Paulina Cocina: “Of everything I do, the only thing that seems really important to me is teaching people to cook”

The image that is reproduced on the cell phone is that of a girl with her face painted as if she were going to war. But she does not go to war, she only devised a survival manual for those who make their first weapons in the kitchen, the one with white rice is just one of her episodes and she currently has 566,000 views on YouTube. This is one of the many contents that Every day Paulina Cocina shares with her followers that there are 2.8 million on Instagram and more than 3 million on YouTube. In a hand in hand with Café & Negocios he recognizes that his greatest pride is teaching people how to cook. “When I see it like that, I realize it’s something really important,” she says with a smile that almost never fades.

Next, a fragment of the interview with one of the most successful creators of gastronomic content in Latin America: Paulina Cocina.

The influencer will perform at Campus Party between March 31 and April 2

From that first video of the potato cake in 2009 there are many things that changed, that evolved, what can you preserve from that Paulina G. Roca that was not yet Paulina Cocina?

The truth is that all the time i’m trying to take myself to that place because it is a place that I do not want to lose, which is that of enthusiasm and joy for doing something without expecting anything in return; to do something for the pleasure of doing it.

Paulina Cocina is one of the largest gastronomy media in Latin America. When what you do becomes a venture that has a large audience, sometimes you lose that place and, for me, it is the only one in which I am interested in being. I love doing what I do and I don’t think about anything else. It’s where I’m constantly trying to get back.

In your case, the person-Carolina, as her real name is-became the Paulina Cocina brand. How does that change her life?

What changed my life was finding something that I really, really like to do. I always liked doing things, not always (laughs), but well I’ve worked on things that I liked, but this is something else. What changed my life is that, then the rest are details: if people recognize you on the street, if you are a brand, if your business is sustainable, these are details. What really changed my life is finding something that I love doing so much.

Your content has humor and other topics that go beyond cooking, how did this come about? Because from sharing a recipe to creating stories, characters and making jokes there is an abyss…

Actually couldn’t do it any other way. It is a path that is not easy, I talk about it with people who are just starting out and I tell them that it is not easy to find your voice.

It is not the easiest thing in the world to understand who you want to be and how you want to express yourself.. When you find it you don’t care about anything because that’s your truth. It doesn’t matter if you like it or don’t like it.

Everyone tells you: “go after your dreams, your goals”, talk to me about finding out what my goals are! It is much more difficult to understand what you want than to achieve it. On the one hand it is not easy, but on the other hand, when you find it, there is no other way. If I wanted to do something else, I couldn’t.

You have a degree in Sociology, how does this career influence when it comes to being on social networks, which is a totally dizzying world full of people? Is there something from sociology that you apply in everyday life?

I don’t like to say yes because from some sociology circles they want to say that I’m a sociologist doing what I do, I’m not a sociologist, I have a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, but I don’t practice, what I do is not sociology, it’s being a youtuber, to all honor. I think it influences a way of looking at the world, as it happens to all those who had contact in the university with the scientific method to approach reality, in that it does influence me.

I am an empirical person, I am not interested in opinions, I am interested in numbers, I am very practical. I have a way of working based on approaching those numbers and thinking this works or it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, why? We don’t do this again; if it works, let’s repeat this formula. It’s that simple. Along the way I realized that this is not so obvious to everyone.

To achieve such resounding success as Paulina Cocina has, a differential, a seal, is necessary. Which would you say is yours?

I think it’s the humor, but there are many people who have humor. I think I am lucky because I arrive first and that is not a quality of mineI’m not going to take care of that part. I think that I do have something that perhaps not everyone has and that is I get bored very quicklymuch faster than the audience.

I change all the time and that generates fresh content permanently and that is not because I have a strategy behind it but because I die of the embole right away and I want to change.

PaulinaCocina.net

Pauline Kitchen

Are you stressed by the demand to generate new content all the time?

The opposite happens to me I have too many ideas for the amount of content I put out and I put out a lot of content. I reuse very little content and have a beastly amount. I’m not stressed about doing new things, other things stress me.

Now I have a series that is great called “Paulina versus El Super” that is doing well, but that’s it. It is difficult to release content that is doing well, but I have already decided that I don’t want to do it anymore, there are 30 episodes, that’s a lot. Another day able to flake me again and come back. If they liked it, too bad.

What does stress you?

All the rest.

Where do you take inspiration from?

I am very methodical. On some side romantic and, on the other, totally methodical. I see an idea on networks and another one related to food triggers me. It’s not that I see a chocolate cake and I say: “I’m going to do the same”, I see a video of someone who takes care of kittens and an idea is triggered. Without asking myself anything, I write it down and go on with life. One good day I sit down with the notepad, I pass it to Excel and another good day I see Excel and I have tabs and tabs of content that once occurred to me and that I can do, and there I choose the idea, I make scripts, I I develop or play it with people on my team.

How many people do you work with?

It depends where you look at it. It can be three or 10 because it requires such specific knowledge that it is not that one person does everything, each one has a very special function in digital. For the web, a programmer is needed and it is not the same as the one who works with social networks or the one who edits the videos. There are a lot of people who fulfill a small but important task and that’s it.

Millions of followers, three books, online store with t-shirts and courses. What is your greatest professional pride?

It’s going to sound very cliche, but Of everything I do, the only thing that seems really important to me is teaching people to cook..

Obviously the rest makes me proud, but it doesn’t sink in so deep. Every time I think I’m teaching people how to cook, I get shitheaded. I realize this is very importantreally.

It’s one thing for people to tell you “I think you’re great”, tomorrow someone else will seem great to you. But when people tell you: “thank you for teaching me how to make a potato omelette”, you say here you are not going to replace me with anyone because I taught you how to make a tortilla and you are not going to learn it again. This bond is for life.

In social networks they ask you for your opinion on the most varied topics. Do you consider yourself an opinion maker?

I consider myself an opinion former and that is why I do not give an opinion on anything.. I make all my objections, sometimes I’m dying to say things and the thing, or the typical thing, I shut up, I upload stories and after 10 minutes I delete them because I don’t want to comment on everything. First for an ego issue, I do things in the kitchen, what does it matter what I think?

I give my opinion when I am absolutely sure and there are very few things that I am absolutely sure about, luckily. Later also when I see that it makes sense or that it can help something because saying what I say to get a pat on the shoulder makes no sense.

Is there something you regret?

A lot of things, but none of them are very important. I regret not having continued with such a series that was going well for him and I got bored and threw it down; Nothing you say is important.

Without anticipating the talk that you will carry out at Campus Party, where does your message go when you want to inspire?

I’m not very preachy, I don’t feel comfortable in that place. I understand that from my experience I can teach a lot of practical things, but as for the non-practical ones…

For me, doubt is a motor, I don’t like to transmit a closed message of “follow your dreams”. When I see those people who stand in that place with so much security, I feel like tomorrow they are going to have a panic attack.

from that place, the only advice that I conscientiously give is: “dream little and do a lot”. For me thinking is overrated, it’s good to do and then think. Quite the opposite of what they tell you (laughs).

First do and then you see, for me it is like that. That is the way in which you work in networks, in networks you cannot think so much, there is no time, you have to do and then sit down to think and accommodate.

How many hours you work?

24.

What is your next challenge?

The challenge is what we talked about at the beginning, understanding where you have to go to continue through that place. Don’t let me distract. Sometimes I know what to do so that everything goes well in terms of numbers, but it bores me and knowing that if you do such a thing it would be spectacular is a distraction. Not letting myself be distracted with gifts, with job offers that are bread for today and hunger for tomorrow. Do not get distracted, stay on the path of the beginning, which is the best and the only one that can work out.

The difference is that when you don’t do well with something you love to do, you don’t care so much, when you only seek success, the other’s response ends up being everything and it’s a very frustrating place. On the other hand, if you enjoy it in any way it is a waste of time or a failure, if I had a good time doing it that’s it, it was worth it.