Daily Inspiration: Meet Katy McAvoy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katy McAvoy. 

Hi Katy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began studying photography in 2006 before creating a website in 2008 as a way to share a few recipes and my photography. But there wasn’t much substance to what I was posting. I had no idea how to turn my joy of taking and sharing photography into something people would pay attention to, let alone pay for. So, I left it as a hobby. 

I’ve worked full-time at nonprofit organizations for most of my career. When I was laid off in 2019, I knew people were making money with blogging, and I decided to start working on turning my website into a business. I love to cook and mix cocktails and am regularly asked for recipes, so I pivoted all of my content to food and drink. That’s also when I realized that I had no idea what it took to be a successful blogger. I started learning everything I could, but also found another job and went back to nonprofit work. My plan was to continue growing my site while working full-time, with the eventual goal of quitting my job to blog full-time. 

In June of 2020, three months into the pandemic, I was furloughed from my job. I immediately turned to my blog as a way to cope and to fill my time while also caring for my then 4-year-old daughter. If I achieved nothing else, I saw blogging as a way to sharpen my skills for future employers. Writing, editing, photography, photo editing, social media management, WordPress management – these are all skills needed to run a successful website, whether it’s a blog or corporate site. 

By the end of 2020, with lots of job searching done but no job in sight, I decided to get a little more serious about turning my website into a viable source of income. I filed an LLC for my company in January of 2021, planned out some website content, and kept looking for full-time jobs. It took several more months of fruitless job searching before I realized that none of this was working and my husband and I made the decision for me to pursue blogging full time. 

Since that point, I’ve taken blogging business courses, food photography courses, turned our guest bedroom into a photography studio, invested in equipment, learned about SEO (search engine optimization) and Keyword Research, written countless recipes, and done more backend work on my website that I ever dreamed possible. I’ve also defined exactly what my goals are with my business and the blog is just one of them. Food photography and recipe development are now two big areas of focus for me, which lead to publishing my own cocktail book – Homemade Happy Hour – in October 2021. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The stress of job loss, the pandemic, and raising a young child have all played huge rolls in this journey. 

I started rebuilding the site in 2019 with what I had on hand, and “use what you’ve got” became the mantra for my work through most of 2020. It took a lot of research, planning, and saving for each step forward in building my business. I used my old DSLR camera and lenses to take photos. I made photography backdrops with what we had in the garage and a few inexpensive supplies from the hardware store. The glasses, plates, and bowls I used in my photos came out of our kitchen cupboards. The flowers and herbs in my shots were picked from our yard. 

One of the biggest expenses we cut from the family budget was childcare, with the agreement that I would take on those duties before and after school, as well as on holidays, breaks, snow days, summer vacation, etc. This proved particularly challenging throughout the summer months when I was shooting and writing my cocktail book. A 5-year-old only has so much patience on a gorgeous summer day before they want to go outside and play! 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
It has taken a lot of practice to find my photography style, especially when it comes to food and drinks. I started my photography journey with nature as my subject of choice, and find myself gravitating towards a dark, earthy style for food and drink photography as well. I also have a love for capturing movement in my photography and take a lot of images that include motion – liquids pouring or splashing, a fork picking up a bite, a drip of honey, a chip dipping into a bowl. I started off taking these types of shots as a challenge to myself, but have found the more I do them, the more I love them and they’re now standard practice on any photoshoot I do. 

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
One of the biggest investments I’ve made in my business to date was taking a food blogging mastermind class from a successful blogger whose work I admired. This not only allowed me to connect directly with my instructor, but I was also able to meet and interact with the other women taking the course who all had similar goals as me. Even after the course, we have become a support network for each other, and having that kind resource is invaluable. 

Pricing:

• Homemade Happy Hour Book $25 (mittengirl.com/book)

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://mittengirl.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/katymcavoy
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/mittengirl
• Other: https://pinterest.com/katymcavoy/

Image Credits
Katy McAvoy