We all know someone who constantly talks about wanting to become a full-time content creator or start their own business, but no one has been as successful as Brittney Saunders.
Growing up, Brittney was the blueprint for anyone hoping to become a beauty and lifestyle influencer in Australia. Starting at 14, Brittney started uploading videos about her life and makeup tutorials on YouTube.
After dropping out of high school in Year 11, Brittney kept her YouTube career alive while picking up odd jobs here and there to make ends meet. While hustling, she continued creating content online, which, throughout the years, has netted her a massive one million subscribers on YouTube and 560,000 followers on Instagram.
If that’s not enough, she’d also go on to start multiple small businesses in the garage of the townhouse she was living in. Eventually, in 2017, Saunders would launch Fayt The Label, which has earned itself a reputation for being one of Australia’s most size-inclusive fashion brands. (So don’t go doubting that creator-to-business owner pipeline just yet).
Brittney’s experience transitioning from content creator to successful fashion CEO has made her a hot topic for Aussie influencers and business owners alike. That’s why she’ll be one of the key speakers at the upcoming Fujifilm Creator Summit at Sydney’s Luna Park on Feb 22-23. The event is a new creator-led festival featuring keynotes, talks, and workshops from leading content creators. There she’ll share her journey from a hustling content creator to legitimate business owner.
Brittney’s career is inspiring not only for creators and aspiring business owners but also for anyone who’s feeling a bit lost and trying to find their passion. That’s why, for this week’s Insider Trading, we sat down with the fashion entrepreneur herself to get an inside look at how she carved her place in the industry.
Hint: if you’re looking to break into the creative industry, check out our newly relaunched Pedestrian JOBS and craft your next move.
Insider Trading: Brittney Saunders
Hi Brittney, what was the kicker for you to switch from content creation as an influencer into business?
Well, I almost ended up becoming an entrepreneur by accident. My intentions weren’t to become an influencer. That happened organically because I discovered YouTube in high school when it was this brand-new website, and I just thought, “Oh, I’m gonna give that a go.” Building the audience was a fluke because I was just making these videos about my life.
When it came to launching Fayt, I was 24. I thought it was just one of those things where I’m going to give this a go because I tried five other things by this point, just for fun. But the difference was I had a large online audience of over a million followers across YouTube and Instagram. So, I guess that was the difference when it came to Fayt was I had an audience to launch an e-commerce brand into.
I was working in my garage underneath my townhouse when I started it. I hired my first casual employee to come and work at my house in the garage with me, packing the orders, doing the emails and doing the returns. I was still doing that and juggling being an influencer, paid sponsorships, and brand deals. And it just got to a point a few years ago where I thought I couldn’t do both of these things at the same time. I can’t keep worrying about the brand needing the photo for me to post at six o’clock tonight, you know?
I [decided], maybe two and a half to three years ago, that I didn’t want to be an influencer anymore. I’ve just shifted my content from promoting products to sharing my business journey and promoting my business. So, I guess I’m an influencer for my own business.
How does it feel to know from women of all shapes, sizes and bodytypes that they feel comfortable and confident in your clothing?
It’s amazing. When I started Fayt, we didn’t have the size range we have today. It’s hard for a small startup to launch with a huge size range, especially if you don’t have that audience or customers yet. When we first launched, I was just doing size six to 16. Over the years, I saw that there was a need for more sizes, so it took us a few years to expand to the range that we have now.
People loving the fit of our clothes and giving us that feedback — that’s the reason why I do what I do. If someone has found a pair of jeans that they love to death, and nothing’s ever fit them like that before, I’m like, “My job is complete”.
To have our physical stores where we see our customers every day stepping out of the changing room with tears rolling down their eyes saying, “Oh, my God, these jeans are amazing,” is exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing. And it’s amazing.
Can you walk me through what a day in your life you might look like?
I know it’s cliché, but no two days are ever the same. As much as I have structure in my day and I’ve got my meetings booked in my calendar, I think, especially when you’re a very hands-on CEO in a company, you must be willing to do whatever that day throws at you. I’ve got my fingers in everywhere, but I’m one of those people who thrives in a bit of chaos. So it’s worked really well for me in my business journey that I can juggle a million things at once.
But day to day, we have a lot of meetings, and we [create] content often, but probably not as often as people think. People always ask, “How are you pumping out so much content?” But you know, I’ve been doing content for so long now that it’s easy for me. I’m a one-take-wonder kind of gal, but that comes with over 10 years of experience I owe to my YouTubing days.
How do you manage this chaotic business owner lifestyle on your own?
Surprisingly well, and I don’t know how. I don’t have a secret recipe. People always DM me if I’m on my [Instagram] story at night, talking about something I’m working on. They’ll say, “How are you doing all this? You’re making me tired just by watching what you’re doing.”
You’ll hear the cliche saying, ‘do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life’. I used to hear that all the time when I was younger, working in jobs that I absolutely hated. I would just roll my eyes at it. But I think it’s so true. I love what I do. I’m very lucky and grateful to be in the position that I am. Therefore, I don’t feel like I’m ever working.
My partner AJ runs Fayt with me, so we work together, live together, and have a life together. I’ve had so many people ask me,”How do you and your partner work together? I’d rip my partner’s head off”. But again, we’re just really fortunate that it works for us, and it’s just knowing to take time for yourself, remember to switch off and put your phone down, or go out for a nice dinner and talk about [things besides work].
@brittney_saunders Replying to @Georgia Richards Sorry AJ 😅🫶
♬ original sound – Brittney Saunders
I’m getting that you almost stumbled into this career path. But as a kid or as a teenager, what did you dream of doing growing up?
My first official job was at McDonald’s when I was 14. From 14 to 21, I had over 20 jobs in fast-food restaurants, bar work, coffee shops, and retail. I worked at a school camp as a sports instructor for kids. I did direct sales and marketing jobs. I did a little bit of recruitment. Then, the last area that I ended up in was working in your nine-to-five admin assistant roles because I thought I had tried everything else and hated it all.
Even when I found myself working in those full-time roles where I was “living the dream”, I hated it. I had this habit of getting a job, working a week, hating it and moving on to something else. I guess I was just on a pursuit to find something I loved doing because I worked everywhere and hated it all, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I thought I just hated working.
A Facebook memory from 14 years ago popped up the other day, and it said, “I hate working no matter where it is.” I screenshotted it because I think it is classic. It took me going through over 20 jobs to realise I didn’t hate working — I just hated working for someone else.
What advice would you give someone who wants to join the creator space?
I think if you’re passionate enough about something and you’re thinking about it constantly, that’s your sign from the universe to do it. It doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s content creation or starting a business, or whatever it may be, I’m the kind of person where whenever I’ve had an idea, I don’t let it slip.
I think people can have ideas, especially about content creation, where they’re thinking about it, but then they start doubting themselves and think, no, I’m not good enough. Or no one’s going to want to see that. But my advice would be to just go for it. If something is on your mind enough, I think you’re destined to do it. No one’s going to make anything happen for you other than you.
When I started that YouTube channel in high school, my videos were no good. They were getting 150 views; maybe one would do well and get 1020 views (probably from all the kids at my school). I’d [post a video], and they’d laugh at it. And you know what? Fair enough, because I was that weird kid in school making those odd YouTube videos, and no one else was. But now, everyone’s a content creator. It’s no longer uncool to become a content creator. It’s the cool thing that everyone wants to do.
Do you have any other advice for people who want to be business owners but just don’t know how to go about it?
I definitely think if you’re wanting to start a business. Go for it, but have a good think. Is this actually what I want to do? I think social media can paint businesses or owning a business to look amazing, and you can just set your own hours, and you can go on holidays all the time. But that’s not the reality. The reality of owning a business is you’re going to work harder than you ever have before, and it’s all gonna be you.
Who do you look up to in the business space?
I’ve connected with so many amazing business owners over the years, especially since having my business podcast. Even regular business owners. You don’t have to own some grand, multi-million dollar e-commerce business to impress me; owning a business and learning how hard it can be has made me really appreciate how hard it is to run a business, especially for small business owners in Australia. It’s hard enough to start a business, but it’s even harder to keep and sustain it.
So I would say I’m just inspired by all business owners, whether they own a $100 million company or the local fish and chip shop down the road. It’s not easy, no matter what scale you’re doing it at. And that, in itself, is inspiring to me.
If you weren’t in your current position, what do you think you would be doing for income?
I think I would still be influencing, but I’m glad I’m not. I’m extremely grateful that I got to have that as an experience in my life. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that doesn’t happen to many, and I’m very grateful for that, but I was beginning to feel unfulfilled. I felt like I just had more to offer. I felt like I had more skills that I wasn’t utilizing [and that I was] just promoting brands and products for a job.
Because I love content creation so much, I think that in another life, I would love to be on the social media or marketing team of another business because I’ve just always loved content creation. I even looked at our marketing and social media team members, and I think you have the best job ever: making TikTok videos, taking photos, and being creative. If I wasn’t in my position and didn’t have my following, that’s what I would have loved to have seen myself in.
My last question for you is: How does it feel to take all this knowledge and experience you’ve gained over the last 10 years and share it with others at the Creator Summit?
I’m so excited. I feel like I’m entering my motivational speaker era and I’m so excited to speak at the Fuji Films Creators Summit. I actually ran into an old high school teacher of mine at the pub the other night, and I hadn’t seen her since high school. She came up to me, and said, “I remember when you started making those YouTube videos in high school, and you would come to me because people were picking on you”. She was one of the teachers who told me to keep going and keep making those videos. She’s actually said “I’m just so proud of you and that you need to become a motivational speaker.”
And I was just laughing because I was thinking, well, I’ve got this event coming up in February, but I love being able to inspire others, and I think that all stems back to maybe why I started YouTube in the first place. Maybe I wanted to be an inspiration for others, not that that was ever my intention, but I don’t want to be a gatekeeper in business. That’s why I love having my business podcast, Big Business, and interviewing other business owners on my podcast. When you get in a room with someone else who’s speaking the same language, you can learn so much and inspire one another.
[Getting] to speak at events such as the upcoming Creator Summit and share my story, inspire others, and give others ideas [is part of that]. I think we need to stop gatekeeping when it comes to business because I always say there are enough customers and clients out there where all companies can exist and do [well]. So, if I can share what I’ve learned, maybe I can help people avoid the mistakes that I’ve made, but that’s what business is. It’s just stuffing up and learning better for next time.
Find your dream job with Pedestrian JOBS here.
The post Insider Trading: How Brittney Saunders Went From Content Creator To Fashion Brand CEO appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
