Flodesk member to watch: Kathleen Ashmore of her namesake business

TL;DR: Meet Kathleen Ashmore, the creator of the Hungry Lady Salad series, who makes irresistible recipes her followers keep coming back for. See how she uses Flodesk to keep her audience engaged and excited.

Kathleen Ashmore, the woman and the namesake business, delivers simple, beautiful recipes to thousands of people around the world. She makes colorful and healthy big bowl salads on her viral Hungry Lady Salad series on TikTok and shares irresistible recipes for everything from lemon poppyseed muffins to pot roast to cauliflower soup on her blog. 

From professionally trained chef to food producer on the Martha Stewart show to food blogger and business owner, food is at the heart of everything Kathleen Ashmore does. And now she’s taking food to the next level with simple, healthy recipes that have this picky eater’s mouth watering!

Get to know our Flodesk “Member to watch!”

Kathleen Ashmore never had the confidence to think about being an entrepreneur, so she never thought about founding a business or being her own boss. But things changed when she realized how much she missed being creative. When she left the Martha Stewart show to be a stay-at-home mom with her first baby, she felt lost creatively and professionally. As the saying goes, “once a creator, always a creator.”

So Kathleen took a moment to reflect on what was and wasn’t working in her life. She couldn’t simply turn off that creativity switch and wasn’t happy not having any creative outlet. It was time for a change.

Shortly after the COVID pandemic hit and Kathleen reevaluated her life, she founded her business to bring back the creativity she so desperately needed in her life. And now, Kathleen does what she loves, gets to be her own boss, and lives the entrepreneurial life she never thought she could have.

We often associate healthy cooking with bland salads, restrictive diets, and unexciting plates of chicken and broccoli. Kathleen doesn’t believe in any of that. Instead, she believes in going big: big on nutrition, flavor, and real food. “Big” is such a big part of her brand that she’s known for her big bowl salad bites with an oversized spoon.

Kathleen is on a mission to get rid of the idea that healthy food is sterile and boring. Every bite has to be delicious—a requirement for every dish she makes. And that is part of what makes her so successful.

In January of 2022, Kathleen launched her Hungry Lady Salad series on TikTok and immediately went viral. The series featured quick videos and recipes of elevated salads with delicious, made-from-scratch dressings. They were yummy, easy to make, and excited her audience.

Her focus on healthy food for food lovers and going big guides every dish Kathleen makes. But she also focuses on abundance and what she adds to every plate, not what she’s supposed to take away. Instead of falling into the scarcity mindset of eliminating foods, Kathleen focuses on adding colorful, highly-textured, high-flavor ingredients. After all, food should be fun and exciting, not uninspired and boring.

Like her food, Kathleen makes her social media and blog content fun and exciting and bases everything on what her audience loves. 

Social media can be a tough channel to conquer. You have to figure out and beat the algorithm, keep your audience coming back for more, and be consistent with your posting. 

Kathleen consistently posted on TikTok and Instagram a few times a week and played around with content to see what her audience wanted from her. She discovered that the more open and vulnerable she was, the more her community grew. It was then that she realized if she put her community first and focused on listening to them, she’d be successful in every part of her business.

After posting a video to social media, she saw a comment that said she speaks too fast and they couldn’t get the recipe. Instead of ignoring that feedback, Kathleen listened and made a decision that grew her email list by 10,000 almost overnight.

She created a new video addressing the concern. She told her followers that if they subscribed to her list, they’d get the recipe in writing (so they could print it), delivered straight to their inboxes one or two times a week. 

By focusing on the value she provides instead of her success, Kathleen grows her following and her list of highly-engaged subscribers across the globe.

After her assistant recommended Flodesk, Kathleen started using Flodesk Email to share her recipes and give subscribers exclusive content a few times a week. 

She grew her list by 55% in five months by building her social media community. Remember when she grew her list by 10K? It was because she shared content on social media that directed viewers to sign up for her list. She gently pushes her viewers on social to build a relationship in the inbox.

Kathleen homes the most valuable content on her website but knew she could drive more traffic there with effective email marketing. So now, she sends out weekly emails with mouthwatering recipes straight from her website.

For Kathleen, it’s all about connecting her social media and website communities. She can share the wealth of content on her website with everyone in an easily-digestible email every week. And with 55% growth in less than six months, it seems to be working!

When talking about Flodesk Email, Kathleen likens it to her food. She makes beautiful, simple dishes and shares the recipes in a beautiful and simple email.

As a professionally trained chef, QVC ambassador, and food blogger, Kathleen can’t wait to add yet another title to her repertoire: cookbook author. After years of figuring out what she wanted to put in her cookbook and what her community wanted from her, Kathleen signed a book deal in early 2022.

So, if you’re looking for good eats, be on the lookout for her cookbook! It’s full of Hungry Lady salads, breakfast dishes, appetizers, dinners, and more. It even features her most viral recipes!

You can also find her on TikTok and Instagram: @katcancook and @kat_can_cook.

And if you want to grow your list like Kathleen, sign up for a free 30-day trial with Flodesk. As Kathleen said, Flodesk emails are just as beautiful and simple to build as her meals.