Episode 597: Scale Your Food Blog By Hiring a Professional Food Blog Photographer (+How to Make a Career in Food Blog Photography) with Melodee Fiske

EBT597 – Melodee Fiske

Supercut  00:00

Hey, food bloggers, check out our new SEO supercut, a bonus 15 minute episode capturing highlights from SEO episodes we have recorded recently. Go to eatblogtalk.com/SEOsupercut to get access today. 

Intro 00:10

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  00:53

Guess what? You don’t have to do everything in your business. Did you know that sometimes we feel like we do need to do it all and we need to hold on to every single task. Well, that is not true, and that is the message that Melodee from Pretty Focused shows up with in this episode. Sometimes we need to relinquish certain tasks in our businesses, such as photography, food photography, and let go of them, let somebody else do them, so that we can focus on other things to grow our businesses. Even further, Melodee talks about hiring food photographers, how this is different from hiring other types of photographers, such as editorial photographers. And through her Pretty Focused course, she teaches food photographers how to create content for all the different platforms that food bloggers need to be on, and also how to adopt certain characteristics of each food photographer’s brand. So whether you are a food blogger looking to just make a little bit of extra money, or maybe you’re a food blogger looking to outsource your food photography so that you can grow your business in other ways. Either way, this episode is going to be super valuable for you. Tune in. I hope you enjoy it. It’s episode number 597 sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  02:09

food bloggers. It has been a tough year. Am I right? We have endured a lot of changes in our industry, and it feels like the blows just keep coming. One thing that has remained constant this year is the Eat Blog Talk mastermind group, the way we show up for each other, and the fact that the members in the group are pivoting when needed. Staying in touch with relevant information and thriving is huge, and it says a lot about the group. I want to share this audio clip with you from Kristina. She’s the blogger at When Salty and Sweet Unite. She is part of the group this year, and here are her thoughts about you, considering joining the group next year in 2025 for more information and to apply, go to eatblogtalk.com/mastermind. Here is Kristina.

Kristina Cadelina  02:53

There’s just something about people who are investing in themselves. There’s just something about us that we get it like we want it, we’re gonna go get it, we’re gonna go figure it out, and let’s all do this together, right? There’s no room for negativity. There’s negative things that happen throughout that, course, but that’s not what we’re focused on. Yeah, and I think in three groups, I noticed there’s a lot of negativity, and I don’t know why that is. Like, is that because this is truly a free group? Is that because we’re not touching on mindset enough? Is that because, like, when you get free, is what you get is free? Like, I don’t know. I don’t have an answer to why that is, but I just feel like you know you can make it happen, like, if you want, if you want that growth. Because I understand not everyone can do a mastermind, but somehow, somehow you can make it happen, whether it be do a payment plan, we found a way to make it work. Yeah, it has really, like you said, it’s absolutely worth it. Now back to the episode.

Megan Porta  04:00

Melodee is the creator and owner of Pretty Focused. She’s a wife, homeschool mom and a second grade teacher turned food photographer. Melodee started working as a food photographer for food bloggers in 2016. In 2017, she started to have friends ask her to teach them how to do it too, so she did, and that’s when Pretty Focused was born. Since then, she’s had over 1,000 students join Pretty Focused to learn how to photograph food for food bloggers. Melodee connects them with potential clients inside their marketplace when they graduate. Over the last 3 years, 69% of our grads reported making $50,000+ working as food photographers for bloggers. Melody, it’s so nice to meet you finally and to have you on Eat Blog Talk. How are you doing today?

Melodee Fiske  04:40

I’m so good. It’s such a pleasure to talk with you. I’ve been following you on social, and every time I see your post, it just, they just make me so happy. Oh,

Megan Porta  04:49

that’s so nice. I love that. That’s one of my goals. Good. Mission accomplished. Yeah, yes, good job. Well, and I hear so much about Pretty Focused, so many. Positive things, so I’m really glad to make the connection with you and just yeah, have this conversation today. So super excited. Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, we’re gonna talk about photography today, and if you are looking to hire and kind of some details around all of that. But first, we would love to know if you have a fun fact to share about yourself.

Melodee Fiske  05:19

Well, this is always so hard, right to like, the fun fact, I can talk about photography and everything, but you asked to talk about me, that’s really hard. Let’s see. I have a degree in elementary education, and I actually we homeschool our boys. So we are like my husband and I both work on Pretty Focused, and we homeschool our boys. And so we just wouldn’t have it any other way. We love being with them and love all of our family time. So family is very important to us.

Megan Porta  05:47

How many boys and how old are they? 10?

Melodee Fiske  05:50

Two, and they’re 10 and 11. Okay, I

Megan Porta  05:52

thought you were gonna start with 10 boys. I was like, Oh my gosh, Melody, what in the world?

Melodee Fiske  05:57

Oh my I cannot even. Oh my god. I cannot even because two of them are eating me out of house and home right now. So, yeah,

Megan Porta  06:05

yeah, it happens. It is a real thing for sure. There’s like a tipping point with their age too, where it’s like, oh my gosh, where is all this food going? Oh

Melodee Fiske  06:15

yeah, when you go out to restaurants and they start eating adult size meals, yeah, yep, exactly. Just want to cry.

Megan Porta  06:21

You could pay for the like 499 kids meal for so long and now and now, here we go. You’re in the world of adult food, yep. Well, love hearing that about you. Now, I would love if you gave us a little bit of a background on Pretty Focused. Yeah.

Melodee Fiske  06:36

So Pretty Focused started back in 2017 I started even before that. Started working with food bloggers back in 2016 and like, I was just at a point in my photography business where I was, like, I wanted to take a full, you know, full year round, not just like during the holidays, and I was trying to figure out how to do that. And I thought the way to do that was, like, styled shoots and, you know, weddings and seniors, because that’s what everybody did. And in 2016 I started working with food bloggers, just kind of by chance. I had a friend who was a food blogger, and so I did some recipes for her, and then she introduced me to this whole world, and it felt like stepping into literally, like another portal. Yes, it was. I was like, what this is insane. I can’t believe this world has existed, and I’m just now finding out about it. So I kind of got to a point, because I was doing work for bloggers. I was doing work for, you know, portraits, and really trying to ramp up weddings and and just really honestly, wasting my time with weddings is what it was, because I got to this point where I was like, You know what? I need to follow the money. Yeah. I was making way more money working for food bloggers than I did as a teacher. And I was like, why am I wasting my time trying to get published on these wedding blogs with 6000 you know, subscribers whenever I am on blogs that have millions of followers, right? Yeah. Like, so, if that is my, that is my goal is to have my work seen by millions, like, check, right? You know what I mean? So I kind of let that go and just started pouring everything into working for food bloggers. And then I had a friend say, you know, she tearfully came to me and was like, Melody, you know, I’m, I see that you’re doing this. Can I do this too? Can you teach me how to do it? You know, all the all those questions, do I have to have experience, you know, do I have the right gear? This is the gear that my my the camera my husband has. And, you know, how soon do you think I can make money? And so she started working. I started sending her videos, and from that Pretty Focused was came out of that conversation in Starbucks, because I thought, you know, if there’s, if there’s one person out there, I know that there’s many, you know, women out there, or dads out there, who need to make extra income for their family, and they need that life of freedom and flexibility. And so I had originally partnered with another food blogger to create it, but over the last year I’ve, I’ve taken over sole ownership of Pretty Focused, but so that that, I mean, that’s kind of the background of why Pretty Focused came to be is to really help other, you know, women be able to make money working at home and at the same time. Also provide opportunities for food bloggers to continue to have that freedom and flexibility by providing quality photographers for them, you know, so they can start to diversify and grow and scale their blogs.

Megan Porta  09:36

Okay, this is perfect. So you teach food photographers, food bloggers, how to take beautiful food photos if that is aligned with their business, and you teach them how to potentially hire out if it is not aligned with their business and they’d rather open up space for other things. Yes. Okay, perfect. I love that. So is your course, like a is Pretty Focused. What a course or a mastermind group, or how do you structure it?

Melodee Fiske  10:03

You know what? It’s so funny, because whenever I ask our grads what is Pretty Focused, they were like, I have no words. The last grad I talked to, she’s like, it is inadequate, because it is a course, but, but not like, it’s really a huge community. So we kind of say we have three pillars, our curriculum, coaching and community. So what is great is that we have correct, you know, we’ve got the curriculum that tailors to teaching specifically for food, blog, photography, and that’s not something that you’ll see, you know, any other place, you know, a lot of it’s editorial, or, you know, you’ll see like restaurant, but just this is really specific for food blog, you know, with with some of that SEO stuff in mind. So how the ingredient, shots the process, shots the heroes, kind of walking you through that entire, entire process. But we also have coaching, and that’s not common either, where we have with our with our, you know, tier three, we offer coaching, whereas students are going through the course, they are getting coached all along the way. And this is, this is honestly allowed so many people who have never picked up a camera before to go from you know, novice to working with clients and charging a decent amount for their work within like, five, six months. Oh, wow, that’s awesome. The coaching. And then our community, our community is huge, and that is really important to me to have a positive, encouraging community, because that was something I didn’t have whenever I started. In fact, you know, you have so much cutthroat, you know, and competition and people smiling at you, but then talking about you behind your back or, you know. And so I was like, No, we’re not doing that here. And so I try to toe the line with that of what this community is is going to be, and what it’s not going to be, but the community within our, you know, coaching, of coaching community in our Facebook, of community of people going through this process together, and there’s that sense of camaraderie, but also the community that after our students graduate, we connect them to food bloggers. So pretty focus. We kind of have a lot, a lot going on within our community. And you can use these tools, whether you’re a food blogger and you want to take your own photos, or, you know, you’re a food blogger and you want to make money while you’re growing your blog, because we have food bloggers join pretty focus for that purpose too. They’re like, well, I need to make extra money while I’m while I’m doing this. Yeah, it’s a way to diversify their income. And then they’re learning how to take better photos for their own blogs, and we

Megan Porta  12:42

win, right? Extra, yeah, we see them extra value that they’re getting for themselves. Yeah?

Melodee Fiske  12:47

I mean, we they’re getting, you know, a mediavine status, yeah, which is great. Whenever I hear of a it’s phenomenal. And then, you know, then bloggers can, if they don’t want to, you know, they’re past the point of photography, or it’s not a strong suit they have. They can actually hire our grads to be able to do that. So we kind of have this whole ecosystem, nice, right? It’s a whole ecosystem, really, of Absolutely, that’s how, that’s how I can should describe it from now on. It’s an ecosystem, not just a community photography

Megan Porta  13:18

ecosystem, yes. So when somebody comes in, do they usually have an idea which route they want to go, or do you coach them with that?

Melodee Fiske  13:27

So meaning which route they want to go, like,

Megan Porta  13:31

I’m here to learn how to better my own photography skills, versus I’m here because I need to make money, because I want to get into an ad network, or I’m waiting to get into an ad network,

Melodee Fiske  13:43

yeah. So we have, so if that were you, and you were coming, we would, like, we would suggest you enrolling in tier one.

Megan Porta  13:50

Okay, so the different tiers cover different end goals.

Melodee Fiske  13:55

Yes, they do. So we always say, like, Tier one is for for food bloggers only, and it only covers, like, the first four modules. You guys don’t need the business stuff. You know what it’s like to work with other food bloggers. So it’s, it covers, you know, camera. There’s the camera Deep Dive. There’s composition for, again, food blog specific. There’s, you know, photographing recipes from start to finish, so you can get a really good workflow and then editing and so that, that tier, it doesn’t have coaching, but the the top, our top tier, comes with with coaching. So just kind of, whatever we, we really have, yeah, anything that you, that you have, so And do you

Megan Porta  14:33

have advice for I know there’s going to be a lot of people listening to this who are like, I don’t know if I’m ready to hire photography out, because it just seems like one of those things that a lot of people hold close to their chests, like, I don’t know if I can let go of this. So when, when is that time when we can let go of it and hire out?

Melodee Fiske  14:56

I love this question because I just filmed a YouTube video. On this this week about identifying your strengths and identifying your struggles. Call it strengths and struggles. And really, you know, you you identify your strengths, make a list, and you want to identify your struggles and make a list. And the reason why I like focus on the struggles. You know, of course, I always want to be positive and everything but, you know, and all that stuff, but there, there comes a point where you do need to focus on the areas of weakness that you have, because that’s your biggest areas to grow. And so I would take time and evaluate, really, what those are for you. And you can in those areas of struggle. You know, you can seek education, right? Or you can, you know, hire out for those different needs. But the thing I want to say is you don’t have to do everything, and I think that people myself included, because this is a big struggle for me, of relinquishing and letting go. This is, like an, this is an ongoing thing for, I think, every business owner, where you have just created something that is your baby, and you have poured so much into and it has your eye, and it has your design and it has, you know, it’s just, it’s you, yeah, and how Do you let that go? Because photography and that whole creative aspect is very, very personal, and so I understand it’s not the same thing, and it also, like, represents your brand. And so it’s not the same thing as maybe hiring somebody to answer emails or respond to comments or, you know, publish your blog posts, it feels very different because it’s very outward facing. It’s very it’s, it’s, it’s your brand. It’s your reputation. Because of food bloggers, reputation is built on recipe, yeah? 

Melodee Fiske  16:52

And great recipes and great photography, because it’s not just the photography that positions you as an authority. It’s the photography, so the recipe and the photography, yeah, and so I would say, I would say, if you are at a place where you’re kind of at an impasse and you are wanting to scale and grow, you have to look at yourself as a leader and a captain of the ship. And the captain of the ship does not do everything. And people think that hiring out is a weakness. It is not a weakness. It’s actually a strength. To be able to say, I need help in this area. In order to do this, I have to focus on vision, and I have to focus on growth. And in order to do that, I need, I need to let go of certain areas, and then with that, when you do, I always say, communicate, communicate with somebody who’s taking over such a personal thing for you of photography and your brand, and that’s kind of your identity and how you present yourself to clients. Really communicate with them so they really understand, you know, what it is that you’re looking for?

Megan Porta  18:05

Oh, I think that is a key component, right there, is that communication. I held on to photography for so long because of this, like I have been blogging forever, and it just felt like I needed to hold on to it for some reason. Like you said, it’s very outward. It’s something that people see right off the bat. So I felt like I need to be the one doing it. So when I finally let go, I realized, oh, all I needed to do was explain to somebody who had the skill that I like light and bright. I like pops of color. And guess what? They’ve been able to replicate that, and it really doesn’t look much different from my photography. So I’m like, what was I worried about all of those years? It’s kind of silly, but communication can go so far.

Melodee Fiske  18:50

And that’s where, you know, I know that there’s a lot of you know, groups out there, but we’re Pretty Focused. Really stands out our Buyers Club. Stands out is that people are trained, and you don’t always know what you’re going to get. I think in the other groups, it’s kind of like a shot in the dark, yeah, or, like, if you’re looking on Fiverr, I don’t, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m like, the buyer’s club. Just go to the buyer’s club, because they’re trained to work for you, for food bloggers. So they kind of know a little bit what to expect. They they know the questions to ask to be able to deliver on what food bloggers need.

Megan Porta  19:27

Right, yeah, that’s so important. 

Sponsor  19:30

Food bloggers. Hey, taking a really quick break here to talk about RankIQ With all of the changes our industry is facing right now, we are hearing a lot of advice from different people, and some of it feels really confusing and conflicting. One of the things I’ve been hearing lately is that it no longer works to write posts based on low competition keywords. I do not personally agree with this. I want to tell you why, because my analytics. Posts are telling me that it definitely still works to write posts with a low competition keyword focus. The posts I’ve published in the past few years that I have found on RankIQ and that I have run through the optimizer on RankIQ are performing really well for my blog. I have used a strategy recently that has helped to keep my traffic afloat during this very tumultuous time, I find older blog posts to redo and republish. I use the pro blogger’s guide to updating old blog posts published by RankIQ. Search for that on Google, put them through the RankIQ optimizer. These republished posts are quickly rising in the rankings as well. Focusing on low competition keywords is still a good strategy for getting traffic. So I wanted to encourage you all with this head to RankIQ.com to browse through tons of food niche categories and grab some of those low competition, high search volume keywords to focus on, go to RankIQ.com to get started today. Now, back to the episode. 

Megan Porta  20:59

And then, do you guys teach, like, more of strategy, because it’s not just taking the photos. There has to be thought that goes into it with, you know, Google and E, A, T and all of that. Do you teach that background as well?

Melodee Fiske  21:13

Yeah, and not just, not just Google Now, you know, but really understanding Pinterest as well, and what photos do well on Pinterest, and it’s a lot of research and it’s a lot of observation, you know, it’s a lot of research and it’s a lot of observation, really, is kind of what it boils down to, and looking for, you know, consistencies. And the thing that the thing that we teach is, for me as a photographer, I cannot deliver photos unless I ask a lot of questions, and unless I know how the photos are going to be used. Because, you know this, this is important, because I have seen bloggers, or, you know, people who’ve come to me and they say, Well, I’ve been working with food bloggers for, you know, a couple, you know, a couple years now, or I’ve been working with a client, whatever they’re like, can I just buy access to the Buyers Club? Because here and they show me, here’s my photos, and it’s the exact same photo, cropped like five different ways. And I told her, I said, okay, so beautiful photo, great editing, great composition, I said, but there is not enough variety here that is going to work for food bloggers. And so food bloggers need a variety of heroes, because they use them in so many different ways. And so what we teach our grads is we teach them the reader’s journey and what journeys the readers are going on. And there’s two different journeys that they go on, one, and you guys are going to be like, Oh yeah, that’s so right, because I do the exact same thing as a reader myself. And they first of all, you are going to Google or Pinterest, the search engines, whichever one it is, and you usually have an intentional search, right? You’re not just you actually have to put in chicken recipes or chicken pot pie. And so you have an intentional search. And so people are going with the intention to look for a certain recipe on social media. So the photos, the photos belonging there, you know, need to look a certain way, then you have this one that so many of us can relate to, and it is the scrolling on social media where you’re in bed late at night, because that’s when it always happens, right? And I always get so hungry right before bedtime. I was like, it’s either the blue light or the food. I don’t know what it is, but I always get probably the food. But you’re like, you’re you’re just mindlessly scrolling, right? And out of that mindless scroll, you have to capture somebody’s attention. And we’ve all been there where we’ve been doing that, and we all of a sudden see a recipe that comes across our feed on Facebook or Instagram, and you’re like, oh my gosh, that looks so good. I have to make that. And then you click over to the blog, and then you make it. And so you also need to have those drool worthy photos that are going to capture people’s attention on social media. And so I know that was a very long winded answer to your question, but yes, we teach strategy behind the types of photos needed.

Megan Porta  24:26

Yeah, no, you kind of think big scope, which I love, because Pinterest photos, really, I don’t know. I’ve always found that Pinterest users really like that up close. Just delicious, mouthwatering, drool worthy shot. And when you see thumbnails on Google, they’re not the same. And then when I think of social media scrolling and Instagram, it’s a little bit different there too. So you teach all aspects of what people are looking for in different platforms.

Melodee Fiske  24:59

Yeah, yes, yep. Because clients need the they need a variety, right, right?

Megan Porta  25:04

Like you said earlier. Well, these all kind of look the same. I used to do that. I’d post like, five different shots that were just slightly different angles, like slightly closer up. And now I look back and I’m like, what was I what exactly was I thinking there? Why didn’t I add a little variety here.

Melodee Fiske  25:23

Yeah, we teach our students to go like you think of like from served or from oven to served. And so we kind of take them through that, that whole journey of, you know, what the cake looks like out of the oven and then frosted, and then cut into and then what it looks like, what the pan looks like with the cuts, you know, the pieces taken out, and then the piece on the plate, and then the bite shot taken out. And, you know, so we like just this whole, this whole journey that when somebody comes over to your house, they go on, yeah, because that’s what we’re doing is, and this is where it if food blog photography really stands out from editorial is editorial is focused on the whole scene, and food blog photography is really focused on the food itself. Yeah, and it’s relatable. Everyday people are coming to find these recipes, and so they really need to see what that whole process looks like, of what it’s going to be like to serve their family. They need to be able to visualize able to visualize themselves making that recipe and the photos. Making sure you have the right type of photos, really helps them to do that. 

Megan Porta  26:29

Absolutely. Do you have a lot of people in Pretty Focused who do serve other food bloggers, and how quickly are they able to, I don’t know, get to that point? Is it hard for them to get to the point where they’re photographing for others?

Melodee Fiske  26:45

Like, what? What’s our you mean, our student journey of how long it takes them to graduate? Yeah. So we have, on average, three to six months, depending on their experience, and depending on, you know, depending on their experience, and how much time they have, yeah, but it takes them anywhere from I’m just looking at our survey results, because we actually we do. We do mid year surveys for our grads and an annual survey for our bloggers. We do two surveys for our grads and then one survey a year for the bloggers in our community, because, again, we want to make sure that we are always providing the best work and staying relevant for food bloggers. And so I like to stay up to date with what bloggers need and all of that stuff. So it’s taking our students anywhere from like 72 hours to a month to connect, depending on if they’re selling exclusive recipes or doing recreations so they’re able to connect pretty quickly after graduation. 

Megan Porta  27:46

Okay, that’s awesome. I want to ask you about Pretty Focused Buyers Club, but first I want to make sure we’ve covered everything about things food bloggers need to know if they want to hire, when to hire benefits. All That Is there anything else that we haven’t mentioned? 

Melodee Fiske  28:00

I am sure we will just continue to talk about it as we go through the Buyers Club. But I can’t think of anything off the top of my mind, but I know things will come up. 

Megan Porta  28:08

Perfect Well, tell us about the Buyers Club?

Melodee Fiske  28:10

So the Buyers Club is a community that we created to connect our grads with food bloggers. And so food bloggers come to this group. And actually, Megan, I’m so surprised that there’s many food bloggers out there that don’t even realize that they can hire people to develop recipes for them. They can hire people to photograph. They can hire people for video. And this is like, this is a thing. Just like whenever I was like, this is a thing, yeah, this is, this is absolutely a thing, as we’ve been talking about, and we’ve got close to 200 grads now who are working with food bloggers. So it’s very, very much a thing. In the last couple of years, millions of dollars have have changed hand between food bloggers and photographers in the Buyers Club. So it is very, very much a need that they have.

Megan Porta  29:01

Just tell us about it. So how does somebody know whether or not they want to become a part of it?

Melodee Fiske  29:06

Yeah, so we have in that group, it is like, it’s like a marketplace. So within that group, once you go, you know, you join that Facebook group, you’re going to see automatically, we have photographers in there selling recipes. We have photographers in there offering services for recreations. We also have a grad directory where you can go and, you know, see, you know, people’s availability, see what kind of services they offer, and connect with them that way. But honestly, we have a lot of bloggers who who set notification, turn on the notifications for the Buyers Club, so anytime there’s a new recipe for sale, they can go in there and get first dibs. We also have, though, and this is something that not a lot of buy and sell groups let photographers do, and that is, we let them promote their own shop, or we let them promote their own you know, buy and sell groups. We really, what we really wanted to do is just really create a place for people to connect with potential clients and grow their own business. And they’re really able to do that, so you can connect with them. You can, you know, see recipes. Go through the feed, see what recipes are there. Connect with them for recreations, recipe development. And we have an email list too, where we’re emailing people, you know, emailing the bloggers, and just kind of staying in touch with them and letting them know what they can expect and how to really, how to make use of this group to its fullest potential. And then we also, yeah, and then the grad directory to where they can go. So we have, we have, we’ve got lots of different things going on inside of of our Buyers Club. 

Megan Porta  30:42

That’s awesome. How do people get started with it? 

Melodee Fiske  30:44

Honestly, they you just request to join, like, it’s free. It’s just a Facebook group. It’s a private group. So we do have you answer some questions before you you join, because it is for Pretty Focused grads to connect with food bloggers. So anybody in there who is not like if a food blogger says, Hey, I’m looking for this, and somebody who is not a grad comments on that like we are quick to remove that comment, because it is a place just for grads, because a big part of our reputation is that we train people right. That’s That’s it, as we train them for working for a food blog. So we want to make sure that everybody in that group has completed our training. So that’s, I mean, you just click the link to join the Facebook group. That’s it okay.

Megan Porta  31:28

I love that you guys allow self promotion. That’s something I’ve felt over the years that was missing from a lot of not just photography focus, but just kind of in general, food blogging groups. Was that self promotion was so frowned upon that I just felt like something was missing. Like, wait, we we need to promote ourselves because we have things to offer. Food bloggers, I just like, yeah, there was just a big gap there. So I love that you guys do that,

Melodee Fiske  31:59

Yeah. And I mean our photographers, they are grads, and we proudly call them Pretty Focused grads, but they own their own business. Yeah? You know, I mean, and so that is just something from the very beginning that we were passionate about, is we can’t keep people from building like we can’t give them all the these tools and then limit them on the back end once they graduate, yeah. And so, yeah,

Megan Porta  32:24

yeah. Love that, yeah. All right, if any one wants to become a part of Pretty Focused, do they just go to the website and yeah, how do they navigate from there?

Melodee Fiske  32:34

Yeah? Well, I think the link is going to be in the show notes. But also you can go to our website, prettyfocus.com, and then we have a tab. Let me just double check what that tab says. It’s either higher or grad. I think it’s four bloggers. Yeah, it’s, it’s called Four bloggers. You click on that, and then it takes you directly. You click on Get Access Now, and then it’ll take you to join our Facebook group. And so you can join that way. But what? But what has been really cool is the bloggers who are hiring our grads. Whenever I asked them, like, how has hiring grads from the Buyers Club helped your business, they said, resounding, I have been able to do more posts. You know, I haven’t had to do my own photography. I’ve been able to produce a lot more content. I found my main photographer. She’s been working with me for over five years. She’s amazing. You know, it’s improved the look of my post since photography isn’t my strong point. And this is really cool. I kind of geeked out over this. Is somebody says it’s allowed me to start a second and third site like that is somebody who is like, I’m scaling and I’m going after this. And so they’ve been able to hire people and maintain three different sites because they’re able to hire photographers. And so, you know, it’s just they’re able to produce content more quickly. There’s high quality photography. And so it’s been really neat to see all of the benefits that food bloggers are experiencing by hiring Pretty Focused grads, yeah, from the buyers. 

Megan Porta  34:05

I bet it’s really cool for you as the founder and creator of this just to hear those things that you didn’t expect. You didn’t anticipate, that people would be freeing up time to create multiple websites, right? That’s so cool. 

Melodee Fiske  34:18

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it’s, it’s kind of like this, like I like I said before, this ecosystem where it’s people helping people, yeah, you know where the photographers are helping bloggers scale their business, and in turn, our grads have thriving businesses. I mean, good gracious, over the last three years, 69% have made 50,000 or more. Ooh, you know, it’s been like, you know, when we first started, we were like, oh, you know, supplemental income, yeah, you can make a couple $100 a month. Of course, prices were so different than two but to know that, we were like, it’s just blown. My expectations out of the water. People are amazing because now we’ve we’ve got some grads make $100,000 working for food bloggers. 

Megan Porta  35:08

That’s so cool and so rewarding and promising and inspiring for people listening who want to make money as they’re waiting for an ad network, right? 

Melodee Fiske  35:18

Yep, absolutely yes.

Megan Porta  35:20

What have we missed? Melody. Is there anything you want to mention before mention before we start saying goodbye? 

Melodee Fiske  35:24

I mean, I think we’ve covered it all. I know we covered we covered a lot.

Megan Porta  35:28

Yeah, this was so great. Thank you so much for your time today and for all the value you shared and for offering such an awesome, valuable service to food bloggers. I love connecting with other people who offer, you know, things for food, bloggers, businesses. So thank you for that.

Melodee Fiske  35:44

Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. 

Megan Porta  35:46

Yes. So great to have you here and to me too. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with? 

Melodee Fiske  35:53

Oh gosh, a favorite quote or inspiration? I guess I’ll tell you. I’ll share just a little bit. It’s not necessarily a quote, but just inspiration of you know, of something that I’m learning right now, and that is people pleasing. That’s a big lesson I’m learning right now, and so I just want to kind of leave, I know probably seems so random after what’s good, a huge life lesson for me right now is people pleasing, and letting the fear of what other people think make decisions for your business. And so I think that, you know, community is really great, and I think social media is great, and, gosh, it has allowed us to be able to grow businesses. It’s It’s insane. It’s insane. What has, it has allowed us to do. But I also think in that too, is that we see we’re more plugged into people, and that, which, you know, I just said, is a good thing, but also it means that we kind of give them a little bit more control over our decision making abilities and the decisions that we make for our business. And so I just want to encourage you, whoever’s listening, just to know that you know what’s right for your business, and seek wise counsel from people around you. You know, make database decisions, but make your decisions based off of what you know is right for your business.

Megan Porta  37:18

I love it. I think that’s the perfect way to end. Thank you. Melodee. Well, we’ll put together a show notes page for you. If anyone wants to go look at that, we’ll have all the links that we talked about, ways to get involved in, Pretty Focused, etc, inside of those show notes. So go to eatblogtalk.com/prettyfocused. And I know you’ve said it a few times, but just reiterate real quick where people can find you.

Melodee Fiske  37:42

Yep, you can find us. On Instagram, @prettyfocusedcourse, on YouTube, on Facebook. Just head to our website. Prettyfocused.com. And you’ll know exactly exactly what to do. But you can join our Facebook group right from our website.

Megan Porta  37:57

Awesome. Go check it out, everyone. And thank you again, Melodee and thank you for listening food bloggers, I will see you next time. 

Outro  38:06

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you are craving accountability, focus and connection at a low monthly cost, join the Eat Blog Talk accountability group at eatblogtalk.com/focus, I will see you next time you.