Come Join Me at Retail Fest

What would it look like to combine business with the magic of a music festival? Retail Global asked this strangely good question and came up with Retail Fest, and I'm beyond excited to be a part of it. Like many of us, they were tired of typical conferences, and they wanted to create an event with more fun, community, and value for attendees.

This is going to be a fantastic time, and I am thrilled to get to share the imperfect, messy, and sometimes inconvenient brand story of DYPER and how we are changing the traditional diaper game in the retail space to create a better future for our children and planet.

I'll also get to share the stage with my good friend Marcus Murphy whom I have known for over 15 years. We've collaborated on shoots together, created CreativeLive classes together, and now we get to do this. It's going to be a TON of fun!

I also can't wait to learn from Ezra Firestone, Goldie Chan, Emma Grede, Neil Patel, Brett Thornton, Marcus Sheridan, Emmanuel Eribo, and many more...

So, come join me in San Diego on October 4-6 for #RetailFestUSA! Use my code VAILAS30 to get 30% off your ticket! See you there!

Accidental Influencer to SVP of Brand Marketing

Last week, I had the chance to share my story of how I went from being an influencer to SVP of Brand Marketing for DYPER™ on my friend Brett Thornton’s podcast, Just stories with BT. I opened up about how I define failure and success in my own life, as well as what I would want other single parents to know.

Brett and I go back a couple of years. We met on the set of a Living Spaces commercial, and we bonded over our shared experience of being single parents. Brett is the VP of Visual Experience & Retail at Avocado Mattress and started this podcast to host honest conversations around success and failure, and this latest season highlights all female executives! I love what he’s doing!

I’m glad I could be a part of it, and I hope you take a listen to learn more about my perspective. I also hope any single parent or newly divorced parent especially takes a listen because I think Brett and I have a lot of great advice.

Go check it out and be sure to listen to the other episodes too! Let me know what you think!

How Do I Rebuild My Identity & Worth?

Funny story - The man that married me 14 years ago asked me to be on his podcast and share about rebuilding myself after divorce. Pretty crazy, eh?

I count Ron Merrell as a dear friend even though we haven’t kept in touch all that well. He was a mentor to me as a post-college grad, and he has always remained an encourager from afar.

He recently asked me to join him on his podcast ‘Feel Dumb for Asking’ with his co-host Bo to answer a pretty big question - How do you rebuild your identity and worth after it has been damaged? - after witnessing my evolution over the years.

I can’t say that I have all of the answers or even claim to be an expert on this topic, but I was happy to share what I have learned along the way as I have been doing my best to do exactly that. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope this helps someone out there that is in the process of rebuilding their life.

PINTEREST FRIDAY - PIN DESCRIPTIONS

In recent years, I have spent more of my time updating Instagram instead of this blog, but I’d like to change that. This is the one place where all of my content is truly mine, easily accessible, and searchable. My goal is to be a resource for you and always has been, so it’s time to get back to it! So, I’m starting with a popular topic of conversation on this blog - Pinterest.

Every Friday I have been sharing Pinterest tips for FREE on Instagram to help small business owners, and I’d like to share these tips here with you as well. You can access all of the past tips in my IG stories highlights, but I’ll spend time building them out for you on the blog.

Today, we’re talking Pinterest descriptions. Here are some key things to keep in mind when writing for Pinterest:

1. Write how someone searches Pinterest. When people search on Pinterest, they start their search at a very high level. Users are looking for inspiration, and they are usually beginning their customer journey on Pinterest. Many Pinterest searches consist of 1-3 words. Though you might assume much of your Google SEO knowledge applies to Pinterest, it’s kind of a different animal. When people search for a product on Google they are often more ready to purchase and further down the funnel. They tend use more terms in their search and be more specific. So, identify the high-level, key search terms that are relevant for your product (ex: short hair tutorial, short hair ideas, short hairstyles, short curly hair ideas, short hair trends, 2021 short hair), and include them in your description and pin title.

2. Cut the fluff, get straight to it. Your TOV and your language should try to solve the consumer’s problem immediately and get straight to the point. This isn’t Instagram…They are on a hunt for inspiration and information. Don’t talk like a brand, talk like their BFF. Spill the tea and don’t sugar coat it.

3. 500 Characters. You have 500 characters to tell someone all about your pin. You can include a mix of hashtags to help you do this as well and save characters. You can use up to 20 hashtags. Try to use all of the characters to give you the best advantage, but don’t force it.

4. Describe what’s in the pin. If you’re stuck on what to say, talk about what is in the photograph and the destination you are leading people to with your pin (story pins may not have a destination). Talk about the colors, the textures, the materials, the cost, the company, the quality, the ease, the destination, etc.

5. Don’t use the same description for all of the pins. Don’t use the same pin description for all of the pins you are sharing to promote a single post. Change it up so that you increase your likelihood of reaching people.

That’s it for this week! Make sure to check back next Friday for more tips!

EMPOWERED WITH UBER

Uber has been doing an amazing job recently of focusing conversation and awareness on women's empowerment. They have asked me to share what it means to be an empowered woman. I couldn't be more excited about a campaign goal and message.

When I thought about what makes me feel empowered I had to think back to moments when I have felt powerless and why I felt that way. Times I felt powerless have been when I didn't feel heard, understood or felt ignorant.

And I think the origin of that powerlessness is in my childhood. I was told a lot that I was stupid and was ignored a lot. The way I would react to those things would be through yelling, talking back, or be over-dramatizing and exaggerating things to get my parents to listen. I think many times adults can do the same thing, but as I grew and realized that behavior wasn't effective at all, and, rather, backfired, I started channeling my frustration into music and writing. Ultimately, it was a focus on communication in college and in my career that has made me feel more empowered than ever.

For me, what makes me feel empowered is having a voice in people’s lives as an influencer and giving other people voices to tell their stories as a content creator and account manager at an influencer agency. Communicating messages that are important to me and important to others breathes life into me. It’s like my Wheaties for this super power I have developed through hours of practice and years of learning. It has been what has spurred me on to become a leader in the influencer space, Pinterest marketing, social media strategy and content production. By day I’m an agency badass and by night I’m a storyteller of my life through imagery and writing on social media. It has been that way for over ten years, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This past week, I flew to San Francisco, Fresno and San Diego for work. I spent my days in SF at Pinterest headquarters where I was a speaker for their first creator’s conference, In the Making. It was an amazing time helping people learn how to effectively partner with the brands they love to fuel their businesses. I also got to spend time with my peers and fellow creatives and learn from them.

I then flew to Fresno and San Diego to produce a short video all about the farmers that devote their lives to organic farming of peaches and supplying the world with the tasty fruit for Ralphs. I produced the team, ran the art direction and messaging and styled some of the content. It was an epic week of empowerment and empowering others.

I’d love to hear what makes you feel empowered most. Did you find you also devoted your line of work to your source of power?