Everyone has a story.
Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person — someone who is well-known, influential, or successful — and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
Jennifer West was excited.
Her first air fryer — for which she paid close to $200 — had just arrived from Amazon, and she was ready to cook something from scratch.
Homemade Onion Rings.
Sounded good. Until they were ready to eat.
It was “a complete failure.”
“The batter, because it was still wet, got caught in the grates. You pulled the onion rings out when they were cooked, and half the batter was stuck to the bottom. It was not a pleasant experience.”
But Jennifer isn’t the type of person to give up, especially after the first try.
“I went to the store, got some (chicken) wings, cut them up, put a seasoning and oil on them, and put them in the air fryer. I made sure to toss them and cook them.”
Winner winner, chicken (wings) dinner!
“When they were done out of the air fryer, I popped them in the sauce and ate them. I was like, ‘These are the best chicken wings I’ve ever had in my life.'”
Before long, Jennifer was coming up with recipes specifically made for cooking in an air fryer. Before long, thousands of people were reading her recipes. And before long, Jennifer found herself with a website she says is valued at one million dollars.
Oh, there was also a feature story on the front page of the New York Times’ food section, which led to “Air Fryer All Day”, a book published by Harper-Collins.
“I am proud of myself and I am humble, but I don’t ever want to swim in those accolades.”
Jennifer told me her success story over lunch at a place of her choosing — Strawn’s Eat Shop Too. She had a cheeseburger (no onions) and fries. I had a hamburger (no onions) and fries. You can’t go to Strawn’s without eating a piece of pie, and while Jennifer politely declined, I had no problem enjoying a slice of strawberry pie.
How successful is the recently engaged 48 year-old? Before building food websites and Facebook groups, Jennifer sold medical devices for 10 years. She made a very nice living.
“I have replaced my medical device income.”
Last October, Jennifer sold her first food website, “Pink When”, which she had for 11 years. Jennifer wouldn’t get too specific on how much she made, but narrowed the sales price to between $10,000 and $50,000. Jennifer said by the time she sold the site, it was averaging 200,000 page views a month.
Jennifer says her relatively new website (three years old), airfryingfoodie.com, averages 900,000 to one million monthly page views. It’s so popular, companies pay her to advertise their product on the site. Jennifer also receives money based on how many people visit the website.
Then there’s a Facebook page which nets Jennifer an income based on the page’s 70,000 followers. Not to mention her Facebook group, which has 2.4 million followers.
Not bad for someone who began working at the old Podnuh’s Bar-B-Q on Mansfield Road in Shreveport when she was just 14 years old.
“I always wanted to make my own money and do my own thing. I was always driven.”
While she’s now proud to call Shreveport home, that wasn’t always the case. Born in Germany, her father was in the Army (a Purple Heart recipient). Jennifer moved from place to place, before settling in Maryland from first through seventh grade.
“I loved Maryland. We had four seasons. It was beautiful, and close to everything. It was ideal.”
Needless to say, Jennifer wasn’t happy about heading to northwest Louisiana and in particular, Stonewall.
“I had an idea that if I moved to Louisiana, I was going to go to school in a barn, and I would be sitting on hay.”
When she arrived, things weren’t quite that bad. But . . . .
“All the way until the age of 18, I wanted to get out of here. I hated living here. I always wanted to move back to Maryland . . . . But (Shreveport) became home. It was the home I didn’t want to become home, but actually became my home.”
Medical device sales meant Jennifer, the mother of two daughters, traveled a lot.
But as Jennifer got older, her priorities changed.
“My girls are 10 years apart . . . . I felt like I missed a lot of (Avery, her older daughter’s) life. When I had Addie, it was different. I realized not only am I going to miss what Avery is doing, but I’m going to miss Addie growing up. I ended up staying home (when Addie was a year-and-a-half old).
Jennifer is a self-described “Type A” personality, which meant she had to stay busy.
“While I was sitting around and not doing anything, I got online and literally taught myself how to build websites. I taught myself how to do social media. I already knew the recipe development piece. I taught myself photography. I taught myself editing. These are things people would probably go to college for. I took a ton of courses and spent a lot of money doing it, but I learned so much. If I get wrapped up in something, I can do it for hours and hours on end, and just stick to it until I feel like I mastered it.”
The “recipe development piece” came from the time Jennifer, at 17 or 18 years old, spent in the kitchen of a friend’s mom.
“I love to learn things. I think I was just intrigued by the process. Her process was so intricate compared to what my mom was doing. My mom was doing very simple things, where (my friend’s mom) was doing these very intricate things. Like, you have to saute’ the vegetables. You have to add the flour and the water. You have to stir it for a minute. You have to create the roux.”
It’s those lessons learned which are paying off. Jennifer doesn’t have a large staff to help with her website and social media work. It’s just her and a business partner (Becky Abbott) who lives in Arizona. They do everything — coming up with recipes, writing the recipes, photographing the food pictures, and writing in a way that utilizes Search Engine Optimization, so Google will recognize their work.
“Most days, I spend a good seven to eight hours on it, between social media and the website.”
While I was filling my face with pie, I knew someone out there must be waiting on Jennifer to answer an urgent air fryer question. So, I asked my final question. As always, what is it about her story that can be influential to others?
Jennifer didn’t hesitate.
“You’re never a failure until you quit. You’ve got to keep going. Don’t say you failed a test. Say, ‘I didn’t pass it.’ You don’t fail it until you quit. Keep going. Don’t give up on your dreams. You never know where it’s going to take you. If you decide you want to do something, pour everything you have into it. If you have a passion for it, do it. Don’t talk negatively to yourself. Be positive with yourself. I’m always about the glass is half full. Even when things are bad, look for the positive. Never quit. Keep going, because sometimes you have to lean into that struggle to push through to get to the other side.”
Like the other side of bad onion rings.
Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.