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Confessions of a Content Creator - How to Build Intentional Community Online
138 Plays1 year ago
This episode we’re getting the inside scoop on the realities of starting a content creation career. We’re interviewing our own cohost LD. LD, or leidi as you may know her on TikTok, shares how she got started on the platform, how she found her niche, and built a relationship with her audience. Plus LD shares practical tools, software, and advice for anyone who might be curious on how to have a “career” in this new industry.
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Pretty Invested Media and this related information does not constitute professional or financial advice of any kind (including business, employment, investment advisory, accounting, tax, and/or legal advice). Advice from a suitably qualified professional should always be sought in relation to any particular matter or circumstance.
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Transcript
Introduction to LD's Journey
00:00:11
Speaker
Hi guys, welcome back to Pretty Invested. We are in a different setting today. I kind of like this vibe, but let us know what you think. We have a special treat because we're actually going to be interviewing LD.
00:00:25
Speaker
And mostly on her role as a new content creator, what it's like getting started, actual numbers and resources. So this, I feel like a lot of people are content creators, but not don't necessarily share everything. So I'm very grateful that you're hopping on to give us the real download.
Niche and Audience Insights
00:00:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's been.
00:00:50
Speaker
Honestly, it's been a lot of fun. It's been way less scary than I thought it would be. I've been making content predominantly on TikTok for like a little over a year now, I would say. I've been taking it seriously since like September and it's just been such a wild and like actually beautiful journey to create an audience and be able to interact with them.
00:01:15
Speaker
And I feel really lucky in that they have taught me a lot of things about myself. So I feel like sometimes it's like a one sided interaction, but my niche has effectively been around eldest daughter, like first gen woman in finance, like grappling with my identity and kind of like healing out loud and
00:01:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's been wild, but it's been really, really rewarding. Yeah, I feel like you also have a really great audience. It's really engaging. It's a very specific yet kind of broad niche.
Career Shift to TikTok
00:01:55
Speaker
So the first question is, what made you want to get into content creation? Did you always know that was something that you wanted to get into? I felt so creatively deprived.
00:02:07
Speaker
at my job, I think VC in particular, I felt like I wasn't really able to create things like a lot of VC, especially when you're in the junior phases has to do with sourcing relationship building, pitching internally. And like the only thing that you're ever really able to create is like investment memos. And those are few and far in between for you to get a deal to a point where you can actually like put a piece of writing together.
00:02:33
Speaker
And other than like getting ready, like getting dressed, going out in Miami, posing for the occasional Instagram photo, like I just really wasn't doing anything creatively fulfilling. And it's something that's always been super important to me. But I felt like I wasn't able to pay attention to it as a kid. Because like, you know, Eastern parents are like, you have to be a doctor, you have to be a lawyer, like it doesn't matter like so what you're good at drawing, so what you're good at blah, blah, blah, like that's a useless skill. So I really felt like
00:03:03
Speaker
I wanted to start putting stuff out into the ether on TikTok and I was like, who's going to see it, strangers? Like, okay, whatever. So it just was like very unscary to me. I would get super caffeinated. And my then boyfriend, now fiance, would be really busy with work. And like, he wouldn't be able to talk to me because he would have like his morning coffee and he would go work on his computer. And I'd have my morning coffee and be like,
00:03:29
Speaker
like I really want to talk but I don't want to bother him so I would just like have all these ideas and start making videos and eventually the draft started getting posted. What was your first video?
Going Viral and Facing Criticism
00:03:43
Speaker
Oh my first video. Or is it still up? It probably is. It was probably me just like voicing over an audio like this was like early TikTok where it was nothing and if like it was probably like my fourth video went really viral and it got like
00:03:59
Speaker
2 million views or something because people were mad that I was over lining my cupid's bow. And that was my first introduction to like, the scary kind of a common section. And I didn't really sleep well that night, but you just kind of get desensitized to it. So I just got more and more comfortable talking instead of doing the more fine
00:04:23
Speaker
flimsy, not so serious TikToks. I've always only been interested in having serious conversations even in real life with my friends. I'm bad at fluff. So was your first few TikToks similar to the type of category that you currently talk to? Has it evolved?
00:04:44
Speaker
I would say like the first few videos that I made speaking are still super, super similar to what I talk about today. Like one of my first well-performing videos where I was talking about something at length had to do with the fact that I think that 50-50 girls and sprinkle sprinkle girls are both like coming at the topic from like a place that makes sense to me. Like I can kind of meet them where they're at and I understand why they're both like
00:05:12
Speaker
saying that they believe in that particular way of life and relationships. So that did pretty well. And then I started to talk about my quitting journey, because I just felt like I was going to quit really soon. And I was like, this is a journey that I want to document. Like if no one watches it, then I'll be able to watch it back as like a video diary for myself. And people kind of start to join along for the journey. And then I eventually quit. And then people are watching me reinvent myself in real time. So it just kind of
00:05:42
Speaker
I ended up having more free time then. It just became like a thing. Yeah. So quitting. Did you know you wanted to be full-time content creation? No. I was like, oh, like this would be fun. But I never thought that it would be like a serious thing. And if anything, like the reason that I felt comfortable being so honest is because I felt like no one was watching.
00:06:08
Speaker
But over time you get more comfortable speaking to the camera. There are some growing pains with getting hate. There are growing pains with the way that the algorithm treats you in the beginning where your audience is 50% men. My audience right now is like 6% men or something like that. So in the beginning when
00:06:31
Speaker
Your algorithm is showing your stuff to anyone and everyone. It's kind of scary because people don't care about you. They don't know you, they'll say anything. It's predominantly trolls that are in your comments. It's like the Walmart parking lot of humanity is in your comment section. But over time, it started to turn into something really beautiful and almost nourishing.
00:06:58
Speaker
And that was when I was like, okay, I feel like I'm helping people. And that was where I was like, okay, like I really want to make this like at least a part time thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, how did you deal with the hate initially? Not well, as in like,
00:07:18
Speaker
I would go to bed anxious, I would wake up anxious. Like the first thing that I would do would be like check the comment section and then I would like see things that pissed me off and I would just get angry. But after a few months of that you just
00:07:33
Speaker
learn that no matter what you do like people are going to nitpick what you say and there are ways to be strategic about it if you can move past how it affects you emotionally and like really you shouldn't be offended by anything that people are saying in the comment section like it doesn't really matter
00:07:52
Speaker
And I can say this from like an evolved place. If I am causing someone to be upset at something that I said, then that's a good thing because I'm giving them food for thought. And it's almost like I'm making them digest a topic that they wouldn't have had to confront before. And that's a good thing. Or if someone disagrees with something that I said, then that helps me get closer to my truth in my head because I have to think about what they said. And I'm like,
00:08:17
Speaker
oh like I either see their point or no I really disagree with what they said and I'm gonna stick to my stance because XYZ so it just kind of helps us get closer to like our truths and yeah I would say I view the comment section as really just like a bouncing board and as something that is always energetically useful at this point but tactically
00:08:41
Speaker
I am now at a point with my understanding of the algorithm and engagement and human psychology and hate where I will sometimes say things in a way that's intentionally vague and it's kind of like I comment bait basically to make the algorithm like push it out like if I'm having a week where a lot of my videos aren't doing well in views like
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, like straight up like everyone does this if they say they don't do this, they're lying. Like I will say something a little salacious or I will be a little bit general in my wording so that people are like, well, but you didn't say that exactly right. And that hurts my feelings. So it, you know, like you have to learn to use it in your favor and you can't let it get you down. Yeah. And if you're
00:09:32
Speaker
If you don't make any statements, you try and appease everyone. That's not interesting, engaging content. It's sometimes more the provocative things that get people thinking that might get you more hate, but it'll also get you more engagement and start a dialogue. Cause if you're like always caveating, then you're, you're, you're, you can always caveat more like, except for this occasion, but the flat trigger and this, like this and that.
00:10:01
Speaker
you know, not all this, you know? So I think that makes sense. Do you have any tips for people who might be struggling with like the idea of getting hate comments on how you were able to reframe it and not be so bothered after a while?
Handling Negative Feedback
00:10:20
Speaker
I would say your audience will eventually find you so long as you keep putting content out there and you are putting content out there that you feel is authentic to yourself.
00:10:30
Speaker
There is a certain level of like self, I don't want to attribute it to like self worth, but there's a level of confidence that you need to have in yourself and in like knowing that your voice is your own. So if you feel like the things that you're saying are of worth, then who cares?
00:10:54
Speaker
if people are triggered by whatever it is that you're saying. And also hate is often a sign that you're doing something right. Like if you're doing something controversial that is giving people like a different way to think about things like
00:11:10
Speaker
there's often a reason that you're called to speak about a certain thing. A lot of the things that I talk about are controversial sometimes because I don't get the girl boss hype. I was sold the girl boss hype, I don't love the girl boss hype. And when I say that that was my experience and that it wasn't empowering to me, people will kind of jump on and they'll be like, oh, but like, you want women to be stay at home wives and like you want them to be worthless and blah, blah, blah, blah, and I'm like,
00:11:40
Speaker
No, not at all. I just found out that, like, that wasn't what I loved. And also, why do you think that being a stay-at-home wife is worthless? So it's just... I always find it worth it to say things that you think are controversial if you really, really believe in them. If you're a self-aware, like, ethical person. And right feminism is supposed to be the choice, you know? Yeah.
00:12:07
Speaker
I feel like you very much represent a shifting reaction to what was the girl boss narrative that was told for so long. And we're told that's the only way you could be a feminist. And the definition of feminism is to have choice and options. And it's great that we now are able to
00:12:32
Speaker
to shift that dialogue. And I feel like I've seen that reflected in the content in TikTok that's happening. And I mean, you could caveat. No one's going to watch a 20 minute TikTok video where you're like, but this, but this, but this. And, you know, you just have to make it concise. Yeah.
00:12:53
Speaker
Like the second you add a copy up, like that's the second that someone's going to scroll away. Cause at the end of the day, this is actually one of the things that I struggle with in making short form content and specifically TikTok content. You have to gear your content towards views. And this is why I'm working on making content for YouTube. You have to.
00:13:15
Speaker
gear your content towards the controversial. You are not necessarily making content for your audience. You're making content for the For You page. And they're two very different things. So you have to trigger knee-jerk reactions out of people in every single video that you put out if you want it to do well. And that isn't necessarily healthy if you're trying to
00:13:39
Speaker
talk about your holistic belief system. You know, so I feel like people still only get thin glimpses into a lot of different topics that I have opinions on. But the caveats are so important. And we can't include them in the videos because that is terrible for engagement. Yeah, right. And TikTok might be a Trojan horse to get people interested and to get awareness so that
00:14:09
Speaker
you can share more of your thoughts. And it's so funny because when I first met you, or when I first started seeing your TikToks as I was getting to know you better, I was like, oh wow, you know, it's like very strong thoughts. And then actually getting to know you, it's like, no, they're so thoughtful and it's not, and this is a persona. Yeah. Do you feel like you have an alter ego or persona that you turn on when you- Absolutely.
00:14:37
Speaker
Absolutely. It really, I would say like I have videos where like she is more turned on, where it's more like I'm being tongue in cheek. I'm kind of joking, but I'm making it very vague where people don't really know that I'm joking and then people will be in the comments and they'll be like, is this satire? And it's like, yeah.
00:14:57
Speaker
I don't know, is it? Is it satire? What does that bring up for you? Like, do you hate it? Do you love it? Any and all of my extreme takes are usually given with a little bit of comedy. So yes, like there's a little bit of a character that comes out, especially when I'm talking about like anti 5050 topics. Yeah. It's, it's a tool, right? You
00:15:23
Speaker
Beyonce has Sasha fears. It's an alter ego that you channel and because you're not like who you are on tiktok in your everyday with the people who know you know what is you know, I like even the way you engage with your fiance it's not like the same way that you talk on tiktok, you know, yeah, and so I think that's like a helpful technique to kind of separate yourself. Do you have a name?
00:15:53
Speaker
I mean, I'm like pseudonymous on all of my social media, right? Yeah. So I would say like, lady is like my alter ego. Sometimes, especially when I'm talking about topics with when it comes to my upbringing, that is way more authentic. And I do treat those as like video diaries, like to myself. And oftentimes, like those will get stronger reactions.
00:16:18
Speaker
that are positive because people can kind of like feel the authenticity and almost even vulnerability. So it really depends. If it's a topic that has to do with men, I have no issue being a little bit spicier and more sarcastic and more critical. But when it comes to complex topics like
00:16:43
Speaker
being the eldest daughter to immigrants when it comes to generational trauma. Those are things that I treat with so much care because they have deeply affected my life in a way that like, like split finances with a man like, okay, okay, like who cares? But when it comes to like the deeper stuff, like I am like way more myself.
Sharing Personal Stories
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah. How do you? I think that's something that not, I haven't seen anyone else really talk about as much.
00:17:13
Speaker
How do you think about what you wanna share and what you're willing and comfortable with sharing? Or do you ever feel like you're giving up too much of yourself, like your privacy? If I feel like it's too sensitive, I won't talk about it. I think probably because of my habit of intellectualizing my feelings, I actually feel way more comfortable with talking about certain things because I'm just like, all right, yeah, like it's like matter of fact.
00:17:41
Speaker
And also because I have had to exist in places, I've had to work in finance where I was
00:17:52
Speaker
literally the only person in the room that had my economic upbringing, that had my immigrant background, that had so many aspects of my identity, nobody could even relate to me at all. So I've almost had to rationalize and numb out any uncomfortable feelings that I had about those aspects of my identity in order to survive in going to college with boarding school kids, in working with people that have come for money and never had to think about scholarships.
00:18:21
Speaker
with people that have wonderful beautiful nurturing relationships that are nothing other than that with their parents like there's just so much intellectualizing and so much mental work that i've had to do in order to even exist in the place of society that i exist right now that i was able to get myself to so it's like if anything so easy for me because i've been
00:18:46
Speaker
making this feel normal and not weird and I've destigmatized it and I have removed any and all shame and if anything like I have a sense of pride and like a lot of acceptance. I mean, I don't think I have anything other than acceptance and maybe sometimes resentment.
00:19:00
Speaker
around my upbringing. And so it is fairly easy for me to talk about in an online space. And I also understand how important it is to see people like me to other people that haven't healed their stuff yet. And I know the gravity that it would have held for me to see someone like me online, like 10 years ago. So I'm like, I don't care. Like, it's so important to me to put it out there.
00:19:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, exactly. Like there's no one else who really is sharing the exact same experience and it's a unique one. And I think the significance and importance that you place on sharing these stories outweighs the maybe discomfort in keeping it more private. And I think it's very commendable.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's almost like I don't get any value out of keeping it, like once you move past shame and once you fully move into acceptance, I feel like I always talk about it in this matter of fact way, unless I'm PMSing or something and I'm a little sad about my mom and how I wish she had a more beautiful life. I get emotional about my mom a lot because I want so much for her, but yeah, like I,
00:20:29
Speaker
Sometimes I don't know why it's so easy for me to talk about these things. I just, I feel very called to talk about them. Yeah. Kind of a purpose, you know, it gives you meaning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would, I think that that's a lot of what it is. It's, it does give me a sense of purpose. Yeah. So let's talk about the pros and cons of being a content creator.
Content Creation vs Traditional Jobs
00:20:56
Speaker
I think you've shared some pros in terms of
00:20:58
Speaker
audience relationship. But what are the pros and cons versus having a traditional nine to five type job? Or what's the biggest problem? What's the biggest con? No, yeah, it's hard. I mean, the biggest con is that you never really know what
00:21:17
Speaker
every month will look like there's so much variability in what your income looks like but that just comes with like self-employment in general and sometimes it does get lonely like there isn't that camaraderie that you get with trauma bonding with your co-workers or just like interacting with your co-workers like a lot of my closest friendships in my 20s have come from you know like people that I worked with so I miss that all the time but I still have my friendships
00:21:47
Speaker
with my coworkers from when I was at all the places that I worked. So that's all fine. And like the pros way, way, way outweigh the cons for me. Like I've been incredibly vocal about this, but I hate working for someone else. Or at least I hated working for the people that I worked for at my last opportunity. And it just completely tainted my perspective of being an employee ever again. I don't think I could ever do it.
00:22:17
Speaker
And after you get over the hump of the pressure of being the only person that can make sure that you pay off your credit card bills every month, it becomes so fun. Every day you get to wake up and decide what you want to do. It's crazy. I literally don't even care in a lot of ways about
00:22:39
Speaker
wealth after a certain point because I'm just like I am so rich in life like I can wake up every day and do whatever I want like that's so cool yeah yeah and this episode is not saying you should all quit your jobs and become right I think you talk about the pros and cons like you did not like working for someone else yeah you had a story you wanted to tell um you also had
00:23:07
Speaker
you know, a partner that you could also rely on a little bit. And each person has their own considerations, whether or not this makes sense. You have maybe a higher uncertainty tolerance than other people. So I think this might be a more niche episode. It's so fascinating to learn about your, your thought process and getting into this because usually you see people appear on your feet and
00:23:35
Speaker
They come, but there's a lot of thought that goes behind getting the courage to get in front of the camera and be like, I'm going to really commit to this and figure out what I want to say. Yeah. And oh my gosh, it's like, it's a whole art and a science. Like there's so much work that goes into deciding what topics go out when, idea generation.
00:23:56
Speaker
you know how sourcing in VC is like this whole science and you have all this strategy around it like I have to source ideas and there's stuff that I do to make myself think about things I have a journal method I have a voice note method I have transcription apps and ways to automate it like in notion like it but this is also just like the way that my brain works and like I enjoy creating systems around things but yeah yeah like
00:24:23
Speaker
There's so much behind the scenes of what you see for most creators that I would say are like, at least in like the six figure follower range. Yeah. It's, you've applied some of the tactics that you've learned in the workforce and to actually create these videos that might seem like you're just turning on your phone and yeah. Yes. But a lot of thought and like,
00:24:53
Speaker
I know you like analytics with what performs well, drawing insights, which I think maybe comes from your VC training. Let me like decipher this, gather some insights and let that inform the rest of my content creation and like what resonates. So it's, it's a lot harder and I think people are starting to have more appreciation for content creation as an occupation.
00:25:20
Speaker
But like, if you had said maybe in like 2020, like I'm a content creator, people for sure would have been like, looks at you on funny. Do you identify as a content creator? Like, how do you feel introducing yourself? What would you say when you introduce yourself to someone? I think I do identify as a content creator. Yeah. Yeah. It's not the only thing that I identify as, but I think that's still evolving.
00:25:48
Speaker
Like it's more, it's more media company vibes than it is like content creation only. Just because to your point, I can't just turn on my camera and talk to my camera and be big and bubbly. And like, that's just, that's never going to be my personality. But it's why a lot of my stuff skews more philosophical. Yeah.
00:26:15
Speaker
There are so many different types of content creator archetypes that you can be these days, which I love. I would have never been able to succeed as a content creator in 2020, if that makes sense. Are there any questions that if someone wants to figure out what type of content creator they want to be that they should ask themselves? It's a good question. I've never really thought about it because it's always been like fairly intuitive to me in terms of like the things that I'm interested in talking about. But
00:26:44
Speaker
I think in general, in life, the things that you should be pursuing are the things that light you up and the things that excite you. I think we can flake should with want to. And I also think that people are so confused about like what they're passionate about. It's like, you don't have to be passionate about it, but what would make your day better if you had to dedicate an hour of every day doing that? Like that's how you'll find your niche. And you talked about some of the processes like journaling.
00:27:11
Speaker
Can you share more of the things that you do that goes behind making a video? Oh my gosh, yeah. So, I mean, for me, my, let's call it like artistic process started with reading the artist's way. But basically I wake up every morning and when I have my coffee, I journal for like five to 10 minutes and things just kind of come to me stream of consciousness.
00:27:37
Speaker
I will write those and what I feel compelled to talk about all voice note on it. And I will use software to transcribe my voice notes into a Notion page and I have different tickets and verticals of things that I want to talk about.
00:27:55
Speaker
And this is weird. I plan things around my cycle a little bit. So some things I know I'm going to be more excited to talk about them when I'm ovulating. Like if it's a fashion topic, I will absolutely be so excited to like show off a bunch of the new things that I bought, like when I'm ovulating. If it's more serious, I'll talk about it in my luteal phase because that's when I like dwell on things. And it's when I pick concepts apart because I'm just like,
00:28:20
Speaker
I'm just grumpy, you know? So there's a lot of that. And then I would say every video that I record, I cut it down about 70% of what it originally was. So that right form it and that like, yeah, consciousness and post that yes,
00:28:40
Speaker
exactly like every two seconds should be like you should be hooked for like for the first 30 seconds of that video at least like every two seconds should transition into something
Creative Process and Tools
00:28:51
Speaker
different so that they're hooked yeah so you don't usually do a script or do you like have bullet points i have i have bullet points but i can't go off a script it never comes out how it's supposed to yeah
00:29:10
Speaker
And so do you, so you say you record based on your psychopathy? Is it usually like you said journal? Do you record every day? Do you have certain days that you're like, I'm not doing any recording or like certain days of the week where you do all of your recording? Yeah. So I suck at batching my content. I can't do it for the life of me. I do my videos when I feel inspired and after doing it for so long, like it really doesn't
00:29:39
Speaker
take that much energy to record every day. I would say I record like five to six days a week. And I should be better about like, there's some days where I record three things, like I should be better about making those last me three days. But I'm impatient. So I usually like, push out all three that same day because I'm like, Oh, I'm curious. Like I want to see what people think about this. Like I just
00:29:58
Speaker
I want to know. I don't want to go to bed without knowing. So I think I am more organic than tactical with that aspect of my content creation. But really, I have a bulletin board of things on Notion and I'll kind of scroll through it as I'm doing my makeup and I'll ruminate on a few topics.
00:30:21
Speaker
And I'll see what I'm inspired to say. It is kind of like a divine process. I'm like, what does the universe want me to talk about today? It really does feel like I'm talking to something bigger than me. And that sounds crazy. But that I think I credit with a lot of my growth. And the fact that people give me the feedback that they do in my comments.
00:30:45
Speaker
I really do feel like there is something bigger than me that is motivating me and almost like planting seeds into my head. Yeah. And do you have like a, do you, do you think like you're talking to a friend? Is that the vibe like, because it was at the FaceTime call, you sense like the community or universe or sorts? It's so weird. Like.
00:31:16
Speaker
Is it like you anthropomorphize your audience itself? It's like so like being. Yeah, I never, I never feel like I'm talking to like a ton of people. And if anything, if I if I think about a specific person that I'm talking to, the video gets worse because I narrow my perspective to only make sense for their perspective. So really, it's like I'm thinking out loud and
00:31:45
Speaker
In a lot of ways I say things in the same way that I would say them to my fiancee, TBH. Okay. Because he, one, is a very good listener and he does not come into a discussion with any preconceived notion of what I'm about to say or of a particular topic, especially because a lot of things that I talk about to him, he's never had a conversation on that topic with anyone ever before. Yeah.
00:32:12
Speaker
I really just say things in like a stream of consciousness way and it's just become like my speaking style online. Yeah. So you have, you mentioned verticals, right? Like video diaries, maybe some more controversial stuff, stuff about first gen immigrant daughter. Are those the three main ones? Is there anything that I'm missing? I would say those are all right.
00:32:39
Speaker
I try to bucket things into money diaries. Like money diaries was always super important for me. So anything that falls into like investing, career, like a financial growth, like as a woman, like those are topics that I think are so underrepresented in the female content space. Yeah. Relationships, yes. Because I feel like I have a knack for reading people. I have a knack for reading incentives. Like it's fairly easy for me to talk about
00:33:08
Speaker
why things should be done economically in a relationship. It's easy for me to talk about what to look out for when you're talking to a guy. All those things just come very organically to me as an intuitive person. And the first-gen stuff, yeah, that's just the basis of my identity. And that's the core building block of the lens through which I view everything in the world. So I can't talk about topics without giving that caveat, because it's almost like the filter through which I receive all information and communicate. Yeah.
00:33:38
Speaker
I would point, do you feel like you're talking about maybe too many things? Like, do you have to narrow it down? That's a great question. And it's something that I've pondered a lot. There are two ways to go as a content creator. You can niche down and like stick to one thing. And like that is the thing that you make content about and you don't veer away from that because your audience is built around that niche and they don't care to hear you talk about anything else. Or you can
00:34:07
Speaker
not niche down and just be yourself. And what that means is you have higher engagement for your audience size. But the people that follow you are following you because they care to hear you say what you think. And so they're more invested in you as a person and like that converts better with brand deals, it converts better in engagement, it converts better in
00:34:35
Speaker
link in bio purchases. So like strategically that to me is like a way to build an audience that has more longevity. And it's also more rewarding for my personality type. Cause I can never, I get so bored. Like I can't talk about one thing for the rest of my life. Like I just need to talk about the things that frustrate me and that I find interesting. And that is like such a long list. And it's not just about numbers, like follow the work out.
00:35:05
Speaker
It's the quality of the audience. And your audience is so engaged, connects with you, comments. And transitioning to our next topic, when you're talking about brand deals, I think people care a lot more about someone who is a trusted source and would rather have a collaboration with them. So let's get into the actual money factors.
00:35:36
Speaker
At what point did you start doing brand collaborations?
Brand Collaborations and Management
00:35:41
Speaker
At how many followers roughly? And how do you charge? I don't remember how many followers I was at. With my first brand deal, I believe I did one over the summer, so I was still under 10,000 followers. Okay. I honestly did not know how much to charge.
00:36:03
Speaker
up until I got my manager, like I there's this website called fupayme and you can look at like what different kinds of collaborations will earn you. So verticals are super different. The beauty industry pays differently from the food industry pays differently from the tech industry tech. Really? Yes, exactly. And like they have low margins because it's not like they're working with a physical good. It's all software and they just have so much money to put into marketing schemes.
00:36:33
Speaker
How does beauty or fashion charge? Like, where do they fall? Beauty pays better than fashion. Food, I would say, sometimes pays better than beauty. It's kind of like 50-50, depending on how well-known that brand is. Have you done it through collaboration? I haven't. OK. I get a ton of inbound for supplements and stuff that I don't believe in. I see. Yeah. I wouldn't pitch something that I like.
00:36:59
Speaker
didn't love. You said you learned a lot more about pricing structures from your manager. Is there a certain like framework to think about how to charge? Yeah. So basically like you have to take into account your engagement, your following and your conversion for your past brand collapse. So those are all super important things, but also like there's so much variability in what you're able
00:37:28
Speaker
to charge as a creator that really the most important thing that matters is your pitch and saying like, look, like you want this. It's going to take this much work. Like this is how my audience has reacted to topics of a similar nature in the past. Like this is going to be like amazing representation for you, blah, blah, blah. Like you want me to like be exclusive with you for 30 days. Like that's going to close me off to this many deals, blah, blah, blah. And then there's also something called paid usage.
00:37:56
Speaker
where sometimes they want to take your video and they want to advertise it for a set amount of months. For that, you should be charging between like 20 to 40% of your base rate. So a lot of times the bulk of the money is made in paid usage. There's a lot of ways to make money from brand deals. And I honestly wasn't great about this until my manager was like, yo, like why are you like, I was charging way too little.
00:38:23
Speaker
And so now what do you focus your efforts? Are you diversifying in terms of the industries or do you have like, I'm going to go after tech? I honestly haven't been spending very much of my energy on brand outreach. I've really just been leaving that to my manager. I don't find that it's like, it doesn't give me energy. So I like to outsource it. And I'm like, I'm like happy to have my manager, like, you know, like take their percentage for
00:38:54
Speaker
doing all that work and it leaves me like way more free to be creative. And there are also higher ticket ways for me to make money from the non-content stuff that I do. So it just, yeah, I don't find that I'm like amazing at doing brand outreach. It's something that I should work on, but also like
00:39:15
Speaker
Is it worth it? Like I don't really know just because I charge a certain amount hourly for my other stuff. Yeah. And I, that's what, you know, artists do. That's why they, they're under management. You want to lead them to do the things that they're good at and can focus on that rather than these other things. When, once you reach a certain point, you can have someone help you at what point or at what followers or engagement how would it make sense? Or could someone reach out to a manager? Like how did you even find your manager? They reached out to me.
00:39:45
Speaker
I think I kind of manifested them because I had set the intention right before the new year. I was like, I need a manager. And three weeks later, I had two different companies reach out to me. And I ended up signing with my current team. And they're amazing. They're so nice. Yeah. At what point or follower number or engagement number
00:40:13
Speaker
would someone begin to start considering getting manager and how could they like Google it? Are they like management companies? I had looked into it before. I think it's like a difficult thing to Google honestly. I think if you were going to be the one doing the outreach to managers, it's hard for you to get signed if you have under six figures in the follower account, which,
00:40:40
Speaker
I still don't like, I have, how many do I have right now? Like 30, I don't see to remember, 37 or 39,000 followers. So. But you have high engagement. I have high engagement. I am way above average in my engagement for my follower size. So for that reason, they reached out to me. And also I just think that my manager like really resonates with the stuff that I talk about. And that was why she originally reached out to me like,
00:41:10
Speaker
You just have to keep putting yourself out there. And if someone like sees your potential, they'll want to work with you. Yeah. Besides a brand manager, before you do that, you were looking on a specific site to find brand opportunities.
Resources and Community Building
00:41:23
Speaker
You know, what are some resources that someone can go on or look into? I think FUPayme, it's F-Y-P-M, like that's the website. FUPayme is an incredible resource.
00:41:38
Speaker
It's basically like a place where influencers leave reviews on their experiences with working with certain brands. They say how much they got paid on certain deals. You can see how many followers they had when they got paid that amount. So you can kind of start to create averages of, you know, what you should be charging with your follower account for certain packages. Like you can see how many videos they had to make for that particular collab. You can see who pays on time. You can see who does not pay on time because that's the only thing with brand deals.
00:42:08
Speaker
You get paid like months after doing the work. So it's not, it's kind of tricky from that perspective. I think that website is like the Holy Grail. Like there's really nothing like it. Gotcha. Any other resources? I know you have like a scheduler app, anything that people can use to help them in their workflow? Oh, I would say pick the software that you enjoy using. Like I love using Notion.
00:42:36
Speaker
And I also love using Google Calendar to organize my tasks for the day. And that is useful for getting organized, especially because there's always a million different things that are due. I have edits that are due on a video. Today, I have a video that I'm waiting for feedback from a brand on. I have a video that I have to film. I have things that are getting shipped to me, and I have to make sure that they get shipped to me properly. And there's just a million and one. So much of it is admin.
00:43:06
Speaker
It's a huge pain in the butt. So I think like software is so necessary for not falling behind on stuff. Like once you're monetizing as a creator. Yeah. Are there any like content creator groups? Dude, I was thinking about this earlier today. I was like, I need a community and I need to talk to other girls about like, Hey, this is what I'm getting paid. What are you getting paid? Like blah, blah, blah. I want to join a group where there's face to face transparency.
00:43:35
Speaker
So no, I haven't found one, but also I haven't done any looling or anything. So I don't know. I think it probably stays in like some group chats because things are hard to maintain as a scale. Yeah. I think there can be like a content creator group chat, like kind of like Wall Street Oasis, you know, but for not finance and like for content creators.
00:44:03
Speaker
And then you should honestly start like a group chat with some other content creators. I'm sure there's like, you know, not official, like official ones that just friends put together, but I think creating community probably would be quite beneficial. Yeah. There's probably like Reddit threads on it. I haven't checked there, but yeah, I, I agree. Like there should be something out there. Yeah. Any other programs or.
00:44:32
Speaker
things out someone, tech tools. I use bio sites. They're owned by Squarespace for my Lincoln bio. They're fine. I use Gumroad to sell digital products. They're also fine, but like transaction fees, like every, everyone's transaction fees. Like I feel like I'm getting ripped off. Like I just don't have a glowing review for anything. Someone really needs to come in and like revamp the entire creator space.
00:44:59
Speaker
Yeah. That's a subcategory in BC that came up since 2020, like creator tools. Yeah. Because I think before it was niche for someone to be a content creator. Like you asked, there's like this survey that was done on little kids and a lot of them said, I want to be a content creator. I want to be a YouTuber. Yeah. Especially on API is, you know, kind of reducing the need for a lot of traditional roles.
00:45:30
Speaker
I think content creators and that will be its economy in itself. Like the ad industry is getting completely disrupted. It's not just a couple of folks who are getting on TikTok to like make dance videos anymore. You know, they're fine gray, but it's actually becoming a whole economy and like a person, a cult of personality is created. That's how you gain trust. It's not through, you know, the Super Bowl ads that people play millions for.
00:45:59
Speaker
A lot of people are finding that brand collaborations, influencers are a really good way to get conversion. And people have allocated budget for it. This is a whole new economy. And I think a lot of really smart people in marketing and ads are looking to that. And I think, especially with AI, this is going to be a lot more common for people. It's going to be a lot more micro influencers.
00:46:28
Speaker
There's also dialogue about how celebrity is not the same thing anymore because there are so many. It's Saturday. I think what we understand and define as celebrity is change. You saw it with Instagram and you're seeing it even more with TikTok. Yeah. Like everyone has been more humanized, but also there's an opportunity to be put on a pedestal, even if you're just a regular Joe or Jane.
00:46:56
Speaker
Now, you used to have an agent, and then get signed. And you did reverse order. You created your audience, and then got a manager. But for that was not possible. There was such a high-barriage entry, and there was no discoverability. The good or bad thing is that also people are like, there's so many good ones. But this is the world we live in now. And it's going to be a real job. And I think a lot.
00:47:24
Speaker
we'll have to figure out a new economy for. And there should be more creator tools to support this emerging role that I think will only continue to proliferate. So I'm curious to see from a tech point of view and an economics point of view how this changes the society we live in. Yeah, I would love some sort of creator suite that doesn't charge me $49.99 a month.
00:47:53
Speaker
as a size B. I know AI is working on products. They're not quite there yet, but I think we'll see a lot of innovation in the next year or so. I know we've tried it a lot. We've tried it about why you wanted to start, some very practical insights on how to create content. And because this is an interview, I'm going to ask you the question that we ask all of our guests. What's your favorite purchase? Oh, my gosh.
00:48:23
Speaker
Does it have to be a physical purchase? No, however you want to interpret it. I would say the financial leap of faith that I took quitting my job and betting on myself would obviously cost money. So I would say that's definitely the best thing I've ever bought myself is the ability to, as I was saying earlier, wake up every day and design my day.
00:48:52
Speaker
I can't believe, I still can't believe that this is my life. It's not even like a dream, dream, dream, dream life. It's just like celebrating. Right. It's not like a traditional like, I'm going to a merchant and giving them money to buy something. You know, like I'm going to buy being a content creator.
00:49:12
Speaker
It's the, the nest egg that you've put together to give you this financial freedom to do that. And then also so that you don't have to have a salary and then also investing in software, in creating a business, buying a mic and it's an investment because it's going to pay dividends. Maybe not immediately. You're not going to be like, I have no content creator. Here's my badge. That's, that's, that's very smart. I love that.
00:49:41
Speaker
But yeah, with that, do you want to just sign us off? Thank you guys for listening to Elinor and I. We're pretty invested media everywhere. Please, please, please rate us wherever you're listening. It really does help us a lot. And we'll see you next time. Bye, guys. Bye.