Winfluence with Jason Falls

The world of content creators is deep and wide. There exists literally at least one creator for almost every interest or niche out there. Part of what I love about being an influence marketing strategist is discovering new, interesting, creative people who connect with audiences in fun ways. If they make sense to work with a client I’m helping, I get super excited.

In addition to the diversity of topics the world of content creation offers is the diversity of business models, sizes and scopes of a creator’s per view. What I mean by that is some creators focus on one channel or another and do the occasional brand deal to monetize their content there. That’s the standard expectation for an influencer I think.

Still others see their content creation as a business, not a hobby with an income. They may see each of their channels as a revenue stream and optimize their content and sales acumen accordingly. 

Take that a step further and a content creator has the mind of a publisher. They’re a media channel and reach audiences in multiple ways. They have blogs and social networks for publishing written content. They have those social networks and YouTube to run their own television network. They have podcasts to have a radio network and so on. 

Michiel Perry is one such creator. It’s no surprise she sees her Black Southern Belle channels as a media empire of sorts. She spent several years in the “real world” as a public policy communications professional. She worked for the U.S. State Department and Google, among other places. So she came into this content creator world knowing a thing or two about the business. 

I wanted to talk to Michiel for a couple of reasons. I knew she was a successful content creator, but one who had expanded beyond that label to running a media company in the social-first world we live in. She’s also unique in that her social channels are very much about the community around Black Southern Bell, not just her perspective. 

That’s old school social media. And I like it.

But, as I’m also want to do, I saw an opportunity to talk to her about race and its impact on her world that maybe we who don’t live in the world of the disenfranchised understand. 

And as I culled back through her content to prepare for the conversation, one post caught my eye that I knew I had to talk to her about. I think you’ll appreciate that part of the conversation, too.

This episode of Winfluence is presented by Tagger, a complete influence marketing software solution. Check them out for a demo today at jason.online/tagger.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You regular listeners are probably wondering what’s up with an episode drop on a Thursday. We’ve gotten into a nice weekly rhythm here on Winfluence. But today, I have a treat for you. We’re going to drop in on an episode from The Business Storytelling Podcast hosted by my friend Christoph Trappe.

He’s a smart content marketing guy who, as his show’s title might imply, focuses on storytelling for brands and businesses. I was going through his old episodes and found a really good one I thought you should hear, so I reached out and we agreed to each air an episode of each other’s shows to our respective audiences. 

His and my hope is that if you like his show you hear today, you’ll jump over and subscribe so you don’t miss a future episode of The Business Storytelling Podcast, too. It’s worth adding that to your feed, for sure.

Now, the episode I wanted you to hear is actually a couple of years old, but it’s with Rachel Miller of SAP. She is a brand-side innovator and thought leader in the influencer marketing space. Christoph and Rachel talk about influencer marketing overall, but then get into the ins and outs of B2B influencers, big brand influencer programs and beyond.

It’s a useful listen, so we’ll drop that in on today’s show. 

Folks if you haven’t heard, well you haven’t been listening. But Tagger is one fine influencer marketing platform. They are our presenting sponsor and man, does Tagger come in handy for me. I actually sat out to find creators in a very odd and specific niche last week, but instead of going straight to Tagger’s discovery tab and searching for a keyword or topic, I went to its Signals feature.

This is where you can drop that keyword or set of keywords and see how much chatter about that brand or topic is out there on the web, then identify the influential voices talking about it. That gives you a head start on finding the more right influencers for your brand or project.

I could go on, but you know I use Tagger every day for the influence strategies I work on for my clients. You should at least check it out. Do a free demo at jason.online/tagger today. No commitment or anything, just see how it works. 

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The primary reason I like to interview people about this wild, wonderful world we work in is that I know I don’t know everything. Even though we talk about a lot of the topics that I consider myself fairly well schooled or experienced with, someone else always brings a different perspective to the table.

It’s the accumulation of those different perspectives that I feel makes me, and I suppose, you, smarter. We’re better at our jobs because we listen to someone else’s perspective, even if it’s about something we fell comfortable that we know well.

I had the great pleasure of being a guest on Lara Schmoisman’s podcast, Coffee No. 5, a few months ago. I didn’t know Lara before we did the interview, but as I prepared and then chatted with her, I realized … here’s someone with a world of different perspectives I need to know more from.

Lara is a luxury marketing specialist which is a category I definitely want to know more about. She’s also a global marketing expert. She works with clients around the world and can bring the experiences of working in different countries, cultures and languages to the table, too. Lara is based in L.A., but is originally from Argentina.

Her take on marketing and branding has created a nice following for her in the industry, not just on her podcast, but through her work at her agency, The Darl. I invited Lara to come on the show and talk to us about all those things and give us a little different perspective.

Today's episode is brought to you by Zencastr and Basecamp. I'm excited to tell you more about them, because I use them both. All the interviews I record for this show are captured with Zencastr. I've used it for years to capture high-quality audio over the web. It does high-quality video, too.

Zencastr records each guest locally … the file is saved to their computer … then it uploads the crystal clear audio and video right into a cloud folder and the Zencastr suite so you have high-quality raw materials to work with.

Get 30% off a pro account at zen.ai/winfluence.

And if you’re wondering how I keep all my work organized for this podcast and all the influence marketing strategies I’m working on for clients out there? That’s easy. Basecamp. I’ve been using it for project management and team communications for almost two decades.

Basecamp is all about simplicity. It’s designed to give you and your team the tools you need to get work done. Messages, to-dos, file storage, chat, calendar and more. Bring all-in-one project management to your business. There’s a 30-day free trial. You do not need a credit card to try it.

Go to jason.online/basecamp.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Does the name Sam Farha mean anything to you? If it does, you’re probably a fan of poker. Farha is a rather famous professional poker player. He is most know, however, for a hand he lost.

In 2003 Farha was on the verge of elimination from the World Series of Poker Texas Hold ‘Em Main Event … the one you typically see on ESPN. In fact the 2003 tournament, and Sam Farha’s role in it, helped make televised Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments a ratings boon for the network.

Farha found himself down early after losing a big hand and almost dropped out voluntarily. Friends encouraged him to keep playing. He was a fairly accomplished player, mind you. And he did. And he won hand after hand.

Farha reached the final table and meticulously worked his hands until only one man stood between him and his first-ever World Series of Poker title. That one man was a newcomer to the sport. The odds were certainly stacked in Farha’s favor.

But that one man was observant. He watched Farha for hours on that final table, looking for a tell. That is what poker players call some action a player takes or a reaction they have that indicates they either have a great hand. Or they have crap. 

You see, the art of playing poker is the art of keeping your opponents guessing. Do you have a good hand when you place a big bet, so they should fold? Or are you bluffing, so they should call or raise to put the pressure back on you to stay in and not lose any money. 

The newcomer standing between Farha and his first World Series of Poker bracelet was Chris Moneymaker. He studied Farha for hours playing at that final table and noticed he did something different when he was bluffing versus when he had a strong hand.

He tapped his cigarette on the table. 

At a crucial point in the match, Farha went all-in with a pair of jacks and was bluffing. But he tapped his cigarette. Moneymaker called. He had two pair. They survived the final turn of the card to make the unknown accountant from Tennessee, the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion. 

Did you know that influencers and content creators have tells too? Today on Winfluence, I’ll share the five tells that reveal insights about an influencer that throw up red flags and often make me choose someone different. 

Today's episode is brought to you by Zencastr and Basecamp. I'm excited to tell you more about them, because I use them both. All the interviews I record for this show are captured with Zencastr. I've used it for years to capture high-quality audio over the web. It does high-quality video, too.

Zencastr records each guest locally … the file is saved to their computer … then it uploads the crystal clear audio and video right into a cloud folder and the Zencastr suite so you have high-quality raw materials to work with.

Get 30% off a pro account at zen.ai/winfluence.

And if you’re wondering how I keep all my work organized for this podcast and all the influence marketing strategies I’m working on for clients out there? That’s easy. Basecamp. I’ve been using it for project management and team communications for almost two decades.

Basecamp is all about simplicity. It’s designed to give you and your team the tools you need to get work done. Messages, to-dos, file storage, chat, calendar and more. Bring all-in-one project management to your business. There’s a 30-day free trial. You do not need a credit card to try it.

Go to jason.online/basecamp.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Winfluence is not a podcast about podcasts. There are plenty of those out there. I listen to 2-3 to keep myself informed about the tips and tricks, ideas and innovations in the space. There are far more qualified people out there sharing that type of content specific to genre.

Podcasts, however, are content creations of content creators who leverage those mechanisms to build audiences and influence. And so they fall squarely in the crosshairs of what we need to know and explore on the show. I’ve said before owned content mechanisms like blogs and podcasts, email newsletters and the like are an important category of creation influencers everywhere need to pay attention to.

In this episode, we’re going to hammer that home a bit. 

One of the podcasts about podcasting I listen to is The Business of Podcasting. Christopher Hines, or The Coach Chris as he is known online, offers up short, informal but informational riffs on how to leverage podcasts to make money, drive value for your business and more. He mixes in an occasional guest and is just useful for new and emerging podcasters.

Chris is also the man behind the Personal Branding Playbook. Both shows are on the Marketing Podcast Network, which I run and Winfluence is a part of as well. Being exposed to Chris’s wisdom and straightforward coaching ideas compelled me to have him come on the show and share a bit of his knowledge with you, too.

Today we’ll talk about why you content creators need to consider podcast. Who may not need to. And then we’ll dive into the ways you can make money from your podcast.

Welcome to two new sponsors to Winfluence this month! Today's episode is brought to you by Zencastr and Basecamp. I'm excited to tell you more about them, because I use them both. All the interviews I record for this show are captured with Zencastr. I've used it for years to capture high-quality audio over the web. It does high-quality video, too.

Zencastr records each guest locally … the file is saved to their computer … then it uploads the crystal clear audio and video right into a cloud folder and the Zencastr suite so you have high-quality raw materials to work with.

Get 30% off a pro account at zen.ai/winfluence.

And if you’re wondering how I keep all my work organized for this podcast and all the influence marketing strategies I’m working on for clients out there? That’s easy. Basecamp. I’ve been using it for project management and team communications for almost two decades.

Basecamp is all about simplicity. It’s designed to give you and your team the tools you need to get work done. Messages, to-dos, file storage, chat, calendar and more. Bring all-in-one project management to your business. There’s a 30-day free trial. You do not need a credit card to try it.  

Go to jason.online/basecamp.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is episode 178 of Winfluence. I don’t typically count or even add the episode number to the shows because I’ve always thought episode numbers were more of an internal cataloging system for the podcaster and listeners don’t care. 

I keep track, but it’s easier to just search for the guest or topic on my website or even the podcast apps than have to remember numbers. Thanks to mobile phones, who has brain capacity to remember numbers anymore. 

But I call out episode 178 today because this episode is the first with a repeat guest. Gary Arndt joined us in January of 2021 to talk about becoming influential via a podcast. He’s the host of Everything Everywhere Daily. That daily dose of history and trivia launched when the pandemic wiped out Gary’s other business. He was a travel and tourism blogger, photographer and podcaster. His industry shut down thanks to COVID. 

Gary was out of a job and out of income. He didn’t have anything to do so he threw himself into starting a podcast, but running it like a business. He very quickly went from in the red to in the black.

When we last spoke, Gary was hitting around 60,000 downloads per month. That was about six or eight months into his new venture. He is now more than 10 times that in terms of monthly downloads. By the end of this year, he’ll likely hit one million monthly downloads.

And Gary is one man researching and writing one show per day from his basement. He’s an independent podcaster. Us indy folks don’t typically hit one million downloads in a year, much less a month. 

In this episode we revisit Gary Arndt, who tells us the lessons he’s learned from trying everything, testing, iterating and climbing his way from zero to hero in the podcasting space. He shares the best methods to grow and a little of where his show has taken him, that he didn’t expect.

A lot of the advice Gary has for us correlates to growing your influence on social networks. But if you’re keenly interested in podcasting and getting specific advice on how to go big or go home, get ready to take some notes.  

Welcome to two new sponsors to Winfluence this month! Today's episode is brought to you by Zencastr and Basecamp. I'm excited to tell you more about them, because I use them both. All the interviews I record for this show are captured with Zencastr. I've used it for years to capture high-quality audio over the web. It does high-quality video, too.

Zencastr records each guest locally … the file is saved to their computer … then it uploads the crystal clear audio and video right into a cloud folder and the Zencastr suite so you have high-quality raw materials to work with.

Get 30% off a pro account at zen.ai/winfluence.

And if you’re wondering how I keep all my work organized for this podcast and all the influence marketing strategies I’m working on for clients out there? That’s easy. Basecamp. I’ve been using it for project management and team communications for almost two decades.

Basecamp is all about simplicity. It’s designed to give you and your team the tools you need to get work done. Messages, to-dos, file storage, chat, calendar and more. Bring all-in-one project management to your business. There’s a 30-day free trial. You do not need a credit card to try it.  

Go to jason.online/basecamp.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

At the end of each show, I offer you up the opportunity to ask a question or throw out a topic you’d like my take on to inspire a show. You’re always welcome to do that by emailing me. The address is [email protected]. I love it when you do because it gives me a good topic to talk about and it probably helps your fellow listeners and Winfluence community folks learn, too.

I also have people in the industry reach out about trends and problems they’re seeing. When one piques my interest, that topic becomes a show as well. Today’s is one of those.

Sam Mendel and Saranga Pagadala are two young whippersnappers who have dreamed up a different take on an influencer marketing platform, but one that is informed and inspired by what they see as an industry issue. They reached out and said talent agents and managed services are taking too much of an influencer’s earnings. 

As you can imagine, that raised an eyebrow on this face. I work with talent agents all the time. They provide a valuable service to their clients, the end creators, so they can focus on creating. But when Sam and Saranga said they’ve seen up to 40% commission rates, I asked them to tell me more.

We spent some time going through the issue and touched on CashU which is their new entry into the influencer marketing space. You can find it at textcashu.com. As you can probably guess, it’s an influencer marketplace and discovery platform that operates mostly as a text platform. Worth checking out if you’re a creator or company looking to engage micro- and nano-influencers. 

They had some interesting things to say. I’d be interested to hear if your experiences align with theirs and what you think after you listen today.

We have two new sponsors to welcome to Winfluence this week. Today's episode is brought to you by Zencastr and Basecamp. I'm excited to tell you more about them, because I use them both. All the interviews I record for this show are captured with Zencastr. I've used it for years to capture high-quality audio over the web. It does high-quality video, too.

Zencastr records each guest locally … the file is saved to their computer … then it uploads the crystal clear audio and video right into a cloud folder and the Zencastr suite so you have high-quality raw materials to work with.

Get 30% off a pro account at zen.ai/winfluence.

And if you’re wondering how I keep all my work organized for this podcast and all the influence marketing strategies I’m working on for clients out there? That’s easy. Basecamp. I’ve been using it for project management and team communications for almost two decades.

Basecamp is all about simplicity. It’s designed to give you and your team the tools you need to get work done. Messages, to-dos, file storage, chat, calendar and more. Bring all-in-one project management to your business. There’s a 30-day free trial. You do not need a credit card to try it.  

Go to jason.online/basecamp.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Instagram is changing its algorithm and user experience. Kylie Jenner isn’t happy about it. She once critically wounded Snapchat by saying she never goes there anymore. Now she’s created a PR issue for the platform. But the changes to Instagram go far beyond pissing off a Kardashian.

Instagram is now outwardly saying video is better. They’re prioritizing it over the their heritage approach of photography. They’re also testing features that are much like TikTok. This is largely because TikTok is beating them at the game of creating stickier user experiences. Instagram can’t continue to dominate the social media platform usage among a certain population if the Joneses have built a better mousetrap. So they have to keep up.

And these changes change the way influencers and creators have to approach their roles. It also changes the way brands need to think about influencers. 

Katie Stoller has been watching the algorithm changes, and Kylie Jenner’s reaction, along with the rest of us in the space. She’s an influencer marketing and public relations consultant and pro. I invited her to come on the show to talk about the layered complexities of the influencer space, how to design the right solutions for brands and clients when its hard to know what size influencer, what type of creator, what type of content and such will work.

But I invited her to do that the week the Kylie Jenner re-post of a meme begging Instagram to let Instagram be Instagram, so our conversation had to include both. 

Katie is of like mind. She’s a public relations pro by trade, even worked at some of the major PR firms over the years. She’s currently handling influencer marketing for Fiat Growth, a Silicon Valley based investment and growth company largely in the FinTech space. 

Our conversation will be very useful for those of you on the brand and agency side to better understand the complexities of building smart influence approaches, but then we’ll also get into this Instagram UX and algorithm discussion. Katie was the guest, but she asked me a few questions and I jumped out of character a bit to wag my finger at some folks.

An entertaining discussion is here for you today.

This episode of Winfluence is presented by Tagger, a complete influence marketing software solution. Check them out for a demo today at jason.online/tagger.

A full show transcript is available at https://jason.online/katiestoller.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We’ve gotten into a little bit of a pattern here on the show. Seems like every other interview or so is with some founder or executive at an influencer marketing software company. There are lots of reasons for that.

First, they’re anxious to mention their platform to you since they know the people who listen to WInfluence are interested in and often shopping for solutions to problems with influencer marketing. That makes this group of people easy interviews. 

My goal in having them on the show is to certainly talk about their platform so you might have a good idea of something else out there, but then I try to dive deeper into their worldview, at least as it pertains to influencer marketing. We discuss and debate issues and such. That gives you more than just a veiled ad for their thing and helps us push the thinking.

By the way – no one pays to be interviewed on this show. The editorial part of it is just me deciding that person has something worth sharing and talking about. Sure, I’ve interviewed Pete Kennedy from Tagger, who is our show sponsor, and some folks from companies that sponsor the Marketing Podcast Network, of which Winfluence is a member, but being interviewed on Winfluence is not part of any ad buy for them. Just so you know.

Austin Rosenthal actually caught my attention recently by saying he didn’t agree with my conclusion from an earlier conversation. If you’ll remember back a few episodes we talked to Aaron Bruce of Posse.io. His platform allows brands to tap into an influencer’s audience by targeting advertising to them with the creator’s permission, but for a CPM payout to the influencer and no need for content creation. 

My headline / conclusion on that episode was “Are we doing influencer marketing all wrong.” So Austin took issue.

It’s no surprise. Austin Rosenthal is the chief operating officer at Lionize.ai. It is an influencer marketing software platform in the traditional sense. You use Lionize.ai to search and discover, then engage and manage influencer campaigns. So I could see why he would object to me inferring that we might be doing influencer marketing wrong by not focusing on just ad buys against influencer audiences.

I welcomed the pushback and knowledge about Lionize.ai, but only if Austin would come on the show and explain both. So, a new tool and a little fun discussion is in order today on Winfluence. 

This episode of Winfluence is presented by Tagger, a complete influencer marketing management solution. Try a free demo at jason.online/tagger today.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I just returned from a short vacation with my children, Grant and Katie. We choose a city the kids haven’t been to each summer and go explore for four or five days. This year, we chose Denver, or the Denver area. We stayed in an AirBnB between Denver and Boulder. We spent a day in Golden, Colorado as well. Plus we drove up into the Rockies one day … so it was far more than just Denver.

Now, I have been to Denver a few times in my life, as well as Salt Lake City. I even drove from there to Logan, Utah once. So I’ve seen the Rocky Mountains up close before, but I had never really gotten off the main roads and explored. 

Last Monday, the kids and I spent the morning in Boulder, walking up and down Pearl Street. After lunch we headed west out of town up into the Rockies. If you’ve never done so, you should. The majesty of these enormous formations is humbling. 

About halfway up the first mountain, we pulled off to hike up to Boulder Falls. Now, for those of you who are familiar, I realize the word “hike” is relative. It’s only about a 200-yard walk on a gravel path down off the road, then up the side of the valley so you can peak around the bend and see the waterfall full on. 

But for those of you who aren’t familiar with me, let’s just say I’m not a hiker. In fact, I had back surgery a month ago, so even the task of walking up the rocks 200 yards was risky. I’m admittedly not active … and horrifically out of shape. But I wanted to do this for and with my kids, so I jumped out of my comfort zone and made the trek.

It might have been the most important thing I’ve done in years.

Standing there on the side of a Rocky Mountain valley, admiring the natural beauty of powerful rushing water that carved out an escape out of the hills to the babbling brook below, feeling the cool mountain wind on my slightly sunburned face, and watching the wonder and joy in my children’s eyes as they, too saw this amazing little slice of heaven, I felt an overwhelming sense of both gratitude and disappointment.

I was grateful I chose to step outside my comfort zone. I was disappointed I had waited so long to do so.

The rest of our trip I spent contemplating the opportunities I’d passed up just wanting to not be uncomfortable. And from a physical health standpoint, how the 49 years of wanting to be comfortable has made me just the opposite. I joke about my weight and laugh it off in masterful self-effacement. But I’m now uncomfortable being me. 

It’s time to get out of my comfort zone in other ways. 

Today on Winfluence, I’m going to share with you what getting out of your comfort zone can mean for you. Whether you’re a business owner hoping to leverage influence marketing, an agency or service provider helping other businesses do the same, or a creator or influencer yourself. 

We’re going to instigate some change. We’re going to make ourselves uncomfortable. But trust me, when you do so … it’s worth it.

This episode of Winfluence is presented by Tagger, a complete influence marketing software solution. Check them out for a demo today at jason.online/tagger.

Hosted by Jason Falls, Winfluence is a production of Falls+Partners. Explore the ideas and get help putting them into practice at fallspartners.com. Winfluence is a proud member of MPN – The Marketing Podcast Network.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.