Entrepreneur: Lissette Calveiro
Biz: Lissette Claveiro personal brand (agency: Influence with Impact)
Tilt: Honest and inspirational stories to help influencers
Channel: Instagram (57.1K)
Marketing channel: TikTok
Rev streams: Sponsored content, brand partnerships, speaking engagements, coaching
2020 revenue: $201K
Our Favorite Actionable Advice
- Look for the spark: Lissette strategizes her Instagram content by asking, “How will this piece of content spark up a conversation with the people I want to attract?”
- Get a content mission: Figure out what your mission is and who your audience is. Ask what type of transformation you want for them.
- Post frequently on TikTok: It wasn’t until she started posting multiple times a day that her TikTok audience grew exponentially.
The Story
In 2018, after nine years in PR and social media, including a role as director of influencer marketing at Ogilvy, Lissette Calveiro started Influence with Impact, which helps influencers monetize their business and runs influencer campaigns for agencies. But in the process of helping others optimize their influence and content creation, the Latina CEO became an influencer and content creator herself.
Sparking Instagram
Though she started her personal Instagram in 2011, a few years ago, she actively created a content strategy to grow her account. Today it has 57.1K followers. “It took about four years to actually know what the heck I was doing,” Lissette says. “But the moment I started taking my Instagram account more seriously, it took me less than a year to start making money from it.”
The moment @lissettecalv took her @Instagram account more seriously, it took less than a year to make money from it, she says. #influencer #contententrepreneur Click To TweetWhen it comes to her Instagram strategy, she focuses on searchable and relatable content. “I think to myself: ‘How will this piece of content spark up a conversation with the people I want to attract?’ I can tell my audience something in 10 different ways. So which way will make someone feel seen, someone feel heard today? I really emphasize thinking about this with everything that I’m creating.”
Getting honest
Before her strategic postings, she created content about acai bowls, expensive clothing, and lavish vacations. Then she opened up about going into debt to keep up with that influencer lifestyle. “I started to talk about the realities of being an influencer – including what is ‘real’ and what isn’t,” she writes in Metro Debt Diaries. She went $10K into debt but became debt-free in 2018. Now, she makes much more money than she spends.
Balancing on the entrepreneurship path
As she created content for her Instagram page, she worked a 9-to-5 job and wrote a blog to share her experiences living in New York City with family and friends. “In 2018, I was making a full-time salary doing content creation and was still working a full-time job. I was basically working two jobs full time. Any breaks I would get during (my 9-to-5) work, I’d go create content outside in New York. Over the weekend, I was shooting content,” she says. “It was 24/7, non-stop working, which is definitely a lot.”
Finding the tilt
Even though she was successful in her day job and quickly climbing the corporate ladder, she wanted more creative freedom in her career. “I was like, ‘You know what, what if I just went off and instead of becoming VP, I became CEO.?” And that’s exactly what she did. Her blog became a place where influencers can get inspiration and advice about being content creators.
Lissette’s Instagram, which only had a few thousand followers, grew by tens of thousands after she implemented her content tilt. Her posts and Reels are about influencer marketing tips, how to get paid what you’re worth, social media strategy, and her life as an entrepreneur. She also partners with brands and posts sponsored content.
After @lissettecalv found her #contenttilt, her #Instagram followers grew by tens of thousands. Click To TweetUsing TikTok to drive Instagram growth
In 2019, she joined TikTok and now has 31.5K followers. The entrepreneur talks about content creation in depth and gets more personal about her finances on this channel. In this TikTok video, she gets real about growing her salary from $23K as an employee in 2012 to $210K in revenue as a business owner in 2020.
“TikTok does actually reward more frequency. Meaning, posting more on TikTok definitely does help you grow faster,” Lissette explains. “For two years, I wasn’t posting every day. When I actually started posting two, three times a day, I saw my community blow up overnight.”
She uses TikTok as a lead generator to drive traffic to her Instagram, which is her primary channel.
Finding a good business mix
“I would say my business is about 40% business coaching and working with influencers. And then 30% content creation and 30% consulting for agencies,” Lissette explains.
As a content creator, her revenue comes through sponsored content and speaking engagements. “Create and Cultivate is an example of a brand where I’ve been invited to give a talk. I recently did one with them, where I talked about video for social media. I did a Q&A with an audience and got paid.”
Spending some, not all, her time
Lissette strategically plans her social media content. “I dedicate about four to eight hours a week producing, editing, and scheduling content,” she says. She doesn’t do a lot of planning for her Insta stories, preferring to show up and do them in real time.
She dedicates time to engage with her community. “I’ll block out time where I’m doing my social media engagement by just showing up for my community. I spend no more than one hour on social media every day,” Lissette says.
@lissettecalv blocks out time to engage with her #Instagram community. #influencer #contententrepreneur Click To TweetAdvice for aspiring content entrepreneurs
Lissette’s advice to aspiring content creators and influencers is to get clear about your content mission and audience. “Figure out what your mission is, what type of transformation you want for people, and who you want to make that transformation. A brand is going to hire you if you have access to the exact people that they need access to.”
Figure out your #content mission and #audience. What transformation do you want your audience to make? That’s the advice for #contententrepreneurs from @lissettecalv. Click To TweetAbout the author
Bonnie owns Word of Mouth, a content agency specializing in social media, content marketing, and editorial writing. She's written for Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Coveteur, Man Repeller, Health.com, and more. She loves wearing fanny packs and laying in the fetal position.
