Avery Woods Lived 'Paycheck to Paycheck' as a Pediatric Nurse. Now She's Building an Inheritance for Her Kids as an Influencer (Exclusive)

Woods tells PEOPLE her background as a PICU nurse has informed her life as an influencer and podcaster

• Avery Woods went from pediatric nursing student to balancing a bustling professional career, her family and social media

• The mom of two tells PEOPLE what it is like raising kids and being an influencer

• The influencer also opens up about how her past informs her decisions in business and in life today

Avery Woods' life has undergone a serious transformation, with social media at its core.

The influencer has become known for her lifestyle content and podcast, CHEERS! with Avery Woods, though her current lifestyle seemed like a far-off possibility when Woods first got her start while working as a nurse nearly a decade ago.

"I originally started posting on social media when I was 20 years old and in nursing school. I'm 29 now, so it's crazy that it's been almost 10 years. It was in a much smaller capacity. After hearing a lot of negativity surrounding nursing and the field, I wanted to be a creator who talked about the positivity of nursing school. So I just started posting, first from a private account on Instagram where I had like 200 followers," she tells PEOPLE.

"I went public after Cherokee reached out. They noticed that our school uniforms were Cherokee and they sent me a DM and said, 'Would you be interested in posting on social media in exchange of free scrubs?' I was like 'Oh my God, yeah,' because I was so broke and excited for free scrubs."

As she started dabbling in social media, Woods continued to work in pediatric nursing.

"I worked the majority of my career in the Pediatric ICU. So I shared a lot about my journey on there and [posted] content on my days off, more lifestyle content. I thought people only followed me because of my journey as a nurse. But eventually, I realized that my content outside of nursing was actually doing more successful. So I started focusing on that which really gave me something to look forward to and took my mind off what was happening in the world at that point, which was during the first surge of the pandemic."

Trying to balance work, social media and her family life was a challenge, but one that intrigued Woods.

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"It was probably too much but I think I'm a very motivated person. At one point, I was actually working two nursing jobs at the same time. So I worked in the Pediatric ICU bedside and then I also worked as a nurse injector," she says.

That time was stressful for anyone in the medical field, but especially for Woods, who was at the end of her pregnancy with her daughter and already had a toddler son.

"I worked in the ICU up until five days before my C-section with my daughter. It was awful. On my days off since we were kind of all stuck at home trying to stay out of the public, [social media] gave me something to do and something that brought me a lot of joy. It's just now a year since I took this full-time and haven't worked as a nurse, but I still have an active license."

Woods explains that she loved nursing, but there were "a lot of changes to bedside nursing" after the pandemic.

"I was trying to find a different outlet of nursing that was a little bit slower. I also started getting some brand deals and realized how consistent you have to be on social media in order to be successful. So, it was a lot and it was a lot of editing while I'm breastfeeding my daughter or doing a lot of work when my kids went down, but it's also worth it. I have no regrets and I'm so grateful to be where I'm at, but it's definitely a lot of behind-the-scenes work that people don't see."

The transition was exciting, but also challenging as Woods tried to find her identity in her different endeavors.

"I graduated nursing school at 22. For me — and I truly loved it more than anything I still do — but it got to a point where it I felt like I was missing a lot of my kids life and I had the opportunity to do something else. So I took that leap of faith but the transition, at first, was really difficult for me because I didn't feel like I was contributing to society. I felt like I had education and knowledge and passion for something, but wasn't using it, and I struggled with that."

Today, the working mom is a pro at managing her different endeavors. In addition to brand deals, Woods also hosts the podcast, CHEERS! with Avery Woods.

"It definitely takes a village," she says. "Everyone says that, but it's so true because you want people to be around you and help you and love your kids like you do so. I was really fortunate where in February, my husband was able to leave his job to focus 100 on helping out home with the kids and also we're launching a business, hopefully, next year in 2025."

It was important for Woods and her husband David — who also has two older children from a previous relationship — to make sure their kids were always with someone close to them.

"To be able to get up and leave, because work opportunities will come up with less than a week's notice and you have to be able to leave. I'm not gonna let my kids be watched by just anyone. So to be able to have them home with my husband, their dad, is a huge blessing that we have."

To make the most of her own time with the kids, Woods tries to "focus my work and schedule my meetings around when they're both in school or in bed."

"That way, when they're home and awake I'm fully present with them. I'm also grateful that I have an incredible team behind me. That's very understanding of my life with my family and my kids."

It's especially important since the couple has decided their family is complete after welcoming daughter Stevie in May 2021.

"Stevie is three and Ziggy is turning six, and it's so special. Seeing the light in their eyes when they see and experience things for the first time is so special," she says. "My husband and I always say — even on the hard days, if they're throwing a temper tantrum or they're overly tired — that this is the one time in their lives that we are the most important thing in the world to them. We'll never get that back. So even on hard days we just always look at the positive because it truly flies by and goes by so fast."

Woods adds, "I also think I look at it in a different perspective because the things that I saw when I worked in the PICU were so tragic that I just feel so grateful to have really happy healthy kids. I've seen kids not be able to make it to the age that my kids are at, so I'm just grateful, even for the hard times."

Parenting as an influencer has challenges, especially as kids grow up and develop opinions about their own online footprint. While her kids are still young, Woods is conscious of this. She minimally shares her stepkids as part of understanding where the boundaries for her family and the internet lay.

"We have a very open communication system with our kids. If I take my phone out to take a picture or video, they'll tell me, 'I don't want you to take a photo of me,' and I will always respect that," she says.

"I also draw a boundary when it comes to working with brands in a paid capacity, I have offers on a weekly basis to have my kids in advertisements and that's money that is paid to me. I don't think that's fair to my kids," Woods explains.

"I just want my kids to live a normal childhood, so I am always respectful of things that happen in our family that I keep private. I think people have they think that they see everything of our life but really it's like maybe two to three minutes of our day. So there's a lot of things that happens behind the scenes that we keep private in our family or with our closest family and friends."

Woods admits she's hopeful her kids "won't have social media until they're 18."

"That's not just because of what I do for a living and I see the backlash that comes with it, but it's also because my husband and I have seen the negative downfall of teenagers having social media and how that affects their mental health from our previous jobs. So that's also really important for me as well."

While the last year has been a whirlwind, Woods has settled into a season of gratitude as she takes in everything life has to offer her.

"I'm so grateful that this happened to me a little bit later than most. I've been on brand trips with girls that are 18 years old. I'm over a decade older than them and so they've never had any other job or source of income [outside of social media]. They're used to that, which is totally okay, but so different than the overworked, underpaid career that's my background," she says.

"I was lucky if I broke $60,000 a year when I was working at a trauma center, not to be morbid, but putting babies in body bags on a weekly basis. And we were living paycheck to paycheck during that. I will never get used to this, the space that I'm in now and how privileged we are."

Woods is hopeful she'll "never lose focus" on where she and David came from.

"My husband I did not come from families with money. My parents were educators for 42 years. My husband comes from a family of addicts, so he was pretty much raised by his grandparents. To be in the position we're in, we're just so grateful."

Part of that gratitude is taking responsibility and "being smart with our money."

"We don't talk about that often, but we do have a financial advisor. We made sure all of our kids have accounts for college and their weddings and savings. Those are things that we've made sure we've instilled because those are things that we never had."

"I just want to make sure my kids are set up to have a fulfilled life but also know they need to work hard for it. We're teaching them that education and working is important," Woods continues.

"They're not just going to get handouts, but we've worked really closely with financial advisors to make sure that this is long-term. We have the mindset of social media is not forever and you have to be smart planning for your future."