Disney star turned content creator, Catarina Mira is passionate about telling stories through photography and filming. Learn the tricks Catarina has acquired through working as an influencer and how she builds relationships with brands.
Referring to herself as a ‘one women show’, Catarina Mira is in full control when it comes to deciding what brands to work for and what content she wants to show.
Learn about how Catarina pitches her ideas to brands and runs after collaborations she can authentically stand behind.
To a chef, you would never ask what’s the brand of your oven if the food is good. And, it’s the same for photography.
Catarina Mira
Who is Catarina Mira? (1:54)
Living in London for the last 8 years, Catarina works in many different fields — from content creation to photography to acting. Photography has been in Catarina’s life for a long time — however, more as a hobby. The first time she bought a camera she was 14 years old and started exploring creative skills. Catarina fully supports the phrase that “everyone is a photographer.”
I always carry a camera around and looking what might be interesting to shoot.
Catarina Mira
Creativity is not about the tool you have, rather it is about your curiosity for the world, and seeing perspectives that might have been missed by others.
Working as an Actress (8:24)
As a child, Catarina started acting. Crediting it as a way that her parents allowed her to explore the art form, she got her foot in the door when taking part in her brother’s music video. While on set, she was approached by the director who asked her if she wanted to take part in a television series he was working on.
Not having any training in acting, Catarina just followed her intuition and acted in the way that she felt natural.
After gaining recognition for the series, Catarina started working a few jobs in movies. Being 14 years old, she did not have the independence or knowledge to understand what to do with the money. However, her mother allowed her to use it for what she wanted to do. With this, she purchased her first camera.
She was feeding another interest of mine.
Catarina Mira
Moving to London (13:20)
After having worked job after job in the field of acting at the age of 21, Catarina decided to brave the move to London, UK. Hoping to grow her personal knowledge and skills at a theatre school, Catarina was willing to make the move regardless if she was accepted or not.
While Catarina got into the course, she discovered that the structure she was trying to give to her natural ability of acting took away from the rawness. She credits her inner critic as having resulted through her growing into different industries — such as photography and content creation.
Working as an Influencer (15:46)
Currently, Catarina is working as an influencer and often finds herself collaborating with brands. Due to the negative connotation attached to working as an influencer, Catarina oftentimes thinks that people take her less seriously.
Acting has taught her how to be comfortable in front of the camera and communicating. While Catarina is not the type of influencer that feels comfortable talking on Stories, she has come to terms that she will never be comfortable talking to herself and her phone.
Getting the First Job as an Influencer (18:06)
When Catarina’s acting life wasn’t going as planned, she started blogging as a way to channel her creative energy. With her blog, Mira-Me, she found an outlet where she could explore all of the things that she enjoys — interior, fashion, politics, and literature.
After the blog started taking off, brands started to notice her. However, her success was a combination between brands contacting her, and Catarina contacting brands that she already stood behind to endorse their products.
I also pitch to brands, I know this is something people feel uncomfortable doing. But, I think I know my audience better than anyone.
Catarina Mira
Working with an Acting Agency (21:50)
Agencies quickly realizing that their talents were starting to become requested to promote products on social media. With this, the acting agency where Catarina is signed under created a section that focuses specifically on digital campaigns.
Having an agent, gave Catarina access to more brands and businesses that would develop into more long-term collaborations. Additionally, the agency provided tools to learn how to negotiate.
Catarina feels that women, in particular, are quite hard on themselves, and do not really understand how to appropriately price their work.
I would always underprice myself, so it is good to have someone that knows the industry and knows how much things cost.
Catarina Mira
Getting Inspired (29:16)
While Catarina is creating content most days, she shared that not everything that she creates sees the light of day. However, receiving a brief from a brand can be very inspiring as it triggers Catarina’s research mode.
By gathering ideas through going on Pinterest and creating mood boards, Catarina is able to become inspired. However, sometimes the small, unexpected things that occur in spontaneous moments can be the greatest source for inspiration.
For Catarina, light can be very inspirational. Having grown up in Portugal, she was inspired by the constant light and the mood that is created.
What is Completely Uninspiring (34:50)
Chasing for money is a completely uninspiring thing to do. When Catarina finds herself running after an invoice, she starts to feel her creativity and motivation decreasing.
A further uninspiring aspect can be when the weather is bad and the sun is not shining.
Changes within the Industry (39:44)
The year was interesting as brands have started to make less money, however, they are still striving to stay profitable and keep revenue streams high. As big projects cannot take place, due to the limitation placed on how many people can be in a given room, brands have started to turn to influencers to help spread their products.
Catarina sees this shift as influencers no longer being the people that are spreading the word. Rather as people that are part of the campaign itself. According to her, this approach is smarter. The influencers may already have a connection to the brand and only have to rely on themselves to produce the content.
Yes, it is my job to create advertising. But, we also need to be more conscious of our purchases.
Catarina Mira
Listen to the Full Story
To find out more about Catarina’s creative journey, listen to her podcast episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, and more. Or, simply hit play below!
Are you interested in learning how to follow Gen’s path?
Check out the advice he gave when asked our three questions!
#1 What do you think all creative people should know?
They should know their worth. Sometimes it is very easy to let your inner critic talk and you forget your true essence.
There is no right or wrong, and creative people should know that what every you are creating is worthy. You have to be vulnerable when you are creating, and it is okay to make mistakes.
#2 What do you think every brand should stop doing right now?
They should stop sending prewritten captions to the influencers — that does not work. Now, brands have become a lot more aware that it doesn’t work. But in the past it has happened that brands have sent briefs where they wrote “please use this caption”.
Not only is this tactic very limiting, it is also not very beneficial for the brand as followers will know that the language being used is not authentic to the person.
#3 If you could spend €1,000 on something to push your career, what would it be?
If you don’t have an agent, it would probably be a business course. It would people understand how to turn their art and creativity into a business.
There are so many struggling artists and actors, that are so talented, however they cannot live off that talent.
Listen to the answers above:
Off the Record — Conversations on the Creative Landscape is brought to you by Cherrydeck and is hosted by Philipp Baumgaertel, today’s guest was, Catarina Mira and the music is provided by Era Beats.
Take a look at the previous episode featuring Alex Proba, Max Tolsdorff, Arist von Harpe, and Gen Sadakane. We look forward to seeing you on the next one — stay tuned! ?
One thought on “Off the Record: Building a Relationship with Brands with Catarina Mira”