We recently connected with Mikaila Murphy and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mikaila , thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
Growing up I always knew I wanted to move to LA and work in the entertainment industry, I started dancing when I was 3 years old and that to this day has been my greatest passion. I knew I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else. The only problem is, dancers don’t make money and they are taken as rage of every day both monetarily and physically. I knew in order to be happy, I needed to find. Away to hold my own personal power and have leverage. I went to college for about 2 years. While I was in college I realized how much I hated it. I was a straight A student, but my creative brain wanted to be free. My college was holding me back. I spent my freshman year trying to figure out how I would be able to drop out. I started making silly tiktoks (yes around the time that you were bullied for being on tiktok). They started slowly popping off and I had my first super viral video my freshman year. My Sophomore year is when everything changed. I hit my first million around January of 2020 and that was right before COVID hit. That ended up being my biggest blessing in disguise. I was a dance major so it took them an extra 5 weeks to figure out how we would dance on zoom. In that time frame, I spent it making tons of content and I grew about another million or two and that’s what I was presented with my first two brand deals. My big decision was trying to decide if I should just drop out of school, or thug it out and get my degree. I weighed the pros and cons and quite frankly the only con was that it was scary and risky and I might fail. I realized that these opportunities don’t always come around a second time, but college is always there. I always realized in my industry it’s not what you know but who you know, and by building a platform I started gaining tons of connections, so college for me personally just felt like a waste of time and money, considering there was nothing left for me to learn in that dance program.
I remember calling my professor, and she already knew what I was going to say and she wasn’t very thrilled. I’ll never forget her telling me that it was a bad idea and I wasn’t likely to succeed. But who can blame her? She wasn’t educating herself on our current generation, she didn’t understand the power of social media. So I said sorry but I am leaving, and I did. It ended up being the best decision of my life and my business sky rocketed, I am currently sitting at 16 million followers on tiktok, I have employees under me, and I even bought my own house at 22 years old. It has been the most incredible journey and I’m honestly scared to know where I’d be if I hadn’t taken that risk.
Mikaila , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
So I am a content creator, and I don’t necessarily have a niche! I do a lot! I do body positivity and women’s confidence and I try to encourage women to love their natural selves. I’m a dancer so I also create dance content and I also put out dance tutorials where people can learn! I am currently jumping into the food and travel space so I will be providing tips for my supporters for when they travel and cook. The business side of things is very unique! Brands pay me to advertise their products for them! I only promote products I genuinely like, and that inspires my audience to purchase those items! I also have record labels who pay me to create content or dances to their clients songs! I am able to provide them with views and help blow their songs up! I help teach clients how to market themselves/ their products and I teach people how to utilize social media so they can monetize as well! What sets me apart from others is I am very true to myself, what you see is what you get. What you see on the screen is how I am in real life! I feel like social media can be very fake, but I do my best to show the good the bad and the inbetween! People want to feel normal and seen:) I am most proud of how no matter what I always keep going. I overcome the craziest obstacles but I always bounce back and keep pushing with a positive attitude (most of the time, with the occasional melt down disaster once in a while HAHA) I want the people around me, my family, my friends, my supporters, the people who watch me, who send me work, and who work for me to know, that I appreciate each and every single one you literally SO much. I would never be anywhere close to where I am now without you,
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn is that you need college to be successful. I think I am living proof that that isn’t true, do I think it’s necessary for certain fields of work? Absolutely. But I’m tired of that being the only “norm”. I’m tired of it being viewed as a failure not to go. I’m tired of people being shamed for not having a degree.
Any advice for managing a team?
My advice is hire people that you genuinely like, and that genuinely like you back. You both need to understand each other and build a good relationship based on trust. My team is full of the most amazing and powerful people (with the majority being women) they all genuinely see my vision and they want it to be brought to life maybe even more than I do. I love each and every person on my team and I respect them each as the amazing individuals that they are. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mikailadancer.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikailadancer?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/Mikailadancer And https://www.facebook.com/mikailadancerr
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/Mikailadancer
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYm38HA-cBsrpZ6jBBKuRVw
- Tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/gBqJXY/
- Snapchat: mikailadancer
Image Credits
Lee Gumbs Mike Ricardo Monsée Aaron Cross Cristian Diaz