The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Financial freedom and the power of authenticity in the age of AI with Sam Vander Wielen.
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Welcome to episode 580 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Sam Vander Wielen. 
Why Personality Is the New Competitive Advantage with Sam Vander Wielen
This episode digs into the gap between the idea of entrepreneurship and what it actually takes to build a business. Sam shares how she was first drawn to food blogging and online business because they felt like a path to freedom, only to realize she was in love with the outcome, not the daily work required to get there. That realization led her to a better-fitting path: combining her legal background with the creator economy to build a business that helps online creators with legal templates and advice.
From there, the conversation opens up into something deeper: success, "enoughness," and what actually creates fulfillment. Sam gets candid about major personal hardships, including brain surgery, caring for her father through leukemia, and losing both of her parents, and how those experiences forced her to confront a hard truth: business success and financial growth can solve a lot of problems, but not the personal ones. She and Bjork talk about protecting your time, building with intention, and why leaning into story, personality, and authenticity matters more than ever in an AI-shaped world where purely informational content is easier to replace.
Three episode takeaways:
The outcome you're chasing isn't always the work you love: It's easy to fall for the idea of freedom and flexibility that entrepreneurship promises, without realizing that the daily grind of running a business is a completely different thing to love or hate. Sam's pivot to serving creators with legal expertise came from getting honest about that gap.
Financial success can't solve personal problems: Going through brain surgery, caring for a parent through illness, and losing both parents pushed Sam to separate the two. Business growth can build security and options, but it won't fix grief, burnout, or a sense of "enoughness" — that work has to happen elsewhere.
Story and authenticity are your defense against AI: As purely informational content becomes easier to automate and replace, personality, voice, and lived experience are what keep creators irreplaceable. Protecting your time and building with intention isn't just a lifestyle choice — it's a competitive strategy.
Resources:
Sam's website
Sam's book, When I Start My Business, I'll Be Happy
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Morgan Housel says he's met a half dozen billionaires — and his new book shows how you can be wealthier than all of them — Yahoo
The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom
Sam's newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
Craft + Commerce — Kit
The U.S. Copyright Office
This Week in Startups
ElevenLabs
Sam's podcast, On Your Terms
Follow Sam on Instagram
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by 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.

Navigating the new rules of search in SEO, building credibility and authority as a food blogger, and prioritizing clarity in your writing with Casey Markee from Media Wyse.
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Welcome to episode 579 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Casey Markee from Media Wyse.
How Search Is Changing and What Food Bloggers Need to Do About It
If you've been feeling like search and traffic have gotten harder to figure out lately — you're not imagining it. The rules are genuinely changing, and they're changing fast.
In this episode, Casey breaks down the biggest shift happening in search right now — the move away from the traditional "10 blue links" model toward a semantic, AI-powered model where Google constructs answers from multiple sources and tries to keep users on Google rather than sending them elsewhere. For food bloggers, this means that publishing a well-optimized recipe is no longer enough, and Casey explains exactly what it takes to thrive in the search landscape that's replacing it.
Bjork and Casey cover the technical fundamentals that still matter (core web vitals, internal linking, structured data), the growing importance of building a content ecosystem and genuine topical authority, and — perhaps most importantly — how to make yourself and your brand visible beyond your website. Casey also walks through what knowledge panels are, how PR mentions and media appearances feed into Google's knowledge graph, and how a new feature called the "preferred source" button could be a real competitive advantage for food bloggers who move quickly.
Three episode takeaways:
Search is shifting from lexical to semantic — and that changes everything — Google is no longer just matching keywords. It's building answers from multiple sources and increasingly keeping users on its own platform. Casey explains what this "semantic model" of search means in practice for food bloggers and why traffic patterns are changing.
Authority and ecosystem matter more than ever — The technical best practices haven't disappeared, but Casey makes the case that food bloggers now also need to build credibility off their site: through local media features, PR mentions, cookbooks, and other signals that feed into Google's knowledge graph and help establish a knowledge panel for you or your brand.
Clarity and formatting are your new competitive edge — As LLMs and AI-powered search tools become a bigger part of how people find content, the way you structure your posts matters more than ever. Casey shares practical advice on formatting blog posts so they're easy for both humans and AI to navigate.
Resources:
Media Wyse
Surviving (and Thriving) in an AI-First Search World with Casey Markee
Advanced SEO Q&A with Casey Markee
E-E-A-T, Static Homepages, AI, and More Food Blog SEO Advice with Casey Markee
Understanding the Google Algorithm – Tracking Google Updates and Analyzing Traffic Drops with Casey Markee
Optimizing Your Food Blog's SEO with Casey Markee
How to Boost Your Blog's SEO with Casey Markee from Media Wyse
Urban Farm and Kitchen
Leite's Culinaria
Feast
Hubbub
Shareaholic
Help your readers find your site through preferred sources in Google Search
Microsoft Clarity
Pinch of Yum
Content Square (previously Hotjar)
Email Casey
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by Yoast.
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.

The power of storytelling and diversifying across platforms with Josh Gale.
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Welcome to episode 578 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Josh Gale. 
How Josh Gale Grew His Audience to 1.2M+ in Under a Year by Leading with Storytelling
In this episode, Bjork interviews Josh Gale, a content creator who has rapidly grown his online presence in the food industry through his blog, The Chef Out West. Josh shares his journey from being a private chef and participating in food competitions to becoming a successful content creator within just a year. He discusses the initial challenges he faced, such as learning to film and edit, and how he overcame the fear of starting something new.
Josh emphasizes the importance of storytelling in content creation, explaining how his personal experiences and passion for food have helped him connect with his audience. He also highlights the role of social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook in his growth, sharing insights on how different types of content perform across platforms.
Three episode takeaways:
Just start, even if it's not perfect: Josh waited until he felt ready, but the real growth came from simply hitting record. Imperfect early content is part of the process, not a reason to delay.
Storytelling is the differentiator: What's driven Josh's rapid growth isn't just great food, it's the way he frames it. Audiences connect with the why behind a dish as much as the dish itself.
Know which platform does what: Josh treats Instagram as his traffic engine and his blog as his revenue hub. Understanding each platform's role, rather than chasing all of them equally, has been key to building a sustainable business.
Resources:
The Chef Out West
Toronto Sun — Josh Gale Talks Cheesecake Flop on MasterChef Canada
Season 33: Episode 5 of Beat Bobby Flay: Another "Flay" in the Office
Episode 527 of The Food Blogger Pro podcast: How Storytelling Helps Creators Stand Out Online with Brita Britnell
Check out Josh's potato waffle recipe on TikTok!
Episode 125 of The Food Blogger Pro podcast: Monetizing as an Entrepreneurial Chef with Shawn Wenner and Chris Hill
Episode 561 of The Food Blogger Pro podcast: How Food Dolls Turned Facebook Into Their Top Traffic Source
Meta Business Suite
GRO (formerly Grocer's List
Episode 547 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast: Inside Crowded Kitchen's Strategy for Growing to 2.4 Million Followers on Facebook
Episode 2 of Food Empires by Grocers List: He Quit Cooking for The Rock to Go All In On Instagram
Tastemaker Conference
Mediavine
Raptive
Substack
Follow Josh on Instagram and Facebook!
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by 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.

Building a content ecosystem, turning readers into buyers, and solving problems for your audience with Emily Baksa.
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Welcome to episode 577 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Emily Baksa from Craveworthy Copy.
How to Stop Relying on Traffic and Start Building a Business
Most food bloggers think about monetization in terms of ads, sponsored content, and affiliate marketing. But what if your content could do something more — actively nurturing readers into buyers and building a business that doesn't depend entirely on traffic?
In this episode Emily and Bjork dig into the full picture of how to build a content ecosystem that converts — from the copy on your homepage to your email opt-ins to the products and experiences you sell. They talk about why your email list is the single most powerful connection-building tool you have and why you should focus on solving problems and offering solutions for your audience.
Bjork also shares how Pinch of Yum made the leap into selling meal plans and got comfortable with selling — and why starting simpler than you think you need to is almost always the right move.
Three episode takeaways:
The three types of content every food blogger needs (and how they work together) — Emily breaks down the content framework she uses with food creator clients: visibility content (getting found), connection content (fostering relationships), and trust-building content (positioning you as the go-to resource). She and Bjork talk about how these three types of content form a marketing funnel and how shifting your focus from generating more traffic to building a more loyal audience changes everything about how you show up as a creator.
How to get started selling products — Whether it's a meal plan, course, membership, or digital download, Emily makes the case that most food bloggers are closer to selling a product than they think. She walks through how to use lead magnets as beta tests to validate a concept before you invest in building it out and why solving one problem really well will always outperform trying to solve ten problems at once.
How to get comfortable with selling and overcome the identity crisis that comes with it — For many food bloggers, the leap from free content creator to product seller comes with a real psychological hurdle. Bjork and Emily discuss how a focused niche makes both your marketing and your products stronger and how to position and market yourself in a way that feels authentic rather than salesy.
Resources:
Craveworthy Copy
Plays Well With Butter
1000 True Fans
Gro.co
Tastemaker
Manychat
Pinch of Yum
Follow Emily on Instagram and LinkedIn
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by Yoast.
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.

Diversifying income streams, building community, and personal storytelling with Rebecca Blackwell.
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Welcome to episode 576 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Rebecca Blackwell.
Last week on the podcast, Bjork chatted with Jenna Arend. To go back and listen to that episode, click here.
How Rebecca Blackwell Turned Food Blogging into a Six-Figure Digital Business from an RV
Rebecca started out as a food blogger, but somewhere along the way, she traded a stable paycheck for a life on the road, running her digital business full-time from an RV! In this episode, she opens up about what that transition actually looked like: the risks she took by leaving a steady job, how the RV lifestyle reshaped her thinking about work and creative freedom, and why she made the strategic decision to manage multiple websites rather than rely on a single income stream.
The conversation also gets into the community side of Rebecca's business. Specifically, how she's used Substack to build genuine connections with a growing audience of food writers. She shares practical advice on growing a newsletter, engaging readers, and landing sponsorships that feel like a natural fit. You'll also hear her talk about how she's navigating the challenges of AI and shifting search algorithms, why leaning into personal storytelling has been her biggest differentiator, and what she's learned from building community through mastermind groups and in-person retreats.
Three episode takeaways:
Diversify your income streams: Branching out to different avenues instead of relying on a single blog or platform gives you more creative freedom and financial stability, especially important in an era of unpredictable algorithm changes!
Personal storytelling is your biggest differentiator: As AI and search engines continue to evolve, what sets your content apart isn't information. it's your unique voice, perspective, and lived experience. Rebecca's journey from food blogger to RV-dwelling digital creator is a perfect example of a story no algorithm can replicate.
Community is a growth strategy: Whether it's building a newsletter on Substack, joining a mastermind group, or hosting retreats, investing in genuine relationships with your audience and peers pays dividends that go far beyond traffic and page views.
Resources:
A Little and a Lot
Of Batter and Dough
Rebecca's Substack: Let's Get Lost
Tiny Shiny Home
Designing Your Life
Substack
Mastermind for Food Writers
The Food Writers Business Lab
Kit
Follow Rebecca on Instagram here and here
Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group
Thank you to our sponsors!
This episode is sponsored by Member Kitchens. 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.