The Atlanta Scene

[00:00:00] Ronni Martin: And I feel like that’s a lot of people’s story, is like trying to just figure it out, especially right out of school. So I did a little bit of everything. I had a comms internship. I did social media management, where I was, you know, running, you know, accounts, doing graphics, all of that. Realized that was, like, way too much work for me.

[00:00:22] Jessy Grossman: Hi guys, I am back. I took three weeks off of the podcast, which has legitimately not happened in years. Like, I’ve occasionally missed one episode, certainly not three whole weeks. Why did that happen? I’m going to be super candid with you guys. It’s a couple things. I think mostly I’ve just been feeling a little uninspired and I don’t want to just put out content for the sake of that.

[00:00:56] Putting out an episode. This is the first place that I’m going to share this news. So the other reason that I haven’t, I took a few weeks off and was just sort of living was because I’m pregnant Yukon! I’m officially, finally, After like a two very long year process, multiple IUI procedures, the whole nine, I’m finally pregnant.

[00:01:30] So, oh my gosh, I’m like vibrating as I say this out loud because I haven’t really, I mean, I’ve told like close family and friends, of course, but I haven’t, Really broadly announced this yet. I don’t know when I’m going to elsewhere, but I just like, I don’t know, man, I’ve always loved the podcast and you guys who listen to the show.

[00:01:53] I feel like I have a more intimate relationship. I don’t know. Maybe it’s my head. Maybe not, but it felt. natural to share this exciting news here and like, didn’t feel quite right yet elsewhere. So you’re my test audience. I know I’ve also shared before in prior episodes about the journey to get to this place, but I am in my second trimester now.

[00:02:21] So I feel a little bit more comfortable sharing and a few. Or someone you know has had trouble conceiving, trouble staying pregnant, pregnancy loss, any of that stuff. You know how scary it feels, like legitimately scary it can feel to tell anybody the news, the good news, because things can change, but I don’t know.

[00:02:47] I’m excited and you know, no matter what happens, I’m going to be positive and I’m just going to enjoy. Every moment because I’ve worked so friggin hard to get to this point. Oh my god. So yes, I took three weeks off I’ve been trying to be as stress free as humanly possible then try I mean Candidly, I’ve also been exhausted.

[00:03:09] I had like a pretty good first trimester. And then at the end, Oh my God, I could barely even keep my eyes open. So anyways, I’m sorry that I didn’t produce an episode for three weeks, but I hope that somewhere deep down you can understand. And I just wanted to share. But like really exciting news with everyone.

[00:03:29] I do know the gender, but I don’t think I’m going to share that today, but it’s, we’re so, so excited. So I wanted to give you that little personal, little, that’s a huge update. I wanted to give you that giant, huge, exciting updates. All right. That was scary to say it loud. This episode is not about that though.

[00:03:54] I just wanted to, I feel like I’m like. Giving an excuse to the teacher about like, why didn’t come to class or something, I feel like I needed to explain myself. So that’s my explanation. However, have a very cool episode for you guys. It is a group convo. We are not even just doing a one on one interview.

[00:04:12] I have two fantastic guests. They are our Atlanta ambassadors. So they are both based in Atlanta. They’ve been hosting these incredible. Chapter meetups in Atlanta for WIM, and we have one coming up that you’re going to hear all about this June, the end of June. And I look forward to you also just getting to know our ambassadors like these women have been like very carefully selected as folks that we just adore and respect.

[00:04:43] And we’re. Wanting for them to be your entryway point into WIM, because we just think they’re amazing and so reflective of what we’re looking to build here in our networking group. So without further ado, we have Georgina Whalen and we have Ronnie Martin, two wonderful women. Ronnie works at Cookit Media and she’s done it all.

[00:05:07] She used to work in communications and PR. And now she works at this fantastic talent agency that represents people in food and beverage. And we also have Georgina Whalen who works at the company APR Consulting. She prior to this was at Amazon working at One Health under Amazon. She they’ve both been very active in the community and have such great insights.

[00:05:37] We’re going to hear today. About all sorts of stuff, including pet peeves and how can brands and creators do better in the industry to improve things? And what does the influencer marketing industry look like specifically in Atlanta, which they described as an underestimated market. I’m very excited for you to hear from these ladies today.

[00:06:01] So here’s Ronnie and Georgina.

[00:06:07] This show is sponsored by Women in Influencer Marketing, better known as WHIM. The best online community for the creator economy. You will meet fellow influencer marketers. You’ll meet brands. You’ll meet talent agencies to talk shop, get hired, and even find a mentor. When you become a member, do not forget to subscribe.

[00:06:28] Check out all of our incredible resources. For example, we have dozens of masterclasses from the top voices, TikTok, YouTube, award winning agencies, and women who are paving the way for us all. So if you want the chance to network with a FooSoo and Influencer Marketing, check out what it takes to become a member.

[00:06:48] Make more money and have fun doing it. Visit IamWim. com slash join. That’s I A M W I M. I am. com slash join today. And I so look forward to seeing you more around the community. So, I mean, I mentioned this briefly, but it’s definitely worth mentioning again. Like I kind of love group conversations on the podcast.

[00:07:13] Like we have a lot of episodes that are like one on one. It’s like very. I don’t know. I try to keep them casual, but like they feel a little stiff. So like my hope is that like we can all just have like a fun conversation, just like girls chit chatting. So first and foremost, I know everyone heard about you guys in the intro to the show, but Ronnie, Georgina, big welcome today and thank you so much for being here.

[00:07:38] You guys. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Totally. I’m excited to chat with you guys. I mean, by way of like backstory for those who don’t know, both of you guys are our WIM ambassadors in Atlanta. You guys planned a beautiful, really cool event. What was it like a couple months ago? And now we have one coming up, which we’ll talk all about that later, but it’s just been awesome like partnering with you guys on that.

[00:08:04] And I was like, I would love to bring you guys on the podcast. Yeah. Awesome. And just have our audience like get to know you guys better. So maybe that’s a good place to start. Again, we heard a little bit about you guys on paper in the intro to the show, but I’d love to hear about your backgrounds and like how you found your way into influencer marketing.

[00:08:23] Ronnie, do 

[00:08:23] Ronni Martin: you want to start and go first? Like Jesse said, I’m Ronnie Martin. I’m a talent manager. At cook it media my journey at cook. It has been a little while So i’ll start from like the beginning before that I Did a little bit of everything. I knew I loved like the social media space. I knew I loved PR space.

[00:08:44] I knew I loved the comm space, but I didn’t know where exactly I fit in. And I feel like that’s a lot of people’s story is like trying to just figure it out, especially right out of school. So I did a little bit of everything. I had a comms internship. I did social media management to where I was, you know, running, you know, accounts doing graphics, all of that realized that was like way too much work for me, everybody, some people have the talent and some people don’t.

[00:09:08] And I’m one of the ones that kind of doesn’t the people that make social media graphics love your life, but I just cannot, like, it’s just so hard. Some people have the eyes and people don’t. So I decided that wasn’t for me. Then I was doing like press releases at a place and. That was fun, but I was like, this might be a little bit too serious for like every day.

[00:09:28] Then I stumbled across an influencer marketing internship with a hair company. And I was like, Oh, this is really in line with like my life really love like the beauty space. So I did that. And that was the last internship I had before I graduated college. I went to Auburn university. So that was the last internship I had before I graduated there.

[00:09:47] There I realized, okay. Love the influencer marketing space. I was doing a lot of outrage. It was only gifting. I was really like running a gifting campaign by myself, which it was fun. But that’s when I realized, okay, love the influencer marketing space. Cut to cook it. I’ve been here almost three years.

[00:10:05] Yeah, it’ll be three years in August. So funny story with cook it. I’ve literally had every role that they have. It’s just been a little bit of a journey, but I love it. I started, um, in business development. And then I moved over to campaigns. So, HookIt runs campaigns from top to bottom for brands. I was doing that.

[00:10:23] Then I moved over to Team Talent and I’ve been there ever since. Yeah, that’s kind of my journey in a nutshell. 

[00:10:28] Jessy Grossman: I love your journey. I mean, you’ve been on all different sides of the coin. I’m like, I’m sure be like having the experience on all the different sides. Like, And you just need that experience to like move through it and get closer to what you’re either the best at or you enjoy the most or ideally both of those things together.

[00:10:47] What do you think you feel as if you enjoy the most about The influencer space in particular, 

[00:10:55] Ronni Martin: the influencer space just feels a little bit more personal. I’ve always been a relationship person. Like I just love, you know, making new friends. I’m just, I’m a really talkative person. Like you’ll know by the end of this, I just cannot get dark.

[00:11:07] So the influencer space just feels a little bit more personal than campaigns did. I love campaigns. I love working with brands. I loved like the whole casting process and everything, but managing influencers to me just feels a little bit more relationship based, personal. And so that’s what I’m really appreciating about the space.

[00:11:25] And I think that’s where, you know, like my niche. I love that. I love that. And 

[00:11:28] Jessy Grossman: also like cook, it has a niche as well. For those who don’t know, like it’s all about. food and cooking, right? 

[00:11:35] Ronni Martin: Food and beverage. Yeah. So we have a couple of bartenders, but it’s like 35 ish. We’re going to bridge influencers. So it’s been a fun journey for sure.

[00:11:43] And I’m a foodie. Oh, it just made sense. Yeah. I love it. All right, 

[00:11:46] Jessy Grossman: Georgina, we’re on to you. I want to hear a little bit more about like your story and then your background, but even just like what got you into influencer in the first place and like maybe what you enjoy the most about influencer marketing.

[00:12:00] Georgina Whalen: Absolutely. And I apologize for my voice. I’ve been sick for like three weeks and my voice just never really came back. 

[00:12:08] Jessy Grossman: So you’re giving like, I’m sexy on the mic right now. Like, no, that’s what you’re giving. So don’t apologize. 

[00:12:16] Georgina Whalen: That’s very kind. Thank you. So hi, everyone. I’m Georgina Whalen, and I am an influencer marketing consultant.

[00:12:24] I have my own firm, but I also work with various other brandies for depending on the project. I got my start in the industry actually as a creator, a blogger in 2009 when Instagram didn’t exist. And we were like writing diaries on Blogspot, think for a second. And I just had an anonymous blog. I’m very introverted and a little bit shyer, which is why Ronnie is the perfect person that I’m like paired with, because when I get a little shy, she will keep the conversation going and keep people engaged.

[00:12:59] So I’m so grateful to you, Ronnie. And, you know, at some point in that journey, I ended up posting a photo from a blogger meetup. And the traffic on that blog post just skyrocketed, and I realized people actually want to get to know the person behind this content. So I, you know, took a chance. Branded everything, purchased a domain and went full force and immediately started getting brand deals way back in the day.

[00:13:30] And at one point I was working with a huge telecommunications company and I’m from Massachusetts. I was living in Boston. They had a very hyper local. Activation that they were doing and they said, you know, you seem like, you know, your way around the creator scene. Would you like to help us on the brand side?

[00:13:50] And it was like, yes, that was my first taste. And I knew that’s where I wanted to go. Like, be behind the scenes and act change. Do some fun things instead of being in front of the camera. So I quickly shifted where I thought I could gain the most experience at an ad agency and work for numerous brands, then switch to tech, media, the global startup in the wellness sector, and most recently at Amazon, um, under One Medical.

[00:14:20] So very interesting journey. Never planned to go this route. I majored in philosophy intended to go to law school. Um, but I’m so glad this is where I am. 

[00:14:32] Jessy Grossman: What a cool. I mean, I love that. You have like a completely seemingly unrelated degree and you just like, I don’t know. Was it like following instinct?

[00:14:41] Just following passion? Just like Saying yes to things like what is it that you think led you in a different direction? 

[00:14:49] Georgina Whalen: I don’t know. I think I loved to write. I loved connecting with other people through writing and creating content and it felt meaningful. And also I was kind of shadowing a managing partner at a law firm who I, I really wanted to learn from before I made the jump to go to law school because it’s obviously a big financial commitment.

[00:15:12] And He, I remember him saying, you have great big dreams to do a lot of great things. You want to be on work on the innocence project. You want to do all this great, great stuff. And he was like, I just want to be clear with you. You’re not really going to be able to do that until there’s a certain time in your career.

[00:15:29] You have to like really grind to take a lot of work. You will never that you will probably really hate or will go against your values. And he said, if you have any kind of hesitation, law school will always be there. You know, you can always go back. And so I was like, I’m going to take this chance and I never regretted it.

[00:15:47] Jessy Grossman: In hindsight, do you, are you thankful that he said that to you? Do you feel like you wish you would have like figured it out on your own? Or, because I can put myself in that position and be like, are you just trying to scare me? Or like, what are your intentions? You’re like, I don’t know. I’m just like the most skeptical person on the, on the face of the earth.

[00:16:05] What, like, are you grateful that he, do you feel like, I mean, it’s easy now in hindsight to be like, well, he was right or wrong or whatever it was. But did you appreciate that in the moment when he said that to you? 

[00:16:15] Georgina Whalen: Well, yes. I forgot one part. He said, I just want you to know you’re going to make an amazing employer.

[00:16:22] But, so, you know, starting with that, because I felt like I would be too, you know, I was like, okay, if this is a path that I feel would be fulfilling, it’s going to take a lot of time, effort and money, but I can do it. Or do I want to take this different path? I have no regrets. I remember him. He was just, you know, he never minced his words.

[00:16:42] So I knew whatever he was saying. It was never for just, uh, for lack of better words, like gas me up, like without any meaning behind it. 

[00:16:52] Jessy Grossman: Yeah. I mean, it’s good when you have people in your life that are going to be like honest and real with you, but like you trust their judgment, right? Cause I feel like you, like people give all sorts of unsolicited advice sometimes.

[00:17:04] Right. And I think it’s important to say like, I’ll take that in, but. You don’t necessarily have to take it to heart, depending on who it is. It sounds like this is someone that you really respected, you really trusted. So it makes sense for you to have really taken that to heart. I think as women, sometimes we’re just like, I don’t know, do I need to change?

[00:17:22] Do I need to do something different? This one stranger who I met for five minutes is telling me blah, blah, blah. That’s like, girl, like it’s just one person. Like that’s their opinion. Anyways, I love your, each of your stories is so different, but I think that The rule line is that you started in a different place and you found your way into influencer marketing, which I think is so cool.

[00:17:44] And that’s definitely a lot of people’s journeys as well. Like only now are you able to like study influencer marketing in school. I think that when I first got into it, like I was sort of intimidated because I assumed everybody at least had like a marketing degree, you know, or something in communications.

[00:18:00] And I was like, I have a theater degree. This is so embarrassing. Like what am I doing here? But like, that is one of the beauties of our industry is that like, you can take so much experience in other fields, other industries, and like bring it in. And it’s totally applicable, I think. Speaking of the industry, I want to get into like some pet peeves.

[00:18:20] You know, I think that like broadly, there’s always room for improvement. And like, I certainly don’t want to like, Yuck anybody’s yum here. If they’re like, you know, we’re amazing and we’re awesome. I would love to just hear from you guys, like lately in your world. Like, within the past, like, month, let’s say, let’s, like, keep it current.

[00:18:40] What is something that’s been driving you crazy that you would say is a pet peeve? Roni, do you want to go first? 

[00:18:45] Ronni Martin: I would say a pet peeve is over scripted content. Whenever I come across a brand and they’re like, Okay, we want you to hit All of these points, but we want you to say exactly this, just like this in our corporate language, and it’s not going to really resonate with your audience, but this is the way we need it to be said.

[00:19:02] I would say that’s a puppy just because we’ve seen that when influencers. Or even, you know, celebrities when they’re true to what they know their audience wants, it genuinely work. And I think that’s forgotten a lot of the time, like a good example is like Alex Erland, Poppy and how she was already drinking Poppy before she got these huge sponsorships or more recently Sabrina Carpenter with her like espresso ice cream, which was like the cutest thing ever.

[00:19:26] And so on brands, I think brands just let influencers. Be influencers. I mean, obviously get your messaging across. Key messaging is important, not negating that, but just letting influencers or the face of whoever you want to push your product, do what they know will resonate with their audience. I would say that’s super important.

[00:19:44] And that’s just been like my pet peeve recently. It’s just over scripted. Content are just not trusting the influencer that you hired. I have a follow up question to that. 

[00:19:54] Jessy Grossman: Your clients, like the creators that you interface with, are they also like, this is ridiculous. Like I can’t stand this. So they vocalize their frustration or they kind of just used to it at this point.

[00:20:05] And they’re like, Oh, it 

[00:20:06] Ronni Martin: comes with the territory. Honestly, I feel like a lot of talent has just realized it kind of comes with the territory, but I feel like that’s where management comes in. It’s to help you, you know, speak up on, you know, we’re here to speak up on your behalf and say, no, we feel like this, you know, would resonate better with our audience.

[00:20:21] I feel like they’re just used to what I haven’t really had a case for any of my talent. It’s like, I just don’t think this will work. I do have some talent that will, you know, lead with, I think this will actually resonate with my audience instead of this, but I haven’t really had anybody. That’s just.

[00:20:36] Super opposed to it. I always try to encourage my talent. I hate speak up for yourself, but I’m also happy to jump in and, you know, be bad cop and say, Hey, this might not really work out the way you want it to. If you don’t let them. Do what they love will work. 

[00:20:48] Jessy Grossman: Sounds like you’re a professional talent. I used to have an influencer that I like freelance with.

[00:20:52] I wasn’t working with her exclusively, but like her policy, I can’t even say this with a straight face. She’s like, I don’t do edits. I don’t do any edits. Really? And I was like, okay, how can I work with this? I’m going to have to work with this. She was like, her content was. Look, it’s always like a, not an adjusting position, but like a balancing game, right?

[00:21:10] Like a game of balance. It’s like, all right, how good is their content? How much money can we make off of this? Like, is this worth it? Or is like, Oh my God, like you’re. Making my everyone’s life so much difficult. It’s not like so much more difficult. It’s not even worth it. That was a tough one. So it sounds like you have like very professional, you know, talent.

[00:21:28] It’s nice when, of course, like you’ve got people where it’s almost like you have to be the one to push back as a manager versus your talent necessarily being the one to like bring up the problems or create problems. You can just sort of protect them and be their advocate in a sense. Right. Exactly. Nope.

[00:21:46] Yeah. One edits is like, or no edits is fine. It’s crazy though. No. She’s like, no edits. So I, what I did was like, when we pitched her for stuff, I mean, I specifically had to call it out. I can’t be surprised about that later. I was like, she’s amazing. These are her rates. I think she’s great for this. But like, I just have to call out, she does not edit content.

[00:22:06] Like she, she shoots it one time. And, like, sure, I think she was open to, like, editing the caption lightly, but she refused to ever shoot content. I’m sure somebody listening to this probably knows who I’m talking about and has probably worked with that creator before. She was really well known. I thought that was special.

[00:22:26] That was really special. We do draw the 

[00:22:28] Ronni Martin: limit to, like, one round of edits. Right. Sure. Of course. Right. No, I’ve never heard of Noah. Me neither. 

[00:22:37] Jessy Grossman: Me neither. Okay. Georgina, what do you think of Ronnie’s pet peeves? You agree, disagree. And what’s your biggest pet peeve these days? 

[00:22:44] Georgina Whalen: I agree 100%. We need to treat creators.

[00:22:49] Like the creatives that they are, you know, they are so just talented. They’re not just, you know, shooting. Well, some are shooting one, one and dones, but most it takes so much. There’s the leading up of creating a shot list and concepts, all that intellectual creativity, and then. You know, technical shooting the video, the sound lighting and the editing and crafting copy.

[00:23:18] That is, will resonate with their audiences, maintains their authenticity. You know, so I feel like when brands come to a creator who they have selected because of the incredible content they’re already creating and cool ideas and try to force something on them. It’s it doesn’t make any sense. You know, I’m like, you should trust these folks.

[00:23:40] You chose them for a reason and let them do their thing. Because when we do, that’s when the magic happens. And people, people are going to be like, we know you don’t talk like that. This sounds like a bad commercial. 

[00:23:54] Jessy Grossman: I have to say, because like, we’ve talked about like, I feel like amongst He’s like amongst the WIM community.

[00:24:00] It’s like, we all agree with you, both of you guys. Right. So like, what is the disconnect? Like what do you think it is that we’re still a script basically? What do you think it is? 

[00:24:11] Georgina Whalen: There are people in leadership, maybe the CMOs and actually I’ve run into this many times that still very much have a traditional advertising mindset now and like kind of, this is the formula.

[00:24:24] We don’t deviate from it. This is just how things are done. And it’s, I remember when I worked, um, at One Medical, one of the big rules that they had was we want this content to be as native as possible to the creator’s channel. And I was like, Oh, you’re speaking my language. And then on the kickoff call, I would say, this is our story.

[00:24:46] This is what we’re trying to achieve. How does that fit into your life? Not like, How can we jam ourselves into what I want to make sure Ronnie, Ronnie, she 

[00:24:57] Jessy Grossman: was talking about, like, the, I don’t know, like, from, like, why, what’s the disconnect 

[00:25:02] Georgina Whalen: tradition? 

[00:25:03] Jessy Grossman: Why are brands still doing this? 

[00:25:07] Ronni Martin: I think it just honestly goes back to, like, what Georgina said.

[00:25:10] I think it’s the CMOs. CFOs, not CFOs, CMOs, the CEOs, whoever, I think when they see this content, they’re like, okay, is this going to work though? This feels, you know, really young or whatever it might be, you know, some people that really just live and are really strict about traditional marketing and just don’t want to move outside of that.

[00:25:29] I think that’s what it comes down to, because a lot of the times when you’re talking to the marketing person, This is great. They’re going to love it. And then they come back. Okay. Well, you know, our, our CFO or CEO or whoever, they’re not sure that it’s hitting like the key messages and then you have to explain, okay, but this will work with the audience, but you’ll get your link clicks.

[00:25:47] Yeah. I think it just comes down to like educating. The higher ups sometimes like the people in 

[00:25:53] Jessy Grossman: charge, like the people like it’s ironic that like the people in charge don’t get it, but it kind of does make sense. Like, and I think that’s like, that’s like, I’ll be really candid. Like, I feel like that’s a genuine fear of mine.

[00:26:04] I don’t know if any of you guys relate, but like the more experienced that I got or the more senior that I get, like, I do worry that I’m legitimately going to be like more out of touch because you’re not in the day to day necessarily. And yeah, by being out of touch, you’re like, Do you like age yourself out?

[00:26:20] I mean, it’s a very young industry also. So I don’t know. I mean, realistically, it’s like, as you grow in your career, like, You, most career trajectories distance you from the day to day. And so like, there’s a level of that you should want. Cause it indicates that you’re progressing in your career. You’re probably making more money and moving up the ladder, but I don’t know, maybe it’s just a matter of like keeping good people around you.

[00:26:45] I mean, you can obviously keep yourself informed in different ways. Like, I don’t know, are there ways that you each, you know, keep yourself, like, how do you keep yourself informed about. Like the latest and greatest in our industry. That’s like always changing. Any strategies that you guys can share? 

[00:27:01] Ronni Martin: I try to just do, you know, a lot of newsletters.

[00:27:04] I feel like I find a lot on, you know, LinkedIn, a lot of people do like a weekly roundup of influence and marketing, but I find it super helpful because you know, everybody’s 20 pages different. And although I see a lot of the things I don’t see everything. So yeah, I feel like just following people. On LinkedIn that do the weekly roundups, because a couple of people do them.

[00:27:22] I mean, super detailed and they kind of just give you, you know, on a broad spectrum, what worked, what didn’t. And 

[00:27:28] Jessy Grossman: one in particular, you can shout out that like, is particularly good that you always want to look at their stuff. It’s scaping me right now. 

[00:27:35] Ronni Martin: I will have to look. Probably Ashlyn. I know a couple of people do it.

[00:27:38] A couple of, I think Ashlyn does a really good one. A couple of people do it though. It’s just an easy way to like, get a rundown of the week and influence the marketing and just. Stay in the know. But yeah, I think LinkedIn is just a huge a good space for that. Like I didn’t even know that TikTok is doing like collaboration posts until I saw something on LinkedIn the other day.

[00:27:58] I was like, they are. I missed that LinkedIn post. Fenty hair. Yes, the Fenty hair one. Yes, they said I guess Fenty hair they posted like the first TikTok. And it showed you like the collaborators. So I guess it was like Fenty Beauty and all of that were like the three collaborators listed. 

[00:28:15] Jessy Grossman: So that’s a thing now.

[00:28:15] I learned that on LinkedIn. I feel like we’re like plugging LinkedIn. They would love to say, I am to have you with this clip that says, I learned it on LinkedIn. We’re like creating a little link right now. What about you, Jordina? I don’t think I heard your specific pet peeve. I’m gonna go back to that. I want to hear.

[00:28:31] Georgina Whalen: Actually, they’re one in the same, so I can put it all into one. So I was recently fortunate to be a judge for the GMAS, or Global Influence in Marketing Awards. So I spent hours poring over so many different global campaigns from the top agencies, top brands in the world. And I was just, I loved it. I was so inspired, but I think it’s very important that there is, there are diverse, a diverse set of judges behind this, because I saw some campaigns.

[00:29:02] And this is my biggest pet peeve where it was just all. The same person, there was no difference in personality and things like that. And for me, it’s so important to, when I’m chatting with a brand to make sure that what you’re putting out there as far as content is actually reflective of the real world, including creators of all backgrounds, ethnicities, gender identities, abilities, and ages too.

[00:29:29] You know, it’s not like there’s just your only 24 year old. Women know, like, open your mind and generate more revenue. And I just think it creates a much more authentic representation and also trust against across a broader audience. So that is my biggest pet peeve when they’ve cast so narrowly. And I’m like, do you not, what was the thought behind this?

[00:29:54] Who, someone brought this forth and then multiple people approved it and they were okay with this. Actually, I have one more that came up during GMAs. Totally. Is when there were some brands that were like, we’re going after Gen Z, like. Yeah, we’re going to really razzle dazzle. And then they were doing product seeding, these massive packages, no sustainability plans, like plastics galore.

[00:30:21] What kind of research, you know, went into these target audiences, these profiles, like everything, because the issues that Gen Z cares about, number one, the earth. So there was just like this big disconnect where I am not. The most, the expert in anything, but even I could see the gaps there. So it just seems so unfortunate when you also see how much money was allocated and the missed opportunity.

[00:30:47] Jessy Grossman: I, and I appreciate that you are bringing up that last point too, because I feel like the more successful case studies that we all have, it just like elevates our entire industry. And so. I don’t want to see anybody fail. I don’t want to see anybody miss. And especially if you’re looking at it, you’re like this.

[00:31:09] I’m not an expert in this. And even I see it’s like mismatched. Like, how do you not see it? Because then we spend and we’re not seeing ROI. We’re in a really crazy job market right now. There are very few people that are hiring. There are a lot of candidates out there. I just think it all like trickles down too.

[00:31:28] So yeah, I don’t know if I’m hearing like a. Similarities between all of these pet peeves. It seems like it’s like they’re just parties involved that are disconnected. Like they’re not communicating well with each other. And I’ll add one other too, that’s been driving me crazy probably for the last couple of years, at least.

[00:31:48] I just think that people are just like really stuck in their ways. Like, I don’t know if it’s like ego driven or like what the case or laziness. Like, I don’t know why, but I feel like people are like, Oh, I only hire. TikTokers. Oh, I only hire Instagrammers. And it’s like, have you not seen like what’s going on YouTube or TikTok if you’re only doing Instagram or vice versa?

[00:32:10] Like, or here’s a good one too. My fiance, like, He buys more off of Instagram than I do or anybody else in my family and nobody’s marketing towards so few people are marketing towards men. I can tell you firsthand he will buy the dumbest shit. I hope he’s not listening. He will buy the dumbest shit from Instagram and I’m like, Oh my God, it’s like another thing.

[00:32:36] And like, you can tell if it came from Instagram. Usually it’s like a little. Quirky. It’s like a little something with that product, but no one, and you know, he watched, we watch a lot of YouTube on our TV and like, we have our different profiles and our algorithms are so different, but like, I just see there’s like a whole world out there for men, for example, and like, sure, we’re a part of whim.

[00:32:59] And so like, I don’t want anybody to discount. Any of these other groups that they’re just unfamiliar with, you don’t necessarily identify as that, but Oh my God, you’re missing out on such an opportunity and we all have to educate ourselves more. You know what I mean? For sure. 

[00:33:16] Georgina Whalen: Absolutely. 

[00:33:17] Jessy Grossman: Yeah. 

[00:33:18] Georgina Whalen: Can you give us an example though, of like, one of the last things that your fiancé purchased from your 

[00:33:24] Jessy Grossman: Oh my God, I don’t have the time, but yes.

[00:33:27] Go on and on. What’s one of the last things? I mean, sometimes he’ll buy stuff for me, which is really sweet, but sometimes I’m like, no, I didn’t want to buy like, he’s bought like a couple, like some clothes, like there’s a few brands, like I’ve just never heard of, but they’re marketed towards men and mostly it’s like comfort or like functionality.

[00:33:52] Like he bought these like. Shorts that are like, I think they could be a bathing suit too, but they like, they look good as shorts. Also. I’m like escaping. The brand’s escaping me. I’ll tell you what. I got him recently that I was influenced from a YouTube video. Gosh. Oh, M. Taylor. Have you guys heard of M.

[00:34:09] Taylor? Haven’t. Okay. So M. Taylor is actually super cool. I was watching YouTube with my stepdaughter and we saw this commercial a bunch of times oblivious. And I was like, perfect. This is going to be, uh, your birthday present. And so it’s super cool. You download an app and it literally took like two minutes where it scans your body and it’s taking the measurements for you.

[00:34:36] So you avoid having to try on all these clothes back and forth, blah, blah, blah. You got a couple pairs of jeans. Cause I wanted him to like have something that like really fit him well, and he felt comfortable with. He had to customize the fabric and it literally scans your body and probably closer to a minute than two.

[00:34:53] And it came in probably like a week or so. And he’s like, these are actually like a really legitimately nice jeans and they fit good. And 

[00:35:01] Georgina Whalen: I’m from my 

[00:35:02] Jessy Grossman: house. I mean, Father’s Day is coming up probably. After or before this episode gets released, but if anyone has like a birthday coming up or whatever, this is totally not sponsored.

[00:35:13] M. Taylor was a really good one. I mean, I see stuff for like manscaped all the time. I’m trying to think of like the ads that I see regularly for men, but manscaped, he watched a lot. Do you guys know donut media? Okay. So donut media really huge platform. I think they’re like mostly on YouTube, but like, they’re definitely known elsewhere.

[00:35:34] And it’s like, it’s all about cars and like, it’s like a bunch of guys who like, They’re so well produced, the videos, and they have ads all the time. Anyways, I can go on and on, but like, it’s just one example of like, a lot of people don’t think to market towards men, like, of course, some of their products, it doesn’t make sense to, but sometimes they’re like, Oh, like guys aren’t on social media.

[00:35:56] Oh, it’s women. And I’m like, that’s just not true. You know, you just have to find what they’re interested in and where they are and market towards them in a different way. Quick question for you guys. How much do you love redlining agreements? Yeah, me too. Let me tell you about our latest sponsor called Kaviat.

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[00:37:43] Speaking of brands, I mean, I think that we can all agree. You just across the board, not singling anyone out that just brands can do better. We’re talking about a little bit, maybe like pet peeves before. And I always want to keep it like solutions oriented. Like, you know, we all want this, everyone to succeed.

[00:38:01] It is, it just, it makes it better for everybody. So I’m curious, Ronnie, maybe you could start like from your vantage point, like from the talent management realm, like. What do you think that brands can do better? I know you mentioned one thing before, but like one thing that really stands out that if like they made this change tomorrow, it would be most impactful.

[00:38:19] Ronni Martin: I think a lot of conversation recently has been about brands, you know, paying creators on time. I feel like that’s been like a huge controversy recently. So I think that’s where brands can be better people. It’s just been a little bit wild, but yeah, like you said, like not naming names or like agencies or anything like that, but brands could definitely be better at paying people for the hard work they put in, especially when it’s quality work and you know, you want to put paid media behind it and all of these things, and you know, you want to repost it for X amount of months.

[00:38:53] On your pages, but like you’re taking forever to pay out or you’re doing net 90 or something wild So I think that’s where brands could be better. It’s just actually paying creators on time Paying them what they’re worth, which I know obviously budget restraints and everything like that. I’m realistic, but I think that’s where things could be better because it’s been a lot of conversation and like some networking groups that I’m in is brands paying on time.

[00:39:18] Jessy Grossman: I always say like, if the creators are going to honor their contract and their obligations in it, The brand needs to as well. And if they say in the agreement that they’re going to pay net 30 or net 60 based on when you send that invoice, you better have that check in your hand then or else like, why are we following all of our rules in that agreement?

[00:39:36] Why did we do everything on time and deliver exactly what we were asked to do? It seems really hypocritical. So brands do better with payment. Absolutely. Georgina. You know, you come from the brand side too, and you have that experience in house, so not necessarily speaking to the brands that you’ve been at, but like just broadly, what do you see that brands can do better?

[00:39:58] Georgina Whalen: So one thing that I’m working on right now is like kind of. Both diagnostic and optimize like optimizations as far as assessments throughout the entire course of a campaign, even like going back a whole year with historical data. And I think a lot of it comes down to, I’m always surprised at the lack of process and workflows.

[00:40:23] And it’s for a lot of us. It’s so easy to look at and be like, Oh, you know, You could have saved maybe like a couple of hours doing this, for example, just when I narrow, I still do some execution. I think it’s very important to do. So I have a freelance client. And when I narrowed down the candidate list and kind of let them know, I then included a vetting survey and said, you know, Out of these, all these different products, is there one that kind of speaks to you that you’d want to focus on and can you provide your mail address?

[00:40:55] Like, I do all that work up front so that once we have finalized folks, we can just ship things immediately. We can also ensure that, you know, we’re featuring a, like a wide variety of the product styles and things like that. And there’s just this, sometimes a lack of process and sometimes a lack of transparency across.

[00:41:15] All the different stakeholders, and it just makes a really big difference. Also, one big thing with the project that I just finished was evaluating influencer tech and software and see, just seeing what’s going on in the landscape, it was so exciting, but then there are still a few people, you know, that no names and, you know, everyone does things different, no worries, but they don’t have direct API APIs.

[00:41:43] With social platforms, and so, you know, I think the data hygiene data accuracy having that first party connection, you know, it’s just like. It’s so important. So again, it comes down to like process and thinking about how each decision, whether it’s like my workflow of a campaign, which tools I depend to, like I decide to use, they’re all going to have a very big impact on how much work you’re going to be doing.

[00:42:12] What kind of work are you going to be focusing on the minutia or are you going to be able to do the fulfilling, innovative, creative work? 

[00:42:19] Jessy Grossman: Totally. I appreciate that so much too. I feel like people listening are probably like, yeah, for that. No, I think that’s great. And I, you know, again, like I love that you guys have like different perspectives, you know, coming from where your vantage point is.

[00:42:32] So I think it’s really helpful to just hear from each of you. So conversely, I want to know how creators can do better. Like we’re all in this together. Like we all own this. You have an owner, like an ownership stake in this. No one can blame one side fully or the other when things go awry. And again, like we’re super solutions oriented here.

[00:42:53] So yeah, Ronnie, what do you think creators can do to just like improve either the landscape or partnerships? I want to hear what your thoughts are. 

[00:43:02] Ronni Martin: Yeah. I think creators can do better at diversifying their content. I know this doesn’t like speak for everybody. Some people really have it down to a science, but I feel like specifically in the food and beverage space, we come across this a lot where creators will say, okay, but this is my niche.

[00:43:19] And like, I’m scared to go outside of like, My niche, but people get bored, like audiences do get bored. And I think diversifying content is something that creators can do better at, especially like in, you know, the niche spaces. So I say a lot in, you know, for my food and beverage talent, put that lifestyle content within, you know, your food and beverage stuff.

[00:43:39] Like there’s nothing wrong with, you know, doing what I eat in a day versus like just recipe focused content, just giving your audience something else to look at. And I feel like it goes hand in hand with like. Why a brand would want to do a long term partnership with you versus just like a one off post, you know, if they see your or one trick pony, okay, this is great.

[00:43:58] You’re great at what you do, but a long term partnership. Does that make sense? Are people going to want to see this over and over again? Versus if you did a long term partnership of somebody that, you know, does, Cocktail stuff. They do food and beverage stuff. They do lifestyle stuff. They do what I did today things.

[00:44:14] So I think that’s what creators can do better at. It’s just diversifying their content, giving their audience a little bit of everything to look at. And I know some people like really mastered it, but I think some people are afraid of it. And I wouldn’t say, you know, venture off from, you know, what you’re best at, but just giving people a little bit of variety, I think, is what creators do.

[00:44:33] Jessy Grossman: What do you think they’re most afraid of, though? Like, what have you heard firsthand from some posts? 

[00:44:38] Ronni Martin: Okay. Creators, I feel like they’re scared of venturing off from what’s worked for them. You know how they say, like, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it? I feel like that’s like their creator mindset sometimes.

[00:44:50] Like, okay, I’m really good at recipe content and recipe curation. I don’t want to venture off. What if it doesn’t work? What if it fails? So I think creators are also just human in that way. Like everybody is a little scared of failure sometimes and a little bit of scared of change. So I think that’s what kind of holds them back in a sense.

[00:45:08] It’s just being scared to show their audience something different, even though their audience might want something more personal than just like. Super recipe focused things are super cocktail focused things, 

[00:45:18] Jessy Grossman: but I’m going to push more into this. Like what any fear is going to actually be the reaction or like the consequence?

[00:45:24] Like, what do you hear specifically about that? Like, are they fear that like everyone’s just going to judge them or they’re like, no one’s going to reach out anymore or they’re going to be, you know, they’re going to lose their audience because people don’t know what they’re talking about as much as they did 

[00:45:37] Ronni Martin: before.

[00:45:38] Like, is it those kinds of things? I think it comes down to people being afraid of like a different engagement, especially right now where the algorithm is in such an unpredictable place. I think people are honestly really scared to do opposite of what they know works for sure. Especially like, We literally just don’t know.

[00:45:57] Like nobody has the key to the algorithm on any platform right now. And if you do let me know, I would love to have it, but nobody knows, like nobody knows what the algorithm is going to do. And I feel like it changes from week to week, month to month. So I think that’s what ultimately scares people is going through a period of, you know, bad engagement or, you know, people not really seeing your content or Instagram, not really pushing your content the way they usually do.

[00:46:21] I would ask you guys both this. Yeah. 

[00:46:24] Jessy Grossman: Do you feel like some creators are like, almost like superstitious to a certain extent, like sort of what you’re describing. It’s like, they’re like beholden to like this mysterious algorithm and blah, blah, blah. Like, am I just like all basic? I literally had a creator one time.

[00:46:40] She was like, I love you. I want to work with you. I can’t sign with you because Mercury is in retrograde right now. So we’re going to have to wait. And I was like, ha, ha. And I was like, Oh my God, she’s serious. 

[00:46:51] Georgina Whalen: It’s true though. Susan Miller. She’s the, does she follow Susan Miller? Cause I don’t probably, I don’t know.

[00:47:00] Like one of like the number 

[00:47:01] Ronni Martin: one rules of like Mercury retrograde is not Start anything new, don’t sign contracts, don’t necessarily, like, believe in that. I mean, I believe in, like, Mercury retrograde sometimes, but I think I only believe in it, like, when my life is, like, in shambles. I’m like, oh, Mercury is in retrograde, it makes sense.

[00:47:16] But then if it’s not, like, like, the last retrograde Things were going great for me, so I don’t know. But yeah, that’s a huge one. It’s like, you’re not supposed to sign contracts, which I haven’t come across anybody that believes it to that extent. Right? Like it’s fine when it’s like fun, 

[00:47:31] Jessy Grossman: you know, it’s like, let’s do a psychic.

[00:47:33] I’m like, I don’t know. It’s entertainment. Like, let’s see what they say. But it’s like when you’re like, when like shit’s going on in your life and you’re like, I need to go to a psychic right now. Like, I need some healing. I need to know when this is gonna end. Like, I don’t know. Or maybe I need to be more woo.

[00:47:50] Like, I don’t know. Cause I enjoy that stuff. I just think that it’s like, when it comes to our business, I don’t know that I would infuse the stuff that I genuinely find fun into my business. Yeah. Am I off base that I’m equating that to like the Instagram algorithm that like nobody knows anything about like, am I off base 

[00:48:11] Ronni Martin: with that?

[00:48:11] What do you think? No, I think I agree. I think some people think there’s just like an algorithm, like a genie that is just watching you and your every move. And if you deviate from anything that you usually do, then you’ll be punished, which is literally not always the case. Like sometimes it’s immediately rewarding and sometimes it’s not, but I think people should just be less scared, like switch it up sometimes, which I know is easier said than done for people.

[00:48:35] But that 

[00:48:36] Jessy Grossman: is the. Best business advice, in my opinion. Like I just think no matter what business you’re in, and especially if you’re an influencer and you essentially like run your own business and you’re an entrepreneur, cause that’s what all creators are like, you need to take some risk. And certainly like no one in life, like who do you know in your life is making the best decisions when they’re fear based, right?

[00:48:58] Like. It’s fine to like, I’d like to just see what’s around you and be like, well, I probably shouldn’t do that. That seems risky, but like when you’re making really brave, usually like more powerful decisions, it’s normally not like the safest decision. And it’s certainly not like, Risk averse. And it’s certainly not fear based, right?

[00:49:22] When you’re making this decision. So I don’t know. I just, I want to see look like majority of creators that we know and work with, like they’re women for the most part predominantly. And like, I just want to see more women in business, like make more powerful decisions that they own, you know, and out of a place of power versus like a place of like, I’m so nervous that this thing is going to happen.

[00:49:46] It’s like, no, like, just do it. Like, just do it and see, and you can pivot. You know, it’s like Georgina was saying, you know, at the beginning of this episode, just like, you know, I’m not going to go into law, but like, I could always go back to law school. I could always be a lawyer later if I, if this doesn’t, if I don’t like the direction I’m going in, like, you could always pivot.

[00:50:05] Okay. Georgina, I want to hear from you. What do you think of this? But also like, what do you think creators can be doing differently or better to just like improve, you know, the, their dynamic in the ecosystem that we’re in. 

[00:50:18] Georgina Whalen: Yeah. So first, to Roni’s point, I somewhat understand how creators feel because.

[00:50:24] Yeah. A lot of the time when evaluating before selecting a creator, or at some stage creators are asked, like, can we have your metrics for the last 30 days or 60 days? So if you had been testing everything and your everything has tanked, that is what you’re showing to a brand. And it may disqualify you or raise some kind of red flag, which you don’t really deserve.

[00:50:47] That’s just like a small. Potential. But what I would love to see creators do more of is focus on owned channels and communities. I love supporting creators in other places where they’re not at the mercy of an algorithm, you know, whether they have a newsletter, sub stack, some kind of private community, Where we don’t all have to like be talking all at once, we can just be digesting little snippets of their life.

[00:51:17] I love that, and I think it’s a hard balance where, you know, people feel like uber close to this person and it gets a little weird. But again, it comes down to having an owned channel, so you have a little bit more autonomy and you’re building this community. That, you know, if TikTok does go away, you haven’t lost like half of your following or something like that.

[00:51:39] And I just feel like trying these different platforms and mediums of communication, it’s just so powerful. I think you can convey a lot with how you speak versus, you know, video content with music behind you or photos. 

[00:51:52] Jessy Grossman: A hundred percent. And also like, again, like I feel so strongly about what you just said, because I feel like we can.

[00:51:58] easily discount other platforms. And it’s like, some of these, like, there are literally millions of people on them. You know, people are like, oh my god, Snapchat, like, what is that, like, 10 years ago? And I was like, there are a lot of people still on Snapchat. Like, I’m not personally on it, but like, I can appreciate it.

[00:52:15] There are a lot of people on Snapchat. Like, I used to be like that when it came to, like, video, like, the gaming world and stuff. I’d be like, oh, Oh my God, like, I’m not a gamer, but like, holy crap, like if you go to like a VidCon or like some other conferences, it’s insane how enthusiastic and like, the fandom is of some of these other communities.

[00:52:36] Anyways, we’re saying the same thing. I’m just very good at putting what you said, but like, yes, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I would love to hear from you guys a little bit about the upcoming WIP event in Atlanta because we’re hosting these events. We’re trying to do them quarterly. The last one was It looks so fun.

[00:52:57] It was just like a girl’s night out. And this one’s like summer themed. So for anyone who is either local to the Atlanta area or might want to travel, cause I know I want to be down there, I’ve said to you a couple of times, I’m like, okay, I actually want to like book a flight and legitimately come hang out with you guys.

[00:53:14] Tell us a little bit about what they can expect at your next events in Atlanta. 

[00:53:19] Georgina Whalen: Thanks. Super. We’re like waiting for each other. So we found a beautiful, you know, we combed through a lot of different venues and decided on one. It’s just a beautiful home, massive backyard with cabanas and cool because we wanted to do something.

[00:53:36] It’s so wonderful to be here in Atlanta. And like, it’s been pool weather for a bit, so getting people outside of the typical networking kind of format, hopefully, well, people can have fun, they can connect, and then it’s just so nice to do something different. We’re also going to be barbecuing, so we’ll have some yummy food, and I don’t want to, I don’t want to say too much, but I’ll probably.

[00:54:04] I mean, 

[00:54:05] Ronni Martin: who doesn’t love a Sunday Funday? It’s on June 30th. I feel like that’s like a huge thing in Atlanta. We just love a good sunny Sunday. So we thought a Sunday would be nice. We buy the pool. It’ll be networking. This is not just for talent managers. We had influencers come. Last time as well. So if you’re an influencer and want to attend, totally welcome.

[00:54:26] Just swimming, networking, having fun. 

[00:54:30] Jessy Grossman: But like in a fun environment. I mean, that’s just like every city is doing their own thing. And like, we have all these different ambassadors and in each respective city, but like, It seems like every event that you guys do is like, particularly fun and like, particularly I’m like, you’re having a pool 

[00:54:46] Ronni Martin: party stuff, you guys, it’s so awesome.

[00:54:49] I just think, I think when it comes to networking events, you never want it to feel too worky because people already worked. So when you’re, you know, saying, okay, come to this networking event, I’m like, okay, but am I going to talk about work the whole time? Like, I just worked like five days. Like, can I not?

[00:55:08] So we just thought a pool party would be great. You know, casual conversation. You don’t have to talk about work the whole time. I mean, obviously we’ll be talking about the industry and everything like that, but it just, you know, nice space for women to come together, enjoy their Sunday. Like Georgina said, it’s been pool weather here for a while.

[00:55:26] So people would probably already be at the pool. We just thought making a networking thing. 

[00:55:30] Jessy Grossman: I love it so much. I’m so excited for this event. Again, it’s June 30th. We’ll link in the show notes to the event. It’ll. Probably sell out. So if you’re listening to this and you have an inclination to go, like highly recommend you get a ticket and yeah, just like pull fun.

[00:55:46] Like inevitably of course work will come up, but like, I think you guys are more focused on like just a really memorable day and enjoyable Sunday, you know, and I’m excited to see, like, continue to see these events in Atlanta in particular. And like the last thing maybe we should end on, like. I want to hear like, I think that New York always gets all the acclaim and LA always gets all the acclaim in terms of like, where influencer records are, where the business is, like, Tell us why Atlanta is like what the scene is influencer marketers and like why you guys love it there.

[00:56:20] Ronni Martin: Well, I’m from here. So I just think, I mean, I’m, I’m just still here. That’s the thing. So just still here, born and raised, but I think the influencer marketing space here is a little bit kind of, I’m not going to speak for like everybody, but for me, it’s a lot of like influencer events. But I haven’t really had like a lot of talent manager events until this, like in toward Georgina and I like started doing this and I felt like at our first event, that’s what a lot of other talent managers were saying that they love that we did it because there’s not a ton of talent manager events here for whatever reason.

[00:56:59] So I like that we’re starting to do that. I think it was something that the city needed was just like a networking space specifically for influence and marketers. There’s tons of networking spaces here. Like there’s the gathering spot and switch yards and all of that fun stuff. Yeah. But specifically for influence and markers, I just didn’t feel like there was so much of a space yet.

[00:57:17] There’s always, you know, influencer events everywhere, but for talent managers and, you know, campaign managers on the brand side, Georgina, I just didn’t feel like. There was a space with that. Um, so I like that. That’s kind of changing. What about you Jordina? 

[00:57:32] Georgina Whalen: I think Atlanta is such a special city and a lot of marketers, a lot of very big brands are have turned their focus to Atlanta.

[00:57:41] They see the power of like Atlanta is, you know, a big culture driver, you know, just Culturally, like they are driving so much music, film industry. You know, we have so many talented folks down here. We have some of the top YouTubers in like, in the United States that live here. I mean, one is moving to New York.

[00:58:01] I love her. Aaliyah’s face. Yeah. I just feel like everything, you know, coming from Massachusetts, I’ve also lived in the Midwest. I think Atlanta is just so vibrant. And it’s not afraid to be itself. It’s, I feel like it’s still, I was talking to some other native at ATL. 

[00:58:22] Ronni Martin: Like that terminology, but yeah.

[00:58:24] Equivalent to like hot Lana for me. Like I’m like, please. 

[00:58:27] Georgina Whalen: Oh no. That’s a real faux pas, Jessie. I feel like it’s just vibrant. There are a lot of trends being set here. And man. There was one thing. Oh, yes. Some of the brands that I have been consulting with, even in the last like year, there has been just with budget, a lot more focus here.

[00:58:50] I’ve gone to a couple of creator events. I went with Toyota and I don’t think they had an event host. In Atlanta in a while, so they’ve really spent a lot of money time. They rented out the potato gardens. There were like the new cars there. It was wonderful. And then I’d also seen a couple of really big agencies having events here.

[00:59:09] So. It’s just, it’s odd for me. It’s an exciting time to be here. Um, and I don’t know, I just feel like people underestimate the Atlanta kind of community. 

[00:59:22] Jessy Grossman: I mean, I’ll speak from my perspective, like so many people, I certainly can’t say all, but so many people, most people that I’ve met who are like in the influencer marketing industry who are in Atlanta, I, I feel like I like more, like, I like more than the average person.

[00:59:37] You know, like these are just really good people that I’m meeting. I don’t know. It’s really good people. So you certainly can’t like generalize the entire city, but I could just personally say I’m like, so many people when I’m like, Oh, you’re in Atlanta. I was like, you’re gonna meet this person. He’s like, awesome.

[00:59:51] Just like you. Like, It’s a really good group of people. And I like, you know, I see photos and stuff of the event that you held before. And I’m like, everyone looks like they’re having a really nice time. Good people, good work, good vibes, good environment. So I love that. And you know, like underestimated. I like, I don’t want you guys to be underestimated, but like, if that’s the reality, then like, I’m glad we’re talking about it today, you know, I’m glad we’re getting you guys out there today so that people know not to underestimate.

[01:00:18] I won’t say Hotlanta because apparently that is like really taboo. Rodney’s like, what did you just say? That’s like, isn’t that like 20 years ago? Maybe that was cool to say. She’s like, no, never. 

[01:00:27] Ronni Martin: You know, I’m like, when I was told, oh, where are you from? And I’m like, Atlanta. And he’s like, oh, Hotlanta. Okay.

[01:00:34] No. No. 

[01:00:35] Jessy Grossman: No. Nice try. I love that. Look, it’s been so awesome having you guys on. I have a feeling that our audience is going to want to get in touch with you guys. So where is the best place for them to connect? Is it LinkedIn? Is it Instagram? Georgina, where’s the best place for them to connect with you? And then we’re going to go over to Ronnie.

[01:00:54] Georgina Whalen: I really like to connect on LinkedIn. It has a lot of my other, like, contact information depending on where you want to kind of connect. Bring the conversation from there. So definitely LinkedIn, 

[01:01:07] Jessy Grossman: Georgina. Amazing. And we’ll share that in the show notes. We’re talking a lot about LinkedIn today. What about you, Ronnie?

[01:01:11] Are we like sponsored by LinkedIn right now? What’s going on? 

[01:01:14] Ronni Martin: We’re not. 

[01:01:15] Jessy Grossman: I agree 

[01:01:17] Ronni Martin: with Georgina. I feel like LinkedIn is probably the best place. I feel like I’m on LinkedIn like more than Instagram these days. I’m just really loving LinkedIn right now. So yeah, I think LinkedIn is the best place. Ronald Martin on LinkedIn.

[01:01:30] Yeah. Perfect. All right. I’m going to 

[01:01:32] Jessy Grossman: share links in the show notes to all of that. Also a link to get to sign up for this event. If you’re in Atlanta, not Hotlanda, and want to go to this event, it should be really fun. Pool party with influencer marketers. Like, how could it not be fun? Thank you both. So much for being on today, but also being our ambassadors down there.

[01:01:50] I’m so excited to see what you guys create next. Thank you 

[01:01:53] Ronni Martin: so much for having us. This is honestly a pleasure. I’m so excited to, you know. Continue working with you guys. Can’t wait to keep putting on more events because I feel like we needed it Yeah, thanks so much for having us. 

[01:02:05] Georgina Whalen: Thank you. Jessie. 

[01:02:06] Ronni Martin: Thanks guys 

[01:02:08] Jessy Grossman: If you enjoyed this episode, we gotta have you back check out our website for more ways to get involved Including all the information you need about joining our collective.

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