In this maiden voyage of the podcast, I interview Lisa Sipe with Binary Star Systems, and we talk about food apps, design and business. There’s a few shenanigans at the end, too.

Tough Cookie is a podcast that celebrates women in food – from product makers, to chefs, to digital food boss ladies. If you are or know someone who works in food, please send me an email at darlene (at) picklejarstudios (dot) com and tell me about it! Now booking for the 2017 podcast season. 

Shout out to Amanda Photographic for shooting photos (p.s. you can hear a little bit of Amanda’s voice in the end of the episode outtakes! yay!)

Listen here or on your favorite media player: 

SoundCloud

 


 

Show Notes for Tough Cookie Episode 001:

Darlene Veenhuizen is Owner, Designer and Food Content Creator at Pickle Jar Studios

Lisa Sipe is Owner, Designer of Binary Star Systems

Lisa talked about:

App design and process:

Really feel like you believe in your app and it’s going to work, and then talk to someone about how much it would cost, platforms to build it on and timelines.

The last 10% of building the app is 90% of the work. — tweet it

With consulting, you can only grow so much. With mobile app development you can have extremely explosive growth, the sky’s the limit.

Lots of people think that if you build it they will come. But in reality if you want people to find you, you have to do the traditional advertising and marketing to get people to find you. 

Being an entrepreneur:

There’s this misconception of overnight success. Facebook is considered an overnight success and it took them five years. Five years is not overnight. — tweet it

I think the biggest strategy is to not be afraid to try. Starting your own business is scary so it’s good to remember not to be afraid. If you think about it, our careers are really long, something like over 40 years. That’s a long time to be in the business world….We have 40 plus years. Try something.

About branding and marketing:  

We eat with our eyes first, so it’s so important what your food business looks like, because if at first glance, that’s not appetizing, they could lose customers so [branding and photography] is really one of the most important things they need to do.

About business in general:

Do the work, no one’s just going to give you the opportunity, you need to put in those hours and do the work…If you are really passionate, take the time to do it.  

Darlene said:

With designers, a huge struggle is figuring out how to scale themselves without increasing billable hours or projects per year. As a designer, if you want to grow in that way, you have to think about what you can build and sell that isn’t tied to a certain number of hours in a day.

It’s so easy to look around and see the amazing brands and product launches and to forget that all of that took time to build. It’s day in, day out work.

Even if you have a season in your life when you are not feeling very entrepreneurial, there’s nothing wrong with taking a break. Life is about seasons, it’s not always going to be what it is today. Sometimes it might look like you’re taking a step back, but really, you’re letting yourself just chill out for a moment so that you can move forward.

Use Pinterest if you are a food entrepreneur. It’s huge. Doesn’t matter who you are or what your food business is. From restaurants to blogs, it’s a huge tool to help people find you.

Where to find Lisa

FoodFu app on itunes
FoodFu App Website
FoodFu on Instagram

Where to find Darlene

Pickle Jar Studios website
Pickle Jar Studios on Instagram
Tough Cookie on Instagram
Oh, and guess what? She’s definitely on Pinterest too.

Resources Mentioned:

App Cooker

FoodFu – Cocktails – beta testing starting next week (from publish date, April 15) Launching in the app store by the end of June
Check the FoodFu website for more in the meantime!

Want to learn how to make apps or learn a new programming language? Try learning Swift

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Board Booster – Pinterest marketing
Pinterest
Canva – app for images/graphic design
Hootsuite – social media scheduler
Instagram Stories
Convert Kit
Mail Chimp
WordPress
Lisa loves her Bullet Journal
Darlene loves her Get to Work Book Planner
Kill News Feed – Google Chrome Extension

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