IAM416 – Founder of Influencer Marketing Agency Tells Brands’ Stories Online

Danica is the CEO and founder of Everywhere Agency – perhaps the leading influencer marketing agency in the country. Her agency works with some of America's most beloved brands, matching them with influencers to tell their stories online. Before launching Everywhere, Danica was a well-known media executive and television producer. She worked on such acclaimed shows as Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live. Danica is one of the founders of the Influencer Marketing Association, a non-profit devoted to keeping the “human” in influencer marketing.

• CEO Hack: (1) End my day with meditation (2) Book – Hyper-effectiveness
• CEO Nugget: Understand your risk tolerance levels
• CEO Defined: Being an inspirational leader

Website: http://www.everywhereagency.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danica.kombol
Twitter: https://twitter.com/danicakombol
Instagram: http://instagram.com/danicakombol
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/everywhereatlanta

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello hello this is Gresham from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today Danica Kombol of the Everywhere Agency Danica it's awesome to have you on the show.

Danica Kombol 0:40

Awesome Gresh, How are you doing?

Gresham Harkless 0:41

I'm doing pretty good and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Danica so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Danica is the CEO and founder of Everywhere Agency perhaps the leading influencer marketing agency in the country.

Her agency works with some of America's most beloved brands, matching them with influencers to tell their stories online. Before launching Everywhere Agency, Danica was a well-known media executive and television producer, she worked on such claim shows as Sesame Street, Saturday, and Saturday Night Live.

Danica is one of the founders of the Influencer Marketing Association, a nonprofit devoted to keeping the human and influencer marketing Danica, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Danica Kombol 1:22

I sure am. I love talking to other CEOs.

Gresham Harkless 1:23

Awesome. So let's do it. So they kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story, what led you to get started with your business?

Danica Kombol 1:30

Okay, so I'm just really honest, my CEO story is one which kind of started with not the most ideal circumstances which is getting laid off and the height of the financial crisis. So it's 2008 2009, I get laid off, I'm working for a big PR firm who's gonna hire me. So I would honestly say that starting an agency for me, I don't want to call it a desperation move.

But it was really the only way I could see to support my family. So this was also around the time that Obama got elected. And when I was at the big PR firm, one of the things that I heard everybody say was, I want that thing. I want that social media thing. I want that thing that God Obama elected.

And I looked around at all these big global PR firms, and I knew they were illiquid. So when I originally launched, I launched as a social media agency, only because the phrase influencer marketing didn't exist. But from the beginning, our sweet spot really was working with bloggers, and finding bloggers to tell the stories of brands.

So that's kind of my founder story. I could pretend like I had some brilliant visions. But the truth was, they always say necessity is the motherhood of invention. And it was a necessity, with no regrets, the best thing that ever happened to me. But that's my story.

Gresham Harkless 2:47

Yeah, necessity was the case for me as well, as I too, had been laid off. And I got laid off. And that's why I started a couple of the things that I've done as well. So I know that can be a frustrating time. But it's great to hear that you not only build something but are at the forefront of what is now influencer marketing. So I wanted to drill down a little bit.

Danica Kombol 3:02

One other thing, if you don't mind, my saying is that I am an entrepreneur at heart. My parents were entrepreneurs. So I've always kind of bucked the system. So for me, the freedom of running my own business was both exhilarating and terrifying. But the exhilarating outweighed the terrifying.

Gresham Harkless 3:21

Exactly, yeah. But to be able to keep that balance. And I know you touched on a little bit, and I touched on it when I was reading your bio, can you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing to support the clients you're working with?

Danica Kombol 3:30

Absolutely. So everywhere agency, we've been around 10 years, and we do influencer marketing all day, every day, twice on Sunday. So when I say influencer marketing, we're really out there trying to find those influential people who are real people, not necessarily celebrity influencers, but everyday real people who tell the story of brands.

So we work with Fortune 500 companies, we work with some of America's most beloved brands. And I guess you could say we're the match.com between brand and influencer.

So what we love to do is to find a brand story, a brand product that an influencer can actually talk about, they might talk about it on their blog, they might talk about it on their Instagram, they might talk about it on Facebook, they might pin things about this brand, but they really further the brand's message in a natural, organic way.

Gresham Harkless 4:25

Nice, that makes perfect sense. And kind of the word that comes to my mind is the idea of alignment. It's not kind of sound like whoever is that influencer also is so in alignment with exactly what that brand stands for that it ends up being a happy marriage if we're going to use the match analogy.

Danica Kombol 4:39

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we always consider ourselves successful if we find an influencer who already loves the brand and would naturally talk about the brand. Now of course the world of influencer marketing today is one where we do compensate influencers for telling stories about brands, but again, we're really trying to find that influencer who truly has a love for the product.

So it's totally natural to their channels for them to be talking about it. Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things that really helps influencers connect with their audience, so to speak is definitely having that authenticity and that alignment and that connection. And when something is off, sometimes you can get called out on it by your followers around you. So, yeah, that makes perfect sense.

Gresham Harkless 5:21

So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for you or your organization. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Danica Kombol 5:29

Oh, my goodness, there are so many spices in my secret sauce. But there's no real secret. So first off, we are really committed to the human-centric approach to influencer marketing. Yes, it plays out in big technology. And yes, we use a tremendous amount of technology to measure our results.

But at the end of the day, you're talking about working with human beings. So we really try to keep that human-centric approach to influencers. So there's somebody on my team right now, that's having a direct conversation with an influencer, about a campaign. So that's one thing human-centric.

Another spice that goes into my ingredients is relationships are everything. So we've got great relationships with influencers, but we also really focus on our relationships with our clients. You know, we're there to fulfill a need for our clients. So every one of my team members really spent that time to get to know what the problem they're trying to solve is.

It's really easy when you start to excel at something to immediately want to slap your solution on something. But maybe that solution isn't exactly right. So really take the time to get to know that client, and understand what problems the client trying to solve. So those are two of the spices that go into my secret sauce, I could probably give you a few more, but we'll just leave it at that.

Gresham Harkless 6:48

Exactly, no, I love those. And I love it because a lot of that aligns with everything that you guys kind of stand for, and what you're even talking to the brands that you're working with. And I usually always say that a lot of times, when you peel back the onion of a business, sometimes you forget that it is made up of people, these relationships, these connections, it's all human interaction.

So to be able to kind of dial into that, from a business standpoint, so to speak, is really something that's phenomenal. And I think are two phenomenal spices as well.

Danica Kombol 7:13

Yeah. And the truth is, at the end of the day, people do business with people. Yes. And so, you know, influencer marketing is human-centric. And then our clients are people too. So how can we support them? How can we solve a problem, and again, identify that problem and make sure that we can prove success?

One of the misconceptions about influencer marketing is that it's not measurable. And to that, I say, not true, it is inherently measurable, because we've got all the data sets that we can pull from social media, and you can really go all the way down the sales funnel, and see how the influencer either impacted a sale, drove awareness, drove attendance, drove, hits to a site, whatever it is, but we can really prove that.

So to me, it's both the human-centric and the data-centric that I really love.

Gresham Harkless 8:07

Yeah.

Danica Kombol 8:07

Our industry is very much so right brain, left brain, you know, very human-centric, very data-centric. And I think maybe there are other CEOs out there who know that your brain kind of works that way too.

Gresham Harkless 8:20

Right.

Danica Kombol 8:20

So for me, it just, it's just constantly stimulating both sides of my brain.

Gresham Harkless 8:24

Yeah. And it's hard to kind of have one without the other. If you really think about it, a lot of times when we make decisions, we're making it because of human connection and relationships. But at the same time to be able to kind of leverage and understand that data and to be able to track that data allows you to make really educated selections when you're thinking about your resources and where you're spending time and that are spending money or, and so on and so forth.

So I appreciate you guys for being able to get to create that balance, and of course, execute on that balance as well. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack, this could be an app a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Danica Kombol 9:02

Oh, that's a good one. I'm actually going to pull a book I have right here. I keep it by my desk just to remind me.

Gresham Harkless 9:09

Hyperfocus.

Danica Kombol 9:10

This book is called Hyperfocus. So I've read this last year is written by Chris Bailey. This book has been a game-changer for me. So I work in influencer marketing, and I work in social media. I'm the CEO right now my email was pinging my Slack and I'm jumping up and down. And I really there's something about the business that I'm in that whether or not you add, you'll become add just because you work in this business.

I really had to retrain my brain to focus on all the distractions and kind of understand how distractions get in the way of being effective and productive. So this book really helped me understand those little things that you jump on like the email. And might prevent you from doing something that's a vital big-picture thing.

So I keep it just by my desk. And sometimes when I feel myself darting all over the place, I just open any place in the book, I read a stat. I'm like, Oh, that's right. Every time your attention shifts, it takes a full 20 minutes to get back on track. That's why it's taken me two weeks to write the 600-word, Forbes piece that is due.

So that helps me. I also meditate. I meditate every day. I don't start my day with meditation, I end my day with meditation. And I start every day really stating an intent for my day. And it's typically not a big intent. It's a small intent. And the intent might be I really want to focus on touching base with my team today. And if I stay that intense, and it just reminds me to wander around the office, say hello to everybody.

Gresham Harkless 11:02

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I think one of the things that we sometimes forget is that a lot of these apps and these social media sites so on and so forth, are kind of built in developed in order to distract us. So sometimes it's not just us at we're at, you know, the liberty of them is because, from a psychological standpoint, they know exactly how to make sure they get your attention.

So it's, it's something that we have to remind ourselves of a lot of times and, and to work on. So I appreciate you for sharing that with us. And also, the book, of course, and then of course, actually a way to do it as far as meditating. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO, nugget, and this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Danica Kombol 11:41

Oh, having a time machine? Um, can I swear?

Gresham Harkless 11:44

Yes, you can go for it.

Danica Kombol 11:46

Okay, chill the fuck out. It, I would tell my younger self, you don't sweat the small stuff, eyes on the prize. Those are probably the things I would tell my younger self. I really am in admiration of other CEOs and entrepreneurs. So I'm not sure I necessarily have advice for them. As much as I do have advice for people who think they want to become an entrepreneurial CEO.

And that advice is to really ask yourself if you're willing to be chief cook and bottle washer because there's this kind of dream of what the entrepreneurial life looks like. But at the end of the day, the buck stops right here. And so you are both the visionary for the company. But you're also chief cook and bottle washer.

And the other thing I always advise wannabe entrepreneurs is to do a deep dive into your risk tolerance. Because I'm not going to tell you what type of risk tolerance you need to have. But understand where your risk tolerance lies, so to speak. Because as an entrepreneur, there are some things that aren't guaranteed.

And one of those things is the paycheck. So you really got to understand what is my risk tolerance for waiting out the paycheck, for example? Or what is my risk tolerance for going into debt? Or what is my risk tolerance for not knowing where my next meal is going to come from? What is my risk tolerance should the economy collapse?

So if you kind of explore those things ahead of time, as things kind of hit you, you can say, Oh, I've got a risk tolerance for that. Just like a surfer knows what kind of way they can ride. An entrepreneur needs to know what kind of risky way they can, they can ride. There are some areas where I'm incredibly risky and others where I'm quite conservative. So.

Gresham Harkless 13:47

Yeah, I think a lot of times when you know, like you spoke to like the entrepreneurial CEO, especially if we see certain things on social media, or might be on TV or whatever. And we see somebody's you know, our chapter 24, or close to their end chapter, rather than see the beginning of what it took for them to get there.

And I think a lot of times, there's that information that's going out, that's not necessarily realistic. So you do have to kind of go through some of those things and experience and go after some of that risk. In order to be where you want to be, you have to understand that's something that you want to do.

So I appreciate you for shedding light on that. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And you kind of touched on this a little bit. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Danica, what does being a CEO mean?

Danica Kombol 14:29

For me being a CEO really means being an inspirational leader, I am only as good as my team. So, I really take stock of the fact that I need to set the vision I need to set the mission. And I have got to be an amazingly good listener to see where my team is, in terms of joining me in this journey.

Gresham Harkless 14:57

Absolutely what they say success is a team sport. So a lot of times you have to have those people in place in order to do that and to reach that success. So I appreciate that. That definition and I appreciate your time even more Danica, what I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know.

And then of course, how best they can get a home view and find out about all the awesome things you guys are doing.

Danica Kombol 15:18

Anything else you need to know? Yes, this is red wallpaper. And I love it.

Gresham Harkless 15:25

I didn't know if it was a green screen. So yeah, awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And people that want to reach out to you what what's the best way for them to do that?

Danica Kombol 15:36

Well, I'm everywhere. So everywhere agency.com and on Twitter. You can find me at Danika Campbell I have a difficult name to spell. But it's DANICA KOMBOL. And yes, I'm still on Twitter. Despite the fact that we've got some kind of crazy shenanigans happening right now with the White House and Twitter rants, I'm still there.

Gresham Harkless 16:02

Yes, I'm still there too. I enjoy Twitter as much as I guess other people do. When things are happening, Danica, I appreciate you and anybody who wants to make sure they spell your name correctly. You can also check in the show notes. We'll have a link as well but appreciate you appreciate all the awesome things you're doing and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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