What do you get when a kindness-led skincare founder & a community-first haircare CMO sit down together? An honest & instructive conversation on Brand Advocacy.

Live from the Brand Advocacy Summit: New York, Verity is joined by Dr. Brent Ridge (Co-Founder @ Beekman 1802) & Nilofer Vahora (Chief Marketing Officer @ Amika) to unpack how two very different beauty brands built lasting customer love – by making stylists, neighbours, and Advocates the centre of their businesses.

This isn’t about follower counts or funnel hacks. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the values, trade-offs, and systems that turn brand belief into million-dollar growth. If you’ve ever struggled to scale connection without losing credibility, this conversation will help.

What You’ll Learn:

🏆 Why Being ‘The Favourite’ Brand Beats Being The Biggest

🎡 How Amika Built a Stylist-Led Flywheel That Drives Brand Love & Revenue

🏘️ The Power of ‘Neighbor Services’ (Not Customer Service)

🫶🏻 Why Community Systems Beat Viral Campaigns Every Time

⚙️ What Happens When You Make Kindness Your Operating System

Two brands. Zero holdbacks. All Advocacy.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to the Live Panel: What Advocacy Actually Looks Like

02:27 – The Origin Stories: Kindness, Friendship & Founding from the Margins

07:05 – When Community Becomes the Growth Plan

09:07 – Building Brand Language: “Hi Neighbor” & “I Love Amika”

11:02 – Operationalising Kindness & Loyalty

16:45 – Systems That Scale Love: Amika’s Flywheel & Beekman’s KQ Program

23:42 – From Stylists to Screens: Connecting IRL Community to Digital Growth

28:10 – Trusting the Community with the Brand (Even When It’s Hard)

32:55 – Learning in Public: Handling Missteps & Turning Them Into Advocacy

38:30 – Final Takeaways: Real Community, Real Trade-Offs, Real Growth

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Brent & Nilofer:

On Brent’s LinkedIn

On Nilofer's LinkedIn

It’s the buzzword combo every CMO wants to crack, but few actually have.

Recorded live at the Brand Advocacy Summit: New York, this chat dives deep into what it really means to blend culture & performance – with two of the sharpest minds in brand today.

Ana Andjelic (Global Chief Brand Officer @ Esprit) and Nathan Jun Poekert (Brand Strategist & CMO Advisor) bring radically different lenses to one big challenge: how do you grow a brand that actually means something and performs?

This is a no-fluff, all-strategy conversation.

Covering:

🧠 Why most marketing is stuck in reactive chaos

⭐️ What the best brands are doing differently

📊 The missing metric: cultural impact as a KPI (& how to track it across teams)

📉 Why influencer marketing fails when measured like performance media

🎯 The rise of the "social franchise”

🧩 How to structure teams that don’t kill creativity or speed in the name of metrics

If you're a brand, a marketer, or a leader trying to build for the next decade – not just the next quarter – then tune in.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Culture x Performance (Live from NYC)

01:30 – Marketing in Chaos: What’s Really Going On

04:10 – The Story vs. The Dashboard

06:25 – Why Brand & Performance Still Don’t Work Together

08:00 – Measuring Cultural Impact: A New Index

10:15 – The Age Problem in Media Optimisation

14:30 – Forget Engagement Rates. Track This Instead.

20:40 – Virality, Creators & Brand Control

22:10 – The Social Franchise Model Explained

26:20 – Brand Safety vs. Subculture: The Trade-Off

31:45 – Why Paid & Organic Must Sit Together

36:35 – From Close Friends to Culture Clubs

39:15 – How Stanley Won Facebook Moms

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Ana & Nathan:

On Ana’s LinkedIn

On Nathan’s LinkedIn

TikTok’s not slowing down. Reddit’s rising. Creators are turning into strategists. And brands? They’re either adapting – or falling behind.

Recorded live in New York at the Brand Advocacy Summit, this special episode of Building Brand Advocacy throws six sharp minds into a game show-style debate (hosted by Verity) on what’s actually next in culture, social, and the creator economy.

From red flags to green flags, beige flags to bold predictions for the year ahead; this chat doesn’t hold back.

Hear from:

— Madisen Theobald (Global Director of Social Creative @ M.A.C Cosmetics)

— McKinley Hart (Director of Social Media @ SoulCycle)

— Gabriel Gomez (Head of Social & Community @ MCoBeauty)

— James Denman (Brand Strategy & Marketing Expert)

— Brandon Smithwrick (Creator, Advisor & Content Strategist)

— Maksim Tokarev (Senior Social Media Manager @ Loop Earplugs)

For their hottest takes on why…

🧠 AI-generated UGC could get banned

🧵 Threads, Reddit & Broadcast Channels are in for discovery

📉 YouTube Shorts might not be worth the big bucks (yet)

🔑 Intimacy is the new influence & the DMs are where it’s happening

… and much more.

If your brand is still playing by the 2020 rulebook, stop. Listen. Learn.

Chapters:

00:00 – Kicking Off

01:22 – Hot Takes Begin: Predictions for 2026

07:34 – Brand Flags: Green, Red, or Beige?

23:03 – Watch, Wait, or Walk: What Brands Should Act On, Pause, or Ditch

35:25 – Social SEO & AI Content: Future-Proofing Your Brand

38:23 – AI Content Ethics: Where Brands Go Wrong

40:45 – Closing Out & Audience Questions

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with the Hot Takers:

On Madisen’s LinkedIn

On McKinley’s LinkedIn

On Gabe’s LinkedIn

On James’ LinkedIn

On Brandon’s LinkedIn

On Maksim’s LinkedIn