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What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Being a full-time influencer
• Food, drinks, and fun
• Growing your audience organically

Shelby Sorrel is an Austin Instagram influencer who serendipitously rose in popularity. As a junior in college, Shelby’s roommate encouraged her to make a profile on the hot new social network, Instagram because of her interest in photography. Shelby began posting pictures of the things she loved like her friends, food, and colorful art. From there, her Instagram started gaining traction organically and she became one of the original Austin food influencers. She now has over 44k followers, is a full-time influencer, and works with brands big and small from local Austin coffee shops to Starbucks. Her profile is a go-to spot to find what’s new and good to eat in Austin. Something unique about her Instagram is that all of her photos are shot on her iPhone. It helps her keep the authenticity people follow and love her for.

Shelby’s advice to those starting out in the digital influencer space is that first, it will be difficult. She began in the space when growing organically was much easier, but she still recommends trying to grow in that way. She says to interact and engage with other accounts, post good content that you love, and be as authentic as possible.

To hear more from Shelby about growing her account and her influencer experience, tune into the fifth installment of The Positive Influence. If you like what you hear be sure to share this episode with friends or colleagues. You can listen to more of The Positive Influence here!

Host: Chelsea Bancroft

Guest: Shelby Sorrel 

 

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast if welcome to the positive influence podcast I’m your host Chelsea this week we’re sitting down with Instagram aficionado and one of my favorite people in the world shall be surround Shelby’s beautifully curated Instagram account is so many Austinites go to source for food drink and fun her Instagram shows up the most beautiful and delicious places to explore in Austin and beyond and I cannot wait to introduce her to you all let’s jump in 

thanks for coming on the show today show me yeah so and this is Shelby Sorel I love Shelby’s photos and I’ve been a big fan for awhile and we just recently became friends and she’s even more awesome in person sells houses the best she’s being humble nine 

yes I did you get started doing Instagram like gosh so it’s really funny because I actually like I credit it all to my college roommate and she forced me to get an Instagram my junior year of college which is only a game which is super realized the game yeah I think everybody else are you have one yeah of course they’re posting like borders yes hello what was that one it’s an orange Kelvin like just like a wild staff but she convinced me she’s like you take photos if you just create one might have going on this is a current so I did that and over just like a couple years just would like make my friends pose with walls and like what happened is our food and of course that wasn’t a thing yet really yeah nobody was taking photos of food and so I think people started following me because I was going to find us in places and yeah I got like really lucky was getting to go you know how to do all those things so start opposing image of that and so I think once I had about six K. was when I was like oh this is like a thing yeah people care about what I’m posting like this is super fun and then Lindsay with eating a taxes like wall let’s hang out and so we dead and then she started bringing me to a lot of things and I kind of got you know different agencies writers through her which is a huge blessing yeah down then I think like you know once you hit a certain amount brands are kind of like Hey we would love to work with you and I was over video and stuff yeah so just kind of works out it was just like a natural organic thing which is really 

yeah so when you’re going to like to the six thousand where you weren’t actually like try and re using hashtag no stuff just totally like a hiding I didn’t using hashtags and so probably ten K. okay and even then people were like what’s wrong with you it’s so silly I didn’t understand that like hashtags yeah so I didn’t use them again my best friend ray was like he’s gonna laugh fears this is like that’s how the internet works because I made a joke one time like that I use hashtags are my first time in it posted really well and he’s like that’s how the internet works as I was like oh really cool I am doing that to do that so now I have stag I think the maximum daily on each coast yes hello is that helps the gasket region people find you that way yeah especially like the Austin food scene yeah like that when I started using that and I never again would I follow hashtags I don’t know you can see it on your feet yeah I think this is a foreign to me yeah I only did it for like the like my favorite travel hashtag yeah like of these beautiful like photos for inspiration instead of trying to get so cool yeah analysts from futures when zero I’m 

okay so you don’t have a blog it is just for Instagram have you felt that that was like it’s been harder to grow or not I haven’t really noticed it yeah I think so I think that a lot of people follow me because my captions are short yeah I kind of just like new place on fifth run don’t walk you know whatever symbol whatever kinds are silly captions but I do think that being able to align it with a blog post would be really beneficial to me I just feel like and I hate to say it I still don’t have enough to say yeah and so like I go to a new restaurant like the foods really great but like you can only say that and I usually take it seriously and Mayer food bloggers that are like okay like this is really great the flavor and the cast of plating I’m just like I just was like this is good you know I just don’t get yeah and so I love I love following other food bloggers because I they have to say yeah I’m just like Hey this is good you should go eat it yeah and I think people like that about mine but at the same time it does make it costly hundred like have one long long captions I’m still gonna read I just keep scrolling along with another one think I prefer it when people have so much to say and it’s like so from the heart and then Michael I don’t really I don’t know I think there’s a different diets yeah there’s a difference in the occasional yeah Hey let me share like what’s going on with me today then like every caption being like you know very lengthy yeah I was like okay yeah but I mean you know do you surround yeah it’s just a battle with the food thing yeah there I like cheese like labor health care that’s why sometimes it happens like here’s a photo of cheese it was really good period like just like and now like you’re kind of like expense expected right like some people now in a lively why did that person they announced last year right yeah I know what it’s like the people are like what are we doing what’s going on what you’re talking about 

so wild yeah do you like post almost more than once a day right yeah so they’re like a casual day where I forget yeah but I post I try to post twice today yeah how do you keep all those voters organized because you said it like this think makes me want to cry or seven I’m still like what you are I painted out of the instagrams you read started her Instagram hours freezing and lost how many drafts like two hundred and seventy draft so I’m a psycho fun facts everyone and I I go to one place and I take like seven photos yeah like yesterday I went to lunch at carpenter hall carpenter’s hall yeah and I took probably seven photos it’s the same meal but I like all of the photos so I wanted to save them for like a rainy day or if I wanted to post something random thing and so I got to put Russia stating the mileage drafts okay then I had too many drafts that then like it was freezing well I think this is my house like on overload so I would go to post something it was like freeze because I’ve had so much stuff statement that it was like what’s happening so I had to post I was doing this campaign with a coffee company and I had to post a carousel posts yet wouldn’t let me so I deleted the app re downloaded it and all my jobs are gone and I thought the world was like done for like at least ten minutes I was like the world’s over then I just went through my photos favorited the one yeah I remember anything on that I hadn’t posted yet and now I have like seven hundred thirty favorites of photos that are added on so I’m just like it was a weird out in like ten over the same thing yeah that’s the silly part it’s like I’m not gonna actually post all of these yeah they’re just favorited to be there for like me as like oh this is content that I like that I can’t yeah so you’re never looks like it’s never like oh there’s that like biscuit again like it’s always different and like it looks different it helps at home thing that’s the goal any space them out enough I think I tried too hard to I had a friend coming out being like okay you’ve posted the same salmon from June’s like four times like but different shots that I was like dang it aspen noticed these things okay like the sandwich yeah just like it Capstick nor that it fairly for like the tenth time 

because if you use like do you plan your feet it’ll you know some I don’t I mean I played it for a post it like all so I use it plainly yeah I have so little at the bottom line to what I have yeah I’ll go through my favorites and then pick like aluminum I have to post this today yeah it’s all gonna add that and make sure it looks okay okay and if it doesn’t then I’ll be like you in a post like a random something and then I’ll post whatever okay five sponsored followers Yeltsin on planet that doesn’t look like too wild yeah that makes sense is what I do I used to be way better about like planning like I have like weeks like when I was traveling yeah and I’m like god what am I gonna boost today well it’s different when you’re like in Australia traveling the globe yeah it’s a little harder when you’re like I live here working full time mortgage I’m hearing test here’s here’s me at work today it’s really glamorous yeah yeah yeah beauty of having two full time right right love it I’m 

speaking of you are now like mostly full time Instagram yes which is awesome yes how has that been like what made you decide to do that it’s been wild so I left my career in retirement I worked in retired for two years I thought you meant like you’re just retired yes I was retired get paid just like mine what is on Medicare so I’d left my career working in retirement okay I realize that and I went to work at a PR firm in town and I loved it but they work so hard I admire them so much because I got to a point where I was like I don’t know how to like balance a life like a work life balance thing and so I was just like I love this and I’m super passionate about what I’m doing I don’t think that I was right for it yeah and so I was like I think I need to just like try and so I went and left in a sense the kind of part time is going to just do Instagram going to find something else to do part time so I was gonna do fifty fifty yeah and then it just ended up it was kind of a huge blessing that and ended up just being a full time thing yeah and so I took a couple clients remain social form and then at those contracts and did and I’m just kind of chilling Jennifer time yeah 

that’s nice yeah it does like not having a steady income is that stressful worry yeah yes it’s also hard like net thirty days yeah I work with a brand and then it’s like oh my gosh I thought it was set for November but I’m like not going to get paid X. Y. Z. until December thirty first yeah and so I’m having to remember and like on my calendar add in like what income weighing in with and kind of like trying to figure out how to say yes to the right brands while also knowing that like this is what I’m doing full time now but I don’t wanna be an authentic to my followers or it is we are trouble now if that yeah navigator like how do I accept you know working with oatmeal brand when I don’t necessarily love oatmeal yeah tons of people love oatmeal so it’s okay that I don’t have it I just like need to make sure that when I’m articulating its my audience that I’m saying like Hey there’s a new oatmeal brands and they it’s really great and like blah blah blah yeah here’s why my roommate left or something yeah I don’t have to be like life okay there’s a way to be like I’m gonna promote this brand and work with them yeah because they are a good brand I might not like oatmeal yeah I mean that twenty K. people don’t like it right exactly 

what is been one of your favorite brands to work with okay I loved working with Starbucks it was like my dream partitions I did like four poster then and ask them like a bunch of boxes of their cold brew and it was so funny because I am like team coffee so and right off the brand yeah I love this I’m not lying content thing yet I don’t I’ve never applied right like being able to like promote Starbucks like I go here yeah I like it I like coffee by it was so fun just have a photo shoot of coffee yeah that’s awesome things live 

what’s been like what like a brand that you’ve worked with it’s been a little difficult and like how did you come to handle lash in upstate names obviously now I’m trying to think okay there’s one that I worked with and I think that I was like maybe one of like the first influencers that they worked on it and yeah they didn’t really know contractually like what needed to be included so I did this whole photo shoot and then they came back with like the packaging needs to be in it but I wasn’t reserve already like threw it away like I thought we were done I didn’t know the packaging needed to be and then yeah so I had that was like frustrating and so then they were locals and you more than I’d like essentially redo which was fine it was okay because it wasn’t like a super strenuous shoot yeah but it’s it was definitely like okay we need to make sure that we’re like on the same page because I think they tried to like fight why the patching needed to be in and I was like I’m fine with the packaging being initially didn’t know that and it’s really inconvenient right now for me to redo it so your time actually doesn’t say anything it’s usually because this way and so that was really difficult I think sometimes like they don’t like people are still kind of learning how to navigate the integrator marketing personalization and so it’s been like a learning curve for me as well on like making sure that stuff is in a contract yeah that I think should probably be in it definitely to cover my butt yeah I know 

it’s hard to like balance between what you like envision the photo being like what you want to show about the brand and then they come back they’re like no that’s not what we want right on the numbers like that I would be authentic right and so then like what why did you want to work with me like you know what kind of photos I posted yeah so thank I will say that was one difficulty with Starbucks is like they wanted just like really minimal photos I have a hard time with that because I love like color and everything you know like I wanna throw coffee in the air in front of all the glitches in the wild yeah and they were very just like we wanna like see like the box and have it be like more stage yeah like cool ten ten can do but also not super on brand but I’m down to do it because I love you yeah and the photos turned out great and they were wonderful and easy to do and fine but I like when brands like we like what you do keep doing that we look right fun colors which is exactly right and I’m like great they’re very easy to work with I’m just gonna do what I do superficial love it loving it 

what’s would be like a dream collab for you like who would what would just be amazing like Starbucks that’s a pretty that’s pretty high apple yeah yeah will the apple if you’d like to give us that the computer’s sponsor us we love you so much or even like like an icon or something would be super fun to be like Hey we wanna give you a camera for six months like post funded ventures with that of the laptop the madness yes I don’t even I would make them maybe I maybe I mean maybe that you’re losing but I would be like okay like if they have to give me a camera or something to frolic around with B. so fun B. three I feel like I I’m thinking like high end like technical because there’s like exciting it’s like something realistic I’m like no but that’s a dream collab and it’s like apple doesn’t need influencers but while it has ever now but also please ju I love you we’ll do it for free all for free I just just give me a bigger one I love I just bought a new mac and the loving it but it also was like my wallet to not let the situation yeah that’s my next big purchase I was like between drone and macbook is round I want to drown yeah that would be something really fun yeah but they have like these amazing like absurd photographers that they only work with the trump people well they’re like which is fair use exactly such beautiful photos of your drum though I don’t understand how to work it the guys that I got one and I was so confused I never played video games and so like I’m like sitting there like what like I was when I do I do not think I’ve flown it probably like total five hours which is not a lot of faith doing it more but I’m still like trying to figure out how to yeah yeah Glavine hit anything yeah I was at one of our debates these cars I would like break it probably because the crashing of ground or something luckily this one that I have has like at least forward collision avoidance so I get physically won’t go forward if you’re gonna hit like you cannot run into the wall okay when I need that yeah it doesn’t matter not towards that which is kind of like I’ve almost like hit people like in reverse yeah the first time I like float or the second time I flew it almost like him my step mom the dentals it was in the hospital should hope what happened to your certain death by John yeah I that would be sweet back up on the sofa with a medium the easiest thing to work with you just because we all love them yeah well okay sorry like Samsung android users or whatever but 

I love them so I’m happy with them so I mean like I love yeah but you do love apple because you take all of your photos on an iPhone I do I don’t I still to this day I don’t understand how your iPhone photos looks so much better than everyone else’s I think that’s the thing is the portrait mode though yours is like I cannot get my portrait mode a look like that I know you don’t mind a lot I think it’s a broken life if there’s a crack in the screen that’s your problem I think the people are totally capable of taking the photos I take I think it’s just like we all have different eyes and so being able to see something and be like okay I’m gonna like try to be artsy here yeah that first apartment housing six fake RT like one of my hearing and I’m just like oh and I like to do and do it and sometimes it fails again all like oh my gosh pet peeve alert like straws are like wine glass I nearly people I do I also sensed on my story but like it kills me posted on the story but like when like yeah the other day this really big company posted one it was just like the wine glass at the top yeah part of the whole Middle Ages blur and you’re like putting on sale like so annoying and then we kind of see like I think I just one of the bike first phone that had portrait mode so it’s like old and well happening right let’s distract but none of that yeah I just I just wing it and sometimes from what is dark like sometimes I’m trying with portrait mode and it just doesn’t work and I’m just like well okay let’s move on yeah yes my mom’s not gonna be pro right now yeah more like lighting lighting so hard yeah 

the other day I went to lunch with with our French Riviera and she had brought her really nice camera that’s like a light correcting and my phone was just like not working yeah because it was so rainy and it’s pouring outside it was dark well that’s not a I’ve seen this I used I barge yeah and it saves the day and I had people doing maybe like he did not take it any further no no no no he’s running he’s running came out like no I was trying on my phone and showings routine like I’m stressed in our community yeah it is for them and she was like okay use my camera I love you I don’t care nothing for your show thank you the day because sometimes on the cameras like super beneficial do you think you’ll get one eventually or I think so yeah I had one and then I sold it because it was just kind of older it was like a rebel T. three I. R. cannon it is still really good camera yeah it was just like dated because rob is there tons of new cameras coming out I think that would be probably my next biggest purchases and my next biggest my next big purchase so I’m really just like have to bite the bullet and do that yeah but I think would be worth it to be fun I think so I feel like gosh I hate that this is gonna be so lazy I feel like it’s so much more work to do that it is like to load them yeah and it’s heavier yeah I like going out to like that’s what you got to take it in your back right and like I already cause a scene with my phone let alone winning out on the the thing all my gosh I did it at a political attack on the stool and it works in the photos are beautiful but you know you just gotta sometimes do it for the gram you can’t stand on a stool and if people the restaurant think you’re weird just smile at them ways and continue on yeah because you know what maybe the folly or maybe the like you’re finally turns out or not so what happened 

what would be like your best advice for someone starting out if this baby up my best advice okay so whenever I tell people when they DM me and ask like how did you get going it’s hard because mine was just an organic Yang and it was so long ago so I think like when I started it was like there weren’t that many people during that and so now coming into a market that’s already slightly saturated in the best way I let everybody who’s posting up food in Austin I love you know anyone is my passion I love them I think they’re all talented in different ways I think coming in now it’s just like take good content that you like and our products and make sure that like you’re posting the most authentic way as humanly possible and I think that people follow along yeah because like I think people can see when people aren’t being super authentic on Instagram or on anything me on any social platform and people don’t Levin office city and so is that the word in authenticity I think that in a big words in often yeah I’m in on offense innocent enough and yeah you know people are human you know we know sometimes that often take great heroes and we’re gonna be authentic don’t edit this out but yeah I would just say create conte love yeah and can sting can stand up for something that you’re like I like this because Excellency right I think is really important and then catch doing what you love and the authentic I think are really important and just to grow authentically to I think it’s really difficult but if you post good content and you’re real and you use hashtags and you engage with people I think you will grow like brain grow or you know people will grow and brands I feel like yeah has been coming with Thailand tagging like minded accounts in your photos I mean there are little things you can do it just I can be seen by people yeah yeah follow accounts that you like and engage with them and then you know people will find you yeah I think there are ways to grow without having to do some weird stuff to get there yeah in center 

right well thanks so much for coming for having me yeah I do I tell them where to follow you yes you can just follow me at Shelby throw on Instagram one L. one L. as O. R. R. E. L. and I have been friends for a while now like a couple months which I guess isn’t that long and she just has to wells there and so I think everyone ever so it’s fine to tune our great name plates always do it like offense and then let me hang on one Instagram this cute place setting but this is not my name so I take that on and it could go on like it’s I really don’t have to like a check in the details are gonna you know because it should be to all sorts of spot funk it’s just not a special beard yes even following it shall be zero one L. thank thank you again for coming on the podcast Shelby I can’t wait to see where you pop up next we will of course include links to all of Shelby social counts so be sure to follow her the positive influence podcast team includes me Chelsea Bancroft producer rack offset an audio engineer Jack Wallace thank you everyone at founding media for your support a positive influence podcast is available on apple stitcher Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts you can also view this and other founding media podcasts in video form on our YouTube channel a link is in the show notes thanks for listening