We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Suanay Hernandez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Suanay, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
The idea of UndrBelly was born after multiple rejections and failures. I’ve started food blogs and social media accounts that don’t go anywhere because getting a following is time-consuming and exhausting. After getting rejected from a social media manager position for a popular food blog, I was sick and tired of getting blocked from showing my passion for Miami food culture. When I spoke to my friends who also had dreams of starting their own food blogs, they felt the same as me. So I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we had a platform we can all use to show our love for our city’s food culture? We can all use each other’s followings, and collaborate with each other to make something cool. I’ve spent all my life jumping from creative venture to creative venture, and consuming all kinds of food media along the way. When I see cities like New York or San Francisco, I loved how creative people were when it came to showing love to their favorite food haunts. And when I looked at my city, I felt like it was all over-saturated with reviews and influencers showing you their same, repeated spots. Taking a bite, telling you to come, and cashing in their 2k checks because of their massive followings. But where was the heart I knew Miami food culture had to offer? Who’s cooking the food that fuels us? Where are the creative folk who write poetry about their local ventanita ladies or paint pictures of their moms cooking in their childhood homes? I knew it was out there, I just needed one place to join all these ideas and forces, and thus: UndrBelly was born.
Suanay, 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’s Suanay Hernandez, I’m a queer first-generation Cuban-American. I’ve lived in Miami all my life, so I’ve been able to see how our food culture has changed over the past three decades. I started this magazine with absolutely 0 idea on how to start a magazine. I’ve dabbled in writing, photography, and art in the past, and my professional background is mostly in retail and website-building. Even though I dropped out of college, I’ve always had a passion for self-development and expression. I’ve also always had a passion for food, I remember being yelled at for watching too much Food Network because my family thought I’d be eternally hungry. I’ve been collecting cookbooks since high school, where I started selling cupcakes, cake pops, and brownies to make a buck. I’d host small dinners for my family based on what recipe inspired me in my latest cookbook find. It wasn’t until I saw Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, that I was encouraged to step away from recipes and do my own thing. This is when I started selling my bakes more seriously, and filming/documenting content based on the recipes I’d come up with. Once the idea of starting a food magazine popped in my head, I became obsessed with magazines of all kind: their layout, their ads, what kind of content. From there, I spread the word amongst my creative friends and anyone who was passionate about food, that this was happening. That’s when I got to work. I learned how to edit, how to take better pictures, how to shoot better content, and brainstorming the kind of ideas that I want to see in my magazine as well as other social media outlets such as Instagram or Youtube.
What I’m most proud of, is the fact that I’ve been able to accomplish this much all by word of mouth. All my content is genuine and never swayed by money. I was able to speak at the Book Fair about self-publishing, which was such a full circle moment to when I was a kid exploring the fair.
Another thing I’m proud of, is the fact that I’ve been able to highlight all different kinds of Miami food culture, beyond just restaurants. There’s so many local entrepreneur trying to break through the highly competitive food and art scene, that deserve their spotlight. Local writers or content creators who have low follower counts but make amazing content that I’ve been able to work with and get to know on a personal level has been so rewarding. I’m trying my best to highlight the Miami food scene that doesn’t get recognized enough, and using that as a catalyst to also support local food deserts. My events will always have a food drive which I then donate to local community fridges, because I didn’t feel right acknowledging food culture without also acknowledging that we have a serious food insecurity problem in Miami.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
The audience I’ve built on social media has all been organic over the last year. I’ve never paid for followers. I just try to create content I haven’t seen on other platforms, or find trending content and make it my own. Considering the nature of the magazine, I’m working with or highlighting local businesses/entrepreneurs so when I tag or collaborate with them on a post, they’ll repost it which brings me more followers. If you’re starting to build your social media presence, there are two things that you should keep in mind: patience and consistency. You’re not going to build a massive following overnight unless you go viral, and going viral isn’t easy. Building a following naturally means you not only have to post consistently, but also engage consistently with your followers. Reply to their comments, comment on other people’s posts, share content on your stories. If you have a business account on Instagram, you can check out your metrics and see when your followers engage the most with your posts. Keep track of what kind of posts get the most engagement as well.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I mostly keep in touch with my clients via DM’s. I’ll do giveaways or polls on my stories, which allows me to get more engagement but also find out what my followers want to see from me. Also, I try to make sure the content, merch, or anything else I put out to be as fresh, interesting, and as specific to Miami food culture as possible, so that keeps people interested in my brand. If you want your clients to be loyal to you, you’ve gotta know who they are, what they like, and what they wanna see.
Contact Info:
- Website: undrbelly.com
- Instagram: @undrbellymag
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/undrbelly
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSgtLuPFS8upugmUJx6UDKw
Image Credits
Jonny Acosta and Vanessa Coy