🔌 The business of being yourself, vol.2

In partnership with

👋🏾 Hey y’all! Today I wanna add on to our Business of Being Yourself series, so let’s call this one, Volume 2!

• How Keith Lee gets paid to be himself 📓 

• Sterling K. Brown had one rule…🔥 

• A smooth tune from Kehlani 🎵

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📣 THE MANIFESTO 📣

These are the House Rules! Get into it.
And when you’re ready…memorize it so you know its real!

I AM A STRAIGHT UP ORIGINAL™.

I am unapologetic in my beliefs and obedient to my gifts.

I do everything with intention because I am passionate about my assignment.

I cannot stand cookie cutter…I value MY story. 

And I do not ask permission.

I control my own narrative.

📓 THE KEITH LEE PLAYBOOK 📓 

Today’s subject is Keith Lee, viral TikTok creator and the people’s food critic. 

Anytime you see Keith’s name, you’ll find this phrase somewhere in the comments : “We made the right one famous”.

Keith is a bonafide social media star, and it didn’t take any skits or extroverted tendencies. It also didn’t even take long — his first viral food review happened in the Fall of 2022, exactly 2 years ago. 

In an effort to test his social anxiety, Keith hit record on the camera while eating, cooking and food shopping for his pregnant wife, which led to the occasional food review and an obsession with cooking shows.

When he was invited onto the hit food reality show, People vs Food, his wife asked him what he might want to post to social media, to entice people who find him from the show to actually hit that Follow button. 

Keith’s answer? He could post one food review per day until the show aired.

Between November and December of 2022, Keith’s TikTok follower count grew from 1M to 7M.

Six million followers in one month.

Right now he’s sitting at 19M follows across all of his platforms. And he still edits all his own videos.

Now, the haters are always gonna ask why he gets to be a food critic, since he’s not a “professional”. Seems like to me they’re gonna have to take that up with God 🤷🏾‍♀️

Because the people don’t pay Keith for what he does. In fact, he’s known to leave money behind to the restaurants that score an 8 or higher on his scale, so that customers who show up after him can eat for free. 

It’s the brands that have to pay up.

So far, brands like Chipotle, Pizza Hut, WingStop, Doordash, Pepsi, Chime, Doordash, Microsoft and more, have partnered with Keith to get their food and products in front of his audience.

Like Tabitha Brown, he’s been known to turn down contracts from super well-known food companies if he himself doesn’t care for their food…even if that contract is for $1M 👀

He can’t even fathom “pretending”. Instead, he just prays.

And if you know anything about Keith, you know that he swears he isn’t a celebrity — a topic that has gotten him into some hot water during some celebrity events.

But when SNL parodies you…you’ve made it my guy.

Keith is one of those people who I point to when folks wanna talk about being authentic and building a brand around YOU. Which is why I wanted to include him in this series.

You can literally do anything that fulfills you and create your brand.

All of this started with an attempt to quell his social anxiety and a few moments eating on camera in his toddler’s Paw Patrol chair (because they had no furniture).

And to this day…he eats, he talks about what he eats, and he gives away money. Day in, and day out.

He gets to be him. He gets to support his family. And he gets to impact others. You can’t ask for anything more.

 😍 A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR 😍

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📺 NOSTALGIA IN THE NEWS 📺

Nostalgia is everywhere nowadays. Let’s talk about it! Here’s where we saw some brands using the nostalgia hack this week.

• Walmart is bringing Love Jones (my fave!!) back with Nia and Larenz this holiday season (They’re eating Walmart up in the comments, but still 🤣)

• People are loving J. Cole’s limited audio series (aka private podcast), where we get the story of his come up over the past 17 years, straight from the horse’s mouth.

🔥 YOU’VE GOTTA SEE THIS 🔥

A clip that made the rounds this week that you must take with you on your journey.

Sterling K. Brown walks us through his determination to make a living doing the thing he loves to do, even if he only made $85/week doing it. I will always listen to someone’s story of the struggle they endured before success. Without it, the success wouldn’t mean a thing.

Press play ▶️

channingcrowder

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TLDR : Don’t be blind to your blessings, no matter the number.

🎵 ISSA VIBE 🎵

If you’re gonna be coming up with dope ass ideas and strategies, you’re gonna need some dope ass music to inspire you! Here’s a tune that I’ve got on replay this week.

I needed something smooth to get me through this weekend.

Check out one of my fave singles from Kehlani this year.

Press Play👇🏾

🪩 KEEP THE PARTY GOING 🪩

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