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S3E2 Liza Belmonte
370 Plays10 months ago
Thanks for listening to our episode with Liza Belmonte.
Stay in touch with Meredith.
✨ Follow Meredith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-farley/
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✨ Learn about Medbury: MedburyAgency.com
We loved talking to Liza.
Stay in touch with her here:
✨Subscribe to Every Body Gets Dressed here: https://lizabelmonte.substack.com/
✨ Follow LIza on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizambelmonte/
✨ Follow Liza on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lizambelmonte?lang=en
✨ Her new newsletter, Not Yet a Woman, coming soon! https://notyetawoman.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=profile_page
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:04
Speaker
Hey, guys. Welcome to Content People. I am your host, Meredith Farley. Lisa, thank you so much for being on Content People. I've been looking forward to this convo all week. I'm so excited to talk to you.
00:00:25
Speaker
Thanks, Meredith. I'm delighted to be here.
Lisa Belmonte's Background in Fashion
00:00:28
Speaker
So for folks who do not already know you, could I ask you to say a little bit about who you are and what you do? Absolutely. So my name is Lisa Belmonte. I'm a writer. I currently write a newsletter on Substack called Everybody Gets Dressed. And it's a newsletter that talks about finding your personal style, building a healthy relationship with your wardrobe prior to
00:00:54
Speaker
writing this newsletter I had a 10 years corporate career in fashion e-commerce and I also founded my own clothing brand so I'm relying on this experience to help the people who read my newsletter to
00:01:12
Speaker
build agency in the shopping choices that they make so that they can be value driven as opposed to being influenced by the trend cycle.
Promoting Content on Social Media
00:01:22
Speaker
And on the side of writing the newsletter, I also dabble with content creation. So that's mainly long form video content. So that's reels on Instagram and videos on TikTok. And they're mainly centered around promoting the message and the content that I have in my newsletter.
00:01:41
Speaker
I love your newsletter. I'm a subscriber. And you say dabble in long form content. You're being modest. You have tens of thousands of followers on both platforms. And I'm really excited to dig into that with you because I know some folks listening might be feeling like I want to build what Lisa built for herself and curious as to how to do it.
00:02:03
Speaker
But before we even get into that, I really want to just talk about the sub stack because I mentioned this to you. I've had a lifelong obsession with capsule wardrobes, but I feel like I've never really nailed it. I have found your content to be so helpful. If someone reads your newsletter, what type of topics are you covering? So there is quite a wide range of topic I'm thinking about.
Fashion Industry Insights
00:02:29
Speaker
the content that I've been posting lately. Last week I posted this huge deep dive into shopping for cashmere. And so a typical post like this will require about 20 hours of research, which I will then condense into a 15 minutes read, but it touches upon what is cashmere?
00:02:55
Speaker
We hear about it all the time. We hear about denim all the time. We hear about those things all the time. We don't really understand what they are. And I try to draw from that story the thing that I feel will be interesting to read for people. So what is cashmere? How has cashmere gone in the past 30 years or so from a product that was dedicated to only the elite to trickle down to
00:03:25
Speaker
being able to be bought for $30 at Uniqlo or H&M, how did that happen?
00:03:32
Speaker
And is it worth spending a lot of money on cashmere or is it okay for you to buy budget cashmere? What's the difference in quality between budget cashmere and luxury cashmere? So I will typically do a piece like this. I will also go through pieces describing a step-by-step process to finding your personal style.
00:03:56
Speaker
you were talking at the very beginning of being fascinated with the concept of capsule collections, you're definitely not alone. Readers love to read about capsule collections, but I think if you open Instagram today, there is a very sort of copy-paste image of what a capsule wardrobe looks like, and it doesn't necessarily suit every personal style, and it certainly doesn't suit
00:04:22
Speaker
every body type out there and not everyone wants to buy the white shirt and beige trench coat and the black work pants. There's different ways to consume, mindfully have an efficient small wardrobe, AKA a capsule wardrobe and not look like everybody else.
Building an Online Following
00:04:40
Speaker
And so I do those features where I show the different faces that a capsule wardrobe can have. And yeah, those are different examples of content that I publish.
00:04:52
Speaker
Oh, I thought your post on cashmere was the most thorough and informative one I've ever read, but I loved the lines at the end where you said something to the effect of if you can't afford the super high in cashmere, the sweater that is taken care of over time is the one that's going to last the longest. And the idea that.
00:05:16
Speaker
If the $50 sweater is what's in your budget, like hand wash it, depill it, treat it with care, and it's going to do much better for you than the $300 or $700 sweater you throw around, put in the wash. I feel like that's the spirit of your work too. And you're just reminding us that we don't have to buy the most expensive things to have nice pieces that we can cherish and take care of and enjoy wearing. And I really appreciate that about all of your content.
00:05:45
Speaker
Absolutely. Thank you so much. But you have built up such a big platform and following on TikTok and Instagram. And I want to dig into that because I know some people listening or other creators would love that success.
00:06:00
Speaker
but it maybe feels really out of reach to them. They're frustrated. They're like, my stuff is not working. My content is not working the way I want it to. So I've got a few questions for you about that. First, is there anything you have learned about the platforms that really surprised you that you were like, oh, I didn't realize this is going to work so well, but this is a tip. Definitely. There is so much. I would begin by saying,
00:06:26
Speaker
One of the many mistakes that I made as a first time founder was going all in on TikTok as a platform at the beginning and relying on it to create a community that would turn into paying customers. And I will preface this by saying, on a personal level, I am a
00:06:48
Speaker
TikTok girly through and through. I absolutely adore using it, especially now that I am less focused on fostering a community on there. I mainly use the platform to shoot and post content. So I'm able to enjoy the platform and love the platform again for what it is, which is an entertainment platform.
00:07:10
Speaker
But in 2020, I thought it would be much easier to get views on TikTok than it would be on Instagram. And like I said, I bet everything on TikTok. And it took me give or take 18 months of posting multiple times daily to get to a 60,000 follower base on TikTok. And it took me
00:07:38
Speaker
three months of posting twice or thrice weekly on Instagram to get to 40,000. So not only that, but also it's funny, I was looking at my newsletter data this morning and I saw that 65% of my paying subscribers come from Instagram, whereas 10%
00:08:07
Speaker
of my paying subscribers come from TikTok. And if you look at my non-paying subscriber base, the number of subscribers that Instagram has driven is 10x the number of subscribers that TikTok has driven. And so I always see
00:08:31
Speaker
There's so much debate online when you get onto that side of TikTok about you need to hone in on one platform or on the contrary, you need to try them all. And I guess I think it's interesting for me to share this learning because
00:08:48
Speaker
I can't speak for anyone who's looking to become maybe an influencer, who's trying to rely on a business model where they generate revenue through brand deals. But certainly if you're a founder of a premium brand, a premium product, a premium service, if you have a digital product, if you have a newsletter, make sure that you test and learn and focus on the platforms that are going to
00:09:18
Speaker
really benefit you. And in my case, that was Instagram. And there's no saying, I'm very happy with what I've built. But if I had started Instagram, when I started TikTok, I would probably be much farther along my journey.
00:09:33
Speaker
So I think it's interesting to really find the place where your audience is going to be because creating content is ridiculously hard and it's ridiculously time consuming.
00:09:49
Speaker
Find a platform where your efforts are going to be best appreciated. I think that's such incredible info and great advice. And I'm trying to think like, I think I became a subscriber of yours from Instagram. So I think that tracks and it's interesting. Kirby Johnson, who's an awesome beauty editor, host of Los Angeles. She was on the podcast last season and
00:10:14
Speaker
I think she was saying something similar, but from a different angle. She was saying that on TikTok, it's like you're a talking head and it's not the place to build up a list, to build up community. It doesn't transfer over. And there's an anecdote she shared about a woman on TikTok who had a couple million followers, but did like a meet and greet event at
00:10:37
Speaker
I don't know, some type of event or conference. And like only two people showed up. And then Instagram is like community. And then when someone becomes a subscriber, if you have a strong subscriber base, you have a really strong platform and a voice. When it comes to the content that you create, were there two or three aha moments that changed how your content performed and grew?
Content Creation Strategies
00:11:01
Speaker
Gosh, yeah, there's a few things that I can think of. I think if you've ever read any sort of article about tips to create content, etc., you probably have heard of a hook.
00:11:16
Speaker
um which is essentially the first sentence or the text or the image that you use in order to in order to get the viewer to the viewer's thumb to stop scrolling and I certainly agree with that I think finding those hooks for him were definitely it was definitely a game changer and I think that the best way to do this is just to test out many different ones and just
00:11:42
Speaker
Posting, posting as opposed to sitting behind your desk and work shopping, brainstorming what a good hook will be. I find my good hooks by just posting randomly. I do want to address something really important though when talking about
00:12:01
Speaker
content that performs or content that grows, I think it completely depends on what your goals are. We just talked about this, but if you're trying to create a community and create value, virality is not always your friend. Today I can say that I've reached a point now where I've done enough content creation where
00:12:30
Speaker
I could confidently say that I can engineer virality so in fashion
00:12:37
Speaker
what that would look like is I would record a video using a picture of the Olsen twins or Anna Wintour or Zoe Kravitz or Katie Holmes. I would drop a few typos in there or maybe mispronounce a few words or mispronounce a few names so that hundreds of people flock to the comments to correct me. I would say something maybe slightly controversial and keeping it short and snappy
00:13:06
Speaker
And I'm sure that this video would reach half a million views. But what that means essentially is that your video is getting shown to people outside of your audience and essentially people who will never become your customers or your community members and focusing on intent.
00:13:29
Speaker
is much more important. And again, that completely depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you're trying to be the new Alex Earle, who I am obsessed with, by the way, that's maybe a completely different ballgame. But if you're trying to sell a subscription or trying to sell a product, educating your audience,
00:13:50
Speaker
and creating value-driven content might be a better way to achieve your goals than just chasing the numbers. Yeah, I really appreciate you saying that. I think there's so much to unpack.
00:14:03
Speaker
Because on LinkedIn, there's something that happens where you've probably seen them, but someone could get really vulnerable in a post and they might get a lot of likes and comments, but to your point, it's not achieving their goal, whatever their goal might be. And I think that when you spend a lot of time in the platforms, if you don't have a good like reality check or a break, sometimes you can really start to conflate likes and views with validation and believe that the more likes and views it gets, the better it is.
00:14:33
Speaker
And I think that for anyone listening, if you can separate that out and listen to what Lisa's saying where
00:14:41
Speaker
is it quality work that's serving your intent?
Emotional Impact of Content
00:14:44
Speaker
That's good. And just because it didn't get 500,000 or a million likes or views doesn't mean that it's not a great piece of content for you. But I don't know that validation is it does feel great when you post something and it does so well. And I think people can start to chase that a little bit and then really be on an emotional roller coaster of
00:15:06
Speaker
Yesterday's content did great. Today's was terrible. I feel terrible. Do you ever struggle with that or do you feel really clear? Do you feel emotionally impacted by the daily or weekly performance of your content? And what you just said really resonates because I have definitely spent months and months
00:15:23
Speaker
chasing those numbers and months and months until I realized that was not necessarily the right outcome, but linking it back to what you just said or what you just asked in terms of, do I get emotionally impacted? It's interesting how tightly they are linked because I just said, when you go viral, people outside of your community see your content actually.
00:15:51
Speaker
It's those people outside of your community that are going to be leaving nasty comments, criticizing you, disagreeing with you, saying really mean things about the way you speak or the way you look, et cetera, et cetera. And actually, when I started, I remember I was talking about using specific celebrities and videos that I know people are always going to go crazy about.
00:16:18
Speaker
I remember I think the most viral video I've ever had was a video about Anna Wintour and I remember that the day that I
00:16:26
Speaker
posted it on Instagram, I said, I will not read the comments. I'm pretty good because I think it does help the algorithm. I'm pretty good at replying to comments and being in the comment section. But the day I posted that video, I said, I will not be in the comments because it will make me just so unbelievably sad and depressed for a week. But so I actually think that if you stick to intent and you stick to value,
00:16:53
Speaker
Again, I'm not saying avoid virality because of course virality gets you wonderful things. It gets you followers and that stuff matters at the end of the day. But the more you go viral, the more you will get the nasty comments, the more you will get emotionally impacted without it out. Last season we talked to Clara of Color Me Loverly. Do you know her? Yes.
00:17:14
Speaker
She said something similar. She was like, the highest videos they're shown to people who don't know you and those people leave terrible comments. And even as you're talking, like, it kills me that people would say mean stuff to either of you. You're both such sweet kind people. And like, who the fuck is like,
00:17:29
Speaker
I'm saying mean stuff in your comment. But anyway, I appreciate you sharing that. And I'm, I, it does seem like such a difficult balance for people who have professional ties to their content performance. You have to be strategic, but also do your best to be emotionally divorced from the outcome or the feedback. But also you have to pay attention to it or most of the time you have to be engaging with comments, et cetera. It's so complicated.
00:18:00
Speaker
Hey guys, interrupting this interview for 10 seconds to talk about Medbury. Medbury is a social media agency that I founded in 2023 and we produced this podcast. Our promise is pretty simple. We create social media strategies that really, really work.
00:18:15
Speaker
We offer of LinkedIn, Instagram, and newsletter management for founders, execs, entrepreneurs, public figures, and brands. Our clients often see significant results within just a few weeks of us working together. We're fun to work with and we'd love to help you. You can check out our website, sign up for our newsletter, or shoot us an email. Everything's in the show notes. Okay, back to the interview.
00:18:46
Speaker
It's definitely difficult and it's a work in progress for me to detach myself from the emotional impact that it's having. And it's funny because I don't think about it so much now, but at the very beginning, I think I was... How old was I when I posted my first TikTok? I can't remember. I must have been like 33. And I kept thinking of these...
00:19:11
Speaker
18, 16, 17 year olds who blow up on TikTok or Instagram and thinking how do you handle that when at 33 I just myself don't have the maturity of detaching myself. But it's so tough and honestly
00:19:32
Speaker
It's not always the things that you think are going to affect you the most that affect you. If someone says something about how I look, I don't usually care.
00:19:43
Speaker
But I remember going home at 9 p.m. from a New Year's Eve party because I saw someone in the comments saying something that wasn't even mean. They said something along the lines of, why do you say the world girly? Earlier I said I'm a TikTok girly. And I think I said something along the lines of the minimalist girlies in a video about minimalist personal style. And they were like,
00:20:10
Speaker
You're a grown woman. Why do you say that word? That's a bit embarrassing, which is silly, but it's not even that mean. And I, it made me cry. On New Year's Eve. The question is, why was I looking at my phone? Right. And, and you know, what I think is really messed up is that I unfortunately feel like it's part of the world that we live in. The more controversial the topic that you're going to address, the more it's going to get people angry.
00:20:37
Speaker
the more the algorithm is going to love you. And it's unfortunately the name of the game. And I haven't found a way yet to detach myself from it, but definitely working on it. I can see how important it would be with the work you do to be detached from it.
00:20:55
Speaker
But also, is there any human in the world who, at that point, are you disassociating if you're totally disconnected? If you're like, people can say anything to me, I don't care. I don't even know where I'm going with that, but I hate that someone said something mean to you. I guess on that bit, whether it's emotional or tactical or strategic,
00:21:15
Speaker
Are there a few bits of practical advice you'd offer to people listening who are like, I love what Lisa's doing and I'd really like to do something similar on TikTok for instance.
Consistency and Growth in Content Creation
00:21:27
Speaker
I would say the most important thing that I think would be useful for people is the only reason why I have a community today and I'm able to make a living out of a newsletter that I started six months ago is because on the 31st of December of 2021
00:21:46
Speaker
I said to myself I'm going to post at least one video a day for 365 days and I committed to that. It was my priority over anything. I would not go to bed until I had posted that video.
00:22:03
Speaker
And the reason why I think this works is because first of all, at the beginning, it's a numbers game, right? The algorithm needs to understand what you're about and what you're talking about to know who they're showing your content to. So that's really important. Second, I think I messed around with the platform for three months before I really understood how it worked and how it was to make content. You need to keep posting.
00:22:30
Speaker
It's giving you data for you to iterate on what people are picking up on, right? So if you're posting three days in a row and you get 50 views on day one, 70 views on day two and 40 views on day three,
00:22:45
Speaker
need to analyze why you got 70 views that day and pick up a few things and iterate day after day. But I think thirdly and the most important reason why that helps me and why I think it would help anyone to commit is that the content creation process is so grueling and I don't just base that on my personal experience. I
00:23:07
Speaker
I'm part of a network of female founders and we've all been in it together where we've been trying to promote our different businesses by posting on social media over the past few years. And putting in three hours of work in a video that gets 50 views is the most demoralizing process ever. And so if you don't have a commitment with yourself that you're going to be posting day after day,
00:23:33
Speaker
it's very unlikely that you're going to drop because it doesn't take days, it doesn't take weeks, it takes literal months for that algorithm to pick up. And I genuinely think that the only difference between people who see their content performance and those that don't is the people that give up.
00:23:56
Speaker
And the thing that I will add to that is at the beginning, I just spent so much time on planning and like I said, brainstorming, workshopping mode. Should I do this? Should I post about that? And actually sometimes I get people messaging me and saying, how did you do this? And then they'll go away and shoot a video and send me the video and ask me for feedback. And I keep thinking the time that you.
00:24:24
Speaker
spent writing this message, making that video and waiting for me to reply, you should have been posting because no one knows how people are going to react and what the algorithm is going to pick up. So spend less time on content planning and more time on just posting. Yes. I feel like that's a sound bite right there. There's two things when you're talking that occurred to me. Actually, I think this was slightly sparked by the combo we had last week where we talked like cringe and
00:24:52
Speaker
that cringe factor, especially when you're just starting out, you're figuring out the platform. It feels embarrassing. I think that if it was exercise, if someone hadn't exercised in a year and they were like, I'm going to start jogging, they wouldn't go for a couple of jogs and feel slow, feel uncomfortable, feel winded, feel like their heart was pounding and think, I must just be bad at jogging. I should stop.
00:25:18
Speaker
But when it comes to content, people do, they do a few and then they are like, I must just suck at this or everyone must hate me. I should stop. And I think what you're saying is like, it's like working out. Like you just have to stay consistent and you have to, you will figure it out as you go. And it's a long game.
00:25:38
Speaker
And it's not one particular video that's going to do it for you and then everything's great. So I really appreciate that advice. I think it's really wise and I really like it. And then also as you're talking, I'm thinking.
00:25:51
Speaker
In marketing, actually, this woman, Jess Cook, I feel like I keep referencing old guests when talking with you, but she was great. Everyone should listen to Jess Cook's episode. She's a great B2B marketer. And she talked about this survey she ran once, which was just for marketers, and they put out pieces of content. And they asked marketers to say, of these three, which do you think will perform best? And then they did testing.
00:26:16
Speaker
And like 70% of the marketers were totally wrong. So we think we have instincts sometimes about what's going to do well or fail. But to your point, you just got to try a bunch of stuff and see. And I like what you're saying too about just get it out there and then analyze it. Don't spend 80% of your time planning a little bit of content. Anyway, someone, thank you. I love everything you said there, Lisa. I love that. Sorry, I'm going to drink.
00:26:42
Speaker
Cause I didn't know if I could drink and if you were going to hear it, so I didn't want to drink whilst you were talking. No, sorry. Sorry. If you've been parched over there and I'm being like AB testing, not at all, not at all. So I, by the way, I love the analogy that you use about it's literally like training for a marathon. It's going to be horrendous. It's going to be a horrendous for so many months. Then it's literally what it's like. I'm a hundred percent going to use this analogy.
00:27:10
Speaker
The A B testing thing I think is also so interesting. It reminds me of, I was just talking about people asking me for feedback on their videos and asking me, is this good? I don't think there's no such thing as.
00:27:25
Speaker
this is good. I have one of my very close friends from this founder community I was talking about who is this incredible artist with the most beautiful taste level I've ever come across and she makes those stunning reels and they're not always performing the way that she wishes that they were performing they are excellent but it's not up to it's so subjective and it's again up to the algorithm so I think it's
00:27:54
Speaker
It's
Overcoming Fear and Embracing Cringe
00:27:55
Speaker
tough. And also last thing, you mentioned cringe, right? You mentioned the concept of cringe. I can talk about this. I could talk about this for hours and hours, but it's crazy how, first of all, I
00:28:14
Speaker
cringe myself out to no end every time I post a single piece of content. It's horrendous. I think when I started posting content on was probably the worst. I had literally a pit in my stomach. It was just horrors but you need to get past it and it's important to get past it because sometimes even leaning into the cringe is going to
00:28:38
Speaker
help you. I give you an example. I was talking about hooks earlier and there is a hook which once I found it using that hook probably got me 75% of
00:28:56
Speaker
all the followers that I have on TikTok. And it was just a phrase and it was so silly. I think it went something like this. How do the best dressed girls in the world spend less money on fashion, always look immaculate and consume more mindfully? I stock them enough so you don't have to.
00:29:14
Speaker
It's me. And I would literally start and I took it down a notch just now. But when I do it on video, I add even more kind of accents to my tone. So I sound absolutely ridiculous, but it works. And obviously I don't, first of all, what does it even mean? I don't know.
00:29:38
Speaker
But not only does it not mean much, but also I don't speak like that in real life. I think my voice, you can hear it, is like a lot more monotonous or hopefully not too monotonous, but I don't speak with those weird accents. But leaning into that is unfortunately going to help with creating this virality and getting the algorithm to love you and getting people to watch your content. And in a way, this is why I love Substack is that
00:30:08
Speaker
After doing this for coming up to two years now, it's exhausting. It's exhausting to do the gimmicks and it's exhausting to do the cringy bits. And subseg doesn't have the algorithm. And so it's nice to not have to feed that piece because on TikTok and definitely to a certain extent on Instagram as well, you definitely have.
00:30:32
Speaker
feed that beast. I love everything that you just said and it's funny, feed the beast. It always feels so right to me as a phrase and I think it's because of what you're talking about with the cringe and putting yourself out there that it's not just artistic and creative labor or even the manual labor of the hours actually doing it.
00:30:54
Speaker
but it's the emotional hangover sometimes of it. Is there anything you've found that helps you? Are you like every eighth day, I don't know, take a long walk without my phone or I put these boundaries on it? Is there anything you've done that for people who are really in the thick of cringe that could help them maybe? I can think of two things. In terms of getting over
00:31:19
Speaker
the emotional load of all of this certainly as you said walks definitely help but i definitely i recently downloaded this app called i think it's called opal and i literally block my social media entirely from seven pm in the evening until nine am in the morning and
00:31:46
Speaker
I've only been using it for three weeks but I can feel like my mind is clearer, my mood is better because there's just so much toxic energy around all this kind of thing. Sometimes I just post and I put the app away, I don't want to hear what people have to say. With regards to the cringe specifically, I don't have so much a technique as
00:32:09
Speaker
I remind myself that what the cringe is going to bring me is something that I want more.
00:32:17
Speaker
The feeling of cringe is worth it. Am I going to embarrass myself? Are my ex colleagues going to see this? That sucks, whatever. But is that more important than what I'm trying to achieve with this? Absolutely not. And also it's 2024. That's what you have to do. The people who manage to leverage content are the people who are going to be able to overcome stepping outside of
00:32:45
Speaker
their comfort zone. It's something you just sparked for me. I feel like I've been thinking about this idea of a cringe chorus.
00:32:52
Speaker
I think that if most people sat down and wrote down the list of people who they were afraid of seeing their content and thinking of it, it's actually a pretty short list. And it's mostly people you don't like anyway. It's ex-boyfriends, ex-co-workers. And when you look at the list, it's, oh, those people don't care about me. Why should I care about them? And it can hold you back a little. I don't know if you've had, maybe you're like, no, my list is miles long.
00:33:17
Speaker
all the people. This really touches a nerve. 100%. And in fact, I have that list in my head. I don't have it written out, but I know exactly who's on that list. And there are people who and this is the thing, right? I think
00:33:34
Speaker
If I think about that list, these are people I have not seen or spoken to or interacted with in over eight years or ten years. And this is it, right? It's really these people who, by the way, might have muted you, probably are not seeing your content,
00:33:58
Speaker
Are you going to ruin this opportunity for them? And I think when you think about it this way, it really helps you rationalize it. But thank you for raising that because I thought I was the only crazy person here, but yeah, that resonates 100%. No, I think that's everybody. And I'd say if you're listening or thinking about this, go write down the people in your head and you're going to look at this list of four or five people and be like,
00:34:28
Speaker
Well, and also block them, right? I think if I think I, and actually I haven't done that, but I bet that's pretty liberating because write that list. And I guess I was talking earlier about it does get easier. There are people that were on that list with whom I posted on TikTok for four months without telling a single person, except I think my partner and my sister, I didn't even tell my best friends and they just found me on there.
00:34:57
Speaker
It was wild for them. They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. They still, they still laugh about it till this day, but the list definitely goes small, goes smaller over time, that list of people. And if anything comes down to it, yeah, just block them. I love that. And I'll say one more thing before we move on, but as you're talking, something else occurred to me where I have nothing near the platform that you have on Instagram or TikTok. I'm not really on TikTok at all.
00:35:27
Speaker
But on LinkedIn there, there were a couple of people. So I'm sitting there feeling cringe all the time. And then there have actually been a few people, some of whom I know well, some of whom I don't, but I admired and I knew of them who said that something like me doing this had inspired them to do it. And I thought, oh, like that is the nicest feeling in the world. And also I was like, we can sit and stew in our feelings of
00:35:57
Speaker
doubt, cringe, incredible self-criticism, but there might be some people out there who are like, oh, I'm inspired by this. And I feel like when we're alone with our thoughts around this, it's so easy to forget that not everyone is cringing at you. Some people are actually appreciative that you're putting yourself out there and it makes them think about putting themselves out there.
00:36:21
Speaker
That is without a doubt the case. I'm sure that is 100% the case for you. And I'd like to think, I'd like to hope that there are a few people out there who think that of me as well. I have some friends who, meaning well, have said things along the lines of, I could never do what you do. You're so brave. When the subtext of that is, yeah, I would never become full of myself like that. And I think, I think in a way,
00:36:49
Speaker
With a little bit of perspective, that makes me proud of myself because it is daunting. And I think these people know that it is embarrassing for me as well, but I am, I hate to say that, but I suppose brave enough to do it anyway. And I think we would be surprised to hear how many people think like that. I remember.
00:37:11
Speaker
a girl again in my network who said that there was a girl in her town who started posting about her marathon journey or something like that and she started posting from day one having a hundred followers and people were like, who does she think she is? She's not an influencer, whatever.
00:37:33
Speaker
And then next thing six months later, she had tens of thousands and the people who said, Oh, who does she think she is? We're all really jealous now and thinking that this was great and really admirable. So yeah, for sure. Well, I'll also say, Lisa, like you've inspired me so much. So I do think you're, I'm really grateful that you do what you do. Thank you. All right. So you've just given a clinic on social media presence on TikTok and Instagram.
Building a Successful Newsletter on Substack
00:38:01
Speaker
I want to talk about sub-stack a bit. You've had so much success. It's obviously really different than the social platforms. Are there any tips that you'd suggest for someone who's trying to build up a newsletter on the
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. There is at the top, quite a big community of people who used to be ex-journalists and editors who dominate the space on Substack, mostly because they joined the platform with a giant existing mailing list and a network of other people. And because Substack has this excellent organic recommendation system, they all recommend each other and become leaders on the platform.
00:38:38
Speaker
And it's very daunting because if you don't have an existing network or mailing list or presence on social media, you think, how am I going to break through the noise? And granted I had experience posting on TikTok, but like I said, I very much built my following on Substack and on Instagram simultaneously.
00:38:57
Speaker
So it's definitely valuable. I post for every newsletter that I publish, I post a video and it can bring me between 50 and 200 new subscribers. That's free subscribers, including a couple that are paid. So that's definitely encouraging, but I wouldn't only rely on that. I think it's not the most, I think it's not, it's a very good way to grow. It's a great Kickstarter.
00:39:25
Speaker
But it's, there's other things that need to be done. So my recommendations, again, I've only been doing this for six months, but what I would say is engage with your paid subscribers as much as you can. There's 20 or 30 of them with whom I almost interact with weekly or daily NDMs.
00:39:44
Speaker
And outside of this core group, I try to answer every single comment that's being left by a paid subscriber. Again, another perk of Substack is you can filter who leaves a comment. So unless people are really keen to be angry and willing to pay to be angry at you, you filter out the other comments. I try to answer every single paid comment, which again, of course is not sustainable, but I hope to be able to hire someone soon so I can continue doing that. I think it's really important to nurture it.
00:40:14
Speaker
Another thing, consistency is very important. It doesn't matter how often you post. I post once a week, but I think consistency gives you a bit of a rendezvous with your audience where I like to picture them reading my posts on a Sunday morning in bed with a coffee. And also for you as a writer, it gives you consistency as well. It gives you a deadline. You have to post on a Sunday, so you just can't really miss it.
00:40:41
Speaker
And then the last thing I would say is do network with your peers and other writers in the space. I don't know if that will be true in a year or two, but definitely at the stage of maturity that the subset platform is at, I think it matters. I've been in the DMs of a lot of other writers in my niche over the past.
00:41:01
Speaker
few months inviting them to guest write for my publication, asking them, pitching them to guest write for theirs, saying, recommending each other, et cetera. I think that's very powerful at ease at this stage. Thank you. That's a lot of great advice. I know I have a couple of minutes left. I think one question I really want to ask is, what do you hope people will take away from everybody gets dressed?
00:41:23
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. So I think mainly two things. I want to enable every single person who reads my content with some understanding of how this industry works so that they can make choices that really serve them, right, as opposed to conditioned by the conveyor belt of
00:41:54
Speaker
purchases that we are encouraged to take part in. And I took a lot. My goal with this newsletter is really to shed light on sustainability and more mindful practices in the fashion industry. But I try to do this and approach this in a way that I don't really want to guilt people into it. I really want to show that what's in the interest of the planet and the interest of
00:42:20
Speaker
garment workers is also in the interest of people's wallet and people's personal style. Having to pay an insane amount of money every month to buy new things is just going to not serve you but it's also going to encourage the industry to just carry on producing at this insane volume and speed.
00:42:42
Speaker
the second thing i would say is and it's in the name of the newsletter right it's everybody gets dressed and i guess it's meaning not it it doesn't have to be serious right take from fashion fashion is is is not really important in our hierarchy of needs so take the good stuff
00:43:05
Speaker
out of it. We're in such a complex and difficult world at the moment. Take the good stuff out of it and leave the bad. If that means buying five pairs of jeans the same, five tops the same, and wearing them on repeat, that's great. You don't need to know what happened on the Cochranie runway last season to say that you love fashion and you love to get dressed. It's just up to you and then take the positives out of it. I love that. I'm going to
00:43:30
Speaker
try and internalize that for myself too. Liza, this has been such a fun combo. I'm so grateful that you took the time. In the show notes, we will put your sub stack, your Instagram, your TikTok, anything else we should include there. I just want to plug a new project, a new exciting project that I've been
00:43:49
Speaker
working on for the past few months, which will just have launched by the time this podcast comes out. I'll give you the quick gist of it, but interestingly, it's got nothing to do with style or fashion. I'm going to start a new newsletter around the topic of the child-free experience and ambivalence around motherhood. I'm in my mid-30s, I'm child-free, so I have no kids by choice.
00:44:17
Speaker
and I have found the experience of watching my friends go through those seismic changes quite isolating becomes a little bit taboo these days to talk about all these things because you never really know what the other person is going through so I want to have a newsletter that spotlights women who have chosen like a different path to what is considered quote-unquote the norm
00:44:43
Speaker
And I'm really excited about it. So I hope that some people will follow me on this journey. We'll have that in the show notes too. And yeah, definitely sign me up for that. And thank you so, so much, Lisa. This has been amazing. Thank you so much. This was amazing.
00:45:04
Speaker
Hey content people, do you mind if I call you that? If you like the show, there are a few ways you can stay in touch and support us. The first is you could subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. That way you won't miss an episode. The second is you could leave a five star rating and a review. Those make a really big impact. I know they're kind of a pain and they take a little bit of time, but if you're feeling generous and you've been listening to the show,
00:45:28
Speaker
I'd appreciate it so much. And the third is you could sign up for the Content People newsletter. The link is in the show notes. We share news about the show and episodes. And I also write a lot about the intersection between work and creativity, which is kind of at the heart of so many of these Content People conversations. We also love feedback if you want to.
00:45:48
Speaker
request a guest or a topic, pitch yourself to be on the show, advertise with us, learn more about Medberry social media, or otherwise just be in touch, shoot me an email. I would love to hear from you. It's Meredith at medberryagency.com. That's M-E-D-B-U-R-Y agency.com. I will throw that in the show notes too. All right, until next time.