We were lucky to catch up with Miranda Cohen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Miranda , thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

I am the brand and my brand is how I make money. If people aren’t interested in me, or you online let’s say, it becomes almost impossible to make money. People want to feel like they are listening and relating to a real person. If there are any disconnects between the influencer and audience, it becomes very challenging to turn your hobby, into a full time job.

It’s very easy to look online, and to assume that everyone is making money off of the content they are creating. Social media has become very saturated, and as more people pursue building personal brands .. the pool will only grow. Many people can go viral a few times, but it’s very rare for one to sustain the viral content and to turn that into a consistent way of making money. I truly believe the more money you grow up with, and have while starting social media, the easier it is to build a team of connects to help get you to that next level. Many social media creators today that are successful, usually have a manager, or an agency, working behind the scenes to guide the influencer and brand efficiently. The manager/agency’s goal is to help the influencer market themselves, while also collaborating on bigger and better brand partnerships. When you start social media with minimal support emotionally and financially, it feels almost impossible to keep going most days, especially in the beginning. I did not come from a rich background.

There is a lot of money that can be made when creating content, but there is also a longevity aspect that most people do not consider. Creating content takes over your life, and it’s challenging to do for a long period of time. You truly only have a short window to build a brand, unless you are willing to work years on end to establish it. That is what I did. When I started posting online, I was strictly posting fitness and motivational content, when social media wasn’t as popular as it is now. I was looked at as being conceited, arrogant and fake during my beginning years of being on the internet. People from my past probably still look at me this way, as many struggle to see others in a different light, than what was once known and true.

Creating content and being a social media influencer, is not a sustainable avenue, or career for most people. Especially, if you’re not thinking ahead. If you’re not 3 steps ahead of what you’re chasing, you will not be ready to sustain it when it comes. As fast as it all comes, it can all diminish just as quickly.

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 am what most people call a social media influencer. I used to cringe when I heard that word, but now, having years of experience, my perspective has shifted quite a bit. Sometimes you don’t know better until you do better.

I started my social media journey, posting on Instagram back in 2017. My content was solely focused around fitness and nutrition until COVID happened in 2020.

In 2018, I dropped out of college, where I was studying criminal justice, on the path to wanting to be a prosecutor attorney, with over $100,000 in college debt. I took a leap of faith in myself and wanted to give fitness my everything. I was lost heading into college and always felt like I was fighting for my life. I grew up in Eastpointe, Michigan, and as much as food was always on the table and I did have a good life filled with activities/hobbies, I was still very scared of being poor, unfulfilled, and bored in life.

From 2017-2020, I personal trained clients 6 days a week, from 5am-12pm and then from 5pm-9pm. I would film and post my clients daily to my IG story, and in my spare time, I would film my own workouts and post them to my Instagram account. Over that time period, I would have gained over 300 thousand followers on Instagram. The risk I took on myself was paying off and by 2021, I would fully pay off all of my college loans.

I worked with clients locally in Michigan until 2020, when COVID took over the world by storm. We were quarantined for months on end, and I had no way of making an income. I needed a solution fast. I switched all of my in-person training clients to an online training method. During Covid, Lucas and I, my business partner, worked very hard to build up our clientele so that when quarantine was over, we had a solution in place that would allow us to make more money and free up our time. In person training officially ended in 2021, soon after we were back to a normal way of living again. My in-person training career ended, and my online training business began full time.

Over the next year and a half, I would then build my online training business to be global, working with clients from the United States to other countries around the world like Ireland, Australia, Korea, England, and many more. It was at this time that I was able to start focusing more on the content I was posting. By 2022, I moved from Clinton Township, Michigan, to Tampa, Florida. I was living with my parents up until I moved. My goal was to become a full time content creator, which meant I had to also expand myself, what I knew, and further push my boundaries of comfortability.

By 2023, I amassed over 6.3 million followers on Instagram and over 10+ million followers across all social media platforms. I post on every social media platform every day (X, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, & Instagram). By the fall of 2023, I was able to meet my childhood idol, whom I have admired and respected immensely, Selena Gomez. Selena’s company, Rare Beauty, flew me to New York for their launch of their Soft Pinch Luminous Powder Blush.

My consistency in the content I create and in the content I have posted daily over the last 7 years is what has allowed me to sustain my social media presence over the years.

As social media continues to grow, you will start to see how much your personal brand and image on social media can elevate and change your life.

I am blessed to be where I am. I am excited for what is to come and for everything I know that I am capable of achieving.

How did you build your audience on social media?

You will see a lot of people give tips and tricks on how to build an audience on social media, but the truth is there is no trick or cheat code.

Building an audience is like developing a skill set. The more you practice and put those skills to use, the more skilled you become. You can only build an audience by posting. You can only sustain an audience by being authentic and being truly yourself. The more you create and post content, the more you give yourself the opportunity to establish yourself.

If you want to build your audience, stop waiting. In my opinion, most people want the perks of having a large audience on social media, but 99% of those same people aren’t willing to do what it takes to get there. And that’s why they haven’t yet. You can’t fail at what hasn’t been started.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I made the decision to drop out of college after finishing my junior year, my life changed in ways I wasn’t really ready for. I was still a child mentally at that time, and I didn’t realize what the real world was like. Paying bills completely on my own and working rigorous hours became my normal way of living. I attended Western Michigan University, where I was also a member of the Dance Team all three years of attendance. I was always a part of something, whether that was a group of friends, a dance community, etc., but I never truly felt at home in my environments. While being in college, I started to understand myself more and became very uncomfortable with how I was spending time.

I knew education was important, but I also saw people becoming extremely successful on the internet, creating their own business(s) online, without having a college degree. I was very drawn to the fitness community. It was very small at the time and very intense. People were taking bodybuilding very seriously and showingcase their experience on YouTube. I also saw women posting their workout routines and getting a lot of traffic to their posts. I started following more fitness influencers, and I started saying to myself, “I feel like I could do this too.” The idea was consistently in my mind, but changing my entire career without a guarantee of success at the finish line was a very hard concept for me to grasp. Every day I would say this to myself: “Well, if others did it, I should be able to, but then again, what if I fail… what will I do?”

The fear of truth and failure made it hard to comprehend what my future could be. I was scared of what others would say about me, and I didn’t want to be looked at like a loser. I think as a whole, when trying something new and not knowing the outcome, it’s easier to get in your head about what all could go wrong than filling your mind with what could go right over time.

I felt I had an unfair experience on my dance team. I wasn’t the best, but I wasn’t the worst, and I wasn’t able to experience the excitement of traveling to away games like my friends. I was always left behind, which made it harder for me to push through and remain on the team. Lucas, who also attended Western Michigan University, played football at the university and could relate to me through his own experience. He looked at me one day and said, “If you’re not happy on the dance team, why don’t you quit and let’s start your new Instagram page?” The next day arrived, and I made my decision to quit the team and start my new journey on Instagram.

I had a chip on my shoulder, and I was ready to shut all of the talk, hate, bullying, jokes, etc. aside and prove my worth. When I first started my journey, I was there to prove to everyone else I could do it. After years of personal training clients and posting every day, the journey became more about me than it did others, and it was the best lesson and confidence boost to keep going. I thought I needed everyone’s support, but really, I needed my own.

Today, I am authentic to me first and then to any company or products I support. I am an honest person, and I try to help lead others through my wisdom and personal experience. I am not fake. I am filled with gratitude each day. Most importantly, I’m extremely proud of the woman I have become on this chaotic yet beautiful journey called life.

Contact Info:

• Website: mirandadreamfit.com
• Instagram: mirandacohenfit
• Twitter: mirandacohenfit
• Youtube: officiallymirandacohen
• Other: TikTok: Mirandacohenfit Snapchat: mirandaacohen