Karen Civil Talks Running An Online Business, Her Influences & Being A Woman in the Music Industry
Black Enterprise is celebrating Black Blogger Month, which will help show their appreciation for the people who catch the most slack for keeping the public informed. Each and every one of the bloggers mentioned throughout the month of May have made an large impact in our entertainment communities by striving to be the best they can be.
Karen Civil is definitely one of those people. Check out excerpts from her interview with Black Enterprise on what makes her tick, how she got to where she is, and who she admires in the media circuit.
Karen Civil is currently Lil Wayne’s Young Money Social Media Coordinator, Beats By Dre Digital Marketing Manager, Designer of Live Civil Bracelets, and owner/operator of KarenCivil.com. Karen has won a 2010 MTV Hip Hop Award, A 2009 Essence Black Web Award, and she’s been featured in top music magazines such as The Source, XXL, Complex and Billboard.
The Blog:
KarenCivil.com originated in 2008 when Karen realized her large hip hop network and current work could be streamlined onto her own site where people can find exclusive music and interviews. Karencivil.com now has over 1million monthly viewers, and generates an average of $125,000 in yearly revenue.
General Overhead: $2,000 – $5,000
What makes it different from other blogs?: KarenCivil.com is going to give you great, curated content—from the interviews to things that are happening in the culture—and we’re always going to have that Civil voice. As things are happening, we’ll make sure to have that insight people may not necessarily know… It’s not about posting XYZ song first, it’s about telling the story. Where did they record it? Why did they put it out? Who was in the room when they recorded it? We like to tell a story from the fan’s perspective. It makes our posts that much better.
Biggest career Influences: Angela Yee because she’s herself. She likes to wear $900 shoes, have a good time and it all works. She’s also a hustler—very ambitious and I like that. At times, I look at myself as the hip-hop Blossom because I wear so many different hats and it’s the same as [Yee]. She has her site, she’s on the radio, she does TV… I appreciate someone in entertainment who’s similar to me but on a higher plateau, but it doesn’t feel like it. Usually it’s hard for females in the same field to be okay with one another, but she’s not like that at all.
[Funkmaster] Flex. Whether you like him or not he’s making sure that he stays relevant, that he’s No. 1 and that’s still pushing his content. He never gets old and that’s exactly where I want my brand to be.Him and Angela Yee, they just do it for me. They’re two wonderful people that I watch on a daily basis and kind of implement certain things they do into my business life and it’s working.
Biggest Business Mistake: Trusting certain people. That’s something I wish I didn’t do early on because playing the favor game backfired. I remember going to this rapper’s site and he did a whole negative post [about me] all out of spite. This was someone I tried to help and now they’re sitting here making songs and blogs about sleeping with me? People who know me know it wasn’t true and people who didn’t know and believe it, their thoughts didn’t matter. I just let karma handle it. Cream rises to the top.
I Learned: To say no more. I’m a lover of music so I’ll think something’s great, post the song and people assume that I’m their street team now! So when you don’t [post] they start getting on your [Twitter] mentions and emails like you did something wrong. I don’t owe anyone anything at all. Me and my team prefer to post things that cater to our fans.
The biggest hurdle I face as a woman in a male-dominated industry is… People taking you serious and putting you in that friend realm where they’ll just overlook you. It’s all about working hard and proving yourself. Through time I eventually got Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Wale exclusives. People gave me things because they felt like I deserved it and now I don’t have to put in those calls and requests because they just want to give it to me.
Karen Civil On Positive Networking Practices: I get motivated to go somewhere by seeing if there’s three to five reasons to my benefit. For instance, I recently went to a Diesel dinner so I asked myself, “Why am I going to this?” One, advertisement—they’re working on a new female campaign, and it would be great for them to run ads on my site. Second, it’s a new female denim line, so maybe I can be a correspondent, maybe they can use Karen Civil in a look book or sponsor my site with something. Third, it was an intimate dinner, so obviously the people chosen are maybe people I should be meeting, a great opportunity to network for the first and second points. I’m calculated.
The biggest lesson I learned about branding in the digital space is… People want to be everything to everyone and that’s not necessarily going to help you in terms of engagement and impressions. I call it the Kim Kardashian Effect, no disrespect to her, but she puts her name on everything. My brand is not giving everyone that cosign. I look at KarenCivil.com as very premium and I don’t ever want to cheapen it. Giving the stamp early on to artists like Drake, J. Cole, Nipsey Hussle—people who have gone on to be great—that reminds me.
The best piece of business advice I ever got was… “You do it ’cause you love it.” Even if I wasn’t getting this traffic or attention, I’d still want to blog. That’s just how I see it. So if someone doesn’t credit me or I get overlooked for an interview, that’s not going to stop me from wanting to post and wanting to continue help magnify this culture.
I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for… The really good friends and family who continuously supported Karen Civil, before there was a KarenCivil.com.
