EP 12 Get To Know Sonia Elyss - Harley Interviews Your New Co-Host
Harley interviews Sonia, our new Co-Host of Brand Meet Creator. Get to know her past experience, a recent traumatic IG event and all about her first experience with Influencer Marketing way back in 2014.
Timestamps:
[1:41] How Sonia got started in entrepreneurship.
[4:09] Sonia's first influencer marketing campaign.
[5:36] That time Instagram shut down Sonia's account.
[8:34] What saved Sonia during the shutdown.
[9:54] What made Sonia niche down?
[12:07] A habit that Sonia adopted that has helped propel her forward.
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LINKS:
Find Harley:
IG: @theharleyjordan
Website: https://www.theharleyjordan.com/
Find Sonia:
IG: @Sonia.elyss
Website: https://www.soniaelyss.com/
Follow The Brand Meet Creator Podcast:
Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brand-meet-creator/id1609505183
00:00
If you're feeling sick and uninspired with your own social media content and results, you don't have to chug through alone and you also don't have to spend 1000s and 1000s of dollars on one on one coaching, DIY with me as your talking head guide. Whether you need a boost reining in your niche and content pillars, your bio ruling those analytics Yes, you need to be looking at your analytics regularly. Or you want to jump into pitching and pricing with the templates and know how to navigate leveraging brand partnerships most profitably, take what you need. My shop of DIY mini courses has five different options to get you rolling at your own pace, head to the link in the show notes or my Instagram V Harley Jordan to learn more welcome to brand meet Creator Podcast with me Harley Jordan and Sonia Elise,
0:50
a place where we pull back the curtain and the trashy filters on the influencer marketing industry. So pull up a chair and grab a notebook, it's time to shed some light on the ever changing it's diverse.
1:08
This has been in the works for a while Sonia came on as a co host rotating to join in for a couple of episodes give us the brand side of all of this. And you know what? We just decided to make her a permanent co host. So today we are going to be interviewing my permanent co host, my girl, Sonia Elise. So, Sonia, we know that you are an OG in the marketing space, the internet cheerleader, if you will. So what were you doing pre entrepreneurship,
1:41
pre entrepreneurship, I was the head of digital at a PR agency here in Manhattan, I worked a lot in fashion influencers, brand collaborations and all sorts of fun stuff, lots of events. And then one day I was just too burnt out to do it anymore. As Harley knows the feeling. We're now culture is so real, especially when you live in New York, and especially especially when your specialty is fashion PR. So I was just over it, I couldn't do it anymore. And I said, this is not for me, I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Lemonade Stand kid, one of those people who would go door to door to sell things. And I just knew I wanted to give it a try. So I started consulting and pretty soon One thing led to another and I am actually celebrating five years of owning my own businesses. In just a few weeks, what made
2:38
you make that jump, you're burnt down. But was there a specific situation,
2:43
there was a specific situation and without going into too much detail, it was slightly political, my personal values no longer really aligned with the owner of the agency's personal values, and I just couldn't do it anymore. I felt like there wasn't enough interest in the future of digital or investment in the future of digital. And it's already really hard when you work in a company and you're bringing lots of ideas to the table. And clients don't always move forward with those ideas, right? We're like constantly feeling rejected, but it's okay. Because we get to be more creative, we keep going. But within your own company to be bringing ideas that could help be profitable to have like innovation and want to try new things and have a lot of resistance. That was really difficult for me. And I think that those two things like the personal values, no longer aligning, and the feeling like I wasn't getting the full creative control to push the company forward like I would have liked to. That was kind of the end for me.
3:46
You know, I feel that so much the like lack of validation in the creative space, because there's just so much flying around and what sticks just isn't necessarily what you always plan it to be. So I can see that industry in a spot where you're not the boss being so tough, so tough. Sure. So let's, let's jump around here. Tell us about your first influencer marketing campaign.
4:14
Oh my goodness. So as Harley knows, I've been in the game for a very long time. Before Some people even had their first cell phone I'm sure. And my first influencer marketing campaign was in 2014. I launched one of the very first brand product collaborations with an influencer.
4:34
You need to make sure on your feed.
4:36
I do. Okay, I will when this episode comes out, I will post this picture on the feed. And the only reason I have it was because I posted on Facebook at the time I was an Instagram member starting in 2011. But I don't think I posted this to my Instagram feed at the time, but it was a closing collaboration with Leandra Dean formerly of the Man Repeller which Talk about an introduction to influencer collaborations and influencer life was pretty major. And I learned so so much. And I actually made tons of friends with influencers that I'm still friends with today, some of the original people who were on blog spots and had, you know, email newsletters and traditional long format blogs, it was it was a wild time and influencer marketing for sure.
5:24
There's so much pivoted since then Oh, my goodness, the number of people that have blogs that have just turned that into Instagram that have, you know, totally different climate. So when I met you, Sonia, you had just gone through a pretty traumatizing IG event, you lost your account, Instagram shut you down, and you didn't cry about it. So tell us a story.
5:49
I didn't cry about it. I maybe shed a few tears. But, you know, as I mentioned, I started my Instagram account in 2011. So that's pretty early, I believe the app was even founded in 2008, or 2009. So that's a pretty early adoption. So I was one of those people who was sort of like, you know, I have weird followers from all over the map from past jobs from college acquaintances, like all over the place. And I knew the following wasn't exactly what I wanted. But that was fine. Because it was just Instagram. And I was having fun with it. And yes, I was using it for business. But it wasn't a major driver of traffic for me. So I was fine with kind of having a lower engagement and just having a lot of fun. And I used to have an auto responder to my DMs, where when I got a new follower, I would send them a personalized note, which I thought was really important to me, because I really base my services off of being personalized, custom handheld, I don't do a lot of things with templates, and I don't believe in them personally. So that was a big thing for me to greet people into the network. Well, that does require a third party app to make those DMS happen. And apparently, someone flagged that as spam. And Instagram decided to delete my account for not following the rules, which I think is crazy, considering some of the trash we see on Instagram, and some of the really great things people are able to comment and do.
7:21
You've heard that DM etiquette episode? Yes,
7:25
seriously. And I'm sure you have an example of a troll or something that you see and that you're like, I can't believe that this can exist on this platform. But it does. And you know, I was going through a time that was already kind of rough for me personally. And I think when I stepped back, and I looked at the grander scheme of things, I was just like, This is not worth it to me to try and like put up a fight to be really upset. I just started another account. And when I was ready, I started posting again. And sure enough, lots of people who were looking for me from my old account found me and lots of people who didn't, that was fine. And you know, that was late last year. Yeah, that was late last year. And we're almost back to our 1k Mark, which is fine. I you know, I lost about 3600 followers, and I'm almost at 1000. But honestly, I don't care it is what it is that are cultivating. Yeah, yeah, I'm happy cultivating the group that I have now. So it's been a fun experience to start again, and just look at it as a fun new challenge.
8:22
You know, for me, to be honest, because my business has grown so rapidly with Instagram exclusively. I really don't think I would have the means to pick back up and move on. Like nothing happened. Until recently, I wouldn't have been able to do that. What do you think your shining light was within that experience business wise,
8:41
business wise, it was definitely email and personal connection. I think I had a really strong personal connection through Instagram Stories, really, I had shared my divorce. I had shared buying an apartment in the city, I had shared a lot of personal milestones with people. And I think that resonated with them. They followed those stories with me whether we were personal in real life, friends or not. And so when they no longer were able to find my Instagram Stories, a lot of people DM me at the very beginning when they found my new account saying oh my gosh, like I would thought that she went missing. Like I didn't really understand what was happening. So to me, that was like a big personal triumph to be like, Oh, I've left a mark on people somehow that they finally realized that I wasn't around. So that was amazing. And then, you know, through my business, I had built up an email list that was about 900 people or so. And I was able to email, you know, an announcement and I was able to find the accounts and DM some people be like, Hey, I have a new account. But yeah, you know, it's been slow and steady growth and still to this day, you know, we're about maybe like five or six months in, people trickle in and I see that they follow me and they used to follow my old account and they say hey, so you just never know.
9:54
moving and grooving. So in my eyes you are the beauty girl. Bye I know that you've pivoted to this position yourself niched, down if you will, recently, too. So what what spurred this niching? Down moment?
10:11
Sure. So I think I've always worked with beauty clients from an early start about 10 years ago, I had beady clients. So it wasn't something that wasn't necessarily new to me. But when I did leave the agency world and start my own consulting business, my very first client was beauty. And then my very first big client where I was like, Holy crap, I'm having fraud syndrome right now, I can't believe I signed this client was in beauty and fragrance and that led to opening doors, a lot more clients that were haircare skincare, makeup, etc. Yet, for some reason, I felt a lot of hesitancy around branding myself as a beauty specialist when it came to marketing. And I think like many people do, that was around, not getting a workflow that I wanted to that was around excluding people, that might be an interesting thing for me. And you know, I think that niching down can be scary. And I hear that from so many people. And even when I give the advice to other people to niche down, I remember how difficult it was for me. But I just felt like you know, the writing's on the wall here. So in the like, the universe is telling you, you look back at five, almost five years of clients, 90% of them are beauty clients, a few outliers are in other industries. And you know, what, every time I went into those other industries, there were issues, payment issues, client issues, people who were ungrateful, and I was like, it's just so obvious to me that this is what I'm interested in. And the more that I lean into it, the more happy I find myself. So, gotta do I got to take that big step.
11:50
And it feels like a huge step, every time. It's seriously so hard to take yourself and all of your thoughts and feelings and passions and hopes and say, I am this one thing, I am a character in this story. So using that business, what is one habit that you've adopted in these five years of business growth that you think has really propelled you forward and entrepreneurship,
12:18
the one habit that I've really cultivated, and it really didn't happen until the last two years, I would say is that I don't work before 11am. And I know listeners are gonna hear that, and they're gonna be like, this girl, like, how does she pay any bills, but I'm telling you, it's possible. Setting that boundary was a huge step. For me, I have never been a morning person. As Harley knows, I'm messaging her on East Coast time at 9am. And it's 6am her time, and I'm like, how, how is this girl function. But I think learning about myself personally, and my work style, and when I'm going to be most effective and most creative, was the most important push forward. And knowing that if I forced myself to take a call with a client at 9am, I'm not giving my best work. I personally feel flustered, I don't feel awake, I'm not in the place where I'd like to be. So pushing that activity back to starting at 11am was a huge shift for me. And it seems so simple, but it wasn't at first, like I had to actually block it off of my calendar every single day to make it happen.
13:24
You have to know all of the corporate culture.
13:27
Absolutely. You know, and I am of an era that was prime girl boss prime, you know, hustle culture, you know, you rise and grind was like the motto of PR agencies everywhere in New York in those days. And, you know, everyone was like, your morning routine needs to be so on spot. And I do have a morning routine. It just doesn't start at 6am. Like my morning starts at 8am. And that's what I feel comfortable with. But, you know, that also takes a lot of getting used to for your team and other people who might be morning people. And you just talked about and you figure out, you know, where do you overlap? And how can you better set expectations so that they know if I email in the evening, they don't have to respond till their morning. And if they're emailing me at 6am, I'm not going to respond till later,
14:15
right? setting those expectations and figuring out what works best. I feel like the entrepreneur wall world is just full of like personality tests and fly by the moon and figure out what your soul desires and I honestly love it so much.
14:31
I know and don't become an entrepreneur, if you don't want to be like getting into like the woowoo factor of your life. Like it'd be so self aware to be a good entrepreneur and that'll happen to me when I hired a professional coach. Coach Karen, if you're listening thank you for changing my life.
14:50
I love the Whoo. So moving into our rapid fire round Sonia doesn't know the questions I'm going to ask her so we're gonna pull out a heavy hitter. What's your favorite food, something you could eat ever? every single day of your life,
15:02
peanut butter and jelly.
15:03
What's your favorite saying that you live by?
15:06
Oh no, it's supposed to be fast. My favorite Oh, okay, wait one really good one that I love is don't major in minor things.
15:17
If you were forced to relocate tomorrow, where would you live? Pennsylvania? Okay, literally my passes.
15:25
Well I have another house there. Okay, wait, wait wait if that wasn't it, where would I live Germany?
15:31
better answer. current favorite follow
15:35
who outside of Harley Jordan? I don't know. Shut your mouth. No. Okay. current favorite follow is Ashley from at restroom rituals. If you don't think that you're a beauty person. She will make you one because she has so much personality as he's just amazing. She's amazing. Restroom rituals must follow
15:58
strimmers rituals. I'm gonna look her up. What is an ad that took you to buy before you even followed recently?
16:05
Oh, I think something from our glass. They launched a what is our hourglass cosmetics? hourglass cosmetics launched a lip plumper recently, and they had such a good launch strategy and teaser and then the actual content that came out on the launch day was excellent. Bravo.
16:28
And final question to bring it home. What's the biggest lesson that you've learned in 2021
16:39
You are only responsible for the way that you react to things you'll never control the way that other people react to things
16:48
and that's our resident control freak people. There you have it. The Sonia dot Elise, thank you for sticking around. If you want to know more, make sure to come hang out with us on Instagram. We are always open to suggestions about what you'd like to talk about next.