We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amanda Hornberger. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amanda below.

Amanda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far is the album Something Ventured, which I created with my friend and writing partner, Matt Juliano. At the time, it was the middle of the pandemic and I had lost all my work and my home since I couldn’t pay rent. It was over a year of me not singing because it broke my heart to do it after everything I had lost. Here I was, a person who had been singing her whole life and performing on stage since she was 3 years old, and I couldn’t find my voice anymore. I couldn’t write music and I used to be a prolific songwriter. Then, my friend Matt reminded me that we had written a number of songs which were in various stages of finished and most of them hadn’t really been heard by people. He paid for us to record the album and did most of the work to make it happen. All I had to do was show up on the day we were recording vocals and sing. To this day, that album is one of the most meaningful things anyone has ever given me because it was given by a friend who wanted to remind me of my spark and let me know he believes in me.

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’m a multi-passionate creative so I’ll have to break this down into sections. My path has been a winding road with a lot of surprising twists and turns.

Theatre: I’ve been performing on stage since I was 3 years old and doing it professionally since I was 14. I have a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Central Florida. My most recent credit is Princess Diana in the national regional premiere of Diana: The Musical.

Music: I’ve also written music since I was very young but I got serious about it when I was in college. My music is inspired by 1950s rockabilly — especially the music that came out of Sun Studio. Some of my songs have been played on Rockabilly Radio. I have sung backup for an Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist, as well. I would love for you to have a listen to my latest album Something Ventured.

Intuitive/Copywriting Work: In the years leading up to the pandemic, I went through a profound spiritual awakening triggered by past life memories resurfacing. I went down the spiritual rabbit hole and became a professional psychic medium, tarot reader, and reiki healer. During the shutdowns, I worked at the famous haunted Hotel Cassadaga and gained a lot of experience in a short time reading over 200 clients in a span of 6 months. That was the hardest year of my life and afterwards, I took some time away from creative work to get the ground back under my feet. Eventually, I was able to synthesize my knowledge of the spiritual entrepreneurship space with a newfound passion for copywriting. Now, I help spiritual entrepreneurs with their copywriting and marketing strategy, amplifying the voices of businesses I believe in. This copywriting work has been fulfilling and it provides me with the time and energy to pursue other creative work. My business is called Queen of Swords Copywriting and I’m proud to say that I’ve only been in business for a year but I’ve been able to build up enough consistent work to quit my day job.

In a lot of ways, all these various seemingly unrelated parts of my life come together to create beautiful synergy. As a copywriter, you have to find the voice of your client’s business. My theatre and intuitive skills come in handy to help me visualize the audience I’m writing for and speak directly to them. I’m proud and enthused to work with business owners who are actively making the world a better place with their work. I write email campaigns, blogs, social media ads, and website copy. I also released an online course this year for spiritual entrepreneurs who want to learn the basics of copywriting and marketing strategy. Like the Queen of Swords in the tarot, my writing is honest and my aim is to capture the authentic feel of each business I write for.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn a lot of boxes I was taught I had to fit in to be successful as a performer. When you go to college for musical theatre, you spend several years being told who you are, how you should dress, and how you should behave to get the job. Once you get out of the protected container of college, you quickly learn that the box is really a cookie cutter and it’s impossible to stand out if you’re trying to be what other people think you should be.

The more I have embraced myself as a person, the more I have been chosen as a performer. Authenticity helps you magnetize the opportunities that are right for you and weed out the ones that aren’t.

For example, in college, we were told to wear jewel-toned dresses that were simple and not distracting and wear our character heels to auditions. I’d show up to auditions and see 100 other girls who looked exactly like me. After the pandemic, it had been a few years since I had done an audition. I wore what I wanted to wear and used comfortable shoes. And I booked the biggest role of my life.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Create a culture where we aren’t in survival mode. Make housing affordable. Require day jobs to pay enough that a person can pay their rent, eat, and have insurance without having to have 3 jobs in addition to their creative work. It’s extremely difficult to be creative when your brain is in fight or flight. If we want a society that has vibrant culture, art, music, film, theatre, etc., then we should take a page from the Renaissance’s book and value artists more. Society needs to recognize art as a viable and necessary profession. Think of all the people who have the potential to be the greatest artists of our time but they never reach that potential because they can barely survive. You shouldn’t have to have inherited wealth to be a creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.queenofswordscopy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda.lyn12
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actoramandalyn12
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-hornberger/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@amandalyn12