Today we’d like to introduce you to Charles Etoroma.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Charles. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Originally I am born and raised in North Carolina and went to school at NC State, where I studied Mechanical Engineering & Political Science.
I always shock people when I tell them that but they were two things that I happened to be good at. My jr. year I realized I didn’t want to pursue either discipline professionally and ended up turning to entrepreneurship (which I had never heard of beforehand) as a way to stay sane.
Ended up running my own t-shirt company after teaching myself how to sew, screenprint, and designed graphics for the apparel.
By the end of college, in Dec. of 2014, I ended up turning down a very lucrative engineering job I was offered to join two startups, that ultimately failed (my parents were “thrilled” at the time by the decision.
While at these startups, I started dabbling in social media marketing, which was an extension of the editorial/investigative writing I had done in college for an online publication. Over time my skill set grew and I started doing it on the side.
Eventually, I ended up starting a social media agency in 2015 and ran it as co-founder and creative director for almost three years. On the side, I was also art directing and content producing for various brands both inside and outside the US. When I decided to leave in May of 2018, the agency had just been named just aware #3 on a list of top 20 rising social media agencies in the country.
The following month I moved to LA, after having my cofounder buy me out. I wanted more of a challenge and to be around more sources of creativity, as well as to be closer to my girlfriend.
Since coming out here I have worked in house as a Global social strategist, Sr. Strategist, Head of social, and now Director of Social. Each job helping me gain the experience to be plucked up by bigger and bigger brands.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Oh, it has been anything but smooth. I am one that has to learn by doing and I don’t let rules get in the way of doing or trying things. Transitioning from being an engineer to being a marketer or even founder of a company where I had people relying on me to bring in business, make the right decisions for clients and make money to pay staff with was hard.
It grew me faster than I knew at the time. I still utilize a lot of the thinking of an engineer, but in different ways to help solve marketing problems.
The transition to LA was not as smooth as I would have liked. Being from the east coast you hear so many grand things about LA and when I moved here after the first few weeks, things really started to fall apart. I didn’t have any community, didn’t end up liking the job that helped bring me out here and people weren’t nearly as nice I thought they’d be.
Those few months and really year was a defining moment for me where expectations never truly matched up to the reality, whether it was in my job or the location of being in LA. I think God was using these obstacles to help teach me I wasn’t nearly as good as I thought I was. In NC I was very very good but when I came out here, being very very good wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t prepared to hear and internalize that at first.
I am now.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
Currently, I am director of social at a pretty large lifestyle brand & run a blog where I dive deep into social ads, marketing campaigns, etc. I have found interesting called Advertising’s Not Dead (@advertisingsnotdead on Instagram).
It’s hard to fully define what I do and have specialized in because it doesn’t fit with the norm. Being an engineer, I am extremely great with left-brain thinking but being very naturally artistic and creative I am fluid in right-brain thinking. This has translated into being very good at digital/brand/social strategy as well as the outside the box thinking to design/craft/concept creative content or campaigns.
When people ask what I do, I say basically that I know how to strategize and build the bridge from a brand to their audience, with the bridge being the marketing techniques/tactics to provide value to the audience in a way that will make them want to continue to support the brand, whether on social or/and financially.
Also, I love photography and still do a lot of concept shooting for myself as well as for select brands (@chvrlesjr is my ig).
What I am most proud of in my work is really being able to utilize data and creative to produce a strategy focused on empowering and providing value back to any given audience. At the end of the day what I do is about helping keep social media social. It’s a delicate balance that a lot of people don’t get right and why I am paid to do what I do.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up…well let’s start with my brother and I are first generation Americans. African American. My parents are both from Nigeria and immigrated here (met here) to go to school.
Being raised by Africans being a lawyer, doctor or engineer are the chosen professions that you have to end up in to really make something of your life.
I was raised in the STEM and the importance of that over art. For us, faith in God is a really really big foundation and they instilled that faith into me early on. It’s something that I have continued to rely on the older and more seasoned that I have gotten. Owe the Man upstairs everything because I wouldn’t be here without em.
As a kid though I was naturally into the arts. My parents never trained me or financed art classes for me but I used to be an excellent sketcher. I would also create mazes and architectural pieces, simply by thinking about it – in addition to pointillism art (which I didn’t even know was a thing until high school).
Sports was a really big area for the family, I played soccer, basketball and cross country growing up and that helped me develop my uber competitive side and break out of my shell as a natural introvert.
Pricing:
- Photography/Creative Production: $175-$225/hr
- Social media Consulting: $100+ per hr
Contact Info:
- Website: www.charlesetoroma.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chvrlesjr/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/chvrlesjr
- Other: https://medium.com/advertisings-not-dead
Image Credit:
Photos with me in frame, the photographer is Whitney Whitaker & I edited every photo selected
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