We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tay’Laur Ambrene. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tay’Laur below.
Alright, Tay’Laur thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I can say it all started with self love, and that’s why I’m so influenced by it and do my best to influence others to love themselves in all ways they imagine possible. I was living in Santa Clarita with my sister back in 2019 and I was brainstorming ideas for a name. I knew I wanted to create all types of fun, creative, pop culture and lifestyle content— Instagram + blog posts, YouTube videos— but I didn’t know where to start. I wanted to do it under a brand of sorts, only I didn’t know a brand was what I was creating at the time.
My sister sat with me while I was brainstorming and we bounced ideas off of each other. I’d seen other YouTubers like Shameless Maya have cute names to represent who they were or wanted to be, and I was many things, but nothing sounded right. My sister’s actually the one who came up with Passion T. It was one of the ideas she’d came up with bouncing ideas with me. She told me she thought of it thinking of the word “passionate.” Because I’m a feminist and speak up against certain current events— black, female and queer issues especially- she thought it was a great way to describe me. Once I heard it, I knew that was it.
Back then, I just wanted to create content, but since then, Passion T has become so much more, mostly because she grows as I grow. I’ve had to learn as I go with my business. I did go to school but it was for Theatre Arts, not for Business. And while I did have family that provided money and resources to help, I constantly have to find my own access to business workshops, courses, networks and because Passion T is eclectic, a mix of knowledge, services, products, content, industries, especially social media, are always changing.
I was spiritually led to start my self love journey and a business just became a part of that after I wanted to spread my message to others, particularly black and brown women and LGBTQ. Many of us continue to have to fight to be seen, heard or included, and that— along with personal issues, family and generational trauma— can affect us negatively on a daily basis and help dim the love and confidence we should feel in ourselves. Some don’t have the money or resources to go to school or start a business so easily. Some of us have never felt confidence or aren’t aware of how we’re not loving on ourselves. Hell, I just started loving on myself more in my late twenties. I’m 30 now. There were things I needed to know that I was never taught and wanted to express myself in ways I grew bold enough to try that I wasn’t confident enough to do so when I was younger. I know other young women + queer artists feel the same and dim themselves from opportunities because they think they’re not good enough or that they feel they don’t deserve it. Some of them don’t know how. I want to help change that by sharing what I know, what I do to love on myself extra, and providing resources and fun to assist on everyone’s own self love and/ or career/ business journey.
I wasn’t sure if it would work when I first started, I didn’t even think about it more than me wanting to just try and see. Spirit said it would though. But it gets hard, believe me. There will be plenty of times you don’t see success, and it’s up to you to pat yourself on the back, listen to your sad girl playlist, know you did your best, always look for places you can take accountability and get your ass back up the next day/ week/month. It’s a journey of faith that it will look like how you imagine one day, it’s just about being consistent. And I love myself enough to keep going no matter how many times I fall just to see other women and queer communities prosper with their own high levels of self love. That will be their standard for everything moving forward in life.
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?
My name is Tay’Laur Ambrene, I’m a Feminist, Model, Creative Director, the creator of Passion T and a self certified Self Love Witch and pop culture nerd. I was born and raised in LA but lived most of my young life in Lancaster. I graduated from CSUN in 2016 and have lived with my sister in various areas of Cali. I call myself a Jane of all Trades when it comes to my creativity; I don’t like putting myself in a box, I’m super eclectic in my every day life. I love learning a new art or skill and moving on to master something else. I think that’s what sets me apart from others. Creativity has always been in my veins though. I wrote poetry and stories a lot growing up, also grew up wanting to just be an actress so I graduated from CSUN with a Theatre degree, but I later realized I wanted to be in films and TV but also have the power to write/ direct them so I bought books during and after college to learn more screen writing and film. I started with making my own home movies, so I eventually had to learn how to edit. With learning to edit came learning about editing software starting with Movie Maker, iMovie and Adobe Premiere Pro. It may seem all over the place and at times it felt like it to me, but in the end, it was all to grow my knowledge as a Creative Director. There’s so much you have to know. My spiritual journey started back in 2017/2018, the year my sister and I stayed in San Francisco and there, I learned how to practice Tarot on myself and started doing it for others after moving to Santa Clarita. It’s just been a constant journey of change and expansion. I can learn through books, documentaries, workshops, and even the experiences I’ve gotten to be apart of in my life.
Passion T as a business is a lifestyle brand + online platform that provides self love through music, fashion, beauty, spirituality, business, and culture. I provide tips to enhance your self confidence and romanticize your everyday with main character energy, affirmations/ quotes/ mantras, events, music playlists, travel spots, fun content and more to bring a little sprinkle sprinkle of passionate energy to fellow women and queer babes of color. My love for music videos and film production became a subsidiary of Passion T called Studio Passion. There, media services are provided to help bring original + unique projects like music videos, fashion/ beauty campaigns and short films to life. Passion T is meant to be an empire of self love. I want to open doors for others in many industries. Right now, we’re focusing on our events, streetwear and online content. 2024’s about to be a special year for us and hopefully for all of you. But that’s only the beginning.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
I do sell on my site, PassionT.com! Right now the shop is open with tees and tarot services until next year. But I use Squarespace for my own website and that’s just getting over a hurdle. I didn’t have a steady job last year so paying consistently for my website to stay open came to a head and closed down for a while.
I moved to Square for a minute and I highly recommend it to beginners who want to open a website shop only because it’s starts free unless you want another package. But I was also paying for the website domain PassionT.com and wasn’t able to pay to keep my actual web page open. That’s the biggest reason why I moved back to Squarespace as soon as I could. I had already been promoting the website to my audience and wanted to return to consistency.
I also use a print on demand service for my tees because it’s a strong eco-friendly option. Printing tees can be expensive depending on how many tees and printing on demand prevents waste. I create the graphics, use Canva on the regular and put it all together, The only con I would say would be the shipping, because you have to buy samples of the physical tees to test them out. If you needed a T-shirt or few for an event as soon as possible, I would say try local before you go with a print on demand website.
Money is also a big con, especially if you don’t have a steady job or have a list of priorities that you already have to pay for. It definitely isn’t impossible, but it’s also slower. You MUST have patience. This is why self love is necessary. Unless you have the money to pay for a coach, most of the time you HAVE to motivate yourself. Motivate yourself to stay consistent, stay patience, try to stay as balanced as you can, process your daily emotions and transmute them, give yourself the confidence to keep going. I completely get why people don’t want to start a business, it’s WORRKKK. It gets hard, you get mad, sad, tired, it happens and it’s so understandable. If you want it though, you’ll make a way, even if it’s baby steps. You have to start somewhere. Remember that.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
A lot of people recommend books like Rich Man, Poor Man and The 48 Laws of Power or whatever it’s called, and while I’m sure those are great books, if I can’t connect to the writer or what’s written on the page, I’ll most likely fall asleep. I need to be engaged and those books don’t exactly do it for me.
More Than Enough by Elaine Welterwoth was such a good read, that’s more of a self love book but even more if you’re a beginning or growing figure/ business owner. Elaine was the Editor for Teen Vogue Magazine but worked for other magazines like Essence and talks about her beginnings, her climb to editor, the struggles and all that came afterwards. She’s now a judge on Project Runway!
Girl Boss by Sophia Amaruso was also a great one. Sophia is the creator of Nasty Gal and literally came from the bottom up so not only was her story full of ups and downs, but she also gave good tips on how to use your 9-5 to grow your business and highlights on what gets her attention as a business woman. Highly recommended for my femme CEOs. The Netflix show based by the book was also a good watch, inspiring for creative entrepreneurs!
How to Be a Bad Bitch by Amber Rose is also on the list. She also gives great tips and I admire her confidence a lot.
Going to your role models and diving deep into the industries you’re into is one piece of advice I heavily recommend. Know your industry history, that’s very important.
Vibe Higher Daily by Lalah Delia is another self love one, more spiritual, but it basically teaches you to mind your own energy. As leaders, we must be more emotionally intelligent and mature when it comes to certain dynamics with others and there are times we must stand up for ourselves and times we must be the bigger person. It’s up to us to decide when to use which.
Please get used to using YouTube as a resource! There’s so much information there, especially from fellow entrepreneurs and YouTubers, we can definitely learn from each other! I’ve learned editing skills, music, fashion, business and pop culture history, and more all from YouTube. USE IT! I’m addicted to The Company Man’s videos; he breaks down the history of specific businesses and why they’re succeeding or failing. Watching those videos has definitely grown my business mindset.
The Budgetnista and the brand Ellevest have helped with financial literacy.
I recently finished a documentary on MAX called the Time of Essence about the history of Essence Magazine and that was amazing!
I’m actually reading The Glitter Plan by the creators of Juicy Couture now, veryyyy good read for women in biz.
It may be corny or too fantasy- like for some, but there’s also a lot a lot of inspiration in movies like Legally Blonde, Beauty Shop, BAPs. Movies where a character with a dream makes it. It shows you no matter what life or others throw at you as an awkward, quirky, rebellious human being, you can still make your dream come true. We have to have that mindset, delusional or not. Watch them when you’re feeling down and out and need inspiration, I swear it’ll not only bring you comfort, but motivation to continue your own story.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.passiont.com
- Instagram: Www.instagram.com/xo.passiont
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tay-laur-paige-58a670139?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Aemail_email_job_alert_digest_01%3BwezKvB7cSyuSAwPpW20G%2Bw%3D%3D&midToken=AQEbZ2bzqh-fRQ&midSig=3t4RZP1A_MIX01&trk=eml-email_job_alert_digest_01-header-0-profile_glimmer&trkEmail=eml-email_job_alert_digest_01-header-0-profile_glimmer-null-9cz4my~lpmzes5w~qe-null-null&eid=9cz4my-lpmzes5w-qe&otpToken=MTcwMzFiZTkxYTI3YzBjMGIyMjQwNGVkNDYxZmUzYjE4OGNlZDE0MDllYWQ4ZDYxNmNjMTA4NmI0YzVhNWNmNWY1ZGNkZmFhNTZiMWQ4ODM2NmIyZmM0NzI3ZjY3MjJlMGZhYTcxNGFhMWQ3MWIwZDRmNGVmYiwxLDE%3D&midToken=AQEbZ2bzqh-fRQ
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@taylaurambrene?si=aOscVgKHd_1kD05r
- Other: www.instagram.com/taylaurambrene
Image Credits
Taken by Tai’Leah Marina + Tay’Laur Ambrene