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Christy Ellingsworth, The Daily Dish

Congratulations to Christy Ellingswort
The Daily Dish
http://www.thedailydish.us

Christy was one of our 5 recipients of the Mom Central Inaugural Grants Program. She received $2,000 to grow her brand, build her platform and ultimately grow her influence!

Read Christy’s submission!

The vision behind your personal brand:
I am a woman in my 30s, a wife, mother and foodie who was diagnosed 6 years ago with a chronic inner ear illness called Meniere’s Disease. My only course of treatment? GIVE UP SALT. I launched The Daily Dish, a salt free/low sodium recipe site, 4 years ago with the hope of helping myself and others like me. The Daily Dish is the ONLY Low Sodium, Salt Free Recipe Site of its kind, offering over 600 delicious low sodium recipes and counting! All for FREE! I have devoted myself to creating, taste testing, cooking, photographing, consuming, living & breathing salt free food and MORE. I even brought my family along for the ride. Good thing too, because if my kids won’t eat it, you won’t either!

What do you aspire to do next?
I would love to take my website to the next level. First, I would like to upgrade my website. I believe I’m a gifted photographer, yet my (free) WordPress themed site doesn’t showcase my photos the way I’d like it to. With food, especially low sodium food, fabulous photos are a MUST. I would love a more user friendly look with splashy pics everywhere! I’d also like to make the site the most user friendly possible, with printable recipes, complete nutritional information, the ability for users to rate recipes and even connect with each other and offer their own salt free recipes. Second, I would LOVE to self-publish a cookbook showcasing the recipes I’ve worked so hard to create over the years.

The purpose of this grant is to assist you with your vision. How will you use this grant to better your influence and personal platform?
It’s tough enough living with a chronic illness, but the inconvenience and difficulty of maintaining a strict low sodium/salt free diet is unmanageable for some without help. I want to be able to make an even bigger, positive difference in people’s lives. The grant money would allow me to further improve the site, helping myself & others live healthier, happier and TASTIER days! I would FINALLY be able to upgrade my site’s theme and self publish the cookbook I’ve been longing to write for so long. I have invested so much of myself, working for free for so many years. The Daily Dish remains my goodwill offering for the betterment for all.

How long have you been engaged in creating your own personal brand?
3-4 years

What have you already done to achieve your goals for your blog?
In 2007 I launched The Daily Dish. I have done & continue to do all of the HTML coding in addition to recipe development, shopping, cooking, cleaning, photography, all while being a full time wife & mother (and sufferer of Meniere’s Disease). In 2008 I upgraded the site to a free wordpress themed self-hosted site, incorporating my personal blog and a photo gallery into the layout, as well as maintaining other helpful pages (Links, About, My Story, Quick Fixes) – making it a “complete package.” This year I upgraded to another free WordPress theme, trying to give The Daily Dish the very best look & feel I can on zero budget. I have joined Facebook to promote the site and just joined Twitter. I began doing salt free/low sodium product reviews and promotions, to raise awareness of my site as well as others. I’ve worked with Healthy Heart Market, Benson’s Salt Free Seasonings, The Spice House, Terra Chips and more. I did a giveaway with Vitafusion Gummy Vitamins. I have sponsored two annual Christmas salt free bake-offs with much success. I have parlayed my baking talents into a commercial baking license with the state of Maine. I’ve entered several cooking contests, winning a Stonyfield Farm Recipe of the Month with a low sodium quick bread featured on The Daily Dish. I am now in talks with another local independent website called The Maine Menu. We hope to collaborate with each other for further networking and self promotion.

What have been your biggest challenges in achieving your goals for your blog and personal brand?
One word: Money. I do not lack for drive, creativity or talent. I simply lack the funds. I have done SO MUCH on next to nothing. I only wish I could be paid to do what I am doing so that my family’s financial burden would be lifted. I would also love to have doors opened for me. I have the education, I have proven myself through this website, I just don’t have a foot in the door, so to speak.

Why should the public vote for you:
I am a woman in my 30s, a wife, mother and foodie who was diagnosed 6 years ago with a chronic inner ear illness called Meniere’s Disease. My only course of treatment? GIVE UP SALT. I launched The Daily Dish 4 years ago with the hope of helping myself and others like me. The Daily Dish is the ONLY Low Sodium, Salt Free Recipe Site of its kind, offering over 600 delicious low sodium recipes and counting – all for FREE! I have devoted myself to creating, taste testing, cooking, photographing, consuming, living & breathing salt free food and MORE. I even brought my family along for the ride. Good thing too, because if my kids won’t eat it, you won’t either! Low sodium doesn’t have to be bland, boring and flavorless. Salt free can be (YES I will say it) SEXY!

Top 3 things you would like to share with those just starting out:

1) Use your talents. Think about what you are really good at and just DO IT. Don’t try to do something that doesn’t come naturally. You’re only going to frustrate yourself and others. 2) Listen to your heart. The reason I started The Daily Dish was more divine inspiration than anything. After being diagnosed with Meniere’s I felt cursed. I grappled with anger for weeks, until finally accepting life was going to be a difficult, often depressing struggle. But I kept wrestling with the idea that there must be a bigger reason why I’d been “gifted” with this chronic illness. I thought and meditated and cried and prayed and FINALLY when I stopped thinking about it all – it came to me. I would devote my life to helping myself and others with the burden of this inescapably awful diet. I loved to cook, I loved photography, I would use myself as a means to an end. I was good at it!! And The Daily Dish was born. 3) In the (paraphrased) immortal words of Winston Churchill, Never Never Never Give Up. You are your biggest fan as well as your fiercest critic. Use both to work towards your goals. If you don’t advocate and work as hard as you can for yourself, NO ONE ELSE WILL. Toot your own horn whenever you can. Enough beautiful noise and someone’s bound to listen. And be positive, always. Your light will shine in the darkness.

Free text box!
Pick me and make all of my dreams come true!!!

Thank you and congratulations, Christy! We look forward to watching your influence grow!