The influencer marketing industry is booming, and we're going to talk all about it in this episode of Everything Is Teachable. Hear from Lissette Calveiro on her deep experience with influencer marketing, the most important things to know before getting started in the industry, ways to get started with working with brands, and so much more.
The influencer marketing industry is booming, and we're going to talk all about it in this episode of Everything Is Teachable. Hear from Lissette Calveiro on her deep experience with influencer marketing, the most important things to know before getting started in the industry, ways to get started with working with brands, and so much more.
Lissette Calveiro is a Latina digital entrepreneur living in New York City as an influencer marketing consultant to Fortune 500 brands, social media content creator, and business coach for influencers & personal brands.
She is the founder of Influence With Impact™, a consultancy that supports influencers & personal brands in turning their social presence into a balanced business with community impact. She supports her clients through 1:1 coaching, workshops, and a signature 4-month group coaching mastermind. Her consultancy also supports brands in casting community-minded influencers & bringing impactful campaigns to life.
Where to find Lissette:
Lissette's website: https://influencewithimpact.co/
Lissette's Teachable school: influencewithimpact.teachable.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lissettecalv
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lissettecalv
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See you next week!
Unknown Speaker 0:03
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Unknown Speaker 0:09
It has been chugging along and persevering through Monday.
Unknown Speaker 0:16
Exactly. I'm pumped? Yeah, so my
Unknown Speaker 0:44
experience started in the public relations agency world. And actually I know we have a common work employment history. Yeah. And what was so fun about that is I feel like I was doing this at a moment where social media and PR had a little bit of blurry lines. So what we would see or I used to be called a hybrid was really influencer marketing back in the day, right? So we had some clients who used to work with bloggers, and that was the thing of the time, then comes YouTube, and we're starting to pay people to produce content, which was really neat. And I think as social media evolved, being more of a household staple, we started to realize that you can't just rely on journalists to tell your story to tell your clients stories. We needed these these gatekeepers, these really influential regular everyday people to tell our brand story. So that is my way into influencer marketing from the brand side. But a curious Nelly, as I've always been, I also started my own blog in 2013. Again, just working with bloggers, I said, I want to start a blog it kind of like learning from experience. So having that other side as a creator always gave me this unique lens of quote both sides of the coin, which allowed me to see how can I as a marketer, use influencer marketing for my brand, but how can I, as a creator, build a business from my personal brand, and all those things together? My last gig was at Ogilvy, which was my dream job. I was director of influencer marketing. And I said, as much as this is my dream job. I think the next challenge for me is what does life look like for me if I did it on my own career life on my own, so I decided to turn my career into a hard pivot to just really opening my own consultancy. And what I started doing was essentially imagining my business as little departments. I had the consulting department, which was me as the brand, the creation department, which was me as a creator. And I did have a certification as a life coach. So I thought, Okay, let me see what I can do with coaching that was more the experimental department until I built influence with impact as we know it today.
Unknown Speaker 3:02
Yeah, I know. And I think it's like you really have to ask yourself, what about those areas of expertise that I find interesting, and there's always a common link?
Unknown Speaker 3:40
Yeah, I would say in the beginning, it was more of a leap of faith. But what I wish someone had told me is that it doesn't have to be linear. Because when I decided to go do my own entrepreneurship thing, I have this vision of I'm doing it because I just want to take a chance on myself, I just want some freedom, right. And I had that vision for myself. But I spent a lot of time making that leap or not making that leap because I didn't have the perfect plan. And then one day, I just decided, like, I'm just gonna go for it. Right. What is one thing I'm winning at right now? What is one thing that I'm an expert in? Let me just take a leap of faith toward that vision using this one thing. So if I knew I wanted to get a new challenge, find freedom in my schedule, which was the original reasons why I wanted to be an entrepreneur, that change. But the original reason I said where do I when I do know that me as a consultant, and influencer marketing, I'm pretty marketable myself. And I've already got content creation, a pretty heavy or a nice rotating stream of that. So let me use this as the means to that vision. So I started that way. And then things started kind of developing it off on their own because I started to allow more room for myself to expand and experiment. Because again, in the beginning, I said Oh gosh, I won't quit until I have the perfect business plan, the perfect marketing plan. And I waited so long. And when I took the leap, I didn't actually have it all figured out in that moment. But things started to figure themselves out as they go. And I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs have the same story where they wish they would have started sooner, start before you're ready, because you're never actually ready, everything's changing every day. So you might as well just put yourself in a place to receive that.
Unknown Speaker 6:04
Yeah, and I would say you have to feel aligned with, again, your vision, because at the end of the day, that's going to be the anchor to everything, the way there may change, and you have to really stop pretending like there's going to be a perfect plan to get yourself there. That's just our security blanket, and we got to let it go if we want to go into entrepreneurship. I really love the idea that regular people had influence, and that people could essentially be paid for that every day influence. Because when you take a step out of social media, think about your friends, family, who have in some way influenced you to make a decision or to purchase something or to experience something. And the fact that now people can monetize, that can almost monetize their perspective, their point of view, to me was amazing. And at the time, when I really started dabbling in influencer marketing, as we know it today, so paying creators, it was less about content creation, and it was more about we just really value your opinion. And we know your community values your opinion as well, how can we get a space there, so we're kind of paying for that endorsement for that word of mouth. And then over time, you started to realize, hey, there's way more ways we can use creators, as content creators, more and more social media, you needed to be on there if you were a brand, so why not use creators to produce content for us, then you realize, hey, these creators can host events for us, they can be ambassadors over a whole year, and it just evolved so much more than a traditional sponsored piece of content on social media. So that evolution and that growth really was so interesting to me. And then a lot of the work that I did today is really helping educate creators on how to build a business. And to me that's even more exciting because it tells me not only you're now getting paid almost to have that opinion, but you're building a business from your person you're building a business from your story from your unique perspective from what you have to say and that to me is fascinating. Oh, yeah, I mean, literally, there's not a single human with your story. So even if you're doing the exact category, and I think it's awesome, even teachable, there are probably the same courses 1000s of times, but every unique individual is what draws another new person to sign up right it's that connection. So that's something I really value.
Unknown Speaker 9:47
The car was so good. 100%.
Unknown Speaker 10:47
Butting influencers need to know that the amount of followers doesn't guarantee money in your bank account, the connection and the trust you have with your followers is what guarantees money in your bank account. And I think there's this big misconception that I can go viral overnight whether or not going viral was difficult. You know, everyone has different levels of experience with production of content. But anyone can technically go viral overnight. Not everyone can build a business overnight, because trust is earned over time. So I see this a lot with creators who will come to me and say, I've got 100,000 followers, but I have no idea how to monetize. And it's because they've spent too much time figuring out how to go viral, and how to grow quickly, but not how to build trust with their community. So it's a catch 22 Because of course everyone wants to grow because that means more people are seeing the opportunity of being on my page where people have the chance to discover me. But I would say focus more on serving the community you have then on trying to go viral. And there's a way to do both to have a balance of both make your content shareable, make it discoverable, but don't lose sight of the fact that you need to keep building connections in order to convert it into money. And that's whether you're working with brands, right because a brand is going to hire you for the trust you've developed with your community. And then if you wanted to launch your own digital product or service, or course, no one's gonna buy unless they trust you on that topic. So really have to foster that first.
Unknown Speaker 12:28
Yeah, I would say first step before anything else, because you can have 100 followers and start practicing how to build connection. Don't wait until you have the 100,000 because then it becomes so much more difficult you find yourself actually, if you just go straight through quick growth, quick virality, you get to a point where you feel scattered and the type of people you've brought into your platform. And I see this happen a lot, right? Maybe you went viral, you tried to very random communities, so you don't know who you're even building connections with. And these are the creators who I feel get stuck now trying to beat the algorithm, I gotta grow that fast again, or I got to make sure that so and so sees my content, but you're forgetting that you don't even know who's so and so in your community is so try to practice fostering that from day one. And then after that, I think it's all about experimentation. Right? Seeing again, same way entrepreneurship is almost one giant experiment, see the type of content that you find joy producing, but it's still serving value to your community?
Unknown Speaker 13:48
Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 13:52
number one is I don't plan my content, I plan the conversations I want to have. And what that means is I don't spend time putting together a perfect grid of 30 posts, but I am spending time thinking, what are some pain points my ideal followers having right now what would be something that would make my ideal follower laugh? What would be something that they're Googling right now and really just starting to think about what are the conversations they want to have? Because when you have that written down, making content is easy. The how you tell that story is easy. It could be a real, it could be a YouTube video, it can be anything, but if you know the conversations you want to have with your community, you know that whatever you make, it's going to be more impactful. It's going to go further for you. And I'd say that and the second thing, which is really a fun tip is the mundane or boring stuff in and around your life or your business. Share that because we don't do enough of that. And what I see happen on the flip side is you've got these amazing experts, coaches creators, who are just so putting out valuable Content day in day out but I have no idea who they are as people I'm not going to buy from them because I just don't know them yet I don't like them I don't And not that I dislike them but I just don't know they are and people like buying from people so I really do think that putting into practice whether it's every day I'm going to share something that made me laugh or every day I'm going to share one little piece of my routine whatever that is for you to keep yourself accountable show us your life so that we can connect with you as a person
Unknown Speaker 15:39
oh no huh yeah
Unknown Speaker 16:24
yeah
Unknown Speaker 16:33
exactly and exactly what you said I feel so seen that is the goldmine and social media con when you get that you did it
Unknown Speaker 16:49
Uh huh. Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 17:36
Yeah, again, foundations, if you don't have a community and you don't feel established as you your brand and your corner of the internet, it's going to be difficult to start these conversations. But I trust that you have gotten there. I want to get past that. I would say it's about finding the brands that align with your communities day to day life. And I always tell people shop your pantry medicine closet, your desk, your beauty closet, and really start to figure out what are the brands I interact with day to day in the realm of what I do and what I've built trust on. And then I say the best way in to start working with brands like you said, you're going to have that one moment where you cold email a brand. But how can we make it so that first email isn't as cold? How can we warm up that lead? So for example, if there's a brand that you've determined, okay, this is going to be really great for my community? Is it you're going to organically quickly mention it in your stories, and maybe ask a community anyone using this brand? Anyone? What are your thoughts on this brand, because what will happen is people may respond, now you have testimonials. So now when you go and you reach out to this brand, with a cold pitch, you are a little bit warmer, because you're able to say by the way, last time I mentioned you everyone was freaking out about it. Or last time I talked about you so and so said this about you. So it's really making that first move with the brand, the more you can do pre pitch to warm up that relationship, the better in your favor. And then when you get to that point of pitching brands, which I think everyone needs to be doing, because again, you want to build relationships with these potential clients of yours. So you have to start reaching out, you can't just wait for them to find you. But when you get to that point know that email one is just first date. It's relationship builder. Number one, there's a lot of creators who get really, you know, they feel let down because their first email didn't turn into cash. And it's okay, because you're not going to make go all the way on the first day, I think. So you really want to Yeah, like treat it like that one first fun date. You're getting to know each other, you're telling them this is who I am. you've warmed up the relationship as much as possible. And then the question should be, let me get to know you and your goals so that I can serve you best and then that leads to a natural conversation about how you can work with that brand.
Unknown Speaker 20:20
I think it actually starts by doing a lot of inner work on who you are and what your story is. It's the work that everyone avoids. And it's funny, because in the mastermind that I have, we actually start with mindset, because I can teach you every tactic in the world about getting on video. But if you don't feel that you are good enough to even be on social media, then you're never going to get on video. So it's that inner work that you kind of have to do. And I always say the best way to start is brain dump your story, like tell yourself your story. And then I want you to go back and tell yourself what was so frickin awesome about that story? Where did I win? Where did I totally knock it out of the park? And then also look and say, where did I fall? Where did I feel bad for a moment? And how did I come back from that, because when we start to see our entire story, and we start to see all the amazing things, we've done, all the amazing ways we've picked ourselves up, then we actually start to feel more comfortable in our story. And we start to shed those fears of not wanting to show up. Because that fear of not wanting to show up is so much deeper feelings of I may not be good enough, I may not be cool enough, I may not be enough, enough, enough. And when you just write down your story and look at it, as even if it's just five minutes of journaling, or 30 minutes, if you can give all of that you start to feel more ownership of that story. And your confidence does start to build up. And then from there, it's really a game of practice. So I always say start small. If it means you're only going to show up on Instagram stories because they disappear. Amazing. Give us that if you're working your way up to going live amazing, but you don't have to be there on day one. Own your story and then start small with actually practicing that that nerve. Yeah, yeah, imagine if I was like, talk to a whole stadium first day.
Unknown Speaker 22:25
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I actually
Unknown Speaker 22:43
started with this idea that influencers started to become a dirty word. And this was around 2019. And I said, How can we, you know, a lot of creators started saying, don't call me influencer, call me content creator. And I thought, well, how can we take ownership back of the word influencer? And I thought it it's just the meaning attached to it. So I started to really brainstorm around how can I bring meaning back to influence and influencer? And then I thought about the people who influenced me? And what about their platforms that I really value. And it wasn't that they were all it wasn't just people talking about deep stuff, or people changing the world through advocacy, because obviously, that impact is very easy to see. But it was actually the everyday person who was sharing fashion content that now made me feel a little more confident, because the way that they wear colors inspired me on wearing colors, and you know, it just trickles into my life. So I realized that it was about finding the intention behind the influence that you wanted to have. And all that together. I thought, Okay, well, how can I help influencers, build a business that actually has that intention? And that's how I came up with the word influence with impact. But it was really, I felt like there was a missing roadmap to how someone can literally start from scratch toward the end, but not just how to use social media or how to work with brands, all the in between stuff, how do I build a personal brand? How do I monetize that personal brand with good intention? And then third, how do I actually make impact? How do I find that why that goes beyond? I'm a lifestyle creator, I'm a fashion creator, because I think those are just tactics. I can tell you all day, how to make cool fashion content. But you need to tell me why that fashion content is important and who it's important for. So all of that came together. And I thought the best way to really tell that and to guide people through that was through a hybrid model of coursework and coaching, because I do believe that with coursework, when it's deep in this way of demanding transformation from you and getting you to those uncomfortable hard places to see that change. I do believe a hybrid guided approach is really great. So that's something I think teachable is really helped with where there's a really easy way for people to get all the tactics, all the course material, but then they're able to still have coaching with me outside of just what they're seeing in the course material. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 25:32
Amazing, I am so excited because again, I think it's such a big difference when people get some time with you, whether it's one on one or group I happen to do the group route, people feel a little bit more accountability than simply having to download my content and consume it. And I think there's places for both. But again, with this particular program, what I wanted people to do was build, build, find intention and build that business that you want to see from your influence. So with that, I felt like it did need a little bit of guidance. And what I'm seeing is, again, people will kind of, you can tell they've consumed the material in the curriculum. And then we've got our scheduled coaching times that they've kind of picked out. And it's nice to see people kind of come in and say, so I've got the foundations, and I understand the concept you're trying to say, but I would love for you to help me with XYZ. I recently had an example, a very literal example of someone who said, I watched the module, the lesson that had to do with all the tools I'm using for editing, but actually realize I spent a lot of time editing. And I thought interesting, tell me about it. Why why do you spend time and this person said, I actually spent a lot of time picking my favorite photo? And I said, Why is that they go a little bit deeper. And they said, I don't know, I just feel like I'm gonna pick the wrong photo. So that was a moment for me to coach the person on how to get over this fear of judgment of how to get over the fear of doing it, I pick the wrong one. And really helping them reframe how they go into editing. And I told her, so just after doing, you know, a whole coaching moment. So you see, it wasn't about not having the tools because you actually have the tools. You got them from the lesson. And it seems like it's going really well for you. But there was a moment of transformation that needed to happen. And if I have left that person just to only watch the material, I think they would have stayed stuck in that cycle, they would have gotten an easy answer today. But two weeks from now they would have totally gotten stuck on I'm still taking three hours to edit a photo because I can't pick a dang photo
Unknown Speaker 27:48
yeah oh yeah. Oh, yeah. Definitely a
Unknown Speaker 28:15
quote that lives with me forever, my choir teacher gave me this was leave things better than you found them. And that applies to a lot more than just the the big cheesy level the quote. But for example, I actually stopped thinking that I had to give the best of my best. And I just wanted to give the best of what I just did write. So leaving a task better than I started or leaving, you know, I'm not going to hit draft 17 Right now, but I'm going to give you draft five and like this idea that I'm going to leave the things I'm making just better than I found them helped me take action longer. And I think also from a higher level, the type of work that I'm doing is working with a lot of people where I still use that philosophy and I think how can I leave this person again better than I found them does not mean that that person is going to be changed to perfection because we're never going to be perfect people or in many ways we're perfect because we're imperfect. And it's just about finding a way to make someone feel like I took I did one thing today for myself. I did one thing today that's gonna make me feel better than I did yesterday. So heard that many many many years ago and stuck with me forever. Still keep it to this day
Unknown Speaker 29:52
I would do qualitative research on my ideal client, my ideal client ideal shopper and that call Alternative research doesn't have to be so complicated. I've done multiple different ways. So one thing I did before launching and Flint of impact was actually just survey people in my Instagram Stories, ask them a little bit of, you know, without telling them what's coming, asking them the questions of things that were going to be relevant to the curriculum. And I even offered some people who were answering questions that sounded like, dang, you're exactly my ideal client offered them to get on the phone for 10 minutes. And in exchange for a Starbucks gift card, I would ask them a ton of questions. And then this round, and what I mean by this round is I am working on a new course drop inside my school, I've been doing yeah, I've actually been doing almost a beta version of what I want to launch, right. So before actually putting the course material on something like a teachable, I've been teaching some of it as live webinars just to see how people react to it. And that, to me, is really serving as qualitative research. So that honestly, is one of the best ways to move yourself forward. Because we spend, again, so much time on what's the perfect sales page messaging, what's the perfect logo colors? That won't matter unless you actually talk to your clients? So go to that qualitative research? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 31:27
Yes, so again, qualitative research, I've had influence with impact the mastermind now for two years, and I realized that there are some people inside my community who maybe they aren't at the level A of wanting to go to a mastermind route because that their business vision isn't there yet. So they don't see themselves in something as intensive. There's also some people who are content creators who are actually doing quite well. But something's missing around pricing and negotiation. That is my most frequently asked question, my most frequently asked topic is how the heck do I price myself. So we are actually launching a pricing a negotiation course specifically for influencers and content creators as it relates to working with brands and creating content. So you can keep an eye out for that. And it's essentially to help you solve what the heck do I charge? And how do I make sure I'm actually asking for my worth. One thing that I'm also excited about is we're going to be testing teachables membership options, so that we can actually have a space where people can talk about pricing more transparently, and get access to some of the material without going fully into the course if you're not ready to invest in that yet.
Unknown Speaker 32:48
Oh, yeah. Same
Unknown Speaker 32:59
spring 2022 Coming to a teachable school near you, and it'll live. Yeah, it'll live on during floods with impact inside teachable and yeah, I'm excited about it.
Unknown Speaker 33:14
Thank you
Unknown Speaker 33:21
so you can find me the personal brands Atlas set Calv, which is my name, or you can also follow us anywhere at influence with impact and that's where you'll find resources very specific to influencers, content creators, but on my end, we talk about everything entrepreneurship life and how to find balance in both things.
Unknown Speaker 33:52
I think something that was a reoccurring theme here is again, start before you're ready, because you're never actually going to be ready. So go experiment and know that with entrepreneurship, the beauty of it is that even if you quote, derail yourself, you can always find your way back. And as long as you continue knowing that there's a vision, keep taking action toward that vision, that timeline may change. It's gonna go fast. For some people. It's gonna go real slow for some others and it's okay to start before you're
Unknown Speaker 34:21
ready. Thank you