We were lucky to catch up with Chynna Martinez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Chynna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I actually have been able to make being an influencer a full-time job and honestly it has been the BEST decision I have ever made in my entire life. I have been a stay at home mom since 2018 (when I got pregnant with my son) and despite having a supportive spouse, I’ve always loved making my own money. With that being said, becoming an influencer happened accidentally. I had no intentions in becoming one nor did I ever think I’d be in this position but I truly believe everything happens for a reason. Here is the back story on how I became an influencer. In 2018, I just had my second child which is my son and I was a stay at home mother to him and his sister. Before I got pregnant again with my son, I was a phlebotomist at a plasma donation center. I ended up leaving my job due to having 24/7 nausea during my pregnancy which is actually called Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Mothers who have experienced that in their pregnancy know exactly what that is like. It prevented me from working so we agreed that being a stay at home mom was best.
Fast forward to 2018, I had my son and of course I am that typical ‘I gotta document everything’ kind of mom. I was so over the moon in having my girl and now boy and was always posting photos of my kiddos together and just living my best life. Happy as ever. At the time, Instagram started becoming more and more popular and that is when I got my very first campaign. It was a company who sold diaper bags. They reached out to me and told me they’d like to send me one of their best diaper bags for my kids in exchange of talking about them on my Instagram page and just promoting it. In my head, I said ‘heck yeah! free diaper bag for a post? saves me money on buying a new one!’ and then I did what they asked– next thing you know, I had ANOTHER company wanting to work with me but this time they wanted to send my daughter a Jojo Siwa bookshelf. Again, I took them up on that offer and did what they asked. From that time period up until 2020 I was doing it for free.
Free products for a shoutout on my social medias. It started off as a hobby for me to be quite honest which is why I did it for free for such a long time. I didn’t have any intention on making it a full-time job until I had another friend named Kayla tell me “you take really good photos to not get paid. You need to start charging!” Now here I am in 2022, working with the biggest companies you can imagine and making an income off of it while being a stay at home mother to my kids. It’s been a huge blessing and I can’t imagine my life any other way.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So I am what they call an influencer. I work on all social medias and manage my own pages/work – you can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Tiktok and Instagram. I work with big companies like McCafe, Crayola, Walmart, HEB etc is exchange of promoting their products or whatever they need me talk about on certain platforms I have. I get paid for what it is called ‘creating content’. I think what sets me apart from others is that there’s not really that many influencers in San Antonio, Texas. I believe there is only about 2 that I know of that live in San Antonio which is mind blowing because San Antonio is a big city but in other states- Influencers are a big thing and it’s normalized even more in their city/state. So when I tell people what I do for a living, they are more mindblown than anything because as stated- there’s not much influencers here.

The main thing I am proud of is that I get reached out to work with companies that I truly admire and support with my own money and get compliments such as ‘the company loves your work and would have the pleasure to work with you’. It’s a great feeling knowing that companies that I myself admire, admire ME also. I am very creative when it comes to my work. It is way more than just taking photos and videos. These photos and videos are for brands to repurpose on THEIR platforms as well. It’s a big blessing overall and it’s an amazing job.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My biggest goal motherhood wise is to make quite a bit of money working with my favorite companies and to live comfortably with my family and to travel the world. I want to be able to give my kids the memories I never had growing up due to money issues. I want my kids to get all the travel experiences and have so many memories they can talk about as they get older. I want to continue to be present with them at all times, I think that’s any parents goal to be quite honest.
It kind of heals my inner child-hood if that makes sense.
Now my biggest goal working wise is to be able to be in a commercial (hopefully), gain more of an audience, increase the amount I get paid and to work with brands that are literally a ‘pinch me am I dreaming?’ brand. Aka Target. haha.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building an audience is one of the hardest things ever and it is one of the most asked questions when others are trying to become an influencer as well. I have been an influencer for quite some time and I am STILL building an audience myself but what I noticed that seems to help is finding your niche. What is a niche? the best way I can explain that is you gotta find something not only relevant and authentic to YOURSELF but to your audience as well. You have to figure out what your followers want to see. Is it parenting? is it baking? is it holiday content? is it lifestyle? is it traveling content? You will most certainly know what your audience likes when you post a specific post/video and it gets the most comments/likes/views etc. For me, my audience loves when I post food content, my family and my fitness/weightloss journey. Finding your niche and what your audience takes time but keep in mind, stay true to YOURSELF. Don’t feel like you have to change who and what you are just to please people and gain followers. Never make that mistake because you will lose yourself in this kind of business.