For the Decoelis, the path to influencing began with another pregnancy, or rather, because of it. “We got pregnant within two months of dating each other,” Katie-Rose laughs. Since the birth of their first child Aubrey in 2013, the couple have curated a financially lucrative Instagram feed —and life.
The Chester, N.S. couple’s Instagram feed and blog covers the ups and downs, but mostly the ups, of life this a family of five. This self-described “millennial guide to parenting” features soft, sunlit images, alongside posts titled: “Why I Don’t Believe In A Birth Plan” and “How to Grocery Shop For a Family of Four Once A Week.” All dotted with links to help readers shop their lifestyle, their home and their closets. Their Instagram feed, similarly muted in whites and pinks, features photos of the couple DIY-ing their house (alongside their children Poppy, 2, and Aubrey, 5, with paintbrushes in hand) and visiting Disneyland.
One of their most popular posts highlights a very un-millennial achievement: Katie-Rose and Rob kissing, with Aubrey, Poppy and their dog surrounding them, on the porch of their new home. Their son holds a “SOLD” sign. It’s a milestone that a year ago, “we could have never imagined,” Rob says.
That’s because, Katie-Rose says, looking around her in the blogging space in 2013, after finding out about her pregnancy, she saw few people who reflected her situation. “I was looking to other bloggers, but many of them were married and very religious and there was nobody really in the same situation as me out there in the blog world. So that’s when I decided I was just going to try it.”
What originally started as a passion project for Katie-Rose evolved into a full-time job when she was laid off a year after returning from maternity leave. “[The blog] had grown exponentially,” she says. At that point, I’d gotten my very first paid collaboration, which I’d never expected would ever come from it. Six years on the couple now are doing it full time. In late 2018, Rob, a wedding photographer, joined on full time. All thanks to some big campaigns with Samsung, Pampers and Kinder Surprise, and support from their followers; many of whom the couple say are exactly like them: financially, socially and in taste. “The people that we run into on the streets, who come up and introduce themselves and say they follow us,demographic wise, it’s pretty streamlined to who we are,” Rob says.
He says the best part of their lifestyle isn’t necessarily the collaborations, of which there are many, but the time it affords them with the subjects of their blog: their family. The couple “shoots content,” i.e. photos for posts and collaborations, three times a week to allow for time with their kids the rest of the week.
“It allows us to be able to be home for the bus when our son gets home from school,” Rob says. ”We’ve gotten to a point where we’re allowed to do things with our family that many families don’t have the opportunity to be able to do, and that in itself is worth any paycheque.”