Last Updated on March 3, 2022
Connect with Alicia
Intellifluence profile
Alicia Hammons has been an influencer on Intellifluence since 2017 and loves shoes, foot jewelry and pedicures. After over 20 years in the hospitality industry, Alicia decided it was time for a change and began to focus on health and wellness while still pursuing her dream of becoming a foot model or working for a shoe designer.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background, including how you became an influencer?
Sure, my background is actually in hospitality. I worked in restaurants most recently in Los Angeles, California. I worked my way up for 22 years and the pandemic hit, 2020, and it became really difficult to function within a restaurant, to be an executive within the restaurant with the daily changes. So I decided that was my time to retire and go about my business in a different way. So, I had started an Instagram page back in 2016 and just organically it began to grow.
And then I was approached by Intellifluence to become part of that program and got some really cool opportunities with them and just began working some campaigns and kind of feeling out the waters that way.
Along those lines, what’s been a favorite collaboration to date you’ve had with a brand or a memorable brand that you’ve worked with?
I think my favorite to date has been a nail cosmetic line called Danny and Tony. They approached me, I’ve been doing pedicures manicures many, many years, a couple decades at this point. And they had a new product that I had never tried. It was something new on the market. Of course, everyone, again, being lockdown for pandemic, it was an at home manicure kit. So it has become one of my favorite products.
I haven’t went back to doing regular manicures after that. Saves me money from the salon. I get to talk about their product. It’s a really amazing product that actually protects your nails. So it was me doing a campaign for them, knowing that I already had that interest, finding a product that I was really amazed by and really love.
On your site, you talk about how you were working like 70 hour weeks in the hospitality industry. So is that kind of what prompted you to move towards a kind of a health and wellness approach?
Yes, most definitely. I was at the highest point of my career and being an executive and being a single mom, 70 hour work weeks were really hard to fit into a lifestyle and take care of my son. So that was the most unhealthy I think that I’ve been in my adult life.
Photo courtesy of Alicia Hammons
And that was an absolute factor in me stepping down and making changes to my lifestyle.
Can you describe your approach to influencer content, creating it, producing it kind of conceptualizing it?
Yeah, it’s funny because I don’t necessarily think that I have an approach. I go with a feeling and it’s always, it just comes from inside of me and what I feel like today and what message am I trying to share today? What, what you know, message am I trying to convey?
So I’m the creator, I’m the model, I’m the photographer. So I’m constantly looking for cool things to shoot and constantly thinking about shooting. And I always have that in the background of my head, but I don’t know until the day of what I’m actually going to come out with. So then I just kind of thumb through my content and how am I feeling today and how can I relate this to what my messages is today.
How do you structure your average day? So you can get this content created, published and promoted.
It takes quite a bit of structure to be my own boss now. I don’t have tied hours to a business, so I have to stay extremely organized. Right now, I’ve got a very specific schedule with how I wake up, take my son to school, get my coffee, go through my emails, kind of get about my day automatically.
Photo courtesy of Alicia Hammons
When you wake up, you have some type of feeling about how your day’s going to go. And I, from there, I do my morning workout and I do yoga and I meditate.
And usually after that, I sit down and I know at that point, what I’m feeling for the day and what I want to talk about and what I want to convey.
In your bio, you talk about how you’ve had the goal to kind of work for a shoe designer, or a company as such. Is that still a goal for you long term?
Absolutely. I think that would be a dream come true is something to be able to work with a designer, to be able to be the model for designers, to be able to have that go to foot, that they want to put their shoes on for me to showcase their design and their art and their work.
What are some of your favorite social platforms to work with? Do you prefer more image based or do you prefer more long term, long form content or video?
Definitely image based. I love Instagram, I think that’s the one that’s my go-to on a daily basis.
What are some of your goals for this year as it pertains to growing your brand influencer market in general?
I think that this year I want to focus on getting my large audience badge back from Intellifluence. I think that was a really proud moment for myself. And I got a page closed down that had over a 100,000 followers. And so I’m rebuilding now. And I think that’s going to be a main goal is just to get my audience back and head in a new and see where it takes me.
Where would you like people to go to find you as part of the rebuilding process?
Sure. My page on Instagram is @its.aliciajean. It’s my life. It’s my every day, it’s my health, my fitness, my style, my dogs, my shoe addiction. So it’s a little bit of every part of me on that page.
Very nice. I have a coworker who has a shoe addiction as she calls it. So I’m interested to see how many pairs of shoes would you say you have?
127 pairs. [Laughter]
Love it. I’m going to hit her up to see where that stands compared to her collection.
Note: Influencer Spotlight interviews are edited for time and clarity.
Andrew is the Head of Client Services for Intellifluence and has a background in communications. He is committed to helping brands get the most out of their campaigns and is the co-host of the Influencer Spotlight series.
