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  • I could be snarky and say look for global brands but I'm not going to do that because, it is really hard because marketing budgets are split up by country. If I'm a US marketing person and I've got $40,000 to spend on influencer campaign and you got half your audience in Italy, the fuck, I don't even like the dude who works in Italy. I hate that guy, I'm not helping him.

    I want to work with people that are just in the US because that's the only way-- That's how my numbers are reported. I'd say global audience marketing teams do have global marketing teams so, in a global organization there is generally a global marketing team that sets the vision for what all the local communities and local targets are going to do. I would think that you need to find those global brands and then find those global marketing teams. If those global marketing teams are working on influencer initiatives, they will want those initiatives to tee up what they're doing across all their local categories.

    You see like Gary Pepper Vintage, right? Gary Pepper Girl. She has an audience that is split between everywhere. She essentially like doesn't have a home but she's got the big Australian audience. She's got a big US audience. She's got a big European audience. She's spread out everywhere and she does a lot of these big global pushes for Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Dior et cetera. She is a rare bird.

    Obviously, very good with her job. All of us would emulate to be able to do what she does, but I would follow some of those girls, follow some of the big influencers who have a big global audience, see who they're working with and even if your micro influencer, reach out to those brands. Try and find the global marketing person and pitch yourself. Talk about your audience and why it's interesting and why they should pay attention to you.

    The other thing just-- I think we've mentioned this before but I don't mind repeating myself. If it were me and I was an influencer, was 50/50. I was half let's say Italy, half US, I would for brands that were specifically looking to work in a specific country, I would give a discount and I would get ahead of their problem. I would say, "Hey, look, I know my audience is half and in Italy and I think that that is valuable to you regardless but I understand that you control the US budget and so that you want that budget to go to speaking to US consumers. I'm willing to come down on my rate and cut it in half to show you my value.

    I hope that after that, we can we can move back to my normal rate but I just want to show you what I can do and so I'll cut my rate in half." That's what I would do. It's always nice to get in front of people's objections. We do that all the time in pictures. We think about what is this brand not going to feel comfortable with, what are their questions going to be. What are their concerns and we are open and honest about those and address them upfront and provide the solutions. Then you're just controlling the conversation. You don't have to have somebody come to you and say. " Oh, we love your content but sadly because you have 50% of your audience outside of the US, we can't work with you." Then you come back and say, "Well, I'll cut my rate in half and now, you’re reactive. You are not being proactive. They’ve already made the decision. They’ve already said no to you in a conference room and they want to work with someone else, and so you’re done. You can’t win that, but come to them before, and say, “Hey, I know this to be true. I am giving you a deal. Let’s make this happen. I am going to do this post with you. You are going to fucking love it.

    You’re going to pay me my full rate moving forward and you’re going to realize that, that Italian audience is just as valuable to you as the US audience. Let’s make some money. Let’s do it. They are going to be excited. You’re going to email me and you’re going to say, “James, your advice literally changed my life. Thank you so much," and I’ll say, “Yeah, it’s just what I do."

    Tim: How often should you be-- I don't know how you find out who’s a brand’s audience is, but is there a way, one, that you can maybe find out who the brand’s audience are, and then two, should you market yourself, because you could speak to the same audience?

    James: There's a decent amount of information about brands on the Internet. Especially, if they're a public company, you can learn essentially anything about them. We have impeaches all the time, we've gone into annual reports for companies and we've looked at their marketing budgets and we've looked at what their CMO wrote about what their goals are. It’s definitely smart to come to the table with knowledge and be able to say, “Huh! It's interesting that you say that you're only focused in the US, because I just read an interview with your CMO last week that said you are making a big push globally.

    Now what the fuck, what they are they going to say? Educate yourself. It's not enough to just be able to take a nice photo of your matcha. The thing that we've been talking about and I think that we're going to continue to talk about over the next six to 12 months is, the soulful swing to professionalism, to higher level of professionalism in the influencer space. That does not just mean answering your emails on time, and doing what you say you're going to do. It also means educating yourself and treating the business side of this more like a job as well, and coming to those meetings with an understanding of who you're meeting with, what their goals are, what their problems are.

    So, you can position yourself as the solution to those problems. That's what every salesperson does. That's what every good marketer does. You got to do your research. So, yes, it definitely makes sense to learn a little bit about the brand and where their audiences and what their goals are. Did they just open a store somewhere? We get Women's Wear Daily, Adweek, Ad Age all those.
    I read an article on Women's Wear about a beauty brand making a push to digital. We send them an email today, “Hey, I saw you in Women’s Wear. Saw you're making the push to digital. We've helped your 50 competitors do this, if you want to jump on board”. It's easy. Read for 15 minutes a day, you'll know a lot more about the space.
    Episode #104
    - IGTV, Reaching Global Audiences, Declining Offers Gracefully