We were lucky to catch up with Kiana Donae recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kiana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
In a world where social media numbers mean everything I am veering off path away from the algorithm. Social feeds are full of ads and those that have time to spend their days posting morning, noon, and night. As a poet and creative that also works a full time job and has many family obligations I’ve found that my energy is best spent cultivating a more minimlist social feed.
Instead, I have a newsletter for my poetry that is hosted on Substack where my readers can subscriber for free to read my work directly in their email inboxes at their leisure. Signing up for the paid subscription will also get them cute packets of monthly poetic snail mail delivered to their mailboxes to brighten their days in real life.
It’s allowed me to slow down and focus my time on poetry and not fighting the algorithm for likes or comments. I still am present on Instagram and Threads and use those platforms to market my Substack posts and support the other poets and creatives that I enjoy.
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?
I’ve been creative as long as I can remember. Always enjoying art class and exceling at English class and writing prompt lessons.
A true lover of the written word. Poetry is my first passion but, I also write as a freelance blogger in a niche-hobby industry. Known for my free-verse lyrical poetry which has been called: “powerful”, “bold”, and “authentic”. I am the self-published author of 4 poetry books: love & ink- reason, love & ink- reflections, cultivating ink, and when the muse speaks. Featuring poems that depict the world & the times in which we live with an observant clarity of the human experience – whether peaceful or traumatic.
Currently, Substack houses both free & paid subscriptions to receive my poetry newsletter for readers monthly. As a creative, I enjoy putting together poetic gifts every month for the paid subscribers to receive by mail as a thank you for their support. I handmake envelopes, framable poetic prints, and more and hope to offer these for sale soon on my website.
When I’m not writing I also enjoy helping other poets and writers with their graphic design needs and offer my services with logo and book cover creation. I have found enjoyment in sharing my knowledge with so many others!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The only goal that drives my creative journey is to follow my Muse. Being a creative person often we allow the world to dictate to us how to view our art. We let the world tell us we’re not good enough or we compare ourselves to others around us and we begin to doubt our talents and gifts.
But as I’ve grown older and wiser, I’ve learned we can’t truly be creative if we aren’t creating for ourselves first. So I follow my inner Muse and create what I love and I know that if I love it, there will be others that will love it too.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
The best new source of clients for me has been current clients. Word of mouth will always be the best way to gain (or lose) a client.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kianadonae.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forthemusepoet/
- Other: Substack: https://kianadonae.substack.com/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@forthemusepoet/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00LW5OALC
Image Credits
images are all my own created and used for social media marketing