We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarai Polk. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarai below.
Sarai, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you ever had an amazing boss, mentor or leader leading you? Can you us a story or anecdote that helps illustrate why this person was such a great leader and the impact they had on you or their team?
She is still my boss now, however she is the mentor I never knew I needed and the friend I didn’t expect. Her name is Krystal and the lessons she’s given me as a leader have directly translated to being better at handling confrontation, setting boundaries, and being able to come off respectfully stern when I need to be.
I struggled with thinking about myself when it came to making decisions and overthinking for others trying to make everyone happy. This is not the best mentality for someone in my role where I have to be “the bad guy” sometimes or I have to set firm boundaries and expectations with my team. Krystal was able to show me that I can still be compassionate and empathetic while still being firm.
This sounds small to some, but I have been able to apply that confidence gained in my work interactions to my life outside of work and it has opened many doors for me. I feel more confident approaching people and situations because I feel firm in what I want out of those interactions. My stage confidence, my networking skills, steadfast in my expectations when approaching projects with others I can directly contribute to her.
Krystal, again, isn’t just a boss to me, but a dear friend. I met her at an incredibly difficult time in my life and as a leader, she was the most understanding person you could ever hope for. As a friend, she continued every day to make sure I knew I was confident, beautiful, a catch, etc. all while allowing me the space to take time off when I needed to feel my emotions. One thing she says to me all the time that I consider an affirmation for myself is that I “am a Phoenix”. I can confidently say without a doubt I would still be in turmoil a year later if she wasn’t a force in my life.
I could truly continue to write pages on how incredible that woman is. I am so thankful to have her in my life as a leader, mentor, and friend. I couldn’t imagine where I’d be without her!
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 work as a Regional Manager in Cannabis full time but music is what I consider my destiny. Singing has been a part of my life since I was 2 years old, performing since I was 4 (be it small performances for schools or assisting in shows), and writing as best I can since I was 15. I have the confidence that my vocals are unique to the ear and have the ability to adapt to what someone may want from those vocals.
Singing isn’t the only thing I use my voice for, in addition to music, I lend my vocals to voicing video game characters, narrating, or anything someone needs it for! My favorite thing to do is sing and perform and I relish the opportunity when presented to assist (or create) work with/for someone.
I am most proud of the work I’ve done with I in Team, they’re a Fort Collins based rap group who offered me the opportunity to perform with them 3 times since the beginning of 2024. They’ve trusted me with vocal direction on a couple of their songs and trusted me to perform it as a representative of their group. That put my foot in the door of the professional music industry and I could not be more thankful for them giving me that opportunity.
How did you build your audience on social media?
While I am still building my social media audience, I highly recommend following video trends such as hashtags, music attached, and editing styles. I hear a lot of artists say they stay off social media because it’s a “diluted audience” because there are hundreds of thousands of others doing the same thing, but the reality is that it’s the easiest (and least expensive) option for promoting yourself and your art.
I’ve been able to build an audience mainly off of hashtags. Hashtags are what get your content in people’s algorithm (you may know this as a For You Page, Explore Page, etc.). Use relevant hashtags to your video, as well as, algorithmic triggering tags such as “fyp, fy, foryoupage, foryou, explorepage, reels” will instantly start gaining traction on your content. Be sure to switch up the order of your hashtags so your platform doesn’t register you as a bot account. It’s an easy win!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
We live in an age of instant gratification and/or viral fame, an age of being in the right place at the right time that made someone or something go viral. Because of this, there’s a misconception that it “can happen to anyone” but that isn’t the case. We know there are scouts on social media who look for pop culture-worthy moments or candidates, in addition, there are instances where someone put something up that completely blows up.
I think it’s important for people to remember that while it looks easy to put out content, there are artists that have been doing it for years with no recognition and they need that same level of attention given to these short bursts of viral content. The same quickness we display to share viral videos of goats screaming to Taylor Swift songs should be the same with the artist you follow on Instagram. It is NOT easy staying consistent in this field and keeping up with the media and what the audiences what to see and/or hear, especially if you add in having a full time job to that!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @sarai_annliese
- Facebook: Sarai Anneliese
- Linkedin: Sarai Polk
- Youtube: Sarai Anneliese
- Other: I in Team – @iinteammusic
Nick Sanville – @nicksanvilleraps
Joe Dugan – @phonosapien
Image Credits
Professional Show Pictures taken by Untapped Potential Studios
IG: @untappedpotentialstuidos