We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennifer Yang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennifer below.
Jennifer, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
My Instagram page (IG: jeyang.foodfunadventures) mainly started out as ‘just a fun thing to do’. I’ve always loved food and loved taking pictures, so I just really enjoyed doing this as a hobby. I had no plans or idea that I would be where I am today. Growing up, I was blessed to go on many vacations with my family both in the USA and internationally. I grew up taking and posting pictures of my vacations and food to capture and share memories. Being a social butterfly, I naturally started chatting it up with owners and the employees and becoming friends with people in the industry. I originally wrote Yelp reviews, but I increased my Instagram presence and being friends with other foodies and getting invites/ collaboration from restaurants as well as hotel/ Airbnb. For some time now, I have been working with various mom and pop restaurants to promote their business and help them increase their sales. I liked to keep up to date with new openings and post about it, and my followers and friends kept me in the loop about the ones I didn’t hear about. As a result of my postings, I’ve asked to run some restaurant’s online accounts as a social media manager.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Aside from my nursing and public accounting career, I derive pleasure from meeting new people and trying out new restaurants whether it’s in the Metro Detroit, St. Louis area or while traveling. I have a passion for travel because it gives me the opportunity to explore new places and immerse myself in the culture of a city, both for the nature aspects and the food scene. I love meeting restaurant owners and/or chefs and getting to know their story about why they started their restaurant, and how they got to where they are today. Forming that personal connection, I’ve been able to experience many unique opportunities. Some of these opportunities include serving as a brand ambassador for small businesses, collaborating with the Consul of Italy by promoting events on social media, being a content creator for my Instagram foodie & travel blogger page and being a social media manager. My signature trademark in my posts are me with the owner and/or chef and often me holding the food and drinks in front of the restaurant.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, I believe that just the love for food, ability to make connections easily, and hardworking were the most impactful in my journey.
My love for food began from a young age. I did a lot of traveling with my family and I was fortunate enough to try all these amazing cuisines from around the world.
I have been called the networking queen and get along with others which has helped me build strong connections with both foodies in different states and as well as restaurant owners.
Content creating takes time and effort and you must be constantly creative to keep followers interested in the content, and keep up with the social media trends and algorithms.
But my advice is to always have fun and be your authentic self because social media is all about having fun and interacting with everyone.
How would you describe your ideal client?
As a result of gaining more followers, I have had more businesses reach out to me for collaboration.
Some of them want a one-time collaboration, while some of them want a long-term relationship. For those that are looking for more of a long-term commitment like being their social media manager, there are a few things I look for. To me, it is extremely important that the person or team I work with is someone that I like and that I would enjoy working with. I also want to understand their background, the reason they got into the business they are in, and the reason they cook the food they do. But most importantly, it should be somewhere that I like the food since it’s a place that I’m helping to promote.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeyang.foodfunadventures/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeyang.foodfunadventures/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=lkDGunXrybK74iQlB71gVg
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeyang.foodfunadventures Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/foodfunwithjenn
