We recently connected with Reid Quiggins and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Reid thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

My best investments have always been buying other people’s lessons and mistakes. At the beginning of my content creation journey, I had no idea what I was doing, but I had direction. Instead of having to trudge through the mud and learn video editing, voiceovers, social media strategy, analytics, etc. all from scratch, I invested my time researching and watching videos on other people’s mistakes and what they wish they knew at the beginning of their content creation journey. I find it always returns well on your time and money to learn something in 1 week that it took someone else 1 year to learn. After all, that’s how human civilization always progresses, taking what other people have learned and building on top of it.

Reid, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

1 year ago I had no social media apps installed on my phone. Over the years I had grown sick and tired of the negative effects that social media had had on myself and my peers. More time on our phones, trapped in addictive algorithms had taken away so much time and energy from having meaningful experiences with other people. I felt that social media was the furthest thing from social, and felt better without it in my life.

However, at the same time, I was always looking to get back into my passion for cooking. While spending lots of time at home during my Freshman year of college in 2020 and 2021, I was constantly experimenting with recipes and ingredients, and having fun while doing it. I even started a food blog to document all the things I was trying out. But it’d been a few years since I really spent a meaningful amount of time in the kitchen, as I’d been living in a college apartment with other 20 year-old-males which meant the kitchen was, more often than not, a hazard zone.

So one day, I decided that social media could be a great accountability device for me to get back into trying out new recipes and posting consistently, even if just to show my close friends and family. But in the back of my mind, I wanted to build something to prove that social media could be more than mindless scrolling and time-suck. That’s how Reid’s Active Kitchen was born. From a desire to do social media differently, using cooking as my medium, I’ve built a platform that meets people where they’re at, scrolling on social media, and makes them aware and encourages them to reconnect with the real world (maybe even by cooking one of my recipes).

My proudest moment is any time someone comments that they were stuck on their phone, but upon seeing my video, they decided to get off their phone and get back to what was important to them in the non-digital world. That’s the only validation I need to know I’m providing real value, instead of just contributing to the endless content machine that is social media.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

At the beginning of my content creation journey, I promised myself I’d post at least three times a week, as this gave me an ample amount of opportunities to iterate my content and test new ideas constantly. But over time, this led to me feeling like I was flailing to constantly push out more and more content, despite not feeling that it’s a product I’m proud of. Additionally, because it was rushed, I was no longer learning something and improving a process with each new video I posted. So really what I had to unlearn is the lean startup mentality of moving fast and breaking things. While that’s a great methodology early on, I’ve found that recently it’s made me unsatisfied with my craft and feel like I’m constantly falling short of my goals for my platform.

Instead, I’ve recently adopted the strategy of slowing down to speed up. The more methodical I can be upfront, the more satisfied I’ll be with the content I’m putting out, and feeling as though it serves my mission and is constantly adapting and improving. Maybe if I slow down and stop chasing, I can actually produce good videos I’m proud of.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is having an idea and then seeing it become something real. I’m constantly blown away by the fact that synapses firing in my brain to give me some nebulous idea that doesn’t exist in the world yet can lead to something tangible that provides value for thousands of people. That process never gets old.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://reidsactivekitchen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reidsactivekitchen/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reid-quiggins-414704204/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reidsactivekitchen
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reidsactivekitchen