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

Zhen , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

To be honest, it can be a real struggle earning a full-time living from creative work and I had to work for many years before I could even match my entry-level pay (when I had a corporate job.) What really helped me was networking and learning about income avenues from other creatives in the same line, as well as being open to a wide range of different opportunities. (For example, a blogger can do writing, videography, or photography work to supplement blogging income, as those are all skills that blogging calls for.) I think getting to know other content creators would have sped up the process- for example, I deleted my first blog when it was already at the traffic-level for monetisation (as I did not even know about that avenue for monetizaton at that time.)

Zhen , 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?

I’m a food and travel blogger. On my food blog, greedygirlgourmet.com, I show people how to cook Asian recipes and, on my travel blogs, I share tips on planning holidays with elderly relatives in Korea and Singapore (alovlettertoasia.com) as well as the best car-free trips around the UK ( tjtakesthetrain.com ) I started with the food blog and it made me realise that, rather than just sharing recipes, I need to help my readers solve a problem. (For example, how to recreate Asian recipes in the West where there are limited ingredients, or how to cook Asian recipes in 30 minutes etc.)

Hence, my travel blogs were created with a specific problem in mind. For alovelettertoasia, I share about the issues one might face visiting Korea’/ Singapore with older folks who are less mobile and how to get around them. As I often bring my relatives who are over 70 to Korea, this is an issue close to my heart! For example, when we went to Seoul and Jeju (in South Korea) in 2023, we had issues renting a wheelchair and getting around with it. (Some hotels didn’t have them on hand for guests and some taxis would refuse to take us.) By sharing these experiences with my readers, I help them plan the best itinerary/ hotels for their needs and enjoy a better trip!

Similarly, growing up with a single Mother who is not a great driver, we never drove on our holidays. On tjtakesthetrain, I share the best destinations that people can easily visit in the UK within a car, which helps to make traveling more sustainable.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was in the corporate world, I HATED networking, as it felt so artificial. (In the sense that people all had something they wanted to get out of the interaction or conversation. And as soon as possible too!) After becoming a blogger, I really enjoyed getting to know other bloggers and sharing information/ stories etc. After a while, it dawned on me that what I was doing was essentially still networking. However, because all of us genuinely loved what we did, the interactions all felt so much more natural and genuine. In fact, I actually started a (free) Facebook Group, Connecting Bloggers, to help bloggers network! :)

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Most of my relatives and the people I know from my time in business school (I did a MBA at the London Business School) think that creatives are lazy and don’t work much. However, the reverse is actually true. Most of the bloggers I know, including myself, actually work much harder now than we did during our corporate lives. We are writers, photographers, videographers, social media strategists, PR officers, and more, so we actually do several jobs all at the same time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://greedygirlgourmet.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greedygirlgourmet
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/90thousandmeals
• Twitter: https://x.com/greedygirlg
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@greedygirlgourmet
• Other: For A Love Letter to Asia:
  www.alovelettertoasia.com
  www.instagram.com/alovelettertoasia
  https://www.facebook.com/share/g/4cif9cUtSm8ZyVhA/
  https://www.youtube.com/@alovelettertoasiaFor TJtakesthetrain:
  www.tjtakesthetrain.com
  https://www.facebook.com/share/g/HYM6AzixoHhDzzFB/
  https://www.youtube.com/@tjtakesthetrain

Image Credits

All taken by myself, please credit to Zhen of greedygirlgourmet/ alovelettertoasia/ tjtakesthetrain Thanks!