Life and Work with Taylor Grewe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Grewe.

Taylor, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
At the end of 2013, my senior year of college, my best friend and I began building a network marketing business in the telecom, energy and banking industries. It was very part-time until I graduated in 2014 and began putting the majority of my time into the business, while working a bunch of side jobs to pay the bills — I was a dance teacher, helped my mom with admin work for her non-profit Montessori Scholarship Organization, I worked in fundraising for Ballet Arizona and worked as a project manager for a startup. Not many people know this, but at times while building that business I barely had any extra money and would have to figure out how to travel pretty often. My dad owned a few bread routes at the time and I would help him out by waking up at 3 am, drive an hour out to the grocery stores along his route and stock the shelves with bread before the stores opened.

At about four years into building that business, I came to the realization that it wasn’t an industry I wanted to invest my passion, time and energy into. I found a part-time job as a social media manager at a small marketing agency to help begin the transition out of the business. I began to fall in love with the social media world and digital marketing and in April of 2017, I decided to start my own blog as a creative outlet, Life Off The Reel. “Off the reel” is an idiom that means, “continuously moving forward without delay or hesitation,” a phrase I still till this day live my life by. Shortly after I serendipitously met the woman I work with today, it was an instant connection between the two of us, I knew we had to work together in some way. She felt the same way and offered me the opportunity to work with her at her marketing agency and I enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity. Her background was in publishing, starting a local magazine called Arizona Foothills, and in December of 2017, she came to me with the idea of launching a new magazine — this time, all digital with a luxury focus, ICONIC LIFE. Within a few months, we launched the magazine with a gorgeous website that we are very proud of and have been growing its online presence ever since. I work from home, from coffee shops, from anywhere with Wifi and even moved to LA for six months last summer. I’m finally in a place where the work I’m doing challenges me creatively and genuinely excites me.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Absolutely not! There has been a laundry list of struggles but two MAJOR struggles that I’ve learned a lot from. The first, financial struggles in my early twenties. In the beginning stages of building my network marketing business, like the majority of businesses, it did not provide me with enough income to live off of. I started off living at home in hopes that I could make it work building it full-time but found myself overwhelmingly stressed and insecure which hindered my ability to show up fully for the business. I needed to make money and support myself and started taking part-time jobs to pay the bills, moved out and was able to actually show up as my best self for the business. If working for yourself or starting a business is something that calls to you, I highly recommend making sure that you have at least a part-time job that pays the bills. In this digital age, it is 1000% possible to have even a full-time job while building a side business!

The second biggest struggle was caring WAY too much what people thought of me. When I first started to feel like I was no longer happy in that business, I was terrified about “quitting,” out of fear that people would see me as a failure. I was even more terrified of the people in my industry thinking of me as an idiot for throwing away years of hard work and the potential of a very lucrative career long term — I just KNEW in my gut that it was no longer for me, I didn’t feel like myself anymore. But, I had said for so long that this career was my DREAM, I had short term goals and long term goals, vision boards and people to prove wrong. Walking away was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Trusting myself that I could be happier, more fulfilled and find a career that I could genuinely be myself and be successful — I truly had to say, “screw what anyone thinks about me, I’m trusting myself.”

Almost two and a half years later, I’m the happiest, most confident, free and fulfilled than I’ve ever been. I guess my advice would be TRUST YOUR GUT! You and you alone know what is best for you, you can ask for advice from others but at the end of the day if you really listen to your intuition it knows what you came to this planet to do — Listen to it. It is okay to change your mind, it does not make you a failure at life if you set a goal when you’re 19 years old and five years later, realize it no longer matters to you. Even if very successful people tell you that you’re making a mistake, you’re not thinking clearly, you’re a quitter and laugh behind your back when you launch a blog.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I work for ICONIC LIFE, a digital luxury lifestyle magazine. I’ve been there since day one and have to lead the growth of its digital presence. My technical title is Social Media Specialist, I focus mostly on managing the social accounts, email marketing, brand development and also manage a few clients that we do brand and social media management for.

I’m very proud of the work we’ve done with ICONIC LIFE and how far it has come in a short amount of time. But, on a personal level, I’m most proud of my writing. I’ve always loved writing and created my blog as a creative outlet for that. I share very, VERY, transparently about my life, struggles, mental health, passions and life lessons with a side of humor, and a dash of sarcasm. I also share a lot about self-care, skincare, stuff I actually use and love. Since launching ICONIC LIFE, I took a big step back from posting consistently on the actual website but I continue to consistently write and micro-blog on my Instagram account @taygrewe.

Often it feels as if the media, by and large, is only focused on the obstacles faced by women, but we feel it’s important to also look for the opportunities. In your view, are there opportunities that you see that women are particularly well positioned for?
The digital world has created an ENDLESS amount of possibilities for women. The barrier to entry is so incredibly low for building a business or turning a passion into a lucrative career it blows my mind. I believe that women are brilliant, passionate, empathetic, hungry and incredibly well positioned to take advantage of social media and the digital world to create an opportunity for themselves. Social is really all about connecting with others, something I believe women have a bit of a knack for.

For example, I’m currently helping my mom turn her passion into a legitimate business. She has over 20 years of experience in running a Montessori school along with other members of my family. She is certified in infant and toddler development and has been teaching a class for parents on how to support the development of independent and empowered kids for almost 20 years. THAT is her passion and through the use of social media/digital, I am helping her turn it into a legitimate course and business that can reach way more people than she currently has the ability to reach. Look out for her on Instagram @nurturenewbies, coming soon!

Contact Info:

• Website: lifeoffthereel.com
• Email: taylormgrewe@gmail.com
• Instagram: taygrewe
• Facebook: taygrewe

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.