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

Jordan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

Of course! Vacations are so important to reset the mind. They help me relax but also help me learn about new areas of the world. I often incorporate flavors from foods I’ve eaten on vacation into my recipes.

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

In 2014 I started an Instagram account to showcase local food and some of the recipes I was creating at home. Eventually I mainly focused on the local restaurant scene and it was a fun hobby for me. In 2017 I started a website for all of my recipes. What started as a hobby, slowly started turning into a business when brands began offering to pay me in exchange for promotion on my Instagram.

I eventually shifted away from local content because I didn’t want to be tied down to a specific city and I enjoyed sharing my own recipes more. My revenue from the blog was quickly increasing and I knew I was way more passionate about it than any job I ever had. I decided to save up some money and put all my time and effort into it. I told myself that if it didn’t earn enough for me to live off of in a year that I would go back to corporate. By putting in 50+ hours a week for one year, I was able to turn my hobby into a full time business and employ four wonderful women.

It wasn’t easy, but I’ve never felt more accomplished and proud of myself for anything than I do now! My job is incredibly rewarding and fulfilling, and every day I feel so lucky to do what I love for a living!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my Instagram and TikTok audience by showing up consistently and being my most authentic self. People are tired of seeing picture perfect curated feeds. They want to see things that are relatable, things that make them feel good, and content that teaches them something new or inspires them.

If you’re just starting out on social media, I highly recommend getting on TikTok. There is a lot of opportunity for fast growth on that platform! It’s also important to think about how you can serve your audience when creating content. Your content has to be interesting and catch the viewers attention within the first 3 seconds to be successful.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

My business was a side hustle for 3 years before I took the leap to try and turn it into a full time job. At first I didn’t want to invest in my business (financially) or leave my corporate job until my business was earning more than my salary. I realized this wasn’t the right way to go about it.

First of all, I firmly believe that you need to spend money to make money. And by this I mean you have to invest in yourself and your business. Whether it was investing in a photography course, supplies for photography, or a course in SEO (search engine optimization), I needed to invest to increase my skillset so I could succeed.

The next realization I had was that I was never going to earn a full time income without working (at least) full time (40 hours) on my business. For the first year and a half, I worked almost 7 days a week and averaged about 50 hours a week. I never put work down, but that’s what I needed to do in order to succeed and I don’t regret any of it!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jz-eats.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jzeats
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/jzeats
• Other: tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jzeats