Episode Summary
In this episode of the 7 Figures and Beyond eCommerce Marketing Podcast, host Greg Shuey interviews Paige Hope, the founder of Elan Pure, a non-toxic beauty and wellness brand. Paige shares her personal journey of building the brand, inspired by her own health issues and her sister’s autoimmune diagnosis, which led her to create toxin-free products. She highlights how she built the brand by leveraging communities, content creators, and affiliates. Paige dives deep into the importance of building a strong community that remains loyal and engaged beyond just ads. She explains that a brand’s community includes employees, customers, affiliates, and creators who share the brand’s mission. For new brands, she emphasizes the need to focus on branding, differentiation, and having a strong personality. Throughout the discussion, Paige stresses that long-term success in community building requires consistency, nurturing relationships, and creating genuine connections. She also discusses strategies for measuring success, including tracking email subscribers, social growth, and community engagement, while advocating for patience in building these relationships.
Key Takeaways
- Importance of Community Building: A strong community is key to a brand’s long-term success. Community members are not just customers but also employees, affiliates, and creators who align with the brand’s mission.
- Brand Differentiation: New brands need to have a clear differentiator that sets them apart from competitors. Developing a distinct brand personality and reevaluating branding can help attract both customers and affiliates.
- Patience and Consistency: Building a loyal community takes time and consistent effort. Brands need to invest in nurturing relationships with customers and affiliates through continuous engagement, incentives, and surprise initiatives.
- Utilizing Affiliates: Paige emphasizes the power of affiliate programs in growing a customer base, but warns that success comes only after establishing strong brand foundations and a clear value proposition.
- Metrics for Community Growth: Success in community building can be measured by tracking email subscribers, social media engagement, and community participation. Tools like Pattern Creators can help streamline affiliate outreach and tracking efforts.
Episode Links
Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/
Paige Hope LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-jensen-hope/
Elan Pure: https://elanpure.com/
Pattern Creators: https://pattern.com/products/creators
Episode Transcript
Greg: 0:29
Welcome to the 7 Figures and Beyond e-commerce marketing podcast. Hope that everyone is absolutely crushing it today. And today I’m really excited about our guest. Her name is Paige Hope and she is the founder of Elan Pure. I got that right.
Paige: 0:48
You got it right, it’s not Elan.
Greg: 0:50
It’s Elan For everyone listening and anyone who ever invites her to a podcast. Ever again, it is Elan, okay.
Paige: 1:00
Thank you, greg, thank you.
Greg: 1:04
I love the brand that she’s building. It’s pretty awesome. I also love that she’s right here in Lehigh Utah, which is where we are based as well. So it’s always fun getting someone here local on the podcast, and anytime I do a local guest, they’re like, okay, where’s the studio? We don’t have a studio, so we’re just we’re winging it from our office studio. We don’t have a studio, so we’re just we’re winging it from our office, from her house, and it’s going to be awesome. So a little bit about the brand Elan Pure is a non-toxic wellness and beauty brand focused on making toxin-free products accessible while educating on the connection between wellness and beauty. Their first product is a non-toxic self-tanner, the industry’s first foam lotion hybrid, which is really cool, and my wife thinks it’s really cool.
Paige: 1:55
So I don’t use self-tanner.
Greg: 1:57
She does so. She thinks it’s really cool. We just we need to get some ordered. Anyway, paige has built the business from the ground up by leveraging communities, content creators and affiliates, and is excited to share with us some of the tips and tricks so that you can take those and you can do the exact same. So, paige, thank you so much for being with us today.
Paige: 2:18
Well, Greg, thank you for having me, and just send me your address after this and I will send your wife some non-toxic self-tan on the house.
Greg: 2:28
There we go. Thank you for that. So, before we jump in, would you take just a couple of minutes, introduce yourself to our listeners and share a little bit about your personal story and how you have gotten to where you are today?
Paige: 2:42
Yes, that is always a loaded question and I never know where to begin on this one, but I guess I mean my story in e-comm really started back in 2018, 2019, when I actually joined a tech startup to help brands scale creator programs, and we actually later sold that to Pattern If you guys are in this local area, you definitely heard of them, and that is really when I fell in love with branding with product, with connecting products to consumers and then telling the story around it so everyone can have this mission to drive. So what happened, though, was my personal story. In 2020, my sister was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and I was battling hormonal challenges, which significantly took a huge downturn on the confidence when my hair started to fall out a little bit. So when that happens, it’s a little bit taboo.
Paige: 3:40
No one really talks about all these hormonal challenges, but the more and more research that we did, we became empowered consumers and understood that all of these products we’re putting on our skin are very toxic to our endocrine system, and the scary thing about that is women. We are putting on thousands of chemicals a day. The air has chemicals. We’re bombarded always. Day the air has chemicals. We’re bombarded always. Now, when you go to Europe. A lot of these are actually banned right? Because it’s linked scientifically to hormone imbalance or even cancer, and with breast cancer awareness month coming up next month, I’m very focused around this because 80% of breast cancer is actually caused from external toxins. So what happened was I’m putting on my self tan and, while going through all of this research, this was the one product where I could not find one that didn’t have all of these clean ingredients included and just cut the crap of all of the red 40, phthalates, parabens, fragrances, et cetera. So that is like where the whole mission and purpose ran.
Greg: 4:48
I was building.
Paige: 4:50
I went to work, yes, and actually for two years I was still building that tech company and trying to formulate this, because I was really formulating it for me and my sister. I was like what you put on your skin is absorbed directly into your bloodstream. So I got to start with all of these body products. So, two years later, we finally launched. Yes, I’m a bit of a perfectionist, but we actually just launched on May 28th. So we’re hitting about our 120 day mark, which is super exciting.
Greg: 5:20
That’s awesome, congratulations, I love it. Thank you, and you guys are growing like crazy, which is awesome.
Paige: 5:26
It is actually very crazy, but that is the power of community, right. So I’m excited to dive in with you today on all of this stuff.
Greg: 5:34
Well, let’s jump in, are you ready?
Paige: 5:36
I am ready.
Greg: 5:36
Okay. So I think there’s a lot of people and a lot of marketers out there who hear the word community and they have their own idea of what that means. So can you start by defining what you believe community is in the context of a brand and then help us to understand why it’s so important for the long-term success of a D2C company?
Paige: 6:03
I always like to tell people think of your community as the people that are raving about your brand, even when you’re not around, when the ads are turned off. This is also inclusive of employees. I think people forget that your community is anyone that is behind the same mission that you are, which is a literal lifestyle. It’s not just this sentence hung up on a wall in an office. It’s a lifestyle that you’re practicing, and so I tell people they’re going to be genuinely connected to your brand and what you’re building, whether it’s customers, creators, affiliates, employees, heck, even Reddit forums. You can literally have a community within a Reddit forum or just overall fans on social, and so just garnering the attention of people where you have similar shared values and then learning how to monetize each of those Because, like I said, you have your employees, customers, creators, affiliates.
Paige: 6:56
It doesn’t really stop from there, but it’s how you actually get them encumbered in your brand that makes the difference in the long run. So building a strong community for me is always thinking about how do I stay top of mind for these individuals right, and so that these connections last beyond the ads. And I’ll be honest with you, since we are bootstrapping this, I’m fully self-funded. I did not go the VC route, especially in the beginning, so we are not like we’re not doing any paid ads right now. Yes, will we get there? Absolutely, but we have such a strong organic approach right now that we rely heavily on this direct connection to our customers, to these creators, affiliates, employees, et cetera, so these people become your biggest cheerleaders essentially, and that’s that genuine support turns into that word of mouth marketing everywhere, whether that’s on social or in person, and that really gives you brand longevity in the long run. Does that answer your question?
Greg: 7:59
It totally does, and I’m glad that we started there, because you know it’s really weird this year, as I’m glad that we started there because you know it’s really weird this year. As I’m talking to more and more brands, I’m hearing kind of this common theme that not a lot of them have a real strategy to build their businesses, a marketing strategy in general. Right, they just want Facebook ads. I just need you to turn my Facebook ads on and I need it to work. I’m like, okay, that’s not a strategy. And even if that was a strategy, that’s a really bad strategy. To start to grow your business.
Greg: 8:39
There’s so many things that need to go into the brand building and the strategic part of it to be able to help you grow, not just today, but three, four, five years down the road. They’re not thinking that far, they’re just thinking short-term. How do I turn these ads on? How do I get customers right now? And who knows if they’re going to be the right customers?
Greg: 9:04
Right, these communities, from what I understand, like those are your. Those are your brand warriors, those are your brand advocates. Those are the ones who are not just going to buy once, they’re going to buy over and over and over again. They’re going to be raving fans. They’re going to tell mom and dad, they’re going to tell brothers and sisters and sister-in-laws and friends and neighbors. Those are the customers that you need to get into the funnel up front, and so I love that we’re starting with that and I hope that more and more brands can just slow down. I’ve posted a couple of times on LinkedIn the last week about people. We need to slow down, like we need to take a step back. We need to say how do we build this from a brand perspective, and then we can start layering in the ads and the different tactics to help. So what I’m looking for to help uh, not streamline, but help just kind of add fuel to the fire, Right.
Paige: 9:56
And just snowball that.
Paige: 9:58
Well, and I think, not to mention and people don’t always think this far ahead but once you go toward the retail route, having a well-established community and even social presence is going to significantly impact your valuations. These retailers want to see that you’ve built this custom audience that raves about your brand, and so you can’t just turn on the Facebook ads if you don’t have this natural community that’s already coming around you. Because retail, you go retail. You have to be the one that’s getting people in those stores, and if you don’t have people that are going to do that, then you’re not going to have business with these different retailers. So I agree with you they need to. They need to get back to the basics and figure out actually why they started the brand in the first place and start from scratch. Honestly, yeah.
Greg: 10:46
Awesome, cool, okay. So with a brand, they’re they’re listening to this right now and they’re like, okay, I don’t, I don’t even know where to start. This sounds great, sounds like I need it Like for a brand that’s just getting started starting with, like community building. What are the first few steps that they need to take to make sure that they don’t mess it up or they do it in like a thoughtful, methodical process?
Paige: 11:12
Okay, well, I will say this is a little bit of a loaded question, and I’m trying to figure out how to put it into smaller little phases, because you know, community is this word that encompasses different types of subsets of groups, right, and so I think for this question, I’ll combine your customers and your affiliates, because when you’re starting out whether you’re bootstrapping a business or you’re launching, you want to launch some sort of community program. You need a baseline, and so starting with these affiliates that turn into customers that can then expand your customer base is going to be the quickest way that you can do that. Well, how do you attract affiliates to be the ones that are pushing out your brand? It’s to be the ones that are pushing out your brand. Now, everyone just wants to send a bunch of emails out to different creators and have them come in and start making commission and all of those things. But take it from someone who’s been building these communities for a very long time. It’s actually not as easy as that, and you have to get them bought in on what you’re building. And so where I always tell brands to start is just re-evaluating your branding in itself. Do you have an attractive brand? It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be this very hip lifestyle brand, but look at your customer audience base. Develop your persona, literally your brand personality, because nowadays we have to have a brand personality. I don’t care if you are an electronics company. You need a personality when you’re responding back to customer complaints, when you’re responding to people on social. There has to be a personality and that personality has to be similar to who your audience is. So, as you can imagine, I don’t know if anyone’s list or if you’re listening or watching, I don’t know if you put this on YouTube or not, but our brand I always tell people we are playful, bubbly, sophisticated. That’s going to come across everywhere. That’s going to come across on our site, on our emails, on our social. Anytime we interact with creators, when we host podcast, live events, anywhere, they’re going to be able to see that throughout all of our employees, throughout the way we’re talking, everywhere, and that is going to draw those people instantly in because it’s that camaraderie. They feel a connection already because it’s the friendship Okay, so, reevaluating your branding, please get rid of the stock imagery.
Paige: 13:27
If you have stock imagery, just I had to put that in there and really try to invest in organic, social and having good quality photography. It’s just so important. I say that from the beauty space specifically. So many studies have shown that we, unfortunately, will always have to have our branding just very sleek and tight, because that’s what consumers want when they’re going into beauty. But I do believe it applies across the board. If I go to a site, you tell me this. If you see stock imagery, it just is a turnoff. I don’t know like how to even explain it. There’s no connection to the brand, and then you lose so much opportunity for raving fans there.
Paige: 14:09
So, reevaluating your branding. And then for number two, I’m going to say well, I already said, develop a personality, because that’s kind of one in the same. But you touched on earlier our differentiator, and this is what I would say. The third thing you need to do is have some sort of differentiator. And if you didn’t go to market with a differentiator, that’s completely fine. But you need to have clear messaging around the differentiator, because not only do people want to know that your product is better, they want to know that they’re on the edge of something, want to know that your product is better, they want to know that they’re on the edge of something. Oh, this is the old. This is the first to the industry’s first foam lotion hybrid. So when we’re reaching out to people, we’re leading with that and that is what people are getting excited about. So we’re testing our messaging to see, okay, well, when we’re bringing in these affiliates, do they care? What are they caring about? Yes, it’s our shared values and mission, but they want to know that we’re not just another non-toxic beauty wellness brand or another self tan brand. They’re getting onto something completely new and so having that differentiator is going to be so, so huge.
Paige: 15:12
And then I always like to say I don’t know if you’ve read this book.
Paige: 15:15
I tell everyone to read it and I’m sure you have. I had a CMO probably eight years ago. We all read this on the team and it was building a story brand and it is such an old, old book. But the foundational principles always stuck with me, because some of those things don’t change right with me, because some of those things don’t change Right, and one of those is your audience. They are the hero, we are the guide.
Paige: 15:46
So when I say like, reevaluate everything, you’re even reevaluating the way that your messaging is, the way that you’re coming across. We will never pretend like we are the hero, because we’re not. We’re just showing them the aspirational version of themselves. And then that gets them excited because we’re not. We’re just showing them the aspirational version of themselves. And then that gets them excited because we’re showing them their external and internal problems and they’re resonating with that and they’re like, oh my gosh, I have to get this product because I want this view. I don’t want to be here anymore.
Paige: 16:12
So I would say start there. That was a long-winded answer, greg, and I’m so sorry. But then I would say launch that affiliate program. Affiliates are so, so powerful, but you have to build the foundation first to become an attractive brand for these affiliates and then start recruiting, testing different things. Get a software. We actually use Pattern Creators. That was the technology I helped build back in the day, used to be current, rebranded to Pattern Creators. Happy to give you guys some sort of a link. I’m sure I don’t know. You could ask them for a discount. Say, paige sent me. She said you could have a discount, but I’ll get in trouble, but it’s worth it.
Greg: 16:59
So don’t say that.
Paige: 17:04
But it is just really powerful to have a tool where you can mass outreach, to launch monthly campaigns to keep all of the affiliates incentivized, pay out your creators, ship product to them and all of that stuff. There’s so much more I could go into, but high level that is where I would start.
Greg: 17:21
No, that’s fantastic and I love that you bring up differentiators and how you said, if you don’t have one or maybe you don’t know what it is right, one of my favorite ways to do is just ask the customer right Like, why do you buy, why do you keep buying, what problem does this solve? And let them tell you you’ll. If you talk to enough customers, you’ll be able to hear the same things over and over again and pull those out, and then that should also kind of guide that can help guide some brand story right and the way that you position yourself on the, on the website and in your communities and whatnot. So I think it’s just a very powerful way to be able to go about that.
Paige: 17:58
I agree. I think a lot of brands, though, don’t want to put in that extra effort for some reason. Nope, there’s like a fence with them and the customer, and I’m like no, tear that fence down. Go directly to the customer. You’re going to learn so much, and then they’ll be with you forever.
Greg: 18:15
Truthfully, because One of my I don’t even know if assumptions is the right word, but, kind of the way, my perspective about communities is that you have to nurture these things. You have to put in a lot of time or else they’ll just fizzle and die. They won’t thrive, they won’t grow, they won’t continue to help build the brand. And so what are some effective strategies for continuing to engage and nurture each community over time, especially as you get bigger, right You’re going to have, you’re going to be torn in lots of. You’re already being torn in lots of different directions. And so, like, as you bring in, like a marketing manager or someone, like, how do you make sure that those are just continued to be nurtured?
Paige: 19:12
Yeah, I think you have to look at it in two separate phases. So you have nurturing of your customers, because those are also people that you can leverage to later become affiliates. Right, For customers, it’s as simple as surprise and delight. I’m like, how do people not even know this? You’re sending an email every month. I’m like, whoever leaves us a review, every single month, we do a drawing and we actually send free product to one person a month that submits a review.
Paige: 19:40
Like, it’s these simple things where you just have to be consistent and stay organized with it. And then they start to tell people right, so, surprise and delight, as cliche as that sounds for customers. And then affiliates, you got to keep them engaged. So that’s why I recommend some sort of a platform. You’re launching monthly campaigns. You’re launching monthly incentives to them. You’re giving them surprise discounts, free product, because we want to stay top of mind, right, I tell brands sometimes you’re gonna have to ship out more product than you want, but every other brand is willing to do that. So if you want to stay top of mind, then that’s something you got to do. Put the extra note in there, do those small things. And then we also recommend doing some sort of zoom call with either. We call them VIP affiliates.
Paige: 20:28
So once a month, my president of wellness will get on with our affiliates and give them free value. Like it’s as simple as creating even a board. Like we use Pinterest a lot for our free wellness guides and things like that Creating that free board and letting them have it for free, whereas other regular customers might have to pay a few bucks for it. So there’s ways to get creative with it. Again, Greg, it just takes time and so many of these brands can’t put it together on what to do. So it’s starting small. But make someone’s responsibility. This Someone on the team should literally be like okay, I’m going to figure out the surprise and delight this month and then start there and it can grow. But if no one’s focused on it and no one’s job at the end of the day is to do this, then it’s just not going to be prioritized and you’re going to potentially lose that long-term customer.
Greg: 21:27
Yeah, I like that. You say it takes time. All marketing and brand building and growth takes time, and I think that’s one of the things like people are just so impatient, right? They rush things, they want it to start working right now, like I talked about a little bit earlier. And I would assume that people who go down this road saying I’m going to, I’m going to build community, if they don’t see returns in 30 days, they get distracted by the next shiny object, right, and so allocate the time. I’d even go as far as saying, like there’s probably some amazing freelancers and contractors out there who’ve done this before who would be happy to give you five hours a week of their time. Like, hire someone, hire a contractor, and put that in their court and let them take it and run with it, right?
Paige: 22:22
I agree completely. That’s also where the world is going. I think so many of these brands especially if you’re on the bigger side they’re just so used to all of the return that they’ve gotten, whether it is on meta, amazon. But now we’re going so organic that people are actually being very selective, and so now is the time to like gas on, figure out your branding, get your personality and do all of these little things so that you can withstand some of the stuff that comes in.
Greg: 22:54
So what are some of the common challenges or mistakes that you see brands make when they’re going out and trying to build a community, and then how can they overcome those?
Paige: 23:04
Number one and we kind of touched this passive. They’re just taking a passive approach. Yeah, you cannot be passive when you’re building a brand or a community. It is about genuine connections, and so you also don’t just get. I always tell people if you’re going to invest in affiliate, don’t get your platform and expect the platform to just automatically generate millions of dollars. Right, you actually have to develop a process within that and then engage, engage, engage, engage Again. If you don’t have anyone who’s able to engage, hire it. You can’t get away anymore with not engaging across everything. So get rid of the passive approach and my solution to that I think you asked for a solution is just make it a priority.
Paige: 23:51
I was just with a bunch of founders who are in a little bit of the same stage of business as I am and I was going over this because everyone was shocked we had so many affiliates and we hadn’t been launched this long and they’re like trying to pass it off to their most junior employee. And I’m like you guys, credibility wise, right now you have none. So when you build your brand, yeah, you can have someone that is a little bit more junior and crushing through outreaches, but in this beginning stage when you have zero credibility, unfortunately you might have to be the one that’s doing the outreach right now. And that’s the way it is. It has to be you, as In this beginning stage, when you have zero credibility, unfortunately you might have to be the one that’s doing the outreach right now.
Greg: 24:27
And that’s the way it is. It has to be you as the founder, yeah.
Paige: 24:31
Yes, in this early phase, absolutely so. That’s probably not the answer some of these people want to hear.
Greg: 24:39
Probably not Time, people, it takes time. You know what’s funny? So I got my start in marketing in affiliate 20 years ago. That probably ages me 2004. Back then affiliate was easy. You didn’t have to nurture relationships, right? It’s like, hey, you drive traffic to your website, to your blog, your traffic fits our ICP, you want to make some extra money and just turn on the affiliate link, right, like it was so easy back then. 20 years later, it’s hard. You’ve got to nurture relationships. It takes time. You’ve got to handhold. You have to build the trust and the credibility, like you mentioned, and it’s a lot of work.
Paige: 25:20
It is, it is. I wish sometimes it was as easy as it was back when you were running things.
Greg: 25:27
Yeah, yep, me too, me too, and I think all of our clients feel the same way. But it is what it is it is. So let’s talk a little bit about kind of attribution. You know, success metrics community outside of an affiliate link, right Like this, can be hard to measure. I mean, marketing these days is hard to measure. You can see a Facebook ad. You come back over to Google, you type in the brand name who gets credit. It’s the same thing with, like, word of mouth and trying to build brands. So what are some of those specific metrics that you look at to say this is working?
Paige: 26:07
Well, I will say my whole career has been in marketing and so I’ve always thank goodness and my team is very grateful, because I do understand that it takes doing everything, and I want to scream that from the rooftops, to say, hey, just because something isn’t working, unfortunately. I don’t want to say unfortunately, but fortunately. We get to do every single thing because that’s how we have to be everywhere right, like what did it used to be. You know, someone could see a post maybe three times and then make a purchase, and the latest stat was like you have to see it 12 times now before. So that means you’ve got. You’ve got meta, you’ve got tiktok, you’ve got creators, you’ve got email like you’re got creators. You’ve got email like you’re. You have to hit them from everywhere. So there’s definitely the contribution margin where you just have to take it all and say, okay, overall, are we growing Awesome?
Greg: 26:55
Okay.
Paige: 26:55
Like. That’s number one, just knowing the baseline and going from there, but things that we do to actually track, because it’s not just affiliate. Of course, we have the codes, the links and all of that. Yeah, we’re always gauging our email subs and we have monthly goals for new, whether that’s hey, let’s come out with a new guide or let’s link to this on our Pinterest or YouTube, whatever that is, and we’re measuring that. We’re measuring our social growth. Also, we’re measuring our engagement. So there are so many other things aside from revenue that you should also be tracking, because as you grow and your brand grows, then the revenue in the long run is going to come.
Paige: 27:33
I would say, on the actual affiliate side, though, to measure properly, you definitely will want some sort of a tech stack, just because it’s going to streamline it a lot easier. Affiliates also want to be able to see their sales, and so, at the very beginning, we were actually running it manually, and affiliates don’t like that. They’re like well, what are my sales? They’re like excuse me, are you like? And so we would send them screenshots right From Shopify. But you definitely want to have that to measure. And then we’re not running paid ads yet, so paid ads would be another force, but so many people don’t really track and or care about their email subscribers and I’m like that is a really big indicator of how well your community is receiving you.
Paige: 28:19
So short answer or I guess, long answer, greg, is you have to do it all, and no founder wants to hear that, but you have to do it all, yeah.
Greg: 28:28
Agreed, Agreed, Cool. So you know. We’re coming up on the end of the year, we’re almost into 2025. Isn’t that wild to say Almost into 2025. It is crazy. How do you see the community building and growth Like? How do you see the community building and growth? How do you see that growing next year? How do you see that changing? What are your thoughts about the future of this?
Paige: 28:54
Oh, my goodness, I love this question because it’s always changing. The creator economy is so exciting to me from the brand perspective, but creators as well, because creators have the opportunity, especially with TikTok, to literally pop off within 24 hours, and so what’s really cool is the partnership with Amazon and TikTok right now, where creators are going to be able to leverage that, and they’re already creators, making, you know, upwards of like 30 to 60 K a month from participating in TikTok shop and being affiliated. Some days.
Greg: 29:25
I think I’m in the wrong business Same same Greg.
Paige: 29:30
I’m like I’ll get on TikTok and promote some of this stuff.
Greg: 29:34
Right.
Paige: 29:36
But that is a huge thing where I think you’re going to see within community if we’re talking, you know people that are promoting your brand on social community if we’re talking you know people that are promoting your brand on social we’re going to see a lot less brands doing these big flat rate deals with big influencers. I just think that’s actually going away because of the opportunity that’s happening on TikTok shop and sure you might have some lower flat fee deals, but I think the days are going away where these creators can come say hey, for one post I’m 20K. Because TikTok kind of changed the game and brands are kind of unwilling With margins.
Greg: 30:16
It doesn’t always make sense to throw out this crazy amount of money unless you’re Starbucks or Taco Bell, these big conglomerates Even still the way things have gone the last six months, even the last three months, right, I’m honestly happy that it’s going to be going away, because I think it was one of the world’s biggest scams.
Paige: 30:40
honestly, I agree, yes, I agree completely. I agree completely. And I think another thing to note on this too like to get brands excited is, if you start investing now in this, tiktok and Amazon are only going to I mean, now that they’re partnering like it’s only going to help your brand and that’s going to be absolutely huge for the longevity of everything. So just make sure, I just hired a TikTok person Cause I was like, okay, we got to get ready to be on TikTok shop Like I know Right, and so it doesn’t even have to be full-time Greg. Like I hired him. I think he’s starting 10 hours a month, nothing crazy, but it’s a start so that when we do launch, it can go off.
Paige: 31:27
Now for the rest of community I mean, as we’re talking as a whole, just collective human beings in general I think we’re going to see a lot more people siding and getting behind brands that actually have some controversy to them and they like take a stance. Meaning I always like paint the picture of like the brand will have some sort of a villain right when we don’t come out and say we don’t like that. The government doesn’t ban anything, but what we do say is I know you’re frustrated that you feel this way and unfortunately we have to be empowered customers, because this isn’t banned here. So you’re almost creating a villain in your story and people are going to kind of side behind you. So you’re almost creating a villain in your story and people are going to kind of side behind you. So you’re going to see, I think you’re going to see a little bit more controversy coming and like polarizing things. You know it creates massive awareness and some brands are scared to do it. But I say, lean into it.
Greg: 32:20
A hundred percent. I love that Cool. Well, as we’re wrapping up like, do you have any final words of wisdom that you want to send our listeners off?
Paige: 32:29
with. I would just say and I’m sure you guys can all feel the passion in my voice for community, but I would just say, the more you invest in them, the more they’re going to invest in you, and what better thing to have than cheerleaders rallying behind your brand and I would also just like to say that also includes your employees, right, like, get all of these people to rally behind your brand and mission and become a really good storyteller internally and externally, and you’re going to see massive changes in culture, in community, in everything. So that is what I will leave you with today, greg.
Greg: 33:06
I love it, thank you. Thank you for everything you shared with us today. So many great tips.
Paige: 33:12
You are so welcome. Well, if anyone ever needs anything else, to feel free to DM me on LinkedIn as well. I know affiliate and community is so crazy and big. I am always happy to answer any questions.
Greg: 33:26
Amazing, and we will put your LinkedIn profile URL in the show notes so everyone will have access to that. And what was the name of the tool? It was something pattern.
Paige: 33:36
Pattern creators, so rebranded Pattern creators yes it was current. I’ll send you a link after this.
Greg: 33:44
And that’s a tool that anyone can purchase, that’s not just proprietary to Pattern. Okay, so we’ll make sure to put that in the show notes as well. So thank you for that.
Paige: 33:52
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg: 33:54
Awesome. Well, that’s a wrap for today. So to our listeners out there, as always, I’m sure you’ve taken two or three really awesome takeaways from this. Take those, make a plan and take massive action this year. Thank you everyone for joining.
Greg is the founder and CEO of Stryde and a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with thousands of businesses, large and small, to generate more revenue via online marketing strategy and execution. Greg has written hundreds of blog posts as well as spoken at many events about online marketing strategy. You can follow Greg on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.
