Influencers are some of Northern Colorado’s biggest stars. But Kim Kardashian was right: It’s a full-time job, or at least it can feel that way, and it’s not as easy as it may appear.
These three local women have earned the title of influencers, whether or not that was their goal. One uses it to further her mission, one uses it to promote her brand and one just wants to eat well and have fun.
Jamie Madsen
Jamie Madsen
@thejamiemadsen
Jamie Madsen had a story to tell. Everyone who heard it urged her to tell it. But she was ashamed to share it.
She had been in an abusive marriage, she says, and it wasn’t until she began rebuilding her life that she realized how much it affected her. She obsessed over her appearance and spontaneously shaved her head in 2022 during what she calls a state of psychosis.
“I hid in isolation for a long time,” says Madsen, who lives in Timnath with her three kids and her partner of five years. “One day it hit me that it wasn’t up to anyone else to get me out of that place, so whatever I needed to do to feel beautiful, I was going to do it. I bought a wig.”
Posting her story in 2024 gave her thousands of new Instagram followers. Now she has more than 35,000.
“It freed my shame,” she says. “Being so vulnerable wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought it was. The thing about social media is the one thing you think people will reject you for is the exact thing people will cling onto you for.”
It also gave her the confidence to think of her account as a way to promote her brand, Maven Mane & Co., a wig business she started in July. It already has products in more than 60 salons. She plans to expand into other beauty products this year.
Madsen chuckles at being called an influencer, but she admits she had to learn how to do it well.
“It’s all I do,” she says. “It’s 24/7. I check it way too often. After my kids, it’s all I’m thinking about. It’s everything.”
She prefers to post when she’s inspired, but inspiration can’t always fuel her account. Her messaging centers on identity, scaling up and “decision making at the CEO level,” she says. But she also believes it’s not too different from the content she posted as a vulnerable, scared woman sharing a painful part of her story years ago.
“I want to help people dream bigger than their circumstance,” she says.
Photo by Lightborne Photography.
Ashley Morris
@ashleyluvstoeat
Ashley Morris moved to Colorado to get out of New Jersey because she didn’t want to be stuck in her home state for the rest of her life. But when she landed in Loveland in 2020, she was surprised to find herself a little homesick.
“It took a long time to find food that was comparable to the East Coast,” she says.
Instead of moping, she went out several times a week to find good food. That search led her to create a food account on Instagram that now has nearly 9,000 followers.
Morris has a goal of visiting 100 new restaurants a year, both because she loves the chance to discover delicious food and promote different restaurants. She thinks that’s part of the reason why her follower count has grown. People are always looking for new places to try.
“This is my third year doing that,” Morris says. “It seems stressful, but I somehow always get it done.”
She prefers to stay in Northern Colorado and doesn’t like to charge local restaurants for a visit, though they usually comp her a meal and drinks in exchange for a review. She wants to remain positive, so if she doesn’t like the place—which is rare for her—she just won’t post about it.
She balances her nights out with a day job in marketing for RE/MAX Alliance in Longmont. She makes money off her Instagram account, mostly from businesses who reach out to her and certain brands that she promotes.
“I think a lot of people who follow me do think it’s my full-time job, and that would be amazing,” Morris says. “I don’t make enough that I could live off it, but it does give me the chance to get out and do something I love.”
Photo by Sarah Eileen Marcus.
Emma Mead
@perfectly_emmperfect
One of Emma Mead’s recent Instagram posts is exactly what you’d expect to see from an influencer. It’s a picture of her titled “How I Gained 50,000 Followers in Three Months.”
When you swipe left, however, the rest of the post denounces the actions of Immigration and Custom Enforcement. The post is a bit of an anomaly compared to the rest of her account, but it shows how she avoids the more traditional approach you’d expect from someone with thousands of followers. She even takes steps to avoid being recognized when she’s out in Fort Collins.
“I don’t identity as an influencer,” Mead says. “I laugh whenever I hear that word in conjunction with me.”
She gained that many followers last fall, which shocked her, especially after a three-month hiatus to reassess her goals with the account. She initially began posting to market herself as a freelance therapist, a job she holds today.
When she started posting again in September, she decided to use Instagram as a tool to help people. They seemed to appreciate her tips on remaining authentic and being kinder with themselves, which are broken down into lists and bite-sized chunks. The account took off.
“Consistency was a key, but I think taking a step back was a healthy thing for me,” Mead says. “It helped me figure out what I wanted to do.”
She sees herself as a general therapist, but she’s most aligned with anxiety and dating because she struggles with those things too, she says. Her posts include tips on how to know yourself better and recognize the ways your body tells you you aren’t OK (before your brain catches on).
She also hopes people see her account for what it is. People frequently DM her asking for advice, and she can’t engage with most of them, as she can’t ethically offer therapeutic guidance.
“My content is not a replacement for therapy,” Mead says. “It’s more musings on my insight as a therapist.”
She hasn’t made any money from her account but isn’t concerned about it. Her eventual goal is to have her own practice. It’s possible her account will help her get there.
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Mona Tolleson. Photo by Simplicité Studio.
Social Media Content Creators: A New Kind of Wedding Vendor
Social media content creators can help influencers showcase their wedding—or make any bride feel like a social media maven.
Mona Tolleson does exactly that. She added an “I Do” package to her social media marketing services two years ago after starting her business, MCT Marketing, in Windsor in 2020.
“Brides were looking for a different option than just videography,” Tolleson says. “It’s a niche market, and it was missing in the wedding industry. It’s been great for our business.”
More than 90 percent of MCT’s business is developing content for other companies. Tolleson even calls the wedding portion a “passion project.” But she’s been surprised at the growth.
Over two-thirds of the customers who use that package are brides who aren’t influencers, she says. They just love the way MCT puts together more than 400 short clips of behind-the-scenes footage and delivers it in 48 hours (many videographers take weeks to deliver content). It’s also a good way for friends and family who couldn’t attend the wedding to see the highlights.
Many couples review the clips the night of their wedding—or the next morning, Tolleson says with a chuckle.
“They get to relive it all over again,” she says, “or see stuff they didn’t get to see.”
