12 Years of Food Heaven– Somethings Gotta Change

Wendy: [00:00:00] hello, everyone. Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the food heaven podcast. We are I don't know if this is a series I guess it is because we've been doing these series lately for those of you who are new to the podcast. For the past I think four or five months.

We've been doing series where we cover different topics that we're interested about that somewhat relate to wellness. So some of the ones that we've done in the past have been let's see, just what are the ones? Oh, relationship

Jess: Burnout.

Wendy: Burnout.

Jess: Nutrition. Basics.

Wendy: Right. Grooming

Jess: Yes. Grooming. I think that was my personal favorite. That in the

Wendy: that. Yes, that was the grooming was, was one of my favorites just because I learned so much. And so this one is called the pivot and we are recording this in lifetime. So typically we record a bit [00:01:00] in advance just to get ahead. Of things, but we're going to do this in real time because we feel like we're kind of at a crossroads with our brand and we want to be transparent about what's been going on and just like how we've been feeling and what our thought process has been behind some of the changes that we might be making with food heaven.

And so the next five episodes are going to be dedicated to that. This is the first one. And we thought that today we would give you some insight on to like what's happening. Also looking back a bit until like, we've been doing this for 10 years. So, you know, what are all of the things that have happened in the past 10 years related to food heaven?

You know, the evolution of the brand some of the highs and lows and yeah, kind of like all the

things that have led us to where we are now.

Jess: Yes. The reason we wanted to record this. [00:02:00] Live is because not many people bring you into their process of pivoting. There's so many brands or experts who, sorry, there's so many brands where they start with one thing and then they pivot to another and pivot to another.

And usually they don't involve their community in that whole process. And we wanted to do things differently and think outside the box. And bring you guys along for the ride. So as we're recording this, we genuinely have no idea what we're doing, what our pivot is going to be. If we're even going to continue to do this podcast, to be honest, we may come to the conclusion by the end of the five episodes that it just doesn't.

make sense to continue doing the podcast. I mean, we really don't know. So we are bringing you along for the literal ride. And just to give you more insight into the episodes to come. So this week, we're going to talk [00:03:00] about food heaven, our history, highs and lows, this will be a So this will be an episode that's great for people who've been along since day one and who remember all of these things or for new folks who are like, what are you got?

Or for new folks who are just, who are just tuning in and wanting to learn more about the history of our brand food heaven. And then we're going to go into kind of our business model and some of the different ideas that we have. We're even going to bring along our business coach slash business therapist who we just started working with and we love.

And she is asking us all of those really hard questions that we kind of have been avoiding, honestly. And getting to the bottom of not just what we see for the future of Food Heaven, but what we see for the future of ourselves and what we want our contribution to be. She's amazing and we can't wait to have her on.

We might even do a live business coaching session just so you can see behind the scenes and also. [00:04:00] So get some insight if you are in a crossroads in your life, whether it's personally, professionally and wanting to pivot and feeling stuck and scared to take that next step because we are stuck and scared too and we want you guys to be along for the ride.

So that's kind of what's coming up and then hopefully by the end we will have a pivot. We will have come to a conclusion. Maybe we won't and we'll need to figure that out. But. At least for now, we know we're going to do five episodes around this concept.

Wendy: Yeah. And part of the reason why we've been feeling a bit stuck a bit at a crossroads is because there's just been so many changes happening in the online space. It's constant. And, you know, it's exciting, but it's also exhausting and it's really hard to keep up. And so we've been feeling very conflicted about it and we're just, yeah, we're not really sure.

What that looks like for [00:05:00] us in terms of like continuing to do this for another 10 years. And so for those of you who are new to food heaven, I think we can start by just providing some context about how we started and you know how this all came about. So Jess and I met over 10 years ago through a mutual friend and Jess was on her way to becoming a dietitian.

I was really burned out from working in foster care. I was like newly out of college, you know, kind of just took the first job that came up and I was like, Oh, this is definitely not for me. So, I was like, Oh, you know, I want to consider like a career change, even though I had only been in my Career for like a couple years, I was like, this is not for me because I did my undergrad in psychology.

So I was kind of working in social services and things like that. And I thought the, the concept of food and [00:06:00] nutrition as a career was really interesting and exciting. And so, Jess and I. We started working together because she was already on that path, and we started doing nutrition education workshops at farmers markets through the Department of Health in New York City.

And were like, Oh, we work really well together, we should try to maybe create something. And so then we started recording. nutrition videos in Jessica's apartment. We would cook and create some videos and we will put them out on the local channel. Like, mind you, none of this was business focused. It was just purely like a fun project.

You know, social media wasn't as big. It wasn't nearly as big as it is now. I guess my motivation was just. providing nutrition education to people. We weren't even on the online space. Initially, we, we [00:07:00] ended up transitioning because we were like, Oh, you know, we want to reach more people. But the goal was always providing nutrition education and making that more accessible

to people.

Jess: Yes, we did Food Heaven for more than five years without getting a single dollar, no cash money. We did not get paid. We didn't intend to make it a business. For those of us who are OGs on the online, in the online space or internet elders, as I have recently coined, we did not yet. Go into this thinking about making money or business plan and there was honestly no model. So it's really interesting now to have the younger generation kind of come up and that's their goal is to start a business online to make money on the online space.

And I think it's a little bit easier for the younger OGs as models.[00:08:00]

in some ways for what to do and also what not to do, right? Like maybe you don't put out content for free for five plus years, getting no money and spending 20 plus hours a week. Maybe that's not a great life strategy, you know? But it was, you know, at the time it was just a fun creative outlet as well.

And like Wendy said, just trying to get the information out there, very pure intentions. And we had full time jobs. up until honestly not that long ago while we were doing Food Heaven. So I used to work at different primary care clinics. I've worked at level one trauma centers doing nutrition, education, and one on one counseling primarily with clients.

I even had a private practice literally up until two months ago alongside with the work that we have been putting out with Food Heaven. So it's always felt like We've had [00:09:00] multiple full time jobs and although Food Heaven is a career and full transparency, we do make you know, not a ton, a ton of money, but you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars together, profit, not net profit disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer but it is, you know, it is.

A job and it does make money, but we've always done that in conjunction with like our quote careers as dietician. So it's just, it's also for me very interesting and sometimes I feel conflicted because we think about the influencer space and I don't think we would consider ourselves influencers, right, Wendy?

Like, would you call yourself an influencer?

Wendy: I wouldn't call myself an influencer but I'm also like, I'm I don't know that I'm very clear on like what influencer means because I do think that we influence people and we have a big reach. And so I think we, in that sense, we are influencers, [00:10:00] but I wouldn't consider that to be like my primary identity for work.

Jess: Exactly. Yes.

Wendy: I would probably say dietitian you know, media dietitian or something like that, but I think we are influencers

Jess: are influencers and it's

just tricky and when I meet new people, I don't even know where to start

with the what do you do question

because I'm like, well, a little bit of this, a little bit of that's not important. Who cares? What about you?

Wendy: right. That's exactly what I say too. I'm like, I just deflect. I'm like, I don't want to

Jess: A dibble, a dabbles. Who really cares?

So,

so it's interesting because not only have we had a career

as quote influencers and content creators and been successful there, but also we've had a career IRL as dietitians working in clinics and they're honestly like polar opposites because one is, yeah, like they use different parts of your brain.

So that's why it's a little more tricky for us too, because we're not just folks who are like, Oh girl, we should do a [00:11:00] podcast because our conversations are entertaining and less kiki. You know, it's not that it's more, we wanted to get information across to people and not saying one is better or worse.

I think things have just changed so much and I personally don't like getting lumped into that whole influencer category because again, that's not how I would identify myself. It's interesting because I am writing an article right now about this for my Substack internet elder and plug go to internetelder.

substack. com and it's all about being a full time quote creator at almost 40 like is it heaven or hell and honestly It's both. And I talk about how our manager would call us influencers and I would just be like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not influencer. I'm a dietitian. I'm a writer. I'm a journalist. I'm a this, I'm a that.

So anyways, I say that to say it's kind of hard to pinpoint what exactly it is that we do in a succinct way. Now do you want to talk about [00:12:00] like kind of how we did start making money, Wendy?

Wendy: Yeah. So, you know, when we first started out, social media wasn't monetized in the same way that it is now. I feel like people would do like traditional marketing and advertising when we kind of You know, when we came into this and then as social media started getting bigger and bigger and there were more platforms, especially with Instagram, there was a lot of money that brands are willing to spend to market their product, especially food brands.

So I think we got approached by our first brand partnership. It was over five years ago, maybe. No idea what we were doing. We got an email like,

Oh, you know, we would love to work with you all. You know, what's your, what are your rates? And we were just like, what?

Jess: Right. We're like, 200 bucks.

Wendy: Right. We were like, we'll take it, whatever.

And like, [00:13:00] No one was having honest conversations. No one was transparent. I feel like now there's more resources and people are just like being more open. There's, you know, like books and all types of like e materials on like how to price yourself as an influencer, as a dietitian, as someone who has like an online following, nothing, none of that existed before.

And so, you know, as a result, we, it Really underpriced a lot of our initial partnerships because we just didn't know it was a lot of trial and error just figuring out like, how does this all work? I feel like

in the beginning, Jess, I don't know if you recall, but like, I don't even remember them asking for analytics, right?

Jess: No, they didn't care about analytics. Do you want to explain though what analytics are for people who

don't

Wendy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So analytics are the numbers behind, you know, whatever post or partnership it is that you have with the brand. So for example, let's say they're like, Oh, we want you to post [00:14:00] on Instagram. They want to see all of the numbers, how many people engage, how many comments, how many shares, those are analytics.

If you're, if you have a website post, you know, how many visitors went to that to that post, et cetera, et cetera. So they, they didn't even care about that initially. Whereas like now it's all about analytics and we'll talk about that a little bit too. But I would say within two years, so we did that for about two years, the partnership slowly started coming in.

And the thing with these like PR companies, cause PR companies usually represent. Brands, especially food brands and a lot. It's not that many of them. So a lot of people know each other in that space. So word gets around. And I think people just started kind of like, you know, getting the word out, like, Oh, Wendy and jazz.

We started getting a bigger following organically. And so we started getting hit up more for partnerships. And so, yeah, I would say within like two years, we started making like a good amount of money from the partnerships. And that was

not that long ago. [00:15:00] That was maybe like. Max four years ago, right?

Jess: Oh yeah. And honestly, we were only paying ourselves. We were paying our assistant more than we were paying us. I feel. Katie. Hey girl. She was the best. Katie Gallagher. She's a dietitian. We were paying her, what was it like a thousand to 1500. a month or like, I don't know, 25 to 35 an hour and we were paying ourselves, I think under 1500 a month each.

So that's why we always had jobs and we reinvested a lot of the money back into food heaven as well. So that's, you know, part of the bigger picture, but we did like every year. I feel we would kind of double our Income and the majority of our income did come from the brand partnerships We also have obviously this podcast and we have income from that as well We'd signed on to the podcast [00:16:00] agency.

We're with dear media in 2000 what was it like 18 or something and that was Really when we started to be able to monetize our podcast, so it is definitely. a viable business. But as Wendy has said, things have really changed throughout the years with the whole content game. I'll give you another example.

So back in the good old days, it used to be everything was very organic. Right, like there was no analytics. There was no what we would call a preview of a post. So what you would see Posted was what you felt like posting. There was nobody there was nobody from the brand or from the PR company looking it over and Giving edits or or whatever the case may be nowadays Everything that you see online from all of your favorite influencers trust and believe That is not only gone through the PR company, the brand, but also like their [00:17:00] legal teams, our lawyer, everybody has looked at everything.

Wendy: and they've tweaked it. possibly like five times.

Jess: And it's back and forth. So I don't think people really understand the behind the scenes. I'm actually very

fascinated with the behind the scenes. And even though we technically don't consider ourselves influencers. We are, and we understand this industry very, very, very well for multiple levels, because not only from the level of creating content, but also as being experts in something and that having another level of scrutiny to it as well, because a lot of our stuff, the USDA has to get it and approve what we're saying, any message points as it relates to brands.

So, it's just a lot and things have to be again, Previewed all the things which I guess isn't necessarily a bad thing. It helps us stay more organized, but there's less [00:18:00] liberties that you can take where I feel like back in the day. They're, you know, it was a little more free flowing. And here's the thing.

Like, I think some, maybe there's some brands where it's not so intense, but those aren't the brands we work with, like, and not that we love the brands we work with and we try not to work with brands that we don't like. And like Wendy said, we are we have relationships with PR companies and a lot of times we'll get repeat partnerships from them.

And that's great. Thank you. But I will say like some of the brands that maybe don't have as big of a budget, maybe that's what it is. I, I can imagine it's a little more relaxed in terms of like the guidelines and things like that. So the thing, what I'm trying to say is when brands have a budget, they're going to expect a certain caliber of not only work, but analytics and, and previews and kind of being flexible, all of those things.

Wendy: Yeah. And whereas before, [00:19:00] like it was, you know, you did, you did the partnerships and there wasn't so much of a focus on how it performed. Now it's like, it's all about performance. It's all about analytics. And there's been a big shift with that in the recent years. And I would say like overall. Considering our following, we don't have a massive following, but we have like a very healthy following our content, I think has always done pretty well, but when paid content creation took over, I feel like there was a shift in engagement, like across the board for content creators.

And I remember some of our older posts. Getting a lot more engagement and we had less followers compared to like how the engagement is now and I think that, you know, it's, it's always just been like a weird thing. I think with the brand partnerships and stuff, I feel like for whatever reason, like people just don't seem to support those posts as much.

Yeah, I think there is like, there's a lot of weird feelings around it, which I think [00:20:00] is like strange because, you know, for content creators who are, who are getting brand partnerships, like that should be something that's really exciting that like, you know, they're able to make a living from, you know, it.

Thank you. Creating content that you typically enjoy. So like, why not support it? But I feel like there's across the board, I've seen just like less engagement on posts that are sponsored across the board. And so I feel like that's had a big, that's had a big impact on just like engagement on social media, how people interact on social media with their favorite creators who are doing paid content.

You know, so. It's, it's created a big shift, I think.

Jess: Yeah, and it's also tricky because

it's almost like a influencer slash content creator

is a dirty word. And I understand that because as we're saying, we don't consider ourselves that we're like, Ooh, no. But the thing is. It's a [00:21:00] job and it's a lot of work and it's not just what people think where you I don't know what people think But I always use the example of my sister.

She's she's always like I want to be an influencer. I want to do this I want to get a free air fryer or whatever and then there was this one day where she came to my house because She was like, Oh, can you help me? I'm starting a candle business. And can you take pictures? And I was like, sure. So she comes to my house and I don't think she understands how intense it is.

This was back in the day when things were not reels where it was just photos and I was like, okay, let's do it. And so I did a whole setup for her and the tripod and then this and we're, we have all these backdrops and I asked her for a mood board and a lookbook and everything. And she, the first like 20 minutes, she was like, Oh my God, this is so cool.

This is so fun. And then we're like five hours in, she's like, this is hell. [00:22:00] She was like, oh my God, I can't believe you do this for every single thing. And I'm like, girlfriend, we're only halfway done. And this is for some candles. Okay. Imagine if it's food, food, recipes are the hardest thing to do. And I was listening to a podcast. Oh, I think it was what is that podcast called food, food blogger pro. And they were just talking about the fact that recipes are very unforgiving. And not only is it that you have to go shopping for the ingredients, but you have to create the recipe. You have to test the recipe several times. You have to think about how it's.

Well, back in the day, how it would photograph, now how it would come across on video. You have to make it look appetizing, but also it has to taste good. It's so many different components to it. And if you're working with a brand, you have to be able to incorporate the brand seamlessly and get their message points across and make it engaging.

So I think people don't realize that one post, while we do get [00:23:00] paid. really well for doing a recipe post. It does take us like what I would say for me, oftentimes like three days because of all of the prep and the, the stuff beforehand. So anyways, yeah,

it's a

Wendy: And then also like the back and forth too, because then if the brand has edits, then you have to like, I mean, we've had situations where we've had to reshoot things. That's like

Jess: just reshot. Yeah.

Wendy: It doesn't happen often, but it, it does happen. And like, there's situations like that, where like, you have to do everything over

again.

At best though, you'll have to like tweak you know, the copy and which is like kind of the captions and all of that stuff. So,

Jess: voiceover. Usually they want to tweak the voiceover.

Wendy: yeah.

I just, right. I just had

to do one of those this week. So, I mean, it is a lot of work, but I don't want to make it seem like we have the worst life because we don't.

Jess: right? No, that's not it at [00:24:00] all

Wendy: Because it's been, it's been a lot of. Just like great moments in the

Jess: Oh, yeah.

Wendy: five years that we've been doing brand partnerships. Like we've had dream partnerships with like, you know, some of our favorite

brands and we've done like so many events and speaking engagements and we've met so many cool people like.

It's, it's been great overall, just like, you know, like what a blessing and also like what a unique opportunity to be able to like work with these brands and, and do all of these fun things. It's very unconventional, you know, and like, it's been really cool to kind of just figure it out as we go. Because again, like Jess said, we haven't had a model for, you know, what, what the proper way to do this.

Is everyone's like figuring it out our generation, especially we're all figuring it out. We haven't had, you know, any guidance in that way. And so it's been, it's been great. It's been really [00:25:00] exciting. But you know, again, the conflicting feelings because with us, like putting a lot more time into brand partnerships and relying on it for income that really has become our focus.

From a business standpoint. And so there's this constant need to create content to put out content that's going to be relevant. That's going to be air quote trending. And. That impacts creativity because like, you know, when we came into it, we weren't thinking that way at all. We were just having like so much fun with it.

And a lot of that fun has faded away with this being more business focused. And you know, that gets to you, especially after doing this for 10 years plus, like,

And yeah, right. It's been more like 12 years. And so that's that. Those are kind of all the things that have led us to where we are now. Like, we've [00:26:00] had so many highs, but then we're like, damn, you know, like, things have changed so much.

And

do we really see ourselves? Doing the same work for another 10 years. And The answer to that is

no, we

Jess: answer is no. Before we jump into, I don't know what's next, but I do want to spend a little more time on some of the highlights. So can you think about like, what are the, and I'll think for me, what are the top three highlights for you? Whether it's like partners we've worked with or moments that were great or speaking for through food heaven.

Wendy: Yeah. So, I mean, there's been. So many

Jess: and hundreds. Yes.

Wendy: many, I absolutely loved the campaign that we did with Citibank where we did a whole shoot in New York City and We spoke about kind of like the business side of things, our finances, how we keep our finances together as a small [00:27:00] business.

It was so much fun and they were so organized. And I personally love like doing video shoots with jazz because it's just like fun. We have like a makeup and a hair crew and like, you know, everyone, cause typically we're the ones who are doing all of like. The video and the camera work. So it's nice to be taken care of and being like, no, you guys just have to show up and be on camera.

That is always a treat in my eyes because it's so much work to be like, okay, now I got to tilt the camera and I got to do this and I got to do that. And like, you're pretty much now I got to edit, like. You know, it's, it's not very pleasant most of the time, honestly. So it's nice to just have someone do it all.

And similarly, we did a shoot with Aisha Tyler in LA, and that was another one where it was just like, so well organized and. We just showed up and, you know, just kind of had conversation with her and that was a lot of fun [00:28:00] too. I love that one.

Jess: Yeah.

Wendy: Another highlight actually this, this was just like this came up with a friend. So my girl, I think I told you about it. Just my girl BB. She was at the airport and she just kind of randomly started talking to this girl who was there at the airport. I think they were in South Carolina. She just went to go explore and they were just kind of chit chatting or whatever.

And the girl that she was talking to was like, yeah, you know, I've just been like really hooked on this podcast. Like it's so good. And she was like, Oh, like put me on or whatever. And it happened to be our podcast. Like that's a nice podcast. And BB's like one of my best friends. BB was like, girl, that's my best friend.

And the girl was like freaking out. And it was just so bizarre to me because I'm like, Oh my God, like people are actually like recommending our podcast. And like, it's kind of surreal. Like, I feel like that. That was like one of those moments where I was just like, [00:29:00] Oh my God, that made me feel really good because, you know, just like people actually feeling invested in it being like something that people actually enjoy is is something that's, you know, very humbling and just very

beautiful.

So that was like a big highlight for me when that happened.

Jess: Yeah, that's such a great one. I mean, there's so many. I'm in our partnerships folder and it's like hundreds

of partnerships and I'm just trying to think of what were the most exciting for me. I'll definitely say Bon Appetit was really cool. That was

Wendy: Yeah.

Jess: That was nice just cause like it's Bon Appetit.

They, I mean, obviously there's been some problems, but but we have been fans of Bon Appetit watching the YouTube videos. And so to be able to be a part of, well, I think, yeah, they, they featured us. And then also we got to develop three recipes. That was really cool. And we got paid for it, which was even better.

So that, and then I love the speaking, even though I get very nervous. It's something that once I'm [00:30:00] doing it, I enjoy it a lot. So we've spoken, I mean, Google Salesforce What

Wendy: The skin.

Jess: Siete

Wendy: Today's

Jess: Today's Dietitian,

Essence Fest, the Stock Exchange, there's been so many, oh, the Aspen Ideas Conference, I really liked

that one So that has been really nice.

And then I also will say I like to do TV stuff as well. So I've done different campaigns with Tillamook, for example, the cheese company obsessed with them. Also, Aldi. That was fun because I got to do this shoot in my actual home. Because it was during the pandemic. So for me, I like The stuff on social media, especially because we do work with brands where it's very easy to incorporate them Into whatever we're making and if it's not easy, we usually will decline [00:31:00] So that I love that but I also like it when it's like Wendy's saying kind of a campaign that's more multi dimensional more about like you as the talent or you as the speaker and it's nice because as dietitians We got a lot to talk about and we can speak at, you know, different types of conferences, whether it's kind of more mainstream or more niche, like a women infant children, which is more for health care providers.

So that's always been nice. And was there anything else? I was going to say. Well, we had our book. We need a new book though.

Wendy: Yeah,

Jess: That was a lot. Yeah, we need an updated book, but yeah, there's just been so many different highlights

and it's been nice as time goes on that we have been able to be. You know, pretty picky with who we're working with and make it work for us at the end of the day.

And a mutually beneficial partnership, I'll say. So yeah, so that's kind of a couple of highlights. There's so many more, but we [00:32:00] won't bore you with the details.

Wendy: And all of that to say, we're very grateful for, you know, all of the success that we've had with the brand. And at the same time, we're just going through it in terms of like, where to next? Because we feel like with, you know, the current landscape, it's. It's really hurt our creativity. Just because of the way that things are structured.

We've experienced burnout at this point multiple times. It's impacted our motivation, what we're interested in. Especially as dietitians, like, I feel like just being in the online space, there's so much information. There's a lot of nutrition information and even amongst the RD community, the dietitian community, like it's very polarizing.

Like, there are people who feel one way, there are people who feel another way. There are different camps, there are different [00:33:00] camps within the camps. And like, It just starts getting like really crazy and like really intense and it's gotten to the point where it's like, I personally just don't want to be a part of any of it.

Because I think we've like really removed ourselves from like what the. Purpose is, which is to provide people with education that is helpful. And that is, you know, centering the person who needs that education. I feel like, you know, with social media, there's so many benefits to social media, but It's also created a lot of confusion and a lot of overwhelm.

I feel like that is like the, the word that comes up the most for me when I think of social media and what it is now. It's like overwhelm. It's so much. It's just like so much going on at the same time. And so, you know, just to give you some insight into Some of the current challenges that we have for food heaven[00:34:00] one of them is the sustainability of creating content because, you know, at this point it's like with most businesses, I feel like if you've been in the game for as long as we have.

You have some growth there where you're not the one who's like doing all of the, you know, on the ground work, you're, you're growing, you're expanding. And because of the way that we've set up our business, it's been really hard to scale and kind of remove ourselves from the day to day things. One of them being content creation.

As a result, we're also doing the most like we're, we're doing emails. We're doing podcasting. We're doing content creation. We're doing editing. We're talking to brands. It's just like, it's a lot. And we're also getting older. We don't have as much energy as we did when we were in our early twenties. And so we're just like, okay, like we're tired.

And like, is this really what we want to be doing with our

time? You know, so those are like some of the challenges that come to mind. What about you, Des? [00:35:00] Like,

what do you think?

Jess: Yeah, I think the biggest challenge, honestly, for me, and this is something I forgot to mention. is the urgency of things. So when you're working with these brands, in my mind, I like to have a couple of weeks, if not a month, because I have ADHD. Officially diagnosed this week. I did all the assessments and it's bad.

Yes, more on that later.

Wendy: Right. I'm like, we already knew that,

Jess: knew that, but it's like, and my psychiatrist knew that. But she's like, okay, let me just get you set up

with some. Some assessments and then, and then my husband had to take an assessment like from his observation of me and I failed, let's not failed, but it was glaring all of them in terms of being positive for ADHD.

So knowing that about myself, I like to have some time with things. I have to work in advance. I have to overcompensate by trying to be very [00:36:00] organized and plan out my day and I don't do well with. feeling rushed. So with the brands, a lot of times it's urgent and our busiest times are during the holidays when most people are on vacation or we want to be on vacation, but we haven't really been able to take a full vacation like someone who has a normal nine to five job because it's kind of like you're always.

We used to have a manager, but we don't anymore. So now we're managing ourselves and that's a job too, because there's a lot of inquiries that come in. There's a lot of negotiation. Now we kind of. You have to piecemeal it all together with our lawyer and things like that. So I would say that is a challenge, even though I love managing us or we're both managing us, but I love kind of having more of a direct connection to the brands.

But it also takes more time and [00:37:00] you know, sometimes it's hard to be. the quote talent and the manager at the same time, because there's no good cop, bad cop as it is. If you have a manager I think they expect it to be good cop, good cop. So that's a little bit tricky. And I would just say, yeah, similar to what Wendy said, you know, just kind of wanting to.

Be online less. I mean, that's really for me what I'm interested in. And if I am online, I don't, I want to just be able to show up and be myself and not have to think so hard about, is this going to do well? What's going to be the most catchy way to say this? Like, I just want to be able to say it, you know?

And you can't do that anymore. You, you have to really think about it from 25 angles and also. The angle of, is somebody gonna be offended by this? Okay, well let me get like five steps ahead of everything and think of every single possible angle that somebody could be [00:38:00] offended and include a caveat, you know, like including a million caveats.

So, that can get tiring, too. And that's why we are where we are. That's why this is called The Pivot because

Wendy: It's time to pivot.

Jess: it's time to pivot. Like, on the one hand, It's been great. It's been real. And we're not telling, you know, we're not saying that we're going to change things completely overnight, but we definitely need to think of another plan or we might need to end it.

Wendy: Possibly.

Jess: Possibly. We'll see. We'll see. Stay tuned.

Wendy: out.

Jess: Yeah, we're figuring it out. But hopefully Y'all like this episode. We just, at this point, there's, we can't

do anything but keep it real. I, once you start getting older, it's just like, es lo que es. Take it or leave it. It [00:39:00] has to work for us, too, because I feel like we've kind of been in this place of doing stuff for other people and my personal interests have shifted, too.

For me, as much as I loved doing my private practice and working with patients and maybe I, you know, will want to do that again one day, but I started to feel like, Hmm, this is no longer really serving me anymore. Like I'm not actually feeling challenged or stimulated in a way that I need to be for me to be happy.

And I think. Yes. People know us as those dieticians, social justice dieticians, and we are that, but at the same time, it's, there's just so much more that I want to talk about or focus on or that I'm interested in. And I think Wendy too, and that's part of the problem as well. Like how many times can you have the same nutrition [00:40:00] conversation?

And obviously not every conversation is the same, but I think this past year, what were year eight in the podcast? It's getting pretty. Much the same for us and for the OGs, I think, who've been listening since day one. And I think if you're new, it's, it's all new, obviously.

Wendy: yeah. And we'll get more into this in our next episode. We're going to be talking about why we've been feeling stuck professionally, because I think there are several reasons. Some of the challenges to being a dietitian, especially. In an online space and with the work that we're doing. And so we're gonna give you some insights into that.

And we're just gonna go from there. We're just kind of playing it week by week and letting it all unfold. Let us know, you know, what you think you can always DM us. Let us know if you enjoyed this episode. What are some things that you want us to cover

in some of the future [00:41:00] episodes that are part of this series?

And Yeah, we're happy to have you along for the ride. We'll see where this all goes.

Jess: we're, we're going to

see and feel free to send us an email because I do

think a lot of you

guys have great ideas. Our email account is foodheavenpr at gmail. com. If you have a great idea for us or you're a listener, whether it's. a new listener, a long time listener, and you're like, Oh, this is so obvious what you guys need to be doing.

Please send us an email because we will read it and we will respond. That's why we are making this kind of a public forum, if you will, because we don't want it to be where we're on the sidelines. And all of a sudden we're launching something new and we didn't include anybody in that and y'all are like what?

Wendy: Yeah.

Jess: be we want you to be part of the process and if there is a need that you see is obvious that We could fill or I don't know some of you [00:42:00] have tweeted us like do food break do a food brand or You know, so many different things or even like something for creators and burnout. I don't know.

That's why we have our business experts and why we're doing this. But please, please, please email us at foodheavenpr at gmail. com. Email is honestly better than DMing us cause we're not always on there.

Wendy: Yeah, All right. Well, thanks for listening. We'll talk to y'all next week.

Jess: Bye.

Wendy: Okay, great. Awesome. So I'm thinking maybe like, we might want to alternate with planning the episodes just so that we both have