Marketing Happy Hour - A "Friends-First" Approach to Building Brand Community | Payge Taylor of amika

Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode.

Starting point is 00:00:53 You are in for a treat. Today's guest is so awesome. Paige Taylor, the Director of Content Strategy and Community Engagement at Amika is joining us. And it's really like one of our first deep dives into the haircare industry, but whether or not you're in the hair care industry, I believe you're going to get so much out of this conversation. Like with any of our guests, Paige shares her day-to-day and how she got to where she is now, but she also shares some captivating examples of turning very mundane topics into engaging content. We'll discuss how Amika embodies its friends first brand philosophy and the unique ways they engage with their community to create loyal brand fans. Plus, Paige will give us insights into crafting holistic content strategies that resonate across various platforms. Of course, we have a ton of career insights to share along the way as well. I can't wait for

Starting point is 00:01:44 you guys to hang out with us for the next 40 minutes or so. So make sure you have your favorite beverage in hand because it's time for happy hour. Hi, Paige. Welcome to marketing happy hour. How's it going? Hey, it's going so good. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yes, we're so excited. We were just talking off record. You know, we haven't gone too deep into the hair care industry and just learning lessons from that space. And so super excited to do that with you. But before we do, can you share a bit about your background and what led you to your current role? I would love to. So I started working at a beauty PR agency in New York after I graduated and it was very

Starting point is 00:02:30 devil's where devil wears Prada I one of my favorite stories is we were having an event like a press event for this one brand and we were essentially like building an indoor beach so my VP really wanted us to have, you know, those like coconut patties, they come in like a yellow, I've never seen an actual person eat, eat those or want those, but for some reason she always at the airport, I feel like it's, they're so random, but she really wanted those in the gift bag. So there's this moment where she was like, go, we need like 50 of these and we could with like the event was tomorrow we couldn't like amazon them so I felt like it was literally like go get

Starting point is 00:03:11 these coconut patties and if you can't find them like don't come back so I'm like a little like girl just gallivanting across uh New York City trying to find a very niche product and guess where it was TJ Maxx which I love TJ Maxx for that reason and so that was it was like boot camp being at this agency and it was like let's say 2015-2016 so this was before brands were really active on social like they are now and my very smart president of the PR agency was like, we should start offering social media as like a, um, a capability for our clients. So from working in PR, I started, I joined like the social media team helped build that up. And I was like, Oh, this is so inconsistent and no one knows what

Starting point is 00:04:02 they're doing. I'm addicted. I love it. So I was working with a number of different beauty brands, helping create their content calendars, which was like, this was 2015, 2016. Like we were using filters. We were taking the flat lays on the marble. Like it was the early days, much different than it is now, but still just as chaotic. And from there, I got the opportunity to work at Buxom Cosmetics, which by the way, best lip gloss. I don't want to hear anything about road, nothing about summer Fridays, like Buxom lip plumping cream is the only thing that matters to me. I buy it with my own money, guys. And if you've ever met a girl who works in beauty,

Starting point is 00:04:43 we don't buy things with our own money but this I buy so plug for Buxom I was there for three years this was also pre-TikTok so on the tail end of working at Buxom TikTok started to really step onto the scene so I helped launch Buxom's TikTok and from there I was there for three years and from there I my VP from Buxom's TikTok. And from there, I was there for three years. And from there, I, my VP from Buxom, who was now at Amika, reached out to me and was like, we need a senior social media manager. Can you come do it? And I don't, this is not on my resume. This is not on my LinkedIn. This is like insider information that only a few people know. I was actually at Living Proof for like two weeks. And during the two weeks that I was there is when my VP at Amika

Starting point is 00:05:32 reached out to me and she was like, come work at Amika. And I was like, I literally just started working at Living Proof. Like that feels weird to do that. Like I'm good good but then the very next day I found out that the Amika social media manager was coming to work living proof and she was going to be my new boss and I have issues with authority and I was like hold on I'm qualified for this girl's job and she's going to be my boss no so I hit up my VP and I was like send me the job offer I'm there so that's where I've been ever since um I started as a senior social media manager I've now been um promoted to director of constant strategy and cleaning engagement and what that means is just an evolved way that we look at social media because you know back from the days of like heavy filters and flat lays on marbles,

Starting point is 00:06:28 the social media space has really evolved. And I look at it as my job is to really like tell the story of the brand, but our Instagram is not really the only place that we need to be doing that. Cassie, I saw a post you did the other day about like owned platforms and how important they are for brands. And so that's kind of how I got my way into like, I love social media, I love Instagram, I love TikTok, but like we need to be telling these stories on our own platforms as well. So what my job is, is to help translate those stories across all these different platforms, make them consistent,

Starting point is 00:07:06 align all the messaging, that stuff. That's the content strategy of what I do. And then the community engagement is how are we engaging our community? So not just on social, but like our fans, people that are like actually buying money, our brand ambassadors. Amika is really unique because we were born in a salon. So our professional hairstylists are really important to us too. So that's part of our community engagement strategy as well. So, um, yeah, I have my handful obviously, but I love it. And, um, it'll officially be three years and about a month. Incredible.

Starting point is 00:07:50 And I'm glad that you brought up those, um, different aspects of your day-to-day because we are going to get into those in a little bit. Um, but first I just kind of want to hear what does your team look like? You know, how is everything, you know, divvied up, broken down? Um, what does that look like? Cause I know all of our listeners are usually curious about team structure. Yeah. So funny you ask because I'm actually hiring for a senior social media manager at the moment. Quick plug. Right now, my team is me and two amazing associate social media managers. And in order for me to really kind of get my hands

Starting point is 00:08:27 out of the weeds of social media and into the weeds of like email, blog, et cetera, I really need that person, that social expert to come in, help us project manage. Because like I mentioned, we're unique in the way that we have a separate Instagram for our professional sector. So we have two Instagrams that we're managing. We have a TikTok that we're managing. And we're a three-person team right now. So I oversee the strategy for all of them. But then individually, each person kind of owns the channel. The team structure is something I like feel like I have dreams about because

Starting point is 00:09:06 the social media space is so like chaotic that I haven't, I don't know if this is the perfect way to do it, but it's the way that we have it's the way that we do it right now. We use Asana to manage our content calendar, which is super helpful. And I also have an intern. We have an intern every like three to six months who comes in and helps us with those like secondary platforms like Pinterest, YouTube Shorts, that kind of thing. Oh, that's awesome. Thank you for giving us kind of a look in there to your strategy and just make up of the team. It's always super interesting and definitely reach out to Paige if you're interested in learning more about that job.

Starting point is 00:09:48 We'll have to get a link from you too to share out. But I want to talk about one of my personal favorite topics, which is storytelling. And so you talk about your superpower being just that and making these seemingly mundane subjects capture the attention and interest of your audience. So could you give us a little bit of an example or examples of how you've done this, whether at Amika or in one of your past roles? Yes, I can. So I actually just filmed this last week and disclaimer, like I never get to create content anymore, which is super sad, but this is an opportunity. And I was like, I'm doing it from start to finish.

Starting point is 00:10:32 Everyone like, just let me do it. So there was a TikTok that we were tagged in of this girl's husband using our perk up dry shampoo on his golf club. It was gaining a lot of traction. That's by the way, not how you should use the product probably. Um, but it was, it was getting a lot of traction on, on Tik TOK and it would have been really easy for us to just like comment something funny and like, you know, leave it at that. But I was like on something that day and I was like, no guys, like I'm making this a moment. So we reached out to her, we got her address and, and I ended up ordering him like a custom golf hat, custom golf balls.

Starting point is 00:11:22 During the duration of this, I got targeted for some golf socks shout out to Del Campo so threw those in as well um and we created this you know I was I showed the step-by-step process of like everything that I did to kind of create this this surprise and delight for this customer um and we also had the little label maker and covered up perk up and we put pup up over it instead. And we sent it to her slash him, whoever wants to use the dry shampoo. They'll have to figure that one out for themselves.

Starting point is 00:11:57 But I love that not only as like a storytelling example, but also as a community engagement example as well. I think that it shows that we kind of want to give our customer like the six star experience. It also encourages, encourages people to like show these really weird stories on Instagram and TikTok and stuff too, so that we, so that the brand can do something about it. So that is one of, is that, that's a recent example of how we, how it kind of like brought a storytelling moment to life. Amika means friend, by the way. So that's another reason why

Starting point is 00:12:39 like we kind of want to go this extra mile, just like your friend would do. Again, it would have been really easy for us to just comment, but I was like, no, like I want to literally be so extra about this. So that was, that was a cool example. And another example is last year we hit our 500K milestone on Instagram, half a milli. And we were trying to ID on on like what do we do to celebrate this like I feel like in my head every time a brand or somebody hits like a milestone it's like the number balloons or like it's on a cake and I'm like eh basic like I can't we can't do that so um we're thinking back to like the heritage of the brands and Amika is a Brooklyn based brand. So don't know. I know you guys are in Florida. New York is like the Mecca of bagels. So I was like, there's something with bagels. Like what

Starting point is 00:13:32 can we do? So we partnered with this bagel shop in New York and have them create custom pink and orange bagels for us. And again, that was sort of the like content part of it was like these really cool, funky bagels, like zero, zero with a five, that kind of thing. But we took it a step further and comped, I think a hundred bagels to our community because we're celebrating this milestone, right? We couldn't have done it without them. So around the time that we were celebrating this milestone, we were like, you know, tomorrow show up at the bagel spot. First, a hundred people are getting a free bagel. Enjoy. We're supporting a local business, which they're part of our community too. We're showing our community,

Starting point is 00:14:15 you know, appreciation. And a full circle moment was earlier this year for April Fool's Day we fake launched a shower bagel because who doesn't get hungry in the middle of a shampoo right so we brought back the custom bagels pranked our audience into thinking this was an item that they could get delivered straight to their door and it was a really fun viral moment, again, just full circle with that storytelling. So and that's one of those things that like, I don't know if anyone knows the full circle, but it makes me happy. And that's what storytelling is making me happy. Yeah, well, I have to ask too, because I feel like sometimes in marketing, we feel like we have to kind of like, quote, unquote, stay in our lane, right? Like stay in the hair care space, stay in whatever, whatever you're in. So do you have any

Starting point is 00:15:10 like encouragement or words of wisdom for brands kind of looking to get a little bit creative and outside of the box? Like, you know, you mentioned you kind of tapped into a golf moment and then like the bagel moment. So why is that impactful to do? And then also just what encouragement would you say to creatives looking to kind of do similar things, but they're afraid if that is compelling or that makes sense for their brand? Yeah. I think that we have to stop thinking like brands and start thinking like humans. When you think like a brand, you think very like shallow and sort of like, oh, this month we're talking about dry shampoo. So we can only talk about dry shampoo. But when someone posts something about not dry shampoo

Starting point is 00:15:59 that has a storytelling like opportunity, are you not going to try to optimize it no um a human wouldn't so I think giving yourself that permission to like think outside of just like your brand goals is really important um or like your brain objectives so again like while maybe the product that we're talking about is not the product that we want to focus on. Community and friendship is at the heart of Amika. So any opportunity we have to show that we're going to use it. And second, I think that you have to be really clear on your messaging. If I didn't know that Amika didn't mean friend, if I just thought we were obsessed with dry shampoo, it wouldn't be

Starting point is 00:16:45 important for us to try to like weave you know friendship throughout everything that we do so I think brands need to make sure they have a really clear reason to be outside of products that can really drive those storytelling moments bottom line I understand it's a sub product but if you want that emotional connection then you have like, you have to show what your brand represents when you're not just talking about dry shampoo. Yeah, absolutely. And then kind of tying together this concept of out of the box creativity and brand story. What do you specifically do when you're hitting creative block for ideas? You know, I know, um, team is helpful just kind of coming together and collaborating, but anything else that you do just in terms of

Starting point is 00:17:29 trying to think of more outside of the box ideas to leverage your story, to connect with your friends and audience? Yeah. Um, I feel like I'm lucky because I am very creative almost to the point where sometimes I have to hold my tongue. I was I was literally just on a brainstorm and it was like an hour long brainstorm. And I was like, OK, Paige, don't say anything until like 30 minutes and give other people a chance. And then 30 minute market. And I was like, I went off the mic and I was like, OK, guys, here I go. Like, I just it's really it comes really easily to me to be creative. But I think the reason why I can do that is because I understand the objective of things. And I look for any excuse to plug this book.

Starting point is 00:18:13 It's called Start With Why. I think by Simon Sinek. I don't know if I'm saying that right. But it's basically talking about what I was just saying, which is like, when you understand the root of like what a brand is trying to accomplish, it makes it a lot easier to come up with, you know, different tactics and strategies to achieve that. So I think I'm really good at either asking the right questions or understanding what we're trying to do to help that lead that creativity. I also consume a shit ton of content. I don't know if we're allowed to cuss so you can believe that. I consume a ton of content like outside of like

Starting point is 00:18:55 creating content. I love Instagram. I love TikTok. I have time limits on my apps because I could stay, you know, scrolling all day. Pinterest, I love. I think it's really important to consume content, but not necessarily copy it. Because again, if you understand like that objective, not every piece of content is for you. Not every piece of content or inspiration that you see like works for this maybe specific campaign that you're doing. But for my team, we have like, I call it sort of this like second brain. What do I call it? Like, I don't know, I call it literally a second brain. Whereas like, if they send me something, and I'm like, I don't think that works for something right now. But let's save it because we're gonna have to brainstorm for something like in two weeks. So maybe we can revisit it. And I don't know about

Starting point is 00:19:48 you guys, but sometimes I'm in brainstorms and creative meetings and like, it's just silent and it's so awkward. And so I love having this like list of all these things that we've already like talked about. People were just like Slack, like on a a Friday being like I'm scrolling TikTok and saw this like we should do something with it so like we save all of these ideas in one place so that when it's time to brainstorm we have a starting place versus just like starting from scratch and like an empty notepad so um understanding like the objective of what you're trying to do and also collaborating I think are really important to being creative. So good. And couldn't agree more. I mean, we hear a lot on this podcast about like

Starting point is 00:20:32 being a consumer first of this content so that you then get ideas and generate new ideas and kind of like riff off of the things that you've seen or, you know, explore what could work for your category. And maybe you saw this trend or something in a totally different, uh, brand category. Yeah. Yeah. So I actually like love looking at, I actually love looking at like the food space for, uh, like DTC food brands, I think are so creative. Um, like Graza is one that I love. Alice Mushroom, which like, I don't know if you guys have had Alice, but I like Alice is the way, the truth, the life for me. But yeah, looking at what other brands are doing outside of your space is so important.

Starting point is 00:21:19 So yeah, when it comes to like brainstorming and ideas, being able to get outside of the hair space is so important and outside of the beauty space as well. Yeah. A hundred percent. Well, you mentioned this a little bit earlier about being a friend's first brand. And so I want to hear a little bit more of what that looks like for you. How are you kind of engaging with your community to further your brand's mission and ultimately create forever brand fans? Yeah. So Amika means friend. And what that means is that we want to show up to our customers as a friend. We want to be transparent, honest, all the things a friend would be. So when I actually first started at Amika, they were throwing around this community word like so much that I was like stop I was like what is

Starting point is 00:22:06 community guys because you know coming from a brand where we had like it was the time we had just launched a TikTok like community was like this new buzzword and I was like can someone define community for me because if not I'm gonna need a dollar for every time we say it because it's getting it's it's too much it's overkill but what it means uh at amica is really like everyone from like our internal employees to um the people at our distribution center to our fans on social media to our you know professional hairstylists um everyone is community to us so So whereas my team is really honed in on the, like our digital community, we partner really closely with our cross-functional teams to make sure that, you know, someone who comments on our Instagram is getting the same treatment as someone who just bought a

Starting point is 00:23:00 product from the website. So how we do this is through one of the ways we do this is through community events. We just started doing community events last year. I think we did about three. We did a picnic in the park. We did a holiday cookie decorating party, which that was really fun because we had a brand ambassador session. And then we also invited like our brand friends. So all the brands that we had partnered with throughout the year on like gift bags and giveaways on social media, we invited them because again, they're part of our community as well. So the events are a really good way for us to connect offline.

Starting point is 00:23:40 I think there's, everyone's heard of this like loneliness pandemic that's happening. And like, if Amika means friend, how can we facilitate these relationships? And through IRL events is, is our strategy. And that's where we've landed. And it's been really successful and really fun. We're like, I joke that we're a little like mini event planning team. Yes, we're planning events and we're posting on social media. It's bizarre. Um, we also, again, are just making sure that everyone's getting that VIP treatment. Um, it's funny. I actually just received this box from IHG yesterday. Um, cause I stayed with them.

Starting point is 00:24:19 I told you guys I was traveling. Um, the other week I was in New York I was I was in Miami and I said an IHG and I tagged them on Instagram because um did you guys know that if you um say a code word uh when you get to check in they like give you a little like gift bag what that's fun yeah yeah it's crazy and I knew that there was bubbles in the gift bag and I love bubbles. I was like, I'm getting this. So I literally posted on my Instagram story. And by the way, like I'm not anyone crazy on Instagram, but I posted on my Instagram story. I tagged them and they sent me this massive box of like, there's a disposable, a disposable camera, a cute water bottle, a fanny pack, one of those like book bags that

Starting point is 00:25:07 has like a water thing that I've literally wanted since middle school. And this just because I posted on my Instagram story to like my two followers is bizarre. I will never stay at any non-IHG hotel ever again. This is how you build brand loyalty. And these are the kind of experiences that we want to bring to our Amika community, whether you're commenting and liking our picture or coming to our influencer events. So yeah, we're just trying to make connections with people

Starting point is 00:25:42 and our products happen to be the way that we're doing that. But the purpose of the brand is a lot deeper than just, you know, selling shampoo. translated to friends. How can you still look at your audience as friends? Because as humans, we would treat friends differently than we would just acquaintances or kind of people out there in the sphere that we don't know as well. So to your point, how do you deepen this relationship with your audience in a way that makes them feel heard, remembered, you know, paid attention to no matter their follower count, you know, paid attention to no matter their follower count, you know, things like that. So I think that's such an important lesson to take away from this. Yeah, it builds loyalty and it builds longevity. Like there's going to be another dry shampoo brand launching like tomorrow, I'm sure. But like, just like I said,

Starting point is 00:26:40 I'll never stay at another IHG like hotel just because of this experience that I've gotten. I'm sure there are people who have been customers at Amika that have gotten that sort of treatment. And they're like, no other shampoo will ever do it for me. I don't care what happens. This company I'm loyal to. And I honestly think because it's so easy to launch a brand these days, that longevity and loyalty and building that is so important. So priority. Love, love it. Love it so much. Okay, so let's dive into content a little bit more here for a second. How are you creating holistic content that ensures your brand message is present across the board? That's a great question. So we are extremely cross-functional. I feel like I meet with like other teams at Amika more than I probably meet with my own team and that's me being dramatic,

Starting point is 00:27:40 but I'm just trying to make a point that where I'm extremely tapped into what's happening on uh on other teams because again like I said my job is to tell the story of the brand and like I can't do that if I don't know every single thing that's happening I feel like this job gave me permission to be like super nosy which I love so um I we meet with or or I meet with our DEI team, our ESG team, our email team, our even HR, because HR is doing a ton of like initiatives that they want us to support. We're extremely cross-functional and making sure that we have, that I at least have the information on what's happening. And then from there, I'm streamlining the messaging.

Starting point is 00:28:24 There's also like a hierarchy of, you know, these stories, we can't say everything everywhere. And we shouldn't be doing that because if we did, we might as well just like be live all the time. Cause we're doing so much, but it's really like creating a hierarchy of like, okay, what stories like, do we want to get out? Where are they living? And from there partnering closely with our copy and editorial team and our creative team to bring those stories to life through our content, and then making sure that the necessary

Starting point is 00:28:56 partners, like, have that content to go live and understand the key objectives of what we're trying to accomplish. I will say, I think everyone at Amika is really a team player. And I think we're like obsessive about process as well, which is really nice. Actually, I feel like there's every meeting we're like, okay, this is great for this time, but how can we make it better for next time? And like being around a bunch of people who like always want to evolve and always want to do better is so motivating. So I think being in that collaborative environment really helps bring like the messaging and the story to life. And I hope we're doing a good job with it. But that's sort of what our content process looks like. Yeah, for sure. And then you mentioned

Starting point is 00:29:47 kind of like assessing and iterating to do you have any tips for how to do that? Like, let's say campaign goes out, launch goes out, whatever it is, like, how do you look at content in a positive way that helps you kind of learn for the future, knock it down on yourself if it doesn't quote perform poorly, but to use that as a learning experience to move forward. Yeah, it's funny because I think that every piece of content serves a purpose and that purpose should not always be like to be the most engaging piece of content. If, you know, Amika has 11 collections, maybe only one of those collections is relevant to you, which means the times we talk about the other 10, you're not going to care, right? So I think it's really important to have clear objectives about almost every piece

Starting point is 00:30:39 of content that you're putting out and really assessing, like, are we trying to get engagement? Because if so, we're going to need to add a call to action or we're going to need to make it a video or like whatever it may be. Are we trying to get link clicks? That's completely different. Like our, our strategy would be completely different for a piece of content where we're just trying to direct to a link verse when we're trying to get someone to like a picture or a post on Instagram. So I think being really clear on your objectives and that objective shouldn't always be like, this is going viral. Like that's not, there are so many other ways to, um, to bring your like objective to life, um, or your messaging to life. So link clicks can always can be an opportunity. Also, there's just like general brand equity, which like whenever we post something brand equity, those happen to be

Starting point is 00:31:31 like our lowest performing posts, but they sometimes, but they're building brand perception, right. Which is really hard to measure, but that's what it's doing. So when I, you know, at the end of the month, when I share a report, like this brand equity post like didn't perform well I can't say so we're never going to post it ever again I say this is building brand perception and we have ways um we have like third parties that we partner with to help like actually measure that but yeah not everything should be the most engaging post ever you You should have really clear objectives. And I think when you do, your content will align. Yeah, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:32:15 And I'd love to dive in just a little bit more and stay on that point about the brand equity posts, because you are sharing out some of these initiatives like your sustainability and your giving back programs and things like that. So what does, what goes into that? Because I know a lot of brands try to do it and maybe they do it like for one month and it doesn't work. And then they just like scrap the whole thing. But how are you really like representing those aspects of the brand and like making your consumer aware of those aspects on social and other content platforms? Yeah. So like I mentioned earlier, when it's tight, I plan my content like in months,

Starting point is 00:32:54 basically. So like right now we're like looking at September. So September will have its own like product objectives. It's in product goals. So from there, I'm meeting with all of our cross functional teams, like the DEI team, like our ESG team, to say, like, this is what's happening product wise, is there some type of angle that we can talk about, you know, our plastic free initiatives? Or is there some type of angle where we can talk about, you know, our carbon emissions, that kind of thing. I don't claim to be an expert in any space except for content. So I really lean on these. I don't know. I'm getting pretty good at hair, but I really lean on these, on my partners to help form those stories because just like they don't know anything about content,

Starting point is 00:33:46 I don't know anything about carbon emissions. So we really have to partner closely. And it's me really boiling down to like, why, why, why, why? Like, can I understand why we even do this? What it means? Because I have to have a pretty good idea of what we're trying to say in order to come up with the best way to say it. And I think there's definitely room for improvement for us to make this kind of content more engaging. But it really boils down to the partnership between me and a cross-functional team. And also something that I think we've been really good at is encouraging our cross-functional teams to think content first.

Starting point is 00:34:30 We really encourage everyone to think content first and community first as well, because again, we're really tapped into our digital community, but like we don't know what the customer service team is going through. We don't know, you know, what people at trade shows are going through.

Starting point is 00:34:43 So really making that like everyone's job, I think is really important. And so it's gotten to the point where now those teams are actually reaching out to us with ideas. And it really was like a process of us kind of like having to train them to think like the way that we want them to think. But yeah, that's being super collaborative and really like partnering on what that messaging could be has been key. That's amazing. And I'm glad that you bring up that you don't have to naturally be an expert on these like efforts and you can really work to just like better understand. And then you're even in a better position then to like help educate your consumer because, you know, they're probably coming at it from the same lens as you are. And so to better understand as a consumer, you'll have to put out that educational

Starting point is 00:35:36 content, but I love what you guys are doing. And I love how you show up on social with those initiatives. So a proud 100%. Thank you. Yeah, it's funny, like, the ESG team is really like, they're so smart. And we'll join a meeting with them. And they'll say we reduced our carbon emissions by 85%. And I'll be like, that's really great. I don't know what that means. And in order for me to tell other people what that means, you're gonna have to like dumb it down for me. So it's really like training everybody on getting down to that, like, you know, the most internal layer, because I can't tell a story that I don't understand. Yeah, 100%. Well, we're so excited that you were able to spill like a little behind the scenes

Starting point is 00:36:24 look at how you're creating content and everything. But we're approaching the end of the interview here. We just want to know. It's a question that we ask everybody. What is something that you know now that you wish you knew a little earlier on in your career? Let's see. This is this is a good question. It's been one that I have been thinking on a lot. And it's sort of two parts, I would say. I think the first thing and disclaimer, what I'm about to say is not necessarily true, but using this, operating by this principle, I think has been really helpful. Assume that no one knows what they're doing. And again, it's not true, but when you assume this, I think you're able to like transcend maybe the traditional ways that things have been done and you're able to approach something with a really unique perspective. So it kind of goes back to what I was saying about like always asking why

Starting point is 00:37:25 I think it's one of the reasons why like I'm so process driven and like Amika everyone at Amika so process driven too is we are always like open to evolving so um we don't really like almost everything we do we always are like, why are we doing things this way? And it's not like no one knows what they're doing, but it's like, we know that we could be doing it better. And I think operating on that principle has been something that I wish that my younger self would know, because sometimes you get in your little bubble of, you know, creating content and you're just like, well, I did it like this last time. Let me just do it like this, this time. And like, that doesn't work. Like the space that I work in changes every day, which means that my approach and my mindset for it has to change every day. So sort of always

Starting point is 00:38:17 asking like, why, why are things this way? I think would have been like great advice for my younger self. I definitely think I caught onto it pretty quickly. I'm like very much a wire probably to a fault. People are probably like, can you just move on with this meeting? And I'm like, no, no, no, we can't. But yeah, just really like understanding the objective, I think helps transcend maybe a traditional or a normal way that you'd be doing something. And it's really helped me in my career because if I'm posting an Instagram post that people are really used to, that's not going to do well. Like I always have to

Starting point is 00:38:58 evolve the way that I present stories to an audience. And I use this principle professionally and personally, just always evolving, always changing the way that I do things, which for consistency purposes, not always great, but for content, it's great. Yes. And that's something we hear a lot on the show too, is like adaptability and maintaining like a curious and curiosity in the work that you're doing is, is always going to be

Starting point is 00:39:33 helpful. And I think that's something that we don't even think about when we're working. We're just like trying to get through the day and tasks done. Yeah. It's, it's honestly one of the things that I try to really ingrain and like more like entry level, like whenever I have an intern, I'm always like, if I ask you this, it doesn't necessarily mean this. Like you need to come back to me with questions. You need to have a really like clear idea of what I'm asking, because the way that I might recommend that you do it is not the only way to do it which makes like what we do really hard um because again like the way that we

Starting point is 00:40:13 do we did it last time really shouldn't be the way that we do it this time um but that's definitely like what I would say to my interns to entry-level people is like, always have a understanding of that. Like be, ask questions, challenge, challenge your elders. It's so important. And it's something that we don't think about too. So I'm glad that you shared that. We do have a lot of listeners who are in that entry level area of their career. So that's always helpful to hear.

Starting point is 00:40:49 Well, I want to hear from you too. Is there anything exciting coming up for Amika that you want to slash can share? Anything fun going on this summer? Yes. I am not sure when this episode will be airing, but speaking of friendship, we are having a friendship event in L.A. at the end of July. Friendship Day is the 31st, I believe. So I'm making all my New York teammates come out to L.A. We're going to have one part influencer event, one part community event. So it'll be open to the public, probably via RSVP, but that's something really exciting that we're doing. Again,

Starting point is 00:41:31 these like community events have been really key for us. And I've only been in LA a year, so I'm excited to go and make friends. So I'm super excited for that event. We of course have some really cool product launches coming out. So yeah, if you're following us on Instagram, we post everything and more there, TikTok as well. So never a dull day out of Nuka, I will say. Oh, so fun. We can't wait to watch out for that.

Starting point is 00:42:01 And we'll have to make it over your way at some point for one of those events. But Paige, this has been so wonderful and just so many good insights and just tips and everything that we can apply both to our businesses and our careers. But we'd love to stay in touch with you and also Amika. Where are the best places to get in touch with you personally or the brand? So you can check me out on Instagram. I'm at Paige Taylor pages, P-A-Y-G-E. And I have a TikTok too, but it's not a thriving TikTok. So I don't, it's the same username there as well. And then, yeah, like I I mentioned follow us on Instagram slide into our DMs we love to chat we literally love to chat in the DMs so come say hi amazing well thank you so much again so excited to just get to know you and to chat through everything we can't wait to stay tuned on what you're working on and what the brand's

Starting point is 00:43:05 working on as well. Yay. Thank you guys so much for having me. This was so fun. Thanks for listening to this week's episode. We hoped you loved it as much as we did. If you enjoyed the conversation, we'd love to get your feedback on the episode. Head to the review section of your favorite podcast app and let us know what you thought. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.

Marketing Happy Hour - A "Friends-First" Approach to Building Brand Community | Payge Taylor of amika

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