Reza, appreciate you 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?
What started out as a hobby of taking pictures for fun to show of my outfits turned into a 6-figure business that is not only earning revenue but bringing joy to people.
I remember it was back in 2017 when I had first posted some IG shots of my outfits and just started doing it daily. Then, I stumbled upon an upcoming content creator who encouraged me to buy a DSLR camera and start taking “pro” shots and that, I did. Fast forward 2 months, my followers grew to 5,000 and I got my very first collaboration. It was a free watch and at that time, this was a HUGE milestone.
From there, I set my eyes on getting to 10k followers which I did 4 months later. Once I achieved this goal, I got hired by a talent agency and started to make some cash with my content.
From then, I grew it slowly to about 30k followers in about 2 years (yes, it was a slow growth) and was making pretty good money. This is the best part of the story. Covid hit. I decided to do TikToks and pretty quickly landed on my niche; comedic millennial and Persian content. BOOOM.
It skyrocketed it from there and in 3 short years, I grew my IG to 257k followers and TikTok (which was zero at the time) to 500k followers and now working with some of the largest brands and make my followers days’ brighter 1 post at a time.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I moved to Canada from Iran when I was 7 years old and was raised as an only child. I have been involved in entertainment, in specific, Michael Jackson dancing, since I can remember. Throughout the years, I still continued performed (pre-social media days) and once IG took off, I realized that I can bring my art to a larger audience.
I started creating content in 2017 and things really picked up in 2020, during the pandemic, when I started focusing on video content which is where I excel.
Now, my work is really focused on helping people find their true selves and fully express themselves; whether that’s in the form of fashion, dance, or lifestyle. Additionally, one of my goals is to bridge the gap of culture by sharing my experiences as a “2nd generation immigrant” through comedy.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
The mission to help people uncover their true self and be comfortable in their own skin because I truly am.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I built my audience entirely under a trial and error method; I still do this. Out of 4000 videos, maybe only 20 % of those popped off but the public thinks all videos are performing because they only see that 20 %.
So, what is the lesson? I continue to post every single day and test because, my expectation isn’t that every video will pop; my expectation is that if I post enough, if I fail enough, 1 will stick.
This leads me to my single biggest piece of advice; KEEP GOING.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rezajacksonstyle.ca
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reza_jax/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rezamousavizadeh/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@rezajackson
Image Credits
Ekaterina Usmanova