About · Greater Toronto Area

I got here the long way.

Partner Manager at Influencer Advisory, an influencer agency with science creators, for health and wellness brands. Two brands of my own that did not make it, a run of startups, and then this. Here is the whole story.

Alice Ksendzova, Partner Manager at Influencer Advisory

The story

I am Partner Manager at Influencer Advisory, and I have been kicking around the entrepreneurship space for a while now.

I started with an e-commerce brand that launched and did not work, then a second one that did start to grow, although slowly. I lost both of them, which is the fastest way anyone learns what it feels like to spend your own money on an ad that goes nowhere. That feeling shapes how I look at every campaign now.

After that I moved into startups, where I helped scale the teams at a few names you may know, including GetCove, Fireflies.ai and Fixon AI, which competes with Stan Store, plus Willow, which is backed by Y Combinator, and a number of other creator focused startups.

Partnerships were only ever a small slice of that work, so I decided I could help brands far more directly doing this instead.

After being in the influencer agency space, we noticed there is a huge amount of distrust, and one of the main things a health and wellness product needs is trust, which is what led us to start with creators. Then we found that the people who talk about science, but who a lot of the time are regular lifestyle creators, carry the most weight.

Most of my time now goes into building the overarching strategy, making sure that the segment you are trying to reach actually matches the creative and the creators we use. My expertise is in acquiring customers at a genuinely low cost, then getting the most out of their lifetime value through offers, well placed promotions and automations.

Most of what an agency learns stays locked inside it, and I think far more of it belongs in public. So I publish what I see working, here and on LinkedIn.

I am based in the Greater Toronto Area. When I am not working, you will find me at the beach or journaling.

“Health and wellness is becoming more scientific, but a lot of influencer marketing in the space still isn't.”

Every step, year by year

The same path as on my LinkedIn, with what I actually did at each stop.

2022

Vie Lariat

Launched Vie Lariat, an e-commerce jewelry brand. It failed.
2023

Unthinkable

Started a sweatwear brand, Unthinkable. Also failed.
Summer 2023

Into startups

Began working with startups, leading marketing and growth initiatives, at names including GetCove and Fireflies.ai.
2024

Fixon AI

Worked with Fixon AI, an all-in-one social commerce platform and a competitor to Stan Store.
Pitched it for seed round investment at the LaunchHub Angels event, and the same year hosted the Richmond Hill Board of Trade at the Women in Business Symposium.
Dec 2024 to May 2025

Resso.ai

Influencer Performance Marketing Strategist, on contract, at Resso.ai, a career copilot.
Apr 2025 to now

AiHello

Senior Brand & Growth Strategist, part-time on contract, at AiHello in Toronto.
May to Oct 2025

Willow (YC X25)

Influencer Venture Growth Lead at Willow, which is backed by Y Combinator. The same year I expanded the influencer agency.
2026

The media build

Built a media site focused on the creator economy and influencer marketing, and since June 2026 I host The Brand Growth Podcast.

See it all on LinkedIn

What Influencer Advisory is

The short version, in the same words we use on our own site.

Science creators, for health and wellness

01We only work with brands selling health and wellness products. People want to understand why a supplement works, what is actually in their food, what the research says, and whether the person recommending it actually knows what they are talking about. So we built an influencer agency specifically around that, with creators who already talk about health, science, fitness and wellness every day.

Enterprises, around launches and holidays

02We work with wellness and health enterprises above a billion dollars: beverages, supplements and functional medicine. Brands that already run an influencer program and want to scale it around a launch, a holiday, a new region or a new segment. We manage the whole partnership, from mapping and headhunting through to negotiation and creative.

A data company first

03Every number on our pages comes out of a system we built ourselves, priced against more than 700,000 recorded sponsorships. That is why we can tell a brand what a creator actually charges, and why we can answer “has this creator worked with our competitor” in a minute rather than a week.

700,000+recorded sponsorships every deal is priced against

50+brands the agency has worked with

70%of those brands still here past 90 days

Visit Influencer Advisory Our story The team The details

The old influencer model is getting more expensive

The way brands work with creators is changing. This is the version I keep coming back to, with the numbers behind it.

Paying per post costs more every year

CPMs used to be under $10. Now brands see $50 to $100 and more, and over 40% of YouTubers report CPMs above $100. A brand pays a creator for three months, reaches much of that audience, then moves on to the next one, and every recommendation on that channel starts to feel less genuine.

Start with a community creators want to join

The community has two jobs: give creators a reason to want in, and a reason to stay, improve and grow with the brand. Money is part of it. Bigger creators also care about who they are working with, what they get access to and where the partnership could take them.

The right name makes recruiting everyone else easier

Before BUM secured Chris Bumstead, influencers were quoting the team a monthly price. After he came on board, some of the same influencers came back at a quarter or less of what they had asked. Creators take inspiration from other creators, and they want to work alongside people they admire.

Give creators real reasons to stay

NeuroGum's Discord started with around 500 creators. Trips and dinners with other creators, content coaches, studio access, 100% commission on a customer's first purchase, and a handful of creators put on Times Square billboards. Creators with millions of subscribers stayed because those perks were worth something to them.

Help your creators grow, or you pay for the same audience twice

If a creator is not growing, you are paying to reach the same people over and over. A creator growing 10% a month is dramatically bigger a year later, and you helped build the audience you will have access to tomorrow.

Organic content finds the winners. Paid media scales them

One model discussed on the Marketing Operators podcast puts roughly 10% of the budget into organic creator content and 90% into amplifying it through paid ads. On TikTok Shop, out of 100 gifted products, maybe two creators are worth investing in further. Those two get the advertising rights, the whitelisting and most of the money.

Build local momentum one city at a time

If you are everywhere, you are nowhere. Pop-ups, creator dinners, sponsored clubs and co-hosted events in one city mean the same people keep running into the brand through different local connections. Ours are in Toronto.

How I vet a creator

Comment quality first

I look at comment quality first. I personally use AI scrapers like Apify to pull hundreds of their comments, then Claude systems to categorize what people are actually saying. If I see mostly AI slop, that usually means it's bought, so I avoid those creators.

Then engagement

Then I look for 4.5%+ engagement, ideally 6%+.

Then the extremes

I also like the extremes: either super targeted creators doing 5,000 views or less, or macros doing 200,000+ views. From my experience, the middle is usually where you lose it.

Read the post on LinkedIn

A few moments

Alice Ksendzova hosting the Richmond Hill Board of Trade Women in Business Symposium — Hosting the Richmond Hill Board of Trade at the Women in Business Symposium, 2024.

Alice Ksendzova at the Hourglass launch at Sephora — At the Hourglass launch at Sephora.

Alice Ksendzova presenting a main player analysis — Presenting a market analysis breakdown to a live audience.

Same Alice, every platform

Trying to verify it's the same person? Yes. Every account below is mine or my company's.

LinkedIn, Alice Ksendzovalinkedin.com Influencer Advisory (agency)influenceradvisory.com LinkedIn, Influencer Advisorylinkedin.com The Brand Growth Podcast (ours)youtube.com Instagram, @influenceradvisoryinstagram.com Trustpilot, Influencer Advisory reviewstrustpilot.com My writing/blog

For partnerships, brands or media

Brands curious whether creators are a real channel for them
Creators who want to know how brands actually choose who to work with
Podcast hosts and event organizers on marketing, growth and the creator economy

alice@influenceradvisory.com

Or find me on LinkedIn, or send a brand inquiry through Influencer Advisory.