Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica Hirsch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jessica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Leaving my full time career as a high school math teacher in the South Bronx.

From the time i started doing social media content creation on the side in 2014, until June 28, 2017 i was sort of living a double life — over that three year span i was gaining a lot of traction on social media and building a loyal following. I decided to take the biggest risk of my professional career and leave teaching to pursue life as a full time entrepreneur.

All through grade school I always knew I was going to be a math teacher (my mom was as well) — It was by no means an easy decision b/c i LOVED teaching but i wanted to take a chance and see what I can turn my passion for food and sharing my experiences into.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Jessica Hirsch is the founder and CEO of CheatDayEats which is a lifestyle brand and production company focused on food, travel, and fitness.  Her look, style and fun
personality combined with her unique content creation are not the only things that set
her head and shoulders above the crowded world of influencers. Jessica’s high quality
photography and videography landed her on the Sony’s Alpha Collective Team – a
group of the finest photographers in the World.
Jessica Hirsch started “CheatDayEats” on Instagram and “ItsMyCheatDay” on Tiktok

Now, her international full-time career is to post about her indulgent
experiences around the world, where she features her passions throughout her
Instagram: cheat day worthy food, a healthy balanced lifestyle, and worldwide travel
adventures.

She has worked with brands such as Sony, Samsung, Coca-Cola,
Converse, Godiva, BEBE Sport, Mastercard, IHOP, Dunkin’ Donuts, and many more.
She’s also been featured in major media outlets, including NBC’s Daytime TV, ABC,
Entrepreneur.com, Cosmopolitan and Refinery29. With the growing success of her
brands and fans from all over the world, Jessica remains humble and appreciative of all
her brand partnerships and supporters.

My content strategy is trying to execute a photo or video that really showcases an experience. Showcasing who I am and what the food is, and maybe where I am and when. Every piece of content that I post is a little different depending on what it is and where I am, and obviously I don’t want it to get dull, so my content strategy differs based off of that information.

As my brand has evolved, my content strategy has changed dramatically. Originally, I was posting straight up food porn, like chocolate dripping, and of course I still do that, because I still love it. That’s who I am. But today, I try to incorporate a lot of lifestyle content of me and have my personality really shine through on my feed. So it’s kind of a mix.

Obviously a photo tells a story, but a video gets more in depth, and it really gets the audience involved and lets them see a little bit more to what I’m doing. I love to post how-tos, or show how a dish is made. I think it gets people much more interested in the video than if it was, let’s say, just a cheese bowl. The more of the experience that people are able to have themselves, the more traction it’s gonna get. I try to do it as much as possible, but it’s hard to get into the kitchen sometimes.

I think my brands are very relatable. I find that I get audiences from all over the world and all different types of people. It’s because, at the end, everybody loves food, and I think everybody loves to have an indulgence. It’s kind of like a combination of luxury and indulgence, and I think people really love to see that.

Every partnership’s a little bit different, but what’s important to me, at the end of the day, is that I’m working with brands and destinations and products that I love. I’ve learned, and I’ve spoken to many people who have said this also, that the money’s not worth it if it’s not gonna be part of who you are and what your brand represents, because you’re going to lose people in the end.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

The co-founder of CheatDayEats (aka Mr.CheatDayEats) is my now husband Brian.

We’ve been together for 15 years and I still remember the first time i came home and we talked about this new thing called ‘instagram” and we were debating on what was a better platform to join — Instagram vs Tumblr

We actually met at a local town bar but up until that point we were seeing eachother at the same gym, same school, and seemingly everywhere — which led to me coming up to him in the bar and breaking the ice with ‘I see you everywhere” — and we’ve been together ever since

Have you ever had to pivot?

As in most people’s case, COVID brought about a bunch of professional challenges. With restaurants basically shutting down for a long period of time, it was critical that I find new ways to produce content. At Home recipes is somethign that I planned on getting into anyways so this sort of pushed me into it — I’m happy I did and still to this day incorporate a balance of at-home content and outside of home food experiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://cheatdayeats.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheatdayeats/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cheatdayeats/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-hirsch-519540112/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cheatdayeats/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5GRW5USkKBcs1w6btjjbaA
• Other: TikTok — at home recipes — https://www.tiktok.com/@cheatdayeats outside of home experiences — https://www.tiktok.com/@ItsMyCheatDay Pinterest — https://www.pinterest.com/CheatDayEats/

Image Credits
All image credit is mine