Today we’d like to introduce you to Aj Cutler
Hi AJ , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
As a junior business student, I went on a short study abroad trip to France. After visiting a business that was housed in the upper levels of a tall building on the iconic Champs-Élysées, one thing that stuck with me was that “The United States is a good place to be an entrepreneur.”
Immediately after I got home, I set my sights on finding a way for me to do what I love, while also making a living. I created a blog site so I could start documenting my outdoor adventures: camping, hiking, skiing, traveling and more. It quickly turned into a way for me to share all aspects of my life, including sustainability, plant-based eating, and other new ventures. It eventually led me to some collaborations with businesses, where I would write about products or showcase their brand.
For the next couple years, I slowly started to grow my blog, along with my other social media platforms. It was honestly mainly a creative outlet. A “side gig”. I never thought it was going to lead to a full-time career until 2020. Around this time, I dowloaded this hot new social app (TikTok) and started to regularly post videos about my experience as a skier. A couple viral videos later, I gained a significant audience. I ended up scoring enough brand deals which allowed me to quit my full-time “regular” job and jump straight into the creative world. Since then, I have found myself modeling, writing blogs, creating commercial ads and user-generated content, and, perhaps my favorite, producing and starring in local ski films.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The biggest roadblock has honestly been myself. Especially when my accounts were rapidly growing, I gave social media a lot of power.
I let it rule my life.
I placed pressure on myself to create, which I now realize wasn’t healthy. Constantly creating left little room for rest, and it led to a build up of negative energy that affected my every day tasks.
Like anything in life, it’s been a journey to find the perfect balance. While I will probably spend my entire life trying to figure it out, I have learned a lot about myself. I am so grateful that these challenges have led to some self-discovery about being responsible for myself, and only myself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I truly believe that artists experience creation in everything. It’s a way of life, rather than just a limited amount of specific mediums. Some of the ways that I like to create include: cooking, sewing, painting, drawing, upcycling, caring for my houseplants, skiing, biking, putting together outfits, secondhand shopping, photography, and videography.
I recently came to the realization that I never want to restrict myself to only one or two niches because I am a multi-faceted human that truly creates in all aspects, however most of my external work revolves around the outdoors and action sports. I house most of my creations through social media, where I showcase my experience and progression as a woman who loves to ski and mountain bike.
Social media gives me an outlet to play around with the idea of perception. Users have the power to only show whatever we want to show. Whether we think we are being “authentic” or not, creators use this power to generate a certain experience for their audience. And then in turn, each individual audience member perceives these posts, videos, and stories differently. I think it’s important to identify that perception plays a huge part in media (and life!), and I find the whole theme absolutely fascinating.
I ended up using the art of perception to build an outline for my first ski film production, “Renaissance Woman: A Ski Film?”. The film combines my love for skiing, my interest in art, and my community in Utah. And it isn’t the typical ski film I remember watching as a kid. While it does have some epic action, I mainly tried to convey certain feelings that I have while skiing, rather than focusing on the actual act. I have always wanted to make a ski film, and I am proud that I found my own way to do it rather than trying to conform to the classic style that wasn’t true to who I am. In the future, I want to continue to experiment with action sports, visual media, and perception because I think it can reveal lessons about life and creation as a whole.
I recognize that true art comes from the soul of the artist, and when I show up as myself (and only myself), I can create things that no one else can offer.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
As a small child, I remember being pretty reserved. I typically used art and my personal style as an outlet. As I headed into junior high and high school, I was very studious and performed very well in school, and I sought out a wide range of extracurriculars, specifically running, theatre, and skiing. I enjoyed spending time outside year-round, whether it was running around on my grandma’s farm after school in the spring, exploring on camping trips with friends in the summer, participating in school sports in the fall or making snow forts in the backyard in winter.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nacforadventure.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.j.cutler/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBdjxqt-k_NHaQOa2h9bcrw
