Behind the Scenes of a Content Creator

They have an innate talent for design, and earn their living on social networks thanks to partnerships with brands. But as in any decor, there is also a reverse side, which consists of revealing parts of his private life to thousands of subscribers. Incursion into the world of three creators of content for the home, a profession that they are very few to practice in Quebec.

Sophie Ouimet
The Press

For Émilie Desjarlais, better known by her pseudonym Brook & Peony, building her Instagram account helped her get out of a bad patch in her life. So much so that the social network has become his livelihood. But it’s not a rosy story…

As a single mother to little Brook, it was impossible for her to get a job for quite a while. “When I had my daughter, I was trying to find a solution to work from home, because the daycare, it is not guaranteed that you have one,” she says, joined on the phone.

After moving into a bright and charming apartment in Saint-Lambert, she started posting pictures of her decor — and her cute little Brook — on Instagram. The contracts ended up being linked, the community grew, and it now has 125,000 subscribers who follow it daily. But behind this great success hide years of hard work.

“In fact, it started with my daughter, remembers Émilie. Since we were still together, I shared a lot of content with her: exchanges, clothes, little things like that. » And what does the decor have to do with it? “At one point, my apartment was painted gray and I didn’t like it, so I painted everything in shades of beige and white,” she continues. Colors that still bear his signature, by the way!

After learning what a media kit was, she put one together and sent it to EQ3 stores and then to others. “I started accessorizing with a few things I couldn’t afford, swapping with brands. It allowed me to furnish my apartment nicely, and after that, I started working as a full-time content creator. »

Diversify income

It’s still not easy to make a living exclusively this way, agree to say the three decoration influencers we spoke to. To achieve this, many diversify their activities in order to have more than one source of income.

This is what Maca Atencio, specializing in DIY (Do It Yourself). In addition to her colorful Instagram account, she writes a blog, owns a studio that she occasionally rents out, and collaborates with the HGTV specialty home decor channel. “When I started, I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket, says the one we know as Hey Maca. At the end of the day, I don’t own Instagram. What would happen if they changed their way? His contracts with HGTV, above all, allow him to have a more stable and predictable income.

Especially since Instagram comes in waves, notes the entrepreneur. And some months are more hollow than others.

Same story on the side of Vanessa Béland, alias Fleur maison, who defines herself as “creator of beauty” on her Instagram page. After studying interior decoration and visual presentation (just like Émilie Desjarlais), she worked a little for companies before launching Fleur maison. She estimates that she has been able to live with it for about two years. But she too has more than one string to her bow; in addition to decorative content, she works with other types of brands and does a bit of product placement.

Private life

The other side of the coin is also that you have to expose your private life when you do this job. For example, little Brook, 6, and the cat Peony are an integral part of Émilie Desjarlais’ publications, just as they are part of her life. “The photos that work the least are when it’s me! she says laughing. I almost never post content where I appear. It’s really my environment, my daughter, and now my cat, ”says the one who also has a background in the arts and who defines herself more as an artist than an influencer.

Still, since Brook reached school age, her mom has been posting less and less about her. When the opportunity arises, she carefully chooses what ends up online. “I focus on the funny stuff. I’m not going to show her when she’s having a fit, unless it’s a funny situation. »

Vanessa Béland also has more difficulty negotiating the border between family life and work since she became a mother, a little over a year ago. “People technically have access to us all the time,” she points out. I happen to be on Instagram just for fun, but if I get a message at 10 p.m., I’ll take the little 15 seconds it takes to respond, even if I’m not working. »

However, each agrees to say that with their subscribers, they have woven a real community whose power sometimes surprises them. “I feel like I have friends I don’t know!” “, illustrates Maca Atencio about these foreigners who have become so familiar over time. Above all, she loved sharing the pivotal moments of her life with them, whether it was her arrival from Venezuela to settle in Ville-Émard with her husband, the purchase of their first house, the birth of their children…

Above all, their content remains accessible, believes Vanessa Béland. “In terms of decoration, I’m not selling dreams, and that’s not my goal at all. So I think collaborating with stores like IKEA or RONA, where people go for their own renovations, is relevant and reflects reality. Me too, I like Pinterest, but it’s not necessarily in the budget. »

Émilie Desjarlais also wants to remain accessible for its subscribers. In all of her moves, she was creative in reusing what she already had. “I’m able to keep the same things for a long time, change them, repaint them… it gives ideas to people of all budgets,” she says. It is important for me not to fall into luxury; I want to remain financially accessible, precisely because I haven’t always had money, so I’m in a good position to understand. »