Lessons Learned From 10+ Years of Teaching Online with Meghan Telpner
what if you could tap into the mind of one of the most experienced online business owners in our space?
That’s exactly what you’ll get inside this must-listen interview with Meghan Telpner, bestselling author and founder of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition.
In this episode, Meghan generously shares her lessons learned from 15+ years as an entrepreneur—with 10 of those as an online educator.
Meghan is an open book as she gives us a peek behind-the-scenes of how she started the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, grew it to 300-400 students year after year—and why she almost walked away from it all in 2022.
No matter your background, niche, or experience level, this interview will undoubtedly inspire you to build an online culinary business that best serves you and your community.
RATE, REVIEW & subscribe on Apple podcasts
Love this episode? Want to support our podcast and help it grow? One of the best things you can do is leave a rating and review here on Apple Podcasts!
Don’t know how to leave a review? Here’s how:
Head over here then click on Listen on Apple Podcasts. This will open your podcast player.
If you want to get our latest episodes, be sure to click Subscribe.
Scroll to the bottom then select your star rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
Then, click on Write a Review. I’d love to hear what you enjoyed most about this episode or our podcast in general!
LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE
Visit the Academy of Culinary Nutrition and the new Clubhouse Community
Learn more about Meghan Telpner
Say hello to Cynthia on Instagram → @culinarycynthia!
-
Meghan: Whatever you're creating has to come from the heart with your why very strong. And that why has to be bigger than yourself. Because if your why, your motivator is something that is needed by either a niche or the world or whatever it is, and it feels to you like it's important and urgent and powerful, the sort of divine energy, whatever you need to put it out there will flow.
Cynthia: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Culinary Creator B-School podcast.
I'm chatting with Meghan Telpner, bestselling author and founder of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. Okay now, whether or not you're interested in nutrition, you really have to listen to this episode. Because Meghan just celebrated her 10th year of her online program. Yes, 10 years. She's been at this for a decade, which is super rare in the online space. We'll get into this later, but most of the course platforms that we know and use today, didn't even exist back then. So she really has so much experience to share with us. She's seen it all.
In this interview, we're going to talk about how she started the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, how she grew it to hundreds of students every single year, I think now she has over 3000 alumni, and why she almost walked away from it all in 2022.
No matter your expertise, your niche, your experience level, I guarantee that you're going to gain so much from this conversation with Meghan. Let's jump right in.
Hi, Meghan, welcome to the show.
Meghan: Thank you so much for having me.
Cynthia: I am thrilled to have you. When I reached out, it was because so many people in my program and in my community kept talking about Academy of Culinary Nutrition, and I was just like, okay, I need to learn more. And they started talking about you even, more than the program and saying, oh, you don't know Meghan.
You gotta know Meghan. So I reached out, you graciously accepted. And I'm really excited to have you here because I think you have so much to share given the fact that you've been in this online space for a while now. For those listening who have no idea who you are, which would surprise me, but we definitely have people outside of the nutrition world listening, I would love if you could share a little bit more about who you are and what you do.
Meghan: Absolutely. So I run the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, which is an online cooking school for people who wanna learn how to cook from scratch, but more so wanna be empowered with the skills and knowledge and language to share it with others, whether it's in person or online. And then we've had loads of grads do things outside of what I ever could have imagined they would've been using the program for, and writing their own cookbooks and creating products and running retreat centers and all kinds of incredible work.
I've written two books UnDiet and The UnDiet Cookbook, and I'm a mom and I like to grow my own food and I live in Toronto and those are a few things about me.
Cynthia: Cool. Yeah. We're gonna get into a lot of those things. So when did you start your business. I love hearing the origin story.
Meghan: Yeah, so I started teaching cooking classes in my little 600 square foot loft in downtown Toronto in 2008. And, it was incredible. And the driving force behind that was that I had just healed from an autoimmune disease, was inspired to go back and study nutrition, but I needed some friends who wanted to eat and live the way I was now living and eating.
And so the idea was to build community around sharing food together. So we'd have six strangers come together a couple times a week, and we'd cook together and we'd eat together. And it was incredibly fun.
Cynthia: How did you find these strangers?
Meghan: I had a blog I was writing that caught on. It was doing really well, but I also, I rode a bicycle covered in flowers, and I had sewn these little packets that were on the front basket and the back basket with business cards in them.
So I would just park my bike in different places and I would leave these flyers in yoga studios and health food stores. And I think the kids call it like guerilla marketing. Like I was just trying to get word of mouth and there was no one else doing it at the time.
So that was how people just started,coming, and that was the very beginning. And slowly it grew and I got the opportunity to appear on different TV shows and, you know, lifestyle shows and do that, which didn't have a huge impact.
Cynthia: Everyone thinks that will do it. It doesn't, it makes like blips and increases credibility. It didn't have a huge impact. It was just doing it over and over again. Like, okay, we're gonna do another class. We're gonna do another class. And being persistent and showing up at any events around the city that would have me and doing cooking demos and being at trade shows and like hustling. And at the time, I'm just curious, Meghan, because a lot of people listening think about the competition, right? And they're like, if I do cooking demos, what makes me special? So many other people are doing them. So did you ever have those thoughts? Did you just not care? I'm really curious to hear how you approach that.
Meghan: It's interesting because I think the person who could be considered my competition was one of my closest friends. She was teaching cooking classes. Like it was very similar work. We lived sort of opposite ends of the city. We had people come to both of our classes. Her and I would meet up to find out, you know, where the best place was to get organic almonds. And it never felt like a competition in that way.
And as far as the cooking demos, the best thing anyone can do is infuse themselves in their business. So I would just go out exactly as I am and have fun doing it, and the audience would laugh. And that was it. Like, it wasn't that complicated.
Over time my writing was growing an audience and so people were like, can you film your classes? Like, I'd like to join it. And it wasn't that easy to do stuff online in 2010, 2011. So we did a live stream class as an experiment. I think it was in the fall of 2011. Where I had like a whole crew, like we needed a whole mixing board. Like it was very involved to livestream anything, but we did it and it was really fun. And so then I started experimenting with transferring what I was doing in person into video-based courses I could offer online,on demand. And I think we launched our first one in the fall of, or the spring of 2012, and basically used what I earned from that one to fund the next one and the next one. And then in the fall of 2013, I launched my full program that I was now offering in person, online. So that was the first run of the Culinary Nutrition expert program. And I had a hundred guests from eight countries and I was blown away because previous to that I could only fit like eight to 12 here in person. And people were doing such incredible work and I was, you know, you create these things and I put it out there and I didn't know what people would get out of it, but as they were doing the work and having these transformational professional experiences, but life experiences being like, wow, this is so outside what I thought I was capable of and they were doing it and succeeding. That kind of lit the spark for me to see that this is bigger than just me. And that it could be so much more. And we actually launched the Academy of Culinary Nutrition to create a home for this program that had already been running.
Cynthia: I'm thinking like 2012, 2013. I think a lot of us would've said teaching cooking online. There's no way, why would people do it. Now we know that it can work and the pandemic has helped accelerate that. So, what was it that you think resonated with people and they were like, no, I'm not gonna go down the street if I can learn from Meghan online. Was it you? Was it the uniqueness of the program?
Meghan: I don't know. I'd like to think it was all of the above. There still is nothing that comes close to what we offer and the way we offer it. And now it's a, we, it used to just be a me, but thankfully I'm not alone anymore. There still is nothing like it. And I don't know why, but I mean, I do know why it's incredibly complicated to create, having now done it and revised it and gone through the process.
Maybe it was just the way I delivered. In the first iteration of the videos we did were in real time. So there was multiple cameras, but there was no real editing on it. So it was very real and what I wanted to do was create as close to an in-person experience as what I was offering here in person.
So the workshops I was teaching that were part of this program at the time were exactly what I was teaching in the kitchen. So there was some humor to it. mishaps happened and it was also, because at the time I didn't have the budget to have a film crew there for the whole day and do retakes and shoot multiple angles. Like it was just out of necessity it turned out that way. And it had mass appeal. So we launched the Academy of Culinary Nutrition in the spring of 2014 and, it's just grown and grown from there. And then in 2015, I refilmed the entire curriculum now having kind of learned how the flow would work and getting feedback and wanting to make it as incredibly awesome and also at that point, being able to afford a higher production value. So we redid it, and ran that first sort of new version in 2015. We're still using it. We've modified some of the elements. We've, kept it really current. I still do live components with it, and we still attract three to 400 people every year. So, it's been incredible.
Cynthia: That's amazing. And again, for people who aren't really familiar with your program, when you say there's nothing else like it out there, how would it compare to, I don't know, someone going to school to study nutrition? What sets it apart?
Meghan: The primary thing that sets us apart is that we're using food as the core of our teaching. So most nutrition, like natural nutrition, integrative nutrition, holistic nutrition, they're talking about the body and the systems of the body. You're learning how the body works, you're learning how the body metabolizes the food we eat. We're learning about food, you know, nutrient density and in some cases calories or macronutrients. And we're learning about vitamins and minerals, but it seems to stop there and where we pick up. So we have loads of our students come from other programs. We have loads of students who go into other programs after. And the most, I think just do what we offer and then are able to take it from there in creating a business or reaching their personal health goals. But we start with the food and we use food to teach. So if we can't take what we learn out of a textbook or in a classroom or off a multiple choice test and actually apply it in breakfast and lunch and dinner and our snacks, and we pack our kids for lunches and then we're falling short.
And that is what's missing. And there's loads of opportunities to learn how to cook online for sure. But very few integrate the nutrition component with the culinary component and are also wholly inclusive of all dietary philosophies and values. So you can get a plant-based course, or there's paleo or there's keto, but we are really empowering people to understand what food philosophy is most important for them and their personal needs and their health. And we teach them how to tap into this with their clients who may seek their guidance, recognizing there's no one optimal diet for everyone. And so it's really empowering people, not just to learn what I wanna teach and share, but how to learn so that they can go off, and in the course of our program, everyone's, asked to choose a specific condition or interest and focus all their assignments on that. So if someone wants to study rheumatoid arthritis or prenatal nutrition or menopausal nutrition, whatever it is, they get to focus their learning on something that's really important to them. And so in doing that, they know how to do the research and put the work together so they become self-sustaining in what they've learned and how they can carry on and continue learning independently.
Cynthia: Wow. And as you talked about, you hinted at how complicated or hard it is to do what you just said from like the educator's point of view. I mean, that is so challenging, right? Like you're creating these custom paths for people. It's not a cookie cutter, one size fits all, which is really hard to do at scale. So congratulations.
Meghan: Thank you. Yeah, with, we see what a lot of nutrition programs is they,they'll like tap into like this week's on the immune system and this week's on digestion, which is all really great and really important, but you end up just getting a surface level of a lot of information, and I know that I learn the best when I have a personal interest in the material. So we have our core modules, but everyone can customize what their assignments are based on what they wanna learn about. And everyone is assigned a program coach. So they have someone who guides them through their personalized path and what they wanna learn. And if they're stuck trying to find something, they have someone who can help guide them. And so the result is that we have incredible success from our graduates. 90% of people who sign up for our program complete it successfully, which is unheard of.
And there's accountability, there's deadlines, there's coaches, you're paired with someone else in the program. We have our community group, we have our weekly live classes where I get to dig in on, you know, hot topics and people can connect with each other.
So, there was all these things and someone's like, how did you figure this out? I have no idea. I think a huge help was first doing it in person, getting real feedback from real people. And it was funny because when I was doing it in person and it was really just me and I had a couple interns who would help me.
People would hand in their assignments and I didn't wanna give anyone grades because I didn't want it to be like that. But then people weren't handing stuff in so I had to give 'em grades. But I ended up just giving everyone a hundred because I'm like, you did so good. And I couldn't give critical feedback and then sit down and have dinner with them.
Now I have coaches who are much better at the grading system than I ever was, but our intention is for people to learn the information and be able to apply it in their life. And so the role of the coach is to support the success of our students.
Cynthia: People need that sense of accountability, that community and, you know, people listening here, a lot of them are thinking about creating advanced courses and in say pastry or whatever it is, cake decorating. It doesn't really matter, but it's more than just the content, right? You have to build an ecosystem to support them, which, you know, may not be at the level you're at because you've been at it for so long and you've really built a team around you. But just thinking about those things I think is so valuable.
I'd love to know, if you could think back to one of the most difficult moments that you've experienced as an entrepreneur in this space, what really stands out for you?
Meghan: It's all been challenging. A hundred percent. So in the early days, the challenge was that the technology didn't exist. The, the way I wanted to deliver this, there wasn't things like Teachable and LearnDash and Thinkific and these out-of-the-box platforms that you could set up and start offering courses.
So it was, you know, working with developers and customizing plugins. And so there was times when everything felt like it was held together by a thread, like one plugin update and everything would be broken. We had the challenge where I ultimately was like I want this to run this way, and it did not exist. So I dreamt up my dream learning management system and found a developer and we built it together. And so that was a massive challenge.
Cynthia: Are you still using that today?
Meghan: That is the one we are still using. That one launched in 2016. We are now transitioning to more of an out of the box just because maintenance, I think it'll just be easier to keep it updated. So there's like the technical side that's a challenge.
In the food world, things change so quickly, and especially in the last couple years, food prices have gone up,now there's more food scarcity, or when you attract an audience from around the world, there's places where you just can't get certain things. Or like, you know, we have a student in Alaska where a head of broccoli is $10. So there's working with that, which is a challenge. And I would say in the last few years, our greatest challenge is, the fact that with Covid and everyone learning online, which was great, but suddenly everyone is offering stuff online. So how do we kinda rise to the top of the pack?
And also with all these out-of-the-box systems, it's significantly easier to create an online offering. there's here's More out there. So our challenge now is finding the people that are the right fit for what we're offering, and effectively communicating it.
And it's, it's more expensive to find, like we never used to pay for advertising. Like that's a very new thing for us to do because I was never trying to get to like a thousand students. I was like, 400 is our max with the team we have. And I like that size and it feels intimate enough. So right now that is the current, I don't wanna think of challenge, it's the current opportunity to learn some new things, but it's never been easy. It's never been like, oh, this is the year we just like open registration and watch them flood in. Every year, every year for 10 years, we open registration and I sit there being like, where is everybody. Like, why isn't everyone enrolling on the very, very first day of registration? Why are they all waiting till the last day and then we have to worry all summer, like every year? And my husband reminds me of this. My parents remind me of this. My team reminds me of like, they're gonna come.But I think that's also why we're still here doing this 10 years later, because I still think it's all been fluke. I keep working hard to stay innovative and most of all deliver an absolutely exceptional experience for the people who invest their time and money with us to learn.
Cynthia: It's so refreshing to hear you say that, and I think this is one of the reasons why I was really excited to have you on the podcast, because you're so real and down to earth and anyone who has put anything out there for sale online knows exactly that feeling. You post that Instagram story, you're like, okay, everyone, it's available. The thing you told me you wanted. No one signs up and people wait. They procrastinate.
Meghan: Or you get questions that are just like, why are you asking me this?
Like, how do you price this? I'm like, I just, you know, I looked at the sunrising in the east and the moon come. I was like, no. Like there's just questions I'm like, I can't answer this. It's the investment and you'll get a return on this investment. You know, just random, like, I don't know, do you use sesame in your program? I don't like sesame, so just anything you can think of. And also, I mean, we've had now over 3000 graduates. Every single term we run the program, we run into something we've never run into before with a student. Like whether it's a certain circumstance or a strange question or a complaint that we're just like, I can't believe 3000 people have gone through this, and no one has asked that or pointed that out
So I mean, it keeps it interesting.
Cynthia: Absolutely. So you've probably seen this, now that COVID has slowed down you start to see people who were working on courses for that, quick money hit, they're ditching it because they're realizing, oh wow, that was actually harder than I thought. And it takes commitment.
So , it's interesting, right? because you,saw the rise of popularity during that time. I mean, that's when I started my program. But a lot of people have abandoned their programs since. Have you seen that as well?
Meghan: I have, and I don't think that's a bad thing.
You know, I made a very intentional decision to stop offering live classes. However, as you and I are speaking on this date, I just hosted my first live event since 2016.
Cynthia: Virtual or person?
Meghan: No, live in person.
We threw a dance party and it wasn't nutrition related at all.
It's about new work that has come up for me just as a side thing that I have, I'm very passionate about. But we originally had 50 tickets. We sold out in 24 hours. So that was the opportunity where I was like, I put it up for sale and it's just like, ding, ding, ding. I was like, okay, this is great. And it was amazing and I loved it.
It's a lot easier to do stuff in person than online. That being said, there's also like people calling and canceling last minute, like there's challenges no matter what you do. I don't believe there's an easy way through. And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think there's huge value to your brain and to your dopamine receptors to like working hard on something for real. Like not an Instagram post, but like really working for something and, planning and setting milestones and celebrating them and then, seeing the results of your efforts. There is magic in that and I think that gets lost in the falsehood, that it's easy to film something in your kitchen and hit publish and then people are gonna flood in.
However, what you offer people still, like, it's always going to be there. We just have to recognize that it also takes effort.
I will continue offering my online program for as long as the Internet exists and I still want to do it. And I know that there will always be people who will find it and gain value in their life. And some will do it online and some will do it in person. But, it's all part of life's experience and it's part of work experience and it's just learning and figuring things out. And there is no easy way around it if you wanna build a really solid foundation for a business that will last year after year.
Cynthia: Exactly. And I think during the pandemic there were some instances where, people just decided to teach online and their classes sold out because it was such a weird time. Right. And I explained to everyone like that was not normal. And if it feels too easy, easy come, easy go. And that's what a lot of people experienced.
Meghan: Yeah. I actually right when everything was shutting down, in March 2020, I had just returned home from California. I had been there on a holiday with my family and I was like, what do we do? What can I offer? Like how can I help, especially the teachers. I'm like, teachers are not known for their technical know how typically, like they're in a classroom of children.
So I did a free webinar. It was probably the best, most well attended thing I've ever done, which was just called How to Teach Online because as you know, which is why you do what you do, it's not as straightforward as hitting record and it's its own skill for sure.
Cynthia: I mean, I have to imagine that those few years your program was full, right?
Meghan: Yeah, 2020, was like the sleeper hit because we opened registration April 9th so fresh into it. And I was like, I don't know the tone to send an email. No one knows what their jobs are gonna be like. Is anyone gonna spend money? And I made the decision. I was like, we are going out to be the joy in the inbox and see what happens. And yes, it was a bigger year than we'd had in a while. But then we had the rebound. By 2021, the summer of 2021. Like no one would show up for an information session in the middle of the summer. Like no one wanted more time on Zoom and it was really hard to get people to commit to spending time online at that time.
And so we've kind of, you know, we've found like stable ground, but I never know what's to come. We look at our list growth and interest and I've built out my team a lot just because I work less than I used to. And, uh, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what, what this year brings.
Cynthia: Speaking Of emails, I'm on your email list and you sent an email out last year in 2022 and you're like, this is it.
Meghan: Yeah.
Cynthia: This is it. This is the last time I'm doing the program. And I remember being so shocked and thinking, huh, I wonder what she's up to next.
And we connected and you told me a little bit more about that. Would you mind sharing? because the program is back, it's here. It didn't go away, but you made us all wonder what was gonna happen.
Meghan: I just thought it would be a great sales strategy to say I was leaving.
I'm totally kidding. It was funny because a lot of people saw me announce that I was leaving, but very few saw that I changed my mind. So what happened was I was exhausted, and I was dealing personally being a public person to some extent and not being fully in alignment with the majority of people throughout the pandemic.
So as a nutritionist and an educator on food, it was really hard for me, seeing messages show up about medical interventions on packs of fries from a fast food restaurant, and all these things that just made no sense to me on what could be open and what could be closed and how it was impacting people's health.
There was a failure to view health from a holistic perspective and what individuals could do to support their health.
And so when I would talk about it, it was met with a lot of fear and aggression and I was like, if I can't teach personal empowerment about health and cooking and food and the role it plays in our, not just our health and wellbeing, but on the trajectory of our lives and our children. I don't know if I can do this. And I just was tired of, I don't wanna say being attacked, but you know, having just hateful messages in my DMs saying I was insensitive or whatever it was, which was the complete opposite of my intention. It was like, let's reduce this fear and look at ways in which we can empower ourselves to, to have even, should we get sick, like to have the most positive outcome possible, to reduce our risk of complications. So that was part of my need to be like, I don't know if I can be in the health field anymore if that's the response I'm gonna get. And so after I announced that, like I'm done,I hired an incredible operator for my company and together I was like, okay, we're gonna transition me out. Let's give more responsibility to team members, own their area, help them get the skills they need. Instead of me like just fixing things when I didn't like the way they were, I started communicating to my team, being like, this is what I would like to see, or here's how you might wanna consider improving it.
So really passing things back.
Cynthia: Which is really hard when it's your business from the start. That delegation is incredibly hard, especially when you know how to do the things, right?
Meghan: Yeah. And the other part of it was that I didn't want my personal views to impact the success of the company and the livelihood of my team. And so as I started to separate myself from it and let them kind of of run it and own it, I was really left doing the stuff that I love most about the work that I do, like creating video content and having fun and, being creative. And I took some time off in the summer and also gave myself the freedom to stop censoring and be exactly as I am and share what I felt like, at least the people who wanted to follow me still would be helpful for them. And I think in the process of all of that, a lot of healing happened for me. And I regained my momentum and my drive in recognizing the role I could serve. Like, so forget about the people who don't wanna hear from me. Forget about the people who don't want to learn how to improve their health. There's lots of people that still do, and that's who I'm gonna speak to. I'm not gonna try and convince anyone that this is probably for the best for themselves, but instead really focus on those that were seeking my guidance and do it in a way that felt truly authentic, without self-censoring.
And so when I ran the program in the fall and hearing people's stories about why they were joining and what specifically about this program, this school, me, how we do things, it was kind of like the most beautiful reminder of what I can share, the way only I can and do. And that's ultimately what, inspired me, not just to stick with it, but we're actually creating something new. And I'm in that point of like, we had the idea in August. We like, went through the details of it. I'm at the point of actually having to create it where I'm like, I just created a whole lot more work for myself, but it's also really exciting to be creating something new. So that's kind of how it happened. And I imagine it happens with a lot of entrepreneurs. Like I started a business and haven't stopped for 15 years, except for six days after I got married where we didn't turn on phones or have email or anything. But otherwise it's been pretty constant. And so having a team that didn't need me. And they probably never needed me as much as I thought they did, but that was part of my identity and part of what I did all day was answer questions and try and help and oftentimes just get in the way. And so creating some healthy boundaries, it's made it all really fun and exciting again. And I feel like rather than it being, us winding down, to me right now, it feels like we're going into what I'm calling 3.0 of like, what are the next five to eight years gonna look like of this? And that's what we're working on building out.
Cynthia: Do you remember that moment over the summer where you were like, wait a minute. I want to not only be back, but I wanna be back and be my big, authentic self. Was there a specific turning point?
Meghan: Part of it was what we were looking at doing was refilming the program with other people as the experts in it.
Cynthia: Oh wow.
Meghan: And then I was like, I don't want that job. Like I don't wanna be a producer of video content. You know, we were gonna look at our alumni and look at our grads and see who, could hold their own and host it and do all that. And I'm like, and what if we do all that? My delivery is part of the appeal. I don't know, maybe it's not, maybe it's nothing to do with it, but it was a massive risk.
Cynthia: For sure.
Meghan: And then as I started thinking about, what would my job look like then I was like, I don't want that job. That's not the part I enjoy doing.
I like, you know, putting on the show and doing the cooking performance, the song and dance. And so that was part of it. And what we offer today, is still just as if not more relevant and important and impactful than it was five years ago, eight years ago, 10 years ago. And ultimately that's why I decided to keep doing it. I was like, this is my calling. And so it wasn't like a defining moment. And even my team, like I remember when Michelle came on, which was last March, and I was like, originally she signed a one year contract. I'm like, I need her for a year. I need everyone to stay for a year, and then we'll figure it out. And my team, I don't think really knew, like I kind of had left it really open. And then in the fall I'm like, well, obviously I'm not leaving now, so what are we gonna do? What's the next year gonna look like?
Cynthia: Yeah, and I always say like business is personal and some people don't believe in that. But I think when you are an entrepreneur and you've just poured, your heart and soul into what it is you're building, it's very hard to detach yourself. But even more, sounds like you recognized like, wait a minute, maybe people are here for me and my delivery and my ability to communicate, and I'd be willing to bet that's a thousand percent true. When people come to me and tell me about the program, your name is the first thing they say.
Meghan: Yeah. Well, we're actually building out. Do you wanna know what we're doing?
Cynthia: Of course I do.
Meghan: You're probably the first person we're telling. We're building out a community group, like a membership community group.
If we wanna talk about the future of courses, it's community. That's the future of humanity is community. Because we lost it and we realized, wait a second, life is not so fun without it and it's critical to our health and wellbeing and our mental health. And especially what I do in sort of, you know, eating on the fringe of normalcy where, you're cooking things from scratch and it's becoming more common. But for a lot of people they come into this world being like the odd one out in their families or in their friend circles. Like the ones who go and order food and like, well I'm gluten free. Or, you know, asking those questions. So, that community piece is so critical. So we're creating a membership platform to be both a network for our graduates because they often collaborate and work with each other or need to share resources like, who's your bookkeeper? Do you have a designer? And so as a, professional network, but also for wider members of the community to come in and keep learning at a lower investment point.
And so we're gonna be having free events ongoing every month with our graduates doing cooking demos, expert presentations, interviews, all kinds of stuff so that collectively we can really just keep learning together. So that's sort of this new thing we're building out that's an extension of the Culinary Nutrition Expert program, but gives a really solid way for people to maintain connection to the community after graduating.
Cynthia: And so you're allowing and inviting people outside of the program graduates to be part of that community. That's incredible because you have alums and grads talking to people who are interested in the program, and that's the best form of marketing, right?
Meghan: Ding, ding, ding,
Cynthia: So I love it. Do you know what platform you're using yet or are you willing to share?
Meghan: Yeah, I think we're gonna be going with Mighty Networks.
Cynthia: Fantastic. Yeah we're seeing a shift where people are creating Facebook profiles just so they can be part of our student group, but they don't want anything to do with Facebook. I think a lot of companies are starting to choose platforms based on their values and where they want to spend their time and money.
Meghan: It'll be interesting to see community it's also like we're requiring a change of habit like Facebook works, especially when it's a smaller community community people are still going on it, it's still on their phone, and so we'll see.
Cynthia: That's super exciting. When is the community launching?
Meghan: We're opening the wait list by the end of January.
Cynthia: I think by the time this episode's out, the wait list would be open.
Meghan: Okay. So go to culinarynutrition.com/clubhouse, Everyone will be welcome to join.
Cynthia: Fantastic. I know you said you can't predict the future, but I'm still gonna tap into you because I think you're one of the smartest minds in the space. So what are you thinking about in terms of trends when it comes to online learning, education, that sort of thing?
Meghan: I think what we have to accept is that there's no such thing as success with online courses when they're passive. And I think when you see,any of the most successful people who do stuff online, there's a very clear launch period, run the program period, move on to the next thing.
And not to say that you can't have evergreen enrollment, but there still needs to be very specific incentive to join, some sense of scarcity and some element of live interaction always. So if you can have those pieces checked off, I think that the other component is that the quality now will need to be that much better.
I think technology has improved to the point where you can't really just get away with filming courses on Zoom. and saving that recording. I think that there needs to be a quality component in the visual, but also so much so in the content where it's actually something people need and use and will talk about.
Whereas I think for a while you could be like, well here's five podcasts I've done and I'm gonna do a transcript of them and then here's a PDF, of a cookbook. And then like, now we have a program.
I think people are more savvy than that. And because a lot of the lousy stuff is being shut down and falling away, there's also a higher expectation of what will be delivered.
So I think we have to consider the visuals of it, the quality of it, the community aspect, and putting in the time so that people feel like they matter when they do an online course. If you want success, like I want people to do my course, I don't just want them enrolling in it. And so that piece will matter.
Cynthia: It's so true. And I think, you know, even in our program, it's an evergreen program, but we have scarcity in that they're just limited spots but we've amped up our support. Now we're doing milestone reviews, like a lot of one-on-one support. And we have this experience called Demo Week, where people can teach their first class in front of their peers. We've had to step up that level of support and it cuts into, time and it costs money but at the end of the day, like we've seen our completion increase significantly because of it.
Meghan: Yeah. And also I don't play a lot of the selling games. Like this program is worth $45,000, but you can get it for two payments of $299. Like no, it's not like that's where I'm like, where did you get the $45,000 from?
So we aim to give an explicitly honest and accurate outline of what we actually offer and what someone will actually take away from the experience. And then I try and exceed those expectations. Like I want them absolutely overwhelmed with delight at the investment they made by joining us.
And for example, in this last cohort, we had around 300 people I believe. We had one refund request and that was from someone who just didn't like me. I'm like, okay, I'm not for everyone.
So like that integrity is to me, everything. And that was part of like, when I was thinking about wrapping up and closing this down and I was looking at, different companies that buy online cor, like a lot of people want to buy online course businesses because they're typically low overhead and high, high margin. And I was just like, I can't just give this to someone and have it turn to garbage.
And then the other thing I'm gonna see in, a lot of your audience likely is in the food world is,a little more on including some level of activism around food, in protecting our food supply, and food availability and food security and all of that. Because I don't think you can separate at this point the idea of, at least in my field, like healthy cooking with accessibility which is becoming more and more of a problem.
Cynthia: Yeah. It's a real problem. Absolutely. And I know you know this, but there's a lot of money from corporations and big food. A lot of miseducation around what's real.
Meghan: Yeah, because ultimately, like what I would love to see is that not everyone even needs to know all of this, that those who do hold the companies to account so that the default snack at the school is great enough for all children.
Cynthia: Exactly. Thank you for sharing that. I think for, those listening who are on the teaching side of things, what you laid out just makes a lot of sense for them moving forward.
What is one piece of advice you'd give someone who is looking to start online? What would you tell them that maybe you wish you knew or you would just want them to know going into it?
Meghan: I mean, it really, I've never given anyone the same piece of advice who is starting a business. But I think right now there are, like the benefit I had in 2008 when I was starting these classes in 2011 when I started going online was that there was nothing to compare to, which both allowed me to pave a way, but also had to figure it all out.
And now there's a lot to look at that is very glossy and very high budget and very fancy pants. And you think, well, I can't do it to like that, so should I even do it? And the answer is yes. I would love for everyone to create what they wanna create and optimally in three to five years be horribly embarrassed about their first effort because it's never going to be perfect your first time out or your second time, or whatever it may be. And we evolve as humans, the world evolves. So consider it your first draft, your 1.0, whatever it is you're creating. And you will learn so much just from the process of creating it and publishing it and trying to sell it and having people buy it and go through it and give you feedback that if you don't have anything to improve on, you haven't been listening and you haven't been paying attention.
So that would be my advice. Like it's never going to be absolutely perfect. Likely the minute I finish filming the last component of it, they're like, ugh, I wish I had added this. That's just the nature I think of an entrepreneur mind, but also of someone who's creative and doing something from the heart.
And whatever you're creating has to come from the heart with your why very strong. And that why has to be bigger than yourself. Because if your why, your motivator is something that is needed by either a niche or the world or whatever it is, and it feels to you like it's important and urgent and powerful, the sort of divine energy, whatever you need to put it out there will flow.
But if your why is I just wanna make an extra 5K a month, it's not gonna work. Because it's still a business, it's still a creative enterprise and so when it comes from the heart and it's something that feels really, aligned for you, and that doesn't mean it's not gonna be challenging. Like you're gonna have challenges, you're gonna have moments being like, why did I do this? I don't know what I'm doing.
As long as you answer that, like, what am I doing with, I don't know, but I'm gonna figure it out. Then you'll know what you have to do the next day.
Cynthia: Yeah. So what's your why? I have to ask you.
Meghan: I wanna change the world, and I've always wanted to do that. And I want people living in a way that is kind and compassionate and loving and creative and inspired, and the food is the way in. So if we can fuel our lives to fulfill on our own limitless potential, then we can shift things person by person, household by household, community by community.
And it sounds like, oh, that's cute. Like what a cute idea to change the world. But you know, halfway through my program, my students will start saying this isn't just about food, is it? I'm like, not at all. But if I told you we were going to expand our consciousness, no one's signing up.
So instead, let's start with breakfast and we'll go from there.
Cynthia: That's so important. And it's something that my students work on as we, go through purpose and why; I'm sure you see this too, the first response is, well, I want to teach people how to eat healthier. Okay, but why? And you finally get to the real messy stuff inside where it's tied to something more personal or bigger that feels hard to share, but that's the real why.
Thank you for sharing yours. And I love that it's big, right? Why not? Why not have it be huge? And I think it gives you the room to define many ways to get there, right? And your program is one, but who knows? There could be something else that still helps you get closer to achieving that vision that you have.
Meghan: Yeah. And ultimately like to now have people in, nearly 80 countries who've come through this program, and we now have the opportunity for our graduates to become instructors and teach classes we've created that they can go and start working immediately and sharing this, I'm not saying we've changed the world, but we've changed the world for a lot of people and that is why I am not retired.
Cynthia: Yay. The world needs you, Meghan. I think your longevity in particular in this space is what is just, it's rare. it's absolutely rare. And I have a ton of admiration because it's hard. It's super, super hard. And you're not saying it's easy, but you're still in the game. And again, a lot of it comes down to your passion and your purpose, and your attempt to walk away failed . And so you're still here.
Meghan: The only thing I've failed at so far is actually retiring.
Cynthia: Okay. I would love to know where can people go to learn more about your program? I know that you have an enrollment window.
Meghan: Please head over to culinarynutrition.com/program and that's where you'll find our full signature flagship certification program. We also have a free training at culinarynutrition.com/freetraining. So lesson number one for everyone is make really easy URLs that are nice to say on podcasts.
We have lots of free resources available, lots of free classes and sample classes, and if you want to follow me, I'm at @meghantelpner and I have my own website, which is now a hobby project at meghantelpner.com where I'm doing other stuff about coherence and heart math and meditation and that kind of thing. So lots available for whatever you might wanna learn.
Cynthia: Because you've hired people so you have more time. Amazing.
Meghan: In theory. In theory.
Cynthia: You just signed yourself up for more work as you shared.
Meghan: That's exactly it. I was like, now I have free time. Let's create something new.
Cynthia: Well, thank you Meghan. It was so wonderful to have you on the show, and I know that our listeners are gonna be really excited to connect with you.
Meghan: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me. I had such a nice time chatting with you, and thank you for all you're doing to empower people to get their knowledge and their skills out to the world.
Cynthia: Well, what did you think. Seriously. I want to know, send me a DM on Instagram @ culinarycynthia and share your biggest aha moment, your biggest takeaway from this interview. I really would love to chat with you.
If after listening to this episode, you are super inspired to take your first steps in building an online culinary business, then I want to share a little bit about my done with you program called The Online Jumpstart. It truly is the perfect place to begin. There is no other program out there like this.
In just 90 days, you will have a legit online business foundation set up. We're talking a clear purpose, a well-defined niche, an email list set up, even your own class or course sign up system so that you don't have to rely on platforms like Eventbrite that might not have the same look and feel as your brand.
On top of all of that, you will have taught your first live online class, which is the place to begin no matter if you want to create a recorded course, have a membership or anything else in your online culinary business.
Now The Online Jumpstart is not an online course. It is a hands-on implementation program. You are going to get a ton of personalized support. Let's say you are just scared of tech. I have you covered. You get all of my beginner level tech recommendations and tutorials. Plus unlimited Q&A support to help you get things set up and working. So to take the next step, I want you to head on over to theonlinejumpstart.com where you can watch my free training on how to finally get started with your online teaching business.
And I'm also going to show you how your online culinary business can support the life you have rather than compete with it. This is a very big theme for me and my business in 2023. You'll hear me talk a lot about having a life first business. So if you're interested in that, then definitely check out the masterclass. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode, and I will see you back here next week.