What a time to be alive. We are squarely in the middle of the age of the influencer and social media mavens and stars are taking over. This new world isn’t like it used to be at all, and the possibilities in life are becoming more and more infinite with time.
I think it’s pretty cool that we live in an era where people are becoming fully fledged businesses in their own rights, and making a name for themselves as personal brands. Be it through modelling, marketing or simply just being their fabulous selves, many Namibians are dead set on shifting the culture.
That is why we just had to sit down with the ever so graceful Kennedy Amadhila. At just 24 years old, he has an impressive CV under his belt, being a model, a lifestyle influencer, a brand ambassador and an absolute cutie. His social media reach is constantly growing, with over 22 000 people following him on Instagram alone, and his posts garnering tens of thousands of views on average.
The young personality represented Namibia in the Philippines for the Man of the World pageant where he scooped the Top Fashion award; he was voted Simply You Magazine’s Favourite Male Model and Katutura Fashion Week’s Top Male Model all in 2018.
Kennedy is also a regular feature on the MTC Windhoek Fashion Week runway, with a strut and stance that are hard not to love. He has worked with fashion brands like Dunns Clothing (for him he is an ambassador l), Temptations Namibia, Castle Lite, RealGood Chicken, Chrisla Essentials and Minoxidil Namibia.
He notes that since beginning his career as a model, his reach has increased significantly, as more and more people want to work with him.
But just how did Kennedy get his start in the line of work he does now? How did he begin a career specialising in modelling, creative content and social media marketing and influencing?
The coastal bred, capital based model says he was just like any other curious kid who had a connection to the internet and a desire to express himself.
“I’d spend most of my time styling myself and taking pictures to upload on Facebook. They would call people like me ‘fire posters’ back in the day,” he explains of his humble origins, but notes that it was only once he came to Windhoek that he was exposed to the idea of style and fashion being an actual path he could pursue.
For him, it’s not just work though, it is a big part of his life.
“Social media taught me a lot about self love and it helped me build my confidence. It created a platform for me where people could learn about my brand and the services that I offer, follow my story, connect with me and book me,” he says proudly.
If you meet him in person, you will see that the online persona matches his real life energy very well. He oozes charisma and charm, he is calm and he is neat and well put together. On top of that, Kennedy knows his angles and lighting, knows how to edit his content well, how to pick the right music, and how to make any product look cool.
Any smart businessperson, even if you aren’t very in tune with what the youth are up to these days, should know that the world has shifted majorly. Advertising and marketing, two massive industries, can make a huge difference in how brands and products are received by the public, and the way these business functions are handled is constantly shifting.
With social media – and soon the metaverse – eclipsing life as we know it, more and more creators like Kennedy will crop up, and the industry locally will become more and more lucrative. Right now, he is just one of the faces leading the pack.
Follow Kennedy online at @KennedyAmadhila.
