okay you guys so I have a confession to
make
every Tuesday night after a long just
grueling day in the courtroom I would
come home I’d snuggle into my couch I’d
pop on Bravo TV and I would enter into
the world of one of the most celebrated
fashion stylists
Rachel’s oh I love yes I love me some
Rachel’s oh she would just go and she
would style these women and she looked
so chic and so fashionable and she would
just style the most elite of Hollywood
celebs and I wanted her life but you
know even in my pretend life if I
pretend it to be Rachel’s oh I couldn’t
do it why because I was a full-time
attorney and not just any attorney I was
a highly overachieving one I took the
Texas State Bar Exam in February of 2008
passed that on the first go-around and
that wasn’t good enough three years
later I decided okay I’m going to take
the California State Bar Exam and was
working full-time past that the first
go-around and then a month later I flew
to DC and I was sworn in before the
United States Supreme Court but with all
of these law accolades nothing could
just you know fuel my passion for
fashion so what was a fashionably
obsessed attorney supposed to do I mean
I have these visions visions of walking
around in Louboutin red bottoms and
carrying around crocodile Birkin bags
these people just kind of like you know
watched me shaking the hands of Anna
Wintour and sitting front row fabulously
with my sunglasses at New York Fashion
Week
so what was I supposed to do with this
you know we all have dreams so I go home
and same routine I would work
night after night watch Rachel’s oh do
her thing and I just want to be Rachel
and I wanted to style these women and so
I started having these dreams it started
to enter my dreams and I would see these
women it was very vivid until one day I
said you know what I’m gonna do
something with this so I decided to
start a side hustle and open a personal
shopping business but no one kind of
tells you when you start a business that
your clients don’t just come running to
you so it was really hard to try to
figure out how to get clients run a
personal shopping business and all the
while be a full-time attorney so in
order to establish my expertise I
decided to start fashion blogging
because if anything could happen I could
kind of fake like I knew what I was
talking about because I could write
about it on a blog people would read it
and think that I was the expert so back
in 2009 when fashion blogging started or
blogging for me people were more so
blogging like their personal dear
Diaries like little Timmy went to poopoo
it was so cute I like to make mac and
cheese with this and you know this and
that and people would just read it we
were blogging about the things that
really matter to us it wasn’t a business
and it wasn’t about money I was blogging
about fashion and beauty then I was
doing it for free little did I know that
that one step of blogging would lead to
me being on TV within two months of
starting my blog as a fashion expert it
was horrible i bombed it all I’m in
going on radio invites to both New York
and Paris Fashion Week’s interviews with
the likes of Zac Posen music Zac he’s so
much fun I’ll tell you all about that
later
Zac Posen and Nicole Miller and the list
goes on and on and the most important
thing that blogging did for me is that
it opened the door it allowed me to
leave my life
as the full-time attorney and enter into
the life as a full-time fashion preneur
what you see today so life is great I
got addicted to blogging I was blogging
for everybody
see
examiner it was like this itch that I
always had to satisfy and slowly I
started building this following of women
who would come to me every single week
to read what does we have to say about
fashion what is we have to say about the
new beauty products it was really
addicting and then they sprung on us
social media which we know changes like
every day so Instagram snapchat vine all
of those players came along and now
we’ve expanded it beyond just writing to
the blog – now we have to put our same
voice into social media and it was like
the beast that you just had to feed all
the time but little did we know I call
us the og of bloggers we didn’t know
that it was going to expand our audience
and our followings to a rate that none
of us could possibly have ever imagined
so at this point in time people just
started looking at us like where should
we be dining tonight Leah what should I
be wearing what should I do with Beauty
what should I do that bloggers were now
the voices that people look to to change
the world
bloggers now I was like the shift was
going on in the atmosphere and we were
all kind of coming together like this
power of the bloggers listen to us we
know what to do we know what to say it
was really really really cool and so the
coolest thing happened in the
advertisement world they started to take
notice of what all of us was doing in
the digital platform so I kind of
imagined it like this they all got
together in a meeting and I don’t know
it’s kind of like this they’re like hmm
if we can take all the money and we’re
spending a lot of money we could take
that money that we’re paying to being
print magazines and newspapers and
commercials and give it to the bloggers
because they can reach that audience
directly and they’re doing it every
single day and they’re doing it to an
audience that follows them like crazy
maybe we should start budgeting to pay
for blog advertisements versus putting
it in these other traditional media
forms and this is how the business of
blogging was created bloggers now have
businesses we now started earning the
change right so is at this point in time
that I started working with major brands
I started working with Bo
Neiman Marcus Canty beauty you name it
the likes and I was doing it in exchange
for free products and money it was
absolutely insane I remember it like it
was yesterday I got this box from Vogue
and I opened it up and it was like
really cute you know the cute boxes you
don’t want to open because they’re
really cutely you know package but
anyways so I open it up and I’ll pull
out this bag and it’s like green I would
never wear you know a really lime-green
bag but it was a lime-green bag and it
was like this crocodile kind of fabric
it was crazy and the instructions just
read just carry this around carry it on
your arm and I’m like okay I’m getting
this for free and this is like thousands
of dollars and the only thing I have to
do for this is carry it around town okay
I’m in what else do you want me to do so
I’ll start carrying this bag around town
and it’s just blowing my mind that
because I’m riding on a blog and I’m
doing social media that people are just
giving me free things of value and so of
course you know all us oh gee bloggers
we’re walking around town with our new
bags and you know knew this knew that
and everybody started to take notice and
this is when there was just this big
boom of blogs happening because now
everybody wants a piece of the blogger
pie everybody now wanted to make money
in the way that we did and it’s crazy
because to this day I still have
products deliver it daily boxes upon
boxes and I know my neighbors look like
what is that girl doing over in house
blah blah blah next door we don’t know
if it’s legal or not but she has bags
delivered on the daily but no once this
started happening because you got to
remember we started just blogging about
the things that meant the most to us we
didn’t do it for money so now once
social media came into play and we had
to answer to advertisers and answer to
brands we had to question ourselves you
know are we still going to keep a blog
that is contained in seriously
gravitating towards of things that we’re
passionate about or do we succumb to
what the advertisers want and what the
brands want and now do we switch our
blogs to where it’s ninety ninety
percent paid for
this was a really really tough decision
to make because I like money and I like
free products so this is one of the
things that we were you know we were
thinking about so fast-forward around
2010 Instagram comes out and by 2012
we’ve really figured out how to get this
thing rockin and rollin how to take cute
pics you know the selfie thing which I’m
still not good at to this day anyways we
were being told that if we could grow
our following to five thousand or more
now remember this was 2012 that we would
get even more money so we’re like okay
we need a business focus let’s try to
figure out how to get more followers and
then Mashable did this recent study in
2016 that showed that for most bloggers
they’re making for one post one post a
hundred and ten dollars to upwards of
ten thousand dollars for just one post
now if they focused hard enough and grew
their followers to a million or more
then they can get to upwards of $25,000
see that’s what I was trying to get and
then if you focused hard enough and
you’re like you know the likes of Kylie
Jenner Kim Kardashian which we can all
aspire to be that right so millions and
millions of followers you can get four
hundred thousand dollars for just one
post it is just ridiculous so you can
imagine that how our business shifted
our strategy had to change you had a lot
of bloggers now running around and we
don’t really talk about how much money
we make and we really don’t talk about
what the brands are paying us but we did
know that word got around town just how
lucrative this business could be and now
everybody was vlogging but they were
only blogging for the money so now
fast-forward you have us oh gee bloggers
we’re still oh you know we’re like okay
we don’t know how to do this we still
want to stay true to our audience but we
feel like we’re selling out because now
we’re doing it only for their free
products and we’re doing it for the
money and in 2015 I had a choice to make
I was still attorney by day fashionista
by night and I decided to just take the
full step into entrepreneurship and I
did it without you know fully thinking
it through but I love fashion enough and
I decided to give up everything to
my dream I’m wondering if my runway
picture is when it is you love it
but anyway so I’m a fifth year of being
an attorney I decided to take that leap
and I gave up a lot I was in the process
of buying my dream home and I gave that
up
I took the down payment and put it into
my business I also took all of my
savings every penny and I put it into my
blogging business and my media outlet I
even went a step further and drained my
entire retirement account and put that
into my business because blogging cost a
lot of money to do and when you have
mounds of student loan debt
I know y’all feel me out there right yes
and law student debt on top of that and
builds upon builds upon bills and you
have to make a decision on whether or
not to do something for love or
passionate or do it for the money it is
not an easy decision but I chose to
stick with my passion and I prayed and I
hoped that the money would come so but
unfortunately for many other bloggers
money wins every single time we now have
an industry that is very corrupt it’s
all about what they can push to their
followers if you see on people’s feeds
often it seems like they’re trying to
sell you something every single second
no one is blogging from a true authentic
space anymore and it really really just
breaks my heart I had I know of bloggers
especially fashion bloggers that have
gone into debt to post designer clothing
or they would go and borrow the clothes
only to take it back the next day to
appear as though they’re living a
certain lifestyle other bloggers once
they found out the numbers as far as how
much money they can make from social
media they just went out and bought
their followers and the brands were
paying them the money because they
didn’t realize that the followers were
actually fake I have a colleague in the
industry her name is Christina Libby and
her company is called soku and they are
a social media marketing agency and she
did a huge research project in Dallas a
couple years ago and I was a part of the
project and I had to spill all the beans
and I tried to do it anonymously but
that didn’t work she found out through
this research study that bloggers were
spending $20,000 just on website
dates annually alone she also found out
that many fashion bloggers were paying
75 to $200 per hour just to take
pictures with a photographer to post one
to four times a day so you do the math
if they’re trying to keep up with Suzy Q
over here who’s posting four to eight
times a day 75 to $200 an hour can
really really add up lastly she found
that a lot of bloggers have now started
spending 20 to 80 hours a week just on
content creation creating videos
creating social media posts just trying
to keep up with this monster that has
now been created and it’s all of the
bloggers now that are trying to do it
for a business and want to do it for
passion but they can’t because they need
to make money
they’re trying to go into it full-time
and so it’s just a really corrupt
industry so now it’s all about influence
their marketing and again once again
what was very we were very passionate
about it’s just a money-making machine I
was on Twitter the other day and a
blogger out of Dallas had a post in the
post read I love blogging but hate that
I can’t always express my actual
opinions on things truly annoying and
just broke my heart
but because I’m a little messy and I
like good tea I cut you know I read
through all the comments and replies hey
I mean you guys know you do it too and
there was another blogger that responded
back because I’m trying to figure out
who’s out here you know I’m just trying
to sell stuff
and there was a blogger that said you
know what I feel fake too
and that just really broke my heart
because blogging at a point in time was
just all about the things that matter to
you it shouldn’t be about the fact that
you’re pushing a product or a brand is
paying you and you feel like you have to
give it a good review and this is where
the industry had headed a lot of
bloggers now because it’s this beast we
have to keep up with this beast we have
to keep making money there now it’s been
experiencing bloggers burn out a lot of
bloggers and influencers now go through
depression they’re exhausted because
they’re seeing the bloggers to the left
and the bloggers to the right they
create this competition and they feel
like they can’t keep up and I’ve had
many of my colleagues that start it with
me about a decade ago they’ve now quit
so my question today
is how was something that was so pure in
the beginning that was based off of
passion that woke us up out of our sleep
everyday like how do we get here how can
we return the integrity back into the
industry where we feel like we can
create from a place of authenticity and
not have to do it because we feel like
it’s going to pay our next paycheck and
I have a couple of pointers to make to
those or do we have any bloggers out in
the audience or influencers hey I like
you you’ve been like nodding your head
at me the whole time
make me feel good so I have some
pointers for bloggers and then I have
some pointers for brands who want to
engage with bloggers too maybe we can
make this industry one that’s based off
of authenticity one if you’re a blogger
really take the time to sit down and
find your voice know exactly what it is
that you stand for and don’t waver on it
many businesses when you go into a
business you have to do a business plan
you have to develop a business strategy
you have to know what those
characteristics attribute attributes
about you that make you unique every
single last one of you out there you
have a very distinctive voice there was
things that were birthed inside of you
through your DNA that only you can
communicate to this world if you do this
through your blog and you find that
voice and project that you don’t have to
worry about money or followers or brands
finding you it will be so unique that
people will follow you automatically and
I like to think of it like dr. Seuss
because whatever dr. Seuss says is like
gold right so as today you are you that
is truer than true there was no one
alive who was you er than you so if you
start thinking that you know you start
becoming social media famous and you
start getting a lot of products just go
back to what dr. Seuss says do it from a
place of authenticity second when it
comes to content creation and you really
dig deep and you get to know yourself
and what makes you unique in this world
start developing content that is unique
to you the things that you’re passionate
about now
I know I look like I did my face today I
tried really really hard for you guys
okay but I actually hate beauty stuff
like I don’t like doing my makeup I’m
not gonna sit in contour five different
ways if I’ve eaten too much I’ve just
eaten too much and I’m not gonna try to
look skinny for y’all well kind of black
on black on black you know but if
somebody gives me products like Becca
cosmetics did I will take out a fuzzy
rug and I will make it beautiful for my
followers and tell them what to do with
it rather than me not staying true to
myself and doing a step by step video
because I hate it right so that’s what I
would suggest doing for content creation
do those things that naturally come to
you
and lastly bloggers influencers don’t do
it for the money
I found out in this business look I was
making a lot of money as an attorney I
could travel every week I can do
whatever I wanted to do but the moment I
started focusing on what woke me up
every single day I started thinking
about Rachel started thinking about
those women started thinking about the
things that drove me every single day
people can feel that they could read it
through my words and the money came the
opportunities came the resources came
because they knew that leah was
operating from a very genuine and
authentic place and if you do that I
promise you the money the resources and
the opportunities will come now as for
brands that are looking to work with
influencers I need y’all to chill out
you know I really need you to look
beyond followers that doesn’t mean
anything anymore like what really
defines influence it shouldn’t be
because someone so has a hundred
thousand followers cuz you know what I
look them up and they’re all robots
right so look encourage your influencers
to just create amazing content give them
the freedom to play when you do that
there’s something very authentic in that
process that people will gravitate
towards lastly with brands build ongoing
relationships if I can work with a brand
longtime I’m more apt to create amazing
things for them rather than if they’re
just paying me off one by one by one
your audience knows when you’re trying
to push something to them on Instagram
or Facebook or through your blog every
single day but if there’s one brand that
you stick with
they’ll start to believe you and they’ll
start to believe that you’re not in it
for their money so with all that to say
I don’t know where this industry is
headed but I’ll leave you with the words
of Jhansi Maxwell who said leadership is
influence as bloggers and as influencers
we’re leaders we have a lot of power and
with that power it could either be
abused or it can become corrupt but if
you do it in the right way our
creativity is endless everything that
we’re doing right now our voices they’re
changing the world you know as an
attorney who dreamed of the runway to
now one who actually walks the runway
it’s very scary you know I can say that
true influence and true leadership
really matters when it’s done from the
heart so for the future for all those
bloggers and influencers out there that
are social media hungry or they want to
be celebrities or they only want to do
it for the greed and the fame they’re
gonna die out
people are already seeing through all of
that for the ones who operate from their
heart from a genuine and authentic tone
you know your voice you know who you are
you know what you bring to this world
those are going to be the bloggers who
are going to survive so in the end
operate from that place because only
those influencers only the authentic in
the genuine of influencers in that
manner are gonna be the ones to survive let’s bring it back y’all
make
every Tuesday night after a long just
grueling day in the courtroom I would
come home I’d snuggle into my couch I’d
pop on Bravo TV and I would enter into
the world of one of the most celebrated
fashion stylists
Rachel’s oh I love yes I love me some
Rachel’s oh she would just go and she
would style these women and she looked
so chic and so fashionable and she would
just style the most elite of Hollywood
celebs and I wanted her life but you
know even in my pretend life if I
pretend it to be Rachel’s oh I couldn’t
do it why because I was a full-time
attorney and not just any attorney I was
a highly overachieving one I took the
Texas State Bar Exam in February of 2008
passed that on the first go-around and
that wasn’t good enough three years
later I decided okay I’m going to take
the California State Bar Exam and was
working full-time past that the first
go-around and then a month later I flew
to DC and I was sworn in before the
United States Supreme Court but with all
of these law accolades nothing could
just you know fuel my passion for
fashion so what was a fashionably
obsessed attorney supposed to do I mean
I have these visions visions of walking
around in Louboutin red bottoms and
carrying around crocodile Birkin bags
these people just kind of like you know
watched me shaking the hands of Anna
Wintour and sitting front row fabulously
with my sunglasses at New York Fashion
Week
so what was I supposed to do with this
you know we all have dreams so I go home
and same routine I would work
night after night watch Rachel’s oh do
her thing and I just want to be Rachel
and I wanted to style these women and so
I started having these dreams it started
to enter my dreams and I would see these
women it was very vivid until one day I
said you know what I’m gonna do
something with this so I decided to
start a side hustle and open a personal
shopping business but no one kind of
tells you when you start a business that
your clients don’t just come running to
you so it was really hard to try to
figure out how to get clients run a
personal shopping business and all the
while be a full-time attorney so in
order to establish my expertise I
decided to start fashion blogging
because if anything could happen I could
kind of fake like I knew what I was
talking about because I could write
about it on a blog people would read it
and think that I was the expert so back
in 2009 when fashion blogging started or
blogging for me people were more so
blogging like their personal dear
Diaries like little Timmy went to poopoo
it was so cute I like to make mac and
cheese with this and you know this and
that and people would just read it we
were blogging about the things that
really matter to us it wasn’t a business
and it wasn’t about money I was blogging
about fashion and beauty then I was
doing it for free little did I know that
that one step of blogging would lead to
me being on TV within two months of
starting my blog as a fashion expert it
was horrible i bombed it all I’m in
going on radio invites to both New York
and Paris Fashion Week’s interviews with
the likes of Zac Posen music Zac he’s so
much fun I’ll tell you all about that
later
Zac Posen and Nicole Miller and the list
goes on and on and the most important
thing that blogging did for me is that
it opened the door it allowed me to
leave my life
as the full-time attorney and enter into
the life as a full-time fashion preneur
what you see today so life is great I
got addicted to blogging I was blogging
for everybody
see
examiner it was like this itch that I
always had to satisfy and slowly I
started building this following of women
who would come to me every single week
to read what does we have to say about
fashion what is we have to say about the
new beauty products it was really
addicting and then they sprung on us
social media which we know changes like
every day so Instagram snapchat vine all
of those players came along and now
we’ve expanded it beyond just writing to
the blog – now we have to put our same
voice into social media and it was like
the beast that you just had to feed all
the time but little did we know I call
us the og of bloggers we didn’t know
that it was going to expand our audience
and our followings to a rate that none
of us could possibly have ever imagined
so at this point in time people just
started looking at us like where should
we be dining tonight Leah what should I
be wearing what should I do with Beauty
what should I do that bloggers were now
the voices that people look to to change
the world
bloggers now I was like the shift was
going on in the atmosphere and we were
all kind of coming together like this
power of the bloggers listen to us we
know what to do we know what to say it
was really really really cool and so the
coolest thing happened in the
advertisement world they started to take
notice of what all of us was doing in
the digital platform so I kind of
imagined it like this they all got
together in a meeting and I don’t know
it’s kind of like this they’re like hmm
if we can take all the money and we’re
spending a lot of money we could take
that money that we’re paying to being
print magazines and newspapers and
commercials and give it to the bloggers
because they can reach that audience
directly and they’re doing it every
single day and they’re doing it to an
audience that follows them like crazy
maybe we should start budgeting to pay
for blog advertisements versus putting
it in these other traditional media
forms and this is how the business of
blogging was created bloggers now have
businesses we now started earning the
change right so is at this point in time
that I started working with major brands
I started working with Bo
Neiman Marcus Canty beauty you name it
the likes and I was doing it in exchange
for free products and money it was
absolutely insane I remember it like it
was yesterday I got this box from Vogue
and I opened it up and it was like
really cute you know the cute boxes you
don’t want to open because they’re
really cutely you know package but
anyways so I open it up and I’ll pull
out this bag and it’s like green I would
never wear you know a really lime-green
bag but it was a lime-green bag and it
was like this crocodile kind of fabric
it was crazy and the instructions just
read just carry this around carry it on
your arm and I’m like okay I’m getting
this for free and this is like thousands
of dollars and the only thing I have to
do for this is carry it around town okay
I’m in what else do you want me to do so
I’ll start carrying this bag around town
and it’s just blowing my mind that
because I’m riding on a blog and I’m
doing social media that people are just
giving me free things of value and so of
course you know all us oh gee bloggers
we’re walking around town with our new
bags and you know knew this knew that
and everybody started to take notice and
this is when there was just this big
boom of blogs happening because now
everybody wants a piece of the blogger
pie everybody now wanted to make money
in the way that we did and it’s crazy
because to this day I still have
products deliver it daily boxes upon
boxes and I know my neighbors look like
what is that girl doing over in house
blah blah blah next door we don’t know
if it’s legal or not but she has bags
delivered on the daily but no once this
started happening because you got to
remember we started just blogging about
the things that meant the most to us we
didn’t do it for money so now once
social media came into play and we had
to answer to advertisers and answer to
brands we had to question ourselves you
know are we still going to keep a blog
that is contained in seriously
gravitating towards of things that we’re
passionate about or do we succumb to
what the advertisers want and what the
brands want and now do we switch our
blogs to where it’s ninety ninety
percent paid for
this was a really really tough decision
to make because I like money and I like
free products so this is one of the
things that we were you know we were
thinking about so fast-forward around
2010 Instagram comes out and by 2012
we’ve really figured out how to get this
thing rockin and rollin how to take cute
pics you know the selfie thing which I’m
still not good at to this day anyways we
were being told that if we could grow
our following to five thousand or more
now remember this was 2012 that we would
get even more money so we’re like okay
we need a business focus let’s try to
figure out how to get more followers and
then Mashable did this recent study in
2016 that showed that for most bloggers
they’re making for one post one post a
hundred and ten dollars to upwards of
ten thousand dollars for just one post
now if they focused hard enough and grew
their followers to a million or more
then they can get to upwards of $25,000
see that’s what I was trying to get and
then if you focused hard enough and
you’re like you know the likes of Kylie
Jenner Kim Kardashian which we can all
aspire to be that right so millions and
millions of followers you can get four
hundred thousand dollars for just one
post it is just ridiculous so you can
imagine that how our business shifted
our strategy had to change you had a lot
of bloggers now running around and we
don’t really talk about how much money
we make and we really don’t talk about
what the brands are paying us but we did
know that word got around town just how
lucrative this business could be and now
everybody was vlogging but they were
only blogging for the money so now
fast-forward you have us oh gee bloggers
we’re still oh you know we’re like okay
we don’t know how to do this we still
want to stay true to our audience but we
feel like we’re selling out because now
we’re doing it only for their free
products and we’re doing it for the
money and in 2015 I had a choice to make
I was still attorney by day fashionista
by night and I decided to just take the
full step into entrepreneurship and I
did it without you know fully thinking
it through but I love fashion enough and
I decided to give up everything to
my dream I’m wondering if my runway
picture is when it is you love it
but anyway so I’m a fifth year of being
an attorney I decided to take that leap
and I gave up a lot I was in the process
of buying my dream home and I gave that
up
I took the down payment and put it into
my business I also took all of my
savings every penny and I put it into my
blogging business and my media outlet I
even went a step further and drained my
entire retirement account and put that
into my business because blogging cost a
lot of money to do and when you have
mounds of student loan debt
I know y’all feel me out there right yes
and law student debt on top of that and
builds upon builds upon bills and you
have to make a decision on whether or
not to do something for love or
passionate or do it for the money it is
not an easy decision but I chose to
stick with my passion and I prayed and I
hoped that the money would come so but
unfortunately for many other bloggers
money wins every single time we now have
an industry that is very corrupt it’s
all about what they can push to their
followers if you see on people’s feeds
often it seems like they’re trying to
sell you something every single second
no one is blogging from a true authentic
space anymore and it really really just
breaks my heart I had I know of bloggers
especially fashion bloggers that have
gone into debt to post designer clothing
or they would go and borrow the clothes
only to take it back the next day to
appear as though they’re living a
certain lifestyle other bloggers once
they found out the numbers as far as how
much money they can make from social
media they just went out and bought
their followers and the brands were
paying them the money because they
didn’t realize that the followers were
actually fake I have a colleague in the
industry her name is Christina Libby and
her company is called soku and they are
a social media marketing agency and she
did a huge research project in Dallas a
couple years ago and I was a part of the
project and I had to spill all the beans
and I tried to do it anonymously but
that didn’t work she found out through
this research study that bloggers were
spending $20,000 just on website
dates annually alone she also found out
that many fashion bloggers were paying
75 to $200 per hour just to take
pictures with a photographer to post one
to four times a day so you do the math
if they’re trying to keep up with Suzy Q
over here who’s posting four to eight
times a day 75 to $200 an hour can
really really add up lastly she found
that a lot of bloggers have now started
spending 20 to 80 hours a week just on
content creation creating videos
creating social media posts just trying
to keep up with this monster that has
now been created and it’s all of the
bloggers now that are trying to do it
for a business and want to do it for
passion but they can’t because they need
to make money
they’re trying to go into it full-time
and so it’s just a really corrupt
industry so now it’s all about influence
their marketing and again once again
what was very we were very passionate
about it’s just a money-making machine I
was on Twitter the other day and a
blogger out of Dallas had a post in the
post read I love blogging but hate that
I can’t always express my actual
opinions on things truly annoying and
just broke my heart
but because I’m a little messy and I
like good tea I cut you know I read
through all the comments and replies hey
I mean you guys know you do it too and
there was another blogger that responded
back because I’m trying to figure out
who’s out here you know I’m just trying
to sell stuff
and there was a blogger that said you
know what I feel fake too
and that just really broke my heart
because blogging at a point in time was
just all about the things that matter to
you it shouldn’t be about the fact that
you’re pushing a product or a brand is
paying you and you feel like you have to
give it a good review and this is where
the industry had headed a lot of
bloggers now because it’s this beast we
have to keep up with this beast we have
to keep making money there now it’s been
experiencing bloggers burn out a lot of
bloggers and influencers now go through
depression they’re exhausted because
they’re seeing the bloggers to the left
and the bloggers to the right they
create this competition and they feel
like they can’t keep up and I’ve had
many of my colleagues that start it with
me about a decade ago they’ve now quit
so my question today
is how was something that was so pure in
the beginning that was based off of
passion that woke us up out of our sleep
everyday like how do we get here how can
we return the integrity back into the
industry where we feel like we can
create from a place of authenticity and
not have to do it because we feel like
it’s going to pay our next paycheck and
I have a couple of pointers to make to
those or do we have any bloggers out in
the audience or influencers hey I like
you you’ve been like nodding your head
at me the whole time
make me feel good so I have some
pointers for bloggers and then I have
some pointers for brands who want to
engage with bloggers too maybe we can
make this industry one that’s based off
of authenticity one if you’re a blogger
really take the time to sit down and
find your voice know exactly what it is
that you stand for and don’t waver on it
many businesses when you go into a
business you have to do a business plan
you have to develop a business strategy
you have to know what those
characteristics attribute attributes
about you that make you unique every
single last one of you out there you
have a very distinctive voice there was
things that were birthed inside of you
through your DNA that only you can
communicate to this world if you do this
through your blog and you find that
voice and project that you don’t have to
worry about money or followers or brands
finding you it will be so unique that
people will follow you automatically and
I like to think of it like dr. Seuss
because whatever dr. Seuss says is like
gold right so as today you are you that
is truer than true there was no one
alive who was you er than you so if you
start thinking that you know you start
becoming social media famous and you
start getting a lot of products just go
back to what dr. Seuss says do it from a
place of authenticity second when it
comes to content creation and you really
dig deep and you get to know yourself
and what makes you unique in this world
start developing content that is unique
to you the things that you’re passionate
about now
I know I look like I did my face today I
tried really really hard for you guys
okay but I actually hate beauty stuff
like I don’t like doing my makeup I’m
not gonna sit in contour five different
ways if I’ve eaten too much I’ve just
eaten too much and I’m not gonna try to
look skinny for y’all well kind of black
on black on black you know but if
somebody gives me products like Becca
cosmetics did I will take out a fuzzy
rug and I will make it beautiful for my
followers and tell them what to do with
it rather than me not staying true to
myself and doing a step by step video
because I hate it right so that’s what I
would suggest doing for content creation
do those things that naturally come to
you
and lastly bloggers influencers don’t do
it for the money
I found out in this business look I was
making a lot of money as an attorney I
could travel every week I can do
whatever I wanted to do but the moment I
started focusing on what woke me up
every single day I started thinking
about Rachel started thinking about
those women started thinking about the
things that drove me every single day
people can feel that they could read it
through my words and the money came the
opportunities came the resources came
because they knew that leah was
operating from a very genuine and
authentic place and if you do that I
promise you the money the resources and
the opportunities will come now as for
brands that are looking to work with
influencers I need y’all to chill out
you know I really need you to look
beyond followers that doesn’t mean
anything anymore like what really
defines influence it shouldn’t be
because someone so has a hundred
thousand followers cuz you know what I
look them up and they’re all robots
right so look encourage your influencers
to just create amazing content give them
the freedom to play when you do that
there’s something very authentic in that
process that people will gravitate
towards lastly with brands build ongoing
relationships if I can work with a brand
longtime I’m more apt to create amazing
things for them rather than if they’re
just paying me off one by one by one
your audience knows when you’re trying
to push something to them on Instagram
or Facebook or through your blog every
single day but if there’s one brand that
you stick with
they’ll start to believe you and they’ll
start to believe that you’re not in it
for their money so with all that to say
I don’t know where this industry is
headed but I’ll leave you with the words
of Jhansi Maxwell who said leadership is
influence as bloggers and as influencers
we’re leaders we have a lot of power and
with that power it could either be
abused or it can become corrupt but if
you do it in the right way our
creativity is endless everything that
we’re doing right now our voices they’re
changing the world you know as an
attorney who dreamed of the runway to
now one who actually walks the runway
it’s very scary you know I can say that
true influence and true leadership
really matters when it’s done from the
heart so for the future for all those
bloggers and influencers out there that
are social media hungry or they want to
be celebrities or they only want to do
it for the greed and the fame they’re
gonna die out
people are already seeing through all of
that for the ones who operate from their
heart from a genuine and authentic tone
you know your voice you know who you are
you know what you bring to this world
those are going to be the bloggers who
are going to survive so in the end
operate from that place because only
those influencers only the authentic in
the genuine of influencers in that
manner are gonna be the ones to survive let’s bring it back y’all
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