Rhonda sits down with Mariah Demery, a corporate marketing expert in Dallas who also runs her own personal blog. Mariah’s interest in how the world and the way people think changes through marketing, and the way social media gives a voice to a lot of people who didn’t initially have one led her to pursue her career in marketing.
Mariah goes into how she balances agency life with her own blog when she started, and continues into what the pivot from her blog being a creative outlet to a true commitment looked like for her.
“Just being able to understand that though things are different, things can be so much the same when it comes to marketing your strategies as an influencer and as a full time employee. Seeing how you can blend your two worlds together and really learn a lot… It’s just about marrying your lifestyles.”
They talk about the idea of ‘making time’ wherever they are in their blogging career because owning that and making it happen is essential. Mariah shares her strategy for planning in a way that allows her to stay organized and make time, all while staying sane.
Mariah shares her experiences of not being listened to in certain areas of the industry based on the fact that she is a woman of color. Together, she and Rhonda dive into how to reach oppressed groups in marketing--and the importance of realizing that reaching different groups of people looks differently. Mariah explains her experiences with being the token person in a group, and people with biases--how she doesn’t regret them, but they did open her eyes. She talks about realizing that her reaction and how she chooses to handle each situation is important and that there is a level of responsibility as an influencer to support each other.
“I can go forth and I can choose to educate and make change from the inside.”
Rhonda opens up about her experience needing to become educated and committing to learning, and Mariah shares hope for more people to have eye opening moments. This leads to actionable steps for educating brands while pitching and closing deals. Mariah pushes individuals to research brands ahead of time to see if they are inclusive and if they are not looking at why they are not, but not go into it ready to cancel a brand. She encourages influencers to know their value and have the information to back it up, and to not fall into tokenism.
“Especially marketing agencies, I implore you to really look outside the box and understand that buying power has changed a lot and people are realizing that buying power has changed. And for influencers, realize your voice could be ten times louder right now...it’s just about at the end of the day what you can do and what you can share.”
