He’s not interested in fashion; He’s interested in media. Especially when it involves Negin Mirsalehi, his girlfriend of nine years. Both studied Business Administration at the Vrije Universiteit. She jumped into the deep end with her blog, and for the past year he’s worked full-time to help make her even more successful – and sustainable.
You let go of a great career at PWC to help a fashion blog grow. That was an interesting decision. Tell us about it. “I worked as a strategy consultant at PWC for four years, but I’ve always been closely involved in Negin’s blog. At first, I just took pictures; that wasn’t my hobby. But gradually I became involved in the business side of the blog, the earning model behind it. Thinking about platforms, how to reach our goals with the advertisers or how to make our YouTube channel bigger. My passion for media was the driving force behind the transition.”
I don’t have an idea what working at a blog entails. What is it about? “It’s a website where you post your own articles, accompanied by photos and tips. In Negin’s case, it’s about fashion, make-up and lifestyle. But it’s not just about how ‘pretty’ something is. We want to inspire international, well-educated women. We want to motivate them to give 100% to get what they want. Negin wants to serve as an example.”
How did Negin achieve what she wanted?
“The way she does it, blogging is a fairly expensive profession. All of the travels, the staff (project manager, photographer, three interns, ed.)… Negin didn’t have much money to start with, but with inexpensive and borrowed items, a smart online strategy and plain hard work, she has become one of the giants. She was one of the first people in the Netherlands to join the Instagram trend in the US. Today, we have 2.1 million followers on Instagram, 130,000 on Facebook and 250,000 unique visitors to the blog.”
“Now that Negin is famous, we are being approached by labels and advertisers and she gets most of her clothes from them. Advertisers also pay us to show their products, and we get a commission if visitors buy the product via our links. That’s how Negin earns money with her dream.”
‘Negin is smarter than I am, and she’s stubborn too’
What is it that makes advertisers and big labels want to work with you? “Developing good content. Good content is the most important element in which we try to differentiate ourselves. In order to do that, it’s really important what happens behind the scenes. Our academic background and our way of working means that there’s a well-organised company behind the blog. That professionality is what our business relations really appreciate. Something as simple as meeting deadlines is really appreciated, because it’s not always standard practice in this world.”
Success seems so fleeting. Could this all be over tomorrow? “As an online influencer, you have an expiration date and are very dependent on your popularity. Someone else can take your place among the public and the advertisers at any time. So it’s important to establish the Negin Mirsalehi brand. We’re in the middle of the transition from blogger to label, so one of our current priorities is to set up our own production line.”
It’s unique to be able to work with the person you love. How do you complement one another? “Negin is smarter than I am, and she’s stubborn too. She didn’t want to work for a boss. Her passion and expertise in the field of fashion, and her vision for online media, led her to earn a living from blogging. Negin is focused on the content; she’s the creative visionary. I handle all of the incoming projects and maintain contact with the advertisers. Together we lead a team and develop the strategy to help our company continue to grow.”
‘As an online influencer, you have an expiration date. So we are working on a more sustainable earning model’
Do you have something resembling a typical working day? “With us, there’s no such thing as an average work day. We travel an awful lot, and when we’re travelling we visit the advertisers and the big labels to talk about how we can cooperate to reach our individual goals. But we are trying to bring more structure into our work week. For example, we have a weekly content meeting with the team – a kind of editorial meeting – where we discuss the subjects that we will focus on that week and how we will produce them. We also hold an evaluation once per month. As a strategy consultant, I did more or less the same thing: evaluating and improving.”
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