Learn how Yumna Jawad, the owner of the Instagram @feelgoodfoodie, turns her passion into profits.
In this series, Instagram Icon, Entrepreneur speaks with the individuals behind popular Instagram accounts to find out the secrets of their success.
For most food bloggers, it’s all about the cooking. However, that’s not the case for Yumna Jawad, the owner of the popular Instagram account, @feelgoodfoodie.
Growing up, Jawad would be in the kitchen helping her mom prepare dinner. But instead of acting as her mother’s sous chef, cutting vegetables or mixing ingredients, Jawad’s job was to “plate” the food. With the cue from her mother — “Plate it for me!” — Jawad was in charge of the aesthetics, organizing the food in an attractive and creative way.
Related: This Former Marketing Director Quit Her Job After 7 Weeks of Posting Amazing Animations on Instagram
Jawad’s childhood memories eventually helped inspire her to share her passions with the rest of the world. After joining Instagram in 2013, Jawad began sharing fun pictures of aesthetically pleasing food. However, she eventually realized she needed to expand her expertise beyond just the setup, so she learned how to cook.
“Early on, I would take my photos outside — I would take a smoothie and place it on a leaf outside on a rock. I mean it was really getting artsy with the food,” she shares with Entrepreneur. “Then I thought I needed to actually learn to cook better too. So I learned from other people, reading books and magazines and eventually I grew to love it.”
Today, Jawad’s Instagram account has more than 2.1 million followers and she also runs a blog offering followers recipes and how-to guides. She’s leveraged Instagram as both a platform for sharing her passions, giving an inside look at her own life and for making money through sponsored posts.
“I truly believe that whatever you do — you might be a dentist, you might be a carpenter — you should be online [and] exhibit your work,” she says.
We caught up with Jawad to learn how she’s been successful with the popular social app.
How did you get your start with Instagram?
Pretty quickly after Instagram launched, I had a personal Instagram. But I noticed every time I shared food I was making, I would [not] get [any] Likes. They were more interested in [my] family and the trips I was taking.
So in the summer of 2013, I decided to create a page [to] put all the food pictures [on]. I [got] inspiration from other people [and] I set a goal for myself to learn new recipes, how to eat healthier and how to cook for my family.
I’ve always had a passion for how things look on the plate. My mom would have guests over and she would cook and then say, “Yumna, go ahead and plate it for me!” And I would take the chicken and organize it in a way, and I would put the potatoes and the garnish with the parsley. So it was more about the way it looked on the plate.
Early on, I would take my photos outside — I would take a smoothie and place it on a leaf outside on a rock. I mean it was really getting artsy with the food. Then I thought I needed to actually learn to cook better too. So I learned from other people, reading books and magazines and eventually I grew to love it.
What other platforms do you use and what percentage of the time do you spend on them vs. Instagram?
I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, [but] Instagram is the majority of my time. Snapchat was really big a couple of years ago — I was very active there and before Instagram had their Live Stories, that’s where my followers really loved and cared about me and my day-to-day stuff.
I never made any money on Snapchat and it’s OK because, to me, it was never about making money, it was more of a tool for people to follow my daily life. Any fun announcements that I had for my blog or Instagram would go there because those were the people who really cared.
What makes Instagram a better platform than other social media?
I started out on Instagram so it’s kind of my comfort zone. I have the most friends there and that’s how I’ve connected with other bloggers. Instagram has made it very easy to connect with anybody and everybody you want to connect with.
If you want to post a picture and not be social, you can do that. If you want to direct message people [or] go Live [and] just share a long story — there are so many touch points. It’s not like Twitter where you’re limited to 140 characters. There are so many limitations with some of the other ones; Instagram is more free and let’s you be creative.
How much of your time do you devote to it?
In the six hours that my kids are in school, I’m usually testing recipes, cooking, taking photos [and] sharing it on social media. And then in the evenings, my kids go to bed [and] from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. almost every night, I’m sucked into it. I probably end up spending about 60 hours a week doing it. It’s more than a full-time job [but] it’s fun and I think I’m obsessed with it.
I can be at soccer practice with my kids and uploading a photo or responding to comments….
