We were lucky to catch up with Destiny Liley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Destiny, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My heroes would be both my mom and dad. Both of them come from very humble beginnings and both have been wonderful examples of how hard work, dedication and humility lead to success. Growing up, my parents always did their best to ensure our family never had any lack growing up.

When I was a young child I remember my parents working hard and switching off on working days and working nights just to ensure we were taken care of. My dad has been with his employer over 30 years ago and worked his way from the mailroom to the boardroom, literally. My mother worked in nursing until she decided to start her own unique gift business. My parents have a somewhat traditional story of the “American Dream,” but hard work and seeing a vision of wanting something different than they had growing up was definitely the driving factor.

Most importantly, staying humble and grateful for every single opportunity you’re given is the key and the main lessons that have influenced my journey.

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?

I am a Content Creator and Senior Video Producer!

In college I originally started out as a Nursing major but quickly pivoted once I failed Organic Chemistry (twice!). Growing up, my parents would jokingly call me ‘Oprah’ because I would run around reciting 1-800 commercials I saw on TV as a kid. I remember sitting in my college guidance counselor’s office and she asked me what I wanted to do since I was failing out of my college nursing classes. In that moment, I had to wrack my brain for what else I liked to do. After expressing my interest in any job that would allow me to be outgoing, my counselor suggested I change my major to Communications. I laughed in her face because that was a rumored “easy degree.”

After realizing I had no other interests I changed my major to Communications. I also learned about all of the disciplines under that umbrella at my university (Public Relations, Marketing, Strategic Communication, Journalism etc.) and I settled on Journalism and Media Production. Soon after I joined the student Women in Comm club, the student-led TV Station and even had my own radio station through the campus radio station. I had finally felt like I had found my calling and 4 years later still managed to graduate on time. After I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Communications – Journalism and Media Production in 2016, I decided to pursue my Master’s degree in American Media Film Studies and graduated in 2019.

Whilst juggling school and in between graduating, I had an internship at Microsoft Production Studios which led me to my first job out of college as a Casting Producer for the show Hoarders. After that, I landed producer jobs at companies like CUT, Amazon, BuzzFeed and MediaMonks. While at BuzzFeed, I really started to dabble in content creation and appearing in videos across YouTube and realized I may enjoy being in front of the camera more than I thought. I always dabbled in content creation but have decided to pursue it in hopes of being able to do it full time one day!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that you get to share your work and inspire of influence others! It’s always so rewarding for me when I create content that others feel they can relate to but maybe are too shy to say themselves. It’s also rewarding when I suggest restaurants or things to do in Arizona, and some of the viewers actually try my suggestion.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being raw and being honest. A lot of my content that has helped me grow has come from a place of honesty and a place of me not being the happiest with where I’m living, but making the most of it by finding new opportunities and restaurants and things to do in Arizona!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @destiny_rayvon
• Other: TikTok: destiny_rayvon

Image Credits

Photographer: AJ Sales-Marit