t 15 years of age Mikhail started posting amusing and relatable content on Instagram as well as some song covers.
It was also the time in which he slowly started creating an online character ‘Mikayla’.“Mikayla was this outrageous but relatable aunty that many people could identify with so they started tagging their friends and family in videos of mine,” said Mikhail. It was this online persona that subsequently led him to perform many live stand-ups as his following grew.
As the weeks progressed he felt it fitting for him to redirect his audience towards his music and start re-building his profile as his passion shifted more towards that industry.
Building off the back of his initial success within the online community, Mikhail released his first single “I’m Sorry” a year later at the age of 16. This was his first serious stepping stone in proving to his audience that he was taking music seriously. The song was a success and allowed him to appear on his first radio show and connect with other individuals in the industry, such as 2017 Idols South Africa winner, Paxton Fielies.
However, with the highs of his first single’s success which led to the release of more songs, came the influx of social media hate.“When releasing music, I receive a lot of ‘hate comments’ and messages which start to affect me negatively if I’m already in a weird state”, he explained.It is something Mikhail is very aware of and believes that today social media may not be the safest space.
Due to the fact that people can easily make negative remarks on other people’s posts without it personally affecting them. This reinforces the normalisation that hate and bullying is okay because there is no consequence. While this was something Mikhail faced, he always maintained a very positive outlook and continued to inspire others. He chose to focus on the side of his social media community which were more supportive and those whose messages have often got him through mentally difficult times.
It was these sort of positive messages and connections which he made with individuals in his social media community that led to him changing his perception of social media in 2020 to a more business driven opportunity. “I think for me, social media is the best thing that could have happened to my work as the platform allows for a greater and easier space of recognition for talents,” he remarks.
This allowed him to express his positive nature to help others, while also growing his following. And ultimately brands started recognising his consistency and style of content more, resulting in collaborations with Krispy Kreme, Netflix South Africa and many more.
It is the combination of these things which have allowed him to become one of the few influencers which has a foot in all different spheres within the entertainment industry and are versatile in what they can do.
To this day Mikhail is challenged with the bad that comes with the good. He feels that recently as he moves further in his career, that social media has forced him to compare himself with others online in terms of work ethic. This combined with online hate has somewhat made him feel the need to still put up an ‘act’ on social media in such a way that he only reveals certain things about his life.
However, Mikhail believes that ultimately every person is different and therefore one actually can’t compare themselves to another person. That only through time and self-development, he believes that people's opinions of his work will hold him back less.
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If I’m proud of it, my job is complete and I don’t attach myself to things that I am not proud of.”
It’s in these moments that Mikhail has developed his own way of protecting his mental health to ultimately grow his confidence and shape himself into the person that he wants to be.
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There are a lot of hours and failures behind the scenes that aren’t shown, so you need to prepare yourself to have a thick skin”