Karen Robinovitz on Shaping the Creator Economy–and What Came Next
In this episode of Origins of Influence, host Dina Fierro sits down with Karen Robinovitz—cultural bellwether, serial entrepreneur, and one of the original architects of the influencer economy. As co-founder of Digital Brand Architects (DBA), Karen helped professionalize influencer representation long before it became an industry standard, spotting the value of digital creators before the rest of the world caught on.Today, Karen is the founder of Sloomoo Institute, a multisensory experience centered on play, joy, and emotional wellness. In this conversation, Karen reflects on the throughline between her ventures—how reinvention has defined her career, why she’s stepped back from social media, and what it looks like to build something tactile, analog, and healing in a hyper-digital age.We discuss:Karen’s evolution from journalist and trend forecaster to co-founding DBAThe early days of influencer marketing and building infrastructure for creatorsNavigating visibility, advocacy, and polarization as a founderWhy she stepped back from social media—and what influence means to her nowThe grief that ultimately sparked the creation of Sloomoo InstituteHow Sloomoo blends analog joy with IP building, animation, and new technologiesRecommended by Karen:Kennedy Yanko (artist)Rachel Youn (artist)Marisa Thalberg (CMO, Catalyst Brands)About Origins of InfluenceHosted by longtime fashion and beauty marketer Dina Fierro, Origins of Influence is a limited series exploring the past, present and future of the creator economy through intimate conversations with pioneering influencers, creators and founders. Find show notes and exclusive content on Substack. Subscribe on YouTube and follow Origins of Influence on Instagram and TikTok for clips, full-length episodes, BTS and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Yuli Ziv on Building the Business of Influence—and Letting It Go
Before Instagram, before brand deals, before influencer was a job title—Yuli Ziv was building the business of digital influence. In this episode, Dina sits down with her longtime friend and fellow fashion blogosphere OG to trace the arc of Yuli’s remarkable career: from founding Style Coalition and shaping the earliest creator-brand partnerships, to exiting post-acquisition and walking away from hustle culture entirely.Today, Yuli is the founder of Heallist, a growth platform for holistic healers—and she believes we’re entering a new era of influence, one powered by energy, not algorithms. This conversation is a masterclass in reinvention, intuition, and creating on your own terms.In this episode, we explore:Yuli’s early days in the blogosphere and the launch of My It ThingsBuilding Style Coalition and pioneering data-driven brand campaignsDisrupting the fashion industry with community-driven influenceBurnout, boundaries, and why she chose a two-year career breakThe spiritual practices that led to her founding HeallistHer perspective on the “new influencers” and what the creator economy got right—and wrongHow she’s building a business rooted in balance, not burnoutExplore Heallist hereFollow Heallist on InstagramRecommended by Yuli:@MelRobbins@SimoneOliverAbout Origins of InfluenceHosted by longtime fashion and beauty marketer Dina Fierro, Origins of Influence is a limited series exploring the past, present and future of the creator economy through intimate conversations with pioneering influencers, creators and founders. Find show notes and exclusive content on Substack. Subscribe on YouTube and follow Origins of Influence on Instagram and TikTok for clips, full-length episodes, BTS and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Dapper Lou on Reinvention, Storytelling, and Creative Growth
Photographer, creative director, and cultural documentarian Lougé Delcy—also known as Dapper Lou—joins host Dina Fierro to trace his evolution from early street style pioneer to founder of Dapper Studios and Gallery Lougé.In this rich, expansive conversation, Lougé shares how his Haitian-American upbringing shaped his perspective, why he stepped away from influencer notoriety, and what he’s learned through deep, immersive work in communities across Africa, Brazil, and beyond.Together, Dina and Lougé explore:His start as a menswear blogger and self-taught photographer on Lookbook.nu and InstagramWhy he pivoted from personal brand to cultural storytellerLaunching Dapper Studios and building creative communityHis documentary work in Kenya and Brazil—and why immersion is key to his processNavigating visibility, identity, and creative ownership todayHis thoughts on social media, AI, and sustaining creative longevityThis is a story about personal evolution, cultural responsibility, and making art that lasts.See Lougé Delcy's remarkable Nat Geo doc hereRecommended by Lougé:@ChantelWalkes @JoeKenneth_About Origins of InfluenceHosted by longtime fashion and beauty marketer Dina Fierro, Origins of Influence is a limited series exploring the past, present and future of the creator economy through intimate conversations with pioneering influencers, creators and founders. Find show notes and exclusive content on Substack. Subscribe on YouTube and follow Origins of Influence on Instagram and TikTok for clips, full-length episodes, BTS and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Influencer Who Opted Out
In this episode of Origins of Influence, host Dina Fierro sits down with Jess Kirby—former fashion influencer, writer, and founder of the best-selling Substack newsletter A Common Thread. Jess was among the early creators who helped define the blog-to-Instagram era, building a platform rooted in personal style, relatability, and lifestyle storytelling. But over time, she began to question the values and trade-offs inherent in the influencer economy—and made the rare decision to walk away. In this conversation, Dina and Jess explore what it means to realign your online presence with your offline values, the mental toll of always-on performance, and the boundaries we’re still learning to rebuild in a hyper-digital world. Jess also shares her experience launching Green Bunny, a local cold-pressed juice business in Vermont, and reflects on what it looks like to build something slower, smaller, and more rooted in real life.We discuss:Jess’s transition from corporate consultant to full-time fashion bloggerThe rapid evolution of the blogosphere and early InstagramBurnout, boundary erosion, and life after monetizationWhy she defines A Common Thread as an “anti-consumption” newsletterThe appeal of analog community and building a local business from scratchSmall steps for redefining your relationship to shopping, attention, and the internetRecommended by Jess: Totally RecommendHmm That's InterestingKate BaerAbout Origins of InfluenceHosted by longtime fashion and beauty marketer Dina Fierro, Origins of Influence is a limited series exploring the past, present and future of the creator economy through intimate conversations with pioneering influencers, creators and founders. Find show notes and exclusive content on Substack. Subscribe on YouTube and follow Origins of Influence on Instagram and TikTok for clips, full-length episodes, BTS and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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How Meghan Donovan Built a 20-Year Brand as a Creator–Without Ever Chasing Virality
This week on Origins of Influence, Dina sits down with Meghan Donovan—creator of Wit & Whimsy and founder, En Route to Rêverie. Meghan launched her blog in 2006, becoming one of the earliest voices in what would become the burgeoning influencer economy. Nearly two decades later, she’s built a sustainable, multi-revenue stream business rooted in trust, taste, and thoughtful storytelling. From long-form blog posts and Substack newsletters to high-touch travel planning, Meghan has evolved her business while staying true to herself—and her work resonates all the more because of it.In this conversation, she shares why consistency has mattered more than virality, how prioritizing SEO fundamentally shifted her revenue, and how she draws firm lines around what she shares online (and where). Meghan also breaks down how a flood of DMs during a birthday trip to Paris led to the launch of her boutique travel business, En Route to Rêverie.We discuss:Building long-term influence through consistency, not viralityWhy she still invests in blogging and newsletters in 2025How SEO changed the game for affiliate revenueThe power of overdelivering on brand partnershipsThe boundaries that keep her creative and groundedFind Meghan on Substack at The Noteworthy Edit and Passport to Réverie Follow Meghan on Instagram: @meghandonoRecommended by Meghan: @SarahCrawford, @BlairEadie, @KrystalBick, About Origins of InfluenceHosted by longtime fashion and beauty marketer Dina Fierro, Origins of Influence is a limited series exploring the past, present and future of the creator economy through intimate conversations with pioneering influencers, creators and founders. Find show notes and exclusive content on Substack. Subscribe on YouTube and follow Origins of Influence on Instagram and TikTok for clips, full-length episodes, BTS and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Origins of Influence is a limited podcast series exploring the untold stories of the internet’s earliest creators. Hosted by marketing leader and onetime blogger Dina Fierro, this series revisits the era before the algorithm—when creators built communities on platforms like Blogger, Tumblr, and LiveJournal.Through intimate conversations with pioneering influencers, creators and founders, Origins of Influence unpacks the moments that defined their influence, the cultural (and algorithmic) shifts they witnessed, and how they've evolved—online and off.Together, we’ll explore how they built influence in an unfiltered, pre-algorithm online world—and reflect on what today’s creator economy might learn from this generation of digital trailblazers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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