Episode 573: If You Don’t Put in The Work, It Won’t Happen – Why We Should Develop a Strong Work Ethic In Order to Be Successful with Emilie Pullar

EBT573 – Emilie Pullar

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported.

Megan Porta  00:38

Sometimes episodes are filled with information and value. And other times episodes are just filled with inspiration and encouragement. And this is one of those episodes. Emilie Pullar from The Burnt Butter Table, joins me to talk about, honestly, just working hard following your passion, but putting in the work to get where you want to go, believing in yourself doing everything from the heart, putting yourself out there all of those important things that don’t get as much attention as they should, in my opinion, but that really built the strong foundation for your business. This is one of the more inspiring interviews I’ve had in a while it was so fun to record. I kind of forgot we were in the middle of an interview. To be honest with you. I really hope you’re inspired by this and I didn’t even mention that Emily’s blog has reached a lot of success in a really short time. So this foundation that she’s put together for herself has paid off in dividends with her blog and traffic and revenue. Enjoy this one. It is episode 573 Sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  01:45

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Megan Porta  03:15

The Burnt Butter Table is run by Emilie Pullar and is a pasta filled blog with recipes ranging from quick 10 minute pasta sauces to intricate filled pasta shapes made from scratch. Emilie’s true passion for food shines through her recipes where she endeavors to explain and break down processes in an easy to understand way.

Megan Porta  03:34

Emilie, welcome to the podcast. How are you today?

Emilie Pullar  03:38

I’m really good. Thank you. How are you?

Megan Porta  03:40

I’m good. I’m glad that you have an accent. I feel like it’s so funny. People with beautiful accents tend to come in clumps. But today you’re the only one with the accent. So you’re standing out.

Emilie Pullar  03:51

I feel like a New Zealand accent is actually a little bit polarizing. Some people hate it. Some people love it. 

Megan Porta  03:56

Oh, really? Oh, gosh. I don’t know. I think it’s beautiful.

Emilie Pullar  04:00

So thank you. Yeah. So

Megan Porta  04:02

thanks for joining us here on the podcast we’re gonna talk about just like putting in that hard work and some other important things, believing in yourself following your passion. But before we get into all of that awesomeness, why don’t you give us a fun fact about yourself?

Emilie Pullar 04:18

Show us so I wanted to be a chef when I was in high school and finishing up high school. That’s what I wanted to do. And my parents actually talked me out of it. And I’m kind of glad they did. I think it would have been a really hard road but that’s really where my passion did lie. And in New Zealand I think it’s it’s a really common thing here for high school students to take a year off between high school and college we call it university here. So I lived in London for a year and was always going to come back to study but I guess I just wasn’t quite sure what so it was when I lived in London that I decided to pursue fashion instead of instead of being a chef so yeah, but I’ve come I’ve come back to it.

Megan Porta  04:57

It was gonna say it came full circle because here you are as a food blogger. Right, exactly. That’s so cool. I feel like those things that we really feel in our gut passionate about when we’re kids do eventually try to resurface. 

Emilie Pullar  05:10

I think so I think we are born who we are. It’s so interesting the nature versus nurture because my sister and I are 18 months apart, but we couldn’t be more different. We are absolute opposites. And I just really think you are born with who you are. And I think that’s really cool.

Megan Porta  05:25

I think it’s so cool. So on that note, tell us a little bit about your blog. 

Emilie Pullar  05:30

Sure. So I have to take you back. I’ll try and keep this very concise. But so I did a fashion degree and then started a fashion label, which I have done for the last 14 years. It’s actually only in the last few months, I’ve started doing The Burnt Butter Table full time. So when we had locked down, I’m such a cliched lockdown story that went you know, running a fashion label and having to pet and make and design new collections. We just couldn’t do that at home. So it was the first time in 10 years of running my own business, I actually had some time off. And I know this is not an okay thing to say. But I actually really loved it down because it just gave me time to figure things out. So I didn’t start my blog and locked down. But I started my Instagram in locked down. And it just became really popular and, and I’ve started my blog, not even understanding as I’m sure a lot of people do that you could even make a living out of it. I started it just because I thought it would be a fun place to put some recipes. And so yeah, so I didn’t publish my first blog post till I think about March, April 2022. And then I sort of just, you know, chipped away at it not not even understanding my analytics. I never looked at that sort of stuff at all. And then I really started getting serious about it probably in May, June last year in 2023. And then I started the food blogger protocols, which I think was awesome. And I was at about 30,000 sessions, I think around July and 2023. And then I got to 50,000 pretty quickly after doing the food blogger pro course. And then I got accepted onto MediaVine, mid September 2023.

Megan Porta  06:54

Okay, that’s awesome. So really, I mean, you did grow fairly quickly. I know it seems when you’re in the middle of it that’s going slow. I know that feeling. But…

Emilie Pullar 07:03

yeah, I just I don’t really know, I think, um, isn’t it funny as as bloggers, we we do so much by ourselves. And I didn’t know what was slow. It was fast. Like, I just had no idea. And I still feel like I’m quite new to this. But I think my growth has been really quick. I think in April this year. I got up. I got up past 400,000 sessions. 

Megan Porta  07:22

Oh, wow oh my gosh, are you serious? Yeah. 

Emilie Pullar  07:25

So I guess that’s good right?

Megan Porta  07:27

amazing. And that is incredible growth? For sure. Yeah, that different perspective is needed sometimes. Because you’re so in it that it’s like what I don’t know, is this good? Is it not?

Emilie Pullar  07:40

Yeah, I know. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So

Megan Porta  07:44

what would you say are some of your recipes, ingredients for success for this, because that is fairly quick growth. And a lot of other people are in the same boat where they started around the pandemic. And they’re definitely not seeing this growth.

Emilie Pullar 07:59

I think we’ll touch on all those points sort of throughout a conversation. But I think I think one thing that was really lucky was that I started the blog, I had another full time job. And even though we had we decided to wind down the fashion brand, about two years ago, we had a very detailed exit plan. And so at the end, I did have to turn Burnt Butter Table into something that paid the bills. But to start with, it wasn’t that at all. And so I wrote my recipes really organically. And I think one of my main things is I just like to write recipes. All I want is someone to have success with making one of my recipes, I absolutely think of every single thing that could go wrong, everything it’s supposed to look like. And so I think I’ve always been a really detail oriented person. And it’s the same in the fashion brands, like I wanted to design clothes that made women feel really amazing. So this is me sort of taking that through to writing recipes. So So I wrote I wrote recipes that started ranking without even understanding what that was, or anything about keyword research. I really just wrote recipes for the user, which is what we’re supposed to do. Right. And I think I think a lot of bloggers just get so tied up in SEO. And that is so important. And I’ve learned so much. But I think I think sort of it gets a little bit over complicated with all the information that we have. And we actually write recipes that look great, tastes amazing. And a really, really clear and concise. That’s, that’s the secret, isn’t it? 

Megan Porta  09:22

the word or term you just use detail oriented, I think is huge. Because it’s so easy to throw a recipe together just to get it up, right, like have this these photos. 

Emilie Pullar  09:33

Exactly. Or just a rank. I think it’s a dime. It’s a dangerous thing. If we’re just if we’re just trying to rank a recipe, which is what we are all trying to do. We’re trying to make a living but if that really is your sole purpose, then I just think you can get a little bit stuck in the in the SEO stuff. 

Megan Porta  09:49

Yep. So just being really honed in on the detail and why you’re serving this to your user. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That’s really important. And then I assumed That, along with your story, because you talked about you loved cooking as a kid. And now here we are again. So I assume that passion is intertwined in your story as well.

Emilie Pullar 10:11

Yes, very much. I know that not everyone gets to follow their passion, but I do. I just really, really strongly believe that everybody is capable of such great things, if you just put in the work and let yourself do it. And I think if you’re going to find something that you’re passionate about, you’re going to enjoy it, you’re going to love it. And that passion is going to come through I like to think that people when they read my recipes, they can really feel my passion and my words, and I think that if you can find something that you’re that you love and are passionate about, like I think I saw the other day on in the MediaVine Facebook group, someone said, I’m thinking about starting a new blog, maybe about parenting, I’m not actually a parent myself. Like, it just makes no sense. You need to find something that you love. I mean, running a business, especially I found because I ran my fashion label with someone else. So I had that sort of team support. But running a blog is so lonely, and you’re on your own. And it’s and running any business is all consuming, right? So if you don’t love it, it’s just not going to work. 

Megan Porta  11:15

I think many of us do have a passion for food, which ways in our favor, right? Yeah. Because if you get into food blogging, just to make money, and I do know people who do that, by the way, yeah, I just don’t think it’s a long game. It’s not going to serve you long term, it’s not going to serve your readers because they feel the passion as well, don’t you think?

Emilie Pullar 11:34

Exactly. Absolutely. That’s what I really hope that people feel my passion. And I think just inherently that’s going to come out and your photos and and I think it’s I think people put off, people put off doing something because it’s really scary. I mean, I’ve run a business since I was 25. So it’s kind of all I know. And I just think people put it off, and they don’t think it’s the right time, financial stuff. But it’s, it’s always the right time, you can you can just go out today and buy a notebook and start writing some notes. And, and I just I really do think if you if you’re willing to put in the work and find something you’re passionate about, you can make it work. And I think I really learned that through my fashion brand that we were so passionate about it. And and every decision we made, we made it work, because we trusted ourselves. And we were sort of, you know, prepared to do the work and the sacrifices and all that stuff.

Megan Porta  12:21

And intuition plays into that too. Just kind of following what your gut is telling ya.

Emilie Pullar 12:26

And that comes with time, doesn’t it? I think it comes. I mean, I was 25 very naive, 25 year old when I started my fashion brand, it was called Maaike. And I think we just didn’t have a care in the world. And money wasn’t even a factor. So I think I’ve come into Burnt Better Table with a completely different mindset at 39 that I need to make this work financially. But also, I want this to be something that I enjoy doing for years and years to come. 

Megan Porta  12:51

Yeah. So how do you lean into your intuition? And what does that look like for you as far as like running this business?

Emilie Pullar 12:56

Yeah, I think I’m lucky. I grew up with very, very supportive parents. And I grew up with my dad running his own business. So I think I’ve always been around people making decisions. And, and yeah, I’ve always felt really strongly about following my gut. And if it just feels right, and I think that that just comes with time. But also, if you have an idea, and you follow your gut, if you’re willing to put in the work, I just don’t think those two things that those two things have to go together. If you’re willing to put in the time and the effort, then then it’s gonna be fine. And and I think yeah, as I said, every decision every scary business decision we made. Maaike especially like we opened a shop on like the main shopping street in Auckland. And that was really scary, rent wise and moving to a bigger studio and all those things, you make it work because you actually have to. And I think making those big, scary decisions is actually so important for a business because it just keeps pushing you along. 

Megan Porta  13:46

And putting in the work. You’ve said that a few times. I totally agree. You’ve got to act, right. You can’t just have the idea that on it forever. And don’t you think that putting in the work helps you to follow your gut like you need to take those steps in order to see.

Emilie Pullar  14:01

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s like following your gut is one thing, but putting in the work, that’s that’s where it happens. That happens.

Megan Porta  14:10

And the action part is where a lot of people get hung up, because they have great ideas. They’re creative. They know what they’re passionate about. But actually implementing all of those ideas becomes really hard I’ve noticed.

Emilie Pullar  14:23

Definitely. And I think I think it’s it is so difficult running your business. I don’t know if you felt the same way what’s sort of friends some friends and family who have never run their own business actually just don’t understand the time and commitment it takes to get something off the ground. It just there’s no way I mean, I worked seven days a week for so long, starting my fashion brand and we both had part time jobs on the side and and so I think that’s instilled in me that that’s what I do now, which is yeah, there’s just no way around that really.

Megan Porta  14:53

that’s that’s an interesting thing I’ve been thinking about lately too, is how, over time your hard work. You evolves, like it can get less and less for me. I’m at a place where I have a team and they helped me. But I still have it ingrained in my soul somewhere. 

Emilie Pullar  15:09

Yeah, totally. That’s never gonna go. 

Megan Porta  15:11

Yeah, like I still need to be working as hard as I did when I started, but I don’t. Yeah. So how do I get rid of that? Emily?

Emilie Pullar  15:18

I think I think when you run your business, you don’t you don’t clock off at five o’clock and you start thinking about I mean, I definitely don’t I think about recipes. And I thought about the clothing brand, like you don’t go home and stop thinking about it. Unfortunately, that’s the one thing with running your business, there’s no escape from it. So I don’t know that’s gonna be a tough one for you.

Megan Porta  15:36

Yeah, it’s a process. It is a journey for sure. Like lots of self talk, lots of self care, and just working on my mindset all the time. Yeah. So with putting in the hard work comes boundaries to have you had to set some boundaries for yourself.

Emilie Pullar 15:52

That’s a funny one I definitely have now, last year was a pretty tough year, when we decided to close down the fashion label. Yeah, we had a really detailed exit plan. And I sort of got to last year and thought, Okay, well, I, I really need to be, I really need to turn Burnt Table into something that pays the bills, you know, we have a mortgage and responsibilities now and all of that stuff. So but then on the flip side of that, with finishing the fashion label, we wanted to make as much as much money as we possibly could in that last year, just to set ourselves up, you know, in case we couldn’t get these side projects going. So we normally did two collections a year. But last year, we did four collections. And then we did hundreds of custom orders for all our amazing clients over 14 years that were pretty devastated. We were closing down so we weren’t so so busy. And then yeah, and then Burnt Table. I had to make that work. So I worked every single night, every single weekend last year. And my father actually passed away in the middle of it as well. 

Megan Porta  16:48

So sorry. 

Emilie Pullar  16:49

Thank you. It was it was a really, really tough year and absolute burnout. But it kind of got to the point where it was burnout, but I couldn’t even deal with it. It was I had to keep going. So I think and I made it work. I committed to doing two blog posts every week in the last six months. And that’s that’s definitely what got me over the line got me monetized for sure.

Megan Porta  17:09

Gosh, and working through burnout is not recommended by the way. 

Emilie Pullar  17:13

I know. I know you I know. You’ve said that in so many episodes. I know. Yeah. I think everyone has to get to that point, though, don’t you think? 

Megan Porta  17:19

I do. I mean, as an entrepreneur, I think that I don’t know, I hate to say it, but it kind of is something that is required in order to really know the exactly the job of being an entrepreneur, right and, and then

Emilie Pullar  17:33

To set those boundaries, like you can’t grow from it, 

Megan Porta  17:37

You can’t grow truly without knowing that kind of rock bottom.

Emilie Pullar  17:42

And it’s interesting, because I think, when I was you know, I worked two full time jobs last year. And I think when I, I kept sort of telling myself, it’s gonna be so much easier next year, and you’ll be able to even publish so many more recipes, you’ll be able to do so many more things, but it’s been interesting this year. Now that I’m just doing this one full time job. I don’t actually feel like I’m much more productive and it shows me how much work I did last year and last night times and weekends. So now I’m doing the same kind of work, but I get the weekends off which is really nice.

Megan Porta  18:10

It is so nice. It seems like a little change, but that’s a huge change. 

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Emilie Pullar  19:13

You know you make so many sacrifices. I’ve got an amazing husband and we didn’t see much of each other last year. And it’s yes, magic coming, coming back and doing fun things together.

Megan Porta  19:22

Yeah, it’s funny looking over like the history of the past year and like, I’m going through a little burnout right now after a few certain projects and I don’t know, things in life. And you get there and you’re like, Wait, how did this happen? But then when How did this happen again? You look back and you’re like, Oh, right. Like it makes sense. Like that happened and then this and then that energy drain and then this person like, you can kind of piece it together. But sometimes I wonder why can’t we see that all the time when it’s happening? 

Emilie Pullar  19:51

But do you feel like you’re better now at dealing with the burnout? Like do you have sort of good things in place that you know are going to make you feel better?

Megan Porta  19:56

That’s such a good question. And yes, I followed my intuition. Then at the beginning of this year, so pretty much January 1, I don’t know I just kept kept getting this feeling and the thought that I need to step up my game with taking care of myself. And I’m pretty good with self care anyway, but I was like, okay, so I, I followed my intuition, and I’ve just been like on top of it. And I think if I wouldn’t have been doing that I would be in a huge state of depression right now. Yeah, it would be really bad. So that has helped tremendously, but it’s still like, it’s still I don’t know, frustrating, I think just 

Emilie Pullar  20:35

Yeah, for sure.

Megan Porta  20:36

I couldn’t I have stopped this by 

Emilie Pullar  20:38

No, but we’re human. We’re not We’re not perfect. Right. And once you make mistakes our whole lives. Yeah,

Megan Porta  20:42

exactly. We are human. I feel like once you’re in it, you do just have to let it play out to it’s not something that you can just like, Okay, I see you now stop. It doesn’t work like that.

Emilie Pullar  20:53

No, no, and that makes you feel worse. So you’ve just gotta sometimes when you’re in those processes, you’ve just got to, you just have to go with it. And it’s like, so frustrating, but you just, you know, that it’s gonna get better.

Megan Porta  21:04

Yeah, it will, if you just keep doing the right things. And yeah, yep. Yeah, exactly. Taking care of yourself.

Emilie Pullar  21:10

It’s so funny, the hard work thing. I mean, I had a friend say to me, at the start of this year, they were like, Oh, you’re so lucky Burnt Butter Table has really taken off. And I was like, There’s nothing lucky about it. There’s nothing lucky about it. And it’s such a cliche, but I I really do think you know, that same luck has just had, you know, preparation. And I just, there’s nothing lucky about it. You know, I It’s blood, sweat and tears. And yeah, like is just preparation waiting for an opportunity. I really, really believe that. And I do think I do think like can play a part in people’s journeys. 100%. But at the end of the day, it’s the people that work hard, and more importantly, who don’t give up at the hurdles that make it. But there’s, there’s just there’s no, there wouldn’t be one single successful person who didn’t face some kind of hurdle or adversity. And it’s the people that keep going. They’re the ones that make it. So I really, I’m just I’m such a fan of hard work. I just think that’s the way I’ve got, that’s how I’ve got to every single point in my life is just through sheer hard work.

Megan Porta  22:09

And there are so many pieces of that too. Like, you have to be dedicated to what you’re doing. You have to have like foresight to think ahead a little bit to the future, you have to be grateful for what you’ve accomplished. I think hard work is like just two words. But there’s so much yeah, goes into that. Right?

Emilie Pullar  22:29

Definitely. And I think blogging also, I mean, it’s such a cliche thing to say, but, you know, blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. And I’m and now that I’ve got to a point where you know, it’s earning a good income. And one thing that I am lucky about is that earning American dollars for me, it’s pretty great here in New Zealand. So that is one thing that is lucky. But I think I’m not here to make a quick buck. I’m here for the long haul. And, and talking about those sort of things, I definitely probably take a hit on my RPMs because I do group lots of things together my posts, like I don’t want ads everywhere. So I definitely am not here just to make as much money as I can like when people don’t like RPM challenges and all that sort of stuff. It’s just not something that I’m interested in, I want my posts to be. And I think that works. Because if there’s less ads, I just feel like people are going to come back. So yeah, there’s all those decisions we have to make, isn’t there?

Megan Porta  23:19

Yeah. And just having the belief in yourself that you can do it is something I think that falls into that hard work to have that to keep going. 

Megan Porta  23:31

Do you have any encouragement for people? I feel like talking to a lot of food bloggers on a weekly basis. This is something that a lot of people get hung up on, just like I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t. So it’s that an action, like inaction and not believing in yourself. Do you have encouragement for those things?

Emilie Pullar  23:52

I think that if you truly love what you do, it’s going to work and you and you do just have to keep going. And there’s been so many times where you know, maybe your traffic dips down or when I was working on my fashion brand. There were obviously like really tough economic times after COVID after the pandemic and but if you truly believe in what you’re doing, you just have to keep going and it’s going to work and there’s gonna be ups and downs. But you just if you truly love what you do, you just have to keep going and it’s going to work.

Megan Porta  24:19

And like what you said the long game thing is such a good mindset to be in if you’re doing this for short term gains and quick success. It’s not going to work. 

Emilie Pullar  24:29

Yeah, definitely. And I think our accountant, mica always credited us from the start with not taking much money out of the business to start with, you know, I think so many people earn $1 and take two and I think that’s one of my biggest things in a new business is just to be really careful with with how much money you’re taking out and invest in that back end and outsourcing because I’m such a firm believer in outsourcing work that you don’t like doing yourself. So I think that’s that’s another massive thing.

Megan Porta  24:54

Yeah. And then you mentioned the ads thing. I think that’s an important thing to cover too. So not just feeling Your sight with ads just to make every single penny. Is there anything else you do to your blog posts who are also super detail oriented? Like with photography, or writing or anything that makes your content unique?

Emilie Pullar  25:14

Yeah, I think I really do write only what is necessary. There’s, I use RankIQ, which I know you’re a big fan of, and I don’t really take much notice of the word count part of it, because I think if I need to write more, that’s because I actually did need to write more, I really, really do think about breaking down each recipe and thinking about if someone is actually cooking this and they’ve never cooked before, how can I make this absolutely crystal clear. And, and in my recipe card, you know, we put so much detail on the blog post, but some people I guess, are gonna jump to recipe what most people do. And the recipe card, I just try, I think I have so much feedback that I get on my recipes is thank you so much for the step by step and how much detail and so I think just breaking it down and does the heat need to go down, does it need to go up like all of those little things that might come quite natural to us as a cook when we’re standing at the stove, stirring something, we might adjust the heat up and down. But just putting all of that detail into the recipe card so that I just think if someone is going to make one of my recipes, and it’s going to work, they’re going to come back. If it doesn’t work, they’re not going to come back. So I work really, really hard and making my recipes as detailed as I possibly can. I think that’s huge.

Emilie Pullar  25:14

Yeah, I was just looking through your what post is this, it is for easy homemade pasta dough.

Emilie Pullar  26:27

And there’s a lot of detail on it. 

Megan Porta  26:30

So I think if someone really wants to make homemade pasta dough, this is yeah, this is the place to go. You’ve got just great photos for every single step and captions. And it’s very thorough and detail oriented.

Emilie Pullar  26:44

Not every post needs to be the same. So something like a homemade pasta dough, that I have to give someone a lot of detail and a lot of photos. But then a quick because I do sort of really intricate homemade pasta shapes. But then I also do really easy quick pasta sauces. So a quick pasta sauce is not going to need as many words as a detailed post on how to make a ravioli or a gnocchi like. So I think just really look at each post individually. And they don’t all have to be the same. That’s the joy of it, I think is and it keeps it exciting for us to write. Yeah,

Megan Porta  27:14

Definitely. What about, like, let’s talk about like the discomfort of being a blogger, I feel like there’s comparison and getting hung up on what other people are doing and other people’s numbers and other people’s success. So it’s hard to put ourselves out there sometimes just knowing that that can be a hang up as well. Yeah, I haven’t

Emilie Pullar  27:33

I probably haven’t struggled so much with that with the blog, I’d probably have struggled with it on social media, but more but I really have tried to let go of that completely. And just we are I know God, I’m just full of cliches this morning. But

Megan Porta  27:46

They’re fitting they work.

Emilie Pullar  27:47

Exactly. We are all on our own journey. It’s we’re just we’re individual people. And that’s what makes us so amazing. And I think that’s what makes blogging really fun is that we’re all completely different. And that’s what we want to be we don’t want to be the same. We want someone to come to our blog and be like, Wow, this is cool. This is unique and different. And, and that’s what we want. So no, I mean, I mean, yeah, it’s I think it’s good because you never really know exactly what people’s blogging numbers are. Whereas on sort of Instagram and social media, you kind of see following counts and likes and all that stuff. So yeah, no, I’ve really, really tried to let that go. There’s because I mean, people would look at us and and compare themselves to us. So there’s always there’s always people with less followers and more followers. And that’s just that’s just how the game works. Just don’t that’s just such noise in my brain. Like we don’t just it’s good to tune that stuff out. 

Megan Porta  28:36

And there’s always going to be people who have more followers than you always exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You’re never going to be the top top of all the people in the world. Yeah. What other advice or encouragement do you have for people who might be just getting started with blogging? Or maybe they’re like a year or two in and they’re feeling that drain that we can feel from time to time? 

Emilie Pullar  28:59

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m still new. I mean, I’ve you know, I was only monetized in September, and it was only like a year before that I started. So I feel like I don’t know, I feel like I’m too new to even be giving advice. But I think just I’ve done so much research on SEO. I’ve listened to so many of your podcasts, so many other podcasts doing the Food Blogger Pro course was so great just for those fundamentals of you know, outtakes and optimizing your images and all of that stuff. So I think I there’s absolutely no way I would be where I am without without doing those things. And also, I was really lucky to have a mentor. I always I never want to say who it was but it’s Erin from from Cloudy Kitchen. Do you follow her? I don’t think so. Oh, cool. She’s another New Zealand blogger. She actually lived in New York for a while but she’s very, very successful. And she has been so so generous and kind with sharing knowledge. And I’ve actually really found that in the food blogging space. I’m not sure if you feel the same way that everyone’s really happy to share their knowledge and encourage each other and I think that’s really cool. I think it’s such a nice space. Is and Erin has been really, really helpful and I still text her every now and then we’ve met in person and we’re like proper real life friends now but but I think it’s really, really important to if you can find a mentor or or just find other bloggers to talk to, because I think this is just yeah, I’ve really struggled with going from working with someone and a team in a studio going to work every day, driving to work, you know, putting makeup on to just be in a home, I found I’ve honestly found it really difficult actually don’t like I just don’t like working at home by myself at all. I think we need to find those other people and find that community ourselves. I think that’s a really, really huge one.

Megan Porta  30:37

It is. And it’s hard. At first, it feels hard. Yeah. Because it’s like, well, where do I find these people? I’m at home by myself. But yeah, if you just, you know, get onto social media, get on to some of those good quality Facebook groups and just start putting yourself out there really and just being Yeah, totally. Yeah, for sure. Asking the questions answering the questions. Yeah. And it’s really easy to make friends in the space are so many time people.

Emilie Pullar  31:06

Definitely because all of us all of us bloggers are all lonely. Crazy going crazy at home. So I was like, yes, connection please.

Megan Porta  31:12

I know. I remember the first couple of connections I made through Instagram. I was like, Yes, please. I want to be Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yes. Is there anything else that you feel like we should touch on Emilie?

Emilie Pullar  31:27

Yeah, I mean, like, talking about setting goals, I think is really important. So I think when I started at 25, you know, we we just started and didn’t really even think about it. But as we grew and our business journey, we had a business mentor, we did business plans, set goals, and I think setting goals, even yeah, for like a new blogger, I think as an any blogger is so important at however small they are, I think it’s really important to write them down. There is huge data around writing goals down physically, that they’re going to happen. And I have, I have written goals down for my session counts, and I’ve hit every single one. Because if they’ve written down and you see them, you’re going to work to make that happen. And so I think that’s a really huge thing. And I also think celebrating all those wins, however small they are, go out for dinner, buy a little piece of kitchen equipment, something that will make you happy, I think, you know, I think that’s really, really important. And, and I also think setting some a really interesting thing we did it at Maaike was setting our core values, and we typed them up and put them on the wall. So thinking about what you want your what’s important to you and your business, even though it might just be you which and it’s just me at home by myself. But I think having those core values and one of our core values that Maaike was having fun. And that’s something we did every day. So I think I think those things are really important. And it doesn’t take much time just to get a notepad and just write down some quick, some quick wins, and also some longer term sort of big picture goals as well.

Megan Porta  32:44

Something like that can feel overwhelming, like, oh, I have to sit down for a couple of hours, but really no. Five minutes. Write some things out. 

Emilie Pullar  32:51

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, there’s just such huge data around writing goals. And I think that’s a it’s such an easy thing to do. 

Megan Porta  32:58

So agree with that. All this has been super inspiring. I love this topic. And just talking about kind of like what goes into the heart of your content and your business, right, like, yeah, definitely so much more than SEO and Pinterest and getting traffic. Yes, really like, what keeps the machine moving?

Emilie Pullar  33:17

definitely. And I think also, I think one of the main things that I’ve done and I’ve really learned is that, and the strategy won’t work for everyone, but especially on social media is to put yourself out there more I think when we when I started, when I started putting myself on my stories at my fashion brand, we got sales from that, because I tried things on and talked things through. And I think if you can have practice, practice at putting yourself on your stories and talking to your audience. I think it’s that is honestly such a key part of my success that your audience feels connected to a person rather than just a page. And if they’re Googling a recipe, and maybe yours comes up with someone else’s, they might see your name and be like, oh, yeah, I know who that is. I know that person. And I think that’s, I think that’s really, really important. That’s one of my major things for talking to new businesses is get yourself, get yourself out there people are going to invest in you rather than just a business name,

Megan Porta  34:07

Especially this age where AI is so just infiltrating our lives. 

Emilie Pullar  34:13

Yes. Oh my gosh, I every podcast I listen to I hear bloggers talk about how we have to use AI. AI is so important. And I and I get that and I have used it for bits and pieces like my about page and stuff like that, but I will never ever use AI for my blog writing. And I just my mom actually edits all my blog posts and she she loves hearing my voice and she laughs and I’m never going to get that from Ai i think it’s so important to don’t Yeah, I think as a new blogger don’t try and write your blog posts for what you think people want to hear and to sound really professional obviously you need to sound professional but put your own voice and and say funny things and make it light hearted and fun. And yeah, I think that’s one of the huge things I want people when they read my blog posts to actually hear my voice and I think that’s don’t get hung up on trying to sound professional. 

Megan Porta  35:01

I think that’s more important than ever just having you your face your voice, something that makes you you and exactly relaying that to your people is so important right now.

Emilie Pullar  35:11

I think I think AI is going to come around. I think people, I think it’s going to become a really huge and it obviously is, but I like to think that it’s going to swing back around to people already

Megan Porta  35:20

Is swinging around. Yeah, yeah. Hopefully people are seeing the need to just see human faces and hear human voices. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Well, thank you, Emilie. This was such an incredible conversation, the rate and my little cluster of interviews today. So thank you. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with?

Emilie Pullar  35:40

Yeah, I do. I recently, there was a big writers’ festival and Auckland here, which is where I live. It’s the biggest city in New Zealand. And I went to a couple of things. And it was really inspiring. And one of the people I went to see was Jane Campion, who was a New Zealand director. She’s actually won a couple of Oscars. She’s incredible. She’s just she’s just such a boss. I love her and she said at the end, if your inspiration is bigger than your fear, you’ll be okay. And I just love that so much because I think so many of us are so scared to do things but if your inspiration is bigger than that fear there’s no way you’re not going to make that work. And I just thought that was really powerful. 

Megan Porta  36:11

Oh, I’d love that. I’ve never heard that before but that’s Wow, yeah, that’s really powerful.

Emilie Pullar  36:17

That’s what we’re all striving for. 

Megan Porta  36:19

Yes, exactly fear can get us yeah. Can be nasty. We’ll put together a show notes for you Emily, if you want to go look at those head to eatblogtalk.com/theburntbuttertable. Tell everyone where they can find you Emilie?

Emilie Pullar  36:34

Yeah, cool. So my website is theburntbuttertable.com And then you can come and chat with me on Instagram at Burnt Butter Table. I love chatting and my DMs and answering questions and so everyone come say hi.

Megan Porta  36:44

It’s a good place to make friends. I hear definitely come and come be my friend. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you again, Emilie so much and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  36:56

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.