Influencer Marketing In 2019

All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Tom Augenthaler with us. He is an international speaker, consultant, and the founder of The Influence Marketer, where he helps companies leverage the power of influencer marketing to inspire, persuade, and increase business. So welcome to the show, man.

Hey, man, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Of course, grateful to have you on. So the way we start the show is we like to get to know you pretty quickly right off the bat. Is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

That's a good question. Uh, you know, when thinking about that, the, the, the story that I come back to is when I was a stockbroker and I was working at a at a brokerage firm, and I was actually marketing financial institutional, to institutions, financial instruments to institutions. And, you know, I was calling up corporate treasurers, cash managers, pension sponsors, you know, all these people. And it struck me one day, you know, I'm sitting in the suit, I'm in this corner office overlooking Manhattan, it was this beautiful setting and everything. And it kind of struck me one day when I was smiling and dialing, trying to make new connections, that I wasn't motivated by money. And it was a very strange sort of thing that happened to me because it was against everything that I was doing in my career at that point. So I started, but I couldn't shake it off. And, you know, it took a while for me to sort of matriculate out of the business and get into something else, but it profoundly impacted me because I wasn't, I didn't really care whether I was making $400,000 a year, $4 million a year, whatever it was, I wanted to be fulfilled in what I was doing. And I wasn't fulfilled. And so I had to make some changes and they were sort of painful to make, but it was worth it. And that revelation, that sort of spark of inspiration or whatever it was, came to me that day when I was smiling and dialing in that office was profound. And that is probably the thing that I would convey to any of your listeners or watchers here, is that you've got to be true to yourself and you got to really know what motivates you.

Yeah, yeah, dude, I agree. There's actually this guy that said— and so this is, this is related as far as fitness goes— like, he said he always had the hardest time staying consistent working out every morning, and he realized and then he got a trainer. And with the trainer, he realized it wasn't that he was putting down a financial commitment to him that got him to go. It was that what motivates him is not letting other people down. So he felt like if he didn't meet his trainer, he's letting his trainer down. And so since then, he's had a trainer, and he's been consistent with working out every single morning. And that's how he's kind of set up things in his business life as well. And just with everything, with health and just anything in his life, it's all centered around not letting another individual down. And that is what motivates him in all directions, um, right? And now he every day works out. So I think it's interesting if you can find what that pool is for you, um, it'll obviously be a good thing. Um, so my next one for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

The most valuable thing you need to know about influencer marketing is that it's about relationships. It's not about media buys. It's not about shoutouts on Instagram. It's not about all of these tactics which people focus on. It's really about the relationships. So for instance, over the course of the years that I've been doing this, I have relationships with influencers in a pretty wide spectrum of fields. So whether it's tech, business, fashion, beauty, whatever it happens to be, I have some very, very nice relationships with people in each of those business niches. And I can go to them at any time with questions, ideas, you know, whatever, just to bounce things around with them, have a conversation, see where it might go. You know, it might be a business opportunity, whatever it happens to be. I can ping these people, they can ping me in return as well. And Over time we've developed something, you know, we've developed friendships. And those friendships are getting deeper and deeper and more and more rich every day. But that's where the magic happens because that's where, if I was working with you Tyler on a project for a client, I would want to get to know what motivates you as an influencer. And I would work very hard to do that and then try to work a way in which you and I could co-create content together that told that story for that client. And that's where you benefit, they benefit, I benefit. I mean, everybody benefits in that kind of a situation. But that's where— but you have to have relationships to be able to do that. Now, it doesn't mean that you have to know the person for 10 years or whatever, but you know, you could get to start to develop a relationship with somebody pretty quickly, as long as you're open to doing it. And that's what I want to convey to people here, is that if you're willing to do that and you're willing to get to know somebody a little bit and kind of delve into their world and figure out what motivates them, then all these magical things, you know, can happen when working with influencers. And that content that you co-create together can really lead into other projects. It can, you know, it can lead to all sorts of good things. Not only can it drive awareness and consideration and all these usual metrics that we marketers look at, but I tend to look at things a little bit more holistically and I want to see, well, where can we take this relationship and go even further with this? You know, how can we do something even more together that drives further and speaks more in an impactful manner, to use that word impact, that resonates more with the target consumer? You know, who is it that we're trying to speak to? And in that way, you could really craft some fantastic stuff that can have legs that last a long time, 6, 8, 12, 18 months. So it's kind of like, I'll go back to what Tim Ferriss has said in the past about developing long-form content, right? Tim will develop long-form content because he knows that it's going to resonate for years, right? It's going to be, you can find it, you can search for it, it'll come up in searches. and people are going to find that and they're going to, and they're going to connect with it for years going forward. So think of it that way. Think of it as a long-term prospect, right? Don't think of it short-term, think of it long-term. Think strategy instead of tactics.

Yeah, yeah, I, I love that. And even, um, before we hopped on, like, I think your view of influencer marketing is different than a lot of others. Like, a lot of others, it's very— it's a transactional thought. Like, you know, what do I, what do I pay you to promote me or something like that, right? But you're thinking about it in a very long-term way, like how about you not do that and how about you just reach out to them and create a relationship and then maybe like even if it's 6 months, a year down the road, at that point there's a friendship created, a relationship, and then maybe it can be mutually beneficial where maybe they just want to promote you. So Yeah, I like that way of thinking about it. So, it could tie in, but my next one for you is, what's your best piece of overall business advice? So, not necessarily like industry-specific.

I'm going to go back to my first story that I shared with you when I was a stockbroker, and that is knowing yourself. You've got to know what motivates you. If you don't know what motivates you, then you're going to flap around, you're going to try different stuff. And that's why a lot of people, I think, try things and fail so often is that— and I've done that too, believe me. I mean, I was a stockbroker. I was hammering it on the phone every day. I had the, you know, $800 suits and the cufflinks and everything else. And, you know, I had all the accoutrements, you know, to that career. But when you're walking into work every day and you're kind of like, oh God, I'm here at work again, you know, I can't wait for the weekend to roll around, you know, you're doing something wrong. And if you, if If you stick to that and you really kind of follow what's inside of your own self, it's going to lead you to where you need to be. And it doesn't matter what business you're in, you know, you're going to find that. Like, look at a guy like Gary Vaynerchuk. He's totally motivated by what he does. Yeah. You know, he just goes into work and he's energized every day and he exudes energy, right, as a result of it. I mean, he's motivated, he's happy, he's connecting with people, he's doing what he needs to do. That's what's going to help you in business. It's not these tactics and things that people sell all the time online. It's figuring out what's really going to motivate you. And I mean, I betrayed myself when I was getting out of school because I tried to convince myself that I needed to go into Wall Street. I needed to do I needed to go into the financial business. I needed to do these things because I was convincing myself that that's what motivated me, but it really wasn't. I mean, honestly, what I wanted to be as a kid is an archaeologist, and I never followed up on it. And I'm going to tell you, to this day, it still haunts me a little bit. I should have done it. So now I'm thinking, now I'm thinking my retirement, you know, my retirement, maybe I go back to school and I, and I, and I get, and I get a degree in archaeology or something, you know, and I pursue that.

Yeah, dude. Ah, see, that's the thing, man. And I, uh, it's interesting because one thing that I realized too, I actually dropped out of school. My major was accounting, which I absolutely hated. And that was the reason I chose that is because I had heard somewhere that it had the highest salary out of college.

Yep.

Which is the wrong— there's no longevity in that going back to long term. And then, I realized quickly that like, dude, I don't want to be alone crunching numbers. Like, I'm a people person. I want to be communicating with people out in the forefront. So, dropped out and, you know, I ended up doing my own thing. But I think it's important to mention that, that like, the money is not enough, you know. Even if accounting, like you're saying, you know, and it wasn't $400 grand out of school. I think it was like $70,000 or something. But like, it was not going to be enough to get me to do it for like years and years. So when you start thinking long term, you have to enjoy it or you're gonna freaking— it's not gonna work. Um, so, so yeah, well, I hope you go back into archaeology, man. I really hope you do.

At some point, someday, I will do it. Dude, you got that. I've got—

yeah, this podcast will hold you accountable, dude.

This is going live. Okay, okay, I'll do it. Believe me.

All right, dude, we'll follow up in a couple years with you. Um, so, oh dude, perfect next question then. If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Oh God, don't listen to what other people tell you to be successful. Um, and that word successful is shrouded and hindered, encumbered with all of these different things on top of it. So in our world, we tend to, you know, the society that we live in says to be successful means you have this kind of car, this big house, this kind of salary, this kind of lifestyle, whatever. But really being successful is about being true to yourself and being true to what motivates you and doing something that's really going to help other people. And then you're going to benefit from that. So I mean, I've met people that are like, you know, I don't know, they were, they worked for the government in some way. I remember one guy was an FBI agent, absolutely loved what he did. So he was very successful. He's not making $400 grand a year, but who cares? I mean, it's not about the money. It's about being fulfilled and helping people and really providing some kind of value to the world so that you're leaving a positive impact on it, not just a big bank account when you're dead, you know.

And, um, so that's a perfect segue again. In your opinion then, what is the key to happiness?

Uh, knowing what your values are and sticking to them and living by them.

Okay, now, so question is, how do you— okay, so when people ask me like, how do— how did I discover what I enjoyed and what I was good at? And I just say it was like trial and error. Like, I just kept trying all these different things, and then a few of them, right? So for instance, like, one of them was, uh, one of them is the podcast. Um, so, you know, after trying so many different things, I was like, oh, I love the podcast. So like, how do you discover what your values are?

All right, your values are something that you've got to really have a— you have to have an internal conversation with yourself, in my opinion. You have to really sit down, turn off everything else around you for a while, and sort of figure out, well, what do I really believe in? I mean, what do I— how do I, you know, how— what is it that— what is it that allows me to look at myself in the mirror every day? Right. And, you know, we read about all these people all this time that go off the rails and, you know, they become criminals and all this stuff. They sometimes don't even know it's because they're not living by their values. So you have to really kind of check yourself occasionally too. I mean, I can only tell you what works for me. Okay, I'll give you— I'll tell you what that is. You know, I'm Christian. So my values are those values. Yeah. So You know, I mean, they're pretty simple. You know, there's Ten Commandments. Bang. Okay, it's a list of rules. Those are what I live by. But when you have parameters to live by, it frees you to do all of these other things because you don't have to worry about those anymore. You don't have to worry about whether you believe in those or not, right? You don't have to do that. Now, in terms of your career and your business and what's going to really work for you, You hit the nail on the head with trial and error, because one of the things I learned in life is, is that you got to know what you don't want to do in order to figure out what you want to do.

Totally, man.

Right? And I'll tell you, when I left Wall Street and I went back out and started another career, one of the things I did was I went out and I did informational interviews with people. And that means— and I wasn't trying to get a job, I wasn't trying to do all that. I just wanted to have a cup of coffee with somebody or sit out in their office for half an hour and ask them about their job, what they did and why they liked it or didn't like it. And in that way, it helped me figure out, you know, if I met with Barbara at the bank, I was like, well, I know that Barbara dropped that, I wouldn't be interested in that. So, you know, That's off the list, right? One thing off the list. And then you start to figure out by talking to people what it is that they do, how they do it, and then you could say, wow, I'd be good at that. I'd get into that. You know, I'd be interested in that. And that's how I got into public relations. I like to write. I like to do storytelling. I like to connect with people like you. And I mean, a lot of public relations is really connecting with the media. And it's pitching the media on stories, right, on behalf of a client. And I really, really enjoyed that. And to make a long story short, I transitioned from PR into influencer marketing when that started to come about, and I've never looked back. Yep.

Yeah, man, I agree with that. It's like, find out what you don't like, because I wouldn't have gone all in on this type of stuff if I didn't know how badly I hated anything like accounting. Like, I felt the hatred I had. I was like, okay, That direction, not going there.

But that's a huge lesson to you.

Yeah. Yep.

I mean, that blocks out a whole bunch of things, and you can just push that to the side, say, all right, well, that's not going to do it for me. Now I'm going to go over here and look around, you know.

Absolutely, man. No calculus.

No, you just sort of narrow it down to what you like and what's good for you, you know.

Absolutely. Um, so my next one for you is, what is the best book that you've read, and what's the number one thing you learned from it?

Okay, best book I've read is Oren Klaff's Pitch Anything. If when I was on Wall Street, if I had Oren Klaff's book, I would have made much more money and I would have understand the whole process of pitching hedge fund products to institutional investors because that's what I did. We were marketing outside hedge fund invest— hedge funds of the firm we worked in. I worked at Oppenheimer and we were marketing outside hedge funds to institutions. So it would have helped me be much better at the job that I didn't like. But I will say this, the thing that I took away from Klaff's book is not about— because he talks about it in terms of pitching deals to investors. And that's, you know, really the main focus of it. But the The main takeaway of the book for me was that it's really about social settings and social status. Because when you go into a meeting like that, there's a frame, so to speak, for the situation, for the social situation. Somebody's in an alpha position, somebody's in a beta position. So how do you turn that around to your advantage so you're not in the beta position anymore, asking them for their money? And instead you're talking to them more as an equal, and now you're almost interviewing them to see whether they're worthy enough to give you their money. So it's a fascinating book. It will help you not only in business, it will help you in social situations as well. So have you ever walked into a situation that's a social situation, a cocktail party, or some— maybe it's a meeting or something, and you feel like there's a sort of Strange dynamic going on. Well, this book will help you clarify why there is that strange dynamic and how to turn it around for yourself.

Awesome. Okay. And what's the— what is the title again?

Pitch Anything.

Pitch Anything. I got it. Okay. Awesome. Yeah, I want to read that. I haven't read that one.

Yeah, read it. You read it, get back to me because I think you'll say, gosh, this is a great book.

Okay. Yeah, no, I will. I'm like Audible a couple hours a day. So I'm always looking for new books. So that'll be up there. So my next one for you, what's your favorite quote and why?

My favorite quote, and I believe it's from— it's attributed to the god Apollo, and it's, "Know thyself." So it comes from, you know, ancient Greek mythology, philosophy. You know, the Romans took it over, you know, when they adopted those gods or more, you know, took them and kind of made them their own. But that quote, "Know thyself," it's a profound quote. It sounds simple, but it's actually very difficult. But once you start to understand yourself and know yourself, it will guide you in all of these different ways throughout your career, your life, who you marry, you know, where you live, all these different things, it will help you. So, that's my favorite quote and I've, you know, when I read it and I've kind of delved into the philosophy around it, I've never forgotten it and it's really served me well. Yeah, man.

Dude, that was a perfect full circle right there. I love it. Thank you again for coming on. The last one I got for you, where can our listeners best connect with you and find your stuff online?

Best place to find me is on my website, theinfluencemarketer.com, but you can also connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm under T. Augenthaler, and then you know, you can find me on Twitter too. I'm on the same handle on Twitter, T. Augenthaler.

Perfect, man. Thank you again for coming on.

Tyler, thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.