We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diydan Lopez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Diydan , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I absolutely am in love with being my own boss.
Though it comes with its definite perks, like having to answer to nobody but yourself, there are disadvantages as well.
For example, it takes serious self management skills, which I’ve had to learn & teach myself because naturally – not the best with that haha.
Another thing about content creation & social media “influencing” is just how lonely it gets, as a huge chunk of my work is done primarily online, you don’t have the same “team” or co-worker experiences as a regular job.

Diydan , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started off always being a creative, I feel like God gives us our interests & our talents for a reason & that is to utilize them for the greater good.

I drew at a very young age, then realized I loved singing – my senior year of high school I went on a limb & auditioned for American Idol, the craziest (& longest process ever) I surprised myself & made it to “Hollywood” soon after, I was on another television talent competion called “La Banda” which Simon Cowell + Ricky Martin were behind – on this, I got all the way to the semi finals.

This grew my online presence virtually overnight & soon people became interested in my looks, my style & life in general – all of which I was very interested in myself, so I think my audience took note of that.
Then I begun to have brands start reaching out to me, sending me stuff & offering me compensation for posting in or with their products – I was like WOAH, just for being me? I’ll take it!

My mom always taught me “do everything like you’re doing it for Jesus” aka the best you can & man, do I pour my heart out into this,

I am passionate about creating, learning everything I can about photography, editing, staying up on trends, etc & I believe & hope that this shows.

I have since & continue to be beyond blessed with the coolest opportunities aside from being gifted amazing things – I’ve got to work with top industry professionals, have sick services provided, & get to travel to beautiful destinations.

It’s so endearing & just freakin cool that who I am, & my gifts have gotten me to a place that I’ have to pinch myself to believe sometimes.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I want to heavily emphasize how important it is to just be YOU, & be CONSISTENT with it.

Theres so many people out there trying to do what other people are doing & carbon copying, uniqueness is so rare these days & when somebody finds their niche, does their own thing with it & keeps posting, is active on socials & KIND – that’s inspiring & eventually people will catch on to that & become interested in you & what you bring to the table.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I want to say, as I spoke of earlier – my looks a bit different – I’m a light eyed, tanned skin, dark haired, tattoo’d pretty boy Latino who loves fashion, travels often, has a gorgeous wifey & beautiful baby now & I try to represent all of through aesthetically pleasing visuals that I produce.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram com/OfficialDiydan
• Other: https://TikTok.com/@OfficialDiydan