Matthew Bounds
"Your Barefoot Neighbor"
Gulfport, MS USA
"You don't have to worry about it being perfect. You just have to start it."
Career Roadmap
Matthew's work combines: Food, Entrepreneurship, and Being Creative
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
If you want to start cooking, pick something you want to do—like make a roux or sear chicken—and watch videos about it. Watch videos, read comments, and practice until you master that skill and can build off of it. Then move on to the next skill. If you want to get into content creation, just start. Posting is the hardest part but each post you make will help you learn and build confidence. Even when you have doubt, it's important to just start and trust that you'll improve with practice.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Life & Career Milestones
I've taken a lot of twists and turns
1.
I left college after two semesters and built my career in the restaurant industry, taking on every role from washing dishes to running the restaurant.
2.
After Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017, a friend and I spontaneously decided to become insurance adjusters—it was supposed to be temporary but I ended up working there for six years.
3.
When the COVID-19 pandemic changed my routine, I taught myself how to cook and started experimenting in the kitchen for the first time.
4.
With a friend's encouragement, I began posting videos online, and after sharing one of my dinners, I discovered that cooking was the content people connected with most.
5.
Soon after, I wrote my first cookbook by turning my most popular recipes into a collection people could recreate at home.
6.
As my audience grew, I left my full-time insurance job to become a full-time content creator and entrepreneur.
7.
Along the way, I grew Your Barefoot Neighbor into a brand, published additional cookbooks, and built a business around sharing approachable recipes.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
Content creation isn't a real job.
How I responded:
Some people didn't understand that content creation could be a real career. They dismiss it as something that's "cute" instead of recognizing it as a legitimate career that requires time, planning, and business skills. Despite that, I stayed focused on creating value, treated it like a business, and let my work speak for itself.