This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's up? Chris Guillebeau here. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Another episode of "Sidoes for School." This is in fact our failure Friday segment built around the principle that we can learn as much from failure as we can from success. So this weekly segment features a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and you know, all the stuff that just goes wrong.
Okay, so just like our throwback Thursday segment, you get to hear directly from a side hustler who has struggled in some way. And they'll tell you this really honest, transparent story, which I very much appreciate because these stories have just been so relatable. I feel like I have made some version of every mistake that we have featured. It's just been fun to work on the episodes because I'm like, oh, I remember when I did something like that. And today, without further ado, today's short story features Paige McInnes from Australia.
She's the owner of Little Change Creators. It's an e-commerce business offering mindful toys and gifts to make a difference. Now, following a rebrand, Paige thought it would be a good idea to pay some Instagram influencers to post about her products. And guess what? Well, it didn't work out so well.
So let's hear more about it from Paige. I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
My name is Paige, and I'm the founder of Little Change Creators. We make reusable coloring sets for kids. Each set comes with an erasable surface that's ideal for keeping kids occupied on the go.
I first featured on Side Hustle School, episode 114, but a lot has happened since then. After going through a rebrand, product development, and manufacturing, I finally launched last November. As part of the launch, I hired a few influencers to help kick things off. I naively thought that these people with large followings would bring a lot of eyeballs and sales to my fledgling business. But no, I soon learned that many of these influencers work together to keep their engagement rates high.
So whilst they may get a lot of likes and follows, much of it is from within their own community of influencers. I tried a couple of approaches with the influencers at Hyde. Firstly, I paid two, a few hundred dollars each, plus gave them a complete set of my products. This alone cost me well in excess of $500 per influencer. For the other influencers, I gifted two products each.
They call this Contra. This is where it gets interesting. Some of the Contra influencers delivered superior quality to the paid influencers. In fact, one of the paid influencers was really disappointing. I had to chase her up for content, which she then wanted to post outside the agreed timeframe.
And she stated incorrect information about the products despite receiving a detailed brief well in advance. So when it came time for me to review this influencer through the hiring platform, I honestly couldn't rate her as well as some of the other influencers. I explained this in my review and I gave her a somewhat generous three out of five star rating. Unfortunately, she was furious about this and retaliated with a scathing review of my business and a one star rating. There were no facts or explanation to justify her review.
So I'm now looking into getting it removed. So when it comes to influencer marketing, I recommend business owners proceed with caution. Bear in mind that influencers may not deliver you a flurry of followers or a spike in sales. Instead, they may actually damage your brand. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
That is the theme of Failure Friday. Thankfully, Paige's business is up and running. Her website looks great. I was checking it out, littlechangecreators.com. It says a little color can change the world by using activities that nurture creativity, encourage appreciation for our environment and cultivate empathy.
Modern families can build a bright future. She's got some great products there. Definitely check it out. If you ever buy something for a little one, either your own kids or a nephew or a niece or maybe for a teacher you know, or just check it out, it's cool. She's got free shipping over $100 in Australia with some international options as well.
And she mentioned when it comes to influencer marketing, proceed with caution. I completely agree. I think influencer marketing is problematic in lots of ways. Of course, we've seen sometimes in the archives, there are examples where it does work, but I think proceed with caution is absolutely the right framing for that when you're thinking about it. Okay, that's all for today.
If you have a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions, let me know what you're up to, what you're working on. And I hope you all subscribe or follow and come back tomorrow. New episode every day. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
