Rebecca Taylor is a force to be reckoned with. After making waves in the hair industry for over ten years, she is the founder of HEF Academy, is partnered with brands like Redken and Trillion Tones, and shares her radiant personality with almost 600k followers on Instagram. On this episode, she and Elizabeth chat about the importance of continuing education, authenticity, and some life-changing tips for social media.
The industry
Rebecca and Elizabeth discuss what it’s like to be an educator and how education is now so accessible through social media.
When it comes to numbers on social media, Rebecca says followers are not as important as consistency, drive, hustle, and bringing something special to the table.
“What you can’t duplicate is your personality.”
Rebecca says she is so glad brands have partnered with her because of her personality and capacity to educate stylists.
Getting personal
The ladies talk about the importance of surrounding yourself with people who lift you up instead of tearing you down. Rebecca reflects on how she met her husband which began with Plenty Of Fish, a huge long-distance phone bill, and a 50’s style leg-up-in-the-air kiss. She says Chris is her partner in every sense of the word.
After finding out that success can sometimes reveal who your true people are, Rebecca says how lucky she is to have her support system.
If Instagram goes away tomorrow, what do I have?
Rebecca’s inbox for DMs is never empty, and she says many of those messages are questions about how to grow a following and expressing frustration at the algorithm making it hard for people trying to grow. When she gets messages like this, she wants to remind folks that she has been doing the social media thing since the MySpace era, and her growth online was like having to take the stairs – not the elevator.
A few tips from Rebecca about the social media follower game:
- It really isn’t about the numbers – it’s about the relationships you make along the way. A faithful, large network is the result of long term good decision-making and meaningful connections.
- Stop comparing yourself to others and their follower number. If you’re fixated on the numbers, it will fuck up your creative process, and it will be hard to do things for the right reasons.
- Just have fun with it. Try to think back to why you started. See every day as a new day and opportunity.
“I just want to compare me to yesterday’s me… Your journey is your journey.”
Ultimately it’s about what makes you unique, and letting that shine through, and everything else will play out as it should.
If you want to learn more about what HEF Academy offers, click here.
You can follow Rebecca on Instagram here.
You can follow Caitlin Ford on Instagram here.
See the ASMR video Elizabeth and Rebecca talked about here.
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