Welcome to our IZEA interview series with influencers and marketers of all niches to highlight their journeys, share their insights, and inspire! Today we are talking all about influencing with Jordan.
Meet Jordan D’Amico, a content creator and body inclusivity advocate. Jordan lives in Toronto and documents his delicious eats, influencer life, and much more on Instagram with his 17.7K followers. Jordan works with brands to promote lifestyle products and donates to charities that support LGBTQ+ organizations.
Could you start with who you are and what you do?
“My name is Jordan. I am a content creator based out of Toronto, and I focus a lot of my content on queer culture, being gay, body positivity, and humor in general.”
Are you seeing more inclusivity? Not just for body positivity, but also gender identity?
“Yeah, I do think that there’s a lot of work that’s been done in terms of really strong diversity in influencer campaigns. I definitely think that there’s work to be done all around, but I have noticed a big lack of body diversity, whether that comes from stigma against bigger-body people or what their interests are, or maybe not knowing how to market to them.”
“But I think that there’s a lot of work that has been done. There’s still a way to go. So I think agencies like mine and some of the other ones out there are doing really great work to make sure that that’s happening.”
When did you start creating content?
“I started creating content back when I was like 17, so probably about 2007. I started a food blog in high school because one of my friends at the time did, and I just thought it looked like fun. I started blogging and 15 years later, blogging and social media are my life now.”
“It really evolved from blogging for the sake of blogging and was something creative to do before social media was even really a thing. And over the years it just kind of adapted and evolved. And here I am.”
Do you still blog or are you more focused on Instagram or another platform?
“I call myself a writer first and foremost, and I do love writing. But I think what’s great about social media is it allows me to be a little bit more spontaneous and not have to put as much thought into what I’m doing. I’m able to kind of connect with people much quicker and on a more regular basis.”
So what was your path to being a creator? Did you go to school for anything related to media?
“When I went to university I actually got a degree in human rights, and then for a couple of years I really wanted to work in communications and didn’t really have the background or the opportunity.”
“So I moved to Toronto and I got a postgraduate certificate in public relations. And so I’ve been working in the industry here in Toronto for the past six years or so. I had been a creator before that and I had been doing blogging and social media, but I think having access to the industry from the other side really gave me different perspectives and different insights into ways that I can be creative and ways that I can build an audience and ways that I can connect with people.”
I saw that you are using more videos. What kind of content do you focus on? It seems to be a lot of humor, right?
“Yeah. I definitely had the time for myself on Instagram, years ago, when I tried to take myself really seriously and kind of carve myself into this person that I thought people wanted to see. And I think a lot of people can attest to the fact that when you’re not being authentic, you’re not enjoying it.”
“I’ve always been a funny person, I like to laugh. I like comedy. And so I try to find humorous ways to say what I want to say. And sometimes there’s a lot of subtext to it, whether it comes to body positivity issues, queer issues, stuff like that. And sometimes it’s just funny for the sake of being funny.”
“But I would say that, yeah, a lot of my content does focus on being humorous because I find that’s the best way that I can connect with people.”
Do you have any tips for someone who would like to work in social media as a creator?
“I think that if you want to be a creator who does the job full time and is able to kind of commit themselves to it, you have to be ready for a lot of work. You have to have passion for what you’re doing. You have to lead with that and you have to lead with a desire to create before anything else. If you love what you’re doing, the audience will come, and the partnerships and the brands will come eventually. But if you’re not leading with a genuine passion for photography, creating videos, writing, community, building that type of stuff, then you’re gonna burn out in the end.”
“If you want to be a creator, you have to treat it like a business, right?”
”You have to have passion for what you're doing. You have to lead with that and you have to lead with a desire to create before anything else. If you love what you're doing, the audience will come, and the partnerships and the brands will come eventually."
That’s good advice. What about specifically working with brands? What have you learned about that?
“I feel fortunate to have a very dual perspective when it comes to that because in my career in PR before I started my own agency, I did work on the agency side. And what that meant is that I had the opportunity to work with some really great North American and global brands on planning and executing their influencer campaigns.”
“If you’re just getting started out, like I said, you need to focus on building community. (Brands) want people who have influence. And that doesn’t mean that you have to have a million followers, but it needs to be that you have genuine influence in the people that you do create for, and that you do serve.”
“Treat yourself like a business, be professional, and don’t be afraid to pitch yourself. You have to be an advocate and be your own best friend and do what you need to do to reach out and get people’s attention. And don’t undervalue yourself because you’re afraid people are going to say no.”
I see that you use your Instagram to advocate for not only body positivity, but also I saw that you were donating to a group. Could you talk about that?
“To commemorate and mark the occasion of (my) agency’s one-year anniversary, I really wanted to do something to kind of give back to the queer community. And so what I did is put together a GoFundMe for Rainbow Railroad. Our goal was to raise a thousand dollars and we hit that a couple days ago.”
“Rainbow Railroad is a really great kind of global not-for-profit organization that helps queer people in different countries escape and deal with persecution and state-sponsored violence just because of who they are. So they do really amazing work.”
Marette Flora is IZEA’s Content Manager. She writes and edits content about influencer marketing and all the latest #TeamIZEA happenings. When she is not at work, she can be found writing her personal blog, crafting personalized gifts or exploring Chicago where she lives with her husband, two daughters, dog and plants.
