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Enjoying the Sweet Taste of Success, Amanda Cupcake
Episode 1018th October 2023 • The Second Chapter • Slackline Productions
00:00:00 00:51:37

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Amanda Rudd, aka Amanda Cupcake, started out in fashion but the fast pace and stress led to anxiety and health problems. She did something she thought she'd never do (listen to the podcast to find out what!), which has allowed her to discover that sometimes the best fashion model is a cupcake and success isn't always what we think.

For more on Amanda, go to her website: www.amanda-cupcake.com

Instagram: @amandacupcake

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On The Second Chapter, serial careerist and founder of Slackline Productions, Kristin Duffy, chats with women who started the second (or third… or fifth!) chapter in their careers and lives, after 35. You’ll find inspiring stories, have a few laughs, and maybe even be motivated to turn the page on your own second chapter!

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Transcripts

Enjoying the Sweet Taste of Success, Amanda Cupcake

[:

[00:00:19] While I study filmmaking and set the path to tell even more incredible stories of women over 35. This week, I'm speaking with Amanda Rudd, aka Amanda Cupcake. Amanda started out in fashion, but the fast pace and stress led to anxiety and health problems. She did something she thought she'd never do, which has allowed her to discover that sometimes the best fashion model is a cupcake.

[:

[00:00:56] Kristin: Hi, Amanda. Thank you so much for joining me on the second chapter. How are you?

[:

[00:01:08] Kristin: I'm really, a tough interview. We're going to get to the bottom of things, so no, I'll go gentle.

[:

[00:01:15] Kristin: For those who are listening, I have to say that I'm looking at Amanda next to the most beautiful pink sparkly wall. So she's giving me all kinds of joy.

[:

[00:01:27] Kristin: glitter makes everything better. Thank you for bringing a little glitter into my evening, which I desperately need after a long day.

[:

[00:01:42] Amanda: I love it. It's fabulous.

[:

[00:01:52] Amanda: I do have some pink wig tips that I could share.

[:

[00:01:59] Kristin: I'm not. I did wear a wig cap when I wore this officially, to be fair.

[:

[00:02:33] So then you can't see the darker hairline. So those are a couple of wig tips and and the one that I have here, I buy on Amazon and it's actually pretty inexpensive. But it looks

[:

[00:03:01] Amanda: of those tips I got from it was like a drag queen show on Netflix, I think, or was it on Hulu? Something like that. I watched them and I got tips from watching drag queens,

[:

[00:03:17] Amanda: right?

[:

[00:03:28] Amanda: It's Wapaka,

[:

[00:03:31] Amanda: Wapaka, but that might be with my Wisconsin accent. So you can say it however you

[:

[00:03:49] Amanda: Love it.

[:

[00:03:53] Amanda: Waupaka has a population of, I think like around 6, 000. It's a pretty small town in central Wisconsin. And. I stuck out like a sore thumb there my whole life. I've always been like the sensitive, unique, creative, quirky artist type I guess. So I always wanted, I always dreamed of like getting out of Waupaka and I had these big dreams of being a fashion designer and like moving away and seeing my name in lights and leaving the bullies behind.

[:

[00:04:41] Kristin: So as somebody who grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is a lot bigger than Waupaka but still, pretty like Midwestern small ish city and then having moved to New York for fashion, I have a vision of the, I don't know, the shock to the system, that comes from, Being, even though, I, like you, I was like, I'm a creative and I'm going to get out of here and all the rest.

[:

[00:05:11] Amanda: Honestly, I felt free. A lot of people would be totally freaked out, but I waited a while, I stayed. in like the Wisconsin area until I was in my mid twenties. So it's not like I moved like right away after I graduated high school or anything. And I dabbled in doing hair. I was like, you know what, if I can't do fashion, maybe I'll be a cosmetologist.

[:

[00:05:51] Kristin: definitely.

[:

[00:06:03] And so I found my wild side when I moved out there.

[:

[00:06:15] Amanda: Both. Probably both. I went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising for product development in the fashion industry and I did so well in college. I was like a superstar in college. But I also Definitely through the most amazing parties in Burbank, California, in my apartment complex.

[:

[00:06:42] Kristin: indeed.

[:

[00:07:03] I, I have all these amazing one of a kind memories from living out there. Yeah, it was, it just freed up my spirit and I could experiment with kind of learning who I was by making mistakes. And also by being like, okay, I want to keep this part of my wild side, too.

[:

[00:07:53] Amanda: I agree. It made me realize that there is no shame in having that wild side. You just gotta tweak it a little bit so that... I don't know, maybe add some wisdom to the wild side, if that makes sense.

[:

[00:08:33] Tell me a little bit about that.

[:

[00:09:08] And they interviewed me, and I got into this exclusive program. And I got to travel. I went to Hong Kong, Italy, Paris for inspiration, and I partnered with Vanity Fair Corporation. Their brands are, like, Jansport, Lee the Riders brand, which is who I worked with, and they wanted me to come up with A marketing plan for them.

[:

[00:10:16] And so when you, if you felt bad that day or just felt insecure about putting your jeans on that day. you'll see this al quote and it'll make you feel better. And it'll be like, yes, I do shine. And so a few years ago, actually in a whole other lifetime now, my friend gave me a pair of her Lee jeans and I unfolded them.

[:

[00:11:12] Kristin: Obviously, people that have listened to the podcast will know how much, inspirational quotes, or I don't even like to say inspirational quotes, because sometimes I think, it's more about something that means something to me . God knows it's. Trying on jeans is like every woman's nightmare. So to just have something that just reminds you you do shine or whatever that is in your jeans is a, just a small way to just make somebody's day a little bit brighter, I think.

[:

[00:11:47] like

[:

[00:11:49] Kristin: like cupcakes, which we will get to cupcakes, but obviously you spent a little time some time in fashion in LA. Tell me a little bit about what you were doing once you graduated.

[:

[00:12:25] And I would work with all the factories and get everything made from concept to completion. So sometimes I go on Pacific Sunwear and I'd be like, I know that design. I helped make that.

[:

[00:12:48] Amanda: I feel like we have so much in common then.

[:

[00:13:07] Amanda: Wow. And that's how we connected.

[:

[00:13:15] Amanda: Yeah, Appleton is so close to Oshkosh.

[:

[00:13:35] So I'm pretty sure that was pretty good.

[:

[00:13:40] Kristin: Now I'm on the spot. She was like, sorry, we don't have any mid sized cars. We've,

[:

[00:13:49] Kristin: We've run out of mid sized cars, so we can give you a large car. But yeah, I don't know. Now I'm embarrassed to have done it in front of you. I feel like I'm going all red, but my friend was really giving me a hard time.

[:

[00:14:03] Kristin: So fashion is stressful. I think we would both agree. And I think that some of the stress and maybe a little bit of disillusion led you to not really want to do it anymore. Similarly to, again, me, but tell me your story about kind of stress and disillusion and just wanting to get out of fashion.

[:

[00:14:50] She loved me, but she used to say to me I'm really hard on you because I see so much potential in you. And for me as a sensitive person, as a highly sensitive person, that is just not the way to connect with me at all or to motivate me. And so I had that going on. And you'd think like working in the surf industry, everything's super chill, but it was not.

[:

[00:15:24] And I've been doing this now for six years and it wasn't getting any easier and I really wasn't moving anywhere. And I wasn't really growing. Like in my career, and I'm like, is this it? Is this, I'm just gonna be super stressed all the time, and I can't seem to do anything right, like according to my boss.

[:

[00:16:02] There's just a lot going on. And then. On top of it, I started getting this autoimmune, like mystery autoimmune disease. And then on top of that, like my best friend, my mom back in Wisconsin was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. And I'm like, this is just, this is too much. What am I going to do? And so I was like I never thought I would make this decision, but I'm just going to go home for a while.

[:

[00:16:35] Kristin: You mentioned thinking that you would never do something like that. At the time, obviously there were. many reasons to make that happen. There were, you were doing it for your own health, to look after your mom. Did it feel like a failure to say, all right, I'm going back home.

[:

[00:16:52] back to this small town.

[:

[00:17:18] But I went back and I didn't really know my next move. I just started doing some self therapeutic, like coping, baking activities.

[:

[00:17:38] something to do with your hand, something to take your mind off things.

[:

[00:18:18] It's a person. It's not just a bakery or a thing, it's a person. And so I decided to start like a baking blog, like not really thinking anything of it. And so I started sharing my recipes. on this baking blog.

[:

[00:18:46] Amanda: I think it, it made me happy. I, at that point in my life, I call it a dark point in my life with my mental health, my own health, the beginning of the down, the downfall of my mom's health. It was just like a dark place and I needed this rainbow bright character in my life and I created her and she became my alter ego, but she's also who I really truly am on the inside.

[:

[00:19:20] Kristin: And I feel like cupcakes have they basically have taken you on this whole trajectory, but it started with the blog, but then you started baking for a diner in your hometown as well.

[:

[00:19:49] And so I started baking my cupcakes there at night and selling my cupcakes there at the diner during the day.

[:

[00:20:24] Kristin: Do you think there's something to be said for, big fish, small pond, small fish, big pond kind of thing, but like getting to come home and finding this alter ego and finding this part of yourself that maybe was hidden in a bigger city where you had to be fast paced versus, in a smaller place, really being discovered and making this name for yourself and getting to influence and inspire a lot of people through what you're doing.

[:

[00:21:06] Kristin: And that's one of the things I loved when I first saw um, your Instagram page is where I originally saw everything, but everything was creative. It wasn't just, oh, I'm doing colorful cupcakes or, and in fact, wasn't it a cake? What was the cake?

[:

[00:21:22] Amanda: I said too old for Leo DiCaprio. It was for my, it was for my friend that she was in her forties and she was, she's a widow. And so she's trying to date right now and she shares like all her stories with me, but she's also grieving. So I had to make her something fun and funny and she loved it.

[:

[00:21:53] Amanda: That's how we met was through that cake.

[:

[00:22:02] Amanda: And That's what my cupcakes and my cakes do a lot. I, it has united me with people that I never knew that I would ever get to meet. And I've had experiences because of these cupcakes that I've made in my art.

[:

[00:22:28] Amanda: So I've been doing Amanda Cupcake for 10 years. I have been on a roller coaster, okay? When I talk about failure, I don't talk about it in a shameful way anymore because I have been the, through the ultimate failures, as Amanda Cupcake. After the little diner I opened a little retail store called the Cupcake Mansion.

[:

[00:23:23] And people would come and throw, I would go outside and throw sprinkles and make wishes. I really tried to create this dream, but behind the scenes I was struggling.

[:

[00:23:46] And as a creative who is learning and making mistakes, I don't have that necessarily manager mindset where I can teach everybody exactly the structure that they need to follow to do my cupcakes, how I would do them. They're not me. And so it was very difficult. That's what people, my customers were expecting is every cupcake to look like I designed it, but I have to hand this over to other people because I can't do it all on my own.

[:

[00:24:43] And the day that it closed, I. I really grieved that loss because, when people think of opening a bakery, it is very glamorized. They're like, oh, I'll open a cute little bakery.

[:

[00:25:24] Kristin: I think what you said too you mentioned when you were making cupcakes for the diner, being able to use the kitchen at night. So people don't think about, if I want to have a bakery, I'm either up all night or. Up really early and then like you said, you have to sell a lot of cupcakes to pay staff.

[:

[00:25:48] Amanda: right,

[:

[00:26:04] They were like, yes, you can sell your cupcakes here.

[:

[00:26:22] I don't have the capital to start my own cupcake factory. So I became the cupcake factory. I called myself a walking cupcake factory because I did it all.

[:

[00:26:34] Amanda: it was not sustainable. I was wearing myself out. And everyone loved it. I had so many people, they still come to me to this day and be like, I remember when your cupcakes were at Woodman's and I would go look for them.

[:

[00:27:14] for me so that I didn't have to pay employees. They could just take a portion and we could get in all the stores. And I just wasn't quite big enough, but I was also too small. And that I ended it. I was like, I cannot keep up with this. And so that was another process that I went through. And after that I took a step back and a deep breath.

[:

[00:28:00] So then I started a whole new chapter of my life at that point.

[:

[00:28:21] Amanda: Yeah. So I decided to be a stay at home mom. My daughter's name is Rebel,

[:

[00:28:28] Amanda: I figured you would like that name. And so I decided to stay at home with her and I had no idea either what that looked like. And I struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety.

[:

[00:29:01] Maybe I can do a few things. But I will tell you after all this, too, I really evaluated what got me here. And did I still want to be Amanda Cupcake? And I said, yes, because Amanda Cupcake is part of who I am. And I just can't let go of her. I can't let go of her. I really feel like she is like what I've always strived for since the time I lived in Wapaka as like a teenager.

[:

[00:29:35] It's hard to give up your business because it's your baby, but it's also probably even more difficult if it's your whole person wrapped up in it.

[:

[00:29:50] Kristin: Spoiler alert.

[:

[00:30:07] Yeah.

[:

[00:30:11] Amanda: Yeah. Yeah. So it's. All of this beautiful mess.

[:

[00:30:25] Amanda: Yeah, I actually started over and I've been working on redeveloping my brand ever since I had my daughter. It used to be that Amanda cupcake was a mask and I actually had a Mickey mouse voice that I would use with kids. My husband, when he was my boyfriend back then, he would just look at me like, why are you using that voice?

[:

[00:31:02] Kristin: going to think mine's my real hair.

[:

[00:31:06] Kristin: Yeah. I desperately need some fixing up.

[:

[00:31:29] And I love creating my own thing and do not like doing custom orders where people just send me like a Pinterest picture and say, Hey, can you make this? I like doing my own thing. So then I did the classes for a little while and they were a huge hit locally. And I still did my TV appearances and things like that while I was being a mom. And then the pandemic hit. And so no more classes.

[:

[00:31:59] Amanda: We've heard that so many times and it changed everything. And so again, I took another break. Within this last year, my daughter went to school and I started, I was like, am I going to go out working or am I going to, experiment with Amanda Cupcake because I haven't really been that successful financially.

[:

[00:32:53] And then having this wild like Amanda cupcake character on my resume with all my experiences, I don't think people knew what to do with me. So I couldn't, I just kept getting turned down for jobs.

[:

[00:33:27] People are like, you have great experience in life or in doing different things, but what do we do with you? You're not the cookie cutter. It's easy to find the, highlight words on the resume and say, yeah, this is perfectly where you should be in this world.

[:

[00:33:45] Kristin: Exactly. We're

[:

[00:33:50] Kristin: I couldn't resist.

[:

[00:33:54] Kristin: Thank you. What kind of made you say, you know what, they're not going to find the right place for me. I'm going to keep persevering with my love of cupcakes and pop ups and all the rest.

[:

[00:34:41] And I show up at this business. And I promote their business by being there and vice versa. And I'm, I just spend like a week or so just creating cupcake art in my kitchen.

[:

[00:35:16] Kristin: I love too that we are, I think, finally recognizing that art is so broad. Cupcakes can be art or, I've got two sisters who are hairdressers and they make art. That is their art. My one sister studied fine art and yet, decided that she wanted in the same way that your design, you're dressing up cupcakes instead of she's, her art is her fine art is hair and I think it's, there's really something to be said about being appreciated for being creative, no matter how you choose to channel that creativity.

[:

[00:35:51] Amanda: It does, right? And there is this, intuition and it comes from being a sensitive person but there is this intuitive gift that I have and I've always wanted to like maybe start a new account called like the Cupcake Medium or the Intuitive Cupcake or something because I will make a cupcake and it will somehow speak to that person or they'll be like how did you know that this is exactly what I needed.

[:

[00:36:27] Kristin: I have two ideas for you. The cosmic cupcake or the clairvoyant cupcake.

[:

[00:36:38] Kristin: If nothing else, that'll be something maybe you can take away from being on the second chapter.

[:

[00:37:01] Kristin: I love an alliteration. So

[:

[00:37:07] Kristin: this is the other problem though, with being creative is that you get, like you said, when I'm back from this crazy thing, I'm thinking about this whole new thing. It just never ends. There's too many ideas.

[:

[00:37:23] Kristin: Tell me about the book though, because this is really interesting as well. The book tour.

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[00:37:47] Kristin: What's her name as well? So we can give her a shout.

[:

[00:37:58] Her name for this book is Eliza Evans, and she actually lives in Oshkosh, but she moved here. I think she lived in Colorado before this, and she's written many books, and Random House is the publisher for the Christmas Cafe, and she was looking for a local baker because The Christmas Cafe, the character in it is a girl that's a baker and she was looking to save her Christmas Cafe with an epic recipe.

[:

[00:39:03] And I made this giant mug themed cake with a stencil on it and it has whipped cream, frosting and it's a peppermint mocha. recipe and it's in the book.

[:

[00:39:26] Amanda: that is what we were going for. So thank you. Cause it's supposed to save a whole Christmas cafe.

[:

[00:39:39] Amanda: So Eliza, she talked to her publisher about this and they were like no one's ever really done this before where

[:

[00:39:57] And she, she does things alone, a lot like me. I've never really found my partner yet either. And so we were a great team, because she's she wanted somebody that could maybe Make like little cupcakes that looked like the recipe in the book and we could have a book cake tour. And so what we actually did this yesterday at our first book launch party.

[:

[00:40:54] We had a wine and cheese tasting in the class and then after, right after the class, we had a pop up sale. And I sold all these Christmas cafe themed cupcakes at the pop up shop. And I had goat cupcakes there as well because goats and she did her book signing and it went really well. And so we're doing this book cake tour all throughout the fall and then for the first couple of weeks in December. So it is wild. I can't see straight. There is flour and powdered sugar stuck to everything. But I really do feel like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I don't think I'll ever experience anything quite like this ever again, so I'm just letting it happen.

[:

[00:41:55] Amanda: Right?

[:

[00:42:08] That's a dream.

[:

[00:42:16] Kristin: I didn't even talk about the goats. Come on,

[:

[00:42:21] Kristin: you don't even have to, you don't even have to explain it to people. Just be like, imagine the best thing you could ever experience and then come. Because it will happen.

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[00:42:33] Kristin: Just combine everything wonderful and you will, you'll find it here.

[:

[00:42:51] Kristin: I

[:

[00:42:54] Amanda: right. I like, I do love writing. I love teaching. So this past year was also a very difficult year for me.

[:

[00:43:24] And what I haven't really talked about in this podcast is the heartbreak that our whole family has endured just trying to fight this thing that you're going to eventually lose. This battle that you're going to lose and sorry if I cry a little bit right now, but like in January when everything felt like it was going right, my mom started to go downhill extremely quickly.

[:

[00:44:13] And she loved books. She was a library media specialist at a school. And she taught me to love books. And I can't help but think yesterday when I was there I, I will tell you in my grieving process this year, I am that intuitive, that cosmic cupcake, right? And so I have really felt my mom around.

[:

[00:45:03] But what I realized yesterday that even if the messages aren't like super loud. I, just by living and doing my thing, my mom is guiding me. She was a teacher. She loved books. Look at what I'm doing. I just taught yesterday and the class just lit up and everybody loved it. And I am meant to be a teacher and I am a writer.

[:

[00:45:47] Kristin: I do think in the same way we were talking about, art can take many forms. Teaching takes so many forms. But I think what, more than anything, being happy in what you're doing, what a legacy to have passed on to you.

[:

[00:46:33] and talk about my journey as Amanda Cupcake to a bunch of kids. And I'm like what better than to write a quick children's book? And so I wrote it in 10 minutes or something, but it is the cutest story. And so then I hired an illustrator and I have this children's book sitting there called Sweet Dreamer.

[:

[00:47:01] Kristin: Did your mom get the chance to know that you were going to be in the book that you are in?.

[:

[00:47:36] Kristin: And I'm sure she is wherever she is. She's right there beside you.

[:

[00:47:42] Kristin: Cosmic cupcake.

[:

[00:47:45] Kristin: So I want to ask you as I ask everyone I know you brought a quote cause you love quotes you put quotes in jeans.

[:

[00:47:53] Kristin: What did you bring for me?

[:

[00:48:00] Kristin: Yes, I'm never greedy about that.

[:

[00:48:17] Kristin: You would be a good drag queen with your wig tips, whereas I I'm gonna have to use some of your wig tips. But yes, anything Dolly Parton is great. She's a hero.

[:

[00:48:28] Kristin: Okay, can you share some serious quotes as well?

[:

[00:48:45] Kristin: I'm getting a little teary from that. It's really, yeah, it's a good one.

[:

[00:49:43] Kristin: And cupcakes make people happy.

[:

[00:49:50] Kristin: It does. Amanda, thank you so much for sharing what's behind some of the glitter of Amanda Cupcake, first of all, but just the amazing things you're doing with Amanda Cupcake and Cosmic Cupcake and the book and what lessons in success after 35, after 40, and.

[:

[00:50:11] Amanda: Success can mean so much more than just the financial end of things. It can mean just being full of love for what you do every day.

[:

[00:50:33] Amanda: Yeah, it's really fun, getting to know you and I feel like I want to talk more and be friends.

[:

[00:50:42] Amanda: I would love that. I am really honored to be on your show.

[:

[00:50:51] Amanda: Yes! Woohoo! I did it!

[:

[00:50:54] Amanda: You need to throw some glitter in the air. Glitter eyes!

[:

[00:50:59] Amanda: Yes, thank you for the cosmic cupcake inspiration.

[:

[00:51:06] Amanda: Thank you.

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