Marketing Happy Hour - How to Stay Ahead in Influencer Marketing | Giselle Huasipoma of a Major Fashion Brand

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

In this episode, Erica and Giselle discuss the role authenticity plays in influencer marketing, differences in partnerships across industries, and more! Meet Our Guest, Giselle Huasipoma: Giselle Huasipoma is a multi-faceted influencer marketing professional with five years in the digital realm. With a background spanning influence, social, community, and content creation, she has partnered with dozens of household brands across several sectors including retail, fashion, beauty, food & beverage, consumer packaged goods, e-commerce, and tech. With a 360° lens on influencer marketing through talent management, PR, and in-house experience, she has elevated brands through small yet mighty collaborations to large, integrated activations by weaving in her wisdom as a Gen Z consumer and first-generation Latina. She has been featured in The Guardian, Ad Age, Vogue Business, and the AIC (American Influencer Council) for her Gen Z and the Creator Economy expertise. Connect with Giselle: LinkedIn ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and let us know which bonus episodes you're excited for - 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. ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our FREE MHH Insiders online community to connect with Millennial and Gen Z marketing professionals around the world!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get the latest from MHH, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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.

This week, we're thrilled to have Giselle joining us. She's a multifaceted influencer marketing professional with five years of experience working with brands across fashion, beauty, tech, and more. With a 360 view on the industry through talent management, PR, and in-house roles, Giselle has elevated brands with both small and large campaigns by weaving in her Gen Z perspective and first-generation Latina background. Featured in major publications like Vogue Business and Ad Age, for her experience in the creator economy, she's here to share how she keeps strategies cutting edge, builds authentic brand partnerships, and offers insights into the future of influencer marketing. You know the drill, grab your favorite beverage because it's time

to get into the conversation. Hi Giselle, how are you doing? Hey, I'm doing well. How are you? So well. So excited to chat with you today and learn a lot about your experience. But first, we have to know what's in your glass this afternoon. It's a question we ask all of our guests and we want to know what's in yours too. Yeah. Today I have my green tea. She's my go-to all the time. Every time I work from home, it's my green tea. I love that. We love a good tea beverage over here. I used to work in a tea shop, which is something not a lot of people know about me. So every time someone mentions tea, I'm like, Ooh, what kind, but I don't want to be like intrusive and like, uh, ask what kind. So, um, I actually have the Olipop root beer ever since we had Izzy from their team on our show, I've been wanting to make a root beer float. And I just haven't had

root beer and ice cream at the same time. So now I finally do it's in a cute beer float and I just haven't had root beer and ice cream at the same time. So now I finally do. It's in a cute little glass and I'm so hyped that that's my beverage today was in my glass. I haven't had a root beer in forever either. I know I actually was never a fan of root beer and the only root beer that I like, well, I'm not really a soda or like pop girl anyway, but the only root beer that I like is Olipop. So huge shout out to them because it's actually so good. Okay. Well, we want to dive in. Let's go ahead and get into it. Tell us about your career journey so far. How did you get to where you are today? Yeah. I feel like it's such a weird story. I feel like anybody who's like in marketing comms PR has like such a weird background and ends up somewhere super cool.

But my background, I would have to like throw it all the way back to literally my first job is how I found out that I wanted to like fall into influencer marketing. And I always say it was kind of a mistake of how I found out about it because it was never really like something I was pursuing. But I was working in retail as a sales associate. I was working at American Eagle and I randomly just wanted to take over their store's social media page because at the time I was also a student, just like fully a sophomore in college. And I was learning about like traditional and modern marketing. And there was very much like no information about modern marketing. And when there was, it was just briefly like, here's social media, next thing, we're going

to go back into PR, you know? So like, it wasn't so much about like all the cool, fun stuff. And I wanted to learn more about that. And I was like was like well with the two classes that I know about I want to apply the knowledge I have into the role I currently have because I could not find an internship as a sophomore so I kind of just created my own thing um but that small experience of like running that social page that was at like a mere 100 followers of like the random people in my town. I ended up growing it, built it up to about, I believe like 700 followers before I left. And I started to gain a lot of recognition from the district and the regions. They ended up telling me to run their pages and then corporate ended up finding out. And then they were like, wait, we kind of want

to do this across all the American Eagle and Aries in the US. And then I was kind of brought on as their intern during COVID. I was working in the store for two seconds before COVID shut down and then came back into the stores, but then was also working remote with them to expand this, what was called like my AE ambassador thing. And that was kind of like my first internship, a very, very weird one, but that's kind of how I wanted to dip my toes into social because I thought that's what I wanted to do with social media marketing. Ended up taking a handful of other internships that taught me about social media marketing. And then I quickly noticed, I don't want to do this. I was like, actually, this is not as fun as they make it out to be. This is very repetitive content calendars, a lot, a lot of community management, a lot of back and forth internally, a lot of like pitching your

ideas left and right and getting turned down over and over again, which I believe is whatever career you do, you always get turned down and be told no, but it felt extremely severe in social media marketing. And I was like, what is like this, but not really this. And I'm still in this realm. And I started taking internships in influencer marketing. And that's when I was like, what is like this, but not really this. And I'm still in this realm. And I started taking internships in influencer marketing. And that's when I noticed like, this is my space. And it also allows me to just chat forever and never shut up, which also helps out my career. I feel like for social, I would talk to my peers here and there and be talking to people like online, but it wasn't very communicative the way that I am today with talent managers and talent directly and like my entire team and external partners and licensees.

Like it's just like so many more people and I would rather have that chaos and have the chaos of the calendar. So yeah, that's, that's kind of how I fell into, into influencer marketing. And then I worked at a PR agency. I worked at Edelman for two and a half years. I was there as a junior coordinator full-time. And then I started working in their Gen Z lab about a year into it as well. And I got the crazy cool opportunity to work on a bunch of different brands, not just the one main client I was working for, which at the time was eBay. I was working within like a lot of their different like fashion sectors, handbags, watches, jewelry, things like that, which really interested me because obviously I came from that background

to begin with. So worked with a lot of different brands across like tech, health, food and bev, et cetera. And yeah, I started working in beauty as well for MAC Cosmetics while I was there. That was another client I worked with. That was really, really fun. And then I bounced and now I'm at my current job and I work at a very fun fashion company. Oh my gosh, that is so fun. And I love how you talk a lot about like the non-traditional beginning to your career because you kind of like crafted a new wave for the AE ambassador program, which is so cool. And I think a lot of brands

are trying to do that today as well. And it kind of goes back to like that Gen Z perspective of like, what is the future? Like, where are we going with marketing and social and influencer and all of that? How do you think that you've been able to offer that Gen Z perspective to the brands that you've worked for? And how would you kind of encourage any other Gen Z professionals listening to step into their roles

with kind of that confidence and just like knowing that brands truly need that fresh perspective in order to be successful moving forward in marketing? Yeah, I feel like no matter what the meeting was, like I was always speaking up. And that's something that I still carry today. And that's something that I will continue to carry throughout my career. And that's something that I, I really try to advocate for, for Jen's years is like, just shove yourself into the meeting, like as to be a part of something, even if you can just be like a fly on the wall, like tell your manager, your coworker, whoever's like above you, like, I will shove myself in a corner and like, shut up. You won't even see me. You won't even hear me. Like, I just want to know what's happening behind the scenes. Cause like, it's so interesting to see what's happening above you. And a lot of the times things get funneled down from way up top and you don't really get a clear explanation as to why there might be a shift in strategy or an influencer or whatever. And that's something that I always advocated for. And I would always try to just ask a question, like literally just, just talk to people. And that's like, that's

something that I always, I always ask for. And I would say for brands specifically, I always tell anybody who works at a brand works directly with a brand. Like you need to have Gen Z in the room. Like it's so crucial. It gets so cringy when you start seeing things that are rolling out like weeks after and you're like, this is so dead. Like, it's just so dead. And then you're like, why isn't the engagement great? It's a trendy topic. I'm like, no, it's not.

That died two weeks ago. It's just, it's really, really bad. It's awkward. It's cringy. And you can tell, you can really tell when a brand does not have Gen Z in the room and it's, it's sad. Yeah, absolutely. And that's a conversation that we continue to have, especially because we know a lot of brands do have like some of those legal hoops to jump through and things like that before they can go live with something. And we're always like, well then just don't go

live with that. And like, if it's like the moment has passed, don't worry about it. Okay. I want to hear too, like you've worked in a wide range of sectors from tech to fashion and like all of these different things. Could you share an example of an influencer campaign in any of those industries that you found particularly innovative or successful? What do you think made it stand out? Yeah, I would say, and I feel like this is still kind of my favorite project to date is the eBay Streetwear pop up that I did with my team back in November. That was really, really fun. Like, obviously the pop-up was in New York and we didn't pull all these bells and whistles of like, let's fly people out from Cali. Let's have like a really cool artist show up. Like, let's have some mega VIP influencer.

Like it was none of that. And to be completely transparent, like that was something that was happening in the conversations where I, again, was having that opportunity to be like, Hey, there's a bunch of VPs in this room, like C-suite executives, like trying to plan this entire thing. And everybody kept throwing that around and being like, we want somebody who's VIP. We want so-and-so artists. And it's like, why are we doing all this? Like, why are we going to blow our entire budget on somebody and then have like two other random influencers show up? Like that doesn't make sense. And it always came back to the conversation of community and finding just extremely high

drivers in mid-tier and micro influencers versus finding like just one huge person. What is that going to do for us? In the long run, it didn't help because we have done that in the past. And I just advocated for that. I pushed for that. I was like, let's do mid-tier micro. And if it flops, fine, we'll never do it again. But you'll be able to see the difference in engagement.

And I was right. And I was very happy. I was right. Cause I was like putting too many eggs in one basket. I'm like, but with, with my team and shout out to, to Eric Lynn and Andre Yearwood, they were so great in advocating for me and like uplifting me as well and saying like, Hey, we also agree. Like this would make sense.

Like here are the numbers and like, you know, just pulling up the data. And again, it was we also agree. Like this would make sense. Like here are the numbers and like, you know, just pulling up the data. And again, it was based in community. It was all like New York city based influencers within like that streetwear hub community, people who built up a lot of different brands and have partnered with previous partners as well. Similar to, to eBay as well to drive that into that pop-up store. And it went really, really well. Everybody was also like mutual. So it kind of felt like a hangout, like you're shopping with your friends a bit. And a lot of organic content was created that was not even, you know, contracted. So that was really easy to be a part of as well and like execute. Yeah. Oh, that's so awesome. And what would you say,

like the KPIs of an event like that are like, I know you're saying the community and generating some of those posts. And obviously there were some people contracted to post. But what are the general KPIs when you're thinking about an in-person event like that? I would say for that one specifically, like the point wasn't just for people to come in and specifically like spend their coins because it was a three day event. And it was like first day was just open to press and influence. And then the other two days were open to the public.

It wasn't so forceful of saying like, we need people to spend money. We need people to like spend all their money on all the cool stuff we have in here. Like that wasn't the point. It was more of like the awareness and the consideration of like, hey, here's eBay. Like we sell cool streetwear stuff, you know, like that was more of the push versus pushing for purchase intent. And I feel like this is something that I've also spoken about on LinkedIn is like, maybe purchase intent is something that's like a secondary thing for you as a KPI, but it really shouldn't be the main priority because you can tell when it's very ad-like and it's very much like pushed of like,

we need to sell, we need to sell. Like that's not, it's not genuine and it's not exciting to work on, on my end, on the agency. When I was there on the brand side for the influencers, it's not fun to be like, come shop this, like click the link here. Like, it's just so boring and redundant. I would say those were the main drivers is mainly, it was just like the consideration the awareness of like we exist like think about us next time yeah versus a lot of sales yeah the consideration piece is definitely huge especially if like there is a large portion of the population that doesn't know that like this sector exists on let's say eBay like I would not have known that they had streetwear so just like the fact that there were people talking about it is huge. And so I think a lot of brands, you know, as we look

to the future in 2025 and beyond, like all those conversations that we're having about community, about being authentic, about actually making an influencer or a creator feel like they're a part of what's happening at the brand and like bringing that to life versus just like a transaction, you know, you know, partner is huge moving forward. I love that. I wanted to ask you about like any key differences or differences in focus between industries like fashion versus tech or any of those other industries that you've been a part of when it comes to influencer marketing are there any areas that are different that you would say I would say when it comes to influencer marketing yes um and I feel like the two main ones I can compare the most would be fashion and beauty and you would think that they're kind of similar

yeah not like they're really really different and that wasn't that was always like my second space of like what if like what if I worked in beauty and I had the opportunity to do so and it's very different in the way that they work with influencers um I feel like there's a lot more storytelling going on when it comes to makeup because there's only so much you can get out of somebody like applying a blush or like a gel it's like okay well now what like you, like you have to tell some sort of story while you're applying that makeup or like not just be talking about the brands, but how the brand connects to you. And I think that's in a way where fashion is trying to lean towards now is more

storytelling because you think of fashion and it's a lot of like try on hauls. It's just like, here's my pair of jeans. Like here's my tank top. on hauls. It's just like, here's my pair of jeans. Like here's my tank top. Like here's my jacket. And like, that's it. And then you're like, oh, that's super cute. I'm going to buy that. Versus like the connection that makeup and skincare has to, to a person is very different.

So I would say those two sectors were, were really, really different. And I feel like a lot of the brands that I've worked with have just been super huge and kind of stand on their own. So that's another thing that I'm just like, kind of, everyone's a little bit the same in a way, right? Like everybody kind of does the same thing and tries to figure out like, what is their niche that they should fall into of like, should we only work with mid-tier influencers? Should we only work with those very like high impact driven mega influencers, you know?

So I feel like it all depends on the campaign as well. Like, I don't think you should always be putting all your eggs in one basket the same way I did, which is like, giving up a crap, but like, I want to try it out. And it worked. But it's good to always, you know, like test drive things and see like, what works out for your brand and the campaign. And obviously, if you have the budget to do it to try it out. I want to know what you would say to like, someone listening who hasn't even dabbled at all in influencer marketing. So say they work at like a small to medium-sized brand and they're looking to get started. What do you think a good first intro campaign would be? Like, what do you

think the mix of like tiers of influencer, how do you think they could get the best bang for their buck I would say you should start with gifting even as like a huge brand we still do giftings and that's because you start a relationship somewhere and on the other end I feel like I see some mixed reviews on like an influencer's perspective being like well I don't know if I want to accept a gift because like, I'm not getting paid. And I'm like, well, if it's your first time receiving a gift, just take the gift. If you're going to use it and it's not down your alley, be honest and say like, Hey, honestly, I don't think this makes sense for me. Like, thank you. But if it does, like you should open those doors and you should be connecting with those influencers

that are actually aligned with your brand. So I think that's another thing. Like if you're first starting to look into influencers and seeing maybe I should implement influencer marketing into my strategy, don't just grab a random bunch of people. Like you really want it to be targeted and you want it to make sense on their feed and you want it to be organic and you want to hope that they will post about it as a gifting. Cause it would make sense. I don't say that, but then also like just stalking people and seeing, have they tried my brand? Have they tried my product on their own? It's a lot of social listening, which again is why I say like influencers, like the little sister of, of social media marketing is like, you always have to be friends

with your social partners and like, see like what's going on to see, are they actually using the brand? Are they using the product? Does it make sense to reach out? But yeah, I would say gifting is a really good first step. Yeah. I'm so glad you said that because we get that question a lot of like, okay, I want to get started, but I don't know where.

And so we always say something like that, like pay attention to the people who are already talking about you and see how there's a way that you can step in and authentically create a partnership there, whether that's through a gifting program, or maybe you throw a little budget at that. You never know. I want to hear, we've talked a little bit about like authenticity and like community and moving forward, how we're going to be talking about that even more in the future of influencer marketing. But I want to hear if there's any other predictions that you have for the future of influencer as we kind of look forward to 2025 and beyond.

Yeah, I feel like definitely those two things and people kind of cringe at the word authenticity, but that's really what I'm heading towards is that in the relatability and like storytelling. I would say those three things but what I've been hearing a lot of which is honestly freaking me out a little bit um I go to a lot of in-person events like I try to mix and mingle with people even outside of like just my fashion bubble because I know that there's stuff going on out there which is also why I joined the Gen Z Lab program to like kind of see what is happening outside of what I'm doing and I try to do that today with events everyone in different sectors not just fashion it's telling me that they're jumping on YouTube like from a perspective and that's freaking me out a little bit because

like professionally we're not tapping into that right now yeah and I'm like oh my god not another platform I'm a little worried on it, but it's something to keep your eye on because it's like, if other people are doing it and there's like murmurs in the industry already happening, I'm like, you know, I just need to keep my eye on that and like, just do my own research on my own time and see like, is that something we should move towards or like what's happening with like YouTube shorts and stuff like that. And I feel like there's always that big battle and debate of like, what's going to be next between short form and long form, like who is going to be the next thing. And I, I literally,

I couldn't tell you wrong. I hope it's still because to be reviewing a video, like I review content on a day to day to reviewing a two minute video, like 15 influencers, I'll be done with my day by that time. Like, Oh my goodness. Yeah. I haven't even heard a lot of like going back to YouTube, but I have heard a lot of like reverting back to old things. So like blog posts or like, um, old, like ways of posting on Instagram. So like going back to like this one static image, and I'm like, really, like, we're, we're not moving forward. We're like going back. That's so crazy to me. But you're right. I also work in influencer on my day to day. And I feel like if we were having to review like 20 minute long videos on YouTube, I don't know what I would do. I'd be

so upset. But I am currently working on a campaign that has deliverables on LinkedIn. And so that's super interesting to me that I feel like some companies are starting to even tap into influencer there. So it'll be interesting to see all the different platforms that we do tap into in the future. But YouTube is an interesting one I haven't even thought about, honestly. I don't want to go back to that. I want to hear a little bit about, you've been featured in some major publications like Vogue Business and Ad Age. How do you kind of stay ahead of trends and ensure your strategies remain cutting edge in order for some of those publications to tap into your expertise and find you and

have you weigh in on the conversations they're having on their platforms? Yeah, I feel like honestly, I'm just chronically online. Like my phone is so bad. But besides just like influencer, like I love to stay up to date on pop culture in general and like entertainment. I love to listen to like brain rock podcasts by like influencers. And I feel like that's what also keeps me up to date on pop culture in general and like entertainment I love to listen to like brain rock podcasts by like influencers and I feel like that's what also keeps me up to date because I can just put something on in the background and just go about my day um I'll even listen to like those brain rock podcasts while I'm like reviewing content because I'm like I need to be in like every direction um I would say that's kind of how I stay up to date on trends. I'm always doing that when

I'm not listening to podcasts. I am on LinkedIn and also like keeping up to date with people through there. I'm seeing like what everybody else is up to. And again, connected with a lot of different people outside of just fashion, I think is really important. Like don't just shove yourself into whatever sector industry you're in. Like you have a lot to learn from other places. And that's like a big piece of advice I would give um and you never know what's happening like on the tech side or like on the food and bev side that could transfer like transfer over to to something like fashion or something like beauty in the next couple weeks which is again why I'm like kind of scared about the youtube of it all so it's a little worrying um Yeah, I feel like that's kind of what keeps me cutting edge. And

I don't know, I guess I'm just like a Gen Zer that's always on my phone. I'm always on TikTok. Yeah, I know. I feel like if any older generations are listening, they're probably like, I'm not going to do that. But like, then you miss out on all these opportunities and all of these perspectives that you can find just by hanging out on your phone and on social. What tips do you have kind of around developing a personal brand? I said, I know you said you post a lot on LinkedIn and you have some of these placements in these publications. You know, how are you staying top of mind for some of these journalists and gaining these PR placements? Yeah. I mean, I actually have met journalists at these kinds of events that I go to

literally just by talking to people. I literally just randomly go up to people. I just talk to them. Like it's all about you guys. Like we're literally in the comms industry. Like it's like so mind blowing to some people to be like, Oh my God, you're just reaching out to them. I'm like, yes. Yeah. Like I'm full to people, but I can't just get all the credit for the ad agent boat business publications to myself because that, that was like fully connections through Edelman when I was there. But after that, I have been in other publications, other podcasts, other events, panels, et cetera. And all of those that I have created those opportunities for myself was because I would go to events and literally just talk to people and then they'd be like hey I'm doing a thing like do you want to be a part of it and then I would connect and follow up with them

on LinkedIn and that's it like you literally just communicate with people be very active I think LinkedIn like you mentioned is very important to be active on always have your name out there yeah yeah and advocate for yourself in any way that you can and and be in the rooms with the people that you want to connect with I think is such a huge takeaway and something that seems so simple but like like you're saying you know in this industry it should be just like second nature to be like okay I'm in communications I'm going to talk all day long to all these people. But a lot of times it's not the case. And even, you know, like the fact of the pandemic, like I feel like before

that everybody was connecting in person and in the workplace day to day, which is another thing. And I think since then in the like five and almost five years that we've been in this like post pandemic world, I think people are just like scared to get back out there or just like, have a lot of like anxiety for like in person events and things like that. I don't know if that's anything that you've ever like encountered or just like having the confidence to like approach someone and just like chat with them about, you know, work or like what's going on. But do you have any tips if somebody listening is struggling with something like that? Bring a buddy. And I,

I give one free pass, like go to one event with your buddy and hang on to them the entire night. If that's what you want to do and you don't want to talk to anybody, just like suss out the environment, you know, like get used to it to be in like a huge crowd of people. Even if you don't go up to someone, I guarantee you someone's going to go up to you. Cause someone there's always like me who is not, someone's not talking to me, but I'll go up to them. There's always going to be somebody who is going to go up to go up to you if you don't go up to them. So I would say, bring a buddy, try doing that. Or if you want to just be shy and in the corner, like do that. Somebody is going to go up to you regardless. I feel like sometimes there's those guest lists that are public too.

There's a lot of those little like chat things like, hey, I'm going to the conference or the event as well. Like would love to like get coffee before or after, like during the event, if you have 10 minutes to chat, like try to pull people aside virtually if you're like too shy to do it in person. And then you kind of just already have like a set of buddy within your conference day or your whatever you're doing. You need to just like go out there and do it.

Like you just kind of have to do it. Oh my gosh. I totally agree. And that's such a good point is that you can usually look like ahead of time at the guest list or whoever is going to be attending the event. We had an event in New York and that was something like a piece of feedback that we got was like, I was so scared to attend the event like alone, but you know, I just like went out to people and fostered these

like really great conversations. And we were like, that's so amazing. And even one of our panelists was talking about that. She was like, I am actually so shy, even though it comes off on my online persona that I'm like this like very outgoing person. And she was saying, I go into every event with just like make one connection, make like one meaningful connection, or just like say hi to like one person. And if I do that, I consider it a success. And I thought that was so brilliant too. Like you don't have to have this expectation of yourself that you're going to walk away with like a thousand new connections. Like that's overwhelming. Don't worry about that. Just like go in and like be authentically you. And like you said, people are going to come up to you. You're going to have a real one,

really good interaction. And that's a success. I love that. I love going to events. They're so much fun. Yeah. Okay. Well, this is a question that we ask all of our guests too. And it's like our favorite question ever. So I want to ask you, what do you know now that you wish you knew a little earlier on in your career? Um, I feel like I went into this career, like very naive. I feel like we all do, you know, like we're all little kids. I feel like sometimes I see us all in that perspective. Like we were all five years old wads. We were all like 10 years

old. We're going into it like bright eye, bushy tail, and we don't know what's happening. I don't want to get dark, but like not everybody's in your corner, you know, like you have to stick with certain people that you're working with and the people that cheer you on and the people that speak your name in rooms that you're not even in, like those are the type of people you want to connect with and like have those lifelong connections with not only just transactional LinkedIn thing, like, oh, we used to work together, but like catching up with those people and like staying connected with your mentors and your mentees and things like that, I feel like is very important. Like not everybody is going to be on your side not everybody no pun intended it's going to be your cup of tea not everyone will be

and like a lot of people will sometimes be intimidated by the way you might bulldoze yourself into rooms and that's a lot of what I did in my early on career which is what got me this far is like knocking on those doors and like just forcing myself in and being like I'm still in this meeting and then a lot would happen from it like a lot of good things would come out of it so like I would that that would be my piece of advice like not everyone's gonna like you but as long as you like you and you have your right people in your corner like everything's gonna be fine yeah I totally agree and I think that's good to hear and like refreshing to hear because that's not you know typically a piece of advice or like a reflection that we hear a lot,

because people don't want to talk about the fact that not everybody is for you, for you. But I think it is true. And finding those people who are for you is so important in your career. I talk about this all the time. I feel like in every stage of my career, in every job that I've ever had, I've been walking through, collecting my little people from each of these jobs to like build my community. And I always recommend like doing that if wherever you possibly can, because that really impacts your career in the future. Like I've been able to recommend jobs for these people, they've been able to like advocate for me and be references for me. And like, having those people as you go through is like, honestly, number one, like key in my life, personally, at least. Okay. Well, this has been such a great conversation. I'm so glad you were

able to join us today. I just want to let everyone know where they can find you and follow along with what you're up to. I know you're present on LinkedIn, but are there any other channels that we can follow you on as well? Yeah, I would say, yeah, LinkedIn. I feel like I'm on LinkedIn more than I am on Instagram. I would just promote my LinkedIn. If you find me on Instagram, I guess give me a follow or whatever, but like I'm more active than anything. Yeah. Shoot me a message if you want, you want to chat, like I'm so open to chatting. Awesome. Amazing. Our listeners will really appreciate that. They love connecting with the guests that they hear on this show. And I can't thank you enough for coming on here and just offering like another perspective into the influencer marketing industry, but also just like

being a Gen Z in the workplace and just like how important it is for Gen Zers and even younger generations to like advocate for themselves, have a voice in every situation that warrants it. And I appreciate you just giving us that perspective this afternoon. Yeah, thank you so much for the opportunity. This was so much fun. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Marketing Happy Hour podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want more of Marketing Happy Hour, but don't know where to start, we invite you to download our free Marketing Happy Hour Starter Kit at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash starter dash kit. This interactive magazine style PDF walks through who we are, includes helpful resources like a marketing term glossary and the

printable daily planner sheet that we actually use ourselves and contains clickable links to our episode recommendations by subject area. Not to mention all the fun extras like a quiz, the link to our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders Facebook group, a word search, a playlist, a goal setting guide, content inspo by month, and more. It's our hope that you'll dive into this resource and walk away more confident in your career journey with a group of industry pals that you can lean on for advice and support. Snag your free starter kit today at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash starter dash kit for all of the info you need to become a Marketing Happy Hour insider.