We were lucky to catch up with Brittani Martin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brittani, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents made it their number 1 priority to make sure I was actively supported no matter what on earth it was that I wanted to do. They cheered for me for any accomplishments and they encouraged me during any downfalls or setbacks I encountered. They truly motivated me to be who I was and to be confident in any and all decisions I make in life. Being true to myself is what gives me the confidence to be vulnerable as a creative and an artists, putting out pieces that are so true and meaningful and allowing the world to see, and making a profit from it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am an author by happenstance. I realized I was gifted in the art from of poetry at a young age, around 3rd grade. I was always good with phonics, and spelling, and anything language arts related, which included rhyming and learning the different types of poetry. I gravitated toward literature because of the imagery it always provided for me as an imaginative and visual individual. I started writing poetry in my diary, and as I shared my content, I noticed how touching or how moved people would be by the word selection and the cohesiveness and relatability of what I was putting together. I was also able to write my ideas and poems out fairly quickly, I was asked to submit or create poems for funerals for family members, for school ceremonies, for weddings and holidays. Then I decided to perform at a black box event my 11th grade year of high school. After this, I didn’t do much with it until I was about 25, working my first big girl job, and I realized I needed a way to make more money. It dawned on me that I was sitting on a talent that could easily make me a few bucks, and that is when I decided to cultivate and create all a poetry book of all the poems I have written and continue the series with poems I will continue to write.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative, is seeing other people relate to your work, or seeing how it may have been impactful or helpful to their life or situation.

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

I started with doing Wine Wednesdays and performing my never before heard, poetry on LIVE on IG, and then I would post random poems on my story. I started doing Wine Wednesday consistently and people began to gravitate towards it and wanted more poetry.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.byuacademy.com
• Instagram: @britbratcoolcat
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/buildyourselfup
• Twitter: @build.yourself.up