Meet Aaris Grant

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aaris Grant a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Aaris, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I think most people want to do something amazing with their life. It’s easy to dream. The hard part is having enough faith and courage to keep going.

Looking back on my memories and life experiences, it’s clear that what I’m doing now is exactly what God intended for me to do. I truly believe God paints a picture of his goodness with our life stories. We just have to hang on to Him.

I grew up as an only child in a single-parent home, so I had plenty of alone time. I would spend that time reading, playing instruments, or making videos on the computer. My mom was a school librarian and would work late on Friday nights to prepare lesson plans. We’d be at her job from the afternoon until midnight. For hours, I was online reading interviews from my favorite Gospel artists and studying their music. If it wasn’t school or work, we were at church at least 3-4 times a week, and we’re Apostolic/Pentecostal so you know the services were long.

Now, I run my own faith-based media outlet that reaches millions of people. Instead of reading interviews and printing them out to save in a notebook, I’m writing the questions and conducting the interviews with the same people I grew up admiring. Instead of just watching videos, I’m filming and editing them. And every church service I attended, every song I sang, every sermon I listened to, and every moment I felt left out or misunderstood for being too “churchy”, –I use those moments to help create a community where every church kid (young or old) can feel seen, understood, and accepted.

Sometimes people ask me how I learned to grow social media pages or edit videos and the truth is– it just happened. People would call me out of nowhere and offer me jobs that taught and helped me develop the skills I now use to run my company. I wasn’t the most qualified, but for some reason, these people saw something in me that made them give me a chance. It had to have been the favor of God.

I once worked for a business owner who would give me hour-long videos and pay me a couple of hundred dollars a month to watch them and pull out the most engaging parts. I used to ask myself, “Why am I doing this?” because it was so hard and took me hours to find those 30 to 45-second clips. Now, it takes me only a few minutes to find an engaging video, or package content in a way that grabs people’s attention.

I used to wish I grew up in a big family, or that I fit in more at school. I just wanted to be someone else–someone better. But now, I can see how even the things I considered a disadvantage or inconvenience, were all meant for my good. If I were someone else, I wouldn’t have created BlackChurchTok. And I wouldn’t have the incredible privilege to reach and impact so many lives in the way that I do.

So when I feel like giving up, when things get too hard, I think about these things. I think about the young girl reading interviews and dreaming of doing something great one day. Even though I’m not yet where I want to be, that little girl would be so proud of the woman she’s become. When I don’t know how I’m going to fund our next project, when it seems like I don’t have enough time or energy to complete vital tasks, or when someone tells me.”no”, I remember that it’s only by God’s design that I’ve gotten this far in the first place. When something doesn’t work out as I hoped, I consider all the times when my greatest failures led me to opportunities that gave me the most success. I think back on these things and realize–there’s no way all of this worked out just for me to get this far and fail now.

God is very intentional. All it takes is our “yes” to Him and our obedience to His word for Him to do something great in us, for us, and with us. Once I understood this, my life’s journey became much more enjoyable. So when my dreams finally come true and I accomplish my goals, I’ll only be able to say, “God did it”. And that’s where I get my resilience. That’s why I keep going. He’s all I can depend on.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

What I love most about BlackChurchTok is that it brings people together. That was always my intent. Never to divide, but to celebrate a unique and rich culture that is often overlooked. We’re a media outlet and entertainment platform centered around church culture and spirituality. The Black American Church is so unique. It’s played a huge part in American history and pop culture. Some of the biggest box-office hits have church scenes. Billboard charting musicians are influenced by Gospel music. Even if you’ve never stepped foot in a church, you’ve likely been impacted by it. We receive supportive messages from “church folk” and non-religious people too! They enjoy the page and the content we share. I think it’s because love and joy are universal–and that’s what God is all about. God is love and the joy of the Lord is our strength. So where He’s glorified–those are the emotions that will be most prevalent, despite adversity. His presence is just that powerful.

We’re launching several new series on YouTube this year, and partnering with other brands to bring our audience more fun, games, and events. I can’t wait!

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?

Comparison is the thief of joy. I think having a deep understanding of yourself and the unique value you bring to the world is the most important. quality anyone can have. There will always be someone better than you at something. But no one can be you. No one has had all of the exact experiences that you have or thinks in the exact way that you do–that’s your superpower. If you always find a way to show up authentically, you can be successful.

For someone who is just starting on their journey, I think it’s important to do what you can with what you have–and to go all out. Don’t wait to be “good enough”, because you don’t know how much time you have. When I first learned to play the guitar, I knew three chords—G, D, and C. I wrote a song with those 3 chords and performed it in college. Over a decade later my friends and family still remember that song. I wasn’t the best singer or guitarist. Over time I got a lot better. But, I was able to impact someone and bless them with what I had at the time– even though it wasn’t a lot. You may think you need more skills, experience, or money to be successful. But why would God bless us with more if we don’t do anything with what we already have? Do the best with what you’ve got, and allow God to multiply it.

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?

We’ve developed a very unique and highly engaged audience at BlackChurchTok. We’re always looking to partner with brands who want to expand their reach and share their products or services with our audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blackchurchtok.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackchurchtok/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@blackchurchtok
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@blackchurchtok

Image Credits

personal photo: Eyed By Aishah
all others: BlackChurchTok