After graduating from Syracuse University with a B.S. in Information Management & Technology, the soon-to-be influencer and entrepreneur moved to Dallas, TX where she worked her corporate information technology (IT) job for three years. Though she was just starting to establish herself in her professional career, Vaughn-Jefferson needed something else to pursue in her spare time as well.

“After work hours, I would drive to the city, do my shoots, write blog posts and all that stuff,” she shares. “It got to a point where I was making more from those after hours than I was at my corporate job.”

It wasn’t long before Vaughn-Jefferson’s side hustle became more fulfilling than her actual 9-5. So, one day she finally took the leap of faith and committed to her new path, which meant documenting her life full-time for her growing audience.

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A post shared by JaLisa E. Jefferson (@jalisaevaughn)

At the time she quit her job in 2018, Vaughn-Jefferson had roughly 70,000 followers on her Instagram account and today her page stands at over 291,000 followers and counting. Although she’s found a way to transform her life as an influencer into a profitable venture over the past few years, others haven’t been so receptive to her career change — mostly because they didn’t truly understand it.

“People think we just sit around, take cute pictures, hide behind a computer or social media and just post to be posting,” she says of the stigma around influencers. “[But they] don’t understand the business behind social media. Some people also say, ‘I don’t want to see a bunch of ads,’ but this is our job. Just like your bills have to get paid, so do ours. So while we do post organic stuff and fun things, you will see ads because this is what we do full-time and it’s just another form of marketing. There is a stigma, but I think the more [social media] grows, the more people will see that this is a real thing in a lucrative business.”

JaLisa Vaughn-Jefferson

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