Danielle Letayf, Building Community One Brand At A Time

November 11, 2019

Danielle Letayf is the founder of Badassery, and is obsessed with making the world a more connected and inclusive place through community, cultural experiences, and events. Danielle graduated from Boston University with a degree in marketing and business administration; she was previously the Head of Programs and Community for #BUILTBYGIRLS, a social impact brand that’s creating the new wave of tech leaders—who just happen to be teen girls and ran the community at Shine, a brand that makes it easier to take care of yourself.

In this feature, Danielle shares with us her passion for building communities, how she grew her skill sets in this area, and what made her start Badassery. Read along to soak up her incredible career advice for ambitious women, such as yourself.

Early career

After graduating from Boston University, you held a variety of positions in Marketing. What initially drew you to Marketing?

I have a huge passion for understanding what makes people tick. I went into college undeclared and then became very interested in psychology after my freshman year. My parents are traditional Lebanese immigrants, and didn’t think that psychology would be the most lucrative paths (don’t get me wrong—I think psychologists are changing the world! My best friend is a psychologist. Hey, Alessandra!), and so I met them in the middle and studied business with a focus on marketing. Marketing is fascinating because it dives deeply into understanding people both qualitatively and quantitatively and making business and advertising decisions off of that. Plus it allowed me to tap into my creative side and create really interesting stories and visuals to humanize a product and tell a brand’s story.

Just two years out of college, you were the Head of Programs & Community at BUILT BY GIRLS. What experiences and skills helped you land this position?

Oh man, when I started that job I truly had no idea what I was doing! What helped the most, though, was actually admitting to myself that I had no idea what I was doing, find the real gaps in my knowledge and then figure out which people could help me figure it out. I had at least 1 coffee meeting per week with community, programming and marketing experts from companies like Refinery29, Nike, Tumblr and more so I could help shape BUILT BY GIRLS in an informed way. Plus, I went to conferences and classes to supplement my learning. Also, I had my own group of “friendtors” who I would gut check my ideas and progress with. Basically, hustle, grit, passion for the mission of the world I was doing and the laser focus on creating something great helped me climb up quickly.

After BUILT BY GIRLS, you became the Community Lead at Shine Inc. It is evident that you have a natural knack for cultivating community. What’s your #1 tip for building a community of strong brand evangelists?

I read an awesome book called Get Together and they hit the nail on the head in terms of what makes a successful community—build a community with your people, not for them. Being an excellent community leader takes a lot of active listening, feedback sessions, observations about how your people are interacting online and offline and data collection. It’s so easy to try to work from the top down and create a structure that you think is right, but the reality is that your community will tell you what they want in different ways and it’s up to us community organizers to listen in to what they want and turn it into experiences that bring them together in creative and impactful ways.

Badassery

Why did you start Badassery? What steps did you take to bring your vision to life?

Applications to join the next cohort of Badasses are officially open 🙌 Time to supercharge your career with a community that's *actually* got your back. We'll help you build a highly curated, down-to-earth network and strong personal brand by connecting you to speaking gigs at places like Harvard and VICE. We see you, we hear you, and we got you. Apps open until 8/28 (NYC only)! Link in bio 🍑

23 Likes, 1 Comments - Badassery (@badassery_hq) on Instagram: "Applications to join the next cohort of Badasses are officially open 🙌 Time to supercharge your..."

Growing up, I felt torn between cultures. My parents are from Lebanon, and being raised in New Hampshire (a very white place), I never felt understood or seen in school or in the media. I remember the countless times I would turn on Middle Eastern soap operas on TV to see people who looked like me, or cut out and piece together different images and words of magazines so I could create my own media that represented my world. As I began working in marketing, I realized the influential powers of storytelling and media, and I vowed to use my storytelling and community building superpowers for good as a driving force for whatever I do.

As a founding member of BUILT BY GIRLS at Verizon Media, I spent the majority of my career developing a marketplace that connected thousands, creating programs and experiences for underrepresented communities in tech, and even collaborating on a pitch competition with Michelle Obama. In doing this, I realized that my superpower is building, growing and productizing communities in a meaningful way, and I wanted to continue to do so in a way that had the potential to create global impact.

While traveling all over the U.S. and running experiences, I noticed a problem that really bothered me—many of the stages I saw had the same kinds of people up on them (mainly white men), and even when there were people of color, they were the same 5 or 6 people of color on stages all over the country. It wasn’t the looks of the people that bothered me; it was the fact that having similar backgrounds meant sharing similar stories, and that narrative wasn’t one that was reflective of the world we live in.

I was relentless in asking event managers about why this was the case, and they would always respond with the same thing: “We don’t know where to find them.”—aka diverse professionals working at kickass places or starting their own incredible places. Well, I am “them” and I’m creating a solution.

How did you transition to running Badassery full-time? What advice do you have about making the jump from side hustle to full-time job?

I’m not going to lie...making a decision like that is tough. As much as I believed in what I was doing, I was still terrified of taking the leap to work for myself.

I got to a point, though, where my side hustle had started becoming bigger than me and could no longer be managed with a full time job. I decided that I owed it to myself to take a risk on not only my idea, but also on myself. I have always wanted to start a business, and was intentionally saving money for years for that moment. So when that moment actually came, I felt both mentally and financially ready.

The advice I have about making that leap into full time is to run a few tests for your idea/business in advance and measure that success. Give yourself a timeline with metrics, too. Otherwise, you might stay in limbo for a while. Also, having a side hustle that doesn’t turn into something full time is perfectly great, too! It’s an incredible learning experience, so don’t put pressure on yourself to turn it into something full time.

Being an entrepreneur is hard work. What is your main challenge in running Badassery and how have your tried to combat it?

Having a million possibilities with very limited resources! It’s so incredible to be able to shape something out of nothing, but the number of decisions can also feel paralyzing at times. The way I keep myself sane, though, is by gathering as much feedback and info from fellow founder friends and my mentors and then making an informed decision from there.

What are you most excited about regarding the future of Badassery?

The same thing that’s the most terrifying—the endless possibilities. The stage is truly just the beginning for this community. There’s potential to amplify the incredible stories of these Badassery members all over media (think TV, podcasts, contributing writers, etc.). I’m also pumped to take this community beyond NYC. We have a waitlist of about 300 people from around the country waiting to apply to join and we’re almost ready to come to new cities and make this community as impactful as it can be.

Advice

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs who are currently starting their business through a side hustle?

The hard part isn’t starting; it’s keeping it going! Even if it’s a side hustle, make sure you have goals in mind for every month or quarter to make this awesome project worth your while and as impactful as it can be. Those goals could be anything from trying out one new idea every month or bringing on 1000 new users a week. Every goal and accomplishment, big or small, will help you move forward.

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?

Everything is figureoutable.

Thanks to Badassery, we are co-hosting a Personal Branding session on November 14th, 6-8PM, alongside Tatiana Kuzmowycz! Going off of this, what is your #1 tip for branding yourself in the workplace?

I’m not a strong believer of actively “branding yourself” in any situation. Just be comfortable with who you are and let your personality shine as purely as it can. Work hard, be genuinely nice to everyone from the janitor to your boss, strive to be excellent in every way you can, don’t stress too much, buy yourself flowers for your desk and take advantage of all the office snacks. You’re going to be great.