Eat Blog Talk Megan Porta

In episode 530, Megan chats to Brenda Cadman about how to use Canva efficiently to organize and optimize content creation for food bloggers.
Brenda Cadman is a Canva Verified Expert from Prince Edward Island, Canada. After spending more than two decades supporting businesses with their website development needs, she now focuses on teaching small business owners how to use Canva more effectively and efficiently. Brenda has taught thousands of business owners through her courses, and in particular, she loves to help business owners tame their hot mess Canva accounts by creating an organizational system that ensures they can spend less time in Canva, and more time doing what they love.
In this episode, you’ll learn about how to use features effectively, like the brand kit and magic tools, and how to organize your Canva account using folders to save time and boost productivity.
Key points discussed (and action items!):
- Declutter Your Canva Account: Create an "Archive" folder and move all old Canva designs and images into it to declutter the account.
- Images in Canva: Organize images by moving them from the "Uploads" folder into custom categorized folders like "Images", "Pizza" etc. using the bulk select and move features.
- Differentiate Important Files: Star templates, elements, icons and photos in Canva that are used frequently by clicking the three dot menu to access them easily from the starred folder.
- Streamline Branding: Use the Canva "Brand Kits" feature to organize company branding assets like logos, colors and fonts for quick access.
- Save Time Using Canva: Canva Pro’s features can help save you time and repurpose content easily, using  tools like resizing, mock-ups, background remover and other AI-powered tools.
- Don’t Postpone Decluttering: Set up a regular schedule (e.g. Fridays) for a VA or assistant to maintain the Canva organization system.
- Don’t Overcomplicate it: Make most of the time you have, progress over perfection.
Resources
Canva Organization Roadmap - help organizing your Canva account
Listen to Episode 502 on 5 Ways to Declutter Your Life.
Connect with Brenda Cadman
Website | Instagram

In this episode, Megan talks about the importance of social connections for well-being and business success, sharing five steps to nurture healthy relationships and turn your network into a strong support system.
How will inviting more people into your life change anything? Will it not be overwhelming and give you more to do? That is why Megan explains, firstly, the benefits for personal growth and business success by inviting high-quality people into your life. Secondly, she share five steps that will help you manage new connections, making them a meaningful part of your life and potentially opening up new business opportunities.
Action Plan:
- Send an invitation to the universe / God for more high-quality people in your life.
- Prepare your calendar or routine to make room and time for new connections.
- Express gratitude daily for the people already in your life.
- Host something new, even if small, to take action on your invitation.
- Show up as the best version of yourself when interacting with others.
Resources mentioned

Food Blogger Services – Mika Kinney

Explore Megan’s recommended books and resources at eatblogtalk.com/books.

Promote your food blogging services: www.eatblogtalk.com/audioclip

Get in touch with Megan if there is a specific mindset and self-care topic you'd like her to cover.
Website | Instagram

In episode 528, Cheryl Norris teaches us the importance of our core belief system and how we to replace negative beliefs with positive affirmations.
Cheryl Norris is a food blogger in Portland, OR where she lives with her husband. Her blog, Bakes by Brown Sugar, in business since 2018, specializes in desserts with a focus on using seasonal and quality ingredients. In addition to running her food blog business, she works full-time as an engineer. She loves to travel, with Paris being her favorite place to visit.
In this episode, you’ll learn about the pervasive nature of negative self-talk and its consequences on self-perception, decision-making, and success, highlighting the importance of recognizing and managing these emotions to achieve personal growth.
Key points discussed (and action items!):
- Identify and Address Your Pain Points: Be aware of what you're thinking and saying about yourself and what you struggle with most.
- Journal to Increase Awareness: Journal your thoughts so that you know exactly what you say to yourself with regard to situations.
- What is the Source of Your Self-doubt: Discover the source of thoughts - why are you feeling a certain way about situations?
- Negative Self-Talk Impacts Your Success: Change negative self-talk to positive affirmations - only through awareness and determination can you shift your mindset.
- Recognize and Overcome Negative Self-Talk: Note words used about self in times of difficulty like workouts to identify patterns of self-talk.
- Affirmations, Self-belief, and Confidence: Be conscious of what you affirm about yourself every day - do you need to change your self-talk?
- Recognize and Overcome limiting beliefs: "Break up" with limiting beliefs by deciding to break up with them, replacing them with empowering beliefs, and saying empowering affirmations daily in writing until internalized.
Connect with Cheryl Norris
Website | Instagram

In episode 527, Megan chats to Candice Ward about the importance of having multiple income streams and how to pitch brands in an effective and time efficient way.
Candice is the Founder of Eat More Cake Dessert Blog, Food Photographer, Educator, and Sales Expert. Candice spent over a decade in corporate sales and translated that experience to help other food content creators monetize and scale their businesses. She has coached hundreds of food content creators in her business course, The Confident Pitch Program. She is passionate about helping other food bloggers reach their full potential!
In this episode, you’ll learn about different ways to diversify your revenue streams, including freelancing, affiliate work and coaching, but most importantly how to tap into sponsored work by pitching brands using Candice’s time efficient, strategic pitching method (i.e. the Strategic Pitching Approach).
Key points discussed:
- Diversify Your Revenue Streams to Reduce Business Risk: Diversifying income sources helps mitigate risk and prevents burnout by ensuring you're not solely reliant on one stream of revenue.
- Is Direct Pitching to Brands Effective? Sending targeted pitch emails and following up persistently can yield better results than relying solely on social media for brand collaborations.
- Practical Ways to Add Additional Revenue Streams: Explore various avenues such as freelance work, sponsored content, coaching, and digital product creation to diversify your income streams and maximize earning potential.
- The SPA (Strategic Pitching Approach) method for targeted and effective brand pitching: Use the Strategic Pitching Approach, focusing on personalized pitch emails and consistent follow-up, to increase the success rate of brand collaborations and revenue generation.
- Tailor Pitch Emails to Emphasize the Value Proposition to the Brand: Customize pitch emails to highlight how your content creation can directly benefit the brand's goals, this will increase the likelihood of engagement and collaboration.
- Focus on Quality Over Quantity to Maximize Conversion Rates: Prioritizing targeted and personalized pitches to a select number of brands increases the chances of successful collaborations and optimizes time and effort spent on pitching.
- The Confident Pitch Program: Candice’s comprehensive marketing plan designed to simplify the brand pitching process for influencers and content creators, offering modules on business planning, pitching formulas, negotiation strategies, and post-sales processes.
Connect with Candice Ward
Website | Instagram
Resources
Coaching Services
Pitch to Profit Workshop

Freebie: List of 10 brands with contacts to pitch

Freebie:  6 Strategies to Stand out to Brands

Megan dives into the final part of her series on how to bring more money into your business, focusing on improving your financial mindset through positive language and preparing the way for financial abundance.
What is the source of your income? Can the way you perceive this change your financial situation? And do you generally speak positively or negatively about money? Addressing these questions, Megan suggest various ways in which we can further shift our mindset when it comes to money in order to increase our revenue.
Including, these key points:
- Shift Your Perception of Income Sources: The true source of income lies beyond people and businesses, emphasizing a universal force as the primary source of abundance.
- Release Mental Pressure on Income Channels: By reframing the source of income from external entities to a limitless universal force, you open yourself to alternative channels for financial flow, reducing pressure on specific revenue streams.
- Align Actions with Serving and Value Creation: Remember to deliver value from a place of love - genuine service and value provision are foundational to sustainable financial success.
- Conscious Money Talk: Conduct regular audits of your thoughts and words surrounding money. Replace limiting beliefs and negative phrases like "I can't afford it" with empowering statements that align with abundance and prosperity.
-Prepare for Abundance: Create space for financial abundance like clearing mental and physical clutter to welcome new opportunities. Ensure your financial infrastructure and personal readiness align with your goals for increased prosperity.
Promote your food blogging services
Megan's recommended books
Get in touch with Megan if there is a specific mindset and self-care topic you'd like her to cover.
Website | Instagram

In episode 525, Nicole Winegardner teaches us the importance of staying true to who we are in a world full of distractions and focus on what lights us up.
Nicole blogs with her bestie Andrea, who lives in Washington and you’ll find Nicole in Virginia. Together they have a food blog where they specialize in simple delicious recipes for busy families. Nicole is the one to do the recipe development and food photography and keyword research. Andrea takes care of the writing and Pinterest, web stories, social media and is currently learning video editing. Their blog was founded in 2021.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to overcome blogging challenges like spreading yourself too thin, struggling to achieve your goals and feeling bogged down by your responsibilities.
Key points discussed:
- Focus: Evaluate where your focus lies regularly. Redirecting your focus can guide you towards positive outcomes and away from distractions.
- Stay True to Yourself: Authenticity fuels success. It's crucial to reassess your goals and ensure they align with your true desires.
- Effective Goal-Setting: Set achievable goals without overwhelming yourself. Habit stack and regularly evaluate your to do list to maintain balance and prevent burnout.
- Regularly Revisit Goals: Rather than setting and forgetting goals, consistently evaluate them to ensure they are still relevant to your priorities.
- Focus on One Thing at a Time: If you spread yourself too thin, you risk not achieving anything. Delegate tasks and focus on mastering selected skills.
- Prioritize Fun: There is a correlation between enjoyment and productivity. Incorporate moments of joy and relaxation into your daily routines to enhance overall well-being and effectiveness.
- Rest is Important: Don’t be scared to take a break when needed as your blog will always be there when you return and you’ll be more productive.
Connect with Nicole Winegardner
Website | Instagram