How Collaboration Can Be Your Secret Ingredient For Success with Amanda Haas
Does the thought of teaching cooking online totally overwhelm you?
Are you scared that you don't know all the pieces that go into building a successful online culinary business?
You’re not alone, chef!
In this episode, we get to know Amanda Haas, best-selling cookbook author and founder of the House of Haas cooking school. Formerly the Culinary Director at Williams-Sonoma, Amanda has years of experience teaching cooking with hundreds of recipes under her name.
Amanda shares the behind-the-scenes of her brand new online culinary business, including how she collaborated with a special someone to help bring her vision to life. You may be surprised to find out that it’s a fellow chef in the virtual space!Tune in to hear the juicy details about House of Haas. I guarantee you'll think about the power of collaboration in a whole new light.
Links from this episode
Check out the Amanda’s Haas’ new brand, House of Haas
Visit Food La La by Lindsay Kinder
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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Amanda Haas: You have to believe that you have something unique to share with the world. And if you do, then you're not competing with anybody.
Cynthia Samanian: Ok, time for some real talk. Does the thought of teaching online really overwhelm you? Is it scary that you don't know all of the pieces that go into making this online business puzzle work? Well, you're not alone. In fact, our guest today has gone through the same process, the same questions that so many of you are working through right now. The only difference is that she's gotten some help along the way. Today's episode is all about how collaboration can be a secret ingredient in your business. It truly can be a game changer.
Cynthia Samanian: And we're going to talk with our guest, Amanda Haas, about her journey in collaborating with another person, another chef, in fact, to build her new online cooking school, House of Haas.
Cynthia Samanian: Now I'm pinching myself to be interviewing Amanda. I've looked up to her for years. I first met Amanda when I was student in her recipe development class here in San Francisco. It was about eight years ago. It's crazy to think that we're now meeting again to talk about her online cooking school. I seriously would have never thought back in 2015 that we'd be having this conversation today. I know that I was in a very different place back then and to me, this interview is a great reminder of how life works in crazy ways and you just never know how it will all turn out.
Cynthia Samanian: So let's talk about Amanda. There's a good chance you've seen her teach or encountered her work, perhaps without even knowing it. Amanda is a three time cookbook author having written the best selling cookbook, The Anti-Inflammation Cookbook. On top of that, she's co-written and contributed to over a dozen cookbooks and has starred in over 300, yes, 300 cooking videos for Williams-Sonoma, Traeger, Breville, and more. Before she ventured into her own business, Amanda was the Culinary Director at Williams-Sonoma for seven years.
Cynthia Samanian: Now she's the founder of House of Haas Cooking School and is also a member of the Traeger Grills team, all in her spare time when she's not writing cookbooks. In this interview, Amanda and I are going to talk all about how she started her online cooking school just a few months ago. She's going to share what inspired her to start teaching online and how she figured it all out. And there's a really fun surprise in store for you in this episode, so I don't want to keep you waiting any longer. Let's get started with the interview.
Cynthia Samanian: Welcome to the show, Amanda. I'm so glad to have you here.
Amanda Haas: Cynthia, I'm so happy to be doing this with you. Thank you for inviting me.
Cynthia Samanian: Absolutely. Absolutely. So for those in our audience who have never heard of you or your work, I would love it if you could share a little bit more about your background.
Amanda Haas: I'd be happy to. And it's so scary to say that I started 20 years ago, but I went to cooking school 20 years ago, um, before I started a family, when I was looking to make a change and I think like so many people I knew in my heart, I always wanted to cook for a living, but I just kind of procrastinated on that dream for a while.
Amanda Haas: So I went to cooking school and I came out testing recipes for other people's cookbooks, which I fell in love with and I just loved writing books, testing recipes, and truly wanted to be that interpreter for the home cook and that never left me. Like I love writing recipes for other people to be able to understand. So, I kind of fell into two careers at once. I was writing books for other chefs and other people. So I was developing the recipes, writing all the copy and loving every minute of that and testing the recipes and then I had worked at Williams-Sonoma before cooking school and wound up going back there to basically walk into a dream job of being the Culinary Director there, which was an absolute blast.
Amanda Haas: But what happened is I got my first cookbook contract on my own the same week I went back to work there. So I spent seven years overseeing the test kitchen at Williams-Sonoma while writing cookbooks of my own as well and it was pretty crazy. And I also, um, I did all the videos, the cooking videos for them for different products. So about four years ago now, I can't believe that, I walked away from that job because it was just too much with a family and a commute and writing books and teaching cooking as well on the side and started Amanda Haas Cooks, which really became my place to showcase my own work, my own recipes, and talk more about the kind of cooking that I love to do. I wrote a book on anti-inflammatory cooking which seems to be a big hit and really about easy ways to feed your family whether you're a couple, whether you've got young children. Now I have kids half the time and half the time they're off and away and so, really teaching people how to cook better for themselves simply, right? So better cleaner ingredients so you get delicious food that tastes great, but you're taking great care of yourself. That's evolved into writing more books, but now the launch of the House of Haas Cooking School online and a new segment of that, that we're launching right now, too.
Cynthia Samanian: Oh, my gosh, it's so exciting. I have to say, I was looking back in my emails and I think it was eight years ago that I took your Recipe Development . Class at San Francisco Cooking School.
Amanda Haas: Isn't that nuts?
Cynthia Samanian: Yes. And that's when we first connected. And I just remember you were so gracious and I had popped into the test kitchen a few times Williams-Sonoma and met you and your team. And talk about a dream job. I just remember thinking, wow, they have a lot of fun here and they actually get paid for this.
Amanda Haas: It's kind of crazy. We used to always say that I wake up and be like "can you believe we get paid?" I still feel that way now, which is amazing but it's true. It was an amazing place to work for a very long time.
Cynthia Samanian: Yeah. How did it feel launching your brand under your name?
Amanda Haas: A little terrifying. I think that, you know, it was really hard at Williams-Sonoma to maintain the balance of what I'm doing to represent that brand versus being my own self. Right? So I was representing so many different types of cooking and kind of ideas as the Williams-Sonoma Culinary Director.
Amanda Haas: And as myself, I was kind of more focused on the family cooking idea and healthier cooking. So I kind of felt like I was always living a double life, but they were super supportive of me doing my own thing. Right? But what became so nice is to wake up and think, oh, I'm just only operating as myself. And so it felt really empowering to just be like, "Amanda, what do you wanna share with the world today?"
Amanda Haas: So as scary as it was to not be able to rely on an amazing brand like Williams-Sonoma and all of the corporate perks that come with that, right? The stability. Um, I think the scarier part for me was just becoming a business owner. So, like I believed in what I was doing and I really felt like I'd found my calling in terms of how I talk about food and was, oh, I don't really woke up and thought, wow, you just became a business now what's that going to look like?
Cynthia Samanian: Right. Did you ever have that entrepreneurial itch in your career or was it not until the moment you decided to walk away that you realized, I'm building a business.
Amanda Haas: The thing I had to acknowledge was that I'm a creative and not more of just a rote organizer planner. And I think I put my head always in this, like, I was really good at math. I was really good at that stuff, but in my heart, I'm a creative, which. Means, yes. I was always coming up with ideas and what if we did this or new ideas for books and I could always play them out in my head but it definitely took me a minute to be like, "whoa, what does this mean? Are you an entrepreneur? Are you the serial entrepreneur people talk about like, or do you just have ADD? It turns out I could, I could see them through if I wanted to. And that's what I think made me feel like, okay, I could be a business owner.
Cynthia Samanian: I have to say, when I saw that House of Haas had launched, I was so giddy and in my head, I was just like, of course. Your expertise and your passion and your ability to teach. I think that's something that is so important and not everyone out there can teach. And you've built a career on teaching people how to cook and making it accessible, so I think it's just seems like the natural progression for you to move online, but I'd love to hear from you. I mean, what sparked your interest to take your knowledge online and to create a platform for people to learn from you virtually?
Amanda Haas: Well, we will be able to move the conversation into the part about my secret weapon, but we'll be able to talk really about working with other people and collaborating because I had built up all of these recipes and I've taught so much over the years. I mean, I have hundreds of recipes written and in different formats, right? And I love to get online and teach. And I, I love to teach in any format, but with COVID, you know, I've been teaching a lot at Traeger Grills at their headquarters and it just all went away overnight. And so I found myself always getting online wanting to interact with people, you know, just flipping on Instagram Live and just teaching little things and people kept coming back to me saying, why don't you do this in a more formal way? And to be honest with you, it's like, that's my skillset. I did not wanna learn anything about how you bring this business online from a design standpoint, from a costing standpoint, from a site build standpoint. I probably talked to you a lot about this in the development class, but when people tell me I need to meet other people, I always say yes. And when people want me to talk to other people who are starting out, I always say yes. But I had a very, um, probably the person I consider to be one of my top two mentors in my life tell me I needed to meet Lindsay Kinder who had already built a business like this online. And it turns out that Lindsay was what I needed to say "Okay, I've got like 80%. I know what I wanna do, but I have no idea how to bring this to life online." And she was like, oh, this is super easy. Let me help you. And I was like, wow. So to be honest with you, I never would've done this. If I had not been open to meeting other people and working with other people who have complimentary skills to mine.
Cynthia Samanian: I thought you were gonna say your secret weapon was a spice your pantry or like a really awesome chef's knife, cuz that's usually what I would hear from you.
Amanda Haas: Curve ball. I could talk about those too, but, uh, it came down to a person. And I think that that's the part, you know, coming from the corporate world, you don't realize how often you're collaborating. Even like in a kitchen, I was constantly in meetings with people from the creative team who are like influencing what we were making and things we were doing.
Amanda Haas: So to start my own business, I'm just like hanging out by myself every day. But when Lindsay and I got together, it was just to kind of exchange ideas about what we were doing and brainstorm for each other's businesses. And it made me realize you really need other people to, to support you, to, um, challenge you to, um, none of us are capable of doing everything well.
Amanda Haas: And I knew that really quickly off the bat. I don't pretend to be everything to everyone. Right? So, yes, allowing somebody else into this equation is what moved the needle for me.
Cynthia Samanian: Well wouldn't it be great if Lindsay were here?
Amanda Haas: It would be!
Cynthia Samanian: She is. She is. Hi, Lindsay.
Amanda Haas: Surprise!
Cynthia Samanian: For those of you who have listened to the podcast for a while, you have probably listened to my interview with Lindsay Kinder. She's the founder of Food La La. She'll tell you a little bit more about it. Back in Episode 13, one of our earlier episodes of the show she shared so much incredible value around how she took her business online. That was right at the start of COVID and here we are a few years later and she is now helping other people like Amanda do the same.
Cynthia Samanian: So, Lindsay welcome!
Lindsay Kinder: you. I'm so happy to be back.
Cynthia Samanian: Can you remind our listeners what you do? All the amazing things you do at Food La La?
Lindsay Kinder: Yes, I boil it down to one sentence that we specialize in inspired food and cocktail experiences to help make those everyday moments magic. Like I'm such a firm believer in like the way you served, even yourself, like a cup of coffee or a cup of tea in the morning. It's so important because you are so important.
Lindsay Kinder: So we do that through a variety of ways. Um, one of our biggest is through private corporate events. We do a lot of virtual cocktail cooking classes, team building, client entertaining. We're dabbling with some retail products to help people, like our French Macaron kit, um, make French Macarons at home with a guided video. And then, my favorite part which is where Amanda came in is the Food La La Cooking Club, which is our membership where we get to just hang out with the best people in the world. Um, our members and our guests, and teach them really new, fun, inspired, cool stuff and then obviously network with wonderful people. And through all of this, I have learned so much in how to conceptualize something and bring it to life. And so I started now being able to share that with other people and that's really how Amanda and I got together.
Cynthia Samanian: Yes. So Amanda was first a guest in the cooking club. Is that right? Or had you been working together before she was a guest?
Lindsay Kinder: That was our first thing together. She was featured in the Food La La cooking club, as you know, the former head of Culinary at Williams-Sonoma and it was so funny because I was actually staying at my in-laws at that time. And so they were like, they had lent me their kitchen and they were like eagerly waiting for dinner. And I was like, I hope this turns out okay. You know, and we do this whole class and Amanda and I have such a blast on camera together. It doesn't feel like work at all. The time flies by. And then I had this beautiful dinner that I was like so thrilled to serve my in-laws. I'm like, I know this is good. So it was that first class that we did something together.
Cynthia Samanian: I feel like I'm interviewing a couple who met and started dating. Who made the first move? Yes. Who made the first move? How did this all come about, Amanda, do you wanna start?
Amanda Haas: Sure I will start and Lindsay can finish. Um, you know, what's funny is so after we did that she, we talked and it was like, I had some information to give her that I think was helping some ideas she had. And so we were just really talking how can we support each other? Like I like you and I love what you're doing and I just had so much respect and admiration for how she took a business that was, you know, what do you wanna say, Lindsay, like 99% in person and managed to flawlessly get it going online during I, I already was like, I'm very attracted to being with people who I adore and who I lift each other up and aren't competitive in the way that most of us can, you know, we can talk about that.
Amanda Haas: So as Lindsay and I started to brainstorm ideas for each other, all of a sudden it was just becoming more and more obvious. And she was kind of pushing me to be like, why aren't you doing something like what I'm doing online? Like you, this is your background. You teach all the time. You have all the content in the world. Like why not? And then I think what happened, Lindsay is I, we, we agreed to get together once a month just to brainstorm for each other, with each And I was at her house and I finally was like, I just, I was, I really came out and said it.
Amanda Haas: I've been thinking about it a lot. I'm like, I think I need to do this, but I think you need to do it with me. Like, I want you to do this with I want you to be a partner in this. Not just like, oh yeah, I'll be kind you know, share my information because Lindsay honestly knew how to do everything I did not how to. do.
Amanda Haas: And she was just like, yeah. Okay. Let's And so I think that there's something about when people, and I won't say women in particular, but I am speaking as a woman who is, who can acknowledge that like, I don't have all the answers. I don't know everything. I think I'm capable of starting a business that people want and I have a brand idea that I'm in love with that I feel really strongly about but I need you and I value you. And that was the part where we just kind of fell in sync and got engaged. Lindsay might have a different opinion.
Cynthia Samanian: Well, Lindsay, you have a business, like a booming business that you're running. So at what point were you thinking like, yeah, I can just take this on? Is it something that you were thinking like, yeah, maybe I'll transition to doing some project work in addition to running the business?
Lindsay Kinder: Yeah. I mean, I love nothing more than sitting down with another woman in the industry. And if I could spend all my hours all day, just like having coffee and wine and chatting about how we can help everybody, I would love to do it. Full credit for this actually goes to my team that picked up some slack during Amanda and I had probably two months trying to get this whole thing rolled out. Um, so my team really picked that up, but I knew I just loved Amanda and I was like, whatever, tie our kayaks together. Like we're in this, I don't care what we're doing, I want our kayak to tied up together.
Amanda Haas: I'm writing down kayaks together. I'm gonna use that all the time. I will quote you.
Cynthia Samanian: Wait, could I get a kayak? Is there room a third?
Amanda Haas: Hop in.
Lindsay Kinder: I knew this project had such long-term potential, um, ongoing. And that was what was, you know, so exciting that, yeah, this is gonna be a lot for my team and me right now. But once we get this going it's this machine, and even for Amanda, it's gonna run and we can put special effort into growing parts of it and finessing different parts of it but that machine lives on. Um, and so that was what I was most excited about was, you know, the future of it. And this kind of saw it as like a short term sacrifice right now where things are gonna be hard, they're gonna be a little crunchy, but we'll get it done.
Cynthia Samanian: Ok But real talk, what part of you was like, oh shoot, Amanda Haas is launching a subscription and I have a subscription and she's legit and I'm legit. Did it cross your mind that there was any sort of competitive threat here? I'll believe you, if you say no, but I'm just curious.
Lindsay Kinder: It's so funny because it, it really didn't. I feel so strongly that when you are doing the thing that lights you up and all three of us are you can just, you can see it, right. You feel so aligned with what you're doing. Nobody can compete with that because it's different. It is so unique to you. And so Amanda, like, even though we have the same structure of business now, what we're talking about and what we're doing is actually. Really different. Um, and we have people that are gonna hear a message from me, and we've got people that are gonna hear a message from her, and it might be the same thing thing.
Lindsay Kinder: They just need to hear it from, you know, in different words, in a different voice. And we actually have members that have joined both. I promoted her launch to my email list. And I had people email being like, do you mind if I join? You know, like they were like cheating on me, you know? And I, I was like, oh my God, like, please join. That's why I'm sending this out here. The more people that feel that kinda like I'm lit up moment, just we grow exponentially. Everything is better. Amanda had come to me and said I wanna do this together and there was a difference from somebody going to your website and ripping off your stuff and trying to do like what you're doing. That probably would have like rubbed me the wrong way. But this was, um, no, I believe that the two of us together it's like one plus one, you know, is a million. We're just able to do so much more and also, I will share, like Amanda has been so generous sharing and with me and teaching me things and connecting me to people. She's just like, what else can I do for you?
Lindsay Kinder: She got this list. Like, who do you want? Who do you want? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So it was, it was a two-way street from the very beginning.
Amanda Haas: Mm-hmm...
Cynthia Samanian: I remember seeing the email from you and thinking, wow, that is badass. Like the level of confidence you have in your business to shine the light on someone else. Right? Who like at first glance, someone would say, it's competitive. Like to me, I was like, that is an baller move. Like you're like, yeah, I'm confident in my business. I know what I do. I am irreplaceable, like the experience that my business has, the people that you've built around your business. It's one of a kind, and so is Amanda Haas. And so I thought that that was just such a strong move and something that we don't see enough of.
Cynthia Samanian: I talk with my students a lot in my program around, you know, understanding what your unique expertise is and what your unique value is. And it truly is unique because there's only one of you and it sounds all, you know, fluffy and soft, but it's true. And I think people get caught up in like, well, she's teaching pasta and I'm teaching pasta. It's like, who cares? It's not about the pasta.
Amanda Haas: It's not about the pasta.
Cynthia Samanian: It's not about the pasta. That's awesome. I'm really, really glad that you two have come together selfishly so I could have this interview because I was like, could not wait to get the behind the scenes around how this subscription came to life.
Cynthia Samanian: So, Lindsay, how would you say you divvied up your roles in creating this beautiful project?
Lindsay Kinder: Yeah, I think, I mean, Amanda is the mastermind behind all of her recipes and the know-how and all of her amazing years teaching. And I brought the like, how do we whittle this into a consumer facing message and design it and marketing it. And then as Cynthia, you know so well, all of the little backend things that have to talk to each other to make this like a seamless experience that makes sense.
Amanda Haas: Well, and you don't know what you don't know. And so when Lindsay came along and everything, I'll just back up everything she said. The thing that allows Lindsay and me to work together is that I've said it a million times when I go like speak to the students at SF Cooking School, is that every single person has their own idea. You have to believe in it. You have to believe that you have something unique to share with the world. And if you do, then you're not competing with anybody.
Amanda Haas: And so we actually believed that about each other. Lindsay's customer, great that some of them see both of us, but Lindsay is doing something uniquely Lindsay, and Amanda's doing something uniquely Amanda. But the thing that Lindsay can bring to me is like her marketing, her visual skills, I'm constantly being like, where did you learn how to do this? She has an eye for design that is spectacular. And I can tell you when it's done what I like and what I don't like. But I knew immediately when we started working on this together, that she simply has talents and skills that I don't have.
Amanda Haas: And that is not to say, I don't understand what my worth is. It's just that we are a really amazing match that way and she brings so much to the table.
Cynthia Samanian: Lindsay, you're a total unicorn. Everything you put out, your copywriting in particular, I've wanted to respond to so many of your emails and be like best pun ever, or like the way that you put words together and imagery. Again, no surprise that Amanda wanted to work with you.
Amanda Haas: I agree. She's got the best writing. For the first, what? Like six weeks Lindsay and I stopped doing this cause I know it's annoying. I would be like, can you just put your words, like just change the little subtitle with like two words and she'd send it back and be like, that's amazing.
Lindsay Kinder: You guys are making me blush.
Cynthia Samanian: How did you get so good at writing?
Lindsay Kinder: So I do have a secret weapon. He is 75 years old. Um, I didn't appreciate it when I was younger. Um, my dad is a writer. He's a New York Times bestseller and when I was younger, we would spend hours editing, you know, like a two page paper about volcanoes, you know, and I would be like, dad, can you just tell me the word?
Lindsay Kinder: You know, he'd be like, Lindsay, there's one word that can replace all four of these words. And I would be like, ah, you know, try to guess every word I knew and he wouldn't tell me and he'd make me figure it out myself. And I just hated it. And now I understand the value of even just in an email, being able to clearly communicate.
Lindsay Kinder: I'm sure Cynthia, you get emails all the time from people and you're like, what are you even asking me for? Like, it doesn't even make sense. And so it's a struggle to communicate clearly anyways. And then when you're trying to wrap up this shiny object that's like a product, you know, that's an even like that's another level. And so, um, I did start getting like the writing thing, like, you know, hammered into me at a young age and I am so grateful because I think the most important skill to selling things is being able to clearly communicate what it is and then sprinkle in the fun without distracting from the core message.
Cynthia Samanian: That's exactly how I would sum up your emails. There's content, but there's like that little. sprinkle of Lindsay, and no one can replicate your content or style.
Cynthia Samanian: Okay. So let's move into the House of Haas membership? What does it look like today? And then we can move into what's coming up that's new.
Amanda Haas: Absolutely. So we decided to launch this as a membership after we did a lot of thinking. The first thing we wanted to do was offer a membership where I would teach two, two hour classes a month. And so automatically you're getting four hours of culinary instruction and I do it live. So I do both classes live every month, but then you can go back and watch those classes, um, as long as you're a member, which is so great. So if people just wanna sit in and listen as I'm cooking or they can cook along, we send them all the recipes, the shopping list, everything they need. And I think that mine as much as you know, again, Lindsay is creating these like beautiful experiences for people, mine is very like every day cooking hands on, like how to make things more approachable for people. And I always say at the end if you're not wanting to cook this, I haven't done my. So it's like not just entertainment, it's meant to be really something to help people get inspired. To get in the kitchen and start cooking.
Amanda Haas: So for the subscription of $24.99 a month, they get four hours of cooking classes every month. And we found that that is something that a lot of people are drawn to, especially people who have known me for a really long time or watched me on Williams-Sonoma videos for a decade. And they've kind of grown up with me, teaching them. That that is something that's super appealing. And, um, as much as I have thought, as I put into what I'm teaching every month, like right now we're testing recipes basically for my next cookbooks. So I'm showing them how to cook the recipe and then they get to tweak them with me. It's really fun, but they just wanna be around food talking about food and we've created this really special community. They're all friends now. They all talk to each other while I'm teaching, you know, they're all commenting back and forth. The subscription model allows for this building of a community that has really surprised me in the most pleasant and fun way. I think it was a really great place to start.
Cynthia Samanian: One thing that I'll mention, I think this came up earlier is that, well, Lindsay likes to have fun. You really like to have fun, Amanda. I saw for your launch videos, you were like dancing, dancing, and dancing.
Amanda Haas: Always dancing. I'm always dancing and sometimes I don't even realize I'm dancing and someone will catch it.
Cynthia Samanian: It sounds like you bring a lot of that energy to your class, which is why people are showing up live. They're engaging, they're chatting with each other. I wanna get your thoughts on this idea of fun and why is having fun in the kitchen really important to you? Why is it something that actually matters to you?
Amanda Haas: I'm so happy you asked that question because I do believe that joy is at the centerpiece of everything I do for work, and it's why I wake up happy to do my job. And it's a lot of what I kind of want to help people understand that this should be joyful for you, right? It's when it becomes a task or we're so intimidated, we're afraid to start. I think if you had to ask me, like, why are you doing this? It's to bring joy into people's lives through cooking. And I always say it, and I'm not being sarcastic but it's, it's like, we are not saving lives. We are putting food on the table and it should be joyful. And guess what? Nobody cares if it's not perfect. Like, when people say, oh, I don't know what to cook for you, you're coming over, you have all this experience. And I'm like, I just love the fact we're getting together. Like, will we care about the food that much? No. Like I hope we get to sit together. We get to laugh. We get to enjoy each other's company.
Amanda Haas: And so to help people to remove the intimidation factor of cooking so that people can truly enjoy each other and come together around the meal is really what I've set out to. And so I never wanna come across as a smart ass, right? Like I'm laughing or messing around, but my message really is like it's ok if you're not perfect at this. One of the goals is to have a good time.
Cynthia Samanian: I think that is such a refreshing thing to hear. I mean, I of course have been following you for a while, but if people hadn't been introduced to you and they just looked at your resume, they probably would be like, oh my gosh, like this woman is going to attack my knife skills and I'm not good enough to be in the kitchen with her.
Cynthia Samanian: Clearly, it's not like a strategic on your part, this is just who you are, but I think it's so awesome that that comes to life on your site and in your branding. It's true to who you are and that welcomes people in who would normally maybe be intimidated.
Amanda Haas: Right. No, thank you. And I think that's why this works too, is that it's just like, what you see is what you get with me. And I forget that I've done really cool things. You know, sometimes if somebody introduce you, you're like, wow, that sounds really cool that I did that. Right? Like I've had to do some big things in the food world before, but it is like, we're just people hanging out having a great time.
Amanda Haas: And I love being the person who can teach somebody something in their own language. I'm not coming from way up high. Right? I'm on the same level as you and I might know a little bit more, but again, it's my job to get the point across and help inspire you too.
Cynthia Samanian: That was actually my next question, because I saw that you seared scallops for 5,000 people with Gordon Ramsey and you cooked dinner for the cast of Hamilton for Thanksgiving. So you're like, you know, people can't see my hands, but like sky high, and then you're gonna come teach me how to make something for a Wednesday night dinner for my family.
Cynthia Samanian: How do you stay grounded in the real everyday struggles of the single parent or the person who has to throw dinner on the table and does not have all the fancy gadgets?
Amanda Haas: Oh, I love that question because when people are like, oh, you must, you know, cook all these fancy things. I live in the world of, and especially when I was at Williams Sonoma, single parent, commuting three hours a day, with kids with busy schedules, writing a book on top of it. Like it's my real life. Right?
Amanda Haas: So when I'm blogging and being like, this is what I'm making, that's what I'm making. I think the thing that became so magical is when you see with Instagram live, it's like when I flipped on the camera and was like during COVID, my kids are home all the time and I'm showing people what I'm making in real time.
Amanda Haas: It's not the scallops with Gordon Ramsey. It's also not. Like I had to cook for Thomas Keller and William Sonoma's entire board. And that was the scariest thing I've ever done. And he was so gracious. And so kind, I, after that, I was like, bring it on. I can do anything after that. And so I take full responsibility for cooking for all of the Hamilton cast. That was my idea, like 60 people at my house for Friendsgiving with no help. Like I was like, sure, bring it on.
Cynthia Samanian: What did you serve Chef Thomas Keller? What did you make him?
Amanda Haas: You know, what's so funny is that, um, the president of the company at the time, she said, guess what? You're cooking for thomas Keller, our CEO, and the board of directors. Make anything you want just cook from the heart. And I said, great. And then we had somebody else who came in and said, absolutely not. You will make his favorite meal, the meal he wants before he dies. You will make a roast chicken for him, which he has gone on record to say, that's I wanna die with that. And I was, okay. And so I had two amazing cooks and I was like, look, I'm on chicken duty. I went and got six chickens to practice. I mean, I roasted probably 500 chickens in my life.
Amanda Haas: I was like, I'm gonna roast chickens until I can't roast chicken anymore. And then we did these like beautiful, fresh salads of just like seasonal ingredients, you know, like heirloom tomatoes and green beans. My team made two desserts that were insane. And the best part is he walked in, because he had to do a speech first and he looked at all of our food and I was like, what do you think chef?
Amanda Haas: And he said, do you know, I can't tell you the last time someone made any food for me? Like I I've never been invited to lunch somewhere in like the past decade. He said, I'm not leaving here until I taste every bite of your food. And he was the nicest kindest guest ever. The next week he came back to do a live with me and I had to cook for the crew and him. And he's like, what are we having? I was like, we're having citrus pulled pork carnitas, black beans and tortillas, pickled onions. He was like, bring it on. Like that one I just made. I was like, he's having what I make normally. And he was so kind. So yeah, it was a great experience.
Cynthia Samanian: Wow. Okay. So yeah, like you've cooked for Thomas Keller, but what's awesome is that you are investing your time and energy to help all of us.
Amanda Haas: Because I am one of us. I live in the real world and now, I mean, I don't go do those things more than a couple times a year. I am sitting around, standing around creating recipes for my family, and now everything I'm doing for House of Haas, it's all recipes that we wanna eat right here. I'm feeding my family these recipes.
Cynthia Samanian: Let's move into what's next, because you shared that there's something new coming soon. So, uh, let's let's talk about it. What is it? Yeah, drumroll.
Amanda Haas: What's so fun about this is that it's a return to my roots and it's called the House of Haas Meal Planning Method. So we're launching our first course, uh, that is a four week class with one hour segments that is going to teach people everything they need to do to plan their menus for a week, to budget, how to grocery shop for it, and then how you execute it throughout the week. Because I like to quote my friend who has six kids, she says the worst time to make dinner is during the dinner hour. You know, like you did, that is just not when you wanna cook and when I had little kids and the economy got really, really rough and my, uh, ex-husband had lost his job. I was like, I have got to find a way to feed my kids well and do this on a budget. And I did, I found a way to cook. I did this whole, I launched a blog about it, but 20 meals a week on $200 shopping at Whole Foods with two bottles of wine. That was my whole thing. I was like, people I can do this and and I did it and I would post my receipt on my blog to prove to people. And then I would post my little handwritten calendar of my 20 meals a week that I did. I left one for like going out to dinner, takeout or whatever, and it just really resonated with people. And again, I think it was just because they're like, oh, this is her actual life. This isn't some made up concept to like throw on The Food Network. And so Lindsay and I were talking about what what's next. And I was like, I feel that people are feeling the same way. They are as nervous about the economy right now as they were then.
Amanda Haas: And then I started researching and found that food is up 11% year over year from last year. Chicken costs 15% more, coffee beans cost 15% more, pork, milk all up like 17%. And I thought this is the time to show people that you can make delicious food on a budget and you don't have to let the kitchen run your life. You can plan your cooking time around your own life and pull it off.
Cynthia Samanian: And why not just roll that into the subscription, right? What made you like let's create a new thing in addition to the subscription?
Amanda Haas: Well, you know, to be honest, I'm looking at it as a business person, and I'm also looking at it as a customer. Like some people might just wanna learn this because it really was what I became known for 15 years ago. And people still come up to me and say, oh my gosh, I used those recipes. I still meal plan like you taught me. And so I thought there were probably people out there who want this, who don't wanna be part of the subscription and vice versa. And then there are people who I put as like my favorite students who are, they'll like do anything, right? They're like, oh my gosh, we can't wait. They're in House of Haas. They love this. And they're like, we'll take what you're serving, you know? But I do think that we'll probably find some new customers and I think there will also be overlap. So we continue to reward people who signed up for House of Haas, like anything I do outside of that, including like a guest chef program I'm gonna launch, they will always get a discount on pricing over everyone else just to say thank you for your loyalty. Right? So I think we're gonna learn a lot about the customer base. And I think some people will end up subscribing to House of Haas who started with the meal planning and vice versa. We're kind of testing the waters as we build this business.
Cynthia Samanian: Yeah, and Lindsay, have you been working on the course aspect as well?
Lindsay Kinder: Yeah, so it all rolls up under House of Haas and there's the membership, there's the meal planning course and then we have a third prong that's gonna roll out before the end of the month, which is so crazy to say. It's really fun to, you know, get it all like within the same voice and the same scope, but like Amanda was just saying, you know, it's not a one size fits all and we wanna make sure that we have something for everybody, um, wherever they are and whatever they need.
Cynthia Samanian: So there's something more coming. Okay.
Amanda Haas: I should let Lindsay talk about this, because I get so excited. I just wanna share everything.
Lindsay Kinder: I mean, Amanda, can I say?
Amanda Haas: Yeah. Go for it.
Lindsay Kinder: Okay, well, the, the third component is gonna be like these very cool specialty, a la carte classes with some heavy hitting celebrity chefs.
Cynthia Samanian: Amazing. I, I wanna make a guess, but I'm not going to, but I think, I think we know, uh, I mean, well, maybe not. Yeah. I mean, Amanda has a pretty insane Rolodex. So who knows who's gonna be showing up, but I'm sure they're gonna be super, uh, super fun to watch cook with you. Are you going to have them in the kitchen with you, Amanda? Or separate?
Amanda Haas: So we can be in two places if we need to be, but, um, if we can be together, we certainly will be. So, uh, that's, what's, that's, what's so amazing about launching a business online as well. Like distance does not have to get in the way, but I'm probably gonna just show up at a couple of these people's homes or kitchens to cook together because I think it's so fun that we have that opportunity again, but we won't let it get in the way of us doing something together. If we can't be we'll just share the screen.
Cynthia Samanian: Yeah. Yeah. You just touched on it, but I'd love to hear you talk more about the benefits of teaching online. Are you having fun? What is it like versus being in person which you've done so much of before.
Amanda Haas: Yes. I'm afraid to say I prefer it, but in some ways I really do, because when I've taught classes, you know what it is, it's when I teach hands on classes and everybody needs your energy. And so you're focusing this energy on one person and you look up and somebody else has got that look in their eyes, like help me, right? So I think it's a really big energy spend to do in person, hands on classes, where you're working with people who are just like, they really need all of you. So it's not that I wanna speak generically to people, but I find that in this format we've developed so far is people are really comfortable asking questions. And I think it's because I'm not looking at their face that they'll type something in and ask it. Whereas when I started with Traeger Grills, I taught this class to 55 people. They have like 55 people at a time and they're four hour classes and they're just demonstration based. And I remember looking out at the audience and they were like stone faced. They were just staring at me the whole time. And it was like doing standup comedy. I just was like, how do you, you know, I just kept going, but, and the CEO was there and he came up to me. He was like, don't take it personally. Like these people, they don't say much. But then everybody came up to me after the class and it was like, that was so amazing.
Amanda Haas: And I was like, what are you talking about? They were just too afraid to ask questions. So then they all asked a million questions at the end. And I realized that when you're online, there's this like feeling of anonymity and that they're hiding behind their camera at home, but the fact that they can interact with each other still and ask those questions in real time, it's just a total relief and it's a ton of fun. So that's what's been surprising to me. I will be excited. I I've gone back and taught with people online, but like been with a guest chef, like we're talking about and that part I love. I love cooking with someone else for other people. So I kind of like the hybrid approach.
Cynthia Samanian: Right. So you mentioned people's cameras are off. What platform are you using for your classes?
Amanda Haas: We're using Crowdcast right now which Lindsay really encouraged me to try for a couple reasons. So yes, they can comment the whole time. I can't see them, but they, I see their names and they can ask questions the whole time on the side. And it's actually, because I'm not distracted by their faces. I can be cooking, I can see myself on the monitor and I can be easily fielding their questions and it really feels conversational.
Cynthia Samanian: Lindsay, I'd love to know your thoughts on Crowdcast because I know you've been using it for a while. Since the beginning of your classes, right? What was your decision to use that versus say Zoom or some of the other platforms that are out there?
Lindsay Kinder: Yeah, so it was April, March, or April 2020 when I taught my first virtual class. And it was right around the time where like the zoom rooms were getting crashed by people. And I had marketed. I was doing a free French macaroon class to raise money for like Bay Area restaurant relief. And so we had a lot of people that very generously shouted this from the rooftops and we ended up with a thousand people that signed up for this first class. And I was like, so nervous because I didn't know how to, like, I hadn't even used zoom, zoom rooms are getting crashed. I was like, can this other platform even hold this many people?
Lindsay Kinder: Like I have one chance to get this right. Um, and so I went with Crowdcast because I was afraid of zoom like crashing, because there were too many people basically. And then I really ended up liking the dynamic of not having everybody on the screen and letting people interact via chat. I think that sometimes, um, people, you know, they just aren't comfortable being on camera and then when you, it, you, it looks like you've got a bunch of like empty holes when everyone's got their black screen up.
Lindsay Kinder: Whereas if it looks like it's just Amanda or Amanda and Lindsay from the beginning, it feels more complete I'll say. We also though can like, I'll bring up guests, you know, like who wants to show us their finished pie or whatever, or somebody will be like, I'm having trouble - is my meringue whipped stiff enough? And so I'll pull them up so we can all look and see and talk about it. So you do get some nice interaction. But it's a good balance of maintaining that like professional feeling of this is the star of, you know, Amanda's here, like the star of the show and we don't have all these empty holes.
Cynthia Samanian: And so throughout your class, and same for you, Amanda, are you prompting people to tell me in the chat, how this is looking for you? How are you facilitating that engagement while teaching and cooking at the same time?
Amanda Haas: You go first, Lindsay.
Lindsay Kinder: Just exactly that. I think both Amanda and I are the same with so many years, um, of teaching. We just know what people are gonna have trouble with, where we need to pause, like what's gonna get misinterpreted. And so we're both really mindful as we go to say those things. And then I know we both have support with our teams that are like in the chat that can send links for like, this is the spice, or this is that fish spatula or you know, this was the recipe we just referenced. So we don't need to worry about that stuff. It's really helpful to have a second hand, a second person in there for sure.
Cynthia Samanian: Yeah, I love the point around it being you and not having those holes because I think that gets in people's head and I've worked with my students on this. It happens to me, even if I go on Instagram and do a live and you see people show up, people leave, people show up and you're kind of judging yourself based on what's happening and it's distracting. And I think, yeah, if you didn't have any of that information, if you didn't have any empty tiles or people turning their cameras off, there's no information to kind of bring you down. Right? But of course, then you need to have ways to make up for that with engagement and the things that you've talked about, I think are great tips. Having a moderator, having someone who can kind of fill in those blanks as you're teaching.
Cynthia Samanian: Okay. So fast forward, five years from now, what does House of Haas look like? I'm gonna ask you, Amanda, and then I'm gonna ask you Lindsay, because you have your hands in it.
Amanda Haas: I love that. Oh my gosh. I, you know what, it's funny because I do think ahead. But I think the thing that's so cool and when people are like, how's it going? I say, great, because for me, the fun part is the teaching and I could do this forever. Right. So it was, it's all of this other stuff. That's really, that's been hard for me to learn. Like even the amount of emails you have to send and market those. And so I, in five years from now, I think I'm still doing this. I'm still loving doing the subscription model. I think we'll also have tested like how many specialty classes people want and how interested they are in one-off classes.
Amanda Haas: I could also see me rolling my work with Traeger Grills into this so that like grilling becomes a segment of it. And I love, I love the meal planning thing. Like it's, it's not the dark horse, but it doesn't sound as sexy, but I think people just wanna be told what to make and how to make it.
Amanda Haas: And so I can't wait to see how this business develops by seeing kind of what takes the lead or what people want the most of. But I could see myself doing this forever and ever. It's the most enjoyable work I do and besides writing books, but again, like, I love the fact that I'm able to take my passion for writing books and wrap it into this too, and involve other people in the experience.
Amanda Haas: So I just see it bigger. I have a number in my head of how many subscribers I want. I know what I want from a goal perspective, but what about you, Lindsay?
Lindsay Kinder: I mean, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. In five years, 10,000. But we're gonna have like a squad so that people feel like they're still getting this really like personal interaction, because the most important thing that both Amanda and I want to achieve with our memberships is making people feel like they matter, like having community and coming together.
Lindsay Kinder: And when you scale, sometimes you sacrifice those things. And so, we want to just, you know, blow out those numbers, but maintain like the Amanda-ness of all of it. And she, like you said, she's got the juiciest Rolodex of anybody I know and we're gonna put that to work in terms of, um, being able to do really fun giveaways for members, raffles, like there's so much to give. And it's a win-win for the company too, right? For a sponsor to come in and share their product and stuff, um, with Amanda's members. So, lots of big things, lots of members, lots of giveaways and lots of really fun ideas and just more of Amanda's dancing in the kitchen.
Cynthia Samanian: Yes.
Amanda Haas: And you said squad I'm like, now I wanna develop other people's careers too. Like I could absolutely see other people coming on and like launching their brands underneath this, you know, build a squad of teachers.
Lindsay Kinder: And, sweatshirts on that note.
Amanda Haas: Oh, for sure. We need swag. My teenage son and his best friend are on that. They're totally working on the hoodie situation.
Cynthia Samanian: Well, I love this and I love that you both are just of course really excited about the potential of it. If you could give one piece of advice to someone in the culinary world who is just starting out in the online space, what would you tell them? I'm gonna start with you, Lindsay.
Lindsay Kinder: I'm going to give you one that is actually a piece of advice. One of my best friends gave me she's a sports reporter for ESPN. And the first time I did a class, she was like, okay, you have to come at them with so much more energy than you can ever imagine because the camera, like that awful quote about the camera adding 10 pounds. Whatever. The camera, like it sucks your energy, right? So you need to give, give, give. And so you are so excited, so enthusiastic because it just loses it, it whittles sort of like through the virtual world. So like come at it with way more energy than you think you could possibly need.
Cynthia Samanian: Are you totally spent after a live class?
Lindsay Kinder: It's funny. I, I kind of get on this like high, where I'll be tired before. I'll be like, oh, I dunno if I can, you know, I don't feel like doing this. And then I get in the mode and I'm just like on cloud nine and then I will crash by the time I get in bed. But afterwards I am like, I'm cruising. I'm loving it.
Cynthia Samanian: Is your husband stoked about post class Lindsay or is he annoyed?
Lindsay Kinder: He he's fast. He's fast asleep before he ever sees like post class Lindsay. Yeah.
Cynthia Samanian: My husband knows when I've done a podcast, because I'll come out and I'll be like, Hey, how's it going? Do, do, do do. And he's just like, whoa, you just flipped a 180.
Cynthia Samanian: All right Amanda, you are up.
Amanda Haas: I love what Lindsay said because it's absolutely true. And I, I really do think a camera sucks your energy out as well. So, um, my biggest piece of advice is do not try to be anybody except yourself. I don't like to go surf other people's Instagrams to see what I am not doing. I am just like be me. And I think that that's what's attracting people like I half the time I haven't showered or I just came back from a workout and I'm teaching. I don't try to be anybody except myself. And when that happens, you are coming across as the truest version of you. And I think that that, that's how you keep customers. They trust you.
Cynthia Samanian: Ugh. I love that. I'll say we redid the whole curriculum for my program, Culinary Creator Business School. And the thing that I did is I took out all the examples.
Amanda Haas: I love that.
Cynthia Samanian: I took out Lindsay's example, which everyone loved before. I took out all the examples of what I thought was great and working and you should model after, because people were looking at it in the wrong way. They were right. They were like, well, that's her line. I, I want that too. I'm like, but that's not you. Right. So. Uh, teaching the framework and the structure and the fundamentals versus go to this person's site or this person's site, because they're doing it well because it's, it's hard when you don't have confidence in who you are, you haven't done the work to uncover your expertise and what makes you different. Then you just kind of grasp to what you see other people doing. And each of you have, of course, done the work to figure it out internally before creating your brand. So, um, sorry, Lindsay. You're not in our program anymore.
Amanda Haas: I love that.
Lindsay Kinder: I love it too. It's such good advice because Amanda and I, we were just saying, we don't wanna go look at what anybody's doing, because even if you're conscious of it, like it still just plants these little seeds of what something could look like or should look like versus having your own beautiful, clean canvas of creating from scratch.
Cynthia Samanian: Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you both so much. If people wanna learn more about House of Haas, Amanda, where should they go?
Amanda Haas: They can find me on social and my website at amandahaascooks.com. That's two A's one S and it gives you the options of House of Haas. And then coming by the time this podcast is out, they'll be able to find the Meal Planning Method right there on the website as well.
Cynthia Samanian: That's so great. I can't wait for that to be out. And Lindsay, where can people go to find more information about Food La La?
Lindsay Kinder: Yes, we're at Food-La-La.Com. You can subscribe and get our weekly tip or recipe or just fun thing that's happening. And on Instagram it's food.la.la.
Cynthia Samanian: Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for your time today and I can't wait to see what's next for each of you in your businesses!
Cynthia Samanian: All right, friends that wraps up our show. If there's one thing you take away from this episode, it's that you don't have to have it all figured out. And that's okay. It's not a weakness. It doesn't mean you're not a good business owner. It's part of the journey of building a business.
Cynthia Samanian: So, what do you wish you knew to take your business online? I want you to tell me, seriously! Is it the tech? Is it the marketing? The sales? Send me a DM on Instagram at culinarycynthia. Honestly, I love hearing from you so say hello, and I'd really love to get to know you and your business.
Cynthia Samanian: And if you're interested in Culinary Creator Business School, just text me CCBS and you'll get all the details about what it is and if it's right for you. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I'll see you back here for another episode of the CCBS podcast. Have a delicious week!
