We recently connected with Victoria Zapata and have shared our conversation below.

Victoria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

When I knew I wanted to become a Content creator was at the age of 5 I would grab my family members phone and start filming as if I were a “vlogger” saying your typical things “ hi everyone I’m here at JCPenney with my mom” true story I actually did say that, my mom would always tell me I was born with love being in front of the camera, high school came around I was in a media and film class for 4 years which expanded my love for filming either myself, short films, photography. During that time I knew I always wanted to be a “vlogger” I just didn’t know how to get there, I’ve always had your regular part time job, until an opportunity from my retail job told me about becoming a influencer for the brand which open my horizon and really got in depth with creating content such as what I would wear photos with that specific brand and got to learn more how to become an influencer on social media. However there came a time where I wanted to do much more than that I wanted to become an influencer/ content creator for my city that I love and not sticking to a specific niche, my love for creating content and now is always growing my younger self would be proud to see where the love for film and photography has gotten but still not done yet their is much work as a content creator for me to do. The love for what I do will never end.

Victoria, 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?

Hello Everyone, I am Victoria Zapata known as @oh.victoriia on instagram born and raised in San Antonio. I have been in the Creative industry for about 11 months and what intrigued me getting into creating content was the love I’ve had for it since the age of 5 years old from getting my mom phone and recording myself as If I were to be doing a vlog, to growing up and still have the same love for creating, I always looked for opportunities that had to do with what I love, I went to Brackenridge High School for Media and Film, then having a job occupation that gave me the opportunity to become an influencer for the brand, after that I started thinking to myself “I want to represent my city, the city that I love” , and to become a Content Creator for my city and being able to explore my city also show it to my audience for them to love it too, I wanted and til this day to give my audience a little bit of everything and not stick to a specific niche. I love to do a lot of things and why not share that with them. I love to provide fashion inspiration, lifestyle, places to eat, local events and keeping my platform fun and inspirational. Something I would like to tell my audience is when creating content I make sure to do everything with love weather it is taking photos or filming a video etc, I always make sure to do it with love and make sure it reflects to my audience. What I am most definitely proud of is the progress I’ve made as a creator, yes the process is the hard part in getting the results that you want however, it’s the progress that I am proud of, the saying I always like to say to say “I’m not where I want to be but I’m not where I used to be.” I would like to thank my community for always supporting my journey til this day for always being so loving to me and my post. My ultimate goal is to be an inspiration for anyone and everyone, I’m here to inspire people for the greater good, I want my social page to be a page anyone can go to and feel welcomed.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The way I built my audience took a while and by while I mean long more than 2 years, which was my experience. I never looked at a building a social media account based on how many followers I can gain, I have always said I want a community and a comfort one for my audience to go to for inspiration, the way to build a real and organic audience is for you to be authentic, be yourself , and that is what I have always strived for, people are going to want to follow you for who you are and what you provide, my 2 key things to be successful in building a social platform is one be authentic and providing value to your content. Everyone social creative journey is different, but it takes time I did not get the results in 1 month or 1 year to build, til this day my audience is still growing and I love that because it means I’m doing something right.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

One of the most rewarding aspect of being a content creator is the opportunity to build your community around the thing I love to do which is creating content. I’ve always wanted to build a solid and genuine community, I do not like seeing followers just as a number I see them as if we were long lasting best friends that I’ve known since forever, I like to make my followers feel like we are best friends and build a community of besties, that is rewarding to see and to build connections from people all over the world that share the same interests as you just by posting different types of content you attract different types of audience but that are all in your community. As a creative just seeing the amazing people you come across with you’d never though you would is truly amazing and can meet long lasting friendships is also a rewarding feeling. I believe building a community is very important to me because those are the people that are going to support you and be on the same journey with you, they are going to watch you grow and that’s the beauty of being a creator.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @oh.victoriia

Image Credits
Last image credits: James