In episode 258, we chat with Sandra Flegg, about how when she began to shoot for a big blogging goal, preparing a positive mindset was step 1 to her success more than any other part.

We cover information about why you need to be crystal clear on what you want to accomplish, learn what your limiting beliefs are and steps to focus on as you go through the day to day of working towards specific goals.

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

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Guest Details

Connect with She’s Not Cookin’
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A self-taught cook Sandra exited a 25 year retail management career to pursue her goal of becoming a full-time food blogger. Her food blog journey began in May 2020. In July 2021, she reached one of her goals to be accepted to Mediavine Ad Network. In her business, Sandra uses positive mindset to overcome obstacles and achieve both her business goals and personal satisfaction.

Takeaways

  • It’s important to ask the universe for what you want and then live like you’re going to receive it.
  • Surround yourself with positivity and positive people.
  • Take time to quiet your mind regularly.
  • Balance is important between personal and business and spending time in each.
  • When you are going through difficult or negative situations, sometimes walk away from it, step aside, breathe and take a moment. When your head is cleared, it’s easier to approach and find a solution.
  • Make a clear goal and then walk backwards towards it with smaller goals to achieve leading up to it.
  • As you start each day, reflect on what you will achieve. How you will hit your goal and visualize yourself attaining it.
  • Keep a journal. This will help you see your challenges and wins along the way.
  • Recognize the self-talk you have and start to challenge when it becomes negative. Rewrite the limiting beliefs you are struggling with.
  • Take time for yourself each day and get lost in nature or a hobby. Maybe a hot bath or a tv show and a nap. Allow yourself time away from your work to clear your mind.
  • Visualize things you’re working towards earning. If you have a five year goal, start seeing yourself in it. If you are planning a new addition to your house, start seeing it and encouraging yourself to work for that. Whatever it is you want to do, see yourself in that place. Do reflections so you can be there soon.

Resources Mentioned

Loren’s Mind Over Blog Podcast taught me several ways to identify and overcome limiting beliefs, dealing with imposter syndrome and more!

Mindset Matters

Shift your mindset for a more fruitful working experience with Alana Lieberman in episode 178.

Transcript

Click for full text.

258 Sandra Flegg

Sandra: Hi, this is Sandra from She’s Not Cooking and you’re listening to the Eat Blog Talk podcast.

Megan: Hey, food bloggers. Welcome to Eat Blog Talk. I’m your host, Megan Porta. You’re listening to episode 258 with Sandra Flegg from She’s Not Cooking.Today we are going to dig into achieving a business breakthrough by using a positive mindset. A self-taught cook, Sandra exited a 25 year retail management career to pursue her goal of becoming a full-time food blogger. Her food blog journey began in May, 2020. In July 2021 she reached one of her goals to be accepted into the Mediavine ad network. In her business, Sandra uses a positive mindset to overcome obstacles and achieve both her business goals and personal satisfaction. Sandra, this is the second time you’ve been on Eat Blog Talk. I’m so thrilled to have you back, and we have a lot to learn from you today about just having a positive mindset, but first, do you have another fun fact for us? 

Sandra: Sure. Thank you for having me back. It’s great to be here. So my second fun fact is that I met my husband on the internet twenty-five years ago. So we were internet pioneers back when it was dial up. You couldn’t send a JPEG photo. You had to send it by mail. We met because I mentioned that I love to cook and he said, I love to eat. 

Megan: Wow. I was going to say, when you said 25 years, I was thinking, wow, that had to be one of the first ever. So you definitely are pioneers.

Sandra: Absolutely. 

Megan: Oh, that’s so cool. What a great story. You forged the way.

Sandra: Yes. We often say if we had been smart, we would have thought of one of those dating apps. 

Megan: Ah, yeah. That’s so great. I am super excited to chat with you, Sandra. You were just recently on, so thank you for coming back so soon. I really appreciate it. I had such a fun chat our first time around. But today we are going to uncover your beliefs about having a positive mindset and how that affects not just your life, but your business and how you can tap into achieving goals and all of that. So would you just want to start by talking about that? What your beliefs are about having a positive mindset and how you have used this to launch more into your business?

Sandra: Absolutely. So I believe that having a positive mindset has really been what’s helped me the most in achieving my goals, whether it’s personal goals or business goals, but specifically around blogging. I believe in the law of attraction so that you ask the universe, you believe that you’re receiving it. Then you think about how you’re going to feel when you receive that, whatever it is that you’re manifesting. That’s basically my fundamental belief about positivity. I try to surround myself with positive people and if there’s something that feels negative, I remove that from my situation.

Megan: How do you deal with negative influences that come into your life, that you don’t have control over? 

Sandra: I think the one thing that I’ve really thought about in the last year, and I think I’ve been able to really take a step back because I did leave a full-time job that occupied a lot of my mind space and that a busy-ness and when I was able to stop and actually quiet my mind, I realized a lot of the times, it’s not really about me. So not taking it personal and thinking when something happens, sometimes it’s not because I’ve done something specific to make that happen. I really tapped into myself. What’s going on in my subconscious and the thoughts I was having. I’ve done some of that work in terms of I guess healing is the right word for that. Not blaming myself for things.

Megan: There’s so much to ponder here. I literally can talk and think about this all day and it affects so much of our lives, but this also bleeds over into our businesses, which is why we’re here talking because this really does affect how we work and how we show up in our jobs and the work that we produce and all of that. I asked you that because that’s one struggle that I have. I can control myself so much, but then that is my biggest struggle is how do I deal with things out of my control? Because I can get quiet with myself and figure out what works for me and get a good flow going in my life. But then I have a really hard time when it comes to other chaos invading my world. Does that make sense? 

Sandra: I used to always say, out of something negative, something positive will come. That can be really difficult and I’ve had some deep discussions with people strongly disagreeing with that. But things will happen in life. I do believe that they can be really challenging. However, they make us stronger I think in the end. My son recently broke his ankle, for his first try out for basketball practice. We had a discussion at the emergency room for five hours about how things happen. I think it’s how we handle them. It is a very deep conversation that can go on forever. But I think having a support system around you is the first thing I think, finding the right group of people starting with your family and your friends and what those influences are. I think things will always happen, especially in food blogging. It’s constantly changing.

Megan: That is so true. I love what you said. You touched on just balance and something I pulled out of what you were talking about is contrast. I feel like there’s always a contrast, especially if we’re working on ourselves, we notice the contrast more. If I’m feeling like I’m in a really good place with where I’m at with work and I can balance everything well, and then something comes in that just throws me off. There’s such a contrast. I notice it, but I think that’s good, right? If we’re not noticing the contrast, then that probably means that we’re in the.

Sandra: There’s the personal side of it. Then there’s the business side of it. Not everything aligns perfectly. There’s maybe challenges in personal relationships. But your business might be going great. So I think it’s being able to balance, absolutely. I think that when you can get everything balancing together and I think that takes a lot of work. I know I listened this morning to Loren’s podcast about mindset. It’s so important to find that time for yourself to really reflect, I think about how you’re feeling. But as far as outside things happening, I think what’s really important is to know that you’re going to move through that negative situation, whatever it is. That you can’t fix everything, right? Sometimes things just happen. Like this morning we had, we were having some tech issues and for a moment, I was thinking, okay, what’s happening here? Everything’s the same as it was last time. Then I took a moment and I took a deep breath and I thought, it isn’t me. This is the tech stuff doing this. 

Megan: Yes. Just to kinda remove yourself, because we can get caught up in the stress of it. Then I feel like once we’re stressed, it’s impossible to get out of it. But you do have to remove yourself sometimes, and this relates to everything. So whether we’re talking about something in blogging or something in your life, that really is the key to just step back and see the situation as a big picture. Every time I do that, I can take care of it much more easily, just like you did. We were having tech issues and I did the same thing. I was like, this is not a big deal. If we have to reschedule, it’s fine. I didn’t freak out. I hope that you didn’t freak out. It was fine. We’re here now. 

Sandra: Absolutely. Everything happens for a reason. 

Megan: I totally agree with that. So let’s talk about how this can directly relate to business because I know that you have written something. I think it was in the Eat Blog Talk forum about how you didn’t achieve a breakthrough until you worked on your mindset. So can you talk through that a little bit?

Sandra: I had a goal and of course it was to monetize and it was to monetize with an ad agency because that’s the most common way, one of the easier ways to monetize, I think quickly, right? So I had that goal in mind. I worked backwards. So I set the goal of being accepted to an ad network and I worked backwards and I made really small achievable goals and every day I would take time to reflect on, what have I done today and is it moving me forward? But you do, you can come into roadblocks whenever you’re blogging. Sometimes you might get the wrong information. I remember reading a great tip about deleting images to free increase your page speed. I deleted a whole bunch of images from my media folder, and I think 20 blog posts and I might’ve had 30 at the time. Lost images and I had to go back and redo. So I think that knowing that those things will happen I kept a journal which really helped me a lot. I was able to look back at that when we were talking about having this podcast. I definitely felt that there were times where I was up and down, but I started listening to Loren Runion’s podcast which I think she just renamed, but it was Mind Over Blog. I realized that I had maybe a little bit of imposter syndrome, so am I going to fit in with this group? Is this the right thing for me? Am I good enough? Are my recipes good enough? All of those things that come into your mind. I really started working on what my subconscious thoughts were. I spent probably a good week really thinking about it. One of the things that I wasn’t doing enough was taking time to really think about my mindset. I found that by getting out into nature, taking the time to get out and go for a walk every morning, that really helped me. So I think it starts with paying attention to your mindset and working through whether you have a limiting belief. Or maybe I don’t deserve to be successful and make a lot of money, that sort of thing.

Megan: I honestly believe that very thing, Sandra. It all comes back to limiting beliefs. I think all of us are walking around with limiting beliefs that we don’t even know we have, we’re not even aware of it. So I think it was super smart for you to just start being aware of what thoughts you’re having, what are you saying to yourself? Whether it’s out loud or in your head. Once we do that, it’s alarming, I think. When I started doing it too, I was like, oh wow. I’m saying that. We say things on repeat to ourselves all the time. It’s usually negative, unfortunately. Step one, I think would be getting quiet with yourself. So whether that’s, like you said, getting out in nature and walking, or maybe meditating for 10 minutes in the morning, whatever it is, get quiet.

Notice what you’re saying to yourself and then start rewriting those beliefs. So if it’s something like, I’m not worthy, I don’t deserve this. Who do I think I am? Those are things that you need to rewrite. Once you start rescripting that, you can change your life. You can change not just your life, but the way you show up in your business and the way that things come to you and money and opportunities and all of that stuff can change. What other ways can you think of to get quiet? So you mentioned your walk, meditation, what else?

Sandra: What’s really important is that you have to find what works for you. For some people it’s maybe having a hot bath or it might be just sitting. Sometimes I like to just zone out and I’ll watch Netflix for a couple of hours when I feel like I just need to unplug from all the other stuff. I think that you have to find what works for you. Sometimes it’s a hobby, right? Could be someone has a hobby, like a craft or painting or that type of thing. I find that walking and listening to a podcast, even though it’s not really quiet time, but it’s just getting away from all your thoughts. 

Megan: So even losing yourself in creativity, doing something creative that inspires you and allows you to disconnect from that thinking that constant track that’s going on and on constantly. Anything that can release you from that basically. 

Sandra: Absolutely. I think one thing that really helped me was that I tried to picture myself in five years. So what does that look like? Very specifically. Obviously by then, I would be hopefully monetized by then on an ad network and all of those things. What does it look like in my day to day? What does it look like perhaps financially? How does it feel? Am I still in the same space? Maybe I’ve put a big addition on my house or put a pool in or something. Those are physical things, but there are still things that can bring joy to you in terms of spending time with your family around the pool. So I think picturing where you’re going to be and really being that person. Think that you’re already there. Visualize that. You don’t have to worry about every little step on how to get there, because that’s where you’re going. Once you start to use the law of attraction, I was talking to someone else about this. It becomes harder to put into words how you do it. But you just really have to believe that you have whatever it is you want, already. That it’s there. 

Megan: I feel like anytime you can tap into emotion, that is only going to fast forward everything for you, everything that you want in your life, that is going to fast forward it. So if you can picture yourself by a pool and surrounded by the people you love, that is going to make you feel good. It’s going to fill you up. That is a good thing. Also the how’s and when’s of how things come to you and when things come to you, I always say this to myself, that is none of my business. The part that is my business is tapping into my why, what you were talking about. Like picturing yourself five years ahead. Why do you want that? Getting into that emotion, that is what you focus on. Then you obviously have to take action too.

Sandra: You have to be really clear on what it is you want. That takes some time to really think about what it is that I feel that I really want out of my life, out of my career. I think I will take that time. That’s part of the reflection phase.

Megan: Because if you’re not clear, you’re putting all of the stuff in your mind. I could want that. That sounds good too. Confusion does not bring clarity. Clarity is the opposite of confusion. 

Sandra: We know that the food blogging journey, and you’ve been at it a lot longer than I have Megan, is that you’re spending time and you’re working hard. If you love it, it’s amazing. 

Megan: I know you have some ways to create inspiration on Pinterest and things to stay away from within food blogging too. Can you talk to us about some of those things? 

Sandra: Sure. Okay. So Pinterest. This I discovered by fluke. So I’m on Pinterest every day, as probably most of us are. I have it set up as a secret board because I’m sure my recipe followers don’t necessarily want to see everything else. I’ve started saving quotes about mindset and positivity. The one thing that happens with Pinterest of course, is when you save something, then it shows you more of that. So every single day and throughout the day, when I log into Pinterest, I see all of the positives. Whether it’s a quote or it might just be there’s a lot of things from the law of attraction that pop up. I’ve just found that’s really been a positive thing for me to have. I probably saved two or three things, and thought about them. It’s just a little hack that I found helpful. 

Megan: I love that. Easy too, and since we’re all on Pinterest all the time, anyway, what a great way to just create inspiration. Get those good feelings flowing too.

Sandra: In terms of other social media. With something like Facebook, so let’s say for example, there’s some wonderful Facebook groups. But I did find sometimes you start reading and there’s some negativity. People are going through challenges and it can come across. It can be difficult for them to deal with. So when I start reading something like that, I just remove myself completely from it. I find that sometimes I stay away for four or five days. I really personally get a lot out of being able to help someone else that’s just starting because you remember what it felt like when you first started. It’s a little lonely, because you may have been used to working with a lot of people in your work environment. But then you’re just on your own doing this big, huge project of learning how to blog. So staying away from negativity in groups. Especially when you’re starting, you have an idea of there might be someone you look up to, or you might sometimes think everybody else is way ahead. Unfollowing anybody on whether it’s, I don’t wanna say Instagram or, if you’re having bad feelings because you feel well, all my photography is not as good or whatever it is you’re doing, then unfollow those people for a period of time. 

Megan: I love that suggestion. I never think to just follow for a period. I always think it’s either black or white for me. I’ve got to keep up with them or I need to ditch them. You can mute people right on Instagram. Food bloggers, I feel overall are such a positive, encouraging, supportive, awesome bunch of people. But anytime you have thousands of people together, no matter how positive they are, you are going to find negativity. So I am with you on that whole click away mentality because I can’t do it anymore. I used to feed into it like, oh my gosh, there’s drama here. What is this all about? I would read through every word ridiculously. But now I just feel I don’t have time for this. Not only that it’s going to bring me down, so click away, if you can. Sometimes it’s hard to do that.

Sandra: Hey, well it can be sometimes. But I think those are just little things. I think the other thing that’s so important is to find a blogging buddy. Try to reach out and network, and there’s so much support that can come from having a positive person that’s on the same page and maybe starting around the same level or not. Getting that someone that’s a sounding board that you can share your challenges with, your best practices and your celebration of your successes.

Megan: Networking and finding your group of people that support you is one of the most important things in this whole world of food blogging. If you want to get out of it sane and alive, you’ve got to find people who are going to lift you up and support you. What are some of the things, Sandra, that we can control? Because I’m all about finding what I can control and doing that positively. So what are those things for you? 

Sandra: I think we control our mindset. Waking up in the morning and I always tell my kids, we choose our attitude. We control how much work we put into what we’re doing. How much time that we spent and the consistency. I think just showing up and the dedication, we control. I think it’s just sometimes, giving yourself grace that sometimes you need a day. It’s a great thing about food blogging. Especially if you’re doing it full time when you need to take a day off, you can take a day off.

Megan: One of my favorite parts of food blogging, by the way. If I don’t feel like doing something and I don’t have any obligations, then I don’t have to do anything. Yes, we are in control of our mindset. I just want to keep reminding people of that because we often feel like slaves to our mindset and the way that we’re thinking. I asked you early in our conversation, what about those outside influences? It’s so easy to let outside negativity influence us and control our mindset. Just reminding us, thank you, Sandra. That we are actually in control of that all the time. 

Sandra: The other thing I think that just came to my mind is that we need to have a way to explain to people what it is that we do. Especially if you’re newer and you’re just starting on this journey, and I can remember people saying you can make money doing that? There’s some confusion in what it is, that when you say you’re a food blogger, compared to let’s say you say I’m an online entrepreneur, that might be a little bit easier to understand for some people. But I think a lot of people see that as a hobby. Or if you say this is what I’m doing and I plan on doing it full-time. I think some of the negativity, whether it’s real or perceived, we can control by, I heard someone explain it on another podcast, have an elevator pitch to say this is what I do. I create content for the internet. 

Megan: I heard something very similar recently. I love honing your elevator pitch basically. Being really specific with it. So this is what I’ve started doing and it has completely changed the way people react to that question that we all dread. What do you do? Then they’re like, oh, how do you make money doing that? What do you do? What does that mean? I’ve started saying, I create delicious recipes for busy women who are blah, blah, blah, blah. I say my very specific target audience and what I’m creating for. Then if I’m talking about my podcast, I’m like, I provide value to food bloggers through a podcast, blah, blah, blah. So that way you’re not just saying I’m a food blogger. Then you go into this whole spiral of confusion and negativity and you’re thinking, oh my gosh, they think I’m a loser. They’re like, what the heck is she talking about? 

Sandra: I think that it helps them see in a positive mindset, especially with explaining to family, close family and friends. Having a really good explanation helps. 

Megan: Yeah, it is confusing. I think eventually we’re going to get to a point where food blogging is more mainstream and people actually understand that but I think we’re a ways off from that. What else do you have for us as far as just creating that positive mindset? 

Sandra: I think it’s really important to celebrate the really small successes. I really was so grateful to have my journal to go back and look at. I didn’t write every day, but I had enough notes that when I look back, I thought, oh, I was more positive than I thought I was early on because I remember feeling overwhelmed with some of the tech stuff. But I think things like Google analytics. If you’re looking at Google analytics, it’s very normal to be very obsessed with analytics, but if it’s making you feel negative thoughts, then you need to stop looking at it as often. Then you have to set a goal, a really small goal and celebrate that goal. I remember looking at my notes and I think I had 21 page views in a day, and I was celebrating that in my journal. When I looked back, I thought that seems so funny, but it’s so important. I think to celebrate whether you have a photo accepted to Foodgawker, or you created a web story and you’ve got some traffic from it. I think celebrating all those little steps along the way really helps to continue that positive mindset. 

Megan: We all forget that, right? Because we get caught up in what we’re doing now. Then also what we need to do for the future. What we want to do.I think this is so powerful. Just to take a moment once in a while and reflect back three months ago, six months ago, 12 months ago. Just to see how far we’ve come. If you think about one year ago today, Sandra, what do you think about?

Sandra: Where I was one year ago? 

Megan: Yes. 

Sandra: Oh my goodness. So what is October? I was a couple of months into food blogging. I was just getting really hungry to not want to have to go back out to work and realize that I needed to hit that 50K to get into Mediavine. Actually that number changed. I started blogging in the middle of May and about three weeks later, the number went from twenty-five to 50. I had this conversation with my husband recently. I said, it’s amazing that if that number had been 25 and stayed at that, would I have only hit 25 or 30? When that number changes to 50, then you know, the code changes. So in your mind, you’re hitting 50. So I think really enjoying the journey along the way is so important. For anybody that has a goal to get to 50, when you get to 50, you celebrate. But then you have another goal to get to a hundred, right? And to 250. So enjoying all the steps along the way, because I think really, we probably all have different reasons for becoming food bloggers, but I think a lot of it for me, it’s about being able to make my own schedule. Most importantly, it’s to be able to be with my family more and have that lifestyle. So enjoying it along the way. 

Megan: Not forgetting to stop and celebrate even the little successes, right? Even those little wins that you wouldn’t necessarily consider a huge deal. Those are important too. 

Sandra: I think so. I think that because we have so many different tenured food bloggers in some of our different forums and spaces, it’s very different for someone that’s been a food blogger for six months or for six years. So I think that’s where the networking piece is important too. Being able to surround yourself with people from all different tenures and pull what you can from everybody and get the support that you can. I think that’s been really important for me, although I can be very introverted in some ways with work, it’s really helped me a lot. 

Megan: Being someone who connects people and facilitates a lot of food bloggers calls and gatherings, whatever. Getting food bloggers together. The one important trait for me, for food bloggers to have, is not related to experience, it’s related to their mindset and how positive they are. If there is someone who has a million years of food blogging experience and they make five good jillion dollars a year, and they’re negative. I do not want that in my realm, with my people. That is the one trait that you can bring to the table and succeed. You can have a super positive mindset and have five followers. You’re going to bring quality and value to the table. 

Sandra: It does. I always say the expression, your vibe attracts your trib. That positivity when you surround yourself with positivity and positive people, great things happen. Once you just start visualizing where you’re going, your mind and your body just automatically starts to take action towards it.

Megan: I am super picky about, for example, our mastermind group that we’re putting together. I’m really picky about who comes in, because I don’t want someone to come in who’s got all of this experience, but they come in and just ruin the vibe. That might sound horrible to some people listening but I am so passionate about that. If you are going to come into the circle, you are going to be positive or you’re not going to be there. Does that make sense or is that really harsh? 

Sandra: Not at all. I think absolutely because when you work in a group with like-minded people and you have a goal, whatever it is, if you’re forwarding your business, great things can happen. 

Megan: Magic can happen when people are in that flow and have that magic vibe. Sandra, talk to us about daily, monthly goals and routines and how to stay positive with all of that. 

Sandra: Okay. I will be the first one to say that I call myself a pantser. Which means that I like to fly by the seat of my pants. So I do have a content calendar now. I really flew by the seat of my pants at first, but I do create a content calendar, but I allow myself some flexibility. So if I have planned to do three things one week and I want to do three different things, I just move them around. I really allow myself the creativity piece. Setting goals, I set goals based on how many web stories I’m making or how many Pinterest idea pins. I have that mapped out. I think that I was very fortunate. I had a really good month in August. Then September dipped quite a bit compared to August. I had some crazy web story traffic in August. I had to really think, I’m still focused on my goals for September. I blew my August goals out of the water so I didn’t need to feel bad about September. You get used to, especially when you first monetize, it’s pretty exciting to wake up and start looking at numbers. But that’s what I told myself. My goals are XYZ. So I am pretty structured with setting up goals that I feel are achievable. I think we’ve all heard about smart goals, right? My background was very much set up in setting goals and how to achieve them. So I would say that I’m structured, but I’m not super structured. I try to have fun. I work hard. I do love it. So it doesn’t feel like work to me.

Megan: I love that. Yes it does. That is the key. When it doesn’t feel like work, that’s when you know you’re doing something good. I have to touch on this because I feel like we’ve all been there. Some of us are there now, and it’s totally fine. I’m not judging. But the whole Google analytics, like obsessing over numbers and getting in there multiple times a day and then getting upset. What are your thoughts on all of that? 

Sandra: I did try to do Google analytics where you don’t look at it for awhile. But it was right before our other podcast. So I really wanted to go in and have some data to look at about web stories. So I use that as an excuse to go back in. But what I’ve done is I’ve really got into the habit of looking and finding a win. Trying to look at using it as a tool. I don’t allow myself to go in and feel bad about what the number is. So it might be a different recipe that’s clicking and I think, okay, great. I can make more content around that or I can create more web stories or idea pins or something. If you have a goal, I set a goal of about 1700 a day when I wanted to get into Mediavine. I knew in my head that 1700 was the number. But some days I hit 4,000 and other days I hit 1200. So sometimes if you break your goals down by day and look at analytics too much, it can be a negative thing. I shouldn’t say because I’m going to say, look at them once a day and sometimes I pop in there, 10 times a day, but I think it’s about using the data to really find what’s working and it can be a positive thing. But don’t get hung up on, on in the moment. You have to picture where you’re going and not so much the number. 

Megan: Maybe just taking note of how you feel when you’re in there, sandra. So if you’re feeling icky, then maybe click out. If you’re feeling like, Ooh, I am not in here to look at numbers, but I really want to research how my Halloween posts are doing or whatever, then that could be a positive thing. 

Sandra: We measure our success daily based on what that number is. But there’s other things, right? There’s other things that are really more important at the end of the day. I always think about what we’re doing. Is it adding value to our business? It’s not fun when you look at your analytics and you’re at half the number that you thought you were supposed to be. Because two hours later, someone can share something on Facebook and you’ll have something go viral.

Megan: Oh, I love that point. That at any given moment, something amazingly miraculous can happen. You just never know. So don’t judge the situation. Just because there is a number in front of you doesn’t mean that’s what it’s going to be in an hour. 

Sandra: It’s a business. We were going to be numbers driven to a point and we have to run our business and set forecasts and improve our numbers and that sort of thing. But you have to find a way to have some joy in it. So celebrate what’s in there. 

Megan: Oh, that’s so good. I wish we could go on and on. I really do, because I love this topic so very much. You and I definitely align on this. So let’s recap. Do you want to help me? So I just want to go through some things that we’ve chatted about. Mindset is everything. If you guys want to dig into your business in a new way, that’s really powerful and that allows you to have new opportunities and more money and more traffic and all of the good things that you want. You’ve got to get a handle on your mindset, first and foremost. So ways to do that, get quiet as Sandra suggested. Get out of nature. Journal like she did. You said that you actually wrote through some really cool things through journaling. So that might be a great way to get started. Meditation. Noting your self-talk. Just noticing those beliefs you have about yourself and what you say to yourself and trying to rewrite that script. Once you do, then you start noticing, right Sandra? You’ll notice the negativity and then you can ward it off a little bit better. 

Sandra: Yeah, absolutely. I think, getting really clear about what it is that you want, is the first step. Listening to that self-talk and really working on turning that around and that really will help build your confidence. Find a blogging buddy or two or three. That can really help with your positivity.

Megan: I think this will be a really inspiring episode to listen to. Thank you, Sandra, so much for everything today. For this second episode. I loved it, even though we started off with a few technical difficulties, I think it turned out really well.

Sandra: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. I have to say Megan, that when I discovered your podcast early on, you always talked about mindset and positivity and it really had an impact on me. So I thank you for that. I can remember there were days where I was struggling with things and I think I’ve listened to every single episode and got so much. It’s really, it’s an honor to be here, so thank you for having me back.

Megan: Oh my gosh. Thank you. That made me feel so good. I sometimes wonder if my mindset gets heard because I know a lot of people just want to get to the juice, like the SEO and how do I crush Pinterest? So I wonder if that message is being heard. So that means so much to me. Thank you for sharing that.

We will put together a show notes page for you, Sandra, just like we did before. So if anyone wants to peek at those, you can go to eatblogtalk.com/shesnotcookin2. Tell everyone where they can find you online in Sandra. 

Sandra: You can find me at shesnotcooking.com. I have a contact page there. You can find me on Instagram at She’s not cookin. Pinterest. Facebook. Everything’s under She’s Not Cookin. 

Megan: Awesome. Thank you again for being here, Sandra, and thank you so much 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. If you feel that hunger for information, we’ll be here to feed you on Eat Blog Talk.


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