The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Rethinking how you work and implementing guardrails for AI with Andrew Wilder and Miranda Wicker of NerdPress.
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Welcome to episode 587 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Andrew Wilder and Miranda Wicker of NerdPress. 
Building Smarter Systems as a Creator with Andrew Wilder and Miranda Wicker
This week on the podcast, Bjork sits down with Andrew Wilder of NerdPress and Miranda Wicker for a conversation on AI, content creation, and what it means to stay human in an increasingly automated world. They dig into a question every creator is facing right now: Are you reacting to the AI shift, or are you using it to rethink how you work?
They'll walk through real examples of AI integrations, memory, skills, scheduled tasks, and MCP connections, including NerdPress's very own guided agent connector, built with guardrails and approval steps for safer site management. If you've been wondering how to use AI to work smarter without losing what makes your content yours, this episode is a great place to start!
Three episode takeaways:
Rethink instead of reacting: Rethink instead of reacting: Andrew and Miranda discuss how creator businesses have weathered the changes to search over the last few years. Their key takeaway: it's time to rethink how you work, not just brace for what's next.
Use AI as a tool, not a ghostwriter: AI shines at research and repetitive work, but if you allow it to write for you, be prepared for writing that's just average. Let AI support your process, but allow your own passion and expertise to shine through in your own writing!
Implement guardrails to make AI safer to use: Memory, skills, scheduled tasks, and MCP connections — Andrew and Miranda share how they're putting these to work, including NerdPress's guided agent connector, which includes approval steps for safer site management. AI can help you do more, but with just enough oversight to keep it from going rogue.
Resources:
NerdPress
Imagine I handed you 10,000 brilliant employees tonight. What would you do with them tomorrow morning? — @PeterDiamandis on X
Slack
Claude
ChatGPT
Granola
Littlebird
Episode 584 of The Food Blogger Pro podcast: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Claude as a Food Blogger with Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju
OpenClaw
Caffeine and Cabernet
Clariti
Raptive
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by Yoast and Clariti. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors.
Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.
Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Standing out with your story, treating your blog like an ecosystem, and reinventing yourself as a creator with Timothy Pakron from Mississippi Vegan.
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Welcome to episode 586 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Timothy Pakron from Mississippi Vegan.
Reinventing Yourself as a Creator
Timothy came to food blogging by way of studio art and his passion for fresh produce, not the blog itself. He started sharing his photography and vegan recipes on Instagram first, built an audience there, and landed a cookbook deal before he ever put much focus into a blog. In this conversation, Bjork and Timothy talk through what it looks like to build a body of work around a strong personal point of view, and why story and connection have carried his career from Instagram to a second cookbook (Garden Variety), and a thriving blog.
They also chat about the practical side of running a content business today: how Timothy uses AI tools as a strategy partner for auditing and refining old posts, how he's adjusting to a search and social media landscape that keep shifting under everyone's feet, and how he thinks about his blog less as a static archive and more as an ecosystem that needs constant tending. If you're trying to figure out how to stand out with your story or navigate a creative career that has real ups and downs, this episode is for you.
Three episode takeaways:
Treat your blog like an ecosystem — Timothy doesn't think of his site as a place where posts go once and stay finished. He walks through why constant refinement, from updated photos to reworked copy, keeps older content fresh and performing well, and how he uses AI to help spot which posts need attention and to sharpen his strategy around them.
Your story is your differentiator — With a background in studio art, Timothy has always leaned into what makes his perspective his own. He talks about his passion for the creative process, being intentional with how he shares his story and connects with his audience, and why that connection matters more as content gets easier to produce at scale.
Watch the industry without falling into comparison — Timothy shares how he stays aware of what other creators are doing without letting it eat into his time or his creative confidence. He talks about drawing inspiration from other people's success instead of measuring himself against it, and why he sees his creative expression as something no one else can replicate.
Resources:
Mississippi Vegan
Garden Variety Cookbook
Pinch of Yum
Keysearch
Mississippi Vegan Gumbo
Jeremy Finds AI
Raptive
Mediavine
Pinch of Yum Income Reports
Ugmonk
Follow Timothy on Instagram
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by Clariti and Raptive.
Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.
Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Transparency around your AI workflow and protecting your creative voice with Jeremy Carrasco from Jeremy Finds AI. 
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Welcome to episode 585 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Jeremy Carrasco, the creator behind Jeremy Finds AI and founder of Riddance. 
Why Trust Matters More Than Detection in the Age of AI with Jeremy Carrasco
Pop quiz! Can you actually spot AI-generated content if you saw it? Jeremy's background in live streaming, encoding, and video production gave him an early edge in identifying synthetic content, but as AI videos get more realistic, he explains why that edge is disappearing fast, and why the old advice to simply "train your eye" isn't enough anymore. In this episode, Jeremy makes the case that the real question isn't "can you spot AI?" but "do you trust the source?"
He and Bjork get into the difference between acceptable and deceptive AI use, why disclosing your AI workflow might actually build more trust with your audience, and what "human-forward" creation looks like in an increasingly synthetic feed. Jeremy also shares candidly how he uses AI in his own work, and why he refuses to let it touch his creative edge. If you create content in any capacity, this conversation gives you a clear-eyed look at where trust is headed next and what it'll take to hold onto yours.
Three episode takeaways:
Spotting AI is basically a coin flip now: The days of "train your eye to catch AI" are over — content's gotten too realistic, and platform algorithms make it even trickier to know what's real. Trust in the source matters way more than trying to detect fakes.
There's a real difference between using AI and hiding AI: Being upfront about your AI workflow can actually build more trust with your audience, not less. It's not about ditching the tools — it's about being honest when you use them.
The smartest move right now is doubling down on being human: As AI gets faster and cheaper, the creators who protect their creative voice and stay unmistakably them are the ones who'll stand out in an increasingly synthetic feed.
Resources:
Jeremy Finds AI
Riddance
Lion's Den
YouTube channel: RocketJump
Zach King's YouTube channel
YouTube star Hank Green apologizes for ChatGPT overuse after fans accuse him of including a prompt by mistake — Fortune
Patreon
Substack
YouTube short from Jeremy Finds AI: This political influencer isn't real
Why Nobody Can Stop AI Art Scams — Jeremy Finds AI on YouTube
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by Yoast and Clariti. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors.
Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.
Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Using AI to run a smarter food blog, understanding the different Claude tools, and moving beyond using AI as a chatbot with Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju from Urban Farmie.
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Welcome to episode 584 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju from Urban Farmie.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Claude as a Food Blogger
Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju recently made the leap from a successful career in management consulting to become a full-time content creator with Urban Farmie. Her background in business strategy didn't disappear when she made the switch, and it has become one the most valuable tools in her toolbox, especially when it comes to how she uses AI in her business.
In this episode, Shruthi shares how she's moved well beyond using Claude as a chatbot and has started treating it as a genuine business partner — delegating tasks, building custom skills, and creating systems that let her spend more time on the work only she can do. If you've been curious about AI but aren't sure how to actually integrate it into your workflow in a meaningful way, this episode is a great place to start.
Three episode takeaways:
There are different stages to incorporating AI into your workflow — and most people stop too early — Using Claude to answer a question or draft a caption is just the beginning. Shruthi walks through what it looks like to move from using AI as a chatbot to using it as a true assistant: one that handles mundane, repeatable tasks on your behalf so you can focus on the work that brings you joy.
Custom skills are one of the most powerful AI features for food bloggers — Shruthi has built a library of Claude skills tailored to her business — including one that creates a virtual board of advisors to help her think through decisions. She breaks down what a skill actually is, what makes a good first skill to build, how to workshop and iterate on a skill until it does exactly what you want, and how she uses skills to write and refine standard operating procedures for her team.
Understanding your AI tools makes all the difference — Knowing when to use Claude Chat vs. CoWork vs. Design vs. Code can save you a lot of frustration. Shruthi explains the differences between the tools, walks through how connectors like QuickBooks work, and shares why auditing your AI workflows on a monthly basis is key to getting the most out of the tools available to you.
Resources:
Urban Farmie
TED: The unsung heroes fighting malnutrition
Mise en Claude
TextExpander
Inside Crowded Kitchen's Strategy for Growing to 2.4 Million Followers on Facebook
How Mika Kinney Turned Her 480,000 Instagram Followers into Site Traffic and Revenue
WisprFlow
Airtable
Shruthi's AI Challenge for Food Bloggers — use code "FBP" for $45 off
Follow Shruthi on Instagram
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by Clariti and Raptive. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors.
Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.
Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Building a thriving food blog by putting YouTube first, growing to 2 million subscribers on YouTube, and using social media to drive blog traffic with Jeanelle Castro from Jeanelleats.
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Welcome to episode 583 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Jeanelle Castro from JeanellEats.
Why Jeanelle Castro Thinks YouTube Is the Most Powerful Social Platform for Food Creators
Jeanelle started Jeanelleats ten years ago while still working a 9-to–5 — but she knew she had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and she always loved making videos. In 2016 she started posting on YouTube, got serious about tracking her metrics and posting consistently, and within a few months her channel started taking off. Today she has nearly 2 million subscribers on YouTube!
In this episode, Jeanelle shares how she built a content system where YouTube is the engine that drives everything else — including her blog traffic, her Google rankings, and her brand deals. She explains how she uses YouTube Shorts to drive traffic to her site (her CTA is simple: "head to Jeanelleats for the recipe!"), and why she believes that the success of a social post and the performance of a blog post are more correlated than most creators realize.
Three episode takeaways:
Promoting YouTube videos of your recipes can improve your Google ranking — Jeanelle has noticed a real correlation between pushing a YouTube video of a recipe and that recipe's performance in Google search. Since YouTube is owned by Google, there's a connection between video engagement and search visibility that food bloggers with a YouTube presence can take advantage of. Combined with the branded search that grows when your social content performs well, this is another reason to prioritize video even if SEO has felt out of reach.
What a YouTube first posting strategy looks like — Jeanelle publishes to YouTube first, then reposts to Instagram and TikTok. She explains her posting cadence, why YouTube is her #1 platform from both an audience and revenue perspective, and how she thinks about Instagram differently — it's less important for direct revenue, but it still matters for brand partnerships.
Why Jeanelle is leaning into her blog and how it fits into her overall revenue — While brand deals remain her number one income source, her blog revenue has recently surpassed her YouTube AdSense revenue. The blog has become her priority precisely because it's the most stable and predictable of the three — and she's noticed a direct link between promoting YouTube videos of her recipes and improved Google rankings for those same posts (a win win)!
Resources:
Jeanelleats
LinkDM
Raptive
Clariti
GRO
Manychat
Follow Jeanelle on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by Yoast and Clariti.
Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.
Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.