for success if you are a food blogger, and we also know those kind of more typical ways to network, so Facebook groups going to a conference, etcetera. But Kathleen Phillips joins me in this interview. She is the blogger at Grits and Gouda, and she talks through 10 really unique, really creative ways to think through networking and get connected with people and have the opportunities to share about your business and all of that good stuff. She does talk about going to a local library and hosting a cooking class there. She has gotten connected with super fans on Facebook doing this very thing. Also, just calling your Chamber of Commerce in your city and asking them how they can support you in your business and maybe what opportunities are coming up that you can be a part of that will help you get connected with others. There’s so much more in this episode. I really hope you listen to the whole thing from start to finish. You’ll love Kathleen’s accent. You’ll love everything she has to say, and she’s just oozes with sweetness and kindness. And I suddenly feel like going out into my own community and being friendly and volunteering right now because she just has that spirit of friendliness. I truly hope this episode inspires you. It is episode number 474 Sponsored by RankIQ.

Sponsor 02:11

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Megan Porta 03:32

Kathleen Phillips is a cookbook author and professional food stylist. She’s the creator and digital publisher of her food blog at gritsandgouda.com. Drawing upon years of experience as a test kitchen director, Oxmoor House former cookbook publisher for Southern Living and Cooking Light and more. She takes traditional southern recipes and makes them with a shortcut so you can enjoy them faster. She likes to say she’s short and southern. Just like her recipes, she incorporates fresh ingredients from her own garden as well as local seasonal ingredients. Her love for local farmers led to her becoming one of the first Sweet Grown Alabama ambassadors. Kathleen, welcome to Eat Blog Talk. You’re on the podcast. How are you today?

Kathleen Phillips 04:15

I am fantastic. So glad to be here.

Megan Porta 04:18

Yay. I always love having people who I know listen frequently. So thank you for being a loyal listener and now you are a guest. Amazing. Yes. We’re gonna talk about creative ways to network today. I think this is really important topic for us to cover first, do you have a fun fact you wanna share with us?

Kathleen Phillips 04:37

Yes, actually I wear, like all of us wear many hats. One of the things I do in addition to this is I’m the coordinator for a large festival here in my hometown, and it’s called Gardendale Magnolia Festival. About 30,000 people. And something extra fun about that. We, I always make sure the food is fantastic. We have some of the best food vendors and in 2014 we were featured on the Food Network and Cooking Channel under Carnival Eats.

Megan Porta 05:08

Oh, no way.

Kathleen Phillips 05:10

So they came and they filmed the entire thing and they featured four of our food vendors and one, and we still get people because they still do those reruns. We still get people coming to looking for sweet potato pie ice cream.

Megan Porta 05:24

Oh my. That’s intriguing. Oh my goodness. Well, that’s amazing. Congratulations. And that sounds like such a big event to coordinate. Is it just crazy or is it like, you’ve got it?

Kathleen Phillips 05:37

Yes. It’s a lot of fun. I say we are just, we’ve got this great big party and we’ve invited the whole southeast and so it’s a lot of fun.

Megan Porta 05:50

That’s so cool. I love knowing that about you. And when, okay, when is the event?

Kathleen Phillips 05:54

It’s every third weekend in April.

Megan Porta 05:57

All right. We’re all gonna go visit you next year then.

Kathleen Phillips 05:59

Look me up.

Megan Porta 06:00

All right, sounds good. Okay. We are going to talk about networking. I think to get started, do you wanna give us just a little bit of a history about your blog? Because you are a blogger as well.

Kathleen Phillips 06:12

So I’ll try to be in a nutshell. So I came from Arkansas to Alabama. My dream job was to work for the Southern Living Cooking School. It used to travel to Southeast, and I’d help backstage when I was in college. I got an interview, but I didn’t get the job. I was crushed. But this, my story is one of those of when one door closes, sometimes a window opens. And so if they passed my resume around to the cookbook division called Oxmoor House, and they ask if I’d like to come for an interview, and I’m like yeah, so I came down, interviewed, got the job, didn’t know a soul in Alabama, but moved down here. So the job was even better than traveling. And plus that the cooking school ended. So, you know, if I had gotten that job, I wouldn’t have had a job. So, fast forward, my second child had special needs. So we decided I needed to step down as the test kitchen director and be a freelance food stylist and recipe developer. And so during that time, one of the Coastal Living Magazine editors recommended me to develop recipes for this cookbook Running Press was creating called, Magic Cakes. So they said, now we’ll need you to help promote this. What is your call to action? And I said, what’s a call to action? So that’s kind of how the blog got started was, well, I don’t have a blog. I don’t have a Facebook page, so I guess I’ll get right on that. And so when I tried to come up with the name, I’m like, I’m Southern, so I’m short and southern, so are my recipes. So my blog is called Grits and Gouda for Southern Shortcut, but a Pinch of Gourmet, and that’s where that gouda comes in. So that’s where the blog got started in about, that was 2017, 2018. It was super hard, as you know, I didn’t know what I was doing. And in 2020 I wanted to quit, but then I hired Grayson from iMark Interactive, and he basically saved me on the back end because I just like to cook and teach people how to cook, not the back end. So anyway, that is my story.

Megan Porta 08:53

Oh my gosh. Your blog started as a call to action, Kathleen . Oh my goodness. That’s so cool. I love that story. How, and it’s aligns with the same theme of enjoying and loving cooking. So seemed like a natural fit. And I’m glad you didn’t give up, and I love your name so, so much. I wanted to comment on there. So you’ve been doing blogging since about 2017, you said. And at what point did you realize that networking is, was super important?

Kathleen Phillips 09:25

In college. Way before I even had a blog networking, I really think it’s, it’s really personal and professional. And so even when I was in college, I knew starting to network and reach out to people to help me and how can I help you back? So really networking is just ingrained in me. So yeah.

Megan Porta 09:50

So it was a pre-blog realization, and then you carried that into your blogging. So did you start networking in your blog right off the bat, or did it take you a while to get into that?

Kathleen Phillips 10:02

Right off the bat before it even got started. Since I didn’t know what I was doing on the back end of a blog, I literally hired a, one of the interns at Southern Living in Oxmoor House to show me how to do the basics. So that was kind of networking. She was someone I worked with. And so this is my take on networking. When you set a long-term goal, everything you say, everything you do, and every thought you have ultimately involves that goal and it points you in that direction. So personally and professionally, for example, I’m a Christian, heaven is my goal. Another example, blogging is another example. So having a successful blog and teaching others to cook is my goal. So everything I do, everything I say seems like everywhere I go, I can’t help but talk about food, which leads to the blog. So see how it all kind of interacts.

Megan Porta 11:04

Yeah, totally. I mean, I get it. I’ve, I get it because I’ve, I’ve seen it in action. I’ve felt it through and through. I know the power of networking and hopefully others listening can kind of feel that too. But there are probably people listening who are newer and they don’t know the power, they haven’t felt the power of networking yet. So I think this is really good topic to explore, especially for those people. And then I just wanna touch on really quick, the power of building relationships, which is, which is networking, right? Like that, that relationship building is so vital for our mental health and for our success.

Kathleen Phillips 11:46

Yes, absolutely. Some of these examples happened organically, like coincidentally, but some were me connecting the dots and being open to learning new things, meeting new people. And some were, like you said, were the result of developing those relationships.

Megan Porta 12:04

Yeah. And relationships, if you have a good one with people, it is hopefully many people can turn into like lifelong friendships. They can turn into collaborations, they can turn into partnerships, they can turn into revenue, they can turn into so many good things. And it might not be something that you can see now right outta the gate, but you will eventually see that.

Kathleen Phillips 12:27

Yes, that’s absolutely right.

Megan Porta 12:29

Okay. So you have some really creative ways that we can network with people in a really powerful way. So do you wanna talk through those?

Kathleen Phillips 12:38

Yes. So the first one is I feel like it really resonates with me because so many things happened through the one thing I did. So one thing is to contact the PR person for cooking stages at the large home and garden shows or women’s shows if you have those in the larger towns near you. So I met the folks at the peanut producer, Alabama Peanut Producers Association at a women’s show. The women’s show asked me just to come and do a little demonstration. And so I did instant pot boiled peanuts that’s Southern, and it’s a shortcut. The Instant Pot’s a shortcut. Well, while I was on stage, one of the, one of the sponsors was the Alabama Peanut Producers. So that day they asked me, they said, would you like to come on our harvest tour? And it, so it led me to that tour, led me to meeting the photographer of the state agriculture magazine, which led to me being a judge for the tomato recipe contest, which led to me becoming a sweet grown Alabama ambassador, which drives people to my blog.

Megan Porta 13:55

See, and you could never have predicted that, ever, right? Never.

Kathleen Phillips 14:00

But you have to put your, some of this is just putting yourself out there.

Megan Porta 14:05

Yep. And trusting in that process and not just thinking like, there isn’t going to be a direct payoff like right now, so I’m not gonna do it. There’s not gonna, because I hear a lot of people say that, like, what’s the ROI for me? Well, you don’t always know what the ROI is gonna be. Sometimes you have to act in faith and then trust that the ROI will come in a different form.

Kathleen Phillips 14:27

That is so well said. And again, that’s so true in life, in our personal lives. We don’t do things to get things. But sometimes the more you give, the more you get just by coincidence.

Megan Porta 14:40

Okay. So the PR thing is really cool because if you live in a big city, there’s gotta be a lot of those home and garden shows that you can get connected with. And we all love to cook. So I love that strategy. Do you wanna move on to your next point?

Kathleen Phillips 14:55

Ready for number two?

Megan Porta 14:57

All right, let’s hear it.

Kathleen Phillips 14:58

All right. So contact local print and digital magazines to feature your recipes. Now you need to be careful on the digital ones to get those back links. I had to kind of go back and forth to make sure I got the back links on the digital ones. So I connected with one magazine while I was at a conference actually having to do with that festival that I work with. So I was at a conference for that. But this magazine was there looking for advertisers, but I saw that their regional magazine had recipes in it. So I started the conversation and I left my business card. Well, they called me and they said, we love your blog. We would love for you to contribute some recipes in this magazine. And then they love that so much. Now I’m contributing to their holiday issue. So again, I just happened to be somewhere unrelated to the blog, but I’m always thinking about my blog, and I always have that business card with me.

Megan Porta 16:08

Oh yeah. That’s smart. And it doesn’t hurt to ask, right? Like if something comes to your mind, what’s the worst that’s gonna happen if you just ask and explore something?

Kathleen Phillips 16:17

Yes. It never hurts to ask. I love that. I have preached that to my kids. It never hurts to ask.

Megan Porta 16:23

It’s scary to ask sometimes because you fear that rejection, but like the worst that can happen is someone says no to you. And that’s not a terrible thing.

Kathleen Phillips 16:34

Yes. And that actually is a very good segue into another one. Be bold and reach out to a big blogger, maybe that’s in your niche, in your area, and asked to meet him. I did that to someone that is a southern blogger, but I felt like he was super nice. I asked, could I come and meet you and chat with you? He said, come on. And we spent the day together. But you know what, I’ve gained several friends by doing that. But like you said, I’ve also been told no or not heard back, but it didn’t stop me from doing it again.

Megan Porta 17:14

Yeah, good for you. Because the blogger thing is kind of scary, I think for a lot of newer bloggers. It’s like, oh gosh, no, I could never reach out to him or her, you know? But I, most bloggers are really nice and most would be honored and grateful to meet another blogger. So, good for you for doing that. Are you still in touch?

Kathleen Phillips 17:36

Absolutely. Yes. I’ve been on a retreat with him and we, I share his recipes on my social platform and he, yeah, it’s just fantastic. He’s wonderful. And he introduced me to tons of other fantastic bloggers.

Megan Porta 17:52

See, that is something that you never could have anticipated too.

Kathleen Phillips 17:55

That’s right.

Megan Porta 17:56

It trickles down. Alright, what’s next on your list?

Kathleen Phillips 17:59

So I have a holiday cooking show. It is at my local civic center that kind of going back to, you know, I told you I had a child with special needs, well he’s now 24, but that holiday cooking show benefits, the Outdoor Ability Foundation nonprofits. But I said that to say one of the attendees to the holiday cooking show came and then asked me to teach an air fryer class to her church ladies group. So I did, and I charged a nominal fee, and now I have 30 new followers, and now she’s bringing 15 ladies to my holiday cooking show this year, which will in turn, introduce more people to the blog, which drives people to the blog and more exposure to I love teaching.

Megan Porta 18:55

Yeah. And those 15 people, it’s not just them, it’s all of their network as well.

Kathleen Phillips 19:00

That is exactly. Oh. And one of the best things that same church group, she told me that a couple of Fridays ago, they had a dinner and everybody brought Grits and Gouda recipe.

Megan Porta 19:17

Oh, what an honor.

Kathleen Phillips 19:18

I know. So yeah, that, and I could not have dreamt that.

Megan Porta 19:24

Oh, I love that.

Sponsor 19:27

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Megan Porta 20:59

Okay. What’s next?

Kathleen Phillips 21:00

Volunteer. Volunteer. Volunteer. So back to that festival, we, we couldn’t do it without the volunteers, but one of the things, first, it’s the right thing to do. Volunteer for your community, your church, your civic organization. That means something to you. But second, you work alongside others and you often bond with those people and become good friends. Anytime you go through a project with someone or a crisis, you bond. And so if you’re new to a community, find out where you can volunteer.

Megan Porta 21:39

And you forge that. When you volunteer with someone, you forge that connection, which there’s nothing like that in person connection, right? Especially if you’re, you have a common goal and you’re working together towards something.

Kathleen Phillips 21:55

Absolutely. And again, you don’t do it just for this, but while you’re working with someone, someone may say, I didn’t know you had a blog. Let me share your recipe on my platform. And it may turn out to be very beneficial.

Megan Porta 22:13

Yeah, absolutely. You never know , and you’re doing a good thing. So it’s not, like you said, it’s not like you’re doing it just for the benefits, but there are benefits that come. Amen to that. Okay. What’s next on your list, Kathleen?

Kathleen Phillips 22:28

Alright, now, this is not for everyone, but I like to be a guest speaker or do a little cooking demonstration for small civic organizations. So I live in a town of about 16,000. So not too big, not too small, but I’ve spoken to the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, a garden club, and a retired teacher’s club. Some of those were just speaking about my blog and my small business. But a couple of those were a very easy air fryer recipe. So word of mouth is still a good method of advertising. If you don’t wanna be a speaker, join that group and get to know those people.

Megan Porta 23:13

How do you, okay, so where would you recommend starting with that? Because that would seem really daunting for me. I don’t know anything about rotary clubs, anything that you mentioned. So I wouldn’t even know where to start.

Kathleen Phillips 23:26

Well, let me skip on down to number nine and it’ll answer that question.

Megan Porta 23:31

Okay, perfect.

Kathleen Phillips 23:33

Join your Chamber of Commerce, your local Chamber of Commerce will know all those answers. And if you don’t wanna join them, just call them. They will still have those answers. I’m a big proponent of joining that Chamber of Commerce. I’ve even served as a board member and I’d had to do with the Magnolia Festival, but I could have joined through Grits and Gouda. Now ours promotes one event or promotion that you ask. They put it in their newsletter. So my holiday cooking show, when I’m asking for sponsors, they put that out there on their newsletter, which is huge because that newsletter goes to all the business owners. Let’s see, they get, it helps me get silent auction items from a holiday cooking show, but attending those monthly luncheons is gold because everybody I sit with and I always try to sit with someone, I don’t know. I know that again, is getting out of your comfort zone.

Megan Porta 24:34

Yep. It is.

Kathleen Phillips 24:35

You just have to just grit your teeth and go sit by somebody and say, hi, I’m Kathleen. I have a food blog. What’s your name? What do you do? They sometimes they have name tags. It just gets the conversation started. And again, they’ll say, oh, that’s so interesting. Tell me more.

Megan Porta 24:58

Yeah. Because a lot of people don’t know about food blogs or what they mean or what you do with them. So that is just like a conversation starter, right?

Kathleen Phillips 25:08

Yes, absolutely. And again, you’re just putting yourself out there, but if you’re not comfortable joining, call your Chamber of Commerce and see how they can help you and get that word out.

Megan Porta 25:20

I never would’ve thought of that, honestly. Like just a simple phone call. Just call them and ask. And they’re pretty helpful typically.

Kathleen Phillips 25:28

Oh my goodness. Yes. And most of us are small businesses. We probably have a business license in that town. Their job is to promote small businesses.

Megan Porta 25:42

Yeah, that makes sense.

Kathleen Phillips 25:45

And they can also connect you with like, sometimes there are WordPress seminars they know about, you might know, I know on our newsletter they just sent out, there was a social media guru giving a free webinar to nonprofits or to small businesses. So I wouldn’t have known about that if I didn’t get the newsletter.

Megan Porta 26:07

Absolutely. Okay. I am learning so much. What else do you have on your list, Kathleen?

Kathleen Phillips 26:12

Okay. I might have mixed up the numbers, but the next one, is again, teaching. But, but this is just what I do. Teaching cooking classes at local libraries. I charge a nominal fee and I prepare a very easy recipe. Now, mine is instant pot and air fryer recipes. It’s easy to bring up there. Very simple. They have, they are always looking to add to their adult programs. A lot of people do not know that libraries is not just for kids and story time. They have adult programs and they are always looking for interesting. And everybody likes to eat. So if you just do super simple programs, and then I have gained super followers from there. Some of my most active Facebook, my demographic is probably 45 to 65 and above. And that, and that’s who comes to these classes. Yeah. And I love them. They love me. I see them at Walmart. It’s fantastic. And so, again, that’s me. But that is another outlet. And, and you don’t have to be a public speaker. You can have notes. You can read a script and just make it, or just talk about your blog.

Megan Porta 27:41

Yeah. So getting super fans on Facebook, that is so valuable. That’s gold. And even if it’s just a handful, just think of the engagement that five super fans on Facebook could do for your account.

Kathleen Phillips 27:56

Absolutely. Those super fans tell other people. And that’s who shows up at my holiday cooking shows too.

Megan Porta 28:03

Okay. Another one I never would’ve thought of and I didn’t, I mean, I guess it makes sense that they would cater some of their content toward adults, but you always think of libraries and kids.

Kathleen Phillips 28:16

Right. And if you have a cookbook, you can sell your cookbook after your little demo.

Megan Porta 28:21

Oh, interesting. Yeah, that’s a good point too. Right. Okay. So what else do you have?

Kathleen Phillips 28:26

Okay, the next one is reach out to your local TV stations to be a guest on the morning segment. I initially contacted two of them when I had that Magic Cakes cookbook. They, you know, that part of call to action, how are you gonna help us promote this? So I reached out to them and they’re always, they love to promote new cookbooks. So, but once I did that, they let me keep coming back. And now I’ve been a monthly guest on a morning my local Birmingham TV Show for this is I think four years. And so I know all them. I love them. I feel like I’m part of their TV family too.

Megan Porta 29:11

Okay. So there have to be benefits from that, that have kind of trickled down. Can you talk about that? Like connections you’ve made or things that have led to other ventures, things like that?

Kathleen Phillips 29:23

Yes. So I always get a bump on my social media after that. And they will even say, I just saw you on TV. And of course when I’m there in the studio, I’ll do a, a reel or a, you know, something l, hey, watch me, I’m going on in 30 minutes. Don’t miss me. And so gather people in. I have had, of course, Birmingham’s a large area, so I’ve had people message me and say, just saw you on TV. Can you come to my organization, my library? Can you do this or that? Or where can I get your cookbook? That kind of thing. So you’re, I mean, television, my demographic is still watching television.

Megan Porta 30:10

Yeah. Do you ever get people seeing you in public and like, oh, were you on, you know, like celebrity sightings or anything like that?

Kathleen Phillips 30:19

Well, I don’t consider myself a celebrity, but yes, I, when I go grocery store shopping, which is once a week, it’s like a social hour. It is so much fun. They’ll say, and I may not know their name, but they will say, oh, and they’ll give me a hug and we’ll talk about whatever they’re buying today. And lots of times we’ll say, I’m buying this to make your air fryer, apple pot bombs.

Megan Porta 30:45

That’s so cool. I need to come be your friend. This, you are the type of person I want to be friends with. Just well connected, just lovely, social, always up for an adventure. And this is the picture you’re painting for me.

Kathleen Phillips 31:01

Aw. Well I consider you my friend.

Megan Porta 31:04

Oh, good. We’re already friends. Yay. I love this. And the TV station, I know quite a few bloggers who have tapped into this as a resource, as a way to get more traffic and more attention on their cookbooks or just to have something kind of consistent to do that’s out of the house as well. Like to go talk to people once in a while and get out of your, you know, your little cozy area that you work at all the time.

Kathleen Phillips 31:30

Yes. Because it can be pretty lonely and isolating here when we’re sitting in front of our computers all day long.

Megan Porta 31:37

Oh my gosh. That’s so true. What else do you have for us, Kathleen?

Kathleen Phillips 31:40

Well, that segues into my number 10. Last but not least, just be friendly wherever you go. Either virtually like at the grocery store or online, you make an impression. Make it a good one.

Megan Porta 31:58

Always. Yep. I’m curious if you’ve read the book. Have you read Conscious Luck?

Kathleen Phillips 32:04

I haven’t, but it sounds like I need to.

Megan Porta 32:06

Okay. What everything you’re saying reminds me so much of this book. I read it maybe nine months ago. I don’t know the author offhand, but I can look it up. But it’s about this like, just keeping at the top of your mind how important relationship building is in your life. And all of the quote, lucky things that come your way aren’t actually lucky. It’s just because you’ve built, you’ve put in the work to build those relationships. You show up at the grocery store happy and friendly, and you’re talking to people and that could lead to something else. And literally is like spot on to everything you’ve said. So if, if you haven’t, I think you would really like it, Kathleen.

Kathleen Phillips 32:46

I’ve already written it down.

Megan Porta 32:47

Oh good. And I’m gonna find it right now. because I wanna, I know some people are like, you mentioned the book, but you didn’t mention the author, so I just wanna make sure . I am providing that. So I’m looking that up right now. Do you have any other last little tidbits for us that relate to any of this or anything extra that you think can help with the networking?

Kathleen Phillips 33:09

Well, I’ve never been accused of not ever having something to say. So yes, I got a couple more little, you know, we Southern people, we love to talk, so I’ve got a few more bonus.

Megan Porta 33:21

Let’s hear it.

Kathleen Phillips 33:22

So I’ll just run through them real quickly. So listen to podcast or be a guest on a podcast. You know, I often learn some tidbit of information from the guest on your Eat Blog Talk. And then you go follow them after you’ve heard them. It might lead back to a connect with them in some way. Sign up to watch Free seminars. Top Hat Webinars. I sign up for that every single time, even though I may not ever be mentioned. I can comment in the chat and that puts grits and gouda back out there. attend blogging conferences. Be ready with a conversation starter if no one’s talking at your table. I already talked about that. So, and then comment on other bloggers, social media. Be sincere and call them by name. This, this really happened one time. There’s, I was commenting on a bigger blogger long time ago, just because I liked their stuff. And she replied by saying, thank you, Kathleen, on a Facebook post. And I immediately felt she must know me well enough how to call me by name. And I loved it. And I remember that feeling. Who doesn’t love to hear that sweet sound of their name?

Megan Porta 34:44

It’s so true. It’s so simple, but, so true.

Kathleen Phillips 34:47

Yes. So, and then the last one is join Facebook groups in forums of like Food Blogger Pro or mastermind groups like yours. And I’m not talking about their recipe sharing. I’m in several groups behind the scenes that’s that just, we just throw things out there, y’all, this happened, this nasty Facebook comment, I need a virtual hug. Or I don’t understand this backend part. What do y’all think? Join those. And if you don’t, if you don’t know of one, start your own.

Megan Porta 35:21

Love that. Anything else? I love all of these. These are so good.

Kathleen Phillips 35:26

I think I have about talked myself out.

Megan Porta 35:30

I mean, I absolutely love listening to you talk, so if you, if you have more, please chime in. But I love all of that. It’s so simple. Just be friendly, right? Just show up in the places that you can be friendly, be open to receiving information, to making contacts. I mean, that’s kind of the message of everything. And I did find the, the author of that book, so it’s called Conscious Luck: Eight Secrets to Intentionally Change Your Fortune. And the author is Gay Hendricks, and I believe he’s the author of The Big Leap, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs have read as well. So both are very good.

Kathleen Phillips 36:11

I am writing that down.

Megan Porta 36:14

Okay. I’m inspired. I know some of these I probably won’t do in 2024, like TV. Probably not. just, I mean, I’ve done it. I’ve done it, and it was super valuable. I would suggest everyone at least try it, but it’s just like not on my project list. But a lot of these are really good and I will try them. And yeah, just appreciate you bringing all of this to the table. It’s also creative.

Kathleen Phillips 36:42

Aw, thank you.

Megan Porta 36:43

Yeah, thanks Kathleen. What an amazingly valuable conversation. It’s been such a pleasure to learn from you today. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with?

Kathleen Phillips 36:54

Yes. So back to my story. I wanted to say dreams can come true. They may just look a little different than you imagined. It may be even better. And then that goes in my story. And then my quote is loosely quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson. Remember, you have to be a friend to have one.

Megan Porta 37:21

Oh, I have all the warm, fuzzy feelings right now. thank you so much. And we’ll put together a show notes page for you, Kathleen. If anyone wants to go look at those, head to eatblogtalk.com/gritsandgouda, tell everyone again where they can find you, Kathleen.

Kathleen Phillips 37:37

So I’m on Facebook, everything is Grits and Gouda, G-O-U-D-A, and I’m on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and then gritsandgouda.com.

Megan Porta 37:50

Everyone go check everything out that Kathleen just mentioned. Thanks again for being here and thank you so much for listening, food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro 38:03

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Please share this episode with a friend who would benefit from tuning in. I will see you next time.