The immigration story rings a loud bell with a global audience
The 2021 Content Marketing World Conference will be an assembly of some of the world’s most influential content marketing personalities including “The Korean Vegan,” Joanne Molinaro.
Molinaro began her blog of the same name in 2016 after adopting a plant-based diet. What began as a personal motivational tool to “veganize” her favorite Korean recipes in an attempt to maintain a connection to her family and culture quickly grew into something much bigger.
She created Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram accounts to post photographs of her dishes together with their recipes. In less than a year, she cultivated a modest following of approximately 10,000 and landed her first television appearance on the Food Network show Cooks v. Cons.
Molinaro soon expanded the objective of her social media platforms to add a second and, to her, more urgent component: sharing the immigrant story.
In response to the divisiveness revealed by the 2016 presidential election, she began incorporating very short stories in the captions of her Instagram posts, often about her parents or grandparents.
The idea was to utilize her platform to provide insight to the immigrant experience in the United States, with the hope of developing empathy and compassion, and to begin an ongoing dialogue rooted in civility and a common denominator: the love of food.
In July 2020, Joanne Molinaro created her TikTok account (@thekoreanvegan), mostly as a coping mechanism for the isolation caused by the global pandemic. With no real intention of using her account as an extension of her blog, she began posting content related to politics and life as a lawyer during quarantine.
However, after a single post of her making braised potatoes for dinner (while her husband taught a piano lesson in the background) went viral, Molinaro shifted her attention to producing 60 second recipe videos, while telling stories about her family—immigrants from what is now known as North Korea.
To date, she has amassed more than 2 million followers and tens of millions of views.
Molinaro keeps fit and enjoys running. She has weekly goal of 35 to 45 miles. “I’m very goal-oriented,” she admits.
Lessons for immigrant entrepreneurs.
- Make use of social media in promoting your business.
- Stay consistent.
- Be proud of your heritage and find creative ways to tell your story as an immigrant.
- Don’t look down on any business. Some businesses might not look glamourous, but they could become immensely successful and big.
- Learn to persevere an immigrant entrepreneur.
- Make out time to exercise and stay healthy.
- Expect greatness.
Meet 225 speakers and 550 companies at the Content Marketing World Conference Sept. 28 -Oct. 1
Some of the key sessions include Content optimization, Marketing analytics, Courting your customers, Art of storytelling, Courageous creativity, Value of authenticity, When great is not enough, Rethinking the customer journey, Brave vs boring and many others.
The CMWorld is the largest content marketing event on the planet.
