One day, I found myself complaining about every negative thing that was happening in my life. I thought about my mistakes from the past, my frustration from my expectations, and the limited time about my future. I know it’s is not very uncommon for anyone to do this. But my situation is unique because my mission for my brand is to inspire and motivate people. I asked myself, “Who am I to tell people to stop complaining when I find myself complaining randomly all the time?”

I sat there feeling like a hypocrite. A fraud. And I thought that my day was already going badly. Then I started thinking about different motivational speakers I’ve come across. How do they do it? How can they possibly stay positive all the time? And that’s when I thought to myself that there is no way it can be done. …

In this episode, I discuss the birth of our mission statement and how we came up with our mission statement for our brand. It’s very important to have a mission statement because it explains and provides your purpose for your brand or company. Everything you do should follow this mission to prevent yourself from losing your focus.

We actually started out as a website and then eventually evolved to become a clothing line. I intended to just provide content online for people to enjoy and show ourselves having a good time and just hoping that people will be entertained by our experiences. …

Shocking Increase in Youth Suicide Attempts

Suicide and homicide rates have increased in recent years among young adults in the U.S., based on a new federal report. Six students who had attended Herriman High School in Utah committed suicide within the same year in 2017, which is why the Wall Street Journal visited and created the video above.

According to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate among young adults ages 10 to 24 years old increased by 56% between 2007 and 2017. …

Influencers are about to become more valuable to sponsors even if they don’t have a lot of followers. Instagram announced in a blog post that influencers who post content using the “paid partnership” tool will see an option that says “Allow Business Partner to Promote”.

This means that when influencers partners with a business to create a branded content post, the influencer can give them permission to turn the post into an ad or sponsored post.

Influencer marketing, where people with social media followers get paid to promote sponsors with brands or products, has gotten very popular because sponsors want to take advantage of the trust influencers have built with their followers to capture their attention. …

I just read this article that discusses the difference between influencers and creators. I don’t think it’s a matter of difference since the identity of being an influencer and creator can overlap over each other.

For example, there are people who provide plenty of knowledge about a specific niche as an influencer but they don’t really depend on producing visual content. There are people who produce visual/auditory content as creators but they’re not really influential.

But there are influencers who ALSO produce, or create, valuable content that is educational, persuasive or entertaining.

Monetization is a different story

Once you decide to monetize your followers/viewers/audience, it’s a completely different role since you transition from the followers to sponsors being your customers. …

The influence of our apparel brand

We began our journey in helping people with Fükitt, our inspirational apparel company with the mission to inspire and motivate people to live life without regret and accept challenges worth the risk.

We traveled internationally spreading the word about our brand and our philosophy that all of the motivational quotes and inspirational stories are meaningless.

Unless you make a decision.

Because if you continue to do what you’ve always done, then you’ll continue to get what you’ve always gotten. So many people complain about things that they do nothing about.

This is why we always try to integrate our brand because starting day one is merely a suggestion and it’s meaningless unless you make the decision to start. …

In the beginning, the # of followers was attractive for getting massive exposure. But with the issue of fake followers, sponsors began observing a different metric, the % of engagement.

But with more and more influencers using engagement bots and pods to increase engagement, sponsors are going to be looking at a different metric to measure the value of an influencer.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, influencers need to transform into becoming entrepreneurs and you better start thinking of what other value you’re providing to sponsors other than just having a lot of followers.

Because now, sponsors are going to have a much more effective metric to measure an influencer’s value; the actual ROI. (at least on Instagram where the sponsors’ goal is…