From layoffs to liberation: How the pandemic transformed a 9–5 worker into a success story

Many careers changed course during the pandemic as offices were emptied and professionals with free time filled the internet with all kinds of new content and consumption. While this period launched many online careers and influencer movements, it came with a spike in people’s expectations for online content. With more creators online than ever before, content needed to be something special to get noticed. This was true for influencers as well. Using the pandemic as motivation to turn from marketing manager to content creator star, Valentina Victoria knew it would take more than a few good pictures to achieve real success.

Valentina is aware of the stigma around being an influencer. People assume that Instagram models and influencers are often lazy, do it for “easy money,” and only snap a few pictures to rake in the money. She also knows that couldn’t be further from the truth. Valentina is a skilled professional marketer with a history in a tedious yet successful office job, and it’s a life she could go back to if she wanted. However, her experience during the pandemic woke her up to a new way of life. Her influencer career uses her best professional skills in a job that she loves, and now she doesn’t want to do anything else, even though it’s some of the most challenging work she’s ever done.

Intense competition

Valentina points out that only 4% of influencers and content creators make a livable wage, and only 1% achieve any kind of wealth. Even in online modeling, there’s intense competition, and there are platforms that don’t have the kind of organic growth tools you find on other social media. You need an online presence, be that on Instagram, YouTube, or X (formerly Twitter). In Valentina’s case, this means everywhere.

Originally starting on social media because she wanted to compete with a peer who was gaining traction on YouTube, Valentina began from nothing. She studied the strategies used by successful influencers and models and put them to work herself. From there, it snowballed to thousands of followers. “I know how to grow social media accounts organically, quickly, and effectively better than some social media managers out there,” she says of the skills she gained.

Proving stigmas wrong

Valentina is a successful content creator and influencer, as seen by her one million YouTube subscribers and the hundred thousand Instagram subscribers, because she works hard and creates great content. “If you see someone succeeding, that’s because they did something smart,” she says. She produces 16 videos per month for her YouTube channel, averages five reels per week on Instagram, makes more than 20 videos a month for Patreon, and even takes custom video requests.

What lesson is there in all of this? It’s that the stigmas around influencers are wrong. Valentina loves her work, and she’s succeeding because she’s an expert marketing professional, but she’s working harder than ever. While she’s creating exceptional content every day, she’s also looking ahead to future business projects. Feeling financially liberated, loving her work, and looking ahead to a future full of opportunities, Valentina Victoria is the kind of rare success story that content creators dream of achieving.

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