We’re back with another interview for our Ask the Creator series! This time we have lifestyle, beauty and fashion blogger and Creator, Adaleta Avdić aka adaatude. Adaleta’s journey started with creating a blog for a college project, now she has over 600,000 followers on Instagram. This article tells us about her methods of working and inspirations for her content creation. Read all about her story below and take notes to help guide you in your Creator journey.
How did you become a Creator and how has that changed your life?
I established my blog adaatude in 2012 as part of a senior class college project. After writing 10 blog posts for the class, I decided to review beauty products because I’d always been a beauty fanatic. Fast forward to present day and after years of dedicated posts on various platforms, I have an
audience with over 600,000 amazing people!
What’s your favourite part about being a Creator?
I like that no single day is the same as the next. Some days we’ll do a video shoot, other days it’s a photo shoot. Some days I just do a lot of admin work, and then some days are dedicated to writing. It varies from day to day which is really exciting and keeps for an interesting job.
Being a Creator completely changed my life. Because of the amazing community I built, I get to live the life I love. I enjoy working hard, and I enjoy my work so it always feels amazing. It truthfully doesn’t feel like work to me because I love to write, I love to share creative content and I love to be social.
Do you believe anyone can be a Creator?
I think it’s important to say that anyone can technically be a Creator, but not everyone is going to be successful at it and not everyone is cut out for the work. There’s a lot of people in this industry who believe they’ll be able to make money in a few days; that’s simply not how it works. I’ve been blogging
since 2012, and I’m not famous. Most people don’t know who I am, but my small audience is the pinnacle of my success.
Most people don’t know who I am, but my small audience is the pinnacle of my success.
Where do you take your inspiration from?
I get a lot of inspiration from several individuals (all very different from one another) but Tezza is very high on the list. Her approachable, chic and sharp style is perfect, but her personality and creativity is what really motivates me. There’s nothing she does in this industry that’s like someone else. She creates
the trend. The same goes for Lorna Luxe, who is the classiest most beautiful soul I’ve had the pleasure of coming across on social media. I do hope that we are able to meet at some point, as she seems as lovely in person as she does online and that is always such a treat.
What was the toughest stage in settling on your particular style and building a
follower base?
The toughest stage was being stuck around the 40,000 follower mark. Unfortunately when I was stuck there, there was no such thing as a micro-influencer. You were either Michelle Phan size, or you didn’t exist. Nowadays someone with 40,000 active followers can make a decent income, but it simply wasn’t the case back then. I remember dumping a lot of money into the blog, and it seemed to be a black hole for my savings for years.
How do you choose which campaigns to take and not take?
When I had a corporate job, I felt no pressure to take campaigns I wasn’t genuinely interested in. I didn’t have the time to waste, so if I did a campaign it was because it was an exciting opportunity. Once I quit my corporate job, I told myself nothing would change. The collaborations I really wanted, I would
demand more payment meaning I’d do less sponsored (more organic) and make the same or more than before. It’s really important to give your content a quality check and make sure that if someone is asking to pay you a fraction of your average rates, and you don’t just love the brand inherently, it’s not worth
it. People can see an ad from a mile away and if it’s not something you’ve mentioned before, it’s simply not going to be worth it long-term.
How do you prefer to work with brands and what are the best & worst experiences you’ve had working with a brand?
The best experiences working with brands is when there is mutual respect on both sides. I respect the brand and the way they carry their business, and they respect my creative process and my take on specific ideas when promoting our partnership. It’s a mutual respect, which is the best type of working
relationship.
What are the killer strategies, formats and creative solutions you believe creators
should be using to drive success?
Creators need to be creative and stop doing the same thing over and over. Consumers can only see so many outfit posts done the same way. The personality, drive and unique elements are what drives people to make a decision to follow others, and long term buy from them and continue to
engage. The biggest piece of being a content Creator is to be creative. Create content that hasn’t already been made before. The other piece is that a content Creator must be business savvy. I don’t mean
you need to have gone to business school, but you need to be able to run a business and manage all the elements on your own. A lot of people want to be Creators, but they don’t know the first thing about a negotiation, a contract, an invoice and so forth. One of the biggest pieces is knowing how to run a
business.
A content Creator must be business savvy. I don’t mean
you need to have gone to business school, but you need to be able to run a business and manage all the elements on your own.
What are your thoughts on the ongoing debate around fake followers?
People are very misinformed when it comes to the idea of fake followers. The definition is having followers who are bought from a sketchy website – these followers are not active but rather a company creates thousands of accounts that are inactive.
Where do you hope your Creator journey will take you?
I have always wanted to be an author. Since I love to write, it would be a dream to be able to write a romance novel or two, and of course a biography about being an immigrant in the US in the early 90s. I think the romance novel would definitely be much more juicy than my biography, but regardless this has been a goal for years.
I would also love to become a brand ambassador for some of my favorite luxury fashion brands like Tod’s, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. I’d love to work with beauty brands like Revlon, Tresemme, Eva NYC, Dior Beauty and many more as their beauty ambassadors.
These are a couple of things on my mind, when it comes to the next steps of my career. Lots of big dreams and I’d love to keep growing this industry.