Elevate to Expert as a Published Author with Kathy Davis

In this episode I chat with Kathy Davis, owner of VegInspired.com on how putting out a cookbook helped elevate her brand and grow her business. She’s a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle coach and her program, Eat More Plants, helps her clients adopt a WFPB lifestyle with support in meal planning, habits, and mindset.

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Meet our Guest

Kathy Davis is a plant-based lifestyle coach and recipe developer, the CEO of VegInspired.com, and the author of two cookbooks: The 30-Minute Whole-Food Plant-Based Cookbook and The Super Easy Plant-Based Cookbook.

She helps people successfully transition to a plant-based way of eating that supports a fast-paced lifestyle, without requiring hours in the kitchen or the added stress of “What am I going to eat?!” Kathy has been eating and creating vegan meals for more than seven years.

Over the past year and a half, she has shifted her daily habits to follow a whole-food, plant-based way of eating, in order to increase her energy and shed some extra weight. She experienced amazing results and she’s eager to support others in their journey to get more out of their lives.

Fun fact: Kathy Davis and her husband, John, are currently maintaining this lifestyle while traveling the United States in a fifth-wheel RV with their 3 cats. They’ve been to 17 states and 15 national parks so far, and have a goal to visit all the US national parks!

She recently published her first cookbook, 30-Minute Whole-Food, Plant-Based Cookbook, while also launching her first coaching program AND oh yeah… traveling around the country in an RV with her husband and 3 cats.

(She also happens to be my friend and business accountability partner, so we had a lot of fun on this call!)

Kathy shares what went into creating a cookbook; the process, the struggle, and the reward of bringing this creation to life! Lots of great tips on using (and reusing!) your content to grow your brand!

Connect with Kathy Davis

Check Out Kathy’s Cookbooks

Check out Kathy’s cookbooks! (Amazon affiliate links)….https://amzn.to/3AEjZe6

Episode Transcript – Elevate to Expert as a Published Author with Kathy Davis

I’m here with Kathy Davis, a Whole Foods plant-based lifestyle coach, and Kathy’s actually, full disclosure, my accountability partner. So Kathy and I meet every week.

We talk about what’s going on with our business. So if you hear us getting a little silly, it’s because, you know, we talk all the time, and we’re good friends. So Kathy, I am so, so, so excited to talk to you about this.

This has been a long time in the making, and I know you’re really super excited to share with all the listeners your story and how you came to become a published cookbook author. Woohoo! Very, very exciting. Welcome, Kathy.

Kathy Davis: Thank you, Laurie. It is so exciting to be here, everybody. And I’m, I’m just, Laurie and I’ve been talking for over a year, as Accountability Buddies, and I just love the energy and the excitement and just the, just general support that she brings, and it’s fun.

And so I, I am super excited to tell you all, like, all about my cookbook journey and just how I got to where I am and really kind of lead in with some exciting things. So I have been a vegan for about seven years. My husband read two contradictory articles in a men’s health magazine.

One said meat was healthy and one said meat wasn’t. And so he was like, wait a minute, that doesn’t line up. So he did some research and said, I think we need to try this plant-based thing.

And I was like, whoa, not happening. I’m not giving up my burgers. I’m not giving up my buffalo wings and blue cheese dressing.

I’ll try these more plant-based recipes, but I’m never going to go vegan. I, that’s not going to happen. I’ve been vegan seven years now.

It took me about six months of trying all the recipes. And the more I loved eating plant-based foods and plant-based meals, the more I allowed myself to kind of look into the impact of eating animals, you know, the animal agricultural industry, the climate issues, and then just vegan for health. And what I learned is that plant-based is a really optimum diet for preventing and reversing a lot of the standard American diseases.

And so I, I just leaned into that and I ate vegan, mostly, mostly whole food plant-based for about seven, six years. And really have been living this joyful plant-based life. I, I would never look back.

I, I think it’s amazing and I love the lifestyle that I have. And that really kind of leads me into when I was approached to write the cookbook. So, you know, I feel like you skipped over like a big, a big thing here, which is your, your blog, your food blog.

What went, yeah, you have an amazing veginspired.com food blog with all your recipes. So you’ve been writing recipes, you weren’t just like vegan and then you’re like, oh, I’m writing a cookbook. You’ve been working on creating whole food plant-based dishes and sharing them with the world for how long? Yeah.

Author Kathy Davis: So I went vegan officially in June of 2014 and in February of 2015, I pivoted to this life of blogging world, the blogosphere and started sharing my recipes with the world. I, I loved, I loved eating, right? So it was natural. My husband loved to cook.

I loved to write. So we just kind of blended our two, our, you know, all the things we love into veg inspired. And in the beginning, it was both of us.

He and I both really worked on the recipes. We spent a lot of time in the kitchen together and really created the recipes. And I learned a lot from him.

Author Kathy Davis: He was a self-taught cook, read all the books for culinary school, but never attended culinary school, watched all the cooking shows on the food network and really like taught himself all the techniques and he’s passed all of that information onto me. So now I am pretty much by myself in the veg inspired world. He works full-time for a software company.

And yeah. And so I’m, I’m the big creator behind veg inspired and we’ve been doing that. I’ve been doing that for, what did I say? 2015.

So six years. So we just celebrated our six years last month. That’s crazy.

That is crazy. And also little side note, somewhat unrelated, but you do all of this from inside of a?

Author Kathy Davis: Inside of an RV, a big 35 foot fifth wheel RV. My husband and I sold our house in Pittsburgh in October of 2018 to travel the country in an RV.

We wanted to control the time that we had. We wanted to control our lives and really put our PTO days to use, right? So we hit the road with our three cats and we haven’t looked back. We’ve been to amazing national parks and amazing cities across the country.

And we’re just, we’re just really in the beginning of this. We’re at state 16. We’re in Tucson, Arizona right now, state 16 out of the 48 ones that are, you know, kind of touching each other.

I know you’re like Carmen San Diego to me. Like I watch like you on Facebook and I’m like, where’s Kathy going to be next? Where is she going? So I love, I love hearing all your stories about living in the RV and traveling.

And I think too, for, for anybody else out there who is starting a business, think about all the luxuries you have if you’re working from home, think about doing that on the road in an RV, like with your husband who’s also working, right? So you’re both working full-time in your RV in different places.

So that has its own set of challenges, but you’re doing amazing. And I’m really like, I’m so super proud of you.

Author Kathy Davis: Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Okay. So let’s jump into your, your coaching program.

And I kind of want to talk a little bit about how the coaching program that you run and how the cookbook, how having a published cookbook now being an author is going to kind of move you forward in that, in that direction.

Yeah. So the cookbook has been a huge, huge attraction and really, really led to a lot of authority in the, in the market.

Author Kathy Davis: Like I’ve always been a recipe developer, right? And food blogger influencer, I work with brands, but I, the cookbook has really leveled me up almost. You know, people now look to me as a resource for those whole food plant-based recipes. I don’t think we mentioned.

So my cookbook is the 30 minute whole food plant-based cookbook. It has no oil, no salt, no sugar. And so it was, it was kind of challenging to write.

I eat whole food plant-based and I don’t, I don’t cook with oil. So that wasn’t the challenging part, but I do use salt. And so this was like a, a very, you know, I wouldn’t say it was a challenging piece.

Author Kathy Davis: Like I learned how to get around it and really add those techniques back in. And the feedback on the cookbook has been fantastic. So, you know, I help people elevate their life by adding more plants to their diet, right? So they may not be a, you know, ready to go fully vegan or ready to go fully whole food plant-based, but I really help them see how a plant-based diet can fit into their lifestyle.

Really see how they can add more plants, how they can prepare easy recipes in the kitchen. So a lot of my program is designed around the mindset and the lifestyle that goes with, with whole food plant-based eating and really getting those, those delicious recipes in their hands and, and really celebrating that and celebrating their successes along the way.

So the cookbook has been an immense, immense help to, you know, get, giving my clients the recipes, right? They all have, they all get a cookbook.

They all have access to me and my tips and tricks through the coaching program. So it really has led itself well. You know, it’s, it’s a great marketing tool.

I have to imagine too, that when you, like when you launched your program, I mean, to say that you are a published author, that has to give you so much credibility with your audience and with people who are thinking of signing up with you to do your program that not only have you lived it, you wrote the book on it. Like you have like a legit physical book on how to adopt a whole food plant-based lifestyle. So if, you know, if there was any question before, now it’s like, it’s solidified.

You know, you know what you’re doing. You know, you know what you’re talking about. And that’s really got to reassure potential clients that, you know what, Kathy is, Kathy’s a solid choice for somebody to help me walk this path.

Like if I, well, for whatever reason, if it’s, you know, health reasons, ethical, you know, environmental, if they want to switch to this type of lifestyle, you, you know, you’ve got all the ins and outs and you know, everything is in the book and that’s going to be really reassuring for them.

So I want to get a little bit into the process of writing the cookbook. So you, when did you start? How long does it take to write a cookbook, Kathy?

Author Kathy Davis: So going back way to those five years ago, when I first thought about sharing recipes with people, I was like, I’m going to write a cookbook, right?

And so I did all this research on cookbook writing and I started my outlines and I still have these old outlines of the cookbook from that time, you know, this passionate, you know, education major with a minor in English, like I’m ready, I’m going to do this, right? So that was, that was five years ago.

Author Kathy Davis: I was actually approached to write this cookbook by the publisher, which is a really unique and non-traditional way to kind of write a cookbook. And so they have a really short timeline.

So if you are, you know, wondering how this works, get creating good content now, get used to it, get into the kitchen, test things out, right? All of those five years of testing recipes really, really gave me that foundation to be able to blend ingredients together, to be creative in the kitchen, to kind of get outside of the standard, you know, this is how we eat, this is how we cook.

And especially with the tweaks of no salt and no sugar, like how was I going to sweeten things?

Like get in the kitchen and start testing these, you know, ideas that you have about this way of life that you are passionately sharing with your clients because that really, really led to a strong foundation in writing my book. So I started writing my book in July of 2020 and it was actually released in March of 2021.

Author Kathy Davis: So that is a really short timeline to go from initiation to on sale date. And I loved the short timeline. There is nothing worse than procrastination and this process did not give me the time to procrastinate.

So it kind of sounds like you were like a five-year overnight success. Does that kind of sum it up? Like, you know, it was like a really fast, you had a really long runway to practice all the things you were going to need.

And then once this kind of started in motion, it had to be done really quickly.

So there was a lot of, you’re saying there’s a little bit of pressure. That was exactly it. And it was good pressure though, right? Like there’s nothing like getting in the kitchen and failing at a recipe and being like, oh my gosh, I have to have this done anyway.

Author Kathy Davis: Like and retesting and retesting. And so it was really, really a fun process and I loved it. It was awesome.

Can we talk a little bit about the marketing of your cookbook? Like what was that process like when you were getting ready, when you knew it was time to start promoting the book and you were going to have to get out there and start pitching it and sharing and doing all that. What was that like for you?

Author Kathy Davis: that was interesting. I had a very nice following, very loyal fans on Instagram.

And so that’s my main promotion platform. And then I have some awesome fans on Facebook as well. So I did promote it there and on YouTube, but it was really sitting down and figuring out how I wanted to share the news in a way that fit with my brand.

So if you do check me out on Instagram, I’m at Edge Inspired. You’ll see that for five years, I pretty much shared food pictures and occasionally a picture of me or me eating food.

My husband is the notorious one who captures pictures from across the table while I’m getting ready to take a big bite of a vegan cheeseburger or something.

Author Kathy Davis: And I would have all these, but most of my pictures were food. And so now here I am bridging into this exciting news of launching a cookbook right after I launched my coaching program and just the buildup of that. And I really had to figure out how I wanted to go to market with like almost rebranding Veg Inspired as myself as well.

And so there’s been a little bit of a balance. I do think that as I’m moving forward, I wanna have more pictures of myself, more testimonials of my clients, more cookbook recipes, more recipes on there and really just making sure that the people that come into my space know what I do and the services that I can offer so that they get a full picture of me and don’t just think that I’m living this necessarily dream life in an RV, which some people still don’t even know because it’s not really publicized on my personal page. So that’s a big piece of my life.

Author Kathy Davis: And if I can cook whole food plant-based and write a cookbook from an RV, there’s really no excuse for anybody else not to eat whole food plant-based, right? Because I’m in like limited kitchen and things like that. So marketing, and I know your question was about marketing the book. And I guess I kind of world and went in a circle there, but really it was about how I wanted to position myself in the market.

Author Kathy Davis: And it was taking a look at what my whole branding structure looked like moving forward so that people see me as the authority that I am with that credibility of the cookbook and that pivot from influencer recipe blogger to published cookbook author and lifestyle coach. So it’s really been an interesting road these last few weeks as we’ve announced that. So the book could only be announced four weeks before the on sale date.

So that was also an interesting secret to keep for those months leading up to that. So you did answer my question because it sounds like you had to do a shift. You had to shift from focusing on food, recipes, food pictures, that aspect of it to you as the author and the expert and the coach.

So your visibility, you kind of did a 180 on your visibility where you are now front and center in the veg inspired brand as opposed to the last five years or however many that it was focused on the food. So was that a little bit uncomfortable for you?

Author Kathy Davis: Um, it, it was uncomfortable because I also wanted to start shifting my message. So, you know, I’ve been very reluctant to really share my, a lot of my story.

I struggled a lot in, um, I’m going to call it a little bit of imposter syndrome, right? Like I wasn’t the skinny, you know, certified health coach. I wasn’t the, you know, fitness guru who, you know, taught yoga and, you know, hugged trees. It’s like, I was just a normal person who could identify with being a, an overweight standard American dieter who transitioned to a plant-based diet, lost a little weight and then transitioned to a vegan junk food diet and gained a lot of weight.

And then, you know, felt like crap. And I’ve, as I pivoted my message and really, as you said, did that 180, I recognize that that’s relatable, right? Like that’s authentic. That’s what makes me and my program different from other people’s programs.

I was a fat vegan, right? Like that’s just the reality of the situation. I wasn’t a college athlete who I did cheerleading in college, but I don’t know if that counts. A college athlete who was skinny her whole life or, you know, didn’t have to exercise and could eat anything.

Like I’m a living real person. And that was, it was hard to kind of be vulnerable and share my story and be raw and relatable. But it’s in that communication that I can most help my clients.

And that was really a learning curve for me. And I’m loving it. Like the messages that I get, if any of my followers are listening, which I hope you are, I am grateful for your messages.

I love that you see through the, see through all of the noise in the market and that you just connect with me on this level. And so for those of you that are coaches out there, be raw, be authentic, really dig into what differentiates you and your why behind what you do, because that will set you apart. And, you know, my business coach always says people don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.

So really lean into that and celebrate that because that is your differentiator. I will say just a little side note, cheerleading is a sport.

It is quite athletic. You have to, you know what? I don’t care what anybody says. I was also a cheerleader.

If anybody have a laugh at that, but it is quite, yes, it is quite athletic. And you do have to have, you know, cardio and strength and all that to do cheerleading. Anyway, but that’s an interesting point that you bring up that you weren’t the quintessential, you know, hippy vegan, tree hugger, kind of that.

When we think of vegan, you know, we’ve all kind of we know who we’re talking about, right? Like that patchouli, like dirty hair, you know. Well, I anyway, you know that, you know, that stereotypical and but you’re but that’s not you. You are just a regular person who said I want to get healthy.

I want to feel better. And I know that, you know, kind of shifting the way I eat to to help, you know, enhance how I feel about myself, like how I digest food, how my skin looks, all that stuff, how I sleep, managing stress, all that stuff is diet related. And you are just a normal, regular person who washed their hair most days, you know, and that’s like, you know, you were you just wanted to feel better and be healthier.

And then I agree, that’s totally relatable because we do have a lot of people moving towards meatless meals. And, you know, when they go to Google, hey, or how do I eat meatless? They are kind of running into a lot of resources that are the dirty hippie vegan thing. And they’re like, well, I don’t, you know, this isn’t really these aren’t my people, you know, they don’t they don’t relate to it.

But when they find veg inspired and you’re a totally normal person and I’m like, Kathy looks like me, you know, Kathy has my, you know, I don’t live in an RV, but Kathy has my lifestyle. Like we work full time. We have jobs.

We do, you know, we have cats. We do things. So we just want to feel better.

And how can I learn from Kathy? Because I relate to Kathy. So I think that’s that is key. And I think that is going to be a huge bonus for you.

But I totally understand the imposter syndrome where you feel like you’re stepping into a space. It’s been dominated by a certain type of, you know, a stereotype or whatever. And you kind of feel like maybe I don’t belong here, but you do, you do Kathy, you do.

And you’re doing a great job. So let me ask you this. When you got the box with your with your books, tell me how that felt opening the box and seeing and holding your book.

Author Kathy Davis: Oh, my gosh. So the most exciting part is that the book actually comes in a single book. The first book, the preview copy.

This isn’t even this might even be different from the copies that everybody else got, right? It is the like hot off the press preview shipped overnight. It’s still warm. I mean, it might have been a little warm, but that could have been because it was in Texas.

And it was a warm day that day. That’ll do it. And as soon as I got the notification, it was like hot off the truck, right? So I went right over there.

So again, I’m in an RV, right? So I’m, I move a lot. So I have mail delivered to the campgrounds where I am. And I require any senders to send me the tracking information.

So, you know, as soon as I got that tracking information for that book, I turned on all of the notifications. I wanted to know where that book was the entire trip. And then it came across as a text message that it was delivered.

I dropped everything and I ran to the campground office and I’m, I’m in the office, right? And I’m ripping open this box and I’m like, look, my cookbook came. And the poor sweet women at the desk was like, oh, honey, what cookbooks did you order? And I’m like, no, it’s my cookbook. And I’m like holding it off and like doing dances.

And it was just, it was surreal. And like to see it still, you know, it lives in the kitchen, right? Which in an RV is like the whole living area of the house. And it just rained.

Did like with a lot of spotlight on it and like a little halo. I mean, I feel like it should be, but it lives in the kitchen. It’s a living breathing part of our environment.

And we cook a lot out of it a lot. So I don’t, you know, I don’t have, I remember recipe memorize there’s over a hundred recipes in the book. So we cook out of it a lot.

And so it just kind of moves around. But anytime I see it, I’m like, there’s my cookbook. I like geek out.

Like, I just can’t, I can’t stand it. And then now it’s getting into the hands of people, right? It’s been launched for a little over a week. We’re recording this in March of 2021.

Author Kathy Davis: And so it’s been launched for a little over a week. And I’m getting pictures and I’ll be scrolling through and I’ll be like, that’s my cookbook on Instagram. And I’m like, it’s, it’s just surreal.

It’s a celebration that I hope everyone can achieve that kind of joy because it’s, it’s been amazing. That, that sounds fantastic. Like, I just, I don’t know if I have it in me to write a book, but I just, that feeling just has to be incredible to see something that you made.

You created it. It’s from you. Yeah, I’m looking forward to, I have my copy.

It’s downstairs. I have left it strategically in a place my husband will find it and hopefully he will start making things from it very soon. Yes, I’m fingers crossed.

So let me do this whole experience. This lasted, you know, you started in July. It came out in March.

What surprised you the most of this entire experience?

Author Kathy Davis: I think one of the things that surprised me the most was how much it built my confidence in the cooking process. So as I mentioned, like John did a lot of the cooking and he, he loved it. So whenever I would get in the kitchen and test a new recipe for the blog or do something, he was always a big part of it.

And so what really surprised me was, you know, kind of branching out on my own and trying new things. I was not, I was, my coaching program had not been launched when I was writing the cookbook. So I had a little bit more free time to really be in the kitchen.

And so I would do some recipe testing while he was working his nine, you know, his nine to five job. And so I would be like a spoon. I’d bring a spoon over to him and let him taste something.

And when he would, he would smile and be like, you knock this one out of the park. I like, it just, it just gave me such confidence. And the more that happened, the more excited I got.

And really it was really surprising just to not realize how much I lacked the confidence in the recipes because I thought I had all this, all the confidence in the world. But as I built this foundation of, you know, flavors and things that go together and just the techniques, it really made it, it made it fun. Like I couldn’t wait to try new things.

And now I’m like, I’m going to try these two things together. And he’ll be like, Oh, I don’t know. And I did a, I did a peach pie the other day.

And he’s like, this is 10 out of 10. We need to buy peaches. You need to make it again.

Yeah, you know, you get that seal of approval from like, you know, who you think is the expert. That’s a huge boost. Absolutely.

I’m going to be keeping my eye out for that recipe. Did you have a moment in, in those seven, eight months where you were like, I quit this, this is too much. I can’t do it.

I’m done. Tap out.

Author Kathy Davis: I mean, you were alongside me during the journey. You know, the answer to that. There were so many days, so many days that I was like, Oh, man, this is hard. But, you know, I think, I think the challenges that it brought were in my mind.

Right? Like, like, yeah, it was a pain in the ass. Pardon, my friend. You’re going to have to put explicit lyrics on this.

Parental warning. Tipper Gore is not going to approve this one. That’s a joke for the old people out there.

Author Kathy Davis: It was a challenge. I’m in an RV. It’s a small space.

I had a lot of, like I said, it’s over a hundred recipes. I had a lot of recipes to test in a short amount of time. I had a, I don’t have a full, right? I’m in an RV.

So I don’t have like full sets of most dishes. So I’m washing dishes, washing pans. I don’t have a dishwasher.

For any of you that know how an RV works, you hold your gray water and then you dump your gray water. So we were actually dumping the what’s gray water. What is the kitchen sink? Okay.

Thank you. So you, so the kitchen sink drains into a holding tank and then you flush it out, right? So you have to empty it. We were doing that twice a week because I was washing so many dishes that I was just constantly going through water.

And, you know, there were days when we would, when I would get home from work and I would test recipes until, and I, when I say work, I worked at the campground office for four hours a day over the summer when I was writing the book, but I would get, I would get home at five o’clock and I would test recipes until midnight. Like there was, there was a night that I ate French onion soup at one in the morning. Gross.

And let me tell you, it was the best French onion soup ever. It was so good. And I put it in a container to put it in the refrigerator and then I went to bed and forgot.

And so it sat on the counter for more than six hours. And so I deemed that not edible, even though I probably could have eaten it because you all know who were the pizza eaters that ate lots of pizza on the counter in college. We did all did it.

I probably could have eaten that French onion soup and boiled the germs off. It would have been fine. It would have been fine.

Author Kathy Davis: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, there were moments when it was overwhelming. There were moments when I was, I had a deadline and it was, you know, you’re, you’re in the kitchen, you’re crossing things out, you’re writing the recipes on paper you, and then you have to transpose them all into a document to send over to, you know, the milestones to send over the manuscript pieces.

And that was, that was exhausting. I sometimes I didn’t give myself enough time and I’d work wee into the hours just typing away and other other weeks it was like, man, I sent that out early. I’m going to celebrate with, you know, some more cookbook recipes.

It really was a fun experience. And I, if you have the opportunity to write a cookbook or to write any kind of book, I highly recommend it. It was, it was fun.

And I would, I would do it again. All right. I do remember you telling me you would have a couple of, of episodes where a recipe that you had tested or you were making just was like a no-go.

You were like, that’s a nope. That is not going to make it into the book. We got to think of something else. What, what else can we swap?

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