Today we’d like to introduce you to Ivy Diep.
Hi Ivy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I work in the Professional Services group of a software company. If anyone were to ask me what my favorite things were… besides my family of course, it would be dogs and food. About 9 years ago, I found a stray dog that would truly make an impact on my life and intersect my two favorite things, dogs and food. I was unsuccessful in finding the owner of this dog, and in the process of looking for new owners, my husband and I fell in love, and he became Popeye and forever part of our family. Very early on, he made it very clear that he liked to go out and about – whether it was car rides or walks, he just wanted to go. Every time he knew we were about to head out, he would stand by the front door and clearly indicate that he wanted to go as well. Once we took him to a pizza place and realize how well-behaved he was around food and how he would sit still for me to take a photo was when I had the idea of starting an Instagram for him. At that time people were calling themselves foodies, and I thought it would be fun to have a dog considered himself with foodie. So I created an Instagram account called Popeye The Foodie and realized that I am not the only person who loves dogs and food.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been mostly fun and I’ve learned to tap into my more creative side with his posts. We try to keep his posts very light and fun. Sometimes we get negative comments, but we’ve learned to just let them slide. Maintaining his account is not always easy as I do work full-time and I don’t always have the energy or time to put into it. Now that the focus is more on videos, that takes even more time, so I’ve been slacking off on his account. But I’ve always considered it something fun on the side that I can work on my spare time, so I try not to put too much pressure on myself.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As mentioned, my full-time job is with a software company but I do spend time on social media specifically my dog’s account. Here I will focus on the social media area as I find it more interesting. Popeye’s social media account started mostly focused on him at pet-friendly restaurants and sharing interesting and/or delicious dishes. I think it was an In-N-Out pose that went viral and got us some interviews from major media companies, and he ended up being shared on some major news channels. He even ended up on TMZ. Anyhow, having gained some following on social media, we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with so many different companies – from dog products, hotels, food services, restaurant chains, auto companies, entertainment, and more. It’s been very fun and exciting. Most of our posts, particularly with restaurants are not paid collaborations. We like to share our favorite places or new ones that are interesting. We do like to support small businesses.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
Yes, definitely. We’ve made a lot of pet friends on social media and have learned a lot from and gotten a lot of advice from our new friends. Social media was so new for me that it was really helpful to get some tips from others. Additionally, when working with other companies, we did not really know how to navigate the process of negotiations and paperwork. We joined an agency literally called the Dog Agency. They manage all the negotiations and legalities so that we just need to focus on the content. That has been really helpful to us. They’ve also gotten us collaborations as well.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Popeyethefoodie
- Facebook: Popeyethefoodie
- Twitter: Popeyethefoodie
- Youtube: Popeyethefoodie
- Other: TikTok – Popeyethefoodie
