Building Your Brand: "Queen of Air Fryers" provides marketing tips and recipes that launched her career.

Published Jan 22, 2025, 10:00 AM

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Cathy Yoder.

As a busy mom of 8 kids, Cathy Yoder needed a way to put food on the table fast ... several times a day. This reluctant cook learned how to use an air fryer to make real food, real fast. Today, she's widely regarded as “The Air Fryer Queen” with over 741,000 YouTube subscribers,  6 million video views, and 35,000 cookbooks sold, having turned her aversion to cooking into a thriving online empire inspiring home cooks everywhere to use this versatile appliance for quick, healthy and more cost effective meals. Ironically, Cathy's reluctance to cook was an essential ingredient for building her business, which helps people just like her feel more confident in the kitchen. She has shown millions that air fryers can do much more than reheat leftovers! to prove that air fryers could do more than reheat frozen foods and leftovers. So, she documented the journey on YouTube. Now, just a couple of years later, her channel draws thousands of daily visitors, attracts sponsors, and nets significant affiliate revenue.

More importantly, she empowers people to dust off their air fryers and start using them to make simple, delicious meals in minutes.

In her own words:

True Story. I don't like to cook. But as a busy mom of 8 kids, I needed a way to put food on the table fast--several times a day.

I tried meal prep, delivery services, eating out (not good), and more. Nothing worked. Meal prep required too much time in the kitchen. And the other options were too pricey for my deal-seeking nature.

That's when I started experimenting with an air fryer. (I may not like cooking, but I enjoy learning new technology.) Soon, I discovered I could make simple, delicious, and mostly nutritious meals in minutes. When my kids ate those first dinners without complaining, I had an "aha moment" that dramatically changed how I cook and the trajectory of my business.

In 2020, with a house full of family members STILL needing to eat, I used my phone to record videos of the food I cooked in the air fryer. The kids tried and rated each recipe. Some even pitched in to help chop, mix, and measure. I posted the videos and recipes on YouTube, and here we are.

I now have a family full of air fryer enthusiasts. The recipe portion of Fabulessly Frugal (my original business) has grown so much that we are spinning the cooking content into a site called Empowered Cooks. Pine & Pepper is a physical product line of cooking accessories launched earlier this year.

Ironically, my reluctance to cook was an essential ingredient for building this thriving culinary business that helps people (like me) feel more confident in the kitchen.

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Welcome to the show. I am Rashan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage.

People to stop reading other people's success stories and.

Start planning their own. Listen up as.

I interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.

Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making Conversations Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and start living your own. If you want to be a guest on my show, please visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the be a Guest button. My guest is the Queen of air Friars and a mother of eight kids. He started using air Friars because she wanted to prove they can do more than just reheat frozen foods and left those so. She documented the journey on YouTube. Now with over seven hundred and thirty five thousand followers across social media. She can do no wrong with an air frier. Please work in the Money Making Conversations master class. I'm gonna call it my friend, Kathy Yoda.

How you doing, Kathy, I'm so good, so happy to be here.

Air Friars. Now, I will tell you this. Let's gotta be a confession. I bought my wife and I fry. I have an air fr at work. I've never used it. Why at my knucklehead, Kathy, I.

Don't know, but you need me in your life.

Okay, good, let's get started. That's why I brought you on the show because two things I want to talk about. I want to talk about the air friars and I also want to talk about branding and using social media and how he was able to grow your brand through this and it has changed your life on public speaking opportunities, branding opportunities, and also gain yourself some fun Andrew Lincolm. But let's start with the air fryer. What exactly is an air fryer.

It's just a mini conviction or sorry, mini convection oven. So it's just your oven with the fan and some heat. And since it's in a small chamber you like pretty much can skip the preheat process, so you've already saved ten fifteen minutes. And then it cooks food faster because the hot air is just circulating around. So it's just a huge timesaver for me.

Okay, cool, Now, cause I mentioned eight kids, can I ask the age range of your kids? Got come from a big family, six sisters, two brothers, so I was born into a family. Now you're raising eight kids. Talk to us about that, right.

Well, my oldest is almost twenty nine, yep, if I'm getting old. My youngest is ten, so yeah, I in his graduation my oldest in his graduation pictures, I was a massive that ready to give birth to my last baby. So yeah, I got ten sorry, eight kids and ten year eight kids in eighteen years. There we go, and just three teenagers at home now, well, my ten year old and two other teenagers at home, so life has calmed down a little bit.

Good? Not good? Well, let's talk about this a fry now? Can I cook anything or bake anything? Because I'm really confused when I asked these questions. I look at it, it looks normal. I've heard all the good things about an air fire will be healthier. You don't have to use grease, But just walk me through the airf our history if you can, and why you use it so much.

You know, I'm honestly not even sure about the whole historical context of the airfire. I believe it's been around for quite some time, but for me, I started using it about five years ago. It was kind of becoming, you know, a little bit more prominent, and you're hearing about it. You're like, what in the heck is that? So I finally bought one, and it sat in the pantry in the box for a long time. And then we had people coming over for dinner and I was like, we're going to make burgers and fries. So I was like, okay, here we go, made myself some fries. They took forever because I did it all wrong. Anyway. It was an embarrassing evening and I was like, that thing's stupid. I'm not using anymore. And again it just sat forever until about twenty early twenty twenty. I was like, you know, this was right before COVID happened. I was like, you know what, there's gotta be more to that, and so I pulled it out, and I just started figuring things out some of my favorite things to make in it. So really the rule is if you can grill it, if you can bake it. Not all things that you deep fry will work perfectly in it. So like a funnel cake, you're not going to make in the air fire right any wet better, but otherwise you can air fry it. So some of my favorite things are like salmon before you.

In the conversation, because you said you pulled it out the first time and it was a disaster. Now when you look back on it, what did you do wrong when you used it the first time? So I can avoid that mistake.

I didn't take too much time to read directions, and I'm usually just like, oh, let's jump in and figure it out. I also cooked way too many fries in the air fire that I had, and that particular airfier that I had wasn't a great airfier. I use a different one now, so you know, it's kind of a domination.

All air fris. Let me get out to my audience first, all air fris are not created equal. No, no, okay, can I ask what brain you're using?

I have probably about three different brands that I use right now. Kasori is one. There's another called a Typher. It's like a dome. It's a basket airfire, but it's really wide, like has a fifteen by fifteen basket, more shallow. And then I've recently started using the mightia of Inn style airfryer.

Okay, now, so you use them, you say you have three, so you use them for different purposes?

Yeah, I mean I've owned over twenty of them just for my channel reviewing and testing airfriers, so I currently have I think five in my pantry. So I can't even think of what the other brands are that I have in my pantry. But it's usually you know, what I'm filming, and then that just airfier will just sit out on my counter for a while. Cool, So I couldn't say there's one that I love over all the others.

Okay, My listeners are who are anxious to learn about air fires, just like I am. Talk to about employees and one of them he uses it all the time. He said he has an air fr then he bought another air fire. He hated it, so he went back to his original air fire. And just like you were saying, all air friers are not created equal. Do your research, read the reviews. I assume when you're looking at airfriers that you want to purchase, okay, as a starter kit to get introduced me into the airfrying game. Use about to start mentioning some of your favorites that you use in cooking with an air fry talk to us.

Yeah, So, I mean I do have a video on my channel where I talk about the different things to look for, Like I teach people focus more on instead of you know, someone say it's two courts, six courts, twenty courts, look at the horizontal cooking space, and then you want to have some good wattage. So usually generally I go for six courts about seventeen hundred watts. That way, it's going to just cook efficiently. There's some that are large that have lower wattage and they take forever and you don't get good results, so you want to avoid those.

Okay. So you're saying that the amount of wattage will impact your cooking as well. Well. I keep getting back from you and I'm just being obvious that don't be cheap on your air fryer. Could it can wind up hurting you.

Right, yeah, And the biggest mistake people make is buying one too small. Like I've had so many comments on my videos or like oh I bought a four court or a five court or two court, and I had to upgrade immediately because it wasn't there wasn't enough room.

Okay, I'm going in. What is the recommended size that I should go and get? Just a guy? Who I like to cook in my regular oven? Okay, I you know I do, of course fries. Of course? Can I bake in an air fryer?

H yeah, yeah, I love like lava cakes and the air fire, little pastries, rolls. Yeah, you can do so many things in the air fiyer.

Okay, So what's the recommended side that you would say for Okay, I would go.

I would go six court, seventeen hundred watts.

Six court seventeen hundred watchs is to recommend the size from the Queen of air friers. If you want to go out there and get your very first air fry that you won't look around and go I got to upgrade immediately because buying too small can make you come back and want to upgrade.

Now you're wasting money.

Now what made you think? What gave you the idea to start videotaping yourself and uploading this to YouTube?

You know it was? It actually started with a conversation I had at a business conference in twenty nineteen. So I've had a blog since two thousand and eight. I had a money saving blog. We posted recipes on it. And so I was at a conference and I was talking to another blogger and she's like, you know what, You've got to get on YouTube. You've got a lot of recipes. She was doing YouTube and just crushing it, and so I was like, Okay, it's always good to have another revenue stream, right, And I was like, can you coach me? So I hired her to coach me, which was the smartest thing I did because it really fast checked my effort my time. So I started uploading different types of you coached you?

What do you mean when you say coached you? What does she do when you coach me? Because now it's kind of like training people who want to get into YouTube marketing self marketing. You say she coached you, talk to us about that. Yep.

So she just hopped on the phone with me and just helped me figure out the strategy and just said, here's what we're gonna do. We got recipes, but we're not just going to do any recipe. We're going to start with instant pot recipes, Airfrier slow cooker, freezer mills, and copycat. So I had my four to six buckets is what we call them, and I just alternated between creating content in those different topic areas, and then after a few months, the only things that were really starting to get used were the Airfier recipes. Okay, So after doing that, I think it was maybe five or six months, I just dialed and went all in on Airfrier content.

So I would say this then like I have a TikTok, and one of my staffs started telling me, you know what, Sean, people always commenting about how you dress when you cook, so comments, Reading comments is important because it led you to understand that people are really engaged when it comes to the air fire and it turned your attention. So comments can help you lead you in the right direction of your branding.

Correct, Absolutely, Yeah, just listening to the viewer right and having that it's a two way connection. They come into my home, they see my family, they see my mistakes, and then on my end, I read their comment and I'll respond, I'll make a video because of a comment, right right, and just it's a great source of inspiration and connection.

Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald cool.

I'm speaking to Kathy Yoda. She is the queen of air friars and also because of the air frier usage that she documented, social media blew up. Now where are you your largest following? What platform is your largest following?

It is YouTube for sure?

YouTube for sure. Can I just ask you? Do you generate revenue on YouTube with your platform?

Yes? Yep. I can tell you more about that if you want, Yes I do. Okay, all right, So YouTube is the long game. You're not gonna make money right at the beginning, I after uploading for about six five six months, I made my first check, which was a dollar thirty six. I was like, oh, that's a lot of work. It has a lot of work for a dollar thirty six. Then the next month I made it was right around one hundred and forty six dollars. Okay, So I was like, okay, okay, and then the next month I made right around three hundred dollars.

Okay.

But I have a business partner and he was like, hey, Kathy, you are spending a lot of time on this. At what point are we gonna, you know, see some money, you know, to make it worth your time. So we set a goal if by I think at that point in time, we had like about six months. If I wasn't making four thousand dollars a month on YouTube, then I was gonna stop spending time there. So I had this six more month window, and I was like, I believe I'm filling a gap. There's not enough good content, and I want to be patient with the process. So he was like, okay, let's do it. And then December twenty twenty happened. I started that month with I can't remember how many subscribers I had. I got a picture somewhere, but I started the month with maybe it was two thousand subscribers or twenty five hundred, and the week of Christmas, my channel absolutely exploded and I ended the month with I think it was ten thousand subscribers. And then fast forward to March twenty twenty one, so three months later I hit one hundred thousand subscribers.

Wow.

And at that point in time, I was making eight or nine thousand dollars a month on YouTube.

So making how much a month?

Eight to nine thousand dollars in AdSense revenue?

Eight to nine thousand dollars a month? So would you your partner say then he was.

Like, okay, yeah, so.

Yeah, So now I became a business. Now when it becomes a business, is it fun still? Because you kind of like started this out as a fun journey. Now you see, revenue is the goal that increase the subscribers or generate more revenue. What's the goal then?

So for me, the long term goal became not to just rely on YouTube ad sense. My audience started asking for a cookbook, and I was like, eh, I don't know how to do that. So I let me back up a little bit. I was doing you know, Google ad sense is the YouTube ad revenue. And then I am an Amazon affiliate and so naturally people are like, well, what airfier are you using? What accessories are you using? And so I would use my Amazon affiliate links in my description, and so I was earning money that way as well. And then my people were saying, please, we want a cookbook, and I was giving them the entire recipe on the video. I was writing the entire recipe out. I was giving everything away. Yet they still wanted to buy cookbook from me. So I was like, okay, all I put an e book together. It's like, I can do an e book. That's easy. So I did that. We launched that in May twenty twenty one.

Okay, cool, right there, you did an e book what type of recipes for your air fryer? And it is still available. We're in your first e book.

We don't sell that one anymore. But it was just a variety, man, I don't remember chicken, pork, salmon, some side dishes. And then I had a little separate dessert ebook that I sold that they could add on to their organs.

And they bought it, and they bought it and they bought it.

Yeah, that first weekend, I think we made fifteen thousand dollars from ebook sales. I was selling them for fourteen ninety five.

Okay, okay, now crazy, so use just a money machine right now? You know, nine thousand dollars a month on your YouTube. You do an ebook because when you say ebook, you know, it's more like a pamphlet. Let's gonna be real.

It wasn't really, Yeah, it was fifty recipes.

Right, fifty there's a pamphlet. There's a pamphlet, and you was selling that for I love the way you do it. It's really fifteen dollars, but it's fourteen ninety nine, so that all they hear is fourteen. That's good marketing. That's good marketing. And you roughly made like fifteen thousand dollars so our first joab. Yeah, so we take a deep breath, right, you see there is money potential in your brand, Katy Yoda. How do you go from there?

Well, so from there, a lot of my audience is older and they don't enjoy it.

Just told the what do you mean over forty five plus fifty five plus sixty five plus?

Okay cool, and they were like that's really nice and all, but we want an actual cookbook. And again I'm like what, I don't know how to do that. And so that was, you know, summer of twenty twenty one. So finally I just grinded and anyway, December, like it was two days before Christmas, we finally had cookbooks ready to sell and they weren't going to get their time for Christmas. But we thought, we'll place an order of five hundred and we'll just see how long that lasts. And that was God in the first weekend. Like my partner thought, he was blown away again. He's like, there's no way we can sell cookbook. But we did so.

And if what was the price of that first official cookbook?

That was I think we sold them for twenty four ninety five plus shipping, So about with shipping about thirty two dollars.

Twenty four ninety five, which is really twenty five. But marketing they only hear twenty four. I love it, you know. I like about you, Catholic. You know you take that homespun approach, but you're smart as a whip when it comes to marketing techniques. Okay, because those little things are like people go to Harvard Business School to learn, you know, how do you market things and sell your price but still make people they believe they get in a discount, and that Nickel discount means a lot. If you sell it for twenty five, all they say is twenty five, that's too much. Twenty four. They never hear that ninety five right now, at this point, you're on my show, and you're my show because you have seven hundred over seven hundred and thirty five thousand follows. What is your YouTube subscriber number at right now?

It's I don't know for sure, it's right around seven hundred and thirty. I mean, we didn't start Instagram account until lasts well it's super and twenty. It's like summer of twenty twenty three.

So I'm just how much content do you deliver it a week than a month.

I started with two videos a week and now I just have one upload a week, and then I've got shorts going on twice a week.

So there's when you stay a video. How long is that video?

They will be anywhere usually twelve roughly twelve to fifteen minutes, but sometimes I have hour long ones and other times like seven minute ones.

But because content means a lot in YouTube, that's how you really get paid. Yes, can you talk to my audience about that? You know, the amount of content, the length of the content when you're trying to, like you said, it's a long game, but how do you really start generating revenue, especially when you slow down like you've slowed.

Down now, right, Honestly in the beginning. The more you can create is going to do two things. It's going to help you. Number one, become a better creator, because you're going to see how terrible your videos are. You could go watch my first video, and I've got my head cut off a lot of the times I'm looking over here instead of at the camera. It's a terrible video. But I just started doing two a week just to figure it out and figure out pacing and what was Well, nobody was watching anyway, actually, so I was like, I couldn't figure out what was resonating because no one was watching. But I was learning how to do it. And then I think the first video that started to take off was I did some air fire donuts. The cool thing is is because I had this back library of you know what I now consider terrible videos. When somebody watched my donut video, they're like, oh, what else does she have? I had my other videos there that prior to that, nobody was watching. So you just have to commit and start recording and start publishing some crappy videos.

You know, just start show this now, because that's the beauty of YouTube. You don't have to be polished. You don't have to have the lighting ride, you don't have to have to have low thirds and things like that. What is a just talking about audience? Who never heard of Kathy Yolder, the queen of a Friars? What is the classic video that you produce? What are you trying to message you? Do you have an opening? Do you have a closing? Do you add music to it? Do you add little thirds? Do you add the recipe? What is your brand?

Well, it's morphed a little bit. I used to have music going and I no longer do because I kept getting comments that it was annoying, and I was like, actually, you know what it is, So I don't do music anymore. But I don't. I what I found is just getting right to the subject matter instead of like, don't have a video that has what they call a bumper that is the one little segment that shows who you are every single time, Like, people don't want to see that. They want to know. They saw your thumbnail, they saw your title. They want to see what you're going to tell them. And in this world right they need to see it within the first three seconds. They need to know that you're going to deliver on that promise of the thumbnail title.

Not Kathy, you say you have an hour video. Now people actually watch you for an entire hour.

It's so annoying. No, no, nobody else. But the average view duration on my hour long videos is a lot longer than the average view duration of a twelve minute video. So because I make that, I only do those about once every quarter, and they're usually just I mean, they're actually easy to produce because I pull out old recipes and make a compilation video with a certain theme. So the last one I did was I think it was like thirty fifteen minute recipes and it's an hour long. Well, YouTube makes more money when people watch that video, so that's the one that gets new a lot of new subscribers, a lot of new viewers. They push that out. So if I make a great three minute video, no one sees it because.

Wow, what digital marketing tips can you give? My audience? As we talk about brand selling creating the brand, I love the fact that you were just a regular person that fell into the YouTube world. Saw revenue, but actually you're the business partner was kind of like pushy though pushy, you know, and he can he saw the talent in you, and he saw the opportunity of generating revenue, but still it was up to you to do the job. Talk about digital marketing well at the very.

Core, and I think a lot of people are like this. I just like to help people. And so when that becomes your sole purpose of serving a person rather than serving the algorithm necessarily, I mean, you still have to be strategic, but at the end of the day, it's about who is at home feeling overwhelmed with their air fryer and serving them and talking to them and being authentic. I think that's what has been the difference is that if I make mistakes, I will show them. My kids will come in and taste recipes. And there are some kids I think they're ruthless. I've got my ten year old. Sometimes we have video of her spitting food out in the trash. You know, She's just like, this is terrible. So just not being afraid to be real and capturing that and sharing it, and so it's created this connection where they trust me and I'm not going to ever present something to them just you know, I get offers for sponsored you know, a sponsored machine, and I'm like, well, I've got to test it. Out first, and I'm like, this is a terrible machine, and I'm going this is what I will be saying. And you usually the sponsor changes their mind when I give them my honest review, and so that doesn't publish. But I will only share what I can authentically stand behind.

So we have said you don't follow the money, follow your brand. Grow your brand. You grow your brand and people start realizing that there's no honesty tied to it, that it's going to go away, right, And that's what you meant when you said authenticity. Yes, yes, okay, cool? Well, Kathy, what's the future of being the queen of app frres? What are you going for?

Me?

Am?

I gonna turn on TV and see you on the Food Network or you may have already been on the Food Work. You're gonna be a judge. You're gonna be like you know, Gordon, to be tearing down kitchens that have bad food fry air fryers. What are you going to because you're too nice? Now, you're too nice to become an angry lady? What are you going to be, Kathy?

Yeah? Not definitely, not an angry lady. I am just the mom at home who loves to create and serve and you're probably a better cook than I am, honestly. But what we're doing on my brand and Powered Cooks is I'm creating more products that serve my audience. So I have a separate brand called Pineapepper dot Co. That's where all of our products are living. And then Empowered Cooks is where I educate. So just just growing the audience and helping helping people out.

Well, you know, the interesting thing about it is we close out this interview, I find it how it's so amazing. You know, you're in Idaho and you're talking to people throughout the United States, around this world, you know, and wow, does that does that kind of like put you it all of the what you are accomplishing? You know, mom of eight who one day just started documenting and realized you're getting you know, comments from Canada, comics, from Australia, comics from England, Brazil, because I know they're coming from you all over the world. And just put that in perspective to my audience. As we close out this interview, Kathy, well, you know.

It's it's powerful and sometimes I work really hard on the video and then it just doesn't land well for whatever reason, I'm like, oh, but then I forget you know what, there's still like ten thousand people that watch that. If I was in a room with ten thousand people, that's still a lot of impact. And then I'll get these comments from that just leave me to tears. But usually it's men who've lost their wife. They're widowers and have never cooked a day in their life, and they got themselves an air fire and started watching my channel and they know how to feed themselves. And comment from one man just talked about my wife would be so proud of me right now. Thank you so much, and like like at the end of the day, sure it's great to have money. Sure it's great when the video goes fantastic, but really what matters is that person who was feeling helpless and frustrated now feels empowered and that's like, that's what gives me the real juice.

Wow, I can tell by your face in your eyes. As an honest response, Kathy Yoda, thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations master Class and teaching exposing us about your experience with the I Fier, but more importantly tell us the tricks of the trade of YouTube digital marketing. And being consistent and putting a timeline. I think that's important if you're going to do this, put a timeline on what you're trying to accomplish and try to reach those goals. If you're reaching those goals, then you're doing something that is unreachable and you should try a new technique and put a different plan together. Thank you, gain Cat. If you're coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass, I really appreciate it. And let me tell you this, I will use that air fire.

Okay, awesome, I'll send you a cookbook.

This has been another edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass posted by me Rushawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests on the show today and thank you listening to audience now. If you want to listen to any episode I want to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us next week and remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.