COMPRESSED all cam tara tt: You guys, this is our first ⁓ ever ⁓ recording ⁓ in an actual studio. We are ⁓ live from Kit Studios New York City. And we have very guest us. Thanks. Because I'm New York So thanks for letting me be the first here. We couldn't imagine anyone better. We've loved Tara for years. She's just, ⁓ I mean, you'll get to know her more throughout this episode. But just such a kind person, genuinely care about others' success. That's a huge thing that I love about you. And you yourself are very creative. Well, thanks. Thank you. Yeah, I I'm in a creative profession, always have been, and now I have to run a business on this top of being creative. We all have to do that. It's hard. But okay, but you have a killer backstory. Like we've been talking a lot about creators being like food, media, brands, and companies in Thinking about that, and so we thought you're the perfect person to talk to because you need to tell everybody about your background and your origin story and why you are an expert on being a media brand. You know, you'd think I would have built a bigger media brand having come from where I came from, but it's it's hard, and I've always maybe spread myself a little thin, meaning I like to do so many things that I haven't focused in. But yes, I watched Martha Stewart build her business. I was a food editor there for many. Years. I started as an intern right out of school. You were her growth. 22. Wow. Is that did you ask how old I was? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. You had just moved to New York City, right? Yeah, I moved to York City for that. Wow. Not to like tell everybody how old you are, but like what was the year? That'll tell everybody. 1999. So like Martha Stewart Heyday. Heyday. Okay. It was it was a big deal. Sh her company, if you can imagine, hadn't even gone public. So the year I started there, it was ⁓ almost the Year later, they did the IPO and went public. So it was still a private company. Martha Stewart, huge, 1999. ⁓ and I was the test kitchen intern. it your dream? Like when you got the job, were you freaking out? ⁓ was it not that she's Martha, but she wasn't the Martha as now? no, as she was. She still was the Martha. Still as iconic as She was the Martha bigger than even now. Because ⁓ there's competition now, right? Like they know her as this. Funny celebrity. Yeah. But back then she was the media we watched her every day on TV icon. Every day. We got her monthly. Magazines. Sh her magazine in the 90s was what made any housewife or ⁓ or reader transform their house or want to cook or want to entertain. ⁓ was that magazine. You know, you think of other magazines that women always got better homes and gardens, good housekeeping, ladies' home journal, all of those.
COMPRESSED tara cam (tara tt): Funny celebrity. Yeah. But back then she was the media we watched her every day on TV icon. Every day. We got her monthly. Magazines. Sh her magazine in the 90s was what made any housewife or ⁓ or reader transform their house or want to cook or want to entertain. ⁓ was that magazine. You know, you think of other magazines that women always got better homes and gardens, good housekeeping, ladies' home journal, all of those.
Daphne Davis: women's service magazines, but then Martha came on and she turned it into a beautiful thing. You wanted to ⁓ really appreciated high quality from the get-go, which is probably why she picked you, Tara. you're so nice. So yeah, so I actually I had to interview. I was still in college, finishing my senior year in college, and came out to New York and interviewed to be test kitchen intern. And they almost me down, but I think I was.
COMPRESSED all cam tara tt: And she turned it into a beautiful thing. She really appreciated high quality from the get go, which is probably why she picked you, Tara. you're so nice. So ⁓ Yeah, so I actually I had to interview. I was still in college, finishing my senior year in college, and came out to New York and interviewed to the test kitchen intern. And they turned me down, but I think I was killed them with kindness. Yes. And said, I'm a fast learner. I know I don't know a lot. I kind of begged my way into that position because ⁓ ⁓ in ⁓ school. I majored in culinary arts at State University. ⁓ So wasn't necessarily a culinary school, but I got my degree in that. ⁓ Well, only interns they took were from the Culinary Institute of America. So I was told that they were like, well, we only take interns from blah blah blah. Yeah. So I came and I had to cook for the test kitchen director I had an interview. That's a lot of pressure. What did you make? Yeah. ⁓ do you remember? ⁓ yes, I remember. It was very funny. It was very chefy. And Stewart and the test kitchen weren't chefy. They were for home cooks and you know, elevated home cooking. ⁓ But had just come out of culinary school. I made like a miso glazed salmon, which in nineteen ninety nine was very forwarding. And I Did taro chips, which is that root vegetable that you I did tarot chips, and I feel like I was gonna say yes, you should have stayed in their mind, but you clearly did. And then I did some sort, I feel like a rice pilaf, which is a very chefy restaurant, right? And then I remember I did a banana souffle for dessert with a twil cookie that like twisted up over it, very chefy again. Yes, and it took me several hours to make that. I needed that she wanted a three. Course menu to show my skills. And so I had prepared it. I had practiced it before I came and cooked for her. I made it. And I remember she came over and just kind of picked at it with a fork. And this was the test kitchen director, Susan Sugarman. Not Martha. Not Martha. And she kind of picked at it and tasted it. And I just put my heart and soul into this like ⁓ meal, you know. And she's like, okay, okay. Okay. And then she handed me a bunch of other recipes to make and tests to do. I had to make a fluffy three egg omelette and I had to make this maple cake with ⁓ cooked frosting. And so she was And these are all Martha's recipes. The cake was. Okay. And the three egg omelet, and I had to cook pasta al dente and cut an onion to medium dices. So she was testing my skills. Yes. Like so that I could work in the test kitchen. And The cake kind of a disaster. It was a three egg omelet. I wrote the story and put it on my blog because it was just an epic story. I think she had me make it five times. So I was back there whipping the you know omelet and and made the omelet. She's like, ⁓ fluffy enough, go make it again. So I'm back in the kitchen. ⁓ my gosh. Trying to aerate it, you know. Sweating. ⁓ And she like wouldn't even taste them. She's just like, No, it's not fluffy enough. Go make it again. my ⁓ Or you're I'm never I'm never getting this job. I'm like, this is gonna anyway. So I finally made it and she finally tasted it. And she's like, okay, well, it's not that fluffy, but fine. long story short, when I went back home, I was still in school. So I went back to my classes and I asked all my culinary, you know, classmates. I'm like, how do you make a fluffy three-eg omelet? I hadn't learned it. I still was learning my skills as a cook. And all of them at once, they all knew, and they were like, You separate the egg whites and the egg yolks and beat the whites and then fold in the yolks so that you can aerate it more. I was like such a basic skill, but I hadn't learned it yet. She knew. She knew. That was a tank too. I wonder if she was testing your grit and determination as well. Well, probably all of that. In fact, when she hired me to be the intern, I I flew home and I didn't hear from her for about three days. And she hired me and said You know, you have a lot to learn, but you're a nice person, so you can come and be the intern. that's amazing. Which goes back to the core of who you are. Which it helps. And so you keep that with you your whole career, right? Like I a job because she thought I was a nice person. ⁓ So not be a ruffy person, right? Yeah. Which I think you've lived by that and it's led you to so many other things. So you went into this as the assistant. Yeah. Then what did that unfold into? So I was at Martha Stewart magazine for six years. Okay. And about every year I got a promotion. And I just worked my way up the ranks. So after being an intern, they hired me as a freelancer. And then they hired me as a junior editor. Ooh. And they didn't even have a junior enough position for me. So they made up a title for me to put me on the masthead of the magazine. And instead of being an editor, I was the recipe developer. I love it. So that's my first masthead in a magazine is recipe developer. And then I just worked my way up to senior food editor. yeah, was there. She went to jail. ⁓ I there. She did? Yes. And so things changed. work changed. Different people were brought in to work in the department and things like that. And that's crazy character. But everything just kept going. The wheels just kept rolling. Yes. Okay. Yes. She had built a good team, which is also a good reminder to build that team and that base. Well, and backed in any business you build. Watching her build that business. Yeah. From the IPO, from becoming a public company yeah to expanding the Walmart or the Kmart sorry ⁓ to the Kmart line yeah to her she had a catalog for many years and her own product line. Yes. And in the test kitchen we worked on the catalog. We would have to make the cookies that went with the cookie cutters in the catalog. We would have to make the cakes that went with the cake pans and shoot those. And so we were very involved with all of her businesses as she grew it and then all of the home decor and things like that. So to watch her business go to that omni media was fascinating. Yes. And yeah. That's what creators I feel like like what creators are doing now though is this really interesting place where you don't have to ⁓ like an agent or know somebody to be a food celebrity. Like if you have a great idea and the grit and whatnot, you can build that. So I'm just curious how have you taken those skills helping build one of arguably the biggest female run food media companies. How does that translate to what you've built as a food creator? I think aspects of it have infiltrated all of my business. I'm not big. I haven't created you know something as large scale as that. Sure. But everything I do, I learned a lot from that. I also, after Martha Stewart, I went and I was the food editor at Ladies Home Journal magazine. And that was a very different experience, but I was in charge. I was in charge of the test kitchen and the food department and all of the food that went into that magazine. And I learned a lot there as well. But what one of the biggest things that I learned at Martha Stewart, believe it or not, I learned what kind of a manager I didn't want to be. then as I got to be that manager and that boss at Ladies Home Journal magazine, ⁓ was able to hone those skills. Yeah. You know, learn how to give the best constructive feedback, learn how to hire, learn how to fire, learn how to manage a team. And that has been so helpful for me. ⁓ think as a as a I transitioned into being a food blogger and a consultant. I have to use those skills all the time because I hire help. Yeah, I have to hire help. And you have a team, and you have done so many incredible things. You have three cookbooks, correct? Two cookbooks, two. Two published cookbooks. Two published cookbooks that are nationwide in Deseret Book, as well as many other stores. And that probably was a huge undertaking. In fact, I just got to go visit Tara's home for the first time. We've been friends for a while, but I haven't been to her house. And we see each other all the different things and I got to walk into your office and all your beautiful little photos up on the wall from your cook shoot. She said, I can't seem to take it down. I Don't you dare it's beautiful. Beautiful. And so you worked really hard to get that, to get a publisher, to all of those things. And that that's been a success. That's another thing is a huge undertaking. And you know what I I did to myself? I thought, ⁓ I've been in publishing for fifteen years. ⁓ I got this. I can write a cookbook. It was hard. It was very different than a monthly magazine. It was very different than a blog. Yes. And and anyone who's written a cookbook. Yeah. feel like stopped creating content after I published Ruin Nourish because I was like, that's it. That's what I wanted to do. And I don't ever want to do food or recipe creation ever again. Yeah. Because it was like I'm still burnt out. That was 2021. That was five years ago. ⁓ I get it. It's it's a lot hard work. It's your blood, sweat, and tears. Yes. ⁓ it's You know, it's a fantastic marketing tool for your business. Yes. It's a fantastic feat. It you know, makes you yeah, it's an accomplishment. ⁓ all of those things. Mm-hmm. And it's hard. So you've done that. You have your blog that you're currently running. What are some of your what are some of the things that are next up for Terra Teaspoon? I kind of always keep irons in the fire. Yep. I have always had an arm of my business be consulting, which is smart freelancing. Yes, yep. It used to be called freelancing. You have some incredible partnerships. Just today, we you have worked with Melissa Melissa's produce for 17 years. Well, I've known Robert for that for that long. But you have your your partners stay with you because you again, I think it comes back to that kind person, but also you produce high quality content. I think that comes from working at Martha Stewart. Exactly. Everything had actually been that. Perfect. And I think that's hurt shot me in the foot with my blog ⁓ because like the perfection. Put that out there. I can't. This has to be perfect. Martha would not. Because it's not Martha quality. And I have had to remind myself, yeah, I don't have the team and the budget. Martha had. Let's just get out what I can get out. That's actually a really good reminder that it's like you think like a media company, but also you're a small business. Yes, yeah. And just and get it out. But I have honed my skills and I do create content for food brands. And now it's called whitelisting. Back then it was just freelancing years and years ago. I create content because all of the These brands, as we all know, have websites and they have marketing teams and they don't have kitchens. And so they're they need their recipe index on their website using their products, and you've got the logic. They're food and they need videos of food. And so my name won't show up on that. But I have produced content for many, many big brands and that lives on their website. Or they're able to use it for internal marketing or social media. And so I can charge a premium for that because my name's not on it. Yeah. But I miss that whole, you know, Wave of sponsored blog posts and things where people were making a lot of money and growing that way. ⁓ but I just I kind of kept them separate for many years and they still are slightly separate, where it's still under Terra Teaspoon Inc. Yeah. ⁓ but I will not put my name on things that I charge a premium for, and then I'll work on my blog. Which makes sense. It's nice to have so it's nice to have multiple streams of revenue. And in this day and age, especially with AI, the way things are going. You have talked, we have talked about this. Personally, and so let's share a little bit more about how you are diversifying your income. You talked about you're doing those whitelisted projects, you have your blog. What are some of the other things that you're doing that other creators can can look to as inspiration because they're a lot of them are feeling burnout, there are a lot of them are feeling discouragement right now. Or we just have zero control over the algorithms. That's a good thing. Over our RPMs, yeah, over our income if it's solely from the blog. And so a lot of us have created projects. And or products that we sell online. I've done the whole ebooks and I've done printed on-demand products and things like that. And realize I never trained my audience to buy from me necessarily. And so that's a huge distinction. And so like that is we're really leaning into creator commerce and social commerce because that is the future of retail, a lot of where the money is for creators is you know, having products, affiliates, all of that. Yep. And the really Interesting thing I see coming up as a theme in these rooms when they're talking is you may have this massive audience, but it's such a vanity metric now because if you have not trained your audience to buy from you, don't care about that. They're looking for conversion. And so I think it's important to think about like how can I train my audience in this day and age, or like, do you even want that as part of your business model? Right. Like maybe that's not for me, right? Some of the biggest creators who have done a traditional publishing route through their cookbook, ⁓ were shocked. At the sales numbers. They were like, how is this possible? I have a massive audience, a massive newsletter list, massive social following. But guess what? You're giving so much away for free. They're used to getting it for free. Exactly. Yeah. So is there anything that and I I hate to say that what would you do to an up and coming emerging creators? What would you recommend? start from the beginning by selling something. Yeah. Okay. That's at a premium. ⁓ Because now it's Substack, now it's memberships, things like that that everybody's trying to get in. Youthful generation is used to buying. Yes, absolutely. And we're used to that whole streaming service thing where it's like, I'll I'll pay for this for a few months and then I'll stop it and then I'll pay for this for a few months, etc. But we all know the psychology of that is if you can get somebody in on an auto payment, they forget to cancel. But I think also that's training them to hit that button first. Yeah. But I wish there was a secret sauce for me. It's it's work. Yeah. You have to provide them something unique that you're selling. Them. So I've never done SubSec because for me, that's a whole other set of hours of work to create something from maybe what I have, content that I have, but to turn it into something unique for those paying customers. And it's so much work. I actually tried to start that, and I and it's good to learn and grow and learn what things work for you and what don't. And it was just so much time. ⁓ I hadn't trained my audience in that same way to purchase a member. membership monthly membership through Substack to get things they're like, why I could go over to the blog. Yeah. You know? And I I also realized with you know printable products, ebooks, things like that, I'm sitting there paying a fee for the selling services or the platforms or the plugins and things like that. And you have to make up that cost. And it just finally I've kind of stopped all of that for the moment. Yep. a few years ago a friend of mine and I started a Food blogger retreat. Love it. Kind of a a mini experience. In real life is everything. What a perfect time to start that. Yeah. It it was great. We wanted it. So we wanted to create something we would want to attend. Yes. And we love networking with pe with bloggers of all levels. we because I live in New York, we formulated it to be very New York central because ⁓ live here. I'm inspired ⁓ day. Just by going grocery shopping is a different experience. Everyone wants to come to New York. The restaurants, the food, the markets, shopping experiences, the prop shopping, you know, all of that. I get to live it. And so part of creating that experience and retreat for people was I wanted to bring them to New York ⁓ inspire them to go home and keep working on that blog, right? So I think like ⁓ am really excited about the experiential movement happening because obviously Taste Maker, we're coming up on 10 years. We built it on that premise community experience. Education. And now it's everywhere. And now it's everywhere. And it's like doing pop-ups, coffee shops. The creators to be doing that though. It's like, how can we share our wisdom? What do you guys want to hear from us, having 10 years of building that? And it's just so interesting how you were saying, sell a product that has a really unique value proposition. And you saying, New York City, I can teach you how to do content creation using the city as a backdrop is insane because so many people how many people who Creators can like do that, having that background. So I think that's the perfect example. You just didn't do it in a subscription-based model, you're doing it in the experience. It's once a year. I may not even do it this year unless I get convinced to a lot of work. It's a lot of work. We empathize. You've been a long time, and I use a lot of my so you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I use a lot of my connections in New York to make the experience so special. Yes. You know, we had the C COO of Magnolia Bakery teach us how to ice cupcakes this year speak to us about her business. journey things like that incredible so I try to bring unique experiences in and it's a lot of work it's it's me using the relationships that I've built for many many years and sharing that with everyone. I do want to mention that that yours is also very unique in that you do it the New York City experience you also don't charge creators to come. No I do ⁓ you do okay you do I do ⁓ others don't but I do you do but it's but it is you have a wonderful sponsorship. That kind of offset the cost. I have to. So literally, my price tag for that, it's called Foodie Creatives. Yeah. And for Foodie Creatives, it's a price for the ticket. Yes. And because New York is so darn inexpensive. That's what it is. Yes. It only covers food and boarding. Right. If you had to so that's what it is, is that I apologize. That if you if you didn't have those wonderful sponsors that were a part of it, it would be double at least. Absolutely. And you have a So in order to park. Around the city, and it's it's four days, and we do so many fun things, and so yeah, it's it's great. And and I'm glad I created that. I was lucky the first year we ran it, we made a profit. That's incredible. Congratulations on that. That's huge. But also, I think that's something to keep in mind for if we're saying, Hey, let's diversify our income, let's start these new micro businesses around our business. You have to be aware, you've been running your blog or the thing that is making You money for years. You've built that. Remember where you started from. And when you're starting these new microbusinesses or starting a product line or something, it takes time to build that. You may not turn a profit for a couple of years, or you may, but it's you're still investing. Especially events-based business. Like we should have a taste to make or tell all about how many money it costs. Well, and also how many times in the last 10 years have we been like, that's it? This is our last one. The last one is. So expensive. Because we love everybody, but it's and but it is a lot of work, as you know. It's lot of work, it's a lot of expense, and it's now a business that you run. So you can't really like totally turn away from it. And we all really like and appreciate it. ⁓ it's not going anywhere. So taste makers hit an all-time high. Yes. And we're seeing that even within our business to diversify what we're doing, like this podcast. We are so excited to introduce creators' stories, their ⁓ advice to other creators. We need we need that in our community. I agree. Absolutely. So we have some really fun, rapid rapid fire questions for you that we've We're gonna trade off and they're gonna be so fun. Okay. Sure. ready. Fun will be me stumbling over the answers. Okay. So a lot of these are business oriented, but they're you know, we're gonna do quick fire and then we'll ask ⁓ a couple. So first, one business investment that's paid for itself many times over. Mm. well, I we talked about this offline. But hiring people, I have several good because people worry about doing that. Yes. It's a skill though, like you said. Yes. You it's nice to know how to manage and nice to know how to hire. Mm-hmm. and I have had some doozies where you have to let them go. But I have a core team. Yeah. And yes, I couldn't run my business now without them and without that infrastructure. Which I love that you have an abundance mentality over a scarcity mentality because it is hard to invest in that. But it's brought it back, you said, many times over. Yes. What platform are you most excited about right now? I'll tell you. I have a great answer. I want to hear it. So, Grayson from iMark, he is a tech support company. Okay. And he just created a platform called Acasio. Okay, tell us. What does it do? It it manages, I can't even describe it. I'm excited. Just look it up. It's amazing. How you spell it? Acasio. We'll put it in the show notes. Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes. Because it's a we don't know how to spell that. Yes. And we'll figure it out. You can't put me out of spelling beat here. Grayson is incredible. Yes. So he basically took from all of his clients input from hey, they use Clarity or they use G A four or they use, you know console and all these platforms. ⁓ all the s a ⁓ the AI and the keyword searches. Yeah. And he has put them together. And he's still building up. It's so new that he's adding things every week. Cool. But he wants that to be a help for bloggers. Where I go in now and it's only been out for a few weeks. You click in there, it will audit your site and it will pull up Are you missing meta description from these 20 posts? ⁓ my gosh, you didn't even know. are you missing alt text? Do you need to update this post because it's been sitting there for four years? ⁓ it will tell you the seasonality of posts ⁓ so that you can block off how you want to work or how you want to update. And then there's a whole other keyword search component to it. So it is that instead of learning it. Have you seen the success by implementing the brand new? For me, yes. I already that one audit ⁓ in my Google Analytics pulled in my WordPress data, pulled in everything that I would have had to go to three different platforms and it would have taken search months also to break it down. What does it mean? Yeah. So I'm excited. It's new, I'm still learning it, but I think it's going to make blogging more fun, easier, a little more approachable because accessible. Yeah. Because we want to get more social first creators because it's like you guys are leaving so much money on the table. Let us be the bridge for you. 100%. Well, we could talk about That forever yes. biggest mistakes you are seeing creators making today. But I make all I make mistakes. That's okay. Me or other people. Everybody. Well, we just barely talked about this. From afar, I don't know their business or their personal issues, but from afar, I think people should hire more. Yeah. Instead of trying to do everything themselves, it's causing burnout. Start small. Yes, it's causing burnout. I'm watching that with friends and other people in groups. Yep. ⁓ start small. Hire ⁓ A little at a time. Yeah. And start to parse off some things that you're having trouble. Like you have if you have control issues, even more push yourself to hire somehow. Well, because what it does is it allows you to focus on the things you're really good at. And that actually then brings it back. And it's hard to spend that budget, especially when you don't have it, but start small. Yeah. I I always encourage people too. It's like you are a business and most startups have some form of investment. Like yes, you are the solopreneur, but think of it that way, like put Yourself out on a limb. Hire smart, but you know, take a risk. Okay, last question for you. Where do you think food creators will be in five years from now? What does that landscape look like? Ooh. I wish I knew, right? Just myself. Yeah, what do you think? But I think based on everything that's happening right now. I think it's going to be video still. I think it's it's I agree. Digestible video. People just want to consume video. And we've seen that trend happening and it's just getting more and more. You're gonna have to yes, and not in an overwhelming way. I'm very overwhelmed by creating video. It's such a trigger word for me. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still going to be creating recipe based content. Right. That's my specialty. People like it. People look for it. And they still will be, but it's being able to turn that into a few different media You know, opportunities. I agree. So, yeah. And we have a fun one for you. So, your last meal. Like, what would it be? The ultimate last meal. Not to not a low note. No, not like if you were if you were given the best meal of your life, what would that be? I shouldn't say last, but your dream meal. mean absolutely. Sorry about that. ⁓ meal. Because last is different than dream meal. And that also is a little sad. Dream meal. Dream meal. Which is tricky. I've never been a fan of like naming favorites. They change all the time. Yeah. But like I couldn't I know what I couldn't live without fit. Yeah, without. So I couldn't live without cheese, pizza, but I couldn't live without tacos and chips and salsa. But I couldn't live without, you know, Thai food and dumplings. I think we have the same flavor. But also ⁓ chocolate chip cookies were taken away from me, I would die. a slow intellectual diagonal. I have a sweet tooth. I love that. But I just I love I love world flavors. I love ⁓ know it's just a good thing you live in New York City. Yeah, exactly. Can you imagine going to this tiny town, moving to a tiny town and like being plopped like in a Hallmark movie? ⁓ and the New York girl gets dropped in and has nothing to eat. What would you do? ⁓ my gosh, can we produce that? Is that our next career act? She is producing. ⁓ Food creator hallmark movie. You heard it your first. Done. The hungry girl. The hungry movie. But isn't that funny? Food is like Hallmark. It's crazy. brings people together. ⁓ my gosh. We've got it. Everyone heard out. The hungry girl and the hunky. Okay. No. I'm just kidding. I'm vetoing it. That's the Hallmark base. Okay. All right. But fine. We'll get rid of that and just focus on food. Let's just do that. Food matters. It's the best. 100%. So I love that. We have loved talking to you. Thank you, Tara, for being so inspiring. love you guys. For encouraging other creators again, you always have that generosity for creators. Well, thanks for leading this community in such a fun way and an innovative way. It's it's fun to talk, it's fun to see where Tastemaker's going, where you are going individually. So this is awesome. Thank you. We're so glad you had us or we had we were able to have you today. Thank you for joining us for our first episode in the Kit Studios in New York City. Thank you to Kid for allowing us to be here. We love We love them. Shout out to them as a They have been a sponsor since year one. Yeah. Good job, Haley. Yes. Her baby. And if you guys haven't got your ticket for Tastemaker conference, I'm gonna put that up there. Make sure you come because Tara will be there. Come see all of us. It's a It's a fun time to reunite with friends, don't you think? Wow, it's the 10th anniversary. Like that. No Pacemaker Torah in Texas. Yeah. It's gonna be fun. Thanks. And we look forward to seeing everyone on the next episode of Tastemaker
Daphne Davis: Talk.
COMPRESSED all cam tara tt: Talk.
COMPRESSED tara cam (tara tt): Funny celebrity. Yeah. But back then she was the media we watched her every day on TV icon. Every day. We got her monthly. Magazines. Sh her magazine in the 90s was what made any housewife or ⁓ or reader transform their house or want to cook or want to entertain. ⁓ was that magazine. You know, you think of other magazines that women always got better homes and gardens, good housekeeping, ladies' home journal, all of those.
Daphne Davis: women's service magazines, but then Martha came on and she turned it into a beautiful thing. You wanted to ⁓ really appreciated high quality from the get-go, which is probably why she picked you, Tara. you're so nice. So yeah, so I actually I had to interview. I was still in college, finishing my senior year in college, and came out to New York and interviewed to be test kitchen intern. And they almost me down, but I think I was.
COMPRESSED all cam tara tt: And she turned it into a beautiful thing. She really appreciated high quality from the get go, which is probably why she picked you, Tara. you're so nice. So ⁓ Yeah, so I actually I had to interview. I was still in college, finishing my senior year in college, and came out to New York and interviewed to the test kitchen intern. And they turned me down, but I think I was killed them with kindness. Yes. And said, I'm a fast learner. I know I don't know a lot. I kind of begged my way into that position because ⁓ ⁓ in ⁓ school. I majored in culinary arts at State University. ⁓ So wasn't necessarily a culinary school, but I got my degree in that. ⁓ Well, only interns they took were from the Culinary Institute of America. So I was told that they were like, well, we only take interns from blah blah blah. Yeah. So I came and I had to cook for the test kitchen director I had an interview. That's a lot of pressure. What did you make? Yeah. ⁓ do you remember? ⁓ yes, I remember. It was very funny. It was very chefy. And Stewart and the test kitchen weren't chefy. They were for home cooks and you know, elevated home cooking. ⁓ But had just come out of culinary school. I made like a miso glazed salmon, which in nineteen ninety nine was very forwarding. And I Did taro chips, which is that root vegetable that you I did tarot chips, and I feel like I was gonna say yes, you should have stayed in their mind, but you clearly did. And then I did some sort, I feel like a rice pilaf, which is a very chefy restaurant, right? And then I remember I did a banana souffle for dessert with a twil cookie that like twisted up over it, very chefy again. Yes, and it took me several hours to make that. I needed that she wanted a three. Course menu to show my skills. And so I had prepared it. I had practiced it before I came and cooked for her. I made it. And I remember she came over and just kind of picked at it with a fork. And this was the test kitchen director, Susan Sugarman. Not Martha. Not Martha. And she kind of picked at it and tasted it. And I just put my heart and soul into this like ⁓ meal, you know. And she's like, okay, okay. Okay. And then she handed me a bunch of other recipes to make and tests to do. I had to make a fluffy three egg omelette and I had to make this maple cake with ⁓ cooked frosting. And so she was And these are all Martha's recipes. The cake was. Okay. And the three egg omelet, and I had to cook pasta al dente and cut an onion to medium dices. So she was testing my skills. Yes. Like so that I could work in the test kitchen. And The cake kind of a disaster. It was a three egg omelet. I wrote the story and put it on my blog because it was just an epic story. I think she had me make it five times. So I was back there whipping the you know omelet and and made the omelet. She's like, ⁓ fluffy enough, go make it again. So I'm back in the kitchen. ⁓ my gosh. Trying to aerate it, you know. Sweating. ⁓ And she like wouldn't even taste them. She's just like, No, it's not fluffy enough. Go make it again. my ⁓ Or you're I'm never I'm never getting this job. I'm like, this is gonna anyway. So I finally made it and she finally tasted it. And she's like, okay, well, it's not that fluffy, but fine. long story short, when I went back home, I was still in school. So I went back to my classes and I asked all my culinary, you know, classmates. I'm like, how do you make a fluffy three-eg omelet? I hadn't learned it. I still was learning my skills as a cook. And all of them at once, they all knew, and they were like, You separate the egg whites and the egg yolks and beat the whites and then fold in the yolks so that you can aerate it more. I was like such a basic skill, but I hadn't learned it yet. She knew. She knew. That was a tank too. I wonder if she was testing your grit and determination as well. Well, probably all of that. In fact, when she hired me to be the intern, I I flew home and I didn't hear from her for about three days. And she hired me and said You know, you have a lot to learn, but you're a nice person, so you can come and be the intern. that's amazing. Which goes back to the core of who you are. Which it helps. And so you keep that with you your whole career, right? Like I a job because she thought I was a nice person. ⁓ So not be a ruffy person, right? Yeah. Which I think you've lived by that and it's led you to so many other things. So you went into this as the assistant. Yeah. Then what did that unfold into? So I was at Martha Stewart magazine for six years. Okay. And about every year I got a promotion. And I just worked my way up the ranks. So after being an intern, they hired me as a freelancer. And then they hired me as a junior editor. Ooh. And they didn't even have a junior enough position for me. So they made up a title for me to put me on the masthead of the magazine. And instead of being an editor, I was the recipe developer. I love it. So that's my first masthead in a magazine is recipe developer. And then I just worked my way up to senior food editor. yeah, was there. She went to jail. ⁓ I there. She did? Yes. And so things changed. work changed. Different people were brought in to work in the department and things like that. And that's crazy character. But everything just kept going. The wheels just kept rolling. Yes. Okay. Yes. She had built a good team, which is also a good reminder to build that team and that base. Well, and backed in any business you build. Watching her build that business. Yeah. From the IPO, from becoming a public company yeah to expanding the Walmart or the Kmart sorry ⁓ to the Kmart line yeah to her she had a catalog for many years and her own product line. Yes. And in the test kitchen we worked on the catalog. We would have to make the cookies that went with the cookie cutters in the catalog. We would have to make the cakes that went with the cake pans and shoot those. And so we were very involved with all of her businesses as she grew it and then all of the home decor and things like that. So to watch her business go to that omni media was fascinating. Yes. And yeah. That's what creators I feel like like what creators are doing now though is this really interesting place where you don't have to ⁓ like an agent or know somebody to be a food celebrity. Like if you have a great idea and the grit and whatnot, you can build that. So I'm just curious how have you taken those skills helping build one of arguably the biggest female run food media companies. How does that translate to what you've built as a food creator? I think aspects of it have infiltrated all of my business. I'm not big. I haven't created you know something as large scale as that. Sure. But everything I do, I learned a lot from that. I also, after Martha Stewart, I went and I was the food editor at Ladies Home Journal magazine. And that was a very different experience, but I was in charge. I was in charge of the test kitchen and the food department and all of the food that went into that magazine. And I learned a lot there as well. But what one of the biggest things that I learned at Martha Stewart, believe it or not, I learned what kind of a manager I didn't want to be. then as I got to be that manager and that boss at Ladies Home Journal magazine, ⁓ was able to hone those skills. Yeah. You know, learn how to give the best constructive feedback, learn how to hire, learn how to fire, learn how to manage a team. And that has been so helpful for me. ⁓ think as a as a I transitioned into being a food blogger and a consultant. I have to use those skills all the time because I hire help. Yeah, I have to hire help. And you have a team, and you have done so many incredible things. You have three cookbooks, correct? Two cookbooks, two. Two published cookbooks. Two published cookbooks that are nationwide in Deseret Book, as well as many other stores. And that probably was a huge undertaking. In fact, I just got to go visit Tara's home for the first time. We've been friends for a while, but I haven't been to her house. And we see each other all the different things and I got to walk into your office and all your beautiful little photos up on the wall from your cook shoot. She said, I can't seem to take it down. I Don't you dare it's beautiful. Beautiful. And so you worked really hard to get that, to get a publisher, to all of those things. And that that's been a success. That's another thing is a huge undertaking. And you know what I I did to myself? I thought, ⁓ I've been in publishing for fifteen years. ⁓ I got this. I can write a cookbook. It was hard. It was very different than a monthly magazine. It was very different than a blog. Yes. And and anyone who's written a cookbook. Yeah. feel like stopped creating content after I published Ruin Nourish because I was like, that's it. That's what I wanted to do. And I don't ever want to do food or recipe creation ever again. Yeah. Because it was like I'm still burnt out. That was 2021. That was five years ago. ⁓ I get it. It's it's a lot hard work. It's your blood, sweat, and tears. Yes. ⁓ it's You know, it's a fantastic marketing tool for your business. Yes. It's a fantastic feat. It you know, makes you yeah, it's an accomplishment. ⁓ all of those things. Mm-hmm. And it's hard. So you've done that. You have your blog that you're currently running. What are some of your what are some of the things that are next up for Terra Teaspoon? I kind of always keep irons in the fire. Yep. I have always had an arm of my business be consulting, which is smart freelancing. Yes, yep. It used to be called freelancing. You have some incredible partnerships. Just today, we you have worked with Melissa Melissa's produce for 17 years. Well, I've known Robert for that for that long. But you have your your partners stay with you because you again, I think it comes back to that kind person, but also you produce high quality content. I think that comes from working at Martha Stewart. Exactly. Everything had actually been that. Perfect. And I think that's hurt shot me in the foot with my blog ⁓ because like the perfection. Put that out there. I can't. This has to be perfect. Martha would not. Because it's not Martha quality. And I have had to remind myself, yeah, I don't have the team and the budget. Martha had. Let's just get out what I can get out. That's actually a really good reminder that it's like you think like a media company, but also you're a small business. Yes, yeah. And just and get it out. But I have honed my skills and I do create content for food brands. And now it's called whitelisting. Back then it was just freelancing years and years ago. I create content because all of the These brands, as we all know, have websites and they have marketing teams and they don't have kitchens. And so they're they need their recipe index on their website using their products, and you've got the logic. They're food and they need videos of food. And so my name won't show up on that. But I have produced content for many, many big brands and that lives on their website. Or they're able to use it for internal marketing or social media. And so I can charge a premium for that because my name's not on it. Yeah. But I miss that whole, you know, Wave of sponsored blog posts and things where people were making a lot of money and growing that way. ⁓ but I just I kind of kept them separate for many years and they still are slightly separate, where it's still under Terra Teaspoon Inc. Yeah. ⁓ but I will not put my name on things that I charge a premium for, and then I'll work on my blog. Which makes sense. It's nice to have so it's nice to have multiple streams of revenue. And in this day and age, especially with AI, the way things are going. You have talked, we have talked about this. Personally, and so let's share a little bit more about how you are diversifying your income. You talked about you're doing those whitelisted projects, you have your blog. What are some of the other things that you're doing that other creators can can look to as inspiration because they're a lot of them are feeling burnout, there are a lot of them are feeling discouragement right now. Or we just have zero control over the algorithms. That's a good thing. Over our RPMs, yeah, over our income if it's solely from the blog. And so a lot of us have created projects. And or products that we sell online. I've done the whole ebooks and I've done printed on-demand products and things like that. And realize I never trained my audience to buy from me necessarily. And so that's a huge distinction. And so like that is we're really leaning into creator commerce and social commerce because that is the future of retail, a lot of where the money is for creators is you know, having products, affiliates, all of that. Yep. And the really Interesting thing I see coming up as a theme in these rooms when they're talking is you may have this massive audience, but it's such a vanity metric now because if you have not trained your audience to buy from you, don't care about that. They're looking for conversion. And so I think it's important to think about like how can I train my audience in this day and age, or like, do you even want that as part of your business model? Right. Like maybe that's not for me, right? Some of the biggest creators who have done a traditional publishing route through their cookbook, ⁓ were shocked. At the sales numbers. They were like, how is this possible? I have a massive audience, a massive newsletter list, massive social following. But guess what? You're giving so much away for free. They're used to getting it for free. Exactly. Yeah. So is there anything that and I I hate to say that what would you do to an up and coming emerging creators? What would you recommend? start from the beginning by selling something. Yeah. Okay. That's at a premium. ⁓ Because now it's Substack, now it's memberships, things like that that everybody's trying to get in. Youthful generation is used to buying. Yes, absolutely. And we're used to that whole streaming service thing where it's like, I'll I'll pay for this for a few months and then I'll stop it and then I'll pay for this for a few months, etc. But we all know the psychology of that is if you can get somebody in on an auto payment, they forget to cancel. But I think also that's training them to hit that button first. Yeah. But I wish there was a secret sauce for me. It's it's work. Yeah. You have to provide them something unique that you're selling. Them. So I've never done SubSec because for me, that's a whole other set of hours of work to create something from maybe what I have, content that I have, but to turn it into something unique for those paying customers. And it's so much work. I actually tried to start that, and I and it's good to learn and grow and learn what things work for you and what don't. And it was just so much time. ⁓ I hadn't trained my audience in that same way to purchase a member. membership monthly membership through Substack to get things they're like, why I could go over to the blog. Yeah. You know? And I I also realized with you know printable products, ebooks, things like that, I'm sitting there paying a fee for the selling services or the platforms or the plugins and things like that. And you have to make up that cost. And it just finally I've kind of stopped all of that for the moment. Yep. a few years ago a friend of mine and I started a Food blogger retreat. Love it. Kind of a a mini experience. In real life is everything. What a perfect time to start that. Yeah. It it was great. We wanted it. So we wanted to create something we would want to attend. Yes. And we love networking with pe with bloggers of all levels. we because I live in New York, we formulated it to be very New York central because ⁓ live here. I'm inspired ⁓ day. Just by going grocery shopping is a different experience. Everyone wants to come to New York. The restaurants, the food, the markets, shopping experiences, the prop shopping, you know, all of that. I get to live it. And so part of creating that experience and retreat for people was I wanted to bring them to New York ⁓ inspire them to go home and keep working on that blog, right? So I think like ⁓ am really excited about the experiential movement happening because obviously Taste Maker, we're coming up on 10 years. We built it on that premise community experience. Education. And now it's everywhere. And now it's everywhere. And it's like doing pop-ups, coffee shops. The creators to be doing that though. It's like, how can we share our wisdom? What do you guys want to hear from us, having 10 years of building that? And it's just so interesting how you were saying, sell a product that has a really unique value proposition. And you saying, New York City, I can teach you how to do content creation using the city as a backdrop is insane because so many people how many people who Creators can like do that, having that background. So I think that's the perfect example. You just didn't do it in a subscription-based model, you're doing it in the experience. It's once a year. I may not even do it this year unless I get convinced to a lot of work. It's a lot of work. We empathize. You've been a long time, and I use a lot of my so you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I use a lot of my connections in New York to make the experience so special. Yes. You know, we had the C COO of Magnolia Bakery teach us how to ice cupcakes this year speak to us about her business. journey things like that incredible so I try to bring unique experiences in and it's a lot of work it's it's me using the relationships that I've built for many many years and sharing that with everyone. I do want to mention that that yours is also very unique in that you do it the New York City experience you also don't charge creators to come. No I do ⁓ you do okay you do I do ⁓ others don't but I do you do but it's but it is you have a wonderful sponsorship. That kind of offset the cost. I have to. So literally, my price tag for that, it's called Foodie Creatives. Yeah. And for Foodie Creatives, it's a price for the ticket. Yes. And because New York is so darn inexpensive. That's what it is. Yes. It only covers food and boarding. Right. If you had to so that's what it is, is that I apologize. That if you if you didn't have those wonderful sponsors that were a part of it, it would be double at least. Absolutely. And you have a So in order to park. Around the city, and it's it's four days, and we do so many fun things, and so yeah, it's it's great. And and I'm glad I created that. I was lucky the first year we ran it, we made a profit. That's incredible. Congratulations on that. That's huge. But also, I think that's something to keep in mind for if we're saying, Hey, let's diversify our income, let's start these new micro businesses around our business. You have to be aware, you've been running your blog or the thing that is making You money for years. You've built that. Remember where you started from. And when you're starting these new microbusinesses or starting a product line or something, it takes time to build that. You may not turn a profit for a couple of years, or you may, but it's you're still investing. Especially events-based business. Like we should have a taste to make or tell all about how many money it costs. Well, and also how many times in the last 10 years have we been like, that's it? This is our last one. The last one is. So expensive. Because we love everybody, but it's and but it is a lot of work, as you know. It's lot of work, it's a lot of expense, and it's now a business that you run. So you can't really like totally turn away from it. And we all really like and appreciate it. ⁓ it's not going anywhere. So taste makers hit an all-time high. Yes. And we're seeing that even within our business to diversify what we're doing, like this podcast. We are so excited to introduce creators' stories, their ⁓ advice to other creators. We need we need that in our community. I agree. Absolutely. So we have some really fun, rapid rapid fire questions for you that we've We're gonna trade off and they're gonna be so fun. Okay. Sure. ready. Fun will be me stumbling over the answers. Okay. So a lot of these are business oriented, but they're you know, we're gonna do quick fire and then we'll ask ⁓ a couple. So first, one business investment that's paid for itself many times over. Mm. well, I we talked about this offline. But hiring people, I have several good because people worry about doing that. Yes. It's a skill though, like you said. Yes. You it's nice to know how to manage and nice to know how to hire. Mm-hmm. and I have had some doozies where you have to let them go. But I have a core team. Yeah. And yes, I couldn't run my business now without them and without that infrastructure. Which I love that you have an abundance mentality over a scarcity mentality because it is hard to invest in that. But it's brought it back, you said, many times over. Yes. What platform are you most excited about right now? I'll tell you. I have a great answer. I want to hear it. So, Grayson from iMark, he is a tech support company. Okay. And he just created a platform called Acasio. Okay, tell us. What does it do? It it manages, I can't even describe it. I'm excited. Just look it up. It's amazing. How you spell it? Acasio. We'll put it in the show notes. Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes. Because it's a we don't know how to spell that. Yes. And we'll figure it out. You can't put me out of spelling beat here. Grayson is incredible. Yes. So he basically took from all of his clients input from hey, they use Clarity or they use G A four or they use, you know console and all these platforms. ⁓ all the s a ⁓ the AI and the keyword searches. Yeah. And he has put them together. And he's still building up. It's so new that he's adding things every week. Cool. But he wants that to be a help for bloggers. Where I go in now and it's only been out for a few weeks. You click in there, it will audit your site and it will pull up Are you missing meta description from these 20 posts? ⁓ my gosh, you didn't even know. are you missing alt text? Do you need to update this post because it's been sitting there for four years? ⁓ it will tell you the seasonality of posts ⁓ so that you can block off how you want to work or how you want to update. And then there's a whole other keyword search component to it. So it is that instead of learning it. Have you seen the success by implementing the brand new? For me, yes. I already that one audit ⁓ in my Google Analytics pulled in my WordPress data, pulled in everything that I would have had to go to three different platforms and it would have taken search months also to break it down. What does it mean? Yeah. So I'm excited. It's new, I'm still learning it, but I think it's going to make blogging more fun, easier, a little more approachable because accessible. Yeah. Because we want to get more social first creators because it's like you guys are leaving so much money on the table. Let us be the bridge for you. 100%. Well, we could talk about That forever yes. biggest mistakes you are seeing creators making today. But I make all I make mistakes. That's okay. Me or other people. Everybody. Well, we just barely talked about this. From afar, I don't know their business or their personal issues, but from afar, I think people should hire more. Yeah. Instead of trying to do everything themselves, it's causing burnout. Start small. Yes, it's causing burnout. I'm watching that with friends and other people in groups. Yep. ⁓ start small. Hire ⁓ A little at a time. Yeah. And start to parse off some things that you're having trouble. Like you have if you have control issues, even more push yourself to hire somehow. Well, because what it does is it allows you to focus on the things you're really good at. And that actually then brings it back. And it's hard to spend that budget, especially when you don't have it, but start small. Yeah. I I always encourage people too. It's like you are a business and most startups have some form of investment. Like yes, you are the solopreneur, but think of it that way, like put Yourself out on a limb. Hire smart, but you know, take a risk. Okay, last question for you. Where do you think food creators will be in five years from now? What does that landscape look like? Ooh. I wish I knew, right? Just myself. Yeah, what do you think? But I think based on everything that's happening right now. I think it's going to be video still. I think it's it's I agree. Digestible video. People just want to consume video. And we've seen that trend happening and it's just getting more and more. You're gonna have to yes, and not in an overwhelming way. I'm very overwhelmed by creating video. It's such a trigger word for me. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still going to be creating recipe based content. Right. That's my specialty. People like it. People look for it. And they still will be, but it's being able to turn that into a few different media You know, opportunities. I agree. So, yeah. And we have a fun one for you. So, your last meal. Like, what would it be? The ultimate last meal. Not to not a low note. No, not like if you were if you were given the best meal of your life, what would that be? I shouldn't say last, but your dream meal. mean absolutely. Sorry about that. ⁓ meal. Because last is different than dream meal. And that also is a little sad. Dream meal. Dream meal. Which is tricky. I've never been a fan of like naming favorites. They change all the time. Yeah. But like I couldn't I know what I couldn't live without fit. Yeah, without. So I couldn't live without cheese, pizza, but I couldn't live without tacos and chips and salsa. But I couldn't live without, you know, Thai food and dumplings. I think we have the same flavor. But also ⁓ chocolate chip cookies were taken away from me, I would die. a slow intellectual diagonal. I have a sweet tooth. I love that. But I just I love I love world flavors. I love ⁓ know it's just a good thing you live in New York City. Yeah, exactly. Can you imagine going to this tiny town, moving to a tiny town and like being plopped like in a Hallmark movie? ⁓ and the New York girl gets dropped in and has nothing to eat. What would you do? ⁓ my gosh, can we produce that? Is that our next career act? She is producing. ⁓ Food creator hallmark movie. You heard it your first. Done. The hungry girl. The hungry movie. But isn't that funny? Food is like Hallmark. It's crazy. brings people together. ⁓ my gosh. We've got it. Everyone heard out. The hungry girl and the hunky. Okay. No. I'm just kidding. I'm vetoing it. That's the Hallmark base. Okay. All right. But fine. We'll get rid of that and just focus on food. Let's just do that. Food matters. It's the best. 100%. So I love that. We have loved talking to you. Thank you, Tara, for being so inspiring. love you guys. For encouraging other creators again, you always have that generosity for creators. Well, thanks for leading this community in such a fun way and an innovative way. It's it's fun to talk, it's fun to see where Tastemaker's going, where you are going individually. So this is awesome. Thank you. We're so glad you had us or we had we were able to have you today. Thank you for joining us for our first episode in the Kit Studios in New York City. Thank you to Kid for allowing us to be here. We love We love them. Shout out to them as a They have been a sponsor since year one. Yeah. Good job, Haley. Yes. Her baby. And if you guys haven't got your ticket for Tastemaker conference, I'm gonna put that up there. Make sure you come because Tara will be there. Come see all of us. It's a It's a fun time to reunite with friends, don't you think? Wow, it's the 10th anniversary. Like that. No Pacemaker Torah in Texas. Yeah. It's gonna be fun. Thanks. And we look forward to seeing everyone on the next episode of Tastemaker
Daphne Davis: Talk.
COMPRESSED all cam tara tt: Talk.
