IAM2104 – CEO and Founder Helps Companies Scale their Products and Services through Affiliate Marketing

In this episode, we have Enelin Toneva, CEO and founder of Vivian Agency, an influencer and affiliate marketing agency. In 2018, she launched 40+ affiliate programs, onboarded 8,000 affiliates, and generated over 12 million dollars of revenue for their clients.

Enelin traveled to over 40 countries while doing B2B and B2C marketing, and sales for companies from different parts of the world. She discusses her journey with freelance projects and smaller startups and mentions working with SafetyWing, a Y Combinator startup in Silicon Valley.

The conversation highlights the importance of equality and empowerment for women in their company with the opportunities and value they provide.

LinkedIn: Enelin Toneva
Website: Vivian Agency

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Transcription:

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Enelin Toneva Teaser 00:00

Your product is a water bottle, it's the first thing I see right now, then, I would come in. I would make a strategic plan how to recruit a strong army of affiliates and influencers for your company who will start promoting your water bottle in their community, and then they will earn commission on this.

Intro 00:22

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:49

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Enelin Toneva. Enelin, excited to have you on the show.

Enelin Toneva 00:57

Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 00:59

Super excited to have you on, and Enelin is doing so many awesome things. So before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about her so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Enelin is the CEO and founder of Vivian Agency, an influencer and affiliate marketing agency. Since 2018, they have launched 40+ affiliate programs, on-boarded 8,000 affiliates, and generate over 12 million dollars of revenue for their clients. She is a speaker and consultant on growing businesses with affiliate programs and influencer marketing. And I was reading a little bit before we hopped in to this, and Enelin has done so many awesome things.

She's traveled to over 40 countries while doing B2B and B2C marketing, sales for companies from different parts of the world, which I think is super awesome. But what I really love is that a lot of what she does and her experience goes beyond just the marketing piece. She's a thought leader, and was like an OG original person related to the remote world and how passionate she is about that, but also about women empowerment and working with women on her team even around the globe is something I know that's really passionate for her. So and, Elaine, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Enelin Toneva 02:05

Yes. Absolutely. Let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 02:07

So let's get it started then. So to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Enelin Toneva 02:14

How it all started, my CEO story. Yeah. So in my university, already when I was studying, I was actually studying political science at the beginning, and quickly I realized that this public sector is not for me at all. And then I started in my master's, I was already more interested in marketing and private sector. So I started on taking different projects, started to work with some freelance projects there with some start ups. And then I fell in love with totally with that area, like the class-based fast movements in companies, smaller startups, and all that kind of lifestyle. And then I started working with marketing and also studying it, started working, as a freelancer, startups, and so on.

And at the same time, I started traveling. And then, eventually, I worked with a couple of bigger startups. One of them is SafetyWing. It's a Y Combinator startup, Silicon Valley. I was early team member there, and then I was focusing on affiliated influencer marketing and really learning by doing everything. Fast forward, everything went very well. We raised more than 50 million dollars and that the affiliate program there is making more than $400,000 every month sales and growing.

Gresham Harkless 03:33

Nice.

Enelin Toneva 03:34

And that led me into consulting. And consulting is great, but you can't eventually do everything by yourself. And clients are also asking you to actually do the work, not just consult you. And then I started hiring and fast forward today, we are a team of, ten working remotely, and we are really an agency doing influencer affiliate marketing for different kind of companies all around the world.

Gresham Harkless 03:59

Nice. Oh, I definitely appreciate that. Love hearing your journey as well too. I was listening to another one of your interviews. I think you said that you really love that remote aspect, and I feel like you being able to travel, of course, have all that great experience and success with affiliate marketing and being able to marry those two into everything you're doing now is pretty phenomenal.

Enelin Toneva 04:15

Yeah, definitely consider myself lucky that was, that I was brave enough to do those changes and try it out, try out the, like, work and lifestyle that I wanted, even before it was, so popular as it is today after the COVID times that now everybody works remote. So, yeah, definitely, definitely, grateful, for that.

Gresham Harkless 04:37

Yeah. Absolutely. Definitely a trailblazer at that. And like for people that maybe aren't as familiar, could you tell us a little bit more about affiliate marketing, what that is, and how you help support the clients that you work with?

Enelin Toneva 04:49

So I work with different kind of companies all around the world. They could be a B2C, B2B businesses. They could be e-commerce projects, products, or services alike. And what I do is I create, from zero affiliated influencer programs from them. And what does that mean is, for example, if your product is a water bottle, it's the first thing I see right now, then, I would come in. I would make a strategic plan how to recruit a strong army of affiliates and influencers for your company who will start promoting your water bottle in their community, and then they will earn commission on this.

So affiliate influence marketing is great because you can work with all channels without having a blog, without having a huge Instagram by yourself. You can work together with the biggest bloggers, with the biggest Instagram influencers, Twitch, TikTok, YouTubers, websites, review sites, affiliate networks, you name it. There's so many possibilities and that you can grow. The growth can be really scalable with this strategy.

Gresham Harkless 05:57

Nice. I love that. So I know you mentioned a little bit on, like, how that process works. What and how do clients come to you? What does those conversations look like, and how do you find that solution that's best for them?

Enelin Toneva 06:08

Yeah. The most important at the beginning is to put together a strategy. And while we don't like to write, I don't know, millions of pages, blah, blah, blah, and documents, we are pretty, pretty efficient in that sense that we narrow down on who we want to work with and why. So that's one pillar. For that, we analyze the market situation. We analyze your current, target audience, your current paying customers, and also competitors traffic and all that good stuff to understand that where we should be, who are the influencer affiliates we should be working with, who are most potential to bring us actually revenue and traffic.

And another part is, what we can offer to them. So what's the motivational package? Will we, are we able to give them free products? How much, is the commission structure percentage or fixed fee? Is it lifetime or one time? All those kind of, can we give discounts for the audience or do giveaways and whatnot? So the back motivational package is a second important thing. And then the third thing, what to expect from them. So if we are working with micro influencers and we sent them a product that maybe cost $10 or maybe we've sent them a product that cost close to thousand dollars. I have to go with very different with different average order values. And then what do we expect, in each case back from them? And those are the main main important things to have it set after we analyze everything, what is going on with this company, market target and everything.

And we are able to once we have, already a good strategy, then after that, we are able to start lead gen lead generation. We put together CRM, full outreach email sequence. We start reaching out to people. We start negotiating with influencers, onboarding them, make sure making sure that the content comes out, it's good quality and nurturing the current leads while doing giveaways campaign and whatnot, and at the same time continuing to, grow the network, in multichannel, testing different ideas and different sizes of inferences, different niches and everything.

Gresham Harkless 08:22

Nice. I appreciate you so much in breaking down. So what would you consider to be what I would like to call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

Enelin Toneva 08:33

We have really good case studies and we have really good work processes. And, so we are really efficient and we use bunch of tools. And also, we actually invest close to four thousand dollars every month into our tools we use.

Gresham Harkless 08:48

Right.

Enelin Toneva 08:48 

To make our work professional, efficient, fast, and to make sure that we are really, offering high quality work for our clients. It's everything from lead gen to outreach. We always want to make sure that we don't do any, so to say stupid work, but we focus on our, the hours that we sell to our clients, that it's high quality and everything that can automate. It can be automated. We do that. We invest into databases to have, access to best possible, leads out there, influencers and affiliates out there. And I think what is also important is that after we have done that so many times, we have just mastered it.

So compared if you just start doing it by yourself, it can be very hard for us. We have a set system. If we have a new client coming, We have a kickoff call. We know exactly what we're gonna do the next two months. There's pretty much no surprises because we know how much it takes to set up. We know what we have to decide on. We know we have to talk with the client, what are the exact, things we need to create and so on and how much the setup works. We know all the tools. We have worked with more than fifteen different, affiliate management, was out there. So we it just goes fast because of experience and there's less room for error.

Gresham Harkless 10:06

Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that. So I wanted to, switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have, but what's something you feel like makes you more effective and efficient?

Enelin Toneva 10:19

Yeah. One thing is definitely you have to know your strengths. And, there's, like, things I like to do and I'm really good at and things I really suck at. And, what I'm good at is creating systems, putting problems, solving problems. Eventually, the last steps of hiring, like, making that decision, negotiation, sales. Okay. But I'm not the person who really likes to do, like, one on ones or team building events or these kind of things, which I think is really important, for having actually a good team and thinking about those benefits and those kind of things that so you would have team for a long time. So I really early on already hired, HR, my right hand for me because I was like, I just can't do it, and I don't like it.

And like, definitely, it gives, like, much more happiness and strength to the team and teamwork and everything. So, yeah, just know what you like, what you don't, what you're good at, what you aren't. Be really, honest about it, and that's fine. Nobody says that you have to do everything. Yes. Maybe at the beginning, fine. If you're a solopreneur, you're gonna start off by yourself. But you will be able to move on much faster if you are able to identify those strengths and weaknesses and just outsource, the weaknesses.

Gresham Harkless 11:43

Yeah. That makes so much sense. So what would you consider to be a little bit more CEO nugget? Could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something I like to say you would tell your younger business self if you were to hop into a time machine, or potentially you might tell your favorite client.

Enelin Toneva 11:56

I would say that it's okay to be I think that or sometimes debating, should I do the things like everybody does, or should I be that stubborn, or should I trust my guts? The answer is yes. You should. You have not much to lose. And, especially when you're starting out, you're just starting out and you can test different approaches and so on. And when I started, like, it is a little bit like now it's yeah. Maybe more people are more open about remote work and everything, but I took it very serious immediately.

There's not gonna there's no there's ever gonna be offices. Most probably, I'll never see my team, and that's fine. And that works for everyone. And that's how it is. Yes. It's old, but I don't care. We have woman only company. That's also odd, but that's what I have decided. And I like it, and everybody loves it. We have a lot of, actually, ladies who have said that they joined the team because they really like it.

Gresham Harkless 12:53

No. Yeah.

Enelin Toneva 12:54

Because we have girls' power.

Gresham Harkless 12:56

There you go.

Enelin Toneva 12:57

And, yeah, it really works. And everybody have really great professions and everything, but they feel that there's like this kind of like equality and this strength and everything. And they have so many good opportunities, like constantly, we actually hire mostly on marketing assistance. And then we assume that in a year or in a two, at least they become project managers. So we always assume that and everything. So they feel very valued. And, also, yeah, I would pay like, I'm paying everybody equal even though, like, somebody is in a country that is that is way yeah. Their, like, cost of living is way less than others and so on.

So all these rules, it's if you, you should do your own rules and play your own game because that's why you are the CEO, right? That's why you started the company to do that. So, so go crazy and do whatever feels right to you and what's in with your values. And this is because it's not for no nobody else. It's just for you and what you want to build. And you have to feel, like, authentic with that, what you are building.

Gresham Harkless 13:59

Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So, Mama Bear and Enelin, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Enelin Toneva 14:13

For me, it's to provide, opportunities for team members to do their best job. I think it's what I should be doing. So, and it's very interesting, like when you grow from like just being by yourself, a freelancer, couple team members, and then you have ten plus team members, and then how you as a person, a CEO, also transform from doing everything and then learning yourself to let go.

Gresham Harkless 14:37

Mhmm.

Enelin Toneva 14:37

But I think that should be the always the ultimate goal that, to be the CEO, you should be focusing on mission, vision, bigger picture. And, eventually, your job should be just to make sure that the people have work, that you have the team members, and they all can work well in a synergy. And let them be the best versions of themselves and let them grow and do their stuff. So I think that's the role of the CEO.

Gresham Harkless 15:07

Yeah. I love that definition. I truly appreciate that definition and, of course, appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best people can get a hold of you, find about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

Enelin Toneva 15:24

Yeah. If you have any kind of questions, then you can always reach out to me in LinkedIn. Just, shoot me a request there. Sometimes people like to write me after podcast, and I always write you back. And so if you have any kind of thoughts you want to discuss or collaboration or are interested in affiliate and influencer marketing or just struggling with the CEO life, then shoot me a message. I can also recommend couple of I'm part of a couple of masterminds and things like dynamic circle and so on, which I also have felt that has, for me as a CEO, has been really empowering and important to be surrounded by other CEOs as well.

Gresham Harkless 16:03

Yeah. Absolutely. I truly appreciate that, Enelin. And what we'll do, like I mentioned, we'll have the links and information, the show notes. And like I said so well, and I appreciate you so much for your time, your expertise, your knowledge, all the awesome things that you're doing. So thank you so much for doing that, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Enelin Toneva 16:18

Thank you.

Outro 16:19

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at CEOhacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr.   Thank you for listening.

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