We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Anderson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In August of 2021, I had the opportunity to test my faith. I left my family, friends, business, and other business opportunities in Michigan to move to California. I still grieve everything I left behind but I grieve in a positive way. A’Rae Photography and Caffeine My Life are the 2 businesses I put on hold for my big move. Along with wanting to start a dance non profit. Since my move I’ve been spending time getting acclimated and figuring out what chess piece to move next. My mind is always coming up with creative ideas; rather it be with writing, dancing, or photography.
You want to talk about taking a risk? I am back at square one. My faith in God is all about taking risk into the unknown. Moving forward, I will take all that I’ve learned with my previous businesses and rebuild stronger. And build more!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Amanda Rachel. Born in Detroit, Mi, raised in and around metro Detroit, and currently living in Los Angeles. I first got into writing, while in middle school-journaling and poetry. Then as I got older I continued to write more and more. I’ve written a lot of unpublished children’s books and songs. My latest writings have been on a blog I created. It’s about putting some caffeine into your life. Caffeinemylife.com

I was out of college by the time I fell in love with photography. Detroit is full of great, historical architecture and I’ve always been mesmerized by a good landscape; I would always say “someone needs to take that picture” when I saw a nice sunset or how the sun sat on top of a building. Eventually, I figured why not me?! So around the time where camera phones started getting more hi-tech, I took advantage and started snapping away at anything I thought needed to be photographed. I started posting on social media and people loved my photos. Someone inboxed me on Facebook and wanted me to take photos of them. At the time, I was just focused on capturing everything except people. I never wanted to take photos of people but after doing so a couple of times my love grew more. I love to capture moments for people, rather it’s an event or a photo shoot. Those moments you can only get back by looking at them frozen by my camera. Hearing the feedback from individuals, satisfied with the photos you’ve taken of them is almost priceless.

Around that same time I found my love for photography, I also found my love for dance. My mother was a dancer at church and before that she did a bit of ballet. Growing up, she tried getting me into cheerleading, gymnastics, and dancing. Growing up with 3 brothers, all playing basketball and a father who played basketball, I naturally fell into playing basketball. It was a basketball house! So after all of these years of my mom trying to get me to dance, I went to a ballroom class with her and my oldest brother. That was in 2012-I have not put up my dance shoes yet! I have done a series of competitions and taught a series of classes/workshops. I can Detroit Ballroom, Detroit Bop, Chicago Step, Salsa, Bachata, and Latin Hustle. If they were to ever add any of these dances to Dancing with the Stars, I’m there!

I am a ball of creativity. My calling in this life is to use all of my creativity to help others. In order for me to do that, I have to live my life down a narrow pathway. A pathway led by God. The me who I am now is not the me who I was last week. The me who I’ll be a month from now is not the me who I currently am. I picked up my little life and moved it across the country because of my faith in The Word given to me. I don’t do anything unless it lines up with what God has for me.

I have notebooks of ideas and businesses. All that will be solutions to someone’s problems, creatively. I’m just getting started.

Stay tuned…

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to live a life, worthy of my calling in life. My end game is to save lives through my stories, through my lens, and through my dance.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Consistency and honesty. Every single business ever, has clientele. In order to keep your clientele they need to know that you will deliver in the same way that kept them coming back. To deliver in a better way is a bonus. Consistency will help keep you from complacency.

Let’s face it, as much as we depend on technology it is not as reliable as we think. I’ve had a couple of complications when it came to a camera malfunction, lighting issues, or music blowing a speaker. With that, I had to let the client know what was going on. Even when the problem was solved, I would give a little more for the inconvenience. When you’re honest, you’re trusted and respected.

Contact Info:

• Website: Caffeinemylife.com
• Instagram: @_mandaanderson, @caffeinemylife
• Facebook: Amanda R. Anderson
• Other: Currently working on new websites and updated social media handles!

Image Credits
Marcel Brown Mishira “Cha Cha” Davis