Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alaetra Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alaetra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

As a Gen Z-er, I think what I do is ingrained in me. I’ve been a creative person for as long as I can remember, seriously. Growing up in the social media era – being so immersed in Bebo, MySpace, the early Facebook, Instagram (or MyTubo when I was an Android user) and Twitter days – definitely lends to how approaching my craft comes naturally. Aside from college courses, being a marketing or social media intern and having hands-on experience is how I learned to do what I do. If I knew then what I know now, my major in school would have been more specific to project management. I think the most essential skill to being in this field is having interpersonal skills. You have to know how to speak your audience’s language to succeed at content creation and marketing in general.

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

My name is Alaetra Smith and I’m a social media manager, content creator and model based in Dallas, TX. I’m pretty honored to be featured in Voyage this second time around. Before, I was in a different space and marketing myself as a photographer. At the time, though, I was doing marketing as my day job. As of this year, I’ve officially launched my own marketing agency called The Pique. I’m excited because I’ve been doing digital marketing, social media management and content creation for about 7 years now during internships, part-time and full-time jobs. Photography wasn’t going the way I would have liked, so I thought why not pivot? Social media and marketing is what I’ve been doing all along anyway. Now I’m thriving and my clientele is growing. I’m even happier these days because I feel that now I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I have multiple sets of goals – short-term and long-term, of course. It’s funny because recently I posted that I just want to help my mom retire early, help my dad find internal peace, and put my sister in a position of creative and time freedom. All while building an empire with the love of my life. That’s what I really want to achieve. That’s my “bigger picture.” As far as short-term goals, I want to cultivate a team that I can pour into. Being the daughter of an educator, I have a true passion for knowledge and passing it off to help people learn and grow. That’s one of my favorite things. So I hope in the near future I can employ a team of people for my agency who enjoy being creative and learning new things. Making my loved ones proud and being able to share success with like-minded people drive my creative journey for sure.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part is making my clients happy, honestly. At least in terms of my business (because essentially that’s where I get to be most creative.) I go into projects hoping to bring my clients real solutions and put them on to helpful resources for their businesses. It just goes back to my love for sharing knowledge. My talent with content creation really shines there too, and it makes me happy when I create content or curate a brand blueprint that really wows a client. I just want to make a lasting impact on all of the brands and companies that I work with. Especially within the Black community. It warms my heart to help them strategize and improve their online presence. Whenever I step in with my expertise, their companies really do experience growth and that’s all I want. Because, come on, when we start a business we want it to succeed and be taken seriously. Period. We absolutely deserve it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/the.pique
• Instagram: @the.pique (marketing agency), @ul8ra (personal page)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepique.online
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaetraj-smith

Image Credits
Alaetra Smith, Ashlyn Johnson, Alex Nickole