An Interview with Ultralinx Founder: Oliur Reddy
Firstly, can you introduce yourself?
How would you describe your personal style and is there a person who is a fashion inspiration to you?
My personal style is I guess what you could describe as “minimalist”, the simple trousers or jeans, simple tee or shirt and white, grey or black shoes. But I like to incorporate various other styles because it’s an ever-evolving thing. I do like to keep to a monochromatic color scheme and I avoid large flashy logos. I wouldn’t say there is a specific person who inspires my style, mainly because social media has made it easy to follow styles and trends.
Who are the people that have had the most influence on your growth and why?
There’s been a lot of people over the years that have influenced my growth as a person. I’ve found that different people have influenced different parts of me. Dieter Rams I’m sure comes up for anyone who is interested in design and other similar people such as Jony Ive. When it comes to being a human, Barack Obama definitely comes up high on my list of someone who always sets a good example. Naval is another that really helped me look at my life as it is now and how I can continuously improve it for the future.
What inspired you to become an influencer? Was it something that you envisioned?
When I started growing a following online, we were never really called influencers. I always stuck by designer and creator. I very much fell into it randomly as I first started designing Android icons and modifying Android apps, and then sharing them online. That evolved into web/app design and photography and naturally they’re also things you share online for the world to see. My photography and video is what helped me grow my following.
We see that you run your media on different platforms and all of them appear to be equally successful. What are the 3 best tips that you can share for people who want to build their career in the same industry?
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Consistency. Creating and sharing regularly will naturally help you get better at whatever you do and help grow a following.
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Niche. Be as niche as you want. That’s what makes the internet so great, there are always other people out there who are interested in the same thing you are. It’s how people build communities.
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Learn. Never stop learning. I used to hate learning as a kid but as I grew older I realised you can learn to love learning, it all depends on finding something a process you enjoy and learning something you’re genuinely passionate about.
In one of your videos, you mentioned that you could say that you are living a more than comfortable lifestyle. How did you accomplish this all by yourself?
Achieving my comfortable lifestyle comes from mainly sticking to the three tips I mentioned. I think you also need to have desire and drive to want that lifestyle. I’m sure some people will say they have the desire and drive but in reality I’ve found everyone has varying degrees of it.
A lot of people surely want to live the same lifestyle that you have. What does a typical day in your week look like?
My typical day consists of getting up around 9am and going straight to the gym for an hour. Then I get home and usually get straight to work but even then I hardly see my work as work as it’s really a hobby that makes me money! I usually do that until around 3-4pm. Then my evenings can be very random. Sometimes they consist of me staying in playing video games and watching movies/TV shows or I’ll go out and see friends. I keep my evenings very open and free as I have the luxury to adapt my life around friends and family, giving me some quality time with them.
We saw on your website that you describe yourself as a very visual person and your passion for design and photography really shows on your media. What are your 3 favorite tools for creating your material?
My three favourite tools:
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My iMac for sure. It amazes me that this machine that I spent a couple of grand buying can help me create, communicate and run all of my businesses. Spending a couple of grand to make 6 figures a year seems like a crazy good investment if you ask me.
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My Sony A7III for all of my photography and video. This camera really helped me up my photo/video game. Gives me the magazine-like picture style I’ve been looking for and helps me produce clean and sharp YouTube videos. Will most likely be adding the Sony A7SIII to my gear once that’s released.
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iPad Pro for editing photos on Lightroom, especially when I’m away from home and away from my iMac. It’s also just an all-round amazing tool that can do a bunch of everyday things for me.