You're listening to the affiliate marketing podcast, a podcast with digital and affiliate marketers who want to grow and have their strategy while driving competitive details. In this podcast, you'll learn how affiliate partner marketing is constantly changing. So why not get behind the scenes accept a variety of digital and affiliate marketing experts that push gather inside of their strategies, a value bond that will help you learn scale and growth of the technical affiliate marketing programs? The truth is, you simply won't find this information anywhere else. So why not a deep dive into the world of affiliate marketing and program management, discover new digital strategies that pay for brands and agency use to grow their network to add to detail exactly how to get more traffic and increase sales. Now here's your host, award-winning affiliate programmarketer for leader and the drums digital's top 50 UK agency owner, affiliate manager, motivator Leanne Johnston. Leanne over T.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to the Affiliate Marketing Podcast with me, Leanne Johnston. And today I'm super thrilled to have two very lovely ladies on this podcast with me, Amanda Farrest and Sarah Mallow, are the founders of Link Unite, an industry and industry badasses, I'm gonna say it, who are dedicated to lifting up women founders in the digital industry. Now I've got to know them on uh on the podcast this week and to talk to our audiences. I know that there are a lot of female founders in my community who are hustling and serving to drive business growth for big brands, but also who sometimes don't get the same access to industry expertise as some of our other counterparts. So, ladies, it's a pleasure to have you on this podcast. We're going to talk about a lot of cool things today. Say a quick hello to our listeners and introduce yourselves.
SPEAKER_03My name is Amanda Ferris, like we discussed a minute ago. I'm the uh founder and CEO of LinkUnite. So I've been in the space for a little over a decade, and Sarah and I met in the industry, and uh I basically have just meandered my way into uh really driving home the female initiatives in our industry and uplifting the women uh in the digital marketing space. Great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I'm Sarah Malo. I'm the president and COO of uh Link Unite, and I've been in the industry for about 20 years. Uh I'm uh not old, I'm seasoned. Um Amanda was a client of mine when I worked um for Affiliate Summit for many years, and that's how we met. And um, it's the rest is history, really.
SPEAKER_01Now we're gonna delve a little bit into that history because I know the story of how this started, and I really think it's a great story to tell. So my first question to you ladies is how did you two meet? Which is obviously through the events industry, but how did Link Unite first get started?
SPEAKER_03So fun story. So, like Sarah mentioned, I was a client of hers. So I was buying tables at affiliate summit and you know, exhibiting for our, you know, our our company at the time. Um, and about five years into it, you know, it really back then there were no women at the shows that really weren't models or um just account executives, things like that. So I kind of came to her and I said, like, is there are there any events or anything that you know of because she's a you know OG in the space that sort of catered to women? And she was like, not that I can think of, essentially. Um, and and essentially the idea was born there, and what we did was just circle up all of the other juggernaut women in this space. So um it the list essentially of who we circled up was a conversation at bars and restaurants, little names being written down on the back of napkins. And specifically remember sitting at a bar in uh Boston with Debbie Conrad from the lead group and one of her counterparts, Joel. And we were literally just listing off names and typing them into spreadsheets and and and writing them down manually and just sort of aggregating this list of everyone that we knew in this space that had been around that could contribute to a group, a tribal mentality, and and just it really expanded from there. And and then obviously Sarah was like, I'm 100% on board and I'll let her explain how she jumped in with me on that side.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, I mean, who wouldn't be on board for that? And and I just want to mention Leanne, your name was on our original uh spreadsheet. So kudos to you. Uh, we were you were somebody we were watching um in this space, but yeah, I mean the the women in this industry deserve this, and I couldn't have said yes anymore. And you know, Amanda, uh, you know, she's my business partner, but we've become family for for the I mean, we talk every single day, and if we don't, I'm worried about her. Um, and and that's just what we've done here. We've we're starting this this tribe, and it's just amazing to be a part of.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm absolutely thrilled because I've actually you know managed to get the golden invite to come to Link Unite this year. And I cannot wait to get to this conference and meet some of the other female founders that are in our industry. But without giving away too many spoil alerts, can you guys talk me through the Link Unite event just for our listeners to understand what goes on at this event and why you've created it in the way that you have and and the curation that you you undertake before you actually host the events? So talk us through a little bit about what you can expect if you if you get the Willy Wonka ticket and you get the invite to come along to Link Unite.
SPEAKER_03I love that analogy. Um essentially, yeah, what we do is we meet with all of the people through different means. So because the word is sort of out now, people come to us and they say, Hey, they either attended the event or they heard of it, or they came to the happy hours, or they've come to a meeting room that we've hosted at a show. They may say, Hey, I came, I know someone else that would be a very valuable member. Again, that's what we're really doing is the good people know the good people in terms of who they've worked with in the past or just coworkers. Um, so the list is very organic. The event itself is much more retreat style. So we all go to 500 shows a year and everyone goes to sessions and we're used to the exhibit halls and all of the things. So, what we tried to focus on more with this one is really bond building. And I think a lot more is learned through what we call story sharing than a traditional session. So, even the sessions, and I'm air quoting here that we have at this event, are much more of us getting together and saying, How did you get into the space? Who helped you along the way? Where do you want to be? And by simply sharing that information, people can say, Hey, I know this person or I have this contact. And it's really this organic nature of building something together. And so the retreat style format, um, less of the speakers and things like that, is it really it lends itself to bonding through activities, like you're going on the boat trip, you know, for dolphin watching at the event or doing, you know, uh painting on the beach, or we had Hummer tours back um in Arizona. And the reason we do that is people they form experiences together and through that they really create more of a friendship and a bond. And so you know, at some point when you're having a bad day, you can call any of those people. They speak your language, they know what you're going through, and they can help. And that's really why we build this much more of as a retreat style than a traditional conference format.
SPEAKER_01And I have to say I love that because you know, starting a business, it ain't easy. You know, hindsight is an amazing thing. When I started um, you know, our business, I I had great ambitions. Everything took longer than what I thought it was going to take. You know, you you're treading this road alone. And we don't in our industry, because it's so competitive, we don't talk about the kind of the real deal. And I do try and be very realistic. Like when I've had a bad day, I'll tell people I've had a bad day, and this is what I do to get back from a bad day. Um, and I do kind of talk very openly about the struggles that I have as an entrepreneur. And I think everybody resonates with that because, you know, to build a business, you have to be authentic and you have to have a plan and you have to be kind of you know hustling all the time. But it gets lonely. It's a really lonely road when you're a you know, self you know, solopreneur, whatever. Um, and so I love the fact that you guys have recognized that and you've created this safe space where people can come and talk about the realities of working in this industry because it is an incredibly stressful industry to work in. I deal with affiliate account managers in our training course that are burnt out, they don't know how to actually kind of regress, they don't know where their careers are going, they feel like they've landed a you know a job that's just constantly asking more and more of them. And so I think that's very, very important with the event that you're running.
SPEAKER_03And I will say, and Sarah can speak to this too, we we don't, it is for female founders, but we also include it's a director level title and up for a lot of these women because we see that what takes you know some of the men in our industry two years to get somewhere can take five, six, ten years for the women. And so what we want to do, and Sarah will spent, you know, spent a little bit of time talking about the mentorship program that she's gonna lead that we're you know launching here next month, it's really for them to come in and say, how do I get to that next level in my career and have that support system that when I don't know what I'm doing or I just need help with setting up a campaign and a tracking platform, whatever it is, there's someone there to help you. So you're not, like you said, there alone. You're not having to do it alone. But we want to bring in that next generation, that next group of people and set them up for success. So they don't have to really, you know, I wouldn't say like work as hard as we do, but they don't have to experience the same, you know, like you said, burnout or figure it out as you go. It's like you have a network of information that you can tap into at any time. It's the hive mind. Um, and Sarah's gonna be, you know, launching into our mentor program for next month as well. And that's what we're really gonna take off with.
SPEAKER_01So tell us about that mentor program then, Sarah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I mean, I was with uh a group of young people that just graduated with marketing degrees, and I said I asked the group, I said, Does anybody know what digital marketing is? And and they don't. Like this new generation of people that are graduating high school, graduating college, this is not being taught, right? So we always say that we're in this unique world that people don't even know exists unless you're here with us, right? Um so I said to Amanda, you know, I'm like, there are so many people that we can kind of take under our wing, and we have uh veterans, Leanne, like yourself, that we can pair um with with some of these newer students or new people that maybe want a new career to start. Maybe they started something, they want to kind of hop over. Um, so we we reached out to some of the girls or you know, some of the CEOs and founders and presidents from our first event, and they were like, we love this idea. Um, we are you know gung-ho, we would love to mentor somebody. And so we're going to, we're gonna do like a soft launch that we use that word quite a bit, where we're gonna pair up a couple of people, uh, like I said, from our original group, some of these newer students, um, younger people, and just see where it goes. Have them kind of learn whether it be lead generation or affiliate marketing, um, you know, just learn this new world that we're all, you know, our day-to-day and see where it takes. I mean, if anything, they're gonna they're gonna learn a whole load of information and new education that they didn't even know existed. Um we did something very similar um way back when in the affiliate summit OG, where we had like a newcomer program. Um, and it was just fabulous because there's people that are just starting in the industry, not just young people, but newer business owners. And they come to these events or they come to you know our happy hours and they're like, where do I even begin? And I'm like, oh my God, sit down. There's there's so much to do, there's so much we can teach you. And that's that's what we want to do because we want to keep this industry going. We want to keep it alive, especially for the women in the in the industry.
SPEAKER_01And I have to say that that's great because I mean, I've been in this industry 20 years since since digital pretty much began, and everything I know I've had to learn on the job, and I'm still learning on the job. So if you're new and coming into the industry, you've got like the back history to catch up on, the storytelling from all of us veterans, but then you've also got to keep the learning going as you're moving forward. And how do you do that if you're just starting your career? You're not getting exposed to some of the bigger campaigns, the bigger, you know, brands, all of those things when you're just starting out. So you're actually, by creating this mentorship program, you're actually fast-tracking people's careers as well, because they're gonna be able to partner up with people that have experience, even if they're not in their own company. And the organic learnings that we've had to do over time is actually going to fall away because we're going to make this community available for people to tap into. So I really love that. I love um, you know, I'm really passionate about making sure that the digital industry doesn't die when all of the oldies like me retire at some point. Because we're taking all of this knowledge with us because there is no school, I mean, in my industry alone in affiliate marketing, there is no school of affiliate marketing where you go to learn. Um, you can books, but those books are very quickly outdated because everything around you is changing the world. Um, so I love that. I love the fact that this is an organic hive, and I love that hive mentality where you can dip in and dip out, and people are willing to share their knowledge and expertise for the love of the industry, not for um, you know, like personal gratification or whatever the case may be, because we actually want to make sure that digital continues to evolve as an industry that employs and creates jobs and does all of the things that it has done for the past 20 years quietly in the background.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Young people, they have new ideas too. So it's you know, we learn as much from them as they learn from us. That's the idea. It's it's fast tracking their careers, but they also bring in a fresh perspective where some of us, you know, we get into the grind and you know, this is how a campaign is run and this is how it's done. And and sometimes they just have fresh eyes. And so I think there's a lot to learn from each other. But like you said, tapping into the hive mind, it just makes it so much more approachable, I think, than just an overload burnout situation for a lot of these newcomers, which we all see, you know, on a day-to-day basis. So hopefully that can just continue to grow into something even more, you know, beautiful.
SPEAKER_01I think it will, because it's gonna have a life of its own and it's gonna become organic. So, all right, so we've spoken about Link Unite, which is the concept that brings all of these people together and keeps us together and keeps us learning from each other. We've spoken about the fact that there's this vision to create this hype mentality, but what about some of the compliance issues that are related to the to the industry and keeping that going? Talk to me about some of the things then, the initiatives that are coming up for you guys to help kind of spearhead and develop this moving forward.
SPEAKER_03Right. So a lot of the feedback that we get, and everything that we do is based on feedback we hear from the women, the sessions, what we focus on for 2023. And a lot of that comes back to compliance. There's a lot of new regulation, there's a lot of new things. The people that come to our event, you know, we have people that are in the law space, we have people that are in the compliance space. And so what we're trying to do is essentially expand upon that. So next year, on top of having our traditional Link Unite events, we also want to have a lot more of a compliance focus, um educational focus, we'll call it educational focus. So doing some more one-day seminar type things where maybe there's six, seven, eight sessions in a day, and it's everything from the beginning of lead in to the end. How do you generate a lead? How does the tracking platform work? What technologies are API'd in from a compliance standpoint, from a lookup standpoint? How do I make sure that that language is compliant and bringing the experts from the field to teach them that so that you actually understand the full workload, the full balance? And we're also going to be working with some other people, our partners, not just our sponsors, but other partners in the industry that do focus on those things that are experts. They're going to come in and partner with us to do that. Um, we've chatted with PACE Organization, Rob Seaberv there is absolutely wonderful. Um, doing some things with them where we can actually bring in some of their expertise to help really, you know, focus on the things that are important to the girls because that is something that does come up. And we don't want to speak to something that we don't know personally, Sarah and I don't, but we can also learn from so again, the hive mind comes into this where we can partner with these different organizations and all really benefit from one another with the groups that we've amassed over, you know, the last couple of years. So that'll be the focus next year is also doing some of these educational pieces that really focus on the needs of the industry and the women that are in them as well.
SPEAKER_01And I just want to make it clear because obviously we're, you know, you guys are based in the US, but this is global, right? It's functions and these events for women in all countries, all I mean, obviously, you know, predominantly English-speaking events, but I'm sure that you'll get translators as it grows and grows and grows. But it's really open to anybody. So so if people want to actually get involved in this initiative, and we might have people listening to us that are experts and veterans in their space, but we also might have some newbies, newbies that are listening in and are thinking, yes, I want to be part of that. How do I get in? What's the kind of next step? Like, what's the phase?
SPEAKER_03Right. And yeah, and so the main event, like we talked about, is a lot of word of mouth, but we do have a contact form, even on the website. And we do, you know, Sarah and I are available via LinkedIn, text messaging, email, Skype, all of the usual modes of communication in our industry. And so we tell people like all of my stuff is public. It is all on my LinkedIn profile. I tell people to share my contact info. I give my cell phone number out. I'm like, reach out to me. If you have questions or you want to be involved, 100% just reach out. We will find a way to work them in. Uh, the event itself, like we said, is director level title up, but the one-day events we want to do next year is for everyone. We will open it up. It's it's really based on what we see in the industry trend wise. What's going to help the industry grow? What's going to help the women? And we're going to focus it around that. But we say reach out, come one, come all, because we'll figure out a way to make it work. Anybody that's willing to contribute globally, we will 100% figure out a way to incorporate that into the mission.
SPEAKER_01Now, a lot of people are going to say to me, and I know um I'm kind of stirring the hornet's nest here, but yes, we we understand that we want to support women in the industry. But men are welcome to you at these events, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so our our events that we have that right now, like our event in December, um, it's it's women only, but our biggest partners are actually men. Um they're men that we that we've met in the industry. Yeah, and they are my gosh, I mean, we have uh our crew from Optizmo. I mean, they call and check in with us weekly, um, and they don't have any women working from them. It's not that they don't want to, it's just how it is. Um, and they're our biggest supporter, they're our biggest partners. Um and so it's not about this this women versus men thing for us, right? It's it's it's just the women need this. There is nothing, there's a lot of masterminds and things like that out there that's that are men only. And so this is this is sort of us. This is what we want for our tribe. Um, you know, just a place to go. Women have a lot of different challenges than men. You know, there's some of us. I mean, I'm a single mom. I've got two teenagers. I connected at the last Link Unite event with a couple other single moms, and now we touch face once a week with you know all the crazy things that we do for our kids. And it's just important. But yeah, no, we're we we love all the men in the space. They they have been wonderful supporting Link Unite from day one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we wouldn't be where we are without them. Like Mohammed Al-Qaedari is my old boss, like you know, at Leeds Pedia. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. And and that's a a lot of what we want to you know focus on is the events itself is you know, female only, but the one-day events that we want to do next year, we want those to be co-ed. We want there to be collaboration, you know, any way that they want to participate and be involved. Like I said, we will find a way to make it work because it's you know, the dichotomy of men versus women women does not work. It is a it is an effort, it is a collective effort to push forward everybody and everyone wins together, you know. And I want people to really focus on that is that it's not an us versus them. It is everyone gets there, and the quicker we do it together, the quicker we all get to the finish line.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's the thing. I mean, I'm a big believer in a rising tide raises all ships, and that sounds exactly like what this is. And and we need to pull expertise from all sides of the coin. You know, gender is not an issue, race is not an issue, it's it's about expertise, it's about people that have walked the walk, talk the talk, who are now at a position where they can give it back. Um, and you know, we're blessed to be in that space. I I feel incredibly lucky that I have 20 years of digital experience under my belt. Very few people on this planet do have that. So um it does change the way that you look at marketing, it changes the way that you look at how brands are working. I mean, I have people asking if they could get on a call with me for 15 minutes to talk about how they're going to run their business through a recession, an upcoming recession. Well, for me, this is the third one I've lived through. I'm not that you know worried about it. So, I mean, uh, you know, you change the strategies, you do the things. So, so it's it's passing that knowledge on that doesn't exist in books, that doesn't exist in a degree, that doesn't, you know, it's real life experience. And how do you get that real, how do you get access to that real life experience? You link up with hives like this and you get in touch with people and you start networking. And one thing I can say about the next generation is that they seem to be more open to contacting senior people and asking questions. Whereas when I was in my twenties, I'd be too scared to ask a CEO of a company, hey, can I have five minutes of your time? But I think that's one thing that's brilliant about our industry as well, is that we are open to being inclusive. And it's probably one of the most inclusive industries that I've ever worked in. And I've worked in finance, you know, tech, um, you know, uh, you know, all lots of different industries, retail, e-commerce, whatever. But in the in the digital space, it is one of the most inclusive industries that I've ever worked in. I agree.
SPEAKER_03I think that I've seen people come from nothing to being multimillionaires in a in a couple of years. You know, you don't have to have the education, all the certifications, or anything to really hop in. You just have to have creativity and a hard work ethic. And you can really get anywhere you want to go. And I think that getting there quicker is, like we said, the story sharing aspect is shared experiences is the quickest way for people to learn, grow, and evolve. And we really just want to focus on that in terms of what the mission is for Link United is just, you know, bring your expertise and let's see where this goes. You know, the organic break.
SPEAKER_02And there are so many people that are. willing to help. You know what I mean? There's nobody that I have met on my uh, you know, road through this industry in 20 years that that's never wanted to help me or support me. You know, we've obviously had, you know, a few people here and there that we wouldn't work with moving forward or something like that. You always have a few. But for the most part, I would say everybody is here to help a somebody, a new person, new business, um, you know, somebody that just wants to get started in the industry. And that's huge. You don't see that everywhere.
SPEAKER_01I have to say as well, I mean the thing that's refreshing for me having met you guys is it's not another mastermind or it's not another group or it's not another membership. It's a movement that you're trying to instill. And that takes a lot of courage to to get people mobilized against one purpose, to get everybody on the same mindset, to make it inclusive for all, to you know, get companies linked to good talent. I mean that is always a struggle. Any entrepreneur will tell you the biggest struggle that they have is finding good talent and retaining good talent.
SPEAKER_03So like we actually really great that's the fun part is like I know at least three people that have secured jobs, you know, that are coming up to the event they're coming to meet with their new employers that they met in April. You know, they are going to the show to meet that's what I'm saying is if you come and you are on the hunt or you're looking to go into your own business or you're looking for a new job, there is something there for everyone however you're looking at it, whether it's educational components for yourself, for your own business, do you want to know how seed funding works in Serie A, Series B, like how you actually want to get into it? Exactly. It's all of those things. There's someone there for everyone is all you have to do is talk to people. That's literally all you have to do is just reach out, you know?
SPEAKER_01I'm super excited. I cannot wait to have my first LinkUnite experience. I'm uh you know thrilled that I got made it onto the list. Let's just round up here quickly and and just for people that are listening that want to get involved either from a mentor level or a you know experience level what's the next step? Like how do they just fill out the form on your website and you'll get back to them at some point when you make it through that list because hopefully you're going to get hundreds of people contacting you.
SPEAKER_03Like what's the like realistic time frames of things to I get back yeah the inbound lead form I get back to people within 24 hours. Generally I'm just on the road it I'll text them and say hey I'll get back to you. But generally speaking like we had a couple that came in yesterday I get back to them immediately. So there isn't really a long wait period. We will get back to you at least with contact information and setting up a call usually it's let's get on a call together let's meet face to face virtually as it is in our world right but actually get to know one another and kind of see what their goals are where they want to be um but you know they can Skype me texting me is honestly the easiest way and I I put my cell phone we out there for a reason. I've gotten three text messages from them this morning that were made you know introductions to and I have calls with them this afternoon. Yeah it there isn't a time period because again we understand the importance of bringing in the right people and if they are interested and they want to be involved we're not going to waste any time uh communicating with them and figuring out what their goals are. So um we can put all of that you know to you guys but again like Skype text email or the forum 100% will get back to you you know immediately so really that's the difference we're accessible.
SPEAKER_02Like Amanda and I are accessible. We're not we're not gonna be the people that are hiding out I mean we are we want to talk to everybody. Her and I have a happy day when we spend 10 hours on the phone talking to people we haven't met you know we want people to reach out text us and Skype or you know whatever it might be so we can talk to you because that's that's how we learn too you know and I love that because I do learn from younger people and you know the younger people look at me and they go oh you know everything.
SPEAKER_01No I don't definitely still learning so okay I'm super excited. I cannot wait to see you in a couple of weeks I think we can probably make sure that people can contact you because we will definitely put your details on the transcribe of this podcast. So be prepared um thank you for giving me your time and for explaining what Link Unite is and how this movement is moving forward and how people can get involved. I'm very excited to see how the compliance side of this is going to move forward because it is lacking in our industry and I think you guys have you know really tackled a really big subject matter. So I'm very excited to see where that goes and really just looking forward to seeing more on how we can help this industry develop and grow and nurture the new people coming in.
SPEAKER_03100% thank you for having us on we can't wait to see what comes out of it and we can't wait to see you in the on the beautiful weeks.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much that's a wrap for this week's affiliate marketing podcast. If you love what we're sharing why not head over to Apple iTunes now and leave us a five star review. Doing this helps us reach more people just like you and we'd love to hear your feedback too. While you're there make sure to hit subscribe join our podcast channel so you never miss another insightful episode and leave us a comment so we know what you're thinking. Want to amplify your affiliate program performance? The Amplify Virtual Summit is brought to you by Affiliate Insider. Save these dates 17th to 18th of January 2023 your calendar now and book your free ticket to come and join us as we explore all the latest digital and affiliate marketing trends. This is not a sales pitch virtual event so you'll get nothing but great advice and a chance to network with agencies, network, staff and Martech to provide what we call an insider scoop on how to amplify your affiliate program and partner performance. Plus you'll get exclusive access to expert-led in-depth master classes, group coaching and ask me anything sessions with expert tools show and tell you how to implement tools and tactics helping you save time and money to get consistent results. Get your free ticket to join us at Amplify now visit wwwffiliateinsider.com and click on events to register