Today we’d like to introduce you to Alina Wong.
Alina, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started off my content creation journey during the pandemic in 2020, and it was honestly just another creative outlet for me outside of my 9-to-5. It was a very strange time because I had just graduated college and was only in the office every day for my new big girl corporate job for 2 months (because I started in January 2020, and the pandemic hit, and everything was fully remote). That was when I realized that I needed another outlet to express myself because I was pretty much locked in the house for like 2 months straight. I’m a graphic designer, if that helps. It was just another creative outlet because I am a very creative person.
I actually started off just posting videos about my favorite skincare products and kind of showing some of my favorite things. I was doing little fashion shows and showing different outfits that you can create, recreating Pinterest outfits, things like that. It was really, honestly, a personal digital diary that was just made public, and I didn’t realize that it could grow until I started forming a little community. I’m sure everyone can say that the influencer community back then versus now is very different, and I’ve seen it firsthand. I feel like a lot of content nowadays is very saturated, and the feeling of competing against each other is really high, even though it shouldn’t be like that.
Since then, brands started reaching out to me, and I realized that you could start working with brands and collaborating and potentially making money too. It became a part-time hobby of mine, and it still is. I will say that it has pivoted a lot, since my career has also changed. Now I’m more of a social media strategist and talent and influencer coordinator. Just being a part of social media before it was fully a part of my career has helped so much in my journey to figure out what it is I actually wanted to do.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road for me. I’ll say I went through lots of ups and downs with comparing myself to other people online and just realizing the world of social media and the burnout of creating content is real. On top of that, I’ve obviously had personal obstacles along the way happen to me that got in the way of me even wanting to pursue being a creator or influencer anymore. Just dealing with that, the ups and downs, it’s changed my page a lot. Even if you scroll back to when I started posting in 2020, it’s very different with how I’m sharing content now versus back then.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Made to Be has been a long time coming, and I will give you the brief rundown of it before I jump into how I got started. It’s a duo company run by me and my sister, and it focuses on content creation, specifically mobile content creation for small local businesses. We don’t really have a specific industry that we’re focusing on. If anything, we are targeting businesses that are just starting, wanting to grow, or feeling like they’re stuck and just need that extra help and push.
We actually got started because of our passion for it. My sister and I both have had creative backgrounds, very different in a way. She went towards the marketing route for school, and I went towards graphic design. We put two heads together and realized that we both do enjoy social media and we both do enjoy content creation. We realized that we could really do this together, and honestly, what’s better than working with your sister?
Along the way, we’ve realized so many things. Even though we’re just starting out and we’re pretty brand new, we’ve had to realize that we don’t want to market ourselves too low or undervalue our work. We are very proud of it, and we want others to know that we do take care of our clients. We do want them to succeed, and we will do anything and everything to help them. That’s what we stand for.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I think my entire life journey has been revolved around risk-taking. I feel like if I had never jumped on social media and started posting, I would have never known that this is what I could do. If I had never negotiated with a brand, I would have never known that I could get paid more for my work.
I feel like it even goes to my personal life. If I hadn’t known that I should get out of a bad situation, a bad relationship, I would not be as happy as I am today.
I would say my entire life has been revolved around risk-taking. Just from someone who has done it so much and has seen the benefits from it, I would say, “You’ll never know unless you try.” Not to say that I haven’t gotten rejections and things like that, but it’s all about just trying it because you will never know what life hands you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://madetobeagency.wixsite.com/work
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsalinafae
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alinafwong
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@itsalinafae
