27: Listener Success Story

Listen to this episode of Mind Over Blog on the player above, or find it on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts. 

Oh, today is a fun episode friend! Episode 27 is a listener success story where Loren chats with Sandra from the food blog She’s Not Cookin about how she realized her mindset was the final piece of the puzzle. 

Once Sandra started reapplying things she already knew and all the things she learned from listening to the podcast she quickly saw her goals being met, like reaching Mediavine just a few months of her one-year blogging anniversary.

Hear Sandra’s journey and biggest mindset takeaways that have taken her on a path of joy, freedom, and abundance!

Sandra Flegg is a wife, mom to twin 15-year-old boys, and a full-time food blogger. 

A self-taught cook, Sandra exited a 25 year retail management career to pursue her goal of becoming a full-time food blogger. Her food blog journey began in May 2020.  In July 2021, she achieved one of her goals and was accepted to the Mediavine Ad Network. In her business and personal life, Sandra uses a positive mindset to overcome obstacles and achieve her goals and personal satisfaction.

Transcript of the episode

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Sandra Flegg 0:00
It was hands down the single thing that allowed me to move ahead and to feel excited every day. And no matter what I look at my stats, I just think, on my Google Analytics that things will look better tomorrow or Facebook is sending me 1000s of visitors and every morning I wake up, and I do my affirmations.

Loren Runion 0:26
Welcome to mind over blog podcast. I’m your host, Loren Runion, a mindset obsessed food blogger and food photographer, you’re listening to the only podcast designed to help food bloggers uplevel their mindset to manifest their biggest blogging goals. Welcome to mind over blog. Let’s get started. Hello, Sandra, welcome to the show. Hi, Lauren. Thanks for having me. Very, very excited to hear your story. today. I’m having you come here to share your success. Because you’ve been so open and kind and you touch in with me, you know, every once a probably, you know, once a month, I get to hear about how your journey is unfolding. And it’s very powerful. So I’m excited to have you here and share it with everybody. All right. Well, I’m looking forward to getting into it. Well, before we start, as always, I would love for you to just tell everybody who you are, what your blog is. And I’d like to hear when you started your blog, because I don’t know that part.

Sandra Flegg 1:22
Sure. Well, my name is Sandra. And my blog name is she’s not cooking. And I started blogging in May of 2020.

Loren Runion 1:32
Wow. Oh, I didn’t I knew it was like a short journey. But I didn’t realize it was that that’s amazing. Sorry, I caught you

Sandra Flegg 1:39
already. I started started getting it together in February. And it took me a few months and a few tears to get it to get it launched and understand all the tech and and started from there.

Loren Runion 1:53
That’s amazing. And so I’m you know, I’m so proud of you. And I’m so like, wowed because you’ve already made it to media vine. Like that’s a big goal for I would say 90% of food bloggers and you made it to media vine. When When was that?

Sandra Flegg 2:11
In July, July 19? Was my official start date.

Loren Runion 2:15
That’s awesome. So let’s just go through your journey. Let’s go through because I know from what you’ve shared, and we’ll get to that, that, you know, really embracing the mindset stuff eventually, is what you felt like really tipped you over the edge. What was it like for you when you started blogging? How did you feel? What were some of the ups and downs you had? Like for me? I can definitely remember all those days all those months when you first start. So what was that like for you when you first began?

Sandra Flegg 2:44
I remember feeling I was really excited. And I wanted to be on step 51. And I was on one. And I remember thinking that I didn’t expect it to be so technical at first. And then as I, you know, went over one hurdle, and then another and then another. Eventually I found food blogger Pro. And that was a big help in just in terms of getting my blog set up. And I would say what really made a difference. I joined food blogger Central, and any questions that I had along the way that I didn’t know, suddenly, I could find the answers there. So I launched my blog. And I think I had maybe eight recipes when I launched and probably put out two to four without a calendar, no calendar whatsoever, and maybe made some mistakes along the way and carried on from there.

Loren Runion 3:41
Yeah, you know, it’s funny, I see. People ask that question, like, how many recipes should I have? Before I start? I my opinion on that is zero, because every recipe I put up there like, before I launched I was like these are garbage like below garbage. They need to be deleted from my site. I say just launch it and go from there. You know,

Sandra Flegg 4:05
what do you think about that? Yeah, absolutely. I would say get one post up. Realistically, who’s reading your blog, maybe your family, some of your friends that you’ve let know. But you have this feeling that the whole world will see it and you’ll want it to be perfect. So I went with the flow. And I had, I had some advice from I had reached out to a blogger and ask for some tips. I didn’t know this person. And they told me to make sure that I put a lot of personal stories at the beginning of each post, really. So I just recently, I think about a month ago I recently have removed because I’m ranking for words like do silkie chickens lay colored eggs because I’ve written about that in a personal blog post. So yeah, so there was some challenges but You know, it’s exciting. And then at the same time you have those ups and downs, where, like I know, we’ve talked about Google Analytics and not always being attached to that, looking at the numbers every day and getting hung up on that. And it’s it can be challenging, right it especially when you’re in a forum, and you see other people are hitting 5 million a month. And you’ve You know, you’re excited because you’ve had one picture accepted to foodgawker. And you had 20 visits today.

Loren Runion 5:32
Yeah, well, before I asked more in your blog, do you have silky chickens?

Sandra Flegg 5:37
No. It was a, it was a motion for tat. And my sister has a chickens, and she supplied the eggs. And so that was the story at the beginning. And in pictures of my sister, so I recently updated about, I think, 30 posts that had personal stories.

Loren Runion 5:56
Wow. Yeah, I want silky chickens. That’s why I asked. So how did you? How did your traffic go? So you started? And like, What did it look like for you did it? When did it take off? Did it ever like? Did it just go from really low to like, exploded? How did that look for you? No, it

Sandra Flegg 6:15
definitely did not explode. It was very slow. It did not feel fast enough for me. I had it believe it was in June that I joined Pinterest was a good month. And before I had my feet on the ground and thought, okay, I’ll get a Pinterest account started. And I really love Pinterest as a user. So I spent a lot of time making pins and learning about Pinterest. And initially, that’s where most of my traffic came from. I spent very little time on SEO. I wish now that I had understood it better and keyword research. Like I think most people, I read that a lot, right? I wish I’d started that sooner. But that was you know, my traffic was a couple 100 a day. I think my first my highest day was in December, when another blogger posted something to Facebook. And I was chatting online with another blogger friend at the time and looked at my analytics and oh my goodness, I’ve got to have like 1000 views on my website today. And that was the first that was my highest day. So it really took quite a while.

Loren Runion 7:23
We’re not really you’re still young blogger. I mean, from when you started. Yeah, I mean, you’re doing amazing. That’s an amazing story. Yeah, that’s true. Well, I

Sandra Flegg 7:32
know that feeling. Yeah, I think for me, I set that goal to get into media vine. Because I had initially planned to work full time, we made a big move my family, we moved six hours away, I left the job that I had. And I thought I would work full time and blog part time and work my way up to full time. Then the pandemic happened and I was home. And then I decided that I was quite happy being home vlogging. So then the urgency to get into media vine went up significantly for me.

Loren Runion 8:09
So then what did you do from there? So you had your big day in December? And then like what continued happening for you as you went along your path?

Sandra Flegg 8:18
like Pinterest account was growing, and was doing well. I was starting to get some of my keywords were ranking. Of course, it’s great to be number one on Google. But when there’s 20 people looking for that post to learn that maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. So I spent probably about a month in January, listening to all of the webinars from top hat rank the SEO webinars, we did my homepage. So things were moving really slowly. And I knew I had to do something differently. And I had set a goal to be in media Vine By around the one year mark is what I had hoped. And I was doing really well with Pinterest, I was up to probably five or 6000 visits a month. And then I went up to 10. Then the Pinterest, things started to slide like I did, like I think it did for most people. And that is probably when I realized that I was having an issue with my mindset because I was starting to feel, you know, some stress about it. And I was disappointed. And I had probably three, four weeks where I didn’t really I wasn’t sure what direction to go in. And I realized that it was my mindset. And that’s when it was right around that time that we had the Pinterest slide. And then I heard your blog. I heard your podcast.

Loren Runion 9:47
And then so what? Well, first of all, I like that you said slide because it’s like a very neutral word. You know what I mean? I don’t even know if you realize that that if you’re purposely choosing that word like But slide indicates to me like that doesn’t bring a negative connotation. And so for someone who’s really trying to like, be conscious of the words that you use in your business, like the word slide seems like a really good choice, you know, instead of all my tanks, you know what I mean? Like, a lot of times that’s the word I catch myself saying all my traffic tanks. Like slide I like that word. And before I forget to ask, because I did your Pinterest go back.

Sandra Flegg 10:28
It did go to go back up. It took a long time. And in fact, this week, is the first week I’ve had where my traffic is the same as it was back in February when it began to slow everyone’s everyone’s gonna want to know what is it that what’s your Pinterest strategy? Do

Loren Runion 10:45
you use tailwind? How much is everyone’s gonna want to know?

Sandra Flegg 10:49
I was using tailwind. And I, my one year anniversary for the renewal came up and I stopped using tailwind August 26. So I know a lot of people from what I hear are not fans of story pins. But I have made a story pin for every single post, some have two or three story pins. On every single post, I put a comment at the very last slide, asking people to follow up, click on my profile pic and follow me on Pinterest. So my followers have gone. Oh, that’s another thing I had that. That instance where everyone’s account was suspended for a day. So that happened, and I went I only had about maybe 1500 followers, and I went down to 1200. But my account was deactivated. And I thought my entire year’s worth of work was was gone. So that’s built up and I think I’m close to 4000. Now. Wow. So I would say, you know, interacting when somebody comments on a pin I, within hours, I try to get back to them if they’ve tried a recipe. But other than that, it’s pretty much you know, having boards set up the same best practices that you hear. I think there’s some luck involved. But I think I also when my account was deactivated, you know, I cried a little It was a about a 30 minutes of panic. And then I thought it’ll come back. And if it doesn’t, I’ll find something else. And that’s when I started to manifest it coming back and thinking Pinterest will send me 1000s of followers, there’s a reason that it happened. And I think that was that I just needed to understand that I couldn’t only focus on that I needed to look at other areas of my business.

Loren Runion 12:42
And so what happened for you when you started to make or realize that your mindset wasn’t in the right place. And that was leading to some like discomfort or feelings of not being satisfied? Like what happened? What did you start to do? And do you feel like when you started doing that it led to further success, my saying that word?

Sandra Flegg 13:04
A word sometimes? Absolutely. It was hands down the single thing that allowed me to move ahead and to feel excited every day. And no matter what I looked at all my stats, I just think, on my Google Analytics, that things will look better tomorrow, or Facebook is sending me 1000s of visitors. And every morning I wake up, and I do my affirmations. And of course, there’s personal things. But then there’s then I get into my blogging once you’ve a little longer lately. But it was I listened to one of your podcasts where you spoke about losing your neighbor. And it really touched me. And it was the next day. And I think I wrote this too. And my first email. My family was going out for a walk in the morning, my boys were home because they were doing remote learning because of the pandemic. And I was going to stay in and work on my post that I was working on. It wasn’t like I had a deadline. But I felt that urgency to stay and keep working on it. And then it hit me and I can’t remember exactly what you said. But there was something in that episode that made me realize I needed to stop and spend more time and that’s really one of the reasons I want to become a food blogger and stay at home full time was so that I could have more time with my family. And here they weren’t going for a walk. So I got my running shoes on and and that’s a big part of my mindfulness every day is getting out in nature and just enjoying that time.

Loren Runion 14:43
That’s powerful and that makes me tear up because that episode like I felt like I was supposed to share it but that felt really like really out of my comfort zone to even talk about something like that. But I knew there had to be a bigger message and I think that it’s so for me my opinion on as entrepreneurs and bloggers like we start this, because we’re searching for something, like we want to create something big, and we want to create this feeling, whether it’s freedom or more time with your family or you know, create these things, and then we, we lose it along the way, because we start really digging deep into all this stuff that may not be working out. And so I, I think that we manifest quicker and things come to us faster when we are in our joy, which is like what you started doing, you know, you started like, Okay, I have to focus also on my joy. And then that’s when things like start opening up and coming to you faster.

Sandra Flegg 15:39
Absolutely. And I think that there is always going to be ups and downs. And I think every is pretty much every single podcast episode I’ve listened to. I’ve had a takeaway, and there was the one that you had, if I can share the one with Megan Porter from a blog talk. And Megan was talking about Facebook, and everyone seems to have a social platform, where we think, Oh, you know, it’s just not worth my time, because I’m not getting enough visitors. And I believe that’s what you were chatting about. And then I stopped. And I thought that’s exactly how I feel about Facebook, well, and Instagram. And consequently. And so then I started thinking about, you know, what can I do differently? So, what’s interesting, I think about mindset and manifesting, whether it’s personal or business is that when you say Facebook is sending me 1000s of visitors, your body automatically in your mind takes action, it like sparks that action to happen. And that’s what happened. I started thinking, Okay, Facebook is going because I was maybe getting a couple 100 visitors a month from Facebook. And so it prompted me to go join some Facebook groups. And I had 1000s of visits that week, I joined maybe 10 groups, it was Christmas in July. And I have a lot of baking recipes. And the cookie groups are very serious about that. And it was it was great.

Loren Runion 17:14
That’s awesome. It’s one of my favorite stories I you know, probably know that I share it a lot. The story of you, you changing that. And what was the most powerful thing that you said, is that you asked yourself? What is it that I can do different? And that is one of the biggest, most important questions anyone can ever ask themselves, no matter what situation and if it’s your life, if it’s your relationship, if it’s your money, if it’s anything that you’re in, and it’s not going the way you want stopping and asking yourself, what is it that I can do different because what that immediately does is it gives your power back and lets it gets put to a cause instead of something happening to you. You are now in control of how you can make that happen for yourself. And that is such, that’s such a powerful question. And and I’m, you know, it’s makes me so happy to hear that you had that ability to do that and change because that’s exactly what you did. You’re all these things happen. And it just starts opening the ideas and you can get downloads and taking action, just like you said different action.

Sandra Flegg 18:14
Absolutely. There’s so many examples that I can give you of things that are you felt me along the way, Lauren, I can’t even I can’t even tell you how grateful I am. Oh, yeah, working through limiting beliefs. That was a big one.

Loren Runion 18:31
What’s your more?

Sandra Flegg 18:34
Well, I guess, I’m 54. And I think that when I first entered the blogging space, I felt like I was you know, 54 and everyone else was 20. Maybe? I know that’s not true. But I when I started working on limiting beliefs, I realized that that was one that I had, maybe I’m too old to start a food blog. And but I heard someone say one day, how old would you be if you didn’t know if you didn’t know how old you were? So I’ve settled on a very content 42. And that’s where I’m at?

Loren Runion 19:10
It’s a good question too. Because like if you I don’t know, I always when I you told me that, that you heard that. And then I think about it a lot. Like if we had no mirrors. I don’t know it just life would be so different. Not knowing what you look like or how you were progressing and your age or it would just be so crazy. And I told my husband the other day like I’ve I’ve made it to the point in my life where I am now a man no matter where I go, and it’s not just a polite thing. It’s that I am a man. He’s like who you are like I know, but I don’t feel like I’m a man. I feel very young. It’s all mindset. Yeah. What is it that you do to be able to make you make that switch? Is there anything that you can make into Word to explain because some people may recognize that they have limit limiting beliefs. And they’re like, Okay, I have this, but they’re still not able to make that switch, or they’re still not able to come out of that limiting belief. Is there anything that you do or that you feel like you have accomplished really well that you could pass on to someone else?

Sandra Flegg 20:13
Okay. Yes, actually this one thing that comes to mind, and I’m not sure if it was in connection with limiting beliefs on one of your podcasts, you talked about ego, and how sometimes your ego will say, you’ll get a message. And to reply back. No, that’s not true. And that I started doing that, when I had a negative thought come in. And you know, what, I was waiting to be accepted from media vine, I was the longest, I think it was four weeks, felt like the longest four weeks in my life. And, you know, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t have been accepted. But I still like it. I really paid attention to those thoughts that I had. And I, every time a negative thought came into my mind, I would say, No, that’s not true. And it’s something as simple as that, and the impact that it can have, and you know, really thinking, really spending time thinking about being aware of your thoughts. And what’s even as we were getting ready today, when I was waiting for you to join, I was paying attention to what was coming into my mind thinking, well, what if I set this thing up wrong or what? Right? And I think that that’s, for me, I’m not sure if that puts it into words? Well, but I think you have to really listen to what your thoughts are. And I think that’s the first step is really being aware of what kind of negative self talk that you’re giving to yourself, and that you’re hearing and being able to understand why. And then creating, you know, an action to negate it, I guess.

Loren Runion 21:57
I completely agree with you. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week. And today, like, that’s the first step period, to this, this being able to recognize your thoughts and kind of like what you’re saying it’s important to remember, they don’t stop coming in the negative thoughts don’t stop, ever. I don’t think there’s a single person. That’s one of the things I’ve been thinking about, I don’t think there’s a single person on this earth that doesn’t have negative thoughts or doesn’t have self doubt, it’s that you learn how to deal with those negative thoughts.

Sandra Flegg 22:29
Definitely. And I think there’s a few things for me, that worked for me and I if I just go out, walk around be in nature. So I think it’s just like grounding, you know it for other people. It’s it’s different things. But I think stepping away from the blogging, like I did today, I stepped away today. I just felt like I needed a day today. My kids just went back to school. And of course, there’s some worry about them and everything that’s going on. And I thought I just need a new day today. So I did laundry most of the day. Hopefully you like laundry? Not really No, okay, well,

Sandra Flegg 23:09
not really.

Sandra Flegg 23:11
But I think there are times it’s done, it’s easy to say that it’s mindset, and you have to be positive. But it’s it is work. It’s work every day. And some days, you’re more in the I call the flow, right? You get in that flow. And it’s I think it’s easy when things are great. And you know, you have a good day, and you know, whether you’re monetized or not monetized, those ups and downs, and it’s being able to keep that, figure out what you’re going to do next, by using your positive mindset.

Loren Runion 23:47
Yeah. So that leads to my next question. Because I feel like, Well, I know it. I mean, I can speak without a doubt that even from my experience, it’s very easy to think I am going to feel XYZ once I have media vine. How did that play out for you? Like, did you have those thoughts? And did it bring what you thought it was? Or did you already learn to cultivate the feelings you were seeking before? You got media vine?

Sandra Flegg 24:13
I did. I really did. I, I know one. One thing you said was picture yourself in five years from now and be that person. Right? Imagine, I think that’s how you worded it imagine. And that was very early on in one of the earlier podcasts. And that was one of the things that also helped me get through my limiting beliefs. Once I can visualize that five years from now, what is what because once you can visualize it, then you can start to make it happen. But if you can’t really picture it, it’s a little bit more difficult, right? At least it is for me. So I think that I’ve lost my train of thought there but bring me back Lauren.

Loren Runion 24:56
Well, I mean, I you already got me because then it got me to the next question of visual losing yourself. Like, I think that for, for anyone out there that’s listening and thinking, Okay, well how do I visioned myself visualize myself five years from now, for me, sometimes I have to just sometimes it’s very short lived. Sometimes it’s not something I can grasp on to for a long time. But there’s something I want to do, and I want to show up. And I don’t feel comfortable doing it. So I just grasped that person for like, seconds. I’m like, okay, I can be her for three seconds and show up and do this. And then sometimes she goes away to like, you know, my question was, did media vine bring those feelings to you that you thought they would bring? Or did you already kind of get there? Because I think that what happens is, well, I know that what happens that people seek happiness from their environment, and only 10% of your happiness comes from external things. And so then what happens is you get the thing and you’re like, Well, shit, I’m not happy. How did that play out for you? Well,

Sandra Flegg 25:57
I was really happy. I was happy in that, what it meant for me, and potentially what it could mean for me, in terms of being home with my family full time. And I think the most joy, though, that I had was seeing, you know, the reaction of my kids, because they’re all of course, wrapped up in and everything that I’m doing, and, you know, and my husband, and you know, the joy, just the excitement of sharing that together. So getting in, yes, it was exciting. But was it? Was it really the thing? And no, it never is, right? It’s like, whatever job you’re in, and you get that promotion, or you buy the big fancy house, and you realize that you still feel empty afterwards, it doesn’t satisfy you. So I think it did in terms of what it meant for me, potentially long term.

Loren Runion 26:50
Oh, that’s really good story. I love that teared up when you’re talking about your family, you know, finding the joy in that. And that’s one of the things people can do when they’re trying to cultivate, like, what is it going to look like? Feel like be like when I get that goal and thinking about what are you going to hear? What are you going to see? What are you going to and you know, thinking about how your family and friends are going to react when you reach that goal. Like that’s a really powerful thing that to hang on to.

Sandra Flegg 27:13
Definitely. And there was there was this little I call it a Woo, as you might say, woo trick. And somebody I forget where I heard it said, if you take a glass of water, and you fill up that glass of water, you know, fill it, you know, half full that you can drink. And you imagine what you feel like, what are the feelings now like that you don’t have it. And then you transfer that water to the other empty glass. And then you imagine what the feelings are like when you do have whatever it is that you’re manifesting. And then you drink that water. And I did that with a media vine. I mean, I was so you know, I was so excited about the possibility. I was, I was laughing in spite of myself. When I did it. I had a little sticky note on each one. And I really focus, but I really, it really does. it resonated with me, because I could feel it. And yeah, it was pretty exciting.

Loren Runion 28:09
Is there anything else that you would like to share or really important, like, things that you felt like, will help someone else listening today that might be feeling how you felt when you knew that your mindset needed some work?

Sandra Flegg 28:23
I think the one thing I always say is that your vibe attracts your tribe. And when you’re happy and positive, and you’re trying to see things in the best way, you’re attracting those types of people that will come into your life. And I think early on, you know, I chatted reached out to different bloggers. And you can see the difference in the ones the positive and you get in with the right with that mindset. And I think that, that that made a big difference for me. But I think it’s listening to your podcast is a good start. I think a lot of people, maybe, sometimes it’s hard to identify what it is. But you can just get that feeling where you’re stuck. And you’re disappointed. And you know, you see other people going ahead, and maybe you’re not going ahead, and I definitely had ups and downs and I still have days where I think oh, you know, I made three times as much money yesterday, or I got three times as more work done yesterday. And I think it’s just coming back to taking that time for yourself that that work life balance, I think is so important. Yeah, I think that’s and reach out right? reach out to someone that’s got that same mindset and they’ll share what they have. Yeah. And you started your podcast.

Loren Runion 29:52
Yeah, I love that. You’ve talked about that kind of throughout this entire conversation about how you have made a lot of friends and I think that’s so So important, I didn’t get that part like in when I first started blogging, it took me maybe seven, seven not like to nine months before I made my first blogging friend and I was all alone, like, and it was because I didn’t, I still don’t love Instagram. But I like it because I mean, I make friends there. And that was when I first you know, I finally started like connecting with people. And that’s so powerful. If anybody out there that is listening and has not made any blog, blogging, friends, it’s normal to dm somebody and, and just become friends. Like, don’t be scared, do it. It’s gonna make your life better. Definitely. And if the first five people you reach out to Yeah, you know, aren’t as receptive because we know how busy how long days that we can work sometimes when we’re trying to get reach our goals with blogging, then reach out to the next person. Yeah, I agree with that. I should say I did try to make friends. But it wasn’t it didn’t. It was kind of like what you’re saying and what didn’t click, it didn’t go but you will find the people that, you know, are meant to be along the journey with you, Jeff. Well, Sandra, thank you so much for being here and sharing your story and congratulations on all of your success. And I know that there’s going to be so much more like I love listening to you talk and how like, how much you cultivate like a joyful, purposeful life, and I really love hearing your story.

Sandra Flegg 31:23
Well, thanks for having me. It was a real honor to be on Lauren.

Loren Runion 31:27
Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of mind over a blog podcast. Don’t forget if you love this episode to leave us a review, and then tag me on Instagram, at mind of our blog. Share it and your stories. I’d love to know what you like the most about this episode. Until the next time. Have a great day.

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Previous Episodes:

• 26: The Side of Working for Free No One Talks About
• 25: Creating an Energetically Sustainable Solopreneur Business
• 24: Decisive Blogging

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If you have any questions, thoughts or just want to chat be sure to email them to mindoverblog@gmail.com