We were lucky to catch up with Troi Williama recently and have shared our conversation below.

Troi, 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?

My creative work involves curating social media strategies, content creation, and short-form video directing. My journey of becoming well-versed in social media began over a decade ago, in 2013, during my first year of university. I studied public relations, which focused on journalistic expertise back then, but eventually, my university began incorporating the study of online media platforms as a means to push out messaging. Because I was a student leader, the Vice President of Promotions for the Student Activities Council, the President of the Students Activities Council, a Resident Advisory, and the Managing Editor for the university newspaper, it was a no-brainer when they invited me to be a part of a team called “The Social Squad,” a group of students who engaged in university social media takeovers to cover university events. That was my most simple and basic introduction to running and managing social media platforms in a way that worked to engage people and invite them onto a journey.

While I was a member of “The Social Squad” at my university, I didn’t take it seriously as a career or profession for many years. Life happened, and I decided to pivot more toward journalism and took up the task of moving to Thailand and becoming a travel writer. While doing that, I simultaneously posted on my personal social media to promote my travel blog. Still, other than that, I spent time posting and creating on social media purely for the love of the game. In the meantime, I began working as the Operations Manager for a nonprofit organization. Because it is a grassroots organization, they were looking for help in other ways, which involved me managing their social media platforms. After doing that for about two years, a family friend saw my work there and asked if I could help them with their social media platforms and strategy, to which I happily agreed. Once that happened, things began to explode for me in the best way.

If I’m being honest, the only thing that could’ve changed my career trajectory would have been if I believed in myself and chose to take social media management and strategy seriously earlier. Before I decided to do that, I was coasting through life, living in Thailand, and taking life as it came. It changed the game for me once I started to put a bit of effort into things. I had a video go viral, I began to see the value of consistency, and people started telling my client at the organization how great their social media platform was. I thought I was okay at my job, but not until then did I realize maybe I had a gift! Now, I have various clients and am a social media consultant for those who want to spruce up their social media platforms. I’ll introduce social media and content creation workshops later this year, and I’m looking forward to where the journey will take me.

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 got into my industry because it was a reasonable trajectory as a millennial born in 1995. I always tell people I didn’t grow up on the internet. I grew up with the internet. We grew up simultaneously, so I’m very digitally literate, which is typical for my demographic. I provide people with social media services such as running their social media platforms, strategizing their messaging, building their online brand and social character, acting as an accountability partner for those who want to grow their social media presence, and acting as a think-tank and innovator for clients.

My claim to fame is that I don’t make money from my social media. I make money from other people’s social media. I’m great at understanding and reading the algorithm, leaning into trends, and conveying someone’s mission and message in a way that taps into trending moments and topics so that it hits the proper pockets of the internet. As a problem solver, I act as a social-media-driven brain for their business or organization, so they have time to focus on the other moving parts of running something. I free up people’s minds and time in a way where they trust me to push their messaging and know that it won’t get lost in the fold of the algorithm and ever-changing social landscape. I also bridge the gap between face-to-face experiences and social experiences that draw people into wanting to learn more about a business or organization.

I’m able to assauge people’s fears about what it means to trust someone enough to let them articulate a message that while I may not have crafted, I believe in and champion 100%. I am most proud when I can show people that social media isn’t (and doesn’t have to be) scary. Breaking it down into smaller pieces always makes a social media and online presence much more easy to tap into.

How did you build your audience on social media?

By tapping into my authenticity. The only think you’re selling on social media is authenticity. You’re selling that before you sell people anything else. Authenticity is the key to trust, which makes people buy into whatever tangible thing you are selling. I started as a travel writer back in 2017 until 2020. I took a break from social media for personal reasons, but social media made me feel very anxious. At some point, I started realizing that my effortless videos were being well-received and then I just leaned into it. I kept up being my authentic self and then incorporated sharing tips and information and then it blossomed.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

While working with one of my clients, who is based in Ghana, we were roadtripping from Ghana to Togo to be on-location to capture content. I went to take a video while using a selfie-stick outside of the window, and as we were driving, my phone flew clean out of the window. It flew right into the Ghanaian bush, and it was dusk as we were inching toward the Togolese border. I was like, OMG! My phone is GONE! We stopped the car and backtracked to see if I could possibly find it, and we did! My driver was like TEE! Is that it?! I said OMG, yes! So hilarious because if I had lost my phone it would’ve defeated the entire purpose of the trip, but the universe had my back and gave my phone back to me just a little banged up, but still 100% in working condition.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://onecupoftee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traveling.tee/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troi-williams-803578108/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Traveling-Tee