We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jason Reyna a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jason thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

It started when I would share my dining experiences with friends and them wanting to have the same experience. Words have a lot of meaning but pictures say a bit more in my opinion. So I started my page to showcase the many places I would eat at. This also started my passion for photography. I do my best to let each picture to tell a story. In doing so, I hope this entices each person looking at my pictures craving to try the food for themselves..

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

I started my creative/blogger page around 5 years ago as a hobby for my friends to see pictures of the delicious food I was eating and to share my powerlifting competitions. It was a slow start at first learning the ins and outs of social media. Like with any journey into something new, you learn from your mistakes to build on that to fine tune your craft. I use my platform as a marketing tool to help businesses gain exposure of what they have to offer. Though it may typically be food related, I am open to all businesses.

I am most proud of hearing from friends and followers that they went to a restaurant based off of the pictures I posted. They would tell me they order the same exact items and had a wonderful experience. What I do on my Instagram page doesn’t feel like work to me. I see it as a gift I get to share with anyone that comes across my page.

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

“ What is the point of this?” That is a question I get ask by individuals who do not understand what creatives/bloggers do. For the majority of us, we do this for the passion of creating content for our followers to enjoy and showcasing businesses and restaurants in the area we live in. Also, most of the costs for this comes out of my pocket. It can get expensive at times, depending how much I go out to eat on a weekly basis. I want to share with those looking from the outside in that I put a lot of effort into what I do. I hope they can appreciate the drive I have to continue this journey and be more open to understanding what it takes to be a creative.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

It did start with me sharing all the cool places I was eating at. Another thing to add is when I would train for powerlifting competitions, people wanted to know what I was eating. For me, I stuck to macro tracking for most of my meals but also indulged in much needed refueling at different restaurants. Some of my followers simply like the posts that I share. Followers in the fitness community enjoy seeing food I eat as a powerlifter. So I am able to reach different audiences to grow the following I have now.

For anyone starting out, I will say create a social media presence for something you are passionate about. Be open to change. This is all a process and will take time to learn. I recently started a travel page for the adventure side that I recently discovered I have.. Mostly sharing my hikes around Georgia. I’m starting from the ground up, so I’m in the building stage myself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: hulk_hungry & hulk_hungrytravels
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/jason-e-reyna

Image Credits
@vivachicken @redtopmountainsp @ghirardelli @mellowacworth @mozzabella_atl @chattahoocheefoodworks