Latest / QUESTION EVERYTHING / The Secret to Growing Your Social Media with SWIMSOCIAL Founder Elena Hansen (PRETTY SOCIAL)

Transcript

The Secret to Growing Your Social Media with SWIMSOCIAL Founder Elena Hansen (PRETTY SOCIAL) · QUESTION EVERYTHING

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Hey guys, I'm Kenzie from the I Love You So
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Much podcast. On my show, we talk about everything lifestyle, business, finance, beauty,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: you name it. My favorite part about the show is
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: the amazing guest that we bring on. We have everyone
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: ranging from like business experts to influencers, CEOs, creative masterminds.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It's so much fun.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: If you guys want to find me on Instagram and
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: it's just at Kenzie Elizabeth. I release new episodes every Thursday,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: so hope to see you there.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Big things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe and each week my guests
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: and I have conversations that put a new spin on pretty.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: This is pretty smart. She's the woman behind so many
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: of your favorite high profile social media accounts. Alfred Coffee,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: ll cool J, Dear Moon was SpaceX.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: He brought us on to help him launch Dear Moon
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: project with SpaceX, which was the rocket that's going to
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: the Moon.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Phoebe Robinson and get this, Selena Gomez.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: She rose to the most followed person on Instagram during
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: that time.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Elena Hansen gets the Internet.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: There was no blueprint, but.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: She's created one. These are your six key tips to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: be successful on social media. This is the secret sauce.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Social media can feel overwhelming, but Elena has a method
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that works.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Sentiment to me, is this like intangible that is so important?
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Is like, how is your content making people feel?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: She's proven it time and time again, and she's sharing
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: it with all of us today. I was joking with
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: her after this interview. She's like the Olivia Pope of Instagram.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: So when I set out to create pretty smart, I
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: put a whole mood board together and a Pinterest board,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and I found this Instagram account called swim Social, and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I loved what they were doing. You had all of
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: these cool graphics and it was modern but warm at
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the same time. And we met through a friend of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a friend, and I set out to interview you and
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: realized that you were at the helm of that agency,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that Instagram account. So I feel like this is an
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: amazing full circle. Yeah, you are the best of the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: best in social media, and so I'm so grateful that
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: you're going to share all your knowledge with us today.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Your clients pay a lot of money for this, so
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: we're kind of getting a crash course, we're very lucky.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: But before we dive in, I want to know about you.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: So you grew up in Seattle.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I grew up in a small town eastern Washington called Yakama,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: and then moved to Seattle for spent a few years
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: there and then moved down to LA.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: And I saw on your Instagram that you played basketball.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Right I did? Yeah, I can't.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I like would not have expect basketball.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: Was life for like twelve years.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, ball is like, Yeah, what is a girl from
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Washington who plays basketball growing up? What's she doing moving
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to LA?
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: I mean I always had a part of me that
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: was really creative. I always looked at Los Angeles as
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: like the mecca of the land of opportunity, and like
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: always loved film and television and entertainment, and so I
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: didn't know exactly what would lead me there, but the
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: plan was to always go Seattle to LA.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: And I've been here for about ten years now.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on La?
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Your nay, definitely yes.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: I mean I think that LA has so many incredible
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: things happening at all times, and so it's really up
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: to you as an individual to you know, chart your
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: own like territory and path within it. So I think
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: I've created kind of a safe space in a world
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: within this bigger world of LA.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: You came here for a job, or you found a
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: job once you were here.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I got a job right before I graduated college,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: and they said that because I was traveling for that job,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: I could live anywhere on the West Coast, and so
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: I chose LA and they helped me move down to
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: LA which was amazing, and then I spent the next
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: like three years really on the road and not getting
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: to like experience LA fully, but it was my home
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: base and I would travel up and down the West coast. Texas, Hawaii,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: and New York were kind of the territories I covered.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: For that job. Were you in sales or consulting?
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: It was a marketing position called a brand specialist, where
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: I would basically go into retail stores and talk about
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: the brand, which was Stuart White's Men, and kind of
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: support retail employees with like how to sell the shoes
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: and the story behind the collection and stuff. So yeah,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: it was a great first job and really fun.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: But how interesting to have that experience before you build
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: your own company.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: It was a very traditional position because you were on
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: the road all the time physically in stores. Now it
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: would be like you digitally zoom in and give the presentations.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: But I was there, you know, standing up in front
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: of a room of twenty people or on the shoe
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: floor with them talking about it and pulling out the shoes.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: And I would travel with like a huge suitcase of
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: a full collection of shoes. And I lost that suitcase
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: so many times, or like went to the airport and
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: forgot the suitcase because I mean I was like twenty
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: to twenty three years old, Like, yeah, it was just
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: it was a lot better.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: It was fun.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: And then how did the idea of Swim come about?
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so fast forward. They're a phenomenal brand. But they
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: did fire me at one point in my life. So
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: I got a new boss. I wasn't gelling well within
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: that new system and started making mistakes at work. Just
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: was kind of in a state of like, this wasn't
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: in a alignment with me anymore. And I think that
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: sometimes the universe takes an opportunity away from you if
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: you're not actively moving on. And so you know, that
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: kind of rug was ripped out from under me, and
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: I was back in LA with no job and no
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: real network because I had been on the.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: Road so much. Yeah, really scary.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: And that was a few months of like taking odd
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: jobs here and there and just feeling really discouraged. It
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: was like really checking my pride and ego and what
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: I was willing to do. So I took different part
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: time things. Going from the high of coming out of
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: college and getting one of the best jobs out of
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: like my friends and everything, to then crash and burning
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: in terms of like needing to start over, not on
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: my terms, per se on someone else's terms.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: That was really hard and so back against the wall
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: figuring out what do you want your next move to be.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: I was looking for jobs online, I was interviewing all over.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: And also when you're in that mental state of like
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: I need this job or you know, you're not your
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: most confident self, it's really hard to be in the
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: interview game too, So hold on talk about that enough, Yeah,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: to be like pitching yourself when you're like not feeling
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: you know, you just got let go. You're like, I
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: don't know do I have the skills for this? Like
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: I'm questioning everything now. So that was really hard, but
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: it was the best learning lesson and now any you know,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: success or momentum we do get with Swim. I feel
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: like I've paid my dues through that situation. I think
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: if that hadn't happened, i'd feel a little bit like
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: this is all too good to be true. But because
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: I went through that, I'm like, no, this is supposed
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: to happen this way. Like I went through the you know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: worst case scenario for me and then was able to
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: rebuild from there and started with us you know small
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: at the time, a small opportunity, which was a coffee
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: shop that had just been open a month, and it
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: was the coffee shop around the corner, and I was
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: going in and getting coffee and looking at jobs online.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: And I just have to interrupt you for a second
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: because this is my coffee shop. I love it so much.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I've thought about moving once in a while. And when
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I think about moving, I'm like, but I can't leave Alfred. Yeah,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I love that coffee shop. Alfred has grown from one
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: thousand followers on Instagram to one hundred and forty thousand
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: followers since they've been a Swim client. They were your
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: first client, and I love the grittiness of how this
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: happened when you tell everybody the story.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think that coffee has always been
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: a big part of my life, Like living in Seattle
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: through college, it was about going to like your local Starbucks,
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: and I just loved coffee culture and the idea of
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: going somewhere quiet with music and like cozy and writing
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: and dreaming and all of that. So it's always been
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: an extension of me. And when Alfred opened and it
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: was up the street, you know, you walk into that
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: place and it's a totally unique experience. You know, the
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: music that is playing, the design elements, the coffee is amazing,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: the baristas are cool, Like it's just you're walking into
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: kind of this really interesting space. And I took a
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: photo instead of the coffee, I took a photo.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: Of the walls and like kind of the design elements.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: Posted it to Instagram to my who knows, like two
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: hundred followers back then. But Josh, the owner, I think
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: connected with me via that post and seeing me in
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: the shop, and I was telling him about my passion
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: for social media and you know, my passion for photography,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: and I think between the two of us, we were
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: just kind of like, well, why don't you come in
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: and start taking photos and sharing to our social media,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: and you can kind of like take it and run
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: with it. And you know, I would go to Stumptown
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Roastery with him and like ride in his car to
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: like learn about his goals and ambitions and dreams for
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: the coffee shop, and you know, for a while there
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: it was a lot of kind of grassroots marketing meets
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: social media.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: So it was a lot of offline stuff.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Where I remember he gave me a budget to order
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: like milk crates because I wanted to do coffee deliveries.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: So I would like pack up, you know, thirty or
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: forty iced coffees in these little milk crates and then
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: I would go drop them off at like Reformation and
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: Nasty Gal and all of these places to try to
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: get people talking about and tagging and build community on
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: behalf of this coffee shop.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: So how much of that works? Because I think people
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: look at social now in terms of such large numbers
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: and it's like, what are those forty coffees maybe five
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: people post? What is that going to do?
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: The grand scheme of things?
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think I've always looked at it
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: as like building blocks and like levers that you're pulling
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: at all times, and so you know, getting the community
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: and the word of mouth. I've always invested in like
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: word of mouth and just knowing that if we get
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: it in front of the right people and we bring
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: the experience two people, sometimes that will get them to
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: come into the shop. And back then I was less
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: concerned because there wasn't this pressure of Instagram followers. I
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: was more like, how do we get the word out
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: within this five to ten mile radius so that people
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: into the coffee shop and purchase the coffee. But then
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: what happened was the place was so instagrammable and the
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: community was so active on social media that it created
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: that bubble up effect of like that those you know,
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: coffee drops led to more people knowing about Alfred and
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: coming in and then posting about it and sharing it
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: and then becoming followers and so you know, it was
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: it was that kind of whole whole thing.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: The offline via online approach is so encouraging to me.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm. I love to hear that you believe in
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that and that it still works.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: I think that social media is meant to be an
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: extension of a brand and of what's actually happening in
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: real life and offline, so you know, to just kind
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: of treat it as we're only going to talk about
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: things that we think have virality on social media, or
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: like put out photos or content that we think is
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: going to get shared. I think that the more effective
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: and longer term impactful way of doing that is to
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: create offline speriences that are then amplified and shared online.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: As you're saying this, I'm recognizing that I spoke to
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the founder of Aviator Nation, Paige mi Coski a few
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: months ago, and she says that one of the pillars
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: of the success of her brand has been offline community.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: But it's interesting to hear from you, Yeah, that you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: feel that way.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that, you know, it's it's a
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: combination of both. But yeah, I think that the best brands,
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: you know that have spaces or doing things that are
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: community oriented and creating programming within their retail stores and
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: you know, creating shaable moments for people.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: So yeah, and it seems like you have to carry
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: the through line over to social so it doesn't feel
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: like a separate entity, like the community, the voice, everything
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: feels very similar. Yeah, Yeah, absolutely, well, it was interesting.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: As I looked at your website one of the things
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: that stood out to me was when you describe Swim,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: your approach comes from authentic storytelling, and I think, well,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: it says creative and community first approach and authentic storytelling.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: And as I talk to you, I love the way
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: you even tell your personal story. It's so full of detail,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: it's so vivid.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Oh, thank you.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: It's clear that that's like how your mind works for
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: people who aren't as used to that route. How can
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: we tell a better story? How do we get there? What? Like,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: take me through your thought process.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, when we're you know, building a story, we think
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: about an account or a client in like five storylines,
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: and so we develop these content buckets and that helps
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: us kind of stay focused on like the why behind
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: what we're sharing, and those evolve over time. We track
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: like the performance of those storylines, and each of them
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: have you know, different formats, some are better told through
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: photo or video or design. But then taking it a
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: step further, speaking to like the details that you mentioned
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: in terms of kind of the way I think about things.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: We also have recently been doing a five census exercise,
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: which is what does that client look like, sound like,
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: feel like, tastes like all of those senses, and so
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: the team actually has to like vividly describe what that
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: brand smells like, what it feels like to touch, what
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: it sounds like, you know, And I think that that
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: helps us, you know, really paint a vivid picture for
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: people and create more of like an immersive experience on
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: social media.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I can imagine it's funny team building all.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, it's so fun and yeah, we just kind of,
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: you know, you let all the silliness that you feel
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: go out the window and you're like, this person smells like, yeah.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: That's so cool, thank you for sharing that.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: So, as we mentioned at the top, you work with
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of high profile brands, businesses and people. It
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: seems like you have such a value add approach, like
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: you're very willing to share. Is that something that you're
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: intentional about?
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that, you know, Again, the
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: reason of why coming to LA and why starting a
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: business was always like to kind of be a service
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: and to help people and take whatever I'm good at
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: and help people, you know, with specifically their social media strategy.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: So I love to work with.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: People who are at the top of their game in
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: what they do and then support them on social media. Yeah,
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: I think that, you know, being a value add I
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: think I've always been very like humble in my place
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: in the room. I've always felt like the underdog and
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: like I'm there to earn my spot, and even years later,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: like I still feel that way.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Adam Grant has this I don't know if it's a theory,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: but a thing that he talks about going first, and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: so he'll say, like people if they go into a presentation,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: they don't want to give their whole idea away because
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: like what if the company takes it? What if somebody
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: else takes it? He's like, it actually like works against you.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: You're supposed to go in there, give it all you got,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: be a giver, go first, Yeah, and it will come
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: back in space.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and having the confidence that like there's more where
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: that came from. Like this is one of a hundred
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: amazing ideas I have. Like if you're gonna take it
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: and run with it, fine, but yeah, not being like
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: scarce in your thinking.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's really cool.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: I love that.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. I think about it a lot because
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I feel like you just got to leave it all
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: on the.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Table, and sometimes that opportunity might not click right away,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Like I've had that happen a bunch of times where
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: maybe that specific campaign or client doesn't land, but whoever's
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: in that room, you're like top of mind for the
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: next opportunity, or you know, they bring you up at
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: you know, dinner there that night or something, so you know,
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: I think to make an impression and to give it
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: all you got, like always bringing your a game like
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: that never works against you.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I agree. I've had things come back three years later.
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: You mentioned campaigns. You've had multiple viral moments. Is there
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: a campaign or something that you've worked on that really
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: stands out to you? Hmmm.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: I would say a couple of things like that. I
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: think we've were really proud of and it shaped like
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: swim and what we're kind of known for. I think
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: year two of the business in twenty sixteen, we worked
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: on Selena Gomez's world music tour and there was no
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: blueprint for how to run a separate world music tour
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: on social media, and it's just like the perfect target
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: audience for that in terms of like the age and
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: the fans and all of that. So you know, that
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: was a really exciting moment where she rose to the
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: most followed person on Instagram during that time, and pretty
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: much every photoshoot we did with her had some virality.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: I think that there were you know, it's a huge name,
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: so of course blogs and publications pick it up, but
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: I think the way in which we took photos and
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: humanized her, but it was still editorial and beautiful, and
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: you know, I think that that was like a really
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: incredible case study. And you know, we ended up being
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: nominated for a Webby Award for that, and that was exciting.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So you didn't sleep for a few years.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: About a year about telling me, Yeah, when she was
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: all over the world. Really But another time I didn't
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: sleep was working with Yusaku Maizawa, who's a Japanese billionaire.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: He's a big tech guy over there and an incredible figure,
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: and he brought us on. I knew a friend that
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: worked for him. He brought us on to help him
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: launch Deer Moon project with SpaceX, which was the you
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: know rocket that's going to the moon with eight passengers,
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: part of this whole like race to space. But you know,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: that was really exciting for like nine months just working
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: with Japan like at night my time and daytime for them,
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: and you know, being somebody that was really integral in
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: that like team even though I was here, and you
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: know that that was a really exciting one too.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: That's fascinating.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And so you're willing to get into any arena.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a lot about a alignment in terms
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: of like ethos and you know, the goals of the project.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: But our strategies and the way we do things really
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: apply to brands, talent, special projects, movies. You know, we're
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: we're always like customizing strategies too. Like that's really important
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: is to not have too much of like a one
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: size fits all plan.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: And I think when you look.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: At Swim's work, we're not nothing looks the same, but
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: it all looks like the best of what it is.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: And I think that that's always been really important to us.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you went from being an employee to being
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a leader in the span of a year, right in
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: those beginning months, How did you approach leadership versus how
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: you approach leadership now?
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that I always hope that
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: my passion for what we do is contagious and it
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: makes people, you know, buy into the bigger vision and
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: the goals. I've also always thought about Swim being a
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: space for people to discover their interests.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: And you know, we work on.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Such a variety of projects that you're really getting such
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: a taste of so many different things. And we obviously
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: being in what we do, like like to hire young people,
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: and you know, I've always hired people younger than myself
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: and I've been pretty young along the way too, so
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: growing you know, a team of young people who are
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: passionate about what they do, I think solves for a
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: lot of the leadership's you know, responsibilities. I think when
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: people feel I like the word like intrinsically motivated to
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: do what they're doing, and they see the benefit to
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: them personally of either the relationships that they're gaining between
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: themselves on the team, the relationship with me, the relationship
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: with the clients, everything they're getting to learn. I think
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: that that's where a lot of the growth of the
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: business comes from, less so than me being like this
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: is how you do things, and you need to stay
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: within this structure and do as I say. And that's
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: never been kind of like my approach, and it's more
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: so to empower people, and my hope is that they
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: can just you know, show up as their best selves
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: to work and contribute and be enthusiastic and passionate about
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: what they're working on. So, you know, I think that
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: there have been learning lessons in there in terms of
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: the client and the project is so important to.
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: Creating that environment.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: I think that in the past we've taken things on
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: where like why aren't people excited about this? And then
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: you know, you realize, like, well, maybe if I had
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: checked in with people ahead of signing this client or
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: working on this project, I would have either put you know,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: different people on it, or we wouldn't have taken it on.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: That's happened a few times.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: So you know, the client and the project is so
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: important to how we function as a team. And yeah,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: I think that, you know, leadership to me has always
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: been like how do I I've kind of created like
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: a curriculum within Swim and I think that that has
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: helped in terms of like not only pitching and being
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: able to articulate what we can do for somebody, but
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: also within the team like this is what our approaches,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: this is what we stand for, how we do things
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: and creating those systems and processes build in a lot
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: of that like teamwork and that kind of thing.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, community within swim.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah yeah.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Is there a time that you felt like you really
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: bombed as a leader.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: There hasn't been a specific instance that I could pinpoint
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: that is, like I really dropped the ball on that one.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: But I think that there have been overarching themes that
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: have been revealed to me about myself through management of
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: like oh, like you're really sensitive about this, or like
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: why does that trigger you? Or you know, you really
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: need to work on yourself in these ways in order
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: to like show up better for someone you know, someone else,
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: And so communication has been super important. So having the
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: hard conversations like if you feel a little funniness in
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: the air, be like.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: Can I get coffee with you?
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: Can we talk on the phone, like, you know, let's
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: air this out. And I think that, you know, being
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: a lead, it's your job to step in and have
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: the hard conversation. You can't expect someone who works for
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: you to be like, I really need to talk to
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: you about something you said, Like you have to you know,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: be empathetic and compassionate and pick up on those things
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: and so I've learned a lot about myself and what
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: I need to work on over the last few years.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: There are certain things that hold a mirror up to you,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: like romantic relationships. I've heard children don't know that yet
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: you can't confirm. And I think being an employer makes
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: like it just holds up a mirror And reality TV.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: What do you mean reality being on a reality show?
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I can imagine.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine watching your souchet? You must learn so much, Like, yeah,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: it's almost cringe worthy to think about. How about the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: role that being a woman has played? And I almost
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I almost didn't ask you that, because sometimes I feel
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: like the responsibility is put on women to talk about
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: being a woman, and it's like feels like we're belaboring it.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: But at least in my own experience, like I can't
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: separate my work experience from being a woman. Do you
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: feel like the two are intertwined?
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: In those first few years, I don't think I embraced
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: the femininity of how I show up in the workplace
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: or for the team, or even for my clients, and
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: that kind of thing. I think it was like, more,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: how do I adopt the mindset of a business man
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: of someone who's good at business and good at making
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: money and good at building a business. And I think
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: that over time, I realize the ways in which being
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: a woman is like a competitive advantage and the way
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: we think, and you know, if we are the one
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: with being more detail oriented or being more empathetic as
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: a leader, or you know, creating more of a comfortable environment.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Not that men don't do that, but I think that
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: for women, part of like my enjoyment in a situation
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: is making other people feel good. And I think that
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: that like is something that is related to like femininity
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: and also even just like attracting the clients that we
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: want versus like knocking on doors and trying to kind
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: of like you know, sell ourselves, which I think is
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: traditionally like a male dominated like business mindset, and I
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: don't do that.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: That's not my approach at all.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: So even in the beginning, no, you had no clients.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we have always worked from like word of mouth
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: and referral.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I realized, I forgot to ask you something. So while
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: you're working with Alfred Freelance, you found this hotel group
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: that you started working with, which also was word of
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: mouth because they saw what you were doing with right, right,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and you're working there full time or freelance full time. Okay,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: so you have like one and a half jobs, and
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: then what did you decide to do?
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean in my nights and weekends, I was
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: just like obsessing over this idea of I had more
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: and more people asking about social media services through Alfred,
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: you know, consumer products and hotels and restaurants, and created
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: this kind of little list of people who wanted to
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: work with me, which was amazing, and I.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: You know, developed swim.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: As far as like, okay, what would services look like,
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: what would pricing look like, what would the logo look like?
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: All of those things.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: And so when you know, I worked really hard for
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: that hotel group and was doing photography, graphic design, posting
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: like all of it for I think six properties, three restaurants,
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: three or four restaurants, almost like eight or nine accounts
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: on my own, creating the content for them as well,
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: and flying up. They were all in the Bay Area,
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: so I was flying up once a month and really
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: giving it my all, which is why I think I
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: felt comfortable being like, I know, I'm of value here,
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: and I think that they would want to still work
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: with me, even in the capacity of an agency or
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: a contractor, but knowing that they have a more traditional mindset,
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: I do need to present it in a way of
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: is the value that you get from hiring me as
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: an agency over having me in house, and I'm going
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: to provide even more photography, even more platform management, even
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: you know, just more I can give you more by
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: being an agency because I would have bandwidth.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: And this was before I'd even hired anyone.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: So I didn't know that that, you know, would truly
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: be the case, but you knew in your gut, yeah I,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: And I kind of bet on myself that like, okay,
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: if I land this contract and I'm able to activate
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: the freelance clients that are kind of knocking on my door,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: then I would have enough revenue to hire someone and
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: bring them on and be able to you know, really
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: service all of these businesses. And yeah, I you know,
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: had to fly myself up to the Bay Area and
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: give a presentation in front of.
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: A room of like ten men and you know, really sell.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: I had my black folders, which we still use today,
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: like the black folders and the printouts and everything like
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: you know, beautifully laid out starting with here's what we've
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: done together so far, here is the growth of your platforms,
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: and here's kind of what I've accomplished with you.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: And then here's what I want to do for you
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: moving forward.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Just so happens to be in a contractor role and
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: not you know, full time. So they took a week
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: and got back to me and said let's do it,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: and then it was just like hit the ground running
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: from there.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: And that was a bold move because they could have
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: said no, and also you're fired.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, that was the gamble I was taking.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like that's the most unconventional thing you've
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: done to get a client or does something else come
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: up in your mind?
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, we've been put in pretty crazy situations
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: to land clients. Back in like twenty eighteen, I was
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: really interested in getting into the sports space and like
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: doing social media management for athletes because ball is like yeah, yeah,
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: it had to come full circle, and I just felt
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: like that was such an underutilized tool for so many athletes.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: You know, and when you go to these athletes pages,
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: they don't have like a visual aesthetic and like, you know,
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: these storylines happening, it's like just game highlights and you know,
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: some fit picks and like that's about it. And so
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: I thought, this is wide open for me to come
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: in and smart, Yeah, apply some branding and strategy to
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: what they're doing. And they have more money than some
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: of these brands have, so you know, I was I
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: was thinking strategically about that.
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: But it goes to show.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: The knocking on the door, like trying to make something
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: happen is not always totally in alignment with me and
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: how I do things. And I think I wanted it
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: so bad at that point that I was kind of
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: willing to go out on a limb and you know,
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: get in front of these people with my pitch ideas.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I think one time someone was like, yeah,
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: i'll meet with you, bring your pitch over, but I'm
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: at a sports bar during the playoffs, and you know
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: we're drinking and stuff, so you can you can do
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: it here. So I like got my pitch presentation ready,
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: drove over to sports bar. There's like barbecue sauce and
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: tequila shots being like spilled all over everything I have
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: on the table, And of course didn't end up landing
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: that client, but you know, I was, yeah, I was
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: put into a pretty interesting position trying to make that happen.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: And then of course I let that idea go for
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: a little bit. And then a year or so later,
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: my friend Brandon Wills brought us Mike Conley, who is
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: our client today and is incredible and totally in alignment
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: in terms of the right client. So yeah, sometimes you
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: just have to be patient, but you have to go
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: through those experiences to know what you do and don't want.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I used to love the Goop podcast and at the
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: beginning they would play Oprah's voice and she would say,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: you have to want it, wish for it, and.
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: Let it go, and then let it go.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: And it's like, it's so true because we want it
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: too bad. Something happens in the universe. Yeah, it's so
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: funny how it works. Okay, so you mentioned alignment with clients.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: What happens if a few months in you're like, this
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: isn't really working.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: That really rarely happens in terms of alignment. We run
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: people through a questionnaire before we sign with them. We have, ah,
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: what kind of guess are on the questionnaire? Yeah, it's
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: really just to get a glimpse into their world. And
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: so it includes everything from like you know, what are
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: your goals for social media? Is it brand awareness, follower growth,
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: project promotion, activism and impact or visual storytelling. And typically
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: if someone lists like follower growth number one, visual storytelling
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: number five, we're like, yeah, we're going to need to
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: either have a conversation about how that works or we're
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: going to have to you know, go our separate ways
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: and we might not be the best fit. So we
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: like to lead with the creative execution and then build
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: in follower growth strategies that support that. So yeah, that
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: is kind of you know, one thing we do with clients.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: We also ask them everything from their favorite movies to
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: their favorite designers, just to kind of get an understanding
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: of what they're looking at and what they think is cool.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: We have to live and breathe what they do every day.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: So I think it's it's really important to be honest about,
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: you know, whether we're like living in those same kind
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: of worlds.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Is there a social media platform that you think is
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: underrated or under used by small businesses right now?
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: You know, I think that people need to get past
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: the idea that like TikTok is just dance videos and
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: silly stuff. I think that like anything like Instagram, there's
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: a way to use it in a really compelling way,
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: and I think that the market is what is wide
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: open for people to step in and use it in
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: creative ways. And so I think that in terms of growth,
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: I would say TikTok is probably the most important, and
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: then you know, really just maximizing Instagram and like everything
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: it has to offer. I think if you're just thinking
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: about what you're sharing to the feed and you're not
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: thinking about stories or how people outside of your channel
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: are talking about your brand, whether it's through placements or campaigns, oring,
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: or how you're commenting on other people's stuff, Like, all
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: of those tools can be utilized. So Instagram in and
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: of itself is like a wealth of opportunity. But then
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: TikTok I think is super important, and then you know,
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: YouTube is also important in terms of growth and getting
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: in front of more people. I think Twitter is something
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: that if you're a writer or working in news politics,
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: I think that that's somewhere to really showcase voice and
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: be like first to market on stuff in terms of
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: like how you're commenting on things. If you're a music artist,
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: you know that can be a really important tool. So
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, picking around three platforms that you
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: can really dive into and do well is the best strategy.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: It's hard to do them all.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and you don't want to do five or
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: even three mediocre. It's better to do like one or
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: two really well and really carve out that audience.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: What metrics do you value most when you're assessing if
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: something's performing or not.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we look, of course, beyond follower growth, We look
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: at impressions. How is that account trending? Impressions really helped
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: to understand follower growth. So if your account had you know,
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: one hundred thousand impressions and converted like four thousand people
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: that month as new followers, then the next month you
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: notice there's significantly more or less impressions, and your follower
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: growth typically will kind of, you know, mirror that. So
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: we look at that, We look at new profiles reached,
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: We look at engagement rate and engagement per post, and
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: the saves and shares beyond the likes and comments.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: I think that's really telling.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Saves and shares are very telling.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they're you know, in our monthly reporting, we
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: look at like, what was the top performing post in
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: terms of or three to six posts in terms of engagement,
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: and then what were the top three to six posts
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: in terms of saves and shares? And yeah, we also
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: you know, really closely track sentiment and how the community
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: feels about what you're sharing.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: So we look at community.
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: Themes, round up some key comments kind of let the
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: client know like this is generally what people are asking about,
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: what their feedback on your product is. But sentiment, to me,
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: is this like intangible that is so important? Is like
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: how is your content making people feel? And I think
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: that that's where you get into the conversation of like
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: a lot of people have like a love hate relationship
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: with a lot of celebrities, and in those wrong moments,
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: like that can really bite you in the ass if
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: you're cultivating a community of like large and scale, but
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: they don't like you, Like that's I don't know that that's.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Like tricky, They like hate follow you.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I and that's an extreme kind of like
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: way we're describing it. But you know, versus like being
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: a source of inspiration or education or like how are
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: you kind of like furthering or driving this cultural narrative
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: versus people.
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: Following you for you know, the worst parts of ourselves.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting you say that because I've actually never
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: thought about it in terms of sentiments, so to speak.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: But it has been a pillar of my personal social
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: that everything I post stories feed anything. I think will
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: this make a woman feel better or worse when they
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: leave my page? And if it's worse, I'd never want
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to post it.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because not everybody is going to like everything you're sharing.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: It's hard to like be a people pleaser and hope
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: that everyone likes you.
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: That's not the goal.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: But hopefully you're sharing content that has some type of
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: purpose behind it beyond purely self promotion.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The value Yeah, the value proposition. Okay, this is
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: the big one. These are your six key tips to
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: be successful social media. This is the secret sauce.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean it changes probably every three to
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: six months in some way, shape or form. So you know,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: we have this talk as a team often. It's kind
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: of this living breathing list. But I think you know,
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: one thing is like a strong visual aesthetic, a strong
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: kind of look and feel to what you're putting out
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: that can come from working with specific photographers, really establishing,
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: like you know, the brand guidelines around your graphic design
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: photo video. Second, a unique personality and voice, So like
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: how are you captioning things? What music is being added
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: to your videos? Like how can you paint that picture
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: and really have a voice that stands out? And I
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: think that that's where some of those like Wendy's tweets
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: and Jack in the Box tweets and things like that,
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: you know, start to go viral. Is like they just
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: really nail like a strong personality and voice. Think third,
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: something we've always thought about is building like a brand
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: world and lifestyle, So not just beautiful pictures of your product,
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: but like what is the world that it lives in?
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: What kind of interior design is in your photography? You know,
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: what kind of places does your customer ideal customer travel,
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: what are their interests? How can you fully tap in culturally,
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: you know, to an audience and paint a picture of
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: like a world and lifestyle around your brand. For I
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: think like key players involved in the brand, So whether
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: you're highlighting the founder or a celebrity partner, you know,
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: you're highlighting maybe.
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: The people who make your product.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: Just really humanizing I think a brand is important. And
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: then you know amplification. I think that thinking about you
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: could put out beautiful content and like no one knows
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: about it because you haven't built a following yet, So
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: you want to avoid that. And if you're launching your
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: product and you're putting out great content, you want to
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: also have impressions coming from elsewhere. So whether you're seeding
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: product with micro influencers, influencers, celebrities, or you have a
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: PR team helping with press, you know you need to
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: be getting traffic from other places in order to convert.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: And then lastly, just like events and activations, offline stuff,
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: So what is your brand doing in terms of pop ups,
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: how are they involved in the community, what organizations are
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: you working with? All of those things that are just
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: offline kind of in real you know, real life connections.
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: I think that's also really important. So as of right now,
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: that's kind of our recipe for success. And any one
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: of those could be a whole strategy and a whole
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: pillar that you invest in, and so to do all
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: six of them well is really hard.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: But if you look at.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: The brands that are doing things in an interesting way,
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: they know you've heard about them either first through a
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: pop up and then you go to their page and
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: you like their content. And then you're scrolling and something
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: they say makes you laugh, and then you follow the
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: account and so all of those things like matter in
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: terms of the customer experience and growing an audience.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: That was so good. Those are so helpful. I love that.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I love that so much. Okay, thank you. These are
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: our rapid fires. I have a lot of them for
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: you because I love learning from you. Okay, so you're
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: such a student, which I love. Who are your gurus? Mmm?
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: I think like Kobe Bryant, also a fellow Virgo. I
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: think Oprah for a long time with someone that I
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: really looked up to, Like you mentioned the manifestation and stuff.
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: I think she has really profound things to say.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: I love conversations she's had with Maya Angelou and like
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: really you know, talking about like purpose and living a
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: rich life in terms of creative I study and read
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: interviews with David Fincher. I love his approach, and I
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: think he's extremely detail oriented. He's notorious for people having
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: to do like three hundred takes to get like in
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: a groove and get the right one. So yeah, I
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: would say that those three are like people that I've
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: looked up to and like actually studied.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: I love the like nitty gritty of business. So how
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: do you sign your emails? Is it like warmly, kindly, XOXO.
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: Best Colma Elena?
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, And then how did we come up with best?
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Is it like warm but also professional?
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah? I think so. I think to me, it's like
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: I wish you the best, you know, so all the best?
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: So yeah, best?
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Is there like an email skill that you wish you
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: knew eight years ago or ten years ago. Oh?
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: I used to get so nervous writing emails, you know,
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: Now I just fire them off.
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: But I think that.
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: Something that is pretty standard is like lose the exclamation points.
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: I think we're all working on that.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: And the smilies.
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, although I have to say, when when you're
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: interacting with people who are super successful, you realize a
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: lot of those rules go out the window. Are like
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: very intimidating people that like, will you smile these all
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: day long? And you kind of appreciate it, and so
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: it's like, you know, to a degree, when you're like
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: working and on your way up, we're still in the
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: game of like we need to use certain etiquette and
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: make sure we're presenting ourselves in a certain way. And
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: then there's a level that like none of that matters.
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: But so, yeah, are you.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Telling us that Selena Gomez uses hearts in all of
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: our emails.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: Or like doesn't email at all.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: That's the other thing is that you realize there's there
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: are a lot of people who you know you can
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: only reach them like by phone or text now and.
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: Must be nice, But.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, seriously, what is a skill that you have personally
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: that you're grateful for that you feel like gives you
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: a leg up in business?
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: I think that I have really good intuition, and I
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: think that I can very quickly see the world from
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: someone else's perspective, and so in what I do, it
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: just takes a couple of conversations with someone for me
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: to really under stand, like, oh, this is how you
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: talk and how you perceive things and what visually your
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: world looks like and aligns well with you.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: That's a really good one. Yeah, best piece of advice
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: for negotiating.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: Watch Chris Voss's masterclass. That's a great one.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: But in terms of just like the principle of it,
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: I think not going into a situation looking for what
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: you can get out of it, but looking for how
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: we can meet at a place where we both feel
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: like we want And I think that that's really important
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: is to work with people who want to work with
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: you and you're like, Okay, if budget is getting in
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: the way, or deliverables are getting in the way, whatever
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: it is, like, how can we work together to make
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: this happen. And also just being willing to walk away
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: from things that aren't mutually beneficial.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: A trick or tool or a major key to create
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: a great pitch deck, which I know you make a
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: lot of.
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, keep it simple, I think that and incorporating lingo,
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: like if they were on the phone with you and
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: they mention something that they're looking for, like make sure
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: that exact verbiage is somewhere in your pitch deck.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: That's a good one. A book that changed your perspective
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: that you think everyone should.
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: Read, Motivation Manifesto by Brendan Burchard is a book that
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: I to this day like send a lot of people.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: I think that you know there's a lot in there
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: in terms of he speaks directly to if you're somebody
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: who is trying to like escape the pack and the
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: herd mentality and you're trying to kind of set forth
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: on your own individual path, and you need confidence and
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: reassurance that one you're not crazy, and two you have
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: the skills and the capabilities to do it. And the
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: way you're living your life is not bad just because
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: nobody else is doing it.
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: Not nobody else is doing it, but you.
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: Know that if you feel like you have some fire
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: in you that is different. I think that that book
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: really cultivates it and lets you know you're not alone
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: and that there are other like people feeling that way,
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: and you know, here's how you kind of live that
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: full life.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I think in twenty five episodes, no one has stumped
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: me on a book. This is my first one. I'm
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: so excited. Yeah, I'm going to pick that up. Yeah, okay,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: so we do a pretty smart question. I picked yours
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: at random, which I actually felt like was in alignment
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: because that's the word we're using today. What's the biggest
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: sacrifice you've had to make on your path to achievement?
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: I would say that age of like when I started
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: swim from twenty seven years old. There were so many
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: other things that people were doing during that time in
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: their lives, and I think for me to spend a
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: lot of nights alone and buckle down and really stay
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: focused on the goal of building this business and servicing
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: these clients. I think that I sacrificed a lot of
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: just that time in my life, but it was all
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: worth it.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, this is whatever comes to your mind. Okay,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: otherwise it's too hard to answer. Okay, the smartest is
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: decision you've ever made.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: I think the smartest decision I've ever made was making
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: Swim not just about myself as like a consultant, and
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: really building out a team and creating like a business
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: out of it that involves other people and involves photographers
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: and video people and extending it beyond myself. I think
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: that that's something we're all faced with as millennials, and
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: you know, trying to carve out our own path is
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: like do I do something that is me solo or
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: do I do something that builds opportunities for other people?
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: And I think that, you know, I feel really good
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: about that decision that I made very early on, was like,
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: how can I build something that invites other people to
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: be a part of this and creates community on behalf
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: of it? And I think that that's where, you know,
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: I get a lot of friendship through working with the
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: team and working with the clients and working with photographers
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: and stuff. Is the fact that we're creating together and
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: building together and reaching our goals together. Is Yeah, such
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: an incredible part of what swim is. And I think that,
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: you know, I very easily could have just kind of
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: gone the solo route, but I didn't, And I've always
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: made it about other people and bringing them along on
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: this journey and it's only made it better for myself
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Like drop perfect note to end done, Thank you, thank
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: you so much.
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: Thank you. This is so fun.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: All right, Today's a good day. To have a good day.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I'll see an exce