Kate Speer knows the world of influencers well. For five years she was the CEO of the social media company the Dogist, growing the audience to 5 million followers. She managed "a whole slew of influencer marketing campaigns," she says. "You know, for dogs or dog food ... everything was for the sake of a bottom line."
At the same time, Speer was building her own following around something very different – frank conversations around her experience with severe mental illness.
