INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S WEEK: SEDGE BESWICK
To celebrate International Women's Day, we've decided to turn it into a week full of celebrating women we admire and who we think are really making a difference. Every day this week, we're going to be bringing you one powerhouse a day.
In the third segment of this series, we got to interview Sedge Beswick, founder of SEEN Connects, an agency bringing brands and influencers together.
In your own words, tell us what you do?
I run an influencer and social media marketing agency; SEEN Connects. In short – we work with brands such as Jo Malone London, Very.co.uk and AllSaints to help them to drive awareness, content and sales of their brand through platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and Whatsapp using relevant faces to each brand whether that’s celebrities like Frankie Bridge or Instagram stars like Father of Daughters.
What inspired you to start SEEN Connects?
Agencies that were doing influencer marketing badly! There’s so many companies out there that treat it like a badging exercise, “here’s some protein powder even though you’ve never been to the gym”. I wanted brands to understand the incredible impact influencer marketing has… when you do it properly!
What's the best thing about coming to the office every day?
The people in the team! It sounds cheesy but it’s honestly the greatest part of setting up a business. Your business will only ever be as good as the people around you – it’s taken ages to identify and recruit the right people but I really do believe that we have some of the best talent in the industry in Connects, each time they talk me through ideas or their ambitions for the clients, I can’t help but get overly excited by what they’re doing and their unique way of approaching briefs.
You work with some pretty big names, have you ever met anyone and become star-struck?
Erm, not really – under the surface of it all, they’re humans too so I try not to make anyone feel uncomfortable… I have been a big Travis Barker fan for years so that was the one where I was probably ridiculously nervous beforehand in case I said something idiotic.
What’s your best advice for any up and coming bloggers / influencers?
Think about why you want to be an influencer and make sure you’re bringing something new to the table. If you look at the success of Mrs Hitch, it’s because she was one of the first within the cleaning space which is the fastest growing categories on Instagram. It’s so easy to copycat what other people are doing but it’ll be near enough impossible to break through the mould if you’re doing what’s already been done.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
It’s between two:
- Make time for everyone. Growing up, my dad used to religiously greet the bin men with a cuppa and breakfast when they came to empty our bins, I’d come down ready for school and they’d be at the kitchen table having a natter but it taught me the lesson to always have time for everyone, even when you barely have time to pee!
- At Red Bull, my boss used to always talk about the “5 minute rule” and it’s something I still use today. Basically, if you can do something in 5 minutes, do it and don’t add it to do a to do list otherwise your to do list is daunting and you’ll look slack, being punctual and efficient on the smaller things, makes the bigger things easier. Everyone who’s ever been in my team whether it’s at ASOS or now at Connects always talks about the importance of the 5 minute rule.
If you were given £100,000 to start a completely different business – what would you do and why?
Great question! I mentor quite a few people within the space so would love to turn that into more of a side hustle and formalise what I do and to get more people involved or if I knew how – I’d probably start a direct-to-consumer business… I just haven’t worked out what the product is yet… or whether I’d have the stomach to start something from scratch again, the agency has definitely aged me ;)