We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ravena Grewal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ravena below.
Ravena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
I love having a flexible schedule and being my own boss but I do crave a bit more structure at times. Being an influencer is an amazing thing but there are a lot of unpredictable aspects to the job so sometimes I do wonder how a regular, stable job would be like.
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.
My name is Ravena Grewal and I’m a fashion and lifestyle influencer on Instagram based in Louisville, KY. I started a fashion blog and posting on Instagram as a content creator in 2016. At the time, I just wanted a creative outlet and a place to share my style with other people also interested in similar things. Back then, the idea of content creation being a career wasn’t as popular as it is today and people didn’t understand what you meant when you said that “I’m an influencer” when they asked what you do.
While this all sort of started as a fun hobby, I always had the goal of growing my personal brand. Over time, Instagram content sort of took over the blog culture and that’s when I shifted my focus to posting more over there. As my following grew, I started taking my role as a content creator more seriously and thought of it as a job rather than a hobby. By posting consistently, I started getting more offers from brands to collaborate and as my audience grew, a lot of these collaborations became paid. I love what I do and I think it’s amazing that I get to turn something that started off as a fun outlet into an actual means of income.
If I could give any bit of advice to people interested in becoming a content creator, I would say that you should be who are and not try to become like everyone else. There are so many influencers on Instagram today and the audience is seeing so much of the same content. If you want to do well, you have to stand out and give people a reason to want to follow you and the best way to do this is to just be your authentic self.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Back when I started in 2016, Instagram was a very different place. There was more room to grow, it was easy to build an audience, and your content was pushed out to a diverse group of people that shared similar interests. Instagram today is a lot different. With so many people trying to break into the field of content creation, it’s become more difficult to see the same numbers as before. I do think that reels are the best way to reach the most people based on Instagram’s current algorithm but it can be hard to reach your target audience. Personally, my audience has grown the most from consistently posting reels and making sure the content I’m creating is what my audience resonates with the most. I saw the most growth when I would post a picture and a reel in one day. The key to growth is consistency. If you don’t post, there will always be someone who is posting regularly and Instagram rewards those who show up daily.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding feeling as an influencer is when you put in hard work to create content and the audience appreciates and engages with it. Being an influencer may seem like the world’s easiest job but most people don’t realize the amount of effort that goes into creating content. If you want to post consistently everyday, you’re constantly in a cycle of shooting content, editing it and planning when to post it. The hustle is truly endless so when your content does well, it gives you validation that all the effort you’re putting into this is worth it.
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