Leah started her blog in February 2015. Real food is a passion of hers and she loves to share it with others. Leah lives in South Florida with her husband and daughter.

Tell everyone a little bit about you with Leah’s Plate.

I am a full time stay at home mom. My daughter is almost a year old and I got into blogging, but for the first 6 months it was a hobby for me. Six months later I started taking it seriously and making it my full time career!  

What came first, your instagram account or your blog?

I actually started that around the same time. I have always been really intrigued by Instagram. I always scroll through my feed every single day and I just genuinely love seeing what food people were making. It was such an inspiration. I was trying to live healthy and get ideas. I started my Instagram probably in the same month that I started blogging.

I use Instagram really as a place to just document my daily food. Whenever there’s a new blog post I put that on my Instagram.

What was the best thing that you did to grow your blog and your Instagram account?

The food summit last year really helped answer a lot of questions. With my blog, I just didn’t know really what to do.  I didn’t even know who to go to, to ask questions that I had. I had questions about promoting blog posts on Pinterest. I didn’t even know who to ask! It started with the Food summit, really just saying okay this is who I go to about Pinterest.  This is who I go to about specific blog design questions. I connected with a lot of people through the summer from the summit and Ia ctually reached out to those people.

I scheduled consultations with them and went to the with questions about blogging  professionally. I figured out how to manage every part of this business from the blog to Pinterest to social media and Instagram.  Rachel Mansfield was a big inspiration and I listened to her story during the food summit. I listened to her advice, and did what she said during her class. Since then I’ve really seen it grow a lot.

With Instagram, being consistent and posting two to three times a day has helped a lot. Just be consistent with whatever it is you’re doing, is the biggest thing. Interacting and engaging with the community is huge. I try to comment on other people’s photos that I genuinely like with genuine comments. I also try to respond to the comments on my own account. It’s not always easy, but when I have time I really do try to respond.

Nicole’s Note:  My whole goal with the Food Entrepreneur Summit is to really build a community and develop relationships. I want to show you and bloggers and the speakers that that we should come together and rely on each other. It can be a lonely place and it can be confusing to say where do I go to find out more information or who do I go to to find out more information about Pinterest or Instagram.

With the changes with Instagram, how have you stayed relevant and engaged in people’s feed?

I did a lot of trial and error. I used to always post my breakfast at 9 a.m. but my engagement wasn’t what it used to be, so I tried posting at 9:30 or 8:00. I would just try different times and then at the end of the day I would check in on my likes and comments.

I found no matter what time in the morning I posted, my afternoon posts always get more engagement. I always like my breakfast post the best, but it’s just figuring out what time you got the most engagement, especially if I have a blog post I want to share and share then.

I’m sure to share at that time of my highest engagement because I really want to get the traffic back to my blog. Personally I just know that all my posts around 12:30-1:00, get more likes and comments than the one in the morning.  

Do you have tips for improving your account?

• Play with different background and find one you like. Leah uses a marble cheese board from Crate and Barrel.
• Be consistent with your theme. It’s nice when I’m scrolling through my feed and I know whos picture it is, just by looking at it.
• Invest time in the community. (be genuine!!)
• Post at least once a day.

If you do something you love, it will never feel like work.

What made you sign up for the Food Summit?

I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was kind of clueless and I thought that this summit could be really helpful. I saw some of the speakers and they were people that I’ve been reading their blogs for years. They are people that are so inspiring to me and I wanted to hear their stories, how they got into this and how are they successful. It made me think, this totally could be me one day. Also being able to go into the group and ask a question I had was huge.

Find Leah!

• Leahsplate.com
• Instagram: @leahsplate
• Facebook: Leah’s Plate

Nicole’s Note: The biggest thing is you don’t have to do it alone. There are support systems and there are groups so take the time to learn and invest in yourself so you can make it a business and take yourself and your blog seriously.

To sign up for the Food Summit, click below!

To see some of your favorite bloggers who are coming click here!

To hear about the progress Dana Harrison has made since the last summit, click here!