We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gianna Graham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gianna , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

The first dollar I earned as a creative came from a few of my friends inviting me to street perform with them in Philadelphia when I was in high school. It was nerve wrecking but also exciting and very unbelievable at first. When it was cold out, we would come down to City Hall subway station, take out our instruments, set up one case opened in front of us and begin playing. The majority of us were violinists but we also had a bassist and a violist play with us from time to time. Street performing was a very important turning point in my career as violinist.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi Readers! My name is Geedah B. and I started dancing at the age of 3. I used to walk around the house with a shower cap on my head, swinging from left to right and my mom said, “Let’s put her in dance!” I started playing the violin at 8 years old. A man came into my 2nd grade classroom and asked if anyone wanted to learn violin and I raised my hand because I wanted to get out of class. Little did I know, that would turn me into an entrepreneur and shape the beginning of my adult life. I also am a licensed esthetician. I started makeup at the age of 8 as well because I had to do my own makeup for my dance shows. Doing makeup turned into a hobby that lead me to start a youtube channel in high school. After graduation, I felt like getting licensed was the key to more clients and success because I aspired to be a full-time makeup artist for so long. Life actually turned my focus more towards playing the violin and dancing more than anything these days. What sets me apart from others is my attention to detail and my hardworking nature. I am a bit of a perfectionist so I strive to produce my best work each and every time I perform (whether it’s dance, violin, or doing makeup). My brand is based off of a nickname, Geedah Beat and you can follow me @geedahbeat on Instagram and Tik Tok. You can also follow my violin page @geedahb on Instagram.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is knowing the effect I have on people. Knowing that my work touches somebody so much that they’d want to support me, no matter how. When I say support, I mean likes, comments, reposts on social media of my work and the clients I’ve been able to service.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my social media audience by posting like crazy! I picked a niche, put myself on a schedule, wrote out content ideas, and filmed every time it made sense to for my niche. My niche has changed a couple times but when I was really into being a micro influencer, my niche was beauty. I used to do makeup looks, film a tutorials, take photos and then post them up on Instagram. To keep myself sane in quarantine, I leaned heavily into content creating and growing my audience because I wanted to be a youtuber. Then, when Tik Tok became a thing, I got on there and posted 3 videos a day, 3 days a week and because my niche was makeup, I would film a “Get Ready With Me” video every time I was about to go out somewhere. Sometimes, I would even plan out a content day to go take photos in a certain area which would then produce more content for me to post and I could keep the momentum going because once I stop, it’s really hard for me to get back into it for some reason. My advice to those building their social media presence is to post, post, post! Post in a way that reflects your authentic self because unless you’re picking a niche that isn’t already saturated, you’re going to need to stand out. You’re going to need to be intentional with your journey as well, knowing exactly what’s going on and being organized is vital towards making your dreams come true. Believe in yourself! If you can dream it, you can achieve it and that sounds really cliché but successful people are where they are because they had the audacity to dream and work towards it regardless of what outside sources may tell you, you can/can’t do. Follow individuals on Instagram/Tik Tok that motivate you and are in the same niche as you, building your community with like minded individuals is so important for artist development because whether we want to believe it or not; we need our village as adult, as much as we did when we were growing up. Find some mutuals online that are posting the same kind of content and create with them, the possibilities are endless and two heads are always better than one. Get a mentor; look for events to go to and when you get in those rooms don’t be shy, network! Stay consistent; as. you are building your platform, you are building your support system and you want to be it to be super strong because this is now going to become your target audience and if they love your work, they are going to be asking why you didn’t post on such and such day as promised.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://geedahbeat.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geedahbeat/
• Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@geedahbeat

Image Credits
Chakhie Snappin Kenneth James