Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kiah Sweeney. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kiah, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

In Influencer Marketing, most brands and influencer marketing reps go after the influencers with the highest following or *biggest celebrity name*, to showcase their products or services, resulting in unsuccessful deals and a lot of wasted money.

How I approach Influencer Marketing:

I’m not choosing influencers based on size and engagement, although those are important factors; I seek individuals with true influence. I want people who are not afraid to reveal their true selves, act how they want to, and be original thought leaders and content creators. I find it’s the people that aren’t afraid to hop on their social media platforms, take the camera and talk to their fans, that genuinely connect and engage with their audience and have built a sense of community with their followers because they have that like, know, trust factor, that can successfully promote the brand’s products/services.

It’s all about quality for me too. I’m not in the game of finding AS MANY influencers as possible for a brand to have a certain # of outreach like some agencies or reps do. At the end of the day, those reps reaching out to ALL of the influencers are finding creators that don’t align with the brand but are filling their overall quota instead. My team and I are finding influencers who are the ideal customer of the brand and resonate with the brand, so they can 100% back what they are promoting. It truly is QUALITY over QUANTITY with me.

Once I’ve found that ideal customer/influencer, my goal is ALWAYS to build a strong long-term relationship with them. I strive to make the influencer see how much the brand cares about them and give off that personable vibe to ensure that they want to continue working together for months/years to come.

So many of the influencers under my roster have told me how close they feel to the brand because of how welcoming I’ve made them feel. They share fun anecdotes with me, and we’ve built true partnerships that I can count on. The best part is, that when I’ve built such strong relationships with so many of them for one brand, and if they’ve performed well for that brand, I’m able to work on more and more deals with them in the future for other brands because I fully believe in their ability to have true influence.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Ohhhhh hey there! My name is Kiah (like the car w/ an H)!

I am the CEO and Founder of You’re So Write, and an Influencer Marketing Expert.

I have had the pleasure of mentoring many businesses and generating over $5,000,000 in sales for them, by implementing my influencer marketing and social media strategies into their brands.

How it all began?

I was tired of being dismissed by “peers” in my normal day-to-day office jobs and wanted to go out and start something of my own. Something I could be proud of. Something where my worth would be appreciated and accounted for….

To make a long story short, after freelancing on the side of working a full-time job for years, I finally decided to turn my dream of being an entrepreneur, into a reality. Yo girl started her own company, can I get a woot!!

And over the last few years, I’ve really had the opportunity to dive into, and fine-tune my most sought-after skillsets.

Since starting my own business, I’ve been fortunate enough to help my clients with a myriad of projects: sales pages, graphic design, course launches, social media marketing management, and of course Influencer Marketing.

Influencer Marketing has been a HUGE part of my life for the last 8+ years, be that training other brands and individuals, conceptualizing deals from start to finish, conducting negotiations, and overall, delivering the desired results brands want.

My goal is and always will be to improve the brands I work with by investing in superior relationships with high-quality content creators and influencers. I want to bring valuable deals and inspiring imagery to their brands while driving a significant increase in ROI. That way they can get back to what they truly care about, their businesses.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

It was 2020, and I had been working at my longtime corporate job as an Influencer Marketing, Content Marketing, and Wholesale Marketing manager for 5 years at this point. In the midst of working at this job, I had done some freelance work here and there to network and make connections, as well as gain some extra money, but I always came back to this job.

I had become known amongst friends, family, and co-workers for being something of a wordsmith, so I decided to start a small caption + hashtag writing business of my very own. I named it You’re So Write (a play on words, of course). I was beyond excited; helping friends, Fiverr clients, and anyone and everyone who came my way.

Then Corona-Crisis happened, and I was temporarily furloughed from my 9 to 5 job. I think my manager was more broken up about it than I was, to be honest. I had gotten to a point where I was fed up with being dismissed by my colleagues, passed up for promotions I was promised, and just dreaded going to work every day (being stuck in 1.5 – 2 hours of LA traffic both ways will do that to you). So when I heard this news, I was scared but also excited to finally have some time off from the company.

A week later, my husband and I found out we were pregnant with our first child. We were equally excited, and worried as now one of our income streams no longer existed. Something you should know about me is that I love to work hard….so when I saw the worried look on my husband’s face, I said: “Don’t worry, I got this. I’ll start my own business.” He wasn’t convinced, lol, but that’s ok, I had something to prove to not only him, or myself, but to the company who had just furloughed me as well.

I knew I couldn’t just do captions + hashtags forever, I wanted to use all of my skillsets to really build a business for myself. So I did my research and decided to shift my work sights onto being a VA (virtual assistant). I was mentored by the wonderful Sara Wiles, and began growing my VA business within a few months. The company ended up bringing me back after a few months, so I was once again freelancing on the side of my day job, but this time, I was determined to make this my full-time gig.

Fast forward a year later, just finished maternity leave, still working at the company while also having my VA clients, and slowly dying inside from having to juggle chasing a kid around and a MOUND of work every day from both jobs. It wasn’t until an ex-co-worker and true friend of mine got me in contact with a brand that needed Influencer Marketing help. Within one month, the brand and I had built up such a great relationship that they asked me to also work on their social media. THIS.WAS.IT. With that little addition in deliverables from the brand, I was able to quit my 9 to 5 and make my business, You’re So Write, my full-time job!!

Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with several brands in many different verticals and share my expertise and knowledge with their teams. I’ve gained beautiful emailships with amazing influencers, and my business + my team and I are thriving. I’m so grateful that my side hustle turned full-time business has allowed me to transition over the last few years into something and someone I really believe in, and I can’t wait to see how we continue to grow.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I think this question is so important, and I am here for it!

My advice for managing a team and maintaining high morale is to treat everyone with respect and of course as human beings. I know that sounds silly, but I’ve been on the receiving end of some not-so-nice clients who treated me as if I were beneath them or belittled me. I have NEVER wanted my team(s) to feel that way.

You have to be there for them, always. If they have questions and need guidance, be there. If they need support, be there. If they need recognition, provide it. I’m not saying micro-manage your team, or even be their best friend, but just notice things (the little things) that go into making your business run. I promise you, they’ll appreciate it more than you know.

I personally love when my team members asks questions. Why? Because, that shows me they care. They don’t want to just do the work, submit it, and then have to redo it a thousand times because they didn’t feel comfortable enough to come ask me questions. I want them to feel as though they’re an extension of me, because they ultimately are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.youresowrite.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youresowrite/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiahsweeney/
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/youresowrite/