Meet Olivia Adriance | Healthy Recipe Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Olivia Adriance and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Olivia, what principle do you value most?
In the content creation space, one of the most important principles that has guided me is to “Lead with Value”. The content creation space has become very saturated and the role of the modern Content Creator/Influencer has changed from providing aspirational and entertaining content to delivering value. With every piece of content I share, I think to myself “what value is this adding to my followers?”. They are the hero of this story and I want them to walk away feeling like they learned something of value while being supported and encouraged. I think a lot of creators have it backwards in thinking that their platform is about them when really the purpose of their platform should be in serving their following and one way I do that is by leading with value.

This principle helps shape not only the type of recipe content I share but also the partners I choose to work with and the brands (partners or not) that I choose to post about. If I like a brand but I don’t feel like its really a value-add to my following, I’m not going to post about it.

My value offering is SIMPLE healthy recipes made from readily available, whole food or minimally processed ingredients that are available right in the captions of my videos. My audience knows to expect that my recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free so they don’t have to wonder “is this good for me?” or “how can I modify this to make it healthy?”. All recipes are tested before being shared because another thing I don’t want to do is waste people’s time and money – that would not be so valuable 😉

Not every story post or piece of content is going to have an educational takeaway but I structure even my story content such that a majority are skewed towards valuable information while a portion is purely an inside look into my personal life for those followers who want more than just the recipes.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I started my career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Corporate Consulting after graduating summa cum laude from the University of San Diego with a degree in Accounting – not exactly the traditional background of a creative. I had always had a deep love of cooking and specifically healthy cooking but when I was going through school I was single-mindedly focused on studying a subject I thought would get me a good job after college. That it did, but in my pursuit of a “good job”, the idea of doing something I was passionate about or felt purpose in didn’t really cross my mind.

Four years into my career I was climbing the corporate ladder at breakneck speed and hating nearly every second of it. I was a creative stuck in a very black and white career that I was forcing myself to excel at because achievement and accolades were what I thrived on more than anything else.

During the pandemic I started sharing clips of my cooking adventures to my stories and realized how much I loved not just the cooking (which I had always loved), but the filming, editing, and storytelling of the content creation process. I decided in December of 2020 to quit my cushy corporate job and started sharing Instagram reels 2-3 times a week of recipes I was creating. The videos were truly heinous but I’ve left them up on my page because I’m so proud of the girl who made them – the girl who took a risk, put herself and her ugly videos out there, and dared to be bad at something. I leave those videos up because they are such a big part of my story. I often encourage people to start NOW sharing ugly, imperfect content because not only are you going to learn by doing, but you will also build resilience and grit by consistently doing something that scares you a bit and opens you up to criticism.

For the next 18 months my husband and I flipped houses in Eugene, Oregon and I continued to share recipe videos at that same cadence, 2-3x a week. Slowly my content improved and I started reaching out to brands to pitch UGC (User Generated Content) services to them in exchange for their product or a small fee. I knew I wasn’t going to make a ton of money this way but I also knew I needed reps and needed to learn how to work with brands and pitch myself. I set a quota of 5 brands a week and received so many rejections of non-responses but instead of discouraging me I saw it as an opportunity to build my resistance to rejection. This process of pitching and working with small brands helped me not only refine my content and improve my video skills but I also got to learn about how to be a professional in the industry and what could set me apart. I discovered that brands weren’t used to creators being as responsive or professional (two things that my corporate background had drilled into me) so I became the creator that maybe didn’t have the best content or the most followers but was the easiest and most dependable to work with.

While I was working on building a following (which felt painstakingly slow in the beginning) I really struggled with my professional identity. I remember telling someone I was a content creator and they asked “oh do you have like 100,000 followers?” and at the time I had 3,000 so I felt ridiculous and unworthy of that title. Going from a corporate job that carries a certain social status and approval to the early stages of a creative career with not much to show for it was a uniquely humbling experience. It felt like I suddenly didn’t have a respected place in society and I became adverse to talking about what I did or meeting new people who would ask the dreaded question: “what do you do for work?” Part of the reason Kyle and I left Eugene, Oregon and moved to Austin, Texas in April of 2022 is that in general we got the feeling that people didn’t understand why I was doing what I was doing and maybe even thought it was a waste of time and I should be pursuing something more stable. We were drawn to the contagious creativity of Austin and assumed, rightly, that we would find a community of creatives and entrepreneurs who would “get” me. Surrounding myself with people who supported my entrepreneurial and creative endeavors was HUGE in not giving up on this dream.

Around 18 months into my content creation journey I had 3 videos go viral. My account grew from 4,000 to 100,000 followers in a little over a month and this is when my world really changed and I thought “okay, I can justify spending 4o+ hours a week on this”. Since that moment in 2022 I can certainly say I’ve put the plus in 40+ hours a week 😉 As my community and my business continued to grow I brought on more help – I signed with a management agency (Bien the Agency) in September of 2022, Kyle came on to work with me full time in January of 2023, and I signed with a talent agency (CAA) in August of 2023. I launched my first ebook in December of 2023 and hit 1 million followers in January of 2024, three years from when I started pursuing a wild dream. It’s been a wild ride with so many lessons.

If I could leave readers with a lesson I’ve learned along the way its this: do it scared! You will never feel fully ready for the first or next step in accomplishing your dreams but if you can move past the fear that immobilizes, you will be unstoppable. The fear will also never go away. I do scary things I feel unprepared for every single month. I have started to use that as a guide and ask myself “what am I doing this month that scares and challenges me?” I use fear and imposter syndrome and evidence that I’m doing the right thing! Remember, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’ll say its a weekend day in the month of April when the weather in Austin is perfect! We’d start every day with a walk around Lady Bird Lake. I love the trails and am on them almost every day. Then we’d get matcha lattes at Meteor Cafe on South Congress. This would not only give us a good jumping off point to take in iconic South Congress stops but Meteor serves Fronks Milk – a locally made almond cashew milk that’s sweetened with dates. Its absolutely exceptional and I’ve become such a Fronks Milk snob that I don’t go to coffee shops that don’t serve it. We’d grab a bite to eat at Meteor too – I like their avocado toast with a side of housemade chicken sausage. And we’d need to get some breakfast tacos and split a Willie’s Wager (toasted sourdough with almond butter, bananas, local honey, cacao nibs, and mint).
After breakfast we’d stroll down South Congress St, which would include a stop into Maufrais where they make custom cowboy hats. Even if you aren’t planning on purchasing, the buzz in this store is fun to witness!
We’d scoot over to Barton Springs and jump in the chilly spring-fed water with Austin locals and tourists alike.
For lunch we’d hit one of three MML Hospitality properties: Josephine House, Perlas, or Clarks. The vibes and food are great and they are fun places to bring an out of town guest!
For dinner we’d go to Suerte, my favorite Austin restaurant and a home away from home for us. We’d order Don Darios – their take on a margarita but made with tamarind, the ceviche, the huaxmole tostada, the suadero tacos (an absolute must must must), the carnitas, and a sorbet.
Now if we’re feeling crazy and want to get a cocktail after dinner, one of our favorite places to go is Watertrade. Its a Japanese whiskey bar attached to our favorite omakase spot in the city: Otoko. They have EXCEPTIONAL cocktails and delicious small bites. Its a cozy and quiet atmosphere – great for intimate groups. If we want a little more energy, we’d go to The Proper Hotel Bar. I know it sounds weird, but its a VIBE in there. You of course get the out of town guest energy but the place is also swarming with locals who want to be scene so its great for people watching.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband, Kyle Adriance! For the endless emotional support he showered me with while I went about pursuing my content creation dreams. For not letting me quit when I was 18 months in and felt like I had nothing to show for my efforts, wasn’t making nearly enough to live in an expensive city like Austin, TX, and was considering going back to my corporate job. For being my business partner and doing all the thankless, backend work required to turn my passion into a successful business. For doing every dish, taste-testing every recipe, dedicating himself to mastering the new skills needed in this business, turning my dream into his dream too, being unshakeable amidst the storm of entrepreneur chaos, and being someone I can spend all day every day with and still miss if we’re apart for a couple hours.

Website: https://oliviaadriance.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olivia.adriance/

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@oliviaadriance LTK: https://www.shopltk.com/explore/oliviaadriance

Image Credits
Ashleigh Amoroso