In this week’s Boss Talk we interviewed Austen Tosone, the Beauty Content Director of Jumprope. At Jumprope, Austen shares beauty, fashion, and lifestyle tips that have helped and inspired thousands of people to try to upgrade their lifestyle.

What is Jumprope?

Jumprope is a free app where you can learn how to do anything. You can discover, create, and share video content on Jumprope for categories like food, DIY, beauty, fitness, fashion, and more. Jumprope empowers creators to work smarter not harder because the app automatically generates perfectly formatted exports of your finished Jumprope that you can share to every social media platform including Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram stories, IGTV, YouTube, and more.

What do you do as Jumprope’s Beauty Director?

I work with our beauty, fashion, and lifestyle creators to make great content on Jumprope. Jumprope is unique to other social media platforms because education is at the forefront. I help develop best practices to share with creators about what makes a successful Jumprope, brainstorm monthly content ideas, and share feedback and tips for creating awesome content on Jumprope and beyond.

There are lots of networking within the creator community to understand creator struggles and think about how Jumprope might solve problems for creators and I love getting to meet and interact with so many talented creators from around the world through my job. I also do outreach to beauty brands and publications to raise awareness about the beauty category on Jumprope.

How do you stay on top of beauty trends?

I follow lots of brands and beauty creators on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok so I can keep an eye on new launches and as a content creator myself I’m on a few PR lists where brands can keep me in the loop about new launches and occasionally even share samples for me to try out. There are always SO many new launches for beauty and it can be a little hard to keep track at times but following along on socials and getting on emails from brands directly has been helpful in keeping track. Reading industry-facing publications like Glossy, BoF, and Vogue Business is also helpful for keeping an eye on new launches.

Do you believe in work-life balance? Do you feel like you achieve this in your everyday life?

The idea of work-life balance takes on a whole new meaning in this new normal where so many of us work from home! I feel incredibly lucky to be in a full-time role doing something I’m passionate about which makes waking up and working each day something I look forward to. I don’t have a great balance at this time because it’s winter in the world of Covid and that limits my social interactions but I like to take time to Facetime friends, watch football or even do a face mask to unwind a bit in the evenings and on weekends.

What is a typical day in your life?

I like waking up early to create some time for myself before I start my workday. I usually get up around 6:30 am and make coffee and then I’ll watch a YouTube video, listen to a podcast, or do some work for my blog, Keep Calm and Chiffon, which I manage on the side. Then I’ll switch over to Jumprope work for the day. I like to start by watching any new beauty and fashion Jumprope’s that I notice were created overnight and try to get through any urgent emails. Then I look to see what my priorities are for the day. Sometimes it’s writing blog posts or creating videos in the app to communicate app updates or creator tips to our users and other days it’s creator outreach or planning a virtual event. Since we’re a startup I’m almost never doing the same thing twice and things change constantly so the weeks are really varied which makes work fun. After I’m done with work I’ll cook dinner which is a nice chance to do something that doesn’t involve a screen. Then I’ll either do some more blog work or just relax.

What is your definition of success?

I’d define success as doing impactful work that makes me happy and feeling fulfilled as well as being able to afford rent, groceries, and entertainment without stressing.

What has been the most rewarding part of leading beauty for Jumprope?

I just love hearing success stories from creators. Whether they tell us they’ve stopped outsourcing video editing because they can do it all themselves on Jumprope, or that their Jumprope got the attention of their dream brand partner and now they have a meeting scheduled, or that Jumprope has allowed them to create better, faster and smarter than before—all of those things make me SO happy to understand the real impact of what we’re building.

Any advice you have for those who want a career in the beauty/tech space but aren’t sure where to start?

Follow people in the industry you admire on social media and make a constant effort to interact with their posts, celebrate their successes, and ask thoughtful questions if appropriate. You can do so much just by logging on to Twitter! Read news about the area you’re interested in and get to know the major brands and leaders in that space. And if someone won’t give you an opportunity, create one yourself! Start a blog or an Instagram page or a Facebook group and put your work out there so you start gaining experience and exposure.

Keep up with Austen and Jumprope below!

jumprope.com

@letsjumprope @jumpropebeauty @austentosone