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Generalizing about anyone’s age or generation is always dangerous. I know BabyBoomers who still live it up like they just graduated college, and have Millennial friends who are already entrenched with three kids under five in the suburbs.
But classifications are simple. They allow us to define people without having to get to know anything about them. Defying this trend is precisely what’s made Chelsea Krost one of the most sought after Millennial digital influencers and brand ambassadors in America, and one of the leading media voices of her generation.
Full disclosure: I’m turning 45 in three months and technically a “sandwich” Gen Xer with one foot firmly cemented with the BabyBoomers and another straddling blindly (and joyfully) into the Millennial generation. I still read the Wall Street Journal print edition every weekend, but my life as a freelance writer and photographer functions completely online in a wireless world. As a consumer, I’m a squirrely target—you never know where, when, and how I’m going to get the information that influences me.
So I finally had to find out for myself (since social media influencer was never an option as a college major for me): How did this 25-year old earn the Millennial “fairy dust” to become their leading generational brand ambassador? And just how did Krost put herself in a position where her opinions can literally now shape the marketing strategies of Fortune 500 corporations?
Krost’s Millennial cache comes in large part due to old-school street cred. She became one of the first “digital influencers” before most companies even knew how critical they eventually would be to their customer loyalty and bottom line.
Krost launched her career in 2007 at age 16 the old fashioned way with an AM talk radio show called “Teen Talk Live” in her hometown of Delray Beach, Florida, which was soon syndicated on other radio stations nationwide. Shortly thereafter she started getting featured on local television, which quickly led to national appearances. When Krost was 18 she produced her first docu-series in partnership with
Krost's prescience early on was recognizing that she wasn’t just serving as a platform for Millennials who had something to say; she was the articulate, collective voice that everyone else who was desperately trying to understand them needed to hear—including parents, employers, universities, corporations, political parties, Hollywood, the list goes on. There is a subtle, but huge, difference between the two.
All of which is a long way of saying that Krost didn’t decide a few months ago that making a career by having an opinion sounded better than law or ad exec. Aspiring Millennial (and Gen X) influencers, spokespeople, ambassadors, and media personalities should take note. Technology these days can get your opinions out there in a nanosecond. If nobody cares what you have to say it’s not the data speed that’s the problem.
Now 25, Krost’s recurring client list looks like that of someone twice her age including global multinationals like
“None of this was intentional,” says Krost. “I didn’t have an agenda. But timing was key. And I got lucky. It’s turned out to be a pretty good career.” So. This 25-year old created her dream job speaking for the Millennial generation to dozens of corporations How did she do it and what does it really mean to be a digital influencer?
How did you start your career as a digital influencer and brand ambassador?
I was always the girl watching The View, Oprah, and Barbara Walters growing up, and at the time there was so much negative conversation about my generation and teenagers in general. So (in 2007) I started looking around at everyone that I knew—and myself—and realized that there was no platform or television show that really spoke to the Millennial generation. Remember YouTube didn’t even exist back then and MySpace was still way more popular than Facebook. There was no Instagram, no Snapchat, and really no social media for business at all. The whole idea of “community building” didn’t even exist. That’s what started my first radio show “Teen Talk Live” (on AM radio) when I was sixteen.
Most 16-year olds don’t wake up in the morning dreaming of starting a radio program that speaks for a generation. What was your inspiration?
I wanted to give my generation a voice. So I pulled out a pad and pen and wrote down topic after topic of the things that I wanted to discuss with experts in the space like cyber bullying, leaving the nest, body shaming, slut shaming, gender identity, sexting—all of these things were very new at the time or not being discussed at all and there was no platform for my generation to share their opinions and educate others.
When did you first realize that being a generational spokesperson and influencer could be a career?
After I started Teen Talk Live, I realized that we were really making a difference and creating ripple effects. I started getting emails from across the country and at the time we were still a local AM radio show. Then parents and grandparents started listening, calling in, and emailing because they wanted to understand the Millennial generation, and then we realized that we were bridging a really important generation gap. These people could finally figure out how to relate to their children and grandchildren. At that point it was a question of how to scale and get our message out there through other media.
What makes a digital influencer and brand ambassador good at what they do?
I thought I was going to be veterinarian my whole life growing up, but the whole idea of digital marketing and influencer alignment has always been right up my alley. I realized early on (that) there aren’t many influencers out there who understand how to “activate” on behalf of a brand, or campaign, or a business. This has to do with what you’re doing out in front in terms of developing content, commenting on topics, and creating an impression in front a camera, but it’s also what happens internally on the backend in terms of creating a voice and a strategy for overall activation in the first place. You have to understand both sides of the table.
What makes an influencer 'relatable' as a front person but 'strategic' in terms of being an articulate voice for a brand, company, or community?
So much of it is what happens behind the scenes. When you’re tapped as a Millennial spokesperson in my opinion you have to be involved in every aspect of that brand’s campaigns and initiatives from “What Color Is The Box?” to “What Messaging Goes On The Box?”, to what the digital landscape looks like in terms of the target Millennial consumer, to also being an ambassador and speaking on behalf of the brand.
Authenticity is also so important these days. When I was tapped to be Kotex’s spokesperson back in 2009, it was only the Selena Gomez’s and Mylie Cyrus’s who were getting tapped to speak to my generation. But I was just this every day girl who totally can relate to all of the issues and qualms of being a teenager, and I had a relatable voice because I was going through the same things as everyone else my age like the SATs, the pressure of getting into the best college, fitting in, being pretty enough. I wasn't special.
How important is it to combine traditional media with new technologies to reach today’s consumers?
When I put together my mission trip to Africa I picked up the phone and just started calling people and getting them excited about the whole concept. There was no way at the time to send a Twitter or a Facebook message just hoping Kotex would answer. It was old school style, picking up the phone, leaving messages, waiting to get to the right person who could make a decision. When I got to them, I told them my story, my message, what my goals were, and we ended up documenting the whole journey to Nairobi Kenya.
You still have to reach people the old fashion way as well as leveraging all of the technology that we now have at our fingertips. That’s the only way to create a cohesive message. It’s also still the best way to build a business and find partners since if people don’t share your passion in person for whatever your doing it’s probably not going to work out in the long run.
How do you stay relevant and out in front of people when technology advances so rapidly?
100% is all that I can say. If you don’t stay 100% on top of the digital ecosystem you’ll never stay relevant to the Millennial generation. As an influencer and an ambassador you have to constantly be innovative and pioneer new methods, with new tools, and use new social media platforms to constantly keep your voice heard.
I think that’s one of the reasons that my brand has continued to stay relevant and scale over the past ten years without diluting itself. I started working AM radio, and I wanted to be that young voice who eventually got onto The View. Then five-ten years later I had to figure out how make Twitter and Snapchat relevant to the brands I’m working with and the communities I’m building. Think about it. It’s only been ten years but to think that I wanted to be Barbara Walters sounds silly now, because the technology and platforms that worked for her are already outdated. One hundred, one million percent. If you don’t stay on top of technology, you don’t stay relevant. I just hope that I can stay relevant for a very long time.
