She was Fired, Found God, and made $150k in 30 days. Meet Cedoni Francis - Ep 17

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How does a Trinidad-born, NYC-raised child go from a Political Science major at Vanderbilt to a Marketing manager at Google, to  Culture shifting Influencer with over 300k followers, to Mba at Columbia Business School.  

In Episode 17 of I Guess I’m an Adult Now, we sit down with Cedoni Francis — ex-Google employee, Columbia Business School MBA student, and content creator — to unpack a journey that doesn’t follow the usual creator playbook.

This conversation also dives deep into upbringing, education, immigrant parents, elite schools, scholarships, and how early exposure and discipline shaped her mindset around success, money, and independence.

If you’ve ever felt caught between ambition, stability, and purpose — this episode is for you

Watch / Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe.

Episode Chapters 
00:00 – Intro
Welcome to Episode 17 + meeting Cedoni Francis

03:40 – Who Cedoni Is
Ex-Google employee, creator, and Columbia MBA student

06:30 – Creating While Working at Google
How content creation started inside corporate life

10:45 – Corporate Burnout & Workplace Reality
Overwork, HR issues, and being stretched too thin

15:20 – Finding Out You’re Laid Off via TikTok
The moment Cedoni realized she was laid off from Google

20:30 – Choosing Not to Rush Into Full-Time Influencing
Why business school made more sense than chasing virality

25:40 – How Her TikTok Career Actually Began
Campus brand reps, early TikTok programs, and consistency

32:10 – Going Viral After Graduation
The Vanderbilt graduation video that changed everything

38:45 – “If You Want to Be an Influencer, Don’t Try to Be One”
Why organic growth beats chasing algorithms

45:30 – Growing Up Caribbean in NYC
Identity, culture, and navigating different worlds

52:20 – Education, Immigrant Parents & Expectations
Why college was the bare minimum in her household

1:00:40 – Private School vs Public School Experiences
How environment shaped confidence and work ethic

1:12:30 – Scholarships, Posse Foundation & Vanderbilt
How she secured a debt-free college education

1:22:10 – Career Strategy From a Young Age
Targeting high-paying jobs and long-term thinking

1:30:45 – Lessons on Ambition, Stability & Purpose
What adulthood really looks like when plans change

1:35:30 – Final Thoughts & Takeaways
Betting on yourself without losing your footing

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Apple: 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-guess-im-an-adult-now/id1810057948 

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6RTnICKr8KoafopcFoOLqR?si=ef446f1c3802432e 

Catch up on:
The very first episode of Season 1 ⬇️
I’m Starting Life Over at 29 - Ep 01 
https://youtu.be/rucAJBDkc3c

You might like the Previous Episode ⬇️
Abstinence, Sexuality, & Dating At 30 as a Christian - Ep 16 https://youtu.be/9ZiruNLbnq8?si=

Subscribe now and join our community as we figure out this adulting thing together, one conversation at a time.

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Transcript

Introducing Sidoni And Her Path

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hey y'all, welcome back to the podcast. It is your girl Chizzy, and as you can see, I have a guest today. Oh my gosh. So Sidoni is a Trinidadian Gaianese.

unknown 0:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Or shall I say Guyanese Trinidadian?

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah.

unknown 0:23

Okay.

Laid Off From Google Overnight

First Viral Moment And Early TikTok Days

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Sidoni is a Guyanese Trinidadian. Guyanese Trinidadian, born NYC raised influencer, student at Columbia Business School. Yes, all right. Very smart. Ex-Google employee. And she is here with us today. I am. No, I'm so excited to have you here. I really wanted to talk to you today. Obviously, we know each other from the industry as influencers and content creators. And I feel like you have a really cool journey and story. It's been interesting. Yeah, because it's like you are a content creator. You started your content creation dirt journey by sharing your corporate life on Google at Google, right? And then you started, you know, content creating. And then you're now in business school at Columbia Business School. So I just I think it's so cool because I think we're in a day and age where you we hear a lot about people like quitting, you know, school or their jobs to go into social media full-time. And you kind of did the opposite. Yeah. You know what's funny? I never really want to be a full-time influencer. So I was at Google for three years, like a little under three years. Um, and I remember I was gearing up to quit my job, not to do content full-time, but to find another job because I was so overworked. Like I had like an open HR investigation against the superior. There was like a man who did some weird things who was mean mugging me in the office. Like I was on a team that like got super lean because people were quitting, but we were in hiring for you. So can hire anyone that was working like four people's jobs, but making not four people's money. And I was like, okay, like I'm gonna quit my job. And like I was like, I'm a Google employee, like I'm people people will jump to hire me, which was true. Like, even in the worst market, people were jumping to hire me. But I didn't think like, oh, I'm gonna be a full-time creator. So imagine my shock when like I wake up on a Friday and I found it from a TikTok comment that I've been laid off. And I was just literally like, that's how I found out Google did layoffs. Someone commented on my TikTok and they were like, Oh, I hope you're okay. And I was like, What are you talking about? And they're like, Oh my god, Google did layoffs, blah blah blah. I opened my computer, I try to log in, it's not working. Mine's like, What? I was like, Oh, this is crazy. I go, I open up my phone, and I kind of knew this was coming because this was like early 2023. And in fall 2022, I remember sitting in a room with my coworkers at Afrotech, and Meta had just done like mass layoffs. They'd laid off like 15,000 people. Wow. And I remember looking at my coworkers and saying, in this room, there's 10 of us, three of us probably won't have a job by February. Just because like when they cut, they'll always cut the creative stuff first. And I was on a YouTube team, and like that's exactly what they did. And I remember being like, Oh, okay, like trust and believe I was an afrotech when feelers are like I'll never be unemployed like that. You were Afrotech networking trying to find another job. But like I saw that and I was just like, Oh, okay. And I remember thinking, like, maybe I don't need another job. Because this was like at a point where content had like become relatively lucrative. I had just signed to KG. Like, I was making consistently like mid-five figures a month. I was just like, I was not looking to find another job. And I knew I was gonna apply to business school because I'd already set that plan in motion to enter in fall of 2024. So I kind of just took that year and a half as a sabbatical before I went to school and I just like traveled and had a good time. I was young and turned up. Like it's great. I love that. Okay, so technically you are Gen Z, right? Yeah. The beginning of Gen Z. The beginning. So I actually want to know like how your social media journey actually started. Oh my god, yeah. Okay, so I went to the underbolt for my undergrad. Okay and you know how like in college all these like brand ambassador positions. So in undergrad, I had done HBO, but well shit. When it was HBO Go, this was before HBO Max, HBO Go, which is like really dropped HBO, now it's just Max. It's it was Max, and then they like paid McKinsey to bring them back to HBO Max. It's really stupid. Okay. Um, I had done like Rent the Runway, I was a Bumble honey, so I was like a campus ambassador for Bumble. And I remember studying abroad in Copenhagen, coming back. I'm going into the beginning of my senior year, and I was like, damn, I need a job. And I had previously worked like childcare, I was a nanny, I walked dogs. Yeah, but the reality was like, love my mother. That's a Caribbean lady who was always going to support me through college, but under no circumstances was she sending me money for frivolous things. She was like, I'm not paying for drinks at the bar, I'm not paying for you to grocery shop at Whole Foods. Like Kroger, we'll cut it. And that wasn't cutting it for me. So I was like, I need to make some money. You need money. I need money. And TikTok was running a program through Fuse Marketing. This is at a time when TikTok was so new. Charlie D'Amelio had a hundred thousand followers on. So this was what, 2020? Fall 2019. Fall 2019. Um, the girl who was the TikTok brand ambassador for uh Vanderbilt, she was going to study abroad. She was a year younger than me, so she's leaving to go to, I think, like Barcelona or something. And she was like, You should apply for this. Like, you've done all the campus stuff. And I was like, hell yeah, because it was$16 an hour. And minimum wage in the state of Tennessee is seven bucks. So it was more than double the minimum wage. And I was like, hell yeah. All I had to do, I interviewed super well, and all I had to do was post two TikToks a week and then give out TikTok campus merch. Like all the time. I didn't know they did that. Yeah, that's how they got like a good chunk of their core users. They were activated on like a hundred college campuses in the fall of 2019 and the spring of 2020. COVID hits, I get sent home. Like, I'm not making vlogs or anything, I'm making videos about re-watching Avatar The Last Airbender and like what I consider to be upstate New York. Hot take everything above the Bronx is upstate New York. And I'm making these videos. And then the day I graduate from college, May 8th, 2020, I'll never forget this. I put on my cap and gown, had my little cousin Danae. She was a fresh 11. We were at my house. Mind you, it's my college graduation, and there's no fanfare because it's on Zoom. And like Vanderbilt had sent us all your senior year was the COVID. We can get into that. It's fine. Like, but I literally'm so sorry. All right.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

It's alright. Oh, that is so.

From College Ambassador Gigs To Content

SPEAKER_00 6:49

But at least it was the senior year. At least it was senior year. We did get a graduation a year later, just was not the same vibe. But they sent us like champagne flutes, and I remember I put my cap and gown on, asked my little cousin to record a video of me. This was when Savage by Megan the Stallion was like really trending. And the opening lyrics is like, I'm that girl, been that girl, like we'll forever be that girl. And I like lip synced that and I captioned the video graduating from Vanderbilt with honors, no debt, and a job at Google lined up. Like, but it's COVID, so no graduation. And I posted that video, like not expecting anyone to see there. Only 200 people followed me. Right, right. Only 200 people followed me at that time. And I remember I went to sleep and I woke up and my phone was dead. Mind you, my phone was on the charger, so I was so confused as to how it was dead. So, you know, I plug it back in, I load it up. That video has like 350,000 views, which like in 2020 was like an insane amount of views to have. And I had like 10,000 followers and people just like asking me, Well, how'd you like get the job? Like, how'd you go to Vanderbilt with no debt? Like all these things, like understandable questions. Like if you weren't exposed, you wouldn't honestly have the answer to. So I started talking about like my internships in college. Like I had internet like Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Google, like I had huge names on my resume. I was talking about my life. And then that became okay, well, I don't want to be your college guru because I'm grown and I'm graduated. And it was then became like, oh, I'm starting my full-time job out of my childhood bedroom because we're remote. Then it was, hey, we're returning to office. And when we returned to office, Google had a huge concert at the Apollo to like celebrate return to office, like Mary J. Blige performed. And I was like, this is what my first day in the office was like. And I was literally just vlogging my life, like going to bars with my friends, being in my early 20s and turned up. And like, next thing I know, that became like a job. Like, I I never once sat down and was like, I want to be an influencer. If you asked 21-year-old me what I was gonna do for work, I would have told you I would have been a product marketing manager at Google for three or four years. I would have left to go to another tech company and I would have climbed the corporate ladder in the marketing org. Like in tech. That was what I thought I was going to do. Like, this is like this is I wasn't gonna think about. I wouldn't even think about this. Wow, it was mess. But here we are. So it all works out. That's a journey. That's a journey. But I feel like that's a lot of times how you know some people kind of end up in influencing because that's honestly kind of my story as well. I just kept doing it, but I started in high school. I tell people all the time, I was like, if you want to be an influencer, you're not gonna be an influencer. That's so funny because okay, so I have a burner account. I've just made a burner TikTok account. I need to make one because I'm chat. Crazy internet. It is so like it is and I would I don't even tell nobody about it. I would just be like, if you find me, you find me. That's literally that was my first video. I was like, if you found this, shout out to you. Literally. But on my birth creeper account, but I don't have a burner account. My creeper account is like to see mindful. I'll actually post on my burner. Yes. So um I realized I actually made a post about that. I was like, a lot of you guys are not growing on TikTok because you're trying to grow on TikTok. Like you're thinking about it too hard. And a lot of times it's about the things that kind of just come very naturally. It's not just there's only one person I can think of who grew on TikTok by explicitly saying they wanted to grow on TikTok. And I look at the content and I think she makes great content. And then I'm just like, I really hate this for you because you have you always consistently have to post a how to be a creator video. And it's like for me, I just think to myself, like, did I want to be the creator? Did I want to be the creator coach? And like I I want to be the creator, but when I was like, oh, I'm good at this, because like like growing up, like I remember I was the friend who like I went dummy hard on the flippograms for the birthdays. Like I would make the most insane videos. I remember like school projects, like I would literally be in Final Cut, like editing. Yeah, and I remember like my um junior year, we had an assignment we're reading this book, Ethan Frome, the most boring book I've ever read in my life. But we had an assignment where it was like make a soundtrack for like it was like an extra credit, like you would get like three extra points on your grade. And I knew I was applying to like very competitive colleges, so I was trying my hardest to get as close to a hundred in that class as I possibly could because that was my strength. And I remember everyone comes in and they're just like playing music. Why did I go online, rip the like the torrent for the movie, strip all the audio out from it, cut and clip and like add transitions. Oh, you were about this life, add music in for my little soundtrack, and I played it like a movie in class. So when I tell you, my teacher was like, What is wrong with this child? Like, mind you, I had a 98 in her class, like those three extra points would have taken me above 100. I was just crazy, and like that's who I was. So, like content just was like a natural thing to think about versus like a skill that needed to be trained. It was just like I'm an entertaining, funny girl, and I'm just sharing my thoughts. And for some reason, people are entertained, like I'm just sharing my life, and it's like oh shit. There's so many ways that we can go, but I think I want to go back to your upbringing. Oh my god, yeah. Yeah, because I think your upbringing is really cool, right? You're from um New York City, yeah, you are Caribbean, and but you also are at an Ivy League, right? Yeah, and you Vanderbilt is an Ivy League? Vanderbilt isn't an Ivy, but Vandy is considered like a southern Ivy. They call it the Harvard of the South. But wait, where is it? It's in Nashville. Oh, yeah, why didn't I know that? Yeehaw? Not the Yeehaw. I just I just went to Nashville for my five-year union, so I'm feeling very like country right now. That is funny. I hear a little swang. No, but you no, but yeah, so you are you know Caribbean American, you grew up in New York City, um, but you also have this incredible just like education trajectory. Um, and I think it's really important. And and I want to know how you kind of got there. Yeah, okay. Well, I would say it starts with my mother. Shout out to Sharon. Shout out to Sharon. Shout out to Sharon, that's my girl. Um, so my parents So she's the Guyanese one? She's the Guyanese one. Okay, yeah. So my mom, she's one of seven. There are seven kids that my granny had. Out of that seven, only two of the seven have like any education beyond high school. So her and her youngest sister. Okay. So I would say that's like kind of the starting point of it all. But when my parents had me, my mom took five years off from work. She's a nurse. She spent those five years just very intensely focused on like what the learning and education would be for me. So, like, literally, she has like this entire baby book where she was tracking every single thing I did every day for like two years straight. It was actually kind of insane. So, like, she taught me how to read by the time I was like 18 months. I was potty trained. So, like, I started going to school when I was two, like, very, very early. Like, I remember being in kindergarten, they wanted to skip me to third grade, third grade, they wanted to skip me to sixth, and she was always very against like the idea of skipping grades because she got like the social development. Then again, she's a nurse, so you know, the social development was really important. But we came to the States when I was like around a little under two, so I really have no memory of like living in the Caribbean at all. Oh, you were born in Guyana? I was born in Trinidad. Oh, born in Trinidad. I moved here like I think it was like a year and some change. Okay. Um, and with that, I was in public school in the city, and we got an opportunity for me to go to a private school in the Bronx, which was like two hours away from our house, like commuting. We didn't have a car. Yeah. We didn't have a car great up in East New York, picking a Euclid, um, you know, like picking up Brooklyn stand-up, picking Avenue Princess. Um but I was commuting like really, really far to this private school, but it honestly like changed my life because it was like my neighborhood was deeply under-resourced. The public schools in my neighborhood were deeply under-resourced, right? But this private school had like all the wealth in the world, and as a result, like every interest that I had could be cultivated. So, like I was a theater kid, I was really into like history and trivia, like I played basketball, I played volleyball, I ran track, I was doing all these different things. So by the time like I got into my high school years and I returned to public school, that like work ethic was really ingrained because it was a hyper competitive environment, even as like a six-year-old. Like, what opportunity like allowed you to get into the They had this program where it was like it was a summer program for kids who went to public schools. And through that summer program, the person who ran it, like you have to interview, so like your parents come and like you have to bring something that like represents yourself. And I like we didn't have a lot of money, and like honestly, at the time we lived in an apartment that had no heat, it was like really crazy. Um, but I was like a library kid to my core, primarily because one, it was free, and that line from like Matilda the musical where she's like it's like going on a holiday in your mind, like we had no money for vacations. So if we were going anywhere, it was Guyana or Coney Island, like there were no like in-betweens with that. So like I like the library because it was like, okay, I can go get a bunch of books. I was a super quick reader, I can finish this out. Yeah, and one thing that always used to piss me off about the books was that if I liked the ending, I'd be kind of mad.

unknown 15:56

I'm gonna rewrite that.

Upbringing, Private School, And Access

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Not even rewrite the ending. I'll be like, this doesn't make sense. I'm gonna rewrite it. I love that. So in my interview for this school, I brought in like an alternative version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was like 200 pages that I had handwritten on loose leaf with like a different ending as to what should have happened to Professor Quirl. And like I presented this to the guy who leads this program, and he was obviously like, This child is insane, like insanely gifted. Like, we got a letter in and like I did the summer program, and like at the end of that summer, they offered us the opportunity to just like actually apply, and there was an opening in the first grade. Um, so we went and we did that, and like going back to public school, like that was an adjustment because like the class size was more than double. Like it was so you're back in public school in Brooklyn, yeah, in East New York, not in East New York, in Clinton Hill. The school called Benjamin Banneker Academy, which is like all black, which is like one of my first times being in like an all-black learning environment. I was gonna ask about that. So the private school mostly white, diverse, but like mostly white. I was like 60% white. Um, that exposed me to a lot of things to where like as an adult, I don't have culture shock in certain environments. Going to the all-black environment was the culture shock where it was like because I was living in this black neighborhood, but most of my day was being spent in a space that wasn't that. So it's like I didn't really like know kids in my neighborhood, things like that. I was in that school, like a top performer. During that like time, obviously, gentrification is happening in Brooklyn, things are getting more and more expensive. Uh, my mom was like, okay, well, maybe this is the time like I buy a home. Like, you know, I'm saving, like, why am I renting? So she buys a house in Queens. We moved to Queens in the middle of that school year. Now my commute from Queens to Brooklyn, like to this school in Brooklyn, goes from like 40 minutes, which is normal, like, you know, taking the A train transferring to like an hour and 45 minutes. My trade had just come off of years of doing a two year two-hour commute. Oh, I was like, this is not gonna work. I transferred to a school in Queens, which is a school that has like 4,500 kids. My class was like over a thousand people. It was very much so like big fish, big pond. So, like, I transferred in and I was like, okay, I immediately like I was on the prize. Like, we had become very upwardly mobile at this point. My mom had gotten a new job. Like, every time I would do the expected family contribution um for college, it would tell me that I need to pay like$25,000,$30,000. I knew no matter what that said, that my mom did not have the spare$30,000 to give me for an education. So, like, I was trying to figure out what schools had scholarships, what was going on. I was just like, I'm grinding. So you were thinking about college in high school, like from I was thinking about college since like eighth grade, honestly. Since like eighth grade, primarily because there was this girl who I had known. She was like a friend of the family. She was like four years older than me. So she was a senior and I was in the eighth grade and she got into Yale. And I was like, I like that. I was like, I like that a lot. I was because I was literally gonna ask like, what planted the seed in your mind that wanted that you wanted to go to college and just get that higher education. I had an immigrant parent who was college educated. Like, if you think I was gonna be able to sit in this lady's house and like not go to school, that simply wasn't even an option. Like my mom always told me high school is what the state of New York requires me to do. Like, so she doesn't go to jail. She was like, college is the bare minimum requirement in her house. Like going to college, like it graduating was like great, but it was also like remember, this is your bare minimum, like this is your floor. So, like in high school, I was like, I don't want to say I was throwing anything at the wall, but I was really focused on like highest possible GPA and then trying to figure out what my angle would be in my application. And it's like I was athletic, like I was a pretty like decorated athlete in in high school, but like really just like smart kids. So, but really what it was was that my high school had like barely any black people. So I started our black student union, and that's what I wrote my college. The high school in Queens. In Queens, yeah. Oh, barely any. It was for like 4,000 kids. There was like 150 black people, it really just wasn't that many. Yeah. Okay, yeah, because it was in a richy, richy white neighborhood. Um, New York is very segregated educationally. I see. Very, very I grew up in the the black side in New York, yeah. It's very segregated educationally. So, like with that, I remember being a junior, I was in the Shakespearean drama club, and I was playing um, I was playing Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, and this kid who was playing uh Duncan, he had gotten in to Vanderbilt as a posse scholar, and he was telling me about this, and I was like, free tuition, you said I was like, wait, and I like I knew what Vanderbilt was. I was very aware that it was like, I think at the time I was like number 13 in the country. I was like, Yeah, like I'm I'm playing this. I like this, and like I knew I was gonna like early action at Yale. So I was like, okay, like what am I gonna do here? And he nominated me for that scholarship. Um and he pretty much like trained me on how to win that, like told me every single thing. This is like pre-now there's like Reddit threads and all these things for posse, but this is pre-all of that. So like he sat me down for like an hour and a half and I took copious notes, and every single interview, like I went in and I turned it on. I was like, I am getting this, and I'm getting this to Vanderbilt because they could have placed me in any school, they could have placed me at like Middlebury, Lawrence, like schools that are great, but like I knew would not have been, and don't get me wrong, Vanderbilt was not the perfect fit, but like it was a better fit than a lot of those other schools. Yeah, what's the name of the program? The Posse Foundation. The Posse Foundation. So like the whole concept is like sending kids to college in a group, like a posse, 10 to 12 people so that they have like support because it tends to be like diverse kids going to like the whitest schools on the planet. Yeah. Um, but again, wasn't culture shock because I had had that experience growing up. But yeah, went to like got that scholarship, went to Vanderbilt. Thankfully, my mom was not really trying to have me take out student loans. So she actually took on a second job. She worked nights the entire four years I was in college um to make that difference so that I wouldn't have any student debt. And yeah, like as soon as I got to College, I was like locked on the career center. Like, I was like, what I remember looking at the cost of attendance and realizing that at the time it cost$75,000 a year to go to Vanderbilt, and knowing that hilariously enough, the benefactor for that scholarship was one of my college friend's parents. Wow. Knowing that the money that he was putting in every year was$44,000 of tuition and it was raising every year. I was very firm that like my postgrad job could not pay me less than the cost of attendance. So I was only targeting things that paid me more than$75,000 a year. Oh, come on now. So from jump, it was like, Am I gonna be an investment banker? Am I gonna be a consultant? Am I working in tech? Like, am I gonna be a software engineer? Like, what is it gonna be? Because I gotta make this money.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

I gotta firm.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

I was the worst person in the career center. It's hilarious because I went back on campus and I saw the woman who runs the career center, and she was like, I talk about you all the time. And I was like, I talk about you all the time. I was a girl with a plan. I had a plan. I was like, I won't be broke. That was the plan. This is so interesting. I find this really, really cool because it's just a reminder of how much your environment can shape just the trajectory of your life. No, literally. Like how you think, right? How you prepare for life. I hearing your story is very interesting because, like you, right? I come from an immigrant family Nigerian, and you know the Nigerian story. Listen. Quite literally, my biggest competition was this Nigerian. Ooh. I get so mad thinking about it because when I tell you it would be me or her neck and neck, neck and neck. And I would just get so pissed when she would beat me. That is funny. I would get so mad. And my mom would literally be like, she was like, You wanna let that girl beat you? You go learn.

unknown 23:53

Like, oh my god.

Scholarships, Posse, And Vanderbilt Hustle

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Yes. So education is a very big thing in an African household. So obviously for us too. College was a non-starter. Like you're in college. But for me, we weren't thinking about like they didn't say anything. Like, my parents didn't say anything about Ivy Leagues or anything. Oh, my mom was on it. It's so funny because my parents, I feel like I don't know if it's just my parents or Africans or just people in general. But I feel like my parents are very like, you should just know this and you should figure it out. My mom was like that as well. But you know what though? I'll give my parents some grace because they technically immigrated here. Actually, no, they should have figured it out. No, I think my college process was really self-driven. And it's not to say my mom didn't know things because she is college educated, but like because like my parents are college educators. Literally, it's just like when my mother was applying to college versus when it was a completely different time, you know. Like I hilariously enough, like people hit me up all the time because like when I was in high school, I did a clean sweep. Like every school I applied to, I got into. So like that was unheard of. Like I remember my college counselor, like I didn't get my ACT score or whatever, but the you know how like they send the scores to the school as well. And she calls me into her office for my class and she's like, Have you been able to like check your ACT score yet? And I was like, Oh yeah, I know it drops at like two, but I have class at that time, and like this is a I had sprints, baby. That LTE was never working, it was always 3G in 2015, you know. And I was like, Yeah, like when I get home, I'll get on the computer and I'll check it. She's like, Oh, I have it here, and she literally shows me my ACT score. She's like, You got the highest ACT score in the entire school. Like, do you understand that? The fact that you even took the ACT, I took the AC. Well, I took the SAT four times, and the first time, this is when it was out of 2400, I got an 1810. And I was like, that's not gonna work because I knew like the average for like an Ivy was like at least a 2200. Yeah. So I went and I retook it and I got the same score three times. I got a 2290 each time. And I was really like my math grades weren't great, like I would I would always like never get higher than like an 85. So I was really trying to like compensate and get a 2300, and I could never break that barrier. And I was just like trying my hardest to compensate for what I thought were deficits. Yeah, in reality, I didn't have any freaking deficits, but I thought they were, so I ended up taking the ACT at the suggestion of my college counselor, Miss Susan Finkelstein, love her to death. She was like, You should take the ACT because the SAT more tests how you think, the ACT tests what you know. She was like, You should take this. And it was like September of 2015. So, like applications for like early things were going in in like a month. And I went, I took one practice test, and on the practice test, I got a 32 out of 36. And she was like, Listen, just take the weekend, like brush up and see what you can get. I ended up getting a 35. Wow. And she was just like, Yeah, babe, like that's this is it. She was like, Don't submit the SAT, submit that. Wait, that is a very big lesson for anybody that is just like in the education, because there's usually multiple types of tests for all of these major types of tests, and they test different things. Literally. So I didn't even think to take the ATT. No, she took the SAT once and was like, Well, no, she pushed it on me. She was like, You should absolutely like, and I was so against it because I was like, this is the thing that people in the South do. Like, I don't want to be like competing against these people, I don't want to be competing against like you know, the people in my school, blah blah blah blah blah. And you know, Miss Winkelstein, she was like, Sony, you're not competing with your classmates. Like, I want you to understand your profile. So they're not your competition. Those people are not your competition. She was like, You're a competition, our kids. There's this one school outside of DC that's probably like always ranked like the best in the country. He's like, Those kids are your competition, like you're fine, you need to be easy. And like, yeah, you know, I just I ran it up pretty much. Like, I was like I said, under no circumstances, like because I was a child who remembered what poverty was, I was absolutely concerned with never returning to it. So for me, that was always okay, I'm going to go to the best possible school that I can go to for the least amount of money. And then when I get to this school, that whatever is the best, like had that school been SUNY Albany for zero dollars, I would have been fine and I would have grinded the exam. I know that's where I went, right? I love SUNY Albany, it was so fun. Are you kidding me? I wanted to go there so bad. You know how sick I was when I was going to Vanny and all my friends were going to Albany. It's best that you didn't go to Albany. Good weekends in Albany. But it's like I would have had the same vibe, like going there and grinding just as hard to get the result. But I was like, okay, great. Like, if this is the school, I'm coming on campus and like I'm going to be a campus leader. Like staff and administration will know who I am. Like, and I can't hold you, I read havoc at Vanderbilt because I was I was doing a lot. I was a campus leader, but I was also like a very vocal activist and like many a protest. Yeah. And so nobody was really like pushing you to do this stuff. It was more so I'm just a Virgo. I'm just like, I'm deeply intrinsically motivated, but I think again, I don't think it was a person. I think it was the environmental factors of knowing what my life used to look like. Yeah. Like I think that's really. It's such an important thing to note. Not only even before you, right, your mom was very intentional about like what she wanted to do with you. And then the same thing when I got some kids, I'm gonna take a couple years ago. No, like and this is something that I've like been talking to my friends about, like, because I'm thinking about like kids and how I want to like raise them up. And you really do have to start from childhood. Literally, you have to start from childhood. And the thing is, like, I really I give my mom so much credit because like my parents split when I was quite young. And like my mom raised me. Like, when I think about like my daddy, like, God bless his heart. Bless his heart. Bless his heart. Bless his heart. Like, I'm not even thinking about that man. You know, like I'm not thinking about him. But my mom, like, for the little that she had, it really is a testament to like the communal raising of children in like Caribbean and African culture, where like even when we had a little, we had a lot.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Yeah.

Money Mindset And Career Center Strategy

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Because it was like, you know, 10 of us living in my grandma's apartment, or like, you know, this person here is gonna watch your child while you go on a job interview. This person is gonna sit in the library with your kid while you use the computer. You know, it's like that type of community-based situation that quite frankly I was just experiencing on Pickett Avenue was like really the drive because I was watching a bunch of women who quite frankly were dealing with like the most low-down, dirty dogs of men make a dollar stretch into 10. Yeah, you know, like I watched my mom like really grind. So, like her, you know, becoming like more upwardly mobile, it was just like, this is God paying you back for like all that time where like you were struggling, you had this one expensive kid in this expensive school doing all these things. You know, it's like that lady would literally use her last. Like, I remember uh this one year she had told me she was like, I don't think I can get you Christmas gifts because like we have to pay the rent. And I was just like, Oh, it's fine. I was so sad, I was crying the entire time, but I was like trying to have a brave face. And like magically on Christmas Day, like there's a wee under the fridge, and I was like, Where did this lady get this money from? But then you know I was like, nah, I don't think I'm not thinking. I was like, thank you, girl. Not thinking too deeply about this. And like obviously now, like 27, I'm like, oh my god, like she probably had to like ask somebody for that money, or she had to like overdraw an account or like put it on credit just to make sure I was good. So it's like I think about things like that, and I'm like, I would actually be a fool to not take advantage of the resources in front of me when like she quite simply didn't have the same ones. So well, I think you definitely um bust the myth of like the whole luck versus preparation. You are all preparation. Listen, that's how you know people tell me it's luck. And you want to know what's interesting because people think it's so funny that you are even just successful as a content creator as well. Because hearing your story now, now I see why you're so successful online. That's why you're consistent online as a creator because people think it's this just willy-nilly job that meanwhile it requires hard work, strategy, consistency. I tell people this all the time. You know, when you're designed to an agency, you need to make certain money. Yeah. I've been with three agencies, it's always been very consistent. Can you make$25,000 a month or not? Can you do that? Yes or no? If you can't do that, you get dropped. Like some agencies will work with you. A lot will be like, no, people are about their money. Like, this is a business. This is when you really think about it, this is media production and direct-to-consumer marketing. Like that that's how that's how it's described on my resume. Like, wait, say that again? Media production and direct to consumer marketing. This is B2C. I'm the business, I'm the business, and the consumer has to get it. This is B2C. This is in the same way as like, you know, away selling a suitcase or like, you know, base selling like a different duffel bag or something. Like, only difference is we happen to be the product. The soul is we happen to be the product, and we're really just like the middle B in a B2B to C marketing funnel. That's how I look at it. So I'm like, okay, if I need to make X amount of dollars, and this is what I do, we're gonna find a new way to make a blog every time. We're gonna find a new way to recommend a product every time. Yeah, it's like we are going to like I'm always sharing what I like, yes, but trust and believe is gonna be shared via an affiliate link. Okay. You know, it's like so that you can track your conversion. Exactly. Like, this is a business, and like if it's one thing about me, I'm about my business. Like, I sit down, I go to these events, I'm shaking hands with every marketing lead down to the coordinator. Because you never know who's gonna be that person that like that. Actually, just happened to me with the Microsoft event. There was an event, I'm walking around, I'm chatting with this guy. He's showing me the demo. The demo is deeply technical. I don't really understand what he's saying to me. But he's talking, you know, I let him go through demos. Like, hey man, I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little confused. I'm a little confused. So we just start talking. You know, he's telling me that like he went to this program for his MBA. I go, Oh my god, do you know such and such? He's like, Oh my god, I do hilariously enough, this person is like a brand manager at um like what is it, Skins, like the condom line. And that's how I met them because they had a brand event and they they invited me too. And I was just like, you know what? If you are gonna be having sex, at least do it safely.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

So sure, I was glad to hold that condom up and tell the girl hosting how that you can get that 20% off. I was super glad to do it. And we just start chatting. Imagine my shock a week later when the marketing lead for Microsoft is in my email. We hop on the call after the contract is signed. It's him on the call. I'm like, oh my god, wow! Like we just were chatting, having a good relationship because I showed up prepared. Like I had questions about the product, even though I didn't understand the demo. And it's like, people don't understand this so much of this business is it is the preparation of showing up to an event and knowing what they're talking about, asking questions, being sociable enough, being personable enough, but then taking that and betting on the idea of like, okay, these couple Instagram stories, this quick 10 seconds that I'm gonna put in my vlog, being complimentary, you know, being like making sure that this looks good because all of these things are being tracked.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Yeah.

Creator Business As Media And B2C

SPEAKER_00 35:11

And that's how you take zero dollars and make it 20K. Like, you know, you just you have you really have to play it through. It's literally a marketing job. I mean, I hope you guys are appreciating this masterclass that you're getting right now on social media one-on-one and how to build a business. Let's say, because it's a business job. But you but you gotta start for enjoyment. Yeah, you gotta start for enjoyment. Absolutely. And when it becomes a business, you you take it very seriously. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, and it's like, even though it's work, because you enjoy it, it's it's able to do it. Exactly. It's a lot, it's a lot more manageable when you're like, Oh, I like it. It's so funny being at school. People are like, she's so cool. And I'm just like, you know, I'm just at work. Like so, speaking of, so technically, right, you're at a place where you are um a thriving content creator, right? So, and we're talking monetary-wise, you're thriving. Thank God, praise him. Praise the Lord. Praise him. No, for real, because you know what hilariously enough, when I got laid off, my grandma, God rest her soul, she was the first person I called. Before I called my mom, I was so scared. I was like, I don't want to call my mom because I had just moved into a$4,000 month apartment Oh my god, my mom was like, You should not do that, you should stay in this$2,500. I was like, But this apartment is run down, like I'm not gonna live here no more, mommy. Like, so I just like signed a lease for a high rise. I was not even a month into living there. I moved in on New Year's Eve and I got laid off on January 20th. Wow. And I called my grandma and I told her the situation, and she was just like, you know, Sioni, you're too hard-headed. And I was like, What? She's like, you can't see when God giving you a sign. You need to stop. And I'm just like, okay. Like, you know, she's gone. She's like, my grandma was a very religious woman, like deeply, deeply Christian, which is hilarious considering that she ended up marrying a Jewish guy, but like, you know, whatever. Deeply, deeply Christian. Next door. I don't know. Similar. Cousins. Today is a cousins, you know, Abrahamic.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

It makes so much.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

But you know, she told me she was like, you just need to follow God, like, you need to walk in the path that He's led for you. Like, take this as a sign. And I remember, like, I was looking out in my apartment, stared directly at the Statue of Liberty. And I'm looking out, and I literally dropped to my knees. I said, God, I'm not religious. When I tell you, I spent years in my teenage years being an atheist, like I'm really like interesting conversation with religion. And I said, God, if this is a sign, you need to show me something like right now. I'm surrounded by all these boxes. I'm thinking, I'm like, listen, I can break this lease, I can move back home. Like, what am I gonna do? Maybe like 15 minutes later, it starts raining like so hard. Middle of January rain. I'm like, this is weird. This is weird. I took it as a sign. I went, I literally just searched churches near me. And Epiphany on Epiphany had like a Friday group. Oh my gosh. And I walk in and I'm telling the pastor, I'm like, Pastor, you like, yo, I don't know what's going on. And he's like, welcome to Epiphany Crawl. Wait, I was just like, okay, cool. I literally like I applied to what two jobs. Like, I wasn't even thinking about really getting it. I was like, you know what, this is the opportunity for me. It's just like go full throttle with this. Like, that was January 20th. By February 15th, I had made, I think my base salary at Google at that time was like$140,000. By February 15th, I had signed$140,000 worth of contracts in brand deals. In brandils, like when on my first brand trip, like literally in-house consultant for L'Oreal, like all types of stuff in 30 days. Wow. I was like, this is insane. Uh if that's not a sign, I don't know what it is. No, literally, I was just like, you know what? You snapped on that one, guys. You snapped on that one. Like, it was just crazy. I was not expecting that. So it's just like, okay, let me focus out. Thank you. Wow. Thank you very much, DC. So even thank you so much for sharing that story, by the way. That was incredible. Girl, that's what got me testimony. Girl, that's what got me going to church. When I tell you that happens every Sunday since then. If I haven't been in the house, I've been on YouTube with a plug. That is funny. You got me, Frank. One thing about the Lord, when he when you genuinely call on him, he'll show up. He bedtime after this, he really he took me there. Okay. She saw my itch. Like, and you know, my grandma is like, she had a struggle, maybe like a few months after that. And you know, she ended up passing like towards the end of that year, right as I started business. Well, sorry, granny lived a long life, you know.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Like, oh, she did what she needed to do.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

But like, I really, really think about that because it's like she spent years trying to get me to pray with her, trying to get me to like I never wanted to go to church. I was just like, this ain't making sense. And this this honestly, I'll tell you why. When I was in the fourth grade, I was in Sunday school and we were doing Jonah and the whale. But you know, the Haughty Tory private school had just taught me that every mammal has hydrochloric acid in their stomach, and hydrochloric acid can melt through skin and bone. So I was so confused as to how Jonah would survive in this the stomach that has 14 different stomachs filled with hydrochloric. I was like, This ain't making sense. And the teacher couldn't explain it to me. The Sunday school teacher, she wasn't giving me nothing that was clicking. I went home, I told my mom, I said, God is not real. She looked at me, she said, Oh my god, she started praying to me. She was like, The child is possessed. Nah. I didn't want to like pray at the family dinner. I was just, it's not making sense. So the fact that, like, for 10 plus years, my granny was forcing my hair trying to get me, and really all it took was a layoff and some rain. No, I'm crying for years of my fucking wait. So, you know, like it all works out. Listen, he met you at the time that you were ready. He met me when I was ready for him. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay, so you're making people's salaries in 30 days, and you start doing this full-time. But even with all of that, I mean, naturally, if you're making all of this money, I would think, oh, okay, well, full-time content creation, all this stuff. But you did a switcheroo on us and you got into Columbia Business School.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

So I want to know like, what made you, even with all the success that you had online, um, what made you still want to go get your education and continue down that path?

unknown 41:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Well, I would say first I start I thought about applying to business school before I even got laid off. Like I'd applied to MLT MBA Prep, which is like a prep service that kind of gets you in like a ready position where you're a competitive applicant in the fall of 2022. So that program was gonna run from 2023 into 2024. And you know, I was gonna start in the fall of 24. So that was always the idea of like being four years out from school, going and getting the MBA. And that was really a result of being at Google, and there were two big things. One, I had a superior in my management chain who's harassing me, and I was like, I'm getting iced out, like I can see that I'm getting iced out, and that like things that are normal to me, like maybe not speaking in a meeting, are being perceived as disrespect just because this person does not like me. The second thing is I had an encounter with a coworker who was my age at a party where like he cornered me in the bathroom and like whipped his dingling out. And like I had told one of my friends about it, and I guess like she opened her mouth, spoke to a few other people, he started harassing me. So we would be in the office together and he would be mean mugging me.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Oh my gosh.

Faith, Favor, And A Post-Layoff Breakthrough

SPEAKER_00 42:41

And I'd be like, I don't like this, like I'm really uncomfortable, but like it wasn't something I felt I could report, especially because I had an open HR investigation against my superior who was harassing me. So I was just kind of like, I'm over it. I went on mental health leave and like came back from mental health leave early because they were begging me to when they got laid off. So I was just like, oh, this is ridiculous. So while all this is happening on mental health leave, I'm like, I think I'm gonna go to business school. I was like, I'm stuck here. And if I don't, if I'm not able to progress to a certain level in this company, I'm dead weight and like I won't be able to move to another company and do this. I was like, I'm gonna go to business school and like use that as a functional pivot. After becoming a full-time creator, but that idea of business school being a pivot changed because early in like my full-time career, I was developing this beauty product, which like I had loved, but like unfortunately, once you just like try to make a physical product, the product development costs tens of thousands of dollars. Yeah, and it got to a point where I was like, I'm just gonna call this a sunk cost. But my business school applications were written about entrepreneurship in the beauty space and then entrepreneurship in the creator economy, about how the industry is so new. And realistically, there are very little protections, and like at the time, there were really only two agencies catering to black talent, and that was Kensington Gray and CFG.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

So, like now, obviously, there's black talent on everyone's roster, but like those were definitely the two OGs in the space, and like At the time I was represented by Kensington Gray. So it was like I was really inspired by that. And I wrote about wanting to like create more infrastructure in the creator economy to where it could be regarded in the same way as like traditional media. And I was like, this is what I'm going to do because I know if I start a business, like the reality is of any venture-backed company, if you look at founders that are non-technical, so like people who don't code the pro the actual product or people who don't like physically build the product, the overwhelming majority of them have MBAs. When you look at black women, there are very few black women. I think it's like less than 100 who've ever raised more than a million dollars in venture capital funding. Like notable exceptions are like Alama Dealoe from Topicals or like Jara from Ami Kole, you know, those are really the minute of it all. Like they that's kind of unheard of in the especially in beauty. So for me, I was like, you know what? Like, I want to go to a business school program that has a flexible curriculum, is in a good city, so I can keep vlogging and making content and generating the same amount of money.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Yeah.

Why Pursue An MBA At Peak Creator Success

SPEAKER_00 45:11

And I want to go somewhere that's really strong in entrepreneurship. So like the final decision for business school came down between Columbia, U Chicago, Wharton, and UCLA. And like Columbia gave me a full ride. It was like my second free degree. I kind of couldn't turn that down. Columbia gave the girl a full ride. Mind you, I was waitlisted everywhere. And I got off the wait list at Columbia. I got off the wait list over and I got off the wait list at UChago. Like, you have a I watched your video about just how you were relentless about. You guys aren't gonna tell me no, because it's like UCLA was the only school I'd gotten into initially. I remember when I got rejected from Harvard, I was so brokenhearted. Not even because I wanted to go to Harvard, but it was more so like a what you mean? Like it was one of those. Yeah. Um UCLA had let me in, they'd given me a full ride, they were covering everything. I went to admitted students' day and I just didn't like it. And I remember calling my mom and she was like, just put the deposit down. I was like, I'm not spending$1,500 if I don't like it. And I flew home from admitted students' weekend early because I really didn't like it. Wow. And I was waitlisted, Columbia war in U Chicago. I remember flying to Chicago, I would go to LaGuardia Airport at 6 a.m., get on a 7 a.m. flight, go to Chicago. I went to the booth twice to meet with their admissions director to plead my case in person. I would fly out at 4 p.m. Like I would be back at O'Hare at 4 p.m. Like doing that, like going to Philly, pleading my case. Go. I went to Columbia seven times in like 13 weeks. Where I was like, hey, I sent an email at because Columbia was the one I always liked. Like it was New York. It was always the one where I was like, it's like when you're from here, it's kind of like the city on the hill, you know? And I remember every Friday, 9.06 a.m., I would send an admission, I would send an update to admissions as to what I was doing. And I'd be like, hey, as a content creator, I've closed X amount of dollars in deals. Like I've joined this board, I've done blah blah blah blah blah. Because how are you gonna tell me no when you need to tell me yes, that ain't gonna work? That's not gonna work. But the fact that you were relentless, you see, oh absolutely girl, because it was for me at that time. Like, I knew if I didn't go then, I wasn't gonna go. I knew that like something was gonna turn me off from the idea. And it's like, why would I not pursue this education? And then, like, when it came time to crunch the numbers, like the other two schools sorry, counted UCLA out at that point. The other two schools didn't give me no money. Like, you Chicago gave me like pennies on the dollar to the cost of attendance. I would have accrued maybe like almost$300,000 in student debt to go. Oh my god. Because you know, God bless my mom, but she was like, baby, I gave you one degree. I'm not working like my mom is almost 60 years old. She's like, I'm not working night shift for this. She's like, This is an additional thing. Like, no, you're gonna have to figure that out. Yeah, but then Columbia had gotten in off the wait list. I didn't find I was going there until May. They had originally given me$50,000 a year. I was like, you know what? I can pay for like the other 60k. It's fine. Randomly over the summer, it gets up to$65,000 a year. I said, you know what? God is good. Thank God they found some additional funding. On my 26th birthday, I get a call from the director of financial aid, but she sent me an email first. She was like, Hey, can you hop on a call? I said, Yeah, of course. Like, I'm thinking, like, you know, because I had already applied for my loans and thinking all these things aren't processing. And she calls me and she's like, Hey, so you know, we have actually like been crunching some numbers here in our end, and we have enough like surplus to where we can take you to full tuition. Is this something you'd like to accept? I was like, absolutely. Is this something I'd like to accept? I would absolutely like to accept this. Thank you so much, girl. Oh my god. And I was just like, this is in it was it's really like unheard of for like an MBA program to give someone more money after they've been admitted and signed the deal. And I really don't know how it happened, but all I'm telling you is God's favor ain't fair. Like, that's all that was ringing in my head. God, God's favor ain't fair. What he has given it to me, praise him. And you know, I was just like, thank you so much. Wow. And like, yeah, it's really God is so good for real. Because that's what I'm telling you. Like, had I waited a year, yeah, sure. Maybe I could have like gone to Harvard, maybe I should have gone to Stanford. I still don't think those were the best fits. Like, I'm really so happy with where I'm at. But like I would have done that, and then I would have had$300,000 at suit. Yeah. And like I love my friends who are there, but like every time they talk about their debt, I'm like, you ain't never gonna see me have a$3,000 month repayment. Petty. No, sorry, that's like two products. That's funny. And you are, you know, and what the best part about it is you've effortlessly weaved in your education journey into the content creation business. Oh, because the student wins the student deals, the student deals that's why listen, I'm telling you, if you are a career person, social media is a gold mine for you. Literally, you do not have to quit your job, you don't have to stop going to school. Like, you can do it in tandem. You just need the attention span. Yeah, you need the attention span or you need to hire the help, or you need to have to hire the help. People ask me all the time, they're like, what are you doing after business school? Because like I did a product management internship this summer um in big tech. And even that was hilarious because being a product manager is like one of the most desirable post-MBA careers. I want to take everyone, if you're not doing investment banking or consulting, they want to be a product manager. And much like college admissions, I had a clean sweep everywhere I applied. Like I had offers galore and I was like taking my pick. My gosh. And people were like, Oh, like I remember this one girl, we're no longer friends. But she said to me, She was like, Everything just comes really easy to you. Like, I don't get it. Mind you. And I was like, everything does come really easy. I actually agreed with her. I was like, you're absolutely correct, but that's because I laid the groundwork for things to come really easy when I was like 18. Like me being able to do a clean sweep on product internships without ever being a product manager, without ever working in engineering, was because I worked at Google. It was because I was a product marketing manager at that company for half of that time that I was there on a deeply technical product that required me to function as a product manager when there was no product support.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Yeah.

Waitlists, Persistence, And Full Ride Win

SPEAKER_00 51:03

But that's a result of me being in college and being in the career center, knowing when that opportunity was opening up. And that's a result of me being in high school and being a grinder. I was like, this what you're seeing at 27 is literally what 14-year-old me was like laying brick by brick. You know, like that's the thing. So yeah, it looks super easy now. But 14-year-old me was in the trenches, you know, waking up at 5 a.m., like getting to school early so I could finish my homework. Two-hour commute to a private school. Ridiculous in the blocks. Ridiculous. You know, it's like I'm doing the most insane thing, like finishing my homework, like eating breakfast at school, like going to class, basketball practice at three o'clock, and basketball practice from like three to six, two hours back home. It's like, babe, like this, I'm not playing these games with these people. Like, yeah, like I I've been poor and I've been not poor. I prefer not poor. I prefer it. In this life, you must have money. And like, unfortunately, a lot of people obviously like are struggling this day and age. Like, look at what our president is doing. You know, like it's absolutely ridiculous work. And yes, there are environmental circumstances that keep a lot of people down, but so much of your life is in your hands. So much of your life is in your hands, and like I think like me and one of my best friends who have very similar stories. Like, he grew up in Crown Heights, and like he also went to private school, and then we both had the same scholarship. And we talk about this a lot because there's so many people I grew up with where like I see them now, and like, you know, I've run into them, and I'm like, oh my god, how are you? And we're 27, and they're telling me, you know, they're on like their third kid, and like they're working this job that they feel like they're like under like, you know, like they're overqualified for all these different things. And there was just so much for me that was like I saw the reality of my neighborhood, yeah. And I refused to let it be my story. Like it was just one of those things where I was like, I love East New York, East New York is home. I don't got no beef over there, like I'm truly good on Pickett Avenue. Yeah, but I understood that like the odds were stacked against me. Like the likelihood of me being a teen parent considerably higher, the likelihood of me not finishing college considerably higher. Like, I look at that zip code data. Like, I grew up in 11208, like I'm very aware that this was not supposed to be my reality. I will never take it for granted, like in any way. Like, if anything, this is like we can really only go go up from here. And like, I have no desire to ever like exist in the confines of what I was surrounded by as a child. When I'm like, there is so much more in this world, and like the college education and like being able to be a creator has shown me that. Like the level of access that I see now, I'm just like, I can't believe that there are children literally like getting on the C train every day at Euclid who don't even know that like things like this are possible. Like, I I mentor a 12-year-old girl at this school in Harlem. My God, she's she gives me madness. I can't even lie to you. She's an insane child. But I went to Spain for a school trip pretty much. She's like, What'd you go to Spain for? I was like, Oh, Spain is really well known for wine and food. So I want to drink wine and eat food. And she we worked through this like goal setting exercises we've been doing for the past month, just like goals that she has. And she wants to be a doctor. She wants to be a doctor because she knows that doctors make a lot of money. Okay. So I've been like pushing back on this idea of doctors making a lot of money and being like, okay, well, like there should be other reasons as to why you would want to pursue this career. And she starts talking to me and she's like, I want to be a doctor in sports. I was like, okay, so orthopedics. And she's like, Oh, but maybe I could do like the heart stuff. She's been watching Grays Anatomy. And she's 12, right? She's 12. She's been watching Grays Anatomy. So she's like naming all these things to where I said, Okay, well, I have a friend who just finished his orthopedic surgery residency. Glad to like put you in contact with them. The next week she wants to be a lawyer. I'm like, oh, one of my friends is a sports attorney. Like, we can like, you know, literally, I'm just like, I have a friend you could talk to. That's not the network. I was like, that's not a problem. And this past Tuesday, she looks at me and she goes, Do you have any friends who are poor? And I had to think. I had to think, like, not even in like a, you know, like a oh my god type of way, but it really hit me. I was like a genuine question. I was like, you know what? Actually, babe, I don't. And she was like, Why is it? I was like, Because I went to a great school. I did really great programs in undergrad. I worked a good job. I was like, I would be hard pressed to find, and it's not to say I don't know people who are not in this position, but friends, like people would call my friend. I was like, no. But trust and believe, every Tuesday, 7 a.m. when I'm sitting with this girl at the school, we call in a different friend and they talk about their career because I'm like, listen, baby, the world is bigger than Harlem. Yeah. The world is absolutely bigger. You want to be a doctor? Yeah. We we could call 10 doctors in my phone right now. 10 different people, and they'll tell you all types of things you can do. Period. So it's like, I just think about things like that, and I'm like, I thankfully had people who were like that. Like, I think back to like that girl when I was in the eighth grade, you know, gotten into Yale. I think back to like when I was a sophomore in high school, this guy named Javon who had gotten into Syracuse, and I was like, oh wow, like these are great schools. You know, I just like keep thinking about things like that. And I'm like, oh somebody just has to tell you that it's there. Like it's literally exposure. Like exposure just changes everything. And I feel like the younger you get the exposure, the better. The better. Because like I go to business school now, like I have friends who I'm in class with, and it's like they're 28, and this is their first exposure to like this type of life, and it's obviously a culture shock. Like it's a deep culture shock. And I'm just like, damn. Meanwhile, I'll talk to like one of my like close friends at school. We always laugh, or we're like, nothing impresses us because we were 16 experiencing this, or like you know, we were 20 at these like uberly expensive, you know, undergraduate institutions and just like reaping the benefits of it. And like now I'm in my late 20s, I'm just like, oh, like, thank you, Columbia, for this. Like, everything like you know, it's just like it feels so normal, it feels like what you should be doing, versus like a oh my god, thank you so much. And like so much of that is the exposure, which like I'm thankful that I've had, but like I just keep thinking about that little girl. I was like, listen, she keeps asking me, she's like, Are you gonna be my mentor when I'm in the eighth grade? Because it's been two years now. And I'm like, Yeah, if you stop calling me old, like we could definitely keep going. Like we can keep going, babe, you know. But so one one last like question.

SPEAKER_01 57:25

Yeah.

Integrating School With Creator Revenue

SPEAKER_00 57:26

Actually, two. So you chose poli sci. Yes. You chose to major in poli sci. Why that versus the sciences or health? Oh, I'll tell you right now. Um, first things first, general chemistry and I, we didn't agree. I sat in that class for one day. I was like, what is going on? Mind you, like, I took AP Common High School. I thought it was gonna be fine. It was not fine. So I knew that wasn't going to happen. Okay. Honestly, I am not like I've never had a desire to be in the health professions, but the delayed gratification of being a doctor of knowing I would be in my mid-30s waiting to make money was never going to work for me. Computer science, like I took the initial class, I just didn't like it. It's like, it's not that I didn't understand it, it was just like this is not my vibe. And I realized during my freshman year of college, the first ever coffee chat that I had was with Imani Ellis, the CEO of Creative Collective who runs CultureCon. Oh, she is a Vanderble Class of 2015 alum. Oh, wow. She was a year and a half out of college when I found her on LinkedIn and I sent her a message. I saw she was at NBC and I knew what NBC was, and I was like, this is cool. And I sent her um a message, and you know, we chatted for like an hour, and she was telling me about her career and how she got there and all this, and you know, we stayed in contact over the years, which is why like it's just so lovely to see what Creative Collective and CultureCon is doing now. It's really so exciting to know that the little thing she was telling me that she was starting in her apartment is like this thing now. Yeah. But I remember looking at people in her class, and she was a communications major, she minored in German. I was seeing a ton of people who were English majors who were investment bankers, people who were just doing things that weren't really like the natural path that you would assume. Because Vanderbilt doesn't have a business program. It's like a true liberal arts university. They only introduced a business minor when I was like a senior, so I didn't even bother trying for it. But I realized that there is a privilege in going to a school that's highly ranked with great name brand recognition, in that you don't actually need to study anything that is a direct pipeline because the people will come to campus and they will recruit you anyway. So for me, I switched my majors so many times. I started off as a film major, uh, like media studies, cinema, and media arts. Um, I tried communications. I was just like, this is not as exciting for me. I tried public policy, sociology, but really the one through line is like I've always loved politics. Like I was president of the political awareness club in high school, president of Model UN. I was like debate team captain. Like, that's always been my bread and butter. It's always been the thing that's been super interesting to me. Always been a social studies girl. So I studied hated social studies. So I studied political science because it's what I liked. And I focused on American government because it's what I like. And I wrote my thesis on like counterterrorism measures between the US and Scandinavia because I studied abroad in Denmark, and I was just like, this is what I enjoy, and everything else will fall into place because I go to a school that people know and respect, and because I'm grinding. Like I was doing an investment management internship. Maybe in that interview, I remember they asked me some finance questions. I said, I don't know the answer to that, but at the end of these 10 weeks, I sure will. And they gave me the offer, and people were like, How did you get this? And I'm just like, man. But you also utilized the resources actually. Absolutely. So, like, that was really what it came down to was like, why would I fight to learn material that I don't care about when I could be in classes that I love? Like, I remember like we have this one class at Vanderbilt called elections. It's only offered every four years, election years. Like for context, Al Gore is a Vanderbilt alum. Like, he comes in, he'll guest lecture this class. Like, you know, all these different people are coming in, like all these different politicians to just talk. Yeah, like taking that class, taking like liberals and conservatives, mass media and American politics, shout out Professor Golabetti, love her. You know, like all these different things. I was like, this is what I like. So I'm gonna study this. You know, I showed up to a Google marketing interview, they're like, What's your major political science? Like, but the thing is the skills carry through because really, when you think about it, it's reading and synthesizing information, it's parsing out data, it's data analytics, it's writing. Like, these are all the skills that you would need as a marketer, as a banker, as a consultant, as a creator. Yeah, you know, like it's yeah, so the skills are transferable. The skills are transferable, you know. They played, they played well. Wow, Sedoni, this has been such a rich conversation. Such a yapper. Listen, rapport card always said talks too much. It's the ADHD. First of all, I don't found out you are a fellow ADHD or are you hyper or inattentive? Both. Oh wow, double em me. Both of them. I'm I'm inattentive. Both of them. I feel like I was hyper as a child, but I was undiagnosed. I didn't get diagnosed until I was 20. That's even early. I got diagnosed at 29. Yeah, I was 20. And the only reason I got diagnosed was because um I remember it was like this one class that wasn't showing up. And when I was showing up, I was so zoned out and I was doing a million other things. And my professor, she was the director of the political science program. She's kind of like pulled me to the side. She's like, hey Sidoni, like, I don't, I don't want this to come off a little rude. And she was like, I'm saying this because I know that black girls tend to be underdiagnosed with this. I think you should go to the university counseling center and get tested for ADHD. She was like, You're a smart girl, but a lot of the times black girls like go undetected because they tend to overperform academically. And I was just like, uh, okay. And she like randomly goes, she's like, by any chance, like mind you, I was so depressed at this time. So I was like, Why are you telling me I got ADHD? But you know, she's like, by any chance, that like your report cards going up, say like you talk too much or like you, you know, were like just doing too much of the classroom. I was like, Yeah, yeah, you should go get to precisely said precisely, and I was like, you know what? Thank you, sister. Wow, and that is true. Uh women generally, but then black women on top of that. Um you know, I got immigrant parents, they died. They told my mom to test me when I was seven, and she was like, There's nothing wrong with my child. At seven, can you imagine? Funny enough. I have an uncle. I literally looked at his kid and I said, Hey, you should that man almost he the way he cursed at me, I said, Oh, so I'm so sorry. Jesus will fix all with the children, they'll grow out of it. And I'm like, okay. It's the sugar, it's the food. Yeah, and sometimes, and unfortunately, it really can affect your school performance and it can affect the trajectory of your life. Absolutely. Because you can be smart, but you're not able to just I was like, if anything, maybe academic success is my fixation. Maybe that's the one thing I can focus on. Now that I think about it. Oh my gosh. No, but honestly, though, your story. Thank you for coming on today. No, this was like, I feel like I opened up a mystery jar and got like the best delicious candy. Oh my god. That's the only way I can. So much lower. No, you have a really incredible and inspiring story. Thank you, girl. Like there's a lot of resilience in there, tenacity, right? From picking the pimping, right? A coming up story, and I see a book. Okay. Literary agents hit my line. All right, she need to write a book. Hit my line if you're a literary agent. Let's talk about it. You're incredible. You're an amazing inspiration. Thank you. And just also a reminder that like we we all have like everything that we possibly need to succeed, but you have to go out and seek it. You have to want it. Yeah, you have to want it. Tracy Ellis Ross, she was on Emma Greed's podcast recently, and she said she was like, you can't live your life like if you're half asleep, thinking that things are just gonna happen for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:06

And I think about that so often, especially with like business school. Like, I easily could have sat there taken those waitlists. Yeah. But I was in them people's phase. You not stop. You won't let me into this school. Like, what do you mean? I think that's the thing. Like, you sometimes you just need to be annoying. Like, you know, like they left it fancy persistence. Be annoying. Be annoying. Be annoying. Like, if you want things, go take it, go grab it. Like, stand up and get it. Like, who's stopping you? Cause honestly, at the end of the day, who's gonna beat you? Who's gonna beat you? Who's gonna be like I could fight? Who's gonna be me? Like, okay, you think I'm annoying? And that's what's so funny. Like, I I remember when I was starting my content, um, these boys I went to Vanderbilt with, one of them was tweeting, he was like, I'm so bored, I might watch one of Sidoni's videos, like ha ha ha ha ha. And like I I remember like it really hurt my feelings at the time. I could still have a screenshot on my phone, it really hurt my feelings. And this other guy who like I wouldn't even call him a friend of mine, but you know, we have like a friendly relationship. He responded back to that tweet and he said, but look at this. You're thinking about watching her video. I think she has the upper hand. And I saw him at our five-year reunion. I brought that up to him. And he said, One thing I really appreciate about you is like you never really cared how other people perceive you. You've just always existed. And I think that is like a function of being an only child and always having to like entertain myself. And like, it's okay. Like I'm very firm on this. Like, you either like me or you don't. I'm not for everybody. Like, I'm very aware of that. That's why I feel when people in the internet be like, I hate her, I'd be like, valid. If I were you, I would hate me too. Like, I get it. I completely get it. You know, so it's like when I think about things like that, I'm like, that in conjunction with like just knowing what I want is the thing that's going to carry me through life. Like, I am unwilling to compromise on my standards and how I want to live. Like at all. And that is beautiful.

unknown 1:07:09

Yeah.

Exposure, Mentorship, And Changing Odds

SPEAKER_00 1:07:10

That is beautiful. I need a brownstone next. That's my next thing that I'm not compromising on. I was coming. Praise him. Any advice to your 17-year-old self? If you could speak to your 17-year-old self right now, what would you tell her? Break up with that boy. Break up with that boy. That boy is wasting your time. Break up with that boy. He's a succubus. Break up with that boy. Oh my god. Like, I think about the guy I was dating at 17. And don't get me wrong, I was so in love with him at the time. You know, like we ended things when I was 19 because he was just a cheater. But like, we were not equally yoked. Like, I was a student at Vanderbilt doing investment banking internships. And he dropped out of school set to said he was gonna be a firefighter. And I was like, okay, well, that's a noble job. Like, nobody ever says like F and F D NY. Like, it's always F the police, you know. So I was like, okay, cool, valid. Gets the opportunity to take the test, misses the test. You know that test comes up once every five years. Deeply unserious. Thought I was gonna stay with him. I was like, what you doing with your life, friend? Like, you know, it's ridiculous. And it's like he would always like breadcrumb me the sweet nothings of it all. And like, woohoo! It's not to say that, like, you know, I like I'm I'm not against the teenagers dating. Like, I think if anything, it's like a normal part of like adolescent development. And I think honestly, we we should let more little black girls date because it stops negative situations as they get older. Because, like, I think that's a whole nother podcast episode. Okay. My hottest take, and I told my mom this, and I was like, this it's like what I won't do with my kids. I think in a culture where physical violence is the form of discipline, and it's followed by, I'm doing this because I love you, and then you limit the interactions that your children can have with the opposite gender at a time where adolescent development is concentrated on you know interactions with the opposite gender, it sets your children, specifically your female children, up for like abusive situations because they're thinking, oh, well, you hit me because you love me, and oh, this thing is happening to me because you love me. And it's like I don't think they see it, but like I see it, and I'm like, no, this is not working. So, like, I my biggest, I don't even call it a regret. If I could tell 17-year-old me anything, it is let that boy go. I spent so much time thinking, like, oh, I don't want him to be upset. I don't want like so many opportunities that I could have taken that I didn't take. Don't get me wrong, things worked out, but it's like I remember I had an opportunity to like do like um a May term abroad, and I was like, no, I want to be in New York with him because I've been gone in New York, I've been gone for nine months, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, that wasn't smart. I I should have gone to Australia. You definitely should have gone to Australia. Australia, you know, so it's like, I and he he ain't doing that now, girl. Like, he he delivered a mail, noble job. But like, would I meet a mailman today? No, no, but would I have stayed with that mailman had he even remotely acted right when I was 17? Probably. And that's like the most insane thing to think about. Like, how different life could have been. Like, I would have so many opportunities I wouldn't have taken to make sure he didn't feel bad. So, like, this is so deep. Yeah, I would tell me, I would tell 17-year-old me, drop that young man. Yeah, you want me to better one when you were brought anyway, girl. Like, they fine in Denmark. Like, you're gonna be all right, sister. You know, I think next time, um, we need to talk about that. Let's talk about it. Yeah. So if you guys want Sedoni back on the pod, let us know. Okay, comment below. But girl, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. This was so incredible. Thank you for having me, baby. Oh my god. Well, we'll catch you guys on the next episode. And make sure you guys follow Sedoni everywhere at Sedoni Francis on all platforms. Yes, please support her ministry.

unknown 1:11:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:01

Praise them. Yes. And yeah, we'll catch you in the next one. Bye. Bye.