Take-aways from this episode:
From hobby to business † Kelly Senyeic started blogging about food as a hobby in 2008. However, when she decided to start blogging Just a taste a business, there were many aspects to consider in order to generate revenue.
Different platforms. Different languages — Kelly Senyei understands that social media is an integral part of doing business in today’s world. The key, she says, is speaking effectively with the demographics of each platform.
Success takes time – In Kelly Senyei’s case, it took 14 years for her to be an overnight success. If it’s been said once, it’s been said a million times, but the saying holds true. It takes time to build an audience.
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With confidence, drive and enough time, Just a taste founder Kelly Senyei was able to turn her hobby into her profession.
Success takes time. That’s an adage often taken for granted, and even the source of frustration for those trying to break through a glass ceiling to get to the other side of success.
A self-proclaimed “grandma” of food blogging, Kelly Senyei started the Just a Taste blog in 2008 while attending journalism school at Columbia University in New York. But chasing the hard-hitting stories began to take an emotional toll on her. She longed for work that was more meaningful. The simplified, unifying power of food was a natural attraction for her.
“I wanted to start reporting on things that had a much better feel-good element to them.” And that’s what eventually led me to food,” said Kelly Senyei on the Restaurant Influencers podcast hosted by Shawn Walchef of CaliBBQ media. “It’s because everyone can talk about food. Anyone can cook. Everyone can, you know, enjoy a meal together. You don’t even have to speak the same language.”
The product of a mother who was a self-taught chef and an enterprising father, Senyei’s “aha moment” came when she did Just a Taste as a hobby.
While studying the stats from other food accounts related to her new blog, the numbers were favorable and formed the foundation of confidence for her to make the decision to turn Just a Taste into a business.
Four years after her food blogging journey, and graduating with highest honors from the Institute of Culinary Education, Senyei took another leap of faith by combining her distinct journalistic and culinary talents.
With Wiley Publishing, Senyei released “Food Blogging for Dummies” in 2012, which provided an early blueprint for aspiring writers looking to join the food space and catapulted her voice to a leadership spot.
As her popularity grew, Senyei’s penchant for analysis was and remains key to the progression of Just a Taste’s business.
“Everything is so calculated and strategic and that’s how it should be when you turn a hobby into a business.” says Kelly Senyei. “Otherwise, if you’re not paying attention to who your audience is, where they’re coming from, why they’re coming, you’re just doing this for yourself, and that’s fine. That’s okay. Don’t expect to make money doing that.”
That is the driving force behind her drive. It only makes sense that she would continue to build on the momentum she’s gained over the past year and a half. Immediately cookbook and impressive sizzle reel of TV appearances under her belt, Kelly Senyei and Just a Taste will make the next fourteen years as fruitful as the last fourteen.
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