Creator Etiquette™
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Apr 8, 2026
You're Underestimating Yourself (And It's Killing Your Brand)
You're Underestimating Yourself (And It's Killing Your Brand)
00:00
14:35
Transcript
0:00
Welcome back to Host of Influence. This is the second part of our reintroduction. If you haven't already, make sure you go watch part one.
0:09
It's not long at all, because I do not believe in keeping you here for very long without a lot of great information.
0:15
And I promise you, I'm not gonna be one of these YouTubers that says that they have really nice information in the video, and then they just proceed to, like, yap and yap and yap, and then they try to sell you something.
0:26
Like, you will be getting all of the information from me in these videos. And if you want to be working with me one-on-one or in my cohorts, that's going to be something that will be available.
0:37
However, I'm not gonna be selling you things this entire time. I also will definitely be providing you freebies when I do episodes about websites.
0:47
I will be sharing some tips and tricks there, things that I look for in creators' websites, the most common problems I see on their websites. There's a whole freebie I have for that.
0:56
There's also going to be a freebie on what I like to call my irresistible pitch method to help creators pitch to press into brands. Um, there's, I guess, like, two parts to it.
1:07
But that will be available as a freebie and honestly, so much more. So you're just gonna have to stick around and wait for those.
1:15
But they will come out, and they are gonna be on the Host of Influence website, so no fear. Uh, they're available. And again, I am doing this for you because I don't like to gatekeep here.
1:25
And without further ado, let's get into Host of Influence part two. The way that I wanna start this episode is by talking about why content creators underestimate themselves.
1:37
When you start content creation or you click Post on your first post or you get your handle on social media, it can be really daunting.
1:46
But a majority of people are joining social media because they think it's the next step in their creative journey when actually I think people should manufacture it in reverse.
1:58
And by that, I mean you need to come up with what your end goal is. You need to see beyond the camera and beyond the social media before you even make your first post.
2:11
And of course, there are exceptions to the rule where people start on social media and eventually they build up their confidence and they're able to actually build something that they stand for and they figure it out along the way.
2:22
But I can almost guarantee you the biggest shift that I have seen in my business helping other people see their worth and their potential long term is the fact that they have an end goal in mind.
2:35
They're not just doing something because it makes them money. They're not just doing something because it gives them clout or something to talk about online or something to keep them busy.
2:44
They are spending every single moment thinking about getting to their final destination. And a quick story I wanna tell you guys about this is the why of why I started.
2:55
And if you've been following me for a while, some of you may know I grew up with a chronic illness.
3:00
In fact, you can see right behind me, I wrote a children's book, a kid's book about chronic illness, which if you would like to go buy it, the link will be in the comments, but you can just look it up. Buy it.
3:11
It is just-- I'm very proud of it.
3:13
And the reason I wrote it is because when I was about eleven years old, I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder, and I had to give up competitive swimming.
3:28
And the competitive swimming part of this is actually really important because it made me realize, at least in my late twenties now, that I have always been a competitive person.
3:40
And I don't think you can enter this world of social media without having a competitive drive. And look, some people don't have competitive drives. That is absolutely fine.
3:52
But if you wanna win the game of social media and build a multi six-figure business, a million-dollar business, you are going to have to be competitive, not with anybody else, with yourself.
4:06
And most people underestimate their ability to even get there. So
4:13
what started out as a competitive drive as a kid, and I had to stop doing competitive sports, turned into a passion and a desire to win photography competitions. So I would get so obsessed.
4:29
I would watch these legends like Lindsay Adler and Peter Hurley and Sue Bryce Photography and Phlearn on YouTube as a tweenager who was down in the dumps because I had to give up something I was so good at.
4:46
And I became obsessed to the point where there was nothing between me and achieving what I wanted to do, which at the time was becoming a commercial photographer.
4:59
And it's obviously worked because I have done hundreds of brand sponsorships on my social media, which are modern commercials.
5:09
So I guess you could say I did achieve that dream, but I started applying that competitive nature specifically to international, national, regional, local competitions, and I started winning them to the point where my photography even got into The Metropolitan Museum of Art twice or three times actually in my entire career.
5:32
Twice with scholastic arts and writing, um, because I won gold and silver keys or medals for my work, and once when I was literally in fifth grade, completely unrelated to something that my teacher had submitted for me.
5:45
But that one was crazy. And by the time I graduated high school and was headed off to college, that dream was still very present.
5:53
The only thing that changed was technology because I realized, I guess I graduated in twenty sixteen, Instagram had been around for a little bit of time, and I had already been sharing my work on social media with my friends and family and who-- I don't even know who was following me at the time, but somehow I had a couple of thousand followers by the end of high school.
6:17
I just remember getting to college sayingDo everything and anything to make your dream come true.
6:23
And I was at USC in Los Angeles in probably the number one place aside from New York for anything film, TV, production, and talk about a competitive place.
6:38
LA is arguably just as competitive, if not more, than New York, especially because people are throwing themselves creatively into auditions, modeling, billboards, like anything mu-- like music.
6:53
The competitive nature of people in LA is definitely up there with New York. I would say the pace is a little different, but that also made me stick out when I was in LA.
7:01
As I was at USC, I joined the social media club called USC Reach, and when I was there, I decided to apply specifically because I was like, "I'm already posting my work online."
7:12
And finally, within a couple of months of being in that club, I shot my first ad for a brand that was gonna be used on Facebook for Hint Water, and they were just crushing with Facebook ads back in the day.
7:27
I don't know the status today, but back then I was getting hired to do ads and commercial photography for them, and it was a dream come true because it made me realize that my dream as an eleven-year-old who was told that I had to give up the thing I loved most, found something else, and I made it happen.
7:46
And once I made it happen, I was like, "Is this it?" Like, how much better can this get? So one day I show up to a shoot, and the model doesn't come. So I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what do I have to do?
7:58
I have to deliver something to the client." So I go and set my camera up, and because I knew so much about photography, I just did self-portraits, and I was like, "You know what? I'll be the model."
8:09
And that, my friends, was my entrance into, I guess, becoming an influencer, which inspired me to go down the road of becoming a brand ambassador for brands like TikTok, Tinder, Abercrombie, Smashbox Cosmetics, Timberland, and I think I did thirteen by the end of college.
8:30
I also was still simultaneously pursuing my interest in the entertainment world by getting internships at Warner Bros.
8:38
and Paramount, but ultimately I realized that building a platform that relied on myself and that generated me income based on things that I wanted to do was so much more desirable. So great.
8:54
What's gonna happen when you graduate college, Gigi? Well, I was a twenty-twenty grad, [clapping] like so many other people. Uh, I graduated during COVID, which meant that I had to be creative.
9:06
Um, simultaneously, I was dealing with my chronic health issues, and I realized I couldn't work a nine to five.
9:13
So how could I apply that same mindset and that same framework that I had just mentioned about making your dream actually happen and thinking so far in the future? How could I think about that and apply it to myself?
9:27
And at that point, I was starting to think about myself as a business and starting to think about the things I was saying online, the way I was perceived in media online as a business asset, not just something that happened because I was good or I had a lot of followers, but because I had purpose, and my purpose during that era, I would say from twenty-twenty really to, like, you know, twenty-twenty three, was all about advocating for people struggling with chronic illness online and partnering with brands that really wanted to nurture that narrative and that community.
10:07
And that's what led me to write the book. That's what led me to be in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit in twenty-twenty two.
10:13
That's what led me to go to a bunch of different Fashion Week events, which fun story here, I was at a Fashion Week event, and I'm there with one of my interns at the time, and I'm, like, looking around and I'm like, " [gasping]
10:25
Oh my gosh, it's Nigel Barker," literally from America's Next Top Model.
10:31
Like, literally when I was a kid, I had visualized working for him, shooting campaigns like him, and I was in the room with him, starstruck with him, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh," he saw me do the double take.
10:44
I'm like, "Can I please take a photo?" He's like, "Yes." The evidence is here. We'll, we'll show the photo in the, in the video. I just remember having this, like, blissful moment, and it was for the blondes.
10:55
It was, like, my last show of New York Fashion Week. I just realized, I was like, "This was my dream." It didn't happen the way that I thought.
11:03
I wasn't shooting commercial billboards or magazine covers like he did, but the work that I had done in purpose in advocating for other people with chronic health issues got me into the room where he was, which ended up being a dream of mine.
11:25
So that's just a quick little mindset story, and, and I have a lot of these.
11:30
So I hope you enjoyed that little story time about why people underestimate themselves because it ultimately comes from a lack of self-belief, and if you are not thinking about leveling up every single step of the way, your confidence is not going to build over time.
11:48
If you do not focus on finding your purpose before or in the very beginning stages of creating content, eventually you will hit a point where you're creating and maybe you've built an audience and maybe that's working.
12:02
But at some point you will run into a cycle of burnout where you're like, "I just, like, I don't know why I'm doing what I'm doing. Like, I like making brand partnerships, but what is my end goal?
12:14
Is this all I'm gonna be doing forever?" I don't know. What is it that you wanna do?
12:20
I decided in twenty-twenty three that I really, really, really wanted to find a way to help other people, not just grow a following.But build a personal brand Understand how to have the skill set of creating a website that converts and that's makes you seem like an asset to brands and to press.
12:39
How to get into the press and build and maintain those relationships so that a couple years down the line after somebody's written a story about you, you can go back to them with another exciting project and say, "Hey, by the way, I actually wrote a children's book.
12:53
Would it be possible or would you be interested in covering my story about, you know, this angle, that angle?"
12:59
But because you maintained the relationship, you're able to make those asks without it being petty or annoying. So that also very much so applies to brand partnerships and the entire world of paid ads.
13:16
So you guys have got to, got to, got to click the like button, click the subscribe button, and make sure you also subscribe to the newsletter, which again, is going to be giving you a high level snapshot into these videos, so you don't have to spend time watching a long video.
13:34
But this is a reminder that I will also be syndicating this on podcasts wherever you listen to them.
13:41
So you can listen on the go, you can have me in your ears giving you a pep talk, telling you a story, giving you insanely valuable information that I've learned over the years.
13:51
And eventually, we will have guests come on and share their expertise. But at this point, it's going to be me and you guys, and the only person getting in between you and your dreams, which is gonna be yourself.
14:06
So really it's just you and me in this together.
14:09
If you enjoyed this video as much as I enjoyed talking to you in this video, make sure that you drop some comments about what topics you want to hear from me next, what parts of the creator economy or creator businesses do you have the most questions about?
14:24
And make sure you follow us at Host of Influence across platforms and subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss a beat, and you stay tuned for very fun and very exciting content.
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