4 components to take your personal brand from 0 to 100k followers (with @katiexsocials)

Hello everyone.

Um super excited to be hosting this workshop. Um the fun fact is that like

workshop. Um the fun fact is that like the original version of these slides I technically made like 2 or 3 years ago at the

Catskills retreat for Verse C.

Um so it's cool to be like re- I I like added a lot of stuff, but it's cool to have revamped that. Um but yeah, today we're going to talk about creating your

personal brand for social media organically. So um if that's you wanting

organically. So um if that's you wanting to become a creator, it can also um apply to brands in some sense as well.

But I'm going to talk a lot about kind of like more of the internal things of like deciding what you want to talk about, how you talk about it, those types of things um

as opposed to complete like algorithm hacks. This

[clears throat] is more about you.

Um okay.

It all starts with unlocking the power of being yourself.

All right, really quickly about me.

Um I've been making content since I was 10 years old. I had an app called VideoStar

years old. I had an app called VideoStar and I'd make a bunch of music videos and put them on YouTube.

Um and then since then for the past like 3 or 4 years I've been making my own personal content as well as working in like the creator economy like at various

influencer marketing agencies or at tech companies.

Um so I've coached hundreds of creators on building their brands, also dozens of startups on similar marketing. Um and

most recently I was at Clearly building their UGC program, in which we also were coaching a lot of creators and that was a lot of it. So a lot of this is learnings from my experience and things

that I would tell my clients or people that I've worked with.

Um okay. So how do you define personal branding? Does anyone want to give like

branding? Does anyone want to give like their own definition of personal branding?

One person?

Yeah.

I feel like it's the essence of who you are and how you express it.

That was beautiful. That's like

basically exactly what I said, so perfect. Okay, so this is how I define

perfect. Okay, so this is how I define it. Your personal brand is the unique

it. Your personal brand is the unique story and impact you bring to the world.

And then the act of personal branding, the act of putting it online and making content, is quantifying and qualifying those things about yourself in a way

that best impacts and inspires others.

So part of it is really like you and who you are and what you've experienced, and then the second part is figuring out how to actually translate that online in a way that other people can receive it the

best and the most people can receive it.

So the first thing that I always start with is this quote that I heard before I started making content. You are always an expert to somebody else. Even if

you're 18 years old and you have not even graduated high school yet, there are still people 2 3 years below you that would love to learn from you and would love to gain mentorship from you.

So doesn't matter if you're not an expert, if you just started at something, even if you're a beginner at something and that's the thing you want to talk about, you always have an expertise that somebody else would want

to hear from you.

Okay, now I'm going to get into the four components that I believe make a powerful personal brand. So these are the four things that you will not necessarily be able to determine tonight

about yourself, but I believe these are the four main important things.

The first is your why. Has anyone

watched this video before?

Simon Sinek Start With Why. Okay, I'm

going to show you guys um like the first few minutes of it, but this pretty much encapsulates what I mean. We assume even

mean. We assume even we know why we do what we do.

But then how do you explain when things don't go as we assume? Or better,

how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?

For example, why is Apple so innovative?

Year after year after year after year, they're more innovative than all their competition.

And yet they're just a computer company.

They're just like everyone else. They

have the same access to the same talent, the same agencies, the same consultants, the same media.

Then why is it that they seem to have something different?

Why is it that Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights movement?

He wasn't the only man who suffered in a pre-Civil Rights America, and he certainly wasn't the only great orator of the day. Why him?

And why is it that the Wright brothers were able to figure out controlled powered man flight when there were certainly other teams who were better qualified, better funded,

and they didn't achieve powered man flight? The Wright brothers beat them to it.

There's something else at play here.

About 3 and 1/2 years ago, I made a discovery.

And this discovery profoundly changed my view on how I thought the world worked, and it even profoundly changed the way in which I operate in it.

As it turns out, there's a pattern. As it turns out, all the great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world, whether it's Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers, they all think, act,

and communicate the exact same way.

And it's the complete opposite to everyone else.

All I did was codify it.

And it's probably the world's simplest idea.

I call it the golden circle.

Why how what.

This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren't. Let me

define the terms really quickly. Every

single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100%.

Some know how they do it. Whether you

call it your differentiating value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP, but very very few people or organizations know why they do what they do.

And by why I don't mean to make a profit. That's a result. It's always a

profit. That's a result. It's always a result. By why I mean what's your

result. By why I mean what's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your

purpose? What's your cause? What's your

belief?

Why does your organization exist?

Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It's obvious. We go

from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing.

But the inspired leaders and the inspire or inspired organizations, regardless of their size, regardless of their industry, all think, act, and

communicate from the inside out.

Let me give you an example. I use Apple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it.

If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this.

We make great computers.

They're beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly.

Want to buy one?

Meh.

And that's how most of us communicate.

That's how most marketing is done.

That's how most sales is done. And

that's how most of us communicate interpersonally. We say what we do, we

interpersonally. We say what we do, we say how we're different or how we're better, and we expect some sort of behavior, a purchase, a vote, something like that. Here's our new law firm.

like that. Here's our new law firm.

Uh we have the best lawyers with the biggest clients. We have, you know, we

biggest clients. We have, you know, we always perform for our clients. Do

business with us. Here's our new car. It

gets great gas mileage. It has, you know, leather seats. Buy our car. But

it's uninspiring. Here's how Apple actually communicates.

Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.

quo. We believe in thinking differently.

The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly.

We just happen to make great computers.

Want to buy one?

Totally different, right? You're ready

to buy a computer from me. All I did was reverse the order of the information.

People don't buy what you do, people buy why you do it. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. This

explains why every single person in this room is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple.

But we're also perfectly comfortable buying an MP3 player from Apple, or a phone from Apple, or a DVR from Apple.

But as I said before, Apple's just a computer company. There's nothing that

computer company. There's nothing that distinguishes them structurally from any of their competitors. Their competitors

are all equally qualified to make all of these products. In fact, they tried.

these products. In fact, they tried.

Okay. I hope that was somewhat easy to watch. Sorry about the audio.

watch. Sorry about the audio.

Um but essentially what he's saying is start with your why.

And obviously this is something that will take probably a while for you to figure out unless you already have your why. But your why when it comes to

why. But your why when it comes to content and being on social media is the lens in which you make decisions and the reason why you do what you do. The

reason why you make content. Or if

you're an artist, the reason why you make art. The reason why you even want

make art. The reason why you even want to build a platform. Because simply

saying out loud to your audience like, "I just want to get followers." is not compelling enough of a reason. And when

you really nail down your why, nothing else matters. Like the strategy doesn't really matter. The video format doesn't really matter. If you have a compelling enough story about why you

want to do something, that's ultimately like what will attract people to you. And I really like his example at the end about how like because Apple has nailed that down, they can sell anything.

Um they can sell just not just computers, but phones, MP3 players, whatever it might be. And that's how I I with like creators. If you can nail down your why, then you can talk about anything. Like

you don't have to just niche into one very specific topic in order to grow your audience.

People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

All right, the second thing that you need is your thesis.

Think like an author. What could you write a book about based on all of your life experiences, even if it all you've done is go to high school and then you dropped

out and then that's it, right?

What could you write a book about? What

are the very specific things about your life that give you like an interesting claim to make. Because to me, people always say like, "Oh my god, I don't know how to come up with enough

content ideas to post like every single day for 30 days. Like that's 30 different ideas." To me, if you just

different ideas." To me, if you just have one strong thesis, you can build an entire brand off of that.

So here are some examples, right? Some

like popular personal brands um built off of one thesis. So

the biggest example to me is James Clear with Atomic Habits. How many of you guys have read Atomic Habits?

A lot of people here. I personally don't know much about James Clear as an individual, but I have read his book.

And because of that, I trust him when it comes to his learnings, his teachings about productivity. That's why he can I

about productivity. That's why he can I think he has like one of the top newsletters. Um that's why he can do

newsletters. Um that's why he can do that because he has that one thesis that he chose to make popular. He didn't even have to

make popular. He didn't even have to invent it. Like I don't know if he

invent it. Like I don't know if he invented the the ideas that he has in these books, but he found them, he curated them, and then he popularized them. And because of that, he has the

them. And because of that, he has the authority to do these things. So like

for example, what specific things is James Clear known for? I bet you you can answer that question, right? So what

would it be for you? What is X person known for? What would that be for you

known for? What would that be for you based on what you know best and what you can popularize?

Yeah. What does it take that you can popularize? Here's some examples of some

popularize? Here's some examples of some creators that I look up to or I know like um Mel Robbins is really popular. She

created a theory, the Let Them Theory, and then she wrote a book about it, and now it's in every single airport, every single thing, and she is an authority.

She was already, but she is now even more of an authority when it comes to relationships.

Um [snorts] Whitney over here, she had this theory about how people become famous, and I remember I talked to her about this like right when she started making content,

and I was like, "That's a really compelling theory. You should completely

compelling theory. You should completely You should just drive that, and you should just popularize it." And she did.

And now she has like a whole business built off of her one theory about how to become famous. And then Hayes over here,

become famous. And then Hayes over here, this is a theory that she's run with her whole life about the six types of besties that you can have, and she made a video about it, it did well, and now

it becomes a recurring language that she uses in her videos. So when she talks about specific relationship things or like she has an advice column, so she'll read um like a letter from someone asking for

advice about something, she will reference her own language, her own dictionary that she made, and that makes her an authority because she literally invented it. And now I think in those

invented it. And now I think in those terms as well, in terms of bestie.

Now the third thing you need is your backstory. Your backstory is

backstory. Your backstory is the journey that you're on, the journey that you've been going through. So um if you look at like these very classic

storytelling charts, you are where you are right now. There are places that you want to be in the future, but there's also places that you came from. And most

people when they make content, they haven't really defined those places yet, right? Like you grew up how? How did How

right? Like you grew up how? How did How did you grow up? Or what um beliefs did you used to have that you no longer have?

What transformation did you go through when you decided you wanted to quit your job or drop out or whatever story it is you are on?

What have you learned in doing so?

Um and the important thing is that you connect your backstory to your why.

So here's my example. My backstory, as I kind of mentioned before, is that I've been making content since I was like 10.

I've just always loved it. Like I've

loved filming, I've loved editing, I've loved doing all of it. And for me, I think the reason why I love doing it is because

YouTube was the place where I could look up to people that looked like me. Like there

was so much more Asian American representation on YouTube than I'd watch all these people's videos before you know there was in movies or whatever it might be.

And that connects to my why because why am I up here teaching this? Why am I so passionate about content creation and personal branding? Why do I do this for

personal branding? Why do I do this for a living? It's because I think that

a living? It's because I think that every content creator, even if you end up with 10,000 followers or a million followers, every content creator

has the ability to represent some sort of model for somebody else that's younger than them. And to me, that's really powerful, and to me, I love helping people tell their story for that

very reason. So that's kind of like my

very reason. So that's kind of like my backstory, that's part of how I tie in my why.

Now the last thing you need is your immediate goal.

So this is a bit more like taking all the three components you have and then breaking it down into just one smaller thing that you can talk about right now.

So what are you currently working on?

What it It needs to be quantifiable, and you need to be able to give live updates on it. So this could be your journey to

on it. So this could be your journey to starting a business, your journey to building a community, your journey your your one art project that you're making right now. Um and the reason being is an

right now. Um and the reason being is an uncertain result paired with clear vision and optimism makes you really easy to back. You've probably seen like

stories series like this on Instagram like day one of doing blah blah blah, day two of doing blah blah blah. The

reason why is because when you set forth a vision and you say, "I'm going to go for this, and you can watch me if you want," you're able to like get a lot of people

backing you and more invested in your story.

So these are the main components of personal branding, the four things that I want you to really like journal about, think about, um and figure out for yourself.

Here's an example. So this is Maggie Sellers. Has anyone seen Maggie Sellers

Sellers. Has anyone seen Maggie Sellers before on TikTok?

I love her. Um but she has worked in like VC and consumer brands for a long time. She talks a lot about it a lot

time. She talks a lot about it a lot about it. She's very educational in her

about it. She's very educational in her content, but she's also talked about the misogyny and the hate that she faces from people in the industry she works in because it's primarily male-dominated.

And so what she did was she [snorts] built a brand called Hot Smart Rich, and it's very clear that her why is to empower women to build their empires the same way she's building hers.

Her thesis that she can go out there and she can um prove through her own actions, but also through her community that she's built, is that we can be hot,

smart, and rich. We can do it all. And

that's something that can then be very easy to back. If you resonate with her in any way or if you've experienced any of the same things that she's experienced, you will watch her and you

will want to hear what she has to say.

Okay. Now that you have the personal brand, how do I post? How do I grow? What are

the actual like specific tactics that I should think about? My philosophy

is that you should not overthink your strategy early on. To me, I came up with this

early on. To me, I came up with this metaphor. It's like It's like food It's

metaphor. It's like It's like food It's like seasoning on food, right? Like

seasoning can make something taste great, but it's not like it It's not going to Okay, I don't know if this metaphor works. But it's like like

metaphor works. But it's like like [laughter] if you don't cook it well, it's still not edible.

And so one thing that I suggest you don't do, that a lot of people do, is overanalyze other people's success.

Because when you look up a very successful creator, and you look at their most recent your videos, and you're like, "Oh, she's big because she did this, this, this, and this," you are forgetting of the backstory of how she

grew originally. Like a lot of times

grew originally. Like a lot of times when I look at someone that I like want to like [snorts] research or something, I'll go on TikTok and I'll sort by popular and see which of their videos

actually blew up and gained their like initial traction and their initial following because that's actually a lot more telling than like the most recent videos that they've made.

So don't overanalyze too much. To me,

there's three core fundamental things that you need to get down. Like you need to have these straight um as you become a creator.

The first one is output. This one is very like very common of a tip. Um but you need to embrace social media as a lifestyle.

Like embrace creating content as a lifestyle. I like to say that every

lifestyle. I like to say that every creator at their core is a writer, even if they're not physically writing. Like

I don't physically write things down, I don't physically script things for my content, but I have an outlet that I use to push my ideas out. So for me, I use

TikTok. I'm very like imperfect with my

TikTok. I'm very like imperfect with my TikTok, and I just say whatever I want on there, and then I like perfect it after afterwards, but you need your outlet. Whether that's your journal,

outlet. Whether that's your journal, your notebook, um your your TikTok or your Instagram, your story, maybe it's your close friend story. You need somewhere to like put

story. You need somewhere to like put out the imperfect ideas until you can perfect them.

Now, ways to increase output. My biggest

suggestion is to post every single day, just once, because to me that's how you actually embrace the lifestyle where you have to then wake up every single day in the morning and think, "Shoot, what do I

post today?" And this gets you out of

post today?" And this gets you out of that funk of like perfection because you have to get something out by the end of the day. I tend to recommend starting

the day. I tend to recommend starting with 7 days just so that it's less intimidating. And if you can get past 7

intimidating. And if you can get past 7 days, I promise you you'll feel a lot more confident and you'll have a lot more ideas at the end of the 7 days. The

second thing that I love to champion is accountability group chats. I originally

started because someone threw me into an accountability group chat where if I didn't post every day, I had to oh I owed like $10 per post or something. And

that's what got me originally started.

And then at the third thing is to really look through your entire creative process and identify every single piece of friction

and figure out a way to eliminate it.

So, this is like how I've broken down the creative process for most people.

You start with an idea and then you have to film it and then you have to edit it and then you have to post it.

And between each of those steps, there's so many things that can stop you from actually getting something out. So, the

idea to filming is one of the biggest ones. Some examples of the friction that

ones. Some examples of the friction that you might face is there's an untouched list of content ideas that you don't know what to do with, that you don't really resonate with anymore.

Um another one is like your filming setup. You have an idea, but you're you

setup. You have an idea, but you're you don't have your makeup on or you don't have your camera with you or your it's too loud, your roommates are home. Like

there's so many excuses to stop you from filming. One thing I always do is have

filming. One thing I always do is have like a static filming setup that you don't have to move around, that you don't have to unplug. I leave everything plugged in so that if I'm ever inspired

in the moment I can turn on the camera, I can turn on the mic, and I can just start talking. So, you really don't want

start talking. So, you really don't want to overthink it. When I first started out, I also had like like I put my makeup and a mirror like right next to my desk so that I could always

go and like get ready if I needed to.

So, I had literally no excuse. I just

made it so I couldn't like I couldn't give myself an excuse. From filming to editing, um there's a lot with like organization there. Like your unedited and

there. Like your unedited and disorganized footage, for me like I am really bad at vlogs because I'm really bad at organizing my footage to then put into CapCut or put into whatever and

edit it.

From editing to posting, that's a lot if you already have the video, a lot of it just comes down to your fear of being perceived, of flopping, or sometimes going viral. I know some people like are

going viral. I know some people like are scared of going viral.

The second thing is your lighting, sound, and editing. So,

this is like the basics of what you need. I don't

think you need to get equipment. I don't

think you need to be perfect whatsoever.

But, there is still a bare minimum that needs to be reached. So, a lot of times when somebody comes to me asking for advice like, "Oh, can you give me some tips on how to grow on social media?"

social media?" I look at their page and their content like it doesn't matter what they're talking about or like what strategy they chose to go with, what formats they

chose to do um because their bare minimum isn't even there yet. Like their

bare minimum watchability of the video isn't even there yet.

So, All right. So, here's two examples

All right. So, here's two examples um of videos with similar concepts and I'm going to play both and you tell me which one you think went viral.

And it really doesn't have to do with like what they're talking about. I'm

only going to show like the first like 10 15 seconds.

[laughter] Okay, that's example one and then this one's example two.

Okay.

Does anyone have a vote for number one being the one that went viral?

Okay, what about number two?

Yeah. So,

[laughter] these are very minimally edited videos.

Neither of them look that crazily like like high effort, but there's just like some core bare minimum principles that need to be improved in the first one to get to the level of the second one,

right? And this second one got like half

right? And this second one got like half half a million views. This one was made by Charles back there, so we didn't actually post it, but um like you can you can tell, right? There's like just like a slight difference in lighting,

there's a slight difference in speed and like how much he was cutting. He like

left his pauses in there that make it a lot less interesting and if you saw that on your feed, you probably would swipe regardless of what he's talking about just because of the like core the the

basics of what he did.

Um here's also another like case study that I experienced recently. So, don't ever don't underestimate the power of the right setting.

So, this is an example of one of the UGC creators that I worked with at Clue Lee.

And she posted a lot of it. She posted

like two to three times a day for a few months probably 2 months before she hit traction. And for context, the videos

traction. And for context, the videos she was making were like pretty much all about corporate, like working in corporate and like advice about working in corporate, stuff like

that. And you can see a dramatic

that. And you can see a dramatic difference. So, these are this is when

difference. So, these are this is when she first started posting and a lot of it is like directly talking to the camera with this curtain thing in the background

and she wasn't really breaking like 10,000 views.

And then eventually we told her to like change her setting to look more like she works in corporate because she was talking about working in corporate, she

was telling stories about it, but to me this background looks a bit like you're on vacation or like you're in a hotel or like you're in some beachy area. And the

moment she switched to sitting at her computer sitting at a desk with a computer in front of her, she started breaking 10K like every single video and

even just like her posture, like the way she was talking became more confident and stuff. And so when you look at this,

and stuff. And so when you look at this, like your setting really is part of the character that you play online. So,

don't ever don't underestimate it. I

don't think it's everything. Like I

personally don't really think about it.

Like I'll film with the white wall behind me, that's fine. But, it can really help and it can really crack something if there's like a specific story you're going for something.

Okay, and then the third thing, which is the last is your energy and your charisma. I truly believe that like a

charisma. I truly believe that like a creator with great charisma and great energy does not need any strategy to like do well with content creation. It

single-handedly ups your chances no matter what topic you're talking about.

Here's an example of this.

Um Okay, so like [laughter] to me like that's not a topic that I mean, I actually would watch this, but like to me it's all about his charisma.

It was just him standing there with this certain like energy to him that makes you want to stay and watch and like support him in his happy um experience that he's about to

witness.

And that video got like almost 30 million views. So, that's like an

million views. So, that's like an example of energy and charisma.

Um I would also I would also say like going back to these two like there's a difference in his energy in terms of like there's like an enthusiasm, right? Like he wants to

enthusiasm, right? Like he wants to share something with you, whereas in this video, it's kind of just like I'm being forced to film and I'm reading from a script type of energy. So, there

is like a difference there.

Now, some tips that um to improve kind of this energy on camera, this charisma is when you're talking, talk to the friend that shares your enthusiasm for

the topic you want to talk about. So,

let's say you're nerding out about I don't know, like ClawBot which is what Charles is talking [clears throat] about. Um

about. Um don't talk to the person that in your life that has no idea what that is. Talk

to the person that's equally nerding out about it because the way you talk to them is way more enthusiastic, even if it is a boring topic.

Now, the second thing I'll say is everybody knows how to talk to the camera. Like I guarantee you you know

camera. Like I guarantee you you know how to talk to the camera because you do it on your close friend story, you do it every day when you're in a meeting. Like

when you're in a meeting on Google Meet, Zoom, you're literally talking to a camera, right? There's nothing different

camera, right? There's nothing different about it.

But, when you're filming for the for like on camera for content, you get scared by the task of getting somebody's attention. So, I like to think of it

attention. So, I like to think of it like um like think about your close friends story or one of your friends and what they post on close friends, right?

They're very much their own personality when they're making this random vlog, let's say that they're posting, because they know exactly who's going to watch it. They know it's their friends

it. They know it's their friends watching it.

Um and that's [clears throat] how you should reflect like that's the type of energy you should have when you're on camera. Um whereas when you're filming

camera. Um whereas when you're filming on camera and all you have is like a script and you're like, "Oh gosh, I hope this goes viral." You're really nervous

about like the the idea of it potentially going viral that you are not actually talking to a single person.

You're just talking to talk and you're just talking to read from a script. So,

assume that you have that person's attention already. Assume all you are

attention already. Assume all you are looking for is one person's attention and go with that type of vibe. And I

promise like this will make sense once you experience it for the first time, once you do it and you start to see your confidence kind of increase, you'll understand what I mean. But you have to kind of like unlock it. And sometimes

there are days where you won't have it.

There are days where you will.

Now, the last thing that I just want to end off on is you don't have to be great at everything. You don't have to perfect

at everything. You don't have to perfect every little thing about content creation.

Um to me, of all these points, like number one, number two, number three, output is 100% um necessary. Lighting, sound, and

um necessary. Lighting, sound, and editing like to the bare minimum is necessary. Charisma is is going to help

necessary. Charisma is is going to help you no matter what you do, but if you really say, "I don't have charisma. I'm

not charismatic." If you really like don't have it, you don't have to. You

just have to be good at one thing and you just have to pick what that one thing is for you. So, this is what I like to call your key variable. And you

just need to find what your key variable is. Your key variable is the specific

is. Your key variable is the specific component of your video that determines whether or not it will succeed.

So, every different type of creator has their own key variable. For a lot of people, charisma is that thing, right?

For like the influencers or the people that yap on TikTok and just go viral telling any story, a lot of the times it's like partially their charisma that does it. But there's so many other

does it. But there's so many other things. So, for humor, if you're a

things. So, for humor, if you're a comedy creator, um you can post any kind of video, right? It could be cinematic, it could be not cinematic, it could be educational, it could be not educational, but at the end of the day

what your viewers care about and what they will determine to be a good video versus a not good video from your page is how funny your joke is, how humorous you made that video. For me, an example,

I make like educational content. So, I

don't really care about how cinematic it is, how good it looks, how funny it is.

All I care about is that what I'm talking about is interesting and that I'm explaining it clearly and that I'm making a like complex idea simple. Like

those are the things that when I do that well, my video does well. When I don't do it well, my video does not do well.

And that's what I chose as like my playground, because my audience is there for my like education or my ideas. So,

that's what I care about. But let's say you're more of an artist and you want to um put like your films online, then your audience is probably an

audience that really appreciates like a good shot or a good edit or a good effect or whatever it might be. And so,

for you, you actually do need to put effort into that. Maybe you don't have to make it educational, maybe you don't have to make it funny, but you do need to make it look good and the better it looks, the better it'll do. But you kind

of choose what playground you are running on.

That's all. You got this. And remember

you are always an expert to somebody else and they want to HEAR FROM YOU.

[screaming] YEAH, Q&A?

YEAH. SURE.

YES.

We have a question. I guess like do you think that being a content creator, making content could ever become oversaturated? Cuz you say that you are

oversaturated? Cuz you say that you are an expert to somebody else, but at the same time like at a point is it too much of like too many people making content?

I think like you can always make that argument. Like I think like even

argument. Like I think like even in 2021, 1 year after TikTok became like this big thing, people were already saying like, "Oh, it's too saturated."

But I really don't think so. Like I

think like technically speaking there's like a certain amount of viewers in the on on planet Earth that can like watch content, but I don't think that is a

factor that will make that will make it like that will impact your ability to go from zero to like a million followers.

Like maybe there's a difference on the large scale, but I think anyone in this room could get to that point regardless of how many people are like trying at it because of your like individuality,

there are people out there that like would watch you over someone else. So,

like an example is like with fitness, there's plenty of people interested in fitness. There's plenty of people that

fitness. There's plenty of people that go to the gym every day, but everyone has their own approach to it. Some

people are bodybuilders, some people are trying to just like feel good. And both

like in those examples, those people would create completely different content and have completely different audiences even though they're both technically like fitness creators.

First of all, love your content. I'm so

excited to be here. Um thank you. My I

like dabbled in content creation and kind of had a little spike and then I've gotten distracted, so this is great to get me back. But the work I've done so far has been primarily around like love and relationships and like really

theoretical concepts about human connection. And I thought a lot about

connection. And I thought a lot about like if I do want to grow it into like a side hustle or something that's more sustainable, it does really help to have something that's like more niche or grounded in like products that you could actually like I don't know like what

kind of brand deals do you want to work with? And like if I'm making videos

with? And like if I'm making videos about relationships, it's like kind of hard to find products related to that.

So, I guess I'm just curious, yeah, your thoughts on that like general conundrum of like do you think about product placement and brand deals as you're thinking about these things or just like picking a niche that feels really

practical? If that makes sense. Yeah. Um

practical? If that makes sense. Yeah. Um

I think like personally, I don't think about product placements and stuff, but that's because my core like monetization is not through brand deals. I think

there can certainly be like ways to optimize for that, but to me like the best creators to work with for brand deals are the ones that like truly

influence their audience. Like truly to me it's about like are you a real person that your audience watches as opposed to just like a billboard that gets thrown

onto their screen. So, like

it's funny like once TikTok became a thing, like on YouTube, everyone knew what YouTubers they were watching. Like

you could talk about YouTubers with your friends. But once TikTok became a thing,

friends. But once TikTok became a thing, there's like so many influencers out there that we probably all recognize, but we have no idea what their name is, we don't know anything about them. To

me, the like thing that can set you apart and like can allow you to charge more for a brand deal is your ability to actually like have people name you and

like know something about you. And that

goes back to the personal branding of you kind of talking about your why. Like

there's a way where you could expand beyond just love and relationships by like talking about your own story, maybe talking about like the um how like you could seed in love and

relationships as part of your journey to whatever your bigger like journey or goal or why is and that makes it so that people can still kind of like watch you for that but also for anything else about your

life.

Yeah. My question on that, so a mistake I've made in the past and I I know a lot a lot of people make this mistake as well is my goal is to get X follower counts.

My goal is to get X subscriber counts.

And I've been in that like I I made that mistake in the past and like I've kind of adjusted things from then on, but like I'm kind of curious from your perspective, how do you set goals and how do you review them on what's your

process for reviewing them?

Yeah. I would say I'm not the like I'm not super tactical myself when it comes to like, "Oh, I want to hit X followers or anything like that." To me, I think

like a better metric or a better like goal is to find concepts that resonate. So, like for me on TikTok, this is why I don't really

care what I post. I don't care too much about views. Obviously it like affects

about views. Obviously it like affects me, but like for me, I just kind of put any idea out there and my goal is that like my goal the thing that would make

me happy is for people to comment on that video and say, "Oh my gosh, I feel this so much." Or "Oh my gosh, you put into words something that I like couldn't really figure out, but now like whatever." Like those types of

whatever." Like those types of compliments of people resonating with it, to me that's where like the impact is made and that's where you can like then take that concept and make it bigger. You can make a series of it or

bigger. You can make a series of it or you can like elaborate on it or whatever. So, for me it's more about

whatever. So, for me it's more about like the comment section, the saves.

Um that's what I care about.

Yeah. My question is if you're trying to figure out your why, what would you like suggest people do? Are there any journal prompts that you did? Mm.

I didn't do any journal prompts, but I would say like really like think about for one like every

person like has their own Okay, there's that like quote or something about how um um like every day you have the same I don't know I'm making this up but like every

day you have the same like 95 95% of your thoughts are the same every day or something like that, right? Like every

person is kind of made up of um very consistent thoughts and everyone has their own like trajectory or things that they care about. Like when I was younger

all I cared about was like getting into college. Like that's all I had in my

college. Like that's all I had in my mind for a long time like in high school. But right now like what is that

school. But right now like what is that for you and like what has been consistent in your life um up until this point. So like for me one

of those things was always the like media and the representation. Like I

always I noticed that when I was 10 I still care about it now and so for me that's something that like kind of pulls a thread like for everything that I've done and that's

like like when I first realized that I like looked back at all of the things that I've done in the past or have been interested in and realized oh they all make sense now like because of my why.

So it really comes from like looking into your past and then also like looking into what you do right now. Like

why do you actually do it? Um why did you choose to join Versey? Like what

were the reasonings behind all these things and eventually you'll get there.

But I don't have like a specific problem. Sorry. No that answers it.

problem. Sorry. No that answers it.

Yeah. This is really great. I'm curious

if any of your advice changes or if you have any real specific advice if you're trying to create content exclusively to sell one product. So not like brand deals but like specifically to sell product.

Do you care about building your brand or is it just Just sales. Just sales?

the end goal at least, yeah. So not

followers per se. Yeah, I would say for sales specifically like what matters is cracking like a specific format. Um like

a format of video that can go viral that when you post it again it goes viral again and when you post it again it goes viral again. Like it's different if you

viral again. Like it's different if you want like a company brand where you have you know your why, your mission, like all that but if it's just sales then it's like how do I demo this product in

a way like I would look to TikTok shop videos for that because they are very successful at making sales and like if you go to the top TikTok shop brands you can also figure out what are their top

selling videos and you'll see consistencies in them. I would recommend those.

When you post right now are you normally posting like some I think you're using TikTok for as like a journal or your output but um will you just post the same thing across

all the platforms or do you feel like there's certain things where you're like no I'm going to like not post this here Yeah.

I mean I recommend posting similar things on each platform. I don't do it but most people I think should because it's just more efficient that way. Like

basically the the like hole that I fell down which I'm fine with is actually I chose it is that like I have always made like lower quality just like yap videos.

Um that's how I started on TikTok and whenever I would try to expand to Instagram I just like auto posted everything onto Instagram. It never

really did well. It never really like hit anything. Maybe it's because I was

hit anything. Maybe it's because I was using an auto poster which was like maybe that got flagged or something. I

don't know. But it never really hit for me um and I always just cared about my TikTok cuz I liked the platform. To me

TikTok feels more invisible in a in a way where like not everyone you know will run into it unless they truly are interested in it. So I don't mind like whoever sees my stuff on TikTok as much

as Instagram.

Um and then what happened was that I got really inspired by some of my like creator friends that are more cinematic and I bought a camera and I got a mic and I was like you know what I'm going to try this Instagram thing and I tried

it and my first like few videos did really well and because of that I had to like carry on this like cinematic whatever. So um now what I do my flow is

whatever. So um now what I do my flow is like I post anything on TikTok and what I care about is the idea. So um I come up with a random idea and it's like really like energetic in the moment so

then I film it right then and there and if it does well then I like remake that video on Instagram in a cinematic way.

But that's like not really efficient towards building both platforms so I don't necessarily recommend it.

Um I guess like how much are you using AI? Do you come up with all the ideas

AI? Do you come up with all the ideas yourself or like do you use AI to like go through the drafts or like I don't use AI for my ideas. I don't think like I think there's definitely I'm not too familiar. Like I think there are

familiar. Like I think there are definitely people that do it and do it well. I think there's certain prompts.

well. I think there's certain prompts.

Like when it comes to like selling a product or something I think there's like some good prompts that you can do to like really get the pain points. My

biggest recommendation would not be to write the script with it but to like come up with resonating concepts. So

like if you have a specific like if you're telling the story about you starting a business let's say. Um

I would like maybe tell that to ChatGPT and ask it like what kind of people would be most interested in this? Like

really get like down into like audience discovery and audience pain points through it. But I personally like

through it. But I personally like wouldn't write it with AI.

Wait. In the short time you have but I was going to ask you if you if this is full time for you right now and if it's not or if it wasn't at some point like yeah how you make time cuz I just like

started a new job at a startup 3 weeks ago and I haven't posted in the last 3 weeks and I'm like okay this is my I'm getting back with today and I'm like okay how am I going to do both cuz I

really want to do both. Yeah, I have struggled with this for a long time because of jobs, school, like whatever.

Um I'm probably not the biggest authority on it because I'm actually not that consistent. Um but like some

that consistent. Um but like some recommendations like one thing that I did when I was in school was like I was not surrounded by anyone that like even like thought about content this way.

Like everyone that I was around was just using like TikTok for um entertainment and so I like for me it's all about like the brain space. Like for

me to come up with an idea that I then feel so excited about to post onto TikTok I have to like be thinking about it already or have to surround myself in an environment. So for me I curated that

an environment. So for me I curated that environment at school. I like signed up one there was one semester I signed up for pretty much only media classes even though my major was not media and I was

like I'm just going to surround myself in brand marketing, social media concepts, whatever and that gave me like a frequent flow of concepts cuz for me

it's less how do I make the time to film or how do I make the time to edit? It's

like how do I make the how do I even come up with the ideas if I'm only thinking about work all day. So yeah, I think it's like environment, like people.

Um my biggest source of ideas comes from like working with creators. Like I'll have a call with one

creators. Like I'll have a call with one and I will have explained something in a certain way that I really liked and then I'll like immediately translate that to a video.

Do you have any specific recommendations for like artist designers? Because I'm a designer and like I don't have that much

output or like final result and lots of parts of the process are like so I guess like specific that there's not that much to

say it feels like sometimes.

What like what would your ideal brand be or like what would you want to be known for? Is it like your designs or is it your journey as a designer?

I guess more of the designs. I have a big following on Pinterest but like I've never put my face on there. It's just

the work itself so I'm kind of like working backwards of like how can I cuz the work itself doesn't grow on any other platform except Pinterest but that doesn't necessarily get me where I'm

trying to get at.

Mhm. Yeah, I mean I'd love to like talk about it like after. Um

but I think like there's different like I think it comes down to like different formats. Like you could do like part

formats. Like you could do like part one, part two, part three, like progress updates. You could tell a story behind

updates. You could tell a story behind it. There's one artist that I follow on

it. There's one artist that I follow on Instagram that I really like who I don't know what she looks like. I don't all I know is her like back to the key variable thing. It does come down to the

variable thing. It does come down to the to the art. Like it does to a degree come down to the end product if what you want to be known for is the design and the style and the skill.

Um so that is important but like for her she would film the process of her like doing a painting and she would just like tell tell this like very eloquent story about her like childhood or about or

about like the meaning behind it in the background as like a voice over. Like

that was like just one example but we can brainstorm sometime. Yeah.

I have two questions. Um first what tools do you use? And and when you're saying like you kind of went through the most popular um videos if you like saw something similar

to your videos what tools do you use for that? Um

that? Um yeah.

Yeah, um that I literally just use TikTok. So I don't love for my own

TikTok. So I don't love for my own content I don't love doing research from other creators. I think it's a strat

other creators. I think it's a strat like it depends on what you want. It's

certainly a strategy. Um but for me like I'd rather just like have my own ideas and just put my own things out there. I'm not really chasing growth as

there. I'm not really chasing growth as like rapidly. Um but yeah, I just go on if

rapidly. Um but yeah, I just go on if you're if you do want to analyze someone's success um like for example who's it like okay like let's talk about

like Alex Earl, right? She's like a very big influencer. Right now you could go

big influencer. Right now you could go to her most recent 10 videos and you could analyze every single thing about it, every single edit, every single like topic that she chooses to talk about and you could be like, "Okay, that's her

content strategy." But, what you would

content strategy." But, what you would would not have gotten out of that is the context of how she even got her following in the first place. So, I

always go on TikTok, I like click the drop down and sort by popular instead of recent and I look at like their top videos and like a lot of the times their

top videos were from like 2022, 2021 and you get a sense of like how they actually grew their following. And

that's not to say you need to replicate it, but it gives you a lot more context of like where they're coming from.

I have another question. Yeah. If

someone wants to post consistently for 7 days, yeah, is there a way to do so?

Um [laughter] Yeah, there's a challenge that I like to run called it's just a 7-day challenge.

Um my thought was to do it every like start of the month. So, I did it in February. I might do it again in March.

February. I might do it again in March.

But, I will if I do I will put it in braces. Like

braces. Like Yeah. Do you have like a basic setup you

Yeah. Do you have like a basic setup you recommend for people who who don't want to get too deep in editing, but want to have like captions or like usually trim out parts of the video that you want to like

So, editing specifically?

Yeah, like the the lowest possible easiest way of doing TikTok.

TikTok is the best. Everyone like most people go on CapCut. I am such an advocate of filming directly in TikTok and just editing. If you just want to do

like yeah, basic captions, basic trimming because um to technically okay, like we could talk about the editing, but like most people they film on their phone, right? Their

camera roll. The reason I don't like doing that is because if I want to do multiple takes or if I want to stop the video and then like keep going, it always becomes another file, right? Like

it becomes another thing. The reason I think TikTok and we did I experienced this with my UGC creators at Clue Lee like when we first started working with them and training them, most of them

were going on their camera roll and it would take them so long to make a video because they have to record everything, get the perfect takes, then they have to find every single clip in their camera roll, put it into some editing platform

and then put it together and pick whatever. On TikTok you do that while

whatever. On TikTok you do that while you're filming. So, to me I like if you

you're filming. So, to me I like if you go and watch any of my TikTok videos, you'll see me cutting every like five words because I don't know what I'm going to say next. Like I just say a sentence, I stop, I think for like one

more second, I say another sentence, I stop, I think for one more second. So,

like I basically create it while I'm going and to me that's like the fastest way to make a video.

And then you can add captions and stuff, too. I literally have so many videos in

too. I literally have so many videos in my camera roll that I've never posted.

Yeah, because you don't even like that goes back to the friction. Like you just don't want to organize it into your actual project. Like TikTok will solve

actual project. Like TikTok will solve that.

Hi, I'm Audrey. Thank you so much for the workshop once again. I'm curious.

So, you said that it's important to identify your why.

So, my question is how do you communicate your why while posting about something else? I can give you a more

something else? I can give you a more concrete example to talk about.

So, I think my why is I'm very curious and because of that I'm working on a side project to like get better at marketing and build how people do that.

So, I imagine most of my content will be about my product and I'll be building it in public. How do I constantly communicate the curiosity in my why through it all?

Yeah, I think I would want to know even further like curious about what, why are you curious? Yeah. Um do you embrace

you curious? Yeah. Um do you embrace learning? Like what exactly

learning? Like what exactly that thing is.

Um because to me like if you just say like if you said in front of a room of people like, "Hey guys, like I'm curious." Like that's not

going to get people invested. So, I

think you would need to go a step further into like what makes you curious? What are you trying to change around the world that like makes you curious about specific things like marketing.

Um but to like answer the question of like infusing it, I think there are so many ways. For starters,

many ways. For starters, introduce like make that intro video where you actually go out and say everything and do that a lot. Do that

every like three months or something because you can never like remind your audience too many times. Um people forget a lot and like

times. Um people forget a lot and like you will see like creators that like um I won't pull it up right now, but there's this girl on TikTok Reagan who has this series. It's like a TV show

series where it's like day one of starting my over my whole entire life. I

broke up with my boyfriend of five years like blah blah blah. She has that same script for every single video for like the first six months of her page. Um

and she was just reminding her audience every time and that's okay. And then

on that point I would say like there's always ways to like infuse it. Like even

if you're giving tips like um here are six things that you should know about marketing. Number one, number two,

marketing. Number one, number two, number three. And then like in your

number three. And then like in your examples you can say like as somebody who is blah blah blah blah blah, I found this one really interesting because blah blah blah. Like you can always find a

blah blah. Like you can always find a way to relate back to yourself.

Okay, awesome. Thank you. Yeah.

Cool.

Great. Thanks for coming to this workshop.

Woo!