 Hi, my name is Nislila Rako and I am currently pursuing my Bachelor of Economics at Denso College and today I am going to talk about my journey as an influencer. My journey started when I was 20 years old and I am proud that I am able to cover all my expenses without depending on my parents. It all began with an interest for clicking pictures and posting it on social media like most of the girls do out there. I created this account in the month of September 2020. I became quite active and got more excited when my engagement increased and my followers began to grow. Though my followers were growing, I was unaware of the term called influencer or say I did not consider myself for being one. However, with the good number of followers that I have, people who just started with their businesses that needs marketing and advertising, they made an approach to help them promote and reach out to more people. So I agreed and I started working with them. There is a marketing team for every brand, be it small or big. So what does this marketing team do is that on behalf of all the brands, those marketing team, they reach out to influencers and they make an offer, which is done in two ways. Either paid basis or bar to basis and if you are lucky enough you will get it in both. So the procedure is they will give out forms to all influencers for brand campaigns based on their interests and the type of content that they want to create. And they will also negotiate on certain terms and conditions and of your charges as well. So that is a gist of how my journey as an influencer first kicked off. From the entire experience so far, I have learned that Instagram is an effective source for generating an income based on your interests and the type of content that you want to create. At the same time, it is very time consuming and overwhelming when all the brand campaigns clash at the same time especially when you are not a full-time content creator. Instagram have helped me gain recognition, exposure and tons of opportunities such as for working with the music video, hosting, doing reality shows and even as event promoter for which I was getting paid a hefty amount for doing something that I truly enjoyed. I have also worked with more than 20 brands such as for Rene, MKFaint, Blue to India, KS Foods and even for K-Beauty Shopping app called Macron. I have also helped promote a lot of local stores and business startups as well and accounting it continues. From the entire experience, I have learned three major key things and I still keep in practice with. Those are number one, be consistent and never give up. Doing something you truly love does not mean it will always be enjoyable. We can't only expect rainbow and sunshine but we must also know that challenges do exist and that we should not give up when things become tough. Number two, be resilient of negativity. I did not gain everything in a blink of an eye, I gave my time, I worked for it and I continued even when there were certain times when being a public figure it invites a lot of negativity and criticism. But I have now come to term with the fact that it is all part of the package, negativity will come along with some achievements but one should not be deterred from its goal. Number three, be open to feedbacks and improvement. I have had to learn and I'm still learning through trials and error, making an attempt every day makes me realize how I can improve myself in the next boat. I believe it is so important to keeping a positive attitude and moving forward every day. So with these three major key points, it had helped me grow and come thus far. My interest, it made me known to people so your interest might do, so give your interest a try. You can also go check out my work and my commercial on Instagram under the username asnayspaceracon.