We recently connected with Riesa Sumida and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Riesa, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

That’s a great question! Looking back on things though, I think that I started just at the right time for me. However, I also think that if I had started posting sooner and taken things more seriously at the beginning, I would have been able to form better connections with content creators in my niche. I definitely missed out on some fun opportunities to meet up and connect with similar content creators early on because I wasn’t very attentive to my account.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Absolutely! First and foremost, hi, I’m Riesa! I created my food Instagram (@eats.with.riesa) back in college as a funny play on a “finsta”, but then it grew into something more. I also recently started posting TikToks (@riesa.ann) after quite a bit of deliberation.

I think that something that sets me apart from similar content creators is how I post my content. Crossposting is super popular, and rightfully so, but I try to highlight different media across my platforms. My Instagram, for example, is primarily photographs. I do have a handful of reels, and I’m happy to create reels, but they aren’t the main form of media that I strive to post on that platform. My TikTok account, on the other hand, is where I post videos of my food adventures as well as occasional carousels of some of my favorite things that I’ve eaten recently.

While I understand that different platforms have different audiences, I like to make sure that my content differs across platforms for those who follow me on multiple platforms. As a social media user, I really enjoy when the content creators I follow have separate types of content (i.e., pictures, videos, etc.) across the platforms they are on instead of their social media pages being mirror images of each other, and I strive to do the same with my socials as well.

I’m really proud of how far I’ve come in capturing content while I’m out and about. I used to get embarrassed so easily when I was younger and quite a bit of my earlier posts are pictures that I tried to take as quickly as possible. Luckily, my friends were, and still are, super supportive of my food Instagram. They’ve never made me feel like what I was doing was stupid or silly, and that’s something that I’ll always be grateful for.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think that a lot of my social media audience came from the hashtags that accompany my posts. In all honesty, I’m still not really sure what the most “optimal” hashtags for posts are, but I think that as long as you try your best, your content will reach the audiences it’s supposed to.

I would say that my biggest piece of advice would be: Don’t hop on a bandwagon just because one is rolling by. Nowadays, it’s really easy to tell when someone is posting because they want to post versus when they’re posting because they feel like they have to. Creating content should be something fun and something that you want to do, not something you feel like you have to do.

I know that so many people probably say this, but I would also advise them to be genuine with their posts. Share things that you love and enjoy, but also share things that may not have been your favorite thing in the world. With so many products, places, businesses, etc. being constantly influenced and promoted, I think that it’s important to also de-influence things. With that being said, be super respectful and cautious with how you de-influence things; the world needs less negativity, not more.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The biggest thing I’d like non-content creators to understand is that not every single person capturing content is doing it for clout. I think that it’s easy for people to forget that there are so many individuals out there who are truly creating content as a fun hobby. Luckily, I’ve never had a negative interaction while capturing content, but I am very aware that it happens to others, so I guess I do just want to generally remind everyone to treat others how they’d like to be treated. I know it’s something that everyone has probably heard time and time again, but it’s actually really sad to see how many people seem to forget this adage.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eats.with.riesa/profilecard/?igsh=MXQ0dDh2YmZlZWFw
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=hC8OLYtDq5wJrD8RlVxaOg&utm_source=ishare
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@riesa.ann?_t=8r6XvKNBsGR&_r=1

  Beli: https://beliapp.co/app/Riesa