We were lucky to catch up with LaTrell Conley recently and have shared our conversation below.

LaTrell, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I grew up as a dancer performing w/ my Aunts dance company, and that was my first introduction to costumes and wearing makeup! Before shows she would do everyone’s makeup and I would be so fascinated w/ the process and couldn’t wait for my turn. My mom often did her makeup and allowed me to have her hand me downs, but there was something about performing and show makeup always got me overly excited! Dance was life (literally) and as I grew up, it allowed me that comfortability to put myself in front of crowds, so in high school I joined the Dance + Cheerleading Team. Both teams allowed me to showcase my talent and makeup skills. Every week before games, I was doing everyone’s makeup and trying to hurry so I could do mine before we went out. I think people absolutely enjoyed seeing me do my own makeup and I would always be told “I wish I could do that” and I would literally say “why can’t you?!”. I’ve always been raised to believe that I can literally do ANYTHING I set my mind to and I believe we all can; you just have to want to learn. Once social media really took off, I was working as a makeup artist at Bloomingdales and it was a no-brainer that I had to create my world and share products, tips + tricks that I was learning on the job.

LaTrell, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I would like to call myself an artist of many hats, but I pride myself as a Content Creator. For the past 3 years, I have been creating weekly content on Youtube and growing my community there. I enjoy sharing a glimpse into my life via my Monthly Vlogs but my sole mission is to provide guidance on how to apply makeup and feedback on new beauty and fashion releases. One of my longest series has been my candid monthly reviews on subscription box; BoxyCharm. I also put beauty claims to the test to help beauty lovers decipher if the “trendy releases” are worth their money. I truly believe my personality and unfilteredness is what brings me and my viewers closer. I interact w/ everyone as if they are my best friend and I believe my personality is what gets them to reciprocate the love. I respect everyone’s feedback and most importantly time, so on my channel, I will always thank someone for commenting and if I can, I’ll call them by their name so it’s really personal. I would like anyone who comes across my channel to know that I am just like them and they’d be surprised at how alike we are, especially in a time in which we’ve felt so isolated and apart. The only thing that differentiates us is that I pick up the camera and share pieces of myself. But, the makeup content is literally me hoping to inspire someone to go out on their limb and believe in themselves.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think the subscriber metrics would be a struggle that people wouldn’t understand. From the front end, people would look at my channel and say “oh she isn’t even at 1K yet, why is she speaking as if she has 1M”. That was a struggle I had to really sit on and realize, numbers are big but they aren’t the only analytics that matter but A LOT of work comes from your drive + consistency. Youtube comes off as a platform that anyone thinks they can master, and honestly… It’s much harder! Subscriber count is what makes people feel validated and yes, even Youtube glorifies the count w/ plaques and features. But, it’s much more than that. If you are trying to get monetized, the numbers are big but if you are trying to create a community, it goes beyond that. In my opinion, I have spent hours + hours creating content that I feel should have gotten me more subscribers but I get the most satisfaction and fulfillment from the interaction and viewership. If I can post a 45-minute vlog and have everyone who watches stay engaged for 38-minutes, I am over the moon! You have to look at the fact that Youtube pushes viewership and recommends based off of watch time so that is the biggest push for channels. Yes, anyone can post a video but an engaging video, a timeless video… that takes detail. The subscribers will flow after they find THAT ONE video but until then… Trust the process!

What do you find most rewarding about being creative?

The most rewarding thing for me is growing my community and touching lives of people that I would have never been able to impact w/o the blessing of social media. I used to have such strong resistance towards social media because it took all the personable interactions out of life but I’ve truly learned that I was just using it wrong lol. One of my most rewarding moments was when I found out I had an amazing supporter named Fol from Lagos! I have never been to Lagos, could only dream of visiting but to know that I can ALWAYS count on Fol for support truly warms my heart! S/O to Fol!!!

Contact Info:

• Website: Ldotco.com
• Instagram: iloveyoutrell_
• Facebook: iloveeyoutrell
• Youtube: iloveyoutrell