Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristopher Anderson.
Hi Kristopher, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
My story begins in South Carolina, where I grew up. I had a love for art as a kid; I used to draw a lot; film and fashion were my thing and what I was most known for growing up. I got awarded best dressed in high school, which was cool. I never thought about the idea of pursuing Art as a career tho, so after high school, I decided to join the Airforce where I worked in nursing while studying biology in aspiration of becoming an emergency medicine doctor/or plastic surgeon. I have a love for science, so I got 3 years into my biology degree and served 6 years, but life had a way of nudging me toward art. I would get on Instagram while working the night shift when nothing else was going on and just scroll through accounts that were cool to me. I would see creatives traveling the world and creating the most cinematic travel films by themselves and pursuing things like fashion and music.
My re-enlistment came up in 2018 and I decided to take the leap of faith to leave the military. After serving I had a lot more time to myself and began to educate myself on different sciences, philosophies, religions just because they were interesting to me, Life felt new. Being a kid in South Carolina and then an Air Force Airman was all I knew. The law of Attraction stood out most of all my studies because it stated that like attracts like, I love science so the way it spoke of manifestation and like energies attracting just made sense to my mind. And I was able to correlate its philosophy to a lot of things I did naturally as a child growing up so learning the science-based knowledge of how I viewed the world innately was cool to me and made me confident in pursuing something of a passion.
After learning the law of attraction and manifestation, I had a newfound belief that an art career was possible. My thought was just to give it a try and only think about myself traveling the world, creating a brand, and creating a business out of being myself. The new ways of thinking I developed from my studies, from the law of attraction mixed with my faith in God I learned as a child growing up in church.
I bought my first camera in Jan 2019 even tho I really couldn’t afford it, but I acted on faith that somehow the money I spent would find its way back to me multiplied. I began to teach myself photography and filmmaking with just an optimistic outlook that all things would attract or fall in place for me to achieve my set out goals as long as I stayed faithful in thought and took inspired actions. I initially was gonna pursue a business degree in marketing but settled for a digital media marketing certificate from Cornell instead and had plans to major in business. I was thinking about being a social media manager for medical professionals. I enrolled in business school at the University of Houston in 2019, then UCF in Florida for a semester, and eventually back to the University of Houston (I think during this time, I was finding myself and beginning to know myself more, so I did a lot of moving around and switching of places I lived, the freedom to make my own choices was something I did not have prior because I was a kid then immediately in the military with more people telling me what to do so it felt good to do what I wanted so I acted on whatever came to my mind and felt right). I switched from business to photography for the 2nd time at the University of Houston.
It is dramatically different being a civilian and having charge of my life without having to ask permission to move around, so within my first 3 years of leaving the Airforce, I moved around a bit from NC, FL, Houston, Atlanta, and ultimately San Diego where I spent the most of my time since leaving the military, 3 years in total. Now, I live in LA.
I moved to San Diego during Covid and enrolled in a photography/design program at a school in San Francisco in Fall of 2020. San Diego worked for me because I would just fly back and forth to class. It was only an hour flight, and I didn’t want to move to San Francisco, so I stayed in San Diego, where I was roommates with a childhood friend from South Carolina. Having him as a roommate was amazing for my social media strategy and growth. He is a money-minded person who majored in economics at UCSD. A lot of my ideas towards business structure and strategy on social media I’d bounce ideas from him. My school shut down cause of Covid and I was stuck doing online classes. During this time, I had aspirations to get into travel content creation because at the time, I had an interest in many levels of art, from fashion to music and more, but I knew one thing that hinders artist is lack of audience, and I didn’t want to be a broke artist because I still had responsibilities so I used what I knew from photography to begin to travel the world during Covid with hopes of being able to be paid to do so in future or create media for others. I figured most were afraid to travel during Covid, but I wasn’t, so I used the cheap flight prices to my advantage. I thought, “Who doesn’t like to travel? and I felt it would be a great way to build an audience and attract people to watch the content I produced.
Everyone was getting on TikTok at the time because of the lockdown, and my intuition told me this would be the next big platform. Previously my mind was stuck on YouTube, but I trusted my intuition. I decided to follow my intuition and begin posting my travels on TikTok in September 2021.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8nYy8LS/
Within 6 months, I grew an audience of 200k+ more, and at the beginning of 2022, I began to be reached out through email to start making content with big brands like Marriott, ATT, Delta, Jeep, and The North Face, to name a few.
Marriot was huge for me because they sent me to 11 different countries within 6 months, and they allowed me to really see the world. 100% free, and I was paid for it.
Through this, I still was a student taking 6 classes online while starting my clothing brand, LOA, which stands for law of attraction. It inspired me so much that I wanted my brand to be named after it so that I could create a brand based on its philosophy in hopes of inspiring others to go after their dreams. It was a blessing because, through the income I made working with brands, I could re-invest in my ventures and start my clothing brand in 2022.
Through TikTok, I got opportunities to show my creative directing skills and worked with other creatives as director for the brands Disney/Natgeo and Dolce and Gabbana.
https://www.tiktok.com/@saintsw0rld/video/7313232273430695199?lang=en
I feel I am where I am now by taking the leap of faith to believe in myself that any of these things were possible. I started traveling with the intention of growing a personal brand from it, and it worked. I “manifested it” in my line of thinking through faith, self-belief, willingness to learn, and taking inspired actions regardless of the fear I felt. I graduated from school in May 2023 and worked with a few more brands during the year, Royal Caribbean, Weather Channel a few smaller brands as creative director and talent, Qantas Airlines, Visit Australia. And now here we are in 2024 where I relaunched my brand LOA in January because I had it closed the year of 2023 so I could focus on finishing my degree.
https://www.tiktok.com/@saintsw0rld/video/7323686458999557419?lang=en
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My perspective towards obstacles is not ordinary. I welcome challenges. I seek out what makes me uncomfortable because those are the moments I find growth. I asked myself at the beginning of pursuing all of this and leaving the military not just what I wanted from life but also what I was willing to go through to achieve it. I had a great career going with the military, but my desire for more led me here, and to quit was a lot for me, but I had conviction in my abilities of what I knew I could achieve.
I have been away from family, not living near my daughter who lives in TX while I’m in LA, lost relationships, and being alone often, but what keeps me going is the vision I have of the future, these small sacrifices and moments of solitude and uncomfortability that pursuing something of a dream may come with.
I always remind myself no matter how tough things may seem there is always a silver lining. Obstacles, to me, are what make life enjoyable. If everything went smoothly it would become boring, to me at least. The uncertainty of following a vision is fun to me because the obstacles are like levels in a game to beat. The vision is so clear that obstacles seem like illusions because as I move past them in my mind with the confidence of finding a solution, I learn so much that I see the obstacles as moments to level up in the game of life.
I like seeing myself overcome self-doubt and living by what I believe to be true because I have inspired so many with my travels and art and my ability to do what comes to my mind and feels right. Plus doing what I love and being able to take care of my family because of my talents is worth all that I endure from obstacles/challenges.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Fine Art Photographer/Design By degree with emphasis in fashion and editorial photography. I work as a fashion Designer for my own brand, creative director, content creator, cinematographer, musician, and model as a professional. I like to view myself as a creative entrepreneur. I became known for creating cinematic travel clips. I’m most proud of my ability to believe in myself that I can learn anything I have an interest in.
What I believe sets me apart from others is my perspective and my conviction in it but also being open to the perspectives of others… My perspective comes from so many areas of my life and all the things I find interest in and the lives of others whom I’ve met during my travels that I feel I have a perspective towards the arts and just life in general that is unordinary from the norm. Being able to articulate my perspective creatively, I feel, is unique as well because by doing so, I can spark inspiration in others.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My best advice would be to find a deep trust in God, or whatever you want to call a higher power. Universe, energy, etc. To me, it doesn’t matter what you call it. But developing a relationship in something greater than yourself and trusting it to help you in your journey, I believe, is vital, especially in pursuing a vision only you can see. Those times when alone, you can refer to that thing you find faith in, and you will never be alone. That mixed with self-belief, to me, you can’t lose.
I don’t have a thing I wish I knew sooner. I used to have feelings of wishing I knew things until I realized even in my ignorance of knowledge on certain topics there was a positive that came from it. I believe my life flows in the way that it is supposed to, so what I knew in the beginning, I was supposed to know what I knew later was for the time being, and what I’ll need to know in the future will come at the right time.
Viewing it this way keeps me confident in my decisions and thought processes yet aware that, in reality, there is so much more for me to learn, so never be closed-minded to anything new.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://loalosangeles.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saintsworldxo/?hl=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saint7/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@saintsw0rld?lang=en
Image Credits
Kristopher Anderson
