3 Strategies to Adapt Your Online Culinary Business to Changing Times
If you care about the future of your online culinary business, you cannot afford to miss this episode.
I'm talking about what's working now, given what's happening now.
💸 We're experiencing crazy inflation in the U.S.
🇺🇦 There is a war in Ukraine.
✈️ People are no longer sitting around indoors with nothing to do.
Your online culinary business is impacted by changes in the economy, politics, and more. What worked in 2020 simply will not work today because the world - and your ideal students - are in a different place.
Online learning isn't going away. The question is how are YOU going to stay relevant in this market and serve the people who need you the most?
Tune into this episode to learn my 3 key strategies to help you stay afloat and even grow during these changing times.
Links from this episode
Watch the full video replay of this training
Sign up for my FREE Culinary Roadmap and learn how to start a flexible and fulfilling online business.
Say hello to Cynthia on Instagram → @culinarycynthia!
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Cynthia Samanian: Hi friends. Welcome to The Experiential Table. I'm Cynthia Samanian your host and creator of Cooking Class Business School. I help culinary business owners like you teach online so that you can have more freedom and flexibility in your life. In today's episode, I'm sharing a special training that I taught live just last week. I have to say with everything that's happening in the world right now from inflation to war to coming out of the pandemic. Yes, my fingers are crossed. I really wanted to create a trading. Around how to adapt in these changing times. The truth is things are always changing in life. But I do think that the first few months of 2022.
Have been extra challenging to navigate, especially as online business owners. And this episode, I'm sharing three key strategies to help your business grow this year. No matter what twists and turns come your way. If you follow these strategies, you'll be equipped with the tools you need to get through just about anything and even surprise yourself with your own success. So grab a pen and paper and let's move right into the training.
Today's training is going to be focused on how you can make money in your online culinary business in 2022. So we are talking about this year based on what is happening right now.
Have you been worried about the impact of inflation on your business? Are you having a hard time filling up your online classes? And do you feel like you're flying blind without a strategy?
This is a big one and this relates to a lot of you who have not worked with anyone, worked with me. If you are kind of DIY-ing your business, right now is kind of a scary time. I'm going to just be totally honest. Well, you are in the right place. This training is perfect for you if you are craving the freedom from teaching in-person classes and events that can be stressful and exhausting. I know some of you have gone back to teaching in person and are telling me, oh my gosh, Cynthia, I now remember why I was so excited about teaching online. It is really taxing on your body, your mind, all of that. You're also in the right place if you want to unlock a flexible income stream that you can kind of tap into when you need it. And finally, you're in the right place if you want to be able to teach what fulfills you, no matter where they're based or where you are based. You're in food because there is a passion that you have, whether it's to help people eat better, live a better life, explore cultures, whatever it may be.
So here's some things that I believe. I believe that you, as culinary creators, hold the unique power to connect people across cultures and lifestyles. This is a big one for me. Food to me is very personal.
I don't talk about this all the time, but my parents immigrated to the U.S., from Iran in 1979. And they landed in North Dakota. Of all places. Imagine that North Dakota that's where I was born. They barely knew English, let alone American culture. So for them food was the connector. They opened up their home, invited people over, served kebab, served rice, served all these Persian dishes and that was their way of creating community.
So this is something that I've just been ingrained with, all throughout my childhood and growing up and so this is truly why I love working with all of you, because I think each and every one of you has this power to connect people over food. I also believe that you have skills that have been undervalued in the market. It's time to get paid. Whether there's inflation or not, whether we're in a recession or not, no matter what's happening in the world, you have skills that deserve to be paid for, okay. And for some reason in the culinary industry, we just have these big hearts and we believe that it's not about the money. Well, if you can't make money, you can't keep doing what you want to do. And so no one wins, right? I also believe that you can pursue a business that lights you up and pays the bills. I don't believe that you have to either choose passion or profit. I think that they can come together.
I'm going to share with you three strategies to help you adapt your online culinary business to the changing times of 2022. This is what we're seeing today. And this is literally from this morning. I just picked out some headlines.
Okay. Inflation rose. Almost 8% in February. Business travel is coming back. People are going on vacation. We have a war happening. Of course, Russia in Ukraine. We also have summer travel, people are doing activities again, kids are spending time in summer camps, they're doing things and thank goodness, right? I don't think any of us really loved 2020 and 2021. Things are changing. Your business also has to change. Now, does that mean that there's no opportunity to teach online? Of course not. Now it may feel like if you have been teaching that things have totally changed and that there's no demand, that's not the case. And I'm going to show you how we can rethink things. There's opportunity growing across multiple spaces online. Online education is going to go up to 585 billion by 20 27. That's more than double where it was just a few years ago. And online education does mean cooking too; online cooking classes, recorded courses, that's part of online education. The virtual events space is going to continue to grow; a $500 billion industry in 2028. And this concept of remote workforces is also going to continue. 36 million people in the American workforce are going to be working remotely by 2025.
So these trends are absolutely in your favor as online culinary course creators and teachers. Okay. But as I said, you have to adapt and that's what we're going to talk about. What worked in 2020 and 2021 is not going to work today. It's not working today and it's not going to work for the rest of this year
So I'm going to share three strategies. Now, the first strategy is that you've got to release your attachment to what you teach. Okay. You've got to let go. Now, as we move out of the pandemic, like I said, life is busy again. Kids have activities, they're going to school. They're going to have soccer practice. People are traveling, whether it's for work or for pleasure. Ultimately, people are not sitting at home, staring at their screens. We spent a lot of time doing that in 2020. And so that created some opportunities that were a little bit artificial, right? This idea that everyone was at home, looking for virtual this or virtual that, that was such an extreme case, such an extreme time. It's rare that we'll ever get back to that. I certainly hope we don't.
So here's the hard truth. And this is going to, this is going to hurt for some of you. Okay. Some of you who have been teaching online for awhile. Your online offer, so when I say offer, it could be your live cooking class, your workshop, it could be a recorded course, your membership, it may no longer be relevant in today's world. It might not be relevant. Here's the reality. What you want to teach may not mean or equal what your ideal student needs or wants. This is a big one. I talked to a lot of people who say, Cynthia, I want to teach this. I want to teach that, I'm excited to teach this. And I'm wondering to myself, that's great. It's important that you teach what fills you, what lights you up, but is it actually what your ideal student needs or wants right now? Back in 2020, you could get away with teaching just about anything because people were at home and there was a desire to just kind of get online. There was some novelty around it. But that's not the case now. So if there's something that you want to teach, it's not a guarantee that that's what someone wants to learn. I don't sugar coat things, and it comes from a place of love, but I'm really tired of hearing people tell me what they want to teach and not focusing on what their ideal student actually wants to learn.
This came up in a coaching call in my program. And it was really interesting. We had a conversation around teaching kids. So this is one example, okay. There are many other examples where things have changed, but this is a big one. So we have some students in the program who have taught children. They were doing kids bake along classes and kids cook along classes. And when I say kids we're talking like 7, 8, 9 years old. Kids that still need supervision.
And during the pandemic, those classes were great. They were filling up, they were selling out because there's nothing else competing for their time. Also parents were home with their kids and they have to supervise their kids in these virtual classes. So it's no surprise that as kids are going back to school, as they now have other activities the idea of asking a parent and child to spend an hour on a Wednesday night cooking together that may just not be feasible anymore. That may just not be as relevant as it used to be. Parents may not be interested in signing up for this because it's, again, a lot on them and they have to manage schedules and other activities. Does that mean that you can't teach children? No, but you've got to think about things differently. So knowing this, look at the data. Okay. See what the data is telling you. If you're putting classes out there and they're not resonating as in, they are not selling, something is off. I also want you to keep an open mind. Letting go means letting go. Again, it's not just about what you want to teach. It's about what people want. We're going to talk more about how to do that, but before we continue, I just want to make sure we're all grounded in this idea that you may need to shift your classes. You may need to shift what you teach. You may have to shift who you teach, even if it's something that you love or loved to do.
Okay. Now, strategy two is uncover the motivations. Uncover the motivations. I believe that no one takes a cooking class to only learn how to cook. I firmly believe this. We've got to dig deeper. We have to dig deeper to really understand why someone wants to learn from you. The reason why we need to do this is because there is competition, not only other cooking classes, but there are other things competing for people's time. Why should they learn how to cook with you when they could do a thousand other things, let alone a thousand other things in the physical in-person world. Right? I want you to actually think about how learning how to cook or fill in the blank, whatever it is that you specifically teach actually impacts your student's life. So digging deeper, going beyond the surface. Let me give you some examples.
Cooking can help your student eat healthier so that they can live longer for their grandkids. The, "so that" is really important. Sometimes we just stop at, oh, well, I want to teach people how to make this gluten-free bread because they're gluten-free and that's what they want. No, let's dig deeper. Why is it important for someone who's gluten-free to be able to make gluten-free bread? Is it to give them that peace of mind, that independence? To empower them? Right. There's so much more beyond the surface.
Cooking can help your student save money so that they can stop stressing about their monthly bills and be happier.
Right. When we're not stressing, we're generally happier. So when we talk about how cooking can save people money. Yes, but why does that matter? What does saving money allow people to do? These motivations are really important because these are the things that you can tap into when deciding what to teach and how you can market your classes.
And here's the final example. Cooking can help your student connect to their Greek culture so that they can have a greater sense of belonging. These are the underlying desires, the underlying motivations as to why someone would want to take your class. Now, again, going back to what I said earlier, you may say, I want to teach (fill in the blank). I want to teach people how to make great smoothies. I want to teach people how to make Thai food. I want to teach people how to make macarons. Let's reframe it. My students want to learn blank so that they can blank. This is really powerful. Now I know it's just a simple sentence, but I want you to start putting yourself in the shoes of your students and understand what do they want to learn and why is it important to them? What does that do for them?
It's not going to be just learning how to cook. I really don't think that's the only reason why someone signs up for a class. Because why does learning to cook matter? And I mentioned some examples before, that's what we've got to get to. So how do you do this? You talk to your ideal student and those who have been in my program know that I'm all about this. You interview people who are the ideal students for your class and you let them talk. You let them talk, you let them share their pain points, their challenges, what they're looking for. Now, they're not going to tell you, I want you to create this exact class and sell it for this price, but they are certainly going to help you understand what it is that they want solved, what problems they have.
And if you've done this already, or you think you've done something like this, do it again because times have changed. So if you've done these types of interviews and it was during COVID, you absolutely need to have these conversations right now with your ideal students, because their lives have changed, which means your business needs to adapt.
The first strategy was to let go of what you've been doing, especially if it's not serving you and if it's not serving your students . Just stop and acknowledge that you've got to make a pivot or a tweak. With the second, we've got to uncover the motivations. We've got to uncover the true desires of the people who you are trying to teach.
Now strategy three is to respond strategically. So let's talk about inflation, right? It's something that I think a lot of us can relate to. Gas is over $6 a gallon right now. The cost of food has increased 8%. I know it's happening here in the U.S. I've talked to our friends in Canada, it's happening there as well. This is the highest rate of inflation we've had since 1981.
Now there are different ways to respond to this. Okay. There's what I call the fear-based response, which is, " Oh my gosh, inflation. I should lower my prices or I should even do some free classes because you know, people don't have enough money right now. I want to help people. I want to make sure that people are able to still cook and learn from me."
This is a very common reaction. You have this desire to nurture and to help. Or some people are even like, I'm just not going to offer classes right now because people don't have money. Now I don't like these responses, as you can tell, the fact that I'm calling them fear-based responses. You're leading with fear. You're not actually leading with data and information.
In fact, I had a conversation with a student who told me, she's like, I think I'm just going to lower my prices right now because of what's happening in the world. And I asked her, I was like, well, did Amazon lower their prices? Did your grocery store lower its prices? Did you know the post office lower its prices? Actually the opposite. Everything has gone up.
Okay. I'm not saying you have to raise your prices, but why are we the ones that need to make up for the fact that this is happening in the world? You have mouths to feed, you have bills to pay.
So rather than respond from a place of fear using this inflation example, let's be strategic and let's put ourselves in the shoes of our ideal student and identify what they really need.
Okay. So knowing inflation is happening right now. If I said, you've got to make it work. You're not allowed to stop teaching. You're not allowed to drop your prices. Let's say that those are off the table. How would you adapt? Well, talk to your ideal student and you should understand where they're feeling this financial pressure. Understand what are they looking for. You know what, there's a good chance they're not eating out as much because it's expensive and that they still are finding it cheaper to cook at home. So here are some ideas, right? This is one example but this is how I want you to think about things going forward especially in this year of uncertainty, let's problem solve. Let's figure out how to make it work for us.
So in your classes be cost conscious when it comes to groceries that you're asking people to buy or the equipment that they need. Filet mignon is probably out the door for a lot of people. I've been speaking with some of you around this idea of pantry meals, going back to basics and thinking about recipes that you can make that are really inexpensive, still packed with nutrients and healthy, depending on what your demographic is looking for.
Also call it out. I think this is an opportunity for you to create classes, courses, memberships that are focused on helping people save money right now. Let's address it head on and say, you know what? It's getting expensive to eat. It's getting expensive to feed your family. Let's find a way to meal plan, prep ahead and help save money for you all. This is an example with inflation. You could apply this to other things that are happening based on what your ISA tells you.
Again, don't lower your prices. Okay. Do not lower your prices because of inflation. All the other prices are going up. Why are yours going to go down. Last I checked your expenses as a business owner, your expenses as a household member are going up. So please do not lower your prices, instead think about how you can add relevant value to your students.
There are three strategies for you to navigate this year, and I hope you weren't coming in here thinking that it was just going to be like a quick change this and change that. No, this is the journey of being a business owner, right? The benefit is that you can be nimble and you can pivot quickly, but you also don't have the luxury that a lot of big companies have, you know, deep pockets and lots of resources and teams of people to help you. So I created this training because I want you to know that I'm in it with you. We're going to figure it out together.
But what I don't want you to do is give up because what you have been doing isn't working today. Because you saw the opportunity? Right billions of dollars in the space. There are going to be people who continue to succeed in teaching online. They're just going to adapt and change things up. And so I hope that you all, if that's what you want to do, if you want to have that flexibility to teach online, you don't want to go back to that grueling in-person event gig, or, you know, brick and mortar catering. If those are the things that you want to avoid, or you at least want to have an additional income stream, teaching online is still super relevant but it's changing so your business also has to change.
That wraps up this week's episode. I hope you found this helpful because my goal in these episodes is to really provide you with ideas and inspiration that will change the way you think and change the way you solve problems in your business, because the only thing that is for certain, the only thing that is a hundred percent a sure thing is that the future will always be uncertain. We have no clue what tomorrow is going to bring us. And in some ways I think that's the most exciting part of our journey as entrepreneurs. Now, if you enjoyed this episode, let me know. You can send me a DM on Instagram at @hiddenrhythm, or even better leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Your words go a really long way in growing our community of listeners.
Finally, if you want to watch the video recording of this training, it's available for a limited time. You can get the link in the show notes wherever you're listening to this episode. Alright, thank you so much for tuning in and until next week, get excited to get experiential.
