Ep #84: Don’t Blog for Other Bloggers with Anya Hoffman

We have a new mantra for all creative entrepreneurs: Don’t Blog for Other Bloggers. This is extremely important to remember if you’ve ever been criticized or seen others be criticized for something posted on your site. Don’t let it change you, become emboldened! Also, if you’re interested in how to know your own voice, listen in to Bev Weidner talking about Authenticity as a Blogger or Cara Ansis sharing about Finding Your Voice.

Today’s guest, Anya Hoffman, is senior editor at Epicuriuous. I read an article by Anya that was published on Epicurious (see link below) where certain recipes were “shamed” for being too mom-focused. As if being “mom-focused” is a bad thing?

Anyway, the point of the interview was to discuss how these things happen—where people are critical of you or others and as a result it can be easy to change your focus. You may resist publishing certain edgy posts because you don’t want to receive criticism. Or maybe you will avoid certain ingredients because you’ve seen others receive harsh comments when they’ve used them.

In Anya’s post, she describes how a recipe was published on Epicurious that used canned biscuits. That was enough to raise the ire of some folks on their Facebook page. However, Anya took those lemons and made lemonade by writing about it and the issues behind shaming others for using certain ingredients.

Our goal at ChoppedCon is to help you be your best. We hope this encouragement — don’t blog for other bloggers — is helpful to the important work you’re doing every day!

Now, go forth and Be Your Best You!

Here are some of our favorite quotes from today’s episode:

Featured Content – Don’t Blog for Other Bloggers

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

• Anya describes how she came to work for Epicurious
• We talk about the article that they published on Epicurious that resulted in some mom shaming
• Marly talks about how shaming goes on within the food blogging community or how we see other bloggers getting shamed and as a result we change our behavior and stop creating the content we want to create
• We talk about the editorial planning process at Epicurious

Show Notes

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

• Learn more about today’s guest, Anya Hoffman
• Why not give Anya a shout-out on Twitter to say thanks for the Chopped Podcast interview!
• Check out Anya’s Epicurious post, Mom Cooking and Why We Shouldn’t Knock It!
• Related Episode: Check out this episode featuring Gaby Dalkin talking about Recipe Development
• Buy your ticket to the 2016 Chopped Conference and hear Jessica Merchant, Ali Ebright, Emma Chapman and more speak!
• Connect with Chopped Academy Online:  Instagram  | Twitter
• Connect with Marly: Namely Marly |  Instagram  | Twitter
• Production, music, graphic art & sound design by Shawn Beelman
• Learn about future Chopped Podcast episodes and get some awesome tips on food blogging 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!

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!