Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaydee Miller.
Hi Kaydee, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve been a baker for almost as long as I can remember. Even back when I was a young girl, I remember setting aside copious amounts of time to perfect my German chocolate cake, cheesecake, marshmallow fondant, and the list goes on. I’ve always had a huge sweet tooth and a creative, ambitious mind that has allowed me to express myself through baking and cooking.
After I moved to Minneapolis from my hometown of St. Cloud, I was thrilled to see so many local restaurants, coffee shops, and distilleries in close proximity to me. By listening to word of mouth from locals or surfing Yelp, I’ve had the pleasure to find many local spots in Minneapolis with mind-blowingly delicious desserts, drinks, and dishes. I’ve enjoyed some of the best burgers, pizza, curry, and pasta I’ve ever had right here in this city, and something inside me tells me I need to share them with the world!
Since I first started sharing my Minneapolis Foodie experience, I’ve had the chance to work with some great local spots like Honour Cafe and Red Cow. I hope to continue hopping around the city to find the best bites, and share my excitement with others!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Before I began posting more foodie content, I wasn’t very happy with how social media made me feel. Oftentimes, when sharing photos of myself or my life on Instagram, I found myself worrying about whether everyone would like the content and thus becoming quite self-conscious. I wanted my social media to be an expression of what I loved, not a place to compare myself to others.
After starting a pattern of posting about my foodie experiences on Instagram, I realized I found a lot of joy from sharing my excitement and knowledge about food with the world, and that focusing on this kind of content could actually make me a lot happier with the role social media played in my life.
Also, as someone who works a 9-5 job and doesn’t have all of the disposable income in the world, it can sometimes be tough to “fund” my foodie content on social media. Going out to eat or drink is expensive, and doing it multiple times a week can really add up. It was tough to make a side hustle out of posting my foodie content initially because I was low on funds. Eventually, after creating stronger relationships with the foodie community and local restaurants, I was able to start getting paid to share my reviews and photos on Instagram.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I work as a full time business professional job at Thomson Reuters for my 9-5 career. Creating online food, modeling, and Marketing content is something I started doing as a side gig, but realized I wanted to make it more official. I started to understand that I could turn the combination of my Entrepreneurship degree, professional modeling experience, and love for food into a business: Being a cheerleader online for local restaurants and cafes by enthusiastically sharing their amazing food with my followers. What sets me apart from others is that I have a huge amount of positive energy to share with the world, can successfully create hype amongst my followers for just about any kind of local spot, and I’m proactive in supporting these restaurants in my day-to-day life.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think the single most important thing you need to be successful is tenacity. In other words, perseverance. Persistence. Getting up when you’ve been knocked down. Being an entrepreneur of any kind, whether it’s marketing yourself or a larger business, is no easy path. Success doesn’t happen on day 2, and you need to keep on moving forward no matter what gets thrown at you. Those who succeed are those who kept going. Kept trying. I almost quit trying to be a quote “foodie” online and make a partial living out of it, but I realized I was tired of wishing for something instead of going for it.
Contact Info:
- Email: Kaydee at [email protected]
- Website: kaydee-amber.squarespace.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaydee.millerr/
