Five years ago, UC Davis business student Wendy Cung Ly couldn’t land a single corporate internship. 

Today, she commands a multi-million-follower skincare empire, has launched a fashion brand, and maintains partnerships with major beauty companies like First Aid Beauty—all by transforming a business school theory into a content strategy that generated 40 million views on a single video.

As a first-generation Chinese American creator based in Los Angeles, Wendy identified a market opportunity in beauty content: while countless creators reviewed products, few strategically integrated personal storytelling as a differentiator.

“I realized that there were only so many different ways you can talk about how to put on a moisturizer, so many different ways to cleanse your face,” Wendy explains about her early content creation days. 

This market insight—product-focused content alone couldn’t differentiate her in the crowded skincare space—led to her breakthrough content format.

Instead of continuing with standard product reviews, Wendy developed her signature “Skincare Stories” series, where she would “apply my daytime skincare routine or nighttime skincare routine while talking about my life as a voiceover.” 

This series transformed her content from generic product demonstrations into personal narratives that built deeper audience relationships.

“People got to know me through my skincare routine,” she explains. “I was thinking a lot about how I can personalize my skincare journey with my followers. Many other pages at that time only talked about the skincare products, but not themselves.”

This strategy emerged directly from her business education. “I really, really think it does help. I know a lot of people say they don’t use their degree or they don’t really grab anything they learned from college, but I do really use a lot of the things I learned from college for my classes in how I grow my platforms.”

Converting Trust to Commerce

The business impact of Wendy’s personalization strategy became evident when one of her videos featuring shaving advice using First Aid Beauty’s KP Bump Eraser body scrub went viral.

“I decided to share my shaving advice to the Internet, like how to shave everywhere. And many people, I went so viral that I would get stopped in public,” Wendy recalls. “I would get stopped in public and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, I tried your shaving hack and it works.’ That face-to-face validation from a stranger is different. I would get stopped like for months.”

The video, which now has over 40 million views, “unlocked a never-ending partnership with First Aid Beauty.” Wendy explains that this specific product recommendation was authentic: “I still love the product to this day. I love working with the brand and know for 100% sure that it’s that video that I’m where I’m at today. Like jumpstart my career.”

Business Infrastructure Behind the Influence

While Wendy’s content appears spontaneous and personal, she’s built sophisticated business operations to support her growing enterprise. “It’s not a one woman team,” she emphasizes, detailing the extensive professional infrastructure that powers her content.

“GCA is helping me, my manager Natalie, we have the talent coordinator Natalia, my PR, Blakeley and Taylor… it’s a big team behind me that helps me be where I am today.” This team structure has evolved systematically as her business has grown.

“Starting the beginning of this year, I hired a creative director,” Wendy explains. “She helps with the ideation process, and she’s a family friend of mine, so she’s been following me since the start of my journey. She knows me more than I know myself, to be honest. So when she ideates content, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so perfect.’ And then we execute it. She also helps me edit.”

This delegation strategy enables Wendy to focus on expansion: “That’s how I’m able to handle six social media accounts at once.”

Platform and Content Strategy

Wendy has deliberately developed distinct strategies for each platform based on their unique characteristics and audience behaviors.

“Each platform is so beautiful in their own way,” she explains. “Instagram like I started on Instagram so I will always have a soft spot for Instagram. What I really love about Instagram is how it’s super accessible. When you go out in public and meet someone new, you always show them your Instagram, not your TikTok or YouTube pages.”

For TikTok, she focuses on “trendy, funny viral videos,” while YouTube serves “a whole different demographic” because “YouTube is not banned in certain countries and TikTok is, so I get a different demographic and it’s just really nice to see followers from different cultures just coming together in the comments.”

Her content creation process balances structure with spontaneity. “I’m very type B,” Wendy explains. “So whenever I have an idea, I would immediately execute it because it’s so fresh in my head. But, you know, if I don’t have time, then I would put it in my notes app.” Her notes contain “hundreds of content ideas” she can draw from when filming.

Wendy has discovered that emotional authenticity directly impacts performance: “Being in front of a camera, you have to be in a happy mood, or else your video is not going to perform well,” she explains. “Some days ago, months ago, I tried to film when I was not feeling the best. And obviously, the video did not perform well.”

Brand Partnership Philosophy and Evaluation

Rather than accepting any brand deal offered, Wendy has developed specific criteria for partnerships that protect her authentic appeal and audience trust.

“I think it’s really important to work with brands that you like because it really shows in the content,” she emphasizes. “When a creator doesn’t like a product and they’re advertising it, it just doesn’t make sense.”

Her multi-year experience of testing various skincare, haircare, and makeup products has given her both credibility and clarity about which partnerships align with her values. “Throughout the five years, I have had relationships with all these brands. Now it’s easier for me. I will bring it on if I want to work with a brand. I will ask my manager, Natalie, and she’ll make it happen.”

When evaluating potential partnerships, communication is key: “Whenever a brand wants to work with me, we communicate on what I want to do. They’ll give me the product and the brief and I’ll tell them how I want to film it.”

Building Community as a Business Metric

While many creators focus on viral metrics or follower counts, Wendy prioritizes community engagement as her primary success measure. This approach treats community not just as a vanity metric but as a business asset.

“I measure my success with my audience,” she explains. “I read my DMs and comments all the time. Having a community is the number one thing right now for me. I know other people get excited when their video goes viral, and that measures their success. But I don’t think of it like that.”

Her reasoning is strategic: “A video can go viral today, but tomorrow, everyone will forget about it. But it’s the people who remember you and constantly check up on you—that’s my way of measuring success.”

This community focus extends to her advice for aspiring creators: “Being unique is one thing, and being consistent is another thing. You can’t want to be a creator and post once a week. That’s not going to help with growing your account. You have to be consistent. You have to give back to your community. You have to respond to comments and DMs. It’s all part of a process. It’s kind of like having a friendship—you have to maintain it.”

Expanding Beyond Content Creation

Wendy has leveraged her content success to build additional business ventures, applying her skincare content strategy principles to fashion entrepreneurship.

“This year, I’m obviously doing this clothing brand called Envisage, but we’re also launching a women’s line called ‘Envy by Envisage,’ which is launching next month,” she explains. “I have a whole separate team for that. Again, it’s not just me. There’s a whole team for that too.”

This expansion reflects her strategic application of business principles across different verticals. “Skincare is super different from clothing. So I had to really learn how to introduce that to my audience,” she says. “Since the start of this year, we have made a lot of internal plans about how I should continue with my content and how the clothing brand should continue by itself as well.”