De-Influenced with Dani + Jordan - What Really Happens On Influencer Trips? How Do Influencers Get Paid?

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Have you ever wondered what happens on influencer trips? Do brands pay influencers to attend these trips? How do brand deals work? Dani & Jordan dive into the more “hush hush” questions when it comes to the influencer industry.

Well, hello and welcome back to your favorite podcast. Deimplienced. Jordan's back. Back again. I'm back. I'm so glad to be here. I'm so happy that you're here. You guys, I have to apologize.

I am a little under the weather. So I might have to mute myself and blow my nose a couple times. You gave a pretty aggressive blow before we hit record. Well, I was trying to clear it all. You know what I actually did this morning? What? I did a netty pot. Have you ever done one of those?

No. So the key is you have to use distilled water, like filtered water. Because if you use tap water, if it has something in it, it could have like a brain-eating amoeba. What? Yeah, because essentially like a nutty pot, you put this like saline in it and it goes, it looks like a pot and it goes up your nose into your sinuses, it clears it out. So like literally it just is disgusting. Like just the stuff is just coming out. Is that why you kicked me out of the bathroom this morning?

I was like. Preserve the romance. I was like, you got to leave. So I did that this morning and they definitely work. But you just have to make sure they're using, you know, filtered water. Well, I mean, I hope you feel better because you got a big week ahead. I will say I feel like I'm coming off of it. Yeah. But, you know, I feel great.

It's just this like congestion that's annoying. But what's going on in your world? Oh, you know, just coming back from Puerto Rico, my third influencer trip I've ever been on? No, I'm kidding. Third? No, I think it was like maybe fourth or fifth. Really? I like when they invite the husbands. It's so fun.

That was like, we're going to get into that. Yeah. You know what else is happening though this week? That's a big deal. I think I do. What is it? Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is happening.

Twice. I'm going twice. I knew that was going to happen. You know, Taylor Swift could not come at a better time in my opinion because there's one thing about us is we can disagree on a lot of things, but we all come together for Taylor. I think we have like one friend who doesn't like Taylor Swift. Oh. Ryan. Oh my gosh, it drives me nuts so. And every single time, like, he came to our 30th party and, like, we literally just played Taylor Swift the entire time. And he's like, this sucks.

He cannot stand. But I will say, I got Shauna to be, like, a Taylor Swift lover. Yeah, you got, you got to respect her hustle. You got to respect her work ethic. That's it. You don't like the music. I get that. But, like, she's a hustler. I mean, she's got girls dressing up for different eras of her life. Like, that, do you know how hard it is to pull that off? No, I'm going to be, so my first night that I'm going, I'm doing midnights. And then the second night I'm going, I'm doing lover. And I still need to plan on my office, but like I'm so excited. I'm going with a bunch of mommy bloggers on Sunday evening. Tart is actually coming, and they have their own box, and they invited like a bunch of influencers to visit the box. But they just invited us like two weeks ago. And I already had these tickets.

I bought these tickets the day that they came out, you know? I was like in the queue. Yeah. And I was one of the lucky ones. So I bought as many as I could. I bought six because that's the max. And then immediately after, like, I texted everyone, like, let's go. And then Tart now has this box.

I'm like, really? You couldn't have told us sooner? Well, so we went to Puerto Rico. I have thoughts about Puerto Rico, but what were your thoughts about Puerto Rico? I would move there 100%. I had no idea that we had so many people that listen to the podcast or that follow us on Instagram that live in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a gem.

First of all, I will say the flight is like four hours. Four, yeah, four and a half. From Texas, and we did not fly direct on the way there. And I will say it was like kind of brutal with babies. Cabo is a lot easier because it's a shorter flight. But Puerto Rico, I love the people. I love, we stayed at the Ritz Carlton and Dorado. Right.

I loved everything, like the weather, the beaches are beautiful. The sand is not hot. Like it's just like it's not grainy. It doesn't hurt your feet like it's just so so gorgeous. I want to go back. We even talked about we're like wait, we can move here. Well, tell them about the bubble and like how they explain the bubble. You're either in the bubble out of the bubble who lives in the bubble. Tell them about that. So there is like a whole this is how the locals described it. Dorado is kind of like a bubble. But the reason that they live there is probably because of the tax breaks. Right. So you tell them about the tax breaks. So I don't know everything. But what I know is it's called like actually. X60, right? And so act 60 basically means that you only have to pay four percent in taxes. So you have all these like wealthy people from Miami and New York. They're like Bitcoin billionaires. Yeah, who like are actually being charged like 25 to up to 35 percent for taxes. And they move down there, but you have to live there for 180. 82 days. Which is half the year. We just have the year. So they have like schools down there for their kids. They have, you know, they have homes down there.

and everyone lives in this bubble and it's a bunch of like crypto people like AI people celebrities. Logan Paul lives there. Jojo Fletcher like we saw her at the airport. It's so beautiful. Like I didn't I couldn't say I was too nervous. But this is so funny actually. So on my Instagram, you know they just launched channels. Yes. Have we heard of channels? So channels is basically like I don't know if it's rolled out to everyone, but it's basically like a big group chat that you can join and I have like I don't know maybe 50,000, 60,000 people in there and I can send. messages in my channel, but people can't reply. They can only like heart it or like it. So I sent in my channel, I was like, guys, I just saw Jojo Fletcher. And people started hearting it, liking it. And I was

like, I was too nervous to say hi, but she's so beautiful in real life. Literally an hour later, a notification pops up, Jojo Fletcher is now following you. So I go back, I'm like, guys, you ratted me out. Like they must have all just been like, Danny saw you at the airport. But Jojo Fletcher started following me, which I know. I kind of wanted you to say hi to her. She's, she's on the phone. You know how you see like some people in public and they just look like celebrities. Like they have this like glow to them. Yeah. That is just like, oh, you're famous, but I don't know who you are. Like she had that to me. I immediately was like that person's famous. I was like, oh, I think that's Jojo Fletcher. Yeah, she's so cute. She's beautiful. Her skin's amazing. Like she had her hair in a bun and

like was wearing sweats and was just stunning. So yeah, was super excited about that. But so yeah, Basically, all of these celebrities live there. It is a nice tax break, I will say. But it's also just kind of nice to get out. And like just kind of, you kind of feel like you're growing up in like a utopia. Yeah, I think, so I talked to Maureen, who's the CEO of TAR. We'll talk about the trip in a second. But her son, who's like a high school kid?

Yeah. And I was like, hey, man, like, who are you like meeting around? Because they go there quite frequently, I think. And he was like, well, you know, one time I was like, everyone hangs out in the hot tub at night. And I was like, well, who have you met in the hot tub? He's like, that's where you know where he's in the hot tub. No, really. And, you know, he said, like, he met Jake Paul in the hot tub because Jake Paul lives down there

and is, like, training down there. But I think that for me, I like the idea of being away from the mainland. But he also said that some of the kids feel very sheltered because they, like, don't know that there's a world outside of that bubble. He said that sometimes they're, like, kind of quirky. Yeah, they're, like, kind of quirky. They're like Bitcoin billionaires' children. Yes.

Like, it's got to be kind of strange. Yes. I was sitting at breakfast. and I was like by myself and there was like this guy talking to his wife and he literally didn't let her get a word in and he was just talking about artificial intelligence to her for an hour and she just like stood there and was like eating her breakfast and it was like can we go to the beach yeah you could tell he was just like this is always every morning he was so passionate about it but she didn't care see I feel like it'd be cool to live there and be those like crazy I'm all about it I'm all about it

I don't know like and they have good schools so truly we were like man should we move here they got a baskin robins Yeah, Baskin Robbins. CBS. They got it all. They had a Chick-fil-A. They had a Walgreens. So we might piece out from the mainland, moved to Puerto Rico. We'll see.

Can you imagine? Anne Stella could practice for Spanish. Yeah. Love that. How did you feel about this trip? So it was a tart trip. Tell them maybe like about the trip and tart and all that. It was the best trip.

This was, I haven't been on an influencer trip in a while. I love going on tart trips. They are so generous, so chill. The team is. is they're so thoughtful. It's the best experience. What do you say? Yeah.

What do you think makes TartT trips so special, you know, in comparison to other brands? Like I feel like they're just so good at relationships, you know? Tart is, this is what I kept telling the team that I was like shocked by. So the biggest thing, I think, when you work with brands is a lot of times you just feel like it's so transactional and you feel like they just want what they want and you kind of want what you want. And there's not like a true relationship. Tart is not like that. It is like a family. Anytime that something goes on in our lives,

you know, two days later, they're sending us flowers. They're sending us a personal message. Maureen is texting me. Like, it's so personal. So when we go on these trips, it really did feel like we were just like hanging out with family. And they had no expectations because a lot of times these trips are like,

they have all these like posts that you need to make, all these tags, all these things you have to do. Tart is like, we want you guys to relax. We want to treat your family. We want your kids to come. They even let your mom come and my mom come. And they just really spoiled us. And that's kind of like what we did with our JV trip too.

It's just like we really wanted to make it more about the people coming than like all of these posts that they're forced to create. So I mean, I love going with Tart. Yeah. When you take the transaction side out of it, I think it becomes more relational. And I think it's powerful. Yeah. So this trip was like awesome and different, but what tell you've been on a lot of trips,

what, what are the trips typically like? There's all different types of influence. I agree. I agree. And the ones I don't go on, I always know how the vibe is. By the way, you come back into the car after the airport. I'm like, oh, do you remember? This wasn't really an influencer trip, but like New York Fashion Week when we used to do that.

Oh, my goodness. Those are stressful for you. So exhausting, y'all. I would come back and be in bed for two weeks. Like, they were insane. But no, so for influencer trips, they're different every time. It kind of just depends on, like, what the brand actually wants. Sometimes they just want to treat you guys.

They always, like, want to network and build relationships. Sometimes they want content out of you. So you have this contract where you're, you know, you have to create one or two or three Instagrams or whatever it is while you're there. sometimes I've been on some influencer trips where it's more about kind of like modeling. Like they really just need content for their website. Oh yeah. And so those are the trips that are so exhausting.

Like you're shooting all day long changing outfits. You're like, you know, outside, just like getting naked, switching one outfit to the next. And like those are the ones where I will say I've probably been on like one or two trips where I felt like overworked. Like I was like it was like really, really hard. which I know it sounds silly because it's like while you're just taking it but it's I can't explain it unless you're there like it's a lot of work well and most of the trips aren't paid either which I think a lot of people think maybe they are paid but most of them aren't right yeah you would be surprised at how many

most of these trips are unpaid there are I have been paid to go on a few um or they're just paying you for like the Instagram that you're posting while you're there and the trip is free if that makes sense um but there are some like I would say yeah most of them are are for yeah because I think like the win-win-win is that the brand gets like great content about the brand, great awareness, like the influencer gets an experience, but also content, you know, like the audience like likes to follow along and then, you know, the people win because there's usually like a code attached and so like the audience wins. Yes. It's kind of a win-win-win-win. Well, and it's one of those things too. It's like going on this tart trip, like you build these relationships and you want to

support each other and you want both of us to win and it just feels so authentic. It feels so good because I was even talking to the girl who does PR and she was like, well, we, you know, we targeted you because we knew that you loved tart and you used tart without us paying you. Right. You know, and so they, like, Tart has never paid, like, they don't pay influencers usually. You know, a lot of it is just through like affiliates. Yeah. And so they target who they see using, you know, Tart products.

And then they build these really authentic relationships with them. And what's been so cool is like how a lot of times these brands will reach out to kind of like your community. So a lot of times they're inviting all of my friends. So it's so like, it's so natural. It's like, hey, you know, you, Taryn and, you know, whoever it is. Like Amber, we want to take all of you guys on a trip and it's like, wow, we would have planned this anyway. So this is probably like a question for like your team.

But like are there typically like contracts associated with these trips? Yes. Not with Tart because they didn't require anything. Right. So anything that we're posting like we're just posting because we want to be posting it. Um, for Tart, we asked for like a promo code and they opt our promo codes from like Danny 15 to Danny 20. So there's things like that that we can ask for, but that all actually kind of happen like last minute. Um, but there are like some contracts where, you know, we're required to like, a lot of times we'll do a, a influencer trip around like a launch.

Mm-hmm. So they are saying, okay, on Tuesday of the trip, we want you to post about the new product that we just launched. Yeah. And so in our contract, that's required. But you know something else that's kind of funny, I think people would be really surprised about is, you know, as the industry kind of grew and a lot of these brands started having influencer trips, a lot of my friends, like in my niche,

they said no to influencer trips. Like a lot of times, they didn't feel like it was an authentic fit or they didn't actually use the product. Like they would say no. Like there's been a lot of times that we pass up on trips whenever it just, doesn't feel right because I think after a certain point, people started getting so sick of like influencership. Well, I remember when we did the Divi trip, like we felt that in the like audience. Like we were like, hey, like people are really tired of seeing these influencers that are all

pretty successful, like go on these extravagant experiences. Like we wanted to kind of reverse that and be like, no, like let's take our customers. And I think that that's kind of what happened in the industry. I remember Jeep did an influencer trip. Was it cheap? I don't remember. Yeah, I think Jeep started doing them and all these bigger brands did them. and just became really like transactional. You can tell whenever it's like real or not. The most important thing I think too, and I want you to speak to this is like the curation of the group.

Like I feel like everyone who went on this tart trip, they were all friends. We're all buddies. Like we're hanging out. But people want to know that. Like are you actually friends of the people on the trip? No, there's been times where we're not friends at all. And we just show up and I'm like,

hey, nice to meet you. But I've also been on trips where it's a lot of press. So they're not even actually influencers. There's press trips. Remember I worked with that one, I did, I think it was in the Dominican Republic. That was for Southwest, right? No, this was like a long time.

This was probably before we were married. And I went on a trip with like a lot of different writers from different magazines. And travel agents and like there were two or three influencers. So there's like so many different types of trips. This is a little tea. But like, do you remember how like prideful those journalists were against like what you did? Yes. They were really like it was kind of like they felt like they were this kind of like,

intellectual standard and they were like oh they invited an influencer on this trip and like I feel like we were like trying to be really nice to them and it was just kind of like they had their crew yeah it was kind of like guys at the end of the day like we're all kind of doing the same thing like you just write it in a paper like we're publishing it on the internet like that was probably one of the only trips I've been on when it's like that most of the time it is other influencers and I like going even when I don't know people because then you get to meet people and you become friends and then you have friends like all over the country um but yeah so No, I feel like a lot of times you become friends with these people.

And one of my favorite influencer trips was with Good Night Macroon. Oh, was that the meme? The meme that went viral. So Good Night Maceroon. If you all ever see it's like the basic Fall Girl meme that just went so viral. And we're all dressed. There's probably like 10 of us. And we're all dressed basically the same.

We all have the same boots on. Our hair all looks the same. But what really was happening was. that trip was Good Night Macroon gave us all these clothes that we had to go shoot. So we drove out to like where these fallies were having. These are like the days of Instagram where we're posting like three or four off. It's a day on, you know, we're just like hustling with these outfits. And we're all dressed in like the same because they gave us the boots to wear.

And so we're like, oh, we should get a group photo. We literally all look the same. It's so funny. You know, and it's so funny because like, like I think that the internet believes you guys all just wore that. And it's like, no, they told us. us to do that. And I wish that it was strategic on their end. They were like, oh, we're going to make these girls memes and like, we're going to like ride this for five years. But I think it was just an accident and it circulates every single year. Yeah, that's, that was a fun one. What are some other,

like, is there any other like drama that happens on these trips? Okay, my biggest thing that's happened to me is there was also a phase, like I was talking about when we're posting through for outfits a day. These girls get so, there's like a, they're, they're, they're time period where people are just kind of like using each other for photos because if you get in someone else's Instagram, then they tag you and then you grow, you know, you grow a certain amount of followers. So everybody's trying to get in everyone's photos. This is like 20, like, like 2018, yeah, 2017, 2017, probably. And I remember I was at one trip and I got kicked out of a photo because of wearing the wrong color. Like, I was like, dude, like we're friends. But yeah,

I was like, I was like pretty but heard about it. Well, it's so funny because that's when all the Wives will come to their husbands and be like they didn't include me in the photo and like deep down We're all like this is so silly. No, what hurts is like whenever you know like you take a photo Get together but then they didn't actually ever post it and you're like and then oh and then there'd be times like Whenever you post a picture of like your friend but then they didn't post you. Oh my gosh. But you know I don't so different now like now people don't even we don't even like post in her feet. Yeah I remember you coming back from a lot of these trips exhausted but not with a whole lot of drama. You never under not a drama but it was emotionally draining.

Yes. And you have to have tough skin and, like, know that it's not personal. Like, it's not that they didn't like me. I just wasn't wearing the right color. You know what I mean? Like, it's okay. Yeah. But as far as the influencer business goes, I mean, we were talking about contracts.

We're talking about, like, requirements that we have. A lot of times those things are negotiated on the front end. Like, there was this one drip that I went on that I would say was one of those ones were, like, I felt overworked. Like, I was like, like crying and wanted to come home because from not tart not tart no no never from the morning that like from you know seven a and a and we got up we go straight to hair and makeup and we're shooting all day long for hours like i'm starving like wasn't feeling great and like we're shooting all day and um

for that contract i remember i had way more requirements than like the other girls oh that's hard and like some of the other girls like we're the same size we do the same size we do the same things and it's just because I didn't negotiate I didn't ask for less I just kind of took whatever they they gave me you know and so that's that sometimes can be drama where like I'm shooting all day long and doing all these things and like the other girls just like you know eating bonbons in a room I'm like what the heck this makes no sense it's because I didn't ask for it maybe maybe what's helpful for like the audience to really feel de-influenced you know to really feel like they know the guts of the business yeah is maybe like talk about the difference

between like your different types of contracts. So like how does an influencer make money? Well yeah, you need to know because a lot of times these brands will take advantage of you. Do you remember that one time that I did, I don't want to say the brand, but I did a campaign and I didn't really readily the contract or really look at it. And my face was everywhere for like two years. Oh my gosh. And then people like kept, they kept giving me like Danny. I'm so sick of seeing you. Because sometimes you can accidentally sign away your brand or your name and it's just like written in the small print. So you really have to look at these contracts. But in these contracts, you are negotiating how many posts you're posting. You know, what the post is. Where is the product?

What is the caption? What are the hashtags? What the tags? Like exactly what do you have to post whenever you post? Is it an Instagram story? How long is it an Instagram story? The story has to be four slides. It has to be five slides. It has to be 60 seconds. Like you can negotiate all of these things. Where is the link going? How long does the link have to go in your bio? How long does the post have to be up? Then there's also things like they can black, blacklist your content. No, no, dark posts. Sorry. They can, okay, so they can white list or dark post your content. Whiteless means that they like, if you had divvy, it would be like Danny's content running through divvy's channel through ads. And then dark posting is like the brand is logged in essentially

to Danny's Instagram account. It's running through hers, but it's an ad. Exactly. So their ads. And a lot of these times people overlook how long they're allowing whitelisting and dark posting to happen. So sometimes brands, like there was a brand that just came to my mom and my mom was like, I want to sign this. And they were going to like white list her content for like five years. Yeah. But the reason that becomes an issue is because let's just say it, let's just say that you worked with butcher box. I'm just making this up. But in three years you become a vegetarian.

Right. And you still have this butcher box content. blasting all over the place. Then people are like, wait, you're a vegetarian, yet you're promoting butcher box? Like, that's a silly example. No, that was such a great. I was actually thinking my head,

I was like, that is such a great example, Danny. I'm so proud of you for that. Thank you. Thank you. But it's just things like that where you don't want to sign away something that you might not be into in a year from now.

So typically I won't do anything. I actually try to break up my contracts into like just 30 days, just monthly contracts. Because I switch so much. I like to go this way and in that way, and I like to have the freedom to go where I want to go. I used to do like Fabletics was a year-long contract, and I committed to something,

I committed to posting for them a certain times each week for a year. But then it's like, what about if I would have, you know, been like, I don't want to work out anymore. The reason I did that is because I knew that I wanted to work out and almost like held me accountable. It was very organic. I was like, okay, I have to work out. I have to wear these cute outfits that are coming in.

But yeah, so you have. that that's happening a lot of times too like they just want content that they can use for commercials they can use for ad they can use for billboards and you don't even have to post anything yourself right that's happened to me a few times where brands come and they're like hey we want to use it for like a hulu commercial or something what's so interesting about like the industry and like the way that it's evolved is like back when dany was doing this in youtube brands like no brands like really understood how to do it now you're starting to see a lot more formal structure but i would say like in the in between of like today and the past.

There was a lot of brands that did contracts well. And then a lot of them that were a little bit slimy, right? So like I think it's slimy to put into a contract like this one line that says, I'm granted rights for five years or remember in perpetuity. So like that means they could use your content forever. Don't ever sign anything that says in perpetuity. That is business one and one, never. If you're a brand, don't do that.

That's slimy. And if you're an influencer, don't sign it. Yeah. Just never. Just get that word taken out. out. It's totally not fair. I'm trying to think of other things that like brands could charge you for or they put in your contracts. Oh, exclusivity is a big one that they'll sneak in there and they'll say, okay, like you cannot use any other diaper brands, any other makeup brands, any other, you know, home decor brands for the next five years. You have to also charge for that. So if you're going to sign something that's like exclusive for a year, you charge monthly for each, you know, each month of exclusivity. I kind of want to give like some credit to fabletics because I think that their program was one of the most like like smart business programs that they've ever made where it's like they would

sign year long contracts with these influencers and then it was like exclusive to all these other brands. So for years like all people saw in the influencer world was like fabletics and like that was such a good move to grow like their business. It was like genuine for the people that accepted the contract but it also kind of like drowned out all of their competitors. Like it was like a really. It was a genius, like genius contract. I will say we've never really gotten in trouble with a brand where like we didn't do something from a contract and they are like threatening to sue you or anything. Typically these brands are like on your side and they want to work things out. Right.

Otherwise they wouldn't be reaching out to you. Yeah. You know. So I have, I mean, I'm sure there are stories. Why are you laughing? I just thought of a really funny story. What? Do you remember the time that a contract slipped through the cracks and like it was like accidentally.

signed by someone on our team and it was for tuna. Yes! And you hated tuna. Oh my gosh. It was chicken at a sea and I think that they, but like it was tuna, yeah. Yeah. And so what happened was like this, it kind of fell through the cracks and like someone signed it like thinking like Danny like would say yes.

I don't know how it happened. It was like an error on internally on our part. And so then, you know, they're super excited probably because like no influencer. They're like sending me all this tuna. Yeah, like no influencer probably wanted to accept this deal. And then, you know, we have to go back to the agency and like it got a lot. little tense because they were like, hey, like you signed this contract and we were like, hey, we're not going to do it.

Well, no, I like got on a call with I was like, guys, listen, I hate tuna. I was like, I hate all seafood. I cannot do this. I think it's because we thought it was for chicken or something. Maybe. Because it's like chicken. I don't remember the brand. But anyway, it got real messy.

But they did. Like at the end of the day, they worked with us and they're like, okay, we understand. And they were like, we still want to work with you. But like, let's just find like a different brand. Oh my gosh, I do remember that. Oh, we also have brands that will not pay us. Oh. Should I say who?

No, don't. No. Be classy. Be classy. It's funny, though. Yeah, no. I mean, there's like, it's kind of a running joke internally. And it's like not an insignificant amount of money.

And like our, you know, accounting team is like, hey, you're going to get, like, we just joke about it at this point. It's been like two years. It's been two years, dude. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, hi, it's me again. I don't know if I'll sell this, but, um, I don't know if I'll sell this, but, um, y'all haven't paid me yeah it's sometimes like i mean you just never know you just never know that happens that's happened a couple of times but now we've gotten to the point where like we're you know

are very very picky about who we work with and and i think it's fun too is like over time um when you really find like our our goal this year was to only work with like 10 brands not saying that that's what we're doing but i actually don't know how many brands but it's more about like having an ongoing relationship with them because you know like that's what you're using anyway, then having like a bunch of random brand deals 24-7. Yeah, I think that like grow, like now that we're in 2023, I think that the influencers that are lessening their brand load

and like really focusing on the ones that are authentic to them are the ones that are doing your right. Totally. Totally. So talk about like why you've never signed with a manager. So, um, yeah, the way that it works is you have a manager and a lot of times these managers do rep like six or seven girls. So whenever a brand comes to the manager, they say, hey, I have this

budget, I have a new product launching, or I want to, you know, increase my broad awareness for my online, for my sales online, whatever it is. And the manager will say, okay, well, I have these six or seven girls that are all in the same niche. And so they're all signed with that brand, or they're signed to go on on that trip. And then sometimes, like, whenever for us, like the brand has to reach out to directly because I don't have a manager. So what I've done that's a little different, and there's only a couple other influencers that I know that have done this,

we've kind of built it like all in-house. And it wasn't actually until 20, maybe 2018, that I actually let anyone manage my deals. I was actually the one emailing. And responding. Well, actually, there was this one time. Do you remember when I had my fake manager? No, I actually don't remember this story at all.

Okay. So this is a long time. These are YouTube days. In college, no one wanted to, like, sign me. So I made up, like, a fake email. What was her name? I know her last name was Pape because my roommate's name was Pape. Her last name was Pape.

I think her name was, like, Tracy Pape or something like that. Or Susan Pape. And I would, like, act like I was hurt and, like, negotiate my deal so that I didn't have to act like myself. Yeah. So to clarify for, like, the audience listening, sometimes, like, when you have someone else representing, you, you can negotiate like harder.

Whereas like, you know, if you're negotiating with the brand, you don't want Danny to come off as like shrewd or like hard to work with. And so you put this fake Tracy Pate in the middle and you're like, it's like actually you. And then you can be like way more hardcore with your negotiations and like not feel like it's so personal. And that's why people have managers

because you don't want, you need that middleman, you know? That's the type of hustle that makes you Danny Austin. I'll say that even sophomore in college doing that is so funny. So I had Tracy Pape and she would also also reach out for like free product for me and stuff. That way it wasn't like me asking for free product. Finally, you know, we built it on in-house and I was able to like train someone. But the nuances that come with that is like we really have to go after every brand and go after every deal,

which I also feel like is ends up being more authentic because it's like we're getting to like really seek out, you know, who we want to work with. And brands do come to me and they just email me a hello whatever might, you know, my hello email. But for the most part, it's, it's, you know, it's it's created like this hustle within our our culture which is it's a very like authentic hustle I think that the reason to say that Taylor Swift does this not to compare you to Taylor Swift she her dad manages her no but she has her own team and how she never signed with like a label or anything like that that was like a big machine record yeah but it's hers like she talks about all the time like she has built her own in-house team sure and because it gives her more control over like

her marketing like the way that she wants to like talk about her audience and and I think it's like Like a lot of the times what people probably don't know about the business is that one brand might contact one management firm. And that management firm might post like say, hey, all of these influencers on my roster are going to post this one brand, right? Yeah. And so it kind of creates this like group think, whereas I think you remaining independent has allowed you to kind of be more creative and take your own direction with things. Well, so I know like one of the biggest things that people get frustrated about is like when all these influencers are talking about the same product on the same day. Yes. That's why.

Yes. A lot of times because they are planning with it. It's like you don't really view Danny Austin as an influencer. It's like this group of people that are, their ROI is not measured from just like Danny's sales. It's like we paid this agency, let's say $100. We expect this return with these seven influencers. It's like a group.

You know, it's a group think thing. Right. But let me tell you, okay, so let's take it back a little bit. So I did have a manager at one time. And this manager, the story like still kind of hurts because when I first started my YouTube channel, like it popped off like three or four months in. I had like 100,000 followers. So like which is was not easy, you know. But then I plateaued, you know, and I never really grew. That's a whole other story. We'll talk about that later. But I had this input or this manager finally reached out to me. Lisa. Lisa. We still are in therapy about Lisa. She's still the one that got away. And so Lisa reached out to me and she's managed some of the biggest YouTubers at the time. She still does manage like really big people.

And so I was like, it was a big deal that Lisa saw potential in me and I was really small, but Lisa had dreams for me. She reached, and you know, usually managers do when they reach out to you. They want to, it's like an investment. They want to get in on you before you blow up. So Lisa thought I was like about to blow up on YouTube. Like I was about to have millions of followers. and she had all these like goals and dreams from my channel.

So I signed with her and actually started, you know, I started interning with her. So I got to see like a lot of the behind the scenes of the business. And what happened was my channel just never really blew up. I just kind of stayed, remained stagnant. I kept posting. And after a while, like I kind of quit getting deals from Lisa. My deals were never growing.

And what would happen is I was living in Austin. I would go back and forth between Austin and L.A. And these, you know, you know, but Austin has, like, a lot of startups. Right. So a lot of these startups would reach out to me. And these are small startups. Like, no one knows about these startups. And I would pass the contact onto my manager because that's what you do is you forward the email to your manager.

And the manager says, okay, let me try to negotiate this. So what was happening was, you know, she's taking in these emails or these contacts. And instead of giving the deal to me, who they originally reached out to, she's pawning off these deals to the rest of her talent that's way bigger than me. And then I'm left out of the deal, even though I was the one that connected them. Yeah, that's hard. And so I was like, so I'd be looking on YouTube and I'd see this small startup in Austin working with like all these huge YouTubers.

And I'm like, what the heck? And they were all a part of like my. So anyway, I eventually, I quit hearing from Lisa. And I told her, I'm like, hey, like, I think I want to do my own thing. And I really thought she would like fight for me and be like, no, Danny, like, let me try to keep you in the agency. Because typically they do. They fight for you. And she was like, okay, cool.

Like, peace. Yeah. It's hard. I know that you're still healing from that one. She never wanted me. Even the way he told the story. She never wanted me. It was like six years ago.

No, but I think that I get it from her perspective too, right? She just had to manage the biggest people. And so no, like, hard feelings. No, no hard feelings. Like, it's business is business. Like, trust me, like, I get it. But that doesn't mean that. that's not like one of the biggest things that drives me these days. Oh yeah. I won't Lisa to sign me one day.

There's like three or four. We should have an episode on just like the things that drive Danny Austin. And it's like three or four of the same people. She's still trying to prove herself. Like nine years ago. No, I'm totally teasing. Like I love her. And I actually learned so much from her because she is cut throat like in a good way. Yeah. So like pros and cons. So you've been signed with the manager and you've been on your in-house team like pros and cons of doing it in-house versus like having a I mean, one of the cons is I feel like I'm left out of a lot of things because I don't feel like I'm a part of the community that managers and agencies can provide. Because immediately when you sign with an agency, like you get on weekly calls and you, they, you know, send you invites to events and you get on the same PR list. And like you just feel like you're a part of a family, which I really miss. But I will say, I feel like one of the pros is that. because I'm having to do it all myself, it just feels like a lot more genuine. Yeah, I would agree with that. And then another part of the cons is, you know, it's just, it's like logistically a lot harder

because managers also take care of like all of the contracts and, you know, organizing everything and they just have like a better process or system to things and like we kind of had to build that ourselves, which is difficult. Yeah, but I think, I mean, I'm very proud of like your team now. Like, I mean, they're kind of rocking it now. No, they do. But it just took, like, it took us a lot longer to figure it out in our own way. Yes.

Yeah. Maybe tell the audience, like, how the team is, like, structured right now. Yeah. So I have about four people on my team, four or five. We have some people that we, that are contractors. So it just depends if, like, you want to count. But we have someone that, you know, does all the brand partnerships. So she's kind of like an in-house manager.

and she manages all of my brand opportunities, contracts, negotiates everything. She's amazing. Then we have someone that is ahead of the brand, which is helping me kind of, you know, with the content that I want to create, that's more just like for the Danny Austin brand, whether it's like the matchmaker,

or it's a talent show or a fun giveaway that I want to do. She's helping me orchestrate and organize all of that, and she helps me manage my calendar to make sure that everything kind of fits into place. She also, I feel like that role, like, also helps, like, maintain the values and accountability of the brand, too, to make sure, like, you know, Danny's not becoming, like, an Instagram booty model, basically.

Yeah, she's like, Danny, pull those pants up. Yeah. Oh, no, I'm teasing. So we have that person, and then we have someone that is kind of a contractor right now, but she helps me with, like, affiliates, because affiliates are a lot of work, because there's a lot of promo codes, there's a lot of links, there's a lot of linking things. So you have someone that like just strictly helps me with affiliates and promo codes and things

like that, but she's like part-time right now. I want to hire her full-time, but we'll see. And then I have someone that actually helps me now with like creative, content creation, editing, you know. Reels. Reels is a whole new beast. Reels is a whole new beast. Yeah. Any type photos.

just creative overall. It's kind of like a, like the way I visualize it in my head is it's kind of like a diamond, you know, where it's like at the top you have the brand director and then you have the two businesses on the side and then you have the content that's like the basis of everything. Exactly. And it's like, it's cool. Like I, what I really appreciate about your team that's very different than Divy is it's like pretty flat.

Like everyone's super collaborative because it's such a creative business. Like, you know, it's wild to have people show up at our house like Monday through Friday and be like, like what are we going to do today? Like let's go tell a story, you know, and it's like it's very, it's harder for me because I'm very structured and like Divy's very structured, but it's like a very unstructured fun collaborative environment. It's so me. I can't imagine doing anything else. I love it so much and I love whenever they're at our house. We have a blast.

I honestly, it's so much, it's so much better doing this with people. I used to do this all by myself and it just was not sustainable. But I totally agree with you. Like I don't, I don't, I am kind of their boss, but I feel like everybody is accountable for themselves and everyone, you know, really wants to kind of thrive in their niche or in their category. So we're all kind of just like moving up together without me telling them what to do. That makes sense. No, totally. Like people are constantly bringing ideas to me. And they're like, let's do this. Let's do this. This is this. I'm like, okay. And then also like kind of like they're like, they're like, okay. And then also like kind of like they're like, they're like, like, you can come to the table and be like, I have this idea. And they're like, hey, like, that's not really like like, like, like, like, that's not really like like like, like, like, like. That's not really what we want to communicate her. Like that could come across as this. And so it's like- I'm trying to think of some of those ideas that I've brought.

There's one that I really want to work on that like still people won't get behind me. But I don't want to say it as in case I'd do it. What is it? You got to say. She's mouthing to me. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Okay.

So there's that. Wait, what are some things that I've like wanted to do where you all are like, no? I don't know. Maybe we should bring Jenny in for this like portion. Yeah. Okay. Hold on. Let's call Jenny.

Okay. So now that. Jenny's here. We got Jenny here. Say hi, Jenny. Hi. Okay, the question that I didn't know the answer to is what was, what's been one of the craziest ideas that Danny's brought to the table that the team had to be like, no. It's hard to think on Danny because I'm not going to lie, most of Danny's ideas that are crazy, they end up happening. So it might be that Danny brings an idea to the table and we're like, the team initially is like, yeah, maybe not, but then we end up doing it and then

it's incredible. So honestly, when Danny brings something crazy, we can't really be like, whoa, that's too crazy because it's probably, like, she's a crazy genius. So the idea I can think of is Jordan. Oh, oh, oh, I know this one. I know this one. I don't, this is the first example that always comes to my head. Oh my gosh. Are you about to crap on Operation Dizzy? Yes. That was one day. We're all around the table. Danny is sitting in here with the team. We're just, you know, having a chat. And Jordan walks in and is like, guys, I have the best idea ever. Dead serious. Like, he's dead serious and he's ready to make it happen.

He's like, guys, how are we going to make this idea happen? So he had the idea that essentially he wanted to, wanted us to rent out, I don't know, obtain a big field and have a helicopter fly over this field and drop divvy products from the sky and have people run and get them as if it were an Easter egg drop. No, but I think what you're missing. it wasn't over a field, it was like over a city. No, no, no, no, no. I was very big because it was going to be a mix between a field party like they do in the country and a Operation Dibby drop, which is like Operation Dumbo drop, but we dropped shampoo and conditioner from the sky.

It was our launch plan. Yeah, can you imagine how many people get like they're knocked out from shampoo? Yeah. We were like, that's a liability. We would have had waivers. He was so serious about that. And then another idea that you had that you just was, you wanted to do. host like a divvy dad's golf tournament. Yes. Like a huge golf tournament, which these golf tournaments are

outrageous to put on. Well, so here's what happened. Okay, so we went to, and I'm going to name drop, we went to Scotty Schuffler's birthday party. And that's a big deal now. It wasn't as big of a deal back then, but we were at his house and I was like, we didn't know who Scotty Schaeffler was. And then we got there and everybody's like, this is Scottie Shepler's house and we're like, who's Scottie Shepler? Like, and so now obviously we know. And he was hosting it for one of our friends. And so it's like our friend's birthday at his house. But then anyway, so then we're at the, this is a cool story. Can I tell this story about Scotty Shuffler's wife? I guess. Yeah, it's not like, it's not like bad. So we're at the Byron Nelson in Dallas and we're following Scotty Schaeffler, who's now a big deal. He had won, like, the big golf tournament or whatever.

We don't even know. But the masters, the masters. He had won the masters. So we're following Scotty, and I'm like, man, it would be so cool if Scotty like used Divy or like Divy. Like he's in Dallas. We went to his house at one time. And a little blonde girl. like runs over to Danny. A little blonde girl. You mean his wife? I'm getting to it. Runs up to Danny and she's like, hey, are you Danny?

Like she was like, my husband loves Divy and we introduce ourselves and it's Scotty Shuffler's wife. I'm like, who's your husband? Yeah. She's like Scotty Shepler and like we had walked to the hole that he was like going to, what do you call it? Swing at? Yeah, yeah. We're totally not a golf family. But like she was so sweet and she was like he gets so mad when he runs out of his divy and I was like, no way.

We'll send him some. So anyway, that was like my idea of doing a divvy. dad's golf invitational because all these Instagram husbands, they play golf and I don't play golf. So I was like, let me just pit them against each other. Yes. I know. I'll say I was bought into that one. I was looking at golf resorts. Where can we rent it out? And that's what's funny about our team is when half of us are bought into an idea and the other half are like, I'm like guys, this is not going to happen. Well, yeah, the other thing I want to say because divy team is probably listening to this. This was prior to us having like a robust divvy team. So it was like me and Danny and like some of the

Danny Austin team pulling these ideas. working in Stratton's nursery. And they were working in Stratton's nursery. And so it was very early on. Now we could pull an idea like that off, but before, no way. I don't know. That's still like a lot of work. There's a lot of work.

We wanted to do races. We wanted to do like, um, the 5K. The 5K. But that's also a huge liability. That's a lot of work. They were like, you need an ambulance on site. Yeah. Got a little too intense.

I was like, yeah, I don't want to do this. You know, it's so funny. Like sometimes like whenever people bring the logistics to us of like, well, you need to do this. that we like get kind of frustrated. We're like, listen, like, can we just do this idea? Like our friend Shauna is like a huge lawyer, like big law firm, you know, is like head of legal at Young Brands.

And we always tell her ideas, our ideas at dinner. She's like, guys. And she's like, here's the legal liability, A, B, C, D, FG. And I go, Shawna, you're a fun sucker. And I don't want to hear any of it. No, we need people like that. Yeah, we do. We do.

That's me. Jenny, in this episode, what, what do you think we miss? Like, what do you think the audience wants to know that we, maybe didn't cover? I don't know. I think that there is a lot of curiosity just about influencers in general and what Danny's day looks like.

What does a normal day look like as an influencer? Also, do you consider, do you feel like you're working? Do you actually wake up and think, like, I'm going to work today? Just because it's so unconventional. Yeah, no, I definitely do. I feel like I'm, I wake up

and I'm going to work because there's days where I wake up and I just go hang out my night. kids and like that's the difference between a working day and like a mom normal day. Yeah. Um, so I definitely feel like I'm working now maybe I'm not, I don't pants on, but I'm still working. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, but I would say like for my days, typically we meet on Mondays and we kind of plan out the week. So we go through every single day of the week and they are stacked. Like they, what we're doing is stacked, whether it's phone calls or meetings or

event or whatever it is. But I would say because we're planning on Monday, we're able to like understand like the bigger, the story that we're trying to tell that week. Like if there's like a big giveaway happening or if there's a big, you know, divvy promo on Friday or there's a Taylor Swift concert that we're doing on Friday, whatever it is. And so we're able to like build in that story in between kind of like the working events, if that makes sense. And so like there's times whenever I'm like, oh, I want to do like a fun real with my mom.

Like we'll literally schedule it and be like, okay, we have a phone call at 9, 10, we have to do this meeting. And then from 1 to 3, we have tornado come over. So it's like, everything is like very structured and built out. And sometimes I tell the team that's like I feel like a puppet sometimes. Like I feel like I'm just like going through. I just go from this to that to that. And then there's always like a break in the day where I get to be creative. And they have to do kind of like what I want to do.

So during those two hours, maybe I'm just like, do-do, walking around the house, showing people things that I love or whatever. So maybe it looks like I'm not working. Because typically it's like not fun to like film yourself on a phone call or whatever. And then I also don't want to be like, you know, we always make fun of like bloggers. I'm like meetings.

Like meetings. Meetings. Like that's kind of annoying, you know. And so. So yeah, I don't know. It's hard. Yeah. I mean, your day is struck.

Like it is out. hour to hour minute by minute like structured like after this I'm going to a something pretty event yeah um and then after the something pretty event I come home I film like a reel after that we have admin time from like three to four you know and then after that like there's always something every hour yeah it's and it's just getting busier too yeah yeah now you're gonna have soccer games and kids things and then you need to go to divvy and make a decision yeah truly every hour i just want to attest to the fact that every hour is booked yeah for sure yeah totally yeah it's i mean we could do a whole episode on this we probably should it's it's hard should you explain kind of like what the

team's day looks like what do y'all's days look like and that's hard because every day is is different literally different yeah are you all mainly behind the computer all day i mean it just depends on what you have going on. It depends on your mood because if you're up here, y'all are chit-chatting about whatever. What were we doing yesterday? That's the conversation we had yesterday is that when we have a lot of things going on at the house or just we don't get anything done. Like our team works best when we're at home because Danny will come up and be like, okay. What you do? Real idea. Or just like, let's go out and film this. Like yesterday. Yesterday we spent a lot of time. Tornado came over. And we, y'all, my mom is so uncoordinated.

Like, you know, like, when you're growing up, like, you think that your parents are, like, you know, superwoman, like, superheroes. And I always thought, like, my parents had, like, the best rhythm and, like, we're really good dancers. And now that I'm older, I'm like, whoa, she's actually so uncoordinated. Anyway, love you, mom. Like, she knows this. So she came over yesterday. We spent probably three hours trying to teach her a TikTok dance. We carved an hour out of the schedule to film this reel.

And it took much longer. We were supposed to have a meeting at the end of the day. And I'm like, I might as well go check on them. Like surely they're almost done filming. Walk downstairs. Tornado just cannot get the dance. We still, even after three hours, we scrapped it. Like, it's just still, oh my gosh.

So what else, Jenny? What have we not covered? Yeah, I think a lot of people are curious about how, what is the process and kind of what's the ratio of when do you decide to reach out to a brand? When does a brand reach out to you? how does that process actually go in detail? I would say it's kind of 50-50. So a lot of times, like, I'm DMing the brand.

I'm like, hey, I don't know if y'all work with influencers or if you ever do promo codes, but I'm like, I'm obsessed. I'm trying to think of a brand that I've recently done that for. Can you think of one? Oh, oh, DolceGlo. I did it with DolceGlo, which is the self-tanner that I'm obsessed with right now. And I've actually, like, become, like, Instagram friends with the founder.

And so now, like, we DM back and forth. And then, you know, after a while, I was like, oh, I should ask her. So I asked her if she did promo code and she was like, absolutely like, email me here. So then I gave that email to Nikki and now Nikki is going to reach out to them and like see what we can work out. Are there any other brands that I've DMed lately? I was going to say, yeah, shout out to OnCloud. On Cloud, because I'm obsessed with my running sneakers. I wear like I love Brooks and On.

So it's my favorite. So I've always told the team like, I really want to work with On. So we kind of have this like list of brands that I really want to. to work with and we have to go after like free people was one of those where I always wanted to work with free people remember like we had to really go after it right and we email them or whatever and they're like no no no no they tell you know a lot of different times but we never take no as an answer well sometimes yeah sometimes the companies are not familiar with influencer marketing they're so big that they like don't have a robust program yet or sometimes you have to prove yourself sometimes you have to prove yourself

like there was um would you say maria badusku is kind of one of them yeah that's exactly what was about to say. Like a lot of times they don't know because here's what this is the biggest misconception that I want to set straight with like influencers is it does not matter how many followers that you have. Like follower count, you know, people always make these jokes like, oh, they're just trying to gain followers. Gaining followers is not helpful at all. What you really want to gain is a follower that cares that wants to be there, that wants to be invested, that's a part of your community. Like I'd much rather have a hundred or a thousand like really dedicated people. than 10 million followers.

Like promise you. And brands know this too. Like there's so many big celebrities that have like 10 million followers, but they don't actually connect with their audience. Right. You know? So that's a big thing. But a lot of times these brands want to like see how well you can do.

So a lot of times like they want to know, okay, like we're going to give you a promo code or we're going to give you an opportunity, give you a sale and like see if your audience actually likes it or not. And if it ends up going well, continue to work for you work work with you. So a lot of times you're just doing stuff for free and you're just trying to like show the brand like I love you like I want to build a partnership like I want this to be ongoing. Yeah. What else Jenny? I don't know if you answered this already but what's been your favorite brand to work with or like project that you've worked on with a brand?

Mr. Clean is up there for me. Yeah. Mr. Clean was like epic. That was so good. You know why that was so good? Because the brand let us have so much creative freedom. Well, It's a fun story to tell. Like, tell them, like, what they initially wanted to do, which is like, hey, like, we're going to, like, bring Mr. Clean by for three slides. And we're like, no, no, no, no, no. Who's what's really going to happen?

We have this whole day planned. And, you know, so can I tell the story? Yeah, but before you do, just so you kind of know the background, what happens is these brands will come to you and they have a goal. They have a mission. They're like, we want to educate people of how to use a magic eraser. You know, and we want people to know that it's sold at Walmart. So then Jordan and I and our team, we get behind the scenes.

We're all, okay, here's the goal. Here's the message. Here's the mission. And we're like, how can we creatively entertain people, get them hooked, but also educate them about what this brand wants to bring to awareness. And so this was, I think, through Walmart. I think it was actually through Walmart. But they had an agency.

And the agency was like, hey, you know, we'll do three to five Instagram story slides. And we were like, no, no, no, no, no. This is too good. And so we were like, we want the Mr. Clean to come down to Dallas. Like we had this whole day plan. We were like, we want Landon to come in. And you can go watch this content. But we spent a whole day with Mr. Clean and like dance with them, saying with them, like put

them in the car, did carpool karaoke. And the agency at the time was so like, can we do this? Like liability. Like is this good for the brand? Like what if they like ruin Mr. Clean's image? And I was like, guys, you can come to our house. I was like, you have to promise me. You'll stay upstairs.

And I said, we will let you review every single thing before. we post it. Yep. And they did. And it ended up being like, I think that they submitted that campaign for awards. Yeah. And it was like a huge like monumental moment for Mr.

Clean. Like all the executives loved it and it was so fun for us. So fun. So I think anytime that a brand gives us that creative freedom where we can go wild, those are the best. Yeah. Not go wild, but like no trust.

Yeah. Trust us. Like we really have like good plans. Do you hear Stratton? So funny. So real. So relatable. But yeah.

I think that that's like one of my favorite campaigns we've ever done. 100%. Okay, well, this episode is running late. You got to get to your something pretty floral event. I'm so excited. So do you want to do our little outro? Yeah, so next week we're going to be talking about, I don't want to promise anything,

but I'm thinking postpartum, mental health, and maybe a little bit of parenting. We're going to decide if parenting should be like a whole other episode because it's a whole other beast. But thank you guys for watching. If you guys see this, would love for you to leave a review of our podcast on Apple. And you can also give or rate our podcast on Spotify as well. We are streaming on all platforms.

Thank you guys for watching. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye.