HAZEL GODDESSS (CAALIYAH)
Caaliyah, also known as "Hazel Goddesss", is a hair, beauty, and lifestyle blogger. She uses her social media to share her natural hair journey, hair tips/tutorials, as well as her daily life being a full time mom to her beautiful daughter. She uses her social media as a way to help and inspire others.
I got the chance to meet Caaliyah (still hazel goddess to me haha) a few weeks ago at Creme of Nature's Color Crush event. Because we were the two newbies to the Creme of Nature family, we instantly clicked and stayed together through most of the events. She is super sweet, down to earth, and a great example of how you can make blogging fit into any lifestyle! Check out her story below to learn more about her and get inspired!
1. Describe your personal brand in 1 word
Inspiring
2. What made you take the leap into YouTube/Blogging? Give us a little background on where you started!
I honestly got into blogging with no intentions of doing so. I had always loved uploading photos of myself, so when I went natural, I started posting my hair photos on Instagram. With the help of hashtags, I started gaining followers who would ask me hair questions as they followed along on my hair journey. Eventually, people started asking me to create a YouTube and make videos and tutorials. I feel like without everyone’s encouragement, I would have never created my channel, but I’m so glad I did.
3. What are the biggest hurdles to building your own brand and how are you getting through them?
One big hurdle to building your own brand I would say is having to figure out a lot of things on your own. I feel like although you can ask for help and advice, most of what we learn on the journey to building our own brand is on our own. You have to really be a go getter, and self reliant if you want to build your brand. Another hurdle is comparing yourself to others. There are so many people creating brands, blogging, and becoming social media influencers. You want to make sure you focus on yourself and never compare your journey or brand to anyone else’s. People will love and gravitate towards you for being yourself, not being like anyone else.
4. What would you say was the biggest factor that helped you grow your social media following? How do you maintain a consistent audience?
The biggest factor that helped me grow my social media following would be consistency and creativity! Coming up with fun, new content on a consistent basis is how I maintain my audience, along with listening to my audience and giving them the content they want.
5. How do you balance your personal life, being a full time-blogger, and being a full-time mommy?
It can be a struggle balancing my personal, mommy and blogger life, but that is where prioritizing and organization come into hand. I personally like to write down any videos I want to get recorded, content I want to create, along with the days I want them created and uploaded on. Once you get a schedule down pact, blogging while being a mom or having a busy schedule at that becomes way easier. Also, having help from family, and my boyfriend makes things even less stressful.
6. How has your new hair color affected your hair routine? Have you changed any of your products and why?
My new hair color has not affected my hair routine at all. Contrary to what most people think, when you properly dye your hair, healthy hair at that, you do not have to deal with damage. My hair routine has stayed the same, as I already have a super healthy hair regimen that works great for me.
7. Do you have any short/long term goals that you plan to achieve with your social media/personal brand?
Of course. I have two main goals I want to accomplish by the end of 2017. I want to reach 200k followers on Instagram and 100k subscribers on YouTube. Now numbers are not everything to me, but it is an amazing feeling to see your brand and audience grow. For long term goals, I do not have anything specific, but I do want to continue to work with amazing brands, grow my audience, and continue to get amazing opportunities.
8. Are there any other social media stars you admire or look up to and why?
My favorite social media star would have to be Raven Elyse. I’ve been watching her since I was in high school and I admire how hard she works and the grind I watched her go through to build her brand. She also is a young mother, so I definitely relate to her even more, and love how she didn’t let being a mom stop her from achieving goals. That’s exactly what I plan to do.
9. What’s one thing that your followers may not know about you?
One thing my followers may not know about me is, despite having a huge presence in social media, I am literally the most shy, quiet, introverted person you could meet. I’m glad I have my platform though because it forces me to be I interactive and use my voice.
10. Any quick tips for new bloggers/youtubers?
Some quick tips I would give new bloggers/youtubers is to be consistent and utilize multiple social media platforms to get themselves and their brand out there.
Keep Up With Caaliyah!
►Youtube Channel: Hazel Goddesss
►Instagram: @Hazelgodesss
