Emmylou MacCarthy of ‘Emmylou Loves’ on the Art of Communication
Patrick Whitnall
This week's guest is Emmylou McCarthy. Emmylou is one of Australia's most loved television hosts, entrepreneurs, and influencers. Emmylou is a self-confessed early adopter of social media, her intuition enabled her to secure herself a prominent position in the digital age of influence to providing valuable content to her loyal Emmylou Loves tribe who reached more than 114,000 followers with a background in dance, beauty therapy, and as a fashion stylist Emmylou is a natural creative, leading her to launch her own Emmylou Loves, a range of designer clothing. Emmylou is courageous, cool and contagious, she prides herself on creating a tailored audience experience that is high energy yet grounded in the innate wisdom that can only come from experience and we're looking to hear from that experience today, welcome Emmylou to the AiMCO podcast.
Emmylou MacCarthy
Thank you for that intro, Patrick. I'm feeling quite special right now.
Patrick Whitnall
I wanted to start I guess most businesses and you are, as you said, in our previous discussion, you're building an empire, how was COVID impacted the business for you? There's been such a growth in influencer space recently, and influencers are used to creating on their own, so perhaps hasn't impacted them as much from a content creation perspective, how have you seen your business grow over this point?
Emmylou MacCarthy
I think the growth hasn't come until this year. For me, I saw a real change last year in my own timeline and plan that I had for myself. I love events, I love live events, live TV producing, you know, I had a book come out last year in the middle of COVID, and had my eyes set on heading to the US for a book launch. So, there was a real dive then, my business went down, I think 64%. In my other side of business, not so much my influencer work, if you want to so to speak it took a little while to understand what I was going to do in that space. You know, I saw a lot of influencers who had their online businesses for a while for a few years prior to COVID hitting just go gangbusters and that was amazing to see. And for me that was also inspiring to see. And I realised that I needed to have a little bit more behind me because of this, this new landscape, this new environment, I needed to be stronger with my online store and with my online products, and things like that.
Personally, in terms of influencer work, yes, we did see an increase in briefs coming in. We saw a lot more, I feel, of collaborative efforts by brands in that they’d say, ‘hey like we're appreciative of whatever you can create in your home’. All of a sudden, the need to have super polished content changed, you know that has been slowly dying down anyway. But it became more apparent. I think people became more appreciative of the fact that it didn't have to be polished content, it just needed to be real, in your homes in real time, because that was what we were all going through at the time.
Patrick Whitnall
And on that, so the rise of brands briefing, you starting to get more comfortable with authentic content and not necessarily perfectly manufactured, I suppose. What advice would you give to other influencers and brands on how best to work with creators and influencers?
Emmylou MacCarthy
That's a really good question. Firstly, you know, it is about building relationships. I feel sometimes because of the world of Instagram, and the fact that you get invited into my home, people feel familiar really, really quickly. That is a good thing. And that's also sometimes in the professional world is not a good thing because at the same time, it's like anything in life, you build a relationship with somebody, and that goes for the brands that you work with as well.
So, then it becomes about really opening your communication, also managing your expectations from the brand, but also listening really carefully, what the brands expect from you as well. And so, for me, it's about, it's gonna sound boring, but it's the real back-end stuff. Have your emails tight, understand that the art of communication via your emails or your team or even if it's just you doing that.
When someone gives you a brief they want to understand, firstly, are you aligned with it? Secondly, are you able to deliver that? Thirdly, you're quoting your costs. And can you deliver on time now? We all are quite busy and what I find, and I've found this quite a bit, when I’ve had to approach influencers or talent about my own businesses and doing some influencer or a paid partnership work is that you'll get, you know, a huge kind of life story in those emails, when really, we're just delivering a brand concept and we need to understand where you're at.
What I'm trying to say is understand, understand the art of communication. First, I think that is super important and build on that relationship with the brand first and foremost because what happens from that when you say hey guys, ‘I really love this idea. I feel like we could create a bit more for the community over here. We could create a recipe that goes out we create a downloadable PDF that happens over here. Or hey, have we thought about giving a little bit more to the campaign.’ It doesn't mean about upping the budget or doing anything out of that scope. But what it means is that we're giving the community just that little cherry on top, if that makes sense. But you're not going to be able to have those discussions unless you have built that relationship with the brand, first and foremost.
Patrick Whitnall
Yeah, relationship is so important, and I imagine keeping that relationship healthy, and understanding what both parties want is, I guess the key to success. One area that I wanted to ask you about, which has been a bit of a hot topic in the agency and membership world, is around disclosure, there's been quite a number of high profile cases that have come out recently making brands and also creators aware of the need for disclosing to audiences to their followers, not wanting you to comment on the code or those cases, I just wanted to understand from a creators point of view, your thoughts around disclosure that the confusion around this space, and I guess how you're looking at adopting it into your business?
Emmylou MacCarthy
Well, firstly, that's why AiMCO was so amazing. And so important. Now, because we do have a code, we do have some guidelines. I feel like in our space in the influencer space, at first, it kind of creates panic, oh my goodness, we've done the wrong thing. We could be dobbed in, there could be complaints, but at the end of the day, this is a really new space, this is a really just a whole new career path for some up until a couple of years ago. There’re urban myths flying around and what you should or shouldn't do, there's you know Googling what you need to do. There's, you know, agencies and management saying, ‘Oh, no, you just have to pop this up and that up’. Because everybody was just kind of flying by the seat of their pants. So, I feel it's really important to firstly, not panic, because this space is really new. And now we have this code to help us. And it's really easy to understand as well. And what's more important is that the agencies and the brands are getting on board with that.
So, when you do get those brand partnerships and deals and those contracts, they will state a lot of that code, but you are also in your right to say, ‘Hey, these are the things that I would need as well. As part of that deliverables, I need the paid partnership toggle turned on, I need these little bits turned on’. And now you know, we have all of those things in front of us to understand what it means to have full disclosure.
Patrick Whitnall
Absolutely. And one thing I wanted to touch upon that you spoke about very early on, and I think we talked about in your bio was the launch of your designer clothing range. So, congratulations on that. I wanted to ask, we're seeing a lot more growth in e-commerce in the likes of Instagram and Tiktok. and others. How important is it for a channel to help you to drive sales for your brand, and therefore I guess create an e-commerce shop as it were?
Emmylou MacCarthy
It is hugely important to be across all of these social media platforms that you choose to spend time on. If you are not confident in TikTok don't feel you have to be there just yet. You know, like, I think we all kind of right, everyone's TikToking now, so let's go. And of course, you know, it's an amazing platform, but you know, a couple years ago it was Pinterest, right? Everybody had said it’s great, you now have to have Pinterest. But if you don't understand that right now, or maybe you don't have the budget or the capability to invest in that and do it well, then just relax on it, you know, find the one platform that you connect with that you can go ‘Yeah, I can create content for that, that really relates to my product, I can showcase my product on this platform, it gives me enough time to do that’.
There are amazing brands that do stuff, like Vimeo, you know, we don't hear about Vimeo anymore. It's just a video platform. But some people need that longer form video to show certain products or services, it is super important.
But one thing I will say is never underestimate the importance of your email database. You know, that is one that is yours, all these other platforms, none of us own. And your EDMs are so important. That is a direct link to your customer. It's a way for you to communicate any new products, sales, any information as well. And I'm not talking information about your products, any information you want to give to your community to build that community to give back to them as well. So, I think that is really important. I have valued my database for the last few years, I've always sort of banged on about that, to be honest. And it's something that is really important to me, and to make sure that people really understand the value of it, especially our content creators.
Patrick Whitnall
There are probably some brands out there as well, saying the same thing, they probably either don't value their email list or subscribers as much as they have in the past and rely on retailers. I think you make a very big point around connecting with your followers and fans by email. So, thank you very much for sharing that. And then just lastly, you were the first creator member of AiMCO, and I just wanted to know why you kind of touched upon it around the code and the disclosure, but I just wondered what was so important about you wanting to become a member engaging also with our awards as well? Also, what are the things in the future that you're hoping to drive and shape and be a part of with AiMCO?
Emmylou MacCarthy
Well, for me when I realised that I could be a part of AiMCO that felt like a little bit of a home a little safe space because at the end of the day, this is my work. This is my career. You know there's unions out there's WorkSafe to keep us safe in an industrial environment. There's a retailer's group, all of these other businesses and careers have a place to go to, to have a code of practice, or you know, to be able to complain about something if something is happening that's not right. And so, for me, as soon as I saw that this was available, I jumped on it straight away and was like, ‘Oh, this is for my career’.
Finally, there's something out there, because as a content creator, it can be pretty bloody lonely sitting there talking to you bloody phone all day, you're talking to your phone, reaching a whole heap of people that you don't actually have colleagues or a workplace, or a tearoom or a staff room to chat with people. There's nothing to really further your education on it. You don't understand what happens in the agency world, you get a brief and you create content around that brief. But this was, this is a place that this is a little mecca of all of your agency and your social media professionals all in the one spot, chatting about something that essentially is your career. So, it was a no brainer. for me to be honest. I absolutely love it. I'm very passionate about it.
Patrick Whitnall
Thank you, Emmylou, looking at your bio it says here, that you're on a mission to inspire and activate courageous women who dare to dream and create the life that they deserve. So hopefully AiMCO can play a little part of that within your mission. So, thank you again for joining us on the podcast today.
Emmylou MacCarthy
Thank you so much, Patrick.