Atlanta influencers balance demands of content creation with 9-to-5s

“My whole goal and purpose was, if you were financially struggling and you couldn’t go to a hair salon or you didn’t have time, you could watch my video and literally do it on your own.”

Sharice’s videos, which she said didn’t sacrifice usefulness for aesthetics, seemed to resonate with her growing audience, yet living in the Bronx at the time and sharing a bedroom with her sister made it hard to film content.

An Atlanta-based aunt offered her a bedroom and time to get on her feet in a city that offered a lower cost of living. She moved here nearly a decade ago with the hopes of turning her YouTube channel into her primary job.

At the time, Sharice was working a traditional job, managing social media accounts for a business, which allowed her to work remotely and have a flexible schedule. Once she moved to Atlanta, she went all-in on YouTube and often tested how much of her monthly expenses she could manage without relying on her 9-to-5 job.

“Within seven months, everything picked up and I was able to do it 100% full time,” she said. “I also had a lot of support here, and I feel like there were so many opportunities that I could kind of tap into.”

Today, Sharice has more than 440,000 followers on YouTube and 125,000 on Instagram. She recently became a Pilates instructor, but has long considered influencing to be her primary source of income.

Atlanta-based influencers across content niches are often juggling the demands of managing various social media platforms with more traditional jobs. Several say the uncertain future of TikTok has made them happy to have additional sources of income.

Decatur native Stephen Michael currently juggles growing his platform as a tech influencer with his job working for a marketing agency. Managing the responsibilities of each has proven challenging, even if his traditional job has been a “cheat code,” providing valuable insights into the world of content creation.

“Being a creator, it’s insightful. I think it’s very valuable to get that side of it, but it’s not easy. It’s teaching me to have even more rigid time management because if not, something is going to fall through the cracks.”

In March 2024, Michael posted every day, growing his following on Instagram — an app he said values the high-quality content that he prefers as a tech influencer — by more than 10,000. Today he has more than 24,000 followers and has gotten several brand deals, including one with Adobe.

“I really am speechless when I think about it because I’ve been using their products since college and the fact that I’ve been able to work with that brand, just because I decided to put my knowledge on the internet, is pretty insane,” he said.

Credit: Courtest of P

Credit: Courtest of P

Similarly to Michael, Clark Atlanta University alumna Paige Tailyn Johnson grew her Blossom Effect brand in the past year. At the start of 2024, she started an Instagram account, sharing useful tips and insights into plant care.

Johnson was already known in her personal life for her love of plants, which she attributes to her late grandmother. She’d won the title of Miss Sophomore in college, based on a platform about “blossoming” and a promise to create a garden on campus. By 2020, she said she had around 100 plants and was regularly posting about them on her personal Instagram account.

Roughly 1,000 people followed Blossom Effect’s Instagram account in its inception. Today, the account has nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram and roughly 700,000 followers on TikTok, where she cross promotes her content.

Until February, Johnson worked remotely as the events & brand coordinator at The Creative Collective NYC. Before she quit her full-time gig, she found it hard to juggle two demanding jobs.

Still, her work with The Creative Collective NYC provided stability at a time of uncertainty on social media. Since TikTok was temporarily banned from the U.S. earlier this year, Johnson said she worries about the future of the app “every single day.”

On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order extending the enforcement of the government’s TikTok ban for another 75 days, but the future of the app remains uncertain.

Wellness and lifestyle creator Tatiana Forbes said the money she makes from TikTok — where she currently has more than 50,000 followers — pays for her child’s day care expenses, although she also works full-time as a project manager.

The potential for the app to go away has been a reminder that multiple income streams provide financial security in the event she loses income in one area.

Forbes' content centers on motherhood, as well as promoting her virtual run club. She said she quit her previous day job years ago to focus on building a consulting business, but she’d be more cautious to do so today with a growing family and additional responsibilities.

“I love having the stability of both. I also just think it’s helpful to have multiple ways to make money, because one of the streams can fall apart at any given time. We saw that with TikTok. I don’t want to put all of my eggs in one basket.”

“We’re still under the clip,” Michael said about the uncertain future of the app. “For every creator, I feel like (the TikTok ban) should be a red flag like, ‘Hey, I need to diversify.’”

Credit: Courtesy of Agency Cliquish

Credit: Courtesy of Agency Cliquish

Still, there are only so many hours in a day. Adding new platforms often means creating new content, which can be extremely time-consuming. As creators juggle multiple jobs, they worry that forcing more output could lead to a decline in quality content.

Now as a full-time content creator, Johnson can devote more time to growing her platforms. Still, she said Blossom Effect was founded with creating intentional content, including informing followers about the racial history of gardening, as a priority. She doesn’t want to be so focused on diversifying platforms that she loses sight of that goal.

“Thousands of plant shops closed in the last two or three years and most of them were Black-owned plant shops,” she said, referencing a directory she’s created and maintains, which tracks U.S. plant stores owned by members of the LGBTQ community and people of color.

“I worry for my fellow plant shop owners that have brick and mortars.”

Sharice, whose YouTube channel remains her primary account, hasn’t been heavily impacted by the looming TikTok ban, yet she’s contemplating the sustainability of the industry.

“I do feel like it’s a little bit unstable, financially. I think it’s different recently and that could be because of the economy, I’m not sure. I speak to a lot of my creator friends even on Threads and I know it’s a topic that I’ve heard from a lot of other creators that it just feels a little funny right now,” she said.

This is partially what motivated her to become a Pilates instructor, with hopes of opening her own studio someday. For now, content creation remains a big part of her professional life.

Pivoting to lifestyle vlogs on YouTube could help her acquire more clients as a Pilates instructor. It also opens the door for brand partnerships with companies that prioritize fitness.

It remains to be seen if her professional focus shifts in the next couple of years as she ramps up her work offline.

“In thinking about my five-year plan, I’m like I want something that’s mine, that’s permanent, that I’ve built,” Sharice said. “Thankfully I’ve found something that makes me happy, that I can build on in the future.”

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