We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stella Rae. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stella below.

Stella, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

A risk I took was dropping a calculus class I had to take in order to get my college degree. At the time, I was taking college classes, about to graduate high school, and also doing content creation full time. Though advisors at school and my parents were pressuring me to take a more traditional route, I ended up not finishing my degree at the time and instead pursuing my business full time.
I’ll never forget the moment I hit “Send” on my email to my college advisor, asking to drop the class. I made a big decision in that moment, and dont regret it!

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 am a lifestyle creator and author, with a focus on wellness, self fulfillment, womanhood, beauty, community, and enjoying one’s life to the fullest. I produce weekly YouTube videos, a weekly podcast, daily short-form content, and am currently working on my second book.

I value integrity, peace, courage, freedom, and community, and strive to showcase this in my work.

I believe that in order to create a better world, we need to start with ourselves.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Whenever I go to brainstorm a new video concept or post on my story, I always put my audience first by asking, how does this piece of content provide value?

In people’s overly saturated feeds, authenticity stands out. When people feel seen, understood, and like their lives are improved, they will typically want more of that feeling. Rather than positioning my content and brand around what I think will bring me the most success, I ask myself how I can provide value to my audience and the world as a whole.
This increases longevity, loyalty, and fosters deeper relationships with my audience.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Two books I read this year had a profound impact on both my personal life, and business.
The first is “The Power of Strangers” by Joe Keohane. This book discusses the impact of making our small day to day interactions with people deeper, and going beyond small talk. This book helped me in becoming more involved in my community, and once I realized the benefits of making others feel seen and coming from a place of curiosity, I was eager to share this with my audience. It also reminded me that most people want to feel seen and understood, so it helped me to create my content from that approach.

The second book is “Wherever You Go There You Are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. This book is all about mindfulness and staying present, and has dramatically helped my mental health through peace & stillness. When we are mindful, we take each moment for what it is without judgement. This helps throughout everything in life, from enjoying small beautiful moments to handling stressful ones. Since a lot of my work is creative and about people, it’s super important that I remind myself to stay present in order to let ideas flow, as well as listen to others.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://youtube.com/StellaRae
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/stella.rae
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stellarae/
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/stellarae
• Youtube: @StellaRae
• Other: @StellaRaePodcast, available on all platforms (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts)