From Followers to Fans: Elevate Your Social Media with Value and Influence | Lexie Murray

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but my favorite thing right now on Tik Tok is employee generated content having employees day in the lives interviews around the office Trends I think that's like the biggest thing that's going off on Tik Tok right now and I'm obsessed with it in the next 5 years there will be a thousand influencers that don't yet exist that will start a brand that will make $100 million I used to say to people that you know had an older audience don't use Tik Tok now I'm like I'm like preaching the opposite

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well Lexi welcome to the podcast we're excited to have you here I'm very excited to be here I'm very impressed with the setup you are absolutely crushing it and you were recently selected for Forbes 30 under 30 which is really impressive thank you how were you able to do this so quickly with such a lean team you know what that's such a good question because I still don't actually know the answer um well I started the company when I was 21 and on the back of a pretty I'm not going to

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even use the word successful because it actually wasn't which is the irony of it and and for those listening it's bcen socials yes yes so I started bcen when I was 21 just before the lockdown and I had been pretty lucky in the sense that I'd actually started doing the influencer thing about maybe like 16 17 when I pretty much like got my first phone in year 12 year 11 12 and then from there I was like kind of posting Brands and things like that you know like the very typical influencer

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influencer and then when I turned 21 I started doing that kind of thing but for other brands saw a bit of a gap and then from there we just went from like I don't want to say it was super quick as we just spoke about off- pod like it's so hard to kind of get like your first zero to eight people is like really tricky I'm kind of in coming out of that side now so yeah Forbes I thought I was going to get it maybe like I I was kind of aiming for it it was my always my biggest goal it was really cool I

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remember being cuz they don't tell you when it's coming out or anything you just literally get you have the the due diligence of a journalist kind of going through your stuff and I was watching like four editors like on my LinkedIn for a little bit and then probably like 4 days before I went through my Instagram and deleted all these like photos from like 2018 2019 2020 in my kind of like weird in influencer Phase deleted all of the content and then because I had no idea when it was coming

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out but I knew that they were kind of watching and then just randomly on a Thursday morning I was driving to work I was a little bit late um usually I get to work before 9: but then for this random day I wasn't feeling I was so sick so I was like fine I'm just going to go in randomly whatever and so I'm driving like 10 to 9 which is way too late for me I look down on my phone which I shouldn't be doing I'll preface I don't text and drive but I was looking down on my phone to like I was actually

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listening to a podcast maybe yours and um I was like there was just like an ad break and I was like like skip skip I wanted to get to the end of it before I got there and I looked down and it was like congratulations like I feel sick thinking about it but like I it was like congratulations like class of 2024 Forbes and I literally threw up in my mouth like a little bit pulled into the onto a road that was a one-way Street the other way called my boyfriend straight away before I even knew that like cuz I subscribed to the EDM yeah

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like I thought that it might have been an EDM but I wrung him anyway because I had this gut feeling and it was there and I was like couldn't find me cuz I'm like right at the bottom like I'm I don't know why but like Alexandra Murray even though I'm a is like the last one so I was like scrolling and I was like okay it's been a mistake it's fine whatever and then it was there and I was like crying and like sobbing and I was just like uh it's interesting we have these defining

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moments where where like reality kind of kicks in and it feels real all of a sudden you know like for example when we were writing the book and it was like okay cool we're writing a book we're doing the thinging with a publisher but then it like arrived and we're like holy [ __ ] this is real like it's so impressive I love the color you chose as well appreciate really cool yeah yeah yeah yellow is a happy color and I it is a happy color so you have done a lot and you got into the influencer space quite

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young yeah was it for you always the goal in the onset or were you just producing content and it kind of happens like how did that Journey take place and from that point what allowed you to get into the agency space and and then scale so quickly yes so you know how everyone has those stories it's like oh I started like a bake s like when I was younger and that's how I knew like my entrepreneurial Journey so my sister and I had this moment not long ago where we actually remembered something that maybe

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is my bake sale story so when I was um really little like when we when we were it was Christmas and we were like 11 or 12 M when we'd get our Christmas presents I'm talking maybe even potentially younger like maybe 10 years old we would get say Christmas presents and one of them was like a perfume or something or like a little makeup kit we would go to the we would go to the spare room or like at the time it was our media room we would go we would get the products and we would go and take

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photos with the product like posing with it using it and stuff and I was like when I was 10 and then and social media wasn't really a thing no it wasn't a thing especially when I was yeah modeling what you'd seen oh my gosh no it was kind of like I was really obsessed with like um television kind of like ad stuff where I would see you know girls like posing with product like model kind of stuff in Victoria Secret fashion stuff but like on a level where I would take the product and just take

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pictures with it um in the house and then we would do it every Christmas and then eventually when Instagram did become a thing when I was like 16 or whatnot I really started that very very early and realized it's not as if I had like this light B bulb moment that this was going to become a full industry I think a lot of people had the same kind of thing at my age especially in NSA like bikini photos at the beach and things like that but we pretty much just start me and a few of the girls one of

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the girls actually she's been one of my best friends forever she started it with me in when we were 16 now she's like made a whole career out of it as well but on more of like just as the influencer kind of side so did it start off with you highlighting products that that weren't necessarily sponsors you were just kind of yeah act in the role essentially and then people started reaching out to you one of the biggest brands that has like blown up now You' probably heard of it and I've actually

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like never I should probably like message my friend who works for them now and being like I was one of OG's but vlow do you know that brand so they sent me product when I was probably I would have been like 15 16 and I remember taking the big brown tub which is like they very OG branding and posing with it at the beach cuz that was like the first product I'd ever worked with and that was when I was yeah like 15 16 and then it kind of like spiraled from there became pretty much my full-time job

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while I was at Uni and then was just like yeah pretty much like promoting like fashion and lifestyle Brands but then I had no idea that eventually I was going to kind of like replicate that model on a massive scale as an agency so how did you transfer the I guess the skill set from being an influencer yourself to hey I could probably actually help other people make money doing this and create some kind of product around it I mean I really didn't at the at the start I was actually just like I actually just

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chucked a agency name on like the influencer side I was doing because I realized that I'm posting one photo but then I'm taking like 100 so why don't I like give that to them as a package and that's how my original kind of mind was so when I and it's so cute I had this big team meeting the other day where I showed them my B scenes first ever quotes and it's like the cutest thing ever it's like one post on Lexi Murray's Instagram account and then like 20 edited images and then like a 100 raw

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images and whatnot and it was like $100 and then I'd be posting on their account every day as well so at the start I felt like my agency or like what I was doing was creating like content creation which we still do now on a bigger more controlled scale but that's what we were doing essentially you were just kind of figuring out yeah figuring it out little couple little happy accidents which I love it when that happens in business you it's crazy you stumble into something you don't really think about

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it you just do it because it's cool and then you're like hang on a second there's value in this right yeah and I can imagine from like the company's perspective the fact that you made the initiative to go hey they've paid you for one photo or they've sent you product and they would maybe just ask give us one one photo the fact that you would send 100 and say hey this is probably the post I'm going to put on my social feed but here's some other material that probably would showcase

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like oh this person is someone we can trust and and work with in the future right and then the strategy side got really interesting to me too so like actually running the accounts because I'd grown my own account that was fine I actually started again so when you say strategy for an influencer have have you got a perspective on how it's maybe shifted from you know when you were 16 to what it is now like have you seen what it means to be an influencer on social media change and and what is it

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what was it then and what is it now I mean now it's much much harder to grow as we know um so I mean you've done like a phenomenal job I we'll have to talk about that even because I'm like so interested in that side but like back when I was you 16 and whatever or even 20 just posting like bulk content of myself like really just blew up now I'm kind of angling like taking that business perspective but I definitely think niching down is like one of the only ways you can grow now really I mean

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Tik tok's a whole new can of worms really in terms of like growth because obviously you can have like a few videos go viral rinse and repeat that method and then you've got yourself a career but I want to say that like from a brand perspective like what we like to do is kind of just like izee their organic side of content really think about like what obviously the points of difference are like create really engaging content as a team and get that uploaded in consistency in with consistency and

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that's kind of what grows the accounts organically and then of course there's like that other side of like paid and stuff like that which I think the difference right now I want to say and like I'm obviously like not meta but I think it's more of a pay to- play than it used to be when I was like 16 and like photos would just go viral of me at schoolies like it's definitely different now yeah I would agree I think you know there was an ERA where you could take photos and generate a lot of income and

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grow a social following and now we're in an era I feel where the market is getting incredibly competitive it's kind of like so competitive I liking it to like Junior League you know Sports versus like you know the Premier Leagues like the professional sports and I feel like social media is now becoming like a professional sport where there's a lot of agencies and infrastructure the point I'm getting at is I think you have to be either extreme entertaining or extremely educational and there has to be dopamine

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and serotonin you have to you have to be it's like turned into theater yeah and you need to be providing value I think as well like to people that are actually watching you I feel like I don't want to say like you didn't hear this from me however I just don't think we're going to get that many like big like tummy hembrows anymore doing something like really crazy and different because I just I think there's like the place for those big ones I think there's so much room for like Niche people that I follow

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new people all the time and I'm like oh my God I love that person like how did I not find them earlier but I think that right now and there's probably not that much room for like those big players anymore because I think the space has already been taken up I that is not to say that you can't there isn't room for like new creators in a way that's like really Niche like if I had if I found someone else that was also you know creating like really cool like girl gym content that was like really cool like

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nutritional video nutrition videos and like I was super into that I would follow them too and they could definitely blow up but whether there's like going to be that kind of like fashiony like big icon influencer anymore I'm just not sure and I'm not saying that as like a statement it's just like my opinion on that right now no I would agree with you and I say to people often times that you know in the next 5 years there will be a thousand influencers that don't yet exist that

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will start a brand that will make $100 million and why could that not be you and I think you're right like it comes down to the value and it's like there needs to be some kind of exchange of value with the audience it can't just be like here's a photo of me with a product yeah at all and yeah I think the social format has changed we were having a conversation with a friend of mine Jacob Adams who founded and and built the iconic and he talked about SC said that so lightly yeah I thought you'd be like

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just a little business I'm like oh the iconic yeah he's he's so down to earth he's one of the funniest people I know and yeah he was explaining it to us like one of the reasons that the iconic blew up into the brand that is now is because of influence in marketing and what do you think in today's day and age the value for an influencer is to like a fashion label or a product brand like what is that exchange that's taking place now I mean I think it's so important we have an whole influence of

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strategy that we do for our Brands whether so we will actually look at the landscape of that product and and what the influence the I so when you say landscape what do you mean exactly so what kind of what kind of availability there are in terms of like what that I mean firstly budget's massive because we work with a lot of startups so the iconic I don't think they struggle to like see that investment and it's quite obvious that that's going to what that's going to bring for them now but a lot of

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the brands that we start with they we're the first person to kind of like hold and talk about the product and whatnot and so what we do with the I guess influencer strategy and the landscape is look at like what availability or what options there are in terms of launching that and then what is the strategy behind engaging them because I mean there's so many different and different ways of I me working with influencers now our favorite new way of working with influencers is events because and I've

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spoken about this so much but like influencer events at the moment like if you're looking at paying say say you wanted to have like 30 influencers in your campaign you're launching a new product as a skincare brand and you've got like this one amazing product that you know is going to like be the most interesting or like it's just kind of like one it's got like heaps of points of difference like kind of new to Market if you wanted to have 30 influencers talk about your brand and

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like hold the brand like next to their face and whatever that would if you looked at 30 influencers all with about 200,000 or maybe 50 to a million followers that like if we're looking at the money on that like it's going to cost like 30 grand plus but then what we do is we we have an influencer event and we invite those influencers mind you we don't do this for every brand only some brands that we like have built the socials up so it looks really really great so that when we invite the

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influencers it's a no-brainer but we then invite them to the influ the influencer event and you've got the reach will be like 3 million PE where and you're paying for the amount that the lunch is which amimi like sit down lunch with 20 people can be like between like four and six 6K but then you're getting all the influences talking about the brand there you're sitting the owner sitting with the influences which is already building that relationship up and then you've also got the fact that I will go

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around and be like hey can we get a photo with you or like the microphone thing to with the influencers to get content of them talking about and holding the product as well and like tagging them in yeah and they're tagging in stories and whatnot because they appreciate the I guess the time and the invite and things like that like you nurture that relationship very early on and then there's kind of that crowding of reach in a way that like as a person sitting and seeing all of the in I guess

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invitations of the influencers all sitting there you're like oh wow okay like this what is this product it's an interesting experience so T I don't know if you're familiar with the brands but you can go into this app and you can select like a luxury car and then you go pick it up and you oh yeah have seen that yeah yeah but you can get a Jeep or whatever kind of car but it's just interesting like what the brand did because I got an email and it was like you've been selected to be invited to

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our launch party oh and they made it seem like you're kind of like a celebrity and they're rolling out the red carpet for you and they're like you know we love your social media page we'd love we'd be honored if you could come and you know be an attendee at at our event and they had like music and they had like all these different like kiosks for like ice cream it was this Wild event that was super photogenic there was maybe 3 400 influences there okay so you did go I yeah I went was it in

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Sydney it was in Sydney and they had like this big Warehouse where they had all these different stations and ke but they set it up so that as you came in it was like a red carpet and they would take a photo of you and they' interview you and it's a very intelligent way to launch a brand obviously this would cost money but it was interesting because the psychology was you're you're kind of playing to the influencers ego to be like you're worthy we want you you've been selected and on the other side of

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it I was like oh this is just a giant marketing campaign like this genius you're getting a ton of people to produce social media content tag you and help get attention for the brand but you're doing that on a smaller scale so like 20 OD people for a lunch function or something like this I mean most of the time it's not a big brand um we just a one with um you know these like vitamins really clever that grow your hair and it's called Maine and we had a sit down lunch at Mimi and we invited 25

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influencers the reach was over 3 million and the two owners came and sat in and were drinking with the influencers really like building that rapport with them so that like when the influencer kind of runs out of the product the girls will send more and that's how like that ambassadorship free product they get a free lunch they get to hang out with the a yeah and then we went around and interviewed like MIM is stunning so we went around and we interviewed all the influences and then I got the girls

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that work that were working on the brand shooting the content to go around and get the girls each person there to like smile with the product or taking it and everyone's happy to do it so that's why I think that for me is more important but then of course there's like other options we do like gifting If the product is a slightly higher price range and then we'll do we'll organize their paid collab operations as well if they want to go down that route interesting and then obviously you could give away

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merch and you can do all kinds of things yeah yeah we always make it special so next Thursday we have a hair oil company launching because we do a launch package after to talk about it with you after but it's it's really where like I think BC has like really differentiated ourselves from a lot of other agencies out there at the moment because we literally it's kind of like when you guys I'm sorry I'm like diverting get like remind me of remind me what I was actually answer about the oil and the

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baskets and then we'll go back to that but our launch package is like when you know when you finish the branding and you're like okay cool like strategy and everything for like The Branding and whatnot what we then do is we take like The Branding deck and like everything that you guys like kill it at and we're like okay how we going to how are we going to do this really well with Organic content creation which we will strategize and then Tik Tok content creation two different managers two

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different teams completely kind of kind like how you guys have when you say organic and Tik Tok what do you mean exactly so organic Instagram sorry and organic Tik Tok yeah so when you guys are sitting you know how the they're all sitting in different um offices we kind of do that but we're one big office so like Tik Tok sits one side Instagram sits on another and that's cuz like their brains work different different don't even talk to each other no but like Tik Tok and Instagram they're so

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different so then we like we'll plan the content creation organically and then we'll do the Tik Tok organically with like a launch strategy in mind and just to Define organic you mean that's like shooting content that's not advertisement it's just posting on the social feeds yeah it's everything for free everything that's free so when you when you look at differentiating Tik Tok and Instagram because I find this interesting like how do you clarify the key differentiators in those two

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platforms well they speak really differently to the audience so with say for instance we're going to do a hair product right with Tik Tok we're very much like conversational we're very like Trend Focus for them we're very much like we're quite reactive but then for Instagram we use that as more of a kind of aesthetic like it's very like clean it's very like it's very put together very graphic graphic heavy but like not too much and so then the way the tone of voice is quite different so for for Tik

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Tok we're kind of like more educational quite like with yeah to my point very reactive to like the market and kind of like switch um what do you call it stitching other videos that say a girls like struggling with hair growth we stitch that video talk about our product we can't do that on Instagram there a little bit more like of a collage of you know things and and trying to have it feel a bit more raw yeah super super raw behind the scene videos interviews like we'll do an e-com why do you think that

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is the the psychological difference between because you you you said something interesting there where whereas Instagram is more aesthetic has to look put together has to look a bit more professional Tik to is kind of the opposite what's the psychological difference is it an audience thing is it a platform thing I think it's like I mean the audience naturally if you look at just the stats in general like arguably though I used to say to people that you know had an older audience don't use Tik Tok now I'm like I'm like

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preaching the opposite because like the audience has changed so much now that there's like billions across like 15 I'm pretty sure I don't know how old social media platforms always age right I remember remember Facebook when I was a kid was like a young people's platform now it's like Ah that's what my mom uses you know yeah no literally my mom's like an Havoc like like Facebook mom shees my mom's been posting reals now so watch out watch out everyone um but yeah no to

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your point before about audience like that's definitely a big factor but I also just think it's what people are used to going on the platform for like for me Tik Tok is where I kind of like I switch off a little bit more I'm like a little bit more relaxed I kind of looking for a humor I'm looking at something light and then Instagram I am if I am watch following a brand I am wanting that more like educational side I do want to if I'm looking at a product I just want to know what it is and I

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want to know what influencers are talking about it and I want to know the I want to know the testimonials and what customer feedback is if I'm following a brand on Tik Tok I don't really care as much about the promotional site I just want to see what the brand is all about so that's where we differentiate it and I think that's what like has made our I mean it's really created such a difference in our agency now because we are able to provide in one place whilst we may be shooting the content in the

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same office or the same like location at the time the the minds are different um our heads our head of Tik tok's incredible at just coming up with like really fast witty ideas but then on Instagram I know she's definitely got that aesthetic too but she doesn't organize like in aesthetic Instagram feeds that's just like not her job um so that's like the biggest difference and then of course we complement that whole thing with an influencer campaign or like effort of some sort if the brand has no money

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which a lot of in launch we they don't we'll come up with a really cool PR strategy so we are we bought like 20 baskets and we're getting flour delivery and then we've got this oil this hair oil and a hair brush and a bunch of like really cool like pretty products we put it all in a basket and our intern is going to be driving around and Sydney and dropping them to the doors with a handwritten note and so that is going to kind of like make an imprint I think a little bit more than just like sending

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it out in a box and so so that's the kind of thing we want to do and then brands also I've received so many like cakes I think a koule came to the office the other day we had a tiasu that was promoting the tiasu candle things like that can make such an impact um and then of course you've got like the paid and then the event strategy as well event strategy is always my favorite we always put like a few pretty slides um about the event and things like that because I always try and push for that if they do

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have budget yeah now when it comes to budget like you said when someone's I guess very new into business they're a startup they're bootstrapping their product they're trying to they're trying to do so much at once it could be quite overwhelming how do you recommend that they approach the influencer space should they start small with a small group of people like what what's the what's the first few activities someone can do I think you need to be really really loyal to the influencer that you're wanting to

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work with in terms of engaging with that person and the amount of times like I will actually do more for a brand because I know that they've been following me for a long time I know that they're interacting in on all my photos I I know that they're always like one of the first to like my photos they're always commenting on stuff I think that's really important I'm treating you like a piece of meat like not just like I'm not going to lie i' I get I got a DM the other day and I'm it was kind of it

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was just it was so strangely disappointing because it was a really cool brand and they DMD me being like we love your Social account and this is probably going to make me sound like a little bit can I curse sound like curse a little bit of a [ __ ] we 10 minutes in so you punish us too much like I don't mean to sound like a [ __ ] because like it's obviously like me just being crazy and being in this industry for so long but they didn't follow me but they wanted me to like do with the post and

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everything and they messaged me was like it's such a long shot I would sorry if this person's watching but like such a long shot we've followed you for so long we adore your account we'd love to send you a pair of active wear types for a post or I don't know you know if the active we but they don't follow me and then I went deep dived into the owners to say oh maybe they follow me on the owner accounts like maybe this is a new account check they don't they didn't so

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you've obviously copied and pasted this and if it was someone that I'd seen come up a few times and interacted even if I don't follow them back I would probably give them the time of day and be like look I can't do a post but like if you want to send them I'll do like a PR send out and if I wear them like in a Tik Tok or something I'll definitely tag you something like that I think just like is can go such a long way if you are new brand and like nurturing those relationships a lot more but also

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gifting sometimes without requesting Too Much from the influencer can definitely be that go a long way we've experienced that right so like I get a I've got a DM from Prime energy drink yeah they sent me DM everywhere around the office I was like this has to be some kind of promotion they sent it to us we've got like cartons of it in the in the fridge and in the I really want to try it but they just sent you a DM like yo we want to hook you up what's your address so easy and I was like here's my address and it

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just keeps sending me Product I'm like I've got to start making content for these guys cuz they give me so much product the other one was febles for Mr Beast and they sent us this giant like like cardboard suitcase full of chocolate yum and I was like this is super content like you could make a ton of content out of it which which gets back to the point right like a pet peeve I have as an influencer is a copy and paste message like nothing pisses me off more then you go to the page then it

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follow you like this is inauthentic it's one of the first things I say to a client be authentic and and and actually make an effort cuz it's like building a relationship you're in a social contract don't just try to mass Market this so regarding yourself as as someone who's in this space heavily involved you got different departments head of Tik Tok head of Instagram how do you stay on the pulse of social media like do you guys have a recipe or or an approach or a mindset to make sure you're staying on

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Trends that's actually such a good question the strategy goes a little bit deeper it's that I hire people that that's not a difficult thing to do it's something that these girls live and breathe and so do I so social and keeping up with Trends is not something that I actually find difficult or even something I have to do it's something that I do naturally anyway the goals at BCA between the ages of 21 and 28 so my head of Tik Tok wakes up probably at at the time of first breath checks Tik Tok

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she probably doesn't want me saying that but truthfully like these girls live and breed the app like our Tik Tok group chat and Instagram group chat is so active with Trends and stuff that we genuinely just respond to as a customer and then we're like oh do you remember that like we just we genuinely are in that like I do social media as a job now ironic to the fact that like I genuinely live and breathe it anyway so like my screen time is probably like stupid and same with all the girls like I screen

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time is ridiculous and I always justify by I'm doing my research but you kind of are like if I'm on if I'm on TI Tok or whatever I'm usually going through my favorite creators and seeing the way that they've done like a get ready with me and I'm like oh that's cool like I'll save that but I enjoyed that and I didn't feel like that was even work and so for me like there isn't a strategy to keeping up with Trends because like we are always engaging in them anyway right

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it's more of like we we talk about this often times it's it's an instinctual thing yeah and I think when you're new to business your instinct's wrong so you have to develop a way to figure out how do I gain a different Instinct like you're talking before about you know investing let's say $10,000 into joining a community when you started was terrifying and same for me and now it's like oh it's just another invoice right like your mindset changes your instinct

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changes and I imagine that if you're actually involved in the app and using it it'll be instinctual it's it's Laing like imagine if I was like you know cuz I don't play soccer and I'm not a soccer person but it's like me then going and commentating for soccer it's just I don't have which actually I think could be like that would be a funny Mark that funny like that's what I feel like wait a second I'm like Dan you might be on to something here get people to commentate

00:30:01 - 00:30:54

sports that have no idea what what's happening that's actually really funny yeah because like the Olympics like people's feedback of them sitting on the couch commentating that stuff is it's so much more interesting exactly so maybe you have like a new thing there there we go there we go I think the F1 did that recently with kids they had they had a channel where they had like kids commentating the F1 so that other kids could get into the sport so in in your opinion what's some examples of some

00:30:27 - 00:31:14

brands that like Crush this that are absolutely dominating the influencer marketing space right now yeah so like brands that are doing the influencer thing I think I mean there's heaps of brands that are obviously like getting good content from influencers but my favorite thing right now on Tik Tok and well let's just talk just Tik Tok right now is employee generated content interesting yeah I'm I'm obsessed with that I've seen some of that popping off lately yeah I just think it's like the

00:30:51 - 00:31:49

the next big thing I don't think every brand can do it but user so there's obviously user generated content that's sending out the product and getting go influencers to talk about the product and whatnot there has to be a place for that at the end of the day because like I think it's important for Brands to maybe like 25% have that because I think it is necessary but employee generated content having employees day in the lives interviews around the office um Trends in within like the work day like

00:31:20 - 00:32:06

seeing people like actually doing the work and like talking about the product I think that's like the biggest thing that's going off on Tik Tok right now and I'm obsessed with it it's like you getting a behind the scenes look at things and like I've seen Britney saers do this a little bit like she's running around the warehouse and she's interviewing her employees and then making skits and jokes and stuff like that best thing like I just think it's really really the best way of like

00:31:43 - 00:32:27

incorporating like your brand ethics brand values in a way that's entertaining there's a company called Jazz handmade which I'm not sure if you've heard of it but it's a jewelry brand in the Gold Coast and they pretty much like some of their goals now are like influences because they're actually like being like in the content so much it blows up and then they're actually like well-known faces like I recognize like a little reality TV show or something it is a reality TV show and I

00:32:05 - 00:32:56

think it's so interesting it can't necessarily be replicated if you're just a oneman show but you can definitely think of a way of doing that even just with yourself I think it's just like it's I mean we we're so lazy with our own Tik Tok right now it's something that we want to get into but it's just so hard when we're obviously our priority is shooting clients landscaper doesn't want to do his own yard like yeah exactly the last thing I can be bothered to do right now is like shoot

00:32:31 - 00:33:26

our own content when we're doing 12 shoots a week for other people but yeah I think that is a really cool clever influencer way of like incorporating the same kind of thing but into your actual like inhouse brand and I think like obviously you've got like the DU lingos the ryion that are kind of representing their brand in like a funny way with like a mascot that's also really clever um so I think and there was a guy I don't know if you know do you know set active in the in the US no

00:32:58 - 00:33:56

so they're an active wear brand and they got a really well-known influencer to be their new head of Tik Tok and and social and so he would go on and take over like all of the Tik toks like talking to Cera doing pranks heaps of stuff and like he was a well-known influencer so he got they got him to be the head of Tik Tok and it was so clever and people recognized him and recognized the brand and that did really well as well so when you're talking about you know identifying someone for your team that actually inherently

00:33:28 - 00:34:14

understand the platform that they're going to be working on I think a lot of business owners are potentially struggling with this because they're like you know let's just say they're not necessarily in the content creation space they have an Enterprise or a company that's that's like not necessarily influential influential based and they're trying to bring people in to produce content how do you identify someone who's just looking at this as a job versus someone who's

00:33:51 - 00:34:42

actually got the gift of the gab to be doing it well because often times they're they're freelancing so then how do you find this sweet spot where someone isn't freelancing so much that they're paying for everything themselves but they're interested enough in the content to produce it well for your your agency or your company yeah I mean like that's obviously a tricky one because I feel like with hiring and whatnot like with social I feel social is so hard to hire like that's why before that I

00:34:16 - 00:35:04

wanted to know a little bit of like how you hire because I find it actually like really hard because you don't for me I don't know if the girls that are like trying to work for me they're actually they want and by the way I've I know that the team are not like this but whether they want to be an influencer and work with the brands for their own thing or because they're passionate in social media actually it's so funny because you asked that question and my truthful answers I'm still figuring that

00:34:40 - 00:35:36

out that's okay I mean I'll jump in there like I think two things I look for number one is or let's say three there's there's three things I look for when hiring people here at rival number one is they have to have high warmth high confidence right if they're not a warm person that's willing to be social and inter with others and carry themselves with some kind of self-confidence usually they're unable to kind of handle the intensity of our workplace and what I mean by that is we kind of joke that

00:35:08 - 00:36:03

Rivals like a bit of a tornado either you get sucked in or you get spat out because if you're not confident in yourself and you don't have a wholesome warm personality they're probably going to struggle here because you have to love people I think they're all nice wait I was like hello yeah so high warmth high confidence I'm not talking about cocky or egotistical it's just like a sense of like I got this [ __ ] I'm great as a designer I'm an awesome copyright some esteem in themselves two

00:35:35 - 00:36:28

is we look for people that are naturally creative and they naturally have creative Outlets outside of the workplace so for example they might do K-pop dancing or they might make jewelry or they might edit their own you know social media content outside of work like I love it if they have another thing that they're obsessed with wait I just I love that yeah because I think it it it it it highlights the fact that they're naturally and instinctively creative cuz they can't help it that

00:36:02 - 00:36:59

needs to be like a short clip that thing because I feel like I'm going to rinse and repeat that exact thing and then the last thing is I look for a bit of like [ __ ] you energy like I want to do it my way you know so so and and this this is a fine this is a fine thread because you can you can get someone with an ego and and they're not willing to be teachable or or or take advice or or collaborate so they need to be collaborative but also like I want to do it my way though yeah okay I get that so what I mean by

00:36:31 - 00:37:29

this is they got a rebellious bone in their body to go you know I I think I got a better way of pulling this off okay no I like that hold my beer it's it's it's a certain level of like rebelliousness and I stole that from David Ogie cuz Ogie said how do you get a great creative agency you hire people that are Rebels it's such a people it's like people is everything for agency I Le that like obviously it's the most important thing but at because I started the company was 21 so like people to me

00:36:59 - 00:37:57

has been everything in terms hug in bu yeah I think what I said not long ago is that like you can what is it you can teach skills but you can't teach personality you can't no so for me like a lot of the girls like they all came I mean my two first employees they came with no social media experience whatsoever I hired them at 19 now they're old I mean maybe not 19 maybe like 20 and now they're killing it at the game I've got a head of influences in my best social my best Instagram

00:37:29 - 00:38:20

account manager came from literally I think when she started working with me she said that she had like she was doing a diploma in social media and it's like Charlie where was that I'm pretty sure she made it up like or she like never finished it or maybe she bought like an online but that girl the the stuff she like presents to clients and her social like management is just like incredible like she's so much better than me like I look at the stuff she's doing and I could be like oh what about that and

00:37:54 - 00:38:46

she's like no that's like the stupidest idea and her videos will just pop off and our content is just so good and I'm like oh wait you're like way better at that than I am it's interesting they have an ey like people if people have a keen obsession with creativity outside the workplace this is what I find happens right like so Luke mazni who's our art director here and leads our design team you know he is a front man of two bands he produces music he tours he does shows he runs his own business

00:38:20 - 00:39:17

time to work for you yeah and he loves it but like when he came on board he didn't have any you know degrees or anything he was just designing post for musicians and merch for bands but he just had a knack for for understanding what creativity was and then when he came in he understood branding because he's a fashion connoisseur and he's like oh I know how brands use psychology to sell me and stuff I love that wait sorry I have a question for you do you go to the like what is your main I guess like

00:38:48 - 00:39:36

recruitment strategy do you ever go to the person and kind of see them and be like oh I really like the look of that person and then Outreach to them I mean you've got so many employees now you there's some different things we've done one thing we did which is you can hire a recruitment agency to scout people on LinkedIn so you can give them a brief essentially like this is the type of person the type of role the type of skill set the type of I guess pedigree that we're looking for and then they

00:39:12 - 00:40:00

essentially go head hunt on LinkedIn that's one thing we've done it's a little bit more pricey and it has paid off we got some great people in the team doing that the other one which was just throwing up a seek ad but just making the ad really outlandish so we would write the ad in a way that was kind of a little offensive little slapstick so we would just kind of you want to try to weed out the the people that don't Vibe check yeah right so we try to write the ad in a way where it's like if you're

00:39:36 - 00:40:29

this Vibe you fit if you don't don't even apply those kind of things yeah but back to your success and what you're doing here with the influence of space yeah like what is the value of the internal culture of your team because it sounds like you've built a team that get it they love it they're obsessed with social media how do you make sure you keep that Integrity as you go from like four to I'll be honest like I'm still battling that right now being the fact that I'm

00:40:02 - 00:41:05

the same age as my whole team so right now like we're still I may I have a lot of input from them so like I might make a decision and be like I'm 80% sure that this is the right decision but I will always go to the girls and I will actually be like okay like what do we think about this and we sit down and talk as a team a lot I own the company but I also joke that I work for them because at the the same time like I want to create this culture where kind of everyone has like equal say on certain

00:40:34 - 00:41:25

things like actually majority of things like I work for the girls in that way like if someone's not if someone like you said about having a better way of doing things like I back that so hard in a sense that like I started this at 21 when I was just myself so yes I've learned a lot running the company but I haven't gone and worked for another corporate a company since I started it so the skills that I've got and the decisions I make are on the back of things that have worked that maybe

00:40:59 - 00:41:52

they've suggested so I kind of am like a really open book in terms of like how to do things like if the girls are like let's do this or I feel like it should go this way a lot of the time girls that are working for me now are coming from somewhere else so Morgan my GM she came from another agency and she'll she's come and flipped the whole thing on its head cuz it's like oh at my old agency we did this and it worked better perfect do it kind of the mentality I take to make sure that we are constantly

00:41:25 - 00:42:11

improving based on like what people are coming like what people are coming in and changing things I love that though I think you're on the pulse check when it comes to culture cuz like we do the same thing I don't want to team of people that do what I say I want to team of people that tell me what to do yeah right and this is why we hire Rebels cuz they're like I can do this and a better way yeah and you you know a a traditional company might be like you've been here two weeks what do you know but

00:41:49 - 00:42:35

I think those are the weird moments where if someone has a I guess an instinct to try to do something new let them let them do it even if they [ __ ] up break it doesn't work hey they learn and then you haven't killed their Spirit to try the next thing no definitely yeah I mean it's definitely something I'm working on at the moment like I only know what I know so I'm kind of just like trying things out with the team like of course there's certain things where I have to be like no like we

00:42:12 - 00:43:03

actually can't do it that way like let's actually think about it that way but I mean we we've done really well now so I'm like the stress of like little things is just a I'm sure you're the same like it's a little bit less intense in terms of like I'm not going to like work every day thinking like could all just like disappear in like a day cuz I I said this I think maybe like two I don't know if I said it on the last podcast I was in but like being two clients gained away from greatness but

00:42:38 - 00:43:26

two away from failure is like a really dangerous place to be and I don't feel that anymore and when I was feeling that I was super reactive to the team like we got to do this we got to do that but now that like things are more relaxed and demand is there and like things we're doing really well like we're good at it it's just improving and like making sure everyone's happy I'm just like a little bit less intense than I used to be I think and like I think that's going to become less

00:43:01 - 00:43:44

and less as things go on maybe yeah I don't know when when you're when your face is you know facing the coal furnace you know in business you're like I'm two clients away from failure that's not a fun place to be but I like I like what you said there it's about how do we get the business in to a place where it's two two people away from greatness because you never know who's watching on social media you never know who's paying attention where do you think this

00:43:23 - 00:44:15

humility might have come from cuz it's pretty rare for people in business particularly when they have a team of 10 to be so collaborative with their crew where does that come from and how do you think that's serving you at this point in time I mean I have a really big Mentor in my life um who's always been like a people person but a really good balance of people person and also thinking about the numbers in such like a degree where his company previously has scaled so much and that person's

00:43:48 - 00:44:40

actually my dad so he is pretty much being like I kind of have him in like I kind of joke about him being like in an earpiece so like he I'll go through like the Motions of work and then he'll kind of like earpiece me like certain ways of like managing things and I think that's helped me so much with hear his voice in your head no like actually on the phone oh he calls you yeah like I call him for everything like I'm on the phone to him like literally every every day maybe three

00:44:15 - 00:45:12

four times a day like people numbers everything so he's helped me a lot in terms of like I still don't do a lot of the way that He suggests I manage people I still don't necessarily do I am a little bit of a suck up to the girls still a little bit I don't 100% back my decisions sometimes which is like something he kind of wants me to be more like authorative to but I have seen like the way that our agency has gone from like me and say Chelsea my first ever hire to like the nine people we are now

00:44:44 - 00:45:34

is because I'm really good friends with them and I know that that's not always the best way but like I went out with the girls last weekend we had the best time and I know that like it's not something that probably that many people really recomend commend or it's not like textbook like you should just like have separation like don't be friends with your employees but I'm not going to lie some of these girls are my best friends which means that we have been able to work through every problem and we've

00:45:09 - 00:46:04

actually been able to do that in like a really like deep like conversational no hierarchy way which has meant that they've like walked away from a conversation really happy and feeling like there's been a solution there and that's why like I don't necessarily have this like I'm the boss kind of energy the girls always like they'll introduce me as a joke like oh this is my boss which I I am but that's not like how the dynamic is and if you meet the girls which I'm sure you will like it is very

00:45:36 - 00:46:28

much like a friendly kind of everyone Vibes off each other kind of way yeah you make an interesting point there and I think a lot of people early in business myself included go through the stage where you know you're Ultra collaborative and and there's a certain point I noticed when I was around 15 16 people in the team where I was like oh like I can't like cuz you have a relationship with maybe 10 people but then it gets to 12 13 you're like I can't do that anymore and then it ends

00:46:02 - 00:46:52

up with like maybe a kind of a internal Circle and then the rest of rest of the company right you have her book but Grace and I sat in um Milos I think it was and we were talking about this we were in Grace okay that was so Random to say like where we were but it's just cuz I remember the conversation really well and I was talking to her about this because I was like oh I'm just like really good friends with the team and blah blah blah and at that time we were probably like six or seven and so like I

00:46:27 - 00:47:13

know that there'll be a turning point where it will have to be like that and it even still is getting a little like that because like it's hard to be like best friend to like nine people all the time even now but yeah I definitely know that there will be a switching point I'll probably have to come to you when that comes and I'll like here's a quick one right so so this is something that was shared with me which was as your team scales beyond the point where you can have like a heavy-handed

00:46:50 - 00:47:40

relationship with everyone yeah he he was saying to me that it's important that you have a vision yeah and you focus all your energy on the vision collectively and don't get stressed about the details but most business owners struggle to have that big targeted Vision they're just kind of like working week to week you got to have a big definitive vision of where you're all marching toward and it's like guys let's not stressed about the details because sometimes a team gets

00:47:15 - 00:48:10

stressed about the details you're like eyes on the prize let's keep let's keep Maring forward I'm obsessed with my vision I think about it every day what's your big crazy haros Vision it's called um operation bangaroo it's a metaphor okay but when you walk into wait I don't even know if I'm like whatever how many people listen to this I'm like I'm like wait is this me spilling my deepest AR secret I'll say like some of it because obviously like a lot of it I'm like oh

00:47:42 - 00:48:37

this is my big goal right you don't want to give away everything but like just give us a movie trailer operation bangaroo when you're walking down bangaroo right or like any big city like New York anything I just call it operation bangaroo because it's like an inside joke yeah there's these massive buildings have a huge like they're like 100 stories high 200 I don't know I'm not good with numbers I don't I think there's like 2 million people in the stadium but like say the floor is like

00:48:09 - 00:49:11

200 and then there's like level like 9 to like 17 like B scen just like B scen because I think socials is what we're doing right now bcen will be the bigger picture we pretty much like like Bing Group could be what it is and we'll go into like a bunch of different faculties and areas and like entities under BC group and like operation brang aoo for me is like walking into the office there's a little that reception there well not Little Big reception four people at reception and you go up and

00:48:41 - 00:49:31

you're like hi BC group and then they'll be like like a fountain there's like a four story entrance there's a four story entrance there security guards there's like the thingy it's like succession have you watched succession yeah so it's like that and that's like operation bangaroo to me is like every time I feel like I'm going away from that I'm like no wait Year back cuz obviously I I could talk to in the face those things are seing socials as one right now and then I hope that

00:49:06 - 00:49:59

there's like a be seen multiple different entities under that where we're providing value yeah me too and so like when I think about it operation bangaroo is like all of those different like ENT like each level has like be socials might have one level and we might own eight N I love that randomly BR that's what I'm talking about like having having that Clear Vision that you can feel and you can paint a picture for the team and everyone gets excited about it so given your success you know how do

00:49:32 - 00:50:29

you manage when it comes to work life balance because I think sometimes as a as an agency especially in the startup space not that you're in startup phase anymore you're kind of coming into adulthood as a compy nice to say that yeah cuz I think T is like okay this is official like we're we're out of out of the danger zone and we're two people away from from greatness so how how do you manage work life balance do do you see it as a thing you can balance or do you your own take on that um this was

00:50:00 - 00:50:55

like an issue last night at home my Conor and I my partner he has been like the biggest support ever like when I first met him we had one employee we were working out of my spare room and I was like oh yeah I have this little agency like it's I don't know what it's doing right now and that was two we were only celebrating three years in October so work life balance for me has always been like up and down up and down when I first met him I was like you know when you're in your first little love Bubble

00:50:28 - 00:51:22

was Ellie yeah yeah Ellie my your first like love Bubble and you're just like obsessed I was like obsessed I was like oh my God this man I'm still like that now but I would like he would come over and the world would just disappear and I kept overthinking I was like holy [ __ ] other business owners that are 22 are starting their companies they're going to way overtake me because like they're actually working like nine like whe your head yeah like 7 like 7:00 a.m. until like 9:00 p.m. at night and I'm over

00:50:55 - 00:51:57

here watching movies with this boy like what am I doing and then I was like then it was like a switch where I actually started like working smarter and I would use like my 8 to six work hours and pump [ __ ] out like work hard in that time and then I'd come home or like hang out with him and I would just like zone out and I would actually have that work life balance and I felt like that was like wrong because I wasn't working like this crazy toxic amount but I've actually like really managed to master my work

00:51:26 - 00:52:15

life balance a little bit now of course like there's going to go there's going to be phases and I go through phases at least half a year where I'm like o I'm working like a lot a lot a lot but then I also come home and I make dinner and I love cooking so I make sure that I'm cooking dinner every night for at least an hour where my hands are dirty I can't go on my phone and I'm like listening to a podcast hence why I don't watch podcasts which I think is like psycho

00:51:51 - 00:52:34

you could have the TV there in the kitchen yeah I could have the TV there but I'm just like I feel like that's what guys would do like I need the TV in the kitchen pod um but yeah so like I've tried to master my work life balance in that way obviously like there's a lot of changes my parents aren't super like sympathetic to the fact that I own a business they'll be like like they are but they'll like be like switch it off it like it'll be there when you're back

00:52:12 - 00:53:02

like when we finish whatever XY Z and it's so true it always is so I have like of course there's those urgent things I where I had to I have to create urgency to just get that done so that I like the reward is Chill time but I'm definitely better at it now and I feel like I've worked to the point where I'm not burning myself out but I'm getting what I need to get done and I think that that's like that's the happy place I'm in at the moment and you touched on a

00:52:37 - 00:53:29

good point there which is you know life life is seasonal and I think business is seasonal sometimes you're in a season of hard work sometimes you're in a season of everyone's paying their own voices and it's great I think you and I seem to be like really good delegators as well though I mean like I need I was saying when I first met cam I was like get me one I was like do you come in like a different yeah like do you come in different formats like I need that because like I definitely think that's probably my next

00:53:02 - 00:53:52

step is getting someone that can be like across like B scene than my personal cuz like literally remember the first time we met and I was like your content is so good who does that like I'm like how are you having time for like that running an agency and everything like that and it's like delegation I think that's like a huge part of work life balance when you finally can is like kind of being able to like delicate small things to someone else I'm doing that massively with Morgan my general manager now like she

00:53:28 - 00:54:20

is the one that's answering all the questions about like how to reply to a client how to do that which used to be me up until a few months ago now I don't really need to do that so it's more about like I still do sales I still do like things like this which you can't really replace that with anyone so it's kind of getting someone else to kind of fill in the support side of that as well that I think is going to help me massively yeah I I think one thing that I I kind of adopted in my mindset was

00:53:54 - 00:54:49

like okay we have this big agency and we have all this crud to help the agency fulfill its Mission and then I was like we need to build a team just to help me support the content that we're producing cuz there's so much value and it's such a great way to connect with people I was like I need to invest in this as well and bring people around that share the vision and that are excited to to help collaborate with me so what's one quote or Mantra that you've carried with you in recent life on your journey that you

00:54:21 - 00:55:20

wished everyone listening to this would download and adopt what's yours like can I can I feed off like you go first yeah so on my arm here I have a tattoo and it says the obstacle is the way okay it's from Marcus Aurelius and it's it's a quote from like a Roman general or Caesar and you know was quoted by Ryan holiday and for me it's about like the hard thing you're scared to do is the thing you need to do okay I love that mine is kind of almost like a similar tone which is that the the

00:54:51 - 00:55:49

answer is no to the questions you don't ask so like I always used to be so like I guess paranoid about kind of like asking questions or like doing thing I don't know just like being annoying or like asking questions to things or like shooting my shot about certain things or like going out to a brand and being like hey I can do this for you and the amount of times now like that has come back as like the longest standing client like because I was too scared to ask the question like the answer is no to the

00:55:20 - 00:56:13

questions you do not ask is like so important I say it to the girls all the time cuz they'll be like oh you know I want to do I want to ask if this person can do this and I'm like well like just do it and I feel like that's been like a really big thing I know it's not like super it's not as beautifully beautiful I think I think it's it's a good point but it is my thing you got to ask questions and I think you know or just be like open to like knowing some like getting someone

00:55:46 - 00:56:39

that's better than you to do something or like ask opinions on certain things or like just ask anything because like you'll only know what you know and I think that's like so important to me is I've only got to where I am from the people that I've that have invested time in me whether that's like yeah my dad or like our accountants or like Cub people that I speak to every day like every time I speak to someone new like I I I'm not really that interested in like private Equity right now but I sat in

00:56:13 - 00:56:59

this massive talk and I went up to the guy which I needed words of encouragement from another woman to be like go and speak to him but like the an and I asked him I was like oh like what's your experience with like agency acquisition and stuff like that and he was like give me like the craziest answer I've never concentrated on an answer so much in my life I had like a sticky note in my head like rolling over and I was like if I didn't answer that question ask that question I would not

00:56:36 - 00:57:24

have oh my god do we have time for that right now it's like so crazy condens it oh he pretty much was like to me when you're like wanting to obviously there's different like Acquisitions merges and then private Equity they buy like companies outright and I'm absolutely not the expert I sat in for my first like talk about private Equity introducing like what is what is it yesterday but pretty much like when you are like the face of the face of the product it obviously makes the exit

00:57:00 - 00:57:52

quite difficult so I like kind of like gradually if you are preparing to exit kind of remove yourself out of it not something I'm looking at doing anytime soon I mean my company's only four years old and I'm 26 so like I'm not like rushing too much but it is he did make a really good point of like you can either be acquired by another agency that you're filling the Gap with and they want to like increase that or there's like some kind of process flow or like something that your agency like is

00:57:27 - 00:58:21

really good at but maybe they lack in that they just want to acquire that side and just like filter that into being the best in the in the world kind of vibe or you've got kind of that like private Equity perspective is what he gave which I think is still the same as getting acquired but then having you as the face of the business like pull away because otherwise if you're just the face of the company like you're not they AC yeah once you exit like what is that company it's not going to be standing on its own

00:57:54 - 00:58:44

two feet at all so kind of building something stands on its own two Feet's really important and so that was like something like some kind of tips he went into his techn his technical words were incredibly impressive more than mine but that was my little like one a minute spel on it but it was really interesting and I feel like I wouldn't have had that perspective if I didn't just shoot my shot go out there and ask the question yeah even Brands as well like the amount of times I'll be like at an event or

00:58:19 - 00:59:10

like I'll be just chatting to someone and I don't want to seem to like be seeny I've I've got a really good way of kind of like asking questions that are on behalf of like potentially asking about like where BC could slip in without seeming like it's like too much because I hate networking and hate being like salesy to someone it's like my pet hate but I do feel like the amount of times I'll like go to an event and introduce just what they what I do maybe I'm just asked and then I'll like talk

00:58:45 - 00:59:40

about it and then later on three months later there another client and without kind of like having those conversations and asking the questions about certain things I wouldn't have got that so I do think yeah like asking like the answer is no whatever it's like kind of cool and then there's like that one that's like kind of it's It's can come across like a little bit much but like net your network is your net worth yeah I think that's so important as well like the amount of times like clients for us come

00:59:12 - 01:00:02

through Word of Mouth massively as well as like social and things like that so your network is your net worth is so important because like one person will know another and like you never know and not in a toxic way it's just like I meet such great people through work now that it's just become like such an important part of even my mental health and like work life balance like speaking to someone else that also has a business in my network like we can go to coffee and like bounce ideas off each other like

00:59:37 - 01:00:27

you and I like how how we came about was all through like really positive networking so I think Network your net worth net worth is your network or the other way around and then the answer is no the questions you don't ask yeah I love that beautiful answer and well articulated so I'm like y yep Y no this is great and you you just brought something to my mind where the author of The eth writes this very controversial statement where he says essentially you're not an entrepreneur until you can

01:00:02 - 01:00:51

walk away from your company for 6 months and it grows without you okay I'm obsessed with that can you send me that after maybe I'll get that tattooed like your yeah it's a long quote yeah um but yeah he wrote The emth Great I come up next time I've got like a novel on my have you watched oh my God we watched a movie about that where the guy has no memory and I'll have to get the name of the movie people listening probably know what it is but it's where he has no memory cuz he had an accident where he

01:00:27 - 01:01:28

like forgets things and he writes like all of it down and then he wakes up and remembers it and it's all written down scary yeah that was that just reminded me of so you have a great quote which is being positive doesn't mean you have to be happy all the time it means that even on harder days you know that there are better ones coming it's beautiful yeah you said that when did I say that I think it was on social media okay probably and lastly like how do you want to be remembered oh my God just a light coners

01:00:57 - 01:01:57

like a light question oh my God that reminds me of like when they ask you that at year 12 when you have to when you finish year 12 they like asked you how you'd like to Remembered at school I wasn't the greatest student so I don't think my answer was that good I guess for me I want to be remembered as someone that took like I mean okay sorry to get a little bit deep but when I was really young and I was like in the influencer space the reason why I didn't pursue influencing with was because I

01:01:27 - 01:02:23

wasn't traditionally I don't want to say okay that sounds a little bit [ __ ] you might have to like change that part because I don't want to sound like I'm [ __ ] on like traditional looks but when I'm doing my ex thing when I first started the influencer thing at 16 a lot of the girls that I was friends with they blew up on social naturally be they their career came so much easier and I'm I'm so they have like they're so skilled in what they do a lot of them have

01:01:55 - 01:02:54

created incredible business es but I didn't look like them I wasn't the specific look back then and now that goes really well on social media I couldn't just get on a online and just like lip syn a sound and it pop off that's just not how it was so I actually had to use like my and I'm not to say that they don't use their brains they absolutely do but it was something that I just couldn't naturally get I couldn't get a photo in a bikini or like in a clothing in a piece of clothing and it

01:02:25 - 01:03:31

just go viral like they could and the mental toll that took on me was just like so difficult I couldn't I started thinking about everything that was like wrong for me and now that I think about it the universe did me a favor and was like Lex you're not just going to pop off on Instagram and Tik Tok because of your looks you're going to have to think harder than that and I turned an influencer career into something that was almost like scalable without me that created that created cre I guess a space

01:02:58 - 01:03:57

for women that don't necessarily look a certain way to create content to get involved in social media in smarter ways that aren't just your looks and I think I want to carry that through my agency and continue that onto other brands as well because I think that speaks volumes to what I guess I'm trying to do and what I naturally had to do and so I guess like how I want to be remembered is like the girl that like tried to kind of do the influencer thing but it took her down a whole another path that led

01:03:28 - 01:04:22

me to where I am and where we will be in the future which is taking brands from zero nothing to launching and scaling and creating a team for themselves was that a longwinded answer that's really beautiful no I love that answer and I think when I do my ex yeah no I think that's great cuz it it it it shines a light on like you know this stuff isn't easy man like it's not producing content it's it's it's a marathon and it's there's days of doubt and days of like

01:03:55 - 01:04:44

comparison and it and you know we're in an industry where it's competitive and I but I don't I just think people listen to the your podcast and like other people's business podcast cuz it's not it's like a comfort thing like we it's such a it's such a lonely process and at the end of the day like I I could podcast and things like what you're doing like have made I mean this is like the 90-day brand plan like that literally pretty much fit fits straight into what I guess I'm doing as well and

01:04:20 - 01:05:05

I'm probably going to need to recommend this to everyone I should actually every time a client comes on a launch package give them your book yeah we'll get you a pile of book like I actually like don't know how I haven't thought about that yeah but the the story you just shared just now like super relatable and you know I imagine there's tons of people out there listening right now that's like okay cool like you know I'm not alone other people are going through the same kind of you know yeah growth curve

01:04:42 - 01:05:35

that I have to go through and I think yeah social media is in a place now where it's I don't think it's about looks as much anymore I think I think it's getting very diverse in the sense of like the type of content and the way people are approaching things but I love it so much yeah I think there's so much room for everyone now like no matter what you're bringing to the table we have people that come over you come up to me now we do these workshops and we I've met so many I guess like clients

01:05:08 - 01:06:09

but just like people in our Network that are that have such like Niche Industries we had a girl come to our Workshop that plays in the Greece Musical and I was like oh my God day in the life's doing your makeup full Greece people want to see that stuff like people that are like ballet dancers dentists like like that like that to me is so like there's room for everyone now and I think like if you told me that when I was like putting so much pressure at 16 all the way to 20 just stressing so much about like what I

01:05:39 - 01:06:37

look like to make sure that I like hit that beauty standard that did well on social like I think as I said before the universe like knew that that wasn't for me and I'm so glad that it didn't I didn't just blow up and like get 600,000 followers or whatever from that because I wouldn't have started my company where where it is now was I so jealous of all the girls that just blew up overnight and like their videos were getting 220,000 views or whatever and mine just wasn't and I didn't understand why that

01:06:08 - 01:07:00

was it's actually because like I maybe was meant to do something more like this and be on the brand side and be on the influence of like the strategy side rather than the model side like that's just like how it was and now I've created something that almost like I've created a business of thing so that I can go to work and just do things I want to do yeah um yeah well Lexi you're absolutely crushing it you're you know an inspiration and I think you know how fast and rapidly you've scaled this and

01:06:35 - 01:06:54

how much you're helping people and how wildly creative you are is inspiring and we'll certainly have to get you back thank you D that was so lovely thank you so much that was so much fun that went so quick