Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
It was the day after the launch and the GoPro family and I (both ambassadors and corporate) were out celebrating in our usual fashion (open bar and dance floor poppin’), and I found myself sneaking into a hallway to collect my tears, because there was just so much to take in, process, and absorb in that moment.
Before I go into any more detail, let me pass on the chills real quick with the final ad…
Yet all I could think was how unworthy I was.
If you know anything about the GoPro brand, you know it’s filled with insane athletes, adventure junkies, and superhuman people doing superhuman things.
But the extent of my subhuman superhumanness (hello, dictionary) is me smearing chocolate on my hotel bedding as I go to sleep snacking on cookies, and end up charading my explanation to housekeeping in a foreign language that I did not, in fact, sh*t the bed. Despite all evidence suggesting otherwise.
Again, a superhuman skill I will one day find room for on my resume.
Alas, how could I possibly compare? What could I do to truly fit in with their level of awesomeness when I’m about a cartwheel away from ending up on life support? #OuttaShape #UnlessWeTalkinCircles
And though confident and bold on the outside, I have [many] moments of doubt where I question if I’m truly worthy of some of these blessings thrown my way. The opportunities. The spaces I’m given to represent a demographic and community.
What did the CEO Nick Woodman see in me? How did my face out of the dozens of terabytes of footage they went through get picked?
I was getting flooded with compliments all weekend and then Nick had the mic and floor and said so genuinely, “we should’ve had you in there way more — never hide that smile of yours”.
Flattered, I turned about as red as black people can turn (spoiler: we still stay black), and I turned to the many faces around me to deflect the attention and the smiles shot back were like warm hugs from old friends.
Here's what it's like being featured in GoPro's Hero6 launch campaign! Click To TweetWhen GoPro calls its advocates and ambassadors “GoPro Family Members” it is truly a testament to the bond we all share and create.
It’s one, big family of creative, inspiring, and iron-livered humans from around the world who all share a passion for capturing insane content and sharing it with others.
THE MOMENT was a major success. And I simply couldn’t carry all that praise around without stumbling over the gratitude I had for Nick, Abe, Erin, Katie, Chris, Meg, Kyle, Ryan, and a legion of others who saw my face in an early draft and said, “yeah, let’s keep her in this.”
And before I get into some of the behind-the-scenes action and my Quik video recap, I wanted to share why this meant a little bit more to me, personally.
It was the representation aspect.
I got this DM the same day as the launch and it spoke volumes.
As a woman of color, a solo traveler, and a daughter of two Nigerian immigrants, labels, identity, and community have been a long-time struggle for me throughout my entire life.
Where do I fit in most? Who can relate to my story? Who will help amplify my voice?
My audience regarding my blog and social media following is made of a majority of black people — black women specifically.
In many ways, I’m a voice for not only myself, but everyone around me who is trying to navigate their journey of belonging and finding their purpose in this world.
When you give 15 seconds of shine to someone like me, black people and young black girls especially, are looking at this as a gateway for them for what’s possible and what it means to be included in the conversation.
I don’t think Nick realized the magnitude of this for my audience and quite frankly, my own self-esteem.
One by one, people were coming up to me giving me high-fives, hugs, and compliments I tried so hard to deflect because our human nature just doesn’t let us accept praise when given in such overwhelming doses.
And then I had the absolute honor of teaming up with one of the best talents to come out of South Africa, fellow GoPro Fam member, Chris Rogers.
Working with someone of his caliber was slightly intimidating at first, but then I loosened up realizing the magnitude of this project and the talent I was accompanied by.
We had to fight against Bali’s unpredictable weather, sporadic downpour, and cloudy skies to try and get the shots we hoped for all week.
We were up and running by 5AM each morning and up past midnight reviewing content, editing, and planning out the next day’s stops.
We were trying to hit every hot spot in Bali, while still being realistic about what shots we could pull off while the skies were grey every, single morning.
But a highlight was getting a speedboat over to Nusa Penida island for that unbelievable view over Kellingking Beach, navigating the roughest roads I’d ever experienced, but Chris manned the way.
Fast-forward three months later and GoPro flies me over to San Francisco where I get to watch my face, smile, and hands make multiple cameos throughout the ad.
I’ve never been more motivated to keep capturing content on this incredible little camera and I urge all of you who’ve been on the fence about getting yourself a GoPro, that you simply won’t find a more powerful and versatile action camera.
It’s multi-purpose, mobile, waterproof, and lightyears more advanced than any other action camera on the market! It simply doesn’t get better than this!
And with the HERO6, you can enjoy new features like shooting 4K/60 (FPS), 1080/240, in-camera stabilization, zoom capability, 3x faster offload than the Hero5, and bragging rights of course 😉
You can cop yours HERE and shop other GoPro products and accessories!
And then after capturing your footage, you can now use QuikStories to “quickly” edit and share your content to social media, as you send your videos and photos straight to your phone where the app uses grade-A technology to music-sync and edit automatically to the beat.
Check out my QuikStories edit below!
Love everything about this! Congrats on being a part of this ad and showing us some of the beauty of Bali!
What a great opportunity, which is well-deserved 🙂 Congratulations!
Well done Gloria & many congratulations. You look fabulous & deserve every opportunity!
‘Love it!
Congratulations Glo! You are without a doubt an individual worthy of being in this ad. It brought an aspect to the video not usually seen. Like you were saying most people expect to see athletes doing outrageous things like flips and cliff jumps etc. But when I saw your smile. Omg I was so inspired and my heart was so warm. You were just so beautiful. You were literally GLO-ing haha. Keep doing what your are doing and never ever stop. You are a light in this world and we NEED more people like you. People who challenge us to go out and do the unexpected and believe that there is more out there. I am so glad I discovered you on the web. I don’t even know how, but I’m convinced it’s for a reason that I don’t know yet. Wishing you the best, Glo:)