Cassydy Berliner was sunbathing poolside at the Grand Hyatt Kauai when the thought slunk into her mind that in four days she had to go back to work. Before vacation she had actually sat in the parking garage outside her Irvine law firm, crying in her car, like Annette Bening in the movie “American Beauty.”
No, she wasn’t going back. Cassydy picked up her cell phone. And she called her boss. When he answered she said “I quit.” Just like they do in the movies.
Then she grabbed a cocktail waitress and ordered a Lava Flow. When the frozen cocktail arrived she set it down next to her gold-rimmed Oliver Peoples sunglasses and her Rip Curl sunhat and snapped a photo of the still life. Seconds later, she made her first Instagram post, embarking on her new career.
“I tagged the Grand Hyatt Kauai and off I went,” she says. “I never looked back.”
Today, less than four years later, Cassydy’s Instagram feed (@cassydy) has nearly a quarter million followers and she’s making more money than she did as a director at her law firm job.
She is one of hundreds of OC women (and they’re mostly women), who are using social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to create an entirely new job niche: Social media influencer. They are rewriting the rules of advertising, turning themselves into not just their own brands, but ambassadors for other brands.
And they are cashing in, evidently—even though no one wants to divulge just how much.
No longer do you have to be a supermodel like Kendall Jenner or Gigi Hadid to get paid to tell people what eyeshadow you prefer.
“I’m not the prettiest,” Cassydy says. “I’m not the tallest. I’m not the thinnest. I’m definitely on the older side in this little world.”
But there are 236,000 fans out there who apparently don’t care. They like Cassydy’s Instagram personality (“wild and witty” is how her bio puts it) and the fact that she’s not afraid to bounce from tight black leather pants to Alice+Olivia dresses, from long brown locks to platinum blond pixie.
Brands are taking note.
Cassydy has worked with Cover Girl, Trina Turk, Fresh Beauty and the British jewelry designer Monica Vinader. Some of them are a one-shot deal, others are a long-term contract. About 80 percent of her gigs are the result of brands reaching out to her. But sometimes she pitches to a brand if the fit feels right. She won’t discuss money. The industry average for an influencer with followers in her ballpark, though, appears to vary wildly, anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 for a single Instagram post, depending on who you talk to, what you read.
And then there are free products and perks galore. Cassydy gets about four deliveries a day to her home near the Back Bay. The day I spoke with her, she was tearing open packages like it was Christmas morning. Blue acrylic statement earrings from BaubleBar. Make-up from Urban Decay. Bottles of new perfume by the Diana Vreeland label.
She is under no obligation to post items from companies she does not have a contract with, by the way, and if she doesn’t like the product, she won’t. Recently a hair coloring company offered her big bucks for two posts.
“I do not use products that my stylist does not recommend,” she says. “I go to a salon in Newport Beach (Blanc Noir Hairdressing) that I’m extremely loyal to. They gave me flowers when my dog died.”
So she turned the job down.
“I refuse to compromise my integrity,” she says. “You’ll never see me posting how much I love corn.”
You will see her posting how much she loves red lipstick (she will be buried in it). But if you have an Instagram account, you know that it takes more than red lipstick to build a following. The question is, what exactly? How do you build an audience from a routine poolside Lava Flow pic? What kind of voodoo…?
Mission Viejo’s adorable pixie Amanda Stanton has 1.2 million followers and nets up to 100,000 “likes” on a single post (which starts at $3,000, according to a 2017 online bio). But the young mom already had a boatload of fans from “Bachelor” Season 20 and “Bachelor in Paradise” Season 3.
When Forbes launched its inaugural Top Influencers list (the kind who make up to $300,000 on a single Youtube video) in 2017, it included only those who built their audience organically, from the internet up.
So if you’re not already famous or lucky enough to go viral, like Grumpy Cat (who has 2.5 million IG followers), what’s the secret? Work your butt off. Yes style and content play a huge role in your success, but mainly it’s work your butt off.
“I approach it from a business standpoint,” Cassydy says. “I’m not doing it for adoration or praise.”
Her job needs 8-10 hours a day. There are shoots to set up, events to attend, photographers to hire, photos to edit and hashtag, contracts to negotiate and sign. And perhaps most important, engage. Influencers spend hours a day interacting with their followers.
“I have a dialogue,” Cassydy says.
Jennifer Aniston (the face of Aveeno) isn’t going to have a back and forth with you about Aveeno products. Cassydy (who works with Aveeno) will. Possibly even in person. Social media influencers are invited to multiple events a day: Menu tastings, product launches, meet and greets.
Cassydy’s showed me her calendar for the following day. First stop: Lunch at Lemonade in Venice with 19 other influencers.
The event was organized by Dawn McCoy, an LA-based social media “personality,” tastemaker, and host who started her Instagram (@iamdawnmccoy) after leaving her job as a personal shopper for Barbra Streisand — and now has more than 283,000 followers.
Among the brands McCoy currently partners with are the cities of Beverly Hills and Palm Desert, Dove, Rodeo Drive and Philosophy. She also curates social media influencer trips and events, inviting the perfect mix from the worlds of food, lifestyle, fashion and beauty.
Cassydy considered herself lucky to get an invite. At the luncheon she, along with the other women, shared “sour-to-sweet — like lemonade” stories from their own lives while sampling the restaurant’s new lunch menu. A photographer (hired by McCoy) snapped photos. The influencers were asked to post something on their feed within 48 hours.
Lemonade got exposure from some of the most popular social media influencers in Southern California. The influencers got lunch (and a gift card), content for their Instagram feed — and new friends.
But that was just the start of Cassydy’s day. After brunch she headed back to Orange County to attend JetSuiteX’s launch of their semi-private John Wayne-to-Vegas jet (where she sipped wine and picked up a voucher for a future flight). Then it was off to a four-course Andrea dinner hosted by Pixi Beauty at the Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach.
McCoy says she attended up to 7 events a day when she started out. Her calendar is so busy (she’s also a voice-over actor for Subaru, and previously Marshalls and Diet Dr. Pepper) that she needs a team: Two part-time assistants, branding managers and appearance agents.
“My instagram is my life on a page,” says McCoy, who has no trouble discussing her age (40), her boyfriend (Nick) or her daily moods in her personable (and longish) posts that she sometimes composes in her nightly bubble bath.
Even her new home, a duplex on the edge of Beverly Hills that has its own Instagram (@casatexicali), is content for her platforms. Christopher Kennedy, (the Ralph Lauren of the West Coast), partnered with her on the vision for her interior design (old Hollywood meets boho glam meets Palm Springs fabulous). Taylor Burke Home “sponsored” her chairs. The house will be finished — and posted, of course — by summer’s end.
McCoy is known for pulling other influencers into her orbit. She keeps a data base of every social influencer she has ever met from around the world. It has over 1,200 contacts, 95 percent of whom are women. It’s where she looks to invite influencers on a trip or to an event.
Not everyone in this new world is as generous as McCoy.
This is why Ladera Ranch fashion, fitness and lifestyle influencer Alison Barker (@allthingsalison) co-founded SoCal Blogger Babes with fashion and lifestyle blogger Shelby Soileau (@styling.sunshine) last fall.
“The blogging industry can be somewhat competitive,” Alison says. “Some of the girls don’t want to be friends with one another. This community is really supportive. There are enough brands to go around for everyone.”
The duo has since started chapters in Los Angeles, San Diego and New York City. Houston is next.
Alison was a marketing manager for a day spa chain when she made her first Instagram post nearly three years ago. She had been getting a lot of compliments on her outfits (“I’m all about dresses and jumpsuits”), which often made her chuckle since they were bargains from stores like Forever 21 and even Walmart.
Today she has upward of 60,000 followers and works with Athleta, Kohl’s and Forever 21.
The District at Tustin Legacy recently hired her to spend a day there and post photos of what she bought (date night outfit), ate (coconut soft-serve) and did (spin class and movies).
“We see influencers as an increasingly necessary part of our marketing efforts,” says District Marketing Director Shannon Campbell.
Unlike traditional print advertising, an influencer’s value can be easily tracked by a brand. Even if an influencer buys bots to bump up their following, a brand can see how many people “liked” a post, shared it, commented on it.
But even though places like South Coast Plaza have a social media coordinator, many businesses still aren’t convinced, or even clear on the whole concept.
Connie Aboubakare is an OC food blogger (@occomestibles) with 75,000 Instagram followers. She rarely appears in her posts, photographing only meals — mostly Vietnamese dishes, but also street tacos, Korean, Indian — from either restaurants or her kitchen.
In March, Food Beast, which has nearly 5 million Facebook likes, launched a video series called Chomping Grounds and spent Episode 1 following Connie as she ate her way through pho and hot pot and snails in Little Saigon. She visited eight restaurants. Three denied her request to let the camera crew film her while she dined. They missed out, because the video went viral and has had 2.2 million views and counting. (Her three young sons are jealous).
Connie’s social media stardom started with a random waffle post she took at an IHOP, by the way.
Cassydy’s Instagram feed still displays the first post she ever did from that day she quit her job poolside in January 2015.
“Yay!! First post on a perfect day in paradise!” the caption reads alongside a red lipstick emoji.
It got a whopping 153 likes. Earlier this summer, Cassydy returned to the Grand Hyatt. This time they feted her, as an influencer. There was a chef tasting (peanut butter and jelly foie gras), massages, a cabana, and, of course, a Lava Flow. ■
