E6: From Opera to Photography: Amanda Michetti's Journey to Building a Thriving Crafting Business

 

Amanda Michetti is an emerging food photographer and stylist based in Sydney, Australia. An ex-opera singer and arts manager, Amanda has a rich Italian heritage which began with having an exceptional cook for a mother.

Listen to the Episode:

 

Transcript:

Debbie: Hey everybody! Welcome to a new episode of the Crafting a Business podcast. Today’s guest is the lovely Amanda from the Cricut Cult.

Oh, where do I start with Amanda?

If you heard the previous episode with Lyndsay, you know that I’m such a fan, and we spent a lot of that episode fangirling a little bit over Amanda.

She’s been a powerhouse. She’s amazingly talented crafter, photographer, videographer, all-round content creator, and I just want to, kind of, pick her brain because sometimes, it blows my mind to think about how I got here.

If you asked me 5 years ago when I was hell-bent, trying to climb the corporate ladder and all that, I would not even have thought about starting a business. But all these little steps have got me here - from working in government, from working in marketing, I used to run events, all that. All of those are tiny breadcrumbs to get me here.

That really resonated with my conversation with Amanda. Because she actually started off in performing arts, being a singer, singing opera. Now she’s this fully-booked photographer, videographer, and is really, really, really talented.

I’m going to stop rambling, but here is the episode with Amanda.

 Hey. Hi. Welcome Amanda.

Amanda: Hi, how are you Deb?

Debbie: I'm good. I have been looking forward to this conversation for a very long time, and we've been talking for a while, hey. It's been a bit of a weird journey, hey. ‘Cause I think I messaged you that random time, when was it? Last year, a year before.

And I was this naive just-started-my-business, and here's Amanda with her, however many thousands of followers.

I'm just like, “Hey, I have some stuff. Do you want some stuff?” and I think that's all I said, and here we are, right?

Amanda: Yeah. That's what I love. We've had many conversations about this over the last few months, but I struggle to find blanks that I like.

So when you contacted me, and there are so many blank suppliers out there, you know, I'm glad you did contact me because I'm not – I don't have the time necessarily to find out who's out there, who's new.

So I was really appreciative of the contact. You were very funny. You couldn't believe I'd gotten back to you and I couldn't believe that you even thought I was that important.

To me, I do what I do and it always surprises me that anyone even watches it at this point. 

Debbie: Oh my God, it's so testament to you as a person because I had been following your account for a long time and I think at this stage, I had only got the Cricut maybe a year ago when I was in this personalised gifting thing where I was making a whole lot of stuff, but not really business-minded.

Anyway, then I found an opportunity to meld my marketing experience and all that stuff and found this blanks thing. I had been following your account for a long time and just watching, and I'm consuming all this stuff.

Then when I messaged you, I literally (I think I was at a family barbecue) and I had to stop.

I got a message from you and I said to my husband, and I was like, “eek!”, and he was like, “what's wrong?” He thought something happened.

Anyway, you had replied. So anyway, here we are, and I have so many questions to ask you and —

Amanda: And I'm ready. I'm ready to answer them.

Debbie: Oh, okay great. Let's get into the beginning. I know you have a photography and videography kind of background, but tell me from the start. How did you even start with this creativeness, even if that’s not a word.

Amanda: Yeah, it is now. I've always been creative. I sang and danced as a child for many, many years and then was really into the singing.

Around high school age, I started singing classical music and opera, and then I wanted to be an opera singer. So I left high school, I went to the Conservatorium, I'm from West Australia.

Went to the Conservatorium in WA at Edith Cowan, and I did an opera degree. I did an undergraduate degree, I did a postgraduate degree, and then I was a young artist with a West Australian opera company. I was singing, and then I moved to Sydney from Perth to continue singing.

I was doing another postgraduate opera degree at the Conservatorium, and then I had a problem with my voice and I got really, really sick, and it was really cold that year or something.

I'm a big talker, so I always had issues where my voice was never rock solid. If I went out and I did a lot of talking, then I would lose it the next day. So I started to come to the realisation that I either had to really change the way I spoke and the way I lived my life in order to fulfill this dream.

Because my voice needed more care than I think my personality would allow it. So I either need to make that decision or I needed to change careers. So I changed careers. I was like, “I don't think I cannot be this person. I can't be exuberant and loud.” and you know, I want to have a good time.

I don't want to spend my whole life living as a nun, not doing things and not talking and being calm, and it's just not me. Anyone that knows me knows I'm not particularly calm.

So I quit that and I decided, “well, I'm not a teacher, I'm not patient enough to teach music.” It's just not who I am.

So I grew up with my Italian parents that ran a number of businesses. My dad's a hairdresser. He owned restaurants. Food was kind of a big part of my life growing up. So I went into Arts Management. So I did sponsorship for the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Opera Australia for a number of years.

So I was still surrounded by music and in a creative environment, but doing the business side of things, which actually has held me in the best day it can for running my own business now ‘cause I learned so much about that and you had no business acumen.

Until I did that, I was just a singer. So I did that.

But then, even though I was surrounded by music and art and creativity, the fact that I wasn't creating art or being creative myself, after a number of years started to become a bit of a problem for me.

I was happy for people that I saw on stage singing, and I didn't want to do that anymore, so it wasn't any regret for the actual art form.

It was regret for not being creative. So while I was at Op Opera Australia, I was running the sponsorship team for a number of years. I picked up a camera, you know, with that food background, I just started making and shooting food and I started a small food blog purely just to kind of build that skill.

I'd always been interested in photography. So I basically just – I think with anything creative, (and I know you'll understand this), the more you do, the better you get.

So rather than talking about creating or thinking about creating, all you have to do is make something and the first thing will not be great probably. Maybe it will, who knows? Maybe you're a savant, but it probably won't be great.

But the more and more that you do it, the better you get. So I just started shooting things, photographing, cooking. I was always a pretty decent cook, thanks to my Mum in that Italian heritage background and my dad owning restaurant.

So our food was, you know, it made sense for it to be food. Then I was, while I was at Opera Australia for the last few years, I started having clients that would come and work with me, and one of those clients is Queen Fine Foods, who you'll see in the supermarket aisles. They've got vanilla bean paste and food colourings, and things like that.

So they came to me through the blog web designer. Actually said, “oh, we needed someone to shoot food for Queen. Did you know someone?” So that's how I got connected. That was my first client, and that was in 2013. I'm still with that client and I still do monthly work with them. It's been years and years, and it was wonderful.

But for many years I kind of had to balance the two where I started doing work for clients. It all happened organically. I've never, actually — even now to this day, I've never prospected for work.

I've been really lucky. It's all come my way, through word of mouth, and I think it's one of those things with your creative portfolio speaks for itself. Often people talk about you or “do you know someone that can do this?” And I'll go, “yeah, I’m out to shoot food.”

So they were small jobs. I look back at those photos and God, the photos were terrible in my mind and the styling was terrible, and I often go back just to see how far I've come.

But for a number of years I did that and then my husband and I were about to get married and he said to me, “you know, I really think you could probably make more money longer term if you left Opera Australia and you've got enough clients now and you just started shooting.” and I was doing it all from home.

So I would cook in the kitchen, and I would shoot on the dining room table and then pack it all away. The thing that comes with the type of photography I do is that I have an insane amount of things. I have plates and cutlery and glassware and dishes, and in terms of just to style a shot, let alone to make those things.

I was doing all of that from home for a number of years. I'd taken over a spare room. I had kind of done all of that as we all do when we start our businesses, but mine just exploded. 

I remember the first week though, I rang my mom and I said, “I've made a big mistake. I shouldn't have done it. I've got nothing on the horizon.”

That’s it. What a silly thing to have done. We all have those doubts. We all think “I'm not good enough to do this. Why did I do this?”

Luckily, you know, when you've got a partner who financially can support the household, it's a much easier leap to take. It doesn't mean that I wouldn't have taken the leap, but I probably would've waited a little bit longer to do it.

So then I was shooting food. So I was at home, I got busy. Things just started coming, you know, every time I thought, “oh gosh, I've got a bit of a break there. Maybe I'll do something else.”

At that point, a week before that happened, someone would go, “oh, could you shoot this for me?” and so all of that kind of stuff started happening. Then I was basically –- food photography, that was it. At that time, reels and video content wasn't really that prevalent. Really the only way that you would create video content was by paying videographers and having teams and doing things like that.

The need for reels content — and Instagram didn't even have reels back when I was shooting food. So everything was stills, which also made it easier to do in a home setup because I just needed to work in a small space.

Whereas when you're making a dish and making reels and things like that, you actually need space and a nice looking area. You can't kind of fudge like I think you can in small spaces. 

So I did that for a number of years and then COVID hit and I said to my husband, “alright, this is it. I'm probably going to be done for a while. I'm sure I won't get work.” and he was like, no problems. Let's just focus on Sierra.

We'd had our little one by then. She features quite a lot in my craft account. He said, “that's fine, you know, we'll just stay home. Do what you need to do. I'll support us and you know, if you get jobs, great and if you don't —” And so he then moved him home and I had the spare room just covered in props.

So he then had to work from home in a room just surrounded by stuff. Then I think a year into COVID, Scott bought me a Cricut machine for Christmas because food had become my job. It had fulfilled that creative need for so long, and then that became my only job.

Then I was like, ”oh, now all I do is food. I need a bit of an outlet.” So a friend of mine had bought a Cricut machine, so she could make things for her little one. I was like, “oh, this is very cool.” Scott has a design background, so my husband works in — I should mention, my husband's a creative director in advertising and he's also got a design degree, graphic design background.

So it's good ‘cause we're both creative and I think that certainly helped him understand what I do and what I need and all the rest of it. So he bought the Cricut machine for me and then, I don't know, not even that long in Cricut Iron did contact me and said, “could you do some projects with us that are food-related?”

So I was still doing the food blog at the time, which I don't really run anymore, but it's still there, but I don't have capacity.

So they had partnered with me effectively to do three or four posts using the Cricut, but featuring food, which was actually a good thing because not a lot of people think to use the Cricut in that way.

So I did things like, I made a couple of really incredible cake toppers to go on cakes. I made stencils to use to frost the cake with acetate using the Cricut. A bunch of different things like that.

I think it had come about because Sierra had her second birthday party and I had a bee party, and I basically used the Cricut, and I just made everything.

I think Beck had seen – oh sorry, the Cricut contact had seen that and as I got in touch and said, “oh this, you know, there's something interesting here.”

So then I started creating content for them and then that just kind of kept going. So I then started to accumulate – so not just stuff for the food photography, but a lot of stuff for craft.

‘Cause as you know, you want to make something, you want to sit here and make something. Well, you need 50,000 things at your disposal to make something. We all joke about it. There are all those great memes about, you know, “I'm just going to go to the craft shop and I'll be back in five hours.” It's that kind of vibe.

But it's like when you are sitting at home and you're going to make something, you kind of need one of everything – you need glue, you need brads, you need all that kind of stuff. 15,000 different colours of paper just to get the right thing.

So because I started to accumulate all of that stuff and I got busier shooting now Craft With Cricut A & Z, and food, my husband and I had a bit of a chat and he said, “you know, I don't think we can keep having this, all of this stuff in the house,”

‘Cause it was just exploding.

Debbie: I resonate with this so much.

Amanda: But also what happened during COVID is all those food businesses I worked for – So I don't work for restaurants, I should say. I may develop recipes, test recipes, cook them, style them, and shoot them for clients and give them the content.

So they then got a recipe and a shot, they know it's tested, it's styled. They could put it up on their websites. But I worked direct with food brands like Harris Farm Markets. I worked for them and do some social content for them. Queen Fine Foods, Capilano Honey, Careme Pastry. So these are all producers of food products.

Basically what happened during COVID is that they all thought they were kind of going to have a downturn, but then everyone was at home and everyone was cooking, and their businesses exploded.

It was the one industry, one of, other than the medical industry, but it was one of the main industries that just made a fortune. So the restaurants had real trouble, but the individual food producers didn't.

So I then had this weird situation where deep in the depths of COVID, I'm hunting for a commercial studio space to rent because I am so busy that I can't run it out of the home anymore. So that was a really strange time.

Also, I'm very lucky ‘cause the studio I found is within five minutes from my home. I was in one of those areas where I wasn't allowed to leave unless it was in five minutes or five kilometres.

Debbie: Perfect.

Amanda: I was very loud. I was very lucky. I work for myself. I'm here by myself. I've now got a great space that has a small commercial kitchen, a shooting area with a big table, all my props are on these huge Bunnings shelving units.

All my craft is in a big area I've created. It was just one of those situations where once again it all happened organically, none of it was planned. At no point have I been interested in that. At no point have I had any grand plans about “this is where I want to be and this is where — how I want to get there.”

I've just always let the creativity speak for itself and then followed the journey as it's taken me there. But we do now have a joke that I can't take up anymore hobbies ‘cause I just seem to monetise them constantly.

Debbie: Think that's your talent, your superpower.

Amanda: In a roundabout long union way, that's how I got here. It's all come from an area of creativity and then constantly following the river and the stream, and the turns that it takes and just being open to all of those changes and what comes.

Debbie: It's a beautiful story about – should have mentioned this earlier, but Lindsay from Lindsaymakes, I had a conversation with her –

Amanda: Yes, I know ‘cause we're great friends. We're great friends.

Debbie: And we were talking about how all of these steps happened. Your story is a beautiful story about that because it's kind of like, from your early days working in the arts industry, singing,and that kind of looks like it doesn't really relate to all of the steps that have brought you here.

But it's an amazing story of little footsteps. Oh, there's one touchpoint, there's another touchpoint. Everything's brought you here, right?

Amanda: And there's a skillset. I'm drafting proposals and selling Opera, which is a hard sell for a lot of businesses. I'm selling Opera to client, to possible sponsors.

It's not a core business. So within the company, it's not like we are making the – we're just trying to bring the money in, and that was, I think, that Opera Australia and Arts Management experience has 100% made my business what it is today.

Even though I'm very, very creative, I now have a massive business skill that's come from that particular job that I bring into everyday life.

So whenever a client contacts me and says, “oh, we've got this project, we need some food photography (or whatever it is), could you do it for us?” I go, “okay, well give me the scope of work so I'll get a sense of what it is, and then I'll put a proposal together just like I used to do at Opera Australia.

It will outline every step – what I understand our relationship is, what you need from me, how much time that's going to take, what I'm going to give you – complementaries, because I have my own prop store, I include that as part of the offering. I've just learned to sell my business purely because I did Arts Management.

If you had told me that would've happened, I wouldn't have picked that journey. So I wouldn't have taken that step. So that's really interesting ‘cause the business acumen needed to come in order for me to do this creative exploit effectively.

Debbie: Yeah, and I feel like a lot of people, they're listening to this podcast and they're thinking about starting their own Cricut businesses, whatever it may look like.

Yes, for sure there’s obviously that way of creating the personalised gifts and going down the, I guess, traditional route of going to a market or selling it online or selling the one-off items.

But the reason why I wanted to talk to you was because you've kind of taken it in a different lens, right? So you've now merged all of your photography experience, your arts experience, sales experience, business acumen, all of that to kind of make this thing that is uniquely you. 

I love what you said about there is something raw about it and being really transparent about following that creativity because you never know where that's going to take you.

Amanda: But also, you’re going to love it. I hate making the same thing over and over and over again. It kills me. I get so bored. My one thing when I had gotten the Cricut was, “I just want to make everything once.”

So I want to use every blade. I want to make cards. I want to – but I just want to do everything I can do at least once. So that then sends you on a creative journey where it's not pigeonholing you into “I'm just going to make t-shirts and sell them. I'm just going to —”

For me, the reason this is the way I do it is because I just get bored. So what I do means that every single day I'm making something different.

So two days a week I work for Cricut A & Z, developing projects and helping make things and design things and shoot things, some things for retailers, some things for their own channels. Then will might use those things. For events, they might host later in the year and things like that.

So I do that a couple of days a week. They are short days ‘cause my little one's at school. So I do that and then I, for three days a week, work on food, and sometimes I'm doing savory things.

Sometimes I'm baking, sometimes — So for me, this absolutely fulfills my desire to not be bored ‘cause I've just got a lot of energy. That's one thing as well.

You know, I have work ‘til, at least three nights a week, 10:30, 11, 12 o'clock. Editing photos — but I love it and I think that's why I do it. So I have found the thing that I enjoy about crafting and about food photography – that's what I hone in on.

There are a lot of people making a lot of things, and so for me, I just needed to find a different route. I had to get out of the noise, but I was never going to make things to sell. That wasn't kind of – it didn't interest me personally, and I think that you have to find what interests you personally.

Debbie: Totally.

Amanda: And so if you love t-shirts, he loves t-shirts, he loves iron on, then amazing. Design things, follow that path, go down the screen printing route, do that. Focus on that. But I think if you try to be all things to all people, you can't ever do one thing perfectly.

For me, even though I like to make a lot of things, I am a content creator and I now have a food business that brings in – so one thing I did do was expand my business as a food creator, and I now have a copywriter that works with me and offers food copywriting skills.

We've got a web developer that can work with brands and create links and shops and things like that. Social media managers for those food brands. We’ve all managed their content and I'll work with them on the content they need for that. So it’s just finding the niche, which for me is content creation, and that's what I enjoyed the most, more than anything.

Debbie: Yeah, it's really interesting because I think too many people aren't true to themselves in terms of what they want to do, and they think, “okay, I need to go out and make – I need to get really good at making coffee cups (or whatever it is), and I need to kind of rinse and repeat and do that 50 times to make money.”

No, you don't. You need to find what you are good at. If you love making coffee cups and doing that same design 50 times, go nuts, right?

Amanda: Yeah. Amazing. Do it.

Debbie: But if you don't, call it out. Call that out and figure out what your path is. I mean, I'm the perfect example. When I first started making personalised gifts, I loved the making, but it was too hard. Too hard as in I had a young baby, I had family commitments.

Amanda: It takes so much time.

Debbie: I didn't have the time and I didn't have two hands to make stuff.

So I realised my forte was in that community building, but also retailing, figuring out what our customers want, figuring out and listening to our customers and how do I work with suppliers to bring that stuff in to bridge that gap in the market ‘cause clearly, it wasn't available.

So there's real merit in niching, yes, niching down, but also being true to what you like doing and what you don't. Because if you just –

Amanda: And following the path. Sometimes you might not know, and that's okay too. You might not know. So you do have to go through a journey to figure it out, but you just have to be open to it and you have to be flexible.

You and I have a lot of conversations where I say, “I'm trying to find this thing and I can't”, “do you think that would sell?”

Because I'm constantly – there's not really many blank suppliers I go to now because I know that I can come to you and you'll have things that are interesting or different, or we can have a conversation about it, and if you think that it's something that you could bring in and try, then great, we'll do that.

I think that's where your flexibility and your ability to pivot, because the challenge is when I think you're making the same thing every day, is you think that you are always going to be selling this amount of the same thing every day, but you are not.

The only way I think that you can grow if you want to grow or just have enough work is if you are prepared to change if you need to change.

What's the next thing? A lot of people always - especially in all the kinds of craft chats and forums and different groups that there are - there's a lot of people that sell things that say, “oh, so and so is just copying me and I'm really frustrated.”

Yes, and unfortunately that happens everywhere, and we know Claymart and Target copy things, and we know we can't compete with them. But if you are truly creative, you should have an endless supply of ideas, or if you are not, there are lots of books to read about thinking creatively.

If it's not natural, it can be a learned skill. So what I think is more important than anything is not trying to worry about what other people are doing, because if you are doing something really well, they'll copy you regardless. It's the industry. So what you then have to go is, “okay, what's the next thing?”

And that's what I think, Deb, you do really well, is the ability to go, “okay, here's the gap in the market, okay, let's go with that.” “Alright. What's the – okay. Yep.” “Well, someone else is doing that now.” “Okay, great.” “Our market shares changed, so –”, but that's how you've grown so quickly too, I think.

Debbie: It totally is, and if you have the expectation that someone is going to copy you and realise that it is a good thing that someone is copying you, it will fuel you to grow quicker, I think.

And yes, I get annoyed. I mean, one time I had someone screenshot my photo and post it to a local group and say, “does anyone make this locally?” Literally it was my cup with my font, my thing. I was pissed, of course.

Amanda: And you are local.

Debbie: I know, and I'm like, “hello, I'm local. Literally, you clicked on my website and –” Anyway, whatever. Still, there's still a little bit of steam, right? But what I'm saying is that that was another turning point for me because I realised, “okay, maybe I'm not meant to be in this personalised gifts game. Maybe I'm meant to be, ‘okay, change the cup, change the colour, change the vinyl.’”

What if this cup shape is too common. What's next? That's what led me to bring in canned glasses, which is obviously my seller, and developing new products every time.

Literally the amount of messages that I have – my suppliers think I'm a bit crazy because I'm like, “I want to change this.” “No, I don't like that.” “I want to change –” and it costs a lot of money to bring that stuff in.

So there is a niche in being able to pivot, but also being able to do things on the fly, and listen to your creativity, I think.

Amanda: Absolutely. I think it's really important, and I think that you see so much on chats and things, people talking about having to undercut their rates, and that's one thing I can do. I know how to price myself

That is the most important thing that people need to realise. As a community, luckily what I do is quite niche, it's quite specialised, and there aren't a lot of people that have the skillset that I have, and the skillset I have have come to me from years of doing this work.

So it's a learned skill, that people can learn, they can do what I do. It'll take them a bit of time. 

As craft creator or people that create personalised gifts, I think constantly trying to undercut other people just to get the sale price not only devalues you and your skillset, it devalues the entire personalisation industry.

Debbie: Totally.

Amanda: People think that a reasonable price to pay is one in which they just pay for the item that’s a blank and the actual vinyl.

No one else would do a job where their time and their skill is not paid for. No one would do that in any industry. So why should we allow that to happen in this industry?

I think the problem is, potentially people don't know how to price, and that is the greatest skill I think that I learned, especially from being in sponsorship.

I'm selling tickets to a show, which we know has the price and opera ticket, but I'm selling an experience for you to put a logo on a page, to put an ad in a program, to put things that don't necessarily – there is tangible and intangible things that I was selling, so therefore I got really good at how to price an intangible.

Debbie: And increase the value.

Amanda: And increase the value.

Debbie: Maybe not increase. Increase is not the right word, but communicate the value.

Amanda: Communicate, yes. Communicate the value. One thing I did learn really early on in the sponsorship world is — at Opera Australia, we had a bunch of props that we had from all the shows we used to do.

So if a sponsor is doing an event and they want to use those props, then sure they can go to the props department and they can pay the cost for higher, those props for their event.

But if they're a sponsor of us, they would get access to that. Now, they didn't cost us anything because the props are there from their old shows.

So we could decide to include that because they are a sponsor of a certain level, and that then becomes a benefit that they have access to that, and we forgo a little bit of that profit by just selling it to the average person that has an event because you are a sponsor.

So I a hundred percent employ that here. The communication of what you provide for free is just as important as what it costs.

So when I do a proposal for a client in any kind of creation, craft or food, I will say, “this is my hourly rate for this work, and I charge more for photography and styling ‘cause I do that together. I charge more for the actual learned –” that's what they're paying for.

They're paying for my skill as a stylist and a photographer. Then I charge less for cooking the dish, editing the photos, all of that stuff does not require the high end skillset that the photography or videography has.

So I charge those at different rates. But what I also put in that proposal, as well as my ally rates, is complimentary access to my prop store, which is all my food, props and everything. Complimentary lighting, complimentary studio hire, because they're all things that I pay for within my business.

But by communicating that to a client, they understand, “oh, by going with Amanda, I not only get her to do all the cooking, all the shooting, but actually she's providing those things, complimentary.”

The added value is what often will get the sale across the line more than anything because they go, “oh gosh, yeah, that actually is a reasonable price.”

Not just, “it's $5,000 for this shoot.” It's this much per hour for this many hours for recipe development. It's this much an hour for this many hour – I break everything down. 

I give them so much detail that actually they properly value and understand my offering, and that 100% is a learned skill from sponsorship background, because that's how you get them across the line.

Debbie: Yeah, and I think that a lot of businesses, especially when they're starting, they think it is a price game, so then they feel like they have to match whatever it is.

Which is why I encourage a lot of my community members to realise what that value is, whether it's increase after sale support. “After sale support” is a fancy term for basically being a nice person afterwards.

So if there's a problem with the item, you best know that I'm going to get you a replacement.

That's same as, for example, something that I do in my business is I go through in my Australia Post business account, and if something is a bit funny as in, it should have been delivered last week, but it still says “on the way”, or something happened and for some reason it hasn't delivered, I'm calling the customer.

I call them and I text them and I say, “oh, I noticed this, what's happened?” and nine times out of 10, it's been delivered probably weeks ago.

But the customer understands, appreciates that. The same thing if someone calls me and says, “oh, I don't know how to adhere the vinyl on the thing.”, I have a reel. I send them a reel and I say, “this is how you do it. If you have any questions, let me know.”

They know that I'm going to reply, which is really interesting because I found that as a gap when I was shopping for blanks.

I didn't know how to use this machine. I didn't know how to use this blank, and I messaged them and no one replied.

Amanda: Yeah, and I think what's also really good is, “look, I've rung you so many times and gone, I'm doing a sheet for Cricut, I need these blanks, I need them tomorrow.” And you'll go, “yep, no problems, and we'll send a courier and they'll come to you.”

That ability, I know that if you've got something in stock, you'll help me get it and you'll help me get it as quickly as I need it. It's all of that side of business that, I agree with you, I actually think is more important than the item itself, because that's the reason they'll come back.

The reason why clients come back to me is because they know when I say I'm going to deliver at this time – I've never ever, in all of my time as a food photographer, I've never not delivered a shoot at the time I said I would deliver it.

You under promise and you over-deliver. So I will usually say, “I'll get that to you by —” and in my head I'll go, “I'll probably get it by Friday.” but actually, if I give myself the weekend as a buffer, then I know I'll definitely get it done and I always deliver by Friday.

So then they go, “oh gosh, we've got this shop so much earlier. But you have to run a business like that, because often what I've found is creative people that are truly creative, that don't have that business background, or haven't had the ability like I have to work on the business side, they don't understand the value.

They think that their creativity is the most important thing, but actually it is being ahead of trends. Being truly creative is coming up with ideas other people don't have and continuing to do that, and then offering a service and a reliability that will keep them coming back.

And I have, over the years, been able to increase my rates very successfully year on year. I still give original clients. I don't increase them as much. So they will be at different rates.

Almost every single client I have is on a different rate. It's started to standardise now just because almost everyone wants videography ‘cause that's where we're at, we're in a real based culture.

So that is just more time consuming. That's been a good way actually, that kind of shift in the type of content I create has been a good way of bringing everyone up to par. But I still will do things for old clients for free without hesitation.

I will say to Careme Pastry, who really needs something, I’ll say, “you know what, I'll just do that for you. Don't worry.” or they made a mistake, they sent me the wrong thing, “oh no, that's okay. I'll shoot it again.”

Because even though that is my time as a freelancer and a business owner that works by themselves, I make the decisions on what I'm prepared to do, and I want to be kind and I want people to keep coming back.

It's funny ‘cause my husband is in an advertising agency. It's an agency-based culture where every single second of their time is costed out and is charged back. We talked a lot about how to scale my business up and I don't think I want to scale it up to the point where I have to act like an agency.

I would rather the selling point of our team, let's make stuff, which is my kind of food team, content creation team, is that we are providing that service for small to medium food businesses because that is where the market is and that is where the gap is.

People doing that successfully at a price point that is reasonable for those family-run or individually couple-led businesses.

So, you know, while I know how to price myself, it is a real skill in finding the balance between not overpricing yourself and not underpricing yourself. That again, just comes with time.

Debbie: Yeah, and I feel like the time factor – a lot of businesses, they're kind of like, there's other things going on, right?

They probably are at home with the kids and they need to make some money somehow and cost of living increasing, all of that stuff. So it's obviously heaps easier just to price yourself under, right?

But what I teach a lot of my community is that would you rather the one hit wonder, the one customer that comes to you, gets their item and goes, or the repeat customer.

You will make more money by nurturing that journey. So if you price it with a long game in mind, you will reap those benefits more because you'll have repeat customer, and that's the entire reason why my business has grown. I feel like that mentality and is reflected in your business as well.

Amanda: Which is a different set of skills that we have, and it's different things that we do, and they're both ancillary to the actual making of the craft. They're like an ancillary role. But I think that's why you wanted to talk to me.

Because it's a way of finding a space to work within an industry without doing the obvious. I think it's hard in an industry where anyone can buy a Cricut at a reasonable price point. Now, I mean, the Cricut Joy is, in my mind, the most incredible machine.

If I could use it, even though I don't have it plugged in most of the time because I've got a Maker 3 and an Explore 3 on my bench that are permanently plugged in and the mats are there, but often my desk is a mess, right?

So I'm in front of that ‘cause I'm cooking and shooting and everything. I'm like, “oh, I could clear that space.” or I could just put the Joy on the table. And sometimes, I’ll design things just to fit the Joy, just so I don't have to —

So if you've got a Joy and anyone can go out and buy a Joy at an insane price point, and it does so much, then if your business is personalising items, you are competing with a reasonable price, anyone can go and do that.

So that's where you have to think slightly differently. It has to be, “I'll offer different things, you know.” People that design great SVGs, that's a great business, if you've got a design background. But again, you kind of need that learned skill.

So maybe, instead of going, “I'm going to make things and sell them.” maybe you're doing an Illustrator course or you're doing a design course or –

But a lot of these where you kind of think differently, they do require a skillset and time, but that doesn't mean that you can't be personalising things and selling those and having a small business there, and doing the craft while also skilling up in other areas if it interests you and that's the key.

Debbie: Mm-hmm. Totally. I want to touch on one of the points that you talked about was social media content changing – changing the game almost. Reel-based content is really fueling your business and content creation as a whole is really fueling your business. 

So the way that the algorithms are right now, reel-based content or short, bite-sized, one-minute type videos are what's changing the game, right?

Algorithm-wise, all of the platforms are posting them, they're promoting them. What's your kind of tips on how to best use that for someone that doesn't really have your skillset in terms of the design eye, all of that stuff. Teach us, oh wise one.

Amanda: It’s very much goes back to “the more you do, the better you get.”

I kind of create content in two different ways.

For Cricut Cult, which is effectively a hobby page for me, I don't make my money on Cricut Cult, but I do that because I have so many ideas and things I want to make. Just hundreds and hundreds of ideas. I used to write them down in a notebook, but then I just would never refer to them because I have 10 more the next day.

So I've stopped doing that. I just go, “what do I need to make?” “What season is it?” “What do I want to make?” “What's some ideas I had?” and I'll just make it. So that's Cricut Cult is purely me sharing my ideas.

Now, I have been asked many times why I don't monetise Cricut Cult in terms of, I don't sell anything. I don't offer subscriptions. I'm not a blank supplier. I'm not personalising items. Why do I do it? Why don’t I monetise it? Because I'm so busy monetising the rest of my life that actually, I think if I monetise that, it would be too much pressure, too much stress.

Debbie: And you'll lose the creative things that you get.

Amanda: Yeah, exactly.

Debbie: Filling the creative cup.

Amanda: Too much pressure then to do regular content all the time. I was just telling you before we started chatting, I am almost a hundred percent booked till the end of the year. I've never been in this position before.

It is the beginning of April, and I am having to really find out how I'm gonna find space for any new clients that come to me, because I just don't think I'm going to have it.

So if I then had to put pressure on myself to maybe on the weekends and things like that, come into the studio and make things because I promised someone I would do them, or because I took paid money to create something featuring someone's craft product. It's too, much, and I can't take on any more pressure.

So I run Cricut Cult really lean and clean. I use my phone for everything. It changed quite seriously. I kind of got to the end of, I think, my first or second year of — I've only been running it for a couple of years, actually, maybe three, and I got to the end of the first year of having run Cricut Cult.

I just looked back, I was doing the top nine, or you know when you do that on Instagram, you're like, “what are the top nine posts?” I realised that seven or eight of them were the very basic videos I created, which weren't particularly great, but I was like, “ugh” and I didn't want them to be.

‘Cause actually I love photography way more than I love videography. That's actually what I prefer doing, but you have to pivot and you have to respond to the market. So even with food, everything is kind of moving to video.

I still do stills for clients. I shoot ebooks and do things like that, recipes for their channels, but I do it usually associated with a reel now.

So if we're going to do an apple pastry, then I'll make that, I'll create the reel for them and I'll shoot the stills. But even though I don't love that part of it, I know that without that part of it, I wouldn't be able to financially be as successful.

So the reels are important and so pivoting to the reels happened at the exact same time, both on Cricut Cult and with my food business because it became very, very clear, very, very quickly that that is where the traction is, and that's where the organic growth happens.

So, Cricut Cult is still done, again as I said, on phone with a stand that I got from Amazon, which I've shared with you that a lot of people use.

Luckily, because I work in food photography, I have a number of backgrounds. I've got like a hundred different boards that have different styles of backgrounds, so mixing it up is really important.

So even though with Cricut Cult, I kind of follow a formula, and the reason I follow a formula with how I make something and how I shoot something is ‘cause it's the easiest way for me to do it with the least amount of time.

So not only do I shoot it on my phone, I do it in my studio. I shoot it in a natural light, which everyone, if you are shooting videos at night under your lights, just your normal kind of kitchen bench lights or whatever it is, it's not going to look great. That's not how light works.

Photography and videography is the study of light, and it's how the light hits the lens and hits your item, and you manipulate that light as a photographer or videographer to create a feeling.

Those lights also in your ceiling, they flicker. Especially when you're doing videos, you actually just can't get a good feeling.

So the main thing to do is, so I shoot in natural light on a bench that's very close to a window that's kind of flooded with light. I do it all on my phone. I shoot it all on my phone, and then I go home and I edit it all on my phone while I'm sitting in front of the TV. I do that purely for Cricut Cult.

Every single thing that you see on that account is a hundred percent created, shot, and edited on my iPhone. I've done it so many times now that I've just gotten it down. It's as quick as I can get it. I know where to make the cuts. I know how to make it snappy.

Whereas at the beginning that, you know, I probably lingered too much. I didn't need to see that element. So I've gotten very good now at editing, which is actually kind of the key to making a video great. How do you edit it?

I've developed a style for Cricut Cult that I now actually bring into a lot of my food reels. I don't do top down for food. I find food is much better in that lifestyle sense when it's shot from three quarter angles or different angles and you're showing different things.

So I don't kind of copy that part of the videos I create for Cricut Cult, but what I do copy is the way that I cut, the way that I edit.

It was purely me pivoting and responding to what was working on that account, which is video.

Debbie: It’s interesting. We have a saying in marketing and it's test and learn. So figure it out what works this time, doesn't work next time. Look at your analytics, what works? It’s a muscle, like the creative muscle.

It's just like you go to the gym to increase your muscle. You need to keep doing this creative stuff to know what works for you and your audience and your community.

Amanda: It's a learned skill, and you have to take the time to learn it.

Debbie: Mm-hmm. I feel like a lot of my listeners struggle with that because they're like, “I need to do what everybody else is doing to go viral.” I'm like, “mm-hmm no.”

Amanda: Going viral shouldn't be the key, that should not be your goal. That's what they talk about in advertising. So my husband will say, “our clients always come and they go, ‘oh, I want to go viral.’ and he is like, ‘well, that's not the point of going viral.’”

The point of going viral is it's the thing you least expect, or it's unexpectedly popular. So if you're not chasing the virality, what you are chasing instead is quality content, learning, getting better, making things snappy.

That works for videos and that stuff works for me because I think I've got a certain level of quality into what I produced that as, again, come over time.

But when I started shooting videos for Cricut Cult, I wasn't really shooting videos. It's not like I've been doing that for years. I was very good at putting things in a lens and knowing how the camera was going to see it. But again, it's a learned response that takes time.

I think while pivoting is key, it is also important to say, you have to give something a go for a little while before you make a change.

So if you do something and it's not working for one video, that doesn't mean that you change your entire approach for the next video. What you do is you tweak an element of it. So maybe you make something slightly different and you post it again.

The thing with craft is like, I now know what goes viral. I pretty much know when something's potentially going to go viral, purely because I now know after doing so many of these videos what people really want to see.

Debbie: Know your audience.

Amanda: I know my audience, and that then resonates to the whole craft audience. So if I haven't had a lot of, if I had in the past – I want to talk a little bit about where I'm at now with Instagram ‘cause it's a discussion that needs to be had that no one's talking about.

So I will get to that. But you need to make decisions based on what's working, what isn't working. You never want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. You always want to just tweak something, figure it out, that kind of stuff.

So yeah, if I, if I go, “oh, I haven't had a bit of traction in a while”, I'll post a particular type of video of something that I know works like, “oh, that always gets good traction. I'll post one of that so I can just get a bit more traction.”

Which is how I got to 100K because I saw, obviously saw that the videos were working, and made a decision. I think it was August last year, I was like, “hmm, you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to post every three days.”

My goal was to get to 100K by the end of the year, purely because I didn't know anyone really that had gotten there, personally to have a conversation with. I needed a goal, especially if I wasn't monetising it. My goal wasn't making money.

It was like, “well, why would I keep doing it? So let's see if I can get to 100K by the end of the year.” I realised I needed to find the sweet spot – it had to be videos, that was the only way I was going to get there – and I needed to find the sweet spot between not posting too many videos.

So I think seven, like posting every day for me, I can't physically do that. I don't have enough time.

If I'm doing videos, the sweet spot for me was every three days, so it wasn't like I did Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I literally just did every three days and because in seven days in a week, it was never the same day but I had to have a backlog of things.

So I wasn't as busy as I am now. I definitely couldn't do it now. But basically I would go, “alright, I've got a Friday free, so I'm going to make three or four things.” and then that will get me through it.

I already had two or three in the backend. I went away on holidays. That's kind of when I started. I had 20 posts in the backend before I went on holidays.

I was like, “I'm going to keep posting through the holidays.” and I think I wrote it all down cause it was like, it was like gamifying it. I was setting those goals that I wanted to achieve. 

So I hit 50K on the 1st of September, and then I basically, every time I hit 10K, I marked it. So I hit 50K on the 1st of September, 60K on the 12th of September, so that was two weeks. 

70K on the 29th of September, 80K on the 13th of October, 90K on the 25th of October, and 100K on the 22nd of November. Now, here's the conversation we need to have.

After I hit 100K, you'll see if you go and have a look at Instagram now, I'm on 103,000, so I was growing at 10K every two weeks. Twice a month, I would hit the next 10,000.

The moment I hit a hundred thousand followers, the algorithm completely changed for me, because obviously there is a hundred thousand – Instagram's algorithm is obviously once you hit 100K, who you are pushed out to a hundred percent changes because I think what they're trying to do is monetise.

They think, well, if you've got 100K, you are making money. Now I'm not, clearly, I have not monetised it on purpose. I'm not selling something, I'm not set up as an influencer. I hate the word influencer. I really do, I hate it.

That's why when you say to me, “oh, but you are influential” because when you post something, I sell things.

Certainly Lyndsay over at Lyndsaymakes, every time I use her style, her guides, she sells them –

Debbie: She calls it the Cricut Cult effect.

Amanda: Yeah, she does. She always goes, “thanks Amanda.” and half the time I don't even realise. So, you know, if we're chatting and she's like, “oh, it's been a bit quiet lately” in my mind, I'll go, “okay, I'll, maybe I'll make something”, you featuring her product to influence. But in my mind, I'm not into the influence label.

Debbie: It's not a direct sales. You are using it almost like how a portfolio works or a resume works, you need it.

Amanda: I'm a content creator, not an influencer. So in my mind, I'm only a content creator, and if I happen to influence through the content that I create —

Debbie: Staying true to your aesthetic?

Amanda: Yeah. So I hit 100K and everything changed. My videos still get the same amount of views, in that you can easily see it.

If you go to Cricut Cult on and you click on the reels, you'll see. So you won't necessarily see in the number of views where the change happened once I hit 100K. But what you won't know is that in the backend, almost no one outside of my 100K followers gets pushed my content anymore at all.

Maybe I'll get 200 new followers a week and if you have that many followers, you naturally lose about 150 to 200 a week. That's pretty normal.

So everything just levelled out to zero. So then I go, “why would I bother?” If I'm not making money from it and I'm not selling it, there is no way I am going to continue to post every three days.

So Instagram has effectively lost me long term as a regular content creator. I will still create content when I have the time because I love it and everyone engages with it, and I love the ideas and I do that.

But that goal of getting to a 100K and deciding to post every three days, potentially, if the algorithm was different and I had been treated differently by the algorithm, I know it is what it is.

It's not like anyone has a personal connection with Instagram, but it does make you go, “mh-mm, what else? And what's next?” Because I didn't know what my next goal would be once I got to 100K.

But now I know it is not to continue in that path because they've made it almost impossible for me. So then I go, “all right, maybe I'll go over to TikTok and I'll see what's going on.

Debbie: That's what I was going to say.

Amanda: Yeah, or something else. But even TikTok, I just don't have enough time. I don't have time. The beauty of TikTok is I have two years of content on content that I can push over. I don't have time to set it up. I almost should probably pay someone. Give them all the videos.

Debbie: You can automate it.

Amanda: Yeah, I know, but I don't even have time to automate it. 

Debbie: There is a system that I use called Repurpose, and that's what I use to distribute. So I don't have an affiliation with them, I pay my monthly subscription. It's a workflow, so it works on distribution. So I write a code, I tell it to “when I post on this, go to these channels.” You can do that. 

I think my theory, and this is my social media nerd hat on, my theory is that Instagram wanted you to hit a 100K so promoted all my content —

Amanda: So we could use my audience.

Debbie: Then when you join the 100K club, they again thought you would make more money, so therefore you don't need the growth.

Amanda: Or they want me to pay to promote that to new audiences. I get it, they want to make money too. But they don't actually know where everyone's creator's heads are, and I don't want to be an influencer and make money purely from that portfolio from that – Cricut Cult is a portfolio for me.

Cricut Cult really has made me a better food videographer because of what I've learned. So it's all skill accumulation for me. I love what I do and how I make that money, I don't want to change that.

So I think the beauty of it is also when I was at Opera Australia, I loved what I did there. So that all just happened naturally. It was a big decision for me to leave there.

I loved working in sponsorship. I loved going to the opera for three nights a week and spending time with sponsors. They fulfilled that kind of social aspect of what I needed.

So at every point, I think I've made all the decisions to do all the things that make me happy. So then pivoting or changing on that is it's not because I'm trying to leave anywhere or I'm unhappy, or — I think if you just have a goal of being happy, and that happiness and what makes you happy changes over time, you don't know what you don't know.

So you don't necessarily know that content creation is going to make you the happiest until you are close to doing it or you'll have to make that decision.

You don't know that running a blanks business is what you are always meant to do with your life until you get to that point.

Debbie: Which is really interesting because I always say know your why. Why are you doing this, and stick to that why. So be authentic about that. Which is why I'm sitting here with my mum bun and a t-shirt that probably has vomit on it.

Amanda: You love a mum bun. That's what my favorite thing about you.

Debbie: It’'s my “get out of my way. I need to do shit.”

Amanda:I have to put a pair of earrings on and then I feel like I'm okay with the other way. 

Debbie: Yeah, but that's what I mean. Being authentic to whatever it is that you want to do and your creativity.

For you, it sounds to me that this recurring theme is following your creativity and being true to that, and it's got you here.

Amanda: Yes.

Debbie: So I feel like there's not enough of that, and a lot of people, they start their businesses because yes, of course you need to make money, you need to make a living, et cetera. But if you stay true to your essence, your aesthetic, whatever it is that is your why, it will take you places.

Amanda: It's interesting too, because there are personality elements to running businesses. I am naturally an incredibly driven person, working from home or working from the studio or working —

I want to work and I'm happy to work, and I don't get distracted, so that means that I actually don't have to set myself goals. I don’t know if in five years I want to be this, and I don't have any of that. But what I know is I'm not going to rest on my laurels, and that's just something I know about myself.

So then other people go, “okay, well maybe I get distracted easily, or maybe I find it hard to focus so I have to have that goal.” and neither of them ar the right way for everyone. It's the right way for you.

For me, it's following my creativity, being able to pivot by not setting goals and not deciding how something has to be because I know that I will at least work hard enough to deliver everything I want to deliver. Does that make sense?

So some people have to set those goals, some people have to go, “boss life”, that is not me. You know, girl boss, women power. It’s just not who I am, and that's okay too. I'm not aspirational quotes girl, it's not for me.

But that doesn't mean that they're not incredible tools to help people that need that to help them find their why or to help keep them motivated.

Debbie: I love that. Be true to you. Like I am the mum bun, right? So when you see me do my hair or get dressed up, something's wrong.

Amanda: I do something and “ooh, she's been somewhere fancy on Instagram.”

Debbie: The amount messages that I had – I think I had flat instead one day and I was going to an event, and I don't know why I did it, but I got a message and they go, “excuse me, where's your mum bun? Anyway –

Amanda: The best thing is everyone's got an opinion now, and that's the problem about being on social media. Luckily, I don't share my face too often. I don't really want to. 

I do sometimes ‘cause I feel like, “oh, maybe I should do the face behind the name”, but it's not for me.

Debbie: But it's your aesthetic. It's your thing.

Amanda: I never wanted to be a celebrity chef. I just like making stuff that people love. But it is one of those things where you just get the most hilarious comments, especially when you have the number of followers that I have, you don't know what people are gonna pick up on.

And there is a particular video — Sierra had a space party last year and so I made a space t-shirt, which had like silver foil and then all the planets, and it was quite a detailed t-shirt that required a number of layers.

They're doing kind of two of the top comments were, “why would you bother spending so much time doing it?” I'm not selling it. I'm making the one t-shirt for my child. These people are coming at it from a different lens, right?

So they're like, “why would you spend that time? It takes too much time.” It's like, “yeah, but I'm not making 50 of them. I make one.”

Also, “there are no clouds in space.” I mean, it was a spaceman sitting on a rocket, which let's be honest, doesn't happen in real life, sitting on a rocket with planets and clouds behind it. The one thing, every time it gets posted or reposted by anyone is there's no clouds in space. Oh my God. It's a cartoon.

Debbie: Let me be creative, alright?

Amanda: And I do have a bit of it – Lyndsay's a part of it, but there's a bit of a craft gang of us (a craft crew, not a gang that's got such a negative connotation), but like a craft crew who all come to craft for different things. We all do different things. But we get on, and so we chat on WhatsApp, we've got a WhatsApp group.

But you know, we're always coming to about the clouds. There are no clouds in space. I'm like, it's a cartoon.

You almost need that opportunity to vent to someone and go, “oh, look at this stupid comment.” because sometimes, you just can't believe that people think it's their right to say that thing. But it doesn't really bother me whether people like things or not, because I'm not trying to make money from it.

It doesn't matter because it's just what I like, and I know there's enough people out there that like the things that I like because I've grown in the way that I've grown. So you do kind of take everything with a grain of salt, that everyone has an opinion. It doesn't really matter what anyone's opinion is.

Debbie: I feel like there's so much information that you've given and I feel like everyone can learn so much from you. I know you are not that inspo, girl boss, you know all of that, but you are and you are amazing.

I know you've been amazing and I feel like people will learn a lot from this. So where can people find you?

Amanda: Well, I'm over on Instagram for the moment. If you listen to the podcast, over at Cricut Cult, so Cricut the machine that everyone knows and loves and cult cause it feels like a cult sometimes.

letsmakestuff_au on Instagram. I also have letsmakestuffau website, which kind of just is food photography stuff, probably not so relevant, and that's it. I don't do much of – oh and I'm on TikTok with Cricut Cult ‘cause I kind of have to be.

That's where you can find me in a long-winded, roundabout way of how I like to converse. 

Debbie: Thank you so much for your time, I appreciate it.

Amanda: Thanks Deb. Appreciate you.

Debbie: Thank you.