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I'm doing activations with companies you would never think of. Not to say this in a braggadocious way, but I'm not putting myself in a box. The only thing that goes in a box is Chinese food and your sneakers - not me.
Karen Civil -
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.
Karen Civil
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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.'
Karen Civil -
As an Elizabeth native, I believe it is my duty to give back to my community. Our youth is our future, and it truly takes a village to raise a child.
Karen Civil -
Anywhere I go, if I go out, I have to keep my phone out. I don't try to be rude. If I turn it around, I have to check it every 5 minutes.
Karen Civil -
I'm just me. I'm that cool girl who - as I like to say, I have that Carson Daly effect, where, if you watched 'TRL,' he was able to do interviews with NSYNC, blend right in, and then he would do interviews with Cash Money and blend in there, and you just naturally liked him.
Karen Civil -
Now, metaphorically, I sit at any table that I want. I can sit with the jocks, I can sit with the gang members, I can sit with the politicians, I can sit with the CEOs. My brand can fit anywhere.
Karen Civil -
I just knew I loved music, and I wanted to do something in music, but I couldn't sing, I can't dance, I am an introvert. So I was like, 'What exactly is there for me to do? What can I do?' There's all these questions, there's all these things that are telling you 'no' instead of 'yes.' Those are the things I dealt a lot with, my insecurity.
Karen Civil
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I did the 'right' thing and got a corporate job on Wall Street. That did not last long. I felt like I was throwing all my years of hard work and relationship-building down the toilet. I eventually quit, went and bought a camera, and built a website. That was the birth of KarenCivil.com.
Karen Civil -
You work hard, you sacrifice for everything you do, and in one second, someone can tarnish your name - someone can bad-mouth you, and someone can say things. People let all of the good things gets washed away because someone spoke ill of them.
Karen Civil -
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.
Karen Civil -
Never stray from life's purpose. Refrain from counting someone else's blessings instead of your own.
Karen Civil -
When I had dial-up, my mom got me a phone so I wouldn't tie up the phone. She used to really pick up the phone, push some buttons, and hang it up so the connection could mess up. Now, it's a joke with her, like, 'Look, the Internet's 24/7. I have WiFi now.'
Karen Civil -
People see your life on social media, and they say, 'Oh my gosh, it's perfect,' and I'm like, 'No, every day, it's not even just a struggle: it's something new, and it's a new challenge to make sure that I'm mentally stable and healthy and that I'm okay.' It was just great to finally get it out and talk about it.
Karen Civil
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I didn't have a resume when Lil Wayne hired me. I didn't have a resume when Beats by Dre flew me across the country to be their 12th employee. I still don't have a resume!
Karen Civil -
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.
Karen Civil -
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.
Karen Civil -
No one is going to break me. No one is going to stop me. No one is going to remove a vision that I see for myself and the love that's in my heart.
Karen Civil -
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.
Karen Civil -
Nicki Minaj is one of those rare artists who get the social aspect of their career. She interacts with her fans. She replies to them. She gets them information first.
Karen Civil
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The blueprint, for me, was having an understanding of self because this business will try to make you somebody other than yourself or make you change with the times. A lot of times, people will want you to do everything for free, work for free, to be down to do this after you paid your dues.
Karen Civil -
I believe in the power of play.
Karen Civil -
I just tell myself I gotta get up at 8 A.M. I don't even use an alarm clock.
Karen Civil -
I wasn't the biggest hip-hop fan, because I had to listen to whatever my parents listened to, so growing up, it was a lot of Dolly Parton, Elvis, and Whitney Houston. When they finally put a TV in my room and I got to listen to MTV Jams I was like: 'Here I am!'
Karen Civil