Meridith Valiando Rojas

Gen Z is more elusive than ever, while youth culture has always been “too cool” for parents and adults.  We are now on another level, where teens will hop from platform to platform as soon as the “adults” find their hiding spot.  Gen Z knows more than most when it comes to technology and they plan to outsmart everyone to protect their domain.  How can someone get through to an audience if they don’t know how they spend their time and speak their language?

In this corporate-focused presentation and ever-evolving session, Meridith Rojas will define the most current vernacular, share top trends, and break down the passion points, what platforms are on the rise, and more importantly, which ones are on the decline. What brands and influencers are resonating and why? How can you better connect with this connected and elusive demo, make an impact, and get a seat at the table?

Meridith Rojas is the ultimate social media expert. Having built an entire empire around the importance of online presence, she is the most equipped with the dos and don’ts of the internet.

In this very informative presentation, Rojas will cover a brief roast of what “best practices are” and why they do not always work.  Many companies employ a cookie-cutter approach to social media – simply knowing they need it but not really understanding how to use it to REALLY supercharge connections and engagement.  Hiring a person to post doesn’t cut it.  This will dive into the psychology of social and how approaching it differently will yield better results.

Meridith Rojas traces her success to the powerful mantra of momentum, by just doing and trying a variety of passions starting at the age of 8. In sharing her own personal anecdotes of her near brush with Broadway stardom – only to get upstaged by her younger brother, or to landing an audition for the Head of Talent at a major record company through an internship at 15 – and not getting a record deal. Rojas discusses her struggles that led to her biggest inspiration, DigiTour, when she got an artist signed in 1-week to Capitol Records and ended up getting fired by him when bringing him the idea to tour with YouTube Stars. DigiTour, her current company and largest success to date, is the prime example of doing and trying with swift momentum.

This empowering conversation with students and young adults encourages future leaders to get out and get started and to mess up – because it’s usually when you fall that you find your inspiration.

Selfie Made is the first-of-its-kind guide to how to actually become a social media star.  Providing insider secrets of how to build an audience and monetize it, is the subject of the book. In this unique speech Meridith provides an IRL (‘in real life’) version.

She will delve into her own unique experiences with helping launch some of the biggest digital stars of today, as well as share an overview of how anyone can leverage the power of an idea and wifi, to cash in on the internet goldrush and also be #selfiemade.

Meridith Rojas will customize a scalable group (budget dependent) of social stars who will join her to share insights about the social media ecosystem, Gen Z and Millennial audiences, and how they were able to make noise in a sea of content.

If you’ve never flatlined and been seconds away from your company fizzling into a mere memory, then you may never have experienced the high-highs and low-lows of entrepreneur life.  While there are many CEOs who share their stories of running large corporations of tens of thousands of employees, their level of success is slightly unrelatable to an emerging founder.

Meridith will share her story of founding her company and how an idea became a business.  She shares the multitude of moments when it almost went under and the variety of defibrillators that came in to bring the company back to life. From her own experience with starting a business and raising 12.5M dollars, to the day that they were on the front page of the Sunday New York Times and sold out a 20-thousand-person festival.

Hiring and firing, staying focused, compartmentalizing and striking a work-life balance while trying to build from the bottom up…Rojas leaves audiences with a few lessons and tips but most importantly the key rules: be nimble, be humble, and stay hungry.

Over her career journey, Meridith Rojas was told to wear her skirt longer, to not be “too friendly” with male colleagues or talent, and definitely to never cry.  She was kissed by a boss, and flirted with by another, pursued by a professor, and that “talent” she wasn’t supposed to be “too friendly with” asked her on a date. Everything was a double standard and the rules were seemingly optional.  The length of her skirt never mattered and if she cried, who cared.

The most important thing she’s learned is that the thing they tell you to hide — your emotions, is actually what’s helped her succeed.  There were many moments her ability to read a situation and be sensitive has given her an edge. While emotions are not uniquely female – it is the stereotype. Being cold, monotone, and hard to read has never been her style – she embraced HER and her stereotypes – she owned them, and they didn’t own her.

In this incredibly motivational and inspiring presentation, Meridith will share her first-hand experience of breaking rules and shattering ceilings, and ultimately finding a way to thrive and survive in business. Audiences of all types learn what it takes to be a young female professional in the ever-growing professional space.