A (very) unfiltered Q&A 🤝
& how to make the charcuterie board that hit 26.6 million views
Behind the Board
Brace yourself.
Because this may just be my least filtered newsletter yet 👀
About a month or so ago, I asked you to submit your juiciest questions on Instagram - your realest, rawest “no holding back” questions. SO today I’m here, lid lifted, ready to expose the truest form of “Behind the Scenes” (for both Vision Boards Charcuterie…. and my personal life 😅).
Ready? Here we go.
Question 1: “How do you make the most of your income?”
In the fullest transparency, most of my income is generated through brand partnerships (I’d say roughly 90%). I absolutely LOVE coming up with creative concepts and working with brands that I feel genuinely connected to (recommending products I actually love, in the kind of content I’d want to see myself). My charcuterie courses make up about ~8% of my income, followed by affiliate links that are roughly ~2%.
Question 2: Is this your full time job, or do you have another job?
This is not my full time job! I also help support one of my besties in a marketing capacity for her online Excel training business. I have a 7+ year background and degree in marketing (it’s my jam) and while charcuterie has my whole heart, marketing will always be my first “creative language”. It’s been a DREAM getting to build and balance Vision Boards Charcuterie part time, while also working alongside my bestie to help her build her dream biz part time.
Question 3: What’s your worst brand rejection story?
Oof, this is a tough one to answer. The truth of the matter is that I’ve learned to look at “rejection” as “redirection” - because every “no” has always made space for something better. In the fullest transparency, I do get rejected a good bit in this business, because I’m constantly putting myself out there. Some partnerships end up moving forward and some don’t and that’s ok! I will say that my younger self would be SO PROUD at the fact that I even have the courage to “pitch” myself; to raise my hand, believe in my business and to keep showing up even when the answer isn’t always yes 100% of the time. And if it’s a brand I reeeeally want to partner with? You can bet they’re getting a follow up roughly 3 months later (even if I got a “not right now”) originally 😊.
Question 4: Can you give advice on how to start the same business?
Honestly I feel like this question deserves its own dedicated newsletter post (is this something you would want to learn?! If so, please let me know in the comments!). But to keep it super high level, if I was starting over and wanted to create an online community & business, I would start with the following:
Get clear on what YOU love: Not what’s “trendy”, not what you think people want, but get clear on what genuinely lights you up and feels sustainable to talk about on repeat (because I promise you’ll be dedicating a loooot of time and energy to this subject 😅).
See how you can differentiate yourself: In a sea of so many creators and sheer content, how can you bring your unique gifts to the table and differentiate yourself from the noise.
Start sharing before you feel ready: This is important! As a grade a perfectionist (if you read my July reflections post, you know that’s me to a tee), you’ll never feel fully ready. And if you keep pushing it off and pushing it off, you may never actually take the leap. Be Nike…and just freaking do it.
Focus on building connection (not numbers!!!): Relationships > Reach. The most meaningful growth I’ve had came from showing up honestly, genuinely and sharing what I love consistently. It didn’t come from chasing viral trends.
Pick 1 platform and dive DEEEEP: For the first 2 years in business I really only focused on Instagram (I love love love the creative freedom, the flexibility, the visual nature of it - It really gives modern day Tumblr in my opinion) and I didn’t start to expand on other platforms until I fully had my footing on Instagram. Only then did I start re-posting to TikTok and Facebook! I’m definitely still learning the other platforms 😅 But I’m so happy that I doubled down on one instead of biting off more than I could chew (personally).
Pay Attention to what’s resonating: Look at your data and make decisions based on it (marketing 101). If there’s a post that performs great, make more content like it. If you receive tons of positive feedback on something you offered, take note of it. If a video flopped, you know to pivot for next time. There’s no failing - there’s only winning & learning.
Question 5: What’s a moment you wanted to shut this all down and go back to your 9-5 corporate job?
When I first started Vision Boards Charcuterie, I was posting daily but really not seeing any traction. It honestly felt like I was spinning my wheels and I couldn’t help but get in my head about it. For a brief moment, I questioned why I was choosing this path - staying where I was, with a consistent salary at my corporate job was “easier”. But in all honesty, I’ve always known I was meant for something different. Vision Boards Charcuterie was a slow start, I’ll be honest, but consistency, patience and a little delulu really became my best qualities 🤣. If you tuned into last week’s newsletter, you know *exactly* what changed the game for me and once I began creating more content like that, everything began to snowball. Those “start up days” were slow (and hard) and there were many moments I thought to myself “maybe I should just shut this all down”, but looking back now…I’m so happy I powered through.
Question 6: How does your husband feel about being in your videos?
Hahaha this is an amazing question. I genuinely think he enjoys it. I keep trying to convince him to start an account of his own - he absolutely LOVES to cook and he’s so dang good at it! In the fullest transparency, I haven’t cooked a single meal in our household since our wedding day. So maybe one day he’ll listen to me and start a food account 🤣 For now I guess I’ll just keep posting his amazing meals on my stories!!
Question 7: Do you take orders or are you just an online/influencer platform?
I do not take orders! I guess you could consider Vision Boards Charcuterie an influencer platform (is that the proper terminology? Idk haha). In short, I just love sharing styling tips, creative board inspo and ways to entertain at home with family and friends. I’ve learned that you don’t need to be a “professional” to make professional level boards (because if amature me can do it, anyone can). SO Vision Boards Charcuterie is all about spreading that awareness and sharing inspiration that feels creative, doable and fun 🫡.
Question 8: What’s the most awkward situation you’ve found yourself in for Vision Boards Charcuterie?
Not so much awkward, but definitely a learning lesson, my first year in business I was full blown scammed. Thank goodness I caught it right away and nothing terrible happened but long story short, a “client” sent a fake check that eventually bounced once deposited. Although terrible, I’m grateful for the lesson it taught me. During this experience, every internal alarm was ringing and my gut was screaming “no no no” and it turns out, those instincts were 100% right. Always always listen to your gut (even if it feels uncomfy in the moment). I’ve learned that my gut always knows my truth, even before my brain has time to process sometimes. Speaking of which, do I have any human design friends in the house?! Sacral Mani Gen over here 👋🏼 (so listening to my gut is crucial in decision making).
Question 9: Where do you see Vision Boards Charcuterie in 5 years?
I love this question ❤️ In all honesty, I’m not sure! I never in a million years could have predicted where I am today and while I have big dreams (Food Network feature, a cookbook), I’m so incredibly open to the magic that lies in simply not knowing. I definitely see myself continuing to build this beautiful community and showing up every day with intention, creativity and trust that whatever’s next will unfold exactly the way it’s meant to.
Question 10: What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you?
Hahaha ohhhh this is a good one - I have a whole newsletter post on this 😅 Feel free to read it here:
That’s a wrap on this week’s unfiltered Q&A! Any extra juicy questions that I missed? Drop a comment below 👇
Charcuterie Spotlight
Last June I posted an Instagram reel that hit 26.6 Million views (check it out here). I can’t quite put my finger on what made it so successful; whether it was the styling techniques I used, the ingredients, the hook, the audio, or maybe a combination of all of the above - I honestly don’t know.
But what I do know is that the board was incredibly simple to make and that you can easily re-create this same exact spread at home.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Styling time: ~1 hour
Feeds 15-20 people as an appetizer
Here are the ingredients I used: