Lately, I’ve been asking myself the same question a lot – how did we get here?
It seems like a simple enough question, but I have been digging into it. I have found myself asking this question when it comes to my career, to the general existence of humans, to the continued issues in our country with racism and homophobia and just not treating each other with respect. It’s a question I often ask myself about this blog and the existence of Pesto & Potatoes as an extension of me.
Earlier this week I was talking with my friend and former colleague Molly, who prompted me with another question about that last topic, the existence of this blog. The question she asked is one I often brought up with clients when she and I worked alongside one another at a Seattle-based property management company.
“What are your brand promises?” Molly asked me. “What do you want people to know about you?”
Brand promises are the experiences built around how a company wants you to feel each time you interact with their product or service. By consistently delivering on those promises, you build trust and loyalty in that customer relationship. They come to know what to expect when they interact with you. They’re more likely to tell their friends about you and/or your products, and those friends are likely to then tell their friends.
While Pesto & Potatoes is not some big corporation – I never intended to build a pesto empire! – I do constantly think about why I do what I do in this space and what kind of content I should create for those who have taken time to follow my social channels or make recipes from this blog.
The Pesto & Potatoes brand promises, though never fully spelled out, are quite simple:
- Help get people back in the kitchen by creating approachable meals and recipes.
- Showcase healthy, often Whole30-friendly recipes using local, seasonal (when possible) ingredients.
- Spotlight foods and food memories from my past or ingredients I’ve discovered through my own food journey.
When you visit anything related to Pesto & Potatoes, I hope you expect to get something that matches up with these so-called brand promises. That’s important to me.
As I continue to build out content, I’m also going to be peppering in some more thoughtful blogs that are less focused on recipes and more a chance for you to get to know me and my approach to life in and out of the kitchen.
It’s not that I think my life is so fascinating you’ve been waiting to read more about me. I just realize so much about who I am personally has shaped these meals and recipes, which I think might be a missing nugget from all of these brand promises.
While it might not be relevant to let you in on the secret that I say my favorite movie is Varsity Blues when, in fact, it’s Mr. Holland’s Opus, I do think you might glean some insight into my bad taste in movies or the fact that my movie references are stuck in the 1990s.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a moment and go try to play the sunset.
