I read a post over at MML a few weeks ago titled ‘Things I’m Afraid to Tell You’. It was relieving to know that I’m not the only one out there that has things they’d rather people not know about them.
There’s been one big thing that I’ve been afraid to admit lately. It’s been itching at me like a bad mosquito bite for a few months now, but let’s face it, it’s the truth and there’s no getting around it. I’m burnt out on the food project I started last August, Cookin’ Skinny.
Ah, that feels better!
When I originally started I was fired up and so excited to think that I might make my love for food into more than just a hobby. After months of designing and even more time spent cooking, testing and eating we launched!
But frankly, I think I was burnt out before we even launched. Four straight months of recipe testing, photographing, editing, writing and calculating nutritional data was a lot on top of a full time job. I was exhausted. I figured I’d get over it and get excited as soon as I was rested. But the lack of subscribers only got me less excited. How could the one hobby I was crazy in love with now we be biting me in the behind??
There was a point where I considered emailing the few subscribers we had and telling them things weren’t working out and just shutting the whole site down completely. I guess you might call that ‘hitting rock bottom’?
But a few weeks after that, I read some inspiring interviews on The Every Girl and decided quitting wasn’t the right answer. And definitely not what I really wanted. I still love food, cooking, experimenting and entertaining, so that wasn’t the issue. It was really the vehicle of delivery that wasn’t working for me. I want to be able to SHARE and INTERACT with people who love what I love, and the subscriber model wasn’t allowing for that. It was also putting a lot of pressure on me to create content every single week (more exhaustion), thus making me despise cooking. Okay, so ‘despise’ is definitely an exaggeration, but it was sucking a lot of fun out of it. And no one likes a fun-sucker.
As of late, I’ve decided it’s time to make a change. I needed to stop thinking about it and actually take action. So what was my first step? Redesigning a functional and successful site doesn’t happen overnight, so I’ve been spending my free time scribbling ideas, thoughts and inspiration down on how to create the Cookin’ Skinny site of my dreams. One that would fuel my love for food and allow me to share it with many many more people, all while connecting with other foodies, bloggers, and health nuts like myself. It already sounds so much better!
If I picked up anything from those TEG interviews, it’s do what you’re good at it in your own way. Don’t try to be like someone else, because that person is already taken (and probably better at it than you). I’ve also learned a little more about a thing called patience. I’m a jump-the-gun kind of person when it comes to projects. Sometimes that works out for me and sometimes it doesn’t. So this time around, I’m being patient & praying. So far the ideas are flowing naturally and I’m doing my best to keep an open mind to hear what others are saying (I tend to think my ideas are the best.. when plenty of the time, they aren’t).
So for now I’m getting back to my roots, or maybe pots and knives in this sense, and growing some new ones along the way. The ideas are a brewin’ and the pages of my notebook are beginning to be filled. And that my friends, is exciting.
