With 1.5 million subscribers, Elisabeth Rioux is one of the most popular influencers in Quebec. On Instagram, her trips to the sun, her evenings on luxurious yachts or in ultra-trendy clubs are the stuff of fantasies. Behind the phone, however, the reality is less sparkling. In order to lift the veil on the pitfalls of this profession, Elisabeth Rioux bares all in a new docuseries, showing without filter her daily life punctuated by pressure, overwork and doubts.
“The hardest part is never having a break. You have to be posting on social media all the time. And when something negative happens in your life, you have to keep going and pretend it’s okay because there is a business who rolls backwards,” she confides to Dutya few days before the release of Elisabeth Rioux. No filter.
Still surprised to have been chosen by the Trio Orange production, she hopes that her reality can enlighten young people dreaming of becoming influencers. “I see the documentary as a career day at school. It shows both sides of the coin,” says the woman who launched her swimsuit company, Hoaka Swimwear, at 17.
In the six episodes, which will be broadcast on Prime Video starting Friday, the businesswoman introduces us to her family, colleagues and friends. She discusses without taboo her role as a single mother or her “ dating life ” and returns to the domestic violence of which she was a victim. But the docuseries reveals above all the behind the scenes of her job as an entrepreneur and influencer, an access rarely offered to the general public.
For two years, the production team accompanied her on her professional trips to Costa Rica, Miami and Italy. Of course, we find the idyllic settings of her Instagram photos. But this time, we discover the money, time and energy spent to create these perfectly orchestrated photos that sell dreams — and swimsuits.
Contrary to appearances, his travels are “nothing like vacations”. “I manage almost everything”: from the choice of swimsuits, to the place of photo shootincluding the framing of the photos and the positions of the models. Not to mention the work beforehand, such as choosing the destination, booking the villa and activities.
The cost of such a trip? “About $5,000 or $6,000. But it quickly goes up to $30,000 for a week, because I’m paying for it for myself and four or five other people,” she says, referring to her daughter, Wolfie, 4, her nanny, her friend and influencer Claudia Tihan and her colleagues.
For influencers like her who make travel their social media brand, it’s one of the biggest expenses. “People don’t realize how expensive it is to be an influencer. You have to do a lot of traveling to create new content.” […] And it’s increasingly difficult to do something that has never been done, you have to get out of your comfort zone and it’s expensive,” she adds.
No promotion, “no money”
According to Elisabeth Rioux, it is very difficult — if not impossible — in Quebec to live solely from your work as a content creator. “You need a job on the side, you can’t live solely from that. Because if you want to grow on social networks, you have to do a lot of product promotions, but that displeases subscribers. And if you don’t do any promotions, you don’t make any money.”
The young woman relies heavily on the success of her clothing line, which allows her to choose her collaborations and have “the luxury of saying no.” And she gives out “no”s in spades. Elisabeth Rioux receives about thirty emails every day offering her a collaboration, not to mention the proposals on Instagram, which she doesn’t always have time to read.
When she accepts, there is no question of simply being “the image of the product on Instagram”. “I make sure that the product is of quality, that it is functional, that the packaging is beautiful. […] “I want to know the number of orders, the type of clientele. I’m invested,” she says. In one episode, she even goes to Italy to visit the manufacturing plant of a hair care product she’s about to promote.
Take your foot off the gas
On screen, friends, colleagues and family (her father and sister work for Hoaka) are unanimous: Elisabeth Rioux is doing too much, and her expectations are too high.
“This side of me is a quality and a flaw. It allowed me to succeed with the company,” she analyzes in an interview. “Learning to delegate is still my battle today,” she admits.
The 27-year-old had to slow down after filming the documentary, which lasted until 2023. Some episodes show her out of breath. A photo shoot in Italy ends in a crying fit.
“I feel like I work too much, [et] There are too many people counting on me. […] “In the last few years, I’ve forgotten myself, I’ve put my company above my own needs. I really want more of that life,” she says in the docuseries.
There is no question of stopping her company, she specifies in an interview, but simply of slowing down. “For the past year, I have taken on fewer projects, I have done none interview, none podcast. I used to post on Instagram once a day, now it’s about once a week. In the last year, I’ve taken three or four trips. I usually took one or two a month.
Let’s not get this wrong: Elisabeth Rioux wouldn’t change her life for anything in the world. She has fulfilled her dream of being able to travel, she enjoys having the freedom to manage her schedule to spend time with her daughter and feels privileged to work with her family and friends.
“I just wish I could switch off more. When things are going badly, I wish I could stop, go anywhere, do whatever I want without being afraid of ending up on Reddit.” a second later or on a blog fueling rumors,” confides the woman who has lived in the gaze of social networks since the beginning of her adult life.
Sometimes her mind wanders, and she imagines a completely different life. A life that could actually be her future: “I could go away for a business quieter, a café or a creamery, like my parents. I know I could be happy doing something else.”
On Prime Video, from September 6