Kristy Sellars finishes second in America's Got Talent

She was in the final two with act The Mayas.

"I'm in the top two - oh my God," Sellars said before the result was revealed.

The winner won $1 million and will headline a Las Vegas show.

Sellars' dad Frank McCarthy and her brother Travis had breakfast with her before the finale.

They had planned to watch the live show but had to leave before it started to go to the airport.

Mr McCarthy said the two were on tenterhooks while watching the live stream.

He told ACM's The Standard minutes after the win the two had time to sneak in a quick beer before boarding for their flight home to Australia.

Mr McCarthy said before the finale that Sellars was aiming for a top three finish.

He said he was lost for words that she had finished second. "She just continues to amaze me and the whole family," Mr McCarthy said.

"It was a beautiful performance.

"She's just an incredibly determined young lady who deserves all the opportunities that are coming her way."

Mr McCarthy said Sellars, from Victoria's Central Highlands, had worked incredibly hard to put together a new routine in a week.

She wins a car for finishing second to the The Mayas - who recently won Britain's Got Talent.

Sellars has wowed crowds and judges in the competition.

"One of the most authentic performers this season. She really deserves the title," one person wrote of her performance on America's Got Talent's YouTube Channel.

"She's the best I've ever seen on the pole and I can watch her over and over again. Thank you for the exciting exhibition of pole dancing - the best I ever seen in my life," another person wrote.

"Absolutely fantastic - would love to see her win," another said.

In the semi-final judge Howie Mandel said Sellars' act showed "so much originality".

Judge Heidi Klum said she was incredibly impressed.

"Wow, I loved it and as you can see, everyone else loved it," she said.

Sellars is living proof that hard work and determination can pay off.

She's a Ballarat mum-of-three who won Australia's Got Talent just six months after giving birth to her youngest son Ollie.

Mr McCarthy, who lives in Warrnambool, said he was in awe of her work ethic.

He said at least 100 hours of rehearsing went into creating just minutes of one of her incredible multimedia-supported pole dancing routines.

Sellars, 36, has been praised by the America's Got Talent judges for her performances that are changing outdated perceptions of pole dancing as an artform.

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Her time on America's Got Talent has already resulted in a number of people reaching out to her to discuss other opportunities.

A live Vegas show is something that has been suggested by a number of industry heavyweights.

Sellars is also a self-made entrepreneur.

She has a franchise of PhysiPole studios across Australia and has launched a line of activewear and liquid chalk for gripping the pole while dancing.

Sellars has also built a cult following online, with more than 38,000 followers on Instagram and more than 17,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Her America's Got Talent audition video has been viewed more than 80 million times. The successful businesswoman and entertainer perhaps gets her entrepreneurial spirit from her late grandfather Frank McCarthy.

The former Warrnambool mayor had a flair for seeing gaps in the market and seizing an opportunity to fill them.

In 1958 he bought his own ice-making machine and supplied blocked ice to local caravan parks for 20 cents a block.

Mr McCarthy reinvented the machine to produce 1440 bags of crushed ice a day after it was found people wanted ice crushed instead of in a block form.

Later he ran a washing business in Dennington and came up with the idea to sell hot chips at events around the region.

His son Frank said his father would be left with large potatoes that didn't make the cut when grading them.

"He had all these big potatoes and he was wondering what to do with them," Mr McCarthy said.

"He decided to cut them into chips and sell fresh cut chips for 20 cents a cup."

From humble beginnings, with Mr McCarthy enlisting his children to sell the hot chips at weekend events, developed a successful catering business.

At one stage the family business, which was taken over by Mr McCarthy's son Frank, had six catering vans that provided food to crowds at events such as the Melbourne Cup, The Big Day Out and The May Racing Carnival.

This year Mr McCarthy sold the business, deciding instead to focus on providing big screens to events.

This too - branching out into providing big screens - was a move that was made to meet a need in the market.

And it proved fruitful during the the COVID-19 pandemic when the catering van business just about came to a standstill. The success of Sellars is testament to her late grandfather and proof that a simple idea and a lot of hard work can pay off.