Today we’d like to introduce you to Brianna Michelle.
Brianna Michelle, founder, and creative director, originally launched The Eduslaytor as a blog in May 2017 dedicated to providing “faith, fashion and fun” to millennial women. The blog was launched out of a need for a creative outlet and self-expression. As a full-time educator and a lover of fashion and beauty, Brianna coined the alias “The Eduslaytor,” creating an alter ego of sorts, to share her talents and interests with other women.
The Eduslaytor quickly became a hub for inspiration and motivation for women just like Brianna by sharing her personal style, fashion tips, and words of wisdom. Within the first year of its existence, The Eduslaytor gained a large following, going from just a little over 100 followers to well over 1,000 followers in a matter of months. As a result, Brianna has learned much about social media management and marketing and has assisted other small businesses and brands with developing a social media marketing strategy to better promote their products and services and to maximize social media to gain a larger following and more customers. Additionally, she learned a thing or two in graphic design from designing her own social media content.
In December 2018, after a long hiatus from blogging and social media, Brianna decided to relaunch The Eduslaytor as a full brand, providing a wide range of services, including wardrobe styling, personal shopping, graphic design, and more. A rather challenging season for Brianna in 2018 led her to return to her “babes” with a powerful testimony about perseverance, strength, courage, and growth that she intends to share through her newly revamped brand.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
“Pursuing a dream of any kind does not come without challenges. One of the greatest challenges that I have faced is remaining true to myself through the process of building and establishing a brand. As an active participant on social media, I often times fell victim to the ‘comparison trap’. I felt as though I needed to rush or to hurry to arrive at a certain destination, and a result, I wasn’t enjoying the journey. That caused me to pause in pursuing my dreams on a couple of occasions, just to recenter myself and gather my thoughts. When I returned to social media and relaunched my brand, one thing that I decided for myself is that I would give myself permission to take my time… that I would practice patience with myself. In the pursuit of your dreams, understand that it is a marathon and not a race. You’re not in competition with anyone, and the great thing about that is that you can run at your own pace. You can take a break if you need to. You have an opportunity to choose how you maneuver through your process because, well, it’s yours. Know who you are, decide who you want to become, and remain true to that throughout the journey of accomplishing whatever it is that you desire to accomplish.”
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Eduslaytor – what should we know?
The Eduslaytor is a fashion and lifestyle brand that specializes in wardrobe styling, personal shopping, graphic design, and more. The Eduslaytor is your “lifestyle architect,” helping its customers to design a life that they love through fashion, beauty, and branding. As an all-encompassing brand – basically, your “one-stop shop” – The Eduslaytor is proud to provide all of the products and services needed to help you look your best and be your best.
As a wardrobe stylist and personal shopper, I collaborate with everyday, modern women who want to build or create a functional wardrobe that suits their lifestyles and speaks to their unique sense of style. I also collaborate with small businesses and brands to design their logos, flyers, social media marketing tools, etc. and help them to develop their brand image and a social media marketing strategy that leverages platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to gain more customers and promote their products or services to a larger audience.
Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
“I wanted to be a fashion designer when I was ten years old. I had dreams of enrolling in fashion design school upon graduating from high school. Then, at the age of 14, I taught myself graphic design. Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro were popular programs then, so I used those mostly. One day, I told my parents that I wanted to go to school for fashion design or graphic design, and while I don’t believe now that they intended to, they shot down that idea because my parents are of a generation that believes in going to school for the purpose of securing a job that is going to ultimately pay the bills and help you to lead a secure life. I knew, even at that age, that I wasn’t designed for a corner office or a desk job. Now, that isn’t to knock anyone that works a traditional 9-5 and enjoys doing so because I currently work full-time in corporate America. However, I knew even as a child that this was not an end-all-be-all for me. I believe that knowing who I am and being secure in that, even at a young age, has helped me for the success that I am experiencing now and for the successes that I will experience in the future. A characteristic that I love about children is how intuitive and fearless they are. We hear children say that they want to be teachers, doctors, firefighters, or even lawyers when they become adults, and those ideas could be shaped by a variety of influences, but nonetheless, children believe in themselves until they are taught not to. That was a powerful lesson for me as a child: knowing what I desired in life and believing that I could achieve that.”
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.theeduslaytor.com
- Email: hello@theeduslaytor.com
- Instagram: @the.eduslaytor
Image Credit:
Photography: Dezarae Blossomgame
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