How to Lead With Genuine Passion and Grow a Business in the Process with Tim Cheung

Instagram acts as a form of escapism… and we want to escape to Tim Cheung’s world immediately!

Tim Cheung is living proof that with the digital age growing so rapidly, hobbies can quickly be transformed into highly profitable careers. It’s no wonder his food blog @bayarea.foodies has taken off in recent years and grown such a huge following. The content he creates is some of the best and comes from a place of genuine passion and love for the food that surrounds him.

Born in San Jose, Cheung started his food blog in 2015 at the age of 23, with the aim of promoting the small but mighty local restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has become one of the most notable food bloggers in San Fransisco (currently sitting pretty at 131K followers on Instagram) and has begun turning his blog into a profitable business by leveraging his love for food.

Getting Serious

As his food blog began gaining momentum, he started to focus on growing his business, dropping out of Oregon State University in order to pursue full-time entrepreneurship. He invested in better equipment and started to offer food photography and consulting services to restaurants that he had a genuine interest in and love for, growing his business at first through word of mouth and referrals. His success is proof that if you are truly passionate about something and come from a genuine place, you will prosper.

After going viral on TikTok and receiving tens of millions of views on his videos, his brand gained huge momentum almost overnight, proving the point that increasing platforms increases exposure, and one viral video can really change the game. Cheung didn’t get complacent, but used this success as motivation to continue to build his business and push himself further, an important lesson in entrepreneurship for us all.

His Secrets

He believes in consistency, sighting that is it the key to any form of success. Throughout his journey, he was noticing that the common theme surrounding bloggers is to give up because they don’t see immediate results when they’re starting out on social media. Cheung believes in patience so chose to stick with it, which paid off when he started to build his brand and monetize his passion. He believes the trick is that once you’ve found a good growth strategy, you should keep at it and build on it until you begin seeing the results you desire, as hard work breeds success and dedication is key. Cheung believes in identifying your long-term vision and always keeping it at the forefront of your mind, as this will give you the motivation to keep the hustle going.

Building on Success

It’s clear that Tim Cheung will be a force to be reckoned with in years to come. His plans for the future include building his blogging brand and restaurant consultation business, while staying true to himself and continuing to work on projects he’s passionate about. He has mentioned that he wants to open a BOBA Tea shop, as he stated in one of his recent Instagram captions: “BOBA is the most delivered food item in California”… so we’re sure that will be a success!

His advice to young entrepreneurs is to stay proactive, approach your side hustle as a business from the very beginning, and get yourself a mentor. He encourages creating structure in all professional endeavors, in order to meet your goals in a timely and efficient way. And always, dream big.

You can follow Tim on instagram at @bayarea.foodies