Daria Rakitskaya: From Tennis Star to Instapreneur

Daria Rakitskaya’s original plan was to play professional tennis at Baylor University on the women’s team, but when she was under lockdown during 2020, she took to her hobbies in content creation, social media marketing, and brand management.

This created a shift in her career when she began growing her own travel blog on instagram and created a bigger reach for her socials. This led to her using the pandemic to become an expert in her social media management and on her way to launch her own content creation and social media marketing agency.

Daria is a CEO of her agency and the creator of the Baylor Entrepreneurship Club at Baylor University where she was attending. Her friend had approached her on the club idea and they were excited to connect with other student entrepreneurs on campus.

“I was helping a lot of small student businesses and entrepreneurs build their social media presence and improve their content creation,” she says. “That was what they needed to improve on so that they could grow.”

This new plan was something that wasn’t expected but was what she wanted now. “I’m so excited about getting to do this; it really became a passion and a way that I wanted to connect with people all over and social media is a great tool to do that,” Daria beams. “Now we are just preparing for the launch of the agency and then we will be able to take on so much more.”

A dream come true

Daria explains, “When the pandemic hit, I took hundreds of courses on content creation, social media marketing and everything that has to do with Instagram. It became my new passion and during lockdown, I started to help other influencers build their social media presence and create content. After the pandemic I decided to retire from professional sport and pursue my dreams of entrepreneurship.” 

Daria continues, “I completely changed my circle of friends and met the amazing people with whom I founded Baylor Entrepreneurship Club. I was a social media and brand manager for the club and helped student entrepreneurs launch their businesses on social media to gain new clients. Having this experience made me realize how much I loved managing social media platforms and doing social media marketing.”

She explains, “As more and more people started to reach out for my help with their Instagram pages, I decided to open my own social media marketing agency where I can help influencers and businesses all around the world.”

Social Media Expert

Daria expresses her vision, “My goal is to help influencers and businesses manage their social media, create growth strategies and social media marketing campaigns, as well as help them create outstanding content that will attract an audience and customers to their pages. 

During the quarantine she grew her instagram account from 1.9K followers, 3000 average impressions and less than 7,000 impressions to 5.5K followers with 9812 impressions and 54,000 average impressions in less than 4 months. In addition, she grew her account from 0-3 profile visits, 0-2 saves and 100 hashtag reaches per post to up to 4957 hashtag reaches, up to 45 saves and 247 profile visits that lead to sales increase.

Advice for other entrepreneurs 

Daria claims, “Money should not be a reason to start. Passion is a true reason that will help you grow and achieve your desired life goals. And while sometimes your goals are so big that it can be overwhelming, remember that it only takes one step at a time to get where you want. Always remember why you started and where you are going.”

Inspiration and creativity

Daria’s passion is apparent, her motivation is leading her into a great new direction. “There is a lot more purpose and excitement in my job now. I love tennis, but this is something that I get much more out of. I feel so inspired and right where I want to be,” she says smiling. Her big plans for her Instapreneur launch are going to be promising.

“This is something that has filled the emptiness within me with purpose and excitement,” she expresses. “I want to do more than just social media management; I really hope that one day I will be able to help people all around the world outside of social media. I want to help build communities that thrive and help each other grow.” 

From a professional tennis player to a social media manager, Daria’s story shows that your future is not set in stone and you can make a decision at any time to do something different.

“This is something that I absolutely love doing and I have expertise in. There is no better career for me than this one right now and I cannot wait until my agency’s launch,” she says beaming. 

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