Marketing Happy Hour - How to Make Your First $1K as an Influencer | Influencer Coach Kahlea Nicole

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

Always dreamed of landing paid brand partnerships, but don’t know where to start? Kahlea Nicole, an influencer whose long term partnerships with brands inspired her to help other influencers land similar paid opportunities, shares how and when to reach out to brands, common first time influencer mistakes and how to avoid them, how to get clear on who you serve and the problem you solve, and the inside scoop on negotiating. Grab a drink and listen in!  ----- Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Kahlea's episode: Building a Social Media Side Hustle While Working Full-Time | Josie Maida of Maida Media Influencer Marketing 101: Building and Measuring Campaigns | Geena Massara of Girlfriend Collective How to Build a 6-Figure Online Business on Your Own | Hannah Pobar of Home Studio List Launch Strategies 101: Network to Networth | Brand Collaboration Coach Kahlea Nicole Wade ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and share your favorite moments from this episode - we can't wait to hear from you!  Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. NEW: Check out our website! NEW: Join our email list! Follow Kahlea on Instagram: https://instagram.com/kahleanicolee Connect with Kahlea on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kahlea-nicole-wade-0297a1170/ Follow MHH on Instagram: https://instagram.com/marketinghappyhr Follow MHH on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-happy-hour/ Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Marketing Happy Hour Weekly: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/marketing-happy-hour-weekly-6950530577867427840/ Join our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9238088/

Welcome, everyone, to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where you'll hear career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Go ahead, grab a drink, and join us for this week's episode. Time for this week's marketing update. TikTok is testing a stories option, much like the stories we know and love on Instagram and Snapchat. According to social media today, TikTok stories would be displayed in a collapsible left-hand side panel in the main feed of the app.

Users would then be able to tap into stories from people and profiles that they follow and tap through the stories frames, indicated by the gray bars along the bottom of the story display. A TikTok spokesperson provided the statement on the stories test to social media today. We're always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the tiktok experience currently we're experimenting with ways to give creators additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the tiktok community oh my goodness i think this is opening a whole nother can of worms for tiktok creators

because they already i feel like have their hands full with creating all the content that they do create on TikTok that this is just, it's going to be a whole nother thing. But, you know, I'm not surprised that this is happening. I feel like Instagram and TikTok have constantly been in this back and forth battle. And we saw, you know, with Instagram releasing that they're going to be opening up reels to 60 seconds TikTok recently opened it up to I think three minutes so it's no surprise that they're kind of going back and forth with this and I don't know we'll see what continues to happen with them yeah and like to me I feel like TikToks are already kind of stories in a way it's that short form video and I don't really know that people have you know shorter 15 second clips to share in this story format so I kind of wonder too if it

like rolls out permanently we'll see what happened with like the rollout of reels where they're just reposting IG stories to their TikTok I don't know what happened in the beginning with reels people were just reposting their TikTok content to Instagram. So I guess we'll see because Instagram kind of owns that story space right now and Snapchat, but I don't really use Snapchat that much. Yeah, they really do. I mean, obviously Snapchat was like the first platform to really do this. And then I think Instagram kind of took over and Snapchat was kind of struggling at first when that did happen but um I don't know I I kind of agree I think

people are gonna really um take that content from Instagram stories and put it onto TikTok because I mean why not and a lot of people I think that are super active on TikTok sometimes aren't as active on Instagram and vice versa so it it may work out for them. But I don't know, I'm curious to see if they're going to release anything that's unique to their space. Because so far, it's just this push and pull game between the two platforms, and they're kind of copying each other. So I wonder if they'll come up with something that's unique to them eventually. Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see this week cassie sat down with kaylee and nicole an influencer whose long-term partnerships with brands like not your mother's hair care and ashley furniture have taken her to new york fashion week and the country music awards she's even had the chance to interview dan and shay

and andy grammar through these partnerships. It inspired her to help other influencers land similar paid opportunities, and she's now an influencer coach for millennial women who creates on-demand programs and value-add content on social media to help aspiring influencers monetize their influence and grow their business. She has over 21,000 followers on Instagram and has collaborated with 100 plus brand partners and her students success stories are absolutely incredible as well. One of them actually made $89,000 in brand partnership income during her first year as a full-time influencer. Listen in to hear Kalia's tips on how to make your first 1K through brand partnerships. Hey Kalia, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? Good, good. So okay, first off, you are getting married soon. Congratulations. Yes, thank you. So excited. oh my goodness cannot wait yes I cannot wait to see the photos and I'm just living vicariously through you through all the planning and I cannot wait to

see everything come together so congratulations on that yes thank you at the time of us recording this actually it's literally 60 days out exactly from the wedding and I'm kind of like freaking out, but in the best way. I'm so excited. Yes, it's going to be the best day of your life and you're going to have so much fun. I'm so excited for you. All right. Well, tonight we have a very juicy topic to discuss. But before we start, you may be familiar with this being one of our clubhouse speakers,

but because this is marketing happy hour, we have to being one of our clubhouse uh speakers but because this is marketing happy hour we have to ask each of our guests this but what is in your glass tonight i have water um perfect do you have anything do you have anything fun tonight i have actually an energy drink because it's been a long monday and i it's an alani new It's a pina colada Alani new. It's pretty good. I love those. I love those highly little quick plug. Alani new. Everyone needs to go check it out. It is the best. They just made seltzers too. Have you seen that? No, I haven't. It should have been perfect for happy hour, but I think online right now, I I just released I was like searching for them in Target the other day because I was like I gotta try these but I haven't found them yet not in

person at least I have to go check that out yeah it's either that or Celsius but I'm like slowly starting to shift more over to Alani new mostly so yeah the flavors are just so good. Well, side tangent over really quick, but okay, so we are ready to get into it and talk about this juicy topic that we have. Basically, we just want to learn everything from you, how people can make their first $1,000 as an influencer. So super excited to dive into that. But first question I have for you is, so you originally started as an influencer yourself. So when did you decide to kind of put that aside and jump into coaching women?

Yeah, so a couple of major reasons. I started as an influencer back in 2015. I was 17 years old. I was a freshman in college and I really did not want to work a nine to five. And so I started seeing at that time, it was a lot of blogging, like food bloggers, mom bloggers, like that was the vibe. And that's not necessarily what I wanted to do, but I started to see these other bloggers working with brands.

And I was like, that's really interesting. That kind of is something that I'd be, you know, really intrigued about doing. And so I started to try and like Google stuff. I was, you know, asking other people like, Hey, you know, how would you do this? Like, I'll pay you, you know, for your knowledge. And like, everyone's lips were sealed. Like nobody would talk about it. No one wanted to share like any advice or give any help, even if you offered to pay. And so I was really tired of like all the gatekeeping that was going on. So I was like, okay, you know what? I'm going to just figure this out myself. The second reason is when I started to kind of make that transition from,

okay, influencer to coach was when I started to land these brand partnerships, figuring it out myself through a lot of trial and much more error. I started to land these deals. And then I had people being like, Hey, how did you do it? And I already made the promise to myself, like, you know what, when I figure this out, I'm going to share how I did this because it made me so frustrated when like no one would talk about it, even if you offered to pay them. And so when I started figuring it out and people started asking, I was like, okay, you know, here's an opportunity. And so I started to do like free coaching and just seeing like, okay, you know, could I be a good teacher? Could I be a good coach? Like would people learn from me? You know, cause it's like, you know, I don't, I never taught anyone before outside of like, you know,

you give advice to friends or whatever, that's totally different. So I started to like, just do free sessions for people and like look over their Instagram and give them tips and tricks and talk to them about like what I was doing that was working for me. And then they started seeing results. And I was like, Oh, I think I'm onto something. I started to make that transition. And I started doing like, you know, 30 minute discovery calls or an hour with me. And then I played around with doing events and workshops and all of this. So I like really got into teaching. I love building community. And so then I was like, okay, well, I can't always do events, but what could I do online? And that turned into me looking into group coaching. So I started into in a couple of years ago, actually, it's my signature course on pitching to brands. And

I started as a group coaching program. I brought on like five different girls under me and I walked them through like this six module program, teaching them how to work with brands. And I started falling in love with that. Like, and all of a sudden it started to like gain more traction and more traction and more people were wanting to sign up and do group coaching. And just last year, we actually like grew out of it being a group coaching program because we had more people than we could kind of fit inside in one season or semester of launches. But it just all began with, you know, I was tired of the gatekeeping and I was really tired of not being able to find actual tangible advice because everything was so fluffy. And I hated that. It was like, just like create good photos and like be consistent. And I was like, okay, but that's not telling me how to

like reach out to brands or how to land these partnerships. And so it just turned into me wanting to create this overall blueprint for any kind of influencer or creative, no matter their niche or their follower count to just really learn and implement so that they could start landing their dream brand partnerships as well. Amazing. And it's so funny you mentioned 2017. Cause I was like, after you said that, I was just thinking about it. I was like, oh my gosh, I think I, the first time I met you was in 2017 and I invited you out to a brand event. for kind of your whole journey and like seeing how much it's changed. It's just incredible. And I will say like, and I tell people this all the time, I'm like, Kalia markets end to end so well, like it's literally as simple as having like, on, you know, obviously amazing content, but just the tangible examples that you share of your past students and, you know, some of the monetary goals that

they've hit over time after taking your course is just so incredible to see. And it's, it's just awesome how many people are taking so much away from this. Yes, it's truly just my my greatest honor to be able to take like my six years of experience and put it into the program and just like, you like, hey, you know, here, here, have it all. Like, please. Like I tell all my students all the time, I'm like, I pray. And I hope that you are so much more successful than I ever have been with partnerships because you're starting like right now at the beginning, you're starting, you know, six years in to my knowledge. Cause it took me six years to get this point. And we actually just had like the biggest win of Intuin so far.

One of our students, Tayla, we just found out that her first year is a full-time influencer, full-time creative. Like she quit everything. Like this is what she did full-time. She made $89,000 her first year. Oh my gosh. That is crazy. Oh my goodness.

And I follow Tayla. She does an awesome job on Instagram and her content's just great so that is that is incredible oh my god it's a while she did that went from 5k followers to over 30k followers and she's just absolutely killing it but it's just really cool to see how you know everyone just gets something different out of into and for some people the game changer is you know with that with Taylor like making that much in a year you know your everyone just gets something different out of into. And for some people, the game changer is, you know, with that, with Taylor, like making that much in a year, you know, your first full time, other people, it's like, I just want to make enough consistently to match my, my job. So we have girls like that. Then others are, you know, I just need a mindset shift. I just need to

like be in community around like-minded women and just like level up. And that's the game changer. So it's just, it's a really fun program to teach. And, you know, my favorite part is just getting to connect with so many girls from all around the world. We have girls, you know, all over the U S all the way to Australia. And I think that's just really fun to, to be in a group and a community where we're all just, you know, chasing after the same thing. Yeah, definitely. And this is, um, this is something I just thought about. It's kind of a timely question with everything going on with Instagram. And this is, this is something I just thought about. It's kind of a timely question with everything going on with Instagram. This is more of a strategy question. But yeah, with everything that the Instagram CEO just recently announced with kind of the pivot and

the shift that they're making on the platform, have you found that that's impacted some of the advice that you're giving to people? Or does it kind of stay the same over time? Like what you were telling them before kind of still applies or what does that look like now? Yeah. So everything in Intuin is constantly being updated. So as Instagram releases new things, like we're releasing new lessons on how to implement those things. So for example, you know, when we first started Intuin, you know, this was, you know, a few years ago and photos were really big. It was like, create great content, have the aesthetic right now, you know, when we first started into in, you know, this was, you know, a few years ago and photos were really big. It was like, create great content, have the aesthetic right now, you know, a couple of years later, it's like video is everything. So what am I, you know,

what am I mostly seeing from brands? Oh, they're wanting reels or they're wanting video content in some form. They're wanting mostly what I get, you know, the most requests for is reels and stories, reels and stories, reels and stories. It's very rare nowadays that someone wants just like a regular carousel post. And if they want that, then it's usually like coupled with a reel and some stories. So, you know, that's kind of, we make that shift and we're saying, Hey, like, here's what we're seeing from brands. But the caveat with all of that is there are some brands that just want that content because they also want usage rights to that content. So they want to be able to,

you know, hire an influencer, have them take professional content, and then also not only pay them for the promotion of that content on their Instagram, but then pay them for usage rights to use that content on their owned and operated media channels. So website, their own social media, maybe even for ads. So, you know, it's going to be different per brand. And there's been a huge shift, you know, like we've seen, you know, Adam say from Instagram about, you know, it's not a photo sharing app. Doesn't mean photos are important in that no photos are going to be allowed on Instagram. It just means there's a huge shift to video, especially with the release of TikTok. And so, yeah, we are seeing brands want majority video. Doesn't mean you're not going to come across a

grant, a brand that doesn't want, you know, photo content or, you know, they just want to hire you to take content for them that you might not ever even post on your own social media accounts. But the trend is typically like you, as Instagram makes changes, TikTok, you know, any social media platform, brand partnerships do follow suit, which is why it's so important to pay attention to like what's going on on social media, because you're going to see brands, especially if they're like in with the times, as I like to say, they're going to follow suit. So like a lot of brands are wanting to work with influencers on TikTok.

Why? Because that's all the rage right now. So it's like, how can they best get in front of their ideal customers? And it's going to be in line with whatever trends are currently going on with social media. Yes, definitely. And especially starting out, and I'm sure you know this, but, you know, when you first become an influencer, you really have to be your own marketer, your own photographer, your own publicist. Like you have to do all of it.

So like you said, just really staying on top of what is going on in all of those industries really is going to help you kind of excel in that. Absolutely. Yeah. So, okay. So if someone comes to you and they say, okay, Kalia, I've never, you know, I'm not an influencer right now, but I want to be one. I want to, you know, kickstart this. I want to start making money on my business. What are some of the first steps that you would tell someone like that to take? Yes. So I have a few. So if you're listening to this and you don't have a pen and paper out, we're not taking notes. You probably don't want to take notes right now.

So first step is you want to get very clear on your niche. Now you've probably heard this a million times and I want to reframe this for you. When I say niche, I'm not talking about fashion or lifestyle or beauty. I'm talking about who you serve through the problem that you solve. So for me, my niche is, is me because I talk about everything, especially right now, wedding related. I talk about beauty, fashion, lifestyle, faith, fitness. And some people would look at that and say, Oh my gosh, that's like super overwhelming. And that's a lot, but it's actually not because I am all encompassing of my personal brand. This is all under the umbrella of who is Kaylee and Nicole and who I'm serving

are millennial women, those wanting to get into partnerships, those that are in, you know, similar season of being engaged or getting married or, you know, just like stepping into that new season, right. Or interested in faith or interested in fitness or fashion or any of that. Like there's, there's a specific audience that I'm, I'm, I'm serving and I'm solving these different problems within that. So when you're thinking of niche, if you feel very boxed in by like, I have to pick this category, branch out a little bit and think, okay, who are you serving through the problem that you're solving? And that could look like a lot of different things. I mean, even in into when we have everyone from like photographers and videographers to hairstylists, to nail techs, to those that make like DIY coffee tumblers, right?

So it's like, they're all serving, you know, different people. They're all solving different problems, but they all get to work with brands in their own right. So get very clear on who you're serving for the problem that you're solving. That's going to be your niche. And I hope that's a better way for you to not feel so boxed in by having to choose like this one category and sticking to it. And I also want to encourage you that whatever you choose right now, that's not what you

have to stay with forever and ever and ever and ever. Like one day, like five years from now, a long time from now, I want to have kids. Well, my content is going to change when I become a mother. Right. And I'm talking about family stuff. The brands I'm going to work with are going to change. So just know like what you're going to be talking about on Instagram. Like it can be very seasonal with your life.

You know, I'm not always going to be talking about being engaged because I'm not always going to be engaged. So just make sure that like, you're being very fluid with the season that you're in and just know, like, it's okay to shift. It's okay to change things up as your life changes with you. So that's number one. Number two is you want to determine the kind of content or aesthetic that you want to be known for. So like for right now, I'm known for very authentic and goofy reels. And 90% of the requests that I'm getting from brands are for authentic or goofy reels or just, you know, any kind of video content. So what kind of content

do you want to be known for? You know, we were talking about Taylor earlier. She's known as like a neutral style fashion blogger. That's what brands are going to her for. Brands are coming to me for like the goofy reels. Okay. So it's like, what do you want to be known for? What's kind of your aesthetic? My aesthetic is more so like, it's just very organic. It's just very me. Like what you see is what you get. If you were to meet me in person, it'd be the same as what you're seeing online. Like that's, that's my aesthetic. And for some other people, it's, it can be completely different. And, you know, you can have the aesthetic of like the neutral styles, or maybe you have

like an all rainbow style, you know, we see those, those influencers out there or back in the day, it was like, Oh, all like clean, crisp and white. So, you know, it's like throwbacks to all like clean, crisp and white. So, you know, it's like throwbacks to those. So there's room for everyone. The key that I want you to take away from, from this on, like, I want to be an influencer. I want to make it one K on my business. You don't have to be in a certain niche and you don't have to be in a certain aesthetic and you don't have to post a certain type of content because there's room for everyone in, in every situation. Like there's plenty of brand partnerships to go

around. There's plenty of different types to go around. And so there are some brands that like, don't want reels and I'm not someone that's over here. Like I've never owned a professional camera in my creative career. So if a brand's wanting like high-rise professional content, but they don't want to hire a photographer because I hire a photographer if a brand wants professional content and they want the creative to take the photos, they're probably going to go to someone like my friend Josie, who she owns a camera. Her husband takes all her photos

or she takes them on her tripod and they're high-res, great. She's constantly upgrading her equipment. Brands are going to go to someone like her. They want an authentic, goofy reel. You know, they're going to come to me, right? So like just to paint the picture of there's room for everyone, but you want to determine

the kind of content aesthetic you do want to be known for, because that's also going to give you confidence when you're pitching to brands because you're secure in what you can provide and how you're showing up for them. So that's number two. Number three would be to start adding some organic content, promoting brands to your current like social media strategy. So say for example, you know, we were talking about Alani new, I could post a photo or some stories. Let's say some

stories of Alani new and tag the minute and be like, love, you know, drinking a lot of news right before my workouts, right. Say that like two months from now, I want to pitch to them. And I had, you know, like a hundred people click on Alani news tags on my Instagram stories. Well, guess what? I'm going to share that data with them later on. And I'm going to show that like people are engaging with this. People are interested in this. And even with that, it'll give any kind of brand a good idea of how content performs when I'm talking about something other than just my own products or services or just me, right? If I'm promoting something else, how does my audience respond to that? So being able to have those

examples and also have a good idea for yourself when it comes to pitching is going to be really valuable because say that I, you know, post a reel about a brand and it goes amazing, but then I post about a brand and an Instagram carousel post and it completely tanks. Well, maybe, you know, you're going to want to do more testing than just one of each, but it could be a good indicator of, Ooh, maybe, you know, my audience is really engaged when I do brand partnerships via real. So that's something that I'm going to lean more towards when I'm pitching to brands. So, you know, starting that organic content is great for analytic purposes to be able to show, Hey, here are some, here's

some data on when I talked about a similar brand or when I talked specifically about your brand and how my audience responded to that. It gives you also a good idea of how your audience responds to content in general. So you know what to pitch for. And next to that, it also gives you confidence when you're talking about brands that way. You're not like, I think a lot of people stop from going into brand partnerships because they're like, I've just never done it. It's like starting is the hardest part, you know, and that's with anything. It's like taking that first step is the hardest part. So take the first step on your own and start organically talking about brands just to get comfortable with doing so. That's number three. I have two more for you to stick

with me. Number four is going to be to get on some influencer marketing platforms. So essentially, like you probably, you know, recognize when, you know, a model is signed to an agency and the agency goes out and finds them works and gets them booked for, you know, shoots or shows or what, what have you. Well, influencer marketing platforms are like that. And you can sign up for free and you get connected to different brands or can pitch to different brands based on, Hey, brand is running this campaign. They're looking for X, Y, Z influencer. You fit those requirements. So you apply, or, you know, they reach out to you and then you can start a collaboration with requirements. So you apply or, you know, they reach out to you and then you can start a collaboration with them. So some good ones, if you're like, okay, great.

Well, what kind of influencer platforms, what are they? Some ones that you can write down are aspire IQ, hashtag paid and soapbox influence. So those are some really great ones that I've seen awesome paid deals on, but also make sure to pay attention to like usage rights. If they're wanting to use your content in like perpetuity, just don't ever do that. That's a long podcast for a different day. Just watch out for things like that. Okay. And then the last one, number five is to start pitching to brands.

And this is what I teach through and through is how to actually like find brands you want to reach out to and find the direct contact to them, send them a pitch email, negotiate a paid collaboration. That's my bread and butter. And so the best way that you can start with pitching to brands is, I think a lot of people are like pitching to brands, like target right away. I'm like, you know, you totally could, if you want to go for it. But the best place that I would start is actually pitching to local brands to get some experience under your belt. So if there's a boutique that you shop at, if there's a restaurant you go to, there's a bar, maybe anything like that, start pitching to them

and start getting like that experience under your belt to get more confidence and like assurance of like how partnerships work. And it's just really fun to partner local and you likely already have like a very low. So you already have great data leverage to give them and be like, Hey, you know, like 50% of my audience is based in XYZ city. You're based in this city. So like, let's work together because we're going to reach exactly who you're wanting to reach. So those would kind of be like my five starting points.

If you're like, Hey, I want to be an influencer and make one K on my business. Where do I start? Yes. That's amazing. And there's so many side tangents. I'm sure that could go with each of those points. I'm like, my brain is just going through like, oh my gosh, like there's so many different things we could talk about here.

But if you guys do not follow Kalia already, she has a lot of specific examples about each of these points she talked about. And it's just some amazing advice. And of course, sign up for end to end when the opportunity arises. But so if someone so someone comes to you, they say, I want to be an influencer. Is the answer ever you can't do this or you're not, you know, set up to have brand collaborations? Basically, are there any reasons that someone cannot start working with brands just right off the bat? Yeah. So I would

say like anybody can work with brands, but there are caveats if you want to see like true long-term success and right off the bat, like you start pitching and you're like, okay, I'm starting to see some traction. So the biggest reason like someone, you know, couldn't start working with brands, or I would suggest maybe pauses and does this first before they start working with brands is to make sure you have that established brand yourself, right? Make sure that you have your niche down, make sure that, you know, you kind of have a determination on like the content and the aesthetic that you want to be known for that you started doing some organic partnerships, right? The things that we just kind of went over because you want to make sure that

when you're reaching out to brands, like you're set, it's not like you're reaching out and they're like, what did this girl just start? You know, like you don't kind of want to have that vibe when you're reaching out to brands. And so it's not necessarily like a matter of, Oh, your followers are the end all be all factor because I've seen, you know, students with a thousand followers or even 500 followers, let's say with, you know, they have the established brand. They reach out at 500 to a thousand followers and are landing paid partnerships. I've also seen people that have 500 to a thousand followers that don't have an established brand

and they're, you know, scratching their head. Like, why can't I land anything? And it's because a brand doesn't know like who you are in terms of who you're serving, the content that you're doing, like what kind of products and services you'd be good for promoting. Like they don't know because you don't have an established brand yourself. So it's not about follower count. And I think that's one of the number one things that everyone gets so caught up on when it comes to brand partnerships. It's not about that. Like that's not the end all be all here, but you have to have an established brand because a brand isn't going to work. You know, it's like, you don't want to work with a brand that seems

sketchy, you know? And it's like, Oh, they have like, you know, 10 posts and it's like, Oh, it looks like they just started out. You know what I mean? Like, so flip that situation. Is a brand going to want to spend money on you out of their marketing budget? If they're like, Ooh, I think that she's like literally just started. I'm not really sure like what she talks about or like the aesthetic she's going for, you know what I mean? Like, I just, I don't know. So I would say that's kind of like the biggest thing that holds, um, that I would say like, Hey, pause, figure that out and then come and work with brands, right? Like figure that out, then come and join into it. And even an into, and we have a module on Instagram, but it's not necessarily like,

okay, starting from the ground up, here's how to build your Instagram. It is more of an advanced module where it's gonna walk you through, okay, you have your brand, here's how to fine tune it to make sure that your page is attractive to brands looking to hire you for campaigns. But you just wanna really make sure,

like have the established brand before you start reaching out to brands to work with them. Yeah, exactly. And I tell the same thing to brands themselves too. Like when we're going to market people, it's like if you don't have your, you know, mission statement locked down exactly who you're trying to serve, your target market kind of dialed in, there's no way that we can come in and market you because you don't even know who you are. We don't know who you are. You know, in order to correctly promote yourself on social, I think like what you said, you kind of have to have that niche down and all of that information kind of locked in already. So how you go about reaching out to a brand. But let's just say someone offers you a free collaboration first, and you're currently only taking on paid collaborations. How and you kind of made a post about this recently, but how do you kind of come back at them? And what do you say to say, hold on, like, that's great. And I appreciate that. But like,

I'm only working on paid collaborations currently. Yeah. So essentially what, you know, I'm just going to respond back and be completely straightforward about that. Right. Like, I'm not going to go in and be like, oh, okay, well, like, I'm not doing those. So like, sorry, you know, so I might reach out and say something back of like, you know, hey, thank you so much for like reaching out and extending the opportunity to work together. Like I'm definitely interested in partnering up. So make sure that you share that interest that you do want to work with them. And then you can kind of end that with saying like, at this moment, I'm focused on paid partnerships. So I'm unable to commit to like a gifted exchange deal or, um, product for post deal or, you know,

something like that along those lines. Um, do you have any interest in paid partnerships this season? You know, I'm looking forward to chatting more and kind of leave it like that. That's going to be more of like the safe option. If you want to be like, okay, I'm not feeling too bold. I want to keep it safe and just see like, do they even have a budget? Right. So if you're just starting out, go ahead and use that. Or if you're like, you know what, I just kind of want to see like what they say. Go ahead and use that.

On the alternative, if you're wanting to be a little bit bolder, you can basically say the same thing at the start. Like, you know, thank you so much for reaching out and extending the opportunity to work together. Like I'm interested in partnering with you. And then if they have mentioned, this is only going to work really if they had mentioned in their initial email, like, hey, we're looking for like one Instagram post and a story set in exchange for, you know, this t-shirt.

Okay. So what I'm going to say is, you know, for the proposed deliverables and deliverables are just like the fancy influencer marketing term for content, right? Deliverables are like real post stories, all of that. So for the proposed deliverables, my rates start at X amount for, you know, an Instagram post and X amount for three stories, you know, do those rates align with your budget in this season? Um, or, you know, do those work for your current budget? Does that, does that work, you know, for your campaign budget, whatever,

I'm looking forward to chatting more. And that's kind of like the two different options that I'll use when it comes to, you know, switching that from like gifted into something paid, but the biggest mistake that people make with, Oh, I'm just getting free stuff. I'm not ever getting paid. I'll ask all the time. Okay. Well, did you ask to be paid? And they're like, no, I'm like, okay, well, how can you just assume a brand is going to throw money at you when you don't even ask? You know what I mean? It's like, you know, just assuming your boss is going to give you a salary without asking for a raise. It just doesn't work like that.

If you want to be paid, start asking to be paid. And that's kind of my, my tough love for, for this podcast interview. Um, if you want to be paid, ask to be paid. The amount of times that my students have gotten paid because they've simply asked is absolutely bonkers because it happens almost, you know, I want to say every single time, but majority of the time, especially considering like before they started into in post into it, and now they know how to negotiate and ask to be paid. And they're like, Oh my gosh, wow. Wow. I'm actually getting paid to do this. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Cause you're asking what you should be

doing. Okay. So if you're listening to this and you're like, I've been doing so many free collaborations, I haven't turned them into paid ones. I'm scared to ask. I don't know how to negotiate. Just ask, just ask what's the worst they can do. Say no. My like, I need to start making like this on t-shirts and mugs. And I've been saying it for the last two and a half or almost three years.

And this is like, my quote is you'd rather hear a no than never know. You'd rather them say, no, we don't have the budget for that. Then for you to be like, man, I wonder what would have happened if I'd asked. Yeah. Because what happens, what happens if you, what happens when you ask and they're like, Oh my God, yeah, we totally have a budget. Like, how is this? And you're just like, Oh, like imagine if you didn't ask and you just would have done it. So ask for the money, like ask to be paid. Like you're, you're worth it. You deserve to be paid for the work that you're doing, but you're not going to get paid if you never asked because brands aren't

just going to throw money at you because if they can get someone to do work for free, why not? Why, why not? They can save more of their budget. So, you know, ask there if they don't have a budget, they're going to let you know, but at least, you know, you tried. Yep. Yep. And I think the other thing that you'd probably agree with me on is like, don't undervalue yourself. Like if you have this number in mind that you feel like you are worth, don't like second guess it and be like, Oh, well, like, I think they might be more comfortable with X instead of Y, you know, because that you might be surprised, like you could offer a certain number to a client, and they'd be totally okay with it, you know, so it's like, don't undervalue yourself, share what you're worth, you know, be confident in that and just push forward and you'll be surprised what could happen. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So, um, when someone, you kind of talked a little bit about some mistakes that people make early on, but would you say, are there any other common mistakes when someone's gearing up to start, go towards that first 1K that they're trying to make? What are some common things that they're doing and how can they avoid them?

Yeah. So one that you actually just mentioned was pricing yourself too low and not even just because of, oh, it's this budget in mind they might have. So let me go a little bit lower. It's because a lot of people price themselves too low because they're only charging for how many followers they have but the problem with that is that's only like an advertising rate like what about your time that you're taking to create the content what about the expenses that you have to you know reimburse for having to create that content any props gas tolls if you had to hire a photographer, a videographer, you should be

on top of that for access to your audience. And then also for how much time you're spending on that. And I suggest coming up with an hourly rate and having like, okay, on average, it takes me X amount of hours to do, you know, create an Instagram post and get it up on my feed. And I'm going to charge X amount per hour to do that. Add that with an advertising rate for access to your audience. And then also make sure that you add in per hour to do that. Add that with an advertising rate for access to your audience. And then also make sure that you add in your expenses to get that covered too. And basically like break even on that end. So you're not paying out of pocket for what it costs to get the content they needed.

So that'd be one of the biggest mistakes I see. A second big mistake would be just only reaching out to national name brands. So that's saying like, oh, I'm only going to reach out to like Target, Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, and Forever 21. Like those are the only ones I'm going to reach name brands. So that's saying like, Oh, I'm only going to reach out to like target Nordstrom, urban outfitters and forever 21. Like those are the only ones I'm going to reach out to like diversify your outreach efforts, like pitch to more local brands and even pitch to more niche too. So like for me being in fitness, you might not know a brand like Alphalete or girlfriend collective. Maybe you're listening and you do that's more niche though. Like if you're in fitness, if you're in like that industry, even Alani New, we were talking about that.

Like, you know, not a lot of people would know Alani New. You might know more so like a Celsius or what about 3D energy drinks? You know about 3D? More niche, right? So those like in between like local and national brands are going to be your niche brands. And you want to, you know, kind of diversify, oh, a little bit of local, a little bit of niche, a little bit of those kinds of national brands. Number three, I would say is, you know, a lack of diversity in your offers. So the more that you can offer brands, the more paid opportunities that

you have. So if you come into brands and you're like, Oh yeah, I only ever do Instagram posts. Well, you're really limiting yourself in terms of what you can offer for them. So for me with, you know, and I really leverage, like, not just like my content creation skills, but my life skills, you know, I, I have the gift of gab and I could talk forever and ever and ever about a lot of different things, especially about brand partnerships and just marketing in general. And so what I've actually done to leverage that is I have done pitches in meetings for national brands, talking to the brand as, as to why they should hire influencers and work with influencers and the value of that. I've done interviews backstage at New York fashion week. I've done interviews for, you know, a national brand for a country music festival or like a concert that they put on. It's actually like, it's pretty much like a festival, like a country music festival. I did interviews behind the scenes with country music artists because I'm leveraging, like, I love talking to people. I love doing interviews. I love hosting. I've hosted events for brands because I love hosting events. I've done, you know, Instagram

story takeovers. I've done, um, IGTV videos. I've done reels. I've done stories. I've done Instagram posts. I can create content for you. I can do a social media plan for a brand if they want that. Like there's so many things that I can provide for a brand. And that makes me a lot more valuable as a creative and influencer, because instead of them having to hire, you know, five different influencers to do all these different jobs, they can hire me as one person and I can do all five of those jobs as one person. So the more that you can leverage, like just your overall skill sets as an individual and overlap those with brand partnerships, the more success that you're going to see. So don't limit yourself. Like the more that you can do, the more paid

opportunities that you will have. And then the last mistake that I would say is, and this is probably arguably the most important is having a limited mindset. So like, we could talk about all the strategies in the world. I could give you all the tips and all the advice in the world, but if you just don't believe you're ever going to find success in this industry or that you're valuable, or if you've anything to offer, um, you know, always just stay an imposter syndrome, all of that, or that there's just not enough room at the table for you, or it's too saturated. If you just always believe that, like none of the strategy matters, like none of the strategy matters. And that's why in, into, in, we literally start the entire course out with mindset. I don't

teach you from the start how to pitch to brands. I'm like, because we need to get your mindset right first. And funny enough, the most talked about the most mentioned and commented on module and into in is the one about mindset. Cause that's the number one thing that always holds creatives back from working with brands is just like what they believe about themselves and the value. So that's, that's like the biggest thing is like work on your mindset, like really shift that. And that's why I encourage, like, you know, if you're interested in into it and you're really scared, good jump in scared because otherwise you're never going to jump in and you're always going to be a little scared. Like anytime you make an investment or anytime you

take a chance on yourself or your business, or you take that leap of faith, you make that risk. Like it's scary. Absolutely. But it's like the goal you always hear, like feel the fear and then do it anyway, because otherwise you're just going to constantly stay where you're at, but you've got to work on your mindset. If you want to find success in this industry, because having, having a limited mindset is just, it's not going to get you anywhere. And it's going to hold you back from truly finding success because you just never believe that that success is going to be possible for you. Yep. Yep. Oh my goodness. Preach. Yes. Yes. So good. Yeah. I think some of the biggest things I've seen with, with some people and friends that I have is just constantly comparing themselves to others. You know, they got more likes than I did. They, you know, they have nicer clothes than I do. Their photos are nicer than mine. You know, it's like that. If you get stuck on that all day, you are never going to move forward and what you're trying to do. And this goes for anything like not just being an influencer. Yeah. And so I think I love what you were saying, you know, just again, do you find what you're

good at kind of leverage that and get creative with it. You don't have to fit into this box of what people think an influencer is. And that totally fine so yes great great advice um so you do some you kind of talked about a minute ago some of the collaborations that you're currently doing or have done yes um and with the wedding coming up I know you've shared with me a little bit about uh you know trying to pull in some collaborations for that as well oh yeah so you're yes you're still doing those, which is awesome. So not only coaching people, but still doing some collaborations yourself.

But do you have any dream collaborations and brands that you haven't worked with yet? You know, I do. Oh man. I think at the top of the list, it's probably for a lot of people would be Target. I mean, what a dream. That'd be amazing. Next to that, in terms of like faith, like I would love to work

with like thrive Bible or daily grace co. Um, I am an alpha lead Stan. So I would die to work for them or just like, I would model for them. I would love to do that. Um, Southwest airlines, Southwest airlines, my heart, I've flown them all my life Midwest folks know yes because I grew up in the Midwest I grew up in Ohio that's always what I flew um going from here you know to Florida and everything and so love Southwest those are at the top of the list and then honestly like I had a ton of dream collaborations for the wedding and I actually landed I think I had like 15 in mind and I landed 12 out of the 15, which is really, really exciting. Yeah. I was very excited. Yeah. And I just, um,

currently in collaboration with David's bridal, which is really exciting. And then we've been able to work with like a lot of our vendors on really unique collaboration opportunities, which has been so much fun and just doing like a lot of fun and exciting things for the wedding. And, um, even for like the bachelor trip that's coming up and all of that. So it's been fun to do wedding ones. I love, love, love teaching about like pitching for life events. So wedding honeymoon, like your birthday or moving, you're going back to school, like anything like that, anything big that's happening. I love,

or having a baby like life events, like big things that are going on, you know, that are coming up for you. It's like or even like traveling, like there's so many things that you could pitch for. And even things that you could just be getting for free, like free hotel stays or free dinners out on a restaurant, like while you're traveling with you know, your friends or you know, your partner or whatever. And so it's just it's really fun to help people just brainstorm like the possibilities because they're genuinely like endless. Yes. Yes. I agree. And probably so much fun for you just to like put everything to the ultimate test with the wedding. I'm sure that's so cool just to see that all play

out, but absolutely amazing. That's so awesome. So, um, you've been talking end to end. I know that closes tomorrow. Tomorrow's the 27th when we're recording this, correct? So technically that closes out. But you did mention a few days ago, you may have a special offer for people past that deadline. Love to hear about that. Yes.

So we only open end to end about two to three times a year. And it is a course. So it is completely self-paced. You do get lifetime access when you join. And so knowing that you might be like, okay, well, why don't you just keep it at open enrollment the entire time? The reason that we don't is because we like to open it in different semesters, allow a group of women to come in, be able to kind of go through that course, like with their, their group that they joined with, get the help. Like we want to pour into them. We want to serve them. And then we take a lot of time to listen to them because any changes and updates that we make to Intuin is actually all based on the feedback of the students inside the course. So we take time to listen. And then that leads to us making changes, additions, and improvements to the course

to make it better and better every single semester that comes after that. So we only open two to three times a year. Well, this time, because I'm getting married in a couple of months, we're only opening it twice. And so we just did a launch, you know, for the only second launch of this year. And then we've closed it until 2022. So we can make those updates. However, if you're listening to this and you're like, holy stinking cow, I need into it. Like, this is exactly what I've been looking for. Everything

you said, Kaylee, I was like, spot on. I need the help. Like I'm ready to start making this dream a reality. I want to monetize my influence and I want to work with my dream brand partners. Then DM me at Kaylee and Nicole with two E's at the end. I'm on Instagram and I'm sure that'll probably be linked below and everything, but shoot me a DM. Let me know that you listened to this podcast and I might be able to help you out considering I run the course. There we go. All right, guys, do not sleep on this. I am not kidding. I see the results first hand online and it is amazing. You guys have to jump on this and you'll not be back until what like January February one of those I don't even know we don't even have a date set for

2022 so definitely DM me if you want to get in before that because it's just going to depend on the season like we have the wedding and then it's the honeymoon I want to enjoy being a wife and it's my birthday then it's the holidays. So I'm just like, enjoying being alive, honestly, for the next few months. I think I'm going to launch into one again. And so it'll probably end up being in the first quarter. If I know myself, I know my team will probably end up doing it in Q1 of 2022. But we don't have any dates set right now. So if you're wanting to get in, and you're listening to this, and you're like, I want to be in there before 2022. I do not want to wait until you open this up again, shoot me a DM. Like I said, I might be able to hook you up. There we go. There we go. That is amazing. So

remind us again where everyone can connect with you at. And again, we will be linking that down below, but Kaylee, what is some good ways to connect with you? Yes. So best way to connect with me is going to be over on Instagram. That is my, my favorite platform to be on my handles at Kaylee and Nicole. So K-A-H-L-E-A N-I-C-O-L-E-E two E's at the end. And that's where you can find me and shoot me a DM. Even if you're like, I'm not really interested in into and right now, but I just love to connect with you. And you're listening to this, like, please DM me. I would also love to connect with you. Yes. Yes. Well, thank you so much for sharing this with us. I know this has been such valuable information, even for me.

I learn stuff seriously, like every time I talk to you. So I'm so thankful for you. I'm so thankful for you coming on. And I'm sure everyone will get so much out of this. Yes. Well, thank you so much for having me. Whoa, I'm still digesting everything Kalia had to say. She's such a powerhouse in the influencer space. If you want to chat more about anything in this episode, please send us a DM and follow along with us on our Instagram at marketing happy hour. That's at marketing happy HR.

If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to rate and leave a review and tune in next week for something out of this world. Yes, you guessed it. Next week's guest is Sylvester Placid from NASA, who will be sharing some fantastic career tips that I truly enjoyed hearing. Catch you then.