Speaker 1: Congratulations, you've been accepted into the inaugural class of Therapy
Speaker 1: for Black Girls University. Whether packing for a new year
Speaker 1: on campus, thinking through your gap year, enrolling in a
Speaker 1: community college, or grabbing your souls for graduation, tbgu is
Speaker 1: here to help you thrive at this stage of your
Speaker 1: life and beyond. Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Sorria Taylor and I'm the TBG podcast production intern.
Speaker 2: We'll return to Jana right after the break.
Speaker 1: I don't know about y'all, but whenever I'm at a party, dinner,
Speaker 1: or even just going out with my friends, it's become
Speaker 1: habitual to post something about it on social media. And
Speaker 1: though there's nothing wrong with keeping the girls updated on
Speaker 1: my moves, in this day and age, it's important to
Speaker 1: know what's good to share and what could potentially impact
Speaker 1: your future if the wrong I see it. To talk
Speaker 1: this through with me, I'm joined today by Brooklyn based
Speaker 1: gen Z lifestyle content creator Siddoni Francis. Siddoni has worked
Speaker 1: with a variety of brands such as Vasilene, Disney, and Marshalls,
Speaker 1: and through sharing her journey from tech girl to laid
Speaker 1: off tech employee turned full time entrepreneur and incoming NBA student,
Speaker 1: Siddoni is creating content specifically for women in her age range,
Speaker 1: empowering and inspiring them in the process. In our conversation today,
Speaker 1: Siddoni shares her dues and don'ts for posting on social media,
Speaker 1: setting boundaries around what the public gets to know versus
Speaker 1: what's kept private, and dealing with the haters when posting online.
Speaker 1: Here's our conversation, Siddoni, thank you so much for being
Speaker 1: here with us. I'm so excited to talk with you
Speaker 1: today and yeah, I'm ready to dive in. So you
Speaker 1: are an influencer, content creator, tech baddie and the luxurious
Speaker 1: big sister we never had. Take us back to the
Speaker 1: very beginning. Where would you say your love for content
Speaker 1: creation came from?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, hilariously. So, when I was in college,
Speaker 3: I don't know if you guys are familiar with the
Speaker 3: brand ambassador programs that companies will do for colleges. Were like,
Speaker 3: you know, they'll give you a couple dollars and like,
Speaker 3: you know, you pretty much like promote the app or
Speaker 3: something like that on campus. So in the spring of
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, which was my last semester of college, I
Speaker 3: was a TikTok brand ambassador. I was posting like the
Speaker 3: dumbest videos. I only had like a hundred followers. It
Speaker 3: was just my friends and people I went to college with.
Speaker 3: And then obviously I had sue graduation unfortunately, and literally
Speaker 3: the day I graduated from college, my cousin at the time,
Speaker 3: she was like nine, I think, came over and helped
Speaker 3: me record a TikTok where I just like it was
Speaker 3: like set to Tom's Savage and it was like I'm
Speaker 3: that girl and no girl stoda girl pretty much was
Speaker 3: like the point of the video, and I captioned it,
Speaker 3: when you graduate from Vanderbilt with honors, a full time
Speaker 3: job at Google and no student debt. And I literally
Speaker 3: just like put my phone down. I had no followers,
Speaker 3: and I woke up the next day and I had
Speaker 3: like almost ten thousand and that video had gotten like
Speaker 3: three hundred thousand views, and I was like, wait, how
Speaker 3: did strangers see this thing? And I guess from there,
Speaker 3: it was always fun. It was just something that I
Speaker 3: was doing. It was good vibes. And then twenty twenty
Speaker 3: three rolls around, I get laid off from my full
Speaker 3: time job and I'm like, well, I guess this is
Speaker 3: what I'm doing now, this is my thing, right.
Speaker 1: I definitely remember it felt like everybody was a brand ambassador,
Speaker 1: whether that be for Pink Good molecules. It felt like
Speaker 1: everyone on campus had content creation in their bag.
Speaker 3: When I tell you, I was a brand ambassador for
Speaker 3: a million different companies, because it got to the point
Speaker 3: where my mom was like, girl, I'm not sending you money.
Speaker 3: Like you are twenty years old. You are able bodied
Speaker 3: get outside and go do some work. So I had done,
Speaker 3: Like I was a brand ambassador for like Natural Light
Speaker 3: the beer when I turned twenty one, and that's what
Speaker 3: paid my rent my senior year. Then I did HBO.
Speaker 3: I did run the runway, bumble. I was like a
Speaker 3: bumble campus leader, anything you name it, if they had
Speaker 3: money for it and there was something free. Absolutely I
Speaker 3: can go on campus and hand out these posters and
Speaker 3: I can make an Instagram post not a problem. So
Speaker 3: I guess the content creation has been It's been around
Speaker 3: for a minute now that I think about it, since
Speaker 3: like my sophomore year of college, for.
Speaker 1: A little minute. For a little minute, we know that
Speaker 1: the content creators like Jackie Aina or the money Michaels
Speaker 1: have turned their content into all encompassing brand. How would
Speaker 1: you describe your brand?
Speaker 3: I would say I am one hundred percent a lifestyle creator,
Speaker 3: but I'm lifestyle for the girls that just want a
Speaker 3: little more. You know, I feel like when I think
Speaker 3: about what I create, I'm documenting my life, but I'm
Speaker 3: also documenting the experience of someone in their mid twenties
Speaker 3: in New York and you know, the ebbs and flows
Speaker 3: of how life can take you. So, like I said,
Speaker 3: you know, I started off vlogging about my life, you know,
Speaker 3: as someone who was working in tech. I was at
Speaker 3: Google at the time, and then you know, obviously they
Speaker 3: laid me off, and it just kind of transitioned beyond that,
Speaker 3: it got a lot bigger than me. It was this
Speaker 3: is how I'm spending my time post layoff, or come
Speaker 3: with me on my first brand trip. Let's talk about
Speaker 3: my dating life, Let's talk about this insane story time
Speaker 3: that happened to me at a club in Manhattan. You know,
Speaker 3: it's just every single thing that is going on in
Speaker 3: my life at this point has become content, and I
Speaker 3: think with that it's given me the ability to just
Speaker 3: relate to a lot of people to where it's relatable
Speaker 3: but it's also aspirational because I'm twenty five, I live alone,
Speaker 3: I've made something of myself like beyond my parents, beyond
Speaker 3: my education, and I think is something that's super fun
Speaker 3: to watch, which is why I also follow a lot
Speaker 3: of creators that are similar to me, because I love
Speaker 3: to seeing what the girls are up to.
Speaker 1: You know, let me know what you're doing right, Put
Speaker 1: me in your life, tell me the story exactly. Tell
Speaker 1: me your business, all of it and all of it,
Speaker 1: and take me through all of it. We know the
Speaker 1: word brand can mean several different things, but here we're
Speaker 1: defining it as someone's company slash business and how the
Speaker 1: general public US basically perceives someone. Is there anything you'd
Speaker 1: add to these definitions? What would you say makes a
Speaker 1: good brand?
Speaker 3: I think, honestly, what makes a good brand is consistency.
Speaker 3: Even when I think of it in terms of like
Speaker 3: personal brand, or I think of it as products that
Speaker 3: I use, consumer products, or even like B to B products,
Speaker 3: it's consistency. Are you consistently delivering excellence and are consistently
Speaker 3: delivering quality? I think that's what makes a brand in
Speaker 3: my mind.
Speaker 1: And is there a difference between a personal brand and
Speaker 1: a professional brand, and how do they intersect.
Speaker 3: One, I think your personal brand is who you are
Speaker 3: at all times. I think that is your personality and
Speaker 3: the way you know your experiences interact. I think your
Speaker 3: professional brand is usually a lot more refined. It's usually
Speaker 3: more polished and curated. But they do intersect, like, for example,
Speaker 3: a lot of people who make career based content, their
Speaker 3: professional brand becomes their personal brand and vice versa. But
Speaker 3: then you'll see people leave that switch. Like for example,
Speaker 3: one of my favorite creators, her name is Annie. She
Speaker 3: went to law school, she was working in big law,
Speaker 3: left that job. She'll still reference her time, and you'll
Speaker 3: see her professional brand kind of move away and instead
Speaker 3: of being you know, the lawyer and the buttoned up person,
Speaker 3: she's still composed, but it's a lot more free as
Speaker 3: she starts to introduce more of a personal brand. So
Speaker 3: I think there's an opportunity to collaborate those two things
Speaker 3: and bring them together. But for some people they'll stay
Speaker 3: super separate depending on what they do. For others, they join,
Speaker 3: depending on how you choose to move through your career.
Speaker 1: Got it, Got it? Thank you for explaining that. Let's
Speaker 1: go back to Sidonian College. Outside of brand ambassador programs.
Speaker 1: What seeds did you plant on campus and internships and
Speaker 1: career programs that contributed to your current personal brand?
Speaker 3: Oh my god. Yes, So I'm a Posse scholar. So
Speaker 3: the Posse Foundation is a scholarship program designed for student
Speaker 3: leaders spaced in twelve different cities across the United States,
Speaker 3: and it started in New York where Vanderbilt University was
Speaker 3: the first partner because there was this woman named Debbie
Speaker 3: Beale who was a teacher. She had a student who
Speaker 3: was super promising, and then he went to an elite
Speaker 3: university and dropped out and said he wouldn't have dropped
Speaker 3: out if he had his Posse with him. So the
Speaker 3: program pretty much puts you with ten to twelve other
Speaker 3: people from your city and you all go to one
Speaker 3: school together to be like a support system for each other.
Speaker 3: So I was a Posse scholar at Vanderbilt. So going
Speaker 3: into college, I knew that I'd received that opportunity because
Speaker 3: I was a student leader in my high school, Like
Speaker 3: I was the president of the Blacksoth Union, I played
Speaker 3: sports things like that, So I knew that the expectation
Speaker 3: was to come on campus and be impactful. When I
Speaker 3: got to college, the first thing I did. Legitimately, in
Speaker 3: the first week, I made two stops. Won the Black
Speaker 3: Cultural Center because I wanted to meet the director. I
Speaker 3: wanted to see what they had to offer there, and
Speaker 3: to the Career Center because I had to leave with something.
Speaker 3: I was going to have a job one hundred percent
Speaker 3: by the time I graduated, So I spent a good
Speaker 3: chunk of my time in college working on my professional skills.
Speaker 3: So I'm from Brooklyn, like almost every single person I
Speaker 3: know is like a healthcare worker. I did not want
Speaker 3: to work in healthcare under any circumstances. I initially thought
Speaker 3: I was going to be a lawyer. I thought I
Speaker 3: was going to maybe work in political comms for a
Speaker 3: little bit. And then I actually had a professor who
Speaker 3: used to be the Vice President of the United States,
Speaker 3: and he strictly told me don't do that. So from
Speaker 3: that point on, I was like, oh, great, thank you
Speaker 3: for telling me that your time was not good. I
Speaker 3: appreciate you sharing that with me. So as I started
Speaker 3: refocusing and thinking about what I wanted to do, I
Speaker 3: switched my major like ten times. But throughout those ten times,
Speaker 3: I kept going to the career Center. I kept doing
Speaker 3: resume workshops and mock interviews, and I was doing everything
Speaker 3: from investment banking and wealth management to like media internships,
Speaker 3: and then landed at Google after like a series of
Speaker 3: trying things and realizing that marketing was kind of like
Speaker 3: what I wanted, but I knew I wanted to do
Speaker 3: marketing in an environment where there was more than one product,
Speaker 3: which is why I didn't go to like a traditional
Speaker 3: ad agency. So at that point, I feel like I
Speaker 3: developed the personal brand of being someone who's like incredibly dedicated,
Speaker 3: like determination and will to get the things that I
Speaker 3: wanted because I made sure that I was one networking
Speaker 3: super heavy, but two also maintaining community in the spaces
Speaker 3: that I was networking in. So you know, that would
Speaker 3: mean if I saw one of my friends who was
Speaker 3: interested in something, and I meet a recruiter at a
Speaker 3: job fair who's looking for comp size students, but I'm
Speaker 3: not a compside student, I'm sending that email like, Hey,
Speaker 3: I want you to meet so, and so, you know,
Speaker 3: I think a good portion of myself in college was
Speaker 3: bringing other people along with me as I experienced success,
Speaker 3: because people who were older than me and you know, Vanderbilt,
Speaker 3: were doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: That is so real. The first stop being the career Center.
Speaker 1: I want to give a big kudos to you with that.
Speaker 1: I did not think I wasn't thinking that far ahead.
Speaker 1: I definitely realized I only went to the career center
Speaker 1: one time or once in my college career during my
Speaker 1: senior fall, and I realized very quickly how behind I was.
Speaker 1: So kudos to you for being attentive in that regard.
Speaker 1: Shout out to you. That's amazing.
Speaker 3: So I went to the career center a lot, but
Speaker 3: primarily because I was applying for things that inherently like
Speaker 3: I had no reason applying for. I was a political
Speaker 3: science major. I took a ton of theater and communications classes.
Speaker 3: I was super artsy, you know, like I nothing in
Speaker 3: my profile gave investment, banking or wealth management, but something
Speaker 3: just told me to try it. My older cousin who
Speaker 3: worked in banking, he was just like, I think it's
Speaker 3: a good learning experience if you like it if you don't.
Speaker 3: So I went to the career Center and pretty much
Speaker 3: was like, Hey, how do I pivot my experience from
Speaker 3: being a research fellow in the Latin America Research Center
Speaker 3: where I'm like doing statistical analysis on governments in South America,
Speaker 3: how do I pivot this into data analytics and financial
Speaker 3: acumen for this investment banking position. And thankfully, you know,
Speaker 3: the Career Center. They were great and they showed me
Speaker 3: that research and like what I was studying was actually
Speaker 3: super relevant, you know, even though I wasn't an econ major.
Speaker 3: We also didn't have a business major at Vanderbilt, so
Speaker 3: like almost everyone who's a liberal arts major trying to
Speaker 3: do these things, and they were super, super helpful. And
Speaker 3: I think for me, once I did that internship that
Speaker 3: was at Goldman Sachs that was my sophomore summer. I
Speaker 3: did it, and I hated it, deeply hated it. It
Speaker 3: was not for me in any way. But I learned
Speaker 3: a lot in that internship. So I took those learnings
Speaker 3: and then applied to Google to be a marketing intern
Speaker 3: the following summer. Got that position, and then stayed at
Speaker 3: Google for about three years until the layoff, so started
Speaker 3: postgrad and then was there until the beginning of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people want to leave college
Speaker 1: with a job in connections, but maybe unsure about what
Speaker 1: they want to do long term. How can you build
Speaker 1: a personal brand if you're uncertain about your preferred career path.
Speaker 3: I think the biggest thing I can say in this
Speaker 3: is kindness will be rewarded one hundred percent. I think
Speaker 3: if you're uncertain, if you're switching your major, or if
Speaker 3: you've sat four years in something and then you want
Speaker 3: to pivot into something else, the way you treat people
Speaker 3: when you first meet them will be what makes them
Speaker 3: help you down the line. I've been in situations where,
Speaker 3: even to this day, like some when I'm met in college,
Speaker 3: there was a girl she was three years older than me,
Speaker 3: just senior when I was a freshman, and we had
Speaker 3: a class together. It was like an elective class, but
Speaker 3: we did a group project and she got super sick
Speaker 3: if you had like mono or something like you know,
Speaker 3: standard collegiate illness. But she really couldn't work for she
Speaker 3: couldn't do the work for like a week. And I
Speaker 3: texted her. I was like, hey, like, I know you're sick.
Speaker 3: I've handled it. You know, I really appreciate you helping
Speaker 3: as much as you could. Thank you so much. That
Speaker 3: girl is now like an account manager at Ogilvy in
Speaker 3: the influencer marketing department. Almost every month I'm getting an
Speaker 3: email from her like, hey, here's this campaign that i'd
Speaker 3: like you to get on. And realistically, she's a huge
Speaker 3: reason why I'm able to like earn a comfortable living
Speaker 3: simply because it was kind to her when I was
Speaker 3: eighteen years old, and you know, it's been like a
Speaker 3: graduate in college four years ago. So I think the
Speaker 3: way you treat people will be the reason that they
Speaker 3: choose to help you, and that that's just being sincere
Speaker 3: in your interactions. Like I think a lot of people.
Speaker 3: I experienced this a lot when I was like Google.
Speaker 3: People would just send me messages and be like, hey,
Speaker 3: give me a referral. I'd be like, I don't know you,
Speaker 3: Like I don't know what to write in this thing
Speaker 3: because we haven't interacted with each other. I don't know
Speaker 3: what to say here. But you know, the people who
Speaker 3: have reached out and even today when folks are like, hey,
Speaker 3: I see you're connected with someone at this company or
Speaker 3: like you went to high school with this person, would
Speaker 3: you be willing to talk to them? And you know
Speaker 3: they come and they speak kindly, and you know they
Speaker 3: make a genuine requests like yeah, of course I would
Speaker 3: love to help you, because I would hope in the
Speaker 3: future you'd be able to do the same. And I
Speaker 3: think a lot of folks they look at networking as
Speaker 3: like networking up, which I don't love the idea of that.
Speaker 3: I think it's more so networking across like people who
Speaker 3: are having similar life experiences, people who are you know,
Speaker 3: your age or in your age range, who are trying
Speaker 3: to do the cool things that you're trying to do.
Speaker 3: I think those are the people to look to instead
Speaker 3: of the director who's thirty plus years older than you.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of my great experiences and things
Speaker 3: that I've been able to do have come from like
Speaker 3: folks I went to college with, or people I went
Speaker 3: to high school with, or someone who I meet randomly
Speaker 3: outside at an event, like I've been able. For example,
Speaker 3: I'm starting a business venture that's launching this year, and
Speaker 3: when I was looking for angel investment funds, that came
Speaker 3: through literally someone who I met at a party at
Speaker 3: another event, and I reached out and was like, Hey,
Speaker 3: you know, I know you work in this industry. I
Speaker 3: want to tell you about something that I'm working on.
Speaker 3: Can you give me some feedback on my pitch here?
Speaker 3: And instead of giving me feedback at the end of
Speaker 3: my pitch, you gave me a check, so you know,
Speaker 3: I think there is the opportunity to create and build
Speaker 3: things with people who are similar to you, instead of
Speaker 3: looking upwards or looking super super far outside of your network.
Speaker 3: It's the person who sat next to you in that
Speaker 3: sophomore English class is probably just disqualified to give you
Speaker 3: advice as someone who has ten fifteen years of experience, I.
Speaker 1: Think there definitely needs to be a shift of how
Speaker 1: we approach like the networking up idea, just because I
Speaker 1: don't know, I just feel like it was taught to
Speaker 1: us like in college, like you need to network to
Speaker 1: your professor's network, to the dean of art, like all
Speaker 1: these people who are just not in our age range.
Speaker 1: And there are so many qualified people, like you said,
Speaker 1: who are doing similar work as us and who are extraordinary.
Speaker 1: So I really love that gym. It's amazing. I love that.
Speaker 3: Thank you. For example, I just flew to Nashville to
Speaker 3: be like a guest on another influencer's book tour, and
Speaker 3: when she gave me that invitation, one it was we
Speaker 3: had randomly met three four years ago at a party
Speaker 3: like a brand event, and she was super cool, so
Speaker 3: we've just always kept in touch. But when I was
Speaker 3: thinking like, oh, what am I gonna wear? What am
Speaker 3: I going to do? Like the photographer that I brought
Speaker 3: literally someone I've known since I was sixteen years old,
Speaker 3: you know, like the person who styled me is the
Speaker 3: friend of a friend who is trying to make her
Speaker 3: name in the fashion industry. And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: like I would love to work with you. What's your rate?
Speaker 3: Can you help me out? This is gonna be big,
Speaker 3: It's gonna be photographed, you know, things like that. So
Speaker 3: ensuring that instead of looking at the you know, the
Speaker 3: super famous stylists with one hundred and fifty thousand followers,
Speaker 3: it's like, let me see who's in my network, who
Speaker 3: creatively can do this, Like even with my own ventures.
Speaker 3: My brand designer who did all my assets for like
Speaker 3: the new upcoming brand. She's someone who I worked with
Speaker 3: at Google, someone who I've known since I was nineteen,
Speaker 3: you know, when we were interns. So I love the
Speaker 3: idea of just keeping with the people that you know,
Speaker 3: because I'm sure in ten years she's going to be
Speaker 3: like the biggest name in design. But it's good to
Speaker 3: know that when I was twenty five I saw that
Speaker 3: and was like, yeah, I want to work with you.
Speaker 3: I want the stylist to be the next law Roach.
Speaker 3: It's like, yeah, I worked with this person way back when,
Speaker 3: and it's great to know that you can support people
Speaker 3: because these are the people who supported me. So it's
Speaker 3: honestly love.
Speaker 1: With you, Wing, I love it. I'm curious how do
Speaker 1: you decide when and where to share different aspects of
Speaker 1: your brand, so your interest, hobbies, accomplishments, when you're known
Speaker 1: for different things.
Speaker 3: That's a difficult one because everyone isn't going to love everything.
Speaker 3: I think as you transition and you create different kinds
Speaker 3: of content, you have to be willing one to lose
Speaker 3: people who were originally there, but also knowing that people
Speaker 3: won't say yes to you if you don't risk being
Speaker 3: told no. And I think that's the philosophy that I
Speaker 3: moved through my entire life with. So when it comes
Speaker 3: to sharing things, for example, when I share that I
Speaker 3: was applying to business school, I share that as like, Hey,
Speaker 3: this is my next step in my career. I'm going
Speaker 3: to go further my education, and I want you to
Speaker 3: know that it's perfectly okay to be someone who is
Speaker 3: self employed or working on your own venture and going
Speaker 3: to school doesn't mean you're giving up on yourself. It
Speaker 3: just means you want a bigger base to you know,
Speaker 3: spring your launch from. But even within that, like I
Speaker 3: haven't shared where I'm applying to school, I haven't shared
Speaker 3: you know, like acceptances or rejections. Those are things that
Speaker 3: I feel like will come later on down the line,
Speaker 3: because there's a certain level of privacy that you do
Speaker 3: give up as a creator. You know there are strangers
Speaker 3: invested in your life, and thank you for being invested
Speaker 3: in my life. But you know, at some point you
Speaker 3: have to say what is for me. So like, for example,
Speaker 3: I'll speak about dating, but like I'll never share my
Speaker 3: partner or who I'm dating. I'll you know, talk about
Speaker 3: like nightlife and like being out with my friends, but
Speaker 3: only my friends who have explicitly consented to being recorded
Speaker 3: are featured. So that's why you'll see like my best
Speaker 3: friend Dante a lot more than you'll see like some
Speaker 3: of my other friends from college or from work because
Speaker 3: they don't want to be on camera all the time.
Speaker 3: But he's super cool with being on camera. So you know,
Speaker 3: it's just you have to have your limits and know
Speaker 3: that even though it's work, it's still personal. So ensuring
Speaker 3: that the people around you feel safe and in kind.
Speaker 3: I think that's what creates an engaged audience, is they
Speaker 3: see that you love your life and you love the
Speaker 3: people who you interact with, and you know they want
Speaker 3: to watch that and they want to experience that with you.
Speaker 1: No, I've always wondered how do those conversations go when
Speaker 1: content creators have friends and they allow the audience to
Speaker 1: view their friendship. So I love that there are boundaries
Speaker 1: set in place in your friend groups and there are
Speaker 1: conversations being had about privacy and just keeping that intimate
Speaker 1: with your own experience. I love that my.
Speaker 3: Friends are great, honestly, but they have their moments where
Speaker 3: they'll be like, get that camera out my face, you know. Like,
Speaker 3: and my friends alway joke specifically on my last birthday
Speaker 3: trip we went to Arizona for a week and my
Speaker 3: friends joke, they're like, one thing about you, We're gonna
Speaker 3: record that cheers three times. And I was like, you
Speaker 3: are absolutely correct. We're gonna do it in point five,
Speaker 3: we're gonna do it in one, and then we're gonna
Speaker 3: do it on my blog camera for the YouTube video
Speaker 3: you are absolutely correct, but they're so used to it
Speaker 3: because they're like, it's fine. And then you know, if
Speaker 3: anyone ever does get like a little annoyed, it's like, hey,
Speaker 3: you want to be my plus one to this movie premiere?
Speaker 3: Like could come with me? Go it? Then it all works.
Speaker 1: I love that it's hilarious. So a good brand is
Speaker 1: one that is authentic. So how can college age women
Speaker 1: share their true personalities online without jeopardizing future opportunities?
Speaker 3: I think the primary thing I would say with this
Speaker 3: is you don't want to work anywhere where you can't
Speaker 3: present your full self, So use discernment to determine what
Speaker 3: your full sete. For some people, that means they talk
Speaker 3: about every aspect of their life, whether or not it's
Speaker 3: deemed socially appropriate or not. For others, they have boundaries
Speaker 3: where they're like, I won't discuss my sex life, I
Speaker 3: won't discuss dating, I won't use profanity. Some people are
Speaker 3: a lot stricter than others. I will say, this is
Speaker 3: super dependent as to you know what career field you
Speaker 3: want to go into. There are some fields that are
Speaker 3: a little more conservative, like the law or medicine, and
Speaker 3: then there are other fields like beauty or fashion where
Speaker 3: girl put that on, put that whole outfit on it,
Speaker 3: you take a picture because that, you know, beyond your resume,
Speaker 3: your Instagram is part of what is going to help
Speaker 3: you get hired. So I think using your discernment is
Speaker 3: the best advice I have here me personally, I'll post
Speaker 3: what I want because if someone is choosing not to
Speaker 3: employ me or not to admit me into a school,
Speaker 3: because my life is public consumption for someone else, and
Speaker 3: that's okay, that's their loss. Because the way I see
Speaker 3: it is I think of like content creations epically is
Speaker 3: like a new field in marketing. It's direct to consumer
Speaker 3: marketing is the best way I can explain it. You know,
Speaker 3: you are creating brand love and brand loyalty for an individual,
Speaker 3: and in kind, brands will hire you to you know,
Speaker 3: promote their products or be a trusted partner for them
Speaker 3: because people value your expertise. And I think if people
Speaker 3: value your expertise, you've clearly proven yourself as a marketer,
Speaker 3: as an entrepreneur, as a business owner. So someone else
Speaker 3: doesn't take you seriously because they don't value the industry
Speaker 3: or they don't value what you create, then that's their loss,
Speaker 3: so post what you want to post. Like, I have
Speaker 3: some things in my digital footprint where I'm like, damn,
Speaker 3: I google myself. I see it. I'm like, oh, well
Speaker 3: that's that. You know that was four years ago. You know.
Speaker 3: I see things pop up from when I was in
Speaker 3: high school or I'm like, shouldn't have said that, but
Speaker 3: it is what it is. You would hope that with
Speaker 3: age comes growth, and I will say, as I get older,
Speaker 3: I'm getting a lot more wiser.
Speaker 2: I will say that, Hi, I'm sorrya Taylor TBG podcast
Speaker 2: production intern. We'll return to Jana right after the break.
Speaker 1: I think partying and going out can still be seen
Speaker 1: as a taboo on social media. What advice do you
Speaker 1: have about balancing the desire to have fun with the
Speaker 1: need to protect your personal brand.
Speaker 3: I will say with this one, you don't have to
Speaker 3: go everywhere. Everything does not require your attendance. And I
Speaker 3: actually was taking to another creator about this and he
Speaker 3: said something to me that has really stuck with me.
Speaker 3: And he said to Smith a year ago, said, your
Speaker 3: presence is exclusive. Who you spend your time with is exclusive.
Speaker 3: You should not be for everyone. I think like going
Speaker 3: out and enjoying yourself is super fun. But even in
Speaker 3: a large party, that's still an intimate experience. You're still
Speaker 3: surrounded by people. We living a digital age or being
Speaker 3: watched things like that. Sometimes pick and choose what do
Speaker 3: you want to set yourself at and when do you
Speaker 3: want to stay home and relax. When do you want
Speaker 3: to pour into yourself versus pouring into your community. And
Speaker 3: I think that's the difference I feel like specifically me
Speaker 3: like living in New York and being in Brooklyn. I
Speaker 3: go out every weekend. I say the same people. I see,
Speaker 3: the same people I've been seeing since I was about
Speaker 3: eighteen or nineteen years old, since we were in mlt Cohorts.
Speaker 3: I know these people. If I miss one party, it's
Speaker 3: not going to kill me. You know, if I miss
Speaker 3: one thing, it's going to be okay. So I think
Speaker 3: you don't have to engage with everything. It's okay to
Speaker 3: be exclusive with your time because you can cultivate community
Speaker 3: five days out the week, but you have to take
Speaker 3: some time for yourself. And that's why consistently every month,
Speaker 3: I'm like the fifteenth rolls around. I'm like, most time
Speaker 3: to stay in my house, lits to a face mouset's watch.
Speaker 3: Some TV. You know, I'll watch a good rom come,
Speaker 3: paint my nails, mindlessly, scroll on the internet, put my
Speaker 3: phone away, things like that. It's like you have to
Speaker 3: take care of yourself. And I feel like people want
Speaker 3: to be outside and people think that time is super fleeting.
Speaker 3: But I promise you not being in your twenties does
Speaker 3: not mean that you're old. Like, if anything, you're probably
Speaker 3: in the peak of your life when you get out
Speaker 3: your twenties. So true, there is no rush, there's no
Speaker 3: rush to be there.
Speaker 1: Heavy on those get out of the mindset that your
Speaker 1: twenties are the last years of your life. I'm really
Speaker 1: trying to reemphasize that, and that you have to be
Speaker 1: in everyone's face or just at every social gathering. There's
Speaker 1: something about saving your energy that I've started to see
Speaker 1: more post grad that I should have probably implemented a
Speaker 1: little bit more during college. But I enjoy it. I
Speaker 1: want to be in my bed, I want to be
Speaker 1: my robe, I want to have my topicals. I'm ask
Speaker 1: on I rather have it, actually, so I fully agree.
Speaker 3: I agree wholeheartedly. I was that girl in college. I
Speaker 3: went out six days a week. Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 3: was in the books, but I was partying to the
Speaker 3: point where my mom came to visit me my senior
Speaker 3: year and she was like, girl, and I had just
Speaker 3: gotten surgery. That's why she came to visit me. And
Speaker 3: two days after the surgery, I'm like, okay, yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go I'm gonna go out. And she had
Speaker 3: to sit me down and was like, baby, no, you're not.
Speaker 3: She was like, you're gonna sit down. You go to
Speaker 3: the same bar every week with the same people that
Speaker 3: you go to college with. It's okay. You don't need
Speaker 3: to do things like this. And I think for me,
Speaker 3: as like I've gotten older, pouring into yourself is super
Speaker 3: important because you can't pour from an empty cup. And
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people like to over exert
Speaker 3: themselves and it happens so naturally that you don't even
Speaker 3: know that you're pouring from an empty cup. But at
Speaker 3: some point that's gonna break. So you have to take
Speaker 3: time to just relax. And I'll tell you one thing.
Speaker 3: Me and topicals. We I got the faded serum on
Speaker 3: my face, got my eyemasks on, I've wrapped my hair up.
Speaker 3: Oh I'll finish all that. Sit down, pull out my
Speaker 3: mirror and just start doing my makeup. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let's let's see how this blush is looking. Let's see
Speaker 3: how we're going to carve these eyebrows. Just for fun,
Speaker 3: put on my favorite YouTubers and just watch just till
Speaker 3: and make a good meal, something hearty in my house
Speaker 3: or even you know, order something real greasy on uber eats.
Speaker 3: It's like reward yourself for spending time with yourself. Like,
Speaker 3: how can you exist and say you're going to interact
Speaker 3: with other people if you can't identify what you like
Speaker 3: about yourself and you don't like spending time with yourself,
Speaker 3: you have to be alone at some point to understand
Speaker 3: how to be in community with other people.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that in for sure. But moving on,
Speaker 1: tell us how important are LinkedIn and other professional and
Speaker 1: social media platforms in building one's brand.
Speaker 3: LinkedIn is the goat. One thing about me, here's what
Speaker 3: I'll say. When I was nineteen, i joined this program
Speaker 3: called MLT Management Leadership for Tomorrow. It's like designed to
Speaker 3: train you know, black and brown young people to be
Speaker 3: like business leaders. And my coach, her name was Coach Stancil.
Speaker 3: He said something to me in my first call with
Speaker 3: her because she asked me what I wanted to do,
Speaker 3: and at the time I didn't know. I told her
Speaker 3: I had finance experience, I had marketing experience. I'd done
Speaker 3: some social work, but I was interested in tech, music,
Speaker 3: consumer baggage, goods, sports. I was like, I'll do anything
Speaker 3: I like, because in my mind, a career is not linear,
Speaker 3: like you don't start something and have to do for
Speaker 3: the rest of your life. I was like, oh, I
Speaker 3: can work this and then I'll figure out a way.
Speaker 3: You know, if I wanted to go work for the
Speaker 3: next Like I figure out a way to go work
Speaker 3: for the next It's okay, you know, we'll get there.
Speaker 3: And she said something to me where she was like,
Speaker 3: you just need to start searching on LinkedIn. She was like,
Speaker 3: search for the companies that you like, search your school,
Speaker 3: search your high school. Search people who are connected with
Speaker 3: your other friends. I would literally be in the search
Speaker 3: bar like NBA, Vanderbilt University political Science, just searching like
Speaker 3: who was a policy major at this school? And you
Speaker 3: know you'll find people in a to act with people
Speaker 3: were so much older. But I would literally be like, hey,
Speaker 3: can I get fifteen minutes of your time to talk
Speaker 3: with you about this, this, this, and this. I'm super
Speaker 3: intrigued about what you do and I'm thinking about my
Speaker 3: career plans. And a lot of those people responded and
Speaker 3: were super kind, and I'd actually say the biggest person
Speaker 3: who responded to me. I don't know if you're familiar
Speaker 3: with the Creative Collective and like culture Con, but the
Speaker 3: person who founded that Imani. She graduated from Vanderbilt about
Speaker 3: eight years before I graduated, but I saw her on
Speaker 3: LinkedIn at the time. He was a manager at NBCUniversal
Speaker 3: working on publicity, and I saw she was working on
Speaker 3: Bravos Up Atlanta, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: I love that show. Like we send her a message.
Speaker 3: I sent her a message. She hops on a call
Speaker 3: with me, She's telling me about her career hilariously. Like
Speaker 3: a year later, I ended up being on exec for
Speaker 3: a club that she founded when she was a student
Speaker 3: at Vanderbilt. We kept in contact over the years, you know,
Speaker 3: just like hi, and by passing messages. And now she's
Speaker 3: taken the Creative collective full time and is doing culture
Speaker 3: Con and things like that. And I'm working as a
Speaker 3: creative full time, and she's consistently inviting me to things
Speaker 3: consistently keeping my name in conversation. I've gone to events
Speaker 3: where it's like I'm meeting someone who the VP of
Speaker 3: influencer marketing at Carol's Daughter and then telling her how
Speaker 3: much I love the product. It's like, yeah, like my
Speaker 3: mom's been using this on me since I was a kid.
Speaker 3: And then I'm getting brought onto campaigns for Carol's Daughter,
Speaker 3: like when they were doing the Color Purple movie launch,
Speaker 3: And I think for me, it's like none of that
Speaker 3: would have been possible if you just didn't have the
Speaker 3: fear of rejection. Your fear of looking stupid is holding
Speaker 3: you back, Like that's really what it is, because she
Speaker 3: could have ignored it, and that would have been completely
Speaker 3: fine if she ignored it. There's so many people who
Speaker 3: ignore you, who don't want to help. But good people
Speaker 3: will respond to you, but you have to put yourself
Speaker 3: out there first for them to respond, for them to say, hey,
Speaker 3: you know I'm doing this. And I think a lot
Speaker 3: of people stop at the initial interaction. If you're a
Speaker 3: college student and you connected with somebody who works that
Speaker 3: job that you want in the end, keep them updated.
Speaker 3: For me, it'll be like every semester I'd send a
Speaker 3: message to anyone who was like super intrigued, and I'd
Speaker 3: be like, hey, like, i just finished up my sophomore
Speaker 3: year and i'm studying this now, but I'm working with
Speaker 3: ESPNU on campus and a student government. We're doing this.
Speaker 3: Keep me updated, like what's going on in your world?
Speaker 3: And like, I think just having those conversations has really
Speaker 3: done a lot for me, because I remember posting on
Speaker 3: LinkedIn after the layoff, Hey I'm not looking for a job,
Speaker 3: but if something pops up, that's excellent. I'm totally willing
Speaker 3: to entertain this and the amount of people who sent
Speaker 3: me messages and they were like, oh, I'm hiring here,
Speaker 3: or like my team is looking for this, or consultancy
Speaker 3: opportunities that have come through just like using LinkedIn and
Speaker 3: people seeing what was going on there. I think LinkedIn
Speaker 3: is truly the most powerful social networking app and people
Speaker 3: don't even think about it in the conversation with like
Speaker 3: a TikTok or a Twitter, but it's one hundred percent
Speaker 3: just as powerful, and there's really good content and useful
Speaker 3: information that you can find there that will truly help you.
Speaker 1: So once you secure your dream job or opportunity, how
Speaker 1: do you continue building your brand and communicating your wins,
Speaker 1: interests and aspirations.
Speaker 3: So this is something that my older cousin taught me,
Speaker 3: so for reference, he's seven years older than me, but
Speaker 3: he's been working for a minute. But when I did
Speaker 3: my first internship, which was in high school, at I
Speaker 3: did at spray Ground Backpack, like a company that makes
Speaker 3: really cool backpacks. And I got that internship because I
Speaker 3: called their warehouse and I was like, hey, I'm a
Speaker 3: huge fan of this brand. I want to work for you. Guys.
Speaker 3: Who was in charge of your internship program? And they
Speaker 3: were like, we don't have an internship program. This is
Speaker 3: a company of four people. We do not have that.
Speaker 3: And I was like, okay, who's your president, who's in charge,
Speaker 3: who's the big man here? And you know, reached out,
Speaker 3: sent this long I was sixteen, sent this long email
Speaker 3: about how much I love the company and I see
Speaker 3: it all the time and I have all these different
Speaker 3: bags and I'm trying to learn these new skills. And
Speaker 3: they were like, okay, well if you can get credit
Speaker 3: from your high school, then sure. So I went to
Speaker 3: my guidance counsel and say, hey, I need credit for
Speaker 3: a work study, I'm trying to get this internship and
Speaker 3: they're like, we don't do that. I'm like, okay, but
Speaker 3: some's gonna have to shake here because I had already finished,
Speaker 3: you know, the graduation requirements, and I wanted to do
Speaker 3: this thing, so let's see, and you know, they figured
Speaker 3: it out on the back end and allowed me to
Speaker 3: do that. But when I started that internship, my cousin
Speaker 3: told me, he was like, even though they're not paying you,
Speaker 3: you need to prove that you're brilliant. So you tell
Speaker 3: me accountability is the biggest thing that anyone seeks in
Speaker 3: the workplace is knowing that someone will hold their own
Speaker 3: when you need them to hold their own. So since
Speaker 3: that internship, I've done the same thing, and I even
Speaker 3: do it now as a creator. When I'm like looking
Speaker 3: to recap or like I'm working with brands and stuff.
Speaker 3: At the end of every week or every big milestone,
Speaker 3: you just got to send a simple update. So how
Speaker 3: I would do it. I would track it in Excel
Speaker 3: or Google sheets, right, have every single deliverable that I
Speaker 3: was working on, and there would just be a progress tracker,
Speaker 3: like you know what step am I on? Have I
Speaker 3: finished the deck? Have I done the research, all that,
Speaker 3: and just a simple quick email at the end of
Speaker 3: each week like hey, I've done this, I've done this,
Speaker 3: and next week, this is what I'm working on and
Speaker 3: this is what I'm building out from really helps you
Speaker 3: so much. Keeping a running document of everything you're doing
Speaker 3: with your manager or if you're self employed, just everything
Speaker 3: you're doing because you got to write resume bullets, you
Speaker 3: got to be able to advocate for yourself when it
Speaker 3: comes time to go for promotion. You never want to
Speaker 3: be not on the same page as your manager when
Speaker 3: it comes time for you to get promoted. And if
Speaker 3: you're not on the same page, that's your record that
Speaker 3: proves that you did everything right instead of just flying
Speaker 3: by the seat of your pants. So I think for me,
Speaker 3: showing accountability has been the biggest thing that I've been
Speaker 3: able to do within my time in the corporate world,
Speaker 3: my time now as a creator, even now that I
Speaker 3: work on campaigns, I literally have my manager send thank
Speaker 3: you notes to every single person that I work with, like, Hey,
Speaker 3: this was a joy. You know, even if things like
Speaker 3: we're on the campaign and things are late and it's like, hey,
Speaker 3: I'm delayed on this flight, but I'm going to get
Speaker 3: this to you by the end of the day, but
Speaker 3: it's going to be like eight pm. You know, just
Speaker 3: be on the lookout. It's like, if you are holding
Speaker 3: yourself accountable and you're being consistent, that behavior will be
Speaker 3: rewarded and that will show that you've been able to,
Speaker 3: you know, deliver good work, like you're a trusted partner.
Speaker 3: And that is held up even now because there have
Speaker 3: been times I've been on campaigns where things were late,
Speaker 3: or things were out of my control, or they give
Speaker 3: me twelve hours to bring back a concept and the
Speaker 3: content from the brief that has three words and you're
Speaker 3: just like, okay, well I got it. It's cool. But
Speaker 3: because of that, they keep coming back and they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: I want to keep working with her because I like her.
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of people don't look at
Speaker 3: consistency and account of ability. They want to have the
Speaker 3: biggest project and have the most in your face thing.
Speaker 3: But sometimes it's as simple as just maintaining consistent communication
Speaker 3: with the person who manages you or you know, a
Speaker 3: cross functional partner. That'll make all the difference and how
Speaker 3: you're perceived in the workplace and how your reputation moves forward.
Speaker 1: That is I'm literally taking that like okay, Like no,
Speaker 1: I need to be accountable and consistent. That's a huge
Speaker 1: gym I think is overlooked. I think young professionals get
Speaker 1: placed into the workforce, and I'll speak for myself and
Speaker 1: that mentality of college of like grind and get it
Speaker 1: done and just do it and learn along the way.
Speaker 1: But taking a step back and just remaining consistent in
Speaker 1: all that you do and holding yourself accountable and all
Speaker 1: that you do can also go a long way in
Speaker 1: addition to the grind, in addition to the hustle. So
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: That's perfect faith with that works, Like what's the point?
Speaker 1: What's the point?
Speaker 3: Which point? Okay, where are we gonna go from here?
Speaker 1: Right in your perspective, how important is someone's social media
Speaker 1: account when finding opportunities? Can you confirm or deny the
Speaker 1: idea that jobs, internships, and or colleges check their applicants
Speaker 1: social media pages?
Speaker 3: Okay, so this is a little iffy. I can say
Speaker 3: yes and no. So I've been in situations where jobs
Speaker 3: have checked it's part of like the background check. Then
Speaker 3: I've been in situations where like working admissions and stuff
Speaker 3: in college, Like if someone mentions that they're a creator,
Speaker 3: you're like, Okay, well I'm gonna go look. And I know,
Speaker 3: personally from my experience and applying to business school, like
Speaker 3: my work as an influencer is on my resume. It's
Speaker 3: listed as my job with metrics and partnerships and like
Speaker 3: links to like all the stuff that I've done. So
Speaker 3: I'm not shocked when, you know, in an interview someone's like, hey,
Speaker 3: I watched like your last ten tiktoks. Tell me about this.
Speaker 3: Tell me about that. I think some places that are
Speaker 3: more conservative or you know, are more tightly laced. They're
Speaker 3: checking to see if there's anything negative. But if you
Speaker 3: are mentioning it as part of your story, they're checking
Speaker 3: to see what you do. This is your job, this
Speaker 3: is your passion. I I do like college application mentorship
Speaker 3: through this organization in New York. And one of the
Speaker 3: people who I was mentoring this past cycle, she was
Speaker 3: a YouTuber and she maybe had like five or six
Speaker 3: thousand subscribers, which had a really engaged community, and it
Speaker 3: was something that she put on her resume, and she
Speaker 3: was applying to all these schools and was like, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, this is what I do for fun. This
Speaker 3: is my main extracurricular activity. I don't play a sport.
Speaker 3: I'm not a student government. I make content and there
Speaker 3: are six thousand people who watch this content, and I
Speaker 3: will continue to grow. I saw that, I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: they're definitely gonna watch the video. Like it's part of
Speaker 3: your stories, what you wrote your essay on. So I
Speaker 3: think if your content and the things that you put
Speaker 3: out become part of your story and as a result,
Speaker 3: become a part of your personal brand, it's the expectation
Speaker 3: is that would be looked at and checked. But some
Speaker 3: places they're just nosy. I'll tell you one thing. My
Speaker 3: mom's a nurse. You know, when she's looking to hire
Speaker 3: a new nurse, she's on that Instagram making sure that
Speaker 3: there's nothing crazy on there. You know, She's like, are
Speaker 3: you arguing with somebody on the internet? Are you saying
Speaker 3: mean things? Do you have an uncaring spirit? You know?
Speaker 3: Things like that. But I feel like most of the
Speaker 3: time it's usually pretty chill because people aren't posting super
Speaker 3: outrageous things. Now, god forbid, you post a tweet or
Speaker 3: something that goes viral and you're getting heat. I've seen
Speaker 3: that happen to people where one of my TikTok must rules.
Speaker 3: She goes to the TikTok that was like about the
Speaker 3: former president and she literally lost her job because of
Speaker 3: how up in arms people were about that she was
Speaker 3: not employed. But that's also because her company was conservative
Speaker 3: and they were unwilling to have that. Meanwhile, when I
Speaker 3: was like, oo, why, multiple people be like, oh I
Speaker 3: didn't like her TikTok of how the sister is report me,
Speaker 3: and they'd be like, okay, I wasn't a company time
Speaker 3: like thank you for sharing. So it depends.
Speaker 1: Going off of that, What are some other immediate no
Speaker 1: nos regarding what we're posting on our social media pages?
Speaker 3: Okay, I would say the big no no is anything
Speaker 3: that's illegal. People can tolerate your political views. They can
Speaker 3: tolerate how you feel about a musician. You know, I
Speaker 3: tweet almost every week that I don't like Drake and
Speaker 3: Travis Scott. I'm like, I don't like it. It's not
Speaker 3: for me, it's not fun. But you know, I know
Speaker 3: the girls are throwing tomatoes. I don't throw to fanos everything.
Speaker 3: I don't like them. I made a TikTok or I
Speaker 3: was like Drake's concert was the worst waste of money.
Speaker 3: I asked Amex for my money back. I didn't like
Speaker 3: it because I'm a Beyonce fan. I want to see performance.
Speaker 3: But no one's going to be like, oh, that's outrageous.
Speaker 3: I don't like that she dis likes this artist, or
Speaker 3: I don't like that she doesn't like this food, or
Speaker 3: like things like that. The one thing people will one
Speaker 3: hundred percent look and be like that's a red flag
Speaker 3: if it's something illegal, drugs, things like that. That is
Speaker 3: just like the biggest no no that I can give.
Speaker 3: And I know, hilariously, Like, I had a conversation with
Speaker 3: another creative about this recently, because I live in a
Speaker 3: state where marijuana is legalized on the state wide level.
Speaker 3: Recreationally walk down the street and see people smoking leed
Speaker 3: and it's not an issue. But she was looking at
Speaker 3: her numbers and she's like, yeah, like I smoke leed,
Speaker 3: but I can't post that because a lot of people
Speaker 3: who follow me live in Middle America and that's not
Speaker 3: legal there, and I don't want to mess up my money.
Speaker 3: And you know, she sat down and been like, that's
Speaker 3: the line that she's drawing. Meanwhile, there are other creators
Speaker 3: who have entire brands based on cannabis. I know someone
Speaker 3: who his entire brand on TikTok is like advocacy to
Speaker 3: get people of color into the cannabis space because we're
Speaker 3: overincarcerated for cannabis offenses but underemployed in the industry. I
Speaker 3: think there's ways to make something that isn't inherently positive
Speaker 3: become positive. I think his spin is great, But one
Speaker 3: of my friends, like, if my influencer friend was just like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm a pothead, she could just expect to not get
Speaker 3: paid for that month because that's not productive realistically. Meanwhile,
Speaker 3: what the other kid is doing is super productive, where
Speaker 3: he's like, hey, we over index on incarceration for this offense,
Speaker 3: but these new things are coming. You should apply for
Speaker 3: your license if this is something that you did. For example,
Speaker 3: New York vacated a lot of cannabis related convictions and
Speaker 3: the people who were convicted for those offenses were able
Speaker 3: to get priority and getting legal licenses to open up storefronts.
Speaker 3: Post about that. Beyond that, it gets a little dicey
Speaker 3: because that's the only one that's really you know, legal
Speaker 3: anywhere else, Like, please your habits if you have habits,
Speaker 3: you know, we cannot share those habits publicly with people
Speaker 3: because that can turnish you on an insane insane level.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm sorrya Taylor and I'm the TBG podcast production.
Speaker 2: We'll return to Jana right after the break.
Speaker 1: On the flip side, what types of content might one
Speaker 1: lean into posting to their social media accounts to attract
Speaker 1: brands or job opportunities.
Speaker 3: This is a great one. Finance is a huge one.
Speaker 3: If you are someone you are about your money, you
Speaker 3: maximize your credit card points, you talk about managing debt,
Speaker 3: or you're young and you're trying to figure your money out,
Speaker 3: that is a great, great thing to post about. I
Speaker 3: feel like to my most successful videos have been this
Speaker 3: is how I've managed my money as someone who's twenty
Speaker 3: five and self employed and trying to do this. I
Speaker 3: think beauty is long standing, you know. I think like
Speaker 3: black women consume like trillions of dollars in beauty product
Speaker 3: each year. That's always going to be something that's super
Speaker 3: super relatable and it's evergreen. And in general, lifestyle, like,
Speaker 3: if you are posting about your life, you are able
Speaker 3: to bring in deals from so many different verticals like
Speaker 3: I've done deals with food companies, like I have something
Speaker 3: coming up with Burger Game. Then you know, like I've
Speaker 3: done like cleaning products or like H and R block
Speaker 3: for finances, airlines, things like that. You know, there's so
Speaker 3: many different things to do if you're an everything poster
Speaker 3: and you don't necessarily niche down super super niche. But
Speaker 3: I would say those are the big three. But finance
Speaker 3: is definitely the biggest one. If you are somebody where
Speaker 3: your coins are together and you're on that Marcus app
Speaker 3: or you're on that you need a budget app and
Speaker 3: your money is right, share that with people because there
Speaker 3: are a lot of people who don't have their money
Speaker 3: right who are trying to figure it out and they're
Speaker 3: struggling because they can't find the information that applies to them. So,
Speaker 3: you know, if you have student debt and like you're
Speaker 3: paying that off, I think that's valuable and that's important
Speaker 3: to a lot of people, and that market is unfortunately
Speaker 3: not very it's not very black, and I would love
Speaker 3: to see more black people, more Black women sharing their
Speaker 3: journeys and talking about that, like where is bad advice?
Speaker 3: You know? I think that is really something that's super
Speaker 3: helpful to everyone young, old, no matter what you identify as.
Speaker 3: Everyone's trying to figure their finances out. So that's a
Speaker 3: great way to build a community. And you can also
Speaker 3: integrate a lot of other things from that finance perspective.
Speaker 3: You can integrate lifestyle. You can talk about your spending
Speaker 3: habits for personal maintenance. There's so many ways to make
Speaker 3: that something impactful.
Speaker 1: Right, So, we know you can't have a pop in
Speaker 1: brand without haters. So how have you navigated negative comments
Speaker 1: or animosity from others?
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm not gonna lie. I'm from Brooklyn, So there
Speaker 3: are some things where I'm going to let it roll
Speaker 3: off and I'll be like, you know what, I don't
Speaker 3: really care. But there are some things I'm like, that
Speaker 3: was so disrespectful and I'm actually going to get you
Speaker 3: and I will address this deep because you are out
Speaker 3: your mind if you think you can speak to me
Speaker 3: like this. The one thing I always say to anyone
Speaker 3: who's looking to create content is there's three things you
Speaker 3: need to think of. One. Everyone wants to be an influencer,
Speaker 3: but influence can't be manufactured. It's inherently innate. Are people
Speaker 3: interested in you in your personal life? If so, go
Speaker 3: ahead and post that video. Go ahead and post that video.
Speaker 3: If not, it's like, maybe you don't need to work
Speaker 3: in front of the camera. Maybe you're the production maybe
Speaker 3: you're you know, the editor. Because every single person who
Speaker 3: I know who has made like a career out of
Speaker 3: this is someone who was pretty dynamic in their personal life.
Speaker 3: The second thing, how thick is your skin? How thick
Speaker 3: is your skin? Because if you're in front of the camera,
Speaker 3: everything you do will be criticized. Like I have been
Speaker 3: criticized for gaining weight, losing weight, you know, Like I've
Speaker 3: literally have people say I don't like the way your
Speaker 3: mouth moves. Do you have botox? I'm like, this is
Speaker 3: my face. There's people who chat about you anonymously on
Speaker 3: different forums and you have to just be willing to
Speaker 3: take it. I've personally gotten to a point where the
Speaker 3: only way to protect yourself from those kinds of things
Speaker 3: is to not engage with it. So my comments are filtered.
Speaker 3: I don't check anonymous forums. Things like that, but you know,
Speaker 3: don't get to you at some point, And I think
Speaker 3: every person has their breaking point, and there are some
Speaker 3: that are stronger than others where they don't even entertain
Speaker 3: it from the beginning, and then you know some like
Speaker 3: me where you're like, damn, w don't you say that,
Speaker 3: Like my feelings are hurt. That was not okay. I've
Speaker 3: had to find that balance between clapping back and just
Speaker 3: ignoring it. But I always say, especially when someone has
Speaker 3: disrespected me and they're like, oh, well, you post your
Speaker 3: life online, you know you should expect criticism, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: this is not a safe space. This is my space,
Speaker 3: this is my account, like we that's not how this works.
Speaker 3: You don't get to just randomly disrespect people under the
Speaker 3: cover of anonymity and expect that they won't respond to you,
Speaker 3: you know. So, I think when that has been the case,
Speaker 3: it's a little different. And I've I've been in situations
Speaker 3: where people who I know in my personal life, I've
Speaker 3: clicked the link and it redirects to their TikTok and
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, that's you. Why are you doing that.
Speaker 3: It's one of those things where it's like it comes
Speaker 3: with the territory, but it doesn't make it any less hurtful.
Speaker 3: You just have to at some point develop a skin
Speaker 3: that's thick enough to where it's not the top of mind. Freedom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know the point of I guess expressing
Speaker 1: negativity to strangers, I don't know. So I definitely agree
Speaker 1: like keeping a thick skin and having that mindset over
Speaker 1: anything else. It's a bit strange when that happens to
Speaker 1: content creators and providing opinions about strangers' lives. So I
Speaker 1: don't know. That's just what I've gathered from that.
Speaker 3: I think there just comes a time where you have
Speaker 3: to sit down as a creator and be like, what
Speaker 3: is constructive and what isn't. I had someone, hilariously like
Speaker 3: six months ago, send me the longest Instagram DM multi
Speaker 3: I scrolled for what felt like four minutes about how
Speaker 3: they don't like that me being a self employed person.
Speaker 3: They feel like I'm no longer relatable to them, and
Speaker 3: you know, they missed when I was like fresh out
Speaker 3: of college and like going to the office and things
Speaker 3: like that. And there were some constructive points in there
Speaker 3: where they were like, you know, I'd love to see
Speaker 3: you know your family again, I'd love to see your friends.
Speaker 3: The things you're just doing. I don't want to see
Speaker 3: you on vacation twenty four to seven. That was helpful,
Speaker 3: Thank you. I will incorporate that feedback, but then you know,
Speaker 3: other times it's like I don't like your face, or
Speaker 3: you know, your hair looks crazy, and it's like, all right,
Speaker 3: now I'm in my house, you know so. And I
Speaker 3: think as a creator, you also have to be very
Speaker 3: accepting of the fact that something you post on one
Speaker 3: app could you reposted on another. There are multiple times
Speaker 3: like a TikTok of mine has made us to Twitter,
Speaker 3: and Twitter is ruthless. At that point, it's lock, they countdown.
Speaker 3: We're in hiding what is what it is? Or like
Speaker 3: knowing that someone will take one thing that you say
Speaker 3: out of context and run with it and create an
Speaker 3: entire perception of you in their head when they've never
Speaker 3: met you, and they could point you out on the street.
Speaker 3: But I think it's really important to know as a creator,
Speaker 3: but also as a viewer that social media is curated.
Speaker 3: You're never going to get one hundred percent twenty four
Speaker 3: to seven of someone's life, and knowing that what you see,
Speaker 3: whether you relate to it or you aspire to it,
Speaker 3: through it all, it's entertainment. It's not one hundred percent
Speaker 3: what that person is going through. So just acknowledging that
Speaker 3: as a viewer but also as the creator has really
Speaker 3: just changed how I feel about a lot of the
Speaker 3: content that I interact with and a lot of the
Speaker 3: things that are said to me. I'm just like, all right, cool.
Speaker 3: If you're not entertained, then I'm sorry. You know, I
Speaker 3: find somebody else entertain you.
Speaker 1: So where do you see your brand going in the
Speaker 1: next few years?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Well, I'm going back to school in August.
Speaker 3: TVD where I'll be. But you know, fingers crossed don't
Speaker 3: be my tough choices. So for me, I see my
Speaker 3: brand moving backwards a little bit, going back to you know,
Speaker 3: my student era, and going back to the networking and
Speaker 3: the building that I was creating. I think as a creator,
Speaker 3: no one knows how long your life SPAN's going to be.
Speaker 3: I think the average is like three to five years,
Speaker 3: and I'm on your four. If I make it past five, woo,
Speaker 3: you know, I pretty much got the creator pension. I guess.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like, this is lovely when I think
Speaker 3: of like myself, I don't see this as a forever thing,
Speaker 3: because you know, trend change, people change, I'll change. Who
Speaker 3: knows what my life will look like in a few years.
Speaker 3: But what I do see my personal brand continuing to
Speaker 3: do is building community, whether that means online or in person.
Speaker 3: Building space is inclusive spaces for people who want to
Speaker 3: achieve things in their lives and for people who you
Speaker 3: know are the builders and want to make the spaces
Speaker 3: that they don't have. And whether that's through like my
Speaker 3: upcoming venture, whether that's through social media, whether that's returning
Speaker 3: to a traditional job and you know, another industry. When
Speaker 3: I look at my brand, all I can see is
Speaker 3: consistency and accountability, because no matter what I end up doing,
Speaker 3: I know those are the two things that I will
Speaker 3: continue to do, doesn't matter how flips I love it.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to see your school era. I feel
Speaker 1: like that's going to be so exciting to see and
Speaker 1: just sending you the best energy towards that. That's amazing.
Speaker 3: Applying to business school has objectively been the hardest thing
Speaker 3: I've done as an adult, between testing and figuring out
Speaker 3: where you're going to apply, interviews, things like that. This
Speaker 3: process will be over in a month, and I could
Speaker 3: not be happier.
Speaker 1: Well, we're celebrating, celebrating an advanced period.
Speaker 3: We are. I'm excited. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: Do you have any recommended podcasts or social media pages
Speaker 1: that we should look into to deepen our knowledge on
Speaker 1: building a brand.
Speaker 3: I love Balanced Black Girl by Lez. I don't know
Speaker 3: if people are familiar, but she does a lot of
Speaker 3: stuff in the wellness space. But there's an episode in
Speaker 3: particular that one of my friends, Kitlin Cooney, was featured
Speaker 3: on and it was about your personal finances in your
Speaker 3: twenties and how you know, build the dream life that
Speaker 3: you want starting from the ground up with your finances.
Speaker 3: And I think that is the biggest thing you could
Speaker 3: possibly do for your personal brand, is make sure that
Speaker 3: you are getting paid. You know a lot of people
Speaker 3: don't necessarily think of finances as part of the brand,
Speaker 3: but it's one hundred percent part of the brand. I
Speaker 3: will stand on this. And then I love Go Offices
Speaker 3: from Refinery twenty nine. I think every episode provides insight,
Speaker 3: shows me something that you know, I wasn't thinking of. Particularly,
Speaker 3: they did an episode of Joyofudu. She's a voiceover actor,
Speaker 3: and she talked a lot about like her journey leaving
Speaker 3: her corporate job to move into creative field. And I
Speaker 3: think the idea of betting on yourself is super important
Speaker 3: because if you can't bet on yourself? What can you
Speaker 3: bet on? And those two podcasts have definitely made me
Speaker 3: think and like really just deepen my connection with myself
Speaker 3: and as a result, that's been a huge part of
Speaker 3: my personal brand and how I look at myself and
Speaker 3: how I'm growing. So those are probably my big two
Speaker 3: that I could recommend now. If you just want something fun,
Speaker 3: to listen to Sisters Who Kill. If you like true crime,
Speaker 3: I love some true crime. That was just funny. You
Speaker 3: want to turn your brain off, go listen to Maran
Speaker 3: Taz talk about that.
Speaker 1: Love true crime, love turning my brain off. Love both
Speaker 1: of those things. So I love all of those ships.
Speaker 1: So Sidoni, where can we keep up with you? What
Speaker 1: are your social media handles and website?
Speaker 3: Yes so Soidnifrancis dot com is all thanks to Dony.
Speaker 3: But you can find me on TikTok and Instagram at
Speaker 3: Francis and then you can find me on YouTube with
Speaker 3: my government name Saddani Francis. It's all. It's all the same.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being the big sister that we never
Speaker 1: knew we needed. This conversation was amazing. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: so much for talking with me, and again, congratulations on
Speaker 1: applying to business school in that venture. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to see it.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: I'm such a big fan.
Speaker 1: Of course, I want to thank Sadoni once again for
Speaker 1: joining us for this episode. Classes over for now, but
Speaker 1: before we dismiss, take the following notes from my conversation
Speaker 1: with Sidoni home with you. Get with your college's career
Speaker 1: services office to see what internships are available. Complete an
Speaker 1: audit of your social media pages to make sure you're
Speaker 1: representing yourself in the best way possible. Message someone you
Speaker 1: admire on LinkedIn and set up a call to learn
Speaker 1: how they got to where they are. To learn more
Speaker 1: about the work Sedoni is doing, or to do more
Speaker 1: research on this topic, be sure to visit Therapy for
Speaker 1: Blackgirls dot com slash tvgu This episode was produced by FRIEDA. Lucas,
Speaker 1: Elise Ellis, and Zaria Taylor. Editing is by Dennison L. Bradford.