MY DIY CAREER: FROM ATHLETE TO TIKTOK STAR
An entrepreneur since the age of 13, I’ve always been a creative person. So if you asked me ten years ago if I’d be where I am today, to a certain extent I would say yes. I knew I wanted to build my own brand. I knew I wanted my passion for sports to shine through in whatever I did. I knew I wanted to inspire others. But did I ever see myself as a “TikTok star”? Absolutely not! But I’m excited by this DIY career I’ve created – and look forward to the possibilities of the future.
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I attended NMU as a student-athlete and played basketball during undergrad. After graduating in 2012 with a degree in entertainment and sports promotion and in 2014 with my master’s in training, development, and performance improvement, I started my career as a motivational speaker. I traveled around the country speaking in schools and the brand Motivated by Mylan began to form. When I was visiting a school in Chicago, the students asked me if I had a TikTok account. I had no idea what that was at the time and when I told them I didn’t have one, they seemed disappointed. I called my wife on the drive home from that visit and said, “Maybe we should look into this.”
When the pandemic hit, the speaking gigs went away and like most others, I had to pivot. When the stay-at-home orders went into effect, it clicked. TikTok is how I can stay connected to these kids. This is how I can continue to reach my audience if I can’t speak to them in person. Kids couldn’t go anywhere…basketball hoops were even taken down so they couldn’t gather to play. So I used my creativity and started looking around the house for things to make – basketball hoops, other training items, fun sports-inspired décor – and the DIY part of the @motivatedbymylan brand took shape. This evolved into creating content that caters to people of all ages.
Nearly 700k followers and hundreds of DIY TikTok videos later, I now have partnerships with major brands like Home Depot, the NBA, Krazy Glue, and Purple, and have received national attention on social media from SportsCenter, People Magazine, and @houseofhighlights.
One of my most successful videos was a DIY basketball tree for the holidays. The video was picked up by Fox News and WGN, and reposted by SportsCenter and various other social media channels in December of 2021.
This outlet has allowed me to connect and inspire kids and adults, people of all backgrounds, and from all over the world at any given time. Having a DIY brand is the best of all my worlds – I get to create things no one has ever seen before, tie it into my love of sports, and continue to motivate my audience. I still get a thrill every time someone reposts my content – it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be featured on these platforms, let alone to be featured numerous times and have these large brands and outlets take acknowledgment of my work.
As I look to the future, I can’t help but think about what helped get me here – and the experiences I had and the people I met at NMU played a big role in all of this. An internship opportunity that kick-started a lot of things for me came from two professors when I had no clue they were watching me. They made it personal and took the time to get to know me, to get to know my goals. That simple gesture changed my life. I felt supported from the moment I stepped foot on campus for my official visit to the time I left – by my teammates, coaches, professors, counselors, and the entire student body.
Takeaway:
My advice to NMU students: DIY! Make the experience your own. Make it into whatever you want it to be. Make the most out of the opportunities you receive. For me, I decided to take on that DIY mantra from early on, and it has led me on my own path to inspiring the world through creativity.
