How Being Your True Self Attracts Your Ideal Students in Your Online Culinary Business
This is the advice you didn't know you needed to hear.
This week’s episode is inspired by the many recent conversations I’ve had with culinary solopreneurs who are struggling to attract their ideal students.
Week after week, they create content on Instagram and their blog, but it doesn’t get the engagement they hoped for—and they can’t help but wonder why.
"Why isn't anyone commenting on my posts?"
"Why doesn't anyone sign up for my freebie?"
"Why isn't my course selling?"
Maybe you’re asking yourself these questions too?
Well if so, you’ll definitely want to tune in, because I’m sharing the secret ingredient to attracting your ideal students. We’re diving deep into how showing glimpses of your true self—outside of the food world—can help bring people to you who are genuinely excited to learn from you.
Links from this episode
Watch our new free masterclass to learn how to create an online culinary business and our new program, The Online Jumpstart™️!
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:
You don't need to change who you are, okay? You just need to shine the light on who you already are: the good, the imperfect, all of it .
Welcome to the show. Okay, so today I'm going to talk about one of the things that has been coming up a lot lately. I coach students inside my program, the Online Jumpstart. I also work with some more advanced clients one-on-one, and really, no matter the range of students and their experience, this has been coming up quite a bit. So I figured, now is the time to do a podcast episode on this topic. I think anytime I have the same conversation many times, it means that it belongs on this podcast. Because I bet you're probably making the same mistake in your business too. Now, this is also something that came up for me in my own business. A few episodes ago I talked about the importance of alignment and how I was missing that for a period in my business. And alignment has to do with this topic as well. So I don't wanna give too much away, but I am excited for you to really dive into this episode and open up your mind about what it means to be your true self in your business.
That's what we're talking about today, how being your true self can actually help attract your ideal students, clients, customers in your online culinary business. I use the term students, but at the end of the day, it's about people you serve. So it could be people who purchase your recorded course, people who sign up for your live cooking class, people who are going to join your membership.
We're going to talk about how you might be leaving a lot on the table by not showing more of who you are. This is especially important if you're in a crowded and saturated space. I'm talking to you, healthy cooking instructors, okay? If you are in a niche focused on health, well, chances are there's a lot of competition in that space.
So we will talk about kind of how you can set yourself apart and the good news is you don't need anything. You already have it all. But before we dive into that, I do wanna make sure that you know about my newest program.
It's called the Online Jumpstart. If you know you want to build an online culinary business, and that means selling online classes, courses, memberships, and more, but you may not know where to start, well, this is the place to begin. This program has everything you need to build your foundation and teach your first class in 90 days. Trust me, you don't want to jump to selling a class or a recorded course if you don't have the basics in place. I'm talking about understanding your purpose, nailing your niche, having a clear website, setting up an email list that works for you while you are sleeping, and there's a lot more to it. The Online Jumpstart is a done with you program. That means you get a lot of support, so this is not a course that you just watch and figure out on your own time. You get one-on-one calls, Q&A support, personalized reviews, and so much more. You'll also be part of our community, which includes culinary solopreneurs just like you who are cheering you on, and they just get what it is to go through this process. So if you want to learn more, head over to theonlinejumpstart.com.
Okay, now let's get into today's episode. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I had to record this podcast episode. I even think I bumped some topics a few weeks out because this was top priority for me. I just had so many conversations over the last few weeks with people who were struggling with this and I realized we've gotta talk about it.
So here is what I'm seeing. Many of you out there are hiding. You're hiding behind your recipe posts. You're hiding behind your Instagram reels. You're hiding behind these generic newsletters that are hitting my inbox week after week.
Now, don't get me wrong. When I say hiding, I don't mean you're not showing your face. A lot of you are. That's great. A lot of you are talking to the camera. But you're hiding the number one most irreplaceable thing about you, which is your true self. A lot of you just aren't connecting with your audience on a level beyond food, and what I've seen is that this is what really separates culinary solopreneurs who are really, really successful from those who are struggling.
Now, I'll get into what that means when I say beyond the food. I'm not at all saying that you should go out and start becoming a fashion influencer . No, but what I am saying is that many of you right now are just sharing pure culinary content. And it's just vanilla.
You think it's what your ideal student wants. Maybe you've talked to them, maybe you've polled them, but I guarantee you it's not what they only want. Now, if this sounds like you, if you're like, oh my gosh, Cynthia raising my hand, I am guilty of putting content out there that feels a little bit generic, I'm really, really glad you're listening to this episode.
Because it's never too late to improve. And I'll also say that for many of you listening, you were able to build a following, doing what you've been doing, but the future is changing.
With AI entering the space of creating copy and content, things are going to change. So now is the time to really assess your content and think about, hmm, how can I make my business and my brand more defensible when it comes to AI and things like that.
We're gonna get into that in a minute, but first I wanna talk about why you might be hiding. And I bring this up because it's totally normal. None of you wake up every day and say, how can I create content that I hide behind? Of course not. Most of you think you're putting yourself out there. You're spending hours creating these incredible recipes and testing them, photographing them, blogging about them, writing captions, and when you put it out there, you're putting a piece of yourself out there.
But I still think many of you are playing it safe because of a few things. What about rejection, right? What if being your true self actually turns people away? What if it leads to people rejecting you? I've definitely used my platform before to talk about injustices happening here in the U.S. And more recently what's happening in Iran.
And people have told me to quote, "stay in your lane". People have said, oh, like, stick to what you know, you know, marketing.
And you may fear that if you post anything other than a recipe, people might roll their eyes, maybe they'll unfollow you or they'll post some nasty comment. But one thing I ask myself, and I'd encourage you to do the same is, do I even want someone like this in my community? The answer is probably no.
Then ask yourself, what about all of the people who see you and your content as an inspiration? What about people who see that you do have a platform no matter the size, and they wish they could be as brave as you to speak up and use your voice?
Rather than focus your energy on the negative "what ifs"? Focus it on the positive. I want you to switch to what if this actually strengthens my community. What if this actually helps me have a better relationship to my ideal student? Those what ifs will serve you more than the "what if people don't like me anymore"?
So now that we've put that behind us, let's talk about why it's actually a problem for you not to bring your true self into your content. Why is this something you should care about?
Let me give you an analogy. Imagine that your business is like a restaurant. Now, if you have a restaurant, you uh, have to kind of pull yourself out of this because it might be a little too close to home.
So as the chef, you cook up all of these brilliant ideas from the kitchen, right? Everything from recipes to blog posts, to YouTube videos, to maybe even a freebie. Then you hand it off to someone who serves it up to your guest.
You stay in the back of house, hoping that the dish resonates with the guest, who now has it in front of them. Well, in your online culinary business, you have to leave the kitchen. Okay? You have to be both the front and back of house. You are the hostess, you are the server, you are the chef, and every role in between.
Most of you are playing the role of the chef, back of house. Okay? You're coming up with an awesome Instagram reel. You're filming it. Editing. You're writing a caption, and then you're just putting it out there.
But at the end of the day, people need to see you. They need to see the person behind what they're consuming. People connect to people. They don't connect to a menu. They don't connect to a recipe. I mean let's look at chef celebrity culture right now, right? Chef's Table is so popular. Why is that? Because people love the story behind the chef. So, why bother building an online culinary business, if you're not going to connect with your audience?
That is the fastest way to become obsolete. I know I'm using some strong words, but it's true. If you are just leaning on your recipes to grow your online culinary business, you are going to have a very challenging time growing it in 2023 and beyond.
Now, I could do a whole episode on the topic of AI. I'm just going to talk about it here briefly because I do think that this is something that's playing into a lot of people's minds as they think about creating content and putting things out there. So AI, maybe you've heard of ChatGPT, that's one example of an AI tool, has the ability to bring together content in ways that humans just can't. I mean in seconds, you could put a query into ChatGPT, and let's take an example, it could be, what are the top 10 meal prep hacks for new moms? And you will be shocked by the quality of results, and it's still in the early days.
So whether or not you like AI, I hate to break it to you, it is here to stay and it's only going to become more powerful. The solopreneurs who are able to grow with AI are going to find ways to use it to their advantage rather than feel threatened by it.
There are a lot of people freaking out about it, and I understand why, but at the end of the day, here's what it means for you. This is a hot take here. I know a lot of you may not agree, but it may replace recipe development. It may also replace how you teach and explain techniques.
If you teach meal prep, as an example, your clients, your students will be able to actually look up meal prep steps and hacks, like I just shared, what mistakes to avoid. They can do that using a tool like ChatGPT, but here's what AI can't do. It cannot replace your point of view. It can't replace your personality. And it can't replace your voice.
This is why you, you personally, need to show up more and more in your content, because you are more than a recipe, and recipes are becoming commodities.
So with all of that in mind, knowing what we know and knowing what we don't know, what should you be doing instead? Well, here's what I have been encouraging my students and my clients to do, because I've seen it work for me and for many, many other solopreneurs out there.
It's time to explore how you can infuse more of you in your content . Okay? So think about what do you have in common that will help you connect with your audience in a deeper way. Let's just call them shared tastes, right? Shared tastes or commonalities.
I'll give you an example in my world. So here are some things that are a big part of my life that aren't directly correlated to what I do, which is help people build life-first online culinary businesses. So if you follow me on this podcast or read my emails, you've heard me talk about being a mom of two toddlers. I also talk a lot about being second generation, how my parents immigrated from Iran to the U.S. I also talk about how we have a pretty international family. My husband is French-American. We spend time in France. We travel the world, and we have ever since the very start of our relationship. I also love to cook. And I'm a career switcher. I used to work at one of the largest corporations in the U.S and I've also worked at tiny startups. Each of the things that I just listed contribute to my unique point of view when it comes to everything I create, including content around building an online culinary business.
Are there people out there who also teach what I teach? Definitely. But I do it through my unique lens that no one else can replicate. And I've also found that the more I share about those things, the more my community enjoys them.
I recently sent an email newsletter when I talked about Nowruz, which is the Iranian New Year, also known as the first day of spring. And some of my students and alums replied because they also celebrate Nowruz. Now, I didn't write that email with the intention of saying, oh, wow, I wonder if these students are going to respond. But it was something that I knew that my audience as a whole would appreciate, because I know that my audience tends to be connected to other cultures and even though they may not be Iranian, hearing about my connection to my culture inspires them.
So it doesn't mean that everyone in my community has to have these traits, okay? This is more about the lens in which I create content and serve my clients and my students. But ideally, there's at least one thing that they could probably relate to that brings them closer to me.
For example, I know that almost 80% of my students and alums have children, so that is a very easy topic for me to connect with them on.
I also know that most of them love to travel or love the idea of traveling. Food and travel are so connected, and so there are generally some commonalities there.
Now after this episode, I want you to write down some things about your life that might be relatable to your ideal student. Think about some things that you could share about your point of view, about your perspective, about your background, that may not be exactly tied to the thing that you talk about online.
So if you are an expert on meal prep, think about things outside of meal prep that influence how you meal prep.
And the reason why we're doing it is not for the algorithm. The reason that we're doing it is not to get more likes or more follows. It's actually so that people can get to know who we are. Your online culinary business is a personal business. It is led by you. You are the face behind it. So this is a call to you to be brave, you need to be bold. You need to put yourself out there as much as you can and really dive into the shared tastes that you have with your audience. Not only will you build a better business, but you'll actually be able to serve more people because you will grow.
What makes me so excited about this for you is that this is not about changing who you are. You do not need to be someone you're not. And with every student I talk with, I learn something new about them then I say, where is this in your content? This is pure gold.
Most of the time it's that you don't realize it and what you're trying to do is show up for everyone. You want to be relatable to everyone, and what that does is it makes you vanilla. It makes you average. Because you are not stepping out into your own uniqueness. You're trying to fit a mold that works for everyone, which by the way, does not exist. So when you do that, you're just diluting your own message. You're diluting your superpowers. You're diluting the things that make your brand incredible.
And if you don't believe me, I want you to look at who you follow on Instagram. And I'm gonna even say, look at the people who you love to follow on Instagram, the content that you love consuming. Truly ask yourself, is it because their recipes are good? You probably haven't even made all of their recipes. Most likely it's about their personality and their ability to relate and make you feel like you are part of their community.
This is not some sort of artificial exercise. It's also not about being vulnerable for the sake of being vulnerable to get attention or anything like that. You get to decide what and how much you share. But I challenge you to share more than what you have already, because I know it's going to provide a more holistic view of who you are and that's what people are going to connect to.
Definitely have boundaries and only share what you care to share. For example, I keep a lot of my home life private because I really like having that separation. don't really post a ton of photos of my children and on the weekends I'm typically offline. But I still do touch upon some of the themes of being a mother in my content.
Once you identify those and you start to weave them into your content, you are going to start to see some powerful things happen.
Your people are going to feel seen. They're going to feel heard and understood, which is what every human desires. You are going to go from posting and hearing crickets to actually getting into some really good conversations with your audience.
People will DM you. They will hit reply to your email. The more you open up, the more people are going to respond. You are becoming a real person to them, not just a resource for recipes. You're gonna have conversations too that aren't just about food, so be prepared for that.
But just know that those conversations will lead them back to your content on food. People are going to come to you for anything that you have. It's not just about the freebie. It's not just about a recipe. It's now about you and the fact that you get them.
You will become irreplaceable.
I want to give you an example. This is actually someone who's been on the show before. Her name's Caroline Chambers and she used to teach online cooking classes during the pandemic and now has a paid newsletter on Substack. Her name comes up a lot in my program because people look to her and are like, wow, she has the number one food Substack subscription right now. How is she doing it, right? What is it about her? What is it about her recipes?
I am a subscriber. I pay $5 a month to get Caroline's recipes as well as access to her old recipes. And in fact, I have just stopped Googling recipes and now just go to her directory, look up recipes and use that to decide what we're cooking for the week.
So why do I pay $5 a month to follow Caroline? Is it because of all the recipes I get? Sure. But there are other people out there with recipe subscriptions, so why do I follow her?
Well, because it's about her. Okay. Her subscription works because of two things: number one, her stuff is good, okay? And that really has to be true, to be in it for the long haul. You can't create recipes that don't work and expect to stick around. So that is a non-negotiable.
But the second thing is that she shows up as herself. Authentically. She tells really funny stories. She's a super busy mom of three kids. I think they're all under five years old. And yeah, she uses ingredients I like and cooks cuisines that I enjoy. But at the end of the day, I pay because of her. I know that she gets what my life is like. I know that she sees me, she hears me, she understands me. And so for that reason, I trust her. And I again, have just stopped Googling for recipes.
I know that so many of you want that kind of business where you can just write recipes, tell stories, and see money hit your bank account. You can do it from the comfort of your home. You can do it while you're traveling. You can do it while the kids are in the other room. I get it. That's a delicious business model.
So if you want that, I want you to ask yourself, what could I be doing differently? Look at your own email newsletters, scan your blog posts, look at your own social media. Are you giving people a glimpse into your life that is uniquely yours? Or are you giving people the vanilla version of your life? Seriously, when I do these audits and I look at people's content, it is just thirsty for personality. Okay? We need to inject more of our personalities into our content.
I know that so many of you listening have been at this for a while. You've been grinding away week after week, blog post, after blog post. You're sending email newsletters. I get them. I read them. And I see that you're putting a ton of time into your content and making it high quality, but it's just not working for you.
I'm convinced again that you don't need to change who you are, okay? You just need to shine the light on who you already are. The good, the imperfect, all of it. Everything you need is already in you. So now's the time to find that bit of courage and creativity and just open up and come out from the back of house.
Okay. That is it for this week's episode. I packed a lot in there, but I do hope you take this advice to heart. If you have questions about this episode or you have thoughts or a light bulb moment, let me know. I'd really, really love to hear from you. You can send me a DM on Instagram @culinarycynthia.
Now next week I'm going to be back here on the podcast with another fantastic guest. In case you missed our last one, definitely tune in to our previous episode where I got to speak with Julia Turshen. So many of you have written me telling me it was one of your favorites. That you were so inspired by it. So if you haven't listened to it, be sure to check that out. I think you'll really enjoy the episode with Julia, especially after listening to what we've talked about here.
Thanks again for joining me, and I'll see you back here next week.
