Meet the 2027 speakers

Sarah Franklin is the Public Relations Manager for Lulu.com, the publishing and print on demand company started in 2002 by Red Hat Founder Bob Young. Her primary role is to educate creators about the benefits of Lulu.

With over 16 years experience in the publishing industry, Sarah is passionate about helping authors find ways to connect with their audience. In previous roles, she led author public relations campaigns and coached many more in preparation for their book launches. She lives in Raleigh with her family.

You’ve thought about publishing a cookbook. Maybe you’ve even started one. So what’s keeping you from actually doing it, and what could happen for your business if you finally did?

In this candid panel moderated by Lulu’s Sarah Franklin, food creators who have successfully self-published will share what happened after they hit publish: how they monetized their books, the opportunities they didn’t expect, what they’d do differently and how publishing became another way to diversify their businesses.

They’ll also tackle the hurdles that keep creators stuck between “I should write a cookbook” and actually making it happen, with plenty of time for your real-world questions. Come away with an honest look at self-publishing—and a much clearer path from cookbook idea to published author.

Allea Grummert runs Duett, an email agency for food bloggers who care about their audience — providing strategy, copywriting, and tech in one place. As well as the relief of not having to do it all on their own.

Other than making time to actually send and see what works with your emails, the hard part is knowing where to focus and "improve." Is it list growth? (Most people say so.) Increase open rates? (Obviously that would be nice.) Write better CTAs to get more clicks to the site? (Imperative.) Send more often? (Wait, who has the time?)

Even in just 5 seconds of considering what to do next, you feel overwhelmed because the answer must be: "do more of everything."

But the overwhelm isn't just a doing problem, it's a clarity one. No one's ever named the actual levers, or shown you how they connect. Your list size, open rate, click rate, sending frequency, and how you monetize aren't separate numbers to chase one at a time — they're connected levers in a single equation I call Email Math, all adding up to one bigger, better outcome that feels far easier than chasing every number on its own.

Stop spreading yourself thin and put your effort where it'll actually move the needle to gain more traffic and sales from the list you already have.

You'll leave seeing your list as a connected system that compounds your efforts, serves as a marketing asset that grows more valuable the more you care for it — and the people behind it — and that doesn't depend on a dang algorithm.

From this session, you'll walk away with:

- A clear map of the everyday levers behind your results (list size, open rate, click rate, frequency, and how you monetize) and how to know which one to focus on next instead of trying to do it all at once
- How to earn your way into the inbox (literally, we’re talking deliverability) and spot which lead magnets actually keep interested people on your list, not just pad the numbers
- Why not every click is worth the same, and how to design for the ones that build trust and traffic
- Ways to turn trust into traffic and sales without feeling salesy, like pitching on repeat without lifting a finger and making sure the right people (not the folks who already bought) see each offer
- The thread that ties it all together — why care, not a clever hack, is what moves every lever

June Albertson-Dick is the creator of Practically Homemade, a recipe website she founded in 2017 to help home bakers create impressive desserts with a little help from a cake mix. Known for approachable cake mix cookies, cakes, bars and other bakery-worthy desserts, Practically Homemade has grown into a trusted resource for home bakers looking for recipes that are both easy and special enough to share.

Before becoming a full-time food blogger, June owned a bakery and deli, owned a restaurant, and spent eight years as a high school culinary teacher. She brings more than 35 years of experience in the kitchen to the recipes and content she creates today.

June is also the author of Practically Homemade Cookies & Bars, published in 2024, featuring 75 creative recipes inspired by the approachable style that has become the heart of her brand.

Through her website, email community and social platforms, June continues to build Practically Homemade around a belief she has carried throughout her career: homemade doesn't have to mean making everything from scratch—it means making something that makes people feel loved.

After years of building a business online, it can be easy to focus on what you haven't accomplished yet—the traffic goal you haven't reached, the platform you haven't mastered, or the creator who seems to be growing faster than you. In the process, we often overlook the invisible work, quiet successes, experience, expertise and relationships we've accumulated along the way.

As AI continues to change the way content is created and consumed, June found herself asking a simple question: What can I provide to my audience that AI can't? The answer led her back to the things she'd spent years building—and sometimes overlooking: her own experiences, expertise, personality, stories and, most importantly, relationships with her readers.

June will share how bringing more of those things into her business helped her reconnect with an audience she thought she already knew, create content that feels more aligned, and uncover new opportunities she wasn't necessarily looking for. Through her simple framework, she'll show creators how to identify what makes them uniquely valuable, give their audience more to connect with, and pay attention to what comes back.

Walk away encouraged by how much you've already built and with practical ways to use your own voice and experience to better understand the audience you already have—and let that connection help guide what comes next.

Dee Rotman is the founder of Dee & Sweets, a dessert brand that has grown to over 400,000 followers across platforms and generates over 100 million annual views on social media.

After launching her social media presence in December 2023, Dee built a highly engaged community of home bakers through approachable dessert recipes and strategic content creation. At Flavor Media Summit, she will share the growth strategies, content frameworks, and lessons that helped her scale Dee & Sweets from a new account into a brand reaching millions of people each month – and the impactful takeaways you can apply to your social media presence.

Many creators feel pressure to constantly show up on camera in order to grow on social media. In this session, Dee will challenge that assumption and show you how to build a thriving presence on Instagram and Facebook without relying on face-to-camera content. Whether being on camera feels uncomfortable or you simply don't have the time, you'll learn practical strategies for creating meaningful connections with your audience while reducing the pressure to be the face of your brand every day.

Dee will share real-world examples of creators achieving incredible results with little or no on-camera presence, along with her favorite shortcuts for creating content efficiently when on-camera footage is needed. She'll also explore alternative ways to showcase personality, build trust, and foster community so your audience feels connected to you long before they ever see your face.

Beyond visibility, this session will dive into what actually drives engagement, views, and loyal followers. Dee will reveal her content selection process, the framework she uses to create high-performing content quickly, and the strategies that help turn social followers into engaged community members who visit her website and review her recipes. You'll leave with a clearer understanding of consistency, what it really means in practice, and how to create sustainable systems that support long-term growth.

During the Q&A, Dee will also be available to discuss topics such as monetization, brand partnerships, email list growth, income diversification, cookbook creation, and her unique approach to balancing social media growth with the rest of her business.