Short and sweet, yes. If you're working on a project with someone, you should absolutely follow them. A lot of the people that work in influencers, and to all my friends out there watching who have followings of over, let's say 75, 50-75K, this is especially applicable. The people who are putting these programs together, love what they do. They love influencer marketing, and by proxy, they probably love influencers. So this is cool to be able to work with you all.

Following the people at the brands that you work with is such an easy way to make sure that you continue to get deals from them. If they reach out to you and you follow them, and they say, “Hey, how's it been going? I got a project I'd love to talk to you about.” You know that they just got a new puppy, then you're like, “Oh my gosh. I've been meaning to reach out. That new dog is so cute, like, let's get on the phone." That is so huge, and it's so easy, and it's right there. I recently had an experience where an influencer that we've worked with quite a few times. I went to DM them. I couldn't because they unfollowed me and I know, I had DM them before.

At some point, they followed me and then unfollowed me, which I don't really care. My first reaction though was what the fuck? I was, like, ‘What? You unfollowed me? Are you serious?” I get it. Your feeds get full. You don't want to follow everyone in the world. I totally understand it. Here's my hack for you guys. Okay. Follow every single brand person that you work with. Okay and then, when the project is done, mute their stories, mute their posts. They're no longer in your feed. Then, once a month, go to your settings in Instagram. Go to muted accounts. Go to every single one of those accounts, like some photos, comment on some photos.

If you have a phone call scheduled with that person, from that brand, go to your muted accounts, pull up their account. Look through their feed. Make sure when you get on that phone. you don't say, "What's been going on?" and they say, “I got married last week." You didn't know that, and now, you look like an asshole. So mute the account. Go to your settings. Go to muted accounts. Engage with the posts, once a month or so. Check those accounts before you reach out or before you talk to them but don't unfollow the brand people. It's just dumb. It's just dumb because it's just, like, I am like, I run this company that pays influencers millions and millions of dollars a year.

I fucking know you. I pay you money. You were following me. Now you unfollowed me. Well, now I'm petty. I'm unfollowing you, obviously. I mean I'm a normal person. I'm not just going to take that lying down. The mute button is transformative. Use it, people. It has changed my life. Mute away. I was just telling him, I might mute everyone and just have nothing on Instagram but have everyone still think I follow them. Go in once a month. Throw in some likes, peace. I'm out. That's my wisdom corner for the day.

How soon is too soon to follow someone? There is no too soon. If you find out, if you want to work with Chanel and you find out who their VP of PR is, follow. Start engaging. Yes. Is that transparent? Of course, it is but who cares. It shows that you want to work with them. It shows that you want to get to know the person. As we said, no matter how large the brand is, the decision comes down to a person or a group of people in a room of who that brand works with. If you can build a personal relationship with them on Instagram, your chances of getting it, your chances of being able to work with that brand on your feet are so much higher.

People are simple beasts. We just want to feel important. That's it. People really just want to feel like other people think that they're great. You guys have such a powerful tool especially if you have a big following because there's a little thrill that you get when some of the big following follows you. That is embarrassing in some ways but it is true. For all their friends would probably also follow you, when they see that you're commenting on their posts, they're going to feel so fucking cool.

They won't say this. They're not saying, "Oh my god. I feel so cool because Alisson City commented on my last post." Of course, they're not going to say that but this is how human psychology works. If on this brand person's feed, there's four big influencers that you know that all of their friends love, and they commented on that post, of course, everyone's going to look at it and be like, “Oh fuck. That's cool. She's got all those people commenting on her posts. What do I have? A mortgage? Yes?