← Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
133. No Brand Deals Yet? Here’s Exactly How to Start Monetizing Your Following with Chelsea Clark
00:37:12
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- [00:02]
A
This episode is sponsored by Brevo Collective and Shopify. Brevo is your all in one marketing and CRM platform that helps you turn attention into actual revenue. From email marketing to automation to CRM tools, Brevo keeps your audience warm without you manually following up 24. 7 and collective helps you handle the business side of being a creator or an entrepreneur. From bookkeeping to taxes to compliance, they make sure you're structured correctly and not leaving money on the table. And Shopify your commerce engine, it's how you actually sell the thing. Whether that's digital products, physical products, or services. Shopify gives you the tools to build, market and scale your store all in one place. And if you're serious about building a real business, not just posting the content, these are the tools behind the scenes. Get started today with bravo@bravo.com co creator save with collective@collive.com CHC and launch with Shopify shopify.com CHC welcome back to Call Her Creator.
- [01:06]
B
I'm Kaitlyn Rhodes and today's episode is a really good one. Guys, I'm so excited for today's guest. So I know there's a lot of listeners right now who are showing up consistently online. Maybe you're creating content, you're building an audience. Maybe you've even grown a few thousand followers, maybe you're at the a hundred thousand or more mark, but you still haven't landed that brand deal that you're looking for. And it leaves you wondering, do I need more followers? Am I doing something wrong? Or is monetizing actually more complicated than people actually make it sound? So today we get to pull back the curtain because I have the most amazing guest with us. Her name is Chelsea Clark. She is the founder and CEO of Mom Fluent, and over the past six years she has built an incredible network of nearly 9,000 mom creators across the U.S. canada. She brings that smart, scrappy startup mindset to everything she touches. And she has a front row seat to how brands actually choose their creators and what they're looking for and what truly drives roi. So I'm very excited to pull back the curtain here and pick Chelsea's brain on all of this. If you've ever thought like, I'm posting consistently, but I'm just not making money yet, or maybe I don't have a big enough audience to monetize. I think Chelsea is going to help us debunk some of that. Hey friend, welcome back to Call Her
- [02:28]
A
Creator Powered by your All In One Creator Store.
- [02:31]
B
Stan.
- [02:32]
A
Stan is the easiest way for you to make Money Online. All of your courses, digital products and bookings are hosted within your link in bio. If you're ready to start your free trial, visit my show notes and click my affiliate link to get started today. So.
- [02:46]
B
Hello Chelsea.
- [02:47]
C
Hello.
- [02:49]
B
How are you doing today?
- [02:50]
C
I can help debunk all those things. I am an open book in an industry that is very, very mysterious.
- [02:56]
B
It is very mysterious. So I'm on the influence. So okay, so I'm on the influencer side, but I also own a social media agency, but we don't handle influencer stuff typically. Like sometimes we'll help facilitate a conversation between a brand and an influencer, but what you do is very mysterious.
- [03:14]
A
Why is that?
- [03:16]
C
I think because it's so personal. I've had to think about this recently because I was asked on other podcasts. I think because it's each creator's own personal like brand that the worth becomes very tied to their own self worth. And that's very hard to be transparent about. Right. It's not like you are a job where you got trained and like based on this master's you get paid X. It's all very subjective and in a lot of ways it's based on what you can ask for. Right. I mean there's lots of creators I've had in the past, especially when I was managing campaigns in the beginning they would submit their rates and they were so low for what they should be that I was reaching out to them and telling them they need to ask for more. Like they're way undercharging. Just as like an FYI, you don't charge nearly enough like 10x your ask because they just, they just don't know. Right?
- [04:00]
B
Yeah. I'm so glad you do that. I mean I've been doing this now for five years on the influencer side and I still don't always feel confident in the numbers that I'm throwing out there. But you have to try and we'll into that too.
- [04:14]
C
So. Okay.
- [04:15]
B
Before we get into all of that, I like to start off asking my guests, how did you get here? Because we don't all just grow up and become CEOs. We're usually in a 9 to 5 or doing something that we didn't love. So walk us through your journey real quick.
- [04:31]
C
I. Although I had many jobs growing up like you do as a teenager, I've never had an adult job. I'm just not employable. I don't think I'm far too. I don't. I'm not really good at following rules. That don't make sense and it's just not my strength. So I had a previous company that was restaurants. That was what I did for 11 years. And when I got pregnant with my second child, we moved to Costa Rica and I had to come up with a job that was remote. And so what I did was I helped basically small mom owned brands get into retailers, right? They're like, I have this amazing diaper bag line, I want to get into shops. And I was like, great, I can do that, I'll help you with that. Because I had done a bit of that with my restaurant business. And from there I was trying to help these same women market. I was like, you should be using influencers, let me try to help you do that. And when I reached out to the existing companies back then, it was 7 years ago, it was really expensive, like a 30k minimum for a campaign. And very few, you know, the brands I was working with, they're like, absolutely not. That's not what I want. And there was nothing really. Just for moms, right? There's so many brands that really don't care about anything else other than moms outside of even kids and parenting. Um, so I really saw there was like a need and in like a crazy moment thought that I was the one that could do it, even though I didn't have personal Instagram at the time. And I was like, I don't know nothing about this, but I mean, you can learn. I did a lot of like Udemy courses and Pinterest courses and webinars and all the things and I learned as I went.
- [05:52]
B
What got you into the motherhood niche?
- [05:54]
C
I mean, I was a mom and because it really was because the brands I was helping get in, I think I was a distributor for 10 or 12 brands. They were all kid focused.
- [06:02]
B
Okay.
- [06:03]
C
And so I was looking for.
- [06:04]
B
Yeah, right, you already had.
- [06:06]
C
But like I was in the like the weeds of motherhood. I had a three year old and a newborn. So like everything was mom to me. I couldn't imagine there was life outside of being a mom. So it just made sense. And I was like, we should just work with mom creators.
- [06:16]
B
Yeah, no, like when you're in the thick of it too. Like we just had a employee like get together this morning and Darby, she's usually my right hand, but she's on maternity leave right now and her baby is six weeks old. And you're planning for the year and she's like, I can't even see past where I'm at right now because that's your whole entire life.
- [06:36]
C
Yeah. Consuming all you're thinking about is, like, sleep regression and, like, what did they eat this morning? And. Yeah.
- [06:42]
B
Yes, yes, yes. Let's. Let me get in first. What's the biggest myth you see about creators monetizing their accounts? Before we get into all of this, like, is there this big myth that you're, like, that's not true?
- [06:57]
C
Well, of course, of course. Like, from this, like, story link days, there's still the myth that you have to be a 10k before you start to get paid, which is absolutely not true. That's like a residual thought. And I mean, back then, it was. Right. Because the only way a brand got a conversion really, was through stories. And if you didn't have swipe up. Right. I think that's what it was called. I can't remember. Then you really were a low converter. There was a very small chance. So, yeah, six years ago, that was really important for sure. And we probably followed the same rule. Now it doesn't matter at all, like, completely.
- [07:28]
B
What's the smallest account you've ever worked with on a.
- [07:30]
C
So we work with product only and paid creators, but on a paid basis, probably, like, 2K.
- [07:35]
B
Stop.
- [07:36]
C
Because, I mean, someone with who we don't. We don't like. So our process is for a brand. We send it a short list. We worked with Disney last year. It was a 900 creator application list. Right. Everyone was like, I would do that. We go through and shortlist it. So we'll pick out the top accounts for brands. We don't shortlist it based on their following. I do not care what their following is. We look at how many impressions their reels get on average. That's a far greater indication. And someone with a 2k following might reach 2,000, 3,000 people on average, which is almost the same as a creator that has 20k or 30k. Right. So the audience size is actually completely. It doesn't matter at all. Which is the other. Maybe not myth, but it really leads into this whole people buying fake audiences, which is still very prevalent. And it blows my mind that people do it because you can't undo it, like, you know, manually go through, like. I know. Yeah. And it messes up your demographics so much. So, sure, maybe you have 20k, but we. I just did this on with my employees on our call. We look at a short list. It's like, why are you 40% Mexico? Why?
- [08:39]
B
Right.
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C
That doesn't make any sense.
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B
We get some brands that we're managing here at the marketing agency and they'll, they won't tell me that they bought followers. And then I'll be like, hey, I see you have, you know, 200k but your reels are only getting like 500. What's going on there?
- [08:57]
C
Yeah, yeah. And even that same thing for metrics and for demographics, like when we actually ask for insights. So yeah, it's far better to have a smaller following that is genuine. Which is like saying the same thing everyone always says. But it's so true. The second a brand sees that your audience demographics are off by country, it's just an immediate. No, it's just like, Right, because yeah, you wouldn't. If you think about hiring like a roofer and you knew that he had fake contracts on his website, you would automatically be like, that seems weird. I'm not going to work with him.
- [09:25]
B
Right. Do you typically work with brands? Well, probably U.S. and Canada. I'm assuming U.S. okay. Are you looking for a certain percentage to be us?
- [09:35]
C
Some, yeah. Some brands only will look at someone that's 70 or more.
- [09:40]
B
Okay. I just got a, I just got an email actually from someone. It had, I think mine was at like 78 U. S and then I had UK on there. And they're like, yeah, like, we can't work with you because you're not at 80% U.S. i'm like, dang. Okay.
- [09:57]
C
Sometimes a creative workaround for us that I think creators have been open to, that I just thought makes sense. I don't know if this is an industry thing. Let's say the brand only sells in the US but you have 40% US, 30% UK or something. But we'll just pay you based on your U.S. audience.
- [10:12]
B
Right.
- [10:12]
C
Which sucks for the creator. Right. You're getting paid less. But you have to understand for the brand, why am I paying for UK when I really don't want it when it's such a big percent? So sometimes that's a, a workaround. But yeah, some brands are very picky about it.
- [10:24]
B
That's what I was thinking. I was like, maybe they just can only ship in the U.S. who knows?
- [10:29]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [10:31]
B
You know? So let's talk about creators for a minute. We're going to pretend that I'm newer in the, in the industry. What would make me an attractive creator to you or the brand that you're working with? What are you looking at?
- [10:46]
C
I feel like I have two answers. One is more strategy based. That relates to TikTok shop. So I'll get into that, which I'm really excited about. For creators and I want to talk about that. But really what we look for, let's say you're a small creator, you're moving from a personal page with your friends and family. Maybe you have 1500 followers, which is kind of an average kind of thing, or less. Doesn't really matter, really. Just divert not necessarily diverse content. But obviously content quality is extremely important. Especially now with UGC being a big reason people hire small creators. Right? A lot of the campaigns that we don't carry, your audience size is because it's UGC and it doesn't matter at all. But the content quality is like incredibly important.
- [11:27]
B
Can you explain to my listeners what UGC means? Because some of them don't know.
- [11:30]
C
Oh yeah, that's actually. It's a weird thing. Some people consider it differently, but lots of brands just want content that's not posted, which is how we consider ugc.
- [11:38]
B
Okay, same.
- [11:39]
C
So it's like supplying a video that's edited and is basically an ad or just like still photos that you're not posting them to your feed necessarily.
- [11:47]
B
Okay.
- [11:48]
C
I mean, some brands run campaigns where they want you to post as well and get ugc, but you know, the standalone ones where you're following doesn't matter. It's because they're not. You're not sharing it anyway.
- [11:59]
A
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- [12:47]
B
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- [12:48]
A
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- [14:19]
C
so content quality is extremely important. Just the actual views is important. So I mean, I'm not an expert content creator, but finding trending audios and all those things, I mean those things actually do work catching onto those things. But the other thing that is super important is number of comments. And again that's something that brands really look for. And so many brands have like 20 comments or less as their no, no list. Like they need to have above 20 comments.
- [14:46]
B
And it's getting hard right now to get comments.
- [14:49]
C
Yeah, it is. So you have to be crafty in your captions.
- [14:52]
B
Wow, I love that I'm getting to talk to you about this because you know, on our side, when we're creating content for our clients, like we're very good at the trending audio Strategy, this, the CTAs and all of that stuff. So it's very interesting. You guys, she is saying it is very important to have comments there. Do you find people using comment pods still?
- [15:14]
C
I mean, yeah, but at the, at the same time I think that there are just natural common pods, right? Influencers are friends with a lot of other influencers and you want to support each other as women do. And so I tried to explain to brands that are really picky on this common thing that it doesn't necessarily mean they're in a comment pod because lots of creators comment. Like they actually probably have connections and they want to support each other. The comments thing is strange. I don't, I don't think it's that important. And I always use myself as an example. I mean I'm a study of one, but I buy everything from social media. Do I ever comment? I only really comment when it's like comment for like a many chat link DM thing. I don't ever write comments. I don't. I'm just not that kind of person.
- [15:51]
B
Well, as someone who's literally in it every single day, I mean, we've managed. We have about 30 different accounts that we manage. Comments are just far and few in between right now because people aren't. Comments are great, but what they're doing is they're sending it in the DMs to their husband or like, hey, we need a buy.
- [16:07]
C
Yeah.
- [16:07]
B
You know what I mean?
- [16:07]
C
Yeah, completely.
- [16:08]
B
I almost feel like brands should start looking at number of shares too, because that's awesome.
- [16:13]
C
Yeah, yeah. Shares are amazing. Yeah. Or even just comments like on the emotional posts that garner comments.
- [16:19]
B
Yeah, right.
- [16:20]
C
If you're just sharing like, you know, my week, you know, a recap of my week this week and there's no reason for someone to comment. They're not going to, so. But then there's the post where like something really, you know, they are transparent or sharing something that's like really emotional. And those will get hundreds of comments. You're like, wow, this person does have an audience that really is like on their side and engaged. They just don't comment on things that don't warrant a comment.
- [16:40]
B
Yes, yes. So, right. Speaking of TikTok shop, so. Oh yes, funny story, but I actually don't have a TikTok and I should because I own a social media agency, but we mainly focus on Instagram, Facebook. Talk to me about TikTok shop. Should I be on there? Is that how people are making money in 2026?
- [16:59]
C
Yeah. So many brands love, love, love it. Like I've heard from so many that they were late to the party and then set it up and go to like selling six figures a month kind of thing like for some certain. Especially in health and wellness and fashion. Right. Those kind of things really do convert well. But this is, you know, I think that the, the idea behind being a content creator is, is obviously tied to growing an audience. Everyone thinks like if I grow my audience, maybe I'll make, you know, six grand a month, 60 grand a month. I mean, some creators make a ton of money and TikTok shop, I feel like is providing a workaround to this audience size thing. And I'll give you an example of a creator. I had a call with an agency that mostly does TikTok shop. That's their bread and butter and Amazon affiliates. But there was a creator they showed me that was 8,000 following on TikTok. So not huge her impressions of average around like 500, maybe 600. She worked with primarily six brands through affiliate, um, they'll say like making 10% on from most of them and she would sell like 60k of product for each company a month. So she's making like six grand per company a month. And this, the videos, like on Instagram, you have to really put a ton of time into the videos, right? Like, I mean, way more than TikTok. Her videos were her holding a cup with a little caption. I'll send it to you after. I wouldn't put it in the show notes in case, like, I don't want to like explore, you know, exploit her financials. But, um, it's very low lift content. It doesn't. She never shows her face, she doesn't talk. It's just one of them is a supplement, like an electrolyte drink. She holds it in a nice cup with nice nails and talks about some benefit and she just. And the nice thing about TikTok shop is you don't have to have a curated feed like Instagram. It doesn't all need to be this perfect cohesive thing. Right? No one's looking through your feed on TikTok. And so if you have TikTok, like, so if I was starting as a creator, which I can't make any content because I'm just not creative, I would 100% just go straight to TikTok shop, find things that I could make tons of content about that has a good affiliate payout. And I would completely ignore Instagram.
- [18:58]
B
Oh my God, you got me over here, like second guessing everything I'm doing.
- [19:02]
C
Once I send you this account, you'll be like, what? What am I doing?
- [19:05]
B
Oh my gosh, that's insane. I love.
- [19:08]
C
It's just a volume play. You know, you have to post 30 videos a month, but they take 10 or 20 seconds. Like they're not a big. You know, you could batch film that in two days. It's just a volume play.
- [19:18]
B
I love it.
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C
And I mean if you think about like, do you. I guess, do you. Are you a consumer on TikTok, you just don't post creatively.
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B
I don't, I actually just, I can't handle going, I'm on Instagram and doing TikTok.
- [19:30]
C
Understand? Yeah, I've switched. I'm only, I. I only go. I only consume content on TikTok now. I ignored Instagram, but I was the same as you. I was like, I can't have both.
- [19:39]
B
I can't have both. Just mentally, I Can't have both.
- [19:41]
C
Yeah. But TikTok shop, it's definitely something to explore. Even if they test one brand. Right? Sure. To keep growing your Instagram, where it's very saturated and difficult. Wow. But I would do some. A TikTok shop and then you can, you know, reverse engineer it and go back to Instagram.
- [19:56]
B
So if we're talking about someone who wants to start monetizing in 2026, are you saying, should they start, should they go look at TikTok shop first?
- [20:03]
C
A hundred percent. Forget Instagram.
- [20:05]
B
Wow. Okay.
- [20:06]
C
I mean, I. It's just my opinion based on what
- [20:08]
B
I've seen, you know, but I mean, we want to do what works, right? Like we're always. I'm over here spinning my wheels all the time, like, how can I make more money? What can I be doing? So I'm going to definitely go be doing that. When we're talking about, you know, making money, what do you wish creators understood about brand budgets and like the roi? Let's talk about that.
- [20:29]
C
Oh, yeah, that's. That could be like a three hour episode.
- [20:33]
B
Okay, so then summarize maybe your top things that people should know about brand.
- [20:38]
C
I don't think. I think that most creators don't know that brands actually are paying for views. That's how the brand looks at it. Yeah. Which is difficult. I think content creators view themselves as creatives, which they are, but a brand views them as salespeople. Those are very different roles. So the brand doesn't. Most brands do not factor in the creator's time and effort and energy, like the logistics behind making a great video. Those are not the same people that are looking at the ROI of a campaign.
- [21:07]
B
Yeah.
- [21:08]
C
And so really, I think that if a brand understands that influencers and creators aren't magicians and won't instantly sell things from one post, which still many of them think that. So we have to get over that hurdle. But if they then view, hey, this is like top of funnel marketing and we just want to get views and new audiences, then they're paying for views. And so when you pitch your rates, they should be in line with some type of cpm. That makes sense. And like I could. Someone could reach out to us and ask about their rates if they wanted on Instagram. But yeah, when we see rates, we calculate it based on cpm. So like average cost per thousand impressions and that is how offers are made.
- [21:44]
B
Okay. Are you guys only working with like moms right now or is it any influencer?
- [21:50]
C
Yeah, so we like a lot of what we do are kid and baby things, of course. But we just. As long as you're a woman, basically, or dads. You know, honestly, we have a few dads. They don't respond to our emails, maybe because of the name, but anything anyone really in parenting. But we do have lots of women that don't have kids yet. Whether they're just all fashion. Right. Some people don't share their kids even if they are mom, mom. So women is great. And we do so much in health and wellness and food and tons of things that would apply even if you don't have kids.
- [22:18]
B
I still think there's an untapped potential of fathers and doing.
- [22:22]
C
Oh, the number of campaigns that we've had tried to reach fathers. And some write back and they are. They charge so low they just actually don't monetize their accounts. And so some don't even. They're like, why are you reaching out to me? I'm gonna get paid for this. And. But they have like a decent account. Wow.
- [22:38]
B
What is a realistic income milestone for someone that's just getting into this? Like, can you talk to us about.
- [22:45]
C
That's a great question. The traditional Instagram way. I mean, let's say I'm going to generalize here. Hugely. But let's say you have 10k audience. You should on average be making $200 a reel on the low end. Really. So. But I'm going to use that $200 a reel. If you post every day, you really shouldn't have more than a quarter of your content being an ad. Right. That's like a sure way to lose an audience and to lose a brand. When we shortlist, we're like, why is your whole feed ads? We don't want that. Yeah.
- [23:14]
B
So even more like lifestyle content and then sprinkle.
- [23:17]
C
Yeah. You have to. Yeah. Even if you have to post twice a day, which who knows what the algorithm feels about that. But yeah, you have to spread it out. It gets harder around holidays like Black Friday Christmas. That makes sense. But yeah, generally if your whole feed or even half your feed is just like a collab, that's really inauthentic feeling. It's just not a good. It doesn't. Doesn't read well.
- [23:37]
B
Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
- [23:40]
C
So, you know, at 10k, maybe you make 2k a month on the low end. If you post 10 of your 30 and that's a bit high, but 10 of your 30 posts are brand collabs. And again, that's like low end. That's one reel. If you have TikTok and you cross post, maybe you get more, maybe you get more for stories, but I feel like that. And then you kind of scale up from there, like 20k. Maybe you should make four grand a month. And I mean there's lots of brands that will pay crazy high rates. But I mean you're talking to people that negotiate based on our brands with your clients and we know that what they should be paying. So. Right.
- [24:11]
B
I have 200,000 followers on Instagram and I will try to throw out like a 4000, which I've gotten some to say yes. But most of the time it's like, nope, that's above our budget. The most we can give you. I'll tell y' all right now, I'll be real real with y'.
- [24:26]
C
All.
- [24:27]
B
Most of the time they want to say, we'll pay you a thousand bucks for a real. And I'm just like, I'm not saying yes to that anymore. I used to say yes all the time, but now I'm like, no, not doing it.
- [24:37]
C
I mean, I think some brands have a hard budget that is like a max per creator because they figure, you know, but lots of, lots of campaigns. We do have a huge variation where one creator gets, you know, seven and a half grand because she's got like, you know, a few million and some people get a hundred dollars. It can be a big variation. And I mean on the brand side of one of the biggest campaigns I ran in the very beginning, we had one creator who was like 3 million audience and the lowest creator got paid $100. I think she had 10k. She outperformed the 3 million creator in link clicks, comments, everything.
- [25:07]
B
Yeah, I believe it. I believe it. That's crazy to me.
- [25:12]
A
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- [26:22]
B
you feel like mom creators are powerful when it comes to shaping purchasing decisions.
- [26:29]
C
Oh yeah, okay. Absolutely. Yeah.
- [26:33]
B
What do you think it is? Is it because. Is it that maternal instinct that people trust them more? Like, what do you think?
- [26:37]
C
I think it's just women to women. I think it doesn't matter if you're a mom or not. Right. Just like women trust other women and we see ourselves like, you know, we just, I think we're always looking for community and when we see someone that feels like us or feels like she understands us, then we just trust. We trust what they're sharing. And I think that you test people, right? Like I've done this over the years. Someone shares something that I follow, I buy it and then if I love it, I'm like everything. Now she says I trust her.
- [27:03]
B
I agree, I agree with you. When it comes to like a certain niche, like I'm in the tech niche, social media, you know, I don't think that that's that valuable right now. What niches are, I mean it is valuable, but what niches do you think are super powerful right now in the creator space?
- [27:20]
C
That's a really good question. I mean anything sustainable and you know, like health minded. Because I feel, and maybe this is just who reaches out to us, but no one comes to us with a launching company or a new product line or a new. Anything that's not sustainable, ethical, organic, something, something healthy.
- [27:39]
B
Yeah.
- [27:40]
C
And then of course on the flip side, with kids mental health, anything that is like progressive in that way, like no screen, you know, low screen time, like educational apps, anything that is, you know, basically following the trends in society. Right. Health and wellness, things being better for the environment, better for us. And in kid world, being better for kids mental health, which is like we do a lot of things that are trying to get kids play to play more basically.
- [28:05]
B
Okay, I love that.
- [28:06]
C
Not that, not that I can be a whole niche. I think if I, if I was a creator, I would probably pick four or five things that I talked about regularly. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be so broad that I don't have something that a brand can anchor to and be like, hey, this person speaks to our audience.
- [28:19]
B
Yeah.
- [28:20]
C
But I think if you, there's lots of accounts that have one focus, which is great if you can make it huge, but it's very limiting if you're not huge. Like, I'll give you an example. There's a creator that does speech language therapy for kids. So she has tons of early, you know, early childhood development. She's got a big account now, so that is totally works for her niche. She can make money from that. But if you're at like 10 or 20k with that, I think that limits the number of partnerships and your income.
- [28:47]
B
Okay. Yeah.
- [28:48]
C
So it's like, you have to be really passionate about that one thing and not want to talk about anything else. Or I would say, have a little bit of diversity and have a few things you talk about.
- [28:56]
B
Are you allowed to tell us what brands you've really loved working with?
- [29:00]
C
Oh, yeah, definitely. Healthy Baby is a, like a health. Healthier diaper option. We worked with them a lot. They've been really fun. We work with a brand name called Hatley, who make really cute kids clothes that are very durable. Right. Like, none of, like the knees, you know, I don't know if you have a boy, but my kids ruin their clothes. It's like, you can hand me down clothes, because their clothes are actually made of real material. So we were. We've worked with them quite a bit. What's. Oh, like Disney, of course. Disney was really fun. I get excited when there. There's like, yeah, Disney was in the fall, and so they. They got a trip and they. Their kid got to plan it.
- [29:36]
B
Very fun.
- [29:37]
C
Yeah. Those are the ones that stand out in my mind. Anything where the creator is getting something they're really excited about. I love the ones that are highly applied for. I get excited with them even though I'm not getting what they get. So.
- [29:46]
B
Okay, I love that. What do you think when it comes to the creator? I don't know if you can answer this or not. Just because you do. Do you know you're facilitating both sides? At the end of the day, what separates creators who build careers out of this versus those who just burn out? Can you say anything about burnout?
- [30:04]
C
Yeah. And that relates back to my TikTok sh thing. You know, if you're building on TikTok, you don't have to go with the same craziness that Instagram has. I and I had talked about this with someone recently, and I have a. I have a creator culture form that I'm going to send out to our network, and I want to ask them this question. So, yes, creators, mental health is crazy bad. Like, if you are above 20k, it is awful. Even though sometimes I pay creators more than I made for a whole campaign, I do not want that job. Like, I'm like, I'm happy someone else is doing it because you're constantly, every single day feeling pressure to share your life and to be so storying and it's just, it would be so exhausting. And I think that if you don't treat it like a job and if you don't treat it like a job, you will burn out. And that means, like, stop posting at 5. Don't. Don't post on the weekend. We don't, we don't even allow creators to post their content on the weekend because engagement is down and views are down. You don't need to post on the weekend. Go quiet on the weekend.
- [30:59]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [31:00]
C
You know, like, I think if you treat it like a job, you won't burn out. And if you don't, if it just continues being this thing, you will burn out in a few years for sure.
- [31:08]
B
I love that. And I think that's right. I hit burnout the end of last year. I'm working through it now, but it is because I don't know how to turn off. And it's just like you always have your phone on you, so it just, you're automatically always working.
- [31:21]
C
So get a brick or get like apps that lock you out. And I bring this up because I didn't have boundaries when I worked. When I had restaurants because you couldn't. I had to always be available. It was just the way it was. And when I have, you know, now that I had kids and I have this remote business, I have crazy boundaries. I do not check work after 3pm I never work weekends unless I really want to. And I'm like, I want to do this. I won't ever take a meeting a night unless it's in Australia. And I'm like, fine with it. Like I'm really boundaried and it makes such a difference that I'm not burning out in any way I can keep going.
- [31:53]
B
I might normally. When do you start? Because our kids, I mean, my kids. Okay, I want. So my kids go to school by like 7:30. I'm probably working by 8:30.
- [32:07]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [32:08]
B
But I, I stay on till at least 5 because of my employees. But I like how you're hard cut off at 3. Do you spend a lot of time with your children?
- [32:17]
C
Yes. So my school starts at nine. So I, by the time I, you know, collect myself after getting ready for school, it's 10 that I can start really working. And I work 10 to 3. And I, I mean I, I think that's a whole other thing, but I don't believe that. Even if it's your own company, you don't need to work 60 hour work weeks. Like that's how you burn out too. I'm not buying that. I want to do this for a long time and not like kill myself.
- [32:40]
B
The longevity. And that's the thing with creators too, guys. Like, if you want to make this your career, you have to set those boundaries in place or you will. You'll burn out and you'll hate your life.
- [32:49]
C
But yeah, who would. Nobody would want a job where they're working 24, seven on weekends and all night and in the middle of the night.
- [32:54]
B
Nothing is worth it. It's not worth it. I have some rapid fire questions for you before we like get into like how people could connect with you and all that fun stuff. Okay, so the first one, one thing every creator should do this month, like say they want to make money this year.
- [33:11]
C
Put your email in your bio.
- [33:13]
B
Oh, maybe I need to work on that too. I do not do that.
- [33:16]
C
It's so simple because when we, when we're doing outreach, we want to find you. I don't want to message you for your email or go on my phone. We. Everyone on the brand side's on a computer. Everybody. So put your email in your bio and maybe even like tag some posts to tell us where you live. If you don't put it in your bio.
- [33:31]
B
Okay, simple guys. Simple. Location tag and your email. That's super simple.
- [33:35]
C
Yes.
- [33:36]
B
What about. What's one red flag that brands notice immediately?
- [33:41]
C
Definitely fake comments by accounts that have very few followers and are just strange. For sure. Low views based on your percent. If your average views are less than like 10% of your audience, that's a red flag. I would say those are two top things. Like right off the bat.
- [33:57]
B
Okay, I like that.
- [33:58]
C
Yeah. Or weird highlights. If you, if Instagram's your main thing. Make your highlights pretty. It's don't make them like three that don't have a cohesive thing. It doesn't need to be a Canva thing but just like something. It just. Yeah. Tells us that you care enough to make that nice.
- [34:12]
B
Okay, that reminds me that I need. We need to all go update our highlights. By the way, mine are so.
- [34:17]
C
Me too.
- [34:17]
B
Yeah, and we won't click on them
- [34:20]
C
so we won't know that they're old. But just make the covers nice.
- [34:22]
B
Okay. Okay. Good to know you kind of answered this, but I'm going to ask it just to be safe. The best opportunity right now in the creator economy is it TikTok shop.
- [34:33]
C
I'll say a split if you still are an ig diehard ugc, get really good at making content. Have a portfolio of ads you've made. You could do that for a long time. And it's only getting more and more common for brands to seek out UGC creators on a long term basis. Not a one time post. It's like I need 5 ads a month now. I need an ad for this so you can become kind of like a spokesperson for them.
- [34:55]
B
Is there somewhere for them to go to find work for that? Do you know the name?
- [35:00]
C
I mean mom Fluence. But outside of. I mean there's, there's so many platforms that are UGC specific and I don't know a lot of their names but
- [35:08]
B
say we're doing ugc.
- [35:10]
C
Yeah, we post UGC campaigns all the time.
- [35:12]
B
Oh my God. Okay, there we go guys.
- [35:14]
C
Yes.
- [35:15]
B
Okay, Chelsea, tell us what do you have something fun coming up this year? How can people connect with you? What. What are you offering? Like, tell us all the things.
- [35:24]
C
Yeah, I mean the fun thing for us is that we just launched software. So for six years I've been slowly putting together software that has now launched like two weeks ago. So that has changed our whole life. So that it really excites me. That's my, that's my passion is software.
- [35:39]
B
What do you mean by that?
- [35:41]
C
So before we were manually doing everything right? Like creators would apply to a campaign on a Google form. We would go through and request their metrics, look at their things, input things. Everything was on spreadsheets. And now you can connect your accounts like any other software. But I refuse to take VC money. So I built it really slowly.
- [35:57]
B
I love that for you though. Woman power.
- [35:59]
C
So excited.
- [36:00]
B
Right?
- [36:00]
C
Just, I love efficiency, right? So I'm like, everyone applied. I can see their metrics. I can see your post. I can see all the things and not have to ask you for anything. I'm not going to ask you your story reach 900 times because I, you know, we've lost it over the years or it changes.
- [36:14]
B
What is your website? Where do they go for that?
- [36:16]
C
Momfluence co and they can sign up or, and then get on our list for campaigns.
- [36:21]
B
And then you said you're not really on Instagram. Can they like.
- [36:24]
C
I don't have a. I don't, I don't post personally at all but you can find me on LinkedIn if you want. Yeah, Mom Fluence does.
- [36:30]
B
Okay. Are you doing that? You got a team. What's. What's going on?
- [36:33]
C
Yeah, someone else. Someone else does our Instagram, but one of our employees. So you can ask her questions. Like if someone reaches out and says, like, hey, I'd love to know what I should charge. Or like, oh, that's one fun thing. Actually, we just made a media kit, Automator, basically. So if you many of your listeners go on and sign up to MomFluence, they can make an instant media kit. That is their current metrics. It pulls any post they want. They can customize says about their family and they can share that with brands. So it's like an always current. No more canva. Like my audience is outdated and I am running too.
- [37:05]
B
Mom Fluence after this. Like, I'm not even kidding. Like, that's one thing that is really hard on our side is like keeping up with. With that media kit, making sure everything's up to date. Screenshotting stuff.
- [37:15]
C
Yes.
- [37:15]
B
And then not knowing your rates, guys, she said you can go in there and. And you'll kind of give them. Well, that.
- [37:19]
C
Give them. Yeah, they'd have to DM us. But honestly, people over the years have just reached out to us and just say like, hey, I have no idea what I should charge. And we can very quickly just say like, hey, somewhere around this, this is what people would ask or in your amount and like, and actually get hired based on this amount.
- [37:34]
B
Wow, Chelsea, this was so, so helpful. Thank you so much for.
- [37:38]
C
It was fun chatting with you.
- [37:39]
B
Is there anything else you want to tell my audience?
- [37:42]
C
I think yeah. I mean, give TikTok shop a try. Just go on. You'll find brands that you already use and then you can just make content and it will be. Just give it a try. Give it a try for 30 days and see what happens.
- [37:52]
B
Okay.
- [37:53]
C
Once you start making money, imagine you make a hundred dollars from one video and you're like, what? I can do this. I will do lots of this. Right?
- [38:00]
B
And then you control your destiny. Cut Chelsea a 10% check off that.
- [38:05]
C
Just send me a thank you.
- [38:07]
B
Awesome. All right, Chelsea, thank you so much. I will link all of Chelsea's info into the show notes so you guys can connect with her. But this was really lovely and I will see you guys next episode.