Episode 321: Rethinking Media Strategy with Intention and Impact | Jhara Valentini | Founder & President of Valentini Media Group
How do you build a media agency that works with Louis Vuitton, Goop, and Disney? Jhara Valentini, founder of Valentini Media Group, breaks down her approach to strategic marketing, repeatable ROI, and creating campaigns rooted in psychology and integrity. Kara and Jhara talk about what makes the luxury consumer different, how to lead with values, and why data is your best business partner.
“A forced behavior is an expensive one. I don’t want to shove someone through a funnel—I want to build a relationship.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
(00:00:01) - Introduction to Jhara Valentini and Her Journey
(00:02:16) - Transition from Psychology to Marketing
(00:03:14) - Building Relationships in Luxury Marketing
(00:05:10) - The Importance of Intentional Marketing
(00:07:58) - The Role of Data in Marketing Strategies
(00:16:42) - Jhara's Hiring Philosophy and Company Culture
(00:05:34) - Aligning Business Success with Personal Wealth
(01:02:12) - Closing Thoughts and Future Aspirations
Historically media, especially 10, 20 years ago, is based on scale and going after specific personas and demographics and just trying to saturate a market where we essentially do the opposite, especially with the luxury consumer. It's trying to find these specific and intentional touch points and really building that emotional sentiment with somebody.
That's Valentini Media Group founder Jhara Valentini. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Sometimes the whole world of marketing and specifically how to actually produce a return on your marketing investment can seem like a mystery for anyone who started a boutique marketing firm. When you see agencies that are working exclusively with Fortune 500 or similar companies, you can be left wondering how did they do that?
How do they land your dream customers, and how can you? Today I am talking with Jha Valentini of the Valentini Media Group who works with luxury and leading brands such as Louis Vuitton, Diane, Ben Furstenberg, goop, Disney, and Hello Sunshine. For a firm that is just approaching their 10 year anniversary, Jhara has exceeded all expectations for herself by exceeding all expectations for her clients, specifically delivering repeatable returns year over year.
I ask her all the questions about how she landed those clients, her strategy to keep bringing them success, her approach to building her team, how she's measuring her own success and so much more. I love this episode and loved our conversation not having talked to her before. I was thrilled that not only is she a lovely human, we had so much alignment in our approach to business and producing results.
If you love this episode as much as I do, please pass it along to a friend who will love it too. And if there's any questions I didn't ask her that you wish I did, please leave them in the comments. Enjoy.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Let's begin by telling everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
Sure. So my name is Jhara valentini. I am in New Jersey. And currently I am the founder and president of Valentini Media Group overseeing global strategies all over the world.
What I thought was so impressive when we were diving into the research for this episode was so many people who start their own, especially PR marketing agency Yeah. Get really intimidated about the big brands, the big names, and that's pretty much exclusively who you're supporting. So how, was it intimidating for you?
Did you already have those relationships? How did you get to skip what I think so many really talented marketing people get stuck in, which is the small to mid-size business space. Yeah. And go and be working with these names of significance.
I think relationships definitely helped. My, when I was in-house, I, a lot of my first clients were people that I had worked with previously.
So my reputation helped me there in the sense of landing big clients. And then honestly, the continuation of that was really just based on a need. So I got, when I got DVF and I got Louis Vuitton, that team, like team members spoke to the Ralph team and that's why. So it was a continuation and extension.
Definitely foreign, I guess I would say in the trajectory of a small business. But it was really those initial positions that I had in media that helped me transition into the bigger clients. For sure.
If we go back to 8-year-old, you would, she, oh my god. Is this the life you imagined?
No, not even close. 8-year-old me wanted to be a pediatric psychologist. Very specific for an 8-year-old, very specific. I had a plan. I am a true Virgo that way. I had written everything out. I wanted to be pediatric psychologist with a concentration in forensic science, all the things. And I did that till my early twenties when I completely transitioned out of it and left my graduate program and ended up taking an internship at Kenneth Cole. But 8-year-old me would probably be really surprised. 8-year-old me also didn't even know this existed, which I think exposure is such a big thing and it's something I'm actually trying to activate on my side for young girls. But when I was growing up, I didn't, digital media didn't exist, but just the opportunity to transition campaigns the way we do or connect with people in this way, I didn't even know it was an option.
And what you're doing does have so much psychology still built into it.
Yeah, every single campaign and activation, it's cognitive behavior first. It's really how I built everything. And I think that's part of our success. It's really finding that pocket of activation. 'cause historically media, especially, 10, 20 years ago was based on scale and going after specific personas and demographics and just trying to saturate a market where we essentially do the opposite, especially with the luxury consumer.
It's trying to find these specific and intentional touchpoints and really building that emotional sentiment with somebody so that connective tissue is there. So regardless of, any kind of world trade or anything that's going on from an overarching perspective in the world, that connection and that sentiment will stay there and then that hopefully becomes a resiliency of the brand.
There's so much what I would maybe call busy work happening today in marketing, like people are doing a lot of stuff a lot. It is so not worth it because I see these, whether it's social media post or it's new websites or like anything that people are doing. I'm like, does anyone care about this?
Yeah.
What's your perspective on that? Because I think this is something so many, especially small business owners are struggling with, that they have to do all this stuff and I keep being like, no, if anything, let's get rid of half of your marketing plan.
Yeah. It's one thing that I challenge every single client of mine because they're like, I wanna do this and I wanna do that.
And I'm like, that's fantastic, but what's the entire journey? So from start to finish, what are the touch points and what's essentially the conversation with our consumer? And we have to make sure that conversation evolves the way we want it to evolve, hopefully ends up with some type of transaction. But there has to be intention behind everything.
'cause then you just become, it's an oversaturation. You get even more fragmented engagement and then you also don't have true data sets to learn from where okay, Google is doing X meta is doing y our hype beast moment is doing whatever. There has to be intentionality behind it. And I agree, I think there's a lot of noise and a lot of opportunities for distribution, but that should make you.
Even more intentional with your programming. Yeah. And make sure there's connective tissue throughout. So usually when we start the customer journey exercise, we remove a lot of buckets that we just don't need to be in. 'cause the other thing is, frankly, from a multitude of touch points, you're either duplicating your media, which is awful, you should never do, or you're spending way too much money on distribution, either from a paid or organic perspective.
So it's also the intentionality of effort. Your team should focus on things that are really gonna make a difference, that are really gonna carry that brand perception as strong as possible. And from a paid perspective, you obviously want the most efficiency. I don't need to be everywhere. I need to be where my audience is when they're open to engage with the content that we're giving them and then hopefully tap them into a retargeting tactic later.
But yeah, there's a lot of stuff you definitely don't have to do all of it, even from an earned perspective. I think there's opportunities that you can segue into the journey.
And you just highlighted so many important things that we could probably talk for hours about on any of the individual statements that were made, but there's, I think I just want people to know and to, I wanna be screaming it from the rooftops, as I'm sure you are every day too.
Like you talked about knowing your customer. You talked about what's the intentionality? You talked about being meeting them where they are, not just. Doing something. 'cause it's easy for you and it's convenient and you have time for it. But there's something that you said that I think is potentially controversial with what people are hearing in the, how do we keep up with the marketing pace which is not to be replicating your media.
And so often people hear oh, if you've done this, you can repeat it in a couple months. You can keep sharing it, you can stretch things out. Could you add, dive into that a little bit more about how you optimize something but not replicate it?
So when we construct, when we go through our exercise of a customer journey, just to go back to that example, I always position it like a conversation. And when I'm speaking to people for the first time, I'm always like, let's think of somebody that you meet down the street, right? You meet 'em on the street corner, you say, hi, how are you?
You have a conversation with them and then maybe you see them three stores down. You're not gonna say again, hi, how are you? How's not gonna repeat that same experience? Because then it's gonna lose its luster. There's no discoverability about it. There's nothing exciting. What you can do is extend the conversation.
Hi, how are you? My name is Jara. I'm a mother of two and then continue and extend. So it's different versions of the conversation still over the overarching umbrella, which you know, would be your campaign, but you have to be able to situate it where it isn't a redundancy. 'cause with so much fragmented engagement, seeing the same exact thing, it's not gonna really evolve in continuity.
It's just gonna be like, I saw this already, I'm not gonna engage. And that's where the data sets really start to deprecate because you're not getting, it's almost like a falsified approach. 'cause maybe they just saw it on meta so they're not gonna engage on it on YouTube or something. 'cause I got it.
I don't wanna see it again. So I think it's really that it's not so much, don't use the exact same things and replicate everything but extending the conversation. So for example, with a lot of our creative partners, we'll create five, 10 minute videos and then out of those videos I'll. Position, probably 60 to 70 different assets.
So same video, same campaign. It's really dissecting. Okay, this would be fantastic on a YouTube short. This is gonna be amazing on mob coy distribution. So it's finding the variability so that you can have that connective tissue and then make everything that they see exciting and discoverable and want them to see more.
One of the sentences that your company shared that I thought was really poignant was actually on your LinkedIn description and it says, we'll create the journey that moves your audience. Yeah. And I wish more people were thinking about making sure that their dream customer feels seen. Yes. 'cause I, that's what I heard in that, in what you were just sharing of if you keep saying, hi, nice to meet you, they're like hey weirdo, we've already met.
There's no opportunity for dialogue. And that's where I find media so insanely fascinating because your data set is the best conversation with your consumer. They're telling you actively what they like, what they don't like, what they wanna see more of, what they're interested in. Even with, affinity, overlap on search you really get to understand or consumer, I feel like the disconnect a lot of times with brands is the perspective of when they're looking at media, they're thinking of them first, I want to position myself this way, I wanna target this person.
And it really should be the opposite. 'cause you have to convey and interject yourself into somebody else's life. And you have to do it a multitude of times to get that conversion. 'cause it's also not a singular purchase, especially with luxury. We're talking about items that are north of $5,000.
It's not gonna happen on the first slide. So it's really making, and again it's the challenge that I give a lot of my clients too. We have an introduction deck with we need customer journey. We have to ideate the audiences and we have to put the audience first. 'cause when you rationalize the entire environment around audience first, a lot of other feelings and conversations and perspectives get go out of the way because it's not about you.
It's not about me. The data's the data. The math isn't gonna lie. We know they like this, we know they like this. Let's create innovation around that, the end. So it definitely helps almost streamline and have guardrails around the intentionality. And then it has proven measures of success because it's all based on data.
So it's not so much of a sentiment like I, I. Wanna be here? Your audience isn't there, so let's position ourselves somewhere else. We can find connective tissue, maybe, but audience first all the time.
Yeah. Yeah. I, and I think it's something that, so often as business owners, we kind of wanna hide behind.
Everyone's oh, I'm always, I'll often have marketing agencies who are clients of mine send me a customer, because they'll say. I know I can help this brand. I see the story, but they don't see the story. They don't have the strategy. Yeah. Can you help me make sure that they have that foundational, like why, who, what in place?
And maybe a sales plan that matches what we know is possible. Like it's a very weird kind of backwards entry for some of it. Yeah. Because people, and this is, it's common, like if you're, especially if you are a designer or a true entrepreneur, you start running with a product or a concept and you haven't built the strategy around it.
And the brands that you're interacting with and the results you're creating can only come from spending so much time in the strategic part. Yeah. When you look at how much time you're spending in activation versus the strategy and storytelling, is there a ratio that you think you see is it a 70 30 split? Like how much time goes into the.
The strategic development. Yeah, development is, PR is the least amount of percentage I would say. I think strategy, innovation and brainstorming is where the bulk of our time spent and research. So a lot of my job is also based on financial metrics and being fiscally responsible.
Our budgets are really aggressive and we're spending millions of dollars on behalf of our clients. So the strategy and research around the data that we're collecting, the allocation of cohorts, how we're gonna develop all those things and putting them into market is a huge part of it. And then bringing in partners and new ideas.
So you never know where the best creative ideas is gonna come from. So really having that collaborative approach, I always start with my initial strategy and budget foundation, and that's usually based off of the financial plan of the business. We have to get to 50 million this year. X percent is gonna come from, paid media, earned media, blah, blah, blah.
All of those things. Obviously with paid media, it factors and has a tie that lifts all ships from an earned perspective. So we have backwards formulas that we create based on that plan. Said plan will give me a media budget. That media budget, I'll split up into activations based on conversations.
It's really when I start my planning, it's more based on conversation and innovation. So how are we gonna make things exciting? How much are we gonna invest in that pocket? Especially this year, it's been such a conversation about resiliency and keeping the perspective as clean as possible, the story as indicative as possible.
And that means investing in that and that media and what that looks like, performance tactics and all those things are evergreen. That's usually, a line item that doesn't shift too much. But the innovation and brainstorming part is a big, bucket of time. Once I know what I want the experience to feel like.
And really from an audience perspective okay, they've seen this from us, they've seen this from us, they've seen this from us. I want something new. I then go to partners and challenge them. I've, I challenge partners pretty aggressively. I'm not gonna lie, but they love it. They're always like, we're excited.
What do you have for us? What ideas do you have for us? And I'm always like, I wanna build something new. I want a net new unit. I want something even more exciting. I want something even more engaging that they've never seen before. And it's facilitating those types of experiences and then figuring out the financial components to it and assets.
So I would say strategy and research, one and two for sure. The experience side and creative development. And then the execution. By the time we get to that point, we're set. 'cause I have my timeline, I have my assets, I have my deliverables. Everybody knows what to do. Every partner has, their marching orders.
But for sure, research and data, I think everything really anchored in is that.
And you were making my heart sing, because you were talking about starting with the sales, like the metric, the number we have to hit and going backwards.
Yes. I have learned that, I learned that really early on when I was at Kenneth Cole, and even at DVF, because you when I started, digital wasn't a thing. It was very new. We, nobody really, we couldn't rely on it as a revenue source. Yeah. So one of my favorite CMOs that I worked with at Kenneth Cole Pablo, he made it really clear that impact was gonna be the journey to success and how to do that. The best lens I had was financial impact.
If I can prove sales or prove some type of engagement or retention, here we can build a sound business. We can build a foundation that will then evolve into something new. I had no business doing this, but I went straight to finance and I was like, hi, how much do we have to make? What's the monthly target?
Okay, cool. Say less. I'll come back in six months and figure out if we've gotten there. And that's how I secured my position. 'cause my position, yeah, I stalked HR for six months, like I wanna be social, I wanna do this. So I was like, okay, I need to keep my job now. How can I do that? And it was building those pockets.
And then as my career transitioned, it really became a partnership with finance and figuring out efficiencies and tactics. And when you're looking at global markets, then it becomes. Especially now with tariffs, it's marginally speaking, we need to be at, 20%. We were at 10%. So how can we pivot and move?
How can we increase retention to be able to scale those dollars? All of those things. But it's definitely true partnership with finance. Sometimes I'll have conversations that are completely financial for six months and not even talk about media, but it's, yeah, it's definitely finance. Yeah. A big part.
Yeah. Yeah. Like it's, your success is in that piece, and then your magic is in that storytelling component. Yeah. And I wish, like there's so many marketing groups that are so nervous to stand behind the ROI that they can deliver, and I'm like, no. That is the secret sauce. If you can prove value, yeah, you'll have a client for as long as you want that relationship because.
Every time they're investing in so many things. And at some point someone like me comes through and is like, why are you spending this money? What are you doing? And they're like, oh, I don't know. It's just been that way.
Oh my God, I loathe the phrase, this is how we've always done it. Oh, yes. I literally, it's, we're the antithesis of that. It's so we've always done it this way, so we won't do it this way again. Because again, audience first, that means the audience has always seen it that way. Which is usually where brands plateau and there's no retention because it's, I, we've seen it already.
And unless it's a replenishment purchase, I don't need to come back. I know what it is. So it's, I think there's, there has to be intentionality, but then also just back to the numbers keep you accountable. And this is across the board. I hold my team accountable to metrics. Our clients hold us accountable to metrics, and it gives you a benchmark.
There's nothing better than seeing scale even when you're on a decline or plateau. Okay? We have to optimize. How can we shift the trajectory? How can we do things, but without that benchmark or metric. You're just spending money into the ether, frankly. And that's, I don't do that. Like I won't start a campaign unless I have a target.
And my clients will be like, no, we can just start. And I'm like, we won't. We're gonna start, have a target. Everybody's gonna line on said Target, my job is to bring 30 million. Cool. I'll see you in six months. We'll get you there. You guys have to manage the other set. And then we have checkpoints where I advocate for every quarter where it's like, where are you at?
Where am I at? I'm pacing over. You're pacing under, okay, we can take over more market share or vice versa. But there has to be some type of metric because that's how you can hold everyone on the team accountable. And then internal and external conversation. Because becomes much simpler too, because it's all based on a number.
There's no sentiment promotion around it. We're here. We were said we were gonna be here. We're over pacing. Under pacing. We're changing. It's so much simpler than I wanted to have a creative experience and I wanted to do this and this, and it's your budget's gonna get cut. Like you can't do that.
And have a finance person come in and see the resilience on it. There has to be tangible evidence.
Yes. And I also think too for when you are the boss you're not getting an annual review, you're not getting feedback the same way. Yeah. So for me, like the metrics that we're tracking, like that's how I know if I am Yeah.
Producing the results that I wanted to like, yeah, I, of course there's techniques to be asking your clients and other things, but those metrics allow me to be like, okay, we're doing a good job. We're about like, just like you said, we're tracking or not tracking. And even if the metrics seem weird, where a client's like, why do you wanna know that?
I'm like, no, 'cause this is going to be how I can sleep at night.
Yeah. And it gives you. I love data that's tactical. Yeah. So not so much okay, we served 500 million impressions. That's fantastic. It's a pretty vanity metric for you. Love that. But it's not really tactical. I can't do anything with it.
When I have, add to cards, landing page, we use time on site things that are tactical, we can now also build a secondary tactic against it. I feel like some brands a lot of the time forget about retention and post-purchase. Or post-purchase experiences. Yes. And it's such a big a upsell on revenue driver for obvious reasons.
Yeah. And it's the continuation of the journey. So that's cycle that we're trying to create. When you have tactical data, you can do those much more intentionally. 'cause it's okay, our consumer purchased X, the upsell would be A, B, C. Okay. People are really resonating with, product B, what's the upsell for that?
And having those secondary things and then it becomes systematic. 'cause luxury has a lot of habitual practice. Somebody likes the house, they're gonna continue purchasing from them. How can we make that journey as fluid as possible? How can we make it exciting as possible so they stay there? Maybe we can get multi-generational purchases within a household if we do it correctly.
But it's definitely something that gets lost sometimes. And it's, if you do it intentionally and you have that data based on the plan that you had, you're, you'll be so much more successful.
And I think that so often we, people are focused so much on just getting the customer to check out. Yeah. To your point, they're losing all of the during and after component.
Like we spend all this time and all this effort to shove someone into a sales process.
Yeah.
Which also feels abusive. Like I often say that sales is like dating again. You wouldn't walk into a bar and be like, oh my God, hi, let's get married. Like exactly what are we doing? Her name is what yeah. And so we put all this work into getting them to check out and then we're like, Hey, bye. Onto the next one. And I'm like, no, like that. There's so much there. There's the lifetime component, which I hear you talking about.
Yeah.
Is another piece that I think shows what level of sophistication are you playing in the business game versus pushing people through a funnel that. So much extra work than needs to happen.
It's so much extra work and frankly, it's so much more expensive when you're forcing somebody down the funnel. A forced behavior is an expensive one, and when you're building a foundation and you're building the campaigns that we have and the brands that we work for are foundational.
Some of them are more than a hundred years old. So there has to be this intention of resiliency as well. When you're looking at each touchpoint, this is not a first time purchase, this is not going to be the only purchase. If we've all done our jobs correctly, they're gonna come back and they're gonna come back organically, which means we don't have to pay for it.
But when you're looking at target CPAs, there's all, it's interesting 'cause we had one client that, we've shifted this perspective now, but the rationale was always like, let's go after. Demand, let's just bid aggressively. Who cares about the CPA? We just wanna make sure top line is there.
And we had to really work on marginal programming. And I'm like, even if you're getting to top line, we've spent so much money to advocate this consumer, to get them down the journey. How much profit did we actually make? And it's, again, it's the financial conversation on margins and profits that we do.
First. It's if we need to get to this net profitability, we can't spend that much on the cost per acquisition. So how can we transition the journey to be cheaper? And it's really based on sentiment and consumer programming. And almost nothing to do with the return on investment because the return on investment, it used to be the biggest number one KPI, and it absolutely still holds value, but a return on investment tactic is not gonna gimme a lifetime value metric.
So it's we paid X for that purchase, but I wanna know the next five purchases, what's the journey to get her from, a $3,000 purchase to $50,000 over the course of 15 years? That's the profitability margin that we're trying to go after. It's a harder one and it's definitely something that you have to be much more intentional in and plan much more long term.
But when you're looking at the numbers, your profit's gonna be fantastic. And I obviously, a new customer is expensive. The existing is always cheaper to that part
And I also, that makes me jump as well to a conversation I've been having a lot, which is about the soul of the company. And I've been involved in so many companies in the past where it, people loved it because they were so connected to their core consumer.
They were always telling the stories around the soul of it and what it meant. And then. You start to see the org chart shift into less maybe creatives and people who care about that relationship. And you start seeing it expand into like more people on the sales side or the operation side. Yeah.
And suddenly we're being told to chase some ridiculous number or lower tier retailer Yeah. To hit a number. And then they're surprised that we now have to spend five times as much to win back the original customer.
It's ironic when the surprise comes in 'cause it's like you've created the environment that we're in. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I feel you on so many levels because think that we've gone through many and many time again and it's the perspective, it's always when I'm talking to my team and the conversations, 'cause they're always like, how are you presenting? Or when we're creating decks or whatever, I always look at audience first.
So clients first. And the perspective in the room. When me media is a really dissectable conversation, there's so much curiosity around it mostly 'cause we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of the client, which I a hundred percent welcome the curiosity. But the intentionality behind the programming always used to be tied to a revenue.
And if it's not tied to a revenue, then it's insignificant. And that perspective is what we always have to make sure somebody with that perspective has a seat at the table. Because without that. It's a diminishing return you're literally setting yourself up to plateau and go down. So it's trying to figure out how to shift perspective.
And we always do it with data. So I literally arm all of my CEOs with these are the tactics that we're doing, these are the efficient scales. Doing it this way, we become more profitable. Our margins are more successful and there's more work to be done. Which is also the other thing. I think a lot of people thought the easy way out was going to be sustainable.
And when programming on conversion first started on mudding, Google auctions were fantastic 'cause nobody was there. So you could do that fine. Not so much anymore. And you have to work harder to hold that engagement. And it's something that, again, perspective, we've had to reteach and reeducate people in a lot of different ways.
But when you structure it, I always structure my plans on the three year. 365 days is just not enough for three. Activating a program and activating that resiliency of time. So I always look at it from a three year mark and it's if we do our job on year one, we set ourselves up for year two with really strong foundations, segmented cohorts, diversification of behaviors, all the things that you wanna do.
By year three, we're becoming so much of the efficiencies through the roof, return on investment, so much stronger. And now you have a true foundation for scale because there's also that new consumership that we have to tap into if we only go after conversion and stay here. Instead of having 30, 40% growth, you're at like a solid five.
Like you're not moving, you'll be stable, but you're not moving. And when you position it that way, the trajectory of scale and what you can do when you pocket your positioning rate, it's night and day. It's just the perspective is always the shift because it's like why can't we just spend on conversion and call it a day?
And it's when demand is there, that's fantastic. But also what happens when demand isn't there? Do you ghost? Do you go quiet? Are you expecting a decline? Because we still need to get to the 50 million, so how are we gonna do that? So yeah, it's a big conversation. It's a big intentionality with our programming across the board.
And it's just something that we keep reiterating because it's, it could be much easier, but it's just not, if you're trying to do the long-term play, it can't be.
No. And I think that. That's why moments like we're having right now, especially in the luxury space there's a component that is, I think, healthy for the luxury space because it's weeding out the weak concepts and the weak stories and the, and anything that was like getting things by before, won't right now.
Yeah.
It forces businesses to be physically fit in a way that when times are good you can oh, it's okay, I'm not gonna adhere to the diet right now. Yeah. And we're back into a place where it's no. Like we have to be on our game because things are getting weeded out right now real fast.
Yeah. And we don't have to be in that impact zone if we don't wanna be. Yeah. I saw that you were just, featured in Vogue business talking about the impact of these tariffs. And how do, how are you seeing right now? 'cause. You're in an every day at a level. Much different than I am.
Yeah.
So the luxury consumer, looking at it at scale, there's a lot of conversations with luxury as a whole and like anti luxury in the younger generation. And that whole thing that blew up on TikTok. And then there's the media that everybody's consuming and then there's actual data.
So from a dataset perspective, luxury, especially with our client base is still really strong as doing really well. Yeah. However, I started my programming for post inauguration back in last April, so whenever there's a transition of political power. Things are going to change. The one thing that we can absolutely bang on every single year, every single day is that something will change.
Dynamic will change. Yeah. Something will falter. TikTok like blew up and then it fell off, and now we're back. Yeah. There's going to be a fragmented component to everything that you plan. The best way you can offset that is having intentionality with your programming. So when we started to get closer to.
The election, I started segmenting my cohorts even more granular. I started building out better conversations, more intentional conversations. To your point where I don't need to be everywhere, but the people that are ours, let's take care of them. Let's make sure they understand brand perception to a T.
So even if there is fodder about anti luxury, they understand that this is where we need to be. This is what we need to purchase. 'cause realistically with luxury, nobody needs another pair of shoes. Nobody needs another bag. That's none of it. It's a luxury. It's definitely not a need to have.
So that sentiment component is really what drives a purchase through. If we lose that and that connection isn't there, you can't do anything without it because somebody else that on the demand with something new and flashy is gonna come up and that purchaser, will go somewhere else. So having.
The intention, intentionality behind our programming starting last year always helps us because we just have that foundation to back on. When it comes to tariff, I would say the conversation or behaviors rather. Now we see a lot of increases in purchases because people are trying to purchase before the tariff hits.
During the lot, during COVI, we saw this a lot in luxury too, where Rolexes and Birkins almost became a currency where it was like, let me just hold onto this because I see the opportunity two, three years from now, this is gonna hold its value. We're definitely seeing that right now.
Customer pass and customer journeys have shortened. So there isn't so much of a consideration phase right now. There's a lot more, let's say there were 10 touch points, now there's around six or eight, and we're able to get the conversion. So efficiency is really high. Return on investment's really high.
Do I expect this to stay throughout the year? No. We're gonna plateau eventually demand is going to shift, but that's where your intentional programming also comes in. So we have our current, like in the tariff, moment, which also just changed two days ago. So yes, and we'll change again. Change again.
Also that part. We have our current tactics now that we're optimizing against from a revenue perspective. Again, just trying to be as fiscally responsible as we can, but we're starting to have more perspective and perception, targeting and media as well, along with innovation. So I know when we start to plateau, that sentiment and connection factor isn't gonna have so much validity 'cause they've already purchased or maybe they're considering something else.
So how can we keep things exciting? So we're actually incorporating a lot of new media experiences this year with most of our clients starting the summer. Just to hold the table and extend that conversation further. So even if you didn't purchase now, you're potentially gonna purchase during holiday. I need to make sure that excitement and sentiment is still there.
And then Q4, we have some programming that are going to be, right now it's centered around inventory, like tariff inventory, tariffs, safe inventory, so that regardless of what's going on, our margins, we'll still be there. But the other thing with luxury is that scarcity is sometimes used as a value proposition.
Yeah. So depending on what it is and what we're selling, instead of, us getting 20 pieces of something, maybe we're only getting 10, but maybe that's a conversation that we can navigate against the scarcity and kind of the opportunity to be the one in 10. So it's definitely top of mind. I think there's.
Bigger conversations around the global trade war and how it's gonna impact because of luxury specifically. China has seen a decline in just luxury purchasers over the last 10 years. There's a lot of dynamic happening in, KSA and UAE and what that dynamic looks like and the intentionality around luxury domestically.
Of course, there's a conversation in the younger generation, but that younger generation is also something that we can reactivate even thinking of programming like that, I think tariffs brought to the forefront a lot of gaps in programming that weren't paying attention to, as a whole, because we didn't have to, and now it's really looking at, okay, I know the younger generation there's a diminishing return, or it's a little bit lackluster.
They're feeling a certain way. How can we reengage with this consumer and. I'm pretty sure that's why there's so much sportswear in market now with luxury. There's so many new activations and on our side, we're including a lot more AI and vr and just things that are more dynamic and exciting for the younger generation so that we can reignite that programming.
But it's. It's like things that were there that we were programming against now have so much more validity which is good because our clients are also now much more over. 'cause I'm like the younger generation. The younger generation, they're like, no, they're not spending. And I'm like, but they could.
And now that it's such a focus and conversation, they're like, okay, wait, so how can we reignite that and how can we make it. A multi-generational home that's purchasing versus just the mom, just a debt, just a thing. So that was a perfect answer, but sorry.
No. It was great. It was great. But and I also see so often that when you bring in between the tariffs and economy and sustainability, like there's been such a boost right now in the secondhand market because of, 'cause they're, tariff proof is the idea.
Sure. But there's so many people who are in my generation, my demographic, who I know are exclusively shopping secondhand or luxury. Like those are the two choices because there's a shift to intentionality and choosing and wanting things to last. And if we're gonna spend the money with something new, let's make it something that's worth our time.
Great.
Yeah.
Hundred percent. I think the secondhand market is doing well now. I think it's going into Q3, Q4. It's funny 'cause I have some clients that have a lot of pre-owned market distribution and our programming for Q3 and four just based on the trajectory of the year so far, based on our data sets of our existing cohorts because, Q3 and Q4, they're gonna bond like it's going to be incredible moment just because the pre-owned market is going to be at the forefront, most likely of inventory when we're thinking basically.
'cause post tariff, like I said, scarcity might actually be a thing. We might not have so much volume, but pre-owned will. Yeah. So it's really shifting the narrative to value pieces, things that have true sentiment and things that have integrity and that kind of heritage component, which again, is part of our programming now setting ourselves up for Q3 and four for our pre-owned stuff, but.
It's that sentiment of resiliency of what pre-owned means, and then the good part is that there will be volume there so people will be able to purchase it at scale, which is the exciting part. I think pre-owned has always had a moment and there's nothing better than like a 1980 potentially like Gold Watch, but now it's it's a gold watch that you can't even get in the States period or something to that effect.
Or there's only four that were made and now there's the heritage component plus the scarcity, plus the actual tangible inventory that doesn't exist. So it's, I think the pre-owned wave will only get better as the year goes through and it's fantastic because it also gives validity to the heritage and the name.
Because the one thing that, especially with some luxury houses, they don't want to resell. They'll literally remove product and hold it in a way. If they hold hostage so that it doesn't lose its value. But I always challenge that narrative with. It still holds the heritage and the value, right?
Because it's something that people are aspiring to purchase. And usually if you buy one thing secondhand from a house, the extension of that purchase power is going to be getting the one for yourself from the house, during the next purchase when you can afford it. So it's tapping into how can we monetize that attribution in the sense of long lifetime value, like maybe secondhand market is difficult.
And obviously you have to find the right partners and you have to find people that are actually validating your product and all of that stuff to make sure it's true. But conceptually speaking, if it's important to them now, it's going to be important to them two, three years from now. And that's the avid conversation that builds that heritage and kind of that value proposition.
And I think too, again, like these big shifts that happen and feel like they impact every part of our lives, you start to realize oh, what was the house of cards and what actually had stability? And there's such a difference concept of per of buying into actual assets versus things that will get being by right now.
And I, there's, it's been interesting, I've seen some things on TikTok for more younger millennial Gen Z groups where they're like, I'm trying to, follow some of these, how do I save money or build a budget right now? And things are tough and nobody wants my stuff. And I'm like, yeah, 'cause everything you bought was from Zara.
No, nobody wants it. So it's interesting to look at not only how, what do we need right now, but what do we need? That could be an asset or could be, yeah. Sold into secondhand at some point if we needed it to, or it no longer, belonged to, belonged in our space. But it's an interesting conversation that's happening and I'm appreciative of the awakening for just my personal values of being intentional everywhere in business, in life, all the same.
It's funny. Yeah. I, when I'm speaking to just people or when I have speaking engagements or whatever, even with, my team, there's always like, why is the luxury consumer so different? And I'm like, 'cause they, a lot of people like to just group people by like regions or domestics or demographics and it, you can't, people are people.
Our practice is to structure things in a it's just not how we're built. When you remove the humanity, you also, all the sentiment, all the things go away. But when you think of the luxury consumer from just a habitual person or like what they do on habit, cognitively, how are they thinking about things?
A lot of the purchasing and intentionality of purchases comes with the intent of opportunity and it's really thinking about, oh, tariffs are going up. I'm gonna buy more watches. I'm gonna buy more bags. And because that's gonna be more value later. Whereas the rest of households don't think with that intention.
And it's really also programming. The media's telling you don't buy something, eggs are expensive yada. Which is a realization and reality for a lot of people. But that other cohort in that luxury set. Because their dynamics are different. The perspective is very different. So they go into a purchase as well.
This is an opportunity to have an asset, or this is an opportunity to have, a really engaging conversation with somebody. 'cause I'm the only one that has this and it's gonna set me apart from X, Y, Z. So the purchasing power, like on the mental, is usually night and day. Like we have clients that aren't in the luxury sector and the behaviors are wild.
It's like insane. So I'm just like, wow. Like sometimes I don't need to, I don't need to read like the campaign. I'm like, I know exactly who this is. Oh my God, this is insane. But. That's the point. Like you can't, you have to think of your audience and why they're purchasing and what the intention of the purchase is.
And when you factor an opportunity, like right after the tariff announcement happened, the first one we scaled all of our luxury campaigns literally doubled everything. So it was like opportunity right now go. Yeah, our campaigns went up within a week. We were up like 600% on revenue. Like it was insane the trajectory of how it passed.
But it's thinking about what's your audience thinking about the second dysfunction or any kind of like trade situation. That's an opportunity to buy. Okay? Let's take advantage of that demand. Whereas secondary markets or things that aren't shifting in that conversation, it's a completely different story.
It's only replenishment purchases. I'm going to save my dollars. And that's where intentionality and sentiment have to be even stronger. 'cause you have to make sure if they're gonna spend anything, they spend it with you. But you have to prove the value there for them to do it. So again, the perspectives are really big parts of what we do, but I hear you.
'cause the luxury part is very different.
It's like the book, the classic book, rich Dad, poor Dad. Yeah. They're not thinking about, it's a very, it's not thinking about things from a consumerism perspective. It's thinking about it almost from a capitalistic perspective.
Like it's not, there's always the elements of, the ego and how does it make me feel and does it make me feel cool and all of those components, but it's secondary to, is this a smart choice. And I think that. I think that's an interesting thing, even for individual consumers to be thinking about themselves.
Like how often is my pur are my purchases? Long-term base versus short-term base, right? Ego base versus something else 'cause there's not, the luxury consumer doesn't want to waste things and doesn't wanna waste time, no time, money, like all the resources that they have access to.
Because that's the other thing. Especially with luxury, we have found a lot of habitual purchasers where every season they buy, four or five pieces, we won't see them for a year. The next season comes through four or five pieces. It becomes really easy to have the expectation of value. I know what I'm getting for my money, I don't have to think about it. Cool. Sometimes some of my top performing units are coming from business pages, like Forbes and all those things, and it's because I know my consumer's there. I need three pieces. 'cause I have this season going up into resort purchase, done. But it's a consistent purchaser that just already understands and it just becomes habit for them, which is our favorite kind of customer.
Yes. But the integrity of the product has to be there. And it's it's so much of a value add when you can match product with consumer behavior. 'cause if the product and the integrity of the product and the longevity of the product is there. It's not so much considered an expensive purchase, it's considered a valuable purchase.
And when you can have that perception as well, it's like yeah, it's expensive, but I have the value. I've been wearing it for 20 years. I'm good. Instead of buying a whole bunch of many things, which you would actually net out more expensive, that value is a hundred percent there. I see it every day.
And now that component is part of the conversation, which makes, you know your trajectory. Saying whenever we can have those consumer things where it's like the value's there, I've had this for 20 years, I know I can buy another one and expect the same. Solid. Solid.
I'd love to pivot a little bit into your own business. Okay. And what has been your philosophy about how you've hired, how you've brought people on, how you've set your own business up.
Sure. So I went independent. I actually quit my job when I was six months pregnant on a Friday. And I started my Love it on a Monday, a little insane. Thank God for my husband who was like, do it, it's fine. We'll but I really led with the intention of the environment that I wanted to be in, honestly. And that really stemmed from not so much flexibility in the sense of. Having it all at once. 'cause I was a mom about to be a mom of two and I learned early on you can't have it all at the same time.
But I wanted the room to be able to pick and choose and pivot. However I chose to do so based on what my day was that day. And obviously incorporate, you can't exactly do that. And I wanted to really make an impact. I wanted to build something that would hold true 10 years from now, 20 years from now.
Some of our first clients still call me and they're like, your campaign is still our number one performer. And it's been, this is our 10 year anniversary this December. So I built it through a lens of I'm gonna shoot really high. And I'm gonna go after things that I can be really impactful in and I'm gonna do it navigating true to what I believe can make an impact, which was psychology and cognitive behavior.
So I was like, I have an entry point 'cause I'm very different in the sense of strategy. And I wanted to do it around the environment that, that I built. So when I hire, a lot of it has to do with just initial vibes and mentality. I don't want people that think like me in the sense of strategy because I do that already.
I don't need another me. I like people that are gonna challenge and be more innovative and creative in their, respective fields. And that's what I gravitate towards. So it's definitely more so how can you be an asset and build us better and have foundational conversations that, again, we'll challenge the norm.
We've done this way, let's not, let's figure out another way to do it, type of thing. So when I'm hiring, it's definitely that component of innovation and just curiosity. I love people that love to learn. I am obsessed with taking classes and even like the masterclass stuff, like I just want to understand and absorb human behavior as much as I can.
'cause I just find it fascinating, honestly. It's like definitely same. I'm like, you did that. Why? And what? Like it's just girl, tell me more. I wanna understand what happened here. So I, and I like people that have that environment and appetite because media is change. We can't be stuck in what we're doing because it's not reality.
As much as you'd wanna figure out the next five years and understand the trajectory of success, it's never gonna happen. We've had, it's May and I think we've gone through eight almost evolutions of client plans throughout the year because of all the things that have gone on. So having that nimble component and education or at least having the appetite for education really helps with my hires 'cause it's.
They understand that things are going to change and pivot and they're actively looking for what that new thing is. We actually have a chain on on the media side on throughout my firm that it's cool finds and smart minds. So I started that chain a while back and it was really just to, because everybody's in their own little pocket, consuming all their behavior.
And I wanted a place where we could all just chop it up and be like, wow, this is cool. This is what Amazon is doing, this is what Google is doing. Did you see this new activation in Dubai? Cool. They're doing something similar in Thailand. And it's become such a great resource 'cause everyone's so excited and that collaborative moment.
So it's definitely, I would say the curiosity of education for sure. And then that tick for innovation where it's I'm bored, we gotta do something new. We have it. And data-centric people. I love a person that loves a plan, that fiscal responsibility. 'cause at the end of the day, we are spending a lot of money.
But all of that, leads together.
Well and it's so rewarding when all of the creative and innovative ideas come together. And then you're like, and look, we made them 30 million extra dollars. It's so satisfying to see, like the plan that you had confidence in, like just keep getting checked off.
Yes. I like for people who haven't felt that I couldn't even describe what that feeling actually is, but it's so satisfying.
So satisfying. And it's such a confidence boost for not just me, but for the team because we, yeah. We have different levels of seniority, obviously, but even our entry points, even our interns, I come in and I'm like, you have a seat at the table.
I want to hear your voice. I wanna understand what you're thinking, what you're seeing in your sector. Because all of that intentionality matters and it's going to be part of the plan that, we developed just because it was part of the conversation during our brainstorming session, which is that first initial, data dump and mindset.
So it's crazy how intentional we can be and how we can actually register return and get that revenue for our clients. But it's all based around the people and all those things. So it's like we win, our clients win, but it's really a team. Like one of my clients who I adore, she was like, this is literally the house that you built.
And I was like, I love that, thank you. But no, it's actually a really big team effort. And the value is throughout.
Speaking of the house that you built, I did see a gorgeous backyard on your Instagram. Oh, thank you. And I think it's important to talk for a second about how you are aligning your business success with your own kind of personal wealth building goals.
Yeah. So many people are just chasing after a bigger number. But they're never converting that revenue and that success into what actually shows up tangibly Yeah. To give them security and happiness in their own life.
Yeah. I, when I first started, when I founded VMG, we were an LLC one of one.
I was the team. I don't even know how I did that. I have was like toddlers running around, but we made it through. By year three, we were really building momentum. We were getting closer to six, seven figures. And I was like, oh my God, what do we do? I don't understand how to navigate this.
This was nowhere near what I thought we could get to. And the first thing I thi I did was get education and find people that knew more about money than I did, because I know I didn't. My husband is phenomenal the way his brain works when it comes to math and just logistics of fiscal responsibility.
So I was like, you're good. I wanna get more in depth on it. We had a fantastic accountant and then we brought on a financial planner, into our household ecosystem. So we have great accountability, we have great financial reasoning, and they really became anchors for conversation on media wealth and development, not media wealth what is it?
Tangible wealth and development, and then generational wealth, our children. Yeah. And then based on what those conversations are. I position my goals for the company. And my goals are insane. I'm like, I am always like yeah, we did this last year. We could double it. Like it's just totally fine.
And we got there, which is fantastic. But it's always based with the financial components and wealth components. Now, when we transitioned into an S-corp and we got like a corporation, logistics that we had to deal with, the state mandates that we had to deal with and what that corporate exercise was, it was kinda like, okay, put your big curl pants on.
This is a whole new world. And you have employees, you have things you have adhere to even like workers' compensation, like all of these other things where I was like, okay, net value, where are we at and what does that look like? And then from a net value on an equity side, what does that look like?
And then investments, how can we take what we are getting and position it for something better? Because the other thing with media. It does change. You never know what's going to happen. We're 10 years strong, but I wanna make sure there's a foundation for our children. And then you start developing plans for that and systems for that and investments for that part of it.
But it's definitely something that I think about a lot where it's okay, we're gonna invest X percent back into the business, X percent back into our employees, because that's always a huge part of what we're doing. As much as I invest in myself and the business, our employees are a huge value proposition to me, and I wanna make sure they're taken care of.
I wanna make sure they're set up for success. So that's also a marker that we have as a percentage of investment. And then innovation and long-term planning. So the things we wanna do this year, the acquisitions we wanna do, or the divisions we wanna open. We opened up a new one this year with Interactive Media and what does that development look like, and how much do we have to invest there?
So it's. It's shifted my perspective, I've learned probably more about how to be a business owner in the last four or five years since going through the like situation. And it's really about my perspective as a, as an owner has changed. Because before I was working as a contractor, honestly, like I was a contractor, me, I, it was so much more malleable, so much more flexible.
I was like, I don't have to do anything like, just do my thing W nine it out and we're good. Yeah. Not the case anymore. And instead of me being a contractor for my business, I have to move as the owner for my business. So I have to look at positions of scale. And it's not so much advocating for the contract work that I love, and I still do because I love it.
But now my perspective has to be more on. My job is to scale this business. My job is to invest in these kind of things. And then those kind of things are also part of the personal component. And how do we do that with true equity and set ourselves up for the value propositions for, the next year or whatever it is that we're doing.
So it's building the house was insane. I won't myself that. The best part is my husband and I have the same taste, so I think it alleviated a lot of, because they're like, how did you do it? I'm like, we were good. We had a fantastic team. Our contracting team was amazing. But it's nice to see tangible things.
'cause also investments are like a portfolio and you don't really, I like Oh cool a number. Seeing it and living here and having our kids experience this whole thing was, is probably the best blessing ever.
Yeah. I imagine that we could talk for hours at this point and but we have a, I wanna mind your time.
So I have a few rapid fire questions to wrap up for today. The first is we ask everyone, where do you put yourself on the powerful lady scale? If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you rank yourself today and on an average day?
Today? Maybe like a six, seven. I'm feeling really good. We just came off with some client meetings. We closed a few deals, so I'm feeling great. I think every day, realistically, even if I felt better, I'd position it as a five because I know I have a lot to learn still. I know there's a lot more development and innovation than I wanna do, and as much as a 10 sounds good.
I don't think I ever wanna feel like a 10. I want to keep like the hunger part. Everybody's always you're so hungry, calm down, and I'm like, no, there's so much more to do. So I love that eagerness. I think that drives me. So I would say, average 5, 6, 7.
What is part of your habits or routine or rituals that you must have to be operating at your best must have?
In the morning coffee. I am also, I need social recharging. So if we've had like a big moment or event or anything I need to, so I just need a break from everyone. I think that's the biggest thing for me, like having a time to decompress. And then honestly quiet with my numbers. I don't know why we have, beautiful house.
There's so many places to go, but I just need a corner to look at the data and that is where my heart sings. I need that to really facilitate everything that I do. All the other stuff is fantastic. The glitz, the glamor, the vogue, all of those things. But I am nothing without quiet and my numbers.
It's really, that's it.
What does it mean the words to you, powerful and ladies, and does their definition change when they're next to each other?
The definition definitely changes when they're next to each other. I think society thinks of power as a male positioned word, and instead of having it as like woman, it's lady, which is even more feminine, which I love.
When I saw the power for ladies, I was like, hell yeah, this is cool. But I think that juxtaposition of being a powerful lady and being able to own your femininity, do it the way you wanna do it, and still be powerful is such a. Innovative anchor and I feel like something that people, it needs to be represented.
'cause like I said, when I was eight, I didn't even know any of this stuff existed. I didn't even know women could own businesses and be this success. Like it was just so out of my purview. So having those two words together and being able to advocate for all of us is amazing. So thank you for that too.
'cause you're pushing the narrative forward and doing all of that, on our behalf. But it's, I think it's a strong sentiment and definitely stronger when they're together.
This is a powerful community that loves to pay things forward and help each other out. What is something on your to manifest list to do?
List your wishlist. What's something you wanna give out to this group that we can help you achieve?
One thing that I'm trying to actually work with a partner now is activate resources for the younger demographic when it comes to digital and media. When I first started, there was nobody that, there were no girls in the room period, let alone a Dominican girl from Washington Heights.
Like it was just never there. And it's definitely gotten better. I'm not the only woman in a boardroom now. And there's a trajectory of inclusivity, but I think having the mindset and perspective of younger women coming up, understanding that there is a value proposition here within media in general, and that you can be a force within the conversation is something that I am so curious about.
We're actually onboarding our first group of interns this summer to start that process. But I wanna have something more long term. So I think anything where we can activate, even if it's education, curiosity, mentorship, anything like that I'm really obsessed with right now because I think that's going to be able to satisfy the validity of everything that we're doing.
I can't be the first one. I have to be the one to open the door, and then I gotta figure out a way to keep it open. So that's the goal.
Yeah. Love that. Thank you so much for your time today and sharing your story. As I said earlier, we could have kept going. There's so much depth in how your brain works and your wisdom and your experience that I think is missing for so many medium and small business owners that knowing what it looks like to actually operate successfully and intentionally and repeat producing results, which I think is the hardest curve so many people have to get through. Yeah, I hope that you continue to share and step into that thought leadership space more and more because.
Yeah.
You really are a fountain that so many people need access to in some way that doesn't diminish you. But thank you for holding up your little corner of the world in the way that you are.
It always makes me feel better knowing there are people like you who are doing all of that hard work because it means that we don't have to hold the whole world to-do list on our own. So thank you.
That was so incredibly kind. Thank you so much. So you're welcome. I didn't even know I was doing all that, but thank you. Thank you. I'm just trying to figure out a way to navigate it all with the best intention possible and keeping people first. I think it's that perspective as long as you stay true to who you are, and remember, we're all human beings. We're all navigating a bunch of stuff and kind of keeping that empathy at the forefront. It'll help.
Thank you.
Thank you. This was lovely. This was such a good conversation. I adored it. Honestly. Thank you so much.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com where you can find all the links to connect with Jhara and Valentini Media Group, as well as learn more about powerful ladies. Come hang out with us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and you can find me and all of my socials@karaduffy.com.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Website: valentinimediagroup.com
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Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
