GRIN Gets Real

Featuring Aliza Freud, Founder and CEO of SheSpeaks.

SheSpeaks is a certified women-owned and operated company known best for creating exciting, original, and collaborative branded content. It reaches more than 300 million consumers a month using influencer marketing campaigns powered by active, engaged members and rich consumer insights.

Episode quote:

“At the end of the day it goes back to that old adage – the customer is always right. Even if the customer is wrong, the customer is right, and that has existed for many years. But because of social media, the customer has a way bigger voice and a much bigger megaphone than they did before.”

Visit the complete episode page to learn more. Or subscribe to the GRIN Gets Real podcast where you listen to podcasts.

Featuring Hani Anis, Founder at Kahani Digital

Hani Anis founded a luxury South Asian bridal boutique in 2017 called Anis Collections. She went on to work in investment banking and at a venture capitalist firm, but continued helping brands with their digital strategies during the pandemic. It was through her work for Natalie Barby’s agency Rella Social that Hanis realized her love for working with small businesses, particularly those owned and operated by people of South Asian descent.

In 2021, Hani turned her passion into Kahani Digital – a digital marketing and social media company that helps tell the stories of South Asian-owned and founded brands. Kahani Digital now has a team of six employees and has worked with 20-plus clients in various industries.

Episode quote:

“When you're a brand owner, typically you have a specific story that ties to some element of either your culture, your background, someway you grew up, or just something you saw. (Telling a brand’s story comes) from just sitting down with founders and talking to them to learn about their story.”

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Brands Talking Influencers fireside chat with Vera Bradley

How to activate influencers as content creators for your brand

Vera Bradley is a leading designer of women’s handbags, luggage, fashion, and unique gifts. They are known for their innovative designs, iconic patterns, and brilliant colors and seek to inspire women across the globe. We sat with Sabrina Medert, Senior Social Media Specialist for Vera Bradley to learn more about how they leveraged their army of 300+ influencers as their army of creators during the start of the pandemic and quadrupled their KPIs. As their program continues to grow and provide ROI across the brand's entire marketing strategy, we will dive deeper into how to get the right content without paying the high price.

During our fireside chat we explored:

• Proving ROI with creator content.

• The key to running a high-performing influencer program.

• How to communicate with creators so you get the exact content you’re looking for.

• Leveraging templates and sequences to automate communication while still keeping it personal.

• Why relationships with your creators are so vital to your success.

In this Q&A episode, you will find the answers to the unanswered questions from our fireside chat.

View the episode page here.

Watch the complete fireside chat here.

And subscribe to the GRIN Gets Real podcast

Featuring Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Advisor

Robert has served as the Chief Strategy Advisor of The Content Marketing Institute since its launch in 2010 helping guide it to be the leading global content marketing education and training organization. Robert is the author of three best-selling books on marketing and content strategy, and the co-host of the popular marketing podcast This Old Marketing, which has been downloaded more than two million times in 150 countries.

Episode quote:

“Content marketing was really important before the pandemic, and I don’t think it’s become more important. What we do observe is that it has become a higher priority for most businesses.”

Visit the complete episode page to learn more. Or subscribe to the GRIN Gets Real podcast where you listen to podcasts.

This is a one-stop-shop kind of an episode. As we wrap-up a year of the GRIN Gets Real podcast, we’re thankful for all those who said yes and stopped by to drop their knowledge.

The GRIN Gets Real team has put together the best of the best for you to enjoy as you walk the dog, when you’re running on the treadmill, cleaning the house, enjoying a cup of coffee, or however you listen.

Who you will hear in this episode….

• Neal Schaffer

• Kate Bradley Chernis

• Shirin Oreizy

• Rayhan Perera

• Matt Barnett

• Derric Haynie

• Claire Leon

• Jessy Grossman

• Carrie Melissa Jones

• Josh Roush

• Justin Moore

• Anthony Blatner

• Allison Brown

• Joe Pulizzi

• Kathleen Booth

• David Wachs

• Alexander Low

• Re Perez

• Carla Johnson

• Kurt Philip

Featuring Sarah Grosz, Head of Influencer Marketing at MuteSix

How to growth hack influencer marketing for maximum ROI

In our latest Brands Talking Influencers fireside chat series, I sat

Sarah, Head of Influencer marketing from MuteSix. Influencer Marketing Award bronze winners for Most Effective Campaign for ROI MuteSix we unpacked what it takes to create a campaign and program that delivers a return every time, regardless of industry.

We also explored:

• What makes an influencer campaign successful

• How to create a single process that works for any brand

• How to find the right influencer for your brand using that process

• Setting up the ideal workflow for your influencer marketing program

During this special crossover podcast the conversation continued. We took all the unanswered questions from the live webinar to get you the answers you were looking for.

Watch the complete fireside chat here.

Or subscribe to the GRIN Gets Real podcast where you listen to podcasts.

Featuring Kurt Philip, Founder & CEO of Convertica

Kurt started Convertica in 2016 after noticing a huge demand in the market after doing CRO on his own portfolio of websites. After four years, Convertica has worked with more than 650 businesses in countless verticals and monetization methods, and run more than 7,000 split tests.

Episode quote:

“If you have a new product, go out and give the product away in exchange for a review. It’s a little bit of a gray area, because I know on Amazon they don’t like people to do that … But you need that to be able to actually get the people to test it.”

Visit the complete episode page to learn more. Or subscribe to the GRIN Gets Real podcast where you listen to podcasts.

Featuring Carla Johnson, Speaker. Author. Marketing & Innovation Strategist

Carla is a world-renowned storyteller, an entertaining speaker, and a prolific author. Having lived, worked, and keynoted on five continents, she’s partnered with top brands and conferences to train thousands of people how to rethink the work that they do and the impact they can have. Her visionary expertise has inspired and equipped leaders at all levels to embrace change, welcome new ideas, and transform their business.

Her work with Fortune 500 brands served as the foundation for many of her books. Her tenth, RE:Think Innovation, busts the myth that innovation is something that requires a specific degree or special training. In fact, Carla explains why, to be a successful company in today’s hyper competitive, customer-driven world, finding opportunities through innovative thinking must be everyone’s business. Her goal is to teach one million people how to become innovative thinkers by 2025.

Episode quote:

“Innovation is the ability to consistently come up with new great and reliable ideas, simple sentence, but some really important words in there. ”

Visit the complete episode page to learn more. Or subscribe to the GRIN Gets Real podcast where you listen to podcasts.

Featuring, Re Perez

A former Fortune 500 Brand Consultant turned Entrepreneur, Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, and the CEO and founder of Branding For The People, an award-winning branding agency that creates world-class brands that accelerate business growth. With a proven track record advising purpose-driven entrepreneurs and conscious small-to-midsize businesses across 100+ different industries and professions, his clients credit him for positively transforming the trajectory of their business. In addition, as a member of B1G1, a portion of his agency’s proceeds are given to high-impact projects in connection with his agency’s commitment to be a business for good.

Connect with Re on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/re-perez-branding/

Episode quote:

“ Brands create an emotional connection with their target audiences. And if they're communicating to, and we happen to not be the target audience, it should create an emotional connection of like, I don't connect with this brand, or I do. ”

Visit the complete episode page to learn more. Or subscribe to the GRIN Gets Real podcast where you listen to podcasts.

Featuring Greg Tezlaff and Matt Marconi from Nutrabolt.

Building & scaling an influencer marketing machine

Nutrabolt, is the leading independent sports nutrition company in the world. With a mission to innovate, inspire, and make products that maximize human potential they leverage the power of influencer marketing to spread their message and share their brand story. During our chat on the Brands Talking Influencers fireside chat, we will dove into the value of setting up the right workflow and exploring how every prospective influencer has potential.

In our live conversation we explored:

• 7-step process to their influencer outreach funnel.

• A tiered approach to creating a high-performing program.

• Maximizing all your influencer-generated content.

• How they set-up the foundation for a turnkey program.

During this special crossover podcast the conversation continued. We took all the unanswered questions from the live webinar to get you the answers you were looking for.

Watch the complete fireside chat here.

Episode page here.