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

Alright, Michelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I love this question. It allows me to reflect on my journey and share that with you all.

My story goes back to around 2020 when I was working full time as a teacher and pregnant with my son. My husband and I are lucky to have made the decision that I should stay home instead of work because of the pandemic and being pregnant. We had a lot of fear and uncertainty.

When the world opened back up again, we never took parks for granted again. We began exploring all the parks and libraries close to us. Over time, I began sharing these adventures on my personal Instagram page. I started getting a lot of questions about it and people telling me they really loved my content.

Finally, in March of 2022, I started Play STL. It is such a tremendous creative outlet for me that I wish I had started sooner. It allows me to do what I love (being a mom) and sharing some of that with my followers. It truly is the biggest blessing and I’m so grateful for this platform.

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?

My name is Michelle and I’m a mom of 3, wife and preschool teacher. On my Instagram page, I share all things St. Louis for families. I share places to go, things to do, upcoming events in the area, weekday calendars of events and so much more.

I’ve gotten messages from many moms, nannies, grandparents and dads about how my page has helped them plan outings with the little ones in their life. These messages bring me so much joy and it’s exactly the reason I started my page.

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

I think a lot of people don’t understand the hard work that goes into being an influencer on social media. I feel that often times, it’s somewhat mocked in society as young people always being on their phones and taking selfies, and that’s not entirely true.

Being an influencer requires a lot of skills that not everyone has. You have to shoot content/engaging video and photos, edit the content to present as you wish, research information about the topic your posting about, respond to DMs and emails, type engaging captions full of info, attend events, work with brands…the list goes on and on.

I often get asked if I would ever do this full time and the answer right now is no. I absolutely adore my job teaching and influencing can be so exhausting at times. It’s good for me to have a balance of the two.

All that being said, I absolutely love being an influencer and helping others out. My hope for others is to enjoy my content and find it useful for themselves and their family.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building your brand on social media is no easy task and definitely takes time. There’s a few things I have done that I think are beneficial for anyone starting in social media.

1. Be authentic- I get on my stories many times a day to check in with my followers and just talk to them like I would a friend. This allows people to feel like you’re a friend to them and that they can relate to you.

2. Engage- I have found so many social media friends over the last two years and having friends in social media is soooo helpful. We support each others content, talk daily and share our lives together which helps through the really hard days.

3. Don’t let it consume you- Followers are important but remember these things take time. Dont get too worried about likes, views and follows. Just focus on making engaging content and staying consistent and the rest will come.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @play_stl
• Other: Email: [email protected]

Image Credits

@margarethovismedia