PODCAST – Influencer Marketing: The Do’s and Don’ts w/Inbal Claudio

About this episode: 

Influencer marketing is not just trendy, it’s the future of digital marketing. Whereas traditional marketing relies on a brand creating dozens of marketing touchpoints to build trust, influencer marketing cuts the leg work in half. 

Influencers offer brands a fast track to new leads and sales since they are already viewed by their followers as trustworthy experts in their field. Ultimately, their recommendations and/or endorsements can catapult brands to new reach more of their target audience as quickly as possible.

So if the benefits of influencer marketing are so astounding, why aren’t more small businesses utilizing this cutting-edge tactic to grow their community and revenue? 

Unfortunately, there the influencer marketing arena is surrounded by a lot of red tapes that prevents small businesses from accessing the most aligned influencers to collab with. Between their party platforms that have astoundingly high membership prices, or a minimum revenue threshold, many entrepreneurs are being left out in the cold.

However, Inbal Claudio is a womn who is on a mission to make influencer marketing highly accessible to all sizes of business owners. In this episode of The Wild Womn Hotline, Inbal introduces us to Like-Minded Collective, which is a social media platform for creators and female founders to connect, collaborate, and support each other.

During this conversation, Inbal fills us in on the dark side of influencer marketing and how her innovative platform is opening doors for small businesses to reap the benefits of influencer marketing, regardless of their revenue, years of experience, or following size. 

In this episode, we discuss…

• How Inbal identified a huge gap in the influencer marketing community, and where the idea for The Like-Minded Collective came to be (3:30).
• The philosophy of The Like-Minded Collective and the types of women who would thrive in this community (6:03).
• The basic principles of digital marketing (10:58).
• How to build an authentic relationship with an influencer before pitching a collaboration with them (14:02).
• The major DON’TS of influencer marketing (16:11)
• What is a micro and nano influencers and how do they fit into your influencer marketing campaigns? (20:14).
• How The Like-Minded Collective helps you connect with micro and nano influencers (21:45).
• The R&D process to create The Like-Minded Collective and how Inbal is differentiating her brand from the competition (28:17)
• Inbal’s plan for where she wants to take Like-Minded Collective moving forward (35:19).

Meet the Host and Guest Expert 

Links and Resources

Connect with Inbal and the Line-Minded Collective brand:

• Instagram: @like.minded.collective
• Facebook: Like.Minded Collective
• Website: https://likemindedcollective.com/ 

Resources mentioned in this episode

• The Like-Minded Collective
• HOW I PITCHED THE SKINNY CONFIDENTIAL PODCAST
• PodMatch
• Marketing Brew Newsletter
• Direct to Consumer (DTC) Newsletter
• Marty Neumeier

Click here to listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts!

Want us to send you a free gift? Leave a rating and/or review on Apple Podcasts, and send a screenshot to podcast@wildwomnhaus.com. 

Looking for More Info on Digital Marketing? Check out these suggested blogs!

• Content Creation for Marketing – BTS on how I “DO IT ALL”
• Why Public Relations is Important for Your Brand w/Publicist, Lydia Bagarozza
• Marketing Strategy vs Content Strategy – Which to Invest In?

Audio Transcript

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Hello, you have reached The Wild Womn Hotline, a place for visionary entrepreneurs like you to listen in on value, packed episodes for growing your brand in bold and strategic ways. 

Wild Womn fam, welcome back to another episode of the wild woman hotline. If you have not met me, hello, my name. Tristan. I am the CEO, founder, and head brand strategist at Wild Womn Haus, which is a collaborative branding and marketing agency for female and female-identifying entrepreneurs.

Today,  I am so excited to share with you a powerful conversation about how to use influencer marketing, how to create a network of female founders who can help you bounce ideas and creatively problem solve so that you don’t have to invest in a mentor or a coach every time that you feel stuck in your business and how to belong to a community that provides you with valuable educational resources from marketing finances, ads, sales and beyond. 

Because today I have with me, Inbal Claudio who created something very, very, very cool and innovative called The Like-Minded Collective. 

The Like-Minded Collective is an online platform for female founders and influencers to connect. Share their expertise, problem solve together, and create beneficial collaborations that they can ultimately use to scale their business visibility and credibility.

I am so excited to share Inbal with you today because we had an incredibly powerful conversation about where female visionaries can go to connect and collaborate and how valuable it is to have a community of like-minded women. Get it? Like-minded Collective.

Like-minded women who are business owners, who you can trust their advice and trust their input, as opposed to maybe a friend or a family member who really doesn’t get what you do, but seems to have a really strong opinion about it.

So with no further ado, I’m gonna take you into this conversation with the founder of Like-Minded Collective Inbal Claudio. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau:

Okay Inbal, tell us about your story of getting into founding a networking community for female founders. And tell us what that has opened up for you. What was the idea to start it? And how has the journey been so far?

Guest | Inba Claudio: Sure. So I started a candle company about five years ago and I was doing lots of in-person shows, farmer’s markets, and events, and everything was going great. And then my daughter was born about two and a half years ago, almost three years ago. And I had to shift completely. I had to go from in-person shows to online. And I kind of started to dabble in influencer marketing. 

I went about it the completely wrong way. Um, initially as you know, the search engine on Instagram is horrible and you can’t really specifically search for what you’re looking for, so I was messaging these influencers that were charging way more than I could afford.

I found out about influencer marketing platforms and quickly realized that that was also something that was out of my budget. These platforms were charging like $300 to $500 a month to use their search, um, feature, or they were taking a commission or they had minimums as far as business size or they just weren’t taking on new brands.

So I just felt completely excluded. Um, and I knew that I wasn’t alone. I knew that there were millions of small businesses and brands and nano and micro-influencers with not a huge following that didn’t fit into these platforms that existed. 

So I wanted to create one essentially. Um, I wanted to create an influencer marketing platform for the millions of nano and micro-influencers and small businesses and brands that were being overlooked by the current platforms that were out there. 

Um, and so that’s kind of how the idea for like-minded people came about two and a half years ago about roughly. And in building it, I was a tech founder in an industry in that I had zero experience. So along the way, I kind of started making connections with women. And I realized like, wow, having a community of women around me, who I could brainstorm ideas with was so valuable, and I wanted to bring that onto the platform. 

So along the way, it kind of shifted from not just an influencer marketing platform, but also a social community where you can connect with influencers, but also do masterminds, um, where you can learn about digital marketing, SEO, email marketing, um, finances, although it’s not sexy, we like to talk about it.

Anything and everything that can help you grow your business. So that’s kind of where we’re at today.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: That’s so beautiful and I can’t tell you how many people I know. And like me, my world is all female entrepreneurs. And I can’t tell you how many people mention how they don’t have anybody to bounce ideas off of and how even just having a simple conversation, we always think we need to hire a coach or hire a mentor when we have these problems.

And I’m gonna be honest and say, I lean on my business friends more than I would hire a mentor and a coach. And I think that those two spheres play very specific roles. If you just have a creative problem that you’re coming up against, or you have a bunch of options and something that you’re kind of wanting to talk through with somebody that’s where your network should come into play, you shouldn’t have to hire somebody every single time that you have a creative problem or that you have a, you know, something that you’re just wanting to talk through.

So I love that you’ve put this together because that’s such a beautiful resource for people to have. And I’m really curious about the like-minded part of The Like-Minded Collective. So what is the philosophy of Like-Minded Collective and what are the type of people that you like to attract and then let in as members?

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah. So it’s so funny that you say that I just wanna go back to that really fast because it’s so true. Like I created the platform to be one thing initially, and as adding the community aspect, we also added a community feed and that is exactly what it’s made for, like, if you are going through and you’re like, okay, I’m going through like a branding revision and I’m going through these two logos. And I don’t know what to pick, put that on there. If you’re going through different webs or, uh, homepage designs, put that on there and people will comment and help you. 

We do these masterminds once a week and you don’t have to join if you don’t want to, but it’s an awesome perk. And basically, it’s like a 30 to 45-minute presentation followed by 45 minutes to an hour of just creative brainstorming and people come up with like, issues that they’re having, or like questions that they have, where on a weekly basis, you have people from aspiring entrepreneur to entrepreneurs that have raised millions of dollars for their business, helping, not just you, but everybody out.

Um, and it’s totally that, you know, where you’re like, God, like I need help or I need to vent about this, or I need help with this or I’m kind of in between this and this. That’s the place. And that’s what I was looking for too because I have girlfriends. They’re amazing, but they’re not entrepreneurs so you can’t bounce ideas off of them, you know.

And as far as the like-minded part, honestly, though, people that are on there…there’s like 99% women. There are a few men, but, um, they’re all positive and they give as much as they receive. And there’s no question when it comes to wanting to help others and support others. So that’s kind of what it is. They’re I just wanted people who were on the same level as me, as far as support and motivation, just making sure that everybody mattered, um, was a big thing for me and just, yeah. Having that collaboration over competition aspect to the platform.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Yeah, and that was one of the big reasons I was so excited to have you on is because a lot of the clients that I work with are in the same boat. They don’t have a lot of people in their life that are entrepreneurs that can help them brainstorm, that can bounce an idea, help them bounce an idea and say, well, I would think about this, or I would maybe do this differently, or I would consider this aspect too. And having that tribe and having that community, being able to go to them that are experienced, that have industry perspective that have either gone through it themselves or who know somebody that do.

That’s such a valuable resource to have. And so I’m really curious, like, let’s go deeper into the specific types of topics and education that you provide. And I definitely wanna talk about influencer marketing, cause that’s like the roots of Like-Minded Collective. I definitely wanna talk about just marketing in general.

So what’s the juiciest topic for you to dive into? What are you enjoying talking about the most right now?

Guest | Inba Claudio: Honestly, it’s so funny because it always boils down to like messaging your branding. I kind of wanna go back to what you said again, because, like I’ve made friends off of this platform to where, like, I post something on Instagram and one of my friends is like, Hey, I see like your business going in this direction.

And I’m like, I know I’m so confused. I don’t even know what I’m doing. She’s like, Hey, let’s just brainstorm for an hour. And so she just, we just hopped on a call and brainstorm and kind of, off the platform, but that’s how we met mm-hmm um, so like really building genuine, genuine conversations and relationships with people.

The juiciest conversations that I have, um, I honestly just love anything that comes to marketing. 

Like bouncing ideas off of one another to grow your business. And because we have a lot of service providers in the marketing industry that are teaching, um, our masterminds, everybody has different backgrounds that they can come from.

So we have one person who’s teaching in June. She comes from high-end sales, like in department stores and so her expertise in sales is gonna be different and somebody who specializes in beauty and PR, you know, but the tactics are almost the same across all industries. So it’s really interesting to have so many different people, all talk about quote, unquote, digital marketing, but from so many different angles and to just utilize it and see what fits in your business. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: That’s super cool. That’s super cool. And like, I know the tactics, but I would love for you to share with the audience, like you said, the industry may be different, but the tactics are the same. And so can you share a little bit about just like, What those tactics are, what those basics are, give the listeners a little bit of value so that they can take this home with them. And I’m just gonna let you take the mic so you can go for it.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Sure, so I think the biggest thing that I always talk about with people is being genuine in your approach and that’s just, I think an all-encompassing way to go about business. Whether you are trying to connect with an influencer for a collaboration, or you’re trying to connect with a podcast host to be on their podcast or, a brand that you wanna do business with or brand that you want to do a collaboration, um, a could, um, A giveaway with, um, you know, just anything like that, just approaching them in a genuine way.

I would say quote, unquote, not salesy, but just like, Hey, how are you? Like, I would love to learn more about your business and I think making it more about them and asking them questions will definitely help steer the conversation. 

I started to message people that started following me on Instagram. Like, Hey, how did you find, um, my platform? I would love to learn more about your business. Like, please let me know if I can help you in any way. And it’s just a different type of engagement, you know, because they feel seen, they feel heard and everybody wants to talk about their business. And I personally love hearing about people’s stories. So, it really is like a win-win.

So I would say that just being authentic in your approach to people is huge. And like I said, like that carries all across the board, whether you’re emailing somebody for collaboration, um, do some background search on them, find out some information if you’re I just actually heard this on a different podcast.

Like if you’re trying to pitch a podcast, do some research on the podcast, leave them a review, show them the review that you left. You know, talking about a previous episode that they had, showed them that they’re not just a copy and paste situation in your life. And I think that’s gonna take you so far.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Something a really great example of this is do you listen to the skinny, confidential with Lauren?. So they were giving an example of how one of their guests. I remember what he did. I cannot remember his name unfortunately, he was a self-love coach and he actually pitched himself to be on the Skinny Confidential.

Hmm. And at the time, like, well, not at the time she still does this, but one of Lauren’s routines is that every morning she walks on the treadmill and responds to emails and responds to DMS. 

And so in the pitch to them, he sent. Uh, Lauren, I’m sure you’re probably reading this on the thread right now and that was such a personal touch. And she actually mentioned that in the podcast interview, that was one of the big reasons that we brought you on because you pay attention to detail and you know how to build relationships. And so without being creepy and without being like super investigative and kind of going off into the deep end, what are some ways that we can get a feel for an influencer that we wanna collaborate with that maybe we don’t have a personal relationship with, but would be a phenomenal partnership to collab on.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah. So I think, um, Engagement. Right? Like everybody wants engagement. So follow them, and comment on their photos, like genuine comments, not just emojis. Um, respond to their stories and tag them in your stories, repost their stuff.

I mean, it takes work, you know, because like with my candle company, I’ve had people just email me like, Hey, gold way candles. All they need to do is go to my instant, my website, and look at the about me page and they’ll find my first name. So it just takes two seconds to even just find a first name, you know, but just engage with them.

And eventually your brand will be top of mind for them because they’re like, oh yeah, like Goldwood candles, like always talks about my stuff and, oh, I’m looking to do a collaboration with a candle company. Like let me reach out to them. You know, so it really is just about engagement. Think of it as your Instagram, you know, you want people to approach you in a way that makes you feel special. Everybody wants to feel special. So. Try to reciprocate and do the same thing. If you’re trying to get in front of somebody and trust me, if you comment enough and you message enough, they will know who you are. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: They will 100% know who you are. yeah. And that’s, you know, that’s very validating for me ’cause that’s how I find most of my podcast guests is I use a combination of PodMatch, which is how you and I got connected, which is very similar.

It’s a network of you know, people that podcast as either a host or a guest, and you can really get to know somebody and message back and forth, but also looking at the people I’m currently following on Instagram and like, who do I actually have an interest in that would be able to provide a lot of value to my audience and bridge a network and like, or bridge our networks and create a relationship to add value to both of our audiences. 

So that’s such a great, great, great tip. I’m really curious. Maybe some like “Don’ts of influencer marketing”, like horror stories or things that we should not do. What’s the easiest way to make this as seamless as possible?

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah. What are some don’ts? Oh my gosh. I think the opposite of what I said, , um, cold emailing, um, copy and paste messages. Not making it, you know, personal. Um, I think that really figuring it out, I think what people need to do first is figure out who their target, influencer like ideal influencer is, it doesn’t have to be a person, but like, what are their characteristics, you know? Are they a mom? Like, do they have a podcast about mom entrepreneurs or are they like car mechanics that talk about the latest Tesla, you know, like, does it fit your brand, does it fit your aesthetic because they’re gonna post about you and you wanna repost, but like, do their colors match your aesthetic on your feet?

I mean, like, it could go as deep as that, you know? Um, so just doing some research could avoid, like I made this mistake 100% and I will totally call myself out. Um, on a PodMatch, I saw somebody and I read their first few sentences and I was like, oh my gosh, she looks amazing. Like she’s talking about entrepreneurs and all this stuff, but I didn’t read past that. And then she responded like, Hey, Inbal like, I would love to have you on the podcast. Like, um, can you tell me a story about like, it was grief, like how you went through grief? And I was like, oh my gosh, like, I’m so embarrassed. And I was like, Hey, I’m so sorry. Like, I didn’t read your profile completely, but I don’t think I’m a good match, you know?

And she said, thank you and whatnot, but I was horrified! 

So do your research, like read everything you can about them. Um, so yeah, just reach out to people that are relevant because like me, like I didn’t, and it was. I’m sure she didn’t think twice about it, but I was like, wow, this is so like not me, you know, um, so…

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: I have also had that experience so you are not alone and that’s such a good point is your brand and the people that you partner with are a direct reflection of your brand because they become not only a stakeholder in your brand, which means they have an invested interest in what you do.

But your audience is then going to, by association, become aware of those people. And so you really wanna make sure that there is a thorough alignment between you and an influencer that you’re gonna be working with. In terms of values, in terms of perspective, sometimes even political stance is incredibly important based on the context of your brand, aesthetic is also very important. And then their delivery style, if you’re a more clean-cut professional brand, you probably don’t wanna work with an influencer that swears a lot or, you know, goes against those values, which is fine if you have those values. But I love that you emphasized research so much, cause it is really, really important. 

Guest | Inba Claudio: It’s funny, cause there’s like, you know, everyone’s about like reels and like all the trends and stuff. And there was this Donald Trump one and I was about to record it cause I thought it was funny and my husband’s like, I wouldn’t record it, if you are, and I’m like, why? 

He’s like, this is your public like business, you know? And it’s it. Whether or not I agree with what he does. He is now on my Instagram. I didn’t end up recording it, but I was like, wow, I didn’t even think about it like that. I just thought. Oh, this is like a funny, you know, um, like the content it’s funny content, but because people associate him with so much negativity or like, they go against what he says, I didn’t wanna bring that on my platform.

So yeah, political too, um, has a lot to do with it.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: I think we can all agree that he’s pretty problematic. Um, and one term that you use that I would just like you to expand into a little bit more is micro and nano influencer. Cause I think even now there’s still this perception that influencers are like millions of followers, a viral type of content creator.

And I’m really curious who the nano and the micro-influencer is for. 

And then I do wanna circle back to Like-Minded Collective, but I feel like those are terms that people may not be super familiar with. And it’s such a great entry point to the influencer market.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah, totally. So. Everywhere you look, you’ll get different numbers as far as nano or micro-influencers.

But the way that I like to look at it is nano is anybody under 10,000 followers, 10,000. Yeah, 10,000 followers. Um, and then micro is anybody under a hundred thousand, which sounds insane because like a hundred thousand followers is so much, but that’s kind of how they’re classified. Um, and then macro is like a hundred thousand to a million.

And then like, I forgot what the term is like over a million. Um, but yeah, there’s, there’s different types of influencers and nano influencers are really the ones that you can maybe give a gift, um, their price point is gonna be a little bit lower, but their engagement is usually so much better and higher and they have true followers.

Um, so I, I personally love working with nano influencers and those are the influencers that are on our platform. Um, 99% of them.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Amazing. Okay. So thank you for hearing me back to being like-minded. So what does that collaboration look like within my like-minded collective in terms of businesses partnering up with nano yeah.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Nano? 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau:  Nano or micro-informed micro-influencers. So how does that relationship work within the platform? I’m super curious.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah. So, um, I should say, I should also mention that the platform is super new. I just launched three months ago, so we’re still trying to build out the database right now. We have about 400 people, um, and we just redid the website or the homepage.

So we’re gonna be amping up Facebook ads again. Essentially you sign up, you create a profile that has a description, it has industry. If you’re an influencer, you can put your pricing. So if somebody’s looking for a gift and you’re like, I don’t take anything less than a hundred dollars. Hopefully, they won’t email you cause you’re out of their price range.

And it just really focuses on the people that are a good fit for you. Um, so then you can search for people, like I said, based on the pricing location industry, and then you can message back and forth. So there are a lot of platforms out there that the brand kind of. Is the one initiating and putting out collaborations or, um, as projects and influencers can apply.

And the way that my platform works is completely open form. So, influencers can reach out to brands. Brands can reach out to influencers. They can kind of have a discussion, talk about, you know, what they want to promote, what they wanna collaborate, pricing if that’s what they wanna do and kind of take it from there.

But it’s everything from like one of our brands is a listening service. Um, she does like, It’s called hold, hearing out life drama, she’s like less than a therapist, more than a friend. Um, basically for anybody who’s going through stuff that your friends are like, “I’m so sick of hearing this! ” – they’re the listening service.

And so like they’re working with influencers and then we also have like physical products. They’re also connecting with influencers, like boutiques, clothing, boutiques, jewelry, candles, things like. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: That’s super cool. And one thing that immediately came to mind is what are your goals with protecting both brands and influencers in these relationships?

And what are your goals for transparency? I was reading, um, It was either Market Brew or Direct to Consumer (DTC) newsletter this morning. And they were talking about, um, an app that allows influencers to share their experiences, working with brands, what they got paid, if it was a good relationship, if anything negative happened if they would recommend it.

And it actually helped an influencer to ask for more with the next partnership because they realized that they were underpaid in the previous one. Um, and there’s this whole issue of influencer inequality happening right now, where people are getting slighted. People are not being protected. There’s really iffy things going on with demands around content.

So what is your approach to that? I’m just super curious. And how do you protect both the brand and the business?

Guest | Inba Claudio: That’s a very good question and a really good point. Um, I think because influencer marketing has become so huge the last few years that there are a lot of scams happening on both the influencer side and the brand side, where brands are not paying, um, after they get the content, which is horrible.

And then on the influencer side where influencers are buying followers, they’re buying likes. They’re making themselves out to have more engagement than they actually do. And that’s horrible for these businesses that are trying to get ROI, you know? 

Um, I have a quick story. So this girl who’s on my platform messaged me and she’s like, Hey, do you know anything about like, sales tax and how to include that, like when you’re doing a, um, contract. And so I kind of helped her out with that. And so I followed up with her. I was like, Hey, like, how did it go? And she’s like, oh my gosh, they were a total scam. Like a friend of mine told me about them and thank God I didn’t pursue anything. Or it didn’t like going further. Um, But yeah, they were a scam! They were a scam.

And so I’m so happy that her friend had experience and was able to relay that to her. 

So to your question, um, we are implementing a rating system, so that’s in the works. It’s probably gonna get launched probably in like a month or two, but essentially if you have connected with somebody over a message, then you’re able to rate them.

You can rate the experience as just like. Anything you want for full collaboration? Um, just messaging between them, like if they were respectful or if they were kind of rude like I want full transparency and it’s on like a five-star rating system, kind of like, you know, um, I would say Amazon is the best way to describe it with a description.

So that’s kind of how I’m able to do it. There are so many different ways to go about it, but because I wanna keep the platform affordable I have to kind of do a “DIY type” of situation. And this is the best way like reviews are everything. Um, you know, so if you know, things can go wrong too, on the review side where somebody’s just leaving horrible reviews for everybody, but I’m there to kind of help prevent that hopefully.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: And just speaking of affordability. It’s like, I don’t wanna say the incorrect number. Tell us what the number membership is. 

Guest | Inba Claudio: $40 a month. Everybody has the ability to create a profile for free. So businesses or influencers, service providers, and anybody can create a profile for free to get added to the database.

And if somebody searches for you and is like a great match, then they message you, you can respond. The $40 a month is to utilize the entire platform. So the search function, the messaging, the community feed. And so that’s $40 and then $65 is for the platform and the weekly masterminds that we do. So it’s super affordable, and there’s such great value in the community. Um, the pricing may go up, um, eventually, but that’s how much it is and whatever you get in at that price, you’re grandfathered in.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Oh that’s so nice. Okay. So the way I see it is that this is a network. It is an educational platform. It is an opportunity for businesses to learn new skills.

And there’s so much more that goes into it. And I’m just loving the concepts so much. And if let’s talk a little bit about, let’s like get into the brand of Like-Minded Collective and you can say, I’m not gonna answer that to anything that you don’t wanna answer, but from the brand owner and the brand founder perspective, like who do you see as likeminded industry competitors and how are you staying on top of making sure that like-minded is progressive and providing for needs that other platforms don’t like, what was your R and D to create something like this?

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah, so, because I have the candle company, I was able to do a lot of R and D on the brand and influencer marketing platform side. So I don’t need to name names. You can research influencer marketing platforms on Google and get literally over a hundred.

All of them, all of them will either charge hundreds of dollars a month. They’ll take up to 20% commission from your transaction. Um, they have minimum requirements. For some of them, you even need a business email. So like with Gmail, it doesn’t cut it. You can’t even sign up for the platform. So I’m talking to every single one of them.

So that’s huge as far as the influencer marketing side, the female community side, there are tons of incredible female communities out there. Um, I’m a part of a few, and I think the biggest thing that we offer is “all-encompassing”. So we have the platform where you can connect with people on the platform, but we also have the education side.

We have face-to-face creative brainstorming and not a lot of platforms have that at an affordable price. Um, so the research that I’ve done, I found like, Somebody charged $800 a month. yeah, to be, um, it was like a copywriter’s community. Um, and so it was like a monthly two-hour mastermind. And like brainstorming sessions and access to the Facebook group.

Um, and that was like $800 a month. There’s a lot that is about like a hundred dollars a month. Um, the same thing, there’s some that are quarterly, but it’s just like $200 a quarter. Um, but it’s just the platform. So you can like search and message. Um, and then events are on top of that. Um, so we’re definitely all-encompassing.

And that’s kind of the market research that I’ve done with other women who have been a part of the influencer market or, um, female communities, or have avoided them for certain reasons. That’s kind of the insight that I’ve had, um, from them and what they’re looking for a lot of them also have kind of been so stale. They said, and I put that in quotes. like, they talk about the same thing over and over again. There’s no involvement, there’s no engagement. Um, it’s just kind of boring. So, um, that’s kind of the R&D that I have been through on both end.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: It’s super thorough. No, you did a super thorough job. And what I’m hearing more than anything is that they were kind of creating a red line in terms of who can utilize influencer marketing based on the fact that you have to first be a legitimate business entity quote unquotes through a business email. 

And then the payment threshold, like the variety of different membership prices that you saw. That’s also creating a red line in accessibility where if you’re a smaller business and maybe you don’t have that disposable income to be able to make that type of a monthly investment. Uh, you’re basically, they’re basically saying influencer marketing is not for you, sorry.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah. And it’s funny. I reached out to this influencer marketing company and the majority of them, you have to set up a zoom, um, like a sales call and they walk you through the platform.

And then on the last slide is the pricing and it’s expensive. Um but one of them was like, I couldn’t find pricing anywhere. I sat with this lady, cuz I’m also genuinely curious, you know, and she basically said, you know, we have a minimum requirement of like, um, a three-month commitment for at least $10,000.

And I was just very candid with her. I was. That’s so expensive, like I’m a handmade candle company, you know? Um, like do people pay that? And she’s like so many people do. 

So the thing is, starting a tech company is not cheap at all. And you wanna get the most return on your investment. So charging $500 to use a platform is how that’s gonna work, you know, but the reason I started Like-Minded Collective is not to be a bajillionaire, you know, it was to solve an actual problem that myself and other people have. And so making that price point as low as I possibly can is what was very important for me. I did a lot of research.

Um, I talked to a lot of people before I even started building this out to people whose wives were influencers who are very familiar with the influencer marketing platform, um, businessmen, I say like, they were all men. They were like, you need to do this, you need to do this. If you wanna make money, you have to do this.

Like, and I said, no, no, no. Like that would put me into the same boat as all these other platforms. And. That’s what I don’t want. You know, so that’s why it was also very important for me. I was like, no offense to men. They’re great in certain areas, but when it comes to listening, they’re not the best. Um, so it just really validated what I was doing because it doesn’t exist.

And a lot of people need it. And by reaching out to people just like on Instagram, in general, going back to the authenticity, like reaching out to people who are my target market and being. Hi, my name is Inbal, this is the platform that I’m thinking about starting or working on. I would love to get your input.

A hundred percent of them are like, oh my God, I’ve been looking for something like this. 

Like, thank you so much for creating something like this, and that’s how you get like raving fans, you know, that love your platform and talk about it. So that’s kind of more R&D that I did.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Yeah, no, I think you did,  like listening to you and just seeing it and knowing my way around it, from what you’ve shared and like the own research that I’ve done, you found a white space, like a massive white space and that’s one of the things that helps brands succeed is that a lot of those platforms are charging a hundred dollars, $800, $10,000 for three months, whatever it may be, they’re all competing in the same arena. 

They’re all just saying the same thing, trying to climb on top of each other. And you kind of just completely circum-navigated the dog pile and you’re like, well, I’m gonna go over here because nobody’s doing this and it’s needed.

And the really beautiful thing is that the size of the community and the collective that you’re building is going to grow so so quickly because that service is not available. And for you to be able to offer different services and products in the future, like maybe you wanna do masterminds, maybe you wanna do digital courses like, you’re perfectly primed to do that. And that’s where the huge revenue can come from. And so you created a service, that’s more, a lower price point for people to enter into that’s not on the market yet, but from there, I mean, you can create as many different offerings as you want to.. 

So without bursting the bubble, do you have any ideas for where you wanna take a like-minded collective moving forward?

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah, I have so many ideas. I want to really try to accommodate the different types of people that sign up. 

So I’m just gonna use myself as an example. 

So, I want a mom day, you know, were like, and I’ve done mom, um, like masterminds before, um, events and it’s like 10% venting, 90% business. 

And I love that because people will be on their, like nursing, their kids, having a head head piece in like, while they’re putting their kids to sleep and like, we get it, you know, I get emotional kind of talking about it because it’s like, it’s so difficult to be a mom and to be an entrepreneur and feel like there’s a space for you, you know?

Um, and so I want to make sure that that is available. Um, military spouses, for example, early-stage tech startups, um, like I want a place for people to be able to practice their pitch. I want a place where VCs are like, Hey, like this platform has incredible founders, like let’s do a pitch day. Um, a pitch day is like a dream for me.

So that’s kind of where I can see the platform growing and go into is like really niche-ing out within the community and providing people, the opportunities to connect with even more like-minded people

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Like identity-based marketing and identity-based niches within your niche. That’s really cool, yeah. I love that concept and like, I have so many clients of mine that are mothers and I have so much compassion for what you guys do because I’ve been on calls where, you know, my client will say, oh, I have to pause the video because my little guy wants to nurse. And I’m like, you do what you gotta do.

I’m here, like, it doesn’t matter. I’m a woman, I understand. And I think creating spaces for people that maybe feel like they don’t fit into the traditional understanding of entrepreneurs is so beautiful. 

And that’s only gonna bring that community that you’re building in even tighter and provide even more value proposition. So that’s both beautiful and really, really smart to hear.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, I think that COVID actually made it more, um, safe, I guess for moms-to-be moms. Um, I remember I was in a clubhouse room, like mid-COVID and it was an investor’s room. And I was asking like, Hey, you know, this is before I was even pregnant with my, with my daughter.

I was had like an eight or nine-month-old at the time. I was like, Hey, like, do you, do you bring up the fact that you’re a mom, there was this other woman who was incredible. She basically did fundraising up until the day she delivered her baby. She was like, crazy. Um, but so I asked her, I was like, you know, do you bring up the fact that you’re a mom?

Um, and she said, yes, like that is who I am. And even some of the men there were like, yes, like we love seeing they were dads. And they were like, we love seeing kids in the background. Like we love, you know, having hearing kids noises, like while you’re pitching, because that just makes you so much more desirable in a sense, because you can multitask and no investor is gonna say no to a good investor that you wanna work with is not gonna say no to you because you’re a mom, you know, they’re gonna look at your projections, they’re gonna look at your traction. They’re gonna look at the promises that you’re making and you know what you’re hoping to gain and see, like, if you actually do that, you know, If you can, that’s amazing. 

It has nothing to do with whether or not you’re a mom and the way that he said that was just like, wow, that’s so true. 

You know, you are a business owner, you’re a mom first and foremost, but.

You’re dealing with investors and they want a return on their investment. And so you have to prove to them that whether or not you’re a mom has nothing to do with it. Um, but it’s always like in the back of your head, you know, as a mom, like, oh, I have to cancel this thing. Like I have to go pick up my daughter, she’s sick, like sending an email, like, oh God, like, please understand.

You know? Whereas like, if it’s another mom, you’re like, Hey girl, my girl’s sick, my daughter’s sick. Like, please let’s cancel. And she’s like, no problem. Yeah. Um, so just like you have that bond, you know, where other people may understand, but it’s always like you’re inside of yourself. You’re like, oh my God.

Like, I feel so bad canceling. Like I literally don’t have any other choice. Mm-hmm um, so yeah, niching down to Like-Minded. People within the community are, um, yeah, but moms are, moms are special.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Very special, extremely special creatures. And the story that you were sharing about founders and investors liking to see the human side of you, there’s this huge example that I read about in a book by Marty Neumeier where he was saying that the design team that was pitching to Crayola had tremendously less experience than these others like Goliath branding agencies that were pitching a Crayon for one of their new product lines. And in the, um, investors meeting, the smaller organization, one of the team members was a school teacher, an elementary school teacher. And when he said that, he’s like, listen, I don’t have a lot of experience like these other guys do. I’m an elementary school teacher and they go wait, stop. And they paused him there and they’re like, you’re an elementary school teacher you’re hired. And they did that because he understood the mindset and the persona and the needs and the eye of little kids, which is perfect for somebody designing for Crayola.

And so I think your story is such a beautiful one to highlight, not to keep those things that are uniquely you, or that are just true to who you are as a person and not discredit them. 

And I understand like I’m not a mother, so I don’t understand the exact internal experience of it, but I can see a mother approaching a specific type of brand with their baby on their hip and the brand hiring them because they like, you have an infant, you get it, like you are hired. 

So, what would your advice be to people who maybe have, um, who maybe do have children or who have a unique quirk in their life that maybe they think they’re discrediting for fear of people not taking them seriously or writing them off? Just from your perspective? I’m curious.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah, I say amplify. There’s people who need to just love who they are, because that’s what you get, right? If you are gonna work with somebody, they need to see who you are completely. And you never know how you’re gonna connect with somebody. Um, I do a room in the clubhouse on Thursdays and it’s like female founder focused.

Um, there’s always this guy in there. His name is Brian. He’s autistic. He is like the most supportive man in the whole entire world. And he always tells a story. and he’s just amazing. And I just love everything about him. I love when he’s on stage. I, because he just is so special, you know? Yep. And he apologized one time or he didn’t.

No, he said he was like, you know, If I can do it, anybody can do it.

And I was like, don’t say that, you know, because like who you are is special and there’s so many things, I’m sure that you do better than me. you know, but like you have to talk about everything that you are because you don’t know who you’re gonna connect with.

There was actually a woman in the audience whose son was autistic and they connected, in that way. So it’s. You have to amplify everything that you are. 

And if you’re the type of person that’s like all over the place and like, that’s how you work, that’s amazing because you know that you need somebody who’s not like that to like, be your co-founder or something.

And like, just be who you are because everybody else is taken. Isn’t that what the quote is?

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: I’ve not heard that all, but I love it.

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah. Be yourself cuz everybody else is taken. Yeah. It’s so true. That’s

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: amazing. That’s amazing. Involved. Thank you so much for joining us today. This was a really powerful conversation.

We went in a thousand different directions, but each one was just so valuable. So thank you for your time and just sharing your experience with us.

For everybody that is looking for a network of female founders, who is looking to build a community, who is looking to connect with influencers, learn new skills, become more educated as a businesswoman, where can they find like-minded collective and where can they connect with you?

Guest | Inba Claudio: Yeah. So my Instagram is @like.minded.collective, and I run my social media. So message me on there. Um, I think we were saying 50% off their first month for people who listen to this podcast. Um, the coupon code is wild50 and, um, message me all my links are on their website, everything. So message me.

If you have any questions, like I said earlier, I love connecting with women on the platform. Like I just love connecting with women founders, so message me let’s connect and thank you so much, um, for an incredible interview. I appreciate you.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Of course. I appreciate you too. Thank you so much.

Wild Womn fam, thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of the hotline. I am so appreciative to have you here, and if you’re interested in learning more about influencer marketing and checking out The Like-Minded Collective, I actually have a code for you. That’s gonna give you 50% off your first month. So that code is wild50. 

I am taking advantage of this opportunity to go check out the like-minded collective because I am highly, highly, highly ready to start using influencer marketing as part of our marketing campaigns and part of our visibility and outreach campaigns. 

So you will see more influencer marketing coming from Wild Woman Haus. And if you are interested in connecting with influencers or introducing yourself to female founders and cultivating a supportive network that can help you troubleshoot your business creatively problem solve, I 10 outta 10, suggest that you join me inside of the like-minded collective. 

On top of that, Inbal invited me to host a guest expert workshop inside of a Like-Minded Collective, which will be happening in October. So if you are a member, you can come hang out with me there.

I’m gonna be talking about all things, brand strategy, trend forecasting, brand marketing, building a strategic brand. All of the things I am so thankful that you tuned in for today’s final episode. And if you found a lot of value and insight, maybe you learned something new. I would love to hear your feedback.

If you could leave us a rating or review on the Apple podcast, that’ll really help us get in front of more listeners. Like you who need to hear the information that we are sharing through this show. So thank you so much for tuning in. Forever cheering you on now. Go get that big impact and big income that you are after.