Telemedicine Talks

#13 – How Dr. Maria Mithaiwala Built an Authentic Brand While Balancing It All

Episode Summary

Emergency medicine physician, new mom, and social media influencer Dr. Maria Mithaiwala joins Dr. Leo Damasco and Phoebe Gutierrez to share how she built a travel-focused Instagram presence to avoid burnout and create an identity beyond medicine. Learn her tips for growing an authentic social media following while balancing a demanding career.

Episode Notes

Episode Transcription

[00:00:00] Hey, welcome back everybody. Welcome back to Telemedicine Talks. We have a great guest today. It's Maria Mwaa. She's an emergency medicine physician, new mom and social media influencer.

Yeah, no, she has great insight. This is awesome. And the reason why we brought her up and brought her here to talk to us is. Is really becoming your own brand is becoming your own identity outside of the emergency medicine. Here in telemedicine, it's branching out, doing new things.

And a big important part of that is creating this new identity. And a lot of us doctors who have been stuck doing doctoring stuff for such a long time don't necessarily know how to do that. Honestly, when I was growing up, like Instagram wasn't there, I'm dating myself, dear God, but no so we don't know how to do that.

We don't know how to jump in. Maria, thank you for joining us. You're awesome. Thank you for having me. Thank you.

So I think one thing that I think is super interesting is most physician influencers that I see do a lot of stuff in the medicine world, and you have a completely different. Like style and a kind of like different, area of focus. Yeah. And so I thought like it would just be [00:01:00] interesting to talk a little bit about your origin story.

And Yeah. Like how you are finding kind of passion in, doing your travel. Yeah. So I work in emergency medicine. That's like my daytime job. So I'm an emergency medicine physician. I love it. It's like my heart and soul. Like I, when I was on maternity leave, I wanted to come back and go to work.

'cause I just love like the atmosphere. I love that adrenaline rush. It just. Like it makes me feel alive when I'm there. But the other part about it is that emergency medicine definitely has like a high burnout rate. With all of my colleagues and stuff, like anyone that I talk to that's in, been in emergency medicine for five, 10 years, you get to this point where you're like, okay, what am I gonna do next? Am I gonna, maybe I should like open a med spa. Maybe I can do like urgent care or get like telemedicine, stuff like that. So they're trying to moving, they're trying to move out of the sphere of emergency medicine itself.

My way of doing it was like, I always knew I always wanted to work in the er. I still wanna work in the er, but I wanted to avoid [00:02:00] burnout. So my way of doing that was traveling. So I actually, one of my good friends, I started doing this probably in 2018 or so. She was also another ER physician and then we had another friend that's a pa from the ER as well.

And we, all three of us love traveling and, the biggest pro like. Difficulty with traveling is you don't wanna go by yourself. You need somebody like a travel partner or someone to go with. And so we made this little group and we just would book trips and go all around the world.

And I would probably do like maybe five big trips a year. So it would be probably every two to three months we'd have a big international trip and we. Because the ER is so flexible with scheduling and stuff like that, we could take off like, a week and a half to two weeks at a time and then go on this big trip, and that was my way of avoiding burnout.

So when I was doing that, I was like I was. Going to all these like exotic places and flying everywhere and stuff. So then my friends would, be like, Hey can you tell me about that trip? Like, where, which, where did you like fly into? Which airport did you go to? How [00:03:00] did you get to the hotel?

Which hotel should we stay at? What sites should we see? Where should we eat? And stuff. And I remember I was just like putting together these like super, like intricate emails. With like links to like the restaurants, the hotels that I stayed at, where to go, like inside. Information and stuff. And I would do that for one person and then a couple months later, someone would be like, Hey, can you tell me about that trip you went on to, wherever.

And then I'd have to set, write an email for them. And I was like, you know what, why don't I just create. Like a blog or like a social media page and stuff. And at that time Instagram was, starting to get pretty, it was the rise of the influencers and stuff like that, 20 16, 20 17.

So I just was like, okay, I'm gonna create this blog and there's a website. It's still out there. With some of my old posts and stuff, I haven't posted anything new, but I kept posting on Instagram because that just got. Bigger and bigger, so it was mainly a travel page. And then I did I did talk about medicine in there, here and there, but I wanted it to be [00:04:00] separate like I wanted.

An identity that wasn't just Hey, I'm Maria, I'm an ER doctor. , I also like to travel. I also like to do this and do that and stuff. At that time I was single, didn't have any kids, and so I was able to travel a lot more than I am now. Because I have a five month old at home and we are still trying to travel.

Like we actually just came back from a trip, but it's definitely not the same as back then. But yeah, I would just like share. All the same stuff, like restaurants that we went to, hotels that we stayed at, like where do you fly into when you go to this remote island and stuff like how to island hop between the Greek islands and which ones you should go to and stuff like that.

And it was like all this information and it really helped me avoid burnout. Because like when I was on these trips, like I wasn't a doctor anymore, I just completely. Unplug from the medical world. I didn't have to follow up on patients or charting or any of that stuff. 'cause for the er, you just pick up shifts and then you're working during those shifts, and then after that [00:05:00] you're off the clock.

So that made it like super easy to travel and unplug and then just kinda relax. And I felt like when I came back, I was ready to go back to work and I loved my job again. But that's how I got into it in the beginning now. And was it hard for you to build up that page, like I have an Instagram page. Yeah, I had mentioned already it's pretty non-existent really. But, getting in there and building up your following. I took a look at it. You almost, what, like 9,000, 10,000 kind of followers, right? Yeah. It's I think like something, yeah.

Shoot. I don't even know if I know that many people, but you know how, so how do you build that up, and how do you keep it going? Yeah. How often do you post, how, and you, you fit this niche. How, what, how did how did you start? Yes. So that's yeah, I get that a lot actually.

It's so I'm no expert, obviously. Like I've had this page for a while, but I'm. Like in the beginning when I was building it up, I think I did a lot more than I do now. So basically what you need to do really is you need to post like every day, right? So you need to post something every day, sometimes twice a day.

And when I first started out, it was just photos. So Instagram was only photos, there weren't reels, there weren't videos, things like that. So when I was traveling, I would have my friends take my pictures. I would [00:06:00] bring a tripod with me. I had a fancy camera. I like set everything up and I would take this photo and sometimes it.

It started getting a little stressful 'cause it was like, oh my gosh, this is like another job for me. At the beginning I was like, posting twice a day, then you have to use hashtags, which is how people, it pushes the, your post to other people. And then. You also start following other like influencers, other people that are in your kind of sphere of so I started following other medical influencers, like other people, other travel pages and stuff.

And then I would comment on their photos and then in turn they would start commenting on mines. And then I would reshare other people's photos and they would reshare mine to their followers. And then that's how like followers start, finding you, finding your page, and then they'll start following you and interacting with you.

But you really need to like also interact with your followers. So like you go on their page, you like look at their pictures, you comment on their photos. The more you interact with other people on Instagram, the more Instagram will push your page to like the for you page. Or like [00:07:00] sometimes like when you're on Instagram you'll see people that you don't even follow and it'll show up on your Instagram and that's how, 'cause it's just like what you're interested in. And so the more you like post and the more you put like the hashtags and things like that, the more it'll show your page to other people. So when I first started, I was doing a lot of that.

Like I was like commenting left and right. And then like I said, it started to feel a little bit like, it was almost like a second job and it wasn't like fun anymore. So I did go through this period of time for two years where I barely posted. So I still had my followers and then I dropped, I think I max, I had 11,000 at some point and then wow.

Started drop, started dropping. 'cause I wasn't. This is around Covid also, because like I was working in the ER and then that was just a stressful time for like ER physicians, frontline workers and things like that. And so I stopped posting a lot during that time. I. And then I also wasn't traveling a lot at that time, so that's when I shifted towards like talking more about medicine.

So I like on my page, like if you see like I'll it'll be [00:08:00] like travel, then it'll be like a little bit of medicine and like lifestyle and stuff. So as my life changes, like the page also changes as well. And so I started sharing more of that. But now it's like I, I started to back up again 'cause I was on maternity leave and I'm like, oh I'm bored, like I wanna do something else.

So then I started sharing more about like my journey into motherhood and like being a new mom and stuff. And that I started getting feedback from people on that and they're like, oh my gosh, this is so cool 'cause I have a baby at home. And then when you talk about some of the stuff that you're struggling with, like I also talk, feel those struggles as well And it's really cool 'cause you start to build this community and.

You get all the support from people that are going through the same thing that you're going through, and then they're also like helping you out. And then you realize that maybe you're helping somebody else out with, some of your experiences and sharing how you feel and stuff. That's how it grew and it just now I'm like trying to just share what I love and then if it's growing.

If it's not, I'm not stressed about it. Like I'm not trying to chase the follower count or the like, count and stuff anymore as much I. [00:09:00] Yeah, no I am in the process of trying to build mine up as well. I have 700 followers now. But it is interesting that like technique where it is, you go and you follow people and then you follow their followers and you really, you are trying to craft that.

Community around you that all wants to look at the same content. And then just from a p like a person's perspective, who's not a clinician I always appreciate when a physician like yourself is more I don't wanna say forthcoming, but I guess like more vulnerable about I think sometimes like we, we as just non physicians don't think you guys are humans sometimes. So I think like doing some of the Instagram stuff also really helps. I think humanize physicians in a different light that probably wasn't there before social media. Yeah, no, for sure. I think somebody else had mentioned that to me and they're like, it's really nice to see you talk about things that you struggle with.

For example, right now, like it's all about being a new mom. And I like, and I'll talk about some of the struggles I have with it and people are like, oh wow, we just thought like it, it would just come. [00:10:00] Naturally to you because you're in medicine, so you know, all these things. And and I was like, no, I worry just as much as any other new mom would.

I freak out about everything. Like I know I'm a doctor and I, and people bring their sick kids to me, but when, if my kid is sick or if something's wrong with my kid, I start freaking out. It's like I forget how to be a doctor and I wanna, I need an opinion from a pediatrician or, somebody that's.

More specialized than me to tell me, like what to do and stuff. And then even like the other thing was like breastfeeding and going back to work with that. And I was talking about my struggles with it and people were like, oh, wow. We, thanks for mentioning it because we feel so seen and heard that, other people are also struggling with this.

It doesn't come second nature to everybody. And that's when I started, when I started posting more content, like towards like motherhood in my life right now. At first I was like, I don't know, do people even wanna hear about this? Or am I sharing too much is my whole life now being a mom?

But then I was like it makes me feel better. And if it's helping even one or two more other moms out there and [00:11:00] they're, they feel good about hearing my experiences, then why not? No that's awesome. And you bring up a good point like. I think one of, personally my kind of speed bumps in doing it is like, who cares about me?

Like do people really care about that? Do they really wanna hear my story? Am I just talking out into the middle nowhere? And, how do you tackle that kind of mindset? Almost the imposter syndrome of it. Yeah. 'cause that's a large barrier to a lot of people.

Yeah. So one imposter syndrome, like one I like felt that with medicine in the first place, right? So when I first started out as an ER doctor I was just like, oh my God, am I doing this? Am I like qualified? I don't know. Like I just remember that first six months I was terrified.

Like I started working at this hospital. We had some really sick patients and I was like, did I make a mistake? Was this a specialty that I wanted to do? Like people are dying left and right, there, this is the er, like there's always super sick people, like it was a trauma hospital, so we'd see some crazy traumas and and I was like, oh [00:12:00] my God do I wanna work in a specialty where like people are always on the verge of dying?

And I was like yeah, that's what I went into, right? But it was just like seeing it and like then being the one that's responsible for our taking care of these patients. I was terrified. And I just felt like the imposter syndrome, right? Do I know what I'm doing? And then it's of course I do.

I like. I trained for this, I took all the tests. I, once I started doing it, I just felt I got more and more comfortable. And now it's like when I go in, it's all second nature to me, and then when I go out in like real life, people will ask me about it. They'll ask me about the er, they'll ask me about my travels and stuff.

And I was like if people in real life wanna hear my stories, then maybe people on social media wanna hear my stories too, at the beginning it was like, my sister would always be like, you should talk more on stories. Like I love like watching other people's stories and like hearing you know what they're doing and stuff like that.

And I was like, does, is anybody really interested in what I'm doing day to day and stuff? And of course it is like the haters, right? They're like, oh my God, she shares literally her whole life. Everything that she's up to. But then there's other [00:13:00] people who are like, we really love. We look forward to what you share and all the information that you provide, and we learn a lot from it.

And I just get feedback from certain people like, and they're like, oh, thank you so much for telling me about, like this product or this place to go to. We really loved it or this really helped me. Like it was, something that we struggled with our kid. And when you mentioned it, we used.

We did whatever technique that you recommended and it worked for us too. And I'm like, yeah, that's where I learn a lot of my stuff too, is just, social media. Oh, not med school. God forbid. Not med school. Not the medical stuff. Definitely like the motherhood stuff. I feel like I've gotten so much advice, like when I, like I was talking to you guys earlier about transitioning my baby from this new to a crib.

And I was like, how do you guys, how do people do this? Like this? This is such a struggle. So I shared that and I put a little question box like, Hey, do you have any tips on how to transition your baby from this, like the bassinet to the crib [00:14:00] and. I got so many responses back and they were like, oh, buy this, like sleep suit, do this, do that.

And we got the sleep suit and it was like magic, like all of a sudden he was sleeping better. All these tips and stuff, they helped me and I'm like, man I'm so glad that I asked. I guess if I hadn't asked at first, I was like, is anyone even gonna respond and be like, oh here's a solution to your problem.

. Yeah. Sometimes you're like, am I just being followed by a bunch of bots or something? Or are people like actually listening to these like lengthy, like stories that I'm talking about? And then are they gonna respond to it?

And so many people did and it was really nice to just get that feedback and then also get information that helped me out. And then in turn, I shared that information again with my father. I was like, Hey, this is what all these people told me to do, and I did it and it worked so. It is nice.

It's a community that you build, like you have. You have all these people that are interested in the same stuff that you're interested in, and then they give you feedback and you give them feedback. Yeah, I think I. [00:15:00] Moms are just inherently we wanna share. It's always for me, I'm always like, don't make the same mistakes.

I have four. So that's why I look so tired great. Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy over here. But to me I'm always like, oh my gosh. Like I talk to Fatima all the time I'm . Like you're gonna have the good days and the bad days.

Like it's one of those things I think sometimes, like it's. Like you said, I think having the community around you where you just feel because I think in the moment sometimes as moms, you also do feel like you're going a little crazy sometimes. Oh yeah. And then you're like, am I the only one?

And then you realize you're not the only one. You're like at 3:00 AM I'm messaging people, other moms that are up feeding their baby. And I was like, wow, I'm not alone in this. 'cause sometimes those like moments feel very lonely and you have this community and you're just, you start to realize oh wow, there's so many other people that are going through the same thing that I'm going through.

And it's really nice to just share, whatever works for one person. Yeah, like I always try to get advice from other moms. I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing half the time. I may have a degree in medicine, but I don't have a degree in being a mom. So we're all learning at the same rate, I [00:16:00] think.

Yeah. I think that's an interesting kind of idea though, right? I've always thought about, social media and influencers people look up to them, they get advice from them . But now you're just like flipping the script, right? You're using your statuses, an influencer and reaching out to the community.

And you're learning a lot from the community as well. I think that's a novel idea really in, in my mind. Because, and people doing other things like telemedicine, branching out, so forth and so on. It's not like being a new mom. I'm never gonna compare anything to being like a new mom.

I don't want new moms to find me and beat me up because I know it's one of the hardest things in the world. But, a corollary to that is that yeah, it's a new thing. Sometimes you're out there, sometimes you feel like you're in an island and it's, you lean on this community, whatever the community is, new moms, telemedicine docs, so forth and so on.

And you could. Just basically feed and grow off each other, right? And yeah. Yeah. I never thought that being, being an influencer and being that kind of person in social media it's a two-way street, really. So that's super interesting. Another reason to like, force [00:17:00] me to do things and get on my social media page.

But no that's a super interesting concept to me. I. Yeah, it's also it also helps 'cause it like makes you more real and stuff. Especially if you're trying to build like a following and stuff. I think people really appreciate when you are more authentic and you're like more of a real person.

'cause sometimes even for me, like I follow like the big influencers and stuff, and sometimes it just seems like their life is a little like. Almost fake. Is this real life or is this social media? And I'm really trying to like, share real life and not just like this staged social media type of thing because it's, then other moms get discouraged.

They're like, oh my gosh, look at her. She's three months postpartum . She's where Genes again, like, how, and I'm like, I'll be completely honest. It's like I have a full-time nanny, comes Monday through Friday. I was like seeing, a physical therapist to help with like postpartum, just like strengthening like my abdominal core, all that kind of stuff.

Like I was, I have somebody that, a cleaning service that comes to my place and cleans like every three weeks. So like I have all this help and then my husband obviously is doing a lot of. A lot of the groundwork too. So it's yeah, I'm not doing this by myself. I'm [00:18:00] not so magically like taking care of this baby.

Also, being a full-time doctor also, taking care of a home and doing all these things by myself no, I have a lot of help and I also need help from the community sometimes, like getting advice and stuff. So I think that really goes a long way in. Like making you more authentic and making people actually wanna follow you.

'cause they're like, oh, this is actually like an achievable life. This isn't oh, she's got she can do this because she has like the free time or like all the money and stuff. You're actually seem like a more real person and then they can actually, people can actually relate to you and the struggles and things like that.

Always good to share that. Like not everything is like this easy road, and it's not going to be, it's like you said, one of the hardest jobs in the world. Like I think working in the ER is easier than like being, that's why I wanted to go back while I was on maternity. So I would rather be running like a code three traumas at a time then.

I'm trying to take care of a two month old, I was more stressed at home than I was in the emergency department, let's just say that. Yeah. That's [00:19:00] crazy. Yeah. Yeah. No, and I think too at least, my audience is mostly physicians. And so I follow a lot of physicians.

But for me, I think authentic, like being authentic is 100% to me. Am I gonna keep following you or am I not? And to me, I I follow a lot of doctors around the Yeah. 10,000 ish follower range. Because they are, they're so authentic. Yeah. I was following one doctor this week, and I did not realize that if if you get an IUD put in, you can ask for like pain numbing stuff .

You can ask for all these things. She's a family medicine doctor. Yeah. But I was like, oh my gosh, that is so helpful for so many women. Yeah. And so to me it. I don't know. I think it's really interesting this this interconnection of being able to almost do like health education but on social media without, without kind of the liability I guess. Yeah. So I always like preface by saying I'm not giving you medical advice on social media. I'm just sharing my experiences and what I go through and stuff. And but like you mentioned so I actually had an IUD. And I didn't know that you could get numbing medicine.

And I am a physician, right? So like some of these things, like based [00:20:00] on specialty and stuff, like back when I got it, this was like, I. I don't know, eight years ago or something. Yeah, they just oh, take some ibuprofen and then, it is an uncomfortable procedure, and I was like, wow. I, now I see those posts. I see doctors talk, like talking about it and they're like, oh, like we don't. Like you're not treating pain appropriately, things like that. And I was like, wow, I wish I had known that. You could ask for that. Or it's, and like a lot of these doctor influencer stuff, it's really great 'cause you, they help you like advocate, advocate for your patients and stuff.

And so patients also learn about, what it's like to like work in medicine, what you can ask for what to expect, and stuff like that where I forget sometimes like the lay person doesn't know a lot of this information, especially 'cause like my husband is not at all in medicine, and so sometimes when like we're at a doctor's appointment and stuff and they're talking about things, he's just wait, what?

What does that even mean? And I am like, oh wow we need to explain things better. And I think it also makes me like a better doctor to learn about all these things because I'm like, oh, I just assumed that people would know [00:21:00] some of these. There's things that I just, it was like, oh yeah, that's just like basic information, but it's not, it's like medical information that we think is basic.

'cause it's like the first thing that you learn is being a physician, but for new parents and things like that, you're like, they don't know how to treat fevers. Like just, unless you advise them how to do it, they're not gonna know inherently how to do all of these things. Yeah. We don't speak that language.

Yeah. I think that's the piece that people miss is like it's like the joke I always say to Leo, like when me and my girlfriends get together, like we talk compliance and policy and regulation, it's like you would think it's the most boring conversation to us . It's it's great, right?

And then on your side, like I'll be sitting around physicians and I'm like, I have no clue. Yeah, like one doctor asked me if I needed a Zofran one. I'm like, I don't know what a Zofran, what does it do? I have the food with nausea. I dunno. I think it is funny 'cause like you had said, like I think there's a lot of times where, you go to the doctor.

And they do, they try to explain something and you're almost embarrassed to ask. A follow up question because you're, nowadays [00:22:00] you're so rushed through the experience. That again, just having a doctor like take five minutes and explain it in a way that like us non doctors understand. I think it go, it, it goes a lot away. Yeah. Or long way . No, I like, I feel like I actually learned that like through social media is 'cause if people would ask me like, oh wait, what do you mean by that? And I'm like, oh my gosh. Am I. Like, in the er you don't have that much time to talk to your patients and stuff.

So then you're like, okay, any questions? And then they're like, no. And then you're like, okay, bye. 'cause you're like, going to the next emergency and stuff. And then I realized that okay, like some of these things like. They're too embarrassed to ask or too afraid to ask for clarification.

So then I was like, okay let me explain these some of these things like, yeah, the most common thing is like Tylenol and Ibuprofen dosing for babies and kids, and even adults. They don't know how to treat fevers and stuff. And if you just, if I just take a few minutes to explain it to them, then they're not rushing to the ER every time their kid has a fever.

Things like that. So it's oh I just assumed that was something that like, most people know how to do. But then after talking to like my husband my sister-in-law, like anyone that's not in medicine, [00:23:00] I just realized like, oh, it is not some maybe for us that's like the first thing we learn is how to treat a fever, but for everyone else.

Like they think if you have a fever, you have to go to the hospital, and so it's just a lot of things that I feel like I, I became better at. Also like being a physician, just because I interacted with people through social media or just like in the real world, and they're asking me for advice, and I was like, oh, wow, this is like a good way for me to even become a better doctor.

Oh, that's awesome. And so what advice can you give people if they're like, okay, I'm ready to go in. How do you get started? What do you need? What's a time commitment, yeah. And what's the flow? How do you've mentioned you build followers this way, but like how do you do it?

It is a commitment, so you have to be consistent. So if you're gonna go in and you're gonna start like an Instagram page, you have to realize that you are gonna have to put in a couple hours a day to do this. Basically, sorry, that was me and me. Okay, so basically if you're gonna start this page, [00:24:00] like maybe two hours a day, like just.

Put that aside to work on your social media, and that would include posting and interacting. So when you post something, you need to also start interacting with people around the same time that you post. So as soon as somebody comments on your post, you need to reply to the comment. You need to also go, if you're using a hashtag, go on that hashtag and look at what people have posted.

Recently and then comment on those things you need to start interacting with the world. Like you can't just post pictures and then think that, oh, people are gonna come follow me now. Like you need to start interacting with people in that community. Also, like another thing you really need to do is follow other people in that same, like other doctors, like I started following other doctors, med students, travel bloggers, and I started.

Commenting on their pages, and then they would in turn, come and look at mine. And then you build a community, you talk to each other. You also get inspired by things. And you're like you notice the latest trends. Hey, this is like a trend [00:25:00] that, I remember people were posting like pictures with all of their credentials.

Like this was one of a trend that happened a couple years ago with all the social media doctors. And so I used that same hashtag and posted on that trend. And from that, like a bunch of followers came to my page because , like everybody else was posting about this or that trend where it's oh, I met my younger self for coffee, and then talk about.

Like what you told your younger self, like advice that you'd give your younger self and so you follow these trends and you post about them and then that will bring more followers to your page. So you just need to be really active with what's trending on social media right now. Like using the same, like music even right now with reels and things like that. Yeah. If you're using the same music, it like pushes your page forward. And so you, you have to know what's going on with Instagram. And the best way to do that is by following people that are in the same niche and like categories that you're really like the audience that you're trying to reach and you really need to like. [00:26:00] Figure out who your audience is and cater towards them rather than if you're all over the place, then you know, people aren't sure who you are and what you're about and stuff.

And so that's what I learned was like, 'cause I was a little bit like all over the place at the beginning. Oh, do I wanna do fashion? Do I wanna do medicine? Do I wanna do this or that and stuff. And so now it's like I'm trying to like, bring that all together into just sharing things that I love.

But yeah, like tho those are some of the ways that you start to build a following is just like following what the Instagram trends are or the TikTok trends or whatever social media page that you are trying to go with whatever other people are doing. Like you have to get on that bandwagon and then you start they start showing your page to more followers and stuff.

Have you been able to monetize social media yet or at all? Yeah. So most most of the stuff that I'm doing right now, I feel is like more gifting opportunities where I get gifted, like certain products and stuff, and then I'll post about 'em, and then if people [00:27:00] buy those products, then I get a little bit of commission off of that product.

It's so a lot of, it's a lot of that. But then once you start doing that, that's what I did in the beginning right. Was like. Oh yeah, I'd be happy to post about the, like you get like a free whatever and you're like, oh yeah, I'll post about it. But then I was like, okay, I don't wanna just post about something just 'cause they're giving it to me for free.

What if I don't like it? What if I, what if this product actually sucks? And So now what I do is I'll actually I'll have a product like, so when we had our baby, we actually like. I bought, got got a lot of stuff either from like our baby shower or we bought a lot of baby stuff.

And there were certain brands that like, I loved the, they made all these things for babies and I use a lot of their products. So my husband actually, it's funny 'cause he is oh I know you like social media. So I reached out to this brand and he'll like, send an email to this, whatever brand that makes.

Like for example, like we have this bottle washer, right? Like that, like washes, [00:28:00] sanitize and dries your bottles for you. We use that thing like five times a day, right? So he reached out to the company that makes it and was like, Hey, we really love your product and we'd love to work with you if you have any like campaigns and stuff.

And they're like, yeah. Great. And then they sent us like other stuff that they were into and in turn we like, loved that. And then we would post about it and and people were like, oh, thank you so much for recommending that. They're like, we, like one of my other friends, she just had a baby and she's Hey, we use that bottle washer like.

Every day, and I was like, yeah, we use it like five times a day. So we love it when we travel. We're just like, how do, how are we gonna travel without our bottle washer? Can we bring this with us? So I'm trying to be more like authentic with using brands that I actually already use rather than, 'cause the other day I got like an email from a company and they're like, oh, we want you to use our, or we want you to post about like a baby monitor or something like that. And I was like, okay, yeah, I'll post about it. But I wanna see the product first and see if I like it. And then sometimes they're just like, no, we don't wanna do that. [00:29:00] Or they'll just wanna send me this product.

But it takes time. Time and your effort and all that stuff. And so you have to start learning to also. Ask for reimbursement, because I think a lot of like small influencers are afraid to be like, no, I'm gonna charge you for this. 'cause you're just so excited oh, this brand wants to work with me.

So you're like willing to, at the beginning, you're willing to do everything for free. So that's like another piece of advice that I'd wanna give, smaller influencers is you can always ask the brand like, Hey, what's your budget for this? And sometimes they'll come back and be like, oh yeah, we'll pay you like x amount of money and stuff like.

It's never been anything big, but I know like other influencers charge a significant amount of money and, that's like their main source of income and stuff. But like a couple times, like I've, gotten like maybe $500 or something for here and there, like a hundred dollars here and there, but nothing crazy.

So it's or like working towards it. Like right now I'm just like more about I just wanna share what I love. I feel like [00:30:00] if I really wanted to, I could probably get into where I just started charging X amount of money per post and stuff. I just don't think I've gotten there yet where I'm like ready to make this a business kind of thing.

Because I think for me it was still like, just fun and. Then I also start to feel like if I'm monetizing my Instagram, is it still authentic? Is it still Yeah. Like real or am I just posting stuff? Yeah. To make money off of it, so I was trying that fine line. Yeah. I think that's the struggle.

That's the struggle. 'cause I've seen physicians do it both ways, but then yeah, there does get to this point where they're like, oh yeah, we'll do any sponsorship. And it's but I don't know. I think that's where it gets crazy. Especially when like you have like physicians doing it.

Like for the wellness industry. Yeah. Where you're I like, yeah. I dunno about vitamin or about this thing. I like following certain influencers. 'cause I had just noticed, I'm like every other post is an ad and I just, I'm not. I like I wanna hear about you. I don't want [00:31:00] these ads all the time.

Everything that you're posting is an ad for a product. And so that's what I was like trying to tell. Like my husband is the one who actually sends out emails to like companies and stuff and like deals with that. And then he is oh, do you wanna do this? And I was like, no. And he is like, why not?

And I was like, I don't know, because it just seems fake. Like sometimes I just wanna post about. Nothing, like no brand, like just my life and it what I like to use and stuff. And I feel like it's way more authentic when I'm just like posting something and the people are like, Hey, what did you, what was that thing that you used when you were on vacation with your baby?

And I'm like, oh, this is the product that I used. And it just, it's more real. 'cause it's this is what I actually use on a day-to-day basis, rather than, oh, it's like. I have this brand deal with them and I need to post X amount of times about this product and stuff.

And I hate doing that. I hate getting locked into them being like, you need to post six times within the next three months and mention our product this many times and stuff. And I was like, no, I don't wanna, I don't wanna sign this contract that tells me that I have to push my followers to like.

Get your product. If they see me using it and they're like, oh yeah, this looks like a cool product, then great. But then I don't wanna [00:32:00] force it on them, I think you need to like, get there when you're doing social media, like that's like a fine balance, yeah that's interesting. And yeah, some people right don't know where that line is. Right? But you're right, people lose, follow followership.

Isn't that something like that? But yeah. So yeah we're running time, but how can people find you? How can people find your page? How could people find you? The blah? It's a, yeah. So the blog is still out there. It's mars travels earth.com. And then my social media is Mars travels Earth, so MARS travels earth.

And that's on Instagram. And so I'm still a very active on Instagram and I've now, I'm starting to post more about traveling with a baby and like things like that. So stuff that's, really helpful for people that have a newborn and stuff like that. 'cause like we've already taken two trips, we already got his passport.

All this information that, like how do we do this with the baby? And I'm like, oh, here you go. This is how we did it. And we he's five months, he's [00:33:00] got a passport where already booked his second international trip and we're trying to get as much travel as we can before he becomes a crazy toddler, yeah. Once they hit one, good luck. Yeah, I know. That's what I've heard right now. They're very immobile, so they're Right. A sack of potatoes that you carry around with you. Yeah. Yeah. And it's great. So yeah, we're trying to squeeze in as much as we can before he's like walking and running and getting into things, no, that's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you for joining us. Yeah, everybody check out her Instagram follow. You have plus one today for me oh, great. There you go. Thank you so much again and looking forward to hearing more about your travels. Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. All right. Whoop, that's a stop sound.

Perfect. Thank you. No, that was awesome. That was awesome. Yeah.