E29 Keeping a Creative Outlet + Pursuing a Full-time Career with Rolanda Evelyn 👗 🌀

Pollen: For Creative Entrepreneurs with Diana Davis

You probably heard several stories about creatives leaving their day job to pursue their side hustles. But some creatives manage to wonderfully balance their full-time work and find time to fuel a creative outlet.

In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, Diana talks to Rolanda Evelyn, the senior product development manager at Rent The Runway and editor-in-chief of her blog, leave a little sparkle. She talks about pursuing your desired career while having a creative side hustle that brings joy. It takes more than talent; critical elements of Rolanda's journey were knowledge of what she wanted and the grit to keep going.

Listen to this episode to gain insights on how to have a creative outlet that fuels your wants and needs!

Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.

🔥Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

1. Find out the value of having a creative outlet that you can balance with your job.
2. Understand the different challenges and advantages of growing up in an immigrant household.
3. Discover what paths can be created for you when you dive into new things headfirst.

📘Resources

• Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Sign up for Diana’s Camp Clarity Course now!
• Rent The Runway

• leave a little sparkle

• Happier: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most by Cassie Holmes
• You Are A Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero
• Grit by Angela Duckworth
• Follow one of Rolanda’s inspirations, Krystal Bick, on Instagram
• Access other courses from the Diana Davis Creative
• Connect with me: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram
• Connect with Rolanda: LinkedIn | Instagram

🎧Episode Highlights [07:16] Getting to Know Rolanda

• Rolanda is a New York native.
• She grew up in an immigrant household and was among the first-generation Americans in her family.
• She is a full-time senior product marketing manager at Rent The Runway, a service and subscription-based fashion company.
• Rolanda is also the editor-in-chief of her blog and creative outlet, leave a little sparkle.

[10:32] A Focus on Excellence

• Rolanda’s parents believed education was an equalizer and they raised her with a high bar for academic excellence.
• She spent her childhood studying, using her weekends for enrichment classes, and taking extra homework.
• Her parents did everything they could to ensure their children excelled in school.
• Focusing on excellence taught Rolanda to have grit in everything she does, including her creative outlets.

[15:05] Rolanda’s Childhood Creativity Pockets

• Rolanda grew up with different creativity pockets that gave her a creative outlet.
• Her parents enrolled her in different extracurricular activities like ballet and karate classes.
• However, Rolanda’s main interest was fashion.
• She remembers dressing up every Sunday for church with her grandmother, pairing different handbags and shoes together.
• Every week, her mother would take a photo of her Sunday outfit and add it to a photo album.

[18:19] The Birth of leave a little sparkle

• Rolanda grew up knowing what she wanted to do: communication and fashion.
• She pursued studying at the University of Pennsylvania because it had a communication major and a fashion community.
• Rolanda did her best to be involved in the University of Pennsylvania's fashion community and retail club.
• The blog, leave a little sparkle, was born out of her desire to continue creative pursuits in fashion.

[23:36] Rolanda: “The hardest part I learned once [I] started [was], I don't have to wait for this thing to be perfect in order to launch it. If you wait for it to be perfect, [you’re] gonna be waiting forever.”

[24:17] Starting a Career in Product Marketing

• Rolanda recounts hearing about the product marketing industry and being captivated by the work and people inside.
• She decided to follow this path and pursue the blog on the side. This way, she gets to have both worlds at the same time.

[26:38] Rolanda: “Sometimes the plan that you have set out for yourself, as I just described, doesn't always go the way that you thought it would. But it's kind of the path that you should be leaning towards.”

• Her product marketing job sits between brand marketing and product development.
• Rolanda enjoys her job in marketing because it's an intersection of the left and right brain — creativity and strategy.

[30:47] Building A Fashion Network

• Rolanda looks for people on the San Francisco geotag and "fashion blogger" tag to grow her network.
• She would follow and DM them. Sometimes, she also finds other bloggers from her Following’s posts and stories.
• Rolanda would also ask her colleagues to connect her to fashion groups and photographers in their communities.
• The creative fashion scene in San Francisco is small. Once you've been in it, you most likely know everyone.

[33:27] Creating Her Identity In The Blog

• Rolanda wants her blog to be a creative outlet where she can share her day-to-day experience as a Black woman working in the tech industry.
• Rolanda learned that her blog, like life, cannot be all sparkle and rainbows.
• She wants the blog to “sparkle” but also show realness.
• Her blog also acts as her place to escape.

[40:27] Moving To New York and Pursuing Fashion

• After finishing her program, Rolanda moved to New York to become YouTube’s product marketing lead for fashion and beauty.
• Quitting Google without having another thing to land on was a significant point in her journey.
• Rolanda’s job with Google gave her financial independence and allowed her to pay off her student loans. However, she wanted to transfer to the fashion industry.

[43:54] Rolanda: “What are you waiting for? Just go do it. What could possibly go wrong? Try it. If you hate it, you can undo it. What have you got to lose?”

[45:27] Signing Up with Rent The Runway

• Rolanda was supposed to start Rent The Runway in March 2020 but had to delay it to July 2020.
• While waiting to start her new work, Rolanda got numerous offers from other tech companies.
• However, she was set on Rent The Runway because it was what she wanted.
• Eventually, she learned to ignore calls from the other companies.

[47:22] Rolanda: “I stopped taking the calls because it just made me feel worse and it made it harder to choose my choice. I was committed to choosing my choice. I was like, ‘I'm going to remove the things that make it hard to choose my choice until I can no longer choose my choice anymore.’”

[49:56] Continuing leave a little sparkle

• Six years after starting her blog, Rolanda still maintains leave a little sparkle as a creative outlet.
• Rolanda remains intentional with what she posts.
• She does not create content to appease the algorithm. She creates content that brings her joy.
• The blog gives her this creative freedom because it is not her source of income.
• You have to have something that makes you feel creative and protect it. For Rolanda, this is her blog.

[53:28] ⚡️ Rapid-Fire Questions with Rolanda

• Rolanda is a Pisces. For Rolanda, creativity means reimagining and romanticizing anything — people, movement, nature, and other things.
• Rolanda’s entrepreneur crush is Crystal Beck, a former Googler turned full-time blogger. She finds her the perfect example of being creative on your terms and doing what brings you joy.
• Rolanda’s current read is Happier Hour by Cassie Holmes. It’s a book about living a happier life, using your time for things you care about, and being present.
• Rolanda is currently listening to Angela Duckworth, the author of Grit and developer of the concept of grit.
• If Rolanda didn’t have to think about money, time, and resources, she would do a talk show.

About Rolanda

Rolanda Evelyn is the Senior Manager of Product Marketing at Rent The Runway. Rolanda describes herself as a strategic storyteller passionate about the intersection of fashion, retail, and tech. She is also a blogger and content creator for her blog, leave a little sparkle.

Learn more about Rolanda through her blog, leave a little sparkle. You can also follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Enjoyed this Podcast on Balancing a Full-time Career and a Creative Outlet?

Are you torn between keeping your day job and pursuing your side hustle? Here's a confidence booster: you don't have to give up either of them. Having a full-time career while maintaining a creative outlet is a balancing act, but it's worth it!

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