Quotes from Karen Civil

I take yoga classes, do a mile run, and of course take part in some kind of water sport.

Society sets us up to be everything but ourselves, but I want to take a moment and say to people, love yourself. Find your purpose. You are unique, and that makes you great. I pursued my dreams. You can do it, too.

I get this thing where people are like, 'Man, you got to tell me what to do' - like I have a cheat code to being successful. It's hard work; it's trial and error. I failed, but I never let failure get to my head or to my heart.

You don't know what's going to happen to you in the next hour. So you just live your life, live to the best of your potential, and just be happy.

Nobody is going to love and honor your dreams like yourself. It's really not looking for someone to be your superhero but for us to save ourselves and to really understand that. I've been at the lowest of lowest of my life, and it took that for me to realize that I want to do better and to be better.

When I started my career, I never looked at myself as one to be inspirational, but as I continued to grow, I've met so many different people who ask, 'How do you do it? You make it look easy.' But it's not easy. I have certain tricks and tips I use every day that have been working for me.

At first, social media was just about networking. But now that I have to network, I make sure that every platform makes money for me. You can do something on Facebook.

Social media can help or hurt you. People are more into other people's lives than their own. Everyone sees everyone else's success online, and we allow it to magnify our own failure.

I admired and wanted to be a lot like Angie Martinez. As I got older, I realized that I had a soft monotone voice and that being a DJ may not be the career for me. However, I was so in love and infatuated with hip-hop that I still wanted to be a part and give back the community, so I decided to carve my own path and make my own lane.

She has a lot of Team Minaj soldiers, and they ride for her. She's genuinely about her fans; she just makes sure that she answers questions, and plays around with them.

I wanted to focus on creating a solid foundation, creating my blueprint, and understanding who I was. You can get distracted easily, and people take you off course with just a compliment. I wanted the focus to be on Karen Civil the businessperson, not what I wore, not what I looked like.

I fell in love with hip-hop a little bit late; I grew up on Another Bad Creation and Kris Kross. But my mom got me a TV in my room, and I remember seeing Biggie's 'Give Me One More Chance,' and I was like, 'Oh, this is how a house party looks!' I really, really fell in love with it when Tupac created 'Dear Mama.'

For blogs today, it's really about content creation and partnering with a brand. You can get the news in so many forms and so many places. A tweet now is enough to tell you about a story. People don't have to click to go to your site.

Everything is a learning lesson, good and bad, so I am happy with the way things are, and I learned from everything negative. I am in a great space now, so I wouldn't change a thing!

Coming from a Haitian-American home, I thought it was necessary to give back to the country in which my parents were raised. That is why I believe in Project PlayWorld's efforts to to provide secure playing spaces for the children of Haiti with the Live Civil Playground.

Growing up was very interesting for me. If you were Haitian, people just automatically assumed that English was a second language. So they had a special class for my brother and I, but we spoke proper English.

While working for Diplomat Records, I helped several artists with their online branding and social media. Once I left the label, I worked directly with artists and noticed many artists were overlooked and underrated if they weren't in 'XXL' or 'The Source.'

The assistants, the managers, the PR, the person whose coordinating, the person in production - those are the people I loved communicating with and building network relationships with.

When I first started blogging, it was about getting out new music and capturing artists working in the studio. This was before artists were so social. They weren't so hands-on then.

I tell people to use me as example of what they can do if they don't give up. I like people to see me as a 'girl next door' who conquered and went after what she wanted.

Christmas is always a great time because I get to be around family and spend time with my brother, nieces, and nephews, so that's what I plan to do. It's great to disconnect from everything.

Unfortunately, Haiti does not have many safe environments for children to play and express themselves.

Don't let the insecurities of others dull your sparkle. Shine like the star you are born to be.

Giving back has definitely kept me grounded. Stepping outside of yourself to serve a group or community of people who are in need in some facet has a way of doing that. I don't ever want to grow to a place where giving back becomes a foreign concept.