Episode 253: Use Proven Radio Broadcasting Strategies to Grow a Loyal Fanbase with Sandy Waters

253 Sandy Waters

Sandy: Hi, this is Sandy Waters from The Breakfast Buzz morning show and you are listening to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. 

Megan: Hey, food bloggers. Welcome to Eat Blog Talk, the podcast for food bloggers looking for the value and confidence that will move the needle forward in their businesses. I am your host, Megan Porta and you are listening to episode number 253 with Sandy Waters.

Sandy is going to teach us today how to grow a loyal fan base and increase engagement using the proven strategies and techniques radio broadcasters have used for decades. Sandy is the co-host of the Breakfast Buzz with Spezzano and Sandy on 98.9 the Buzz, one of the longest running morning show teams in the country.

She is also the host of the seven figures, Smart Money Strategies for Women podcast. Pulling from her 20 plus years of experience in the field of broadcasting, Sandy has most recently started her own coaching businesses where she teaches the proven strategies to grow a loyal audience and increase engagement.

Sandy, I could not be more excited to have you here on my podcast today. Before we dig into this amazing conversation, we want to hear what your fun fact is.

Sandy: Oh boy Megan. Ok, I got two. Two quickies. First, I don’t know how to cook. So I’m just going to put that out there right now. 

Megan: You’re talking to food bloggers, so this is funny. 

Sandy: Another pathetic fun fact would be that I don’t have a hobby. 

Megan: Really?

Sandy: I know it’s sad. 

Megan: Like not even a single hobby? I don’t know, crocheting or?

Sandy: No, I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s the guilt because the kids are my hobby or I don’t know. I know you are so adventurous that you probably are like, oh, poor thing.

Megan: You should come visit. We’ll dig into some skydiving or something. 

Sandy: No way. 

Megan: Oh, okay. We’ll find something. I have to add a third fact and I would love for you to tell this story because I follow you on Instagram and food bloggers. I know we’ll get a kick out of this story, because I was dying. I was in tears, crying, laughing so hard. So you mentioned that you don’t cook, but your husband entrusted you with this meat thermometer the other day and said, Hey, Sandy, make sure, I don’t know what he told you, but you posted this story on Instagram that you’re like, I don’t know what to do with this thing and then it started beeping while you were talking. It was just so funny. 

Sandy: Oh my gosh, Megan! I needed you! 

Megan: I’m sorry. I wasn’t there. 

Sandy: So my husband loves cooking and he has been asking for years for the smoker, the big green egg or whatever the heck it is. I’ve been pushing him off for a year. So he finally gets it. He just shows up one day with it. He’s sick of even trying to ask me. Shows up with it. So this was like one of the first weeks that he’s had it and he goes, listen, I’m going to cook a roast or whatever, pulled pork or whatever the heck he’s cooking in there, for the guys tonight. It was the kickoff football game. That’s all you have to do is hold onto this thermometer and make sure it doesn’t drop below this temperature. I don’t know. He gave me some instructions. The darn thing kept beeping and I had no idea what to do. I’m like, why is he such a fool to trust me with this. 

Megan: Oh, my gosh. It was just so perfect because you were talking in a story and while you’re talking, it starts beeping and you’re like what? Someone help.

Sandy: I couldn’t get the darn thing to stop. So, in his mind, he was going to come home for work at 6, 6 30. The guys were going to come over at 7. They were going to eat and then watch the NFL. They didn’t eat Megan until after 10 o’clock. Because I guess I allowed it to get below the temperature. I don’t know. 

Megan: Oh my gosh. So is he going to trust you again? 

Sandy: I hope not!

Megan: It seemed very stressful for you. So for both parties, I really hope that we can move forward and maybe figure out a new option.

Sandy: Visit. Come visit us Megan. 

Megan: Yes. I think everyone listening is okay, Sandy, we’ll come help you. So you now have a new circle of friends. We’ve got your back, so you can call any of us.

Sandy: You guys are such a nice circle of friends. 

Megan: Oh speaking of nice. I was also going to say that you are the nicest person I know. You also have the coolest voice I know. So I just wanted to say that. It’s such an honor to have you here. I love your speaking voice. You’re a radio personality, and I didn’t know that your show was one of the longest running morning shows in the country, but that’s pretty cool. We’re going to talk about just how to grow a loyal fan base. So this translates from what you’ve learned in radio to food blogging, because we all have voices, whether they’re audio voices, or just blogging voices or social media voices. Quote, voice doesn’t need to be audio. A voice is just putting yourself out there to your audience, which we all do. So this is a really important topic. Would you want to start by talking about the exercise that you take podcasters through, which again, translates to us and it’s called the ‘exaggeration of you’ exercise? I don’t know. You did this for me and I would just love for you to talk about it. 

Sandy: Yeah, absolutely. You’re 100% right. At one time when you would hear broadcasts or I’m a broadcaster, it was just radio, TV. Now every single one of us, we’re all broadcasters. If you post on social media, if you’re a blogger, if you’d have a podcast, we’re all broadcasters. So all the things that we’ve learned during the 20 plus years in morning radio absolutely can apply to every industry that you’re in because the bottom line is we’re trying to connect with our audience and create that loyal fan base, I guess you can say. So in radio, what we would always do is this exercise that you refer to as an exaggeration, is what I call it. But it’s just breaking down who you are as a person. Not your brand. Not that you’re a food blogger. It’s far beyond you and your food blogging. It’s more of just who you are as an individual and how you want to show up in your food blog or on your podcast or on your radio show, whatever that may be. So we go through and you remember it was a pretty extensive series of questions and it was, I don’t know if intense is the right word, but it was an exercise that we followed and there’s a strategy to it, but you can absolutely DIY it.

Just to break down who you are, the character, the parts of your character that you want to show up, that connect with your audience. They always say, even in Hollywood or comedians, they follow the rule of having a quirky point of view on life. So whatever that is. What makes you unique, your unique, quirky, whatever. Make sure that shows up in your character headline. Because it will stand out and it’ll relate to people, whether they think it’s funny that you have that quirk, or they have that quirk too, and now they feel connected to you.

Megan: Can you give us some examples? So I know for me, I’m trying to think back, some of mine were like I’m adventurous and I do weird things like jumping out of airplanes. You pulled this one out that I am a food blogger, but I actually am really lazy in the kitchen and feed my boys frozen pizzas, occasionally. Actually pretty regularly. Things like that. So what are some other examples? What are some of yours? 

Sandy: Okay. So yeah. So mine are, I’m a neurotic crazy Italian mom who’s over-protective and risk averse. Okay. But your whole thing with the, how casual you are or how down to earth you are in the kitchen is just so perfect. If any other food bloggers are listening and you relate to that, please show up as that on your blog. Because the people, if they go through your blog or anybody, a podcast or whatever and may get the vibe that you got it all together, and you’re perfect. You’re pretty much asking your audience to hate you. I see that because in Hollywood, they will create a character who they want the audience to hate as the perfect person. Because nobody likes that perfect person, right? You, I could even feel your eyes roll once I say the perfect person. You’re like, oh, it’s we’re back in high school again. So don’t ever show up as the perfect person. But I feel like so many people feel the pressure to do that. Because when you show up broadcasting as a food blogger or a YouTuber or a podcaster, you feel this pressure to have all the answers. To be the guide to the answer and the imposter syndrome. You want to prove your credibility, how people should trust you. But that is the only way to do it is to know everything. Is to be the little miss know it all.

Megan: That’s so true. We all hate the little miss know it all. Like in grade school we were like, ah, what is she thinking? 

Sandy: But we feel like we have to. Especially when you’re new at something. We’ve all been there, we all do it. Let’s have a little self-awareness. Let’s realize when we’re doing it, because there is going to be a time where you come across that way, because you’re uncomfortable. You’re nervous. You want people to take you seriously. So you feel like you have to put up this front or you’re too busy looking at what everybody else is doing, especially when you’re first starting. You want to mimic what you’re seeing out there, which is good, but you eventually have to branch off on your own and show who you really are. A lot of people say it’s almost like overused, but you have to show your vulnerabilities. Which means, expose who you really are. It’s so much easier when you can get to the point where you’re like, Ugh, okay, I’m just going to be me. 

Megan: It’s vulnerable though. I feel like what you said is so true where we want people to take us seriously. Especially as food bloggers, wanting our blogs to take off. We want all the traction and the traffic and the money. In order to do that, we, in our minds, think that we need to do everything right to be taken seriously. But that’s actually not true. Yes, we need to do stuff, probably a lot of the time with cooking. But when we fail, or if we have vulnerabilities, we need to let our audience know about that, right? 

Sandy: Yeah. Yeah. I would think it would be like, if you posted something and you probably have where you’re like, oh my gosh, look at my amazing dish and all your pictures always look so amazing. Then you, all of a sudden, didn’t show a shot of your kids eating frozen pizza. To me, I’d be like, oh my God, I love her so much because I could connect with her. Oh, she’s real. That’s what you want. You have people walking away being okay. The dish turned out perfect. Of course, I’m going to trust her to teach me the right way to do it. But oh my gosh, okay. She’s real, so I don’t feel inferior. You never want your audience to feel inferior to you because I don’t think you would want that anyhow. But it’s not a good place. You know what I mean? Nobody wants to feel that way. They’re not going to come back to you if that’s how you make them feel. That’s an important thing too. Every time you write a blog or whatever you’re doing and putting it out there, think about not only what you’re teaching the people that are going to see it. Focus more on the feeling than you do anything else. You want people to walk away from your blog feeling what. Is it feeling a sense of, okay, I got this, I can do this too. Is it a feeling of, I don’t know anything but guilt that they don’t know how to do it. You know what I mean? 

Megan: Anything but guilt? Yeah, no, I love this. It’s a really good reminder because we don’t often remind ourselves of this. We do get into that perfect groove. I’m on a track and I need to do all of these things in order to show up correctly for our audience when in fact our audience appreciates the real part. So I really appreciate you saying all of this. I have an example. My son gets a ride to school from a friend and her mom is so great. She’s like you. She’s like I don’t cook. She knows I’m a food blogger so I feel like she thinks that I’m at home making these elaborate creations. Probably what anyone thinks of a food blogger. So the other day I was getting Elijah in her car and I had two boxes of donuts because he had to bring donuts to school. She looked at me and she was like, did you make all of those? Oh Lord. No! I picked these up this morning. There’s a donut shop down the street. She was like, oh, thank God. She was relieved. She was like, I was going to be really mad at you. I was not offended at all, but I was super happy to hear that. It’s the same reminder you’re giving us right now that people want to know that we’re not like in the kitchen with our aprons on creating all of these perfect meals. Getting up at 4:00 AM to make donuts for our son’s school. 

Sandy: Don’t make us hate you. It’d be funny if there was a blog post and it was just blank and you’re like, I had a rough night last night. Here. Here’s your recipe.

Megan: Why haven’t I ever thought of that. That is so funny. Or five words. Here’s your dang dinner or something. 

Sandy: Yeah. Or you’re going to grandma’s tonight. Whatever. But you know what, there’s three things too. Three ways that your audience is going to move over from a casual audience to a loyal listener or a loyal viewer. What would you say? 

Megan: Reader, follower.

Sandy: Reader. Follower. Let’s do that – follower. Okay. There’s three things. They’re going to either think, they are just like me. So when they read your blog, go through all the stuff that you put out there, they’re like, oh my gosh, she’s just like me. We have the same point of view. We have the same interests. That’s my best friend. Or they’re going to think, they remind me of somebody that I care about. Whether you remind them of their mother or somebody else in their life that they care about. The third way that they’re going to become from a casual reader to a loyal fan is they’re going to say, I want to be just like her. Or I want to be in a relationship with her, whether they want to date you or if they just want him to be your best friend and be in your inner circle. So those are the three things, three things that you should always remember whenever you’re putting anything out there. Whether it’s just a casual social media post that has nothing to do with your food blog or it’s the food blog itself. Think to yourself. Okay. Is someone going to look at this and think what?

Megan: What if we do know something, a lot about a specific topic and we want to relay that information, but we don’t want to know at all. Can we do that and then bring up flaws. If you’re really good with your knife skills, for example, and you’re doing a video and you’re like, watch what I can do. I can chop this onion in two seconds and people are like, oh, jerk. I can’t do that. Show off. Exactly. So how do we manage something like that? 

Sandy: That’s a good question. Okay. So the first two things, I would say. First, it’s a series of showing off who you are that over time, the reader will just get to know you. They’re like, okay, so they’re proud of you and your knife skills because they know that, looking at the big picture of everything that you put out there, it’s not always perfect. So if you have perfect moments, that’s okay. That’s to be expected. Now they feel good for you because you are that mom who just two posts ago, did a blank page, and now you’re doing your knife skills. Okay, fine. That’s okay. We’ll cheer you on. We’re your friend and we’re in your inner circle. Or you can take it and make fun of it. Brag, like almost over-exaggerate the fact that you’re so perfect at it. Make fun, joke about it. Just be self-aware with everything that you put out there. So if a dish turns out perfect, you can be like, that’s right, don’t be jealous. I got it. Something in a sarcastic way. So it’s non-threatening, it’s not making the reader feel less of a chef or whatever, quote, unquote. If you come across it from that point of view, then that feels good.

Megan: So it’s a long game. So we’re talking about our audience who is going to be following us for a period of time, a long period of time. So they’re going to get to know us and know our quirks and know that we’re not always perfect with the knife skills or maybe we have another part of us that is not perfect.

Sandy: Absolutely. 

Megan: I like this. So how can somebody dig into this, like maybe they’re listening and they’re like, I don’t know what my quirks are. I don’t know what makes me unique. How would they go about digging into that themselves? 

Sandy: Okay. So if you’re going to do this yourself, and this is hard because this whole character headline exaggerates you. I was telling my husband too. I’m here helping podcasters. I haven’t revisited mine in so long and you should revisit it because life changes and your personality changes. I go, you do it with me because he’s on the radio as well. He’s like, no, I can’t do it. It’s gotta be somebody who doesn’t know you as well. So it’s gotta be like that non-biased person. But if you can’t find that non-biased person to dig deep into who you are, cause you get a point out things that you don’t even realize are a thing. For the longest time, I didn’t realize how crazy neuronic I am. It was just my world and it just felt so natural. But until someone pointed it out, I’m like, oh yeah, I am crazy. Then you just put the stage makeup on whatever that is. 

Megan: This is such good stuff, Sandy, I’m going to interrupt you just for a moment. We’re going to take a really quick break and we will be back in just a minute.

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Hey, it’s me again. I am just hopping on here now to talk a little bit about the awesomeness of the Eat Blog Talk mastermind program. Some of you are in it and loving it and getting so much value from it. And for those of you who are not yet in it, I wanted to give you just a really quick testimonial from one of our members, Barbara Curry, from Butter and Baggage.

She had such nice things to say about the mastermind program. So I wanted to be sure to share this with you. This is Barbara’s quote. “Since joining the EBT mastermind program, I have developed confidence in myself and what I can accomplish. We have all learned from each other new skills, shortcuts, ways to be more efficient and courage to try new things. It’s a place where we can brainstorm ideas and get honest feedback. The group gave me confidence to try something outside of my comfort zone, which turned out to be a huge success. I learned that something I was reluctant to try, ended up being something I love without their. Support and encouragement, I’m not sure I would have tried it. It’s a non-competitive place where I learned something new and helpful every week. It is the best investment I could have made. End quote., Barbara says it all there. Just wanted to share that with you guys. If you’re interested in joining the waitlist for the mastermind program, go to eatblogtalk.com to do so. 

Megan: Okay, Sandy, we’re back from the break. So I would love it if you continued talking about how people can perform this whole ‘exaggeration of you’ exercise on themselves. 

Sandy: So you want to try this yourself, which you absolutely can, but just think to yourself, be really open and south aware of who you are and how you want to show up and just think, okay. Look for conflicts too. Like for you, you’re so fantastic at cooking. You’re so amazing at food blogging. But yet you are the mom who cooks dyno nuggets. That’s a conflict right there and it makes you smile and it connects with the audience. So look for those opportunities in your personality. Then just write a phrase, and you can tweak it as often as you want until it feels right. Megan is blank and the phrase that you came up with, if you look at it and you’re like, yeah, okay. That’s who I am. That’s who I’m going to show up as in every single food blog I put out there, every post I put out there, check off one of the boxes.

So if you’re like the adventurous, loving mom who isn’t always perfect or something. If that’s your character headline, then every time you post try to check off one of those boxes. Okay. Does this post exemplify the fact that I have kids? Is this exemplifying the fact that I’m adventurous and find creative ways to get that out. Just over time, just sprinkle it in. Like you said, it’s a long game. It’s not Hey, here’s my character headline. Now love me. Please love me. It’s worth just getting it out there and being exaggerated when you do it. Because if you’re too generic or if you’re saying it, it doesn’t stick out, stand out. So again, think about putting on stage makeup. It doesn’t change who you are. It just makes it louder so people remember it. So you want your readers to walk away remembering your post. Weeks from now, they’ll be like, oh Megan, she’s the one who posted that blank page. Ha, ha. Or whatever it might be. That’s what you want.

Megan: So we’re looking for kind of polar extremes, like polar opposites, right? So for me, I have quite a few. Like I come across on my podcast as being really mellow and chill and I am like, I’m pretty chill, but yet I go jump out of airplanes. So that sort of thing. That’s a pretty extreme example. You would not know that unless I told you. You’d be like what are you doing that for? It’s so fun, Sandy, you got to come try it with me. Yeah, sure. I’ll be there tomorrow. Then also the exaggeration of your exercise, that word is in there for a reason. So you’re taking those little nuggets and you’re not lying or saying lies, but you’re exaggerating it and that’s what you guys do on the radio, right?

Sandy: Yeah. Yeah. We take it to the extreme just because it’s more memorable. I was at a clubhouse yesterday with our friend Rawnsley and James. There was a guy in the room who said he was speaking at an event and his wife had pointed out that when he would go on stage, it was like he opened up the curtain and tadah! Here I am. But he overall is a very, like you said, just reserved quiet person. He goes, sometimes I feel like I’m a fraud. Like I’m lying. Then I was like, no, you’re not. It’s who you are. You’re just amplifying it. You’re just like, hello, I’m making sure you can hear me. I’m crazy or whatever it might be.

You’re just turning it up a notch, putting it on steroids. Just so it grabs attention. Because especially nowadays, we’re always just scrolling where our attention is everywhere. So you almost have to poke your reader and be like, hello, can you see me? 

Megan: Then don’t you think that carries over into your life maybe and gives you a little boost of confidence? Ooh, if you do it after a while, if you put yourself out there in an exaggerated way and blog posts and on social media, maybe after a while, you’re like, oh, this is a really unique, quirky side of me that I need to embrace more so I can see that affecting how you show up in your life. Does that make sense? 

Sandy: Actually, yeah. It is like therapy. When we do these sessions, these ‘exaggeration of you’ sessions, it does feel like therapy. Because you’re like, ah, cause sometimes we just need permission to own what we know is there, but we’re almost embarrassed that it’s there. So when you’re allowed permission, yes. Shout that from the roof. Just exaggerate it and own it. Then it’s ah, that’s who I am. That’s who I have to be. I have to be that neurotic, crazy Italian mom, because that’s who I am.

Megan: It’s endearing. I guess like coming from my perspective, certain things about me are not endearing. But then when someone else says, like, when you pointed out, oh my gosh, you make frozen pizzas for your kids. That’s so funny. I was like, I didn’t even, that didn’t even register to me. But now I’m like, oh, I can see what you’re saying. But I never would have seen that if you had not pointed that out. So I think digging into this sort of thing gives you a new perspective on yourself.

Sandy: We all get so focused on our own little world, right? If your world is food bloggers, while you’re talking to other food bloggers, you’re comparing yourself to other food bloggers. You’re in this world. You almost forget to see the outside world and how they’re viewing you. So it makes sense why we do it. 

Megan: That’s true. What do you think about this? I feel like it’s easier to show up with those quirks and kind of unique characteristics on social media than it is maybe in a blog post, with writing. We’re like, oh, I have to follow this structure. I’m going to post this recipe. But on social media, especially Instagram, for some reason, it’s just really easy to put yourself out there. Like with you and the meat thermometer. That is Sandy, you’re telling us I do not like cooking. I don’t enjoy this. This is making me crazy.

Sandy: You wanted to say disaster.

Megan: I did not say disaster. You said it. You know what I mean? It’s really easy to make those little snippet stories or a video and put it out there and for people to say, oh my gosh, I love her. That’s so fun. So maybe start there, if this is something that you want to dig into. I think Instagram stories are the perfect way to start putting your personality out.

Sandy: Sure. Absolutely. I know engagement is everything. It’s something that everybody is talking about. Engagement to me means that your viewer is actually reacting to what you put out there, but also make sure you’re connecting with your reader, the viewer. If they give you a like or something, I’m sure you’ve said this a million times too, but really connect with them because you just made them feel like they’re in your circle of friends. So respond to them as if they are in your circle of friends. You know what I mean? 

Megan: So how would you do that? So with your meat, sorry. I’m just beating a dead horse here with your poor meat and your meat video. Did you save that by the way? Did you put it in a highlight? I hope you did. 

Sandy: I don’t remember if I did. 

Megan: Shoot.

Sandy: It was so frantic at that moment. I don’t remember what I did. 

Megan: So using that as an example, if somebody was like, oh my gosh, Sandy. This is so great. I’m sorry you’re feeling the pain, but I can relate to you. How would you reply to that? 

Sandy: Okay. So this is. Something that really works. It takes time, but it really works. Anybody who reacts like that, you reach out to them and talk to them as if you’ve been friends for decades. Oh my gosh. I knew you’d get a kick out of it, or I so needed you that day. Or I wish you were my neighbor. So I would have called you when you could have helped me or something like that. They are like, oh my gosh, she just talked to me as if we’ve been friends forever. Because how much does that make your heart smile? Even when you’re taking a walk in your neighborhood and you wave to somebody you don’t really know, and they wave back. That for that split moment makes you smile, right? Like, aww, people are nice. If you do that with the people who are reaching out to you with even just a comment, that will make such a big impact. If you go to their page, monitor them, watch and pay attention to who are those people who often respond to you or give you likes or hearts or whatever, and go to their page and reciprocate. So don’t wait for them to come to you to react. Seek them out. I actually have, this actually sounds corny, but I actually have a word document. My favorite buzz listeners. We’ve given them names like little character names. So whenever they call up on the show, we’ve given them a name. So now they’re officially part of our group. I will make a point every week to scroll through their Facebook page, their Instagram and react to some of their posts. To say I care about you so much that I took time because I value every single listener. I know you do it. I know all your food bloggers friends do. You guys value the people that are coming to you, right? So show them. Appreciate them. Take time to give back what they’re giving you. 

Megan: Don’t take that for granted. I know I learned that early on because there were a handful of people that followed me early on and I was like, oh my gosh, they’re showing up regularly. I just wanted to show them, thank you. So I’ve always held that as a value for myself. If I see a comment on my blog posts, always reply. If you see a comment on social media. Every once in a while, I’ll let a comment go just by accident and I’ll go back and be like, oh my gosh, I’m horrified that I didn’t reply. So I’m like, sorry I missed this. But yeah, I think that is such an important point. Just for all of us to remember. I know a lot of food bloggers do that anyway. They’re really good about that. Just being really grateful for the people who show up. What else do you have for us? Just along the lines of growing loyal followers and increasing that engagement. Because you have so many years of experience doing this and radio and it does translate. So what else do you have that can carry over into the food blogging world? 

Sandy: I would say we covered the big parts of it. But really just taking a moment like you, I think you guys already do it though. I think we should all learn from you because you really are grateful. Like you just said, to all your viewers. But I really appreciate every single person. Everyone always talks about the end goal, which obviously you have to have that end goal in mind. But everybody wants to jump over to that end goal or the money side of it, or what’s in it for me. They forget that you’re winning viewers. You’re winning fans, one at a time. So if you can connect so deeply with one fan. They’re going to feel compelled to tell their friend and then it grows. So think of, we always were taught you win listeners one at a time, you’ll lose them. So don’t tick anybody off, but yeah. If you’re genuinely an and you are you all, are, you genuinely love what you do. You have a passion for it. So just don’t lose sight of each individual person is helping you get to that goal. 

Megan: I love that. That’s a great visual. Just seeing it one step at a time. That is such an important message, not to hurry to the end. We need to enjoy the journey and appreciate every single step along the way. So that is perfect. Thank you Sandy so much. We appreciate you and everything you’ve had to say today. Thank you for being here. 

Sandy: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. 

Megan: I know you’re busy, so we really appreciate it. Do you have, in addition to that, a favorite quote? I know you have about 102 favorite quotes after I saw your Facebook post yesterday.

Sandy: I was so panicked. I’m like, oh my gosh, Megan’s going to ask me my favorite quote. Do I have one? I don’t know. I often tell the kids I’ll drop you off like a bag of luggage, but that’s not a good one. 

Megan: That’s hilarious. 

Sandy: So I posted it on Facebook. Man there’s some good quotes out there, isn’t there? 

Megan: Oh My gosh. I logged on to Facebook this morning, which is funny, cause I don’t get on there a ton, but I don’t know why I went on there and I saw Sandy Waters posted a new post. It said, Hey everyone, I’m going to be on a podcast tomorrow. I have to bring a quote, what is your favorite? And oh my gosh, like literally a hundred people replied to you. So I just felt overwhelmed that you had to go through all of those. So I’m curious to know what you picked out, or if you have something. 

Sandy: How about any moms listening would appreciate this? I felt so guilty to just single out one and make other people feel bad that I didn’t pick theirs. 

Megan: Good call. 

Sandy: I decided just to give a little advice. 

Megan: All right, let’s hear it. 

Sandy: That is, follow what feels right for you. Because I have so much regret that I didn’t just stop and soak it all in when the kids were little, because I was always fearing that I wasn’t doing enough. That ultimately I was doing too much. So when we look around and we see people, my God, they’re doing that and they’re doing, oh my, I should be doing all of this. Just stop what feels right for you. Because, yeah, it is one of my biggest regrets that I spent too much time focused on just trying to catch up to everybody else and be better than everybody else that I wasn’t just taking in at the moment. You guys are all doing a fantastic job wherever you are on your journey of food blogging, you are successful. You are connecting with people. You’re all beautiful. Just follow what feels right for you.

Megan: Oh my gosh. Those were the best ending words I think I’ve ever had here. Thank you so much. I love that. It’s true that it is so important. And it goes with everything that we’ve talked about today. So great way to wrap up. Now you can go back to your friends and say, oh look, I didn’t pick one of you. I picked none of you. But thanks for the quotes. Now you have some favorite quotes to ponder. You can go through them and pick words to live by. Thank you, Sandy. We’re going to put together a show notes page for you. If anyone wants to go look at those, you can go to eatblogtalk.com/Sandywaters. Tell everyone where they can find you, Sandy. Where are you online?

Sandy: Oh, my gosh. Connect with me. Anybody who needs help with anything. I know I focus most on podcasters, but anybody, I will just say that you’re friends with Megan Porta. Say that your Eat Blog Talk podcast or podcasts friend, food blogging friend. We can set up a meeting to chat, but Sandywaters98 is is how you can follow me on social media.

Megan: Definitely go do that because you might find some other hilarious meat related videos or other. She’s seriously so funny. You make me laugh and you’re just so nice. So glad to have you in my world, Sandy. Thank you for being here again, and thank you for listening today, food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro: We’re glad you could join us on this episode of Eat Blog Talk. For more resources based on today’s discussion, as well as show notes and an opportunity to be on a future episode of the show, be sure to head to eatblogtalk.com. You feel that hunger for information will be here to feed you on Eat Blog Talk.