my creator journey pt. 1: how it all started
"so how did you even get into this?" & my first paid partnership
february 2020, san francisco, california
i was sitting at my desk at my 9-5 minding my business, when i got a text.
“hiii i talked to our influencer person and she said she’d totally work with you if you’re interested,” i was gagged. “is that something you’d like?? i think she’d send you product and then you would promote it.” i think i had around 6k followers at the time.
i had run into a manager from my first big girl job at an event the night before. while catching up, she had nothing but great things to say about my instagram. we joked about me doing some content for the brand she was currently working for.
i thought we were just joking. a few days later, i’d signed my first contract.
~
you can say that i started creating “content” in 2015. i was in college and working at a local student apartment complex where our goal was to introduce students to a new type of housing. we did it with being creative on social media. my manager at the time was all about creating “artsy” content. there was a mix of playful, funny, cutesy, and even informative content, but the “artsy” style that was reminiscent of tumblr’s glory days with moody filters is what had me hooked on creating for social.
in 2017 i decided to challenge myself on my own instagram when i did a “100 days of happiness” photo challenge where i posted a photo of something that made me happy every day for 100 days. i’d lean into the “artsy” style of content that i’d grown to love + my love for writing to describe the feels each day and boom - i was officially creating “content.” i used instagram filters to make my otherwise boring photos look “artsy”. i guess now you could call that “aesthetic.” as i’m writing this, i’m realizing that maybe this was the beginning of me capturing life’s most mundane moments in an aesthetic and beautiful way.
only a few months later i was officially a california girl. i’d graduated college in mississippi and headed to san francisco for a summer internship that turned into a full career in advertising - the first “big girl” job i referenced earlier. i documented the experience of moving thousands of miles away from everything i knew + what i saw and did along the way - the golden gate bridge, life in the city, over-the-top work events, and so much more.
and girl, people were tuned in. my following started to grow. people started to ask more questions. strangers started cheering me on. things were shifting. my interest in photography grew. in additional to playing around with my iphone, i started buying cameras and experimenting with different filters, presets, and editing styles. you could say that san francisco was one of my first muses. one of the first destinations i captured and told stories around.
but working in advertising and what i like to call “california corporate” culture was opening me up to a completely different world. casual “what did you do this weekend?” convos were answered with things like “went skiing at lake tahoe and stayed in an huge cabin” and “went up to wine country to enjoy the weather." know that my eyes had been OPENED ok. possibilities were endless.
then, i started traveling internationally.
after a few group trips to mexico, south of france, and paris, i took my first solo trip in 2019 and my whole entire life changed. if i can look back and pinpoint a couple of moments, decisions, or circumstances that were a turning point in my life - my trip to bali, indonesia for my 25th birthday was absolutely one of them.
bali wasn’t even supposed to be a solo trip. two girls cancelled on me, so i cancelled my flight too. the disappointment was so intense, that i started doing research on solo travel. probably dozens of articles, youtube videos, and instagram posts researched later, i had rebooked my flight.
bali is where i really got good at shooting my own photos and videos. travel content is different than beauty, lifestyle, etc. - it’s all about capturing a sense of place. it’s a delicate dance of being able to be present, to experience, to capture, and to share in a way that captures the essence and personality of a place. something that transports viewers there with you and/or inspires them to want to go themselves. even harder doing this solo!! now my experience in bali is worthy of an entire post, so i’ll just wrap this up by saying that not only were my reach and engagement growing, but i was a completely different person. i wanted to prioritize travel in my lifestyle and i wanted to capture and share it in an intentional way.
being in a space, capturing, editing, and deciding how to present an experience to the world - it was all becoming a skill. and skills are something that you have to invest time and money into refining. then as you learn a skill, you’re also learning your style. that’s key. there are millions of photographers - even content creators - in the world who have a skill set, but their style is what makes them different than the rest. the style comes from perspective. that’s what makes you keep coming back to their work.
as social platforms started to evolve into prioritizing video, i was forced to learn another skillset - how do i create a sense of place with video? after awhile, i’d fall in love with how i could use video to communicate a sense of place with music, speed, filming style, and transitions. this brought a sense of newness and excitement to my creativity, and i started to find my groove. here is one of my first travel reels. i watch my old videos and cringe at how shaky the footage or choppy the editing was. we love improvement :)
then i went back to europe in february 2020.
~
so i signed my first paid partnership: a carousel post + stories for $100. i giggle at this now because my 2023 campaign average was about $3,200. but i didn’t negotiate, i just said yes. who cares. it was my first gig.
but most important about this partnership - i’d pitched my first concept: i’d take the product with me as i traveled europe and i’d talk about how the perfect fit (and stylish) bra made me feel confident enough to do anything. i’d shoot the content in portugal and post it on international women’s day. the brand loved the idea. looking back, this is what helped me to find my style of content creation of rooting everything in storytelling and aesthetic. i wanted what i posted to be more than a smile at the camera and pose with the product ad.
i posted the ad on march 11th, 2020 - a series of photos on a balcony in portugal.
i’d like to say that being in the right place at the right time and ready for opportunity is my super power. but i know that being ready for your blessing + open to receive it is god & the universe favoring me.
as i fell in love with capturing a sense of place while getting paid to do it - the world shut down literally days later. i was living in oakland, california at the time, and when i say shut down - i mean shut down. we were one of the first cities to shut down in the states and would remain shut down longer than most other cities. right after my breakout trip, i had to pivot into capturing a new sense of place - home. but i was living in a tiny bedroom in an unideal and very unaesthetic apartment. with carpet. what a time. this eventually pivoted me into a few years of really leaning into beauty and lifestyle content that i could film from home until i’d travel again in 2021.
like many black creators at the time, i saw a spike in following and engagement during summer of 2020 when the world decided to briefly care about black bodies and black stories. i made almost $10K from working with brands that year, all with 3K-6K followers. the following year i’d double it and continue to grow my income since then, all while being so fucking unserious. lol. and what i mean is - there were months i’d take breaks and not post on social at all. or i’d plan partnerships so that i’d get paid right before a trip. i was still working full time with a solid salary, so there was flexibility to be inconsistent. but sometimes i think about where i could be if i really took content creation seriously.
another reason to be unserius: i was never completely sold on “influencing”. i didn’t like calling myself an influencer. content creator also hasn’t always felt right either. i mean. i mostly just like the telling stories and getting paid part. i don’t want to be a salesman or product pusher. i also don’t even need all the attention or the strange expectations. or the compromise of giving up so much of my time in service to algorithms that determine the worthiness of my story.
but more on this later. this industry is completely different now in 2024. come back for part two.
take care,
kay