an inteview with...Clean Lean bakes

With a new year in full swing I thought I would mix up my blog a little with a new series. You may remember last year I had a series called 'Blogger Spotlights' where every month I showcased one blogger and asked them a series of questions about their blog. This year I thought I would mix it up with a series called 'An Interview With...' which enables me to open it up to not only bloggers but small business owners, influencers and anyone within the health and wellness industry in general. It's time to look behind the scenes at the people who are behind all of these fabulous brands and see what makes them tick, what they do for a living, how they feel about social media and working with brands (if they aren't one already)..

I'm starting the series with an interview with the lovely Vicky from Clean Lean Bakes. I will let Vicky introduce herself...
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Who are you and what is your blog about?

I'm Vicky, I created my blog to hopefully pass on my passion for baking up yummy healthy recipes. I am also very much into my fitness and my blog started through searching for healthy snack ideas that were high in protein to support my fitness goals/ lifestyle. You'll find a lot of my recipes are therefore high in protein. A small part of my blog also covers some areas of fitness such as my training routine/ pre and post workout snacks.
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Why and when did you start your own blog?

I started my blog 2 years a go after getting a good response from posting some of my recipes on Instagram. I loved creating and sharing the recipes therefore I thought why not document them all in one place that can also be reached outside of Instagram. 
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Is blogging your full-time job? If not, what else do you do?

Blogging for me is purely a hobby. Full time I work as a Speech and Language Therapist for the NHS, supporting children with special needs who have speech, language and communication difficulties. In the future I would love to work part time to be able to dedicate more time to my blog.
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​Who would you say is your core audience or those you'd hope to reach out to?

As my blog is focused on high protein snacks and recipes I do feel my core audience is generally those who are also into fitness and looking for the same thing I was. The majority of my recipes are gluten-free and many are also Vegan as I know for those who have these specific dietary requirements/ follow a certain diet have less easy access to snacks/ meals that can be bought on the go and therefore they are more likely to make their own at home. 
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There is said to be a huge sense of community between bloggers and their brands; how do you think social media has impacted on this?

For me social media has been my main tool to accessing and working closely with brands. The majority of brands I've worked with have found my blog through Instagram. From my experience, brands seem to favour working with bloggers who are active on Instagram and prefer this to be the main tool for collaboration. I've only had a handful of brands who have specifically asked for a feature on my blog. In the past few months I have taken on ambassador roles for a couple of brands and I have loved the sense of community that this brings in particular.
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Do you have a schedule for your blog i.e. do you plan ahead, or just go with the flow?

I tend to go with the flow with my blog but I try and aim to post a new recipe once a week. I may plan ahead if I have a specific product to promote which therefore takes more time to design and which there may be a set deadline for, but otherwise I tend to creates recipes based on what I want to bake that week. All the recipes on my blog are food I genuinely love to eat which I just happen to photo and share which may be guided by a brand but aren't dictated by. The beauty of it not being a full time job I guess! 

​Recipes feature heavily on your blog and social channels; what foods did you grow up with and has this influenced your recipe work?

I was definitely exposed to a wide variety of foods as a child, as a family we used to love to eat out a lot and therefore I was always trying different cuisines. I was Vegetarian for 15 years from the age of 13 and I would say a large majority of the foods I eat now are still Vegetarian/ Plant based. I also used to love spending weekends baking with my mum and it's definitely where my passion for baking started. It is only as I've got older that I've become more aware of what I am eating and the nutritional value of food and therefore the foods I bake are slightly different, although may favourites still remain of course (Pizza, crumble and cheesecake to name a few!!). 
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What's your favourite part of your blog/blogging?

My favourite part of blogging has been the events and links I've made as a result of it. I love being able to meet like minded people with similar interests that I would have never have met otherwise! Oh and eating all the yummy food I make up is definitely a bonus ofcourse!
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​What's your least favourite part of your blog/blogging?

I would say my least favourite thing is the pressure you feel to reach a wider audience. I currently only really use Instagram and Pinterest as the main traffic to my blog which in the scheme of things isn't therefore very high. If it was my full time job I would put more time into utilising other tools to increase the traffic to it.
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Finally, if you could give one piece of advice to someone wanting to start a blog, what would it be?

My advice would be to only start a blog if you truly love doing it and it is a passion of yours. Expect that it can take some time for it to truly grow into what you want it to be, but it is very much worth it when it does. 

Note: All images taken by Vicky :)

Amie xx
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about me

 THE GIRL BEHIND FITNESS FORSTER

My name is Amie and I am the face behind Fitness Forster.
I am a freelance recipe developer, content creator and qualified personal trainer. I developed this website to share my passion for healthy recipes, fitness and travel.

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