Diana Marks
Appearances
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
My mindset was, okay, so they told me it's practically impossible. What do I have to do? I'm gonna write and apply for 200 internships. I'm like, impossible, 200 sounds about right. Like, I'm just gonna start applying and see what happens, right? So, I mean, I'm not losing anything. I'm literally just trying, right? So, I kid you not, like, I sent 10 applications. The 10th responds to me.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
we know exactly how brands work with influencers what they're requiring like there are all these rules and regulations in place you know how to build your career at scale you know you know how to do all these things what i did is literally just like literally walking in the dark right so i was like it's like they can pay that's great you know i didn't know that you can negotiate with brands you know that because everything was new and the brands didn't know that either
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
you know so we were discovering all of this together the influencers of 2012 and those brands right so right now we have a complete different um environment for influencers and i think right now is the best time the best time to do this is always when the industry is established but still growing And right now we're still growing, of course.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
I don't think, I don't foresee this industry to ever decline in whichever capacity because there's so many social media networks now. There's so many, there's just so much going on, right? So yeah, now is the best time and the easiest time actually to be an influencer, which is ironic because a lot of influencers think that now is the hardest time to be an influencer because... Exactly.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
The market is oversaturated. But what they don't know is that if they don't approach their career as a business, they will fail. You know, so that's the thing. When I was figuring things out, I didn't really approach it as a business. I was fully driven by the idea. So it was more like a discovery that led to a business. Right now, if the influencers kind of do that, they will not succeed.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
If they're like, I'm just going to be creative and hopefully brands will find me. That's what I see. I talk to influencers all day, every day. We've worked with thousands of influencers. So that's what I see is the biggest problem for influencers. The mindset that they have is like as if...
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
they start creating content, you know, somehow the career, like the, the actual financial benefits will come with it. And that's just not the case, right? So right now you have to literally build it as a business from the ground up from the beginning. So that's the main difference.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Absolutely. Or they perceive themselves as I'm a creative soul. You know, like I shouldn't be thinking about the business side. I'm just going to post what I like and hope for the best. You know, the biggest actually mindset issue that I'm seeing is a lot among influencers is the fact that they always think that they don't have enough followers, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And so with me personally, I've monetized every single one of my social media networks individually. So not just because I'm working with a brand, you know, and I already know them, but I monetized my TikTok when I was like at 10K followers and my first campaign on TikTok was like $3,000, right? So right now TikTokers are like, how is that even possible?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
You know, but that's because I applied my business knowledge
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
know on that specific platform because it was a niche account it was not even my main account as an influencer as a public personality right so that's what i'm saying like you know the followers don't really matter the number of followers doesn't really matter it's the business approach that you take and the actual direction that you take that matters the most when you're building your influencer career
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Actually, that's a great question. There's so many directions, like I said, because things are changing so fast, there's so many directions. But what I see a lot actually, and what I'm seeing with my clients too, a lot of people like you will get into the influencing side as well, right? So that means people who already have established businesses, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And they're looking for other ways to add income or maybe lifestyle benefits as well, right? Right. So obviously, as you know, I connect influencers with luxury cars, luxury travel, hotels, all of that stuff. And those costs add up pretty quickly. Right.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So in a way for me and kind of like my whole vision, by the way, for my agency, I know we're going to talk about it in a minute, is to teach people how to not only build their full time career. That's not interesting to me. How to approach their followers as a currency. So it's not just like the number that is attached to it. It's the number that you can monetize consistently.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Like whatever it is that you want, you can get with your Instagram account, right? Or TikTok account or whatever social media account, right? So that's where I'm seeing the shift where I'm hoping to see a lot more people with followers taking advantage of brand deals. And for the brands, I see the same...
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
kind of direction change right so before they would look for just traditional like lifestyle influencers kind of like me i'm the og in the space um you know so right now they're a lot more selective about the type of personality they want to align themselves with right so that's where i see a lot more potential for actually even higher end brand deals for people who are super niche
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
right so for example you you're like you have your own company that is very niche you know your audience is very specific but if we were to approach a career properly uh you know depending on the goals of course if you want to add an additional six-figure income or if you just want to travel for free you know it's just the direction that we would choose to take
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
but that would be just like an additional income stream for you, you know, or the additional currency for you where you can like save a lot of money on travel, on like luxury gifts, luxury products, and even experiences.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Great question, as always. So my agency is like my baby, so I'm very excited to talk about it. And of course, you actually participated in our success, so I'm very grateful that I met you last year, and I'm very excited to update you on what we have going on. So I actually started my agency in 2019, so it's been
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
in a minute as well and it's been a morphing agency you know we were kind of like we were always doing the exact same thing which is helping influencers work with brands and approaching their career as a business because that's who I am that's how I've built my career but throughout the years we've done different things like coaching programs like group coaching like individual coaching like we obviously have this director of context called the magic list and
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
We call it magic because it's like if you start reaching out to these contexts strategically, you know, you will get campaigns, you know, and that's pure magic, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Yes, a brand deal is actually when a brand compensates you to be on your social media platform, right? So basically, if a brand wants to promote a phone case, right, so they will just approach you, they will offer you a specific compensation that you will negotiate with them. And then you will create a content for your audience, you know, in your own talking style.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And then you will post that content. And that is called a brand deal. It's an exchange of the promotion that you give to the brand. You know, you attach your personal brand, of course, to that and the actual brand receiving that promotion. And they compensate you financially for that. That's called campaign brand deal. Those are the same things, basically.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Well, Paul, I've been doing influencing, as you know, since 2012. So it's been a long time. So originally I was not even called an influencer. I was called a blogger. So I was still creating content, which is what influencers do. But I was creating it on the blog back in the OG days, you know, on the website, actually on actual websites, you know, online.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Yeah. So imagine when I was starting out, those brand deals were only for celebrities. Yeah. Right. So I can imagine. Yeah. And I was just a regular person, an immigrant. Right. So new in the country being sponsored by brands that that's like unheard of. That's ridiculous. You know, it's a ridiculous concept, but now it happens everywhere all the time. Yeah.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Yeah. So ironically enough, I think it's mindset. It's literally nothing else because when I started out, I didn't even know how to create content. I didn't know how to pose. I was shy. I didn't like, I had questionable taste, you know, in fashion, but I was posting about fashion, right? So I've learned all of this. Literally, I've learned how to pose. I've learned how to style myself.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
I've learned, I literally ended up at New York Fashion Week that very first year, right? So with that in mind, it was only the mindset that helped me do that. So the same thing goes for influencers nowadays. They need to understand that this is a business and it's a cutthroat business, it's true.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So if they don't approach it like that from the beginning and then a lot of people get into influencing for the wrong reasons because they're like, I want the clout. I wanna talk about restaurants and luxury hotels. I think I'm meant to become an influencer. So if that is the reason, they will fail. like by definition, you know?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So if they know that this is a career they want to pursue, they want to really approach it as a business, you know, that's when they will succeed. So all of the skills, all of them, you can learn. Content creation, you can learn. It's literally applying the steps and discipline, posting every single day, you know, with the direction in mind, with the goal in mind, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So that's what a lot of people don't follow these days, right? They don't have a goal. They're like, oh, I'm going to do this. I'm going to post this. I saw something else, you know? So they completely get sidetracked. from what they actually are from what they're building. Right. So that's why they don't get the followers. That's why they don't work with brands.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So if they are they have the right mindset and the right blueprint, that is the only the only two things they need to succeed, actually.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
We actually help any influencer, right? So if you're an established full-time influencer and you want to 10X your brand deals, we'll do that. If you're just starting out, you've never worked with brands before, but you have the followers. That's the only thing that we need is for you to have some sort of following.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
We usually say like at least 10,000 followers, but we have influencers who have like 4,000 followers who are like crushing it, literally landing. Like we have one of the clients having 15 brand deals in a month with 4,000 followers.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Yeah. So that's actually showing you the mindset difference. Right. So and also the system. Right. So what we do exactly is we integrate what we call a sophisticated way of saying would be a business acquisition system into their careers. Right. So in a nutshell, brands are influencers, clients. Right. So we teach influencers how to get clients at scale. And, you know, how do you grow a business?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And then I started working with brands through the blog. And eventually through the blog, my brands, the ones that I worked with, started asking me questions on how to promote on my other social media. networks. And I was on Facebook and Twitter at that time, I remember, and they wanted to promote on Instagram. And I'm like, there's no way I'm opening another social media channel.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
You get a lot more clients and you make sure you work long term with the same clients. Right. Recurring revenue. So that's exactly what we do, right? So we integrate the business acquisition system by giving them the tools, by giving them the training. And then my favorite part is because I've coached so many influencers, I know all the roadblocks and mindset is one of them. So they give up.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So what we do is we do everything for them.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
It's a done for you part, literally. So for two months, they don't do a single thing. They just hop on one call with me. We talk about their career. It's not a brainstorming call, right? So we have them fill out certain forms and everything. So I come in prepared to the call with the exact plan of action that we will execute for them.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And all they need to do is just post the content that we will establish on that call. And that content will have to be as close to their personality as possible because that's the key to longevity. I'm all about building this business long term, not for a year, not for two years. I've been doing this since 2012. You know, I'm still reaping the benefits of it. So that's what we do for our clients.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
A thousand percent. We have a lot of people like that too. You need to have the followers. That is the only thing you need to have in any niche possible. And you can change the niche too if you'd like to. We'll help you with the direction change if needed. We have a lot of female clients who are about to have a baby. So it's a whole different change in content. It's a whole different direction.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So we will help you go through that change. My goal is for you to understand how the system works so that you can apply it for years and years to come. In the done for you stage, we get you to results fast. You see how it works. You start already by actively interacting with brands. We're not teaching you how to do it. We'll actually do it for you.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So with that, you'll see the entire process A to Z. So my goal is after those two months, you'll be able to do that for any niche, any category, whatever goes through your life. If you want to take a break for a year and then start working with brands again, you can totally do that too.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
If you want to become a car influencer and then all of a sudden you want to become a travel influencer or combine the two, we'll teach you how to do all of this. So it's just literally applying the same system and make sure it's strategic. Strategic content, strategic brands we're reaching out to with a strategic message. So you understand why brands would be paying you and not somebody else.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So technically, I'm one of those few cases where I had brands wanting to work with me before I even had an account on Instagram. So that's my unique kind of path towards it. But yeah, so since I started working on social media, that's when my kind of title became an influencer rather than a blogger.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
You know what I mean?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Yeah, so we have a network of 10,000 brands and it's growing, it's constantly growing. So in 2019, when I started my agency actually, we released, so that directory of brands is called the magic list. And so our original magic list was 100 contacts. So imagine from 100 contacts to 10,000 brand contacts in our directory, that's pretty impressive. I'm very proud of this.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And for a regular Joe, it would just look like contacts, right? But these are literally, this is the key
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
us to access those brand deals right building relationships with these contacts that's why we're so exclusive right so we are working by invitation only so it's not like if you want to join us you know we welcome we we welcome everybody right we want to make sure we can screen you and the biggest screening would be the mindset how serious you are because we're about to connect you with big time brands right so we want to make sure that you are able to handle that
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
and by handling that it literally like showing up on a call because you might have to connect with mclaren on the call right and talk to them and if you can't show up on a call with us we can't trust you with mclaren you know so that's why we have to be very careful with what we've built because these are very very sensitive contacts and sensitive data and we want to make sure that we connect you we make your dreams come true but at the same time we don't sabotage those relationships as well
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
that is a great question so we have a lot so those stories that like where clients come in and they didn't have brand deals and now they have 10 now they have 15 now they have 50 000 in cash and product value in travel and the cars you know so those are great but my most favorite one is when people's lives are impacted beyond just like the dream come true scenario right so one of the clients that we have
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Her name is Carrie. So she got a $15,000 surgery, stomach tightening surgery after having, I believe she has four or five kids. So a lot of kids basically, right? So it's not the concept of the surgery that she got for free, right? Which is amazing by the way, $15,000. thousand, you know, in exchange for literally your social media currency. Right. So that's huge.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
But it's the life change that comes with it because she got her confidence back right now. She has more energy. She she's more confident. She loves herself. Now she's able to pursue different things. Right. So For me, these are the biggest, the key success stories, right? Because that's what I'm preaching, basically, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
I want people to understand that social media, if approached as a currency, can get you anything. Like a lot of times people think like, oh, if I'm rich, then I want to go travel here or do this or connect with this brand or even like, I don't know, try to be in a movie, right? So we can help you even get connected with those contacts through the power of your social media. So that is huge.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
But the concept of working with brands has been with me obviously since 2012, and that's the only way I supported myself throughout my career. Obviously I launched my agency later in the later years in 2019, but from 2012 until 2019, I fully supported myself from brand deals alone.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And to me, it's like, it's literally a dream making machine in a way. So when I hear stories like this, that's the ones that get me teary for sure.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
They invite me to an interview, and my very first experience in America was interviewing celebrities on red carpet events.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Thank you.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Well, I mean, I didn't know that I cracked the code at the time, you know? So what I like to tell people is I was pretty much Delulu, right? So I started a blog because I was a new immigrant in America and I didn't know anything about anything, to be honest. Like I literally didn't know basic things like how to open a bank account, how to get a car, you know?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
uh once you learn how to do something you cannot unlearn it you know so that's knowledge is power for sure you know so take me right and my story on how i got my internship completely not related to business at all right so to completely not related to anything it was just the concept of 200 companies that i'll write to and then eventually one hopefully will open the door right so it's the same like once you learn
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And then I obviously didn't know how like, how does the city where I lived, which is Los Angeles, work in terms of like, where do people hang out? What are the coffee shops that are cool? You know, the city's pretty big, right? So back then the source of information was Yelp, not Instagram. So I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna do this as a creative outlet.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
how to apply a certain skill anywhere. You can just apply it in every part of your business. By the way, speaking of your business, Paul, for your influencer career, if we apply our business acquisition system on how to get brand deals, you can actually replicate that process on how to get your own clients for your three companies as well. So that is the beauty of it all, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So you learn the system, but it can be applied anywhere.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
love that i love that and like you said knowledge is power guys your network is truly your net worth for sure yes and i do want a second that we did level up as an agency thankfully thanks to you i appreciate that um absolutely you've played an important and integral part in and building my business in general because we've always done what we do obviously in the best possible way but the structure of the company the corporate knowledge if you will
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
it's all from you right so you've helped me break through a lot of my limiting beliefs in the business side right in the building like not just the business side but the corporate side of my business right so that's where we literally took off right now and we're blowing up like crazy and it's all thanks to you and i'm very grateful that i got a chance to work with you last year and i'm very excited to what's going to happen in a couple of years from now
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So I created a blog called LA by Diana, Los Angeles by Diana. And I initially was covering content about local places that I go to. So I discovered a local coffee shop, I start writing a blog post about it. So back then it was already kind of Instagram-like in a way where you create content about it and then you do a little write up.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Right now it's a caption, back then on the blog it's the same thing, like a picture and a little text about it. And so I discovered one time, literally, obviously, when you are starting anything new, you wanna learn how it works, right? So I was like Googling, how do blogs work? Where do you host a blog? All of that information. And I found a blogger that was supposedly popular at that time.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And she posted a picture of herself wearing an outfit. And the bottom of the blog post said, sponsored by Louis Vuitton. And I was like, what does it mean sponsored? Like, does that mean like she got paid by Louis Vuitton to post about it? And so for me, it was like, it's an impossible idea that I got fascinated by because somebody mentioned that like it exists in somebody's world, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So I'm like, let me just try it. So I tried to create a post about fashion, right? So because obviously Louis Vuitton was a fashion post. So I created like my very first fashion post. I didn't know how to pose. I didn't know even how I had questionable taste in fashion, you know, at that time.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So I just, you know, started experimenting and I put up a blog post about fashion and my engagement on the blog doubled. And the reason why is because I was posting about local places, but I was talking to the whole audience of the United States, right? So across all the country. So the fashion content resonated more because they're like, Oh, I can get that Zara dress in my local Zara.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Then nobody can go to the local coffee shop unless they're based locally. Right. So that's where, first of all, my viewership went up. Right. So, and second of all, I'm like, okay, so I'm going to double down that because that works obviously in terms of the viewership engagement engagement back then was comments on the blog post.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And then I started researching more about how to work with brands, how to do all that stuff. And eventually, my very first campaign with a brand was two months later, which was a campaign with Tony and Guy. It's a shampoo brand, actually. It wasn't a fashion brand. And they were inviting bloggers at that time to shoot a commercial. And I was one of the three bloggers that they invited.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And these girls were doing this. That was the biggest campaign for them. And they were doing this for two or three years prior to getting that campaign. Wow. And I was kind of like, I call it a beginner's luck, you know? So I kind of like started with a big time campaign already where I'm not just creating a sponsored blog post, I'm actually like in a commercial for a hair brand, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So that's where obviously that was kind of a green light for me. In mentorship, you call it your first win.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
you know so you're like your mind completely switches you're like oh my god this is possible and i got paid for it and i'm like i can't believe this like i just literally got paid to have fun to pose you know and to post about it you know so that kind of like completely unlocked the whole the whole concept of a career for me so limiting belief out the door would you say being based out of los angeles you had an advantage over other influencers
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
That is a very good question, actually.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Yeah, it's like you're going in there, like straight to the core. Yes and no. So- Break it down. So yes, because I was exposed to a little bit more of the industry, the brands are based there, you know, there's a lot of headquarters that are based there. So yes, the industry pretty much started in big cities, which would be New York, LA, possibly Miami. Right. So this is an advantage.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
But right now, I wouldn't say it would have mattered as much, you know. So back then, because the industry was so new, you know, that helped me a lot. But nowadays, I think it really doesn't matter. As a matter of fact, I think nowadays, if you're based in a smaller city, it's actually advantageous because you're pretty much taking over the local market there. Right.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
There's not a lot of competition. Now in cities like Los Angeles, Miami, New York, there are tons and tons of influencers and you have to be the best of the best in order to work with brands. Whereas if you're in a small town, you have to just be doing good enough and you'll still get all the brand deals.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Actually, as a matter of fact, I have an interesting story on how I came to America in general. So I was studying in England at that time. So in England, in my business school, they had an internship placement program and I come there and I'm like, you know what? Guys, I wanna be in Los Angeles. I wanna do an internship for a year.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
I'm gonna take academic break and I wanna work in entertainment industry. And they're like, who's this girl? She's already, because I was an immigrant in England at that time, right? So they're like, okay, first of all, for you to get an internship for a year, you have to be sponsored by a company, right? You can't just like roll into America, you know? Also, you want to work in entertainment.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
I was studying business, by the way, right? So they're like, it's kind of like not the same thing, you know? So, and like, I just had the idea of, I want to work in Hollywood. That's it, right? Just literally just the idea. And so they told me, it's not possible for you. And I said...
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
They're like, well, you're studying business, you're here on a visa in the UK, so the only internship you could possibly get is the local internship for the summer, maybe in the business, maybe in the bank, maybe in the finance world, something like that, right? So I'm like, okay, so tell me this. How do I get that type of intern? I mean, it's possible to get an internship for a year.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
People do that, right? They're like, yes, that's right. So I'm like, how do I do that? They're like, well, you have to find a company that will sponsor you, which is impossible because you're not even a graduate yet. I'm like, well, but hypothetically, you know, like how would I take these steps? They're like, well, find a company and figure it out. We can't help you. So I go home and I ask Google,
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
I'm like, how to get an internship in L.A.? Internships, L.A., entertainment industry. And my mindset was, I'm like, OK, so they told me it's practically impossible. So what do I have to do? And I remember I made a decision. I'm like, I'm going to write and apply for 200 internships. I don't know why 200. I just like had a thought. I'm like, impossible. 200 sounds about right, right?
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So I'm like, I'm just gonna start applying and see what happens, right? So I mean, I'm not losing anything, I'm literally just trying, right? So I kid you not, like I sent 10 applications, the 10th responds to me, they invite me to an interview, and my very first experience in America was interviewing celebrities on red carpet events, so.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So not only did I get the internship, did they sponsor my visa, sponsored my whole stay, but more importantly, from what I've heard later in the years, interns usually make coffees apparently. But they send me on the ground, like literally interviewing celebrities on red carpet events the very first day. It's an insane story.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
And for me, speaking of limiting beliefs, it was just like the idea of like, okay, they told me it's impossible. I asked them, how do I make it possible, right? So I literally Google and I follow the steps. And for me, it was more about the ethic right, the process of like, I committed to 200 applications, right? So that's when I, you know, that's how I got there.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So when I started my influencer journey, it was kind of the same thing. So I was already in the entertainment industry. I was interviewing celebrities on our carpet events. I was kind of like looking for,
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
another outlet right so within the entertainment industry and obviously the blog came up because i was just brainstorming i was doing a lot of things i went to an acting school i was trying hosting you know like i was really trying to see what sticks for me specifically what resonates um and so with the blog it was the same concept i was like how many blog posts do i have to put up right so for the uh engagement right so for the audience on the blog how do you grow the audience on the blog back then right so first of all i didn't know any of that stuff
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Hi, Paul. Thanks for having me.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
So I was literally Googling all these questions, right? And Google wasn't really helpful, right? So you could just get an idea. So how do you get all the viewership, right? So I figured that people actually like throw their links on other blogs and websites and stuff like that. I was sitting there manually leaving comments with my, like literally spamming the internet with my blog.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
That's what I did. A repetitive action over and over and over again.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
and i think that is the trait of an immigrant in general because yes i got lucky and my story is pretty crazy in terms of like the internship itself but any immigrant always faces the concept of you need to in order to go somewhere you need to get a visa in order to get a visa you need to get sponsored by somebody you know or the university sponsored or whatever it is like you know you have to knock on so many doors and get approved so many times in order to just arrive to
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
the country. Right. And then you have to establish yourself and then you have to figure things out. So you have to you have like inbuilt resilience just because of your circumstances in a way. So when I work with immigrants, I see a lot more potential, you know, for them to kind of like not be
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
sidetracked by mindset right so because a lot of people give up too easily right because they're so used to like to nose literally everywhere every door you knock is a no you know so you just have to keep knocking until you get to that yes you know and that's how you build your career in i mean any career but for an influencer specifically that really i think helped me a lot i feel like with your story really resonates with me the reason why i say that is because
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
Yeah. So that was kind of like something I wanted to add to what you were saying before. So in 2012, nobody knew it's even an industry, right? So I was basically like, like walking in the dark, you know, I was like betting on the career that could potentially not exist. Right. So I was literally like, oh, that could be cool to be sponsored by a brand. Let me do that. Let me do that again.
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Visa to Verified: How Diana Marks Became a Luxury Influencer Boss
You know, so it's kind of a discovery in itself. Whereas right now, the industry is very well established. There are tons and tons of influencers that are having full time careers working with brands. Right. So right now is the best time to be an influencer because the groundwork is already here.