Boosting Income: Darius Williams Talks Cooking Up Brand Expansion and Audience Engagement

Not many black male cooks and food bloggers are making such big waves like Darius Williams, creator of DariusCooks.com.

Although he’s been a food blogger for more than eight years, Williams has recently enjoyed popularity online with his delicious looking, easy-to-prepare recipes, brand of humor and dynamic dinner parties and cooking classes he hosts all around the country.

He says the recipes he shares and his way of cooking have a “soul element” and he further describes his style of cooking as “comforting,” saying,  “I try to make sure every recipe has no more than five steps. If you look at any recipes on the site … there are no weird ingredients.”

In addition to gradually building his brand on the premise that his dishes are “easy, simple, delicious with familiar flavors presented in brand new ways,” Williams decided to push the envelope and ask himself, “What can you do to stand out and make it a little bit different?”

Being relatable is hugely important to Williams, which is why he engages with people further via his blog and social media accounts. “People love the fact that I’m just like them,” he says. Part of what makes Williams so popular online is the fact that he infuses his brand with a unique brand of humor. To further connect with his audience, Williams started sharing hilarious videos, with one popular one being affectionately called, “Fat Prayers” highlighting his love for food. The videos have gone viral, garnering thousands of likes and shares on Facebook alone.

[Watch: Darius Williams’ Comedy Prayer]

Soon, his online community

started asking him to come to their cities. “I’m sensitive to the voices of those who follow me,” he said. He took his talents on the road, hosting Dining With Darius Cooks and Cooking with Darius Cooks events. Following his own philosophy of “Where there’s provision, you follow,” he traveled from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, hosting dinner parties and cooking classes that are often sold out within minutes.

His passion for cooking is certainly palpable and it was that same passion that allowed him to walk away from a lucrative, full-time job to devote attention to his brand. It appears that thus far, taking the leap has paid off.

Read more about how Darius Williams is expanding is brand via a new book on the next page …

Seeing the success of those videos inspired Williams to create and digitally release a comedy album, “I Know You Can Do It Vol. 1.”

Twenty-four hours later, the album reached the No. 2  spot in the iTunes comedy category. Not long after, the album appeared on the Top 10 comedy Billboard chart.

Williams has been able to parlay that success into broadening his reach in ways he never imagined. Using the momentum of other efforts to expand his brand and connect with an audience, he’s written a cookbook, Stories From My Grandmother’s Kitchen. “Most of the recipes are inspired by some spectacular event that happened in my life where I’m sitting around my grandmother’s kitchen,” he says. “My grandmother was on her last days, and I was literally there side-by-side with her and food was obviously involved. So there are some really great things in my life that inspired these recipes.”

Williams has chosen to handle every aspect of making this project come to life because he has a story to tell. “You just don’t see Black men in the cookbook section,” he says, adding that he feels a strong sense of responsibility to “produce content that people can see on shelves for folks who look like me.”

For more information on Williams’s cookbook and to catch him in a city near you, visit WilliamsCooks.com or connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Courtney Herring is the founder of The Champ Media Agency and is a digital marketing strategist, dedicated to delivering digital strategies to energize online communities. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.