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Ep 8 - Influencer Advice You Won't Hear Online - Girls Trip Edition
106 Plays3 months ago
What do influencers really wish they had known when they first started?
In this special episode of The Influencer Sisterhood Podcast, Leslie and Lauren sit down with seven incredible women during a creator trip for an honest, unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to build a brand in this space.
Together, they answer three powerful questions:
• What’s one thing you wish you had known when you started?
• What’s your best advice for someone just beginning their influencer journey?
• What’s one thing about being an influencer that people don’t see?
The answers are encouraging, practical, and refreshingly real. From mindset shifts and consistency to the unseen work behind the scenes, this episode feels like sitting in the room with women who are walking the same path you are.
Plus, each guest shares a heartfelt “sister shout-out,” celebrating another creator in the room — because this podcast is about collaboration over competition.
If you’re building your brand, growing your platform, or wondering if you’re doing this whole influencer thing “right,” this conversation will remind you that you’re not alone — and that there’s room for you here.
Grab your coffee and join us for a behind-the-scenes conversation you won’t want to miss.
Influencers featured in this episode:
@shortgirlbigmood, @dorothypro, @girlmeetsbow, @ameliarose_xo, @samantha_spiro, @stylebythekate (formerly @targetandtopknots), and @eringladding
Sister Shoutouts this episode:
@bobbiewiththeeye, @confidently_carina, @noelpgonzales, @happilynataliexo, @thepetiteredhead, @chelswaterwall, @simplylatonyap (glam and grace)
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Influencer Sisterhood Podcast
00:00:06
Speaker
Hey, I'm Leslie. Hi, I'm Lauren. And we're the Influencer Sisterhood. Your weekly coffee date for real, unfiltered conversations about life as a midlife influencer.
00:00:17
Speaker
No gatekeeping, no fluff. We're two women at different stages of the journey, sharing the wins, the struggles, and everything in between. This is safe space where all influencers belong.
00:00:29
Speaker
So grab your drink, get comfy, welcome to the sisterhood. Let's dive in to this week's episode.
Live Recording During Creator Trip
00:00:40
Speaker
Welcome back to the Influencer Sisterhood Podcast, the place where we pull back the curtain on what it really looks like to build something in this space as women together. Today's episode is extra special because it was recorded live during a creator trip with seven other incredible women. We were all in the same house, coffee in hand, probably in comfy sets and messy buns, and we decided to press record. What happened next felt less like an interview ah more like you getting to sit in on a real honest conversation between women who are actually doing this.
Starting Out as an Influencer
00:01:13
Speaker
In this episode, we asked each women three powerful questions. What's one thing you wish you had known when you first started as an influencer? What's your best advice for someone who's just beginning this journey? And what's one thing about being an influencer that people don't see or don't realize? The answers are honest, encouraging, refreshing. Some might even surprise you. And my favorite part, each woman ends with a sister shout out celebrating another creator in the room.
00:01:41
Speaker
Because this podcast isn't about competition, it's about collaboration, community, and cheering each other on. If you've ever wondered whether you're doing this right, if you've ever felt behind, if you've ever needed reassurance that you're not alone in this journey, This episode is going to feel like sitting on the couch with us. So grab your coffee, take a walk, press play in the carpool line, wherever you are, and let's get into it.
Meet the Influencers
00:02:05
Speaker
Okay, guys, before we get into the questions, i want everyone to introduce themselves. Make sure you share your handle and how long you've been doing this thing called influencing.
00:02:16
Speaker
I'm Amelia. My handle is AmeliaRose underscore underscore XO, and I've been doing this for a little over four years now. I'm Erin, my account is Erin Gladding, and I've been doing this a little over four years now.
00:02:27
Speaker
My name is Samantha, my handle is Samantha underscore Spyro, and I've been doing this just about a year. I'm Kelly. My account is shortgirlbigmood and this is my fifth year.
00:02:38
Speaker
I'm Gentry. My handle is girlneedsbow, B-O-W, like a hair bow. And I am an OG-er from Black in the Blogging Days and have been doing this for almost 13 years. I'm Dorothy and my Instagram handle is DorothyPro and I've been doing this since 2018. Started i' also in the blogging days and now still continue.
00:02:56
Speaker
Hi, I'm Kate and my handle is Target and Top Knotts, and I've been doing this for four years.
Lessons Learned in Influencing
00:03:00
Speaker
What's one thing you wish you had known when you first started? So many things. But the first thing and that comes to mind for me would be to just remember that we're all people. And so even if you're just now starting out, you don't have to look at those that came before you as something other. Like they're nice people. We can support one another. And if you want to know how something works, if you want to know how they figured out how to do a thing, just reach out and ask. Because that was one of the things that i was so hard for me at first. Like, I didn't even know how people like did giveaways. Like, how do you like know all these people to get five people together to do a giveaway? Or how do you know another person to go meet for coffee and make this vlog? I didn't know how to do that until finally, about a year in, I finally was just like, sheepishly,
00:03:53
Speaker
how do you do that and they were like i just asked them you know and so i was like oh you can do that you could just ask another person because they're a person and you're a person we're all human and we can just ask things um and so i would just say be bold and confident in your own ability and just reach out in the worst that can happen as someone you know maybe not responding but it's not the end of the world and the truth is in the time that i've been doing this everyone that i have met has always been very giving of their time, their information, wanting to share success with you. And so just remember that that's what we're all in it for. Okay, so one of the things I wish I knew from the get-go was to be more consistent.
00:04:34
Speaker
um I feel like when I started, i felt like it wasn't full-time yet and who was I to be full-time you know head into this and so I was very inconsistent and I think I should have just jumped in with everything and come up with a consistent posting schedule and just run with it because consistency really is key and I'm Learning that now, but it's a little late. It's never too late. It's never too late. Never too late. But four years into it, I finally have a consistent posting schedule. And it helps, for sure. Awesome.
00:05:10
Speaker
that. that. Thank you. OK, good. So one thing I wish I had known when I started was that perfection is not an attainable goal. um I always, I'm a perfectionist by nature and very type a So I always want things to be perfect. But the things that I enjoy the most are the imperfect things that I see where I say like, that's me as a mom. Like our house is filled with Barbies and toy cars and that's just our life because we have a little one. And so I think it's so important to remember that it doesn't have to be perfect. You can let that go. i still struggle with it today. Like Erin said, sometimes it keeps me from being consistent because I still grapple with it. But let the perfectionism go and just be the perfectly flawed you that you are.
00:05:56
Speaker
One thing I wish I had known when I first started was honestly how time consuming this job actually is. However, If you have fun, be yourself. Do not put so much pressure on yourself.
00:06:09
Speaker
It's not that bad. You can do it. But yeah, it's going to take a lot of time. 100% something I loved or would put on, but I was trying to, you know, share an outfit for an event and assuming, well, my audience will want this or my audience will want this price point. As I continue to grow and, you know, get into a more of an authentic vibe, It felt better. It was more fun. My numbers improved. I learned that, you know, my average purchase value or average purchase order is actually a lot larger than I thought my audience would spend. So I think just kind of blinders up, stay focused on yourself, your page, your brand, what you really want out of, you know, all the things you're sharing. Just stay true to you and maybe not try to mimic
00:06:55
Speaker
what you assume the audience will shop or what ah you assume will sell well and you actually might be surprised by what you see. One thing I wish I would have known when I first started as someone who started relatively not that long ago was that it's OK to ask for help.
00:07:14
Speaker
Like it's OK to reach out to people. And it will actually help you in the long run. help Ask for help in the business and also ask for help in your personal life. Like this takes a lot of work. takes a lot of management. Like don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Don't be afraid to delegate. Don't be afraid to say, I'm not sure how to do this post or how to make it the way I want it to sound. And ask for the help where you need it. The help will be there if you ask for Okay, one thing I wish I would have known or I wish that somebody may have just reminded me along the road is just like to stay in my lane. And I know that it sounds so cliche, but just to honestly realize the stage of life that you're in and don't try to put yourself in someone else's stage. Like maybe, you know, I have small kids at home and maybe I can't, my capacity isn't as great as someone maybe that doesn't have kids in the home or doesn't have, um you know, activities and sports to go to. And just realize that, you know, I'm doing the best that I can with the time that I have and not to put pressure on myself or compare myself to someone who is doing really well, um but that I just aren't able to match that um output of time that they have, you know. And so... just giving grace to myself and realizing that you know one day I might have more time i might have you know with the kids out of the house I might have you know hours or more time to spend on creating the content itself and posting it because like Kate said it does take a lot more time than when I started and when I you know initially began all of the content creation And so just realizing to stay in your lane and not comparing yourself and just enjoy and have fun with it. Because really when you have fun, then you're the people that are watching will also have a lot more fun too. Okay. On to question
Advice for New Creators
00:09:07
Speaker
number two. What is the best advice you would give someone starting this journey? Kelly? The best advice is the advice that you've probably already been told, which is to just to do it. It truly is the best thing, is just take the picture, post it, do the video, like just have fun with it, put it out there. Yes, you deserve to be in this space. Yes, you have perspective that someone is going to want to hear from. you are valuable, and you can share your thoughts, and it will inspire someone. So just do it.
00:09:42
Speaker
Have fun with it and do it. Yes. The Nike slogan is the best slogan ever. Just do it. Okay. The best advice I would give to someone is start number one. And two, if you have to pivot, that's okay too. You might start and think to yourself, you know what? I think I want to change directions. I want to do something else. I want to add something. i want to change something. And that's okay.
00:10:03
Speaker
Keep doing it. Keep posting it and have fun. So the best advice I could give someone starting out is to Google it. I love answering questions and I never mind but there are so many questions I see especially from LTK creators that don't utilize the amazing resources that we have there are pages and pages and pages of information that answer all of the basic questions and I know on my journey if I need to figure something out in CapCut I google it if I need to figure something out on Instagram I Google it. So I think as great as it is to ask questions, it's also important to be the driver in your business and Google things.
00:10:45
Speaker
Love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. It's so true. Oh my gosh, it's so true. Do you want to go? Okay. Okay, and I just want to add on to what Gentry said is after you Google it, if you can't find it on there, also use YouTube as your best friend because there are so many YouTubers that will take you in depth with step-to-step process, whether it's setting up your LTK, whether it's setting up, you know, and if you are starting your own YouTube channel, starting your own TikTok. I mean, Instagram, all of the social channels, there are just so many resources,
00:11:19
Speaker
resources you can use out there. Then I also add on to that that anything can be content. Don't make it harder than it has to be. You can create content out of so many different things. If you just set your phone down and hit record, try not to put pressure on yourself to make it the best every single time because you never know what is going to truly hit and it could be the next post that makes it really big. So just put it out there and just just keep hitting record.
00:11:43
Speaker
One piece of advice that I would give someone starting out is that you don't have to overthink what you're posting. Be authentic. You don't have to record the same thing several times to get the right shot. If you make a mistake, just go with it. People want to see authentic content. The best advice i could give someone starting out in this journey is kind of multifaceted in regards to the like mental capacity that you'll need.
00:12:07
Speaker
Keep your blinders up, stay in your own lane and most importantly, have fun. it has to feel good and you have to enjoy what you're doing. um There's a lot of hard parts that come along with this in regards to your mental health that you can allow to overtake the joy that you should be getting by creating and sharing any type of content. So, yeah, blinders up, stay in your own lane, have fun and have a support system that's available to you. If you do find your find yourself in a spot where you're getting any sort of mental fatigue.
00:12:41
Speaker
OK, just piggybacking off of what Amelia said, ask someone who is just kind of starting out, I feel like it is really easy to lose the fun if you're focusing too hard on what everyone else is doing and putting too much pressure on yourself and scrolling too much. Stop the scroll and just focus on what you're doing, what makes you have fun, and honestly bring it back to the beginning. Even if it still is your beginning, like bring it back to your why. Why you started, what made you start this account to begin with because that's where the joy will come from. Okay, next question.
Unseen Aspects of Influencer Life
00:13:23
Speaker
What is one thing about being an influencer that people don't see or don't realize?
00:13:30
Speaker
Kelly? I mean, I would say the the simplest answer to the question of what do people not see is just how much work goes into it. As much as we talk about make it authentic and make it fun and everything's content and all of that is true, videoing or taking a photo is the easiest part of the job.
00:13:51
Speaker
Then you have to do all of the editing and then you're answering emails and then you're linking things up and you know one post can take anywhere from an hour to days you know to put together and so we do it because we love it we do it because we have a passion for it and because the response to our community you know has been strong and i love showing up for my community every day but it is definitely a full plus time job for part time pay for the majority of people in the space.
00:14:27
Speaker
um One of the things that I think not everybody sees is that not everybody makes a lot of money. You can make a lot of money, but you're going to work very hard for that money.
00:14:39
Speaker
But there's a lot of different ways to monetize. So you're not always going to be making a huge amount of money on each post or huge amount of commissions. It's small commissions that add up to big amounts if you have you know a lot of a large following. um But it's not it's not just given to you. It's not something that is going to happen. One thing people don't realize is that getting dressed is actually really hard. Because inevitably the day you wear your favorite dress from two years ago that's out of stock is the day everyone blows up your DMs asking for that link. And you have to say it's sold out. Sad face again and again and again. So every day you really have to think through what am I filming? Am I going to be showing up on stories? Is this in stock? Do I have something similar? And getting dressed is not as easy as it used to be anymore because you have to think through all of those factors every day. Oh my god, yes. It's true. And kind of I'm not going to add to that on there, but I do want to add on there that I feel like when you're constantly linking everything, people ah get annoyed by it. But then when you don't have a link, they're like, you posted something that you don't have a link for?
00:15:51
Speaker
One thing about being an influencer that people don't see or realize that I myself didn't fully understand was the legalities and like the federal guidelines and the requirements of, you know, hashtag usage, brand tagging usage, whitelisting. And this goes into like the collaborations like Things that brands can request of you. um Once you're large enough, you might need a lawyer. I mean, it just really can grow into a big area of this industry in regards to monetizing. There's so much more behind the curtain than just here's a brand you're getting paid.
00:16:28
Speaker
There's so much more behind it. One thing about being an influencer that people don't see or realize is that you will never stop thinking about what your next content is going to be.
00:16:40
Speaker
Your brain will never turn off from what your next reel will be. You will get real content fatigue and then you will wake up in the middle of the night and have 9 million ideas all at one time and then you will go five days with zero ideas. Amen.
00:17:02
Speaker
That is so true. One thing that people don't realize and a little bit behind this behind the scenes is how much equipment you actually have to buy to make everything look as best as possible with great lighting, good angles, a tripod, a magnetic case for your phone. I mean, the list goes on and on. I'm still buying things that I need to produce the best possible quality content that I can.
00:17:26
Speaker
one thing that people don't realize about being an influencer is that while there are so many fun things you get to do and so many experiences I feel like you you get to do along the way or maybe trips, and the more majority of the day-to-day life is spent by yourself. um And so it's, you know, recording the real the video, taking the photo, on your own editing that content so you do spend a lot of time on your phone and so just trying to you know look up from your phone and try to see what is around you and gain perspective on your day and realize that No one's going to die if this doesn't get posted. But just to not take it too seriously. Try to get your work done.
00:18:09
Speaker
and but it's not the end of the world. It's going to be okay. um And just to continue on. But just to know that the majority of the day-to-day, you know, it can get boring. So just like we were saying, just have try to have more fun with it. Try to put your personality in it and do things that will bring you more life and more joy.
00:18:30
Speaker
You have to be photographer, you have to be a videographer, you have to be an editor, you have to be a writer, an actress. You have to be an agent, a marketing director. Yeah, marketing director. It's all self-taught. All self-taught. Absolutely. While still living, showing up in your real life.
Community Support and Shoutouts
00:18:50
Speaker
Okay, this is one of our favorite parts of the show. It's time for our sister shout out. Each week, we each share a fellow influencer who is standing out. We'll tell you what she's doing so well, why her content stands out, and why you need to hit that follow button.
00:19:07
Speaker
Because supporting each other is what the sisterhood is all about. And when one of us shines, it lights the way for the rest of us. Okay, now is the time in our episodes where we like to share someone that we think is doing a really good job so that we can support each other and it's called Sister Shout Out. So each of the ladies are going to give a shout out to someone that they love following, that they think is doing a good job and share with you why My sister shout out is Bobbi with the Bobbi Sue and just came on the scene about maybe a year and a half ago, maybe two years at the most. But she has just shown just how ah just taking a day in the life, something that we probably used to share more in stories and just making it into a real, um has just, I don't know, i think it's just captured um a lot of people's attention to show real life and to also just show how a working mom can also do this. um and just keep ah her family a priority as well. But just hardworking mamas. I just wanted to applaud her. She also just stays super true to herself and so and super sweet. And so like I can have a DM or a question that I'll ask and I feel like she always responds whether it's a voice text or just a DM. So I just really appreciate just the realness of that as as well as just working really hard.
00:20:30
Speaker
My sister shout out is Confidently Karina. She actually lost her first page at almost 30,000 followers and she came back and she's almost at 30,000 followers. So not only has she done it once, but she's done it twice, which is really, truly amazing.
00:20:45
Speaker
She does such a great job at being herself in her stories, showing her personality in her reels, and she shares a variety of really cute fashion. My sister shout out is Noelle P. Gonzalez. She is an amazing full-time working mama. She is an attorney with two young boys and her husband is a football coach who I think just moved from Baylor to Waco. um Baylor is in Waco. Okay. Dallas to Waco. Dallas to Baylor. don't know my Texas towns, but she's absolutely amazing. She shares great everyday affordable fashion, tons of Amazon and Target. She again is similar. She responds to all your DMs. She's super sweet, very kind hearted. just think she is killing it and is probably about to explode. So follow her now. you can say I started following her when.
00:21:30
Speaker
My sister shout out is Natalie at happily Natalie XO. She is the sweetest, most authentic girly out there. She is a working mama of four little kids and she is killing her page. She shares Amazon, Walmart, and Target, all the affordable options, making the outfits look top notch. I'm telling you her style is the cutest ever. She even shares skincare, a few hair reels here and there. She also has, i hope I'm saying this correct if I'm going off of memory here, she has a teenage Christian journal on Amazon that's available. And she also has an Etsy shop where she has like mama graphic tees and things like that. So she's out here doing the most and I think she is just a really good follow that everyone would enjoy. My sister shout out is Erica Wiseman, the petite redhead. She's absolutely an adorable mama. She shows great fashion. just really enjoy following her page. She shares a lot of family content, but also really cute fashion. And she's a great follow.
00:22:32
Speaker
My sister's shout out is Chell's Waterwall, Chelsea Waterwall. ah She is a wife and mom of two based in Houston, Texas. She shares the most adorable Western style outfits.
00:22:48
Speaker
and everything else. She does day in the life videos. She's addicted to caffeine. Her stories are hilarious. She has goats, one named Biscuit, and she is a crack up.
00:23:01
Speaker
For my sister shout outs, I want to talk to ah talk about Latonya. She is at Glam and Grace Styling. She is a beautiful black woman who has several kids. She calls them her little chocolate drops. She focuses on faith and fashion. her husband's a pastor and y'all she's just joy embodied. I love her.
00:23:23
Speaker
y'all next week. Thanks guys.