Abigail Ratchford Transcript

Transcript; Interview – Shannon & Abigail

Interviewer – Shannon

Interviewee – Abigail

S: Your based in LA aren’t you?

A: Yes I live in LA full time.

S: When did you move there?

A: I moved there three years ago from the East coast from Pennsylvania.

S: What encouraged you to do that?

A: Just kind of because I got started in to the whole modeling thing, my following started to grow pretty quickly. Then I started to get emails and opportunities from people that were all based in LA and I was like, I’m not even there right now. So I just realized if I wanted to go where all the opportunities and jobs were, I have to go there.

S: That’s totally true. So you just said that your following started to grow, but you were on social media before you moved to LA right?

A: Yeah it was probably about a year before I moved to LA, about 2013 maybe?

S: What encouraged you to start that?

A: I just did a photo shoot in Pennsylvania, like by accident, just for fun and the pictures from it ended up on all these different men’s website like Maxim and a bunch of them was like ‘’Who is this Abigail girl and how come we have never heard of her? Then I kind of just thought why not give it a go, what’s the worst that could happen. So I just kept doing more photo-shoots and then I started all of my social media stuff and started posting my pictures and engaging with my fans on twitter. I just kind off grew a following pretty quickly.

S: Do you think that the photographer that you did that first photo-shoot with, did he have connections or did the photos just end up online by sheer fluke?

A: Yeah he didn’t have connections really, not with anybody super important, it was just a couple of the right people and seen them and then they shared them and they just shared them and they went all over the place from there.

S: Amazing! So, talk me through your average day now. What kind of things do you get up to?

A: It all depends; the good thing about what I do is that you can kind of create your own schedule for the most part. I try to do like, two shoots a week, that will kind of keep things balanced. I set up meetings with my PR Company, try to work out, and things like that. I have to try and do my beauty things like getting my nails done, which is a big part of the job; you always have to be on point with that stuff. Usually I’ll set up two different shoots, there might be a week that ill not be able to do much, or I’ll go on vacation with my girlfriends but afterwards I’ll make up for it. I’ll set up more photo-shoots or ill set up merchandise photo-shoots for my website and stuff like that. It kind of varies a lot.

S: So your always having to think about having photos in the bank to have to put out on your social media. So when you do take a week off to go on vacation you have a bank of photos still uploading while you’re out there.

A: Exactly yeah, I always have stuff to use, even if it’s not like, live present time.

S: Yeah so really even if you did want to take a week off, your still working because you still have to think about when your going to upload things, it’s a total full time job.

A: Yeah!

S: Is it something you had always wanted to do? What did you want to do when you were growing up? Was it kind of something that you always thought no, its what I want to do, I’m destined for big things I’m going to LA and make something of myself, was that always on your agenda?

A: No you know, I always wanted to be famous, but back then before social media, being famous was if you were an actress or a typical classical model, like a supermodel. They were the only two I thought were like paths to stardom. Social media came along a couple of years ago and it changed everything, it was a different way to get famous. You could get famous through the Internet, so that really changed the game for a lot of people, including myself. I didn’t have the supermodel body, I wasn’t super tall and skinny like them, but I could get peoples attention in another way. With Instagram and all that social media stuff I have grown a huge following and have made a lot of money off of it and I guess I became Internet famous or whatever they call it.

S: I think a lot of people think now that it’s too late for them; the market is too saturated now for them to turn themselves into an Instagram star or blogger or whatever. Do you think you got in at the right time or do you think there are still opportunities for people?

A: Yeah I think there still are opportunities but I think, because I started like three and a half, four years ago I think that was when it was really taking off. So you had like a few key names that were really well known, there wasn’t so many Instagram girls like now, there’s just too many to even keep up with. I definitely snuck in the door right at the perfect time. Now I think to make your mark you have to really catch people’s attention. Like that Sommerray or a really funny vine guy. I feel like now everybody is trying to do it.

S: Yeah, so now you have to kind of have like a niche.

A: Yeah exactly.

S: A lot of people’s social media channels are often hobbies. There are a lot of people that have ventured in to like beauty vlogging that started off as a hobby, is that the same for you or did you always have it in your head that you was going to commercialize it and make money off it?

A: Oh for sure! I was like I’m going to ride this out for a couple of years and make money off of it like that through my male audience, my merchandise like my calendars and my posters on my website, I have a company that runs that for me. Its like you kind of get to like a fault in the road and I was like now I need to do something that’s going to create long lasting income for the rest of my life. You know, I cant just be doing the sexy stuff till I’m like forty-five. I have a way to go till then! I wanted to start to just, grow my female audience, they will send me more money than men will ever send. I really do love beauty stuff. I love products, I’m a product junkie, and I have like every kind of skin care and makeup product under the sun! It seems like a kind of natural transition for me, so that is definitely something that is in my immediate plans. It is definitely a lot more work than I planned and is not as immediate as I had hoped it was.

S: Is it more work?

A: I kind of want to come up with my own skin care line. Yeah its just a lot more work, you have to get like a lawyer, you have to have tests in the lab to make sure all of the products are safe, do the labeling, its just a lot of stuff and I really need to be in the right mind set and just block off and focus on that. I have so many other things that are taking my attention away from it. If I did it right now it would be like, half-assed and I really don’t want to half-ass it. It’s something that I’m so sure of working on in the next couple of months, hopefully ill have a launch within the year for sure.

S: Do you think in the social media industry you really have to focus on one thing, you cant have many distractions, so if you want to grow your following that’s what you gave to live, eat and breathe. Or do you think there is time to think about everything else. A lot of people think that in some way bloggers, or even just Instagram stars have got it easy in the sense that they just walk around, take photos but obviously you know and I know that its just a bit of a façade and your just selling that like ‘’oh yeah this is what I look like everyday’’ but it’s a lot harder than its made out to be.

A: Yeah

S: Do you think there was a time where you really had to sit and focus on it and was like this is it; I have to not think about anything else and just focus on this?

A: I just thought I had to do this right, because there are so many people that are trying to do it now. To set yourself apart you really have to just stand out, not just posting pictures on Instagram because there are lots of really pretty girls on Instagram. I set myself apart by interacting with my fans on twitter and you know, doing different Snap chat follow-backs and giveaways and stuff like that.  Some fans become like really die-hard, their really dedicated, they can’t wait to see what you post next and everything. Coming up with like new content, you cant just post the same stuff all the time. You have to kind of, think of different concepts and cool creative things not just like under wear selfies, you have to kind of mix it up and keep things entertaining or people will just get bored. It is definitely a formula.

S: Yeah definitely! How long did it take you to build up your following? Was it an over night success? Did it take a really long time?

A: There was an article feature I did last Halloween, so 2015, about a year and a half ago, it was a feature with Maxim, and they were like ‘’its Abigail Ratchford who has 2.1 million followers on Instagram’’ and I was like oh my god! I have like seven million now. It tripled my following in a year and a half and I was like, that was really quick. To get to the first million it took, I would say a year and a half, and then the second million took maybe another six months. Like I said from two thousand in late 2015 to now it’s seven million. So I guess it just blew up.

S: So it was kind of the first million that was the hard graft and even that was only a year and a half. There are still people that are like; I’m still trying to get passed the three hundred mark!

A: Yeah!

S: What are your top five Instagram and social media tips for dummies? For someone that really wants to turn their social media in to a brand?

A: I would say definitely post some selfies because they always do better than professional pictures for some reason. I think that your followers feel more connected to you if you do a selfie compared to picture that has been taken professionally. That just adds more of a personal touch. Secondly I would say, sometimes take time to interact with followers. A lot of the time I connect my social media things, so if I post a new picture, ill post a snapchat saying like ‘’everyone go show me love on Instagram, comment on my new picture, I’m going to be picking five of you guys to follow back on snapchat.’’ Then within five minutes my comments will be like, in the thousands because it gives them an incentive of ‘’I want her to follow me back, I want her to comment back to me.’’ Then they will comment triple as much as they would have if you didn’t post that.

S: Yeah, its crazy to think that isn’t it.

A: Yeah, so definitely like doing different content and little follow back sprees here and there to drive your followers to really engage a lot more in your photos.  Definitely ignore the Internet trolls. There is going to be like a lot of haters that put pointless comments.

S: Is that something that you struggle with a lot?

A: Yeah, I never ever, ever take time to even respond to them. I just think that gives them more attention than it should, I keep the focus on the positive comments and all of my supporters. If somebody says something stupid I will just block them and delete the comment. There are a lot of girls that will take the time to reply and argue with them, I jut don’t do that, why even waste your time? Your giving them what they want, a response, I would say try to ignore them at all costs. Then, just come up with new and fun ideas that your followers will love. For my merchandise shoots I try and come up with cool things. I did one idea that was food porn, so it was me being covered in pizza, burgers and doughnuts, like a sexy food thing. My followers loved it, the posters of that sold out completely within like two weeks. Keep things interesting, fun and creative, don’t be afraid to get messy, don’t just do your typical bikini and lingerie shoots, everybody does that. Give your followers some cool and fun things to look forward too.

S: Amazing! You mentioned as one of your first things was to post selfies and that sometimes they do better than the professional pics. So, what are your top selfie tips?

A: Its funny, my most popular selfie of all time is on vacation at this place, I was laying outside in the sun, I had this straw hat on and I was like, wait this picture would be so good if I had no clothes on with my butt sticking out the back. So I posted it and it literally got like ten thousand comments or something and half a million likes. It was re-shared and re-posted more than any picture of mine you can find.

S: Why do you think that is?

A: Its weird, I had like hardly any makeup on, it was like summer, beach photo but my followers just went crazy over it. I think they just liked the whole, pose with the butt, I think it was just more natural and candid; they really liked that idea a lot.

S: How many selfies do you find yourself taking? Do you have to take loads before you settle on one, I think that’s a really a really exhausting thing for people. Even just before a night out taking a selfie can take like half an hour!

A: I usually take a lot of them on snapchat, ill usually post like ten of them on snapchat. If I’m all hair and makeup glam at a photo-shoot ill get a bunch of selfies and keep posting them on snapchat. Then the one that I choose for Instagram has to be the best of all of them! So ill have a look at how many screenshots they will get and then think obviously this is the one that everyone likes the most so ill use that one.

S: So you like test the waters on snapchat first. How many selfies do you think you take a day?

A: It’s not really like a day; today I probably wont take any because I’m just going to be doing some phone interviews and running errands and stuff. Tomorrow and Friday I have some photo-shoots with some UK based photographers that are like really good. I’m going to be all glammed up so tomorrow ill probably take like a hundred selfies.

S: Oh my goodness!

A: Not really a hundred! Sometimes ill use the burst, where you just hold the button and you can just move around and you end up with like five hundred frames in seconds. I just do that because it saves a lot of time.

S: That’s true actually! I’ve never really thought about that! It’s a good tip; I never would’ve thought to do that.

A: If I’m ever travelling with a girlfriend ill get her to take pictures of me on my phone. I’ll have her do the same thing, hold the burst in. You can move a little bit so you can change your pose, she will let it go after not even a minute and I have 600 pictures to choose from.

S: That’s genius!

A: Yeah, burst is definitely my top tip for sure.

S: That’s a really good one! Obviously you said that your following has like gone up to seven million in a year and a half. Do you find yourself getting spotted loads, especially when you’re in places like London, do you get spotted less in LA and more when your abroad?

A: In LA its not like I get spotted less, it’s just that in LA everybody knows everybody so it’s like not really a big deal if I’m there. There are tons of celebrities there and stuff. On any given day you will see tons of viners and bloggers and Instagram girls. LA is never a big deal. When I’m in London I never really post where I am, the hotel I am in is really pretty and I was going to post a picture of the outside of it but I though if I post that people are going to know where I am. That kind of stinks, I have to take these really cool pictures of London but wait until I leave to post them, just to be safe because its happened to me before. In New York I posted a picture from my hotel and then there was paparazzi outside, I was like what the hell, how did they know where I was. I have one friend who actually works for TMZ and he said yeah don’t do that, I was going to message you as soon as I saw that you were posting the park that is right across the street from a really well know hotel because they will follow all you girls and watch where you are. When I was in Miami two weeks ago with my girlfriend at a music festival it was the most I have ever been recognized in my life. Every ten minutes someone would come up and ask for a picture and it got to the point where I was like oh my god. I love my fans and I will always stop and take pictures but then I was just like oh cant I just have a drink on the beach in peace.

S: Before that moment have you ever found that someone will come up to you and you will be like, no I’m doing something? Or will you always be like oh cool yeah ill take a photo.

A: I’m really cool with that but the one thing is sometimes, guys especially will get really annoying. Even one of my girlfriends was like I don’t know how you’re so patient. I don’t care if people come and ask for a picture but then if their like, no wait one more that wasn’t good and then your there for five minutes trying to get a picture. Sometimes I’m like guys my friends are walking away I don’t want to leave them. Sometimes they need to compromise. Sometimes I feel like they get a little bit too comfortable and I can be too nice, so sometimes I have to just be like ‘’nice to meet you too’’, take the picture and keep on walking.  They will be like ‘‘so what are you up to tonight, wanna get my number’’ and I’m like no! You have to keep the professionalism.

S: Do you find that because your always going out is there pressure to always look good? How long does it take you to get ready, you know that even if your not working you still have to make yourself look good because people will be stopping you and asking for photos.

A: Luckily now my favorite thing is the world is hats. I am always wearing a hat and sunglasses. If I don’t do my makeup ill just get a big black floppy hat. I remember the worst time; this is when I was last in London about two months ago maybe. I had a long flight back to LA, obviously I had no hair and makeup on and I was in the grubbiest clothes and I remember I posted a picture of my butt and I had the American flag draping around me. I had to edit the comment on the picture because I had people commenting ‘’ your letting our flag touch the ground’’ I had to say the flag wasn’t touching the ground so relax. I posted on twitter ‘’Back to LA’’ and again the paparazzi just watch everything you do on social media. I had finally landed in LA, I was exhausted, and I looked like a tucker! I had no makeup on and I think I had food on my sweatshirt. I was coming out of baggage claim and customs and literally there were ten camera people. I was looking behind me to see like, Selena Gomez! I was like wait is Kendal or Kylie behind me what is going on! I start walking out and then I realized they were all there for me. They were like ‘’Abigail Abigail was that picture you posted a message to Donald trump saying Fuck America!” and I’m like what! I was just doing it for the likes relax’’ They said things like are you trying to say that you hate our country? I was just trying to look for my uber, I had like ten of them in my face, I’m being blinded and all these other tourists at LAX that must have just landed are trying to figure out what the commotion was, and then they start taking pictures because they think oh it must be somebody famous!

S: Yeah they must be like oh I’ve just landed in LA and its exactly what they said it would be theirs pap’s everywhere!

A: I couldn’t find my uber because I was being blinded and they were just asking me questions so I just bolted and ran into a cab and was just like bye! After that I was like damn, I suppose now I have to be prepared, just incase I get off a flight and their there.

S: Totally. Obviously you’re on photo-shoots a lot and you’re getting your makeup done all the time. On your average day do you do your own makeup, do you spend ages on it, is that a passion of yours? Or on your days off do you just go bare face, no makeup?

A: That’s probably one good thing that I have, I am pretty good at doing my own makeup, sometimes for shoots ill actually do my own makeup and I have done other girls makeup for shoots. I’m really pretty good at my own makeup but hair I’m not good at, at all! I’m the worst at hair. On the days where I wake up and the weathers nice and I have lots of energy I think yeah ill do my makeup, but I don’t do full on glam as I would for a shoot, ill usually do just half way. There are some days where I want to give my skin a rest, ill go makeup free, I just want it to breathe a little bit.

S: Earlier you mentioned going in to beauty blogging and opening yourself up to a female market. Obviously a lot of girls know who you are anyway because maybe their boyfriends follow you on Instagram and you are a female crush for loads of women. Who would your girl crush be?

A: I do love Selena Gomez. I think she is so gorgeous and awesome, and Rhianna too, she is the baddest ever. I love Rhianna.

S: So, just to round everything up, what is your end goal, as you said earlier you couldn’t be doing this when you’re forty-five. So where do you want to take this?

A: Definitely like I said, starting my own line and just building my own empire. Obviously people know who I am by now but I want to that to the next level. I want to take my exposure and my audience and just grow it in to something. I guess a huge money making brand. I want to get in to beauty and maybe one day bring out my own lingerie line for curvier girls something really high end like Victoria secrets. Its hard for girls that are curvier to fit in to sizes, I would love to dabble in that. I think there is so many different things you can do, you can be creative, if you have the right mindset, and yeah that is definitely my plan.

S: Definitely! I don’t doubt that you won’t do it either; you will 100% do it. In two years time ill be like, she said she was going to do that! Thank you so much for chatting Abigail, enjoy your time in London and I hope you don’t have to sit through too many interviews today!

A: That’s ok I have another one right now, so thank you and I cant wait to see the feature.