We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Trivison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.
Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. Let’s go back in time to when you were an intern or apprentice – what’s an interesting story you can share from that stage of your career?
The summer before my senior year of college I was an intern at a local digital marketing firm in my hometown. It was with a boutique agency and within an hour I realized my boss was someone that would be a lifelong friend and mentor instead of just a boss that I would meet with once a month. I will never forget my first day as an intern when I had around 100 followers on social media and looked up to my boss who had over 1,000 and a thriving business. I remember asking her how she got so many followers and if I would ever get to that point. She told me she knew one day I would surpass her in following and in business in general and I thought there was no way.
Fast forward to today, I am still thick as thieves with my boss turned best friend and I have organically grown my audience to over 90,000 people. I never thought I would surpass her but here we are. Having someone believe in me from the jump gave me the confidence to continue on with this journey and now I am happy to report my personal business is thriving. If you are able to get an internship and one where they believe in you as a person, you are going to be on a great path going forward.
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 back background and context?
I have worked in influencer marketing for over 5 years now and I got my start as a college student who just wanted to share her life online. I had always looked up to bloggers and other creatives and thought if those women could do it, so could I. My personal brand has always revolved around clothing and fashion and to this day I still post outfit videos and images with a focus on midsize women’s fashion or outfits for sizes 10/12. Now, I also have expanded the brand to sharing lifestyle content with daily vlogs and some beauty/travel posts to round out my content pillars.
My strongest suit nowadays is helping women feel their best in their outfits and reminding them that style is personal and does not relate to the size you are in those clothes. At this point, I am proud to have a following of over 90,000 across Instagram and TikTok. I never thought I would get that big as an influencer and I am so grateful for the relationships I have made over the years. My ultimate goal now is to be a girl next door that you can go to for any fashion tips and tricks plus lifestyle inspiration. I currently am in my late 20s, live alone and share my life as a creative so other women know they can be successful on their own too.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One lesson I had to unlearn was limited beliefs. I always thought I would be a smaller creator with a following under 50k and I was alright with that. It was when my page exploded on Instagram that I realized I could be a lot more than I originally thought. Growing up, I thought influencing was for thinner and wealthier women from cities like New York, not small town Washington state. It was honestly after years of therapy and a healthy inner circle of friends that I realized I was able to be a big creator despite my “faults”. Through hard inner work and building solid relationships in my personal and professional life I can now say I can achieve anything.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
My Instagram page honestly began as a hobby and eventually turned into a side hustle and now a full time business. I started my page in college while chatting with a friend asking if I should get on Instagram as an influencer. She said why not and for the first 6 months I made zero dollars. I just shared different outfits I wore to class or owned from years of working at Nordstrom and slowly grew my page to my first 1000 followers.
During Christmas break, I started researching more on how to grow an influencer brand and that was when I got my first paid deal. It wasn’t a ton of money but it got me in the habit of thinking like a businesswoman instead of just a student. From there I steadily grew my page while going to school and eventually getting my first two post grad jobs. It was after my second role that I realized I was ready to take the leap from corporate to freelancer and I haven’t looked back. I am someone that needs creativity and her own schedule to thrive and I finally have that.
Now, I work with tons of incredible companies across the world and make a legitimate income through social media. I have stuck by my work all these years and have not given up for a moment. By remaining tenacious and hard working I can live out my dreams of working from home for myself!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laurentrivison.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurentrivison
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-trivison/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauren.trivison
Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/bellaraemedia/
https://www.instagram.com/dannycorderophotos/
https://www.instagram.com/jenniferdebarrosphoto/