August isn’t Fall, but I want it to be!

It’s always amusing to me when August rolls around and we are leaning closer and closer to the Fall months, which for a lot of us, is our favorite time of the year. It seems that every year, there is always an online battle between the pro-pumpkin people and the “it’s not time yet” people who think pumpkin anything needs to wait until at least October. I can see why people think Fall flavors need to wait until October before they flood the internet, but what’s wrong with being excited and doing it just a little early?

I’ve personally always loved Fall. I love the colors of the trees, the weather finally cooling down, and the flavors that only quite work when it’s that time of the year. Comfort food starts resurfacing after the more waist-friendly summer months and the food and drinks start to really take a center stage. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but there’s always been this almost inspiring or magical feeling I have when it’s Fall. I think one reason is because back when I was in high school and I started baking, it was Fall. It was that time of year when I happened to become obsessed with the kitchen, and I associate a lot of my recipes with Fall because that’s when I discovered my passion. That’s also why I look forward to it so much every year. It’s when people are a little more lenient on what they eat which means more business for me in terms of online interaction and in person sales. Baking can be extremely seasonal, with the Fall and Winter especially being the bulk of the business year for those who sell food. Most of my money last year was made between October and December, so it’s no wonder a lot of us bakers are constantly gearing up for these months, so that we can really get the most out of them.

If you’re anything like me, you have certain emotional ties to different parts of the year. I have the most emotional ties to Fall. Not only was it when my food obsession started, but I also love Halloween. I’ve always loved going all out for Halloween, and while some years I don’t quite do as much as I hoped, other years I do enough for 3 people put together. This year I am really hoping to set a record for myself on celebration, with bigger and more badass recipes and cakes, more sales online and in person, and above all, my appearance on Food Network which is to be later discussed.

Regardless of why you like a certain time of the year, there will always be the people who insist that you wait until its “appropriate” to start celebrating but come on. Life is short. If you want to celebrate something, do it any time that brings you joy.

When’s the Right Time to go All In?

Do you ever bury yourself in something like a hobby or craft when you aren’t content with your everyday life?  That’s what baking was for me. Before I did anything I do now, I didn’t know how to picture myself with a career in baking, so I simply stuck to it as a hobby to escape my mental negativities from my job.

Something I’ve always managed to do is make any situation work. Subconsciously, I’ll know that I have to do what it takes to make it. I think a problem I’ve faced the last year as my personal business ventures have done better is that subconsciously, I know that I don’t have to give it my all because I still have another job, so I’m not doing everything possible to make this work on its own. Taking that leap of faith and leaving my job has scared me since I conceived the thought a little over a year ago when I decided that I really did want to pursue my personal business as my one and only career. I was always scared to leave my job because of money. What if I have a slow month and don’t make enough? Well, that’s when my subconscious kicks in and I end up doing way more than expected because I know I need to. I’m past the point of worrying about what anyone else says about my choices, especially this one. If you live your life worrying about what anyone else thinks, you aren’t even living your own life, you’re living theirs.

If I want to keep doing what I’m doing, which is starting to finally pay off in terms of money and my skill level, then I will reach a day, probably rather soon now, where I have to face my fears and pull the plug on my job. At this point, all I’m doing now is calling out of every trip and maybe working one trip a month to get me an extra $1000 or so. If I am as good at my craft as everyone says, how hard could it be to make that $1000 a month doing more of my own thing? Selling desserts? Working freelance for food writing and photography? With the Fall and Winter holidays approaching, I’m going to reach a point when I don’t have time to do anything else but my own business, seeing how last year I did really well in December alone and didn’t even work as much as I could have. I’m not going to keep calling out of every trip for the next 5 months. What’s the point? It’s not like that goes unnoticed. I’m not doing the company or myself any good by clinging onto a job for money I could be making other ways that relate to my career.

Is it risky to post this online? Of course it is. But you never know who is out there going through the exact same thing. I’ve gone over this in my head too many times to count, and it’s even at the point where it’s in my head every single day, almost all day. I have internal struggles and still face personal obstacles when it comes to pursuing this career. It feels like I’ve been doing it so long, so why am I not making more money? Well, now it’s obvious. I haven’t given myself enough ways to make money. I haven’t been all in. So if not now, then when?

Ingredients Are Everything!

In the realm of my immediate friends, I don’t know anyone who gets excited to go grocery shopping like I do. When I spend all day every day in the kitchen, I find joy in little things like my ingredients and tools. For both cooking and baking, the quality of your ingredients will determine how good the dish comes out.

If I decide to spend the extra money and go to a farmer’s market, it’s almost always overwhelming because I want everything. All the gorgeous organic produce, fresh meats, cheeses, honey, jams, butters, you name it. It didn’t take me long to appreciate good quality produce in my adventures with cooking and baking.

Like most of America, I tend to go to my usual grocery store since I can try to get more for a little less money, but that doesn’t always mean I have to skimp on quality. When I’m planning recipes to write and film for the week, I like to go to the store and simply see what looks good. A couple weeks ago, I noticed there were tons of gorgeous strawberries, and even better, they were on sale! I got lots of them and made about 4 different strawberry recipes that week including pavlova, tart, sauce, and then enjoyed some just tossed with sugar and fresh orange juice with breakfast. I am all about versatility. I love getting one ingredient and being able to use it in a number of ways. That’s why I try to find the best quality I can afford. I like fresh ingredients to be the star of dishes, and when I put together a recipe and decorate it, I try to make sure you really know what the star of the dish is. I want some part of that ingredient to be in every part of the dish. The pavlova for example had a strawberry flavored meringue, strawberry cream, and fresh berries on top.

A lot of people struggle with getting creative in the kitchen. That’s sometimes caused by overcomplicating things and thinking you need to put together this intricate dish with all these components to it to try and be fancy. Something I’ve learned over the years of writing recipes and going to a variety of restaurants from cheap to super expensive is that simplicity is one of the most elegant traits of a dish. If you have a beautiful ingredient, doing too much to it is almost insulting it. A good quality ingredient has enough flavor to stand out on its own, so all you have to do is find a few other small things to emphasize everything that makes that ingredient special. Yesterday I saw heirloom tomatoes at the store, and I found this one that was particularly beautiful. I sliced it, drizzled some good olive oil over it, sprinkled some sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, and that was it. It needed nothing more. Obviously not all ingredients are like that, but the general idea of keeping it simple is always good to keep in mind when it comes to creating a good dish.

So next time you go to the store, and you aren’t quite sure what you want to make that week, or if you’re going and need a little inspiration for your next special meal, let your senses speak. What looks great? What smells good? Because if you don’t like it at the store, odds are you won’t like it on your plate.

Being Creative in a World Where “Everything Has Been Done”

I know what you’re thinking: “AJ, if you’re blogging, why isn’t it recipes?”. Well, don’t you worry my friend, I will absolutely be getting into recipe blogging, but there is a certain type of fulfillment I am getting out of these first few blog posts where I dive deep into my thought process and who I am as a person. This is so I can resonate more with who I’m posting content for. There are so many content creators out there who we religiously watch and try recipes from, but do we actually know who the hell they are? We know their faces, voices, or quirks yes, but what do we know about them and their lives? In an ever growing world of online jobs and content creators, it’s easy to think that you can just post something, smack your face across it, and it’ll be great. In some cases, yeah, that does work, but in others, you start asking “who is this person and why do they deserve my attention?”.

I have always believed in making friends with whomever possible, whether it be someone online that I will never physically meet, or someone random I see out and feel like they need a friend. The world is increasingly lacking friendliness, and I try to do what I can to at least put some more out there. All along, if I’m making others smile, my day is great. I may make zero dollars one day after lots of hard work, but if I post something and someone says it helped them or they got a laugh out of it, that’s payment enough. So, what could possibly be wrong with any of that? Well, as I mentioned in my last post, there are more and more food creators every day. It starts to get to a point where every type of recipe seems to have already been done by someone else. Especially when it comes to classics like chocolate chip cookies, brownies, etc, so why reinvent the wheel?

There are a few good classic recipes I use that come from other bloggers, because while I always test pre-existing recipes and see if I can reinvent them to improve them and make them my own, some are already as good as it gets, especially when it comes to the classics. Obviously, I’m not the only person who thinks this, which is why we’ve started seeing so many crazy variations of things online, like 8 layer brownies or chocolate chip pretzel caramel toffee etc cookies. It gets to a point where you feel like everything has been done already and you don’t want to copy someone else. Sticking out and being unique on social media is essential if you want to gain a following, especially with food. If people see a bunch of recipes they’ve already seen, why are they going to pick yours? Well, this is when creators start throwing their personal twists on the way they film or put recipes together. There are tons of similarities between the recipes you see online across different platforms, but they differ in the way that they’re filmed or assembled. In recent years, we’ve really been eating with our eyes, and our eyes have to taste it first to tell us if were intrigued enough to pass it down to our mouths for the real test. If you walk into a bakery, its easy to take a look in the dessert case and know what you want to try because 9 times out of ten, what you want to try is what you think looks the tastiest. Trying to recreate that experience online through a video is incredibly difficult. There’s a level of fitness that it takes to make something look truly delicious enough for people to want to try simply from a quick video. Pictures on the other hand are a bit easier to convince people with, because you can really set them up, stage them, filter them, and make them look as pretty as possible.

Something I’ve struggled with over the years of content creation is finding my niche and sticking out from the rest of the baking community. For a while, I thought it was purely the way I was filming my recipes. I kept telling myself that my videos didn’t look professional enough and compared to others seemed quite amateur. While I’m not classically trained, it doesn’t mean that I can’t be a professional. There are plenty of creators out there today who have worked different jobs up until last month and decided to start filming food videos because that’s what gives them joy. I can’t say I’m that different from them in that sense, but I have at least worked several jobs related to the food business, plus I have my cookbook and dessert mix line. All of this is put together this image and business of a professional, to show people that I am trustworthy and know what I’m talking about. It’s really easy to watch someone online and believe them purely because they’re saying it, but you have no way knowing that they genuinely have the knowledge of what they’re trying to push, unless of course they’ve posted their history, work, etc, to show that they too have gained the knowledge and skills to show others how to create good food.

Today, as I write this, I’m finally more confident in my way of not only creating videos, but creating food. At the end of the day, it’s all about the food. How it tastes, looks, smells, what you get out of it emotionally. I found that if I can just be myself on camera, since I’m quite the weirdo, then it works. Every day of the week, I sit and think about what to film, how to be different, how to get creative, and how to put something new into the world. After enough days of doing that, I realized that the recipe itself doesn’t necessarily have to be brand new, but the way I film it, the way I portray it, and the way I make others see it can give them a new impression of it, or a newfound inspiration to finally try it. As long I know that each of my videos is special because it’s unique to me, my style and personality, then the recipes will follow in that. Keeping that mindset makes it way easier to get creative in a world where it feels like everything has already been done. The key is to simply not overthink it. Its not rocket science, its food.

Trying to Work for Myself - The Struggle is Real

I figured blogging would be a good way for me to come across to my audience in a more personal way. Ever since I started writing recipes on my website, I knew that I would be posting what I personally liked seeing on other recipe sites. A lot of people have grown to dislike scrolling through several pages to just get to a recipe, myself included. Granted, blogs that include so much text before an actual recipe are only aiming to teach their audience the recipe so that there is a full understanding behind the recipe and why it calls for what it does. My goal all this time was to try and incorporate most of that into the recipe itself to try and make it a bit more to the point with less to scroll through, because let’s face it, we are impatient.

I think a common factor behind this is that a lot of people have grown accustomed to what I call “quick content”; videos that are a minute or less, or recipes that are contained in one or two pages because we have grown a little lazy (for lack of better term). Life’s pace has grown quicker and quicker, and it shows in what we look at online in our free time. This doesn’t only go for food related pages, it goes for basically anything now. We become impatient so much easier and quicker, we are harsher with our judgement after having even less of an impression of someone, and we are bored after only 10 seconds of a video if it doesn’t catch our interest by then. The world of content creators, business owners, and anything online based is becoming difficult and rather brutal not only for those reasons, but also because there are increasingly more of us every day.

People’s ideas of work has evolved from the classic 9-5 office job to basically anything you could imagine. There are too many reasons to mention why people no longer want typical jobs, and I can’t say that I’m not included in that. We all have our reasons behind what we decide to pursue, and mine has changed over the years while still keeping the same end goal. When I was applying for colleges, I was heavily considering culinary school. I went through a lot of personal darkness in my teenage years, and food was one of my biggest distractions. Food ended up pulling me out of my darkness in ways I didn’t even know it could. It made me feel like I was good at something. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone because I saw that there was a community of foodies. It made me feel like I had something to show others. In a couple ways, food saved my life.

After going to school for mechanical engineering instead of culinary, largely due to the fact that most of my family didn’t support the idea, telling me I wouldn’t make enough money in that industry, I still knew that it was what I was passionate about. After 5 and a half years of getting one of the toughest degrees out there and trying to give it a chance, I never got a job in the field. There was such a lack of interest and passion that made it truly difficult to even keep applying for jobs after repetitive denials for lack of experience even though the jobs were entry level and I was fresh out of school with a decent GPA. When there’s no passion or interest fueling the fight for a job, do you keep fighting? Well, for a little while I felt that I had to because I needed income, and I didn’t quite know how to start working in food because I had no professional history with it. That’s when I decided to start a YouTube channel on the side while I looked for part time jobs in anything else I could find.

Out of college, I was working two part time jobs and doing my YouTube on the side, because I knew that I had a passion for food, and I wanted to share it. After years and years of watching shows on TV, I had the dream of having my own someday, but felt it was a pretty unrealistic goal to have, so I gave myself a show instead. Since my head was always in the kitchen, I got part time jobs that at least related to what I enjoyed. I worked retail for Williams Sonoma, and managed to get a kitchen position for Sprinkles Cupcakes. I would work at Sprinkles from 4am-noon, then go to Williams Sonoma from 5-10. The days were long, and the pay was minimal, but I was doing what I liked doing. Management at both jobs noticed that I had a passion for food, and recognized the confidence it took to put myself out there in my YouTube channel. Soon enough, they were giving me a little more responsibility and creative freedom, which meant the world to me.

After a couple years, I was completely burnt out. While I got enjoyment out of what I was doing, the exhaustion started to outweigh everything else because I was barely sleeping and still could barely afford my bills. At the age of 24, I was already going through mental breakdowns about what I was doing with my life, because I always held myself to super high standards and had these huge dreams and goals that I would have done anything to achieve. It was that period of time when I became a flight attendant. My YouTube channel had been barely getting any attention, which is very discouraging when you put so much time, effort and money into it over the course of a few years. My schedule as a newsier flight attendant was rather atrocious. I was barely ever home and didn’t have any sort of work life balance, so my YouTube channel had to take a backseat, and eventually, a halt altogether.

Once 2020 rolled around and the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll, I decided to take a year leave from my job, during which I poured my heart, soul, and hard earned money back into my channel to give it another shot. I had posted a video shortly after lockdowns took place and it randomly took off. I’m not talking about a million views, I’m talking 10,000, but for my channel, that was a ton compared to every other video I had ever posted. I started focusing my Instagram page towards food, doing more posts and videos on that platform to bring together a whole social media presence of one consistent image. Within a year, I had gained a study following and decided to test out some business ideas, since I was still barely making any money with social media.

After testing some holiday dessert mixes in 2020, I decided to register my LLC in January of 2021 and launch some mixes on my website. That alone is a serious job, trying to advertise enough to keep sales up, and maintain stock so that I could keep up with orders, not to mention shipping as well since I have always done all of this on my own. Social media alone is a full time job, because nowadays, you basically need to post daily to stay relevant, and creating content, especially when it’s recipe writing and baking, takes a lot of time. I started spending 10 hours a day in the kitchen just to film enough content for a few days, and that barely included any time for editing. When it comes to starting a new business that is purely online with a client base that is completely from social media, you have to dedicate all day every day to it to have any shot at making it work. When you keep that in mind, how would you have any time for another job, like being a flight attendant? Throughout 2021, my time became more and more limited, and I ran into the problem of not having enough time for my airline job, but my business still wasn’t making enough money to live off of.

By the end of 2021, I managed to get a publishing offer for a cookbook. It was a smaller publication that printed per order, so my books wouldn’t be available in stores or on amazon, which made it a little harder to push, but a cookbook was one of my biggest dreams, and this was an offer for one, so why would I say no to that? Throughout the first half of 2022, I’ve continued pouring more and more time into all of the pieces of this giant puzzle: pushing book sales, my own merchandise, social media content, and now paid content for other brands on social media. When you read all of that, you’d think “oh, he must be making bank now”, but honestly no, I’m not. I still to this day have a struggle of wondering if I’m doing something wrong, but like I said in the very beginning of this post, there are more and more of us online creators every day. Some of them get lucky and blow up overnight, and it makes certain days very difficult for us small business owners who have endured years of fighting to get to where we are today. I will say that now, I am at least making better money than I was before, but it’s still a struggle to try and work for myself. I know at the end of the day, I have more than enough under my belt to keep going and growing, and those out of reach dreams I once had seem a little more within reach now. I’m actually proud to say that a couple have already come true, and you’ll just have to wait and see what those dreams were.

In conclusion to all of this, you can look at one little video someone posts and be quick to judge their entire existence, but you have no idea that in my 30 second video where I’m trying to show you a fun recipe that I wrote myself, there are years of hard work, struggling, crying, hoping, and dreaming that lead to those 30 seconds. So while we’re too impatient to scroll through pages of something to get to the main point, it’s important to take a second to realize and appreciate just how much time and work went into that. There is so much work that goes into what we see online, and the hours, days, or even weeks of work that go into one single little post we take 30 seconds to see online are often overlooked or not even realized. Next time you see one of those videos or pages, just take a minute, see what they said, think about what they did to make that happen. I’m very lucky to finally see my hard work starting to pay off, and while I still have far to go, I know that now that I’ve overcome my fears, doubts, and insecurities, the sky is the limit. I hope that with this blogging, you not only get a better idea of who I am and where I’ve come from, but also join me on this adventure of trying to create something for myself, and above all, create things for others.