Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Skully Brandon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Skully, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
In 2020, I decided to quit my job and try to make a living and career in entertainment. The crazy part is, I already had a good-paying full-time job working at Goodyear Tires. My plan was to save up a year’s worth of rent in my savings account. I backed out of quitting my job multiple times and hesitated for a few months due to the fact that i was making absolutely zero dollars from social media while having over 1.2 million followers total at the time. I honestly just had no idea where to even start. Then in June 2020 I finally took the risk and quit my job. The fear of failing and losing everything or becoming homeless was heavy on me but i was at least smart enough to pay my entire apartment lease up front for the full 12 months. So no job and no rent for a year gave me 12 months to go all in and focus on figuring out ways to make money from social media and modeling. After months of stress, depression, and losing hope that i would actually make this into a thriving career, I ended up finding numerous apps and websites where i booked consistent brand deals and commercial modeling gigs. It was 100 percent worth the risk because I always knew i wanted more in life than a 9 to 5 job, and that i wanted to live my life freely and be creative.
Skully, 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?
I came from just being a kid dancing in the streets. My path had so many different obstacles and side quests. I also have changed my name at least 3 times in the past. I started out doing dance tutorials and videos on Youtube back in 2010. Then around 2011 I started stealing my mom’s laptop to make songs for me and my friends to dance to in the street. The Jerk & Dougie dance era was when my recognition and following really started to increase. Then I changed my name in 2013, deleted my old Youtube channel and started an entirely new career as only an artist. Had a couple songs hit the radio and signed to Sony Music. Music was never my passion, i just did it for fun but i kept it up for years. Even changing my artist name once again to Skully God. When I became Skully God that was my claim to fame after a song of mine went viral on Tiktok in 2020 amassing hundreds of thousands of videos made to my song and hundreds of millions of views. It was fun while it lasted but I always knew i wanted to be a fashion or print model and an actor, so in 2024 i changed my name to Skully Brandon and did a whole image change and pretty much wiped away all the music stuff and old posts. Basically I wanted a clean slate and a new beginning to start a career in acting and modeling, not attached to my past music career. So yeah, my path has been all over the place haha, but it’s fun and i’m happy to finally be where i wanna be now.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Waking up everyday not knowing what to expect. Like what brand deals will reach out, what promos you’ll be working on that day, what audition callbacks will be waiting. To me, that’s what makes being a creator exciting. Coming from many 9 to 5 jobs most of my life, I hated doing the same exact thing everyday, like a robot. A career in entertainment has been very unpredictable in good and bad ways, but i’m a spontaneous person so it’s perfect for me. Being able to wake up everyday and just be myself and be creative for work, on my own time and anywhere i want is definitely a blessing.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I would say, post a lot. When i started on social media I was posting about 5 to 8 videos a day. The more you post, the more engagement you will get. Especially on Tiktok. If you post 1 video a day, most likely you’re gonna be too focused on how it’s performing. If you post 5 videos a day, at least 1 of them will start trending or get higher views.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://skullybrandon.my.canva.site/portfolio
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skullygodd/
