About Melissa Baila And Eat Play Share
Melissa Baila is a 59-years old lady, who has worked as a manager at Allstate for 33 brief years. At her work, she was used to planning themed events for her team. Being the fun woman that Melissa is, she kept the intricate tradition alive at her home as well. This is Melissa, and she loved being equipped with work.
Like all good things come to an end, Melissa retired from her job in December of 2018. Soon the holidays ended, and Melissa’s two daughters left for work and studies. That’s when she started to feel empty nested at her home.
Although she had a loving husband at her home as all of us, she still felt the need to have a purpose in her life. This was when she began as a food and wellness influencer on Instagram. Her Instagram page, Eat Play Share is close to having 3k followers. But as told by Melissa, “I don’t want Eat Play Share to be about monetary gain. This isn’t costing me any money. I’d still be making these foods even if I wasn’t posting them.
What Melissa Baila Achieved?
For starters, Melissa Baila is a dedicated and hard-working woman with experience as a manager at Allstate for over 30 years. Working for such a long tenure is an achievement in itself. However, soon after her retirement, Melissa lost the purpose of her life overnight.
Melissa realized that she loved managing people across four different states. With her empty nest and not having many people to interact with, Melissa was able to channel her free energy into an Instagram account.
She now operates an Instagram account and shares inspirations and celebrations for a beautiful and healthy life.
What is Eat Play Share About?
As you scroll down her Instagram page, you’ll be aesthetically pleased with brilliant, drooling pictures of food on Eat Play Share’s timeline. But as you go on and look a little deeper, you’ll realize that Eat Play Share is more than just a food blog.
Eat Play Share is a medium for Melissa to interact with others and express who she is as a person. The posts, Instagram stories, and archives on Eat Play Share depict her ideas and reflect the celebrations, inspirations, and aspirations for a beautiful and healthy life.
Link to her Instagram:
Update (July 2020): It seems as she has renamed it to seasaltandspices, see here:
https://www.instagram.com/seasaltandspices/
How Did It Start?
As Melissa liked being busy and was into food and a healthy lifestyle, one of her daughters introduced her to Instagram when she went to visit her in New York. Morgan, her elder daughter, created an Instagram page for her mother named Eat Play Share.
A little background behind the name Eat Play Share – Melissa owned a Facebook group where she would share health tips and recipes with her friends and family. The average age in that group was 56 years old.
However, when she took her exciting food recipes to Instagram, she was then recognized by even a broader community. She needed a creative outlet and an intelligent community to interact with – Instagram proved to be a perfect medium!
What is the Motivation Behind the Business?
In a nutshell, the motivation behind becoming an Instagram influencer comes from a more profound sense of life. Like many other older people, Melissa could have also chosen to grow old with a traditional retirement lifestyle.
But that’s not who she was. Being a full-time working woman for more than 30 years had shaped her purpose and aligned her interests. Melissa now enjoys the beauty of retired life by waking up each day – looking forward to sharing her creativity in an open, recreational playground.
How Long Did it Take to be Successful?
Melissa started officially started as an influencer on December 29, 2018. Or at least that’s when she made debut post on her newly found creativity outlet. Fast forward to November 2019; it has been 11 months since she started and has a following of 2800 people.
To Melissa, her success lies in being able to interact with like-minded people and being inspired together. She has made a couple of friends through Instagram as well. Moreover, she loves to respond to each message she gets on her page.
“I wanna do anything I can to help people lead a healthier, happier life. If all else fails, at least I’ll still have more followers that both of my daughters combined”, says Melissa, in a casual-fun interview.
How is Melissa Baila Making Money?
I did not find any further information about her income from the Instagram profile. With currently 3,800 followers, she doesn’t have a massive following, but as I understand her purpose, it’s mainly about the community, networking and connectedness.
And she seems to prefer to have a small following, but with more quality.
In my opinion, you don’t always have to be rewarded with money.
Some things that make us happy in life cannot be obtained with money anyway.
Lessons to learn here:
- You are never too old to start something new
- It is not always about money; if you share your passion, you can build valuable new connections with other likeminded people