Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Landon Bryant. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Landon, thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. I was a public school teacher for years and years, so it wasn’t really that hard to make up my salary because public school teachers don’t get paid nearly enough. But it still was scary because that was contracted work that was guaranteed. This creative work is not guaranteed, and it is different from month to month. But, there are a lot of different avenues for revenue. And I think if I did anything right, it was setting up lots of different avenues for revenue and investing in all of those avenues. So not just videos and hoping for good views, but also brands. And then not just brands, but also book deals, also collabs with merchandise lines, collaborations with other artists and other creators, podcasts, doing interviews, all sorts of options—there are so many different ways you can make money from this. And I think it’s important to explore all of them.
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.
I’m Landon Bryant. I’m from Laurel, Mississippi, and I run LandonTalks across the internet. It started out as just a place for me to share stories from my past, but over time, it’s become something so much bigger. Now, it’s a space where I get to celebrate what’s special about the South—and more importantly, what I hope folks will pay attention to and hold onto.
Somehow, it’s grown into this beautiful community of people who may not always agree on everything, but lead with kindness. That’s really the heart of it: kindness. We disagree about all sorts of things—mayonnaise, deviled eggs, potato salad—you name it. But it’s all in good fun, never mean-spirited. It’s just joyful, playful conversation, and I honestly believe it’s the best community on the internet.
It’s full of nostalgia, too. It’ll remind you of the things you loved about your grandma and them, while also showing that we really do have a shared future—a hopeful one—where we can find common ground, even in small, sweet ways.
And along the way, it’s turned into something I didn’t expect: a way to preserve a past I didn’t even realize needed preserving. When you grow up inside a culture, it’s hard to really see it. But through this community, I’ve been able to take a step back and recognize just how special it is—the way my grandparents talked, the sayings they used, how they lived. There’s so much good in that, and those are the things worth carrying forward. The good parts. The sweet parts. The parts that remind us who we are and where we come from.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think people who aren’t in creative fields sometimes have a hard time understanding that creativity requires energy—and that energy has to be protected. When you’re dealing with stress, anxiety, or even just the endless to-do list of everyday life, that mental space gets taken up. I genuinely believe anxiety and creativity occupy the same part of the brain. I’m not a scientist, so I can’t say that definitively, but in my experience, they’re constantly competing. When your mind is cluttered with logistical details—business decisions, cleaning the house, keeping up the yard, managing your inbox—it leaves less room for creative thought to take root and grow.
That’s why I think it’s not just helpful, but essential, to outsource whatever you can—if you can still maintain the quality and integrity of your work. Delegating those necessary-but-draining tasks gives your mind the space to breathe, to imagine, to create.
It’s easy for non-creative people to assume that creatives are just “not doing much,” when in reality, so much of what we do is invisible. Decision fatigue is real. Making creative choices all day long is mentally exhausting, and when you’re also navigating the demands of social media, which truly never turns off, it adds another layer of pressure. Being a creative today means showing up constantly—it’s a 24/7 role.
And in that environment, even small tasks can start to feel enormous. Things that might seem insignificant to others can actually be deeply disruptive to the creative process. Protecting your creative energy isn’t laziness—it’s strategy. It’s survival.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I built an audience on social media very quickly. It was sudden, it was wild, and honestly, I’m still getting used to it. But looking back, I think there were a few key things that helped it happen the way it did.
When I realized I had the ability to go viral—that people were actually listening—I took a step back to study what made something take off and why. And what I landed on might sound a little funny, but it helped me make sense of it: I decided to approach social media the way you’d train a new puppy. You have to gently and consistently teach them what to expect, when to expect it, and how to engage.
So I leaned into two things I knew would matter most: consistency and authenticity. People online are incredibly sharp—they can spot something disingenuous from a mile away. What they’re really looking for is honesty, a real voice, someone showing up as themselves. So I made a commitment to do just that—to be fully myself, without pretense, every single time.
And even though consistency has never come naturally to me—it’s actually something I’ve always struggled with—I made myself show up every day. For an entire year, I posted a video every single day between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. on Instagram Reels and TikTok. Same length, similar topics, same setup, same green screen-style background. I did that not just for the audience, but also to help the algorithm understand what I was offering, so it could send my content to the people who might connect with it.
That structure—the consistency, the genuineness, the clear sense of identity—was what helped build a community. Not just an audience, but a community of people who show up, who listen, and who care. And I think that’s the real magic of it all.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/landontalks?igsh=MWtrZHNyaG43cGtrcw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18sVm6RA3E/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@landontalksalot?si=EmJ10HLOGzB_wsUw
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@landontalks?_t=ZP-8uvqzu4EWy7&_r=1
Podcast: Landontalks With Kate (everywhere podcasts are found)
Apple: https://open.spotify.com/show/1X9FDHou66tq1BpywciCLr?si=mXcrFjnaR06FzeCoxAyANg
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1X9FDHou66tq1BpywciCLr?si=mXcrFjnaR06FzeCoxAyANgI wrote a book and it comes out April 1, 2025
“Bless Your Heart: A Field Guide to All Things Southern” is available everywhere books are sold! https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/landon-bryant/bless-your-heart/9780762488322/?utm_source=LandonBryant_SocialOrg&utm_medium=AuthorShare&utm_campaign=MultiTitle_9780762488322_BlessYourHeart&utm_content=na&utm_term=na
Image Credits
Blackbird Creative