What specific strategies have you been using to promote and advance this cause? Can you recommend any good tips for people who want to follow your lead and use their social platform for social good?

I use social media as my platform in spreading my positive message of “Choose Love.” Social media is key at reaching a broader audience vs. blog posts only.

The key is to post quality over quantity. Yes, you should post regularly. But, if your posts are not impactful and/or relevant, your message will get lost.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Keyways to use social media to get your message across.

There are so many social channels to choose from. Finding what channel(s) work best for you and focusing on them vs. spreading yourself too thin and too many channels that you can’t post consistently on.

For me, I had to step away from Snapchat and put my time and focus on the platforms that work best for me.

2. It takes time to build your following. Stay true to what your vision is and don’t compromise it because you think you will get more followers if you try to do what might be working for someone else.

As I stated above, I tried using Snapchat to gain followers. I only tried it as my friend has thousands of followers on her Snapchat, but that is the only social channel she is active on. For me, I just don’t have the time to spare for it to be successful.

3. Invest in the Yoast plugin for SEO.

The Yoast SEO plugin is worth every penny as it guides you on a step-by-step basis on what you need to do for the best SEO for blog posts.

I struggled with SEO as I was just writing my posts without focusing on it. The Yoast plugin gives you suggestions as you are writing your blog posts on what the best options are for SEO.

4. The blogging life is all about the hustle. Pitching for sponsors/brands is something every successful blogger has to do to make money.

Take a writing class to boost your creative writing skills.
I struggled with my pitching (it is a work in progress) until I took an online creative writing course in addition to getting advice from PR experts on what they are looking for in a pitch.

5. Most importantly, don’t compete with other bloggers.

There is enough profit for everyone to go around. The more you network and partner with other bloggers — the more your business will thrive. We can all learn from each other as well as support each other.
I attend blogging conferences so that I can network with other bloggers and meet up with brands.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

To continue to bring awareness of my “Choose Love” campaign. It would be wonderful if compassionate and influential leaders like Ellen DeGeneres could help drive awareness and take the campaign to the next level.

Ultimately, I would like to raise money with the “Choose Love” campaign and to donate to organizations like Youth Villages. Youth Villages is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping emotionally and behaviorally troubled children and their families live successfully.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite Life Lesson Quote is “Choose Love.”

If everyone could make the effort to Choose Love and not division. Make the effort to Choose Love regardless of someone’s religion, political party, race, and whatever else that seems to be dividing not just our country, but the world.

If someone with my past can make the effort to “Choose Love,” anyone can. I have been physically abused, sexually abused, and discriminated against because I am bi-racial (my birth mother is white, and my birth father is black). I was adopted by a white family in a Midwestern farming town with a population of 2,700 and I was the only minority in a sea of white people. Throughout my fifteen years of living with my adopted family in the small town, I had crosses burned in front of my face, was told I couldn’t sit next to a boy because I was black, and a long list of other racially discriminating incidents.

The family that adopted me did so because they saw signs of abuse from my birth mother. However, the sexual abuse that I encountered by my adopted family was worse than any physical abuse could have been. Regardless of all this, I still Choose Love.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 

Hands down — Oscar-winning filmmaker, comedian, and actor — Jordan Peele.

I have been wanting to meet him for years! I recently interviewed Keegan Michael Key in Vancouver, Canada and I wanted to tell him my story and get his opinion and contact information. But, I was working, and I wanted to remain professional and not disrespect my sponsor with my interests.

As I stated above, I want to write a book, a play, or a movie (or all three) on my life experiences. Jordan would be the ideal person to talk to about this for obvious reasons — Oscar-winning filmmaker. However, he is also biracial and would understand some of my discrimination experiences on a certain level. I believe he would have the best advice on how I should move forward and possibly take on the task of making my movie.

Additionally, as we all know, Jordan is a comedian. I want whatever it is I do with my life story to have a comedic aspect to it. I don’t want the entirety of it to be so dark only focusing on the facts. I want my story to be told in a way that is educational and inspirational. Humor and music are what got me through my childhood experiences and they both continue to help me navigate adulthood as well. Jordan Peele is a master at creating unique horror films with a message and I am open to my life story being made into a horror movie with a subjective ending or whatever Jordan recommends as I trust his professional opinion and expertise.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simplyamazingliving/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/autumnatlanta/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/autumnatlanta

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/autumnatlanta/

Please follow me on Twitter for daily inspirational posts about love and inclusion @autumnatlanta. You can also join the “Choose Love” movement by purchasing a “Choose Love” t-shirt and promoting a positive message of love and inclusion everywhere you go. “Choose Love” t-shirt purchases can be made HERE.

I encourage people to post pictures of themselves wearing the t-shirts and tagging me @autumnatlanta on Twitter, @simplyamazingliving on Facebook and/or @autumnatlanta on Instagram. I include all of the photos I receive on my social media posts and/or on Simply Amazing Living.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much!

Authority Magazine

Leadership Lessons from Authorities in Business, Film, Sports, and Tech. Authority Mag is devoted primarily to sharing interesting feature interviews of people who are authorities in their industry. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Candice Georgiadis

Candice Georgiadis is an active mother of three as well as a designer, founder, social media expert, and philanthropist.

****