Anna's Guide To How I Got Here
44:36 Share

So if you're confused why I'm here, me too. Welcome to the podcast.

What's up you guys? Welcome to Anna's Guide podcast, which is my new little creation. It's been a secret for a bit now, but I'm so happy that you're here and I can't believe that it's finally time to not only share these episodes with you, but also to be sitting down and recording them. I am honored to be sitting in my own home while I record and this looks like a set and I totally agree and it's because I had one little corner of my house redesigned to be my podcast studio and I had it professionally done.

Who am I? So you're gonna be seeing me sitting here for a lot of my podcast episodes, but we will be going on the road to adventure to some of my favorite people. A few things you can expect from Anna's Guide is that it was inspired by or taken inspiration from Anna's Guide to Feeling Better After a Breakup, Anna's Guide to Feeling Better, and all of your favorite little tidbits that come from TikTok and voiceovers. I just wanted the opportunity to share more of my life with you and to be even more intimate than we were before, no matter where you're listening in your eardrums to this

silky smooth voice. I'm so excited that

you're on the other side of it and that we get to do this all together. And something that I want to disclose a little, make sure that we disclaimer, it's not called Anna's guide because I have all the answers to all the secrets. The point is that secrets are better shared. So Anna's guide is our way of navigating this weird life that we're all in together side by side through voicemails, through visiting, through weekly episodes, through different topics that will take you through not only the way that I've lived my life up

until this point, but the way that I hope to see life with you guys from here on out. And on the topic of podcasts and voicemails, you guys can leave me one anytime you want so we can visit all the time. I just remembered that I had a camera over there. As you can tell, this will be my learning series and I'm getting used to it. I feel like this is a very intimate way to be sitting and talking to you that I'm not normally used to. And also, little do you know, there's like five people in this room right now watching me do this.

If you hear them giggle, they're laughing at me and I know they are. One other thing I want to add. Normally at the intro of these episodes, you're going to get this beautiful segment called Rosebud Thorn. You may have done it in kindergarten. And guess what? I learned it from a friend and I'm obsessed with Rosebud Thorn. It's my new favorite thing to ask friends when we're like out at a restaurant together and we run out of things to talk about. I'm like, okay, everybody drop your Rosebud Thorn. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you pretty much give a rose, which is like your blessing of the week. Your bud, which is your thing to come. And your thorn, which is your one to like

Not so good from the week. So we're going to be doing Rosebud Thorns every single week here. But on this episode specifically, because it's our first time, because we're in this warm-up era...

We will be doing it at the end of the episode, and I'll give you a little recap of what my rosebud thorn was of my life. If that doesn't feel serious, I don't know what does. But I'm sure you're wondering if this is your first time hearing my voice or maybe seeing my face if you're watching this on video. I am Anna. I'm Anna X on social media, Anna X Sitar, and...

I create content for a living. I feel like there's no other way to say that because I feel like I've lived like 15 lifetimes already, even getting to this point. I am a content creator on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. I started completely randomly and my story of how I got here doesn't make much sense. So if you're confused why I'm here, me too.

Welcome to the podcast. But the truth is that I have a huge background of studying mechanical engineering. I have a master's in film and television production. I grew up in a really small town in the Midwest in the state of Michigan, the Great Lakes State. And somehow I stumbled upon living in Los Angeles and blowing up on the internet during a quarantine during COVID. And...

Luckily, I get to share every single day of my life with beautiful, incredible, talented, kind, compassionate, caring people on the other side of my phone. So I hope that you choose to join this little community and this group of friends who are not going anywhere and neither am I. So why do you say we get started with this episode?

The topic of today's episode is Anna's guide to how I got here. And honestly, I'm in my growing up era. So we're gonna be talking about where I came from, how I got to Los Angeles, maybe how I found myself on the internet, and even more importantly, how I got to share this world with you guys. I grew up in Michigan, and I was born on Easter Sunday. Kind of cheesy. I will not have my birthday on Easter Sunday again, though, until I turn 73. So...

We're just waiting for that day. The date's not going to change. I just hope that it comes again. So from growing up in Michigan, I was a Midwest girl at heart. As you can imagine, I was on farms and even crazier is that I grew up in a town of 7,000 people. So you knew everybody and everybody knew about you. But I always kind of had this feeling that I wouldn't be there forever.

I grew up with a family that traveled all the time because my mom was from Poland and we didn't really get the chance to travel until I got a little bit older. Like I didn't meet my grandparents until I was like 13 because they still lived in Poland and we just like

Had no way to go over there and like afford a trip like that. But it was really incredible to have a mom who had such perspective on the world and kind of always encouraged us to explore outside of our own little ecosystem that was like the small town of Marshall, Michigan. So I always knew that I would eventually kind of find my way out of there, but I didn't know exactly when. And growing up, I feel like I was like every kid. I had no idea what my dad did for a living. I just knew he was an engineer. But somehow my parents always really encouraged us to

excel in the math and sciences. They always talked about how much value that had and how you could always have the sense of stability if you could focus in doing something in math and science. So as a kid growing up, I was always a part of like math Olympiad, math this, science project, engineering coming, going to U of M to go for like some summer camp, figuring out the math and sciences. And even when I knew that I was going to do a career, I always wanted to be a teacher when I was growing up. But my parents were like,

Have you thought about engineering? Which is not the most exciting thing to be thinking about. But my favorite class was calculus. Like if I would have been a teacher, I would have taught AP Calc. That's really embarrassing. But so it made sense to go into mechanical engineering for me. Once at the time kind of floated around. Like I don't know that I really knew exactly what I wanted to go into until I was probably a junior or senior in high school. But math and science were always on the forefront. Also a fun fact, a very vulnerable fun fact. I had a lot of trouble reading.

Like a lot of trouble. Like as a kid, guys, I had to take special reading classes. So I feel like small trauma of being embarrassed that I wasn't very good at reading.

made me avoid reading at all costs. The good news is I can read, okay? I don't want that to be misinterpreted because I could read engineering books. And I feel like numbers always made way more sense to me than like actual stuff. But now I'm like, I'm definitely on book talk. So even though I kind of had mathy, sciencey parents, the beautiful juxtaposition of the whole situation is that my mom was really creative. Like my mom was just a stay-at-home mom, but always did super artsy things. She was so good at drawing and

and painting that I feel like a lot of my pastimes were also artsy-craftsy things. Like, I really got into photography at, like, I think nine, which sounds so random, but, like, I have photos of me getting a green screen for my birthday at 11.

I should have known that there was something there. But so I always had like a mom that really encouraged me to kind of play around in the arts, take photos, be creative, draw, make music. I took piano lessons for a long time. I mean, my sports were swimming, which I feel like is like a pretty like flowy, pretty sport. But I also did dance for like 13 years. That's kind of a fun fact. I feel like even though I joke about not being a good dancer, I know I have rhythm. Listen, I might not know how to move my body, but I know at what time to move my body.

There's always something there. So crafty mom, mathematical dad. My mom is also one of the smartest people I know. So I don't want you guys to think that I'm not saying she's not like the mathy one. But my dad being in engineering really had an influence on me. And I remember being in my junior year of high school. And it's about the time where you're deciding like everyone's applying to colleges already. You're like,

I'm going to put this title down of what college I want to apply to for what specialty, but I have no idea if I actually like anything about it. And I remember we had this one activity in my anatomy class where we had to design a prosthetic and something about it clicked for me. There was something in that space where I was like, you know what?

this is such a good idea. I want to do this. I don't know what this field is. Like, is it math? Is it science? Is it medical? Am I a doctor? I liked it because it kind of felt like that perfect yin and yang of a little bit of something creative and a way to think outside of the box while still having something like rooted in helping people, but being mechanical.

And when I asked my teacher about it, she had mentioned there was this company that was like 40 minutes away from our hometown that did medical technology that I should really look into. And that kind of planted the seed for me a bit of knowing that I wanted to be more in the med tech space.

So going into applying for college, I knew that I was going to do engineering. I was like, this is great. I have the foundation because I know that I really like this one activity. It made me feel very inspired. It made me feel very creative. I'm going to do engineering. The only thing that I wasn't expecting is that I wouldn't get into any of the colleges that I applied to.

Okay, picture this. You know that you're going to college. You know that you want to study mechanical engineering. You apply to Berkeley, U of M. Your older sister went to U of M. You have to go to U of M. You have to live to the expectations of being a middle child. I applied to UCLA. I applied to UCSB. I had this dream of going out west and living my dream and

I feel like I just made a connection in my own head that is going to make sense to you in two seconds. You had this dream of going out west and having this dream life that you've always wanted and like being on the beach and like being in the college that you always dreamed of. And then one after another, you get denied from every single college. I was like 22nd in my class of 300 people. Like my grades were pretty good. I had a shit ACT score.

because who can standardize test well? Don't give me multiple choice. First off, multiple choice should be canceled because I'd much rather just figure the problem out and tell you what the answer is than have to pick from three because now two of them are confusing me. Anyway, that's a rant for another time. I had a horrible ACT score. I mean, I'm going to say horrible. I had a 26. I don't even think they do the ACT anymore. So I'm like kind of mad about, you know what? I'm not going to have beef with the ACT. It is what it is. I got the score I got. And you know what? I didn't get into any of the colleges I thought I would.

So the time comes where I still have to make a decision. I admitted into MSU, which a lot of the people from my high school had gone there. And I didn't really want to end up in the same friend groups or like with all the same people. I wanted a fresh start of college. If I went to the same spot that everyone from my hometown went, which I feel like is a really universal experience for people. If you go to the same one, you're hanging out with the same people. You're remembered as being the person you were in high school. And it's not

that I didn't like who I was in high school. It's just that I think I had like pre-existing notions about myself. Like I said, I was creative. I love doing photo shoots with my mom. I thought they were like really fun and quirky and artsy and like, oh my gosh, how cute. Like we're going to do these really beautiful artsy photo shoots before homecoming and prom and, you know, Winterfest. And

and I would be so excited to tell my friends about these photos and be like, I feel like I just made art. Like, look how cute this is. Was not as well received as I would have expected it to be. And so it was one of those things where like growing up and having that foundation of people being like, oh my gosh, it's so cute that you think you could model. Okay. Sorry, I tried. It's kind of that thing where I just, I knew I wanted to like have that fresh start and maybe be surrounded by the people who

I could have like a little bit of a bigger pond. I could have more people to be around, more ideas, more creativity, more thoughts, more like just different, not even more, but just different from what I had been around from growing up in a small town. So I applied to one more college after I'd kind of heard back from all of them, one that I knew I could maybe get into. And I had a couple of friends go there, but I didn't know really their feedback on it. And I said I wanted to go west. Well, the truth is that I went to Western.

Do you see that right now? I just did it right off the dome, you guys. So it's funny because I ended up going to visit this university that I'd heard about. It was a little bit more local. It was 40 minutes away from my hometown. I knew that it was a little bit smaller than something like MSU. I think like the difference was like 60,000 versus like 30,000 students. So still pretty big, but I didn't know many people from my hometown who were going there. So I

That seemed like an attractive quality. And I remember calling a friend who graduated the year before me and asking her if she'd give me a tour of her campus and be like, hey, I'm just like, they have a really good engineering program. They just built all new facilities for their students. They have like a really great array of clubs. Campus seemed really beautiful. They were really into sustainability, which I thought was a cool perspective that like you don't really hear about much in a small town. She invited me to come visit. And when I tell you the second that I stepped onto the campus, I knew that I was in the right place.

I mean, rejection just means redirection. You know what I mean? Okay, guys, I feel so official because today's episode of Anna's Guide is brought to you by Command Brand. Command makes it easy and worry-free to create a space that reflects who you are with damage-free hanging products. Our first sponsor. What the heck? What are we doing? But life is so much more joyful when your space reflects you. But making every space in my house feel unique and special, like my podcast studio...

to me can feel more trouble than it's worth. However, Command products are here to help make it easy. I use Command strips all over my house because I feel like my style is ever changing. I can never decide where to put something and leave it. So Command strips allow me to take stuff down and put it back up easy peasy. Even in this space, I have an editing bay right behind you guys that you can't see right now, but my wall is

covered in little photos of my friends so I can use Command products like their poster strips to put my pictures on the wall and be able to check out my friends and just have this nice little encouraging photos that keep me going when I'm in the editing room. So if you want to spice up your college dorm or new apartment just a little bit, keep some Command products handy, whether it's a cute string light above your bed or a functional hook for your many back to school outfits. Or for me, I keep my little cooking. What's the ship? My apron.

I keep my apron on a Command hook in my kitchen. She could go away, but she's there now. Command Strip has got you just like they've got me. Visit command.com to find where you can buy Command products this back-to-college season. It was like the perfect crossover of I didn't get into where I thought I was going to and ended up exactly where I was meant to be. That's a theme that I've seen over and over and over in life, but in this specific season,

scenario, I will never forget the feeling of stepping on campus and being like, wow, I really see myself here. And I hope that everyone gets to experience that at some point when they're looking for colleges, because that's such a stressful time in your life. There's so many different elements that people are thinking of in different areas that like you're worried about. Like even me at the time, like it was such nuances. And when I stepped on the right campus, none of it mattered. None of it mattered.

I just got this feeling in like the little bottom of my heart that was like, you're exactly where you're meant to be. And so that night I went home. I committed to Western Michigan University and I started my degree in mechanical engineering right from the get-go. So I get to college. There's one little element of this that I didn't really disclose and it's that I really thought I was going to swim in college. I thought that I was going to be going on a swim scholarship, which I had gotten opportunities to go to smaller city colleges out in California. So even though they weren't the big picture ones like the UCs or the Cal States, I

I'd gotten opportunities to go and swim at smaller schools out here, like outside of Cal Poly or in Santa Barbara. But if I did that, I would have to kind of push off my engineering degree by another year or two. And I knew that I only wanted to do engineering for four years. I was like, I really want to get my degree done and over with swimming. I will not be an Olympian. Okay. Look at me like Hanbill.

I don't see it. I would have loved to be. It would have been the coolest thing on the planet. So it kind of felt like a pipe dream that I had to make the decision of really early on. So when I got to Western, I did join their swim team, but I knew that it wasn't something that was going to be long term. It was more for that sense of community. So I didn't stay on it long, though. I got an injury six months into the school year. Honestly, it opened the door for me to focus even more on my engineering. Like even these like little failures and little downfalls just funneled me toward the right path.

From the get-go, the company that stayed in my brain was the one that my anatomy teacher had mentioned when I was in high school. The company was called Stryker. It's a medical technology company based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, coincidentally, the same place that my college was based. And I walked into the career fair my freshman year. I made eye contact with the person who does the internship pairing. And I was like, I'm going to work for you. My name is Anna Sattar.

Okay, confidence. Slay. So I walk up to him and he's like, you know what? I love that for you. Baby girl, not right now because we don't hire freshmen. And I was like, okay, 365 days from now, I'm going to come up to you and I'm going to say this exact same thing and it's going to be a yes. And I did.

Okay, slay Anna. I don't know what was in me at age 18, but I just knew what I wanted and I wasn't going to rest until I got it. So the next year, career fair happens at the engineering building. I walk up to them. I introduce myself. I tell them this story that I was here 365 days ago and really hoping to have a job. I heard about them my junior year of high school and I went to engineering knowing that I wanted to work for their company.

And I got an interview. And then I got another interview and another interview and another interview. And seven interviews later and two personality tests, I got to have an interview in person at the company. And I got the job, which was incredible. And to be honest, I worked there all of college, both as an intern and then I worked there part-time during the school year where I was going anywhere from like 20 to 30 hours a week, which was so much on top of being a full-time student. But

I want to get into what it was like being an engineering student. I just don't think it's on this episode. I could talk all day long about being a woman in STEM and like working in that space. And that could be a whole hour episode. So the one thing I do want to touch on is that I worked there for three years and I could easily fast forward to saying like, oh my gosh, then I was a senior in college and here's what happened next. But the one point that I really want to make about being in college is that you should never, ever, ever try to fit into a niche.

Every time I was in engineering, everyone always told me to pick hobbies that were in engineering. They were like, oh my gosh, we'll do like this team or join robotics team or join like the cars team. And honestly, I, like my childhood, all my passions were so creative. I did acapella and filmmaking group and I substitute taught at elementary schools. And I also taught Zumba at the gym and it made my community in college so much better.

so diversified, so many different people from different walks of life with different interests that kept me so engaged. And I know that it probably looks good. So some would think on a resume to just have really dialed in, filtered down, very focused passions. But the truth is that all my interviews were so interesting because I could talk about anything because I was able to say, oh my gosh, yeah, well, like,

I love doing engineering classes, but on the weekends, I love to drive my Jeep and work on that. I love to go to the sand dunes. And I also was on the swim team. And also I was in an acapella group and I learned how to do leadership through like the roles that I played in teaching fitness classes. Like you're able to really have all these different topics that are guaranteed to strike a nerve with someone else in the room with you that don't only have to be about the work that you're doing. That could have been just me.

I will say the one thing I'm really proud of is that I got every job offer I ever applied to when I was looking for my internships because my resume was so diversified with different interests. Like some of my resumes, I was like talking about why I wrote a unicycle. Don't ask me why, but it came up. So might as well, you know, that's so fun. So I think there's something really valuable about being in college and trying new things while you're there. But when the time came where it was the end of my senior year, hold on.

Flashback. End of my junior year, I'm in my final interview of like an exit interview. The company that I did for their internship program had a really low acceptance rate because they had really great like turnover of interns and defaults and employees. My confidence boost was getting my internship. I didn't get in any of the colleges that I applied for, but when I applied for my internship, I had a 1% chance of being accepted to my internship program. And I got one of the 80 that were picked out of the 8,000 applicants. So eco boost. Okay.

Okay, that was the one really good part about my internship. And one of the requirements was that you interview all of your bosses before you leave your internship program. So at this time, I was working on a team that was high speed drills used in brain surgery. So we were working on drill bits and hand pieces and pretty much everything that happened in like craniotomies or like things with the ear, nose, throat space. Okay.

I am in this final interview with one of my bosses and we're sitting across from each other and somehow I was always asking questions that were much more emotionally focused than like engineering focused. Like I think a lot of people ask questions like, how do you negotiate a higher salary? Or like, you know, in what ways do you want to grow in the company? Or where do you see there to be different avenues of like leadership that you can go to after this role? I was like,

So what did you want to be when you grew up if it wasn't this? Or like, what makes you happiest? Or what do you look most forward to on the weekends when you're working at this job? And I had asked one of my bosses if he was happy. A blatant question. Like, blatant, are you happy working here? And he kind of laughed and he looked at me for a minute and he was like, you know, I was just like you. I was an intern and so excited about my new job. And then I blinked and 20 years went by and now I'm married with two kids and I'm still here.

I think what he meant was like, time flies when you're having fun. But the second I heard that, I was like, oh my gosh, this is, I think I chose wrong. I think I picked the wrong career because I don't want to blink and 20 years goes by. I want to remember every single little memory of all that stuff. And like, I don't want to just go into the same,

Repeat a day over and over again and no one talks about that being what happens when you graduate from college No one talks about that being corporate america that like You suddenly are on this schedule that you've done your entire life but somehow like school you had something to look forward to like you knew you were getting to the next grade and you knew you were getting like To a summer break and you know that you would have spring break coming up in this vacation But like for some reason I would find myself even in my internships coming to the close of the 12 weeks and being like man I cannot wait to go back to school

And somehow school was ending in the next nine months. So I went home that day. I had the deepest talk of my life with the universe, just trying to figure out what had I done? How did I get here? Because I didn't want to end up blinking with the 20 years going by and being exactly where I was 20 years earlier, which don't get me wrong. A lot of life changes in between that time. Just the concept of letting it slip me by terrified me. So that night I went home.

And I applied and started doing research on grad schools in film and television production because I had had this little inkling of passion in the film space. All of college, I had so much fun making these little YouTube videos for my 300 followers on YouTube. I would make daily vlogs. I would take it to college with me. I would do little get readies with me and Q&As for my Instagram, which was like literally my mother submitting 15 questions online.

And truthfully, I had such a good time doing that, that when I was at Striker, they needed an intern who could edit on Premiere Pro. So the marketing team had actually brought me on for just a couple little projects here and there where I edited together the videos that trained their sales reps on how the technology worked. And I knew how the technology worked because I was on the team that designed it. So from there, I was able to really make these like simplified versions of these videos and explanations on how med tech works. And I had so much fun in the editing process that I was like,

I might like this. I might really like this. And so I decided that I was going to apply to go back to school. And you know what? The best part is, is I gave myself my own little version of an ultimatum. I could either go work in engineering, which I had a job already lined up at the point of graduation. I had one lined up from before I even started my senior year. I'd gotten a job offer to work on an EMS team, which is like the backs of ambulances. I said yes to the offer. I signed the deal. But the small inkling to me is like, if you get into grad school...

I could not go to work and I could go to grad school. But if I don't get into grad school, I already have a job lined up. What do I have to worry about? This is perfect.

So I decided to apply to grad school and see what the future had in store for me. Pretty much I applied to grad school and I heard nothing for several months. There was only one grad school that I could apply to. After doing all my research, my engineering degree did not do me an injustice, but having no background in film undergrad did. So a lot of these grad school programs to get an MFA required that I have a minimum of 40 undergrad credits in film and television production in some space.

The only school that I could find that was in the top 10 in the country for a film program was Loyola Marymount University here in Los Angeles. And I could apply without having any film undergrad. I tried NYU. I tried UCLA. I tried USC. All these schools required some form of background. And so I was a little bit nervous and I didn't want to go back to school for another undergrad in film. I knew that I wanted to at least elevate the degree that I already had.

So I applied to LMU and it felt like a true why moment. And a friend and I talk about this all the time that in life, you only have a couple why moments. They're the moments where there's a fork in the road, not why as in like the question, why as in like, which way could you choose? And in this moment, I could choose to apply to school or stay on the path that I'm on. And this felt like one of my craziest, most like,

obvious why moments of choosing to completely re-pivot my life to change. Like I was potentially giving up a career that offered quite a bit of stability like my parents had told me all growing up.

to go to something where I could end up being an intern for the next 10 years and bringing people coffee. Like that's a horror story that you hear of being in the art industry. I could have gone from, you know, climbing a corporate ladder and being in engineering and like working on medicine like I wanted to, which was something that I was so passionate about because it meant that I got to reach people and help people. But I also had a lot of stories that I knew I could tell that could also have that same effect, but maybe be something that I saw more longevity in for the happiness of my own well-being.

So in this why moment, I decided to take a risk and apply to grad school. And I will never forget the moment of applying. And I was on spring break and I saw the text come in of an email that was like, your admission status is now online. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm like literally on spring break in Daytona Beach with like a whole house of people. We're having a house party in this hotel room. And I grabbed my computer and I ran out to the balcony. I sat down, I opened it. I'm like typing in my little stuff.

This makes me emotional. For the first time in my life, I saw like this accepted across the screen when I opened it. And I was like, I'm exactly where I'm meant to be. Like all of the stars that I wanted to align worked for the first time. And I got this yes. And I was, I have butterflies just talking about it. I will never forget the feeling of like looking out at the Florida Atlantic Ocean on that side of the coast. And I'm sitting in this balcony just like alone.

losing my marbles that I had just gotten into school and I was moving to LA. I was leaving everything that I knew in Michigan. I told my friends that were in the room with me at the time. The truth is that it wasn't the most positive response. There wasn't this much of an excitement. I think that like it was something that was hard to swallow and something that was really difficult to digest because I had been sitting with this hopefulness that I somehow felt like I couldn't fully express because I didn't want to feel like

Like engineering feels very prestigious. You know, there's something about engineering that like you're respected when you're in engineering, when you're in the arts, but you have a degree that shows like you're smart, you're respected. And somehow I was like kind of to some people might believe taking steps backwards. I was avoiding this like really like

smart, well-paid career to go back to something like creative, which even in my hometown and a lot of people in the room were from my hometown was not as respected as like what I had been in before. So even though the feedback wasn't great, I knew what my goal was. I knew what my intention was. And even though it was scary to think about, you're never throwing it away. The engineering degree never goes away. But thinking about starting again, it made me kind of realize like at 22 years old, it never was too late to start again.

I still had the chance to like begin my life and do it exactly how I had dreamed of without ever having to give up what I had learned from before then. If anything, I was better off doing it now because I had all that incredible experience from engineering and strategy and problem solving and all of these cool hobbies that I picked up along the way. They were just the foundation that I could absolutely fly from.

So the truth is that once I made it to grad school, my story kind of feels like present day, which is really wild because I graduated from college in 2019. The day after graduation, which was May 1st, packed in my car, moved out here to L.A., moved into an apartment, went to grad school for about six months, and then COVID hit.

And before COVID hit, I had heard about this app called TikTok. A bunch of my friends in grad school were talking about it. And especially one of my girlfriends at a party was kind of mentioning this thing was coming out. I had heard of who Charli D'Amelio was. I think she had like 500K on TikTok at the time. Everyone was talking about how you could blow up really fast and it's really fun. And it reminded us all of Vine. So we were like, this could be a really fun thing to download. And like, we're all grad students. We're all liberal. At this time, I'm 22. So we're all a little bit older.

We know how to tell a story. We know cinematography. Why don't we download this app and make it like

beautiful. Like we could do these really incredible stories. And some of the girls did the funniest bits. Some of the girls made these like super artsy aesthetic videos. And I kind of fell into this really natural state of following what I've been doing on my YouTube channel for a little bit, which is more of like lifestyle vlogs. I loved these like little fun transitions. I would do these little vlogs. I loved Vine. I would do these mirror bits. And then one thing led to another. And I remember my first video went viral where I'd made a joke about an audio that was on the app. I got 70,000 views.

Called all of my extended family. Told them I was famous. Told them I blew up on the internet. I called my mom. I was like, I'm quitting school. I'm like literally going to be viral. I'm already in LA. I'm already here. Not true. But I just like had this moment where I was like, oh my gosh, this is great. And you kind of get this like adrenaline from going viral on TikTok. It was the most surreal feeling where I feel like I blinked and it happened. And I was like...

that felt great. Let's do it again. And so I came up with another video idea and then another video idea. And then I had a series idea. And then the start of the year, I had about 50K on TikTok. Like you could grow so fast when TikTok first started. So I was like, oh my gosh, I feel like I have like all these friends on the internet. And for the first time in my life, after coming from a small hometown and having this like weird judgment about my creativity, everyone was so positive and everyone was so empowering and everyone wanted to see more. That like,

I was making five to eight videos a day, just making whatever came to mind, whatever I felt like. And then COVID hit and everything shuts down and school kicks us all out. And for the first time at 23, I moved back in with my mom and dad, who I haven't lived with since I was 18 years old. And I have all this time on my hands and all my grad school's online. And I'm like, you know what? I have a lot of time on my hands. I could be making a lot of TikToks right now. And I really am enjoying it.

So I did. I just kept making one video after another. It came so naturally to me because it was something that I truly loved. I feel like the most important aspect of my life at this moment in time, at this like era of my life, was that every day I woke up and I chose the thing that made me happy. And it was grad school and making videos online. Now my parents were freaking out because it was 50k and then it was a quarter million and then it was a million followers. My parents were like,

someone's going to steal our daughter and take her away. And they were really scared because no one knows what's on the internet. I mean, I was an adult at this time, so I didn't really understand their concern. I was like, guys, I survived college. I feel like I'm fine. But they were really worried. And I'd kind of pitched them this idea that I was like, guys, I really want to make merch that says I don't want it on the merch, which was like a series that I had done really early on in my career. We're pretty much ahead of this bit was like, if my husband doesn't

XYZ while I'm the cute mom that XYZs, then I don't want it. And I made this merch. I convinced them that I could spend my savings on it and it would blow up and be out of this world. And they were like, that seems...

unrealistic but um sure if you want to try to sell online we'll teach you how to build a website my mom at this time owned a small business so they knew how to do e-commerce and they were like we'll teach you like how to kind of build your little wix website and like how to do shipping and you can ship all the shirts yourself but we'll see how good it goes we think that we're going to be wearing these t-shirts for the rest of our life i ordered 200 okay 50 of each size and my parents were like we'll see how long they last launch day comes and they sell it in 13 minutes

And I think for the first time my parents saw the vision that I had seen for what social media had in store and they understood it. And they from that day forward were the most empowering, like positive. I feel like I like proved myself in a way and not that they wouldn't believe to me. They always believed in me that I would be able to achieve whatever I put my mind to. But it was different to see this like proof of concept come to like actually execute and work that they were like, OK, yeah.

You're a content creator. What are we doing next? What's the next launch? It was so cool to see like the engineering and the art and the business mind all come together. And my parents just be so excited for me and so proud of it. I got so lucky that my grad school kind of found out that I was creating social media. By the time we had come back to being in person, it was safe to

travel again. So I was traveling every single weekend for different work opportunities. I was going with brands. I was going on brand trips. I was going to different events that were happening all over the country. And I lucked out that grad school saw this opportunity and knew that I need to take advantage of it. And we're so supportive and so positive about me doing this. They were like, whatever time you need, take your time. If you need extensions on your work, you get extensions on your work. As long as this is due by this day,

Travel wherever you want. Miss what classes you need to. We're so proud of you. We're so excited for you. Do you need someone to talk to about this? Are you stressed? Are you worried? Like, at this time, I had a pretty, like, huge following that I still can't wrap my brain around how I got it. But everyone was so excited about it that, like, I had all the infrastructure of people who cared and wanted to see me succeed already existing. So...

It worked out perfectly. And then I graduated with my master's. I did my thesis. I made a short film. I graduated. The day after I graduated, I attended Cannes Film Festival, which felt like a bucket list thing for someone coming out of the film and television space to get to experience a film festival of that size right off the bat. I went with TikTok. So like,

My jobs were colliding, my careers, my passions were colliding. And to this day, like my number one goal always is to just keep choosing something every day that makes me happy. And truthfully, even till now, it's always just been sharing life with you. So we've made it to the time of the episode where I get to do a rosebud thorn, which will normally come at the beginning of the episodes, but because this is episode one...

We're just, we're reformatting a little bit just to keep it interesting for you. Normally what you're going to see here is me talking on the phone with each and every one of you. So if you want to call in, you absolutely can.

Rosebud thorn. Rosebud thorn. Okay, guys. Our rosebud thorn this week is about my life as a whole. And I think I'm going to start with the thorn because I'm going to start sad and then work my way up to the happy stuff because I want to end the podcast on a positive note, such as this is our first one. And I'm so happy that you're here and I finally get to share with you. I may have just exposed one of mine from saying that, but here we go. My thorn of my life.

is a positive and a negative, I think. I think it makes me sad and that's why it feels like a negative, but it's the people that I've lost along the way and maybe even like the potential pieces of myself that maybe I've lost along the way. I think that like growing up is beautiful and how I got here was really exciting, but there's doors that closed that even if it was better that they closed, I still didn't want them to. But kind of going back to those things, like right place, right time, there's an intention and there's a purpose for everything and I really believe that. So

Even though it's bittersweet that like there's peace in myself that I've lost or maybe like some of my naivete or like my little innocence. It all happened for a reason. So I'm just happy to be here. My bud is everything that's unpredictable that's on the way. Like guys, there is so much opportunity that is right around the corner. I mean, first off, this. Second off, I just want to swim our line. What's to come? What's next? I've been taking acting classes for over a year and a half.

I'm booking a movie this year. I'm not even manifesting. I'm speaking into existence. There will be a movie and a sitar. And yeah, I think that that's like my greatest but is that you never know what the opportunities are and they're honestly endless. So kind of just seeing what's here has in store. And my rose. Can you guess?

It's this right now. It's this right here today. It's the fact that we are here. It's the fact that I have so many incredible people on the other side of the phone, on the other side of the screen, on the other side of their headphones, on the other side of the car speaker listening to me talk right now and that I get to share this life with you. And at every moment of my life when I felt like I was most alone, I always had you guys to rely on and to cheer me on and to boost me up and to make me feel so good about everything

the crazy weird things that I was up to. If you guys thought that this was a one-way street, you are wrongfully mistaken because I

I want to hear from you. I want to talk to you guys and hear about your questions, your problems, your thoughts, or things that you want to hear on upcoming and new episodes. And you can do that now with a new segment called Anna Answers, where you can ask me anything and I, Anna, will answer. So I'm going to give you a fan line to where you guys can call in. And you might not get me personally, but you will be getting my voice on voicemail. And I cannot wait to hear your beautiful voices. And maybe, if you're lucky, you get to be premiered on my podcast.

So the number you want to give a ring to is 323-433-0683. And each week I'll dive deep into something that either I'm struggling with or you're struggling with and together we'll map out a guide to where we want to go. So don't forget to give me a call. Once again, the number is 323-433-0683. And I cannot wait to hear your beautiful voices soon.

I just want to say thank you for being here. Not only am I so happy you're here, but I'm so thankful that you've chosen to share this life with me. I'm so happy we're alive at the same time. And cheers to an entire lifetime still to go. I mean, I'm 27 now, but there's still a lot of life ahead of me. So I'm so excited to just

Keep doing the things. Well, guys, that's a wrap. Thank you so much for watching episode one of Anna's Guide podcast. I'm so happy that you're here. Don't forget to tune in every single week right here where you are now to check out new episodes of topics ranging from life to relationships to just sharing all the girly favorite things.

And don't forget to call in if you guys want to join my voicemail and hear your beautiful voice on the other side of the phone right here. Thank you so much, you guys. I'm so happy that you're here. You can follow me on all my social platforms. Don't forget to follow, rate, and review Anna's Guide wherever you get your podcasts and also subscribe to Anna's Guide on YouTube for full episode videos. I'll see you guys soon.

Ooh, so official because this episode of Anna's Guide is brought to you by Command Brand. Command makes it easy and worry-free to create a space that reflects who you are with damage-free hanging products. I know on socials you guys are always asking me about my DIY tips and tricks, and honestly, Command products are my go-to whenever I feel like I need to make a quick change to my apartment or make my house feel more like a home.

My favorite part about Command products is that they're so versatile and I can change and move with my style as I feel and they leave no marks, no residue and don't ruin any of my walls. So you can visit command.com to find out where to buy Command products on this back to college season.