Rising Stars: Meet Anyah Gilmore-Jones

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anyah Gilmore-Jones.

Hi Anyah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
When the pandemic hit, I was still in college. I was bored out of mind and TikTok quickly became a cure for my boredom. While scrolling past the MANY business ideas people were suggesting to start while having this “down” time. I found that one, in particular, stood out, social media marketing – so I began to learn and teach myself the basic skills of social media marketing. Because I originally started with no experience, I got on Fiverr and charged extremely low prices just to get some experience under my belt. Yet, being that I’ve been on Instagram since its inception – I knew more than I know now.

When I went back to school, I realized that I was going to need more experience if I truly wanted to be a consultant in social media marketing, and tried to find ways to use aspects of my major in psychology to incorporate into my teachings. One of them that was directly translated was psychology. Fast forward two years, I got my first job out of college after being a server for months simply because I didn’t want to do an internship or work in politics. I also babysat a family in D.C. They asked me what I was going to do and I replied “Start a business in social media marketing” – at the time, I was very confident, some could call it wishful thinking – all I knew was that something had to change.

I started networking through my family’s connections and cold-calling people since I had a background in media for HBCUs and I was an alumna myself. Then, I got my first three clients and also got subcontracted out. I was passionate about what I did, but I knew I needed to niche down. This year, was my epiphany year and I realized all my passions of psychology, travel, event planning, etc combined and I knew I loved experiential marketing once I found out it incorporated all of them.

I got my first BIG contract marketing a music festival out of Chicago, and the social engagement was knocked out of the water, and I received immense praise. And for the first time, I felt extremely clear on my purpose and path. Now, the next steps are to market music festivals, brand activations, and experiences globally.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was not been a smooth road. I struggled immensely with depression and anxiety.

One day, I would be energized and passionate about what I did, another day I would disassociate from myself completely, feel lost, and ask myself what am I doing? This lack of motivation affected the quality of my work and my passion to finish a project overall.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I work in the social media sector of experiential marketing. Experiential marketing is “the process of creating an experience for the customer rather than approaching them through traditional marketing methods.” I LOVE it because I’m naturally a people person and event planner, but beyond that, I’m an ideation and I’ve always loved culture and psychology.

What sets me apart from others is my love for experiences in my personal life too, when I was 19 years old a lot of the people I knew went to Miami, yet I took my stimulus check and went to Bali solo. From then on out, I set out to find the most unique experiences and cultures I could abroad and learn from them. Moreover, cultivate my appreciation for humanity, culture, and authentic interaction with people who don’t even speak the same language as you – but understand you nevertheless.

From age 19, I’ve slept in villas in the middle of rice fields, dyed alpaca wool with cactus berries in Peru, listened to elders’ advice saying I was going to be a leader in Colombia, rubbed mud on my face in the blue lagoons in Iceland, road tripped with strangers in Mexico, broke dance with strangers in Ibiza, Spain and gotten to see the F1 Grand Prix in Monaco. I’ve had the most humble experiences to the most lavish ones, but one thing remains certain – the richest I’ve ever felt is when I’ve traveled.

That’s why I’m so passionate about sharing my experiences but also curating them for others.

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The only language barrier people struggle with is love both domestically and abroad. It’s been many mistakes I’ve made along the way personally and professionally that I would get into the cycle of beating myself up for, yet I realized the best way to navigate life is to learn from them and move on. And even abroad I was amazed by the compassion people who didn’t know me at all shared simply because I was another human.

Many times I’ve cried abroad because I was so happy or someone’s small frail grandma gave me a blessing or someone’s grandpapa didn’t understand English but said I was going to lead people & I was powerful. Many times we communicate without saying a word at all, but the language is understood through our facial expressions, body movements, and mannerisms. Both on what our body tells us about ourselves and what we say to others.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.growbygilmore.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anyahle/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyahgj/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnyahGilmoreJones 

Image Credits
Feranmi Quadri