We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chayna Douglas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chayna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

I’ve learned such an important lesson about asking friends/family to support me on social media. Asking your friends and family to support you, while it feels motivating and you can feel the love, we can also feel like they’re obligated to fully engage in all of your business endeavors. But the reality is, as a business person, you have to learn the skill of creating a clientele outside of people you know. People that already know you don’t get as excited as a stranger who has never met someone like you and become intrigued enough to follow. The more personable someone is, the more leverage they seem to have and the success happens naturally.

I may not have a business that sells a product (yet) but my business is my image and brand as an actor. I did not start blowing up on social media until I silenced my fear; I turned off the button that allowed me to focus on who’s not watching, and who’s not supporting me. My first viral Tiktok (2.4 mil) happened when I was casually making a video a day while still living my life; I was going out to lunch one afternoon and open my tiktok app at the table to be surprised to see how many people were interested in my quirkiness. Now that I’m on Instagram more often, My algorithm shows that most people engaging wit me are non-followers turned followers after impactful engagement.

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

Im going to start with my journey to Atlanta.

I am originally from New York City and was active for 5 years working on my craft as an actor. I was on TV, in Off-off broadway theatre plays, etc. My life was successful; but it was also stressful and hectic. Then in April 2018, I felt like I can start over with experience. At first, I was influenced to move to Atlanta by a romantic interest – and when that did not work out, I felt pressured to move back to NYC. A part of me felt like if I moved so quickly, I didn’t even try to pursue my career on my own. And another part of me just wanted to move and be supported. I took the road less traveled by, and it was brutal. I ended semi-spiraling and struggled with my eating habits and sleep pattern. Being in a new place with no one to lean on was new to me. But I was able to meditate, look within, and try my hardest even when I didn’t want to. I don’t think I would have branched out and started to pursue indie films and seriously make content of my own if I didn’t have a mental re-birth. Atlanta is known as “Black Hollywood” and I keep thinking, “I want a piece of that.”

I am nowhere near finished, but as an artist, going through life’s trials further fuels my passion for Film; I want to become the strongest and most diligent version of myself while waking up the consciousness of others. I plan to be a series regular of my own TV show – even if I have to produce it myself. Further plans in my life include humanitarian work within the communities I’ve seen/lived in that desperately need it. The housing crisis and food deserts are just some of my main concerns. We are all here for a reason and there are two days that are important; the day you find your passion, and the day you find your purpose.

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

Moving to Atlanta form New York City required me to pivot the way I viewed getting my stardom in the Film industry.

A few decades ago, having a prestigious agent and doing audition after audition would suffice – and eventually you would be on the big screen or on TV. Now, there are so many ways to get to the destination, just auditioning to death is outdated. It took me some time to understand that, but now that I’m on the path of recognition, I can see new possible doors that I haven’t seen before. I’ve noticed “name talent” get priority over people who are relatively “unknown” to the general public. So with that, I knew I had to put myself out there more; thus starting my journey with posting social media content in 2020 – starting on Tiktok by posting 1 video a day to currently reaching 105K followers. I’m currently in the process of building my Instagram following as well which is currently at 21K followers. I just make silly, fun, and quirky videos the are fun for me; so when people watch the videos and can relate is such plus and heartwarming. I am not in any circumstance making follower goals or benchmarks to take the pressure off myself. With 5 likes or 5 million likes, I’m still going to make content and enjoy the process.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My story of building a social media audience is kind of anti-climatic; I just decided one day that I wasn’t going to care. As a presence online, you genuinely can’t care too much about the numbers. Because then it will allow fear to creep in and distract you.

One day I decided to just go for it and get dressed, put on a face, and think creatively every single day; despite how I felt. It started with me in a very vulnerable place mentally, emotionally and even physically. And it helped me understand myself better as well as build my dream audience of like-minded people who don’t take life too seriously. My behavior rewarded me with 105K Tiktok followers and 21K Instagram followers. My new focus would be Facebook and Youtube; those platforms are a little more complex for me to figure out my niche. My advice would be the same Nike would give… Just do it. Do it scared, do it confused, do it with little to no resources, do it without a clear vision (because you can always re-imagine), just do it all. My rise on social media is a marathon, not a race; and I look forward to seeing my development in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.tiktok.com/@ebonyassassin
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/ebonyassassin
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ebonyassassin
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChaynaDouglas

Image Credits
Images by Geo Ruiz – @capturethepeople.global