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Entrepreneurs

Estée Lalonde Reflects On Her Decade As An Influencer And Reveals Her Latest Project

She's got 1 million subscribers on YouTube and over 710,000 followers on Instagram, and now, Estée Lalonde is set to launch a brand new online community. Here, she sits down with AllBright EDIT to tell us about her new venture, MIRROR WATER...

Ten years ago, sat down to film her first ever YouTube video. In the video, she introduces herself, before admitting to her viewers that it had taken her three months to work up the strength to make the film. “If anyone’s even watching this, you would not believe how scared I was,” she says to camera.

Fast forward a decade, and Estée is now one of the most successful influencers of her generation, with over 1 million subscribers on YouTube and an engaged Instagram audience of over 710,000 followers. She has built up an enviable career as a Creative Director, launched her own podcast and even has a collaboration with jewellery brand, Daisy London, under her belt.

So what’s next for Estée and her career, and where will the next decade take her? We sat down with the social media star to hear about the launch of her new self-reflection community, .

You’ve been working in the influencer space for over a decade. What have been some of the highlights of your career so far?

There have been many! I feel like I’ve blinked and it’s been 10 years, and all of a sudden it’s my career. It didn’t feel like I was building a career for a long time, it just felt like I was creating videos; I never actually approached it thinking, ‘this is my career, this is what I want to achieve’. It’s only recently, when I’ve been reflecting on it, that I’ve thought, ‘wow, there have been some amazing moments!’

The thing I’m most proud of is my jewellery collaboration with – it was such a proud moment for me. I’ve done endorsement deals and sponsored posts, but this was my first partnership. We’ve done quite a few collections now, and brainstorming start to finish, then looking at how we market it, and being a part of that huge plan, was such an eye opening experience for me. 

It was this amazing thing, having something tactile, because so much of what I do is digital and it almost feels like it’s not real. Then I saw the jewellery, and I saw people buying it and wearing it, and I really started to feel the ripple effect of that.

I loved doing my podcast too, although I’m now retired from that as it’s so time consuming. But I realised how much I love hearing other people’s stories and learning about other people.

Just in general, I’m really proud that I’ve stuck it out this long!

"I used to be told this was just a temporary thing, and that I was never going to be able to bank on it as a career. I still get told the same thing today!"

Estée Lalonde, Creative Director

What have been some of the challenges of the last 10 years, and how have you overcome these?

The first challenge I had was whether I wanted to pursue this as a full-time job. At the beginning, when I was about two years in, I was doing three part-time jobs and also studying part-time at university. It was just my hobby and I loved it so much, but I started thinking, ‘can I do this as a job?’ The word ‘influencer’ didn’t even exist. It was a huge risk to decide to do that and leave those jobs, and slowly transition to it.

The landscape has been changing quickly ever since. I used to be told this was just a temporary thing, and that I was never going to be able to bank on this as a career. I still get told the same thing today! No one knows where it’s going and it’s so hard to predict, which makes it exciting but also scary. 

Has anyone been guiding you through this as a career?

In the beginning I was leaning on other creators, asking, ‘did you do this? How much should I get paid for this?’ As we developed, we each went down our own paths, and got our own agents. It was about honing in on my own intuition – I know that sounds a little woo woo – but I was thinking, ‘is this going to relate well to my audience?’ You can’t really be guided too much by anyone because only you know your audience.

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Was it difficult to separate your online personality from your offline personality?

Yes. For a really long time I wasn’t really sure which was which, especially during the first five to six years. It all blended together so seamlessly that I had no sense of who Estee was. I was sharing a lot – my relationship, my entire life, all of my friends, everything I was eating, wearing, doing. I felt like I had to share all of those things. When you’re 19/20/21 [years old] that’s fine, but when you start to get older you realise, ‘I do need to keep that to myself, I don’t want everyone knowing this’. Now I have really strict boundaries between my personal life and the life I share.

How did you go about putting in place those boundaries when you’d been so candid before?

It was not easy. It’s a tough one because you build your career on being relatable and sharing everything about yourself, so to take that away, people think you’re taking something away. It was really hard because I think people felt like I was hiding things from them, but I was just protecting myself a little bit more.  

Now we’re in a good place where I’ve said, ‘I’m not sharing my relationships, you’ll never know if I’m in one or not, it’s just off the table’. And my audience is so respectful of that and they’ve really grown up with me. I get a lot of messages from people who’ve watched me for years, so I think people grow up and they start to realise their own boundaries and they understand. I feel so grateful to have the audience that I have.

How does it feel when you get messages from people like that?

It’s pretty surreal. I don’t see them, but they see me. People say I’ve been a constant in their lives – but I don’t see that, so it’s hard to quantify. But it’s so nice when someone takes the time to do send a message, because I do sometimes focus on the negatives.

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Estée Lalonde

"I think all of us are feeling that burnout feeling because we don’t have anything that’s really filling our souls and invigorating us, and that is so hard."

Estée Lalonde, Creative Director

What are the highs and lows of working for yourself?

I love working for myself. I love being able to work whatever hours I want, and I also love being alone so I like working by myself. I do have an assistant and I work with multiple freelancers, so I feel like I’m not totally alone, but it can get lonely, especially if you don’t have a routine. I feel like sometimes my mental health can be a bit all over the place, and I speak very openly about that. 

It’s definitely not for everyone because it is so self-motivated, and you have to have something in you that keeps you going. I’ve definitely experienced burnout where there’s no one to motivate me – how is anything going to get done?

I think all of us are feeling that burnout feeling because we don’t have anything that’s really filling our souls and invigorating us, and that is so hard. I really want time off because I think that’s the only thing that can help burnout – to literally just stop. But you don’t always have the luxury to just stop, because you’ve got to put food on the table. And especially at the moment with covid, what are you going to do, just sit at home?

I think in general doing things that make your soul sing a little bit [can help with burnout]. I love being in nature – I think that helps, too.

Tell us about MIRROR WATER?

MIRROR WATER is a lifestyle community focused on self-reflection. We will be launching products down the line, but this is a secondary thing to me because I want to build on the community that I’ve already created and talk about things that maybe I can’t do from an 'Estée Lalonde' point of view. I want to create a place where people can explore their feelings and think about things in a different way, and feel connected to others. I also want to inspire people to do the activities that can make their souls sing – activities that get you away from a screen and let you exhale.

How will the community work?

We'll be doing newsletters and activities on Instagram, then on the website we’ll have articles and profiles about interesting people and I’m hoping down the line to do things like masterclasses, IG lives, and in-person activations. I’m keeping it quite open-ended because I want to be guided by how people engage with the content. I feel like I’m starting MIRROR WATER one way and it’s going to end up as something different, and I’m open to that.

In April we’ll have lots of reels and breathing exercises – I’m calling it relaxation for realists! I feel like sometimes the self-care industry can be a bit guilt driven and I’m not about that. Instead it’s about putting the relaxation back in relaxation.

Why is self-reflection so important?

MIRROR WATER was born during covid, when we were all faced with a lot of time and I was doing a lot of self-reflection. I’m always in my head – I’m always thinking about stuff and trying to process things, and I feel like there wasn’t really a space where people were talking about that. It’s really helped me – I feel like self-reflection is a tool that everybody can try, and there’s no wrong way of doing it. For instance, if you take journaling, what can you work out from doing a journal entry? What will that experience look like for you today? MIRROR WATER is not so much about guidance from me, but more about putting something like journaling on the table and seeing how people react to it.

"I think there are so many women who feel like I felt – that they couldn’t do this because they didn’t know how, and there are a lot of roadblocks​. But I’m so passionate about women in business, and I’m hoping to get to a stage where that’s a focus in MIRROR WATER because it's​ so empowering."

Estée Lalonde, Creative Director

What would you like to achieve with MIRROR WATER?

I would like to achieve a real sense of finding that common ground with everybody within the community… Having a really interesting group of people who are all different and all do interesting things, but realising that we all have this big thing between us. I would love that. I hope that people will want to participate in it and get excited about doing it.

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?

I would like to be in a house with a dog. I really want kids too – there’s something in me, I’m so broody it’s weird. I also really hope MIRROR WATER is this thing I can keep working on and that it grows into something cool and beautiful. I’ve put everything into this, it’s a completely self-funded operation and I’m learning how expensive everything is!  

We’re not taught these things, and I feel like I’m learning all the time. I think there are so many women who feel like I felt – that they couldn’t do this because they didn’t know how, and there are a lot of road blocks. But I’m so passionate about women in business, and I’m hoping to get to a stage where that’s a focus in MIRROR WATER because its so empowering.