Q1: How did you become a creator?

It’s funny because I wouldn’t really deem myself a creator as such, more someone that just shares the things they love and hopes to inspire other people. I love food and travel so most of my feed is dominated by that – I use Instagram to get inspiration for where to go on holiday, where to eat, socialise etc, I think it’s a brilliant platform for that so I just wanted to put my opinions there too and hopefully inspire some other people interested in similar experiences.

Q2: What inspires your posts?

It’s all food, drink and travel. Mainly places I’ve been, going to or want to go to. I try to keep it fairly organic and unfiltered, there’s a lot out there at the moment where other creators are using editing suites to slice 2, 3 or more images together to create the perfect post. Ultimately it’s a lie and an illusion, I don’t want my posts to be like that – if I can’t see it in the lens then it’s not going on the post. Don’t get me wrong everyone likes a little filter here and there but I’m not into superimposing turtles and dolphins into my pictures to make the perfect ocean scene because ultimately it’s misleading people.

Q3: What has been your biggest challenge as a creator?

Finding a niche, and to be honest I still don’t think I’ve found it yet! Food and travel are highly saturated markets and whilst I go on a lot of holidays I’m competing with people that have given up work to travel permanently or who travel as their career. Being a content creator is just something I love doing and is a side hustle to my regular 9-5 so finding the time to make and post good content has definitely been a struggle. I think it’s also important to keep the balance, if you’re on holiday or out for dinner it’s important that you enjoy that experience and don’t let your desire to capture great content ruin your experience and that of the people you’re with, which trust me is easily done!

Q4: And your biggest achievement?

I know it sounds like small fry to most people but getting to over a thousand followers and keeping them has been an achievement for me. It’s easy to follow and unfollow people in the race to get followers but creating content that then means people stay loyal to you and want to keep engaging with what you make is much harder. I’ve been a bit off the radar recently but I’ve got quite a few trips lined up so I’m hoping that I can continue to inspire people from those and maybe even reach the 2k mark by the end of the year.

Q5: What would be your advice to anyone wanting to become a creator?

Find a niche, only do something that you have a passion for, don’t let it ruin your passion though and ultimately be patient. Unless you’re really lucky it doesn’t happen overnight.

Q6: Your fave Instagram filter?

I use the Tezza app and usually flit between fresh, vintage, mood or INSPR. I know most people say you should use one filter on all your pictures but for me personally I stick to those four and then decide based on the mood. Sometimes I find a lot of the filters wash all the colour out but actually if I’m on an amazing beach with bright blues and greens sometimes I want that to come across so to the heck with my whole feed looking the same!

Q7: Your fave Instagrammers?

First and foremost it’s my friends and then a few celebs and media brands. I love the Women’s Health and Cosmo feeds and I think some of the stuff Marie Claire post is really inspirational, especially on sustainability. From a travel point of view I love @bucketlistbums, @passportinonehand, @gypsea_lust and @haylsa.

Q8: Which camera/lighting techniques do you use?

I just use my iPhone, I recently upgraded to the iPhone XS 256GB so that I can take better quality pics and not worry about the storage. Lighting techniques – I just use the Tezza app for filters and templates and sometimes Story Art. I personally don’t like my filters to be over edited so I steer clear of lightroom and other editing apps.

Q9: What’s your hashtag strategy?

I use the same hastags on all my posts which are the top trending travel (and/or) food tags and then leave 1-5 hashtags free for something more bespoke to each post, often something light-hearted, funny and/or a pun. Everyone loves a pun right?

Q10: The best thing about being a creator is…

Being able to build a dialogue with your followers, getting positive feedback from them and knowing that you’ve inspired someone to go somewhere or do something.

Thank you so much Sarah, we absolutely love your content! Make sure you follow Sarah’s adventures here: @haymans_adventures