IAM624- Creative Director Creates Custom Content for Social Media

Tamera Darden is the creative director & principal photographer of Darden Creative, a content creation agency for beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands and professionals. Since 2016, she has worked with over 60 brands & influencers creating custom content for their social media platforms & websites.

In addition, she shares honest, relatable business & lifestyle advice for creative entrepreneurs daily on her podcast, Real Talk with Tamera. She has been tapped for business advice by various platforms, including Vogue Business & Alt Summit. She is originally from New York City and is now based in Washington, D.C.

• CEO Hack: Telling someone about your business while on a sales call regardless of whether they say yes or no
• CEO Nugget: You are enough
• CEO Definition: Exhibiting discipline, being decisive, focusing on your target audience, understanding you're not for everyone

Website: http://www.dardencreative.com/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tamera Darden of Darden Creative.

Tamera, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Tamera Darden 0:38

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be on this podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

Yeah, super excited to have you on the show. What I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Tamera so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

Tamera Darden is the creative director & principal photographer of Darden Creative, a content creation agency for beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands and professionals. Since 2016, she has worked with over 60 brands & influencers creating custom content for their social media platforms & websites. In addition, she shares honest, relatable business & lifestyle advice for creative entrepreneurs daily on her podcast, Real Talk with Tamera.

She has been tapped for business advice by various platforms, including Vogue Business & Alt Summit. She is originally from New York City and is now based in Washington, D.C.

Tamera, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Tamera Darden 1:22

I am ready. Let's get into these questions.

Gresham Harkless 1:25

Yes, let's make it happen. So I wanted to kick everything off, hear I guess a little bit more about where it started. Could you tell us your CEO story? What led you to get started with your business?

Tamera Darden 1:32

Yeah, absolutely. It all started around 2015. I had just finished actually doing wardrobe styling. I realized that wardrobe styling was not my ministry because I was chasing my checks. I didn't really like the net 30, net 60, net 90, or net never. But I knew I wanted to still be creative. Around the same time, Instagram was starting to get some traction, and some attention. I realized that the way for a business to be successful on that platform is to have really captivating content. At the same time, there were a lot of brands that were just becoming more conscious about the ingredients that they were using in their products, because consumers were just becoming more conscious.

So I wanted to use my skill set with merchandising, and styling, and translate that into product styling and photography for small businesses in the beauty wellness space. The first couple of months, I did it for free, because I didn't really know if this idea would actually work. So I would just approach brands, that local markets in New York City and just say, hey, I would love to create content for your business. I would love to do it for free. Just give me full creative freedom to create content for you. If you like it, great, post it, just tag me if you don't no harm, no foul, because you didn't pay. Brands were posting the photos on Instagram and so I was like, Oh, I'm onto something. I think now I need to start charging and really the rest is history from there.

Gresham Harkless 3:18

Nice. No, I definitely appreciate you for breaking that down. Definitely, because I think so many times people see exactly where people are in their process and the growth in their story. Sometimes we forget about those times and things that we've done that we did for free not to do it just for free, but so that we can get in and make sure we test out that idea. I think a lot of times people will skip over that part of the process of understanding and seeing if their idea really has legs and for one if they even like it as well, too.

When we skip over that it's really sometimes hard, we get in a situation where we are doing something we are chasing those checks, just because it may pay the bill or may not pay the bills, but we're not really fully fulfilled.

Tamera Darden 3:54

Yeah, absolutely. I definitely said to myself, if I'm going to have my own business, if I realized that a nine-to-five, traditional nine-to-five is not for me anymore, then I might as well do something that I really love. It just so happens to also pay my bills. So I'm really happy that I was able to find the balance between the two with product photography.

Gresham Harkless 4:17

Yeah, absolutely. When you're able to kind of hit that sweet spot really phenomenal things start to happen when you're able to love what you do. Because it is work that we put in it's not just sometimes it's 999 to like whatever time we draw. At times it is important if you can to try to find something you love to do because that is just where everything just I think has a perfect point.

Tamera Darden 4:36

Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 4:37

Awesome. So I know you told us a little bit about Darden Creative, could you take us through exactly what you're doing and how exactly that process works with the clients that you have?

Tamera Darden 4:45

Yeah, so the simplified version of what I do is I am conditioned by brands or hire so contract for hire for brands who may not necessarily have one at the time, or maybe they just don't have that creative bone in their body to create content on behalf of their business. So a lot of brands that approach me, usually fit into one to two categories. The first one is they are a small business, maybe it's a team of one, they understand that they need content consistently to feed that content machine, whether that's on their website or on social media platforms. They need someone that they can trust, who they can pretty much share their vision with and then execute it on their behalf.

The second reason people approached me was because they are a small business, or they're a medium-sized business, but they're looking to scale and they know that they need a lot of content, content that is brand right, that is aesthetically pleasing, but also will connect and essentially convert their audience into, you know, loyal fans and customers. So I pretty much bridge the gap between my clients wanting to say something visually, and then clients or customers rather, going to buy. So that I would say is the easiest way to describe how I came into the fold. I don't do it as an influencer, but literally as a business who pretty much works on behalf of my client to help create content that is visually pleasing, but also helps to convert for their business.

Gresham Harkless 6:36

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I know what was coming to my head, especially now because you help those visual things happen. As I saw, like, kind of that puzzle piece that I think a lot of people that are doing really phenomenal work that really have phenomenal products that they're trying to show, but definitely maybe that for one know how to do it. But also to may not know who to turn to and how exactly to do that, so that it resonates and connects and helps people to want to support and buy and purchase those different products and services.

Tamera Darden 7:02

Exactly. 100%, you pretty much summarised it perfectly more perfectly than I can. But that is exactly what I do.

Gresham Harkless 7:11

Yeah, absolutely. Well, no, it takes two to tango, they always say so I wouldn't be able to articulate it without you doing the awesome work, and being able to kind of see some of the work that you've done, helps to bring it to life. I think so many times especially entrepreneurs and business owners are really great at what they do,but they don't necessarily know how to create it and how to communicate it and to be able to have somebody like yourself that has that expertise and is able to do that helps really, again, hit that very, very sweet spot that we're all trying to achieve.

Tamera Darden 7:35

Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Also, if you don't mind, if I can add to that one of the things that I tell my clients is that you don't have to do at all. A lot of times in business especially when you're first starting out, yes, you're going to have to bootstrap. But eventually, you're going to have to let go of the reins of some of the things and really hire for your weaknesses.

So I always try to communicate that not only are you getting custom imagery for your business, but you're also getting some of that time back so that you can actually run your business and be in the operations and really be in your sweet spot of your business. I always try to tell them that not only are there tangible things that they're receiving from working with me, but there are also intangible things that maybe you haven't really thought about, in that way when you're hiring or outsourcing for certain parts of your business.

Gresham Harkless 8:31

Absolutely, no, I appreciate you for breaking that down. I think so many times once as you said, like when you're starting sometimes you have to do all of the things. But as you start to figure out what your sweet spot is, what your zone of genius is where you perform best. There are other people that have their sweet spots and their zone of genius is are things that were weakened, and to be able to partner or whatever however that manifests itself to be able to make sure that that happens, that's when you're really able to not only you know, be more efficient, be more effective, start to see those results and hit those goals.

You're also able to enjoy it as well too because you're not trying to force yourself into something that you don't really want to do or don't really like to do or maybe not even good at.

Tamera Darden 9:07

Yeah, exactly.

Gresham Harkless 9:09

Awesome. So let me ask you this what you feel is what I like to call your secret sauce or the thing that kind of sets you or your organization apart and makes you unique is that ability to be able to fit in that gap and fulfill those things and see those things from people.

Tamera Darden 9:22

Oh, wow. 100%. I definitely believe that everyone has God-given talents, and attributes and really is just a matter of really figuring out what mediums and professions that kind of manifest for you. However, I believe all of the skills that I've acquired over the years that led me to the point of launching the business have set me up for success. Also saying no to things that I may be really good at, but that I don't necessarily enjoy doing. So, as a creative entrepreneur, I'm sure there are probably a lot of people out there who know that they can do a lot of things. They can do some things well, but there's always one thing that stands out you can find your zone of genius. Sometimes it just takes the discipline to say no to everything else. As opposed to saying yes to work, I said no to a lot of things.

When I made the decision to focus on product photography and branding photography a lot of people asked me, if I did social media management, which I did, I dabbled into it, I did website design, but nothing stuck as much as product photography, like I was willing to learn more, I was willing to figure out how to master photography, I was willing to do more research about other product photographers out there, I was willing to do that heavy lifting with product photography. So just really niching down to really scale up was the best thing that I could have done. I really can't see myself doing anything else, right now in my life. So that definitely is it resounding yes, for me.

Gresham Harkless 11:20

Awesome. I love that and I love the niching down in order to scale up because I think so many times that just because you can do all of the things doesn't necessarily mean you should do all of the things. I think that when you have that kind of you box that you're in, or I shouldn't say box, but that lane that you're into and you find that that sweet spot, you find that zone of genius that you're in, and it becomes like a magnet, not necessarily something that's pulling you but just something that is attracting you to such a level that you do want to do the heavy lifting as you speak to, that's really when you're in that special spot.

It's not to say that you may not dabble or try out or test out other ideas, but you want to know that then it gives you so much power and confidence and helps you to really become an expert at your craft because you can add on different things. But this is exactly where you get that power and energy from.

Tamera Darden 12:05

100%. Staying in my lane gave me the most clarity. I saw the biggest increase in my business, once I made a decision as to what I was going to do and only do. I wish more people understood that you can try a lot of different things. But don't get distracted, focus on one thing and become really amazing at it. So you can be considered the go-to so that you can increase your revenue. That is a simple formula that I wish people would just take or pay more attention to, I should say.

Gresham Harkless 12:41

Definitely appreciate you for expanding upon that. Well, I was gonna ask you for what I call a CEO hack and that can be like an app or book or even a habit that you have that makes you more effective and efficient. Do you feel like being able to say no, that habit of being able to do that, to be able to go through that discernment process is something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Tamera Darden 12:58

Oh, 100%. One of my sales coaches, said something that was just like a complete Aha, when you're on a sales call with someone telling them about your process, and what you can do for them, the goal of a sales call is not necessarily to get a yes. It's to get a decision from that person. Whether it's a yes or no, right? If it's a yes, great. You can deliver on the promise that you made to them that you share it with them on that call and episode. No, you could just move on.

Gresham Harkless 13:33

Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. That could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or if you can happen to a time machine, what might you tell your younger business self?

Tamera Darden 13:44

That it would be an affirming nugget and what I would say is that you are enough.

Gresham Harkless 13:52

Awesome. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Tamera, what does being CEO mean to you?

Tamera Darden 14:01

Being a CEO means exhibiting discipline so that you can lower the risk of sacrifice. It also means being decisive. It also means understanding that you're not going to be for everyone. You have to really focus on your target audience and really speak to them.

Gresham Harkless 14:30

Awesome. Well, Tamera I really appreciate that definition and that perspective, appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know. Then of course, how best they can get a hold of us. subscribe to the podcast here for all the awesome things you're working on.

Tamera Darden 14:45

Yeah, first, thank you so much for this opportunity. I really appreciate this platform that you are growing and building not only for the major CEOs that we know but also for smaller businesses. So I appreciate that. As Gresham mentioned, I have a podcast called Real Talk with Tamera where I share actionable down-to-earth, lifestyle and business advice for creative entrepreneurs who want to make an impact in their communities. So if you want to check it out, simply go to iTunes or Spotify to listen to the latest episode. Also, I'm always on Instagram, rightfully so because I work in visuals.

So if you want to follow me or just check me out or send me a DM, simply follow me Tamera so tamera.darden and shoot me a DM. Last but not least, if you are curious about my services, or want to book a discovery call with me to see how I can help manifest your visuals. Simply go to dardencreative.com

Gresham Harkless 16:01

Awesome. Well, thank you so much again Tamera. We will definitely have those links and information in the show notes and thank you for being an awesome person doing so many awesome things. It gives us a platform even having to communicate and connect with people to see how you're impacting and changing the world and making things such as making the world a better place.

So, again, we'll have that information in show notes. Appreciate your time again, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

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Thank you for listening.

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