Today we’d like to introduce you to Chanel Mizani.
Chanel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve done quite a bit of living in my 32 years on this planet, so life experience is my most interesting quality I suppose. I grew up in DC and studied engineering in school, was a competitive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter for ten years (which brought me to San Diego), a lifelong vegetarian and vegan for 12 years, I taught cosmetology school, spent time “home-free” as a nomad, and studied Buddhism with monks in temples. I have worked in the beauty industry for almost 15 years and in that time I was able to develop a great network of peers, clients, and mentors. A lot of my work involves doing hair and makeup for photoshoots and editorials, so I also built strong relationships with people in media production who taught me to stage and direct photo shoots.
As someone who has lived a colorful life with endless “unbelievable” stories and anecdotes, I am constantly being asked by clients and co-workers for life advice, vegan recipes and cooking tips, fitness techniques, and obviously beauty-related questions. My husband, Jesse O’Neill, is a photographer who at the end of last year was doing a lot of portrait work for local social media influencers that needed material for their Instagram feed. He decided that with our combined experience in media production and the constant demand for me to share my worldly knowledge, we needed to begin documenting everything and present it in the form of an Instagram blog. He had all the necessary fluency in social media marketing to be able to build an audience and create a following. So we built a “set” in our home and began shooting and filming every day.
We wanted to not only provide useful information to the community but also help to motivate people to have the best days possible. So we focused the blog on Mornings, hoping that we could brighten peoples day. Right off the bat, we had incredible feedback, sponsorship deals, and high engagement from the community. We started incorporating YouTube videos to help with our inspiration. One of the series we created is called “Morning Motivators,” where I interview inspirational people in the community that share what gets them up to have a great day. I am constantly tapping into my extensive network of clients and co-workers to find the subjects of our interviews and am endlessly grateful for the opportunity to learn about their lives and share their stories.
Has it been a smooth road?
We began the blog in January of 2018, and within 4.5 months we reached 10k followers – so, in the grand scheme of things, we both consider that to be a great success. However, I have had to deal with my own personal criticism throughout the process. Spending the majority of my career behind the camera and offset, it was difficult for me to feel comfortable being photographed so much. Every picture we produced in the beginning, I never LOVED.
After we started to amass a good amount of content, I began to go back through our Instagram feed and archive pictures that I didn’t think were good enough. We’ve actually gotten to a point where if you open my “Archive” tab you will find more hidden posts than ones still on our feed.
Thankfully we’ve slowed down on our Instagram posting in order to allow more time for writing blogs and filming videos. That has allowed us to spend more time creating great content that looks cohesive to our feed. It’s definitely helped us to follow and learn from successful influencers that have already done trial and error to create their own visually exciting Insta-grids. We are just now getting comfortable with making our grid thoughtful and inviting.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Mornings With Chanel story. Tell us more about the business.
Mornings with Chanel is a blog on Instagram that offers morning motivation, beauty/product advice, fitness tips, vegan recipes, and inspirational interviews.
We recognized the impact that social media has made on today’s society but were always so disappointed with the quality of the content. The biggest problem with platforms like Instagram is that it has a tendency to feel like a high school popularity contest. We wanted to offer positivity and substance. When people view our feed, we want them to feel happy, informed, and inspired.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We have just begun, but Instagram is ever growing and at 700 million users – we hope to make a meaningful impact on like-minded early risers across the world. Our main focus right now is to make more connections with local San Diegans who share our vision. We’re currently working on a few collaborative projects with fellow content creators.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.morningswithchanel.com
- Email: morningswithchanel@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningswithchanel
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/chanelmizani
Image Credit:
Jesse O’Neill
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
