IAM540- Founder Educates Businesses to Embrace Digital Transformation

By pursuing her passions through her creativity and a digital-first mindset, Jenn Sherman founded The Influencer Collective – an agency that specializes in building the influence of thought leaders, executives, and small to mid-sized organizations through next generation digital marketing. Jenn’s bread and butter lies within the business-to-business, business-to-consumer, technology and non-for-profit space. She has led integrated marketing and digital media programs to help companies increase their overall bottom line.

The Influencer Collective was established in 2017 to pursue Jenn’s mission to educate businesses on how to embrace digital transformation and leverage social media to break through the noise and maximize their visibility online.

Jenn is the host of “A Dose of Your Future” – a podcast focused on creating a community of influencers who have a social impact driven mission to help fuel the global economy and to empower the next generation of our workforce.

• CEO Hack: Building relationships and being a giver
• CEO Nugget: Slow down, be kind and intentional
• CEO Defined: Trying to achieve something bigger than yourself

Website: https://www.influencercollectivedc.com/

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/influencercollectivedc/?_rdc=1&_rdr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/influencercollectivedc/?hl=en

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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 Gresh from I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jenn Sherman of the Influencer Collective.

Jenn, it is awesome to have you on the show.

Jenn Sherman 0:39

Awesome to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

Yeah, excited to have you on the show. What I want to do is read a little bit more about Jenn so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. By pursuing her passions through her creativity and a digital-first mindset, Jenn Sherman founded The Influencer Collective – an agency that specializes in building the influence of thought leaders, executives, and small to mid-sized organizations through next-generation digital marketing.

Jenn’s bread and butter lies within the business-to-business, business-to-consumer, technology, and not-for-profit space. She has led integrated marketing and digital media programs to help companies increase their overall bottom line. The Influencer Collective was established in 2017 to pursue Jenn’s mission to educate businesses on how to embrace digital transformation and leverage social media to break through the noise and maximize their visibility online.

Jenn is the host of “A Dose of Your Future” – a podcast focused on creating a community of influencers who have a social impact-driven mission to help fuel the global economy and empower the next generation of our workforce.

Jenn, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Jenn Sherman 1:42

Yeah, sure. Awesome. Thanks for that nice introduction.

Gresham Harkless 1:45

Yeah, thanks to you for doing all the awesome things. I wanted to kick it off by hearing your CEO story. How did you get started with all the awesome things you're working on?

Jenn Sherman 1:54

Sure, yeah. So I started The Influencer Collective about two and a half years ago, really, after seeing there were opportunities, particularly in the DMV for an agency, a boutique agency that specialises solely and social media. There are a lot of different types of innovative agencies in the DMV, but coming from that millennial mindset, that's where I saw the opportunity and working with some of these small and mid-sized organizations, you cannot necessarily afford a larger agency but still need that quality work and that personalized customized experience.

So we started two and a half years ago, started off thinking, let's try to do all the things right email marketing, websites, all that. About a year in, I was like, I think our bread and butter just lies in social media strategy and implementation. So that is our main focus, we do organic social media implementation, and paid campaigns. We create social media strategies for all of our clients before implementation.

Gresham Harkless 3:15

Nice, I appreciate that. I think one of the beauties of social media and being able to leverage that is you get that opportunity to have that direct consumer opportunity that sometimes you don't have on other platforms. It gets to the degree of you do as you do on social media.

But I also liked how you talked about transition, from the first year, it sounds like in the business of doing a lot of different things, you started to refine exactly what you want to do, the focus on what you probably do is best

Jenn Sherman 3:43

100%. I think with that said, as you're always starting, you're the guest man. So you just wanted to get that revenue in the door and make sure that you're able to pay your bills. So whatever that may look like, but then you're realising that these are the things that we are good at. Seeing that we could just learn how to do it, or let's focus on what we're good at, that's when we refined our scope of services in the past year and a half if you want.

Gresham Harkless 4:13

Yeah, absolutely. I think that it makes so much sense and that is the evolutionary process. I think sometimes when we think about success, we forget about the steps that it takes to be successful in it. One of those, as you talked about, it's kind of refunding exactly what we do, what our core competencies are, so I appreciate you for reminding us of that.

I know you talked a little bit about The Influencer Collective, could you take us through exactly how you work with clients also I wanted to hear more about your podcast and all the awesome things you're doing there.

Jenn Sherman 4:39

Sure so, again, we work with small and mid-sized organizations, and my company has a slew of different strategic partners. So if we have a project, you know, we will come in and maybe work on the social media side of things on a project but the overall scope of work could include more robust marketing service because if you will include PR, we'll just focus on social media.

Then we also have worked on a slew of events, looking back, and how you're running a million miles per hour all the time, it's business owner, and seeing like, oh, actually, we specialize in doing social media for events and building communities through some of this really specific topics for example, DevOps or voice and so a large part of our arm focuses on events.

Then we also do a lot of technology, we work with a lot of technology clients, whether they're in the startup phase, or they're rapidly growing, and more so trying to go public. So definitely a range of clients, it just depends on the relationships and needs. I think the biggest thing that we focus on is what differentiates ourselves: personalized experience. I mean I as the owner will be working on every single client, it's not like they just come in the door, and then I shepherd them off to someone else. So they're working directly with John Sherman throughout this whole process.

Gresham Harkless 6:15

Nice I appreciate that. A lot of times I always say, especially for founders, usually the organization and the business take on the beat of the founder, their morals, their values. I think as you said they have the opportunity to have an attraction and be attracted to the business and want to work with you and see all the awesome things you're doing and get that personalized.

I guess relationships as well help out a tonne.

Jenn Sherman 6:44

Exactly, exactly.

Gresham Harkless 6:46

Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Jenn Sherman 6:58

Yeah, so I think, frankly, the hack is building relationships. I think that one of the biggest things that we cannot take for granted is that we're living in an automated world all the time. There are all these automation tools that you can send out and are leveraged for the business, but I see the most success in building relationships with people and being a giver and a taker.

I know it's a large hack, but I think in general, just as we think about when you wake up every day how many touch points can you make with someone to provide value to them?

Gresham Harkless 7:47

Absolutely, I think that makes so much sense and it's something that's sometimes glossed over. We forget, in this, as you said, with all these automation tools, and you can do all these things, you can fix, you can set it up and forget it. We forget that relationship aspect and having value and giving a lot of times in a way that provides value for the person that just how we want to give as well.

Jenn Sherman 8:09

Precisely and with that said, I know that you mentioned in the last question, my podcast, and I do leverage my podcast to build relationships, right? I mean, I think that it's a great way to build a referral network. I always say this podcast has nothing to do with me, it has to do with the guests. So it doesn't have anything to do with me.

it's about telling their stories. So I think leveraging something outside of the core of your core business services, to continue to create your network and community is very beneficial.

Gresham Harkless 8:45

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you for bringing that forward because I think a lot of times we look at these things, especially when you buy these things, I mean platforms like blogs and podcasts and YouTube as a way to just talk about what it is that we do. But I think there is a great hack within that and being able to use it as a way to build relationships and give people an opportunity to talk about themselves and their businesses and the things that they do.

As you focus on people who are driving for some phenomenal things with the things they're building, it is a great opportunity.

Jenn Sherman 9:20

Exactly. You do yourself as you have your podcast, you know the benefits of adding one.

Gresham Harkless 9:26

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you get to meet some awesome people like yourself, who sometimes they are next-door neighbors and you never really know.

Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice that can be specifically related to social media, but what's a word of wisdom or advice you would give?

Jenn Sherman 9:47

I think the advice I would give is to slow down. I'm saying this regarding work on myself. You just slow down. Because I think one of the things a lot of people do is they're moving so fast all the time. With that, a lot of things get flipped, go through the cracks. And also, when you're not slowing down, you're not necessarily seeing the effects of your actions from the other side, and how things are being interpreted.

So just being able to slow down and being a lot more intentional with your communication has a very big payoff.

Gresham Harkless 10:30

Yeah, absolutely. I would say that myself is I think because especially in this area, we sometimes will miss things or miss how some of the actions we take are being impacted that could be good or bad, but just being able to be aware of what's happening, but you have to slow down sometimes for that to happen.

Jenn Sherman 10:50

Exactly. You are just being used to looking around you and your surroundings, like taking a pause and asking that front desk person that works at your office if they want a cup of coffee, just being kind, slowing down, and being intentional about your communication.

Gresham Harkless 11:05

Yeah, absolutely. And have you found and I know, you just asking somebody that might be in your office for a cup of coffee, have you found that there were certain things that you have been able to do that help you to be more conscious of slowing down and slowing down in and of itself?

Jenn Sherman 11:20

Well, I have my screensaver on the back of my phone and slow down. So that's my reminder all the time.

Gresham Harkless 11:29

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And it's funny because a lot of times a lot of people well I've heard people put their goals, their mission, whatever long-term goals they're trying to hit. A lot of times they'll put it on their background for their computer, or they'll put it over their mirror. Even though they don't necessarily have cognition, consciously look at it a lot of times just having it around, you create that energy to make you do that.

Jenn Sherman 11:52

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 11:54

Nice. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote and quote, CEOs on this show. So Jenn what does just being the CEO mean to you?

Jenn Sherman 12:05

Yeah. So I think that's a great question. Because I think we're living in an era now where you look at like, kind of the consulting world, you look at like small businesses, startups, you look at kind of the future of the workplace, you will get Google, for example. I think there are different types of definitions of a CEO and a leader, I think, for me, one of the biggest things for a CEO is understanding that you're trying to achieve something bigger than yourself.

When you have that, I really think you're in that CEO mindset, where you're trying to achieve something bigger than yourself, because that differentiates you sometimes from an employee or just a consultant, where you're trying to empower people, you're trying to lead people you're trying to mentor people. You're also trying to create some brand or company that contributes and contributes in service to the overall economy.

]So that's where I would add a higher-level society.

Gresham Harkless 13:12

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that definition, just because a lot of times we can, on a day-to-day basis, get caught in the day-to-day of sending emails or going to meetings. But I think that when we have that locked-in mindset to understand what we are achieving whether how big or how small our organization might be if you have that mentality of doing something and growing something bigger than yourself and trying to make a huge mission-driven impact.

I think that puts everything in perspective.

Jenn Sherman 13:45

Precisely.

Gresham Harkless 13:46

Awesome. Well, Jenn, I appreciate you so much and I appreciate the time and all the awesome things that you're working on. What I want 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. Then of course, how best they can get a hold of you subscribe to the podcast, and find all the awesome things we're working on.

Jenn Sherman 14:03

Sure. So I mean, I think one of the biggest things is, goes back to my mission statement in regards to what I want to focus on is to empower the next generation our workforce is to not be afraid to leap, and it's not everyone's an entrepreneur. I know that's not everyone's blood. That's why we have all these different roles or responsibilities. But there are a lot of different routes these days that you can still be an entrepreneur, even if you still are working at your company. So I would just say like, if you have an idea, go for it.

Because frankly, it could be the next million-dollar idea or just makes you feel really good. So that's my advice there. You can follow me on JennSherman. Jenn Sherman on Twitter or Instagram. Even find me on LinkedIn at Jennifer R Sherman. Then also please subscribe to my podcast, we have some cool thought leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs on there. So yeah, and you can also check out my website at influencer collective dc.com.

Gresham Harkless 15:14

Awesome. We will make sure to have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. But I definitely, appreciate that reminder of our understanding that there are different ways that we can be entrepreneurial, whether we're working for an organization, or we have our own business, that we're running ourselves.

I think that the more we're aware of that, the more we can have that impact that we talked about, and you talking about on your podcasts as well too. So, truly appreciate that and appreciate your time again. I hope you have a phenomenal day.

Jenn Sherman 15:42

Awesome, and I hope you have a great day too. Thanks so much for having me on.

Outro 15:46

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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