TikTok influencer and creator of the new coffee brand “Flight Fuel” Chris Olsen spoke at The Texas Union on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. The event was hosted by The Student Endowed Centennial Leadership and Olsen talked about his journey as a content creator and mental health advocate.
In the midst of my boredom during the 2020 quarantine, one person that never failed to make me laugh was TikToker Chris Olsen. Olsen first went viral during this time for funny videos of him seeing how long he could hold onto a pole and his videos with his now ex-boyfriend. What I like about Olsen is he’s very humane and humble in his videos. Hearing him tell me his embarrassing personal experiences makes me feel better about every embarrassing moment I’ve ever had.
“I feel like that’s what’s really exciting about the app is people have found me for very different things when they needed different things in their life,” Olsen said. “Like, maybe you needed to see the therapy videos, or maybe you just needed to laugh and watch me hang on to a pole. That’s the beautiful thing about the app, you can be yourself and your full self in so many different facets.”
One of Olsen’s viral Tiktok series is him recording his therapy sessions, which are comically relieving, but also serve to normalize going to therapy. I love watching his videos because they remind me even influencers need therapy.
“One thing that you really learn in therapy and especially in a treatment center is that one of the best ways to connect with people or cathartically feel better about yourself is by relating to people,” Olsen said.
From the ages of 17-19, Olsen struggled with alcohol addiction. At 19 his loved ones held an intervention for him and led him to get help in rehab. Olsen talked vulnerably about his experience with addiction and rehab at the talk, in hopes to destigmatize the topic and help others in college who may be struggling.
“You’re at the age now where you’re able to make the change,” Olsen said. “If you or one of your friends or anyone who’s in your life may be struggling with something, whether it’s substance abuse or anything mental health, I think we’re at the age now that you can make that change and look back when you’re 30, and be like, ‘Thank God, I did that.’”
Additionally, Olsen reminds college students that they don’t have to know what they want to do in their 20s, even after college.
“There’s no pressure to know what you want to do,” Olsen said. “And I think obviously, it’s tough in college because you have to pick a major, and that’s kind of like picking what you want to do. But it’s okay if your major is not what you want to do for the rest of your life.”
He also states that just because some people are already successful in their 20s, doesn’t mean they need to be. This really resonated with me because I’m constantly comparing myself to other students in my major, thinking they have so much more experience and I’m so behind. When in reality, I’m not behind at all. We all take our own paths and that’s okay.
“I think the main point of that is to just be present, and try to remain happy with where you are now,” Olsen said. “Because there’s always going to be someone who’s doing many different things than you are doing better.”
Olsen has taken several journeys, from his journey to sobriety to becoming viral on TikTok, to finding his own self-image online after a very public breakup, to now starting his own coffee brand “Flight Fuel” inspired by his TikTok series where he delivers coffee to people around the country.
“I have a lot of people behind me who help with all of the things that I’m doing,” Olsen said. “So it’s definitely not a one-man job ever. I think it’s just consistently asking for help, which is another thing that we learned like in treatment or in therapy is you always need to be ready to ask for help.”
His biggest piece of advice to become successful is to be yourself and do the things you enjoy. He said, don’t do something you think you’re ‘supposed to do’ because it will never make you happy in the end.
“That’s what I hope people take away from watching my videos is that they can just share themselves and the weird, quirky things that happen to them day to day,” Olsen said. “Like having chlamydia three times.”