Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica Formicola . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

I was attending a wedding and a woman innocently asked what I did for a living. When I told her I was a digital content creator, she replied “Oh, so you are a blogger! It must be nice that your husband pays for a nanny while you get to do your little hobby.” I smiled, choked down another sip of wine and walked away smirking about my little secret.

The term “blogger” has a bad reputation. It is often associated with bored housewives who tell witty stories (or boring stories) about their husbands, kids and dogs, but only for amusement. The reality is that we aren’t really just bloggers anymore. The industry has evolved and is now monetized. Teams that run these websites are professional photographers, designers, journalists, website designers, publicists, talent agents, video producers and in my case, chefs. And the field is monetized- all of these sites that provide free content generate income via ads.

We commonly get complaints from readers about ads and being greedy, but the truth is that all sites have ads. You don’t visit very many that don’t. And in my case, these ads pay for a team of 17 people to put food on the table for their families. I challenge any one of these folks to go to work for free….

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was previously a psychotherapist and college professor. My husband and I started fertility treatment and I needed an outlet that wasn’t emotionally taxing so I started to tinker around in the kitchen. Being transplants with no local family, we’d invite friends over for dinner to try my creations. They would ask for recipes, so one day at work when a patient didn’t show for an appointment I Googled “how to start a blog”. I just wrote the recipe, no images or other content, and shared it with these friends.

I distinctly remember the day that more than just them looked at the site. I had no idea that “food blogging” was a thing or others were out there. This was long before Instagram, TikTok and even websites having the ability to be monetized. Since, it had evolved and 7 years, 16 rounds and 5 miscarriages later, we were finally having our first child. When she was born I was financially stable enough to quit working at the hospital and teaching and instead just went full time with my website. Now we employ 17 full time, part time and contract employees, I wrote a cookbook and appear regularly on TV, podcasts and radio.

Savory Experiments stands out among the estimated 2 million food blogs because I am not a professionally trained chef, which makes me relatable and approachable. I’m just a suburban mom who loves good food, but usually doesn’t have the time to make a super involved meal. We like to provide takeaways with every recipe, knowledge about the ingredients and technique and empower readers to customize our recipes to make them their own. Part of this mission is giving people confidence in the kitchen and reframing meal preparation as something fun, perhaps even quality family time, instead of a chore.

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

Social media has changed drastically over the years, but one thing seems to stand true: be yourself. As long as you let your true colors shine, you will find “your people”.

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

Like many, COVID was a big pivot in my career, but in a positive way. For a long time I tried to be super mom and work work full time with just part time child care. When we were going on lock down for 2-weeks, we decided to bring our part-time nanny here full-time.

I quickly realized how productive I could be working a regular work week. As the lock downs continued, when were finally allowed back out in the world again, I couldn’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. The good news is that this allowed me to grow, and thus scale my workforce and employ others who had lost jobs during the pandemic.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.savoryexperiments.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savoryexperiments/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SavoryExperiments
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Savory_Cooking
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOhcqHQ1Ch4JodddRhPK94A
• Other: https://mysaucerecipes.com/ https://bestdessertrecipes.com/