Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Akhalia Fearon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Akhalia , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I started creating natural hair content in 2021, its something I have always wanted to do, however I had absolutely no idea about the business side of content creation until I met other content creators who were getting brands deals.

At about 700 followers on instagram I started to pitch to natural hair brands, most of my pitches were unsuccessful because my pitch were horrible, but I didn’t give up, I remained consistent and that is one of the reasons why I can say that I am a full time content creator today. Even though I had no idea what I was doing, I was eager to learn and soon after I started getting paid brand deals at about 1000 instagram

I was consistent! Not just for a week or couples months, but for years posting three to five time per week, this lead to multiple videos going viral with over 3 million views, the more I grew and learned I kept increasing my prices and invested into upgrading my equipment and business coaching.

One of the con of content creation or influencing is how uncertain your income can be, I found this out the hard way, I would stress every month about how I would pay my bills. I learned this rather late but finding different ways to diversify my income was when it all changed for me, I started doing UGC, participating in affiliate program and offered coaching to micro-influencers who wanted to learn to do what I do.

If there is anyone out there who would like to be a full time content creator. Here is how I think you could get there faster than I did; be clear on why and for who you make content and share that consistently. Your followers do not determine your value, a more niched and highly engaged community gives you leverage to charge more.
Invest in equipment or classes to make high quality content, sometimes brands just want great content that is only for their use.
Pitching should be apart of your strategy, this way you have some sort of control over income income instead of waiting for brands to reach out to you.
Lastly mindset and your relationship with money is very important. As a content creator you need to understand that you deserve to be paid for your work, brands are not doing you a favor when they do decide to work with you. You are providing a valuable service that the brand should pay for like any other service, you are a business too.

Akhalia , 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?

My name is Akhalia fearon, a natural hair and beauty influencer. I create educational and thought provoking content surrounding natural hair and skincare to my global audience of over 60,000 followers.

I have been natural for 23 years and I am the go to for coily hair black women who are looking for solutions and product recommendations to manage their natural hair as well as hyperpigmentation.

What sets me apart from other beauty influencer is my ability to tell a story that evokes emotion through poetic voiceovers and authentic visuals of a black womans hair all while being educational.

I am very proud to be one of Jamaicas top natural hair influencers, thriving in the beauty industry internationally.

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

I love being a creative, Art exposes me to my true self, it shows me my strengths, weaknesses and insecurities. In order for me to really stand out I had to express myself authentically, one thing I learned, is that I cannot express myself if there is no self. Art continues to exposed my childhood trauma and helps me to heal them as I challenge myself to be more creative. That is very rewarding for me especially in a world where we all exposed to so much and can easily get lost.

How did you build your audience on social media?

if I should be honest when I first started making content, I was terrible at it, looking back at it I cringe, I kept going. I grew my audience on instagram to over 50,000 followers in three years because my content was really specific to black women with natural hair, I also understand that being valuable by providing tips was a great way to grow because most people only care about how you can help them. if you would like to build an audience on social media first establish your why, why you want to make content, who you want to making content for, after figuring that out find out ways in which you want to show up and do it consistently. Consistency will teach what your audience likes and also also how to edit if you’re bad at it like I was when I first started. practice makes perfect. with time your tribe will find you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: akhalia.faeron

Image Credits
@akhalia.fearon