Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Imani Samone. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Imani, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I found my purpose by first just doing things that I wanted to do anyway and going from there. For example, I’ve always known I wanted to be a content creator before it was even given that title. As young as 9 or 10 years old, I started making and editing videos to upload to Youtube, AKA, creating content.
Over the years, I would dip and dabble in the other platforms, but it was never anything crazy; I just posted things on Instagram and would make little videos on Musical.ly (now known as Tik Tok). But I always knew I wanted to get back on Youtube and really just do more with social media as a whole.
So, when I was 21, I got back on Youtube and started making natural hair videos. I did that for about a year and a half, and even though I fell off, I would still do Tik Tok and Instagram here and there.
After some time, I got back into fitness, which I had been doing on and off for the past 10 years or so. When I got back into it, I started creating content for Youtube again. I always knew I was going to branch off from just natural hair videos and do fitness and lifestyle content, as it was just always a vision I had. It was never about if; it was just a matter of when.
As I got more into my fitness journey, I started to take heavy lifting seriously. Once I realized how good I was at it and how quickly I was gaining strength, I realized I may be on to something. That’s when I realized I wanted to start training for powerlifting, which I feel is also where my purpose lies.
It wasn’t just about doing something I already wanted to do, and not even just about being good at it. It also wasn’t just about how I felt doing it, but also how I feel when I’m not doing it, or more recently, how I feel when I can’t do it. I’m actually dealing with a pre-existing injury with my shoulder that started getting worse with lifting, which I just found out after almost 12 years that it’s a torn labrum, so I’ve had to alter my training until I get more information on the extent of the injury and potential solutions, which I’m pretty sure will involve surgery.
That’s how I knew I found my purpose; not only being in the gym and being active, lifting heavy weights, but also documenting that and my life around it, through content creation. I started leaning into my purpose way before I realized what it even was.
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?
Most of what I’m focused on professionally is my content creation. I actually started my LLC, Imani Samone Enterprises, LLC, so that when my content creation becomes lucrative, I already technically have made myself my own business. I started making some pocket change here and there over the years through affiliate marketing by way of Amazon, but I recently started bringing in a little more in 2024 from being a Tik Tok Shop Affiliate.
2025 is the year that I plan on big things really starting to happen. I started really buckling down with my content creation mid-2024 so that I can start seeing the results I actually want. You can’t say you want to be a content creator and want to make money from it if you’re not actively and consistently working towards it… so I had to get to work. Now that I’ve created a lot more content over that time, I feel like I’ve continued to improve my craft and I really hope for things to take off this year with it all.
On top of the content creation, around August or September of 2024, I also started my own Etsy shop, Luxuriously Boujee (or LuxB for short), “where luxury meets bad with boujee.” It’s basically focused around designing products that encourage and empower the “inner baddie” in women with positive affirmations.
I also started adding fitness-related products to my shop as well, my first release with the mantra “Head Down, Weights Up.” This is for all my fitness people out there who love to lift. These merch items, such as my beanies, hoodies, phone cases, etc. serve to remind and motivate us lifters to shut out all the distractions, and just lift. I plan on adding more merch with different fitness-related inspired sayings as well soon enough!
Outside of those things, I also do some modeling. When I was around 11 years old, I actually performed as an extra in a show called VEEP that was streaming on HBO at the time, now known as Max. I also did modeling back then, and won the title of “Miss Barbizon” at the Barbizon Modeling and Acting School that I attended classes at.
Late 2023, after attending New York Fashion Week for the first time with a friend, I decided I wanted to start modeling again. So, the next time I went to New York Fashion Week in February of 2024, I attended as a model and went to multiple castings, and even got to walk in a show. Since then, I’ve walked in 2 other fashion shows and got to attend New York Fashion Week again in September of 2024 as well. I’m not focusing too much on my modeling right now, but if an opportunity came up and I felt it would be of benefit to me, I would definitely take it.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The first most important quality that has been impactful in my journey is determination. I have this thing where I hate to feel incompetent in anything I’m doing, so I end up picking stuff up and getting the hang of it pretty quickly. I just like to be good at the things I do, so I’m always determined to figured out a way to make it happen.
The second most important quality that has been extremely impactful in my journey is discipline. When it comes to working out and training, what a lot of people fail to realize is that it’s not just about motivation; it’s about discipline. You hear everyone say “I just can’t get motivated enough,” “I’m not motivated anymore because I’m not seeing results as quickly as I would like to,” etc. When you start your fitness journey, yes, it may start with motivation, but I promise you that motivation will not carry you throughout your journey. As humans, we’re simply not always going to be motivated to do something, especially something like fitness that requires so much hard work and dedication. That’s where discipline comes in. You have to be motivated by your goals, but disciplined enough to continue at it and actually achieve those goals. Going to the gym definitely helps you build discipline, but it simply doesn’t last with everyone. That’s what separates people who have had so much success from the gym, from those who end up quitting: discipline.
The third quality that has been very impactful in my journey is creativity. This one is probably my favorite because it’s almost a full circle moment for me, but maybe in the most opposite way. Growing up, I never thought of myself as someone who was “creative.” It was just something that I figured wasn’t my thing, and I suppose it’s because I always attributed it to art, which I was also never really good at it. I wish I could’ve given my younger self so much more credit, because the idea that I’m not creative is so far from the truth. The fact that, even at such a young age, I could open up my laptop and come up with ways on how to create videos and think of how I wanted it to play out, or even how I would put together presentations for school projects… I definitely had that creativity factor in me.
But when I started really creating content more, I realized just how much creativity I actually have. Coming up with ideas for Youtube and all the other platforms requires creativity, especially in a world that’s so “over-saturated” with people doing a lot of the same things on social media. It literally requires creativity to be original. I find myself practically each and every day randomly coming up with content ideas, not even on purpose all of the time. Something can just happen to me, or someone could say something, and it’ll trigger my creativity. At the end of the day, being a content creator literally says it in the name; in order to create, you have to be creative. So, if I can create the way I’ve been doing, not only am I creative, but I can also call myself… “a creative.”
The advice I would give to people early in their journeys to help develop and improve on such qualities is to just keep going and stay inspired by other people who are currently where you want to be. Even when I get burnt out, I keep going because I know this is what I’m supposed to do. The passion and desire simply wouldn’t be burning in me the way it was if I wasn’t supposed to do this. Of course, content creation and everything that comes with it isn’t necessarily for everybody, and that’s okay! But you won’t truly know what you’re supposed to be doing in life if you don’t actively put your all into whatever you’re doing right now. Maybe you’ll realize it’s not for you, and that could somehow put you on the path to figuring out what you are really meant to do.
We have so much at our fingertips thanks to the digital age and social media. I encourage people to really use that to their advantage to stay inspired. It’s so easy to get burnt out, especially in the creative world. But there are so many creative people out there putting out such amazing content and that has helped even me bounce back. Sometimes, seeing people flourishing in the very place you want to be can be enough to inspire you to keep going.
Just keep going, and stay inspired!
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
This is such a good question because it’s kind of an ongoing challenge, but it’s especially more prominent in these stages where I’m still building a following. In the creative space, a lot of social media is a numbers game; how many followers do you have, how many likes can you get on a post, etc. At the time of writing this, I’m about 20 subscribers shy of 1,000 subscribers on Youtube, but then over on Tik Tok I have a little over 10,000 followers, most of which I gained about a decade ago back in high school when it was called “Musical.ly.” You can have one post go viral one day, and then end up having a lot of flop posts after that, or you can have a video that you worked so hard on and, despite your best efforts, your analytics show you that the performance on said video isn’t so hot.
Dealing with the ups and downs of creating for social media is such a challenge, and it takes such a hit on your mental health sometimes. You start to wonder if you’re good enough, or if your posts suck, or if your content is “aesthetic” enough for this generation. I believe this is something all creators face, even when you have a bigger following, simply because once you hit a certain number on any of those analytics: subscribers, likes, comments, etc, you’re always striving for the next bigger milestone; it’s all relative to whatever numbers you’re used to seeing at the time. So, when a post doesn’t perform as expected, you’re back in that same space you were before hitting such milestones.
Since content creation is something I know in my heart I’m supposed to be doing, I try to overcome these moments by first just being aware; you have to know that these things are going to happen. You have to know that sometimes it’s just the algorithm, and what looks like a flop today could be a viral post later on. The point is to keep creating, because someone is always watching. Every new piece of content you make will hit someone new every time. You never know when your moment is going to come, so if you trust the process and just keep going, you’ll see results in one way or another. Telling myself those things is how I overcome those very discouraging moments.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://luxuriouslyboujee.etsy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xoimxni/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ImaniSamone_
- Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@xoimxni
Fitness Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsmusclemani
Fitness Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmusclemani
Image Credits
CM Photography
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