Episode 811: The Secret to Making Money Beyond Pageviews With Jillian Leslie

EBT811 – Jillian Leslie

[00:00:00]  Megan Porta 

What if the future of your food blog has less to do with Google traffic and more to do with the audience you have already built? In this episode, I am joined by Jillian Leslie, founder of MiloTree, to talk about why more food bloggers are creating digital products. The mindset shift from selling information to selling transformation, and how showing up authentically can become your biggest business advantage.

[00:00:24]   

We also dive into practical ways AI can help you move faster without losing your unique voice. If you have been wondering how to build a more resilient business in today’s changing landscape, this conversation will leave you inspired and full of actionable ideas.

[00:00:43] Intro  

Hi, food bloggers, I’m Megan Porta and this is Eat Blog Talk. Your space for support, inspiration, and strategies to grow your blog and your freedom, whether that’s personal, professional, or financial, you are not alone on this journey. 

[00:00:55] Megan Porta  

Jillian, welcome back to Eat Blog Talk. How are you? How’s summer going?

[00:00:58]  Jillian Leslie 

Oh, it’s so nice to be here again. I don’t even know how many times I’ve been on your podcast.

[00:01:03]  Megan Porta 

Three, maybe four. Okay. Yeah.

[00:01:04]  Jillian Leslie 

Okay, there you go. Over the years.

[00:01:07]  Megan Porta 

Over the years. Yes, over the years. Well, it’s great to have you back. I’m so excited to chat. Today we’re going to just talk about kind of the landscape of food blogging and how things are drastically changing and how people are leaning more into things like selling digital products and services to their audience to expand their diverse like their money, their traffic, everything.

[00:01:28]   

Diversifying a lot of things right now. But to kick things off, tell us who you are in case people don’t know. And you’re the founder of MiloTree. So tell us a little bit about MiloTree as well.

[00:01:39]  Jillian Leslie 

Absolutely. So the first site that we started was Catch My Party, and I think that’s kind of maybe. And then we built a pop up tool that we named MiloTree to help you grow your social media followers. Lots of food bloggers have used it over the years. And then we. And by the way, we built it for Catch My party to grow our Pinterest traffic.

[00:01:58]   

And when it worked, we’re like, hey, we could offer this to other people. And it was. And it worked for them as well. We named it MiloTree after our favorite tree in Hawaii, because people ask me all the time, what is MiloTree?

[00:02:10]  Megan Porta 

I didn’t know that.

[00:02:11]  Jillian Leslie 

Okay, so we decided. So it was during COVID and I was lonely, so I created a coaching group and I was listening to the problems these other bloggers were having. Some were food bloggers, some were crafting Bloggers, some were building big like Facebook groups and not knowing how to monetize them. And so David and I, my husband is my partner, he does all the technology and we’re like, hey, could we help these people?

[00:02:39]   

And so what we, what I first did was I said, hey, I’m going to put together some tools and see if I can make this work for them. And realized how difficult it was. Our biggest, I guess I would say, competitive advantage. What we try to solve is to make technology easy because we know how many hats bloggers, especially food bloggers, are wearing.

[00:03:00]   

So it’s like, hey, if we can like serve it up to you in an intuitive way where you’re not spending hours and hours on the tech, then we’ve succeeded. And that’s really been our North Star. So we created this tool to kind of first start with like memberships and subscriptions. And then people would say, oh, I want to sell digital products, I want to sell digital downloads.

[00:03:21]   

Can we do that? Or I want to sell coaching, you know, and we said, hey, how can we build out this robust product that’s still really easy to use? And what’s interesting is food bloggers have found it and are really leaning in to selling digital products easily with MiloTree. So what we do is we give you a link to offer your product or we deliver, if it’s a PDF or any kind of digital download, we deliver it directly to your customer.

[00:03:51]   

We give you AI generated sales pages where the copy is AI, you can edit it how you see fit. We store your, like, let’s say you can use it with freebies to grow your email list. We store your email, your names and email addresses. But also we integrate with all major email service providers.

[00:04:10]   

Again, we’re trying to be easy, cost effective, helpful because we started as bloggers so we completely understand all the pain points. And what’s interesting is watching. You know, I’ve talked to you, Megan, over the years of like, how are people monetizing their food blogs? And the thought now is, okay, how can I sell my products and services directly to my audience?

[00:04:35]   

And that’s what we’re seeing happen and it’s really exciting. And you were just saying that you’re seeing food bloggers get really creative. I’m seeing it too.

[00:04:44]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, absolutely. We’re going to talk a little bit about that. But I want to tell you, I use MiloTree as, you know, to sell events and I love it. There are so many things I love about it, but I love the ease of use, like platforms, you know, the platforms you have to go or the tools you have to go into and like basically build a page yourself.

[00:05:04]   

And it’s like, no, I just want to get to the point in a few minutes to sell. I love that MiloTree is like that you can just go in, you can like copy, paste information and then boop. Like you can put like colors in branding colors, a photo maybe. And it just makes this amazing sales page.

[00:05:23]   

And now you guys have AI capabilities, which is super cool. Um, so I just wanted to mention that, that I use and love your product. And for listeners, Jillian and I have a special offer for you. If you want to get 20% off of your first purchase, which could be a really big discount depending on how you go, you can do that.

[00:05:44]   

So if you go to getmilotree.com/Megan, you can access that savings. So that’s getmilotree.com/Megan for a huge savings if you want. Just killer landing pages, sales pages that take little effort. And we’re going to talk a little bit about that and in.

[00:06:04]  Jillian Leslie 

And by the way, like, we’re real people. So if you have any questions, if you need advice, whatever, just email me at [email protected] and I’d be happy, happy to help you, help you get started. And you guys, because we love AI, we have built in a tool where you. And this is true for food bloggers a lot of times where it’s like you don’t exactly know what to sell.

[00:06:24]   

So we have an AI where we’re just going to ask you, like, what you do, like who, what you solve, who your niche is, what kind of product you want to create. And we’ll give you product ideas with roadmaps on how to create them. So you’re not alone. You’re not alone, right?

[00:06:40]  Megan Porta 

And you guys are so responsive and helpful. There have been times over the years when I just have a question like, ooh, this isn’t working, or how can we make this work like this? And you are on it. Like, you guys are so good about just giving, taking feedback and then making things happen.

[00:06:55]  Jillian Leslie 

Again, we love feedback. And that’s one of the things I talk a lot about, especially as you say, start building digital products or offer services you want to build with your audience, with your customers, because you don’t necessarily know. You have a hypothesis, you hope it’s right, but then somebody’s going to go, oh, what about this?

[00:07:17]   

And you go, I never thought of that. And so it’s like always I say be open. And this is one of the one of the things I see where people are successful is when they move quicker than they want to and they test different ideas. So I say, do not. Your first digital product should not be a course.

[00:07:37]   

Like, no way. Because you’re moving, you’re building this thing kind of in a vacuum. You want to put that first ebook out there, that first offer out there, and see how people respond. Maybe it’s crickets. Okay, no problem. Then go talk to somebody and go, well, you know, what would you want? And build that.

[00:08:00]   

So that’s so much about our own philosophy. If it doesn’t work the first time, that’s okay. You know, edit, pivot, keep moving.

[00:08:11]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely. So let’s talk about why people are thinking more about other ways to monetize and get traffic right now and just get traction for their brands. There’s a money shift right now. Yes, right. The big one. There’s such a big shift, as we all know. I don’t think we need to get too much into that.

[00:08:30]   

We’re all very aware that things are feeling a little bit shaky right now. So what are your perceptions, Jillian, of that? Like, what is kind of happening in the world of food blogging right now?

[00:08:42]  Jillian Leslie 

What I would say, and tell me if you agree with this, Megan, because we’ve been at this a long time. Opportunities on the Internet open and then close. And what I mean by that is somebody will discover, oh, a perfect example for Catch My Party. Weirdly, like, we built our business off of Frozen and Minecraft because people were throwing Frozen parties and Minecraft parties and they wanted free printables and all this stuff.

[00:09:11]   

And, like, it was shocking because we were able to ride those waves. So it’s like, wow, that put us on the map. And food bloggers have had this amazing opportunity where they could get really good at doing keyword research. And not that that’s still not important, but there were these windows that opened and then.

[00:09:30]   

But you have to assume if you’re building a business on the Internet, at some point those windows will close. Maybe not close shut, but those opportunities open and then they close. So you always have to be looking. And if you sit there waiting for that opportunity to come back, that’s where you get into trouble.

[00:09:49]   

Or if you sit there lamenting about the old days, that’s where you get into trouble. Like, AI is here. The toothpaste is out of the tube. So whether you like it or hate it, it doesn’t matter because it’s shifted everything. So how can you then become a student of AI and use it to the best of your abilities.

[00:10:11]   

Because if you want to stay in business, now, the name of the game is using AI in your business, not fighting AI. So please think in terms of opportunities and always looking for new opportunities. And I think food bloggers now are saying, wait a second, maybe there’s an opportunity where I can sell my services or my products, my knowledge, directly to my audience.

[00:10:35]   

Now the big shift for food bloggers. The ones who do this successfully are the ones who succeed, the food bloggers who can shift their mindset from I am a food blogger to I am a marketer and I create beautiful food or really, I solve a problem for my audience. So it’s not that I wake up on a Tuesday and I want to make a cookie recipe.

[00:11:00]   

So I just magically make that. I know that was back in the day. And then it became like, no, I need to make this cookie recipe because I see an opportunity where I could rank for that. And. But now I would say it’s okay. I have an audience. They’re coming to me because they have a problem.

[00:11:18]   

I solve that problem. I make products around that solution, and that is how I market to them to make money. So it’s much more direct rather than I am doing this to get ads on my site because I need traffic.

[00:11:35]  Megan Porta 

Totally different.

[00:11:36]  Jillian Leslie 

The goal has shifted.

[00:11:39]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And I think if people are listening and they’re like, okay, that sounds great and I get it, but I don’t know where to start with it. You mentioned that you guys have built in an AI capability inside your tool where you can get ideas. You can also use Claude or ChatGPT to say exactly what you just said.

[00:11:56]   

I think, you know, here’s my business, here’s the, the transformation I want to make in my audience, or here’s the pain points I want to solve. What can I offer them to help them do this? And I think starting there would be a really smart idea. What. What are your thoughts on that?

[00:12:14]   

And just kind of using AI to generate ideas for how to move, like, through this time.

[00:12:20]  Jillian Leslie 

So I had. I’ve had a podcast forever Blogger Genius podcast, and I’ve really shifted to YouTube because I really like the format of like 10 minute solutions. So one thing that I started to notice is in my comments, not just food bloggers, but people in general. Like, I want to sell digital products, but I don’t know what my niche is.

[00:12:38]   

And I’m like, okay, so I just did a podcast episode on how to find your niche. And I have an AI prompt that really asks that Claude or ChatGPT will ask you questions about what you’re good at and help you discover what your niche is. But your niche, and this is one thing that I talk about, is your niche isn’t about you going inside and thinking about what is, like, meaningful to you and what you’re called to do.

[00:13:11]   

I say your niche is like a Google search where you have an idea of the problem you solve. And you’re going to Google, you’re going to Pinterest, you’re seeing what autocomplete shows you to say, is there a market for this solution? So it’s weirdly, instead of like, oh, this is all about me and my passion, I’m like, your passion doesn’t necessarily could pay you, but it doesn’t necessarily pay you.

[00:13:39]   

What pays you is you solving a problem for people who are struggling with that problem and who will pay to solve it.

[00:13:49]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely. And the passion can overlap with that. Right? Like you can talk about what that is.

[00:13:55]  Jillian Leslie 

Yeah, but, but it’s not like, it’s not like, well, because I’m passionate about this, there’s an audience of people who are, A, also passionate about it, and B, that can’t be the only way to solve it. Like, that’s where I think people get tripped up because they see their business from the inside rather than outside to inside.

[00:14:19]   

So it’s like the outside. There has to be a, a group of people out in the world looking for my solution. Otherwise it’s a hobby, you know, otherwise it’s if nobody will pay for your solution, it’s a charity. So you have to kind of find this intersection of, yes, I am knowledgeable about this, and yes, people are struggling with this and yes, they’re willing to pay for it.

[00:14:46]  Megan Porta 

Yes. So can we talk about a few of the ideas that people are specifically food bloggers or food creators are selling that are creating those transformations for their audiences?

[00:14:58]  Jillian Leslie 

Yes. And I love you using the word transformation because as food bloggers, that seems so weird. So most people will go, okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take my most popular recipes and I’m going to put them in an ebook and sell it. And I go, no, it has to like, great.

[00:15:14]   

I go do that, definitely. But that’s not where I see people having the most success. Where I see people having the most success is go take your 10 most popular recipes, put them in an ebook. But you need to package it. This is where the marketing piece comes in. You need to package it as a solution so it’s not just these are 10 great recipes.

[00:15:36]   

These are 10 cookie recipes that are delicious. It has, okay, it could be something like these are ten 30-minute cookies. These are, you know, left what to do with your like leftover recipes. Ah. Cause I never know what to do with my leftover. So it could be small problems, but it has to be packaged in a way that somebody goes, I suffer from that problem.

[00:16:01]   

Not I just need 10 delicious recipes. It’s all about this framing of how so. For example, somebody who was really, who has been really successful food blogger does like low-sodium cooking and immediately you got like her husband had a heart attack. She needed to figure out how to do low-sodium cooking and she’s right there saying, hey, if this has come into your life, like oh my God, let’s say somebody in your life has now a dietary restriction.

[00:16:35]   

How can I still serve delicious food for this person? Could be myself, could be my husband, who knows. But it’s like that is a solution. And then she can talk about her own story. She could talk about the early struggles or maybe now she’s advanced and she could sell the advanced recipes. But it’s packaging it in that or if you’re a special diet that those are like, remember we learned like, oh my God, if you are a gluten-free blogger, like that was where you needed to be because there were all these people who became gluten-free who felt better eating gluten-free free and that it was almost like a joke that that was the niche, you know, that everybody was entering into.

[00:17:18]   

So it’s much more. So even if you’ve never thought this way as a food blogger, look at your top recipes, put them into ChatGPT and say how can I package this as a solution?

[00:17:29]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s a good idea. Yep.

[00:17:31]  Jillian Leslie 

How can I change the way I see my business from it’s just beautiful, delicious food.

[00:17:37]  Megan Porta 

Right. Because that might have ideas that you have not even thought of. You might see things through AI lens that are like, oh my gosh, that is really valuable and transformative.

[00:17:51]  Jillian Leslie 

Or let’s say you’ve got a thousand recipes on your blog. Well, maybe 10 of them could be packaged into a solution. Like kind of think about slicing and dicing your content so that you can then find that niche. Find, find that solution now where one thing that I, I want to be, I’m, I want to be completely honest.

[00:18:11]   

I promise you, you’re not going to buy your second home from your 10 recipe ebook. It’s not going to happen. But what it is is it’s, it’s a, it’s like the first piece in building that relationship and that is really valuable. It’s saying, I’m going to put this out, people want this from me.

[00:18:31]   

And then you go, what else do they want from me? So the people who have the most success are the people who build like a, what I like what I call like a digital product stack. So they’re moving with their audience into the, so that remember we’ve got the big transformation and then you can break it down into smaller transformations and sell each transformation as, as like a little mini solution working towards this big transformation.

[00:19:03]   

So let’s say I’m a dietitian and I help people lose weight who don’t want to be on GLP-1s. Okay, so that’s the, so let’s say the big goal is lose 20 pounds but without, you know, doing it naturally with like whole foods. Okay, so what would be the steps that I can then sell somebody on the journey?

[00:19:25]   

So the, the goal is, did I get somebody to their 20 pound goal? Right. And then maybe the beginning is okay, what foods should I have in my fridge? Or what are snack alternatives that I can then package? Or what about like, maybe here is my meal plan that can help them get there?

[00:19:51]   

Or maybe then ready. It’s my, my workshop where we talk about cutting out sugar. And then maybe I sell the recording of the workshop as another product. And then maybe I do, because I’m a dietitian, I do some one on one coaching with people to really jumpstart their weight loss. Or maybe they got stuck and they got stuck at they’ve only lost ten pounds and they can’t push to that last ten pounds.

[00:20:22]   

And then maybe I have a membership of people to keep everybody accountable. And we all are there a couple times a month and we are supporting each other and sharing recipes. But it’s being creative about that problem.

[00:20:41]  Megan Porta 

Do you feel like, because as you’re talking through this, I love everything you’re saying. People need to start with step one. So maybe it’s that first idea that you came up with and then kind of see where it leads like from there. What is your audience needing or asking for?

[00:20:58]  Jillian Leslie 

I say two, I say, I say think of it from two perspectives. One perspective is what is. Again, I say always have a hypothesis and always hold it lightly because chances are it will shift and change. So your first hypothesis is like, okay, maybe I could help people lose 20 pounds, maybe you can’t.

[00:21:20]   

Maybe it’s ultimately you help people lose 10 pounds. Or maybe you help people do something totally different. Like you don’t know, but start working toward like your bigger thought with starting with that first piece. Please don’t think you need to break this down into 20 different products. Like that’s one thing that I see where people get so overwhelmed because they think, okay, I need to build this whole thing and it’s got to have 14 moving parts.

[00:21:46]   

No, start with one. See if you can get traction. See if you can get what’s called product market fit, which means I put this out and people connect to it and want to purchase it and somebody will go, well, I only got three sales. I go, three sales, that’s awesome. It means it’s connecting.

[00:22:08]   

It means get on a call with those three people or email them or DM them and say, hey, can I talk to you? Like, why’d you buy my product? Product? What was I solving for you? Did I do it? What else can I sell you? And I know food bloggers especially can sometimes want to hide behind their food blog, but I’m going to say, in a world where AI now is, is happening, I call this like a trust crisis.

[00:22:41]   

I think we’re going through this trust crisis. So yesterday, this is an example, my dad’s been having heart issues. So I’m on YouTube, in like YouTube, you know, whatever, looking for information. I see this video that I think is really useful. I’m watching it and it’s like this nice looking doctor. And all of a sudden I go, is he AI?

[00:23:03]  Megan Porta 

Oh no, there was an AI doctor.

[00:23:06]  Jillian Leslie 

There are. Go to YouTube, like, and I have to tell you, it made me feel bad and I was like, oh my God, I, I was tricked. I watched the whole video and then I went to his channel and I went, oh my God, he’s like creating like 30 videos in a week.

[00:23:24]   

And it just, and, and it made me feel bad. So if you can show up and be real today, this is your moment. Because you can see like we’re real people and we’ll stumble and, and stuff, but there’s something you can see, smell us, that we are real people. And I feel like if you can show up like that, people are drawn to people.

[00:23:50]  Sponsor 

Let me ask you a question. If your ad revenue disappeared tomorrow, what would your backup plan be? I know that’s not the most fun thing to think about, but it is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. Like many food bloggers, I have watched traffic decline and ad revenue become less predictable than it used to be.

That is why I’m so grateful I started building income streams that do not depend on Google. One of the tools that has helped me do that is MiloTree. And here’s what I love most about it. You don’t have to figure everything out on your own. If you have ever thought, I know I should create a digital product, but what would I even sell?
 

MiloTree has AI help that answers questions like these for you. It looks at your audience and it suggests products people would actually buy. So cool. Then it gives you a roadmap to create it and even writes your sales page for you. I have personally used MiloTree to sell tickets for my events directly to my audience.
  

No complicated tech, no piecing together a bunch of different tools, just a simple way to create an offer and get it in front of people who already know, like, and trust you. No algorithm, no Google update, no middleman. Just serving your audience and creating income from the expertise you already have. Whether it’s an ebook, membership, workshop, meal plan, event, ticket, coaching offer, or something completely unique to your audience, MiloTree helps you get it off the ground so much faster.
  

There’s a free forever plan, no credit card required. And as a listener of eBlog Talk, you’ll get 20% off your first payment when you upgrade. Head to getmilotree.com/Megan to get started. That’s getmilotree.com/Megan.

[00:25:39]  Megan Porta 

Do you have thoughts about that? Like, because you can create AI videos, sadly, like you just said, what are ways that people can be authentic so your audience knows like, okay, Megan’s human. Is it just showing your personality? Is it showing up maybe a little bit raw or not, you know, perfectly doing your hair or what?

[00:25:45]  Jillian Leslie 

What exactly does all of the above? Like? All of the above? I have this, I have a, like a teen daughter and like the mantra in my family is like, nobody cares about you except for the people who really care about you. But like, for her as a teenager, I think that’s been a really good advice and she’ll, she’ll throw it back at me.

[00:26:04]   

I remember like editing a photo of me on my computer and I was like, oh, it’s so ugly. And she goes, mom, nobody, nobody cares. Like, nobody’s thinking about you. So therefore it is important to show up a little raw because you’re judging yourself so harshly. But other people aren’t really thinking about that.

[00:26:21]   

They’re thinking about themselves and their problems. And if you can solve one of their problems, that’s all that matters. So it changes the dynamic. I think with Instagram, it became Like, I don’t know, like, Instagram always felt like the kind of the beautiful people. Like, you had to be, like, extra polished and looked so good.

[00:26:41]   

And now I feel like we can not necessarily be that way because we want to promote I’m real. I’m a real person. So for all the food bloggers who feel insecure kind of saying, no, no, no, I just want my food to do the talking, I’m going to challenge you and say, remember, like, the world is shifting, and if you want to stay ahead of it and stay successful, please show up and say, I’m an introvert.

[00:27:09]   

I’m an introvert food blogger. And maybe you can relate to that. So put it out there. Be honest about it. But really, if you can be human, I feel like that is going to be even more valuable over the next couple years. But if you can say, today, I’m real. In two years, when people go, is this real?

[00:27:33]   

Is this not real? They’ll know you’re real because they started with you today.

[00:27:39]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And they will appreciate that. So me showing up in my bedroom today, recording YouTube video, that. That counts, right? I’m being real.

[00:27:47]  Jillian Leslie 

But, like, I didn’t even know. I thought, oh, you have pretty curtains and some pretty images. Like, I don’t know. So that’s the thing. Like, you might be like, oh, my God, this is embarrassing. But I’m not embarrassed for you. Like, I think you have a really nice background.

[00:28:02]  Megan Porta 

Oh, I’m so over being embarrassed about anything. I. I’m just. I embrace it. Like, we have, yeah. People in our house right now doing water damage repair. And, like, if I can show up here and talk to you, I don’t care what it looks like. I don’t care what I look like. I consider it a win.

[00:28:20]  Jillian Leslie 

So absolutely. Like, and that’s what’s so refreshing. Because you seem okay with whatever, you know. And I feel like showing up being, you know, saying, like, I’m just gonna put it out there. And again, I’m not saying go share your deep, dark, secret secrets or anything. I’m just saying empathy goes a long way.

[00:28:43]  Megan Porta 

Oh, gosh, it really does.

[00:28:45]  Jillian Leslie 

And that’s the thing. So instead of just being like, you know, I make beautiful food, it’s like, I want to connect with the people who are loving my food where I am making their life better. Like, a lot of times I think

[00:29:03]  Megan Porta 

food bloggers stop and that’s just one little tweak. But it goes a long way at that point. Point.

[00:29:07]  Jillian Leslie 

Right. Like, it was just like, I make beautiful Food. I know what keywords I’m going after. And, like, whoever reads my recipe, I don’t really kind of care about them or I’m not thinking about them. They’re abstract to me. And I’m saying, make those people not abstract. Make them your people, the people you show up for.

[00:29:28]   

And so again, think. So if I. If I were to think about, like, what the big takeaways think, go to chat. Go to Claude and start talking about the niche that you are in, what problem you can solve, that has, by the way, a real transformation. So, for example, somebody will get on a call with me and they’ll go, I teach mindset.

[00:29:52]   

And I go, that’s tricky because your definition of mindset could be very different from my definition of mindset. So the more concrete you can be. So, for example, I want to work. I want to fix my relationship with my spouse. Right. Or be a better communicator with my spouse. That’s like, much more binary.

[00:30:19]   

Either we are communicating or we’re not communicating. And that becomes, like, clear. Or I lose. I lose 20 pounds or I don’t lose 20 pounds. Like, that is, like, that’s kind of what you want to look for, which is, is there a transformation that I could either quantify or somebody could say, yes, we’ve achieved this, versus I work on mindset.

[00:30:43]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:30:43]  Jillian Leslie 

So go start talking. Yeah, and go start talking to Claude or chat about that. And. And then create one small digital product that you could put out in front of your people and see if they bite. And if they don’t, no problem. Come up with another one and put it out there and see if they bite.

[00:31:06]   

Or do it with a freebie, because I am all about your email list, which I’m sure you talk a lot about. Like, that is the real value. That’s where the money is. So start putting out a bunch of freebies and see. Okay, they like this, they don’t like that.

[00:31:22]  Megan Porta 

It’s a good idea. Yeah, that’s a great idea, too. Just putting things out there, I think. And then, like you said, don’t give. Don’t give up if it doesn’t work. I think a lot of people stall there and let them let that hold them back. But keep trying because there’s something that you’re going to provide that’s going to be valuable that people are going to love.

[00:31:46]  Jillian Leslie 

Yeah. I would say get curious. Like, start asking real people for their feedback to set. Like, maybe they’re. I don’t know. I always believe that you should have, like, three People in your audience that you could text, that you could build that, and maybe you give them your product for free or give them a big discount.

[00:32:04]   

Who knows? But, like, those become your evangelists. They’re the people who, like, love you through thick and thin, but who also will tell you if you have spinach in your teeth.

[00:32:15]  Megan Porta 

Yes.

[00:32:16]  Jillian Leslie 

You know, so, like, build those relationships so that you can. You’re not so alone in your own house going, I don’t know what to do.

[00:32:27]  Megan Porta 

Exactly.

[00:32:27]  Jillian Leslie 

You know, find the people who are always commenting on your Instagram posts or the people who respond to your emails, those things, because those are. They’re like your. Your ride or die fans.

[00:32:40]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:32:41]  Jillian Leslie 

And you want to cultivate them and be real, like we were talking about. Be more vulnerable or raw or who knows? But, like, get them into your universe and love on them.

[00:32:53]  Megan Porta 

I love that. Love on them. That’s the perfect place to start. And then do you think there’s anything else, Julian, that holds people back from finding the digital product or just finding ways to branch out monetarily or whatever? Like, I don’t know, maybe overthinking it in the first place or what else can keep people.

[00:33:13]  Jillian Leslie 

All of the above, like, fear, Remember I’m saying to you, like, get out from behind your food blog. That’s super scary, I guess, to know that everybody’s scared, everybody feels. It’s really hard. I’m sitting here going, you know, put a product out there, see if anybody. Anybody purchases it, and if they don’t, don’t worry about it.

[00:33:34]   

It’s painful so to acknowledge that. But the goal is that you haven’t created some big course that you’ve spent six months building. Nobody purchases it, and you’re in bed for two days because you’re so depressed. Hey, I just created like an ebook, taking my best recipes, packaging it as a solution, putting it out there.

[00:33:55]   

Nobody purchases. That’s a little better. Is it still going to sting? Yes. And a lot of people who say stop are the ones who say to me, I tried it, it didn’t work. And I go try again and again and again, and each time get feedback and move a little bit and see if you can get traction.

[00:34:18]   

So move faster than you want to. Be a little more embarrassed than you want to. I talk a lot. I’m sure I’ve said this on your podcast of, like, B minus work. Like, please, please. I think that so many in my audience are the people who are the perfectionists, really struggle because they take it much more personally than the people are willing to just kind of put it out there.

[00:34:45]   

So I think we hold ourselves back.

[00:34:47]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely.

[00:34:51]  Jillian Leslie 

But I feel like, my gosh, if

[00:34:53]  Megan Porta 

I think back about how many times. Yeah, go ahead.

[00:34:58]  Jillian Leslie 

No, I was just going to say the people who I see succeed are the ones who are willing to just go for it. So that would be my advice. And if you fail and you feel bad, email me, because I believe me, I know that feeling. And I feel like I’m in your corner saying, okay, well, how about this?

[00:35:20]   

Have you tried that? Or here’s what I’m seeing. Work for people.

[00:35:24]  Megan Porta 

People.

[00:35:26]  Jillian Leslie 

And it will probably be like a lot of these same ideas of, like, you know, what is your niche? Who do you serve? Can you probably make your niche smaller? Can you make your product smaller? How are you promoting it? Like, what’s your language? Are you talking about it in terms of your benefits?

[00:35:45]   

Like, there are just certain things that, you know, we can go through to figure it out so that you shift the mindset. I guess that’s the big thing for food bloggers, shifting your mindset.

[00:35:58]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, it’s. It’s so simple, but not right. It feels like it should be, but it can be tricky getting to that point where you’re like, okay, I get, I get this new perspective now.

[00:36:10]  Jillian Leslie 

Now, where do you think food bloggers, like, struggle the most when it comes to stuff like this, like pivoting?

[00:36:18]  Megan Porta 

I think change is hard. The fear of the unknown. So knowing that things are changing but not knowing how things are going to work out or unfold for your business, I think that is a. That’s the real struggle that I see a lot of people dealing with right now. It’s just like, people get into kind of panic mode and start flailing a little bit, like, wait, this is so different, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.

[00:36:47]   

And then kind of overthinking things like, okay, now I’ve got to. Everything I have to do has to have an ROI now. And if it doesn’t, then I’m not moving forward. So it’s, I think, just a lot of control. Maybe it comes down to, like, people just really want control, and they, when they realize they don’t have control, they kind of panic.

[00:37:10]  Jillian Leslie 

You know, I told now, just so you know, you can sell a digital product and offer a freebie for free on MiloTree Forever. So there’s no, you don’t need a credit card, no nothing. So I’m going to say, hey, go make that ebook. Wrap it in the package of a solution of your 10 best recipes and go put it up and then go promote it.

[00:37:33]   

Yeah, go check it and get started. Low stakes, low stakes, low bar, very low stakes.

[00:37:39]  Megan Porta 

And like I said earlier, it is so easy to get started. I was shocked, shocked. I am a longtime user also of a different platform that I had to spend an entire day building my sales page. So when I went on to MiloTree, I was like, well, here we go. But it wasn’t like that.

[00:37:57]   

It was like literally a few minutes down the road and you’re off and running. So get started. Even if it’s just a simple idea, like Jillian said, 10 side dishes for Thanksgiving or whatever. Go to getmilotree.com/Megan and you can get started today. Get started now and let us know how it goes.

[00:38:18]   

I’m super excited to hear anything else you want to say before we say goodbye, Jillian?

[00:38:24]  Jillian Leslie 

I want to, I guess I would say, like, what, what we’ve been talking about, like, if I think of a theme for this and I think as we’re moving into a world of AI and things potentially getting wilder, I mean, I feel like things are wild now. I just feel like the people that I see who succeed are the ones who are willing to risk it.

[00:38:51]   

I don’t mean make big risks big, but like who are willing to put themselves out there, who are willing to say, I don’t know, I don’t know where this is going to go, but I’m going to hold on for the ride. I’m going to make the best decisions I can in this moment with the most knowledge I have.

[00:39:06]   

But I’m going to move forward rather than I’m going to either stay stuck or kind of almost move backward. So I’m going to say, like, go toward it. I don’t know. Maybe AI becomes our overlords. I don’t know. But I do know that it is really good at accelerating my business right now.

[00:39:24]   

So my thing is I show up real and I use AI in the background to help with creating content or creating who knows what. So it’s like this weird. If I. I can put a really kind of positive spin on it, which is I’ve never been able to move as quickly as I’ve, you know, David and I, it’s shocking what we can do now.

[00:39:50]   

So I’m trying to lean into the positive side of it and recognize things are going to be changing and I’m okay, because I’m just gonna hold on for the ride.

[00:40:00]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I know. It’s kind of fun. It’s exciting. And as creative people, I think if you can lean into that, like you said, curiosity, but also the creativity of it, and just, like, use it to propel your business forward. Because I am for sure doing that right now. It sounds like you guys are, too.

[00:40:18]   

If you can do that, you can ride this wave and have a great time and.

[00:40:23]  Jillian Leslie 

Exactly. And who knows? Like, again, like, being open. Open to, you know, nobody knows. Like, I think there’s something nice about this moment because everybody’s kind of like, on the same foot. Like, like, meaning at the same level. Because nobody knows how it’s going to work out. So get in there, muck around, play around, put out stuff that’s raw, see what happens.

[00:40:44]   

Get creative.

[00:40:46]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely. Well, I think you have provided some inspiration and encouragement today, Jillian, so thank you. I know a lot of people, especially going into Q4 soon, are looking for just new ideas, ways to serve their people and provide value.

[00:41:03]  Jillian Leslie 

And here’s one. Here’s an easy one that we were talking about. With the holidays coming up pretty soon, see if you can tie your solution to the holidays. Like, remember, you’re like, I don’t have a niche. Well, what if you could take your 10 side dishes and go, these are 10 easy side dishes for Christmas.

[00:41:24]   

You’ve now solved a problem. These aren’t just like 10 delicious side dishes. It is. I struggle with side dishes that are fast and delicious and easy at Christmas. So if you can find, if you can provide that for me in that packaging, that’s all you need.

[00:41:42]  Megan Porta 

Absolutely, yes. We’re all kind of on board with holidays soon. We were just talking about the holidays in one of my mastermind calls the other day. And I was like, that is so weird. It is July and we’re talking about holidays, but get on board with that because they’re going to be here before we know it.

[00:42:01]   

Well, Jillian, thank you. This was amazing as always. Love to talk to you every time. So thank you for all of this.

[00:42:08]  Jillian Leslie 

I feel the same. I feel the same way. I’m so glad that we are friends.

[00:42:12]  Megan Porta 

I know it was such a good chat and just brighten my day. And I’m sure that this will be encouraging for a lot of people listening. So thank you so much for your time today.

[00:42:21]  Jillian Leslie 

And by the way, if anybody seriously has any questions, just email me at [email protected] because again, I love hearing from people. I love hearing. I feel like if, you know, if I can see somebody succeed, like, you’ve made my day. So it’s like I just am there to keep sharing what I see working for other people and spreading that so that hopefully it can work for you, too.

[00:42:47]  Megan Porta 

Well, thank you for showing up for this community. That’s amazing of you. All right, well, thanks for listening food bloggers, and have a wonderful day. Jillian, it was so great.

[00:42:56]  Jillian Leslie 

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:42:59]  Outro 

Thank you so much for listening to Eat Blog Talk. The best way to support this show is to share it with another blogger or friend who could use encouragement today. Let’s share the love. I will see you in the next episode.