Simmy Goraya is a self-taught makeup enthusiast. She creates content on beauty and lifestyle. Before turning to her passion, Simmy was part of the corporate rat race after completing her MBA.
She started her journey as a podcast host with Simmy Said What?! where she gets the cats out of the bag with India’s first unfiltered podcast. SSW is one of the top-ranked podcasts on all audio platforms with more than a million downloads and continues to grow to date. WomenShine got into an interesting conversation with her, and here is how it went.
1. How did you get started as a beauty/lifestyle influencer?
I started as a beauty influencer in I think 2017 or 2018 and earlier I was working in a corporate and I sort of got bored of it, not bored of it… was just too repetitive in the sense that I know that I will not be able to do this for the rest of my life and I am a creative person and I have been doing makeup literally ever since I was a child and I have been doing makeup on everyone including my family, on my brother, on my brother’s girlfriend, all of my friends in the hostel and I was like literally the last person to get ready. So I decided why not and beauty was just picking up. I saw a lot of creators at a very nascent stage at that point so I quit my job and I started off as a beauty creator at the same time I was also a bridal makeup artist. So, I was juggling two things at the side.
2. What moment in your career are you most proud of (thus far)?
I think I am very proud of the fact that the podcast started because I felt like I was standing apart from a crowd you know and I was really owning my voice. I was owning myself and I didn’t really care about what people had to say, it made me a very strong individual, it made me see things clearly, it made me rationalize things, it made me very logical as not to be emotional about things and not to be very touchy or sensitive about if anybody saying anything to you etc. This is something that made me feel proud for the rest of my life. I did I know for the fact that it’s not easy and I have had those moments in the beginning where have broken down on set and I have had my moments of anxiety and nervousness but then I think all of that faded eventually when I had no other choice but to own what I was doing and I literally did every bit of it.
3. What’s your favourite beauty product at the moment? And Why?
My favourite beauty product at the moment is a blush, actually, there are two blushes and a concealer. I cannot live without these two. I think they just change the game; they can just make you look alive in a second.
4. Aside from your wallet and phone, what do you keep in your bag at all times?
I think in my bag you will always find one lipstick like in all of my bags you will find one new lipstick, one lip balm and one hair crunch so that is mandatory in all of my little purses that I carry.
5. What is the biggest challenge you face as a content creator?
I think the biggest challenge not only me and I know that for a fact every creator goes through is when you are going through those phases where you know this is creative block and either that or you are overworking yourself to the point that you reach that mental blockage and you know you’re not able to think of things more creatively and this becomes routine. I think for any person when your creative work becomes routine that’s little the death of the process so I think because the content that we create is consumed at such a rapid rate we have to come up with something interesting and creative every single day. So, I think that is the biggest challenge that you feel as a content creator and for me I have realized that I have to keep switching between things trying out so I have never stopped myself, I have always allowed myself to go in the direction that I have a gut feeling about so yeah I mean I go from one extreme to the other from beauty to podcast now I am doing hair care very very seriously so I mean like the world is your oyster just go out and explore.
6. Your message to all the women outside there reading about your journey.
I think the message that I would like to give all women is to follow your gut and if there is something that you want to pursue and you know that it’s important for you. Then I think you need to sit your family down first and tell them how important that is, tell them your plan, how you want to execute it, tell them how it’s going to be beneficial for you financially otherwise etc. Whatever the work is and give them time sometimes they will not agree to it in the beginning give them time, show them how serious you are about it. Trust me your parents can surprise you so yeah I don’t think I can ever do anything without my family’s support family support is number one and try to get them on your side by doing whatever you can.
Author’s bio: Aditi Gupta
