We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dorothy Kern. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dorothy below.

Dorothy, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I knew I wanted to do something – but I didn’t want to go back to work as a teacher. At the time I was a stay-at-home mom that felt stuck so I wanted something that could be mine. The blog actually started as a hobby. I had the idea to start it on a whim – so I researched what to do and how to build a site using blogger (a free service from google back in 2010) and I hit publish soon after. It took several years to make any money – and more years after that to turn into an actual business.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m the recipe developer behind CrazyforCrust.com, a recipe website. I create easy dessert recipes using accessible ingredients and share them online, using my own photography and videography.

I started on a whim and learned as I went; it was different back then as blogs were somewhat new and food blogging was somewhat unheard of. I became the jack of all trades, learning how to write recipes, take photos, get traffic, etc. Later came social media, making videos, and all the other things that come with being a creator online.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Blogging, and working online in general, is all about pivoting. There wasn’t even social media when I started; I had to learn Facebook then Pinterest, then Instagram and TikTok. Video became popular in 2016 or so and I’d never shot or edited a video before – I had to teach myself how to do all of those things.

Over time I’ve had to learn to change so many things in this business, from writing stories to talking about the recipe, from focusing on SEO to social media – it seems that every time you get comfortable in what you’re doing, something comes and you need to learn something new or change the way you do things.

I think what makes me good as a blogger, and successful, is my ability to pivot, learn, and try new things.

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

Crazy for Crust started as a hobby; as something I wanted to do for me during the monotonous moments of being a SAHM. I stumbled into putting ads on the site, and growing the site and making an income.

I joined one of the early ad networks and my first month I made $25 and it sparked something in me. I could make money doing this? Doing what I loved? It made me realize it was worth something. So I kept going.

The most important thing I’ve done for my business is just to keep going. When I wanted to quit, I kept working. When I didn’t know how to do something, I learned. I kept working hard, and trying new things, and learning new things, and eventually started making more each month, enough to support my family.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.crazyforcrust.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crazyforcrust
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrazyforCrust/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CrazyforCrustRecipes