The Rise of the Creator Economy

Dustin Howes 0:46

Hey folks , welcome to Affiliate Nerd Out . I am your narrator , Dustin Howes . Spend that good word about affiliate marketing . You're going to find me every Tuesday and Thursday around 12.15 here on LinkedIn Live or wherever you get your podcast , so please consider subscribing and nerding out with me in the future . My guest today is Olivia Savage , senior product marketing manager for Creator over at impactcom . Thanks for joining me , olivia , and welcome to the Nerditorium .

Olivia Savage 1:19

Thank you so much for having me Stoke to be here .

Dustin Howes 1:22

Fantastic . We're going to be doing some live Q&A today . If you guys have any questions for me and Olivia , drop them in the chat . Make fun of my here . Today I'm having a OK here day , so I want to hear about your thoughts on that or affiliate , or influencer , whatever . Like we're all easy here . Olivia , I want to say before we get started , I absolutely love your name . First off , my favorite cousin growing up . Her name was Olivia Love . That name I named my daughter Olivia it's with a name , but she's an Olivia as well and then Savage , like goodness , like what a name you've got . Going on , way to go .

Olivia Savage 2:07

Thank you . Thank you so much . Yeah , I did definitely keep my last name when I got married , love my husband , but Savage is stronger than Williams . So , yeah , born and raised to Savage and remain that way today .

Dustin Howes 2:20

Oh , I love it . You're going to fit in just great . All right , Olivia Savage , who are you ?

Olivia Savage 2:27

Well , as you said , I am the senior product marketing manager at Impact , focused on creator . I've been with Impact for year and change . Before that I was also in tech in the press release distribution space and before I got into tech man , my career has been like really diverse , kind of non-traditional when it comes to folks that tend to work in this area . I've been in live entertainment , higher ed , all kinds of different roles started out and actually pure communications and a very , very technical role as a CRM administrator and then decided I wanted to do some more creative stuff . So , you know , got a master's in journalism and graphic design and stuff like that for a minute . So I've been kind of all over the marketing sphere and ended up back in more of the technical side in product marketing .

Dustin Howes 3:21

Beautiful . That PR facet of affiliate marketing is a quirky tie-in that . It's a sneaky one in this industry . That is super helpful , because anybody that has some kind of background in SEO , pr , journalism , content creation , it's going to naturally tie into affiliate marketing in general . So that's a sneaky one that we don't hear a lot about , but it absolutely fits in what you're doing . So our guest , olivia Savage her link to her profile is in the chat , so please go check it out . If you would like to be an Olivia seat and come be my guest , go to DustinHallinscom , toss in an application and we will talk about having you on and in this hot seat . All right , olivia , tell us . For those of you that have lived under rock or never heard this podcast before Impactcom , let's talk about what you guys do over at Impact and who you are serving .

Olivia Savage 4:26

Yeah , absolutely so . Impactcom is traditionally an affiliate marketing platform Engine SaaS solution , so we serve two sides of our marketplace . We serve the brands , or what we call the demand side , which are the folks that are paying for access to be able to use our tools to find publishers who want to promote products and receive a commission . So obviously that's like very bare bones . Affiliate people are listening to this , probably know a little bit about affiliate and hopefully have heard of impact before , but we're kind of the leader , especially when it comes to the tracking technology piece of it . We provide tool set and deep tracking tech that goes beyond what a lot of others in our space provide . So that's kind of like the general high level view of impact .

Olivia Savage 5:21

In 2020 , impact acquired a company called Activate , which did similar partnership technology , but for creators . So it was brands who wanted to work with influencers to promote products and services , and we , just a couple of months ago , announced that we have taken that platform and actually integrated it into our core impactcom platform . So no longer do you have two login URLs to do two different kinds of partnerships . It's all in one place , one seamless solution , and it's really , really exciting . And it wasn't an easy lift . This was basically rebuilding things from the ground up , because I think they use different code bases and everything .

Olivia Savage 6:08

So , they had to rewrite it . It was quite the undertaking , very , very exciting .

Dustin Howes 6:14

Yeah , absolutely , and it shows like you guys have not only the best tracking technologies . I've done affiliate consulting for the last eight years or so with a lot of brands and I have found the closest thing to Google Analytics is always coming from Impact . The tracking just works great . Love the UI . I love everything about you guys . I've been a big fan of you guys for years and years and I absolutely love everything you guys do in terms of acquisition , of finding the right tools that are going to benefit the platform in general , and you guys just keep on innovating . Absolutely love what you guys are doing over there . So , but today we're talking about the creator economy and you guys having a new product that's come out , but I want to hear about what the creator economy really is . Learn us up here , olivia .

Olivia Savage 7:14

Yeah , absolutely so . The creator economy is talking about where influencers , or content creators , as they prefer to be called , are working with brands or any kind of demand side entity to promote products , services or even just brand awareness . Just getting the word out there In exchange for either flat fee product gifting is kind of falling out of favor , but it's still used pretty heavily .

Olivia Savage 7:52

And then hybrid right , so you can do a commission based or any kind of combination of these , and so capturing all of those activities it's been kind of a big undertaking because really capturing the value of all of those transactions it's not quite as trackable previously as we've seen in spaces like in traditional affiliate . But when you go out there and you kind of Google creator economy , what has the growth been ? Or whatever I think it was the influence of marketing hubs said that in 2016 it was estimated at about $1.7 billion total transactional value going on between creators and brands , and this year it is now estimated at $21 billion . And so I did the math .

Dustin Howes 8:43

Slightly better .

Olivia Savage 8:45

In seven years that's an increase of 1,137% . So it's just exponentially growing and I know we're going to get into this in more depth . But we're also seeing the crossover between what's happening with creators and influencers and what happens on the traditional affiliate , ongoing or evergreen model . So all of these things are just slowly merging together and just exponentially growing . It's pretty exciting .

Dustin Howes 9:13

Yeah , 1,000% growth . Take that Facebook ads In your face , google . You can't bring that kind of power . Amazing and it is one of the most exciting parts of being in this industry is the evolution of going from traditional affiliate that had this negative connotation behind it sneaky affiliates and coupon sites and things not bringing incremental value and Todd Crawford has always been preaching the concept of influencer .

Dustin Howes 9:46

Marketing should have always been affiliate marketing long ago . We should have never let it be called influencer . It should have been an affiliate marketing all along . But all these influencers out there got fed this Kool-Aid a long time ago that you have to take on sponsorships and get money up front and don't take affiliate commissions because it's bad for business . You're not going to make as much money . But today's reality hybrids were working absolutely in this industry and very exciting to see what you guys are coming up with , and one of those big innovations that you guys did is coming up with Creator . I want to hear about what Creator is Creator by Impact . Tell us all about it and what you guys are doing over here .

Olivia Savage 11:41

Yeah . So if you're a user of impact , I'm sure you're used to our general dashboard going in and creating your template terms , which is all of the little caveats and rules that you devise in order to pay out your affiliate publishers based on any number of actions and trackable actions that are taking place . On the creator side , the model is very , very different . Whereas on the affiliate side , you're used to the evergreen model where these campaigns are just ongoing , they're always on , they're running in the background and , on a monthly or however frequent basis , you're paying out based on the actions that folks are taking in regards to what the publishers have put out there . On the creator side , it's a little bit more time sensitive .

Olivia Savage 12:27

People tend to think of creator campaigns in more discrete periods

Creator Economy and Influencer Marketing

Olivia Savage 12:31

of time . They want to promote a certain sale that's going on , a certain time of year where they're being more active , the launch of something new and exciting . And also , when you think about creator content , it depends on the platform , but we're increasingly seeing content having a shorter and shorter shelf life . So those models work together right . We're doing things that are okay from this day to this day . We want to capture what's going on and see how much traffic we can get based on what the creator posts .

Olivia Savage 13:05

So in impact , we now have a new what we're calling a program type that is specifically focused on creator campaigns that are time sensitive , that pay out on either flat fee , product gifting , or you can do commission based or a combination of them , and you can also toggle on all kinds of different features .

Olivia Savage 13:30

So if you're doing Spark ads with TikTok , you can provide authorization for that . Similarly for meta properties . It's just more tailored to the experience that brands and creators are expecting when they are collaborating on content . And then the analytics are more discreetly put together based around time frames and posts . You can actually see okay , not just this post , but literally this frame in this slideshow performed better than X , y and Z seed breakdowns by creators really deep level analytics . So that was kind of the idea is take this amazing engine that we have for affiliate and also this other platform that we have that's existing out here , kind of on an island . Let's bring them together and let's make it a more seamless experience . So , whether you're wanting to do evergreen time sensitive promo code , anything under the sun , creators and affiliates can all do that with their brands in one place .

Dustin Howes 14:35

That is fantastic . That has been such a tough like hurdle for affiliate managers to get over . It's just such a time suck to work with influencers on negotiating that deal via email and reaching out to them on YouTube and finding their email addresses , and you guys are eliminating a whole bunch of those factors that make it such a pain in the butt . Really impressive , like what you guys have done . I personally haven't been in on to the user interface myself using it as a client yet , but I can't wait to dig into it when I do have a program on here in the future that it's as relevant for at least . So that's amazing . This journey and including those hybrids is that's always the best practice that I've always preached . But you're saying you can just do a straight sponsorship through here and you can pay the affiliate partner through the platform itself .

Olivia Savage 15:42

Yeah , yeah , that's the idea . I mean , the feature sets are tailored to , kind of the different models , so you don't have to kind of move around between , okay , I want to do a traditional creator campaign versus I want to do , you know , an always on evergreen , with traditional template terms that are going to pay out based on action . But it is in one place , it's just , you know , you just click here , toggle between them and obviously this is brand new right .

Olivia Savage 16:12

So we're still iterating and improving upon it , and I mean it's it's , it's a great starting point , but it's just gonna , I think , explode from here . It's pretty exciting .

Dustin Howes 16:21

Yeah , and for those merchants out there that are using this already , don't be afraid to put that feedback in . Impact is absolutely great and taking in feedback and improving their products this is what they've done in the swyther . So great is they will take that feedback in and and work on it . So I'm going to be in there dropping some comments when I do get to use it . But in general , I haven't found a enormous amount of success in the SAS space myself for using influencers , and mostly because it is not nearly the kind of pool that physical products in the beauty and supplement space have been . They've they've taken the lion's share of influencers and it's so much easier to handle a product and and show it on a video rather than going through a SAS demo of some sort . So can everybody try this on impact ? Everybody that's a merchant right now at a brand that's working on impact , can they go out and try this out today ?

Olivia Savage 17:35

So it is a separate subscription right , so it isn't just available to anybody and everybody who has the affiliate side , who has probably what's called a partnership cloud contract . But it's really easy to turn it on .

Olivia Savage 17:49

So if you , want to give it a try , definitely reach out . We are working with folks , especially those who have been long-time clients , who want to get their feet wet , who are interested . We have had a lot of interest . A lot of folks toggle it on for the first time because , you know , activate with that I don't know . But now that it's right there , they want to give it a shot and see . So it isn't difficult , it's not a big lift and it's also a pretty affordable price point .

Olivia Savage 18:16

When we look at what some of our competitors are doing , monthly fee wise , we're like half or less and offer most of the same features , with the new ones literally coming out every day . So , yeah , lots of opportunity and scalability . That's the big one for me . Like , when I look at it as product marketer , I'm like you can be an SMD or you can be an enterprise level client and you can get what you need out of it and you can get out of it what you put into it . So if you just want to get your feet wet , you have a few creators you're already working with . But you want some automation tools ? Easy , no problem , let's test you out . You want a big , massive program with you know all of these creators that you're working with on a direct relationship basis , where you don't want competitors to really be able to see we can meet those needs too .

Dustin Howes 19:08

That is fantastic . Yes , impact will take your money If you want to upgrade . I have found that to be very true throughout the years , but totally worth it . It's what you invest in at the time and the money you invest You're going to get back if you're doing it in the right fashion . So you shouldn't be afraid to dip your toes in that water and see if it works for you and your vertical . So get in there and give it a try .

Dustin Howes 19:34

I can't believe anybody out there is not in this chat like throwing us some softballs . There's got to be some folks at Impact throw us this little softball . My wife's got to be out there like watching this right . Like , oh , this is embarrassing , I want some chatter . Come on , folks Ask us some questions about creator . And that brings us to our sponsor of the day . It shouldn't be a big surprise of who this is . It is Fresh Shales . So just through , you guys a curveball , you guys didn't see that coming .

Dustin Howes 20:09

Fresh Shales empowers businesses to maximize productivity and revenue growth through its robust CRS system . I personally use this in the past as a CRM and it works absolutely great for affiliate managers . Super seamless integrates with AI capabilities , providing like a 360 view customer interaction . I'm absolutely loving the AI driven contact scoring feature of this . It's helping me be more predictive with my sales and insights and driving out revenue . So this was built for sales teams , but affiliate managers on a budget can absolutely utilize this tool and stay organized with their clients and partnerships . As low as $15 a month , you can try it out with a very limited commitment of a 21 day free trial . Go to dustinhousecom slash fresh and start your free trial today . Dustinhousecom slash fresh . All right , and back into the action . Here you guys are talking about really investing your time and effort into the creator economy and influencer marketing . So why did you guys decide to not necessarily pivot but like give a lot more expansion into the influencer side of things ?

Olivia Savage 21:34

Well , I mean , I said it , the numbers before we're seeing just that non-stop expansion in activity and transactions taking place in spend going toward creators and partnerships in that space . But I think , more generally , we're seeing a big convergence and really blurring of the lines between affiliate and creator . This is the next big thing , I think , is kind of how we're seeing it , and I mean it's already there , it's not even the next , it is the big thing and we're seeing more and more creators needing the kind of flexibility to be able to work with brands on an ongoing basis and using some affiliate tools , so not just the tracking technology , but promo codes and some of those things that are more traditional . I mean , everybody has listened to a podcaster or a YouTuber who says oh yeah , go to Hello Fresh , use my code , blah , blah , blah , 20 or whatever to get 50% off . I mean that is kind of a traditional affiliate thing that's being used by a creator and so that's like one of the most , I think , vanilla cases .

Olivia Savage 22:50

But we're seeing more and more of that take place and so we know that both creators and brands need an easier way to collaborate and we're trying to fill that need . I think you know another big piece of the puzzle is we see research time and time again prove out that creators and brands who work together

Two-Sided Influencer Marketplace Benefits

Olivia Savage 23:13

on a longer term basis so not just this campaign here or there but who are repeatedly getting the message out to their audience , are seeing much better results both for the brand and the creator in performance . And so they need a way to kind of have these things always on , turned on , running in the background , eliminate those manual processes and just make it more seamless and easy . And so we're here to fulfill that and , you know , make it , make it as seamless as possible .

Dustin Howes 23:45

That's fantastic and traditionally I remember paying influencers out through PayPal or having to go through another channel and having it being such a pain in the butt to get through the red tape with our finance department who just didn't want to pay out $200 to an influencer on PayPal .

Dustin Howes 24:05

Going through the affiliate channel makes life so much easier . Love that you guys are doing that and you know they become probably the best part of influencer market and tracking it through the affiliate channel is getting them in the affiliate program itself , because now they're going to be an evangelist of the brand completely for all time and it doesn't just stop with the one campaign that you guys create . So love that you guys are doing that Now with that . Influencer affiliate models haven't collided in the past as they are right now with what you guys are doing and I think you guys are a major pusher of that and why . You mentioned the market size , of course , but was this such a need from the industry and such a big ask from some of the brands that you guys decided to go out and really heavily invest in this ?

Olivia Savage 25:02

Well , I think one way to look at it is that most SaaS solutions , in both the affiliate and the influencer space , are specialists in one or the other . So , you know , for me as a product marketer in the creator side , when I look at some of our major competitors , they have tools to provide some affiliate , you know , capabilities . Oh , we have a Shopify integration . Oh , you know , we can do some tracking thanks to our partnership with blah blah blah . And then , vice versa , on the affiliate side , oh , we have some tools that can help you work with creators , because we are , you know , white labeling the solution . Or we are , you know , partnering with X , y and Z to bring their technology to our user base .

Olivia Savage 25:56

But nobody really owns both fully natively . That I am aware of . And that is a massive benefit and , I think , differentiator , that you are owning your core technology to this , serving all of these different stakeholders , and you're not relying on somebody else to kind of fill in the gaps for you . So that's , that's one side of it . And then you actually touched on the payment side , which is another huge , huge piece of it . We have a lot of , we see a lot of folks still using PayPal to pay out .

Olivia Savage 26:33

You know their partners and you know if you're wanting a really scalable solution , it's honestly not the best tool , and so when you look at what impact offers , through the global clearinghouse we have all that tax documentation we have some of the fastest payouts in the entire industry and so , like we've seen that that is a huge , huge pain point . Some creators will say you know , I did this Black Friday campaign . I haven't been paid out until March or April . That's bonkers , like they have bills to pay . So being able to those needs and get them paid ASAP , you know , is something that we value . We value that experience on their behalf and want to make sure that you know they're getting the money that they're owed in a timely fashion .

Dustin Howes 27:20

That's so great to hear the creators out there , you know , can sometimes get the short end of the stick , like if a brand decides to flip their platforms and go somewhere else . They might be owed a lot of commissions and sometimes take a big hit from something like that , and it's good to see that you guys are working on both sides and helping those creators get paid when they are owed money . And I think that brings us into , like , the portion of the two-sided marketplace . Can you tell us more about , like , why you call it a two-sided marketplace and what you're doing for both influencers and brands ?

Olivia Savage 28:05

Yeah , so a lot of folks think about SaaS tools like what impact offers in terms of , okay , well , brands are paying to get access to find the publishers and partners that they want to work with to , you know , and they think about it in that direction .

Olivia Savage 28:22

They don't really think about it much in the opposite direction , and I think the same . It's even more true on the creator side , and we have these , you know , fledgling creators who you know are building fantastic audiences , who have deep trust with their followers and their community and , for whatever reason , they're not giving the brand interest or they are giving some brand interest , but it's , like you know , super random and not at all relevant to their niche or content . And so we provide tools to actually help those creators break through and continue to grow their business because it is a business and find brands who want to work with them or who offer products and services that are in their niche and really get going before they're big enough to start getting a flood in their inbox . And I don't know . I see tremendous value in that , because there are folks out there who would like to work with brands but just don't know how .

Dustin Howes 29:28

And this is the tool and it's free for creators to get started , so Well that's not only is that great for your visibility as a creator , but you're also giving your chance for other brands to find you in a much easier capacity and maybe you get some additional revenue . Just by joining this platform , you're giving yourself an extra opportunity for revenue , so it's really smart idea for creators to go in and sign up . How do creators go in ? Is it an easy process , just like joining as an affiliate ? Till you guys is marketplace .

Olivia Savage 30:11

Yep , it's almost the exact same process

Influencer Platform and Starting a Podcast

Olivia Savage 30:13

. So you go to appimpactcom and create an account . You should connect your main socials so that we make sure that we have those , you know , pulling in your good content so you're more discoverable . And then I think there's some like verification stuff . So we just want to make sure that our marketplaces filled with good quality creators and not bots and stuff . So that's one step of the process . But , yeah , you fill out your profile , you , you know , adding your socials , and in a day or two you're ready to go .

Dustin Howes 30:45

Beautiful . All right For those of you listening live . If you have any concerns about influencer platforms or questions , drop it in that chat or give me some of your biggest hurdles that you're facing Trying to do this hybrid business in the past . Love to hear from you and , in the meantime , why those chats just come flooding in . I want you to defend your posts here . It is that time of the day , olivia , so I found some news on you . I didn't have to dig far . So , olivia , tell me why you only have 415 connections . This is Chump City population , you . What are you doing out there If you don't have 500 connections ? You are a chump in this game . Like , get to work here to fend yourself .

Olivia Savage 31:37

Okay , All right . Well , I guess I would say I didn't really understand the value of being almost like a content creator on LinkedIn until very recently . I wasn't really like working in companies where there was a ton of activity and , like you know , it wasn't . I didn't see it as this kind of rocket ship . Right Now , I turned on my creator tools , I think , like two months ago . Maybe . I have obviously not been posting as frequently as I should , but I think that it's honestly just a blind spot . Like you know , when I'm focused on creator , I'm thinking about like TikTok and Instagram and where all of the creators are . But there is , you know , and I have said this before and I will say it again , I think B2B influencers are like the next big thing and LinkedIn is the vessel for that . So , all right , you've given me my call to action challenge accepted . The next time we talk , I'll have over 500 , I promise .

Dustin Howes 32:43

I want to see it . I'm going to keep you accountable . Let's get that . And tying into that , you gave me a interesting question of like can we flip the script and let you be in the interview seat ? And nobody's ever asked me then nobody ever asked my opinion . I just give it to everybody . I don't , I'm not afraid , so I am going to embrace it . What flip script should I ? Maybe I can just like grab . Yes , there we go .

Olivia Savage 33:17

Here we go , OK , Well , I mean , I'm thinking about this and I'm like , you're a content creator , Like you have a podcast , you have a niche , you have a following , all of that good stuff . And for me , I love hearing from creators just anecdotal like OK , how'd you get into it , what are your pain points , all that stuff . So let's start there . You were on the affiliate manager side . What made you decide to start doing a podcast ?

Dustin Howes 33:49

It was on a whim , like I've always said , that I don't want to do a podcast , but I like how everybody is having so much fun on them and I love doing them . And so I decided that this could make some really good content and I could flip everything that I'm doing in the podcast into blog posts and social and continue to grow out in those capabilities while having a lot of fun just hanging out with old friends . And I had no idea that so many people would want to be a part of it . I started out once a week and saying , ok , this is a lot of work . I really just want to keep this at once a week and start building the content slowly .

Dustin Howes 34:34

And then all of a sudden I was booked out for two months . I'm like , ok , I guess I got to open up another date . And then all of a sudden I'm booked out for both dates for the next three months and people just want to be hanging out on this thing . So I'm loving it , I'm enjoying it , I don't see myself losing it anytime soon . And luckily I've gone through the turmoil of learning all about the podcasting world and , since I am a big fan of automation , basically I've got it down to a science where I just show up for this and then my virtual assistant takes care of all the rest . Thank you , joyce . You're doing a great job and all that content that we're creating here is getting out to the world to expand on it , so I'm loving it . I hope that answers your question .

Olivia Savage 35:29

Yeah , I think so , and it was pretty cool . I remember when we were talking through what the

Affiliate Marketing Content and Growth

Olivia Savage 35:36

format would be , you were like , oh , and I'm going to have a sponsor break here , and I'm like that's exactly what we're talking about here , right Content creators being able to partner with brands . So I guess just share some of your experience with that . How did it feel when you got your first inquiry and how have you seen those partnerships grow over the weeks , months , years ?

Dustin Howes 36:00

Yeah , well , it started with my SEO value of my website , dessanhousecom . I built that to a domain authority over 50 over the last couple of years just creating content for affiliate managers and tools that will be there for them . And I've been an affiliate for a lot of brands in the SAS realm that are helpful to affiliate managers , including Impact . I'm an affiliate there and with that , people would be reaching out and saying , hey , can you create some content on this or can you add us to this page , and I'm like I don't have the time for that . But if you want to be on the podcast , here's a . I just threw out a number . I'm like , hey , it costs this much . I'll put a blog review and I'll do some reads on my podcast . And people are giving me money and I didn't even ask for it .

Dustin Howes 36:54

So I guess that's the evolution of things . But I've got to eat and feed my family . So I'm happy to take on sponsors and anybody that wants to be a sponsor . I'm happy to take you on . As long as I believe in your product , I will not be doing anything for money . Funny enough , I did an ad for cigarettes a couple of weeks ago for a cigarettes brand . It was just made up , of course , but I was just testing my limits on what I could do if I could hold a straight face , and I could not , but I'm just enjoying the whole process . That's just gravy . I didn't need the sponsorships per se , but if people want to support me , I'm going to let them , and I really appreciate it .

Olivia Savage 37:43

Yeah , and have you run into any major pain points or what you think other folks should know about receiving some of those inquiries ? When it comes to that , has there been massive email fails where they're like hello , Mrs blah blah blah , Would you like to hawk this water bottle ?

Dustin Howes 38:09

Yes , there's always fails , but I turn those into opportunities . Anybody that reaches out to me with a bad affiliate manager message , I reply back politely and say , hey , I'm not interested , but I think I could help you with your processes of how you're going about this . I think you're targeting wrong . I would really suggest you use this tool and that tool and I would change your message up a little bit , and that email reply takes me roughly three to five minutes and it might turn into a customer that takes performance marketing . Oh no , it's this way . Performance marketing manager , join my community at performancemarketingmanagercom , hit that QR code and check out more and be part of my community , and so that turns into sales . So lemons and rainbows , I think it's the same goes , right .

Olivia Savage 39:03

No , that's great . I mean good on you . I don't think most people do that . I think , if they respond , it's like you got my name wrong , you got my . You clearly didn't do your homework , don't know me Well .

Dustin Howes 39:14

I never knock anybody for name wrong , because I will traditionally sign up for email addresses with the wrong name , like funny names and like let's see a PG version of it would be . Oh man , I can't think of a PG . I get rude names that I call myself and then it says hi , ass , clown , and I did it , I couldn't help myself . And then I reply back how dare you ? My name is Dustin . I cannot believe . So I have fun with it . I just . I love having fun and email is one of those very fun assets that I . It might be a time waster to some , but I need to laugh throughout the day and if I'm just going through boring emails all day , that's not very fun .

Olivia Savage 40:16

Well , you're a creative person . Well , I'm glad you're taking that to new heights .

Dustin Howes 40:21

I guess you could say I appreciate it and I appreciate you interviewing me . Thank you so much . And before we wrap things up , I'm actually going to get to my unofficial sponsor of the day . Oh , who should it be ? Let's find out . Oh , it looks like it's impactcom . This is the solution your affiliate program needs to scale . Whether you're creating an affiliate program or you're looking to migrate to a better solution , impactcom has a custom solution for you . This has been one of my go-to solutions in affiliate tracking for the last 10 years . But it's not just for affiliate . They integrate seamlessly with your entire marketing and sales flow to drive incremental value and help redefine your marketing strategies . And when it comes to finding partners , absolute best in the marketplace in the industry . We talked all about it today . Go to dustinhousecom Slash impact to see a demo firsthand . A day that is dustinhousecom Slash impact . And as we wrap things up here , olivia , how do people get ahold of you and connect with you further ?

Olivia Savage 41:26

Well , I've been given a challenge to increase my LinkedIn connection , so hit me up on LinkedIn . That's definitely the best place to find me and I'm actually believe it or not , I'm pretty responsive . I check it several times a week , if not daily . Yeah , I would love to connect with folks . If you have questions , if you have a perspective , being a content creator or having worked on the brand side with creators , you have product feedback , you've questions , you have thought leadership as far as the industry is concerned , I'd love to chat . I'm an open book , so , yeah , hit me up .

Dustin Howes 42:01

Excellent . I love that open door policy . That's the way to go . That's the only way I do things For our Thursday affiliate . Nerd out another influencer guru over here . Joey asks the little son I don't know how to say your name , joey . You've always just

Nerding Out About Influencers

Dustin Howes 42:18

been Joey to me . I'm sorry if I messed that up . Joey will be here and nerd out about influencer , and so be here for that . Leslie , if you want 15 minutes of my time , go to dustinhoundscom and I am happy to point you in the right direction for whatever you need help with . So please take advantage of that . Olivia , been great talking to you . Really appreciate your time and thanks for nerding out today .

Olivia Savage 42:48

Likewise , it's been a blast . Really appreciate it and yeah .

Dustin Howes 42:52

Awesome , we'll see you out there . Folks , take care .