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 going to write and apply for 200 internships.
I'm like, impossible, 200 sounds about right. Like, I'm just going to 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 response to me, they invite me to an interview, and my very first experience in America was interviewing celebrities on red carpet events.
That's insane. Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of The Level Up with Paul Alex.
Guys, we have a phenomenal guest today. She goes by the name of Diana Marks.
She's one of the level up with paul alex guys we have a phenomenal guest today she goes by the name of diana marks she's one of the top influencers that has been in the influencing game since 2012 guys she was based out of los angeles now she's based out of miami and guys what she's about to tell you will blow your mind do you ever wish that you can work with mclaren do you wish that you can work with Tesla or any of these other car brands or maybe your favorite airline or maybe even your favorite luxury brand? Well, she is the go-to person with over 2 million followers on all social media platforms, guys. Diana Marks, welcome to the show.
Hi, Paul. Thanks for having me.
No, absolutely. Diana, so it's been a while.
It's been like a little bit over six months. You know, I feel like you deserted me after you were like, oh, yeah, you know, let's connect and have a session with digital marketing.
And, you know, your agency started doing like start blowing up, start doing numbers. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, what happened to Diana? She used to be here every week at the office in Miami.
No, I'm just kidding, guys. If you guys don't know, I mean, obviously you guys know I'm the host of the Love Up podcast, but then also I do digital marketing for several of my companies, but I also help other consultants in the space blow up their brands.
And essentially that's how me and Diana met um But this is not about that. Let's talk about Diana.
So Diana, okay, let's get to it. Question numero uno.
How did you get into influencing? Because typically when people say I'm an influencer, like sometimes people don't take it serious. They're like, just like, what? Like you have a social media brand? Like, what is that? So what would you say if somebody was to ask you, like, how did you get into that? 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. 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. 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, right? 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. 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. That's amazing because when most people start out on social media, okay, typically, not in your case, I mean, based on what you're saying, I mean, it's phenomenal.
But when most people start out on social media and they want to go ahead and work with brands, they do it like a part-time gig. How did you even come up with the idea of saying like, Hey, I want to work with brands.
I want to actually be a blogger at that time. Right.
You're saying 2012, man, I can't remember what I was doing in 2012. What was it? Oh yeah.
I was almost a cop. You know, that wasn't until 2014, but yeah, I was around there.
I was still in corporate America, but man, that's phenomenal. So tell the audience exactly how did you figure it out? Because you cracked the code.
Well, I mean, I didn't know that I cracked the code at the time. 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 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 right so i was like you know what i'm just gonna do this as a creative outlet 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 discover 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.
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're starting anything new, you want to learn how it works, right? So I was like Googling how do blogs work? Where do you post a blog, all of that information.

And I host a blog

all of that information and I found a blogger that was supposedly popular at that time and she posted a picture of herself wearing an outfit and she like the bottom of the blog post said sponsored by Louis Vuitton and I was like wait what does it mean sponsored like what like does that mean like she got paid by Louis Vuitton to post about it.

And so for me, it 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? 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 first fashion post I didn't know how to post I didn't know even how I had questionable taste in fashion you know at that time 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.
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 of all, I'm like, okay, so I'm going to double down on that because that works, obviously, in terms of the viewership, engagement, engagement back then was comments on the blog post. And then I started researching more about like 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. And these girls were doing this.
That was like the biggest campaign for them. And they were doing this for two or three years prior to getting that campaign.
And I was kind of like, I call it a beginner's 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 blog post i'm actually like in a commercial for a hair brand right so uh that's where obviously that was kind of a green light for me in mentorship you call it your first win 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 know? So, 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 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 that is a very good question actually so well this is the level up i'm just saying 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 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.
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? 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 know, you have to just be doing good enough, you know, and you'll still get all the brand deals. Man, I have so many questions I want to ask you about this, but okay, let's go ahead.
And I remember in the very beginning when I first asked you, you know, what got you into influencing, you mentioned that you were an you were an immigrant yes tell me that story i'm very interested to see like how how that journey of becoming an immigrant uh to the united states and then transitioning to becoming an influencer did that give you any roadblocks actually as a matter of fact i have an interesting story yeah 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 i guys i want to be in los angeles i want to do an internship for a year i'm gonna take um academic break and i want to 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 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 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, why? They're like, well, you're studying business. You're here on a visa in the,

in the UK. So the only internship you could possibly get is the local internship for summer for the summer, maybe in the business, maybe in the bank, maybe in the finance world, something like that.
Right? So that right so i'm like okay so tell me this how do i get that type of interest i mean it's possible to get an internship for a year people do that right they're like yes that's right so 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? They're like, well, find a company and figure it out. We can't help you.
So I go home and I ask Google, I'm like, how to get an internship in LA, internships, LA entertainment industry. And my mindset was, I'm like, okay, so they told me it's practically impossible.
So what do I have to do? And i made a decision i'm like i'm gonna 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 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 ten applications the tenth response to me they invite me to an interview and my very first experience in America was interviewing celebrities on red carpet events so that's insane 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 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. And for me, speaking of limited 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.
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 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. 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 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, right? 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. That's what I did.
A repetitive action over and over and over again. 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 sponsor 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 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 sidetracked by mindset, right? a lot of people give up too easily right because they're so used to like to no's 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.
I feel like with your story, it really resonates with me. The reason why I say that is because based on your background, your background is what allowed you to build that resilience.
So coming in there with that proper mindset of, you know what, I'm not going to give up. I'm going to go ahead and at least give it a try and do it over and over and over again, led you to that type of success early on.
The fact that, you know, in business and you know,

this as well, it's about hitting that opportunity when it's there. Right.
And I think you saw the

opportunity and you went for it. And that's why it led you to be successful in influencing.
And now,

you know, with the agency and everything that you're doing, that's why it led you to be successful in influencing. And now, you know,

with the agency and everything that you're doing, helping influencers around the world.

So to my follow-up question with that, okay, what would you say is the biggest difference

right now between being an influencer back in, let's say, 2012 and 2025? What is the biggest difference right now? 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 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.
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. So right now, it's the best time to be an influencer because the groundwork is already here.
We know exactly how brands work with influencers, what they're acquiring. Like, there are all these rules and regulations in place.
You know how to build your career at scale. 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, they can pay? That's great. You know, I didn't know that you can negotiate with brands, you know, because everything was new and the brands didn't know that either.
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 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, 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, just so much going on right so um 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 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. Right.
So it was more like a discovery, you know, that led to a business. Right now, if the influencers kind of do that, you know, they will not succeed.
If they're like, I'm just going to be creative and I'm just going to like, 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, right? So that's what I see is the biggest problem for influencers, right? The mindset that they have is like, as if they start creating content, you know, somehow the career, like 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.
So a lot of influencers where you're saying, Diana, is they want instant gratification and they're not willing to work for it. 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 a lot among influencers is the fact that they always think that they don't have enough followers.
Right. 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? You know, but that's because I applied my business knowledge, you business knowledge 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. 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.
So it's more about the intent that you're doing with your content and then your brand and who you want to attract. A thousand percent, yes.
That makes a lot of sense. So before we go ahead and transition to you starting your agency, okay, which is a huge, huge step.
Now you being one of the biggest agencies in the online space right now. I wanted to ask you, where do you see influencing headed to in the future? Like as far as a career, do you see it becoming even bigger? If you do, what is the next big trend in the influencing world? Actually, that's a great question.
There's so many directions, like I said, because things are changing so fast. There are 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? And they're looking for other ways to add income or maybe lifestyle benefits as well, 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? 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. 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 what 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 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 right so for example you you're like you have your own company that is very niche you know your audience is specific. But if we were to approach a career properly, 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.
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 that makes a lot of sense especially because you know i feel like everybody that has a business is turning into building a personal brand now because you know in the past few years ever since covid happened and everybody got locked down um a lot of companies went digital they went went on social media. They stopped promoting the old school way, right, of the radio.
Now they're using more Facebook ads or Instagram ads, or they're using micro influencers to go ahead and promote their items. So with that being said, let's go ahead and talk about your agency.
So when did you start the agency and what exactly does your agency do? Great question, as always. So my agency is like my baby, you know, 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 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 contacts called the Magic List. We call it magic because it's like if you start reaching out to these contacts strategically, you know, you will get campaigns, you know, and that's how it's pure magic, right? And Diana, real quick, for the people that do not know what campaigns are, what is campaigns to the person that is not in the influencing world right now? 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.
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 campaign brand deal those are the same things basically i love it so it's like basically like endorsements with like athletes boxers all that right 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 yeah it's a ridiculous concept but now it happens everywhere all the time yeah no I love that so what would you say would be the minimum qualifications for someone that let's say wants to become an influencer, right? What do you think is the basic foundation they need to have in order to start landing deals, even small deals, you know, their first deal? 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. 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, right? 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, you know? 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 want to talk about restaurants and luxury hotels. I think I'm meant to become an influencer, you know? So if that is the reason, they will fail, like by definition, you know? 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? 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.
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. So let me, let me understand what your agency does.
So your agency helps people become influencers or does it help already establish influencers land deals? What, what exactly does your agency do? 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. 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. That's amazing.
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? You get a lot more clients and you make sure you work long-term with the 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 so what we do is every we do everything for them why so it's a done-for-you part literally so two months, they don't do a single thing.
They just hop on one call with me. They talk about, 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.
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. I'm still reaping the benefits of it.
So that's what we do for our clients. I love that.
I love that. It's

very simple. It's black and white.
And people, especially now in 2025, I feel like with instant gratification, this would be a no brainer. But let me ask you this.
Okay. What if I'm not an influencer? What if I'm like a well-known business guy, right? And I don't know't know, maybe I have a car dealership, but I have quite a bit of a following.
Would I be able to work with you? A thousand percent. We have a lot of people like that too, you know? Okay.
Just like, you need to have the followers. That is the only thing you need to have in any niche possible, right? 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, right? So it's a whole different change in content, right? It's a whole different direction.
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. You know, we're not teaching you how to do it.
We'll actually do it for you, right? 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. If you want to become a car influencer and then like all of a sudden you want to become like a travel influencer or combine the two, you know, we'll teach you how to do all of this, right? So it's just literally applying the same system and make sure it's strategic, right? 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 you know what i mean so everybody essentially has like an ideal brand that they could work with how many how many brands are you currently have like in your roster do you network with yeah so 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.
You know, I'm very proud of this. And, you know, for a regular Joe, it would just be like, look like contacts, right? So, but these are literally, this is the key for 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 join us you know we welcome 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 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 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

Thank you. able to handle that and by handling that it literally like showing up on a call because you might have to connect with McLaren on the call 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 time, we don't sabotage those relationships as well.
Wow. What is a client, okay, one of your favorite, I guess, client success stories that you've had? Because I've had quite a few.
I mean, I've had some that made me cry. It's just a great feeling to help other people.
Yes. But what would you say is one good client success story that you want to share with the audience that's listening to this right now? 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 and travel and 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, 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 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 you know in exchange for literally your social media currency right so that's huge but it's the life change that comes with it because she got her confidence back right now she has more energy she she 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? 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 your social through the power of your social media so that is huge and to me it's like it's literally a dream making machine in a way you know so when i when i hear stories like this, you know, that's the ones that get me teary for sure.
No, I love that. And I mean, I think you're the right person to actually work with in this specific space because it seems like you've hit every aspect, especially coming from LA, of influencing, dealing with celebrities, interviewing, going ahead and acting and such, right? So question, I've always had these conversations with different, you could say, associates of mine.
And what do you say the influencers that have like, let's say millions of followers and they launch, like I heard a horror story. there was a influencer who launched her own clothing brand and no one bought her clothing brand she had a million followers you would think with a million followers she would at least make a couple hundred thousands of dollars right in sales but she made zero so what are influencers that have massive following but are broke doing wrong? Well, first of all, they don't narrow down their personal brand, right? So if you're trying to appeal to everybody, you appeal to nobody, right? So a lot of times also they don't understand marketing.
Marketing doesn't work like this anymore, right? Where you post one story and the product gets sold out. Like it never worked like this.
But I mean, nowadays it's impossible, right? So for us to make a purchasing decision, we need to see this product everywhere, right? So, but if we're going back to the influencer mistakes, it's literally not understanding who they are and how they relate to the audience, right? Just because they think it's cool to open a brand, right? So a clothing brand doesn't mean the audience wants this, right? So they don't really relate with the audience like this. Or maybe they think they're a fashion influencer, but the audience perceives them completely differently, right? So we don't know this.
And that's why a lot of times when we start working with influencers, the very first step we do is we have one-on-one consulting call on the personal brand. We cannot reach out to brands if we don't understand the value of an influencer.
So the value to his audience or his or her audience or to the brands. And usually it's the same thing.
And that's why, yes, we don't grow followers for our influencers, but as a byproduct of what we do, followers grow organically. Because now the influencer is not lost.
They know exactly how they're gonna position themselves online, what they're gonna post about regularly, and that attracts a quality audience because they know what to expect from them, they wanna see the same content, so they start following more and more, the algorithm adjusts, and now they have more followers. So we never promoted our services as growing their following, this is not what we do.
I don't perceive myself as an expert in growing the following, which is ironic because I have a lot of followers, but I've been doing this for a very long time. So in a way, maybe throughout time, I took advantage of algorithms, you know, because they have changed over the years.
But yeah, as a byproduct, our influencers grow their followers as well. And that's the irony of it all.
It's almost like in a way it's a perfect synergy if you align everything your purpose your personality and your goals you know everything starts working out right your followers start growing you start getting brand deals you know so it's like a perfect world that we curate for them so if you had someone who was looking to break into the influencing world out of all the social media platforms which one would you recommend to start off with first well i mean that's a great question you know so um we help influencers across any social media platform literally anything like even linkedin influencers we can help them the process of brand deals acquisition is the same for us right so everything is custom but the concept is the same right so i would recommend if somebody's starting out to start with still instagram uh even though you know a lot of people are kind of like you know maybe you have to diversify and stuff like that youtube is of course amazing my fear with youtube is commitment a lot of influencers cannot commit to create long form content regularly you know so with Instagram, you know, they can commit to regular creation of short form content, you know, so that's where

that's why I would still suggest Instagram. Plus the brands, they still look at Instagram a little

bit, they valued higher than TikTok, you know, or YouTube, right? Well, I mean, I take that back. So

they, they value YouTube a lot. But there are like, there's fewer people in that space, if that makes

Thank you. Well, I mean, I take that back.
So they value YouTube a lot, but there's fewer people in that space, if that makes sense, that are actually crushing it. Whereas on Instagram, it's easier to crush on it because again, it's a short form content, right? So yeah, but for the brand's perspective, whenever we optimize somebody's account, for example, the main account that we optimize is Instagram, it's almost like a business card for us.
You know, that's going to be representing the rest of their accounts, even if they're huge on YouTube, by the way. No, I love that.
So let me ask you this. What would you say if a person right now was to tell you, okay, I currently am a prior detective and, you know, I started a couple of simple, boring businesses and I want to get some free Emirates flights for me and my wife.
Who might that be? I don't know. I don't know.
It sounds familiar. But what would you tell that person?

Like, what would be the strategy that you would advise that business owner to do in order to do that?

We're going to do a master class right now.

Right, Emilio?

Yeah, we're going to do a master class. So let's educate our audience on how to get free Emirate flights, guys, as a business owner.

All right.

So obviously you have the followers. That is the foundation.
Yes. So you come to us, you say you want to do this.
The first thing we do is personal branding, right? So you already have an established personal brand, which is great. But what we're going to add is a little bit more content that relates to the Emirates, right? So when we're going to pitch you to the Emirates, we're going

to position you as a perfect person to promote the airline. That means your audience should technically be buying from the Emirates in the future, right? So in order for them, we'll say that in the pitch.
So in order for them to believe what we're saying, they have to see it on your profile. Got it.
And in order for them to see it in your profile, we need to create content relevant to the Emirates.

What I mean by that is

that's a luxury airline, right?

So we got to introduce luxury lifestyle content into your content, right? So we want to showcase that you're going to high end restaurants. I want to showcase that you go to high end hotels, right? So you start integrating that.
Your audience gets trained on that as well. And the brands now see that you're in the world.
You're in the luxury lifestyle world. And that's when we'll approach the Emirates.
So we're not going to start with a pitch. We're going to start with your content first.
And then we'll write the perfect pitch, present you in the best possible way. And we have a few tricks up our sleeve in the way that we present you.
But the most important thing is we need to make sure that the pitch, what we write in the email resonates with the content that is posted. That is why we don't we can't just say, here's the pitch, here's the contact of the Emirates, go for it.
Right. So everything has to be strategic.
And so then we write the pitch, we reach out to that brand. And the irony of it all is they might not even say yes.
And what do we do then? So what do we do? How do we connect influencers with their dream brands? Right. So I'll actually lay out the entire blueprint on how you actually eventually will still work with Emirates.
So if they say no or they don't respond, well, first of all, we always follow up, right? Because these brands receive hundreds and hundreds of emails. You know, we want to make sure we're on top of the inbox, but we also want to prove that we're serious, right? So if you're following up, that means you're serious about working with them.
But we don't stop there. Because of the magic list, we have all airlines, literally every single airline that exists, we have these contacts.
So now you have luxury content. We start pitching you to all airlines across the board.
So maybe the Emirates are not interested right now, but maybe Qatar Airlines is running a promotion and they're now flying influencers to Qatar. So what you're going to do is you're going to jump on that campaign, fly to Qatar for free, still have a vacation with your wife, right? Enjoy Qatar.
Yes, you're not still in Dubai, but you already have clout and you have Qatar backing up your personal brand, right? So that's how you add that content. And now what do we do? We repitch to the Emirates, maybe half a year from then.
Yeah. And when we repitch, what we do is because we do everything strategically and at scale, you know, so it's automatic system.

Repitching is automatic.

So it's not like you're manually writing those emails.

We do create that pitch email first manually ourselves, but we use automation on the back

end.

So automatically you repitch to the Emirates.

And guess what?

Maybe in half a year they do run influencer campaigns.

And who's going to be the top person they'll consider?

The one who just worked with Qatar Airlines, because that's another luxury airline that has the same clientele literally the same clientele so if the another luxury airline backed you up already and you already have the content so you have not only like the the content side but also like the um credibility aspect of it all right so with a big time major airline that's

when you get a deal with Emirates so in a way as a like as a side effect you'll end up with two

trips instead of one you know but that's how we get you to any dream brand deal so it's not immediate because a lot of influencers come to me and they're like I want to work with McLaren just give me their content you know it doesn't work like this you know so it's relationship building for years and it's establishing yourself as an expert in that niche specifically so for me with cars I've worked with cars for around a decade at this point you know so that's why I'm a top car influencer right and even then I didn't work with McLaren every single year I work with McLaren whenever they work with influencers right whenever they're to working with influencers, these brands go through cycles too, just like everything else, right? So sometimes they work with influencers. Sometimes they only run ads.
They don't focus on influencers at that point in time. So it's always changing.
So it's a matter of being at the right place at the right time, but we do that strategically and at scale so that you always have something going on in your career. That's amazing.
So part of your process is you're basically allowing influencers and business owners to be part of your network. It's a network that you built personally.
So you do have to vet them. You have to make sure that their content's top tier.
So not only are you getting business owners and influencers connected to their brand deals, but you're actually hooking them up by actually fixing their content. A thousand percent.
Plus, now we're getting to the point where brands actually prefer our influencers, right? Because they know that these are business savvy influencers. They'll know how to handle the conversation.
They'll know how to negotiate. I actually use my personal connections to a lot of times I work with brands as an influencer myself.
And they're like, we know you have an agency. Can you recommend somebody from your agency for us as well? And I know exactly who I can recommend based on their niche and the qualities that they're looking for, the personality type they're looking for, right? So in a way, you're completely correct.
It's a network that they're becoming a part of, right? So, and there's so many, not only we'll pitch them individually to these brands, but because I know them and because brands know me, now I can personally connect and I'm doing this actually regularly for my influencers. I can connect brands with the right influencer and I can feel confident about it because I know that this influencer has gone through my program.
So in a way, they're graduated from an academy, you know, that basically makes them a professional influencer. Yeah.
All right, Diana, that's some remarkable information. I'm definitely going to have to talk to the wife and possibly me.
Like I've always wanted to go ahead and build my authority as a business owner. And I know in the online game, it's all about a semi-flash, you know? You know, humble brag.
You got to say like, hey, I'm in first class at Emirates or Qatar Airways. I call that PR.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's just the way it goes, right? People love to see that lifestyle no matter what. So with that being said, where can people find more information? Let's say if they just wanted to like read up on information on your agency, on working with you, or even talking to you, how can they contact you? Well, they can contact me on Instagram at Diana Marks Official or my agency at Lux Digital Media.
It's connected on my Instagram account. Of course, just DM us and we'll go from there.
So we're very friendly. We talk to a lot of influencers, hundreds of influencers every single day.
The best part about it is when I get on the call with an influencer, I can like literally without even like talking to them, pinpoint what's going to be the current struggles and how we can help them out. Right.
So I literally see the entire path, you know, it's just a matter of them seeing this path as well. But yeah, so Instagram is the best way to connect with us.
And then Diana, one motivational quote to have influencers and anyone else who wants to be an influencer level up in 2025. What do you got? 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 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? So you learn the system, but it can be applied anywhere. I love that.
I love that. And like you said, knowledge is power, guys.
Your network is truly your net worth. Absolutely.
For sure. Yes, and I do want to second that we did level up as an agency, thankfully, thanks to you.
Oh, I appreciate that. Absolutely.
you've played an important and integral part in 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, 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. Yeah, I see it, I see it.
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 gonna happen in a couple of years from now. No, I appreciate that.
But at the end of the day, it has to work or it has to work, right? You remember? I used to say that all the time. So guys, that is it.
Diana Marks here on The Love All Podcast. Guys, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone that you love that can actually take advantage of the information that Diana Marks has gone ahead and provided to us.
It's amazing, guys. You guys can change your life if you put 110 into it okay

once again this is paul alex the level podcast make sure to leave a five star rating on spotify