Introducing: Yolande Macon Fashion Stylist & Blogger
I am a strong believer of the phrase, “people who are meant to be in your life will be". Somehow, someway, we will pull together.
Yolande and I attended Marymount University at the same time for about 2 years and then she graduated. If you do not know Marymount isn’t even more than a mile long and is a predominately white institute. Because the school was so small, the black people tend to stick together, but the gag is… WE DIDN’T SPEAK TO EACH OTHER Why? We don’t know. She had her friends, I had mine and that was that, we guess.
Moving on after a few years from school Yolande moved to New York in October of 2015 from North Carolina, and I moved up to New York in January of 2016 from Virginia. Our mutual friends suggested we reach out to one another and Yolande had reached out to me a little after finding out I moved. Since then we planned and planned and planned to get together but never had the time to link up. So one day I’m out with some friends, who mention that we had to pick up another one of their friends from the train. (I’m trying to map out the story for you vividly because we talked about this for days, after) So I’m in the backseat of the car and I see this girl walking, and apparently she doesn't see me on the side she is walking to, but I still can not see who she is, it's dark outside. After we all redirected her to the other side, she opens the door, and she pauses and I look over like “why is she taking so long” lol, and then I realize it was Yolande ! So i'm like WHAT and she's like OH MY GOSH, both eyes wide, jaws dropped, hugging and all. Meanwhile our friends are up front, with their jaws dropped looking at us, looking at each other like WHAT. It's very funny that we met that night, with people we were just getting to know, in burroughs we both didn't live in. So yea, that’s how we connected, and I honestly believe if it hadn't been for that night we wouldn't have linked up for a long time because of our schedules. I also hesitated to go out that night because I was sick and that is why I say she showed up in my life on time with a purpose, because after that, it has been all up hill from there.
Yolande is phenominal, she is driven and nothing can stop her. I am 100% positive that anyone reading this blog who may be feeling stuck or down in their passion/purpose in anyway can definitely be lifted up by my interview with Yolande.
Not only do I have the pleasure of calling you a friend, but I have followed you for quite some time. Can you please introduce yourself and share what made you start your first blog and the inspiration behind “The language of Yolande”?
I'm Yolande Macon the Creative Director of The Language of Yolande style blog and Styl.ed fashion media site. When I was in college, my friends often asked me to pick out their outfit. It was then that I found a passion for styling. This passion grew as I started working in retail and realizing that a lot of women love style but don’t know how to approach it. I started TLOY and Styl.ed for that reason. Empowering women through style and fashion and being fearless as they approach it. I was tired of hearing “I love that but I can never pull that off”. I’m a true believer of “it’s not what you wear but how you wear it”
From creating thelanguageofyolande.com until now, you have really focused on rebranding, what can you share about that process?
I’m definitely focused on rebranding. You have to know how to keep up. At this very moment, I am revamping my social media marketing strategy. Looking more into my demographics and how they interact with my social media accounts in order to grow my following. Social media is very important for a blogger and important to understand.
What is a lesson or something you learned from it, that you feel can be a major stepping stone, or downfall if you do not pay as much attention to it?
The biggest lessons I learned is networking and staying true to yourself. When starting TLOY, I wanted to reach the masses. I knew I had a good blog but my impressions were low. I realized that if I wanted to reach multiple people, I would have to bring them to my site. Networking is still a lesson that I am learning but I now know this is the key. I try to attend fashion events and utilize my relationships with other people in the industry.
When it comes to staying true to myself, I often remind myself of why I started my blog/site. We live in a world where you can view multiple blogs in one app and it is very easy to get caught in someone else’s success. You can easily find yourself copying what makes them successful versus researching how to become successful off of your own individuality.
So now, you’re originally from northern Virginia, and you have lived in a couple different states since you graduated from college in 2011. How were those transitions for you and what impact did they have on your career?
I like to say that I lived in 2 slow cites and 2 fast cities. The slow cities very my hometown Virginia Beach and Raleigh, NC. These cities were important to my development because they encouraged me to do what I loved. Neither city had a fashion scene so I was able to be a big fish in a small pond. People saw how different my style was so they encouraged me to study fashion. The big cites, DC and NYC, encouraged me to work harder. It was easy to stand out and be acknowledged in the small cites but in the big cites, I was a dime a dozen. Everyone loved fashion…even if they didn’t have a degree in it like me. I know I had a talent in styling that was undeniable so I realized that I had work harder to stand out among the other fashion lovers.
Speaking of career, can you explain what you do now and how you got there?
I am the Marketing Associate at a fashion design school. I have past experience in higher ed. so I was attracted to this job. Also, I had a brief experience in marketing so I knew this would be a great opportunity to grow that knowledge. This job has definitely help me with TLOY & Styl.ed Marketing
Is this job something you want to do or how are you using this job as a stepping stone to get to where you want to be?
I know that this job is not my final steps. At my job I am the over head off marketing, and i'm learning a lot about digital marketing, which I am able to take and use that for my own platforms. I was also able to connect and introduce myself to people in the industry through my job. So i'm grateful for it, and the connections and knowledge I take from it, but I am working toward making TLOY and Styl.ed full time.
All in all how has your journey been for you? The ups the downs, the accomplishments, the emotional rollercoasters, because we all know we go through it, when we are trying to get to another area in life lol.
This journey has definitely had its ups and down. Some of my accomplishment was styling on live tv and being a part of a style panel on a nc radio station. Seeing others success can often bring you down but I know I have a talent that was given to me by God. He’s just asking me to do the work to get to that success.
Can you please give us your top 5 to 3 tips that you would want to tell someone that may be following in your very steps.
1 Be true to yourself
2 Keep up with the trends in your industry
3 Don’t do it if you’re not passionate about. Money isn’t everything.
4 Trust your instinct
So you recently introduced to the world and your many followers Styl.ed a new take on fashion updates. Share a little bit about that?
Styl.ed is a fashion media site the gives the latest updates on styling, trends, beauty, streetstyle, and shopping. I started the to site to provide women of all backgrounds a place to keep up-to-date with fashion. Also I wanted to use this site to highlight bloggers. I believe we are the true style influences.
Lastly, are there any events, any conferences, any thing that you are going to be apart of, so that followers can link up and support? Are you looking for help in any areas, like photographers, models, designers, artists who can be of any assistance to you? I believe the arts is one big happy family and we must connect, support, and act on helping one another, to really grow our community.
I’m looking for volunteers who would like to build their portfolio and share their expertise on Styl.ed. This includes stylists, writers, photographers, and web developers.
I can definitely say, it pays to be friends with someone so like minded in similar passions as you. I myself, have learned so much from Yolande, and it's nice to piggy back off of one another to build and grow. So thank you so much for accepting to be a feature on TynishaLenee.com. I hope but also assume, emerging creatives will pick up something from this or learn more about your place in this industry. Readers, if you did not get enough please follow her. I placed her website and social media links below, reach out and introduce yourself. Your help, is her help and all help is my help.
Again, I am just trying to build a platform, and connect people to people still traveling on that path to get to their end goals.
Website: www.thelanguageofyolande.com
Social Media: thelanguageofyolande
