Hi everyone,
This week’s post features Jellina (@jellinadetmar) who is a content creator and blogger on top of her job as a physiotherapist. Her family owns a gorgeous farm house which they have been remodeling and decorating ever since they bought it! Her Instagram page is full of amazing interior design ideas that are definitely worth checking out for inspiration. Read on to learn more about her journey as a content creator :)
Sections:
About Jellina
Tips + Advice
Working with brands
About Jellina
Tell us a little about your background. When did you start creating content? What got you to start?
Hi, I am Jellina Detmar (36 years old) and I live together with my husband Jan Detmar (43 years old), my son Déjan Detmar (7 years old), and daughter Melin Detmar (5 years old). We also have a very sweet dog Kali!
We live in a farmhouse that was built in 1770. The property has an area of 225m² and a plot size of 596m². There’s also a large garden and we live right in the center of our village, Kollum. The total content of the house is 1000 m3. We have a large living room, living kitchen, 2 bathrooms, large storage room, and 8 bedrooms.
I had always dreamt of having a beautiful farmhouse. We bought this house in 2017 and since then, we have been remodeling and decorating it in our own style! We are taking out the floors, walls, ceilings, and everything to rebuild it! I also started with Instagram in 2017, when we bought this farmhouse!
We have a lot of space and so we can work out many ideas in our house. For example, we have gymnastics rings hanging in our house because our ceilings are very high, and we also have a cool upstairs where there is a big net where the kids can play and chill! We also have a wood-burning stove in this upstairs room, really cool and gives a lot of warmth and atmosphere to this place!
Do you see creating content as your full-time job or more of a hobby that you do in your free time?
Yes, I consider making content a fulltime thing, but more like a hobby that I love!
My husband works in a concrete factory and I work as a physiotherapist and content creator. I share our passion for interior design and remodeling all on my social media channels. You can follow all the projects on my Instagram account @jellinadetmar.
On our page, I share fun DIY projects and take you through our renovations! You can see my husband and I renovate everything ourselves, and also I share tips and tricks on remodeling a house! Check out my website, www.jellinadetmar.nl, for many before and after pictures! I post updates here on how our renovations went! I hope to inspire you with our style and ideas :)
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced or you are facing as a creator/influencer?
The biggest challenge is stay engaged with my audience. You have to spend a lot of time building your engagement with your community, responding to all the messages, and focusing on creating incredible content that your followers will love, support, and save for later. To keep this activeness every day is a lot of work!
It is worth mentioning that these challenges also come with the best outcomes. The best things about being an influencer are the people we meet, being part of a community, and getting the opportunity to work with my favorite brands.
Tips for other creators
What kinds of tools do you use to stay consistent and active on your social media?
I don’t use tools to help me stay consistent, but I am very active on Pinterest and my own blog! All of these social media channels help keep myself active!
What are some of your favorite editing tools? (If you use them)
I use InShot to make videos and I use Lightroom for my images! Lightroom is a very helpful tool to use when it comes to image editing. I get very excited about this because you can get a good grasp of it if you continue to work with it a lot. Pre-sets allow you to set your own color tones properly and make sure your photos are super sharp! Canva is also one of my favorite image editing tools on the market.
What are some tips for creators who are just getting started?
Try to find your way into styling and photography. If you love it you can always start with basic courses to get the hang of everything. You will spend a lot of time if you want to figure everything out yourself, but it’s always a good idea to get advice from specialists!
Do you have any specific goals set for yourself for the coming months?
I'm working hard to get a lot more reach on my own blog. I am also using my Pinterest account to help me do this! It's awesome that I get to inspire everyone with my interior design blogs and DIYs ideas :)
How do you balance your personal and work life?
Work-life-sport balance is important to me no matter what! :) Prioritizing these different aspects of my life has helped me keep this balance.
But I can tell you from my experience as a blogger/influencer, that you will constantly be challenged with creating a healthy work-life balance. I think one of the reasons why is the ever-changing social media algorithms that are hard to manage, while also trying to stay relevant and growing in a large market of bloggers and Influencers.
How did you “learn” the ways of content creation? Are there any resources you see as absolutely necessary?
I’m mostly self taught, and spent a few years inventing the wheel all by myself! This really took a lot of energy and time. But because of that, I have now built a very large IG account and created a lot of reach around my social media! Nowadays, there are many courses you can do to learn this, and I myself also give people advice in building a large social media channel.
What kind of advice do you have for creators who are not seeing any progress or success?
Try to connect with a lot of people. Answer all your DM’s, and spend a lot of hours online! As you get more and more familiar with your platforms and audience, you will understand more about how to be seen. A good influencer can pull in followers to create a large audience that cares about what they have to say and knows how to work social media to their advantage.
I am working very hard every day, making a lot of content and trying to make every day a new inspiration for my followers! I also make a lot of different kinds of videos and spend a lot of time on social media in general. I also find that getting to know how the algorithm works and using hashtags helps a lot.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about you that you would like to address?
People often misunderstand that as an influencer, we just take pictures or videos, and that content creating is easy. The reality is that there is so much more that goes into it! Taking photos and making videos takes a lot of work and planning. Even if the photo consists of a single plant, you still need to think about lighting. So you can’t just take a picture at any time of the day.
Another thing people don’t understand is that as a content creator, you are always carrying around a lot of gear. This also makes content creating take more time than people expect.
Working with brands
What have you found to be the biggest challenges in working with brands? How do you deal with those challenges?
The biggest challenge for me is to create the most beautiful images for each brand and so I see all collaborations as a challenge. Creating the most beautiful sets, styling, and photographing is what I love to do for every collaboration because I want to keep inspiring my followers. We try to inspire my audience through our renovations, styling our home.
What are ways to get noticed/accepted by brands?
Create your own style! Do what you love to do, show who you are on your account. This will make sure people recognize you for your own style. People now know when I have styled something in a house, decorated a house or photographed our house! Also, make sure your audience knows that you are open to getting in contact.
Which brands have you worked with in the past? Which ones would you like to work with?
I have worked with many brands such as Samsung, Philips, Luxaflex, Steigwerbuis-Online, Geurwolkje, De Handelsfabriek, Moyhabrand, BySidde, Petitpuk, MRS Oudewoude, Dutch Sprinkles, Weltevree, Dutchfloors, Gussta, Made, Sissyboy, and Emma Matras. I’ve been pretty lucky in the sense that all the brands I’ve worked with so far have been collaborative and the processes have been extremely smooth.
I am lucky in the sense that I have been approached by a lot of companies. I hope this continues in the years to come!
Takeaway:
Do what you love and know what you stand behind! Make connections with other people in your niche and try to do collaborations whenever and whereever you can.
Love,
Corcus Team
If you are interested in being part of this series, please email creator@corcus.io.