Welcome to our Champion the Creators interview series with influencers of all niches to highlight their journeys, share their insights and inspire! Today we are talking all about influencing with Brandy, a food and lifestyle influencer.
Meet Brandy, a food and lifestyle influencer in Louisiana sharing delicious recipes on social media. A chemist by trade, Brandy has gained 65.2K Instagram followers by sharing her love for cooking, motherhood and lifestyle. She started her journey in 2011 and has since shifted content niches. Brandy and I chatted about how her pivot to food content has helped her grow exponentially and her tips for fellow creators.
“I started @bmycurlfriend in 2011 as a natural hair page and social media changed so much during that time. In the midst of that, I got married and I kind of neglected my page, and then when I came back, everything had changed. Around 2016, I started doing lifestyle content and was struggling to grow. Last June, I started doing only food content — only recipes and cooking — and I’ve been going strong since then.”
In addition to being a full-time lab supervisor and mother of two children, Brandy balances her work with her passion for content creation. Her content strategy involves planning and batching her content, repurposing older content, and occasionally enlisting the help of her professional photographer husband.
“I’ll try to just make multiple dishes at one time and then spread that content out. And I also repurpose content, older content that maybe I posted when I had fewer followers,” she said. “It has actually been doing really well. So that kind of helps with the balancing of it and just taking breaks when I need to. I still have small children, so they need my attention as well.”
She is hopeful about her side hustle.
“I am not opposed to being a full-time content creator. I’m hoping that this takes me far. I do enjoy just the creative aspect of it. I really do.”
Brandy’s content primarily focuses on video, which she has grown to love, especially the editing process and seeing the finished product. However, she also appreciates the value of high-quality photos in her content mix.
“At first I was like, ‘Oh, I hate this. I hate video. Why do we have to do videos?’ And now I just really love it. I love, love editing them.”
In addition to her strong presence on Instagram, Brandy is also building her following on TikTok and Pinterest.
“(Pinterest content) has a longer life, so that’s something I’m going to explore,” she said.
She’s also planning to revamp her website to guide people to her recipes and promote her recently released e-cookbook, “We Got Food At the House,” which features traditional Cajun and Creole cuisine.
As she continues to grow her brand, Brandy aims to show more of her personality in her content.
“I’m hoping to transition back into showing more of me and the cooking so that brands can see that I’m multifaceted,” Brandy said.
Brandy’s advice to aspiring content creators is to focus on providing value rather than following trends.
“Trends are nice, and maybe you will go viral from some things, but I think what I learned is once I started just being true to what my talents were and applying that to my content, I really saw the benefits of that,” Brandy said. “Because when people feel like they can learn something from your content, they will stick around versus if you’re just entertaining, they may laugh and like it, and they probably will just move on. So that isn’t always the avenue to success. So I definitely try to look into how can I provide value.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Marette Flora is IZEA’s Content Manager. She writes and edits content about influencer marketing and all the latest #TeamIZEA happenings. When she is not at work, she can be found writing her personal blog, crafting personalized gifts or exploring Chicago where she lives with her husband, two daughters, dog and plants.
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