We recently connected with Tamika V. Johnson and have shared our conversation below.
Tamika V., thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
Since childhood, I’ve had an interest in reading and words. When I turned seven, I began to write children’s books in my spare time after learning sentence structure and more aspects of English through school studies. That same age, I entered a children’s book writing contest and placed in Top 5. Once I entered fourth grade, I decided to enter another contest for children’s book writing. I placed Top 3 this time. In sixth grade, I began to write poetry to express myself emotionally. Once I began high school, I would write movie and play scripts for my family, friends, and schoolmates to practice the art of acting. I wrote my first three books by hand and placed them in binders around the age of fifteen. People would read them, pass them along to others, and then I would get courtesy calls about who has them every few days. I felt the spark for being an author very intensely and upgraded my technique to typing the stories and emailing them once I reached college-level. After my bachelor’s degree completion, I took a break from writing to pursue my two Masters’ degrees and became busy due to life circumstances. An obstacle that I faced during this time was how to find a publisher who understood my vision and would make it financially beneficial for me. I had two offers from publishers but declined after spending more time learning how to be independent. Since I had the formal Masters’ degrees, I knew how to read bad contracts before signing. So, being educated and knowledgeable was helpful in regard to publishing companies that were not in my best interest creatively or financially. I felt that my dream would take longer to come to fruition due to the timing setbacks, my lack of resources, and lack of network connections in the publishing world. Not wanting to give up, I returned to writing a book called “Mind Games” and finished it in 2020 during the pandemic. Due to having the extra time to research, I found Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and joined. As a result, “Mind Games” ended up being my first published book: It also ranked #1!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Although I had been writing for decades, I became a formally published author in 2020 during the pandemic. I find that my being an author, entertainer, and social media influencer has the benefits of allowing people a creative escape, brings about emotional growth, and provides lifestyle knowledge or spiritual wisdom. My motto is “Entertainment with a Purpose”, and I live by this personally and professionally as an author, entertainer, and social media influencer. I am proud to provide entertaining art and also real-life advice that allow others to reflect and relate to my characters or personal life. When people read my books, they are able to connect to the characters. Often, readers will find me on social media, which has allowed me to become a paid personal brand called “BigTimeMeek” via social media platforms. When one follows me on social media, they get to learn more about my personality, lifestyle, and love of beauty and fashion. What I believe sets me apart from others is that I don’t fit the typical perception of what someone may consider a triple college-educated author to look like. I am boldly myself, which is what I believe true beauty and brains should reflect. I hope that I inspire people to be creative, spiritually grounded, and also follow their dreams in a way that speaks to them. In my second book, “Stocks & Bonds”, I say “Don’t box me in; I won’t fit”: This is exactly how I live my life.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson that I had to unlearn is how to stop letting unsolicited opinions and pressures dictate my mood. Once my books began to rank highly, I had to learn that it is okay for reviews to have those who support you and also those who may not have understood your creative vision. I have learned the power of focusing more on those who love and support me more than worrying about converting the smaller amount of people who don’t believe in me. This has even transitioned into a personal lifestyle change for me as well. I believe if you are passionate about your art, put it out there and you will attract those who are interested. Since I have a bachelor’s degree in marketing and one of my masters’ is an MBA, I understand the power of advertising, branding, and creating a niche. Usually, the people who don’t understand me are not in my target market anyway. So, my advice is for other creatives not to let criticism get to them if it’s not constructive, especially on social media outlets where cyberbullying is unfortunately prevalent. Remember that you are way more loved than you are hated.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I started to build my audience on social media through networking with people in person. Once I became a formally published author, I wanted to connect with people outside of Illinois and Missouri. So, I decided to list where I could be found on social media at the end of my books. This allowed me to connect with my readers in multiple cities and countries!
I have quite a bit of advice for building social media presence. The first is to be intentional. Once you are found, the follower should know who you are, what you do, and how it would benefit them to follow you. I also believe that forming genuine connections with others help as well: To name a few ways of connecting, I often share projects I am working on to let them take the journey with me, pray for my followers with my first-of-month prayers, and treat them well online and offline if I meet them. People can tell when a person is not being genuine. So, it is best to be your true self, showcase your passions/talents, and carry yourself as a business brand. Another piece of advice I’d give someone is to gain followers organically. Periodically, followers will also send invites to their friends to check me out or share my posts, books, pictures, and projects to their following. I have gained multiple followers per day due to word-of- mouth marketing as well: It’s traditional but it still works. To me, increased exposure is beneficial for changing more people’s lives other than my own. Don’t worry about the number of followers but the amount of people you can impact by sharing your journey…and your social media presence will be successful.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/tamika.v.johnson/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BigTimeMeek
- Other: TikTok: tiktok.com/@bigtimemeekAmazon Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/Tamika-V-Johnson/e/B0852GXP56?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1669822985&sr=8-1
