An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Send out emails to anyone and everyone you want to work with! When I was starting out, I emailed anyone that I was remotely interested in working with, and some responded, others didn’t, but it not only gave me experience on how to construct a professional email, but it also helped me grow my confidence in being an influencer.
As part of my series about “How Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Corina Layton.
Corina Layton is a 2020 Dental Hygiene graduate currently practicing full time in Philadelphia, PA. She started out working at the front desk of a dental office, and kept progressing to a dental assistant, orthodontic assistant, and is now a Registered Dental Hygienist. She is projected to complete her BSDH in the Spring of 2023, and looks to use her degree to continue educating the general public as well as other dental professionals. Corina has been able to grow a following on TikTok and Instagram as a Dental Hygienist by educating people about dentistry and sharing tips and tricks on how to have an overall healthy mouth and body. She enjoys networking and continuing education courses, as she believes the future in dentistry is always changing.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. What is your “backstory”? What brought you to this point in your career?
I have been a dental hygienist for a bit over 2 years now, but I grew up in Alaska, lived in Wisconsin for 4 years and now currently live in Philadelphia. I started to pursue social media on a serious level when I realized that there was a huge lack of dental knowledge in the general population. Those were the videos that took off, and I continued to create that type of content in hopes to educate.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you in the course of your career?
I would say the funniest/most interesting thing would be that some people are so sensitive when they don’t have irritated gums, while others who have a lot going on don’t even flinch. That always amazes me because every mouth is so different.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I would like to say yes! Everyday that I am able to educate one person on how to better help their overall oral hygiene, which leads to a great overall systemic health, is a good day! That means that I did my job correctly.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but know that their dreams might be dashed?
My words of advice is to just continue to pursue what you are passionate about, and the people who are, or want to also be passionate about it, will follow. Anyone can be influential, but it may just not be to the group that they are initially anticipating it will be.
None of us can achieve success without a bit of help along the way. Is there a particular person who made a profound difference in your life to whom you are grateful? Can you share a story?
The biggest and most influential person in my life who helped me achieve success would be my husband, Jared. He has always been my number one fan, and will sacrifice his battery to leave my videos on repeat to help boost me in the algorithm; he continues to always say “yes” when I have a last minute trip or meeting that I have to do; he never doubts me, and continues to just tell me that I can do it, and that I am the hardest worker he has ever known! Those words alone, and his unwavering support keep me going, and really push me to continue to pursue my dreams, and keep going when the going gets rough.
So what are the most exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I am so excited to be able to partner with an amazing company that is changing the face of dentistry, and how we treat our patients while I accompany them on their trips across the country to dental conferences. Being present at these conferences has opened doors for me to write articles and be able to teach more people about dental hygiene and influencing. I hope to have my first article written out by the end of the year, and I am very nervous, but very excited as well!
What are your “Top Five Ways That Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand” . (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. Send out emails to anyone and everyone you want to work with! When I was starting out, I emailed anyone that I was remotely interested in working with, and some responded, others didn’t, but it not only gave me experience on how to construct a professional email, but it also helped me grow my confidence in being an influencer.
2. Monetize yourself in a niche that you are passionate about. This means, in my case, I get brand deals for TikTok, and then make sure that I keep in the niche that my followers are interested in so that I can profit the most because that is what I specialize in and that is what gets the views that myself and the brands are looking for.
3. Join platforms that can aid in finding deals. This meant doing a lot of research on different websites that I can join to get in contact with companies, opposed to waiting for them to reach out to me.
4. User Generated Content (UGC) is another way to monetize your platform. This is also one of the easier ways, because none of this content needs to be anything you are necessarily passionate about. Brands will literally let you have their product for free if you create a certain amount of deliverables (videos, reels, TikToks, photos, boomerangs…etc) and they can/will also pay you for it
5. Lastly, monetize your brand yourself. This means to not be afraid to promote yourself. For me, this was me introducing myself, and then if I was in a setting of someone asking me what I did, I would say “I am a dental hygienist, but I also do social media on the side.” This has now changed since influencing has become a greater source of income for me, but nonetheless, it opens doors for the conversation with people. It makes you more reputable, as well as, leaves the door open for that person to use you and your services, or refer you to someone.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
The movement I wish/hope I can inspire is the movement of confidence. This means not caring if my hair isn’t perfect, and not caring about the next thing that a stranger says to me. Waking up and choosing to love myself everyday is enough, and choosing to be confident in who I am, and what I am worth has drastically changed my perception of not only myself, but also has opened my eyes to others around me. Being able to help and lead people to being confident in themselves and their skills is my passion, and if that is through me dancing on camera, talking about teeth, and telling people to floss, all the while my hair is frizzy and make up is out of place, then I am doing my job right! No one is perfect, so we should stop trying, and we should just continue to grow in ourselves.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this. 🙂
This is a great question! My person I’d love to have a private breakfast with would probably be Selena Gomez. She has inspired me through her music since I was in middle school, and seeing how she is so authentically herself, and how she is raw and willing to be raw in front of a camera is so inspiring!
What is the best way our readers can follow your work online?
You can find me on TikTok or Instagram @corina_907
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational!
Corina Layton On Five Ways For Influencers To Monetize Their Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.