…If you’re a nostalgic brand, now is your time to thrive! Two days ago, I came across my homegirl Wa‘s post on Twitter about Fila making a comeback. Earlier today, while I was on IG, I came across Kayci‘s post where she was fashionably sporting a pair of Jelly sandals. As I was looking at the photo, I was instantly reminded of what all of the girls use to wear in the summer when I was growing up as a child on Staten Island, NY.
A few years ago, I remember Gary Vaynerchuk talking about the rise of nostalgic brands. Hence, look at what he’s doing with Barney Waters and K-Swiss Global Brands. In addition, look at the rise of brands such as Champion, Calvin Klein, GUESS, and Tommy Hilfiger. Lastly, look at what Kanye and Pharrell did with Adidas.
If you’re a heritage or legacy brand, you may want to consider bringing in a dope team of creatives to reinvigorate your brand identity and story. Who knows, you may be the next big thing…AGAIN!!!
(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking brand strategist, curator, and educator. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development and social impact. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Behind The Hustle, Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about bridging the gap and building value between brands, communities, and culture. 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.
“The sooner we figure out what our competitive advantage is, the more likely we are to be able to compete” says Tai Lopez. It seems quite simple, doesn’t it? Well…lets get started!
The first question that we may want to begin asking ourselves is, “What is our career destiny?” It’s important that we know ourselves and know where we need to go in an effort to showcase our competencies, skills, and talents. However, before we do this, we must conduct a pretty intense evaluation when it comes to running our own self-assessment. In reference to Friedrich Nietzsche, “As extraordinary individuals, we should all seek to rise above the crowd.”
Eulerian Destiny
Tai talks a lot about identifying what he calls our “Eulerian Destiny.” Our Eulerian Destiny gives us hints as to what our competitive advantages are as well as our potential career destiny. The Eulerian Destiny chart consists of 5 circles, each of which asks one of the following questions:
1. Who and what did we grow up around?
2. What did we want to be when we were 14 years old?
3. What have we been doing for the past 10 years?
4. What do strangers, or even people who don’t like us compliment us on?
5. What can we talk at length about with our friends?
As I mentioned in a previous post of mine, When I was a child, I was infatuated with architecture and construction. My siblings and I grew up in a working class family in the New Brighton section of Staten Island, NY. I was always amazed at how structures were built and developed. More than anything else, I loved playing with legos. The idea of connecting tiny little pieces of plastic together in an effort to form a finished product is what enamored me the most. As I had grown older, I eventually gravitated over to drawing, playing sports, and creating music.
When I was 16 years old, I made the decision to quit playing football. Deep down inside, I knew that continuing to play football was not going to be a suitable career path for me to follow. One thing that I have always possessed was a strong sense of following my intuition. I would find myself repeating this same scenario again when I attended Middlesex County College as a Freshman in 2005. This time, I decided that it was not in my best interest to continue pursuing a degree in Construction Engineering. Although it was something that as I child I believed I wanted to do when I got older, my interests at the time gravitated elsewhere. From here, I would continue on a path that would lead me to obtaining my Associate in Fine Arts Music degree from Middlesex County College. A few years later, I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from Rutgers University.
Today, my creative outlet is essentially a combination of all of my childhood endeavors. I may no longer build blocks, connect legos, create music, and play sports. However, I do build brands, connect people, identify talent, and create opportunities. Ultimately, I’m in the business of helping others to identify with the sense of their own “Lovers Ambition” in regards to achieving something of significance and value in their lives.
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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.
Earlier this year at Nick Unsworth’s “Life On Fire” conference, Tai Lopez broke down how we can go about identifying what helps to drive and motivate us toward our purpose. “Our purpose is our end goal that we input into our GPS. However, what we should really be asking ourselves is, “What is the fuel that drives us?” says Tai.
Tai mentions that the 4 primary drivers of motivation are:
1. Money – Money driven
2. Mating – Relationship driven
3. Mastery – Status driven
4. Momentum – Freedom driven
We must ask ourselves, “Which of these four primary motivators drives us to compete? Which of these four primary motivators sparks envy toward others? In this case, envy can be viewed positively as long as it is properly harnessed. As Tai mentions, “Envy is the flashlight that illuminates our inner being.” We are motivated to attain what we envy in others.
What is my primary driver?
From as long as I can remember, I have always been driven by mastery. I always make an effort to be one of the best at what I do. For example, when I entered the 6th grade, I attended I.S. 61 on Staten Island, NY. When I found out that I was not placed in honors classes, I was not very happy to say the least. That year I worked very hard to achieve the status of being on the high-honor roll. As a result, I was moved into honors classes for my 7th grade year.
That same year, I also attended a highly selective 22-month extracurricular program designed to assist eligible NYC public school students in preparing for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (The Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, Stuyvesant High School). Nonetheless, attending a specialized high school was never really an intention or purpose of mine. Although I did attend the program, I certainly did not maximize my potential.
As fate would have it, I ended up attending St. Peters Boys High School on Staten Island. One week into my freshmen year was September 11, 2001. One of the specialized high schools that I would have attended if admitted, Stuyvesant High School, was so close to the World Trade Center site that it was immediately evacuated and classes did not resume for weeks. In December of 2002, my parents ended up moving our family out of the city to Piscataway, NJ. The rest is history!
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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.
Back in December of 2015, I listened to episode 263 of Lewis Howes’, “School of Greatness” podcast. In this particular episode, Lewis sits down with Brad Lomenick, author of “The Catalyst Leader” to discuss how to go about mastering confidence, humility, and leadership. A little less than halfway through the podcast (14:42), Lewis poses the following question to Brad, “How might we go about discovering our own unique purpose?”
Here is some very helpful insight in regards to helping us discover, identify, and pursue our own unique purpose in life:
1. Identity:
Our identity is who we are. It consists of all of the things which we cannot change. For example, we cannot change our ethnic background, our family structure, or when and where we were born.
(Ex: Hello, my name is Aquaus Kelley and I am of African-American descent. I am from Staten Island, NY and I graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in Communication).
(Ex: My calling is to lead people towards becoming the best versions of themselves in an effort to set them up for personal success. Overall, my social mission is to use my influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership).
3. Assignment:
Our assignment is our current day to day role or vocation. Ideally, this should align with our calling. When our assignment does not align with our calling, it may cause Noögenic neuroses. According to Dr. Frankl, noögenic neuroses is the cause of frustration due to the misalignment of our calling (purpose) and our assignment (vocation).
(Ex: My current assignment is that of a brand strategist, educator, and music publisher. I curate content and develop brand strategy through A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, I work with middle school students in the field of education, and I specialize in identifying talent and creating opportunities for emerging artists as a music publisher).
Think about it. How do we feel when we are in a profession that does not allow our own purpose to flourish? Once we are able to discover, identify, and pursue our calling, we are then better equipped to select and manage which assignments are best for our own ultimate success!
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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.
7 Days of Wisdom is an original weekly video series presented by A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group and hosted by Aquaus Kelley. Our mission is to foster growth and create a community of success and significance. Through sharing meaningful advice, knowledge, and insight gathered throughout our daily experiences, we aim to empower, encourage, and inspire our community to achieve their most passionate aspirations.
(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 such as Cornerstone Agency, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers. 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.
Here’s an interesting fact: For those of you who didn’t know, I was actually born and raised a vegan. That’s right…thanks to the decisive guidance of my parents back in the 80s, I was enlisted into the vegan lifestyle prior to knowing what it was even about.
Growing up in the 90s, being a vegan was certainly an anomaly. This was especially true for a young child. Imagine having to explain yourself at school to all of the other students at lunch time. Yes, it was very arduous for the most part. Personally, any moment centered around food was always a sensitive touchpoint for me. Some of my childhood food memories consist of my mother forcing us to drink carrot juice before earning the privilege of eating tofu pizza, traveling with my parents to local health-food stores on Staten Island, and taking family day trips to Integral Yoga Natural Foods in Manhattan. Before the rise of Almond milk, EdenSoy was a staple in our refrigerator at home. In hindsight, I guess that you can call it tough love. Thankfully, I was able to survive and stick it out. I’m also glad that I’m able to fully embrace the wonderful times that we are in now. I’m proud to see that our society is becoming more conscious of what we put into our bodies and the impact that our actions have on the environment around us.
One of my good friends shared this video with me back in August. I definitely think that Vice is a few steps ahead of the competition when it comes to the future of content and covering things that are meaningful to it’s audience. In this episode, Vice takes time to go vegan with NBA baller and UConn Alum Ben Gordon as he invites us to Plant Food + Wine located in Venice, CA. I hope that you enjoy a quick glimpse into his state of transformation. ~ Namaste
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(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder ofA Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies such as Cornerstone Agency, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers. 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.
A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group 