GRIN Gets Real

Featuring Dwayne Waite Jr., Marketing Manager for Schell Games.

How Schell Games Scaled Their Gaming Influencer Program On Twitch

Schell Games is one of the largest independent game design and development studios in the United States. During our chat with Dwayne, he will share his insights on what it takes to run a gaming influencer program along with the value of finding influencers that both have the right audience and are high-quality content creators.

As a result of getting the right tool in place, he’s been able to scale and develop a strategic influencer program that is successful.

In our live conversation we aim to explore:

• Using behavior indicators to find the right influencers for their brand.

• What an influencer program primarily on Twitch and YouTube looks like.

• Identifying quality influencers over quantity to create a successful program.

• How to run a successful influencer program without an eCommerce storefront.

For more brand stories visit live events. Interested in a demo? Book your customized demo here.

Featuring Josh Roush, CEO of Movetic

Josh Roush is the CEO & lead brand strategist at Movetic, an Award-Winning Branding Agency located in Leucadia, CA.

Since the age of 19, Josh worked with brands such as H-P, Lyft, Crocs, Reef, Verizon, the Dew Tour, Hilton, Celsius, YMCA, Sun Bum, FSC Paper, San Diego Aviators, and Harcourts.

Fueled by the stay-moving lifestyle, he leverages the power of creativity & analytics to create experiences that are real, relevant, and above all else, memorable using photography, design, and technology.

Episode quote:

“Whenever you take a step back and really try to find who you are as a brand, it’s going to make a lot more of a meaningful impact when it comes to sales and revenue.”

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

Featuring Lauren Maxwell, Partnership & Ambassador Manager for Organifi.

Lauren has built the Collective program from the ground up and is so excited to see it continue to flourish and expand! I can't wait to see the evolution of influencer marketing and so excited for all that is to come in this space!

Episode quote:

“We don't use the word influencer, we actually don't use the word ambassador, we use the word member and partner more than anything because we are so heavily, you know, invested in long term partnerships. “

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

Featuring Carrie Melissa Jones, Author of Building Brand Communities.

Carrie Melissa Jones is an author, community builder, and researcher of online communities. Her work has influenced the world’s leading online brand communities including the American Medical Association, Patreon, Google, and two U.S. presidential campaigns. She is the author of Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging with Charles Vogl and a student, teacher, and researcher of virtual communities at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Prior to her work as a consultant, she served as Founding Partner and COO of CMX, the hub for over 20,000 community professionals worldwide.

Episode quote:

“No matter the purpose of the community, the structures are all the same. From a political campaign to a tech brand, the bones are the same in a community.”

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

Featuring Jessy Grossman, Founder at WIIM

Jessy Grossman is a long time entrepreneur and her experience in the world of talent management, entertainment, and digital media has helped create new opportunities for hundreds of influencers and brands. Jessy has been quoted in Forbes and, in 2020, was listed in Talking Influence's “Influencer Top 50.” After creating and selling one of the fastest growing new talent agencies in the country, she’s pivoted her focus to her passion project, Women in Influencer Marketing (WIIM). Jessy hosts WIIM’s podcast while cultivating WIIM’s exclusive Facebook community, casting services, recruitment, events and more. Jessy has a passion for influencer marketing in general, but talent managers are her “babies” and she is heavily invested in nurturing them towards success.

Episode quote

“It's way more about the person that represents you, versus the brand or the agency that represents you.”

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

Featuring Mallory Whitman, Marketing Manager at SlumberPod.

SlumberPod is a mother-daughter duo that created a portable canopy that provides a separate, safe, and dark sleep space for room sharing with a baby or toddler. The duo recognized early on the power of word-of-mouth and have leveraged influencers as a strategy from the start of their business. Now with the right tool in place they’ve been able to scale their program to over 300 influencers and maximize the use of reporting to achieve over 10k conversions with promo codes.

In our live conversation we aim to explore:

• How to best use influencer promo codes to get more conversions.

• Managing inbound influencer requests to scale your program.

• What not to focus on when looking for influencers to achieve a positive ROI.

• And how not running a BFCM sale had them still seeing profits this past holiday season.

For more brand stories visit live events. Interested in a demo? Book your customized demo here.

Featuring Claire Leon, Co-Founder at Acorn-AI

Claire Leon is Co-Founder at Acorn-i, where she is responsible for overseeing internal teams, working closely with partners, and driving the company’s expansion in the market. She previously spent seven years at Amazon, where she had a key role in bringing its advertising platform to market in the UK and building partnerships with agencies at a global level.

Episode quote:

“What omnichannel is and has to be for the brand, is you've got to make it easy for your customer to find and fall in love with your product.”

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

Featuring Derric Haynie, host of “The Future of Ecommerce” podcast and Chief Ecommerce Technologist at Ecommercetech.io

Derric Haynie is the host of “The Future of Ecommerce” podcast and Chief Ecommerce Technologist at Ecommercetech.io – Where Ecommerce stores go to research, discover, and buy the right tools to grow their store.

Episode quote:

“But the truth is, technology has so many emerging opportunities, that if we're not staying on the forefront of it we risk leaving a lot of revenue on the table, at the very least, if not getting beaten by our competition.” - Derric Haynie, Ecommerce Tech

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

Featuring Mike Watts, CEO of LoveHandle

Mike Watts is a dynamic speaker and experienced entrepreneur. Besides striking a deal with Shark Tank's Daymond John, he has 6 startup companies under his belt including founding three consecutive, multi-million dollar companies in the last 10 years totaling over $60 million in product sales.

A little about LoveHandle

Co-founded in 2014 by father/son team LoveHandle, based in Houston, Texas, is committed to sharing LOVE with its customers, communities and team members with high-quality innovative products made 100% in the USA.

Episode quote:

“For us, Grin was the clear winner, because of the type of business that we have, the structure, the integrations… and again, a lot of it came down to the authenticity.”

- Mike Watts, LoveHandle

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

Featuring Matt Barnett, Papa Bear at Bonjoro

A British designer by trade, Matt Barnett founded his second company, Bonjoro, out of Sydney, Australia. What started as a sales hack for an agency he was running, went from hack to side hustle to global business in 18 months, and now has a team across 5 continents.

Episode quote:

“We found that at certain points on the customer journey, taking 30 seconds to send a video to an individual, so to Suzy from Oklahoma, thanking them for their purchase, asking them to leave a review, suggesting they move on to a subscription… can have a huge impact in terms of engagement, and then driving better actions.” - Matt Barnett, Bonjoro

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