On Becoming, with Chanel Tyler

In this transformative episode of "The Reminder Remedy," host Alena Conley sits down with Chanel Tyler, a content creator, tech and beauty executive, and advocate for authenticity in the digital age. Together, they delve into the journeys of motherhood, career evolution, and the undeniable power of community. Chanel shares her inspiring path from the finance world to becoming a voice of influence in the beauty and tech spaces, all while navigating personal challenges and triumphs.

Key Episode Highlights:

1. Introduction to Chanel Tyler: Discover Chanel's journey from her early days in New York to her impactful presence in the content creation and tech industries.
2. The Evolution of Womanhood and Motherhood: Chanel opens up about the transitions from career-focused ambitions to embracing motherhood and the shifts in identity that come with it.
3. Building a Brand on Authenticity: Learn how Chanel leveraged her genuine passion for skincare and technology to build a community and brand that resonates with many.
4. Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Alena and Chanel discuss strategies for overcoming self-doubt and the importance of starting somewhere, anywhere, to find your voice and audience.
5. The Importance of Community: Both Alena and Chanel emphasize the role of support systems, both online and offline, in navigating life's challenges and celebrating its milestones.
6. Chanel's Personal Journey with Hearing Loss: An intimate look at Chanel's experience with hearing loss, how it has shaped her perspective, and the strength found in vulnerability.
7. Advice for Aspiring Content Creators: Practical tips and motivational insights for anyone looking to make an impact through content creation, emphasizing authenticity and community engagement.

Resources Mentioned:

• CapCut (Video Editing App)
• Howl (Social Commerce Marketplace)
• LTK (Affiliate Platform)
• Collective Voice (Affiliate Marketing)

Connect with Chanel Tyler:

• Instagram: @buymechanel

Connect with Alena Conley:

• Instagram: @alenaconley
• Podcast: The Reminder Remedy

Episode Quotes:

"Authenticity is your superpower in the world of content creation." - Chanel Tyler

"In navigating the evolution of our identities, we find the strength we didn't know we had." - Alena Conley

"Community and impact over perfection, always." - Chanel Tyler

Closing Thoughts:

This episode is a powerful reminder that our journeys are not linear but filled with lessons, growth, and the opportunity to impact others positively. Chanel Tyler's story is a testament to the beauty of becoming, the importance of embracing change, and the incredible power of authenticity. Join us next time on "The Reminder Remedy" as we continue to explore stories that heal, motivate, and remind us of the beauty in our collective human experience.

Subscribe and Review:

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Share your takeaways from the episode on social media and tag us. We love hearing from you!

Transcript

0:01

In this episode of the Reminder Remedy Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing my friend Chanel Tyler. Chanel is a graduate of Spelman College and Columbia Business School. She is a dynamic leader within the tech and beauty industry. Known for her passion as an advocate centered around community and inclusivity, she always pushes excellence in everything she touches. Chanel recently accepted a position as head of creator business development at Howl, a social commerce marketplace, where she focuses on mobilizing the creator economy through affiliate marketing strategies, helping creators find success in commerce and branded content. Prior to Hal, Chanel was the lead for the beauty, fashion, and lifestyle verticals on YouTube's large partner team, and the director of local and cultural relevancy at Estee Lauder Companies for the North America region. Chanel's contributions to the beauty and tech industry have been featured in The Cut, People Magazine, Coverture, Good Morning America, and VT Networks. This conversation was everything, you all. Outside of us digging into what I know you want to learn more about, which is content creation and how she was really able to go full steam, With that side hustle that has turned into so much more, we really were able to go into our own personal journeys of evolution as women from our time back in New York as single gals starting out in finance and banking together. to now both becoming mothers and wives and what it looks like to transition into those spaces after really dedicating your entire life to becoming a successful woman on your own. So I'm excited to see what you all gather from this. I know at the end, you're going to be wanting more. So Chanel has already promised me another episode just around content creation, but for now, let's get into it. Welcome to the Reminder Remedy Podcast. I'm your host, Alina Conley, a personal development expert and coach. This podcast is for leaders, innovators, and culture shifters. We explore personal growth, leadership development, and the journey towards a fulfilling life. With the aim of leading ourselves to effectively lead others through insightful interviews, discussions, and inspiring stories, we unlock the secrets to a better existence and a better world, whether you seek inspiration or practical guidance, I'm here to remind you of your incredible potential because everything you need is everything you got. Let's get into it. All right, everyone. Welcome back to yet another episode of the Reminder Remedy. I am your host, Alina Conley, and today I am joined by my girl, Chanel Tyler. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here. I am so glad to have you. Before we even get started, I have to just like, Give you your flowers because you have inspired me so much in this last year. So Chanel and I met back in our New York Brooklyn days, I think it was through like Melissa or somebody in the, in that whole finance 0 0 7 0 8 crew, like our whole, like what we had going on up there, which was this amazing times, but after I left New York of course I worked with the lip bar and then I went into. Direct sales and built my, it works business. And I spent like all of this time building businesses on social media. So I would say for almost six years I spent like day in and day out creating what was considered like content back then, but it was like posting just five, six times a day to the point where I just got super burnt out. But with that being said just social media in general and creating and being creative has always been something that I just truly enjoy. Like I was, I downloaded the Instagram app the day that it came out, like I was an early user of Facebook growing up, my father It was like a super like Apple geek. And so this has always been like something that I've loved. But then when I experienced this space of burnout, I just fell back for almost like two or three years. And I will say that in the last year watching you and so many other. Black creators come back and really just build community and really show up authentically in your lane and also doing that alongside like your careers and being mothers and wives. It has really drawn me back to the space of creating again. And so thank you for just inspiring me to even be like, Oh, like this could be cool again. Like it doesn't have to be what it used to be. So I just wanted to tell you that you have truly inspired me. I appreciate you saying that so much because your journey initially, you were one of the first ones to get into creating content and posting about things that I felt like nobody was talking about. You know what I mean? And being vulnerable in some really real ways, like showcasing. All the parts of you and that was what I remember feeling was really missing from social media not to say that like everybody needs to be vulnerable or everybody needs to put their life out there But like you were doing it in a way that was like so relatable and so engaging and so you actually Inspired me to get on the journey that I've been on and just Give it a try. Put yourself out there and see what happens and the community will come. I'm like listening to you say that, but I'm like, you were one of the reasons why I started doing what I do. Yeah, that is, that's dope. Full circle moment. And you've also my husband will probably be like, Oh, that's the Chanel that got you spending all my money? link that you drop. I'm like, Ooh, like tomorrow I'm actually doing my first live podcast, but I'm wearing like the leggings that you put, the stir up leggings that you put in the they are so cute. I'm wearing those tomorrow, like Chanel inspired, but super cute. And I think that has been just what I like about the direction of what the creator space or the ecosystem or just like the way that people are sharing what they're already good at has I like where it's going, because when I was with the lip bar and, again, we have that mutual friend of Melissa, but one of the things that Melissa will always talk about is how, when. When makeup became like super complicated, right? When we, when the YouTubers came around and was like 50 stages, 50 steps of doing makeup and we created fast phase, it was makeup doesn't have to be complicated. And that messaging spoke to me because I felt like after I became a mom, I was so like, In the mom zone, like the groups, the blogs, that whatever was trending outside of motherhood, like I couldn't tell you. And so coming back into my own and being able to catch up on like fashion and what are the girls doing, with accessories and every scene Oh, this is how people clean and organize. That has made it so easy for me to just. Not have to start over if that makes sense. Yeah, so I love that what I want. I guess where we can start and this is gonna be super random, but like when I had you prep, you put one of the things that if you could go back and relive a day, you put hump Wednesday. Tell me about hump Wednesday. Oh my God. I went to Spelman, which, and. Every Wednesday, Morehouse would basically like like host, but felt like a cookout every single Wednesday. You got to have a DJ in, there'd be food, vibes, all the things. And it was just like this place that just felt like home. And like, when I think back about like the moments where I felt like most grounded, most at peace, just like living like life, it's that has flashbacks of being there being around all my friends and just just being around black people. It's just Life is so different now. And I really feel like I took those moments for granted, but like every Wednesday we'd be out in, in, in front of Morehouse having a grand good time. And so that is just like something that I reflect back on a lot is those years, spent at. The AUC and just being able to feel at home again. Yeah. I definitely think that we just didn't realize the utopia that we were in during those days, because even now I didn't go back to our homecoming for almost seven years again. Like after having my kids, I just didn't have time. So I went back to fam for the first time last year. And then again, this year. And I just, to your point, felt so at home and it just felt like a space where I could just be me, right? Everybody knows the vibes. Everybody knows that we can just like chill and do crazy things, but we're also professional and we're also educated, but you don't have to explain that, right? You can just show up. You feel safe. Yeah, for sure. When you think about how fast life comes at you, right? I know that for me, after I left New York, which was 2013 a year later I was pregnant, a year later I was married, and then it just never ended, right? It was I didn't know that in my 20s, when we were in, living in Brooklyn, that would be the last moment in time where all of my friends would be right there, that I could go out on a whiz, that it just moved. So what has been like, your experience with just The evolution of coming into womanhood. Yeah. It's been a journey. What I will say is I have some of like my best year in New York and I'm so enormously grateful for all the people that I met out there, like you included It just was like a different sort of like experience and like becoming right. And so I feel like New York just put like this like momentum in me to like hustle. And so that kind of that's, that started everything. It was like, okay, working in banking. All right, did that. Now let's go to grad school and get a second degree. Then I came out and had a completely different career change and had to Kind of figure out who I am in this new space, found my passion, started content creating, got pivoted into tech from beauty. Then it was like getting, get married to the man that you've been in love with, for the past seven, eight years. All right. Now that we're married, been married for a year or two, let's start thinking about having a family, getting pregnant. And then. Lord, after you had those, that kid, everything transforms, like nothing is the same. Like I definitely felt like that part of womanhood, like grieving my past life, grieving my past person coming into this new identity is challenging. It's just I feel like nobody can really prepare you for it, but the level of unprepared that I felt, I'm like, why is nobody talking about this? I am like. Losing my mind. I don't know if this is I'm not a depressed person. I don't know if this is postpartum depression. I'm not an anxious person. Why am I so I'm just like written and anxiety, what is going on? And they're just like all these new emotions and feelings and like mental states that you have to come to terms with, and that is still like a very real evolution of who I'm becoming. Yeah, man, you just said it. I think you just laid out my whole life. I think that to some degree, many of us who come from backgrounds where, the pursuit of excellence and education was instilled in us from a young age, we were given these paths that to me are almost like, our parents and the generation before us did all the work so that we could have these lives, but at the same time that trajectory sometimes doesn't prepare you for the the role that you ultimately end in. Yeah, and I always tell people like the skill set that was required for me to become Alina, right? So Alina the professional, Alina the student, the, the academic, the MBA, like all of those skills actually Mostly don't matter as a mom, like to some degree, like they help me like stay organized if you want to consider that like the, the CEO of my house, but I'm probably failing at that role. So it's things like compassion. Empathy, patience, like none of those things came with the grind of getting where I needed to be. And so to your point, it was a big undoing of self that became very hard because it's almost like everything that I had to become. To essentially become desirable, as one would put it, right? Bring something to the table. Once I get to the table, now you're telling me like that skill is actually not. I actually just need to know how to cook, know how to keep my man satisfied in the bed, breastfeed, get these kids to school, and like everything else is just like secondary. That is a big adjustment. And I remember when you first had Madison and you went live talking about your breastfeeding journey, I was on the other side of that live, like crying with you, like crying with you, because again, it's just another thing that people don't tell you may not come naturally. Don't like girl, I just, I remember feeling so alone and so crazy. Like I kept being like, something's wrong, but I don't know what it's just like my intuition was just like something that's not right. But every, all the advice that I was getting from other new moms all the advice I was getting from my doctors, my own mom was just like Oh just keep focusing on breast breastfeeding the baby. Like she'll be fine Like if you'll figure it out, we went through from having like latch problems to okay We got the latching together but like why is she still so fussy and colicky like what is happening and the ultimate reality was That I wasn't producing much milk and no matter what I was killing myself to pump around the clock To eat the cookies to have oatmeal three times a day like, you know She didn't shift and change my diet and make myself miserable when all I needed for somebody to tell me was It's okay. Not every woman can breastfeed and you can stop and you can put your baby on formula. There is nothing wrong with that. That's all I needed to hear. Meanwhile, I have sent myself into a spiral of like darkness because no one said those words to me. No one helped me understand that was a, that could be a reality. And I think it's because. To some degree, even if that is the reality, people want you to be what they consider to be the highest standard, right? And to me, that does not translate into motherhood. It's not. Like when it comes to raising humans, there is no bar, like there isn't one, right? And so we're again going back to the comparison between careers and if we're being essentially raised by career women, right? And that's how I describe my mom's generation. It's like y'all are career women. To them, it's I want my daughter doing the most excellent version of motherhood, which looks like she's doing this, and this. And that means that she's producing milk because that's what good mothers do. And that is just not the reality. And I think that for me. I experienced that mostly with Parker when it came to when he became old enough where he should have had like letter recognition. And my nephew is three months older than Parker. And so I was always able to have a gauge of what milestones he should be hitting and there were just certain things that he was hitting easily that Parker was not. And I would hear it on the back end, not in a malicious way from my mom, but it would be like, Oh, do you think we need to be doing, spending more time with Parker doing this? And I'm like, I do that, but Parker's not interested in that. Or, Parker is showing like no signs of reading readiness, or he's showing that he's getting frustrated when he's looking at these flashcards. So the method of just sitting him in front of YouTube and showing him. Alphabets repeatedly or even reading to him. He doesn't even want me to read to him. He resists. And those are all red flags and early signs of dyslexia. But of course, no one in my family knew that. And so to them, it was just Oh we don't know what you doing wrong, it was like it the blame. Yeah, or sometimes it may not even be like somebody is blaming. They're just it is not this one way. We don't know what to tell you, and again, that's where the loneliness comes in because you feel like All right. What did I do wrong? I used to always say that I eat too much chick fil a when I was pregnant. Like what happened? What hormone did I give my baby where he has this and this. And so I fill you with that. And so when you gave yourself permission to go the formula route, how did that impact or how has that impacted your decision journey now when it comes to Deciding, okay, I have to look at the lens of parenting through a individual this is how I need to serve Madison, not just like what I'm expected to do from the world. In that particular moment, it was very freeing. Like I felt like I was starting to have some sense of Freedom come back, but what it also helped me realize is that I'm going to have to be my own self advocate and I'm going to have to be an advocate for her. Like at the end of the day. I realized like I had to trust my instincts a heck of a lot more and that's what it meant to show up and be a parent, right? Like you're looking at things from like multiple different lenses and understanding that the doctor is not always going to be right. Your mama ain't always going to be right. Other moms are not going to always be right. What the best decision and the most informed decision is always going to come from me or my husband. Just starting to trust and ground ourselves in that was like a really big shift and you know something that you know I've also talked about not in a ton of detail, but like Madison has had a lot of health challenges, you know coming up through being a baby and a toddler and Going through that was literally probably one of the most traumatic moments of my life. What it taught me was You've got to do your own research. You've got to really go to that with your kid. You have got to be prepared to fire across all cylinders in finding the best treatment, the best doctor, the best whatever it is that your kid is going to need. You also may need to go a homeopathic route because western medicine isn't always going to be the thing that works. And Just like making space and giving giving space to a really holistic viewpoint of things and not just thinking because one person says something that means that it's right. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that when we think about the skillset of, the career woman, that, Comes into play through advocacy, right? It's like we actually can do that's one thing I can't get right with motherhood is like doing the research and figuring out what I need to know like I always tell moms Everything that you need anything that you're going to get information about you should already know everything that's on the internet before you get in there That way you can inquire Yeah, you can inquire. You can be asking educated questions because once you do that, that then positions you to have a dialogue that they take you seriously, but then you get more out of it, right? You get to the right answers quicker as well. Exactly. So with you having a child who, has health complications, And to me, that translates to a lot of doctor's visits, a lot of time. For me as a mom of four, I deal with that to some degree times four. And so it is the story of why I've had to almost like surrender. I had to surrender the last decade of my life to motherhood because it just was like, Appointment after appointment. Therapy after therapy. Specialist after specialist. But when I see you, what I, and this is again, from the outside looking in, right? Some of the things that I've heard you talk about is your desire to steal. Show up for yourself, right? And so I can imagine your daughter takes up a lot of time. But you still want to have your date nights, which you get super cute for. You always have the cutest cocktails, y'all still take trips. And so to me, that is almost like the opposite of approach of what I had to take. Like I had to, I could either fight for keeping Alina alive. Or just like surrender and realize eventually I can get back to myself. And I realized that our paths are different, obviously, because I have way more kids, but I guess my question to you is, how did you find the courage or even the space to keep Chanel prominent in a time where it may feel like Madison just needs 99. 9 percent of your time? Yeah, so it's just, It just ebbs and flows. I think for the first six months of her life, it was all about her. I didn't know who I was. Like there was no sense of anything. I was just like a blur. And I was doing exactly what you said. I just surrendered myself to whatever was necessary to keep my child alive and get through the day. As like things evolved. I just realized that I wasn't taking care of myself. Like it literally became more of like a mental and physical wellness issue where I was like, I don't want to be this person. I don't want to be this person that's sad and depressed and just like feeling low all the time. I don't choose that. And so coming out of some of that, I still haven't, made that like that three 60 yet, but like coming out of it started to look like Doing things for myself, reconnect, connecting and reconnecting with my husband, doing the things and prioritizing the things that allow us to stay tight. Because at the end of the day, something that him and I have always talked about is we chose each other. We decided that we wanted to spend our, our lives together. You get the love, that love is something that you will always have to work at, because that's just the way that it's set, the way that it's set up and designed with your kids, as long as you treat them well and show them love, and they're gonna, it's innate, like that is just something that's automatic, you don't really have to like, for the most part, you don't have to train yourself for that. You don't have to like, put a ton of dedication of like specific dedication and work into it. It's something that would just evolve naturally your relationship with your partner isn't. And I just had to like really remember where my priorities were, my priorities are like God. Self partnership, kids, right? And then everything else is and then health, and then everything else is pretty much tertiary behind that, grateful to have a really good job, and income, and all of that, but at the end of the day those are things that can be wiped from you in a second. So the things that need to like, keep you day to day, keep you sane, keep you like, collected, that's family, God. And health. So I always just had to I just keep those things in perspective and that allows me to carve out space to do self care activities for myself, try to get to, work out a few times a week buy myself things so that I can feel, I like, I love fashion. I love style. That's like a. Way for me to express my creativity and for the longest time, I think you probably can relate to this as well. Like your body morphs after you have kids. And so all the things that used to fit me, didn't fit me anymore. Like I still am like carrying around a decent amount of baby weight that I just haven't been able to. Lose because calories don't burn off the way they used to. Just like this just it goes back to that thing that we're trying to just becoming just like in open. I think I loved what you said about just like relinquishing like certain things and just like allowing life. To pull you with it versus having this friction when you're trying to go against it all the time. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think that you said you went through this, but I also went through that period of the friction to stay the same and I think that Parker felt that so to your point around innate love, the innate love was there, but there was also like this deep desire to like, because I think it was because I was the first of my friends to have kids. It wasn't like I had. Like I, it wasn't like I had a crossing over okay, now I'm going to be with my mom for it. It was nope, you're the only one with this baby, bring this baby on the hip and he's going to have to adjust to our lives. And that was just like such a fallacy. Absolutely not. Like he's not going to be able to just kick it with us. There are some things that are going to require me. To become a different version of myself for him, and there is this grieving period something that I also feel like has evolved or has become very clear for me in the last decade. And maybe this is because I've been able to really sit with it in my solitude. Or I keep telling people I've been living under this rock of motherhood. But in my solitude, I've spent a lot of time understanding. What actually makes me happy, right? Because if I do get a free moment in time, I don't want to waste it. Like I truly want to do the things that give me life. And I have found that creating and working is absolutely something that I need. Like I am not someone who just can't consume. Like I love to consume and read, but there has to be something where I can like, put something in the world. Yeah. I have to contribute to the world. Exactly. And when I'm not, it's almost like I have this stuck feeling in my chest that literally gives me anxiety. And so do you, can you, do you relate to that? Or how did you, and this is why our paths are a little different as well. It's I, once I left finance, I pretty much left corporate, right? And I know you stayed the corporate path after business. So what has it been like to have a career, then have a side hustle that has turned into a bigger career? And manage the professional skills so that you can contribute. Yeah. So I have gotten really lucky that the doors and that have opened in my career have been really aligned to fueling my side hustle. Okay. So like I work basically in tech, but I work in the creator ecosystem and the influencer industry. So it allows me to have both of them from propelling each other. And it basically means what I do in my side hustle is also what I'm responsible for in my day job, but just for lots of creators. So that having that alignment has been really useful at allowing me to find balance in both of them, but I'm not even going to sit up here and pretend like it's not challenging. I pretty much work all the time. It's like I can't turn my brain off, my business is my side hustle That's becoming like a full time hustle. It's from my phone. Like it's just so easy to just like always work You know, I have this incredible community that like holds me up But I will I because they give so much I have to get back to them like Contribution is like I'm not doing this. Like I never started doing this Money. I started doing it because I saw that there was this massive industry void where skincare brands weren't talking to black women or women of color in general. And I was like, there's so many products that like are good for like our skin health. And like, Why is nobody like saying that directly to us? This is what can help solve for hyperpigmentation. This is what can help even your complexion. These are the things that you need to like, keep your skin strength. Like we all want to believe like black don't crack and that's all well, but you've still got to use the right products to keep your skin healthy and keep it stabilized. We experienced skin cancer, just just like the next person. You know what I mean? And so I'm just more so what wanted to focus on bringing awareness to how. I have so many people and like friends that are just like, girl, I would love to just be able to wear no makeup and just have the confidence to go makeup free, right? I have been hearing this for years and I'm like, that was why I started to do this. I'm like, you deserve that confidence. You deserve to have that moment. That shouldn't just be reserved for people with quote unquote, like good skin, and just starting there and doing it with the best of intentions to educate people on like girl This is what i'm using this. I mean I struggle with acne like really bad acne. Nobody would know now but that's a huge part of like why I started doing this. I was like, okay i've healed my skin Let me talk to y'all and see if this can be beneficial for anybody else And then it just grew from there. So I will say like I feel like I always want to have like impact and I want to contribute something positive and I want to feel like I've done everything in my power to share whatever like gifts I feel like I'm supposed to put out there. And then at the same time, I am a very driven and ambitious person. So having having a career in corporate and being able to move up the chain has been something that's like also been a priority for me. But then look at life and you start having kids, you have a family and your priority shift, your needs shift, your desires shift. So I think, do think that I'm at like that moment where it's you got to start really thinking about, What you want to do next, right? Yeah, for sure So just so that for those who are not familiar with your journey walk me through and you did this earlier But I want to do it again just so people can understand your career trajectory because we do have you know Our 20 something listeners who like I want to understand like what she did, so yeah What did you major in S Feldman or were you from originally actually? So I'm from Chicago, born and bred, Southside. How did you know that? What high school did you go to? Whitney Young. Ah, that's cool. I love, like, when I found out Michelle Obama went there, I like to tell it to her. I'm like, if you never heard of Whitney Young, Michelle Obama went there. Yes! Chicago is like one of the biggest out of state recruitment cities. at FAM. So we had a lot of Whitney Young, a lot of Morgan Park. And so I always feel like I always tell people I'm like honorary Chicago because my whole like crew was from Chicago. Yeah. Okay, so you went to Whitney Young, Chicago. How'd you end up at Spelman? My mother, I hands down, like I have to go there. No, she didn't go there, but she didn't tell me about me going there. Like my entire upbringing because she wanted it. I was like a little rebellious. So because she wanted me to go there, I didn't want to go. I was like, I want to be in New York. I want to go to NYU. That is that was my dream. When that didn't work, when that didn't work out, my mom was like, I think you really need to think about Spelman. And I was just so reluctant to like, like even consider it. So she was like, listen, Chanel, we're going to fly down there. We're going to go to Atlanta. I want you to experience it and then make makeup, make a, informed decision. Don't just be making this because you want to like, be like a little jerk, so we went down there and. It was immediate. I'm going here. Like where, like, where's the registrar's office? And it was literally like that simple. Funny enough though, I did apply well after the deadline because. Procrastination and just not really having the best advice. Like I think about even though I went to what was considered to be like a really good high school that prepared you for college, we didn't really have the best counts, like counselors to like, Give me information on how I really should be thinking about like my educational future outside of high school. So like I had done the things I had taken like college courses and at northwestern in depaul in high school I had a really strong GPA taking AP classes like I had done all of that But I just didn't both of my parents went to school in state I knew I didn't want to do that And so the only thing I set my mind on was basically going to one school And that was NYU and never did I think that wouldn't work out and then when it didn't it was like You Now what do I do? I don't have a backup plan, and I should have done a backup plan, right? And I, we got down to Spelman and I was just like, I am going I am forever, like indebted and grateful to that school for like working with me and being like, we gonna get you in here and everything just moved, like really it was like divine. Like I can't even explain, like it was such a blessing how it unfolded. And it was the best years of my life that I spent from spent down there. So I majored in econ because they're a liberal arts school. So they don't have a business program. I, when I came out of Spelman, I went to JP Morgan, worked in within like in corporate and investment banking, did that, hated it. But let me pause you right there because again, that's why our routes, our paths cross. And I think it's like a generational thing, right? Cause we know now all the kids want to go to like tech jobs, but almost like HBCUs were like pushing us into that because that was what you needed to do. That is what, like when you come in the door, they're like, these are the five companies you need to go work at. These were our recruits are coming from, you need to be a banker, this is where the money is. So I'm assuming that's how it was at Spelman and Morehouse. Yeah. Okay. 100%. Like all the banks would come down to do like heavy recruitment. And what, what ultimately ended up happening for me was like, I w I was decent at it. It wasn't like, it was like, and it was like, it was a well paying job. It had this kind of allure and sexiness because that was like, if you wanted one of the best. Jobs come out of school. It was, that was like either go to grad school to become like a lawyer or a doctor, or you go be a banker or like a marketer or something like that. And so I went that route, but what happened was I had several internships during college, all pretty much in banking and my senior year my, my family went through a bit of a financial situation and I remember having a really tough conversation with my mom and her being like, you got to figure out how to pay for this school year. And I was like, what? You know what I mean? It was just like, Oh my God. Okay. So I was no stranger to work. I worked. Three jobs pretty much every year in college. I interned, I worked on campus and then I usually would get a job somewhere else. Like working at a store or something like that. So I knew how to like make money and how to hustle. I always saved all my money from my banking internships. So it wasn't like I couldn't figure it out. It just was like, This is this is a lot of money that I'm going to need to figure out how to come up with girl. So as I was like thinking, I'm like, I know banking is not what I'm passionate about. I'm going to explore maybe some other options. JP Morgan came and they said, we'll pay for your entire year of school. If you agree to sign on with us. And join full time. Listen, I was like blessing. Blessing. Okay. Oh wow. JP was dropping them coins, uhhuh dropping them money and so then that relieved so much pressure off of me. Yeah. That a lot of pressure off of my mother who is just like. She provided, she did everything in her power that she could to make sure that I was afforded all the opportunities that she didn't have. And went there, did it. I worked in banking at two different firms for about five and a half years. Went to business school at Columbia in New York and studied luxury marketing and real estate. Came out of there and went to Estee Lauder companies, joined like one of their executive management programs really became like a marketer. And that was when I found my love for beauty and skincare as well as really developing a passion for the influencer space. That's pretty much what I focused on when I was there. And then that led me to YouTube where I ran The content partnerships division for lifestyle for top creators. And then I'm currently, I'm the head of partnerships at a tech startup called how, which is basically a social commerce marketplace, very similar to like an LTK a shop, my, any like a big affiliate platform. And I. Do a run and do a lot of things there. So that has been my career trajectory in the meantime, in between time, I've become a wife, a mother, and started my own content creation business. Yeah. What a journey though. What a journey. Man. And again, from the outside, looking in, it looks like. Woo Chanel, you are living the life. Like I remember it was like some events you were at. It was like YouTube, black creator or something. And I was like showing prints. I was like, why didn't they have this shit when I was like out in the world creating stuff cause when, again, when I was like on the internet every day. It wasn't like a ecosystem for real, for like black creators, and so now it has become so robust. Part of me has like this resentment because I'm like, if I would have not taken my break to do my mom, could I have been in these rooms? And I see you about that all the time. You think about what? Like the fact that becoming a parent, like we believe we had, we lived in New York, right? Love living in New York, didn't want to leave New York, left New York to come to Chicago because we need a family help. Once we started a family, I know for a fact my career would have gone further if I would have gotten a chance to stay in New York and actually have the time and the capacity for it to grow. So Chicago is like a very different, it's I remember just reading an article a week ago that was like, Chicago is, it's like the new, the next like influencer city. And I was just so happy to hear that Chicago doesn't get any love. It's LA, New York, and maybe a little bit of Miami, but like Atlanta and Chicago to me are like the next big cities that like brands should be focused on. So I just say that to say that I felt like mother, motherhood, Took that, but having to have that focus and make those life changes and those sacrifices. Stunted me in other areas. Yeah, no, I feel that. We have that conversation all the time and we try not to have like too much time where we just like, Oh, because, but especially with Prince's career, it was so location driven. That he'll be like colleagues and he's just she used to inter for me, now she's da, and so you definitely have these moments where you're like, okay, but I love my babies, but I coulda da. And so I guess when we think about you as a leader in this space because you are running these divisions and you have both perspectives of being a creator, but also seeing like where it's going. And this is actually very timely for me because tomorrow I'm hosting a panel called using, it's called like monetizing mess, monetizing what you've mastered through content creation, and I'm going to be interviewing, that is going to, Oh, I wish I could see it. I'm going to be interviewing like content creators, but also we have Asora who is like on the brand side of things. So she's going to be talking about the money portion, but you have two, two sides in terms of experience. So just take me through for those who are listening, which is pretty much everybody. Cause everybody's I want a piece of that content money. Like what is the ecosystem right now? Like how do you look at it strategically just say over the next 12 months? So I would say the biggest thing for me is that creators have to be diversified. And what I mean by that is like your content, like format, style, all those things should be diversified. The different categories that you're leaning into, but also the platforms, right? So What I've seen, especially what we're starting to see a big rise in, it's like bloggers and like sub stackers, like people that have more own content versus like the Instagram, Tik TOK and YouTubes, mainly because if your account gets deleted, which we see happen to people all the time, if the platform shuts down or whatever the case is, you don't own that audience, it dies with it. And so I'm always encouraging people not, don't just have a YouTube channel and an Instagram account, but like really think about how you can build an audience organically so that when, if any issue comes across those platforms, you can still monetize your money, like basically does not stop. Your community does not stop. So that's one kind of perspective. The next thing is. Everyone has the anyone who is like a trusted person for a recommendation has the capacity to earn money through affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is like the OG that will never ever go anywhere because brands will always be looking for people like organically market their products. Yeah. Talk about the products. And so I always want to encourage people to like harness that. Power and if people are going to go and spend money anyway but if you can if you can capture that influence, knowing that I see people all the time, they'll mention something like my one girlfriend, Robin, like she posted like the, before like ballet flats, like even became like a big trend, she posted some flats earlier last year. And I was like, girl, those are flats. Yeah. Then she started like getting people, deem her like, girl, where did you get those? Who's the brand? She's did like these stories of screenshots. And I was like, Robin, that's, you can be monetized and after that, you, yeah, you got like an account that's only got a couple thousand followers, but like that still matters because you just influenced multiple people to go buy those shoes. So I more so think about People like just being able to lean into their like influential power and not look at it as like this like icky thing. Like a lot of times when you're building community, they want to support you. They want to see you win. They want to make sure that the dollars that they're spending with these brands are also going into your pocket because you deserve that. And I think that people are understanding that more now because it did used to feel icky, right? My, my friends used to be like, you're like the Beyonce of affiliate marketing. And now that you saying affiliate marketing is the thing I'm like, see, that's what y'all get. Like I used to have a link for everything. And it did like people felt Oh, you just making money off everything. But it's just Why shouldn't you, and it's do y'all know how much money these people make off of us, right? Every product market and especially in the beauty industry, shouldn't we get this back? And so it's gotten to a place now where if I see something. I'll tell people, if you're going to give me this, go at least go get a referral code so I can give you credit. Or people will say that to me. I have some probiotics that I've been in love with. And somebody was like, do you have a link? And I was like, let me go see if they have a program. It's you gotta check. But if someone is new to monetization, what are like some First steps for creating affiliate links or pages where they can start like linking this up, because I know link to know it's like you have to be accepted and stuff like that. But what are some, but I will say like platforms are the best way to get started. Amazon's got a program. Collective voice has a really good program. LTK is one of the most like well known ones where I work. How. We are a startup, but we're definitely growing in the marketplace and we don't have like pretty much everyone. We don't have the same terms that like other platforms have. So you apply on our platform and you've got decent engagement, but the most part you'll be accepted and then you can just start earning with all of the brands that are there, right? But if you, what I used to do when I was first getting started is I would reach out to brands that I love, that I was already talking about and ask if they had their own affiliate program that they would be willing to accept me into, if they would be willing to at least give me a code that I could share out with my audience or a unique link that they can track on their side. And then we can set up like a payment plan. So a lot of, because that's very low risk. For brands, they're much more willing to pay you for an affiliate capacity because it's basically just like a revenue share. You sell this for me. You get it. You get a, you to get a cut of that. That's the best way to get started. And then what you can basically do is start building up metrics. So you'll be able to say, Hey, I've driven. XYZ amount of sales for these three brands. My conversion rate is this amount of driven this many clicks so that you can basically start to pull together, like almost like your media kit and your pitch plan to now get flat fee campaigns and things like that. So I always tell everyone Start with community first, grow a community, then get on the affiliate platforms or reach out to brands that have affiliate programs are interested in going into an affiliate agreement with you, then build, start like building traction earning money, being able to have metrics now that you can include to pitch yourself to flat fee companies and the, flat for flat fee campaigns. And the biggest thing is a lot of these affiliate companies, like if you join a platform. They also operate as like a campaign based business. So they'll be able to see, Oh my God, look at so and so driven, like 25, 000 in sales, we should throw them a flat fee so that they can actually start to grow with this particular brand because we have budget to be able to do this is somebody we want to keep incentivizing and grow with over time and like maybe have a longer term partnership with. So those are like the best ways to monetize YouTube in terms of being on a platform. Is still top tier reason being is YouTube is still the only platform where you can earn money for just like the sake of content. And what basically what I mean by that is you post a video and you enroll in their ads program. After you've reached over, I think over a thousand, you have to have at least like a thousand people subscribe to your channel. You make money every time somebody watches that video. You can't do that. Instagram doesn't operate like that. TikTok doesn't operate like that. Snapchat doesn't operate like that. YouTube is the only place where you can earn for content creation sake. So I always recommend that people who definitely are good with creating video content, they go there. Yeah. Do you think that the different platforms will eventually get there? Because I think even on the Facebook side, once you get to enough video views, they'll open up a similar program now where you just get paid for running the ass at the bottom of your videos, but just based on you now being in this tech space, have you heard that's on the horizon where there'll be more opportunities for just like content to be paid? I don't know. So video is future for sure. I think we're seeing that happen. That's why Instagram is prioritizing like reels and video content over still content, all the new platforms that are popping up, all video, pretty much video based. So video is King video is going to win mainly because video is the main place that you can serve up an ad, right? Like video was a new TV. Yes, I do think that you're going to start to see that, that evolution. And you're already seeing it happen, right? Like you're now, even when you're watching stories, ads pop up between people's stories, you'll see ads pop up in the middle of people's videos. So I think that they're going to get there. YouTube was just the only like established place where It's very clear that once you just build a very micro community, you can go on to earn. I know people who just have I think 10 to 15, 000 subscribers that are able to make a couple grand a month just because the content is so engaging. Vlogs especially are like, They usually people have a longer attention span with vlogs versus sitting there and getting somebody a review For example like a product review so vlog content a lot of these vloggers Especially the ones like alia's face who are just really good at it. You can Clean up, just sharing your life. Taking people through your day. Yeah, so when you think about the skill though, right? Because, I don't know if you saw my video where I was trying to set this podcast thing up, right? And so my goal for this video was like, I'm just gonna do a real showing my transformation of my thing. And it was like, An hour later, the shit still wasn't set up and now I have no real like not a space. And but it's like the actual shooting of the video and the skill of editing and the skill of like hashtag, like those are real skills. And so can you be really honest with us? What are the skills that people will have to develop? Maybe they don't need them from day one, but like even in your journey, like what have you had to become really good at to find your pace or even create almost like a work schedule. It's okay, I'm going to edit here. I'm going to post there. What does that look like? Yeah. So I'm only on one platform. So it's a little bit like easier for me. If I were to get on YouTube, I would absolutely outsource like an editor or something like that. The main thing that you just need, you need a smartphone, obviously, which most people have need a couple of really good editing apps. Like CapCut is an excellent one for like people who like, I see like massive creators use CapCut and then like smaller creators use CapCut. It's very, it's a very easy app to use and. You can even just download templates and upload your content and it will edit it, auto edit it for you, right? So that's so I would say you need to have the storytelling skills so that people you're actually taking people through through an experience with you, so that they stay engaged and being able to have strong engagement. Not just in the first few seconds, but like throughout the video is like key. Being able to have good editing skills to like actually entertain people. So you like taking people in and out, like having good transitions, things like that. And then I would also say good photo editing capabilities because thumbnails on YouTube are really important to like getting people to click and engage with your content. Instagram, even if you do a real, like you want to have either a strong photo image, like on the front, on the cover of the reel or like some sort of like snapshot language, that's like a title that's going to draw them in. And I would say like decent writing skills for like captions and things like that. But beyond that, it's it's a low barrier to entry to me. I think that a lot of times the biggest thing for me is understanding what your audience wants. Like you can create the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing piece of content, but if your audience like doesn't care, doesn't engage with it. It's loop. It's something that for you, but at the end of the day, like if you want to grow and you want to be of like interest to brands and you want to monetize. Cute, pretty pictures don't always do it, right? And I think that is exactly where I wanted to come back to. Cause you put that as the first step, right? To becoming content creator is community. And I think that at the heart of community is. Essentially an attraction to an authentic version of you, right? And as I work in, the personal development and life coaching space. And I think 95 percent of my clients, to some degree, all want to create content in the world, whether it's writing articles on LinkedIn, being a podcast, or truly being an influencer. But they deal with like severe imposter syndrome or finding their voice. And so a lot of what I'm working with them on is getting very clear on what impact do you want to have? So you've talked about being very clear on like, why am I doing this? Because I want. Yeah, what is your purpose? And even for me, that's something that I revisited as I'm starting to get back into the space. And I think that I was looking at Janae Naylor High, low Looks yes. YouTube channel maybe a couple of months ago. This is before she, she was already popping, but now she like super popping. Right? She's really popping. Yes, she has. Right before she right before she did her super pop, she did a YouTube video where she was basically saying she was sharing how she ends up getting invited to fashion week shows. And she was saying that one of the things that's super important is you have to understand, why do I even want to be at a fashion show? Is it because I want to be a shopper? Is it because I want to be an editor and I want to do this, is it because I just want to be like an influencer in the room? And so she was sharing how for her. She's always wanted to share like what's coming down the pipeline, the fashion pipeline to her community, but she's always had to get it from like secondary sources. And so she wanted to be at the source of what are the trends? I want to be in it. So it can be like firsthand and I'm getting it out the fastest. I'm not waiting for the magazines to tell me. And it was like something about her saying that really was a light bulb moment for me, because You have to be very clear. Like, why do I want to be at this creator event? Why do I want to be at Essence Festival? Cause we'll see all these things and you're like, Oh, I could speak there or I could do this. And it's what would be the reason why you're there? Or what is the purpose that you want to create for not just yourself, but in serving your community. And the moment that I started to get very clear on okay. This is how I feel like I can help people through my content. Generating the content became much easier. And now it's just testing. Like I'm in my testing phase of what is my community like? I'm a very like low, like when it comes to giving people advice. I tend to shy away from my being super preachy, but I feel like inherently black people like being preached at, right? And so sometimes I have to get preachy because that's what gets the most engagement, even though like I hate it sometimes. I'm like, that's like my most uncomfortable thing is like being like, this is what you need to do. This is not my style. But like we grew up in a, in an environment, like our parents tell us what to do. They don't give us options, and so that kind of like resonates with people. So for you, when it comes to thinking about how do you get over, like being in front of a camera, imposter syndrome, like all of those things that make it hard for people to build community by being themselves. Like, how did you get over that? Yeah, that's a good question. I think a lot of people assume that I like am extroverted and like being the center of attention and just so comfortable putting myself out there. That is the total opposite of I am like, actually like quite introverted. I'm a bit of a homebody, even though like I go out and you see me out and I'm always doing things. I always have a little bit to your point, what we talked about earlier, like a tinge of social anxiety, because I'm just. I'm like, Oh, I'm going to be around all these new people. I'm going to have to like navigate, like conversation. And it's just it's a lot. And even when I was first getting started. With social media, I only did it initially because I had a manager who put it in my performance plan. So she kept telling, I remember I worked in like content and influencer, I reported directly to the head of that business, Ashley Lutter. And so she kept, I was like always like finding like amazing creators for us to like cast in campaigns and do events with and activations and all of that. And she was like, I would, and she was like, Chanel, you're so knowledgeable about the beauty space, like I would love to just be able to pay you. And I was like, yeah, that'd be great. I'd love to collect this$25,000 check for showing up for a, for showing up and doing a campaign for three hours. Absolutely. But it was like a joke, right? And then she kept saying it. She was like, you should do it. And I was like. No, I could never, I don't have I'm just like, not I'm like, I don't feel like I have the confidence for that. I don't feel like I have the personality for that. That is I was so terrified. She was like, this is going to your performance plan and you're going to do it. And that's how I got started. That is she pushed me off the ledge. And then once I started doing it, it was the community, like reaction to it that kept me going, that was like, Oh, I'm actually like. Helping people. They see me, we are like, I'm putting out things that people like can relate to and they feel seen and understood. And they're like, they're holding me up and they're encouraging me and they're motivating me to keep going. And that is what it boiled down to. It was like, I felt like I had a purpose. And this and if I didn't have any purpose, it was something that would have like dissolved for me very quickly. Yeah. I'm still not at the point where I don't still feel imposter syndrome around this. I look around and I'm like, you've been doing this for four or five years, like you've had people start doing this way after you and are so much ahead of you, right? And then I'm like, you gotta stop playing the comparison game. Everybody's journey is different and you need to like trust in the timing that is your life. And like you also work. a full time job, you take, you are a mom, like you have all these other responsibilities, as much as like you're able to dedicate to this, you haven't, you've never been able to just have that be the thing that you prioritize and focus. And I just have to remember to give myself grace and not play the comparison game, because that is what will get in my head. So it's just a lot of what I would say my advice to people is just get started. Just put things like, think of think about social media as like your art canvas and you just start designing like what you want that to look like. And if you build, like people will follow. I just encourage people just to try and just know that it's hard for everybody. This is, I worked with some of the biggest content creators in the world when YouTube and they still like, Feel the same things that, that you might be feeling, just getting started. Like it doesn't really, that's not something that goes away. If you own it, something that becomes easier, you build behaviors, but like you never completely like you're always evolving. So there's no way to get super comfortable with it. Exactly. Yeah, no, that's great advice. And I think that. You know being on the other side of watching your journey like we were cheering you on, you know Because this was a new space, you know for me I've never been a skincare girly because i've always had like severe eczema and so I just Always have like prescribed products and now that i'm older and I do, you know have more control over like products and I'm like, okay, I have nowhere to start. And so I was going to your highlights okay, let me find my skin type. And so when you hit, I think like 10 K, and everybody was like celebrating you, like whatever it was, like, I just was like there with you. But one of the things that I think in between just like you having very dope content in terms of being knowledgeable, which is again, the authenticity. When you got, when you had the baby, and you shared your journey with that. But then you've also been very vulnerable about your hearing disability. And that was something that I actually didn't know about you. And I'm just like, I can imagine being in front of the camera all the time and then having to Get to a space where you feel like people know you and then you're like, but do they really want to know me, do they really want to know the things that I deal with? Because soon as you start telling showing any sign of I'm actually human, people start getting a little bit like, Oh we wanted her to be perfect. Like, how did you decide to go public with that information? Oh girl. Yeah. This has probably been the most transformational like experience I've had in my life. I went through a long period of denying that this was even happening to me. Like total denial. Like I was like, Oh it's just they just didn't speak loud enough. Or Oh, it was like a lot of background noise. Like I had all these reasons that Like, was like other things, not my, not that something was actually going on with me. So that lasted for years. And then finally, when I was in business school, I started to notice my behaviors changing. So like when I'd be in the classroom or the auditorium, I'd all have to sit in the front because that was the only way that I could hear and engage. If the professor called on me I found myself when we would be out at like parties and things like that. I couldn't socialize because I couldn't hear people really well. So that started impacting like my ability to build relationships with people. And then finally I had a really good friend in B school who was like, girl, you need hearing aids. This is this is bad. It's like really challenging. Were you telling people like, girl, I can't hear you. Or were you just like keeping it to yourself? I just wasn't, I wouldn't say anything. So how does she know that you need a hearing aid? She said it jokingly or like she knew? You didn't hear what I said. You didn't hear what I said. And I would just be like, I got to this point where I would just respond. I had canned responses based on body language and what I could pick up on in terms of like lip reading. And then it would just be like, because I didn't want people to know, that was like my like, the facade that I created was like, I just be like very easy things like, Oh yeah, okay. Just like to keep the conversation going. And my friend was like, because he knew me really well. We spent a lot of time. He was like, you didn't hear what I said. Like you need hearing aids. Like you need hearing aids. Like you're making this harder for yourself. When I came out of what then when I started interviewing for jobs to come out of school, I remember I had this one interview at Saks and that was, I don't want, I wanted to go into luxury retail and I had this interview at Saks and the like GM there. Had a really soft voice and I had to make a presentation at the end, at he was at one end of the room at the front of like the desk. And I was at the other side where the presentation screen was. And he started asking me questions at the end of my presentation. And I couldn't hear him at all. And so I kept asking him to repeat himself. And he was just like, just say, you don't know the answer. Just say, you don't know the answer. And that's when I was like, okay, you gotta you can't have this like messing up your career. So that was what prompted me to finally get hearing aids. And how did you get out of that situation? Did you say that you couldn't hear him for real? Or you just walked out? I just was like, all right, we're done. Thank you for listening. And I obviously didn't get that opportunity. And the biggest thing for me about getting hearing aids, it was totally like, like a vanity thing. I didn't want people to, I didn't want people to see it and then make an assumption about me. I was like, hearing aids are so visible right now. I have to put my disability out on front street for the world to quote unquote, judge me. I didn't want to do that. That was so scary to me. Yeah, I wanted to like, I've always I've never been about being perfect, like perfection or being perfect. But this was just something that was so out of my control. And I just felt I know how people can be with people who have disabilities. And I was just like, I don't want that to be me. I don't want people to like, hit me. Avoid me or ask, feel like they need to feel bad for me or ask me questions that only hone in on that part of me, I am a person before and after this. This is something that happened to me. And then now it's become a part of my identity, but it's not the whole of my identity. So that's like how, that's how it started. And funny enough, the reason why this started happening, it was a freak accident. I was at a club in New York city. Greenhouse, how we used to party there. Like when you, and. I was with like one of our mutual friends and there was like an NBA party or something like that. And the only way a place you could sit at the time in the section was right next to the speaker. And it was so loud, it like blew my hearing out. Are you serious? Yep, that's how it started. Did you feel it? Did you feel it when it happened? No, I didn't feel it when it happened. But what happened was the next day, I woke up and if you've ever gone, been around loud noise and you'll have that ringing sensation inside your head. That was what it was, except for it was super loud and I remember like it lasted for days. Like I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping, I couldn't go to work. Like it was literally like bells were going off in my head. And I was like, What is happening? So finally, like again, my mom was like, you need to go see, you need to go to an ENT and get checked out. And I did. And they diagnosed me with tinnitus, which is usually like a lot of musicians actually have this because they're exposed. It's like basically like you're Like nervous system telling you that something is wrong. And so it's response to it. It's like that ringing sensation for most people. It just, it'll last like a day or two, maybe even a few hours and go away. For me, it's something that I hear all the time. And then I'll have flare ups where it'll be like really loud and debilitating and then times when it's not. So that was what started it. And then the hearing, it triggered early onset hearing loss in me. And so basically now I have both the tinnitus and the hearing impairment. And so now you wear hearing aids in both ears or one? So I did for really, for about five years, I did. I am now at the point where hearing aids are no longer helpful. My hearing. Ability has depleted so much that it's basically like next step is like a cochlear implant Okay, hearing aids are no longer helpful. Okay, so you don't have a hearing aid. So can you hear? Yeah, so I can still Hear as long as there's no background noise. I'm talking to somebody directly It has to be usually in a very controlled environment. I can hear if I go out to like restaurants, sometimes it's a bit more challenging at events. It's obviously more challenging. So what people will notice is that if you see me in a social setting, you probably won't see me like going around and like talking to a lot of people because I tend to stick to my comfort zone. When I go to like restaurants, I always have to make sure I'm safe. Seated with a wall behind me so that the noise can bounce back and provide a bit of a barrier. I can probably never work in like a corporate office again, because I actually depend on captions for everything. I need captions. Like I'm on work calls and I'm like totally dependent on either lip reading being in very controlled volume environments or captions based on understanding. Wow. Wow. And if you could only imagine with having a young child who is develop, developing speech skills and learning skills and trying to like engage and have conversation, like how challenging that's been. Yeah. Yeah. My God. Thank you for even sharing that because I think that as people listen, again, it's just humanizing so much of like our experiences, right? Yeah. Because we go through these things and, and as many of you all are listening, this is my first interview since Prince had his open heart surgery, but I think it just speaks to the becoming that you're talking about, right? It's we don't, you don't you in your 20s partying at Greenhouse and you don't know that 10 years later, I didn't know that I would be like fighting for my husband's life, but it goes back to, being able to navigate. Through that lens that you talked about of like faith, self husband, whatever. And when you know the principles that you honor, then it does ground you. But then it also is the pillars of community that obviously you have really built, not just in your social platform, but in your life. Cause I always see you with your, your friends and you and your husband are traveling with groups. And that is what has stood out to me in this last three weeks. It's just like the work that we put in. At the Spellmas and, the HBCU experience to me, that is what makes it all worth it because those are the people that end up showing up when all of a sudden your heart not working, your ears not working, your kid, is not doing what they're supposed to do, and in doing so we can really just lean on each other to do what they're supposed to do. Continue to drive forward, like our craft and our vision and inspire each other to, to do these things. So I know that we are at, we are over our time, so we're going to definitely have to have you back to just go deep dive content, right? Like today we got to hear about Chanel, your professionalism. I know everybody's going to be like, Oh my God, I have more questions to ask her about content. So we'll have to collab on that. Yeah, thank you so much. A conversation just talking about that. Absolutely. Yeah, that would be awesome. And then maybe we just have a motherhood and a wife conversation next time too. Cause that's fun. So thank you for joining today. I appreciate you. Such a good conversation. Thank you just for making space for me. Thank you for create, creating this amazing podcast for like people to tell their stories and talk about their journeys. There's so many. Components and dynamics to us that a lot of times people don't get the opportunity to share. So thank you just for allowing me to share and having me on your show and your podcast. And by the way, visual podcasts are also something that monetize really well, so I have to put my monetization together, like all like all the way make if you're going to put content out there, think about all the ways that it can work harder for you. And so yes, you're able to upload this conversation and dialogue to a Spotify or Apple or, or whatever, but you could also upload this to YouTube. Like people usually tend their attention span will stay longer when they feel like they're like in the room. Yeah. Yeah, I love him All right. I got all my money's worth today. Yeah, I love it Thank you so much chanel and we'll see you guys next time. Okay. Bye. Thank you for tuning in to yet another episode of the reminder remedy. If you haven't already, be sure to follow us on Instagram at the reminder remedy, as well as my personal page at Alina Conley and check out our latest workshops and resources at the reminder remedy.