"Connect by caring, listen before sharing."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Jennifer Galbraith, a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in Public Relations across the Public and Private sectors.
As the driving force behind Alestra Marketing and the latest venture, Vouch, Jennifer has dedicated her career to spotlighting businesses making a positive impact in their communities.
In this engaging conversation, Jennifer shares insights into the innovative Vouch App, a platform designed to revolutionize how we discover and endorse local businesses through genuine, all-positive video endorsements.
She sheds light on the challenges faced by local businesses in gaining visibility and how Vouch aims to bridge this gap by providing a trusted referral system.
Beyond her entrepreneurial journey, Jennifer delves into the evolving significance of networking, revealing personal stories of unexpected opportunities and offering valuable advice on avoiding common networking pitfalls.
Join us as we explore the dynamic intersection of technology, networking, and community building with Jennifer Galbraith.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Jennifer Galbraith: I have always enjoyed telling the story of businesses doing great work in their communities. I have over 20 years of experience in Public Relations in the Public and Private sectors. Prior to Alestra Marketing and our newest venture, Vouch, I worked in Economic Development and in the private sector for a diverse client base through national advertising account management roles.
Working on the agency and client side, I have helped to market and promote everything from nonprofit organizations, retail outlets and artists to foundations, schools, associations, airports, resorts, tourism destinations, technology companies and more.
I am excited to be able to use my background to help shine a light on great companies through Vouch. The Vouch App was created to provide an easy-to-use, all positive, all the time video endorsement platform for local experts and explorers. The Vouch App helps people share and discover the best local places in their community. For more information, visit http://www.TheVouchApp.com or download Vouch from the App Store or Google Play.
Local businesses are doing their best to serve their communities with great food, products, and services. However, many businesses remain hidden and go unnoticed. Vouch enables people to easily showcase businesses they love through video and then share it with others. With the recent launch of “Collections,” people are able to group endorsements from multiple users together, making an even bigger impact to local businesses.
Without a trusted referral, the average person cross references 4 or more unique sources before making a decision to visit a business. They often visit Facebook, Yelp, Instagram, or one of the many other social media pages, review sites, company websites, maps, and more.
Review websites like Yelp provide star ratings, but the quality of the reviews can often be hard to trust and fail to provide enough context around the attributes that make the business worth a visit. Platforms like Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok are saturated.
As a result, people have to filter through an expanse of unrelated content to find what they’re looking for. Vouch is the only platform that enables you to easily create and showcase your local expertise through video and share it.
My goal with Vouch is to simplify and enhance the process by giving people the opportunity to create short, honest video endorsements.
How has the significance of networking evolved over the past decades?
Jennifer Galbraith: Networking has always been significant. However, over the past few decades the way we network has evolved, as has the audience available to us.
Everyday we are exposed to more sales and marketing messages than we can consume. We are inundated with people trying to sell to us. In fact, companies waste millions every year trying to see their product or service to us by telling us all the wonderful things they can provide.
The truth is, none of this matters. We don’t care about the marketing messages we hear or people reaching out to us to network unless they are helping us to survive and thrive in this fast moving world.
Can you share a personal story where one networking interaction led to unexpected doors opening, and how it highlights the ripple effect of networking?
Jennifer Galbraith: During Covid I decided to expand my PR and Marketing skill set by obtaining a new certification as a StoryBrand Guide. During the virtual certification process I met a number of other inspiring marketers.
After our training was complete I remained in contact with one of the other guides. They had extensive experience in the App Development Space and I have more than 20 years in Public Relations.
I made sure to be a resource when they had PR questions and reached out to them about technology recommendations. This led to a PR contract with a newly launched relationship driven app that I still promote 2 years later. I also spearheaded the PR launch of the Vouch app and just took over as CEO of the company this year.
What are some common networking mistakes people make, and how can they pivot to turn potential missteps into learning experiences?
Jennifer Galbraith: One of the biggest mistakes people make in marketing and networking is to focus on their story instead of that of their audience. People want to connect with others because it makes sense in their own story.
It is important in networking that you always remember that everyone you meet is the hero of their own story and you are the guide to help them along their journey in some way.
Instead of talking about yourself when you meet someone you should begin focusing on the other person and their problems. Where to they want to go in their life. How can you help them in some way.
Be curious and interested in everyone your meet and take time to hear their story. Once yo have heard their story make sure you have empathy to understand and authority to then see how you can come alongside to help them move forward.
How do you see the future of networking evolving with the rise of AI, VR, and other technologies?
Jennifer Galbraith: There are so many tools for networking, but they are only tools. We need to make sure that we really understand our audience and then use the appropriate technology to make the process more efficient.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Jennifer Galbraith for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jennifer Galbraith or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
