The digital influencer, beauty and lifestyle blogger and social media aficionado, Dayna Bolden wants people to know her secret to success is sacrifice.
Bolden is a social media entrepreneur. Her online influence began in 2013 on Instagram highlighting African-American women’s natural hair and style. When her audience began to rapidly grow, she knew she was onto something special.
However, being a mother, wife and working a 9 to5 as a communications professional for Under Armour didn’t provide much free time to grow a brand as a social media influencer. Following her intuition, though, she decided to create the time and space, knowing the additional role would require some sacrifice.
Little did she know, her days would entail waking up to her laptop at 5 AM to create content, answering emails and making sure her social media accounts were up to date. By 7 AM, it would be time to greet her husband, and get herself and her daughter prepared for work and school. If there was still work to be done after her late evenings, she’d find herself meeting her bed as late as 11 PM.
“It was definitely challenging. It involved a lot of late nights and early mornings.”
Her hard work certainly expanded her brand exponentially, but also highlighted the hard work and resilience of her support system, most notably her husband. Through every sleepless night, he stood by her, pushing her and encouraging her to continue fighting for her dream, understanding that the temporary sacrifice of seeing less of his wife would ultimately pay off in the long run.
“For my husband, there were growing pains. I’d be lying if I said it was freaking roses. I was so nose down and heads down that I realized that I hadn’t spent time with my husband, [and] that’s when I had to alter my schedule at night. That meant me working at 4 am or on my lunch break, and putting down my phone.”
Juggling being an influencer created less turmoil at work, but still allowed for its own unique challenges, including giving her job an abrupt week’s notice for PTO requests to fly to Atlanta to be featured as a model in a national Cream of Nature campaign.
“At the beginning of this year I did have to take some paid vacation days like with Cream of Nature and literally the next week I had to fly out to ATL. There was nothing that she [manager] could have said that would have stopped me from going any place, but they were very accommodating.”
On the outside her success may appear like it happened overnight, but it’s the hard work and effort she continues to put in that fuels her brand’s visibility. With more than 39K Instagram followers, 1.5K Facebook friends and 1K Youtube followers, her income is poised to exceed its already $100,000 by the end of 2017 with more companies flocking to work with her.
“I have a vision. I visualize everything. I can see myself in a move. For me the sky is the limit. I can’t even visualize everything I can do, but I know I want to be the best I can be. I just see big things for me.”
The truth about success is that it rarely comes without giving up something. Whether it’s time, energy or comfortability, Bolden has given up all three and watched her dreams unfold right before her eyes because of it.
As a result, the business woman who once juggled a 40-hour a week job and a side hustle now works for herself, travels the country inspiring other women and has found a way to incorporate her family into her dream also.
As her future continues to unfold so does her imagination of what is possible for her and her family. She hopes her life and lessons show her readers that they too can have it all if they are willing to sacrifice their now for their future. Her life has now become a guiding light for women,encouraging them to reach for their goals and of course to do it all with love, passion and style.
For more information on Bolden, visit her website daynabolden.com.
