Our Time is Now Tanice Samuels – What we Learnt
Tanice is an Irish-Jamaican, Belfast based content creator who focuses on aesthetics, fashion, beauty and lifestyle. Tanice offers content creation, social posting and events services.
Tanice is the fourth Belfast creative to share her journey with us for ‘Our Time is Now’. Tanice’s story is inspirational, it shows that no matter what setbacks you face and what your professional background is with determination and following your authentic passion you can make it as a successful creative. Tanice dives into what being a content creator is like, how she navigates her job and gives us a peek into the fashion world.
Here are a few of the things we learnt from Tanice’s interview:
1. It’s not what happens to you, but how you respond that matters
“What pushed me through was people thought I wasn’t going to do it. I thought I’m going to prove you wrong. I’m going to do well for me and my child.”
“I was in school on Thursday, went into hospital on Friday, had Logan on Saturday and did my first A-level on Monday.”
In her interview Tanice shares her story of being pregnant at 18, which shaped her education and career choices. Practically she needed to stay close to home for the support of her family and to provide a good life for her son. It led her to making the sensible decision to study law instead of following a creative path. She talks about her determination to succeed to provide for her son and to prove wrong to all the people who thought she was going to fail. She also talks about the support from her family and the values instilled in her by her parents. Her story shows that setbacks and struggles can make you more determined and set you up for success.
“My mum and dad both drilled into me that I can do whatever I want. They supported me the whole time.”
“I did it for me and for Logan. I wanted to set us up. I didn’t want us to struggle.”
2. Life is much easier when you find a space you fit in and can be yourself
“It was tough to be comfortable in the office. I wasn’t able to be creative at all.”
Tanice talks during her interview about her experience as a creative working in the corporate world. How she didn’t feel she could be her full self or express her creativity. She shares that in the corporate world, it’s very competitive, fast-paced and stressful and very focused on climbing the ladder, without much diversity. She talks about her passion for her current work and how important it is to her to be able to express herself and her creativity.
“You see a lot of men going through the ranks and also there were only two people of colour in the place that I worked.”
3. There are many different ways to express your creativity
“It became my hobby and it became a way for me to focus on my creativity. I was able to say it through clothing and makeup and basically my style.”
Tanice talks in her interview about how after her Dad passed away she felt very low and lost and didn’t know what to do with herself. She took some extended time off from work and started documenting her life, fashion and style, sharing photos of the things she loved on Instagram. Expressing herself and her creativity and organically creating her brand, whilst processing her grief and finding her way through a difficult period of her life. Tanice’s story shows that there are many ways you can be creative and express your creativity. In her case she did it through her fashion and style.
4. It’s important to be yourself, be authentic, stay true to your values and have a passion for what you do
“It went from a hobby I put all my energy into. I was loving it and I kept doing it. I tried to keep it real and post what I like. It gradually turned into regular work.”
In her interview, Tanice shares how she became a professional content creator and influencer. She talks about how it gradually went from being a hobby she was passionate about to regular consistent work that allowed her to hand in her notice and become a full-time self-employed content creator. Tanice talks about how through her creative journey she always tried to remain true to herself, her values and only working with brands that she aligned with. She emphasises the need to be authentic and be yourself for people to connect with you online.
5. Financial uncertainty can be scary, but can also be a powerful motivator
“A year of no stable salary, it kind of spurs you on. You know that it’s there and you know you can do it.”
Leaving the security of a regular salary to work for yourself and not have a secure consistent income can be scary, but it can also be a powerful motivator to push yourself to become successful and make your creative dreams a reality.
Tanice’s story is a story of determination and resilience. We hope you have enjoyed hearing her story and are inspired to follow your creative dreams.
You can watch Tanice’s full interview on Youtube
You can listen to Tanice’s full interview on Spotify
You can find her Tanice on Instagram
You can find the whole series of Our Time is Now interviews on our website: https://www.blickstudios.org/our-time-is-now/
