Marketing guru and social media wonder DonYé Taylor is always dropping gems for content creators and brands looking to grow beyond what's trendy while also feeling seen. Living by her coined phrase, "'being in your zone of genius," the PG County, Maryland native was a social media 'it girl' before the social media era even popped off.
Starting with platforms like MySpace, she learned how to take her pages' aesthetics to new levels, which in turn led people to want to pay her for similar looks.
"I taught myself graphic design through Adobe Photoshop to make my content standout from everyone else. I started getting approached by different businesses and brands to create custom branding materials for them, and that's really how I learned the business side of things, too," Taylor shares. "I would always suggest that they change their branding structures, and at the time I didn't even realize it was a real career."
After landing a job at a popular streetwear brand while in college, she took that brand's presence to new heights. Introducing their first influencer marketing program back in 2015, Taylor was always one step ahead of the trends.
"I’ve just always strived to think of what the next level of marketing can be," she says.
Since then, she's now running her own marketing consulting company, Taylored Consulting. She often travels, meeting with brands and speaking on various panels. Most recently, she launched an e-book, Break up With Your Creative Anxiety, to help creatives overcome the anxiety and fear that comes along with jumping into the digital content creation space.
"This is a year of products for me. I'm starting it off with the e-book and later this year, I'll release a game that will also help people get their creative juices flowing and overcome the feeling of being stuck," shares the marketing whiz. "I'm working on an art piece, too, that serves as a piggy bank in the shape of a brain that creatives can write down their ideas and drop it into the brain. To me, ideas are currency and this is a way to remind them of that."
With so much going on in her life, Taylor relies heavily on gadgets to keep her productivity flowing at all times.
"Being in a zone of genius means being in a space to focus on what matters to you as a creative," explains Taylor. "I’m not good with a lot of organizing and scheduling, so I like using tools that can alleviate me thinking about things that take me out of my zone of genius. They allow me to focus on what it is I do best, which is creating."
Check out the products and gadgets she can't live without.