We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cece Liu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cece, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
I started out posting tennis videos on social media because I had seen a couple of my friends doing it and getting sponsored by well-known companies. Since I was in a sports program for high school, I trained in the afternoon and would use clips from my practices. I would direct message and email all types of health/fitness brands in pursuit of becoming a tennis ambassador for their brand. Almost one year after I started posting, a supplement company responded to my pitch with “What are your rates?”. I had no idea what that meant at the time so after a quick Google search, I realized that they wanted to work together on a paid basis! I was so excited, I ran to tell my mom and get her input on what I should charge. She told me to ask for one hundred and see the consensus. The brand accepted immediately and that was the first dollar I earned as a creative!
Cece, 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 Cece Liu and I am currently a Division-One Tennis player and Mathematics student at George Mason University. I am originally from Toronto, Canada, and love creating videos surrounding my everyday life as a student-athlete. I started posting on social media during my freshman year of high school, but I only started putting in more effort after I started college. I’ve always been very interested in the social media industry and how the business runs behind the scenes. My most popular series is my “What I Eat in a Day as a College Athlete” videos and I started making them because I used to love watching these types of videos in high school.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the unique experiences you get out of it. Most recently, a production company reached out to me after coming across my YouTube shorts and flew me out to California to shoot a commercial. I’ve always wanted to go to Los Angeles and I never would’ve thought my first trip there would be due to my passion for creating short-form videos. The community that I have is also something that I am very grateful for and meeting like-minded creators and entrepreneurs is very inspiring.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Honestly, I don’t have a particular goal or mission that I want to achieve with my creative journey. I love documenting my life because I can look back at myself one year ago and see how much things have changed or how I have grown as an individual. The only numeric goal I have for myself is to reach 100,000 subscribers on YouTube before I graduate from college.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceceliu_/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Cece_Liu
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ceceliu_?lang=en
