Influence or Integrity?
Is it a choice? or can one have both?
2020 was my first stint as an "Influencer", a term so vaguely defined that I'm still not entirely certain what truly comprises one, and the conflicts with character were immediately apparent. This isn't to say that one cannot be an influencer and an honest/good person at the same time, merely that the small adjustments one must make can quickly snowball into becoming a complete character makeover, and that the trained eye can see pretty far down that path before starting off on it. As someone who was just laid off for an indefinite stretch of time, I was quick to see the potential in making money from basically doing what I already do for fun, but I could also see that influencers weren't always the most genuine. I didn't get this far on my good looks, so I took a shrewd but cautious first few steps down the path of the Social Media Influencer.
brief lore dump
I only really became popular online in late 2019, and I think the subsequent global pandemic probably boosted my numbers significantly since everyone was stuck at home and chronically online. With nothing to do but train and make videos, which I love doing, I quickly became prevalent in the martial arts and fitness communities, even meeting some of who I'd considered celebrities here and there. It wasn't long before brands began to take notice and reach out to me, sometimes offering free supplements or gear to try out with the promise that I'd shout them out or something. From the jump, I had told myself never to be shy in saying "no", and so I was pretty liberal with declining brands I didn't believe in, but then they started offering real money and deals.
Even though the numbers kept growing, I was hesitant to take that next leap because it felt like selling some small part of my soul. Luckily, a prominent fitness brand was willing to negotiate a very generous deal with me; I wouldn't make much money, but I could do basically whatever I wanted as long as it wasn't directly advertising for their competitors. This deal essentially kept me afloat when the unemployment and stimulus checks started getting thinner, and I had a great time with them through the end of 2022. By this point, I had done a number of other deals and partnerships with other brands, never going all in because like I said, I'd seen behind the curtain and didn't want the lifestyle of a full on influencer. No one needs me to say that "all that glitters ain't gold", but man... I'd rather go back to barely making it as a teacher in Taipei than be a Hollywood social media personality.
my observations
The margin for success or even sustainability is often razor thin for these people. When appearances are everything, hanging onto that $4,800/mo apartment, leased luxury car, and brand-name clothes & shoes becomes a necessity, and some of the overheads I've seen have been straight up insane. That's not even accounting for the fact that pretty much any big influencers are actually a team of people (people who need to be paid), effectively making each figurehead their own company complete with employees and all. Aside from the fact that that is a logistical nightmare, I could say that it also became a feedback loop: you want more money > you take bigger deals > you need more help > you need more money > so on and so forth. This is also one of the reasons most big influencers you see are rich before they became popular: it's easier to get this monstrosity of a career off the ground with some seed capital.
From what little experience I have in managing when I was in the restaurant industry, I understood that to be an absolute nightmare and almost never worth the money. I also HATE keeping up appearances: I'm an athlete, you can expect me to be either drenched in sweat or dressed like I'm about to be drenched in sweat like 90% of the time. Other than for special occasions, I have zero interest in nice clothes/shoes/cars/apartments, the things I have in my life are functional first and pretty after. The opulence and lavish nature of a lot of my peers definitely turned me off, but not nearly as much as the main factor.
Art(?)
Doing what you love is everyone's dream at some point, and if you're an artist, that can feel more like a fantasy when you factor in how you can make enough money to survive late stage capitalism. Hell, I wanted to be a chef for years, even trained for it and worked as a cook in several restaurants, but seeing how little they get paid for such an insanely stressful and involved job eventually turned me away from that path. I love cooking, but I could already feel myself hating the work because of how much of my life it consumed for me to just barely hold on.
That experience as a cook is essentially what I saw all around me when I linked up with career influencers. Their craft, the thing that brought them to this reality in the first place, would be twisted and distorted by the demands of brands, algorithms, cliques, agents, and various other entities until it became more akin to the ubiquitous "content" that saturates the platforms. Tricking and Bboying got me through some truly horrendous periods in my life, even literally saving me at times, and I don't ever want to hate those things. I know I won't be able to do those things forever, but I want to have beautiful and loving memories, not to look at them as yet another begrudging means to an insubstantial end. Even from what little I'd done thus far, I felt the money pulling at me harder and harder, making little adjustments for the brands as I went. Every time I made a sizeable deal, I thought of the snowball from earlier, and that eventually led me to step away from large social media brand deals.
Now:
It is by no means impossible to have it all, and it's one of my core beliefs that you can do anything, but I couldn't find a way to be a macro-influencer while being true to myself. I'm sure they're out there, I just haven't met any, but I have met tons of awesome micro and mid-size influencers who supplement their income with brand deals that complement their passions: cosplay, makeup, pottery, music, fitness, and plenty others. This feels far more like a place I could belong and even grow, albeit for way less money, but hey, money ain't everything!
Currently, I take on brand deals a couple times per year, but only when they are either a) highly relevant or b) a brand I that I use regularly and enjoy. Next month, 2 brand deals I've worked on earlier this year will go live, and I think people will be able to tell that I hold each in high regard. I don't have any commission or anything like that for most agreements, and once in every blue moon, I even do one for free (but I REALLY gotta like them). So even though I don't make a high 5 or low 6 figures annually off of my social media, I can say for certain that I'm in a good place with my artistic and personal integrity, and you really can't put a price on that because once it's gone, it's almost impossible to get back.
I don't really have any other closing statements or themes to drive home, just know that all the glitz & glamour we see comes with a heavy price, so if you're thinking about becoming an influencer, do your best to get a look at how the sausage is made before you offer your own meat to the grinder. Wow that's an awful metaphor. 1/10
