We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chana Torres. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chana below.
Chana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?
Straight to business I see. Let’s dive right in! My first of many paid posts was for $200 in 2021. This amazing women owned clothing brand reached out to me directly and expressed I aligned with their mission and they appreciated the content I created for my personal brand. This specific brand offered to send me a PR box, a paid commission percentage, and to pay for my content per post. I’m still partnered with this brand to this day.
After receiving many emails from brands with absolutely nothing to offer, other than an affiliate link and/or a very small commission percentage, I was honored. I couldn’t believe a brand finally valued my content as much as I do and wanted to partner with little ol’ me.
I remember thinking there is no way this offer is real, most brands don’t offer to pay nano influencers, like myself, right off the bat. My hard work was no longer going unrecognized. This was the validation I needed to not give up.
As a creator you’re constantly having brands disrespectfully reaching out wanting you to create content for FREE. It’s frustrating, brands need to do better but as creators we need to be better at understanding our self worth and stop undermining our creativity. Brands WILL pay you, you just need to learn how to negotiate your price.
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?
My name is pronounced cha-nuh (sher/her) and I was born and raised in Northeast, TX – a Leo if you must know. I moved to Austin, TX alone in 2019 right before the pandemic and I’ve been keeping it weird since. The town I grew up in was very small but I’ve always envisioned the bigger picture. I go more into depth on one of my podcast episodes named “New Status: City Girl ” on my Channeling Chana podcast where I talk about the trials and tribulations of my personal life. Creating has always been my coping mechanism of choice. Not a very per-say “smart” choice coming from a small town with a depletion of artistic career opportunities but I’ve always been determined.
I didn’t have a good childhood with an alcoholic father and an addict mother who abandoned her family. With that being said, growing up in the Latino culture you could rightfully assume I was doing just about everything that a “woman of the house” could find herself occupied with, including raising my 2 younger brothers.
As a youngin, I would immerse myself into my projects to channel my inner Chana. I’ve tried everything under the sun. From playing brass instruments to drawing, blogging, DIY projects, painting, powerlifting, etc. My life motto has always been “I’ll try anything once”. The need to try new things is what led me to the city of Austin, the most artistic city in Texas. A perfect match if you ask me.
I always found myself spending all my free time bringing my random ideas to life. From dance videos on YouTube with my high school best friend in 2011 to scripting a viral post of another friend on Facebook in 2017, to now having two podcast shows brought to life. All because I wanted a safe space in my cozy corner of the internet to talk about how life is truly UNHINGEDASF.
Right now I offer graphic design, content creation, pr packages and other paid promotional services. You can go to chanationnetwork.com to see a portfolio of my work and find all the ways to contact me for any business inquiries and/or collaborations.
When people consume my content they can count on me being authentically me. I help spread brand awareness through my influence in social media. I bring that certain type of authenticity people know and love. I also help uplift those with the same struggles as me. I’m THE confidence builder and queen of blocking out the haters.
When it comes to what sets me apart from others you’ll find that I don’t just say I’m the real deal, I AM THE REAL DEAL! I stay away from filters on my pictures, especially the face altering ones. The only thing I adjust in my photos are brightness, vibrancy and contrast for the most part. I do not alter my photos to remove my flaws; I just let them be.
My friends would say I’m the reason they have adopted a certain carefree attitude and they always leave with more confidence than they came to me with. I have a very impactful job I’ve set out to do and it all starts with how I carry myself.
I’m most proud of the message my personal brand brings to the world. I want people to feel confident in themselves every time they scroll and see my posts. The Chanation brand has and ALWAYS will be a safe space for all! The voice for the little guy. A brand you can trust will keep it 100% real 100% of the time.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
It all started in 2017, I was a personal trainer back in my hometown and I was sick of feeling like my pictures weren’t good enough to post. Not by societal standards but from myself. I never really cared about the instant gratification that comes with posting on social media. I’ve always cared about posting something I personally like. Throughout my journey as a creator I started to understand more as to why people post for reasons other than themselves. In order to be successful on social media, you have to post according to your niche. My goal was to find a niche that fit me rather than conform my online presence to fit a specific niche that doesn’t fit who I am IRL. My selfie game has always been strong so naturally Instagram would be the platform of choice.
In the era of self love and women empowerment, I found myself moving on to bigger and better things, aka my body.
Breaking the weight stigmas as a plus size personal trainer, I realized the impact I truly had on others. This was also known as my Chanation Fitnation era. I grew a passion for it and decided I would help others achieve this godly level of confidence. I found that if I empowered myself the way I do others I could really have an impact on social media and (my favorite part) piss off the haters.
There is no “secret sauce”. It’s different for everyone. For the last 6 yrs I’ve studied, contributed and flopped many times trying to find the best niche that fits me. I’ve just now found what works for me. Now my social media game is stronger than it’s ever been because I took time to try new things and figure it out as I went.
Be yourself and your niche will find YOU! You can find your niche by trying new things and taking some risks! Get creative!
Keep in mind you CAN NOT compete where you DO NOT compare! Social media makes it too easy to compare yourself to others. There is always going to be someone with more followers than you so don’t get caught up feeling inferior because of the vanity metrics.
Don’t give up; trust the process. I like to keep the Sagrada Familia in mind when starting a project. The building itself took over 30 years to plan and over 200 years to build, to this day its still not completed but it’s always being worked on. Always remember it takes time.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is to create a legacy for my daughter. Everyday I have this tiny human looking into my eyes reminding me if I created something as perfect as her existence then I can do whatever I set my mind to. So I guess you could say as much as I want to motivate her to grow up and be strong, she keeps me motivated to stay strong… and she has no idea. What better fuel to have ammirite? 10 yrs from now she’ll be able to read this article and know how much work I put in and why.
Contact Info:
- Website: chanationnetwork.com
- Instagram: @chanationisthenation