• I do think I have touched on the Revolve issue before. Maybe not as a question, but I think I have mentioned it when I'm talking about diversity. I think Revolve misses the mark completely. I think that it is a huge missed opportunity for them to not include more diversity. The world is not made up of skinny blonde women. Revolve doesn't seem to totally understand that.

    I give Revolve a little more shit like, "Look, we sometimes struggle with our clients. We push diversity. Both the diversity of skin tone, body type, religion, location, age, all those things. Sometimes it is hard to get a client and to do those things. We have been guilty of running campaigns that don't have diversity as well, it's not a new thing." What I've been thinking about recently is something that came up in the conference was, I don't think diversity should be a box that gets checked off. I don't think you should say, "Do I have FTC compliance? Check. Do I have a tight brief that I feel like is going to reach our goals? Check. I'm I tracking this campaign? Check. Do I have diversity? Check."

    I think if you're thinking about it that way, and you're saying, "Diversity is a thing I need to do," then you shouldn't be the person coming up with the campaign. Diversity is a thing you should do, it is an opportunity. It is not something you have to do, it's not an obligation. It should be seen as an opportunity. There are a lot of amazing communities out there that you will never reach if you just work with skinny white girls with blonde hair. Brands that ignore that fact are doing themselves a big deservice. They're doing their bottom line a big disservice.

    The conversation-- This is not my idea but I heard someone say that they want to move away from inclusivity and inter-belonging and I like that terminology shift to say that we shouldn't talk about this as these people deserve a sear. You shouldn't talk about this like, "We need to give these people a seat at a table. We need to give them a seat at the table." It should be, "They deserve a seat at the table and you're crazy if they're not there." At the very highest level, the industry is run by all white men and as you go down, it is mostly run by younger white women.

    It is intimidating sometimes to try and market to a community that you don't understand, a community that you are not entrenched in. Especially on social, the little things, the way you talk about things, the language that you use, the wording that you use, the emojis that you use. All of those things can be specific to the niche community that you operate in. If somebody comes in and tries to speak to your community and does it in a way that is inauthentic or where it's clear they don't know what the fuck they're talking about, then it's painfully obvious.

    A lot of marketers, a lot of people in this position, they're not racists, they're not bigots, they don't want to not work with people they don't look like them. I think it is the fear of not understanding the community enough to be able to speak to it with authority and with confidence. I think they say, "I'm not going to be punished for not doing this, but I could be punished if I do it wrong." I think, unfortunately, the weight falls on the shoulders of influencers that are outside of the norm in the function and beauty space. It falls on you all to educate.

    We're trying to do the same thing, but I think that we need to change the conversation and talk about how exciting the opportunity is to work with people that look different than you, instead of, "I feel wrong because I'm not included in this." I'll [unintelligible 00:08:06] all of these by saying I'm a privileged white man who probably has no idea what they're talking about but it's a problem that we are trying to do whatever we can do to help.

    I know a lot of different people from a lot of different background watch this show. If what I've just said make sense, if you think I went off base in any way, whatever it is, drop me an email. This is a conversation and I think one that needs to be had. I'd love to hear thoughts from people that are in that community on how brands such as ourselves can help to change it.
    Episode #106
    - Influencer Diversity, Evolving Your Instagram, Affiliate Marketing