Hi, I’m Tully Smyth, and this is Milkshake ‘Asking for a friend’.
MS: How do you grow from a setback?
TS: Oh I’ve had a few setbacks! You’ve just got to put your head down and again, just keep being yourself. And one of the biggest bits of advice I was given, that I really remind, well try to remind myself of is that the people that mind, don’t matter, and the people that matter, don’t mind.
MS: How do you describe what you do?
TS: I hate the word influencer. Purely because I feel like that implies that I am more important than the next person, that I have, for some reason, have more power in convincing somebody else to do something than you, or you, and that to me is just ridiculous. We’re all the same, we’re all equals, I’m no better than you guys. So I try and start with something more vague. Like I might say I’m a writer, and then they go, “Who do you write for?” and I was like “Oh I have my own blog”, “Oh, what do you write about?” I’m like, oh it just depends, travel, lifestyle, you know, it just really depends. And then they might add me on Instagram and then they sort of say “Oh why do you have so many followers?” And I end up having to say “I’m an influencer, I was on a TV show six years ago”. So I guess influencer best describes it but I really hate that term.
MS: What’s the hardest part about your work?
TS: It’s tough being taken seriously. There’s a lot of negative stigma attached to influencers, and I get it, like it just looks like all we’re doing is being paid to have fun, and go to events, and I understand that, but it’s actually a lot of hard work. It’s constant, it’s never-ending, there’s so much pressure on you to keep up with the trends, and get those likes, and get the following numbers, and make sure you know and even though you think you know better, like I think that if you, if you’ve been doing this for a while, you think that you’re above that, and that you’re wiser, and you know better, it still affects you. You know with a lot of jobs, I think you can kind of park it at the office, and go home, but this is just it’s non-stop. In fact, it kind of ramps up when everyone else goes home from work, cos that’s when everyone is on their computers and on their phones so it’s just exhausting sometimes.
MS: What is the biggest mistake people make on Instagram?
TS: I think when people sell out. I think when people sort of start to see the dollar signs, and start forgetting who they are as people, and what they want to talk about, that it’s super obvious, for one, it’s really obvious, it’s kind of cringy to watch. But once you’ve done that, there’s not really any coming back from that.
MS: Biggest financial lesson as a creator?
TS:ย I am terrible with money, like really, really bad. I have always lived a champagne life on a beer budget. The hardest thing about being a creator, I guess, or an influencer is that you just never know when your next paycheck is coming in. You could have a really, really busy month, and then a really, really quiet three months. And that’s been really, really tricky in terms of trying to budget, and save, and plan. Just save, put money away, even if it’s just a little bit every paycheck you get, even if you have to do it manually, which you probably have to do. Just put like even if it’s $50 every paycheck, just try and create a little nest egg for yourself, because otherwise, you are gonna be in trouble.
MS: Biggest opportunity that has come from Instagram?
TS:ย Oh my goodness, there have been so, so many. I’ve been so, so grateful and blessed.ย My whole life, my whole last six years of my life, have been, thanks to Instagram. I’ve gone to Coachella VIP, thank you very much. I have gone all over the world. I have travelled with Contiki through middle America, I’ve travelled with STA travel to the UK, I went and interviewed the cast of Magic Mike 2, that’s right ladies. I’ve just done so much, I’ve been really lucky. And also just the small stuff, like you know, meeting people, meeting my friends, a lot of my good, good, good friends I met through Instagram. Yeah, it’s funny because sometimes you do get caught up with the negatives of social media and then you get a question like that and it’s like, actually it’s brought me a lot of joy, and I’m very, very lucky for what opportunities Instagram has brought me, for sure.
Checkout Tully’s slick Milkshake Insta website.
