What's your role at Emma like?
Emma – The Sleep Company is among Europe’s leading startups and sells award-winning products worldwide. As a business development manager tasked to grow the brand in the US market, my specific focus is our affiliate marketing strategy. In a nutshell, affiliate marketing means having 3rd parties market our products. It’s the equivalent of having someone you already trust telling you about our product instead of us doing it ourselves. Some real-world examples of affiliate marketing would be YouTube tech reviewers or the usual “Top 10 Gift Guide” articles that pop up every now and then. We build on the element of trust, which is especially crucial in taking our share of the world’s biggest mattress market. The best way I can describe my role is through a mix of external relations and negotiation strategies.
What's your background?
I grew up in Manila and spent most of my life here. I’ve been fortunate enough though to have several opportunities to spend time abroad, whether for school or other purposes. I think that being able to be in new environments and meet people from different backgrounds has given me a much bigger perspective of the world around me. I’ve done things like spending a month in Italy for a global peace camp, 6 weeks in China for a study trip, and a month in Vancouver for a college exchange program. I view all these experiences as key learning moments for myself and what I could do independently and with different kinds of people. Of course, I had lots of fun along the way. After college, I worked at Shopee, an e-commerce company. It was great working for a company that I had lots of experience in – as a customer. It was my first job and from the beginning, we already were working from home. While I did find that challenging, given the lengths I’ve gone to meet different people growing up, I made several friends and mentors along the way. Fast forward to working in Emma, I think that it was important to mention my travels and experiences abroad because our work environment, though local and remote, gives plenty of opportunities to work outside the boundaries of where we live. Not only are we diverse in terms of nationalities, but with ideas and experiences as well.
What's the coolest thing about your role?
My category, affiliates, is currently the biggest contributor to our market’s sales. This means that although there is a lot of pressure on me to perform, there was a reason why I was the one chosen to take this role. I wanted to keep the pressure on myself but also remain confident. This means taking time to feel good about even the small wins, like negotiating a good deal, beating last week’s sales, or even just creating a clean Excel tracker. Sure, there’s pressure, but being in the role where the potential is limitless is pretty cool to me.
What can you say you are proud of accomplishing at Emma?
In my first few weeks in managing the affiliate strategy, I’ve gone from almost no revenues to a triple-digit growth percentage. I believe the reason why I made an impact was that I was so willing to learn, make mistakes, and get better each day. Not only did I feel like I owned my role, but I felt like I owned the company. I took it personally when I couldn’t negotiate a deal right or when sales weren’t as impressive. This only made the wins, no matter how big or small, sweeter in the end.
What’s the toughest part of your role?
I would say my role is closer to being the owner of a company than an employee. This is because certain tasks can be done in either 3 hours or 3 days. If I wanted to stay up until midnight because my contacts are US-based, I could. Time management would be my answer for the toughest part of my role. It would seem easy to get lost in your work because of the momentum of it all, but at the end of the day, life is always a balancing act and I believe work should not act as an obstacle.
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