In today’s world, your social media presence is essential. The content you share represents who you are and what you stand for—it is your digital footprint.

With one google search of your name prospective clients, employers, and co-workers can get a snapshot of your history. 93% of employers say they use this snapshot to screen their applicants and 35% eliminate candidates for consideration based on what they find.

Surveys show employers check LinkedIn as the most popular channel (96%), followed by Facebook (56%), Twitter (41%) and Instagram (7%).

It’s a common misconception that you should only focus on your social media presence if you want to be an influencer. In many cases having no online presence can hinder your chances for employment or future collaborations even further.

Knowing how to cultivate an online presence that works in your favor is key. So how do you make your social media presence stand out?

One Influencer says it’s all about being committed to empowering others and inspiring positive change.

Meet Rob Fajardo, a 23-year-old thought leader and the founder of Leave Normal Behind, a community, content, and events hub dedicated to empowering others to become their best version through meaningful contribution. Fajardo is on a mission to help purpose-driven messages scale—he’s an advisor for Fownders, a NJ-based social impact accelerator—as well as a contributing author to Rise Up Champion.

This week on the Unconventional Life Podcast, Fajardo shares how you can create content that will help you advance your career by owning your digital output.

Be Authentic. 91% of Millennials want those they follow on social media to be authentic. Employers are no different—they want to populate their company with individuals who are in alignment with their company mission. In being authentic, you allow others to connect with you and feel like they know the real you. People can’t connect to a false image of you—they want to see your flaws, your mistakes, your humanity.

This builds trust, however, it’s important to be mindful of the impressions your photos give off. First impressions are powerful and any incriminating photos can do damage. “It’s all about vulnerability and transparency, showcasing who you are authentically to the world. That’s what gets people to connect with you,” Fajardo says.

Be Proactive. In 2017, it’s basically a requirement to have an online presence. Having no online presence can make recruiters wary, so it’s important to own your online presence by actively creating it. Whether it’s through your LinkedIn profile, a personal website, or writing articles for publications, be proactive in posting content frequently to your platforms and making sure it represents who you are and what you stand for. Personal websites can be a great way to showcase your credentials and skills to prospective employers while also allowing you to create a sphere of influence.

Your Life As Content. Creating content and living your everyday life don’t have to be separate. Content creation is a great way to position yourself as an expert for future collaborations and career advancements.

Don’t waste time trying to plan an elaborate content schedule with pre-populated ideas. That can get overwhelming and inhibit you from being in action. Instead, let your content emerge spontaneously by sharing your day-to-day activities and opinions. “Have a thought or an opinion? Take 30 seconds to a minute to formulate it and film yourself,” Fajardo says. “Repurpose the things you’re already doing and share it as content on different platforms.”

Take A Stand. Use social platforms as a way to get your thoughts and opinions about matters you care about out into the world. If there’s a cause that’s particularly important to you, be a vocal advocate about it. When you take a stance, and post about something consistently, you demonstrate your ability to be a force for a cause. In the process you also show future employers causes you care about which helps them know if you are a good fit for their culture.

Rob says, “If I’m not actively helping I’m indirectly hurting.” How can you use your voice to make the world a better place? What’s experiences have you learned something from that others need to hear? In being a voice for positive change, you establish a reputation for yourself that shows others you are committed to help.

This article was originally published on Forbes

Fear… It can be paralyzing. It may be what is keeping you stuck in that job or relationship that you hate.

Neuroscience tells us that when the fear system of the brain is active, we are less likely to take risks, and more likely to cling onto what we already have. Moreover, fear requires massive energy—so much, in fact, that it impairs your ability to focus on other tasks at hand.

With the ever-present threat of not having a job, suffering a hit in business, or the uncertainty of finding success on your own, the reality is that fear has got most of us locked in its grips.

Can you imagine what might open up for you if, instead of spending all that time worrying, you decided to confront your fears head-on?

One man did exactly that, and the result was astounding.

Meet Brian D. Evans, the founder of Influencive, a content platform with over 1 million readers a month, though it was only created 8 months ago. Evans is also responsible for the 25th fastest-growing advertising and marketing agency in the U.S., BDE Ventures. He launched Influencive as a way to tackle his lifelong fear of sharing his voice as a writer, and now, he’s helping transform the day-to-day lives of millions of aspiring entrepreneurs.

I caught up with Evans about confronting fear head-on in the latest episode of the Unconventional Life podcast, “How To Use Fear To Fuel Your Greatness.”

Evans says the catalyst to dive into his fear was a near-death experience he had as a child. At the age of eight, he suffered a near-fatal bike accident that would forever change his perspective after he went head first over handlebars into the corner of a brick wall. It awakened him to the fleeting nature of life and the urgency to rise up and create something meaningful.

Through that experience, Evans recognized the importance of overcoming what is standing in your way to serve a greater purpose. For Evans, this was the fear of being heard. “I was scared to death of writing,” he says. “If you had asked me three years ago if I would be writing on big sites one day, including my own, I would say absolutely not.”

Though writing wasn’t his strong suit, Evans saw a need in the world for inspiring content that would motivate young entrepreneurs to achieve their goals. They were hungry for daily inspiration backed by concrete and applicable direction, and no platform on the market was offering this. Thus, Influencive was born.

Day by day, Evans began testing his ideas by simply throwing new content out there. He started improving his grammar and technical writing and before he knew it he had a network of people—first 5, 10, 50, now 105—that wanted to write for the site. Soon after he started getting invited to write for Inc. magazine, Entrepreneur and many other leading media outlets.

Today, Influencive has over one million readers per month, a hundred thousand plus Facebook followers and is quickly becoming the go-to platform for inspirational content for young and aspiring entrepreneurs. Evans currently serves as editor-in-chief and CEO alongside his partner and COO Clinton Senkow.

Below, Evans shares how you can use your fear as fuel for success.

Eliminate conditional statements from your vocabulary. The words you speak reflect your mindset and determine the outcome of your success. To be successful, you must align your beliefs, words, and actions with certainty. Evans says he views success as inevitable, and has removed phrases like “try,” “if it happens,” and “maybe” from his everyday vocabulary.

Focus on one task at a time. “Ambitious entrepreneurs are like, ‘I want to do all these things, I want to conquer the world’… but you have to start somewhere,” Evans advises. “People have this idea of wanting to do all these things at once, but it’s too much. You really just need to have incredible laser focus on 1 or 2 things.” He recommends writing a list of 25 things you want to accomplish in your life, and narrowing down just five that you want to accomplish in the next two years. Commit to finishing these first five things before you move on to the rest of the list to ensure that you’re actually accomplishing what you intend to.

Mobilize others to support your mission. Whatever it is you are creating, it’s much easier to achieve with the help of others. Enroll others in a collective vision that isn’t centered around a single person, but rather is dedicated to the whole. “You have to have a collective vision. It’s not about one person, it’s not about me, it’s the collective vision of the whole thing. If you can find people and bring them together into a bigger vision, I think that bigger collective is a stronger base to make things successful quickly,” says Evans.

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The era of the big brand is on the decline with big names like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Macy’s, and The Gap consistently losing revenue in recent years.

That’s because a new wave of conscious consumers has been born, and they’re voting with their dollars in favor of products that contribute to a greater good.

If you want to stay relevant in this day and age, you’ll need to adapt to consumers’ new preferences. Simply selling a product is no longer an option; instead, you’ll need to give people something to stand behind.

“Rallying people around a cause they care about allows them to create personal meaning and connection to your brand, becoming loyal followers who are compelled to share your mission with others,” says Elizabeth Kanna, a brand impact strategist.

One cofounder is doing just that with his brand movement Youngry, an online media and education platform that aims to empower young entrepreneurs to become successful in the 21st century.

Meet Ash Kumra, a two-time White House award winner, speaker, author, and former talk show host. After launching a handful of businesses that lacked real substance and purpose, Kumra has reversed his approach to entrepreneurship to lead with the consumer first–and it’s rewarding him more than ever.

I caught up with Kumra about his new approach to business on the latest episode of Unconventional Life, “Set Your Brand on Fire: How to Start a Powerful & Profitable Movement.”

Kumra’s journey to entrepreneurship began when he spontaneously gave a speech to his entire college fraternity for the chance to speak at a nation-wide Greek conference–and won. While the other contenders spoke for minutes on end, Kumra kept it short and sweet, with the unforgettable words, “I eat, drink, and sleep greek life,” before dropping the mic and exiting stage.

As the audience roared, Kumra realized he had a knack for communication and could effortlessly enroll others in his mission. “In that moment I realized gosh, I can communicate,” he says.

Now, Kumra is using his gift of communication to enlist others in a force for public good, with his latest venture Youngry.

What makes Youngry unique is its community-funded operations model. To date, Youngry has sourced tens of thousands of dollars from nearly one hundred investors–everyday, nonaccredited contributors like you and me.

Kumra chose to fund Youngry this way to create a strong bond between brand and community. “It’s the best way to get connected to your core audience,” he explains. “We said let’s ask our community–the people who are gonna get help from Youngry, the early-stage entrepreneurs, those who want to contribute, the mentors, the partners, let’s ask them all to back us from day one. Let’s let them be a part of our journey so that as we rise they rise.”

To Kumra, Youngry is less a company for individual profit than it is a movement that benefits thousands. It is a place for young entrepreneurs to come together and learn how to build businesses that serve the planet.

“When you unite people on common ground with a shared objective, people will mobilize together and make the brand a success,” says Kumra. Below, Kumra shares how you can position your own brand as a movement.

1. Consider using equity crowdfunding. This is effective for two reasons: you can attain funding without having to worry about finding an Angel investor, and you create a bridge between your brand and your target audience. Nothing says movement like a bootstrappy “by the people, for the people.” If you go with equity crowdfunding, you’ll need to file legal documentation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to document each of your investors. Kumra recommends hiring an advisor to ensure a smooth and simple process.

2. Start your business for purpose, not trend. When you’re in an industry for the trend, it’s because you’ve noticed there is profit to be made and you’re looking to make a quick buck. When money isn’t flowing, you’re likely to leave. If this describes you, you’ll want to reconsider a different industry that you’re truly passionate about–in other words, the motivation for your work must be purpose. Any movement that is to stand the test of time cannot waver when profits suffer; it must be rooted in the mission it seeks to accomplish. “When you’re doing something you’re so passionate about and you feel others have that same passion or commonality, that’s your genesis for a movement,” Kumra says.

3. Tell a story. It’s not enough to simply sell a product or service anymore–you’ll find yourself drowning in a sea of competition. Instead, elevate yourself from the rest by aligning with a story that connects to consumers’ pain and provides a solution. A movement brand that has done this exceptionally well is Flint and Tinder, who famously won $1M in a kickstarter campaign that offered sweatshirts with a lifetime warranty as a way to take a stand against mainstream clothing that falls apart in months. Whatever your brand offering may be, position it as the unique solution to end a struggle that has had your audience feeling fed up for too long. Do this effectively, and your movement is bound to catch fire with a momentum of its own.

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