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S2E3. Meet Justin Piercy, the coffee guy behind DaddyGotCoffee
103 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we talked to Justin Piercy, the creator behind the Instagram account DaddyGotCoffee.
Justin wants people to identify his Instagram page as somewhere you can be supported on your coffee journey, he wants to be a cheerleader in your life and to help you go through all the ups and downs through his funny coffee reel videos.
We talked about content creation, branding, and the importance of consistency if you want to run a growing social media. Justin isn’t a barista, according to Justin, in real life, he is a real geek who is very quiet and introverted, but he is also a learner who enjoys reading and researching.
Recently, Justin launched his new YouTube channel that aims to help coffee people produce solid coffee every time by simplifying complicated coffee theories because that is what he feels passionate about. Listen to this episode and get to know the Justin, the person behind DaddyGotCoffee
DaddyGotCoffee Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/c/DaddyGotCoffee
DaddyGotCoffee Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/daddygotcoffee/
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*Sponsor
A big shout out to Lilydrip for sponsoring this episode, Lilydrip is a magical small brewing gadget that works with all cone shape brewers, including Hario V60, Origami and Flower dripper. Lilydrip is a diamond shape add-on that can help you instantly increase extraction surface by 100% and ground height by 50%. It magically fixes problems such as coffee clustering as well as making your brews stable, easy, and fun. Follow Lilydrip on Instagram and purchase lilydrip now on Amazon.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to the I'm Not A Barista podcast. We're here to talk about all things coffee from industry careers, brewing tips, community support and more with some really incredible people who love coffee as much as you do. Because humanity runs on coffee and together we can empower all the people behind every cup.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello everyone, my name is Mickey, the host of the Amna Barista podcast.
Justin Persing's Coffee Journey
00:00:37
Speaker
In this episode, we talk to Justin Persing, the person behind the Instagram account Daddy Got Coffee. He wants people to remember his Instagram is a place where he can rely on your coffee journey. He wants to be the cheerleader of your coffee life.
00:00:51
Speaker
To help you go through all the ups and downs, what is funny videos? So we talked about the content creation, the branding, the importance of consistency if you want to run a growing social media. And Justin isn't a barista. According to Justin, in real life he's a real geek. He's quiet, introverted, but he's also a learner, a researcher, and he's joined rating and researching.
00:01:14
Speaker
And his YouTube video aims to help coffee people to produce solid coffee every single time by simplifying complicated coffee theories because that is what he feels passionate about. But first, please allow me to introduce the sponsor for this episode Little Drip.
00:01:30
Speaker
Are you a home brewer troubled with owning too many drippers but not getting the result you want? We introduce to you the LilyDrip. LilyDrip is a magical small brewing gadget that works with all cone-shaped brewers such as Hario V60 and Origami.
00:01:45
Speaker
LilyDrip is a diamond-shaped add-on that can help you instantly increase extraction surface by 100% and ground height by 50%. It magically fixes problems such as coffee clustering, as well as making your brews stable, easy, and fun. Check the link in the bio and follow LilyDrip on Instagram. You can also check out their 2022 special collection, available to purchase at LilyDrip on Amazon US. It's time to level up your brewing game with this magical brewing gadget.
00:02:14
Speaker
Lilydred, making a better brew. All right, now we're live.
Challenges & Growth on YouTube
00:02:24
Speaker
Welcome back, Justin. All right. So happy to see you again. Yes, it's good to see you, Mickey. How are you doing today?
00:02:31
Speaker
I'm doing great. How about you? Yeah, good. I'm sipping a cup of propeller coffee today from here in Canada. So it's quite delicious. Are you having coffee right now, Mickey? I know it's a different time where you are. I have water. I have a lot of coffee today, so I'm switching to water. Yeah, you got to sleep tonight, too. Thanks. So how's it going with your YouTube channel?
00:02:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's going great. I've only been at it for a couple months and I feel like it's going well. It's been harder to keep the content coming out regularly than I thought it would be, honestly.
00:03:20
Speaker
You know, some of that is just to do with like, I have a full-time job and a family and then like, you know, trying to do a YouTube rhythm. Like when you want to release every week, which is kind of the goal that I set for the first little while. It's, it just has like, even getting into that rhythm was kind of my first goal for my YouTube without really having any kind of numerical goals, but it's good. I'm like, I think I'm in between two to three months.
00:03:50
Speaker
and I'm coming up on a thousand subscribers on it. So that's gonna be great. I'm very pleased with that. And it's really, it's funny man, like in YouTube, like because you can go longer, like it more suits itself to that type of content and like how to content, you can go like a couple levels deeper and like actually helping people get like detailed answers to their questions.
00:04:19
Speaker
Um, which I really like. So that's, that's been a lot more fun than like, I thought, Oh, we'll just start this, see how it goes. And it's actually been a lot of fun. So I've really been enjoying it.
00:04:30
Speaker
That's great. We know you from your Instagram. Daddy got coffee. That's famous. We all know about it. And we really enjoy watching your videos every day. It's just so much fun to watch. Thanks, man. So much fun to watch. Can you tell us how you started your coffee journey? Like, create your own daddy, got coffee, got coffee account. And then, yeah, how did you start everything about coffee?
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, so good question. My Ko-fi Instagram account started in November 2020 as an experiment. I have been into Ko-fi for a long time.
00:05:08
Speaker
I think I got into it in my early 20s and I'm 35 now. So it's like, I've got kind of like almost a decade of drinking specialty coffee behind me. I will say I started learning a lot more about specialty coffee a lot more quickly once I started posting about it every day on Instagram. So I would say I've learned as much or more since I started my Instagram than I did like in my whole previous history with coffee.
00:05:37
Speaker
But yeah, it started. I always kind of wanted to have a coffee blog, Mickey. That's like what I really kind of, you know, going back several years, I'm like, I would love to just blog about coffee all the time. And I never really kind of pulled the trigger on it because, you know, blogging, you got to be very consistent. You got to write a lot. And it just, I just never did it. But I was always posting coffee pictures on my personal Instagram. And then for work.
00:06:06
Speaker
You know, I was trying to develop, so Daddy Got Coffee isn't my job, like I have another job. And for that job, which I work for a church here in Ontario, Canada. I'm like a digital communications person. I was trying to develop some new content strategies and like figure out Instagram a little bit more.
00:06:30
Speaker
And rather than experimenting with my work account and just kind of doing all this random stuff, I thought, well, I'm always posting about coffee on my personal Instagram anyway, so I'm just going to dive in and see if I can figure this out and kind of just shift my coffee posting away from my personal account onto a more focused account.
00:06:54
Speaker
Um, so that's, that's kind of how I got started with it. It did grow, like it started growing fairly early on, but I definitely have had to reinvent it like a couple of times, um, since I started doing it, which seems crazy. Like even in a couple of years to kind of like reinvent what you're posting. Um, so, so when did you see this bigger milestone after running your Instagram account for two
Instagram Success with Short-form Videos
00:07:21
Speaker
years? I would say.
00:07:24
Speaker
I grew it using like photos up to almost 10,000 followers. And then when I switched to the short form video content, which really kind of allowed me to even lean more into the brand that I had created for it. Um, that's when it really started to start growing a lot more quickly. And part of that was.
00:07:52
Speaker
I was cooperating with what Instagram was looking for and that they were looking for and people were engaging with in a lot higher degree short form video. But also like I think that wasn't the whole picture Mickey like also it was
00:08:09
Speaker
leaning into the brand for the Daddy Got Coffee page, I think was really a beneficial step that helped people identify with the account a lot more and it became a lot more relatable overnight, over a number of months. And then I slowly just started like,
00:08:30
Speaker
doing more and more of this short form video, like experimenting, testing, repeating, evaluating. And I found like it was so funny, like I started putting myself in front of the camera.
00:08:47
Speaker
and just kind of sharing those daily experiences of being a dad, being passionate about coffee, just being an average guy at home, trying to figure this out. And like, what is life like in the midst of that? And that's really what started resonating with not just my audience, but also a wider audience on Instagram. And that's when things started really to grow
00:09:14
Speaker
a lot more quickly. And that kind of got me to where I'm at today. I'm coming up on 30,000 followers probably in the next couple months. So, you know, obviously it grew a lot quicker. Like I think a year ago, I think the count was like at like 6,000 followers or something. So, you know, the last year it's really grown quite quickly.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of when I saw that first milestone is I saw that bigger growth when I shifted the content strategy. And to anybody listening,
00:09:49
Speaker
It's not like if you scroll back in my feed, you'll see that shift take place. So it's kind of like interesting to look back and be like, oh, it's like it really shifted at a certain point and you can really see that pivot when you go back through the feed. It's kind of, I really like the digital side of it, Mickey. So like experimenting with all that is a lot of fun for me.
00:10:11
Speaker
Thanks. You mentioned that you are a full-time marketer, director. You have a full-time job. So, Delica Coffee is kind of like a side hustle. You're a passion, right? Yeah, totally. Yeah. Because somehow you full-time job, this experience can also help you to grow your audience, your community.
00:10:30
Speaker
And I wonder how do you got this name daddy got coffee. It's very catchy easy to remember and Then you're you're a full-time daddy too, right? Yes, absolutely Yeah, it's funny like
00:10:47
Speaker
Before I launched the account, I actually did like a lot of market, like what I would call market research, like over the course of like a couple months where I was like looking at all the different coffee accounts and, you know, figuring out which ones were growing and which ones were not growing and of the ones that were growing, what was working and what wasn't working.
Branding & Relatability of Daddy Got Coffee
00:11:11
Speaker
You know, one thing that I think about is
00:11:14
Speaker
you know, people search on social media. So if somebody is getting into coffee and they don't know where to start, like they don't know the specialty coffee community or the digital creators who are in coffee, they just type in coffee into explore. And that's kind of their starting point. And so I wanted to make sure that number one, the word coffee was in my username. And then of course, you know, I really wanted to, when people saw my account,
00:11:45
Speaker
It's like when people see something online, they have a very short time that they are going to use to make a decision as to whether or not they want to go further or whether or not they want to backtrack. So with the whole Daddy Got Coffee brand,
00:12:00
Speaker
my goal was really to help people know in as short a time as possible if this platform was going to be something that they wanted to engage with. It's hard to encapsulate my brand in a more concise phrase than daddy got coffee. Also, that's what my kids would say all the time. They're like, oh, daddy got coffee.
00:12:23
Speaker
Um, so I really number and it rhymes. So it's very catchy. Um, and it's memorable. Um, so it's like when people are trying to remember my account, they don't have to remember even my full name or even my first name or a complicated name. It's like, Oh, it's that daddy got coffee page. You know, it's easy for people to remember.
00:12:46
Speaker
And when they come across it, it's immediately obvious, um, like what the account is. It's a dad and it's about coffee. And really when people are coming in, that's all that they need to know. Or if, you know, they see me in the reels feed, it's like they're scanning my reel and I have this funny reel about coffee that they Instagram showed them and they look at my username and my username starts to tell them what my account is about. Um,
00:13:15
Speaker
and same if they see me in their notifications. If I see a post that is in my explorer feed and I like it or whatever, if they see me pop into their notifications without even looking at any of my content, they're going to have an idea of like, what is this account that just
00:13:35
Speaker
liked my thing. So that's really how I tried to position it. And I really tried to differentiate myself from a lot of the other specialty accounts in that I really wanted to focus on real life. And I don't want to say approachability, because I think there are a lot of accounts that make specialty coffee very approachable. But maybe relatability is a better word.
00:14:04
Speaker
and just trying to pull the camera lens back and just show that
00:14:11
Speaker
Yeah, none of us are living perfect lives here. It's busy, and it's messy, and it's crazy, especially if you have kids. And you can still enjoy great coffee in the midst of that. You don't need to pretend like that doesn't happen. Let's just be real. We're all in this together. And that is something that I, from day one, really wanted to be part of my brand.
00:14:36
Speaker
In the early days, like I did a couple reels or a couple videos that like had my kids in them and it was crazy and I was trying to make manual espresso or an AeroPress and they were like getting their hands all and stuff. And it's like that was the content from day one that I was the most passionate about. But in the early days, making a video like that used to take me all day and slowly that form of content. And the way in which I produce it became more and more streamlined and focused.
00:15:06
Speaker
and it became a bigger and bigger part of my actual content strategy to where now I would say that type of content is one of my pillar types of content on Instagram.
00:15:18
Speaker
So yeah, that's kind of where the Daddy Got Coffee brand kind of came from. I don't see myself changing it anytime soon because for all the reasons you mentioned, it's catchy, it's memorable, it encapsulates the brand well, and it very clearly says what I'm about. And people can begin to identify themselves in the brand.
00:15:41
Speaker
Like if you're a dad, especially who loves coffee, or even if you're about to be a dad or considering being a dad or, you know, looking for somebody with a little bit more expertise than you, then like if they come across my page, they're going to place themselves in it, which is, you know, that's going to help them identify with what I'm doing and hopefully come along for the ride or
00:16:06
Speaker
better to say, allow me to go along their ride. Like I've been very happy with it to be honest. Like I did a little bit of work on the front end, positioned it and named it and branded it. And it stayed the same from day one.
00:16:21
Speaker
It's great to know all the stars behind Dedeca coffee, just a simple name, but there's a lot of work definitely you put in there and then it's working well. So it's great strategy. And talking about the brand, let's say Dedeca coffee is a brand. What do you want people to remember? When I'm thinking about the daddy got coffee brand.
00:16:42
Speaker
I always really try and put my focus on the viewer or the audience, however you want to call that. And it's not like I want them to remember X about me. It's more like I want them to feel like
00:17:05
Speaker
Oh, I'm on the journey and this feels like hard and like life is a little intense right now and I'm seeing somebody say that that's actually okay and that's normal and I feel like somebody out there has just affirmed my personal experience.
00:17:27
Speaker
And it's almost like coffee is just like a vessel for that. Like obviously I'm very passionate about coffee and there are many other people out there who are as well. And I just like to use my brand as kind of a common gathering point for everybody who would find themselves in that, in that position. Um, I always say like when I'm talking with my wife, Sarah about, you know, gauging success of a certain piece of content.
00:17:55
Speaker
Anytime somebody says I feel seen or oh my goodness I felt seen when I watch that like I call that a win because they're placing themselves into
00:18:06
Speaker
into something that I've posted, or I've posted something that is very helpful, but I really try and give people permission to dive into the coffee world, get really good coffee at home, and if there's a couple bumps along the way, that's just life. It's like you don't have to get it perfect, where I feel like there is a lot of focus,
00:18:33
Speaker
on the internet on finding the objectively best whatever, or the perfect whatever, or the highest best extraction, or the perfect espresso shot. That's not the reality most people live in, both in their coffee making or their life experience. So when it comes to what do I hope people would remember,
00:18:59
Speaker
Um, I guess I feel like I would hope that they felt like they have a cheerleader, you know, it's like somebody cheering them on saying, yeah, it's good. Like you got this, you know, like, while your kids tipped over your pour over brew, like, you know, scoop it up off the floor or like have half a coffee and better luck next time it happens. You know what I mean?
00:19:20
Speaker
So I guess that's, that's probably what I would, how I would answer that. Um, yeah, just, just like they have somebody behind them saying, yeah, keep going. Like, you know, that's what I want to be. Um, as I really want to share my passion of coffee. And if I can help people discover that in a way that feels good, then that's what I want.
00:19:41
Speaker
That's fabulous. To me, it's like your account. I can say to me, it's like a real daddy gets really good coffee because you have all the good coffee gears, the machines.
00:19:56
Speaker
And then your content is just very funny. And sometimes I see a little bit different. I say sometimes you share a little bit of frustration of being a daddy, like you said, the kids running around knocking a portal or something like that. And why you think it's important to share, you know, when most media bloggers, they share the perfect moments in their life and then you have to make a little bit of everything. Why do you think it's important to share the other side?
00:20:24
Speaker
I think it's important to share that because that is the majority of people's experience. Like you don't have that perfect picture most of the time in your life or if you, even if you have like.
00:20:40
Speaker
a perfect picture, you're relaxed, you're in the Zen mode, you're making a pour over. If it doesn't turn out, there's nothing wrong with you. Sometimes that happens. It's like when I'm making a new coffee, I don't always make it perfect every time. As people are diving into the world of coffee and specialty coffee and better coffee at home, there is no way to get there without going through that.
00:21:09
Speaker
That I think needs to be acknowledged and even celebrated as part of the journey. I feel like there are few people celebrating that part of the journey. So I want to step in there and celebrate that because, you know, when you have a breakthrough moment in how you're making coffee, be it espresso, be it your first AeroPress, be it getting into pour over, you don't get the thing.
00:21:37
Speaker
And then go home from the store and make a coffee and like you're in coffee Nirvana, you know, there's like a lot of frustration that you have to go through on the front end. And it's like, I just feel like it's important to share that and to celebrate that as part of.
00:21:57
Speaker
the experience and part of the journey. Even people who have been making espresso for a long time, when you dial in a new espresso bean, you're still going to beat your head against the wall from time to time. It doesn't mean you're a bad coffee maker or a bad barista or whatever. It just means that's part of the nature of it.
00:22:20
Speaker
So yeah, I was trying to focus on that. Even in a lot of my recipes, I focus on simplicity rather than like perfection because I think
00:22:33
Speaker
Keeping something simple and repeatable is of more value than getting in that last 5% of quality. So, you know, I really try and with my content, just focus on that and help people take those steps. If I can get them from zero to like 90%,
00:22:54
Speaker
you know, they're going to be able to figure out that last 10%. You know, it's like, I don't want to spend my time as a content creator in that last 10%. You know, I'm sure I'll make YouTube videos and stuff for people in that category, but it's like, I want to help people get to that zero to 90%. You know, that's my, that's kind of my goal with that.
00:23:14
Speaker
So you're sharing your content to share your experience to help people to understand coffee, to learn about coffee, to prove better coffee. And you talk about the 90%. How do you learn your coffee knowledge? Were you a barista?
00:23:29
Speaker
No, I'm definitely not a barista. That's for darn sure, which I think makes me a great fit for your podcast. It's funny. I don't come across this way in my content by design. I am a huge geek. It's like I'm very quiet, very introverted. I love to read. I love to research.
00:23:56
Speaker
And also I recognize that not everybody likes to do all those things. So it's like, I'm okay to go out and like,
00:24:05
Speaker
read a book or do a deep dive online, home barista forums, do all the dirty work of figuring out what works, what doesn't, what are the guiding principles, and then frame those in a way that they're accessible to the 90%. So, and it's like, I intentionally like simplify a lot of things. Like I did a Kalita Wave recipe video recently, and it's so basic, man. And like,
00:24:35
Speaker
It agitates all the beans up and there's bypass and it's not a perfect extraction, but it is simple and it's repeatable and it doesn't stall, which is a huge thing when you're getting started with a Calida Wave. The things stall if you don't do it right.
00:24:52
Speaker
Um, and you know, you, if you want the best, like a possible extraction on a like flat bottom, like a Coleta wave, you want to do a pulse pour or use like a melodrip or it's like, it's all too complicated for people. You know, it's like somebody buy it wants to buy a Coleta wave.
00:25:10
Speaker
You can't explain if they're just getting into this, all the principles of, you know, the four six method or, um, which is like the 60 method, but whatever, you know, like, or, you know, how to do pulse pores or, you know, why you want different types of agitation. Like it's way too far beyond where people are at. It's, it's more important for me to.
00:25:37
Speaker
make something very simple and then get people out of baseline where they're like, yeah, I'm producing solid coffee every time at home. And then from there, they can go further. And I take a lot of people further. Most of that happens in my DMs, and I'm sure I'll make YouTube videos about that kind of thing in the future. But yeah, that's really where I find
00:26:04
Speaker
I get the most excited is helping people have those breakthrough moments of, oh, I got X. I couldn't figure it out. It's like, okay, let's figure it out. I'll give you a way to make it good and make it repeatable. And it's not as hard as you think.
00:26:18
Speaker
Because when people look online, it's overwhelming. There's so much detail. Exactly. And people need help sifting through all that to figure out what's the most important thing here. I don't have a problem learning myself. I'm a learner personality, like a deep diver. I love going geeking out, figuring out all the stuff, experimenting, making my notes. But then I really like simplifying that for others.
00:26:46
Speaker
It is true that we talk about how to learn coffee, especially coffee, right? There are too much overwhelming information on internet and they often see the automated recipe of this brewing method and then the best recipe always like that. And then you are playing a role to make things simple, right? Make it repeatable and especially for beginners. Yeah. That's great. But.
00:27:11
Speaker
We are talking about social media or talking about the media in general and then which means we have to compete to traffic. Yes. And when people search a recipe or let's say someone search a recipe and you have one of those. So how do you target videos? Like, you know, how do you compete with
YouTube Content Strategy
00:27:30
Speaker
others? Like the other people would just use automated recipe for blah, blah, blah. Yes. How do you, you know, position your videos in this case?
00:27:40
Speaker
I'm just gonna warn you, the digital marketing, SEO, content positioning, I could talk like all day and night about that. So if you need to cut me off at any point, please do, or if I'm going off like on a tangent that is not helpful, just don't be afraid on chiming in. But I would say, and this is true with all content creation, the mistake that people make
00:28:06
Speaker
is they start with the content that they want to make, which is not bad. You have to definitely want to make the content that you make. And if you don't, then you should probably be making a different type of content. But where we should start is what are people's pain points? What do they need? What are they looking for?
00:28:35
Speaker
And then what you do is you figure out, once you can figure out what they're actually looking for, then you can figure out, okay, where does the, where the content that I want to make intersect with what this group of people is looking for. And a great example is I just released a YouTube video called Bottomless versus Spouted Portafilter. I thought I was getting a lot of questions on my social media about
00:29:05
Speaker
Bottomless portafilter why is it helpful? You know, how does it why is that I see it on your feet all the time? How is that different from a spouted portafilter? Does it make my espresso better? So I thought okay, I'm getting enough questions about this. I'm gonna make a video about it
00:29:19
Speaker
Um, so from there, what I do is I go onto YouTube and I put in the search bar, bottomless port of filter. Um, and I see what comes up. I forget what my first title was going to be. I think it was like why you should get a bottomless port of filter. And what I learned is just even by putting bottomless port of filter in the search bar is that when people put in bottomless port of filter, they don't put in the question first, most of the time, like it's like bottomless port of filter, then something else.
00:29:49
Speaker
And something that came up and this was before I did the video was like bottomless versus spouted portafilter or bottomless versus normal portafilter was like one of the leading search terms. So then I use the video like a SEO optimization tool and I looked on like all of the available search terms on YouTube and I thought, I think this is the one that I want to address people looking for this specific
00:30:19
Speaker
question like what is the difference between a bottomless versus a spouted portafilter. So then what I've done there is I've
00:30:30
Speaker
My audience has said, we are looking for information about bottomless portafilters. And I think, okay, I want to make a video about a bottomless portafilter. Then I go into testing mode on YouTube and I say, okay, what on YouTube are people actually looking for around this topic? What is the question they are actually asking? And then so I come up with this phrase, bottomless versus about a portafilter.
00:30:53
Speaker
And then what I do is, this is before I've even sat down to record the video. So it's like, then I angle the whole video around this question, bottomless versus spelled port filter. What are the differences? You know, why would you want to do one or the other? How can the bottomless help you get better espresso? And it's like in the first 30 seconds of the video,
00:31:14
Speaker
I want to tell people who are coming to the video with that question that I'm going to answer that question. Oh, it's like I don't lead with a big introduction about myself or my platform. If you watch that video, you'll see like, I think the first thing I said is like, what is a bottomless portafilter and how can it help you get better espresso at home? And I've got the other portafilter in my hand. Oh, it's like you get the sense right away that I'm gonna be comparing the two of them.
00:31:44
Speaker
Actually, I'm watching this video right now. It's just muted. Yeah, totally, right? So it's like what I'm doing there is I'm not starting with me. I'm starting with my audience and or and you can do that like even if you don't have an audience you can get a keywording tool for YouTube or Google or whatever and you can see what people are looking for and and so I always start that's where I start is with
00:32:13
Speaker
the pain point, the question, you know, what do people actually need help with?
00:32:17
Speaker
And then I try and answer those questions. There's another topic, like I was doing some of this keyword research and I was like, something that kind of rose to the top was about coffee scales. I was like, wow, like I never thought to do a video just on why using a coffee scale is important and how to do it. It's like, I would have thought that's like way too basic.
00:32:43
Speaker
But it's like, that's like, people ask me, it's like, I see you using a scale in your content all the time. Like, should I do that? And, you know, then it, that is a search term that rises to the top on YouTube as well. So that video is going in my production queue.
00:32:58
Speaker
of like, okay, I'm going to do a video on, and it seems basic to me, but obviously people are asking this question and I have an opportunity to come alongside people in their coffee journey and answer that question. So when it comes to
00:33:14
Speaker
positioning content, that's kind of my process on on YouTube. And I kind of use Instagram as a bit of a testing ground to kind of, you know, in very short form, see what resonates, look at questions I commonly get asked in my DMS, especially when somebody reaches out to me for the first time, usually it's with a specific question. And then like I then I go from there. But it's very viewer focused, rather than audience focused.
00:33:43
Speaker
Thanks for sharing those very structured stop-by-stops how to work on YouTube videos. I know that running a YouTube channel is very time-consuming, right? Tell us more about how many hours you spend on a regular one video, because you talk about how you
00:34:01
Speaker
got the idea and how you made the script and how you prepared content and the filming editing. In general, your video is from four minutes to 10 minutes long. Let's say 10 minutes video. How long it takes you? It really varies by video.
00:34:21
Speaker
I will say like I'm trying to reduce the amount of time that producing a video takes me so that I can produce more of them. And part of that is by doing some of that prep work that I mentioned. That really makes things like a lot. When I can go into a video knowing the exact question, it really gives me a way to focus
00:34:51
Speaker
It really gives me a way to focus the answer and focus the content in that I can do it quickly like that bottomless portafilter video That is my most successful video So far on my youtube in terms of reaching new audience Most successful long-term video I should say And that video took me
00:35:17
Speaker
like it's four minutes long. I set up the camera. And I think I was like, I was less than 10 minutes shooting it. But I think like, for me, you know, like I'm a busy guy. I don't have the time to at least if I want to release a video a week, do that crazy production.
00:35:39
Speaker
slow-mo footage, fancy lighting, graphics. It's like I just want to answer people's questions and I want to answer as many questions as I can. So I've kind of said I want to do one a week and I've made them very simple to make so that I can do that because it's like I don't want to be up till 2 a.m. editing videos for my YouTube channel. It's a lot of work. Our kids are one, three, and five.
00:36:03
Speaker
Um, like we're tired, so we want to go to sleep. Um, so I would say that video in particular, um, that took me like 10 minutes to shoot and less than a half an hour to edit. That's pretty fast. Um, no. Yeah. Now that being said, I did a lot of work on the front end to figure out the best positioning for that video that, um, really helped me make the most of that time.
00:36:29
Speaker
Make sense. Preparation is important and it seems you don't have a lot of b-rows there, as you said, because it's time consuming. You need to cut them and shoot them and you are just going straight forward to the main content and sharing what you know.
00:36:43
Speaker
Yeah, I don't have the interest in fluffing it up or trying to make it longer to get more view time. Like I just want to answer people's questions. I'm sure as I get into more of a rhythm, I'll start to do more of that stuff because it's like I've got a bit of a background in video production. It's like I know how to produce a good video. It's like I just know that if I want to release a video every week,
00:37:06
Speaker
I can't like produce them. I can't go to that level of production. You know, it's just, it's just not sustainable for me. So in this season of my YouTube, I'm just focusing on delivering solid content on a very consistent basis without a lot of frills because that's what's doable for me.
00:37:25
Speaker
Great. So I'm checking YouTube channel now and you talk about French press, you talk about pour over maker, grinder niche, collate wave. What other information or content would you like to share, let's say in the future?
00:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, so espresso is like a rabbit hole that is really a deep one that I'm going to go into. Yeah, I would say beyond that, one thing that I would really love to do is do live brewing sessions, not because I think the content will be helpful, but because it will give me a chance to interact with the YouTube audience
00:38:02
Speaker
in a way that is a little bit more direct. So that's good. There are, when you start looking on YouTube, there's a lot of people who have gotten a specific thing, like a specific pour over dripper, and they're trying to figure out how to use it.
00:38:17
Speaker
They don't know necessarily that you can use a V60 recipe on any other conical brewer. It's trying to be an answer for those people is something that I want to try and work through as I create more and more content.
00:38:33
Speaker
There's a lot of people doing really expensive product comparisons, like trying to figure out the best grinder under $1,500. I'm not really sure that that type of content is in my wheelhouse, at least not at this point. Number one, because I don't have the disposable income or the brand deals or my YouTube isn't making me any money right now.
00:39:00
Speaker
to be able to be buying that type of equipment. But even so, it's like that is that is a lot of work to answer one very specific question. Whereas I think that there are a lot of other questions that people have that I can answer that will be a lot more helpful, at least for where I'm at with where I'm creating.
00:39:22
Speaker
video content for myself. And then I really see my Instagram as my Instagram is really becoming a place where people find out about me and they feel like they can get like a little bit of coffee, a little bit of smiles in their day, you know, on a consistent basis. Like people tell me that all the time. They're like, Oh, I just
00:39:43
Speaker
love you know I'm always you know and it sounds like crazy to say this and I hope it doesn't sound like I'm you know pumping my own tires here but people reach out fairly frequently and say oh I love you know seeing you're real in the morning it's like a great part of my day when I'm having my coffee because it's always a good laugh and I always resonate with it and and all that so but it's like you can't go deep dive into answering all those questions on Instagram just not the best format for it
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah, we're talking about Instagram and YouTube.
Transition from Instagram to YouTube
00:40:15
Speaker
I believe you are switching to YouTube later, right? Since you're using Instagram as a place where you converted traffic to YouTube. Is it correct? Yeah. Yeah. So Instagram was part of this was like.
00:40:29
Speaker
I manage a couple of YouTube channels, you know, like outside of my coffee stuff, like for work and for, I do some branding freelancing on the side as well and marketing freelancing. I've always liked YouTube. I'm good at YouTube. I'm good at managing channels. I'm good SEO, you know, all that stuff. So I've always kind of been in the YouTube world a little bit. I just never had my own channel. I always have kind of thought about doing YouTube.
00:40:57
Speaker
Um, but it was too much work in the beginning. Um, so yeah, like I built the Instagram first and I'm at the point now where Instagram is giving me a small amount of income through brand deals and different things. So it's, it is allowing me to invest a little bit more time and to make it a little bit more of a priority as a side hustle, which is great. But I think like it's interesting on YouTube.
00:41:25
Speaker
You can give a lot more well-rounded of an experience as a content creator because if you want a deep dive, you can do that on YouTube. If you want to provide something a little lighter and a little funnier, well, they have shorts now. You can do that on YouTube. If you want to ask a question, like you can do community posts and it's like,
00:41:46
Speaker
You don't really think about it, but if you are subscribed and engaged with a channel, you'll see their community posts. You can go live on YouTube. I know you can do that on Instagram, but on YouTube, it's just more of a bit of a native format for live streaming. You can journey at a little bit of a deeper level with people on YouTube than you can
00:42:09
Speaker
in some ways on instagram like i definitely have friendships on instagram and there's a lot of great stuff that happens in the dms but on on youtube when it comes to actually helping people with more meaty content and like specific answers to specific problems it's like
00:42:29
Speaker
I would have to answer the same question 20 times on Instagram because I can post a reel about a certain thing and then it's gone. And then somebody's asking me about it the next week. Whereas on YouTube, if people have a question and they come across my page, they're likely to search my page for the answer to their question and see if it already exists. So it's just a little bit better of a format for the actual helping part of it.
00:42:58
Speaker
Whereas the relatability side of it, Instagram is really a great place for. So that's kind of how I see the two platforms working together. And if I'm honest, like right now, Instagram is feeding YouTube because my Instagram is a lot larger than my YouTube. But in the future, I'm sure YouTube will catch up and it will be a lot more back and forth. Like people find me on YouTube and they go and follow me on Instagram and vice versa.
00:43:22
Speaker
Do you think YouTube can replace your Instagram account once you have more followers there? Or are you gonna run these two platforms differently? Let's say on Instagram a lot of short videos reels. Are you gonna share the same content on YouTube? Or just keep them a little bit different? So if people want to dive in to check more information about coffee and then you can check your videos 3, 4 or 10 minutes long. But Instagram is always a place where you can share this funny.
00:43:51
Speaker
and interesting short videos? Yeah, I think it's an interesting question. I would say right now I'm experimenting with both on YouTube where I'm posting short form and long form content, like just almost more as like an experiment. I have been finding that posting my short form content on YouTube has been very helpful.
00:44:17
Speaker
to getting my channel in front of a new audience. Yeah. So right now I'm definitely posting like both content formats on YouTube. And part of it is like YouTube is trying to prioritize shorts. So it's, they're putting some additional freight behind that feature.
00:44:35
Speaker
and people are watching them. I find it crazy because I don't watch them, but there are a lot of people who do and I've had a number of subscribers from that content format. So, you know, if somebody's watching, they have a YouTube channel, they're not posting shorts, but they are posting that content on Instagram. Start posting it on YouTube because new people will see it and they might subscribe to your channel. It's
00:44:57
Speaker
I would say, Mickey, I said this before, I'm a content marketing geek. I'm a digital communications geek. I love messing with all that stuff. So I would say, at some point, I'm probably going to experiment with all of it. And whatever works, I'm going to put more energy behind. So that's kind of how I evaluate it. We'll see what happens. I might start taking my long-form content on YouTube and posting it on Instagram. We'll see.
00:45:25
Speaker
Right. You like to play around with all these different platforms to see which one works, which one doesn't. And actually your, uh, your short videos reminds me a person, the, uh, the AeroPress champion, 2019, Van der Linde, Van Boonig. Yeah, she is legendary.
00:45:41
Speaker
Yeah, she's legendary and she's using a lot of real videos as well. And she share her funny stories through short videos. Yes. But it doesn't seem she's grown very fast. I think she deserves more followers. And yes, I would agree with that.
00:45:57
Speaker
What do you think could be the problem? I mean, not saying that she's not performing well, but if I say with how, you know, you are a role as a marketer, consultant and I'm coming to, hey, you know, I can help her because she has good content. What do you think, you know, the tips you will give to her or to other audience who are trying to use, who's trying to catch up with the real videos?
00:46:18
Speaker
Yes. So, Gwendolyn is a friend of mine. So, Gwendolyn, if you're listening, you know, I'm one of your biggest fans. You're great. Gwendolyn and I have actually done a reel together. We did a collaboration reel where, you know, I was in part of it. She was in part. It was kind of fun. Yeah. One of the things that is like maddening with Instagram and like more and more this is becoming the case.
00:46:39
Speaker
is platforms need a lot of volume of content.
Social Media Growth Strategies
00:46:46
Speaker
And if you are not posting a high volume of content like at least once a day, then you are not going to be able to grow quickly. It's like I've posted hundreds of reels. I post one to two a day. It's like if I dial back on that,
00:47:02
Speaker
the engagement on the platform slows down. And what happens is Instagram shows people reels. Like if you go on your reels tab on Instagram, like they're not hiding it. Like if you just scroll, you're going to see a lot of people that you don't follow probably most of the reels you see.
00:47:18
Speaker
will be from people you don't follow. So if you translate that to yourself as a creator, it's like, oh, that means if I post a lot of reels, they have a likelihood to go to people who I don't follow, which is good for you as a creator. But the challenge is there's also a lot of people making reels on a daily basis. So even though you are seeing a lot of reels from, and this is the same on TikTok, from people who you don't follow,
00:47:44
Speaker
It's like you're not seeing by far the majority of reels that are being created by people on those platforms. There's hundreds of thousands of reels and TikToks being created that you don't see. So when I grow quickly, I've probably got a dozen reels, Mickey, that have done the lion's share of my heavy lifting in terms of growth. I've created
00:48:08
Speaker
like hundreds, maybe even a thousand reels at this point. So say I've got, let's say I've created 500 reels, for example, that's probably, you know, I'm probably somewhere between 500 and a thousand over the last year, probably closer to 500. Cause I do one to two a day. So say I create 500 reels and 10 of them are doing the lion's share of growing my page, like
00:48:35
Speaker
One of them gets a million views. One of them gets 1.5 million views. And then I get like a lot of followers from that. That's like 2% of my content in terms of reels. Like if there's 10 reels that have done that out of 500, I think that's 2%. If you produce, let's say you're producing one reel a week.
00:48:57
Speaker
that's 52 reels. If 2% of your reels are going to do the lion's share of your heavy lifting, that's only one reel, you know? And it's like you might not actually have created the right reel to actually do that heavy lifting because you can't really predict it. It's like, oh, people just resonate with this reel a little bit more strongly and then all of a sudden Instagram picks it up.
00:49:21
Speaker
because they're measuring people's behavior and they start showing it to hundreds of thousands of people. Well, it's like if you're not creating hundreds and hundreds of reels, the chances of you actually having that happen goes way down. So it's almost like the more swings you take, the more hits you take, but you gotta take a lot of swings and you're gonna have a lot of misses. That's kind of the nature of it.
00:49:45
Speaker
And so it's very like it's a discipline for me to crank one out a day or two out a day, depending on the season. And it's like it's just like something that I do as a content creator, even if I'm not feeling super inspired, like I more air on the side, very much like how I'm encouraging people to make coffee.
00:50:04
Speaker
Make good coffee consistently. Don't make great coffee once a week. Make decent content consistently. Don't try and make perfect content once a week. That's the advice that I would give to creators. People have given me that advice on YouTube as well. It's like, even if it's not perfect,
00:50:25
Speaker
Choose consistency over perfection. You know, I would agree. Gwendolyn has hilarious content. I don't think she posts every day. I could be wrong about that. It's been a while since I've looked at her page in detail, but it's like you really got to crank out a lot, like a lot of content. For anybody who wants to go on my page, Mickey, and do a deep dive as to which one of my content is really growing.
00:50:50
Speaker
If I'm going to get a lot of followers from a piece of content, it's going to be reels that have gotten over 500,000 views and probably reels that have gotten the ones that really grow me significantly have gotten over a million views. It's like I had a reel that took me from like 20 to 26,000.
00:51:11
Speaker
one reel and it got over a million views. When I was growing in that period, that was the reel that was doing the majority of the lifting. Now what happens sometimes is when people are seeing that reel in that amount of volume, they go and look at your other content like a percentage of them. So then what happens, what tends to happen is you get one reel that goes viral and then all these other reels start to go a little bit viral because people are binging your stuff.
00:51:39
Speaker
It's like if you aren't producing a high volume of content as a creator, as a short form video creator,
00:51:47
Speaker
It's going to be very difficult to tap into that. If most of your content is photos, that's probably not going to happen. And it's like, that's hard. Like you look back on my page, like I started with photos and I really enjoy taking coffee photos. Like I like the composition. I like editing photos. And it's like, that was a hard pill to swallow when I realized.
00:52:09
Speaker
Oh, these aren't actually going to grow my page. You know, I've got to figure out a different way of doing things. And the change into short form video enabled me to lean into my brand more in a way that was really positive, but swallowing that, like swallowing my pride initially and thinking, well, I've got to adapt if I want to figure out the platform.
00:52:33
Speaker
That was hard at first. So that's the advice I would give to creators. Um, also it's like, let your, let your results inform what you make. So if you are like, don't keep making the same content that doesn't perform well, or if you get one piece of content that does perform really well, try and figure out why and make more of that. That's, that's something that's really important. Also be authentic and relatable. It's like, if you're trying to be somebody else, people will smell that.
00:53:03
Speaker
you know, that will come across in your content and it, it, people won't, won't come along the journey or you won't be able to go on their journey with them. You got to figure out what is, what is it about me that I can lean into with my video content and how can I come alongside where other people are at?
00:53:23
Speaker
Thanks for the tip. Just scrolling down your Instagram page and I found these 42,000 views and you have 467 comments. I think that's a breakthrough post, right? That's about 12 weeks ago. 42,000?
00:53:40
Speaker
Yeah, so that one is okay. I don't actually see measurable growth unless it goes over 100,000 views. That looks like a sell age has happened because I compare other posts, you know, before this and after that, there's only about 1,000 or 400, but that one just went crazy.
00:54:00
Speaker
Yes. And so what I'm saying is like, it did go crazy compared to my other ones that I was posting at that time. But even though it went that crazy, that wasn't like the high horsepower growth. You know, it gave me a little bit of growth.
00:54:16
Speaker
You know, maybe I got a hundred followers from that, but it's like in order to get the high horsepower growth that, you know, gets you from zero to almost 30,000 in, you know, a year and a half. It's like, you got to get into those videos that are getting you over a million views. It's like, if I didn't have those videos, my account wouldn't be where it's at on Instagram. That's not that those 40,000.
00:54:42
Speaker
view videos didn't do better than the majority of my content they did. That's a hit. That's not a home run, if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. So back to what you were saying earlier, consistency is important and you don't have to change the perfection because you have to constantly produce decent quality content, right? And then once in a while we got a heat.
00:55:04
Speaker
I was running a few TikTok accounts before he went viral, like globally. And then I was posting two or three videos a day. And then the second day I got hit. I don't know what happened. Maybe the algorithm somehow.
00:55:19
Speaker
Um, recommended my video. I was one of the client and immediately that video went viral. Like I got 2 million views and then my account with five, um, five or six days post, like in total less than 20 videos. And I got a half million followers within one week. So I guess that's, that's lucky, right?
00:55:45
Speaker
Yes. And I would say on TikTok, like I wish I had started on TikTok a little bit earlier because that type of runaway success, like I know several people who have a million followers on TikTok ish between 500,000 and a million.
00:56:03
Speaker
And they all say like that happens a lot less frequently now that it used to, because there's a lot more people on TikTok creating content, there's more competition. That can still happen. A couple things that like I post my content on TikTok.
00:56:20
Speaker
For a while, I was using... I find there's actually more funny content on TikTok, whereas on Instagram you tend to see, or at least I find there's less variety, like you see more of the same sounds. But on TikTok, you see there's a little bit more variety in terms of the actual, especially comedic material. So I was creating on TikTok for a while and then taking those videos and posting them on Instagram, even without a watermark.
00:56:49
Speaker
And somehow Instagram was picking that up and basically stopped recommending my content to new people. A couple of things about TikTok. Number one,
00:57:00
Speaker
You need to post more content on TikTok in order to, like you need to take even more swings on TikTok than you do on Instagram, generally, if you want to grow right now. And I find in my experience, you need to spend a lot of time, like it really needs to become your focus if you want to grow on TikTok.
00:57:21
Speaker
It's like if you want to make it a side thing, it's going to be very difficult to grow. And a lot of the TikTok creators who I know would say the same thing to a degree, I think that's true with any channel. Like if you're just kind of phoning it in, you're not really engaged on a social channel, it's going to be very difficult to grow. You know, you got to take a lot more swings. Some of my TikTok buddies say like three to five TikToks a day is a sweet spot. Wow. Which is really high intensity.
00:57:48
Speaker
That's like a full-time job. Yeah, yeah. Or it's like if you have a job where you can integrate that, like I know several coffee roasters who have grown large TikTok accounts and they just integrate it into their work. So it's different. And even though that can happen, that is a lot less frequent now than it was. That being said, TikTok is a huge platform and there's a huge amount of traffic going to it.
00:58:18
Speaker
So, you know, it's definitely a great place to invest. However, you need to invest. It's like, you can't just like post a couple of videos and expect that to happen anymore. So different platform to have different algorithm and different system.
Specialty Coffee Community on Instagram
00:58:34
Speaker
And then you cannot just use the same way to post on different platform. It's not going to work that way. Yes. I guess most people in the specialty coffee community, they're mostly on Instagram, right?
00:58:48
Speaker
Yep. Yes, I would say that is true, especially within like the online, like it's tricky because there is definitely a thriving specialty coffee community on Instagram. That isn't the whole of specialty coffee though. Like there are a lot of people who are in specialty coffee who don't care about what's happening on Instagram. And I think sometimes we can,
00:59:13
Speaker
fall under the illusion that what happens on Instagram is specialty coffee because there's a lot of people there and it really is a lot larger than that. But there is a lot of specialty coffee people on Instagram in terms of brands and brand deals. There are more brands doing brand deals on Instagram in specialty coffee than TikTok.
00:59:36
Speaker
Um, and so if you're a creator, that's something to consider, but yeah, there is a, there is a lot of specialty coffee people on Instagram and that's good and bad. It means there's a good community. It also means there's a lot of competition. If you don't differentiate yourself as a creator.
00:59:52
Speaker
Yes. Thanks for all the tips. This is a very educational episode and I believe Madeline will be happy to hear how she can grow. Maybe she can post more often. And I think new Instagram or bloggers who are into YouTube, Instagram short videos, they can also get some tips from this episode. Thank you so much.
01:00:15
Speaker
Yeah, no worries, man. Happy to help and reach you at any time. I would love to do this again if it's helpful. Come find me on YouTube. I'm really trying to grow my channel and every subscriber helps, especially in the early days. So I would love for you to come along to ride and if you have some feedback for me.
01:00:35
Speaker
I'm a big listener when it comes to content, so I love listening to people's feedback. So just leave a comment or my video or whatever, or if you have something that you think I would be a good fit to address, like a pain point that would fit well on my channel, leave it as an idea. But come along for the ride and let's see what happens. Another thing I should add, I really try and be accessible in my DMs. On Instagram, that's something that's important to me. I try and reply to every DM.
01:01:04
Speaker
even as my account has gotten larger. So I remember even when I was early on reaching out to people with 10,000 followers and thinking, oh, they're never going to see my DM. I make it a point to look at all my DMS. So if anyone has a question, be it about coffee, be it about content creation, hit me up because I really do enjoy talking about it. And I really try and make an effort to read every DM, get back to everyone. And and I enjoy the conversations there. So yeah, hit me up there too.
01:01:34
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to this I'm Not A Barista episode. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at I Am Not A Barista for more empowering vibes and true coffee stories that connect you with coffee lovers around the world.