After Finding Success on Instagram, Lifestyle Miami Keeps Expanding

In 2015, after graduating from high school in Southwest Florida, Daniela Thoelke left for Miami. The then-18-year-old quickly fell in love with the city's blue waters, warm sunlight, multiculturalism, and overall lifestyle.

"When I came to Miami, I fell in love with the city," Thoelke says. "I came here to adventure and meet new people. Miami is a city I truly love, and I didn't want to leave, and I wanted to share that love."

Despite friends telling her about the ample sunshine, gorgeous beaches, fantastic nightlife, and lively arts scene, a certain PlayStation game got her first interested in the Magic City.

"When I was younger, I used to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," Thoelke explains. "I'd see the beach in the game, and when I did my research, I was amazed that Miami was where the game location was. While playing the game, I always wondered, Wow, is this a real place? When I came here and finally saw it in person, seeing art deco and Ocean Drive, it became one of my favorite places on Earth."

Thoelke was a natural storyteller growing up, often taking photos and recording videos. And after meeting her partner, Miguel Zulueta, she had the opportunity to combine her interest in content-creating and her love of Miami culture.

Thoelke first met Zulueta at a party in 2015. At the time, Zulueta was working on a social media page targeting everything from lifestyle, health, humor, sports, animals, and, yes, Miami.

"We knew [the page @lifestyle_miami] could impact Miami in a much bigger way," Thoelke says.

Zulueta started the account in 2014 and had already amassed 200,000 Instagram followers within a year. These days the pair manages Lifestyle Miami's Instagram page together, posting content to its 1.8 million followers.

In the page's early years, Thoelke and Zulueta mainly posted photos of Miami Beach. However, after an active hurricane season in 2017, which saw storms like Irma, Maria, and Harvey, Lifestyle Miami started amassing more followers as their posts surrounding the storms went viral. The pair's content came from their followers, who would send them direct messages of pictures and videos of flood waters, the wind howling, and storm damage.

"Water rushing into the streets, their cars being flooded, and we got the news faster than the actual news," Thoelke adds. "The news would reach out to us and ask us permission to use the videos. I think people see Instagram as a faster network. It feels like a sense of responsibility to make sure that the information is correct and gathering as much information as possible."

After the storms, Lifestyle Miami also organized hurricane-relief drives for hard-hit areas like Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. The brand has worked with the nonprofit Clean Miami Beach to organize beach clean-ups, has given back to homeless people, and spearheaded toy and food drives.

"We want to engage and inform," Thoelke says. "One-hundred percent of the time, people question our accuracy. The truth is you look for three variables: location, time, [and] details. If those three pass the check, you have a hot lead. From there, you ask follow-up questions. After that, we decide based on that process, and that's how we post."

As if managing a popular Instagram page wasn't enough, Zulueta and Thoelke got into the team ownership game. The Lifestyle Miami Chargers debuted earlier this year as part of the Battle Court Jai-Alai at the Magic City Fronton.

"Every team selects a charity," Thoelke explains. "Every time the team wins, the charity gets $1,000. The winning team's charity gets $50,000."

Although the success has been incredible for the pair, they have more goals they want to achieve with Lifestyle Miami. Thoelke has produced the first episode of Lifestyle Miami TV and has hosted events and done podcasting all under the Lifestyle Miami umbrella.

"We're eight years in with this page," Thoelke says. "I appreciate and love the lifestyle of Miami, and I want others to."