Ep #28: Building Confidence in Your Blog with Brandon Matzek

Confidence is such a huge attribute for entrepreneurial folks like food bloggers. Every day you’re creating new content, putting yourself out there. It’s not easy. And to make matters worse, you’re also working hard to reach your audience in a meaningful way. That’s why today we’re talking about Building Confidence in Your Blog with Brandon Matzek. Brandon knows about this because his site is called Kitchen Konfidence. That’s right, he’s got the confidence bases covered!

Brandon said he was in the kitchen cooking with friends when he first realized his knack with teaching others about cooking. He had a friend who chopped up a sweet potato in the most unconventional way. He was able to help his friend understand the importance of chopping vegetables in a uniform way so that everything cooked consistently. As a result his friend eventually began cooking in a more confidently and is now quite the foodie! It’s one of the reasons Brandon started his site, Kitchen Konfidence!

The blogger as teacher is a great way to help our readers learn more about food and preparing the recipes we’re sharing. But it’s also a great way for us, as bloggers, to grow in confidence as well. Think about the old saying: Learn One, Do One, Teach One. When you grow to the point where you’re able to teach others, your confidence in your craft will grow as well.

Brandon describes many ways to grow in confidence as a blogger, including surrounding yourself with creativity — by listening, reading, and trying new experiences. Learn more about how you can become more confident in your blogging by listening to Brandon’s interview today!

Featured Content – Building Confidence in Your Blog with Brandon Matzek

Here are some of the highlights of my discussion with Brandon, where we discuss:

• Why Brandon started his blog Kitchen Konfidence
• What inspired Brandon to share cooking tips for his readers
• How improving his food photography made a big difference for his site
• How networking has played an important role for his food blog
• Don’t forget about local networking as well!
• Why knowing your audience will make you a better blogger
• Why you should consider including process shots in your recipes
• Why it’s important to become a trusted, valuable resource for your readers
• Brandon maintains his blog and has a full-time job and talks about how he does it all
• If you’re just starting out, Brandon suggests taking things one step at a time, but keep moving!
• Why staying organized and having processes to keep on top of things is important
• Why you should make having fun an important goal
• Why you might want to give up being a blogger!
• Look at collaborating with other to share strengths
• Brandon suggests hiring someone to help you be your best!
• Don’t struggle through things you don’t like – because that struggle might lead to burnout!

Show Notes

This episode includes references to some resources you might find interesting. Here they are:

• Check out Brandon’s site Kitchen Confidence
• Give a shout-out to Brandon and connect with him on Twitter and Instagram!
• Brandon subscribes to Bon Appetit and Food and Wine Magazine
• Brandon mentions several of his favorite foodie podcasts: Good Food, The Splendid Table, America’s Test Kitchen Podcast, Spilled Milk, This American Life, and of course…the Chopped Podcast!
• I mention American author Amy Tan in the intro
• Marly mentions the book Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Brandon mentions the YNAB app (You Need a Budget).
• Check out the Summary of the 2014 Chopped Conference for more testimonials
• Connect with Chopped Academy Online:  Instagram  | Twitter
• Connect with Marly: Namely Marly |  Instagram  | Twitter
• Production, music, graphic art & sound design by Shawn Beelman

Announcements

1. Learn about future Chopped Podcast episodes by subscribing to the ChoppedCon newsletter. Just add your email in the subscribe section at the bottom of this page. You’ll be glad you did!
2. Tickets for the 2015 Chopped Conference are available. You can also attend a Food Photography Workshop with Matt Armendariz or participate in the dynamic Food Blog Success Summit. Take your food blog to the next level…learn more and buy your tickets today!
3. Our next podcast interview is with Alexa & Payton Schirm of the site Simple Roots Wellness. Alexa & Payton are talking about the how food bloggers can create products as a means of monetizing their blogs. It pairs perfectly with my post on Top Three Revenue Models for Food Bloggers! Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!

Subscribe to the Show & Feedback

Thanks so much for listening to today’s podcast. I hope you found it informative and helpful to the work you do every day. Make sure you don’t miss out on any of the Chopped Podcast episodes by heading on over to iTunes to subscribe to the Chopped Podcast. While you’re there, provide a review and rating is a great way to help other podcast listeners find it too! That’s it for today’s podcast. As always, thanks so much for joining in the discussion!