Tiffany Lopinsky Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe. And I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City.
Today's guest is Tiffany Lopinsky, someone who's helping shape the present and the future of the creator economy and disrupting how we shop. Tiffany is the co-founder and president of ShopMy, a platform that launched in 2020 that's become a go-to place for creators and tastemakers to share and monetize their favorite products. Today, more than 150,000 creators and 1,000 brands are on ShopMy, and the company has raised over $75 million. Do you know what an affiliate link is? If not, you will soon. You have certainly clicked on them, whether you know it or not. Tiffany joins me in the studio to talk about her journey, how she got her start online with a food account, and she shares some ShopMy best practices. It's a must for any culinary creatives out there and people interested in how we shop and why. Stay tuned for my chat with Tiffany Lopinsky.
Today's episode of Radio Cherry Bombe is presented by Square. If you've ever dreamed of opening a restaurant, you know it's not easy. There's the food, of course, but also the logistics, the staff, customers, community, and finding ways to keep it all going. Take Yo También Cantina in San Francisco, founded by Kenzie Benesh and Isabella Bertorelli. Kenzie and Isabella didn't go to culinary school. Instead, they had amazing family recipes and a whole lot of heart. What started as a pop-up selling arepas turned into a full-fledged cafe. Then came online pre-orders, a wine club, bottled hot sauce, merch, even socks. Today, they have nine different revenue streams. And every step of the way, Square has helped them bring their ideas to life. From their website and point-of-sale system to staff management and subscriptions, Square keeps it all running smoothly and in one place. Kenzie says it best: Square helped her get some life back. And if you've got a vision like hers and Isabella's, Square is here for your next big idea too. Go to square.com/big to see how Square can help you.
Today's show is also presented by Ketel One Vodka. Let's take a little trip back in time. Picture Holland in 1691, tulips and windmills, the landscape, and the Nolet family is firing up their first copper still to make spirits. Fast-forward 11 generations to today, and the Nolets have not only perfected their craft, but they're known for one of the most famous spirits around. Ketel One Vodka is distilled with non-GMO ingredients and hand-fired copper pot stills. Their very first still even gave the vodka its name. So every sip is literally a nod to history. Ketel One is smooth, crisp, and has just the right touch of citrus. In fact, it's made to cocktail. Think classic martinis, pink-hued cosmos, or espresso martinis. Or maybe it's the star of your own personal signature creation. If you're feeling floral, there's the Ketel One Botanical Collection with its bright, fresh flavor combinations, including grapefruit and rose, cucumber and mint, and peach and orange blossom. Head to ketelone.com for recipes, new twists on the classics, and all the cocktail inspo you need. Don't forget, you must be 21 to drink. And make sure to always drink responsibly.
A little housekeeping before we get to Tiffany. Team Cherry Bombe and I are headed to California this week for our very first Jubilee L.A. happening this Sunday, September 28th. Tickets are sold out, but you can sign up for the waitlist. We've released a few tickets to the waitlist, so don't delay. If you've purchased a ticket, be sure to check your inbox because we have a checklist for you of things you need to do. Thank you to everyone who came to our pregame last week. That was a lot of fun. We have so many great things in store for you at Jubilee. We've got Molly Baz, Melissa King, Nancy Silverton, Sarah Ahn, Alyse Whitney, Suzanne Goin, Bricia Lopez, so many talented folks on stage. There's beautiful food and drink from goop Kitchen, Shake Shack, Dona, Van Leeuwen, and lots of other great brands. We've got author meetups and book signings with local L.A. bookstore, Now Serving, and our first-ever breakout sessions. Check out cherrybombe.com and your inbox for more details. Thank you to our Jubilee partners: Square, S. Pellegrino, California Prunes, Enterprise, Ghirardelli, and Zacapa. We couldn't do this without you.
Now, let's check in with today's guest. Tiffany Lopinsky, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Thanks for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
I have so many more questions for you than I would've had even just a few weeks ago because Cherry Bombe is experimenting with all these platforms. We're on ShopMy, we're on Substack. It just feels like a whole new world, so I'm happy to have you on here to demystify a few things.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yep. No, I'm so excited to share more and chat about it.
Kerry Diamond:
And happy Fashion Week.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. Well, thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Or Fashion Month.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah, I know. Fashion Month, that's -
Kerry Diamond:
Is New York Fashion Week over almost?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
I think it's officially over. It's really the start to fall, to holidays, to everything.
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm. Where are you off to next?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
To Paris, in about a week and a half, for Paris Fashion Week. We're doing a few things there, so we're excited.
Kerry Diamond:
How is Europe feeling about ShopMy? Have they embraced it as much as here?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
They're starting to. The U.S. was kind of ahead of the curve on influencer, so it just takes time to get used to things, but we're making progress.
Kerry Diamond:
The last time you and I talked, you were COO. You are now president of the company, so congratulations.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
That is a big deal. I'm really happy for you. Before we talk all things ShopMy, you got your start online with an account called Boston Foodies.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about that.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
So when I was a sophomore in college, I think it was 2014, I'm from the Boston area, but I was going to Harvard, so first time in the city and loved going out to eat, loved restaurants. I'd seen all these New York foodie accounts about... I don't know. I thought it was a good way to explore restaurants and all that, and I was like, "I love going out to eat" and there's no Boston food account. So I just created it and it was such a great way to learn about the space. Probably you started doing it for about six months and restaurants started inviting me to go out to dinner for free.
And I remember, and it's funny because, Kerry, I was listening to your podcast and I know OpenTable is one of the sponsors, but that was one of the first partners that I worked with for Boston Foodies. So I was like a research assistant making like $20 an hour or something. And I remember OpenTable reached out to me and they were like, "We'll pay you $5,000 to post five." And I was like, "5,000?"
Kerry Diamond:
I mean, in college, that's like a million dollars.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. That was absolutely insane to me. And I was like, “What is this industry? What's going on?” And it informed so much of ShopMy, just my understanding of the creator space. But yes, lifelong foodie and love what you guys are doing.
Kerry Diamond:
Where do we need to eat in Boston? Have you stayed on top of the scene there?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
I haven't stayed on top of it in the past three years, but my favorite restaurant is called Puritan & Company. It's in Cambridge. So highly recommend if anyone goes to Boston.
Kerry Diamond:
Got to give a shout-out to Bar Volpe, Karen Akunowicz's place. Love that. And Saltie Girl.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Oh, love Saltie Girl.
Kerry Diamond:
Yep. Yep.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
And I've been to her other place, Fox & Knife in Southie, and it's incredible.
Kerry Diamond:
What happened to Boston Foodies? Did you shut it down? Did you sell it? Does it still exist? Is it your side project?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
It doesn't really exist anymore. It's still live in there. I don't think there's been a post for a couple years, but basically I did it throughout college. I did it for a couple years. Basically, when we started ShopMy, which was about five and a half years ago, I just stopped doing it and I gave it to someone else to run just to continue it, post, do deals and things like that. But I had a period of, I basically worked for two years after college and then I experimented with doing that full-time for probably about three or maybe six months because I was like, "Oh, I'm making enough money off it. I want to see what I could do with it if I did it full-time." Then I ended up getting reached out to by someone who had this startup. That's kind of how ShopMy ended up starting or the start of the journey.
But the thing that it kind of taught me, I took a lot of pride in I love discovering hole-in-the-wall places. And when you're in the food scene, I'm sure so many people know, it's like people will invite you to go to places for free and you have to do a good mix. And people can tell on the other side if you're only going to the places that the PR firms are sending you. But if you're actually paying your own money for stuff and you're just snapping a little picture and you're making a good description of what you like, people can tell. So it kind of stopped growing when I stopped doing it, but it taught me, I don't know, even with anything, whether it's food, fashion, beauty, home, if you're passionate about it and it's authentic, people can feel that on the other side of the screen and those are the best creators.
Kerry Diamond:
What did you study at Harvard?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
I studied government. That's like Harvard's version of political science, and did that because it was one of the most flexible majors. And going into college, I really embraced the whole liberal arts education. Growing up, I was very like, "I want to get into Harvard and this is what I need to do." And I think I Googled when I was in fourth grade, like, how do I get into Harvard, reading all the forums. And I remember it was like, you have to get great SAT scores, great grades, and you have to find your niche and do all this. And I was like, "All right. I'm going to do that."
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my God, in fourth grade?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah, I-
Kerry Diamond:
In fourth grade, I think my biggest thing was like, how can I sneak this Judy Blume book out of the library and read it in secret so my parents don't find it.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
No, no. I don't know. So I had that weird thing about me, but then finally when I got to college, I was like, I did what I wanted to do and now I don't even know what I want to do. It was the first time that I got to just enjoy learning. I took all these random classes, like classes about Japan. I took French. I took game theory, pretty much anything that I was interested in and just viewed it as, "I'm going to do this." And there's almost two ways to do well in school, especially in liberal arts. It's like try really hard, do exactly what you're supposed to do, or just have fun with it and let that shine through in your work. And that was my first experience, but that's why I studied government, because it was super flexible and it ended up being a good decision.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's take a quick break, and we'll be right back.
Cherry Bombe has moved its newsletter over to Substack, the publishing platform beloved by writers and other creatives. As someone who loves to read and write, I am a big Substack fan, so I'm thrilled Cherry Bombe is there. You can read our Friday newsletter and get recipes and other content for free, like my interview with Slutty Cheff, or you can become a subscriber and get access to Cherry Bombe magazine articles, essays, and our monthly member meetings on Zoom, like our upcoming meeting with Dorie Greenspan. Visit cherrybombe.substack.com to learn more.
So you didn't have a career path in mind beyond Harvard?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
I had a bunch of different ideas of what I wanted to do, and I had points in my childhood of, "I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer." And in college, I thought being a lawyer is probably a good path. And I remember I was working for this woman, I love her. Her name's Karen, and she was like, "Before doing that, before going to school again, you should work and you should just see if you like work." And she was also like, "Don't get the first job that comes to you. You can work here-"
Kerry Diamond:
Unless that's your only job.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. Well she was like, "You can work here if you don't find something that's exciting," which was very nice of her, but I was like, "All right. I'll try work and see. And then in two years, if I want to go to law school, I'll apply to law school." And I liked working. And I was doing the Boston Foodies thing and I was kind of just excited. Even though I loved school, I didn't want to go back to school. And then basically I ended up working at this other startup. That's where I met my co-founder. It was called Popcart. It's no longer a thing, but was so foundational in what we learned about product market fit, about everything that we're doing. So yeah, it's hard to know what you want to do, I'm sure too, when you're growing up. It's very rare that people at six, they decide they want to be a doctor.
Kerry Diamond:
I hate to say it, I was that rare person.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
You were?
Kerry Diamond:
I knew I wanted to be a writer. I knew I wanted to be in media. I could ask you a thousand questions about going to Harvard, studying government, your thoughts on what's going on today, but I am not going to derail this conversation or get either of us in trouble given what's going on in the world. So I'm going to stick to the questions that I wrote for you. But I think people might be able to sense it's almost this puzzle and the pieces are starting to come together in terms of where you are today. And I've got one last piece of that puzzle. Your thesis was on the gig economy.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
Why did you decide to write about the gig economy, and what did you learn in the process of doing your thesis?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
So that was my co-founder, Chris. Basically, Chris was at MIT and-
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, it was his?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah, it was his.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
And then we all came together. So Chris was in business school while my other co-founder, Harry and I were working at this other startup. And he basically had done this project just about how people shop, in that basically everyone was discovering products and their purchases were being influenced by content creators. It was a time where basically there was no platform where people could store all their product recommendations. And it was also at a time where the first generation of bloggers, they all had websites and then you didn't need a website to have a platform anymore. You could just directly create content on Instagram and TikTok. To create a website was pretty extensive. Now it's much easier, but still they weren't doing that, so they didn't have a place where they could put everything that they wanted to talk about.
So V1 of ShopMy was a place for you to store all of your product recommendations, whether it's from Amazon, from Sephora. Your sister has a candle shop that's on Shopify, you can put that there too. So almost to give them this publishing platform, but specific to products.
Kerry Diamond:
People might be wondering what does the gig economy have to do with bloggers, et cetera, because when we hear gig economy, you tend to think of folks like Uber drivers, folks who have maybe more sort of super flexible part-time positions. But how does the gig economy relate to the folks that you're talking about? Because it does.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
When we say gig economy, we're not thinking about culinary creatives.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Right. It's basically like a job that is not a full-time job, and that is what influencing is to a lot of content creators. And it's funny you say it that way because whenever I meet new content creators, my advice to them is always keep your full-time job and do this on the side because it's going to you a much better content creator because it's very relatable to be working. And then you're almost better at it because it's fun. Sometimes when people quit their full-time job too early, they have to take deals that they don't want to take. They have to do all these things where the longer you can keep it purely like a creative fun exercise or outlet or whatever, the easier it is to grow and the more fun you can have doing it if the foundation of your influencing career is based off of being relatable and then you're going on brand trips all the time and it's just like you become less relatable.
So I think that with the gig economy, everyone can do it on the side. I think it's a great thing for people to get into, especially if you love products and love talking about them. It's just an easy way to make money.
Kerry Diamond:
Great advice. Don't be too quick to quit your day job. Tell us what ShopMy is today.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Shopmy is basically a partnership platform for brands and content creators, influencers. We call them curators sometimes. But probably most people listening have seen ShopMy, if you follow a TikTok creator, Instagram creator in their bio, you might see ShopMy or probably most of how you've interacted with. If someone is talking about a sweater they like and they're like, "Here's a link to this sweater," that could be a commissionable link that's probably a ShopMy link. So we're helping them basically make affiliate commission.
So basically, content creators have a couple of different revenue streams. They have flat fee sponsored content, they have affiliate revenue, and then they have sometimes subscriptions if they're on Substack. So we basically help them with that. And then on the brand side, we're kind of facilitating this connection to the creator. So brands are using us to find influencers, usually gifting them product, working with them on an affiliate capacity, partnering with them more broadly. But ultimately, what we're trying to do is give brands a more authentic way to work with creators. So rather than if you're a brand and you say, "Okay, I want to use influencers to market my product," a lot of times the starting point is, "Who are the best influencers? I'm going to go to them, educate them on my brand and then write a script for them." Where we start is like, "Who already likes your product?" Give them commission, see how they can sell, and let that be kind of the foundation of working with them.
Kerry Diamond:
Explain what the term affiliate means.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Affiliate is just a way to describe the segment of marketing that is commissionable links. So if I create a link to the t-shirt I'm wearing, maybe a brand will offer 10, 15-
Kerry Diamond:
That is a nice t-shirt.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Thank you. 10, 15% commission. So if a creator shares that with their audience, whether it be a link in a YouTube, a link in a Substack, a link on Instagram stories, then they are getting 15% of the total purchase. So affiliate is just the terminology to refer to all that.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, I think that's good for people to know that when you click on those links, the person on the other end is potentially making money from that. One of my favorite things to share on my Instagram is like Jones Road. I love Bobby Brown. I love the Jones Road brand. Cherry Bombe or myself will make a commission from that. I'm not at the level of some of your star creators. You make it clear that that has to be a transparent transaction.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. Totally. And I think it's the heart of how we think about the world and where we saw ShopMy fitting in is that it's just too obvious the kind of sponsored content and there should be a better way to work with people. Especially if you're a brand that people really like, it should be about reinforcing that rather than, I always say to the brands, most brands look at content creators as actors and actresses that you're casting in a commercial almost where you're doing yourself a disservice to not look at them as almost like a distributed sales force. And the gifting is it's like collateral to help them sell. The best content creators are the ones who are the most authentic. It's like they only talk about what they like and they talk about things that there isn't commission and things that there are commission. But I think it's just a more authentic way. And I think we're too smart for ads now. And this is just a better way to talk about product. It is kind of how I see it.
I listened to one of your podcasts and someone was talking about how you always have to have an enemy, something needs to be-
Kerry Diamond:
Who was that?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
I don't know, but it was after a podcast-
Kerry Diamond:
I laughed when I heard that. That was funny.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
... I was thinking like, "What is our enemy?" And I think it's just ads. It's ads that you watch and you feel like, "This is such an ad and it's so fake."
Kerry Diamond:
What you just said, like we're almost too smart for ads is a pretty radical statement. I feel that way when I watch television. I mean ads are so dumb on traditional television. It's almost insulting to anybody with-
Tiffany Lopinsky:
It's just like it doesn't make me want to buy something where what makes me want to buy something is when someone, I like their taste, I like their style, or they'll just say, "This genuinely changed my hair. And I had broken and brittle hair and I actually feel like it made a difference." I'm like, I'm immediately going to go purchase that.
Basically, what I see ShopMy as is it's trying to provide infrastructure to word of mouth. And the best influencers make their audience feel like it's word of mouth. And it kind of is. It's like they're simply sharing what they would be sharing to their friends. And the more they can keep it like that, the better. That's kind of where I see it all fitting into the world.
Kerry Diamond:
What I really love about ShopMy is I think you are giving so many of these creators out there an opportunity to make a living from something that they're doing when so many other sources of money have dried up. This media is in disarray today. So many people have been laid off from their media jobs. And you've got all these people who are striking out on their own as creatives on social media. To me, it's another tool in their toolbox.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Totally. And some of the best content creators, they used to be editors and writers at magazines and they have incredible taste. That's probably part of why they were hired. The social platforms give them a place where they can share and where the tool that they're using. But I tell everyone who is always like, "Where should I start with ShopMy?" I don't know, they kind of see it as this big scary thing. I'm like, "If you're a content creator and you're sharing things, what is the number one thing that you're getting DMs about?" It's usually, "Where's that from? Where are the earrings from? Where's the dress from?" Just think of it as you're trying to avoid the DMs by just giving people the information first. That's the best way to start. And then you just get so many valuable insights on, "Oh wow, my audience likes this. They click on this. They buy this." And it can help you just do a better job in serving them and getting to know them, which is why a lot of even brand founders, they use ShopMy links as well.
But yeah, it's nice to give something else that doesn't feel like, I think with creating sponsored content sometimes, especially if you're a creative, it takes a lot of creative energy. It's like, "Do I really want to make an ad about this thing and then have to go back and forth with a brand 10 times and reshoot it?" Where, what if you could just wake up every day and talk about what you want to talk about? That's where I see affiliate fitting in as at minimum like a supplement, if not for a lot of people, it's one of the main income sources.
Kerry Diamond:
It's very disruptive what you're doing to lots of industries.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. I think the thing that makes me really happy about it is, and I love meeting with these independent growing brands that are just getting started and it wouldn't be feasible for them to just go... Because a lot of what was happening in the industry is kind of flying blind. It's weird that the industry works the way of you go to them and you ask, "How much does it cost to do," I don't know, "six Instagram stories?" And people will be like, "It costs a hundred thousand dollars." And as a brand, you have no ability to understand if that's worth it or not. So giving these smaller brands a way to be like, "We can't pay you a flat fee, but we can pay you commission on what you sell as at least a place to start." And of course it works differently with the bigger brands, but I know that the creators are also like, "Now I can spend time talking about these brands that I really love and get commission and not be completely worthless to them. So that part especially makes me happy about what we're doing.
Kerry Diamond:
And you're putting a lot of power in the hands of these creators, and so many of them are women. So I'm very happy about that part of it.
How does someone know if they should be on ShopMy? If you're listening to this and thinking, "Huh, I am a creative on social media. I have a dedicated following, or I have a great community. Should I be on ShopMy?"
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yes. Basically, if you're talking about product, you should be on ShopMy. Even if you don't have a large following, it's basically for people to recommend products to others, whether that be an audience of a few thousand, a few hundred thousand. I know there's a lot of people in the food community listening to this and they're probably thinking, "Well, it's not for food." I don't know, food, fashion, beauty, home, they're also mixed. It's just part of culture. And it's like you go to a restaurant and at the interiors are amazing. You knot the person who created it has incredible taste and they're probably wearing really cool things.
And sharing that, I was telling someone this story of, I was chatting with this dermatologist on our platform. I was like, "You know you're the number one seller of Brunello Cuccinelli just from you linking your sunglasses on a YouTube video." It's because like, I don't know. You have people paying attention to you maybe for an expertise. You have food, dermatology, interiors, but if they're paying attention and they like your earrings or whatever it might be, it's worth linking them. And it also helps with knowing a lot of brand founders who use it, then they know, "Oh, I can make a makeup case or piece of merch or whatever because my audience who's following me is clearly interested in that." So-
Kerry Diamond:
So, using it for market research.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
But there are a lot of food brands on there, sort of home, kitchen, lifestyle. You've got Big Night on there who we love. They've got so many great products. They've got their two shops here in the city, but they've got a booming e-commerce business. Molly Baz's Ayoh, her mayonnaise and sandwich sauce line, is on there, and a ton of things in between.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yep. We've started to get into home. We kind of first did beauty, then fashion. And now we have over probably the past year and a half been expanding more into home and food, CPG, all that.
Kerry Diamond:
So if you are a creator, how do you get approved to be on ShopMy?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
You go onto the website, you apply, and you kind of explain what you do. If you are recommending... There's kind of two kinds of creators. There's creators who built a following and they want to start recommending product or people who recommend product for a living, like a stylist and interior designer, whatever. So when you're applying, just write that so we know because sometimes it's not abundantly clear on people's applications. But then you basically get approved, you make an account. It's pretty easy to get started when you're going to share a link to something. Even if you're texting your friends and they're like, I don't know, "What sunglasses should I buy? What apron should I buy?" whatever, most things are commissionable. So it's just creating a commission link and sharing it with people.
Kerry Diamond:
There's always that one person in everyone's group who is the-
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah, the product guru.
Kerry Diamond:
... the queen of the recommendations. Yeah, the product guru. You do say no to some people though?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah, like if you're not genuinely recommending product. But I don't know, the weird thing is that it's hard to know what the lower limit of what an influencer is. That is something we're constantly assessing. And there's been this in the industry of affiliate, it used to be very separate, a affiliate program for press and for influencers versus a customer referral program. And now it's almost like everyone is an influencer. Everyone has a personal brand even if you don't think you do, even if you have a private Instagram. So it's something we're constantly assessing.
We used to have higher thresholds for following size, but we're constantly lowering them or making exceptions for people because just the way that people are recommending product isn't a one-size-fits-all thing. And part of what we do and talk about is there's people with a million followers who don't move product. There's people with a thousand followers who move a ton of product, a brand can't tell unless they can look at your sales data. So yeah, that is something that is changing. And every brand is obsessed with micro influencers, and there's a very good reason to be because I don't know, they're closer. And the smaller they are, the more it does feel like an exchange between friends.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk some best practices for folks who are on ShopMy. Are there any analytics or metrics that ShopMy users often overlook but should pay closer attention to?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Well, something that people pay too much attention to is the storefront. People over-obsess about how to organize their store and the shelves and-
Kerry Diamond:
What you're talking about is what you can access through the ShopMy app or on the ShopMy landing page on desktop?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Exactly. So for context, most of what happens on ShopMy is through these commissionable links. The storefront is basically just like a cover page or a place where you can store the links with pretty pictures and all of that. And I think people think too much about the store because it's almost like a representation of their brand. But what matters way more is how you're directing people to the store and how you're talking about product. So we have a lot of people who, they don't even have a storefront. They just use the commissionable links on their Substack on wherever. We make it easy for them to do that. But I think it's really about the context that you're providing and the products. It's not about making it look a certain way. And even the creators who are the most successful, they're not making the most beautiful content. It's about the connection with people and how they talk about products. I would say that's the most important thing.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Authenticity. It often always goes back to that. We'd love to know your thoughts on Substack. How has the rise of Substack helped ShopMy?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Cherry Bombe just moved everything over to Substack.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah, no, I know that.
Kerry Diamond:
It's been a lot of fun. I mean, it's a platform I personally love and I follow. Oh my gosh, so many Substacks and just really love that platform. But you seem very symbiotic.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah, there's a huge overlap between someone who has a lot of Substack subscribers and someone who has strong conversion via their affiliate links just because if you're creating such good content and such authentic content that someone is willing to pay you $5 a month or whatever it might be. Or even subscribe without paying, you're definitely going to have that level of trust that people want to click through the links that you're providing and see what you have to say. So that's kind of where it falls.
And even thinking about every influencer has their mix of how they're making money, whether it's a lot of sponsored content, a lot of affiliate revenue, a lot of our creators are making most of their money from affiliate commission and Substack subscriptions because both of those, they're more authentic feeling. They're less of the creators that someone wants to hire them to make a commercial. It's like no, they have the trust with their audience and they're kind of making money and monetizing that way.
Kerry Diamond:
How is it going with the food, home, and kitchen brands?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Great. It's funny because it's a lot different than beauty and fashion. And even beauty and fashion are very different. With a fashion brand, for example, how they would use ShopMy is a lot of every month they're trying to gift to a certain amount of new people. They're seeing of those people they gifted to who sold and then they're usually gifting them more. Where in beauty, the funnel of that is just different. Beauty brands gift way more. That's why you always see stuff in gift bags when you go to events and things like that.
And then with home, and I always think about it in the way of you can have 80 shirts, but you're not going to have 80 shampoos and you're definitely not going to have 80 couches. So just the way that that comes to life through brands reaching out to influencers and affiliate links and all that. So we've really found this great group of interior designers who they're constantly a resource for people when they're in the market for new couch, new whatever it might be, that they're going to them. So building that network has helped a lot. But now we're starting to build a good cohort of home brands. A lot of the big names like Crate & Barrels of the world, as well as the cool... The Big Nights. There's this shop in Brooklyn, Porta.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh yeah.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Home shop. I'm obsessed with it. Have their radicchio bowls that I love. One side that people are very excited about, they're like tastemakers of the world. So we try to balance having both of those kinds of brands on the platform.
Kerry Diamond:
Are there any creators you can call out? If folks are listening to this conversation and they're like, "I'm still trying to wrap my head around what you're talking about," are there any creators they can go follow or look at to get some best practices and a better understanding?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. I would say a really good creator to look at, her account is called Things I Bought and Liked. She's the perfect person to show there's an axis of, if you do a lot of sponsored content, it's a little bit harder to convert. If you never do any sponsored content, you just have way more trust with your audience. And she doesn't do any sponsored content. She doesn't even accept any gifts. Her account is literally things she bought and liked and she's just sharing it with the world. She also shares if she doesn't like something, she invested in her money in it and she didn't feel like it was worth it. So she just has the ultimate trust factor, which makes her a really, really strong converter. And she's just really funny and woody. She's someone who you start following her and you want to watch every story because she always has something to say that's interesting. And you're never going to be interrupted with sponsored content. So I recommend following her. She's great.
Kerry Diamond:
And people are sharing ShopMy links across every platform: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Substack. You name it?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. Everything.
Kerry Diamond:
Is there anyone that does better than...
Tiffany Lopinsky:
It's mostly about-
Kerry Diamond:
That's the best of all of them?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Just on TikTok. It's kind of hard to leave TikTok because you're on the For You page. So if someone is talking about, "Here's my hairpin," you have to go to their Instagram bio, click to their ShopMy and then find it, where it's just easier to link on Instagram stories. So anywhere where the platform makes it easier to hyperlink in a description of a YouTube video. And that's why Substack has been really good too, in addition to all the audience elements of it, that you can hyperlink and they make it not easy, but easier than other platforms for you to leave. And then the broadcast channel on Instagram has also been really effective for people.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh wow. I don't even think I've looked... I know nothing about that.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
When you'll see on someone's Instagram profile-
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Someone has...
Tiffany Lopinsky:
... where it says, join whoever's chat. And then it's an easier place to store things too, so. That's what works.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Does that kind of become the equivalent of the TikTok shops?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
No, because TikTok shop is... It's really just like a text thread for creators to have with their audience within Instagram.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, got it. Okay.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
But it's been a good place for people to share links where TikTok shop is more like, "Oh, you see something, you can buy it and check out within TikTok", which is different than kind of what ShopMy does, but...
Kerry Diamond:
I'm predicting a return of the Instagram Live.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I think I'm going to start that myself, because I'm running out of new platforms and I was like, "God, remember how much we loved that in the year 2020?"
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. And I saw someone, I think it was in this Puck newsletter the other day, but-
Kerry Diamond:
Lauren Sherman's?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. She described it very succinctly that the platforms are always going to change. It's like, "Okay, the same people on Substack used to be writing-
Kerry Diamond:
Blogs.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
... I don't know, Condé Nast or on a blog or wherever. And they're going to continue to change." So it's really about the people and the products and just maintaining a relationship with your audience. And there will continue to be new platforms for people to do that on, but it's really about the tastemakers and what they like to talk about.
Kerry Diamond:
Media is changing at such a dizzying pace. It's a lot to keep up with. I just did a really fun reunion this week with all the beauty directors I worked with and the magazine world.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Oh, yeah. That's nice.
Kerry Diamond:
And beauty directors is just like a fancy term for the top beauty editor at a magazine. But when we all started, there was no social media. We were just writing stories for magazines and the magazines were filled with ads. When you stop and think sort of circa 2001 to where we are now, I mean it's like a different planet.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
It's insane. And something we say all the time is when people ask us like, "Where's the platform going" and everything like that, we know what we want to do, but we don't know. We didn't two and a half years ago how big Substack would be in terms of driving commissions and sales for people. And the only thing we can do is stay close to our brands, stay close to our creators, and on top of those things. And that's always my advice for brands and creators, is just participate. I feel like when new things happen, everyone's like, "Oh, I'm not getting on TikTok," but you have to try to understand it, especially if you're living in this world. Yeah, it will keep changing and we'll keep trying to stay on top of it.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't know if you can answer this, but do you have any creators making more than a million dollars?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
We have a couple of millionaires now who've made over a million in commission.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. When you say a couple, can you be more specific?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
I think maybe like 7 or 8 now at this point.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. And what category?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
A variety. So there's some YouTube dermatologist people, there's some fashion content creators, general lifestyle creators. It's a big mix. I would say the one thread is just they view affiliate and subscription as one of their main revenue streams. So that authentic connection is important. I think especially for the food people listening, people might think, "Oh, I'm not going to talk about that, where those are actually the best content creators because if people are following you for that expertise, there's a longevity to that in a way that with a lifestyle content creator, sometimes the lifestyle isn't relatable anymore, where people will still continue to go.
Kerry Diamond:
You mean all the people all of a sudden start wearing Cartier watches and things like that and you're like, "Oh, you weren't wearing that six months ago."
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Right. Where it's not relatable necessarily to be getting all these gifts all the time and going on all these trips. And it's all part of the industry. But for people who have that expertise, they'll still go to you for the dermatology expertise, for the cooking expertise, for all that. Everything else is it's just kind of like, "Oh yeah, and this is the shirt I'm wearing. And this is this" because people are going to ask. It's like, you can't help it when you see something you like, at least I'm like that. So I think it's just something to try that, even if it doesn't become a huge revenue stream, gives you a lot of insights about who's following you, what they're interested in, and I don't know, potential for everything.
Kerry Diamond:
Stay relatable everybody, right?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Authentic and relatable, those are the two takeaways. Well, Tiffany, it's always so interesting talking to you. I hope you come back on.
One thing I want to say, I don't want to turn this into an ad for ShopMy, but I feel like you are one of the platforms that really cares about the creators. You do not insult their intelligence. The back end of ShopMy is so beautiful. I wish that you could go create the back end of everything. If everything I have to deal with in my life was as clean and well-built out as ShopMy, life would be a lot easier.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Well, thank you. And that's all on my co-founder, Harry, who designed everything. But I kind of think of it as like you've been using, I don't know, Windows your whole life and then you use a Mac. And at first it's a little bit uncomfortable, but then you're like, "This actually feels like how it should be." So we really try to put joy and delight and ease into it in ways that we get feedback all the time in unexpected ways because really, I don't know, we think products are fun and cool and people should have fun talking about it. So yeah, I appreciate that.
Kerry Diamond:
Mission accomplished. Harry, I love you. I don't know you Harry, but I do love you.
I love a best practice. I mean, I'm always on the hunt for best practices. I'm always the one looking at the company blogs and the company videos just to try to glean some more information. Do you have anything like a ShopMy academy? For folks who want to know more, where can they learn it?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
We have a whole guide and series of videos for creators, also for brands as well. So when you sign up as a creator, the resources are provided to you in the email that you get and pretty accessible on the website when you log in, if you go to the bottom but also I'll send it to you, Kerry, so that's what...
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. I think I've probably looked at them already. Do you do anything in real life like any classes or university?
Tiffany Lopinsky:
I mean we do a lot of events with content creators, with brands. We did one educational event, and I definitely want to do more of them. It was honestly one, we basically did this event where we had a financial advisor, an accountant, and a lawyer, all who specialize in doing it for content creators.
Kerry Diamond:
That's amazing.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
And then we had a couple of creators. And I was talking about how to do affiliate earnings, but there's not a lot of education in the industry. I always say there's no PhD and influencer marketing. We want to give them that foundation and the tools and also the connection to the brands so that it can be a better, more predictable revenue stream that they're in a good position. So we're definitely going to do more of those, so be on the lookout for it.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, you and I have talked about this, but I would love to get you or your best practice guru on one of our member meetings.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Oh yes, we would love to do that, a webinar or something.
Kerry Diamond:
Because I think everybody would just have a blast. We did call it our pregame for our upcoming Jubilee. And it was really just a lot of fun to find out what people's questions are and answer them. And so we would love to do that at ShopMy.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
No, I love doing stuff like that, so, we love that.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. I was going to say, my people will talk to your people.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Or we'll just talk to each other.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Yeah. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. Tiffany, you are the Bombe. Thank you for giving, like I said, all our favorite creators out there another tool in their toolbox.
Tiffany Lopinsky:
Thank you for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Tiffany Lopinsky for stopping by. As mentioned, Cherry Bombe is on ShopMy. I'll put the link to our ShopMy shop in our show notes. If you're looking for female-founded brands in food, fashion, beauty, and beyond to support, we've got some great lists for you to browse. And one of our Cherry Bombe ShopMy rules is we only recommend things we believe in. I feel very strongly about that. All right. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Our producers are Catherine Baker and Jenna Sadhu. Our talent guru is Londyn Crenshaw. And our head of partnerships is Rachel Close. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe.