We were lucky to catch up with Biz Velatini recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Biz, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I am a full-time content creator in the food space, mostly focused on weight loss as I’m a member of Weight Watchers. However, above all else, the mission behind me sharing recipes and food content is truly just to get people excited about cooking. With rising grocery prices, busier schedules, and lack of inspiration (among other things), I want people to see that it doesn’t need to be expensive or time consuming to make good food that’s enjoyable and nutritionally balanced. You’ll notice when scrolling through my social media channels that I’m missing my kitchen cabinet doors, and I have a rather small kitchen. In a world where people curate content and everyone is comparing themselves to their feed, I also want to be a reminder that you don’t need to have a fancy space or high tech gadgets in order to make delicious food that you love. You can use whatever it is that you already have, and the food will turn out just as amazing! In regard to the weight loss side of my content, I also want to prove that you don’t need to eat boring food in order to lose weight. When you make it a lifestyle and not a diet, you’ll see how sustainable living a balanced life can be!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My Bizzy Kitchen began as a blog back in 2008! That became my space for sharing recipes, documenting life, and essentially building an online diary of sorts. I was a legal secretary for over 30 years, so blogging was my creative outlet outside of my full time job. Back in 1999, me and my twin sister joined Weight Watchers and I lost 70lbs in 15 months. Over the years and throughout my husband’s illness and subsequent passing, the weight slowly came back. I stayed on Weight Watchers throughout this time, but often didn’t track or would set unrealistic expectations for myself that would set myself up for failure. This cycle continued for many years, until I realized that it didn’t need to be that way.

In 2017, my social media began to grow when the Weight Watchers community found my Skinny Pizza Dough recipe. At the time, there was another viral dough going around that was only two ingredients. I tried to make that dough and it never worked for me, and to be honest, I thought it was gross. My Skinny Pizza Dough gained more traction as people realized how easy it was to make, and for being lower in Weight Watcher points. People were finally able to enjoy eating pizza again! After growing on social media, I was finally able to quit my corporate job in December of 2020. While it was terrifying and overwhelming, I knew cooking is what I wanted to do full-time. The stress of starting something from scratch and building my business was not nearly as scary as staying where I was — unhappy.

In December of 2022, I had a mindset adjustment with my weight loss journey. I realized that I was my own enemy, and if I just let go of the timelines, unrealistic goals, and stopped trying to be perfect, I could actually sustain a healthier lifestyle! Instead of promising myself that I’d walk 10K steps a day, drink a gallon of water, eat 4 servings of fruits and vegetables every day before noon, etc. – I just did my best. I didn’t give up when the scale didn’t reflect my efforts. I didn’t throw in the towel when I missed a workout. I simply did better today than I did yesterday, and all of those days proved that consistency is key. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to be consistent.

As I grew into life as a widow, I also realized just how many people didn’t cook for themselves. I wanted to not only prove that you could eat the foods you love while losing weight, and that you didn’t need to break the bank to do so, but also that you deserve to eat nourishing food, even if just for yourself.

In 2020, I released my first cookbook, Skinny Pizza Dough, in digital format with limited printed copies. This cookbook showcases all of the versatile ways to use the dough; breakfast sweets, savory snacks, and full meals like chicken and dumplings. I re-released it in print in 2022, along with my second cookbook, Cooking For One. The second cookbook is all single-serving recipes to inspire those living alone, or cooking for themselves, to get “bizzy” in their kitchen.

At the end of 2o22, I took the next scary step for My Bizzy Kitchen by hiring my daughter, Hannah. While she was successful in the corporate world, she didn’t enjoy it, and simultaneously I was realizing that I needed more help. Since then, it’s been the two of us creating content and figuring things out as we go!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Unlike a lot of creators out there who just continue to pump out content and walk away, I am very connected to my followers. Because my business began as a hobby via my blog, back then in 2008, bloggers stayed connected to one another. Blogging at that time was story telling and very similar to an online diary, where I first grew my online community. I got to know so many other bloggers and made friends with people whom I’m still close with today! I think blogging was definitely the beginning of me learning how powerful internet friends could be. My late husband always used to joke that those people I met online weren’t real friends, but to be honest, it was only proof that community could be built virtually.

When I gained traction on social media (Instagram, specifically), I continued to foster relationships with new followers because it just felt natural. I wanted people to know that I was real, and that it was really me they were talking to when sending a DM to me. A huge part of why my following continues to grow, in my opinion, is because I have always been authentically myself. I am just as involved in others’ lives as they are mine, and because of that, I’ve built a bigger community instead of a false following.

I would never promote a product or anything I didn’t already use and love myself, and I think that authenticity also speaks volumes. In today’s age, there are more influencers than ever, and I think people have adapted to be able to recognize when something is purely sales driven, or when the person is being honest. I have always been transparent on my social media and believe that’s a major key to success when trying to grow an audience online.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I was a legal secretary for over 30 years, and had been food blogging since 2008. I blogged almost every day just as a hobby, in the hopes that someday I could quit my corporate job and work for myself. I didn’t really know what that meant at the time, I just knew I hated commuting and working for people who didn’t appreciate me. When my social media started growing, I met a woman named Erica around 2018. She was also a Chicago native and was looking to start her own business helping creators grow. I remember she talked about how to make money online with sponsorships through social media, and I honestly didn’t really understand. I didn’t think that something like that would be sustainable or even pay enough to be able to quit my corporate job. She asked me how much I’d need to make in order to quit, and I gave her a rough monthly figure. She said, “What if we got 4 campaigns per month that would equate to that amount?” I still didn’t believe her.
As I started working on sponsorships with brands, I realized quickly how easy it was for me to do that work – and how well they paid.

At the same time that I was starting this new business venture, Erica was just starting her own talent management company (Ecko Digital Media). I was actually the first person to join her team – and today, she has over 50 people on her roster! It wasn’t until December of 2020 that I officially took the leap and decided to go all in with My Bizzy Kitchen. I remember on my last day at my corporate job, as we worked remote at the time during COVID, the clock hit 5PM, and I just shut my computer. There were no parties or anyone reaching out to say goodbye, I just…left.

That was the reminder that I was done working in corporate. No one cared, and I was giving so much of myself to a place that didn’t appreciate it. Ever since then, I’ve continued growing my platforms, learning new things, and taking on more partnerships. I can make my own schedule, be flexible, and do what I love every single day!

Fast forward to 2022, I was starting to realize that I needed help. It’s a lot for one person to tackle everything: respond to messages and comments, film and edit all content, plan and schedule sponsored content, write new recipes and blog posts, etc. At the same time that I realized I could use help, my daughter was over her corporate job. She was a foreclosure manager at a mortgage servicing company, and was in a similar situation to me. Always staying late, going in early, only to face another endless stack of work. I reached out to her and sent her a video message via text while she was working, and I could see that she opened it but didn’t reply. She had someone come up to her desk, and got busy and forgot I messaged her. Later that night, I reached out to her husband to see if she had received my text. She had forgotten, and gave it a watch. I was asking if she wanted to come work with me full-time, and I offered to match her current corporate salary.
She said yes! That following Monday she put her two weeks in at work, and we’ve been working together ever since! We had always joked about one day being able to work together, but now it’s our reality.

Moral of the story: life is too short. You will always be scared to take the next step, the leap of faith, or the plunge into the unknown. Do it scared. Do it nervous. But do it anyway.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mybizzykitchen.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mybizzykitchen/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mybizzykitchen
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mybizzykitchen
• Other: https://nz.pinterest.com/mybizzykitchen/