E36 From Corporate Career Woman to Full-Time Influencer with Melanie Phillips 🤳🤩

Pollen: For Creative Entrepreneurs with Diana Davis

The influencer space has taken the world by storm in the past years. We are now consuming content at levels previously unimaginable, and we're seeing essentially no end to this momentum soon. But what does it mean to become an influencer? And how do you even become one?

In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, Diana talks to Melanie Phillips, founder of Headstands and Heels. She talks about her journey from being a corporate career woman to becoming a full-time blogger and influencer. She also shares her multi-ethnic background that has shaped her personal and entrepreneurial outlook. Your passion project will remain one unless you make the big leap — this is what Melanie learned from her journey.

Listen to this episode to discover what it means to be a full-time influencer!

Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.

🔥Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

1. Learn about Melanie’s multi-ethnic background and how it contributed to her unique outlook on life.
2. What the transition from a corporate career to an Influencer looks and feels like.
3. What it actually means to be an Influencer and how to do it full-time.

📘Resources

• Iconic Fox
• Get a SPECIAL DISCOUNT for Melanie’s Mindful Morning Planner!
• Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Join the waitlist for Camp Clarity!
• Want your creative business to go even further? Sign up for ASCEND, a four-month immersive mastermind experience for elevated entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their next mountain. Join the waitlist here. ⛰️
• Want to have one-on-one coaching support from Diana? Check out the brand new Voxer Coaching Container.
• Attract your dream clients with my free masterclass!
• Access other courses from the Diana Davis Creative
• Connect with me: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram
• Connect with Melanie: Headstands and Heels | Instagram | TikTok | Pinterest

🎧Episode Highlights [05:33] Getting to Know Melanie

• Melanie created her health and lifestyle blog, Headstands and Heels, in 2015 while she was working as a PR firm digital strategist.
• The blog has evolved from showcasing the duality of her life as a corporate career woman with a passion for yoga to becoming an overarching healthy lifestyle brand.
• She got her yoga teacher certification in 2017 and took blogging full-time in 2018.
• She’s also been able to branch out to product development with her Mindful Morning Planner.

[06:43] Melanie: “I guess that's the beauty of being an entrepreneur, you wear a lot of different hats.”

[08:00] Melanie’s Childhood and Multi-Ethnic Background

• Melanie was born in Utah. With her dad being in the Air Force, she grew up all over from South Korea to Germany to Oklahoma until settling down in Florida.
• Her mother is Korean while her dad is part Swedish and part Ecuadorian. They met in South Korea and eventually moved back together to the US.
• In childhood, she shied away from her multi-ethnic background. But as an adult, she has come to embrace it as a beautiful aspect of her life.
• Having to move often as a child forced her to learn valuable life skills, such as becoming a chameleon in whatever culture she was in.
• She has always been creative and artistic, which has translated well into the work she does now.

[10:52] Melanie: “I feel so fulfilled in a creative atmosphere and working for myself because I'm able to constantly innovate and change and be inspired and then re-inspired to try new things every day.”

[12:16] Embracing Different Cultural Backgrounds

• More than showing outwardly, embracing her different cultural backgrounds has been more of an internal shift.
• Melanie has been able to embrace exactly who she is in her heritage and wants to pass that mentality down.
• She tries to share more brands owned by women of color in her blog.
• Unlike before, she doesn’t shy away anymore when people ask about her ethnicity.

[14:22] The Bullet Points of Melanie’s Life

• Melanie went to college originally to be a veterinarian. After two years of doing science-based prerequisites, she realized that veterinary school wasn't for her.
• She was working retail jobs at the time when her manager said something about marketing. She dug into it and eventually graduated with a degree in marketing.
• At 24, she had her whole life planned out. But another major life change hit her when she had to break off her engagement after finding out her fiance cheated on her.
• She went to New York City the weekend she was supposed to get married, where she met her now husband of over a decade.
• After a year, she moved up to New York City, where she started her corporate career and blog.

[16:48] Starting Headstands and Heels

• Six months before moving to NYC, she created an Instagram for her yoga journey.
• She knew little about bloggers and the influencer world at that point.
• One of her colleagues in the PR firm who was a blogger found out about her Instagram account. She gave her the idea to turn it into an actual blog.
• She thought it was a great way to connect with the community and document the duality of her life.
• Her husband was the one who came up with the blog’s name. She started it in 2016 and hasn’t looked back since.

[19:50] Deciding to Blog Full-Time

• At first, the only idea she had about monetization was through putting advertisements on the website.
• The turning point where she realized blogging could be lucrative was her first paid opportunity with Athleta. It was followed by a big paid partnership with Propel Water.
• Initially, she only thought of it as a great side hustle. But after weighing the potential of dedicating all her time and energy to it, she decided to make the big leap.

[22:59] Melanie: “You never want to look back on life and wonder, ‘What if?’ and I kept thinking that. I was like, I don't want to be in my 30s and look back and be like, ‘What would have happened if I had just taken this opportunity?’.”

• Three things aligned for her in deciding to blog full time: influencer marketing taking off, having a good nest egg saved up, being at a crossroads with her career.
• One of the biggest hurdles she had to get over was what her family and friends would think. Thankfully, her parents were very supportive of her decision.

[28:39] The Misunderstood World of Influencer Marketing

• Influencer marketing is one of the most misunderstood fields, especially in the creative field.
• It is a predominantly female-run industry. If it was a male-dominated industry, people would be taking it a lot more seriously.
• At the core, an influencer is someone who inspires and influences you to do something. Being an influencer comes down to your brand message.
• Some people have shied away from the term because of the negative connotation that came from people taking advantage of it.
• We have always been influenced by someone. Before, it was celebrities, but now, the everyday human being can have influence.

[33:14] Moving from the Big City to Denver

• The fitness and wellness influencer marketing scene was thriving from 2017 to 2019.
• It was a scary experience for Melanie to leave that scene in New York City to move to Denver. But it was a personal decision for both her and her husband.
• Upon moving, she started a women’s fitness meetup group called Denver Fit Friends. It was her way of connecting with people in her community.
• Earlier this year, her and her husband bought a house. It’s her first time owning a house after living in apartments her whole life.

[39:06] What’s Next for Headstands and Heels

• Her next goal is to build out the Mindful Morning segment of her business. She already released the planner, but she wants to take it even further and explore different things.
• With the help of her management, Melanie has partnered with nearly 40 well-known wellness and fitness brand leaders this year.
• It’s the first year she has made multiple six figures. She never dreamed it would be possible in her career, especially as a micro-influencer.
• She wouldn't change anything in her journey if she could. But she would tell her younger self that it’s okay to feel unsure and to lean on people for help and support.
• Hear more about what to expect from the upgraded Mindful Morning Planner in the full episode!

[46:36] ⚡️ Rapid-Fire Questions with Melanie

• Melanie’s sun sign is Cancer, while her moon sign is Gemini.
• For Melanie, creativity is the power of expression — the ability to think outside the box and uniquely tell a story.
• Her entrepreneur crush is Taylor Swift for many reasons. She finds her ability to constantly innovate and stay relevant for over a decade empowering.
• Rolanda’s current read is Verity and Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. Colleen Hoover’s rise in popularity is thanks to influencers.
• If Melanie didn’t have to think about money, time, and resources, she would create her own yoga studio or wellness facility for women in need as one of her passion projects.

About Melanie

Melanie Phillips is a certified yoga instructor and the founder of the healthy lifestyle blog, Headstands and Heels. She is also the creator of the Denver-based women's meetup group, Denver Fit Friends. Melanie shares a joyful approach to wellness and encourages women to put priority on their health. She is an advocate of cultivating attainable habits, a mindful morning routine, and practicing a balanced approach to diet and exercise.

Learn more about Melanie through her blog, Headstands and Heels. You can also follow her on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.

Enjoyed this Podcast on Becoming a Full-Time Influencer?

Do you have a passion project that you’ve been keeping on the side? Imagine how life would be if you started to dedicate your time and energy to only your passions. Sometimes, you have to make the big leap and start choosing what you want.

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