A few weeks ago, I announced my collaboration with mega-influencer The Female Hustlers. In case you're not familiar with them, The Female Hustlers is an online support community focusing on women empowerment. They call themselves "a new breed of disruptors", and quite rightly so if you ask me. This community of dreamers, makers, and action takers has now grown to 3.9 million on Instagram. And clearly, they're showing no signs of slowing down with the release of their flagship product The Masterclass Membership. It's a one-of-a-kind online course that's jam-packed with lessons and tips from industry experts and thought-leaders. Needless to say, I was so thrilled to be part of the project where I got to talk about my favorite subject, of course, sustainable fashion businesses.
Since my announcement, I've been getting a lot of questions about Influencer Marketing. In this post, I want to share with you my experience working with The Female Hustlers and some of the lessons I learned along the way.
How we got together
They called me. Yes, that sounds convenient, right? Well, I want to start by setting the record straight: it's not about luck. I did a lot of PR work on my brand at the beginning of my career. I put in the effort to try to get my name out there, starting with local publications. I networked with the local press until I got one short article here, a mention there. I continued slowly but consistently until the national publications took notice. After some time, even the global publications started contacting me. It was a long process. It didn't happen overnight and it took a lot of patience. But I knew all that work was an investment. And it's certainly starting to pay off because that's how The Female Hustlers heard about me and my brand.
If you too are in the process of building your image, remember that if you do the work, it will be worth it. Inevitably, other brands and influencers will hear about your name too.
Before anything else, put it on paper
Collaboration is kind of like starting a relationship, a long one at that, hopefully. And just like any other relationship, you want to define your terms and expectations clearly and honestly. If you're working with a mega-influencer like The Female Hustlers, chances are they already have standard contracts in place. I was so happy that they did because it gave me more time to focus on putting together the fashion business course that I contributed to their Masterclass.
Now, contracts may seem a bit cumbersome but it is necessary for any collaboration. It protects both parties by stating exactly the work that you need to deliver (and when) and prevents misunderstandings or conflicts in the future. Fortunately for me, the contract process with The Female Hustlers was a breeze.
Now, if you don't have the legal expertise to understand these documents, I would advise getting professional legal counsel. The last thing you want to happen with your first big collaboration is to get stuck with a signed contract that you don't really like because you failed to understand the terms.
Seeing different perspectives
As I said, I was thrilled to bits that I was asked to be part of this Masterclass. But I must admit, I felt quite intimidated, at first. I mean, they're The Female Hustlers! This group of extraordinary women seems to know exactly where their brand stands. Their identity is so distinct and very well put together and they already have a huge following online. I was a little worried. I thought, if anybody was going to "give in", it would have to be me. How much of my brand standards will I have to sacrifice?
What I learned from working with them is that collaboration is about compromise, and that compromise is a good thing. Sometimes people have this misconception that compromise is restricting. On the contrary, I found it quite liberating. Working with The Female Hustlers was so fluid and eye-opening, it became a true learning experience for me. I learned a lot from seeing our two, different points of view coming together to achieve one objective. I learned that my way isn't the only way, that there can be other routes to get to the same destination. More importantly, I have come to understand that synchronising two different brands with different core values is not an impossible feat. You just need to open to different perspectives and see it from a growth mindset. You'd be surprised, you might discover something truly amazing.
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Pickleball outfit inspiration……