Gigi Robinson - Full-Time Content Creator | Body Positivity & Chronic Illness Advocacy

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The aim I guess is Gigi Robinson. She's a full-time content creator, meaning that she gets paid to create content. Now, how did she start? Well, she's a very unique and important voice. She puts out content that speaks to some of the problems and some of the issues and some of the adversity that she's had in her life. She shares her perspective on body image and chronic illness through all her social media platforms. She also is served as an executive board member and founding member of USC Reach. This is the first and only social media club at USC that aims to create a community for influencers, digital marketers, and anybody interested in social media. The actual passion that got her started was her photography. So she has had her artwork displayed in galleries, museums, all over the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tweed Courthouse, and many others. She's also been named as a brand ambassador and evangelist for a wide variety of brands such as Abercrombie and Fitch, Buhu, Bior Skincare, EF College Breaks, Higher Education Skincare, Kendra Scott, Smashbox, Tinder, and TikTok. She has done this all before she even graduated from her master's program. So we're going to speak about what drove her in the beginning why she wanted to create content, how she found content that worked with an audience, how she was able to build an audience, how she was able to build a community from scratch, and how she was able to monetize it so she could quit her full-time job. It's very quickly. Let's talk about the fact that she did this all while she's still in grad school. She turned her content creation into a full-time thing. She speaks about how to land partnerships, how to land deals, how to monetize your social media following. She acts as her own agency, meaning that she represents herself. So she speaks about how to navigate the contracts with different brands of red flags to look out for, how to protect yourself, how to offer the most value, but most importantly, you have to get paid what you're worth. So if anybody is ever thinking of a starting a personal brand, this is somebody you should emulate. Also, her content creation style, the type of thing she puts out, the process that she uses to get content out there, it's all tied back to the things that are relevant in her life. And she speaks through her content creation process. And then, lastly, why it's so important to be an advocate and to speak to things that you know a lot about, even if they're difficult things, because you are creating a community and you're helping people that are also suffering from the same problems. And that's what she's done so exceptionally well. So let's jump right into it. This is Gigi Robinson, full-time content creator, brand evangelist, and social media personality. Wow. Well, hi. Thanks for having me. So nice to be here. I love the setup you have going on. The catalyst for starting where I'm at, I think just being a New York native has really shaped a lot about me. And I think people give New Yorkers a lot of shit. And they say we're cold-minded and are cold-hearted and strong-minded. And that's something that a lot of the time I think can represent us in a negative light. But I think a lot of that attitude is this like fearless interest in doing whatever it takes to like make it here. I'm not going to sing the Frank Sinatra song because like I just am not gonna. But you know, I was born and raised here. So I think I did always grow up kind of riding these just metaphorically and literally riding these skyscrapers, you know, all the way up and then having to come down. And in that I'm talking about also like the emotions of like living in the city, dealing with friendship drama, dealing with academic drama. And I think that that is what really has set me up for success as I kind of grow into a working professional. Which is actually that's actually mind-blowing that you're still like what you're talking before. Like you're finishing off a grad school right now and you're gonna figure out where you're gonna land. But you've already, so walk me through like I say like career knowing that the career has started at a very young age, right? Like it's not like you have 50 years of experience doing something. So as you're okay, so you're normal, normal like air quotes kid like going through high school, then you go into college. When did you start building, creating like even working because even in high school, I wasn't doing anything like what you were doing. So walk me through like when you started like where this passion for content creation, building your personal brand, you have an awesome site up, you've been like featured in publications, like you teach over, you create content like like honestly I'm a content creating like fiend and I like respect the hustle because you're creating content like probably that compete with how much that I put out. So where did this all come from? Yeah, where does it all come from? I mean I have always been a creative person first and foremost and I did go to the La Guardia High School of Music Art and Performing Arts here in New York City, which is a very famous art school on the few I've ever seen in the movie Fame or the musical. It is based off of my high school, which was obviously really cool going there. I mean looking back, I'm like holy crap, I can't believe that was like my life, but like okay like it was really kind of wild because they put you through everything that normal high schools put you through, which is like you know I don't know like what normal times for high school are like 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. We had like an extra three classes a day that were dedicated to the arts. So a lot of times our gym time or our elective time was taken away so that we could do more art and I think that that was something that really pushed me in this direction of being passionate about the arts and being able to find a voice for myself. By, you know, 16, 15, 16, I was enrolling in classes at the International Center of Photography like as after school program. I was able to get scholarships to them, which was obviously really really helpful to me financially because I didn't have to pay for it. And on top of that, I also did theater and I was in like my friend's acapella group. So there were definitely a lot of things going on. I was being like a little Renaissance woman in high school and I on top of that was entering my photography into these global competitions, state competitions, regional, national, like whatever kind of competition it was. I was like I want my photos to be there. Like it's going to happen. And it was almost just like calling this certainty that I had that I knew that doing that would be kind of like the first I used this month for the other day, which was really silly. But it's kind of like that first lily pad for me on my career journey. Like I think of our like the great analogy. It's like we're in a pond and you're like a kid like 18 years old or 15 16 whenever you start working. And the first like there, you know, there's bunch of lily pads by the end. You're retirement on the other side of the pond. So that's my new metaphor that I kind of like like to talk about. But that was really this stepping stone that also helped me realize like one, I'm really fucking good at this and other people like adults, people who are patrons of the arts, you know, world around like galleries like my work's been in the Met multiple times. And I say that very humbly. But with that, I was like, that was what I needed to get me inspired enough to continue creating art not just to win competitions, but also to you know, be purposeful and inspire people. So after I kind of did my bout of competitions, I started shooting portraits. And the main objective was to make people feel beautiful and confident regardless of if they looked like they were, you know, a fitting model or stereotypically like fit into the modeling world because I really cared about making people feel confident that was all. So I made a project called I Feel Like a Supermodel, which is what I then used as my project to transfer into USC with. And I guess like the rest is history. I just kind of let that ebb and flow. And when I got to USC, obviously I was in Los Angeles. So the whole idea of being like a skinny hot tan model with blonde hair was like, you know, up most importance a lot of the time. And I feel like at some points I did lose a little bit of sight around how can I make people feel confident when I myself don't feel confident. And I'm playing this comparison game. But unfortunately, simultaneously, I was dealing with a lot of chronic health issues at the time. And the only way that I could articulate my experience was by making art. So that's how I really transitioned from I think that confidence building artwork to this purpose driven image making and storytelling. And now I kind of do a combination of the both. So I hope that answered the question. It definitely does. And I think it's and I want to unpack that one point that you made about. So it's hard to teach over and to help people deal with their own insecurities when you have these insecurities yourself. But obviously to some extent, I'm not saying that it's perfect. But to some extent you've managed and you've overcome that because when you put out content, when you have to be comfortable with what you're doing. And if you aren't comfortable, you'll never do it. You'll never you'll never press post and you'll always have this hesitation. So how did you overcome that? Because I'm assuming the journey to overcome that and to understand that like who you are is good enough and then some, that's probably what allowed you to be able to operate at the level that you're at right now. Yeah, I think confidence is very subjective and individual. It's a journey that everyone has to come to terms with in themselves. And I think honestly the I've always been somebody who didn't fully care about what other people's opinions of me were. That really was until I was in Los Angeles and like I joined a sorority and it was just like this game of materialism and like capitalism and mean 21 year olds. And I was like what the heck am I in? Like what I need to get out of here. And although the sorority was good for like networking, it definitely was damaging in terms of like physical and psychological problems that I think Greek life cultures can sometimes really you know enhance or exacerbate in a lot of ways. So it was partly living in Los Angeles. But then again like when I did those deep internal I think readings on myself and was like okay why do you feel this way? Like why are you insecure? Because somebody else is trying to make you feel mad like or bad about yourself right? Like their opinion or what they're trying to projecting is not a reflection of who you are so it's irrelevant. And I think that it definitely took a lot of tough skin or thick skin to realize that and like set that mental boundary up. But also again I'm from New York City we get we go through a lot we have a lot coming at us all the time. People trying to beat us down especially when we're successful or we're doing things that make them jealous or envious. And again also at the time to start posting and to like be kind of an influencer that people on campus knew about was something that I think in 2017, 2018, 2019 people thought was like intimidating or you know they were jealous of or they wanted to be like an influencer. I was definitely I would say like an early adopter of TikTok. I got on TikTok in early 2019 and that's how I kind of started and I call that early because people didn't get on it until late 2020 really. So I think that you know at the time it was like I was hosting all these pop-ups on campus like oh come to TikTok trivia come you know here's some free TikTok swag and these people would look at me and be like oh that's so cringe. And then as soon as the pandemic started and as soon as people started seeing like my account grow they started seeing you know TikTok explode. It was all of a sudden oh my god Gigi I saw this job at TikTok. Can you please help me out like blah blah and I'm like oh my god this is so superficial but now I'm in a position of power where or I don't want to say a position of power a position where I felt empowered is what I'll say because other people were coming to me saying wow sorry I misjudged you let me see what I can get out of you and I have the decision to either help them or tell them you know sorry I can't help you but here's what I can do or here's a resource you can look at. So that was something that I dealt with in terms of confidence and then again the pandemic really only accelerated my growth like when I think about who I was two years ago like who came home from Los Angeles on a plane with three masks and gloves on like like three suitcases because I didn't know if I was going back to LA like that person is so different than the person that you're talking to today and I think that that's also really important because obviously growth is you know really important as individuals but what helped me be more confident was understanding my boundaries my place and my work and what makes me kind of tick on like a deep level not unlike the superficial level of like know your why like know your why but know it like 10 layers deep. How did you figure that out? Like how did you have this self-awareness when people when people struggle without their whole lives like understanding your why but going 10 layers deep is an exceptional thing to do and I think I think you're 100% on point that's what you have to do to be confident and to excel at anything but how did you figure that out and like what was the process that you went through to understand like you're I don't even know to call it like you're super why or whatever it would be called. For sure I've talked about this a couple times but I did grow up in a Tony Robbins household so a lot of mindset and you know motivation was always kind of of almost important like do things that kind of like make you a better person wherever you can and also making sure that in that journey that you're okay with iterations and you're okay with finessing with or adjusting that true why or like your purpose in life as you go through different things in life like it's just going to change so back to even when I'm 16 years old or I was 16 my true purpose at the time was just to take pretty photographs and to make people feel good about themselves in a way that is still what it is now but it's now about communicating and having these conversations that people can actually apply to their life so that they can become better advocates for themselves whether that's in you know a patient setting whether that's in an academic setting whether that's in a confidence building setting whether that's online I mean there's so many different things that I think I found and simply put the way that you ask yourself where you find out your why is literally at least my process by asking yourself so like what is like you know what is your why or why do you do what you do in life right so you answer it once and then you ask yourself why do I think that that's important or why is that important to me and then you write that out and then whatever the answer to that is you kind of keep going down in this like funnel until you get to like the true meaning the true and I try to do this once every quarter or once every six months at least because like I said it changes and that's absolutely okay and I think we need to change to evolve I agree just many people are not as self-aware as you are I think it's exceptional and that and help me understand like when you started so your your transition into like the content creation it wasn't purposeful it was it was understanding the things that you were passionate about and then you started to create content about that and then you started to refine and I want to so what I want to understand is sort of like when did the hobby become something that you doubled down on when and what drove that decision yeah I really love this question because it's actually been something I've been thinking about a lot before I answer the more inspirational piece or the more I guess the road map of how it all happened I'm kind of at this point where I've been doing it so successfully that I no longer have the bandwidth to really shoot for fun and quite frankly I don't like to shoot for fun because it's far more effort and energy than hiring somebody else to do it for me or like I would rather have you know somebody book somebody else as their photographer unless it's like my friend who I'm doing a favor for then go out of my way to shoot content for other people like if they're paying me for it versus like I now I'm in the place where I love art directing and I want to hire a team and make it a production and like I think again like that love for photography and art making image making storytelling creating has evolved and that's okay that's like the dream I think like you want to go from a freelancer to like full blown productions like that's a lot of the time the goal so I initially started doing photography for fun I would shoot nighttime landscapes and that's really what started me out in the competition world and in kind of refining you know at first it was showing how beautiful our earth wasn't night because I feel like it's often unseen a lot of people don't really check out night work often and I just wanted to be that person that showed the world that through my lens then it moved on to fostering you know confidence for people and while I was doing all this I was posting online not necessarily with the intention to blow up or become like an Instagram photographer but really just to have a portfolio that I could easily access and I guess you could say I was maybe forward thinking where I was like I could go into a job and say hey look look at this Instagram look at where my photos up in a gallery in Athens or Portland or you know the Met and like have those kinds of people be like damn like I want to hire you like that's sick so I did that you know in high school and then when I got to my or when I was thinking about college and where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do I was looking at art programs that weren't really conservatory style I wanted a program that was based in a city so that I could capitalize off of the resources around me so it's not a coincidence I just was a city like sorry I just want you to explain that the conservatory so I don't understand that what does that mean yeah um an art conservatory meaning like you're going for art like that's your end all the like you like all your classes are around art um a lot of times like musicians dancers singers fine artists will go to design school art school um specifically that has like a very structured art regimen versus like I went to USC and I did get a BFA but I also had game day and Los Angeles and you know general education and internships like all sprinkled in versus like conservatories there's not as much so um so yeah so when I was thinking about that again it was no coincidence I chose LA like I was New York LA or Miami um and I knew I wanted to get the heck out of New York one because it's cold and I very much dislike the cold I prefer to be somewhere 75 degrees and sunny uh and two because I grew up here and I didn't want my experience to be on one plane sometimes I think that like if you spend your whole life in one place it can limit you from a lot of your growth so I went out to LA I had no family there and that's just kind of how I ended up there and my goal there wasn't to like produce amazing amazing art it was to network and to go in turn at companies and meet people who had the connections in the industry that I wanted so I thought that if I was in the entertainment world in LA I would be able to utilize what I already had and showcase my artwork or my portraits online which by proxy would get me in the spaces to potentially shoot clients that would end up on billboards or shoot social ads or shoot a movie posters like those were my goals and I joined the social media club called USC Reach which I was a founding member of and I honestly attribute a lot of my career decisions to that being I guess like at the at the foundation of what I've built today and I got in because I was like I want to use my account to showcase my photography so that brands hire me to shoot ads for their big clients and one day somebody called out sick for a video and I popped in and like the video popped off and I was like oh sick like I guess I could do this so then I started working for brands and because I had all of this photography experience with posing with portraits self-portraiture I would just set my tripod up shoot self portraits with my you know products and submit them to the brand and the thing that set my content apart for the most part was that all of my content was shot with my DSLR it wasn't shot with iPhone and I also have been recently thinking about this not that it fully matters because I think anybody can be a creator but the same way I think about anyone being a creator I think about the fact that anyone can be a photographer or like that saying where if you have an iPhone you can be a photographer it doesn't necessarily mean that you have this experience that's going to put you aside or make you exceptional so I just I think about that a lot and it's not a hundred percent necessary it's more aesthetics for me and in an upcharge because it's like higher production quality more money and yeah so that's my my journey of how I fell into it and so it seems like like even like when you founded USC so that was like the first social media club or USC reach excuse me so that was the first social media club at UFC so that was like everything you're doing like you have this so I'm trying to unpack it's like you have this pat like everything be put out into the world all the content you put out it's about your passion or it's about your journey and your reality and that's the core that has created that has been your content that's sort of driven all your content and that's actually what's allowed you to succeed both as a person like a personable individual that people can like relate to and then also it can actually it can actually help you grow your photography career as well it's just the stuff that you're passionate about that you're just like the difference between you and somebody else that also had learnings in high school and college and also as a photographer is that you were just putting it out again and again and again no I'm just thinking about why people don't do this why like you always felt like you always felt okay putting stuff out there and that's what and correct me from wrong but it seems like that's what's enabled your career it's just consistency and and the reason why people don't is because of the fear of judgment the fear failure the fear of being rejected like it's very simple people especially in the world like with all these studies now that are out showing that social media is something that people use for instant gratification they use for validation they use to make themselves feel good they get dopamine and from the amount of likes coming in from a video going viral like none of that matters to me I care about the community I care about the people I serve and the difference between people being scared to post and to put themselves out there is one they usually don't have a community they're serving or they are connected to maybe they feel kind of lost alone isolated you found yours you found your community you created it you didn't have a group of photography fissionados that just followed you that wasn't it exactly and I think you can find and make any community in today's day and age I was five years ago when I started finding my community right we're five years in the future now I can't imagine where it's going to be five years from now so I think you can really like create anything you want you just have to be so confident in failing and knowing that when you fail you're gonna learn and you're gonna like implement whatever that learning is to better yourself and you're gonna fail so many times there's been ads that I shot that I've like like they've completely just tamed like they didn't perform how they wanted how I wanted them to but you know what exists boosted ads brands pay a lot of money to put money behind your ads and with that it reaches more people and again by proxy your community gets stronger because they're like not only like oh Gigi let's say uses this road mic I know Gigi's a podcaster I actually really love all of her podcasting maybe if I need an entry level mic that's less than $200 I'm gonna use the one that Gigi uses because I like her podcast right very simple example where even if the ad organically performed not well the brand could still promote it and it would make sense because I'm a podcaster so I think also a big part of people being scared to start on social media they always say oh well I don't know how to make money I'm not gonna make any money I don't have enough followers you won't do that if you have the scarcity mindset that you're always going to be lacking right like a lot of my friends say this well I don't know I'm like a little bit scared about starting some I'm like why are you scared times ticking honey no like nobody is your competition you're your only competition and I think if you have that mindset around social media instead of everybody else is doing it better let's play the comparison game then you will succeed I just want to take a second and make the sponsor of today's episode HubSpot now pies taking candy from babies both things that are theoretically easy but anyone who's made a pie from scratch or attempted to pry a lollipop from a screaming toddler knows these things are in fact very difficult but you know what is easy integrating automating and scaling your business with HubSpot now the HubSpot CRM platform seamlessly transfers customer data into usable insights like what's the average time it takes us to respond to a customer service request or how can we get better at it the HubSpot service hub brings all your data and support channels in one place so your team can spend less time hunting for information and more time the lighting customers plus seamless connectivity with marketing and sales hubs means every person on your team has a crystal clear picture of your customer easy as HubSpot learn how HubSpot can make it easier for your business to grow at HubSpot.com I love that okay so talk to me so you you quit your job and and you started your own company so walking through that walking through how scary that was or was it not scary was it was it something that you did gradually all at once the risk the reward how it's gone for sure I'll start with the reward I mean incredible like every single day I'm exhilarated and excited and like electrified by what I get to do and the people that I get to talk to like yourself but I guess I'll take you back to the spring of 2020 which you can see my nice degree hanging up here right behind me but I essentially was flown back home right on March 18th 2020 I come back home my brothers back home to from college he went to Cornell and he was you know in his junior year had just come back from his study abroad trip and we hadn't lived together you know like in the same household really for three years other than like two breaks in like summer and even then I was like in LA for internships he was in Ithaca so it was like a big family adjustment to be home and I think all everyone was dealing with this like most people coming home from college were dealing with okay I have to live in an environment that I haven't lived in and all of my freedom is basically going to be taken away from me how can I be my best self or how can I take care of my mental health and for me that was talking about what I was struggling with online like I couldn't go hang out with friends because I'm immunocompromised with my chronic illness and my friends were being a little reckless and like that was on them but I did my best to connect with other people dealing with what I was dealing with and then I also I also was like a little bit of a workaholic during the pandemic on top of school so I got I don't want to call it laid off but like Warner Bros was the internship I was working at at the time when the pandemic got called off so they like paid us out and we're like you're done basically because they're like they don't know what the hell is happening yeah yeah so then I also had awithstanding internship with Paramount lined up for summer but they were like we don't know what we're doing we don't know how it's definitely not going to be in person we don't know if it's going to be able to be virtual because a lot of you have proprietary materials that you're going to have to work with and like how are you going to do that remotely and is it trust like can we trust you like we can't send you a computer like all those kinds of variables and then simultaneously when I was at Warner Bros I was working on a project that this agency was kind of being outsourced to do and I started attending their like live workshops like on LinkedIn and I guess like the CEO saw that I was in there and recognized my name maybe or saw I had mutual connections to the people I worked with at Warner Bros and he like hits me up he's like hi like I saw you're in our workshop um do you have time for an interview are you looking for a job and I was like hell yeah I'm looking for a job so I basically get on a call with this guy and he basically hires me on the spot and he's like we need you like your agency um you know you understand TikTok right now better than most people because nobody's been on TikTok so I helped create a lot of really like those those OG kind of TikTok hashtag challenge ads that that we're going on um they still happen obviously but there I don't think they're nearly as successful as they used to be and then I also was working with Paramount but at night so I was working Eastern time hours for the first job with the agency full-time 40 hours a week then I was working part-time with Paramount like five to ten hours a week at night like from six to nine which was three to six specific um so I was again absolute maniac then the fall semester comes and I was doing a medically reduced course load because I was dealing with some chronic health issues and like I was starting to figure out like how do I manage them what doctors do I see so I was really planning ahead because again fall of 2020 like no vaccines existed like it was still kind of like scary to you know go around and uh get outside of your house if you are immunocompromised so I did seek work again and I started working for this startup called Likewise which is an app that basically helps you choose and recommend podcasts books tv shows based on your interests so kind of like when Netflix is like this is what we think you would like or like Spotify is like here's this like they kind of like curate it based on your algorithm so I was creating organic ads all of their best performing ads are for me and they paid me salary not by the deliverable which is like really shitty if you know anything about the content industry you know to always ask for it by the deliverable month by month usage rights instead of on a salary basis because you will get ripped off learned from my my experience I know I don't I didn't know that so okay good to know I got you yeah um so basically I was just in this position where I was like you know I think I just turned 22 and I was working for this startup I wasn't it was like kind of like a contractor role so it wasn't necessarily set in stone I wasn't really interested in becoming a full-time social media manager so I also applied to this grad school program at USC which is a Masters of Science and Integrated Business Design and Technology which is very you know future-forward startup kind of accelerator style degree and you have the flexibility to do it remote so I said you know what I'm gonna apply I don't need the GRE let me just jump on in so I submit my media kit that I actually use to pitch brands as a portfolio item I submit my projects about my chronic illness and I submit my projects about my body image work and confidence building and you know I ended up getting in so when I graduated on December 16th 2020 my parents were like okay so like when when are you getting your job I was like oh um so I'm gonna go to grad school and I'm also gonna start my own business and they were like what like are you getting like we just like spent all this money for you to go to undergrad and now you're telling us you're gonna just like not get a job and I was like no it's not that I'm not getting a job it's like I'm making my job up and they were like what and so it was it was definitely a fun moment and I think there's obviously been peaks and valleys with this this life as an independent contractor as you know an LLC owner um and I started off as one person and now I have nine people on my team and it's just really epic to like see this growth in all of 2021 I kind of focused on building out my podcast and my live show which got picked up by Spotify live which has been like so surreal and a goal of mine for so long and uh you know so many other things that have led me to where I am today to being the best speaker I can be to being the best advocate I can be to literally like killing it and did it take time yes like it literally took two years for me to get to where I am today and even so I I want to outdo myself like with every day that passes I'm never content like I think that's something I have to work on but yeah that's another that's a whole other conversation but so no that's it's a it's a great it's a great uh mine's that has an entrepreneur but I want to I want to I don't want to go down that path yet I still want to understand um so as you grow out a full-time business as content creator right people are starting this it's like how do I make money um okay so if they've already subscribed to the idea of I'm going to create content nonstop and I get that and I go across all my different mediums and I'm social and I'm podcasts and I'm newsletter website and whatnot so how did you monetize how did you grow that yeah well as I mentioned before in undergrad I was already making content for brands through campus ambassador programs so I was working with TikTok Abercrabby Tinder Smashbox Timberlin be your higher education like you name it if it was if it was a college ambassador college social media marketing college you know rep program I was there like I wanted to do it and I wanted to do it best so that when I graduated those companies would remember me and contract me for like more work so um I did have the advantage of being in college and starting so if there are any young entrepreneurs that are still college age for sure look into these college level programs because they don't pay much but it's enough to build up that resume of brands you've worked with or portfolio that you can kind of go out and then say oh well I've done work for TikTok like pay me more like TikTok pay me um so I think that's really important and then second to that I mean there's all of these platforms out there um you know tribe popular pays crook co-holy for I mean they don't pay amazing but in the beginning you have to honestly do a little bit of work for free like you can have a killer brand and a killer audience engagement and if you have that most of the time they will be okay and behind you if you're sharing a product again something subtle that I would do the same way that I mentioned before is I would tell my audience something like hi everyone like if you you know listen to my podcast by the way this is the mic that I use for any inquiring minds about getting better audio quality on a zoom call or maybe it's that you want to start a podcast or maybe you're being asked to be a guest on your podcast or maybe you just want better video audio quality right and giving those options uh under the umbrella of like somebody's incentive to using a product is the best approach like I think of it kind of like as an umbrella like the product is an umbrella you're like the stick and you're like oh you could use it for this than that and that and that way it can appeal to many more people instead of zoning in so a lot of times people say niche down niche down no niche the fuck up until you can absolutely like do an ad in any category and still make it about your brand and still make it about your purpose right like that's really what I do so at this point I mainly do tech I do skincare and clothes like those are my three kind of buckets but they all fall under or on top of the umbrella of me which is chronic illness lifestyle as a student and being a New Yorker so you know there's a lot involved and how do you really get started you have to put yourself out there you can DM brands like it's not rocket science we can shoot our shot we can be okay being left on red like it's okay don't take it so personally um we can find these people I'm linked in and message them and ask if there's any you know gifting opportunities uh to get out and say I would love to make a video for you um obviously at a certain point you have to ask to be paid you can always lead with I would love to create some content is there a budget for you know micro influencer partnerships or influencer partnerships if they say no be like oh I would love to get involved with your brand are there any gifting opportunities maybe post a story maybe post a casual like unboxing you know there's a lot of things that can be subtle that aren't an ad that can in turn lead to an ad so yeah I love that that's smart very smart and then I'm also curious so you just shoot your shot you DM people you figure out how to create you know ads that actually resonate with your brand and you and that's and it's just testing it's just testing and reaching out and testing and reaching out and that's how you've built this this monetization has allowed you to hire like nine nine people at this point and when you think about your content strategy so you have all these different things that you love to speak on and you can you speak about like chronic illness and you speak about um you speak about well like I sometimes you speak of photography in your passions and you speak about like the things that are going in your life um what's the how do you decide the content mechanism so like how what's your content workflow if somebody's gonna start to do Instagram to do podcast they do everything because you you go everywhere I go everywhere but I know that you probably have a well thought out process so that you can actually keep this up you're thinking wrong I think you saw me like chuckle when you're like what's your mechanism I'm like I am all over the place um but I'm trying to build that out with my assistant like I think it's been something where I'm like I have to figure out a way to optimize my work so that I can like live a little that like yes like work imitates life for me as an influencer in contact creator so how can I create content the morning where like I get an endoscopy which literally happened this morning like I literally was vlogging it and I was like this is gonna be cool my video editor can edit this and then I like picked up on it like one of these like trending audios that was going around it was like um it was like sorry not everyone can be a part of the bad bit genre um and it was like me in the hospital bed and like I think that's funny because I'm like this is something that like normally people are gonna apply this to like confidence or like you know whatever like being bougie but it's like no like this is about my life living with a chronic illness and other people who like if you look at the comments it's like all people with chronic illness that are like oh my god wait like I love this like this is so me I feel seen like all these things and I think it's moments like you did something there you did something you're just you just you document your life so you were laughing because like you you you know you're laughing oh I don't have like this like specific process like whatever that's okay but I mean you still do it strategically and tactically like you're still documenting your life and the things you're living every single day that that's true yeah and I I guess in a lot of ways like I do have um I don't want to say I pre-meditate ideas but I do have like a running list of over 200 ideas that I could just pick and choose from at any point if I want do I actually go into that list often no should I yes um I think there was like a couple videos going around now where it's like if the masters are saying post six times a day post 12 right like do double of everything and always go like super extra but then you run out into like burnout and fatigue like if you're just doing TikTok I get it if you're just doing YouTube I get it but in today's world you cannot limit yourself to one platform unfortunately you can't um if you want to monetize if you want to build a holistic brand if you want to build a world around your brand and have your hands in all these different buckets and have opportunities everywhere you need to be known and seen everywhere right so I have a podcast I go on podcasts I've got you know my uh my LinkedIn following I've got my Instagram my TikTok my Twitter snapchat Pinterest Facebook that's nine platforms that are just me then I also have a podcast Instagram a podcast Facebook and a LinkedIn business page so that's like 12 different platforms for one person so yeah kind of crazy but I think going in and doing something like recording a podcast making it a video podcast being able to distribute that on your personal Instagram and on your podcast Instagram and on the Facebooks and pinning everything after so that you have higher exposure doing like an artsy mood board of a photo shoot that's coming up as a teaser like there's a lot of things that you can do and I'm still working on like how to really zone in on it um but I would just say I kind of gotta take all the you gotta take everything in your head and like write it down so people can just like because if there's I know I know there's something there there's like some sort of like like like do some sort of reason to the madness or something like like just like a strategy there but I think that like probably documenting it be good because people can learn from this you're something you're doing like repeatedly you do it because you can see when you look at the content you do it but you gotta like you gotta yeah I think I'm still figuring out what my method is because right now I'm just kind of like consciously like producing but I'm not always like like like I do think things through like I have an ad coming up that's a pretty big ad and I'm already plotting like okay these are the three days that I'm going to be shooting over this is the kind of content I want to get um this is the video person I'm using I have to sit down with my copy editor right not everyone has a copy editor we all start out scripting our own videos when you start making content for brands they ask for a script why they want to make sure you're not going to say anything crazy right they want to shop by shot kind of uh or frame by frame you know uh what's it called like right out like a story like a storyboard storyboard yes I should know this like why am I being oh yeah yeah um so like they want that so that you can have less edits on all ends because honestly that would suck if you script something out you storyboard it you shoot it and then they're like sorry we don't like it like you want to make sure that everything's always approved and I think being hyper aware of one how can I outdo my last project with the brand or in general um and two how can I make it better than any project that I've had three how can I have fun and four how does this represent me my brand and the people that I work with so those are the things that I think about when I do my process not only for ads but with all videos but the that doesn't always happen in that order it kind of sometimes just happens and then after I can analyze and be like okay GG I see what you did there do you think there's um obviously the the the lesson is you should be everywhere but do you see some opportunity on some platforms more than others right now in like 2022 oh absolutely I mean to state the obvious anything short form video um I I think there was a report that came out the other day that said like Snapchat is growing faster than any of the other platforms right now and I was like kind of bamboozled by that because I was like I thought Snapchat was dead like that's what we used ten years ago um but obviously TikTok YouTube shorts is blowing creators up I mean if you zone in and you post frequently I'm talking also like six to ten videos a day which is a massive amount of content if you're posting that much you will grow like I started posting pretty consistently I would say maybe like two-ish videos a day and I grew like 300 subscribers in a month um which is a lot for me considering I had like a hundred subscribers at the beginning of the year now I'm at 500 so like I'm closer to a thousand than I think um but it's about consistency if I'm not producing content then I'm not going to be growing um TikTok I think has an enormous opportunity for you to blow up but it's becoming harder and harder for individuals who have a viral moment to kind of have this false uh narrative almost kind of like a like quick sand effect where like they walk over it and they're like oh I could be a full-time creator I've created viral content I've maybe made one successful ad and then they keep walking and they realize they're falling deeper and deeper because they're going under creator burnout because they think oh every single video is gonna be like that's like it's gonna keep following when that's not the reality the reality is that there's like a lot of burnout there's a lot of nights where you're just like fatigued and you don't want to make a video um maybe you're not as passionate maybe your hands are in other buckets and you can't create content right so I just think the creator industry is very very interesting but anything short-form video is going off but I still love photography and I still stay true to my like my roots and I post on there because also my audience knows I do photography if I all of a sudden just like didn't post any photos on Instagram people would be like what happened to you and I would be like I don't know how do you how do you how do you um how do you navigate creator burnout how do you make sure it doesn't happen to you yeah creative burnout is like something I think a lot of people deal with but I've been dealing with for years considering I'm an artist and same way writers get writers block artists get artists block and I think what you have to do is um create within the parameters that you're given in any moment so again today I literally went in for an endoscopy this morning and I brought my phone with me like to the OR and I like took a picture with I literally recorded a video that I don't remember asking my doctor to record with me where I was like can we take a video and he was like yeah and I was like I'm here with my doctor um and it was just like a part of my like vlog and I made it about my journey and me and obviously I'm not saying like go into your doctor's office and start recording things with your doctor like that is very specific to me find what specific to you and see what you can make work like for the rest of today I have to write a paper so maybe I'll do a time lapse of me cramming on a paper and be like this is what it looks like to be a master student and you're like second to last semester like on time lapse you know like or sometimes I'll do content of me taking my medication sometimes it'll be of cleaning my room and is that representative of like artistically like who I am and conceptually like what my work is about not always but it does add in like a little bit more of that authenticity that like non curated vibe of being like this is real life here's what I've got going on so if you show more of that you will likely fall into less burnout um and part of that is because I think you're not really doing it too you're not really doing it yeah and then something another one of my friends said which again I'm working on because you just asked me about structure and I was like structure what are you talking about um he his theory is that the more structure you have the less burnout you'll have because it's like you know you're doing certain things a certain way um and then the more you know the the more burnout you have like you're gonna just also have less structure so anyway not my it's a good it's a smart idea and I think that I think that you actually touched on a a lot of different points it could be useful for creators I think that the one thing that I really do love that a lot of people have trouble with like I guess there's like levels to how comfortable you are putting stuff out into the world like level one is just like talking about like what you're an expert in and then like level two is like forgetting well not forgetting what you're an expert in like you put that out there but then you like show how you're not just like refined perfect polished person who only knows that one thing and this you're like so many other dimensions and that's that's reality that's and I think reality like in authenticity it always wins like yeah absolutely and even if it comes down to just something like posting maybe maybe like I'm not saying this would be me but like an example of a really successful business leader that I follow his name's Daniel G and he posts you know a lot of like sales training and media kind of marketing strategies blah blah blah and like Twitter quotes and like really shareable content but then he'll come on his stories and he'll either do like a video of him in the gym or like his morning coffee or going out for a run like being super sweaty like panting and like that is how you know that that person is keyed into their audience they love DG because he is into like helping them and in turn they love him regardless you know and that's again this like internet phenomenon of thinking that when you have an audience that like logs you like you're being like let in on their secret community or like you're being let in on secrets of their life and like knowing things like for me it's like going to Joe and the juice which is a really like bougie juice bar in New York LA in Miami and I get like you know I work with them so I post about it all the time and I love it like it's genuinely one of my favorite spots to work remotely it's just something I love people would literally message me and be like where's your Joe and the juice of the day or like you're in the city let's see the Joe and I'm like that's hilarious because that's something that my audience now knows that they can expect from you so anyway more authenticity highly repent going into being a full-time content creator uh what was the biggest stress the time when shit hit the fan that you thought like this is not the right thing for me what was that had you overcome it so I never have thought that it's not the right time for me or that I'm not worthy or capable or you know doing enough when you hit a roadblock and you start having these negative thoughts when you're on this journey of entrepreneurship or being a full-time creator it's really about refining that strategy and figuring out okay I tested something it's no longer working why how can I change how can I iterate how can I move forward and create content that actually is going to reach those audiences that can convert to sales or convert to a higher engaged audience right so um I think also like when you are an entrepreneur starting out if you aren't like a if you don't have like a seed round or you know angel investors or whatever you want to call it a lot of money to throw around with it you're starting out as you know an undergrad graduate going into grad school paying for grad school out of pocket um I think money can be liquefied quite easily especially when deals come in and when deals come in a lot of the times you'll sign a contract you'll do the deliverables you'll post them you'll submit the insights you'll submit an invoice and then 30 to 90 days later you'll get your money so I think the biggest challenge is around this idea of getting paid and making sure that you can budget yourself because it's always changing like there's never like okay every month I'm getting a residual like 5K and and like that's just what I get to like use for my business and everything else is extra right it's like sometimes project based yeah it's project based there's a lot of like financial stress here in there because someones can be great someones you might not get any deals so it's definitely a bit of a challenge I think but I also like have been lucky and fortunate that I've been able to manage um you know over the past two years and I again like live at home and I think if you're young and you're starting out and you're able to live at home without like you know killing your parents or like losing your mind a little like I think um like go for that option if they let you and I like I've been very lucky and grateful to be able to build everything from my bedroom here which is kind of crazy bedroom office studio alternatively if you are like working a job which is the reality for some people if they can't just like live rent free like I think that maybe not jumping into it like full into it day one is also an option like doing the side hustle and then working after hours working weekend I also think like like yes but I think the downfall of that is that you might not take it seriously so for me it was about literally just like calling up my accountant and being like hi can you set this LLC up and then I had taxes to pay and then I had expenses to pay I had to figure out how to pay them if you have something else it's like a cushion that you can rely on or maybe you do want that cushion but you also want to start something else it's like okay like I told one of my friends start your fucking LLC pay the bill for the LLC right once you pay the bill for the LLC you have to run money through it right if you don't want to dissolve it in a certain amount of months so how are you going to do that okay cool you've you've built the LLC how about you finish your website how about you get your media kit out there how about you start a newsletter right like there's so many different things that you can do but I feel like you just have to regardless of if you're doing it full time you have to find out what cadence works and I think that that word is so important because some people want to go from zero to 100 real quick but a lot of the times you have to say like people are like I just I I don't know how to do it full time I'm like okay well you don't have to if all you can do is post twice a week post twice a week for a month on Instagram and maybe post one real so that's three posts a week on Instagram two posts and um a video right so that's three posts a week times four weeks that should be 12 posts on Instagram you can download that video and you can post that on TikTok YouTube shorts snapchat spotlight that's four other outlets you can post it on you can also take the photo and make it slightly more about your career and post it on LinkedIn and Facebook boom like there it's like an objection that people have in their head that oh I can't be good at this it's like literally cross posting will take you 15 minutes total like a week so like my advice is honestly to get over yourself and start posting like you will never do it if you don't start what's what's some advice when people are like negotiating with um some of these big brands are there any things that you have to watch out for that that could have screwed you over when you first started yeah I mean negotiations always a little awkward but I think if you handle it with this attitude of like hey guys I I don't want to you know take up any of your time let's just cut to the chase what's your budget yeah like obviously after you built a report with them and after you've gone through the deliverables they want to work with you like I think beating around the bush is the biggest detriment to creators because it teaches you that the brand has like the upper hand because they're paying you but really you're the upper hand because you're the original content they don't want to do a fully produced ad anymore they want your original content so a lot of the times they're willing to pay you have to know what to ask that's the biggest thing that people are speculating now is okay well what's my rate how how should I know what to charge throw a number out there when somebody agrees to it up charge the next time they agree to that higher number okay up charge right and as you grow the brands that you work with you're also going to grow your portfolio you're going to grow your business and I think they go hand in hand but making sure that you don't meet around the bush like if a brand is like this is an example that happened last week a brand came to me and was like oh you know they're a really big tech brand they're like we really want to work with you we think it's great you know it's probably going to be about 12 Instagram stories and two Instagram posts per month for five months and here's our budget and it was so low I mean less than a hundred dollars per item which is just out of control considering my rate is well over two thousand dollars per item and it's like a moment where I had to say I really would love to work with you and find a way to make this you know happen for both of us because the brand's incredible I'm a huge fan however that budget is not going to work and transparently it would not be worth my time and I really again appreciate it please let me know you know keep me posted and that's a moment where like you have to be willing to lose it all I'm okay with it because I'm not okay with producing those deliverables so knowing that knowing I'm also usage rights and exclusivity and exclusivity meaning if you're doing an ad with Starbucks you probably can't do an ad with pizza or Dunkin Donuts or Tim Hortons etc and then usage rights meaning you will post the content and the brand can use it in their own paid advertisements at their discretion so they may pay you five thousand dollars but run fifty thousand dollars in ad spend behind it right so you deserve to be getting paid for that per month like a residual essentially and then on top of that there's something called white listing which is where the influencer will post the content and then the brand will put also ad spend behind it and make it look like an organic post but really it's a sponsored ad you also deserve to be paid extra for that because your content's being showed to other people kind of like in a new audience and you deserve again to be compensated so knowing about those things reading up on the industry something I did when I was in my internship at Paramount was called doing the daily trades and essentially what I did was I read three articles a day kind of did a very high level one sentence summary on what's going on in that industry just so I could be in the know definitely doing that when starting out too so that you can use that to leverage with brand saying oh well other creators in the industry are charging this or you know oh I saw this ad by them I want to emulate that so on and so forth and as you're growing your own personal brand you're putting out content the one thing that we didn't touch on which thought you've done exceptionally well is PR like you have publications people have written incredible articles about you and I feel like even for me like I know content but the PR is like a missing piece in the puzzle that I feel like content creators they've never had exposure to that world they have no idea where to even start with PR so where do people start with with PR to start getting some third part because that's really what validates right like you can put your own content out there you work with big brands but when like a Forbes or a Vogue or anything they speak about you they're like whoa okay so you know this person's on to something they're figuring something out or they're they're creating something exceptional so how do you how do you get that yeah that's a great question I mean I think also my the biggest thing that I say to people around me is why do you want PR and what do you think you're gonna get out of it right is it that you simply want more eyes on your content are you looking to generate sales are you looking to get like verified to be honest like what is your intention behind it and why do you think it's gonna help you and until you're clear on that you're not ready for PR like that's what you need to do first and foremost second of all once you start reading the trades value industry you're gonna start to get real familiar with the journalist like reporting on it so guess what you can get active on Twitter you can DM them hi I'm a creator in this industry I absolutely love your article on blah blah blah um you know let me know if you ever need a source in this industry like I do blah blah blah and that's how it relates right that's a very easy way to kind of get your foot in the door um there's also things I know it was going viral on tiktok a while ago called helper reporter out calm which is where you can basically there's like open calls for uh uh uh like sources needed kind of situation and uh a lot of the times you can submit them and like they won't come through sometimes you'll submit them and it'll be like a cool article like you really never know what can come out of it so if you have free time to kind of waste and like submit yourself for like you can definitely do that as well um and last but not least is um going and and paying for it and like you absolutely can pay for PR and once you get to a certain level you'll get a certain amount like I started paying for PR because I was having too many inbound requests coming on me and I couldn't manage it so I needed somebody to help me kind of weave through what was like good what was bad also like even like as an influencer specifically attending these events that are put on by brands or movie premieres getting out there is really important and a lot of the times you you can also naturally get invited to those I just don't even have like the capacity to like uh what's like manage those those inbound so I have yeah you have to like filter through them and see what's good and what's bad yeah exactly and like that's a cool level to be at and I think that that's the point where like you're literally paying somebody to do a job for you so that's um that's again kind of like my journey with PR and I think it's been extremely beneficial for me because not only does it validate like where I'm at in my career but it validates me as like an industry leader and professional and like disruptor in the industry and um I think it's it's just really cool but it's it doesn't mean that I'm successful right like just because somebody as PR doesn't mean that that's their end all be all that they're successful it's like the work that they're actually doing that measures up to it is the success um that's that's what it's really about and it's about like how happy it makes me like just because I have like a cool feature like doesn't mean that I am like this like on this other it's not like it's not like another another point of happiness it's just or like just because I'm verified doesn't mean that it's a new point of like a new benchmark right like I guess in some ways it's like yeah so you can be trustworthy but there's a bunch of trustworthy like people out there that aren't verified like you there's no secret club it's not like Soho House like we don't need to gatekeep here um so I think that yeah that's just some things to to think about um and and I guess you know I want to I want to I guess we've gone through a ton of stuff with content creation um I guess any advice for you know we got through a lot of advice too but like like the most important advice in your mind for somebody who's just starting out into creating content trying to build their own personal brand what what advice would you you teach over to them yeah I would go back to what I mentioned before if finding your your your why and asking yourself why you do what you do or why you if you have an idea of writing that down and really digging deep and saying why is this important to me maybe the answers because you want to make your mom and dad proud why do you want to make your mom and dad proud okay because you know they you want to have a better life for your future family okay why is future family important to you because you care about you know family and building relationships and you want to be available to your kids maybe in a way that your parents weren't okay why is being available important to you so on and so forth like and you can do that I know that was like a more family focused example but that's like how you kind of can go down that rabbit hole and um just not giving up on yourself and knowing that it takes a process as I mentioned I came home in 2020 as a very different person than the person that's hitting on this call of you right now and I'm extremely proud of that growth and knowing that if you make it through like a month or a year like even even in January like I was really like I was like getting like doubts like in January I was what is going on like am I doing this right my health started acting up like I started getting really like the New York City winter blues kind of vibe like I was not doing well so I started a breathwork challenge with my breathwork teacher so that was something that I focused on for my health for my mind my body um and then I started looking and like reading a lot more motivational things around money so like a lot of self-improvement in your moments of doubt and then I just kind of was like putting it out there I was like there's no reason why I don't deserve to be paid for the work that I do because it's really fucking amazing and that's when like out of the blue the last week of January I like entered what me and my breath teacher call like the vortex um which is just like this kind of like portal like it's an energy portal it's a state of like being and you're just I know this sounds kind of witchy and crazy but just go with me it like literally it's like the last week of January opens like I get this article up in Forbes I was like I think I had another article come out that I was interviewed for Fox for a second time um then I like submitted my sports illustrated video I got that news I landed three brand deals that were like pretty big I got invited to New York Fashion Week I then got COVID which was definitely a sidebar but that's fine it was not not bad at all and then I go to Miami I land like sports illustrated officially then I like land another brand deal then like I come home and I'm going to all these events and then my health stuff starts up again which was like super shitty but whatever and then just like things keep coming and I think it's really about rewiring yourself and you can't really work on your business until you're okay in your mind um my my hierarchy is always like health um and mindset and then um business or health mindset school business personal life and relationships and then like self-care so I need to like put self-care higher up I probably need to also like get um you know once school's done I'll I'll just bump business up but yeah just having a hierarchy and figuring out what works for you and until you figure that out you're gonna be a little bit lost so yeah a lot of self-reflection essentially a lot of no it's very smart what what impact do you want to have with the work that you do the content you put out the community that you build that is so great that you asked that because I literally wrote this down last night so I'm just gonna it was not planned that was like if anyone was not I didn't know you wrote that down last night ask everyone that's no I I love that but um kind of like I think as I evolve I really want to be this thought leader that people can look to to see some of themselves in when it comes to patient advocacy and confidence building because a lot of times or I guess up until recently talking about chronic illness and mental health has been something that's been looked down upon or not even talked about in general but the reality is about 75% of people in the United States live with the chronic illness and that is a lot um and as a result I think by having these conversations we build this extremely strong community and together were the ones that can disrupt the industry um whether that's modeling whether that's workplace future of work whether that is you know the creator economy patient advocacy like therapy like there's so many different possibilities that could come out of this and I just really want to help be that that thought leader and that kind of self starter that helps kick off and ignite the spark in other people so we can do it all together um and get paid to do it too I love it um okay I want to do a couple rapid fire but most important I love rapid fire is there no most I have to I have to I have to ask first where do people go to find you where all the socials the website all that amazing so you can google my name gg robinson my website will come up as well as a bunch of other things um my website is just gg robinson.com and you can find me on all socials at its gg robinson so that's like that sign the word it's in my name perfect I actually like that better than the or official I like it's I like that that's good that's new I've never seen that before the only downfall is if people are like oh what's your Instagram I'm like it's gg robinson and then they type in gg robinson they're like I don't see you and I'm like you have to put the word it's before anyhow very small until um okay a couple rapid fire you had a great career as a content creator um you built a big brand for yourself what's keeping you up at night now oh my chronic pain so fair fair fair answer fair answer sorry that took a downfall real quick um you have you have life or business things that are keeping you up cycle like things that are top of mind I think sometimes I have too many ideas like I don't want to say I'm in a state of mania but like I'm always thinking about what kind of content that I want to produce yeah okay yeah that's good and how do you solve for that what's like your strategy to like still stay on track with what you're doing while you have all these ideas um I don't know if I have an answer to this I I write them down on my list and I don't have to be like I have my team hold me accountable that's a good answer it's a very good answer yes which is like it's very very useful it's good advice um the biggest challenge that you've overcome in your personal life what was it had you overcome it what you learned from it probably work life balance or work school balance life school balance whatever kind of combination of all of that and also dealing with my chronic illness in relation to running a business and dealing with also being an influencer and like the stigmas around that and what other people my age are doing and how they don't always realize how tough of a a job this really is to not only be a creator and like the front facing face of this but to also be like a leader like I have a team that I manage and a lot of people don't see that because they're all remote and they're not in New York City so yeah definitely um honestly managing a team and it's just been so transformational and exciting to be able to get like my whole team's like women and we just collectively like vibe and it's a great environment and everyone just gets it done so yeah just just dealing with all that and managing my health is probably the most challenging thing and regardless of what the condition is like I know other people deal with this if you had to pick one person obviously there's been many but if you put one person who's had a major impact on your life who was it and what did they teach you yeah um I would say Mel Robbins I think she's just an incredible like keynote speaker um you know podcast host she's really blunt to the point and I just admire her so much and anytime I'm having like a intrusive thought or a block I do her technique of like 5 4 3 2 1 like how am I feeling now like you know can I do this what is the problem that's causing me this irrational fear and then something else that I do I don't know if I learned it from her or if it's kind of inspired after that method but it's like how is something going to affect me in six minutes six days six weeks six months six years from now and depending on that answer I can kind of gauge my response to any problem um that comes up and turn it into kind of like a road map of how to get towards the goal uh if you had to pick one book or podcast something that's in uh influence you impacted you um something that somebody should go check out what would that be yeah I love the book the subtle art and not getting a fuck and I have dropped some f bombs in this but I think it's really important to like selfishly be so invested in what you're doing and certain with uncertainty especially as an entrepreneur that you cannot afford to care about what somebody else is thinking and like let your mind set be weak in times where you need to be like super strong and build your business so yeah that book taught me a lot about that if you could tell your toilet well you're so young okay well if you could tell your younger self one thing what would it be um probably like I know it's gonna be cheesy but like the name of my podcast is everything you need is within um and I I truly think that a lot of times like we like put a lot of our we project a lot of our fears into um our friends our relationship sometimes even our work environments and I think if we just like kind of pause and look within and like enjoy the moment where we're at instead of thinking about what we're gonna do in the future and like why we're having the fear a lot of times we're having fear because we're scared of something that hasn't even happened yet so I think instead of living in that moment or fear based on past experience and we live in the moment and we just enjoy it and like smile more and be present um as challenging as that can be uh that that's that's what we should do and then last question what is success mean to you uh I love this question I think you know success is really the the buy product of success is the buy product of what makes you happy and I think that if you are able to be happy you can be successful in any part of your life um again for me today it was a success that I woke up and I got out of bed like that doesn't happen a lot of times for me unfortunately um and I think success is just this thing that we use to like label and achievement or an accolade but it's not about that it's about like how these things make us feel um and you know a lot of the time that is significance and we kind of need that significance to reassure ourselves that we're doing okay especially as an entrepreneur especially when everything is so uncertain like we need to know things are okay and sometimes people become super like egotistical and significance driven so like definitely be humble when you're reflecting back on your success