Leyla Afshonkar built one of the biggest viral moments in Instagram history, a video with Neymar that reached hundreds of millions of views. She could have kept riding that wave forever. Instead she quietly walked away from it and switched, completely, to music.
Leyla is now building an artist career from scratch. She released her album Juicy earlier this year and is treating everything before this as a previous chapter. In this episode we get into what happened, why she made the switch, and what the last two years of internal work looked like as she stopped chasing views and started chasing a childhood dream she'd been ignoring since she was a kid.
We also talk about what actually makes something go viral, why she thinks the hook is everything, how a spiritual awakening two years ago rewired the way she creates, and the boring reality of being a beginner in the music industry after being one of the most watched people on the internet. Plus her honest take on comfort zones, discipline, ADHD, and the songwriting process that only happens when she's half asleep in the middle of the night.
In this episode:
- Why she completely walked away from the viral content that made her famous
- The full switch from entertainer to artist and why she made it
- What actually makes something go viral and why the hook is everything
- The spiritual awakening two years ago that changed how she creates
- Her album Juicy and the sushi meal that inspired it
- Why she thinks ADHD is a superpower, not a curse
- What discipline actually looks like when you're rebuilding from zero
- Why the music industry has been much harder than she expected
- Why comfort zones are dangerous even when they're successful
- Her advice for anyone who wants to reinvent themselves and doesn't know how
Chapters:
(00:00) What actually makes something go viral
(01:42) Why she's not afraid to show her real self on camera
(03:01) Can confidence actually be trained
(04:04) Growing up struggling with beauty standards
(05:50) COVID, Arabic comedy, and going viral for the first time
(06:56) The complete shift, why she walked away from what was working
(08:01) Joe Dispenza, meditation, and the spiritual awakening
(09:22) Why ADHD is a superpower
(10:18) Why chasing views stopped being fulfilling
(11:31) Wanting to be an artist, not an entertainer
(13:34) The album Juicy and the music dream she carries
(15:48) How to actually shift your personality
(17:38) Discipline, atomic habits, and the boring reality
(19:40) The unseen work behind a single song release
(21:39) Why criticism of her music hits harder
(25:00) The version of Leyla in the studio when the camera is off
(26:50) The New Year's sushi meal that became a song
(28:17) Why her best songs come in the middle of the night
(31:05) How she actually rests in Amsterdam
(32:05) The music industry has been harder than she expected
(33:22) Why she refuses to commit to a single genre
(37:26) Why comfort zones are dangerous even when they're successful
(43:54) Don't forget to breathe
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