The Real of Being an Influencer w/ Carmen Renee

In this interview, Carmen Renee, a full-time influencer, shares her journey and insights into the world of influencing. She emphasizes the importance of aligning with brands that resonate with your values and being selective with brand partnerships. Carmen also discusses the challenges of being an influencer, including the misconception that it's an easy and glamorous lifestyle. She provides tips for being consistent in content creation, such as batching content and finding a realistic schedule.

Carmen also shares her favorite tools and apps for editing content and highlights the costs associated with being an influencer, including subscription fees for editing apps and platforms for deep linking and link management. In this conversation, Carmen shares her experience and insights as an influencer. She discusses the challenges of managing contracts and opportunities as a solo influencer and the importance of finding the right management agency.

Carmen also provides advice for aspiring influencers, emphasizing the need for consistency, niche selection, and vulnerability. She highlights the importance of claiming social media handles and establishing what you want to talk about. Carmen also discusses the definition of success as an influencer and the importance of staying true to your personal beliefs when working with brands. Lastly, she emphasizes the value of incorporating feedback and engagement from your audience into your content creation process.

Takeaways

• Align with brands that align with your values and resonate with your audience.
• Being an influencer is not as easy as it may seem, and there are many behind-the-scenes tasks and responsibilities.
• Consistency in content creation is important, but find a schedule that works for you and give yourself grace.
• Use tools and apps like CapCut and Lightroom for editing content.
• Consider the costs associated with being an influencer, such as subscription fees for editing apps and platforms for deep linking and link management.
• When building a team, be selective and find individuals who can assist with specific tasks and responsibilities. Managing contracts and opportunities as a solo influencer can be overwhelming, and it may be beneficial to work with a management agency.
• Consistency, niche selection, and vulnerability are key factors in building a successful personal brand as an influencer.
• Claiming social media handles and establishing what you want to talk about are important steps when starting out as an influencer.
• Success as an influencer can be defined by achieving financial stability, being able to take care of your family, and doing what you love.
• Incorporating feedback and engagement from your audience through polls, quizzes, and check-ins can help guide your content creation process and business decisions.

Follow Carmen on Instagram

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm the videographer, I'm the photographer, I'm the writer, I'm
the editor, I'm the creative director, I'm the producer. And
then you know, just you wear so many hats in
this world, and I think a lot of people don't
see that.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, I'm Brianna Aponte, your host of the Soft Life
CEO podcast. I dropped out of college at the age
of nineteen to start my first business. I worked seven
days a week, wore way too many hats, and was
the true definition of a hustler. Years later, I'm finally
living the dream that I worked so hard to make
my reality. I've transitioned from a hustler to a soft
life CEO, working only two days a week to maintain

(00:36):
and run a high earning business that gives me the
freedom to live a life I love. Now, it's my
mission to help as many entrepreneurs as I can elevate
their brand, increase their income, and reclaim their time. Join
me and guest experts as we share our transparent journeys,
work smart, not hard, strategies, and the behind the scenes
of running a successful brand in business. You're tuned in
to the Self Life CEO.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
What's up, everybody?

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Welcome back to another episode.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
I'm so because I have my girly here, the hostess
with the mostest, Carmen Renee. I have been so lucky
to be able to witness her transformation, her growth from
just being a blogger to being a full time freaking
influencer guru. She's working on so many really cool projects.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
We're going to get into.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
All of that.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
But Carmen, welcome and tell us all about yourself. Girl.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, is hi everyone? My name is Carvin Carter. I
am the influencer behind Carmen Renee dot com. I am
Houston based. I have two little ones, a boy and
a girl. I am a wife, an entrepreneur, all of
the things. But my blog is really to inspire women

(01:43):
to live their best lives, whether that be through fashion,
style or curating a life that they love and living
it to the fullest. So when you come to my page,
it's all about family, self care, finding time to really
like elevate yourself, your own brand, and of course I
love to host. That's my go to thing. So just

(02:07):
teaching people how to really enjoy their life and the
loved ones around them.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
So, yeah, she's so humble, So I want to share
this because I was having some issues with my social media.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
And I text Carmen and I was like, girl, O
can you call me?

Speaker 4 (02:25):
I just I just need a moment.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
And I was like, I'm so stuck with my content
and just feeling like I'm not showing up authentically and
that there's so many different things that I could do.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
But how do you determine kind of like what you
should do?

Speaker 3 (02:40):
And so we're going to get into that a little
bit later, but I first want you to just kind
of share your journey of like how you actually got
into being a full time influencer.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, this is such a funny story. So I started
technically influencing about twelve years ago. I know it sounds
like crazy, but it was over a decade. I was
in Mia, Me, Florida, had just finished my master's program,
and so I was working full time in higher education
and I didn't really have like a ton of friends,

(03:09):
so I just needed an outlet. I was like looking
for something creative to do outside of work. And I
remember seeing someone that I know online, you know, had
a YouTube channel, and I was like, that was at
that era, the YouTube era, which you know, social media
has changed so much. Vastly, and I remember being like, oh,
I want to start a YouTube channel, so I would,

(03:31):
you know, get my husband's laptop and start recording videos
and then share with my community, which was my family
and friends back home. And then that evolved into you know,
having a blog. That was a big thing. Everybody had
a blog, a space that they could like draw articles,
take pictures, and share content with people. That was kind
of like the form of content that it was twelve

(03:52):
years ago. And then Instagram kind of came about and
it took a new face of its own where you
started sharing your content online. And it got to a
point where I just started to just share my life,
like what I was wearing. Fashion was a huge portion
of that because that was something that I really enjoyed,
the whole style elevation, classic, timeless, how to you know,

(04:15):
put your pieces together. And then it evolved when I
got married. Then it evolved when I had kids, and
it evolved when I moved, and it just kind of
like took off on its own, and so here I
am twelve years later. I was able to quit my
full time job, you know, working in higher education. I
just kind of like jumped in took the leap and

(04:36):
was like, all right, we're gonna do this and it's
it's it's been going good ever since, and it.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Was so fun to like watch the journey from my
end because for those of you listening, Carmen was one
of my very first guests on my podcast when I
first launched, and I listened back to up so I
was like, oh, girl, we have to have you back
on because so much has changed. You have grown and
just built this amazing brand, and I was like, I
want to share all the updates. And yes now, I mean,

(05:06):
you know, you had great advice then, but imagine now,
like over the last few years, you have been sorted.
So I want to know do you have or have
you ever had a coach or a mentor in the
influencer space.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, that's a great question. I feel like I haven't
had one indirectly, like you know, just someone that I
was able to call and be like hey girl, like
what are you doing? Da da da da. A lot
of it was kind of like researching on my own,
but I feel like, uh, and she's done an amazing job.
I used to listen to a ton well, I actually

(05:40):
still do. I don't want to say used to, but
I listened to a ton of podcasts when I was
like kind of like in the beginning stages of the
content creation and just marketing, that was a big thing.
So I would say indirectly, Maddy James. I don't know
if a lot of people know who she is online,
but she is a content creator. But back in the day,

(06:03):
she was kind of like that go to girl who
had all of the knowledge about content creation, you know,
how to market your brand. But then there was another
person online and I to this day, I'm gonna blank
on her name because I'm not gonna remember her, but
she had this marketing podcast and it was insane. There
was so much, so many nuggets that she would drop

(06:24):
that I would just be like, okay, like what do
I do now? Like this and that, and just learning
from different people, so indirectly, like directly, No, I didn't
have like a mentor per se or a coach. I
feel like now, you know any mentors and coaches that
I have, Like I tried to take nuggets from everybody
now because I feel like as I've seen the industry

(06:47):
change so much, you know, I'll have a friend who
has like a million followers and I'm like, you know,
what is it about my page that could be different
or something that you see that looks different, or even
my friends just to bounce feedback on, like you know,
what are you seeing on my page that you would
like to see differently? What are you know? I think
that that's kind of like the idea for me in
terms of like coaches or you know, people who can

(07:09):
who can give me like real advice as to you know,
how to elevate my brand, how to continue to grow
in the space, and things like that.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
I love that, So I want you to share, like
what your biggest misconception is when it comes to being
an influencer and like what people don't actually understand about
what that looks like to do it full time.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think that there is huge misconceptions about influencing.
People only see the front end of it. They don't
necessarily see the back end of it. So a lot
of that. I have to explain that to my husband
a lot. I'm like, oh my god, I'm stressed, and
he's like he's like, I'm just like, babe, can you
see I'm the videographer, I'm the photographer, I'm the writer,

(07:49):
I'm the editor. I'm the creative director, I'm the producer,
and then you know, just you wear so many hats
in this world, and I think a lot of people
don't see that. They just get to see the result
of things. They don't necessarily see all of the legwork
that goes on behind the scenes, which it's very challenging.
But I think that and it becomes even more challenging

(08:11):
when you step into the world of parenting influencing, because
now you're involving your kids, which is another layer. So
I think that that is a big thing that people
don't see, is the many hatset influencers, where content creators,
where there's an industry where now you know, we have managers,
we have agents who handle our brand deals. You know,
a lot of people who are starting out don't necessarily

(08:32):
have agencies that they're connected to, and so they're like,
you know, kind of doing it on their own. I
remember before I had an agency, I literally was like
doing everything just like blindly and working full time at
that so I could just have mat and having kids,
Like I had so many people asking me like, how
are you doing this? I would be like, no, sleeping coffee,

(08:55):
that's it.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
Like speaking of no sleep.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
I want you to talk about your kind of routine
and like what your work week looks like, because I
know every day is very different and you've explained this
to me and I was like, oh, okay, wow.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
A lot goes into this.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
So what does a typical work week look like for
a full time influencer?

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Absolutely get my free training from Hustler to Soft Life Ceo,
which includes my untold Entrepreneurial Journey, the Soft Life CEO Roadmap,
am I winning recipe for elevating your brand, increasing your income,
and reclaiming your time. Head over to the soft Life
ceo dot com backslash free training.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Like okay, so I think like the biggest thing for
me is I have to make sure that I align
my days with what I'm trying to do, and so
my admin days are on Monday. You have to have
an admin day as an influencer because that means you
will lose your mind if you do not. You got
to go through your emails. Check those emails if you
got any brand deals. My manager is connected to my email,

(09:56):
so she handles all of my you know, contracts and
things like that. After you go through your emails, you
kind of have to plan out your week and what
that's going to look like. I like to plan out
the week before, so like Tuesdays and Thursdays are my
shoot days. So if I like yesterday, I shot contentday
with my family, which drove me insane, But it's the

(10:20):
days that I have to get everything done. So I
try to get as much done on Tuesdays and Thursdays
because I have a little bit more space and time
to do so. So whether that I'm recording reels or
whether I'm recording like a YouTube video or something for TikTok,
I try to carve out my days like that. And
then Wednesdays and Fridays are my editing days. I usually

(10:42):
carve out those days to either like edit videos, drafted captions,
if I'm scheduling content, if my manager hit me up
about like updating brand deals. I have two assistants that
work with me, so I'm trying to make sure that
they're good on their projects and tasks. I have a
newsletter that goes out every Monday, so my assistant handles that.

(11:03):
So that's pretty much what my work week looks like.
And then on top of that, like the biggest thing is,
you know, taking care of my mental health. So I
try to make sure I work out every day that
is non negotiable for me. It keeps me saying, it
keeps me grounded and kind of like lets me go
throughout the day. So that's what my week looks like.
Monday's Admin, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Editing, Wednesday, Friday, Well Tuesday, Thursday, Record, Wednesday,

(11:25):
Friday Eddie, the weekend Wine.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
So so I'm so glad of the weekend wine and host. Okay,
I'm so glad that you mentioned, like how you kind
of like batch your days because I preach that to
my community, and like, the number one thing that will
shift or change the way that you work is by
setting it up like that. You can't do all the

(11:50):
things in one day just doesn't make sense.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
And for our brains, I've always.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Phone such a level of peace when I dedicate my
days to specific things.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
So yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Love that you mentioned. I'm sure all my students listening
are like, oh, maybe brain knows what.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
She's talking about.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
So I want to talk about brand partnerships because I
know from experience doing influencer partnerships that you know sometimes
they can be a headache.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
So can you share with us.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
What are the pros and cons of doing direct brand deals.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, that's a great question. The pros. Well, actually, let
me start off with the cons because I feel like,
you know, the pros are always easy, but the cons are.
You know, after you submit a project, you have to
get approval from a brand, and usually that's not you know,

(12:41):
that's not how it works, especially if it's like I
like to work with brands that are like, whatever you
want to do, go for it. But there are brands
that are very strict. So I'll give you a prime example.
I just worked with Lincoln, which was a dream partnership
for me. I was like, oh my god, I'm so happy.
And I worked with them last year, like in November December,

(13:03):
so like right around like Thanksgiving time, and they had
so many edits, so many different things because there were
so many like legal things that had to be to
make sure that was in the content or like if
I said something that was wrong, I had to change it.
And mind you like, they gave me a car for
about a month, but that was in the fall, so

(13:26):
I didn't have the car anymore. So I'm like having
some no, yes, I'm having to like re edit sound
bites and like, I'm just like and then you know,
it's funny because all of my Christmas decord was up
in the campaign and I'm just like, yeah, y'all go
to see this in spring. And it was just that

(13:47):
was probably like a con for me because I was like, Okay,
that's something that I It was a lesson for me
because it was also like, hey, you know, when you're
doing campaigns, also know that you probably just need a
neutral background if it's not holiday related, because you never
know when something is going to take time to go
live and it might be like you might have shot

(14:09):
that in February and they're releasing it in May and
you're just like, oh, but I have Valentine's Day like
holiday stuff everywhere. So it's just for me, it was
a lesson to be like mindful of like decor and
being cognizant of like things like that. But I would
say that's the con. Usually it's a lot of edits
if the brand is like, you know, really particular. It

(14:32):
is also I would say payments. You know, my management
team doesn't like they I love them so much, they
are they want to get paid, so they're just gonna
make sure I get paid. So they are very meticulous
on sending our reminders, making sure that you know the
payment is under net sixty days if anything like that.

(14:53):
They try not to go over net ninety days. They
really negotiate to get it to net sixty days or
net thirty days, because nobody want to wait three months
to get paid, Like, you know, no one wants that,
And there are influencers that don't know that that. They'll
be like they'll sign a contract and it'll say like
net ninety days, and like, are you getting paid for
like not three months? Three months? Like that's crazy, but

(15:18):
it happens because a lot of people don't necessarily like
they're just thinking of like, oh my god, I'm gonna
get paid, but you know, they don't look at like
three months away. It's a long time, you know, and
you have bills to take care of. So I would
say those are the cons the pros. I like to
think that some of the pros are when you're working
with some brands, like they're just very open to like

(15:41):
your own personal creative process, and I think that that's
it's not all companies, but it is some are just
like very new to the influencer space. So they're just like,
whatever you want to create, we don't care do it,
go for it. So I like the you know, autonomy
to be able to kind of like create what I
can do in a beautiful way for them that speaks

(16:04):
to their brand, and some of them love it, and
then others will be like, well, that's not the direction
we were going for. I'm like, okay, well that's that's
a con We need to figure what that direction is.
But that's why you have like creative briefs and stuff
like that. And I think that more and more brands
and companies are get sending creators briefs and things like
that to kind of give creators direction of where they're

(16:26):
trying to go with their content and things like that.
So I haven't had any like real particular like back
and forth with a lot of brands. Usually I try
to follow what they're looking for in the brief and
they just go from there.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Awesome.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
And how long do brand partnerships typically last? And I
want you to answer this in two different ways because
I know that one, you know, you could start with
a brand and then you do the whatever the deliverables are,
and then you actually get paid sixty days later. But
what I'm talking about is more like do you have
ongoing brand partnerships? Like what's the difference between like a

(17:01):
one time and like an ongoing And do have a
preference of like what people should kind of like strive for.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Mm, well, I think about like when I started, it
was like one offs. I always contact an offs and
there are just like companies that are like, oh, we
just want to work with you on a reil and
things like that, And as a new influencer, I didn't
necessarily know that that was probably not always the direction
that you wanted to go in as a new influencer.
I think that it's great because like it's giving you exposures,

(17:29):
giving you an opportunity to work with some of the
brands that you love. But it's always important. Like what
I've learned now over the course of the amount of
time that I've been in this space is you don't
necessarily want one offs. You want longevity and most of
the time, like you want to have a brand work
with you for multiple months because it also develops a

(17:52):
trustworthy rapport between the brand and your audience so that
they know that you're actually like you know, using them,
you believe in their brand, and then you can kind
of like also, I wouldn't say like no, I would
say convince your audience as well, like hey, you know, oh,
I see her working with this brand a lot. You know,
maybe she actually does use it. We see a lot

(18:14):
of YouTubers do that, Like we'll see a lot of
YouTubers talk about like Hello Fresh, and then when you
see it so much, it just becomes to the point
where you're like, you know, what, they gotta be using
this stuff? Like maybe, so I feel like now we've
gotten into more longer contracts with brands because it does
establish some form of credibility, especially amongst like you know,

(18:38):
my audience at least.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
So and is that something that you can negotiate, Like
if someone's coming to you for a one off situation,
could you possibly be like, oh, I want to lock
in like a three month thing or you know, yes.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Always, I always like, we don't when my manager is
speaking with the brands, you know, I don't don't do
it anymore, but I see the conversations happening because it's
in my email. But when she's negotiating with brands, it's
immediately trying to you know, jump them into a two
to three month contract versus having a one off because

(19:13):
you know she'll explain it to them the same way
I said, Like, it's about credibility versus just having something
one off. Now someone offs. We've seen more on the
TikTok spectrum because TikTok is just TikTok, but more of
the brands that I'm contracting now are long term.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Now, every opportunity is not for everybody. How do you
determine whether a brand partnership is for you or it
is not for you, or whether it's even worth taking
on or considering.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
For instance, there was a brand that wanted to work
with me last year and they were playing pretty pretty
good decent. I'm not even gonna lie, but something on
my heart of hearts wasn't right about the brand. I
personally just didn't feel like I aligned with their mission.
And I have like I always look at my demographics

(20:01):
and I'm like, I look at my audience, who my audiences,
and I'm just like, yeah, I don't think this is
for me, and I don't think this is gonna resonate
well with my audience either, And so I'm very passionate
about taking I feel like now more than ever. Like before,
in the beginning, I probably would have took it just
because I would have saw a number and I would
have said, listen, I gotta pay my bills. But even

(20:26):
now I look at it, I just I don't think
all money is good money. Yeah, I just don't. I
don't believe in that. I believe, you know, I'm a
big faith based person, so I believe that. You know,
if God is speaking something on my heart and he's
saying it ain't for you, There's gonna be something greater
in the on the horizon. I just like I put

(20:46):
it to bed and I had accepted that campaign, and
then I literally like said, yeah, I don't want to
do it no more.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
It was like yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
They were like, what, we would love to still work
with her. Do we want to pay her more? And
I was just like, no, I don't want it. I said,
this is just it's something. I kept talking to my
mom about it, and I was like, this is just
not it's not me. I can't make sense of it.
I just don't. I had already shot the content for it,
and I was just like, oh wow, yeah it was.
It was a whole deal. My manager was like, I

(21:15):
get it I understand. I was like, this has never
happened before. I've never turned down like a contract that
I didn't feel like passionate about, but this one was
like I was like, I don't feel passionate about it.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
So yeah, oh well, yep.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
See, all money ain't good money if it doesn't you know,
fit your morals or at the end of the day,
like I always say, I can't pay me enough for
my peace of mind, and so I.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
And you don't want, you don't want. Like there's been
so many influencers that I've seen in the industry that
had taken on a brand deal or taking or started
to work with the brand, and then all of a sudden,
the news comes out and oh this brand is racist
or oh this brand is doing x y Z in Asia,
and you're just like, as an influencer, you didn't think

(22:02):
nothing of it. But then you're like, well, shoot, I
probably should have vetted them a little bit more, you know.
So I think that you know, a lot of people
get money happy, they get money hungry, they get you know,
I don't like to use the word clout, like they
chase this fame and sometimes it's not always good. You know.

(22:23):
You have to have discernment on what is good and
what is not for you.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
You know for sure, I love that advice.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
And speaking of Moulah.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Are you ready to go from hustler to soft life CEO?
I'm here to help. I've created the soft Life Society,
a membership based community where I provide weekly events such
as group coaching calls, brand and social media audits, masterclasses
and featured guest speakers. Get access to members only in
person events, and discounts on soft Life CEO services. And
here's the best part. You can join today for free.

(22:55):
Visit the soft Life Ceo dot com backslash Society and
use code free trial for thirty days free access.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
How do you handle negotiations If a brand wants to
work with you, but they're not offering a price point
that you feel is worth taking it on, we don't
take it, So you never you never negotiate.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Oh no, we do negotiate, but if they're not handled
the negotiations, So usually it is my manager that handles
the negotiations. She'll like, if it's a brand that I
really really want to work with, then you know, I'll
be like figured out, let's come into the meeting. In
the middle and she'll be like, okay. But usually most

(23:38):
of the time, if it's like if it's an astronomical
ask in terms of like deliverables, and they're asking for
like all of these different things, and like there's so
many different you know, bells and whistles on the legal
things like exclusivity and whitelisting and usage rights and things
like that, and they're not me at least the standard

(24:02):
to pay. And we've negotiated to the point, but they're
not budgeting. We won't like it's a no, Like we'll
just not accept it because it won't make sense to
do in the long run, especially like when you look
at it from the standpoint, a lot of influencers may
sign a contract with the brand that'll be like, you know,
maybe five thousand and six thousand dollars, but they have

(24:25):
exclusivity on that contract, and then that exclusivity sits for
three months or six months, and then you can't work
with specific brands, so you're leaving money on the table.
A lot of people don't know the legal terms of that,
and so I'm just like, no, I can't do that.
So negotiations happen, but we just got to make sure
that negotiations make sense for what the amount of work

(24:48):
they're asking for, you know.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Now.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
As the queen of content, I know you don't have
any issues with being consistent with creating your content. You
have your Tuesday, you have your Thursday, you have your
editing days. So what advice would you get to someone
who doesn't have that level of obedience yet, Because like,
you've been doing this for a while, So for someone
who's new, who they're not used to creating content, what

(25:14):
tips would you give for being consistent in the content
creation element?

Speaker 1 (25:18):
So I always like to think of it like this,
what can you give to the platform because there's a
lot of people who work full time that are now
full time influencers. And I remember when I was doing
this and working full time and had my daughter, and
I was and then I had my son and I

(25:39):
was like, I'm insane. But I think just kind of
giving yourself a realistic expectation because what happens on social media,
and I encourage a lot of people to not do
this is to not get into this rabbit hole of
I gotta post every day to grow, I gotta do
XYZ to make sure that I'm meeting the demand of

(26:01):
the different social platforms. I think consistently showing up, but
in the way that you can so like if you
feel like, hey, I can show up at least two
days a week or three days a week. Cool. As
we talked about before, batching your content is always going
to be the best idea. I think when I was

(26:22):
working full time, I tried to do that as much
as I could because I didn't have a lot of time,
and so for me my lunch breaks to wear my
shoot days, like, I would go home my lunch break
and I wish you was my photographer, and then after
I wis shoot with her, she would send me the
images back, and then in the evening time, I'm like, okay,
let me go ahead and batch this out. And this
is obviously before like reels like became a thing, because

(26:43):
remember they didn't have like reels back then, so pictures
were easy to just like batch and get out, whereas
now you know you have to do video content, and
a lot of people are like, you know, video content
is a whole nother layer of things. So I would say, like,
you know, give yourself time and grace to just say,
what can I give to the platform? How much can
I give to the platform? And you know what, realistically

(27:05):
it was going to work for me. So for me,
you know, I try to find what that is for myself.
Everybody knows what it is for them.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
I was gonna say, man, how I miss the days
of simple social media when.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Pictures like That's why I said, it's just changed so much.
So it's like a lot a lot of people are
just like trying to figure it out right now. So
I get it.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
So do you have any like tools or like specific
things that you use for creating your content and or editing,
like I know there's so many different types of like tripods,
or you could be using a camera or your phone,
Like any tips or tricks that you could share with us.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yes, Well, if you ever go to my Amazon storefront,
keep a buy that in my link in bio. I
have a list of like text stuff that I love
to use. Because a lot of people will ask me.
When I was first starting out, I bought a camera.
I don't recommend it now just with the level of
iPhones that are in existed, iPhones are just so advanced

(28:11):
down so just use your back camera, never use your
front camera. And cleaner lens. Always wipe carry you know,
little cleaning wipes to wipe that camera off. I like to,
you know, for my shooting. You know, I'm a big
cinematic person, so I shoot on twenty four frames per second.

(28:36):
It gives you the cinematic feel. A lot of people
shoot on sixty frames per second, which I don't recommend
unless you try to do slow mode. What else I
think that's about it. Oh, I use cap cut for editing.
I used to use Inshot a lot. I don't like
inshot anymore. I think capcut has kind of like, you know,
really picked it up on. It's like just jurors with

(28:58):
editing and stuff. It's so good. It is so much
fun when you start playing. And that's the thing. You
gotta play around with these apps because if you don't
know how to use the apps, you're gonna be like, wait,
how did you do that? So make sure you use apps.
Get on that. The best way this is this is
a nugget that I don't feel like a lot of
people are using, but it's it's so easy. Is a

(29:19):
lot of these like apps have YouTube channels, and so
you can go to their YouTube channel and like watch
these tutorials and so you start to learn like how
to use the the features of the app. So cap
cut is my favorite, yo, that's it. Like I use
cap cut in light room. I'm not like, I'm not

(29:39):
I'm so basic when it comes to like apps system.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
No.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
This is helpful though, because people listening they're probably thinking
they need all the things, and it's like, I hope
y'all heard what you said. All you need is your
phone and an editing tool.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Like it's not like a lot of people they there
are other apps that I have used, but I feel
like with Instagram you don't really need to do or
even sick Tock, you really need to do a lot
like you can have and then you're gonna overwhelm yourself
for trying to learn fifty million apps.

Speaker 6 (30:09):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna try a cap cut though,
because I usually use and yet no, girl, don't use more.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Okay I will tonight.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Tonight, I'm gonna cancel my in shot and I'm down.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Like I used to use in shot so religiously, and
after I started using Kapita, I was like, why were
I gonna have in shot anymore? But I was like,
this is so pointless.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
Okay, I have I have the to do list tonight,
I'm gonna make that switch just for you.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
You're gonna be like, oh my god, Carben, thank you.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
So we were talking about apps, were talking about different
things for editing. What are like the costs associated because
you mentioned when we had our talk, you mentioned like
a deep link thing that I don't think people are
hip too, and I was like, well, carbon has to
share the deeps. But overall, what are the different costs
associated who be an influencer?

Speaker 1 (31:05):
There's a lot of costs. Well, okay, so it just
depends on what you're signing up for, right, So there
are different like obviously, like Kapka has a pro version,
you can get the basic version. I don't recommend getting
the basic version because you're not gonna you're not gonna
like it. It's it's not worth it. I think the
pro version is maybe eighty dollars a year. It's not

(31:29):
even you know, I don't want to say it's not
that bad, but because I don't know people's budgets, but
you know, if you want to pay for the monthly,
you can pay for monthly. You pay for year, lightroom.
I pay for when it comes to different platforms, like
you know, link tree is where people use. So link
tree and biosite are two platforms that people use to

(31:50):
kind of like it's like your resume. I don't really
feel like it's your resume. It's just where you kind
of house all of your social media links, whether it's
your YouTube channel, your threads, whatever you got that you
need people to navigate to, that's where you go. Deep
Linking is different. There's different sites for deep linking. A
lot of people don't know about deep linking yet, but

(32:11):
deep linking is pretty much if you're using like specific
platforms like Amazon or maybe like you know, something like
a shoppable link. Deep linking allows like you to be
able to, like the user who clicks that link to
go straight to that platform without having to do any

(32:31):
like loggins or anything that causes a headache. So that's
kind of like what deep linking is. And I'm trying
to think of anything else. You've got minichat. Minichat is great.
There's link dm that other people use. That's just basically
like when you see influencers say comments here or you know,

(32:52):
comment link, and then the link goes directly to them.
So they're and those costs money. Everything costs money. That's it.
That's the Everything costs money. So if you're willing do
I recommend people who are starting, if you have a
full time job and you can pay for it, go
for it if you do. If you ain't making no

(33:12):
money and this is the only way you make money,
I would probably recommend just doing like mini chats like
pay for our service like that, because that's gonna help
you make money. You gotta, yeah, yeah, you gotta find
ways to make make money.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
And then once you get you know on the big
dog level like Carmen, you you hire assistants and managers
and and I know there's two options with that, right
because you could like give a cut of whatever you
know they work on to like almost like a project
basis or their salary. There's hourly there's all the different options.
But how hard was that for you to kind of

(33:50):
put together a team of people to assist you?

Speaker 1 (33:54):
So when I was starting, I'll never forget. So the
world of influencing is like sports. It's literally like sports
when you see the first round draft picks or the
top influencers, even like people on TV where you like
love is blind, like the love is blind people, and

(34:15):
now all of a sudden, they influencers and they didn't
got management because they don't enter this celebrity status world.
And now they're like, I don't even know what to do.
It's crazy. So when I was starting, I had hired
a management service to kind of help me negotiate my contracts,
you know, helped me with kind of like brands that
were reaching out to me that I didn't necessarily feel

(34:37):
like I had a lot of knowledge on, but I
had some. But it also got overwhelming. So there was
nott a period of time like Q three and Q fours,
like the busy time period for a lot of influencers,
And so I had like an influx of opportunities kind
in my inbox, and I was literally like it was
just me. I couldn't do it by myself. Like I
literally was just like what am I doing? And I

(34:59):
knew I was failing at work because I was like,
oh my god, Like I was like, not only do
I have to like take all these on, but I'm
missing like campaign opportunities because I'm I'm missing an email
because I'm trying to handle my work over here. And
so I had reached out to another influencer and I
just asked her how she was managing it because she
was working full time and she had recommended the company

(35:20):
that I used, and I was using them for quite
some time. And then I literally I had like, mind
you this was too like actually this was three years ago.
I didn't know anythings, so I didn't know that like
agencies actually reached out to people and they signed people
on to be a part of their talent agency. So
this is like football, so you think about it, like

(35:42):
like TikTokers or Instagrammers were getting picked up by agencies.
I had no idea, and so fast forward to you know,
the next year, I had a few agencies reach out
to me, but I wasn't sure because I was still nervous.
I was like still new in the space, in that
making money space, I guess you would say. And the

(36:03):
one agency that I did decide to go with, I
knew a few creators on their roster, and I was
just like, you know what, I trust their brand, I
trust what they are doing, and I know that they
got to be like super meticulous about what they do.
And from there it was just it just happened, you know,
and they signed me and I've been with them ever
since and I love working with them.

Speaker 7 (36:24):
They're great, and this is definitely something that we'll be
having a solo conversation about too, because as I have children,
I'm like, I don't know why it sounds so bad,
like I'm pimping out my kids, but i just know
they're gonna be cute and they're.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Gonna have personality, and I'm like, mama wants free stuff.
We want to free stroller like the nice one too.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
So I'm definitely my.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
First campaign was a stroller campaign when I Yeah, when
I have my daughter, I was like, oh, this is
so camp.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
I will totally be a mama and influencer, but like
on my own right now, it's just it's just not
what it is, all right. So I have one last
question for you before we jump into our questions from
our community, and they have been rolling through.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
So I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Okay, So, what advice would you give to someone who
is wanting to be an influencer but they don't have
any followers yet or a small following.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Where should they start?

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Okay, So if you have a small following, I like,
I really genuinely because I see so many people who
have exponential growth on Instagram, and I'm just like, that's amazing.
I love that for you. But I think that there
is so much longevity in like establishing what you want
to talk about and just kind of like moving forward
with that. A lot of people tell you to, like

(37:46):
niche down. I was just on another lot Instagram Live
talking about this to another creator, and I literally was
just telling her. I was like, a lot of people
have to just structure. I'm very structured. So I think
of it like a business standpoint, like when you create
a business plan, you have to have what your goal is,
your mission, you know. Everything else is literally like structure it.

(38:09):
So I tell people like when you're starting out, like
kind of treat yourself as if you already have a
million followers. Just be like, you know what, I already
got a million followers. Bey here, okay. And so I
always tell people like go into it like you already
know you got a brand, You already know what you're
talking about, So get your social handles all secured, Like

(38:31):
don't just start and be like, Okay, it's all about baking,
Like like for instance, like that's my name all about baking.
And I only secure an Instagram, but then there's all
about baking on TikTok YouTube and then you don't have
that claim to that name. So I would say, claim
your name first, get it secure. I used to tell
all my friends that, like, you want to start social media,

(38:51):
claim your name so nobody else has it, because there
are people that have Carmeen Renee that do not claiming
time because the name is easy. And now I have
Carmel Renee blog because that's all I could get because
Carmon Renee was taking. So I always say claim those
socials first. Claim them all on platforms, any social media platform,

(39:13):
put it on there. Uh. The second thing is kind
of like establish what you want to talk about. Like
a lot of people are like, oh do I need
a niche like whether I'm beauty, fashion, lifestyle, whatever, And
I just say, what do you enjoy talking about the
most and then find that and just kind of move
forward with that. So for me, when I got started,
I didn't have a lot of money. I didn't have

(39:34):
a lot of like expensive designer clothes. I didn't have
any of that. I went to the thrift store. That's
what I could afford. That's what I did, So I
would go to the thrift store and I would be like, ooh,
this is how you could wear a keut blazer multiple ways,
or this is how you wear a cute skirt or
look what I found thrift store fines. And eventually that
turned to something that I could do regularly because I
could afford that, like, you know, if blazer was a dollar.

(39:57):
So I would say, just kind of like, think about
what you want to talk about, and then you don't
need a lot of like equipment, you really don't. A
lot of people, you know, are into that's the biggest
thing right now that I like a lot of people
are gonna be like, what the biggest thing right now
is blogging, Like it's blogging like everybody wants to see

(40:17):
your life, Like everybody wants to see your life, and
you'd be surprised, you'd be like, my life is so boring,
But people actually are so interested in people's lives. Like
I was literally, we're looking for a nanny right now,
and I was like, let me look up like a
day in the life of a nanny, like what do
they do? And I went on TikTok and I found
like fifty nannies that are talking about here's what they

(40:38):
doing today. And I'm just like, you got to realize,
like most people are more curious about your life than anything.
So there are kind of like three ways you can
need to share your life. You can do something educational,
or you can do like show something like a product
or talk about it, be an expert in something. And
you don't necessarily have to you know, pigeon hold yourself
to beauty. You don't have to pigeon hold yourself to fashion.

(41:01):
You don't have to pigeonhold yourself to family. If you
want that lifestyle umbrella, talk about it all and just
be consistent about it. That's my biggest you know, share
with people is like you've got to show up. You know,
you can't. Just the thing about it is a lot
of people will think about like how to grow on
social media, but the biggest thing is that you got
to think about your business. Like I said, like as

(41:23):
if you have a million followers. If you have a
million followers, you're not going to go ghost for a month.
You have to show up at least every other day
and let people who are alive. I think of my
business as if it was a brick and mortar store, like,
I can't just close the door on it just because
I'm I don't want to work. So if I had

(41:47):
a brick and mortar store, unless I chose to be
open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, that's when I'm open. But
if I choose that that store is open every single
day and a customer comes through even and if it's
one customer, I need to be on I need to
at least talk to that one customer. So you have
to kind of look at it from that standpoint of

(42:09):
I'm a brick and mortar store, like, Okay, maybe I'm
not open every day, so I set my hours of
operation and when am I going to be online? And
when am I'm not gonna be online? So that at
least people kind of have a cadence to when you
guys are gonna be online.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
So I love that analogy.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Now, our community has been just blowing us.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
Up with different questions.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
So these are some that were submitted in the community earlier.
So how do you define success as an influencer?

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Oh okay, that's a good question. That is good. How
do we have define success? Well, my first way of
defining success was being able to quit my phototop job
and make more doing what I love versus doing you know,

(42:58):
And I don't want to say like I never loved
my job. I actually I liked my job. I didn't
have the best supervisor, but I did enjoy my career
in the space that I was in. But my definition
of success was being able to like take my family
on a trip that I couldn't necessarily afford before and

(43:19):
just being like wow, like we can afford to go here,
or you know, being able to put my kids in
a good school where I was like, you know, we
can take care of our bills, we can take care
of our finances, like you know, I wasn't making that
much of my my previous job. And it's so funny
because now in the space, like influences make a lot

(43:42):
of money, like a lot of money, and so when
I think about it now, I'm just like, man, you know,
to somebody who like to like a normal, just regular
nine to five person, making one hundred thousand dollars is
like amazing to them, They're like, wow, making one hundred
thousand dollars. But then when you're an influencer, you're like, oh,

(44:02):
I made three hundred that's good, But I need to
make more, or I made four hundred, Oh, that's good,
but I need to make more. Oh I hit five hundred, great,
I want to hit six hundred next year. And so
you're like, you're literally talking numbers that CFOs talk like
people who own companies. And when you think like that,
you're like, what, Like my husband will say that, people

(44:24):
like Carmen like, are you serious right now? And I'm
just like, you're right. I need to be happy with
what I like. I literally like think about like when
I talk to people, they're like, you know, you made
in one quarter what somebody makes in a year. Be
blessed with what you are doing. And it's very easy
to make one hundred thousand dollars as an influencer is
super easy. If you know the tools, it's super easy

(44:45):
to make that. So I think like that that wasn't
necessarily how I measured success, but it was definitely something
that I was like, Oh, I've reached a certain point
in my career where I'm like, Okay, I'm seeing the
fruits of the labor that I put in, the hard
work that I put in, the blood sways, here's the
long nights to get to this point into where I'm

(45:09):
at you know that to me has helped define the
journey of success. I look at it from the standpoint
of not necessarily like a fiscal thing, but just like
how I was able to kind of come from nothing
to now I'm here like, Wow, I'm seeing the fruits
of my labor. I'm seeing what you know, it's coming

(45:30):
from that, so that I guess, you know, it's how
like being able to take care of my family, do
the things that I love. Yeah, I hope that helps.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
Yeah, it's good.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
I don't know if you know this, but my husband
and I waited for marriage. We documented our journey and
started a brand called relationship restored, which is a platform
dedicated to helping you build happy and healthy relationships. Head
over to relationship restore dot com to subscribe to the channel,
tune into the podcast, or join the community.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
All right, now, what would you say are the top
three things an influencer needs to do to be successful.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
That's a good question. Top three things. You gotta be consistent.
You have to that's number one. You have to be consistent.
You gotta do your research. Okay, I would say, there's
so much information. Oh oh, let fols do that now.
They do balloons. They do like thumbs up.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
Those of you listening.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
I was trying to count and I was at too,
and soon up for the peace sign up. We got
balloons all over our screen. So thanks for that.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
All right, number three?

Speaker 4 (46:39):
What would number three be?

Speaker 1 (46:42):
So we talked about consistency, research and just kind of organization.
I would say organization, batch editing, just try to be
as consistent as possible. All of that kind of like
loops into one. Oh actually, no, organization is good. Well
I'll follow that into file that into consistency. Vulnerability is

(47:05):
number three. Vulnerability because you can show up online, but
if you're not vulnerable, that's not going to be how
you keep an audience. So vulnerability would be three.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
I love that and that makes so much sense because
at the end of the day, if people want to
they want to be encouraged and inspired.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
And they also want to relate.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
Yeah, if you just show up as this perfect you know, princess,
a very single, yeah, they're like, all right, perfect bitch,
get out of here, like me go through.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
Yeah, people want to.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
People want another good and the bank especially now, it's
like that's the thing. It's like, if you're not showing
up with both. Then it's like people are like you's fake,
you lying about your life. So I love that be vulnerable,
all right. Is it best to let brand partnerships happen
organically or is it better to reach out to brands
or both? Uh?

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Well, it depends on what stage you are in, but
I think both. I think both. Yeah, I don't. I
don't see like, even if you hit h h O
highest peak and you're like, man, I want to work
with or MEZ, you still got to reach out because
MS may not reach out to you. So I think both.
I definitely think like at the start of my career,

(48:18):
I was pitching as much as I could, and then
now I don't have to really do that as much.
But there are companies that like I'll look at that,
I'll be like, oh, these are my dream brands. This
is what I want want of who I would like
to work with. So I'll let my management team know
as well, because you know, they're also in that space
where they're talking to a lot of PR companies. I would,

(48:41):
I honestly would say if you're in like local cities
and you see like events happening, go to those events
because a lot of the times, it's pr companies that
have uh that are pretty much the the bridge between
brands and influencers. So yeah, that would be my my take.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
So both Okay, now this question, so it's word of
the little wonky, So I'm gonna try to make it
make sense. Could you basically highlight your favorite products and
feature different brands as an easy way to be considered
for other brand partnerships.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Yeah. See, like if you love makeup and you're talking
about ELF but you like nurs absolutely you just need
to shop like you. For instance, it's I treat you
like this. Imagine you playing basketball, right, and you start
off with a Spalding basketball, and that's what you start
off with, and then you graduate to Wilson and you

(49:41):
start playing with the Wilson basketball. But guess what Wilson's
gonna be like, well, why are you playing What'spaulding when
you need to play over on Wilson's team. Eventually, like,
brands are going to pick up on you know, their uh,
the brands that you're working with. So I always just
say it doesn't matter what brand and you working with
or what brands are you talking about? Talk about everything.

(50:03):
You know, maybe you want to work with a luxury brand,
a luxury skincare brand. But you're like, hey, I you know,
only got some of the samples. You know, I think
that's so great talk about them samples. Be like I
went to nor Strum and picked up some samples because
I didn't want to necessarily buy this hundred dollars cleanser
because I could listen, it's one hundred dollars. Can I

(50:26):
is it? Is it really worth it? So I asked
them that would be such a great real. That would
be such a great real because it would go viral
because you know, everybody loves samples, and so they would.
You could go home and be like, I love sample
from Norstrom. We're gonna try this out. We're gonna see
if it works. I'm gonna let y'all know how it feels,
the texture, and then if I like it, I might
go back and buy it.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Yeah, that's a great way for the brand to see
that and then say, hey, you know, we want to
work with you, and now.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
They want to try that home bottle.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
Yep, oh I love that.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
And then what I would tell people too, is like,
if there's no proof that you could do something, why
would someone pay you to do it. So if you're
reaching out to a brand and they come to your
Instagram but they don't see any brand content of you
working with other brands or showcasing how you showcase a
brand or a product, then how would they know that
you know what you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
So in the.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
Beginning, when you're not getting paid, you have to kind
of show up as if you are anyways, because again
the proof is in the pudding. So showcase what you're
able to create, and that's going to be the thing
that a brand would see and say, yeah, we want to.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Work with that exactly.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
All right, So here's a good question. How do you
navigate the fine line between sharing personal aspects of your
life with your audience and maintaining boundaries for privacy and
self preservation In the influencer industry.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
That's a great question, all about that vulnerability. I know
a lot of people don't like to hear it, but
because I get that question so much, they're like, well,
what do you keep private and what do you let?

Speaker 7 (51:59):
Well?

Speaker 1 (52:00):
I may not tell you. I think like influencers decide
like what they want to share and what they don't
want to share, right, Yeah, you know, for me, I
try to share as much as possible with with my audience.
It might be stuff that I'm just like, hey, this
isn't this is a family matter. I ain't about to
tell y'all what's going on, just gonna say pray for me.

(52:23):
What I tell y'all to pray for me, that means
pray for me. But I've been I think that's hard.
Like I think that you just have to figure out
what you want to share and what you don't want
to share, and maybe, like, let's say, for instance, I
feel like I'll give you an example, like I feel
like YouTubers when they get into a new relationship and
they're so excited about their boyfriend and then they putting

(52:45):
them all the line. Then we then everybody becomes invested,
and then all of a sudden they break up, and
then everybody's like, well, what happened? Why'd y'all break up?
And then they're like privacy. I'm like, well, your relationship
wasn't private at this point. Now now everybody is so
invested we are in your relationship, so now we need
to know what happened. And a lot of people don't

(53:06):
like that, and so I always say, it's just what
so like, for instance, if there's vulnerability moments, I'm just
I'm never going I may not give you the full story,
but I'm gonna give you snippets. I might give you
the cliff notes of what happened. I might not give
you everything. Or if there's something that happening, you know,
with my life, I might give you the cliff notes.
It depends on what I won't, but I would tell

(53:26):
people give people the cliff notes. You ain't got to
tell them the full story, but just notes. I think
that's the part of that level of vulnerability. You don't
have to be like y'all. So today I got this
ticket on the road and da dad, Like, you ain't
got to do all that. But like, for instance, you
know I had I think the most vulnerable moment that

(53:49):
happened in my life was my dad passing away. And
that was something that I did share on my platform,
but I didn't necessarily, like I didn't dive deep into
his passing, just let people know that, you know, he
passed away from a heart attack, and that was something
that was really you know, traumatizing in my life. And
there was a lot of people who will pray for you.

(54:10):
There's a lot of people who will, you know, share
their own testimony to help you kind of get through yours. So,
like I said, you give people cliff notes. You don't
have to give people the full story. But when you
welcome people into your life, you know, you welcome them
into your life, and then that's it. I mean, give
them the cliff notes. You don't got to tell everybody everything.

(54:32):
That's how you said boundaries. You don't have to tell
everybody everything, but you give them the cliff notes. So
it's so funny because people be like Carmen, Oh, I
had a friend come over to see my house, and
you know, my friends are like, I thought, you don't
let everybody in your house, And I said, well, my
house is online, y'all can see my house. It ain't like,

(54:52):
ain't nobody seeing my house Now, it's one thing about
seeing my house versus being in my house, about welcome
you over my house. That's a whole different situation. But
you know, you can see, you can see the the core,
you can see what's you know, where's that and stuff
like that.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
This is which if you haven't seen Carmen's house, go
on her Instagram and is it still one of your
pens posts. It is, yeah, it is Okay, y'all see
it's the third one. All you see is beautiful, beautiful
house estead. Go look at that because we watched it
once a much.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Like schools. I love your house.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
All right, we have three questions left for you, all right,
we have how do you handle potential conflicts between your
personal beliefs and the expectations of your business partners or sponsors. So,
if a brand is asking you to do something, but
it conflicts with your personal beliefs, how do you go
about communicating that.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Oh, I just will tell them I don't want to
do it.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
I don't want to I'm not That was that was next.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
That was literally like the brand that I was talking
about earlier is just I just you have to have discernment,
really discernment. I think early in the stages of influencing,
a lot of people are nervous to have discernment. And
you know, I've had friends and tell me like, well,
you've gotten to the point where you can have discernment. No,
you have to have discernment to know that God has

(56:17):
something bigger planned for your life. And if you don't
believe that, then that's I do I feel bad because
I hope you do. I hope you can have discernment
to say this doesn't this doesn't align with my morals
on my values, and you know, unfortunately I cannot accept this,
and that's okay. And brands actually have to respect that,

(56:38):
you know, they have to respect that that's something that
doesn't align with you. But I always feel like there
is something greater on the other side when you carry
those morals and values, because something greater will happen for you.
You just got to believe it for sure.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
All Right, last question for you, apartment, in what ways
do you incorporate feedback and engagement from your audience into
your business decisions and content creation process?

Speaker 1 (57:05):
Well, that's a great question. I try to do at
least quarterly quiz not quizes, but just polls and check
ins with my audience, Like at the start of the year,
I'll do like a little quick inventory of what my
audience likes, what they want to see on my page.
And then sometimes if I feel like there's too far

(57:27):
of a space and I like, let's say, for instance,
you have like a rapid growth and you have new
people on your page, you might want to say, Okay, well,
I just increased by fifty thousand followers. It's time to
do a new poll because you have a new audience.
So I definitely think like quarterly polls, check ins with
your audience, like what would you like to see from me,
you know where, Like depending on what your topics are, Like,

(57:52):
you know, do you guys enjoy comedy, do you enjoy
meet like entertaining reels? Do you enjoy more motivational reels?
Do you joy fashion lifestyle blogs? Like what platforms do
you tend to frequent the most? Do you prefer pictures?
Do you prefer reels? I think it's just like that's
kind of like how you ask, and so I always

(58:12):
try to either ask my audience and then I also
go live with my audience just to like do check
ins with them and just say like, hey, y'all, this
is just happening, you know, let me know what you
want to see things like that. So yeah, just definitely
like quarterly poles quizzes utilizing the features of Instagram too,
Like when you put your reels. The biggest thing that

(58:34):
a lot of people don't know are are they doing
a lot? Is that Instagram has this new feature where
you can't add a pole under your reels. And so
I always tell people like, add that pole under your reel.
And then usually when somebody asks a question, you know,
like let's say, for instance, you're like, Okay, would you
guys like to see you know, a brunch? Oh my goodness,

(59:02):
maybe I was dropping some gems. Oh but if you
you know, if your audience, if somebody replies in the
comments is like, ooh, I would love to see xyz
on your page, you need to do that. Yeah, I
always respond, I love I try. I need to do
this more. In twenty twenty four, is responding back to

(59:23):
comments that asked me to do something that they want
to see, because if I do that, that's just that's
the way to bring in more people, you know. So
that's mine.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (59:35):
Thank you for answering that in all these amazing questions.
I know anyone here who is dibbling, dabbling interested in
any way, shape or format influencership will be finding this
very helpful. So, Carmen, I want you to tell us
what's next, because last I've heard slash saw you were
dibbling in the line business, and so you know, update us, girl,

(59:57):
what do you have going on? And how can everyone
make sure that they stay in touch.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Okay, so I am actually so there's a couple of
things so breathing know this already. But my dream, that's
one of the things, like I always tell influencers, you
always got to have kind of like your next what
you want to do next, And so what I would
love to do next is to have my own wine label.

(01:00:21):
So right now I'm in the process of just kind
of understanding the business acumen behind the wine business because
it's very expensive. So I got to make sure that
I'm fully ready to dive in. But I've already got
my first certification in wine. I'm working on my second one.
In May, I do plan to take a trip out
to California to talk to some wineries and just start

(01:00:45):
kind of getting that flowing and going. I do plan,
you know, if you know me, you know I love
to host, So I do plan to host some wine
events here in Houston. But yeah, that's that's what's next,
to have a.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
I want to be as of course, I got you, gotcha,
I'll make the chripase.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
So yeah, that's the that's the next goal is to
eventually the twenty twenty four goals to develop the business plan,
get everything together so I can efficiently launch a wine
label for twenty twenty five. So yeah, that is that's
what I'm working on. And then other a myriad of
other things like a book. I'm trying to get that

(01:01:25):
off the ground. Just yeah, y'all will see a lot
from me.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
So essentially, just make sure you follow Carmen on Instagram
at Carmen Renee blog and you will get all of
the things you need there. Thank you so much, Carmen,
you bree.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
It's a pleasure and I will talk to you guys later.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
Thanks for tuning in to Soft Life CEO. I hope
that today's episode gets you a little bit closer to
achieving your definition of a soft life. If you're ready
to start the journey from hustler to soft life CEO,
go to the Soft Life ceo dot com backslash Society
for thirty days free trial in my coaching community. If
you found this episode helpful, share it with a friend,
leave a review, and don't forget to subscribe.