The Compassionate New Yorker: jeffstaple

Posted on March 5, 2017 by A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group

On Saturday February 4, 2017, I happened to interrupt my morning routine in an effort to catch up on some Instagram stories. While perusing through my stories, I happened to come across the feed of jeffstaple. As I made time to scroll through Jeff’s stories, I witnessed something that not only caught my attention, but very quickly caught my heart.

At around 1 am that Saturday morning, Jeff happened to observe someone waiting in the frigid cold temperature at a bus stop in his neighborhood in New York City. Thanks to his compassion, empathy, and mindfulness, Jeff decided to help out his fellow companion by calling them a ride to take them wherever they may have needed to go.

Photo via jeffstaple.

Photo via jeffstaple.

I find this story to be super inspiring as well as a great act of random kindness (please check out kindness.org). As a native New Yorker (I now reside in New Jersey), I often understand why we get bashed for our fast-paced, care-free lifestyle. We see so much happening in our day to day environment that it’s easy to feel as though in order to survive and not be taken advantage of, we must close our eyes and cover our ears to the realities and overstimulating demands of our environment. As a result, we often become numb to the need for compassion and taking care of others.

The reason why I decided to share this story is because I personally believe that we need to see more stories like this in our headlines. Amidst the over saturation of negativity which will often find a way to dominate our timelines and social media feeds, we need to expose ourselves to stories which help to promote positivity and inspire our communities. Regardless of whatever region of the world we may currently live in, we can all make a small choice and take a small action which can help to make a HUGE difference in the life of someone else. Let’s ask ourselves, what will our world look like when compassion becomes contagious? How can we spread a positive social contagion?

Photo via Jordan Cuellar.

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(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Cultural Curator, and Educator. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers centered around love. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.

Brands We LOVE: Black Santa

Posted on November 27, 2016 by A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group

Photo via @theblacksantacompany on Instagram.

We came across The Black Santa Company yesterday evening after noticing that the company followed our @aloversambition account on Instagram. Being as curious as we always are, especially considering our immense interest in emerging brands, culture, and lifestyle; we decided to dig into what the Black Santa movement is all about!

In search of discovering a larger purpose after sustaining a basketball injury, two-time NBA All-Star Baron Davis conceptualized the idea of “Black Santa” after dressing up as Santa Claus one year on Halloween. Realizing just how much of a hit his Black Santa persona was, he then thought to himself, “Black Santa can be someone super cool for the African-American audience such as a character or hero who we can all love and enjoy!” After identifying a real need to create cool contemporary content aimed at African-American and multi-cultural audiences, Baron founded “The Black Santa Company.”

Photo courtesy of “Black Santa Manifesto” video on YouTube.

The mission and purpose of The Black Santa Company is to inspire the world by building diverse characters and telling stories that reflect the change in culture. The Black Santa Company aims to create new characters, contemporary and engaging content, and high quality products celebrating diversity, fun, and positivity.

Photo courtesy of “Black Santa Manifesto” video on YouTube.

In an article courtesy of Blavity, Baron mentions, “This is a character-focused company that I want to use to expand people’s imaginations, we live in a world that needs a constant reminder of hope and positivity, particularly in neighborhoods like where I grew up (South Central Los Angeles). I want to give people the ability to dream and imagine something different. I want to make people feel good about themselves.” In addition, Baron also shares that The Black Santa Company is here to provide a feel good and positive angle and spin on storytelling. “I just want to make people smile” says Baron.

Photo of Christal Cross courtesy of “Black Santa Manifesto” video on YouTube.

At The Black Santa Company, they also believe that giving has no season. They encourage year round acts of kindness and want to highlight the people who do too. “Our world is culturally diverse. That’s why our mission is to create positive characters that embody the multi-cultural spirit of our society.” – The Black Santa Company

Photo courtesy of @jennpilatessocal on Instagram at a #HashtagLunchbag event.

Along with The Black Santa Company, we here at A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group also believe that the power of giving and gratitude should be celebrated and practiced all year round. Every season can be a holiday season when we decide to live in accordance with a compassionate, joyful, and grateful mindset and philosophy. We admire Baron for stepping into the role of servant leadership and leveraging his influence to create social change in an effort to inspire the world. As another favorite guy of ours, Gary Vaynerchuk often mentions, “It’s time that we begin to make positivity LOUDER!”

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A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group is a brand development agency that specializes in creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. With an emphasis on culture and lifestyle, the primary focus of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group is to help companies adapt to culture and build value between brands and their consumers centered around love. Our social mission is to leverage the influence of popular culture to create social change and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership. We are driven by AMBITION, fueled by PASSION, inspired by INNOVATION, and suckers for STRATEGY!

Idris Elba + Purdey’s Inspire The World To Thrive On!

Posted on April 30, 2016 by A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group

When we saw a Facebook post from one of our clients yesterday, we couldn’t help but to click for sound and decide to watch the video. We must say – we are certainly pleased that we decided to do so. We learned a lot!

Multi-vitamin fruit drink brand, Purdey’s teamed up with the multi-talented superstar, Idris Elba in an effort to help us get more out of life while introducing the world to Purdey’s belief that we should never stop growing.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Seems like a simple question…right? At first, the question received many laughs, a few surprising looks, and some uncertainty. Then, we were hit with a follow-up question:

Ahhh…as adults, why do we believe that we’ve stopped growing? After all, we never stop growing…right? We actually don’t. In fact, when we are introduced to a fresh new perspective on life, it makes us view our potential quite differently.

Here are some of the inspiring answers we receive when we are able to get others to agree with the notion that we never stop growing:

I Want To …

… Make quilts, amazing quilts!

… Play drums!

… Be Madonna!

… Look after the people I love!

… Be an Actor!

… Be a Spoken Word artist!

… Be a Hot Air Balloon Pilot!

… Be a Football Coach – I think!

So…What Stops Us From Achieving Our Dreams?

There are an endless amount of reasons why we may feel as though we can no longer achieve our dreams. Age, time, discouragement, lack of ambition…LIFE?!? However, would we take the chance to achieve our dreams if we were given the opportunity? Can we get a HECK YES!!! Knowing this, what does it all come down to? It comes down to us, not life. Our lives are largely determined by the decisions we choose to make for ourselves.

From the land of “A Lovers Ambition,” we would arguably say that it’s finally time to spend less energy on creating excuses, and more energy on creating opportunities for ourselves to thrive and live the life of our dreams.

Thanks to Idris, Purdey’s, and Iris Worldwide for compelling us with the compassionate message to move forward and find our inner ambition to achieve our goals and thrive on!

Credits

Music by Baptiste Thiry, “Dreams Come True”

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(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers centered around love. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.

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