Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaela Kinnare.
Hi Kaela, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi, I’m Kaela and I was born and raised here in San Diego. I currently work as a Registered Nurse and I enjoy hiking, paddle boarding, and enjoying the outdoors with my 3 rescue pups Bo, Sadie, and Nash. A few years ago, I decided to start an instagram for my dogs so that I could share all of our fun adventures with friends and family across the country. It has since grown into something much bigger and we’ve amassed a community of dog lovers and internet friends who have become a sort of family. In the beginning, I used my platform to share my journey with fostering dogs and puppies from local San Diego rescues. I started to gain a lot of attention when I shared the realities of fostering and what some of these dogs had gone through to get to where they were now. I’ve had many successful adoptions through my Instagram account and to this day keep in touch with my past fosters. Once I established a genuine and trusting relationship with my audience, I began promoting brands that I use every day and love. From there it has grown into a successful side business, partnering with companies whose missions I believe in, products I love and will continue to recommend, and new and upcoming brands. In the past year, I created a secondary account called @dogsof_sandiego where I plan meetups and events for dog parents in San Diego. I’ve partnered with resorts for Yappy Hours, small businesses for pop-ups, dog photography parties, hikes, beach walks, paddle boarding, and more. I love the San Diego community and am excited to see where both of my accounts take me in the future.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Not at all. I’ve learned that there are people out there who will never believe in what I do, who enjoy sharing their unwanted opinions and put others down on social media. I’ve learned to take everything with a grain of salt. It’s also important to take a step back and take time off of social media when it becomes too much.
In terms of the business side of things, it has also been a bumpy road. Content creators have only recently been recognized as legitimate. In order to have a successful relationship with a company, the collaboration needs to be mutually beneficial. As a content creator, I am taking on the creative roles of a commercial photography agency and should be paid accordingly for my services. It took me 3 years of creating content for free for several successful companies before I realized my worth. The other struggle was getting brands to see that as well. But we are slowly moving in the right direction.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a content creator through my main Instagram account @misterboandco, I take on all creativity roles for a brand and create engaging and fun content revolving around their products. Most collaborations take at least 3 hours from start to finish. Because I work through my dog account, I try to involve my dogs as much as I can in the content. I have to come up with a concept – what I am trying to capture in my photo or video that a follower will associate with the product. Once I am satisfied with the photoshoot, I move onto editing. I mainly use Lightroom to touch up my images. Then I create a caption for my post. Once each of these items is complete, my content goes live on my page, and I actively engage with my audience answering any questions, DMs, and replying to comments.
Event coordinator for @dogsof_sandiego
I run another account for dog parents in San Diego. What started as a feature page, quickly evolved into a place where people come to meet other dog parents and enjoy the company together. I’ve always loved planning meetups and events. A few years ago, I had a page on Meetup, and my friends and I planned weekly hikes and camping trips for ourselves and other locals. I took the love for this and began planning meetups around San Diego. One of my most popular events through this page is our Lure Courses meetups. I partner with a company called Swiftpaws who donated a Lure Course set and I have monthly lure parties where dogs can attend and learn how to participate in this dog sport. Another big event I hosted partnered with Town & Country Resort and Spa and we had a Yappy Hour with 38 dogs and 67 people in attendance. I’ve also hosted pack walks, photography sessions, pop-ups at local small businesses, a Dog Mom Day (Mother’s Day) party, co-hosted Dog Days of Summer in Cardiff, beach meetups, and more. I have over 100 subscribers for my monthly newsletter which lists all the dog events in SD for that month and highlights various small businesses. I have a lot of events planned for the upcoming holiday season. I hope to see some of you there!
What are your plans for the future?
To be honest, I never thought I would become so involved in the dog community, especially in San Diego. I currently have two events this month (October 22nd and 23rd) and my first large-scale event (expecting 300+ attendance) December 18th. For more information on both of these, please visit my page @dogsof_sandiego. I am excited to see where both of my accounts take me, both as a content creator and as an event coordinator. I’ve loved learning the photography side of things and being able to get really creative with some of my partnerships. I’ve also enjoyed meeting more dog parents in San Diego and planning pop-ups with local businesses. I hope to continue doing what I love most – photographing dogs and organizing dog-friendly events!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/dogsof_sandiego
- Instagram: @misterboandco/@dogsof_sandiego
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/misterboandco
