FYI

Building a Tribe Around Your Brand

By: Kendra Hardy

I can't be the only one who thinks some brands may know me better than I know myself. Their new products are always something I didn't even know I needed but, on sight I can't imagine life without the latest name-brand thing. Working at Worthy Women I've gotten to meet plenty of hot-shots at big brands and they let me know how brands build that bond with their peeps. 

1. Be authentic. Nobody is trying to hang out with someone who’s pretending to be someone they’re not. When it comes to growing your brand, keep it as real as possible. You don’t want to always be scrambling to fit other people’s point of view or to get their attention. This isn’t high school, originality is encouraged.

2. Perception is reality. Even if what you’re doing didn’t turn out as ballin’ as you wanted, when it comes to social media it better look POPPIN’. More people will be attracted to your vision and this will give you time to fix your errors for the next time.

3. Use your audience. Don’t build your dream business, get the following, and do nothing with it. Make sure you’re listening to your tribe, after all they are a built in focus group. They'll let you know what they're feeling and what ain't right. 

4. Lastly, surround yourself with real ones. You can’t be everything to everyone - choose what you want to be and who you want to listen to, then do just that! If your tribe is real, they’ll be loyal and stick around. Don’t waste your time trying to please the “brand”-wagon fans. No fake love.

Kendra is an advertising major fresh out of Michigan State. She came to Worthy Women as an intern and has transitioned fabulously into working on the back end of all our social campaigns. She's a dual expert in Canva and Illustrator! And she's a master of Snapchat filters and Instagram taglines.

Instagram | Twitter

FYI

Five Simple Ways You Can Get A Brand To Collaborate With You

By: Kendra Hardy

If you’re anything like me, you find yourself on social media wondering how influencers and brands secure these baller partnerships. Working at Worthy Women I've gotten plenty of noteworthy tips from big influencers that have sealed their own fate with big brands.

1. Build your own brand before chasing after a big brand partnership. Just like in a romantic relationship, you don’t want to be with a buster that doesn’t have their own ish together - same goes for businesses. Make sure you know your brand, what you stand for (what you won’t), and who your audience is before taking that next step.

2. Go to events and introduce yourself to everyone. Drake has drilled into our heads that no new friends is a way of life but, he forgot that this theory doesn’t work in business. You never know where a simple hello could lead or when you’ll need to reach out down the road. Once you’re able to identify with people you can start cultivating those relationships that will work for you.

3. Make sure the partnership would benefit for both parties. Let’s be real, in 2017 no one is doing things out of the "goodness in their heart" anymore, remember that before you pitch an idea to a brand. Make sure you’re thinking and outlining reasons why this partnership would be a win-win, ride-or-die situation in your pitch.

4. Make it impossible for someone to say no. This is not the time to put your #WasteHisTime2017 scheme into action. Make your pitch short, sweet, and right to the point. People can feel ingenuity so, don’t use tricky language - be real. The faster they know what you’re asking for and what this partnership entails the quicker they’ll be able to determine if it is a fit.

5. Be easy to work with. Reputation is everything, yours should mirror what a pleasure you are to work with. However, don’t let your kindness be mistaken for weakness. If you feel like you’re being taken advantage of - get out. It’s okay to say no and ride off in the whip like Rihanna.

Kendra is an advertising major fresh out of Michigan State. She came to Worthy Women as an intern and has transitioned fabulously into working on the back end of all our social campaigns. She's a dual expert in Canva and Illustrator! And she's a master of Snapchat filters and Instagram taglines.

Instagram | Twitter

SF Toolkit

The Worthy Girl's Guide to San Francisco's Resources 

By: Roya Sabeti

If you’re bootstrapping or on a low budget I highly recommend getting your creative hustle on and tapping into your network to utilize your resources by following these tips:

1. Add value whenever possible. Instead of going into a meeting with solely your agenda in mind, think of the others person's problems and try to find a solution.

2. When asking others for help always make sure you make it as easy as possible for them to help you.  (I.E. If asking them to promo your event - Give them tweetables + photos)

3. Find people who have already done what you're trying to do and set a coffee date. Have an agenda of questions to ask them, so you can be efficient and respectful of their time. 

4. Find creative ways to connect to your target audience that doesn't require spending a dollar. 

Things that I did that could help you along the way include: 

Once you know what you want to do, you should move as physically close as possible to wherever that vertical/industry is flourishing and make friends with the people who have already done what you’re trying to do.

I had a dream of working for a startup and I knew in order to highly increase the odds in my favor I needed to be in the right environment, and that meant moving to SF or Silicon Valley. By positioning myself in the right environment I came across many opportunities and people I never would have met otherwise, including the opportunity to work at Galvanize.

People that I follow and find inspiration from within the city include but, aren't limited to:

I’ve found a lot of inspiration from my friend Heather Morgan, she build her own business SalesFolk from nothing to a robust and and successful company in only a few years. She is the queen of cold email. She has major hustle and is extremely creative in finding ways to get responses from the cold emails she sends.

I’m also very inspired by Ritika Puri, she started StoryHackers with $0 investment and over the course of 7 years, Ritika and her co-founder grew the company to a team of 23 employees and hundreds of customers ranging from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 brands. I always leave a conversation with her with fresh ideas, actionable to-dos and a renewed sense of energy.

Roya Sabeti is an advocate for female entrepreneurs, photographer, DIY vintage lover, & contest queen. Her mission is to empower women in entrepreneurship by providing a place to share their stories, and advance their careers and companies. She is happiest when eating, creating something from nothing, or sharing experiences with others. She currently lives in San Francisco and when she’s not planning her next event supporting entrepreneurial women or scheming about how to win the latest contest, she can be found planning her next photoshoot. You can see some of her work at royasabeti.com

More Resources:

Co-Working: 

Galvanize - Main focus is bridging the gap between technology and education by building a community of entrepreneurs and students under one roof. By creating this unique scenario Galvanize is able to provide their community with the resources they need in order to learn, grow, and reach their milestones in their careers and businesses. Galvanize members have access to resources including member programming where we bring in industry experts to facilitate conversation among members, host workshops, and provide mentorship. This allows everyone to learn about the challenges other entrepreneurs are facing and strategize via open conversation and dialogue.

Other SF co-working spaces include: WeWork, SpherePad, Ziploft, and Makeshift Society

Networking:

Starting a business and networking events go hand-in-hand. There are many places in San Francisco that can help jump start your business through networking (and even some places geared specifically toward women!) This will help you eventually turn your connections into $$$! Check them out: Girls In Tech, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial, and General Assembly