Zeljko Nemet, Author at AFLUENCER

Podcast Episode #50 – Why Do Consumers Trust Micro Influencers? | Versell Motley – VERSEatyle

Zeljko Nemet — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:12:17 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Versell Motley, the visionary founder of VERSEatyle, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Versell Motley: The Mind Behind VERSEatyle

Versell Motley, the innovative mind driving VERSEatyle, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Versell shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the VERSEatyle Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of VERSEatyle through the eyes of Versell Motley himself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Versell Motley. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled VERSEatyle’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Versell Motley, Founder of VERSEatyle:

Versell:

I’ve a lot of knowledge to share with in this interview and with you started. There’s a big difference between UGC user generated content versus influencer partnerships. UGC people want it exactly the way they want it versus the influencer where we’re just allowed to be ourselves. Use our time for one minute. That’s up. Sometimes Instagram says we are looking for other people to engage with their posts in this time frame of an hour.

No one did it, so we’re not going to boost your post purposely versus 50 people. Maybe 8:00 in the morning will engage with that post. And I’m like, you know what? During this time, everyone’s at work. We haven’t had that much engagement and all will reward you. And social media does reward you on how much.

Brett:

Welcome to our eight Forcer podcast. We have a return guest and a special treat for our brands, especially those of you who are new to influencer marketing. You’ve tried Google AdWords and it’s too expensive or Google’s kind of gone crazy in recent recent months here with their new algorithms. Facebook ads are expensive, so we turn to influencers and especially micro-influencers.

But while we’re new to it, we’re not sure where to start. So we’ve got a real treat. We’ve got a micro influencer, really a top line micro influencer. I mean, you know, basic influencer creator does it all kind of a renaissance man wears many hats and we bring in versatile back to the podcast and we have a lot of stuff to talk about in terms of followers engaging what’s going on, what he’s seeing working in social media, what’s working for the collabs that he’s doing with brands.

We’ve got a lot to cover. Versatile. Welcome. Thanks for reaching out. They should know we’re back on the podcast.

Versell:

I was like, Oh great. Hey, how well to affluence there. Thank you for going me to this point. I have a lot of knowledge to share with this, with not a lot of knowledge to share with in this interview and get started.

Brett:

Yeah, I can’t wait. I was looking at your profile, influencer profile where you might be the goat at this point with the number of collabs and number of brands that you’ve worked with and I mentioned. I mean, I see God when I’m talking, I’m doing my calls with our newer brands and walking through and, and you’re already working with them and helping them kind of along that process.

So it would be great to hear just what you’re seeing today in terms of the inner workings of social media. What is you are early on the scene with the videos you saw that come in ahead of time, the reels, and that’s where Facebook and Instagram in particular, right? They put a lot of their algorithm effort, just like, hey, we’re going to throw out the rails so we can catch up with TikTok, that type of thing.

What do you see today? What are the new trends? What is working for you in terms of the collabs that you’re working on with brands? Just what’s new and versatile view in the trenches there where you are?

Versell:

Yeah, right. There’s a lot to touch on so I can talk very fast. I would try to start very slow pace because there’s so much I want to bring up. I have a whole list of things right here, so I try to start one by one. I’m one of the biggest things I noticed over time is there’s a big difference between I’ll start with UGC user generated content versus influencer partnerships.

So at this I noticed with the UGC people, which I was also talking about leading up into the I, if you do thing, if I’ll put it like this then versus brand partnerships, if you just had an if those deals had a, an opportunity to hire an assistant instead of a regular person, they would because they all they want is just pretty much a scripted thing of everything that they the man within that video you want it exactly the way they want it.

It doesn’t matter what your influencers really and pretty much they can keep doing a bunch of revision as much as they want versus the influencer where we’re just allowed to be ourselves, use our time correctly. And that’s the big thing. I want to bring up in this conversation is time. How creative is? Pretty much you’re kind of at the crack of the whip to be creative when you’re like not enough time.

That’s really given. And I mean, okay, let me read this carefully. When it comes to being artistic, sometimes it does take a while to get that recreation made. And with artists from Leonardo da Vinci and all the other people that came up, they took not their time, but they knew that they use their time wisely. So go to the brands.

Some of them I work with, Some of them don’t understand the timing or the timing or the time, things that is needed to utilize to create these things alone. Does the Disney influencers that is just the UGC product where you are right now? You’re my role by this. I said this script. It should be easy. Should we have this done in 2 hours?

You’re glad you do it. Use.

Versell:

I know my audience. I know what works. I know what’s best for my room for when I’m in control of that. So same for UDC people. There’s been a lot of talk about quite a few brands that gave me not attitude but misunderstanding though like what’s expected. I’m like, Oh, you should have said that in the beginning that were out there.

All of your your guideline, because some people will get low answers like, Hey, do it like this, like this, but do it your way. I’ll do it my way. But then for some people, they don’t want it my way. They want it specifically done like UDC. So I feel like that’s another cool specific thing to bring them nowadays with influencers when it comes to like UDC.

And I feel like that falls under the affiliate role, like your you’re here to do this and that and that’s it. Like they’ll do anything extra will take care of the rest of the editing. We have more back end that we know about. You don’t know about Just one thing I want to bring up.

Brett:

Yeah that’s a great to say to so what is what are you seeing in terms of the differences in the engagement on a post that you do and you put on your creator hat and you take start to finish verses and I don’t know if you are posting UGC stuff on your own feed, but if you are, what is the difference in engagement between your typical post or even I know your rails are very popular versus your UGC content.

Versell:

I like this comment as it goes under the I object I wanted to talk about soon, but people nowadays, as much as they’re on their own spelling, they’re not stupid. They know whether it’s an ad or not. They know whether they’re actually going to like that. They know whether you’re trying to sell them something. So what do you do?

See, there’s a lot of grits that they follow and all these people are using. I get these strips. So the more robotic, the more non organic, the more are, the less people are actually going to actually tune in with you. Like, oh, it’s just doing a job rather than entertaining me. And on social media, you’re either entertaining somebody or someone needs help or this trauma which falls under entertainment, but you get you get what I’m getting at.

There’s only a few things that we actually follow people for as you’re falling out, of course, and you’re just doing a regular ad like a commercial, that’s fine, because some people I’m not in sales for people because I’m just doing that type of style. But I mean, if you’re trying to get viral or not get viral, but get your product out there, out there with a lot of beginning brands and the new because they just see the results on Google, they say, Oh, if I give this product and this money to that person, it’ll grow.

And and they’ll be all saying, No, no, no, no, no, no. Like we have to do our job. That’s why we’re influencers, because we got some type of viral point where people wanted to pay attention to what we had in our possession. But the way we did it, not how someone told us to do it. So hopefully they’re good, but it’s just preferred that the creator actually does what they’re good at creating.

But there is it’s always recommended that you can give them guidelines like, well, as a brand, can you least kind of implement this and see your stuff? That’s always good. But there’s just certain UGC brand. This is like we want this and that and that’s like you’re going to get left with lot and don’t be surprised, like if you’re real is only getting like 1000 views versus the other view that I did previously.

And they’re like, Well, okay, it’s like, Oh, how come this is the like, Well, because it’s more entertaining to people versus me just doing, Hey, I’m another face. Like Matt’s interest is blurred right here. I’m just another face. He’s a product buy you know, I’ll just buy like that. Not even back in the days when we just had commercials like that.

Just a repetition. If you teach me, do that over and over what I might be, start thinking about it. That’s how it works, especially with multiple ads and stuff. But just one ad, one, one and like one here I’ll be all That’s not going to usually work. You’ll get a few sales, but not as much as you think.

Brett:

Yeah, great point on the touch points also, because that was I mean, when I started learning marketing a billion years ago, that was the thing, right? It was it was said seven touch points, E 13 touch points. You got to have them direct mail, right. Like you said. Right. So you got to hit them from different angles. Everyone today online is we want then what’s your cost per conversion?

Sarah’s looking at it in terms of like a one hit. And the thing is, and I know this from our AdWords campaigns, I’ve turned most of our AdWords stuff off except for our own brand. So we want to defend influencer and other people bid on us. So we defend it there. But in terms of just keywords, you’re always spending like $3 to make one.

It doesn’t, it doesn’t really work anymore. You can get a little bit of traction that way. Like that is interesting. Now we made with the scripted videos because if that now you’re just all those economics over and you’re saying, well, we might get a few sales, it might break even, but we’re not getting that asymmetric return we’re looking for.

We’re looking for to spend a dollar and make ten. Or if you do a reel and we invest with you, we want to make a multiple that. We want that thing where we’re kind of spreading out. It will work. And of course, with many different micro-influencers. So what we’re doing is we’re putting educated bets on the table and then we want to we want some viral type returns, right?

That’s why we’re doing this for AdWords, which is a, you know, dead zone and Facebook, which is fine. But is it going to be too expensive from what these ads are are going to cost? So what’s what do you think about followers? Now let’s get into maybe that follower and then engagement part rice as we’re already talking about.

Yeah, that’s I know something I think people are starting to learn. Right. Okay. So we got the what is it cost to work with someone with 50,000 followers? I said, well, look, let’s first figure out whether we want to work that person. So take us through that first style, the engagement versus the follower account and where, how, how those.

Versell:

Three work.

Brett:

Together.

Versell:

Okay, So this is a very interesting one. So because I’ve had a few brands, especially for look once a year, which I don’t, I understand why it’s there and everything, but I just then why it’s not fully accurate. So for example, some people will say, if you like, okay, the computer data will say you only have a certain amount of percentage of engagement and they’ll be like, okay, no, I understand.

And you please show me one of the things that you see that is working and I’ll gladly show the difference of what’s going on and show me somebody. Sometimes they won’t even respond. But the few people that try to say like, okay, I’m curious and they show me somebody, sometimes they don’t. They see accounts, but they don’t understand the inner workings of social media.

And then there’s so many outlets to get certain type of comments like just a heart comment, and you get the same heart comment from ten other people and you click on the account and it’s not even anyone that’s trying to do anything. No job is just an account. One takes. You’re like, They don’t know these services are out there.

Well, someone they get it. Oh, they have the percentage, let’s say. Like if they look on the site that has like the engagement chart that says this percentage versus this percentage of person, for example, someone with 300 followers. Right. Go on the site and they have 300 followers and 200 of them always pull through. And that that mean on the percentage part, they’re going to go look like 80%.

90% says were like a lot of them. Are there. But if you compare that to someone who says maybe I have 30,000 followers and a thousand of them through maybe not the other 10% and percent, but the thousand people through that same calculation is going to give that person a very low percentage. But the engagement part and you look at the content, there’s people that actually talk on this one versus this one.

And the you know, I mean, there’s like a number it throws everything up in my in my on my opinion from what I’ve seen, because then I’ve been looking for other people and there’s not some good don’t get me wrong, there’s been good examples, but they don’t really fulfill what I’m trying to see. And that’s another issue that one of the biggest subject I wanted to get a part about this is the inner workings of social media.

Looks like that’s not even the influencer of the brand or the video. Sometimes social media does mess up like, say, the post that like thinks a lot. It’s not even the video with that. It’s not even anything they get. Sometimes Instagram says, Oh, we are looking for 100 people. So at least like this is the kind of thing that will not literally, but well, we’re looking for this much.

People engage with their posts in this time frame of an hour. No one did it, but we’re not going to boost your post purposely versus sometimes 50 people. Maybe 8:00 in the morning will engage with that post and Instagram like, you know, during this time, everyone’s at work. We haven’t had a much engagement on the whole will reward you and social media doesn’t reward you on how much other people post you, they reward you.

How much time do you watch a video for? They’re looking for bots do not give engagements you under looking for real people to get engagement and they know that differently. Instagram is bigger than here. They’ve all been here for years, so they know people. They know this like the back of our hand. Believe it or not, down. They’re not all the way.

But yes, I just want to point that out because I’ve seen other I’m in other influencer groups that they talk about like they I have a hundred K followers, but I’m only getting 1%. And I’m like, What? Me? I have like, why? For me, I’m like, I have more than that. But because we have different ways that we market, like I do it constantly or they do it, but they’re on a different well, this is different way.

So it’s like things I want to look into. Sometimes I just came to the conclusion, sometimes you just s sometimes you have to post more than one emotion. You got to be the first or the second or third, but the fifth one that might be the one that like. And there you go. That was the thing you were trying to achieve the whole time.

But I guess goes back to you’re not always going to get that because not even getting one, but it’s just the app itself.

Brett:

Yeah, I gotcha. So the case for doing maybe multiple campaigns or a video, what multiple shot that it.

Versell:

Especially if you’re in a specific niche the same post those five times as like okay these same people keep liking these type of posts what if we took the same person. Watch the same stuff. This person that likes the same stuff and then we’ll keep sending that. I mean, that’s how the algorithm works rather than, oh, everyone keeping this, we won’t show it to nobody.

It’ll just be that like, Yeah.

Brett:

Yeah, I gotcha. So where they use like Instagram as example, where specifically is the outlet that would cause something to go viral? Is it the search that’s kind of showing you that new stuff where I’ve noticed? I’ll see videos that are all but that’s, you know, it’s being shown there. So yeah, where does this stuff show up or just showing up in someone’s feed and they may not necessarily even follow is that.

That’s where I find it interesting. Like if you post something to say, I don’t follow you, I do. But let’s say I didn’t. And I saw one of the videos because Instagram, they you know, he’s supposed to get his post about Bret Hart. You got to you’re gonna have to see that right But yeah where where where does that go?

Is that go into my feed or is that going in the search engines. I go on Bolt.

Versell:

I sometimes I don’t know how often you use like even 606 upwards by now on Instagram. Sometimes I’ll scroll and it’ll be sponsored at the top, but it’ll be something that’s interesting in like that would be like and that’s how pretty much what we’re trying to do or not where. But the brands and influencers you’re trying to get the new users to be like, Oh, I didn’t know.

Oh yeah. Appreciate it. Let’s talk. And you brought this up. Let’s talk about the celebrity versus micro influencer thing, because this is, I think historically something that in the early days gave influencer marketing a bad name because all influencers were basically just slap AMA or go back almost ten years now, right? When a celebrity was quote unquote an influencer, and then people would pay a lot of money to have a celebrity do a paper post and then lo and behold, it wouldn’t really sell.

Or that kind of no chance, right, to deliver a return on your investment when you’re paying someone even today. Right. If you’re paying a celebrity $1,000,000 a post, that’s me. Very hard to get a return there. And a lot of it is because of the relevancy. Right. So maybe you follow. So I guess you just follow them and they’ve got a million fad, but they’re not necessarily connected with them.

And that’s something that we try to educate our brands, like, Hey, the micro influencers are just fast value today and people like yourselves, like you’ve got awesome scale also. So not only do you have this organic following base that you’ve cultivated over the years and ground, but these you’ve got serious reach also. So that’s kind of I saw the parties that are like this is this is our I just micro-influencers all day long and just find people or your specific niche.

That’s true. I already had it. I already had it. Yeah. And then I got it because I think there’s a recommendation. So you’re probably versatile, I guess is because you always want and I’d say this to like if someone’s got a pet brand, right, I’m like, you want you got a dog product, you want someone with dog their dog all over their Instagram because it’s like dog, dog, dog.

And you’re selling this dog, right? Is the same. Maybe the solo stuff, right? You mean you don’t want Snoop? You want the person who’s doing the backyard stuff and you’re it’s aligned right with with Yeah.

Versell:

Or even goes back to like the inner workings of social media if you know how the one knows how to go to the meter you don’t just do the boost post on Instagram one that knows how to go to the metadata on Facebook. Go to that. Exactly. Use those lines to you that towards Instagram and those ones, if you know somebody even knows how to market correctly, they’ll even after fully being involved in a niche like for me, I have helped multiple companies like, like some of them are business based.

I’m doing a couple two giveaways and one of them is insurance or not the giveaways, but just a post. But it’s just I angle all the ads boards and shred that business versus the one who does business. But they also have other people like pets, other people who like to other people that are following them, looking at it, not relating.

Oh, my. I need a customer. Like I’d be another any of them. The other subject. You’ll know someone know You’ll know someone knows what you’re talking about. By now, the amount of data they give you and the amount of communication they give you, rather than maybe like, not really giving you much information on what’s going on, they’ll provide things that before you even mention it, like I like to say, or I like to provide an invoice before I get paid to do anything.

So they know like, okay, if you were just trying this down here, get old Romney, you wouldn’t have done anything. You just got my money. You ran off with that. You already put in some type of work to show that you care. Like you already gave me the invoice and I always ask for their email. I always ask for their logo.

I always ask for their company Instagram. You know, also, okay, I only look at it for myself. So all the brands looking at me, it looks like, okay, he’s already at you. You you’re caring about the brand rather than just asking my question. You’re like asking me about me. You’re having interest versus just giving me a call like I have a fancy mirror on and it’s will answer, Oh, guys.

Oh, hey. Oh, yeah, I like it more than that. Like, oh, they’re not going to be. I don’t wanna hurt people if I’m a lot of people do, but those are the ones it might work. I don’t know. I don’t know that nature. But by form of knowing that influencers get the amount of amount that they show that they care about your brand, first of all.

Yeah. And of the day we’re all the same. And then not only there, but we’ve got the common goals by we’re both trying the right collab, right.

Versell:

Yeah. Like we wouldn’t be here.

Brett:

That’s right.

Versell:

Yeah. But you have a business right now. I wouldn’t be here even for me. I’m a very appreciative person, so I like being in other like, well, as you go up in the ranks, like there’s a, there’s a big three and a half from my. MOULITSAS Then if I look closely watching this get ready so monster, if you’re just getting started, they are the perfect one right you’re number two collapsed they’re they care about this monster because they’ll when it comes to finance or if you have this view and the brand they take care of both you guys and they’re the middle man of everything you’re paid.

As we wrap up this enlightening podcast experience with Versell Motley, we invite you to consider the valuable takeaways and inspiration has has shared. Looking to harness the power of influencer marketing? Afluencer is here to guide you on that transformative path.

Explore a World of Possibilities with Afluencer

Unlock exclusive insights and strategies by signing up for Afluencer’s bimonthly newsletter.
Catapult your brand’s presence through the captivating prowess of influencer marketing.

Become a Guest on the Afluencer Podcast

Are you a brand owner with a remarkable influencer marketing story to tell? We’re extending an invitation for you to apply as a guest on our podcast series. Share your experiences, challenges, and triumphs, and inspire countless others in the industry.

Join us in celebrating the launch of this captivating podcast series and continue to empower your brand’s influencer marketing journey with Afluencer.

Rachael Levine talks about Tripping Millennial on the previous Afluencer Podcast. Catch it here.

Brett:

aaa

The post Podcast Episode #50 – Why Do Consumers Trust Micro Influencers? | Versell Motley – VERSEatyle appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #49 – An Ingenious Product for Dog Owners | Lisa Bast – WoofPackTrails

Zeljko Nemet — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 23:57:13 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Lisa Bast, the visionary founder of WoofPackTrails, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Lisa Bast: The Mind Behind WoofPackTrails

Lisa Bast, the innovative mind driving WoofPackTrails, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Lisa shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped her brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the WoofPackTrails Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of WoofPackTrails through the eyes of Lisa Bast herself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Lisa Bast. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled WoofPackTrails’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Lisa Bast, Founder of WoofPackTrails:

Lisa:

Well, you know, my dog is I have a 13 and a half years old, my first dog ever. And, you know, when I first started walking here, nobody told me. That’s usually when they they poop. Yeah. So I was walking along and I wasn’t prepared enough bags or anything, and he was pooping on people’s lawns and I was like, Oh my God, I have to remember and have to go back and get in my car and drive to pick it up because I felt so guilty about it.

And so I was like, There’s got to be a better way. Well, you know, when I was researching, I saw who bag holders and then treat bags, but nothing that was an all in one. So like I want something that’s an all in one, I can put my cell phone everything in there. Yeah. So I did that. It took me about oh, three years to do seven prototypes before I found what I really liked.

Brett:

Yeah, very cool. Yeah, I can imagine the microbiome. Antimicrobial and microbial. Thank you. But that was like kind of a breakthrough then in terms of, you know, getting rid of the like, I mean, the smell. I mean, that’s some serious stuff and it’s hospital grade.

Lisa:

Yeah, it is. And I think what differentiates that from other, you know, odor causing or odor inhibiting materials is that it actually kills microbes because that’s treated to kill odor causing microbes, bacteria.

Brett:

So, yeah, that’s awesome. But what is the maintenance look like then? Are you are you washing that every time or every so often? How does that.

Lisa:

I don’t really need to do that. You don’t have to know now. You don’t have to. I mean, if if it if it’s somehow something bleeds on it or something gets on it, which has never happened to me, you just pull it out, wipe it with a soft cloth, you know, with warm water. And it’s the same with the outside of it.

Lisa:

Yes, creating that brand awareness. You know, they can, they can get it on the site or they can get it on Amazon. And I think to some, some affluent influencers like to partner at least some some of the ones I’ve tried to reach out to have like exclusive partnerships with certain brands like, Hey, I’d love to do your bag, but I already have somebody similar.

I’m working with an exclusively positive partnership, which is what I would love to do too.

Brett:

Oh, cool. Very cool. And what would that look like then, from an influencer standpoint in terms of compensation and product? You know, walk us through that.

Lisa:

Yeah. I mean, I think it would be something we could try out for six months, see how you know, how it works for both of us and, you know, negotiate the the compensation. So, I mean, sometimes they want money upfront, sometimes they want commission. So it’s something that we both that I’ve in the past work with employers through both negotiated the bill.

We felt comfortable with that mutually beneficial relationship.

Brett:

Got it. And then an existing affiliate program running also I see you’ve got a 20% commission on the collab, right?

Lisa:

Right.

Brett:

Yeah. Awesome. So I there want to get in. Is that kind of open anyone could sign up for the affiliate if I want to do a post walk in busy over here, I can sign up for a program and get my affiliate link and do my little retail and have, you know, my couple hundred followers. They can see it and get my other dog people interested.

Lisa:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think I think it’s it’s you know, people that well influencers that have dogs that in its greatest they have multiple dogs that they’re outdoors with them a lot they’re on the go there in the mountains, they’re in the trails things like that because it is an outdoor on for for pet owners on the go.

Yeah, I’ve got my little up. I’ve got my little canister hooked on there and are pulling them out. And I’m thinking, are you kidding me? You know, I mean, and not just in one place. He moved to another spot. In another spot. I’m running after him with it. It’s like, man, you know, I mean, after get used to it is it doesn’t do that.

But if I didn’t have that bag I would have been miserable.

Brett:

Right? Yeah. 13 and a half hours. That’s a that’s a great accomplishment. I’m sorry. I can imagine. And I know with the senior dogs also, you’re always kind of chasing after I had a couple of the seniors before. And that’s part of life right there. You’re trudging around and the the tummy troubles is always at the end, right?

You’re always switching the foods in the snack. Yes. That’s a great innovation. And progress for the dog. Yeah.

Lisa:

Cool. Yeah.

Brett:

Reflecting on a Journey of Innovation and Influence

As we wrap up this enlightening podcast experience with Lisa Bast, we invite you to consider the valuable takeaways and inspiration has has shared. Looking to harness the power of influencer marketing? Afluencer is here to guide you on that transformative path.

Explore a World of Possibilities with Afluencer

Unlock exclusive insights and strategies by signing up for Afluencer’s bimonthly newsletter.
Catapult your brand’s presence through the captivating prowess of influencer marketing.

Become a Guest on the Afluencer Podcast

Join us in celebrating the launch of this captivating podcast series and continue to empower your brand’s influencer marketing journey with Afluencer.

The post Podcast Episode #49 – An Ingenious Product for Dog Owners | Lisa Bast – WoofPackTrails appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #48 – Badass Blankets for Home and Lifestyle Influencers | Cornelis Clement – Badass Blankets

Zeljko Nemet — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 23:09:40 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Cornelis Clement, the visionary founder of Badass Blankets, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Cornelis Clement: The Mind Behind Badass Blankets

Cornelis Clement, the innovative mind driving Badass Blankets, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Cornelis shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the Badass Blankets Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of Badass Blankets through the eyes of Cornelis Clement himself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Cornelis Clement. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled Badass Blankets’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Cornelis Clement, Founder of Badass Blankets:

Cornelis:

I started a couple of months ago. So it’s quite new and was starting with with the new T-shirts. And then also, like anybody else, I guess, who’s entering the beauty business, but then if you go down the rabbit hole, then you see maybe better to to try to sell some high margin products, just putting in the prompt and you have to tweak it a bit and polish it and everything.

And so and I can think of some things new people are discussing that it’s not really ads, but it’s that’s not going anywhere. So then take advantage of it. But you sell T-shirts and you have a marketplace like spring or whatever, and they take the most of it and it doesn’t make sense better to have a store. And so on your own, they’re responsible for everything.

But you keep track of it.

Brett:

Welcome to our Influencers podcast. We’re talking bad ass blankets today. We’re talking bad ass woven blankets, bad ass minky blankets, bad ass beach blankets, and bad ass wall art. We’ve got Cornelius Clement here. He’s the founder of Bad Ass Blankets. So we’re going to talk about not only these products, but also opportunities for influencers to promote our analysis.

Bad ass blankets. So, Cornelius, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us today. And we’ll get into the products in a moment. Can you kind of share what’s new on your side on the with bad ass blankets?

Cornelis:

Okay. Yeah. First of all, if things were having me being young, my company started a couple of months ago. This is quite new and that was starting with with T-shirts and and clothes and like anybody else, I guess was entering the of business. But then if you go down the rabbit hole and you see it’s maybe better to to try to sell some high margin products and also because I had some designs and it was important for me to to showcase my art kind of.

So then I stumbled upon a blanket and it’s a it’s, it’s a three now.

Brett:

So it’s your art. Cornell is on the blankets.

So no, I’m not even making T-shirts. You have to kind of Etsy with bubble tea, spring, whatever to sell to take a really big part of the income round and blessed with pennies more or less. And it doesn’t make sense to me also. That’s the question. Do you have a store or do you do it on marketplaces? And because I want to have my own or keep my data and my clients and whatever else anyway, but I do have a store and so on your own, they’re responsible for everything.

But then you keep the profit. And most. Most of it.

Brett:

Yeah, right. That’s the way that’s the way to do it. And I know the challenge, which I appreciate. If you haven’t gone through a few times myself, is always that demand generation. How do you get the customers first to the so the website right and the buy So with that as buying goods then we’re turning it to influencers.

It’s in your collab and I know you’ve had an affiliate program going for a little while, so tell us about that. What have you done so far in terms of your affiliate program and then what are we looking for in terms of our collab and potential applicants from the influencer side?

Cornelis:

Also, to be honest. So I started with affiliated into influencer a few weeks ago. So before I did some paid advertising, some organic research and native ads and so on was okay. Still not profitable yet, but that’s okay. Yeah.

Join us in celebrating the launch of this captivating podcast series and continue to empower your brand’s influencer marketing journey with Afluencer.

The post Podcast Episode #48 – Badass Blankets for Home and Lifestyle Influencers | Cornelis Clement – Badass Blankets appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #47 – Scale Your E-Commerce Brand | Neil Twa – Voltage Holdings

Zeljko Nemet — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 20:30:22 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Neil Twa, the visionary founder of Voltage Holdings, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Neil Twa: The Mind Behind Voltage Holdings

Neil Twa, the innovative mind driving Voltage Holdings, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Neil shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the Voltage Holdings Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of Voltage Holdings through the eyes of Neil Twa himself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Neil Twa. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled Voltage Holdings’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Neil Twa, Founder of Voltage Holdings:

Neil:

So in the simple terms, we continue to launch and grow and scale brands across e-commerce channels Amazon, FBA, Shopify. Tick Tock. It just kind of demands wherever the brand goes to man camps or on Amazon, demand awareness on Tick Tock shops or we probably will get into today is the halo effect and why it’s an omni channel strategy is something that everybody in 2024 needs to be doing.

Yeah, that’s an excellent point. Yeah, that is a good point because you’re is it different and then it’s a different game you’re playing.

Neil:

And then it’s a different game, right? So when we.

Brett:

Got hit these milestones where.

Neil:

You risk it if you’re already down the line of building a DTC brand and you’re up to that point, you’ve done your optimizations and obviously you think you can get your add to cart, you know, above three 7% and you can get down to, you know, click through rates and get everything kind of optimized, which is a big component of mechanics on the side of the DTC world.

Unless you have someone who can copy that, optimize that for you and really get that dialed in. But the other effect of, of course, is you need to be smart at marketing and you’ve got to have an understanding of media buying an algorithmic traffic or you simply will just blow money on algorithms who really just want to take your money because that’s their profit center.

Same thing on Amazon, right? Amazon’s PPC side is the same deal. They’re becoming an advertising juggernaut. They’re going to surpass their AWP is as profits as a business with advertising by 2026.

Brett:

Oh, is that right? I didn’t realize that. So these are in in platform ads on Amazon then paper though.

Neil:

Yeah well Amazon has become demand capture when it was originally demand exposure it is now demand capture of anything that spills over from a comfortable zone because it’s the sixth largest logistics company. Everybody expects it and they are moving to one day shipping. So as in as a mechanism of deployment, that’s hard to beat. So you have to kind of look at how do I take advantage of that if I’m running mirror and tick tock shop traffic and over here and I’m getting acquisitions even at higher cost, I need to be able to look back to Amazon and say, Do I have anything that’s capturing the spillover?

Because that’s most likely where it’s going. Recent studies show that 30% of traffic on television ads that come off of physical product ad are actually ending up on Amazon, even if they don’t say, go to Amazon for this product. So if so, yeah, I started Amazon FBA first and have for many, many years. And while I’ve done DTC, I always like the aspect of proving that I can capture demand in the market with Amazon first.

And then when I do outside marketing, I know that demand is going to capture it backwards. If I don’t, the causality is a somebody goes off viral 2 million, you know, TikTok video views over here. And I mean I account for that traffic back over here. It may spill to somebody else’s brand and I want it to spill to mine.

So if I’m going to go out in the DTC world, I want to make sure someone knows how to get back to me. And that really becomes Amazon. It is kind of a known go to low barrier, a lot of money being spent on Amazon, $4 per person per year on prime memberships. You know, that’s a great, great place to capture that demand, creating demand and having that audience, you know, conversation and creating that audience conversation really does take marketing skills and marketing as just an activity, as sales.

And so many people get caught up in that activity and forget about the revenue aspect of it, like actually producing revenue, meaning they’re not willing to spend enough to figure out what it takes for them to actually acquire a customer. Okay, Once you acquire that customer and you have, say, a $39 product, maybe hypothetically, or a $25 product, but it takes you 49 to acquire that customer, you’ve solved one major problem, right?

You may think, Well, Neil, that’s stupid. I’m now $20 upside down in acquiring that customer, that for a $39 product or whatever, and I have spent $59 to get it. I’m 20 bucks upside down. You need to make that up and back in sales. This is where you actually have one on one game and lost on another. You need to be able to sell them a second product or a third product or a subscription.

You need to get them through text messages and SMS systems and direct mail. You need to go down deep in the follow up and in the bottom of the funnel stuff. It isn’t that you pay $20 more to acquire that customer is that you actually acquire the customer. Kudos. And I think people are not willing to go out and see what it takes for them to actually acquire a customer first, to then learn how to monetize that backwards into their systems.

What, five by five is our is our playbook, which means we’re going to launch at least five products in the market. It’s a law of averages, right? You don’t invest a lot into just one product. I mean, I know that sounds great. At some point you will, but right upfront, you don’t know what your market, your seller account, Amazon, DTC, tick tock or whatever is really going to bear.

Ultimately, you see someone else doing it. So you think I can just immediately replicate it. But that’s a logical fallacy in this argument. You can’t just duplicate it. What you can do is say, How can I capture that market share in my account, my price point, my brand, and in my ads and in my space? And then not really worry about them for the moment, just start acquiring share to start getting in there.

And I think a lot of people miss that point when they go to market. I’m, you know, now aware that I need to spend 30, 60, 90 days acquiring market share before I start making profit. If you can’t do that, then who is ultimately going to win? So means you actually have to understand what it takes to bear the market.

That’s you can go test this on your own. It may take you 85 days or 65 or 125. The point is it’s going to take whatever time it’s going to take for you to acquire that market share and then prove that you’re going to do it. That’s why in the real world of e-commerce, it’s not really a side hustle or a hobby business.

Not ultimately it can’t be, because now you have to be willing to take certain risk to grow the business. When things start to work, you’ve got to capitalize it. It is the same risk on any other channel that most people fall into. Dropshipping does not work the same way it used to anymore. It won’t fly on TikTok shop anymore, right?

They’re getting to the FBT platform side of it now. Shopify tried to do that, but they discover they’re they’re failing at it miserably. And then in their last stock update, they’re down 20% because most of the people who are trying to get in and use Shopify for that quick side hustle thing aren’t making more than a thousand bucks and are bailing out and they’re bailing out really fast.

Brett:

Yeah, it was impressive. They managed to scale to the size that they did with a ladder. So many side hustles, right?

Neil:

So many side hustle, so many dropship, so many of all of those things. But like any sort of longevity and any sort of bell curve of growth and adoption, there has to be some stabilization to the platform for the people who were on it or it will start to decline if the people are on it or just paying monthly fees and making no money, it’s going to decline.

And there are other places in the market, in the industry that that’s occurring right now where people are bailing out of those platforms, those funnel platforms, because they simply aren’t able to make it work. They’re just paying monthly fees. And so you got to get in front of that. Sales is everything is the mantra. We keep saying around here.

Sales fixes everything, right? And so first you got to get to the sales, what by whatever means possible, even if it’s not profitable in the first acquisition, you’ve got to get the sales from there. Then you got to work the numbers. And I think a lot of people just don’t understand that. And you mentioned affiliates at one point or influencers, right?

Yeah.

Brett:

What’s yeah, I love to talk affiliates, influencers and even with regards to your initial portfolio, so and I totally agree, right, You got it. You got to acquire customers and then you worry about making money later, but you better figure out how to get a customer right and then what it costs. And so what’s your initial meal kit?

Hey, this is what we’re going to start with. We are going to start, you know, we’re going to do some AdWords, going to Facebook ads are going to do affiliates, influencers. What’s your starter kit for?

Neil:

Or my starter kit is Amazon first. It is. And I know that’s going to not ring well with a lot of people’s ears right? The reason is because I don’t have to split test the funnel. All I have to do really because the funnel of Amazon’s FBA or fulfilled by Amazon is really done for you. So in that base, all I have to do is make sure I get the product in there and let their logistics inventory and split tested trillion dollar funnel do its thing.

What I need to do is be very good at the marketing side, the language side, the copy side and the in the avatar aspect of developing that marketing profile for the person that I’m targeting specifically in the solution they’re trying to solve, which is less, you know, going for that higher priced solution, less reviews, more specifics, pain points, etc., and then get in front of them and determine how much I can sell and what I’m what they’re willing to buy from me.

And I can do that on demand traffic, right? Amazon is running 8600 units a minute, so it’s very easy to really determine quickly through organic and PPC marketing on Amazon. Did I hit the metrics right even before the product is sold? I like Dropshipping, but I have to get the inventory and a lot of people don’t like that, you know, But that’s also an asset.

If you think about it from a business perspective, putting money into inventory is an asset. I’m not putting it into a digital thing. I’m putting into a physical inventory. It’s tangible, can be taxed differently and managed differently in taxes and you’re taking cash out of one place and turning it into physical goods. So there are those at business benefit.

I know people argue, Well, you have to do inventory. And I’m like, Well, there are other benefits to the inventory from a business perspective. Yeah, you’d love to dropship everything. I get it. But again, unless you can differentiate the product, control the product, trademark the product, and even utility patent the product, you have not a business, you’ve got a side hustle, you’ve got flip in product for somebody else.

And for us, it has to create intrinsic value, which means we have to own the process all the way through to the end so that the business becomes a salable asset, right? So we control all that. So the affiliate side or influence or components, those are just traffic channels that also have a cost. You may think, well, I gave the free sample away.

No, the sample had a cost. I gave away 100 samples. We gave away 100 products at 100, you know, a unit of inventory that had a cost to it. So that’s like buying traffic really at the end of the day. And the differentiator, of course, is where you do that and how you do that and how you can track it.

I use joint brands and stuff in the class pass to track it. I have problems with that because I’d give away so many units and only get so much video back and then find out that some of those people are just manipulating their likes and user accounts. And so my traffic buys were terrible because I’d give them and, you know, a product and they’d go out and then it’s like, well, there’s no clicks, there’s no comment, there’s no traffic.

Like, you liar, like you just stole that product from me. So that’s a challenge on Amazon side of the house too, because we have much more complicated terms of service. So there are ways to go in and take the organic side of Amazon on the side, PPC side and give it the validation for the market we need before we go out and say, okay, this price point, this product, you know, this mechanism, now we want to get affiliates or influencers.

We found it much easier, much faster to go to Tik-Tok shops because of the influencer component and all the data they give us. The influencer can’t hide like we know they made that gross volume, we know they’re increasing, we know their user accounts going up. We know their, you know, market share is here and we know that 85% of them target, you know, our particular niche because it’s literally set up inside of there.

And so I know also that when I give away a hundred units, I’m going to get a hundred videos back like it’s a cross because I don’t want to get their account dinged. So there are variables of value there and with signed agreements can take that video and then put it back on Amazon and Facebook, etc. and it will do really well.

So once it’s validated on TikTok and generated sales, it becomes an asset that I can turn around and go the other way with and turn it into names on sponsored ads and go out and run on Facebook. Right? So then I can take that asset and move at different directions, opening different channels. And I’ve also discovered that in my experience and the people that are working with us and even clients that I’ve interviewed or people that come on my podcast, there’s the larger amount of spillover that halo effect is occurring.

They actually go back to Amazon from to, Gosh, well, I know nobody wants to hear that and I’m not trying to like take anything from this, especially those who are listening. But you need to understand to follow the people. You might have to pivot if you create demand capture on DTC for your Facebook and your ads and Google on to your Shopify, you need to be able to track where they went after that.

Did they go to Tick Tock or Amazon? Because that’s going to be probably the two places they end up. And if you can track that, you can measure it. That’s really the important output here, right? Not to favor one channel over another, but to your point, I do start on FBA because I want to find out where the capture is.

I want to find out where the demand is.

Brett:

Yeah. Interesting. How long is tick tock had that going with the tick tock shops and to your liking I guess in terms of the analytics and report.

Neil:

Yeah. Well like or dislike because when they rolled out the tick tock shop platform at about October November 2023, not too long ago, they basically in in my case, they went back and retroactively canceled all my Amazon ads to shut down my tick tock shop, which was talking about Amazon. And so they they driver or they rolled it out they did this whole thing and I wasn’t the only one is the fact that they killed what are called brand referral links that track off Amazon sales backwards and actually give us a commission 10% commission of all sales off social media backwards to Amazon.

So instead of paying like a 15% referral fee, we only pay a 5% referral fee, which is cool, except they killed those and then they torched my account and a bunch of other people too, right as they rolled it out. Now they’re kind of laxed on that now. And so you can kind of start using some of that again.

Now that’s out, but that’s just since 2023. But you can see a lot of the, you know, mass and viral traffic that’s occurring and just the speed at which those shops are moving units and growing is astronomically fast because of the way that social media, you know, chain and all this social platform is really moving extremely fast. So when we find them spilling over to Amazon to buy products, right, get a left over here, get good over there.

One of our clients, Tammy, he has a product that’s done about 50 units a day on Amazon. It’s been on there for like ten years. It just keeps chugging along. She has other products, but this one in particular, it got featured on a video on TikTok shop. Suddenly she’s selling out before noon and her product ten on Amazon and they’re over on Amazon buying it now because it’s sold out on TikTok Shop and then she’s got it stabilized.

Yeah voltage DM icon you can go check it out. Voltage Digital Marketing, Time.com or Amazon centric. Although we do omnichannel and our goal is basically to help new sellers or existing sellers reach up another 100 K and net profits during a 12 month engagement with us with a little skin in the game on that to get the incentive in place as part of our consulting and incentive package that we do.

As we wrap up this enlightening podcast experience with Neil Twa, we invite you to consider the valuable takeaways and inspiration has has shared. Looking to harness the power of influencer marketing? Afluencer is here to guide you on that transformative path.

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The post Podcast Episode #47 – Scale Your E-Commerce Brand | Neil Twa – Voltage Holdings appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #46 – Looking for Beauty and Fashion Micro Influencers | Irene Schneider – BeautybyPrettyThingie

Zeljko Nemet — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 20:22:46 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Irene Schneider, the visionary founder of BeautybyPrettyThingie, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Irene Schneider: The Mind Behind BeautybyPrettyThingie

Irene Schneider, the innovative mind driving BeautybyPrettyThingie, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Irene shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped her brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the BeautybyPrettyThingie Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of BeautybyPrettyThingie through the eyes of Irene Schneider herself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Irene Schneider. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled BeautybyPrettyThingie’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Irene Schneider, Founder of BeautybyPrettyThingie:

Irene:

I love fashion. I love beauty. In terms of beauty. I like everything natural. So the line is an all natural line of products and health supplements. In my philosophy that natural beauty, but also beauty from within that you do without from within. My frustration when wearing high heels that I love wearing high heels and fashion and experiencing the excruciating pain wearing them.

And so I’m actually a scientist and one day I was so frustrated giving a talk to an audience in very high heels and very painful high heels. And I said, Enough is enough. And I think more and more people are starting to realize, okay, we want things without animal cruelty free for vegans or people that don’t want to have all these, you know, additives that they are put in these products.

And they’re actually not good for your skin because your skin takes everything in.

Brett:

Welcome to our influencer podcast. We’re talking beauty brands and products. Today we’ve got Irene Schneider. She is the founder of Pretty Thing and Beauty by Pretty Thing. We’ve got some cool products we’re going to show you. We got some opportunities for influencers in Beauty and beyond. Irene, welcome. Thanks for joining us today. And what do we have going on the influencer side of things?

Irene:

Thank you, Brett. I’m very excited to be here to present my two brands. I’m very excited. They’re basically both obviously coming from the same, I would say lifestyle idea, philosophy. I love fashion, I love beauty. In terms of beauty, I like everything natural. So the line is an all natural line of products and health supplements are following my philosophy that natural beauty, but also beauty from within.

That beauty without, from within. And the fashion brand is actually coming from my frustration when wearing high heels that I love wearing high heels and fashion and experiencing the excruciating pain and wearing them. And so I’m actually a scientist. And one day I was so frustrated giving a talk to an audience in very high heels and very painful high heels that I said, enough is enough.

I think there is a big overlap. However, I would say at the beauty one, you know, it’s people that are going to love the all natural philosophy, but they’re also going to love the fact that you have the products that are animal cruelty free, for example. So for people that are very well aware of this issue as I am, they would love it and maybe they don’t wear high heels.

So I think the audience is actually there has an overlap from from fashion, but then also people that are not necessarily going to wear fashion or at all, for example, even older people that just love the care of their skin in a natural way because maybe they also have allergies or intolerances and then don’t necessarily wear high heels.

But I would say in the middle you would have people that low fashion, high heels and they love also beauty products that are all natural. So there is an overlap. And in terms of the pretty thing for the high heels and the insoles, by the way, I’m starting as well to launch a high shoe line limited edition that is very luxurious.

So you’re going to be able to buy the insoles and the high heels by separate or not in a combo. So like they’re going to fit in exactly with the shoe. You can take them in and out or makes it more comfortable. But the shoes are absolutely gorgeous. I am designing them and they are made in Spain. So you have craftsmanship made by hand, genuine leather satins, you know, the whole nine yards.

And my idea is actually to launch a very limited edition of high heels for the ladies that we love the high heels, but for example, we’re not necessarily going to spend 1000, $2,500 in the most expensive heels. So you would have, for example, 300, 350. You’re paying for a very unique shoe that is going to stand out anywhere you go.

Is going to be really exquisite. And you’re not paying you’re not hurting in your pocket big time, like with Jimmy Jaws or the big luxury grand brand or the big luxury brands that are so incredibly expensive and maybe maybe you save up and you have one pair. Well, maybe you have three or four pairs of pretty thing it and they’re fabulous.

I have I have a sample right here. Yeah Let’s see. The first is length and it’s I don’t know how well you’re going to be seeing it, but this is I applaud you, too. I mean, this is Prince Gorgeous, like all the way satin, genuine leathers. You can see the golden. This is all south and this is all hand-stitched.

So, I mean, this is going to be a showstopper at any event, any night outing or even day event. I plan to have I’m going to be uploading the pictures to the website really thing a dot com. And then you’re going to be able to see the high heels and the different insoles of all colors and beautiful designs that are literally laundry to the foot.

So they make it more comfortable and visibly gorgeous. So it’s all beauty.

Brett:

Yeah, that is excellent. So with that, Irene, let’s get into the influencer side of things. Who are you looking for to partner with or both? Pretty thing. Hair and Beauty by Pretty thing. Let’s talk about the opportunity, the collab, the type of influencers that you’re looking for.

Irene:

Yes, all four pretty thing. I am looking for ladies that are very fashion. They love fashion. They are classy, very classy, They’re elegant, They love the details, the style. They take good care of themselves, their their appearance. So they love the glamor and they’re catering to the client. That is going to be a lady that loves fashion, to dress well.

She’s going to spend it in nice shoes and the insoles to go with them, to be able to walk with the shoes, because some people are having their shoes and then they’re like, Oh, I cannot even work in 20 minutes. Get the sole uncomfortable. Well, no, no more. Right now, you can wear them longer times and more comfortable.

So it’s going to be their fashion stars, the ladies who love them, the, you know, the stylish designs, very glamorous and very elegant, both day and night. That’s going to be the audience and the influencer is going to reflect that. So it’s going to be luxury luxe, luxury lifestyle. While I would say the age, any lady that loves to wear high heels is fine with it.

I mean, I’m not going to limit the age. I mean, maybe a lady that is 60 is going to love her high heels as well. And so I would say somebody that has that type of audience that loves the designer bags, the designer shoes, the designer dresses, and also somebody that loves fashion and doesn’t necessarily want to spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars.

So that’s going to be the type of influencer with her type of audience. The markets that I’m looking at, one of the markets, obviously the U.S. is a fantastic market with some of the big cities that have a lot of fashion. New York, Miami, you know, but also I would like to find the influencers that are having followers in the Middle East, places like Dubai is like Abu Dhabi, a lot of fashion there, a lot of people spending a lot of money to look good and dress up.

So those would be very interesting. So if I could find influencers that are catering to those areas, that’s fantastic. The call up has commission. It has commission, a sort of commission for the influencers, depending on the followers. I’m offering the gift samples, right. So depending on the, on the, on the following and I’m offering a code of discount or some of the products for their followers.

So then they can use the code and their followers if they buy. I know they came from the influencer and they get a discount. That’s for both brands or the beauty one. As I said, there is an overlap and then there’s a lot of people that are doing lifestyle, nature, health, you know, a lot of influencers that are not necessarily glam or fashion oriented, but are into the natural beauty lines and love to present those.

So I would say that I think the base for the influencer, for the beauty might be a bit wider, might be a bit wider.

Brett:

Yeah, we will get links to both of the collabs underneath the show notes here. Irene Sorry, influencers can go ahead and apply looks. It sounds like great opportunities Commission for both products for Pretty Thing and Beauty by Pretty Thing and then essential for product as well if at all. Fit. So these are all great opportunities. Thanks for coming on and sharing about your brands Irene.

And before we let you go, how can our influencers and anyone listening or watching this podcast, how can they follow and find beauty by Pretty thing, even Pretty thing on social media and on the broader Internet?

Irene:

Yes, mostly it’s on Instagram. So they can just find pretty thing and and I have a little bit on Facebook. Not a whole lot though, focusing more on Instagram. And I’m going to be developing a Pinterest story. But but I would say Instagram on the website of both brands, which are also the online stores, you have the social media icons.

So so it’s easy to find. But but yeah, they can find me there on of course, through the club as well, from your clubs postings as well.

Brett:

Excellent. Irene Schneider, founder of Pretty Thing and Beauty by Pretty Thing. Irene, thanks so much for joining us today.

Irene:

Thank you so much. Thank you, Brooke.

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Reflecting on a Journey of Innovation and Influence

As we wrap up this enlightening podcast experience with Irene Schneider, we invite you to consider the valuable takeaways and inspiration has has shared. Looking to harness the power of influencer marketing? Afluencer is here to guide you on that transformative path.

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Catapult your brand’s presence through the captivating prowess of influencer marketing.

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The post Podcast Episode #46 – Looking for Beauty and Fashion Micro Influencers | Irene Schneider – BeautybyPrettyThingie appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #45 – Financial Toxicity and Cancer Treatment | Dan Hubbard – 4Amanda

Zeljko Nemet — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 20:17:27 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Dan Hubbard, the visionary founder of 4Amanda, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Dan Hubbard: The Mind Behind 4Amanda

Dan Hubbard, the innovative mind driving 4Amanda, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Dan shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the 4Amanda Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of 4Amanda through the eyes of Dan Hubbard himself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Dan Hubbard. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled 4Amanda’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Dan Hubbard, Founder of 4Amanda:

Dan:

Our very first trip to the hospital. We stayed in a Hilton hotel and we found six families sleeping in their cars. What we do each month is we spend about 63% of our programing towards rent for cancer patients. About 12% of our programing goes to nutrition. What we know for a fact is that good nutrition, good food costs a little bit more, but it’s critical to a patient undergoing care.

The financial component is something that I think everybody can understand. Imagine not being able to add. He’s got cancer.

Brett:

Welcome to our influencer podcast, where we connect influencers and creators with not only up and coming brands but up and coming charities and great causes. And that’s what we have today with Dan Hubbard. He’s the director of For Amanda. It’s a charity focused on getting direct financial support to cancer patients. I mean, Dan, unfortunately has experience with not from the financial side, but on the on the cancer treatment side and kind of saw firsthand how difficult it was for patients to get proper care.

So for a man is an awesome charity that really helps people who are going through the cancer treatment process get money, and then how to get money directly to the people that need it. So really a great cause and also an opportunity for our influencers and creators to share and to help this great cause. And we’ll bring on Dan here.

So Dan, thanks so much for joining us today in Kenya. Hopefully, hopefully I did a decent enough job of the intro here, but can you tell us a little bit more about the mission and objectives of for Amanda?

Dan:

Sure. So Amanda and I were quite fortunate when she received her cancer diagnosis. We had great insurance. We had good employment and we had a good support structure from friends, family and friends. But what we learned, starting from our very first trip for her having a report installed and then starting her infusion was a lot of cancer patients are not fortunate.

Our very first trip to the hospital, we stayed in a Hilton hotel and we found, I think it was six families sleeping in their cars and the hotel was allowing them to do that. But the choice was pay for the fuel and food and these sort of things to get to the destination or stay in a hotel. They couldn’t do both.

We heard horrific stories of bankruptcies and, you know, not being able to afford rent because of the high cost that comes along with the cancer diagnosis and the health care industry. It’s called financial toxicity, cancer care, essentially. You know, Amanda received her treatment at Duke and two researchers at Duke about 15 years ago coined that phrase financial toxicity.

50 or so cases of boost from Amazon. But, you know, patients are driving on average 200 miles round trip to get to treatment.

Brett:

Oh, it’s because they got to find the specific.

Dan:

Yeah. If you need to get to a place of care. Yep. So you know this involves wear and tear on their vehicle gasoline. Obviously. I cannot tell you how many windshield we’ve repaired. So, you know, you got all these costs and they add up. And one of the really unfortunate things is, you know, a lot of the patients we serve are not under the poverty level.

You know, they’re closer to 50,000 and it’s difficult for them to qualify for social services. And that the sad thing is they’re amassing a ton of debt. So, you know, that ratio is really sort of, you know, one of the other things that we we try and focus on it. We’re doing a lot better job as a lot of patients are traveling with children.

And that can happen during the school year. It can happen, you know, during the summer I was involved with this. Children do need something to do. So we’re trying to team up with different organizations, local to different hospital systems and maybe get them to a movie. Right. You know, something like this, give them a little bit of enrichment because emotionally it’s really hard on them.

It’s not so which which starting to to focus more on that as our programing dollars increase.

Brett:

Yeah that’s a cool benefit of the dollars coming from you as a you as a human being know how to allocate it and you know that they need the shakes and the kids got it. You know, sentimental to go see a movie, right. Versus having to get the stuff reimbursed as you said. What a nightmare. Right. With the red tape, I guess, is you can you can get around that you can allocated as you see fit versus just that bureaucratic mess that you had to experience.

How do you connect with the how do you connect with the families down in terms of who needs help? Do they know? Do they how do they find you to apply for help?

Dan:

Yeah. So what we’ve tried to do a good job at is get close to hospital systems. Sometimes it’s just, you know, sometimes it’s as simple as just finding some licensed clinical social workers that are on, you know, some hospital systems website. Just shoot them an email saying, look, we’re a resource. Do us a favor. If you think that a patient might later suffer from financial toxicity, send them to us now.

Let them let us get them in the system because it’s ultimately what happens to frequently as a family will get to us when they have late fees, disconnect fees, these sorts of things and of course recover them. But we’d rather not we would rather pay for things before they get to bad. There’s a lot of of just organic based organizations pretty much in every state that we reached out to and said, look, we’d love to do it for everyone, but, you know, we only serve cancer patients if you come across one and you can tell us, look, they’ve been either pre-qualified or prescreened, get them to share that data with us and then we don’t

have to spend a lot of time doing the same thing. Hospital systems in particular are really, really good at taking a holistic approach to that evaluation. They don’t just use the poverty level because the poverty level is not a good barometer for financial toxicity. Like I said, most of the patients we serve, their incomes are up around $50,000.

Brett:

Yeah, I got you know, it makes I mean, if you’re paycheck to paycheck, to paycheck to paycheck or if you don’t, I mean, maybe that’s not even fair to say. But if you don’t have this large pile of cash reserve, which if you’re you know, if you’re middle class, you probably don’t. Right. And then you get hit with these costs and you have to pay the bills.

Right. So you’re putting them on. And I would say to my credit cards. Right. And that’s running up and that’s where the toxicity comes in, because now you’ve got this interest running against you and it it can snowball pretty fast. I mean, I know starting a company or two on credit cards is not good, right? You got to get the money back.

But this is not something where there will be a return from a monetary side on the back end. Right. You’re not going to there’s no cash flow that’s going to pay this off here. These are expenses. And you’re just right. Keep someone. And.

Dan:

You know, one of the things that I always ask people to take into consideration is there’s a lot of clinical evidence and research that indicates that when a cancer patient is in real financial toxicity, even even without bankruptcy, the three times more likely to die. And that’s just a real simple fact. And the other thing that I ask them to consider is currently cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States.

It’s just behind heart disease and not far behind it. The expectation is, if not this year, by 2025, cancer will be the leading cause of death in the United States. The reason to ask people to take that consideration is one in five people have a personal experience that they can talk about friend, family member, and imagine the pain and struggle that you’re aware that they went through and now add crushing debt to it.

And so that’s that’s why we do what we do, because ultimately it saves lives.

Brett:

Tell us a little bit, how can influencers and creators help out here? Obviously, a very important because I think it’s something that people maybe are not quite I don’t wanna say not aware of, but I mean in my like everything makes perfect sense. This is, this is not something I think about on a day to day basis, right?

Everything is I’m reading our notes before we hop on and we start talking like, yes, of course. It’s like the most yes, these are very expensive treatments. And if you don’t have great insurance, there’s no way to pay it. And it’s a terrible situation. But I’ll admit, I didn’t wake up this morning thinking about it right as I’m getting ready to hop on with you.

Right. So awareness strikes me as a way that the influencers and creators can help out just talking about this because it’s not like just helping kind of connect the dots, right? Like, hey, these there are people out there that are going through this. So my on the right track in terms of what we’re looking for in terms of influencers and creators to help out.

Dan:

Yeah. So, you know, I have to admit I there’s so little that I know about the influence of market and vertical. But one thing that I’ve always found really, really valuable is for an individual that’s going to be speaking on our behalf to speak to their audience the way they know their audience wants to be spoken to. And, you know, if a if an influencer is a young woman, then what I would share what that influencers look.

Currently in the United States, women in their twenties and thirties are being diagnosed at mass rates because colorectal cancer and breast cancer, it’s a significant rise leading away from the pandemic. Yeah, yeah. For an influencer for a part of their persona as a mother with children, I can tell you that 80% of the cancer patients we serve are women with children.

And if the influencer is a person of color, I can tell you that 71% of the people we serve are people of color. I can share statistics with an influencer that I think they could find a way to utilize, and however they get the message out. You know, cancer is incredibly unforgiving to everybody. The financial component is something that I think everybody can understand, right?

Everyone gets money, everyone gets debt, and everyone and everyone has that gut feeling when it’s like, Oh God, I got to pay this huge credit card bill or whatever. It doesn’t make you feel good, right? Imagine not being able to and you’ve got cancer, right? And you’re trying to.

Brett:

Those are probably two of the top worst things on everyone’s. I mean, everyone knows cancer sucks and everyone knows that having to pay a credit card, especially when a high credit card is running against you. But the interest rate, that’s the worst really the worst feeling.

Dan:

You know, and I think something that I’m getting a little bit better at is at the end of every day, I always think about if I get eight more $10 donations, I can buy, you know, a immunotherapy injection for one more patient. You know, if I get $70 donation, that’s a hotel room for a family that’s traveling to treatment.

$40. You know, that’s a digital gas card. I can sense. And I went for the round trip, you know, we can send digital McDonald’s cards, right, so that children can go and get a happy Meal that are traveling with their parents. So these are the things that I think about. And what I’m trying to do a little bit better job at is sharing that on social media.

And certainly I would like influencers to share that as well. I think that it’s easy for me to put statistics on my website that says this is who we’re serving in a cell, we’re serving them. But I think something just really small like, Hey, 70 bucks allows a family to not sleep in the car, right? So these are some of the things that I would like to think about.

But and in my collab or in our collab, I specified to the influencer, I don’t want to tell you how to get this message out. It needs to come from your heart and be communicated to your audience the way you think.

Brett:

It’s into our influencer and creator, viewers and watchers and listeners. We’ll get the link to your collab there. Dan and the Foreman collab. We’re going to be shown out so everyone can click and view the collab and apply it. I think that’s a great way of looking at it from the creative standpoint is that’s what we want is for the creators to kind of take this and put it into their own word and related to their own lives and, and to communicate it to their followers.

Right? That’s the kind of the beauty of the influencer, micro influencer world is that you’ve got there’s, you know, people attached to their, you know, you call followers for a reason because they’re connected with these people and we want them to help spread the word. So to our influencer and creators out there, we’ll get the link to the forum and a collab.

And then Dan Larson for me, can you give us look into the future plans and goals for the charity in the years ahead?

Dan:

Sure. So, you know, one of the things that tends to happen to families and then of course to single mothers is they lose income because they can’t work. So what we are trying is put together a gig site so that these patients, while they’re traveling or while they’re not feeling very well from the effects of chemotherapy, they can work online.

So we’re going to develop that platform for three. It’ll be made available to both the cancer patients that we serve and then cancer patients that are connected with other charities. We’ve got about a dozen really, really good companies that are going to provide dedicated work to the cancer patients. We’ve got a really, really good merchant that’s going to charge us $0.00 so that the cancer patient earns $100, $100 just to be deposited into an account.

So that way they’re not losing small percentages. So this is something that I’m really excited about. We have a grant that covers that. I would also I would also like to say that I’ll have more time to get to hospital systems because I want to meet with oncology department heads and the, you know, clinical social worker heads and say this who we are, this what we do.

Don’t feel like you can’t send people to us. We’ll help anyone that meets the criteria for help. And I think that if I am able to spend that time doing that for the rest of the year, it will save lives, I think. But but also will avoid some of those fees that I spoke about earlier. So I think these are two goals that, you know, looking to accomplish this fiscal year.

Brett:

That’s awesome. That is a great I mean, end to end now on. And hats off to you. I don’t know how you got a merchant to agree to 0%. I mean, that was not is it that that’s really fantastic like you said $100 going straight to the worker who needs the money. So yeah, thanks for sharing, Dan, as always, you keep us posted.

Let me know how we can we can help out on our front if and I know another collab to help that or just kind of spread the word about the platform when it’s live, you know? So thanks for keeping us posted and involved in the for Amanda efforts and again we’ll get the link to the collab. Your cilantro influencer and creator friends can apply here as we have Dan Hubbard, again the director of for Amanda and really about the best guys you’ll ever hear of.

So happy to share this and thanks so much Dan, for coming on our platform. It’s been a really, really meaningful conversation to have with you. Really appreciate it, Brett.

Dan:

I appreciate your time. Thank you for doing this.

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Discover the art of influencer marketing with Afluencer’s newsletter. From savvy strategies to HOT COLLAB tips, we’ve got something for everyone. Don’t miss out—sign up today!

Reflecting on a Journey of Innovation and Influence

As we wrap up this enlightening podcast experience with Dan Hubbard, we invite you to consider the valuable takeaways and inspiration has has shared. Looking to harness the power of influencer marketing? Afluencer is here to guide you on that transformative path.

Explore a World of Possibilities with Afluencer

Unlock exclusive insights and strategies by signing up for Afluencer’s bimonthly newsletter.
Catapult your brand’s presence through the captivating prowess of influencer marketing.

Become a Guest on the Afluencer Podcast

Join us in celebrating the launch of this captivating podcast series and continue to empower your brand’s influencer marketing journey with Afluencer.

The post Podcast Episode #45 – Financial Toxicity and Cancer Treatment | Dan Hubbard – 4Amanda appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #44 – Increase Your Potential | Matt Hill – Matthew Hill Consulting

Zeljko Nemet — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:11:10 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Matt Hill, the visionary founder of Matthew Hill Consulting, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Matt Hill: The Mind Behind Matthew Hill Consulting

Matt Hill, the innovative mind driving Matthew Hill Consulting, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Matt shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the Matthew Hill Consulting Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of Matthew Hill Consulting through the eyes of Matt Hill himself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Matt Hill. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled Matthew Hill Consulting’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Matt Hill, Founder of Matthew Hill Consulting:

Matt:

I thought about in the past of like maybe creating a book or self-help type of book as well. But I started kind of like teasing apart the different components that I would want to add to this. To increase your potential is a very comprehensive program, and it’s not a one size fits all, which makes it a little bit different than any other type of programs to come looking at various constructs such as like emotions, self-image, self-esteem, motivation, empowerment, self regulation.

This is all research based data that’s drives this program. But I also did it in a way that’s comprehensive. So I get right to the point.

Brett:

Welcome to our excellent our podcast, or we connect influencers and creators with up and coming brands and products. And today we have a unique opportunity here. We’re going to talk about with the founder of Heal Behavioral Health. We have Dr. Matt Hill himself, who’s going to come on and talk to us about his Increase Your Potential program, which includes affiliate commission, opportunities for influencers and creators.

So a nice way to share something that can help your followers and also help you make a little bit of money as well. So, Dr. Matt, welcome. And can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and provide maybe your background and the overview of what brought you to lead you and inspire you to create the increase your potential program?

Matt:

Sure. Absolutely. Yes. My name is Dr. Matt Hill. I’m a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Florida. My background is I’ve been working in private practice for approximately 15 years now. And basically what has led me to this course is I thought about in the past of like maybe creating a book, a self-help type of book as well.

But I started kind of like teasing apart the different components that I would want to add to this. And then I came up with it. Increase your potential. And to increase your potential is a very comprehensive program and it’s not a one size fits all, which makes it a little bit different than any other type of programs too.

So basically I’m looking at various various constructs such as like emotions, self-image, self esteem, motivation, empowerment, self regulation, and then ultimately at the end is creating goals and objectives. But all the other components that I’m talk about in terms of self regulation, self-image, emotions, self esteem that give the the participant a lot of insight into their own behaviors.

And so this these behaviors are then going to guide the goals and objectives that will be created.

Brett:

Nursing. So you mentioned designing the program with participants in mind. So can you elaborate a bit on the thought process behind how you structured the program to be engaging and effective?

Matt:

I thought in my I thought in my own life I was looking at different things that I would like to see in terms of goals and objectives in my own life. And I was thinking to myself, What if I was a participant in this program? What would I like to see? And then also too, is I find that a lot of times self-help books and other self-help types of things, they’re not research based, they’re anecdotal data from that other people have.

And so like if you go into said bookstore, you’ll see all kinds of self-help books. But these are opinions that people have. These aren’t really driven by data. So a lot of this informal action that I provide in there, this is all research based data. That’s true. This drives this program. But I also did it in a way that’s comprehensive.

So I get right to the point. Then. That’s that’s also why I didn’t want to really focus on having a book because I feel like we live in such a high paced, light, you know, world that we don’t have a lot of time. So we need to get right to the point with things. So that’s why I designed it in a way that is it’s informational, but it also allows people to kind of work at a pace that’s not going to be so overwhelming for them either.

Brett:

Yeah, that’s nice. More quite kidding. I mean, the last thing we need in the world is another self-help. But of course, you walk in like you said, you walk into the bookstores and you’re not to many of them anymore, but you walk in and they’re kind of wall to wall. And I guess I never thought of it that way.

That’s interesting that you put it that where I mean, they really are opinion pieces and not that they are necessarily incorrect, but like you said, it’s one person’s opinion and maybe it worked for that one person. And now we’ve got a book, but not a one size fits all. And it’s not it’s not research. I mean, it’s tough to get excited about something in 2024 is not research based writers, even if there’s not a study behind it.

If there’s not some sort of evidence, then kind of what’s the point? Right? It’s just another opinion piece. So that’s a big advantage, it sounds like, to have the research stuff, but then also to be able to get to the point because that’s what you want. We don’t want to read through the full study, Right. We want the abstract.

We want what’s the what’s the point of this? So on the program there, Matt, what’s the price of the program and how does that work in terms of accessing it?

Matt:

Once someone signs up for the program, they would they will have complete access to it all the time. So the thing about it is if you’re changing goals and objectives in your life, you’ll have it over the course of your lifetime, so you can always revisit it and go back to it. The price point of it is 99, 99.

I was looking at different price points in terms of what I think would be reasonable, and I was like, okay, I want this to be able to be acceptable to most people. So I figure that at this price point it would be reasonable for courses because I looked into other courses too as well. And some of these courses that you see are like $500 even up to $1,000 in terms of the self-help courses.

And I wanted to make this reasonable as I possibly could for the for the participant.

Brett:

Yeah, that’s a nice price point because that’s something you can buy without having to think too hard or feel too hard about it. And then having access for your entire life is great. So like you said, as a resource, you can keep coming back to. And a lot of times these types of resources, they’re nice references because we use them tactically and kind of get through that hurdle.

And then a couple of years later, you want to go back to it. So being able to go back to it I think is a nice value as well. Also like the price point from an influencer standpoint, right? Because this is something that influencers can share with their followers and creators can share and feel good about that in terms of not only the information that people are getting but the investment required, It’s doable.

So from your standpoint, in terms of the influencers and creators that you’re looking to work with, what are you looking for in terms of them aligning and their messaging kind of resonating with what you talk about in the increase your potential program?

Matt:

Any influencer that I work with, I’ll give access to the program. I’m actually working with one influencer right now and I provide an access to the program so they can actually take the program so they know what their what they’re providing. So what I would really want is the influencer themselves to basically almost think of it like, like an opinion piece.

It’s like, Hey, listen, I did this program, this is how I helped made this is these were the goals and objectives that I was looking at trying to work on. And this is what I was trying to work through and this is how I use the program to work through.

Brett:

Yeah, that’s very cool. Is now taking the opinion piece to put it on the front end, right? And like really like a case study where, hey, this is exactly right. I went through this and here’s how it helped me, given where I’m at. Right. And it’s different for different people, but we’re all looking to get right past our next hurdle.

We’re all I can improve in a certain area, but that’s different for each person. So cool to have that and a nice benefit for the influencer to have access to the program. $99 value there, of course, is off the the list price. Of course, they may get a return on their investment. That’s many, many times over that right.

If they’re able to increase their their business alone, not to mention their sort of personal happiness and all those benefits. Do you see a role with the influencers and creators as allies in helping reduce? I don’t know if stigma is the right word, but you know, some of the misconceptions, so say, around mental health messaging within their own communities, right?

Because they’ve got the ear of their followers and that’s who they are, their followers. Listen to you, right? Is this person. So how do you view the influencers in terms of being a partner for health, behavioral health?

Matt:

I see them as like like the affiliate aspect of it is I see them as someone that can bridge that gap to their to their viewers and be able to provide this information to their viewers in terms of like the stigma, this is we don’t I don’t want to say that this is necessarily something like if someone has anxiety or someone has depression, this is more like think of it as coaching.

It almost is. This is like a program that is more designed for if we’re just looking at goals and objectives and find ourselves getting stuck in our lives with different things. This isn’t a program to diagnose anyone with any sort of mental health or behavioral health condition or anything by any means. This wouldn’t be like you wouldn’t say like, okay, had depression, I’m going to go use this program or I have anxiety, going to go use this program.

This is just to better your life in terms of your own personal goals and objectives. And like I said, this is a not a one size fits all program. This program is more designed for the individual, but the back information provides us with the insight in the self awareness so we can understand things such as self esteem, motivation, empowerment.

Like I said, self regulation.

Brett:

Yeah, it’s nice to have that, I guess again in this format, right? Because in the old days, let’s say I had a personal hurdle, whether it’s starting my business or growing my business or my personal life or, you know, they all blend together, right? I’ve hit this business hurdle because I need to get over this thing personally, right?

And then I go to Barnes and Noble or Borders back in the day, right? And I’m looking for these self-help books. But again, like we’re talking about, they’re all opinion pieces more or less. And I’m kind of searching a little bit of a needle in the haystack. Right? I’m looking for that piece of inspiration that can inspire me and get me through that.

Give me something that I can apply. Versus here you’ve got all these your research based work here, and I can kind of pick and choose like, okay, this is what I’m stuck against and these are what studies say work. So it’s nice to have that as an advantage. On the collab here. We’re going to get the link Matt in the show notes so that influencers can see this and apply and be able to apply directly through influencers.

So we’ll make that nice and convenient. But let me give you a plug here. The Commission is 20% on the program for the increase your Potential program and as Dr. Matt said, also getting access to the program as well. So a really nice advantage there last year for me here. Matt, give us a little tease on the future, what our future plans for Hill behavioral health and the increase your potential program.

Matt:

I just want to see how far this program can go. I want to basically have this program out and have people using it. And then what I want to do is I see in my in my private practice that a lot of people deal with very various forms of anxiety. And so that’s going to be the next program that I’m going to work on.

And I already have a price point for that as well that I’m already going to create. That’s going to be like a $50 for that program, 4999. But needless to say, that’s my next thing that I’m going to work on. But right now I really want to focus on increase your potential because this is like this is like the grand program of probably all the programs I’m having.

So think of it this as we go in a sequence of we start with something small and move in incremental to that. This is something I just went right out the gate and made. This is like the big program. So this is going to be like the flagship program for health, behavioral health.

Brett:

That was exactly the word I was going to use there. Sounds like. Yeah, the flagship band sounds like there’s tons of potential for the increase or potential program, right? I mean, we talk about all the self-help books, the old school bookstores, wall to wall in terms of the self-help books. And again, here’s a case where we’ve got something this evidence and research base that we can use.

So lots of potential. And I like using the influencers and creators as a way to scale and to our influencer and creator watchers and listeners here, get on the collab here for Hill Behavioral Health. This is really interesting program, something that not only will probably help you help all of us in our own lives, but also a great thing for you to share with your followers and then earn commissions just for helping other people, which is kind of the name of the game here.

Dr. Matt Hill, thanks so much for joining us. Walking us through the Increase Your Potential program and for hosting your collab with us here at Excellence are looking forward to sending some good influencers and creators your way. And I appreciate your time and background here.

Matt:

Yes. Thank you so much for your time as well.

Brett:

All right. Thanks again, Dr. Matt.

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Reflecting on a Journey of Innovation and Influence

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The post Podcast Episode #44 – Increase Your Potential | Matt Hill – Matthew Hill Consulting appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #43 – Scaling Therapy Business | Floss Knight – UkTherapyGuide

Zeljko Nemet — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 20:06:19 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Floss Knight, the visionary founder of UkTherapyGuide, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Floss Knight: The Mind Behind UkTherapyGuide

Floss Knight, the innovative mind driving UkTherapyGuide, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Floss shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped her brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the UkTherapyGuide Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of UkTherapyGuide through the eyes of Floss Knight herself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Floss Knight. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled UkTherapyGuide’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Floss Knight, Founder of UkTherapyGuide:

Floss:

Many years ago, I came into recovery and therapy changed my life. It changed the way I viewed things. It helped me with all the things that I struggled with. 80% of the population do, at some point in their life, struggle from depression, which will unlock the potential in people and get them started on a better track. We have no shortage of therapists because we have a really good reputation, but it’s about positive experience and spreading that is far wide, you know, strengthening our reach.

Brett:

Welcome to our influencer podcast today, where we connect small brands with micro-influencers. We want to highlight the up and coming collab opportunities for our influencer viewers and listeners. And today we’ve got a unique one. Last night is our CO founder here from UK Therapy Guide. UK Therapy Guide has a mission to ensure a safe, seamless and informed therapeutic journey for all.

They’ve got a generous affiliate program here offering a $60 commission that we’re going to talk about and again, really a unique platform and offering here. So thanks so much for joining us. Can you get us started by sharing your inspiration behind Founding UK Therapy Guide?

Floss:

Yeah, for sure. Firstly, thanks so much for having me. I’m really, you know, glad I found you guys because it’s an interesting proposition to ask. So I’m going to just tell you a little bit about who we were and why. I co-founded UK Therapy Guide so many, many years ago. I came into recovery. That’s about 29 years now, and I basically came into therapy through the back of that.

And I benefited. Therapy changed my life. It changed the way I view things. It helped me with all the things that I struggled with. And for me, I wanted to share that experience. So I’d worked in other other areas, but I did a significant training and it just became the right thing for me to do. So that’s what underpins our mission.

You know, we want to be helping as many people as we can, 80% of the population do at some point in their lives struggle from depression, however that manifests. And that’s what we’re trying to do, which when unlock the potential in people and get them started on, you know, on a better track.

Brett:

Yeah, that’s great. So did you as you were working as a therapist, was it sort of the inspiration to scale yourself and say, Well, I can help one client at a time? As a practicing therapist, I can create this platform where I can connect many to many.

Floss:

That’s great and we will get the link to your collab here so that our influencers watching, listening, I guess more watching on the show notes here to click to apply and you’ll see those come in through influencers. So we’ll get all that up and make it easy for people. Last one here, for me, for us. Looking ahead then, where do you see UK Therapy Guide heading in the future?

And generally speaking, just what’s next for the platform you and your great service?

Floss:

Well, you know, I’ve been doing this for a very, very long time. And as I said, you know, my big drive and where I thrive, I everybody that works with us is to spread the message, to get people that are struggling, feeling that there isn’t necessarily a way out or in a relationship to understand themselves better and find that there are better solutions.

And if you’ve got negative patterns, whatever, or lost that actually you’ve got all those splinters inside anyway, right? They’re there and they manifest in different ways. They might come out in your relationship, they might come out at work, they might come. And actually if you process them through verbal communication, through therapy sessions, you can be free of all that.

So that in essence, is the message. And so it’s about positive experience and spreading that is far and wide and, you know, strengthening our reach and yeah, growing, growing with the influences that that we will end up working with.

Brett:

That is great. And we’re so happy to have your collab posted with us again. We’ll get the link here in the show now. It’s great affiliate program Opportunity for Everyone looking for a really great service to promote something that helps people through their therapeutic journey. So last night, co-founder here of UK Therapy Guy thanks so much for joining us today.

Floss:

My absolute pleasure. Have a lovely day and thanks. Thank you so much for allowing me to and to meet you and your influences.

Brett:

You as well. Yeah. It was great chatting with you. Thanks again.

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Reflecting on a Journey of Innovation and Influence

As we wrap up this enlightening podcast experience with Floss Knight, we invite you to consider the valuable takeaways and inspiration has has shared. Looking to harness the power of influencer marketing? Afluencer is here to guide you on that transformative path.

Explore a World of Possibilities with Afluencer

Unlock exclusive insights and strategies by signing up for Afluencer’s bimonthly newsletter.
Catapult your brand’s presence through the captivating prowess of influencer marketing.

Become a Guest on the Afluencer Podcast

Join us in celebrating the launch of this captivating podcast series and continue to empower your brand’s influencer marketing journey with Afluencer.

The post Podcast Episode #43 – Scaling Therapy Business | Floss Knight – UkTherapyGuide appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #42 – Is This A Perfect Gift? | Alex Buyanov – IT Arti

Zeljko Nemet — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 16:38:59 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Alex Buyanov, the visionary founder of IT Arti, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Alex Buyanov: The Mind Behind IT Arti

Alex Buyanov, the innovative mind driving IT Arti, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Alex shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the IT Arti Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of IT Arti through the eyes of Alex Buyanov himself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Alex Buyanov. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled IT Arti’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Alex Buyanov, Founder of IT Arti:

Alex:

Basically I’m doing the e-commerce business over ten years, but mostly we were doing it in Eastern Europe. We came up with the idea that we can make a wooden puzzle and we can make a nap that can help to make any portrait. The problem is on this project because the market does not exist. We started with Google ads, Facebook and Instagram, but it costs too much.

We need bloggers for sure, so we just need lots of people to see. It takes you about 6 to 8 hours to make a street car portrait and it looks really amazing.

Brett:

Welcome to our Afluencer podcast. We’re all about collabs. We connect small brands up and coming businesses with influencers, creators, micro influencers. Today we have Alex joining us on the line. He’s the founder of I.T. Our team, which is the world’s first all inclusive do it yourself kit, creating a portrait and string art style from any photo. As Alex notes, less than 1% of us are creative and have the ability to do this on our own.

I am in that 99 plus percent with no artistic ability, so I’m looking forward to talking to Alex. And we also have some great opportunities here for our influencers who are our minded, great commission based.

Opportunity.

So Alex, welcome and can you share a little bit about your background and what inspired you to start it?

Alex:

Yeah, no hybrid thing here. So basically I’m, I’m doing e-commerce business over ten yearsold, but mostly we were doing it in Eastern Europe and I’m founder of it’s kind of big project. It’s cosmetics. So we’re still in now supplies around Eastern Europe. We’re doing all our $1 million CMOs. But and it’s not American marketing, you know, everything is much cheaper on the Eastern Europe.

So it’s kind of a big project. And so we also have our offline stores, which are also selling our now supply and are starting to be started. Think about it, probably like three years ago. So I was investing in one project and they were doing crafts from what they were doing, wouldn’t support and they weren’t doing very good.

So they had some problems with sales and we will start looking to okay, what else we can produce results, abilities and we came up with the idea that probably we can make at Basel wouldn’t Basel and we can make an app that can help to make any or any portrait. So the idea was we’re making a kit we put like seven different colors of wood and squares and we make in our app that can help to make construction.

So we didn’t just download any pictures and and gives you instruction. But there was a problem with those wooden puzzles because they were too expensive. We were using like very expensive kind of roots, like black white. And they really took the kit retail price for kits was extremely high, so you could understand this project. And after a while we just said, Ah, we are still looking into this idea of what we can produce.

Are. And we came up with the idea that you can do a street portrait. So how does it work? You Again, you just download your picture any photo to our app and it provides your instruction and you just pull the strings by the numbers that did the kids here and it takes about 6 to 8 hours to make a string cast portrait.

And it’s it looks really amazing just what people when they see it, they just sort impressed. But we also have like other kids, like painting kit Diamond kit, cross-stitch kit. We’re going to really zoom them in. Not so much so but was a problem is of this project because market is not does not exist so people don’t know about this product.

It’s not like when you sell it something people know you need to the people that they can do such thing. And it’s a little bit different from what I was doing before. I was usually doing e-commerce. It’s a known brand, so, you know, one product. So on here right now, we just started this and people said to us, so much for us market and we just started doing a couple of bites ago.

Brett:

So that’s very cool. It’s good and bad starting something new, right? Because you there’s no existing search volume, right? So you don’t go to Google and say, hey, these are the keywords were targeting because I imagine nobody’s looking for a string market, right?

Alex:

So you yeah.

Brett:

You ranked I imagine high, but there’s no volume. So you’re establishing the market. So you’re the leader in a market that’s not there yet. Right. So it’s up to you too. Is that very cool. Just kind of taken us through that process and it sounds like a good type of gift. Am I thinking through this right where if I need a Valentine’s Day, it just passes.

Maybe mother’s I got Mother’s Day coming up for the wife. That might be a cool type of gift where, you know, keep the kids busy for 6 to 8 hours or more. So that’s kind of a win win putting this together in terms of the string art. So is that how we’re we’re looking at it from literally any picture on my phone, I can grab download and then we’re recreating it with the string art.

Alex:

Yeah. And the most important, the kids are all included. So you got animals, snails, three and four. You don’t need to buy anything else. And both are excellent. And there are some projects that make it nearly the same, but you need to send them some picture before and then after that that they’ll send your customer kit. Our kit is customized, so you customize it by yourself when you when you get this kid and this gives you opportunity to gift it to somebody.

For sure. And then probably like you’re saying, I mean, Google. Well, I mean, Google was a good deal when I started using it like 20 years ago. Now it is not cheap, but also, I would imagine in your case, there’s no I mean, there are there is a volume on any of the keywords that you need or is that just not is anyone looking for string kits today?

They’re not too much, but.

Alex:

They’re looking for different type of string, same cars. You can try like gifts or people that are looking for you for gift, but the price is still a little bit too high. So we need bloggers for sure. So we just need lots of people to see it and they don’t buy it immediately. So if you would just find out about it today, maybe like in a few months you’ll start to think, okay, I need to.

If somebody like a birthday gift and I seem like a cool idea and before, like couple of months before. So it was interesting when you find out about the kid, the time when you decide to buy the buy it. I can do it if you’re a few months.

Brett:

Mm hmm. Yeah. Makes sense, right? It’s in your head. It’s in my head today. Right. And then Mother’s Day is coming up in a couple of months, right? Maybe a month and a half. Right. So that that kind of makes sense because you keep in your head and then you make the purchase. So if we think about it from a marketing, from an influencer marketing standpoint, then creators, right?

Specific influencers and creators that we’re trying to reach here.

Alex:

Are actually for gifts? We don’t know yet what specific types of bloggers we need to use. We just trying different bloggers are. There is another part, which is the way, but and lots of bloggers out there like the way. But when you make collaboration with DIY bloggers, that’s mostly for people who want to buy it for themselves. So and our our main goal is a gift.

So it’s not so we can collaborate with DIY bloggers, but I don’t think it’s it’s our main goal. We are looking for bloggers of cool people of which to find something interesting, to find gifts. So you just Google for lifestyle right now. Yeah, that’s a specific.

Brett:

That makes a lot of sense. And one thing that we can do, we will get the link to your collab underneath with the podcast. Once we get a public, we’ll get all your commission stuff set up. I mean, one thing we can potentially do is either cycle it through all the gift season, so we’re to provide probably a mother’s Day focus next.

And then after Mother’s Day, flip it to Father’s Day so we can either do that with the same collab and just kind of changing the headline in the intro, or you can potentially create additional collabs and have a running in parallel if there’s gift overlap season. That’s a nice way to do it. Or you can say, Hey, Mother’s Day, you know, special gift string our kid.

I mean, it’s a it’s, it’s a home run for Mother’s Day and none of us husbands or dads ever know what you get. So this is kind of a land. Just need to get that out there. And then what? Father’s Day, Same thing, right? Father’s Day. Knowing you knows to get dads, because if they need something, they just go buy it themselves or they say they never need.

Yeah. So those are those are some great opportunities coming up from the.

Artwork side of things here. Alex Any opportunities to license the artwork for use.

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The post Podcast Episode #42 – Is This A Perfect Gift? | Alex Buyanov – IT Arti appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Podcast Episode #41 – Adding CBD To Coffee | Ralph Amato – Amato Coffees

Zeljko Nemet — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 11:34:23 +0000

We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Ralph Amato, the visionary founder of Amato Coffees, as our esteemed guest.

Meet Ralph Amato: The Mind Behind Amato Coffees

Ralph Amato, the innovative mind driving Amato Coffees, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Ralph shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his brand’s journey.

Podcast Premiere: Delving into the Amato Coffees Universe

Join us in exploring the enchanting world of Amato Coffees through the eyes of Ralph Amato himself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.

Also, listen to the Afluencer Podcast on:

Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation

Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Ralph Amato. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled Amato Coffees’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.

In Conversation with Ralph Amato, Founder of Amato Coffees:

Brett:

All right, and thanks for joining us today for our influencer podcast. Honored to have Shaun Kolich join us of My Spiritual Splendors. We’re going to get right into it. Shaun’s got a collab hosted with us here in the Afluencer app, and we’re going to get into that. But Shaun, first, thank you again for popping on, and I would love to start hearing a little bit about your journey. What led you to actually start and launch My Spiritual Splendors?

Ralph:

I’ve been an investment banker. I’ve worked with hundreds of different ways. So I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. How I came about with a bottle coffees was I had a client and he wanted a thousand milligrams CBD infused coffee. It’s got to be about eight buds to get the right people involved with a barista that knew how to roast coffee, a gentleman that knew how to take the product to CBD and figure out an infusion best that had no aftertaste.

You feel highly focused, your creativity goes up, your productivity definitely goes up. And we just want to give people something that will improve their health. The wellness definitely helps people on the anxiety side.

Brett:

Welcome to our affluence or podcasts, or we connect micro-influencers and creators with cool brands with unique new products. And today we’re bringing on Ralph Amato, founder of Amato Coffees. He was telling me an interesting origin story of his Coffee CBD infused products as we were hopping on the call and I wanted to set the record button so Ralph and I could kind of banter on the story here.

So Ralph, welcome. And can you give us a little bit of your background, your full career before you started and you ended up creating a lot of coffees?

Ralph:

Yes, I’ve been an investment banker for the last 30 years. I’ve worked with, you know, hundreds of different entrepreneurs, mostly Ed, moving the companies forward, taking the public. We’re raising the capital. So I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. And how I came about with a bottle coffees was I had a client and he was a doctor and he wanted a thousand milligrams CBD infused coffee, which I said, okay, w start that.

And I have no idea what that’s going to taste like.

Brett:

Yeah. And what year was that? I’m just curious when when that was because I know CBD has been.

Ralph:

This is this was three years ago we started.

Brett:

This. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. So it took.

Ralph:

Me about eight months to get the right people involved with a barista that knew how to roast coffee, a gentleman that knew how to take the the product, the CBD, and figure out an infusion based. And so that was our big goal was no aftertaste that you taste this, that you can’t tell there’s any CBD, but you get the effects of CBD.

So after body buds, we figured it out, We got the infusion process going and then it was important to us to have scalability. So we had to get this approved by the state where we get it manufactured and we wanted to use a a well at sizable baby factory so that we could scale it so that what we wanted to go into supermarkets or big box stores or health food stores, we would have a manufacturer that met that criteria because you’re not getting it to those places unless you got barcodes, QR codes to AD and the production facility meet certain US standards.

Okay, So that was important to us so that we could scale this up with the time was right because there’s companies like Whole Foods that are starting to do cold brew coffee and such. So it’s starting to become mainstream. And the product that we put together, what you take it within about 50 minutes, you feel highly focused, your creativity goes up, your productivity definitely goes up and at for certain other people, because everybody’s metabolism is a little different.

Yeah, I think that people today, they they need something, you know, to kind of start your day and not just caffeine because caffeine has a tendency to bring you up but that you crash. Okay. So this is more ongoing. And then if you want to, you know, obviously keep it going for the day, you just, you know, 4 hours later or or more, you just take a second cup.

It’ll keep it rolling through the day. But it it definitely helps with, you know, you’re thinking what you’re doing and it keeps you on your game. It’s simple English, but we started out with a dark roast supremo, Colombian coffee. We’re going to be a vegetable if we get to a breakfast blend. What are the other areas that we’re looking at?

Is CBD infused honey? And believe it or not, what are the biggest areas is now it’s the coffee. So we wanted to do it. It’s the coffee and you would think that wouldn’t be that big. But that’s a $60 billion a year area just for it’s the coffee. I was totally surprised. I haven’t heard of. It’s the coffee since like I was a kid.

Like, good to have it kind of center at the house.

Brett:

Right? Right. Yeah. Has it has it graduated since back in the day like would would a little Keurig Cup now qualify as instant or is that.

Ralph:

Well we have the K-Cups. I’m glad you brought that up. You know we we also have K-Cups. So right now we have a ground coffee. Of course we have a whole bead. We have the K-Cups. So it basically breaks down to about what you purchased the product. The product comes to about $2.50. All right. If you if you subscribe, then literally for the digital less than $20, you’re getting a second bag.

In how to do it. I mean, what’s what’s the right time and well, when do you do the infusion process. And we we had to rethink the whole way that K-Cups are day to day because usually K-Cups are are are based on it’s basically a coffee with a flavor. They get it for buzz part. Right. And you can’t do that with this.

You’re not going to impregnate, you know, thousands of cups. It won’t work every single blow up. So we figured out an alternative method to be able to do production, and it worked great. So, you know, we get the same about as CBD. It’s 40 milligrams per cup, which is twice as much as like our competitor. And we just want to give people something that they could take out of that everyday basis that would improve their health, their wellness, and it take care of some of the aches and pains that they’ve got.

You know, if they’ve got an excited issue or they’ve got suffering from depression, you know, as you probably know, a lot of people there’s I think the numbers 8.6 billion people or a meds right for depression. It added for example 84 paid and and most people would they’ve been taking these types of medications for a while. You know the stuff starts to wear off and now they’re doubling up so halfway through the month they’re running out of medication and that they’re by, you know, something that’s not prescribed to get them through the ED.

But so if you take this in conjunction with that. All right. So they’re going to replace their medications, but it’ll help them a lot so they don’t have to take as much medication as they normally would take.

Brett:

Yeah, we had a team member who was anxious and she had success with CBD as opposed to traditional meds. She liked it. It kind of calm her down and so, you know, she kind of enjoyed the CBD brands that we had here that we were talking about from a branding standpoint. They’re Ralphs. You’ve been through this kind of from the investment banking standpoint, right?

I’m sure with your clients there and you’re saying, Hey, what’s your competitive advantage? What’s your differentiator? And you know that you can have a better product, but then you also have to market it and brand it. And that’s kind of the other part of it, right? How is that journey been for you? And now that you’re in the trenches, entrepreneur yourself and you’ve got a thousand milligrams, there’s 500 and you’ve got a better taste, but now you get to get the word out.

So how is that you’re.

Ralph:

Going to get the word out? You know, it’s it’s definitely I’ve spoken over the last couple of years to probably 100 different companies and know most of them are agencies that, you know, they have a they have their own kind of protocols of what they’re trying to sell you and such. But I think the best way it was described to me is, is marketing is like baking a cake, right?

You’ve got all these different ingredients. And if you put the ingredients together correctly, your cake rises. And if you don’t, does it? I think the best route for us, though, that Big said is is influencers because they think we we will supply them with it with a bag of our coffee and our coffee. You know what bag retails for 7995 and then you get to the bags for 99, 99, 90 above it again, you know, we pay for the shipping, but we let them just brew the coffee.

Whoever the influencer is, they could go in there and try the coffee and then they could feel what the reaction is. All right. So they’ll they’ll see it then. It’ll be an honest reaction. All right. I’ve tried this. It helped me with my anxiety or. Or Oh, my God. Just take baby, like, highly focused. So everybody’s going to have a different reaction, which is part of of of this, which is everybody’s metabolism is different.

So everybody’s experience will be different. And that’s what we’re looking for is they have the influencers give us an honest assessment of what they did, how they made it, and what were the results.

Brett:

Yeah, that’s kind of the best commercial that there is, right, is to have someone going through it. And as you and I were talking before, if we can find influencers who are watching and the health and wellness and fitness and nutrition types industries right where, hey, this is what I’m doing as part of my day, I’m starting with a model coffees, Here’s my experience and here’s where you can go ahead and you can buy the ground bag or the K-Cups or whatever process you use to start your day with your coffee.

Ralph:

Yeah, we found that, you know, if you look at the statistics, about 28% of Americans use K-Cups. Right. And about 20% do a whole bead like what we do when we sell to, let’s say, cafes and such restaurants. Those they like the whole bit because they like to grind it themselves and do it themselves. But, you know, the majority of its crowd.

So you’ve got about 20% of it is folded, about 30% of its K-Cups and the other 50% is grout.

Brett:

Yeah, So interesting. Educate me there on the trends there, Ralph. I’m a whole being guy. I’ve got my fancy grinder and now these days we go with the pour over onto the beans and I have a friend is kind of a high end food guy and he thinks I’m crazy. I used to just go with the coffee maker and then we just have to go with the grounds of other friends who swear by the current machine.

Right. Just the convenience of it. Where are the trends moving and who’s driving those trends? I guess with the restaurants. So you’re going the whole beans, are those percentages static or are they moving in a certain direction here in the coffee industry?

Ralph:

It’s interesting because most of let’s say, let’s take cafes, right? So cafes, you know, they’re used to selling a lot or a cappuccino or they could get about six bucks for that. With with a CBD product like this, they could charge, you know, they could get upwards of $10 a cup. And we’ve seen restaurants charge as much as 50 bucks a cup for this stuff.

Interesting. Yeah, we’ve seen them here in Northern California. We’ve seen the flip with the official legality of a shall we say. We’ve had a dispensary a couple of blocks from our house that was very popular for many of our ever since we bought the house. It used to take a doctor’s note. And then when the laws change, now anyone can go in and you show your I.D. and but the difference that you see is there.

So business is booming as much as ever there, but you see the different dispensaries popping up. And like you said, I mean, that’s that’s a corporate game now, right? Because that’s capital city. I mean, that’s your old that’s your old world capital building.

Ralph:

Definitely got corporate. Yeah. There’s a lot of consolidation, you know, because it’s you’ve got to have buying power to have staying power in it and it’s not an industry that it expects to enter.

Brett:

Interesting point you made on the price points because you can almost prices it’s almost like a an alcoholic beverage, right. A cocktail. It just demands a price premium. If you have it out and you have a CBD infused coffee, it’s something that you should pay ten or $15. You know.

Ralph:

Our goal is to give them the best CBD. So ours is this is a a broad spectrum. Distill it. All right. So the difference is that there’s a thing called isolate. Isolate is like a white powder. Okay? And that has one molecule, CBD molecule, but a broad spectrum distillate has 130 cannabinoids. So your body has a CBD, one in your brain, it a cb2 receptor.

And what this does is 130 cannabinoids go throughout your entire system. So taking this on a daily basis is it is as good a wellness as you could hope for, for having something that’s good for you and has a lot of preventative properties in it so that you don’t have the aches and pains that you normally get. You know, again, you’re on your game, you’re feeling good about things, you’re focused, your productivity goes longer for for the day.

And I take it every day I’ve been drinking the stuff for a couple of years now. So it works that I could guarantee you. Yeah.

Brett:

Yeah, I believe it. My first experience with CBD was actually with my last our elderly dog. Right? And we tried a lot of things and then we tried CBD and that kind of popped her up at the end of her life and gave her that good quality of life. And ironically, I don’t think it was quote, quote unquote legal yet here in California.

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Ralph:

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The post Podcast Episode #41 – Adding CBD To Coffee | Ralph Amato – Amato Coffees appeared first on AFLUENCER.