April 23, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode, we sit down with Frida Waywell, founder of LOCUS, to explore how holistic practitioners can tap into brand partnerships as a meaningful and aligned revenue stream—even without a large social media following. As the influencer landscape shifts, brands in the wellness space are moving away from traditional lifestyle influencers and toward trusted experts with engaged, niche communities. That means practitioners like you—who hold genuine client relationships and specialized knowledge—are becoming highly valuable partners in the marketing world.
Frida shares practical, no-fluff strategies on why brands are prioritizing practitioner partnerships in 2025 and beyond, along with how even a small, loyal client base of 20–50 people can attract paid collaborations. She also tackles on tracking outreach, following up, and building long-term brand relationships, and creating partnerships that feel authentic and supportive to your audience. Tune in and learn how to turn your practice into a platform for aligned collaboration in the growing world of conscious brand marketing.
Check out Heallist.com for digital tools created just for holistic healers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Yuli (00:04):
Welcome to the Healist Podcast, where we inspire and
guide healers through businessexpansion.
We give voice to incrediblyabundant healers to share their
stories.
We dive into the quantum fieldto unlock the energies of
conscious creation.
We also develop digital toolsto help you grow, which you can
(00:25):
find on healistcom.
I'm your host, Yuli, and I'mgrateful you chose to join this
space.
Now let's go deep.
Hello, my dear friends, andwelcome to another super
insightful episode of theHealist Podcast.
I'm really, really happy totackle a new subject today that
(00:47):
we actually haven't covered onthis podcast yet, and it's
unlocking brand partnerships forhealers, and I'm really excited
for our guest today.
Svita Waywell is the founder ofLocus Agency, a consultancy
specializing in connectingwellness experts and creators
(01:07):
with brands and corporateopportunities.
With deep understanding of boththe holistic and business world
, she helps healers and wellnessexperts expand their reach,
create impactful partnershipsand build sustainable revenue
streams, and in this episode,she's going to share all the
insights on how you, my dearfriends, can collaborate with
(01:31):
companies you love and use thatto grow your practice and your
brand and your businesses.
So really really lookingforward to this conversation and
my intention for this episodeto really inspire all of you and
really open your horizons andopen this new door of
(01:52):
opportunity that many of youmight not even think about, this
new potential of a completelyamazing and new revenue channel
that you can create right now.
So, rita, welcome to thepodcast and feel free to set
your intention as well.
Frida (02:10):
Thank you so much for having me, Yuli.
I feel really excited to getinto this and I think it's going
to be so, so valuable foreveryone listening.
So my intention for thispodcast episode is definitely to
have the listeners youlistening right now, for you to
feel confident after listeningto this episode, to get your
(02:33):
first brand deal or get yournext brand deal with a brand
that you truly love and a brandthat you are truly excited to
work for.
And if you don't quite knowwhat brand deals look like, we
are definitely going to expandinto that in the episode as well
.
But that is my intention andI'm very excited to share
(02:54):
everything I know with you.
Yeah.
Yuli (02:58):
Love it and I love actionable episodes, and this is
one of those.
Okay, we're going to pack itwith a lot of great advice and
hopefully all of you can learnsomething new.
So, speaking of learning, Ithink a lot of our listeners
might be new to the idea.
A lot of practitioners that getto the space they come mostly
with this deep desire to helpclients heal right, whatever
(03:22):
modality they choose.
That's where they come from.
So now we're introducing a newconcept that, besides of helping
their clients, there's alsothis other opportunity that they
can create in their practice,and it's helping brands and
companies that are obviouslyenergetically aligned in all
(03:45):
forms and shapes to work withthem and help those companies
bring their amazing products totheir clients or other consumers
.
So can you, just before we diveinto more details, can you just
give an idea of what thosebrand collaborations look like,
(04:06):
or why practitioners even wouldbe attractive for brands and
companies?
Frida (04:15):
Yes, of course.
So obviously you mentioned thatworking with brands as a
practitioner is helping thebrand grow, but I think as a
practitioner, as an expert, youcould also see it as this is
also helping your clients,because a brand collaboration
looks like a brand that you loveselling supplements, for
(04:36):
example.
They will either reach out toyou or you will reach out to
them and offer some kind ofcollaboration.
This is just the basis of howthis collaboration looks like,
and in exchange for promotingtheir products that could be
through Instagram content, thatcould be through client
referrals, that could be throughany agreement that you have you
will get maybe a commission,you will get free products or
(04:59):
you will get a flat fee.
So that is the basis of how abrand collaboration looks and I
think, from what I have workedwith with my brands, they love
working with practitionersbecause you already have a
community of people or clientswho trust you in your specific
field, in your specific niche,depending on what you are
(05:21):
teaching.
So if the brand that you wantto work with aligns with your
customers and your clients, thatis very, very valuable for the
brand, because then you alreadyhave a community that the brand
can easily tap into because theytrust you, and a lot of the
problem that brands are facingright now health and wellness
(05:41):
brands, whether they're sellingsupplements or wearables the
problem they're facing is trust.
There's so many brands so it'svery hard for consumers and us
to know, okay, what is highquality.
So if you, as a practitioner,truly love a brand and you have
a community or you have clientsthat trust you, that brand is
(06:05):
going to see you as veryvaluable because you have people
that they can tap into thatalready trust you, so the brand
doesn't have to build that trust.
So hopefully that answers thequestion as to how a brand
collaboration looks.
But it's basically products orit's a flat fee, and then you
are creating content or you aresharing the brand with your
(06:26):
clients.
So you don't necessarily haveto be creating content on social
media every single day, butthere's other ways that you can
actually collaborate with abrand.
That doesn't mean that you haveto be an influencer as well,
because I also think that'smaybe what you are hesitating
towards as well.
You know you don't want to bean influencer.
You don't want to be posting onsocial media every day.
(06:47):
Maybe that's also a barrier tosome people.
Yuli (06:49):
No, absolutely, and you touched on so many great points
that I want to follow up beforeI forget.
So one really important pointis that you touched on the
subject of community, and I feellike this is something that a
lot of practitioners undervalueis they see their clients as
just simply clients, while infact, you're absolutely right A
(07:11):
lot of them build incrediblecommunities around a specific
niche, and even if it's a smallcommunity let's say you have a
total of 100 clients, right thatyou have amassed and it sounds
like a small number, right?
Why would anyone or any brandinterested in that number?
(07:31):
But we know anyone who works ina marketing field, right that
even a small number of highlyengaged and trusted clients or
members of your community hastremendous value.
So can you talk a little bitabout that?
Like, who are we talking abouthere?
Because I'm just thinking somepractitioners might be listening
(07:53):
now thinking well, I'm onlystarting out, I only have like a
50, 100 clients, like it's notfor me, right.
So let's address that addressthat Definitely, honestly.
Frida (08:09):
I was going to say 20, 50 clients.
That is great, because theseclients your clients as a
practitioner they trust you.
So, anything that you recommend, if it's from a genuine place
and, like you said, the brandshould be an energetic match as
well and you should love thebrand that you are going to
collaborate with.
Anything that you recommend,your clients and your community
(08:32):
are going to trust yourrecommendation.
And, yeah, I think notundervaluing your clients as a
community and really nurturingthat is going to go a long way,
especially when you want toincrease your revenue, because
if we're talking aboutincreasing revenue as well, when
you recommend a product to yourclient and you have a special
discount code for them, you canearn commission on that discount
code, and that's usually howone of my clients right now,
(08:53):
that's how we work withpractitioners.
So we reach out topractitioners and we say, hey,
we think that you or yourclients are going to love our
product because we see that you,you specialize in gut health
and you're helping people healtheir gut.
For example, we have someincredible supplements that we'd
love you to recommend, so we'llsend you some supplements.
You can try the supplements andthen recommend it to your
(09:16):
clients.
The size of your communityreally it doesn't matter.
If it's small, however, youview it as small if it's 10
people in your community.
If it's 100 people, that isstill valuable for the brand
because that can still be 10repeat customers that they have
loving and vouching for thebrand, and then for you as a
(09:37):
practitioner, that can be 10, 50people buying the products and
you can get 10% 20% of eachpurchase of those products as
well.
So that's, when it comes in, aswell as an amazing revenue
stream.
So the brand is going to see itas valuable because you have a
specific niche and you'resolving a specific problem, and
(09:58):
that's what health brands reallywant.
They want experts who aresolving a problem.
And also what I'm seeing in theindustry with health and
wellness brands is they'removing away from more
traditional wellness lifestyleinfluencers and they're moving
more into people who are expertsin a specific healing modality,
and that's what you, as apractitioner, have on your side.
(10:20):
Like, you are an expert in aniche and brands really, really
value that.
Yuli (10:26):
That's incredible to know and thank you for this insight,
because you know someone who, inmy previous career chapter,
worked a lot with social mediainfluencers right.
I know how diverse that spaceis and you know there are people
that are getting in the spacepurely for just to become a
social media influencer rightand build a career out of that
(10:49):
as a content creator Nothingwrong with that.
But I have a feeling a lot ofour social media is not natural
to them and a lot of them stillmight feel like this is not
(11:09):
their core expertise.
This is not what they do, and Ithink, unfortunately, that term
influencer kind of implies somesocial media expertise, some
willingness to live in thepublic eye and expose different
sides of their lives or theirpersonalities be seen right,
which is not natural maybe to alot of practitioners.
(11:32):
But I love that.
You said that we're coming morefrom this angle of expert right,
that more companies are lookingfor true experts, not kind of
like this vanity personas thatare built purely for you know
this social media machine andthe algorithm and they know how
to create the perfect content.
They have this machine behindthem and a lot of them, even
(11:55):
though they have large audiences, they're actually very
ineffective in selling a product.
I know that firsthand from youknow, again, working with
influencers and how many brandswould be surprised, right, when
they come in and they say, Iwant to work with this person
who has millions of followers,right, and they throw a lot of
money in those people and in theend, the results can be really,
(12:19):
really underwhelming, right.
So we're talking about thistrend of actually brands are
finally realizing that it's notabout the number of followers or
that vanity metrics or even thepersona of our celebrity status
.
It's more about, especiallywhen it comes to wellness, it's
(12:40):
about that true expertise, right.
Frida (12:44):
Definitely.
I think I am seeing now thatbrands are looking way less into
followings and they're lookingmore into niche communities,
because the brands that I'mtalking about they have science
backed health products.
They have health products thatsolve specific problems.
So lifestyle your typicallifestyle influencers don't know
(13:05):
fully how to talk about thatproduct and how to sell that
product and they don't love thatproduct.
So even if they have a hundredthousand followers, maybe those
a hundred thousand followers areinto lifestyle, they're into
fashion, they're into just theeveryday vlogging style content,
whereas if you have a few, afew hundred, a few thousand
(13:26):
followers who are deeplyinvested and passionate about
health and they want to learnmore about that, that is way
more valuable and even in thebrand's eye, that is valuable.
So that's why practitioners arebecoming very, very valuable.
Even though you might have nofollowing, you might have a very
small community, you might havea very small following.
(13:47):
It's really not about the, thenumber of followers anymore, but
it's about the niche community,and I'm seeing this with a
brand right now that we'reworking with.
We have found like huge amountsof success working with micro
experts in the wellness industryversus working as in micro, as
(14:07):
in very small following versusworking with macro influencers
who have larger followings buttheir followers are not.
They're not even almosteducated about the health space.
So it's really important thatyour followers or your community
, they're already invested.
So when you have a product torecommend that's already kind of
been on their radar, they'vealready been considering it in
(14:28):
the past.
So you as a practitioner, thentalking about a product is way
more likely to convert youraudience to buy, and brands see
that too.
Yuli (14:38):
Amazing.
Well, hopefully we inspiredsome of you or convinced some of
you that you actually have alot of value and I think you
know most of the practitioners Isee that we see on our platform
.
They build amazing communities.
Even if they're small, I canjust tell they're very engaged.
And even if you don't post allthe time on social but you just,
(15:01):
you know your clients followyou and when you do post they
pay attention right, becausethey know your content has high
quality.
Frida (15:11):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, just to reiterate that thesmall followings you have is
extremely, extremely valuable,and I think it's just a matter
of not comparing yourself toinfluencers and to maybe other
practitioners who have largerfollowings and actually looking
at the engagement rate, becausethat is what we look at with all
(15:33):
the brands we work with as well.
We're looking at how engaged arethese communities and if there
is any way that you can gather,like testimonials or reviews or
anything, just to reassureyourself that what you are doing
is very valuable, that alsohelps as well, just with your
self-worth, because if there isanything blocking you from
(15:53):
reaching out to brands, or ifyou're feeling like I don't have
a thousand followers, I don'thave a few thousand followers,
then stop looking at thefollowers and look at the other
things I said.
Look at the positive feedbackyou're getting, look at the
reviews.
Maybe you can compile that intoa folder or into some kind of
PDF and be like actually what Ido is very valuable, my
(16:14):
engagement rate is high, myaudience trusts me, my community
trusts me, I'm helping people.
That is way more valuable thanthe numbers on the platform, and
brands are starting to see thattoo.
Trust me.
We're seeing that largely inthe health space, the fashion
industry.
That's a different story.
We're talking about health andwe're talking about brands that
are actually changing people'slives through their products.
Yuli (16:37):
Amazing.
So, since you mentioned whatbrands are actually looking for,
so, outside of the social mediafollowing and engagement and
some of those testimonials andreviews and just success stories
and engagement rates, what elsedo brands look for and how can
those experts and practitionersposition themselves better for
(17:01):
brand collaborations?
Frida (17:03):
Yes, of course.
So, of course, your socialmedia presence is important and
how you are showing up online.
Not to say that if you don'thave a social media presence,
that means you can't get branddeals, because you definitely
can, and that's what we're doingwith some of our practitioners
right now and working with abrand, but how you can position
yourself, creating some kind ofmedia kit.
(17:27):
So, like I said, with thetestimonials and with the
engagement rate, that is the keything that is going to get you
brand deals.
To be honest, if you can puttogether some kind of one pager
or some kind of PDF with justsome statistics or your work or
how many clients you have or howbig your community is, if you
can put that in a one pager,that is going to make everything
(17:48):
so much easier for the brand tosee the value straight away.
Because, also, these brands,they are busy.
Maybe they're not vetting eachpractitioner, each influencer
one by one.
So if you can just give themthe details like, hey, this is
me, this is what I do, this iswho I work with, the amazing
(18:09):
reviews I get, this is myengagement rate.
If you are on social media,you'll have an engagement rate
that you can just find in yourinsights.
This is where my audience arebased, this is where my clients
are based, this is what they'restruggling with and this is why
I think we would be a great fitand you can just create a base
template and then you canpersonalize that with each brand
that you reach out to a littlebit.
(18:30):
So if there's like a specificproblem that your clients are
facing, you can personalize thatdepending on what the brand is
that you're reaching out to.
But the main thing I'd recommendis just position yourself and
just have this one pager andthen really trust in yourself
that the community you have andwhat you do is very valuable to
(18:51):
this brand and position yourselfas a person of value as well.
You are not begging for thisbrand to work with you.
You are not begging for thisbrand deal, but you are saying,
hey, I would love to work withyour brand.
I think this collaborationwould be really valuable to my
community.
I think they would reallybenefit from your product.
I would love to discuss this,let me know, and you can even
(19:11):
say let's book in a quick call,you know, just really showing up
as though this is mutuallybeneficial for me because I
would love to share the productand my community would love it.
But it's also very beneficialfor the brand and that will take
you so far, even like.
It doesn't matter about thefollowing when you are
positioning yourself like that,if someone, if a brand sees that
(19:33):
they're going to be like, wow,what a nice message to receive.
What a nice person wanting topromote our products.
Yes, let's hop on a call andlet's see what deal we can do,
whether it's a flat fee whetherit's gifting, whether it's a
commission rate Amazing.
Yuli (19:53):
So before we just talk a little more about the brand
outreach and how and how manyways it can work, I just wanted
to add something.
As you were talking about allthe things that they can put on
that one pager, I was alsothinking about all the beautiful
events and workshops andretreats they're hosting.
That could be very valuable forbrands as well, because it
could be like opportunity forgifting or exploring products
(20:16):
right.
Frida (20:17):
Definitely such a good point.
I know that a lot of my clientsand brands they want to sponsor
retreats as well Goodie bags,sponsoring retreats with goodie
bags, sponsoring retreats with aleaflet and a code.
I know that recently we havesome digestive enzymes a brand
saying digestive enzymes and werecently sponsored a retreat
(20:40):
where I think it was every lunchand every dinner there were
digestive enzymes for people totake as they were eating so that
they could digest the food andthat was great for the brand and
then the brand also offered 20%off for everybody who was
attending the retreat.
So you can do that.
You can also pitch that tobrands and that is a great way
for the brand to get more reach,for the brand, to get
(21:02):
potentially repeat customersthat are your clients.
And it's also great for youhosting a retreat, because then
everyone who's at the retreatgets free products, they get to
try some new products andusually you can just get the
brand.
You just get the brandsponsoring the retreat for free.
Yuli (21:17):
Amazing, yeah.
So I love to bring those ideasbecause I think a lot of people
are diving into the retreatspace these days, or at least
you know even local retreats,right?
I'm seeing different, like halfday mini retreat or a one day
retreat or a weekend.
It doesn't need to be you knowsomething in bali or something
(21:38):
exotic.
It can be even like a half dayworkshop you're hosting.
But isn't it nice to provideyour clients with that extra
value?
You know, maybe even grow withthe brand to a point that
they're actually offering tosponsor it and even with it with
the fee, because I think thethe key in those collaborations
not seeing it as kind of thisone-off right the key is to
(22:00):
build a partnership that youprovide so much value that the
brand wants to help you grow,right.
Frida (22:07):
Definitely, and I've seen this even happen with dinners
that people are hosted.
If you've hosted a dinner, likeyou said, a half day retreat,
retreat, a workshop, you candefinitely think creatively and
think, okay, what brands do Iwant to sponsor, do I want to
have here, what brands do I wantto highlight here?
What would go well with theclients?
And, yes, a long-termcollaboration.
(22:28):
Brands are also looking forlong, long-term collaborations
and the reason is because whenpeople see a specific person so
when people see you talkingabout a brand multiple times
your clients, your communitythey're way more likely to buy
that brand after the third,fourth, fifth time that you're
actually talking about it, notthe first.
(22:50):
So if you are as a practitioner,if you are pitching yourself,
so, if you are as a practitioner, if you are pitching yourself,
always come up with likepackages for a longer term
collaboration, and this can be athree-month collaboration.
Or you can say, okay, I wouldlove for you to send some
products to sponsor this retreat, and then I would also love to
create content here for you andI would love to do.
I would love to talk about youin my community as well.
(23:13):
So it could be threeendorsements that you do.
There can be different levelsto packages like this.
Yuli (23:19):
Amazing.
Yes, as many kind of differenttouch points, what we call it
again, marketing terms throwinghere, but people do need
multiple touch points.
So anything you can think aboutin different mediums, different
opportunities.
Think about in differentmediums, different opportunities
.
Also, I'm going to throw inmailing list huge value, right,
Because I think we often thinkabout social media.
(23:40):
You don't even have to be onsocial media If you have a
decent size mailing list that ishighly curated and people that
actually open and read youremails.
That's a goldmine, right.
Frida (23:54):
Totally, totally.
I was going to touch on mailinglists.
If you write a blog, but theseare very valuable and you can
get paid to have a brand want tofeature their products in your
mailing list.
If, like you said, your mailinglist is every day where you
love writing and you providevalue in that way, focus and
(24:20):
grow your mailing list and youcan get amazing sponsors there.
But also client referrals andhaving a commission code where
you can just refer products toyour clients.
That's also a very underratedway to actually increase revenue
and promote a brand as well.
So if you don't have a followingbut you're telling the brand,
hey, if you're not on socialmedia but you want to refer the
(24:44):
products to your clients, youcan just say I would love to
refer your products and have acommission code.
The brand loses nothing forcreating a commission code for
you.
And then if you end up sellinga lot of products for that brand
, then you can say, hey, I'mactually selling a lot of
products for you.
Like, my clients keep buyingyour products.
They're amazing.
Let's count.
Can we work something out wherewe have a flat fee for this and
(25:05):
I promote you this many timesand then you can work from there
.
And again, that's a long-termcollaboration.
We're looking for long-term,sustainable collaborations that
can go month on month and reallycan make a massive difference
to the revenue that you'remaking.
Yuli (25:21):
Amazing Because I think, also from a brand perspective,
they're probably not looking towork with, just you know,
hundreds or thousands ofinfluencers.
They want to buildrelationships with a few key
people and, you know, continuethat and grow that.
It's just much easier from abrand perspective.
Frida (25:38):
Exactly.
It's also so much easier for abrand to not manage hundreds of
influencers with hundreds ofthousands of followers.
It's much easier to manage justselect experts who are
consistently talking about theproduct and who don't damage
their brand reputation as well,because these health brands they
have a reputation so theyactually don't want influencers
(26:00):
of you know all sorts like doingpaid collaborations with them
and being the face behind theirbrand, because that doesn't
necessarily look good for thebrand as well.
So it's a lot about the brandreputation and you as a
practitioner, you make the brandlook good.
You're an expert in your fieldand the brands really value that
you make the brand look good.
You're an expert in your fieldand the brands really value that
Amazing.
Yuli (26:20):
So let's talk more about, first of all, what kind of
brands, just to give peopleideas.
So we talk about supplementbrands.
Let's throw some othercategories that people can
really think about and make ashort list I love making.
When I had with my previouscompany, I worked with a lot of
big brands.
I had my short list of my dreambrands to work with and we're
(26:42):
just going down the list and wegot a lot of them.
But I think maybe inspiringpeople to make a short list and
look at different categoriesright that they could be
valuable for.
Frida (26:54):
Yes, that's such a good idea.
So I would suggest you'remaking a list of your dream
brands that you would like towork with, but also making a
list of different categoriesthat relate to your expertise
and what you are teaching andwhat you are helping your
clients with.
So it could be skincare, itcould be haircare, it could be
supplements, it could besupplements.
(27:15):
It could be supplementsfocusing on adaptogens,
nootropics, like what is the,what is the niche?
And can you make multiplecategories and then write down
your dream brands?
And I would say it's always funto write down like the dream
brand, like go big, write downdream brands and then write down
some brands that you have foundthat you can just reach out to
(27:38):
right now.
So maybe you start with thesmaller brands if that makes you
feel more comfortable.
You start with brands that arealso just starting out.
You start with brands that arejust medium-sized they have a
few thousand followers onInstagram, but nothing more Just
to see if you actually likeworking with brands, if you
actually enjoy this way ofworking, if you like
recommending products to yourclients and with health products
(27:59):
.
It also takes time.
You want to try the product foryourself and see if it works,
or you want your clients to trythe product, so you want it to
be authentic as well.
But in terms of differentcategories, yeah, like all the
different, like healthmodalities, you know, like
skincare supplements, whetherit's something to do with
wearables or infrared, or maybeyou're doing like mindfulness it
(28:23):
can be something along thoselines, whether it's meditation
apps.
There's so many different waysyou can be creative about
different brands.
Yuli (28:31):
Like food and nutrition, right Different like meal plans
and company.
Like there's so much just inthe food category.
I feel like there's so manydifferent subcategories.
Frida (28:41):
Yes, that is very true, and I do recommend as well, if
you're using ChatGPT or AI, youcan get that to outline all of
these different categories foryou, and then you will have a
huge, a big idea of wow, there'sso many brands that I can work
with, so many brands that I canactually reach out to today and
(29:01):
just try and just pitch yourself.
Yuli (29:04):
And also, I'm just thinking as we speak and ideas
just roll in because there's somuch to do.
I'm thinking also if you arecreating some sort of a plan for
your clients, right, you mightbe already recommending some
categories or some products,right, and that would be the
most natural area to look into.
(29:24):
For example, if you are awellness coach, right, that does
provide some nutritional advice, right, look at the products
that you.
Or, because people people lovegeneral advice, but they
actually love just just tell methe product to use, right, just
tell me the product to buy,because people don't have time
to do their own research.
So you can't just take thesupplement example.
(29:46):
You can't just tell them justgo take some enzymes, right,
they want to know, okay, whichbrand should I buy?
Because they're looking for youand I know from my experience
anytime a practitioner tells medo you have to try this, like
probiotic, whatever, I just goand buy it.
I don't even ask questions.
I know they tested it onmultiple clients.
So just be specific.
So look at the plans orrecommendations that you already
(30:09):
provide to your clients andthink about brands that you
might be already recommending.
You just never thought aboutreaching out to them actually in
a more official capacity, andthat would be a great place to
start right, oh, that is so true, such a good point?
Frida (30:24):
Yeah, because it's like you said.
It's likely that you're alreadyrecommending products and your
clients, your customers, theywant the product.
I'm the same.
I'm like if you're going torecommend probiotics or enzymes,
just tell me the brand, send methe link, like.
And if you have a discount code, amazing, like, send it to me
and I will take them and I willtrust you, and that, again, just
reassures the value that youhave to these brands, that
(30:47):
people already trust you becauseyou are a practitioner, because
you help people.
So I definitely yeah, Idefinitely recommend that and
you can even just make a list,make a list of those things, the
list of things that you alreadyrecommend, and then start
researching into some, into somebrands, looking at your
favorite brands and seeing thisas an opportunity to work with
these brands.
(31:07):
So what is the?
Yuli (31:08):
best way to reach out then .
So let's say we made a list ofbrands.
Let's say you may be followingthem on social media.
You know, we know practitionersdon't have time to research and
find their head of marketing orinfluencer programs.
What is the best and mosteffective way outside?
Of course, working with awonderful agency, and I'm sure
(31:31):
you have a lot of greatrelationship already in place
with many great influencers.
But what are the most commonways to actually proactively
work with brands?
Of course, if a brand reachesout to you, that's an easier
route.
You can just take theconversation from there.
But if you want it to beproactive, what do you do?
Frida (31:49):
Yeah, that's a very good point.
I think there's some short-termstrategies and some longer-term
strategies.
So, short-term and long-term,of course, you can work with an
agency and you can just havethem kind of source and do the
work for you.
But if we're talking, okay, Ireally want, if you really want
brand deals like ASAP and youhave the time, then it would be
(32:12):
outreaching.
It would be reaching out viaInstagram DMs and if you're not
confident in your Instagramprofile or your social media
presence, then it will bereaching out via email and again
, making this one pager, makingthis pitch for yourself, a super
brief email that just positionsyou as a person of value, and
reaching out like that.
(32:33):
This does take time and this istime consuming.
You can also like copy andpaste the email.
You can send the same one pager.
It doesn't have to take toomuch time.
But in the short term, that ishow you're probably going to get
your first brand deals, because, as well, it is really
effective to personally reachout to a brand.
(32:55):
So, reaching out by email andDM.
If we're thinking long-term,then I would really recommend
building your personal brand,and your personal brand is
different to just being aninfluencer, but that is becoming
a thought leader on socialmedia.
Now, I know some of you areprobably very hesitant to
(33:15):
showing up on social mediabecause I think, with
practitioners, you love the workthat you do for your clients so
much that maybe showing up onsocial media and posting a lot
there just doesn't appeal to youvery much.
But building a personal brand,even on a platform like LinkedIn
, which is very written based,can help you to grow.
Your newsletter can help youestablish authority.
(33:36):
You can grow a following thereand then brands are going to
find you more organically andthat's going to make the
pitching process a whole loteasier.
When you have a following andyou can just reach out to a
brand, they're way more likely.
They are more likely to see youand to just be like oh yeah,
okay, you have followers, I cansee it.
Okay, you're an expert.
So in the long term, if youreally want to use this as a
(33:59):
strategy to generate revenue,long term, I do recommend
building a personal brand foryourself.
Short term, I would say anagency or just reaching out,
dedicating some time per week itcould be one hour per week and
you're like okay, in this onehour I'm just going to do reach
out to brands.
I'm going to focus on thisrevenue stream that now I want
(34:23):
to put one hour a week into, sowe can just be dedicating a
little time like that.
Yuli (34:28):
I love that.
I love that Take an hour a weekand explore this, and it could
actually be a really joyfulproject, right?
Because you might actuallydiscover some brands, you might
connect with some of yourfavorite brands that you're
already using and loving, andyou might build new partnerships
.
Frida (34:46):
It will never go as time wasted, for sure.
Even if partnerships don'thappen, which I doubt it I think
if you are pitching yourselfwell and you're consistent with
this, I'm sure you will get somebrand collaborations.
But even if not, you willdiscover some amazing brands.
You will have some products torefer to your clients.
(35:09):
And also we haven't touched onjust quickly a lot of brands
have an affiliate program ontheir website as well, where you
can just sign up as anaffiliate and you can try it
there and then, without actuallyreaching out to the brand I do
always recommend reaching out tothe brand, because then you're
going to build a relationshipwith someone on the brand team
but a lot of brands, at thebottom of their website, they
(35:30):
have a link that says become anaffiliate and anyone can sign up
.
You can just sign up there Ifyou truly love a brand.
Right now you can check theirwebsite, see if they have an
affiliate program, and there wego, you can try that out and you
can take it from there and youwill be able to see how many
sales you make.
You'll be able to earncommission straight away.
So this is also a great way toget started.
Yuli (35:52):
Amazing, such a good tip.
Okay, so go on that list youmade of all your favorite brands
.
Frida (35:58):
Go look at their footer of the website and see if
Exactly and wherever youorganize all of your notes I use
Notion as a platform andwherever you organize things,
whether it's in a Googledocument just have all of your
affiliate codes and youraffiliate links in a document.
This is my code, so that youcan easily go in.
(36:18):
You know what your codes are,you know what your personalized
links are and everything's inone place, and this is like.
These are your links that youcan earn money from, and that's
(36:40):
the amazing thing about you as apractitioner you have a
community that you can not useto make money, but you can help
them and, in return, help thesebrands as well.
That's what it's all about.
It's all about helping yourclients with amazing products,
and obviously, I know thatyou're not going to recommend a
product if you don't love it.
That's awesome.
Yuli (37:00):
Absolutely, and I love the idea of a spreadsheet in terms
of just tracking tool as welland just evaluating, right and
just keeping track.
Okay, you know, this is I'mtesting, let's say, three
products this month, threeproducts this month I became an
affiliate and kind of tracksuccess too.
You know what kind of responseyou're getting from your clients
(37:21):
to how many sales you'reactually making, how much money
it's making for you, and kind ofalso quantify your efforts.
Right and the same for theoutreach event.
I also recommend, just to addon that, just keep track of
everyone you're reaching out toand keep some sort of like a
progress sheet and also followup.
(37:43):
I mean, people don't always notalways going to respond to your
first email.
Don't get discouraged, but Ithink sometimes, like nudging
somebody hey, I was reallyreally excited about this
partnership, I just want to knowyour thoughts.
Just send a quick follow up,Don't just kind of leave it.
So when you start trackingthose things and managing it
(38:03):
properly and following up, Ithink you're going to see some
success for sure.
Frida (38:10):
For sure.
Following up is so underratedand I think it's a lot about
mindset.
When it comes to outreach andfollow-ups, you're not being a
pain, you're not being annoying,following up.
You could potentially help themso much.
The brand can benefit so muchfrom working with you and I
think when you're reaching outin that mindset and in that
(38:32):
which is in that energy, whenyou're following on with that
energy of I want to help thisbrand I was really excited to
work with you I just thinkthey're way more likely to reply
.
That's how and it works right.
But if you're reaching outfeeling like, oh no, I don't
want to reach, I don't want toreach out again, I feel like I'm
being so annoying, then thenthe they're way less likely to
(38:54):
reply.
I usually find yeah, absolutely.
Yuli (38:58):
And again, I think it comes down to the value.
If you really truly believe inthe value you provide and you're
truly excited about it, I can'timagine a brand not just even
responding to that, right, if Ifthey don't respond, it's
probably because they got lostin their inbox or someone
dropped the ball, which happens,you know.
Frida (39:18):
That also happens.
That usually happens.
You know.
They maybe have a full inboxthey've just opened or they
thought I'm going to get back tothem later and then they've
just forgotten.
But any email that'scomplimenting a brand and just
genuinely asking for anauthentic collaboration, they're
going to read that and they'regoing to be happy.
Yuli (39:36):
So, with that in mind, any best practices let's say, you
got your dream brand, they saidyes to collaboration, they're
giving it a try any bestpractices are actually how to
make it a successfulcollaboration because, again,
from my experience, you know onething is to sell somebody on
(39:57):
the idea, but the execution is abig part of it, because now you
need to.
I know you can guaranteeresults right when working with
brands and you can guaranteethat all your clients are going
to buy the products or whatever.
It is right, but what is theexpectation then from a brand
and what's some of the thingsthat you can do, you know,
(40:18):
during the collaboration, maybeas a follow-up, to really
continue building that greatrelationship yeah, of course so.
Frida (40:26):
So it depends on what the agreement with the brand is,
and maybe you don't have anagreement, maybe it's just okay.
You have a commission code andyou're going to promote these
products, and I would say wetalked about multiple touch
points, right?
So your customers, your clients, they need multiple touch
points to do with this brand.
So that means maybe weekly,you're mentioning this brand on
(40:48):
your social media, or bi-weekly,just quickly, on stories.
It doesn't have to be somethingthat takes so much effort and
then you're recommending theproducts to your clients in
their nutrition plans or howeverit is that you work.
And then what I would recommendis I think what the brand
really, really would appreciateis, at the end of 30 days of
(41:09):
working together, you can sendthem a little summary, send them
yeah, this is.
You can even send reviews.
This is what my client thoughtof this product.
This is how many people lovethis product.
This is how many people areconsidering this product.
The brand is going to appreciatethat.
So, so much.
They're going to be like, wow,this person is taking this
collaboration very seriously.
(41:30):
They're going to appreciatethat so much, and the goal is to
get a flat fee, I think, forcollaborations.
That's what we all want.
So the more effort that you areputting in in the beginning and
the more you are beingproactive about it and having a
relationship with the brand, themore likely it is that they are
going to pay you a flat feejust to be sharing, just to be
(41:52):
promoting their products,instead of just the commission
code and a flat fee.
That can be, you know, a fewhundred dollars, that can be a
few thousand dollars, you know,depending on the brand,
depending on the deliverables.
And then, once you have a flatfee, you will have specific
video content to create.
Maybe you have to promote theproducts in your community once
(42:13):
a week or once every two weeksor once a month or something.
Then there'll be specificdeliverables.
But, yeah, that is what I wouldrecommend.
Yuli (42:23):
Amazing.
Well, such helpful advice Ican't believe we're like running
out of time and there's so muchto talk about and I think it's
been really incredible andhopefully enlightening for a lot
of our listeners and just givesthem a lot of great ideas how
else they can bring moreabundance to their practice.
And you know, as we talk, I alsowanted to mention that Frida
(42:44):
and I have been collaborating ona new way that Healist will be
able, in the future, to bringyou, or in the very near future,
actually, maybe by the timethis episode comes out we'll be
able to go live with some testson our platform as well.
But really the idea is and whatwe're talking about is, how can
we help those brands connectwith you, my dear practitioners,
(43:07):
in a more efficient way, andhow can we help match and bring
together the brands who arereally looking for your
expertise and you.
So stay tuned for moreannouncements, but this is where
we're trying to achieve,because the more we talk, the
(43:27):
more we realize how muchopportunity there is and no one
is really there to help on bothends Right To help you as
practitioners to connect withsoundless brands, and the same
for brands they have to siftthrough so much social media
noise just to find the true,authentic experts that you are.
(43:48):
So it's actually service onboth communities and I'm just
excited to facilitate it.
Frida (43:55):
Oh, I'm so excited, yuli.
That is the reason why Ireached out to Yuli actually,
because I am working with brandswho want to work with
practitioners and then I found,oh my God, there's a platform
full of practitioners.
This is amazing.
So then I thought we would jumpon a call.
So that just hopefullyreassures you listening now that
(44:16):
the brands really do want towork with experts in the health
industry.
It's not about your following,it's not about these vanity
metrics, but it's really aboutthe value that you're providing
and the trust you have with yourniche community.
That is the direction that thisinfluencer marketing is going
in.
So I really hope, from thispodcast, you have some
(44:37):
actionable steps that you cantake away now, you know, like
making the spreadsheet, maybemaking your one pager, looking
at your engagement rate orfiguring out do I want to
promote products in mynewsletter?
Do I want to promote productsto my clients?
Do I want to promote myInstagram?
Just figuring out how you wantyour dream brand collaboration
to look, and hopefully weprovided you a good first step
(44:59):
to actually going for it.
Yuli (45:03):
Amazing.
Thank you so much, fridaida,for all of you amazing expertise
and such a lovely invitingenergy that I feel like inspired
many of our listeners to giveit a shot and maybe see
themselves in a new light, whichI really love.
Frida (45:19):
So thank you again for being here thanks so much for
having me Speak to you soon.
Welcome to the Healist Podcast, where we inspire and
guide healers through businessexpansion.
We give voice to incrediblyabundant healers to share their
stories.
We dive into the quantum fieldto unlock the energies of
conscious creation.
We also develop digital toolsto help you grow, which you can
(00:25):
find on healistcom.
I'm your host, Yuli, and I'mgrateful you chose to join this
space.
Now let's go deep.
Hello, my dear friends, andwelcome to another super
insightful episode of theHealist Podcast.
I'm really, really happy totackle a new subject today that
(00:47):
we actually haven't covered onthis podcast yet, and it's
unlocking brand partnerships forhealers, and I'm really excited
for our guest today.
Svita Waywell is the founder ofLocus Agency, a consultancy
specializing in connectingwellness experts and creators
(01:07):
with brands and corporateopportunities.
With deep understanding of boththe holistic and business world
, she helps healers and wellnessexperts expand their reach,
create impactful partnershipsand build sustainable revenue
streams, and in this episode,she's going to share all the
insights on how you, my dearfriends, can collaborate with
(01:31):
companies you love and use thatto grow your practice and your
brand and your businesses.
So really really lookingforward to this conversation and
my intention for this episodeto really inspire all of you and
really open your horizons andopen this new door of
(01:52):
opportunity that many of youmight not even think about, this
new potential of a completelyamazing and new revenue channel
that you can create right now.
So, rita, welcome to thepodcast and feel free to set
your intention as well.
Frida (02:10):
Thank you so much for having me, Yuli.
I feel really excited to getinto this and I think it's going
to be so, so valuable foreveryone listening.
So my intention for thispodcast episode is definitely to
have the listeners youlistening right now, for you to
feel confident after listeningto this episode, to get your
(02:33):
first brand deal or get yournext brand deal with a brand
that you truly love and a brandthat you are truly excited to
work for.
And if you don't quite knowwhat brand deals look like, we
are definitely going to expandinto that in the episode as well
.
But that is my intention andI'm very excited to share
(02:54):
everything I know with you.
Yeah.
Yuli (02:58):
Love it and I love actionable episodes, and this is
one of those.
Okay, we're going to pack itwith a lot of great advice and
hopefully all of you can learnsomething new.
So, speaking of learning, Ithink a lot of our listeners
might be new to the idea.
A lot of practitioners that getto the space they come mostly
with this deep desire to helpclients heal right, whatever
(03:22):
modality they choose.
That's where they come from.
So now we're introducing a newconcept that, besides of helping
their clients, there's alsothis other opportunity that they
can create in their practice,and it's helping brands and
companies that are obviouslyenergetically aligned in all
(03:45):
forms and shapes to work withthem and help those companies
bring their amazing products totheir clients or other consumers
.
So can you, just before we diveinto more details, can you just
give an idea of what thosebrand collaborations look like,
(04:06):
or why practitioners even wouldbe attractive for brands and
companies?
Frida (04:15):
Yes, of course.
So obviously you mentioned thatworking with brands as a
practitioner is helping thebrand grow, but I think as a
practitioner, as an expert, youcould also see it as this is
also helping your clients,because a brand collaboration
looks like a brand that you loveselling supplements, for
(04:36):
example.
They will either reach out toyou or you will reach out to
them and offer some kind ofcollaboration.
This is just the basis of howthis collaboration looks like,
and in exchange for promotingtheir products that could be
through Instagram content, thatcould be through client
referrals, that could be throughany agreement that you have you
will get maybe a commission,you will get free products or
(04:59):
you will get a flat fee.
So that is the basis of how abrand collaboration looks and I
think, from what I have workedwith with my brands, they love
working with practitionersbecause you already have a
community of people or clientswho trust you in your specific
field, in your specific niche,depending on what you are
(05:21):
teaching.
So if the brand that you wantto work with aligns with your
customers and your clients, thatis very, very valuable for the
brand, because then you alreadyhave a community that the brand
can easily tap into because theytrust you, and a lot of the
problem that brands are facingright now health and wellness
(05:41):
brands, whether they're sellingsupplements or wearables the
problem they're facing is trust.
There's so many brands so it'svery hard for consumers and us
to know, okay, what is highquality.
So if you, as a practitioner,truly love a brand and you have
a community or you have clientsthat trust you, that brand is
(06:05):
going to see you as veryvaluable because you have people
that they can tap into thatalready trust you, so the brand
doesn't have to build that trust.
So hopefully that answers thequestion as to how a brand
collaboration looks.
But it's basically products orit's a flat fee, and then you
are creating content or you aresharing the brand with your
(06:26):
clients.
So you don't necessarily haveto be creating content on social
media every single day, butthere's other ways that you can
actually collaborate with abrand.
That doesn't mean that you haveto be an influencer as well,
because I also think that'smaybe what you are hesitating
towards as well.
You know you don't want to bean influencer.
You don't want to be posting onsocial media every day.
(06:47):
Maybe that's also a barrier tosome people.
Yuli (06:49):
No, absolutely, and you touched on so many great points
that I want to follow up beforeI forget.
So one really important pointis that you touched on the
subject of community, and I feellike this is something that a
lot of practitioners undervalueis they see their clients as
just simply clients, while infact, you're absolutely right A
(07:11):
lot of them build incrediblecommunities around a specific
niche, and even if it's a smallcommunity let's say you have a
total of 100 clients, right thatyou have amassed and it sounds
like a small number, right?
Why would anyone or any brandinterested in that number?
(07:31):
But we know anyone who works ina marketing field, right that
even a small number of highlyengaged and trusted clients or
members of your community hastremendous value.
So can you talk a little bitabout that?
Like, who are we talking abouthere?
Because I'm just thinking somepractitioners might be listening
(07:53):
now thinking well, I'm onlystarting out, I only have like a
50, 100 clients, like it's notfor me, right.
So let's address that addressthat Definitely, honestly.
Frida (08:09):
I was going to say 20, 50 clients.
That is great, because theseclients your clients as a
practitioner they trust you.
So, anything that you recommend, if it's from a genuine place
and, like you said, the brandshould be an energetic match as
well and you should love thebrand that you are going to
collaborate with.
Anything that you recommend,your clients and your community
(08:32):
are going to trust yourrecommendation.
And, yeah, I think notundervaluing your clients as a
community and really nurturingthat is going to go a long way,
especially when you want toincrease your revenue, because
if we're talking aboutincreasing revenue as well, when
you recommend a product to yourclient and you have a special
discount code for them, you canearn commission on that discount
code, and that's usually howone of my clients right now,
(08:53):
that's how we work withpractitioners.
So we reach out topractitioners and we say, hey,
we think that you or yourclients are going to love our
product because we see that you,you specialize in gut health
and you're helping people healtheir gut.
For example, we have someincredible supplements that we'd
love you to recommend, so we'llsend you some supplements.
You can try the supplements andthen recommend it to your
(09:16):
clients.
The size of your communityreally it doesn't matter.
If it's small, however, youview it as small if it's 10
people in your community.
If it's 100 people, that isstill valuable for the brand
because that can still be 10repeat customers that they have
loving and vouching for thebrand, and then for you as a
(09:37):
practitioner, that can be 10, 50people buying the products and
you can get 10% 20% of eachpurchase of those products as
well.
So that's, when it comes in, aswell as an amazing revenue
stream.
So the brand is going to see itas valuable because you have a
specific niche and you'resolving a specific problem, and
(09:58):
that's what health brands reallywant.
They want experts who aresolving a problem.
And also what I'm seeing in theindustry with health and
wellness brands is they'removing away from more
traditional wellness lifestyleinfluencers and they're moving
more into people who are expertsin a specific healing modality,
and that's what you, as apractitioner, have on your side.
(10:20):
Like, you are an expert in aniche and brands really, really
value that.
Yuli (10:26):
That's incredible to know and thank you for this insight,
because you know someone who, inmy previous career chapter,
worked a lot with social mediainfluencers right.
I know how diverse that spaceis and you know there are people
that are getting in the spacepurely for just to become a
social media influencer rightand build a career out of that
(10:49):
as a content creator Nothingwrong with that.
But I have a feeling a lot ofour social media is not natural
to them and a lot of them stillmight feel like this is not
(11:09):
their core expertise.
This is not what they do, and Ithink, unfortunately, that term
influencer kind of implies somesocial media expertise, some
willingness to live in thepublic eye and expose different
sides of their lives or theirpersonalities be seen right,
which is not natural maybe to alot of practitioners.
(11:32):
But I love that.
You said that we're coming morefrom this angle of expert right,
that more companies are lookingfor true experts, not kind of
like this vanity personas thatare built purely for you know
this social media machine andthe algorithm and they know how
to create the perfect content.
They have this machine behindthem and a lot of them, even
(11:55):
though they have large audiences, they're actually very
ineffective in selling a product.
I know that firsthand from youknow, again, working with
influencers and how many brandswould be surprised, right, when
they come in and they say, Iwant to work with this person
who has millions of followers,right, and they throw a lot of
money in those people and in theend, the results can be really,
(12:19):
really underwhelming, right.
So we're talking about thistrend of actually brands are
finally realizing that it's notabout the number of followers or
that vanity metrics or even thepersona of our celebrity status
.
It's more about, especiallywhen it comes to wellness, it's
(12:40):
about that true expertise, right.
Frida (12:44):
Definitely.
I think I am seeing now thatbrands are looking way less into
followings and they're lookingmore into niche communities,
because the brands that I'mtalking about they have science
backed health products.
They have health products thatsolve specific problems.
So lifestyle your typicallifestyle influencers don't know
(13:05):
fully how to talk about thatproduct and how to sell that
product and they don't love thatproduct.
So even if they have a hundredthousand followers, maybe those
a hundred thousand followers areinto lifestyle, they're into
fashion, they're into just theeveryday vlogging style content,
whereas if you have a few, afew hundred, a few thousand
(13:26):
followers who are deeplyinvested and passionate about
health and they want to learnmore about that, that is way
more valuable and even in thebrand's eye, that is valuable.
So that's why practitioners arebecoming very, very valuable.
Even though you might have nofollowing, you might have a very
small community, you might havea very small following.
(13:47):
It's really not about the, thenumber of followers anymore, but
it's about the niche community,and I'm seeing this with a
brand right now that we'reworking with.
We have found like huge amountsof success working with micro
experts in the wellness industryversus working as in micro, as
(14:07):
in very small following versusworking with macro influencers
who have larger followings buttheir followers are not.
They're not even almosteducated about the health space.
So it's really important thatyour followers or your community
, they're already invested.
So when you have a product torecommend that's already kind of
been on their radar, they'vealready been considering it in
(14:28):
the past.
So you as a practitioner, thentalking about a product is way
more likely to convert youraudience to buy, and brands see
that too.
Yuli (14:38):
Amazing.
Well, hopefully we inspiredsome of you or convinced some of
you that you actually have alot of value and I think you
know most of the practitioners Isee that we see on our platform
.
They build amazing communities.
Even if they're small, I canjust tell they're very engaged.
And even if you don't post allthe time on social but you just,
(15:01):
you know your clients followyou and when you do post they
pay attention right, becausethey know your content has high
quality.
Frida (15:11):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, just to reiterate that thesmall followings you have is
extremely, extremely valuable,and I think it's just a matter
of not comparing yourself toinfluencers and to maybe other
practitioners who have largerfollowings and actually looking
at the engagement rate, becausethat is what we look at with all
(15:33):
the brands we work with as well.
We're looking at how engaged arethese communities and if there
is any way that you can gather,like testimonials or reviews or
anything, just to reassureyourself that what you are doing
is very valuable, that alsohelps as well, just with your
self-worth, because if there isanything blocking you from
(15:53):
reaching out to brands, or ifyou're feeling like I don't have
a thousand followers, I don'thave a few thousand followers,
then stop looking at thefollowers and look at the other
things I said.
Look at the positive feedbackyou're getting, look at the
reviews.
Maybe you can compile that intoa folder or into some kind of
PDF and be like actually what Ido is very valuable, my
(16:14):
engagement rate is high, myaudience trusts me, my community
trusts me, I'm helping people.
That is way more valuable thanthe numbers on the platform, and
brands are starting to see thattoo.
Trust me.
We're seeing that largely inthe health space, the fashion
industry.
That's a different story.
We're talking about health andwe're talking about brands that
are actually changing people'slives through their products.
Yuli (16:37):
Amazing.
So, since you mentioned whatbrands are actually looking for,
so, outside of the social mediafollowing and engagement and
some of those testimonials andreviews and just success stories
and engagement rates, what elsedo brands look for and how can
those experts and practitionersposition themselves better for
(17:01):
brand collaborations?
Frida (17:03):
Yes, of course.
So, of course, your socialmedia presence is important and
how you are showing up online.
Not to say that if you don'thave a social media presence,
that means you can't get branddeals, because you definitely
can, and that's what we're doingwith some of our practitioners
right now and working with abrand, but how you can position
yourself, creating some kind ofmedia kit.
(17:27):
So, like I said, with thetestimonials and with the
engagement rate, that is the keything that is going to get you
brand deals.
To be honest, if you can puttogether some kind of one pager
or some kind of PDF with justsome statistics or your work or
how many clients you have or howbig your community is, if you
can put that in a one pager,that is going to make everything
(17:48):
so much easier for the brand tosee the value straight away.
Because, also, these brands,they are busy.
Maybe they're not vetting eachpractitioner, each influencer
one by one.
So if you can just give themthe details like, hey, this is
me, this is what I do, this iswho I work with, the amazing
(18:09):
reviews I get, this is myengagement rate.
If you are on social media,you'll have an engagement rate
that you can just find in yourinsights.
This is where my audience arebased, this is where my clients
are based, this is what they'restruggling with and this is why
I think we would be a great fitand you can just create a base
template and then you canpersonalize that with each brand
that you reach out to a littlebit.
(18:30):
So if there's like a specificproblem that your clients are
facing, you can personalize thatdepending on what the brand is
that you're reaching out to.
But the main thing I'd recommendis just position yourself and
just have this one pager andthen really trust in yourself
that the community you have andwhat you do is very valuable to
(18:51):
this brand and position yourselfas a person of value as well.
You are not begging for thisbrand to work with you.
You are not begging for thisbrand deal, but you are saying,
hey, I would love to work withyour brand.
I think this collaborationwould be really valuable to my
community.
I think they would reallybenefit from your product.
I would love to discuss this,let me know, and you can even
(19:11):
say let's book in a quick call,you know, just really showing up
as though this is mutuallybeneficial for me because I
would love to share the productand my community would love it.
But it's also very beneficialfor the brand and that will take
you so far, even like.
It doesn't matter about thefollowing when you are
positioning yourself like that,if someone, if a brand sees that
(19:33):
they're going to be like, wow,what a nice message to receive.
What a nice person wanting topromote our products.
Yes, let's hop on a call andlet's see what deal we can do,
whether it's a flat fee whetherit's gifting, whether it's a
commission rate Amazing.
Yuli (19:53):
So before we just talk a little more about the brand
outreach and how and how manyways it can work, I just wanted
to add something.
As you were talking about allthe things that they can put on
that one pager, I was alsothinking about all the beautiful
events and workshops andretreats they're hosting.
That could be very valuable forbrands as well, because it
could be like opportunity forgifting or exploring products
(20:16):
right.
Frida (20:17):
Definitely such a good point.
I know that a lot of my clientsand brands they want to sponsor
retreats as well Goodie bags,sponsoring retreats with goodie
bags, sponsoring retreats with aleaflet and a code.
I know that recently we havesome digestive enzymes a brand
saying digestive enzymes and werecently sponsored a retreat
(20:40):
where I think it was every lunchand every dinner there were
digestive enzymes for people totake as they were eating so that
they could digest the food andthat was great for the brand and
then the brand also offered 20%off for everybody who was
attending the retreat.
So you can do that.
You can also pitch that tobrands and that is a great way
for the brand to get more reach,for the brand, to get
(21:02):
potentially repeat customersthat are your clients.
And it's also great for youhosting a retreat, because then
everyone who's at the retreatgets free products, they get to
try some new products andusually you can just get the
brand.
You just get the brandsponsoring the retreat for free.
Yuli (21:17):
Amazing, yeah.
So I love to bring those ideasbecause I think a lot of people
are diving into the retreatspace these days, or at least
you know even local retreats,right?
I'm seeing different, like halfday mini retreat or a one day
retreat or a weekend.
It doesn't need to be you knowsomething in bali or something
(21:38):
exotic.
It can be even like a half dayworkshop you're hosting.
But isn't it nice to provideyour clients with that extra
value?
You know, maybe even grow withthe brand to a point that
they're actually offering tosponsor it and even with it with
the fee, because I think thethe key in those collaborations
not seeing it as kind of thisone-off right the key is to
(22:00):
build a partnership that youprovide so much value that the
brand wants to help you grow,right.
Frida (22:07):
Definitely, and I've seen this even happen with dinners
that people are hosted.
If you've hosted a dinner, likeyou said, a half day retreat,
retreat, a workshop, you candefinitely think creatively and
think, okay, what brands do Iwant to sponsor, do I want to
have here, what brands do I wantto highlight here?
What would go well with theclients?
And, yes, a long-termcollaboration.
(22:28):
Brands are also looking forlong, long-term collaborations
and the reason is because whenpeople see a specific person so
when people see you talkingabout a brand multiple times
your clients, your communitythey're way more likely to buy
that brand after the third,fourth, fifth time that you're
actually talking about it, notthe first.
(22:50):
So if you are as a practitioner,if you are pitching yourself,
so, if you are as a practitioner, if you are pitching yourself,
always come up with likepackages for a longer term
collaboration, and this can be athree-month collaboration.
Or you can say, okay, I wouldlove for you to send some
products to sponsor this retreat, and then I would also love to
create content here for you andI would love to do.
I would love to talk about youin my community as well.
(23:13):
So it could be threeendorsements that you do.
There can be different levelsto packages like this.
Yuli (23:19):
Amazing.
Yes, as many kind of differenttouch points, what we call it
again, marketing terms throwinghere, but people do need
multiple touch points.
So anything you can think aboutin different mediums, different
opportunities.
Think about in differentmediums, different opportunities
.
Also, I'm going to throw inmailing list huge value, right,
Because I think we often thinkabout social media.
(23:40):
You don't even have to be onsocial media If you have a
decent size mailing list that ishighly curated and people that
actually open and read youremails.
That's a goldmine, right.
Frida (23:54):
Totally, totally.
I was going to touch on mailinglists.
If you write a blog, but theseare very valuable and you can
get paid to have a brand want tofeature their products in your
mailing list.
If, like you said, your mailinglist is every day where you
love writing and you providevalue in that way, focus and
(24:20):
grow your mailing list and youcan get amazing sponsors there.
But also client referrals andhaving a commission code where
you can just refer products toyour clients.
That's also a very underratedway to actually increase revenue
and promote a brand as well.
So if you don't have a followingbut you're telling the brand,
hey, if you're not on socialmedia but you want to refer the
(24:44):
products to your clients, youcan just say I would love to
refer your products and have acommission code.
The brand loses nothing forcreating a commission code for
you.
And then if you end up sellinga lot of products for that brand
, then you can say, hey, I'mactually selling a lot of
products for you.
Like, my clients keep buyingyour products.
They're amazing.
Let's count.
Can we work something out wherewe have a flat fee for this and
(25:05):
I promote you this many timesand then you can work from there
.
And again, that's a long-termcollaboration.
We're looking for long-term,sustainable collaborations that
can go month on month and reallycan make a massive difference
to the revenue that you'remaking.
Yuli (25:21):
Amazing Because I think, also from a brand perspective,
they're probably not looking towork with, just you know,
hundreds or thousands ofinfluencers.
They want to buildrelationships with a few key
people and, you know, continuethat and grow that.
It's just much easier from abrand perspective.
Frida (25:38):
Exactly.
It's also so much easier for abrand to not manage hundreds of
influencers with hundreds ofthousands of followers.
It's much easier to manage justselect experts who are
consistently talking about theproduct and who don't damage
their brand reputation as well,because these health brands they
have a reputation so theyactually don't want influencers
(26:00):
of you know all sorts like doingpaid collaborations with them
and being the face behind theirbrand, because that doesn't
necessarily look good for thebrand as well.
So it's a lot about the brandreputation and you as a
practitioner, you make the brandlook good.
You're an expert in your fieldand the brands really value that
you make the brand look good.
You're an expert in your fieldand the brands really value that
Amazing.
Yuli (26:20):
So let's talk more about, first of all, what kind of
brands, just to give peopleideas.
So we talk about supplementbrands.
Let's throw some othercategories that people can
really think about and make ashort list I love making.
When I had with my previouscompany, I worked with a lot of
big brands.
I had my short list of my dreambrands to work with and we're
(26:42):
just going down the list and wegot a lot of them.
But I think maybe inspiringpeople to make a short list and
look at different categoriesright that they could be
valuable for.
Frida (26:54):
Yes, that's such a good idea.
So I would suggest you'remaking a list of your dream
brands that you would like towork with, but also making a
list of different categoriesthat relate to your expertise
and what you are teaching andwhat you are helping your
clients with.
So it could be skincare, itcould be haircare, it could be
supplements, it could besupplements.
(27:15):
It could be supplementsfocusing on adaptogens,
nootropics, like what is the,what is the niche?
And can you make multiplecategories and then write down
your dream brands?
And I would say it's always funto write down like the dream
brand, like go big, write downdream brands and then write down
some brands that you have foundthat you can just reach out to
(27:38):
right now.
So maybe you start with thesmaller brands if that makes you
feel more comfortable.
You start with brands that arealso just starting out.
You start with brands that arejust medium-sized they have a
few thousand followers onInstagram, but nothing more Just
to see if you actually likeworking with brands, if you
actually enjoy this way ofworking, if you like
recommending products to yourclients and with health products
(27:59):
.
It also takes time.
You want to try the product foryourself and see if it works,
or you want your clients to trythe product, so you want it to
be authentic as well.
But in terms of differentcategories, yeah, like all the
different, like healthmodalities, you know, like
skincare supplements, whetherit's something to do with
wearables or infrared, or maybeyou're doing like mindfulness it
(28:23):
can be something along thoselines, whether it's meditation
apps.
There's so many different waysyou can be creative about
different brands.
Yuli (28:31):
Like food and nutrition, right Different like meal plans
and company.
Like there's so much just inthe food category.
I feel like there's so manydifferent subcategories.
Frida (28:41):
Yes, that is very true, and I do recommend as well, if
you're using ChatGPT or AI, youcan get that to outline all of
these different categories foryou, and then you will have a
huge, a big idea of wow, there'sso many brands that I can work
with, so many brands that I canactually reach out to today and
(29:01):
just try and just pitch yourself.
Yuli (29:04):
And also, I'm just thinking as we speak and ideas
just roll in because there's somuch to do.
I'm thinking also if you arecreating some sort of a plan for
your clients, right, you mightbe already recommending some
categories or some products,right, and that would be the
most natural area to look into.
(29:24):
For example, if you are awellness coach, right, that does
provide some nutritional advice, right, look at the products
that you.
Or, because people people lovegeneral advice, but they
actually love just just tell methe product to use, right, just
tell me the product to buy,because people don't have time
to do their own research.
So you can't just take thesupplement example.
(29:46):
You can't just tell them justgo take some enzymes, right,
they want to know, okay, whichbrand should I buy?
Because they're looking for youand I know from my experience
anytime a practitioner tells medo you have to try this, like
probiotic, whatever, I just goand buy it.
I don't even ask questions.
I know they tested it onmultiple clients.
So just be specific.
So look at the plans orrecommendations that you already
(30:09):
provide to your clients andthink about brands that you
might be already recommending.
You just never thought aboutreaching out to them actually in
a more official capacity, andthat would be a great place to
start right, oh, that is so true, such a good point?
Frida (30:24):
Yeah, because it's like you said.
It's likely that you're alreadyrecommending products and your
clients, your customers, theywant the product.
I'm the same.
I'm like if you're going torecommend probiotics or enzymes,
just tell me the brand, send methe link, like.
And if you have a discount code, amazing, like, send it to me
and I will take them and I willtrust you, and that, again, just
reassures the value that youhave to these brands, that
(30:47):
people already trust you becauseyou are a practitioner, because
you help people.
So I definitely yeah, Idefinitely recommend that and
you can even just make a list,make a list of those things, the
list of things that you alreadyrecommend, and then start
researching into some, into somebrands, looking at your
favorite brands and seeing thisas an opportunity to work with
these brands.
(31:07):
So what is the?
Yuli (31:08):
best way to reach out then .
So let's say we made a list ofbrands.
Let's say you may be followingthem on social media.
You know, we know practitionersdon't have time to research and
find their head of marketing orinfluencer programs.
What is the best and mosteffective way outside?
Of course, working with awonderful agency, and I'm sure
(31:31):
you have a lot of greatrelationship already in place
with many great influencers.
But what are the most commonways to actually proactively
work with brands?
Of course, if a brand reachesout to you, that's an easier
route.
You can just take theconversation from there.
But if you want it to beproactive, what do you do?
Frida (31:49):
Yeah, that's a very good point.
I think there's some short-termstrategies and some longer-term
strategies.
So, short-term and long-term,of course, you can work with an
agency and you can just havethem kind of source and do the
work for you.
But if we're talking, okay, Ireally want, if you really want
brand deals like ASAP and youhave the time, then it would be
(32:12):
outreaching.
It would be reaching out viaInstagram DMs and if you're not
confident in your Instagramprofile or your social media
presence, then it will bereaching out via email and again
, making this one pager, makingthis pitch for yourself, a super
brief email that just positionsyou as a person of value, and
reaching out like that.
(32:33):
This does take time and this istime consuming.
You can also like copy andpaste the email.
You can send the same one pager.
It doesn't have to take toomuch time.
But in the short term, that ishow you're probably going to get
your first brand deals, because, as well, it is really
effective to personally reachout to a brand.
(32:55):
So, reaching out by email andDM.
If we're thinking long-term,then I would really recommend
building your personal brand,and your personal brand is
different to just being aninfluencer, but that is becoming
a thought leader on socialmedia.
Now, I know some of you areprobably very hesitant to
(33:15):
showing up on social mediabecause I think, with
practitioners, you love the workthat you do for your clients so
much that maybe showing up onsocial media and posting a lot
there just doesn't appeal to youvery much.
But building a personal brand,even on a platform like LinkedIn
, which is very written based,can help you to grow.
Your newsletter can help youestablish authority.
(33:36):
You can grow a following thereand then brands are going to
find you more organically andthat's going to make the
pitching process a whole loteasier.
When you have a following andyou can just reach out to a
brand, they're way more likely.
They are more likely to see youand to just be like oh yeah,
okay, you have followers, I cansee it.
Okay, you're an expert.
So in the long term, if youreally want to use this as a
(33:59):
strategy to generate revenue,long term, I do recommend
building a personal brand foryourself.
Short term, I would say anagency or just reaching out,
dedicating some time per week itcould be one hour per week and
you're like okay, in this onehour I'm just going to do reach
out to brands.
I'm going to focus on thisrevenue stream that now I want
(34:23):
to put one hour a week into, sowe can just be dedicating a
little time like that.
Yuli (34:28):
I love that.
I love that Take an hour a weekand explore this, and it could
actually be a really joyfulproject, right?
Because you might actuallydiscover some brands, you might
connect with some of yourfavorite brands that you're
already using and loving, andyou might build new partnerships
.
Frida (34:46):
It will never go as time wasted, for sure.
Even if partnerships don'thappen, which I doubt it I think
if you are pitching yourselfwell and you're consistent with
this, I'm sure you will get somebrand collaborations.
But even if not, you willdiscover some amazing brands.
You will have some products torefer to your clients.
(35:09):
And also we haven't touched onjust quickly a lot of brands
have an affiliate program ontheir website as well, where you
can just sign up as anaffiliate and you can try it
there and then, without actuallyreaching out to the brand I do
always recommend reaching out tothe brand, because then you're
going to build a relationshipwith someone on the brand team
but a lot of brands, at thebottom of their website, they
(35:30):
have a link that says become anaffiliate and anyone can sign up
.
You can just sign up there Ifyou truly love a brand.
Right now you can check theirwebsite, see if they have an
affiliate program, and there wego, you can try that out and you
can take it from there and youwill be able to see how many
sales you make.
You'll be able to earncommission straight away.
So this is also a great way toget started.
Yuli (35:52):
Amazing, such a good tip.
Okay, so go on that list youmade of all your favorite brands
.
Frida (35:58):
Go look at their footer of the website and see if
Exactly and wherever youorganize all of your notes I use
Notion as a platform andwherever you organize things,
whether it's in a Googledocument just have all of your
affiliate codes and youraffiliate links in a document.
This is my code, so that youcan easily go in.
(36:18):
You know what your codes are,you know what your personalized
links are and everything's inone place, and this is like.
These are your links that youcan earn money from, and that's
(36:40):
the amazing thing about you as apractitioner you have a
community that you can not useto make money, but you can help
them and, in return, help thesebrands as well.
That's what it's all about.
It's all about helping yourclients with amazing products,
and obviously, I know thatyou're not going to recommend a
product if you don't love it.
That's awesome.
Yuli (37:00):
Absolutely, and I love the idea of a spreadsheet in terms
of just tracking tool as welland just evaluating, right and
just keeping track.
Okay, you know, this is I'mtesting, let's say, three
products this month, threeproducts this month I became an
affiliate and kind of tracksuccess too.
You know what kind of responseyou're getting from your clients
(37:21):
to how many sales you'reactually making, how much money
it's making for you, and kind ofalso quantify your efforts.
Right and the same for theoutreach event.
I also recommend, just to addon that, just keep track of
everyone you're reaching out toand keep some sort of like a
progress sheet and also followup.
(37:43):
I mean, people don't always notalways going to respond to your
first email.
Don't get discouraged, but Ithink sometimes, like nudging
somebody hey, I was reallyreally excited about this
partnership, I just want to knowyour thoughts.
Just send a quick follow up,Don't just kind of leave it.
So when you start trackingthose things and managing it
(38:03):
properly and following up, Ithink you're going to see some
success for sure.
Frida (38:10):
For sure.
Following up is so underratedand I think it's a lot about
mindset.
When it comes to outreach andfollow-ups, you're not being a
pain, you're not being annoying,following up.
You could potentially help themso much.
The brand can benefit so muchfrom working with you and I
think when you're reaching outin that mindset and in that
(38:32):
which is in that energy, whenyou're following on with that
energy of I want to help thisbrand I was really excited to
work with you I just thinkthey're way more likely to reply
.
That's how and it works right.
But if you're reaching outfeeling like, oh no, I don't
want to reach, I don't want toreach out again, I feel like I'm
being so annoying, then thenthe they're way less likely to
(38:54):
reply.
I usually find yeah, absolutely.
Yuli (38:58):
And again, I think it comes down to the value.
If you really truly believe inthe value you provide and you're
truly excited about it, I can'timagine a brand not just even
responding to that, right, if Ifthey don't respond, it's
probably because they got lostin their inbox or someone
dropped the ball, which happens,you know.
Frida (39:18):
That also happens.
That usually happens.
You know.
They maybe have a full inboxthey've just opened or they
thought I'm going to get back tothem later and then they've
just forgotten.
But any email that'scomplimenting a brand and just
genuinely asking for anauthentic collaboration, they're
going to read that and they'regoing to be happy.
Yuli (39:36):
So, with that in mind, any best practices let's say, you
got your dream brand, they saidyes to collaboration, they're
giving it a try any bestpractices are actually how to
make it a successfulcollaboration because, again,
from my experience, you know onething is to sell somebody on
(39:57):
the idea, but the execution is abig part of it, because now you
need to.
I know you can guaranteeresults right when working with
brands and you can guaranteethat all your clients are going
to buy the products or whatever.
It is right, but what is theexpectation then from a brand
and what's some of the thingsthat you can do, you know,
(40:18):
during the collaboration, maybeas a follow-up, to really
continue building that greatrelationship yeah, of course so.
Frida (40:26):
So it depends on what the agreement with the brand is,
and maybe you don't have anagreement, maybe it's just okay.
You have a commission code andyou're going to promote these
products, and I would say wetalked about multiple touch
points, right?
So your customers, your clients, they need multiple touch
points to do with this brand.
So that means maybe weekly,you're mentioning this brand on
(40:48):
your social media, or bi-weekly,just quickly, on stories.
It doesn't have to be somethingthat takes so much effort and
then you're recommending theproducts to your clients in
their nutrition plans or howeverit is that you work.
And then what I would recommendis I think what the brand
really, really would appreciateis, at the end of 30 days of
(41:09):
working together, you can sendthem a little summary, send them
yeah, this is.
You can even send reviews.
This is what my client thoughtof this product.
This is how many people lovethis product.
This is how many people areconsidering this product.
The brand is going to appreciatethat.
So, so much.
They're going to be like, wow,this person is taking this
collaboration very seriously.
(41:30):
They're going to appreciatethat so much, and the goal is to
get a flat fee, I think, forcollaborations.
That's what we all want.
So the more effort that you areputting in in the beginning and
the more you are beingproactive about it and having a
relationship with the brand, themore likely it is that they are
going to pay you a flat feejust to be sharing, just to be
(41:52):
promoting their products,instead of just the commission
code and a flat fee.
That can be, you know, a fewhundred dollars, that can be a
few thousand dollars, you know,depending on the brand,
depending on the deliverables.
And then, once you have a flatfee, you will have specific
video content to create.
Maybe you have to promote theproducts in your community once
(42:13):
a week or once every two weeksor once a month or something.
Then there'll be specificdeliverables.
But, yeah, that is what I wouldrecommend.
Yuli (42:23):
Amazing.
Well, such helpful advice Ican't believe we're like running
out of time and there's so muchto talk about and I think it's
been really incredible andhopefully enlightening for a lot
of our listeners and just givesthem a lot of great ideas how
else they can bring moreabundance to their practice.
And you know, as we talk, I alsowanted to mention that Frida
(42:44):
and I have been collaborating ona new way that Healist will be
able, in the future, to bringyou, or in the very near future,
actually, maybe by the timethis episode comes out we'll be
able to go live with some testson our platform as well.
But really the idea is and whatwe're talking about is, how can
we help those brands connectwith you, my dear practitioners,
(43:07):
in a more efficient way, andhow can we help match and bring
together the brands who arereally looking for your
expertise and you.
So stay tuned for moreannouncements, but this is where
we're trying to achieve,because the more we talk, the
(43:27):
more we realize how muchopportunity there is and no one
is really there to help on bothends Right To help you as
practitioners to connect withsoundless brands, and the same
for brands they have to siftthrough so much social media
noise just to find the true,authentic experts that you are.
(43:48):
So it's actually service onboth communities and I'm just
excited to facilitate it.
Frida (43:55):
Oh, I'm so excited, yuli.
That is the reason why Ireached out to Yuli actually,
because I am working with brandswho want to work with
practitioners and then I found,oh my God, there's a platform
full of practitioners.
This is amazing.
So then I thought we would jumpon a call.
So that just hopefullyreassures you listening now that
(44:16):
the brands really do want towork with experts in the health
industry.
It's not about your following,it's not about these vanity
metrics, but it's really aboutthe value that you're providing
and the trust you have with yourniche community.
That is the direction that thisinfluencer marketing is going
in.
So I really hope, from thispodcast, you have some
(44:37):
actionable steps that you cantake away now, you know, like
making the spreadsheet, maybemaking your one pager, looking
at your engagement rate orfiguring out do I want to
promote products in mynewsletter?
Do I want to promote productsto my clients?
Do I want to promote myInstagram?
Just figuring out how you wantyour dream brand collaboration
to look, and hopefully weprovided you a good first step
(44:59):
to actually going for it.
Yuli (45:03):
Amazing.
Thank you so much, fridaida,for all of you amazing expertise
and such a lovely invitingenergy that I feel like inspired
many of our listeners to giveit a shot and maybe see
themselves in a new light, whichI really love.
Frida (45:19):
So thank you again for being here thanks so much for
having me Speak to you soon.
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