We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jasmine Melody. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jasmine below.

Jasmine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have been working in social media marketing since I was in college during various internships, and then transitioned into an in-house social media management position right after I graduated. I quickly realized that working in-house on a 9-5 office schedule was not for me as I found it to be very creatively draining. The pandemic happened and I was let go from my job as many were, and I began posting on Tiktok extremely casually when all of the sudden one of my videos blew up to a million views overnight. This was so exciting to me at the time because it was the first time I was able to conceptualize a life outside of traditional office work. I began to dedicate my time to building up my platform to my now 180,000 followers and began to fantasize about brands paying me to run their Tiktok accounts as myself, something that was very new at the time. I was then offered my first content creation contract and I insisted that I remained freelance so that I could always keep my autonomy. Fast forward three more years, I have worked with several brands creating their content with millions of monthly views, celebrity campaigns, and being able to support myself while working from home and still having the freedom to do other creative projects for myself. I am extremely thankful I listened to my gut about staying freelance but still negotiating full-time work so that I can make 6 figures doing work that allows me to have personal and creative freedom, all from working from home.

Jasmine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Growing up, like many people who are currently in their late twenties, I always dreamed of working at a magazine one day. I became the editor of the lifestyle section of my school newspaper and published articles about Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian, against the prestige that my journalism teacher wanted to maintain. I started our newspapers first Instagram account in 2013, after falling in love with the platform after stealing my mom’s iPhone to make my own Instagram account the year prior, and it was then that my fascination for social media began.

As the years went on and I went to college for journalism and public relations, it became clear that the magazine industry was losing it’s spark (and rarely California-based) so I continued to explore the path of social media. I got various internships where I became the social media expert of the company and began to brand myself as such. I worked across all industries from food and beverage to high fashion to women’s wellness startups.

Throughout all of this, I never imagined it would be possible to be an “influencer” myself even though I would always be quietly editing my own Instagram pictures between tasks at my office social media jobs. When my Tiktok account blew up from sharing dating stories, comedy bits, and advice, I realized that brands began to want me for me and not just what I could do behind the scenes for them.

I take the most pride in being able to bring my personality, humor and curiosities into all of my work and have brands really value that and want me to be myself. It was always a dream to be able to be able to make a living by being myself and making social media content for brands with millions of views has been a great way to do that.

Outside of content creation, I also offer 1 on 1 consulting services to help both brands and individual entrepreneurs on being able to create content that doesn’t make them have to sacrifice who they are. I am a firm believer that the most sustainable way to be online is to show up in a way that feels the most authentic to you, and that will guide to toward the success that you want. I help brands and creative individuals see the value in authenticity and leading with that when they have to market themselves.

I also started a podcast this year with my cohost, and former coworker, Nicola. Our podcast “Attention Recession” has been a very natural extension of the content I was already making for my Tiktok account that dives into cultural analysis, pop culture, technology and social media. Since I have to create so many videos for my clients, it has been really nice and creatively stimulating to work on another, less familiar, platform that is longer form.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When the pandemic hit, I had been at my 9-5 office social media job for about a year and half and had already become depressed from how suffocated I felt working in that environment. I felt like I had no self outside of that job and constantly had to perform for others to fit into the office culture, while also feeling creatively stifled feeling like my ideas weren’t always being heard.

A month into the pandemic, we were working extremely hard to keep the company afloat and risking our health to continue doing photoshoots, when I was put into a meeting with my bosses. They told me that the company needed to cut back on wages and while some were taking 10% or 20% off their salaries, my salary would be cut by 50% putting me below minimum wage and unable to afford to live. They had told me that I can either accept that or they will have to lay me off. I decided I wanted the lay off since I could collect unemployment that would be significantly higher than the wage they were offering, and they then told me that they actually wouldn’t lay me off and I would have to quit if I wanted to leave. This was their way of using intimidation to get me to stay for a low wage, along with my higher ups telling me that “other people at the company offered to work for free” and I would be “risking my health by losing health insurance during a pandemic”.

I decided to consult a lawyer at this point while having daily panic attacks from the position that they put me in. I finally received an email on a Thursday night at 8pm from HR saying that if I showed up to work the next day, they would consider it as me accepting my new wage and if I didn’t show up then they would consider that as me quitting. My mental health had hit an all time low at this point, and I responded by saying that I acknowledged that I was being forced to resign.

My decision to take the risk of potentially not getting unemployment money was fueled by a deep intuition that everything would work out if I put myself first and stay in an environment where I was clearly being manipulated and disrespected. After applying to unemployment and crossing my fingers for weeks, I found out that I had been accepted and would be able to receive my original salary in unemployment benefits due to the government stimulus increase. I am so thankful that I trusted my gut in that moment because it not only allowed me to leave a toxic workplace environment, but also allowed me to have money while I looked for more work and began my Tiktok journey and much more lucrative career.

It takes a lot of courage to put so much sheer trust in yourself but I now know that it is the only way to maintain autonomy and move toward where you are actually meant to be.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The beginning of my Tiktok journey was a completely accident where I posted a video that I had sent to my friends talking about a failed date. Once that blew up overnight, I decided that this was my moment to jump on this momentum and began getting completely ready in hair and makeup and posting multiple times a day. I quickly learned what worked and what didn’t and tailored all of my content to what would get the most views while still being mostly myself. This worked to gain the followers that I have now, however I don’t believe it is the most sustainable method long-term.

In order to grow, you absolutely need a lot of drive and consistency, and candidly an obsession with virality. But after years of doing that, I finally realized that it was more draining than it was fulfilling. I then switched my strategy from thinking so deeply about the numbers to only focusing on what I genuinely wanted to talk about and enjoyed. This made me post a lot less but I rediscovered my love for content creation and sharing through that.

I tell my clients now that when they are starting fresh, it is really important to tap into the part of you that really enjoys creating content. If you are only making content because you think you need to for your career or business, you will burn out extremely quickly and not be able to stay consistent. If you can find genuinely enjoyment for sharing in whatever way that speaks to you, that is when you will be able to build longevity online.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jasminemelody.co
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jasminemelodyy
• Other: Tiktok: tiktok.com/@jazmelodyy
  Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/attentionrecessionpodcast/