We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shauntra Maddison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shauntra below.
Alright, Shauntra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
On 01/01/2019, I lost my best friend, my mommy. She was my biggest motivator and always made me feel like I could do anything that I put my mind too. Whenever she passed away, I felt lost and confused. One of the many things that connected my mom and myself was cooking. Since I was around the age of 9, she would always have me in the kitchen. Her and my grandmother both. I think they knew that I was meant to do something with cooking. Once my mom passed, I knew I wanted to do something with cooking, just didn’t know what. One day, my friend called me and asked how to make one of my recipes and it was like a lightbulb went off in my head. I wanted to make a blog. I did a lot of research on blogging and how to be able to monetize from it. Once I was done with all of my research and I was ready to get it going, I had to come up with a name. I was really struggling with this part. The name is a huge part of a business! As I was cooking and thinking about a name for the blog, my daughter comes downstairs and asks “mom, is dinner ready?” Again, that same lightbulb went off in my head and I just yelled “thats it!” On 01/01/2021, Is Dinner Ready? was created. It is a food blog where I include my simple and easy recipes in a step-by-step format. They are all my recipes, my writing and my photos. I do it all. From that blog, I have self-published my first cookbook and have been featured on Food Network.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hello! I am Shauntra Maddison, as seen on Food Network’s Big Bad Budge Battle, Cookbook Author, Food Blogger, and Recipe/Content Creator. Is Dinner Ready? is a food blog that features easy and delicious recipes made with simple ingredients. I am a firm believer that you don’t have to use a million ingredients in a dish for it to taste amazing. The simple the better! Being a content creator has its ups and downs. Yes, I get to share with the world my love and passion for creating new and easy recipes with my spin on it. The downside can be the criticism and people feeling that they can have an opinion on anything that you post on social media. Before I starting making food videos on Instagram and TikTok, I started doing research on the formatting, lighting, etc. I wanted to make sure my videos caught people’s attention. I use to post 2-3 times a week and now I post 1-2 times a week. As I am making the food video, I am also creating the recipe and taking the pictures, step-by-step. It is ALOT of work, but I absolutely love it! I love seeing and hearing people’s reactions! Especially whenever they have made a recipe of mine and they loved it. So far, I am most proud of the fact that I self-published an entire cookbook by myself! All of my recipes, my food photos, everything is ME. I am in the process of releasing a new one this year :) I am also proud that I was on Food Network! I thank God everyday, without him, none of this would be possible.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Through experience and research, I have learned that the key to building your audience on social media is consistency. If you are constantly posting and putting the items in your audience face, they are going to want to know “whats next” from you. I started my social media in January of 2021 and in September of 2021, I posted a video of my homemade Cheeseburger Macaroni, that video “put me on the map.” In the matter of 9 months, I was constantly posting and barely had 500 followers. That one video was constantly being seen by people on social media and I gained 20,000 followers. From there, people kept wanting to know “whats next” and now I have over 120,000 followers. The key word is CONSISTENCY!
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
I sell my cookbook and ebooks on my website. I also sell my hardcopy cookbook on Amazon, lets just say, there are additional added fees with selling on e-commerce platforms. I understand that many of these popular sites get your items out quickly, but I would recommend a small business or a start-up business to start by selling their items strictly on their own website. Once the business grows and more income is coming in, I would recommend looking into selling on other platforms as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.isdinner-ready.com
- Instagram: @isdinner_ready
- Facebook: Is Dinner Ready?
- Youtube: Is Dinner Ready?
- Other: TikTok: @isdinnerready
Image Credits
Jessy J Photo Shauntra Maddison