We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ebonie Commey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ebonie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
My very first real paid job was with the city of Rockville! They had a Global Eats Fest highlighting local eateries, and I was asked to create a video displaying how to use their digital eating card for the event. They contacted me through Instagram and I must admit, I was a bit scared because I was like “woah!”, this is going to be recognized all over! I was up for the challenge though and my reel that I made did really well! I had high expectations for how well it would do, and I am pleased the content I made for the fest resonated with people and was relatable.
Ebonie, 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 Ebonie aka.NaatheFoodian creatively. I started my Instagram page in 2020 during the pandemic as a creative outlet to showcase the cool eats/drinks that I would make in my home kitchen. The thing is, as a new foodie– I wanted to highlight the foundation of my food love and that stems from being partially raised in Ghana, West Africa. In the beginning, I always tried to fuse the food I made with something “Ghananian”. For example, I remember making dolgana iced coffee and adding Milo powder to it which is an African chocolate tea we drink in the morning. Later on, I branched and just decided to do feel good recipes that were just good and those that I found interesting. Most times I created recipes by throwing things together that wasn’t typical. In 2023, I decided to be really serious and decided to take on showing the various food/cafe’s that I often visited. Since I already visited these places on a normal basis, why not show my followers where I actually go? The support has been great and I have met a lot of cool creatives and fellow foodies.
What sets me apart of others is that I am not conventional at all. I think outside the box and create really different kinds of recipes that are not normal. One year I made Thanksgiving eggrolls which combined fried turkey, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, candied yams and homemade cranberry sauce. Or the time I made a candied yam iced latte.
I am most proud of my ability to be really creative and to go against the grain. I don’t typically post anything ‘normal’–I am always different and it is natural for me.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I went into this thinking I would have the support of friends normally. Often times before I created my social media page–people always said “why don’t you create a cookbook?'”, “can you share the recipe?” so I assumed I had all the support from them.
I was immediately disappointed haha. I formulated my own audience and support system by genuinely finding people whom had a similar interest as mine and just started to support them, and it is reciprocal.
My advice for anyone trying to build their social media presence is to not depend on friends or family to support you –it will ultimately disappoint you. Just find like-minded individuals. How do you do that? Search hashtags of your interest and go to pages that seem interesting in the results and just start commenting on posts/reels randomly. You will build an authentic tribe from there. One that will water your garden, and those in which you can also water as well.
My best supporters are not even from my friends/associates/family. They are ones that were built from scratch from people I never knew in real life.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
My mission is ever evolving. At first, it was merely just to make great food and have fun doing it. Fun is always the pretense–and it will be forever. This is not money motivated for me. I honestly enjoy making the food that I make, and my many coffee adventures. This is the real me.
The most rewarding thing is that I am authentic to myself and to my followers. I beat to my own drum and I do and in engage in with what I like, effortlessly.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naa_thefoodian
