We were lucky to catch up with Bhumika Mehta recently and have shared our conversation below.
Bhumika, appreciate you joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today
You know, I love that I had no formal education in food and beverage photography. Even though this is something I’m still proud of, this definitely came with a steep learning curve.
In fact, I initially took this as only a hobby and posted on my personal Instagram for ages. Even as I got better, I got so far as to trying out influencer work and also worked at various companies in marketing positions, where I got to do some product and recipe based photography.
But this is exactly why I love this question because there’s DEFINITELY things I would do differently if I were to start over.
1. Knowing everything that I know today, I would prioritize investing in myself earlier on in my journey.
When you invest in yourself, you are able to pour that out to help other people through your most authentic self so much better.
In my case, I would have started investing a significant amount of my earnings a lot earlier into massively expanding my knowledge and growth. By this, I mean taking courses, sessions, coaching a lot earlier than I actually did to refine my photography skills and to increase my sales skills.
2. I would be more strategic with opportunities I picked while I was employed.
I worked at a couple of 9-5 jobs full time, part time and freelance – mostly at food related, health and wellness companies and small agencies because of my love for food and wellness. I had also started up a separate Instagram page sharing my recipes and creations and had just started to dabble in small influencer brand collaborations. At the time, this was all amazing. I was doing my 9-5 and then working on these creative pursuits after hours.
But sometimes what happens is, you think doing a specific thing (working with food and wellness brands in only marketing/social media positions) would give you the experience you’re seeking and that it’s taking you in the right direction; but you don’t always end up choosing what you REALLY need.
So in retrospect, during that time, I would have chosen to be bit more strategic or perhaps more niched down with some of my employment choices, keeping in mind my intention to learn more about the craft of content production as well. Say, seeking out more jobs working at a photography/production studio or something similar where I could gain more direct experience with production teams, seeing how their process worked etc.
3. Working on more collaborative projects.
While I have worked on collaborative projects and even went so far as to lead a creative workshop; looking back, I would have taken on a higher volume of collaborative projects with complementary service providers, like graphic designers, the branding team, social media persons, creative directors and other similar key people.
I think collaborative projects are immensely valuable. Especially when you’re working with other businesses to help them grow and advertise their products. And I say “higher volume” because first of all, you get to experience how different creative minds approach a project from their respective fields and areas of expertise. You get a better sense of understanding about how other aspects of commercial photography such as branding, marketing strategy etc play a big part in creating this content. It is also such a hands-on experience to see how other creatives work and think, what we can learn from them, come up with even better ideas together… and the best part is that you get quick, valuable insights you won’t get from anywhere else. But then again, it’s never too late to do more of those!
4. Create a proper system for everything in your business, including client experience.
Okay, for a virgo, I tend to hate setting up systems for things. I’m not talking about a clean closet or kitchen, rather having a business workflow system, automations and processes.
I know I’ve always wanted to keep everything organized and have this seamless and memorable experience, but as someone who wears so many hats, setting these up has been something I’d rather hire out so I can focus on my area of genius more than anything else.
But see that’s when I realised I needed to do this myself initially.
When I started to get more clients and take my business more seriously, I realised that I could be doing SO MUCH MORE to enhance my clients’ experience with me. I also realised I was doing my business and my time a disservice by not putting systems and processes in place to improve how everything was run. This would have to start with me even when I got to a point where I could outsource this, so why not start earlier vs fix chaos later on?
I could have saved a lot of time in the past and also offered a much better experience.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Bhumika Mehta, the food pun and latte loving face behind The Writer Eats Media.
I help food and beverage brands, (mostly vegan and vegetarian but some non-vegetarian) build brand awareness, market better, increase sales and make an impact through brand aligned, drool worthy visuals.
I was born in India and grew up in Dubai before moving to Canada for uni, where I majored in marketing. I began documenting my food journey after I struggled with my mindset around food. I experimented with different cuisines and posted my creations online, where eventually my friends and followers began asking me for the recipes.
My ten years in marketing and eight years in food photography, working with over 30+ brands has allowed me to expand my talent into videography, recipes, and content creation for impact-driven, vegan, vegetarian, and some non vegetarian food and beverage brands and for creators and cooks alike.
I love being your hype person, your biggest flan and telling your brand story with drool worthy brand-aligned visuals!
My clients have products across Canada and the US, in cafes, and grocery stores, have had increased sales after working together or have had their products sold out of stock as well. My detailed, empathetic approach helps brings your brand to life so customers choose your product over millions of competitors.
I take the time to get to know your brand and care about your success because I believe in your products as much as you do.
In addition to providing food and product photography, my services include brand partnerships, brand modelling, recipe development, and educating creators and businesses how to photograph and grow their business.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I never imagined that capturing food would one day be my full time business. I think my business went through a couple phases actually.
So first off, like I mentioned this side hustle started off as pure fun when I moved to Canada for uni and when I was discovering how to cook food and build a healthier relationship with food right? So I’d share even the simplest things like scrambled eggs with my healthy breakfast, or when I figured out how to make pancakes. Eventually, as my friends kept asking for more recipes and photos, this pushed me to start an Instagram page called “The Writer Eats” (I loved writing poetry, lyrics and short stories back then).
At this point, I figured, if I could look at beautiful food and feel inspired to eat better, I knew I could inspire others too. Coincidentally around this time, I got invited on air by a radio station back in Dubai to talk about eating healthy and sharing healthy balanced recipes as a 22 year old to inspire others to eat well. This was a milestone, the first one, that meant a lot to me because it meant that I was doing something right. And then, as I experimented more and fell in love with food a lot more, my images also transformed side by side. I also shared more inspirational food photos for a while on my page, which helped improve my creativity. Eventually as I felt a bit more confident to share more and more of my creations, I built the courage to pitch to brands too. I got approached by some of them brands as well, to feature their products. This was another important milestone for me because by working with local and some international brands – both paid and unpaid; this slowly built my confidence in my talent and skills. It told me my work was worth something.
Around then I was still employed; but at many of my jobs I just knew I wasn’t meant to be there. However, I was never sure of whether I could pull off starting my own business. Coincidentally, life tried to show this to me over and over again, until eventually it just decided to intervene and take the reins for a bit haha. I had an immigration hiccup come up and had to hit pause on employment for about a year. Even though that was quite stressful and I was dealing with a lot mentally, I still continued to photograph and enjoy my working on my creativity. And then 1 bite. 1 drink. 1 visual at a time, everything changed without me even realizing…
In 2020 after I could start working again, that’s when I decided that I’d go with the flow and do my own thing. Not knowing exactly what my next step was, as nerve-racking as it was because I was essentially starting from scratch; all I knew was that I was happy and relieved not to be relying on anyone. Not being at someone’s whim, not putting energy somewhere I could be replaced by for any rhyme or reason, or being under someone who didn’t care about employee growth.
I still did influencer work, which was paying the bills… and then one day, this happened.
An email from a really well known wellness brand popped up in my inbox, asking me if I was interested in doing a shoot to help them launch a new product they were working on.
I still remember asking them in shock and disbelief, “Is this a brand partnership or are you asking me to shoot for your marketing specifically?”.
Gah, I was sooo nervous. I had this fiery internal debate going on after I hit send. “Are you seriousss?? Did you just ask what you did?” “How could you even ask them if this was for their marketing?? You’re just an influencer! Of course they only want you to promote their product nothing else (not that anything’s wrong with being an influencer!! Just my self worth at the time)” “Ugh the fact that you even asked shows you’re not confident. You botched this!” “Wtf are you doing?! You’re probably not even going to hear back.” To hear back from them felt like eternity.
And then they replied. It was indeed for their launch, not influencer work.
Here’s where things changed again. They really changed.
Being asked by a popular wellness brand, locally and nationally recognized? I mean…heck yeah!!
This was a milestone that helped me realise I was at the level where I could work with brands from not just an influencer perspective, but also from a perspective of adding value to other aspects of their business and marketing.
It also meant I unlocked a new level of scalability as well!
This was a defining moment for me. I was feeling proud of myself, feeling like I was actually capable of doing this, which was a total confidence boost.
This was THE SIGN that I was on the right path. That assuring sign that leaving the 9-5 life was the right decision.
I have since worked with over 30+ local and national brands, collecting SO MUCH experience and also so many lessons on the way. I’m so proud of the people that say their products are now available at more retail locations since working together. I’m so happy for the ones that previously worked from their homes but have since opened a designated office/work space for their business. I’m so ecstatic for the ones that have had their products sold out or gone out of stock by demand and for those who have increased sales. I’m also really rooting for those that are able to communicate the quality of their products through visuals and how they can help their customers.
I’m now at a point in my business where I’m earning more, looking to learn more and have also hit an exciting fork in the road, where I can choose how I want to scale. I’m definitely going to need help here, which is great!
And you know what’s even better? I can still apply all the things I would do if I could start over at this stage.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Great question!
I didn’t dive into this until recently, but even though it’s had its ups and downs amongst creatives and users alike, I’d like to say Instagram has been one of the best sources of new clients for me. I’ve also been fortunate to have created influencer relations with companies, because its given my clients an insight into what I can create for them; after which many have worked together multiple times or on an on-going basis.
Another great source of new clients for me is having friends in the same industry as well as being in touch with complimentary service providers like graphic designers, social media managers etc. We’ve got each other’s backs when the right opportunities come up and also support each other’s growth. I truly believe in collaboration over competition!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thewritereats.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thewritereats
- Other: Email: [email protected]