We had a chat with Wesley Lenting, 24 years. Social media manager and content creator. He told us a bit more about the start of his carreer, the role of Join and how his life is as an influencer.
Hi Wesley! Earlier you said you don’t like to call yourself an influencers, why is that?
“That’s right, it’s a word I don’t like to use. These days everyone is calling theirselve an influencers, but what or who are they influencing? I’d like to call myself a content creator, that’s what I do.”
Wesley admits that he has made some posts that weren’t so real. But it has inspired him to handle things in an other way.
“Once I was in Paris where I’ve made a picture with a Mercedes G-Wagon, while I don’t even have my driver license. That made me think: do I want people to follow me because I’m faking things? That Mercedes is not the real me. So I prefer people who appreciate me for who I am.”
During our chat Welsey told us how he ended up at the Amsterdam Fashion Week as a press photographer. How did that happen?
“I was a press photographer for the Amsterdam Fashion Week and that has only came because I’ve mailed them myself. I’ve told them who I was and what I do. By showing some initiative and with the right mindset, you can get very far. These days it’s important to do things by yourself and take initiative to reach something. ”
What was the original thought in setting up your blog?
“I’ve started 3,5 years ago and had a big fashion account with 100k of followers, in which I slowly started to promote my personal account. Eventually that account was hacked and I was devastated. In the end I said to myself: “I just have to move on.” I then got in touch with a woman from Germany who was in the business and she helped me so hard. In the end it was my cooperation with BALR that made me really big.”
Besides the fact that ‘influencer’ isn’t the word you would describe yourself with, what does it mean for you?
“That’s a hard one, but in my perception I think it’s a way of influencing others in a positive way to motivate them.”
We also asked about the nice and less nice aspects of the work.
The pressure is a hard side of being an influencer. The constant pressure of setting up nice content, constantly creating perfect content. I noticed that I was in the mindset that if I didn’t get enough likes, it would bother me. Luckily I’m over it now, and it’s important that I support the content I’ve created. As long as I like it.”
Lately you did a collaboration with Feyenoord via Join. How did you experience the collaboration?
Join isn’t like other influencer marketing agencies. It is a platform where brands can pick out your profile. When a brands choose your profile, you know that the interest is real in your profile. The collaboration went smoothly and nice via the Join platform. ”
Finally, we asked him about his plans for the future.
Will you continue to develop yourself as a content creator in the future?
“I think I’d like to focus more on YouTube. I think it’s a nice platform where you can show the authenticity better. I’m currently working on a documentary about fitness on a vegetable diet. My future is definitely filled with producing content. Real content.”
In name of Join, we would like to thank Wesley for this interview. Make sure to check out his Instagram. Collabing with Wesley? Sign the sheet below to receive a demo.
