Daily Inspiration: Meet Carolyn Wong

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn Wong.

Hi Carolyn, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed anything food-related. Whether it be cooking, watching food shows on TV, trying new restaurants, you name it! Like many other people, I downloaded TikTok during the pandemic while I was sitting at home and bored. I started by watching videos on the app, and a few months later, I randomly posted a few videos for fun. I had no idea what I was doing! My favorite food is pasta, so I cook many pasta recipes. I posted some orzo pasta cooking videos to TikTok in the summer of 2021 that went viral. One of those videos has almost 9,000,000 views just on TikTok alone now! I started gaining thousands of followers a day after going viral, making it easier for other videos to gain attention in the future. I continued to post to my account @carolbeecooks on TikTok but also started posting to other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. I even created my food blog, where I share my recipes. I have also been fortunate to collaborate with many major brands that I enjoy. I now have over half a million followers across platforms and have posted over 100 recipes to my food blog. Every week I brainstorm new recipe ideas, cook and film my creations, share content on my social media pages, post recipes to my blog, and see where this journey takes me!

Would it have been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Carol Bee Cooks has evolved from a hobby exploring something I am passionate about – food and cooking – into a bigger time commitment. I have a full-time corporate job, so there are struggles with finding time to do things such as create recipes, film content, and edit videos. I also don’t have any formal training in cooking, editing videos, using social media, or creating a website so I use a lot of trial and error and search the internet to figure things out. Building out Carol Bee Cooks can be challenging, but it is even more rewarding, exciting, and always evolving!

Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your work.
I am a full-time tax professional who creates cooking and food-related content in my free time. I specialize in creating easy and delicious recipes anyone can make at home. There are so many great cooking social media accounts and food blogs, but what sets me apart is that I’m a home chef without formal training and enjoy food and cooking. My favorite way to cook is by looking in my pantry and fridge to see what I have on hand and then using those ingredients to create something unique and flavorful in an approachable way.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I am a fairly risk-averse person. It can be difficult for me to dive into something if I don’t have an understanding of the entire process or a feel for what the result will be. Creating Carol Bee Cooks wasn’t a major risk per se, but it was definitely out of my comfort zone to put myself out there to the world without knowing what I was doing, what others would think, or where things would lead.

Contact Info:

• Website: carolbeecooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolbeecooks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolbeecooks/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@carolbeecooks