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3 min read

Robin ~ Influencer

“I made more money this year, in 2020, as an influencer than I made as an interior designer. There is that much demand, that much need for midlife women influencers. "

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“2020 was not at all the year I was expecting it to be. I had several major interior design projects in the works, my third annual Influencers of Midlife Summit was set for March, and I was managing my career as an over-60 influencer.


When people hear “midlife influencer”, they are a little confused because they think of social media influencers as being young 20-somethings. The marketing opportunity for midlife brands is huge, though. The tail end of the Boomers and the top end of Gen X has a lot of consumer power, particularly because they often have more money at their disposal that 20-somethings who are just starting out and paying off college loans.


People over 50 have savings and money to spend, so we are a great target audience. And those companies need social media influencers to attract people to their brands. As a midlife influencer, I get paid to promote companies to our age demographics. And I am not alone. The over-50 age group is the fastest growing group on Instagram.


In 2018, at the age of 62, I created a conference for midlife influencers and bloggers focusing on educating and mentoring new midlife influencers. Our 2020 Influencers of Midlife Summit was scheduled for the last week of March. We had 150 women registered to attend, midlife social media influencers, creatives, and entrepreneurs. It was meant to be a mentorship conference, with workshops and seminars teaching women the skills they need to establish and extend their business and influencer status.


When February was hitting, I was very aware that COVID was coming. I had a couple of women reach out to me at the end of January saying their doctor recommended against traveling and being in a big crowd. Those were some of the red flags I was getting. Also, my brothers who are pilots were having symptoms before the government said anything.


When I called the hotel to tell them I was canceling, they were shocked I was canceling the event without even waiting for the president to announce that we had a problem. Of course, by March we were in lockdown.


For me, being an influencer is a natural extension of being an interior designer. I made more money this year, in 2020, as an influencer than I made as an interior designer. There is that much demand, that much need for midlife women influencers.


I’ve noticed in the last three years, as well as during COVID, that I’m doing more and more sponsorships with companies. They seem to be reaching out to the influencers more because they have lower budgets for agencies and models. There aren’t that many over 50 models. So guess who gets the business? Us. We're not as expensive as the models.


I was shocked, honestly, that companies were still wanting us during COVID. The clothing companies switched to stay at home style and they wanted us to promote loungewear, which I don't do. But I did do a lot of athletic wear in the spring. We did see a lot of clothing brands go into bankruptcy. And the ones that are surviving are still using us as influencers and paying us for our value and influence. And I'm very pleasantly pleased that I'm in high demand even though we're in COVID."


-- Robin LaMonte (December 2020).



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