I started my first brand by accident when I was drunk cooking meatloaf and blew up my kitchen…
Back in 2009, before cell phones had cameras and people went viral on TikTok (there wasn’t even video on Facebook yet, let alone the existence of Instagram or TikTok), my parents got me a pocket sized video camera called a Flip Cam.
My mind was blown. A video camera that can fit in your pocket??
After my initial 5 minutes of geeking out as a tech nerd, the excitement dissipated and I thought…ok, well now what?
I don’t want to be an actor or a director or anything like that…so what do I do with this camera?
Well, at this time I was in my mid-20s working a corporate cubicle job living with 2 of my buddies, so my diet basically consisted of bar food and beers. Aka I was very overweight and unhealthy, bleeding money on my food and beverage budget.
I wanted to learn how to cook so I could save some money on going out and eat a little healthier.
So back to the camera gift…I decided “hey, why not learn how to cook and record it on video?”
Being the geek that I am, I whipped up a quick website.
Then once a week my roommate and I would pick up the finest $11 bottle of whiskey that the liquor store had to offer and google a bunch of ideas for recipes we wanted to learn.
We’d crack open the bottle and start figuring out how to make different meals.
Then I’d throw the videos into iMovie and cut them down to 5 minutes and throw them on YouTube and our website.
A few weeks go by and I get a notification email from YouTube,
SoAndSo commented on your video, “You guys are hilarious, I tried this recipe and it actually came out delicious! Can’t wait for the next one.”
Obviously I assumed this was a friend of my roommates since, why would a random stranger comment this on our video?
Turns out, it was a complete stranger.
And that made me glance at our Analytics: 6,000 views in a week!
How the hell did that happen?
Well, remember I said I’m a geek?
Because we had created these helpful videos and I put them on an optimized website, Google started showing us at the top of their results for anyone looking for:
Easy Recipes For Beginners…Easy Meatloaf Recipe…Easy Vodka Sauce Recipe…Easy Chicken Parm Recipe…
I stumbled upon the secret recipe for online success:
Helpful & Humanized Content.
That helpful and humanized content (paired with the optimized content platform) skyrocketed our online visibility PLUS created an authentic connection with the people who were finding us.