How Two Years of Podcasting Changed My Life

You can read about my first year of podcasting here

My Food Job Rocks! now has 120+ episodes, 500+ facebook likes, 45,000+ downloads, and some really awesome connections, this was one of the best decisions that have drastically changed my life.

Going for a year was nice, but what if I kept on going? What would happen? What if I worked even harder? What would happen? If one year changed my life, what would two do?

Well the answer is that opportunities have popped up more than ever before.

Momentum and Constant Agitation

Sometimes people ask me for podcasting advice and I tell them the only thing that matters for a successful podcast, no, a successful brand, is being consistent.

This means:

Post a podcast every week

Then post an article every week

Then post a linkedin status every week

Then post a guest article every week

Then post a clip of next week’s episode in video format

Oh, and I don’t need to just post on linkedin, but facebook and Instagram, and twitter too.

But you gotta do it every day.

As you continuously stir the pot and add more ingredients, two things happen: You have a small percentage of people who will start to love you, and you will have people who hate seeing your stuff so much, but eventually they will see that you as actually legitimate.

I can’t stress enough the importance of gaining momentum and never letting go of the gas.

Sure, your audience can forgive you as long as you make a transparent excuse. I got a lot of support when I put a hiatus on my mailing list and got support saying they’d love to help. But it takes a while to get to that point.

Some people get discouraged when no one is listening. I see this as an opportunity to try something new. One example of this was through LinkedIn. By taking an hour researching what makes LinkedIn posts noticeable, I increased my engagement about 50 fold (do note that my posts didn’t do well until I changed this format).

Yet continuing for a while has its benefits. I have no problem getting guests, and I always have a backlog that takes a while to whittle down. Now it’s so easy for me to say “we are a 100+ episode podcast where we interview people in the food industry. I’d like to interview you for X, if you like to see our format, I would recommend listening to Y’s podcast on the same topic”. What momentum does, is that it snowballs. What used to be a tiny spec, now snowballed into something noticeable.

Building a Community

When I first started, Nicole Gallace from Foodgrads was my only fan. I think this is really important to start because it tethers you to the important fact that if you don’t do a good job, someone will be sad. A philosophy I live by is to never make anyone sad.

The power of interviewing also proves its benefit. Every person you have a good conversation with, multiples your network with theirs. They’ll help you out, or you’ll help them out. This has happened more than once with my guests.

As many know, interviewing an industry has the ability to build a reputation fast. Especially if you show some scientific competence and are genuinely interested in the topic you're interviewing on.

What is also extremely beneficial is building a network of food communicators. I’ve given advice to many people who are doing awesome things in the food communication space. Not only that, but there is so much more room to grow in this space. If a new mother, or an average person can convince thousands that their opinion on food is right, why can’t a food scientist?

Below is a list of people with whom I've had the absolute pleasure of working with

There is plenty of room in this space so I encourage you to to just start something. There are plenty of people and resources that can help you get started.

I think scientists are either shy, or arrogant about communicating science. I can imagine also, that scientists will give up, because the data shows it doesn’t work. It took me 1 year of studying marketing tactics before I found a way to spread the word on My Food Job Rocks and even then, I have a small following compared to most.

For me, it’s much more engaging to give advice to people who want to communicate more about their food. I only have a small role in the food communication space: to show that there are good, honest people in the food industry who love what they do.

I recall so many interviews, public and private, where I've given advice on either careers or communications and those have been my favorite moments of My Food Job Rocks.

The Ultimate Goal

Why do I do this? Posting every day for 2 years is really hard. Not just good content, but different content, and have everyone criticize you. No one has said my content is terrible yet.

Do I want more out of this? I’m not sure actually. The pace that My Food Job Rocks is going is nice. It’s not demanding but rather feels like going to the gym and getting into this routine of learning and studying. I find podcasting, editing episodes and writing weekly extremely rewarding, about as valuable as reading books. As many know, I ask a lot of self-improvement questions so I can become a better food scientist. After 2 years, I have a feeling the lessons I’ve learned have amplified my skill set and has made me a valuable asset in the food industry.

For the data nerds, here's the numbers on the top 5 things guests have told me on the show

To keep on learning and having the ability to apply what I learned to my job has been increasingly beneficial. The added benefit of sharing what I’ve learned with others has doubled the effect of not just a networking effect, but also a mentoring effect with students. From my age to college students, to even high schoolers.

And not only that, but choosing the people I want to interview has been beneficial. I chose to make the portfolio of My Food Job Rocks broad because I not only wanted people to see how diverse the food industry actually is, but I know that the value of different perspectives can make me a better person.

The differences in how entrepreneurs view food industry problems compared to say, professors has been interesting, to say the least. The diversity of our guests is something I’m really proud of. You have young people just out of college, people who are retired, but still are making an impact in the food industry, women, immigrants, people of all color, entrepreneurs who had nothing, successful businessmen, technicians and CXO’s.

Yet with all of these different topics, the common thread on what makes people passionate in the food industry rings a harmonic song.

Is There More to This?

I am making it a lifelong mission to make food science mainstream. Though I do think My Food Job Rocks has given me a springboard to do this, what is the best way to do it?

For the animal welfare industry, it is not education that convinces people to switch, it’s innovation. People are realizing this, that’s why you see such a spike in meat alternatives that taste really good.

So, maybe that’s the same for what I’m doing.

I left my perfect job at Isagenix to work for a startup. And when I mean work for, I own part of the company. This move had me not only take a pay cut, but also move to another state. But the odds are with us. We have an all-star team, money in the bank, a product almost commercialized, and I can’t wait to talk more about the topic when the time comes.

This would have never happened unless I started podcasting. A series of events has caused me to meet my cofounders which all started with a podcast interview.

The most powerful thing you can do to be successful in anything is to think differently, but not only that, but to work really hard at it. This isn’t hard to do, it just takes a lot of reflection and observation. Being committed to doing this new thing every day is the hard part.

But if life isn’t hard, is it really worth living?

Thank you for being a fan of My Food Job Rocks!

Note: Most of the pictures in this article are for a presentation I'll be doing at IFT18.