Meet Ethan Campbell-Reid

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ethan Campbell-Reid a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ethan, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I threw myself into the deep end. I also went to therapy. Despite what anyone sees of me today, being a confident and charismatic content creator I did not always possess these characteristics. In fact I used to be quite the opposite. All of this definitely did not come naturally to me. Particularly in high school I used to wish to possess even a sliver of confidence I saw in other schoolmates. I used to be that boy that lacked so much self confidence that I would be riddled with anxiety to even speak in front of my class to answer a simple question. There were two major journeys I embarked on to develop my confidence and self esteem. The first happened when I migrated to the United States. I always had a passion for comedy and yearned for the confidence and stage presence to command a crowd despite not being sure of myself. So I threw myself into the deep end and began doing stand up comedy in Atlanta. I was also blessed with my first iPhone during this time and I began to make comedic videos online. Admittedly I was not anywhere as good as I am now when I started but I thought of it as an opportunity to learn and to grow as a person and a performer.
The second journey occurred relatively recently without me even realizing at the time. I created a documentary on my YouTube channel about mental health in Jamaica. As part of the documentary I decided to contact a psychotherapist for an interview and to receive a therapy session on camera that I published so I could show my fellow Jamaicans what therapy is like. During that first session I was put on a path to learn to no longer feel the need to define myself by the expectations of others. I had to learn how to love myself and what I do for myself and for my own self esteem.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Wha Gwaan? My name is Ethan Campbell-Reid, also known as Yaadman Etan and I am a social media influencer and content creator, originally from Kingston, Jamaica. Using comedy, I create videos online promoting my culture and heritage. I cover various topics, including cooking, event coverage, skits and lifestyle content. With my style I put emphasis on people having a good time with a laugh. On a business stand point I love my occupation for the simple fact that I can make videos and make a living anywhere in the world as long as I access to the internet. As a citizen of Jamaica and the United States of America I am able to live the best of both worlds as a dual citizen without having to worry on a time limit or… deportation 😆. What I cherish the most though is the ability to be an accurate representation of quality Jamaican made content and to share my culture with my diverse social media audience. What’s new? 2023 is new. This year I am on a mission to hit 1 million followers on my TikTok platform! I plan to push more content on my other platforms such as Instagram and YouTube as well but the 1 million follower milestone is in reach! Stay tuned!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Patience, consistency and therapy have been instrumental in my journey. My advice for others on their own journey as a content creator or anyone for that matter is to be patient with yourself, to consistently work on your craft and go to therapy. I am happy to say that even though I am not where I want to be, I am happy with the progress I have made. I have learned that I cannot rush certain results in my life and to enjoy the journey I have put myself on. Being consistent, whether it be in continually learning new skills to improve my craft or consistently creating and uploading content is a skill that when paired with patience has shown me that good works do pay off. Last but not least, I had to learn all over again how to take care of myself and this is where therapy has come into place. Social media is a place where I may not share my personal life but it is important to have peace of mind to work effectively. Personally I will admit I used to create out of trauma, feeling the need to have people validate who I am and my worth from my content and success. Now I create for myself and no one else.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
As someone with free access to both Jamaica and The United States I am always looking for good people to collaborate with. I have learned the hard way that social media content creators may not present themselves in real life the way they do online and to be frank I am tried of dealing with the innate narcism of the space. Personally, if I do collaborate with people I like to know who I am doing business with. Whether this could result in genuine friendships or if it’s strictly business, I would like to be aware of the nature of the relationship. For any collaboration inquiries you can email me or my management “YaadmanEtan@gmail.com” or “Yaadman@effit.ltd.” If we were meet in person let’s grab a drink and talk, as Jamaicans would say let’s, “hold a reason.”

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