We recently connected with Leslie Antonoff and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Leslie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

It’s so interesting that this question is being asked because for the past year I’ve been asking myself this a lot. In 2021, I had a full slate of television projects that I was working on with HGTV, HBO Max, and Food Network and it seemed as if everything was finally starting to fall into place. However as they got underway I quickly realized that perhaps it wasn’t the way things should be going. By the end of the year I was burnt out, overwhelmed, and truthfully really unhappy. I wasn’t creating the things I wanted to per say or was being dragged around in myriad of directions on the things I was trying to create. All in all it was starting to resemble a square peg in a round hole type of situation. On New Year’s Eve of 2021 I decided that clarity was going to be my word for 2022 and I asked God to make it abundantly clear the things I was supposed to be pursing. That if any of the projects I was doing weren’t where I was supposed to be then remove them and get me on the right path.

Within a week my three of my pilots had been canned.

Talk about a sign right? With nothing to “do” I finally decided to finish the novel I had been working on for a decade. I got focused on trying to get an agent and participated in a pitch call for manuscripts on Twitter which resulted in a meeting with an agent who wanted to sign me. Yes! But, it didn’t work out with him. Ultimately my attorney got me another meeting and I signed with another literary agent shortly there after. It finally felt like I was walking in the footsteps I had been meant to follow since I was six years old.

The thing about being a writer is that there is a lot of waiting. In that waiting there isn’t a lot of money made and for a person who has married the idea success to a monetary value that feels challenging for me daily. So to bring my tangent home, yes I do often wonder what it would be like to have a regular job and I have pursued it. But it seems to never work. Hahaha. Traditional jobs haven’t ever really been my forte, with the exception of three or four internships when I was working in PR, every single job I’ve had has been in a creative field and procured because my relationships with people who believe in my talent. I honestly would love to have a traditional corporate career in some ways because it’s what I wanted so badly as a young person. To be an attorney and eventual judge, but now I realize that it likely wouldn’t bring me happiness either. Instead now I know that if I’m meant to have a “regular” job as one says, it will likely be one in the creative field like VP of Marketing, Development, some sort of Creative Director and it will come as a result of my relationships and someone else believing in me. Not from me scouring job sites or LinkedIn.

Ultimately though, yes, I am happy as a creative. I’m happy that I get to decide what my days look like, how my time is spent and that I get to determine how I present myself to the world and through which medium.

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?

While life has taken me through many twists and turns; one thing has never changed and that is my pursuit of success. I realized recently that I have manifested my life by the power of my words, time and time again. The first instance of that was attending Howard University to study Communications.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

It seems everywhere you look these days there’s someone selling a course, a trick, or some magical thing you can do to grow your following on social. Usually bookended by how to do it quickly and how you just need to work with them for the low price of $699. I’m not saying the tips may not work or that the folks are hawking snake oil. What I can say is that authenticity and relatability can get you just as far. For me the key to building an audience that is engaged and invested, not only my work but in me as a person comes from always being myself.

One of the best compliments I have received is, “You’re exactly like you are online, offline!” The reason this touches me so much is because of the common refrain that everyone and everything on social media is fake. To be able to show up as myself regularly online full face value, while still maintaining some semblance of privacy is a challenge but I make it a priority. I think rather than spending time to figure out to amass thousands of followers and multitudes of eyes and ears on you there are a few steps you need to take first.

1. Understand your why — You need to be able to give a reason why you want people to follow that ISN’T about you. Not because you want to be famous, popular, wealthy because I can assure you that a large social following won’t guarantee any of those things. What are you giving to people that makes them want to give you their follow? It’s valuable so you have to give something in return. That starts with simply being yourself. Not a caricature of who you think you should be.

2. Show up, consistently — Often folks misconstrue the word consistency for frequency and that’s not it. Consistency isn’t about how often you show up it’s about maintaining the same energy each time you do. I don’t follow any rules about posting three times a day or ten stories minimum across platform. Consistency is giving 100% each time you post, each time you interact, and that will encourage people to stick with you even if you’re not on the feed daily.

3. Slow Your (sc)ROLL — We can all get up in act of scrolling but I think we have to limit what we’re consuming in order to focus on our own growth. It is fine to look, be inspired, and even take note but when you begin to fall into comparison is when you lose track of your audience and your why.

If you follow those “rules” I think you can build a quality following that is willing to invest in you and whatever creativity you’re aiming to bring into the world.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think my entire career has been a pivot. Beginning from double majoring in Poli Sci and African-American studies in college and changing my major twice to ultimately land on Public Relations. Then working in the PR field and transitioning into television. Currently I’ve transitioned out of being on camera and working in unscripted TV to writing and leaning into my YouTube era.

Pivoting is necessary. For change, for growth, and for failure; all of which eventually lead to success in some way. I don’t see my pivots as failures but rather an understanding of what is no longer serving me. Many of us don’t trust that intuition. We’ll sooner stay in a job, a role, a career that is running us ragged or depleting us in lieu of walking away and on to the next thing out of fear or worry that we’ll disappoint others.

Even when I feel lost or out of sorts, I can say I’ve tried to not allow the fear of disappointing other people be the driving force for my decisions. Anyone who I fear disappointing has to be someone I love or care a great deal about, which means hopefully, that they want the best for me. If I decide I can better thrive elsewhere, they should want the same for me.

Don’t be afraid to pivot and shift it likely will direct you onto the path where you’re meant to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thehautemommie.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/hautemommie
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/hautemommie
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Hautemommie?feature=shared

Image Credits
Elton Anderson Jr. Moses Robinson