248: Running at an Incline – How Pinch of Yum is Approaching Content in a Difficult Season

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An image of a runner running up some stairs and the title of the 248th episode on the Food Blogger Pro Podcast, 'Running at an Incline.'

Welcome to episode 248 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Lindsay Ostrom about how Pinch of Yum is coping with this season.

Last week on the podcast, Bjork talked about how we’re approaching the COVID–19 outbreak personally and with our businesses. To go back and listen to that episode, click here.

Running at an Incline 

What has your blog looked like these past few weeks? Are you posting more? Did you have to rearrange your entire editorial calendar? Are you sitting on recipes that you already have shot? Are you getting more done than usual? What have you had to let go?

These are the types of questions Bjork asks Lindsay, bosswoman behind the food blog, Pinch of Yum, in today’s episode.

It’s an incredibly honest and raw discussion on how Pinch of Yum is approaching the act of creating content during this uniquely challenging time, and Lindsay talks about how she’s planning on delivering value to her readers and finding her role in this season.

A quote from Lindsay Ostrom’s appearance on the Food Blogger Pro podcast that says, 'One of my hopes for the content we produce for Pinch of Yum is that people feel like they can find themselves in it somewhere.'

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How Lindsay is approaching content on Pinch of Yum
  • What Pinch of Yum is doing with pre-created recipes
  • What’s happening with sponsored posts during this time
  • How Lindsay is proactively looking forward
  • What Lindsay has had to let go of during this season

Resources:

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to [email protected].

Very important bonus behind-the-scenes snapshots for this episode 📸👇

a picture of Lindsay Ostrom with a microphone on a couch with Sage the dog
Sage the dog sleeping on a pillow

Transcript (click to expand):

Alexa Peduzzi: Hello. Hello. Lovely listener. You are listening to the Food Blogger Pro Podcast. I’m Alexa and we are so honored and just so excited that you have decided to tune into the podcast today. Today we’re going to be talking to the one and only Lindsay Ostrom about how Pinch of Yum is kind of coping with this difficult season. So what has your blog looked like these past couple of weeks? Are you posting more? Did you have to rearrange your entire editorials calendar? Are you sitting on some recipes that you already have shot? And maybe the posts are even ready, but it just doesn’t feel right to post them right now. Are you getting more done than usual? What have you had to let go?

Alexa Peduzzi: And these were the types of questions that Bjork asked Lindsay, the boss woman behind the food blog, Pinch of Yum, in today’s episode. So it’s just an incredibly honest and raw discussion on how Pinch of Yum is approaching the act of creating content during this uniquely challenging time. And then Lindsay will talk about how she’s planning on delivering value to her readers during this time. And how she’s just finding her role in this season. So if you’re a little bit lost too just know that you’re not alone and hopefully this podcast episode will help you feel that. So without any further ado, Bjork, take it away.

Bjork Ostrom: Lindsay, welcome to basement edition of the Food Blogger Pro Podcast.

Lindsay Ostrom: Well, thank you so much for having me. If only people could see. If only people could see right now.

Bjork Ostrom: We actually took a picture and we maybe will include it on the show notes because it is so scrappy and raw and real. It is you sitting here kind of with a janky microphone set up, say just snoozing on the couch. We have this sectional, I’m sitting on one side, you’re sitting on the other side.

Lindsay Ostrom: Toys strewn about the room.

Bjork Ostrom: Toys strewn about. And a very makeshift studio.

Lindsay Ostrom: Baby monitor sitting next to me.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: Because we’re doing this during nap time.

Bjork Ostrom: But that’s what this is all about. It’s the first time that I think we have in a long time done an interview where we’re just both sitting in the same room.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yeah.

Bjork Ostrom: So it’s really nice to be able to do that.

Lindsay Ostrom: It is nice.

Bjork Ostrom: And my thought with this was to just have a conversation around what it’s like in this really bizarre season of life to be publishing content. And it’s bizarre for multiple reasons. It’s bizarre because of the reality that we have to stay at home. It’s bizarre because we used to have a schedule where our nanny would come and she’s not coming anymore. So we’re covering childcare between you and me, childcare, AKA parenting.

Lindsay Ostrom: Right.

Bjork Ostrom: On the phone the other day my dad said, “Are you babysitting?” And my mom goes, “Larry, it’s parenting.” He didn’t mean it like actually are you babysitting? Just using that as a word for watching Solvi.

Lindsay Ostrom: But yes we are babysitting our daughter right now.

Bjork Ostrom: But it’s a bizarre season. So I’d be interested to hear you talk a little bit about how you are approaching content because I think a lot of people that listen to the podcasts are also struggling to figure out what does it look like to produce content in this season. And I know we haven’t landed on a for sure yet, but can you just give a brief overview of kind of what you’re thinking and how you’re approaching content as it relates to Pinch of Yum?

Lindsay Ostrom: Yeah. This might actually be a dual purpose podcast interview and help me refine my own ideas.

Bjork Ostrom: Figure it out live.

Lindsay Ostrom: Right. Because there isn’t really a plan in place at this point. Yeah. I think the things that, the two things that are just really heavy on my heart sounds like kind of a dramatic phrase, but the two things that are really present in my heart and in my mind as I’m thinking about content for Pinch of Yum is I want to be putting out content right now that’s valuable and I think value can look a lot of different ways. Something could be valuable on an emotional level. It doesn’t have to be the world’s most in depth post on sweet potatoes or something in order to be valuable. I think value can also be just sharing our own experience and what we’re going through and helping people feel seen and heard.

Lindsay Ostrom: And I think that leads into the second pillar thing that’s on my heart and mind as I’m thinking about content, which is just mirroring back to people their own lived experiences as we all collectively walk through this. And one of my hopes in the content that we produce for Pinch of Yum is that people feel like they can find themself in it somewhere. And there’s a lot of ways to do that. But this is actually, I’m going to pull up my phone because there was a post written by the Serious Eats team at the beginning of kind of the quarantine, I think it was in New York City because I think they’re based there. But they basically did just a quick post where they talked about what does this look like for their team. And I feel like this quote from the post just really sums up what I have been and had been thinking and feeling as it relates to content.

Lindsay Ostrom: So I’m going to read this quote. They said, “We’re devoted to remaining sensitive to what’s happening in the world and producing content that reflects the lived realities of home cooks around the globe.” And I think that statement just hits it right in the heart for me. That’s exactly the type of content that I want to be putting out there for Pinch of Yum in that we want to be providing people… We don’t want people to feel, the lived experience of people right now is not picking a recipe and going to the grocery store to make a fun thing. It’s like, wow, people are at home. They might have more time on their hands, but also they might not, I don’t know. I don’t feel like I have more time right now. And so they might feel tired and they might feel sad and I think we want to give them valuable content that at its core that really reflects those lived experiences that people are going through.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah. I pulled up the post that you did today. We’re recording this podcast in real time. As many things have become scrappy for us. This podcast included in that. But the good thing is we can, and it feels necessary almost and this maybe ties into what you’re saying, but you can’t plan too far ahead because things are changing so much and how the state, the universal shared state of where people are also is changing week to week.

Lindsay Ostrom: Right.

Bjork Ostrom: And so if you were to do the post that you had scheduled a month ago, it would be totally out of context.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yes.

Bjork Ostrom: Nice thing for this interview is that we can talk about the things that are happening right now. We’re recording this on Monday, it’ll go out on Tuesday. And the post that you published on Pinch of Yum today it’s called just to check in, plus… tomato soup and grilled cheese. So it’s kind of this hybrid and you are doing some of the things that you’re talking about where kind of meeting people where they’re at or some of the phrases that you used, but it’s reflected in the comments. If you look through some of those, like somebody named Alison commented and said, “You basically summed up all my thoughts above. I got laid off. I’m so tired. I have less time than normal since I’m home with my three year old and nine month old. People are posting pictures of reorganized closets and I can barely run a vacuum.” And she goes on to share more. So how do you…

Lindsay Ostrom: Oh, that’s so heavy.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: It makes me tear up a little bit.

Bjork Ostrom: How do you do that in a post? We intentionally, before we recorded this, we said we don’t want this to be tips and tactics, but I also think we want to guide people or have a conversation around creating content that feels right because it’s probably not the exact same type of content that you produced before. So for people who are in the stages of finding their voice or figuring out what it looks like to write or wanting to figure out what right content looks in a season like this, what advice would you give them?

Lindsay Ostrom: Um, that’s a really, a hard question. I think one place to start is to think for you listening to this, people listening to this as a content creator, and this applies to myself as well. Sometimes it can feel like, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to put out there. But you also, we also, are content consumers and what feels good to us to consume right now. And for me sometimes that helps point me in the right direction. So when I am scrolling through my Instagram feed and when I come across something that has a certain tone, I pay attention to how that makes me feel. There were some things that I sent in our Slack channel and I don’t, honestly, I don’t even remember what they were now.

Lindsay Ostrom: This was maybe a week ago and I was like, I would just randomly send posts and say, yes, this brand or this, whatever content this is, this is nailing it in the, that blend. This is making me feel good. How they’re approaching it, how they’re acknowledging it, how they’re also providing, maybe they are providing humor, maybe they are providing recipes or tips and tricks or new workouts or whatever. Anyways, point being, I think that’s been a helpful thing for me is paying attention to where I see other people, we don’t have to, we’re not the only ones trying to figure this out. Other brands are trying to figure this out as well. And we can look outside of food, the food media world, just to any brands and say, how are people communicating right now? What are they putting out and what feels good?

Lindsay Ostrom: For example, I think it’s really telling that a lot of people are giving things away. Their online courses and their resources, they’re giving that away for free right now or discounted rates. And I think that’s just interesting, it’s interesting to me to pay attention to those things like, oh, that’s fascinating. This spirit of giving that’s a part of this and how can I incorporate that into my work? And yeah, I don’t know. So I’m often thinking about that and paying attention to that.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah. It’s interesting. I think about, we’ve watched a couple clips from Jimmy Fallon and I think all of the late night comedy people are doing essentially at home episodes. And there seems to be some element of this experience kind of humanizing everybody where you live in a polished world in some sense. For Jimmy Fallon, it’s a studio and makeup crew and then now he’s at home and his kids are kind of rolling all over him. But the other thing that I think about with that is we have these teams and usually we would go into an office and now all of a sudden we’re all from home and our kids are rolling around in the background.

Bjork Ostrom: And I think there is some element of this where it’s kind of letting people inside a little bit. And I see that in the post that you did today where there’s an element of, here’s what’s happening, here’s how I’m handling it and here’s just the reality of where I’m at right now. But there’s also undoubtedly the question of how long does this last and what does that look like as it relates to longterm thinking for content that you maybe are going to produce or that you’ve produced in the past. And I’d be curious to know for you and the Pinch of Yum team, where did you land let’s say if you had content in the queue ready, the recipe was ready, maybe the post was drafted for the most part. Are you holding on that or are you publishing that or TBD?

Lindsay Ostrom: That’s a really good question. So we, so I have actually, ironically, life is so ironic sometimes. Before this all happened was the first time in probably ever in Pinch of Yum’s history that I was, we were drafted out and working about a month ahead of schedule, which is both really good in this time because it’s like great. We have this queue in this bank of, kind of these posts, backlog posts that have been done already and tested and really good and we’re excited to share them. However, they don’t really fit the, they don’t fit life right now. Regardless of if that’s the number of ingredients or the types of ingredients or even some of the videos that we’ve done, we’re together, we recorded them in our office together and cooking together and the posts are written and there’s no mention of what’s going on.

Lindsay Ostrom: And I think that’s a hard thing for a lot of people. I don’t know. So I’ll just say if you’re struggling with knowing whether to hold on those or to actually publish them. I think that’s a hard thing. Where I’m at and where we’re landing for Pinch of Yum is I guess kind of a hybrid, if there are some. For example, there were these cookie bowls that I did, you know cookie bowls because I made about 25.

Bjork Ostrom: Oh, so good. Yes.

Lindsay Ostrom: Well, they weren’t always good.

Bjork Ostrom: They got better each time.

Lindsay Ostrom: They did get better because we did a lot of testing, but we worked really hard on that recipe. And then we had scheduled that for the end of the month. Well, actually nowish. We had scheduled them to publish now. But when this all started happening, it was, okay, a major rearrange of the editorial calendar. We’re going to zoom that recipe up because it’s actually kind of perfect for quarantine. It’s a two person serving size and it’s cookies in a little ramekin bowl. It’s something really cozy and it feels like it fits the moment even though that post wasn’t written for the moment.

Lindsay Ostrom: And I think that pick and choose approach is what has been most effective for us and what we will continue to do. That there will some things that we’ve done ahead of time that we are just going to share because who knows how long this is going to go on. And I don’t want to sit on those spring posts until next fall or something.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: But I think it’s important, and this will look different for everyone to the degree to which you do this, but I really do think that finding the right tone in that content is important. And I think remembering, just remembering going back to what I said in the beginning, remembering people’s lived realities right now. Like remembering, was it Alison, that comment from Alison?

Bjork Ostrom: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lindsay Ostrom: Remembering where people might be at as they’re consuming this content and how can we make it land in a way that’s valuable to them and uplifting. And how can we be the people that, we’re sitting at home probably most of us, I hope. We’re not going, we’re not on the front lines, but we can talk to people and we can connect with people. And I keep coming back to that’s my job in this is to talk to people and to mirror their own experiences back to them and create safe spaces for people to share about that and to talk about that. And to hopefully provide some valuable information or not information that sounded, I don’t know, like kind of…

Bjork Ostrom: It’s DIY. It’s lifestyle recipes and news is a new section for Pinch of Yum delivered by Lindsay.

Lindsay Ostrom: No, no, no. No. That was a weird word to use. But just valuable…

Bjork Ostrom: Content.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yeah. Food content, food related content, stuff that’s useful to people. So anyways, I spiraled from the original question, which was what are you doing with the posts? Are you holding on to them or are you publishing them? The short answer to that, I should have done this, the TLDR, at the beginning.

Bjork Ostrom: Sure.

Lindsay Ostrom: But the TLDR now is a combination of holding onto them, sitting on them, and then a combination of publishing them. Worth noting that we did have one sponsored post that was scheduled to go, I don’t know, last week or this week maybe. And luckily we’re working with a really wonderful brand who is very sensitive and aware of what’s going on. And so in conjunction with them we are making the decision about when that, it was supposed to be an Easter post and it’s probably not going to be an Easter post anymore. And I had already written the post, I’ve already done it. So I’ll probably have to go back and redo some of that. But that’s important to me that it doesn’t feel tone deaf to what people are experiencing right now.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah, and it seems like there’s a balance with it where if the only thing that we talked about, you and I, was Coronavirus, COVID–19, it gets old after a while. And I think the same can be true, this obviously depends on the niche that you’re in, and the general focus of the content that you’re creating. But it probably also can’t be true for a food or recipe site or a DIY site or whatever it might be, but it also probably isn’t on the opposite end where you never mention it. And much like you would in a conversation whether you and I or with a friend, it probably comes up quite a bit. Whether it be passively in an actual dedicated recipe post in the case of Pinch of Yum or the post that came out today, something that’s a little bit more of a dedicated post like here’s how I’m doing, how are you doing? Let’s have a conversation around that.

Bjork Ostrom: And so I can see there being kind of some type of balance with it. How about your stance and view right now on proactively looking forward and trying to create content that you’ll use going forward? Maybe you can talk about kind of schedule wise trying to find your footing with that and if nothing else just for comradery for other people who are trying to figure that out and struggling.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yeah. Well if you’re floundering, I’m floundering with you. I just feel like what in the world. Probably once a day before this all happened, I was for the last two months, I would say I finally had felt I was in a really good rhythm of work and content production and planning. And like I said earlier, I was drafted out a month in advance. That has never happened before. That was a really big deal for me to get to that point. And I would say to Bjork all the time, I would say, well I can look at you, I’m saying to you. I would say to you all the time…

Bjork Ostrom: I’m right here.

Lindsay Ostrom: Staring at the wall. I would say my schedule, I just feel so locked in in my schedule after feeling like, I don’t know. Prior to this it just had felt like things were kind of all over the place.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: New baby, moving, new office, all that comes along with that. So I felt like I had finally locked in this really great content production schedule. I was ahead on content, we were just clicking along, rolling, I had some really awesome team members in place to help support the content process. And it is just gone. It’s like in a snap of the fingers is gone and I don’t know when to work. I don’t know how to work. I feel very lost and I think that’s really normal. And I think if you’re feeling that, this is also me giving myself a pep talk, if you are feeling that, I think that’s… It’s almost like there’s no other way through this time.

Lindsay Ostrom: It’s never been done before. We’ve never lived through something like this. And even if you are home and you’re like, this is great, this is a great time for me. I’ve got a lot of time. I’m not in that camp. But if you are in that camp, even still, it’s probably going to be challenging to find the right groceries. It’s probably going to be challenging to think about the type of content that’s right for people right now. So is just a really uniquely challenging time. And I’m trying to, I don’t know. I don’t know, you can tell.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: No, I’m not done yet.

Bjork Ostrom: Okay.

Lindsay Ostrom: But when I say my thing then you can say…

Bjork Ostrom: It felt like a cue for me to talk then.

Lindsay Ostrom: No, no it is.

Bjork Ostrom: Okay.

Lindsay Ostrom: Just let me say this thing first. So my thing, what I was going to say is I’m not, this isn’t a time for me of pedal to the metal Pinch of Yum.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: Grows at really fast speed. This is a time for me where I’m like okay, it’s okay to slow down. It’s okay to, last week I didn’t post any content. Zero. Because I just could not wrap my head around what needed to happen and the organization of the calendar. And we have a team and I didn’t post any content. And I think that’s okay. I think taking some time and space is okay and good and I feel the more space I give myself and the more grace I give myself, the more clarity I can gain on what really matters here and what do I need to be, what do I want to be showing up with every day and bringing everyday to the people that follow and read Pinch of Yum.

Lindsay Ostrom: If my job is to speak to people, I don’t want to just be throwing stuff out there all the time just in a frantic, hurried way. Especially in a time like this, I feel like I need to take care of myself. You who are listening to this, you need to take care of yourself, you need to take care of your family. And that comes, that’s a top of the list. That’s the number one priority. And then after that, our job to present content to people, to speak to people in this, that’s a hard job and it’s okay to move slowly and methodically and intentionally through that. Okay. So tell me what you think about that.

Bjork Ostrom: It’s exactly the same place that I was thinking. In the analogy that I have because I try and use analogies that I come up with on the spot as much as possible. Previously talked about the idea of a boat and going fast and then all of a sudden the waters get really choppy and you have to peel the speed back a little bit to make it through the choppy water. I think of being at the cabin and your dad driving the boat when we’re tubing and refused to go as fast as…

Lindsay Ostrom: He doesn’t go that fast because he’s a doctor and he’s kind of like…

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yeah, safety guy.

Bjork Ostrom: It’s a safety dad fast.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yes.

Bjork Ostrom: When you go through choppy water, then you slow down quite a bit. I think the other analogy that came to mind was, I think it was, at least for us, it was a season of kind of flat ground when we’re running and for anybody who runs, you know it feels really good to run on flat terrain. Essentially what happened within three days or a week or whatever it looked like for you. For us it was, it was essentially the moment that we told our nanny, no longer do you need to come and to continue to have you as our nanny longterm, continue to pay you. But for now, for this period of life, we’re going to babysit on our own.

Lindsay Ostrom: Babysit our own daughter. And that cranks the incline up.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah. And so that’s whatever it is, 30ish hours a week. And suddenly the next day the incline goes from a flat terrain to whatever, 5% or 6% and you can’t keep running the same speed with the incline being higher. And I think we felt that across the board. And that’s not true for everybody. For some people it’s this weird, reverse almost where suddenly all of the responsibilities that they’d have outside of normal day to day are taken away and maybe their work is reduced. Maybe they don’t have as much work. So then it’s like you said, it’s that like, well what do I do? Organize my closet or start a new hobby or learn to play guitar. And it’s like, well, a different scenario maybe has its own struggles. But I think for us, and I’m guessing a lot of people who are listening can relate to this, it feels like there’s an incline. So then it’s figuring out how do you approach that and what do you do with it?

Bjork Ostrom: And it’s not that you completely stop running, but you scale back quite a bit. And so we’re not covering as much ground. We’re not going to go, if we usually go a mile, it will maybe be half a mile or a quarter mile. But the other thing that I was going to say is I think it’s worth noting that it’s not just shrugging your shoulders and giving up. There is continual tweaking and adjusting that we have to go back to. And I think we had a period of like you said, locked in and so the puzzle was kind of complete. And now it’s going back and saying, oh we need to for you and I together, but also individually, revisit how we do this.

Bjork Ostrom: And I feel like every day and every week is kind of a new version and working towards figuring out what does that look like now, do I work mornings and you work afternoons, continually tweaking and adjusting that. Are there things that you feel like you’ve in this season had to let go of completely as it relates to kind of the publishing and work side of things? And if so, what were those things?

Lindsay Ostrom: I so badly, I was going to put the microphone over by Sage because and give you a hard time like you put her to sleep. She was snoring. If she starts again, I’ll put the mic over there so you can hear some Sage snoring.

Bjork Ostrom: Yes, she’s the third guest on this podcast. I don’t think you’ll be able to hear it.

Lindsay Ostrom: Well, if I put my microphone over maybe when she goes back to sleep. Her eyes are slowly fading again.

Bjork Ostrom: Oh, to be Sage.

Lindsay Ostrom: Oh man, jealous.

Bjork Ostrom: We’re just hanging out with her all day long.

Lindsay Ostrom: Things that I have had to let go of. Yeah. I don’t know, a little bit of everything.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: This is on a personal level, but I’m not working out right now except for going out for walks with Solvi during the day. I think there are some trade offs, maybe more trade offs personally because I’m trying to spend part of the day with Solvi and then spend part of the day with working. Then the time that normally would be my time is, that’s what gets cut into. My time even being like, I haven’t, I was thinking this morning, I literally have not done my hair since March 11th. What’s the date today? March…

Bjork Ostrom: 30th.

Lindsay Ostrom: 30th, so maybe the rest of you all are doing better than me, but have not, I’ve washed my hair but I haven’t blow dried it and done the whole thing. Anyways. This is not what you were asking. Work-wise…

Bjork Ostrom: But kind of though, point being everything kind of scales back a little bit.

Lindsay Ostrom: Everything just scales back. It’s just like a shift.

Bjork Ostrom: Work stuff scales back. Personal stuff scales back a little bit.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yeah. And just the way we had set up our schedule, I feel like I had some pockets of time where, to do meal planning or pockets of time to do prep for food for the week. And I feel like that stuff, I feel like the way the day is right now is we finish everything and it’s like 9, 9:30 and we look at each other and we’re like, okay, 30 minutes of TV and then go to bed.

Bjork Ostrom: One episode of Tiger King.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yeah, one half episode of Tiger King and then go to bed. But so yeah, so there’s just a lot of things I think that I’ve had to let go. I will say that we’re in a unique position and I think different because we do have a team and I think if not for our team, there would totally be balls that would be, ways that we’re showing up now that we wouldn’t be showing up if it were just me doing this.

Bjork Ostrom: And I think that’s almost one of the purposes of doing this podcast is to, if people are feeling a type of burden, if you are feeling like other people out there, whoever they might be, not necessarily Pinch of Yum but looking at other people and all you’re seeing is kind of the external and then it’s like, wait, how are other people doing this? And that can create, that can be another variable of tension or just a difficult reality in this already very difficult season. And I think you saying that lifts the burden a little bit for people, which I think is great.

Lindsay Ostrom: I think people need to understand we have someone now, shout out to Rita, we have someone who started working with us within the last month who now solely is, she’s part time, but she’s pretty much in charge of recording, captioning and posting our Instagram stories. And I feel like for a lot of people they’re like, oh Instagram stories. I’ll just kind of quick do it over here and quick do it over. And it’s like she’s spending a chunk of time on that and that’s kind of her only thing. We have someone on our team, Jenna, who’s wonderful, who’s helping with getting the content that we have for Instagram published out and is doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff on the blog.

Lindsay Ostrom: And there’s a lot of stuff that people see and a lot of that has to do with social media or what’s on the blog or whatever. But it’s like there are six people behind the scenes who are helping to put all those pieces into place. And I think if not for our team, if this were just me operating, just Lindsay doing content production and publishing, you would be seeing significantly less than what is happening now. And I already feel like it’s significantly less. And that’s with the team, so yeah. So totally just to validate that for those of you listening who are, who it’s just you, which I would imagine is a lot of people, because that’s how it is for, that’s how it was for me for a long time.

Bjork Ostrom: Yep.

Lindsay Ostrom: And it’s okay for balls to drop.

Bjork Ostrom: Yep.

Lindsay Ostrom: It’s not forever. It’s for a time. Last week when I didn’t have any new, we had new content ready but I just didn’t feel like any of it fit and I just could not wrap my head around. I was just sad and tired and I could not get into a head space where. We had, I don’t know if any of you use CoSchedule, but we had a post and literally moved it from Monday to Tuesday and then to Tuesday to Wednesday and then Wednesday to Thursday and then on Thursday I was like, okay, you know what this is, we’re fighting a losing battle. We’re going to push this to next week. We just need some time and space to think about this and kind of get our heads sorted out about what we’re doing and if that’s a challenge for me having the team support that I have, just please feel validated in your struggle right now if you’re feeling a struggle. Because I think that’s pretty universal.

Bjork Ostrom: And I think during the season where it was just you, there were those blocks of time where it was like, well, I’m going to pull back here and therefore it’s just not realistic to continue with this. So there were those, when those seasons did come, obviously it was a very different circumstantially, it was like, hey, I’m going to take a break. I’m going to step back for a month, or whatever it would be. Those times did happen. And it’s three months that some people think about things, but we’d like to think about it as three years. So obviously you can’t take substantial breaks, back to back to back, because then it just becomes that you’re not working on the thing that you’re working on. But also I think expand that out a little bit. Think about three years, not three months, and know that it’s okay to have a season where you have to scale back a little bit and let off the gas a little bit, especially if the incline on the treadmill or the hill or whatever it is that you’re running on goes up.

Lindsay Ostrom: Yeah.

Bjork Ostrom: I originally had said Linds, would you come down, have a conversation. It’ll just be 15 to 20 minutes. I think we…

Lindsay Ostrom: I’m wordy, you’re wordy too.

Bjork Ostrom: We’ve gone over that and we didn’t get Sage snoring on mic, but maybe we’ll get that for another basement episode of the podcast. What would your advice be, Lindsay, for just kind of in closing, and this can be kind of both heart and mind advice for people who are in this season. There are publishers and they’re kind of trying to figure out what it looks like.

Lindsay Ostrom: Okay. This has been what’s been helpful for me, so this is what I’m going to say as advice. Advice from someone who doesn’t, who’s figuring it out with you. I think it’s just really helpful to figure out what is my job in this? What is my role? For example, my sister’s a nurse, both of my sisters are nurses and my dad’s a doctor and so it’s like their role is in this season of this health crisis, this worldwide health crisis. Their role is very clear. It’s to take care of people in the clinic and in the hospital. And that’s very clear. And for people who work in food service or work in the grocery store or in other essential industries and need to keep showing up, that’s a clear, that’s clear to them, this is what my job is.

Lindsay Ostrom: My encouragement to you and to us as content creators, that line isn’t as clear for us in this season, but I think it’s helpful to spend some time with that and make it clear for yourself. So for myself, what is my job in this? What is my role in this worldwide health crisis? I feel like my role, I think I said this already, but my role first and foremost is to myself and my family. That’s my most important job. My job is to keep myself healthy. My job is to keep my family healthy and to be a good mom and take care of my daughter well. My other job in this, my other role, how I view it for myself is to bring people valuable content. And I said in the beginning that can look a variety of different ways that can look like, that can look like emotionally connected content that can look like a helpful recipe.

Lindsay Ostrom: But it’s just to talk to people, just to be a voice for people and to show up for people and that’s my job. But that’s my secondary job and my primary job, when I think about my role, a description of my role in the greater community processing, worldwide processing of all this, my first and foremost role is to myself and to my family. And I think that helps. I think that’s just been helpful for me. I don’t know, hopefully that’s helpful for others too to think about, and that’s going to be different depending on what kind of content you produce and what the tone of your content normally is.

Lindsay Ostrom: If what you do is funny and lighthearted and maybe that’s something that’s really important for people right now or maybe what you provide is a lot of factual or health related information. And that’s helpful right now for a different reason. I think if you can just really get clear about what is my role and what is my job that helps the decision making process and that helps you to know what’s most important, what should go at the top of the list, what can go in the middle of the list and what can go at the bottom of the list.

Bjork Ostrom: That’s great. And you talking about your sisters and your dad reminded me that it would be good at the end of this to give a shout out to people who are continuing to do what they do in kind of a front line fashion, whether that be delivery people, think of people who are doing retail, gas stations, healthcare providers a very real way. What you’re doing is so important and so impactful. So we want to say thank you to people who are continuing to move forward on stuff and helping us all along the way in this crisis. Thanks Lindsay for coming down into the basement and doing a basement episode of the podcast.

Lindsay Ostrom: The basement lair.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah.

Lindsay Ostrom: The podcast office.

Bjork Ostrom: The podcast office. So signing off from the basement, Lindsay and Bjork and snoring Sage. See if you can get a little snore, oh no, she woke up.

Lindsay Ostrom: She woke up. It’s a leather couch, so if I move then it wakes her up. But she does look very cozy. You’ll just have to trust us.

Bjork Ostrom: She’s like what is that thing in front of my nose?

Lindsay Ostrom: Maybe we’ll sneak a picture into the blog.

Bjork Ostrom: Yeah. All right, thanks Linds.

Lindsay Ostrom: Okay, thanks. Bye.

Alexa Peduzzi: And that’s a wrap for this episode of the Food Blogger Pro Podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we hope that it just gave you a little bit of guidance and helped you feel a little less alone. If you have a couple spare minutes during this time, we would so appreciate a review on Apple podcasts. All you have to do is find the podcast on Apple podcasts and leave us a review. Comments and reviews really help the show get in front of other people and if you like this episode, share it with a blogging buddy, somebody who’s also struggling in this season, not really sure what to produce, what to post and hopefully it can help them out as well. Like I said, we appreciate you for being here and we are wishing you well. We hope you stay safe and we’ll see you next week. Make it a great week.

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