Meet Jenna Barclay | Content Creator & Podcast Host

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jenna Barclay and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jenna, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
To be honest, I fell into what I do somewhat accidentally. I’ve always been active on social media, and I had been helping local businesses manage their own social media accounts on the side of my full-time job, but I never had the intention of building my own audience and creating a business from it. I was very fortunate to find success creating content I genuinely enjoy, so once I realized it resonated with so many other people I decided to start treating it like a business. Ultimately my goal in turning my social media accounts into a business was to be able to shift more of my time and attention to creating my own content, which I am happy to say I’ve done.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I create nostalgic and relatable millennial social media content, often focusing on fashion and pop culture. Being a “content creator” in Los Angeles is not exactly unique, and doesn’t always come with positive associations. However, I think the beauty of social media is that it allows people to share their unique interests and perspectives, and I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to create a career doing just that.

When I reflect on my lifelong interests and goals, it makes perfect sense that I do what I do now. Growing up I was obsessed with fashion and pop culture. After college I went on to graduate school with the intention to remain in academia and teach. I’ve always loved to perform in various ways (a former teacher of mine commented that I always “commanded attention”, so he is not surprised by what I do now – whether or not that was a compliment is up for debate). Although I never became a fashion designer and did not continue in academia, my content reflects these interests. I host a solo podcast where I analyze trends and pop culture, and the episodes often include the same ideas as the lessons I used to prepare for my classes; my content focuses on fashion and trends often.

Figuring out how to turn the content that I was making for fun into a steady business was the biggest challenge for me because there are a lot of misconceptions about content creation, and unfortunately, not many resources. You really need to understand the business side in order to successfully monetize content, in addition to keeping up with changing platforms and doing the creative work. While the creative work is what is visible to the audience, the real work is behind the scenes. I learned mostly by trial and error, and while that is not always the most efficient way to achieve results, it helped me learn a lot of important lessons. One of my goals going forward is to help newer creators in any way that I can. If I can share some of the lessons I learned the hard way, I am happy to do it and I hope it helps others create businesses from the content they love to create.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
One of my favorite things about LA is that there is really something for everyone, so it all depends on what you enjoy. I love to hike, I love the beach, and I love vintage and thrift shopping, and I love to eat. I’d take my friend to see the sights of course (and I am a big advocate for playing tourist in your own city, too), maybe visit the Griffith Observatory or hike to the Hollywood sign, and spend a day in Manhattan Beach shopping, hanging out on the beach, and stopping for ice cream at Manhattan Beach Creamery. I also love flea markets and pop culture events around the city, so we’d take a visit to the Mystic Museum in Burbank for some horror movie-themed fun, and check out a flea market on the weekend.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My success in what I do is in thanks to millennials everywhere – I am so happy to be able to spark memories and conversations with so many people from my generation, and I would never be able to do what I do without a community of people who also love and appreciate the ’90s and 2000s (millennials or otherwise).

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennaabarclay/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jennaabarclay

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jennaabarclay