By Kyle Graham
This past weekend I was able to share my passion for marketing and the work we do at The Sellers Group with a great group of people. On Sunday I attended a “food-fluencer” event that was held by Food Tribe to help launch their upcoming Indiegogo campaign. Food Tribe was founded by my friend Terence Latimer; it is a gift card and loyalty program that connects good people to good food. For every gift card sold, at least one meal is donated.
For my day job, I work as a media planner. After work, I produce content for The Sellers Group (shameless plug: go listen to The 9-5 Podcast), and also work on various marketing/ go-to market strategies for the upcoming TSG launches. Due to my background and experiences, Terence somehow figured it would be a good idea to have me on a panel at the event to discuss content creation and digital marketing. I’m only 24, and I feel like I’m trying to get a grip on all of this still…but clearly we’re doing something right if I’m being asked to talk in front of people.
The panel featured a number of great individuals including Dominique Alexis (season 21 of The Bachelor), Courtney Morra (Marketing Manager – LA Food Bank), Joe Luckett (Founder of Affluent Solution Group), and myself. We all had varying experiences with creating content, and marketing ourselves/the brands we represent. Dominique shared some great tips on personal branding and how social media is key. Courtney spoke about the power of storytelling and engaging your audiences. Joe discussed the importance of data analytics in this digital age. The panel could have gone on for hours, but fortunately for our audience, we only had 30 minutes. However, even after the formal panel ended the discussions continued.
In interacting with my fellow panelist and event attendees, I was able to soak up a ton of information and ideas. We had meaningful conversations about what it means to build a brand and sustain a vision. We discussed what it’s like to be young content creators and how we carve out a space for ourselves in the overcrowded ecosystem; for me, that was truly the beauty of the event. It started and ended with Food Tribe and their mission, but meaningful connections were made in tandem. I won’t talk about all of them in this post, but it was great to see so many people of color striving for success.
I’m an introvert and I could’ve never imagined myself spending a Sunday largely with a group of strangers, but I encourage everyone to get out and go to events like these. You never know who you might meet and the lasting impressions you may leave on others.
You can stay up to date with Food Tribe by following them on social media:
Make sure that you #JoinTheTribe and support their Indiegogo campaign when it launches April 18th. Your support will go toward the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. If you’d like to learn more about supporting the LA Food Bank visit their website https://www.lafoodbank.org/.