Coworking with Erika Rodriguez

Each Tuesday, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Erika Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of Nadi Marketing. As a marketing consultant, she specializes in helping eco-conscious small- and medium-sized businesses. Prior to starting Nadi Marketing, she worked on the local marketing teams of Lyft and Zipcar in San Diego.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Introducing The Mighty Bin, San Diego’s first zero-waste grocery store, to San Diegans. The store opened on April 9, 2022, with a grand-opening event. The event included a ceremony with the founder, Isabelle DeMillan, saying a few words about the inspiration behind The Mighty Bin, a compostable-tape “ribbon” cutting, local food vendors, and a chef cooking up a plant-based breakfast for attendees! It was an amazing event to celebrate this huge milestone for my client Isabelle, and introduce San Diegans to plastic-free, package-free, non-toxic, sustainable, and local groceries.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? Patagonia’s “don’t buy this jacket” ad that ran in the New York Times on Black Friday. As every brand is determined to sell more on Black Friday, Patagonia is telling its audience the opposite and to think before they buy. This message is powerful on the busiest shopping day of the year.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I work all over San Diego. You can find me at my apartment, at my coworking space, You Belong Here, at various local coffee shops, and at a few libraries. I’m fortunate to work from my laptop, and I love that I can work every day at a new location. If you are in San Diego, let’s cowork together!

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m most optimistic about live video on social media platforms. Raw video provides a human aspect to a brand, and people want to see behind the scenes, the packaging, and the impact you are creating. The marketing trend that I’m least interested to see is the “announcement-worthy” environmental claims. I don’t want to see brands make big environmental announcements when it’s relevant (i.e., Earth Day, World Oceans Day) when they don’t make progress announcements or any environmental posts during the rest of the year.  

What’s one marketing-related podcast, social account, or series you’d recommend? The Smart Passive Income Podcast by Pat Flynn. I’ve been following Pat Flynn for years, and when I started my business during the pandemic, he was my go-to business resource. Also check out his YouTube series, The Income Stream, where he went live for 365 days during the pandemic, covering every business topic you can imagine.