Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Whalen.
Dan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started The Food in my Beard in 2008 as a way to remember what I was cooking. I had no cooking or photography experience at that time and wasn’t really taking the website seriously. After about a year I lucked into a few good photos and got some traction and views on my site. After that initial bump, like many bloggers, I became addicted to the thrill of views and positive feedback I was receiving.
I slowly kept getting better at what I was doing. When I started the blog I was a contracted IT worker in Bermuda, and when I finally came home to the Boston area I started meeting up with other bloggers and learning more about the industry. I quit the IT world and picked up a few part time cooking jobs to help hone my skills. I was making gelato for a few years in Belmont, and then helped open and run a burrito shop.
My first cookbook, Stuffed, came out in 2014. In 2015 I was able to quit my job and focus on blogging full time. In 2017 I had my first Food Network appearance on the TV show Guy’s Grocery Games. My second book Tots came out in May 2018, my third, Comfort Food Mashups is due in October, (only a week after getting married to @bostongeorgina) and my fourth cookbook S’mores is being planned for Spring 2019.
Has it been a smooth road?
In my experience since blogging is such a new thing it changes about every 6 months. When I first started getting traffic it was all based on RSS feeds and StumbleUpon. Now it is obviously all about social media. The algorithms change so often you really need to keep up on the trends and make sure to always be open to trying new things and rolling with the punches.
I always said I didn’t want to jump in to making video content, but I finally was pushed in by a brand offering me money to make a video. I reluctantly said yes and now a few years (and 50 million views) later my video content is the most fun and rewarding thing that I do.
That being said, I don’t think you should follow the trends just to follow them. Only do things you want to do. I see so many bloggers complaining about so many aspects of what they do. I will always say that the most important thing is to have fun because the more you are engaged and enjoying it the more it comes through in the content that you create.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Food in my Beard story. Tell us more about the business.
I am a blogger and cookbook author and I specialize in comfort food and mashup recipes. What makes my blog unique is the type of recipes that I make. I like to do things that are outside the box and aren’t done and redone by hundreds of bloggers. My recipes usually take two dishes that everyone knows and puts them together into something new. That is also the focused topic of my third cookbook.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
It’s really hard to say the direction of things because every time I think it is going a certain way, things change drastically. I just hope to keep holding on and doing what I love which is getting paid to write recipes. Even though my title is blogger, to me blogging is part of the journey rather than the endgame. I am really excited to see what happens next!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thefoodinmybeard.com
- Email: dan@thefoodinmybeard.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tfimb/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tfimb
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tFimB
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/thefoodinmybeard
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