Éadaoin Fitzmaurice has an extraordinary level of determination.
It’s this determination that has aided the Arklow native in growing her Instagram platform 205k followers, while nurturing a further 110k on TikTok.
The social media expert is well-known for her in depth tour guides around the counties of Ireland, and introducing her followers to “hidden gems” scattered across the country, which may otherwise have been bypassed.
Goss.ie spoke to Éadaoin for our latest Up and Coming feature, in which she spoke about establishing her own business while growing her online presence.
The Wicklow native also opens up about why she wanted to start her own podcast series, Going Viral: The Social Media Podcast, and the importance of living in the moment.
Find out more about Éadaoin and her business ventures in our exclusive chat below:
Q. How did you first get into content creating?
So, I started out when I was in college, I set up a YouTube channel and that’s kind of where it all stemmed from. So I had two YouTube channels. One was in the English language and one was in the Irish language.
Through the Irish language one, I was actually given a kids TV programme with my best friend. So, we did that our second summer of college and it was really good. It was called WAC – the World Animal Championship.
I think from that I could see really the potential of the possibilities that could happen as a result of content creation.
During college I kind of kept at the YouTube. I was doing the videos – that was the big platform at the time. And then when I had finished my Master’s degree, there was kind of no TV jobs at the time.
So I was like, right, I’ll just kind of go into journalism ’cause that was the other strand of my degree.
Once I finished my Master’s, I was given the opportunity to work in a digital publisher called Lovin’ Dublin, and I was about two weeks in the job and nobody was managing the social.
It wasn’t really like a job that people would’ve had back then. And I was like, ‘would you guys mind if I kind of like took on the role of managing the social?’ And they were like, ‘sure, give it a go.’ And I was there two years and in my time I grew the page to over 300,000 followers.
I kind of knew that this was something that I really enjoyed, and I not only kind of wanted to do it as my career for a company, but I also wanted to do myself.
Around that time I started sharing content, but it wasn’t really anything serious, and then last year I left full-time employment to set up my own company, but also had the aim to really turn my page into something and treat it like its own little business.
So I left my job last February, 2022 with 30,000 followers. And since then it’s grown pretty drastically to over 200,000 on Instagram and over 100,000 thousand on TikTok.
It’s been a very exciting year and a half. Yeah, and that’s how it all kicked off.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice The best pints of plain in #dublin ☘️🇮🇪 #visitireland #guinness ♬ original sound – Éadaoin
Q. You’re obviously well known for your travel content – what is a bucket list destination of yours?
Well, actually I am just about to do it. So that’s a hot piece of news!
I am heading to Asia now in September for one month. I’m gonna be doing Thailand and Vietnam, and they’ve always been on my bucket list, but I just haven’t managed to do them.
I’m so excited for Vietnam, especially because a lot of the food content I share on my Instagram would be kind of centred around Vietnamese and going to all the Asian restaurants in Dublin.
I just can’t wait to try the real thing. So yeah, I’m ticking that off soon. And then apart from that I’d love to finish off – I did South America last year. I’d love to do a little bit more of that.
I’d love to do some more kind of hiking trips like Patagonia, and before I hit 30, my goal is to somehow get to Everest Base Camp. I won’t venture beyond that, but I would absolutely love to see Nepal and do the trek as far as Base Camp. Yeah, so let’s see.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice Here’s where I would take you for food if it was your first time in Dublin 🍕🥞🍔🥙🍝 My absolute top picks #dublin #dublinfoodie ♬ original sound – Éadaoin
Q. Taking it back to Ireland, you obviously share quite a lot of the country’s ‘hidden gems’ with your followers. Are there any that spring to mind that you would recommend without any hesitation?
I think in terms of like traveling around the country, the most underrated county is where I currently am, and I’m actually working with Fáilte Ireland this weekend to kind of promote it, and that’s Sligo.
There’s just so much to Sligo and not only am I kind of into the new and exciting stuff, I’m a big kind of history nut and I love Irish mythology and I’m really passionate about culture.
I think that Sligo is a county that really has that. So, if you’re familiar with some of the biggest kind of Irish mythology stories like Diarmuid and Gráinne and Queen Maeve, all of those kind of originate in Sligo.
There’s so much storytelling around this place and there’s incredible surfing, great places to swim. There’s amazing cafés.
It’s just sometimes overlooked, I think it is so close to other kind of bigger populated counties, like you’ve got Galway and Kerry, but it’s definitely one that should be on everybody’s bucket list for 2023.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice Want to try something other than a hotel? Here are 5 alternative stays #ireland ♬ Caramel Latte – Prod. By Rose
Q. You’re not only known for your travel content – what’s your favourite content to create?
Oh, that is such a good question. I think it really depends on how I’m feeling.
I love doing county guides because it’s like usually typically a full weekend of all the stuff I love most, which is being outdoors, eating food, meeting people who own small independent businesses.
So, probably doing like a weekend trip somewhere and making like an ultimate county guide would be like my dream thing.
But day to day, I just love creating food content. I just get so much joy out of sharing places that I think are great, and then hearing people going to visit them and having as good of an experience that will never get old for me.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice 3 best noodle bowls in #dublin #dublincity #dublinfoodie ♬ Sakura Trees – saib
Q. Do you ever like fall into a creative rut? If so, how do you pull yourself out of it?
Yeah, I mean the thing with being a content creator is it’s an ebb and flow. You’re gonna have times when you feel really creatively led and every day you wake up and you have new ideas.
And then there are some days when you’re like ‘oh, I’m not feeling it’. But I think it’s important to know if you’re not feeling it, don’t push yourself so much because then you’re gonna kind of end up not enjoying it as much.
I kind of create content when I’m feeling like I want to create it, and I’m feeling inspired and I’m feeling like I want to sit down and kind of be on my phone for a bit.
So when I am in a rut, I suppose like the best thing to do is honestly just take a step away from it, spend time with friends and family and go out and like, I did the Camino this year, and I did the Camino last year.
And I do think that both of those were what led to two kind of big growth spurts in my followership over the last two years. They were both like directly after the Camino.
I think it’s because I had a full week where I wasn’t like thinking too much about my content, I was just outdoors. I was meeting people, I was chatting to people I’d never meet, and then I felt really inspired by the end of it.
So just like, get outdoors, get away from your phone, take a breath, do the stuff that you really enjoy, see the people that you love most.
It’ll come back. It’ll always come back if you are creative.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice Day one of the #camino with the Hike Life ✨🐚 #hikelife ♬ original sound – Éadaoin
Q. Are there any creators in the Irish content creation scene that you look up to?
Oh, definitely. I mean I feel like every content creator looks up to Rozanna Purcell. She is just a beaming light, and she’s really paved the way for a certain type of content creator.
Especially even when she was starting out originally, influencers really looked and the content really looked a certain way, but she kind of showed this whole other sphere that you can open up.
And it’s more about like the content creation rather than maybe like just trying on clothes or there’s just, there’s more content out there that you can do.
She showed the importance of building community, not just kind of sell, sell, sell all the time.
So I definitely look up to her ethos and her work ethic, and how she has just created such a positive message online. So she’s great.
I got to do the Camino with her this year and it was just really special to be hanging out with somebody that you’ve kind of looked up to for a long time. So I think she’s doing great things, yeah.
Q. You mentioned earlier that you founded your own company. Can you tell me about it and why you wanted to set it up?
So, my company’s called FIA Digital. Fia is actually my niece – that’s where I got that name from. And I’m absolutely obsessed with her, but it’s also the Irish word for deer, which is the national animal of Ireland.
So I wanted to use an Irish language word, because I do bilingual services. Anything that I offer through English, I also offer through Irish. So that’s kind of where all of that side of it comes from.
But I guess it was kind of something that came upon me through very many years working in the social media industry.
People would kind of ask, ‘would you do this now for me? Would you be able to do this?’, and I was doing a lot of kind of freelance stuff just ’cause people were asking me through the years.
It got to the point where I was like, I actually think this is probably something that I could do full-time and I’d love to be my own boss and there’s no better time to try something than in your twenties.
I was like, it doesn’t really matter if it goes a certain way. It’s more that I actually did something that I was curious about because I fully believe in don’t live in the what if, try stuff now and see where it takes you.
But it’s been like the best decision I’ve ever made, really. I absolutely love it.
I have great clients. I have very varied work. I’ve been able to also do a lot of services through the Irish language. I built a strategy last month for an Irish language company and then I offered a full day of social media training to the board of the Irish language.
So it’s cool that I can really make something that’s totally unique to my skillset and the things that I enjoy, and it’s just had such great potential.
One of my big clients is Tullamore Dew. So I’m in the distillery once a month with them in Offaly, and I just love traveling down into the middle of the country. And it’s really different work from, even though it’s still social media, it’s a totally different format to what I film myself from my own personal page.
So it keeps me in the know of how the machine is operating, how agencies are talking, what’s relevant.
To have that perspective on both sides of the coin is invaluable as a content creator because you understand how the machine works and the business side of things.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice Have you ever heard of Mussenden Temple? 😱 #discoverni #ireland ♬ original sound – Éadaoin
Q. You’ve also now started your own podcast series called Going Viral: The Social Media Podcast. Why was that something you wanted to pursue?
Doing that podcast was something I wanted to do for the longest time, but it was – apart from quitting my job – I think it was the second scariest decision I came to make.
I wrote it on a piece of paper a year or two ago, ‘Going Viral: The Social Media Podcast’, because I’ve worked in the social media industry for so long, and I fundamentally believe it’s misunderstood by everybody around it, even by the people within it.
So I just wanted to open up that conversation. It was actually just before Christmas that I was like, ‘okay, this is happening’ because, number one, I’m super passionate about presenting, I love presenting, but I was listening to one of the radio stations. I was on this long journey and they were talking about this survey that came out about how consumers don’t trust influencers and they had like a business show discussing it.
They had a representative from like a top marketing degree in one of the universities in Ireland. And then they might’ve had somebody from like a marketing role in the advertising industry.
I was like, ‘why are they not talking to an influencer or a content creator?’ I just couldn’t understand it. And I was think it’s because they’re afraid it might be taken up wrong, or they might think that like people don’t wanna hear about how they make their money.
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But at the end of the day, it’s a fully functioning business. It’s a very popular industry in Ireland right now, and it’s a very normal career to have in this day and age.
So it was so important for me to educate everybody who listens to the podcast on various different aspects, and even myself learned more about it in the process.
It’s so interesting to hear all the different sides. We had the founder of Goss.ie Ali Ryan and she spoke about image sharing. Then we had Lynn Hunter who owns The Collaborations Agency, who was able to give us perspective on the business side of actually managing influencers.
But then I also talked to people like Damien Broderick, Miriam Mullins, who are top content creators, and we could hear from their perspective as well.
So I often would kind of ask similar questions so that you can hear like the different formats of answers. But then I also kind of wanted to hear about the personal story of the person sitting in front of me as well.
So I absolutely, I think it was my favourite thing I’ve worked on this year. Like I was so passionate about it.
And season two is in the works – which I haven’t told anybody yet – but it is, so I am so excited for that. And yeah, more guests, more conversations to come, so stay tuned…
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Q. Who’s your dream podcast guest?
Oh my God, that’s such a good question. I mean, I would love to get like Steven Bartlett, because he has The Diary Of A CEO, and I’m so inspired by him. He’s opened up such a space for conversation in the podcasting realm.
I mean, he would be like the dream guest because I think there’s so much that we could learn from him.
In terms of the Irish scene, I’d love to get Aimee Connolly. I think she’s such an incredible business woman.
The way that she has grown her personal profile and her business profile still manages to be running marathons, and looking absolutely stunning. I just think she is a really savvy businesswoman, and that’s kind of the exact person I’m trying to speak to all the time.
I want people who are really business savvy, who really know what they’re talking about, and yeah, she is hopefully somebody I would love to get.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice 3 seaweed baths to try in #ireland ♬ original sound – Éadaoin
Q. You’re incredibly business savvy yourself. You have so much on the go, does it ever get too hectic?
It definitely feels hectic at times. This week was mental, for example, but I just love what I do. So even in the chaos, I might have a little bit of a rant, but I don’t even mean it half the time.
I just need to kind of be like ‘oh, I’m a bit stressed.’, but then I’m like, but actually I am so, so I will never not be grateful for the busyness. The busyness is like the ultimate reward and I like being busy.
I’m a busy body, so it keeps life exciting for me. I love moving around. I love the chaos.
It is stressful at times, but then you kind of sit down when it’s all done and you’re like, that was amazing. So yeah, I’m super grateful to be stressed.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice 46 #date ideas in #dublin ♬ SILK Quiver – SILK
Q. On that note, what’s been the biggest pinch me moment of your career so far?
The biggest pinch me moment, maybe launching the podcast.
That was really a dream come true and something I always wanted to do. So, I think the podcast for sure.
Q. What advice would you give to others who want to start a career in social media but are too afraid of what other people think?
I’m from a very, very small town. And when I started out, I know there was definitely a bit of ‘oh, Jesus, look at your one. Oh, she’s trying to give it a go. Who does she think she is?’
There was a time when I was starting out that I’d be almost like embarrassed to go into Aldi shopping because I’d feel like people were pointing at me and talking about me. I’m sure it wasn’t that bad, but like, it felt like that in my head.
But I knew that this was something that I wanted to do and I wasn’t gonna let what other people said dictate how far I was gonna go in life.
One thing to kind of remind yourself is when you think of somebody that you really admire and they have maybe done this and they’ve created a career, they all have to get past that initial scariness of judgment.
@eadaoinfitzmaurice Come to a dublin meetup with me to make new pals 💞 so proud of you always @Dev skehan ✨❤️ #dublin #seapoint #seaswimming ♬ original sound – Éadaoin
They all have to get past having a couple of hundred followers, a couple of thousand followers. Like it’s a journey that every person, that I’m sure that you admire if you want to become a content creator, has gone through.
So it’s like, would you rather be the person who’s sitting there and never doing anything because of what people think? Or would you rather be in the same room as like the people you admire so much because you didn’t let other people’s judgment get to you?
I know how scary it is and any person who’s been on a content creator journey understands it too. But you’ve just got to live.
We only have one life that I know that that’s like so cliché, but do what you are passionate about because otherwise you’re never going to live a fully fulfilled life.
You’re never gonna feel fully happy if you’re sitting in your room and you’re like ‘oh, I wish, I just wish I could do it, but I can’t give it a go’.
@eadaoinfitzmauriceOne of the best yet 😱 📍The Lodge at Ashford Castle ❤️♬ Caramel Latte – Prod. By Rose
Q. What is next for you in the coming year?
[The podcast] is the biggest thing right now. Season two is in the works.
I’m going to Asia, so I’m gonna do a month traveling there. That’s gonna be really fun.
I would love to do like a little bit more TV, so that’s gonna be something like personally that I’m gonna be kind of trying to achieve in the next year or two. So I will be working on hopefully getting something in TV and we’ll see where it takes us.
But apart from that, I’m just gonna keep trucking on. I’ll be creating content all the time an continuing with my series and traveling all around Ireland and beyond.
So anything that happens, you’ll see it first on my social media.
