We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maria Roberts. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maria below.

Maria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

My full time job as a content creator was definitely not an overnight success. Initially when I started my account (which was actually a blog before Instagram launched), I was working full time as a speech pathologist and treated content creation like a hobby. It was really fun, and something I was doing as a creative outlet with my sister. When our following started to grow and we were getting our first paid opportunities I began to see the potential. People were becoming “influencers” with huge followings and earning potentials. At that time, I think I held myself back too much, blaming it on the fact that I worked full-time when it was really my confidence that was holding me back. I played it safe, grew slowly and steadily and by the time I had my first child I was able to quit my full time job and work part-time, supplementing the extra income from Instagram. The “success” really didn’t happen until I started taking risks. I had my second baby, and started to dig into the content that I really enjoyed consuming. Mom humor, mom tips that are easy and practical, and general relatable mom content that I truly enjoyed making. I had to be ok with posting and knowing the content might totally bomb, but it was actually the opposite! From there I was able to get more collaborations with brands I love and eventually sign with an agency. It’s always a work in progress, but I have more confidence now to try new things, take risks and hopefully continue to grow.

Maria, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Maria Roberts, I’m a speech pathologist, full time content creator (@mariaroberts) and mom of two! On Instagram you can find relatable mom content; some humor and some hacks, as I navigate motherhood alongside my followers. I also co-own a private practice and provide speech therapy to children part time. I’ve carved out a career for myself over the years where I am able to keep my hands in both speech and content creation, as they are two very different jobs that I love equally.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The land of content creation on Instagram and Tiktok is always changing and it’s what makes it so exciting but also a bit unnerving all at the same time. My original Instagram handle for 8 years was @spinach4breakfast, a play on drinking green smoothies for breakfast as my account was focused on healthy lifestyle content. This was in the era of “we’re not dieting, we’re cleansing.” I was in my 20’s living in NYC, I never felt well and completely dove into healing from the inside with strict healthy eating, cleanses, you name it. My account was 90% recipes, so you didn’t see many photos of me. This is how I initially grew because these gluten free/dairy free etc. recipes were a hot topic at the time. But years passed and I personally grew away from such a strict way of eating. I was also finding less joy in recipe content, and there was a reflection if that in my engagement and growth. I was at a point where I either needed to give it up or pivot, and I chose to pivot. I was a new mom, I loved consuming lifestyle content so I thought why don’t I create what I love to consume. I changed my handle this year to @mariaroberts, and although there are still some recipes on my account, it’s now a mix of content I really love to create that is a true reflection of who I am. Pivoting is part of this job, and I think it’s really important to be open to change to maintain longevity in this career.

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

I always say you need to be a good friend on social media. You can’t expect everyone to like your content if you aren’t giving back in return. So I recommend taking the time to follow people you like in similar content categories as you and engage with them in the way you hope they engage with you in return. Over time that group will grow, and you will have a little support network for every time you post. My second tip is to stick with it. If your engagement isn’t where you want it to be, keep going. Sometimes it just takes one post to take off for the momentum to begin. And make sure you ENOY what you are creating! You audience can feel that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mariaroberts
• Other: TikTok: @_mariaroberts

Image Credits
Images: Gillian Lee Photography