A few weeks ago I got lucky and was given a free ticket to attend the 1st ever Mama’s Making it Summit. Thank you, My Domain! Here’s a recap of what went down, lessons learned and why I’m taking a break from colour pop lipsticks.
This is irrelevant, but I stood inches away from Jamie King and her skin was flawless. She was seriously glowing from the inside the way only the nicest, sweetest of humans can. Swoon.
There were several booths there sharing their products. Spiritual Gangster was dolling out custom embroidered millennial pink hats. (pssttt… if you like millennial pink as much as I do check this out!) I got a hat that that says ‘bethanimal’, but my favorite thing about the booth is that sign on the right. All the mama’s I met at the summit + the speakers are the most gangster women in LA.
Above is Natalie, moderator and founder of Fashion Mama’s speaking to Simone LeBlanc CEO of Simone LeBlanc, Ashleigh Dempster co-founder of Akid and Tylynn Nguyen designer at TyLynn Nguyen. All three women started their own companies because they saw a gap in the marketplace that needed to be filled. Ashleigh resonated with me the most because she started a kid’s shoe line after having a son a deciding that kid’s shoes were not that cute. Her husband is a sneaker head and luckily has some experience with factories so he set her up 3 years ago and she launched the business that sells kids shoes that look like they could be in Vogue.
Lunch is served. Can i be honest? This was my favorite part. I was so hungry after running out of the house without breakfast!
Okay, so even though I have never watched the Bachelorette, Ali Fedotowski was seriously cool. Like, I was attracted to her. She had such a good attitude and was really honest about monetizing her blog. Key lessons learned during this panel were primarily from her (probably because she is also a blogger) and they were:
- Spend money on photos. She says she spends loads of money on her photos and she had recently shot 14 looks in one day changing in her car between shots.
- Save money on clothes. She told us all that she returns most of what she buys and Nordstrom is her favorite place to shop.
- Use rewardstyle for everything. She’s a top 25 publisher, so a bit of an outlier, but she only works with brands that are on reward style. This was if they don’t pay her a lot for the sponsored post she still makes commission.
- Don’t devalue yourself. She calls it blogger devaluation when you accept an unpaid or in-kind job and it’s bad for you and the whole blogger ecosystem.
- On that note, never give your rate first. Always ask the brand’s budget. This is a sales tactic I think many of us use, but when it comes to selling yourself, it can be difficult especially when it’s a brand we adore. I used to have creators taking product from luxury brands for exposure when they could have asked for thousands of dollars and got it.
Note, Ali mentioned that she asks other bloggers what they make to get a feel for the landscape. I’m not sure how accurate that will be or how much it will help of bloggers you know are devaluing themselves, but I had my partners use social blue book when I was a Partner Manager for fashion and beauty creators at YouTube. I also just heard about Dash Hudson which will tell brands which influencers will make them the most money. Could be a great resource to know your theoretical value to a brand.
My Domain was there taking headshots so I hopped on over to their not-suprisingly stylish set to have a professional photog capture my mug. When I showed up the photographer kindly let me know I had lipstick on my teeth. Yikes, I had JUST checked my teeth in the bathroom mirror because well, I often have lipstick / leafy greens all up on my grill. I was embarrassed so I gave them my smile of shame. Of course, I don’t like the picture, but there you have it internet.
Wearing color pop chandelier on my lips. I actually lost my tube that day and it was new. Luckily they’re only $6 and there’s one in my cart right now! Any other colors I should get?
All photos by @howlandrose courtesy of @fashionmamas
