Podcasts Archive

Why Personality Is the New Competitive Advantage with Sam Vander Wielen

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on Jul 21, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 580 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Sam Vander Wielen.

This episode digs into the gap between the idea of entrepreneurship and what it actually takes to build a business. Sam shares how she was first drawn to food blogging and online business because they felt like a path to freedom, only to realize she was in love with the outcome, not the daily work required to get there. That realization led her to a better-fitting path: combining her legal background with the creator economy to build a business that helps online creators with legal templates and advice.

From there, the conversation opens up into something deeper: success, “enoughness,” and what actually creates fulfillment. Sam gets candid about major personal hardships, including brain surgery, caring for her father through leukemia, and losing both of her parents, and how those experiences forced her to confront a hard truth: business success and financial growth can solve a lot of problems, but not the personal ones. She and Bjork talk about protecting your time, building with intention, and why leaning into story, personality, and authenticity matters more than ever in an AI-shaped world where purely informational content is easier to replace.

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How Search Is Changing and What Food Bloggers Need to Do About It with Casey Markee

by Emily @ FBP on Jul 14, 2026 in Food Blog SEO

Welcome to episode 579 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Casey Markee from Media Wyse.

If you’ve been feeling like search and traffic have gotten harder to figure out lately — you’re not imagining it. The rules are genuinely changing, and they’re changing fast.

In this episode, Casey breaks down the biggest shift happening in search right now — the move away from the traditional “10 blue links” model toward a semantic, AI-powered model where Google constructs answers from multiple sources and tries to keep users on Google rather than sending them elsewhere. For food bloggers, this means that publishing a well-optimized recipe is no longer enough, and Casey explains exactly what it takes to thrive in the search landscape that’s replacing it.

Bjork and Casey cover the technical fundamentals that still matter (core web vitals, internal linking, structured data), the growing importance of building a content ecosystem and genuine topical authority, and — perhaps most importantly — how to make yourself and your brand visible beyond your website. Casey also walks through what knowledge panels are, how PR mentions and media appearances feed into Google’s knowledge graph, and how a new feature called the “preferred source” button could be a real competitive advantage for food bloggers who move quickly.

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How Josh Gale Grew His Audience to 1.2M+ in Under a Year by Leading with Storytelling

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on Jul 7, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 578 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Josh Gale.

In this episode, Bjork interviews Josh Gale, a content creator who has rapidly grown his online presence in the food industry through his blog, The Chef Out West. Josh shares his journey from being a private chef and participating in food competitions to becoming a successful content creator within just a year. He discusses the initial challenges he faced, such as learning to film and edit, and how he overcame the fear of starting something new.

Josh emphasizes the importance of storytelling in content creation, explaining how his personal experiences and passion for food have helped him connect with his audience. He also highlights the role of social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook in his growth, sharing insights on how different types of content perform across platforms.

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How to Stop Relying on Traffic and Start Building a Business with Emily Baksa

by Emily @ FBP on Jun 30, 2026 in Monetizing an Online Food Business

Welcome to episode 577 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Emily Baksa from Craveworthy Copy.

Most food bloggers think about monetization in terms of ads, sponsored content, and affiliate marketing. But what if your content could do something more — actively nurturing readers into buyers and building a business that doesn’t depend entirely on traffic?

In this episode Emily and Bjork dig into the full picture of how to build a content ecosystem that converts — from the copy on your homepage to your email opt-ins to the products and experiences you sell. They talk about why your email list is the single most powerful connection-building tool you have and why you should focus on solving problems and offering solutions for your audience.

Bjork also shares how Pinch of Yum made the leap into selling meal plans and got comfortable with selling — and why starting simpler than you think you need to is almost always the right move.

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How Rebecca Blackwell Turned Food Blogging into a Six-Figure Digital Business from an RV

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on Jun 23, 2026 in Monetizing an Online Food Business

Welcome to episode 576 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Rebecca Blackwell.

Rebecca started out as a food blogger, but somewhere along the way, she traded a stable paycheck for a life on the road, running her digital business full-time from an RV! In this episode, she opens up about what that transition actually looked like: the risks she took by leaving a steady job, how the RV lifestyle reshaped her thinking about work and creative freedom, and why she made the strategic decision to manage multiple websites rather than rely on a single income stream.

The conversation also gets into the community side of Rebecca’s business. Specifically, how she’s used Substack to build genuine connections with a growing audience of food writers. She shares practical advice on growing a newsletter, engaging readers, and landing sponsorships that feel like a natural fit. You’ll also hear her talk about how she’s navigating the challenges of AI and shifting search algorithms, why leaning into personal storytelling has been her biggest differentiator, and what she’s learned from building community through mastermind groups and in-person retreats.

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Inside Pinch of Yum’s Strategy for Email Growth and Content Distribution with Jenna Arend

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on Jun 16, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 575 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Jenna Arend.

This week, Bjork sits down with Jenna Arend, General Manager of Pinch of Yum, as part of our ongoing GRO mini-series. In this episode, she shares how Pinch of Yum is navigating the biggest shifts in the digital landscape right now, from the decline of third-party cookies to the rise of AI, and why those changes have pushed the team to double down on email and Facebook as their most reliable channels.

Jenna also gets into the strategy behind keeping a long-running food blog relevant and thriving — from improving older content to creating targeted resources like meal plans and freezer meals. She shares how GRO has helped streamline the process of converting social media followers into loyal email subscribers, and why building that direct line of communication with your audience matters more than ever. If you’ve been thinking about how to future-proof your content strategy, this one is worth a listen!

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How Mika Kinney Turned Her 480,000 Instagram Followers into Site Traffic and Revenue

by Emily @ FBP on Jun 9, 2026 in Monetizing an Online Food Business

Welcome to episode 574 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week, Bjork is back with part two of our GRO mini-series — this time chatting with Mika Kinney from Joy to the Food.

Two years ago, Mika Kinney had 1,000 Instagram followers. Today she has 480,000 — and both she and her husband work full-time on Joy to the Food. That kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident, and in this episode Mika breaks down exactly how she did it.

Mika started her site in 2021, left her job in September 2023, and went all in on Instagram in January 2024. What followed was a masterclass in understanding what social media can do for a food business — not just as a vanity metric, but as a genuine traffic and revenue source.

In this episode, Bjork and Mika dig into the super intentional content strategy behind her growth, how she uses GRO to capture the value of her Instagram audience and drive traffic back to her site, how she (easily!) increased her affiliate income, and why she and her husband recently launched a membership program — all without dramatically increasing their workload.

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What’s Actually Working for Food Creators Right Now with Ben Jabbawy from GRO

by Emily @ FBP on Jun 2, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience, Monetizing an Online Food Business

Welcome to episode 573 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Ben Jabbawy from GRO (formerly known as Grocers List).

If you’ve been looking for a smarter way to turn your social media followers into website visitors, email subscribers, and paying members — this episode is for you. Ben Jabbawy and his team at GRO have sent over 100 million DMs across Instagram and Facebook on behalf of their food creator customers. That kind of scale gives Ben a uniquely data-driven lens into what’s actually working for food creators right now — and in this episode, he shares it with us!

Bjork and Ben chat about recent changes in the social media landscape, dig into the strategies of successful food creators, and discuss why Facebook is suddenly driving a major surge in traffic for food bloggers. They also get into the email side of things and how GRO’s new membership program lets food bloggers offer an ad-free experience or exclusive recipes directly on their site — no coding required.

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How to Sustain Long-Term Creativity Without Burning Out with Josh Zimmerman

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on May 26, 2026 in Running an Online Business

Welcome to episode 572 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Josh Zimmerman.

What happens when your personal brand is you and the work starts to feel like too much? Josh Zimmerman knows this territory well. After a career in journalism, he made the pivot to life coaching specifically for creators, drawn to the unique pressures that come with building a business around your identity and your output.

In this episode, Josh and Bjork dig into the mental side of creative work; specifically, why burnout hits creators differently, how to reconnect with the “why” behind what you do, and what it actually looks like to build a sustainable creative business for the long haul. They also talk about the role of fractional C-suite executives and how bringing in the right support can help you manage the business side of things without losing your creative spark. If you’ve ever felt the weight of your work pressing in on your sense of self, this episode is a great reminder that you’re not alone. and that there’s a way forward.

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Leaving Your Day Job and Scaling a Food Blog with Pinterest with Sharlene Murrell

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on May 19, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 571 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Sharlene Murrell.

In this episode, Bjork Ostrom sits down with Sharlene to explore her journey of building a thriving food blog by mastering Pinterest. Sharlene shares how adopting a “ready, fire, aim” mindset and overcoming early struggles with keyword research helped her rapidly scale her traffic and income after leaving her day job.

The conversation also dives into actionable Pinterest strategies, including targeting broad keywords, creating multiple pins per post, and leveraging tools like Canva. They round out the conversation with practical advice on capitalizing on seasonal trends, maintaining consistency, and overcoming imposter syndrome. No matter where you are in your food blogging journey, this episode is packed with inspiration and tactics for creators ready to take action!

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