An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Teach Others: Create an online course or podcast to share your insights with others. You can earn a passive income by charging fees for online lessons or getting sponsors to support your podcast.
As part of my series about “How Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Fruy.
As the VP of Marketing at Linqia, Sarah Fruy is responsible for everything from brand and product marketing to demand generation. Most recently, Fruy served in a number of growth marketing leadership roles at Pantheon. Fruy is a ScrumMaster® and Certified Agile Marketer who joins Linqia with over 15 years of experience in the online advertising, digital media, and website operations industries, along with marketing strategy and digital marketing certifications from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management. Previously, she worked at emerging media companies, such as Say Media, as well as heritage brands like the San Francisco Chronicle. Fruy is a guest contributor on many popular websites as well as a frequent public speaker.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. What is your “backstory”? What brought you to this point in your career?
I’m very passionate about supporting content creators and spent most of my career working at companies that help creators monetize their content and/or distribute their content more effectively. It started years ago, collaborating with the blogger community at VideoEgg/Say Media. Then, I spent time at the San Francisco Chronicle working with journalists. At Pantheon, I got out of advertising for a while to focus on digital experience and high-impact website operations. Those collective experiences led me to focus on influencer marketing, now in my role as VP of Marketing at Linqia. I feel strongly about doing business fairly, and that creators should be compensated for the content they create and to make it a full-time career. Creative people need time and space to explore their craft. Knowing I can enable this in some small way keeps me motivated and inspired.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you in the course of your career?
I was working in a junior ad sales role at a company called VideoEgg (later Say Media) in Chicago, where I built campaigns for major brands and agencies. But every few days, I was working on a new campaign. While I enjoyed the combination of creative and analytical thinking, I was constantly churning through work versus refining my craft.
It was in this role, that I met Troy Young, who was the CMO. I loved how he focused on one brand (ours) and wanted to make it the best possible. So, I called our Director of Marketing, John Zeman, who was a direct report of Troy, and told him that I wanted his job. I asked if he would help me become a marketer. From there, I used my spare time to work with him on different marketing projects. Eventually, I got the call to join his team full-time in San Francisco. The rest, as they say, is history.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
On a micro level, I joined the leadership team for a local community group that organizes family events and childcare to create a stronger community where we live. In my leadership role, I took on a number of marketing-related responsibilities to help improve our communications strategy and awareness for the group. Getting to know my neighbors better and promoting a support system for busy families has been very rewarding.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but know that their dreams might be dashed?
I take a lot of issue with the concept of “imposter syndrome.” I think it gives people permission to believe they are not qualified or worthy of the opportunities given to them. Throughout my career, I always bit off more than I could chew. I took jobs outside my comfort zone because I knew I could grow into those roles, and the people who hired me believed I was capable of stepping up. I am a firm believer that if you aren’t moving forward in life, you are holding yourself back. So my advice is to do things that scare you, but don’t be afraid to ask questions and get the help you need to be successful. That’s where I think people fail. They don’t get the help they need to grow into bigger roles and, as a result, fall short and feel discouraged.
None of us can achieve success without a bit of help along the way. Is there a particular person who made a profound difference in your life to whom you are grateful? Can you share a story?
I had some wonderful mentors in my career and, on the flip side, folks whose behaviors I never want to model (which is also a great learning experience). One person who had the greatest impact on my success early on was Troy Young. He was the CMO at VideoEgg and later SAY Media while I worked there. It was his work that inspired me to make the switch from working in sales to working in marketing. While working under him, I was blown away by his attention to detail and thoughtfulness around brand identity. He taught me lessons about marketing and design that I carried with me throughout my career. I often refer to him as my personal “Steve Jobs.”
So what are the most exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I recently joined the American Influencer Council as a Professional Advisor. I’m very excited about the opportunity to connect more directly with the creator community. In particular, I’ll be focusing on educational and research efforts with the organization. My hope is that this will help rising star creators develop into stronger business leaders and make the most out of the platforms they built for themselves.
What are your “Top Five Ways That Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Work on Paid Sponsorships: Join creator marketplaces and influencer marketing platforms like Linqia to connect directly with brands and agencies on sponsorship opportunities. While it’s very common for influencers to receive gifts/credits in exchange for their content, to really grow your brand into a business, you need to get paid in cash. Make sure to work with reputable businesses that will compensate you fairly for the work you are doing.
- Teach Others: Create an online course or podcast to share your insights with others. You can earn a passive income by charging fees for online lessons or getting sponsors to support your podcast.
- Affiliate Marketing: Your audience respects you and your advice, so you might as well make some money off of your recommendations. There are a large number of tools and affiliate marketing programs with major retailers that you can tap into to monetize content you are already creating.
- Sell a Product: Many companies with great products lack brand recognition. Finding opportunities to become a brand ambassador or the namesake of a new product can set you up for long-term financial success. For those with even more entrepreneurial spirit, you could cut out the middleman and try to sell your own products, merchandise, or “how-to” kits.
- Become a Consultant: Set yourself up to advise others in your area of expertise. (You can even start with social media.) Most of this can be done online through video conferencing, but you can also land lucrative opportunities to speak in person at corporate events, conferences, and workshops.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’ve always been very passionate about education. Knowledge creates opportunities in life and gives you power. If I could inspire a movement, it would be around creating more affordable higher education and better funding for elementary, middle, and high schools.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this. 🙂
I would love to meet Brené Brown. I read a number of her books in an effort to become a better, more empathetic leader. Brown offers incredible insights into communicating more effectively with others and inspiring change. It would be wonderful to pick her brain and chat with her 1:1.
What is the best way our readers can follow your work online?
I am most active professionally on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahfruy/
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
Sarah Fruy of Linqia On Five Ways For Influencers To Monetize Their Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.