We cover information about how to hire an intern either for college credits (i.e. free) or a salary, what tasks to give them, how to train them and whether it’s a viable way to outsource blogging tasks.

Listen on the player in this post or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.

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Guest Details

Connect with Katie’s Cucina
Website | Instagram

Katie Jasiewicz (jazz uh wits) is a seasoned blogger with almost 15 years of experience. She’s known for her popular websites; Katie’s Cucina (a recipe blog) and Sew Woodsy (a craft/DIY blog). In 2014, she transitioned from a corporate marketing job, and turned her passion for food and crafting into a full-time career. She recently launched Easy Seafood Recipes, a niche seafood recipe website. Katie continues to share her expertise and insights from her journey spanning over a decade in the blogging world.

Takeaways

  • Motivated interns can help lessen your workload: Use a diligent hiring process to find motivated interns that can be an asset to your business.
  • Start with one intern per semester: Taking on multiple interns initially can be overwhelming, it’s best to start small and gain experience.
  • Research college timelines: Understanding semester schedules at target schools helps post internships at optimal times for recruitment and onboarding.  
  • Students need own equipment for virtual internships: If you’re offering a virtual internship, think through the requirements for students like access to internet and a computer.
  • Use a detailed contract: Outlining expectations, responsibilities, confidentiality and more through a contract establishes structure and accountability.
  • Assign tasks on project boards: Use organizational tools like Trello to help assign and track tasks to keep internships on schedule.
  • Provide training and support: Take time to onboard interns through tutorials and regular check-ins. It will help them succeed in their roles.
  • Leverage an intern’s strengths: Tailoring tasks to skills and interests fosters engagement and quality work from motivated interns. 
  • Communicate schedules and allow for flexibility: Allow for life events on both sides to maintain understanding during a long-term collaborative relationship.

Resources Mentioned

Handshake (for hiring students)

Transcript

Click for full script.

EBT555 – Katie Jasiewicz

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

Megan Porta  00:37

Here’s a topic for you that has not been discussed on Eat Blog Talk, I don’t think ever. Hiring interns to help you in your business. Katie Jasiewicz from Katie’s Cucina joins me in this episode. And she is the queen of hiring interns. She knows all the ins and outs, all the tips, all the things that we should think through if we want to do the same. Everything from where to find the interns what to put in your job descriptions, what tasks to hire out how to talk to the interns, what to put in contracts, what things to communicate with them upfront so that it is a smooth working relationship, and so many other valuable things, I promise you’re going to find value in this, particularly if you love teaching and you love building relationships, and you just want some free help in your business. This is going to be a super valuable episode for you. It is episode number 555 sponsored by Rank IQ. 

Sponsor 01:43

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Megan Porta  03:14

Katie Jasiewicz (jazz uh wits) is a seasoned blogger with almost 15 years of experience. She’s known for her popular websites; Katie’s Cucina (a recipe blog) and Sew Woodsy (a craft/DIY blog). In 2014, she transitioned from a corporate marketing job, and turned her passion for food and crafting into a full-time career. She recently launched Easy Seafood Recipes, a niche seafood recipe website. Katie continues to share her expertise and insights from her journey spanning over a decade in the blogging world. Hello, Katie, good to talk to you again on the podcast. How are you doing today?

Katie Jasiewicz  03:48

I’m doing great. Megan, thank you so much for having me. 

Megan Porta  03:52

Super excited to chat about interns. I love this topic. I think it’s something that we don’t toss around or consider often enough. So excited to learn from you. But before we do that, do you have another fun fact to share? 

Katie Jasiewicz  04:06

Yes, I do. So I want an all expense paid trip to California from our local radio station. Back in 2006. 

Megan Porta  04:17

Oh, gosh. 

Katie Jasiewicz  04:19

I know.

Megan Porta  04:20

Oh my gosh, that’s so cool. Like one of those things where you’re like, I never win these but then you win. Exactly.

Katie Jasiewicz  04:27

I did not even call into the radio station. It was like an online contest. And I just happen to fill out a form and I would fill them out all the time, randomly just hoping that I might actually win something. And my boyfriend at the time who’s now my husband was like, stop wasting your time. You’re never gonna win anything. And then I want us a three day weekend to California. So it’s pretty awesome. 

Katie Jasiewicz  04:51

So that’s just proof that you should keep doing those things. It takes such a little time and you never know Right?

Katie Jasiewicz  04:56

Yeah, cuz I guess they really aren’t called

Megan Porta  05:01

Yeah, that’s awesome. How cool. My son, my oldest son is always entering me into these random drawings and contests. It’s just like one of his things. He’s like, Mom, you could win $500 Mom, you could win a Target gift card mom like, cool. We haven’t won yet, but I really appreciate that he does that. So I’m going to tell him to keep at it.

Katie Jasiewicz  05:19

Yeah, that’s exactly yeah. Because one day, you might just get that random phone call and be like, Is this for real? Like, did I really meant something?

Megan Porta  05:28

It’s bound to happen eventually. It sounds like 

Katie Jasiewicz  05:30

Yeah. 

Megan Porta  05:30

All right. Yes. Katie, let’s frame our conversation a little bit by telling us a little bit about your blog. Your main blog is Katie’s Christina, or do you say cucina? kusina.

Katie Jasiewicz  05:42

You can say it either way. I know that some people are like, Oh, but that’s how you know is cucina and American way is Cucina, so it doesn’t matter.

Katie Jasiewicz  05:52

I will take either pronunciation, it’s fine. Yeah. So I started Katie’s Cucina. Back in 2009. It was a hobby, I had friends and family always asking me for recipes. And I finally decided to start a blog. And after about a year, I realized that like people from all around the world, were looking at this blog. And I started kind of taking it a little more seriously, I was still working in corporate marketing at the time. So it was definitely a side hustle for me. And then once, probably the year before my son was born, I decided to like look like I can probably really make in like a salary out of this. And I can leave my corporate job. And that’s exactly what I did in 2014. And it’s been 10 years, it’ll be 10 years next month, that I left my corporate marketing job and have done this as like a full time and then a little bit as a part time. And now back to full time. So it’s been such a blessing to get to have a career where I have the flexibility. I’m my own boss, I can still be super active in my kids lives during the day or when they’re sick or whenever. So yeah, it’s pretty exciting. And then of course, I have so woodsy, it’s a DIY craft website that started in 2010. And it’s still going and I recently launched easyseafoodrecipes.com. I haven’t produced as much content as I was hoping to because obviously having three websites, I mean, just having two is a lot. And three. I don’t know what I was thinking. But one day, maybe I will have more recipes to add on there.

Megan Porta  05:52

Okay.

Megan Porta  07:35

That’s funny. Yeah, two, is overwhelming. I started one last summer. And I’m like, What was I thinking? This is a lot of work. So three, I cannot I can’t even fathom that.

Katie Jasiewicz  07:46

Yeah, I mean, I haven’t touched the easy seafood recipe in months, if I’m gonna be honest. So yeah, but but eventually I will get there. So it’s there. And I have the domain. So that’s what counts.

Megan Porta  07:58

Yes, absolutely. So you do have a huge, long history of blogging, I love that you started in 2009. So you are definitely an OG you know what you’re doing? And over the years, you’ve likely needed a lot of help, right? Because you can’t go that long doing this whole thing alone.

Katie Jasiewicz  08:18

Of course. 

Megan Porta  08:19

So how did you get into hiring interns or even thinking about that as an option? Yeah,

Katie Jasiewicz  08:26

So I’ve always loved to teach people like even at a young age, I love to play teacher. And ironically, I never became a teacher. But the desire to want to like give back and teach came to me probably in about, I think it was about 2019 2020 When I had the idea that maybe I should hire an intern for my blogs. And so as each semester passed, I kept thinking about how I just wanted a little extra help for free. And over that time, I slowly started working on a job description so that one day when I finally decided to hire an intern, I would be prepared. And then in 20, and fall 2021 is when I finally was like, alright, you know what, I’m gonna get serious about this. I reached out to my alma mater, Rollins College to see how I could go about recruiting an intern for my business. And they informed me like for their school and their process that I needed to register with a website called Handshake. And during that time, I also realized that I needed to reset up my vanity email address. So you know, like the Katie @katiescucina.com I once had it with my old host and I just forgot to get it reset up with big scoots. So a quick email to them and I was set up and I did all my paperwork through handshake, and I was ready to go now I will note me again that two things that you do need in order to do this, you need to have a business that’s registered with your state. They will want your business EIN number to ensure that you’re a legitimate business. You’ll also some of the schools require a physical address, even though my position that I have for my interns is a virtual position. Other schools do not want you to list a physical address. So it’s kind of the fine balance between the two, you just have to weigh like, Okay, what schools do I want to pick from? Because then you have to either you’re either going to list your address, or you’re not going to list your address.

Megan Porta  10:31

Okay. Can I ask you a quick question about which schools to look at? So are you talking just colleges and then in your area, like, where you live? Or how do you go about that?

Katie Jasiewicz  10:41

Yeah, so my, my thought process, so I live in Orlando, Florida. So we have a lot of colleges around us, we have a lot of colleges and universities all around the state of Florida, I kind of wanted to stay local to Florida, really to Central Florida. So the first semester, I really only looked at Rollins College where I went to school, and I went and I looked at the University of Central Florida, on a handshake, it allows you, you can apply to like all these colleges around the United States, I just applied to be seen by those two colleges. The following semester, I think I also applied for University of South Florida, University of West Florida, and like a couple of other schools, so So you have the option. My whole thought process was, this is a virtual internship, okay, so we’ll never probably meet in person, but but in when when I first started it, I really thought, oh, maybe we can meet at like a coffee shop or the library once or twice during the semester, or a media event if like, I get invited to a media event. So I kind of wanted them to be local. Out of I’ve had nine interns now and I think I’ve only met three in person. So I mean, you really don’t have to have them local. It’s just what my thought process was. 

Megan Porta  12:05

Okay. So you really could go to any college. I mean, if you are okay with doing the virtual thing, okay, 

Katie Jasiewicz  12:12

For sure. For sure. So once you find the college and you do is hand is handshake, like a common thing that all colleges use, by the way?

Katie Jasiewicz  12:21

I guess from what I understand, I mean, I haven’t been to college for a long time.

Megan Porta  12:27

Yeah, I was like, I don’t know what that is. 

Katie Jasiewicz 12:29

But, but yeah, yeah, but and I like didn’t know either Megan until until I reached out to Rollins. But what you can do. So there are a couple different places you can also you can list your internship on LinkedIn, which I will say I did this once, and I had over 150 applicants, oh my gosh. And since I give my interns passwords to get into some of the programs I have, I haven’t hired anyone from LinkedIn, because I just don’t fully trust all the randoms on the internet and at least their handshake, I know that they’re true college students, it’s like they can only be on handshake if, if they’re in college. So. So that’s kind of where I have left it I’ve done handshake. And I’m also went through one of the offices at the University of Central Florida, like the PR advertising office, I’ve had quite a few interns come from their program, so I can list directly over with them. So it just depends on the school, you really have to do your research and due diligence to see what each school requires. Now UCF is a very, very large university. So I have a much larger pool of applicants than say from Rollins College, which is a small private college. So it’s all going to depend on like, what schools you want to target and how many applicants you could potentially get. I mean that I probably the most I’ve ever gotten for a semester as far as applicants that came in was about 12. And that’s then I have to interview all 12 of them and go through that whole process. So it can definitely be tedious.

Megan Porta  14:19

So imagine you put a job listing of sorts together. Correct. And what do you include in that?

Katie Jasiewicz  14:19

So okay, so that’s a great question, because this is exactly what I write in my brief. So I say during this internship, you will be guided and taught directly from the owner and author herself. You will learn the basics in digital marketing, SEO, keyword research, scheduling, social media, email marketing, along with other tasks to run and maintain a successful website and business. So typically, they’ll like have like the little background section and then they’ll also talk about the task and I always write some of the tasks may include because I never want to start on hold and say, this is all that you’re gonna do. I definitely learn more about my interns as the weeks go on, and I try to lean in on their strengths. And of course, I will help them build on their weaknesses too. But I really lean hard on the strengths. So for my internship, here are some of the tasks that I will put on there, I’ll put copywriting I will have them rewrite or blog posts. For me, I’ll also have them update in or create new recipe, or craft create cards, depending on what I have tasked them within the internship, SEO, keyword research. This is something that we kind of work on together. I personally love to keyword research and can spend hours doing it. So I will spend a few meetings during the semester showing them how I keyword research. I will also do this when we’re training to rewrite an old post, because I want them to understand as best as possible what SEO means. And I also give them a very long list of podcasts and webinars that they can listen to on their own. Now, do they ever listen? Most likely not. But those who are interested will listen to some of the podcasts. And then you can kind of tell who like has listened to at least one or two podcasts because then you can see that it kind of all makes sense. And then I’m not talking a foreign language and they’re not glazed over during our calls. So the SEO part is really more of like I’m teaching them, they’re not doing it as much. Then I also have them I will put under the the task of creating and scheduling content for Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. I provide them with a spreadsheet to schedule out the content. And I also have them make the fresh pins via Canva. And then once they’re approved from me, then I’ll have them schedule those out too. I have them work on email marketing. So they work on my weekly newsletters. And I also have them work on a final project, which I’ll talk about more of that later. I have had interns helped me with photo editing and video editing. And then also ATA website compliance, aka alt tag description, writing, because I’m an OG blogger and I have 1000s of images that still can use some alt tags. So every semester, I TAS my interns with the daunting task of just writing all tags.

Megan Porta  17:25

Yeah, I mean, it has to get done. Right.

Katie Jasiewicz  17:29

Right, exactly. That’s what I always explained to them, like, listen, when like you’re in the corporate world, or wherever you’re going to work, you are going to have tasks that you’ve loved and tasks that you’re like, This isn’t great. And this is probably one of those tasks. I mean, it’s a mindless task, but it has to get done. So and you know, I feel like I bring a lot to the interns too, because I have worked in corporate marketing. So I can I can tell them like listen, and like a small setting like me, it’s just me, me and you going back and forth with edits and stuff. But if you were in a large corporate setting, you would take the the copy to the copywriter, and they would edit it and then the graphic designer would do this, and this person would do that. So I feel like I like try to give them both worlds. Like this is what it would be like on the larger scale. And this is what it’s like on the smaller scale.

Megan Porta  18:24

Yeah. And I feel like the way you’ve framed it, you do a really good job of kind of proposing, like I’m teaching you, you are going to learn for me. I mean, obviously they are doing work for you and getting some work done. But you are also giving them really valuable insights into the world of blogging and just running a business.

Katie Jasiewicz  18:46

Yes, for sure. For sure. And that’s you know, I mean, that’s where you also have to decide, are you going to pay these interns? Or are you going to offer it just for credit. And in my case, I have only ever done these internships for credit only now I have had a handful of interns who did it just for the experience. And those interns have only worked about six to eight hours for me each week during a 12 week semester, where the four credit interns work anywhere from eight to 12 hours depending on their internship requirements. So I mean, it’s totally up to you. I haven’t tested out the whole paid internship thing yet. I don’t know. I just I feel like I’m teaching them and that in itself is payment to me because I’m giving them all my time and energy and knowledge and resources. And because you know I am a small business and every penny counts so…

Megan Porta 19:46

And they are getting something out of it too. It’s and it’s not like they’re not getting something valuable. They’re obviously needing credits and they’re learning the ins and outs from the inside of your business. So I think that is super valuable.

Katie Jasiewicz  20:01

Exactly, exactly. You know, I have had, I had one intern who was interviewing once asked me if I would pay them in food. And I was like working on recipes. So I’m not paying you in food? Sorry. No, no, I have I have brought a few of my interns to like media invites where like, a new restaurant is opening, or they’re like launching a new menu because I like for them to see, like, what a media event looks like, or, or even like a media dinner, and we will go and have dinner and they’ll get to try everything. I will ask them to take photos and videos and kind of compile this stuff. So that way, they have the experience, they are getting the true hands on experience there.

Megan Porta  20:52

Yeah. Is there a good time to post about the internship as far as like the, you know, the year of thinking about the year of the college? When do you do that? 

Katie Jasiewicz  21:02

Great question. Okay. So obviously, it’s going to vary depending on what your school schedule looks like. But for the fall semester, you really want to have your internship posted in May or June at the latest and have your selection by mid July, because like we’re here in Florida, we go back to school, mid August. So most of the interns need to know if they have an internship secured by like beginning of August so they can get all that information into whatever office they need to get it into. And then for the spring semester, you want to post your your internship description like September, October, the latest and have your intern selected I would say before the like before the Christmas holiday season, mid December because you come back from that break. And it’s just like you get smacked right, right in the face with like back into action back into school and stuff. So you really need to have them selected by mid December. And then if you want to attempt to have summer interns, I say February, March timeframe, because you’ll want to have your decision by April. I mean, this year, my intern ended my my spring internship ended, I think it was like April 19, or April 22 was like my like intern’s last day. So it was it was like a very, I felt like it was very early this year because depending on their contracts with the school will depend on can you keep them the whole 12 weeks or not. My intern had to be done the week before finals. So I had to account for that as well, which is why she finished so early this past spring. So you know, you’re just gonna have to look at the school and find out their schedule and kind of post accordingly.

Megan Porta  22:54

Okay. And then you said it kind of varies how many hours a week you get depending on like, yeah, you know, the program or whatever.

Katie Jasiewicz  23:02

Yeah, so that is definitely that’s definitely something that I tell the interns when I’m when I interviewing them, I’m like, listen, it is 100% your responsibility to find out how many hours you need to have me fill out forms. I’m not chasing after any of this because I’m not in college. I am your employer. So it is your responsibility. I had one one semester it was really sad. I had an intern who was not with it. And she she didn’t turn in her forms on time and she had already signed her contract with me and stuff and she did not get college credit she like did hang in there to get the experience but I could tell the minute that she wasn’t getting the college credit she did not take it as seriously. And so I just kind of started giving her less.

Sponsor  23:59

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Katie Jasiewicz  26:14

Thankfully, I had other interns that semester that kind of picked up her slack. But you know, it is their responsibility to fully communicate everything to you.

Megan Porta 26:25

Yeah, and your responsibility to communicate that to them. Right. 

Katie Jasiewicz  26:28

Yeah, exactly. 

Megan Porta  26:29

You’re in charge, I am not your mom, you have to do this.

Katie Jasiewicz  26:32

That’s the biggest thing with doing like a virtual internship like this, I tell them all the time, the biggest takeaway you’re probably gonna get from from this internship is time management. Because I’m not I’m not sitting next to you, I’m not holding your hand, I am not telling you, hey, you have to get your work done. No, like I like give you your task. And then you are expected to complete them on the timeline that we have established. And we will go over it and check it, you can always text me with questions I find a lot of times like I have some interns that have worked at like six o’clock in the morning, others 11 o’clock at night. I mean, it’s like, whatever works with your schedule, I don’t care. And you know, when when you will have time in your schedule, you also know when like you work best like me, I’m a night owl. So I know that I’m going to be most productive in the evening. So that’s when I like to work. Other people aren’t so so I really kind of like really try to hit hit home to his interns like it is up to you, you have to get your hours in you have to get your work done. If like you’re not you’re you’re not going to get either those in, you need to communicate it to me, I’m very understanding. If you communicate it to me if like you don’t communicate it to me, then I’m not going to be understanding. So. So you know, you just have to lay down the laws from the beginning. So that way they fully understand. Be the

Megan Porta  28:03

boss, you have to Yeah, exactly. And then how many are interns? Do you have working for you at any given time? Yeah,

Katie Jasiewicz  28:11

so I Okay, so my first semester that I took on interns, it was spring of 2022. And I took on two interns. That was this semester, I had 12 applicants and so I was already overwhelmed to begin with, I felt like I should not have taken two on for my first semester it was too too many. Because think about it, each intern has about eight to 10 hours worth of work times two. So that’s all that work that like you have to check that like have to go through plus your own work. It’s a lot. So I would definitely suggest just start with one even if like you feel like some someone might be like, Oh, wow, they would also be a great fit. Maybe you just hold on to their information and just say hey, you know, like I like don’t have any positions for this semester. But maybe next semester, if you’re interested, I can hold on to your information, reach back out to me. I have taken three interns on during summer, I do not recommend that. I do not recommend especially if you have kids at home or like you’d like to travel a lot or both. I do not recommend interns in the summer at all. I thought it was going to be a great idea. And then I had 30 hours worth of intern work to check plus my own work plus kids plus travel. It was a lot.

Megan Porta  29:33

That does not sound fun. Exactly.

Katie Jasiewicz  29:35

My last actually this past year. So my fall semester I only had one intern, and she actually was recommended by one of my previous interns. And I interviewed her and she was great. And I took her on and then she recommended my spring intern. I didn’t think I was going to take a spring intern on this past spring and she ended up being really good too. So I’ve had now two semesters, which is one intern. And that is where I would like to stay, I think I only want to take on one intern from here on out, because it’s just the right mix of, I can I can hand them off enough work, but then I can also I have enough time to be able to check all their work and devote time to them. 

Katie Jasiewicz  30:20

Yeah, that makes sense. I think one to start probably right. If you’ve never done this before, do you recommend doing just okay, yeah.

Katie Jasiewicz  30:27

Do not be anxious, like me and wanting two intern just don’t do it. It’s just not a good idea.

Megan Porta  30:33

And then do you kind of lean into what their strengths are, like, get to know them a little bit and see, like, oh, she’d be great at graphic design. So steer them that way?

Katie Jasiewicz  30:44

Absolutely. Okay, so that is a perfect question. Because one semester, I had an intern who had an emerging photography business, and she loves to edit photos. So I let her edit all of my photos. That semester, she did such a great job that I actually ended up hiring her for a few freelance projects after the internship while she was working on getting her business off the ground. And it was a win win for both of us, she made money, and I save time on photo editing, which I hate photo editing. So it was a huge one for me. And then and then I also actually, that same semester, I had an intern, who was doing it merely just for experience. He was very, very motivated and very driven. I was super impressed by him, because he was I think it was like 20 if that. And he wanted to build out a WordPress website. So I had him create my KMJcreative.com website, which is what my business falls under. So my business is KMJ Creative Marketing, LLC. And then I have DBAs, under that for Katie’s Cucina. And so what’s the and so I had him work on that website. And it’s basically like a portfolio website for me. And then also for like, the various schools for the internships and stuff, they can look at my website, and it’s not just like my food blog. And then that same semester, one of the other interns like graphic design, so I had her create the logo for KMJ Creative, it just all worked out perfectly. So I highly recommend that finding out what your intern likes to do and what they’re strong at. And then definitely leaning in on them. 

Megan Porta  32:32

Do you ever get interns that are just like, they don’t show up? They’re just completely irresponsible. They do things wrong? Yeah.

Katie Jasiewicz  32:39

So I haven’t for the most part, I’ve had, I would say to interns in the beginning that interviewed great and seemed promising. And then after once they were there, they were they were definitely on the flakier side. And I really had to like handhold them and constantly talk to them like hey, this was due and I have not seen it like are you going to work on those? Do we need to extend the the due date on it? And I feel like because I have had to I now know kind of what the telltale signs are or the telltale signs are of okay, this person might actually just be feeding me BS in this interview, so I might not want to take them on.

Megan Porta  33:26

So you’re a good BS reader now.

Katie Jasiewicz  33:28

I mean, I feel like I’ve gotten to that point at this point. Yeah.

33:32

Do you have any tips for us for that, like things to look out for red flags in an interview? 

Katie Jasiewicz  33:38

I don’t know what’s that’s, that’s a difficult one. And I feel like it’s all it just all comes over time of interviewing. I mean, I feel like, I mean, I have had interns that seems super, super eager during the interview, and I was like, they’re too good to be true. And then they end up being amazing. So it’s really, I think, a gut instinct, you just have to kind of just kind of have to try to read the room and see if like, hopefully, you’re gonna make the right choice, but I really don’t have any tips other than it’s follow your gut. That’s really the best thing to do. 

Megan Porta  34:12

And then you mentioned earlier about like a final project. Talk more about that. What do you do with that? 

Katie Jasiewicz  34:17

Okay, so I give each of my interns a final project, I had this idea of when like, I was dreaming up this whole like, idea of having an intern many years ago, and they start working on this during their second month of the internship. And it is they put together an ebook, and it goes along with the five email sequence nurture campaign, and this gives them experience in creating an ebook and also working on an email nurture campaign. I have an ebook template in Canva that they use, and we work together to select a topic now in the beginning. I was like nice and I was like, Oh, you can select your own topic and I had some I mean, the ebooks aren’t awful, but the topics are kind of like, okay, this could have been better developed topic and they they aren’t creating any new recipes or anything. They’re literally taking from my own recipes and just putting them into an ebook. So I’ve had like a smoothie ebook, I think my my intern for spring, she did an Italian recipe ebook, I have a lot of Italian recipes. Two springs ago, I had an intern do like a Mexican recipes ebook, because I get a lot of traffic during Cinco Demayo. So I was like, perfect. We’ll like work on a nurture series campaign and during that, and the ebook, and then and then once they’re done with all this, they can put that in their portfolio. And I will send out the ebook to my current email subscribers. And then it will also sit up there as my freebie now, my ultimate plan for this, and I’ve been saying this for years, so maybe 2024 will be the year is I plan to update these ebooks and add additional recipes and more value and then start selling them. Because after a couple of months, I am not using these ebooks or the nurture campaigns anymore. So they’re just sitting there and I feel like I could be doing more and getting some passive income from it. So that’s my ultimate plan with these ebooks and final project. 

Megan Porta  36:27

Hmm, yeah, that’s smart. Killing two birds with one stone, which is kind of the whole point of all of this, like you’re helping them they’re helping you for sure. Use it to grow your business. Sure. Anything else we’re leaving out that we need to know about interns? 

Katie Jasiewicz  36:43

Yeah, so one thing is, so I kind of mentioned it earlier is that I will give them some of my passwords, because there’s just some things like obviously, for WordPress, I like give them their own username and password. But there are certain platforms that I cannot give them their own unique username and password, for instance, email, I’m on Flo desk, and I have yet to be able to figure out and I don’t think that they have the option to give, like an additional user name and password to get into the same email account. So I have put together a contract for them to sign at the beginning of this semester. And they sign basically as my husband laughs their life away, because I want to make sure that I’m not gonna get sued for anything. And it talks about how like, they are getting passwords, and they’re getting information that is not to be shared with anyone if they are to share it, there could be legal consequences. And you know, and I like also remind them like listen like these are, you know, like, if like, if like you’re working on a public computer, like I would appreciate you not to work on a public computer, I would appreciate that, that like you don’t share these passwords or the usernames with anyone. You know, I also make sure because this is a virtual internship, right from the beginning inside the interview process. I don’t know if I said this, but I make it clear that they have to have their own internet, they provide their own internet, and they have to provide their own laptop, I have not providing any of that for them. So that’s another thing too. So like having a contract, and then making sure that they’re well aware that they’re not going to be given like a laptop or internet or any of those extra things like they have to provide all that.

Megan Porta  38:38

Yeah, that’s something that you don’t necessarily think about communicating. I don’t think if you haven’t done this before, I would I would not think about that. I would just assume that they were on the same page.

Katie Jasiewicz  38:48

Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, and it’s really just all about covering your bases, and really just learning as you go, because it’s all a learning process. And I and I tell that to my interns, every semester, I’ve had interns for 2, 4, 6 semesters now, I think, close to and 5 or 6 semesters. And I like to tell them each at the beginning of each semester, this is a learning process for both of us. So yeah, so just bear with me, you know. Yeah. So, you know, and overall, I think I think they’re, they’re, they’re really good about being flexible. I mean, you know, I lay it out in the beginning, I have a family and kids and sometimes I have to be up at their school and I cannot, I cannot, you know, text you back right away, you’re just gonna have to be patient. And that’s really important too. Because, you know, we and the same goes with me, I’m not expecting them to answer a text message in the middle of the day because they’re probably in class. And that’s, you know, you also have to be mindful of their schedule as well.

Megan Porta  40:00

Yeah, how much time would you say you spend each week either preparing things for your interns or communicating with them? 

Katie Jasiewicz  40:07

Well, I don’t know. I think it depends. Obviously, in the beginning of the semester, we meet twice a week, we do two one hour calls. At first I did like once a week, like two three hour call, and they were so glazed over and, and plus, I like was tired of talking. So I have broken it up to like two one hour calls the first like two to three weeks to get them up to speed to teach them how to use various platforms, I like typically like to get them started on like scheduling out Facebook post. And I’ll have them also work on like writing a newsletter that’s really simple. You’re just adding in links and pictures and writing a little intro paragraph that I will review before it gets to get scheduled out and pushed to my to my newsletter. So I think, oh, I don’t know me again, probably anywhere from two to four hours for preparing and going through stuff. Now if they have rewritten blog posts and stuff, it could take longer, it just it really just depends. Yes. And I think you know, something else I didn’t mention is that I use Trello for project management. So they have we like both have access to a Trello board. And I put all of their tasks in there. And they’re pretty repetitive, week after week, they know like, Okay, I’m gonna have a newsletter that I have to write this week. And what what I typically do is I have them writing newsletters, almost a month out where at least a couple weeks out, so I have that buffer. If they get sick, if I get sick, I still have content that’s getting pushed out. We’re just, you know, working a little bit ahead of time. So I mean, my my, my intern for spring, she had all my all of my newsletters written up until the end of May, which was kind of amazing. So, so yeah, so I use Trello for project management. And I can write inside the cards, it’s really easy to use. I also use Toggl, which is and I think I learned that from you, Megan. On a podcast, yes, it was definitely from you. It’s great time management tool, but I can also see what they’ve been working on and how long they’ve been working on it. I’ve never had a school come to me and say, Hey, can you provide a timecard. But if they ever did, all I have to do is run the report from toggle. And I can share like here were all their hours. Now, I do sometimes have to get an intern because I’m like, listen, you have to label this because I don’t I don’t know what you spent two and a half hours on. And I personally need to know how long a task is taking for you so that I give you the appropriate amount of work for the following week. Now if the newsletters taking you an hour, we’re probably having an issue there because it shouldn’t be taking you an hour. So yeah, so I use toggle. And it’s free. And I love it. I mean, I like use it for my own personal self to to time track, but then also for my interns too.

Megan Porta  43:19

I imagine you have to have a love for teaching doing this, right?

Katie Jasiewicz  43:23

Yes, you do. You do. And and you also have to have, I guess, the patience and knowing that it’s not going to be 100% You have to be able to let go like this semester that I had a my intern who was editing my photos, like it wasn’t exactly how I would edit it. But it was good enough that I felt like alright, I can publish these photos and I am okay with it. That’s a big thing, too. You have to be able to kind of let go a little bit when you’re working with interns. 

Megan Porta  43:57

For sure. Because some of us have that issue not wanting to give up control, right? 

Katie Jasiewicz  44:03

Yes, it’s hard. It’s hard. I mean, I have had I’ve had Pinterest managers I’ve had, I’ve hired out my like, my weekly newsletters and stuff like that. And at the end of the day, I was like, I can probably do it and do it better. And then when I put the interns in on it, I was like, wow, they’re like doing just as good as these people who I was paying hundreds of dollars for. And I’m saving the money I’m giving back and I’m able to teach people how to do various tasks that that they’re going to potentially do in their future careers. So I feel like it’s a win win.

Megan Porta  44:41

All right. Is there anything else we should know if somebody is considering this and it sounds intriguing, that we haven’t covered yet, Katie?

Katie Jasiewicz  44:48

Just tried to plan like really try to plan out try to plan out what the whole internship would look like what kind of task that you want them to work on. Try to plan out the first couple of weeks. So that way you kind of have a game plan going into it, the more organized you are going into it. The more you’re setting yourself up for success, and you’re setting your intern up for success.

Megan Porta  45:14

Yes, I so can see that if you go into it just like not knowing what you’re putting together, I can imagine it being an absolute mess. 

Katie Jasiewicz  45:22

But listen, listen, my first semester that I had interns, I got COVID, like the week before my interns were set to start. So we we actually started I think, like a week late because I was just so sick. And I was like, sorry, I cannot I cannot put any energy into this right now. And they both understood. But we went into that first semester so frantic, and I learned so much from it, that I was like, you have to plan you have to have such a solid plan, you really have to be good at planning and time management. And obviously, you also I mean, you know, plans can go different ways. But the more but the more that you’re prepared, the better that everyone is going to do for the internship. 

Megan Porta  46:09

Yeah, for sure. I love the thank you for bringing this to the table. It’s not like I said earlier, not something I hear about often. And I knew that you were amazing at this, because you talked about it at one of the Eat Blog Talk retreats. And everyone was like what? Yeah, just blown away by this possibility. So thank you so much. 

Katie Jasiewicz  46:32

Yeah, I mean, it is great for anyone who wants to teach whether you have a large blog or a small blog, you know, whether you want to pay someone to help you or you just want to give your knowledge and do it, you know, via credit. It’s just it’s just a great way to be able to have an extra set of hands for sure.

Megan Porta  46:52

Yeah. Well, thank you, Katie. So appreciate all of this value today and talking to you again, I always enjoy talking to you. So thanks for being here. 

Katie Jasiewicz  46:59

And thanks Megan again for having me on.

Megan Porta  47:02

Do you have another quote or words of inspiration to share with us? Yeah,

Katie Jasiewicz  47:06

so effective. People are not problem minded. They’re opportunity minded. They feed opportunities, and starve problems. And that comes from Stephen Covey.

Megan Porta  47:19

Oh starve problems. I love that. That’s so good. Great quote.

Katie Jasiewicz  47:24

I felt like it was very it was perfect for like talking about interns and trying to figure out ways to maximize our time as bloggers and just with the busy world that we live in.

Megan Porta  47:38

Ah, love that so much. We will put together another show notes page for you Katie, if you want to go pick it those head to eatblogtalk.com/Katiecucina2 to since this is your second interview, tell everyone where they can find you.

Katie Jasiewicz  47:51

Yeah, sure. So you can find me at KatieCucina.com I’m also on Instagram. It’s Katie Jasiewicz, which is my crazy long last name.

Megan Porta  48:02

I like how you say that apologetically.

Katie Jasiewicz  48:04

I know. I just didn’t want to commit to having two Instagram accounts many years ago when Instagram launched. So I just put it as my name and it’s kind of stuff like that. And then I’m also on Tik Tok at Katies Cucina and Facebook at Katie’s Cucina so I’m everywhere.

Megan Porta  48:22

Ah, awesome. Go check Katie out everyone and thank you again, Katie for being here. And thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  48:32

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.


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