Sarah Glover Wants You To Know That Overnight Success Doesn’t Exist

Social media may have catapulted her to fame, but Instagram’s favourite foodie credits good old-fashioned hard work for her success.

By Sarah Bristow

Culture

Social media may have catapulted her to fame, but Instagram’s favourite foodie credits good old-fashioned hard work for her success.

By Sarah Bristow

Previous article To Find Success, Curate Backwards

Next article ‘Without A Feminist Marriage, I Couldn’t Do What I Do’: Kristine Ziwica

Patience was once seen as a virtue, but that was before social media could quite literally make your career overnight. Someone who knows all about the power it wields is Sarah Glover – the Instagram foodie sensation with enough followers (46,700 to be exact) to push her firmly into the influencer domain. While for many of us she arose from nowhere, Sarah is the first to admit her success was far from instant – crediting patience, persistence and good old-fashioned hard work as key to her success.

Her enviable feed might feature a dreamy concoction of creative dishes roasting on open fires and ‘surfaris’, but she tells Future Women she’s “been cheffing since I was 16 and I’m 35 now”. Her resume attests to that, beginning with stints at famed kitchens like Franklin in Hobart before developing the outdoor aesthetic for which she is now known. Her social media presence has allowed her to launch a catering business on the side (@thewild_kitchen), and self-publish her first book Wild, but there’s so much more to her triumphs.

View Social Media As A Business Tool, And Use It That Way

“If you want to build your business you need to know how to use Instagram to your advantage,” she says. “It’s a great tool. It’s helped me freelance, I get to do my catering, and I get picked up by brands to design recipes for them – it’s a platform that is innovative and creative and changing. In terms of the audience that I’ve been able to capture, that’s directly the result of Instagram. It has a global community at its disposal and can offer you far bigger reach. But that doesn’t mean you need it – Bondi Bikkies was a Sydney-based company which grew only from word of mouth.”

Keep Part Of Your Life, Yours

“For me it’s not about showcasing who I am,” Sarah says. “I try not to put boundaries on myself with social media, because I find it limits my creativity, but subconsciously I don’t share anything too soppy or emotional. There are certain things I refuse to share because it’s not professional. I see my Instagram as an extension of my business, not a personal insight into my life – I always tell my friends if they want to know what’s going on in my personal life, they just have to call me.”

Play The Long Game

“Success is slow and steady, so don’t expect to become an overnight success or you won’t stand the test of time,” Sarah says. “More importantly, don’t rate your business on how many likes you get. Your product should speak for itself. At the end of the day if you have a great product, people will come back for more. Don’t be too eager to become an instant hit, it doesn’t exist.”

Image Credits: Instagram @missarahglover, @thewild_kitchen