Episode 737: What It Really Takes to Build a Successful Long-Term Food Blog Despite Major Life Challenges With Jessica Randhawa

EBT737 – Jessica Randhawa

[00:00:00]  Megan Porta 

What happens when a stroke in your 20s becomes the catalyst for an entirely new life path? In today’s episode, I am joined by Jessica Randhawa from The Forked Spoon, a food blogger who has spent the last 14 years building a powerhouse site that now serves over a million users every month. Jessica’s journey includes surviving a health crisis, multiple platform pivots, and adapting to the ever changing digital landscape, all while staying rooted in her mission to help home cooks confident and creative. Stay tuned for a story of resilience, reinvention and recipes that truly connect.

[00:00:41] Intro   

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

[00:00:58]   

Hey there. Let’s be real for just a minute, shall we? Running a food blog can feel isolating. So isolating at times. You’ve got big dreams, but no one around you truly gets what you are building. That’s where the Eat Blog Talk MiniMinds come in. These are low cost, high connection groups for food creators who are ready to stop spinning their wheels and start making real progress. Here are just a few things you will get from this group. Monthly group zoom calls that keep you focused, personalized accountability and strategy support, a safe space to ask questions, share wins and troubleshoot challenges. And most importantly, a group of people who actually get you. Whether you are looking to get more consistent with content, grow your email list, or just stay sane while juggling all the things the MiniMinds group offers, structure and support without the overwhelm, you do not need to grow alone. Join a group of bloggers who show up for each other and rise together. Head to eatblogtalk.com/mastermind to apply today. Spots are limited, so do not wait on this eatblogtalk.com/mastermind 

[00:02:08]  Megan Porta

Hello Jessica. Welcome to the podcast.

[00:02:11]  Jessica Randhawa 

Hi there.

[00:02:12]  Megan Porta 

How’s it going today?

[00:02:13]  Jessica Randhawa 

Great, thank you.

[00:02:15]  Megan Porta 

I love the dog in the background. Okay, you guys, if you’re listening, come watch on YouTube because I mean, who doesn’t love a cute puppy? So cute. What’s your dog’s name?

[00:02:24]  Jessica Randhawa 

This is Ash.

[00:02:25]  Megan Porta 

Oh, hi Ash.

[00:02:27]  Jessica Randhawa 

A two year old border collie and he is my shadow.

[00:02:32]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh, he’s so cute. I want to pet him. Okay, that will keep me smiling through the whole episode. We are going to talk about your amazing blogging journey. Jessica, you’re the blogger over at The Forked Spoon. You have such a cool, inspiring story to share with us before we get to it, though. I would love to hear if you have a fun fact to share.

[00:02:54]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yeah, so my fun fact, at least I find it interesting. Especially I live in California, so it’s a little unique over here. I. And I went to boarding school in high school, and it’s not. You don’t often run into people who went to boarding school on the west coast, so. So it wasn’t a punishment. I wanted to go and I loved every minute of it. So I think it also set me up for some of my independence and desire to travel.

[00:03:27]  Megan Porta 

Wow, that’s so interesting. So you sought that out yourself.

[00:03:31]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yes, interesting.

[00:03:35]  Megan Porta 

And I’m glad it was a good experience for you. And it set the stage for later awesomeness, which is so cool. Love it.

[00:03:44]  Megan Porta 

And that kind of sets the stage for our talk today, which is your incredible journey in food, blogging and in life. I mean, this is really a story about blogging and life woven together. But why don’t we start with when you started your food blog? Will you just take us through that story a little bit?

[00:04:02]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yeah. So blogging journey that started when I. My. Well, now husband, he. He was my then boyfriend. We decided to leave our jobs and go travel in Southeast Asia for. We didn’t have a set time, but it ended up being six months. And so I decided to blog about our travels and our adventures to family on.At that time it was Blogspot. And so that started my. Me dabbling in blogging and what that sort of looked like. And from there it. It just kind of took off.

[00:04:46]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of us who have been around for that long, that’s a long time to blog. Started off just dabbling, thinking we didn’t really know where it would go. And starting on Blogspot. And then I know you also, you made the move to Squarespace and then eventually WordPress like I did.

[00:05:04]   

Yeah, just like kind of trial and error. Like, I don’t know this is going, but here we go. We’re gonna do this.

[00:05:11]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yeah. So I. Once we got back from traveling, my husband ended up going away to help his dad in India on some projects. And I wasn’t quite sure what I was wanting to settle down and do yet. So I ended up going to Germany to be an au pair for about six months while he was in India at this time, we were engaged.

[00:05:38]   

He proposed to me when we were in Nepal traveling. And so. But we weren’t yet married when I was in Germany. But, you know, we were planning on staying together. It was a little bit of a weird situation because we were, I think, you know, I must have been in my mid-20s at this point.

[00:06:00]   

But yeah, I went to Germany and I continued at that point to blog about traveling and sort of life as an au pair. And you know, this was a time when blogging was just fun. And so I did that and then got home. And when I got home, Pinterest was like hot and new and exciting.

[00:06:29]   

And so I was, I was one of Pinterest, like their recommended people to follow. So I amassed a huge following literally overnight. I thought, I didn’t think it was real at first, but I remember writing in a, one of my Blogspot posts like, this must not be real.

[00:06:54]  Megan Porta 

This was an accident. Yeah, yeah.

[00:06:57]  Jessica Randhawa 

You know, this is the very beginning days of social media. And so I thought, something’s wrong here. But then I started getting contacted by brands or online retailers to pin pins for money. And then I was like, maybe this is a real thing. And so when I got back from Germany, I, that kind of became my, my job.

[00:07:22]   

And you know, I was still blogging. It was, it was much more focused about just day to day life and ramblings. And then I got pregnant and I thought, well, what can I do to keep blogging and with Pinterest and be a little bit more interesting? And so at first I thought, well, I’ll, I’ll segue into mommy blogging.And I soon realized that that wasn’t, that wasn’t for me.

[00:07:56]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:07:57]  Jessica Randhawa 

And I needed, I needed something that would require less of me as a subject and my son as a subject. So I, you know, being on Pinterest so much, I realized, well, food that looks great. And, and that really is what lit or inspired me to start food blogging. I mean, I had already been blogging about like recipes and food that I, you know, had made for my travels.But it was what really solidified the jump over to food.

[00:08:32]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:08:33]  Jessica Randhawa 

And so at that time, I maybe had 20 recipes on my website and I had no idea. I hadn’t, I didn’t know anything about food photography. So that was the main area of focus for a few years, was figuring out how to photograph food and make it look beautiful. And then I was working with one blogger contributing to her website and she was discussing her, her goal amount she wanted to make for a year in that year.

[00:09:11]   

And I was completely taken aback. You’re like, what number could not understand how as a blogger you can make that amount of money? I mean, I’m still blown away by the amount like, and so I thought, I went to my husband and I told him and I’m like, we’re doing something wrong here.

[00:09:30]   

Like this. Like, I, we gotta, we gotta rethink things. And so by that point, my photography had gotten much better. My, my food styling had gotten much better. But I had previously, previously switched from Blogspot to Squarespace. And so I was on Squarespace and I said, I think we need to switch to WordPress.

[00:09:55]   

And he was a little hesitant at first just because it’s such an enormous expense. We knew for us at that time it would be a huge expense, switching and migrating everything over.

[00:10:09]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:10:10]  Jessica Randhawa 

But it, we eventually found a fabulous gal who, who did it for us. And it by far was the best business decision that we made.

[00:10:21]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:10:23]  Jessica Randhawa 

And from there our, I mean, it. Things have kind of just more or less gone up from there.

[00:10:32]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So, yeah, that’s an incredible start to your blog and I love how you’ve pivoted a little bit, but, you know, stayed on track with, I’m going to make this work and keep blogging. And since then you are fully focused on food. Correct. Now it’s a completely. A recipe website.

[00:10:51]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yes.

[00:10:53]  Megan Porta 

Okay. And then Pinterest, you were in on that as well. I remember those first days of Pinterest and I too was like, I could put up, I could publish a pin on Pinterest and within an hour or two, it was everywhere. It was mind blowing. And now there. That is not, definitely not the case.

[00:11:14]  Jessica Randhawa 

I miss those days of Pinterest. It was so much easier to navigate and find things and follow the people you wanted to follow. And now, well, it’s just not my go to platform anymore.

[00:11:29]  Megan Porta 

It’s a different story now. Same.

[00:11:31]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yeah.

[00:11:31]  Megan Porta 

So back then when you realized, oh my gosh, you can make money doing this blogging thing, what did you get into initially to bring in some money?

[00:11:41]  Jessica Randhawa 

Well, initially I was taking on very small brand deals, so working with brands and I, I think my first brand partnership was for maybe Safeway. And I, I think it was for 50 or $100. And I was like, this is amazing. Yes. Like thrilled. I mean, and that is amazing. And so that was my first one.

[00:12:12]   

And it kind of proved to my husband that, okay, well this can be legit, not just a hobby. And so from there I started contacting brands. I created a media kit. I think I forgot the name of the campaign management groups. They had one where they, they would kind of pay per click.

[00:12:43]   

And so I would work with pretty much whoever and whatever within reason, because I wasn’t at that time I was on Squarespace still. I was, it was before we had, we had switched to WordPress and, or it was that transition period. So I hadn’t, I wasn’t making money from ad revenue yet. And so I, I was doing a lot just with whatever brand deals I can get and it was a lot of work to do those brand deals, but it was definitely what helped support moving on to the next, you know, phase.

[00:13:25]  Megan Porta 

Right at the time. It was the right fit. Absolutely, yeah. Were you on BlogHer to begin with?

[00:13:31]  Jessica Randhawa 

No, I don’t think I was ever that.

[00:13:35]  Megan Porta 

So I was on that platform to start with ads. And they also offered brand opportunities, like sponsorship opportunities that are similar to what you were saying, where it was like they would provide the details and then you could apply and if it was a good but good fit, you know, you took it.

[00:13:53]   

But you’re right, it was so much work. I just felt like I was working for these brands and back then I didn’t know that I needed to create a contract and that I was in charge of that. And so I was, I felt like I was at the whim of just whatever they wanted, just being tossed around a little bit.So it was a little bit of a wild time. It was the wild west back then.

[00:14:14]  Jessica Randhawa 

It was and that sort of thing. And you know, I was really thrilled when I transitioned over to WordPress and I was able to qualify for MediaVine very quickly and I started getting ad revenue and I mean, when I first started, I think my RPM was like $7. But like I was so excited for that.

[00:14:42]   

I thought that was. And, and so, yeah, it, it’s pretty fascinating, the slow progression. There have definitely been a lot of, there’s ha. I’ve had to do a lot of pivoting with, you know, Google updates and I mean, just well, and then now so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:15:09]  Megan Porta 

Over the years, I mean, Pinterest changes and Google changes and it has, it’s like a whole new world now versus then and a lot of it’s better, but it’s completely different. What would you say are the main changes in revenue? So back then it was ads and affiliate. Where are you at now with monetizing right now?

[00:15:37]  Jessica Randhawa 

I, I don’t do any more brand deals.

[00:15:40]  Megan Porta 

Oh yeah, that’s what I meant. Brand deals.

[00:15:42]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yeah, yeah, I don’t do any more sponsorships. I mean, not to say that I wouldn’t, but I don’t really feel like like many bloggers are doing a lot of sponsorships these days. I, I, yeah. So for me, I, I don’t do them anymore. They were kind of stripping the fun out of blogging and creating content. And so right now it’s strictly ad revenue. But we are, we are launching today or tomorrow a membership site.

[00:16:16]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh. Exciting.

[00:16:17]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yes. So it, this is new. That’s going to be very new for us. We, we’re really excited about it. It’s, you know, for anyone who wants an ad free experience or you know, wants to create meal plans and then their groceries list with that there’ll be exclusive recipes on there and you know, I’ll be sharing like meal plans and things like that for various diets or upcoming holidays and things like that.

[00:16:56]  Megan Porta 

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[00:17:46]   

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[00:18:33] Megan Porta  

So what has remained consistent over the years? How have you been able to grow such a huge following? Because I know you have a pretty big, you have pretty big numbers for the number of page views you get per month. Correct? So how, like what, what has been the key to that? What have you been able to carry consistently through all this time?

[00:18:54]  Jessica Randhawa 

I’d say I’m, I’m very consistent with posting recipes and the sort of recipes, I guess. So I, I Try to keep in mind recipes for kind of the everyday family. Not, you know, initially when I first, first started doing or food blogging, I would, I really wanted to do these like really elaborate, healthy recipes and it, it would, it really was for a very small group of people that a lot of people either wouldn’t have access to those ingredients, couldn’t like maybe afford or know how to cook with.

[00:19:41]   

And so I started to transition over to a more approachable type of family friendly cooking but also go with like the super, super basics of it all. So you know how to cook a chicken breast or you know, things like that to then what can you do with those? So you could, you can make more elaborate meals, but they’re still approachable for anyone.

[00:20:09]  Megan Porta 

Right. And the approachability has probably sustained you through a lot of changes because people appreciate that and we all need approachable food in our lives. So you’ve been consistent with that, which is great. I was also going to ask you just today, in today’s landscape because it’s, it’s very volatile this year and last year.

[00:20:34]   

It just feels like everything is shifting beneath our feet. We don’t know what’s coming. How have you managed to keep your numbers up and keep your audience and community engaged and loving your content despite all of this?

[00:20:49]  Jessica Randhawa 

Oh gosh, I think, well, in terms of kind of keeping my numbers up, that has been a lot of listening and researching, listening to experts, more or less. So SEO was maybe up until right now the number one thing. And back when I, you know, when I first started I was writing about my life and my story and all of that and then that people weren’t interested in that.

[00:21:22]   

We all know people just want the recipe and they don’t want to hear a life story. Except for maybe a handful of people who, who still enjoy blogs for what they maybe originally started as. So I had to make, you know, that shift away from this is my personal blog into this is more of a, a job type professional blog where the food needs to be the focus.

[00:21:49]   

And so that, that looks differently over time. Where you know, my, over the years the organization of my content would look one way and then, you know, now it looks much different. So it’s, you know, I always try to keep in mind when I’m writing my content, if it were me and I’m writing this or if I were on someone else’s site, how would I want this to or how would I, what would I want this to look like?

[00:22:17]   

You know, as simple as should this be bulleted or Numbered or written in paragraphs. And then you know, how, you know, should this go in a FAQ block or just things like that? Just for reader usability and flow. And then, I mean, for me, staying alive, I guess. And definitely the progression from Blogspot to or Squarespace to WordPress.No question. If I hadn’t made that move, I, I mean, I would not be here. So. And I think I, Yeah, it’s, it’s just trying to stay with it or maybe stay slightly ahead, but yeah.

[00:23:09]  Megan Porta 

Adapting and staying ahead of the curve a little bit.

[00:23:11]  Jessica Randhawa 

Absolutely.

[00:23:12]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. I know that you had a stroke. Correct. In your 20s. Are you willing to tell. I don’t, you don’t need to like get into the story if you don’t want to, but just how that has changed your perspective on business and life.

[00:23:28]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yeah, so they, they don’t really know what caused the stroke. I was what, I was 28, so it’s been 10 years. I, it was the, it was my 10 year strokeiversary.

[00:23:43]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh.

[00:23:46]  Jessica Randhawa 

I celebrated by cycling 100 miles.

[00:23:49]  Megan Porta 

Oh my goodness.

[00:23:50]  Jessica Randhawa 

And yeah, they don’t know what happened. I, I felt fine. I didn’t have any warning signs. I just literally fell to the floor and lost function of my right side. And my husband thought I was having vertigo, so he was like googling how to reverse group vertigo while my son was like hopping on me and I’m trying to crawl to the couch but I couldn’t because I couldn’t use my right side.

[00:24:22]   

And so, yeah, for. I was very fortunate because I regained like all function.

[00:24:28]  Megan Porta 

Wow.

[00:24:29]  Jessica Randhawa 

And I, you know, it did take me some time to fully recover and feel 100% again. But I guess the biggest thing that it changed was this whole, like, you have like all this time in your life and you know, you’re, it’s guaranteed that you’re gonna die when you’re old.

[00:24:55]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:24:55]  Jessica Randhawa 

And I am. So I remember having a conversation with my husband maybe a year later and we hadn’t traveled because we had a young son. We, at this point, I mean finances, we, we did not have any extras. And so I was just telling him how like traveling, like we need to somehow make, we need to, we need to travel again.

[00:25:23]   

We need to start traveling again and that needs to become a priority. And you know, and I was just crying and saying like, you know, it. Something with the stroke made me realize like, okay, we, we don’t have all this time and forever and ever. So, you know, because I don’t know if next year, you know, So I think it just is more this.

[00:25:50]   

If there’s something I want to do, whether it be in work or travel or, you know, if there’s a goal I want to meet or, you know, that whole thing, it’s, it’s to kind of do it, you know, don’t sit on it. And I think sometimes I, because of it, I put a little pressure on myself, but I definitely think also it motivated me to work way harder and you know, for three or four years in that time when I was building my blog, because I ideally, I don’t want to be working, you know, 12, 15 hour days for the rest of my life.

[00:26:39]   

I’d like, you know, to hopefully have more time later on to, you know, enjoy. Which is, is kind of the exact opposite of what I was saying.

[00:26:54]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, but I know. No, I know what you’re saying. Both. Right, it’s both and not either or.

[00:27:01]  Jessica Randhawa 

Right, Exactly. It’s, you know, unfortunately, you know, there’s. Money is a huge factor in life. We need money. And so it sort of is one of those things, well, you know, let’s make it work now and see what we can do. And you know, I guess it’s just, it’s a very conflicting thing, but more mostly it just, it’s, it’s lit a fire under for all things.

[00:27:32]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s inspiring because that’s, that’s a hard thing to go through in your 20s. I’m, I just, I’m so sorry you had to go through that, but it sounds like you’ve managed to pull such great perspective and insights from it, which is kind of the point of life. Right. We go through challenges in order to grow and stretch ourselves, which it sounds like you’ve done. So you are a point of inspiration, Jessica.

[00:27:58]   

Thank you. Yeah. That’s amazing that you’ve come out on the other side and travel too. I think a lot of food bloggers seek that time freedom and schedule freedom and the ability to travel, roam around the world whenever they want to. So I think this will hit home with a lot of people.

[00:28:20]  Jessica Randhawa 

No, I mean, for me, I draw so much inspiration for my recipes from traveling. So I definitely, when I’m not traveling, you know, more regularly, it. I start to feel like definitely the itch is there more. And so right now on my, on my bucket list is I want to spend some time in New Orleans and to, to really learn all about, you know, the history there.

[00:28:56]   

Because food, to me, I mean, it’s. Food is amazing, but it’s so much more than that. When you dig into the history of some of these dishes and it’s so cool. And it is really. It’s really hard for me on some of these recipes that have a huge history to not, like, really dig into it and write about it and, you know, go into the whole story of it. And so I try to give, like, the most important and interesting tidbits of it, but I’m kind of a food nerd.

[00:29:27]  Megan Porta 

No, I love it. And I think, I think that’s fairly common. Food and travel go hand in hand, and that’s why a lot of us, like both, like, we’re super passionate about both. So it’s a good part of your story. Your journey is so inspiring. Is there anything that you feel we should pull out that we haven’t talked about or do you have encouragement for people right now or anything else to mention?

[00:29:53]  Jessica Randhawa 

I mean, I would just say right now, as creators, not just food, but creators in general, it’s. It’s a really tough time. It could be a very exciting time. Who knows? I. I would just, you know, everyone says, you know, stick with it and, you know, ride the wave and all of that, but, I mean, that’s exactly what you have to do and try to think outside of the box if you can.

[00:30:23]   

I’m trying to work on that myself. But, yeah, just, it’s, you know, we’ll also. Who knows what’s going to come out of, you know, AI and where that’ll take us, but it’ll definitely be exciting to see what happens.

[00:30:41]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I think the excitement of it is a great place to land instead of the fear and running away. I like that idea of just embracing being excited because something’s going to work. Something is going to come out of this that is going to work for each of us. So leaning on that, I think is probably a smart idea right now.

[00:31:04]   

Otherwise we’ll all be running for the hills and screaming, oh, my gosh.

[00:31:07]  Jessica Randhawa 

I know.

[00:31:08]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:31:09]  Jessica Randhawa 

Sometimes I. The fear out there, you know, some of these things that I hear and it just, I can’t, like, just take a deep breath. I mean, we’ve all there, There have been huge changes before and we’ve survived and overcome and so hopefully that. That’s going to be the case here. Yeah. But I just think of, like, social media just came about 10, 11 years ago and now, you know, or blogs, I should say, and kind of, you know, that now there’s this threat of ending blogs potentially.It just. I don’t see that happening.

[00:31:56]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Well, thank you, Jessica, for your time. We appreciate you sharing your story and just adding value to this community. To end, I like to ask my guests if they have favorite quote or additional words of inspiration. Do you have anything to leave us with?

[00:32:12]  Jessica Randhawa 

I have a couple. One is, is a little cheesy and definitely very over overused, but it still is one of my favorites. And it’s not all those who wander are lost by JRR Tolkien.

[00:32:30]  Megan Porta 

I love it.

[00:32:31]  Jessica Randhawa 

And so that definitely goes into. I feel like the blogging thing is, is sort of. And the travel all kind of very matches up with that perfectly. We’re all kind of wandering.

[00:32:47]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Stumbling. Yeah.

[00:32:50]  Jessica Randhawa 

Yes. And then the other one is: Once you stop learning, you start dying. And that’s by Albert Einstein.

[00:32:59]  Megan Porta 

Oh, I love that one. I just heard that recently and I was like, gosh, that’s so good. Yes, it’s so true. Thank you for ending that way. Love it. We’ll put together a show notes page for you, Jessica. If anyone wants to go look at Those, head to eatblogtalk.com/theforkspoon where can people find you? Do you want to mention your socials website again? Anything else is fine.

[00:33:24]  Jessica Randhawa 

Find me at The Forked Spoon on instagram and theforkspoon.com awesome.

[00:33:30]  Megan Porta 

Everyone go check out Jessica. And thank you again, Jessica for being here. And thank you so much for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

[00:33:42] 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.