This week on Earned, Brit Starr sits down with Shima Katouzian, powerhouse beauty creator (@sheemoma on Instagram, 2.8M followers) and founder of BODO Makeup. Tune in to learn how what started as candid videos filmed in full glam before work became the foundation for a platform, a brand, and a business—all in Shima’s native language of Farsi.
To start, we dive into Shima’s remarkable journey from Tesla employee to beloved Instagram influencer who’s fostered a community of nearly 3 million passionate fans. We learn how during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shima discovered her passion for content creation through her desire for authenticity and a deep connection to her Iranian roots. Shima reveals how her decision to create content in her native language of Farsi, despite the challenges it posed for brand recognition, allowed her to build a genuine and tight-knit community. We then hear how Shima manifested her dream brand partnerships through intentionality and positivity. To close the show, Shima underscores the importance of staying true to oneself, building genuine connections, and fostering a collaborative community—three things that have been integral to her success.
Check out highlights from the episode below, or or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
“I picked the harder route”: Why Shima Katouzian decided to keep creating her content in Farsi—and how it paid off
Brit Starr: What did that process look like when you started having conversations with brands? Were you reaching out to them? Were they reaching out to you? Share a little bit about that.
Shima Katouzian: I think the brands started recognizing me when I started using their products. Imagine you own a business, and you see someone using your product while speaking in a different language. You still pay attention to that person. It doesn't matter what language they’re speaking. They're using your product. You would be excited about that.
So when I started using the products, brands started reaching out to me and the conversation started. When the conversation starts, then the event happens, then the intimate dinner happens, then the giveaway happens, then the PR packages happen.
It took a long time for them to realize that I’m actually helping their business and start a conversation because the content was in Farsi. Second, I didn't know what I was doing, and third, unfortunately I was not represented by any agency. I was sitting there waiting for the email to come.
Brit Starr: I love the fact that, even though the language might have been a barrier to the speed of some of these deals, you never changed course. You stayed true to who you were, stayed true to what your community was engaging with you around. And we see this in our data, a lot of the time native content, local language content, actually outperforms English content in terms of engagement, both in the U.S. and markets around the world, which is quite interesting. But again, that's a story that you had to really tell and prove with your brand partners and I think it's a credit to you that you stayed the course and stayed true to who you were.
Shima Katouzian: Basically, I had the choice at some point in my career to pick the shorter route or the harder way, and I picked the harder route. I picked the longer route, which was to keep creating in Farsi and not switching to English, because at that point I already had like 1 million followers, which happened so quickly.
I actually tried to do a couple videos in English, and my audience was like, “What are you saying? This is boring, this doesn't feel right, the emotion isn’t there.” But when I do it in Farsi, people feel that and people get that, even if they only watch 10 seconds of the video. So I was like okay, that answers my question. I'm going to keep going in Farsi.
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