We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jose Barraza a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jose, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The pandemic hit and I was on social media watching cooking videos, I said I wanted to start making videos too to share my love for cooking. Unfortunately, I was an essential worker and barely had free time for anything else, then, it was in 2021 when I created my channel and pages and posted my first video. I was like that posting for fun for a full year before I got my first brand deal and was there when I saw my first payment, that I said, I wanted to be an influencer and content creator for a career.

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

I have loved cooking for as long as I can remember. My dad had a bakery all his life so I grew up playing that I was making bread and cakes and at the age of 12, I was decorating my first huge wedding cake. On the other hand, my mom loved hosting parties and cooking banquets, so I learned a lot from her. In my 20s I had several kitchen Jobs, from washing dishes to managing a kitchen but I got overwhelmed and decided to take a break from the restaurant industry, then, while working on management in a food distribution company, I realized I missed a lot cooking for others and started to buy the things that I needed to produce the videos that till this day I do by myself. I love showing my Mexican roots through food. I try to engage with my followers as much as possible, especially when they have questions about my recipes or cooking. They inspire and motivate me to keep going and start working on new projects that I hope to share with all of them soon.

How did you build your audience on social media?

The worst mistake I made when I started was, asking many people what should I do in my videos, from background music to recipes, from what to wear, what language, and even if I was looking “good”. Why the worst? In the end, I tried to please everyone to the point that I wasn’t being Me or doing things as I would. When I decided to start being myself and stop caring about what others thought about me, is when I noticed people were engaging and liking and watching my videos. I remember sharing with someone that I love so much, the video that I wanted to make that time, it was a trend, and I just got a “is too late already, the trend is over”, but I had all the ingredients for that recipe already so still I cooked and made the video and It was my first viral video and the one that got me more than half of the followers that I have. With success comes hate, and I read some of the worst comments I’ve ever received. I won’t say that I didn’t care or that they didn’t hurt me cause they did, but it is all part of the growing process, it has to happen to make you decide if you want to keep going or quit. I’m still here creating content and sharing my recipes and I learned to look at every bad comment as one cent per letter, good advice from a huge creator friend. I keep changing and innovating but this time without ceasing to be myself. People can feel if you are being fake, being myself is what has helped me to build my audience on social media, and most of all, doing it with love because I may not be the best cook out there but what I do is with much love and viewers can feel that.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

We all need money to pay our bills, I dream of one day having a good income so I can help people in need and my community. We have to understand that creators are entrepreneurs too, we don’t have the benefits that you may have through an employer, such as medical insurance, we take risks and don’t have a salary so, sometimes our income may be low and sometimes high but is also uncertain, and one thing is for sure, is not like that job where you can just show up to do nothing and get paid, we need to constantly work and create content to be rewarded.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nowayjosecuisine
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nowayjosecuisine
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@nowayjosecuisine
• Other: Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@nowayjosecuisine

Image Credits

Pao Carmona