Calling all @hauskris fans! We recently had the chance to virtually sit down with Kristen Hollingshaus, influencer extraordinaire known for her clean girl aesthetic and beautiful home in San Francisco, CA. Read on for her thoughts on everything from her favorite BBT pieces to how she chooses brands she wants to work with.
Our team here at BBT loves watching your content whether it’s from walking pad vlogs to Diet Coke breaks. But for our followers who don’t know you, tell us a little about yourself!
I’m originally from the suburbs of Chicago, IL and grew up there my entire life! I moved to Utah for college and met my husband there. We got married and moved to San Francisco for work two years later! I’ve worked a corporate job since I graduated college, but started content creating on the side when we moved to SF. I wanted to document my apartment transformation and just general lifestyle content - and if you ask anyone that knows me, I have always wanted to be in the influencing/content creation space. I just love sharing things that I love with other people! One thing led to another on TikTok and I’ve been doing it on the side ever since! It was in June of 2021 that I started posting, so it’s been about a year and a half.
You have a degree in communications and work full-time in marketing and operations. How do you think your professional experience helps you succeed as a content creator?
I think that my education and professional experience has helped me first and foremost to understand the numbers and data behind everything. I am constantly checking my analytics and post performance to gather trends and insights from what performs well, and then replicating that content. There’s a ton from digital/performance marketing that I have learned in my career and directly applied to my content strategies. I’ve also learned throughout my career in operations that documentation and organization for everything is key. There’s an entire side of content creation that isn’t shown online which is planning, communication, strategy, documentation, and accounting and I feel like getting that in order has really helped me to succeed. I also do think just the relatability of my communications background/marketing experience has helped me in my content creation journey!
When did you decide to tell friends & family versus coworkers about your second job? Did you feel supported when you showed your friends/family and your partner? Did you feel any criticism due to the nature of the work and how new being a ‘full time influencer’ is?
My friends and family all knew about my social media right when I started posting. They all knew that I was going to start posting before I actually started posting - I was extremely open and honest with my friends and family that I wanted to be an influencer and they were all super supportive. My husband has always been sooo supportive, especially in times where things have gotten busier in both my full-time job and content creation. He does essentially all of the house work, laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking, hahaha. I’m very grateful that it has always been well-received, and with coworkers, too! My bosses and coworkers have always been so supportive and I don’t feel like I have to hide my social media presence in any way.
Social media has proven to be highly lucrative. Do you have any advice for creators who both work a full time job and work in content creation on how to manage and invest their income?
My advice would be to decide what your long-term financial/life goals are and stick to them! I currently have my eyes on being a homeowner one day. My husband and I have no idea where or when that will be, but we have made saving for that a huge priority. Having that long-term vision has helped prioritize money management and being wise with our purchases. As far as managing and investing, I would recommend working with a financial advisor! They can help a ton in making a long-term plan and strategy for your personal financial goals.
How do you avoid burnout while essentially having two full-time jobs?
This is a great question, and something I am actively trying to work towards being better about in 2023. I’m not going to lie, 2022 was a year of huge growth for me, but it also meant I had to sacrifice a lot of my time to do both jobs. An absolute priority of mine every day is working out - it helps me to separate myself from work and focus on myself and recharge. I also make sure to meet up with friends throughout the week and make plans that have nothing to do with my jobs - it helps me to feel like i’m not working 24/7! And I also have to remind myself that it is fine to take a day off and not post. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the advice that people are putting out to post 3-5x a day, show up consistently for your audience, etc. While that is good advice for growth, there needs to be a disclaimer that if you don’t post for a day or two online, it’s fine! Your mental health and sanity is important!
When accepting campaigns or partnerships with brands, what is your personal criteria before going ahead and promoting the product to your followers?
Outside of using the brand/product, I would say one of my top criteria is reading through the brief and seeing what their vision for the partnership is, and if they give creative freedom to the creator, or if they essentially require the creator to read from a script. I’m going to be honest, in 2022 I took some partnerships that I felt completely blindsided by. When reading through the initial brief and signing the contract, I was told that I would have creative liberty over the ad and I wouldn’t have to include any scripting/it would involve minimal branded scripting in my content. I would then submit my content for review, and brands would do a complete 180 on me and literally write out word for word what I had to say in my ad. It is honestly really discouraging when brands do that and I KNOW for a fact that the content is not going to perform. So, in 2023 I have been adamant that brands will let me have creative freedom over my content and trust that I can make good content for their brand.
In your opinion, what is the most underrated social media platform for maximizing reach and growth?
Of course, TikTok is king in the influencing space, and I think it will be for a long time. And I know people are hating on Instagram lately, but I actually have seen insane growth on Instagram in the past 6 months from Instagram Reels. A lot of people think that TikTok followers will convert to easy Instagram followers as well, but they don’t convert like you think they would. Much of my Instagram growth has come from Reels alone. I’m also going to tap more into YouTube in 2023, because people say it’s a super underrated platform!
If you could only wear one piece of jewelry for the rest of your life, which piece would you choose and why?
Absolutely hands down my permanent bracelets! I would be nowhere without them. I love the look of very dainty, fine jewelry and my permanent bracelets are just that. They are also the perfect addition to every outfit and I LOVE that I never have to take them off. The hassle of jewelry is something that keeps me from wearing a lot of it sometimes, and I love that I can just keep them on 24/7. They stay on for workouts, showering, swimming, spray tans, you name it - and they’ve never tarnished and still look brand new. They are THE BEST.
Photo credit: Cassidy Holmes @cass.photo.film
A HUGE thank you to Kristen for being our first creator spotlight! You can find Kristen primarily on Instagram and TikTok @hauskris.
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