Rising Stars: Meet Austen Tosone

Today we’d like to introduce you to Austen Tosone.

Hi Austen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
Hi! I’m Austen, a content creator and influencer educator based in New York City.

I love helping creators, influencers and business owners show up authentically online, communicate their unique value to their clients and customers, and make consistent income from their social media presence.

In 2012, I started my blog Keep Calm and Chiffon as a way to document my outfits over a summer where for once in my life I had nothing to do. I graduated from Barnard College in New York City with a BA in art history.

I started out my career in editorial and worked as a print magazine editor at both Nylon and Interview. I absolutely loved my job as an editor but the world was moving away from print and towards digital. I was laid off twice and spent a year and a half freelance writing while starting to take my blog more seriously.

After doing that for a bit I went on to work as the beauty content director at a tech startup, where I really got to mesh my editor expertise with my content creation know-how. I believe that my prior professional experience informs every element of my content creation and gives me a unique 360-degree perspective of this industry.

Now, almost a decade later, I’m still blogging and creating content and I’m teaching others how to do the same.

I’ve built an online community of over 75,000+ across my platforms sharing beauty, fashion, and lifestyle content.

As a creator, I’ve partnered with brands like The New York Times, Kohl’s, Glossier, Walmart, HelloFresh, and more on sponsored content and have been quoted in Business Insider, Forbes, Business of Fashion, and Adweek discussing the business of influence.

I support creatives through free content on my social media accounts, an affordable monthly membership community hosted on Patreon, and one-on-one consulting and coaching sessions with tailored strategies to help them create quality content, build an engaged audience, and thrive online.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The road to get here has not necessarily been smooth, but I wouldn’t change a thing!

Getting laid off at such a young age felt like a huge setback—I had barely gotten started on my career and I was suddenly feeling incredibly jaded about something that I had spent my whole life loving and working towards.

I’m not an inherently flexible person, but I quickly learned how to become one and now that I’m self-employed I have to be ready to move with the seasonality of this business, understand that the market may rise or fall over time and see the competition to be an influencer grow.

I’ve always said that you are your superpower and I think that as we see more content creators pop up across the globe, it means this space will depend more and more on your ability to story tell, understand what your audience wants, and deliver on it consistently.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My years spent as a magazine editor and content director in New York City inform every element of my creation process—from imagery and content ideas to how I structure my editorial calendar and select brand partners.

I’m passionate about helping people navigate the fashion and beauty industries with ease by providing helpful resources like styling videos, product reviews, trend reports, and more. I also love sharing the process as well as the finished product to show the behind-the-scenes of my content creation.

I love sharing the behind-the-scenes to help people understand the creator economy more and see all of the work that goes into content creation. It can look easy on the surface but maintaining high-quality content, being consistent, and planning for the long term is much harder than they look.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I co-host a weekly room on Clubhouse with my friend Tanisha called The Influencer Group Chat. We meet every Monday morning at 10 am EST and these are honestly like my weekly kickoff meetings with co-workers, which I love.

I use Canva for all things graphic design, Later to schedule posts, and Notion for project management and daily to-do lists.

I love lifestyle podcasts like Gals on the Go and the Bad on Paper podcast and I also listen to relationship podcasts like Dear Shandy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://austentosone.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austentosone/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeepCalmAndChiffon/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/austentosone
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/austentosone
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@austentosone

Image Credits:
Karya Schanilec and Jessie Alcheh