A Pinterview with… Lauren from This Renegade Love

Join us and get to know Lauren the founder of This Renegade Love. Find out about her career path, her Pinterest top tips and the impact that it has had on her business. Also, find out her answer to Aimee from Wallflower Kitchen’s question from our last Pinterview.

“The blog content I spend so much time creating isn’t just seen once and forgotten about — with Pinterest, there is always the opportunity for older Pins to get picked up and continuously generate traffic”.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your blog/career?

I started This Renegade Love five years ago, following a 10-year career in magazine editorial and travel PR. I was living in the UK at the time and working with all these amazing YouTubers and content creators, sending them on trips and helping them create content, and I really craved being on the other side of things instead of PR. So I quit my job, moved back to Toronto and launched This Renegade Love as a way to tell the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things with their lives (aka ‘renegades’). It’s evolved since then, and now I also share a lot of content on blogging, personal brand, personal development and entrepreneurship, but the running thread of ‘designing your most fulfilling life’ remains the same.

A couple of years ago, I also launched ‘The Renegade Sessions’ which is an six-week mastermind/support group for women in business in Toronto, and we’ve now held them for four different groups of women (looking at running our fifth group once we can get groups of 8 people together again).

What moment are you most proud of?

I was asked to speak at a TEDx event, which was pretty huge for me. My talk was on ‘The Power of Personal Storytelling’, in which I shared parts of my struggles with PCOS and then the impact my story had when I shared it online, with hundreds of women opening up about their struggles, too. At first, the pride was in being asked to do the TEDxTalk, but afterwards, the pride came from standing on stage, finding the courage to be vulnerable and speaking my truth.

As someone who works from home regularly, what are your top tips for others at this time?

Definitely finding a separate space from your living space that inspires you and won’t distract you. I’m currently perched at a table on my back deck — being in that open space with only nature sounds helps me with my creative work. For others, that might be a desk in a spare bedroom or a set-up in their home office. Whatever it is…. just try not to work from bed (your mind and body will have a more difficult time preparing for sleep!).

Where do you get your inspiration?

A lot of places! Podcasts, non-fiction books, documentaries, conversations with friends, and of course… Pinterest. But the real, solid ideas come to me when I’m doing the mundane things (like long walks with my dog, washing my hair, gardening) and am just alone with my thoughts.

When did you start to see success on your Pinterest profile?

A couple of years ago, I really started to invest more time and energy into building a strategy around Pinterest for my brand. I was frustrated with Instagram and its algorithms and the way in which content I’d worked so hard to create was forgotten about in 24 hours, so I started investing more energy on Pinterest. Within a few months after creating new Pins, joining group boards and using Tailwind to schedule Pins, I noticed the traffic to my blog increasing and getting more targeted leads to my newsletter.

What impact does Pinterest have on your business?

It’s now the biggest traffic driver to my blog, which converts to targeted newsletter signups through a few great opt-in incentives (downloadable guides). Because my Pins are targeted to bloggers and online content creators, people are finding me through narrow searches and I’m capturing new leads that are super targeted to my brand.

What’s the one thing about Pinterest that you think all Creators should know?

Good things take time, and that’s often the case with Pinterest. One of my favourite things about the platform is that the blog content I spend so much time creating isn’t just seen once and forgotten about — with Pinterest, there is always the opportunity for older Pins to get picked up and continuously generate traffic. I wrote a blog post a couple of years ago about ‘How to Rock Your Next Instagram Live’ and have seen a huge spike in interest with those Pins since COVID-19, as a lot of creators look to use Instagram Live for the first time.

What’s your top tip for success on Pinterest?

For me, it’s been creating Pins with a good call-to-action on the image. My blog content is information-driven, and so if I just post a photo of me sitting at my desk, it’s not going to encourage someone to click through the same way if I include text directly on the Pin. It tends to catch the eye, and people can immediately process if that’s the information they’re looking for.

Who are your favourite Pinterest Creators to follow?

I’m definitely more of a searcher on Pinterest, but if I’m looking for a recipe then I’ll usually head to Diala’s Kitchen. If I’m looking for home design inspiration (just bought a country home last year!) I’m looking to Studio McGee, and if it’s style inspo, then it’s gotta be The August Diaries.

What’s your favourite board on your profile?

Oooooh, good question! One I continuously return to is the Wellness + Mindfulness board — a lot of the Pins saved to that board are about self-care and mindset, so I’m always clicking through when doing personal growth work.

Do you have a question that you would like to ask our next Pinterest Creator in the series?

Which of your Pins has been saved the most overtime?

Make sure that you follow Lauren’s Pinterest profile here to see her amazing Pins and what she’s loving. Keep your eyes peeled for the next Pinterview to see who our next Creator in the series is and find out their answer to Lauren’s question.

For more Pinterviews with our best-in-class Pinterest Creators and more Pinterest tips and tricks, check out the Pinterest Creators Blog and make sure that you’re signed up to the Creator database to hear the latest from us.

Georgia — Pinterest Creator Specialist, currently Pinning to… Must watch.