08 Social Media Influencer
What is it Like Being a Social Media Influencer
On this episode of the Unboxing Careers Podcast, we unbox the career of a social media influencer.
Guest: Cassidy Montalvo, better know as @JustClassicallyCassidy, is a social media influencer. Cassidy joins this episode to discuss her career as an influencer and provides an in-depth look at the challenges and rewards the career brings. Learn what being an influencer is really like and tips for making content go from good to great.
Follow Cassidy @JustClassicallyCasidy on:
Read Cassidy’s blog
Listen: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music
What We Discuss:
Finding Success in a Crowded Niche
Challenges of Work-Life Balance as an Influencer
Dealing with Influencer Fatigue and Online Trolls
The Lack of Privacy and Challenges of Maintaining Boundaries
Advice for High School and College Students
Being Authentic, Building Relationships, Being Vulnerable, and Creating a Supportive Community
Taking Your Content from Good to Great
Safeguarding Your Online Presence
Misconceptions About and Hard Work of Being an Influencer
Key Influencer Career Takeaways:
Consistency is key in content creation as an influencer. Find a niche and provide useful content consistently.
Joining a crowded niche can still lead to success through consistency and staying true to yourself.
Being an influencer requires a significant time commitment, with hours spent ideating, filming, editing, and engaging with the audience.
Maintaining work-life balance as an influencer can be challenging, but it offers more flexibility and the ability to prioritize family events and activities.
Influencer fatigue is a real issue, with the pressure to please everyone and deal with online trolls. Mental health and self-care are crucial in this field.
Listening to audience feedback and adapting content based on their requests can lead to greater success and engagement.
The lack of privacy and the challenges of maintaining boundaries are significant drawbacks of being an influencer.
The influencer marketing landscape is constantly changing, and trends should be followed organically rather than chasing every trend.
Analytics and numbers can be detrimental to mental health and should be approached with caution.
Fans feel a strong connection to influencers, which can be both rewarding and challenging to navigate. Find your passion and create content around it
Focus on creating useful content that is valuable to your audience
Build authentic relationships with your audience
Avoid doing giveaways and gimmicks to gain followers
Safeguard your online presence and be mindful of the content you share
The field of influencing is open to everyone and there is room for success
Find a job that you enjoy and that aligns with your interests
Full Interview:
Greg
Welcome everyone to the Unboxing Careers podcast where we shed light on what different careers are really like so you can choose a career you'll really love. Today we are unboxing a career of an influencer with Cassidy Montalvo.
But before we do, let’s talk briefly about unboxing thoughtful gifts. At ThoughtfulCollection.com you can shop from a wide selection of curated products you can feel good about, helping you express friendship, gratitude, and love.
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Greg
I'd like to welcome the show creator and influencer Cassidy Montalvo, better known as @JustClassicallyCassidy on her social channels. Cassidy, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for being here.
Cassidy
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.
Greg
How do you become an influencer?
Cassidy
Yeah, I mean, think Gen Z probably actually knows more than me at this point. But the biggest thing, and people hate hearing this, but it's so true, is consistency. You pick a niche, pick something that people find helpful or will find useful from you. That could just be you make someone smile, so you're funny, or you have great recipes, or you work out. Whatever thing you have that you can consistently give content that's useful to another person.
Run with that, be consistent and try not to get discouraged because you never know what's gonna go viral and be that piece that gets you. Because something you filmed six months ago and posted may have bombed, but it's relevant. Say, you know, everyone hated cooked feta and you did a recipe with that six months ago and then all of a sudden everyone loves cooked feta, that's gonna start popping off and then you're gonna be one of the first people on the floor. just stick with what you know and what you're really confident in and run with it.
Greg
So this is probably a better question for later, but I'm going to, we're talking about it now. So I'm to jump on it is like, so I'm launching a podcast. It's a slow build, right? It takes a while. I'm not expecting that we'll viral. That's okay. But as you're doing content creation and say you baked Feta or I smoked Feta and for six months, you're not getting anything. How do you know when that hits? Like, how do you know when you need the pivot?
Is there a formula or is it pure gut feel?
Cassidy
I think a lot of it's good, but it is also, you there are a lot of people who watch the trends. Personally, for me, it was being consistent in what I know, and I've joined a very oversaturated field. I mean, there couldn't be more influencers who do hair makeup and fashion. mean, that's like the biggest umbrella. So I went in with very low expectations that my little self was gonna make a dent in that world, but I was just consistent and it does get discouraging.
But one day you could literally, like one day I woke up and I was getting hundreds of followers and I was trying to figure out what it was, like what's happening right now and people weren't going to my Instagram and following my Instagram. And it was a hair tutorial I had done weeks ahead, back and it just so happens that, you know, one person shared it or something and the algorithm picked it up and then it just rolled from there.
Greg
How do you decide which influencer niche to follow?
Cassidy
It was a little bit of an accident. So I was furloughed from my job. I was a resort manager in Coronado, California. And I was used to working when you work in hotels, anyone in hospitality knows you work 10, 15 hour days. It's very normal. COVID hit, I got furloughed and I was going absolutely bonkers in my house. I just, needed something to do. I wasn't used to having, I think I bought every puzzle that exists at that point, just trying to keep it.
And I always loved doing hair and makeup. And I figured I was older and none of my friends were on TikTok. TikTok was just kind of like a thing that the young people did. And I was like, well, if I just film tutorials, like that sounds fun. I can throw them on TikTok. No one I know will see me. Like it'll just be a hobby. And so it wasn't, I wasn't initially like gung ho, like this is what I'm going to do and I'm going to make it. And then as I started kind of seeing it, I was like, maybe I could do this. And then I kind of started being more purposeful and intentional in my content.
What is the day-to-day of an influencer like?
Greg
Okay, very good. And you mentioned consistency is key here. So let's talk about your typical day to day or week to week, whichever makes more sense for you. So I know some days may vary, but walk us through what a typical day or week looks like. How many hours are you spending, ideating content, filming content, editing content, kind of walk us through that if you could.
Cassidy
all day. know it sounds people, think, from just the watching it, they think, she spends 10 minutes a day doing this. Because that's what it looks like for sure. But I spend a lot of my time looking at trends or responding to DMs or looking at what my followers are asking for of me. And then I'm brainstorming that content. And then I'm picking out what I'm going to do for that content. And then you have to film, and then there's the editing process and the posting and then you have your brand deals between that and meetings between that. So it is a big process.
Typically I wake up at 5 a because I have to get up before my daughter, I have two daughters, so I get up before my kids to get ready for the day and I'll usually try to film a piece of content so when my followers see my Get Ready With Me's they're usually at like at 5 a in the morning that I'm filming that and then I get my kids up and together and my daughter to school and do all that come back home, usually go straight into a meeting. Then I go into whatever my organic content will be for that day.
So like if I had followers who asked for, you know, teacher outfits, I'll film that and get that done and edit it in together. I'll do like a hair tutorial and get that together. And I always try to give at least one piece of useful information, whether that be a hair hack or makeup hack or something, I'll get that out of the way. And then I'll do my brand deals. And it'll just, and then between all of that, because I also do share my life as I go, I'm doing stories and just people are with me on this journey every day all day.
Greg
So you're working, how many hours a day do you think you're working on this?
Cassidy
So just recently, because my husband really encouraged me, I just actually put myself on the limit. I was literally set up to sit down on my phone. My screen time was horrendous. And so I just downloaded this app called Refocus where it shuts me out of my apps at 8 p to 5 a So at 8 p that period of time, I'm doing something.
Greg
How long was that transition from when you first started using that app till it became normal?
Cassidy
Still working on me feeling normal. I'm not doing that. I feel like a FOMO, like I'm missing out on them.
How long does a 30-second piece of content from an influencer take to create?
Greg
Yeah, they know what they're doing. Okay, so if we see like a 30 second story or 30 second piece of content, whatever it is, how long do you think that 30 seconds takes you to do soup the nuts?
Cassidy
It depends on the piece of content. If it's like a hair tutorial, that probably took me an hour. If it's an outfit, that probably was like 30 minute filming start to finish and then 30 minutes of editing. So I'd probably say an hour per piece of content. If it's just my life, like, hey, I'm going to make this soup real quick. It's usually just me popping up my phone and I'm just sharing as I go.
A bit that does take me a little bit longer on my stories, which I also found to be very successful and with my views, just a tip for anyone who wants to do lifestyle, is I write out synopsises of every story I post on Instagram. being a mom, I remembered like at night with my daughter holding her, being quiet, and the only Instagram stories I could watch, which was my entertainment at night, was people who wrote captions. And so that was something I remembered, and I get comments all the time like, I'm so glad you do this, I'm a teacher, or you know, listen to this on my lunch break or I have kids or whatever it have you, people a lot of times, I'm guessing most people listening to this, they don't watch Instagram stories with sound on. And so you're more likely to get people to watch your whole story or even go to your stories if you're writing those little synopsises. And it takes more time. That does take a lot more time, but it's worth it. I don't know what I.
Greg
I will say every Saturday morning, my wife wakes up before I do, every Saturday morning, I get woken up because she's on Instagram, a story comes up with sound, she's gotta shut it down right away, so I appreciate you doing that. Maybe I'll get her over on your stuff.
Cassidy
And it's been successful in just keeping my story views.
What is the work-life balance of an influencer like?
Greg
Very good. I want to talk about work-life balance a little bit. So I kind of want to approach this from you from two angles. So you are obviously known now, but you started off, right? So you mentioned you were working another job, you were furloughed, you have a family. So kind of walk us through work-life balance starting out and then kind of where you sit now with it. I know you alluded a little bit to kind of how you are now, but walk us through that a little bit if you could.
Cassidy
Yeah. Yeah. So when I first started kind of taking off, it was, of course, it was the perfect storm. My channel started taking off and I started being able to monetize, which was mind blowing to me. I was like, my gosh, this could be a thing. I get the call to come back to work. And we were very, very, barely surviving in San Diego, California.
My husband's enlisted military and I was on unemployment because of COVID. So it was very like slim pickings and as soon as they call you back to work, you gotta go back to I had to go back to work. But I was one of the only managers they were bringing back. So I was back to really long days, really hard hours. I had a really young daughter and then my husband was working nights with the military. So I would leave very early in the morning and we would high five on the way out the door and he would leave so we could exchange our kid through that. And so when we realized that, we hit a make or break point where I was like, can't keep doing both. I'm exhausted. I'm not sleeping. When I wasn't at work,
I was making content and editing between my daughter sleeping. And it was just, I was very close to like mental break point, but I was like, I'm so close to this being a career. And so me and my husband just had a really deep heart to heart where he really took on a huge brunt of the load of the household, everything. And that was my chance. I was like, I'm giving this, you know, six months.
I'm just gonna be really tired. I'm gonna run with this. You're gonna handle the house and we're gonna see where this goes. And it worked. So it was really just buckling down and making the sacrifice and just life was rough for a little.
Greg
So, and now you have an app that shuts you out, limits your working hours, but you said you're waking up at five, you're pushing through all day. Obviously there's breaks in there to deal with the kids and normal day -to -day stuff. Now you're doing, would you estimate most days, eight hours, nine hours, 10 hours? How would you kind of break that down now?
Cassidy
Yeah, you never really stop just because you feel you have a connection to your audience. So I always kind of feel like I have people depending on me. So that mindset never stops. But I do have obviously the freedom to do activities with my kids or go to any vacation or any event or any dance recital that I need to. I have a lot more freedom than if I was in a nine to five. So it's kind of a 50-50 split where a handoff where when you clock out of a nine to five, you can shut your brain off and be done. Like you can walk away from your job.
And I do miss that a lot. Whereas when you are in this field, always feel like I have people like depending on me, I always have requests, always have DMs, I'm always behind. I always feel this sense of like, I'm behind or I'm behind the curve on something. So it's really hard to shut that off. I'm working on boundaries, I'm working on it, but it's a work in progress. But at the same time, I never miss a single event for anything. And so I wouldn't trade by any means.
How has the business of being an influencer changed?
Greg
That's amazing. As a parent, that's priceless stuff. We were talking about kids beforehand. It's things that 20 years from now, you're to look back and your kids are going to remember that, that mom was always there for stuff. So that's great. Business of being an influencer. I'm sure it's changed in last four years, five years that you've been doing it. We've seen social media platforms blow up. Everyone's an influencer now or trying to be an influencer now.
Walk us through the change a little bit. You can correct me if I'm wrong here. I get the sense that there's a little bit of influencer fatigue going on right now. If I'm right, I was gonna say you can correct me if I'm wrong, but you nodded. Yeah, so walk us through that a little bit. So someone wants to be an influencer, they're listening to this and like, okay, I wanna do this. Talk about influencer fatigue. Talk about how it's changed and maybe if you think it's going somewhere, I think those perspectives would be good for someone to listen to.
Cassidy
Yeah, I think I always tell people before you get into this field, you need to really make sure your mental health is in a really good place because this is a very emotionally challenging field, I would say. You really need to make sure you're strong in who you are. If you're a people pleaser, you're really going to have a hard time in this job because you, think a lot of people get the fatigue because you literally can't please everyone.
I could post the sky is blue tomorrow and I'm going to have someone tell me, no, it's not, it's green. And that's just the way the internet is. There's no winning. There's no winning. And I think a lot of influencers are really social, happy people. And they're also, a lot of them are very much people pleasers. And I think it really does eat at them that no matter what they post, they're upsetting someone because you just can't win. And that leads to fatigue.
So say like, you need to walk into this being aware that you can't please everyone, you need to be okay with that. You need to be okay with fact that people aren't gonna like you. The internet has really become the Wild West. Everything goes. Anyone can say anything they want. Anyone can make up anything they want about you and you have to just be able to block it out or it's literally gonna eat at you. I think that's another thing is I see a lot of influencers who are really cracking under the trolls these days and that's also causing a lot of fatigue instead of just ignoring it.
It's so hard. I say that like it's easy. Like, you know, someone says something mean to you, I can tell you all day, like, just ignore it. But you're the one who actually has to process it. And so I think that's a big part of the fatigue coming. There's been a huge push on the analytics and algorithm and everyone's so obsessed with that. And I actually haven't looked at my analytics or my numbers in a year. Again, it got in my brain. It was making me spiral.
Because every day you'll see Instagram, you'll see, I gained 500 followers, but I lost 300 yesterday. Like, what I do, why did people hate me? Why did 300 people? You like start to spiral with it, and again, it'll just get to you. And so I'm probably the only creator who'll say like, don't look at your analytics. But I would say, I think it's more unhealthy than not, because no one's gonna figure out the algorithm. You're not gonna figure it out. No one's gonna figure out. It's a big old mystery.
It could say my best posting time is 2 p I promise you it'll be 7 p the next day. So I found they don't help me and they just caused me to spiral.
Greg
Very good. Have you had to change because of just trends or fatigue or anything? Have you had to change the content you put out there? Like, do you have to adapt or do you hope your audience just follows you?
Cassidy
Yeah, I've definitely adapted a few times. So originally I just did hair. When I first got into this field, I was just doing hair. But I kind of followed my followers' wishes in a way. I listened to them. A lot of people I think also don't bother too much with going to their comments or their DMs, which I think is a huge mistake. I think your biggest priority actually should be comments and DMs. Think that is where that's the key to your success because without those you have nothing really. Because you'll hear a lot of people say, don't look at your comments, just ignore your comments.
I think that's terrible advice. You should be in your comments, which is why you should be mentally sound before you go in there. But I found that when I was doing hair, I had people start asking me for like, where'd you get that shirt? where are your earrings from? So the things that they could see I'd get requests on. Or my gosh, your eye makeup, can you do a tutorial on that?
So I'd started kind of doing videos off of comments I was getting and seeing what hit. And so people really loved my alpha videos. So I started doing way more of those and they really were becoming way more successful than hair. And then I'd have an alpha video and my daughter would pop up behind me or my husband would show up or my dogs would be in it and people would ask questions about my family. So I started kind of bringing people along with my life. And then, you know, I
I would randomly be filming in my kitchen while I'm cooking and someone would be like, that looks so good. What are you cooking? And so I would share that. And so I just kind of listen to what they're asking of me and then I go with it. And more times than not, it turns out to really work just because that is what people are asking for.
Greg
That's great. I've got to imagine that if you're always trying to follow a trend, like it sounds to me like you have a very natural process for I mean, listening does a lot for you, but you have a very natural process for kind of going with the flow. Like I see it. My kids watch YouTube, right. And they're following it. And I've watched you go from Roblox all the time. Now they're doing these crazy stunts and it's almost you can see them going, I got to stay a step ahead. I got to stay a step ahead. To me, looks exhausting.
So I think it's good advice that you're just kind of naturally going with the trends, you're you have a reason for doing that because I could imagine that beating down on you.
Cassidy
Yeah, think if you're following just the trends, you have a big risk of becoming a one -hit wonder. Because sure, you might go viral if a big song is trending with a big dance. So if you do that dance, you may go viral. But why are people going to keep following you and stick around for you? And so think following trends are fun. If a trend feels organic and fun to you, do it. But I don't think that should be. There are a lot of accounts who
Their whole purpose is to tell you what trend is next so you can hop on it really quick. And I think that works for very few people. Like the D 'Amelio's worked wonders for them. They are a very rare case. can't name a ton of creators who have become successful off of
Negative sides of being an influencer
Greg
So you mentioned some of the negatives before, be it mental health sound, right, try to block some of that stuff out or just take care of yourself. how about some other negatives if there are any for doing what you do?
Cassidy
There's a big lack of privacy, which is, know, I'm kind of more of an open book, but it's a little bit harder on my husband, who is much more private. So that can be hard. you know, these people become your friends and a lot of them become very much like your family. Parasocial relationships are very real. And I feel it on my end too. But with that comes, you you meet someone in public and they know so much about your life.
And it can be it can throw you off or I've you know, I've had people come to my house because they found my address And that can throw you for a loop and it's part of it, know a lot there's so sweet I've never I actually really have never been approached by anyone who's been rude whatsoever, but it does really open your eyes to like There are a lot of people who know everything about my life and so that's just something that That can be hard a lot especially because these
A lot of these people have really strong opinions because they feel so close to you. They have very strong opinions about everything you do. I I recently had pink hair and I went to blonde hair and it very violently upset some people that I did that because they felt so connected to my life decisions. So that can be really hard to navigate.
Greg
Do you ever get used to that or do you just find a better way to accept it?
Cassidy
I think I'm very social, I love it when people come and talk to me. I don't really love when they show up at my house, so that kind of thing. But I do love when people come up to me. I think it's more hard on my husband or someone, people who I'm And so that's kind of, that can kind of, especially if we're on a date or something, he's like, okay, focus on me, because I'll talk for an hour. And he's like, you gotta say goodbye, I'm like, okay. But I do think if you're a very private person, this is not the field for you.
Advice for kids who want to be an inlfuencer
Greg
Excellent. All right, let's talk specifically to kids in high school now. So they have all the tools theoretically that you do. They have a phone, they have editing software, they have classes, they they of have it all now, right? These kids are spoiled. Some of them are going to, they try to become influencers in high school. Some are going to do it in college. Some will go to college and try to do it on the side, some are going, which is fine, but some will go, I'm not gonna go to college, it's not for everyone, but I'm gonna try to launch this.
So speak to those 14 to 18 year olds right now and just say, okay, if this is something that interests you, what advice might you offer them? And this could be, it could be as small as a skill or a class you might've taken in high school that you're like, you know what, 20 years later, that actually helped me out a little bit. It could be a skill to learn, it could be anything at all, but what would you say to those kids?
Cassidy
Find your passion and what you're good at and what you really enjoy that you can see yourself creating a lot of content around. So if you love working out and you are happy to share your workout routines and you love health and fitness and all that, really hone in on that. And then the best piece of advice I ever got when I was starting in this field that I literally to this day tell myself every single day, which I think I said earlier was wake up every day and make at least one video that is useful to other people. Give one piece of yourself that is useful to someone else every day and you're gonna hit something and eventually that your channel will compile and become extremely, it'll,
I'm looking for the right word, useful, but it'll become really strong in its content. You can get on every day and just share your life and that's great, but if you're actually sharing your life creating these relationships and becoming a useful, a go -to for people, that is gonna take you very far, especially as you grow. Someone may see one of your videos and they go to your channel and be like, there's so much here that I can learn from, immediate follow. I would also tell them avoid, it's so hard, I know it's so hard, but don't do giveaways, don't do gimmicks, don't buy followers.
Everyone does giveaways these days. I absolutely refuse. think it is buying your, I I consider it still buying followers. I think you're getting people who want a free Louis Vuitton bag, not because they actually value you and your content and you're creating a dead audience. Cause brands, if you want this to be a career and you want to monetize it, brands do not care how many followers you have because 10 ,000 people who are actually listening to me are way more valuable than a million people who followed you for a Louis Vuitton bag. And brands know how to look for that.
I'm not a professional as far as like picking for brand deals or anything, but I can spot someone who's done a lot of giveaways from a mile away. And so it's really hard because it's a quick way to get followers and you think it's gonna boost you in the algorithm. But I think in the long, for the long game, if you want this to be a career, you gotta play the long game. It's gonna really hurt you.
So I would say just slow and steady, try not to get discouraged, find what makes you special and share that and then always view when you're doing your stories or your videos or whatever it is, think of it like FaceTiming your friends. So like whenever I'm on my stories or anything, I really, feel like I'm FaceTiming my friends and that I think has also gone a long way because if you're getting on, you're like, hi guys today, blah, blah, blah. People tune you out. Too many people are doing that, you know? So I think just being as authentic and you as you can be and just try not to look at the numbers during analytics and try not to follow all the trends and try not to do the giveaways and just let yourself take its time.
Greg
One story, one question for you. So I was joking with my wife yesterday and I said, I wonder if I should start this episode with, Hey guys, everyone's asking me where I got my next guest from. so I appreciate you saying that. the question for you, you said you mentioned, Hey, I'm, pretend I'm FaceTimeing my friends. So if you're, you have an idea of what you want to say and the message you want to communicate there, if you mess up halfway through, are you reshooting it or are you just kind of going with it and ad-libbing as you go?
Cassidy
My followers will tell you it still keeps going on. There are many a story out there with me tripping over my words with my daughter interrupting me. It's I don't reshooting it whenever I try to reshoot something. I sound so fake on that second shoot. And you can kind of see when people do that because you see their stories and you're like really into it. And then it's there's like a part of it that seems odd. That was probably a. I'd say just keep going with it. People don't want perfect anymore. Perfect isn't.
No one's perfect. So, I mean, if people are looking for my flaws, whether I'm race shooting or not, they're gonna find it. So I figure I might as well just leave it in there.
Greg
Being the authentic self. So that was great advice. Would your advice change to anyone who's maybe in that college age year, so the 18 to 22 -ish, or is it the exact same advice just kind of pushed over?
Cassidy
I think same advice, I would say if you're willing to be, be vulnerable. There are a lot of people in the, I mean that 18 to 20 field is so hard, like that's such a hard period of life and if you're willing to really show the struggle through that, I think there are a lot of people who can relate to that as well. So you don't have to have some extraordinary talent to have a channel. You don't have to be the best cook or be great at putting outfits together or whatever you have. If you are just willing to get on and be like, know what, the way I can help the world right now.
I'm in a really tough spot and here's how I'm gonna get through it. But never make your channel about complaining. You always need to come with a solution. So it's kinda like when you're in the workforce too. This was a rule I had when I was in corporate. I never brought my boss a problem without a solution in hand. And then you can have your audience kind of either think through those solutions with you, help encourage, or someone else is in the same boat as you and they're like, I never even thought of doing that.
And you can really create almost like a support group. there are many TikTokers who are literally like support group channels and I love them. They're like my comfort channels. I go look at them. And for people who are in my stage of life, know, a reason I think mommy bloggers blew up was because there are a lot of stay at home moms who are really lonely and struggling. And it was really great to go there and be like, okay, you're in the same boat as me. This feels good. We're together. And I think that can also be a huge niche.
Greg
Amazing. let's we get through high school, we get through college, we haven't blown up, maybe they're doing okay now. So they're a let's call me good content creator. What takes someone from good to either great slash influencer status? Is there a tip, trick, strategy or something else? What would you say takes someone from good to better?
Cassidy
I think when you have an audience that's actually active, then the power leaves you and your content into who's watching you. So if you have an audience who's comfortable and they're engaging your content, that's gonna differentiate you from good to great. So if you have great content, you're good. If you have great content that people are engaging with, you're great. so you not only, the challenge then becomes, you making your followers feel comfortable enough to be that first commenter on your post and start that ball rolling or want to save your content and go back to it later or share it with their friends. And so it really goes full on into what does my audience want? What are they looking for and what are they engaging in.
Greg
Excellent. This question is going to be a little bit different. So I've been asking my guests about advising younger kids on how to treat their social media profiles because one day they're going to go into the corporate world. If you ever have done hiring, you're going to Google the person. You might find some stuff and nowadays everything's on camera. There's a lot of protections here. If someone's working and become an influencer or become known, they're obviously not going to have private profiles all over the place. They're going to have a lot out there in the world.
Some of these people are not going to make it as influencers and they're going to have a secondary career there, but they're going to have this content out there. So it's a really long way of asking you, Cassidy, what advice would you have for people that safeguarding their profiles while still venturing down this road of being open, vulnerable, public in case it doesn't work.
Cassidy
I think I always, for me personally, I always view my content as my kids are gonna see this one day. So I very much stick to if my daughter's 10 years old and Googles me, is she gonna be okay with what she sees? And so that's kind of my rule of thumb, because it's okay to have fun on the internet, it's okay to do silly dances. I mean, I've shown up looking ridiculous many a time on my channels, but I do avoid the more the crude song choices and things like that based off of, you know, I want my daughter to see on the internet.
And I will say I've had, it's also been really successful on me because I've had a lot of moms DM me and say, I'm so thankful that I can trust my kids, like, and let my daughter watch your channel. Like, my daughter loves your hair tutorials. She shows them to all our friends and I'm so glad that I can trust her on your profile because I don't.
I don't use bad language or anything like that. No thing against it. I just choose to keep things clean and it doesn't affect my content at all to do it.
Greg
That's amazing. It's amazing. It's great advice though. It's tough because high school people, I we were both there one time, do stupid things. We didn't have phones around this 24 -7 back then though, so we kind of got through that unscathed for the most part. it's always, I think with you this is a, like this area is a tricky situation, right, a little bit because they're out there.
Cassidy
When you're younger, would be a lot trickier. But you can be what's cool. If you want to be an influencer, you can be the influence that you don't have to be shaking your booty to get views. You can be doing something really cute and useful to get views. And we see that a lot. I feel like now too, I'm seeing a lot more young influencers blow up and they're the cutest things ever. So you don't have to, I mean, if that's what if that's what you're holding on to, to blow up and make your career off of you are in for a rough go.
And yeah, just say, look at the kind of audience you want to get. So for me, I want an audience of young girls, moms, corporate girls. I want the girly nation and they're, they don't want pictures of me in a bikini on a beach somewhere. They don't care about that. And so that's the, so look at the audience you're trying to get. Sure, I could get quick views one way.
Greg
Well said, well said.
Cassidy
but they aren't the views I want and they aren't the following.
Common misconceptions about being an influencer
Greg
That's great advice. Okay as we wind down here Cassidy, common misconceptions about your job. What would you say those are?
Cassidy
that it's no work. There's a lot of people who are like, she just on clothes all day. And I mean, yes, a little bit. There's a little bit of that. it is, believe it or not, there's a lot of behind the scenes work that happens. It is in a lot of ways. I would never compare what I do to like what a doctor or lawyer does. They have me way outworked. But it is still it is still hard work. And if you want to be successful and you want to maintain a career, you you always are working.
You can't stop. never ends. There's no vacations. You can take a vacation, but the algorithm will punish you for it. it's very mentally taxing.
Greg
Very good. Well, not very good, but good that you shared it. Better way to say it. What about your career do you wish you knew sooner?
Cassidy
I think I had just... That's a good one. I think with this career, it's constantly surprising me.
I think I was very cautious in meeting other creators because there was this misconception that creators were like a dog eat dog and they were all in competition. It was like a mean girl society and that's actually not true at all. And I think I waited too long to really foster relationships in this world. And everyone I've met to this day has been so kind. I've made some of the best friendships. So I think I'm sad that I missed out on that earlier. I really kind of stood off to the sidelines and I think I missed out on some really great friendships that could have really helped my hand through a lot of learning experiences in this field.
So I would say there's a lot of people who I think people always need to remember are trying to go viral. So a lot of things are they're saying whatever they can say to get that video to go viral and a lot of videos start with I met EXO influencer in this New York City restaurant and she was mean to me. And there's so many of those going around because they're successful. They always go viral.
Those stories are like, and they'll never name who the person is, but I mean, they always do really well. And I think a lot of people have found that. But when I've actually been in this world, every party I've gone to, every event I've gone to, everyone's been so welcoming, so nice. And I would say the majority of people I've met are exactly the same person as I've seen on their channels. So I think I just had a misconception based on all those TikToks that made it sound a little scary in that world.
Greg
Don’t believe everything you see on the internet kids, right?
Cassidy
Yeah, I had, you told me once, you know, people are just trying to go viral. The headline, the scary headlines, they're trying to go viral, remember that? I'm like, yeah, kind of takes the fear mongering down.
Greg
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's helpful too when you meet new people now even I mean you have your tribe now, right? But even when you meet new people you you're probably just you go into it knowing chances are they're
Cassidy
Yeah, I'm not looking at everyone like they're like Regina George. I'm like, okay, no, like it's a different
Greg
Very good. okay, what did I, this is a world that I know from a surface level. I don't know the ins and outs of it. What did I neglect to ask you that you think is important?
Cassidy
I think a big another misconception that I think people need to if you really want to do this don't let this discourage you is that it's over saturated and I think the most amazing part about influencing is everyone could be an influencer and it's still be a career because we are still influencing each other it's just gonna be based on what your audience is listening to, so I'm an influencer but I follow influencers. I buy off influencers all the time especially now that I have friends who I trust with everything,
I buy off their links constantly, that we could literally all have successful channels and we'd still have successful channels because we're still buying off each other. you know, Kohl's may partner with me because I do clothes and you may buy something off me for your wife, but Kohl's may not partner with you because you're more podcast tech. You know, I don't think Radio Shack's the thing anymore, but Radio Shack would probably partner with you, but they wouldn't partner with me. So like everyone...can really be in this field, so don't let the over saturation scare you, because I don't think that's a thing in this world. think influencing is a very open field that's only gonna grow, and the best part about it is there's no job interview, there's no boss, there's no resume, you just need a phone, you just need you, you can do it, and you don't have to worry about there never being enough space.
Greg
Radioshack, come on down, let's talk. They came back a few years ago online, I don't know if they're still, I should probably know this, this is my world, but I think they're still
Cassidy
I don't even know if they're their or not, I can tell you that
Greg
I'll tell you what, if they buy a sponsorship with me, I will ask for their phone number when they buy it. We're gonna turn the tables a bit here. All right, Cassie, before we go, you can't be an influencer anymore. I'm gonna take social media altogether off and I'm going to double punish you and I'm going to take hairdresser or hairstylist off. You have to choose a different career. What are you gonna choose and why?
Cassidy
I would go back to hotels. I actually really loved my job. I didn't want to leave it. When I walked away from it, it was really sad to leave because I had grown really far in that field. I worked at the Hotel Dell in Coronado, which was just a beautiful property. I loved it. I loved what I did. I got yelled at, you know, by guess a lot because I was a manager and that's what you did, which I think prepped me really well for the internet, will say.
Greg
So what would your dream position, would it be general manager or would it be manager? Like what would you go for?
Cassidy
I would love to be a general manager, but I would probably go back to front desk management and I would probably, I would want to go back to resorts.
Greg
Okay, even with the long hours?
Cassidy
Even with the long hours, I do love working. I really do. And it's different when you work in a hotel. You kind of have a family unit there. So it was a good gig. If you're interested in hospitality, if the housing's not for you, hospitality's a great field.
Greg
Excellent, so Cassie, that's all I got for you today. So thank you for your time. If someone wants to reach out, ask you a question, let us tell people how they can get ahold of you, they find you on social. Go ahead and throw that out.
Cassidy
I am I'm in my DMs every day. So you can shoot me a DM at just classically Cassidy. I do not know how to talk DMs work. I'm going to be honest with you. So Instagram find me. But if you leave if you aren't getting a response from me because I may not see it right away. You can leave a comment on one of my pictures or photos be like, hey, I DM do you I will always go look at it. I'll see your comment. I know I see read every single comment I get. So I will see it and I'll go find your DM.
Greg
Excellent, Cassidy Montalvo everyone. Be sure to follow her on all her channels. We'll link to her channels in the show description, so be sure to check that out if you didn't catch it.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you'd to unbox your career with us, we'd love to have you. And until next time, be kind to one another.
(Interview transcription provided by Riverside.fm. May not be 100% accurate.)
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