Who: Jennifer Iannolo
Blog: Zenfully Delicious

I applaud anyone who is willing to share personal information simply because it can help someone else.

However, that's not an easy thing to do. Well, that's exactly what Jennifer has done. She was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, and decided not to keep silent about it, but to share her experiences on her blog to benefit the world.

That takes guts. How is she able to do it? Watch the following video and see.

Transcript of This Video

(Some people like to be able to read a transcript while watching the videos, or just read the transcript without even listening. If you are one of those people, not to worry – We’ve made the transcript available for you below.)

LESLIE: Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from iamlesliesamuel.com once again coming to you from Blog World Expo in New York City. I'm here with Jennifer. Jennifer, how are you doing?

JENNIFER: I'm fantastic. How are you doing?

LESLIE: I am doing very well. Jennifer from ZenfullyDelicious.com. What is that about?

Living Life At Zenfully Delicious

JENNIFER: Zenfully Delicious is a site for people with chronic illness so they can live a life with indulgent wellness. So, the illness goes over here, life continues on over here.

LESLIE: Oh, I like… That's a nice little summary of how it goes. But, now, you weren't doing that initially. You were blogging at a different site.

JENNIFER: I was travelling all around the world with my site GildedFork.com. That was all about food and wine and luxury travel and those fabulous things. Then, I got really sick with fibromyalgia.

I learned that I couldn't eat bread anymore and I couldn't drink wine all that much anymore. I thought that my career was finished.

LESLIE: That's what you're blogging about, right? Travelling, eating, drinking…

JENNIFER: Yes.

Getting Personal with Blogging

LESLIE: I can see how that can be a problem. How did you deal with that?

JENNIFER: Not well. What I decided to do was finally just get in communication about it, so I shared it with our audience. I shared what I was going through. And, it actually evolved into Zenfully Delicious because it turned out, lots of other people weren't talking about it.

So now, we still celebrate all those fabulous things but in a way that empowers us and is within the limitations of our illness.

LESLIE: Okay, so you were in a situation where you were blogging about something, but you had an issue with illness and all that and you took that. How did you get the courage to be able to, I mean, talking about fibromyalgia and illnesses that you're dealing with, that's very personal? How did you get that courage to do something like that?

JENNIFER: Well, I was tired of suffering in silence. I was looking for people who had a better solution. Regular medication was not working for me and I wanted a holistic solution.

I thought, “Well, I've got this giant audience on Twitter and Facebook, and all these places. Let me see what they have to say.” So, I reached out to my community and here we are. My doctor showed up on my blog.

LESLIE: How did they respond when you made that switch? Because I know, sometimes, you think, “Okay, I want to pivot, but I don't know how my audience is going to react.” How was the response?

JENNIFER: They were amazing. So many people came forward who said, “Me too, me too, and me too. I'm having these problems.” And so now, I balance both of those things, both topics pretty well.

LESLIE: All right, so if someone is listening to this right now and they have an idea that they want to blog about, but it's personal. They don't know about it. What would you say to that person?

Blogging Based on Your Own Personal Gauge

JENNIFER: You have to use your own discretion. Some things are very, very personal. Some things are universal. There are a lot of sick people out there who get depressed about it, and who don't really know how to manage it.

You want to use your own personal gauge. What are you comfortable sharing? If you have a personal blog, maybe that's a place to start to say something about it, and gauge how people respond to it. That's what I did.

LESLIE: So, by sharing what you're dealing with, and what you're struggling with, others feel more open to be able to share what they're dealing with. In a big way, in a significant way you're helping them to deal with that they're struggling with.

JENNIFER: Yes, that's why I get out of bed.

LESLIE:  That is awesome. There are no three tips on this one. This is just inspiration because I know there are a lot of people that think about things that they can blog about, but they're just not sure about it.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. If you want to check out some more of what she's doing, go to ZenfullyDelicious.com, and the other one is…?

JENNIFER:  GildedFork.com.

LESLIE: How do you spell that?

JENNIFER:  G-I-L-D-E-D-F-O-R-K.

LESLIE: Ok good, because I was spelling it in a different way in my brain.

JENNIFER: [Laughter] And, on Twitter, I am at Food Philosophy.

LESLIE: @foodphilosophy. So, check out what she's doing. Once again, this is Leslie Samuel from BecomeABlogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless!

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About the Author Leslie Samuel


Leslie Samuel a business coach for high-performing entrepreneurs. As the host of the Leslie Samuel Show, he teaches how to build an online business. "Changing the world one post at a time” is the mission he strives towards. As a former university professor, he has a passion for education. He's the founder of Interactive Biology, a blog and YouTube channel dedicated to making biology fun for students and teachers. As the head of training for the Social Media Marketing Society, he helps social media marketers get the training they need to stay on the leading edge of social media.

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