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.

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Canon
G7X
This is my go-to camera. It's what I use to capture what I like to call “the mems” which is short for memory.

Price: $630

Shop at Best Buy
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Apple
MagSafe Battery Pack
"My MagSafe keeps me charged up without having to worry about the aesthetics of cords dragging to the ground."

Price: $99

Shop at Apple
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NuFACE
Trinity Completex Facial Toning Kit
"My face is so round and this to adds a little definition to it."

Price: $525

Shop at NuFACE
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NEEWER
LED Video Conference Light
"This is great for capturing crisp content in dark settings."

Price: $34

Shop at Neewer
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BUYIFY
Folding Lap Desk
"This laptop desk forces me to sit up straight in my bed and really helps to fix my posture overall."

Price: $30

Shop at Amazon
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QCen
Juicer Machine
"Juicing completely changed my life. One of my favorite recipes is a blend of mango, ginger, cucumber and pineapple."

Price: $50

Shop at Amazon
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Apple
Lighting to SD Card Camera Reader
"I plug this bad boy into my phone and insert my memory card so that I can quickly extract photos and video from my camera."

Price: $29

Shop at Apple
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Curves
Raspberry bubble hard drive case
"The perfect marriage between design and technology. It protects my hard drive and makes it look cute in the process."

Price: $40

Shop at Curves by Sean Brown