Trish is a fashion & lifestyle influencer (@patriizzle) and actually one of the first people to ever use Klaia. We are thankful to have interviewed her on lessons she has learned as an influencer.
I have been taking pictures and filming videos ever since I was in middle school. I just loved documenting everything from my outfits, food, family, friends, and all the places I went. I was definitely that girl in high school who always took outfit pictures to post on my Instagram. I definitely feel like I’ve had an aesthetic feed since I was in high school and you can still see some of my pictures on the bottom of my Instagram feed.
Fast forward to December 2019, I found out that influencers were a thing so I tried to DM about 100 brands every single day until I landed my first gifted collaboration (a few days later) with a skincare brand. I was so amazed at how I was able to do that back then when I only had 1-2k followers, since micro-influencers weren’t a thing yet.
Related: How to Become an Instagram Micro-Influencer
I learned that no matter how far you’ve come, you can still learn new things everyday and do better. In working with brands, I realized that follower count won’t really matter because it’s all about content and engagement. With editing my content, I used to have a specific preset that I used in every photo I posted, which sometimes changed the tones/color of a product or clothing. I realized how this could affect some collaborations because most beauty and skincare brands love natural lighting and editing for their content. After a year, I switched to editing my pictures with a cleaner and brighter look, which definitely helped attract more brand partnerships.
As for brand negotiations, don’t be afraid to ask for a higher rate. Always be nice to social media managers and influencer representatives as they are so sweet and can turn into your life long friends.
I felt this moment when I started seeing how this could be my career. At first, it was more of a hobby since I wasn’t getting paid for content. When I realized that this can be my full-time career and how many connections/friendships I have built, it showed that this is my best accomplishment.
Since my main account has been alive since 2010-2011, I realized how this could be bringing down my engagement after summer of 2021. My reels used to get 100k+ views and my photos were always on the explore page. I never stopped posting and I am always active so I knew something was off. I finally decided to create a new Instagram account to see how it grows and reach a new audience. I quickly grew this account to a little over 1k followers in less than 2 weeks which was so exciting. My engagement is very high and everyone interacts with my Instagram stories and posts.
Being a content creator and small business owner, I am always creating content every day! It can be overwhelming to use a planner or my notes list when it comes to planning, so I love how Klaia’s set up organizes each campaign and content I need.
For campaigns, I love how I can pre-plan all the details of the content, hashtags, caption, details, affiliate links, etc. This makes it 10x easier when I am posting it on my social media.
I definitely have encountered some unpleasant experiences, but I always find a way to keep them professional and stay kind. The worst thing I have experienced has always been bad communication with some brands which has led to not getting paid for my content.
Related: 8 Ways to Get Paid to Create Content
Of course Klaia is my new favorite for planning my content! Some editing apps I love are Lightroom, ReTouch (to remove random things in the background), and InShot for quick videos. For tools, my tripod is definitely my best friend for those days where I have to shoot content alone and for my aesthetic day vlogs.
It can get stressful at times, but most of the time, it never feels like work! I believe that if you do something you love, you will always find a way to keep going and never give up. I love to create a to-do list every night so I can figure out what I need to get done. I also make sure to take breaks and do self-care whenever I work too much.
BE YOURSELF! It’s obviously great to hop on all the trends, but try to change it up and relate it to you. It’s important to show your audience what makes you, YOU, where you can stand out from other creators. Start a genuine community and follower count doesn’t matter as long as you have great content and engagement! Last, don’t be afraid to reach out to your dream brand and/or to negotiate higher for campaigns.
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