In Conversation with Grace Stewart

Grace Stewart founded Team Go Creative in the wake of huge life upheaval. Despite big setbacks, Grace is a determined and spirited entrepreneur in the content creation sphere. Her passion for content creation and social media management is evident and admirable.

Grace is paving her future with Team Go Creative, her partner and very cute dogs. Read on to learn more about Grace’s life, setting up her business, social media management. And you know what? She may be the biggest Hopper HQ advocate! (Thanks Grace!)

Introducing Grace Stewart…

I wanted to take content creation & social media management more seriously than just a hobby

I’ll be brutally transparent. I’ve been very ill all my life. I couldn’t hold down a job, I wasn’t able to go to university, although I tried and my social life fizzled out very quickly the older I got and the worse I became.

After I got diagnosed at 23, I started working for my dad and it wasn’t the most enjoyable thing to do.  I love my dad, but working with family sometimes just isn’t it although we did share a bunch of good moments.

He ended up suddenly passing away in 2018. I lost my dad.  I lost my job.  It was a horrendous time of my life.  I managed to get a basic job soon after because I needed to pay my bills.

I questioned myself all throughout 2018, is this my life?  Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?  Does this make me happy?  And the answer was, no. I managed to save a bit of money and I upgraded my camera and decided I wanted to take content creation & social media management more seriously than just a hobby.  

I submerged myself into an industry that I wanted to be a part of.  My partner was doing something similar at the time with his own company but more events based. We had that shared passion and after working a few months of 7 day working weeks, I ended up quitting my nine-to-five for my company Team Go Creative!

Wow, what an introduction! What are you currently doing?

Team Go Creative

I set up my own company – Team Go Creative.  It didn’t go as smoothly as I may have wanted but it was very exciting at the beginning. I had a load of clients that I was working with, on top of my nine-to-five. I then finally had enough to financially support myself that I quit my nine-to-five.

In November 2019 we moved to Norwich because after visiting it throughout that year – we feel in love with the city & the people!  It’s full of independent based businesses and really good for what I wanted to do, so we moved up! Unfortunately, Covid then happened in 2020, exactly when I would have liked to have got out into the city and networked, introduced myself in person etc for Team Go Creative. Instead, I ended up neglecting my Instagram until after the first lock down and here we are. Still adjusting but here we are!

How did you get into social media and Team Go Creative?

I moved on from social media management and decided to do more content-based work

I dabbled with a few things at the beginning. I have always loved Instagram, I blogged, I’ve done a bit of Youtube. 

Now I’m more of a content creator on various things, as I said, like events, products and things like that.  But at the beginning I did social media management. And I was using Hopper HQ on multiple accounts, all scheduled on Hopper HQ – I realised how time-consuming it is!

I loved grid planning. I loved scheduling everything.  Knowing when my favourite content was going out and keeping an eye on it.  But sometimes you have clients where your vision isn’t the same as theirs.  

And I did have to separate myself from that, because I’m so passionate about creating content.  So I moved on from social media management and decided to do more content-based work.  Now I’ll get booked for a shoot and we’ll do a series of photos and video content and sometimes paired with management, I have the option and the ball is in my court! It can go from product work, lifestyle, to a friend down the road that’s pregnant and wants a baby bump shoot and video. I’m a lot happier!

I do make sure that I’m varied.  I realise that I love scheduling and grid planning, but I think it was just more for my own accounts – my personal and my business.

Do you currently manage anyone’s social media accounts with Team Go Creative?

I want to build relationships with businesses in Norwich

I’m not writing it off completely.

I would love to do it for other people because I love being organized and I felt like when you go onto Hopper HQ, you can see everything! You’ve got your grid, you can see how it’s taking shape and maybe what you’re missing and what you might need. 

I’m doing outreach at the moment, mainly in Norwich because my partner works in London with celebs and their businesses, it’s really exciting. It’s really interesting for him but we have three dogs and I absolutely love Norwich.  Commuting isn’t for me, I want to be here.

I want to build relationships with businesses in Norwich that don’t quite understand social media and how imperative it is. I would like to offer advice and help if that’s what they felt they needed.

I’m hoping with outreach and some of the clients I’m speaking to at the moment, they may be up for me scheduling again – which would be absolutely amazing to take full control.

How are you doing outreach at the moment for Team Go Creative?

I’ll be then offering a whole package for businesses

Classic me – I’m very organized. I’ve got a spreadsheet. There are particular businesses that I do enjoy, especially children based products. They’re a joy to make content for, you can bring in many types of elements and get really creative.

I’d love for my partner to get involved, he knows how to build websites including e-commerce & SEO that I’m not extremely confident with.  A big reason why he wants to help me and push Team Go Creative is because we plan on getting married next year. It would be wonderful for some funds to go towards that by increasing my own salary.  It really would be a game changer to  have him more involved as I’ll be then offering a whole package for businesses that therefore don’t need to outsource, I can provide it all!

How important do you think social media is to businesses in 2021? Like coming out of the pandemic, just in the modern day and age?

Businesses should definitely not underestimate what a decent Instagram feed can do for their brand

If you’re asking yourself the question – “oh, I want to get my hair done” or something, you go on Instagram.  Yes, I used to go on Facebook, but mainly to read reviews.

Instagram is literally every businesses shop window!

I was looking at getting hair extensions in Norwich, so I typed in #Norwichhairextensions.  All of the businesses come up.  I didn’t initially go onto the internet.  It was grabbing my phone and I was going on Instagram. 

I’m not talking about Facebook as much. I’m not talking about Twitter either.  In my opinion, they’re not the ones that are the go-to social platforms to focus on, especially in the beginning.  

On Instagram, it’s all about how the feed’s looking. You want it to be aesthetically pleasing, right? If things are all over the place, it’s like, what the hell am I looking at?  

You tend to lean towards the ones that care about their Instagram feed.  It’s easy to look at, everything’s all organised and I feel like they know what they’re doing.  I don’t know whether it’s really vain of me to say that but I feel I trust that business more so. Businesses should definitely not underestimate what a decent Instagram feed can do for their brand.

How did you find Hopper HQ originally?

Have you not heard about Hopper HQ?  It is so easy!

I did the hard work for everyone else.  I tried several different tools.

This was at the very beginning when I left my nine-to-five and decided this is going to be my job now.  I needed help.  My partner told me that there were tools out there that can help you schedule, do analytics and rest!

I used to work for an agency where I created content for their clients.  I’d speak to the account managers and I’d ask what scheduler they use. I would have them tell me all these platforms like Sked or Later and I’ve tried all of those and I just couldn’t seem to grasp them.  I felt like what I was initially getting sold –  it just wasn’t it!

So I asked the account managers “have you not heard about Hopper HQ?  It is so easy!”  I was screenshotting things and sending them across, I’m always up for making people’s lives easier! They were constantly complaining about scheduling and how some tools do certain things but not the other – and I’m like, Hopper HQ will really save you so much hassle!

I’ve neglected my account and I’ve just signed up again because I couldn’t manage my business page without it.  Otherwise I’m on my phone and I’m having post content and write captions working from my notes but still setting reminders and alarms on my phone to stay consistent, it’s ridiculous! I may not be scheduling clients’ content and just my own, I’m still recommending you guys! 

What do you like about Hopper HQ?

I’m not blindsided, but I am very loyal

It’s always been a go-to.  I do try and stay as current as possible to see what is out there.  I’m not blindsided, but I am very loyal.  I just haven’t found anything that worked as good as what you have.

Whenever something might go wrong, I go into the chat, and send a quick message and speak to someone.  So to have that customer support, I haven’t had that with any other platform, especially not as speedy as Hopper HQ. 

And I saw something pop up yesterday that you were doing a webinar*?  I feel like I’m not using Hopper HQ to my fullest potential.  Especially since I’ve been recommending it to so many people.  I’m literally just saying it is the best scheduling tool that I’ve used but it would be nice to know any features I may not be using.

If you had to pinpoint a favourite feature, what’d you reckon it would be?

The fact you can put a cover photo on top of that really helps keep on theme with the feed

It’s a difficult one, because I love seeing the grid…  What I do like is when you upload something, it uploads quickly and you can start writing your caption while the media is uploading. 

And again, there’s some platforms where you can’t upload a cover photo for a video.  I’ve really liked that.  I don’t necessarily know what the beginning of a video is going to look like.  So the fact you can put a cover photo on top of that really helps keep on theme with the feed. This avoids me having to re-edit a video to shove an image at the beginning, yes, I’ve had an account manager request that from me before, it was horrifying!

Do you have any exciting projects coming up?

Raise London with ‘Raise the Space’

I’m teaming up with my partner to support him with Raise LDN with ‘Raise the Space.’ They are two guys, Waz and Charlie, based in London and they do these workout events in varied locations in London, one of them was on a helipad!  

They’ve got another event coming up.  I know where the location is, but I don’t think anyone else does yet, that’s going to be a good one.

So I’ll be getting involved with that with my partner, assisting him with photos and he’ll be heading up the video content. The energy with be incredible!

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