We recently connected with Gray Davis and have shared our conversation below.

Gray, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I started my social media journey back in 2020 and my goal was to bridge the gap in today’s society between the natural world and the busyness of the concrete jungle in which most of us live our day to day. I adopted the catch phrase slogan “Get Outside and See What You Can Find!” because in one sentence it really summarizes my goal. On my account each video is a new exploration or learning experience. I typically will bring my viewers along for a day of collecting all I need to make dinner for the night and amazingly it has inspired people around the world to join in and reconnect with nature by foraging for a snack or meal. Because who doesn’t love free food? This has been incredibly powerful to me because I truly believe you protect what you love and with the disconnect from nature in our day to day life it’s easy for people to lose care for the natural world because they lost the love of it and therefore the drive to protect it. However by showcasing delicious “free meals” on my account, I inspire people to try and find their own and it only takes being back in nature for a short time to fall back in love and fight to protect it! And if you get free food in the process best believe that the love just increases.

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.

While I was in school I always wanted to be a teacher. However due to witnessing first hand how teachers often are met with many challenges such as disrespect from both parents and students, long work hours, and an often low salary, I decided teaching in the traditional sense was not for me. This led to me changing my major to psychology and my minor to business and focusing not only on the degree but on the lessons that I could apply to my social media presence. With an understanding of how people think, feel, and act, I was able to provide better videos and with the business sense I was able to better understand my analytics and negotiation brand deals. By May of 2023 I became financially independent enough to pursue my social media career full time. What I would say has led to my main success is the fact that I truly am passionate and love what I do.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I turned my social media from a hobby, to a side hustle, and now to my full time job. The biggest challenge in social media is finding a niche. It seems as though it would be easy due to the advice I’d give which is “Be authentic and be yourself.” However this is easier said than done. For example I always loved animals and nature but when I started my account I started it by making funny videos with my pets. While this did great for a while it began to feel empty and became more of a chore than a passion. So I switched it up! I began making videos that made me uncomfortable at first. I started taking my audience with me to forage, something I typically did off camera because I thought no one would care. However this is what people gravitated towards even more because it was authentic and truly me.

How’d you meet your business partner?

One thing that changed my financial stability was accepting that I don’t know what I don’t know. Once I accepted that I needed help I partnered with a management agency. I was hesitant at first because they take a % of every brand deal that I receive. Most companies take between 20-25% so you can see why I was skeptical. However it has MORE than payed off! I used to charge roughly $150-300 for an advertisement on my account. After signing with a management team that understood my worth and market standards my rate rose overnight to $2-3k for a single ad. Even subtracting 20-25% I am making a lot more with management. So my tip, don’t be afraid to bring on help where you need it!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gray__davis?igsh=cmZpMnhhemhzcGU3&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@gray_davis?si=Eay2by2i30zep7B7
• Other: TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@gray.davis?_t=8oj8avyLJOM&_r=1