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

Imani , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

In order to be successful, I believe it takes resilience, faith, determination, and a dream. Work/life balance is also an important aspect of success that I am still working toward today.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My son was only four months old when I graduated from LSU law school, so instead of moving out of state and getting my LLM as planned, I decided to stay at home and dedicate my time to being the best mom that I could be. I worked for my father’s law firm while raising my son until my son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

It was then that I decided to become a full time stay at home mom. During this time, my passion for cooking was reinvigorated and I started my own successful food business, Cajun Mama Louisiana LLC, when I shipped my signature Cajun savory pies and Cajun foods nationwide.

Due to the nature of trends and technology, my online presence grew rapidly, especially in the food community. I became a published food writer for many years and was a voice in my local food world. However, life happened and I got a divorce and subsequently moved to Houston!

My social media content shifted from writing and recipes to fine dining and exploring a new city! I continued to operate my Cajun Mama business while simultaneously growing a presence in Houston due to my love of food and my newfound passion for this amazing city!

I am able to showcase so many local restaurants and dining experiences as well as events and travel! I love sharing wonderful experiences with my friends and followers.

Now, I work with the national company Wise Assistant as their Houston Lead. We build a community for local content creators to network, support each other, grow their brand, and receive partnerships with local businesses.

I believe what sets us apart in the industry is the level of positivity and support that the WISEHTX creators and influencers have for each other. It can be a cut throat industry, yet we are always sharing tips and strategies and opportunities with each other. I love that so much about this group!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

When I joined the Wise Assistant company as founding creator of WISEHTX, it was a side gig that I worked on in my spare time. Due to high community interest and our rapid growth rate, the side gig became bigger and bigger. Before you know it, I was in communication with over 50 people a day, business owners and creators alike, planning events and negotiating partnerships for our members.

I began enjoying this role much more then the remote legal work that had been usurping my time, so I focused more on building relationships with local businesses for the group and creating fun networking events for our local creators and influencers.

Eventually, I had multiple creators ask me to manage them and to help them grow their brand, so I began working with them on an individual basis as a personal consultant. This has been such a positive experience for me, as I love being behind the scenes helping others to achieve their dreams of success.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Transparency is key. I believe that being honest with your followers builds trust and a strong reputation as someone they can relate to. Whether it is talking about my depression and mental health, my struggles with being a single mom, my journey of raising a special needs son, or just an experience at a local restaurant, I am honest and transparent about it. It is very hard to talk about some of these issues so openly, but if sharing my struggle can help just one person overcome theirs, then it is worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theimaniexperience.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_imani_experience/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cajunmamalouisiana/