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Welcome to the socialized strategy, the Friday edition of the socialized podcast where we take a deeper dive into the subject featured in our email newsletter. Before we get started, 2 quick reminders. Our Valentine's giveaway is still underway. The link to enter is in the show notes and the newsletter and you can find all the details about it there. Our next free live workshop has been announced.
Helen:We will cover editing with key frames. So check the link in the show notes, and if you're listening to this after the fact, because the workshop is on the 27th February, and if it's after that when you're listening, you can find it on our website, hellosocialize.com, and then look for editing 105 in the workshops tab. Alright. Today's topic is a good one. It is called learn from an expert.
Helen:And in this episode, we recorded a live workshop with some of our subscribers joining us in the chat. And we'll be announcing more guest episodes like this where you can attend live. So keep an eye on our newsletter and for the announcement for the next one. Alright. Let's get started.
Helen:Yay. Hi, Gina. Hi. Thanks for having me. This is a big day.
Helen:I feel like I've already know you so well, just because I think we both have the power social of each other going on. But let me do a let me do a proper introduction so that I can read my little thing that I wrote about you that I wanna share. Just kick us off and welcome everyone in. Gina Homolka, author of 7 New York Times best selling cookbooks, started her journey in 2008 when she had the idea to slim down some of her favorite recipes. Skinny taste was born, and it has been a continuing labor of love with cookbooks, weekly meal plans, new recipes, and now a collaboration with Home Chef.
Helen:Yay. Her books have earned multiple awards. And on social media, she has an amazing 2,000,000 followers on Instagram and 360,000 followers on Tik Tok. So I Gina's already confessed to me that normally she does talk on interviews about cooking and recipes. And today, we're gonna dive in to a a different comfort zone for Gina, which is social media.
Helen:Yes. Yeah. So thank thank you for being open to moving out of your comfort zone. I appreciate it. Alright.
Helen:So let's just kick off with just a little bit about the beginning in 2008 when it was a rough year for a lot of people financially. And you kicked this off, and did you have a marketing strategy? How did you promote yourself?
Gina:No. When I started, I had a full time career as a photo retoucher. I worked in Manhattan. I loved what I did. I had no intentions of quitting.
Gina:So this was just something I started for fun. I was getting married and was doing Weight Watchers and couldn't find anything that was healthy that was also, like, not made with processed ingredients. I've always loved to cook. So I I have, like, an art background, and I figured, let me start a blog. And it was really more about, like, learning how to take photos of food.
Gina:Like, that was my interest. Mhmm. But then actually people started making my recipes. So then it turned into a passion like me responding to comments, people liking my recipes. So I had no marketing plan because it was really just, you know, a hobby.
Helen:A hobby. I love that. And when did you realize it was gonna be more than a hobby? Did it did it happen slowly, or was it quite sudden?
Gina:Yeah. It, probably I quit my job 3 years after I started. So the it was increasing. The traffic from on my website was increasing. And then I had my baby and didn't wanna go back to work full time, was was already making some ad money on my website.
Gina:It was definitely getting over a 1000000 views a a month, which is a lot. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So I realized, you know what?
Gina:I could probably do this full time and and Gosh. And all that.
Helen:Were you doing it all yourself at that point?
Gina:Yeah. I was doing it on freeblogger. Com. I've kind of moved everything, learned how to do it. I was trying to figure out photos.
Gina:I worked full time in the city, so I would run home, Sheesh. Cook dinner, and then take a photo of the food before the light went out because, you know, you have to use natural light. So you know? And then I would answer my comments on the train ride back into the city because I live in Long Island. So on the commute in, I would
Helen:feel sad. Yeah. Yeah. That's insane. Was it what did you start to have people reaching out for advertisers?
Helen:Because I you obviously have ads on your site now. What was it did it start early then, and did you have to find it, or did it find you?
Gina:So when I first started, I was, just googling a little bit about, like, how does that work? I I was seeing people that had blogs that were making income with ads, and I didn't know anything about it. But I already had started this blog, so I saw that you can put free AdSense blogs, AdSense ads on your site, and they only pay you if you get traffic. So I put it on. I really wasn't getting anything the first I think the 1st year, I was so excited because I made $30.
Gina:And my friend was like, $30 this month. I was like, no. Total. So it was never really about the money because she was like, why are you doing this? And I was like, I just love it.
Gina:I love sharing. I love the comments. I love helping people. It was never about the money. It was never about that.
Gina:It just turned into that.
Helen:Wow. Maybe that'll happen for me, Gina. Right. Because you know what I'm doing here with teaching and things.
Gina:Have a passion, and you're amazing.
Helen:I love it so much. And and then let's talk about when social when did you decide to start on social media? Was it then or right away, or was it really did that come after?
Gina:Remember when I first started, it was, on Twitter because I think that's what a lot of food bloggers were using.
Helen:Okay. And it
Gina:was really more about, interacting with each other. It was, like, networking.
Helen:Mhmm.
Gina:So I started on that. I'm there used to be something called stumble upon. And if you got stumbled, if a photo or recipe got stumbled, you get a lot of traffic. So I would always have that goal of getting stumbled. And then I started on Facebook, but I didn't really do it well.
Gina:I just had my RSS feed on Facebook, though.
Helen:If I
Gina:had a new recipe, I would just go there. Didn't really know anything about social media. So I just started as I started gaining followers, I loved being able to, you know, chat with, you know, communicate with them, and they would tell me about, like, what recipes they were making or what recipes they wanted me to lighten up. So it was, like, a really fun way to engage.
Helen:And it was mostly photos back then. Right? So, I mean All photos. I mean, when did you even start doing videos? Was that really that recent with TikTok, or was it, out of curiosity?
Gina:I started with the hands and pans style videos on Facebook. I don't know if you know, like, the overhead where you just see the hands really fast, like, 60 second videos. When those became popular, like those tasty style videos, And I took a course because they were popular, and I always embrace, like, change and whatever's new. I just go for it. So I took a I went I took a class on how to do my own videos and how to, edit everything in Final Cut Pro.
Gina:Very challenging.
Helen:Oh, yes.
Gina:And I made a lot of videos. And then with time, I realized this is so time consuming. It's taken away from me actually creating recipes. So I started hiring people to do those videos for me.
Helen:And now at that point, was it were you making money in order to hire, or were you making an investment in yourself?
Gina:No. I was making I was making money on my website with ads. It was already later on. This was many years. Like, I was already, you know
Helen:Right. You're on your way. But well, of course, especially by the time video came into play. We're you're we're well into it. I don't
Gina:remember what year it was, but I had already been and I already had cookbooks out, so I was already making income.
Helen:It's just amazing. Honestly, your story is so inspiring because if anybody has something they're passionate about, it just shows that you can be doing something full time, and and this can just happen
Gina:by because you love it. If you do it because you wanna make money and not really because you're passionate about it, it I don't think it translates. I think you have to be passionate because it's when it's, like, difficult when you're not making money and you're not seeing a return on your investment and your time. So you have to love it.
Helen:You have to
Gina:love it. To continue. I have a lot of friends
Helen:my god.
Gina:Started blogs because they saw mine were successful, and they all kinda quit after a year. Like, that's a lot of work. I'm all out of recipes. Yeah. So
Helen:yeah. So, you know, one of the things that I always talk about is is that the relentless person will win. So it's not even that, you know, thinking about being the best or being the expert or something. It's really the person who doesn't give up and just keeps going because they love it so much, have a more have more likelihood of success, because they're not gonna just drop it when when things get tough. And so you did you are exactly that because that's because why?
Helen:You're still going. Right? You're you love it. That's why.
Gina:Exactly. I don't know what I would do if I wasn't. Like, people ask me about, like, are you gonna retire? Like, what like, retire. I I don't know what that looks like.
Helen:Oh, my
Gina:too much. I can't see myself.
Helen:It's so
Gina:much fun. In the future.
Helen:Of course, I love your recipes. I I I did the, mug, the banana in a mug, the banana muffin in yeah. I made the banana muffin in the mug. So, like, couple days in a row. Love it.
Helen:Love it.
Gina:My daughter loves it.
Helen:Yeah. And and I think 2 nights ago, I did the turkey burger recipe that I love with the zucchini and the feta cheese and the and I love cumin. I don't know if I say cumin or cumin, but I love that spice. I I so I really have grabbed on to some of your recipes over the past couple of years since we've since I've been following you that I that are in my real regular rotation. It's really awesome.
Gina:Appreciate that.
Helen:So thank you for that.
Gina:Yeah. Of course.
Helen:When did you start following me on social media? Because I don't know. I when did the connection happen? Was it when I was visible during cancer? Because that was where I got a stretch of people, or was it before that?
Gina:Before that. So I started doing videos, like TikTok videos, like those type of reels during COVID, because I started going on TikTok, and we were on lockdown. I was bored. It was entertaining. TikTok was so fun then.
Gina:And I saw our pizza and people doing food. I was like, oh, wow. They're using TikTok to do like, I never thought of it. I always thought it was for kids. Oh.
Gina:And then I started, you know, just playing around and learning how to do a TikTok. So was
Helen:it during lockdown, did you say? It was during the pandemic. So was it was it because your daughter was on, or was it back?
Gina:He actually never had TikTok until this year. So Oh, wow. Yeah. I I don't know what made me go on it. I don't I don't remember, but it was so entertaining.
Gina:I just you know, it was a great way to kill time.
Helen:It really was. The the pandemic was perfect for this because I would have never had time to get on TikTok because I was too busy working production, and it's very intense when I'm in a production. So when lockdown happened and I had no work, Julie and I were doing this funny thing on our Instagram story where we were doing, like, a dance competition about our work our work from home outfits, and we were showing off our work fits, our work from home fits. And so we did we're doing that on the story. And she's the one that said to me, oh, we should do this on TikTok because it's better mute or we can get more music or it's more and I said, okay.
Helen:Sure. I mean, literally got on TikTok and was dancing. Never thought
Gina:that I so so fast to be such an expert at it. Like, you Oh, really? Really are amazing at TikTok.
Helen:Oh my gosh. I love because I love it. And as soon as I could see the correlation between production and making videos that I'm so used to doing for 35 years in my career, I was sat in edit rooms. I watched editors, and I suddenly figured out I gotta figure out how to do this in the phone myself, and I had the power in my own hands. And this I have very good technology skills.
Helen:Like, I can pick something up and quickly figure it out. So I just had fun with it. And then once I realized I'm good at making videos, people started asking me, how did you do that effect? And that's how I really got started making tutorials. I was like, I'll do this because so many of you have been asking.
Helen:I did it as a joke, and it was one person ask me how to do so. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it was like, no. Not so many people are asking.
Helen:So once I did that video, though, people were said our TikTok teacher has arrived. And I was like, what? I changed my bio, like, immediately. I put TikTok teacher.
Gina:Yeah. I definitely saw you teaching something.
Helen:Teaching something.
Gina:Something I don't know if it was a transition. I am not good at that stuff. So I my brain doesn't like, I can't wrap my brain around it, so I don't really do a lot of that. So I was watching you, and I was like, you make it look so easy. You know?
Gina:So it was just I started following you. And then you're funny, and then you're dancing all the time. And so, like, you just said, like, always, like, this, like, positive thing that I love following.
Helen:I just have so much fun with it. Thank you for following, and I'm so glad that we got we did get connected. So now you start talking about that you don't like certain doing certain things because they're not in your comfort zone. So do first off, do you do all your own videos still, or do you now outsource? Do you shoot and then hand it off?
Helen:How do you work the process if you don't mind sharing that?
Gina:Yeah. So, like, my TikTok and reels videos Yeah.
Helen:TikTok and reels videos.
Gina:My own. Okay. So I still hire someone to do my hands and pans videos. Those still perform really well for me on Facebook.
Helen:Okay.
Gina:And I also upload the wide ones onto my YouTube channel because I then put them into my website so that when someone goes to my website, they can also see how to make it visually. It's very it helps people. So those now a lot of times, those people also people that are creating my videos also make them into a real format.
Helen:Okay. So you have that too. That's great.
Gina:Have that. But I do my own Reels where I'm in them. I'm in my kitchen cooking, and those always perform so much better than the ones Yes. Yeah. So, like, sometimes I'll use the other ones, but they never really perform well.
Gina:So Right. Yeah. Because it's not me in it. It's not my kitchen. It's not my hands.
Gina:It's not you know, it just it's not me talking about what I had for dinner. So I don't think you know, I feel like it's not
Helen:That's right.
Gina:Saying. Just not the thing.
Helen:Yeah. The platforms want authenticity, and I can even remember seeing one video of yours where you showed your, your kick vacuum underneath your kick, you know. And I was like, what? I think that performed really well. Right?
Helen:That was when he It did. And it had nothing to do with cooking. So it just shows that thing that we always talk about, which is showing the little other things behind the scenes that are going on in your life really are attractive to people who follow you for even if it's not for the same thing.
Gina:Not follow me. Because usually those are the ones that all I get I go viral, and random people are, like, finding it.
Helen:I personally love to hear your voice too.
Gina:Oh, my Long Island accent. Yes. Yes.
Helen:I think there's so much to that. It's like, oh my god. I love her.
Gina:Aw. Thank you. It's true. It's not working.
Helen:So even those you edit yourself in your phone
Gina:Yeah.
Helen:I do have that. Skills. What What do you use to edit? Do you do them right in the app, or do you do it in sorry.
Gina:I use InShot.
Helen:Oh, InShot. Okay. So I it's similar to Capcut. I don't know. It it really depends on whatever you start with is what you kind of think is your favorite, and it's hard to then, oh, I have to learn a new one.
Helen:No. Thanks. I'm gonna work
Gina:with them. I have used CapCut for, like, some of those trends. But Right. Yeah. I don't do it a lot.
Gina:So, I mostly just go into InShot and Yeah.
Helen:And they're mostly it's mostly the same thing. It's like you split and or you can drag. You know? There's, like but basics are the basics.
Gina:So voiceover and voiceover.
Helen:Voiceover. I
Gina:definitely brighten the images. And, you know, I had a photo retouching background where I was doing a lot of color correcting. So I definitely do that with my videos, making sure that they're bright and they're contrasty and the color.
Helen:Yeah. I know. So Rainey in the chat says, InShot is vintage. So that's it. You're in the
Gina:Oh, no. I love it.
Helen:No. I think it's a positive thing. I think it's a pod positive thing. I don't think yeah. Yeah.
Helen:Absolutely. If it works, it's what you should be using. That's
Gina:it. And I saw all my videos there. Like, I have them all saved from the past, so sometimes, like, if something is seasonal and I did it last year, I'll go back, and then I'll tweak it and reupload it.
Helen:Oh, gosh. It's that's great. I was do you have a content calendar? You keep yourself organized in a way like that, or do you just wing it every week and you just do what you feel like doing?
Gina:I have a contact calendar for my website for the recipes that I'm creating, but and I use the Monday app where I I know exactly what recipes I'm gonna create, where with when I go send it to get the top photographs, I have that all organized. But when it comes to social media, no. I wing it.
Helen:You wing it. Oh, I'm
Gina:I'm sharing on Instagram whatever new recipes that I created. So, usually, those are photos. And then I'm sharing reels. So I'll do what's seasonal right now or maybe something I'm doing for dinner, and I'll I'll just pull out my camera. It.
Gina:Yeah. I just whatever I'm usually, whatever my breakfast lunch or dinner is, I'm just shooting that. It's just footage. I just keep it on my phone. And then later on, I'll, you know, when I have time, I'll go and You
Helen:edit it. And do. I that's why it's successful, Gina, because it's not planned and curated so perfectly. That's true. It's really
Gina:I'm not that organized. Like, my brain doesn't work that way. I am, like, more on the creative side, so I'm like, I don't know what I'm gonna feel like doing that day. Yeah.
Helen:Same with me. Same with me.
Gina:Do you understand? Yeah.
Helen:Same with me.
Gina:To, like, know your content for a month. I don't I don't get that.
Helen:No way. I will say, Julie tried to get me to really make a plan and do I said, oh my god. I did it for a little bit, but then I just I'm a day to day. Like, here's what's happening today, and here's what I'm doing today, and here's what I shared today. Like, for one word.
Gina:If I have
Helen:something if I have something where I have to plan ahead, then I will I'm like, oh, I'm gonna be shooting all next week. I'm not gonna have time to make a tutorial. Those take more thought and time. I actually bat I'll batch 2 of them or something like that and have them ready. But other than that, no.
Helen:Then I'm on the shoot and I'm winging it, and I'm like, what are we gonna do today? And I I scroll my phone. I get people involved. I just think it's way more fun, and I that's the purpose of social media is to be more irreverent and not so planned. Do you know that you wanna post a certain time amount of times a day a week?
Helen:Or do you do, like, I wanna post 3 times a week. Do you have that kind of in your head?
Gina:Are you which, platform are you talking about?
Helen:Well, either one. Let's talk about again, I mean, take you have the bigger following on Instagram. So what do you do there?
Gina:So I post on Instagram every day. And, again, I have a lot of content. I have a lot of recipes. So some recipes, I can just if it's in season, if it's Saint Patrick's Day and I wanna share, like, corn beef cabbage, I have 4 of them on my website, all different ways. So I can, like, share a rest you know, photo because people may not have, like, known about that recipe or maybe it's just fresh in their mind.
Gina:And then the reels, I'll just do maybe, like, 3 to 4 a week. But every single day, I am doing Instagram stories. Like
Helen:Yes. You do. You're so good.
Gina:I try
Helen:to go see your stories every day because I'm like, what are you doing today? And I love when you show the Long Island, like, the snowy bay and all my god.
Gina:I mean, it's just like my life. It's like the day a little bit of my life. I'm cooking, I'm in a meeting, answering questions, pulling my audience. I know that my audience likes me to cook on Instagram stories because I ask them what they wanna see. So I try to do that a lot, which it's not easy because I also if I'm filming, for Instagram stories, that means I'm not doing a reel.
Gina:So sometimes I'll do an Instagram stories talking through it because that's how they like it. And then I'll download all that foot footage, and then I'll edit it later into a reel.
Helen:Right. Oh, yes. So you can shoot for the story and then use it for other things. And then on TikTok, do you try and post every day, or do you are you easier on yourself on TikTok?
Gina:I'm easier on myself on TikTok.
Helen:You do it for fun?
Gina:Yeah. Exactly.
Helen:When something feels right, just call me.
Gina:I don't my following is not as big there, and I don't a lot of people tell me that they don't see me on their for you page even though they follow me now.
Helen:Mhmm. So
Gina:that's a
Helen:lot of That's a huge problem with the with the app in general. I mean, I have the same problem. My my issue is just like you, I lean into the one that I have the bigger following because I know people are looking for me there more. So you're you're gonna do the same thing, and that that's exactly the advice that we would give. You can't be amazing at every single thing.
Helen:You only have so much bandwidth in your in your brain to do that.
Gina:I I I have actually a much bigger following on Facebook. It's, like, 7 over 6,000,000. So Facebook definitely brings me a lot of traffic, and I have an amazing Facebook group that is super highly engaged, and I love that group. They're all skinny taste what's cooking for dinner. So they are always posting what they're making for dinner, and they're talking about they're talking to each other.
Gina:So I think that's an amazing group. And, yeah, so I People
Helen:do help each other. I love that about I just love that about, in general, like, the world of the social media and the Internet. People really wanna help each other. It's beautiful.
Gina:Exactly. I know.
Helen:So we're gonna go to later, but we'll have one question where which was a day in the life of Gina, which I'm gonna ask you to understand better because you're doing so many things and you're doing all of them well. So So I'm gonna come back to that. But before we get to it, I wanna know a couple more things. Do you have do have you had a viral moment that has impacted your business directly? Have you had one of those and where did it happen?
Helen:Was it on Instagram? Was it on Facebook? And if not, you can say no. There's maybe been multiple. I had
Gina:a lot of viral moments on Facebook When hands to pans videos first started, those used to go crazy viral. And it was like they opened the spigot, and any video you per you posted did so well and brought me tons of traffic back to my website and also so much growth. They mentioned they closed down the spigot, and, of course, they perform well now. It's just not like that. Not like that.
Gina:When it first started. And then it also I I mean, viral, I guess, is over a1000000, would you say?
Helen:Yeah. You too.
Gina:Yeah. So I get viral occasionally on Instagram. So on the reels, they they I just did one that was over 3,400,000. And I have gone viral on TikTok. It's just I usually go viral on TikTok for things that aren't I'm not that are not food related or not.
Helen:The thing that your your kitchen vacuum
Gina:Right. Like, I'm like like, the other day, there was a snowstorm, and I just quickly diddled quick, like, 5 second video and with music of the snowstorm. And Oh. Nothing went viral. And all my friends all my friends' kids are, like, sore it.
Gina:So, like, oh, we saw your video, your TikTok. Kids. I'm like, everyone shared it. I'm like, I don't get it. I don't understand TikTok.
Gina:But okay. Mysterious. Okay. That? But, again, it has nothing to do with my blood my brand or recipes.
Gina:So
Helen:So in the in those cases, the the virality doesn't necessarily translate to followers because they are right? They're just it's just a viral moment, but it's not a viral moment with intention.
Gina:Right. But it's fun because it is something we're all sharing. We all had a snow day. Yeah. You know?
Gina:So it's just different. It's more entertainment for me.
Helen:Yeah. It's so fun. Alright. So what part do you hate about it? Social media.
Helen:Media. Yeah. And social media in general.
Gina:They're always changing. So when you figure it out and you finally got it, they change it. So that's actually it's so frustrating. Right? Like, it's working.
Gina:It's working. You you you're doing, like, amazing, and then they quickly change it. And all of a sudden, now they're like, TikTok's doing the wide video in over a minute. Yeah. So it's just the constant changing and having to relearn.
Helen:Yeah. It's a pain in the ass. And do you is do you think there's one thing you're really good at? Do you feel like, okay. I'm in the zone when I'm doing this type of thing.
Helen:Is it is it your kitchen doing yourself videos when you
Gina:I think the kitchen cooking and creating recipes is definitely my
Helen:what you love.
Gina:For forte, and then also engaging with my audience. That's really I honestly think that is everything.
Helen:Yeah. Did you he managed to answer a lot of comments. So how much time do you think how much time do you spend yourself on social media in a day roughly?
Gina:A lot.
Helen:A lot.
Gina:Yeah. Too much. But it is work. So I'm like It's work. Don't addiction.
Gina:It's just work. I do spend a lot of time a lot on Instagram. I spend probably most of my time on Instagram.
Helen:Yeah. Do you? And you like it. And then how oh, this I noticed you did something, and I was like, I gotta ask her this when we are on. So when you comment a word, it goes it directly sends you a DM.
Helen:Yeah. Does that is that something that you do in the app, or do you have a separate app that does that?
Gina:It's called ManyChat.
Helen:ManyChat. So that's an app.
Gina:So it's an automation, and it's approved by Meta. And so it's yeah. So you have to take so I'm linking back to my recipe on my website. So they comment the word. I I create the word that they're going to do, and then it will give them the link on their DM.
Gina:And it's been really great. It's a great I I see, like, so many people using it. Okay.
Helen:You know? It's so smart.
Gina:It's great for getting
Helen:me to. Especially for viral for viral video when you cannot possibly. So does does that work on TikTok or no? It's just meta approved. So it's not gonna work.
Gina:It did. Just meta.
Helen:Wish it did on. But okay. So that's helpful to know. I'm so glad. Maybe I'll do a tutorial on that.
Gina:Yeah. Yeah. It's great. So one thing I learned, you have to turn your URL into a Bitly. Otherwise, it's too long, and then it just fails.
Gina:So
Helen:Okay.
Gina:Turn into a Bitly, then you can use the ManyChat. And it's more people use it for lot of things. I'm just using it for that, but they also use it for emails. And it's like the the this does so many things.
Helen:Yeah. That that is so sweet. I noticed that you can do a shortcut word, which then will you know, if you type the word, it'll do a, like, add a whole thing. So if you have it a bunch of DMs and you just wanna answer with the word yes and then have it answer a paragraph, that's automatically set up right in the app. But what I'm talking about, what I saw on Gina's page, just for people listening, is that she just says, write, recipe in the in the comments, and then it automatically DMs the recipe of that exact thing to your DM.
Helen:So then you get a link to the recipe. And and I was like, this is genius. How did she make this happen? And I wanted to ask you before, but I thought it would be a good question for now. Yeah.
Gina:No. It's great. It's it's great. Because before I was using link in link in profile for people to link to get the link. So many people don't understand what that means.
Gina:I would they're like, I don't see the link. I'm like, it's by my profile. Yeah. So, like, this is so much better. This has been great.
Helen:Gosh. I'm telling you, I a lot a lot a lot of people ask me, I can't find your TikTok course. I'm like, it's linked in my profile. I don't even know how it just seems so easy to do, but beginners just don't necessarily have the skill set for it. It's, really unfortunate.
Helen:Alright. Let's talk a little bit about a day in the life of you. Do you have a big team? Do you have a bunch of people that are doing all different things at once? Or do you how does that work?
Helen:And as much as you'd like to share.
Gina:So you were, day to day like, right now, I'm not working on a cookbook, so I was just focusing on my website and social media. I work with my aunt. She's been working with me since Oh. Probably my first book, I think.
Helen:Wow.
Gina:So she helps me in the kitchen. She'll help me, like, if I'm testing recipes. She'll help me prep and chop and get everything ready, especially for videos, which is super helpful. So then I have all that prepped. So then I always Amazing.
Helen:Do Does she live nearby so she can just hop over?
Gina:About 30 minutes away.
Helen:Oh, okay.
Gina:Yeah. But, you know, we'll do a a few things. We'll test recipes. We'll, test new recipes. We'll make videos.
Gina:So it's a lot of different things. It's not always the same. It doesn't look the same every day. Videos, I try not to do them on Mondays because I've learned Mondays, I'm just like, it's just rough. I you know, like, you have to look good for the Yeah.
Gina:I don't always, but I feel like Tuesdays are better. Yeah.
Helen:Tuesdays are better.
Gina:Really just testing new recipe.
Helen:That's so funny. If you were doing anything where you started where you were starting over on social media totally fresh. Would you do anything differently, do you
Gina:think? I mean, it's changed so much, so I would embrace whatever is happening now, knowing that reels and video is, you know, performing well. I would learn how to do that. I would definitely take courses, and follow experts like yourself. I think that is really important.
Gina:I follow Brock Johnson. He's a Instagram,
Helen:guru.
Gina:He's really Okay. Love he's the one who who where I found out about ManyChat. So he's great. Yeah. So I just, like, I would take courses and whatever I'm not good at.
Gina:Like, if I wasn't good at video, I would definitely take a class and learn how to do it. But I would continue doing what I'm doing, and that is some, engaging with my audience.
Helen:Right. Yeah. The the engaging is people really don't rate that enough, and it's so much I I think it's how I got at my following. Because I was answering for a while there, I got myself a little keyboard with my phone because I didn't wanna The computer answering comments on TikTok is challenging because of the way it's set up. I'm, like, you constantly it's almost like you're almost could report every comment if you don't click correctly.
Gina:Oh, really?
Helen:That's so annoying. So I got the I got the keyboard for my phone. So I'm like, I gotta go faster. I gotta, you know Yeah.
Gina:That's smart.
Helen:It It was really important to me
Gina:at at
Helen:the time.
Gina:I'm gonna have to get I'm gonna have to look into that. I don't get as much comments on on TikTok as you do though. But Yeah. So it's so it's easy. Instagram.
Helen:Yeah. Is there anything I know this question, you don't have to answer it if there's nothing, but is there anything that you would want me to teach you that you don't know or that you or is there something that you remember learning? I would love to have, you know, an an insight into what I helped you with, if anything.
Gina:So many things that you could teach so many things. All of it. Yes. I would love you to teach me. What did you say?
Gina:I asked you the other day I asked you for ideas. I'm like, what would you do if you're doing a video for a book tour? And you sent me all these, like, you just, like, had I did. I'm like, these are amazing.
Helen:I completely forgot about that. Amazing. So
Gina:just asking took your advice, and I when I was, you know, on my book tour, I had the little list. I'm like, alright. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna film this, this, and that. So I had a plan where I wouldn't have otherwise set up funny.
Helen:Look do you mean that I made a plan for you? I can't even make a plan for myself.
Gina:Remember that you did it for me. For god. You can't even yeah. Also, like, just, like, how do you find trends? Like, you're always, like, on
Helen:the trends.
Gina:I don't I but by the time I realized it's a trend, it's too late.
Helen:It's too late. Yeah.
Gina:I would love to, like, be on the trends. I feel like that's important on TikTok.
Helen:It is important on TikTok.
Gina:Something I'm a little slow at. I don't I don't know how people discover these trends. So
Helen:I I'll tell you I'll tell you, and I don't mind telling our secrets because me and Julie tell you know, we tell this all the time, but this is why we put the newsletter out because we were we we take our time to find the trends by seeing between the 2 of us on our feeds, and we look at multiple accounts on for you pages from multiple accounts. So this way you can see what things are repetitive if you're going into multiple accounts. So she will send me things, have you started seeing this? And I will send her things, have you started seeing this? So we do the homework, and then we start and then I start hearing things repeating.
Helen:I purposely put my phone down, refresh my feed, and then look later and see, is some is that sound trending? So it's so much work to do that we decided that was the point of the newsletter to really share what we are seeing trending. So, you know, little plug for the newsletter.
Gina:Stay on top of that. Yeah.
Helen:But I want just the backstory on why I sent Gina ideas. I wanna just talk about that because we were communicating about this pod about doing this podcast, And then I said something about what what do you got when you're on your book tour, you have so much potential for content, and you're like, I don't have any ideas. So I was on a flight. And in about 10 minutes, I typed up that
Gina:Path of, like, ideas.
Helen:Stack of ideas that I sent to you. Because I can immediately think about
Gina:I'll save this.
Helen:What you could do with this. I just saw it. You know? Yeah. It's really I'm glad it was helpful.
Gina:Also, like, you're so great at those transitions and, you know, all those things that my brain
Helen:I love doing I love doing the transitions. I really do. And I think I I when I get into teaching so much, sometimes I have to take a step back and say, let me do something because I love doing them. And I feel so empowered when I can do something as as good as the younger people on on the app. And I'm like, I'm now in this transition that this 25 year old did.
Helen:I could do one time I did it, like, a hair flip thing. And at the time, I didn't have I had no hair, so I had to put I did a hair.
Gina:Oh, we've never I know I've seen it. Yeah.
Helen:You know? In the mirror, I'm like, I'm gonna do the hair
Gina:flip it up. Do a video. I think I saw you do, like, a TikTok, and I think it was just, like, you probably film this once a month, like, the transition of, like, your head made
Helen:The head turn.
Gina:I was like, wow. She planned this. I think you have to really have the the, like, the plan the future and, like, know to do this ahead. I was like, that was brilliant.
Helen:It was so much fun, that one. And I wanted to see my hair growth because I so I was like, how am I gonna record you know, I wanna record this. So I did. I made a a beginning of the month. I put it on a note on my calendar, and then I just turned I figured out where
Gina:That was great.
Helen:Thank you.
Gina:Oh, good.
Helen:Yeah. It was supposed to be head turn head turn, and I got bored doing a head turn after, like, the 4th month, so I started doing different transitions because I was like, this is gonna be boring at the end to watch this over and over. Well, thank you for appreciating that.
Gina:Oh, no. Of course.
Helen:I had
Gina:so much also, like, it would be amazing to have somebody, like, just, like, go over your site and say, this looks good, but this if you did it this way, this would have been better. Or you should have like, think about doing it this way next
Helen:time. Audit.
Gina:You could suck doing things the same way all the time. Even though you watch videos and they say you should do this, when you actually go to your, like, editing tools, you seem to kind of fall back into your normal
Helen:You do a rhythm because you do what's easy because you have to get it done. That's what happens.
Gina:Exactly.
Helen:Yeah. I see. I I try and break out of my rhythm too. I did it because a lot of times I'll always start with, here's how you do the such and such, or if you wanna know how to do the such and such, because that's what people are looking for for me. But a few times, I I forced myself to move out of my comfort zone and figure out a different way to start.
Helen:And that it just takes an extra effort, and a lot of times we just don't have time.
Gina:Froze. I don't know if it's my oh. Uh-oh. Okay. Sorry.
Gina:I hear you now.
Helen:Oh, good? Okay. Good. Hopefully, I didn't freeze, but it's fine. We can move on.
Helen:But I will say it in order to change what what you're doing, you do have to push past the comfort zone, because it's so easy to just do the same do the thing we know. We know it works. This hook is gonna get people. It's gonna be fine. So it's really it it is a challenge, and you and it requires a little extra 5 minutes of extra thinking.
Helen:And for me, it's quick when I do think about it, and a lot of people have trouble creatively. But I've worked in advertising, so I've learned how to be creative by watching creative people for my whole career. I've had that advantage. Do you do you use any of the skills from your previous career, do you think?
Gina:I mean, just probably the color correcting of photos and, videos and just knowing what I want, what's aesthetic, but I do not retouch anymore.
Helen:No. Yeah.
Gina:Job. No.
Helen:But people don't need it. I mean, I think it's we're so used to our eye has changed because of the content we're being fed. So it used to be we only saw these really polished photos in magazines or polished color correction on TV commercials. Now we have, like, everybody in their kitchen shooting with, like, window light or Yeah. Those little lights if you if you don't have light in your kitchen.
Helen:Do you ever shoot with, lights when you don't have daylight or you you won't do it?
Gina:No. Yeah. No. I just, like, go by the window and Good. Yeah.
Gina:I mean, I I really don't like like, unnatural light. So
Helen:No. I'm so into the natural light too. I get nervous sometimes when it's so bright, and I'm like, every line on my face is
Gina:showing. Yeah. Well, that's not easy also.
Helen:This is always challenging. Right.
Gina:So lighting is important. Having, like, the right light and, yeah.
Helen:Your kitchen is so beautiful.
Gina:As we get older, I think it's a little challenging being on video for me anyway.
Helen:Yeah. Well,
Gina:it is 20 in doing, like, why couldn't I be 21 to talk it? Like Same. Same. Better at this. You
Helen:would be. I don't think I had the confidence at 20 to do what I'm doing now. I think I would have been overthinking what I look like or worried about things.
Gina:You know? I wouldn't either because it took a while to actually be comfortable seeing my face and hearing my voice on social media, like, on stories Yes. Story. Like, that took a little while, and then I had to, like, just get over it.
Helen:You have to get over it. Yeah. It does help watching other people getting over it. And then you can say, oh, that person did that. I can do that too.
Helen:Yeah. And and when I first started speaking on my videos, I I was so judgy of myself because I'm thinking that person's much smarter, that person's much funnier, that person's more insightful, they're more concise. And I was judging myself by without even realizing that I was doing it, and then
Gina:You did it all the time. Yeah. I understand that.
Helen:Ugh. So now I've moved past that. I am You have a right through that.
Gina:Focus on what you're sharing. Focus on the message because you're helping people, and that's that's my focus. It's like, they don't care about like, even if I have no makeup on that day and I look terrible, they don't care. Nobody cares. They just really care about, like, what I'm the message I'm sharing.
Helen:Oh my gosh. So true. It's so true. It's so true. We have to just accept that, and it's just this giving yourself grace thing.
Helen:Like, just let yourself, you know, just let yourself be who you are, and don't be so judging of yourself.
Gina:More likable too. So, yeah, I think people can like you more than, like, having Absolutely. The second.
Helen:I wanna jump in because one question came in here that's good, and then we'll start doing some questions. Do your do your kids, like getting involved in your blog? Have they shown any interest in cooking? What's the interest level on your girls?
Gina:My older daughter, who's 30, loves cooking. I actually shared some recipes. I she shared 2 recipes that she created. It was a mushroom toast on Lavne. She loves to eat, you know, great food.
Gina:So when she bakes it for me, I'm like, oh, you gotta give me this recipe. So I actually tell tell people that it's her recipe. And my younger daughter who starts 14, she likes to make pancakes and breakfast foods and smoothies and but not dinner. She's
Helen:Not dinner yet?
Gina:No. She's not there yet. I guess it's not good at all.
Helen:Yeah. She's too young. But would you ever consider, this is really I'm throwing it out something, but because I heard about a cooking course that one of my friends from Long Island was trying to get her daughter into. Anyway, have you ever thought about doing something like that where you do a mentorship? And not that you have time for this, I guess.
Helen:But would you ever consider that where you're you're teaching young you know, whether it's young girls or young kids how to Yeah.
Gina:Be healthy. I would do it, like, more of, maybe, like, as a don't like, donating my time, like, a as a not a full time thing because I wouldn't have the time. But I do, like, get you know, giving back. So I would do it as, like, for the girl scouts or something that. Whatever.
Gina:Nice.
Helen:You know? No pressure.
Gina:No pressure. No pressure.
Helen:Whenever you feel like doing it.
Gina:Sounds good.
Helen:I love those kinds of things because then I just
Gina:Actually, I do like going to those classes. I go sometimes with my grand my my kids just because it's fun. Yeah. Usually baking classes, things that I don't care.
Helen:Do you like being on, the TV appearances? Do you like doing those things?
Gina:I mean,
Helen:Tell me about that. Like, what's the pressure of that?
Gina:Well, the pressure because it's live. I I like when they are prerecorded. I don't mind those. The live always gets me nervous because, like, you have 3 minutes to, you know, have say your message. You don't know what they're gonna say.
Gina:You don't know if you're gonna burn something, And, you know, so it's a lot of pressure. But at first, I really would get nervous. I still get nervous, but it it's always, like, so gratifying when I'm done. I'm like, oh, I did it. You know?
Gina:It was good.
Helen:Yeah. Especially on TV, they don't give you a lot of time, by the way. You know, those those sets.
Gina:3 or 4 minutes usually.
Helen:Oh, and somebody just said that in the chat. They don't give them enough time on TV. No. They don't. Do you get do you apply SEO?
Helen:Do you think about that for your website and your blogs? And do you and do you have someone that's an expert on that, or did you learn that yourself?
Gina:I learned that myself. Yeah. I do all that. Of course, I I always think about SEO. It's like Wow.
Gina:The biggest thing. My biggest part of my traffic is Google search.
Helen:And what do you think about the SEO thing on TikTok? That do you think it even works at all? Do you try and think about that on your TikTok captions or you don't even I
Gina:do because they say that, you know, it's a search engine, and I don't know how many people really find me through search on Tik TikTok, so I'm not sure how true that is. Although I do know that if I Google skin taste and a recipe and if I done a TikTok video, it will show up. But I don't know if I take the word it's gonna taste out, if it will still show up, the the videos. Yeah. It's hard to say.
Gina:Interesting.
Helen:Mhmm. Alright. So we have a question about Facebook group, and this one's gonna be hard for you because you're gonna have to think back to when you first started. Because now you have a very engaged face Facebook group. So if you were gonna start one now as a new business, could you give some advice, or do you think it's one of those things where you're just too you're in too deep?
Helen:So maybe what do you do in your
Gina:Facebook group? Late to start. I think, just keep promoting it. Like, I promote my Facebook group in my weekly meal plan every week. I Oh.
Gina:To just remind, like, you know, anybody finds my meal plan who maybe doesn't even know I have a Facebook group, will find find out at that moment. So, like, I feel like you have to just remind people in all different places because you don't know where people are gonna find you.
Helen:So is the best, and not to get into any kind of numbers at all, but is your would your focus be more on your ads and your websites or selling cookbooks? What what or is it both? Or is it I mean, what do you lean on the most if you really had to think of what you'd wanna focus on?
Gina:Probably sell the ads. That has an ad network that does all that behind the scenes. So I really it's I haven't it's You
Helen:don't do
Gina:passive. I don't do anything when it comes to that, so I'm not trying to sell ads.
Helen:Okay.
Gina:I I'm not involved in that. So it for me but I'm always trying to grow my website and my books.
Helen:So the books are and the books are I mean, because the books are, tangibly beautiful kind of piece of art. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. How much time do you spend on a book?
Helen:Does it take a year in the making?
Gina:Yeah. It takes me 1 year to create all the recipes, test all the recipes, write it, send the manuscript, and then it goes to photography and editing, and that takes about a year. So it takes about 2 years total. And I love the photography process. Like, I choose the photographers and the stylists.
Helen:And
Gina:Oh, I love that.
Helen:I love
Gina:I'm a visual person, and and I love that part. I love it.
Helen:The part that goes back to your your prior work. Right?
Gina:Yeah. Definitely.
Helen:That's where you can lean into those.
Gina:I'm definitely the person, like, deciding what the cover is and yeah.
Helen:I love it. Alright. So we're gonna say we have 5, 4 more minutes, and I'm gonna see if there's any questions in the chat. Now is the time to put them in there. Somebody has all of your cookbooks and the things there are fantastic.
Helen:She's also been to see you in multiple book signing appearances you mentioned. Diane, thank you for that. We And I'm would guess no. Right? You have more people than that.
Gina:Yeah. I do have somebody that does my photography. So I, you know, sub outwork. So my team is me and my aunt in my kitchen. But I do some workout.
Gina:You know, videos go to, like, certain people. I use
Helen:person. Yeah.
Gina:Got it. So, you know, the nutritional information that's on my website for every recipe, I send that to someone. Of course, I check double check everything, make sure it's correct.
Helen:Right.
Gina:So, and then I have someone who writes my recipes. So I'll send her the recipe, and she'll write it for 16.
Helen:Nice.
Gina:And then I'll go back, and then I'll tweak it and perfect it. But at least it's like a starting point. So So when you do
Helen:the blog posts, like, most of that's coming from your head, and then you have someone just checking and testing and making sure it's SEO SEO happy.
Gina:And they're not really an SEO expert. They just I I'm telling them, like, please include, like just rewrite the ingredients here. Please rewrite the directions here. Please tell them to freeze this just freeze this for 3 months. And they'll, like, rewrite it so that it just is like there's like a format that I use every for every recipe, so she basically knows the format now.
Helen:Oh my gosh. You're you're I love that you're very self made. It just makes it way more I don't wanna say tangible, but it's inspirational that somebody could have this. It's not like you're a Kardashian with, like, a team behind you, you know, from helping you make makeup and whatever it is that they do.
Gina:I just did that book tour, which was, like, 7 it was it was, I think it was 6 cities.
Helen:Yeah.
Gina:And every day, I was in a different city, and I was by myself. It was all yourself. It was our team. Yeah.
Helen:That is so amazing. You're you're awesome. That so did you have fun on the book tour?
Gina:It was fun. It was amazing. Oh my god. I left lit literally every night after, you know, meeting people and fans, you know, just so, like, grateful.
Helen:Okay. Now we have a question that you can you can or cannot answer, but is your family lat Latin? Any Latin background? Oh, tell us about that. Do you mind?
Gina:Sure. So I'm half Colombian, half Czech.
Helen:Oh, do you speak Spanish?
Gina:But my I understand everything because my I grew up my mom speaks Spanish. My father spoke Spanish even though he was Czech. He also spoke Portuguese because he lived in Brazil. I have family in Dominican Republic and family in Puerto Rico, family in Spain, family family from Argentina. So I have a lot of, you know, family and all.
Gina:And I've been to a lot of these countries, and my husband's half Puerto Rican. So there's a lot of Spanish in my life. Wow. Yeah. I love Latin food.
Helen:That's great. And that's why you cook with a lot of onions and peppers and things, which I have so much trouble with because I have that, like, aversion to the forget what the term is, but I I can't eat onions and peppers and things. It's weird.
Gina:Italians?
Helen:So lightly. I mean, it's so but I can take all the recipes and just leave that out, and it doesn't bother me at all. I mean, the recipe tastes great to me because I'm not used to having those flavors in because I can't.
Gina:Right.
Helen:It's totally fine. Doesn't have phase me at all. I'm gonna
Gina:do this garlic.
Helen:Doesn't stop me from I can do a little garlic. Doesn't stop me from making your recipes. I just I just avoid the things I can't have. You're not,
Gina:and you're used to not eating it, then you're not missing anything.
Helen:I'm not missing it. Absolutely not. You're you're right on. All right. Any, do you have any questions for me, Gina?
Helen:Put you on the spot. See if you have any questions.
Gina:Questions for you, but way too many for this.
Helen:Okay. We'll have to have a private chat about that. Yes. I'll give you a private lesson. This has been so much fun.
Helen:I wanna thank you so much for for being the first to do this with me, because I would like to do this more often where I invite people in and have different perspectives. I think think it's so important because a lot of times when we're in our own as you know, you're in your world doing your thing, and sometimes an outside perspective or somebody else's opinion really helps
Gina:learn from other people.
Helen:It's good it's good for learning.
Gina:I just learned from you. I listened to your podcast the other day, and it was the first time. And you do the notes on your laptop where you type all the I was like, I see. What was notes on the laptop? What?
Gina:So now it's a game changer for me. Yeah. So I just learned that from your podcast.
Helen:I'm so excited. Yes. When I started realizing notes can come on my phone and it was, you know, in sync
Gina:and typing everything on the phone on Instagram and then typing it again on
Helen:It's crazy. Even if you're using the voice thing, because then you gotta correct it. You know? Right. Oh, so happy.
Helen:A lesson was learned.
Gina:I'm just gonna keep listening to your podcast.
Helen:Thank you. I love doing them. I just I literally sit here. I put a microphone, and I power them out. I don't edit them or anything because it's just all of this stuff going on in my head that I just need to get out and share.
Helen:So Especially
Gina:when I'm on the treadmill. 30 minutes on the treadmill and I'm learning. So it's like double whammy.
Helen:You're so amazing. Thank you so much, Gina. You're the best. Yeah. I'm so happy you were here, and we finally got to meet in person.
Gina:You too.
Helen:We have to actually meet in the flesh in person now, and I have to get you to dance.
Gina:Oh gosh.
Helen:That's gonna be the job. Guess what? You can stand there, and I'll dance around you as
Gina:I Okay. Perfect.
Helen:Fair enough.
Gina:Sounds good.
Helen:Thank you so much. Have a good day. Yeah. Sending you big hugs, big love. Thank you again.
Helen:Thank you
Gina:so much.
Helen:Alright. Bye bye.
Gina:Bye.
Helen:That was so much fun. Gina, if you're listening on your treadmill right now, I really appreciate you taking the time to join me. Learned so much from you. Hopefully, everybody else did as well. I felt it was really enjoyable to have an interactive work shop style podcast.
Helen:So I will be doing more of them. Keep an eye on the newsletter for our announcement of the next one. And if you landed here via the podcast platform, make sure to subscribe to the newsletter by visiting our website hellosocialize.com where you'll find free workshops and a link a link to a free TikTok course if that is something that you need. And as well we keep our news our workshops updated consistently on the workshop link. Alright.
Helen:Thank you again for being here and have a great weekend. Thank you so much, Gina.