Episode 735: 5 Powerful Mindset Shifts That Can Transform Your Blogging Business With Christina Musgrave

EBT735 – Christina Musgrave

[00:00:00]  Megan Porta 

What if the real key to blog growth isn’t just another strategy, but instead a mindset shift? Today I am joined by Christina Musgrave of Tasting with Tina, and she is sharing five powerful mindset shifts that changed everything in her blogging business. One of her biggest breakthroughs was choosing constant and radical action over waiting for the perfect plan. I love this so much. In the episode, we will talk about embracing messy execution, setting strong boundaries, and celebrating what is working now in the moment so you can build a business fueled by grit, gratitude and growth. Let’s dig in.

[00:00:45] Intro   

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

[00:01:04]   

Hey, food bloggers. What if three days away could completely shift the way you show up in your business? The Fall 2025 Eat Blog Talk retreat is happening October 9th through 12th and you are invited. This is a three night, all inclusive experience designed to give you exactly what you have been craving. Space to breathe and think big, deep connections with like minded creators, powerful strategy sessions, hot seats and honest conversations. And of course, delicious food. Curated by my favorite private chef, Ryan from Cookery Amendola. And plenty of laughter included. Past attendees have called this retreat transformational, pure magic and the best investment I’ve ever made.If you are ready to refill your cup, gain clarity and reconnect with why you started this journey in the first place, this retreat is for you. Spots are extremely limited. Head to eatblogtalk.com/retreat to grab yours now. I cannot wait to see you there. 

[00:02:04]  Megan Porta

Hello, Christina. Welcome to the podcast.

[00:02:07]  Christina Musgrave 

Hey, Megan. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

[00:02:10]  Megan Porta 

Yes. Excited to talk about mindset today and all of that good stuff. But before we get to it, do you have a fun fact to share with us?

[00:02:19]  Christina Musgrave 

I do. My fun fact is that I come from a huge family. I have almost 40 first cousins. And so, yeah, growing up in a large family, it’s no surprise that I love to cook and love to eat because almost every weekend we were getting together, making a lot of food for a lot of people.

[00:02:37]  Megan Porta 

40 cousins is a lot of cousins. About how many siblings do you have?

[00:02:42]  Christina Musgrave 

I’m the oldest of four girls.

[00:02:44]  Megan Porta 

Okay. Wow. Yeah, I imagine that cooking has to be an important part of getting together, right? You’ve got to feed a lot of food faces.

[00:02:54]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah, it was huge. My mom’s side too. It’s Italian and Irish. So we just were always centered on what are we making, what are we eating and waking. Way too much food for everybody. Yeah.

[00:03:09]  Megan Porta 

Lots of leftovers.

[00:03:10]  Christina Musgrave 

Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:03:11]  Megan Porta 

Yes. I love it. So tell us a little bit about your blog, Tasting with Tina.

[00:03:17]  Christina Musgrave 

Yes. So my name is Christina Musgrave and I’m the creator of Tasting with Tina. My food blog focuses on simple yet elegant and elevated weeknight recipes. I have been blogging full time for about three years and I started my blog in 2018. So I’ve been blogging for a while. I come from an engineering and tech consulting background and through a couple of life pivots transitioned to full time food blogging to pursue a more creative and a lot more flexible lifestyle.

[00:03:55]  Megan Porta 

Awesome. Thank you for that background. Now I know that you were working in corporate America for a while and you made a shift out of that space. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

[00:04:06]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah. So I went to college for industrial and systems engineering and I thought that I would have, you know, a big corporate consulting career. I thought I would be a partner at a consulting firm. And, you know, you go to school and you think you have all these ideas in your head. And then once I got out and was actually working in my tech job, after a few years, I was miserable.

[00:04:30]   

I was overworked and I was so unhappy. So when around the time I got married, I knew I needed to make some kind of life change. But at the time I wasn’t thinking, you know, let me fully pivot and become a food blogger. I was just thinking, let me do something that I love and take some steps to become a happier person.

[00:04:51]   

So I started my website just kind of as a journal for what I was making for dinner. I would just write things down. I had a tech background, so I created my website on WordPress and was just doing things purely for fun. But over the next two years, we had a family health scare that really put things into perspective for me.

[00:05:14]   

And on top of that, Covid had me working at home with more free time outside of work than ever before. So I kind of decided to put my all into learning food for photography, learning SEO, just doing the thing, and started treating my blog like a business and, and using the systems that I learned in tech consulting to grow my business and eventually take it full time.

[00:05:42]  Megan Porta 

That’s so awesome. I think a lot of us have that story. I know I do. I was also in corporate America feeling just soul sucked. Life was being drained from me and knowing there was a better way and not, not exactly knowing how I was going to get there tomorrow or next month or next year, but just knowing that I needed to make a change and one thing at a time, right?

[00:06:06]  Christina Musgrave 

Yes.

[00:06:07]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And sometime it. Sometimes it is just taking action on the one thing. Not really knowing where you’re going, but knowing that you need to take that next step.

[00:06:18]  Christina Musgrave 

Absolutely. I first took an inspiration from a lot of other food bloggers. I used to listen to this podcast on my lunch walks and listening to other people’s stories. I think especially around 2020, there were a lot of people in. It felt like there were a lot of people in my situation where we were learning food photography, posting recipes on the blogs, trying to get into ad networks and all kind of going through that phase of building our businesses.

[00:06:50]   

And I took so much inspiration from just watching my friends online, seeing people post photos where I, you know, followed them a couple of years before. And then you start seeing their photography improve immensely. And it’s amazing to see you’re seeing people’s posts go viral starting, you know, watching people start to create reels when they were becoming a big thing at the time and watching them go viral.

[00:07:13]   

So taking inspiration from other people and kind of saying myself, look, if they can do it, so can I. That was a really big catapult and just giving me the personal confidence to keep going.

[00:07:24]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And to get started. Right. And not having that need to have everything laid out perfectly before you before you start your blog or hit publish or start doing reels. I think there’s so much power in just acting, even when it’s ugly.

[00:07:43]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah. I had. In college, I had a professor that really stuck with me. He was really, really hard on us, but he was the first professor that actually kind of treated us like. Like a boss employee relationship rather than like a teacher that would kind of coddle us. And he always said, done is better than perfect for everything.

[00:08:05]   

You know, don’t waste your time on things because no one’s going to. You’re the definition. You have the definition of what perfect is for yourself. Other people don’t care, you know, and I really took that to heart with everything that I was doing and building my blog. Right. Because you don’t know what you don’t know at the time.

[00:08:24]   

Especially when you’re, you know, choosing a theme for your first blog, writing your first blog post. You just have to do it. And the learnings will come along the way. Right. Once you start making those mistakes, I think that’s really where, you know, the good stuff happens, where you start growing as a business owner and learning from those mistakes to ultimately get where you want to be.

[00:08:49]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, you said it earlier when you were talking about your story. Just, like, not always having the bigger picture, but having faith in the journey and just knowing. Knowing that you need a change, and in order to make that change, you have to move forward. That is the key here.

[00:09:07]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I. I think taking imperfect action, like, constantly and almost radically is something that I really adopted back then, but I still do it today. Like, that’s what got me, you know, that’s what got me into MediaVine and hitting my sessions every month to start making money on an ad network.

[00:09:30]   

But it’s also what got me to writing a cookbook this year. You know, taking radical, imperfect action. Not being sloppy, but just getting things done where it’s just good enough. That has really helped me break through of feeling, you know, lonely and kind of chained in. Because when you’re working on your own, I think a lot of us food bloggers, we’re just working in a vacuum.

[00:09:54]   

Vacuum. It’s. It’s just us. And we don’t have anyone checking our work. We don’t have anyone. You know, you don’t have a coworker saying, hey, can I bounce this off of you? What do you think? And so you have to be the judge, which can really lock you in. And I think breaking through and just being able to check, you know, check your things off of your list and getting things done is, like, really?It’s so simple, but it’s extremely powerful.

[00:10:17]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Simple and hard at the same time.

[00:10:19]  Christina Musgrave 

Yes.

[00:10:20]  Megan Porta 

Yes. I love your line. I actually wrote it down. Taking constant and radical, radical action. I think, oh, my gosh, for bloggers, that is huge because we have so many ideas, so many things that we know will move the needle forward, but we don’t do them because we don’t have anyone telling us we have to do that. Do them. So we just pause and sit and don’t act. But constant radical action. That’s amazing. I love that, Christina.

[00:10:50]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah. Thank you. I think once I started adopting that mindset, I was like, okay, well, nothing can stop me because I’m just gonna keep doing it. If it doesn’t work, I’ll pivot to something else. But as long as I keep doing, instead of feeling paralyzed, I know that something is gonna happen. Actually, you had asked me to come up with an inspirational quote, and I had it saved for the end, but it kind of fits.

[00:11:15]   

Right now. I was listening to a podcast. I can’t remember exactly where I heard this from. A couple of weeks ago, and they were talking about the law of inertia, Right. An object in motion stays in motion. And I was like, yeah, this is what I do for my business. And so I think keeping your business in motion, even if it’s small, if you keep doing things every single day to help move the needle, whether it’s just planning your content for the next six months, whether it’s saying, you know what, I’ve been meaning to switch over my email list provider.I’m gonna sign up for that one today, and I’ll figure it else out later. But whatever. The thing is, just keeping your business moving is really powerful for attracting all the good things and all of your goals in the future.

[00:12:02]  Megan Porta 

Gosh, yeah. I just had the image come into my mind of a river. Like, if it’s a stagnant, gross river that doesn’t move, then it attracts all the gross things underneath. But if it keeps flowing, it’s a healthy river. And you can. So many good things come when you’re absolutely.

[00:12:20]  Christina Musgrave 

And you might hit a rough patch, but as long as you’re still moving, you’re going to get to your waterfall eventually, right?

[00:12:27]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh. I just got goosebumps. So speaking more of just kind of the overarching theme of carrying a good mindset into your business, I think it’s so important. This is one of my messages from the beginning, that mindset is everything. Because without a good mindset, you don’t have a good business. It just doesn’t work.So talk about that.

[00:12:50]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah. One of the things that really stuck with me while I was building my business and still today was during. During lockdown and the spring of 2020. You know, there were hard times, and my former employer sent us all the book Grit by Angela Duckworth, if you’re familiar with it. And at the time, I knew I wanted to quit my corporate job so bad, I didn’t know how.

[00:13:18]   

And I remember reading the book, and it’s all about the power, you know, of passion plus perseverance. That’s what equals grit. And you have to have both, right? If you have passion but you don’t do anything about it, you’re going to stay in the same place. But if you pair it with perseverance, and from my perspective, that’s just kind of the constant moving along like the river we just talked about, you know, always taking action and ultimately just deciding to not give up.

[00:13:47]   

Just deciding, I’m going to do this thing. I remember it really made me angry that my employer was you know, telling us to have that mindset for the company. And I’m like, no, I want to have that mindset for myself. I want to build my own thing. I want to have this for my business, for myself, so I can be happy.

[00:14:04]   

So I really took that book to heart and ran with it in what I was doing. So I knew I loved to cook. I love food. I could talk about food for hours and hours with anybody, but it was the perseverance of taking action and, you know, starting really small. I went to, I got my very first client by going to a food like fair and going up to booths and, you know, pitching myself.

[00:14:34]   

I had never professionally developed a recipe. I had never taken a photo for anyone. I had never been paid a dollar for anything. But I cold, you know, cold pitched people and I was a friend of them. And I’m like, well, you’re going to have to. You’re going to have to tell me to leave.

[00:14:48]   

And eventually companies said yes. And that was, I mean, I made $100, but to me it felt like a million because it was proof to myself, I can do this. Someone’s gonna pay me to do this. You know, I can get better, and it’s all up from here.

[00:15:01]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:15:02]  Christina Musgrave 

So I think running with that mindset and having that perseverance ultimately helped me get to where I am today.

[00:15:13]  Megan Porta 

I love that story so much. How your $100 felt like might as well have been a million dollars. But I’ve felt that before too, where it’s just, it feels so abundant in the moment and that almost fuels momentum too, for good things to come your way.

[00:15:29]  Christina Musgrave 

It does, yeah.

[00:15:30]  Megan Porta 

That’s super powerful.

[00:15:32]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah.

[00:15:33]  Megan Porta 

Do you have advice for people on this? Because like the previous point, we talked about taking action. I think adopting a good mindset and having that perseverance can be something that people get hung up on or they just can’t get past it. Do you have thoughts about that?

[00:15:52]  Christina Musgrave 

So I think the biggest thing is to be realistic. I think a lot of when people talk about mindset, especially with food bloggers, you know, there’s obviously, we want to cheer each other on, but a lot of times there’s like a toxic optimism where you don’t want to be, you know, that far at the end of the spectrum, but you also don’t want to be negative and, you know, get stuck in your head and then you’re not acting at all.

[00:16:17]   

So I think just having a even keel, clear mindset, you know, keeping the boat floating forward is really powerful. Being at the same time, hopeful and optimistic, but realistic enough to make a pivot when something isn’t working. And I personally did that with, you know, a couple of other food bloggers were at the same point as I was. One of my friends. We would check in with each other at least once a week. It was like Mondays and Thursdays. We’d send a message to each other, hey, what are you trying to do this week? And then, you know, if we had something big that we were trying to accomplish, I would say, check in with me on Thursday and yell at me if I haven’t done it on Thursday and, like, tell me to do it by the end of the week because I need to get this done.

[00:17:03]   

So finding someone to give you accountability, whether, you know, that’s a friend, another food blogger, somebody you’ve never met on the Internet, there’s so many of us food bloggers out there, and we’re all growing our businesses and when we’re all kind of working in silos. So that was really, really helpful for me and keeping a positive mindset moving forward in my business.

[00:17:23]   

But another thing that also helped, which is similar, but I joined, you know, a group coaching program and having, you know, someone who had done it all before guiding me through as well as a community of other food bloggers that. Where we were all trying to go to the same place. We’re all trying to improve our photography, we’re trying to work with brands, we’re trying to do all of the things that really helped me and really exponentially grew my business in a short period of time because I had that support with other people.

[00:17:56]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:17:56]  Christina Musgrave 

So I think the combination of a positive, realistic mindset where you’re moving forward, you’re being productive, and you are seeking support is. Is really important. And that’s kind of, you know, when I think back to when I worked in corporate America, that was the environment that led me to personal success. You know, in the corporate world.

[00:18:16]   

I had a really great team. I had an amazing boss who, you know, coached me and pushed me to be my best. And when I, you know, kind of duplicated those things in my business and started treating it, you know, like the actual environment of a business, I saw really great things happen.

[00:18:34]  Megan Porta 

I love that. So you took the good parts of corporate America.

[00:18:38]  Christina Musgrave 

Exactly.

[00:18:38]  Megan Porta 

And you definitely. That’s so smart. Because there are good things. Companies thrive for a reason.

[00:18:43]  Christina Musgrave 

Absolutely. For sure. Of course, of course. It just wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. But there were absolutely good things about it that I think were, were really important in building my own business. And it wasn’t an overnight leap. Right. It’s a slow and strategic, you know, road ahead.

[00:19:04]   

So I was chugging along and chugging along. It was really two to three full years of working 40 to 50 hours a week outside of my corporate job, pouring everything into my blog and my business before I took the leap to go full time. Right. It’s not an overnight thing. It’s knowing that, okay, I’m building something and you don’t want, you don’t want a house that’s built in a couple of weeks.

[00:19:31]   

You want a house that’s built in a year. Right. So in order to grow and build a business that’s going to stand the test of time, you need to work at it and you need to, you know, accept that this is going to take a little bit. But that’s a good thing because you’re going to develop actual routes that are going to help you stand up to the test of time.Especially with, you know, how much things are changing today in the blogging landscape.

[00:19:53]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, it is a journey. And I think wrapping your mind around that to, to start from the beginning is so important because people think they can fast track this whole blogging experience and you cannot, you, you can’t, you can’t.

[00:20:08]  Christina Musgrave 

And you’ll see people, you know, sometimes people go viral for one video and you know, into the outside world, it looks like, wow, they had one video take off and now this is their job. But a lot of times people don’t see, they’ve worked for years to get to that point. Right. You know, it’s really taken years and for most people, that never happens.

[00:20:28]   

So for, for, you know, 95% of people, we have to take the slow road, building our businesses, building our blogs, you know, setting up multiple income streams and doing all of those things in order to be at a place where we can take it full time.

[00:20:44]  Megan Porta 

Yes, 100%. 

[00:20:47]  Sponsor

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[00:21:04] Megan Porta   

Let’s connect and grow together. How does gratitude play into your life? Are you, do you stay on top of that? Does it affect your business?

[00:21:12]  Christina Musgrave 

It really does. It’s something that I used to, you know, think it was like, woo, woo. And like I used to think like gratitude and manifesting were like, woo, woo. And then, and over the last couple of years. I really, really taken that to heart. And especially looking back to from where I am now, running my business full time.

[00:21:33]   

I’m coming out with a cookbook, I’m doing all of the things I wanted to do and have the life that I wanted five years ago when I was extremely unhappy. So now it’s radically important to me when I’m stressed. If my Google Analytics is going crazy with the algorithm changes and all the things that are going on in today’s world.

[00:21:55]   

Having gratitude and looking back at where I was compared to where I am now is really huge for me and keeping going because I’d like to five years from now say, you know what? I thought I was great back then. Let’s keep doing the things to move ahead and really appreciating where I am and the resources that I have is really important to stay grounded.

[00:22:22]  Megan Porta 

Do you have a practice that you do every day, something that helps you stay consistent, consistent with it?

[00:22:28]  Christina Musgrave 

So it’s kind of changed throughout, you know, the phase of. The phases of my life at the. When I was in corporate America, you know, I was. I used to just say to myself, like, I am. I am grateful, you know, that I have a job. I am grateful that I can try to do something that I love as my job.

[00:22:47]   

I’m grateful I even have this opportunity to pivot. And then once I started working for myself, I. It was kind of along with manifesting. I used to do, like, long peloton rides. And I love Ali, love the instructor, and she would talk about manifesting a lot. And sometimes I would just sit on my peloton.

[00:23:06]   

It’s so silly, but I would just sit with my arms, like, wide open, and I was like, okay, I’m like, ready. I’m ready for. Whether it’s like the brand deal, I’m ready for my blog sessions to go up. Whatever it is and whatever I’m supposed to have right now in my business, like, I’m ready for it.

[00:23:23]   

And I. And it’s. It really felt like it worked. So I used to do that. And then today I think about gratitude a lot when I exercise, I go to a gym and I love lifting weights. And I’m a mom now. And so a lot of times that’s my one hour I really have to myself.

[00:23:42]   

So during that hour, I think about gratitude, I think about my business, and sometimes I come up with a lot of good ideas. So it’s kind of shifted throughout the last five years especially.

[00:23:54]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, sometimes I. Same for me. Like, at times I’ve been really grounded with journaling in the morning and then I will go to journaling at night and then sometimes I don’t journal at all. But I just like, you take time for it when I’m working out or you know, like finding space in my brain in some other way.

[00:24:12]   

So I think it is a constantly shifting thing, but so important that we’re all taking some time out of our day, like every day to be grateful for what is in this moment, what you’re absolutely.

[00:24:26]  Christina Musgrave 

And I also love pairing that with celebrating wins. I, I did it back then when I was starting my business. I had a, a short term food writing gig that I did for, you know, a platform. And it, you know, it wasn’t a lot of money, but it was more than a one time contract.

[00:24:46]   

And to me it was, you know, the world. It was like that first hundred dollars that I made and my husband like, my husband got, you know, cheap bottle of sparkling wine and we popped it and we acted like we won the lottery. But I think, you know, and every time I had scored a contract, getting into an ad network, all of those things, I like made sure that I took an evening to celebrate it and just kind of sit in it and reflect.

[00:25:14]   

This is what I wanted. I have done the work to get it and like, and that’s good enough for right now. So I think pairing gratitude with also celebrating your achievements and taking the time to just step back is really, really important, you know, for really all aspects in life, not just your business, but everything in your life.

[00:25:34]   

I think it’s really important to take a minute and celebrate yourself.

[00:25:39]  Megan Porta 

And sometimes it does require some intentional stepping back because we don’t always see the wins that are happening in our lives and businesses today. But if you just pause for a moment and look at like, maybe your numbers aren’t where they should be on your blog or whatever or where you think they should be, I guess.

[00:25:59]   

But then if you look at history, you’ve gone up over time and you’re actually way ahead of where you were a year, a year ago. But that requires the step back and the intentionality of looking at things and having something to celebrate.

[00:26:14]  Christina Musgrave 

Absolutely. And I mean, when you think so many of us food bloggers, we started with nothing. We had no idea how to create a blog. Right. We had no clue. So to grow to, from literally nothing of a website to tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of sessions a month is really amazing.

[00:26:36]   

It really is amazing when you take a step back and you think, you know, I was the only one that used to make my recipes. And now thousands of people around the world get to enjoy the food that I’ve made at their dinner table. You know, sitting with that is really powerful. It’s a very, very cool thing that we get to do.

[00:26:53]  Megan Porta 

It is, yeah. Just the way you worded it is really cool. We started with nothing. We had a computer, no website, like nothing. And we built this amazing business that in itself is something to celebrate every day.

[00:27:09]  Christina Musgrave 

A hundred percent. Yeah, I totally agree. Oh, it’s really important.

[00:27:13]  Megan Porta 

How do boundaries play into everything? I feel like boundaries are a necessity in our worlds.

[00:27:20]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah, they really are. And I think it’s gonna change, right? So when I first started working on Tasting with Tina, I didn’t know what I was doing. So you’re kind of throwing everything at the wall, hoping something will stick. So I was working so much, you know, 40 to 50 hours a week outside of my full time job, just trying to make my website happen.

[00:27:44]   

But I think as you grow and as your business grows, it’s really important to put those boundaries in for yourself. Otherwise you will burn out. But it’s also okay, you know, When I was pregnant with my daughter in 2023, I knew I wanted to give myself a maternity leave. And so I, I cooked so much that year.

[00:28:10]   

I, I think I was, I think I was working on like 15 to 20 recipes that I was testing, photographing, video work a week. And it was just me. I went crazy. But then I took six months off and it was amazing. And, and I, and I needed to, because I didn’t have a great birth experience.

[00:28:28]   

So. So, like, it was knowing that I had to put in the work, you know, help me for a big life event that I actually needed to take time off for. And now I really have pretty strict boundaries on what I do. I try to, you know, work when I have childcare lined up so I could spend time with my daughter.

[00:28:49]   

I, you know, in the evenings when I was building my website, it would be, you know, okay, after dinner, I’m gonna go work on a blog post, I’m gonna go work on Pinterest pins, you know, whatever. But now as I’ve grown and I’ve been able to, you know, offset things of my business with Pinterest manager, VA things like that, I’ve been able to set really great boundaries for myself, which I feel like, you know, clears your head and allows you to actually ideate and be creative because that’s what we all wanted in the first place, to choose this career path.

[00:29:19]  Megan Porta 

It’s so true. Yeah. I think space, giving ourselves space is so incredibly important. We are, we’re, most of us are creative individuals, and if we don’t get space, then we don’t, we don’t, we’re floundering. We don’t really know what the right projects are in the first place. So that’s a question for you.How do you say no? Or I guess, how do you know which projects are not right in the first place?

[00:29:48]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah, well, so now, now I think I have to be excited about things. I feel like I have worked, you know, the last five years, I have built my business. You know, you’re trying to tread water to just stay alive. Now that, you know, I have an established blog, I have established clients, I’m coming out with a cookbook.

[00:30:10]   

I feel like, okay, I know what I’m doing now. So now I’m focusing on what can I do now to set up my business for success over the next five years? So, you know, a lot of times we start our blogs and we’re just, you know, we’re not niching down. We’re trying to do a little bit of everything now.

[00:30:27]   

I feel like I. In the phase where I’m thinking, is this, you know, in the future, is this what my blog is or is it what my blog is not? And if it is what my blog is not, then I’m not going to do it. So being really clear on what your business is, what you want, the brand that you have, is very helpful for setting yourself up for success.

[00:30:48]   

And then it’s kind of an easy no. If it doesn’t align with your business and your brand, then. Then it doesn’t align, then it’s not right for you right now.

[00:30:56]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And it’s okay, too, to change your mind. Right. Like, sometimes it can be a no. And you don’t have to make that a permanent no. It can be a flexible no, just allowing it.

[00:31:09]  Christina Musgrave 

Or a not now.

[00:31:10]  Megan Porta 

Right. A not now.

[00:31:12]  Christina Musgrave 

Yes. Yes, a not now.

[00:31:14]  Megan Porta 

I think we can get trapped in that. Just thinking, oh, I said it was a no in January, so I have to keep with that. But it doesn’t, that doesn’t have to be the case. Our businesses are so fluid, and I feel like we’re constantly evolving and our business or businesses are constantly evolving.

[00:31:32]   

So just to be open to a no can become a yes or a yes can become a no.

[00:31:37]  Christina Musgrave 

Like, yeah, no, I think it’s a really healthy mindset to have. Yeah, for sure.

[00:31:42]  Megan Porta 

And how do you deal with boundaries as far as Time. So protecting your work time, protecting your family time, time with your daughter, definitely.

[00:31:51]  Christina Musgrave 

And I touched on this a little bit, but I think once you are at a place where your business, you’re making money and you feel like you’re stable, I think one of the most important things that you can do is to pay someone to do the things that you hate to do.

[00:32:06]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:32:07]  Christina Musgrave 

You know, and offloading some of those things to give yourself the time and give yourself the mental space. I used to hate scheduling pins. I used to hate scheduling my social posts. So that was. Those were two of the first things that I did. Hired someone to work on those for me. Same thing with like a VA.

[00:32:28]   

If you don’t like writing blog posts, then have someone draft your first version of the blog posts for you. Or if you love writing blog posts, then pay someone to do the photography for you so you don’t have to worry about it. But once I started not doing everything, I feel like I was able to have the boundaries and the time and the space to actually work on things that I wanted to within, you know, normal working hours.

[00:32:54]   

It’s one of the reasons why this, this was the year that I was able to write my cookbook and work on the cookbook because I had, you know, had my business set up with the appropriate systems that I needed, where I actually had time to take on a whole new project that was extremely time consuming.

[00:33:13]   

But, but in the evenings, you know, I’m just making dinner for myself and my husband and my daughter. So I still have that work life balance because I’ve invested back into my business to give myself some space.

[00:33:26]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, space. That’s another. Another theme of our chat is the constant radical action. Passion and perseverance and also allowing space for yourself and gratitude and celebrating so many themes, so many things that are so important. Right, Christina?

[00:33:44]  Christina Musgrave 

Definitely.

[00:33:45]  Megan Porta 

Is there anything we’ve forgotten or do you have kind of parting words for people just reiterating how important it is to focus on the things we’ve talked about?

[00:33:54]  Christina Musgrave 

I think just in general, starting small and, and building momentum is really important. Right. You know, from just locking down what your blog name is going to be to starting your. Your WordPress, and it’s gonna be a long road. Like we said, the river. But as long as it keeps going, it. You’re going to.

[00:34:19]   

You’re gonna get there someday. Right. Just starting small and understanding that it’s going to be a journey. And it’s, it’s stressful, but I think enjoying the ride, it’s more so than Business, that’s like the whole point of life, Right. We have to enjoy while we’re in it.

[00:34:38]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:34:38]  Christina Musgrave 

Because it’s just, you know, it’s gonna be gone before you know it. Right. Like one, you are building your business and you’re. You get to learn all of these things and create recipes and work with clients, you know, enjoy the first time for everything and celebrate all of those wins along the way.

[00:34:58]   

And for the losses or for the failures, you have to frame them as learnings, you know, so you can keep moving forward to get to where you want to be. So really just enjoy the ride because it will happen, you know, wherever we’re all supposed to be in our businesses, we’re going to get there.

[00:35:15]   

It’s going to happen. You know, we just have to keep. Keep going and keep working on it. But I think enjoying the whole process is really important.

[00:35:23]  Megan Porta 

So much wisdom and beauty and everything you just said. I loved all of that so much. Thank you for saying all of that. And I know that you have a few things that you’re offering. So you have a cookbook coming up, right? And I do. I would love to hear about that and then also talk about your coaching, because I know you offer coaching and then you also have a meal prep guide.

[00:35:44]   

I want to hear about all of it.

[00:35:46]  Christina Musgrave 

Yes. So I’m coming out with a cookbook this fall. It’s called Tasting Every Easy Recipes for the Weeknight Cook. It’s going to be full of simple, elegant recipes for busy home cooks. After developing like over 400, 500 hundred recipes for my website, the thing that people kept asking me about was, how do you cook dinner on a Tuesday night?

[00:36:08]   

And so I wrote a cookbook about it for really things that I cook on Tuesday nights. So it has sections for, you know, basic recipes that you’re going to come back to time and time again, as well as salads, pastas, side dishes, and a whole section on bowl recipes that I make and have been making for years.

[00:36:28]   

So I’m so excited. That will be out in November around Thanksgiving. And then I teach. I coach food bloggers as well. So I teach food bloggers how to quit their day jobs, just like I did. So whether you need help setting up systems, starting a blog, finding clients, or just chatting for a fresh perspective, I help food bloggers become the best that they can be through a variety of different topics.

[00:36:52]   

So I really. That’s something new that I’ve been work that I started offering this year, and I’ve been absolutely loving it. And then I have A how to meal purchase prep for the week. A downloadable guide with all of my best meal prepping tips to simplify weeknight dinners. So I will send all of those links over to you.

[00:37:12]  Megan Porta 

That’s all exciting stuff, Christina. Oh, my goodness. Amazing. Thank you. Yeah, you’re putting good things out into the world because you’re taking action and all of the things we talked about, you’re aligning with.

[00:37:23]  Christina Musgrave 

So Absolutely, absolutely. An object in motion stays in motion, right?

[00:37:28]  Megan Porta 

That’s right. The fruits of your labor are coming to fruition, which is so fun. It’s like, yeah, everything is blossoming for you. Well, you’ve already shared your words of inspiration, so we don’t need to do that again. But just thank you for being here. We so appreciate, you know, any motivation on mindset and just aligning with our businesses. So we appreciate it.

[00:37:48]  Christina Musgrave 

Thank you so much. It was so great to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah.

[00:37:52]  Megan Porta 

And we’ll put together a show notes page for you. So we’ll include all the links, including your offerings in that if you head to eatblogtalk.com/tastingwithtina, you can find those there. Anything else we want to mention, like social media. We know where your blog is. Tastingwithtina.com. Anything else?

[00:38:10]  Christina Musgrave 

Yeah, you can follow along. My Instagram is @tastingwithtina. It’s Tasting.with.Tina.

[00:38:15]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:38:16]  Christina Musgrave 

And you can follow along there.

[00:38:17]  Megan Porta 

Awesome. Well, everyone go check out Christina’s offerings and site and social media. Thank you again for being here and thank you so much for listening, food bloggers. I will see you next time.
[00:38:30] Outro   

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Don’t forget to rate and review Eat Blog Talk on your favorite podcast player. Thank you. And I will see you next time.